The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-15
MISSION Of CULTURE
A Splendid Address at Shaw
! University.
\ "
BY REN. DR.. WHITMAN
THE COMMENCEMENT EXERCls-
Els YESTERDAY.
WERE THIRFy-ONE GRADUATES
) -.
The Exercises Were of Very High
Order and Most interesting
Character Condition of
the institution
WERE THIRFv-oNE GRADUATES


ina. and perhaps never in Raleigh, has
there been a better commencement ad-
dress made than was that delivered at
Shaw University yesterday by Rev. Is.
j.. Whitman. d. d.. president of Column
bia University, Washington, d. G. 1t
was truly masterpiece--in conception,
in thought in delivery.
For more than an hour the people lis
tened to him and then went away COM
planning that they had not had half
enough.
him, Dr. Whitman possesses the rarest
combination God ever vouchsafed to man.
He lis a big mana great big jolly boy
with big brain and a powerful mind.
In appearance he is a great overgrown,
gawky boy, but his words bespeak the
man of wide experience, deep thoughts
and mature study.
His Sentences were the very essence OF
a life of culture, study and experience;
forflhe spoke in epigram-epigrams that
faSded and sparkled like diamonds But
with them they always carried truth and
CONVICTION, though they often started the
lEarer with their very holiness.
E"The Mission of Culture" was the sub
feet of DR.. Whitman's address. He be-
gan by inquiring into the true meaning
of the word culture. Matthew Arnold,
he said, had defined culture as knowl-
edge of the best that had been thought
and said in the world. DR.. Whitman
AL - 10 10 To-
fine it as the possession of the best things
that had been thought and said in the
world. and the use Of those things for the
worlds good.
While civilization and culture had made
great progress, he said, yet we have still
to speak Of the educated class. The
number who can read is to-day greater
than eyer before in proportion to popu-
lation, but still there is the densest igno-
rapce,ain the world.
In discussing this question of culture
the speaker divided it into several heads:
]. The Conditions Of Culture.
j. The first of these conditions Is the
tfee Of Notwithstanding good from
evil. Nature is a stern mistress but a
kind friend When once man has learn
ed to master Nature he finds that he has
On his service the best of servants and
he most powerful. Study Nature. know
Der laws. for by them men must live.
2. Social development. 1t is not well
s*efor man to live alone. Man is a social
eanimal. Early in creation he became a
gregarious animal. The seas have been
turned into highways that he may visit
and pay visits. The railroad and steam
boats have made him cosmopolitan, and
now electricity is about to make him
ubiquitous. No man is born unto HIM
self or for himself.
8. The discovery of the spiritual. Man
cannot stop with the social. 1T does not
satisfy. His loves and aspirations go
deeper and reach higher. He wants
something better. Science in the main is
true, so far as fact is concerned, but there
is point where science goes Out-a
point beyond which it cannot go. Sci
ence deals with facts. but the work of
the world has been done by men who
have been strangely bound up with an
other world Nations have failed when
they have lost faith in God. Men are
brave because they have faith. But spir-
ituaI does not mean the eccle-
aastical. The ecclesiastical is only an
expression Of the spiritual and
may be dead Art and SCIENCE and poetry
are three parts spiritual. They bring us
a message out of the past leading US to
a completer knowledge, a higher hope, a
better life. The ages have been carry
ing out the divine process.
II. The Domain Of Culture
Here we have to seek for the ends and
aims Of culture Nothing in the past is
dead to the man who would understand
the present. We are heirs of all the ages.
But to follow custom simply because it
is custom is ignorance grown old. Our
relation to the past will be determined
either by evolution or revolution. We
are ever in danger Of being upset because
of lack of breadth Of foundation. This
lis an age gone wild with specialties.
But the part Of culture is not speciality.
The cultured man is big every way; he's
right side up every time. He fits all
holes. This applies to social life as well.
The one universal language is sympathy.
The man who fails to enter into the
experience Of his fellows has simply
forgotten the history Of the past.
The time was when knowledge was
hedged about by mystery. That is no
longer true. knowledge is now free. 1t
is open on all sides. Libraries and labor
atories are at every turn of the street.
line uOLldlu VI huOWICOSC 40 % OAOAu
as earth itself and high as heaven.
The first and great condition for a
school is not equipment, but motives and
men. 1t is to the blind man quite as
much as to the poet that we owe "Par-
adise Lost" Equipment is great help.
But wise educational methods follow the
methods Of nature. Mechanical methods
should be avoided as far as possible.
There are different ways OF getting
things into peoples heads. Truth is with
in ourselves. To know rather consists in
opening a way out for the mental power
rather than letting in the light Obedi'
ence is no less a way to the attainment,
of knowledge than it is Of training the
body.
Colleges are manufactures Of power
and they take advantage Of all the pow
ers and instruments the world knows
Art and athletic and science will some
day be closely correlated and books viii
be written ON the educational value OF
the railroads in bringing people together
III. Products of Culture.
One Of these products, perhaps the
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