The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-10-27
M l s @ ELL A N EOUS.
EDUCATION.
Weave the warp and weave the woof,
The windilg.sheet Of wit and sense;
Dull garment oi defensive pIoof

|
( ing in our times, we are disposed to think
that he would find wider range for his phil
| lpplcs than the High street of his neighbcr-
ing village, and that his anathema upon the
ntilitorian tendencies OF the age would not be
confined to the community of Fairport, t,where
he imagined his appearance, with bale of
linen under his arm. would make him an OBJ
Ject of more interested observation than IL he
displayed on his finger the rare and antique
cameo his nephew Hector had brought him
from Egypt. We confess ourselves to be
often OF his opinion when we look abroad and
perceive how much more regard is paid to
matter than 10 mind; how many more wor-
shippers there are of Mammon than of the
MUSES.; how subser>ien genius has become
to usefulness, and the coinage of the brain
less current than that ot the mint; the latter
having universal circulation, while the for.
iner is restricted to the few, and has little or
no value on the mart or in places where men
most congregate.
We sometimes bend ourselves to the mel.
anchely endeavor ts discover why moral and
mental progress do not Ike ep pace with mate
rial improvement; why the useful continues
to occupy an undue proportion of considera-
tien, while the intellectual, the ideal, and the
spiritual are still confined to q class, certain
y net increasing in the same ratio of aug
mentation with such as make wealth their
object antworldly advancement their idol.
Night we not 60 further, and point to CON-
munities in which encouragement to the lat
ter is in inverse proportion to devotion to the
former; where fine houses, fine dresses, fine
furniture, and fine equipages betoken care for
the body and pride Of substance; while the
mind, like the humble dependant in the house,
hold OF the great, is consigred to obscurity,or
comes in for sort Of second course of such
enten fare as is left unappropriated by ap-
petites which, having been gratifed with Sc
lids, are ian to abandon what, in the Ian
guage OF gastronomists, are considered the
horS d guvreS to those whose propensities are
rather for the delicate than for the gross!
We acknowledge to be often struck, and
we must add, saddened, by the Indifference
we daily witness on this subject. We hear
continually OF schemes for the promotion of
what may be called our physical prosperity
to give facility and comfort to locomotion, to
ouu uollut W uolluI, dCTc W uCIe, tene-
ment to tenementi te increase the products
Of the field and to replenish the warehouse
but little or nothing of projects for the ex-
panson of intellect or for moral diffusion. -
We are, as Cuxon snys, in the volume we
have referred to, thatchers but not upholster-
ers; busted with the outside of the edifice,
while we neg lect the interior, or leave it to
be occupied by tenants we muy find difficult
to eject, should we hereafter became desirous
| TO nobler purposes. We would force men to
be sober, but do not afford them the means OF
becoming wise; we close the bar-rooin, bu,
do not open the lyceum. We strike at vi
cious enjoyments, but where are the rationa.
that should supplant them to satisfy the ne.
cessity for recreation, as much part of our
nature as the desire for food! We have pen.
alties for vice. but where the incentives to
merit other than that which too often owes lis
success TO means education would teach us
to disdain. We have colleges without dis.
cipline or restraint, households without au
thority, children without obedience, servants
who are masters, and slaves melted to rebel
And can we, in this social chaos, expect the
I lamp of learning to emit other than feeble
ray, or the cause OF science to have other than
timid and misgiving votaries! Alas, for the
classic page, where consideration dates only
from the ledger! Alas, for the fine arts,w here
interest is umpire between them and the me.
chanical! Alas, for the refnements Of life
and of literature, where the pursuit of them
is an offence to popular prejudice and an i'm
pediment to public favor! Alas, for morality
where "wealth makes the man and want OF i
the fellow"
Education! Oh who can number its cd
vantages and commemorate its advantages
Not |, who have neglected opportunities 70
its attainment few men have enjoyed, an
who yet owe to it the only element Of happi
ness crooked fortune could not reach to i'm
pair. 1t is my selace in sorrow, my compan
ion in solitude, my resource in enbarrass
ment, my wealth in poverty, my sustainin
friend at all times. 1t enables me to rean
mate the images of the past; to make agai'
tangible pleasures which, when they ceas
to be substantial ignorance consgns to OF
livion. 1t is my purveyor OF promise in tn
0 future, for without it my Bible would be
blank and the word of God an enigma.
brightens the face of nature when | rejoice
and multplies all my snjoyments in the pre-
;. seni,in the more elevated and COMPREHENSIVE
perceptions j affords me: of my Creator,
i the more intelligent appreciation of the bour
ties and wonders His providence has sP' ea
d around me. 1t makes me creative too, an
u draws me nearer in affinity to Him. Wha
to me would be the heavens by night but
n plain studded with twinkling lights, insult
IT cient even to show me my path in the darl
j. ness, had sot education made the scrutiny
j. the starry armament a rapture, by .nducin
l. the belief that many of those distant orbs al
e other revolving worlds, and beguiling b.
II reayeraent with the hope that in some one
s. these may yet encounter the loved and 10
'r of by-gone days, and renew association
10 which perhaps have only slumbered for Sc
son and are there to be revived foreveE!-
IN What would be earth but surface cover
o. with green and sustaining animal and veg
OIL table existence, if education had not unfold
many of its mysteries and deliyhted ey