Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-05-17
WILMINGTON, DEL.
Saturday AsteFnecns May II.
coEoENrRArIoE OF RFFoRT.

Thomas Marlborough, Of New Castle county,
Delaware, having the honor to command, at the
age OF 2s, the American aotilla on Lake Cham
plain, built and equipped to cope with the British
squadron. fonght e succesaful fight. He said to
his officers: Fire at the big shipl Point all
your guns ct her, till We silence her. With tho
fiag-ship captured, the smaller craft can easily
be taken, one by one"
This, 70 be sure, Ia no new method Of war. To
pierce the enemy's centre, and then destroy his
wings in succession to silence the citadel, and
then take the minor defences; to beat the main
army, and then gobble up the various auxiliary
detachmsnts. are proposition, in warfare not new
at all, nor indeed, under all circumstances ap-
propriate for adoption.
But as for concentration in the ordinary occu-
pations Of life, 1t is the road to auecess True,
it may be carried too far. There are people who
are so thoroughly united to one thing as to be
compelled, OF necessity, to ignore all others
Take them of their own familiar line, and they
know nothing. This, however is simply an ex-
treme TO be avoided, and 1t does not modify the
great truth that one person ought to know
thoroughly at least one thing. The boy who
chooses . trade should master all its de-
tails, perfectly. and having done so, should make
the constant exerton to develop his skill still
farther, and to keep apace with all thenew meth
ods, Appliances, and machinery that are used in
1t. Scientific discovery and investigation make
every day valuable additionsl to the domain OF
mechanical operations, and fret rate workman
must know something of them. The chief for
oes of his mind must be concentrated on the
trade he follows, and however narrow and plain
. one 1t may be, it is to him, after he has once
mastered it's details, and placed his reliance upon
it for support, well worth his best efforts.
great many excellent persons, gifted with
hne qualities, are too versatile for their own
good. They know too much. 1t takes great
mind to grasp all the circle of knowledge. Ma
polson, it was said, could do it, but Napoleons
are rare. The ordinary mind, attacking all the
branches OF knowledge, and expecting to aequire
permanently something of each, becomes spread
out very thin-so extremely thin, that the un-
derground of ignorance shows through, in many
places.
For reasons like these it is that the best edu-
cation is not cramming, but tempering. II g
child were taught no facts in school, ct all, but
simply trained in the methods Of acquiring
them; If he were not admitted even to the store
house of knowledge, but only presented
with the key, and thoroughly informed
how to open the successive doors to its treas
ures he would be infinitely better educated
In the true sense than il he were informed Of I
multitude Of facts, without system or arrange
ment, loading and desdening the faculties oi
his mind rather than leading them out, Ant
training them for future contests.
The man with q logical, well tempered mind
may safely undertake the solution OF any ordi-
nary problem, when the occasion requires. Th'
able, skilful, intelligent lawyer will successfully
snalyze the most intricate case, and compre
hend it, although vastly more than ordinary
facts and circumstances are involved. So, also
OF the journalist some Of the clearest and mos
thorough analyses are given by the press, oi
many questions in which the special knowledge
of experts" would seem required. The expla
nation simply is that they have minds trained
for such work, and bring to each task conoen
trdted EFFORT