THE NEW INDUSTRIAL COLLEGES OF AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 852, 28 March 1868, Page 16

THE NEW INDUSTRIAL COLLEGES OF AMERICA.

(From the Australasian.)

V All knowledge is valuable. There is nothing whibh it is not worth, while to kribw. '-But? if;' is a question cf relative importance ;; it is not .a question of decrying this branch of knowledge, or puffing and praising that. The thing is, to, consider which should have priority." Life is short ; no man's education can embrace everything, and instruction in matters of practical necessity and service in every-day life is too much neglected' everywhere. So ' said Mr Robert Lowe the other day, at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, in one of the most admirable addresses ever delivered on the subject. He pointed out the weak side in this, respect of all existing "systems, and which modern reforms and improvements have not adequately remedied. And -the, want- is still more universally felt in new countries than in old ; for, as the North American Review truly observes, in an article on the National Schools of Science about to be esta- lished throughout the Fnited States, *' In a new country all belong to the industrial classes. All are intent on work. No birthright, no entailed estate, no aristocratic title, no official .position, ' exempts the resident from laboring with brain or hand, or with brain and hand." And not only is insliistrial knowledge more required, therefore, among all classes, but the necessity for theoretical intelligence is more generally diffused, because there is so much that is novel and peculiar in the natural circumstances of new countries to which the routine experience of the old is inapplicable. ' So ■ much is tins the case in new country farming, for instance, that it is a remark in America that the most successful agriculturists are not those who had previously followed the pursuit in Europe, but' townsmen, retired merchants, lawyers, &c, who, however ignorant for a while of details, bring to their new business a comprehension of natural laws and first principles,- and who, having no old world prejudices in connexion with it to divest themselves of , are accessible to fresh ideas. In a word all such countries have so many things to learn, and so many persons in proportion to their population to instruct in industrial matters, that it is not wonderful that the first attempt to organise colleges of practical science on a really comprehensive and national basis should be witnessed in America.- It is true that some excellent institutions for the purpose exist in Europe. Nothing can be better, each in its particular line, than the Ecole Centrale de 3 Arts et Manufactures, or the Conservatoire dcs Arts et Metiers, in Paris ; than the School of Mines, at Frieberg ; than the Agricultural Schools, in Great Britain ; the Bauakademie of Berlin ;, the Polytechnic School in Dresden. But the United States have now arranged to combine all those various objects in the "colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts" which are being established in every part of the Union. An Act for the purpose was passed by Congress on the 17th June, 18G2, modified and amended in 18G4 and 18G6. There will be 50 of these colleges altogether, and they are endowed with 9,510,000 a. of land, an area larger than the kingdoms of Belgium and Holland ; and this munificent endowment has been already in several instances further augmented by the generosity of wealthy private citizens. In those institutions, '• mathematical, physical, and natural science, the investigation of the laws of nature, are to be the predominant study, rather than language, literature, and history. The latter may be, the former must be, included. No slight is cast upon the classics — the venerated means of human culture, the acknowledged instruments of high intellectual discipline. They may hold their place, but other studies must predominate in the new institutions." The proceeds of the endowment are to be invested in permanent funds, guaranteed by the several states. And to ensure publicity — the safeguard of all endowed institutions — every college must prepare an annual report, and send copies to all the kindred schools, and to the Secretary of the Interior. To afford a clear idea of this noble innovation, we may quote the description of its objects, as given by the author, Mr Morrill : — " It proposes to establish at least one college in every state upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil, where all the needful science for the practical avecations of life shall be taught ; where neither the higher graces of classical studies nor that military drill our country now so greatly appreciates, -will be entirely ignored ; and where agriculture, the foundation of all present and future prosperity, may look for troops of earnest friends, studying its familiar and recondite economies, and at last elevating it to that higher level where it may fearlessly invoke comparison with the most advanced

standards of the world. The act fixes the leading object?,' but properly, <as I think, leaves to the states considerable latitude in carrying out .the practical details.". Most of the .ISW England States have placed the colleges where the advantages of libraries and museums already iv existence, can be availed 1 of. As the North American Review remarks, the characteristic requirements of each State will, no do\ibc, receive special attention in the organisation, of i+,3 school. For example, in the colleges of the West, agriculture, "will naturally be prominent ; mining interests in California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania ; in New England, the instruction of engineers, mechanics, chemists, and directors, and superintendents for great manufacturing establishments. And the courses of study, it is rxrected, will be made less rigid and ilifiieult in the newer States than in the ol I.

The direct occasion for the measure, and which secured for it 'the prompt approval of Congress, is that careless system of husbandry, and consequent exhaustion of the soil, which is so serious an evil in all new countries. Lately treating of this subject, we mad* 1 some quotations from the startling evidence furnished by Mr Morrill. And enlightenment is as much required in the management of stock as in the cultivation of the ground. Vast losses are sustained every year in cattle and dairy produce from mere ignorance ; and we are told that in the state of New York there is an annual loss of two millions 'of dollars from defective knowledge of the veterinary art. When industrial colleges are in successful operation in America their introduction on O'ir continent will soon follow, we hope. Popular knowledge, industrial enlightenment, are as much required here — in a proper method of treating the soil, in the breeding of several kinds of stock, in experiments'with novel sorts of produce, in mining matters, and in the utilisation of many valuable,, but neglected, vegetable and mineral resources. „

Literartana. — Mr- Charles Dickens's favorite time for composition is said to be in the morning, when lie writes till about one or two o'clock, then he has bis luncheon, and walks out for two hours, returns to dinner, and either goes out or spends the evening at his own fireside. Sometimes his method of labour is much more intent and unremitting. Of his delightful Christmas- book, "The Chimes," the author says, in a letter to a friend, that he shut himself up for a month, close and tight over it. " All my affections and passions got twined and knotted up in it, and I became as haggard as a murderer long before I wrote ' The End.' When I h*d done that, like ♦ The Man of Thessaly,' who, having scratched his eyes out in. a quickset hedge, plunged into a bramblebush te scratch them in again, I fled to Venice to recover the composure I had disturbed."' When his imagination begins to outline a new novel, with vague thoughts rife within him, lie goes "wandering about at night into the strangest places," he says, "seeking rest and finding none. w Lord Lytton (Bulwer) accomplished his voluminous productions in about three hours a day, usually from ten until one, and seldom later, writing all with his own hand. Composition was at first very laborious to him, but he gave himself sedulously to mastering its difficulties ; and is said to have re-writ-t«n some of his briefer productions eight or nine times before publication. He writes very rapidly, averaging it is said, twenty octavo pages a day. He says of himself, in a letter to a friend: — "fliteratise away the morning, ride at three, go to baths at five, dine at six, and get through the evening as 1 best may. sometimes by correcting a proof." The following account of the late Douglas Jerrold's "method in writing" was sketched during his lif etime by a friend who knew him well : — At eight o'clock he breakfasts, then reads the papers, cutting out bits of news. The study is a suug room, filled with books and pictures; its furniture is of ■ solid oak. There work begins. If it be a comedy he will now and then walk rapidly up and down the room, talking wildly to himself, and laughing as he hits upon a good point. Suddenly the pen will be put down, and through a little conservatory, without seeing anybody, he will pass out into the garden for a little while, talking to the gardeners, walking, &c. In again, and vehemently to work. The thought has come; and in letters smaller than the type in which they shall be set, it is unrolled along the little blue slips of paper. A crust of bread and glass of wine are brought in, but no word is spoken. The work goes rapidly forward, and halts at last suddenly, The pen is dashed aside, a few letters, seldom more than three lines in each, are written and despatched to the post, and then again into the garden, visits to the horse, cow, and fowls, then another loDg turn around the lawn, and at last a seat with a quaint old volume in. the tent under the mulberry-tree. Friends come — walks and conversations A very simple dinner at four. Then a short nap— forty winks — upon the great sofa in the study; another long stroll over the lawn while tea is prepared. Over the tea-table are jokes of all kinds, as at dinner. In the latter years of his life Jerrold seldom wrote after dinner; and his evenings were usually spent alone in his study.