The prairie news. [volume] (Okolona, Miss.) 1851-1875, 1858-04-15
OKOLONA, MISS, APRIL Is, 1853.

1t ought ever to be borne IN mlnd Dy
those who are laborihg zealously for thu
| diffusion of what is called "useful knowl
edge" that unless they also diffuse the
principles of sound morality, and take
care to make that morality an integral
part of every system of education, they
are only accumulating the fiery element
of future mischief and misery; they are
like the modern Prometheus, clothing
with life and energy being whose lack
Of conscience and moral perception will
make him terror and curse to all by
whom he is known.
1t is often remarked land but too tru-
ly) that our collegiate institutions do
very little for the promotion of sound
morality. My own limited observation
and personal experience tend to confirm
this remark. The system of teaching
therein pursued so generally, neglects
the culture of the religious nature-the
sytem of police, of supervision over the
conduct of students is so lax or clumsy,
and the course of study and reading is so
certain to cultivate tastes and feelings
hostile to the christian spirit, whilst the
contact and companionship of so many
thoughtless, impetuous, and passionate
young men, is so sure to create and con-
firm vicious habits, that no father who
has passed through this fiery ordeal, can,
without trembling for his fate, commit
his son to the same dangers and tempta-
tions.
There must be vast change in these
establishments before we can confidently
regard them as the nurseries of either
piety or good morals. And yet hear We
have educated, and must still on account
of their intellectual discipline continue to
educate those in our midst, who must be
the controllers of public opinion, and the
rulers of our nation-they who shape
and color the general destinies of the com
munity
The evils to be apprehended in this
partial system of education may be had
in the effect already alluded to, of knowl-
edge conveyed to nations long crushed
beneath the burden of oppression. The
light which has shown to the slave his
chainer has stimulated within him fiery
spirit that threatens subversion to the
whole system of civil society. This
storm spirit is every where abroad; old
principles are rejected and discarded be-
cause they are old, ancient land marks of
opinion and belief are uprooted distinc-
tions founded on the eternal principles of
truth and justice are overlooked and trod-
den in the dust; every restriction how
ever needful and just, every obligation
however sacred in government or relig-
ion, is scornfully assaulted or Indignantly
thrown aside.
In our very midst is the black banner
of skepticism raised aloft, and boldly |
flung out to the breeze Of popular notion
there are several presses now in our own
free country that are constantly editing
and publishing doctrines subversive of
free government, and of the most nefari-
GUS character, in utter defiance of law
teaching lessons of the most debasing and
brutal philosophy, which lowers the body
and annihilates the soul.
Like Satan, retreating from heaven,
methinks l see the disseminators Of this
infdel doctrine, pausing on the very verge
of the gulf that awaits them, to hurl
back parting defiance in the face of the
There are many such instances, nay
our country is flooded, and all engaged
by every conceivable mode of corruption
to reduce their fellow-men to level with
the brutes; only the wicked ingenuity of
fiends can conceive of the countless forms
in which their efforts are put forth, to
convert mankind into slaves of lust and
proselytes of men animalism, or mater
alism.
Whether we look abroad or at home,
the moral condition Of man is such as to
Justify alarm in the strongest minds
Who shall dare to assign the bounds be-
yond which innovation shall not proceed |
What power shall rebuke the tempest in
mid fury? What authority shall control
The excited multitude with the impetuos
ty of a turbid stream? To give that I