DIALOGUE. 69 



ish population of almost a million, scattered through the dillorent Ger- 

 man states and among their Slavonian neighbors, can no doubt be easily 

 etleeted. 



A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A FARMER, AND A TRUSTEE OF PENN. COL. 



Farmer. I see you have been improving the appearance of the Col- 

 lege edifice by a new coat of paint ; I hope you have made a greater 

 improvement in the increase of the number of Students, as I have a large 

 quantity of prime beef and pork for which 1 desire a good market. 



Trustee. We have indeed opened for you, in this Institution, a fine 

 market for your produce, by which we throw into circulation annually 

 the sum of nearly ^20,000. But this is the least valuable benefit which 

 the College confers upon the community in which it is located, and I 

 am sorry that the farmers generally regard it as the most important j and, 

 whilst they have it in their power, at a trifling expense, to educate their 

 sons and prepare them to occupy the most important offices in the gift 

 of the people, and exert a commanding influence for good, they are sat- 

 isfied to have them plod onward, with only those advantages of educa- 

 tion which a common school aflbrds. Believe me, it is the interest of 

 the farmer to educate his sons thoroughly, though they return to the 

 farm and the furrow, which they had, for a time, forsaken. 



Farmer. I know your views are held by many ; for my part, I think 

 that this business of education, and learning the branches, and geome- 

 try, and such things, only make men proud and lazy, the good old way 

 of writing and ciphering is enough for me and my boys. The main 

 tiling is to get along in the world, and lay up something for a wet day. 

 I have heard many things of colleges and college boys which I do not 

 think are right and proper. 



T. Many stories, no doubt, are in circulation, which have no foun- 

 dation in truth, and therefore, should not be regarded. I would be pleas- 

 ed, however, to know more particularly, what it is to which you object. 



jF. I have already said that learning makes men proud and lazy. 



T. I have heard that objection made more than once, and have in- 

 variably discovered that it originated from suspicion and ignorance, and 

 had no fact or truth as its foundation. Ignorant upstarts you will find, 

 in all cases, to be proud, or rather, vain, which I imagine is the proper 

 term. They do not possess knowledge sufiicient to teach them their 

 ignorance. They have seen so little of the great field of knowledge, 

 which the great God has spread out before his intelligent creatures, that 

 they do not know themselves. They are very much like some farmers 

 of my acquaintance, who have never traveled beyond the precincts of 



