Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1896-03-07

| IltiicCii tCdChcIs 10 AiV hot 10
often called the Great Teacher as
by any other name?
Iplace the teacher before the
lawyer and the doctor, because in
the nature of our civilization he
must precede them. Both must
obtain their fundamental as well as
professional knowledge from those
fitted to impart ii to them. The
statesmen, who in most cases is
also a lawyer, receives his first
lessons in the science of govern.
ment, i'm economics, in international
law, in the college halls; aud the
ripper knowledge that he acquires
in maturer years is influenced by
his early training.
Concerning mans political life
and religious life, shall say but
this-bo.h begin with the home
life and are influenced more or less
by school life, but the ultimate
opinions are seldom reached until
man has engaged in active life and
has reflected on conflicting state
ments, views and beliefs. There
may be some exceptions to this in
favor of religion, for there are
many instances where religious
life is closely identified with public
and private life fro m the earliest
years.
The influences that make the
home, school, political and relig-
ious life of a nation may be
summed up in the term, education.
Education in its broadcast sense
means more than school life. 1t
means all influences brought to
bear, physical or mental, which
forms the course in active life.
Our education is constantly
going on; we are either advancing
or retrograding. Every sentence
we hear. every action we witness,
every sensation we experience tends
to form our education. Viewing
the matter in this light we recog-
nize that our present civilization il
the result of the education of the
masses.
But should we be content to rest
here! To say that the few brief
statements which precede are the
only elements of our modern civili-
zation? No. 1t would not be in
keeping with the spirit OF invcsti-
CATION of tho nineteenth century.
We should not be conten, until we
have discovered the ultimate or
basic elements. In order to do this
it is necessary. to make short
depression. In studying the history
of civilized nations of the world,
we should not only study events.
but we should also try to find out
the relations of these events TO one
another, to draw inferences, to
generalize. If we do this we will
learn that the national characterize
tic of the Greeks was aesthetic indi
vidualism; of the Romans, practical
individualism; of the Teutonic or
Gernanic races, abstract individu.
alism. To elucidate,I / shall explain
these terms. The education, the
culture of the Greek was thor
oughly national. 1t gave to him
the consciousness that he was
free man subject only to the laws oi
the state and not to the caprice of
any one person, thereby he was
freed at once from the cespotic
unity of caste or family. The
Greek had an idea of the state
peculiar TO himself-that is, that it
existed only for the benefit of the
individual and it's existence; was
useful only in so far as il served
these ends.
The first requisite according to
the Greeks was the attainment of
beauty-beauty both physical and
intellectual. The former was
attained by their system of gym
nastics; the latter by the cultiva-
ton of the arts and by the grandest
system of philosophy ever
evolved. Although the Greeks
subordinated the state to the indi-
yidual by their peculiar national
life and national ideas so that II
fell an easy prey to Rome. yet by
their culture, their refinement, fig
uratively speaking, they re-
conquered their conquerors.
The Greek mind was so penetrat-
ing. so profound, it's ideals in art
and Literature are so ennobling, so.
elevatins, that ii has made an
indelible and lasting impression
on all the resulting thought and
ideas of the world, and even today
there are few-if any models that
surpass those given us by Greece
two thousand years ago. We see
the influence of Grecian philosophy
in all our present systems of logic,
ethics and metaphysics, in the
writings of the great Kant, Kegel
and Spencer, and in fact all of the
profound philosophy of the present
epoch.
The practical individualism of
Rome lie something of a contrast to
the aesthetic individualism of
Greece. The Roman idea was that
the individual existed for the state
and not the state for the individual.
He who was subject to the state
taIrs. rraA a.. tA-oafrl aud hr,flxr--a - Il