Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-06-11
From the Springfield Republican
Preaohings upon Popular Proverbs.
BY TIMOTHY rIrcoNB.-NunBER NINE


"a mere scholar at court is an ass among apes
ga handful of is worth bushe of learning"
"Wisdom does sot always speak in Greek and Latin
IA man must sell his at the rate of the market"
The intrinsic value of learning, as a pos
session and a power, is exhibited most re-
markably, perhaps, in man who knows
everything, and is nothing. He may be
likened to pond full of water, without an
outlet. The water is all very well in itself,
though none the better for being stagnant
A few lazy lily-pads may seek the sun upon
its surface, but its chief Office is to drink
old starlight, to entertain the shadows of
the tall trees that grow upon its banks, and
to receive them when they fall. If it can
be artifcially tapped, for the purpose of
feeding some literary institution, as the Bos-
tonians have tapped the Cochituate, it is
very well and this seems to be about the
only use it can be appropriated to- Very
unlike this is the learning that has natu-
raj, common-sense delivery, through stream
that carries out into the world, full and
free, its aggregated crystal, to feed the
roots of flowers and grasses, and sake the
thirst of flocks and herds, and torture the
sunshine as it slides down rocky rapids, and
turns the mill wheel that grinds the corn
and weaVes the fabrics Of the poor, and
"Repeat the music of the rain"
at the feet Of plashy waterfalls and Join
and mingle in the river of human action
that sweeps on to fill the ocean of human
achievements. do not think that it can
be said, trnthfulIy, that learning possesses
intrinsic, Independent value or that it has
power in and Of itself, TO make man
either valuable, in and of itself, to make a
man either valuable to himself or the world.
Learning may as well lie dormant in dead
books as in dead men. l would as soon
have library that costs nothing after pur-
chase, but the busting, as q learned man
who eats and drinks and wears respectable
broadcloth. In fact, the library is more
ornamental and less troublesome than the
man, and is not always painfully reminding
one that it might possibly have made a
good tin-peddlcri if it had begun early enough
in life
am aware that this is not the usual
view of this subject. Some, perhaps, as
sent to it nationally, but practically it is
hardly entertained at all. The pupil in the
humblest school is estimated entirely ac-
cOrding to his capacity to cram into his
mental NAV and retain the facts in phloso-
ply, science and history set before him.
Memory is everything reason, thorough
intellectual digestion and symmetrical in
tellectual development, are nothing. This
runs up the whole grade of educational in-
sttutionS, and comes to a head not unfre-
quently on Commencement days, when the
ass OF class pronounceS the Valedictory,
to subside into nonentity and the really
educated man leaves without an appoint
ment, and with the plying contempt of the
Faculty, to win the worlds prizes, reflect
honor upon the college, and to take rank
among the intellectual giants of his time
Learning and education are widely deemed
identical things and synonymous words
Consequently we have among the learned,
in wOrk-a-day y-world like this, constant
surprises. They find themselves shelved,
laid aside, left behind, while the unlearned
take their places in the worlds eye, in the
worlds heart, and in the worlds work -
Cobbler's represent a state full of colleges
in the national councils, machnists become
brilliant speakers aud wise governors, and
country merchants stand at the head of ed
ucational systems that embrace the growing
mind OF O state. All the developments of
the age serve to illustrate the snperiority
OF wisdom and common sense to mere learn
ing, and the utter worthlesSness of learn
ing when disSociated from those qualities
and powers which can bring it into relation
WIN the practical questions and every day
life of time.
am not seeking to dpreciate learning
but, to define its real value. 1t has stood
in the worlds progress, almost as much as
it has contributed to it. It's tendency is
to worship the old-to abide within the
bounds OF old formularies invented by
less developed life than ours, to look chaos
ward for light instead of milennium-ward,
to seek for truth among the broken foun-
talns OF the schools rather than at truths
own fountain, to follow in the track of old
systems grown too narrow for the expand
ing life OF the present, and to enchain itself
with the bonds of old creeds and old
philosophies. The spirit of learning, par
tlcularly as manifested through the learned
professions, is an arrogant, self-sufiicient,
selfcomplacent and preseriptive spirit 1t
lays its ban on all schemes of Improvement,
all experimental search for truth, all specu.
lation in the field of thought, which itself
does not originate. All trade carried on
outside its marts is contraband. 1t calls
unlearned thinkers "quacks," !" indiscriminate-
ly All systems of philosophy and art of
which 1t is not the father are illegitlmate.
Medicine is a "learned profession" and
its learning has been converted into its bane
1t is bound to its books and its formulas
and its unreasoning routine with devotion
81 insane Ihnt iIs ,nrnfnnrnrn Lnnl d..