It throws upon teachers the responsibility
of developing talents that have scarcely an existence, and securing
attainments within the range of only the very finest powers, during the
period usually assigned to this work. To the ignorant it misrepresents
and dishonors education, when it presents for their judgment a very
inferior intellect, which all the training of the schools has not
inspired with power, as a specimen of the result of liberal pursuits.
Such an intellect can never stand up beside an active though untutored
mind--untutored in the schools, yet disciplined by the necessities
around it. It is only in the comparison of minds of equal original
power, but of different and unequal mental discipline, that the result
of a thorough education reveal themselves most strikingly. The genius
that, partially educated, makes a fine bar-room politician, a good
county judge, a respectable member of the lower house in our State
Legislature, or an expert mechanic and shrewd farmer, when developed by
study and adorned with learning, rises to the foremost rank of men.
Great original talents will usually give indication of their presence
amidst the most depressing circumstances. But when a mind of this stamp
has been allowed to unfold itself under the genial influence of large
educational advantages, how will it grow in power, outstripping the
multitude, as some majestic tree, rooted in a soil of peculiar richness
rises above and spreads itself abroad over the surrounding forest? Our
inquiry, however, at present, is not exclusively respecting individuals
thus highly gifted.
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