University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

Page 25 text:

Jk0oof of S tfieraf (Ztvfe j 1 1 E School of Liberal Arts, including as it does the Humanities, the Moderns, Mathematics and History, is an historic one—until quite recently it comprised the principal features of a finished education and formed the basis for the scholarly types of the so-called “old school.” ’Tis this School of Arts that g Jjggg| marks the distinguishing characteristic between the Training School and the College. It is this then that makes us what we are, lacking only the name of, University of Arkansas. The School of Liberal Arts, or rather some of its branches, are just now convalescing from an almost fatal attack of vicious legislation. We are glad to say that recuperation has now thoroughly set in and a speedy recovery may safely be chronicled. The wide and extensive learning to be acquired, the broad culture, refinement and mental discipline to be derived from a pursuit of such studies as I have mentioned above, go far to prove and attest the wisdom and prudence of many who make the choice. They stand as fundamental requirements of a liberal education, as Demeter, Poseidon, Apollo, and Athena stood as repre¬ sentatives of Earth, Water, Fire and Air in the physical world, according to the conceptions of ancient mythology. Under the wise and prudent guidance of gifted and learned teachers, the stu¬ dents drink afresh from that fountain of knowledge at which the Blind Bard of the Ancients must have taken hearty draughts and then sung his songs of Troy tuned to such music that even the gods consent to give ear. They wander again with Virgil’s .Eneas from his ill-fated home to distant abodes on Italia’s far off shores. They sit enchanted by the fiery eloquence of Demos¬ thenes as he thunders forth his bold Phillipics. They hear again those melli fluous words and smooth flowing sentences of Cicero when he flatters Caius Julius Ciesar. They feel the fiery blood in their veins as they read the exciting scenes of the French Revolution, or this warlike spirit is quenched by stories of German discoveries and additions to the great store-house of knowledge, making it quite evident that “ Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.” They understand as never before the course of the stars and worlds in space worked out to a mathematical nicety and wander through the intricacies of the Spiral of Archimedes. From history they learn that for generations, aye, even for ages, men have done these same things in which they are now engaged, and it teaches them that in its repetition we are forced to exclaim with the wise man: “There is nothing new under the sun.” ' j ! - 18