Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-06-16
College Commencemcnts.

the columns OF the newspapers VIII be hlcd
with reports Of learned discourses, Of elo-
quent orations, Of sermons OF great power,
OF juvenile compositions, essays, salutatories
and yaledictories; and then our schools and
colleges will settle down into their normal
repose for another year
II may be well enough, however, to make
the recurrence Of these annual festivities a
text for short homily on the general sub
ject Of education.
We think there is slight tendency in
certain quarters to depreciate what is com
monty termed liberal education. The
yigor Of the community inclines to practical
pursuits. Even scholarly men argue against
classical culture as needless in the rough
and tumble Of life and as useful only to
ministers and certain grades Of professional
men. Scholarship is not yisibly productive
Of material results. Il perplexes common
people has no value on Change" and drives
the majority Of members Of Congress crazy
with its graceful addresses, leamedquotations
and knowledge Of history aud principles.
In times Of great and devouring materialism,
when so many are mad for gold, aud some
are oyerestmating merely scientific culture,
the scholarship Of the past, Which disciplined
the student in languages, history and philos-
ophy, is very naturally pronounced TO be not
up with the times. 1.-THE self-mado man"
with his exploits on the stump and in the
caucus, with his brilliant success in Con-
eress. or in the Presidential chair, or in the
high Offices Of the country with his rail
road chieftainship, and palatial mansion,
and victories in the gold room, flatters the
popular self-love and fills the public eye.
Even the college recognises the splendid ser
vices Of the hero of the stump, or the cham
Der of commerce, or the caucus and conven-
ton, with a magisterial decoration or a doc
torate of civil laws. The universities cater
10 the sentiment which depreciates high
scholarship by giving their highest honors
and degrees TO those whose only distinction
is, ability to manipulate an election or man
age a political assembly They cheaper
their own curriculum and their own honors
with a steady and marvellous faulty. Borne
off on the supposed popular current, they
pursue the course calculated TO depreciate
scholarship in the public estimation, by Civ
ing its decorations to those who have never
earned and never deserved them. \ man
with heavy money bags or with great public
reputation, offers a strong inducement to a
hungry college to dishonor its own degreesby
comforting them upon those who desire the
rewards of scholarship, without the scholar
ship itself This system Of comforting de-
grees, universally practiced 10y our colleges
for the last twenty years Of putting the
trademark of scholarly culture npon those
who have no daim to it of uttering depre-
ciated literary paper, or putting the stamp
of Ihe university on base COIN is one that
has done as much as any other thing to bring
a libc;al education into general discredit.
1t seems to us vital to the welfare of our
country that high, liberal culture should be
rescued from this cheapening process, and
from all that debases it in the popular mind,
and elevated to its legitimate position. A
higher culture is the supreme need of our
country And this is essential, not for the
profit of the few who receive it, but for the
benefit Of the many who arc indirectly af
feci-d by it. The presence OF minds, strongly
and vigorously developed, is the most pow
erful aid to popular education, to public sta
bility, to the preservation of our institutions
1t is the necessary condition of the best sue
cess of all our general growth. In a countrl
where the ruling power is public opinion, il
is above all things desirable that the ripes
and most widely cultivated minds should
have fair share in forming it. class OF
well-educated men, of strong and indepen-
dent thinkers, is the palladium of a repub
lie. The ideas of such a class cannot exist
in any form in a community, without shap
ing it and determining its character anc
destiny. A few thoughtful and able mer
always give value and power to a commun
ity. They help all its interests. Even wheI
their ideas do not control they modify, ant
in the end they commend themselves to tn
common sense Of the community, and ar
worked out into practical life and institu
tons. New England owes its superiority to
day to its colleges and its educated, trained
men, far more than TO its climate or it
natural advantages.
Scholarly men keep the equilibrium OF SC
ciety. Wealth and commerce are ostenta
tious and aggressive, proud and selfish cul
ture is modest and courteous, helpful ant
benefcent. 1t is in sympathy with the wei
fare of others, and with all that is Ignorant,
longed for and unwisely sought by the pop
ular heart Culture modifies the antagonist
aud asperity between wealth and poverty
1t provides common platform where the
can meet, and its ideas solve the perplexinl
problems which sometimes arise from thei
enmty. Scholars are always sure Of til
scom of pretenders and dsmagogues and pc
ltical tricksters and hucksters. And, there
fore, they are one of the strong hopes o
our Western civilization. Without them
thoughtful, Independent, earnest; more in Low
with intellectual and moral and spiritua
things than with sensuous and materii
things, our civilization will not be able t
weather its perils, and win be likely to prov
disaster and wreck. The vast aggregat
of average intelligence, the immense tr
jumps Of mere commerce. can do nothing {
supply their place. Without them, our Sc
cial and political life will be likely to Dirt
farther and farther from its simple ideas an
principles, and end where the elder societic
and nations of the world have ended, OF wi
speedily come. without them, civilizatio
would be creature of large and vigoror
body, full of blood and passion, but OF sma
and weakened intellect and heart, and
would become turbulent, unmanageable an
destructive. A republic without a large
velopment Of head and heart, would be
dangerous neighbor and might not have III
qualities of comfortable and useful sci
existence.
Our colleges, then, ought to move MOI
strongly in the direction of higher cultur
So fast as they do this, they will comman
confidence and honor. Some of them ar
doing this, aud those who do il best will 500
distance all their rivals. The present gene
alton needs race Of strong and eiTicier
thinkers. We have fallen behind our nee