Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-11-18

pei them without delay to acquire profess
sional knowledge enough to enable them
to provide means for their support. or fail
ing this, to seek their bread by some
means to which neither mental trainiDg
nor intellectual cultare Of high degree are
necessary. It is evident, therefore, that II
it be possible in giving mental training to
impart professional knowledge also, it is
at this time especially desirable to do so,
and that studies bearing upon peculiar
professions, rather than those having no
such bearing be made part OF prelimi-
nary education. Whether this be possible
or profitable, or the extent to which 1t may
be so, are questions about which educators
have been aud still are at variance. In dit
fe,ent countries opinions conflict in regard
to the length Of time proper for prellml-
nary education. The objections TO the
long postponement or to the entire exclu-
sion of professional education from our
Schools and University are OF kind to
press with great force upon us just at this
particular time. It's tendency to exclude
from our schools young men who would
otherwise gladly come. is now fatal OBJ
lection with us to any plan. Young men
of limited time and means, and their name
since the war is legion. must count the in
crease of cost occasioned by this postpone
ment or exclusion. This system has been
tried at the English Universities for many
generations. It was said in the year 1927,
that of all the Physicians practising in
England, there were not one hundred who
had studied at oxford or Cambridge. The
proportion who had been there among the
higher ranks of the legal profession was
probably greater, but of the men of the
lower ranks of these two professions. the
six thousand Surgeons and eight thousand
Attornies, not one in a thousand had ever
worn a students cap at an English Univer
sity. The result of the English system was
to drive men seeking professional educa-
ton to Scottish Universities. AS like
causes will produce like results here,
it is important to give the sub
ject the most serious consideration.
It is not intended, however, to urge an
indiscriminate opposition to the study of
the dead languages or to the study of
mathematics, or, indeed, to any particular
curriculum. One course of study may be
best adapted for one purpose, another may
be best fitted to accomplish different
purpose. There certainly can be no bet
ter school in which to acquire habits of
logical thought than the study of mathe-
mates. No man who has ever attempted
to master the heterogeneous mass OF SEEM
ing y conflicting elements, commonly called
the English language, will deny the neces.
sity of a more or less thorough pecuniary
with the so-called dead Ian
guages It is simply intended to call at
tention to the fast that our necessities are
such that it is especially desirable for a
time at least to combine the acquisition of
professional information as far as possible
with mental training. To the extent to
which this is done, it will enable men who
are preparing for active life to take their
places the sooner, while it will n ot prevent
those whose time and means will permit
them so to do, from perfecting themselves
in all mere scholarly and antiquarian
learning. In tho uatuIo of things this
latter class of men must ever be small, and
it being the object of education not so
much to make men scholars technically,
as to prepare them for life, that which
now is, and that which is to come, it is |
not fair to impose upon the many, eys-
tenn adopted specially to the wants only of
the few.