The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1876-03-04
Correspondence Of the Baltimore County Union. ]
Education and Enlightenment.

| Wnlcn is supposed 10 consist In ali tDoSe Varl
Gus modes of lie that distinguish the civilize'
world from barbarians. Fine cities, cultivate,
countries, and well-clad people, in all their de
tails, stand, indeed, in strong contrast to.th
huts, hunting grounds and skin coverings o
barbariaHs. 1t behooves US to show that tn
sources from which such enlightenment is de
rived, and the processes by which those source
are supplied are not necessarily dependent up
on that branch of schools we condemn, name
ly: all those where rote-learning is mainly de-
their neral characters are sufficiently formed
to prevent tarnish from motley associations
Advanced institutions for such persons as shov
decided talents and inclinations to attend, anC
where knowledge is impaired in more demon
strative manner, we are not disclaiming. W.
assert that the work of preparatory schools
could be done at home, and that all geniuses
who are the sources of enlightenment, could, i
preferred, with few exceptions, there receive
preparation for advanced learning or for self
| development; and that, on the other hand
with the elementary aid of early schooling
|
aside from the assis ance of advanced schools
and been opposed by school-men and their pa
irons for their independent course. If, there
fore, great men have sprung from the mere ell
ementary aid of early schooling, it is much
more possible for them to spring from home
training were it recognized, insomuch as they
would there avoid those moral evils which
when imbibed, either call for additional labor
| to afterward repress, or lie dormant to shame
the bearer at some unexpected moment after
the pinnacle of fame is reached, as was the
case with Lord Bacon and his bribe.
The enlightened world in this connection can
be divided into three chief fclasses-prsducers,
dffusers, and consumers or enjoyers. The pro-
ducers are those who invent or discover all ad-
vantageous things; the diffusers are those who
circulate and perpetuate them, and the con-
sumers or enjoyers are those who reap the ben
efits. Producers are the most honorable OF all,
being the sources to which enlightenment is
indebted, and if their education is either d.
verse from that bestowed by schools, or en-
braces an additional selfdependent course, it
is proven that the popular system of education
is not really the source of enlightenment. In
the education of diffusers the popular system
can make its highest claims, but even ditfusing,
as by compiling and printing books, which is
an example of the utmost the prevalent system
is calculated to prepare for, is much different
and inferior task from producing. Consumers
or enioyers constitute the majority as devel-
oped bv schools, and to these the sources of en-.
lightenment cannot be attributed, they Gem
paratively being the drcnes. Let US now ex-
anime the relations of the three. Steam, tele
graphy, and all original discoveries and dis
closures in art, science and literature, whereby
human comforts are supposed to be increased,
are classed under civilization and enlightenment
Now was not the discover of the power of steam
a producer more worthy than those diffusers
who direct it afterward, or those consumers or
enjoyers whe ride in the cars or vessels 1t
moves? Was not the inventor of the electric
telegraph producer greater than those ditfu-
sers who learn its tappings and the enjoyers
who read its messages Was it not greater for
Cowper to produce his "Review of Schools"
~A4-f =iOc csls7E-ss--yark on "The Human Under
standing" than it is for q dsss----S (, ni,c
them into books and enjoyers to sit down and
read them Is it not greater to discover coal
beds and means for developing them, than, as
diffusers, to sell the same, or, as consumers, to
put it in the stove and get warmed by its heat?
Now such are the differences between pro-
ducers and dffusers and consumers or enjoy
ers, and the proverbial difficulties, as will
further be shown, which these producers en-
counter from the world generally-even the
educated world-evincs that their education,
like their works, are different from the common
majority; hence, the prevalent system Of edu-
cation is not the producer of enlightenment
There are various grades of producers, and of
diffusers, and of consumers or enjsyers; but
the education of the producers is essentially
different from the rest. This difference is net
generally known, and what may be called the
natural or Independent process of development
is seldom acknowledged at its true value even
among those producers whose attainments
would have been impossible without it. Even
what are called chance inventions and discov.
cries, like Newton with his apple, are really
due to some unrecognized condition produced
by previous observation and refection-a Wall
street broker would not have made his dscev-
covery.
DR.. ]. G. Holland, one of our country's most
widely read authors and editors, although an
offshoOt of schools professedly, recounts in his
"Kathrina" an experience through which he
probably passed, and without which he might
not have attained his eminence, he says:
"My neighbors all around
Were happy in their work. The plodding hind
Who served my hand, or groomed my petted
horse, "<a
Whistled about his work with merry heart,
And filled his measure of content with toll.
In all the streets and all the busy fields,
Men were astir, and doing with their might
What their hands found to do. They drove the
plough,
They traficked, builded, delved, they spun and
wove,
They taught and preached, they hasted up and
down
Each on his little errand, and their eyes
Were full of eager fire, as if the earth
And all its vast concerns were en- their hands
Their homes were fresh with guerden every
night.
And ripe with impulse to new industry
At each new dawn.
l saw all this, but knew
That they were not like me-were most unlike
In constitution and condition. Thus,
My power to do, and do the single thing
My power was shaped to do, became, instead
OF wings to bear me, weights to burden me.
The moiling multitude for little tasks
Found little motives plenty; but for nae,
Who in my Incidence they all despised-
Not understanding memo motive rose
To lash or lead. Even the love l dreamed
Would give me impulse had defrauded me.
Feeble and proud; strong, yet emasculate;
Centered in self, and still despising self;
Goaded, yet held; convinced, but never moved
Such conflict of times held and harried me
That death had met with welcome"
Pardon the length. but the glance depicts