_Question_. What is the history of the speech delivered here in
1876? Was it extemporaneous?
_Answer_. It was not born entirely of the occasion. It took me
several years to put the thoughts in form--to paint the pictures
with words. No man can do his best on the instant. Iron to be
beaten into perfect form has to be heated several times and turned
upon the anvil many more, and hammered long and often.
You might as well try to paint a picture with one sweep of the
brush, or chisel a statue with one stroke, as to paint many pictures
with words, without great thought and care. Now and then, while
a man is talking, heated with his subject, a great thought, sudden
as a flash of lightning, illumines the intellectual sky, and a
great sentence clothed in words of purple, falls, or rather rushes,
from his lips--but a continuous flight is born, not only of
enthusiasm, but of long and careful thought. A perfect picture
requires more details, more lights and shadows, than the mind can
grasp at once, or on the instant. Thoughts are not born of chance.
They grow and bud and blossom, and bear the fruit of perfect form.
Genius is the soil and climate, but the soil must be cultivated,
and the harvest is not instantly after the planting. It takes time
and labor to raise and harvest a crop from that field called the
brain.
_Question_. Do you think young men need a college education to
get along?
_Answer_. Probably many useless things are taught in colleges.
I think, as a rule, too much time is wasted learning the names of
the cards without learning to play a game. I think a young man
should be taught something that he can use--something he can sell.
After coming from college he should be better equipped to battle
with the world--to do something of use. A man may have his brain
stuffed with Greek and Latin without being able to fill his stomach
with anything of importance. Still, I am in favor of the highest
education. I would like to see splendid schools in every State,
and then a university, and all scholars passing a certain examination
sent to the State university free, and then a United States
university, the best in the world, and all graduates of the State
universities passing a certain examination sent to the United States
university free. We ought to have in this country the best library,
the best university, the best school of design in the world; and
so I say, more money for the mind.
_Question_. Was the peculiar conduct of the Rev. Dr. Parkhurst,
of New York, justifiable, and do you think that it had a tendency
to help morality?
_Answer_. If Christ had written a decoy letter to the woman to
whom he said: "Go and sin no more," and if he had disguised himself
and visited her house and had then lodged a complaint against her
before the police and testified against her, taking one of his
disciples with him, I do not think he would have added to his
reputation.
--_The News_, Indianapolis, Indiana, February 18, 1892.