Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-08-03
NATURE STRONGER THAN AUTHORITY
AN INSTRUCTIVE STORY.

not talent enough of some sort to earn a re-
/ spectacle living, if it were properly directed.
Many a boy is set apart for profession who has
ssNeither wit nor worth,
Action nor utterance ,northe power of speech
To stir mems blood :''r
/ and the consequence is, he is an infl ction on
the public, and he is eost off to starve and be
| forgotten. Still the unfortunate boy could
have shod Horses, attended machinery, or
| built houses successfully, if he could not make
acceptable sermons or speeches or he could
have herded sheep or cattle however ill quail
fed he might have been to feed the
| flock of God. Another is compelled to
| pursue a mechanical trade whose tastes are
wholly literary and scientific. Close observa-
| tion gives parents the advantage of knowing
! to what business their children are best adapt
ed before they have wasted their best seed
| time, apprenticeship season of life, in find
| ing out that they have mistaken their yoca-
| tions, and must begin again with no better
| success, or blunder on to the grave. The fcl-
lowing, which we copy from an exchange, will
| illustrate this subject:
Mr.. Solomon Winthrop, plain old farmer,
was an austere, precise man, who did every
thing by established rule, who could see no
reason why people should grasp at things be-
| yond what had been reached by their great
| grandfathers. He had three chidren-two
boys and girl. There was jeremiah, seven
teen years old, Samuel, fifteen, and Fanny,
| thirteen.
1t was a cold winters day Samuel was in
| the kitchen, reading book; so interested
was he that he did not notice the entrance of
| his father. jeremiah was in the opposite
corner, engaged in cyphering out sum which
| he had found in his arithmetic.
| ssSam," said the father to his youngest son,
sshave you worked cut that sum yet 10
| "No, sir,'' returned the boy, in hesitating
tone.
sDidn't tell you to stick to your arithme-
| fic till Won had done II 2'' uttered Mr.. w in
| throp, in a severe tone.
| Samuel hung down his head, and looked
] troubled.
"Why hav' mt you done it? 70 continued the
| father.
ssI can't do it, tremblingly returned the
| boy.
ssCan't do it And why not Look at
Jerry there, with his slate and arithmetic. He
had cyphered further than yon long before he
was your age"
| "Jerry was always fond of mathematical
| problems, sir, but cannot fasten my mind on
| them. They have interest to me.''
ssThat's because you don't try to feel an in
terest in your studies. What book is that You
! are reading2''
s.It is a work on philosophy, sr.''
GA work on fiddlestick Go, put it away
/ this instant, and then get your slate, and don't
| let me see you away from your arithmetic
| again until you can work out those roots. Do
| you understand me ?''
| Samuei made no reply, out silently ne put
! away his philosophy, and then he got his slate
and sat down in the chimney corner. His
neither lip trcmbled, and his eyes moistened,
| for he was unhappy. His father had been
| harsh towards him, and he felt that it was
without cause.
"Sam," said Jerry, as soon as the old man
had gone, 81 will do that sum for YOU"
sNo, jerry returned the younger brother,
but with grateful look 'sthat would be de-
ceviHg father. L will try to do the sum, tho
| [ fear 1 shall not succeed.''
Samuel worked very hard but all to no pur-
pose. His mind not on the subject be-
! fore him. The roots and squares the bases,
hypothenuses, and perpendculars, though
comparatively simple in themselves, to
him mingled mass of incomprehensble
| things, and the more he tried the more did he
become perplexed and bothered.
The truth was, his father did not understand
| him.
Samuel was bright boy, and uncommonly
| intelligent for one of his age. Mr.. Winthrop
| was thorough mathematician-he never yet
/ came across the problem he could not solve,
| and he desired that his boys should be like
| him, for he conceived that the acme of edu-
| cational perfection lay in the power of con-
| querng Euclid, and he often expressed his
opinion that, were Euclid living then, he could
| ssgive the old geometrican hard tussel.'
| He seemed not to comprehend that different
| minds were made with different capacities,
and what one mind grasped with ease, another
| of equal power would fail to comprehend.
| Hence. because Jeremiah progressed rapidly
| with his mathematical studies, and could al
| ready survey piece of land of many angles,
| he imaginedo that because Samuel made
progress in the same branch he was idle and
careless, and treated him accordingly. He
| never candidly conversed with his younger
son. with view to ascertain the true bent of
| his mind but he had his own standard of the
| power of all minds, and he pertinaciously adj
| hered to it.
There was another thing that Mr.. Winthrop
| could not see, and that was that Samuel was
| continually pondering upon such profitable
matters as interested him, and that he was
scarcely ever idle <nor did his father see,
| either, that if he even wished his boy to be-
come mathematician, he was pursuing the
very course to prevent such result. Instead
| of endeavoring to make the study Interesting
| to the child, he was making it obnoxious.
! The dinner hour came, and Samuel had not
worked out the sum. His father was angry,
| and oblidged the boy to go without his dinner,
| at the same time telling him that he was an
| idle, lazy child.
| Poor Samuel left the kitchen and went up
to his chamber, and there he sat and cried.
at length his mind med to pass from the
4 wrong he had suffered at the hand OF MS pa
Trent, and took another turn, and the grie1
| marks left his face. There was large hre In
| the room below his chamber, SO that ne was
| hot very cold and getting up, he went 10
| small closet, and from beneath iot OF oio
| clothes he dragged forth some long strips OF
| wood, and commenced whiting. 1t was not
| for mere pastime that no whittled' ios NC was
| IA shioninr some curious affair from those pie
ees of wood. He had bits OF wire, little
| scraps of tin plate, pieces of twine, and do
zens of small wheels that ne had made himself,