78 PEOTECTIVE INTELLIGENCE. 



or serious study. They struggle, as it were, with their timidity, aud 

 merely by accident, in some cases, is their intellectual capacity re- 

 vealed and made serviceable. 



Among the tender sex protective intelligence is refreshingly dis- 

 cernable. The formative nature of refinement permeates the conduct 

 of the conscientious, and the pride of sincerity is carefully maintained 

 by mental exercise. Without education what indeed would be the 

 status of society, aud from whence would appear the safety of human 

 virtues ? Chaos in its worst form would be the substitute of law and 

 order, and the ruffianly hand would deprive us of the nourishment we 

 obtain from the fountains of cultured reason. Life itself would be 

 burdensome, and the force of pure examples no longer recognized. 

 Hence we claim that a goodly measure of intelligence is a source of 

 personal protection, since it help* materially to prevent the entrance 

 of vice, where, when richly clothed, it might fascinate the innocent, 

 for the vicious are often exceedingly intelligent, but the bad use they 

 make of their education should render the possession of a pure in- 

 tellect thoroughly protective, particularly when its associations are 

 invaded by the allies of wickedness boasting of everything but hu- 

 man shame. Yet intelligence cautiously preserved, will always guide 

 or prompt us as to how we should regulate our sympathies and de- 

 portment. An instinctive power which the human mind when judi- 

 ciously nurtured makes protective, can scarcely be wanting where 

 high character and talent are openly assailed by vindictive ignorance 

 — ignorance which may be the outgrowth of envious feelings, or ig- 

 norance which makes many well bred men and women when in con- 

 tact with it, gratuitously polite notwithstanding they may be sorely 

 vexed or disgusted. 



Let us now turn for a moment to the historical testimony attached 

 to the lives and labors of distinguished self-made men. Their first 

 desire was to educate themselves, and the seeds of an elevated ambi- 

 tion did certainly bring forth good fruit in the careers of very many 

 who if not statesmen, were authors of a shining order. To them a 

 protective intelligence was moulded into shape so as to become a 

 legacy to their countrymen, inasmuch as the results of their applica- 

 tions are now recognized as of greater value than the inheritence of 

 great riches with all the select privileges that may attend them. 

 We do not wish to be understood as casting a doubt upon the potency 

 of a classical training, but we do lament the fact that so many who 



