Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-23


9th ipst. requesting me to furnish you copy
of my lecture delivered at Ironton on the night
Of the 4th inst, for publication i'll the IRON
COUNTY REGISTER, and, in reply, have to
say that the copy, as requested, is at your dis
pOsal. Hoping that its publication may con-
tribute-in a small degree, at least-towards
the advancement of human thought, / have
the honor to be
Your obedient and humble servant,
JOHN L. THOMAS.
MR.CHAIRMAN,T TEACHERS, LADIES
AND GENTLEMEN: do not come to you
this evening with any new message.
What shall say to you will be but the
repetition of an old, old story. 1t is re
lated of an Eastern king that he en-
ployed a servant whose duty it was to
remind him daily of his mortality; and
the servant every morning went to his
masters chamber, and said: "Remem-
brr, Oh Prince, that thou must die"
Thus, while the king was in the midst
of life, he was reminded that he was
also in the midst of death, and the con-
stant contemplation of his mortality
gave color and tone to all he did. In
like manner should we not repeat daily,
or have repeated to us, the formula:
1--WE must educate''-and that is what
have come, by invitation, all the way
ilotu CC CoCo w WIG pAoSO w S0J w Ou.
We must educate. This is an old for
mula, and am not so certain but that it
ought tn be modified. Itwould be more
in harmony with the time, in this year
OF grace, to say, We must continue to
educate. Especially ought this change
in the formula be made as applicable to
Iront"n and Iron county: for the fine
structures you have in the last year
erected and dedicated here to education,
music, and learning bespeak for you a
healthy condition of public sentiment
on this subject. You do now educate
and we Oh Int 70 say to yor, Contssue
to educate.. for therein lies your safety.
Beecher said many years ago, and We
find what he said in our readers, that
'FWe must educate-we must educate, or
we will perish by our own prosperity"
When / read that sentence in Nc
Guffey's Fourth Reader thirty years
ago, I thought it announced the whole
truth, but now [ believe it contains q
fatal error. It assumes that our pros
perity would continue in spite of ignor-
anee-that we would prosper whether
we educated or not-and if we failed to
educate, onr prosperity would be so
great that our nation would perish.
This is not true, 1t is not true that we
would prosper whether We educated or
not. But say that all experience
traces that we cannot prosper without
education-that prosperityis Ahe result
of education, and is not and cannot be
independentof it. And would fOrmu-
late this thought in about this way:
1--WE must educate-we must educate,
in order to prosper" And when say
do not mean to say that we must edu-
cate in the ella ssics, or that we must ed
cate the tew, i'm order to prosper; but 1
mean to say, and wish right here to
emphasize the thought, that We must
educate the masses of the peopte, Both
male and female, i'm order to prosper.
The State claims the right to educate
all it's citizens, because the State insists
that its safety, its prosperity, nay, it's
very existence, is dependent on the
virtue and intelligence of the masses of
the people. The fundamental idea un-
derlying our public educational system,
is that the masses must be educated in
order to perpetuate the blessings of civil
and religious liberty and Of our ciyiliza-
ton. Yet while this idea has been
crystalized into law, do we fully ap-
preciate its Importance and far-reach-
ing consequences? If we fully apPre-
ciated this, would we not find less
|
Would we not more cheerfully provide
better school houses, better school fur
niture, better qualified and paid teach
ers? And if we had some one every
morning. after the fashion of the East
ern king, to proclaim in our hearing:
1.-THE safety of State, of our prosperity,
of our civilization depends a1hoiky upon
the education of the masses" great ad-
vantages would accrue to US, because
we would thus be brought often to con-
template the subject, and study it in all
its phases and comprehend it in all its
bearings. Hence 1 come to you to re-
peat an old, old story, with less diff
dence and more confidence than 1
should otherwise. May be can pre-
sent an old idea in q new light; may be
1 can give you truth in a new garb;
may be I can turn your thoughts into
new channel, and thus give a new
impetus to this grand idea. The phase
of this question, however, which de-
sire to make most prominent in what
have to say on this occasion, is this:
The education of the few, he it ever SO
thorough, or be the few who are edu-
Gated the greatest Of intellectual giants,
will not accomplish the purposes of the
law or meet the demands of our civili-
zation; but that the education we de-
mand, is that which reaches down and
takes hold of the humblest and poorest
-dtt-and raises by its means the whole
fabric of society. Toprove this we need
only to refer to the condition of society
IN England during the 18th century.