Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-10-07
EDUCATION.
FOR THE NATIONAL ISrELIIGsxcxR.
"Weave the warp and weave the woof.
The winding-sheet Of wit and sense
Dull garment Of defensive proof
,Gatnat al that dnfh 80 =. 49,
'Gainst all that doth not gather

"Wesve the warp and weave the WOOL
The windng-sheet Of wit and sense;
Dull garment Of defensive proof
'Ganst all that doth not gather pence.
our worthy old acquaintance, 0ldbuck, Of the "Aa-
tiquary" living and observing in eur times, vs
are disposed to think that he would find wider range for
his philippines than the High street Of his neghborinr
village and that his anathema upon the utlitarian ton
OF the age would not be confined to the community
OF RAPPORT, where he imagined his appearance with
pale OF linen under his arm would make him an object
OF more interested observation than If he displayed on hia
niger the rare and antique cameo his nephew Hector had
Drought MN from Egypt We confess ourselves to be often
OF ms opinion when We look abroad and perceive how
mucn more regard Is paid to matter than mind how
many moro worshippers there are Of Mammon than Of
the Muses. how subservient genius has become to me-
ulness and the coinage of the brain less current h.
that Of the mint the latter having universal circulation
while the former is restricted the few and has s ar
no value on the mart in places where men most con
gregate.
We sometimes bend ourselves to the melancholy an.
deavor to discover why moral and do NOT
keep pace with material improvement; why the u.as,
continues to occupy undue proportion of
while the Intellectual the IDEAL and the spiritual ara
still confined to class certainly not increasing in the
the same ratio Of augmentation with such as make
wealth their object and worldly advancement their idol
Might we not go further and point to communities in
which encouragement to the latter is in inverse
ton to devotion the former where fine houses Fn
dresses fine furniture and fine equpagos betoken care for
the body and pride Of substance while the mind like the
humble dependant in the household Of the great is con-
signed to obscurity, or in for sort Of second
course of such enen fare left unapproprated nv
appettes which, having been gratfed with solids Ara
fam to abandon what in the language Of gastronomiss
considered the hors dupres TO those whose
sites rather for the delicate than for the gross
We acknowledge to be often struck and We must add
saddeaed, by the Indifference daily witness ON this
subject We hear continually of schemes for the nron
ton Of what may be called our physical prosperity-to
give facility and comfort to ocomoton, add dollar TO
dollar, acre to acre, and tenement tenement; to IA
crease the products Of the field and replenish thu
little nothing of projects for the ex
pansion Of intellect for moral diffusion. We are az
Caxon says in the volume have referred to- thatchers
but not uphosteIers busted with the outside Of the e
fce while neglect the interior leave it to be occu
pied by tenants may find difficult to eject should We
hereafter become DESTROYS them and to devote
the structure to nober purposes We would force men
to be SOBER but do not afford ther the of becom
ing wise we close the barroom, but do not open the
lyceum We strike at vicious eDoyment but where are
the rational that should suppant them to satisfy the me-
cessiy for recreation, as much part of nature
the desire for food? We have penalties for vice. but
where the incentives to merit other than that which too
often owes its success to education would teach
to disdan. We have colleges without discipline or
restraint households without authority, children without
obedience servants who are masters and slaves melted
to rebel. And we, in this social chaos expect the
lamp OF learning to emit other than feeble ray or the
cause Of science to have other than md and misgvng
votaries? Alas for the classic page where consideration
dates only from the ledger Alas for the fine ars where
interest is umpire between them and the mechanical
Alas for the renemens Of life and Of literature where
the pursuit Of them is offence to popular preiudice
and ON impeachment public favor Alas for morality
where /" wealth makes the man and want of it the
fellow %
Education! Oh, who number its blessings and com
memorate its advantages Not !, who have neglected
opportunities for its attainment few men have enoyed
and who yet to it the only element Of happiness
crooked fortune could not reach impair. It is my
solace In sorrow companion in solitude my resource
in embarrassment my wealth in poverty my sustaining
friend at all times. 1t enables to reanmate the
images Of the past to make again tangible pleasures
which, when they cease to be substantial ignorance
signs to oblivion 1t is my purveyor Of promise in the
future for without it my Bible would be blank tho
word of God enigma 1t brghtens the face of nature
when rejoice, and mulipes oil my enjoyments in the
present. in the more elevated and comprehensive percep
tons it affords Of my Creator in the more intelligent
appreciation of the bountes and wonders His providence
has spread around me. 1t makes creative too, and
draws me nearer in affinity to Him. What to me would
be the heavens by night but plane studded with twink
lings lights insufficient to show me my path in the
darkness, had not education made the scrutiny Of the
starry armament rapture by inducing the belief that
many Of those distant orbs other revolving worlds
and begung bereavement with the hope that in some
one OF these may yet encounter the loved lost Of
bygone days. and associations which perhaps have
only sumDered for season and there be revived
forever? What would be earth but surface covered
with green and sustaining animal and vegetable exist
ence if education had not unfoded many of its myste-
ries, and delighted where it has satisfied Gu
rosy in the study Of others lying beyond the scope Of
human comprehension? What the universe itself but
sphere on which were born to act to suffer- and to
die, education had not made every object in 1t theme
for speculation and for wonder from the glorious sun
that umipes it to the glow worm, whose humble ustre
is not less matter of amazement from the seraph Of
whom conceive, bending in alteration be-
fore the throne God to the reptile crawling the DUST
but no less endued with life which he has given and
which his economy, minute well magnificent,
sustains? What, in Short would be life ITSELF but q
poor privilege share in with the brute if
education had not developed mind and in proportion as
its capacities are unfoded, exercised and improved
heightened our enoyments and exalted above that
mere animal nature which, sinful in it's origin becomes
more depraved by habit If left to ignorance and it's own
propensities? WB.B
ELLKNDALE, VA.
CHICAGO, (ILL.) SEPT. 27, 1854
Messrs. GALES SEAToN-GExTLEMEN My attention
has just been called to letter bearing date the 14h Of
September, 1854, written from this city, and which APP
d