The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-17
EDUCATION.
rhb.rsI va. TeohnicaI systsm-"hSster's
Grafton" delivered by Rev. Robert 4.
ThompsOp, at the Commencement OF
tbs Untvsraity OF PsnnsyIvania.

liyered by the Rev. Robert E. Thompson, q.
the recent commencement of the University Oh
Pennsylvania
we arc not likely TO be allowed to forget that
We live IN n practical age. The watchWord5 OF
utilitaransm are shouted IRON every Quarter
and 'Uui bono ?" is the standaru ackuOWledEeu
NV almost every organ OF puolc oplnlon, NO
thing ia so venerable as to pass unchalenged-
SO honored as TO escape the questioning OF our
Teformers We have all in turn joined in the
move ment and the Cry-all in turn rejOlced az
some venerable anomaly or abuse went down
forever before the rising tide of public senti-
ment; perhaps all in our turn too have WINGED
IA some time-honored institution or meth I'd,
which had seemed sacred IN our eyes, and dear
TO us Tor the past as part oil our o Hn lives, mas
been caught mp in whlrlwind of denuncla.lon
and abuse. Nothing has escaped assault IRON
some form of rad callsm. Tue faith, the BJok,
the home have all shared IN the onset OF that
great torrent, whose rise LecKy has SO well
described in his History OF haionallsm."
In cur colder and less believing moments,
these facts may well seem terrible. If We have
no faith in an order Un1erlym ing AMI controlling
all the disorders Of this world no beiet in
will Which is aoove all and ia all, and which is
wOrkiLC out its purposes through human wills
then we may well fear for the future. But 1t we
hare that faith and that belief, then we will rise
to the kno gledge that this also IS working tor
good in the great plan in which Institutions and
methods are but factors. We shall then see
that the ferCest and most utiltar1an radi'aliSm
is but the IeprOClam alton oil the old message:-
"Now also, the axe is laid unto the root OF the
trees: therefore every tree that brngeth not
forth good fruit is heWn do wn and cast into the
fire Through every hostile questioning the
race is pressing on to higher wer; throlgu
every scepticsm to higher, protounder
belief. . ,,...... ., ,,.,.. .,,..,
eper voice across the storm
Proclalm'ng social truth shalt spread
And JUSTICE even though thrice eg ain
Should pile her barrcsdes with dead
That our educational methods should escape
T. Y
pected nor desired. The Grade speculaJonS ana
hasJy neeatlons of hostile theorists may indeed
work some temporary evil-may so shape and
direct public opinion as that long tried aud
venerable methods shall be required to step
down for a time from their places of honor to
make room for ne Wer and less worthy asptrants,
and be scorned by those wuO have not yet seen
the reasons Tor them But, III tue long run,
nothing that is right and desirable will be de-
stIoyed by any activity of thought or feeling.
The greatest dangers always come from indIf-
ference and mental stagnatlOn.
There may be much too, to try the patience,
as well as the faith OF those who advocate those
time -hOnored methods which lie at the tOuuda-
tiOn OF that scholastic and collegiate system
which has shaped the mental history OF Chris
tendon. 10 our own country, Ill which the
classics never held an undue prominence, aud
at a time when every principal university in the
land IS adapting Its curriculum 10 what are
called "the needs OF our Gme,n we still hear the
old denuuciatlon OF mere teaching about
wordsn-lhe old demand to Leach
about facts and things" And yet il is as hard
10 lind any tangible results OF this excessive
''teaching about words as to hud where II is
pTaCused. Where Is that mastery of our native
tongue which is admitted TO be the result Of
this too careful training in the classics? Is it
found in the councils OF the nation, where its
collective wisdom through inability to emboiy
their meaning in PLAN English. have involved
political parties IN an emblttered struggle,
Involving in the highest do"ree the national
honor? Is 1t found in the Legislature of the
Commonwealth, 10 which our worthy Governor
sends back bills to secure their amend nent
into intelhgiOe and grammatical English? ISit
found in those popular organs whose rhetoric
is bombast, and whose severity is abuse? Is 1t
seen in the rapid formation OF deOased prOvn-
cial dialects aud modes of pronunciation, even
in this land OF common schools? Is ii found
in the popular admiration for those news
paper satrISts, who add point to their WIT
by substituting these debased dialeCuc forms for
the English, more or less pure-Whlch ord ma
rily appears in the same columns? Is it seeh IN
the prevailing tendency to ada emphasis to con-
Yersatlon bJ eAaggeration, slang, and unmeau-
ing prOtaneness? Or is It seen in prevalence of
pure and unde6led English among those who
hold the ear of the people, and sit in the seats OF
Alexander Hamilton and Fisher Ames? Above
all Is it eviuced by any national freedom from
the folly of beng led and misled by mere party
cries aud watch words?
1t will be seen from these mere suggestions
that a careful survey OF toe field OF practical
life would affO-d room TOR defense Of the older
methods OF education on the ground OF taugbi
and easily recognizable utility. The methods
which gave our fathers their high mental capa-
city for dealing with the loftieSt subjects should
not be lightly cast aside by their children. The
culture which made them the men they were
should not be dcspsed as useless.
But on the ground of the higher usefulness
the very ground ou which every believing utili-
tartan depends his faith, bis Bible and the in
stitutions of his domestic and social hle--the
case is stronger still.
The question is in regard TO what is useful in
education, 1. e, best adapted to secure the end
in view. But what IS the end in view. The
two great rival systems of education-the
'practical (as it is cHlle,D and the Scholastic"
the technical and the hberal-manIfestly do
not seek the same end, ana nine tenths of the
abuse heaped upon the latter of the two, rests
upon the assumption that the end sought by
the former Is tie only desirable or practical one
i. The "scholasuC'-Or more properly, the
hberal-system, accepting he study OF language
and OF the pure mathematics as the primary
methods of mental discipline, deals with man as
man, as possessed of a higher nature, as asso
Clated with his teow-men by natural bonds of
reason, speech, memory, and history; and also
as capable OF apprehendlug absolute and pure
Truth, In language 1t duds the tie which asso-
ciates man with hts fellows, and also the records
which tell Us Of the past, and the witness to the
method by which the reason is brought to grasp
the Certainties of life, 10 contemplate the un-
Changeable trutn which depends on no mauis
thought and which cannot be otherwise than it
IS In all cases 1t regards man as an end in
himself IL seeks TO develop his humanity, the
powers which belong to him us man, and that
for their own sake.
IL. The "pracicai," or "sclentifc'-or, more
properly, the techniCal-sys on the other
hand, adopting the study OF the practical
sciences as its method, looks on man not as
an end in himself but as means to some
further end. 1t seeks not to make him more
human, more like Gods thought when HI said,
Let US make man in Oar own imqge;' but