An Address [pp. 274-278]

274
ADDRESS.
Original.
AN ADDRESS.*
BY HON. BELLAMY STORER.
Ir was a profound as well as beautiful remark'of
Addison, that the soul without education is like
marble in the quarry, shapeless, unpolished, life less. The skill of the artist alone separates the
block from the mass, brings forth its inherent beauties, and adapts it to the highest purposes of human enjoyment.
Taste and genius are then permitted to exert
their full power; and in the elevation, the refinement they produce in architecture and statuary, the
marble becomes a type of that intellectual greatness
to which man can attain when his every faculty is
developed, his whole moral nature disciplined and
softened by the teachings of eternal truth.
All minds, to carry out the figure, belong to the
same quarry. In their essential properties, they
are the same; but in their capacity for the development of the highest power, they widely differ.
One portion of the material is adapted to great
strength, and may well be the foundation stone, or
the pillar of some massive structure. Another,
less indurated, receives a mirror-like surface, and
breathes, as it were, beneath the life-giving touch
of the sculptor. Another, apparently of but little
value in its original state, is submitted to the action of fire, receives new combinations, and furnishes the cement, without which no fabric can be
safely erected or long preserved.
Every grade of human intellect, therefore, may
be improved, and all profitably directed to fulfill
the great purposes of our being; and hefice the responsibility to educate and be educated when God
has given the power.
The inquiry then very naturally presents itself,
who should be permitted to teach, and how shall
the great public mind be taught? We use the
term public mind, for the aggregate of human intellect which comnposes it; and remark, furthermore, that each individual possesses great power to
affect, either directly or indirectly, the integrity of
the mass for good or for evil.
"'Tis a great chain, whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike."
We answer the interrogatory, that no one should
attempt to educate others who is not educated himself. We mean by this one who has not disciplined
his faculties, and taxed his highest powers in the
investigation of moral truth-who has not felt how
vast is the field, and yet how finite the capacity,
* Delivered on the anniversary of the Young Ladies' Lyceum of the Methodist Female Collegiate Institute in Cincinnati, July 2, 1845. Published at the request of the young ladies.
how brief the probation allowed to explore it. A
nan may have acquired much learning-he may
have observed with a critical eye the varied forms
of creation that meet him wherever he directs his
steps-he may have glorious conceptions of the
beautiful and sublime in nature; yet, unless these
attainments have called forth noble and just views
of human character, impressed upon him the great
truth that he belongs to humanity, and in propor tionl to his ability to improve his race, their claims
upon him are increased, he is unfit to direct their
education; for he has no real interest in their moral
advancement. He must sympathize with his fellows before he can instruct them, else his efforts
will be uselessly employed.
We may read inscriptions graven on brass or
marble, and admire the faithfulness of the execution, as well as the beauty of the sentiment; but
the impression is soon lost: there is nothing in the
lifeless metal, or the cold stone, that returns a kindred echo to our souls-there is no spiritual communion, no moral tie to bind us together. And
thus it is, as it ever has been, and will be, that all
education must be superficial, in the highest degree, unless the instructor practically illustrates
the relation that Heaven intended man should sustain to his brother man.
Again, we hold it to be a cardinal principle, that
the teacher should be thoroughly instructed in all
the branches of knowledge he professes to teach.
He ought not only to have the forms of ideas, but
the ideas themselves. His acquaintance with what
he assumes to know should be intimate, exact, profound. If he has but entered the threshold, he
should know every step-have marked every stage
of his progress thither: hlie should be able to retain
the ground he occupies, even if he cannot advance.
With him there should be no retrograde. To calculate for a moment on such a result, proves at
once that he is unfit to instruct others while he sustains so doubtful, so unsafe a position himself.
Superficial learning, which really is no better
than negative ignorance, is one of the great evils
of our times. In our haste to acquire, we forget
the old maxim, "to hasten slowly." Our age has so
much of restlessness in all its movements, so eager
is it to accomplish great, but what are too often mistaken purposes, that much which is done it would be
far better had not been done.
Hence, the frequency of mere pretension, concealed for a brief time under a flippant exterior,
making up in boldness and self-complacency for
the absence of sound acquirements. Hence, too,
the ceaseless round of discussions, as they are
termed, upon every variety of subject, whether of
art or science, literature, morals, or religion, where
loquacity is the test of knowledge, and the friction
merely that is consequent upon keeping so much