The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-05-24
Educaffon.

AS 1t is, is not as it should and must be, to
elevate man 10 an exalted state of society and
civilization. 1t is readily seen that the neglect
of moral education in the schools and colleges
of America has had poisoning, deadly infiu-
ence upon intellectual education, because NOR
al energy generates intellectual ability. Moral
energy is the only areuser of the entire sleepy
brain. and furnishes the necessary capital to
be expended in intellectual attainments. while
pure intellectual effort not only exhausts the
general vitality of the body and breeds disease,
but impairs the functions and tone OF the brain,
impairs manliness and the womanliness of
the character. impairs moral and religious en-
ergies, and by removing its psychic and physi-
illogical foundations, ultimately impairs the
intellect itself. can be seen in the feebleness
of the spindling form, soft nerves and flesh of
the book-Worm, compared with the sturdy far.
mer's. find it as difficult to sustain the intel
lectual powers without the moral, as to grow
full crop of potatoes without dew or rain. This
is clearly seen when the elements of moral
power are considered in connection with their
influence on the body and braia.
Those long neglected elements in the schools
and colleges are Firmness, Perseverance, Self
respect. Respect for every body. Fidelity, Ener-
gy. Industry. Hope. Faith. Charity. Cheerful
ness. Love. Devotion. Friendship. Beneyolence.
sympathy. Sincerity. Spirituality. and Rever
eDce. Everybody knows that without culture
of these latent graces man Can do nothing as it
should be done with the intellect or body under
the influence of evil passions. sensualities. sui
eide. drunkenness. despair and crime. Chill
dren cannot concentrate their thoughts. cannot
study. cannot persist in anything except in evil
courses. cannot think vigorously enough to
profit By the grandest opportunities ever pre-
sented. Are not our cities. villages and towns
now running over with children who are bun
dl es of disorderly. ruinous propensities, going
on in Incorporate sensualities. impuden &c, fol
ly. profanity, &C.. and in profjgacy and crime,
to disease. despair. insanity. suicide, or Grim
inaI's death or a drunkard's life and death
Can society built out of such material be any
thing but rotten Are not tn schools and coll
iegeS utterly and grossly wrong in attempting
TO increase the Yigor and wealth of the reason
ing faculties by long and unreasonable intel
lectual and memory efforts2 Parents, do you
not know that your children are even now
straining their nerves far beyond the power of
healthy action, in this manner. and leaving the
nobler and better faculties of the heart to Ian
guish and perish for the want of q chance to
act? Will not your children do in after life, as
millions of others have done and are now doin e
despise those finer. warmer, higher emotions
which they are no longer capable of under
standing? Should we not pity the millions of
children who are thus forced to drown their
better. higher. nobler part of their natur ep
Should we turn deaf ear TO reason, and refuse
to come to their rescue2 L pity the teachers
and professors who have sacrificed health in
these foolish and excessive efforts, 1 am con-
vinced that the sacrifice OF health and virtue
so hand in band to an alarming extent.
Now for the new and other side: / surely
have demonstrated to the satisfaction of all
reasonable people who have attended or visited
my schools, that when the above powers and
graces are brought to the front and utilized, all
children will pursue with pleasure. ease. ra-
pidity diligence. perseverance and enthusiasm,
the pleasant paths of Intellectual, social and
political progress and elevation. and even those
of the dullest intellectual capacity which makes
the attainment of knowledge difficult. are sure
to win the honors and advantages of life, and
very often far surpass those of much greater
natural intellect and college honors, but of less
characfers Then if school and college life de-
velops and ripens this grand ch aracter, it in
sures present and permanent intellectual
success; but if they do little or nothing to bring
out these noble qualities. they surely cannot
be intellectually successful. and if what is still
worse, they encourage by evil association low
rude. saucy, or indolent tone of principle. and,
represses the genial emotions by the frozen
stiff. distant department. of the teachers and
professors in which seldshness is the leading
part. they infiict worse permanent wrong up
ON the Intellectual moral life of the student,
making it probable that even the most gifted
will do nothing for the Intellectual, moral, po
Htical. or material progress of the world. un-
less from selfshness. God grant His blessing
ON these honest investigations, and unstop the
deaf ears and open the blind eyes of all con-
cerned. ALFRED KELLY.