CHAPTER XIX. LECTURE—EDUCATION OF THE HEART-THE TEACHER'S - VOCATION-ELEMENTS OF WORTH IN CHARACTERELOQUENT PLEA FOR THINGS PURE AND GOOD. A LECTURE by Mr. Colfax, entitled "Education of the Heart," delivered at the commencement exercises of Aurora (Illinois) Seminary, June, 1867, is a plea for things pure and excellent, and of good report, which reflects features of his own character, and makes us more familiar with his worth. In the principles and practices it so eloquently advocates, it is but an expression in words of that which has governed him in his career. This lecture has received high commendation from such men as ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts, who was also at one time Superintendent of Public Instruction in that State. It has been widely circulated in this country, and has been reprinted in pamphlet form in England: EDUCATION OF THE HEART. "In all the realm of animated nature there is nothing so absolutely helpless as a child when it first opens its eyes upon the world. And yet there is nothing of vaster importante. The greatest works of art will perish. The cataract of Niagara will cease to flow. The proudest nation, whose conquering eagles have defied a continent, will pass away. But the sleeping infant, in its mother's arms, enshrines a soul that shall live, in joy or misery, throughout the countless ages of eternity; and may even, in its brief span of earthly years, like Moses, David, or Paul; or Homer, Plato, or Demosthenes; or Cæsar, Washington, or Lincoln; or Zenobia, Joan of Arc, or Florence Nightingale, so live that history shall never tire of the record of its deeds while time doth last or this earth of ours endure. "We come, too, into this breathing world with good and evil mysteriously combined within us. Our souls are immortal, and we are created in the image of God. But a little time, comparatively, passes by before the child develops temper, self-will, defiance, anger, revenge, in a greater or milder degree, and compels that parental restraint so valuable and necessary in every household. And thus the spirit of Good and the spirit of Evil struggle for the mastery in every heart. With every good impulse drawing us toward the right, and every wicked temptation and unrestrained passion drawing us toward the wrong, we commence the earnest, ceaseless battle for life. "Our birth is but a starting-place, "Properly trained, conscientiously directed, the child grows up into the affectionate, enlightened, energetic, self-denying man or woman, an honor and a blessing to the community, loved while living, and when life's fitful fever is over, remembered by many hearts long after the funeral flowers of the cemetery have blossomed on their grave. But how different his life and character, who, unblessed by healthful and virtuous surroundings, or madly defying them all, cultivates only the evil side of his nature! Like the rank weed of your garden, it soon extirpates all that is good and valuable; and you see before you a life, of which you cannot truthfully say that it is worthless, because it is far worse. "All around us we see this contest. And the responsibilities for its results lie at our very door. Whether those who are to come after us shall have every advantage to arm and strengthen themselves against the influence of evil depends in a large degree on the conduct of the generation which precedes them in the family circle, or the wider sphere of the community wherein they dwell. "It is men that make the State. An island full of savages can be nothing but a savage State. Where the people worship idols of wood and stone, mankind call it a heathen State. A country of impure men must be an impure State. But where morality and intelligence prevail, and right bears sway, and conscience is respected and obeyed, the on-looking world recognizes that there is a country worthy to be embraced in the circle of Christendom, and to rank high among the civilized States of the earth. "The hope of any country must therefore always be with its young. With them we see the candle of life, not like us of middle age, half consumed, but just lit; and so to be trimmed that it shall burn brighter and brighter till it expires in the socket. And this fact has been recognized in every age of the world. Heraclitus, who twenty-five hundred years ago was called the crying philosopher, refused to accept the chief magistracy of his nation, preferring to spend his time in educating children than even to govern the corrupt Ephesians. Cataline, when he sought, two thousand years ago, to overthrow the liberties of his country, and-as traitors in our own era have done to act the parricide toward the land which had given him birth, and honors, and power, attempted first to corrupt the younger Romans, and thus to win them to his nefarious endeavors. "If you concede, then-as you must, for history is full of its proofs-that the hope of a country is with its young, how priceless are the hundreds of institutions like this, and the tens of thousands of schools of other grades in which our land rejoices to-day! How truly did Cicero declare: 'Study cherishes youth, delights age, adorns prosperity, furnishes support in adversity, tarries with us by night and by day, and attends us in all our journeyings and wanderings !' And again, when on another occasion that eloquent orator eulogized Wisdom: 'For what is there,' said he, 'more desirable than wisdom? What more excellent and lovely in itself? What more useful and becoming for a man? or what more worthy of his reasonable nature?' And, in the inspired record, Solomon, in even a loftier strain than the master of Roman eloquence, exclaims: 'Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth her. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee. She shall bring to thy head an ornament of grace. A crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.' "Recognizing, as I trust all of you do, without further argument or illustration, that the mind, like the earth, yields the richest fruit only when cultivated, I wish to improve this opportunity, accidentally opened to me, by a few remarks, first to the Teachers, and lastly to the Taught. "Of all the earthly professions I know of none more honorable, more useful, wider-reaching in its influence than the profession of the teacher. If faithful in this vocation, he has a right to claim, as John Howard did, that his monument should be a sun-dial, not ceasing to be useful even after death. He is to so fill the fountains of the minds committed to his charge that from thence shall ever flow streams fertilizing and beneficent; and he is to be the exemplar for the young before him in healthful moral influence, which is the foundation of character. "As no one is fit to be an officer in war who has not heroic blood in his veins, or to be an artist who has no esthetic taste, or to be a poet who does not understand the power of rhythm or meter, or to be a historian or a statesman without a broad and comprehensive mind, so no one should be a teacher who has not a heart full of love for the profession, and an energy and enthusiasm willing joyously to confront all its responsibilities. It requires great patience, untiring industry, abounding kindness, pure unselfishness, and fidelity to duty and principle. And when happily combined, success is absolutely assured. "And first let me say, as children resemble their parents in feature, so will they resemble in character the teacher who trains their youthful years. If that teacher has an excess of the gall of bitterness instead of the milk of human kindness, its daily exhibition will assist in the development of the evil side of all who witness it. But if, on the contrary, he or she brings sunshine into the room when they enter-diffuses happiness, by genial |