The revival of
education in America was soon followed by a marked improvement in the
leading industries of the people, and especially in the department of
agriculture. The principle of association has not yet been as beneficial
to the farmers as to the mechanics; but the former are soon to be
compensated for the delay. With the exception of the business of
discovering small planets, which seem to have been created for the
purpose of exciting rivalry among a number of enthusiastic, well-minded,
but comparatively secluded gentlemen, agricultural learning has made the
most marked progress in the last ten years. But an agricultural
population is professionally an inert population; and, therefore, as in
the accumulation of John Jacob Astor's fortune, it was more difficult to
take the first step than to make all the subsequent movements. Now,
however, the principle of association is giving direction and force to
the labors of the farmer; and it is easy for any person to draw to
himself, in that pursuit, the results of the learning of the world.
Libraries and lectures for the operatives in the manufactories
constitute another agency in the cause of general learning. The city of
Lawrence, under the lead of well-known public-spirited gentlemen there,
has the honor of introducing the system in America. A movement, to which
this is kindred, was previously made in England; but that movement had
for its object the education of the operatives in the simple elements of
learning, and among the females in a knowledge of household duties.
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