The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-08-26
From the Boston Traveller.
AMERICAN J.yCETM-No. s.

Improvement in useful knowledge, ana LOT
the rener al advancement of popular educa-
fion. In many places this step has already
been taken. Perhaps it would he dlmcult
10 give reason why it should not, and may
not be taken in one place Us well as
another. IF it is said that it is difficult or
inpracticabe in small places, 1t is replied
that some of the most successful branches
of the Lyceum already established, are in
the smallest towns and without all OF midi
y.Iuals engaged in literary pursuits Some
societies, composed almost exclusively OF
farmers and mechanics, have proved highly
successful. For any individuals TO &C
knowledge that they can 10 nothing Tor
their own and each others improvement, IS
to acknowledge that they are not possess
ed Of minds. Mind wherever 1t exists,
must and will he active. The only ques-
ton is, whether il takes an upward or down
ward course-whelher its motion Is forward
or retrograde-whether it is occupied with
subjects calculated to elevate and dignity,
or to degrade and Gebase it-whe.her it be
well or i'll directed.
1t is most earnestly hoped, nay it is conf
fc IS vet SO degfaded 1 fS f IL " d9ep eur EfbRnbRe
of furnishing few individuals who are both
able and disposed to take part in an insti-
tuition, which all acknowledge to he at the
foundation of our intellectual, moral and
political prosperity; an institution for the
diffusion of Enowledge and the advancement
ofpopular education.
As the prominent object of the Lgceum is
to propose and forward a system of self ed
ucdtion, for any individual to be benefited
by it, he must engage in it. As it designs
to propose and allot exercises fitted to the
capacities and wants of all classes and nc es
of the community, and put into their hands
the means CT conducting them, there is no
individual who may not, If he is disposed,
take a part in its operations.
The formation of town Lyceums is not
only the first measures to he taken towards
establishing National Institute, but upon
their operations are founded the hopes, the
prospects, and final success of the whole
system. County and State Lyceums, and
a general bond to unite the whole, and
bring all its parts TO act in unison, and to
produce harmonious and useful results, are
designed only to aid individual efforts, and
to give daily social relation of life-to
propose the course and furnish the means
for families and neighbors to exert a kindly
influence upon each other.
Why should the formation Of town Lyce-
ums be delayed? Is any town willing to
be shut out from taking part in an institu-
ton in which every member of the republic
is interested? Are the citizens of any
town destitute of minds? If so, the want
of disposition or ability must place them in
the attitude of careless spectators of opera
tons in which all their neighbors are taking
a part. If not, if on the contrary, the Citi-
Zens of every town are interested in the
cause of popular educaiion-and possess
intetlects, they must have both the DISPOSE
ton or ability to become active members of
an institution designed for its advancement
1t would probably be difficult to present
any insuperahle obstacle to the formation
of Branch Lyceum, between this and the
commencement of another year, in every
town in the United States. Nay, it is diff
cult to conceive of any impossibilIty to its
being effected in single day. AS it is a
system of self education, there are as many
individuals to engage in it, as there are in
divduals to be educated. And if plan
can be proposed which all can understand,
and in which all can unite, and a time
agreed upon in which all may commence
their efforts, what impossihility prevents
this commencement in all parts of the Union
in single day? Such day would indeed
be grand Jubilee to our nation.
FRANKLIN.
THE RUINS OF AMERICA. There may
he no such ruins in America as are found
in Europe, or in Asia, or in Africa; but
other ruins there are, of prodigious mag
ntude-the ruins of a mighty people.
There may I've no places of pilgrimage in
America, unless it he some lonely battle
ground, already forgotten by the neighbor-
hood, overgrown with forest and over
Swallowed with perpetual deep darkness,
or covered far and wide, with n sea of
waving herbage-the frighlfnl vegetation
of death; no places that have been sancti-
ned ny song or story, ages after ages, with
beautiful tradition or fierce poetry, save
here and there a small spot of earth shut in
by the great hills, or fortified by the ever
lasting rocks, where the rel man withstood
the white man, while the noise and fash Of
the terrible weapons with which the latter
shot FIRE into the hearts of the former ap-
peared to be that very noise and brightness
which he had seen set fire TO the woods
about his path, tear up the earth under his
feet, and shatter the very sky over his head
or some other shadowy quiet place or
smooth hill top, where the men of the revo-
luton made war upon their fathers and
brotheis-apon the most powerful nation
Of the earth, while her ships covered the
sea, and her armies were on the march in
every quarter of the globe. There may be
no piles Of barbarian architecture, each a
wilderness of torrets, towers, and battle
ments, rocking to the sea breeze, or over
sliadowing the high places of power in
America; no half buried city like the pill
Jared and sculptured treasures Of art which
cucumber the earth and choke no the riv-
ers of the old world, or come and 90 with
the tide--appear and disappear, day after
day, along the sea shore of the states that
haEe persisted forever, cities buried by the
volcano or the earthquake, overthrow by
the savage, swept by the sea, or swallowed
Inv sand and The desert VET cros.rhad until,