The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-03-26
EDUCATIONAL.
Of the Register:

the public attention and dwelt at some
length on the culpable and too genera
apathy on that subject. 1t is one O
great Importance, and cannot be too of
! ten or too strongly brought forward, fol
it is not only the duty Of the people gen
orally to see that facilities for obtaining
an ordinary education are within the
reach of their poorest members; but
their duty as individuals to see thai
their children are receiving the full
benefit of the national institutions, and
to encourage both teachers and pupils
by showing that they take some interest
in the work and are prepared to-recog'
nize merit and industry in both. AT
the same time allow me to plead the
cause of still higher department OF
mental training, and one of which the
merits are less generally recognized. All
will allow the Importance of those
branches of education which come into
daily requisiticn in the practical busi-
ness of life, though they may show ap-
athy and indifference in their cause; but
how few will even allow the merits OF
those which add refinement and ele-
pance to the taste, direct mems thoughts
to a deeper and nObler study of man.
kind than can be pursued from our own
personal experience, or in our own age,
and to better acquaintance with the
works of nature than can be gained by
desultOry observation, or by mind not
trained to scientific and systematic
use of its powers. Centuries ago, be.
fore the Eastern world ever dreamed of
the existence of our continent, before a
book was printed, and before our Re-
deemer appeared on earth to proclaim
his glad message of ''peaco on earth,
good will towards men," two great ma
tions existed, in many respects our su,
periors; in nearly all that tends to re-
tinement, intellectual culture and love
of freedom our teachers; possessed OF
languages the most perfect in their
mechanism, and most noble in their
genius, languages in which are found
the most lofty sentiments of free and
enlightened minds, the grandest efforts
of OratOry and the most perfect and
polished specimens of literary compost
ton, and vet how few are they who
care to explore the hidden treasures OF
those grand old times when liberty,
science and art were emerging from in
fancy into vigorous, bnoyant and glO-
rious youth. In the vast majority OF
instances, we merely acquire a knowl-
edge of the means Of interchanging
thought and the necessaries and lux
uries of life. We throw, it may be, a
hasty glance backward few centuries
over the history of our race, and then
plunge madly into tho world, gazing
wildly on the events that pass before
us, oblivious and ignorant of the past.
viewing the present like dream; for
the history of our own times can only
be properly read by the light of the
past, and we are utterly unable to form
a sane conjecture as to the future, for
that, too, is merely new phase of what
has gone before.
The modern practical man of business
will most likely sneer ut what he may
consider useless learning and lost time;
but, strange though it may appear, it is
not the less true that the same love of
freedom which blew the feeble spark of
Grecian patriOtisp into a blaze that
shrivelled up and burned t. ashes the
mighty despotism of Persia, and nerved
the arms and upheld tho courage of
the Roman plebeians in their struggles
for their rights, as handed down on the
classic page of history, drove British
bayonets slowly and steadily eastward
from American soil, and yet animates
and inspires the American people in
their Jealous determination to uphold
the cause of liberty at home and to fos-
ter and Advance it abroad. More than
two-thirds of the signers of the Declara-
tion of Independence were men OF
sound classical education, who had
caught their inspiration from the works
of by-gone ages. Washington, though
not we'll versed in classics, possessed at
the age of sixteen knowledge of sci
ence that not one out of a thousand OF
what are called educated men attain to;
nearly all our Secretaries of State have
received a collegiate education; a great
proportion of our Presidents, and
what is still more to the point,
the men who by the power OF
oratory have been able to direct
public opinion, weapon in our days
more powerful than kings or armies
have been, almost without exception,
men of sound classical scholar ship. Ii
has sometimes been urged that by the
medium of translatiOns We may possess
ourselves of the wisdom and thoughts
of the ancients. i have never known a
man to whose opinion, as classical
scholar any weight could be attached,
give utterance to such statement; but
let who will advance 1t, it is but a shall
low, futile excuse for the avoidance of
one of the noblest tasks. A language;
like nation or sn individual, has its
infancy, youth and manhood; it bears
on it the stamp of a nations character,
and has a genius peculiarly its own.
Thoughts and sentiments that are really
national and the result of q nations in
tellectual, social or moral development,
can be less easily transplanted into an
other language than the natural pro-
ductions of one cline into another. Let
any one, if he doubt the truth of my
statement, attempt to give an exact
definition of the Greek '..to on," or the
Latin "rgtas,' or the French '..faesse;;'
let him give translation of an ode OF
Horace, or an grafton of Cicero-works
that for ages have excited the admira-
ton and stimulated the ambition OF
their readers; let him read his prOduc.
tion to any popular assembly so as to
excite their interest or admiration; or
lastly, let him attempt to translate into
another language a poem Of Burns, ol
letter of Artemus Ward, and if he
be successful, l shall then become con
vert to his opinions. There is no royaI
road to learning, the works of the
ancients are not o robbers cave thai
will give mp their treasures to any
mans "open sesame:" We must 90 il
the regular track, toilsome though il
be, and the journey itself Us an exercise
and training for the mind is worth tn,
toll, even if it did not, like the pilgrim,
toilsome track, lead to pleasant LAND
of Beulah beyond. Nor, on the othel
hand. can we with untutored gaze lool
ON the mysteries and wonders of mature
with the pleasure and interest o
one whose eye has been trained Il
pierce beyond the surfaces of thing
] L. haanfx- nf