Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1873-06-19
FEMALE INSTITUTE CoMMENcEMENr

Z eThings in General Miss julie Jack
son, Knoxville.
Valedictory-Miss Matte Eckle. Knoy
/ vile. g -
Comforting of Degrees.
9.e PROF. BUTLER's ADDRESS.
BELOVED PUPILS: Three years of the
tender relationship of teacher and taugh!
have passed away; years of rapid flight but
of precious memories to us both, and you,
the school girls of 1870, have become the
ard of the times, the educated young ladies
of 1873.
Early in these years of gladstone study,
leaving the less attractive branches of ele-
mentary knowledge you have, with the
living, earnest spirit of the true scholar
] traversed with us, as best we could, with
brief text books and without apparatus,
many of the rich fields of literature and
science, gathering therefrom stores Oi
precious truth which you have, | trust,
enabalnaed in your hearts forever in holy
love.
| With the Rhetorician we have examined
| the wOndrous forms and WOndrOus powers
| of human speech; with the Mathematician
we have traced the mystic properties OF
| numbers and of forms; with the Historian
we have studied the great but strange
drama which men and nations have played
and are still playing upon the worlds
stage; with the devout Naturalist we have
read in the designs, adaptations and adj
justments of the manifold organ of plants
and insects, and animals, the being, wis
dom and goodness of the great I Am; with
the GeolOgist we have penetrated the SUR
face of the earth and read the mystic con.
tents of its dark bosom; with the Chemist
we have broken the seals that hold
the secret essence of things together
and learns how to loose or bind,
at will the hidden ties of their
connection with the Astronomer we have
entered the chambers of the skies, drawn
aside. the curtain of the armament and
walked through its starry halls and seen
this suhoke system of ours, seen planets and
satellites in bigness as star OF the small
est magnitude, and in adoring wonder
have exclaimed, stLord what is man that
thou art mindful of him." in marvellous
wonder at the mechanism and functions of
this earthly house of our tabernacle, have
cried with the Psalmist, ST am fearfully
and wonderfully made, and hav5 CONTENT
plated with ccstdtic and adOring yet trena6-
ling awe the mysteries of our mental and
moral constitution, the vast capacities for
happiness or misery, with which our
deathless spirits are endowed.
To walk thus in clear, scientific and APP
preciative thought and knowledge among
the aUorks of the Infinite Intelligence to
behold the beauty and harmony of the
laws of nature, pure as when they first
came from the God-mind, to feel in all the
chambers of ones inner being the soul
thrill and inspiration of new truths break
ing upon the mind like a0dUes 0flight from
the ocean of the unknown, is next to walk
ing with God in Christ as redeemed and
oh: <ho nf
man on earth and the source of his highest
and purest enjoyments.
But this occasion fOrbids more than a
passing glance at these charmed regions of
thought, in which it has been your favor
ed lot for time to dwell, in comparative
seclusion from bustling and distracting
world, from the humble school of litera-
ture and science, whose course of study
you vejust completed, you now go, per-
haps, to the great institution of human
society, fearful in its dangers, glorious in
its opportunities, solemn in its responsible
tiles, but rich in rewards and happiness to
the trained, qualified and faithful actor.
For this great school of the world, for its
labors, difficulties, conflicts, disappoint-
ments and successes, we have sought as
best we could, in SO short time, to pre-
pare you in mind, heart and character; in
views, purpose and will. This is the OBJ
ject of all right education: for this the
school, the seminary, the college and the
university exist.
But what should be the work in the
world of educated fwomen / do not here
and now discuss. / only say in testimony
of the honor that God Wo,sLd confer upon
her, that she has by nature special qualif-
cations and endowments for far greater in
fluence than man in all that,refines, adorns,
exalts and advances human society. But
this power, the greatest next after Gods,
known among men, will become hers only
when a scvere, broad, protracted and COM
prehensiUe discipline and culture shall
have given her mind that breadth, vigor,
grasp and logical force, that shall make
her, though Enthusiastically different, the
intellectual peer of man. ssErs = rt
A few hundred women Of such type. of
which we have here and there one, wO-
men of a genuine enthusiasm for literature
and science; women with a scope broad
enough to take in the best things of Gre
clan and of Roman, as well as of modern
lore in tradition, to the list of things that
st. Paul recommends US to think on, would
do more to elevate the tone of society and
teach us a just estimate of this present
world and of the things therein than
Dhole armies of youthful graduates from
fashionable female boarding schools. The
world has hitherto treated women as play
things and pets, to be indulged and delight
ed in as the ornament of society, and not
as its essentials; not as an important half
of its structure, to be held responsible for
something beyond the narrow limits of the
domestic circle, beyond the more physical
and social duties of housekeeper, wife and
mother; not as an important part to be held
responsible for intelligent and comprehen-
sive opinions upon matters of science, lit
erature, art and all that concerns the phys
ical, mental, moral and social well-being
Of the race. Hence the wisdom of the past
has educated women specifically; has
withheld reasoning processes from them,
and then said they could not argue; has
trained boys in gymnastics, Euclid, the
differential calculus, the Greek and Roman
classics, the intricate an alyses and investi-
cations of science, and the girls in music,
dancing, needle-work fashionable dress.
and address, with mere smattering of lit