9 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
104 
of erect carriage (the grand object for which all the suffering is inflicted) thus 
rendered more easy, at first welcomes the stays, and, like her teacher, fancies 
them highly useful. Speedily, however, their effects show them to be the re¬ 
verse of beneficial. The same want of varied motion, which was the prime 
cause of the muscular weakness, is still further aggravated by the tight pres¬ 
sure of the stays interrupting the play of the muscles, and rendering them in a 
few months more powerless than ever. In spite, however, of the weariness 
and mischief which result from it. the same system is persevered in; and,during 
the short time allotted to that nominal exercise,the formal walk, the body is left 
almost as motionless as before, and only the legs are called into activity. The 
natural consequences of this treatment are, debility of the body,curvature of the 
spine, impaired digestion, and, from the diminished tone of all the animal and 
vital functions, general ill health:—and yet, while we thus set Nature and her 
laws at defiance, we presume to express surprise at the prevalence of female 
deformity and disease 1 
It would be easy, were it required, to prove that the picture here drawn is 
not over-charged. A single instance, from a note appended by Dr. Forbes to 
an excellent treatise on “ Physical Education,” by Dr. Barlow of Bath, will 
suffice. After copying the programme of a boarding-school for young ladies, 
which exhibits only one hour’s exercise, consisting of a walk, arm in arm, on 
the high road, and that only when the weather is fine at the particular hour allot¬ 
ted to it, in contrast with nine hours at school or tasks, and three and a half at 
optional studies or works,—Dr. Forbes adds:—“ That the practical results of 
such an astounding regimen are by no means overdrawn in the preceding pa¬ 
ges is sufficiently evinced by the following fact, a fact which, we will venture 
to say, may be verified by inspection of thousands of boarding-schools in this 
country. We lately visited in a large town a hoarding-school containing forty 
girls ; and we learned on close and accurate inquiry, that there was not one of the 
girls who had been at the school two years (and the majority had been as long) that 
were not more or less crooked I Our patient was in this predicament; and w e 
could perceive (what all may perceive who meet that most melancholy of all 
processions,—a boarding-school of young ladies in their walk) that all her 
companions were pallid, sallow', and listless. We can assert, on the same au¬ 
thority of personal observation, and on an extensive scale, that scarcely a single 
girl (more especially of the middle classes) that has been at a boarding-school for 
two or three years, returns home with unimpaii ed health ; and for the truth of the 
assertion, we may appeal to every candid father, whose daughters have been 
placed in this situation.”* 
The sedentary and unvaried occupations which follow each other for hours 
in succession in many of our schools, have also been the cause of needless suf¬ 
fering to thousands ; and it is high time that a sound physiology should step in 
to root out all such erroneous and hurtful practices. 
Instead, therefore, of so many successive hours being devoted to study and to 
books, the employments of the young ought to be varied and interrupted by pro¬ 
per intervals of cheerful and exhilarating exercise, such as is derived from games 
of dexterity, which require the co-operation and society of companions. This 
is infinitely preferable to the solemn processions which are so often subsituied 
for exercise, and which are hurtful, inasmuch as they delude parents and teach¬ 
ers into the notion that they constitute in reality that which they only counter¬ 
feit and supersede. We have already seen what an important part the mental sti¬ 
mulus and nervous impulse perform,in exciting,sustaining, and directing muscu¬ 
lar activity; and how difficult and inefficient muscular contraction becomes, 
when the mind, which directs it, is languid, or absorbed by other employments. 
The playful gambolling and varied movements which are so characteristic of 
the young of all animals, man not excepted, and which are at once so pleasing 
and so beneficial, show that, to render it beneficial in ils fullest extent, nature re¬ 
quires amusement and sprigh liness of mind to be combined with, and be the 
source of, muscular exercise; and that, when deprived of this healthful condi¬ 
tion, it is a mere evasion of her law, arid is not followed by a tithe of the ad¬ 
vantages resulting from ils real fulfilment. The buoyancy of spirit and com¬ 
parative independence enjoyed by boys when out of school, prevent them suf¬ 
fering so much from this cause as girls do ; but the injury indicted on both is 
the more unpardonable, on account of the ease with which it might be entirely 
avoided.— Combe's Principles of Physiology. 
ON EDUCATION. 
How is a nation to grow rich and powerful ? Every one w ill answer—By 
cultivating and making productive what nature has given them. So long as 
their lands remain uncullivated, no matter how rich by nature, they are still 
no source of wealth; hut when they bestow labor upon them, and begin to 
plough and sow the fertile earth, they then become a source of profit. Now, 
is it not precisely the same case with the natural pow ers of mind ? So long as 
they remain uncullivated, are they not valueless? Nature gives, it is true, to 
the mind talent, but she does not.give learning or skill; just as she gives to the 
soil fertility, but not wheat or corn. In both cases the labor of man must make 
them productive. Now, this labor applied to the mind, is what we call educa¬ 
tion, a word derived from the Latin, which means the educing or bringing forth 
the hidden powers of that to which it is applied. In the same sense also we 
use the w ord cultivation we say: “ cultivate the mind,” just as we say “cul¬ 
tivate the soil.” 
From all this we conclude that a nation has two natural sources of wealth ; 
one, the soil of the nation, and the other, the mind of the nation. So long as 
these remain uncultivated, they add little or nothing to wealth or power. Ag¬ 
riculture makes the one productive, education the other. Brought under cul¬ 
tivation, the soil brings forth wheat and corn and good grass, while the weeds 
and briars and poisonous plants are all rooted out; so mind brought under cul¬ 
tivation, brings forth skill, and learning, and sound knowledge, and good prin¬ 
ciples; while ignorance and prejudice, and bad passions, and evil habits,which 
are the weeds and briars and poisonous plants of the mind, are rooted out and 
destroyed. 
An ignorant man, therefore, adds little or nothing to the wealth of the coun¬ 
try', an educated man adds a great deal; an ignorant man is worth little in the 
market, his Wages are low, because he has got no knowledge or skill to sell.— 
Thus in a woollen factory a skilful workman may get $10 or $15 a week,while 
an unskilled workman must be content with $2 or $3. In the store of a count¬ 
ing house, one clerk gets $1,000 salary, because he understands book-keeping 
or the value of goods, while another who is ignorant, gets nothing but his 
board. * ' We see this difference too w hen we look at nations Thus 
China has ten times as many inhabitants as England, but England has a hun¬ 
dred times as much skill; therefore England is the more powerful of the two, 
and frightens the government of China by a single ship of war. 
Thus, too, among the nations of Europe, Prussia is more pow erful and prospe¬ 
rous than any other of the same size on the continent, because all her people are 
educated,and that education is a Christian one, making them moral and industri¬ 
ous as well as skilful. If, then, the education of the people be necessary to the 
prosperity of the nation, it is the duty of the government or nation to provide 
ior it: that is, to see that no child grow up in ignorance or vice, because that is 
i casting the productive capital of the country. This education too should be 
a Christian education in order that children when they grow up should be 
honest, faithful and temperate; for if a man he a liar or a drunkard his know¬ 
ledge and skill is worth little to the country, because he will be neither trust¬ 
ed nor employed. 
None know the value of education but those who have received it; it is 
therefore the duty of every child who has been well educated himself, to use 
his influence w hen he grows up to extend it to others, and if he be a legislator 
to make it national and universal in his country.— McVickar. 
Nothing is bestowed on man in this life, without great labor.— Horace, 
Wealth, fame, influence and power, can none of them be attained w ithout 
much pain and application. 
Virtue is the only true nobility.— Juv. The insolence of pedigree, the pomp 
of titles and the pride of wealth, are reduced to nothing, when contrasted with 
the dignity of genuine virtue. 
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ARTICLES. 
N. York. 
July 25. 
Boston. 
July 18. 
Philadel’a 
July 25. 
Baltimore. 
July 25. 
Beans white, bush. 
1 
75. 
2 
00 
1 
87. 
2 
25 
.1 
75 
1 
50. 
a 
75 
Beef, best, cwt. 
7 
00. 
.10 
5(1 
6 
00. 
8 
00 
7 00. 
.9 
00 
7 
00. 
.8 
50 
Pork, per cwt. 
9 
50. 
.10 
75 
12 
75. 
.13 
25 
10 
75 
8 
00. 
.3 
50 
Butter, fresh, pound,. 
22. 
• 
24 
20. 
27 
17. 
. 
19 
20. 
• 
31 
Cheese, pound, . 
9. 
• 
11 
10. 
12 
10. 
• 
11 
25 
Flour, best, bbl. 
7 
00. 
. 7 
62 
7 
00. 
. 7 
37 
6 01). 
.6 
62 
6 
75. 
.8 
Grain —Wheat, bushel, .. 
. 
. 1 
44 
1 35. 
.1 
40 
1 
38. 
.1 
50 
Rye, do. 
. 
83 
95. 
• 
98 
82. 
• 
83 
90. 
. 
95 
Oats, do. 
48. 
53 
55. 
, 
56 
43. 
• 
44 
40. 
• 
45 
Corn, do. 
. 
80 
78. 
92 
76. 
. 
83 
77. 
• 
80 
Seeds— Red Clover, lb... 
10. 
. 
11 
11. 
12 
10. 
. 
11 
50'. 
. 
12 
Timothy, bushel,. 
2 
75. 
. 2 
80 
2 
75 
2 00. 
.3 
on 
2 
.3 
00 
Wool— Saxony, fleece, lb. 
Merino, lb. 
50. 
• 
75 
60. 
• 
75 
70. 
• 
75 
30. 
. 
68 
CO. 
65 
55. 
a 
65 
67. 
. 
70 
28. 
• 
55 
1-4 and com. lb... 
40. 
48 
40. 
48 
45. 
• 
50 
22. 
• 
45 
2 
50. 
. 3 
00 
Cows and Calves. 
18 
00. 
.35 00 
15 00. 
.30 
00 
12 0. 
.50 0 
Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine, article Physical Education; vol. i. p.698. 
FROM THE STEAM PRESS OF PACKARD & VAN BENTHUYSEN. 
