34
THE BATTALION
mg—without study. As the basis of their hope, they illusive
ly point to men renowned in history, who received nothing
tbu a common school education. In this country, Patrick
Henry, Washington, Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, Henry
Clay and Abraham Lincoln are all notable examples. At lea.st
one of these has left us a record of his experience on this
point—Lincoln, while president, said, “I have never ceased to
pay tribute to the neglect of an early education.” These men
were great, not because of adverse (drcuinstances, but in spite
of them. E irly culture would have only added to their
greatness.
It amounts almost to a fault with Americans, and more
especiallly with Southern young men, that they are too rest
less and impatient—too anxious to quit school and college and
take on the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, without
mature preparation. Hut, as a country grows older, and civ
ilization advances, the necessity for training, intelligently di
rected, becomes more and more a demand. Not that such
training cannot be taken outside of a college—t my be to
serve an apprenticeship in some manufacturing or business
enterprise. But I claim that the young man who first trains
his mind well in the acquisition of usual knowledge, and then
serves his time in business or professiona 1 training, is a much
better equipped man than he who knows nothing b.ut busi
ness for a lifetime. An education is like a house—construct
a good foundation and build well at the start, and after that,
story after story may be piled up with enduring uselulness,
A mind well trained in youth with the principles of science
or literature, has no fixed limit to the extent of its growth and
worth—it becomes thereafter a matter of endurance, ambition,
and self-denial, on the part of the individual. For the first
time, he is in the true sense, the “architect of his own for
tune.” I am aware that many times, financial necessity may
force upon a young man a hasty entrance into professional or
business duties, but my argument is intended for him who
sincerely believes in a hasty and inefficient preparation—be
lieving that atonement can he made later in life.
Great universities are justly the pride of any people.