Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-10-27
goreian.
PRUSSIA AND FRANCE,
nh. Education OF the Two Coun-
tr,ss -Hesults On the People.
BY PROF. C. E. STOWE.

II ia "A kIOS5 misrepresentation u D6iL-
ding and brutalizing of the most glorious
noyement made i'll the civilized world
since the Lutheran reformation, to Sc.
Sorth the Prussisn school system, estab-
Tshed half century since, as designed
solely and chiefly to teach men to kill, to
rain the young men of Prussia to be hui.
man butchers. The papers of stein, and
gardeaberg and others. the originators of
tbe system itself, as seen in the books and
az Illustrated in the schools by the actual
teaching, oil demonstrate the essential false
hood of such an assumption. 1t was
rom the first an endeavor to give full de-
yelopment to the whole man, to call forth
and cultivate all the faculties, intellectual
and moral, of all the youth of the king.
dom, TO the greatest possible extent, and
Utilize them in the most efficient manner,
10 make good agriculturists. good artists,
GOOD miners, good mechanics, good civil.
ANS. GOOD citizens in every walk of life:
and not merely to make them good SOL
ders. Perhaps such an idea might with
some Justice. be attributed to Frederick
II bnt not at all to Frederick William Ill
and the authors of the present system. 1t
il true that very effective military system
was grated on to the school system as
necessary sequence. as an unavoidable in
eident The first Napoleon had given
terrible lesson which it was impossible for
them to forget in the recognizing of the
nation; and the situation of Prussia,
country made up of fragments, and
living without natural boundar es in the
midst o. jealous rivals, made good mill
tarv system IN essential of the national ex-
jstence. But any one who has been in
Prussia any time during the last so years,
cannot fail to have seen that the military
system was only part and not the whole !;
and any one who has visited the schools
and watched the process of teaching, would
saw Here is the very beau ideal of o COM
pete education! Every power and faculty
Is cultivated in due proportion, nothing Is
overlooked or neglected" The result is
seen not only in the wonderful armies
which Prussia has now in the field, but on
the farms, in the workshops in the mines,
at the merchants desks, in the courts, in
the pulpits, in the studies of the literati, in
every branch of human effort.
The system has had from the first wide
aud solid moral basis; the Bible has been
faithfully and thoroughly taught in all the
schools, and whatever men may think Of
the Divine origin and plenary inspiration
Of the Bible, they caunot fail to see that 1t
isa most wonderful educator of the COM
mon MUD Our Abolitionists. in the late
anti-slavery struggle, were not all of them
very scrupulous believers OF the infalli-
bhty Of the Scriptures; yet not even the
Cromwelians themselves relished tie sub
lime denunciations of the grand old He
brew prophets more keenly than they did,
or used them more effectually. If there
are in Prussia many unbelievers, in all the
walks of life, they have none OF them es-
capped the influence OF the Bible; the educa
ton was universal and compulsory.
But the Prussians are not perfect, that
is true; and the system is not perfect, all
human things are imperfect; but now, and
in consequence of this half century of
training, Prussia is the first among ma
tons In self defense other nations will
be obliged to adopt system of training,
and have an educated common people.
This is one of the chief glories of the whole
movement.
But the Prussians drink beer and smoke
tobacco. Unhappily they do; but this is no
new thing among them; it was not intro
duced by the school system, nor is it
maintained by it; nor do they drink or
smoke more than their neighbors--
than the Americans even. 1t is not one
Of their virtues, nor is an element OF
strength among them. Luther drank beer;
tea and coffee were in his time unknown /;
beer has been the national drink from all
Time, TacitHs calls it wine made OF bar
ley, in his "Germania;" it was something
astonishing to him, but the Germans
even then liked it. | have seen it
stated by some very respectable writers,
that Luther loved good tobacco; but if 80
thrust have been 10y prophetic anticipa
ton, as the weed was never known In Eu-
rope till some years after his death. But
this is the loose way many great men have
OF talking sometimes; as Tbackery and
some others speak of women having been
burned for witchcraft in New England,
when no such incident ever occurred, at
least have never seen any proof OF 1t, and
shall not believe it till have. l presume
The ridiculous stuff quoted as q stanza from
school hymn now in use IN Prussia,
about being dog, etc, owes It's origin 10
similar source, Let us see the original
OF that stanzs, and let Us know the school
book in which it is found, and then we
shall class it in the same category with
Luther's tobacco, and the burning OF
witches in New England.
1t is said that the Prussian school sys-
TEN has been deteriorating of late years.
cannot tell about that, as it is more than
thirty years since | visited the schools
but at any rate the nation does not seem to
have degenerated much, and the men at
the head of affairs there have too much
Sagacity to see so good thing as that
school system fall TO ruin. l suppose we
must take such representations in rather
non'natural sense; as we must take the
representations of the World newspaper,
10 New YORK, respecting the sayings and
doiuRs of Gen. Grant. If the old King OF
Prussia is reactionary, his son, who must
soon occupy the throne, is not; and
Bismarck has TOO much OF good,
larG common sense to expect to play
ne medieval despot over an educated poo
ple' Give Germany unity and she will