Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-08-24
OUR PUBLIC scHooLs.-So. III.

The providence of God has 80 ordered the be-
nefcent scheme Of the universe that the suhstan-
tial happiness and true welfare Of every human
being are dependent upon the degree in which
those elements exist and are difused around him.
The greater and more beneficial the influence,
therefore, which each individual exerts in ameli-
Grating the condition, supplying the wants, and
aiding the efforts of his fellow men, the more
abundant and ample will be his share Of the re-
sulting products. The voice Of christianity, Of
history, and OF experience alike proclaim this
great and eternal truth; and no amount or COM
bination Of sordid selfshness, intent on its own
exclusive interests, and coldly Withdrawing itself
nom companionship with its kind, can hope to
accomplish its groyelling objects in contravention
OF ticsc inniutable principles.
me observation is frequently heard, that here
and there, In this or that community this or that
neighborhood, very little interest exists on the
subject OF education very little attention is paid
to it, and very little progress made. Nothing
can be more erroneous or untrue. On every
hand, in every locality, in every hamlet and set
tlement; nay, in every household of the land, the
work Of education is in rapid and certain pro-
gress. From the cradle TO the grave, in all the
varieties and mutations of life, amid all it's
chances and changes" in the quiet and still
ness of the family and the church; in the ever
widening circle of society, with its numerous in
stitutions, habits, manners, customs in the
crowded thoroughfares of commerce, tho broad
fields of labor, the noisy and bustling arena of
politics. the brilliant saloons of fashion and pleas
ure, and the retired walks Of contemplation, no
less than in the established seminaries of learn
ing, the education of the mind and Of the heart
is increasingly going forward; and its results, in
all their magnitude and multiplicity, are around
and about US, here and everywhere. To it we
owe all that we are, have been, or hope to be,
here or hereafter; to it we are indebted for our
happy homes, for that security for life, liberty,
and the pursuit Of happiness which our invalu-
able institutions afford, and for the prodigious
and accelerated advance of science and the arts,
in all their varied departments of legislation OF
political economy and of an enlightened and COM
prehensive Christian civilization, in all their be-
nefcence, grandeur, and utility.
Without or without our direct cooperation,
this great machinery of civilization is in constant
and unntermitted revolution; and it only re-
mains for us to determine its character and shape
its results. If we neglect this duty, the work of
education still goes on but it may, in too many
instances, be that education which is alas all
too rife, too potent, and too efcacous already in
our midst-the education of the high,oays and
5y,cays of the world Around and about u.s. on
every hand, are copfding, ingenious, hopeful,
and intelligent youth, silently but powerfully ap-
pealing to our highest and nobest sympathies for
the proper development and direction of their ex-
panding faculties ready to enter, with us, upon
those paths which lead to wisdom and virtue and
knowledge; but who, if we coldly and selfshly
refuse to take them by the hand, will speedily
seek other guides, and become apt profoients in
the crowded school of vice and guilt and shame,
whose graduates fill our penitentiaries and so
fearfully disturb the quiet, peace, and order Of
our communities