The Cecil Whig., 1871-07-29
From the Metropolitan Record.
Hon. Richard O'GOrman on Education.
TIE TRUE SPHERE OF TIE TEACHER

June 81, on the occasion of the Commence
ment of the Normal College
have witnessed many q brilliant scene
in this theatre, but none so brilliant as this.
Here music has ruled the hour, and song,
with all its witchery,
"Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul Of harmony
has made this stage, for a while, enchanted
ground. Here statesmen have unfolded
their projects. Here philanthropy has
sought to read the prophetic soul of the
wide world dreaming on things to come"
Here faction, too, has fretted and declaim-
ed. Here every hobby has had its rider,
and wisdom and folly have eaclf had its say.
But all these things are ephemeral and
evanescent-the bubbles on the great bill
lows of everyday life, that float and dazzle
for moment, then disappear. The ora
tors eloquence has scarce longer life than
the cadence of the singer The states
mans motives are misunderstood, his
noblest enterprises banked by ignorance
OF selfshness, and sometimes in the midst
of his anticipated triumph, the dread sum-
mons comes, and he leave unaccomplished
the purpose of his life.
In spite of the enthusiasts vision of a
revised and corrected universe, this hard
ened old sinner-the world-.jogs on, pretty
much as it always did, confessing and
lamenting its transgresSions, vowing repen-
tance and reform, but yielding as readily as
ever to the next temptation, and year after
year, furnishing to the statistician nearly
uniform exhibit of crime.
Yet, spite of all that, there are some
projects which always deserve success
There are efforts for the public good which
never wholly fail. There are certain sim
pie, and, so to speak, homely duties, from
the performance of which good must
come. There are seeds sown from which
plenteous harvests will be gathered when
the sewers hand is nerveless and cold.
There are certain real, practical services
to society which make little noise and yet
carry with them the double blessing, and
among the first of these l count every act
that tends to strengthen, quicken, enlight-
en-, elevate and civilize the generation that
shall sit in our places when our hour of
activity is past-and foremost among the
scenes of real interest and Importance
count celebration such as this where
scholastic excellence and scholast triumph
give assurance of faithful application in
the past and of deeper studies and higher
advancement in the future. The great
unsolved problem of mankind, in all time,
is how to educate its young-how to teach
them to be good citizens and good mem
Disciplined, yet free, ,independentn in thought,
yet giving willing obedience to the right,
to justice and the law-eager for self
advancement, yet recognizing that the
highest progress, the truest success and the
only permanent happiness are to be attained
by blameless paths and by the faithful per-
formance of the ordinary duties which con-
tribute to the good of all.
Long ago, Greece tried to educate chill
dren. Her success was as short-lived as it
was brilliant. There never, perhaps, has
lived this earth population so agile,
energetic, graceful, artistic and civilized as
that which nestled in the cornfields and
olive groves Of Attica or crowded together
on the Acropolis-in tho shadow of the
Parthenon-silent and Notwithstanding
to that unrivaled eloquence, the echo of
which has made the language and the men,
ory of Athens immortal. Rome tried it
with moro enduring success, and built up
society compact and massive-knit together
by closer domestic ties, aggressive and per-
sistent, with unswerving resolution fulfil
ling its mission, to crush into uniformity of
thought and purpose the jarring interests
and hopes of mankind
Christendom tried it, and in the institu-
tion of chivalry produced for while type
of manhood more grand and heroic than
all the rest, where all that was strong and
daring was delicately tempered and soft
ened by what was gentle, such as won for
the good knight "Bayard " the proud title
of sans peur ct sans reproche," and of
which we sometimes still catch glimpse
in the true gentleman of to-day. But
these are all gone. Systems and institu-
tions that seem made to last forever wear
out and decay. "They come like shadows
so depart" Age after age this old world,
like beauty past her prime, affects new
fashions and tricks itself out in new decor
ations.
The Parthenon is in ruins there is not
one stick left of the Groves of Academic
Cervautcs has laughed chivairy out of
| and fha E,;r +,fC ,1
amanca-Don Quixote-has furnished
synonym for all ill-advised but well meant
effort to make out of this earth "Uto-
pia." An age of iron, brass and machinery
an age of facts and figures-has succeed
ed. Thomas Gradgrind of Coketown-to
whom the greatest Of all modern delinea-
tors of the eccentricities of English life
Charles Dickens has introduced us-Thos
; Gradgrind will hear of nothing but facts
and figures and Thomas Gradgrlnd is a
representative man in his generation. We
live in strictly practical age. The deli
/ cate fancies, the blessed illusions, the grace
ful unrealities of the olden time are mostly
dead and gone, and we are even ashamed
to drop flower their grave. We have
put Pegasus into harness, and the winged
courser of the sun-god is set to draw coal
t Sabrina, fairest and last of the Naiads,
sits no more
'Under the CLASSY, cool, translucent wave,
, In twisted braids of lilies knitting,
The loose train of her amber-dropPing
hair"
All that is past and gone. Sabrina now
turns mill-wheel, and her Gambler drop
ping tresses' are stained with logwood
dye-stuff. Dryard and lIamadryard, Fawn
and Satyr, have forsaken the woods, and
. the leafy temples they loved have been cut
down and worked up into fence rails
All gone. We have to deal now with the
, rude and real-a hard, calculating, metallic
age. How shall we educate our children
to cope with it's necessities-to battle with
its errors-to beautify it's ugliness-to be