The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-06-30
FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATION.
HESRF CABOT LODGES ADDRESS AT
 CAMBRIDGE.
Dangers of Liberal Edueation-fressins
 Problems to Be Solved in This Country,

Dangers of Libsrai Edueation-Pressing
 Problems to Be Solved in This Country,
 Cambridge, Mass, June 2o.-ln his ad sress before Phi Kappa society yHster- lay Senator usnry Cabot Lodge said;
 "Thv great function of Il liberal edu- Sation is to ilL a man for the life about aim md to prepare him, whatever pro- ,ession or puIrlt he may Follow, to be 3 useful citizen Of the country which ksyc him birth. This Is of vast inpor- lance in any country; but In the United Btatcs it is of peculiar moment, because here every man has imposed upon him the duties of sovereignty, and In proportion to his capacity and his op- porninIres are the responsibilities of Il,at sovereignty. If n man Is not n good citizen 1t boots little whether he is n learned Grecian or n sound Latlnist. If he is out of sympathy with his country, his people and his time, the last refine mont, and the highest accomplishments are of slight moment. It Is of the last Importance that every man, and cspec- ially every educated man, in the United States, no matter what his profession or business. should be in sympathy with his country, with its historyin the past, its needs in the present, and its aSpira- tions for the future. If he has this all The rest will follow, and it is precisely at This point that there seems to be real danger in our university life and in our liberal education. The peril moreover, IS none the less real because the wrong Influence is subtle.
 "The danger of the higher education of n great university is that it may in widening the horizon destroy the sense of proportion so far as our own country is concerned. The teachings of uni versity open to us the literature, the art, the science, the learning and the history of all other nations. They would be quite worthless if they did not do so. These teachings form, and nec- essarily form, the great mass of all that we study here. That which relates to our own country is inevitably only small part, comparatively speaking of the great whole. This is quite nat Gral. Our own nation is compara- lively new. Its history is not long and it is not set off by the glitter of u Our literature is young. Our art is just developing. In the broad sweep of a liberal education, that which relates to the United States is but one of many parts. Hence there is tendency to lose the sense of proportion, to under rate our own place in the history and life of the world, and to forget that knowledge of our own country, while it excludes nothing else, is, nevertheless, more important to each of us than that of all other countries, if we mean to play man's part in life. There is no danger that literally educated men will overvalue their own country; there is great danger that they will undervalue it.n
 In closing MT. Lodge said: 'The time in which we live is full of questions of the deepest moment. There has been during the century now ending the greatest material development ever seen, greater than that of all preceding centuries together. The condition of the average man has been raised higher than ever before, and wealth has been piled up beyond the widest fancy of romance. We have built up a vast social and industrial system, and have carried civilization to the highest point it has ever touched. That system and that civilization are on trial. Grave doubts and perils beset them. The economic theories of fifty years ago stand helpless and decrepit in their immobility before the social questions which face us to- day. Everywhere to-day there is an DminOus spirit of unrest. Everywhere there is a feeling that everything is not well, when wealth abounds and, none the less, dire poverty ranges by its side, when the land is not fully populated and yet the number of the unemployed reaches to the millions.
 ''I am sure that if these great social problems can be solved anywhere they can be solved here in the United States. But the solution will tax to the utmost all the wisdom and courage and learn- ing that the country can provide. What part are our universities, with their lib- eral education, to pay in the history that is now making and is still to be written? They are the crown and glory of our civilization, but they can readily be set aside if they fall out of sympathy with the vast movements about them. ] do not say whether they should seek to resist, or to sustain, or to guide and control those movements. But if they would not dry up and wither they must at least understand them.n