Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1908-11-25
SOMEHOW GOOD"
Speech Delivered by MIR. J, c.
Sheppard, Jr., in the Last
intercollegiate Oratori-
cal Contest.

oratorical contest by Mr.. j. c.
Sheppard, Jr., student of the South.
Carolina University. The speech is
reproduced in full, just as it ap-
peared in The Carolinian:
There is beautiful tradition of
ansold Greek traveller, who, after
wandering over land and sea, re-
turned to his native country COM
Spletely changed. Time had impress
ed itself upon his tountenance. His
hair was gray, his step feeble, his
sbodylhent with the load-of years.
i So altered was he that his friends
and loved ones did not recognize
him. Some one asked, Who are
yous9'' The old man replied: / am
the sum of all that / have met.
This is true Of our individual
lives. We are but the creations of
our experiences, plus the influence
ofheredity. The saying of the old
Greek is true of the world in
general. The world to-day is but the
effect of all the thought and action
of the, past. Reformations, wars,
revolutions, all, have aeft their
stamp on the great heart of hui
manity; there to remain indellble
through centuries untold.
But what is the quality of this
inheritance? Is the world better to-
day than it was thousand years
ago? Will it continue to advance In
4 the future as it has done in the past!
Was the poet within the mark when
he said:
"Olt of the shadows of the night,
The worlds rolling into light,
1t is daybreak everywhere?
Can we not believe that our
minds are being freed from the
great darkness of superstitions and
ignorance? Is not education en-
Tightening us with that truth, which
is 8 clearer than the beams of the
sun or the shining shafts of day."
The creed of progress, the watch
word of onward movement is opti
5 mism. Tennyson expressed this sen
4 timent when. he said: Somehow
good will be the. final goal of I'LL,
4 and Browning echoed this when he
said:
ssGod's in his heaven
Alps right with the world"
Our individual and social bless
ings are the results of wholesome
optimism. Security of property, free
dom of thought, reforms of social
and political life; these blessings
exist,because the optiniist has pre-
ceded us. 1t is defect of tempera-
ment, pernicious lassitude, and COM
placent ignorance which crush op-
timism and dry the springs of hope.
Z Poverty and disease often dull the
hues of life; labor, and sometimes
life itself is the price demanded of
all in return for the privilege of
living; yet JOY will be with him who,
strong in. hope, fortified by the
glorious achievements of the past,
believes that, more and more may be
accomplished to free man from the
chains that, bind him, To-. control
mans iphunlanity to man, and to
lessen mans cruelty to himself.
a great age is this in which we
live-we. have for our heritage all
the experience of the past. Looking
backward down the vista of time,
we car: see the primitive individuals
unite; we see him uniting with his
mate to form the family. For pro-
lection and from instinct the fami-
lies unite to. form the tribes. From
tribes the State develops. 1t is in
( the drawing of kinship that govern
ment finds it's beginning. and in
physical force that it held its first
supremacy. Physical force was not
: the origin of government, but was
its first mainstay. Because of this
reliance of government on physical
force, the one-man came into power,
and kings began to rule. Later as
kings began to exercise arbitrary
power, the people rose, limited his
power by written constitutions, and
self-government was instituted by
revolution. Then, as now, the chief
duty to man was to control his i'm
pulses and in this power OF man to
control himself and others, self-gov-
.ernment has it's basis.
This growth of authority is at
tended by d corresponding growth
ofintellectual power. Man began to
think. He saw the waving beauties
of the forest; he felt in his soul the
wonderful contrast between night
and day; he looked upward, and be-
held the heavens, clad in the beau.
ty of a thousand stars" glory on
glory, wonder ubon wonder''-he
saw, he wondered, he reasoned
and science is born! From a desire
to know, and from wonder, men be
gan to look into the secrets of ma
ture. Later he began to study him.
,.lf. .nd another branch of science