Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1854-06-17
LITERARY NOTICES.


An 4ato6sograpHy Schools and School asasters,
or tie Story Of nay Education, 6g Hugh MiIla1.
AattAor ofs' The Old Red Sand Stone, = 9 Foot
prints of the Creation ~ " First Impressions Of
/ England, " dc. Boston, Gould Dc Lincoln.
s" Poeta mediterranean 1St2 What has passed
into proverb with regard to poets equally applies
to greatness in all the departments of fe We walk
through prilneyal forest, on one side we see the
oak towering to the skies, whose timber may be
constructed into stately barque, trayersing seas
and oceans-on the other, worthless pine fit for
naught-scaIcely to be consumed by the flame.
They both endowed with vegetable life, both
subsist after somewhat the same manner, drawing
life from the earth, and yet who say that any
amount of cultivation make the dwarfish pine
an equal of the king of the forest? So we think it
is with man. If this splendid oak had stood
in nobleman's park, where there nothing to
obstruct the sunshine and the rain and where with
careful hand its branches pruned and tri mined
it would have been more beautiful object, and
many might have rested beneath its shadow, but
would it have been of more intrinsic value than
when it spread it's limbs far and wide in all their
rugged grandeur?
One will point you to constellation of eminent
and say "here is the fruit of careful training
and teaching" Another will give you such exam
pies Hugh Miller and others, who by the force of
indomitabe energy and perseverance have raised
themselves from the humble station in which they
were born to be of worldwide renown, and
hence infer that schools and teachers useless.
w hile would not undervalue the advantages of
careful training in the schools, feel that it is i'm
portant for parents and teachers know what they
may hope to accomplish and where they must stop.
Many youth of moderate abilities has been dis
couraged because he finds he cannot be Bacon
a Newton, while had he been contented to improve
what Nature has given him. he might have made
useful esmable citizen. Let US here enter our pro-
test against prediges and the too early development
of the intellect TO return to illustration of the
oak of what slow growth and with what pa
thence must wait to see its development, but the
flower which grows up and blossoms in an hour as
fades and is cut down. Let be satisfied then
to wait with hopeful patience the progress of which
would call our dull boys and not to urge
the youthful mind beyond its healthful capacities.
We have followed with deep interest our author
from his early childhood, along the Cromarty hills
and down their precipices, and always the same
laborious employment-laying up facts, which were
become so eminent. We struck with the patient
energy of the stone mason he pursueS his hum
BILE employment in the midst of discomfort and pow
erty, which hardly be realized in our highly ia
vored country. For months not seeinga animal food,
but subsisting oatmeal porridge and sleeping in
barns outhouses worse than we would give our
CATTLE yet during all these years of abour spending
all the hours of recreation in adding facts to
those already acquired. We confirmed in the
fact that where youth fixes his mind upon any one
object and bends all his energies to that point he
must succeed-and another, that as he grows in one
direction his mind is apt to grow in all others. We
recommend this book to our youth, who are
seeking for themselves a name in the world, and
they can see some of the qualities necessary to &C
complish their object. Those who familiar with
Hugh Mller's former works will need no reconmen-
dation to procure this.
To be had at Pomeroy's.