The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-08-04

w WEDNESDAY MORNING,
have been opposed often in Congress on the
| ground that they are aristocratic institutions.
| That is a great mistake. There are no in
| stitutions in the country in which the equal
| ity of right and the equality of position are
| 80 absolutely maintained as in those at West
| Point and Annapolis. No cadet can spend
more than another and each is limited to
| some five hundred and forty dollars per
| annum. On that amount the son of Mr.. Van
| Buren, when he was President of the
| United States and the son of the tailor who
was making the cadet uniforms were each
and alike compelled to live. The university
| in the United States which can establish
democratic equality in the style of living
among all its students and tolerate no dis
tinctions except those based on the aris-
tocracy of talent and requirements, will in
evitably become the center and source OF
the highest culture in America and will con-
tribute to the elevation of the learned pro-
fessions in civil life in as high degree as
West Point and Annapolis have contributed
to the military and naval prestige Of the
Republic.
Another feature of modern collegiate
training to which exceptions may be taken is
the long time employed The admission to
college now, is on the average, at the same
age at which students in the preceding gen.
GRAFTON graduated To young man favored
by ample means the course runs thus-ad-
mitted to college at eighteen; graduates at
twenty-five; completes his professional stud
les at twenty-five; goes abroad to hear lect-
ures in a foreign university and returns home
at twenty-seven or tWenty-eight If he be
heir to great fortune and intends to lead a
life of mere leisurely elegance this
form of preparation is very well but
if he is compelled to depend ultimately on
his own labor for his bread he is sincerely to
be pitied. He has contracted habits and
tastes quite out of harmony with the people,
among whom he is to live, and uncongenial
to the clients upon whose favor and conf
that the contemporary who opened law Of
fee at twenty-one or two years of age, has
already gained strol.g foothold in his pro-
fession. and while he, with his European
training, may know more in many fields, he
knows less in the fields essential to success.
He finds himself junior to those of his own
age, and finds that he has wasted in general
culture some precious years Which should
have been devoted to his special calling in
life. The disadvantage to which the young
man would be subjected in the learned pro-
fessions is vastly increased when he intends
to enter upon a business career, q banker,
a merchant, a manufacturer, and in either
case his fate, is not unlikely to be that OF
a discouraged life. | would not put forth
this judgment with such confidence, said Mr..
Blaine, if did not feel sustained by the
opinion of one of the ablest men who ever
taught in the English tongue. An English
gentleman, the late Mr.. Forster, widely known
as Secretary for ireland, in Mr.. Gladstone's
Cabinet was the son-in-law Of the illustrious
Arnold of Rugby, and in a conversation on
the subject, which am now discussing, Mr..
Forster told me that it was the opinion OF DIR.
Arnold that the young men OF England were
we're better they should be engaged in their
life-calling by twenty-one or twenty-five
years of age. OF course ! shall not be mis-
understood as applying these remarks to any
young man who is deyoting himself to a
purely literary life or to any specialist who
tigation am speaking of that great mass
Of college graduates who are to be men of
affairs, who depend upon their earnings for
their bread.
New England history would bear cut my as
sertions as strongly as with professional
men. Longfellow graduated at BOwdoin be-
fore he was eighteen. George Bancroft has
earned Harvard's diploma at seventeen.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was under nineteen
when he graduated, and Edward Everett but
seventeen. In professional and public life it
is equally striking. Mr.. Webster, Mr.. Choate.
Mr.. Seward and Mr. Fessenden were all
through college and reading their law books
by the time they were nineteen years OF age
But do not mean to imply that boys
should be educated with reference to par
tienlar professen hat ~ teii o, az
fifteen or sixteen years Oh age Waat poy
twenty. The curriculum IS good for all
alike and the regular course of study will de-
velop the maturity which will enable boy
to choose his profession more wisely.
have serious doubts therefore as to the mis-
sion of the elective courses now becoming so
popular in many parts of the country. A re-
markable instance which | may recall, as
narrated to me, will illustrate what mean
The elder Mr.. Latrobe, an eminent member
of the Baltimore bar, had two promising
ly the indications for distint professional
lives One with mathematical turn he des-
tined for West Point and secured his ap-
pointment as cadet. The other seemed pre-
cisely adapted to the law and after his grad
uation at college he studied in his fathers
office and was admitted to the bar soon after
his brother entered the army. But few
years developed this singular change. The
West Point graduate did not like army life
and therefore resigned, studied law and be-
came eminent in his profession The other
son who had been trained to the law did not
like his profession, retired from it and be-
came the distinguished civil engineer who
constructed the Baltimore g. Ohio railroad
across the Allegheny mountains. Few cas-
es perhaps would so strikingly illustrate the
point at issue, but think it is very often
found that the elective course of the young
man has failed to fit him for the duties of the
career of his subsequent years.
Mr.. Blaine spoke at some length maintain
iY1uf fbQ CtunV Of (Irpplx mart of the college
course. He did not expect that one student
in thousand would ever come to know the
Greek language with the accuracy that
would enable him to enjoy Homer
know enough to give him quick comprehen-.
sion of the derivation of the whole field OF
scientific words which are borrowed from
the Greek We can read Homer with enjoy
ment in the splendid pages of Chapman, or
even in Bryant and Derby, but it is of inesti-
mable advantage for man to know why
phonograph and photograph should have
their respective meanings, and why telescope
means one thing and telegraph another. This
kind of knowledge upbuIlds and increases
the knowledge of our mother tongue, and In
the end that man in the United States smost
thoroughly educated who has the most thor
ough mastery of English.
Mr.. Blaine closed by some observations on
the great advantage of oral teaching, when
the teacher had the talent and genius for it.
The youth is always captivated and inspired
by the teacher who goes beyond the text book
and gives new light and life to what is too
often the lifeless page. He used many illus
trations to enforce this point. Mr. Blaine
spoke about an hour, using no manuscript or
notes of any kind.
In the evening grand concert was given
by the chorus choir of one hundred members
led by Professor Morse and wife, and assist
ed by Miss Howland, of the Handel Haydn
Society of Boston and Mr.. Bachelor OF
Kent's Hill Seminary