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4 workings. I see many difficulties surrounding the whole
subject. It is yet an educational experiment in this country, , c
I and a comparatively new question in the history of education.
4   The Hrst agricultural school in the world was established in
I Switzerland by Baron Von Fellenberg, about the beginning
I ot` the present century, and there are yet but two in opera- I I
l tion in the United States, those of Michigan and Pennsyl- = _
I vania. Yet it has rapidly become a subject of growing mag- l
  nitude and importance. All ove1· England, Ireland, and Scot- I
I 4   land, and the Continent, agricultural schools and colleges  
_ I _   have been established, and in the Germanic States alone i
_ I   about one hundred and fifty are in operation, and all ofthose, I
* I except three or four, were founded in the last twenty years. I
I   Our American people have become tired of` the old educa- I
.   tional systems ot` the country, which are mostly but the types 1
I   of Cambridge and Oxford, whose foundations were laid away  
  back in the dark ages. They want something more than the I
I everlasting Latin and Greek and Mathematics, whose myths I
‘ I and forms have hung ghost-like so long in the halls of those  
I   hoary institutions, and whose slavish worship has crushed the I
i' '   spirit and constitution of many a toil-worn student. They  
I want more of sefeizce in its widest range, and of` our noble  
I Anglo-Saxon language and literature, and ot' the modern I
I languages and the fine arts, and they are unwilling to Follow i
  longer the guide of the learned doctors of the Colleges. who  
I smile with ridicule at a system of education by which labor I
I and study can be harmoniously blended, and the whole man  
i in his moral, mental, and physical nature, can be properly  
`   developed and fitted For the common business and pursuits of  
‘. I I   life. They are not willing longer to admit that the Law and  
, I Medicine, and Divinity, are the only learned professions, but  
I they are determined to exalt and dignity labor, and to cn-   ‘
I noble the profession of the great masses ot` men upon whose  
' I shoulders mainly rests the fiibric of'our social and Republican I
l institutions——I mean the Ffl}`l}l<"/`·S and Jfec/z.rznz`0s. It was a i
• I grand conception ofthe man (il. know not who he was) who Hrst  
I ]`l1‘O_ICCtCt,l the magnificent scheme of giving to all the States a I
I portion of our large public domain tor the establishment of  
  Colleges for the liberal and practical education of the indus- I
I trial classes. But his name will yet be written in history and I
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