Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-09-10

II were TO make ring Ut roW-eV nam "
whistle, or to skater Of course, any gravei
kind of information, conveyed by an inian
prodigy to his gaping pupils, must have lack
ed the necessary precision to make it available
to them; first, because he would very seldom
be sufficiently possessed of it himself; and
secondly, because boy's imperfect voeabu
larry render him at all times decidedly bac
Interpreter even of what he may really know
In place of proving real lights, these little
jack o. Lanterns of ours tended rather to per-
plex the path of the inquiring, and to impede
their progress and when an appeal was MADE
to the master-as was sometimes done-the
master, brought up in the same vague, book
less manner, and knowing nothing more dcc"-
safely, though he might know more than his
puzzle-pated pupils-was very seldom able tc
give them lift out Of the quagmire, where
they accordingly would stick, and founder
away till the end of the lesson. 1t was anu
sing to see how boy, so soon as he got put
glimpse of subject before the class, and coulo
give but the ghost of a reason for what he was
eager to project upon, became incontinent ol
the bright discovery, till all his companions
had had the full benefit of it, with much that
was irrevelent besides. The mischiefs which,
it would occur to any ones mind, were likely
to result in after life from such desultory hap-
its of application in boyhood, actually did re-
suit, to many of us, few years later at col
a,,,f Il and 1ifftnnlt tn
indoctrinate indocile minds like ours into tho
accurate and severe habits of university dis
cipline. On entering the lists for honors with
other young aspirants, educated in the usual
way at home, we were as herd of unbroken
colts pitted against well-trained racers: nei-
ther had yet run for the prize-in that single
particular the cases were the same but when
degree and race day came, on whose side lay
the odds On theirs who had been left otry
an untutored strength in scampering over a
wild common at will, for years, or with those
who, by daily exercise in the manege of a pub
lie school, had been trained to bear harness,
and were, besides, well acquainted with the
with the groundl Another unquestionable
error in the system was the absence OF EMU
lation, which, from some strange mlsconcep-
ton and worse was the absence of emulation,
which, from some strange misconception ana
worse application of text in st. Paul, was
as an unchristian principle; in lieu
of which we were to be brought-though we
never ,cere brought, but that was the object
aimed alto love learning for its own sake,
and to prove ourselves anxious of eXcelling
without motive, or to be good for nothing
MS Hood has somewhere phrased it.
Nunquam praponens SO aliis, ITA facillime,
Sine invidia invenias laudem,
says Terence, and it will be so where envy and
conceit have supplanted emulation; yet are the
feelings perfectly distinct; and we think it
behooves all those who contend that every man
for the mastery is prohibited by the
gospel, to show how communism in inferiority,
or socialism in dullness, are like to improve
morals or mend society. Take from school
boy the motive of rewards and punishments,
and you deprive him of that incentive by
which your own conduct through life is regu-
lated, and that by which God has thought it,
in the moral government of his rational crea-
lures, to promote the practice OF good works,
and to discourage and dissuade from evil
Nor did that which sounds thus ominously in
theory succeed in its application better than
IL sounded. In fact nothing more unfortunate
could have been could have been devised for
all parties, but especially for such as were by
nature of studious turn or of quicker parts
tIlan the rest who, finding the stimulus to
exertion thus removed, and none other to re-
place it, no longer cared to dwell, (why should
they, when they knew their feeblest efforts
would transcend their slow-paced comrades
best y but, gradually abandoning themselves
to the us inertig of sloth, incompetence, and
bad example, did no more than they could
help repressing the spirit of rivalry and en-
ulation. which had no issue in the school, TO
show it in some of those feats of agility or adj
dress, which the rigorous enactment OF gym
nastic exercises imposed on all alike, and III
tho performance of which we certainly did
pride ourselves, and eagerly sought to eclipse
each other in exhibiting any natural or ac-
quired superiority we might possess. The
absence of all elementary books of instruc-
ton throughout the school, presented another
'arl;cs IN the way of improvement still more
formidable than even the betise of boy peda-
gogues, the want of sufficient stimulus to ex-
ertion, or the absurd respect paid sometimes
IN natural incapacity, and some times to nat