The national Republican., 1860-12-11
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN.
For the National Republican.
THE KIND OFEDUCATIoN NEEDED IN
OUR COUNTRY.
lCoNTINUED.1

ihh MINI or EDOChIlON NEEDED IN
OUR COUNTRY.
,-... [coSTINUED.]
There is growing conviction in the minds
OF oil the thinking, intelligent, and high minded
men Of our country, that the work of education
must be more carefully and specially directed
to the development and training Of the mental
and moral part of our being. This is emphat.
icaily a oneymaking, money.loving, and ma.
teriaiizing age; when sordid selfshness tri
umphs over the better part of our natures, and
can see nothing good in human efforts which
will not exalt the mighty dollar" and provide
increased facilities for physical and sensual graf
ihcation, so that it is almost impossible to make
the devotees OF wealth, fashion, and luxury see
or feel that the intellectual and spiritual are of
more importance than the animal and the sen.
sual.
With all the enlightenment of the present
day, with all the high appreciation of educa.
ton, and the large and frequent appropriations
for its advancement, it is doubtful whether
there has ever been period in the history of
educational PROGRESS when the masses were
actuated by lower motives; which partake so
much of material, evanescent, and temporal
character. Yea, more-for if we can Judge of
mems motives in educating their children by
the uses which they design them to make Of
their educated powers, we should conclude
that they never lift q thought above the pres
ent state OF being, and even have very low and
inadequate views Of what may be rightfully
considered real happiness in this life for the
chief inquiry is, what shall we eat what shall
we drink 7 and wherewithal shall we be clothed
rather than hoto shall we live, how shall we
act, and hOU shall we feel, so as to secure the
most unalloyed happiness in this life and the
life to come?
In the language of another, I" the great ma.
Jority OF the American people regard education
machinery Of factories and railroads, only in a
more digni6ed form. 1t is commercial thing,
appreciated in accordance with the laws of
trade. Nine-tenths of our population never
think OF education in any other light than as
chief auxiliary to worldly success. Educa
tion is represented as a cheap defence of ma.
tions; as silent, unarmed, universal police
that preserves the order and security of society,""
Now, while it is fact, that good education
will secure these temporal advantages, even
more surely than very many men of rigid
worldly policy have ever conceived, there is vet
a higher and nobler view to be taken of it.
Education has a more particular reference TO
the spiritual and the immortal part of our
being.
1t is the proper development and training of
immortal beings in this transitory state, SO that
they may be prepared for an endless future,
where the gross pleasures of this world can
never enter.
How short-sighted and fatally mistaken, then,
are those who see no advantages in education,
unless it will administer to our physical neces
sites and our temporal qualifications.
That education is not what it should be,
which does not bear directly upon the great
future, and tend to develop and train the intel.
iectual and spiritualpowers not simply to enable
the possessor to acquire more wealth, and the
means for physical enjoyment, but to perform
properly those big gh and holy duties which re.
suit from the relation we sustain to our Maker,
as we'll as to our fellow beings.
PHILoMATH.