Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1871-01-05
THE NEW YEARS QUESTION.

heaped up its high mound upon them
they will be agitated no more till TIT
worlds record shall be made known. No
so with this one. 1t is unsettled. An Op
pressed public sentiment knows this. The
young whose life-plans have been thwart
ed feel it, and every sincere patriot ap
preciates its unsettled condition. looks witt
an anxiety akin to f~orebodlngs into the
future, not of this generation only, but Of
unborn millions whose destiny hangs
tr%emblingly upon the answer given to thi:
question by the year eighteen hundred
and seventy-one.
1t was SUCCESSFULLY %propounded by the
old year and left as a heritage to the new.
Preceding years have each given it an an
swer, but each has been unsatisfactory
Nevertheless our people have been peeu-
liarly interested in these answers. Ma
ny years ago ''it was the art of learning to
read and write"-a few more years ad-
ded "ciphering'-still a few more years
gave the finishing ~ touches ''of appear
ing well in society"
Years roll away and the stern hand of
the law begins to grapple with this much
vexed question, BY a process OF reason
ing and a series of authoritative enact
ments many improvements are made on
these definitions.
Time that before had seemed to move
sluggishly, at length, by the force of that
logical acumen which.ishe always gathers
up in these moody marches wakes sup the
Church, and she demands that to these
should be added 1.-THE improvement of the
heart and a knowledge of the Creator of
all things. A few years blend these mean-
ings tremendously together and all things
seem to move on swectly, each a counter
part of the others(D
Time again seems to move in weary
langor, and apparently from the debris OF
her march, Science and Truth rise
up and each asks pertinent questions, ad-
ding newer, strange complications to one
already strangely bcset. These interrog-
atories have a significant meaning. yet they
blend with the one already p~ropouuded.
Who will answer it and set the world
right in the matter? Long years ago one
of the great men of earth took hold of this
question, set 1t before the world in the
clear light of ''nighty .ooorIi'g force in
dependent Of embarrassing relations"
He caught the spirit of that other great
man of former times who described SO &C
curately the effect this working force pro-
duced. Said he "a human soul without
education is like marble in the quarry,
which shows none of its inherent beauties
till the skill of the poiisher fetches out
the ~colors, makes the surface shine and
discovers every ornamental cloud, spot
and vein that runs through the body of it.
Education, when it works upon a noble
mind draws out to view every latent vir-
tue and perfection, which without such
helps. are never able to make their APP
pcarance.'' Aristotle, in enforcing his
doctrine of substantial forms made use of
a happy illustration "A statue lies hid
in a block of marble, and the art Of the
statuary only clears away the superfuous
matter and removes the rubbish. The
figure is in the stone the sculptor only
finds it,"
Just what the sculptor is to the block
of marble, education is to the human soul.
Both are alike sculptors. The one in the
inanimate, p~erishable marble the other in
the sublimest, mightiest force IN the uni
verse-immOrtal mind. If the one is
eod-like III his actions, the other is a very
great genius, at once discriminating in its
observations and piercing in its views of
the material upon which it is to work.
If the one boasts of his monuments and
statues that bave stood for ages reflect
ing honor upon the workman, the other
points with pride to its monuments that
stand like lighthouses along the highways
of time, and exults with rapture indescri-
bable that it is enabled to write the his
tory of it's admirers and champions in
Furnished characters OH a worlds vivid
memory.
AS the sculptor does not make the ma
terial for his statue, SO education does not
make the man. 1t can never make a true
man in the fullest sense of the word. From
mightier hands he received the fiat of ex-
~istence, and by these hands his soul was
strung to hidden harmonies. 1t cannot
make a human soul, but n properly or
ganized it can set to sweetest music. I'm
der its influence the capacity for doing
and getting good is augmented. BY Its
guiding, restraining hand the powers are
so developed hat full harmonious man.
hood may be reached, but it never as
sumes to create those powers. 1t goes
forth as a searcher after truth, after true
nobleness, and after genuine principle.
These it dignifes, exalts and enthrones,
Where they are wanting its clear light re-
veals the hollowness-nay the mockery of
a Human form,-destitute, reckless and
abandoned by men and cursed by the
Eternal.
HEARTH AND HOME is the title of a