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UNIVERSITY COURIER.
life. And many have found comfort in the final words of the Athenian philosopher, recorded by Plato. While in the lack of actual knowledge of something which tragically concerned them, countless storm-tossed and despairing souls have been practically renewed and recreated by the idea of God contained in that old prayer beginning "Our Father."
Now these are bits of three great Literatures which have stood the corrosive assaults of many practical centuries; and, until something has by experience been proven better, proven more practical; I think this state may reasonably say to its young: "Here; these seem to be for certain parts of life, the best practical guides yet discovered. Until something has, by experience proven better, you will do well to make use of these."
Yea, my friends, Carlyle hath declared it, that in human affairs the Bible is the truest of books; and merely considering the part it has played in history, it must occupy some place in our curriculum. It seems certainly somewhat strange that a book which has been more read than any other one written and that has had more to do with history than any other ever written, is the book which is to be driven from the public schools, and which must be avoided like the plague in an institution devoted to the study of literature and which pretends to the name of "Liberal." Let us frankly admit that it has been much mis-read; nay, that we may still be misreading it; but let us remember that that makes it no less one of the Eternal Facts of the universe, like the stars and the earth; and let us try to find its meaning. Because different people have considered the earth flat, or square, or round, or solid, or hollow makes it none the less a true earth, which we still think worthy of our study in geology, mineralogy and chemistry. And as men find that flying at each others throats about it doesn't give them the truths of geology, neither will it, let us remember, give us the truths of the Bible and of morals and conduct generally. No, it must be done in quite another way, a way in which I think the Bible itself teaches, the way of sweet reasonableness—a way which, like other truths, biblical and unbibical, it seems hard for men to learn. We may say God might have made an-earth that we should know all about at a glance—but he didn't. And so he might have made books that we should known all about at a glance—but he didn't. Perhaps that did not seem worth while. At any rate, I think you will find both the Earth and the Book worth studying.
Qualities of the heart, I said, were necessary to culture; such as Sympathy, that miracle by which Christ on the cross felt the woe of human hearts, felt the blackness of great darkness that had fallen upon earth, looked out across the night of human life and knew your struggle and knew mine.
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"It was the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie. Which, heart to heart and mind to mind, In body and in soul can bind."
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Qualities of heart, such as Sincerity—"The barrel of meal that wasted not, the cruise of oil that did not fail." Qualities of heart, such as Faith; for I tell you that many times it is wise to believe and trust, though you may not know. Qualities of heart; for "even in this world's race, the wisdom of truth, love and simplicity win the prise against astute self-seeking," Qualities of heart, such as Reverence:
"Hush, heart of mine, nor jest nor blasphemy. Beseems the strengthless creature of an hour."
I have spoken of our lack of unity, our want of one supreme, all-vivifying passion, to bind us into firm cohesion. All great nations so far have had such a passion, such an ideal. With the Hebrews, it was righteous conduct: with the Greeks, it was beauty and knowledge; with the Romans, it was political power and conquest. The religious passion, the scientific passion, the artistic passion, the power passion, the passion for liberty and the passion for obedience have all made great nations; the money passion—never. We must avoid that. A naturalist has recorded the case of a turtle that continued to live after its brains had been removed and the cavity stuffed with cotton. But that is impossible in so high an organization as a free state. A state must have something in its cranium more than property. But we must have a national idea; it is imperative.
Wendell Phillips said in a speech, just after the outbreak of the war; "Perhaps we did not give weight enough to the fact we saw that this nation is made up of different ages; not homogeneous, but a mixed mass of different ages;" and he might have added, races, customs, instincts and ideals. He goes on with a perhaps exaggerated picture of the differences between North and South. He says: "The North thinks—can appreciate an argument—is in the 19th century—hardly a struggle left it but that between the working class and the money kings. The South dreams—it is in the 14th century, Baron and serf, noble and slave. Our struggle is between barbarism and civilization." Now whether this was a true picture or not, it certainly is true that between some men and some classes of the Union to-day there is all the difference of the 19th and the 14th centuries. And any one can see that this is a condition fraught with danger—a danger which hangs over us like the ice avalanche over a Swiss village, and which the next peal of thunder may send roaring on its work of destruction. Free land, material resources as yet untouched, and continued financial prosperity—these are the salvation of the present; but when these are gone—what then? We must have a national idea. What shall it be?
We must avoid the errors of the past. Righteousness alone wont do; the Hebrews fell. Art and Intellect wont do; Greece went to pieces. Politics wont do; Rome rotted away. Liberty alone wont do; France has shown us that. What then? Different nations have advanced to greatness along different paths—each doing some one thing. May it not be that these paths are at last to unite in America? Our national passion, then, must be perfect Self-government through Liberty and Equality, reached and maintained by Culture—the harmony of a well tuned mind and heart. A high ideal certainly; but it MUST be high. A Democracy, like the adventurer climbing the cliff, must keep its eyes on heaven, or it is lost. Lofty culture, intelligence, virtue-or the dunghill.
At Olympia in Elis, the whole Greek nation assembled every four years to celebrate the festival of Zeus. During that festival there was universal peace. From every city of Hellenedom, from Asia, Sicily and Italy, came the best of the great-souled Greeks, came the chariot racers,the athletes,the politicians,the orators,the poets the artisians and the artists; and there were contests in