The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-06-27
THE ADDRESS OF
MR.. t. A, SMOOT

In the inter collegiate debate at More.
head City Mr. T. A Smoot, of Trinity col
lege, spoke in the negative. The question
was, "Resolved, That Characters Make
Great Events, and That Events Do Not
Make Great Characters Mr.. Smoot
won second place in the debate The
following is the programme:
According to the best philosophic rea-
soning and according TO the best biblical
teaching, there is design in the universe.
To say the planetary systems, with all
their complexity of movement, are
stretched out through the immensity of
space without design or purpose, is un-
reasonable, and the best systems of phi
losOphy do not recognize such theory.
Mind controls matter, dualism and motin-
alism to the contrary Notwithstanding.
This being SO, God controls our little
planet, and is the s1aper of the destinies
of men. La justice to God, then, we must
say that he throws about men such cir
cumstances as shall enable them to be
good and useful.
This does not interfere with freedom
of will and action. A great man wills to
do things which he cannot do-God lets
a man will what he chooses; doing is
| different thing. 1t seems strange to hear
men say that one weak human being can
successfully combat the irresistible tide
of circumstances that has been sweeping
down the track of the centuries, that he
can turn this tide, deaden the moral, in.
| tellectual and spiritual forces that have
| been conveying for ages to one point,
that he can turn all these to naught and
make his own circumstances. A man
may have potential for greatness, but he
is not great till he accomplishes some
thing. A heap of coal contains the po-
tential for heat, steam and light. But is
it any of these? No. yet under proper
conditions it becomes a and drives the
locomotive, heats our furnaces and gives
US light.
Every great man is the product of his
times. Parallel rays Of light passing
though a convex lens are reflected and
focused at point. Sc lines of thought,
passing through generations of many
men, are focused in one man as in the
lens Every man possesses some great
ness; but the reason he is not a truly
| great man is because lie receives only one
line of thought
Our country now contains great men
who are unknown, because circumstan
cas have not drawn out that greatness.
The inventor is decidedly a man Of
circumstances No great invention was
even made unless pressing need and cir
cumstances drew tt forth. Edison s
great inventions in electricity were
based upon the invention of the tele-
graph by Morse, and upon the discover
les of Franklin, Faraday, Sir VIM Thorn
son and a host of other ilustrious scien-
fists.
As warrior, Napoleon was a man of
circumstances. His island home was the
scene of war before his birth. The first
stories he had from his mother were of
war. At an early age he went to France
10 study war as profession. His talents
were great, but where would his name
be today had there been no Ney, no Nc
Donald, no Massena: None of that list
of brilliant geniuses whom he gathered
equal 10 his : They were great in c0un
sci as we'll as in war
1t was Ney who begged him not to
make the Russian campaign, but it was
Ney who covered the retreat and saved q
remnant of the grand army from annihi.
lation; and it was Ney who led the I'm
perial Guard at Waterloo and flung over
the sinking star Of the doomed emperor
a halo of glory and splendor.
With al reverence for the names oi
Lee and Jackson. they could not have
been great had they lived in any other
time than the period of civil war.
II was your brothers, your fathers
your countrymen that made the Shenan
doah forever famous and gave Jackson
his great name; 1t was the same soldiers
that stormed the heights of Gettysburg
and threw the mantle of greatpess ovel
Lee.
History tells of a Russian army before
the trenches of Sweidnitz \ ditch mus
be crossed, but there is no bridge ovel
which TO pass the van of the army rusl
madly into it and suffer their comrades