Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-02-08
The Bone and SjueW.

The politicians and literary gentlemen
whom we so often invite to address us at
our agricultural fairs and festivals are very
fond of telling us that we are the bone and
sinew of the nation. This may be hand
some compliment (or would have been be-
fore this era of Shorthorns and Herefords)
to pay to herd of bullocks. But addressed
TO men, even farmers" it recalls too forci-
bly, the admonition of the poet,
"Be not like dumb driven cattlei"
and leads, at least some of us, to query in
our minds what the gracious orators who
call us the bone and sinew think them
selves to be. In all likelihood it would not
be far amiss to suppose that they regard
themselves in the light of brains to that
body polite of which we farmers are al.
lowed to constitute the bony and tendenous
portions.
1t is doctrine of Swedenborg that the
human soul is not located in any special
organ or part, but exists in and permeates
every part of the body and that this is nec-
essarially so, since matter cannot perform
the functions of life, or exist as living, ex-
cept by actual contact with that which is
spiritual,-in short, that the soul is the
cause of the body, and the source of all
its life by the presence OF the spiritual in
every particle of its solids, and of every
drop of its living fluids. Now if we apply
a similar theory to the body polite, it is
plain that we cannot have in that body pol
itc a brain distinct from the bone and
sinew. Thought must exist in every tissue Of
the nation, and brain must be found every
where. Aud in truth the farmers do think.
The history of our nation, and of every nation
that has history, testifies to the thinking
power of farmers, and to-day, as in all
former days, strong thinkers have sprung
from among the tillers of the soil.
1t is physiological truth that harmoni.
Gus development of the whole body is essen
tial to the perfect action Of each particular
part. man may have small brain, but
without good muscles, firm bones, and a
sound heart and lungs, the good brain works
to small advantage. And the reverse is
true; the body works to small profit, nc
matter how vigorous it is, unless its action
is directed by well-organized aud well-de-
veloped brain. 1t is well, indeed it is essen
| tial, that farmers, and all who work with
their hands, should have stout bodies but
there is no law, save the law of ancient Gus
toms and prejudice, against their having as
good and active brains as they have bodies
The brain is in fact part of the body, ant
as the other organs are made strong and &C
tive by bodily exercise, so the brain ought Il
be made strong and active by mental exer
else, that is, by study and thought.
When the time shall have fully com
when it is believed to be as necessary ant
advantageous to carefully educate younl
men and women designed for the farm AM
the workshop as it now is to educate then
for the professions and the parlor, it will no
be thought difficult to find something t
compliment farmers about besides thei
bones and their sinews. There are sti
those who look at the subject of popula
education with suspicious gaze. The me
and women who think, with the old.tim
Virginian governor, that the working me
ought to be kept in ignorance, are not a
dead. There are q good many of them, i
fact, living yet. Education has been locke
upon as privilege, and as long as it can
confined to class it makes it privilege
: class Every privileged class is intereste
in preserving the monopoly which gives
an advantage over other classes. To |
"the brains of country is worth none
to the class who can in any degree make
monopoly of that function. This is we
understood by many; and yet it is not tho
who now possess education Of the bette
. sort that stand most in the way of popul
education. Many such, indeed, are
] warmest advocates scorning the thought
keeping its benefits TO themselves and the
posterity alone. The truth must be tol
that the greatest indifference and the grei
est opposition TO improved education for q
working people is to be found among u
working people themselves. Too many
them care far more for some coarse sensu
enjoyment than for learning, either
themselves or for their children. Sayil
nothing about ardent spirits, fifty dollars
e. year are, in vast number OF working-mel
n, families, more willingly paid for tea, cofi
Ior and tobacco than ten dollars for books
"a for the support Of schools. Far more
terest is taken in the quality and price
So those useless and hurtful drugs than in
" goodness of the teaching which the childr
may be getting in the schoolhouse.
man interested in the promotion
popular education may meet with some &C
ness, or win ill-treatment from those "
would monopolize education for their o
! "class !" but the sorest blows he will
! (even in New Eugland) are from those wo
ing men and farmers who care nothi
8, themselves for good schooling for their cl
dren, and who look with savage suspic
upon any who may be active to secure
}! ter school-house or better teacher. 81
,s. man is too often regarded rather as an
Is, emy than friend by the many who gru'
ss' the payment of even small tax for the 8
port of schools.
lin So long as this is true, working men m
Nv remain content with classification VIII
p, places them among beasts whose most
TO- liable qualities are their bones and sine
So long an the people of this great repul
spend fifty dollars for spirits and tobacco
H. each dollar they spend for education, NO