California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, Volume 6, Number 16, 14 November 1856 — Education. [ARTICLE]

Education.

The groat leading error of modern times is the mistaking erudition for education. Education is the leading human souls t.) whnt is best, and making what is best out of them; ami theso two objects aro always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes men happiest in themselves also makes them most serviceable to others. True education, then, has respect, first to the ends which uro proposable to the man, or attainable by him; and, secondly, to the material ol which the man is made. So far as it is able, it choose* the end according to the material; but it cannot always choose the end, for the position of many persons in life is fixed by necessity ; still less can it choose the material; and, therefore, all it can do is to fit tho one to the other as wisely as may bo. Among all men, whether of tile upper or lower orders, the differences are eternal and irreconcilable, between one individual and another, born under absolutely the same circumstances. One man is made of agate, another of oak; one of slate, another of clay. The education of the first is polishing; of the second, seasoning; of tho third, rending; of the fourth, molding. It is of no use to season the agate ; it is vain to try to polish the slate: but both are fitted, by the qualities they possess, for services in which they may be honored. Now the cry for the education of the lower classes, which is heard every day more widely and loudly, is a wise and a sacred cry, provided it be extended into one for the education of all classes, with with definite respect to the work each man has to do, nnd the substance of which he is made. But it is a foolish and vain cry, if it be understood, as in tho plurality of cases it is meant to be, for the expression of mere craving uftor knowledge, irrespective of the simple purposes of the life that now is, and blessings of that which is to come. One great fallacy into which men are apt to fall when they are reasoning on this subject is, that light, as such, is always good; and darkness, as such, always evil. Eur from it. Light untempered would be annihilation. It is good to thorn that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; but, to those that faint in the wilderness, so also is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. If the sunshine is good, so also the cloud of the hitter rain. Light is only beautiful, only available for life, when it is tempered with shadow; pure light i.fearful, and unendurable by humanity. Therefore, in the education either of lower or upper classes, it matters not the least how much or how little they know, provided they know just what will fit them to do their work, and to be happy in it. What the sum or the nature of their knowledge ought to be at a given time or in a given case, is a totally different question ; the main thing to be understood is, that a man is not educated in any sense whatsoever because be can rend Latin, or write English, of can behave well in a drawing room; but that he is only educated if he is happy, beneficent, nnd effective in the world; that million! of peasants are therefore at this moment better educated than most of those who call themselves gentlemen : and that the means taken to " educate" the lower classes in any other sense, may very often be productive of a precisely opposite remit— [RuskuVi Modern Painters.

Curious Divorce Case.—The law of divorce decreed by the French National Convention had passed but a short time, when there applied to take the benefit of it a young couple, who had been generally considered b) their neighbors us patterns of connubial felicity. The young woman was beautiful, rich, and married to a lover without fortune, but a few days alter the divorce had taken place I hey were again united in wedlock ; a transition which, exciting considerable surptise. was bus explained. Their first union having been what is called a love-match, the lady's guardians, actuated b\ laudable prudence, had the whole fortune settled on the wife, absolutely independent of her husband, whose moments in the giddy raptures of the honey moon rolled on with facility and pleasure. IJt.t when time and reflection had sobered his senses, he complained that his hands, by the illiberal distribution of his wife-, fortune, were lied up from engaging in agricultural, professional. or commercial pursuits, so admiral.l\ calculated for gi\ing a zest to all enjoyment, b\ occupying those intervals of life which are otherwise so apt to stupil'y our faculties in the listlessncss of leisure, or the gloom of inactivity. For such ctils this excellent wile raw ami provided a remedy. By dissolving their Jir-t marriage she becasM the uncontrolled BristreKS of her fortune, and gave an itlcctual proof ol her libel All ty and

l flection, if not of prudence, by making her husband, on the second marriage, the unfettered master of all she had. The happy husband was thus enabled by love, the great arbiter of destinies, to whom we are indebted for supreme happiness or barraasing Inquietude, to devote a portion of his fortune to elegant or useful occupation,

A Disinterested Woman.—Mr. Walsh, a gentleman of lurge fortune, who died about fifty years back, bequeathed an estate of four thousand a year to his niece, Mrs. Benn ; but from negli genet, resentment, or some other cause, neither explained or understood, left his next male heir and near relation unprovided for. With an addition so important, and at a period which calculates to a nicety, gratifications and expenses to keep pace with, or exceed the most enormous rent-toll, the majority of mankind would have sal down passively contented ;or if any solicitude interruptetl their brilliant dreams, it would have been anxiety to determine in w hat species of luxurious superfluity, the new acquisition should be expended. But Mrs Benn, a very epicure in the theory of real and substantial' luxury, declared that her present income was adequate to all her wishes and all her wants, and reserving only a little Berkshire villa, endeared to her by early habils, and In which she had pasted some of the happiest hours of her life, presented, and by legal conveyance, made over, this considerable bequest to her neglected cousin, a free and gratuitous gift, neither demanded nor expected, vast in its amount, and worth, at its lowest valuation, a hundhed thousand pounds.

A Kiss foh a Blow.—A visitor went into a school iv Boston, where he saw a boy and a girl on one seat, who were sister and brother. In a moment of thoughtless passion the little boy struck his sister. The little girl was provoked, and raised her hand to return the blow. Her face shotted that rage was workiug within, and her clenched list was raised at her brot'ier, when tier teacher caught her eye. ' Stop, my dear." said he, "you had better ki-s your brother than to strike hitn." The look nnd word reached her heart. Her hand dropped. She threw her arm around hi< neck and kissed him. The boy uas moved. He could have stood against the blow, but be could not withstand a sister's kiss.

Every Man Useful. —God has distributed his gifts. It takes a score of them to make one man. One supplies the swift sagacity ; another the cautious logic ; another the impelling force ; another the hope; another the practical tact; one supplies general principles, another die working plan. Men .seldom unite by strong points. It is men's weaknesses that bind them together. By distributing gifts. God makes one man dependent on another, and welds society together by making every man necessitous, in some place, as regards other men.

A Little Boy's Pkayeh.—Lord, please to bless father, and give him a new heart. Be so kind as to bless Mary, my little sister, and give her a new heart. Oh, Lord, bless mother—bat you need not give her a new heart, for she could iiot have any better one than she's got; and I don't see how she'd go to work to be any better woman she is now."

Ir you would like to have a wife who is ' one of a thousand," you should marry an Emily or an Emma, for any printer can tell you that "ems are always counted by the thousands."

Gentle Satires.—lf you ask a lady to walk out with \ou, she first looks at your dress, and then thinks of her own. Notice, when you have accompanied you wife to buy a lot of things at her favorite shop, what ostentatious care she takes of your interest in seeing that you get "the right change." How much more difficult is it to get a woman out on a wet Sunday than on a wet week day. Can the shut shops have anything to do with this?

The oldest mnemonic curiosity is, that a woman who never knows her own age knows to half an hour that of all her female friends.

A woman may laugh too much. It is only a comb that can always afford to show its teeth. Women will never be punctual. They scorn the "charms" that hang to a watch-chain.—[Punch.