Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-07-07
A Few Suggestions to College
Graduates.

Graduates
II tie Editors Of tie Chronicle.
The season of annual commences
meuts, reunions, alumni dinners, class |
exercises, and other adjuncts of our
national educational regime, has APP
paGenlly come to be recognized so
generally by the public as a sort of
prolonged holiday occasion, ordained |
for the express purpose of lending the |
public endorsement to the students
maxim concerning them of "Acti
Id6oreS .jucuEdr finished labors are
pleasant, that word of protest seems
to Us IA matter of duty, and in order;
and for the reason That any such idea
in itself as that the student graduate is
in any sense to he held as having
flushed" his literary Labor" even
in the sense of Il release from the toll
incident to the state of ado escent
mental life in which he has been
hitherto living is a gross error, and not
conducive 10 proper employment Of
his mental powers so far acquired,
Literary laburs are nerer finished,
and graduatious are not the end of
student pioddings to the true disciple
of knowledge. Accretion is not law
of childnuod alone, it is the adjunct of
all reIt life and he who sits down to
rest upon the cushion of INDECENT con-
tent, with his present mental status, is
no true man.
To our mind there is no sadder sight
than that of the young man or woman,
just out of school-graduated as we
say-seemingly content to be relegated
10 the ranks of the do-nothings, and
TO be satisfied with what they have
already acquired, and selfishly, to sit
down in state of inertia, aud nom
employment of their educational &C.
quirements as though the highest of
flee of educated humanity, was to en-
act the part ola sponge, which absorbs,
bat never gives out, and to our mind
the man or woman who thus acts the
part Of the parasitical absorptive
mentioned, is no less than a literary
thief-having distracted, or rather
begged, from the common stock of the
worlds knowledge, without having
rendered an equivalent. Society edu-
Gates, and society has a right TO de-
mand that the educated shall requ te
society for so doing-surely it Is Time
that our young men and women were
taught that colleges and academies are
not charitable Institutions, like our
city soup houses, where people are fed
as beggars without any Gthought of
pay-and that in this case, the pay is
not the dOllsrs and cents paid for
roOm-rent, food and tuition simply
but the higher and better requItal
of use of knowledge thus gain
ed for the common good of
mankind. knowledge il power, but
woe TO him or her VINO shall possess
power so potent for veal of men, if he
or she shall selfshly refuse to so en-
ploy ii as that good shall ensue TO those
who need its offices
We are led t. these remarks through
notice Of the large number Of grad
yates turned oup' from our literary
institutions this year and comparison
with that OF former years and farther
by comparison of graduation lists of
last year with the hunters of men
and women VINO have seemingly used
their education To some purpose, and
because the disproportiOn has seemed
10 US startling. What becomes Of our
college graduates? What use are they
making of their capital OF acquired
skill in art, science aud letters? l. il
not lamentably true that TOO many and
by far the larger portion of these re-
clpients Of sOciety's benificence
Through endowment of institutions of
learuing) on their behalf, have abso-
lutely failed to use the gift as u sense
of duty Tor decent gratitude, even
would seem TO prompt?
And here, again, matter relative
comes in: Is our educational regime of
the proper order? Is the education ac-
quired, of the practical sort ?
Doubtless not as thoroughly so
as il might, or should be,
but nevertheless of sufficiently practi-
cal character to warrant success i'm the
use of il, and the blame not so much
resident here as in the fact OF false
views of the proper use Of knowledge
on the part of our graduates, making
it matter of self graduation and self
ish pride, rather than use as a power
lent to the user for use for the good OF
all, and also of the fault of parents and
teachers in not sufficiently instructing
and impressing these young men and
women with the truthfulness Of the
maxim that "He who knows 10 do,
aud does it not, is worse than fool,
for the fool is excused by not
Cd,