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INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 311 |
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observed, is an instrument by which a man influences other men, and carves his way to fortune. It is a power which unlocks the wealth of the mine and unbars the treasures of the miser. Parents, therefore, seeking the advancement of their children, take measures to give them gainful knowledge: but, alas, they often neglect to cultivate and cherish those treasures of th*1 heart which neither moth nor rust can corrupt.^ The enlightened teacher will not commit this error.
* In the Prussian schools, moral culture is carefully attended to, and with the greatest success. Professor Stowe says. " In regard to the necessity of moral instruction and the beneficial influence of the Bible in schools, the testimony was no less explicit and uniform. I inquired of all classes of teachers, and men of every grade of religious faith, instructers in common schools, high schools, and schools of art, of professors in colleges, universities and professional seminaries, in cities and in the country, in places where there was a uniformity and in places where there was a diversity of creeds, of believers and unbelievers, of rationalists and enthusiasts, of Catholics and Protestants; and I never found but one reply, and that was, that to leave the moral faculty uninstructed was to leave the most important part of the human mind undeveloped, and to strip education of almost every thing that can make it valuable; and that the Bible, independently of the interest attending it, as containing the most ancient and influential writings ever recorded by human hands, and comprising the religious system of almost the whole of the civilized world, is in itself the best book that can be put into the hands of children to interest, to exercise, and to unfold their intellectual and moral powers. Every teacher whom I consulted repelled with indignation the idea that moral instruction is not proper for schools, and spurned with contempt the allegation that the Bible cannot be introduced into |
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