San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1889-03-14

"Go Forth and Tcach INNS rcopIe.N

"Go Forth and Teach This People,"
The following eloquent appeal IL
behalf OF universal public oducotior
is from the pen OF the illustriou'
Horace Mann, Of Massachusetts,, on,
Of the purcst and noblest philanthro
phists of his day, whose life was de
voted in the school room and in va
rious public capacities to the grea,
cause he advocates:
Better, far better, any other con
ceivable calamity to our country than
that the great lesson which Heaven
for six thousand years, has beer
teaching to the world should be lost
upon it; the lesson that the intellec
tual and moral nature of man is the
one thing precious in the sight oi
God; and therefore until this nature
is cultivated and enlightened, and
purified, neither opulence nor power,
nor learning nor genius, nor domes-
tic sanctity, nor the holiness of Gods
affairs, can ever be safe. Until the
immortal and god-liie capacities OF
every being that comes into the world
are deemed of more worth, are watch
cd more tenderly than any other
thing, no dynasty of men or form OF
government can stand, or shall stand,
upon the face of the earth and the
force of the fraud which would seek
to uphold them shall be but "as fet-
ters of fax to bind the fame"
Let those then whose wealth is lost
or jeopardized by fraud or misgovern-
ment; let those who quake with ap-
prehension for the fate of all they
hold dear; let those who behold and
lament the desecration of all tnat is
holy; let rulers whose counsels are
perplexed, whose plans are baflled,
whose laws defied, evaded; let them
all know that whatever ills they feel
or fear are but just retributions of q
righteous Heaven for neglected child
hood.
Remember, then, the child whose
voice first lisps to-day, before that
voice shall learn to whisper sedition
in secret or thunder it at the head of
an armed band. Remember the child
whose hand to-day first lifts its tiny
bauble, before that hand shall scatter
fre-brands, arrows and death. Re-
member those sportive groups of
youth, in whose halcyon bosom there
sleeps an ocean, as yet scarcely ruff
fed by the storms of passion, which
soon shall heave as with the tempest's
strength. Remember that, whatever
station in life you may fill, these NOR
tails, these immortals, are your care.
Devote, expend, ,consecrate yourselves
to the holy work of improvement.
Pour out light and truth as God
pours sunshine and rain. No longer
seek knowledge as the luxury of few,
but dispense it amongst all as the
bread of life, Learn only how the
ignorant may learn, how the innocent
may be preserved; the vicious re-
claimed. Call down the astronomer
from the skies; call up the geologist
from his subterrranean explorations;
summon if need be the mightiest intel
lects from the council chamber of the
nation; enter clustered halls, where
the scoliast muses. over superduous
annotations dissolve conclave and
synod, where subtle polemics are
vainly discussing their barren dog
mas; collect whatever of talent, or
erudition, or eloquence, or authority,
the broad land can supply, and 90
forth AND TEACH THIS PEOPLE. For, IN
the name of the living God, it must
be proclaimed that Righteousness
shall be the liberty; and violence and
chicanery shall be the law; and su-
perstition and craft shall be the re-
iigion and the self lf-destructive in
diligence of all sensual and unhal-
lowed passions shall be the only hap
piness of that people who neglect the
education of their children.