New-York tribune., 1894-01-08
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
HIS DISCUSSION OF SLAVERY. EDUCATION
AND SUFFRAGE.

AND SUFFRAGE.
ORATIONs AND ADDRESSES OF GEORGE
WILLIAM CURTIS. Edited by Charles Eliot
Merton VOume On the PpnGpes apS the sea Dnes
of American Citizens; 1S5s-lssl PIP vil 4SS
Few who read this volume will agree with Mr.
Curtiss own verdict that his addresses were
really ephemeral" For now that they have been
brought together 1t IS manifest that they are the
result Of deep study of life He starts from
vantage point which he is conscious may pe
sailed rightly or not. the station of a recuse 1t
Is as a scholar that he speaks. and he knows tha'
the common notion about scholar Is that ne is
q dry and dusty pedant who pores over DOCKS
for the mere sake OF reading, and who absoros
learning without ever thought of giving ~ out
again. or OF making himself useful. lie COM
plains that this opinion was so fixed IN the mhos
pf many even Of scholars themselves. that they
aestated about allowing him to speak OF the man
Of learning in connection with the living topics
Of the day II might speak of him." said he in
his oration in 1856 before the literary societies or
WESLEYAN University, "as a professor, a dlaiecu-
clan. a dictionary a grammar but must not
sneak Of him as man" But ne holds that mere
learning however vast, Is subordinate 10 'he
performance of duty If 1T does not contribute
TO the performance Of that duty, II IL does not
increase the measure of duty, then 1t Is useless
To read books merely to know books Is 10 De as
a tree that bears fruit. The thinker does not
think for himself. nor hoard thought aS
,n,ser boards a diamond He thinks that he may
spend his thought upon the world mus the
scholar is not necessarily learned man IN the
s,ec,a, sonse Of the word but he must be wise
man. "If he be personally recluse. his voice
and Influence are never secluded. If the man be
n hermit his mind is citizen OF the worid.
Instead of being the absent-mnded pedant OF the
old play the gull of the knave. the Vcthm oil the
vcolding wife. able to read Greek, as MacauiaS
said with his feet the fender. put haruiy
practical enough to tie his own SHOES 'he Schoi'''
is rightly a public conscience in the STATE py
which public measures may be tested MOI 'hil
scholars fulfilled this ideal he 1eeis hiihseil
oh,eed N describe them as Sophocles described
mankind in general, rather as they ought 10 DC
Than as they are: but he is convinced that when
.ver men look for the typical scholar they VIII
choose always the man who comes nearest 70 'he
,deal which he sets up And on that occasion when
ho reallv had a message for a nation, though
he smoke only to a few hundred Students ne
turned aside for instant from MS purpose "
utter a criticism which Is a survey OF who're
field of English letters. Who is the scholar III
English history? Is 1t the pedantic schoomas'er
Roger Ascham? Is it careless, cumorous Den
Jonson borrowing his shilling. hghung MS
duel writing his plays and his stately verses anu
lighting up the Mermaid with his witty reveiry
is II Jeremy Taylor, whose written "isuo''i
breatbes like organ music through English ltera-
ture"? Is it George Herbert, whose life shone
with the beauty Of holiness? Is 1t the sad Swift
the versatile Addison, the keen Pope, or the
fastidous Gray noting when crocuses opened
and roses bloomed leaving one poem and the
record Of life as inoffensive that Of college
cat: or Bentley, or Porson, or Parr. who made
valuable notes on valuable Greek classics or
DR. Johnson gravely supporting an ar1stocratic
public policy, while he powerfully and patheu-
rally rebuked arstocratic private conduct? There
is one man. gentlemen I have not mentioned
Your hearts go before my tongue TO name hlm
Technical scholarship begins in a dictionary ana
ends in a grammar. The sublime scholarship or
John Milton began In literature ana ehoeu III
life"
II the speeches in this volume upon the Amer
tcan conflict between liberty and slavery DE
carefully studied. they will be found to be parts
Of one system of philosophy. Scattered as they
were In the matter of time. they are united. not
merely by the external forces of the age but
nv the fact that they are the logical evolution
~ one nrinciple Others had said that America |
could not continue haf-save and half-free.
Many thought Of the problem Of freedom and
bondage in the United States as IL 1T were
novelty something different from any question
that had ever arisen in any other country. But
TO Curtis from the moment he entered the dis
cussion. the struggle was obviously only chap
ter in the life of the race. The history OF the |
evolution Of liberty the history Of humanity |
and assured of this he remarked sententiousy |
IN the first Of the speeches in this volume that |
freedom always has its Thermopylae. and that |
the American scholars Thermopylae was called |
hoor h2Ck IN he
bitterness of 1885, AS he though. Of 1t, the War
of Independence and the War for the Destruc-
tion of Slavery were phases Of the same conflict |
The triumph Of the Southern slave power would |
not have been more dangerous to constitutional
liberty in America than the victory OF Great !
Britain would have been to constitutional liberty
everywhere. All wars are but battles in this
war Of man for universal liberty. No matter
what name is given TO any phase Of the con-
f'ict for the time being, no matter what the
party cries. matter what the differences in
banners. whatever in human nature is hopeful
generous aspiring-the love Of God and trust in
man-is arrayed on one side, the meaner pas
sions. the baser purpose, stand upon the other"
The preacher who apologzed for slavery was
fighting in the same cause with the Inqusitor
Torouemada The scientific who argued
pn ethnological grounds in behalf Of the en- !
slayement Of any race merely continuing |
the work begun by those who with cruel skill |
used the thumbscrew and the boots to frighten |
the mind from freedom" "On the other hand |
ne added in the lecture. THE Good Fight" be- |
longing to the year 1865. "the Greek Leonidas
choking the pass against the Persian torrent |
the italian Galileo holding fast his scientific |
faith in the teeth of the Church Of Rome. Robert
Small steering his bold boat under the guns |
of slavery straight toward the flag OF freedom. |
bor
are ALL In their times and countries. soldiers Of
the true cross. heroes and martyrs Of the Good |
Fight" The part assigned to the American
Union In this eternal conflict the total over
throw Of the spirit of caste. Here we have the |