The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-07-28
WHAT EDUCATION MUST DO.
Address Of Charles Francis Adams before
the Literary Societies Of Colby
University.
What the Colleges Must DO-Give Society
Independent Journalists, Impressive
Preachers and Close Thinkers.

The grafton or rather address delivered by
Hon. Charles Francis Adams before the ltera.
ry societies of Colby University was essential
ly the same that he gave to the Social Union of
Amherst College July 7th. In commencing,
Mr.. Adams said that at his age no one would
harbor the suspicion that he hoped to shine.
He had passed that period in life, so that what
ever he had to say on the present occasion was
in the hope that from its practical character
some good might result. The present is sea-
son devoted to a survey of the state of higher
education-an occasion when we may inquire
into its defects as well as note the progress
made. 1t is not a season for speaking the Ian
guage of Optimism but rather for words of
straightforward application into the require
ments of the period in which we live What
the speaker meant by optimism is that
species of self-congratuation for which our
people are censured abroad and to which he
thought we had tendency. 1t appeared early
in the history of the nation, even before the
formation of the federal constitution. In the
first Congresses orators declared that the
United States sis the freest and most enlight-
ened nation in the world" This was at time
when we had but two or three colleges, and
when Benjamin Franklin was the embodiment
of nearly all our stock of original genius. II,
however, the test was confined simply to the
relative number of persons in this country able
to read and write compared with other nations
at the time the claim would not have been ex-
travagant, although in the fields of philosophy,
science and craftsmanship, we could make lit
tie show.
WHAT THE COUNTRY MOST NEEDS.
Assuming this view to be substantially cor
rect, there seems to be little cause left for un-
easiness on this side of the question of general
education. The case is altered when turn
my eyes in direction diametrieally opposite,
and look for corresponding development
there. Where are the men to come from,
potent to leaven these growing multitudes
with the very essence of all elevation in life?
1t is not so much the object of an average edu-
cation that is in question, as of the infusion of
the highest elements of power which effect
the advance of enlarged public opinion and
public action in great communities. This
seems to be the great want of the country at
the present moment. Faithful, energetic and
effective as am ready to maintain the great
body of teachers to be in our highest insttu-
tions of learning, regret to say that have
not found such as meet so much impressed
as am with the magnitude of their RESPONSE
bilitles in certain directions where the call
seems to me to be the most imperative. That
call in my view is not SO much for the greater
accumulation of learning in the abstract, as
for the capacity to make quicker and broad
er application of it to the ever-recurring emer-
gencies of the times.
My object, then, in coIsenting to address
you, IS to explain the reason of the faith that
Is IN me. 1t does not relate so much to prom.
lse as to performance-not SO much to theory
as to action in the career to which you NAV
respectively look forward. A condition of
things is impending here and elsewhere, which
bids fair materially to change the relative in
fiuence of the agencies that affect the civilized
world. Force can no longer be depended upon
as permanent adjunct to political power
The pen works more subtly, to effect more du-
rables results Power is gathered more steadily
through the human voice than the material
muscle. While the material impulse of the
many iAstill and will probably long continue
to be to crowd around the person of a military
hero, and set him up as an object of idolatry,
the stability of the influence created is no
longer exactly what it was years ago. The
press is greater power in the long run than
the sword. One consequence inevitably fol-
lows. The men who, through the marvellous
sympathies which they can direct toward the
formation of public opinion, can shake even