SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 305 



national movement with wonderful ease. As recruits received 

 into an old regiment with veterans behind, before and on either 

 side, with examples everywhere of the right way of doing things 

 and breathing atmosphere surcharged with soldierly instincts, 

 are soon scarcely to be distinguished from the heroes of ten cam- 

 paigns; so the Germans, the Scandinavians and though in less 

 degree the Irish and French Canadians who have made their 

 homes where they are surrounded by the native agriculturists 

 have become in a short time almost as good Yankees as if they 

 had been born upon the hills of Vermont."' They are addressed 

 to the fathers and mothers of our school population, to the fos- 

 ter parents of Horticulture in our State. What can be more 

 appropriate than that the children of such parents should be 

 wedded and dwell together in harmony under the same vine and 

 fig tree? How can such a desirable union be brought about? 

 It can be, but before answering the question practically and in 

 detail bear with me a few minutes for a rapid survey of the ten- 

 dency of past and present thought bearing on school matters. 

 Bacon says, "Ars est homo additus naturae" which may be freely 

 translated "Art equals nature plus man." He also says, "A gar- 

 dener takes more pains with the young than with the full grown 

 Elants ; and men commonly find it needful in any undertaking to 

 egin well." "The school is a workshop of humanity" writes 

 Comenius, "it is to bring man to the ready and proper use of 

 his reason, his language and his artistic skill." Milton would 

 have children "turn from the verbal toils to the study of things." 

 We of modern times have begun the study of things, but not yet 

 as practically as might be. Education has become very general, 

 therefore fashionable, so far good ; but education turns its back 

 upon the farm and factory, in that far, bad. Educated men crowd 

 into professions, pulpits and politics, and hurried on by the desper- 

 ate scramble of the many for existence, too often turn out dema- 

 gogues, swindlers and thieves. So what with the bustle and ex- 

 citement of these lightning times and the fashion set by educated, 

 young men, the farm and factory fall into dishonor; for thirty 

 years the tendency of population has been from the country and' 

 toAvards the great cities. Statistics show that occupancy of the 

 public lands, under the homestead laws, has almost ceased, while 

 the great human herd made up of educated adventurers, of hon- 

 est, but improvident laborers, of the aimlessly idle, of the vicious 

 vagabonds and the villainous tramps crowd desperately towards 

 the centers of population as if , as Cicero says, "To die in a body 

 were better than to live in quiet apart." The schools must do 

 their share in turning this tide. In these days farming demands 

 brains and in the south and west, industrial enterprises offer the 

 largest returns for labor scientifically directed. It is the duty of 

 the thoughtful farmer and the thoughtful teacher to join in a cry 

 against the idea that education and industrial pursuits are uncon- 

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