The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-17
NEWBERRY COMMENCEMENT
AN0CUER VERY sUCCESSEUI. SESSION
DRAWS TO A CLOSE
Intcresting Exercises Entertaining to At
tendants~-Much lnterest shown IN
tho cInstitntion~-Ab bio Ser,noua
ana hhdreesra

| Our report OF tho commencement on
cruises ended in Tuesday morning
paper with tho Junior oratorical con
test Monday night, and no moro crod
itAhlc exercises to both college ant
young mon have over been hold a.
throughout this commencement.
i.rrEEART ADDRESS.
The annual address before tho phro
nakoSmian and Excelsior Literary So
rir,ir$ was delivered on Tuesday morl
ing by Hon. W. n. Shcats, Supcrin
,ondcnt OF Public Instruction. OF Talla,
hasScc, Flr. MIR. Shcats Is u gcntlc.
man Of pleasing address and n typical
SoUthrrnrr. He has made success in
his public otlicc, and this brought ,o
bear upon the practical side Of his sub
lrrt the ripe eNpcr,cn y Of observation
and personal work.
His subject was The Aim and
Scope OF True Education" which he
stated primarially is development, ref
ormation and reorganization. New
ideals arc constantly springing into rx.
TO be rejected in another. All rduca-
tion is not the pure product Of the
schools. whose work is wonderfully
influenced by public sentiment. On
one point philosophers, all schools and
all times are agrcCd-thc trur aim of
education is the perfection Cf the indi.
vidual- and il is dcfrctivc wherein it
fails 10 reach in man the physical, in.
tcllCctual and moral.
Th" speaker discussed Mt soma length
the Grrcian and Roman theories of cd
uration. This was an interesting prc.
Scntation Of the methods employed by
the ancicnts and which pro;'urcd both
Il cultured and sturdy race. The Greek
Ideal produced man with soul: the
liomnn ideal was content to mould the
man OF action. He also showed the cf-
feet Of these educational methods upon
the lndividual, the family and the
State.
Passing on to consider the dawn of
Christian education, he showed how
man received Il great uplift and de-
clarcu that no complete or connected
history of the theory of education
would be perfect that failed to show
the revolution in ideas that had to be
undergone in order that the pagan sys-
tens, rs perfect as they were, might bc
adjusted TO the teaching of Christiani-
ty. lie cited the influence Of imthcr
and Mclanchthon upon the current of
educational thought us II notable in
stance in this regard.
The speaker then discussed the prac-
ticnl side of tho subjcct-thc ruling
spirit, the motive to action. If cduca-
tion produces the right kind of men
whose spirits are right no one need
nave any fear for the country. He
Thought that tho tendency of the
schools to be too superficial in their
work too great pandcring to the de-
mand Tor the so-cullcd practical cduca-
tion-attcmpting to teach too many
thlnSs TO get tho real cducative vp'uc
| i'm anything.
| Hc characterized rs false ideal the
attainment Of education IT'S Il means
which would facilitate ones efforts to
make money. He believed the inordi.
nate desire for gain and possession was
Inc ancl-Christ of the agc, causing more
crime, nnhappincss and hindcring moro
tho development Of noble manhood
than everything else besides. He re.
icrrcd to the Bible as containing more
sound philosophy and the better theoty
OF education than all other books con
bined, and quoted familiar passages in
reference to the love Of money. Hc
lclt 1T his duty to warn the young
against what seems to bc the alarming
trend OF public sentiment toward the
love or lucrc. The real element OF
greatness does not lie in the striving
Tor the accumulation of wealth. HC
showed how, in his Judgment. that
spirit pervadcs all the avenues and vo.
cations OF life today. He showed that
such spirit rendered to scliishness
the ambition to get "big rich" finds nc
place in divine philosophy. He i'm
pressed the Thought upon the minds O
his young friends that education enter.
into the affections, the motives, the as
plrations and forms the whole inner
llio and creates the guiding spirit o
man.