424 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



it ceases to be. How then is this self reliance, this self restraint, this 

 well-regulated conscience to be secured? ]\lanifestly the pathway to it 

 lies through our education. And of what shall this education consist? 

 An education that includes only intelligence may foster crime, may 

 sharpen its tools. Lieber appreciated the distinction fully when he de- 

 clared that, 'A widespread and sound education is indispensable to lib- 

 erty. But it is not liberty itself, yor does it necessarily lead to it. * * 

 * Education is almost like the alphabet it teaches. It depends upon 

 what we use it for. Many despotic governments have found it their 

 interest to promote popular education, and the schoolmaster alone can 

 not establish or maintain liberty, although he will ever be acknowledged 

 as an indispensable assistant in the cause of modern freedom. Liberty 

 stands in need of character.' 



"Let me," said Mr. Willits, "repeat it; liberty stands in need of char- 

 acter. Let us write on the walls of our school room, liberty stands in 

 need of character. Let us write the words on the door-posts of our habi- 

 tations. What we want is character; what we must have is character. 

 And what is character? It is that something so subtle that laws cannot 

 define it, nor constitutions evolve it. It exists above them both and behind 

 them both. They exist themselves only because of character, and man- 

 hood, and right. It is this intangible something that stands by the. side 

 of the pulsations of our hearts, and construes all law, and obeys justice^ 

 and right, and truth; that is so sacred that in the end it will stand in 

 the presence of Divinity, in his likeness. 



"Now, how is this character to be developed? The education Lieber 

 refers to includes only the intellect. The education we want must in- 

 clude the moral sentiments as well. * * * The generation now on the 

 threshold, and the generations to follow, should be taught morality as 

 affirmatively as arithmetic — not negatively, but affirmatively, that sin 

 is sin; that drunkenness and lust, and profanity and lying, and theft 

 and murder, are all wrong, and lead to a bad end; and that good order, 

 respect for law, and temperance, frugality, honesty, purity, and rever- 

 ence for the good and true, are all elements of a perfect manhood and 

 womanhood." 



I have quoted this language of the Board of Education to show as 

 clearly as possible what was expected of Mr. Willits in his position at 

 the head of the Normal School; I have quoted from his own words, when 

 entering upon his duties, to show the spirit of the man, and his concep- 

 tion of the nature and quality of the education needed by the young men 

 and young women who go out to fashion the minds and inspire the hearts 

 of the children of our State. He believed that the best preparation of the 

 teacher for his work was intelligence permeated by moral ijrinciple. He 

 did not undervalue the technical utterances of the science of education 

 or of the art of teaching, but he recognized the great truth that these^ 

 unless animated by a living soul, were of little worth. 



The connection of Mr. Willits with the Normal School was too brief 

 to allow him to establish any new policy for its management, or to seek 

 to change, in any radical way, the character of its instruction or the 

 curriculum of its studies. He labored honestly and earnestly to advance 

 its interests, to enlarge its sphere of usefulness, to give greater efficiency 

 to its work, and to give it a stronger hold upon the confidence and good 

 will of the people of the State. In these directions his administration 



