Page:The education of the farmer.djvu/17

 needed by every man, but by none more than by the farmer; and I venture, with all submission to practical men on the one hand, and scientific gentlemen on the other, to assert that these points are more important to be thought about before eighteen than to judge the weight of a bullock or to study agricultural chemistry.

The object of the education of the farmer should be to give him the moral and intellectual habits required by practical men in general, rather than the special knowledge of Agriculture. But, although the knowledge of technical details may be postponed, his mental training should be considered with reference to one marked distinction:—the business of the statesman and the divine is with Persons; the business of the farmer and the commercial man is with Things.

From this it follows that after the first instruments of knowledge, such as reading and writing, have been acquired, the farmer's preparation for business should be scientific rather than literary. He will be occupied with numerous petty details on which in fact his profits will depend; one great object of his education should therefore be to counteract the narrowing influence of empirical knowledge, by giving him confidence in the great Laws of Nature. But with still higher objects in view, namely, to elevate him as man above his daily work, to call out his sympathies, and to warm his affections, Literature should have an important though a subordinate place.

It was observed above that the education of all classes may be divided into three portions—that of the child, the schoolboy, and the young man. Into the training of the farmer, as a young man, we do not propose to enter here; that belongs to apprenticeship. The young statesman serves his apprenticeship as a private secretary; the lawyer, as a pupil in chambers; the medical man, as a hospital dresser; the clergyman, seldom, alas! till his first curacy. The young farmer, in like manner, serves his apprenticeship to his father, or to some one with whom his father places him to learn his business. A wide line must be drawn between apprenticeship and education. Many mistakes arise from confusing the two. English education and English common sense will be ruined if all schools become special, by the vain attempt to introduce practice into school life. The model "School-Farm" cannot be a model "Business-Farm."

Our chief concern here is with the school, but a few words