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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1876)
Jlcsrvtc Poirer. n fc 1 ' m ji, i i) no system of training so wi'll calculated to bring out this n.cril and develop it to consummate excellence as the regular daily work of a well-ordered school ; where the standard of execution is no external factitious display lull intrinsic excellence; whore the reward of success is the eon. sciousnoss of well doing, nut the. ignix -turn of rank or the gross incentive of priz. os. And probably nothing is so destruc tive of thu spirit of faithfulness wi our colleges as the custom of assigning marks to the exercises of the students as a basis of class rank. Intellectual honesty if "n ditioned upon moial honesty. Thorough ncss of work is impossiblu without up rightness of motive. " Faithfulness, is essential to all real suc cess." Hence it follows that moral education, which is "life and influence," cannot fail to follow as the direct result of a thorough and living system of inlcllcctunl training, oven (hough we leave out of the count al together the great iriHh that, as of our bodies so of our minds, Ihey become as similalcd to llial on wliicli lliey IVed. Every judicious air,rr'il-ad.inini.storcd .system of intellectual training must ol necessity read up n the moral nature, quickening and enlightening it. ThcW quo mm of thoroughness in study and per formance is faith I illness. The j nun mm of faithfulness is a standard of jnire excellence, unalloyed by any thought ol .soltlsli advantage. This alone will bring out that ".s'tlid work that will last for gen. craliorts or that solid reasoning that will last forever." And so, it appears that from our slate educational institutions is or is soon to bo excluded that theological instruction which is at best but an intel lectual matter, as well as theinere formali ties of worship. We shall really lose nothing; nay on the contrary, we shall gain much. In place of an empty formal ity of mere exhibition, we shall secure life, strength and inlluoncc. True nobili ty of character will be secured by the only method aailable. It will corneas the intnral consequence of the distinct recognition of thu momentous truth that the temper of the performance is of vastly greater consequence even than the per formance itself, that the spirit in which wo study is of vastly greater moment than the study itself. Long ago Plato said that virtue vwnhoml) is not communicable; to-day we see that ncverlholess it is educa hie. It is the splendid fruit of hoi.ust, earnest, faithful eirorl,and so is possible to everyone. c. Ko.-icrvo Power. In the great international boat race, which occurrred some years ago on the Thames, between the Harvard and Oxford clubs, the boat manned by the former took the lead, almost from the start. Rowing forty-six stiokes to the minute while their opponents rowed only forty-two, they wore some balf a length of the boat, then a whole length, and soon still farther in tin: lead. And to the superficial observer they seemed likely to win the race. Hut pres ently their strokes diminished in number to forty per minute, then to thirty-nine. Inch by inch, foot by foot the men in blue colors, with their slow, ponderous swing ol the oars, creep up on their advei saries, who strain every sinew to its ten sion contending every inch of the way. Suddenly the stroke ol the Harvard men, previously so bold and impetuous, begins to. slacken and look distressed, but, the Oxford men press steadily forward, meas uring each minute by the infallible forty two A few minutes more and Oxford is ahead and despite the last desperate strokes of Harvard, victoriously maintains her superiority and wins the race. Many reasons have been assigned for the failure of the Harvard crew, but it is evident Hint the defect arose from a lack of the vital element, in all such eon tests and struggles, which Americans are so apt to nejMcct and despise, namely Re serve Power. Not alone in boat races, but in a'. pb)sii-al, menial and moral COn- CIIKS WKmsmmmal