Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-02-04

Farming, from its very nature, Is not
susceptible of this division If labor. Each
season brings its own appropriate work,
md the farmer not only learns one process
in the art. but he must become skilled in
Ill of the operations of farming, and also
ne should have an intimate knowledge of
If the materials he uses and the character
Of the articles he produces. 1t thus be-
comes evident that the farmer, in ord r to
conduct his business in the most successful
md proftab manner. M lst be skillful in
he practice, and have mind well stored
With the theory of agriculture. And as
Ill successful practice is founded on theory,
It follows that the farmers, us a class, need
more extensive knowledge ofthe natural
Sciences than any laboring class in the
country. With an educated class of la
oorers ut the foundation of our industrial
u .rsuits, we may look for improvements
in the mechanical and agricultural arts
that have not yet been realized, in their
imagination even, by The most sangulne
advocates of advancement in the knowl-
edge of the practical arts,
In human society there are two forces
continually at work: first, the inherent
force of the mind to protect itself outward,
and bring all things under the control gifts
will; second, the external force, striving
to cOnfine the action of the mind within
certain limits and give it prescribed forms
or impulses in certain directions. The
external f rec manifests itself in the form
of laws and penalties in the Gus oms and
habits of a nation. In China, for hundreds
of successive generations, man has re-
manned the same in thought and action.
The same customs prevail now us CEN
turtles ago. The dead grand athers seem
to reappear in the grandsons; thus the
last generation is a fac smile of the first.
Through the influence of their institutions
the minds of the Chinese assume the same
social, political and religious forms, as
certainly and on the same principle of
pressure as the feet of their ladies become
nOof-like by wearing inelastic shoes. This
degradation OF the human faculties is II
characteristic feature of II large portion of
the eastern world.
The laboring classes of Europe have
long suffered under the burdens of an
etfete civilization. The laborers, even in
England, are without education. She has
refused to give her operatives the stimulus
OF mental tralning-and her country
swarms with beggars and vagabonds.
The Puritan, in his own experience.
feeling this burden to be insupportable
sought a place where he could be free to
develop not only is own me rtal and
moral faculties, but he desired to secure to
his poeterity the same privilege. The
English Purltans believed that the Chris
tiality of the Bible taught that men should
serve God with all their mind, heart and
soul, and also that such worship demanded
the education of the mind, heart and soul,
not alo re in the clergyman, the physician
and the lawyer, but in every man, woman
and child of the state Such were the
opinions of the founders of New England
The immediate Influence OF such senti-
ments ma, be learned from single sentent 6
Ill Ba croit's History of the United States
In volme /, page 467, he says: "One
might dwell there Ii. e. New En- ltndD
from year to year. and not See Il drnnkard,
or hear an 'ath, or meet Il beggar." FOR
the remote influence of the institutions es-
tablshed by the first settlers of New
England, we have only to compare Man
chester. England, with Lowell, Mass
- The operatives of Manchester" saws an
English traveller, " are improvident and
immoral; multitudes of them are on the
verge OF beggary." In Lowell says
the same writer, the factory operatives
form ii community that commands the re
spect of the neighborhood, and of aU I'M
der whose o seryltiOn they come; and any
male or female who was known to be in a
state of inebriety, would be ut once dis
MISSED. Surprising us this contrast in
character may seem yet when we COM
pare the pecunitry condition of the English
operatives with that OF the American, We
lind, if possible Il wider difference. The
former are represented as on the verge of
pauperiSm; the latter have bonds and de
posts in banks amounting to hundreds of
thousands OF dollars.
Would line allow, we might multiply
proofs to show at when the struggling
energies of the inne. man burst the bonds
Of despoti III ani superstition, the min
will tr..ject itself forth and seek to bring
under Its control whatever is ,tside of
Itself. No country ever existed that null
piled human energies like our own, and
here they are st juggling To discover and
bring INTO subleclIon for the use Of man
Ill the hidden forces of nature. The mind
Of the educated laborer glows with an in
-ense desire for knowledge, by which his
Derceptive and reflective faculties are
Iulckened and siren -thened; and the labor
IF his hands is lightened by this activity
IF mind, which, i'll turn. directs the eXer-
ions of his body, and gives him facility
md efficiency III applying his muscular
strength.
Progress in the arts and improvement in
human society always implies thought,
md this trait in mankind cannot be induced
without mental culture in some form
Whenever there may be among the people
| deep and prevailing conviction of the
Importance and value of education, and
when they shall have a clear perception of
he nature and object of mental training.
We may expect great improvement, not
)nly i'll the agricultural and mechanical
lrts, but we shall find that education fur
lishes the most effective means for devel-
,ping the natural resources of the State,
its growth and prosperity.
Ia this discussion we have attempted to
how that the educated llborer is more in
iustrious, more trustworthy, more act We
ind systematic, more cheerful. more pru-
lent and more economical, than the I'M
earned and ignorant man
In conclusion, allow me to Say that man
assesses several distinct natures, and any
ystem of education that develops and re-
ines one at the expense of the others, is
tlse and dangerous. The education we
iced consists in the suitable training of
he body, in the proper culture of the mind
md the heart, SO that man will become
more manly in his physical, mental and
moral constitution.
The length of a flash of lightning is gen
rally greatly under-e estimated. The long
st known was measured by NJ. +. Petit, |
t Toulouse. This flash was ten and Il
.tlf miles long. Arago once measured a
cries which averaged from seven to eight |
niles in length. The longest interval ever