Year: 1864

upon GIlOuSdnOS OF HE long experiences, are los
to the world, so far as helping to establish ON,
great and true system of experiencesis concern
ed. Why not generalize the experiences of tn,


practical well as the theories of the visionary
heard a man say a few weeks since tina


''since the war of 1912 every man had been a
work for himself and let few take care of th'


country" but now we have found out that WI


are looking out for ourselves in the truest way


while we are looking directly to the welfare o
| our country. Is this so? For centuries, learn
ed men have labored to publish their own opin
ions and too many to pull down other mems. =
| Why not be wise and see that we are working
for ourselves best, when we are working
for others? | think that there is to be millen


MUM of ideas. Why cannot We know in wha


we agree rather than be forever abusing other


who disagree with us on some petty abstraction


We are but barely tolerant to-day. | coulc


wish that the day had dawned when every one


searching for truth would feel that concentra-
ton of efforts and a division of labor is the


means to use for the advancement of science anC


society. Is it not strange, that thought, which
came quivering across the thread like nerves o.


the brain of one mind, can be transmitted by


means of the nerves and muscles of the ingery
to the sight, and thence to the corresponding


nerves of another brain and be recreated there


No matter how many years have intervened, o.


how many miles may haveseparated their bod


les. n o matter how many times the experiment


may have been made, for the power of a noble


thought is a constant and infinite quantity. Sc


how shall we direct the growing will of the child


Who-doubts that the great aim of all Education


should be to make honest men and true womeni


Who doubts the prosperity and perpetuity of &


government, when men and women of integrity


are reared in her public schools?


Moral and religious teaching, then, is of the


greatest importance. How often we hear it,


But the practical difficulty in the way is tht


fear of sectarian teaching. l therefore propose


that Union Convention of all creeds meet and


decide what they will agree shall be taught in


the public schools. Give us " Moral code oi


Laws" Then teachers will feel that their course


will not be distrusted and resisted, and parents


of all creeds feel free to send to the public
schools; will have another, deeper interest in
them; for they will have them taught to be
good as well as how to read and write; besides


the children will not receive it distrustfully.-
The moral culture of the soul is an impossible
ty, without a standard. We must 60 somewhere
for that standard. / do not mean, put my BIZ
Die, or your Bible, in school; do mean, give us
an acknowledged code. And it should seem
that, in view Of the great and common interests
at stake, an enlightened and free people may
agree on the great principles necessary for the





able to expect it? and may | say here, true men
everywhere, are great deal nearer each other
than their words would seem to indicate. Car
lyle says. Are not all true men that live or that
ever lived soldiers of the same army, enlisted
under Heavens captainey to do battle against
the same enemy-the empire of Darkness and


Wrong? am addressing minds now, and will
you tell me this? Have you not many times
followed the inspiration of the hour, and wheth-
er in the body or out of the body, you did not
think, because your mind was working and
walking among new and lovely ideas? and
when you have returned from-where7 and
breathed once more full and free, have you not
moved muscle here and a muscle there to reht,
as it were, this outer garment to its growing
spirit again2 This is the Minds life-these long
reaches these gigantic strides in such brief spa
ees of time Life cannot be reckoned by heart
throbs. Our subject may be stated thus: The
Minds Lfe--its Hygiene or its Natural Deyel-
opment and Culture-The best methods of ap-
plying the Minds Vitality, and governing this
Governor.


horse can learn the routine of a business;
but when boy, with a soul alive in him, is
studying to understand some hitherto unknown
truth, when he suddenly starts up, his eyes
dancing with delight, and says, " l see it! I've
got tl' there is here more than british instinct.
There is a live soul in that boy. | am sure of
it. But what will it do? What use will he
make of it? Good or bad? Can we lift the
dusky veil of the future and make answer? Mol
But pilot is needed at the helm. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom" and is
that pilot. The man who lives with the fear of
God before his eyes is in all places good man.
What the world needs is good men. A
good man will govern HIMSELF SO therefore in
this country, where the great principle and
problem that " man has a capacity for self-goV-
ernment," is made the basis of its government
and is being worked out in it; 1t can hold true
for this or any other country, only on one con-
ditiOn, viz; That majority of all classes and
conditions of men are so educated that they
shall love virtue. Now, how shall they know
the highest virtue, except they be taught2 And
how shall they be taught without teacher?
and who or what shall be their teacher2-
Are these practical questions? Tell me
lohdt | may teach and not come in conflict
with party and sects. Give US moral constitu-
ton to be taught to every youth il the land
And having it, how shall it be TAUGHT With
the spirit and the power. Who can do itS See
our responsibility II a man isolates himself
rom the earth for the purpose of becoming cleo
trifed with sparks of an electrical machine, he
IS not dead He is filled with what we call
electricity. He weighs no more, no less; but
,an know he is electrified, and can communicate
sparks of this most subtle fluid, or power, to
hose around him. What swapping language
has, by the way.


Let these sparks be words of wisdom; each
word (though labelled with conventional hier-
has carefully folded beneath it a
ruth more powerful than gunpowder or gun
cotton, which can fill the man with power, as
With electricity A power ever increasing with |
fbof rafO
wake up or electrify the nations and the
lumblest soul that breathes Gods air. Now
ct us meet all, at once, the objections to Union
Convention of all creeds to give us the Materi-
i Aid


The other day my little girl dropped pretty /
,Ook upon the floor to run after bit of dirty /
,aper, which her younger sister was carrying
,ut a few steps from her. Ali thought !, this
title child has not acted greater folly than do /
he most of us when our little darling preiudi-
es are touched But ought we to drop great .
principle because some little right of ours goes I
With it? How many drop the main point
n this time of political millennium, when,
7hen, to save our country from traitors, old par
V lines are broken, are we not to look for other
niracles? The importance of acrisis being felt, |
IL true men hasten to the rescue of the best sys-
EN- of government in the world for us, although /
7e can better it by doing better under it. /
ere urge a sectarian millennium to save our
alton from great moral degeneracy and final
ruin, if we do degenerate in sound /
lorals; and l also desire to see laid this cap
tone to the greatest system of public instruc-
ion in the world, which system, when clothed
o the panoply of righteous maxims and eternal
ruth, shall stand as power to guide the rest
ess souls of men, and the will Of the growing
10Y or girl to good life; and, also, it will as
initiate the various nationalities into one nation
f good men and true, bound together by COM
non education as to the rights and wrongs Ofall
lasses and conditions of men. And this is one
neans ofdirecting the restless will of our chill
rem Carlyle says: "I'ell me what man really /
elieves and will tell you what kind of a man
e is" Not what he merely processes, but what
) real to him. But we cannot make mind any 4
lore than we can make gold. Books doDot make |,
is thought. Books do not make |
ractical men-it is experience and tact Do
ou say books cannot be made without thought? /
rue. books are very valuable institution Of 1
nan's creation; but the power of thought is
reater one, and of Gods creation; and here lies
he basis of all true culture and development of /
nan. And, tell me, how far, or to what extent !