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.lOU.RNAL OF RURAL ART ATO RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. II. 



MARCH, 1848. 



No. 9. 



If there is any one thing on which the use- 

 fulness, the true greatness, and the perma- 

 nence, of a free government depends more 

 than another, it is Education. 



Hence, it is not without satisfaction that 

 we look upon our free schools, whose rudi- 

 mentary education is afforded to so many 

 at very small rates, or often entirely without 

 charge. It is not Avithout pleasure that we 

 perceive new colleges springing up, as large 

 cities multiply, and the population increas- 

 es ; it is most gratifying to see, in the older 

 portions of the country, men of wealth and 

 intelligence founding new professorships, 

 and bequeathing the best of legacies to 

 their successors — the means of acquiring 

 knowledge easily and cheaply. 



There is much to keep alive this train of 

 thought, in the very means of acquiring edu- 

 cation. The fertile invention of our age, 

 and its teachers, seems to be especially de- 

 voted to removing all possible obstacles, and 

 throwing all possible light on the once dif- 

 ficult and toilsome paths to the temple of 

 science. Class-books, text-books, essays 

 and treatises, written in clearer terms, and 

 illustrated with a more captivating style, 

 rob learning of half its terrors to the begin- 

 ner, and fairly allure those who do not come 

 Vol. ii. 60 



willingly into the charmed circle of edu- 

 cated minds. 



All this is truly excellent. This broad 

 basis of education, which is laid in the hearts 

 of our people, which the states publicly 

 maintain, which private munificence fosters, 

 to which even men in foreign lands delight 

 to contribute, must be cherished by every 

 American as the key-stone of his liberty; it 

 must be rendered still firmer and broader, to 

 meet the growing strength and the growing 

 dangers of the country; it must be adapted 

 to the character of our people, — different 

 and distinct as we believe that character to 

 be from that of all other nations; and, above 

 all, without teaching creeds or doctrines, it 

 must be pervaded by a profound and genu- 

 ine moral feeling, more central, and more 

 vital, than that of anj' narrow sectarian- 

 ism. 



Well, will any of our readers believe that 

 this train of thought has grown out of our 

 having just seen a most shabby and forbid- 

 ding looking school-house ! Truly, yes ! 

 and, as in an old picture of Rembrandt's, the 

 stronger the lights, the darker also the sha- 

 dows, we are obliged to confess that, with so 

 much to be proud of in our system of common 

 schools, there is nothing so beggarly and 



