I never heard but one tangible position taken against educational
establishments for the people, and that was, that in this or that
instance, or in these or those instances, education for the people
has failed. And I have never traced even this to its source but I
have found that the term education, so employed, meant anything but
education--implied the mere imperfect application of old, ignorant,
preposterous spelling-book lessons to the meanest purposes--as if
you should teach a child that there is no higher end in
electricity, for example, than expressly to strike a mutton-pie out
of the hand of a greedy boy--and on which it is as unreasonable to
found an objection to education in a comprehensive sense, as it
would be to object altogether to the combing of youthful hair,
because in a certain charity school they had a practice of combing
it into the pupils' eyes.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I turn to the report of this
Institution, on whose behalf we are met; and I start with the
education given there, and I find that it really is an education
that is deserving of the name. I find that there are papers read
and lectures delivered, on a variety of subjects of interest and
importance. I find that there are evening classes formed for the
acquisition of sound, useful English information, and for the study
of those two important languages, daily becoming more important in
the business of life,--the French and German.
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