BUCHANAN’S
JOURNAL OF MAN.

Vol. I.

JUNE, 1887.

No. 5.

The Most Marvellous Triumph of Educational Science.

In the dull atmosphere which stagnates between the high walls of colleges and churches wherein play the little eddies of fashionable literature, which considers the authorship of an old play[1] more interesting and important than the questions that involve the welfare of all humanity or the destiny of a nation,—an atmosphere seldom stirred by the strong, pure breezes of the mountain and the ocean,—the best thought and impulse of which humanity is capable is stifled in its birth, or if it comes forth feels the overshadowing influence that chills its life.

Not there, amid the pedantries of “culture,” do we find the atmosphere for free and benevolent thought, but rather far away from such influences, in the forests, the mountain and prairie, where man comes more nearly into communion with nature, and forgets the inheritance of ancient error which every corporate institution preserves and perpetuates. It is to this widespread audience that the Journal of Man appeals and offers a new suggestion.

In sending forth the “New Education,” hoping for some appreciative response from educational circles in which collegiate influences prevail, I did not deem it prudent to introduce some of the noblest thoughts that belong to the great theme. The book was sent forth limited and incomplete, hoping that, heretical as it was, and quite irreverent toward the ignorance descended from antiquity, it might still receive sufficient approbation and appreciation to justify later introduction of matter that would have hindered its first reception.