The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-13
THE PROGRESS OF THOUGHT.

Education in the South, considered
with the years that make a sections
history, is only just now taking the
first step away from the ankle-chain
of theory. 1t has been the long:
stride that marks slow awakening
to power Still, the point on the road
to adequate popular opportunity is
but the first vantage ground to the
fullest contamination of the end. We
have at last aroused to the fact that
education is something more than
name. The duty now is to invest the
practical campaign with a lasting viril-
ity. We believe that determination
has already been bought for the peo-
pie by the accomplishment of late
years of effort; that the striving of a
few devoted men, with hearts set on
the ideal and alert brains struggling
with conditions, has won at length to
the march of an army whose ranks
census of citizenship. At the same
time, there must be no pause, no hest
tation. The cause of education has
been taken too much and too long for
granted. 1t is quick to feel the blight
of inertia. 1t Withers with lack Of
care. Like a plant of the tropics, it
demands the more with larger growth.
Education, like religion. is a pure
flame which few deny; there are
plenty to confess it's faith who allege
their impotence to advance its cause.
Such is the excuse of fear of sacri-
flee, of dread of work, of short-sighted
tenacity of gold. Education and reli-
gion may well be paralleled in phil
osophy; in the dangers that beset their
advancement, they frequently con-
verge.
In a paradoxical sense what has
chiefly retarded the growth of uni
versal education has been that it
could not be attacked as a principle
and could be opposed in any light
only i'm collateral way and on Spe-
cious grounds. The value of the ideal
is too self-evident. 1t is infinitely
more difficult to enlist an active and
widespread support of the propaga-
cedes to be just than for one the right
of which is matter of honest differ
ence and debate. There is small temp
tation to volunteer in cause than can
find no open battle. The incentive of
fighting odds is lacking. The glory
is of that modest sort which must rely
on an inner satisfaction. 1t is thank
less task, one whose victories are mat
tiers of course, whose failures win
thousand points of bitter blame.
Which is to say that education ana
self-sacrifice are inseparable. The more
valuable the result, the greater the
pain, the longer the effort involved.
Lasting things are built on work
which goes to exhaustion. Yet they
cannot be enjoyed in idleness. lest
they last no longer. So that the civil
zationN built upon universal education
is heritage of self-sacrifice, a be-
quest of work. a progressive fulfilment
of the meaning of life which is to add
to the slow masterpiece of Time IA
definite if an humble touch. To win
to the point at which the worth OF
having lived shall be thing that the
future can see,, depends, as Governor
Aycock is wont elOquently to say. on
competition among race trained for
higher things. eff a man is to be
really tall, he must live among tall
men," 1t is the education of all that
brings the master among the thou
sands exalted through intelligent eff
fort to a higher usefulness. The
primal instinct being to get ones held
above the crowd, to win in the race,
the height of the man. the progress
which he makes, is determined by the
company with which he completes.
These be truths which are easy 70
admit and hard to follow. That min
GRITTY of the world which is called
power is chary of it's gift. Ignor-
anee is incapable of self-help. The
man who advances education raises
his own competitor. In the dull and
flaccid mass, there may be the lump
containing the diamond which shall
cut his own ambition. The theory is
a noble one, requiring every present
expenditure of time and thought and
money and giving to the worker for
the end only the vaguest promise OF
individual return. II is not for MOTH
ing that the world has come to as
sociate the spirit of education with
that of Christianity. 1t is not wonder
full that the ranks OF those who had |
the dream and lived 1t with a God
like confidence IN the end should have |
waited through long and tedious years
for the popularization of an ideal
They were brave men, those early |
strivers in the cause, Murphey and |
the others who labored and taught |
and appealed and laid humble ground |
works of century endeavor. Yet they |
applied the match, they tended the"|
flame, they left behind them
the enthusiasm which nerved |
Nh NNH IL Il