The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-06-29

EGdl6 hlkuOuE hAN1h6 lSaAaI
since his first moment of Freshman
life, one word concerning the l22,OOO
miles of coast and river navigation, the
1000 miles of railroad, which indicate
both the prosperity and the possibili-
ties of his own country.
It is well to know the history OF those
magnificent nations, whose origin ls
lost in fable, and whose epitaphs were
written a thousand years ago-butf II
we cannot know both, IL Is far better to
study the history OF our own nAuonI
whose origin we can trace to the freest
and nobiest aspirants OF the human
heart-a nation that was formed from
the hardest, purest, and most enduring
elements OF European civilizations
nation, that by its faith and courage
has dared and accomplished mo:e for
the human race, in a single century,
than Europe accomplished in the first
thousand wears of the Christian Era.
The New England township was the
type AFTER which our Federal Govern
ment was modelled; yetit would be rare
to find a college student who can make
comprehensive and Ineligible state
ment of the municipal organization of
the township in which he was born, and
tell you by what officers its legislative,
judicial and executive functions are
administered. One-half of the time
which is now almost wholly wasted, in
district schools on English Grammar,
attempted at too early an age, would De
sufficient to teach our children TO love
the Republic, an TO becomeits loyal and
| lifelong supporters. After the bloody
baptism from which the nation has
arisen to a higher and nobler life, II
! this shameful defect in our system of
education be not speedily remedied, we
shall deserve the Infinite contempt OF
/ future generations l insist that IT
should be made an indispensable con-
| dition of graduation in American col
lege, that the student must understand
/ the history OF this continent since Its
discovery by Europeans, the origin and
/ history of the United States, its consti-
tuition of government, the struggles
| through which it has passed, and the
rights and duties OF citizens who are to
determine its destiny and share its
glory.
The last item in the CLASSIFICATION 1
/ have suggested, that special knowledge
which is necessary 10 nit man for the
particular profession or calling he may
adopt, cannot discus here, as it lies
outside the field ofgeneral education
| but will make one suggestion to any
| of the young gentlemen before me who
may intend TO choose, as his life-work,
some one of the learned professions.
You will make fatal mistake If you
make only the same preparations which
your predecessors made fifty or even
| ten years ago. Each generation must
have a higher cultivation than the pre-
| ceding one, in order to be equally sue
cessful, and each must be educated for
his own times. Ifyou become law
| yer, you must remember that the
! science of law is not fixed like geOme-
try. but is growth which keeps pace
with the progress of society. The de-
| velopments OF the late war will make ii
| necessary to re-write many OF the lead
/
time law. The destruction OF slavery
and the acknowledgment of four mill
| lions of colored men will almost revo-
/ lutionize American Jurisprudence. If
Webster were now at the bar, in the
full glory of his strength, he wonld be
compelled to reconstruct the whole
| fabric of his legal learning. Similar
changes are occurring both in the med
| ical aud military professions. Ten
| years hence the young surgeon Will
| hardly venture to open an office till he
has studied, thoroughly, the medical
and surgical history OF the late war:
/ Since the experience at Sumter aud
Wagner, no nation will again build for
tifications ofcostly masonry, for they
| have learned that eartnworks are not
only cheaper, but a better defense
against artillery. The text books on
military engineering must be re-writ-
/ ten. Our Spencer rifle and the Prus-
sian needle-gun have revolutionized
both the manufacture and the manual
ST arms, and no great battle will ever
! again be foHght with Misunderstanding
/ muskets. Napoleon at the head of his
! Old Guard could to-day win no Austen
| litz till he had read the military his
I tory ofthe last six years.
Ii may perhaps be thought that the
suggestion have made concerning the
! professions will not apply 10 the work
/ of the Christian minister whose princi-
Il l. =. III u
| revelation; but in my judgment, the re-
/ mark applies to the clerical profession
with even more force than to any other.
| There is no department of his duties in
which he does not need the fullest and
the latest knowledge. He is pledged to
| the defense of Revelation and Religion;
| but it will not avail him to be able to
answer the objections of Hume and
| Yoltaire. The arguments of Paley
/ were not written to answer the skePti-
cisms of to day. His Natural Theolo-
gy' is now less valuable than Hugh
| or Guyots Lectures on Earth and
/ Man." The men and women to-day
know but little and care less about the
| thousand abstract questions OF polemic
| Theology which puzzled the heads and
wearied the hearts of our Puritan IA
theirs and mothers. That minister will
make, and he deserves to make, a mis-
cradle failure, who attempts to feed
/ hungry hearts on the dead dogmaS of
the past. More than that of any other
man it is his duty TO march, abreast
with the advanced thinkers of his time,
and be not only learner, but teacher
OF its science, its literature, and its crit
icism.
The lecturer then examined the col
| lege courses of the country, showing
how little they meet the demand of the
times. Taking Harvard as an exam
pie, he showed that of the six years and
half of preparatory and college study,
6ve-sevenths was devoted to Latin and
Greek, while in the whole programme
of study, lectures included, no mention
whatever, is made of Physical Geogra-
ply, of Anatomy, Physiology, or the
general history of the United States. a
few weeks OF the Senior year given to
Guizot and the History of the Federal
Constitution, and a Lecture on General
History once a week during half that
year, furnished all that the graduate of
Harvard is required to know of his own
country and the living nations. Eng
lish literature is not mentioned in the
curriculum. This undine proport iOu
of classical study is the result of Gus
tom. When colleges were established,
modern languages, history, and science
were unwritted and undeveloped, and
Latin and Greek were essential. Now,
however, the development of science
and literature demands that they be
mademore prominent
The lecturer continues:
Now mark the contrast between the
objects and demands of education when
the European Universities were found
ed-or even when Harvard was found
ed-and its demands at the present
time. We have "a family of modern
languages almost equal in force and