Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1854-04-13
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,wu hundred pupils at $40 each would
meet the expense and, venture To affirm,
that, for the education of the same number
Of youths, a larger sum is now annually en-
pended, while the instruction received, from
the very nature Of the case, is much less
valuable.
10 erect these Academies and 10 keep
them in operation, it would be wise i'll the
Legislature to use part of our education
fund, which should be increased To 5 900,
and to cause all moneys received from pupils
to he paid into the State Treasury. There
can be little doubt, that these academies will,
in short time, support themselves; but to
remove all contingency, and to lace them
at once on sure and permanent basis, aud
at the same time, to afford beneficiary in.
strucion to Il nnmbrr Of INDECENT, promising
Young men in the various Districts, the State
should hold itself responsible for the salaries
of the Teachers. In word, these should
be State academies.
The advantages Of such institutions mnst
readily suggest themselves to every rejecting
mind They will be comprehensive and sci.
entifc aHording substantial, uniform edn:
cation to the young men Of the State, and
preparing all, who may desire it, for enter.
ing our college under ample and equal bene'
fits. Unlike our present academies, which
usually spring up under the direction of some
popular teacher, and as suddenly die away
with him, sinking thousands OF dollars in
improvements rendered useless, they will be
Stationary and permanent. Hundreds Of
years to come they will be standing monu-
ments Of the energy and wisdom of our
people, enlightening the youthful minds Of
the State, and imparting Il permanent, and
increasing value to property around them
Instead OF one teacher rs now, who leads
almost the life of Il recnse in one of our
academies, removed from every stimulus
necessary to active intellectual ehnrt. there
will be little society Of literary men, EN-.
gagged in similar pursuits, with generous
emulation, urging and aiding one another on
in the road to knowledge. There will exist,
also, both division and a combination Of
labor in the several dnties of discipline and
Observation-Disclosures as important in the pro-
vince of literature, as in that of political econ.
omy. Two men occupying themselves with
different branches can instruct fifty pupils
with greater ease to themselves, and with
higher advantage to the pupil, than one man
can instruct twenty-five in all the branches.
And this rule, it is believed, will hold good
! IN almost ,nv pytpnt
Young men, taught in these academies,
would enter college with advantage unknown
to our youth at present. They would be
prepared to derive profit from the abIest in
strgction of learned professors, and by the
time they graduate, would receive mental
discipline, and relish for stud y and acquire
ments, which in after life, would qualify them
for becoming useful men and scholars. The
college would then, indeed, be noble in
stitution of learning-exciting happy in
fluence over the public taste in literature,
and impar,ing TO the young minds of the
State a polish and a power that would soon
be lelt in all the higher walks of knowledge.
While, too, in the plan submitted, great
care has been given to intellectual training,
moral culture has not been overlooked. 1t
is too much the fashion, nowadays, to press
on the young intellect by every artificial
stimulus, cramming it with facts and amb-
tious aspirations, with little regard to the dc.
velopment of its moral capabilities. Minds
| thus trained, though enlightened by the rays