The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-07-18

AND IT'S PLACE IN POPULAR EDUCA-
TION.

"The prosperity of a nation comes
from well-directed industry; its happi
ness from the impartial execution OF
equal laws; it's greatness from the in
domitable spirit Of it's people; but its
lasting glory from it's letters and art
The small cities OF Athens and Jeru-
salem receive more of the homage OF
mankind than many of the seats OF
empire. Not one stone stands upon
another on the site of Persepolis, and
no one can now enumerate the tribes
that were subject to the Persian mon
archs, or fix the limits Of their empire
But The precepts of Zoroaster still sur
Viye, indeStructible amidst all the
Vicisitudes of human affairs
The history of letters refuses to be
divided by the reigns of monarcls, and
is measured by the appearance Of great
authors. We speak Of the age Of Dante,
careless Of what Julius or Nicholas or
Gregory might occupy the papal chair.
The times of Chaucer we know; but
King Edward III. is only lay figure
in the picture We imagine. We know
Goethe was a counselor of State; but
the prince he served is already shade.
Stolid Queen Anne lives only in the
memory of the elegant essayists OF her
time. Hanoyerian Georges and VIII
liams are nought. 1t is the age of
Scott, of Byron, and Wordsworth, the
age Of Carlyle, Macauley, Dickens,
Thackeray, and Tennyson.
In this country all things are so new
that we do not look at affairs as pos
terity will look at them. But who can
doubt, that, when the true perspective
has been adjusted, ours viii be known
as the age Of Emerson, Irving, and
Hawthorn, Of Bryant, Longfellow and
Whittier, of Lowell and Holmes?
The place which the study of litera-
ture should hold among the other
scholastic pursuits is hardly doubtful.
Literature is part Of the worlds his
tory; in fact the ''real life of nation
is preserved in It's literature, and
the student who is familiar with
the personal memoirs, letters. PLAYS,
and songs Of any era, has a better
knowledge of the character and con-
ditlon of the people than all the form.
al histories can give him. What place
does the study of literature actually
hold in our schools? If you attend an
examination of a Boston grammar
school, you will find one or more
blaCkb0ards covered with ammo dOn2I-
nj dates; and boys and girls will be
eager to give you some fact, more or
less important, that is associated with
every date. But if they were asked
by some foreigner who was just be-
ginning to read our literature, when
Irving was born, or what works he
had written, who Jonathan Edwards
was, whether Cooper was a greater
novelist than Mrs. Blank, and Whetb-
er Emerson wrote often for the
"Chambermaids Magazine" what an
SWers would he get? But surely, in
any point of view, knowledge of the
works of cur chief poets, historians.
and eSSayiSts is of as much conse=
quence as the opinions and doing6 of
James X. Polk, William H. Harrison.
Franklin Pierce, and similar persons
with whom our historic muse is occn
pied.
One OF the grave errors in our sys
tenn is in the persistent reading and
re-reading of books that are intended
mainly for exercises in el0cution. 1T
must be admitted that the miscellanies
we place before children, are not. on
the whole, very attractive; and they
certainly are not useful considering
the time they occupy. On one page
is goodish poem; on another bit of
sermon; here a tolerable story; there
q speakers peroration. The matters
treated belong to no one age or coun
try; and the styles are as various as
the matter. This is utterly unphilo-
Sophical. The study of literature does
not occupy that place in our schools
winch tits entitled to hold from it's
very Importance.
And this leads us to the last point
and the main purpose of this ESSAY
which is to urge that the course of