The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-09
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! Now that our commencemcnts are nearly, II
not quite, over for the present season, it may
be well to turn back, if only for moment, and
give them slight examination. Let us con-
slider first whether they have. not made little
too much noise We have heard more than
one sensible person remark that those per-
formances have become rather suggestive of
the cackling OF the hen after she has laid an
egg. But, unhappily, the comparison does
not end here. Housewives tell us as confidently
as either Piny or Button that that honest
and useful biped is subject to a peculiar malsdy
which causes her to imagine she has laid when
she has not done so, and that the imaginary
egg makes her cackle ten times as much az
the real one.
Ii there be no resemblance in the matter OF
noise-making between the hen and some of
our college faculties no harm is done by re-
ferring TO the former, especially at time
when we find it dinned into our ears in every
form that science is everything and ''dead
language" nothing There is another scien-
tfc fact which is not the less useful to those
who can appreciate its force for being familiar
even to the multi.ude--namely, that
empty vessels sound the loudest. Those
who are good judges of such
things inform us that Pythagoras had
both the hen and the empty vessel in his mind
when he made ''sence" one of the fundamen-
tai rules Of his renowned academy. Be this
as it may, the philosopher of Samos would
neither brag of his school nor have braggart
about him. Nor can different report be
given of any Of the great teachers Of antiquity.
Much as Socrates and Diogenes talked every
where, neither sounded any horn to invite the
world to admire the wonderful things he had
done during the last six months at his school.
On the contrary, the constant admission OF
each was 81 am but student myself; have
much to learn"
But is it different everywhere at the pres ent
day. Do the great universities of England
or Germany make such a noise oncea year, or
once in ten years, as our colleges do2 Nay,
the most celebrated institutions of both coun-
tries do not make as much parade about their
graduating class" &C., as some of our fourth
rate academies" and Constitutes" We do
not, however, mention all this as any wonder
the wonder would be if the facts were other
wise. The day will come, and we hope it il
not far Distant when our colleges will be an
calm and thoughtful and as little prone to
noise and clap-trap as any in the world-that
is, when real study and research take the
place of empty forms. 1t is only smattering
that makes one garrulous and boastfdl of his
learning the more he knows the less he talks
and the less he boasts. We need no more
forcible Illustration of this than the remark
Of Newton when, the great astronomer and
philosopher being complimented on the vast
extent of his learning, he compared himself
to child gathering pebbles on the sea shore.
When these plain facts sufficiently I'M
derstood by our educators there will be little
trouble in deciding as to the relative honors that
should be awarded to the classic Languages and
the sciences in our colleges and schools. The
question will be then, not who is the most
learned, but who has most knowledge. Il
will be as generally acknowledged as it is now
denied that there were enlightened people
long before our boosted era. There was wis
dom in the world before as we'll as after the
time when Job told his comforters that it
would die with them.
At the present day the Greeks are regarded
as the most enlightened people of all antiquity,
ard it is certain that their enlightenment was
of high order; but the wisest of the Greeks
acknowledged in their palmiest days that there
were wiser than they. Thus Plato in troduces
an Egyptian priest saying to Scion, ''You
Grecans are even children, having no.
knowledge Of antiquity nor antiquity of know
ledge"
What would this honest priest have said to
us could he have lived in our time? Might he
not well have addressed, us in some such terms
"a the following :-''You are constantly boast
Ing Of your modern improvements, and ut
least once week you praise Moses aud Solo
mon for their wisdom; but you seem to for
get that both those renowned personages were
scientific men as well as linguists." And
what would the Chadean priests say! What
the Persian Magi9 We should bear in mind
that those wonderful magic arts, ''black
arts" &C.. about which our rude ancestors
tell us with pious horror, were simply the de-
auctions of science.
Many of our learned professors inform MS
that this is the scientific era. that only ''old
fogies" have much faith any longer in such
trumpery as the dead languages" The lat
ter had their day, and they did very well
when people knew 10 better than TO spend 50
much valuable time in studying them. But If
these very professors were asked which was
the greatest Of the ancient philosophers, there
is scarcely one Of them who would not men
ton Socrates, for the most stupid OF their
pupils could tell them as much from their
primers Yet Socrates was the uncomprom!s-'
ing opponent of the idea Of giving science the
pre-emnence Most ofthe sophists maintained
then that there Ia nothing like science, pee