Moreover, regardless of one-half of creation, he has
neither stated the age at which females are marriageable, nor given us
that of his own wife. This neglect justly detracts from his authority;
and it will not be strange if young men and women view with distrust an
opinion that is so manifestly partial and one-sided. If schools make
merely learned people, in a narrow and technical sense, they are not
doing their whole work. Such learning makes an efficient population,
which is certainly desirable; but it ought also to be a well-educated
population in a broad, comprehensive, philosophic sense. By the force of
nature and the developing influences of society, including the church,
the school, and the home, we ought first to be educated men and women,
and then apply that education to the particular work we have in hand. By
learning, in this connection, I do not mean the learning of Agassiz as a
naturalist, the learning of Choate as a lawyer, or the learning of
Everett as an orator; but a more general and less minute culture, by
which men are prepared to form an accurate judgment upon subjects that
usually attract public attention.
In the gardens of the wealthy, we often see peach-trees and pear-trees
trained against brick or stone walls, to which they are attached by
substantial thongs. These trees are carefully and systematically
trained, and they are trained so as to accomplish certain results.
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