Montgomery County sentinel., 1891-03-06
SELF-CULTURE.
An Address by ]. L. LODGE, d. D., deliv-
cred before public meeting Of Good Tenn
plars, at Gaithersburg, Maryland, on
February 10th, 1901.

reUruary lJtn, lool'
1t is proposed to speak to the two main
points in personal development and growth,
the intellectual and the moral. Preserva-
ton and cultivation of the physical powers
is worthy the best thought and skill for the
value of bodily soundness and strength as
means TO an end, even when leaving out of
the argument rational and religious pleas.
Mems sd1,G IN c0Tp0re san0 is the perfect ideal.
To pamper the body, satisfying its proper
or depraved desires, while dwarting or starv-
ing the mental faculties, sitting the protests
hourly becoming feebler is crime unpar
donable in rational beings. Those cases are
to be regretted, If not predestined, where the
preponderance and tervid activity of the
brain consumes, untimely, the weaker frame.
Yet if is necessitated a choice between
dead lion and live dog, the corpse is pref
cradle, as the evidence OF departed power,
of energy surceased not an animated monu-
ment OF senseless incapacity. Life has an
object, holy as heaven, higher than the stars
not to have recognized and known it is to
have been buried alive; is to have ascer-
tanned and adopted the brute level, and lost
time and eternity at one cast. So mutual
are the relations of men, so intimate their
connection along thousand lines, that pos
sessions have q fateful distribution, deter
mining selection of life-courses, effecting
consummation or catastrophe, that the prop.
agandist of principles, or the institutor of
an example bears immeasurable RESPONSE
blity. Spite of Addson's touching lines
deprecatory of early death, we would read
lily and gladly make choice of that, rather
than a useless or vicious longevity. 1t is
deemed better to have a starry ephemera,
glanclng lines of light through infinite
murky space, the while companion to a
thousand glistening worlds, than TO wear
shape of darkness fathomless, eternal. Phi
losophy, independent on revelation or faith,
proves purpose in creation. That service,
in some form, Is the final end OF being. In
termnable disputes, and philosophic-theo
logical systems about which wars OF words
have ragged, turned on the definition of the
word "happiness." Had it been understood
that aoelfdTe is that which the Creator has
planned, and in the direction of which in.
telligent and responsible agents are expected
TO act, the cause of controversy would have
been removed. On this, as on every other
question, men divide Most find it agree
able to follow Pope-if, indeed, they at all
understand HMM making Happiness our
beings end and aim, in which they under
stand Happiness" to mean pleasure seeking,
the qualification of the senses. 1t is enough
for them, if, as was said of Lord Erskine,
their digestion is perfect" They recoil
from study, because it is written that much
of it is "weariness to the flesh" Was it
not 1.-The malady of thought" which troubled
the great Staglrite till he died exclaiming
"F0etle mundu8s tatraot, Gnrius 0srt, perteT-
bdtuS m0ri0r-wretchedly | have gone
through the world, anxious l have lived,
disquieted dep But there be others who
find no sorrow in an increase of knowl-
edge who earnestly ask, with PLATE, only
in reverent and anxious frame, "What Is
Truth ?" whose painting spirits never can
know rest and peace till they have found
and followed Right. Because of sure and
secret guidance theirs is a situation of GER
tain safety. Much that denies every ee-
ment of what constitutes the object OF all
human striving, and con:radicts its hope, is
efficient in procuring the priceless but un.
known. Variant planes OF service are pro-
vided and arranged for orders with natures
and endowments adapted to occupy them.
Gradations in humanity exemplify the rule.
But these are measurably voluntary rather
than arbitrary. Just where the decretal
ends and the permissive begins, ratiocina-
ton Is warned not to attempt TO spy Judg-
ment is assured and complacency attained
through results consequent upon the seizure
of possibilities manifestly within our reach.
These help to teach duty of every kind and
enforce none more than the duty OF lifting
for the highest planes of human conception
and activity. The preparation lies in edu
cation. Education is a necessity that the
necessity of education may be realized.
The stolid contentment of multitudes up
on whom ignorance has settled down like
Erebus the dwarfed aspirations OF many
who have proceeded little way beyond
the borders of darkness denser than the
Egyptian; the extreme difficulty Of detach-
ing occasional examples from the worship
OF dumb idols the failure, in numerous IN
stances, to promote more than galvanlc, or,
at the best, spasmodic, Intermittent action OF
the benumbed mental faculties, is sad and
too abundant proof.
Education sustains injury at the hands of
its advocates in two ways First, by limlta-
ton II was "a decided advance when popular
prejudice was sufficiently overcome 10 per
nit "a trial of the public school system. That
it is not perfect, that it is only in aqualified
sense that a partial education can be ac-
quired in such a school is readily admitted /;
but that useful acquaintance with text books
of limited scope may be made-whlch is all
the masses mean by y"education"-is equally
true. For this reason it is deprecable that
the utilitarian idea so generally possesses
their patrons and pupils. viii it pay? is
the question in the mind and on the
tongue of both If a knowledge of the ele-
in business, to tighten labor, or increase
pecuniary reward, the answer is affirmative.
Precisely as farmer buys high priced ma
chinery because certain that IL will do more
and better work. Broader views will probably
come with the steady increase of lovers of
liberal culture for its own sake; when sen.
timent will gradually displace cold calcula
tion, and material benefits yield in estima
ton the highest rank TO the contemplatiye
| To IN
qure patience. A very bright boy recently
put this question: "But, father, il / am to
be only mechanic why expend so much
money upon my education?" The eyes OF
the son are yet holden but wisdom dwells
with that parent. He remembers Elihu
Burritt, the learned blacksmith, and con.
sidered the pregnancy of the time with OPP
portunities and incentives to turn the smithy
into seat OF power. A recent political
revolution, which an astonished country has
not yet recovered sufficient equanimty 10
measure, is a timely and emphatic commen
| tary upon such foresight. A powerful class,
docile, patient, and enduring beyond the
limits prudence sets, have suffered them
selves to he duped, imposed upon, and al
most trodden into the dust by organic ID
tricksters, trimmers, demagogues and money
kings, till like an army of avengers spring
! ing from their native soil they confront and
terrify their betrayers. AS the indicated
legislators Of the future, tillers Of the soil
will need the most extensive learning, in all
its brauches and we shall, perhaps, hear
less Of the trite, unreasoning apology, that
80 read, write, and cipher" is enough "edu
cation" for farmer.
False theories, erroneous systems, perni-
cious practices, grow out of the confusion OF
words. What is education The object off ag
Ticulture as relates TO matter lie the same as
that of education as relates to mind. In both
cases the elements are at hand upon which
cultivation is " act Both are nearly use
| less in their virgin or embryonic state. To
dig pits throughout the fields and therein
plentifully to cast seed could give no hope
| of growth and harvest; simply to I'LL the
the mind with collated fragments OF infor-
nation, to load the memory with facts, iso-
lated, or strung on chains labeled with the
science or department TO which they belong,
/ c,r iaa ht1t 10 a W H.