Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1846-04-23
-AGH,-
FOR THE SENTINEL.
For those ,cho can best understand 1t.


Much has been written and great deal more
has been SAID, during twelve months past, OF
the subject OF education Editors have uniteo
IN the cause with a devotion which cannot be
sufficiently applauded; and some of them, with
. generosity not to be exceeded in any state
have opened their columns as kind Of Tele.
graph through which the first scintillatons Of
kndlIng minds might circulate from bosom to
bosom. But the greatest event of all remains
yet undeveloped An entire change must come
over .'the spirit of our dream" We must era
dicate that odious god of selishness; we must
cultivate social affection; we must foster the
indulgent charities of life. We must not hug
to our hearts the foolish belief that whatever IS
said or done differently from the manner in
which we would have done or spoken it, is ra-
ideally and most intolerahly wrong. Until we
shall have effected this change in the form and
texture of our views and opinions, education
viii continue to wither and droop among us.
like bllghted exotic, even under the wsest
and best system, and the most liberal auspices.
DO you see that group of counting house lit
craft over the way? They are discussing the
last weekly. An humble votary, perhaps, in
the temple OF science, has taken this method of
corresponding with his fellow worshippers at
the shrine Of Minerva. How leaJnediy they
are dissecting him ? One is measuring his
sentences with yard-stick. warrant YOU
he finds they do not hold out with his bill of
freight. Another is trying the calculation of
our young friend by the rule of Loss and Gain,
and finds it doesn't balance by the one tenth of
a ten-penny nail. A third has accidentally
perhaps heard it said, that the nominative case
must 90 before the verb. But unfortunately our
young friend has indited some such phrase as
thls,-'' Brave companions,' said be- at the
sight OF which the spruce connoiseur yonder
has stretched his physognomy to the exact lin
eaments of yard of pink ribbon.
Then, we sometimes are amused with spe-
cimen of Bar-room criticism. This is the re-
gon of a certain phraseo.ogy which has been
very APPLY denomnated ''to,cn gossip
thin. superficial sort of cob web diction,-a
kind of circular catalogue of ideas and express
soIls as soon as the Wheel of chit chat turns
round, you will hear them winding down the
same circumference. When an unsuspectlng
novtlate among US happens to dress up an idea
in language either below or above the sphere in
which these boon companions revolve, you will
be ready to imaglue, from the hubbllb around
you. that the hapless offender had knocked the
earth from Its orbit, or suspended the laws of
creation.
Now, with men of sense and experience, all
this can beast but a poor and pitiful influence :;
but the energies of the young are checked, their
efforts are repressed, they are almost induced
to look upon education itself with disgust; and
parents very often. instead of defending their
sons in cause which every true friend of edu-
cation must and does believe to be laudable,
will persuade them to desisi rather than expose
themselves to the ridicule of fools. Education.
believe has always be enreputed the mother of
criticism; but if nature or fate has produced a
mong us a daughter so INDUSTRIOUS as to crush
her mother in the cradle, it would seem useless
for the friends of human improvement to rock
it any longer; for, to conclude with Sterne,
'.Of all the cants that are canted in this can't
ing world. the cant of criticism is the most tor
menting" MODERATOR.