The Book Of The Bush by George Dunderdale (books to read to improve english .TXT) 📕

Delay,  And Assume Direction Of The New School.  This Letter Fell Into

The Hands Of Another Lady Who Had Just Arrived At Dresden From New

England In Search Of Her Husband,  Who Happened To Be Mr. Sellars.

The Letter Which That Other Lady Wrote To Miss Priscilla I Did Not

See,  But It Was Said To Be A Masterpiece Of Composition,  And It

Emptied Two Schools.  Mr. Tucker Went Over To Dresden And Looked

Around For Mr. Sellars,  But That Gentleman Had Gone Out West,  And Was

Never Heard Of Again.  The West Was A Very Wide Unfenced Space,

Without Railways.

"The Fact Is," Said Mr. Curtis,  "We Were All Kinder Shamed The Way

Things Turned Out,  And We Just Let 'Em Rip.  But People Are Now

Stirring About The School Being Closed So Long,  So Mr. Strong And Mr.

Demmond Have Concluded To Engage You And Me To Conduct The School."

We Were Engaged That Night,  And I Went Rail-Splitting No More.  But I

Fenced My Estate; And While Running The Line On The Western Boundary

I Found The Grave Of Highland Mary.  It Was In The Middle Of A Grove

Of Oak And Hickory Saplings,  And Was Nearly Hidden By Hazel Bushes.

The Tombstone Was A Slab About Two Feet High,  Roughly Hewn.  Her

Epitaph Was,  "Mary Campbell,  Aged 7.  1827."  That Was All.  Poor

Little Mary.

The Common Schools Of Illinois Were Maintained Principally From The

Revenue Derived From Grants Of Land.  When The Country Was First

Surveyed,  One Section Of 640 Acres In Each Township Of Six Miles

Square Was Reserved For School Purposes.  There Was A State Law On

Education,  But The Management Was Entirely Local,  And Was In The

Hands Of A Treasurer And Three Directors,  Elected Biennally By The

Citizens Of Each School District.  The Revenue Derived From The

School Section Was Sometimes Not Sufficient To Defray The Salary Of

The Teacher,  And Then The Deficiency Was Supplied By The Parents Of

The Children Who Had Attended At The School; Those Citizens Whose

Children Did Not Attend Were Not Taxed By The State For The Common

Schools; They Did Not Pay For That Which They Did Not Receive.  In

Some Instances Only One School Was Maintained By The Revenue Of Two

School Sections.  When The Attendance In The School Was Numerous,  A

Young Lady,  Called The "School-Marm," Assisted In The Teaching.

Sometimes,  As In The Case Of Miss Priscilla,  She Fell Into Trouble.

The Books Were Provided By The Enterprise Of Private Citizens,  And An

Occasional Change Of "Readers" Was Agreeable Both To Teachers And

Scholars.  The Best Of Old Stories Grow Tiresome When Repeated Too

Often.  One Day A Traveller From Cincinnati Brought Me Samples Of A

New Series Of "Readers," Offering On My Approval,  To Substitute Next

Day A New Volume For Every Old One Produced.  I Approved,  And He

Presented Each Scholar With Copies Of The New Series For Nothing.

The Teaching Was Secular,  But Certain Virtues Were Inculcated Either

Directly Or Indirectly.  Truth And Patriotism Were Recommended By The

Example Of George Washington,  Who Never Told A Lie,  And Who Won With

His Sword The Freedom Of His Country.  There Were Lessons On History,

In Which The Tyranny Of The English Government Was Denounced; Kings,

Lords And Bishops,  Especially Bishop Laud,  Were Held Up To Eternal

Abhorrence; As Was Also England's Greed Of Gain,  Her Intolerance,

Bigotry,  Taxation; Her Penal And Navigation Laws.  The Glorious War

Of Independence Was Related At Length.  The Children Of The Puritans,

Of The Irish And The Germans,  Did Not In Those Days Imbibe Much

Prejudice In Favour Of England Or Her Institutions,  And The English

Teacher Desirous Of Arriving At The Truth,  Had The Advantage Of

Having Heard Both Sides Of Many Historical Questions; Of Listening,

As It Were,  To The Scream Of The American Eagle,  As Well As To The

Roar Of The British Lion.

Mr. Curtis Was A Good Teacher,  Systematic,  Patient,  Persevering,  And

Ingenious.  I Ceased To Hate Him; Miss Priscilla's Downfall Cemented

Our Friendship.  We Kept Order In The School By Moral Suasion,  But

The Task Was Sometimes Difficult.  My Private Feelings Were In Favour

Of The Occasional Use Of The Hickory Stick,  The American Substitute

For The Rod Of Solomon,  And The Birch Of England.

The Geography We Taught Was Principally That Of The United States And

Her Territories,  Spacious Maps Of Which Were Suspended Round The

School,  Continually Reminding The Scholars Of Their Glorious

Inheritance.  It Was Then Full Of Vacant Lots,  Over Which Roamed The

Indian And The Buffalo,  Species Of Animals Now Nearly Extinct.  We

Did Not Pay Much Attention To The Rest Of The World.

Elocution Was Inculcated Assiduously,  And At Regular Intervals Each

Boy And Girl Had To Come Forth And "Speak A Piece" In The Presence Of

The Scholars,  Teachers,  And Visitors.

Mental Arithmetic And The Use Of Fractions Were Taught Daily.  The

Use Of The Decimal In The American Coinage Is Of Great Advantage; It

Is Easier And More Intelligible To Children Than The Clumsy Old

System Of Pounds,  Shillings,  Pence,  And Farthings.  It Is A System

Which Would No Doubt Have Been Long Ago Adopted By England,  If It Had

Not Been Humiliating To Our National Pride To Take Even A Good Thing

From Rebellious Yankees,  And Inferior Latin Races.  We Cling Fondly

To Absurdities Because They Are Our Own.  In Australia Wild Rabbits

Are Vermin,  In England They Are Private Property; And If One Of The

Three Millions Of Her Miserable Paupers Is Found With A Rabbit In

Each Of His Coat Pockets,  He Is Fined 10s. Or Sent To Gaol.  Pope

Gregory Xiii. Demonstrated The Error Of The Calendar Then In Use,  And

All Catholic Nations Adopted His Correction.  But When The Adoption

Of The Calendar Was Proposed In Parliament,  John Bull Put His Big

Foot Down At Once; He Would Receive No Truth,  Not Even A Mathematical

One,  From The Pope Of Rome,  And It Was Only After The Lapse Of Nearly

200 Years,  When The Memory Of Gregory And His Calendar Had Almost

Faded Away From The Sensitive Mind Of Protestantism,  That An Act Was

Passed,  "Equalising The Style In Great Britain And Ireland With That

Used In Other Countries Of Europe."

A Fugitive Slave With His Wife And Daughter Came To Joliet.  One Day

He Was Seized By Three Slave-Hunters,  Who Took Him Towards The Canal.

A Number Of Abolitionists Assembled To Rescue The Slave,  But The

Three Men Drew Their Revolvers,  And No Abolitionist Had The Courage

To Fire The First Shot.  The Slave Was Put In A Canal Boat And Went

South; His Wife Remained In Joliet And Earned Her Bread By Weaving

Drugget; The Daughter Came To My School; She Was Of Pure Negro Blood,

But Was Taught With The White Girls.

The Abolitionists Were Increasing In Number,  And During The War With

The South The Slaves Were Freed.  They Are Now Like Israel In Egypt,

They Increase Too Rapidly.  If Father Abraham Had Sent Them Back To

Africa When They Were Only Four Millions,  He Would Have Earned The

Gratitude Of His Country.  Now They Number More Than Eight Millions;

The Sunny South Agrees With Their Constitution; They Work As Little

And Steal As Much As Possible.  In The Days Of Their Bondage They

Were Addicted To Petty Larceny; Now They Have Votes,  And When They

Achieve Place And Power They Are Addicted To Grand Larceny,  And They

Loot The Public Treasury As Unblushingly As The White Politicians.

The Nigger Question Has Doubled In Magnitude During The Last Thirty

Years,  And There Will Have To Be Another Abolition Campaign Of Some

Kind.  The Blacks Are Incapable Of Ruling The Whites; No Time Was

Given To Educate Them For Their New Duties,  If Teaching Them Was

Possible; The Declaration Of Independence Was In Their Case A Mockery

From The Beginning.  When All The Old Abolitionists And Slave-Holders

Are Dead,  Another Generation Of Men Grown Wiser By The Failure Of The

Policy Of Their Forefathers May Solve The Black Problem.

Complaint Is Made That The American Education Of To-Day Is In A

Chaotic Condition,  Due To The Want Of Any Definite Idea Of What

Education Is Aiming At.  There Is Evidence That The Ancients Of New

England Used To Birch Their Boys,  But After Independence Had Been

Fought For And Won,  Higher Aims Prevailed.  The Puritan Then Believed

That His Children Were Born To A Destiny Far Grander Than That Of Any

Other Children On The Face Of The Earth; The Treatment Accorded To

Them Was Therefore To Be Different.  The Fundamental Idea Of American

Life Was To Be "Freedom," And The Definition Of "Freedom" By A

Learned American Is,  "The Power Which Necessarily Belongs To The

Self-Conscious Being Of Determining His Actions In View Of The

Highest,  The Universal Good,  And Thereby Of Gradually Realising In

Himself The Eternal Divine Perfection."  The Definition Seems A

Little Hazy,  But The Workings Of Great Minds Are Often Unintelligible

To Common People.  "The American Citizen Must Be Morally Autonomous,

Regarding All Institutions As Servants,  Not As Masters.  So Far Man

Has Been For The Most Part A Thrall.  The True American Must Worship

The Inner God Recognised As His Own Deepest And Eternal Self,  Not An

Outer God Regarded As Something Different From Himself."

Lucifer Is Said To Have Entertained A Similar Idea.  He Would Not Be

A Thrall,  And The Result As Described By The Republican Milton Was

Truly Disastrous:

"Him The Almighty Power

Hurl'd Headlong

Down

To Bottomless Perdition

Region Of Sorrow,  Doleful Shades,  Where Peace

And Rest Can Never Dwell."

The Manner In Which The American Citizen Is To Be Made "Morally

Autonomous,  And Placed Beyond The Control Of Current Opinion," Will

Require Much Money; His Parents Must Therefore Be Rich; They Must Already

Have Inherited Wealth,  Or Have Obtained It By Ability Or Labour.  The

Course Of Training To Be Given To Youth Includes Travelling For Six

Years In Foreign Countries Under Private Tutors,  Studying Human

History,  Ethnic,  Social,  Political,  Industrial,  Aesthetic,  Religious;

Gems Of Poetry; The Elements Of Geometry; Mechanics; Art,  Plastic,

And Graphic; Reading Confucius,  Sakya-Muni,  Themistocles,  Socrates,

Julius Caesar,  Paul,  Mahommed,  Charlemagne,  Alfred,  Gregory Vii.,  St.

Bernard,  St. Francis,  Savonarola,  Luther,  Queen Elizabeth,  Columbus,

Washington,  Lincoln,  Homer,  Virgil,  Dante,  Tennyson,  And Lowell.

The Boys On The Prairies Had To Earn Their Bread; They Could Not