The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1854-02-08
sUNITERvILLE, S. C.,SFEHsRUAIsY 8, 1854.

of Athena, made from the 1spoils o
roofs are timbers from the captured
Persian ships, and that awning canopied
great Xerxes, on the morning OF So
tunais hear his plaudits, as they lear
from his thrilling soul, when the con
test between Sophocles and old Eschy.
lus is over, and youth has plucked the
tragic crown from the brow of age II
See him in all this, and answer, wheth.
er the noble and generous, the bcauti.
ful and the great, the chivalric and the
dignified, were notSaall cultivated in
consummate harmony.
No snattering pedagogue was there
to drill his mind in forms and phrases,
or strew his heart with vanity and mean
ambitions. But statesmen, orators and
poets were his schoolmasters, and a
splendid history his hornbook There
was no hum-dlum, no belaboring of
stupidity with unwelcome tasks. All
the qualities of mind and heart were
called into active life. The glory and
elevation Of Athens was beeueathed to
sons from the dying lips of sires. 1t
was the dream which stirred the boy
in his sleep, and danced before his steps
as he trod the streets in midday. 1t
made the heroic love Of woman more
heroic, and filled the mothers heart
with great thoughts for her offspring.
Hence that public spirit which delight.
ed in sacrifices, when honor or cuun-
try called.
"Iheir bodies, too" SAYS Thucy dides
"they employ for the Stutc, as if they
were any one else's but their own, but
with minds completely their own, they
are ever ready to render it seryice."-
Hence, in word, the immortality of
Athens, and Alhenian civilizations
Here was education indeed, proven by
sublime tests!
1t is no reply to this, TO point TO acts
of ingratitude, OF cruelty, Of short
sIghtedness or more than all. 10 tell us
OF the final decay and fall of that noble
little State. The first will find their
apology in the frailties Which besct hu-
man:.y everywhere. And the causes
OF her downfall must be sought in a
concurrence of errors and disasters,
which adneat i'm nntent To affect
BE it remembered that here n as no
Star of Bethlehem in the sky for her.
whose benign light might inspire her
philosophers and statesmen with truths
unknown before, and lead their gro
ping steps to Faith and God. Yet
lacking this, she need rot shrink from
bold comparison, in all that constitutes
a people truly great, with some nations
at least who boast their Christianity.
These remarks upon the c ucation
of the Athenians, are intended as in
troductory 10 brief comment upon
the modern system.
Assuming that Republic de-
Pends for rcrnancncy upon the NOR
ali'y "fthe people, and that intellectual
cultivation is 4 means to that end,
there has been established. in some of
the States of this Union, what is term.
ed Common School system, the
range Of which is reading ana writing,
with few rudiments.
Now, the first and fundamental er.
ror in this system appears to be, in the
implied assumption that reading and
writing either in themselves constitute
an education, or that the majority Of
those thus taught avail themselves of
it, as starting point for future cult
vation. need not enter into an Ella
borate argument to show that the
bare knowledge of reading and wri-
ting constitutes in no true sense an
education. 1t certainly cannot of it.
self make better man or better cit
izen. (Fhey are simply means which,
to produce the end for which they
were intended, must be properly used.
Like the tools Of the artisan, they
may be used to hew and destroy, MS
well as to build and beautily.) And
as to the second q word will suffice.
by far the larger portion of those who
attend the common school, come from
the lap Of poverty and toll. They be.
long to that class to be found in ev.
cry condition of society, but especially
in the more wealthy and civilized,
whose livelihood is scantily had by the
hardest drudgery. From this scene
they go to the common school, and
after receiving the lnodicum of knowl.
edge there given. they rettlrn whence
they came, to toll and struggle. The
tastes, the occupations--the opporlu.
mites Of these, cannot be intellectual.
With the first light Of morning they
go forth to their honest labor, and at
early cvo sink exhausted to their
couches. What time is spared to
them for books? We know that there
are bright exceptions, aud we psrtici
pate in the pride Of their names; men
whose minds thirst was Stacked in
lonely hours stolen from sleep and
health. But they were OF that stan p
born to triumph.-Their genius was
inspired at higher fountain than the
common school. Their lofty purpose
made them independent Of its meagre
charities, and would have achieved
success had they never entered it's
portals. A system, then, which pro.
poses to promote the mentafgrowth Of
this class bv such nooon, /, In ,ba