New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-02-11

| that rs, an Cuucdtcn cuicuiatcd 10 ~ tnein toi
improving and managing farm. opening and work
ing quarry or mine, overseeing and directing
| SINE branch Of manufacture, or thu like. very
different course of instruction may be practical Tor
youth contemplating professional career; but
for with Slender and no idea ofgaining his
livelihood otherwise than IN connection with prcduc-
tive industry i! is more and more widely reslized
that an ordinary college course is a, unfit and 10
adequate preparation. Hence we are frequently
asked when the contemplated Peoples College
will be opened for students-what kindred semins-
ries are already in operation-and whittier young
man should bend his steps to turn the little money
be may have earned or inherited iuto tho largest
and best supply of qualification for useful and
honorable career in Agriculture, Mining or Manu-
features.
To these questions we can only reply generally
that we note visible signs of progress in the right
direction all around US. Three of the most emf
nrnt seminaries of New.E England Harvard. Yale.
and Broyn-have each taken some steps toward
the proering of facilities for industrial education
to those students who may desire it. Union Col
leqe in our own State has done likewise The UNI
yersity of Michigan at Ann Arbor has regular
courses of lectures on agriculture and the trib-
utary sciences: and we note that similar COURSE
is given this Winter in Cleveland, Ohio. We hear
from several quarters Of attempts in contemplation
to establish schools of practical agriculture next
Summer-crude and imperfect, doubtless, in their
infancy; but the poorest viii serve at least to
stimulate inquiry and diusc aspiration for better.
The friends of the meditated Peoples College in
al, "a ba cd N
announce very decided progress in their enter
prise. But, should the realization Of their hopes
be deferred for years longer the general movement
is not arrested. The new College at Troy, though
not based on the ideas termed practical yet mani
tests in in its prospectus an emphatic deferenoo
toward those ideas. 1t proposes to fit men for tho
industrial sphere as well as for the professional.
We believe. however, that false notions as to tho
relative responsibility and dignity OF these two
spheres are still lsmentaby prevalent and that
herein the great obstacle to educational progress
In spite of the Hp Difference paid to Labor BY
Learning, il is lamentably true that manual exer-
ton is not heartily respected, even by its lifelong
yotaries. The blacksmith, the stone-cutter, whs
has wrought out manly independence in tho
sweat of his face, would rather see his son Sec
ondra LAWYER or doctor than a first-rate mason
or blacksmith. We need, therefore, even moro
than Institutes for practical educotion-say
rather as the basis of such nstitutes-a moro just
and adequate idea Of the function and true dignity
of that Industry which combines mental with mus
cular exertion. And TO this end we have for many
a day seen nothing more conducive than tho iittlo
volume entitled 1.-THE World Workshop, or The
Physical Relationship of Man to the Earth by
Thomas Ewbank," from which we quote as fol-
lows:
"Matter il the day-boolI in which mans accounts
are recorded: all knowledge is directly indirectly
written on it, There is ia fact, mathematical rela-
latonshp or something like il, between elaborated
matter and mind that the amount OF the latter can
be deduced from the former; for every object OF ar
the repository representative OF certain amount oil
thought, and 30 is every crop planter reaps, ana
everything else on which mind has been expended.
The Industry of age of people IL as the yegea-
bic and animal products they grow and minerals they
raise, while their position on the scale OF progress b
marked by the elaboration they give To those sub
stances and the uses they make of them. Had we
statistics of the past to compare with those OF the
present constant relationship would be found to sub
sist between the mass Of matter manipulated IN any
given period and the sum OF cotenporaneous knowi-
edge.
HThose who depreciate matter know not what tbey
owe it, They view il regardless Of the mind, the in
6nty of mind that pervades it, They forget that Il Is
the agent Of thought that every object IN nature -
visible stereotyped truth, just a. in the world OF art
saw a nail, printng-press Is another that man,
like his Creator, makes matter not only the recipient
of thoughts, but sends ii forth missionary 10 crcu-
late them Take away all our ideas that emnnase from
and are allied to matter, and how few would be lehI
Our minds would be nearly blanks Ihs NOT q
world for the cultivation OF thoughts IN the aDsusc'
/ g. of purely intellectual conceptions. There are few
such and few minds 10 pursue them while those now
ing from outward things are e1haustlc's 10 vaney at
traction and value. Matter Is the universal tenchec
and preacher It has broken no laws sanctions no
dsrntes but silently exhibits it's doctrines, which no
one can inerlope or corrupt, with Illustrations infinitely
diversified from day to day AL IT'S nanestationss
from O snOwdrop 10 the world, exclaim, The handthas
made Us is Divine.
There are great sermons in occupations and trades
ut few are preached based az they are on the phys
ical embodiments of Divine WISDOM and embracing 81
the miracles Of science and art. They show how the
original precep given TO the head OF our race 70 pen"
the things of nature to the purposes OF improvements
strengthens when carried out, every social moral ana
religious sentiment Why then not teach that thero
is Divinity 10 every particle OF matter IN the COM
mones; that labong in il, far from being profane.
is a sacred work. that those who draw active forces
from il are not simply doing the viii OF God, but are
engaged IN one Of the noblest tasks enoined by HIM
ON our species. Why not enforce more the hrst and
great commandment in the midst OF such pfsvamnR
fereses respecting H. and strive TO annbiate the spirit
of law sect or caste that has 80 long mared the oid
gospcl-presumng that God, like some OF us, smiles
more on some divisions Of aborers than on others, ana
most Of all on men who labor not al an .,
"Tbe popular absurdity that labor was imposed az
receives no sanction from the scriptures
mot particle. The original and all c9mpronendins
Injunction, 'replensb the earth ana suDdue u, "o
giyep before the fall In II the true relationship on
- "a tho Garth and the business OF bis life are COM
nres sed in half dozen words. On agriculture snd
r. arts his powers mental and physical, were TO DO
concentrated. No intmaiOn Of limits 10 bis Expgreos
in them il conveyed. They were the germs nom
which bis prosperity TO rse, and from their ever
fe,eiournents the riDcst fruits were 10 De