Thomas County cat., 1890-05-29
HIGH SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT.



dim and sometimes it seems impossible
to surmount the barriers in the way. but
on looking at them again we observe
someone standing on the top, and some
almost there. while others are just start
idg. and some have given up in despair
and have turned round and are going
rapidly back to the confluence of the
two; to travel on the other and easier
road which, instead of barriers, contains
descents which they can easily pass down
And they do pass down one after another
until the last has been passed down and
ihey are at the end of this life. They
look around. and see on all sides of them
outcasts of the earth who, like they have
made total failure of life.
Such is the road over which so many
| of our companions are passing, who
started and Travelled the greater part of
life with us. While some have taken the
other and are now standing on the top OF
| the barrier v hich we are now thinking un-
surmountable, and from which we are
about 10 turn away. But when we think
of how those who have passed before US
have sOurmOunted each and every diff
Guilty. one after another, until the highest
has been reached, We form new resolu.
tions and start again determined to stand
near them or the highest of obstacles.
Let Us not think because we have over
come The smallest of these ObstructlOnS,
that we have attained the height. or that
there are no more to be overcome. for
we have not We have just begun to
climb the greatest of these when We have
again commenced to strive to attain the
good, which We can just dimly see in the
far distant. Let US now notice these two
roads. The one that leads to fortune.
fame. prosperity, and eternal happiness.
we will call education. While the cne
which leads to ruin, death. failure, and
eternal misery, we will call ignorance.
The former, strictly speaking. covers the
whole arena of life. 1t is the word which
means all that God asks of us; all We owe
the world or ourselves. 1t expresses the
sum total of human duty. Nor is it con-
fined to the present period of life. For
aught we know education may be con-
tinued in heaven. Reason may continue
to widen its powers and deepen its sane
titles there. The affection may grow in
beauty and feryor through innumerable
ages Mind may expand and intensity
through eternity. Education is work of
progress. 1t begins in life but has no end.
Death does not terminate it. We learn
the elements of things below; above we
study their essence. We progress only
by effort. What ever expands the af-
fections or enlarges the sphere OF our
sympathies; whatever makes us feel our
relation to the universe, to the great and
beneficial cause of all, must unqueStlOn-
ably refine our nature and elevate us in
the scale of Being. 1t requires extensive
observation to enable us even partially to
fv,oo oyfa m W
all the faculties are developed by mental
man vigorous and active, the touch more
delicate and there is greater mobility in
the hand. Men are often like knives
with many blades they know how to
open one and only one the rest are bar
red in the handle, and from misuse they
become useless Education IS the knOwl
edge of how to use the whole of
oneself. He is educated who knows
how to make Il tool of everv faculty, how
to open it, how to deep it sharp and how
to apply it to all practical purposes.
Education is of three partS-frOm ma
ture, from man, and from things. The
development of our faculties and organs
is the education of nature. That of man
is the application We learn to make of
these very develOpings. And that of
things is the experience we acquire IN re-
gard TO the different objects by which
we are affected. All we have not at our
birth and all that We have acquired in
the years of our maturity shows the need
and effect of education. The power OF
education is shown in that it hath power
to give to children resources that will en-
dure as long as life endures, habits that
time will ameliorate but not destroy, in
that it renders sickness tolerable, sOli-
tude pleasant, age venerable, life more
dignified and useful, and death less terri
BILE Education may be right or wrong,
good or bad; rtason may grow strong in
error and revel in falstives. The heart
may grow in vice and the passion expand
into misrule. 1t has been wisely Ordain-
ed that light should have no color. water
no taste. and air no odor. So knowledge
should be equally pure and without ad-
mixture; if it comes to us through the
medium of prejudice it will be discolor-
ed. through the channels of custom it
will be adulterated, through the Gothic,
walls of the college or cloister it will
smell of the lamp. 1t is not what man
eats but what he digests that makes him
strong: not what he makes but what he
saves that makes him rich. So it is not
what man reads but what he remem-
bers that makes him learned.
We cannot be too careful to have our
education proceed in the right direction.
1t is almost as difficult to make man
unlearn his errors as to acquire his
knowledge. Error is more hopeless than
ignorance, for error is always the more
busy. Ignorance is a blank sheet on
, which We may write, but error is scri5-
bled one, from which we must first erase
| Ignorance is content to stand still and
not advance toward wisdom. but error
more presumptous proceeds in the con-
trary direction. Ignorance has no light
10 guide her, but error has . false one
The consequences are that error when
she retraces her footsteps has long way
to go before she is in as good condition
for acquiring truths as ignorance.
A right conception of the value and
power of wisdom is great incentive in
stimulating us TO proceed in the work of
| educating ourselves. 1t is knowledge
that has converted the world from des-
ert abode of savage men to the beautiful
home of civilization. Human knowledge
is permitted to approximate in some de-
gree and on certain occasions with that
of the Delty-its pure and primary
source. And this assimilation is never
more conspicuous than from evil it gath
ers its opposite good.
What at first sight appears TO be so un-
I IL