Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1915-05-28


science have acquired broad views of
the power of the soil and of the posi-
bilities of the improvement of animals
that stock the farm. A high intelligence
has been cultivated among skilful finan-
cers. Masters of high grade labor,
supervisors of large industries, farms !
and factories, banks and quarries have
furnished Vermont with legislators
governors and congressman. All ad |
vancement in art and science promotes
and even enforces education apart from
established schools. The office, the
laboratory, the study witness profound
meditation and long continued investiga
ton, the results of which must be cher
ished, transmitted to others. Occupa-
tons like these inevitably plant centres
of information and call upon those who
have acquired the needed knowledge to
become teachers. Such seats of learn
ing by necessity of nature become insti-
are conducted by masters of arts. They
are properly designated colleges, uni
versities, seminaries. They cannot be
thoughtlessly overlooked.
8. Education, as the term is common
ly understood, embraces the work of
the advanced institutions. A training
in the common schools is, it is true, the
basis of education, and it would be i'm
possible to set too high value upon it,
but it does not complete the mental cul-
ture of humanity. Education is not
measured by the number of those who
can read and write, but by the acquire
ments of those who have pushed out
their Investigations into the fields of
science and literature. The scholar is
the man who has given his days and
nights to contemplation and research
If the learned committee of experts that
investigated and reported on Vermont
educational system were called upon to
explain the term education, not one of
them could give prominence to, even if
he mentioned at all, the scheme which
the committee recommended to the
State for its adoption. 1t goes without
saying that Vermont fosters education
! in its length and breadth. 1t would
compel the attendance of the boy that
creeps unwillingly to school and would
crafty the most ambitious aspirations.
4. Colleges are of value to the State
by the influence which their mere exist
ence eXerts. Their graduates waken
ambition and aspiration in the young
Whoever makes his mark in the world
sets before himself an ideal or a mode
to be initiated. That Chicago boy was
not the only one of his kind who had
not made up his mind whether he would
be minister or a car-driver. The boy
who sees in the almanac a list OF the
presidents and a list of the men who
have been sent to Washington from his
own State asks for the path that lead,
to such positions. Admiration of those
on whom hOnors have been bestowed
pride in friends who have part in con
p spicuous places of usefulness walker
elevated aims and longings for eminenc,
among the young who. in any case
: enter on higher career because Of
these emotions. From such motives a.
these almost all eminence has its star
] and impetus. Awe before the dignity
! of Webster has lifted many a man tc
E place and power. From such a star
l.,
5 career Instances nearer home nigh
= be cited to illustrate this theme. Rev
; Willard Child was master of powerful
4 elocution. His imitators were easil!
? recognized in their pulpit ministrations
D In my teaching days | could readil.
5 select those DISCLAIMERS who had sa
= under the preaching of Lord of Mont
t pelier have been told that the pupil
S of Professor Shedd almost unconsciousl
S adopted his phrases and tones of voice
d These persons bring before US at one
= the places whence their culture came
e Yale, Dartmouth, Burlington.
S ;. A State is characterized in a grea
y degree by those who have part in tn
= higher education. If from an elevate
e point we could take birds eye view o
e Vermont, see it in epitome as "a pictur
d standing in relief, we should see mour
e tain peaks, timbered slopes, fertile va
a legs, each contributing to the beaut
d and majesty of the scenery. Their
e would be Mansfield, the Trimont O
e Rutland County, Equinox at Manches
e ter, the broad meadows of the Connect
. icut valley, the glittering waters O
e Bomoseen, and the flowing tide of w
y nooski. Conspicuous points would at
5 tract special attention.
= A picture of moral and intellectut
f Vermont would be similar. Represent
t alive men, conspicuous citizens, chose