The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-07-02
THE AMERICAN STUDENT.
HIS SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES: OVER ALI
OTHER STUDENTS.

HIS SUPP RIoR ADVANTAGES: OVER ALL
OTHER STUDENTS.
Address by John II. Miller, Esq, OF
Selma, Ala, at the commencement
in the Greenwood Female College,
June Is. 1890.
The position of the American Student in
the sphere of intellectual workers In unique.
Interesting and important. II Is totally dis.
tinct from That OF the European, In politics,
In religion. In literature and in art. From
his political eminence he overiooks century
of vigorous national life; q century filled
with the crowning triumphs ofdefended ioer.
ties and OF inyiolate laws.
Beneath these political institutions Is that
moral, conservative basis laid by those purl.
tan pioneers who first saw the sunlight from
our mountain tops MS they shou ldered their
glistenlng blades 10 march into the rich depths
OF unexplored forests. No tale from the
splendor the abiding results OF American
energies for the past three centuries They
seem moore dream-like than real. Some
fateful enchantress seems to have held undis-
puted dominion over the destinies Of our
national existence. This whole continent
| resting firmly between It's great mountainous
arms Of the East and the West seems but the
In all human annals. Our government is
| firm, our nationality Is healthy and our lit.
| rature Is enviable.
| Educational institutions with fabulous en-
dowments are sprnging to their feet. 1t is
but a truism for me to say that every Ameri.
can child should be fitted by his parents with
suitable intellectual training that he may be
qualified for The proper performance OF the
ship. Lord Bacon says, "Custom is most per-
feet when 1t beginneth In young years." This
we call education, which is in effect, but an
early custom The holy grandeur Of yirtu L.
the grinding tyranny of evil ones. The heavy
framework OF habit, fastened upon US by our
early training, Is worn the rest OF our days
Hercules can't remove II. Parental indffer
the young Is not only criminal fnhdelity tr
the present but It's restricting influence Will
be felt to the remotest generations OF men
Where there Is life, there Is strife, and the:law
prevails from the brute creation upward
that "The weaker goes to the wall
have intellectual armor. Histories
make men wise: poets witty: mathematics
subtle: nutural philosophy deep: mora
philosophy grave: logic and rhetoric able te
Living as we do under the refining influen
ces OF great civilization we venture nothing
at all when we say that every young man
who desires an education can get It. He can
look either TO bis parents or to his friends
and If these supports are gone, then support
WouId you ap i've si for possterItyq Thsn in the
language OF great modern writer "Deter
mine 10 live wisely and truly for your owr
age, whereby If the native force he in you, yor
of growth is the irue spirit OF all true life
It runs through all poetry and through al
prose
81 hold IT, truth with him who sings
To one clear harp In divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping stones,
OF their dead selves to higher things"
We proceed upon this anXiom, that intelli
gence is the common condition OF all thos
who determinately desire to have IT, / thini
can safely say that the first two questions
that face every Intelligent young man ms ht
looks out upon life are, what am =? ant
what am to do? Until we know ourselves
we can never know what we can do. Tht
very moment that we master ourselves tina
moment we arc ready to begin to remove bar
riers and to accomplish possibilities. Th
measurements OF possible llfe-work includ
not only the strong agencies which our bod
i les and our minds furnish us, but also al
those immeasurable conditions of growth
which result from all the advancement OF th
past.
Every American youth is rich. rich II
that which he inherits, and richer still II
character receives its impress not from ou
natural, physical environments. but also
from the welded worth OF the Roman. tn
BrIton, the Saxon and the Norman. Eacl
u
branch OF. the noble Caucasian race, rae
that bears the stamp Of supremacy on its ma
ture.
Each one of these four nations has left ar
indeible image Of Itself 10 all posterity in th,
monumental strength of the present British
empire. 1t Is from this fourfoId source thai
the well-balanced Englishman draws his COO
courage, his tameless spirit, his wise counSe
and his chiyalrous conduct: qualities thai
make men, men who rule in thought and
action; Men who Gun meet the most crucia
emergencies of life, from those emergencie.
which require the steeled nature OF the mailed
warrior to those which demand the profount
attachments Of the strongest intellects. II
these qualities England owes all that gener
alions OF poets, orators and statesmen have
made her. They have made the name o
England" q name to charm with. They
sanctiy the historic dust held by the costly
caskets of Westminster Abbey.
Those properties Of head and heart which
gives to English history its fadeless, lustel
; strength to our own soil. This presence !!
altested by every field and forensic struggle
in American annals from the cradle days o
the Republic 10 this her time of giant man
hood. But he Is poor indeed who trusts alone
to that which ancestry gives. That mar
hardly deserves the space that he fills on The
globe who simply sets the names of his deaC
ancestors to music and sings himself into ex
hero who will wear withered chaplets. 1--WE
have Abraham To our father" Is a vain and
futile plea when 1t is the only plea that car
he made. If those energies which spring
from the center Of the soul, and which, In
their strenuous reaching and thirsty asplra
tions, terrlfy competition and assume the
nature of destiny, If these energies are want
Ing. a youthful life may possess the -, en- m
without the royal promise OF that divine
symbol. or all the ten thousand truth.freight
ed maxims that float in the air, no one o
them is more rehy Won t5an on f6as
Some one aSke ed Napoleon about his father
and that greatest captain OF modern times
replied: ~ am, the Rudolf OF Hapshurg o.
The life of the brilliant Corsican may not
be the best type OF manhood, yet there arc
elements of bis colossal character worthy the
imitation OF every youth: HIS liIe may NJ 3 ,ds 0e
of whom Nathaniel Hawthorne speaks, who
becoming entangled in the sea.weeds perish
ed In the very presence OF the prizes ne Sc
Europe beats faster from the fact OF Napo'
Icons lte But whatever your country gives
you In the way Of ancestry 1t amounts to 1T
| lie unless you avail yourself OF other advan'
trS stands before you with both hands, full
OF gifts In addition to this rich. untainted
ancestral heritage she offers to you her
II is valuable to us not only because y Is
history, but because 1t is our history. 1t is
not the record of kingly tyranny.
| Repeat the roll of our Pesidents and point
| 10 q single tyrant's name. Some OF their
names we scarcely feel like writing except II
be with q sunbeam.
The purest stone ever cut from an Italian
quarry would tarnish some of their names
We have raised monuments to some them
which almost hathe their massive foreheads
in the soft light where their spirits dwell
How wisely was 1t said that monuments
mark and make the history of q people. But
all the pencilllngs and chlSellings or genius
cannot perpetuate virtue. Virtue Is selfper
| but these pencillings and carvings can express
q nations gratitude. History is the material
out of which are wrought stepping. stones fol
the present. 1t has Its ominous warnings as
we'll as It's cheering incentives. American