Gainesville daily sun. (Gainesville, Fla.) 190?-1938, 1907-05-30

education, as moi. a mere receptive
process, but a process Of quicken
ing and inspiration. 1t is a
new birth. and all the power
and the promise, the growth and glory
Of new and boundless life. There IS
in man, though he may never have
read book or crossed the threshold
Of a school-there is in man, because
he IS mana latent capacity for
personal enlargement so great, and
achievement so high, that magma
ton cannot compass it. Often, in
deed, like the wheat in old Egyptian
tombs, the mental and spirit life has
been sealed up in cold and silent iso-
lation. But education bursts the tomb
Of ignorance and lethargy and little
ness and impotence, and brings forth
the precious seed into the sunshine
and the dew, and 10! hero, saint,
power in life and death, and a herit-
age Of glory for the race. This is
education.
THAT education has devoted itself
nobly and magnanimously, and with
great success, to the task of freeing
man from his pathetic bondage 70 ad.
verse physical conditions, no man will
deny. 1t was only by the develop
ment OF the brain of primitive man
that he was able to cope with the
great dangers and difficulties that
surrounded him. and the very survival
of the race and its progress, however
slow and tragic, but finally triumph
ant, has been due and will be due,
not TO muscular superiority, but to big
ger and better brains. The history Of
science, especially of medicine, has
been largely the story of this conflict
for the freeing Of the race Primitive
man died under the scourge of un-
known diseases. Medical science at
last came to his rescue and freed
him from a terror which he did not |
understand. Primitive man was limit
ed by mountains and rivers and the |
narrow confines of his own small |
range. Science harnessed steam and /
yoked the lightning to her chariot,
and brought to man the message that
he should become a free inhabitapt
Of a great free world. And steadily
against adverse conditions education
has fought for freedom; has won It's
victories in the past; and viii win
its greater victories in the days 10
come.
I'm its second and highest sense
the liberating power Of culture has
to do with narrowness, bigotry, preju.
dice and pride Here, too, education
has done a mighty work for the cause
OF freedom. but a mighty work re
mains yet for it to do, For here It
touches ourselves and our dearest
preposessions; and here, as in the
past, we hesitate and stumble VIII
ingly or unwllingly we recognize the
palmer facts OF history, but we refuse
to learn their lesson. mlsinterpret
them or set an arbitrary limit 70
their significance. II IS here We zen
counter the misshapen and malicious
idols Of the cave, which are the
deepest fallacies OF the human mind.
Here has always been the bitterest
hgh. for freedom, and here always the
brightest victories OF truth and knoyl'
edge, Victory Is as inevitable as
death, and these strongest most cher
ished idols Of the cave shall fan and
be shattered before the truth and
knowledge as Dagon before the ark Of
the Most High God.
THAT despotism should give place
to monarchy, and II in turn to at least
a semblance OF democracy, seems 70 !
us wise and right, for We are born
under democracy. and We are the I
people. But We forget the infinite
toll and travail OF the struggle, the bit I
ter resistance o. the hoary idols and
the pitiful sacrifices OF many martyrs !
before their overthrow. We say, II {
we had been in the days Of our faith /
ers We would not have been partakers {
OF the blood OF the prophets. Z
But We would Good men Of old be Z
neved in the divine right Of kings and /
that despotism and then a monarchy I
-. -. 49, - ,.-f-ert fha C.of.or-