Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1870-08-09

the horrors of war. The blood of her best
sons was freely poured into the channels of
our country's honor. But alas for the for
tunes of war. They have proven adverse
A safe and happy issue out of the evils of the
crisis, can be achieved only by the intellect of
our country. Then how great is the demand
that rises right here for the education of our
youth And yet glance for momentif you
please, at the present condition of society !;
and see how far we fall short of our duty both
to ourselves and our beloved old state in this
respect. How many of our young men, vic>
tins of that intoerable laziness which seems
almost inherent in the human constitution,
waste the precious seed time of youth in the
trifing, giddy, and alas too often vltiating
amusements of the fashionable world. They
live as though neither their country nor their
God had any claim to their servicesj as though
the grand aim and end of life. was the un-
sancti6ed enjoyment of the present hour
Must l offend your intelligence by telling
you, that such course enervates the mental
energies, throws fatal damper over every
pure and lofty emotion and aspiration OF the
soul, and deadens the moral sensibilities? 1t
destroys all taste for a solid and substantial
literature. 1t renders man the helpless victim
of an untempered and lasciviOus sentiment,
without the feeblest scintillations of the lamp
of reason to guide or control it. Hence the
vitiated literary taste of the present day,
which can appreciate and enjoy nothing that
does not pander to this unhallowed sentiment.
Its victims are disgrace to their illustrious
sires, to their age, their country, and to hui
manity; burden to the very earth, and will
prove curse to posterity. They will live and
die race of intellectual pigmies, in an age
1lot oollc opI lO,1lu oalIS for intellactuai
giants Doubtless they are destined to live
unhonored, and to die unsung. Many
young man, whose expanding talents like the
opening bud, might beautify and adorn the
fields of intellect, is sent forth into the world
with no more fondness for learning than for
the races of the stadia, no more fear for ignor-
ance than for the Cots of Alaric or the Tartars
of Tamerlane
Society is sadly in need of reformation
1t should be thoroughly revolutionized and
planted on the firm basis of intellect aud
morals. If we are to have aristocracy, let
it be an aristocracy of intellect. Unless there
is reformation in society, it will inevitably
result in sapring hevery foundations OF social
order and civil liberty. Away then with your
theory that the only education we need is
narrow and rigid disci pliue preparatory to our
special occupation. This may we'll be
classed among the popular delusious of our
practical age The old Heather poet, Horace,
exposed its emptiness. How much more
readily ought we to perceive it, who live in an
age blessed with far more thorough and
symmetricaL philosophy and have the entire
horizon of intellect lighted up by the soft and
mellow rays of divine revelation
1t requires knowledge to carry on to any
considerable extent, even the industrial arts.
Where would be your manufacturers; were it
not for the cultivated inventive genius that
supplies them with the necessary machinery !!
How much smaller would be the number of
your ships of commerce, whose snowy wings
now whten every sea, were it not for the
mariners compass, that pole-star hoating on
the bosom Of the boundess deep, which is
wonder less only than the intellect that con-
trived it This inventive genius is greatly
aided and developed by the study of Mathe-
matics, the great drill-master OF the mind
And yet our rapid modern practicalism, which
would get an education in an hour and build
Rome in day, wrapped in the robes Of its
abominably stupid self conceit, denounces
higher mathematics as humbug, and leaves
its profound depths to be fathomed by some
solitary intellectual monster, while it keeps it
self aloof from these intricate maZes, and thus
robes ITSELF of the discipline it SO soreiy
needs. The mechanic must be acquainted
with the laws of motion and Of equilibrium
Who understands SO we'll how to till the land
as the scientific farmer, who knows the con-
stituents of his soil, and what are exhausted
by each special product, and therefore what
constituents need to be replaced in order to
restore it to its original vigor aid productive.
ness.
RuT Ipo Id Sc Jo5 I'll 70 hr1n
about community of interests between the
different classes of society engaged in these
different pursuits. 1t is absolutely indispensa-
Bile in order to harmonize and render common
the interests of the agriculturist, the manu>
tacturer, and the mechanic. The interests of
these different elements of nation often ap-
pear to conflict and thus anarchy and con-
fusion would soon result unless there were
those whose mastery intellects could take an
intelligent survey of the entire arena, and
bring order out of confusion, and symmet-
rical whole out of a chaotic mass, and thus
preserve the great national blessings of peace
and prosperity. Great blunders have been
made in the political economy of nations be-
cause of ignorance with regard to this very
point. Some of the most grievous of these
errors have been committed by our own legis-
lators. None of these are more gross and un-
just than the adjustment of the interests be-
tween the Southern planter and the Northern
manufacturer. 1t is for such ends as these
that we need statesmen. Then in free gov
ernment, as ours processes to be, where our
rulers are selected by the people and taken
from the masses, how important is it that our
citizens should be made to see and to feel the
imperative necessity, for educating the rising
generation. They will live in no ordinary era
of our country's history. You have seen the
era OF war. They will live in an era marked
by mighty combat between the iDtellects of
the two sections Nor do we know how soon
it may result again in war:
But pause for moment and consider the
terrible dangers, which like so many Apoll-
Yons. stand athMart their path, and threaten