The Abbott Lecture

rrom Yesterday's U. of M. Daily. The usual large audience greeted lev. Lyman Abbott, the distinguished preacher of Plymouth church, last evening, in University lall. Mr. Abbott is not of preposessing appearance on the platform, but his audience soon loses sight of the speaker's personal appearance, n the deepness of his thought, his attractive style and eloquent utterance. The lecturer said: Living in a world outside of academie walls, I may without egotism, accept the invitation to talk to fellow-students, respecting the real meaning of education; the interpretation ofjife itself,as seèn in a large and comprehensive view, not acadernical discoveries respecting learning, but learning and life together. The constant tendency of j(ian is to idolatry. It is not the pagan alone who puts the image' in place of a god. The tendency of mathematics is to put a chalk mark on the board and cali it a line. It is my purpose to show God more than an image; that life is more than what we cali learning; art more than fiction, and music something beside an instrument. What is education? Is it to grind out Greek and atin? Or is there some goal to be reached, some end in view? The young man goes from his college education to that of business - the practical learning. An aching tooth will teach patience better than a preacher. This is the benefit of democracy, that men can be taught better by blunders íhan by superiors. The foreigner lands in America and in fourorfive years we give him the ballot. It is because the United States is the best school ever organized on the globe. Education is for character, it is man-building, and life carries it on. We are not born to be made lawyers, doctors, or teachers, but to be made men, to prepare for life. AH education is worked by its p.ower to mold true character, the only thing in the world to live for. What we suffer is a small matter, what we are is the transcendent,, question. Mathematics is not to'niake bookkeepers.- It has a deeper signifificance. We learn in it accuracy, that two and two do not sometimes make four, but always. We learn that we are in an exact universe. God's laws are not like Greek rules, in which the exceptions outnumber the illustrations. Human freewill itself is subject to law that guides it. We study Latin as a means to an end. Literature is a gate behind which is human experience. The true study of boqks is to get knowledge of our brother-man. The poet sees what other men fail to see ind puts the spark ot humamty into liis visión. Why is history to be studied? Not to learn something and recite them. It is to trace the progress of mankind from the eradle to maturity. We are just beginning to know that we are singing creatures. There is no art so pure as music. It comes straight frora heaven. Nothing disturbs it. If clouds hide it, it turns them to golden glory. Science tells how to make machinery minister to our life. Machinery is the world's brother. Nature is a book in which there are great truth-s, and science is interpreting the truth. It tells what the ïieroglypics mean. Science has aught us the unity of the universe. Philosophy is not to know the opinión of men on absolute questions, not to get acquainted with scholasticism, but to learn what are the laws that bind us together in fellowship. To teach happiness is to teach selfishness; but to teach virtue is to instruct in manliness and courage. The end of all study is to live a nobler Ufe, to have more love, to be nearer to a loving God. Ideáis are realities. Education is to get at truth. Creeds are good for nothing if they do not help us to think. Democracy of learning is for men of every race and clime, and even for women. Education is life, love, and God.