American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-01-09

while they carried the young man into
an adjoining room, where the physicians
succeeded in restoring him to conscious
ness; but that was all, for four hours
afterward he was corpse!
Such a story reads more like the ro-
mances of the German school than an
incident in real life. But it has SO many
facts to back it up that we may accept ii
as true, or read it only as story to show
the danger, folly and sin of stimulating
the brain beyond what it is able to bear.
We go on year after year in our systems
of education under the impression that
because lit always was so" it always
ought to be so. We have had to excite
the dull and the indolent by rewards and
punishments. and holding them up before
all alike have given the prizes of success
to the bright and strong, when the dull
who did well deserved more praise than
| the brilliant who bore off the palm. And
in the daily lessons of the school, in the
wretched night work to which children
are condemned by the combined mis-
| takes of teachers and parents, the brain
of the young is Unfortunately taxed at Il
period of life when there is the greatest
danger of doing lasting injury to the
nervous system.
1t is very grave error of teachers
and parents that young people do no,
study while they are reciting, and some
| teachers and parents give it as a reason
why their children should study out OF
school, that they are reciting half the
time in school, and therefore do not study
but six hours day if they take three OF
them at home. But under a teacher fiji
to be in a school the scholars mind is
more stimulated to learn during recita
| ton than while he is at his desk and
book The boy before a black bOarC
| lor no / 10 "a
| ing for his recitation.
My plea then is that rewards may bt
given in school to those who have made
the greatest progress, not to those only
who have come out ahead. | plead fol
| the slow, the weak, the neglected, anC
ask that they may be helped by encour
agement, and that they may not bt
| stimulated to hurt themselves. The
waste of brain power in youth is so grea
| that thousands who, in school and col
| lege, are considered geniuses, amount t.
morning. Some who are moderate schOl
ars become men of the greatest power
| They developed strength when the worl
was to be done.
Great students sometimes waste them
selves in work. One man made die
tionary on which 500, 900 were expended
and it was sold for waste paper. Artists
have put their lives into their work an(
died unknown to fame or fortune. Mod
crate work would have won both. How
many poets have persisted as did Kirkt
White. But it is the steady, patien
labor that builds the pyramid. The
rivals of Domenichino called him the
great OK" but not one of them is nov
known by name, while his great work i:
priceless and immortal. Fabius Maxi
mus was called " the little sheep in de
rision when he was young. but the meek
ness and placidity of his temper proved
to be the quality which made him the
savior of his country.
That German youth, Max MarKmann
the story of whose brilliant victories anG
sad fate in the hour of his triumph we
have read, would have filled Germany
and perhaps the earth with works haC
he not been stimulated to death in the
morning OF life. Like the man who said
Water is good enough occasionally, blu,
for a steady drink give me rum" this
youth had nothing but excitement, and
died of exhaustion.
Genius, like all other gifts, is to bs
used with discretion or it is worse thar
vain endowment. And the real friends
of man, who deserve the most gratitud,
and applause, are the men with a sOunG
mind in a sound body who do the wOrl
of life patiently and faithfully, and theI
lie down and die.-Iren9us, tn N. Y. OF
SeTUer.