The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1880-03-03
DSalraiialr 6azettt,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1850.
The aoney.vnIue orn College Education
BY REV. A. P. PEABODY, D. D., L. D.

l take it for granted that no one will deny
the worth of collegiate training as regards
mental discipline, growth and capacity. But
man has, along with mind, body, an outward
life, and needs, desires, and tastes-increased
and multiplied by education-which money
alone can satisfy. Then, too, college educa-
ton involves very considerable outlay of
capital; and, though for rich mans son this
is matter of no concern, man of moderate
means who has little else to give his son
nav very fitly inquire whether the investment
will Weld fair return; while the poor youth
who must not only deprive himself of the
power of earning money for several of his best
years, but must also incur considerable debt
for his education, has no right to leave the
money-duestion out of the account.
In answering this question, l would first
say that in every kind of work except manual
labor Tin which include brainess pen-work)
a mans compensation is measured by the joint
ratio of what he is, and what he does. Of the
two, the latter is the constant; the former, the
variable, and that within very wide range.
What man is, determines the quality of his
work. its reputation, and-if it be marketable
its market value. There are unnumbered
things which must be done somehow, and for
the doing of which, we'll or i'll, there is a scale
of prices from the merest plttance to fees that
sound like fables to the common ear. The edu-
cation which gives man the largest quantity
of being, which makes him the most of n man,
must of necessity confer great advantage in
competition for the higher prices in the scale;
and there can be no doubt that this distinction
belongs TO collegiate training. There is every
reason why it should. Not only is the college
,,I.pnaI with tho rtuOSt cara NV
men of large experience; it represents also the
wisdom Of successive generations of educators,
and the winnowed products of their expert
ence. The college system brings its students
into mutual relations both of helpfulness and
of competition, in which there is constant
exercise of mental quickness, keenness, and
vigor. The courses and methods of college
study do NOT, indeed, stock the mind with
large amounts of knowledge in single depart
ments; but they do what is UNNECESSARILY
better,-they teach one how TO study, how to
conduct investigation, where and how to find
what is wanted, and how to make it awaiting
for its destined use. 1t is here that is to be
found the immense advantage Of an average
college education over what might seem, as to
amount, superior education under other aus
pices. | have been often led to make the com
parisOn; and, were it not invidious, | could
name some very learned men who have failed
even in their own departments, for lack of the
suppleness, versatility, and elastic working
power, which college graduate acquires.
Were this not true, still it is generally be-
lieved to be true; and the mere belief has an
important bearing on the question. In
certain professions the chief difficulty which a
young man encounters is the lack of opportu-
nifty. No one is willing to help him till lie
bas hat a 10 obpya tho naa1 If holm
He is conscious of ability; those who know
him Intimately have no doubt of his ability ;
if he had patients or clients, they would have
every reason to be satisfied with him; but
who is there that will venture to be his first
patient, or his first client? Here the college
graduate has very great advantage over one
who in all other respects is fully his equal
The graduate is labelled as man of culture
He has classmates and college friends who are
interested in his success, who know his merit,
and who, if they need his services, will be
very likely to give him the preference over his
elders. The opportunity once gained, the way
opened, he must depend, like the non-gradu-
ate, for ultimate success, on his capacity, SKILL
industry, and fidelity; but the mere priority
of entrance on the active duties of profession
will in most cases be more than an offset to the
cost of college education.
In other professions than those commonly
called liberal, college graduates have generally
manifested an aptness to learn, and a practical
tact and skill, due, no doubt, to their having
been under systematic mental discipline dur
ing the very period of life most essential in
the formation of mental habits The late
Thomas Handasyd Perkins, for more than half
a century chief of New England merchants,
was wont to say that if in filling an important
clerkship he had his choice between two
young men of equal reputation for ability, one
of whom was recent Harvard graduate, and
the other had been four years i'll a counting
room, he should choose the former | have
known many Harvard graduates who have
shown the wisdom of this Judgment by the
rapidity with which they have risen to fore
most places in callings with which their col
lege training seemed to have the least possible
connection. As manufacturers, machinists,
bankers, farmers, miners, pioneer settlers,
they have more than overtaken the four years
that might seem to have been lost in college,
and have held leading positions at an earlier
age than if those four years had been passed
in an apprenticeship. At the same time, it
should be borne in mind that very large pro-
portion of our most prosperous merchants, and
of the treasurers and managers of our great
corporations, are college graduates.
VI course 10 not regard q cOlleSe euuca-
ton as of any worth for a youth without
brains; and there are many who plod YEARLY
and painfully through a college course, which
will only indispose them for such callings as
they are fit for, without preparing them fol
any thing else. 1t would be kindness tC
such persons, to compel them to see themselves
as others see them. But, of those who ought
to go through college, there can be very few
who are not benefited by it in estate, as vel
as in mind and soul you could compare the
conditions of the men of thirty-fve in any one
of the professions in which graduates and non-
graduates are established side by side, fee
sure that the average of each class would
show very decided superiority, in all the ele-
ments of a prosperous career, on the part o.
the former.
Wonderful Clock.
There is now on exhibition in Detroit
Michigan, wonderful clock, made by Mr.
Felix Meier, a mechanic. 1t is eighteen feet
in height, and is enclosed in black walnut