Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-01-16
sssELF-MADE MEN,,
Lecture by the Hon. Horace Gree
1y, of New York.


n,ereial gave a report as follows:
He said that his lecture would some
what express his views on the subject
of classical education, which. he pro-
ceeded to show, was not properly adap-
ted to the education of some men and
women. if they would adequately dis
charge the relative duties of life. A
classical education had long been a
substantially fixed fact in our social
organization, but there had been os
late wears an immense revolution 60
ing on which is to derelope a system
of education that will give scope to
human knowledge, by taking cogni-
zance of every day facts. Much that is
taught IN the schools of the present day
is hastily forgotten after the student
graduates. That eminent classical
scholar, Henry W. Herbert, once said
to Mr. Greeley, in a conversation on
this subject, that hundreds of young
men, fresh from their aLmo nlata, and
holding in their hands their parch-
ments, and honored with a degree of
a Master of Arts, or Bachelor of Arts,
and clamerous for positions as tutors,
were. upon examination, found to be
sadly deficient in classical studies, and
almost totally unfit for the places they
were ambitious TO fill. Mr.. Greedy
drew marvelously beautiful compari-
son between the sturdy giant oak
kings of the California forests, the big
trees of Mariposa, which seemed to be
old enough, judging from their i'm
mense proportions. to have been even
venerable when Moses slumbered in
THE bulrushes, and which waited not
to be discovered by mankind, but grew
on IN all their stateliness and vigor,
amid storm and tempest, until they
have become the marVels we find them
to be and the New England oak, which
die out under the pampering influence
of genial sky and soft winds. He Sc
| lected several self made men, in his ap-
plication of this thought, for compare
son with what he believed would have
been, unGeniably their status, if their
circumstances of the childhood and ed
ucation had been different to what they
were. Benjamin Franklin, he claimed,
stands highest in the regard of all civ
ilized men, although the great philoso-
pher never performed any really daz-
zling achievment, and was not what
the world is pleased to call a genius
His progress was not marked all along
by no wonderful or startling acts, and
ne seems not so much to have risen as
to have grown. Indeed, he stepped
into each new poEition as though he
he had been born for them. and We
could not say that he was more useful
-, IL a.
ments which made up the greatness OF
this man were precisely those which
are in the world now, and crowd our
pathway at almost every step. Power
ty and other serious obstacles were,
however, no barrier to his dauntless
mird. vigorous will and purpose. But
had Franklin been born in the lap of
wealth, and educated at Yale or Har-
ward, Mr.. Greely thought extremely
doubtful whether he would have made
the higly useful man he did make,
and that he would not in all proablli-
ty have ever received the honorary de-
grees which were conferred upon him
by one of those institutions of learning,
in his SEVENTEEN year. Mr.. Greedy
said that he greatly revered the char
acter of Washington, but he must
place Franklin above him, because the
latter did not begin life upon the van
tage ground occupied by the former,
and Franklin's value to mankind. as
thinker, vigorous writer, an infiu-
ential editor, skillful diplomatist, a
practical philosopher, and as a man
who was always ready 10 sacrifice ever
ything for country, and who crowned
his long and honorable life by framing
the bulSark of our liberties, the Con-
stitution of our nation, entitled him to
rank second TO no other man in Ameri-
ca, but rather to take the lead of all
Great and noble as Washington was,
he was not great enough to write and
print for the benefit of mankind the
wholesome maxims Of "Poor Richard" "
which were the result of careful and
honest review of life as he had found 1t
to be, by trying experience, in which
he had made sure to develop the great
power of his mind and soul, both intel
lectnally and morally. Many men
could boldly face the direst danger,
look complacentIy down into the
mouth of the cannon, and display re-
markable heroism upon the sanguina-
ry field of war, but it remained for such
men OF such peculiar mould as Frank
lin TO surpass all this by heroism
that is still grander and towers msjes-
tically over all other bravery. Daniel
Boone. of Kentucky, was cited by Mr..
Greedy as a character possessing a sim
gular interest in dangers and priva-
lions, Boone, he did not believe, was
even patriotic, because, the old Indian
hunter and scout never offered the SER
vice of his trusty rifle to the country,
in the hour of its need and peril, but
coolly bade the American Eagle good
bye, one fine day, betoek himself into
what was then Spanish possession in
the southeastern part of the country,
and where he found himself in dense
wilderness, with no defense from the
Indian foe but concealment, and no
subsistence except such as he could
procure by means of an accurate aim
with his rifle. To persist through
neat and cold, sunshine and rain, with
out shelter or comforts, and remain es-
sentially hunter of game and Indi-
ans after suffering at the extent he
did from the incursions of the wiley
red men of the forest, constituted a
phase of character with which the
| (Greeiey) lad too little sympathy to
comprehend. Doubtless such a life as
Boone led had its fascinations, but if
this was the kind of life a man was
to lead, the man had better been born
panther in the first place. Robert
Burns was a self-made man who grew
up from an uneducated boyhood TO
fight great battle in life. What edu-
cation, social position, and polite cul-
ture might have accomplished for this
man, no one could declare, but he
would unquestionably Lave been some
thing less than what he was, rare,
pure poet, who thought and sung what
he really felt, and who will always
nestle close to the heart of mankind.
Shakespeare was very different from
Burns. although, self-made man too.
Shakespeare was his own tutor, lexicon,
cyclopedia, the marvel of ages, hail
fellow with mobiles and players, pour
ing forth prose and poetry, wit and pa