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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1878)
No. 7. Till! M AUOIl OK INTKIiI.KUT. 433 pnrticlcs of water, power to move an en fine. It is said Hint at the beginning of the sixteenth century, tlioro remained notliing to copy, ami Hie English mi ml took its first bent. From that century rj cannot say there remains nothing to copy, yet we can say, that the American people have reached a stage of progression whore a second Ciosar is not needed. Ciusur was the Roman king; to-day we want no king, we are all rulers. The world is now Shakespearian, but it shows signs of coming Sliakespeares. Art, it is true is living a second childhood, but science has continually advanced with rapid striiles. Scicnconnd invention have been llio lead ing spirits among the American people since the " Pilgrim Fathers" landed upon our soil. The physical wants of a people require their first attention, and not until steel vibrated the thoughts of nations, not until the locomotive Unshed over our land, and machinery was invented for the rapidity and eiuo of mnnufacture, was the ambition of the nation sulllciently curbed to stop and inquire after the progress of the human mind. Mr. Huskin says, in speaking of the ra pidity of inventions, "The great cry which risos from our manufacturing cities loud er than their furnace blasts is, that we niauufactuie every thing here except mon. We blanch cotton and strongthon stool; we rolluc sugar and shape pottery. Hut to strengthen, to refine, or to farm a single living spirit never enters into our estimate of advantages.'' In view of this great cry an attempt is being made to manufacture men. The spirit of rapidity which has so entered in to the very existenco oftlio people exerts iti influence here. A human body with the intellect of a ch'ld is put into this educational machine and run through. What is the result If the body is made of material sound enough to beat the wear and tear of six yours of crowding, wo have a polished intellect, if not, n wreck. The tendency of such an education is cither to make artificial men and'womon, or to improve the mind at the expenso of tho body. The people of the present age wnnt to live rapidly. With self-government comes self-support, and with self-support, the devise of being supported. Specula tion is tho order of tho day. To make much from little in a short space of time, is the groatesllachlcvcmcnt of the nine, teentli century. Until this spirit is driven out of our colleges wo can expect no great results in tho intellectual progress of our nation. The world is full of superficial, imitating men and women. What we need and may have is, intensity, original ity, and thoroughness. The object of education is the culture of the world. The culture of the world dopenda upon the culture of the iudivid mil. The general intelligcnc of the people is gradually increasing, but in some re spects tho sixteenth century excelled the present. While science and religion arc much more enlightened now than then literature lias only advanced in quantity, and art cannot compare with art as it ex isted then. While wo congratulate our selves upon our nation's progress in some respects, with tho amount yet to be done there is no time to fold our hands and say, " Heboid us and our works." In science there is still room for im provement. Religion, is by no means perfect. Literature and Art are sadly neg lected. Willi our general intelligence and facilities for obtaining knowledge, if we do not clear up some of the doubts which arc gathering over our land, it will lie because wo lack that intensity of thought and thoroughness of knowledge which is the result of true education. Our generation is called upon to satisfy itself as regard the faith of our futhera. Truth will always hear investigation, and the soouur the world is rid of superstition and deceit tho bettor. There is such a H
