Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-01-05
2AiafellanQons.
POPULAR EDUCATION.


lively or anxiously engaged on this subject
than at the present moment. To such there
is something alarming IN the very prosperi
ty that's rolling its tide of wealth over oul
land They regard with kind Of awe, ap.
preaching dread, the prodigious energy with
which the mind Of the nation is prosecuting
its task Of bringing into subiection the pow
ers, and rendering available the resources oi
Nature, as, in this our land, she throws
open, with so free hand, the secrets and
treasures of her domain. Did we not see
it with our ewn eyes, it would exceed belieI
that the fearful momentum represented by
the forces engaged in the late war. could be
turned aside from It's direct bearing into any
other channel of results without some tre-
mendous convulsion. We sometimes ask
ourselves whether this busy, buying, selling
making, exploring, inventing nation, is the
same shat the year opened upon, with all its
energies strained to the utmost in the activ-
tiles of an almost continent war.
So it is. 1t shall be recorded in history
as scarcely less than miracle, and histori-
ans shall put their genius to the proof to
account for it. But there is no more for US
to do than simply to wonder at it. That
momentum still resides in the mighty mass.
1t is as irresistible as ever; as potent for
good or evil 1t is this which makes men of
serious minds look anxiously about them,
and cast the horoscope of our future with
troubled look They may hope for the best
but the stake is too heavy for an easy trust.
Mount the inventor upon some new engin-
cry of loeomotion, and the very triumph of
his embodied thought, as attested by the
whirlWind that seems to rush by him, makes
him take thought for the brakes he wants
the mechanism under full control Even
the defrium of success cannot suppress the
thought that he has there the combination
of teo much weight and speed to be trihed
with.
If then, popular education be subject
that has heretofore been worn thread bare.
it has now assumed such phase, such car
dinal relations to the future of our republic
that we cannot, in reason, deny it rehear-
ing. 1t belongs to the Conservative forces
at work in the nation, and rather than those
of propulsion, already 50 active, are the
ones we now want specially to invoke. Il
may be there is as yet no necessity for og,-
plying the brakes, but it becomes US to see
that they are in order This, Of course, is
but one view of the bearings of education
on our destiny, but it is one sufficiently i'm
portant for separate consideration.
We speak of popular education, mainly
because the two words are so associated TO
the ears that they seem to belong together.
And yet all education is popular, all, we
mean, that is worth the name, however far
In its immediate range it may appear to be
from the people A mind can not
be educated in any sphere of truth without
the circuit of It's influence reaching, in some
way, sooner or later, the geueraT mass or
mind. There is nothing in the world more
diffusiye, and hence more popular, in its
scope, than education We should except
the various forms of benevolenee, if edrca-
ton were not one OF them. Its spirit is es-
sentially large and liberal tits instructive
with it to give out its stores to more needy
souls as the cloud charged with lightning.
flashing forth fol- supply to It's negative
neighbor.
We regard education, taking it in its larg
est sense, as the only safeguard the nation
against the obvious perils that environ her
We do not claim originality for the thought.
1t is the current talk ofthe day. It's a truth
that obtains, perhaps, too ready an assent.
It has not its legitimate influence, mainly
because tits never disputed. 1t might be an
advantage to have some one deny it, that
we might be shocked into a sense of its prae-
tical Importance
Not that, as a people, we are altogether
reniss in this matter. Our ten thousand
educational institutions of every grade for
bid the charge. They are the boast of our
land and age Yet we are at our epoch in
national history that calls for something
more, on this head, than sefcomplaeency
for the past and self assurance for the future.
Grant we have schools and school houses,
colleges and college appurtenances enough,
and this is large concession; grant that we
have done what we have done literally thor
oughly; that every name on the census list
in the department of education represent
something alive and efficiently at work, a
vastly larger concession, we have still great
defcit to meet. Supply it, and it will dc
more than build where buildings, and endow
where endowments are wanted. 1t win give
life to the whole system. 1t is the trsst
spirit of education. No new schemes Of
special institutions, no mere policy, old OF
new, can accomplish what is incumbent up
on the educational resources Of the land
The people at large must be made to fee
that here is an interest that eonfronts then
and demands their heed, not only in the act
of putting their children at school, or even
in seeing that the children Of the less pros
pered have proper facilities of the same sort;
but in the family, in their money transac-
tions, and in the house of worship, dieta.
ting TO them in terms as imperative as fate
We think we see in our community an incip
lent recognition of this truth. We pledge
to it our influence for its enft rcement. =
Pittsburgh Gazette.
ETHAN ALLEN An amusing story ha
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