Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-06-28
Educated Hands and Heads.O

Nothing has given us greater or more un-
expected pleasure than the fact evidenced
by the many letters they write us) that
this department is read with interest and
approval by so many ministers of the gos-
pei. A note is just at hand from one of the
Oldest clergymen in Vermont (though none
would suspect his age from his clear and
beautiful hand-writing), in which was en-
closed an article cut from the San Francisco
| Bulletin, with the above title. Our venerable
friend speaks of it as strongly confmatory
of the views you have often expressed in
your department, and in which / most
heartily concur. If you see fit please give
it an insertion. Perhaps you may say Il
can write more on the subject than I can
, get the people to practice But we must
keep the subject before them" We can
hardly spare the room for the whole of this
excellent article, but sample it freely for the
benefit of those for whom it is intended,
with many thanks to our old friend for send
ing it.
An educated brain ought to include educated
hands. In the best days of Greek culture, train
| ing extended to the physical man, to every fac
ulty of the body 1t was good thing to be an
athlete 1t is better thing now, not because
of any glory to be won in games but because
there were never better opportunities for men
of this stamp. small per cent of educated
men will become scientists, larger per cent
| will enter the professions and a still greater
number will embark in various business enter
I prises. The old theory Ia still maintained by
many that there is such thing as too much ed
ucaton, since the tendency is to educate out OF
the more level stations of life, and into conditions
| where individuals are constantly hanging on to
the very extremity Of things. There is just
enough truth In the proposition to save it from
| entire reputation. No doubt there Is such ten
dency. 1t is associated with the theory that edu-
| cation is always to secure the easy places-the
velvet situations, where there is little to do and
| large pay. Now, p healthy training results in
| showing people how to work-how to do the best
possible things in every situation. II the educated
| young man has not actually more resources, Is
lot made many-handed, cannot do a hundred
things better for his education, then 1t Is a pity
| that money has been spent for his training, II
he is not a better orchardist, general farmer,
| dairyman, manufacturer, mechanic, tradesman,
canal builder, cattle breeder-in short u not bet
ter for this training in any one Of these industrial
vocations or in any OF a hundred others, then
his education, to some extent, has been useless
The error common to all student life is the cher
ishing of large expectations, many OF which can
| never be realized. Another error
which obtains largely is that young men who
have been sent to colleges and universities ought
to study professions Why do it? There are a
hundred Industries to-day which need educated
men. Most of the discoveries which have cheap
ened manufactures, especially in the arts applied
to industry, have been made by educated men.
| The chemist the mineralogist and the trained ag-
riculturist, need not to be told how broad the
| field Is, and how few there to-day TO enter
such fields The student rightly trained finds
himself on the threshold of a career with dis
ciplined mind and educated hands II he has not
yet received much training in manual dexterity,
then it is his business to educate his hands, 80
that he can do anything the better for all these
years of instruction. The young men who make
lamentable failures are those who are looking
for soft places, who are averse to hard work,
and who at the outset repudate the very condi-
tion on which success depends There are nc
soft places for young men who are to succeed in
life. All legitimate training only gives greater
capacity for hard work Starting with this ele-
mentary truth, there would be fewer mistakes
less time spent in hunting for nice berths. Cali.
fornia sadly needs to-day hundred thousand
educated men to make their own places outside
Of what are called the professions-to create
beautiful homesteads, plant orchards and vine
yards, build manufactures, invent new processes
to cheaper production, to redeem impoverished
farms which have been ruined by waste and ig
norance, to permeate society by the force Of ex
ample, to create everywhere by more skillfu in
dustry