The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-11-08

| tone IS admiral bly, Illustrated In the
case of poor bricklayer, who being ia
temporary reverses through the i'll
ness of his family, and consequently
been obliged to part with his best
clothes; and being therefore missed
from his classes, in which he had
been noticed as very hard worker,
was persuaded to attend them in bis
working clothes. He replied, No,
it was not possible. It must not be
thought of. il must not come into
question for a moment. 1t would be
supposed, or it might be thought,
that he did it to attract attention.
And the same man, being offered by
one Of the officers a loan of money to
enable him to rehabilitate his appear
ance, positively declined, on the
ground that he came to the institution
to learn and to know better how to
help himself,not otherwise to ask help,
or to receive help from any man.
TApplause'l Mr.. Dickens then went
on to combat at considerable length
the assertion that this is material
age, and thus concluded: To the stu
dents of your industrial classes gen
orally, | have had it in my mind,
first, to commend the short motto in
two words, Courage - Persevere."
| Cheers. This is the motto Of a
friend and worker. Not because the
eyes OF Europe are upon them, for l
don't in the least believe it laugh
teri, nor because the eyes of even
England are upon them, for | don't
in the least believe il; not be-
cause their doings will be pro-
claimed with blast Of trumpet at
street corners, for no such musical
performances will take place laugh
teri not because self improvement
Is at all certain to lead to worldly sue
cess, but simply because it is good and
right of itself hear, hear ], and be-
cause, being SO, it does assuredly bring
with it its own resources and its own
rewards. | would further commend
to them a very wise and witty piece
of advice on the conduct of the IN
Outstanding, which was given more
than half century ago by the Rev
Sydney Smith-Wisest and Wittiest
of the friends have lost. He says
and he is speaking, you will please
understand, as l speak, to a school of
volunteer students-he says: There
is a piece of fOppery which is to be
cautiously guarded against, the fop-
perry of universally, of knowing all
sciences and excelling in all arts
chemistry. mathematics, algebra, danc-
ing, history, reasoning, riding, fenc-
ing, Low Dutch, High Dutch and
natural philosophy. Laughter In
short, the modern precept Of edu-
cation very often is, Take the
Admirable Chrichton for your
model, l would have you
ignorant of nothing Nov" says
he, my advice, on the contr~.y, is to
have the courage to be ignorant of a
great number of things. in order that
you may avoid the calamity of being
ignorant of everything" lighter
and cheers. To this | would super
add little truth, which holds equally
good of my own life and the life of
every eminont man, | have ever
known. The one serviceable, safe,
certain, remunerative, attainable
quality In every study and In every
pursuit is the quality of attention. My
own invention or Imagination, such
as it is, / can most truthfully assure
you, would never have served me as
it has but for the habit of common
place, humble, patient, daily, toiling,
drudging attention; genius, vivacity,
quickness of penetration, brilliancyin
association Of ideas-such mental
qualities, like the qualities of the
apparition of the externally armed
head In Macbeth" will not be com
manded: but attention, after due term
of submissive service, always will.
Like certain plants which the poorest
peasant may grow in the poorest soil,
it can be cultivated by any one, and it
is certain in its own good season to
bring forth flowers and fruit.
In acknowledging the vote of
thanks, Mr.. Dickens said: Ladies'
and gentlemen: As hope it is more
than possible that | shall have the
pleasure Of meeting you again be-
fore Christmas is out cheersl
and shall have the great interest
of seeing the faces aud touching the
hands of the successful competitors in
your lists [cheersl, l will not cast
upon that anticipated meeting the
terrible foreshadOwing Of dread which
must inevitably result from a second
speech. l thank you most heartily,
and / most sincerely and fervently
say to you, Good night, aud God
bless you" In reference to the ap-
propriate. and excellent remarks Of
Mr.. Dixon, l will now discharge my
conscience of my political creed,
which is contained In two articles,
and has no reference to any party or
persons. My faith in the people gov
erning is, on the whole, infinitesimal;
my faith in the people governed is, on
the whole. illimitable. lOheers.l