Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1846-04-30
From lie american Psychological Jouruol.
Self.lmproyement;

Or. the Formation Of Character and Habits, and
The Cahiratsn Of our Faculties, both in general,
and 10 tit us for other eoiings.
All our powers and faculties are primitive and
constitutional. Still, though they are innate, yet
they require cultivation. We require natural pow |
ers before cultivate these powers; yet the most
superior natural capabilities without culture, are
like the rich prairie unbroken. The mind requires
tlllage equally with the earth. Nor can we expect
full crop of either talents virtues, without mem
tai tillage, any more than Of grain without blowing
aud sowing. Not that we do not need natural ca
pablites IN the start, for we require BoTH. As is
the unbroken forest, so is natural talent without
culture. However rich the land il cultivated, to
yield the necessaries and Injuries Of life, yet with
out cultivation il bears neither Culture, without
capabili,y, the other hand, is iling the desert
You but waste seed and labor To bear the
fruits Of either talent virtue, requires rich ma
tive soil, put into complete requsition by the best
oil tiIage.
As, however, even poor soil is rendered produc-
tive by cultivation, and, when well cultivated, bears
more than a rich one untitled or poorly managed
so poorer natural capabilities by proper culture,
may be made vastly to excel superior native talents
slothfuy used or badly managed.
None of us, readers, can receive from Nature
any additional endowmenls. All that now remains
for is 10 make the best possible Of the talents
and virtues we d. possess If we have received FIVE
talents, we can, by proper use, soon double and
quadruple them. II we have been served by Nature
with only vi.e, with that must DO content,
aud should redouble our diligence TO make the
most Of that one d" IMPROVE TILL | COME" is the
Divine command
Some one has said that be who causes a blade
of grass to grow where none ever grew before, =
(implying that he who improves the soil, y" de-
serves to be immortazed" What then, docs he
deserve who improves the mind and cultiyates his
K.I A do. tl,a
exalted department he cultvates than the dirt I'M
der our feet. He who properly tills the soil, re-
ceyes in return full compensation for all his trouble
Yet be who cultiyates the immortal soul will re-
ceiye reward infinitely higher in an infinitely
higher species Of enjoyment The great end Of
terrestrial probation is TO fit us for higher and
holier state hereafter and as that preparation con-
slsts solely in the right use of our mental powers
OF our physical as a Of securing our mental
therefore the great end and object of life should
be MENTAL AND MORAL IMPROVEMENT. All other
ends should subserye this one end Of our being.
That the fruits Of such culture abundant, is
obvious. Indeed, we should be infinitely thankful
that so little yields so much-ln YOUTH especially.
This is the seed-time OF life. BE encouraged, o
youth, in the prosecution of se-imProremeHt. 1t is
within your reach attainabe TO an incaculabe de.
gree. You can double, then quadruple, and re-
double your present mental attainments and excel
cd than all riches THAN all other ends Of life
But mark. 1t cannot be bought. Parents can
not be great or good for their children any more
than they can eat for them or breathe for them
But as we must all eat, and BREATHE and live for
ourselves, so must all cultivate opn minds.
As parents may put food before child, and thus
facilitate his eating so they may give that child
facilities for cultivaing his mind, yet he must dis
cipHne his mind, if that mind is ever to be dis
cipned, and cultivate his OTH moral Affections il
they are ever TO be cultivated. Books. apparatus,
riches, advantages all go 10 facilitate intellectual
and moral culture, but they do not constitute it
Indeed, taken by and large, those make the most
improvement who have the greatest facilities. Com
pare in colleges, the Of the rich with those
who have earned their own way, and created their
own fortunes. The latter ncomparably The best
as scholars and as men.
Do not, then, uneducated reader, mourn over
your want of advantages, and pine over your want
| of education but up and be doing with what adj
| vantages you actually have. You are not 1.-THE oil
what you might have been, il you had made the
most of the one talent Nature has given you The
fault is less in your advantages than in YOURSELF,
! Besides the education Of our schools and colleg
| es is no education. The entire routine of those
studies is at Oar with the constitution Of the human
mind, instead Of in harmony with IT, 1t is calculat
! ed 10 shacke and peryert, not discipline" There
ia much more real mind out of college graduate,
! than in them. Common sense-that greatest of al
! intellectual endowments-is not taught in college
! The opposite. Education as now educated unfit
for the practical duties Of life | speak experiment
tally, as well as from both observation and the ad
aptation-uter Tant of adaptation-of college stud
les TO the human mind
All education should consist solely in Developing
the human faculties in general and those of the in
divdual educated in particular, neither Of which
atn raltC oliac III lc m