National Republican., 1886-06-11

Our Graduating Glasses.
AT this season Of every year the innumer-
able notices Of college and school COM
mencements must give pause 10 even the
most unthoughtful. From Harvard down
to the high school OF every country town
graduating classes, during the current
month, viii bid long farewell to the
period of apprenticeship, and each indi-
viduol, according to temperament, will
make a modest, careless, or an audacious
bow to the future which, for all OF us, the
just and the unjust, is big with such enor-
nous possibilities.
great Englishman, well up among the
first literary men Of the century and at
present occupying the high political post
tion Of chief secretary for Ireland, distrib.
uted prizes few years ago to the pupils Of an
industrial school In the north Of England.
In his opening address Mr.. Morley said
ut may be weakness upon my part, but l
cannot help regarding every child, boy or
girl, young or old, who goes forward to re-
ceive prize on such occasions with post
itively painful emotions. 1 cannot help
thinking OF the long, weary hours OF totlful
study each child must have stolen from
healthful play; and cannot but regret
that so much tlme-in the interest OF even so
divine q thing as knowledge-should be
passed In STOPPING posture, and in an at
mosphere tainted for the most part with oil
or gas, when refreshing slumber might
naturally claim such moments for her own.
But more sober thought makes me realize
that II is the law Of life, which we cannot
revoke or abrogate. 1t is now as it was Of
old, In the sweat Of thy brow shalt thou
earn thy bread.'n
Perhaps II Is producing deaths head at
feast to refer to the painful aspects OF
education Just at the time when that tyran-
nical dame has laid aside her working
clothes, and, decked with roses and manu-
script addresses, moves across the continent
in one long trlumphal procession. But such
thoughts will arise and will not down. 1t
is sad to think Of the preliminary strain and
labor; 1t is gratifying to look upon the ex-
ultant victors who gather the spoils Of en-
ergy and effort; 1t is pathetic to dwell upon
the bafIled hopes of those who carry off no
trophies; and, to those who think, there is
something profoundly tragic in looking
w lllO luluIc Vi lIObb WHO VIII Jlle
laurels as well as Of those who lose them.
VIII that strapping boy, who, to-day, in
the first flush OF manhood rolls out such fine
sentiments, carry into life the essence OF
his words, or is the valedctory speech
merely an ingenious combination Of all the
fine things he has heard and read and
thought without any more percep-
tible influence upon his life than
the chaotic wanderings Of q dreamH
VIII he be a real man, erect in
heart and mind, in word, thought, and deed,
or will she too take the stamp Of the golden
age, cheat and be cheated, and die9"
This is even more serious consideration
than that to which Mr.. Morley
referred with such deep feeling.
The dead past can bury itself, but
what Of that unknown future which may be
made so quietly noble or SO glonously
infamous9
We can hear almost any day during the
present month number Of young ladies
reading essays of greeting or farewell, COM
posed in all styles Of literature and usually
well.slashed with fine sentiment and heroic
passages from Emerson or Carlyle. Have
those fine thoughts and passages entered at
the eyes to issue at the lips, or have they
circumnavigated the system, passing in their
| journey through the heart and brain, leav-
| ing permanent residuum In the blood?
WIN that girl with the fair pale forehead,
the modest blush, and eager eyes, maintain
through life her interest in those high
themes which she discusses to-day with
such tripping tongue and trembling lips
Or has she only unpacked from the ward
robe Of her mind and fancy that dress ap-
propriate to rare occasion, intending or
expecting to stow 1t safely away forever
when she has fretted her brief hour upon
the college PLATFORM
But whatever the consequences may be,
however doubtful the future for the bril-
liant as for the ungifted, there is one thing
Of which we may be perfectly assured, and
1t is that all knowledge is power; that the
highest knowledge which enables men and
women "to feel deep, think clear, bear fruit
well, is Of paramount Importance, because
1t makes men and women Of this worll-a-
day world just a little lower than the angels.