Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1854-07-19

-four old friend Olduck, ofthe Antiquary,
were living. and observing, in our times.
we are disposed to think he would find
fwider range for the application of his phil.
pies than the High street of Fairport; and
Ibis anathema upon the the ulhlitarain ten.
denotes Of the age would not be confined to
the market. place of bis neighboring village,
where he Imagined that bis appearance;
with bale oy linen under his arm; would
make him an object of more interesting
observation, than if he displayed there, on
his finger, the antique and rare cameo bis
nephew Hector had brought him from E.
gypt. We confess ourselves 10 be often Of
his opinion, when we look abroad, and see
how much more regard is paid to matter
than to mind-how many more worshippers
there are of Mammon, than Of the Muses. !;
how subservient genius has become to use-
fulness; and the coinage Of the brain less
current than that of the mint; the latter
having universal circulation, while the for
lner is restricted to the few, and has little, or
no value in the mart, or in places where
"men most congregate."
We sometimes lend ourselves to the mel
ancholy task of discovering why moral and
mental progress do not keep pace with
material improvement-why the useful
continues 10 occupy an andae proportion Of
consideration, and the intellectual, the ele-
CANT, and the ornamental are still confined
to class, certainly not increasing in tie
same ratio of augmentation with such as
make wealth theif object, and worldly gain
their idol. Might we not go further, and
point to communities in which encourage
ment to the latter is in inverse proportion
to devotion TO the former where fine houses,
fine dresses, fine furniture and fine equip
ages betoken care for the body, and love Of
display for the substance, while the mind,
like the humble dependent in the house
hold of the great. is consigned to obscurity,
or comes in for sort of second course Of
scuh tenter fare as is left unappropriated
by appetites which, having been gratifed
by salids. are fam to abandon what, in the
language of gastronomists, are called the hors
d, Gurres, to those whose propensities are
rather for the delicate than for the gross.
We acknowledge ourself to be struck, and.
we must add, saddened by the Indifference
we daily witness upon this subject. We
hear continually of schemes for the promo
ton of what may be called our physical
prosperity ; to add acre to acre dollar to
dollar and tenement to tenement; but lit-
tie or nothing of projects for the increase
of intellectual wealth, or mental embelisb-
ment. We are, as Caxton says IN the vol
ume to which we abve referred already,
thatchers, but not upholsterers busted with
the outside of the fabric, while We neglect
the interior, or leave it 10 be occupied by
tenants we may hereafter find it difficult to
eject, should we ever become desirous 10
remove them and their rubbish, and devote
the structure 10 nobler purposes. We would
force men to be sober, and yet do not en-.
courage them to be WISE. We close the
bar room, but do not open the library. We
strike at vicious enjoyments, but where are
the rational that should supplant them -
We have penalties tor vice, but where the
incentives to merit other than that which too
often owes its success to means education
teaches as 10 disdain. We have colleges
without restraint-schools without dIscip-
line-households without authority-chld.
rem without obedience; servants who are
masters, and slaves taught to rebel, and
can we, in this social chaos, expect the
lamp of learning to emit other than feeble
raw, or the cause of science to have other
than timid and misgivlng votarIes: Alas |!
for the classic page. where worth dates
from the ledger. Alas for the fine arts.
where interest is umpire between them and
the mechanical. Alas for the elegancie$.
Of life, and of literature, where the pursuit
of them is an offence 10 popular prejudice,
and an impediment to public favor. Alos /!
for education, where wealth "makes the.
man, and want oft the fellow,''
Education Oh who shall number its
blessings1 Not I, who have neglected op-
portunities for its attainment few men have
enioyed, and who yet owe TO it the only ell
emeut of happiness crooked fortune could
not reach to impair. 1t is my solace in sor-
row, my companion in solitude, my resource
in difficulty, my wealthin poverty, my sus-
tanning friend at all times. 1t is my pur-
veyor of promise in the future for, without
it my Bible would be a blank, and the word
of God an enigma. 1t brightens the face
of nature when rejoice, and multiplles all
my pleasures, in the more elevated and
comprehensive perceptions it affords me OF
my Creator--in the more intelligent appre-
cation of the wonders his providence has
spread around me. II makes me creative,
too, and draws me nearer in affinity to Hin.
What to me would be the heavens by night,
but plane studded with twinkllng lights,
insufficient even to shew me my path in
the darkness, had not education made the
scrutiny of the starry armament rapture,
by convincing me that many Of these dis
tant orbs are other revolving worlds, and
beguiled bereavement with the hope that
IN some Of these / may yet encounter the
loved and lost of by-gone days, and renew
associations which perhaps have only slum-
bered for season, to be there revived for
ever! What would be earth, but surface
covered with green. and sustaining animal
and vegetable life, if education iiIad NOT uu.
folded many OF its mysteries, and delight
ed, even where it has not satisfied turiosl.
ty in the study of others lying beyond the
scope Of human comprehension What
the Universe, but sphere on which We
we're born, to act, 10 suffer. and to die, if
education had not made every object in it
theme for speculation, and for wonder !;
from the glorious sun that illumihes 1t, to
the glow.worm whose humble lustte is not
less matter for amazemeht; from the SER
uph, of whom we can conceive, bending in
constant alteration before the throne of God
TO the insect grovellihg IN the dust from
which we sprung, and to which we must
all return.
What, in short, would be life itself, but
a poor privilege we share in common with
the brute, if education had not developed