DISCOURSE ON THE ENDS AND USES OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNION LITERARY SOCIETY OF SOUTH-HANOVER COLLEGE, IA.
On the 27th September, 1836; being their Fourth Anniversar
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DISCOURSE ON THE ENDS AND USES OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNION LITERARY SOCIETY OF SOUTH-HANOVER COLLEGE, IA.
"There are two kinds of Education - the liberal and the servile. I define a liberal education to be that which puts us in possession of the principles and reasons of actions and things, so far as they are capable of being known or investigated; a servile education, on the contrary, is that which stops short at the technical rules and methods, without attempting to understand the reasons or principles on which they are grounded. "
Tags: education, philosophy, liberal-education on 2008-04-14 -All Annotations (0) -About
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HE who would become distinguished in manhood, and be eminently useful to his country and age, must be contented to pass his boyhood and youth in obscurity. It is a fault of American ambition, (although at the same time an indication of a noble and free nature,) that the youth of the country, (for I shall use plainness through the whole of this discourse,) are in too much haste to become renowned: - and they do indeed often exhibit astonishing marks of early maturity; their tree spreads, and blossoms, and bears fruits goodly, and fair, and lovely to look upon in a remarkably short interval; but the melancholy feature of this bright and early morn of glorious and ambitious hopes is, that it so rapidly passes into mid-day, and declines to afternoon and closes hastily in untimely night. I know I am stating a fact that does not always hold, but it is yet of such frequent recurrence, as to fix somewhat of a general character on our literary, moral, and political career. I ascribe it not so much to the want of genius as to the excess of it, to that consuming ardor of mind, which not only lights up the materials around it to exhibit its own brightness, but turns at last on the soul itself - melts and reduces the very crucible, the intellectual vessels that nourished and fed the splendor.
It is wise to husband and increase our resources, chiefly in youth; this is the time not to cast stones, but to gather them. -
And on the whole, it is an unfortunate age for young men to pursue severe studies, much more so than a century ago; for now so many read, (I do not say they reflect,) - so many read the light works, the novels, the reviews of the day, that when a young man is thrown into company, (and he must have some relaxation) he is obliged, as he supposes, in vindication of his literary respectability, to offer his criticisms among the rest - on [34] Bulwer's heroes, or "that well-written article" in the last "Monthly Review;" and he must talk about "taste and genius" too as well as others, and endeavor to the best of his abilities, to settle the import of these mystic terms of learned criticism; - and something also must he have to say about the Greeks and Romans; and he has not yet learned the language of either - he has not had time; he must consult therefore the books of those who have written on the subject, (4) to have something ready for the market of the evening this literary fair of "ladies and gentlemen. O sad meeting for the best hopes of youthful ambition! for these gay anticipations of learning, without the toil and sweat of acquisition, bribe and corrupt the mind with vain and overweening notions of its own powers and practical expertness; it dreams it has been eating, but awakes, and the soul is empty: - it is better to forego such fame altogether, and to be even willing to be accounted ignorant, than, drinking in the mere froth of learning, to cheat and delude the mind of its substantial and solid nourishment. - And indeed the end of learning is not reputation, but usefulness - not personal distinction, but sterling ability. But I forbear farther introduction, and proceed to unfold to you the grander ends of a generous education.
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There are two kinds of Education - the liberal and the servile. I define a liberal education to be that which puts us in possession of the principles and reasons of actions and things, so far as they are capable of being known or investigated; a servile education, on the contrary, is that which stops short at the technical rules and methods, without attempting to understand the reasons or principles on which they are grounded.
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You pronounce on General Washington, that he was the most prudent and judicious statesman that ever lived; and it may be a truth you utter, but unless you have carefully noted his actions, and compared them with those of other men in analagous circumstances, it is not a piece of liberal information which you have communicated to us, but an opinion for which you are indebted to others.
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"The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever" - a formula of theology which comprises a striking truth, and most summarily expressed: but unless you are familiar with the original evidences in the Sacred Scriptures, from which it is drawn, and on which it rests, your assent to it is quite a servile one, and not entitled to the consideration of a liberal opinion.
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Truth is but another name for Fact, and what we call principles and reasons, are such facts as are the most remote in regard to us, the last which we have reached, and which stand in connection with and hold in connection a series of other facts, of which they are called the explanations or expositions.
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American education should be pre-eminently liberal, not a second hand education, not that education of rules and blind results which some would impose upon us under the name of practical education - as if Americans had obtained their freedom for no other end, but that they might convert to purposes of sensual and physical enjoyment those sublime and (7) majestic principles of science and art, which God has revealed to the reasons and understandings of other nations.
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For Republicans, it seems, are not as other men, born "to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever;" no, that is a destiny which freemen must never aspire to; they must be content to plod in the dirt and mire of mere animal enjoyment, and be satisfied, if they can only scrape [37] together so much of the practical parts of high and noble learning, as will enable them to make a living, to get through the world; for that is all that the boasted charter of our liberties, it seems, will permit us either to hope or to enjoy; and all beyond this is "forbidden fruit," the product of that old decayed stump of monarchy, which has been long since condemned, as only cumbering the ground.
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Gentlemen, I will not insult you by attempting a refutation of these absurd, these grovelling opinions, which are as far from the spirit of the American government as darkness from light, as the genius of savage from the ennobling influences of civilized life: - Let them enjoy the native fruits of their own crab-tree. I will show you a nobler kind.
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Gentlemen, it is right and useful, that we should submit to authority until we are able to discover reasons; and after our best efforts, there will be much that we must receive on authority, nay authority is in some instances itself a first principle, the only reason we can assign for action; but still we ought not from a false humility to seek to extend the sway this mistress over our minds, but to be willing to submit only where no surer or more inspiring guide can be found for our conduct and opinions.
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You will recognize it then as the especial duty of those, who are receiving a liberal education, to study the principles of things.
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The great majority (8) of mankind have no wish, and scarcely any curiosity to arrive at these, but are satisfied with the more accessible parts of knowledge, the results and the applications. But these they are capable of admiring to a great extent, and in the height of their admiration, are blind and indifferent often, to the merit and exertion that were necessary to accomplish them.
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That there is a fatal predisposition in the human mind to look away from principles, and to see only their applications, a tendency little short of idolatry, to admire the results of original truth, but an aversion next to impiety (9) to ascend to those sources where it is native and from which it springs.
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Is not this part of that blindness attendant on the fall of man, in consequence of which he is so prone to worship the creature, rather than the Creator? for inasmuch as the principles of things, which are eternal and immutable, are nearer to him than their applications are, which are mundane and transitory, it would seem that the human mind took a certain perverse pleasure in its attention on the latter rather than the former, - on that which is obscure and subordinate, rather than on that which is most glorious, and paramount. But this happens, as I have said, to the majority; there always have been, and we may presume, there always will be, at least in countries favored with the light of Christian Revelation, a few who take delight in ascending to the sources of truth, the reasons and principles of things, - thence to deduce their results and applications, mending and improving them in the descent.
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I refer to higher, to nobler, to more essential sciences first of all; and I say that Religion itself, morality, civil government - in one word, rational freedom cannot be maintained among mankind, unless there (10) are minds raised up by Divine Providence, and nurtured, as yours are here, through the discipline of your Alma Mater, - to reascend with boldness and energy to the first principles of all these blessings, which I maintain are to be found, and are contained only in the Sacred Scriptures or Word of God. When that Word has been shut, these have been shut, - when opened, these have been opened; the return of the sun to the southern tropic does not more certainly occasion winter to the northern zone, and lock up all the energies of vegetation, than the appropriation of the Bible to the priesthood, and the withholding of it from the laity, withers up and benumbs all the faculties of the human soul, nips the fair flowers of fancy - those proofs of the heart's gladness - and puts a slow but effectual stop, to all useful inventions - physical as well as moral improvement.
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The object of a liberal education, is not the gratification of vanity,-an ephemeral, or a posthumous fame, both equally worthless; [41]
but it is to qualify a man, to be the efficient minister of Divine Providence, by pressing upon his countrymen, those eternal, those immutable principles and laws, whose system, under one aspect, we call the Kingdom of Grace, under another the Kingdom of Nature. In either of these departments, a man may serve his country; - and the study of the Word of God will not interfere with the study of nature, nor will the study of nature mar or confound that of verbal Revelation. -
Bacon understood the place of both admirably; and how justly they harmonised, when he speaks of theology, as the Mistress or Queen, and of science as the handmaid that attends her. A man of sound mind will never lose sight of the distinction, nor of those studies and exercises of mind, which (12) so naturally spring out of it: he will not forget that he is an heir at once of Heaven and Earth; and that he has duties connected with both; and he will therefore take care to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God, the things that are God's;" and this not blindly, either, but from a lofty, just, and reasoning mind.
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Young men spend a great deal of time often uselessly, in the attainment of what is called eloquence, and other popular accomplishments. Now, I believe that a talent for eloquence is really a gift of nature;--at least, that easy gracefulness of style and manner, which seems to be the characteristic of what is popularly esteemed eloquence, is absolutely the gift of nature;
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Of all kinds of hypocricy, rhetorical hypocricy is the most abominable;-it corrupts the public mind; it impairs our confidence in magnanimity and true honor; it is the bane of the republic;
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Let us study to be sincere; and if our feelings are not so good as we could wish them, not so magnanimous, not so liberal, not so benevolent, instead of investing them with a rhetorical garb of magnanimity and liberality, and benevolence, let us rather seek to have them renovated at that Fountain, to which I have referred, which serves not only to purify the understanding from error, but also radically to change the dispositions of the mind-to heal the waters.-"Eloquence is the Daughter of Virtue." This is Milton's definition, and the best.
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And here I am led to say something of the Latin and Greek languages; for it may be thought that any recommendation of the study of things instead of words, shall be fatal to these, and show them useless. Now, I believe that the study of these has just the opposite tendency, and that it makes a man think light of words and their composition, and much of things; I mean moral things, and mental things, as well as physical things: and I believe that (16) the study of these languages should be kept up as a branch of liberal education, if for no other reason, to turn minds more on principles, and discourage that idolatry of language so common.
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Man is born to perform a part, a specific part, in a specific period; and when he does that in earnest, without any other hope, but to recommend himself to God, and to the love and esteem of his co-temporaries, what he executes, assumes a sterling value, not for his own age merely, but for posterity; for its chief interest to posterity is the stamp it wears of the age and country; it is not the image merely of the individual, but of the epoch; and hence the chief interest of the most ancient writers; the best of them had but a local purpose to fulfil, and they fulfilled it well; for they did it with all their heart, from an intense sympathy with their age and nation.
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Gentlemen, the theory of the American government has its fountain head in the well spring of Christianity; it began to gurgle upwards into light, eigh (20) teen hundred years ago, and its descent from Heaven-the memory of man runneth not so far backwards.
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moral evil and political degradation, step by step, sunk and disappeared before the Sun of Christianity; so that, in England where once nearly all laborers were slaves, the name of slave at last is expunged and obliterated from the records of her laws;
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Gentlemen, if you love your country, cherish this principle of her well-being in your hearts; look, that you be the protectors, and defenders, and elevators, of those who are the least able to protect, to defend, and to elevate themselves; in this you will show yourselves Christians, you will show yourselves men, and make the best return to your country for that liberal education which she has bestowed upon you. Remember, it is a vital principle of this government, that it contemplates the elevation of the laboring man. And liberal education is conferred upon a few-not as a privilege of rank, but as the means of effecting this object.
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But it is also a principle in politics, that "all just powers are derived from the consent of the governed." Has this also sprung from Christianity? Does Christianity also make provision for "the majesty of the People?" or does she discountenance the idea as impious - as fostering a spirit alien to humility? The effeminate and misguided admirers of arbitrary Power would make us believe so;
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There is a moral sovereignty pre-established in the mind of even the humblest individual; is he then so far from the claim of political sovereignty?
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The majesty of the People, in its full sense, is an idea originating in the Christian Religion.
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We know then, where to look for the real causes of our political freedom and happiness; and the discovery is not without its value; for the perfection of the American system must depend on the integrity and operation of those earliest principles which gave it birth. Christianity is the fountain of our rights and blessings; while that is unsealed and pure, we never can despair of the Republic. But let us look to the Rock, out of which we were hewn; from thence is our strength and renovation.
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make it your constant endeavor to seek for these principles of truth, as for hidden treasure; and to seek diligently till you find them.
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There is a prevailing delusion in this country, that because we have a large region, and a fine soil, and spontaneous productions, on that account there is less necessity for hard study or extended reading-and that it will rather interfere with the bold originality of native genius, which, it is believed, would otherwise shoot up with the spontaneous exuberance of the wild forests. Gentlemen, the fancy would be a good one, if the fruitfulness of the mind sprung from the same causes with the fertility of the soil; but it is not so-it is not so.
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No, gentlemen, let us transplant our minds into the best soils, whether these be Greek, or Latin, or English, or American.
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In you may Education prove a blessing to the commonwealth; -freely you have received, and freely may you give;--and from such well-springs and fountains of pure and [54] benevolent minds, may Knowledge, and Education, and Virtue, and Religion, circulate abundantly into every corner of the land.
THE END
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