Smyrna times., 1874-06-17
not be in a situation to-day to make such a de-
mand. -Smday Press
College Men.

college Men,
This is the season of fowery rhetoric as we'll
as of Towering fields. When the grass begins
to grow the college orators commence to
sprOut. In week or two at most we will be
in the midst of what are called the Commences
ments" of our Institutions of learning, and
what is in reality the season for closing their
terms. The peculiar exercises of these occa.
slOns always attract fair share of public
attention, and are of sufficient general interest
to be reported in the newspapers They mark
the entry into active life aud the busy conten-
tiOns of commerce, the professions, and poll
tics, of hosts Of young men who have been in
training for several years and who are sup
posed to 60 upon the field armed for the fray
And, as rule, these freshly enlisted soldiers
in the great army of humanity embrace the
opportunity to exhibit their strength and dis
play the means they have acquired for achiev-
ing success. The stores Of their classical
knowledge are explored, and an eager and i'm
patient world made acquainted with the
philosophy of Plato, CicerO'S merits as an
orator, and Caesar s capacity as a general, or it
is entertained with refreshing comparison of
the democracy of Athens and the republic of
Rome. The modern mountain labors and
brings forth classical mouse, and one often so
covered with faded flowers of speech, and
decked with borrowed garlands of thought,
that it is difficult to distinguish it i'm the gene
raj confusion of words, ideas, and citations
from ancient authors. Far be it from US to
deprecate cOmmencements or to depreciate
the classics, but we think we have faithfully
limned the average college orator in these few
lines. The trouble Is, these young men do not
drink deep enough of the Pieran spring, and
that on these occasions they are too eager to
let the world know they have had draught of
the waters of life What is worse still, many
of them, after they have left the well, never
resort to it again, nor remember and practice
what they have learned at it. This is equally
unfortunate for their country aud themselves
The youth who pictures a classical ideal in the
Grafton which usherS him into the world, and
then initiates a modern reality like Tweed or
Fisk, has studied in vain. Aristides and Plato
are very fine in theory, but one does not joste
against them in our marts Of trade and legisla-
| tive halls.
Still, the number of men who enter life with
an university training, and apply the ancient
philosophy and patriotism to modern causes
and crises, is increasing. The dead Senator,
whose drges were again sung and his praises
again sounded on Tuesday night, was one ot
these. And what is better still, the vulgar
atfectation of contempt Of culture, which
threatened at one time to result in verifica
=
tive mediOcrity in this country. AMI to produce
an universal Pogrami~m in our putlic fairs has
been succeeded by thirst for knowledge which
is every day raising the standard of genera
education, and creating demand for " states
men who will bOst of something else beside.
ignorance. and who will know that there wer,
pure democracies before America was thC
fabled Atlantis, and who will even borrow
purity OF purpose and exalted ideas of govern
ment from the ancients. As we said above
Sumner was such a man. In his eulogy Mr.
Curtis best describes him and illustrates Ou
argument where he says: . Charles Sumne
was an educ ted man, a college bred man. a
all the great revolutionary leaders of NaSSa
chuSetts were; and he knew, as every intelli
gent man knows, that from the dav when The
mistOcles led the educated AthenianS at Sala
mis- to that when Won Molke marShaled tn
educated Germans against France, the sur
foundations Of States are laid in knowledge
not in ignorance, and that every sneer at edu
cation, at cultivation, at bo k learning, whicI
is the recorded wisdom Of the experience O
mankind, is the demagogue' ; sneer at intelli
: gent liberty, inviting national degeneration an
, ruin.
, 1t is just such men as the one here described
learned, and pure and patriotic because learned
that the country needs now The pioneer
have gone before ard done their work, and tn
cabin and the clearing have been succeeded b
the civilized dwelling place and the capita
We would be surer that the want would b
soon supplied by our thousand-and-one co
] leges, ii less of them were of the character
| common schools, and turned out fewer bal
made men who would have been better if the
t had been permitted to grow in the raw. Nj
Greeley would have been no greater perhar
: not as great, man, if he had had the rigl
8 to refer in after-dnner speeches to some thirC
rate college as his Alma Mater. But that
! would have been wiser and stronger in h
maturity if, in his youth, he had acquired
e higher know edge of science, literature, an
o economies, nobody but the sneering dcmagogu
, of Mr. Curtis will deny The great editor di
not, and never was ashamed to regret his ear
0 disadvantages If he was so strong natural!
# what might he have been if the powerf
:, weapon of knowledge had been added to b
n quiver PHILADELPHIA Press.
!, A SURRENDER.-The Rev. Morgan Di,
4 d ID ritualistic rector Of Trinity Churcl