SOU^rHERN CULTIVATOR 
26 § 
strength to meet reverses, and to overcome and outlive 
aceident and misfortune 1 Give me the youth who if he 
have only the elements of mental education, has yet a sound 
body and a strong heart, who rejoices in his strength, 
and who has a an energy which is able and which 
prefers to achieve its own independence of position, to that 
one who, with all the learning of the Egyptians, has long 
since forgotten what it is to be young, who has no sym- 
pathy with the gladness of the happy, and ran spare no 
condolence with the sorrows of those that mourn, and 
who must lean upon hereditary props for hi -- subsistence, 
and when these lail has neither the energy to achieve nor 
the manliness to value 
“The glorious privilege 
Of being independent.” 
We are apt to boast of the superiority of ours over the 
institutions of Europe. In liberty and in free constitutions | 
we are ahead Butin Education, in that development 
of body, mind, and soul, which alone is true education, 
we would do well to imitate examples which we are usu- 
ally too ready to avoid. In European schools, there are 
what ought to be here, gymnasiums for the development 
of the physical man, when his intellectual part begins to 
fag with the discharge of its own peculiar duties. Music 
and dancing enliven the intervals of relaxation from 
mental labor, and when the youth are dismissed from the 
schools, the sun yet high above the horizon, over village 
green, over fields and through woods, on hills tops and 
in the bosoms of vallies, the cheerful sports of innocent 
childhood filll the air, and even morose and careworn 
age as it listens and looks, smiles and forgets its de- 
crepitude and its griefs. Or pupils and teachers (there al- 
ways friends) roam together among feeding flocks and 
herds, by babbling brooks and in mossy dells, and in 
these temples of nature are wont to be communicated the 
most precious truths of knowledge, surrounded by cir- 
cumstances which as they make the mind wiser, make 
the heart belter, and the better fit it for the worship of tne 
Almighty. 
Such an education preserves the harmony of man’s varied 
nature. As his body strengthens, his mind is renuered 
capable of receiving the great truths of nature, and when 
the youth takes his place among the men of the world, 
behold a man who is a man indeed, learned and strong 
and courageous, knowing the duties which are before him 
and having the courage to discharge them. While tlie 
opposite system only shows the way of life without im- 
parling the strength to pursue it ; like those wooden shoes 
worn by the noble Chinese women, who have indeed the 
forms and faces ofadults, but walk with the feet of children 
I need not say what becomes of the teac^heis of such sys- 
tems. They generally show for themselves, by being pre- 
maturely old, debilitated and sickly, and so thin that the 
sun as it passes through them leaves no shadow on the wall, 
with countenances which feebly announce that they are 
“seeking rest and finding none.” 
It does not fall within my province, nor regularly with- 
in the scope of a literary address to speak of the importance 
ot education to man’s moral and the immortal part of his 
being, and above all to animadvert upon the gross neglect 
which it receives from our systems of education. These 
are subjects for the admonition of the messenger of Heaven 
against the consequences of such neglect beyond this life. 
And yet the cause of morality and its pure delights are 
not so limited as to be said to commence not until the im- 
mortal part of man has shed its mortal coil, and is gone 
upon its second and undying career. It is the boast of 
our holy religion that it not only secures future bliss, but 
that it imparls present happiness. Jacob in his journey 
to Padan Aram saw the angels of God ascending and des- 
cending. To the holy prophets, the Paradise ofGod appear- 
ed in visions far sweeter and more vivid than ever gilded 
the fondest dreams of the bards; that blessed disciple 
whom Our Lord loved, saw pass before his eyes the saints 
of all ages, clothed with white robes and palms in their 
hands, and was invited by the Spirit and the Bride to go 
and drink of the waters of Life’s divine fountain. Yea, 
and the good man to day, though the times of God’s mi- 
raculous visitations have passed away, yet he in the ever- 
abiding consciousness of discharging his duties, some- 
times feels descending upon him blessings frc.m above 
which are as palpable to his perception and as sweet in 
their influences, as the gentle dove which lighted upon 
the Son of ]\Ian as he came out of Jordan’s stormy tide 
along with the voice which said “ This is my beloved 
Son.” And outside of the bosom of the Church how can 
we overestimate the value of that happiness which is 
founded upon the daily practice of honor, justice and 
truth 1 of hurting no one, of rendering to every one his 
own, and of illustrating by every action of one’s life, that 
he is that priceless character whether in the church or out 
of it — a gentleman. 
If it is a fault to neglect the physical development of our 
children, what shall we say of that neglect which refuses 
to teach those important truths which will enable them 
to comprehend their relations to mankind and to him who 
is the Author of their being'? And yet the hurried march 
of the intellect is frequently too hasty to wait for the im- 
partation of moral instruction. Truth, honor, justice, 
courage, charity, piety are but too often secondary things 
in the rearing of the youthful mind. And who is so fool- 
ish as not to see in these precious things a value far 
greater than that of learning and fine gold, and yet we 
often leave them to be gathered as they may be, or left 
ungotten in the selfish pursuit of things which, without 
these, must “perish with the using.” And thus the young 
grow up without revei'ence for the aged, vrithout sympa- 
thy for the poor, without respect for others’ rights and even 
without concern for the interests of their own immortal 
lives, except those occasional fears, which are the sudden 
suggestions of affliction, or of the remonstrances of consci- 
ence. 
There is not time to make instruction in this regard 
keep pace with the strides of the intellect. We are eager 
to see our children take their places in society. At an 
age when the boys of other nations are yet at home, and 
their parents receiving, as they are entitled to receive, the 
proceeds of their labors, ours are graduated through col- 
leges and already in the practice of learned professions, 
without that prerequisite preparation which would render 
them capable of taking care of their own, much less of 
others’ interests. To accomplish this great end all of the 
precious time of youth is consumed — all its tender suscep- 
tibilities, all its ready impressibilities have worn away, 
and the mind, to the presentation of moral truth, closed 
and sealed. See the sons of Eli, and that of the humble 
wife of the Ephrathite: while those unrestrained by paren- 
tal authority have brought them father to a dishonored 
end, the pious Hannah, long before the birth of her son, 
has dedicated him to the Lord, and even in childhood, 
while the stern high priest sits darkling before the altar, 
heavenly voices, to him all unheard, whispered in ear of 
Samuel and proclaim him the Judge of all the chosen of 
God. While this lather in the midst of his greatness, ends 
his life in signt of the disappointment of his fonds- 
est hopes, that humble woman in view of the com- 
ing glory of her prophet son, lifts up, in poetic insoi- 
ration, her song of praise and thanks"’"' 
painter has never yet made so beaut 
any of us may see when we may look i 
whether of a palace or a cottage, and I 
child kneeling at its mother’s knees, 
in the stilly hour of evening, its little pn 
