SOUTHERN cultivator. 
36T 
moral needs. Others cultivate the physical and moral man 
and leave untended and rude that part of him which only 
can fully comprehend his nature and destiny. Others 
there are, the mindsof whose children are strained to lead 
forth to the knowledge of all the trutlis at nature, to form j 
their souls for the practice of every virtue, and to the study i 
and adoration of God in his works, but who neglect to | 
provide for the wants of their physical being, which often j 
dwindles in weakness and pain and death. The great j 
imperfection in our s'. stems generally is, that they tail to | 
preserve that harmony of instruction which, in every case, 
is necessary to fit a human being for the knowledge of 
the duties incident to every relation of his existence, and 
for their faithful and courageous performance. And I am 
-free to admit, that in so far as concerns one of those con- 
ditions— man’s native intellectual helplessnes — the most 
untiring and laudable zeal is being displayed in the con- 
tinually increasing means of providing for its necessities. 
The numberless schools and colleges which are springing 
-up in the country are noble monuments to the solicitude 
with which the old are providing for the mental wants of 
the young. The eagerness with which these wants are 
supplied, while it is in the highest degree commendable, 
has given an undue preponderance to them over those of 
<he bodies and of the immortal soul; indeed so great that 
it is a most natural consequence of so great an error, 
often to disappoint the only object which such a system 
seeks,the eflfectual advancement of the powers of the intel- 
lect; for to say nothing of the disasters which are liable 
to befall a highly cultivated intellect which has never 
known the restraints of morality, how useless at least is 
that one which lies in a body sickly and weak, and unable 
to perform what the genius within wills and directs. It 
is like the jewel which, w'hen its casket is worn and des- 
troyed, falls to the ground and is lost. 
The study of books has almost gotten to be believed the 
only useful study of mankind. The Preacher, the wisest 
of men, exclaimed in the weariness of his heart, “Of mak- 
of books there is no end." If there was no end of mak- 
ing of books in the days of Solomon, how vast the eter- 
nky of them in this age ! It is an age which, in so far as 
concerns the efforts to advance the intellectual being of! 
man, may w’^ell deserve to be called “The Golden/’ But j 
much of the good of the Iron age — its hardy heroes j 
have passed away not to return— and though we raise 
men who are giants in intellect, they are, in comparison 
with the men of the past, pigmies in body. It is not to be 
denied that modern civilization needs not the giants ot 
antiquity and its fabled heroes to carry on her great and 
marvelous works. The blessed and mild arts of peace 
need not to have the arm or the sword of a Tre.seus or a 
Perseus. No Nemean lion stalks abroad whom only a 
Hercules may destroy. No Python invulnerable save 
from an arrow shot from the quiver of the Day God ; but 
yet there is no enterprize in life however quiet and peace- 
ful, which does not require those who pursue it to have 
bodies strong and healthful, if for no other purpose at least 
than to support and sustain the mind in its arduous la- 
bors and its high resolves. This great necessity the most 
of our Southern institutions undervalue and neglect. Nor 
is the fault so much with the teachers as with ourselves. 
However strange it may appear, it is a truth that there is 
danger of overestimating the importance of what is usually 
meant by education. For the acceptation of the term 
generally is the training of only the mental part of our 
nature ; and no doubt many a man would smile at his in- 
credulity to hear that the development of a child’s muscle 
and of his capacity to carry burthens and indure fatigue 
was a part and a very necessary part of his education. 
And I seriously doubt whether a teacher who would set 
out with the plan of undertaking the training a child’s 
physical along with his mental nature, would find pupils 
enough to enable him to support himself in a competentliv- 
ing. It would seem to ihe maiority of us a useless expen- 
diture of time and niuney, to have our boys taught the 
ellrnbing of poles, the springing I’rom the boards, the leap- 
ing of bars, tfie e.vercise of wrestling, boxing, pitching the 
quoit, and running the foot-rare. These once, and im 
some places now, manly sports ami e.vercises, so neces- 
sary in reariog a hardy race are generally neglected in 
this age of books, or left to the voluntary practice of the 
youth when the school is closed and teachers and parents 
are not over near to restrain them. They have fallen not 
only into disuetude, but into comparative contempt; and 
when we see a young man of athletic figure, whose brawny 
arm disdaiits for his self-defence the use of cane and pis- 
tol and bowie knife, and whose skin wears the healthy 
tinge which the sun’s beams give to the cheek of youth, 
we at once suspect — what is generally true — that there is 
in that stalwart Crame a mean development of intellect. 
Slender figures and pale brows have become the ideals of 
manly beauty, and upon these devolve the performance of 
those deeds which are to advance the career of civilization, 
and the preservation of a race descended from the great 
men of the heoric ages. If this be true of our sex, how 
much more so of our sisters. Few PAre the young ladies 
whom our society ever allows, if they should wish, to 
jump the rope or to run a foot race. Who of them daree 
to walk in muddy streets, or to put a bridle on so feroci- 
ous an animal as ahorse! Wo to the maiden who shouki 
spring from her saddle without the aid of a man’s hand to 
lift her from that incakulable eminence to the ground I 
Wo to her whose physitcal nature God, in spite of the 
restraints put upon her education, has developed to such 
an extent, as that she should even be suspected of an abil- 
ity and courage to defend herself against the attack of a 
dog or a bull, or if duty demanded, to plunge into the 
stream and swim from tih.s to yonder bank of a river. 
How many of these ladies here to-day, were we ail in a 
pleasure boat and an accident were to befall us in water 
ten feet from the shore, would, unaided, reach it ? Alas ! 
if there is one who feels that she could swim and thus 
rescue herself Irom a grave in the waters, would she not be 
ashamed to own it 1 I am not sure that not a few of the 
■Sterner sex would sink down to rise no more. The only 
resi.stance we allow woman to make to dangers of all sorts 
is a flight, a scream and a fainting fli. And when we set. 
her to fleeing we have already compelled her to so involve 
herself from head to foot, that she can no more fJy than she 
can fight. And so she must needs fall, and is at liie mercy 
of her enemies. 
I 
1 
The Great apostle to the Gentiles said that when he was 
a child, he did as a child, he thought as a child, and he 
spake as a child. There is much to be learned from this 
notable saying of St. Paul. While there is no doubt that 
the earlier instruction is commenced the better, and that 
earliest impressions on the mind of a child are more last- 
ing than those made upon the reason of his matured man- 
hood, the very greatest mistake we make in the educa- 
tion of the young is an overweening desire to bring forth 
their minds too early from the thoughts aitd the habits of 
childhood. To this period belong childish thoughts and 
childish words, and childish actions. This is the law ofGod 
which is always right. And when the great Apostle said 
that when he became a man, he put away childish things, 
he meant that ho did not pat them away too late; and the 
nesv wisdom which has come into modern schoolhouses, 
and which sets at naught this great precept, has come from 
“Oracles not well inspired.” If it be true that childhood 
is the happiest portion of man’s life, if it is freer from 
evil and sorrow, how selfish it is to cut off its innocent 
joys and force it into a stunted adolescence ! And is it 
not the happiest and the best! If it is not, why is it that 
so few of our race in the years of manhood, in remembrance 
