Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1885-01-15

I
ministries of educated, large-minded men
and women from the higher institutions.
But colleges are capable OF more direct
and Immediately beneficial influence still
on common schools in that which they are
capable of doing to improve the character
of their books and instruction. Many are
now employed as instructors, especially in
the newer portions of the country, with
such meagFe qualifications, q statement Of
them would be scarcely credible, persons
without the necessary acquisitions to do a
tithe of the work indic2,ed by Prof Davis
in his admirable pape. last night-work
that ought TO be done in every school in
the land.
If he that stands up before his country
men TO plead the cause of justice, to vindi-
cate innocence or to visit guilt with merited
punishment-if he who comes softly to
the bed of affiiction to remove by his heal
ing art the physical sufferings of his
fellow man and restore to throbbing hearts
the loyed one already in the jaws of the
devourer-if such hold high places in the
public estimation, and require rs basis
for their profession such culture as only
the higher institutions are prepared to inn
part, no less must il be so with him who
by training the mind of the community to
intelligence and the heart to virtue is
called upon to fortiiy the future man
against the miseries OF ignorance and vice.
No one in society ills a station more re-
sponsible or useful-a station which calls
for wider acquisitions or finer culture. He
who undertakes 10 train for society and
the State citizens whose intelligence dis
Germs their rights and duties-citizens
whose virtues will support authority, de-
fend the honor of their country and secure
her peace and prosperity, should possess a
wealth of resource second to none. Great
sums are annually xpended-wasted-fo
Instruction which, through incompetency,
is never given at all, for useless, inefficient
teaching which does not deserve the name
Of instruction, for erroneous inculcations
requiring reverse and occupying more
time in unlearning than in the acquiring.
Teachers who know nothing of the
powers of physical or mental endurance
overtax the brain, impair the mental and
physical constitution, produce nervous
wrecks, and thus become responsible to
God for a ruined soul, to fellow being for
blighting his happiness tor all time to
come, to the parent for whitening his fond
est hopes, to society for throwing upon it
an irritable, peevish member, to some future
husband for n scolding wife, or to some
future wife for the affliction of a pertulant,
lordly husband, to a future family for an
ill-natured, tyrannical parent and to the
State for hot-headed, unruly citizen.
Or overtaxing the tender brain OF youth
may have the contrary effect, Of supplant-
ing all future energy and enterprise with
dull stupidity or a listless eauanimity. In
either case the ruin is complete and the
guilt must lie npon the perpetrator of the
mischief. Nor should it be forgotten that
the brightest intellects are most exposed
to danger here, and the brighter the genius
the greater the sin of destroying il. The
intellect must be enlightened. its powers
enlarged and strengthened by healthful
training, the will must be disciplined to
self-control and regulated to the laws of
virtue, and his affections chastened to all
that is pure and lovely Ii we educate the
intellect and leave the moral powers un-
disciplined we train giants in vice to war
upon society while they live.
The moral powers cannot be educated
but through the intellect, because they
can act only on matter in the intellect
They cannot possibly reach any matter but
through the intellect Ii we educate the
intellectual and moral powers and leave the
physical dwarfed or impaired we place
mighty engine on a feeble craft only to
shatter ii 10 pieces and sink il in the great
stream of life.
Education, to profit, must extend to the
whole man-physical, mental and moral.
In order to teach wisely and successfully
one must know vastly more than he is
called upon to teach. He must he able to
see into the beyond whittier his methods
Of instruction are tending He must he
able to see in very broad and general rela-
tions all the matter that he teaches. In
Short in order to perform well and wisely
all the work incumbent upon q common
chool teacher he must himself 20 far be-
yond what the common schools are allow
ed to go by those who support them by
their taxes. The colleges can thus aid the
common school work by preparing for
them men qualified for right instruction.
In furnishing teechers for the schools of
high qualification they will create q great
and wide influence in e!evating the stand
ard Of instruction.
Men imagine themselves on the emi.
nence Of the world until heights above
them are revealed. The presence Of more
intelligent instructors and Of superior
modes Of training will discover to large
circle of teachers their deficiencies and
awake an emulation-s struggle after
higher qualifications. Every example in
this way becomes . teacher and model of
large cluster Of aspirants after excellence
in tbs professon
But here let me turn aside to notice q
charge that is frequently made against
colleges. 1t is said by some that education
obtained at colleges is not practical That
colleges produce learned heorias-while
the inreStors and practical men who make
the world move ase not coilegc-bred. Even
if it be granted that, in large number Of
cases, this Is true-yet il must b remem-
bered that tAeorist ID Of very great value
to the world Healmost invariably throws
out the great ideas in abstract which are
seized by the plnctical men who never
would have discemed them-aud By them
worked into useful inventicus And !
though il be true that il never would have |
t. the hitter, it 10 equally true
that they never would have been TUNED |
to any good account BY the former.
The real authof of the inventjon sets ~ |
good Of it. Still & he can Do ~ gsod with |
il justice can hardly give him the reward |
tUr it. But b be not virtually It least N |
equal factor in the product?
But Il cannot b maintained that the |
colleges aze more prolific in mere
theorists than the comnen ocAool |
Or any oti.,r agncy a sduen1ioo. IDdesd |
they a5o0nd with accumuln1GA sppaEn- |
tus with librariss. with lahsa&osio6 end !
in multitude Of applianoss ior praetieal |