The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-21
EVERYDAY LIFE.

Esston, Pa, last evening, Hon A. X. Mcclure
spoke as follows
Gentlemen of the Literary Soceties:-I have
chosen common, homely theme-"Every-d day
Life" Many of you may hastily pronounce it
uninteresting and uninstructive. 1t is not set
forth in your list of studies. 1t is not favorite
field for rhetoric. Most students habltualy
overlook it; too many great teachers forget or
ignore it. 1t does not mingle with the pleasing
inspirations which are busy weaving future gar
lands for the graduate. 1t may unseCtle some
delightful castles reared in your moments of re-
pose from weary labor; but it is the life we each
and all must live. Let US look at il soberly,
and cultivate it kindly, and it will reward us
with many cheering smiles aud charming attri-
butes.
While our everyday life is the theme that
should be most familiar to all, it is the one i'm
pOrtant part of education that Is most neglect
ed. You may become what the world of letters
calls great scholar, and yet be to the world,
and in the world, novice. If successful, it will
be an accident; if useful, it will be grudgingly
acknowledged after after you are dead if even
then. Mere scholarship, in Its relations to the
great purposes of human life, is like an intricate
machine in unskilful hands. While it will run it.
self, it is well but when it wants direction its
beauty and its mechanism go for naught. Our
colleges and higher schools are of inestimable
value but they cannot do everything for the
student. They can store the mind and fit the
man for the ceaseless lesson of life; but when
they have done, the work of learning has bat
commenced. When you shall have passed safely
through your recitatons and examinations you
are just fitted to enter the boundless school that
is ever open around us.
The world itself is the master teacher of its
countless pupils 1t has no sessions or vaca-
tions. Its vast books are never closed. Its
millon-toDgued voices are never silent. Its
precepts and admontions, its gentle suasions
and vengeful mandates, throng upon us
wherever we are. In its sources of instruction,
aiming to make men each day better than be-
fore, it is as varied as the handiwork of God;
nd hfovry lityi,,
these multiplied teachings as they swiftly pass?
You have read and doubtless often quoted,
the truism that "the proper study of mankind
is man" 1t is the plain, broad channel of ad-
Vancement, 1or the study of man involves the
study of every ythipg. For him all things were
created. All of the worlds beauty is but a
tribute to his excellence. All of its thorns and
brambles are but Christening rods to make him
mindful OF the purpose of his beng. The
grandest themes of the painter and poet relate
to his destiny. The pulpit is inspired by the
story of his redemption. Senators and COM
moners win distinction only as they promote
his happiness, and that heroism is enshrined
over all that has achieved his amelioration.
1t is an imperative lesson to enable us to
know something of ourselves. Whether we
would pay court to the tickle goddess of fame
or aspire to wealth, or to usefulness, or to the
nearest possible perfection of human character,
the one unending study is of Man. The supreme
problem that confronts the faithful student
from day to day, and from year to year, ever
r6VOlV6S CLOSELY ABOUT QlmSel1, ana yet IL takes
in Its scope all of natures infinite variety of
ever-present and ever changing textbooks.
Look out upon the worlds tumultuous school.
Each one SO like his fellow, and all so unlike;
yet each varied understanding is bountifully
furnished with endless sources of culture. Did
all pursue the same beaten path, the world
would be monotonous, and most of its beauty
and teachings would be lost But no two have
the same aspirations, or garner the same har-
vest from the same field of thought, while the
LARGER number ont and come n,
from the cradle to the grave, and are
insensible of the riches they have
cast aside. The absorbed astronomer may ex-
plore the heavens when opportunity is pre-
sented and then pass on through the world un-
conscious of it's offerings. The geologist may
delve into the earths recesses and rocks, and
forget the living in his search for the records of
the past. The scholar of books performs only
what some other mind bids bim-all else is a
sealed treasure around him. He could solve the
most abstruse problem for the student, but
would be confOunded if asked to solve the prob
lem the student himself presented. Many right
eous men teach from the Holy Book, and teach
in vain. They know only what they teach, and
not to whom they teach The thoughtless, plod-
ding son of toll rejects all things save as neces-
sity becomes his master. Thus do the learned
and unlearned jostle on, like truant children,
discarding the best means of usefulness to their
fellows, and booming to pitiful thraldOm the
immortal element of our existence.
If were to call upon the learned young men
history, you would answer promptly and cor
rectlv. / could tell you nothing of the worlds
mutations that would be novel to you. So much
you have learned, or are learning well. Do not
understand me as assuming that you should have
earned more, for have alreadytold you that life
is one unending lesson; and here, when all has
been done that can be done, you are only fitted
to begin the great study. Let me kindly, and
trust, pleasantly and proftably, lead you from
the stiited plane that youthful ambition builds
to look into the fountains which have given the
world its varied eras. You have studied its
heroes, its sages, its patriots its poets its scho
lars, and its masters. i would now have you
study the sources whence they came.
The marked events of the worlds history may
always be traced to the everyday life of tue
peoples who were the chief actors therein. Yor
would point to Caesar or Alexander as the grea
hero of the ancients; but without Rome, just a;
she then was, what could Cesar have been? and
without Greece, trained as one vast military
camp, Alexander might have been slave
instead of the conqueror of the world. Heroes
are made and unmade, not by circumstances
alone, but heroism must ever be the joint crea
tion of the man and of the occasion the people
must find their true type with the particular ele
ments of excellence which meet their supreme
want. We speak thoughtlessly of great leaders
forgetful that they are created, and that thei
followers have had much to do with their crea
tion. Rienzi deserved greater honors from Rom
than ever did Cesar yet the one was master O
Rome when she was mistress of the world an
the other failed and fell ANONYMOUSLY, aud
remembered only as the last of the Tribunes
He was not overthrown by rivals, as was Caesar
when he iell at the foot of the statue of Pompey
The boisterous fountains of ambition whic
made Brutus murderer gradually coursed lik
subtle poison through the ranks of the people
and patrician aud plGbeian alike were tainte
and paralyzed. Caesar had party, and Anton
a party, but Rome had none, and the sad sequt
is told in the single senteuce:-"Rienzi fell frOI
the vices of the people" At last a mere hanC
full of banditti possessed the capital of the one
nroud amnire and her liberties were overtime ~