LITERARY CULTURE. 8 1 



umes in Greenport, Bridge-Hampton, Patchogue and Huntington. The 

 private collections in the homes ot our count}' are extensive in numbers and 

 of rare value; and I doubt if it would be extravagant to say that our people 

 have at least one million dollars invested in books, comprising more than 

 three hundred thousand volumes. 



We have now 142 public schools with 223 trained teachers; our 

 school property is valued at $240,000; and the public money allotted to 

 our schools, this year, was $32,386.95. 



These figures, like Gadgrind's facts, cannot lie; and they tell of ad- 

 vancement in the cultivation of mind which exceeds the wildest dreams of 

 the patriarchs of our county who saw in Harvard the only college which 

 this continent could boast. 



This is the culmination of the good work commenced long ago and 

 continued unremittingly. Indeed, we had so far progressed in 1840, that 

 N. S. Prime, the historian, said there were then but fourteen individuals in 

 Suffolk County who could not read and write. According to the average 

 of white people in the balance of the United States, we should have had 

 more than 1,250. And this reminds me of the envy of our sister county 

 which was displayed by one of its magnates, afterwards Governor of the 

 State, in announcing with ja*/,^ /rwi/, that he "contemplated a missionary 

 expedition into the dark and benighted regions of Suftblk." And the 

 speaker deemed himself a King in his own right. 



The great landmark in the Educational history of our County was the 

 establishment of a Teachers' Association, through which those who con- 

 trolled our common schools might meet for counsel, advice and guidance. 

 Thought had been awakened concerning the great problems entrusted to 

 our educators and the importance of unity in action realized. In 1852, 

 Hon. James H. Tuthill, now our Surrogate, was the President of the 

 County Association. He brought to his high office, ripe scholarship, rare 

 culture, and practical experience in the school room. He appreciated the 

 high calling of those who moulded mind, and strove to make them magnif\- 

 their offices. He valued the teacher's occupation as one of the most exalted 

 known to man — vivifying and self-sustaining in its nature, to struggle with 

 ignorance, and discover to the inquiring minds of the masses the clear 

 cerulean blue of heavenly truth. To him this vocation was the most widely- 

 extended survey of the actual advancement of the human race in general, 

 and the steadfast promotion of that advancement. He respected men and 

 women fitted for their chosen task as instructors, and bestowed but little 

 sympathy upon the educational shams who made their schools simply 

 stepping stones to other callings or the advertising mediums of advantage- 

 ous marriages. He wished teachers who were worthy and well-qualified, 

 w-ho loved their profession, and had scholarship equal to the demands of 

 the age. Like Virgil, he loved not those superficial scholars who 



"Lightly skim. 

 And gentlv sip the dimply river's brim. " 

 With Horace Mann he believed that the education already given to the 

 people created the necessity of giving them more. What has been done 

 has awakened new and unparalleled energies; and the mental and moral forces 

 which have been roused into activity, are now to be regulated. These 

 forces^are not mechanical, which expend their activity and subside to rest: 

 they are spiritual forces, endued with an inextinguishable principle of life 



