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schools, — will not go forth to the work of his life, whether 

 it be manual or mental, whether of the loom or the anvil, of 

 the pen or the plough, without the real, indispensable requi- 

 sites for success. The great secret and solution of the 

 wonderful advance which has been witnessed of late years, 

 in all the useful arts, has been the union of the thinking 

 mind and the working hand in the same person. Hereto- 

 fore, for long ages, they have been everywhere separated. 

 One set of men have done the thinking, and another set 

 of men have done the working. The land has been tilled, 

 the loom has been tended, the hammer and the hoe have 

 been wielded, by slaves, or by men hardly more intelligent 

 or independent than their brute yoke-fellows. In other 

 countries, to a considerable extent, and even in our own, so 

 far as one region and one race are concerned, this separa- 

 tion still exists. But a great change has been brought 

 about by the gradual progress of free institutions ; and, in 

 the Free States of our own country especially, we see a 

 complete combination of the working hand and the think- 

 ing mind, of the strong arm and the intelligent soul, in the 

 same human frame. This has been the glorious result of 

 our common school system, the cost of which, great as it 

 has been and still is, has been remunerated a thousand fold, 

 even in a mere pecuniary way, by the improvements, inven- 

 tions, discoveries, and savings of all sorts, which have been 

 made by educated labor in all the varied departments of 

 human industry. It is now everywhere seen and admitted, 

 that the most expensive labor which can be employed is 

 ignorant labor ; and, fortunately, there is very little of it left 

 in the American market. 



But, whUe the great substratum of all education for all 

 pursuits is abundantly and admirably supplied by our com- 

 mon schools, no one can fail to perceive, or hesitate to 

 admit, the advantages which may accrue from something 

 of a more specific and supplementary instruction for those 



