Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-04-14
Benefits Of an Education.

w nat good has his education done
him" I" is question which l heard asked
few days since, respecting a learned man
who, had been suddenly laid low by the
stroke of death. The question would not
dismiss itself from my mind and many
were my reflections concerning it.
| had known the person referred to
even from my childhood A man of a.
great mlnd-of mind that hungered and
thirsted after knowledge as does the nat
ural man for food and drink-he had drawn
deep thoughts from the fountain of wis
dom. Far reaching thought and laborous
study had been the companions of his Ieis-
ure honrs-those hours so universally Civ
en- to up and down-street walks, tobacco.
day-dreams and idle conversation. He
had satisfud the cravings of his immortal
nature, he had become learned man, but
what good has his education done him %
Had it carved his name in emblazoned
letters high upon the towering temple Of
fame No, he had never striYen to scale
s',i,e,..ts ,i,e,5aazSl,ng height, and place his name.
lived and died, like other men, in the 'ob-.''
scurity Of private life, and like other men
his memory will pass from the land Of the
living. Had it brought him wealth Alas,
no wealth had not been the object of his
toil-gold had not been his idol. Instead
of living by his learning-of coming his
genius-he had depended solely upon an
unpretending trade for his subsistence and
the means Of pursuing his various studies.
Not for fame, nor for riches had he plunged
into the mysteries Of knowledge, but purely
from love of learning. If he had turned
the channels of his education into streams
Of wealth, none would have questioned its
usefulness. But wherefore this? Was
his life failure? his toll, labor lost his
education useless? Far from it. Did he
not gain nobler and more enduring wealth
than yellow gold or glistening silver 3
What gold can compare in value with the
riches Of the immortal mind! These are
pure and exalted-noble, and of eternal du.
ration. They perish not with the using
They enter into the very element of the
soul, becoming an essential part of its be-
ing.
Worldly riches can be useful to man
only so far as they supply him with all that
is necessary for his comfort and happiness;
but he who thus supplies himself with re-
ference to bodily comfort and happiness,
does no more than the unthinking quad
ruped and the soulless insect. The man
who has cultivated to the best of his abiIi-
ty his God-given powers of mind, has not
lived in vain-his toll has not been labor
lost-his education has not been useless.
He has laid up for himself store of intel
lectual wealth of which nothing, no, not
even death itself, can deprive him. For
who can believe that the soul, emerging
from this into future existence, carries
not with it all the faculties which it here
possessed-and if the gem has been cult
waited here, why should We not expect far
more perfect and glorious plant when full
expanded within the richer garden of Hea-
ven? BY education, the faculties of the
soul are expanded, developed. Its capaci-
ty for happiness is infinitely increased. We
look out upon the world with new eyes
the most common, everyday objects as
sumo new instruction, wonderful features.
While the ignorant, thoughtless soul, views
only the surface of things, the man Of cul-
tivated mind looks deep into the hidden
mysteries of mattresses the demonstra-
ton of perfect, all-wise, all-powerful crea-
tive Agency in everything around, from
the dull clod that clings to his feet to the
ETHEREAL atmosphere that fans his brow and
expands his heaving chest. The wonder.
ful mechanism of that sharp of thousand
strings" the human body proclaims to him
with resistless eloquence the glorious might,
the infinite skill, the deep design of Deity.
He reads the nature of Omnipotencei in the
nicely balanced evolutions of the solar sys
tem-sees the harmonic blending of ma
ture, He possesses within himself an un
fathomable, inexhaustible fountain of hap
piness. Riches cannot yield such Joy, fame
cannot afford such pleasure.
Were the farmer and the mechanic tho
roughly educated throughout our land
there would be less of sordid gain, NOR,
true nobility of mind among US less 0
the cringing homage so eagerly yielded t,
, purse proud fools-more Of upright. man
, ly independence-there would be less @
: vice and dissipation among your youn!