The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-07-06
FAREWELL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT
STANDISH.

0lAN NDlSus
Following is the farewell address
of President j. V. N. Standish to the
class of '95 at Lombard University.
1t proved also, we regret to say,
the farewell words of DIR. Standish as
President of the University. We lit
tie thought when it was spoken in the
Universalist church at Galesburg on
the first Sunday in June, that the
week would witness the retirement of
DIR. Standish from the presidency.
We have already referred to the event
as an unexpected turn in the affairs
of the institution, and a most unwel-
come one to many of its friends:
An old Grecian philosopher, being
asked the difference between the in
structed and the ignorant man. replied:
Send them forth into the world. desti-
tute and among strangers, and you will
soon perceive the difference" 1t has
been said that knowledge is power.
There is strength in wisdom and under
standing. The ignorant are like skiff
on a tempestuous sea without chart or
rudder. By the pillows OF fortune or
chance they are driven hither and thith-
or, and at last are wrecked on the shoals
and quicksands of base treachery and
deceit. They become the sport and pass
time Of idle mockery, and when the
shades of evening fall, the remembrance
of daily failures gives them no rest.
1t is not so with the instructed. With
their native powers trained and with
added strength that comes Of knowledge,
they become masters of themselves and
the situation. They are not the baubles
of condition or circumstance. Neither
fate nor chance has any power over
them. They use circumstances rather
than that circumstances should use
them. They comprehend their environ
ment and can accomplish the most sue
cessful achievements. Knowing the re-
alton of cause and effect, they are ena-
bled to march on, gaining the glorious
victories of life.
Oh, how noble thing is instruction!
How grand is education! How sublime
is wisdom! To know, to understand, is
the province of mortals. No attainment
is greater or better than good practical
education. 1t makes man more than
simply living being. 1t exalts and pu-
rifles his soul. 1t makes the wise and
good of all ages and all climes his fire.
side friends. To him Socrates. Plato,
Aristotle. Dante and Shakespeare are
not dead, but living, conscious, sentient
beings, teaching him, as of old. philoso-
ply and wisdom.
A good education can make a man
what he ought to be-what God intend
ed he should be. But bad education,
bad instruction, is the parent of bad
habits. Bad habits are letters upon the
mind. If race is to be run, they are
clogs to our feet. If battle is to be
fought, they are manacles to our hands.
1t is an unequal contest to fight for VIC
tory enervated and worn out by bad hab
its.
The school and college should be a
fountain of strength and wisdom. With.
in college walls true manhood and true
womanhood should be fashioned. Our
youth should resort to the college fully
assured of the benefits to be received by
the instruction there given.
1t cannot be doubted that much of the
glory and strength of our republican in
stitutions lies in our colleges. They are
the keystone of the arch that supports
our liberties and our inalienable rights.
But the American college is not yet per-
feet. 1t is doing much but it should do
more. Today there is tendency to su-
perfciality. Many things have been in
troduced into our colleges which distract
the attention of the pupil. He who has
studied the laws of the human mind,
knows full well how easily youth are
caught up and carried away. Games.
amusements and pastimes have their
seasons and their places, but carried to
excess they become the source Of much
evil. How, let me ask. can there be sound
scholarship when the mind is occupied
almost exclusively with college sports?
How much did the Roman Gladiator or
the Greek athlete think of classic litera-
ture? There is such thing as muscular
education, but muscular education. to
the neglect of the intellect and moral