Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-26

But there are far better things for
boys. For the time comes at lest when toll
is rewarded, and when to know Is necessity
ard delight, when even mathematics no longer
frightens aRd unnerves. but seems like kindly
deity, grand and shapely, holding In it's hand
the keys 70 unlock the treasures or the uni
verse; when what seemed at first the misera-
BILE jargon of barbsrians is seen to represent
the deepest, most profound experiences ana
best thoughts OF the soul.
We gaze on the gods and men about Ilium,
or follow Ulysses and Eneas in their wander
ings sit by Ilissus as he trolls his whispering
streams under the shadow of the home of art
and the abode of the muses. or listen to the
nightingale in the leafy groves Of Colonos. and
turn at last from the study of all material and
irrational things to inscribe. as Sir William
Hamilton did, as the text for every lesson:
"On earth there is nothing great but man;
In man there is nothing great but mind"
And it is that which gives such an intense in
terest TO our subject to-day-the mind-the
almost bounfless capacity of the bov. 1t is for
this reason that we aid in educating him. for this
reason that we are here to give encourage
ment to those more directly concerned in his
education. For 1t is not merely mlnd, put enu-
Gated mind, that is to make the boy all that
he is capable of being When Sir Humphry
Davy, the eminent chemist was asked what he
regarded as his greatest discovery, he replted,
without moments hesitation, M 'chael Fara-
day. Faraday, his pupil and assistant and sue
cessOr, was more wonderful in the eyes OF the
great scientist than anything in all the realm
of nature. And il mind places the boy above
the brute, far above all that is grand and beau
tiful and sublime in nature. educated mind
raises him superior to those OF ms
brought out this idea most forcibly
in his account of the most sanguinary battle
fought in Europe during the seventeenth CEN
fury He is speaking of the Duke of Luxe n
burg and the Prince of Orange, and saws:
Never, perhaps. was the change which the
progress of civilization has produced in the art
of war more strikinglv illustrated than on that
dav. A jax beating down the Trojan leader
with a which ordinary p0II0
scarcely lift Horatius defending the bridge
AGAINST an army, Richard the Lion Hearted
squirting along the whole Saracen line without
finding an enemy tn stand his assaults Robert
Bruce crushing with one blow the helmet and
head Of Sir HENRI Bonun in the sight
of the whole array of England and Scotland,
such are the heroes of dark ages.
In such an age bodily vigor is the most in
dispensable qualification OF a warrior. At
Landen two poor, sickly beings, who, in a rude
state of society, would have been regarded as
too puny to bear any part in combats, were
the souls of the two great armies In some
heather countries they would have been ex-
posed while infants. In Christendom they
would, six hundred years earlier, have been
sent to some quiet cloister. But their lot had
fallec on time when men had discovered that
the strength of the muscles is far inferiO- in
value to the strength Of the mind. 1t is proba-
BILE that among the hundred and twenty thou
sand soldiers who were marshalied round
Neerwinden, under all the standards
OF Western Europe, the Two fee6es ss
who urged forward the fiery onset of France,
and the asthmatic skeleton who covered the
slow retreat Of England"
Nor let anyone suppose that in speaking of
education we have reference to that narrow
view which would remove it from the region
of the practical. An eminent writer has
clearly pointed out the difference between
the Baconian philosophy and the systems of
all those who preceded Bacon. Two words
form the key Of the Baconian doctrine-utility
and progress. The ancient philosophy diSdain-
ed fO he nSpful- and content
ary; it ended at last in nothing but disput ii N.
Bacon set out with the idea that nothing can
be too insignificant for the attention of the
wisest. which is not too insignificant to give
pleasure or pain to the meanest." All thought,
all study, have received the impulse Of The Ba-
CONAN idea The powerto engage success ully
in barren disputatiOns is no longer thought to
be the end of all study but the right under
standing of mans relations to man, and TO the
great universe, and the power to aid the
one and utilize the other.
No matter what the boy is to be, he
ought to be educated. Do we need la
Dor? We need much more educated la
servants of cultivated minds and prac-
ticed eyes. Do you know why we have been
accustomed to send our material North and to
Europe to he manufactured, thence to be
brought back to he purchased at greatly ad-
vanced rates? 1t is because the few the half
dozen or so, schools for trained laborers in this
country are found in the North; it is because
England points with pride to her one hundred
and twenty-three special art schools with their
forty thousand pupils, and to her great Muse.
um. educating nearly as many more. Do you
know why the Swiss workmen are in demand
everywhere to day, and are getting the
cream of the work of Europe as well as
much Of that Of America? Why Swtz4r-
land, deprived by nature of nearly
every advantage for industrial progress
country Of mountains without mines, OF lakes
without inlets; with no ports, no navigable
rivers, no canals; takes the lead in mechanical
industries9 1t is because among the pictur
esqua mountains of Switzerland skilled indus
try has found home. know there is a gen.
eral impression that in many things this coun-
try excels even he old world, and that impress
sion is true so far as the products which de-
pend upon the blessing of a bountful Provi-
dence are concerned-so far as the wonderful
inventive faculties Of our people can give us
the supremacy. But in almost all pursuits
which depend for their success upon sci
enti6c work and technical knowledge,
we are vet lamentably far b'hind. Oae
mandatory alone in Massachusetts pays out
annually for designs to the skilled workmen of
Europe $4,000.
But why mention these things? To
show the fallacY of that reasoning which
would limit education to the learned profess
sions; to show incidentally what we here in the
South need, if we are to do justice by the mass
OF our boys and not leave them to be hewels of
wood and drawers of water to those who have
had superior advantages, and who, aware of
our deficiency, are fiOcking to ourshores. What
Sir Robert Peel said in reference to his own
country might be as truthfully said of ours:
IF we inferior in knowledge skill and intel
ligence to the manufacturers OF other countries.
the increased facilities of intercourse will result
in transferring the demand from uS to others |
Industrial supremacy is the prize of industrial |
education" But chiefly are these facts i'm |
portant that they may suggest taShe boys this |
lesson: That they are to succeed anywhere |
Just in proportion as they improve their minds. |
Just as they possess that knowledge which Is
felt now more than ever before to be power. |
In every calling, or walk in life, there is an |
upper and lower sphere; education, or the lack |
of IT, will assign us to one or the other place. |
And anything which fits boy to do well his |
part to excel in his chosen work, to make the |
best possible use of himself, is education it |
matters not whether he obtains 1t at school or
by his own independent labors away from |
school.
would have every Roy not only take advan-
tage of the opportunities which arise. but make |
opportunities and lengthen out his school days |
as far as practicable. And am satisfied much |
more may be accomplished in this direction |
than most boys suppose. Let the boy have the |
will and the way will appear might tire you |
with the mention of those who have secured |
the most thorough and comprehensive educa- |
tion, when to do so seemed in the beginning inn |
possible. / venture the remark that large |
ms iority of the eminent scholars and pubic |
men of our country have passed through the |
most trying ordesls in their efforts TO |
acquire a rounded. symmetrical education. |
For after all, the boy must make himself. |
We speak Of self-made men; all men |
who are fit for anything are selt-maCe. The |
boy of most abundant opportunities is |
nothing unless he improves them, moth |
ing certainly if he trusts to them |
TO make him; the boy of few oppOr- |
tunities must be great and useful if he is only |
earnest and faithful and laborious. 1t were |
easy to prepare for any boy recipe for failure.
Let him neglect opportunities snd go about |
the world moping and crying over them, |
when they are gone. OF course that would he |
better than to seize the opportunities still left.
Let him trust to some one else to do his work, |
to fill his mission. OF course some one will do |
it for him. some one who has nothing to co |
for himself, and you know the world |
Is specially DESTROYS of helping those |
who can but win not help them |
selves Let him trust to luck and exercise the |
FOOLS prerogatIve, for it is said "a fool for |
luck :" and he will be pretty sure to find him |
the reach of the tide, while the great stream |
bears others on to success and fortune. Give |
me rather the boES
ITO whose well-ordered will belong,
For service and delight,
All powers that in face of wrong
Establish right
Who from his tVraut passions free
BY fortune undismayed.
Hath power unto himself to be
By himself obeyed.
II such boy there be, where'er
Beneath the sun and moon he fare,
He cannot fare amiss;
Great nature hath him in her care
Her cause is his.
He owes no homage to the sun,
There's nothing he need fear or shun-
All Things are his by right;
He is his own posteritY,
His future In himself doth lie,
His souls his Light
ONLY let him keep this before him. iC is mind |
that rules. Scientists have noticed that the |
glaciers which lie in the Alpine valleys move; |
move very slowly, and yet move; move per- |