Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-11-09
EDUCATION.
FARTHER Extracts from Yields Report Oh
Manual Labor.

Farther Extracts from '" eIo'b GSepoTt Ola
Manual Labor.
". TIe present.. system Of education
pro tuees an indispOsitton to effort, and
destroys habits o actscsty and Industry
How can it be otherwise, when for eich!
or nine years the student is unused to ef-
fort, strange: to exposure, coopcd up in
cloister, his fluids stagnating, his muscles
relaxing, his nerves Embraced, and his
only exercise the aoorktng of his brain,
and all this at that forming period, when
his character takes its shape for life.
But surely when facts abound every
where theory may be dispensed with
Ii any one doubts the tendency of this
present system, he is referred to cloud of
living witnesses. Let him traverse the
country as student Ct facts, and he will
not ply his vocation long, before being
convinced Of what all the world knows
oIreaG ~; he will find thatthose merchants,
lawyers, physicians, and c'ergymcn, who
are teas! distinguished for business habits,
enterprise, and active energy, are those
who have gone through a regular course
Of study Without regular, rigorous ezer-
else : and he will find that those merchants
and professional men who are most emi-
nent for promptness, activity, efficiency,
and usefulness, have either not gone thro'
thorough Course Of study at all, or they
have, their habits Of vigorous exercise
haze not been laid aside during their ed
ReatioH. True, there are exceptions, but
they are only exceptions. This fact may
L. hyiO - li,nr "
pass their lives mainly in seclus;on. But
with business mcn it has become pro-
verb. No remark is more common
among such men every where than that
the present system Of education units men
fos tie practical business of life. They
see ina majority Of those who graduate
from our colleges listless inactivity, q re.
luctance to locomotion, an aversion to all
vigorous, pro!racted effort, timid shrink
ing from high attempt; and if they were
to sketch full length portrait of one Of
them, he would probably be represented
with his feet elevated upon the mantle
piece as high as his head, body bent much
like halI-moon or a horseshoe, lolting,
stretching, yawning, smoking, snoring
or if he were represented in motion, it
would be with a lounging air, arms dang
lag, and a loose jointed gait,
(Which, like wounded snake, drags its slow
length along"
In every literary institution there are a
number Of hours daily, in which nothing
is required Of the student. These will
generally be occupied in lstless reverie,
or taking lessons in the science Of time
killing, or in devising and executing
schemes of mischief and low tricks, or in
procuring vivid sensation by making ex-
perlments upon appetite and passion. Tc
practice RIGHTEOUSNESS, to make secret Ii.
bations to Blcchus, to puf'tobacco smoke
to play at games Of chance, to hatch mis-.
chicf, 10 nope from room TO room, to shut
fe slipshod through the halls, to sloucf
about, and gaze on vacuity. to drum with
the fingers, to whistle, to doze, and nod
will generally be standard employment.
IN institutions where the hours fIcirur
are not spent IN regular exercise. Is
any marvel that the present system shoulc
be unEavorable to the formation Of habit
ofindustry and activity, when the studen
becomes so unused to vigorous effort a
TO regard it with aversion, and whe!
there are three or four hours every day il
which he has nothing TO do?' Suppos
these three or four hours were filled "
with appropriate exercise, and thus en-
PSoyment afforded for all the time Of tn
individual, would he not, as a matter Q
course, form habits of industry? Let
student so through an entire course O
study on THIS Pian' and ifthere is any trut
In the maxim that " habit is second ma
ture," depend upon 1t, that man will nc
slug his life away like gorged anacon
dn, and crawl at last into lounger'
grave