The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1868-07-03

pms HIe To like ule leau-allu licnce IL
is that they pre- ter, rs Il rule, to talk a
bout these things with which most of
us are familiar and in which we feel the
deepest concern. Far from being slaves,
rs are the English, to The "faith in ma
chiner",' and never falling to recognise
that higher and more spiritual faith in
the forces which underlie and antedate
machinery-that faith which was the
basis and substratum ofour lost system,
in which all that was best in the patr-
archal and chivalric systems met and
mingled, and gave to the world an ex-
ample of social dignity, grace and
strength such as will never again be
seen in all time to come-thc teachers
OF the youth of Virginia are living
teachers, competent to the tasks of the
present and sensible of the necessities
to come, when, with the inflow of pop
tllation, the increase of capital and the
subsistence of political strife, Virginia,
ut the head of her Southern sisters, will
take the bold leap forward which all are
anticipatingand praying for. My word
for it, when that day comes, the gradu-
ates at Lex ngton and at Charlotte
sville rs well, will be found ready,
equipped and waiting to meet and mas
ter the new order of things, and to Sc
cure for the South the pre-eminence in
things material which seemed of old
our birthright in things social and po-
litieal.
think | do not exaggerate in the
least-certanly do not intend to ex-
aggerate-when say, in all serious
ness, that the Virginians of the next
generation will be the best (most thor.
| ough and most practically educated pco-
pie in the United States. This con-
clusion is founded not alone upon the
course of study adopted at our Univer-
stiles, for Washington College is now
fairly entitled to be so named, but upon
the number and excellence of our pri-
vate schools III various parts of the
State. Before the war, there were but
two of these, that ! can now recall,
which had much distinction. TO the
schools of LEWIS COLEMAN (now taught
| by HILARY JoNEs) and PIKE Powers,
may be added Prof. HoIcoMBE's school
ut Bellevue in Bedford county, VIR-
GINlus DABNEY's Loudoun School at
Middleburg, the Norwood School, con-
duetedby Messrs. CABELL & BLACKBOARD;
the Academy of Messrs. STRoTHER &
PRICE in Richmond; COUPON McC ABE's
excellent school III Petersburg, Major
BLAcKFoRp's in Lynchburg, and many
! Others. There are, besides, numerous
small schools at the houses of country
gentlemen, in charge of young men of
the highest social position and of UNI
common culture. Bearing all these
facts in mind, and seeing how marvel
lousy the people of Virginia have push
ed forward the education of their chill
dren, female and well as male, l can but
conclude that the Virginians of the
coming times will be educated as Yir-
ginians never were before and rs the
children reared under the frec-school
system can not possibly hope to be cdu-
Gated. The conclusion is strengthened
into certainty by the fact that very
many of the pupils both at the lesser
and the greater schools have been SOL
diers for two, three or four years, and.
enabled by the manliness acquired in
war to appreciate all the more the val
lie of education, are applying themselves
to study with the artlor that fired their
breasts when they charged the batter
les of the enemy.
Col. MAssIE, in the most imaginative
and imprisoned speech of tho evening
OF the Alumni Supper, drew picture
of the matron, Virginia, retiring, under
frown of fanatical power, from the busy
cares of life to the seclusion of her
chamber, there to nurse the children of
her old age and to prepare them for the
duties Of that brighter day when she
will be permitted again to resume
her wanted position among the sister,
hood of free and equal States, and again
to urge her sons forward in those hon
orablc paths to which they have been
fitted by virtuous training. Devotion
to Virginia and her traditions, and an
almos: inspired assurance of her future
grandeur, may fad a freer utterance in
MAssIE than in any of the other Profess
sors, but is Characteristic of them all;
from which draw the bright aigury
that, while the graduates of the two
schools here will be found competent to
the hardest tasks OF the matcrialistic
times ahead of us, they will neverthe-
less be fully imbucd with the spirit of
affection and reverence for those things
which dignity and adorn human charac-
ter and which make life betterand BRAY
er than machinery. In one word, they
will be able to control the material de-
velopmcnt OF Virginia, and to supercede
the necessity of Yankee master-ma-
chinists, but at the same time they will
not cease to love truth, to despise the
tricks of trade, to value good name
above riches, to honor woman and to
revere a pure religion, undefiled by
politics.
Surely it is a good sign to find Wash
ington College inaugurating a physical
survey of the State-the most wonder
ful, all things considered, in the world,
and as marvellous in its material wealth
as in its moral worthwhile, at the same