The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-10-16
miscellaneous.
From the Nineteenth Century.
Universal K d IA ON.
NY 11An.nu nnHptrU


idea! And shall there come time when
the deliver in the mine and the rice
swamp, and the orphans of the prodigal
and the felon, the very offspring of shame,
shall be truly, Systematically educated!
Glorious contamination! twilight of the
Who will not labor, and court
sacrifices, and suffer reproach, if he may
hasten, by even so much as day, It's
blessed comingl Who will not take cou-
rage from the contemplation OF what the
last century has seen accomplished, II not
in absolute results, yet in preparing the
approaches, in removing lmpedlments, IN
correcting and expanding the puohc com.
prehension of the work to be done, and OF
the feasibility of doing it, Whatever OF
evil and of suffering the future may have IN
store for US, though the earth be destined
vet to be ploughed by the sword, and fer
tilted by human gore, until rank growths
Of the deadliest weeds shall overshadow 1t,
sitting into premature decay every plant
most conducive to health or to fragrance
the time shall surely come when true and
universal education shall dispel the dense
night of ignorance and perverseness that
now enshrouds the vast majority OF the
human race; shall Danish evil and wretch
edness almost wholly from earth, by re-
moving or unmasking the multiform temp
tations to wrongdoings; shall put an end to
robbery, hatred, oppression, and war, by
diffusing widely and thoroughly living
consciousness of the brotherhood of man
kind. and the sure blessedness, as well as
righteousness of doing ever as we would
have others do to US. '9Train up child
in the way he should go, and when he is
old he will not depart from it" Such is
the promise which enables US to see to the
end of the dizzy whirl of wrong and mis-
ery in which our race has long sinned and
suffered. On wise and systematic training,
based on the widest knowledge, the truest
morality, and tending ever to universal
good, as the only assurance OF special OF
personal well-being, rests the great hope
of the terrestrial renovation and elevation
of man.
Not the warrior, then, or the statesman,
nor vet the master worker, as such, but
the teacher, in our day, leads the van
guard of humanity Whether in the sem
mary or by the wayside, by uttered word
or printed page, our true king is not he
who best directs the siege, or sets his
squadrons in the field, or heads the charge
but he who can and will instruct and
enlighten his fellows, so that at least some
few of the generation of whom he is shall be
wiser, purer, nobler, for his living among
them, and prepared to carry forward the
work, of which he was an humble lnstru-
ment, to its far grander and lofter consum-
nation. Oh, far above the conqueror OF
kingdoms, the destroyer OF hosts by the
sword and the bayonet, Is he whose tear
less victories redden no river and whlten
no plain but he who leads the under
standing a willing captive, and builds his
empires not of the wrenched and bleeding
fragments of subjugated nations, but on the
realms of intellect which he has discoy-
cred, and planted, ana pebpIeu wiuI S~..~
ficent activity and enduring JOY The
mathematician who, in his humble study,
undisturbed as yet by the footsteps OF
monarchs and their ministers, demon
strates the existence of a planet, before
unsuspected by astronomy and unobserved
by the telescope the author who, from
his humble garrett, sends forth the scroll
which shall constrain thousands upon
thousands to laugh or weep at his will |;
who topples down venerable fraud by an
allegory, or crushes down dynasty by an
epigram, he shall live and reign over
still increasing dominion, when the paste
board kings, whose steps are counted In
court circulars, and timed by stupid huz-
zas, shall have long since mouldered and
been forgotten. To build out into chaos
and drear vacuity to render some corner
of the primal darkness radiant with the
presence of an idea to supplant ignorance
by knowledge, and sin by virtue; such Is
the mission of our age, worthy to enklndle
the ambition of the loftiest, yet proferlng
opportunity and reward TO the most lowly.
TO the work of universal enlightenment be
our lives henceforth consecrated, until the
black clouds of impending evil are IRA
dated and dispersed by the full efulgence
of the divinely predicted day when GAL
shall know the Lord, from the least unto
the greatest" and when wrong and woe
shall vanish forever from the presence o
universal knowledge, purity and bliss