Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-06-19
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim

The one great aim.
State has ostgenerously provided
for the education of children and youth.
The Common School opens its doors to
every child andinvites tito enter and pur-
sue a course of study that will lit it for the
duties of life. or serve as a foundation
upon which to build more advanced
work. 1t has also provided for a sys-
tenn of Free High Schools, for the train
ing of those who desire more liberal
education, and the exercises of this even
ing are under the management of the
graduates of one of these schools. 1t
being the duty of each person to make
the most possible of himself, it is there
by made his duty to seek the best edu-
cation the country affords and his
means can procure. While | rejoice
that so many avail themselves of the
education your excellent High School
affords, regret that the number is not
much larger than it is. | am among
those who believe that every person.
boy or girl, man or woman, should have
an equal chance in preparation, and
that the more thorough and extensive
the preparation the better will the work
of his life be done, whatever that work
may be. 1t is the man gives character
to the work not the work to the man.
Capt. Cook and Robert Burns added
dignity to common day labor; Ben
johnson working at the building of
Lincoln's Inn with bricklayer's trow-
ell was not disgraced by the vocation
so long as he did his work faithfully;
Hugh Miller dressing stone in the Cum
arty quarries worked no less industri-
ously because he was the greatest ge-
ologist Of his dav and one of the most
polished writers of his age The cry
that we are educating the rising beyond
their proper sphere is false in several
senses. The proper sphere of each
person is that place where he can work
TO the best advantage. The purpose of
education is to give the preparation
that will enable him to find such place
The more liberal the education the
greater the number and variety of pur-
suits for which the person is qualified.
That is false education, or at least
seriously defective one that units for
one pursuit while claiming to fit for
one requiring more extensive know
ledge The greater ought to include
the less as it does logically and mathe-
matically. The fact that you have COM
pleted the High School course is
pledge of better fitness for whatever
you undertake. The pleasure that YOU
have experienced in your studies, and to
Il very great extent the benefit derived
have been in proportion to your enthu-
siasm-your earnest, persistent and
thoughtful work. May we not hope that
those of you who have not already en-
TERED upon still higher course may
even now decide to have the very best
education to be had. The portals OF
our State University stand open to re-
ceive young men and Young women,
and to afford them the opportunity of
obtaining IN education equal to that to
be had, | believe, in any institution in
the west. Say not that the higher
course is beyond your reach. The
cost of an education is, in these later
days, so Insignificant that no one who
is in earnest can consider the expense
anything more than a challenge to this
cXertion. The best students in all our
higher institutions of learning are those
who have to depend upon their own in
duStry to earn means for obtaining an
education and who practice a rigid
economy to make both ends meet No
enthusiast in the cause of education will
for moment hesitate on account of
want of funds. With enthusiasm, he
has everything necessary for success
Judging from the records of scholarship
the student who enters with the certain
ty of having to work his own way seems
to have Il decided advantage over the
one who is Literally supplied with money
that comes to him for the asking. At
the end of the course the former has an
education and ability to make what
money he needs; the latter neither edu-
cation, nor money, nor ability to earn
it. When young man deyOtes his
time to spending money his education
can not receive attention. While we
dance attendance upon the goddess of
fashionable society we need not expect
to win the favor of Minerva the goddess
of wisdom. The young man Paris of
Troja an fame, when he made his decision
so as to obtain the bride offered him by
Venus, incurred the everlasting enmity
of Minerva, and brought upon his faith
er's kingdom that ten years seige
which ended in the destruction of Troy.
To-day young men, not few, are max
ing decisions adverse to the dictates of
wisdom, and which will bring upon
them punishment for infidelity to trust
and disloyalty to their own best interests.
But some of you find your duty else
where than in academic halls. Special
professions, business, or domestic life,
lay claim to your time and attention.
That ought not to mean that you have
finished your education. The student
at Trinity College who went up to his
professor to take leave of him because
he had finished his education was
wisely rebuked by the reply, Indeed,
am only beginning mine.
The most and best that schools can
do is to give fair start in education,
after school life the education 90 on
with the changed conditions. If the
spirit for improvement has been prop
erly awakened, the withdrawal from
school cannot check its growth You
remember the famous myth of the
Phaedins where reason is represented
as a charioteer driving chariot drawn
by two horses, one high spirited. fiery
and ambitious, a charger fit for the war
tendencies groveling. Plato makes the
charioteer raise his head, and look but
for the instant into that realm which is
beyond heavens vault, and catch one
glimpse of the grandeur that is there.
the colorleSs, formless, intangible sub
stance on which the gods gaze without
let or hindrance. This one glimpse af-
fords an inspiration which never dies
out. Yon have obtained more than q
glimpse of the beauties of truth, the de-
lights of science, the charms of know
ledge, the satisfaction of mental pos
session honestly acquired, and in
spite of the temptation to use your
knowledge simply to increase your ma
terial possessions. | am confident that
you will 90 on searching for truth for
truths sake. knowledge, says Ba-
con, lis not shop for profit or sale,
but a rich store honse for the glory of
the Creator and the relief of mans es-
tate He is no enthusiast who does
not follow from pure love of the pursuit
without regard to the material advan-
tage to accrue from it. He who esteems
the dowry more than he loves the maid
en- is deserving of neither. Jean Inge-
low thus happily describes an enthusi-
asst: The man to follow any cause be it
what it will is he who loves it well
enough to fling to it everything he has
in the world, and then thinks that not
enough, and so filings himself after it,
This last item often weighs down the