Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-02-14
Education and Wealth.

Often Il parent is unwilling to spend
money on child's education-preferring
to keep it to give him start in life.
Often a young man is so eager to get into
business that he cuts short his educa-
tional course. All this is exceedingly un-
wise. Education with but little wealth is
worth far more than wealth with scanty
education
Wealth is desired for the pleasures it can
purchase. But trained mind has graft
tications greater than those which money
can buy. The thoughtful mechanic can
get more enjoyment out of the five cents
which he pays for u newspaper, Or dol
lar he gives for a book, than his ignorant
fellow-workman can obtain for double the
amount invested in tobacco and beer The
extravagantly furnished table, and the ex
pensve carriage and horses will yield n
man far less pleasure than that which may
be derived from study and literary COM
panionships-matters which cost compar-
atively little. The body is capable of but
little pleasure us compared with what the
mind can receive. The cultivation of the
intellects opens the way to fur greater per-
sonal enjoyment than does the acquisition
Of wealth.
Property is desired by many for the So
cial position which it confers. But educa
ton answers as good It purpose in this re-
gard. Education and refinement with less
money will give u family as good social
standing rs wealth with less culture. The
family with cultivated mind can occupy a
less expensive house live in less cost
ly style-can maintain their social posi-
ton with far less pecuniary outlay than
that which is necessary to people without
education Our professional classes are
the social equals Of the commercial class,
but their wealth is far less and their style
of living fur more plain. One who is rich
but uneducated is far more likely to be
/ ~nubbrI in ociaI life than the educated
person who is not rich. The dollar is not
so almighty" the golden calf is not so
generally worshipped in society as many
suppose. Mental cultivation is rs potent
us wealth in gaining the regard Of the
people one meets.
Money is to be desired for the advan-
tagcs it may secure TO one s children. But
it is the children of the educated rather
than the children of the rich who on the
whole succeed best in life. Money can
hire no teachers who will take the place Of
educated parents--t can buy no schooling
equal to that which is received in a home
of cultivation and refinement. Our min
listers are proverbially poor, and yet there
is no class Of men whose sons take high
er rank in the professions and commerce
none whose daughters make better mar
riage alliances than do those of our edu-
Gated clergvmen. Wealth alone cannot
rive children the "start " in life which
they receive from parents of education and
refinement.
And the principle which has been stat
ed in the case of the individual is true of
the community as whole. In matters
of political economy and in church affairs
| it is not more wealth that is needed, but
more brains. The resources of all classes
are great enough but there is not always
a knowledge of how to use. Give money
to the begear, and soon he is just rs bad
" off as before But if you can give him
new ideas and new thoughts in his mind,
he will take care of himself-hG will not
need aims. Persons Of education are not
| found in the alms-hOuSe. And if GduCa-
ton became universal pauperism would
disappear. Giving money or food to the
poor affords but temporary relief, but to
give education to a community is to lead
it to self-help, and to permanent elevation.
The difficulty in helping the mendicant
class is that they do not want to be any
thing better than they are. Just so fur as
u wider range of ideas and higher concep-
tions Of life can be given them, they can
be set on better footing. Now, as the
education of an individual raises the tone
of thought in the community rs Il whole,
t the money given for education is the very
highest, the most far-sghtcd phianthro-
py.-EGanatner ald Chronicle,