Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors.

Date:
[1874?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religious and educational aspects of temperance / by various authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    134/172 (page 130)
    Sir Charles Reed put the motion, which was carried amidst hearty cheers. The Right Rev. Chairman, in responding to the resolution, said : I think I ought to say that, when just now, according to the order of proceeding that was put into my hands, I called upon Sir Charles Reed to address the meeting, I was not at all aware of the way in which he was going to use the opportunity, and so put me in the somewhat absurd position of asking somebody to say something in my praise. (Laughter.) Of course, I cannot but be grateful to him and to Dr. Richardson for the very kind language they have used. The part that I have taken, although it is in a certain sense a prominent part, yet, as you know very well, is a subordinate part. It is so in almost all the arrangements of this world. You almost always find that you have to employ two sorts of people : there are the ornamental people who get all the pay and all the honour, and there are the useful people who do all the work. (Cheers and laughter.) One of the great, and. I suppose, one of the fundamental principles of society is that these two parts should never be confused, and that you should never employ an ornamental man for a useful purpose, nor a useful man for an ornamental purpose. (Laughter.) In accordance with this great rule, I accept very heartily and gladly the thanks that have been given me to-night; but, at the. same time, I cannot help feeling that, if I had the opportunity of doing a great deal more than it is possible for me to do for the promotion of this cause, there is no cause to which a man could more wisely devote his life than the promotion of temperance amongst his fellow-countrymen. (Cheers.) I am always very glad indeed when any chance is given me of coming in such a character as that in w'hich I come to you to-night, to take the ad- vantage of that chance, and to do what little I can do for the great cause in which so many are labouring with all their might. And in the present instance I feel a double interest in what has now been proposed. I feel a double interest in it because it touches this cause just at the very point where my own feelings are most readily roused. I have all my life had a great deal to do with education. (Hear, hear.) I have all my life had a great deal to do with the instruc- tion of the young. I always feel more at home in talking to boys than in talking to men or grown-up people generally. I always feel as if I could understand them and they could understand me a great deal better than when I have to do with those whose characters are already formed, and the sum of whose knowledge is for the most part made up. And it is a very great satisfac- tion to me to be able to express my hearty interest in the pro- posal that is made to-night to bring to bear upon the education of the young the importance of the acquisition of the knowledge which