5075357313

and successfully employed their means and ta­ lents to such noble purposes, I always re­ member those, who, with indefatigable zeal, exerted themselves to instil into the minds of the peasantry, thus emancipated, right notions of liberty and happiness. The body of the pea­ sant was, till lately, enslaved, and so was his mind. The scourge of the Lord of the Manor subdued the one, and ignorance the other. In former times, the masters appointed to country schools were mostly students, whose extravagance had deprived them of the means to pursue their course of studies at the univer­ sity. Thus men, nurtured in idleness, vice, and debauchery, were appointed to inculcate morality on the unformed mind of youth; men, whose necessities alone induced them, for the sake of subsistence, to accept the office. But when the gloom which had so long clouded the prospects of these poor rustics was dispelled, the sun of information, as it were, instantly shot forth its cheering rays, and men of the first abilities came forward to offer their assistance in support of so laudable a cause.