Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1878-11-30

This question - a. interesting one,
- it involves many Of the
most important issues Of life. One
hing ID most csgtain; men azs not
to occupy the pinnacle Of
mental maturity till long after . sim
liar condition Of the body has been
attained. A man may be in his
physical golden age between twenty
i've and forty and yet 1t be . score Of
years beyond that period when wis
dom asserts her highest sway. His
tory is full Of instances OF dull
youths becoming eminent men, SIR
Isaac Newton vas 50 stupid While at
school that he Was ridieuled by his
more promising playmaies- We are
told that sheridan WAS particularly
dull scholar. In his case, however,
it has been suggested by his friends
that much Of the fault lay with his
early teachers. Co:emporaneous
with Sheridan were many had teach
ers; even the writers on education,
in those days, were egregiousiy faul-
ty in the principles they laid down
ior the instruction of children and
youth. Among the upper classes in
Enslard, the generally-received
method Of academic education was,
as has been APPLY styled, the /" mill
horse cramming plan;" a system
quite too much i'll vogue at the pres
ent day. An educator has Justly
said Over-crammed students rarely
turn out well; while those who can
not be crammed generally excel in
the end" If there is anything un.
promising, in paradoxical point of
view, it is a manifest precocity.
Much better is it to be comparatively
ignorant at twenty-five than aprodigy
at twelve or fifteen. The most useful
part OF IL mans education is not that
which he receives at college. The
active world is really the great school,
where we learn our best and grand
est lessons. Life's experiences con.
stitute the illimitable garden where
we Gull the choicest flowers TO be ar
ranged into the boquets of after life.
Our school days only bring out the
new wine, our middle age the old.
Mental maturity was not reached by
some Of the worlds greatest men till
quite towards the decline of life,
John Quincy Adams never passed
into his dotage, but was the "old
maui eloquent" till death removed
him from the councils of his brother
statssmea. although he reached 9
ripe old age. As general rule, tn,
men aud women who have mos
blessed the world never reached theil
second childhood, but, like stou
old veather-beaten crate, went dowI
in the full exercise of all their &C
! tivity. Disease and other causel
that cannot be controlled, it is true
| may often dehase the most brillian,
and cultivated minds into q hopeless
imbeciiity; but 10 rarely hear o
men Becoming denented merely be
cause they have lived beyond tn
allotted term of thsee-score-years ant
ten. Indeed. we doubt if the periot
popularly called ~'Aotage" will eve
overshadow q person who keeps boil
mind and body in staahle equilibrium
! Sir Isaac Newton was preparing t
attend meeting of the Royal Soci
ETY.. at which he Was to preside
when attacked by the sickness which
ended his life of over eighty years
William Cullen Bryant WAS still pur
suing the up-grade of his brillian
intellectual career when an untowart
accident snatcbed him from the moor
of his existence. Hence, we main
tain that such aen as we have al
luded to. never go down into th'
shady walks Of anental inactivity
On the contrary, like those cineum
polars stars which ars ever within thu
field of perpetual apparition. such in
tellects continue to ahine on, light
ing up and blessing the world M
their life-giving beams ill. ct the b.
hest of Him Who ct tAsm . glow,
they are blo,ted from OF sight and
called to serve in . higher asd never.
ending mission.