National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-04-23
Going to School.


"Going from home," said Senator Leland
Stanford the other day, ''is going to
school," and the pithy phrase contains the
essence OF human experience. Like most
woll-established results Of experience, this
simple saying is touched with deep sad
ness, a melancholy only equaled, perhaps,
by the famous lines of Solomon, in which
that sleek oriental despot gave it as his
irreversible opinion that the man "who In
creaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow"
Be It so. We accept the sorrow along with
the knowledge a million times over in
preference to that tabled bliss which Is sup
posed TO dog the steps Of ignorance. 1g-
norance remains and ever must remain,
"whllst creeds and civilizations rise aud
fall"-the only, the eternal. and the all
powerful enemy Of man.
In Daniel Deronda" there 10 pas
sage on which the complacent lover Of
ignorance would do well to ponder
'It hath frequently been remarked that
knowledge is power, but who hath ever yet
computed tho power of ignoranceP For
six days knowledge has been toiling with
head and hands, and brings It's accumula-
tions to lay them in heap, trusting that
as time goes on great temple shall be
reared which, built upon the rock OF indls-
putable truth, may stand four-square TO
every wind that blows. Six days has
knowledge been laboriously at work /;
Comes ignorance drunk on the Sabbath,
with frkin of oil, and match, and ilet
there be no light With one drunken kick
-
winds. Yes, knowledge is power, but It is
power restrained by reason and directed
by conscience; but Ignorance is blind
giant that, released for one moment from
the fetters which society imposes in self
protection, would, like Samson of old, pull
down the pillars Of the temple, crushing,
without pang, humanity and civilization
beneath the ruins.n
1t has been found necessary for nations
and races, as well as for individuals, to fight
this potent enemy by constant sacrifice Of
self, Men must abandon ease and pleasure,
"must scorn delights and live laborious
days" TO gain wealth, fame, honor, glory,
and the other objects Of legitimate ambl-
tion. To gain useful knowledge one must
mix with the two worlds Of men and books,
which are rarely found comfortably settled
round the altars Of our homes. "Home-
keeping youths" says Valentine, In the
"Two Gentleman of Verona" shave ever
homely Wits" and the two friends agree to
prepare themselves for us eful life by learn.
ing from the vlcissitudes Of travel. Per.
haps the most ignorant and hopeless speci.
men OF the Caucasian race is Hodge, the
English agricultural laborer, who has just
been admitted to the franchise. "Chaw-
bacon" is his pet name, though the poor
wretch gets very little bacon to
chaw. Why is he SO degradedp Because
in nine cases out of ten hC
has never had the energy or enterprise tc
go further from his own cabin than to the
village tavern or the parish workhouse
His knowledge Of life is summed up In TAX
ing off his hat to the squire and the parson
and II ignorance were bliss Hodge might bt
considered only "a little lower than the
angels" But he is very little better thar
the brutes
When Hodge has emigrated and faced thu
hardships Of the world he has had a rougt
time, but he has sent himself to school, ant
though his own life be coarse one, hi
children need draw water and hew woot
for no man.
When the Puritans left the rich garden
Of England and Holland for the barrei
rocks Of Massachusetts,, they found training
in school which has made the words New
England almost synonymous with success
When, in the twelfth century, Peter tn
Hermit called Europe to arms for the res
cue Of the holy temple from the Saracen
he gave mighty impetus to civilization b.
bringing together, far away from their owl
homes, men Of every nation and ever
creed. Frenchmen, Spanlards, Italians
Germans, Danes, Swedes, and Engllshmeu
turned Europe and Western Asia into
bear garden for couple Of hundred years
but they "broke up' stagnation; their end
less energy created wants, which deye
oped ingenuity and laid the basis c
commerce and the triumph of peace
The English red cross knight VIII
had the good luck to return fror
Palestine with one or two complete limt
y and a hole in his head, received from
French or Italian red cross knight, had ha
thereby the opportunity OF learning th
geography Of France or Italy In schoc
which taught him to remember seriou
facts.
When men or races, white or coloret
begin to stagnate they are lost. Whe
; Hodge settles by the dozen in the Englis
village, perpetuating the ignorance an
hopelessness Of his ancestors; when tn
European emigrant Of any race settles b
the thousand In the slums and tenemeI
houses of New York, Philadelphia, an
Chicago; when the colored man settles by th
million in region where the ruthless force
Of human nature are all combined again'
him; and when all such people call sue
places Home, 1t is the beginning Of til
end. 1t is death in life. These settlement
are the fruitful parents Of disease and II
fanny; the founders Of jails, poorhouse
and lunatic asylums; the cesspools of 81
ciety. There Is safety only in flight the
! is one school house only for the new edl
cation; and THAT building is far away fro
Home