The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1857-12-16
Rrains and Colleges.

Necessity, which is the mother of invention,
is the mother also of power. The child of ten
derness and luxury is delicate and feeble; but
the son of labor Crews up strong and rugged as
his native hills. Many distinguished leader in
the worlds arts and affairs has owed his great
ness to the hard discipline of early privation
and want.
Cast the bantlihg on the rocks,
Sucke him with the she VOLTS test;
House him with the hawk and fox;
Power to him be hands and feet!
The same rule which applies generally to
the development of energy and hardihood, ap-
plies to the mental education particularly. The
College is good thing. Through its easy av.
enues the great professions Of students must
pass to reach the average lines of liberal educa-
ton. The majority must always follow in beat
en- tracks The common mind, ambitious of a
certain culture, cannot dispense with the estab-
lished routine. 1t is only the mind of uncom-
mon capacity and vigor that can afford to step
aside from the old method and break for itself
new track. When such mind arrives, no
obstacles avail against it; and those who are pro-
crossing leisurely and slowly in the smooth
path are astonished to see the agile and daring
feat Of genius leaping over rocks and chasms,
and speeding from crag to .crag, above and be-
yonde them.
The College, we repeat. is a good thing. Yet it
is dangerous, even fatal to many persons of su-
perior natural ability, who from monotenous
course of cramming become intellectual dys-
peptics md loose all appetite for learning. The
mind like the body, should feed only when hun.
CRY. Its not at all more natural to stuff con-
tnually with science. and the languages than
with beef and pudding. Homer is as bad as
too much mutton, A surieit of Euclid is as
much to be avoided as surfeit Of any other
viands. 1t takes asound intellectual stomach
and vigorous constitution to go through the reg
ular courses of the collegiate banquet and como
out uuimpaired.
If the College benefited only the average
majority of mediocre students, not much Ger
tainly could be said in its praise. Learned me.
diocrty is an insipd affais. We heartily ad
mre sturdy, honest farmer, an ingenius me-
chanic, an enterprising man Of business, but DR.
Commonplace does not amount to much, with
all his Greek and Latin. Perhaps the worlc
lost good carpenter when he went to College
But while the college marshals an artuy, large
portion ofwhich might far better be distributed
through the common trades and employment o.
of life, it affords excellent help to numbers O
superior athletic minds. Mark we say, help. =
The college is only a help at the best. Otter
an absolute injury to those who need the stim
ulous of obstacle to provoke them on, it can of
ter all afford but little hospitality to those put.
ting it to its highest use. The powerful and
termined mind cannot fail Of success. COLLEGE
or no college, the resolute boy will have his ed
ucation. All the better for him, perhaps, if h
snatches his intellectual food at intervals al
ways with keen appetite for it, never satisfied
but longing continually for more, while at worl
he revolves in his mind thoroughly what ha
already been attained. And it is encouraging
to know that in this land of cheap books an
liberty ofchoice, he who at heart prefers knowl
edge to idle hours and Improbable company
can obtain itin spite of poverty, and in con
tempt Of schools.