70 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



proper!}' utilitarian and intensely "practical," should not be narrowly 

 and sordidly so. While rejecting the agencies through which the old 

 education worked, it cannot afford and must not be allowed, to repu- 

 diate the broad humanism and culture for which the old education 

 stood. No matter at what cost, we cannot afford to entrust our young 

 men to any form of education which, however technical and "practical," 

 does not recognize the man beyond and above the workman or the expert. 

 While it prepares for industrial life, it must also prepare for political, 

 social and moral life. While it trains the hand and the eye, it must 

 also sharpen the intellect, enlarge the range of thought, strengthen and 

 control the sympathies and emotions. It should take the raw, awkward 

 boy, inexact in thought and without mental perspective, give him* a 

 part in the world's work, put a weapon in his hand wherewith to main- 

 tain and advance his position, and transform him into a man, keen 

 and alert to utilize the forces operative around him, orderly and syste- 

 matic in thought and action, broad-minded and philosophic in his out- 

 look, sane, prudent and rational in forming opinions, loyal and unsel- 

 fish in his relations to his country, and modest, tender and true in all 

 the relations of life. It should recognize character as by far the most 

 important factor in the attainment of true success, and thei formation of 

 character as a matter of persistent and intelligent training. 



For this transformation it should and does use mainly the material 

 world and the sciences that directly deal with industrial life; but it 

 should recognize that the material world is only half the universe, and 

 that the world of man, the civilization into which we are born and 

 under the conditions of which we work and live, constitutes the other 

 half. Hence it should not neglect to acquaint the student with the 

 ideals, the feelings, the strivings, the achievements of the race, and to 

 evolve therefrom a true philosophy of ponduct. It may well cast aside 

 the outgrown shell of idle fancies, it may well refuse to busy itself 

 with a past that serves no present useful purpose; but it should not 

 despise the past merely because it is past, for there it finds a solid foun- 

 dation for the present and the future. 



In sucli a scheme of education, the department which I have the honor 

 to represent, will be looked upon, not with mere tolerance or even as 

 an intruder, but as playing a necessary and integral part. Even if its 

 function were merely to teach correct spelling and the orderly con- 

 struction of the English sentence, its right to a position in such a cur- 

 riculum would be recognized. For the logical construction of one's 

 sentences means training to order, discipline, system in the processes 

 of one's thought — no small desideratum at this particular time, when 

 even among the better classes of our public men, looseness, incoherency, 

 lack of orderly progression in thinking leads to so many wild vagaries, 

 so much silly and harmful action in public and private life. I have 

 not* forgotten Moli^re's ridicule of the dancing-master's exaggerated 

 claims for the far-reaching influence of his art; yet it nevertheless re- 

 mains true that the skillful, forceful handling of the English sentence 

 is in and of itself an accomplishment that goes far toward the attain- 

 ment of success — an accomplishment not gained without long and severe 

 training, and that training is primarily in order, logical sequence, and 

 coherency of thought, clearness, accuracy of expression means neces- 

 sarily clearness and accuracy in thinking. 



