Brookings County sentinel. (Brookings, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1890, 1883-03-22


cieve, then to remember, and lastly to
combine ideas into processes of reason
ing.
One faculty of the mind should not
be trained to the neglect of the others.
First come the perceptive or observ-
ing faculties. Next IN order the mem.
ory, which is the store house of the
mind. Memory is the granary into
which all the wheat, afterward to be
ground, is received and where it is
stored. 1t would be in vain to cult
vate the powers Of observation were
it not fm memory. Without this fac
ulty we would be storing wheat into a
leaky elevator, from thu bottom of
which all would be discharged into
a stream Of forgetfulness.
An accurate, prompt and retentive
memory should be by all means sought
after. 1t should be invigoratel by
patient EXCISE and the systematic ar
rangement of the facts discovered by
the observing faculties, and accustom-
cd TO arrange and classify ST. that it
may be like library or cabinet with
an accurate catalogue, wher any book
or specimen can be quickly found.
A,,..ough perception and memory
are important and indispensable, yet
it will not do to allow the develop
ment of the mind to stop at this point.
These faculties may gather and store
material which may be of little use.
After wheat is gathered and stored
in the elevator its real use is not vet
secured. 1t must pass through the
mill and into the bakers oven before
it is of use to man. The reasoning
faculties must be trained to take the
gathered knowledge and pass it
through the mill of reason and the
oven of reflection that it may become
fit for intellectual digestion and men
tai growth. 1t is possible to starve
the intellect while filing the mind
with facts. The body may become
feeble, while a voracious appetite
leads to consumption Of much food,
which may be undigested and unas.
simulated by the weak and feeble stom-
ach. As it is in the physical 50 it Is
in the mental. k"owledge must be
digested in order TO be Of any use in
strengthening the mind.
Our facilities for acquiring know
ledge in this busy age, lie largely in
the direction Of observation.
The men who are the most efficient
members of society, and can meet the
various emergencies and contingencies
of life with greatest prudences and
hrcwdness, are often men who have
had few OF the advantages offered hv
the schools, and lave had little in
struction in the abstract theories of
sciences; who nevertheless, when YOU
enter into conversation with them, ,
can talk sensibly on almost any topic.
They have secured their information
not from books, but from men and
manners and from the observation OF
what has passed around them.
The memory may be trained and
crammed, and the reasoning powers ex- F..
ercised while the perceptive faculties
remain undeveloped and practically
useless.
l believe every teacher should set /
his face like a flint against the cram
ming process, which makes the school
room as truly a dungeon as was the /
''black hole of Calcutta" and over the !
door Of the school where that method |
is used, might well be written: "He |
who enters here leaves hope behind"
1t is natural for the mind to think. 1t /
moves onward as if touched by invis-
ible impulses. Arrest it we cannot
if we would, but we may regulate it.
If all the mind that has been encrvat-
ed by excess and paralyzed for want
of heaithful exercise had been rightly
trained, art would have been still
more refined; philosophy would have
shed a purer light; science would
have made prouder discoveries, and
mankind would have reaPed richer
harvest of thought and happiness.
Rightly regulated, mind may ascend
to an equal with the angels. Leave
it neglected and uncontrolled and it
will become debased aud sink us to
the level of fend. Let its faculties,
then, be so trained, in their natural
order, that we shall have Independent
powers Of action to decide quickly
and well all the great question of life.
Whiskey is about the only enemy
man has succeeded in loving. A So
ber fact.
Adversely is the trial of principle.
Without II man hardly knows