Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-09-18


But must not squauder my brief hour of
your time on abs;raetions and desultory criti-
cisms, am here to propose practical meas
ures of improvement, or | have no right TO
be here at all Let me state, then, as briefly
and distinctly as may, what changes pro-
pose in the public policy and industrial econ
omy of Vermont.
/. Your Popular Education is defective in
plan and scope. may speak wildly, tor
have not entered one of your common schools
for more than thirty years but in the fourth
winter during which | enjoyed their adyan-
tages, | never saw a treatise on Agriculture
nor on one ofthe subjacent sciences-Geol-
ogy, Chemistry or Botany-in any Vermont
school-house nay, was not there reminded
that Agriculture held any definite relation to
the knowledge therein impaired, or that the
sciences have named had an existence. |
gave hours of my own seanty school-time TO
Arithmetic and other studies holding but a
remote and secondary relation TO the practi-
cal business of life, which l have since sadly
grudged them. | do not say that these arts
we're not worth having; | only insist that
there were others that | needed more and
which would have served me better. How
little comparatively has it availed me to jour
ney acrossitwo continents, and note the rivers,
lakes, mountains, cities, towers, fortresses,
cathedrals and battle-felds which illustrate
so much of their recent, human history, while
that far older and grander history-which
treats of profounder commissions and more
siupendous changes-the history imbedded
in their soils and craven on their rocks-was
almost a sealed book 10 me? The stones
slowl y, painfully appraised into ky-piercing
spire. time-defying pyramid. are objects of
legitimate interest," but the vein of quartz
projected from earth's central fires by some
primeval convulsion through miles of stubborn
granite, of toughest basalt-the boulder of
thousand tons dropped casually by some vast
iceberg in the gray dawn of pre- Adamite an
tiquity on some sunny plain of the Temper
ate Zone, and lying there strange and solita-
ry to this hour-l mourn that all this, through
the instruction of my school-boy opportuni-
ties, though fountain of profitable medita.
ton, of rational interest, TO so many, is TO me
only subject of vain repining of vague
wonder, OF ignorant and perhaps laundering
alluson.
OF course, if you have wisely changed all
this since my school days, my criticism will
be locally inapplicable. But my most recent
glauces at schools, FROM Montreal to San
Francisco, showed me improvement, indeed,
in details, but no radical, comprehensive
renovation of system-here twig pruned
and there new shoot started, but no healthy
and vigorous graft inserted. In the new en-
| porium of the furthest west as veil as in the
venerable city by the St Lawrence, | found
| girls of thirteen tying their brains into hard
| knots over Algebraie puzzles which, even
| when duly solved, added nothing to their
stock of useful knowledge, while OF first truths
respecting the elements and constitution of
| the earth under our feet, the air we breathe,
the food we eat, the fluids we imbibe or en-
ploy, they were still left Ia contented and
almost total ignorance. ...
/ would change this by choosing for the
principal reading-book in every common
school a condensed statement OF primary
truths bearing on Agriculture, like that re-
Gently compiled for the State of Massachu-
sets by Messra Flint and Emerson, or more
| comprehensive exposition of Rural Economy
! irradlated by the science OF chemistry, like
that of Prof Youmans | would have these
not merely read by the higher grades of
| pupils of both sexes, but | would have ques-
tons on the lesson of the day propounded to
every pupil at its close, until each should be
rendered master of all that the book aims 10
lmpart. Then would confine the mathe-
NAUTICAL studies Of every girl to the four sim,
pie rules of arithmetic, and incite no boy to
| 90 beyond the rule of three, until after mas
tering the fundamental laws and truths Of
Natural Science, thus laying the foundation
of true knowledge of Nature calculated to
render every subsequent days labor on the
farm a source of additional knowledge and
every walk or ride at once a lesson and q
joy.
With such an outset, should confidently
hope to educate generation OF farmers sons
of whom all the brighter and more aspiring
would not desert the paternal hearth, the pa
ternal calling, with the celebrity of hens
ducklngs trooping from the nest to the
brook, and should further hope to fix tbs
attention of such sons on problems concern
ing Agriculture of which their fathers viii
hardly listen with patience to the discussion
Nevertheless, shall not shrink from deliver
ing my message.
When Brindley, the great engineer, who
constructed the first British canal, was sheer
ingly asked by conservative, who deemed
| ouCu Hc WI ho d ulitCl iuiDtdCDfllpD
OF the wisdom of Providence, what he sup
posed rivers were made for, he promptly
answered, g To feed canals" As he was b,
no means fool, trust the engineer did no
intend that his definition should be taken al
exhaustive Judge that he meant only tt
indicate one use of rivers which bis catechist
in bis narrow loyalty to precedent, had over
looked.
ask the farmers of Vermont, and espec
Tally Of this section of it, to consider Brind
ley's response in the light of general sug
gestion. For what, my friends, do you
suppose these mountains were upheaved
with fertile plains and broad valleys smiling
at their feet? Why do these brooks, these
miniature rivers, come brawling and roaring
down the sides of the former and take thei,
silvery course across the surface of the lattert
There is beauty, doubtless, in this arrange
ment; but beauty, in the Divine economy, il
but the effiuence of Utility. No man who
/ hao - L. Al ! 4 Ii