No. 8, 



Charitable Institutions. 



235 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Charitable Institutions* 



Mr. Editor, — On my way to the city, 

 whither 1 have gone tor the last thirteen 

 years, a distance of nine miles, twice a week 

 in sumn>er, and once a week in winter, with 

 the produce of my farm for sale, my road leads 

 past the Girard College — that monument of 

 human art indeed ! and from the day when 

 the ground was broken for the reception of 

 the corner-stone until the present, I have ne- 

 ver ceased to deprecate the folly which seems 

 to have pervaded the minds of all who have 

 been concerned in the management of that 

 enormous undertaking. But I am not going 

 to say anything about the course pursued by 

 the trustees of a will, the provisions of which 

 have been, it is admitted, perverted in almost 

 every particular ; for great as is, in public 

 estimation, the injury to posterity arising 

 from such perversion, T consider the provi- 

 sions of the will itself of far more importance, 

 and to be more highly deprecated, and deem 

 the delay in finishing the building a blessing 

 to the present generation ; and if it be never 

 completed so as to receive a single orphan on 

 the foundation, I shall rejoice. We all know 

 what was the object of the founder, and this 

 might have been effected — and I would add, 

 v.itii far loss evil to posterity than the plan 

 now proposed, even if carried out in all hon- 

 esty — by the erection of a solid body of mar- 

 ble 500 feet high, a lasting monument to his 

 memory. But let us examine the subject a 

 little closer. 



Now, I am but a plain, hard-working far- 

 mpr. but my senses deceive me if I have not 

 already done more for posterity than will ever 

 be done by the erection of that costly fabric, 

 for I have made many a blade of grass to 

 gruw where 7ione grew before, and shall leave 

 an example by which those wiio follow me 

 will, by the same means, be able to accom- 

 plish more than I have. The Girard College 

 is designed for the support and education of 

 orphans — a class of persons supposed to be the 

 most friendless in society ; here they are to 

 be fed and clothed, and receive the most po- 

 lished course of education possible to be con- 

 ferred by the most learned masters in the 

 ^highest branches of their professions, and at 

 the age of years, they are to be sent into 

 the world to make their way in the " learned 

 professions," without funds or natural friends, 

 land quite incapable of procuring the means 

 ;Df subsistence by any of the common pursuits 

 laf life, for they cannot dig — having been bred 

 iup in the marble palace — and to beg, they 

 ivvill be ashamed ! Now, in the name of hon- 

 [Jsty, what are they to do ? They will not 

 ■work if they could, and they cannot if they 

 irVould, after having received an education to 



fit them for the bar or the pulpit. The 

 learned professions will be effectually closed 

 against them by those who have been enabled, 

 by the assistance of wealthy friends and pa- 

 rents, to procure not only a suitable educa- 

 tion, but the means of starting in life ; and 

 by whom these orphans will be considered in 

 the light of interlopers in a course of life pe- 

 culiarly their own; and all that is left them 

 will be to obtain a living by their wits, each 

 one consoling himself with the reflection, 

 "Girard owes me a living and Til have it." 

 And all this source of evil arises from the 

 very common idea that knowledg-e is wisdom 

 — a greater mistake than which cannot be 

 conceived ot, for it is the wisdom properly to 

 apply what we know that is wanting, and this 

 is not to be acquired by scholastic education, 

 that only supplying the A, B, C, of the sci- 

 ence, to be applied on some future occasion 

 by ourselves. But let it not be supposed that 

 I am an enemy to education — by all means 

 teach all to " read, write and cast accounts," 

 and then let well enough alone: if after this 

 a boy is seen to possess a talent for any par- 

 ticular object, take him up and push him ; 

 but schools for all, and where all are urged 

 forward alike, without regard to their future 

 prospects in life, is what I deprecate. Such 

 an education as is necessary for the general- 

 ity of our youth, might be fully acquired at 

 the age of 14, and then the sooner they are 

 put to some trade or occupation the better. 

 Now, only just suppose what would have 

 been the result, if Stephen Girard had been 

 content to do good in a common way ; he 

 might have established a noble school suffi- 

 ciently capacious to embrace almost all the 

 orphans in the city, if, in some suitable place 

 in the country, half a million acres of land 

 had been purchased and devoted to the sup- 

 port of the charity, v." here a course of real, 

 practical education might have been conduct- 

 ed by proper classes, beginning with infants, 

 who are, so far as I know, as fit objects of 

 charity as older children : here, by careful 

 examination, the peculiar bent or genius of 

 each individual might have been discovered 

 and cultivated for a specific purpose in after 

 life, and at the age of 14 years, they might 

 have been apprenticed out for six years to 

 that business or occupation for which they 

 had exhibited a talent, and had received a 

 suitable education ; receiving from the insti- 

 tution certificates of their having been edu- 

 cated on the Girard trust, recommending each 

 one to the careful keeping of the master to 

 whom he may be consigned, urging upon him 

 the kind treatment of the lad, and upon the 

 lad the necessity of obedience and industry 

 in his calling; assuring both, that in case of 

 complaint on either side, they would be heard 

 before a committee appointed for that purpose, 



