The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-12-23
0Picked.Up " knowledge.

11OW eau everybody KNOW every In1Dg!
And we may observe in fact, everybody
does not know everything. It came out
upon the Observation-Disclosures trial, that
Lord Chief-Justice Coleridge had never
heard of Mr.. Corney Grain. His livelier
predecessor frequently betrayed some
what surprising ignorance of things that
were, so tospeak, in the air. Mr.. Carlyle,
who was very fond of referring to Mort
sons pills, never succeeded in spelling
the name correctly. 1t may be noted,
when a distinguished man dies, that
the funeral sermons are many of them,
full of blunders-not mere mistakes,
such as any one might make, but down
right bad shots, which show that the
preachers did not know how to take aim.
These prove ignorance but they often
prove besides that on account of some
irreceptivity of mind, true knowledge was
impossible to the speakers they have
crammed all of sudden, and have
shown the texture Of their faculties in
doing So The judges are, as arule, Won
derful fellows; but in spite of the peculiar
habit of "cram" which belongs to barris-
ters, they sometimes fail in their esti-
mates of men and things for want of
what we roughly describe as picked-up
knowledge. Not long ago Mr.. Glad
stone admitted that he did not know what
spruce beer and mum WERE Most of us
knew what spruce beer was, and Journal
lists have, perhaps, more picked-up knowl-
edge than any other class but it is to be
suspected that there was much searching
of heart and turning over of cyclop@dias
before the world was informed, In those
buoyant short leaders of the next day,
what mum was. Spruce is, or was say,
in the days of old Weller. supposed to
be wholesome to drink, and good for
cuts and coughs, and it was and is sold
in oil public-houses but as to mum,
would Whewell himself have known what
it was ?
It is easy to see that the giftof taking in
knowledge as you go along is very diff
ferent thing from that of examining, or
Of study in the higher and better sense.
1t goes rather with incoming than with
application and inquiry, though, of
course, not with stupidity. It is differ
emit from the gift, natural or acquired,
which Houdin, the conjuror, possessed
and conveyed to his son by a process
which he has in well-known stock quo
With with incoming, It by no means follows lows
that all who take life easily should have
it, if they own in addition a certain
amount of ability. For example, Lord
Palmerston did not possess this gift. He
would certainly have known what spruce
beer was, but some of his speeches dis
played just the sort of inaptitude that
never exists along with the kind of re-
captivity we mean, and his pensl0nln9
Poet Close stamped the ultimate chagac-
ter of his mind. If a man has the faculty
in question, it does not matter how busy
he is, OF whether he is great minister OF
a mere clerk-whether he dwells in mar
BILE halls or in small lodgings
OF other he knows things and puts them
together.
We constantly hear that women are
more quick to observe than men. But
more quick to observe what? Discur-
sive receptivity is not specially faculty
of women they have, fortunately, less
of it than men. Nor have they, in gen
eral, the scientific respectfully or fac
ulty of observing and combining which
SGandS ab Gue pOlo OppoSlte 10 GueIEs
Making every allowance for the peculiari-
ties of the lives led by most of them, we
find that with all their faculty of obser-
walton and theirsensitiveness of tempera-
ment they are not remarkable for pick
ing up miscellaneous facts. Nor are
scientific men nor administrators, if you
take them off their heat. Nay, admins
traitors and high officials are often curl
ously ignorant of matters on their beat,
and just for want of this very gilt Of
miscellaneous receptivity. There is
many live journalists, with half the
brain force of, say, Colonel Henderson OF
Sir William Harcourt, who could tell
either Of them things on his own line
which he would get on all the better for
knowing. Spectator.