Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-02-04


EDUCATION AND GESIUs-America offers the
largest hOspitality-otfers piece OF land on
the prairie TO every son of Adam who will sit
down upon it then, on easy conditions the
right OF citizenship, and education for his
children; and in this spirit is our power. l
know that all do not think precisely we
do here in the northern States. know that
our schools reproached as nurseries of
vice, boating our own conceit, sharpening
wits in trade, and even, in some bad
cases, making more accomplished and dan
gerous rogue. l reply, let us stick to our
school If we have ouly that little, we will
cleave to that little and make it more. 1t is
our lot in the urn. Cling TO this despsed
common school Let the state say, I'VE
have not the fertile prairie, the prolific South
ern sum- the gold of California, the copper of
Michigan, the coal of Pennsylvania and the
oil, but this one point OF plain duty We have
to educate every soul Every native and
every foreign child that is cast on our coast
shall be taught, at the public cost, the rudi-
ments of knowledge, and at last the ripest
results of art and science. Education has
two offices. The first is the careful explana-
ton of elements. Cadlus brought the % or
"a Phenician letters to Greece. They were
called "Ihe BLACK daughters Of Cadmus." y
These are the materials of that complex
structure, so vast, so ancient so energetic,
which we call literature. These characters,
drawn in snow and sand then in pigment, are
the custodans of the divine commandments,
OF the laws of states, of history, OF science,
of all happy thoughts and sweet melodies
All multiplication tables, all astronomical
y facts, all rules of navigation, all Bibles,
creeds, Homer, Shakespeare, must all go, but
for these. Take away this petty cOntrIyance,
and not only the power of genius to perpetu-
ate itself Is gone, but the bonds that hold
nation together, the laws and traditions that
make unity permanency, rope of
sand; memory Is lost, and instead OF a spirit
uaI nation, you have tribe oil dirty sayages,
extemporizing lie from hand TO mouth. That
SYLLABLE BY syllable, the child learns TO read,
and in due time can convey to the domestic
circle the sense of Shakespeare. That Is the
first Office of education the second is inces-
SAINT drill, and practices III applying those ele-
ments-
We have, out of the early ages, 600 years
before Christ, nearly, sentence from a Chi
nese legislator. ''In all things" he said,
success depends on previous preparation,
--T and without such preparation there Is sure
to be failure" God sends into quiet house
young soul, thought; thought that is not
met looking for something which is not
there, but which ought to be there. He
makes desperate efforts to explain himself, TO
invoke the aid and consent OF bystanders.-
Bafiled still for want OF language and method
- TO convey his meaning, he conceives that
though not in this house or town, yet in some
other house town is the wise master VINO
can put him in possession of the rules and in
struments to execute his will This is the
old experience-Genius seeking his master.
Not king the college of the SerbOnne, of
Salamanca, of Oxford, but Socrates seeking
AnaxsgOras; and Plato Socrates; and AristO-
tie, Plato. This Is the seeker whom We tind,
not in one department, in science,
but in all, not in one house, but in all houses.
This is the seeker, intoxicated with a beauty
he cannot define express this is the di-
vine savage, with q terrible secret which
tears him, which leaves him rest This is
the pathetic experience of all youth. Al
ways genius seeks genus-deslres nothing
so much TO be able 70 find those gho can
lend il aid. Enthusiasm and drill are the
two ellen ents; one nature must give the col
lege never But the knowledge already
existing i'll the minds of trained persons is in
dispensable and must be had. To secure this
to the young the aim and theory of the
college college Is a society of experts
OF men selected for their skill each in one
department of art. The college was to be
the nurse of human genius, but although
every young man is born with deter
minatiOn in his nature potential genius,
anu is 1t last 10 be one, il is in most OBJ
structed and delayed, and whatever they may
hereafter become, their senses now
opened in advance of their minds. These
young men come in numbers to the college,
few brilliant minds, and the teaching comes
to be arranged for these many and not for
those few. Hence instruction seems to re-
quire skiful tutors, an accurate and system
attic mind, rather than the ardent and inven-
tive master. Besides, men of genius &C.
explosive, solitary not men of the world, not
good for every day uses. At all events, it
happens that genius if it is rare in the stu
dents, is rare in the chairs. But nothing can
be so important as severity of training. It's
better to teach the child and the youth
arithmetic and Latin grammar, than rhetor-
ic or moral philosophy, because these require
exaetitude and performance. 1t is made Ger
tain in lessons like these that the lesson is
mastered, and that power of performance is
worth more than the knowledge. He can
learn anything which it is important for him
to know, now that the power to learn is Sc
cured. As mechanics say when one has
learned the of tools, it is easy TO work
at a new craft Hence, the general agree.
ment to devote a great deal of the time of
the young TO the science of numbers.-Em-
ers0n's fe1c Lecture.
ROMANCE IN REAL LHE.-In the early stages
of the rebellion, patriotic citizen of Men
don township enlisted and went South to fight
rebels and uphold the authority of the dear
old flag, leaving behind him a Young and
amin rifa Call tiu ha hlnI