The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-06-20
Our Young People
BY REV. R. H. RIVERS, D. D.
Human Destiny.


knowledge, his sensibilities indicate
it to be happiness, while his con-
science declares it to be goodness.
So that taking all his faculties we
perceive him to be destined for
knowledge, happiness and virtue.
He is free to work out his destiny
or 20 pervert it by waywardness or
neglect. Free to acquire knowl-
edge, to cultivate his feelings and
purify his conscience, he to a very
large extent determines his own
destiny. Believing this to be the
truth, l have thought the occasion
of your graduation, so interesting
and so important to you, would be
fit one on which to present such
considerations as might encourage
to the accomplishment of a destiny
such as your nature indicates and
as God will approve. You can be
intelligent. Already you have made
encouraging progress in knowledge.
You have studied the structure OF
your own language, the philosophy
OF mind and morals, the great facts
of natural history, the principles OF
molecular and atomic action, the
difference between organic and in
organic matter, the science of the
heavenly bodies, the physiology OF
vegetable and animal life, the pro
gress of literature, philosophy and
science through the lapse of nearly
thirty centuries, and the history of
our race both ancient and modern.
You have also been introduced
into the mysteries of mathematical
science, and have learned the differ
ent methods of calculation as pecu-
liar to arithmetic, algebra, geome-
try and trigenometry. Still there
are many fields to be explored, and
your present knowledge is to be en-
larged, matured and perfected. You
are to keep abreast of the age. You
are not to sink down into mental
inactivity. You are not to allow
your present requirements to waste
| by inertness or weaken by sloth.
You are to press forward to higher
attachments and to secure a still
more advanced intellectual culture.
1t is one of the highest attributes
of mind that 1t is designed for per-
petual growth. Progress is its great
law. 1t must neither falter nor
waver. 1t cannot be stationary. Ii
must change from glory to glory,
from light to still greater light, OF
it must sink into grosser Ignorance
or into more palpable darkness
While all the faculties of the intel
lect indicate that man should rise to
intelligence, nine-tenths of our race
make no advance in knowledge
One-half that enter our colleges fai
to pursue the path of knowledge
and turn to other fields and employ
their energies, if they haye any, il
some other direction. The hill Of
science is too steep and its ascent
becomes irksome. To study be
comes task from which sloth turns
away in disgust. And of those who
continue their scholastic course to
graduation not one third keep uI
the knowledge with which they
graduate. In a few years Latin
! and Greek become as strange al
most as Sanscrit, and literature and
science are forgotten. While the col
lege course has not been without its
value, yet many of its benefits are
| lost by a listless inactivity which
forbids progress and prevents
growth. Ii you would reach the des-
tiny designed by your Creator, you
must take no step backward, you
must not loiter along the way, you
must aspire to lofty attachments and
you must carry out that aspiration
by an everything, ever active en-
ergy. A certain great orator was
once asked, 'What is the first great
attribute of an orator." He an
swered, Action" "The secondw
"Action." "The third?" The an
swer was, action" Were l asked
for the first essential attribute of a
scholar | would answer action, and
the second and the third would also
be action. Inaction is death. Sloth
is ruin. l would prefer action to
genius. 1t is higher than fame. 1t
is more precious than priceless
wealth. 1t is hardness to the mus
cles, strength to the nerves, vigor
to the intellect, life TO the con-
science and the hope of the race.
1t rises to all heights and fathoms
all depths. 1t moves on tireless
wings along all the paths of human
thought. 1t is appalled, by no diff
culties and discouraged by no OBJ
stacles. 1t breasts the storm and
defies the raging tempest. 1t has
wrested the scepter from Jupiter
and taken the magic wand from
Mercury. 1t disarms the terrible
god of war and discontinues the
sacrifices upon the altar of Bacchus.
1t has deprived thirty thousand
Grecian deities of their crowns, and
broken all the images in the pan
theon. 1t has caught the lightnings
from the clouds and gathered gold
and silver from the mines. 1t has
deprived witchcraft Of its terror and
pagan superstition of its victims.
1t has chased away the darkness of
ignorance and Illuminated the world
with a moral light whose glory sur
passes the sun in heaven. 1t has
subdued the earth and given man
dominion over the land and the sea.
1t is the glory of man and the charm
of the gentler sex. 1t is the herit-
age of the race and comes much
more as blessing than as a curse.
Do not think of a bed of roses. Do
not anticipate a life of inglorious
ease. The world is moving, great
principles are rousing the nations,
the car of progress has gained a
fresh impulse, and the earth shakes
beneath the rapid revolutions of its
mighty wheels. Will you sit down
in idleness and not join the vast
procession whose firm and active
step is a prophecy OF the millennial
dawn? If you would rise above
mediocrity your work Of intellectual
advancement is but just begun.
You have but just reached the shore
on which Newton gathered his peb
bles. The great ocean of knowl-
edge lies out before you. To sail
out on that ocean demands an earn