The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-03-10
STUDIES IN AN Old BOOK.

have recently stumbled upon vol
ume of Lectures ON Education" by
George Brewster, principal of the acade-
my, Cleveland, O., published in 1885,
These lectures were all delivered prior
to the great awakening of Thaddeus
Stevens, Horace Mann and Henry Bar
nard. 1t is interesting to see what a man
could have said in educational lectures
sixty years ago that should have led to
the publication west of the Alleghenies
of volume of $50 pages for general sale.
Mr.. Brewster was not aiming at re-
form in methods-the day for that re-
form had not dawned-but his anxiety
was for America, which he conceived TO
be on the brink of ruin unless the school
rescued her from her enemies, chief of
which he considered the venal press, ed
ucational sectarianism, and assumed
superiority of the few. 1t seems trifle
queer to see in an educational work pub
lished twenty years before the deaCh of
Daniel Webster a warning to Americans
against a tendency that threatened to
lead to ''Lord Clay; Lord Adams; Web
ster, Earl of Boston," etc.
The most ardent anti Catholic school
man of his decade has found no language
to. compare with that of Mr.. Brewster as
he sees the danger lurking in the private
schools of the Presbyterans, Episcopal
ians, Methodists, Beptists, Oongrega-
tionalists, Universalists, Unitarians, and
Quakers. He proceeds to prove that al
ready noble men have been "paralyzed
as by the nightmare, or the touch of the
torpedo, their good name destroyed by
blasting insinuations and innuendoes,
robbed of an honest livelihood and an
honest fame" And NEVER, it may be
confidently affirmed-NEvER can schools
be improved materially until all religious
parties shall be annihilated, so far as in
fluence on education is concerned"
He pictures himself looking into Amer
ica's threatened future, "down-down-
down-ten thousand times ten thousand
fathoms, into the dark abyss of anarchy
below" He foresaw the Civil War and
sought to avert it by education. "If you
wish not to see these states beligerent-
rivers of fraternal blood flowing through
the land-demagogues wading through
seas of crimson gore, and trampling over
mounds of human flesh educate
them, by all means educate them"
These are samples, fair samples of the
earnestness of the Ohioan who spoke
from the depths of his soul sixty years
ago.
While he did net deal specifically with
methods, he fully appreciated the re-
sponsibility that rested upon teachers,
and after prophesying the dawning of
electrical travel by 1880, he prophesied
hat schoolroom methods would kept
pace with the advance in the industries
and in commerce. We may reasonably
anticipate that Improvements will be
made in the art of communicating knowl-
edge to others-in the science of teach
ing, which are not at present, even
dreamed of, much less anticipated as
probabilities, and which, should we pre-
dict, that prediction would subject him
to the charge of enthusiasm.
1t has been delight to revel in these
pages, among words that flashed from
an earnest soul, an educator and a pat
riot in the anti-Mann period of our edu-
cational and National life.-Warren Win
throp, in N. E. Journal of Education.