Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-01

those who pass through the public schools do
not learn there how to select their reading
matter in after life. In fact, it is the most
discouraging circumstance OF all, perhaps,
taat the majority grow up without
acquiring any real interest in or love
this is one of the consequences of the
purely material education given among US,
and another consequence which also con-
tributes to the same end is the tendency
towards sordid acquisitiveness which so alb
serbs the energies of every man, and SO blinds
them to whatever the world contains beyond
money ard the vulgar ostentation and bar
barous power which money can buy.
II too many OF our young men seem to
shut their ewes to all the significance of the
universe so soon Is they euter life, and
henceforth become mere grubs and hurrowers
in the dirt, we must attribute 1t largely to the
radical defect in the education OF the age
which has been pointed out here. For it
must be said that in many cases they cannot
even know what possibilities of mental ex-
pansion and elevation are open to them.
We pity the children of the poor and SYM
pathize with the wretched offspring of desti-
tuition who are buffeted TO and fro in the
streets of our great cities, but it may be
questioned If the children Of the rich are not
too frequently deserving of quite as deep a
compassion. To be the son of money
grubber; to have for father mere accumu.
lating machine; a creature whose base bust
ness maxims have honeycombed his little
soul with ulcers to see ever upon his anxious
brow the caSte-mark of those who worship
only the Almighty Dollar; to learn from him
nothing but the ways in which money can be
made to increase itself; to absorb from him
none but selfish, greedy, grovelling ideas :;
surely this is fate for which that Of the
street Arab would be almost happy ex-
change:
And when we pass from the public schools
ard the Free Libraries to the actual condition
of society we shall find nothing to modify
any Of the conclusions already reached. If
the theory upon which what is called modern
progress rests were true, there ought to be
plain and unmistakable evidence Of it in the
state of the community. But no such evil
dence can be discerued There is nothing to
indicate that any access of knowledge has
been impaired to the present generation.
The young men OF the day are not peculiarly
intelligent men. They are in truth as stupid
a set OF young men as usual. They do not
schools, and they do not care to learn any
thing thereafter. II they use the Free
Libraries it is to procure rubbishy fiction
for the most part. but as q rule they do not
get beyond the columns Of the daily paper in
reading. And when we pursue our researches
further, and seek to ascertain the moral
status of society at the present time, We
shall be no more successful. In some parts
OF the country it may be said that crimes
of violence have become less frequent than
formerly. But il is not sufficiently realized
that while crimes of violence have been d.
minishing Society has been developing i'm
eye of the law, but which often involve mere
cruelty, baseness, treachery, and evil
generally, than any crime punished by the
law. For example, there is one so-called
business maxim which has excused more
infamies than the worst advice Of Machia-
velli. 1t is to the effect that there must be
"no friendship in business = and it has JUS
titled scoundrels in cheating their best friends.
in betraying the confidence of women who
love and trust them, in lying, and fabricating,
and cheating, and practicing every mean and
dirty and villainous act to cozen others. The
man who invented that maxim must
have been rascal. 1t is altogether illogical
and preposterous. Friendship cannot be
what it pretends to be unless it is independent
of conditions. A friend is friend always,
at all times and under all circumstances. But
this base maxim assumes that where self
interest is concerned everybody is to be
thrown over And it has done infinite mis-
chief.
Now such maxim could not have found
general acceptance in healthy condition OF
public morals. Before men will accept e
theory so mean and shameful they must have
descended considerable depth; they must
have felt the need of some excuse for COM
hitting habitual breaches of friendship.
And this maxim is after all no more than
q weathercock, which shows how the wind
is blowing The real injuries which men
daily and hourly inflict on one another in
the way of business !" the impostures
which they practice; the deliberate false
hoods which they tell the malignities of
which they are guilty; the treasons they
perpetra'e; are unfortunately too much
matter of course to REQUIRE or to justify any
special notice, yet ali these things tend to
indicate the standard of morals which society
is contented with.
1t is not necessary to pursue the inquiry
into the evidences of what the present educa-
ton produces. into the domain of politics
That field at least is sufficiently exploited
for all the people to have some idea of its
character, its attributes, its abuses and its
corruptions All that it is necessary to say of
it is that neither here nor in commerce
or business of any kind can be discovered
bihtcs VI tii6b pioSiCco wal So LIZA
things which writers on our educational sys
TEN are SO fond of postulating. But this is
not the worst. Even if it could be shown
that We were holding our own that the
KNOWLEDGE ard the morality which we our.
selves inherited was being handed down to
our children, at least undiminished if not in
creased, the situation would be better than
what we really are called upon to face. For
we must be prepared to hear that if such
evidence as is attainable is trustworthy, the
tendencies of the time are backward instead
| of forward. and backward in precisely those
elements of civilization upon which the
stability Of nations mainly depends.
lis not mere material wealth and luxury
which fortify and uphold states. There have
been states as rich and prosperous as any now
existing, which have declined and been extin-
guished. It is Lot the advance Of Science
merely which can secure the foundation of
society, even though Science has made greater
| progress than the world ever saw before. 1t
is not through Institutions that societies are
saved, for there are no forms of institutions
which have not at some time failed utterly to
preserve these VINO employed them. But en-
during civilizations depend upon the develop
ment of the mental and moral qualities of
men and women. They depend upon the
sedulous cultivation of those higher aspira-
| tons which lift the soul above the perpesra-
ton of WEAKNESSES; which teach o
nobler humanitarianism than any OF
our schools recognize or comprehend
which suppress the baser instincts, and
carefully encourage the growth of Friend.
ship, Truth, Sef-Respect, Reverence, and
especially that generous abnegation Of sell
which because of its intrinsic opposition to
egotism, modern philosophy has named
Altruism. Without more organized efforts
to lead mankind upward and onward through
the education of its loftier and purel
capacities. it is vain to dream OF any real
OF permanent advancement. We may mul
| tiply the agencies Of material education. We
| may pile libraries On libraries, and college,
upon colleges, but 30 long as we fail t.
recognize and act upon the imperative neet
| for moral training which underiies and vivi
| fes all wholesome education, we shall b.
merely deiuding ourselves with vain pretenses
and sowing tares in the place Of wheat.