Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Indiana) 1864-1865, 1865-01-06
Published by Request.
Address, Delivered before the school
at spartan. burg.
BY NATHAN BITS.

VI tVut ttaIhciS, alJ'di pSioi'
YOU for the purpose of talking OF
the subject Of education. In ac
cepting the task imposed upon me,
too deeply feel the responsibility o
the station, to accept it without
trembling; especially when | look
around over this audience and see
the experience of years before me.
and more, when / take into consid-
Grafton the superior intellect of my
youthful companions; intellects that
if rightly developed, would carry
the public mind to an excellence
which only marks the career of the
energetic and persevering minds -
This development can only be at
tanned by direct Improvement OF
the mind. This Improvement is cal
culated to raise the world from its
present condition, to one more con
sistent with pure and undefiled prin-
ciples. 1t is said by De Witt Clinton,
that the first duty of State, and the
surest evidence of good Government,
is in the encouragement of education
And nor it is for YOU to say, as a
part Of the rising generation, whether
YOU will be educated or not. 1t is
for you to say whether you will, by
industry and persevering efforts,
push ahead to that hight of excel
lence which crowned Demosthenes
and Cicero with honor. When the
first morning of school term ar
rives, and YOU are seen plodding
your way to the school building;
you are giving evidence that YOU are
either going to school to imbue and
enrich your minds with useful knowl-
edge, or that You are going for the
purpose Of engaging, as some would
tain sag, in the pleasures of idleness
and folly. We hope the latter is not
the case. We feel sure, from the in
telligent expression that seems to
govern the school, that YOU are ma
king an effort for the improvement of
the finer feelings of the intellect
\ es, fellow students, you are engaged
in pure and noble work; YOU have
had minds given YOU, that are capa-
bic of Improvement, and it is your
luty, your ~hoie duty, to improve
them. Every student, every youth
in America, should give undivided
to the attainment of n lit
erary and moral education. John
Ogden. Principal Of the Minnesota
State Normal School, speaking of
says: IGNORANCE, or a
want of knowledge, The food for the
mind, enfeebles the power, and there
10y destroys the symmetry and beauty
of the bodily organs. These organs
were made to conduct the highest
thoughts and the most refined and
tender emotions. Hence they can
only obtain their proper size and
shape, and consequently their true
style of beauty, when they are fed
and stimulated by their proper food,
or when they are used for which God
they should bc used" Al
though ascending the rugged hill of
science NAV seem difficult and dis
couraging, yet what others have
done YOU can do. To do better that
which others do, is n true meaning
Of education. Remember that YOU
are stamping upon your memories
golden gems, that are to last
and bloom forever. Says
W ebster: "If we work on marble,
it will perish; If We work on brass,
time will efface it; if we rear temples.
they will crumble into dust. But if
we work on immortal minds, if we
imbue them with high principles,
with just fear of God and their fel-
Iow men, we engrave on those tablets
something which no time can eface.
but which will brighten to all eterni-
w." Yes, even the walls of this
will rot and fall 10 the earth;
ne furniture herein will decay, and
rour books will soil and wear out.
Dut these steel engravings will be
bright when all time has passed
away. The thorough education, of
the mind in youth in correct princi-
pies, is a bulwark against all of the
storms OF earth. Hence.
fellow students. while time is ours.
how important it is for us to enrobe
our minds with useful knowledge
Let us not he discouraged while en-
gagged i'm this noble work. even if we
do not realize the benefits of our la
bor at the present, the time will soon