training, as a part of a system of education, was not needed
In the days of our ancestors, one hundred or two hundred years ago, this
training, as a part of a system of education, was not needed. We had no
cities, and but few large towns. Agriculture and the ruder forms of
mechanical labor were the chief occupations of the people. Populous
cities, narrow streets, dark lanes, cellar habitations, crowded
workshops, over-filled and over-heated factories, and the number of
sedentary pursuits that tax and wear and destroy the physical powers,
and undermine the moral and mental, were unknown. These are the
attendants of our civilization, and they have brought a melancholy train
of evils with them. In the seventeenth century, men perished from
exposure, from ignorance of the laws of health, from the prevalence of
malignant diseases that defied the science of the times; and, as a
consequence, the average length of human life was not greater than it
now is. At present, there is but little exposure that is followed by
fatal results; malignant diseases are deprived of many of their terrors;
rules of living, founded upon scientific principles, are accessible to
all; and yet we daily meet young men and women who are manifestly
unequal to the lot that is before them. In some cases, the sin of the
parent is visited upon the children, and the measure of life meted out
to them is limited and insufficient. In other cases, the individuals,
first yielding in their own persons, are the victims of positive vice,
or of some of the evils stated. Civilization is not an unmixed good; and
we cannot offer to the city or the factory any adequate compensation for
the loss of pure water, pure air, and the healthful exercise of body,
which may be enjoyed in the country villages and agricultural districts
of the state.
title=recent survey of Webbased remoteaccess and over 40
