and the knowledge of improvements, that are
thus wisely made the property of all. Knowledge begets knowledge. What
is the distinguishing fact between a good school and a poor one? Is it
not, that in a good school the prevailing public sentiment is on the
side of knowledge and its acquisition? And does not the same fact
distinguish a learned community from an ignorant community? If, in a
village or city of artisans, each one makes a small annual contribution
to the general stock of knowledge, the aggregate progress will be
appreciable, and, most likely, considerable. If, on the other hand, each
one plods by himself, the sum of professional knowledge cannot be
increased, and is likely to be diminished.

The moral of the parable of the ten talents is eminently true in matters
of learning. "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have
abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that
which he hath." We cannot conceive of a greater national calamity than
an industrial population delving in mental sluggishness at unrelieved
and unchanging tasks. The manufacture of pins was commenced in England
in 1583, and for two hundred and fifty years she had the exclusive
control of the trade; yet all that period passed away without
improvement, or change in the process; while in America the business was
revolutionized, simplified, and economized one-half, in the period of
five years. In 1840 the valuation of Massachusetts was about three
hundred millions of dollars; but it is certain that a large portion of
this sum should have been set off against the constant impoverishment of
the land, commencing with the settlement of the state,--the natural and
unavoidable result of an ignorant system of farm labor. The revival of
education in America was soon followed by a marked improvement in the
leading industries of the people, and especially in the department of
agriculture. The principle of association has not yet been as beneficial
to the farmers as to the mechanics; but the former are soon to be
compensated for the delay. With the exception of the business of
discovering small planets, which seem to have been created for the
purpose of exciting rivalry among a number of enthusiastic, well-minded,
but comparatively secluded gentlemen, agricultural learning has made the
most marked progress in the last ten years. But an agricultural
population is professionally an inert population; and, therefore, as in
the acc