The Philomathean (Chappell Hill, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, January 1, 1886 Page: 1 of 4
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THE
Pkvotkd to The Intfrests op Our Girls.
Vol. No. 1.
CHAPEL HILL, TEXAS, JANUARY 1886.
50 Cents per Year
Tlie Public Lecture as A Maans
of Education.
We may well exclaim with
Shakespeare 4 Give me advantage |
of some brief discourse." It is
evident that lectures are a most
useful means of promoting the
intellectual and political welfare
of any nation. Long ages ago the
theories of science were made
known by the power of voice and
gesture. Ptolemy, Copernicus,
Kepler and Gallio were enabled
to teach the people the grand
truths of our solar system in this
way.
Our president has instituted a
most useful and entertaining
method of instructing his pupi s
on subjects which cannot well be
learned thrnugh text books, and
while we have this especial privi-
lege, !etus not be-elc* to recognize
and appropriate to ourselves that
which will better qualify ns for
social and practical li e and render
us more capable of enjoying and
appreciating the blessings of the
All wise God. But while these
lectures are for our improvement,
you who have long since left the
confines of your Alma Mater and
have entered upon the duties of
life, may also realize great benefit^
if you will rightly follow the dis-
courses with which you are favor-
ed. The full blown flower is
capable of sending forth sweetre
fragrance. Let us not through
inattention and iack of apprecia-
tion cause our friend to regret this
additional evidence of zeal tor the
welfare of the institution, which
yet through his energy and abilty
shall stand as a proud monument
to coming generations, of chris-
tian education.
Before the invention of the
printing press education was a1-
most entirely transmited through
lectures, orations, or the more
complicated forms of the drama-
" Re call the ancient Greeks, those
people ever comemorated in prose
;■ nd verse." The Greek mind was
curious, bold, enterprising, saga-
i cious, acute, subtile; if it loved
i light too well to be distinctively
| deep, as we say, yet it loved light
| as, at least to be clear; the lecture
i was their method of instruction,
j Socrates, a man second perhaps
; to no figure in Heller's history
| never wrote a word that has sur-
vived, but he gave the impulse to
some of the noblest writings in
Grecian literature. His tongue
was th& pen with which he wrote.
Books could be had only at an
enormous price, such as few could
j afford to pay.—indeed the people
i would have been in a most de-
plorable condition, had they not
received public instruction in
some other way. Although the
press now to a great extent sup-
plies the public demand yet it
cannot take the place of the
lecturer. What can imprint upon
the mind that which-4s to be re
membered, so forcibly as the
human voice making melody in
the heart? It is the envied power
of the orator to sway the mind of
the vast concourse, while the
printed page is often read and
oftener forgotten. Cousin has
clothed 4 The True, the Beautiful,
and the Good" in a language as
extensive as civilization, but those
students who caught the notes as
they fell from his silvery tongue,
received a more lasting impression
than is made by the printed page.
But let us not complain that we
live in these latter days when pen
and paper have to a great extent
taken the place of voice and ges-
ture. Rare intellectual power is
never * monopolized by any one
generation. We are progressing.
Even now we have the Brampton
lectures year after year, and
through the benificense of their
founder much good is being done
in breaking down opposition to
Christianity. Money could not be
expended in a nobler cause, talent
could not be enlisted in a nobler
work. L 0.
A Christmas IMimer.
[HEAD BEFORE THE SOCIETY ]
At a previous meeting of our
society I was put on the program
for this evening, whether for
amusement, entertainment, or edi-
fication, I cannot conjecture. The
subject, "A Christinas Dinner,r at
the proper time was amusing,
highly entertaining, and, 1 hope
sufficiently edifying; but a mere
recapitulation of that day's good
things would hardly prove any of
these; in fact I think it would be
rather hurtful than otherwise,
causing ns as it would to look
back with a sigh, and long for the
flesh pots of Egypt Hut our by-
laws insist upon obedience, and
feeling that 1 must prepare some-
thing, I have been in a state of
much anxiety and purtnrbation as
to what particular bill of fare to
place before the Philomathea.il
family on this occasion The
Christmas dinner should be the
best of all dinners, and in their
selection of a cook the committe
evince very poor ideas of what is
required at so royal a feast. The
prudent directress of Christmas
cheer begins the preparation of
its delicacies many days, even
Cubliuuod uu Hi U m.o.
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Felder, Kate & Tarrant, Mamie. The Philomathean (Chappell Hill, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, January 1, 1886, newspaper, January 1, 1886; Chappell Hill, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth235637/m1/1/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.