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pleases, noting particular after particular, observing each mark which serves to characterize the object, or to distinguish it from every other. This is true of whatever meets the eye in nature. It is the lesson of the little pebble found in the dusty street; ave, of the dust itself, no less than of the mountain mass; of the lonely denizen of the heath equally with the cultivated flower of the garden; of the tiny insect that lurks unobserved in the grass by the wayside, or has its home in some secluded glade, as well as of the fowl that cuts the air, or the noble quadruped that grazes in the winding vale, on the sloping hill-side or the undulating plain.

And this is not all. Under each of these several phases, the young student learns to examine whatever is found in his neighborhood. His preparation enables him to begin-where every one ought to begin his enquiries-at home; investigating that which is within his reach, and which he daily beholds. He is in the way to study each thing in the whole world of sense around him in its universal, in its general or specific, and in its particular or individual characteristics; to examine it in its connection with the entire universe, or the great circle of existence to which it pertaines-also in connection with the genus or species to which it belongs,-and likewise as a separate individual. He comes to look, as the legitimate result of his training, at every object he sees, not only as it is in itself as a single, isolated thing, but also in respect to the relations it sustains to the species and varieties of the same kind (genus), as well as to the great families and kingdoms of nature, with which it is associated.

Hence it should be evident that Geology may be made an invaluable help, in our public schools, as a means of discipline. Its study tends to unfold the mind according to those great principles in the works of creation, which answer to the laws of human intelligence, in its relations to visible things. It consequently furnishes one of the best aids to the cultivation of a philosophic memory, which can be secured. Facts are remembered in view of the idea or law which is revealed in them. In this, also, the young have a safeguard against the formalism which is likely to be perpetuated by the instruction and habits, too often prevailing in artificial society; since they are hereby brought habitually to contemplate every thing with which they have to do, under the guidance of those necessary principles, everywhere manifested by creative wisdom. They learn to investigate each point in nature, according to the logic of nature, and thus in consistency with the laws of supreme intelligence, as exhibited in the handiwork of Jehovah. Being led in this way to observe things in the light of necessary truth, to scan them in their universal, as well as in their general and particular relations and tendencies, they are made correct reasoners by the mere force of habit. They learn, by this natural process, to draw legitimate conclusions, and to put in practice, whether aware of it or not, the fundamental principles of all sound logic. Thus they may become as well accurate thinkers, as clear-headed and far-sighted observers, acquiring an experience and culture which will be of assistance to them in every outward phase of life, and at the same time prepare them for a higher and spir itual discipline, leading them to see and to feel that, in the domain of literature and art, of morals and religion, every subject should be studied, according to its peculiar principles, in the light of the eternal laws pertaining to it, and by the aid of its own intrinsic excellence.

Once more, Geology is desirable as a study in our common schools in view of the importance of its economical applications.

Scarcely any other department of scientific enquiry furnishes, or is able to furnish, so much information of a practical kind. This may be true in part, from the fact that Geology uses mcst other branches as her handmaids; still, without her help, they would be to a much larger extent unavailing. While, then, this science aims to inform us directly of the several strata of earth's surface, and of their predominant characteristics, it at the same time leads indirectly to a knowledge, of whatever pertains t (their physical structure and condition; consequently of the great variety of features peculiar to a given district, with the uses and benefits to which every element may be turned. In making us familiar with the different formations of a neighborhood, it orings to light the peculiarities of its rocky masses, the kinds and qualities of the imbedded minerals and metals, noting the facilities for the opening of quarries, or the sinking of mines, with the probable advantages and drawbacks, attending such undertakings, in the locality in question. It also makes known the nature of the various soils indicating for what they are severally suited, for what unfit-pointing out their positive excellencies, and the elements which need to be added, in order to increase their productivity. A share of attention is, likewise, bestowed on the lakes, rivers and waterfalls; on the best methods of improving their navigation; on the economical purposes to which they may be applied; on the changes capable of being advantageously made, with a reference to such as the nature of the rocks, or of the soil will not

safely allow; while some account is also given of the native fishes, in which they abound, or of such new varieties as might be introduced and propagated with profit. So, too, notice is taken of the original forests; of the best employment that can be made of them; of the new trees and plants which it might be well to acclimate; of the domestic animals, as well as of those which swarm in the wilds; of such creatures as should receive more care; and especially of breeds, the introduction of which promises to be of avail.

The study of Geology and its allied branches, giving us such an acquaintance with the physical condition and resources of a country, will of course lead to a more intelligent and advantageous employment of the materials which are already in use. That which might annually bring in thousands and thousands of dollars, if properly managed, is now either literally wasted, or turned to little good purpose. No small loss arises from the sowing of soils, which may be well fitted for the growth of a given species of grain, with some other to which they are not adapted; from the neglect to supply grounds, which have many excellent elements, with other ingredients, which have been either exhausted by a long succession of the same kind of crops, or of which they are destitute in their original condition. Many materials, likewise, which are suited to advance our agricultural interests, are, usually from ignorance of their nature, either allowed to lie at rest, losing their main worth by exposure, or, at best, only partially improved. As knowledge of these things increases and becomes disseminated, all refuse vegetable and animal matter will be turned to profitable use; while muck and lime, both as marl and in its various other forms, (a great abundance of all which is found in different localities,) will receive proper attention, and be applied with more insight into their essential character, and so with far greater profit. Gaining a better acquaintance with the nature of things, we shall be able to employ them more nearly aright and with greater profit. As this comes to pass, every little stream will turn its score of wheels; our timber will be worked up at home, both enhancing its value and giving labor to thousands; our ores smelted and converted into utensils for ornament and use before being sent to market; while our rawhides will be tanned with bark from our own hills and manufactured into shoes; all these and countless other things being done with the increasing degree of prudence and foresight, which accompany investigation, and seek to turn everything to the best account.

Such knowledge must also tend to the intelligent discovery and discreet employment of new resources. Usually those discoveries are of most avail, which are made in the light of scientific research. It is only as the individual has an insight into the nature of things, no matter how acquired, that he can find out what needs to be known and put it to a good use. Now there is much in the bowels of the earth, much all about us, much that is easily accessible, and of which we know only the simplest uses; of which, indeed, the many are as yet hardly familiar with the alphabet. Scarcely any region exceeds our own, in the abundance and richness of those internal resources, which tend to the high advancement of a community in wealth and prosperity. While we have marbles of many varieties and in any quantity. other building stones and timber in considerable amount, as well as ores of the useful and precious metals to limited extent, we are especially favored in having those materials which are needed in the improvement of the soil, which are thus calculated to make Vermonters an agricultural people, their State a garden of honest industry and frugality, their land a fruitful heritage from the Lord. These materials have been thus far only slightly resorted to, their quality and worth being generally little appreciated as yet, while there is doubtless, in many localities, an inexhaustible supply still entirely unknown. The minds of our youth being early turned to the character and resources of their native hills, investigations of this kind will be engaged in, and carried on through life, new discoveries constantly made, as well as better and more effective modes of application continually rendered available. At the same time, a slight familiarity with our different geological formations will serve as a safeguard against visionary schemes, preventing unnecessary outlays in making excavations for coal, where none is to be found; or, in digging for gold and silver in localities, for which the application of the plow is much better. Thus our young men, our farmers and mechanics, becoming intelligent in their respective callings, will be preserved from extravagant, whims, while they will bring out and apply the available resources of the land with a constantly increasing discernment. Indeed, as investigation advances, they will make new discoveries, beecme better acquainted with the capabilities of their native State, and so be led to settle down at home, and turn every means within their reach to a better, more thrifty and economical use.

This, however, suggests a result of no small moment, which is likely to follow studies of this kind. Reference is made to the feelings and habits, which may be in this wise awakened or established in the young, and which are suited to exert upon them a controling influence for good in their future career. A thorough early acquaintance with the structure of the rocks, with the character and productions of the soil, with which we have been familiar from childhood, attaches us to our native land, leads to the excitation and subserves the strengthening of an abiding love for home. Knowing our birth-place well, we shall be less ready to leave it. Then, too, a habit of thoughtfulness and patient industry is likely to be called out by this same means. With some such knowledge of things around us as these studies give, the toils of the farm, or of the shop are entered upon and endured with far more heartiness than would otherwise be the case. Our young men being well schooled in that which pertains to their future vocation, will be almost sure to engage in it with alacrity and zeal; to prosecute its labors with prudence and discretion; and to work, with greater industry and energy, for the realization of the high and noble ends, involved in their calling. The proper training of the young, the calling out of right sentiments, the establishment of good habits-in a word, the forming of reliable and intelligent citizens, who shall each be at home in his craft, is a prominent aim of public instruction, one of the most important points, and deserving ever to be kept in mind, in the maintenance of our early nurseries of learning.

Geology, then, in view of the economical applications and the influence its investigations are suited to exert, has no small claim to an introduction into our common schools. Vermont has many internal resources, in her ores and building materials, in her lime rocks and granite, in her serpentines and soapstones, and especially in the products of her farms; but above all, in her permanent adaptation to agriculture and grazing purposes, because of the abundance of her native resources for the constant improvement of the soil. This being so, the rising generation need to be educated, with a view to the great business of their lives, The nurture of the young should be of a kind to fit them for their future labors, to make them diligent and faithful, to waken in them such a sense of their high responsibility, as will lead to the intelligent performance of their great work. This ought to be the case especially with those who intend to be farmers. If, indeed, some 9-10tns of the capital of the State be invested in agricultural pursuits-if a large proportion of our citizens have to do directly with the soil, with its vegetable products, and with those creatures of life which feed on the growth of the land-surely the common school, in which they receive all their formal education, ought to furnish instruction in the elements of those branches, from which they are likely to derive most profit, both in childhood, and through all the later periods of their early existence.

Still, again, the study of Geology is desirable in our common schools, because of its benefit to individuals and to the State.

Geological investigations, in enabling men to employ material resources to the best advantage, are a great help to each person, and so add to the prosperity of the people at large. In Vermont they may be of most especial assistance to the farmer, since in his State agriculture is the predominant interest. Indicating what plants and animals are best adapted to a given locality, they not only guard him against a useless loss, but also confer upon him a lasting favor. A great gain is secured to the individual and to the community, when all learn that it a wretched policy to raise a quarter of a crop of poor wheat, where there might be a luxuriant growth of corn; or, to half-starve one breed of cattle or sheep in a district, in which another would thrive. Learning that 100 pounds of potatoe stalks contain about 13 pounds of lime, which must be drawn from the ground, one becomes a debtor to science, when he is thereby induced either to plant his potatoes on a calcareous soil, or else to act the part of wisdom by supplying the deficiency in this point, if it can be economically done. He may learn in this way to avoid many fruitless efforts against nature-to make all agricultural labors rather an aid than a hindrance to her working-and thus find himself prospered. Agricultural geology, at the same time, confers a benefit, in leading him to note what insects and creatures of prey, peculiar to his neighborhood, are most injurious to his domestic animals and growing crops, preparing him to guard against them, or to raise products to which they will do little or no harm. Knowing what grains yield the largest returns with the least labor, he is likewise benefitted by observing to what kinds of stock he can feed them with the greatest advantage. The investigations in question, tending in these and in manifold other ways to bring intelligence to bear in agriculture, as well as in all other pursuits, confer a lasting benefit on individuals, and so also on the commonwealth.

Such being the tendency of geological studies, they will, on the one hand make us acquainted with many products, which, as easily raised in abundance, may be exported with profit. Enquiries of this kind being prosecuted, especially when their results become generally known-as they surely will, if a taste for Geology be acquired in our schools-they must lead to a knowledge as well of what may be advantageously raised, as of those materials which may be most conveniently spared. As the attention of the people is more called to matters of this nature, increased etforts will be made to supply those commodities which are demanded for foreign markets, thus bringing wealth to the individual with a greater development of the internal ⚫ resources of the state. Valuable articles of various kinds, which are furnished here in abundance, and are not required for home consumption, have already found their way abroad, while a great many others will doubtless be brought to light hereafter, and turned to good account. This will more and more take place, as physical investigations relating to the means within our borders are prosecuted on a wider scale, and especially as a knowledge of the effects of their practical working is extensively dif fused, and they thus come to be estimated in a measure more proportionate to their worth. That which however, has been as yet done in Vermont in this direction, is as nothing in comparison with what may, and doubtless will be, effected in future years, as the minds of the young shall be more prominently directed to the internal capabilities of our country, and the people at large be led to look at these matters with a more intelligent insight and a broader wisdom. The more thoroughly conversact we become with the elements around us, the more efficiently shall we be likely to apply them to that for which they are best adapted, for which there is the highest proportional demand, thus securing the greatest benefit that can accrue from their use to the individual and to the State.

By such studies we also learn on the other hand, what commodities cannot be produced to advantage at home, and therefore may be imported with economy; also what articles now brought from distant lands might be more profitably furnished from within our own borders. While there are productions, such for instance as are pecul iar to a warmer climate, which may be grown here with suitable care, it is usually better to procure them from abroad, when in this latitude we lack the conditions essential to their successful cultivation. To make such importations is the part of wisdom for every people. There are, however, various other products, still obtained to some extent from foreign sources, which we should rather get from our native hills and valleys, or at least from those of our own country, since this can be readily done, and in the end with greater gain to ourselves. Probably as good iron, to mention no other item, can be found and manufactured this side of the Atlantic as in Sweden; and such no doubt will actually be the case, as increased attention is turned to the matter, and improved facilities for the working of ores are invented and made etficient with a gradual advance of knowledge. In this one particular there would be great saving in transportation and otherwise; besides it must bring into active play vast materials which are now lying idle, and engage in honest industry many, who in being left unemployed become drones or culprits in society. The same is equally, it may be more, true of manifold other articles and wares now imported. Accordingly in these matters the State, as well as each member of the community, has or should have a deep interest, and ought to give due heed to the introduction and wide dissemination of investigations which promise to effect so much. The case cited indicates, though vaguely, to what profitable uses studies of this kind may be turned; how private and public good may be advanced, as regards the single point of the intelligent regulation of our imports, and what we may dispense with importing, simply employing to adVantage the means within our reach, and thus developing the latent powers of the State.

But the judicious management of imports and exports is by no means the whole, or the main, advantage of geological enquiries to individuals or to the community. The rearing of men-of those who shall be able to act the part of discreet, stable and honest men-is of far greater moment. Now those studies which tend to get indi. viduals earnestly engaged, and efficiently enlisted, in any work, are the ones which are to accomplish this amongst the great mass of our citizens. They must, then, be investigations which have to do with the practical, every day, out and in door affairs of life. And this is just what physical enquiries are, and precisely what they promise to effect, to make our common people clear-sighted and efficient, at home in their business, able both to bring out our material resources, and to be a bulwark to the State. Such persons will advance our agricultural interests. As they become aware of what their particular districts stand most in need, they will seek the best and most convenient neighboring locality for a supply, and will be sure to secure it, should it promise

to pay. They will not sit down discouraged about raising apples or pears, because they do not succeed at the first or second trial, but will study out the cause of their previous ill success, and if they find it to be from want of some necessary ingredient in the native soil, perhaps of lime, they will be on the lookout for the supposed lacking material, and perhaps find it in abundance in a different formation only a few miles from their own door. Cases have repeatedly occurred, in which fruit has failed in given localities for years, until agricultural Geology revealed the fact that the whole deficiency might be supplied from the debris of upturned rocks, occurring in other parts of the same neighborhood. Our great nced, then, is the proper training of the young. Only let the minds of our children be turned to enquiries of this kind, and improvements in farming will follow almost of necessity. Simply encourage them to enter this field of study, and many will learn to apply its teachings, in all the various trades and departments of activity. Just allow them to become conversant with the practical relations of these things, and there will be a new impulse given to the bringing out of our mineral wealth, to home manufactures, to the supply of our markets with vegetable and animal products, in a word, to the development of our resources in all the kingdoms of nature. Our young men will learn to work with more discretion and prudence, to exercise a greater degree of intelligence and foresight, in the various handicraits of life. The husbandman, the artisan, the salesman, those in business generally, whatever be the channels of their exertions, coming thus to engage in their respective vocations with an appreciation of the nature of the commodities with which they have to deal, benefits must accrue to all concerned.

That such studies are likely to secure great advantages both to individuals and to the State should accordingly be very plain. The desirableness of appropriate instruction on the points in question, in view of both private and public good, must be equally apparent. Whatever tends to make thrifty citizens "stayers at home," industrious and reliable men, should receive the approval of all. The importance of such instruc. tion is especially evident, when we remember that one prominent aim of our public schools is the rearing up of faithful and laborious citizens, and that loyalty pervaded by intelligence lies at the very basis of a republican government, and is absolutely necessary to its continued stability. While education generally is of momentous importance, it is likewise peculiarly so, in the direction now under consideration, from the fact that a little attention, judiciously bestowed by one in youth on any such branch of knowledge, tends to give tone to his whole future career, and thus to draw a large number of the rising generation into a field of laborious activity and honorable industry, more intimately connected perhaps than almost any other with the permanent prosperity of Vermont; and still more, maay have their minds in this wise early introduced into a province of scientific enquiry and research, in which they become eminent as individuals, useful to the community, and an honor to the land of their birth-into a province, the proper cultivation of which adds much to the lasting welfare of a commonwealth in giving advancement to sound learning, and progress to a true and healthy civilization.

These and similar considerations accordingly suggest the importance of the early introduction of the study of Geology into our common schools.

In order, however, to the ultimate success of the matter proposed, several things are requisite; and one of these is an increase of interest in the subject on the part of pa rents and of the people at large. That a need of something of this kind is beginning to be felt is abundantly evident. There are, indeed, many indications, not only that there is already somewhat of interest on this point, but, also, that there is even a growing interest in various quarters. Under these circumstances, an enlarged popular sentiment in favor of the matter will come in due course, if its importance be properly held up to view. Only let it be set forth in its true light-merely allow our citizens to see that it is for their good to have all the children in the state instructed in this branch of knowledge-merely enable them to form a correct estimate of the advantage connected with the subject in its various relations-and an appropriate and steadily increasing appreciation will gradually follow. Such being the case, and the matter in question being of the nature it is, the turning of attention more directly to it can do no harm, while it may lead to the more rapid ripening of an already advancing public sentiment, and thus hasten becoming action. In fact, the main and important point now seems to be, simply to give right tone and expression to this rising tendency in the minds of the people, and to foster its expansion in a healthy direction. The attainment of such a result will doubtless be favored by free discussions of the subject, at all fitting times and places; since these must tend to a wiser and more sober estimate of what is needed in our public schools, and in this wise help to secure

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