Antioch College

“ The work done by Horace Mann for education includes his labors as president of Antioch College from 1852 to 1859. He maintained that the chief end of education is the development of character; and he sought to make the college an altruistic community, in which teachers and students should labor together for the best good of all. He put into practice the nonsectarian principle, made the college coeducational, and developed the spirit of individual freedom as one of cardinal importance in education. ”

“ At the age of fifteen she began to teach school during the winter months, attending school herself in the summer. At eighteen she entered Holyoke seminary, but finding the advantages there inadequate for a thorough education, her parents removed, for her benefit, to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she entered Antioch college, Horace Mann, one of the best educators of his day, being president. ”

“ The district school, with a woman to teach in the summer and a man in the winter, had to suffice until she was fifteen, when she was permitted to go to a small boarding-school. The following year she went to the new Friend's boarding-school in Union Springs, N. Y. Graduating after a three-year course, just as the war broke out, she was turned from her purpose of entering Oberlin or Antioch College, the only higher institutions of learning then open to women. ”

“ It is for such students that Antioch is open. One-third of her present pupils are women. Pleasant levees are held once a fortnight at the president's house, where the two sexes mingle gracefully. The girls have a literary society, which they call the Crescent; the young men, two societies, the Star and the Adelphian. The Star and the Crescent have fitted up one room under the gambrel very tastefully. The Adelphians rival them. The folding-doors in the hall of the latter society open into a pretty alcove, where a good library is beginning. ”

“ The much-coveted college course was not given up. The university in Ann Arbor was founded, and its doors were afterwards thrown open to women. Antioch with Horace Mann at its head admitted women and in the spring of 1856 Miss Way entered the preparatory department of that college. ”

“ This was within 100 miles of Antioch College, and in the fall we went to Antioch, Yellow Springs, took up our abode in two of the old south dormitory rooms, and I entered the Academy for a course of study. Our income was small and a large part of that must be spent for car-fare. Again the good wife proved a helpmeet indeed, by very materially assisting in taking care 175 of the expenses. However, we had to live without meat and other luxuries. I continued at Antioch three years, at which time I went to Muncie, Ind., and entered the New Palmer University, and remained there until Mr. ”

“ These facts, especially the latter, excited marked attention, and, notwithstanding the disasters which interrupted the work of Antioch, and the poverty which has kept it a small college, the fame of Horace Mann, inseparably connected with its history, has made its influence in behalf of co-education potent.
OPENING WEDGES. The conditions of pioneer life are favorable to co-education. The exigencies incident to life in a new country destroy certain barriers between men and women which are fixed in old and settled communities. ”

“ Going westward to Antioch, it was pleasant to find other women who had taken their degrees, and were now teaching Greek and Latin. One of the graduates, employed as a teacher of mathematics, had won her own education in the college by teaching one year,—sometimes in distant district-schools,—and studying the next. At Oberlin, the picture was still more inspiring: for Oberlin has, I suppose, more pupils than any college in the land, if we except Michigan University; and one-half of them are girls and women. The practical working of this college is beautiful to see. ”

“ Beside these twenty-five colleges, Antioch has been working steadily for twenty-four years, and in addition to the small institutions scattered all through New York and the Middle States, Cornell has lately opened her doors to the same system. All those who have practical experience of its results know how much wiser, sweeter, and more serene is the life that is shaped by its methods. ”

“ The young women are allowed to pursue the University Course, though out of the four or five hundred young women who are in attendance, those who have taken degrees give only an average of about two in a year. At Antioch there was a large range of optional subjects, and among them was Greek, which the Western young men were about as much disposed to omit as the young women. ”

“ By a second bribe of 150 talents he obtained permission from his patron to establish at Jerusalem a gymnasium for athletic exercises, and with such success that even the priests despised the Temple and neglected the sacrifices to take part in the games (2 Macc. iv. 14) . He next procured a license to establish an academy in which the Jewish youth might be brought up in the Grecian fashion, and was empowered to confer the citizenship of Antioch on many of his fellow-countrymen, who eagerly coveted the empty honour (2 Macc. iv. 9) . ”

“ No doubt all the believers in Antioch rejoiced greatly when they heard of the success which had attended the Apostles' preaching; for all who know and love God themselves, are anxious that others should do so also.
St. Paul and St. Barnabas abode for some time with the disciples at Antioch: probably for about two years. Towards the end of this period, the Christians at Antioch were disturbed by the mistaken teaching of certain men who came down from Judæa. ”

“ What more could mortal man on earth desire? All these can Antioch boast of, besides the many pleasant reminiscences connected with the spot. Its primitive Christian Church, the great success that crowned the early efforts of those two devout and indefatigable apostles, Paul and Barnabas;—the city, the birthplace of St. Luke, the beloved physician, where originated the name of that faith, which is our pride, our boast, and the source of all our hope; these are ties which render Antioch, in the devout Christian’s estimation, second only to Jerusalem. ”

“ Let no one among you be idle; for idleness is the mother of want. I do not enjoin these things as being a person of any consequence, although I am in bonds [for Christ] ; but as a brother, I put you in mind of them. The Lord be with you!
Chapter X.—Salutations.
May I enjoy your prayers! Pray ye that may attain to Jesus. I commend unto you the Church which is at Antioch. The Churches of Philippi, [37] whence also I write to you, salute you. Philo, your deacon, to whom also I give thanks as one who has zealously ministered to me in all things, salutes you. ”

“ They chose a man of an appropriate age, who was known for his learning, and they brought him to Antioch to be ordained. After he had been ordained a bishop, he did not neglect to carry out the journey to Jerusalem, but he assigned the task of guarding the city to someone who volunteered for the task, and set out with the others, brave man, with little income, he who remained behind set out to protect the citadel with the few people he could afford to hire. ”

“ In 1442 came the first Provost, William of Waynflete, from Winchester, bringing with him, no doubt, some scholars who formed the nucleus of the new foundation. So much on the lines of the College on the banks of the Itchen was Eton founded, though from the first various differences [5] prevailed—the number of commoners in college (commensales in collegio) , for instance, was doubled, it being stipulated that they must belong to families entitled to bear arms. ”

“ During a journey through Gaul and the provinces of the Rhine and Moselle he seems to have formed the fixed resolve to devote himself to theology and an ascetic life. Then for more than a year he stayed at Aquileia, A.D. 372, where he formed an intimate friendship with Rufinus. He next undertakes a journey to the East. At Antioch in a vision, during a violent fever, placed before the throne of the judge of all, having answered the question Who art thou? by the confession that he was a Christian, he heard the words distinctly uttered: Thou liest! thou art a Ciceronian and no Christian! ”

“ Antioch was the first city in the world to have Gentile Christians in it and it was from this city that Christianity spread out over the world and conquered the Roman Empire and became a world movement, and, as we shall see, the man from Tarsus was in this great undertaking the foremost leader and the untiring worker. ”

“ Upon the western hill was built a very strong citadel, which dominated the city. The ramparts of Antioch, which were as solid as a rock, were three leagues in circumference, and along them were built no less than three hundred and sixty strong towers. Broad ditches, the river Orontes, and marshes, still further protected the inhabitants of Antioch, and prevented all access to the city. At the approach of the Christians, most321 of the inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces and cities sought refuge in Antioch, with their families and their property. ”

“ Christian.—In the 11th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the 26th verse, we read, "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." As the result of the persecutions which arose about St. Stephen, some of the disciples who had to flee for their lives came to Antioch. In time there grew up a church there, a mixed society of Jews and Gentiles, and the citizens of Antioch naturally asked, "What are they?" ”

“ They who could not be conquered might be seduced, and enemies might be overcome by an adroit and generous enterprise. Among the inhabitants of Antioch, widely differing in morals and religion, opposite in interests, there must be some to be found who would be accessible to baits of gold or to brilliant promises. ”

“ Antioch was at this time the adopted city of a very active community of Christians, many of whom were Grecians and others Gentiles. Paul, whose special talents and education admirably fitted him for this class of converts, being now at Tarsus, was sent for, and he remained in Antioch for about a year; when he, with others, began a series of missionary tours whereby the gospel was not only extended throughout Western Asia but introduced into Europe, as we shall soon see. ”

“ Work at Antioch. The history of the spread of Christianity for the next decade is chiefly a record of the work of the great apostle to the Gentiles. The graphic passages in the second half of the book of Acts present a remarkably vivid picture of his journeys and experiences. It was natural that Paul, a native of Asia Minor, should not remain in the narrower atmosphere of Palestine, but should find instead a congenial environment and field of work in Antioch, the great and opulent capital of Syria, the third metropolis of the Roman empire. ”

“ One of these, Methodius, and six other metropolitans subscribed the protest of the Eastern Church against the errors of Calvin. Hamilton, subsequently, found at Antioch an inscription reading ANTIOCHEAE CAESARE, which proves the truth of Arundell’s inferences (i. p. 474) .
87. Strabo speaks of the worship of this deity (ἱεροσύνη τις Μηνὸς Ἀρκαίου) at Antioch in olden times. It seems to have been abolished for some time, but to have been revived in Roman days, as coins exist with the god Lunus leaning on a column, and the legend COL. MEN. ANTIOCH, or MENSIS. COL. CAES. ANTIOCH. ”

“ This is not the same Antioch that you read about in history, but quite a different place. It was a place where nearly every one was very dark as to the complexion, and rather short as to the temper and figure. People who were fair in the face and easy in the temper were not thought much of in Antioch. When Tony’s mother saw that her baby was as fair as a daffodil and as good as gold, and laughed all day, she said, “Oh dear, oh dear, I suppose he takes after his grandfather, he is not in the least like my family,” and the matter annoyed her so much that she died. ”

“ He had been a youthful Colleger himself, and probably considered that the whole thing was merely a too enthusiastic performance of an old Eton tradition, which in his eyes excused a good deal.
In school work the Collegers then, as now, easily maintained an almost unchallenged supremacy. Almost without exception the sons of poor parents, accurately grounded and imbued with the idea that education was a real preparation for life, they knew that they would have to make their way in the world by their own exertions, for which reason to be “a sap” in College was quite an ordinary thing. ”

“ For his body, I think I may take the Canon of Polyclitus as my model. He must be perfectly proportioned: neither immoderately tall nor dwarfishly short; not too fleshy (a most unpromising quality in one of his profession) nor cadaverously thin. Let me quote you certain comments of the people of Antioch, who have a happy knack in expressing their views on such subjects. They are a most intelligent people, and devoted to Pantomime; each individual is all eyes and ears for the performance; not a word, not a gesture escapes them. ”

“ The beauty and the lax morals of Daphne were celebrated all over the western world; and indeed Antioch as a whole shared in both these titles to fame. Its amenities awoke both the enthusiasm and the scorn of many writers of antiquity.
Antioch became the capital and court-city of the western Seleucid empire under Antiochus I., its counterpart in the east being Seleucia-on-Tigris; but its paramount importance dates from the battle of Ancyra (240 B.C.) , which shifted the Seleucid centre of gravity from Asia Minor, and led indirectly to the rise of Pergamum. ”