Evening journal., 1903-06-17
DELAWARE'S GRADUATES
READY FOR LIFE WORK
GET THEIR DEGREES

ster, b. A., 1898; George McIntire, y.
A., 1896: Edwin Compton Reybold, Jr.,
b. A, 1896.
For the degree Of civil engineer
Everett Broomall Wilson, b. G. f.,
1894.
For the degree of mechanical engi-
neer-Harold Green, b. NJ. f., 1899.
The Prize Winners.
The awarding of the prizes was an
interesting feature of the day. The
winners were as follows:
Crawford Literary Prizes-First, S25,
Henry Evans Kimball; second, SIS;
Robert b. Frazier, Jr.; third, So
Perry r. Roberts.
Bishop Colemans Prize, SOS, Will
liam Pepper Constable.
Military prize, S25-Eugene Rey-
bold.
After few Introductory remarks in
favor of the smaller colleges, General
Wilson spoke as follows:
Mr.. President Ladies and Gentle
men: In consenting to address you
upon this occasion, / have assumed an
obligation which I shall badly dis
charge if / do not speak frankly. In
common with the rest of you, feel
every agency by which education is
obtained and disseminated among the
pc PIE The subject is as broad as
humanity itself, and of course cannot
be properly treated in a single dis
course, and still less can it be properly
treated in one limited to twenty or
thirty minutes. l must therefore not
only limit the range of my observa-
tions, but speak rapidly and to the
point.
Education is mental and moral train
ing, the acquisition of knowledge and
the cultivation of the mind, manners
and feelings. In a broad sense it COM
prehends all that disciplines and en-
lightens the understanding, develops
the tastes. forms the manners and
strengthens the judgment. In a mar
rover sense it is whatever stimulates
and holds the attention of ones think
ing machinery.
A Continuous Process.
It has been well said that education Is
after all largely a matter of method
and classification. We must learn first
how to do things, and second, what
things are. Doctor Holmes, when ask
ed when the child's education should
begin, said with its grandmother"
which Is merely n way of declaring
that we should transmit our aptitudes
and our strength of mind and body un-
impaired to our offspring. The secret
of doing this will be found i'm living
sound. healthy and moderate lives, in
accordance with the best experience of
those who have gone before us. But
this, important as it is, is not enough.
The aptitudes and faculties must
themselves be developed and drawn out
through the multifarious means which
the family and society have found to
beabest adapted to that end. The task
even i'm it's simplest form is a compl-
Gated one, for it must not be forgotten
that education is an ever recurring
function. No human being is born
with a fully developed or educated
mind; neither knowledge, manners,
tastes nor judgment are transmissible
from father to son. Aptitudes and ten
denotes only come by inheritance; all
the rest must be acquired through the
means of what we call education, and
this must necessarily be done over
and over again, from parent to child,
I from teacher to student, from genera
ton to generation. But this is not all.
Through the defects of memory every
individual must also do his work over
and over again, so that in most cases
we reach middle age before we fully
complete our life equipment The man
who spends his time profitably and is
properly endowed with application and
memory, will like the higher class OF
Chinese scholars carry on the educa-
tional processes so long as health and
strength are spared him, but the diff
culties, even under the most favorable
conditions, are very great and very
discouraging. If we could only hold
fast to what we learn from time to
time. and call il up for use whenever
it is required, we should certainly be
far wiser than we are. Obviously if
! knowledge, however gained, could be
passed on undiminished to our chill
dren, life would be much easier and
the progress of our race would be much
more rapid than it has been. But the
fact that we must all start even in
our cradles. at the zero point of knowl-
edge and do our work over and over
again, has it's compensations, for il is
a continual spur to our endeavor. II
we were equally endowed, and had an
equal chance, we might obtain equal
success and get equal enjoyment in the
race of life.
Aptitude and Opportunity.
But nature has her inexorable laws
and under them we do not all inherit
equal aptitudes nor enjoy equal oppor-
tunities, though fortunately it is true
that the great majority of men differ
but slightly in mental endOwments
Hence we must seek the general rules
of life, which are applicable to mos
of us alike. For the residue, the weak
the deficient and unready, and FIRE.
quently for the vicious, there is but lit.
tie help. Society must i'm most cases
supply their deficiencies. They are ma.
ture's failures. predestined to remaiT
i'm the rear, where at best they ma!
become but hewers of wood and draw
ers of water. They are the fools fo
whom there is no help, and we neeS
waste no time on them. Re
1 member the Book of Books speak
: words of eternal wisdom when Il says
= Though ye bray a fool in mortar
J Eyet will not his folly depart from him.