tions of the lever, effected the work alone, and
before their return! Other equally striking illustrations might be
cited.

But education increases the productiveness of labor in a wider and more
extended sense. By its omnipotent influence, man is enabled to lay the
elements under tribute. The water and the wind, by its mysterious
power, are made to propel his machinery for various purposes. The utmost
skill of the untutored savage enables him to construct a rude canoe
which two can carry upon their shoulders by land, which is barely
capable of plying upon our rivers and coasting our inland seas, and
which can be propelled only by human muscles, but the _educated man_
erects a magnificent vessel, a floating palace, and, spreading his
canvas to the breeze, aided by the mariner's compass, can traverse
unknown seas in safety. To such perfection has he attained in the
science and art of navigation, that he contends successfully with wind
and tide, and makes headway against both, even when he depends upon the
former for his motive power. Yes, education enables man even to tax the
gentle breeze to urge a proud ship, heavily laden, up an inclined plane,
thousands of miles, against the current of a mighty river.

I can not, perhaps, so satisfactorily establish the proposition which I
am now endeavoring to elucidate, nor so well maintain the universality
of its application, as by referring to the writings of the most
indefatigable and successful laborer in the department of popular
education of which our country can boast. I refer to the Hon. Horace
Mann,[39] who, a few years ago, in his official capacity, opened a
correspondence, and availed himself of all opportunities to hold
personal interviews with many of the most practical, sagacious, and
intelligent business men in our country, who for many years had had
large numbers of persons in their employment. His object was to
ascertain the difference in the productive ability, where natural
capacities were equal, between the educated and the uneducated; between
a man or a woman whose mind has been awakened to thought, and supplied
with the rudiments of knowledge by a good common school education, and
one whose faculties have never been developed, or aided in emerging from
their original darkness and torpor by such a privilege. For this purpose
he conferred and corresponded with manufacturers of all kinds--with
machinists, engineers, rail-road contractors, officers in the army,