The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-12

they done to secure the perpetuity of
their happiness? They have resolutely
set themselves - the supremacy of the
task of perfectin. y national system of
education. Hithel 20 the measure of
their success, more especially in France
and Germany, may be taken as a very
gratifying demonstration of the wis
dom of state education
Utah may be congratulated on her
''Tabula rasa' in this matter. The
opening words of her declaration in the
tenth article of her constitution are as
wise as they are fruitful for the great
est good Of the whole state; and we
doubt not but that the future of Utah
Will wreath with honor the present
generation for so good a foundation Of
educational efficiency.
At the cost of scanning utilitarianism,
we affirm that the definite aim of high
er education should be a higher stand
ard of citizenship; efficient statesman
ship, cultured people in the happiness
of good government: a free people in
the enjoyment of the absolute rights
Of man in the cheerful rendering of the
relative duties of associated life; per
feet statehood of realistic manhood,
without let or hindrance from either
ancient or modern forms of tyranny.
So grand a resultant is attainable only
by loyalty to law, and the most fruitful
obedience to law can spring only from
an intelligent training in the principles
of the law.
We here use the term law to cover
the varying groups of natural forces
that act increasingly within and around
us-groups of forces, the physical, the
social, ethical and spiritual. Modern
states, at least most of those within
the limits of our western civilization
have quite settled the question that it
is alike the duty and the interest Of
states to provide for the best possible
attachments of educated citizenship. It
is not an empty boast to say that the
Americans have already reached very
gratifying results, but what has al
ready been done only serves to bright
en- future possibilities. 1t was dear to
Washington's heart that there should
be a national university of the very
highest order and efficiency by means
eff which civic culture should ripen into
abundant fruitfulness for the entire
nation, so that the sovereignty of the
people might rest upon the strength
and steadinesS of a well-trained SOW
ereign citizenship.
Whilst the growth of such a civic
1 culture is, or should be, the definite
! aim of a state education, the personal
value of the Individual character will
at the same time be q coordinate
/ GROWTH OF supreme SlSnl0Ca0ce. Inc
! state is a resultant from the individual
units, SO that the cultured power Of the
whole can be no greater or higher than
the cultured efficiency of the separate
units of which it is composed. This
very obvious truth is too often seri-
ously neglected or forgotten.
1t is apt to be lost sight of in the
home, in the classroom and in the lee
! ture-hall. The growing value of child
| study will do much to correct the fault,
as here we learn to appreciate the diff
Terminating capacities of the individ-
ual student. So that whilst the condi-
/ tions and necessities of public instruc-
ton enforce q common treatment and
uniform methods of procedure the very
best that can be done, should be done
/ to give distinctive aid and opportunity
to the development of individual char
acter.
There is battling mystery in for
1 tunes Wheel or in the secret ministry
OF the providence of heaven. There are
no data known to science from which
to predicate the advent of genius. 1t is
as it pleaseth the divine governments
that there is born to US an angel OF
| signal power--either to move deeply
the foundations of human emotion by
the poets song, or to break up and
scatter the accretions of vicious