New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-05
ONE MERpHE-


The Board of Education which broods OWL
| like and solemn above the Common School sys-
! tenn of our sister City of Brooklyn is possessed
of one member who deserves n wider renown
than he is likely TO achieve without assistance.
We cheerfuly come TO his aid and lift him
aloft TO the admiration Of his own age and
pOstcrity. His name is Murphy-James Muir
phy-and this is the opinion which james MUIR
ply expressed at u recent meeting of the Board
concerning schOOl-bOOk called Edwardss
Reader the merits of which were being dis
cussed by the profound and acute sanhedrim
of critics there assembled. cit seems to me"
says Mr. James Murphy THAT that book il
made up specially for the Eastern market 1t
ais filed with political trash such l never
"saw in 4 schOOl-book before in my life. 1t
"spedks Of The PuritanS as good and great men.
as his the kind of doctrine that zoe rant taught
a." 10 our childrtnf If the Edwards books were
placed in the hands of my children | should
consider it a direct insult"
We have never Glanced TO see the Reader"
referred to- 1t is probably one of those bleak
but innocuous manuals which Cypress the stu
dents heart and bewlder his understanding by
the impossible cloCutionary standards which it
erects, and which, with many u crcumflex, and
recondite sign of accent, and many a straddling
diagram Of gesticulation and attitude, it enjons
him TO master and make his own. 1t is prob
ably stuffed with extracts from Barbauld, and
Beatte, and Mrs. Sigourncy, and the Rev.
John PerpOnt, not to mention q host OF other
lyrical and prosaic personages of elder and
recent days. Such are the constituents OF most
school readers, and the indiscreet compiler of
the one in question, who, unaware of Murphy,
admitted to his pages puff of the Puritans,
did not probably depart from the customary
method of mixing his mess of literary porridge.
We venture with some confidence to identify
the work az dog-eared duodccimo, very much
thumbed at the pages where the vision
of Mira and the battle of lIOhenlinden
are printed, but of dismal import to the school
boy from title-page to cOlophOn. Such vol
umes are associated with his earliest oratOrical
explosions, and these he does not remember with
pride. They recall the grinning class on either
hand and the lowering pcdagogue in 'front.' look
ing lexicons of disapprobatiOn, and their mem
DRY is one OF grief and humiliation. But in the
objections which Mr.. Murphy saw fit to inter
pose to the diffusion of this doubtless merito-
rious manual we discern no validity. Ii is not
probable that Mr. Murphy is a very good Judge of
literature or learning; nor doctor Of morals
nor an oracle of taste, nor judicious expositor
of the intellectual needs of youth Nay it is quite
within possibility that Mr.. Murphy is one whom
the irrevercnt would denominate an ass Per
sonaly and professionally, we are averse to con-
ferring geological degrees of this sort even
upon members of Boards of Education; but. if
we could in any case be induced TO indorse
and cOIroborate such degree, Murphy would
be our man for the honor. He has yindcated
his claim to that distinction in such shining
and unequivocal fashion that nobody ought TO
stand in the way of his baptism and anoint-
ment as the first donkey of his place and
period.
II It were worth while to illumiue faculties |