Part 10 (2/2)
”Derammatical and rhetorical education of a wealthy Athenian It appears also that he was, from childhood, of sickly constitution and feeble muscular frame; so that, partly from his own disinclination, partly from the solicitude of his mother, he took little part, as boy or youth, in the exercises of the palaestra Such comparative bodily disability probably contributed to incite his thirst for mental and rhetorical acquisitions, as the only road to celebrity open But it at the sa to hie of a comprehensive Grecian education, as conceived by Plato, Isokrates, and Aristotle; an education applying alike to thought, word, and action--coth, endurance, and fearlessness, with an enlargedit felt by speech
”The disproportion between the physical energy and thein childhood, is recorded and lamented in the inscription placed on his statue after his death De of Isaeus;and also profited largely by the discourse of Plato, of Isokrates, and others As an ardent aspirant, he would seek instruction from most of the best sources, theoretical as well as practical--writers as well as lecturers But, besides living teachers, there was one of the last generation who contributed largely to his iable labor and attention; according to one account, he copied the whole history eight ti to another, he learnt it all by heart, so as to be able to rewrite it from memory, when the manuscript was accidentally destroyed Withoutthese details, we ascertain, at least, that Thucydides was the peculiar object of his study and imitation How much the co of Thucydides, reproducing the daring, y, yet without the overstrained brevity and involutions of that great historian,--and contriving to blend with it a perspicuity and grace not inferior to Lysias,--may be seen illustrated in the elaborate criticis out for hireater difficulties to overcoard to the external requisites of an orator He was not endowed by nature, like aeschines, with a nificent voice; nor, like Dehts required to be put together by careful preparation; his voice was bad, and even lisping; his breath short; his gesticulation ungraceful; moreover, he was overawed and embarrassed by the y and success hich Demosthenes overcame his defects, in such manner as to satisfy a critical assembly like the Athenians, is one of the eneral history of self-education
Repeated humiliation and repulse only spurred him on to fresh solitary efforts for i with pebbles in his mouth; he prepared hi in stors by running, and extended his powers of holding breath by pronouncing sentences inup-hill; he sometimes passed two or three months without interruption in a subterranean chaht and day either in co one-half of his head in order to disqualify hi abroad”[3] Yet all this effort and sacrifice were acco failures; and it was not until he enty-seven years of age that the great orator of the world achieved his first success before the Athenian assee hope to be followers, even at a distance, of Demosthenes, and of those his peers, who, by eloquence, poetry, art, science, and general learning, have added dignity to the race, and given lustre to generations separated by oceans and centuries, unless they are aniress, and cheered by a faith that shall be manifested in the disposition and the power to overcome the obstacles that lie in every one's path?
Such a course of training requires individual effort and personal self-sacrifice It would not be wise to follow the plan of the Athenian orator; he adapted his training to his personal circumstances, and the customs of the country His history is chiefly valuable for the lessons of self-reliance, and the exaements, that it furnishes But it is always a solemn duty to hold up before youth noble models of industry, perseverance, and success, that they may be stimulated to the work of life by the assurance of history that,
”Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us further than to-day”
III _The popular reading of the day does not contribute essentially to the education of the citizen and statesman_--It is not, of course, expected that every man is to qualify himself for the life of a statesman; but it does seem necessary for all to be so well instructed in political learning as to possess thea reasonable and philosophical opinion of the policy of the governht in itself, and rests upon established principles of right, as to subovernment I do not mean to undervalue the periodical press; but it ard to its readers, and in politics it overnment and the history of national institutions are known and understood
But the young ; and I know of nothing h acquaintance with English history Our principles of governland; and it is in the history of the mother country that the best discussion of principles is found, as in that country overnrowth rather than a copy of British principles and institutions, the American citizen is not prepared for his duties until he has made himself familiar with American history, in all its departments How ill-suited, then, for the duties of citizenshi+p and public life, in the for of the present time! And I may here call attention to the fact that each town in Massachusetts is invested with authority to establish a public library by taxation This, it seeislative acts of the present decennial period; and, indeed, a public library is essential to the view I a of the necessity and importance of political education Private libraries exist, but they are not found in every house, nor can every person enjoy their advantages Public libraries are open to all; and, when the selection of books is judicious, they furnish opportunities for education hardly less to be prized than the common schools theeneral learning, a contributor to political intelligence and power, but it is an efficient supporter of soundmen
If the public will not offer to its youth valuable reading, such as its experience, its wisdoe of the claims of society, itsmen and women are tempted by frivolous and pernicious mental occupations? It is, moreover, the duty of the public to furnish the overnained after the school-going period of life has passed
Let Aent liberty, and therefore a self-sustaining liberty Freedom, more or less complete, has been found in two conditions of life Man, in a rude state, where his condition seemed to be normal, rather than the result of a process of e share of independence; but this should by no means be confounded hat in Ae, or nomad, is manifested in the absence of law; but the liberty of an American citizen is the power to do whatever hbor nor to the state The first leaves self-protection and self-regulation to the individual, while the latter restrains the aggressive tendencies of all for the security of each The first is natural equality without law; the second is natural equality before the law With the first, ht With the first, the power of the law, or of the will of an individual or clan, is in the rigor and success of execution; with the latter, the power of the law is in the justice of its dee and no and e, out of which ultie race of men This, then, is not our iuard against intellectual, political, and ious, and public education, to take security of the childhood and youth of the land for the preservation of the institutions we have, and for the growth, greatness, and justice, of the republic
Liberty in Arowth and not a creation The institutions of liberty in America have the sale, and contest, through many years of experience, sometimes joyous, and sometimes sad, the fact and the institutions of liberty in America have been evolved It has not been a work of destruction and creation, but a process of change and progress And so it must ever be Reformation does not often follow destruction; and they who seek to destroy the institutions of a country are not its friends in fact, however they ence is required to refor, not co in so is the friend of liberty Of this America has had evidence in her own history, and in her observation of the experience of others The literary institutions and the cultivated land, preferred
”Hard liberty before the easy yoke Of servile poence of the country that everywhere uttered and everywhere accepted the declaration of the town of Boston, in the revolutionary struggle, ”We can endure poverty, but we disdain slavery”
Ignorance is quicksand on which no stable political structure can be built; and I predict the future greatness of our beloved state, in those historical qualities that outlast the ages, from the fact that she is not tempted by her extent of territory, salubrity of climate, fertility of soil, or by the presence and promise of any natural source of wealth, to falter in her devotion to learning and liberty And I anticipate for Massachusetts a career of influence beneficial to all, whether disputed or accepted, when I reflect that, with less good fortune in the presence and co and liberty, Greece, Roland, enjoyed power disproportionate to their respective populations, territory, and natural resources And, while the object for which we are convenedto local attachht not to pass without a grateful and hearty acknowledgment of the interest eneral learning, and especially in common-school education The Canadas are our rivals; the states of the West are our rivals; the states of the South are our rivals; and, were our greater experience and better opportunities reckoned against us, I know not that there would be much in our systems of education of which we could properly boast It is, indeed, possible that North Carolina, untoward circuress in education, since 1840, than any other state of the Union
Education is not only favorable to liberty, but, when associated with liberty, it is the basis of the Union and power of the American states
As citizens of the republic, we need a better knowledge of our national institutions, a better knowledge of the institutions of the several states, a more inti wisely and justly the policies and measures of each and all
These ends, aided or accothen the Union as no force of arthen the Union as that by no force of armies can it be overthrown
FOOTNOTE:
[3] Grote's Hist, vol xi, p 266, et seq
MassACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND
[Extract from the Twenty-Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education]
The Massachusetts School Fund was established by the Legislature of 1834 (stat 1834, chap 169), and it was provided by the act that all moneys in the treasury on the first of January, 1835, derived from the sale of lands in the State of Maine, and froovernment of the United States for ether with fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter to be received from the sale of lands in Maine, should be appropriated to constitute a perement of Common Schools It was provided that the fund should never exceed one million of dollars, and that the income only should be appropriated to the object in view The islature It was, however, provided that a greater sum should never be paid to any city or town than was raised therein for the support of common schools There are two points in the law that deserve consideration First, the object of the fund was the aid and encouragement of the schools, and not their support; and secondly, the limit of appropriation to the respective toas the amount raised by each There is an apparent inconsistency in this restriction when it is considered that the income of the entire fund would have been equal to only forty-three cents for each child in the state between the ages of five and fifteen years, and that each town raised, annually, by taxation, a larger sum; but this inconsistency is to be explained by the fact that the public sentiment, as indicated by resolves reported by the same committee for the appointment of commissioners on the subject, tended to a distribution ofto their educational wants
As early as 1828, the Committee on Education of the House of Representatives, in a Report made by Hon W B Calhoun, declared, ”Thatin view not the _support_, but the _encouragement_, of the common schools, and the instruction of school teachers” This report wasthe same committee say: ”The establishment of a fund should look to the support of an institution for the instruction of school teachers in each county in the commonwealth, and to the distribution, annually, to all the towns, of such a sum for the benefit of the schools as shall siement to proportionate efforts on the part of the towns A fund which should be so large as to suffice for the support of the whole school establishment of the state, as is the case in Connecticut, would, in the opinion of the coeous; it would only serve to draw off fro interest which will ever be found indispensable where a resolute feeling upon the subject is wished for or expected Such a result is, in every sense, to be deprecated, and whatever may tend to it, even remotely, should be anxiously avoided A fund which should admit of the distribution of one thousand dollars to any tohich should raise three thousand dollars, in any manner within itself, or in that proportion, would operate as a strong incentive to high efforts; and, if to this should be added the further requisition of a faithful return to the Legislature, annually, of the condition of the schools, the consequences could not be otherwise than decidedly favorable” This report was accompanied by a bill ”for the establishment of the Massachusetts Literary Fund” The bill followed the report in regard to the proportionate amount of the income of the fund to be distributed to the several towns This bill failed to become a law