Daily national Republican. (Washington City [D.C.]) 1870-1872, 1872-07-06

Like birds Of passage that at their seasons
of movement keep the upper air alive with
the busllo Of their hight, the new generation
OF scholars which has been on the wing for a
week &C two, passing from school to vacation,
or from the college to the world, have now
found their resting places, and we hear the
pleasant tanning OF the neWiy-tried wings In
the upper air no more. Whatsoever may have
been the case 10 some sections OF the country
formerly we are now rapidly becoming a
well educated people. Not by any means a
uauon OF scholars but OF people who read
and understand. II is, perhaps, sight never
before seen In any land beneath the sun that
throughout the South the children are the
means Of instructnG tho parents, that the
old people sit by aud listen to the lad OF thlr-
teen, who reads the newspaper for them. It
isG slghtthaI would never have been seen II
chose meu upon whom Mr.. Greeley relies for
support had not been rendered pOWerless for
ever by the men who now support General
Grant.
One cannot look al tho activity of the
myriad Of schools and sec the millions Of
minds that quicken into new life at the touch
Of master spirits through the fundamentally
OF books and periodical literature, without
seeing, also, with a certainty that Is beyond
peradyenture, that this immense new growth
Of mental life must at an carly day work
great changes 10 the condition Of the Amcrl-
eau people An unframed miud sees only
the facts that lie on the surface OF things aud
takes appearances a. realities.
"a primrOse on the rivers brow,
A yellow primrose Is TO him,
And II Is nothing mOrein
tut when science touches the eyes with her
finger, the cultivated mind sees Ia things bid
den uses and properties and capacities Of
value that the Ignorant look at but sec not
The genius which plans, inyents, aud makes
new ways for the world Ia sometimes directly
God-giveni but Il Ia far oftener given lndi-
recuy through the agency OF educational
training. Just as habit Is second nature,
education Is created genius. A trained man
will sec In the manner In which a hill turns,
or In the rocks which jut out from its side,
proof as plain Us q duger-post OF mineral
wealth hidden In the bowels Of the earth.
The educated eye will sec in handful Of
soil the capacity for one kind of production
and the incapacty for another. The igno-
hard labor or guess work.
Unjust be, then, that universally dlnused
education will draw more sustenanco from
the earth aud fluid myriad-fOd more means
OF making nature serve man than ever be-
fore. Aud when men are left free to pursue
happiness In their own way, subject only TO
that bencnccnt system of laws, a training
school In themselves, which enfOrcos the
greatest good to the greatest number, we
may justly expect that tue earliest and most
excellent possible development Of the powers
of man will take place. We may indeed look
for the realization Of the Oft quoted prophecy
OF the Bishop OF Boyno-
"ln happy climss, where from the genial sun
Aud virgin earth such scenes ensue,
The force VI art by nature seems undOno,
And mncied beauties by the true.
" Westward the course OF empire takes Its way,
The hTst four acts already past,
The NTH shall close the drama with the day
Times nObleSt offspring Is his last