Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1854-06-27
EDUCATION.

How very little must those persons know
who think that system of equality pervades
all nature, and that men collectively partakc
of the universal quality, and individually be-
come equal. Let us look all over the world
carefully, and we shall not fail to discover the
very opposite to be the case, whether it be
among the trees, and plants, the rocks or
mountains, the rivers or the purling streams,
oceans, continents, islands, and in fact all
things the eyes rest on. Where shall we find
perfect equality? and if naturally there be little
approximation to such thing, how much less
will there be, when man in his aboriginal and
uncertain discipline is trained and assisted by
art. Take the wild flowers of the field, re-
move them within cultivated gardens, plant
them in the well prepared soil, give them the
attendance of the experienced gardener and
will they be still the same, and only equal to
their original and natural state. Let us look
at the inferior animals. Is horse, for exam
pie that is uncared for, untaught, and left to
forage for himself equal in every respect to
the one under kindly discipline, and care, and
that comes out tractable, almost social, and
with shining coat. Look into the heavens
| and do we find all the planets and all the stars
equal in brilliancy, in magnitude, in density
or in velocity-where out of one hundred
blades of grass can there be found definition
for the word identical, in fact, where is per-
feet equality?
That there are certain things which all ma
ture enjoys in common, there can be no ques-
tion, and great numbers of which the members
of the human family rejoice in as their COM
mon privilege, but this does not alter the
question, because we find that man as grega-
rious animal associates only with those whose
tastes are identical with the class to which
each man by habit, intellect, but particularly
by education, delights in; this dividing soci7
ETY. by strong lines of demarcatiOn in accom-
ance with law which has not been deerss
yet is more incapable of alteration than
of the medes and Persians of old.
We have said, but particularly By educd
as we consider this greater fulcrum than I
physical one wished for by Archimedes II
| raise the world. Has not education RAISED
| the world! Look back into history, and COM
pare the vast improvements in everything con-
nected with one mundane system, and all mat
tiers, contingencies mans probationary
state, and we can alone trace these advantages
to Education.
The value of education might indeed appear
to be an axiom, but regret to think that
there are yet persons in the community who
fail to conceive the blessings that education
bestows on mankind, and with shame be it
confessed, some also who think that morals
are made worse by its application, and allow
their children to grow up untutored weeds
in this great garden of Gods providence. To
those we would suggest the impossibility of
their offspring ever rising either to fame a
meng men, or to be useful members of the
community, failing they assuredly will, to
carry out that manifest destiny to which every
individual has been called, and finally unable
to give an account of the proper appropriation
of the talents whether two, five or ten, that
have been committed to their charge.