MILITARY EDUCATION: 
 
 ITS PECULIAR ADVANTAGES 
 
 IN THE STUDY OF 
 
 yikntnn, ^riena, aiiir %xts. 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE MILITARY EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION, HELD AT 
 WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, SEPTEMBER Gth, 1853. 
 
 BY . : ; i 
 
 ARCHER aiFFORH, 
 
 OF NEWARK, NEW-JERSEY. 
 
 “The assembly to which I address myself is too enlightened not to be fully sensible how much 
 a flourishing state of the Arts and Sciences contributes to national prosperity and reputation. 
 
 • • • • In proportion as the observance of pacific maxims might exempt a nation 
 
 from the necessity of practising the Rules of Military Art, ought to be its care in preserving, and 
 transmitting by proper establishments, the knowledge of that avt.— President Washington's Eighth 
 Message to Congress. 
 
 BUNNELL & PRICE, 121 FULTON STREET. 
 
 1 8 5 3 . 
 
v 
 
 M- 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 F 
 
 https://archive.org/details/militaryeducatioOOgiff 
 
W0V2fJf^ 
 
 35-^07 
 
 c 
 
 < 
 
 EXTRACT 
 
 FROM THE MINUTES OF THE MILITARY EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION, 
 
 Held at Wilmington, Del., September 6, 1853. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be tendered to Mr. Gifford, for 
 his able and erudite Address ; and that Col. A. Duryee and Prof. A. J. Robinson 
 be appointed a Committee to solicit a copy of the same for publication. 
 
 E. T. SUDLER, President. 
 
 W. W. Benjamin, 
 A. J. Robinson, 
 
 I Secretaries. 
 
 The undersigned, as a Committee of the Educational Convention assembled at 
 Wilmington, have the honor to request for publication a copy of the Address 
 deliivered by you on that occasion. 
 
 Respectfully, A. DURYEE. 
 
 A. J. ROBINSON. 
 
 To Archer Gifford, Esq. 
 
 Brandywine, Sept. 7, 1853. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 In compliance with your request, I have the honor to submit to your disposal 
 a copy of my Address delivered at Wilmington. 
 
 Very respectfully. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 ARCHER GIFFORD. 
 
 Col. A. Duryee. 
 
 Prof. A. J. Robinson. 
 
 Brandywine, Sept. 7, 1853. 
 
 4 
 
 ■ Y 
 
“ THAT I 
 
 CALL A COMPLETE 
 
 AND GENEROUS EDUCATION, WHICH FITS 
 A MAN TO PERFORM JUSTLY, SKILFULLY, AND MAGNANIMOUSLY, 
 ALL THE OFFICES BOTH PRIVATE AND 
 PUBLIC, OF PEACE AND 
 WAR.” — Milton. 
 
SWrfSs 
 
 How active and restless is the human mind 1 Observe 
 the little child; scarcely has language given utterance 
 to thought, when the spirit of incpiiry becomes percep- 
 tible in its animated countenance, and eager attention to 
 every object within the range of its vision. As time 
 hastens on, frequent and pertinent questions show the 
 dawn of intellect, and often cause our wonder and our 
 admiration of its precocity of reason and judgment. 
 Baffled in the pursuit of its inquiries, the child is not dis- 
 couraged, but seeks some other avenue for the knowledge 
 it would have. Action follows ; and soon, conscience ap- 
 pears to exercise its sway over the will and the subtle 
 passions of our nature, and gives us assurance that a soul 
 is there for good or evil. 
 
 We may well then commend the wisdom of that Ro- 
 man custom which committed the care of children, until 
 a certain age, only to females ; and, in the highest ranks 
 of society, to those matrons who were distinguished alike 
 for their virtue and attainments, confiding to their care 
 those engaging objects of innocence and integrity, ever 
 teaching them to be tractable and submissive, forming 
 their manners, and instilling habits of attention to every 
 
6 
 
 subject tliat could be of advantage to them, and render 
 them useful and honorable in society. 
 
 We may be allowed to dwell uj)on this subject, as it 
 is the broad platform upon which is to be based the su- 
 perstructure of Education, which has been defined by 
 our Webster, “to comprehend all that series of instruc- 
 tion and discipline wdiich is intended to enlighten the 
 understanding, correct the temper, and form the man- 
 ners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in 
 their future stations or, in the golden language of the 
 Stagyrite, “ man’s ornament in prosperity, and refuge in 
 advei'sity.” And they whose business it is to act as our 
 teachers, and as professors in this cause, may well desire 
 tlie best material for the application of their work ; such 
 as the youth who has, from his earliest years, been taught 
 to form habits of obedience ; to distinguish between the ' 
 effects produced by causes of moral and evil tendency ; 
 to subdue sensual gratifications, and to control his con- 
 fiicting passions, and to know that he is to take an active 
 part in the affairs of life. 
 
 It is, perhaps, owing to a neglect of this early pre- 
 paration, that the hopes of many fond parents have been 
 disappointed. They have rather perverted than con- 
 formed to the wholesome maxim, that “ there is a time 
 for all things,” and have neglected their own part in the 
 proper employment of that time, by contributing to 
 quicken every new impulse of the youthful mind, by 
 satisfying the first desire for knowledge, however imper- 
 fectly expressed; by the kindest correction of every 
 wayward act; fixing the attention upon every useful 
 subject in some attractive manner, and yet not so as to 
 
7 
 
 interrupt tlie playful diversions of childliood, but to make 
 tliem subservient to tlie purposes of education ; or, in 
 other words, literally commencing that education, and 
 opening the way for loftier attainments. Let him who 
 has, by the successful labors of the mind, attained a pro- 
 minent and respected station in society, revert to the 
 period of his childhood, and he will discover the early 
 source of his prosperity in the devoted and watchful 
 mother, or in some kind assiduous female friend, who 
 nurtured the principles which have since been the guide 
 and protection of later years. And it is little to be 
 questioned, that the renowned mothers of the Gracchi, 
 of Julius Caesar, and of Augustus, by their early super- 
 vision, originated the fortunes of those distinguished 
 men, whose achievements have so blazoned the pages of 
 the past. 
 
 It is thus that the youthful mind becomes prepared 
 for future improvement. Early and seasonable restraint 
 begets habit, which, in time, becomes a second nature, 
 and fits the mind to be the recipient of wisdom and 
 knowledge So truly did the ancient Spartans consider 
 this devotedness to youth as a primary duty, and as a 
 point of national policy, that when, as we are told. An- 
 tipater demanded of them a certain number of their 
 children as hostages, they desired, rather, that the terms 
 should be, as many more in number of well-trained sol- 
 diers ; so highly did they prize the education of their 
 children, and zealously guard against the corruption of 
 their morals. 
 
 A few more years have passed away, and the child 
 has arrived at that period of life’s first great effort, 
 
8 
 
 wlieu tlie allurements of tlie world are to be resisted, 
 by a stern and vigorous resolution ; and vdien tbe pro- 
 pensities to self-interest and aggrandizement, require 
 to be regulated and curbed by a strong moral sense of 
 riglit. The vast volume of the universe is now laid 
 open to his more matured mind, and he is urged forward 
 on the track which ambition has pointed out as the 
 Highway to fame and emolument. Opinions are now 
 delivered by him, with the confidence of the full-grown 
 man ; and the instructor has to assume the painful, or 
 the pleasurable duty, as habits may have been ripened, 
 of directing his future progress. 
 
 The youth may, at this period, be made to understand 
 the nature of man’s great business in life ; that he is the 
 object of Divine and of Human Laws, and that he is 
 bound to obey those laws ; that he has a duty to perform, 
 in acts or forbearances, constituting a triple relation, — 
 to his Maker, his Neighbor, and himself ; to himself^ as 
 requiring the study of his own physical and moral being ; 
 to his neighbor^ the knowledge of every subject that 
 can make him useful and agreeable, in his civil, social and 
 domestic relations ; to his Maker ^ the improvement of 
 every faculty, with that undivided love which prompts 
 to continued acts of gratitude and praise. 
 
 What system, then, can best accomj^lish the perfec- 
 tion of these objects ? Here we enter upon a subject, 
 as fruitful of controversy as the attributes of man can 
 make it ; Avhether it be the Course of Study ; the early 
 or late cultivation of the mind ; whether the Student 
 should be left free and unrestrained, or guarded by 
 proper rules and regulations ; and whether under pri- 
 
9 
 
 vate or public instruction. To this end Schools have 
 been re-modified ; Elementary Works have been sought 
 out and devised ; Normal Teachers have been graduat- 
 ed ; modern improvements of School Structures adopted ; 
 and withal, we have had Legislative enactments, and 
 resolutions of societies established for the encourage- 
 ment of learning. These are the subjects which, at this 
 day of letters, occupy the mind of the Philanthropist, 
 and, (may I not say ?) of the Politician ; — an omen of 
 the increasing popularity of a cause which is to operate 
 for the good of mankind. But it is not our intention 
 to enter the lists for a discussion of these subjects, 
 which are deservedly engaging the attention of the 
 most distinguished men of our country. We may best 
 seek for the solution of the proposed question, in the ex- 
 perience of by-gone times, and in their Institutions, and 
 those which now exist, and, from a consideration of 
 their advantages and abuses, endeavor to ascertain that 
 which may now be made most available to the Scholar, 
 and to his country. 
 
 No truth is oftener presented to us, than this, — that 
 man is a social being. He is, indeed, adapted to society, 
 both by his physical and mental conformation ; without 
 society, his education would tend only to his misery ; in 
 this world of harmonious laws, he would be continually 
 discovering the beautiful arrangements of its Creator, 
 and “ searching out all perfection,” without that inter- 
 course which imparts delight, and excites to deeper 
 draughts of wisdom. No matter how secluded he may 
 be by his own wants, and those of his fellow-men, he 
 is brought continually into a communication with them. 
 
10 
 
 either in the peaceful circle of a country village, or in 
 the concentrated mass of a town or city. It is agree- 
 able to Nature then, that knowledge should be most 
 readily obtained by such intercourse ; and we find, in 
 every age, that the social system, however limited may 
 be the subjects which have been taught, as well by the 
 Priests of Egypt, the Sophists and Philosophers of 
 Gireece and Pome, the Persian Magi, and the Indian 
 Bramins, as in all the Colleges of modern times, has 
 been approved and practised, as most effectual for culti- 
 vating the mind, and best calculated to stimulate an 
 ardor of pursuit necessary for the attainment of excel- 
 lence ; by furnishing the means of a comparison, and 
 assimilation of views ; by associations which form the 
 foundations of future intimacies and friendships ; by 
 stirring up the sympathies of the heart, which tend to 
 relieve the oppressed and indigent, and thus plentifully 
 storing the mind, and qualifying the student for the 
 part which he may be called upon to perform as a 
 citizen. 
 
 The solitary student may have avoided dangerous ex- 
 amples, but he has not discovered the depths of his 
 own passions, nor the policy of regulating them. He 
 may have studied, in his closet, the Philosophy of Man ; 
 but he has not tried the spirits of the world, with whom 
 he has to grapple in afterlife; he may have had the ad- 
 vantage of exclusive attention devoted to him by Instruc- 
 tors, and yet lack the independence of a mind thrown 
 upon its own resources, the energy and spirit to be 
 derived from a participation with others in their labors, 
 and the warmth that is generated by opposition. If 
 
11 
 
 our sons are hereafter to mingle with the people of the 
 world, they should be previously qualified for such inter- 
 course, by some knowledge of those who are to be their 
 fellows, and of what may be of advantage to the 
 public, as well as to themselves. It is so in the ordinary 
 affairs of life; we do not prepare the candidate for 
 a Profession or a Trade, without first instructinof him 
 in all the technicalities, and initiating him into all the 
 mysteries of his calling. And if the proper study of 
 mankind is man,” we cannot expect him to be even 
 tolerably proficient in that complex and most difiicult 
 of all attainments, without constant intercourse with 
 his fellow-creatures, in the season of youth, when the 
 heart expands with generous emotions, and is undis- 
 guised by chicanery and deceit. 
 
 We may trace the existence of Seminaries of Learn- 
 ing, to the primitive schools of the Prophets in Pales- 
 tine ; and, from that period, through a Priestly organiza- 
 tion, continued by the Pabbis of the synagogue, to the 
 captivity of Babylon. And, although we have evidence 
 of the cultivation of science among the Chaldeans, the 
 Indian and other ancient nations, in the Braminical 
 learning that exists at this day; from the fact, that the 
 Jewish law-giver was learned in all the wisdom of the 
 Egyptians, (of whose refinement we have scriptural ac- 
 counts, and also proofs in the enrichment by her Ptolemies, 
 of that magnificent treasury of knowledge, the Alex- 
 andrian Library ;) and, although we read of the accom- 
 plishments of the Persian Cyrus ; of the attainments of 
 the sages of Athens and Borne ; and of the Academies, 
 in those times, (which were rather the resort of pro- 
 
12 
 
 ficients in learning, than the means of cultivating its 
 rudiments,) no general organization of schools was 
 known to exist, until about the fifth century, when they 
 were established by the Emperor Theodosius, in whose 
 reign the Christian Clergy sought to break down what 
 they denominated a heathenish education. From that 
 time, they continued, in most countries, under what has 
 been termed a Conventual System. We do not mean 
 that strict monopoly of education which was in the 
 hands of the Clergy during the mediaeval ages ; but we 
 refer to a continued effort by them to control it. 
 
 Without giving any Historical Detail, it would appear 
 that these Sacerdotal Schools, with their own peculiar 
 views of the uses of knowledge, have not included that 
 attention to certain branches of science, and their practi- 
 cal benefits, which are essential to the commonwealth. 
 And it is remarkable, that, from the time of Henry 
 VHL, when the light of civilization and when freedom 
 of opinion first began to be diffused over the world ; 
 when the art of Printing had so multiplied the means 
 of mental improvement ; when Peligious Toleration had 
 loosed the bands which had, for so long a period fettered 
 the intellectual energies of men ; it is remarkable that 
 there should have existed such reverence for institutions 
 of a Monachal character, and such adherence to them, 
 which have elaborated the deepest knowledge in certain 
 studies, without any realization of their uses to the 
 scholar, who has been fitted to contribute but little to 
 the general wants of society, beyond what may be termed 
 university knowledge. “It is (says Adam Ferguson) 
 peculiar to Modern Europe, to rest much of the human 
 
13 
 
 
 character on what may be learned from the informa- 
 tion of Books. We endeavor, through the grammar 
 of dead languages, and the channel of commentators, 
 to arrive at the beauties of thought and elocution, which 
 sprung from the animated spirit of society, and were 
 taken from the living impressions of an active life. 
 Our attainments are frequently limited to the elements 
 of a science, and seldom reach to that enlargement 
 of ability and power, which useful knowledge should 
 give ; as Mathematicians who study the Elements of 
 Euclid, but never think of mensuration. We read of 
 societies, but do not propose to act with men. We 
 repeat the language of politics, but feel not the spirit of 
 nations. We attend to the formalities of Military Dis- 
 cipline, but know not how to em^^loy numbers of men 
 to obtain any purpose by stratagem or force.” Is it not 
 so ? Look over that immense throng of literary men, 
 who have drank deej)est of those celebrated fountains 
 of wisdom which have existed dn Europe; men whose 
 capacious minds would appear to have been constituted 
 for compassing eyery untried mystery of Science, and 
 by means of high general education, qualified to peer 
 into every avenue of knowledge. How many of these 
 have been conspicuous in the emergencies of their coun- 
 try ? — in her Armies ; her Navies ; her Public Councils ? 
 Who have been her Historians, Poets, and Biographers ? 
 Here and there among those who have been brought 
 to notice by the contending elements of society, may be 
 found one, who has, more by force of native genius, than 
 by scholastic acquirements, achieved for the Public good 
 
14 
 
 what he might have produced, as the result of any other 
 previous course of instruction. 
 
 A general position that the university system, as hith- 
 erto conducted, may best lay the foundation for future 
 usefulness, is not to be evidenced by a few graduates who 
 have become distinguished in after life ; nor is it the 
 result of any process of reason, that a course of study 
 and regimen which confines the faculties to science, or 
 accomplishment of mind, without any admixture of such 
 exercises as may direct the application to civil life, and 
 yet remits so much to the student’s voluntary efforts, 
 can be of great subsequent practical advantage. Col- 
 leges and Schools should be organized and conducted, 
 not only for towering genius to excel in learning, and 
 then to choose a calling, but for the education of the 
 masses, with all degrees of intellect and disparities of 
 circumstance, with a view to their future action as co- 
 workers in society. They are, or ought to be, the great 
 laboratories which contain the correctives of a natural 
 resistance in the human mind ; and to aid the study of 
 science by the observations of nature. They have the 
 power to try out the ability of the student, where it lies 
 buried under his own indistinct view of its importance, 
 or his own indisposition to act; and they are intended 
 rather to aid the struggles of a Murray, or a Ferguson, 
 in their upward and toilsome course, than to strew with 
 flowers the classic pathway of a Porson, or an Elmsley. 
 
 By this social system we may see what has been done 
 by Colleges, in particular departments of science, and 
 how much might have been effected, were it not for an 
 
15 
 
 almost exclusive attention to Book-knowledge and form- 
 al prelections, or rather the absence of all their practical 
 advantages. It is true, that the Public has become 
 awakened to the importance of establishing seminaries 
 which may remedy these disadvantages and produce a 
 practical bearing upon the life and manners of the 
 rising generation ; and yet, it will hardly admit of a 
 question, that the system of these long-honored and 
 deeply-endowed universities can be superseded, or that 
 their influence will not be extended to others in this 
 country, as in England. 
 
 But this exclusiveness has been made an objection 
 to other institutions in foreign countries. The Na- 
 tional University, founded by Napoleon in France, with 
 its Lyceums, originally failed in its designs, (although 
 afterwards it was modifled under more successful 
 auspices,) because it was constructed on military prin- 
 ciples alone, and as little fitted to promote the true 
 purposes of education, as the monastic narrovv^ness of 
 former ages. “ The Clergy (he said) regard this world 
 as a mere Diligence which is to convey us to the next ; 
 it must be my business to fill up the public carriage 
 with good recruits for my army.” And yet, the Dili- 
 gence proved impracticable under this strict military 
 rule, because of the very objection that was raised to 
 Clerical management ; its limited views which prevented 
 the full development of mind, and only satisfied the one 
 idea of its founder. 
 
 A lamentable defection may also be witnessed under 
 what may be considered an experimental Government 
 at this period, not far remote from us. The prudential 
 
16 
 
 foresight of Petion liad caused to "be established, at 
 Hayti, a School and Lyceum which combined all the 
 advantages of useful instruction for civil of military life, 
 and which was approved and followed by his successor 
 Boyer, for periods together comprising more than thirty 
 years, during which time there was clear indication of a 
 healthful progress in the advancement of the intellect, 
 and civilization of this unfortunate people. But within 
 ten years past. Imperial Buie has supplanted the Bepub- 
 lic ; and, with its exclusive military teaching, as well as 
 its conscriptive j)ower, and maudlin assumption of Boy- 
 alty, has destroyed the Freedom of the Press, and 
 Elective Franchise, (the two great pillars of a happy 
 government ;) and has left to education, as to liberty, but 
 a name. 
 
 Without giving particulars, we may remark that in 
 Bussia and Austria, as in France and Spain, (where the 
 jealous spirit of the government obstructs all freedom of 
 inquiry, and discussion of public laws and political econ- 
 omy,) it has been well observed “ that the exertion of 
 the human intellect has been fettered by coercing its 
 energies, and, by its Procrustean policy, has attem]3ted 
 to mould every capacity after the same model.-’ And 
 in Prussia, where schools have been nationalized, and 
 their organization is equal to that of any country in the 
 world, there exists the same indisposition to infuse, 
 throughout the mass of the people, those princq^les 
 Avhich are calculated to elevate the mind, and purify the 
 heart and its affections. Hence, as we see some of the 
 l)est educated men who have escaped from the rigorous 
 bondage of these countries, are here, incapable of apply- 
 
17 
 
 ing themselves for subsistence to any professional busi- 
 ness, but, with all their eminent attainments, are sub- 
 jected to the humblest traffic, or to manual labor. We 
 may justly conclude, then, that under the monarchies of 
 Europe there are defects in the process of education, 
 which prevail either from the absence of a liberal 
 course, a monopoly by the clergy, or a seated and, j^er- 
 haps, politic jealousy of the government. In this coun- 
 try, where there is no Clerical or Military espionage, we 
 are in rapid progress upon the utilitarian principle, in 
 all our seminaries of learning ; and Ave have endeavored 
 to adopt, in our schools, every feasible plan, from 
 sources of experience abroad, or whatever our own inge- 
 nuity could devise, for facilitating the advancement of 
 mind. Nor have our colleges assumed those great objec- 
 tionable features which have characterized the univer- 
 sities of Europe, however preeminent they may be in the 
 cultivation of their favorite sciences. But, are. we pre- 
 pared to say, that our seminaries are entirely free from 
 this exclusiveness, or are perfect in discipline, and in the 
 means of instruction in those duties which constitute 
 the great principle of life ? We Avell may acknowledge 
 the advantages and benefits they aftbrd ; but we may as 
 readily sujDpose that, by a further exercise of judicious 
 regulations, the mind could be trained to a better sense 
 of its own powers, and the application of them to future 
 purposes. I mean — especially, under that discipline by 
 which Time is fully appreciated and employed, — 
 Health is promoted and preserved — the Constitu- 
 tion AND Laavs of the country are familiarly under- 
 stood — Keligious principle inculcated, and habits of 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Industry and Self-Control are acquired and fixed, 
 where by nature they do not exist. Allow me to speak 
 of these in their order. 
 
 How brief a part of the day is usually consumed in 
 the actual exercises of an Academic Course ! The 
 remainder of it is devoted to the resuscitation of the 
 physical and mental energies, in various modes, and in 
 such measure as the disposition of each student may 
 prompt. And yet, nature has so established its rules 
 and laws to that end, and so well defined them, that it 
 is a cause of wonder and regret, that they have not been 
 made the special subject of consideration and practice in 
 all our seats of learning. They are not, indeed, popular 
 with the young candidate for an Academic Course, who 
 has the choice of the institution with which he would be 
 connected, and who prefers the most elegant ease. But 
 a proper understanding of man’s constitution will satisfy 
 us, that a regard to economy of time has its profit in 
 improving the smallest portions of it to afford the great- 
 est amount of acquirement. “ Gather up the fragments,” 
 is a truly available motto for him who looks far into fu- 
 turity for a requital of his labors. The vast ocean is an 
 accumulation of drops. The longest life is a sum of the 
 minutest periods of time. If it is true that Idleness is 
 the mother of many evils, how jealously should it be 
 guarded against by wholesome regulations! The re- 
 mark of Socrates to the youth whom he observed 
 to be alone and unemployed, is of itself a homily : — 
 Young man, beware ; for you are in the worst of com- 
 pany,” The mind should ever be in a state of readiness 
 
19 
 
 to receive instruction; for, without this preparation, 
 nothing can well be apprehended or retained. It is, as 
 it were, (to use the words of an eminent divine,) to read 
 the beautiful periods of Tully to a dull and senseless 
 animal. 
 
 It may be said, that, by a rigid system, we cramp the 
 pliancy of the mind, which should be unencumbered with 
 any scholastic machinery ; but what mean the parental 
 restraints of our early years ? What mean the conven- 
 tional rules and forms which every where surround us, 
 when entering upon the study of any branch of useful 
 learning or art ? And what means the acknowledged 
 principle, which has been current from the highest au- 
 thority for more than two thousand years, that “ it is 
 good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth ?” 
 We know that we shall be opposed here, by the adages, 
 “ Dulce est desipere in loco,” and “ The bow must be 
 sometimes unbent,” with many others which are ever at 
 hand to indulge the reluctance of nature to any exertion. 
 We would not, however, be understood as opposing a 
 new theory to these favorite maxims, so well accredited 
 and honored by time. But there is a probationary period 
 of ripening talent, the most immature stage of man’s 
 existence, when stringent method may ensure the prom- 
 ise of future excellence ; as, by constraint, the pliant 
 twig is made to form the upright stately oak; and 
 when, with all vigilance, the ojpere peracto ludemus^’’ or 
 some such playful maxim, will claim and enjoy its full 
 privilege. May we not presume, that had the benevo- 
 lent Titus given these sayings a place among the princi- 
 ples which governed his use of time, we should not have 
 heard his memorable expression, (the warder of many a 
 
20 
 
 noble heart in after time,) “My friends, I have lost a 
 day.” The ways and means of instruction are not more 
 jealously to be regarded, than the fleeting and irrevoca- 
 ble moments that may be wasted in devising the appli- 
 ances of education while the mind is sulfeiung an atro- 
 phy for the want of that nourishment by which it may 
 renovate itself. What then, — but to observe that sea- 
 sonable care, that vigilant and anxious regard for the 
 fractions of time, which judiciously applies them to 
 every variety of mental labor, and which appropriates 
 even the hours of relaxation, and converts them to the 
 impi’ovement of the mind ? 
 
 Another and essential consideration is, The Pee- 
 SERVATioN OF Health. The importance of this subject 
 may be estimated, by observing the capabilities of the 
 genius of man, and his general disregard of health, 
 when left to himself in the pursuit of some favorite 
 and absorbing subject. He has scanned the heavens, 
 “glowing with living sapphires,” and told their rela- 
 tive positions, magnitudes, and distances, with mathe- 
 matical accuracy ; and their revolutions, with the utmost 
 precision that numbers could denote. He has reached 
 the skies, and harmlessly 'drawn away its jnysterious 
 electric fluid, to serve the purposes of earthly skill and 
 ingenuity ; the pathway of the surging waters he has 
 pursued ; and has explored the mighty ocean, through 
 tempest and darkness, by the aid of that subtle and 
 attractive power which he has discovered, to sustain 
 and balance the earth in its revolutions. He has pene- 
 trated the depths, and played the alchemist. 
 
 “ Turning that meagre, cloddy earth, to glittering gold.” 
 
21 
 
 And what might we not recount as the result of his 
 talents and enterprise, in the application of these ele- 
 ments ; by the power of Steam and of the Magnet, by 
 which labor and distance have been rendered of small 
 account ; and even thought is transmitted with the 
 rapidity of time itself? And yet, the tenement of that 
 mighty spirit has gone, with the unnumbered millions 
 who have inhabited the earth, and has left to us this 
 melancholy truth, that, with all his genius and wisdom, 
 he never looked into himself, but j)erished untimely, by 
 an utter neglect or ignorance of the rules which con- 
 cern his Physical Health, which are inseparable from 
 the existence and progress of the human mind. 
 
 How true are the words of the learned Bacon, “ If 
 by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labor 
 for a thing that will be useless in our hands ; he that 
 sinks his vessel, by overlading it, though it be with 
 gold, and silver, and precious stones, will give its 
 owner but an ill account of his voyage.” 
 
 There is not a more melancholy spectacle than that 
 presented by the young man who, with the glow of 
 ambition and feverish hectic of disease struggling to- 
 gether on his cheek, pursues his mental labors, with- 
 out regard to sanitary rules and laws, which have 
 become almost familiar maxims, and are sanctioned by 
 the professional learning of ages. As he toils onward, 
 and the chaplet of honor is about to rest upon his 
 brow, he is insensibly beyond the power of any Physi- 
 cal remedy ; for, alas ! too often the mortal worm is at 
 the heart, before the bud begins to wither. Who are 
 responsible for this sacrilice of life and talent ; an every- 
 
22 
 
 day occurrence ? If liis constitution was frail, his system 
 should not have been wasted by excessive application ; 
 for we know that, by the observance of some pruden- 
 tial rules, the feeblest constitutions have endured to 
 old age, and have yet borne the severest labors of 
 the mind. Galen, Cornaro, Fontenelle, and Watts, are 
 eminent instances of what men, under the pressure of 
 bodily infirmities, may accomplish, even after the age 
 when they ordinarily desist from intellectual labor. 
 There are many Literary Institutions which have their 
 appointed hours for exercise and study, but do not 
 assume any control over the remaining portions of the 
 day and night, which they allow to be employed at 
 pleasure, considering attention to health as a subject pro- 
 per to be managed and corrected by the student’s own 
 sense of propriety, or fit to engage the attention of none 
 but the speculatist. Our picture may be considered as 
 too vividly drawn ; but it is nevertheless true, that dis- 
 ease, or decline of health, has frequently originated 
 from such negligence, and might have been prevented 
 by judicious regulations. 
 
 The recent commission appointed to examine into 
 the present administration of one of the English uni- 
 versities, wdth a view to sound and beneficial legisla- 
 tion, and which has exposed many of its abuses, and 
 much of moral degradation, recommends a thorough 
 reformation, ujDon an improved modified arrangement, 
 as well for this purpose, as others. Our seminaries 
 have not been negligent in this particular. The student 
 is no where (in cases of residence) allowed to indulge 
 his own taste and judgment in certain pleasures, which 
 
23 
 
 are obviously destructive of health. Nor is he, in all 
 such institutions, permitted to select his own hours for 
 recreation or repose. 
 
 These are partial advances in the march of reforma- 
 tion. And we may well conceive of other meliorations, 
 when, instead of wasting a long and tedious vacation, 
 which comprises a considerable portion of the year, in 
 listless and destructive ease ; in amusements that ener- 
 vate the body and enfeeble the mind ; he might, under 
 ■competent teachers, traverse our hills and mountains, 
 taking their altitudes, exploring their vegetable and 
 mineral productions, (those everlasting types, as termed 
 by Wilmot, which Nature in her great printing press 
 never breaks up,) tracing out the footprints of creation, 
 in all their forms ; and thus, combining the principles of 
 Mathematical Science with those of Natural Philoso- 
 phy, by such a process of education, may continually 
 
 “ Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.” 
 
 The advances which have been made by our com- 
 mon school system, satisfactorily show what may yet 
 be done. Whoever looks over a space of thirty years 
 past, and remembers our crowded and un ventilated 
 school-rooms, their inconvenient furniture, the meagre 
 means and manner of instruction, and can now wit- 
 ness the sweeping reformation of these abuses, must be 
 awake to a sense of the necessity of further improve- 
 ment. Health should never be a subject of indifPer 
 ence, in any beneficent enterprise, while we have assur- 
 ance that if there be one truth which has more of 
 
24 
 
 divine imj)ress tlian another, it is, that the body is 
 the temple of the soul ; — the Soul, which thinks, and 
 prompts, and guides to action, and whose offices in this 
 world are naught, without its wonderful and mysterious 
 habitation. If, then, we consider the practicability of 
 this reformation, and the number of valuable lives that 
 may be saved to the commmiity, while we condemn the 
 empiricism of the day, we may justly conclude, that the 
 School or College that has regard for the rules and 
 exercises which contribute to the preservation of health 
 is much to be commended for our encouragement. 
 
 Again, a proper discipline promotes a knowledge of 
 our Constitution and Laws. The genius of our Govern- 
 ment is truly preservative of peace, and the good order 
 of civil society ; but to have it properly appreciated, 
 the citizen should be familiarized with this Constitution 
 and these laws. And it is thus as in the arts and sci- 
 ences ; he should not only be made to understand it and 
 its applications, but with a devoted zeal to learn its 
 excellence, as he would the business which is to be his 
 future employment ; to realize that our Magna Charta 
 confounds the terms of Plebeian and Patrician, and 
 extends its privileges alike to all ; to feel that in politics 
 as in religion, the purity of its essence presumes the 
 alembic of an honest heart, and that the stability of 
 any government depends upon obedience to its laws, 
 and the effort of every intelligent citizen to direct them 
 for the preservation of those great civil and political 
 rights, of Property, of Suffrage, and of Speech ; and, 
 in a word, that true patriotism which “ seeketh not its 
 own,” but in every respect deserves the rich apostolic 
 
25 
 
 definition of the inestimable and godly virtue of Charity. 
 The otfices and honors of his country are open to him. 
 He may be chosen to represent the community in the 
 Halls of Legislation, and maybe constantly called upon 
 to fulfil certain duties, either in Courts of Justice, or 
 under municipal regulations ; there are times, too, when, 
 widely extended as our Kepublic is, with its great 
 natural boundaries and its territorial interests, factions 
 may light the torch of discord, more fearfully to be 
 apprehended than an invading enemy. And questions 
 of our domestic policy and diplomatic relations will 
 then occur, which require the keenest perception of 
 right, and course of action. Under such circumstances, 
 we must not su23pose him to be ignorant of his rights 
 and duties ; or to be deficient in presence of mind, or 
 decision of character. But these qualities are not to be 
 possessed intuitively; nor will his zeal or interest in them 
 be quickened, unless at that period when the affections 
 are warm, when other elements of knowledge are learned, 
 and by a system which j)i’omotes his own self-resjDect, 
 and an enlarged sense of the rights of his fellow-beings. 
 
 As an encouragement to a discipline which facilitates 
 the advancement of learning, it may be asserted, that if 
 the highest exercise of our faculties can be relied on as 
 the safeguard of our happy government, there is also a 
 reflex influence which civil liberty sheds upon the mind, 
 and which excites our greatest ardor in the pursuit of 
 knowledge. Witness the universal attention which is 
 bestowed on the subject at this time throughout our 
 land of liberty. I do not mean the organization only 
 of nurseries of learning, but the education that is in 
 progress by means of those volumes of information 
 
26 
 
 wliicli are poured forth by the teeming Press, unshackled 
 by political censorship, to every individual; and the 
 voluntary movements in every class of society, by as- 
 sociations for the unrestrained culture of the mind. 
 Truthfully has it been said by the poet, 
 
 “ Freedom hath a thousand charms to show, 
 
 That slaves, howe’er contented, never know. 
 
 The mind attains, beneath her happy reign. 
 
 The growth that Nature meant she should attain. 
 
 The varied fields of science, ever new. 
 
 Opening, and wider opening to her view. 
 
 She ventui’es onward, with a prosperous force, 
 
 While no base fear impedes her in her course.” 
 
 These are the effects of a free and happy government 
 that fosters every enterprise for intellectual improve- 
 ment ; these, the unfading charms that constitute the 
 pride of our nation, and form the bright and radiant 
 Iris of its prosperity. 
 
 Is there not, then, in view of such advantages, a sound 
 policy in cherishing the spirit of our Constitution and 
 Laws, and in securing efficient Institutions, which may 
 systematically curb and subdue the licentiousness of 
 youth, so that they may, as good citizens, become the 
 means of preserving a pure and correct knowledge of 
 the great principles of Civil Government ? 
 
 Need we enforce the necessity of Religious Instruction 
 in a country whose origin may date frojn its struggles, 
 not more for civil liberty, than for religious toleration ; 
 which has since been made the watch-word in every 
 conflict of that Revolution which gave birth to our Inde- 
 pendence ? And why ? but to create by this universal 
 
27 
 
 feeling, not what is termed a National Religion, but a 
 Religious Nation ; worthy of the many blessings con- 
 ferred on us, by Him “in whom all the nations of 
 the earth are to be blessed;” imparting its influences to 
 other and distant lands, and breathing forth collectively 
 and continually the same spirit of Peace and Good-Will 
 to men at large, which is enjoyed by individuals and 
 their families apart, and thereby consolidating the inter- 
 ests and happiness of mankind, without the agitation of 
 complicated political questions ; while this religion con- 
 tains within it all the elements of union and compromise; 
 and if by its spirit of truth we are made free, “ we are 
 free indeed ” 
 
 Christian principle is an essential ingredient of true 
 courage ; the nurse of civil liberty. Without it, men 
 who have encountered the rage of battle with coolness 
 have yet fallen under and sunk beneath the pressure of 
 moral adversity. The mighty and ambitious Csesar 
 trembled under a superstitious presage of his death ; 
 Cato and Brutus, with all the calm philosophy of the one, 
 and intrepidity of the other, gave way, and perished 
 by their own hands, under the pangs of disappointed 
 ambition, or the agonizing sting of conscience ; while 
 thousands of simple-hearted Christians, who have con- 
 tributed to swell “ the noble army of martyrs,” have 
 dared to live, in view of the sacrifice of family and 
 friends, and of all their earthly comforts, and to face 
 every variety of torture that truculent ingenuity could 
 invent, or barbarous cruelty inflict. But these noble 
 and benign affections must be planted, take root, and 
 “ grow with our growth, and strengthen with our 
 strength ;” literally, to be produced by line upon line, 
 
28 
 
 and precept upon precept ; or, in otlier words, by the 
 systematic study of the Scriptures. 
 
 We do not here enter into that controversy which is 
 so rife abroad, and now prevails in our own land, whether 
 schools shall be subject to the Secular or the Ecclesias- 
 tical power; whether the infallible doctrines of one 
 Church, or the peculiar dogmas of another, should be 
 studied, to make their impress on the scholar’s char- 
 acter. But we may fearlessly say, that if the sublimest 
 truth and j^nrest counsel that can light the pathway of 
 life, are ever to become “ the day-star of his hopes, or the 
 pavilion of his peace and prosperity,” he must not neglect 
 or be ashamed of that religion, while the pulse of youth 
 beats high and strong for noble purposes. Nor should 
 his teachers be slow to inculcate those vital precepts 
 which glow upon the page of Inspiration, touched by 
 the finger of God himself. But how ineffectually is this 
 done in many of our institutions, — nay, in all, — as if it 
 was experimented, how small a portion of time would 
 suffice for enlightening the soul, wdiile the practice of 
 infidels is a rebuke on the indifference of Christian pro- 
 fessors to their own text-book. The philosophic Hume 
 acknowledged, that it contained the fairest scheme for 
 the civilization of man. Bousseau could view, with as- 
 tonishment, the majesty of the Scriptures, and feel that 
 its sanctity addressed itself to his heart. Diderot would 
 have his child diligently instructed in its precepts, the 
 code of her morals, and the guide of her future life. 
 A long train of illustrious unbelievers have rendered 
 homage to this divine fountain of wisdom, while we our- 
 selves feel and admire its pervading influence, as an 
 
29 
 
 atmosphere of life. And, yet, our youth are launched 
 upon the world, without more than the simplest elements 
 of a Christian education, and are made to enter into the 
 great conflict with that world, professedly as Christians, 
 but with “armor they have not proved.” For a series 
 of years, they are charmed by classic authors, who 
 exhibit, in the most seductive colors, the religion of the 
 Pantheon, familiarizing them with Pagan deities, and 
 preoccupying their minds with illusions and absurdities, 
 “changing, as it were, the glory of the incorruptible into 
 an image made like to corruptible man while the 
 sacred oracles of truth, that teach the worship of the 
 only living and true God, are formally approached, and 
 coldly read, with hearts not less at variance with its 
 divine precepts than were those of the people of Lystra 
 and of Athens, when, at the altar of “ the unknown God,” 
 they ignorantly bowed. If a compliance with the refine- 
 ments of taste obliges us to have recourse to these cele- 
 brated ]‘epositories of Roman grandeur and Attic ele- 
 gance, should it not be the part of those who are the 
 watchmen of their country’s morals, to administer the 
 surest antidote to such impersonated evils, by instruction 
 fi’om the Bible, where the first workings of error may 
 be quenched, and where the well-springs of the under- 
 standing may be replenished by its dew of heavenly wis- 
 dom? Young men will then come to understand, and 
 be satisfied, that an equal estimate has been made by 
 their teachers of this subject, as of the settlement of 
 mathematical speculations ; discussions on the digamma ; 
 or logical abstractions. 
 
 We have said, that this discipline should form habits 
 
80 
 
 of industry and self-control, where by nature they do not 
 exist. Systematic application is the talisman by which 
 the student can overcome every difficulty. The strin- 
 gent rules, by which his present character has been 
 moulded, are forgotten, in the deep and pervading 
 satisfaction he feels in this second nature, which so 
 eminently befits him for executing the great purpose of 
 his creation. New objects are brought to his notice, 
 and wrought into usefulness ; temptations are excluded ; 
 the free spirit of inquiry is made continually to soar 
 where genius can attain its greatest elevation ; and the 
 holar and the perfect man become identified. 
 
 Who are the men, in our age, that have been called out, 
 on public emergencies, as the very arms of our strength ? 
 Whose brilliant efforts have shed their lustre in our high- 
 est councils ? Whose names have received the homage 
 of respect and applause from foreign nations, and have 
 caused despots to tremble for their frail tenure on civil 
 liberty ?y^ames which have been written on the heart of 
 every American in characters so strong, so vivid, that 
 time never can efface them ; names which have been so 
 elevated for their wisdom and patriotism, that it would 
 seem, in the course of a wise Providence, they should 
 have been permitted to go down to other generations as 
 signal and admirable instances to show, that without the 
 adventitious aid of worldly, official honor, the might and 
 majesty of intellect alone, can shape the way to immor- 
 tality. What was it that gave these men their proud 
 distinction ? Trace them in their biographies, if they 
 are faithfully to be written, from youth to age ; in all 
 their occupations ; follow them to their closets, and wit- 
 
81 
 
 ness their toils on the eve of some burst of enthusiasm 
 which has been made to electrify our entire continent ; 
 and if you are not satisfied, ask of those who have 
 known the secret of the successful labors, and that mighty 
 spring of intellect, which characterized the lives of 
 Adams, of Calhoun, of Clay, and of Webster, and you 
 will be told it was discipline and unwearied industry 
 which caused their names to become the glorious memo- 
 riaJ^f their country’s honor. 
 
 ^^Lgain, this discipline generates also the habit of self- 
 control ; a determination to master every passion of 
 the heart, and to subdue every untried difiiculty which 
 can obstruct the pathway to the goal of his ambition. 
 But whether his employment is to be of a civil or mili- 
 tary nature ; whether in public or private life ; this 
 abandonment of self, this mastery of the inner man, by 
 all the appliances we have mentioned, must be the result 
 of regular and constant training, leading onward to pre- 
 ferment, as to health and happiness : — a self-control, 
 without which we never should have read the charmed 
 periods and commanding eloquence of Demosthenes and 
 Burke ; or have had our spirits stirred within us by the 
 recital of the noble acts which have crowned the 
 memory of Fabius and of Washington. 
 
 But let us not suppose, that our system aims at the 
 acquirement of self-control, as part of an education, by 
 those only who may be expected to become distinguish- 
 ed for their eloquence, or their martial achievements. 
 This self-control should be acquired as not less requi- 
 site to regulate and guide the ordinary and ten- 
 der sympathies of our nature, and, oft-times, where 
 
32 
 
 ambition and self-interest may be made to yield to tbe 
 calls of honor and humanity. The Valerian teacher 
 would have delivered to the Eoman general Camil- 
 lus the children of that besieged city, and so have 
 secured to him its conquest ; but he scornfully rejected 
 the base proposal, remarking, that “ a great general 
 should rely only upon his own virtue, and not upon 
 the treachery of others.” And the enemy was sub- 
 dued, by this touching and generous regard for his own 
 honor and parental sympathy and love, where military 
 skill and force had proved inadequa-te, and drew forth 
 its beautiful commentary : “ The Romans, in preferring 
 justice to conquest, have taught us to be satisfied 
 with submission, instead of liberty.” And when Na- 
 poleon made his perilous ascent of the Alps, and, amid 
 the desolations of that fearful scene, took from a 
 drooping and exhausted soldier his musket, and bore 
 it on his own shoulder ; it was a deed of greater mag- 
 nanimity than when, under “ that sun of Austerlitz,” 
 he vanquished the combined' legions of Russia and Aus- 
 tria; or when, from Cannae, in the terrible ascendancy 
 of his genius, he effected his exulting, though ill-fated 
 re-entry into Paris. The triumph of a conquering host 
 is watered by the tears of bereaved widows and or- 
 phans ; the rescue of a single life, is an act which restores 
 to the bosom of society the object of their protection, 
 and is ever fresh with the precious dew of public grati- 
 tude and love : — that man who stops at the limits which 
 justice has marked out for the course of honor; who 
 knows that he has a brother in adversity to relieve ; who 
 sees, in all civil relations, the dependencies of man upon 
 
Ills fellow-man, and is conscious of his capacity to perform 
 one generous deed of humanity ; — may well realize, that 
 u process of education which cultivates such graces, is 
 worth the application of a life, and he may readily ap- 
 preciate the simple and expressive language of the 'wise 
 man, that “ he who ruleth his spirit, is greater than he 
 who taketh a city f ’ expressive, — because it shows, by this 
 striking comparison, the nature and difficulty of a w^ork 
 which would call for the highest energies of the soul, 
 wrought upon by continued precepts, and the love of 
 eminent example^ 
 
 ^And here, again, a great and inestimable - attain- 
 ment is left by our schools, to be accomplished by 
 the mere force of moral suasion, — which may often 
 rather minister to our infirmities, than promote or 
 correct our morals. If men were alike constituted, 
 with the ability and disposition to command themselves, 
 and with all sufficient motives, then, doubtless, self-dis- 
 cipline would be well repaid for its labor. But, alas ! 
 few have the resolution, firmness, and discernment, of a 
 Ximenes, a Cecil, or a Franklin ; and where these 
 qualities are not implanted by nature, they must be the 
 result of education. 
 
 Mark the historical fact, that when the great 
 Spartan Law-giver determined to form a nation of 
 warriors, he did not wait for the period when the citi- 
 zen became capable of bearing arms; of listening to 
 sound precept; and of enduring the severities of a 
 camp ; but he claimed the children, while yet in in- 
 fancy, as public property, and, with a rigor of treat* 
 ment which suited only the strongest constitution, they 
 
 S 
 
34 
 
 were to renounce every luxury and every pleasure, and 
 to extinguish every sympathetic feeling, one only ex- 
 cepted, (that most powerful agent in man’s transac- 
 tions,) Patriotism ; their education being “ an appren- 
 ticeship of obedience.” And such were the privations 
 and pains of this almost intolerable discipline, that all 
 the fatigues and dangers of the battle-field were hailed 
 with delight, as being, in the words of Alcibiades, “ a 
 welcome relief from such a life as they were obliged to 
 lead.” But here was the effect of principle ; Ids object 
 was accomplished. It was to make men warriors ; and, 
 however incompatible the strictness of this system 
 might be with our free government in this day of intel- 
 ligence, it fully illustrates our position. 
 
 It has been questioned, whether a well-ordered state 
 of society may be produced by a system of rewards and 
 punishments ; a condition which may best arise from the 
 early cultivation and continual exercise of good prin- 
 ciples which act in harmony with the laws of nature, 
 under a strict though generous supervision. Laws with 
 pains and penalties may diminish the commission of 
 crime and immorality ; but when they can be avoided, 
 or when restraint is removed, iniquity will again 
 abound, because, under every government, stern justice 
 detects the fact ouly of a breach of law, and makes no 
 appeal whatever to the conscience, until sentence is 
 pronounced, when the evil or enormity of the offence is 
 terribly opened upon it. And these rewards and pun- 
 ishments are directed mainly at the venal hopes or the 
 abject fears and depraved feelings of men, which should 
 never be appealed to while there are nobler incentives 
 
35 
 
 to action in the benign affections of the heart, which 
 by steady attention may be taught to grow, to be modi- 
 fied, and to abide there. The hopeless reformations which, 
 for several years, have been produced by the Ragged 
 Schools of England among the most abandoned of its 
 prison inmates, are some of the happy results of this 
 Philosophy, and will worthily perpetuate the names of 
 Willis and of Pound, as among the greatest benefactors 
 of mankind. It is the first conception of evil that is to 
 be counteracted, which, like the baneful seed sown in a 
 nutritious soil, not only attains a vigorous growth, but 
 propagates and reproduces itself a thousand-fold. With 
 this consideration, then, it matters not what habit or 
 disposition we may desire to cultivate, we should early 
 enforce the propriety and obligation to possess it with 
 some regard to the laws of nature ; and the effect will 
 be as^eertain as the result of any physical cause. 
 
 may observe a correspondence between the way of 
 moral and religious education, and the spirit and temper 
 of the people of every nation, which plainly indicates 
 that the character of a people may be moulded by their 
 system of training the body and the mind, (rather than 
 by the restraint of laws,) which, from early and habitual 
 practice, ripens into a seated and permanent attachment. 
 The ancient Persians nurtured their youth in all the 
 rules of temperance and sobriety, of justice and virtue, 
 and until the days of Cyrus, maintained an elevated 
 character as a nation ; but after that period, by neglect- 
 ing the cultivation of these virtues, they degenerated 
 and became an easy prey to their Macedonian conquer- 
 ors. The early Eoman severity of manners well accorded 
 with the studied formation of their character for con- 
 
36 
 
 quest; but their rougher genius became softened by the 
 refinements of the Augustan age and by Grecian inter- 
 course, and thus by easy indolence their liberty was extin- 
 guished. The commerce of Carthage, which supplied 
 their means of purchasing foreign aid in time of war, occa- 
 sioned intercourse with every variety of people ; and by 
 the influence of their religion, which sanctioned the sacri- 
 fice of human life to an imaginary Moloch, displayed ele- 
 ments of character which have been represented to be 
 by turns imperious and servile, melancholy and cruel, 
 inexorable and faithless, egotistical and covetous, and 
 which even the better morals of their Koman masters 
 never could eradicate. The capricious despotism of 
 China, mingled with reverence for antiquated custom 
 and the Aphorisms of sages inculcating obedience as a 
 virtue, which form a considerable part of their learning, 
 occasions a remarkable similarity in their physical 
 appearance, and has given them the qualities of Industry, 
 Docility and Subordination ; whilst their Religion, de- 
 rived from the doctrines of Confucius, fills the world 
 with demons and spirits, to exert their separate influ- 
 ence, and produces a disposition to Insincerity, False- 
 hood, and mutual distrust. And how uniform has been 
 the sullen, stolid, and abject indifference of unlettered 
 Africa throughout the palmy days of science, and every 
 period and every change of other peoples of the earth, 
 from that hour when the curse of everlasting servitude 
 fell upon the children of Ham ! 
 
 It is thus we unavoidably attribute to almost every 
 nation, at this day, some features of character referable 
 to their peculiar plan of government and education. 
 
37 
 
 The dreadful Keyolution of a night, at Paris, too truly 
 solved this grave Political Problem. 
 
 It is, then, the moral training of its People that stamps 
 the character of every nation ; and although penal enact- 
 ments are essential in every municipal code, they who are 
 subject to their infliction constitute but a small portion 
 of the people, and invariably the ignorant and vicious. 
 
 Indeed, if society is to be united by such means^ and 
 not by habits of virtue and intelligence, early instilled 
 and vigilantly improved, it cannot be of long duration 
 for any beneficial purposes. And therefore, if we would 
 have the well-being of society preserved, so should we 
 constantly address some innate sense of kindness and 
 benevolence in the human heart ; some feeling of self- 
 respect, (for there is no one, however depraved, who has 
 not within him the latent seeds of these affections,) and 
 train it up to this virtue and intelligence. With such 
 culture of the mind, there is no dream of Utopian perfec- 
 tion, in looking forward to a time when we shall seek 
 rather a development of moral excellence, than study 
 the prevention of crime ; when our Houses of Refuge 
 and our Penitentiaries shall be transformed into nurse- 
 ries of Science and of Liberal Art ; and when, with the 
 graces we have mentioned, the character of man will 
 have that elevation, which affords the surest means of 
 perpetuating the honor and stability of our Pepublic. 
 
 Presuming, now, that the mind has been judiciously 
 prepared by the formation of early habits ; — that the 
 social system of education is to be preferred ; — that 
 under our happy form of government we are at liberty 
 freely to discuss and cultivate the sciences of Political 
 
38 
 
 Economy, Pliilosopliy, and Public Law ; — and that we 
 are made sensible of the importance of the full employ- 
 ment of time, and of the knowledge and practice of 
 religion, and are convinced of the effects of self-control 
 and industry ; we are brought to inquire which class of 
 the various Institutions of our country is most favorable 
 to qualify the Student for the performance of that duty 
 which we have laid down as the programme of his life. 
 
 We do not insist upon the efficacy of a Military 
 School, solely in its distinctive character. We advocate 
 the influence, upon evei^y Institution, of that discipline 
 which, like a self-adjusting spring, can be made appli- 
 cable to any machinery, and can keep in tension all its 
 parts, however complex they may be. 
 
 Considering the claims of a well-regulated Military 
 School, we would not detract from the competency of 
 our Collegiate Institutions to qualify for all the duties 
 of active life, while their fruits prove them to be the 
 rich conservatories of science ; for where there abides in 
 the student an all-sufficient motive, and an appreciation 
 of the advantages held forth by any of our seats of 
 learning, the way is clear before him, successfully to run 
 the race which leads to fame and honor. And there 
 have been those, so gifted with resolution, with spirits so 
 stayed in their purpose, when called forth at some event- 
 ful period, that they have required no aid from disci- 
 pline, nor any incentive to action. But exalted motives 
 and the exigences of a state are not frequent, and 
 genius does not often, by its own power, break from 
 the enthralments to which adverse circumstances may 
 have subjected it; as with Ferguson, Davy, Niebuhr, 
 
39 
 
 and Adam Clarke in Europe; and, in our own land, 
 Franklin, Rittenhouse, Huntington, Sherman and others ; 
 examples of what may be effected, under the keenest 
 privations, by their own mental powers and force of 
 unconquerable resolution. Such men are exceptions to 
 the rule which requires system and discipline, to advance 
 the mind. 
 
 Our views of education, however, should embrace 
 the mass of meu, as they are constituted in the aggre- 
 gate, with every grade of talent and every variety of 
 disposition, requiring schools, under proper government ; 
 where a youth, as in the well-drilled army, is brought 
 into that subjection to which the self-taught spirits we 
 have mentioned brought themselves, and to which he 
 must be reduced, if he would achieve a name ; where 
 duty is enforced by a reasonable authority, and self- 
 control becomes the first fruit of its exercise ; and where, 
 with the husbandry of a self-acting principle, and se- 
 questration of the heart from sensual enjoyments, every 
 moment of time is made to tell its value. 
 
 /^^^^hatever may be the part which the scholar has to 
 y perform on the stage of life, a Military Education, not 
 restricted to the theory and practice of arms, but ex- 
 tending its influence to cover the attainment of every 
 branch of useful knowledge, may be considered effect- 
 ual, by reason of a clearness and purity of mind which 
 arises from its continued action. The turbid and me- 
 phitic stream always moves heavily. 
 
 There is no department of business for which the 
 rudiments of martial knowledge do not qualify the stu- 
 dent. Is he destined for the learned profession of Law, 
 
40 
 
 or Physic ? He has laid, deep and strong, the habit of 
 observation, of reflection, and of logical reasoning ; a 
 sense of moral obligation, and a systematic employ- 
 ment of time ; and, by his associations, he has cherished 
 those principles of honor which are indispensable in the 
 elevated and often delicate positions in which he may 
 be placed. Is he destined for a Mercantile Pursuit? 
 The promptness, order, and regularity, observed in his 
 academic exercises, may be readily transferred to the 
 desk and the mart, and must induce precision, in all 
 his contracts and engagements. Does he choose that 
 most exalted and that noblest of callings, the ministry 
 of the Gospel ? His text book is replete with details of 
 military conflicts, and with analogies which would seem 
 to require a corresponding genius and attainment, to 
 bring to that good and just account, for which they 
 appear to have been designed We need not refer to the 
 battles of Empyrean Hierarchies, before the foundations 
 of the earth were laid, when ‘Hhey which kept not 
 their first estate’^ were reserved for future doom ; nor 
 to the martial engagements of the early Patriarchs ; the 
 battles of the chosen people of God, (every man of 
 whom was militant,) of the kings of Israel and Judah ; 
 and of the Maccabees, of more modern date ; all which 
 were intended to effect the sovereign purposes of Provi- 
 dence, to shadow forth some signal events in the great 
 plan of Redemption, and to 
 
 vindicate the ways of God to raan.”^ 
 
 I say, it is unnecessary to refer to such incidents, 
 which form a tissue of sacred narrative, or to those of 
 later Ecclesiastical History, for a recognition of the 
 
41 
 
 lawful causes of war. But we may come to tlie peaceful 
 period of tlie New Testament, where the Chiistian 
 Soldier is represented on his way, as in a state of contin- 
 ual warfare, every step of which is to be contested, 
 and to be gained by victory over his spiritual enemies. 
 And where shall we find a closer analogy than has 
 been drawn by the great Apostle, in his description of 
 that panoply in which he figuratively arrays the soldier 
 of the cross, and by a text so military, that no part of 
 his armor may be wanting, from the head adorned “ with 
 the helmet of salvation,” to the feet “ shod with the prep- 
 aration of the Gospel of Peace.” He requires only a 
 spiritual unction to his prevailing sense of duty, his 
 morals, and energy, to nerve his arm in the battle of his 
 faith, to wield the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. 
 
 If he make choice of the soldier’s life, he has, by 
 the salutary privations of the school, been fitted for 
 enduring the fatigues, the dangers, and the duties of a 
 camp; he is already initiated, with every accomplish- 
 ment, not as one whose business is to kill and destroy, 
 to sack and plunder, or to gratify “ the pride, pomp, 
 and circumstance of glorious war.” He has, on the 
 contrary, by his own well-regulated conduct, learned to 
 temper courage with discretion ; ambition with benevo- 
 lence ; to blend the tactics of war with Christian 
 virtue, and intrepidity of heart with the beauty of 
 holiness ; and to unite all the finer principles of con- 
 duct, whether of probity, public spirit, or humanity, 
 which are, or ought to be, the genuine characteristics 
 of his profession, and which, in every department, form 
 the outlines of the brave and good man, who would 
 
42 
 
 prefer to a triumphal procession, with captive monarchs 
 at his chariot wheels, the modern ovation, which leaves 
 the vanquished in the enjoyment of their liberty, and 
 elevates them to a higher degree of civilization. In all 
 his intercourse with the world, he brings with him the 
 elements of a knowledge of mankind, and the decision, 
 firmness, and forbearance, which the intricate affairs of 
 life require. And wherever we follow him, in this our 
 continent, whether it be on the exchange, or in the 
 retired walks of society ; whether he plow the main, 
 or be tracing out and laying open thoroughfares over 
 the untrodden wilderness and impenetrable mountain 
 passes which divide the country, we shall find the 
 same impulse given to his actions, as the result of that 
 wholesome and effective discipline. 
 
 A It would seem unnecessary further to press the 
 claims of a Military School, properly conducted, to per — 
 feet the military character, or, in the words of Milton, 
 
 “ The rudiments of soldiership in all the skill of embat- 
 tling, marching, encamping, fortifying, besieging, and 
 battering, with all the help of ancient and modern 
 stratagems, and warlike maxims.” It is, in fact, but 
 teaching him. his adopted pursuit in life, and making 
 him familiar with the exercises that beget a confidence 
 without which courage may avail but little. 
 
 The soldier’s faith is truly to be accompanied by 
 works. When Hezekiah’s dominions were invaded by 
 the Assyrian Sennacherib, and he expected that Jerusa- 
 lem would be under siege, we are told, in the Book of 
 Chronicles, that he first took counsel with ‘‘his princes 
 and mighty men.” He strengthened himself, and built 
 
43 
 
 up the '^uter and inner walls. He made darts and 
 shields in abundance, and he set Captains of War over 
 the people. And then he rested his people, for help, 
 on the God of battles. And the prayers of the good 
 and valorous Nehemiah, (three hundred years after,) 
 for the protection of the same citadel, were not alone 
 the stay of his faith, when, with patriotic ardor, he and 
 his servants rebuilt its twice dilapidated walls, while 
 each, with one hand, wrought in the w'ork, and with the 
 other held a weapon of defence. These are admirable 
 lessons for later generations ; to first apply their phys- 
 ical and intellectual resources as Providential means to 
 the end. All history and observation should satisfy us 
 that God helps the men who help themselves. And if 
 the art of war is neglected by a nation, then may “ the 
 enemy come in like a flood.” National honor will droop 
 and perisli, and, with it, national pride, and all that it 
 involves, to sustain the enterprises of the day. Com- 
 merce, the arts and sciences, nay, even religion itself 
 must lose its purity and consequent power, if our hearts 
 do not burn with love of country and devotedness to its 
 protection, with that noble pledge our fathers once gave, 
 “Their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.” 
 
 The schools of other countries, and their martial deeds, 
 the many distinguished leaders of our own armies, and 
 the inferior officers who have been graduated at our 
 military academies and their feats in battles yet fresh 
 in memory, — of Cerro Gordo, Molino del Pey, and Chu- 
 rubusco, have shown the success of armies under well- 
 disciplined and educated officers, and are conclusive evi- 
 dence of their advantage. But, unless this preliminary 
 
44 
 
 and severe course of study and occupation is conjoined 
 witli, and tempered by, a liberal academic course, it 
 may prove, in many instances, but tlie nursing of future 
 evil to tliemselves and to their country. 
 
 An accomplished general, in modern times, like the 
 heroes of antiquity, should be perfect in science and lit- 
 erature ; equally capable, by his attainiuents, to direct 
 the affairs of state in peace, and to lead out its armies to 
 battle. “ That I call,” says Milton, “ a complete and 
 generous education, which fits a man to perform justly, 
 skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both piivate 
 and public, of peace and war.” Indeed, it might be 
 difficult to determine whether Athens should have 
 boasted more of the military powers of her Themisto- 
 cles, Phocion, and Miltiades, and Eome of her Fabius, 
 Caesar, and Camillus, than of their mental energies and 
 their eloquence ; for we are told that the Classic nations 
 revered “the same Pallas as the Goddess of war and of 
 wisdom,” and that an illiterate commander would have 
 been the contempt of Eome and of Greece. Both in 
 Egypt and Assyria, in Persia, Greece, and Eome, (says 
 Lord Verulam,) the same times that are most renowned 
 for arms are likewise most admired for learning. 
 
 From what has been said, it may be inferred that 
 Military Science gives advantage to the statesman, in 
 securing a proper understanding of the details of those 
 departments of government which are established for its 
 protection and maintenance, and are always affording 
 subjects for discussion in our legislative councils, which 
 concern a large proportion of the Treasury disburse- 
 ments, and which materially affect the various employ- 
 
45 
 
 merits of oiir citizens connected with them. These, with 
 a correct knowledge and judgment, he may skilfully 
 direct, and thus more ably prevent the abuses and cor- 
 ruption which are ever attendant upon all human 
 institutions. 
 
 The policy of the State, also, in time of peace, is often 
 so interwoven with difficulties as to require a nice dis- 
 crimination of the just causes of war, as to call for an 
 ability, decision, and promptness, seldom to be found 
 where it has not been early and studiously cultivated. 
 There was never an instance of greater political talent 
 and celebrity, founded upon private and domestic instruc- 
 tion, than that exhibited to the world by the younger 
 Pitt. That great statesman, who, by his genius, firm- 
 ness, and consistency, as the Premier of England, could 
 breast the powerful opposition of Parliament, and tri- 
 umphantly complete those financial measures which are 
 still operating for the benefit of his country ; and could, 
 at one period, rivet the confidence of the Throne and of 
 the People, was yet unsuccessful in his schemes of for- 
 eign policy, which required the intervention of arms to 
 disperse the dark clouds which hung over the destinies 
 of France, and threatened, by its revolution, to involve 
 very kingdom in Europe. 
 
 We do not assume the position that this discipline is 
 indispensable to the statesman ; for here, as under other 
 heads we have mentioned, rare genius will vault over 
 every rule. But it cannot be denied, that the system 
 does afford superior advantages. The sagacity of a sin- 
 gle great statesman would have been more disastrous to 
 the Kin 2: of Israel, on his memorable abdication and 
 
 O f 
 
46 
 
 flight, than all the armed force that could have been 
 arrayed against him, had there not been a superior skill 
 in military stratagem, by which the counsel of Ahitho- 
 phel was “ turned into foolishness.” 
 
 Military knowledge is not less important to the His- 
 TOKiAisr. Histoiy is the great moral luminary which 
 radiates the experience of past generations for the 
 benefit of the present age. It exhibits the Empires of 
 Time which have arisen, have flourished, and have* 
 fallen, by the force and power of arms, guided and 
 directed by martial enterprise and talent. And it 
 conveys to us lessons of caution or encouragement, by 
 describing the array of armies, and their munitions, 
 their devices, and their strategies, for invasion or de- 
 fense ; their battles and sieges ; and the success or 
 defeat, which has attended them. These momentous 
 events, and the acts of the illustrious men who have 
 figured in them, are perpetuated by the historian, who 
 should himself be familiar with the whole field of mili- 
 tary tactics, and with the science of engineering, and 
 its application to military architecture, to enable him 
 to clearly comprehend his subject, or happily to convey 
 impressions of Character, and to teach the moral of 
 their actions to Posterity. Thucydides, that great mas- 
 ter of history, displayed not less of the Political Phi- 
 losopher, by reason of his youthful engagements in 
 military service. The early martial lessons of Poly- 
 bius, and his subsequent experience in the art of war, 
 enabled him to bequeath to the world his imperishable 
 works, which are said to afford the true politics of his- 
 tory. The works of the illustrious soldier and states- 
 
47 
 
 mail, Xenophon, and the commentaries of Caesar, will 
 he coeval with time. And we have seen, in onr day, 
 that Napier, who was a prominent actor in the Pe- 
 ninsular war of England with France, has given an 
 interest to that subject, where Southey, with all his 
 laborious research and attractive style, has failed. 
 
 But it is not for Heroes only, whose pomp is ofttimes 
 furnished from rapine, and their scarlet from blood ; — 
 nor for the consummate Statesman, whose ambition 
 may cause him to become reckless of a nation’s glory, 
 and to gratify alone his self-aggrandizement; nor yet 
 for the Historian, who, with all his ability, may be 
 governed by prejudice : it is not for the benefit of these 
 only that our system is intended. It is for the humblest 
 citizen, who noiselessly mixes with society, and who 
 constitutes a part of that body of the people, who roll 
 on the ball of public opinion. Public opinion ! that 
 great, impartial arbiter of the acts of men, and the 
 destinies of empires. It is for the citizen soldier, who 
 may be withdrawn from peaceful employments, to join, 
 in the strife of war, with every natural propensity of 
 his heart unbroken. It is for every man of the nation 
 who can venture a thought for the public weal, can 
 ply a sinew for its support, or can wield a sword for 
 the vindication of its rights ; who needs, and ought to 
 have, the wholesome checks and guidance of this high- 
 est and strongest arm of our country’s protection and 
 defense. 
 
 Objections have been made to a Military Education, 
 that it excites an emotion incompatible with peaceful 
 pursuits, encourages a warlike disposition, and begets 
 
48 
 
 that seemingly aristocratic bearing, which is not easily 
 tolerated in civil life. But will not the same enthusb 
 asm, the same fixedness of purpose, qualify for other 
 employments, while soldierly habits are but the aux- 
 iliaries to general improvement, and yet strictly such 
 as to prepare the mind predisposed for the science of 
 war ? And we cannot presume, that the education of 
 a youth, which shall prompt to chivalric action, by his 
 familiar knowledge of the biography of men distin- 
 guished for heroism and mental refinement, will make 
 him less disposed to act the part of a gentleman, in 
 every department of life. Our Army and Navy offi- 
 cers have been considered as the patterns of courtesy 
 and politeness ; a fact, wffiich should be the pride of any 
 nation. And this may be the result of habitual and 
 close observation of the comparative rights of men. 
 Hence the remark of the erudite Coleridge, (however 
 distasteful may be some of his gratuitous compliments 
 to our national institutions,) “That the gentlemanly 
 character arises out of a feeling of equality under all 
 the circumstances of social intercourse, the trivial, not 
 less than the important, and with the ease of habit, act- 
 ing as a habit, yet flexible, to the varieties of rank, and 
 modified without being disturbed or superseded by 
 them.” But, however there may appear to be cause 
 for such objections, it is a part of the soldier’s duty, 
 to command as well as to obey ; and where authority 
 exists, there must be the “external manner,” which, 
 when exercised within its legitimate sphere, is becom- 
 ing, and, with discretion, will never be offensive. Our 
 theory of war has none of the sub til ties and selfish 
 
49 
 
 principles of so-called Machiavelism, but is now made 
 only the ultei*ior measure for determining national con- 
 troversies, without the effects which the vain-glorious 
 passions of mankind have hitherto produced. 
 
 May we not then claim for Military Discipline, not 
 its prerogative but its legitimate functions, in conduct- 
 ing the education of youth, and justly submit, for the 
 consideration of our Legislative Assemblies, the ines- 
 timable advantage that may arise to the country at 
 large, from liberal appropriations of Anns and Imple- 
 ments, for the use of all our Institutions which may 
 adopt this discipline; and especially in the abnormal 
 state of our new Territories, where insurrectionary in- 
 terests or predatory invasion may be counteracted by 
 a competent knowledge of warfare, and where civil 
 society may receive its greatest benefit and highest 
 ornament by such endowments ? 
 
 / In whatever light we may view this subject, it is a 
 matter not only of national policy, but of necessity, that 
 a martial spirit should be made to act upon the v/hole 
 process of education, as we have endeavored to show. 
 We owe it to the cause of liberty, (the dearly-pur- 
 chased privilege we now enjoy,) for its continuance ; 
 for, as Sallust observes, “ Imperium facile, his artibus, 
 retinetur, quibus initio partum est.” The same arts hy 
 which dominion was first acquired^ will serve to secure 
 it. The first breath of liberty was inhaled, with a suc- 
 cessful resistance to Tyranny, by an appeal to arms, and 
 Heaven ; and the vestiges of three triumphal wai's, 
 may satisfy us, that if it were not for the martial zeal 
 which pervades our land, springing from a recollection 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 of the eventful deeds we periodically celebrate, we 
 might now have been in the crushed and fettered con- 
 dition of those unhappy nations, who are the victims of 
 that despicable and cruel engine of oppression, a Stand- 
 ing Army ! We owe it to the oppressed, and trodden- 
 down people of every portion of the earth, who can, by 
 possibility, breathe the pure air of freedom, as the only 
 means of repaying that sacred debt of gratitude to 
 foreign nations who shared with us the perils and toils 
 of the Kevolution, which established the rights of man, 
 on the sure basis of Independence. Whether it be for 
 Intervention, or to wait the crisis when Freedom’s blow 
 is to be struck, — let our national councils determine ; 
 but never let it be said, that we can sit indifferent to 
 the wails of the oppressed, although they come from 
 across the wide ocean, or from the utmost ends of 
 the earth. No ! by the prowess of an Ingraham it has 
 already been demonstrated abroad, that the ^gis of 
 his country’s name and rights will ever shield her'^^ 
 adopted children from the grasp of foreign power. And 
 while the Angel of Liberty, like him in the Apoca- 
 lyptic vision, is taking flight “through the midst of 
 heaven,” the God-fearing, law-loving people of our 
 happy country will speed his course, until that glorious 
 standard shall be unfurled, and float through other 
 realms, as it now waves over this 
 
 “ Land of the Brave, and Home of the Free.” 
 
 If a military spirit, properly directed, is not com- 
 mendable, why have Poetry and Romance so often 
 woven triumphal garlands for the soldier’s brow ; and 
 
51 
 
 why has the chieftain’s name been more than once made 
 a passport to the highest honors of his country ? Why, 
 on each return of our national jubilee, do we sing paeans 
 in honor of those mighty spirits who secured to us the 
 rich blessings we now enjoy? Why was the time- 
 honored La Fayette invited to become a nation’s guest, 
 when half a century had rolled between his last advent 
 to our shores, and those stirring and glorious incidents 
 which identified him with our country’s name? And, 
 in later and recent times, why did that great Apostle 
 of Liberty who performed his mission through this 
 land, light up a fire of enthusiasm in every breast, in 
 behalf of his spirit-stricken countrymen, and excite 
 such universal applause for the announcement of doc- 
 trines of national fraternity, which, if true, wdll ulti- 
 mately knit the entire universe of mankind into one 
 VAST Eepublic, by the bonds of love and peace ? 
 
 “ Man is one : 
 
 And he hath one great heart. And thus we feel, 
 
 With a gigantic throb, across the sea. 
 
 Each other’s rights and wrongs.” 
 
 These events say to us in a language that cannot be 
 misunderstood, that there is a spirit in man, an innate, 
 indomitable spirit, that cannot be resisted to its destruc- 
 tion, although it may be checked and ripened to use- 
 fulness by the influences of a proper education, by giv- 
 ing it a true direction to serve the cause of justice and 
 humanity, and not the mere schemes of vain-glory, and 
 insatiable ambition. The day of educational reform 
 sheds its light through every portion of the world 
 
52 
 
 where civil liberty prevails ; and the raind, left free to 
 roam over the inexhaustible fields of Literature and 
 Science, will prove their uses to mankind. Practical 
 knowledge is no longer to be excluded from the schol- 
 ar’s acquirements ; and, with reason swayed by a right 
 judgment, and unprejudiced by political power, — with 
 the understanding best taught by experience and ob- 
 servation, our educated young men may, in their turn, 
 go forth into the great school-room of the World, them- 
 selves to teach and influence, by precept and example, 
 the many thousands who may be reached by that strict 
 discipline, which guards and corrects the waywardness 
 of youth, as it jealously husbands the fleeting hours, 
 and which can most effectually conduce to a knowledge 
 of themselves ; — the True Philosophy and happiness of 
 Man, and that highest of all obligations — duty to their 
 Creatoe. 
 
w ■