272 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



may with some be made a question; but we are 

 ready to hazard the assertion, that whatever ob- 

 stacles of a pecuhar nature may here He in the 

 way of reducing it to practice, if properly consid- 

 ered, they must be seen to be in truth the most 

 powerful inducements that can be urged for its 

 adoption. 



The country in which physical education can- 

 not prevail, in the onward march of improve- 

 ments for whicli the present age is distinguished, 

 must necessarily be destined to be outstripped in 

 the pursuit of those objects which constitute the 

 felicity and the glory of a people. That this coun- 

 try is to fall behind, and to be contented to remain 

 there, is to suppose an event too disreputable for 

 tolerance, and too much opposed to a laudable 

 spirit of emulation to be cheerfully acquiesced in. 

 The south needs men of vigorous constitutions 

 for professional avocations and other purposes, as 

 well as the rest of the world, and if she has them, 

 must obtain them by the same process. Trained 

 on a different plan, her sons, in comparison with 

 others, will be effeminate and inefficient. Many 

 of them, as has happened with others in past 

 times, Avould become the prey o( incurable dis- 

 ease, or fall the victims of an untimely grave. 

 According to the most accurate investigations 

 that have been made, at least one-fourth of the 

 individuals who, for several years past, have been 

 educated in our American colleges, have been 

 completely prostrated in their course, or have sur- 

 vived only to drag out an existence rendered bur- 

 densome to themselves and unprofitable to others. 

 The voice of warning on this topic, while mourn- 

 ful and alarming, is as '■'■the voice of many waters.'''' 

 ***** 



In opposition to the system of education which 

 we would defend, a voice of objection has been 

 raised, to which it may not be improper to pay a 

 passing regard. 



It has been preferred as an objection to manual 

 labor schools, which we shall assume, are, on the 

 whole, the most unexceptionable expedient that 

 has been proposed for connecting exercise with a 

 course of literary training,* that youth xoho have 

 been unaccastomcd to maniuil labor, and who have 

 been permitted to indulge in idleness and sportive 

 amusements for the purpose of recreation, will feel 

 an insuperable aversion to the toils and restraints 

 which such a revolution in their habits, as the one 

 contemplated, will impose on them. 



The process of taming, though quite essentia! 

 to the unruly, to "flesh and blood" is never "joy- 

 ous, but rather grievous." The objection started 

 is something like that whicli the celebrated Rush, 

 in some of his original effusions, has observed is 

 met with in the case of certain morbid patients, 

 whose weak stomachs refitsc milk ns a diet. The 

 food itself, in the judgment of the acute physi- 

 cian, is of the most simple, inollensive, and invig- 

 orating character; and the fact that it is rejected is 

 the proof that it is needed. The intemperate can ill 

 brook the privation of alcohol; the ejiicure and de- 

 bauchee will not relinquish with good will the gra- 

 tification of inordinate appetites; nor will the sloth- 

 ful, who turns himself in his bed as the door on 

 the hinges, give up with cheerfulness the luxury 

 of laziness. But the true and proper question for 



♦Gymnastic exercises arc botli dangerous ami (Vivo- 

 lous. 



determination is, would it not be doing to loun- 

 gers and profligates themselves, as well as to 

 others, a kindness, to put them upon a course of 

 regimen, (provided it can be done without too 

 great an exertion of violence,) which should 

 bring them back to nature, and constrain them to 

 a just and proper observance of the salutary laws 

 of industry, sobriety, and temperance? With 

 such an authority we think that the parents and 

 guardians of youth every where shoidd be invest- 

 ed; and those who should manifest a spirit of in- 

 subordination against its exercise, if that spirit 

 could not be quelled by a temperate yet firm resis- 

 tance, would exhibit the proof of a temper that 

 ought to be regarded in a young man as a posi- 

 tive disqualification for receiving an education. 



In our apprehension, it is by no means among 

 the most trivial considerations that recommend the 

 manual labor feature in a system of education, 

 that it furnishes an admirable test by which to try 

 the spirit of a pupil, as wall as a choice expedient 

 to invigorate his health, and inure him to habits ol' 

 diligence and sobrietj\ A young man whose 

 aversion to a manual labor school is so strong that 

 it cannot be overcome, when the subject has been 

 fairly presented to his mind, it may safel}' be taken 

 for granted, is not worth educating. The com- 

 munity would lose nothing by the operation of a 

 system which should exclude him from the ranks 

 of its literati. Especially would the tost in ques- 

 tion operate favorably in the education of the bene- 

 ficiaries of the church, whom she is at present 

 somewhat extensively engaged in patronizing, and 

 preparing for her fliture ministry. Great as we 

 conceive it, and great as the history of past ages 

 has proved it to be, is the hazard which the church 

 runs of rearing an impure priesthood, by propos- 

 ing the gratuitous education of all the professedly 

 "indigent and pious" who will apply fijr her boun- 

 ty. The tempation to insincerity which is thus 

 held out is too powerfid to be resisted by depraved 

 human nature. The church for safety in this res- 

 pect must raise munitions and throw up her ram- 

 parts, to guard against the admission of unhallow- 

 ed intruders. And what better defence, vvc would 

 ask, could the ingenuity of man have devised for 

 the prevention of the evils adverted to, than that 

 the entire amount of contributions which are made 

 for the education of candidates for the ministry, 

 should flow to them exclusively through the inanual 

 labor channel? An inspired Aposde has said, 

 that if any man will not work, neither shall he eat : 

 and in perfect accordance, as we think', with the 

 spirit of this declaration, we would unhesitatingly 

 affirm, that if any man, who has the ministry in 

 view, when the opportunity is fldly ])resented, will 

 not enter a manual labor school, and labor, work- 

 ing with his own hands, i'or at least a part of his 

 support, neither should he eat the bread of the church, 

 nor be fostered by her charities to minister at her 

 altars. 



To say that students for their recreation need 

 something more amusing and sportive than the 

 useful and sober exercises of agricidtural and me- 

 chanical employment, is to say that the propensity 

 of young men to levity and liivolity is so powerfid 

 that it cannot be, and ought not to be, controlled ; 

 that to aim (o instil into them the habits and senti- 

 ments of gravity and sobriety, is an unnatural and 

 impracticable undertaking; and that it is more ad- 

 visable to fr«at them as merry Andrews, than as 



