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THOUGHTS
ON
EDUCATIONAL TOPICS
AND
INSTITUTIONS.
BY
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.
BOSTON:
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY.
MDCCCLIX.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
GEORGE S. BOUTWELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART AND ROBBINS, BOSTON.
To
THE TEACHERS OF MASSACHUSETTS,
WHOSE
ENLIGHTENED DEVOTION TO THEIR DUTIES
HAS
CONTRIBUTED EFFECTUALLY TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING,
This Volume
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
G. S. B.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE INTRINSIC NATURE AND VALUE OF LEARNING, AND ITS
INFLUENCE UPON LABOR, 9
EDUCATION AND CRIME, 49
REFORMATION OF CHILDREN, 75
THE CARE AND REFORMATION OF THE NEGLECTED AND EXPOSED
CLASSES OF CHILDREN, 86
ELEMENTARY TRAINING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 131
THE RELATIVE MERITS OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENDOWED
ACADEMIES, 152
THE HIGH SCHOOL SYSTEM, 164
NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING, 203
FEMALE EDUCATION, 221
THE INFLUENCE, DUTIES, AND REWARDS, OF TEACHERS, 241
LIBERTY AND LEARNING, 274
MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND, 308
A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, 339
THE INTRINSIC NATURE AND VALUE OF LEARNING, AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON
LABOR.
[Lecture before the American Institute of Instruction.]
Words and terms have, to different minds, various significations; and we
often find definitions changing in the progress of events. Bailey says
learning is "skill in languages or sciences." To this, Walker adds what
he calls "literature," and "skill in anything, good or bad." Dr. Webster
enlarges the meaning of the word still more, and says, "Learning is the
knowledge of principles or facts received by instruction or study;
acquired knowledge or ideas in any branch of science or literature;
erudition; literature; science; knowledge acquired by experience,
experiment, or observation." Milton gives us a rhetorical definition in
a negative form, which is of equal value, at least, with any authority
yet cited. "And though a linguist," says Milton, "should pride himself
to have all the tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet if he have
not studied the solid things in them, as well as the words and
lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, as any
yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother dialect
only."--"Language is but the instrument conveying to us things useful to
be known."
This is kindred to the saying of Locke, that "men of much reading are
greatly learned, but may be little knowing." We must give to the term
_learning_ a broad definition, if we accept Milton's statement that its
end "is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know
God aright;" for this necessarily implies that we are to study carefully
everything relating to the nature of our existence, to the spot and
scene of our existence, with its mysterious phenomena, and its
comparatively unexplained laws. And we must, moreover, always keep in
view the personal relations and duties which the Creator has imposed
upon the members of the human race. The knowledge of these relations and
duties is one form of learning; the disposition and the ability to
observe and practise these relations and duties, is another and a higher
form of learning. The first is the learning of the theologian, the
schoolman; the latter is the learning of the practical Christian. Both
ought to exist; but when they are separated, we place things above
signs, facts above forms, life above ideas. Law and justice ought always
to be united; but when by error, or fraud, or usurpation, they are
separated, we observe the forms of law, but we respect the principles of
justice. This is a good illustration of the principles which guide to a
true distinction in the forms of learning. Of all the definitions
enumerated, we must give to the word _learning_ the broadest
signification. It is safe to accept the statement of the great poet,
that a man may be acquainted with many languages, and yet not be
learned; even as the apostle said he should become as sounding brass or
a tinkling cymbal, if he had not charity, though he spoke with the
tongues of men and angels. Learning includes, no doubt, a knowledge of
the languages, the sciences, and all literature; but it includes also
much else; and this much else may be more important than the enumerated
branches. The term _learned_ has been limited, usually, by exclusive
application to the schoolmen; but it is a matter of doubt, especially in
this country, upon the broad definition laid down, whether there is more
learning in the schools, or out of them. This remark, if true, is no
reflection upon the schools, but much in favor of the world. Those were
dark ages when learning was confined to the schools; and, though we can
never be too grateful for their existence, and the fidelity with which
they preserved the knowledge of other days, that is surely a higher
attainment in the life of the race, when the learning of the world
exceeds the learning of the cloister, the school, and the college.
In a private conversation, Professor Guyot made a remark which seems to
have a public value. "You give to your schools," said he, "credit that
is really due to the world. Looking at America with the eye of an
European, it appears to me that your world is doing more and your
schools are doing less, in the cause of education, than you are inclined
to believe." For one, though I ought, as much as any, to stand for the
schools, I give a qualified assent to the truth of this observation.
There is much learning among us which we cannot trace directly to the
schools; but the schools have introduced and fostered a spirit which has
given to the world the power to make itself learned. It is much easier
to disseminate what is called the spirit of education, than it was to
create that spirit, and preserve it when there were few to do it homage.
For this we are indebted to the schools. Unobserved in the process of
change, but happy in its results, the business of education is not now
confined to professional teachers.
The greatest change of all has been wrought by the attention given to
female education, so that the mother of this generation is not compelled
to rely exclusively upon the school and the paid teacher, public or
private, but can herself, as the teacher ordained by nature, aid her
children in the preparatory studies of life. This power does not often
manifest itself in a regular system of domestic school studies and
discipline, but its influence is felt in a higher home preparation, and
in the exhibition of better ideas of what a school should be. And we may
assume, with all due respect to our maternal ancestry, that this fact is
a modern feature, comparatively, in American civilization. Female
education has given rise to some excesses of opinion and conduct; but
the world is entirely safe, especially the self-styled lords of
creation, and may wisely advocate a system of general education without
regard to sex, and leave the effect to those laws of nature and
revelation which are to all and in all, and cannot permanently be
avoided or disobeyed.
The number of educators has strangely increased, and they often appear
where they might least be expected. We speak of the revival of
education, and think only of the change that has taken place in the last
twenty years in the appropriations of money, the style of school-houses,
and the fitness of professional teachers for the work in which they are
engaged; but these changes, though great, are scarcely more noteworthy
than those that have occurred in the management of our shops, mills, and
farms. When we write the sign or utter the sound which symbolizes
_Teacher_, what figure, being, or qualities, are brought before us? We
_should_ see a person who, in the pursuit of knowledge, is self-moving,
and, in the exercise of the influence which knowledge gives, is able to
appreciate the qualities of others; and who, moreover, possesses enough
of inventive power to devise means by which he can lead pupils,
students, or hearers, in the way they ought to go. We naturally look for
such persons in the lecture-room, the school, and the pulpit. And we
find them there; but they are also to be found in other places. There
are thousands of such men in America, engaged in the active pursuits of
the day. They are farmers, mechanics, merchants, operatives. They do not
often follow text-books, and therefor are none the worse, but much the
better teachers. Insensibly they have taken on the spirit of the teacher
and the school, and, apparently ignorant of the fact, are, in the quiet
pursuits of daily life, leaders of classes following some great thought,
or devoted to some practical investigation. And in one respect these
teachers are of a higher order than _some_--not all, nor most--of our
professional teachers. They never cease to be students. When a man or
woman puts on the garb of the teacher, and throws off the garb of the
student, you will soon find that person so dwindled and dwarfed, that
neither will hang upon the shoulders. This happens sometimes in the
school, but never in the world.
The last twenty-five years have produced two new features in our
civilization, that are at once a cause and a product of learning. I
speak of the Press, and of Associations for mutual improvement.
The newspaper press of America, having its centre in the city of New
York, is more influential than the press of any other country. It may
not be conducted with greater ability; though, if compared with the
English press, the chief difference unfavorable to America is found in
the character of the leading editorial articles. In enterprise, in
telegraphic business, maritime, and political news and information, the
press of the United States is not behind that of Great Britain.
It must, however, be admitted that a given subject is usually more
thoroughly discussed in a single issue from the English press; but it is
by no means certain that public questions are, upon the whole, better
canvassed in England than in America. Indeed, the opposite is probably
true. Our press will follow a subject day after day, with the aid of
new thoughts and facts, until it is well understood by the reader.
European ideas of journalism cannot be followed blindly by the press of
America. The journalist in Europe writes for a select few. His readers
are usually persons of leisure, if they have not always culture and
taste; and the issue of the morning paper is to them what the appearance
of the quarterly, heavy or racy, is to the cultivated American reader.
But the American journalist, whatever his taste may be, cannot afford to
address himself to so small an audience. He writes literally for the
million; for I take it to be no exaggeration to say that paragraphs and
articles are often read by millions of people in America. This fact is
an important one, as it furnishes a good test of the standard taste and
learning of the people. Our press answers the demand which the people
make upon it. The mass of newspaper readers are not, in a scholastic
sense, well-educated persons. Newspaper writers do not, therefore,
trouble themselves about the colleges with their professors, but they
seek rather to gain the attention and secure the support of the great
body of the people, who know nothing of colleges except through the
newspapers. We have always been permitted to infer the intellectual and
moral character of the audiences of Demosthenes, from the orations of
Demosthenes; and may we not also infer the character of the American
people, from the character of the press that they support? In a single
issue may often be found an editorial article upon some question of
present interest; a sermon, address, or speech, from a leading mind of
the country or the world; letters from various quarters of the globe;
extracts from established literary and scientific journals; original
essays upon political, literary, scientific, and religious subjects; and
items of local or general interest for all classes of readers. This
product of the press, in quantity and quality, could not be distributed,
week after week, and year after year, among an ignorant class of people.
It could be accepted by intelligent, thinking, progressive minds only;
and, as a fact necessarily coëxisting, we find the newspaper press
equally essential to the best-educated persons among us. The newspaper
press in America is a century and a half old; but its power does not
antedate this century, and its growth has been chiefly within the last
twenty-five years. What that growth has been may be easily seen by any
one who will compare the daily sheet of the last generation with the
daily sheet of this; and the future of the American press may be easily
predicted by those who consider the progressive influences among us, of
which the newspaper must always be the truest representative.
Within the same brief period of time it has become the fixed custom of
the people to associate together for educational objects.
As a consequence, we have the lyceum for all, libraries for all,
professional institutes and clubs for merchants, mechanics, and farmers,
and, at last, free libraries and lectures for the operatives in the
mills. Where these institutions can exist, there must be a high order of
general learning; and where these institutions do exist, and are
sustained, the learning of the people, whether high or low at any given
moment, must be rapidly improved. Yet some of these agencies--lectures
and libraries, for example--are not free from serious faults. It may
seem rash and indefensible to criticize lectures upon the platform of
the lecturer; but, as the audience can inflict whatever penalty they
please upon the speaker, he will so far assume responsibility as to say
that amusement is not the highest object of a single lecture, and when
sought by managers as the desirable object of a whole course, the
lecture-room becomes a theatre of dissipation; surely not so bad as
other forms of dissipation, but yet so distinctly marked, and so
pernicious in its influence, as to be comparatively unworthy of general
support. Let it not, however, be inferred that wit, humor, and drollery
even, are to be excluded from the lecture-room; but they should always
be employed as means by which information is communicated. Between
lecturers equal in other respects, one with the salt of humor, native to
the soil, should be preferred; but it is a sad reflection upon public
taste, when a person whose entire intellectual capital is wit, humor, or
buffoonery, is preferred to men of solid learning. But it is a worse
view of human nature, when men of real merit and worth depreciate
themselves and lower the public taste, by attempting to do what, at
best, they can have but ill success in, and what they would despise
themselves for, were they to succeed completely. Shakspeare says of a
jester:
"This fellow's wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well, craves a kind of wit:
* * * * *
This is a practice
As full of labor as a wise man's art:
For folly, that he wisely shows, is fit;
But wise men, folly-fallen, quite taint their wit."
A kindred mental dissipation follows in the steps of progress, and
demands aliment from our public libraries. In the selection of books
there is a wide range, from the trashy productions of the fifth-rate
novelist, to stately history and exact science. It is, however, to be
assumed that libraries will not be established until they are wanted,
and that the want will not be pressing until there is a taste for
reading somewhat general. Where this taste exists, it is fair to assume
that it is in some degree elevated. The direction, however, which the
taste of any community is to take, after the establishment of a public
library, depends, in a great degree, upon the selection of books for its
shelves. Two dangers are to be avoided. The first, and greatest, is the
selection of books calculated to degrade the morals or intellect of the
reader. This danger is apparent, and to be shunned needs but to be seen.
Books, of more or less intrinsic value, are so abundant and cheap, that
common men must go out of their way to gather a large collection that
shall not contain works of real merit. But the object should be to
exclude all worthless and pernicious works, and meet and improve the
public taste, by offering it mental food better than that to which it
has been accustomed. The other danger is negative, rather than positive;
but, as books are comparatively worthless when they are not read, it
becomes a matter of great moment to select such as will touch the public
mind at a few points, at least. It is indeed possible, and, under the
guidance of some persons, it would be natural, to encumber the shelves
of a library with _good books_ that might ever remain so, saving only
the contributions made to mould and mice.
Now, if you will pardon a little more fault-finding,--which is, I
confess, a quality without merit, or, as Byron has it,
"A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure--critics all are ready made,"--
I will hazard the opinion that the practice of establishing libraries in
towns for the benefit of a portion of the inhabitants only is likely to
prove pernicious in the end. To be sure, reading for some is better than
reading for none; but reading for all is better than either. In
Massachusetts there is a general law that permits cities and towns to
raise money for the support of libraries; yet the legislature, in a few
cases, has granted charters to library associations. With due deference,
it may very well be suggested, that, where a spirit exists which leads a
few individuals to ask for a charter, it would be better to turn this
spirit into a public channel, that all might enjoy its benefits. And it
will happen, generally, that the establishment of a public library will
be less expensive to the friends of the movement, and the advantages
will be greater; while there will be an additional satisfaction in the
good conferred upon others.
We shall act wisely if we apply to books a maxim of the Greeks: "All
things in common amongst friends." Under this maxim Cicero has
enumerated, as principles of humanity, not to deny one a little running
water, or the lighting his fire by ours, if he has occasion; to give the
best counsel we are able to one who is in doubt or distress; which, says
he, "are things that do good to the person that receives them, and are
no loss or trouble to him that confers them." And he quotes, with
approbation, the words of Ennius:
"He that directs the wandering traveller
Doth, as it were, light another's torch by his own;
Which gives him ne'er the less of light, for that
It gave another."
A good book is a guide to the reader, and a well-selected library will
be a guide to many. And shall we give a little running water, and turn
aside or choke up the streams of knowledge? light the evening torch, and
leave the immortal mind unillumined? give free counsel to the ignorant
or distressed, when he might easily be qualified to act as his own
counsellor? In July 1856, Mr. Everett gave five hundred dollars toward a
library for the High School in his native town of Dorchester; and in
1854 Mr. Abbott Lawrence gave an equal sum to his native town for the
establishment of a public library. These are not large donations, if we
consider only the amount of money given; but it is difficult to suggest
any other equal appropriation that would be as beneficial, in a public
sense. These donations are noble, because conceived in a spirit of
comprehensive liberality. They are examples worthy of imitation; and I
venture to affirm, there is not one of our New England towns that has
not given to the world a son able to make a similar contribution to the
cause of general learning. Is it too much to believe that a public
library in a town will double the number of persons having a taste for
reading, and consequently double the number of well-educated people?
For, though we are not educated by mere reading, it is yet likely to
happen that one who has a taste for books will also acquire habits of
observation, study, and reflection.
Professional institutes and clubs also serve to increase the sum of
general learning. They have thus far avoided the evil which has waited
or fastened upon similar associations in Europe,--subserviency to
political designs. Every profession or interest of labor has peculiar
ideas and special purposes. These ideas and purposes may be wisely
promoted by distinct organizations. Who can doubt the utility of
associations of merchants, mechanics, and farmers? They furnish
opportunities for the exchange of opinions, the exhibition of products,
the dissemination of ideas, and the knowledge of improvements, that are
thus wisely made the property of all. Knowledge begets knowledge. What
is the distinguishing fact between a good school and a poor one? Is it
not, that in a good school the prevailing public sentiment is on the
side of knowledge and its acquisition? And does not the same fact
distinguish a learned community from an ignorant community? If, in a
village or city of artisans, each one makes a small annual contribution
to the general stock of knowledge, the aggregate progress will be
appreciable, and, most likely, considerable. If, on the other hand, each
one plods by himself, the sum of professional knowledge cannot be
increased, and is likely to be diminished.
The moral of the parable of the ten talents is eminently true in matters
of learning. "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that
which he hath." We cannot conceive of a greater national calamity than
an industrial population delving in mental sluggishness at unrelieved
and unchanging tasks. The manufacture of pins was commenced in England
in 1583, and for two hundred and fifty years she had the exclusive
control of the trade; yet all that period passed away without
improvement, or change in the process; while in America the business was
revolutionized, simplified, and economized one-half, in the period of
five years. In 1840 the valuation of Massachusetts was about three
hundred millions of dollars; but it is certain that a large portion of
this sum should have been set off against the constant impoverishment of
the land, commencing with the settlement of the state,--the natural and
unavoidable result of an ignorant system of farm labor. The revival of
education in America was soon followed by a marked improvement in the
leading industries of the people, and especially in the department of
agriculture. The principle of association has not yet been as beneficial
to the farmers as to the mechanics; but the former are soon to be
compensated for the delay. With the exception of the business of
discovering small planets, which seem to have been created for the
purpose of exciting rivalry among a number of enthusiastic, well-minded,
but comparatively secluded gentlemen, agricultural learning has made the
most marked progress in the last ten years. But an agricultural
population is professionally an inert population; and, therefore, as in
the accumulation of John Jacob Astor's fortune, it was more difficult to
take the first step than to make all the subsequent movements. Now,
however, the principle of association is giving direction and force to
the labors of the farmer; and it is easy for any person to draw to
himself, in that pursuit, the results of the learning of the world.
Libraries and lectures for the operatives in the manufactories
constitute another agency in the cause of general learning. The city of
Lawrence, under the lead of well-known public-spirited gentlemen there,
has the honor of introducing the system in America. A movement, to which
this is kindred, was previously made in England; but that movement had
for its object the education of the operatives in the simple elements of
learning, and among the females in a knowledge of household duties. An
English writer says: "Many employers have already established schools in
connection with their manufactories. From many instances before us, we
may take that of Mr. Morris, of Manchester, who has risen, himself, from
the condition of a factory operative, and who has felt in his own person
the disadvantages under which that class of workmen labor. He has
introduced many judicious improvements. He has spent about one hundred
and fifty pounds in ventilating his mills; and has established a
library, coffee-room, class-room, weekly lectures, and a system of
industrial training. The latter has been established for females, of
whom he employs a great many. This class of girls generally go to the
mills without any knowledge of household duties; they are taught in the
schools to sew, knit," etc.
But, in the provision made at Lawrence for intellectual culture, it is
assumed, very properly, that the operatives are familiar with the
branches usually taught in the public schools. This could not be assumed
of an English manufacturing population, nor, indeed, of any town
population, considered as a whole. Herein America has an advantage over
England. Our laborers occupy a higher standpoint intellectually, and in
that proportion their labors are more effective and economical. The
managers and proprietors at Lawrence were influenced by a desire to
improve the condition of the laborers, and had no regard to any
pecuniary return to themselves, either immediate or remote. And it would
be a sufficient satisfaction to witness the growth of knowledge and
morality, thereby elevating society, and rendering its institutions more
secure.
These higher results will be accompanied, however, by others of
sufficient importance to be considered. When we _hire_, or, what is,
for this inquiry, the same thing, _buy_ that commodity called, _labor_,
what do we expect to get? Is it merely the physical force, the animal
life contained in a given quantity of muscle and bone? In ordinary cases
we expect these, but in all cases we expect something more. We sometimes
buy, and at a very high cost, too, what has, as a product, the least
conceivable amount of manual labor in it,--a professional opinion, for
example; but we never buy physical strength merely, nor physical
strength at all, unless it is directed by some intellectual force. The
descending stream has power to drive machinery, and the arm of the idiot
has force for some mechanical service, but they equally lack the
directing mind. We are not so unwise as to purchase the power of the
stream, or the force of the idiot's arm; but we pay for its application
in the thing produced, and we often pay more for the skill that has
directed the power than for the power itself. The river that now moves
the machinery of a factory in which many scores of men and women find
their daily labor, and earn their daily bread, was employed a hundred
years ago in driving a single set of mill-stones; and thus a man and boy
were induced to divide their time lazily between the grist in the hopper
and the fish under the dam. The river's power has not changed; but the
inventive, creative genius of man has been applied to it, and new and
astonishing results are produced. With man himself this change has been
even greater. In proportion to the population of the country, we are
daily dispensing with manual labor, and yet we are daily increasing the
national production. There is more mind directing the machinery
propelled by the forces of nature, and more mind directing the machinery
of the human body. The result is, that a given product is furnished by
less outlay of physical force. Formerly, with the old spinning-wheel and
hand-loom, we put a great deal of bone and muscle into a yard of cloth;
now we put in very little. We have substituted mind for physical force,
and the question is, which is the more economical? Or, in other words,
is it of any consequence to the employer whether the laborer is ignorant
or intelligent?
Before we discuss this point abstractly, let us notice the conduct of
men. Is any one willing to give an ignorant farm laborer as much as he
is ready to pay for the services of an intelligent man? And if not, why
the distinction? And if an ignorant man is not the best man upon a farm,
is he likely to be so in a shop or mill? And if not, we see how the
proprietors of factories are interested in elevating the standard of
learning, in the mills and outside. But they are not singular in this.
All classes of employers are equally concerned in the education of the
laborer; for learning not only makes his labor more valuable to himself,
but the market price of the product is generally reduced, and the change
affects favorably all interests of society. This benefit is one of the
first in point of time, and the one, perhaps, most appreciable of all
which learning has conferred upon the laborer. As each laborer, with the
same expenditure of physical force, produces a greater result, of course
the aggregate products of the world are vastly increased, although they
represent only the same number of laborers that a less quantity would
have represented under an ignorant system.
The division of these products upon any principle conceivable leaves for
the laborer a larger quantity than he could have before commanded; for,
although the share of the wealthy may be disproportionate, their ability
to consume is limited; and, as poverty is the absence or want of things
necessary and convenient for the purposes of life, according to the
ideas at the time entertained, we see how a laboring population,
necessarily poor while ignorance prevails, is elevated to a position of
greater social and physical comfort, as mind takes the place of brute
force in the industries of the world. Learning, then, is not the result
of social comfort, but social comfort is the product of intelligence,
and increases or diminishes as intelligence is general or limited. It is
not, however, to be taken as granted that each laborer's position
corresponds or answers to the sum of his own knowledge. It might happen
that an ignorant laborer would enjoy the advantages of a general
culture, to which he contributed little or nothing; and it must of
necessity also happen that an intelligent laborer, in the midst of an
ignorant population, as in Ireland or India, for example, would be
compelled to accept, in the main, the condition of those around him. But
there is no evidence on the face of society now, or in its history, that
an ignorant population, whether a laboring population or not, has ever
escaped from a condition of poverty. And the converse of the proposition
is undoubtedly true, that an intelligent laboring community will soon
become a wealthy community. Learning is sure to produce wealth; wealth
is likely to contribute to learning, but it does not necessarily produce
it. Hence it follows that learning is the only means by which the poor
can escape from their poverty.
In this statement it is assumed that education does not promote vice;
and not only is this negative assumption true, but it is safe to assume,
further, that education favors virtue, and that any given population
will be less vicious when educated than when ignorant. This, I cannot
doubt, is a general truth, subject, of course, to some exceptions.
The educational struggle in which the English people are now engaged has
made distinct and tangible certain opinions and impressions that are
latent in many minds. There has been an attempt to show that vice has
increased in proportion to education. This attempt has failed, though
there may be found, of course, in all countries, single facts, or
classes of facts, that seem to sustain such an opinion.
Now, suppose this case,--and neither this case nor any similar one has
ever occurred in real life,--but suppose crime to increase as a people
were educated, though there should be no increase of population; would
this fact prove that learning made men worse? By no means. Our answer is
apparent on the face of the change itself. By education, the business,
and pecuniary relations and transactions of a people are almost
indefinitely multiplied; and temptations to crime, especially to crimes
against property, are multiplied in an equal ratio. Would person or
property be better respected in New York or Boston, if the most ignorant
population of the world could be substituted for the present
inhabitants of those cities? The business nerves of men are frequently
shocked by some unexpected defalcation, and short-sighted moralists, who
lack faith, exclaim, "All this is because men know so much!" Such
certainly forget that for every defaulter in a city there are hundreds
of honest men, who receive and render justly unto all, and hold without
check the fortunes of others. So Mr. Drummond argued in the British
House of Commons against a national system of education, because what he
was pleased to call _instruction_ had not saved William Palmer and John
Sadlier. But the truth in this matter is not at the bottom of a well; it
is upon the surface. Where it is the habit of society generally to be
ignorant, you will find it the necessity of that society to be poor; and
where ignorance and poverty both abound, the temptations to crime are
unquestionably few, but the power to resist temptation is as
unquestionably weak. The absence of crime is owing to the absence of
temptation, rather than to the presence of virtue. Such a condition of
society is as near to real virtue as the mental weakness of the idiot is
to true happiness.
Turning again to the discussion in the British Parliament of April,
1856, we are compelled to believe that some English statesmen are, in
principle and in their ideas of political economy, where a portion of
the English cotton-spinners were a hundred years ago. The
cotton-spinners thought the invention of labor-saving machinery would
deprive them of bread; and a Mr. Ball gravely argues that schools will
so occupy the attention of children, that the farmers' crops will be
neglected. I am inclined to give you his own words; and I have no doubt
you will be in a measure relieved of the dulness of this essay, when you
listen to what was actually cheered, in the British Commons. Speaking of
the resolutions in favor of a national system of instruction, Mr. Ball
said: "It was important to consider what would be their bearing on the
agricultural districts of the country. He had obtained a return from his
own farm, and, supposing the principles advocated by the noble lord were
adopted, the results would be perfectly fearful. The following was the
return he had obtained from his agent: William Chapman, ten years a
servant on his (Mr. Ball's) farm; his own wages thirteen shillings,
besides a house; he had seven children, who earned nine shillings a
week; making together twenty-two shillings a week. Robert Arbor, fifteen
years on the farm; wages thirteen shillings a week, and a house; six
children, who earned six shillings a week; making together nineteen
shillings. John Stevens, thirty-three years a servant on the farm; his
own wages fourteen shillings a week; he had brought up ten children,
whose average earnings had been twelve shillings weekly, making together
twenty-six shillings a week. Robert Carbon, twenty-two years a servant
on the farm; wages thirteen shillings a week; having ten children, who
earned ten shillings a week; making together twenty-three shillings a
week. Thus it appeared that in these four families the fathers earned
fifty-three shillings weekly, and the children thirty-seven shillings a
week; so that the children earned something more than two-thirds of the
amount of the earnings of the fathers. He would ask the house, if the
fathers were to be deprived of the earnings of the children, how could
they provide bread for them? It was perfectly impossible. They must
either increase the parent's wages to the amount of the loss he thus
sustained, or they must make it up to him from a rate. Then, again,
those who were at all conversant with agriculture knew that if they
deprived the farmer of the labor of children, agriculture could not be
carried on. There was no machinery by which they could get the weeds out
of the land."--_London Times_.
The light which this statement furnishes is not hid under a bushel. The
argument deserves a more logical form, and I proceed gratuitously to
give the author the benefit of a scientific arrangement. "If a national
system of education is adopted, the children of my tenants will be sent
to school; if the children of my tenants are sent to school, my turnips
will not be weeded; if my turnips are not weeded, I shall eat fat mutton
no more."
After this from a statesman, we need not wonder that a correspondent of
Lord John Russell writes, "That a farmer near him has been heard to say,
he would not give anything to a day-school; he finds that since
Sunday-schools have been established the birds have increased and eat
his corn, and because he cannot now procure the services of the boys,
whom he used to employ the whole of Sunday, in protecting his
fields."--_London Times, April 13th, 1856._
Now, I do not go to England for the purpose of making an attack upon her
opinions; but, as kindred ideas prevail among us, though to a limited
extent only, the folly of them may be seen in persons at a distance,
when it would not be realized by ourselves. Moreover, the presentation
of these somewhat ridiculous notions brings ridicule upon a whole class
of errors; and when errors are so ingrained that men cannot reason in
regard to them, ridicule is often the only weapon of successful attack.
And it is no compliment to an American audience for the speaker to say
that their own minds already suggest the refutation which these errors
demand. If the chief end of man, for which boyhood should be a
preparation, were to weed turnips or to frighten blackbirds from
corn-fields, then surely the objection of Mr. Ball, and the complaint
and spirit of resistance offered by Lord John Russell's farmer, would be
eminently proper. But Lord John Russell did not himself assent to the
view furnished by his correspondent. Mr. Ball's theory evidently is,
"Take good care of the turnips, and leave the culture of the boys and
girls to chance;" and Lord John Russell's wise farmer unquestionably
thinks that cereal peculations of blackbirds are more dangerous than the
robberies committed by neglected children, grown to men.
Mr. Clay, chaplain of Preston jail, says: "Thirty-six per cent. come
into jail unable to say the Lord's Prayer; and seventy-two per cent.
come in such a state of moral debasement that it is in vain to give them
instruction, or to teach them their duty, since they cannot understand
the meaning of the words used to them." Here we have, as cause and
effect, the philosophy of Mr. Ball, and the facts of Mr. Clay. And,
further, this philosophy is as bad in principle, when tried by the rules
of political economy, as when subjected to moral and Christian tests.
Mr. Ball says there is no machinery by which the farmers can get the
weeds out of the land. This may be true; and once there was no
machinery by which they could get the seed into the land, or the crops
from it. Once there was little or no inventive power among the
mechanics, or scientific knowledge, or even spirit of inquiry, among the
farmers. How have these changes been wrought? By education, surely, and
that moral and religious culture for which secular education is a fit
preparation. The contributions of learning to labor, in a pecuniary
aspect alone, have far exceeded the contributions of labor to learning.
It is impossible to enumerate the evidences in support of this
statement, but single facts will give us some conception of their
aggregated value and force.
It was stated by Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of
Agriculture, in his Annual Report for 1855, "That the saving to the
country, from the improvements in ploughs alone, within the last
twenty-five years, has been estimated at no less than ten millions of
dollars a year in the work of teams, and one million in the price of
ploughs, while the aggregate of the crops is supposed to have been
increased by many millions of bushels." From this fact, as the
representative of a great class of facts, we may safely draw two
conclusions. First, these improvements are the products of learning, the
contribution which learning makes to labor, far exceeding in amount any
tax which the cause of learning, in schools or out, imposes upon labor.
Secondly, we see that a given amount of adult labor upon a farm, with
the help of the improved implements of industry, will accomplish more in
1856, than the same amount of adult labor, with its attendant juvenile
force, could have accomplished in 1826. If we were fully to illustrate
and sustain the latter inference, we should be required to review the
improvements made in other implements of farming, as well as in ploughs.
Their positive pecuniary value, when considered in the aggregate, is too
vast for general belief; and in England alone it must exceed the
anticipated cost of a system of public instruction, say six millions of
pounds, or thirty millions of dollars, per year. But learning, as we
have defined it, has contributed less to farming than to other
departments of labor.
The very existence of manufactures presupposes the existence of
learning. There is no branch of manufactures without its appropriate
machine; and every machine is the product of mind, enlarged and
disciplined by some sort of culture. The steam engine, the
spinning-jenny, the loom, the cotton-gin, are notable instances of the
advantages derived by manufacturing industry from the prevalence of
learning. It was stated by Chief Justice Marshall, about thirty years
ago, that Whitney's cotton-gin had saved five hundred millions of
dollars to the country; and the saving, upon the same basis, cannot now
be less than one thousand millions of dollars,--a sum too great for the
human imagination to conceive. When we contemplate these achievements of
mind, by which manual labor has been diminished, and every physical
force both magnified and economized, how unstatesmanlike is the view
which regards a human being as a bundle of muscles and bones merely,
with no destiny but ignorance, servitude, and poverty!
Ancient commerce, if we omit to notice the conjecture that the mariner's
compass was in possession of the old Phoenician and Indian navigators,
reproduced, rather than invented, in modern times, did not rest upon any
enlarged scientific knowledge; but, in this era, many of the sciences
contribute to the extension and prosperity of trade. After what has been
accomplished by science, and especially by physical geography, for
commerce and navigation, we have reason to expect a system, based upon
scientific knowledge and principles, which shall render the highway of
nations secure against the disasters that have often befallen those who
go down to the sea in ships. Science gave to the world the steamship,
which promised for a time to engross the entire trade upon the ocean;
but science again appears, constructs vessels upon better scientific
principles, traces out the path of currents in the water and the air,
and thus restores the rival powers of wind and steam to an equality of
position in the eye of the merchant. Will any one say that all this
inures to capital, and leaves the laborer comparatively unrewarded? We
are accustomed to use the word prosperity as synonymous with
accumulation; and yet, in a true view, a man may be prosperous and
accumulate nothing. Suppose we contrast two periods in the life of a
nation with each other. Since the commencement of this century, the
wages of a common farm laborer in America have increased seventy-five or
one hundred per cent., while the articles necessary and convenient for
his use have, upon the whole, diminished in price. Admit that there was
nothing for accumulation in the first period, and that there is nothing
for accumulation now,--is not his condition nevertheless improved? And,
if so, has he not participated in the general prosperity?
Indeed, we may all accept the truth, that there is no exclusiveness in
the benefits which learning confers; and this leads me to say, next,
that there ought to be no exclusiveness in the enjoyment of educational
privileges.
In America we agree to this; and yet, confessedly, as a practical result
we have not generally attained the end proposed. There are two practical
difficulties in the way. First, our aim in a system of public
instruction is not high enough; and, secondly, we do not sufficiently
realize the importance of educating each individual. Our aim is not high
enough; and the result, like every other result, is measured and limited
by the purpose we have in view. Our public schools ought to be so good
that private schools for instruction in the ordinary branches would
disappear. Mr. Everett said, in reply to inquiries made by Mr.
Twistleton, "I send my boy to the public school, because I know of none
better." It should be the aim of the public to make their schools so
good that no citizen, in the education of his children, will pass them
by.
It is as great a privilege for the wealthy as for the poor to have an
opportunity to send their children to good public schools. It is a maxim
in education that the teacher must first comprehend the pupil mentally
and morally; and might not many of the errors of individual and public
life be avoided, if the citizen, from the first, were to have an
accurate idea of the world in which he is to live? The demand of labor
upon education, as they are connected with every material interest of
society, is, that no one shall be neglected. The mind of a nation is
its capital. We are accustomed to speak of money as capital; and
sometimes we enlarge the definition, and include machinery, tools,
flocks, herds, and lands. But for this moment let us do what we have a
right to do,--go behind the definitions of lexicographers and political
economists, and say, "_capital_ is the producing force of society, and
that force is mind." Without this force, money is nothing; machinery is
nothing; flocks, herds, lands, are nothing. But all these are made
valuable and efficient by the power of mind. What we call
civilization,--passing from an inferior to a superior condition of
existence,--is a mental and moral process. If mind is the capital,--the
producing force of society,--what shall we say of the person or
community that neglects its improvement? Certainly, all that we should
say of the miser, and all that was said of the timid servant who buried
his talent in the earth. If one mind is neglected, then we fail as a
generation, a state, a nation, as members of the human family, to answer
the highest purposes of existence. Some possible good is unaccomplished,
some desirable labor is unperformed, some means of progress is
neglected, some evil seed, it may be, is sown, for which this generation
must answer to all the successions of men. But let us not yield to the
prejudice, though sanctioned by custom, that learning unfits men for
the labors of life. The _schools_ may sometimes do this, but _learning_
never. We cannot, however, conceal from our view the fact that this
prejudice is a great obstacle to progress, even in New England; an
obstacle which may not be overcome without delay and conflict, in many
states of this Union; and especially in Great Britain is it an obstacle
in the way of those who demand a system of universal education.