Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1854-07-26
Learn every thing, but Know Nothing.

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Learn every thing, but Know Nothing.
Itmay be said emphatically, that this is
an age when children learn every thing, but
know nothing. This is especially true of
young girls. The fashionable seminaries. for
the education Of the future wives and moth
ers of the republic, usually undertake. with
the most self-complaeent absurdity, to in
struct their pupils in every thing, from
French to embroidery, from geology to mu-
sic. A young lady, in this age of progress,
is not considered TO be making any advances
at all in education, unless she is studying at
one and the same time, the harp and piano,
German and Italian, crotchetwork and FASH
ionable netting, drawing and dancing, the
art of composition and the art of making
courtesy, physiology and painting, algebra
and astronomy, with natural philosophy in
all its branches, and artificial manners in
their conventionalities. As consequence,
the rising generation. Of young females ex@
hibits myriads of smatterers, but very few
thoroughly educated women. The fair stu
dents almost invariably forget to day what
they were taught yesterday. Undertaking
to learn too much they end by learning MOTH
ing. Even what is acquiredis is held only
specifically. And what is true of young
girls is true also of boys, though, we are
glad 10 say, not in so great degree.
lis the fault of modern academies gener-
ally to attempt to teach too much. The popG
ular notion, that the more studies pupil has.
the better must be his education, is radically
wrong; and yet instructors, who know bet-
ter, in order to make their schools flourish
ing ones, truckle to this idea. But a good
education depends, less on the number Of
branches studied, than the thoroughness with
which few are mastered. Far be it from
the Ledger to say that child should remain
in ignorance of geography, arithmetic, SPELL
ing, history, or other necessary branches
This is not what we mean. What we do
mean Is, that our children should be taught
these fundamental studies thoroughly, before.
they are carried forward to others of less i'm
pOrtance, or instructed in what are merely
accomplishments. We maintain that the
woman who writes and speaks her own LAM
guage correctly, has more finished educa.
ton than she who cannot spell common En-
glish words though she NAV pbber bad
French, We assert that lie boy, who has-
mastered one thing Thoroughly, whether it be
stands better cGance &c 5I5c6ed IN lie thaIn
be who can conjugate in dozen languages,
dead or living, and is therefore no proficient
in either, or his own.
We once knew an old lawyer, who, when.
new student presented himself, put Black
stone into the young mans lands. Read
that for year, he was accustomed to say,
1and then I'll give you something else.'-
To spend year over a single treatise, COM
prised in but four volumes seemed, at first,
a useless waste of time The student, ii
quick reader, had generally finished the
book in month. But the preceptor was
invariably inexorable. You think youkDow
1T, do your he would say sarcaStically.-
We'll, what is the rule in Shelly's case 2
Perhaps the youth had been fortunate enough
to notice and remember the abstruse distinc-
ton taken ON the famous trial Bat even
if he had, the old lawyer was sure to trip him
up in FIVE minutes, on something else
Back 10 Blackstone the student went, at last
aware of his DEFICIENCIES, and read, and noted
and analyzed for perhaps a couple ofmonth:
more. Then he returned to the old story
that there was othing left to be learned
But the thorough old common-law advocat
soon caught him again. When Blaekston,
: was finished at last, it was finished, as it were
T for life. Every line almost was fixed foreve
in the students mind. He could look back
: mentally, over the four volumes, as a spec
!, tator gazes from mountain top over wild
, level country spread beneath him, and ma
Z out the whole without a single omissio
= or blunder. He had a lifelong clue TO IL
= :. labyrinth.
= The old lawyers plan of teaching law
" the only correct plan of teaching anythin
Boys or girls, educated on similar th
= rough system, at least knew what they a
q talking about, when they talk at all The
have acquired discipline of mind, and cle
le ideas with it. If they undertake to writ
y they write ssnsibly aHd correctly. If the
Is Is are called in the duties of life to decide
e' some novel combination of circumstance
a they think accurately, because they immeC
'S- ately know where to look for the keysto
K of the problem. The vast aeld of kno,
;, edge is no longer labyrinth to them,
is they hold the clue to it in disciplined mi
ny and a capacity to study properly. Itis ne,
II difficult to recognize such persons, even
ac five minutes conversation. They
nd distinguishable, at glance, from those
ay, perfectly educated individuals of either 81
I'VE who, to use simile of Lord Bolingbrot
YER rattle on as meaninglessly as alarm clio,
me that have been sprung prematurely y.-Phi
OF deIphia Ledger.