The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1901-06-21
TWICE A WEEK, $1.5O A YEAR

sary, especially in mathematics, to
obtain the diploma. Thon tho unxi1ty
on tho part of tho young to ontcr
upon the ;rona of lifo is SO groat,
coupled with necessities imposed by
poverty and othor adverse conditions,
these students drop by the waysidc,
and graduating class of thirty out
Of iifty-four is Il record that havo
ncvor hoard cquullol III South Caro-
lima, and | doubt if it has ever boon
cquallcd anywhere clso.
| asked you Il momont ago how
much preparation, or rather what
success would go with tho owner
ship Of Il diploma, and said it de-
pondod Oh you. How much do you
know l believe wo should usk, how
much don't you know, or how much
is thoro you do not know. My own
oXpcrionco III Il student taught mo
this, that tho object OF education, tho
primary purpose Of it is TO train tho
mind, to strengthen tho reasoning
power, to bring about Il condition of
mental development that will enable
tho student to reason clearly and to
dltrorcntiato hotwcon truth and false.
hood, to discover for yourselves what
IS right and what is wrong. Aside
from tho usual amount of mathema-
tics or arithmetic involved in tho
ordinary affairs Of life, aside from
tho amount Of knowledge Of English
necessary to read and wrtc an intel
ligont lcttcr, aside from fow fun
damontal facts in sciorco and physics.
tho average man or woman who docs
not follow up tho investigation
further after thoy leave college,, in Il
year, or two or thrco or iivo years,
you become unablo to separate tho
college graduates from those who
mover won't to college at all. You
are not ablo to diIiorcntiato botwoon
tho graduate and man who mover
went into a college at all. Tho learn
ing, tho book learning, or that part
Of tho curriculum which has boon fol-
lowed and which has not boon usod
afterwards, soon grows rusty, soon
becomes encrusted with forgotfulncss.
Tho boy loses that that he does not
continue to uso. But tho mind has
boen trained, tho drill Of tho reason
ing power has boon such that thore
is II growth, and tho young man may
continue to grow and expand ifthore
is honlthy effort along rational lines
to improve tho understanding. But
L havo known college graduates who
after they loft school folt that they
were finished. 1t had been hard and
they had had desperate struggle to
win thoir diplomas and felt that tho
timo had como for fun and frolic.
Sad to say, that it is often tho case.
Tho majority drop back into tho orli.
nary ovory. day life and loso that grasp
upon those tools with which they have
boon furnished by thoir training. They
drop the tools. As somo wiso man
in tho past declared that tho child
is tho father to tho man, SO the
student is either tho father Of tho
man who will make his mark in
the world or he drops back among
tho children who havo mover
boon students. Why, thoso young
mon and women arc just prepared
to begin tho study of anything
which they have boon studying l
say this advisodly, and | say it from
my own experience. l WIS as good
latin scholar Of my ago as you
can find in tho State, and today with
the exception Of very dim outline
Of tho principles Of the language and
knowledge Of somo Of tho words
which havo stuck, 1 could not con
struo an ordinary Latin sentonco.
And you will loso your Latin and
Greek and Mathematics, you Will lose
all that you have spont these years
to acquire, but your education will
not have been failure because the
primary purpose Of education is to
tr"2 tho reasoning powers, to have
tho mind grow from working, Just
as tho muscles. Tho idoa which
hloll w iilPlc'o upon you hll-- CHcl'o
young mon who arc graduating and
those who havo not yot graduated
and those who aro in college but
will mover bo graduates, and those
who will never bo in collogo--.ls that
tho human mind is u very wonderful
machine and that tho human soul
with which it is intcrlinked and inter
laced, which is it's soat-that tho two
must be cultivated and grow together
if we arc to have the highest dovel-
opmont and to have that success il,
life which it is tho ambition Of every
right thinking young man or old man
or young woman or old woman.
Wo como into tho world wo know
not whence and without boing con
suited. We sojonrn hero for a period
moro or less brief, within tho limita.
ton Of century or theroabouts, the
average much less than seventy
years, and wo 90 out of it without
being consulted. Nobody asks ue
when we aro ready, nobody inquiries