Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-02-25

InOHln DrlilBS lOTtn SOlne newly ueVlSeu SyS-
TEN, wherein the unsuspecting world is as
sured, that a more perfect knowledge may
now be obtained in half the time, and with
little labor and no thought, than ever could
have been obtained under the old regimen
of thinking and study. The world is anx-
iously looking for the next new work
The great search is for learning without
study. We are willing for the knowledge,
if we can only get it without labor.
This spirit of course induces and MAIN
tains a superficial character among our
scholars, and until a change comes-until
the old paths are again resorted to, we may
look in vain for profound and close students.
The selfish and mercenary spirit of the
times has contributed and is still contribu-
ting to the injury of education. This spir-
it is almost universal. The minds of the
community arc saturated with it. All liter
airy labor is counted lost which does not, di-
rectly and at once, point to that end. What
shall we eat and what shall we drink and
how shall we make the most money are
the leading topics of the times There is
no time for study The school boy so soon
becomes the trading and scheming man,
that he cannot stop to plod over books =
he must away from this dull sort of life, and
so, by a single bound, he leaps from the
speling-book to the trading-place. There
is something to be made, and he must be
making it.
Another cause which leads to shallow
learning is the disposition among men to
give prominence and standing to mere igno-
rant pretenders. The man of learning and
industry is often superseded by the pedant.
High professional stations, which once were
awarded to the studious and learned, have
come to be occupied by those, whose boast
is, that their only education was obtained in
few months at summer school, and whose
main qualifications for the places they are
IN, are unblushing eifrontery and unlimited
self-esteem. They are learned in every
thing, because they have studied nothing
thoroughly. With those modest doubts
which the real scholar sometimes has, of
his fitness for the duties of an important sta
ton, the half-learned pretender is never
troubled. Respectable men suffer him to
pass among them, at nearly his own price,
and never give themselves the trouble to
find out the difference between his preten-
ded and actual value The present views
of education permit this, and the student,
weary and exhausted with his mental efforts,
dyspeptic and diseased, sinks down, discour-
aged and sick, at this caprice of the
world.
The young and ardent are more likely to
be influenced by these examples, and the
chances are, that this spirit of the times will
lead away many young man from his book
and his study, in his Impotence to try his
luck in the field of adventure. Instead of
fixing his eye steadily upon the one great
end of all learning the elevation of mind,
he suffers himself to watch the course of the
arrogant and assuming, and, as he sees
them high in the ascendant, he unfortunate
ly concludes that a mere smattering of knowl-
edge is, after all, about as well, or even bet
ter in practical life, than more laborious
and costly-and costly because laborious-
education.
In this way, the disposition to give circu-
lation to spurious coin, which is so rife in
the world, induces a willingness, even in
those who otherwise would do differently, to
drink shallow draughts at the wells of knowl-
edge. The evil can, perhaps, be best rem
edied by introducing system of max
ing our scholars sound, independent think
ers, thus creating assdemand for such class
of men.
Another cause of the present condition of
the system of education is found i'll the fact
that those who have been engaged in instruc-
ting in our primary schools, have, to great
extent, been persons of very limited and SUI
perficial attainments. These schools, the
starting place of all our scholars, have given
I oh TO H. IL I,
and seminaries have not been able, much
as they may have labored to do it, wholly to
change. Many of these early and first inn
pressions have become permanently fixed ;
the child has been taught his first lessons by
one who knew them but partially or super
fcially himself direction has already been
given to the mind the efforts of first teach
ers to hide their ignorance of what they
tried to teach, have produced sad results,
which often betray themselves in the habit
which many youth has fallen into, of con-
cealing, even from himself, the extent of his
own superficialness. He was started wrong
he was bent the wrong way, and, toe
often, in spite of later effort, grows mis-sha-
pen and deformed He thinks but little
he does not penetrate to the bottom, for he
was not so taught; and withal, he finds, by
a little experience, that "much study is 1
WEAKNESS to the hesh," and so continues tC
practice according to his early instructions
for he finds it vastly easier. Thus, in many
instances, the blame is thrown upon the
, youth, which properly belongs to his early
} teachers, or perhaps, more properly still, tc
those who employed them. 1t exhibits, a
, least, sad deficiency somewhere.
, But have not time to speak further o
/ the causes which have produced defects il
our system of early education. Let us en-
: quire for the remedy, Some remedy il
, needed, all will admit
, First, let us begin with physical educa
, ton. Make sound body, one fit to hole
5 a sound mind Bear in mind the old max
: i'm of a sound mind in a sound body. lie
: us not be content with weak and pun
race, if we can do aught to prevent it. lie
us try.
: First of all teach work, labor labor o
: body and mind, of hands and head ;-some
thing to be regularly employed about Th
5 will prevent idleness, and avert the evils
S those destructive evils, which come in it
4 train. Find constant employment, eithe
D of work, or study, or play. Leave not tn
E child TO seek il for himself He will roam