L. Virginia French Papers Box 1 Document 4

P.S. I write in haste & with that abomination of all lovers of legible writing -- a steel{underlined} pen{underlined} -- Being on my way to Memphis, & obliged to leave, it may be at a moments warning, I have not time to re-write this.

Glenn Oak near Nashville Tenn: April 2. 1857. --------------------------

Mrs. L. N. French

My dear Madam,

On my way yesterday to Nashville from Columbia I met with your communication to the Patriot of March 31. I read it with more pleasure than I can very well express. I tender you my grateful acknow= =ledgments for that contribution to the great cause we have in hand. It is precisely the kind of aid we need in order to ensure success. We entertain no fears, or at least slight ones, in reference to the practicability of obtaining funds to execute our enterprise; but it is the co-operation & countinance of the mind and heart of the country that we want; and which, if we can concentrate upon this noble & worthy object, all selfish & narrow-minded considerations connec= =ted with sectional preferences & localities will be swallowed up in the grand purpose of founding an institution that will bless posterity when we shall be forgotten in our graves. You rightly appreciate the objects & aims of those who originated & have now put foward to public notice this scheme. It has been with some of us a long-projected purpose -- and a subject of much anxious consideration for years past. Movements have been occasionally made

in its direction but without success. Bp. Polk has struck out the right plan and devised the right measures and hit upon precisely the proper & most propitious time. If others will work with him it is not extravagant to say that with God's blessing success is certain. In so vast an undertaking various departments are to be filled. Like the evolutions of a mighty host, the whole may be controlled by one master mind, but the direction of the different parts must be un= =der the immediate orders of subordinates and who may be better qualified to execute specific plans than the commander in chief. The general view which you have taken of the whole subject is very admirable and will I am sure tell effectually upon the public mind. I have but one offset to place against this approbatory criticism. It is that your communication is too long. It would have been well had it been divided into three or four distinct articles. But good sense, -- sound, home-spun, common sense ( as we say ) fringed with images of beauty flow from your pen, like {insert symbol}the light of morning spread upon the moun= =tains ; and therefore it will cost your scarcely an effort to take up and continue one branch of this subject, for the treatment of which few are so well qualified as your= =self. And it is to call your attention to this that I have made bold to write to you. From my earliest childhood I have been an enthusiatic admirer of nature and I feel that I should be a better man every day of my life, if every day I could gaze upon the mountains -- "the everlasting hills" -- best, most sublime & unchangeable emblem of eternity. I can now recall moments when, while yet a little boy, I have laid me down for hours on the green carpets of the meadows fringing the

banks of the brooks flowing from my own native mountains and for hours gazed at their summits resting as it seemed on the clear blue vault of Heaven and revelled in the thought that the angels gathered there & held converse as they descended from Heaven or ascinded from this world. I know what people mean when they talk about the language of flowers and "the still small voice of the stars" and the whispers that come {illegible struckthrough} to one from the deep waters or silent glens -- although the matter of fact world around us say that all that is imagination fancy and therefore worthless. Be it so. Will any one tell me that the scenes which kindle up these flowing pictures in the mind make no impression upon human character ? have nothing to do with education{underlined}? They have almost every thing to do it. But I find I am running away from the purpose I had in view. I got in sight of it just now, & must go back. For twenty five years I have been preaching on the Text that God has garnished this world with ob= =jects of interest & beauty in order to attract the mind of childhood & lead the young thoughts up to himself. This is one of your themes It is this, in connection with parental -- if you choose -- maternal{underlined} influences, that I wish you to enforce as I know you can so powerfully & eloquently, upon public attention. Nature is an Education -- never better is she be understood & her lessons learned thoroughly. In every human being born into this world & endowed with perfect senses & a rational soul, there is found an ele= =mentally curiosity which is the foundation of all knowledge. When we look around us we find that every where is the Heavens above us -- in the Earth beneath & in the waters encompassing the world God has hung or placed objects to catch the roving eye of childhood -- The sun rising in glory, "& rejoicing as a giant to run his course" -- the moon in all its phases ever beautiful, spreading its mild radiance over land & sea -- mountain & plain like a man= =tle of peace -- the firmament studded with stars -- the mountains with their rocky battlements rising heavenward to catch the morning sun-beams -- the flowers decked with a glory une= =qualled & unapproachable by the act of man -- the rippling stream -- the lightning blazing on the dark bosom of the gathering tempest or wearing its chains of beauty on the evening sky -- the awful

roll of the thunder -- the boiling & {illegible: chafing?} ocean -- the deep voice and giant tread of the earthquake -- these and ten thousand other objects seem to have been placed here for the purpose among other things of arresting the wandering eye of the young and when they burst fresh upon their vision to lead the first thoughts of childhood & youth "thro' nature up to nature's God." Now, we cannot conceive of a more heartless & chilling process on the part of a parent than to repress the enquiries to which these objects naturally lead the child or to teach him by cold indifference whether all these things come by chance or were the handy work of Him who created & upholdeth all things & who "openeth his hand & filleth every living thing with plentiousness." The broadest & deepest foundation for infidelity is laid just there -- is that parental neglect or indifference. This great truth has gone forth never to be recalled, that if the youthful mind be not {illegible: proccu}= =fied by truth, it will be seized upon by infidelity, and the parent who fails to sow good seed in this field will soon find {insert symbol}it to his utter dismay, covered with a luxuriant over= =growth of weeds & thorns. Long ago it was said that chil= =dren will ask questions about the works of creation which philosophy cannot answer. But religion may answer these questions and answer them truly. For although there may be enquiries about the nature of God which the intelligence of an angel cannot fathom, yet the fact of his existence and our relations to him as our Maker, Preserver, Redeemer & Judge may be understood & made as level to the comprehen= =sion of a child as of a seraph. -- But my paper is out & my theme almost untouched. I leave it in your hands. I beg pardon for intruding on you these suggestions. If I can lay my hands on them I will send you some addresses upon the subject of education as we propose to conduct it. In the meantime do not let the attention of mothers to the importance of this enterprise flag -- with your help & that of others I feel confident of full success. Please present me most respectfully to Mr. French & allow me to subscribe myself yr friend.

Jas H. Otey --------------