Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-06-12
From the Richmond Enquirer.
THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION.
THE TRUE INTEREST OF VIRGINIA.

THE TRUE INTEREST OF VIRGINIA.
There is a large class Of persons.
who, although they appreciate the
Igifts and bounties Of learning, are of
Ithe opinion, that 1t cannot be propaga-
ted on liberal scale, and therefore,
opposed to what they term half educa-
ton, a smattering, &C., &c. We have
all heard repeated a thousand times,
that famous couplet,
"a little learning is dangerous thing.
Drink deep, Or taste not the Pierian SPRING"
Every one knows by heart this now
threadhare distich, and we regard it as
excellent rhyme; and ii comes too from
the master hand of a great poet. But
with all that, it is one of the most alb
surd jingles that ever came out of
lpoet's brain. IT has the authority of
Alexander Pope, to make men swal-
low it, and millions have done SO ac-
cordingly. Its pernicious effects can,
not easily be calculated. It has
tended to weaken the faith and relax
the perseverance ofmany a noble spirit.
1t has made youth often and again cast
aside its avocations of study, and
seek pursuits in which there were no
barriers, no Encouragement, no tedi-
um but that of ignoble ease! Time
out Of mind, it has made the farmer
say, John can't be lawyernor a doc
tor; and little schooling amt no use.
John must go to the plough And
there he goes, uniformed as his father
before him; John lives to be an old
man, and ends just where he began
lust about as wise at three-score and
ten, as he was in the vigor of early
manhood. He is prevented from lear
ming little, for fear he would not
learn any thing more-a strange error,
for knowledge. 1t is to us like gold
to the ayaricious man: the more he gets
the more he wants.
And what is this despised modlcum,
this dangerous thing which the great
didactic poet has termed "a little learn
ing" How much is the quantity sig
nifed' Is it the urchin who can
merely read, write, and cypher, that
has ii'-Or the academy boy, full Of
Ruddiman's Syntax and the asses
bridge? Or the sophomore youth, just
from College with acknowledgements:
Cataline upon his lips, resolving to be
Cicero, if he CAM Perhaps the poet
meant the term little learning for va
rious grown men, who are far from be-
ing Solomons. Perhaps the poet
meant to include even himself at the
age when he wrote; for he was then al
most illiterate, as compared with what
he afterwards became. And perhaps
too, the term ca little learned might APP
lply to him in his zenith; for Alexander
Pope, in all his glory, was not like
some of the stalwart genluses even of
his own day. Few men have more ex.
empli6ed in themselves the power of
being learned, than he did. Few have
applied their learning more effectively
to the sublime and moral teaching of
mankind than he, but with all his ex-
cellent precepts which he uttered, he
has failed IN some of his verses, and
in none, as we conceive, more egregi-
ously than in those we have quoted.
We have been thus particular in no.
ticing this doctrine, because, when the
friends of education are endeavonng to
extend its blessings, we wish it not to
to be said that danger comes from lear
ming: be that learning little or much.
It was saying of Lord Bacon, that
knowledge is power Had we to
appear in behalf of education before
judges who were full believers of this
dictuna, our task would be short, and
their conviction easy. But it would
seem that in this, our public mind is
not impressed with the force of the say
ing. The idea ofpower, which swims
uppermost in the brains of those who
represent public opinion, is SO intimate
y connected with the idea of wealth,
as to be nearly the same thing. III
Bacon were here 10 analyze the char
acter of the age, and embody its pre-
vailing sentiment in one striking apo
thegm, he would probably say, that
Money is a Demi Cod Knowing
this, then, we could not address our
judges in behalf Of knowledge for its
own sake, but in behalf off as lever
by which their more esteemed good
might be attained. We would show
them, that in this country it is co-ex-
tensive with progressive wealth. 1T
occupies the same ground. 1t is in
the most intelligent communities that
money most abounds and yields the
highest profit. 1t is where education
is most attended to, that the value Of.