Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-12-15
P4ACIIIAL PGCTLE.

e
!.?vr ui.,ic :.;~ name famous IN and
l"yoi.l tir athrrlal..'. !iiq. hc wa.
~lan'ilnG an evening with friends al
Wa'kiu% dietanrc from II :,r!l;ary
E"!n". Heavy rain c;:mc on. ;;iid III,
host insisted Oh his remaining witt
;h"m over night. They recognized
th" ya!u" Of hIS life. and wished tt
spare linn the exposure. He saw Il,
need for it, but they urged: Indeed
Professor, you must stay: the rain
l. coming IN torrents"
"N"ry we'll; if You insist. l shall
stay: but yuu must excuse me for 1
little" He left. returning i'll som,
time with certain night garments, 10,
which lac had gene home.
Tins Is an aggravated ease of what
Is sometimes seen i'll life. where alb
etruct thought is clear, vigorous and
acute, while i'll the simple details oi
life there is enough to give ordinary
observers thc impression of defective
common sense.
If it b" trre that the Hing was
originally. the man who can who
has force and power, then it Is clcal
that even the most decided rcpubli
cans will be warranted i'll aiming at
practical power. neither ON the one
hanl dcspising abstract inquiry. nor
on til" other hand becoming so i'm
mrr~rd III il as to forget its useful
applications.
At first sight it might seem as if
the great distinction between the civ
ilizrd and the savage lay in this mat
Ter. the savage failing to eco and
utilize the resources round about
him. as does the civilized man. But
on reflection one must modify this
view In point of fact the savage
does things which the civilized man
cannot do. There are devices in
entrapping and hunting the wild
creatures. i'll fishing, and in extempo-
rizing sleeping arrangements, in
which the civilized man compares un-
favorably with the savage, and per
haps provokes his contempt. The
civilized man starts with an amount
of knowledge. inherited from pre-
ceeding generations, and which he
simply turns To account. He has no
need to construct an ingenious bow,
for he owns a gun The savage is
of Il race that has lost this inherit
ance of knowledge. and lost, more
over, the habit of mind that leads to
the pursuit of it. He is practical
enough according to his light and
mental habit 1t follows then. that,
other things being equal, the more
knowledge and habit of reflection we
have, the more practical We shall be
come. But the knowledge must be
real. There wee schoolmen who
toiled hard over such questions as the
number of angels who could stand
on the point of needle. or the pos
siblity of them passing from one
point to another without traversing
the Intervening space. But there
WAS no knowledge in this effort
only certain forms of imagination.
Don Quixote it is Il pity lie is too
little studied now a-days was. i'll his
way, extremely active and busy; but
it was with an activity that ignored
the nature of things. Accordingly it
WAS not only useless. it was ridicu
lous in the highest degree. The
French are supposed by some to be
wanting i'll the practical, as con-
trasted, for example. with the Eng
lish or the Germans. This is, how
ever, hardly an accurate estimate
Tho Frcnchman's ideas are different
from those of some of his neighbors.
He aims at the striking, the pictur
esqlIc. the graceful. He contem-
plates effect He is practical in a
high degree on this line Here he
is strong, and achieves success In
the single matter of human habili-
ments inc bids fair to conquer the
world. So marked are his triumphs
already that an average respectable
Young lady may be Celt, or Sclav,
Scandinavian ur North American,
English. or Egyptian. with little OF
nothing in her dress to indicate her
nationality. 1t is after the Parisian
model. and naturally the men follow
suit. The difference. therefore, is
not so much i'll the degree of practi
cal power as in the ideas of life with
which men are furnished 1t would
seem to follow. then. that we lrc to
have not only knowledge. but the best
ideas of what life is for, if we are to
be practical i'll the highest sense.
An illustration of the idea may be
drawn from current discussion re
garding TIE tunnclling of the Chan
mel between France and EaSland.
- 1t in Il question entirely for lis, say
the engineers, and they rather laugh
at the geologists No" say the lat
ter; 1t is in the first instance for us.
We can tell you the material You
have to deal with under the sea. the
lie of the strata. and the risks of the
undertaking: and you. gentlemen en-
gincers. have often spent money fool
ishly from not consulting us on such
matters.
There should be no such tunnel.
s,y many good Englishmen. BY
putting the sea there the Creator
showed that He meant the two coun.
tries to be separate" Nay" reply
the geologists; by the lie of the
chalk beds ON both sides, adapting
them for being tunnelled, he rather
showed that in the proper time the
thing should be done"
In the meantime the hundred
Thousand Englishmen who live by
handling goods on the Thames, see, ol
think they see in the tunnel the enc
of their occupation, and they meaI
to be practical. They form an asso
citation to influence Parliament ant
stop the boring. They forget that
it is the old delusion against ma
chincry; that the more railroads tht
more carting; the more machinery
the more hands are wanted in til,
end; and that ideas of the grcatest
gain to the greatest number in the
end must rule human movements
however much classes may suffer il
the meantime.