Volume 08 (1864) (474 pages)

Lae The atlining and Scientific Dress, 3 PRACTIOAL L EDUCATION. Tt is an idea, too osifGucd prevalent, that after a boy has passed through n primary, or perlinps np acuduinical coursu of edueation, snd elected to follow sniue mechanicnl pursuit instead nfa profession, he may, with impunity throw aside his text books, and consider his edneation completed. Nething could be more erroneous. ‘The object of primary intellectual edneation, properly considered, is simply to furnish « young man with tools aud se train him in their use ns te enable him to employ them for the extraction of kuowledge from the ever shifting suecession of the ordinary phenomena nf lift and natnre, which nre enustantly pussing before him. ‘To send him ont from the parental roof without these tools, is like turaing itm into the world naked and defenceA hoy is tanght to “read, write and cypher” in order that he may thereby have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge, whicli by simple oral intercourso only, would bea sealed book to him Vhe primary branches of education therefore nre but intellectnal tools; aud it would be none the less foolish, lor the miner to throw nway the implements ol his labor. aud endeavor to follow his ealling without them, than for a young man just frota school, to consider his education finished, and resolve thereafter to spend his leisure hours in amusement, or in perusing the light and trilling literature (so called) which comprises so large a portiou ot most of onr libraries, and to whiehso many nf our most widely eireulated periodicals are ehiefly devoted. Youny nten of the present day enjoy rare privileges over those which were attainable even in the most palmy days of Greece and Rome. Eighteen hundred years ngo a Greek or Roman youth, if the son ofa prominent citizen, was taught about the saine things that ure now taught in our eomimon schools—though, by a system of oral instruction, ninch inferior to the system which the invention of printing has enabled us to employ at the present duy. But after that young man left the academic grove (far the school house is also a modern iastitution) fully supplied with intelleetual tools, these tools were comparatively useless to hiw for the lack of a field in whieh to employ them. ‘Lhe physieal sciences which are open to the youth of the present, day, were then alinost unkaown. he battle field and the forum, were then the only attraetions ontside ol the most eoniuon walks of life. It is to this faet—this luck of mental employment for the grown up masses of those days, that we are to attribute the marked difference between the civilizatioa of the the early centuries of the ebristian era,and that of the nineteenth century. Modern civilization rests mainly upon physical seience, It is the prodigious development of the physical seienees within the la-t two centuries which has effeeted such a marked distinetion between the intelleetual habits and tone of thought of the present aay and that of the earlier ages of Christiaaity. It is that which is so rapidly wrestling the rule of the world from the brute force of the few who imagined themselves “born to rule” aad placing it in the intelligenee and moral energy of the masses. “I believe” says a learaed English writer, “that the greatest intelleetual revolution munkind bas yet seen is now slowly taking plnce by ber ageney, [the agency of physical seience]. She is terehing the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, nnd not authority; she is teaebing it to estimate the value of evidence; sheis ereatinga firm and living fuith in the existence of immutable moral and physieal luws, perfect obedieuee to whieh is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being.” . ‘he merest schoolboy daily eneounters difficulties which nothing but a knowledge of physical seience can overcome. The young mano, when he goes out into the world, meets them at every turn. How necessary then that our young men should be preless. pared for oe ewergencies. "They cannot Le so prepared to any extent @iiher in the primary or high school. These merely furnish the teuls with which they must work their way up the Mill of science guided by theexperience of otlurs and their owu good judgment. ‘his acquisition of scienee by the people~ the laboring classes, more particularly, is social progress. A knowledge of the laws of mechanics, (the best school fur nequiring which is in the nse nf books, in couneetion with daily employment in the shnp, and their application is ealeulated to make labor more valuable by making it wore intelligent. ‘Time was, und that but recently, when artizans nnd laborers looked upon the introduction of machinery as injurivus to their interests. Rducation and an intelligent siew of the productive forces nf modern times, has effectually banished all sueh prejndices. The Press, has heen the reat ngent of modern times in elevatiny the working man to his proper standing and importance in the community. If properly conducted it might be of still more service to hint, in affording that elass of popular instruction whieh he so mueh needs. It will be the ehief aim of this paper to affurd such instruction. “Wherever.” says Mr. Whitworth, before the New York Industrial Exhibition, “Wherever edneation and an unrestricted press are allowed lull scope to exereise their united influence, progress and im provement are the eertain results, and among the many benefits whieh arise from their joint eo-operation, may be ranked most prominently, the value which they teach men to place upon intelligent con yivance ; and the readiness with which they eause new improvements to be received. The impulsewhieh they unavoidably give to the inventive spirit is gradually emuncipating man from the rude forms of labor, and making what were regarded as the luxuries of one age to be looked upon in the next as the OSG Ns and~neeessary econditious of human existence.” a Ifthe highest education of our Universities is essentin] to ournatioual and social progress, the lower education of our middle classes and working mea is more 80. If in the one ease, a finished education is neeessary to give an intelligent eomprehensiou of the progress of the human intellect, so, on the other hand, a practical education is weeded to give precission and intelligenee to tle efforts of those whose success in the common avocations of life is dependent ou the skillful adaptation of the geaeral laws and properties of tbe material world. LEGISLATIVE AID. No stronger argument in favor of the establishment of a Mining Scliool, orsome organization of practical miners on the plan alluded to in another column, need be urged thian the universally admitted faet that millions of dollars are annually allowed to escape from our quartz mills, into the gulehes and ereeks upon which they ure located, and pass to waste in their sands. Thousands of dollars are appropriated every year by our Legislature, in aid of agricultural improvements ; but, we believe, with the exception of one session, there bas never been a dollar appropriated in aid of mining improv ements, with the view éf saving this immense waste ; and yet the losses to the community, by lack of skill on the part of our gold quartz workers, or the want of improved machinery, las wrouglit a greater pecuniary damage to the State, in any one year, than the deficieney in such knowledge and machinery in agriculture has in the entire decade, This iaiportant faet shonld be borne. in mind by our present Legislature. It should be made a matter of discussion in that body, aad such eonsideration given to it ag its importance demands. We do not wish to see oue dollar of the eustomary appropriation withdrawn from the agrieultural interest, but we would urge the necessity of more aftentiou being devoted by our Legislators, to the great ii . \ interest of mining, to which all other industrial pursuits in the State, ure but of secondary importance, aud npon thp success of which all others muinly depend. We wonld call the especial attention of thu mining members to this matter. In passing, we would reinark, that notwithstanding this nluost inexcusable lack of legislative eneouragemeat, the miners of California nye not been idle in the directioa of mining improvements, but huve added more to human knowledge in that direction, than all the world besides lor the past ecntury! California miners have ever been proverbial for their ingenuity and iutelligence, and thousands, perhaps we migbt say millions, of dollars have been expended by them in experinientalimprovements, More has been expended froin private pnrses, in that way, in Califormia, within the last ten years, tban bas been expended in the eutire Union besides, in agricultural experiments. We trust the present Legislature will do the mining interest justice in this aud every otber partieular. Wo have faith that it will, (Written for Ihe Mining and Sctentifie Press.] Taxing the Mines. Eprror Mintxe Press :—Your valuable journal, in the number for December 21st, contains an editoriul on the subject of “taxing the mines” whieh agrees witb the general opiuion of our citizeas, that such a proceeding would be both inrpolitie and impracticable. ‘There is however a mode by whieh the U.S. Goyernment eould derive a handsome income from the products of our ntines, and which would be very aeceptable and advantageous to the interests of our people. Although not new in pol tical eeomomy, we have not seen it suggested by any writer on the suhject of the taxation question. It has been long in use in other countries suceessfully. This plan is to have U. S. assay offiees established ia the prineip: tl mining towns along the eoast, to which the miaers could bring their crude bullion, have it assayed and and stamped with its value, certified by the Government seal, for which the Government eould cbarge a percentage, which would be less than that claryed by private assayers, and still sufficient to produce a large income. This the miners would gain both in expense of uszay, and in haviag the Goverument stamp, by which their bullion would become immediately o medium of exchange nearly as good as coin, and capable of shipment abroad as such. This would not interfere materially with the interests of private assayers who will bnve plenty of work for years in assaying ores, and reducing them. Offering this for tbe interest of all parties, we remain, Yours truly, Butuion. Tue Gotp Mines or New Zearann.—Notwithstanding the contiaued progress of the War of Rebellion in New Zealand, the gold mines of thnt island are improving iu tbe quautity of yield. For the fortnight ending Saturday, Sept. 26th, $160,000 had been bronght in by the Mscort. Seven hundred emigrants had just arrived at the mines ia two sbips, oue from Londoa and the other from Glasgow. The government had just built a small Jronelad much after the Monitor fasbion, with which to drive the rebels from some of tbeir strongholds on tbe rivers. Frorence Sewine Macwixe.—This new and elegaat candidate for fuvor among the sewiag fraternity of this State, is an ingenious production and finished, specimen of mechnnism,such as we always look upon witb favor. As Mr. Hill, the agent for this Coast, aptly remarks, “ it must be seen to be appreciated.” From viewing its operations, we cau say the Florence readily performs the service claimed for it witb singular ease and grace.

Lae The atlining and Scientific Dress, 3 PRACTIOAL L EDUCATION. Tt is an idea, too osifGucd prevalent, that after a boy has passed through n primary, or perlinps np acuduinical coursu of edueation, snd elected to follow sniue mechanicnl pursuit instead nfa profession, he may, with impunity throw aside his text books, and consider his edneation completed. Nething could be more erroneous. ‘The object of primary intellectual edneation, properly considered, is simply to furnish « young man with tools aud se train him in their use ns te enable him to employ them for the extraction of kuowledge from the ever shifting suecession of the ordinary phenomena nf lift and natnre, which nre enustantly pussing before him. ‘To send him ont from the parental roof without these tools, is like turaing itm into the world naked and defenceA hoy is tanght to “read, write and cypher” in order that he may thereby have access to infinitely wider stores of knowledge, whicli by simple oral intercourso only, would bea sealed book to him Vhe primary branches of education therefore nre but intellectnal tools; aud it would be none the less foolish, lor the miner to throw nway the implements ol his labor. aud endeavor to follow his ealling without them, than for a young man just frota school, to consider his education finished, and resolve thereafter to spend his leisure hours in amusement, or in perusing the light and trilling literature (so called) which comprises so large a portiou ot most of onr libraries, and to whiehso many nf our most widely eireulated periodicals are ehiefly devoted. Youny nten of the present day enjoy rare privileges over those which were attainable even in the most palmy days of Greece and Rome. Eighteen hundred years ngo a Greek or Roman youth, if the son ofa prominent citizen, was taught about the saine things that ure now taught in our eomimon schools—though, by a system of oral instruction, ninch inferior to the system which the invention of printing has enabled us to employ at the present duy. But after that young man left the academic grove (far the school house is also a modern iastitution) fully supplied with intelleetual tools, these tools were comparatively useless to hiw for the lack of a field in whieh to employ them. ‘Lhe physieal sciences which are open to the youth of the present, day, were then alinost unkaown. he battle field and the forum, were then the only attraetions ontside ol the most eoniuon walks of life. It is to this faet—this luck of mental employment for the grown up masses of those days, that we are to attribute the marked difference between the civilizatioa of the the early centuries of the ebristian era,and that of the nineteenth century. Modern civilization rests mainly upon physical seience, It is the prodigious development of the physical seienees within the la-t two centuries which has effeeted such a marked distinetion between the intelleetual habits and tone of thought of the present aay and that of the earlier ages of Christiaaity. It is that which is so rapidly wrestling the rule of the world from the brute force of the few who imagined themselves “born to rule” aad placing it in the intelligenee and moral energy of the masses. “I believe” says a learaed English writer, “that the greatest intelleetual revolution munkind bas yet seen is now slowly taking plnce by ber ageney, [the agency of physical seience]. She is terehing the world that the ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment, nnd not authority; she is teaebing it to estimate the value of evidence; sheis ereatinga firm and living fuith in the existence of immutable moral and physieal luws, perfect obedieuee to whieh is the highest possible aim of an intelligent being.” . ‘he merest schoolboy daily eneounters difficulties which nothing but a knowledge of physical seience can overcome. The young mano, when he goes out into the world, meets them at every turn. How necessary then that our young men should be preless. pared for oe ewergencies. "They cannot Le so prepared to any extent @iiher in the primary or high school. These merely furnish the teuls with which they must work their way up the Mill of science guided by theexperience of otlurs and their owu good judgment. ‘his acquisition of scienee by the people~ the laboring classes, more particularly, is social progress. A knowledge of the laws of mechanics, (the best school fur nequiring which is in the nse nf books, in couneetion with daily employment in the shnp, and their application is ealeulated to make labor more valuable by making it wore intelligent. ‘Time was, und that but recently, when artizans nnd laborers looked upon the introduction of machinery as injurivus to their interests. Rducation and an intelligent siew of the productive forces nf modern times, has effectually banished all sueh prejndices. The Press, has heen the reat ngent of modern times in elevatiny the working man to his proper standing and importance in the community. If properly conducted it might be of still more service to hint, in affording that elass of popular instruction whieh he so mueh needs. It will be the ehief aim of this paper to affurd such instruction. “Wherever.” says Mr. Whitworth, before the New York Industrial Exhibition, “Wherever edneation and an unrestricted press are allowed lull scope to exereise their united influence, progress and im provement are the eertain results, and among the many benefits whieh arise from their joint eo-operation, may be ranked most prominently, the value which they teach men to place upon intelligent con yivance ; and the readiness with which they eause

new improvements to be received. The impulsewhieh they unavoidably give to the inventive spirit is gradually emuncipating man from the rude forms of labor, and making what were regarded as the luxuries of one age to be looked upon in the next as the OSG Ns and~neeessary econditious of human existence.” a Ifthe highest education of our Universities is essentin] to ournatioual and social progress, the lower education of our middle classes and working mea is more 80. If in the one ease, a finished education is neeessary to give an intelligent eomprehensiou of the progress of the human intellect, so, on the other hand, a practical education is weeded to give precission and intelligenee to tle efforts of those whose success in the common avocations of life is dependent ou the skillful adaptation of the geaeral laws and properties of tbe material world. LEGISLATIVE AID. No stronger argument in favor of the establishment of a Mining Scliool, orsome organization of practical miners on the plan alluded to in another column, need be urged thian the universally admitted faet that millions of dollars are annually allowed to escape from our quartz mills, into the gulehes and ereeks upon which they ure located, and pass to waste in their sands. Thousands of dollars are appropriated every year by our Legislature, in aid of agricultural improvements ; but, we believe, with the exception of one session, there bas never been a dollar appropriated in aid of mining improv ements, with the view éf saving this immense waste ; and yet the losses to the community, by lack of skill on the part of our gold quartz workers, or the want of improved machinery, las wrouglit a greater pecuniary damage to the State, in any one year, than the deficieney in such knowledge and machinery in agriculture has in the entire decade, This iaiportant faet shonld be borne. in mind by our present Legislature. It should be made a matter of discussion in that body, aad such eonsideration given to it ag its importance demands. We do not wish to see oue dollar of the eustomary appropriation withdrawn from the agrieultural interest, but we would urge the necessity of more aftentiou being devoted by our Legislators, to the great ii . \ interest of mining, to which all other industrial pursuits in the State, ure but of secondary importance, aud npon thp success of which all others muinly depend. We wonld call the especial attention of thu mining members to this matter. In passing, we would reinark, that notwithstanding this nluost inexcusable lack of legislative eneouragemeat, the miners of California nye not been idle in the directioa of mining improvements, but huve added more to human knowledge in that direction, than all the world besides lor the past ecntury! California miners have ever been proverbial for their ingenuity and iutelligence, and thousands, perhaps we migbt say millions, of dollars have been expended by them in experinientalimprovements, More has been expended froin private pnrses, in that way, in Califormia, within the last ten years, tban bas been expended in the eutire Union besides, in agricultural experiments. We trust the present Legislature will do the mining interest justice in this aud every otber partieular. Wo have faith that it will, (Written for Ihe Mining and Sctentifie Press.] Taxing the Mines. Eprror Mintxe Press :—Your valuable journal, in the number for December 21st, contains an editoriul on the subject of “taxing the mines” whieh agrees witb the general opiuion of our citizeas, that such a proceeding would be both inrpolitie and impracticable. ‘There is however a mode by whieh the U.S. Goyernment eould derive a handsome income from the products of our ntines, and which would be very aeceptable and advantageous to the interests of our people. Although not new in pol tical eeomomy, we have not seen it suggested by any writer on the suhject of the taxation question. It has been long in use in other countries suceessfully. This plan is to have U. S. assay offiees established ia the prineip: tl mining towns along the eoast, to which the miaers could bring their crude bullion, have it assayed and and stamped with its value, certified by the Government seal, for which the Government eould cbarge a percentage, which would be less than that claryed by private assayers, and still sufficient to produce a large income. This the miners would gain both in expense of uszay, and in haviag the Goverument stamp, by which their bullion would become immediately o medium of exchange nearly as good as coin, and capable of shipment abroad as such. This would not interfere materially with the interests of private assayers who will bnve plenty of work for years in assaying ores, and reducing them. Offering this for tbe interest of all parties, we remain, Yours truly, Butuion. Tue Gotp Mines or New Zearann.—Notwithstanding the contiaued progress of the War of Rebellion in New Zealand, the gold mines of thnt island are improving iu tbe quautity of yield. For the fortnight ending Saturday, Sept. 26th, $160,000 had been bronght in by the Mscort. Seven hundred emigrants had just arrived at the mines ia two sbips, oue from Londoa and the other from Glasgow. The government had just built a small Jronelad much after the Monitor fasbion, with which to drive the rebels from some of tbeir strongholds on tbe rivers. Frorence Sewine Macwixe.—This new and elegaat candidate for fuvor among the sewiag fraternity of this State, is an ingenious production and finished, specimen of mechnnism,such as we always look upon witb favor. As Mr. Hill, the agent for this Coast, aptly remarks, “ it must be seen to be appreciated.” From viewing its operations, we cau say the Florence readily performs the service claimed for it witb singular ease and grace.