The prairie news. [volume] (Okolona, Miss.) 1851-1875, 1859-03-10

happiness of the race so much depend
But, in consequence of an almost un
versal deficiency of qualifications, tn
office has been rendered inefficient fo
the great purposes of human improve
ment, and the teacher himself degrade
from that rank which he ought to hol
in the scale of society. He must b
raised to his proper elevation in tha
scale, or we must be content to foreg
the advantages of higher moral ant
intellectual development of the popula
mind. Without qualified teachers W,
cannot have good schools. Nor can W,
have these qualified teachers, unless th'
occupation of teaching is raised to tht
rank of learned Profession; until teach
ing is looked upon as a science, and the
teacher an artist. And can anything be
more ennobling than to train the human
mind ? Shall we call music a science
as if only in sounds there were harmony
Those chords in the human bosom, that
"Vibrate sweetest pleasure,
And thrill deepest notes of wOe,"
do they not need some master hard to
tune and accord them? We call the
Painter an artist and truly he is one
He harmOnizes the various and dissimi-
lar objects of the land, and sky, and sea,
and brings them into glorious and efl'ec-
tive union. We might, if totally igno-
rant of his art, and its results, as exhib
tied practically in Gods studio of ma
ture, as well as the painters easel, think
there were no concord between the mad
ly rushing cataract and the trembling
foweret that grows on its brink. But we
see how sweet a concord there is +; that
from each object in nature, there breathes
forth spirit, presence, a tone. From
the brook that in its soft gliding, tinkles
a sweet murmur to the flowers on its
brink, and from the flowers that in return
bend over its waters, and cast on it the
reflection of their lovely form; from the
rocky cleft that disdains not to shelter, as
mother, the tender plant in its rough en-
brace, and from the tender plant which
gives smiles and fragrance in recompense
from the sky bending lovingly over the
tall trees, and from the trees that wave
in concert, and utter amid their leafy
tops melodiOus, but unintelligible
speech, from the hills rock ribbed and
ancient as the sun; and from the wales
stretching in pensive quietness between
from each of these comes forth fine, in
visible, all pervading breath, and all min
gle in one harmony. If then to the sci
ence of painting, which expresses this
harmony, we give so high rank, what
shall we say of the science of teaching
Of training different minds to harmonize :
For is there either less of variety or less
IF unison in the kingdom of minds 3
Does the material transcend the spirit
lall Is there any object in nature that
las not its counterpart in man There
S none so beautiful none so fearful, none
10 strange as to stand alone. In one
nan, we find likeness to the jagged and
,recipitous cliff, towering in naked and
lesOlate grandeur, and receiving in sui
en- silence the lashings of the angry
urges. Another is the vine-clad hill,
With its gentle slopes and sunny bright
ess, its green verdure and purple clus-
ers. One is imaged in the pomp Of the
louds that wait upon the setting sun,
aking and giving glory in his light; an
ther in the same clouds, when they soft
y and fleecily repose on the bosom of the
ky, and another still in their wild array,
7hen scared by driving winds, they hurry .
long in swift disorder. One is the calm,
Majestic river, always tranquil, but
Mighty in its stiffness and another, the
rawling brook, whose noisy progress be-
rays its shallowness. And some We find, !:
few, best likened to The ocean. since
hey have all its varied moods, its depths t
nd its music, its calmness and its storms. i
II one time, we seem to hear the roar of
is angry surges, as it breaks upon the
bore, and anon the plaintlve murmur of e
is softly stealing waves; now, the hoarse I