UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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thereby qualifies them to enter upon high spheres of usefulness.
The national education shows the national character. Its influence is felt nowhere as it is here. The history of a nation's education affords the only key to its life, and is a just and never-failing standard for the estimation of its advance or retreat in the great march of civilization. The influences of education are multitudinous and are inextricably interwoven with all life's great problems, but in the study of this subject there lies that which furnishes the best of food for thought, and which will prove an almost invaluable aid to those who would continue on the road of educational progress. If the cause of education will keep even step with our increase of numbers, its influence will show itself on all. If the principles of the Christian religion shall animate our people as in the youthful years of our republic, then will the words of Macaulay, as to her future fate, be remembered only as the prophecy of an enemy of free institutions and an advocate of monarchies. If the grand old clock which the "men of 76" set in motion is out of order, if the pendulum is swinging a little too fast, if any of its almost perfect machinery has be come deranged, we must employ skillful workmen to repair and restore it to its former beauty in appearance and precision of movement.
I know how easy it is to decry the present and fear for the future, but if we educate the masses, and thereby cause this influence to be exerted in the cause of right and justice, I feel assured that He who holds the destinies of nations in the palm of his hand will secure for us a leader, greater than Caesar and pure and patriotic as Washington or martyred Lincoln.
Whence come the men who are ruling our destinies to-day? Not from the slums, not from the mansions of the rich, but from the virtuous and healthful homes of the tillers of the soil, where the mind may grow and expand in the "contemplation of Nature in all her various moods."
It is among this class of people that the influences of education should be exerted. It is here that the great problem of our national existence is to be worked out. It is here, as it always has been, that our strength lies.
If we would be an enlightened, progressive and prosperous people, we must educate. Let it be the vocation of all our citizens to be true to their calling. Stand up for universal education, and never fail to remember that it is intelligence alone that builds up a nation, and that ignorance is a reproach to any people.
BOOKS.
R. W.E.T.
The value of books as a means of culture is recognized by all. They are the best substitutes for teachers, and next to a good college they occupy the first position as educators. A book is a voiceless teacher, and a good library is a school in itself. By reading, a person is brought in continual communion with the living thoughts of the best men of both past and present. Whatever is profound, delicate, refined, or witty, is accessible to the lover of books, and they give him more extended knowledge and greater thoughts. The reader becomes a citizen of every country, and events of all ages are brought to his view. If a young man improves his time before he starts out in the world to care for himself, he may become acquainted with more countries than any traveler ever saw.
The most original thinkers acknowledge the debt they owe to the great minds of the past, whose wisdom has been housed in books. But one may abuse this privilege just as he may any other. The continual cramming with knowledge is more of a detriment than a help, for if one does not ponder upon what he reads, he will not be benefited, and his knowledge will rust away from lack of use, and leave him nothing behind. It is said of Southey, that he gave so much attention to the minds of other men that he never found time to look after his own.
The reader should be careful in his selections, and choose none but good books,—books that leave some impression upon his mind when he lays them aside. Such as give simply a passing thought are injurious, because they unfit the mind for the perusal of more solid works. No student can spend his spare time better than in the perusal of useful books.
Here the question arises, What shall he read, and how shall he read it? Shall he use his own judgment as a guide, or shall he read the books approved of by usage in the past? How can he acquire a taste for the masterpieces of literature? Most students are incompetent to select for themselves, and in these days of free libraries it is no easy matter to determine what is best to read. The beginner is too apt to select some speculative work that he is not capable of understanding. Such works as those of Mill, Spencer, and Darwin, are intended for the well developed mind only. Biographies are to be preferred, by the beginner, to histories, and histories to philosophies. Let the reader select some work that he is capable of understanding, and then read it carefully, and not just because it is popular.
The reading of books is useless, unless some wisdom is drawn from them. They wear out the reader and give him no intellectual culture in return. Their use should be to stimulate and replenish the mind, and give it food to work with. One cannot expect to read everything, and it were better that he did not attempt to do so, but read only as much as he is able to thoroughly digest. C.
A few theatrical Misses: Miss Effie Germon is Mrs. Smith; Miss Lillie Eldridge is Mrs. Tom Ryan; Miss Clara Morris is Mrs. Smith; Miss Kate Claxton is Mrs. Charles Stevenson. There are a few attractive unmarried actresses.
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise; but early to ryes and tardy to bed, makes a man's nose turn cardinal red."
If early to bed, and early to rise, would make men healthy, and wise, I'd rise at daybreak—cold or hot—and go back to bed at once,—why not?
An orator who was much in demand at political campaigns being asked by an admirer the secret of his success, replied: "When I have facts, I give 'em facts; but when I haven't, I yell and saw the air."
Schiller could never write a line of poetry without the smell of rotten apples near, and when he died there was not enough money in his desk to pay his funeral expenses.
Harvard has the largest library in the United States. 160,000 volumes.