Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-08-17

The greatest work of man is the mas
terry of self, and the highest order Of
teaching talent is seen only in the divi
ner radiance that shines through the life
and labors of truly devoted soul.
A strolling band of teachers few
evenings ago were taking in the sights
at Prospect Park, when calling up be
fore fountain at play, they stopped to
admire the brilliant display of colors,
glowing in each jet and outrivaling ma
lures rainbow in the splendor of its
sheen. As one would naturally be curl.
Gus to know how the water was render
ed luminous, the common query passed
round, "What makes the water glow
whence comes the irridescent hues? and
where's the fire that feeds these magic
fountains of light?
On little examination the secret of
the charming sight appeared in the hid
den refectOrs that beamed up through
their prismatic zones upon those many
whirling jets from the electric lights
beyond.
In philosophy we are taught that
mind is the cause of every motion, of
every force, nay, rather is itself that
force, while matter as its mold, is pas
sively inert; or as Emerson more point
edly puts it, "The universe is composed
of Nature and the Soul"
The operation of the human mind
gives color to every phase of life we see,
and transmits its light where least we
expect, through the medium of mind in
contact with its fellow mind, until the
world of mankind to the age Of enlight-
ment is moved.
Back of that gorgeous display or au-
roral waters sat the man that regulated
its moving shades of light; back Of every
human reform has stood the bold reform
er who gave direction to the f1uctuating
destinies of man land back of that iconO-
elastic mind lived the teacher who set
that master mind ajar to truth.
Every student of history knows that
the torch of intellectual enlightenment
is passed from hand to hand. Socrates
conducted the Grecian schools through
the first stage of inquiry; Plato took
them through their age of faith, and Aris-
totle reached their farthest bound in the
realm of reason. Here was success.
And to the schools at old Croton, to Me-
CARA, to Stagira, our most successful
teachers still repair to improve their
methods by studying the views of our
first great masters.
The greatest schools will always turn
out the greatest men; but of the re-
nowned educators of those grand Peri
clean days, or why the light of their
lamps should go out in the grove of
Academus, or how they were relighted
for the forum of Augustan Rome, or
how the spirit of reform again awOke
from the crucical alembic of the Dark
Ages to be brandished aloft by such men
as Roger Ascham and Hermann Francke,
Pestalozzi and Frederic Froebel are
views which lie beyond the field we pur-
pose to inspect.
That we may not be chargeable with
directing our glasses at objects beyond
our immediate sphere, we will select for
our consideration the most unpretenti-
GUS of educators, one who operates away
down among the neither masses of man.
kind, dressing up the raw material on
the first floor of your educational work.
shop.
The educator we have to introduce to
you tonight is the most unpromising,
uncouth, and uncomplaisant of all the
country school teachers in your county.
He was first heard from when a lubber.
ly lad of some dozen years, going to one
of your ungraded sub-district schools.
Here. when first his teacher met him, all
unreclaimed from the primitive manners
of his unsophisticated rustic life, he was
rushing by the teacher, making for the
school-room door on the first morning
in order to be the first one in, and get
his choice of seats. To the inquiry of
the master, "What do you wish to do,
young manP" our youngster replied
"I'm going to be first, bound to De ahead.
Here let us remark, this boy had been
to school before, and on the last day OF
the term preceding, had been made over
happy by the reception of nice little
prize, volume of Robinson Crusoe
in blue cloth binding, as a reward fol
the greatest number of head-marks, (du
ring the term), by the old-time method
of trapping in class.