Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1873-04-17

gin MS educauOn Win you, tnat you
might till, as it were, your minds tegether
one, whose heavier progress might in
yite, without q fear of discouraging, your
emulation? We might then see-start-
ing from an equal post-the difference of
the clownish and the gentle blood.
A private education then, or such a one
as I have been describing, being deter
mined on, we must in the next place look
out for -preceptor: for it will be some
time before either Of you, left to your
selves, will be able to assist the other to
any great purpose in his studies.
And now, my dear sir, if in describing
such tutor as / have imagined for you,
I use style little above the familiar
one in which have hitherto chosen to
address you, the nature Of the subject
must be my apology. "Difficile est de
scientiis inscientcr loqui," which is as
much as to say~that Gin treating of scien-
tiic matters it is difficult TO avoid the use
of scientific terms" But shall endeav-
or to be as plain MS possible. j am not
going to present ycu with the ideal of a
pedagogue, as it may exist in my fancy,
or has possibly been realized in the per-
sons of Buchanan and Busby. Some
thing less than perfection will serve our
turn. The scheme which propose in
this first or Introductory letter has refer
ence to the first four or five years ofyour
education OILY: and i'll enumeratingg the
qualifications of him that should under
take the direction of your studies, shall
rather point out the minimum or least,
that shall require of him, than trouble
you in the search of attainments neither
common nor necessary to our immediate
purpose.
He should be man of deep and ex-
tensive knowledge. So much Mt least is
indispensable. Something older than
yourself, could wish him, because years
add reverence
70 his age and great learning, he
should be blest with u temper and pa
tience, willing to accommodate itself to
the imperfections of the 'slowest and
meanest capacities. Such one in for
mer days Mr.. IT appears to have
been, and such in our days l take Mr..
G to be; but our friend, YOU know
unhappily has other engagements. 20
not demand o consummate grammarian :;
but he must be thorough master of
vernacular Qrthography, with an insight
into the accentualities and punctualities
os modern Saxon, or English. He must
be competcntly instructed Cor how shall
he instruct youO in the tctralogy, or
four first rules, upon which not only
arithmetic, but geometry, and the pure
mathematics themselves, are grounded.
/ do not require that he should have
measured the globe with Cook, or Orte-.
illus, but it is desirable that he should
have general knowledge, Il do not
mean very nice or pedantic one, of the
great division of the earth into four parts,
SO at to teach you readily to name the
quarters. He must have genius capa.
bic in some degree of soaring to the up
per element, to deduce from thence the
not much dissimilar computation of the
cardinal points, or hinges. upon which
those invisible phenomena, which natu-
ralists agree to term winds, do perpetual
ly shift and turn. He must instruct you,
in imitation of the old Orphic fragments,
(the mention of which has possibly es-
capped you,) in numeric and Harmonious
responses, to deliver the number of solar
revolutions, within which each of the
twelve periods, into which the Annus
Vulgaris, or common year, is divided,
doth usually complete and terminate it,
self. The intercalaries, and other subtle
problems, he will do well to omit. till
ripper years, and course of study, shall
have rendered you more capable thereof.
He must be capable of embracing all his
tory, so as from the countless myriads Of
individual men, who have peopled this
globe of earth-for it is globe--by COM
parison of their respective births, lives,
deaths, fortunes, conduct, prowess, &c,
L