Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1847-04-08
H. XIV STAUNTON, Az

Bulwer, in the preface to Lucretia, thus eio
qaently opposes the common opinion that to rende
men vrtuous, it is only necessary to educate thei
iutellects:
We read daily glowing declarations on tn,
necessity Of bookknowledge, OF mental culture
as II through these alone not only society was t.
be reformed, but every individual was to arrive 4
Utopian goodness. Yet these brilliant assumptions
are contradcted by the evidence Of all history. Ir
those colossal criminals before whom ''the world
grows pale," 1t is not the mind that wants insruc
tion 1t is not the intellect that is unfinished and
unrestralned they are often the most intellectual
personages Of their time What man more unscru-
puloasly cruel than that wise Earl of Worcester,
with whose head (say the chroniclers) fell more
than half the scholarship of England2 What
man more gif9d with all that art and letters in a
period highly civilized, bestow, stands forth
mid his ag, than the murderous Caesar Borpia ?
Where, in his time, shall we seek more mas
tery genius; subtle wit, than that soldier scholar
whom Utrecht reared to learning, to whom Caxton
dedicated his book on Chivary, and whom History
execrates under the bloody name of Richard the
ihlrd2 Where meaher or more heartless knave
than Bacon where more learned prince than
Henry the Eighth 2-where a more accomplished
exterminator than the young Octavus ?--where a
more elegant gentleman than NeTo2 Long since
Voltaire overthrow the notion that vice and crime
'SSui' ohJ HUN otupiuity anu ignorance, tbat good
ness Is faculty Of pure intellect yet, according
to the jargon of the day, have only to read and
to lecture, and crime vanishes and goodness grows
universal. Against the vast and benificent move
ment toward general education | am no foe few
more earnestly advocate the principle or feel more
TRANQUILITY satisfied as TO the ultimate results. But
there is notion prevalent to the system OF edu-
cation TO be pursued and the value of culture sim
ply and singly mental. All education is incom-
Pete that does not operate upon the heart-all cul
ture will fail to develop the better humanes with
in us that leaves the affections barren. Do what
we will at the school much depends on the influ-
ence at home. Communicate all the knowledge
we can at our institutes, and difuse all the ipfor-
nation we can by our press, and all we have done
Is to make population more active. acute, and en-
ergetic toward the attainment of what society val
ues and honors the most If society h0nors and re-
wards most virtue and genius, we'll and good-ifit
honors and rewards most Mammon and Iucifer. 4
rude pastoral community may be better and happier
than the inhabitants Of land reekinp with the
smoke OF factories and covered with the monuments
OF commerce. 1t is not true when we examine the
statistics of nations that crime is proportional to
ignorance In England on the one hand, we con-
cede that the great majority of criminals can Meth
er read nor write; but in France, on the other
hand, the large proportion of criminals especially
for the worst Offences those who received even
more than the rudiments OF education WHY this
difference it may be easy to explan-the race pre-
ccding the first French Revolution have still left
their fruit. Danish God from the woodland an
gravate passion by the quicker sense that culture
gives to imagination, and the more you sharpen the
Intelligence, the more you deprave the heart.