The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-05-11
EXAMPLES FOR HIGHER EDU.
CATION.

Nlueu, as uulnOTlLeu 10 uO, lOI uni-
versity buildings, the legislature
would have found an establish
mcnt which, If left unprovlded
with needful support, would
have been worthless property
to the state. But the law providing
for the erection of a university
building is still in force, and the
best course to be pursued Is to fol-
low the plan abandoned some
months since, and contract for build
ings. The STATESMAN does not
hold TO the belief that other than
public interests will control future
legislatures it believes that men
will be sent 10 the legislature, fresh
from the people, willing TO extend
to the cause of popular education
the university, where the
youths of the state, nur-
tured into ambition in the
lower departments of education,
will be ambitious to mount to high
err planes. The STATESMAN has re-
peatedly shown how intimately
linked is lower and higher education;
and that since there is no higher
education in Texas, the lower fails,
because of an incomplete develop
ment of system in which the head
is as great a necessity as the base.
There must be an efficient univer-
sity, where the mind in search of
learning may be matured, where
the young men and the young
women of the state may be
developed into shining examples for
the masses. la the University there
should be all the mental training
requisite to develop intellect to that
standard, which shapes the higher
destiny of states. The rich send
sons and daughters abroad to Sc
cure this higher education; and they
lose. to certain degree, to say
nothing of the pecuniary dram on
the state, that love of home which
makes people greatest. Greece
aud Rome cultivated the arts and
the sciences aud letters at home,
and these nations became great in
all that conduccs to greatness. So
long, too, as these states
encouraged and sustained the higher
orders OF learning, just SO long did
they thrive and grow, and remain
rivals for the worlds greatest and
grandest honors. But, when Nero
and lIeliogahalus and Caligula d.
verted public expenditures from the
encouragement of the arts and
sciences, to- speculation and immOr-
ality and waste, Rome declined and
became an easy prey to untutored
tribes of barbarians. AS higher ed
ucation was encouraged Rome ad-
vanced, and it is noted fact
that all Roman greatness was trace
able to educated soldiers and men
of letters. Julius Caesar advanced
the Roman eagles to all parts of the
then known world, and he lett liter
airy works more familiar to the
scholar of this day than the war his
tory of the present century. Taci-
tus and Herodotus, two thousand
years ago, compiled annals that now
occupy places in all the libraries of
the world. Cicero made the Roman
senate ring with his powerful ora
tions, and his efforts are studied to-
day by all who cultivate taste in
oratory and in letters. Greece, too
had her highly educated generals,
her accomplished statesmen aud or
ators and poets. Napoleon the first
copied after Alexander; Webster and
Calhoun and Everett after Demos
themes; and Shakespeare after Euri-
pides. The greatness of Rome and of
Greece was the work OF its scholars.
Genius was nurtured at home, and
it developed until Roman and Gre
clan literature and art and science
belongs to, and moves the age in
which we live; and these legacies will
be transmitted to loug line of IN
born generations. Yet, we have
heard the uneducated or the dema-
gogical legislator say that Texas
need not sustain higher education,
when higher education is the har-
biuger of all that makes a people
great. We want such education,
and until it is had here, instead of
abroad. it may be expected that
Texas will drag along in the rear of
more enlightened states and coun-
tries. The regents seem to need
training; they have lost ground by
delay, and they may now, through
instability, destroy the university.