The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-05-29
CHARACTER AND HIGHER EDUCATION


was the title of the learned
and practical address delivered by Presi.
dent Andrews, of Brown University
here Wednesday morning. He began
by declaring that Originally education
aimed not less at moral character than
mental attainment" Despite very
much apathy, interest in education was
declared to be the leading phenomena of
our age, not less than $400,000,0OO being
annually expended in the United States
for educational purposes. The results of
education have not been proportionately
good in the centres Of eongested wealth
! though the shortcomings are not so appa-
| rent in North Carolina ut takes more
money and more work than formerly to
| build given volume of intellectual struc-
ture." The intellectual difficulty has its
root quite largely in Il moral one "The
mind will not do its best unless the soul
is animated by high and right ideals. "
Education must not be eccentric. "You
| can build the moral and religions in man
till man proper, man IDEAL is present no
longer. This mistake has actually
characterized all those systems of edu-
cation which have been constructed on
the basis of pietism, like that of
Francke and that of the Brethren of
the Common Life, as well as many
schools in America which have been
founded and carried on pro Christie ct
ecclesia in too narrow Il sense. Instead
of perfecting the pupil as man, they have
made him religious monster" The
point was emphasized that to slight the
ethical in education will yield an even
more distorted result than to build the
ethical alone
There are three phases of short-coming,
according as education assumes an inn
moral, non-moral, or Il false moral char
acter of learning. He named them:
/. Mercnariness.
2. Mere intellectually
3. Perverted morality.
Under the first head it was declared
that lit is the love of wealth that is the
root of all sorts of evil: wealth itself is
a root of all sorts Of good" Seeing this
young men flock to college with the pecu-
MARY value of education in their eye
1t was pointed out that goodness is Il
denizen of the rational world, on terms
of intimacy with that entire community
Make acquaintance with the other mem
bers; they will introduce you to her; and
it is pretty certain that, meeting you in
such helpful society, she will have the
power to lead you to that moral cultiva-
ton of soul, than which," says Plato,
there neither is nor can be- anything
more precious in the sight Of gods or
men,"
Now what do we see?
'"Ihe horseman serves the horse,
The neat-herd serves the neat,
The merchant serves the purse,
The eater serves the meat;
IT'S the day Of the chattel
Web to weave, corn to grind,
Things are in the saddle
And ride mankind
ALIAS, they ride so-called educated
mankind almost as hard as they do the
rest Hosts of men who have enjoyed
in college the highest educational privi-
leges, are devoting the powers thence de-
rived to the amassing of money as an
end; the keenest minds. the most ample
intellectual stores in servitude to the al
mighty dollar
While the pursuit Of wealth is to be
commended, that quest of gold wherein
all thought Of mans best and highest in
terests is lost was condemned. Some
men actually declare their only desire
for an education is ito get rich with"
Current higher education should eradi-
cate this degrading idea Of education,
which sends men to college as they
would go to a mill, merely to collect or
manufacture wares for the world to- buy.
They should be inspired with Il higher
view Of education than this, 'as tear
ing off, a melting away of the souls cold
and opaque crust, that the fires of heaven
may permeate it and heat it to incandes-
cence: as an almighty self-assertion and
uprising on the part OF the soul, wherein
she is to swell high and large, beyond
even the celestial spaces, and become
conscious Of the divinity that is within
her." Any lower view of education that
values the spirit Of man merely as an in
strument for furthering ends lying out
side itself, was declared TO be mercenary
and will prove immoral. 1t was CON
trasted with that sweet prayer of So
crates at the end Of Plato's Phaedrus:
20, beloved Pan, and all We other gods
that inhabit in this place; grant unto
me to become beautiful in the inner man;
and may whatever external fortunes |
do possess be at peace with those with
in. May | esteem the wise man rich, and
may / possess only such measure Of gold
as Il wise man can Mt once bear and use.
The new curriculum in education,
which calls for an unprecedented amount
Of education in the sciences, compares
unfavorably with the old in offering to
the earnest teacher fewer points of facile
moral observation and improvement.
Along this line DIR. Andrews declared:
"Plato's Critic, for single reading,
braced me morally more than anything
else | ever read, not excepting the New
Testament"
The speaker divided instruction into
two kinds, one merely imparting informa-
ton, the other which awakens, arouses,
and sets on fire the pupil, yea. burns him
up and creates him anew. "The one kind
| cOnceiveS the Dupil MS n racpntacle and