The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1885-09-23

capacity he II not certain 10 s9lccktfis
while he is very poorly armed to malc
his way upward and onward in this busy
age.
/ One profession leads all the rest in
producing men Of public prominence
That professionals the law. Our legisla
tive halls and our public positions every
where are crowded with lawyers. Why
is this? Is it because they are naturally
the most able men? OF given number
of equally clever boys, half of whom
may be selected indiscrimiately for the
legal profession and the remainder for
the study of medicine. you will find in
due time a good proportion of the first
half attaining public prominence, while
the physicians will be heard OF but little
outside their immediate circles of prac-
/ tice. Law, medicine, the ministry and
journalism are all Of an equally public
nature, but the LAWYERS mostly gosto the
| front. | contend that this tact is due to
the nature of the study involved. Above
all other studies the law demands and
promotes strong and varied discipline
for the mind From the very beginning
it deals with arguments and reasoning.
When the student has become fair
lawyer his mind has been trained for
fair success in rustling through the
world in any department of labor. The
successful lawyers minG is under con-
slant and rigid training, and he is not
merely a successful lawyer but sue
eessful man if he turns his attention to
matters outside his profession. He ap-
plies to everything that comes under his
notice the touchstone of inquiry, argu-
ment and research that belongs to his
profession and that, instead OF his pro-
fession, makes him a successful leader of
men.
The true aim of education, therefore,
should be to produce this training or
discipline; to fit the mind to acquire its
own knowledge to inculcate principles
upon which the mind can depend for
guidance; in short. to educate the mind |
to obtain its own knowledge Education |
should seek to develop the mental facul- |
ties rather than to crowd the mind |
with specific information it should |
arouse the thinking powers rather than
bestow what others have thought 1t is
an axiom that there can be no education |
without knowledge, but it is also true
that there can be KIN owledge without |
education To illustrate If ask child |
How many are times s, it will answer
me, g. If ask for the proof and the |
child makes three marks three times, |
counts up the total and finds nine, /
know that its study of the multiplication
table has been conducted on educational |
principles but if not or by no similar |
process can it solve the problem then it
has learned the multiplication table by |
rote and has got the knowledge with |
Il. ~4I.seotinn and has not reached /
the principle that will enable the solu-
ton Of all similar problems The aim
of the skilfll teacher is to develop
power-mental power-and unless this
aim is followed and attained the years
OF the pupils school life are largely
spent in vain. The teacher can only
lay the foundation for an education let
him labor as he will.
Let not teachers, parents or the pupils
themselves be discouraged because some
members of the school are more dull
and slow in acquiring knowledge than
are their fellows. Whatever is valuable
requires labor. 1t is noticeable that the
patient, plodding scholar, the one whose
lessons are acquired with the most diff
Guilty is apt to be most proficient at the
end of the term What is obtained most
laboriously is longest retained. The les
son over which hours of study and
thought have been spent makes an inn
preston upon the mind of the student
and remains shele permanently. The
dull, plodding student calls to his aid all
possible devices to tighten his labor and
those very aids, or rather the seeking
and employ ment Of them, constitute III
themselves a progressive step in educa-
ton. Every lesson 50 acquired makes
each succeeding one easier of conquest.
But the remarkably bright boys lesson
is deposited upon his mental reflector as
vapor upon glass and often as quickly
disappears it is apt to be acquired by
rote and conveys little more to the ideas
Of the learner than a meaningless sound,
devoid of useful and permanent instruc-
ton. Another remarkable fact is the
truth that the precociously clever
boy is apt to be poorly balanced. Either
his moral or his physical makeup is
dwarfed by the abnormally premature
development Of his mind Think over
the list of remarkably clever boys with
whom you attended school-boys who
were the envy Of all others, the pride Of
their parents and teachers because Of
their unusual prococity figure up how
many Of them were weak in body or de-
praved in morals or became 50 in early
manhood, and tell me if the proportion
was not much larger among them than
among the lads of ordinary capacity.
Look up the biographies Of Edgar Allan
Poe, of Thomas Chatterton, Of Lord
Byron, of Percy Shelley, Of Robert Burns
and of dozens of others that might be
named for instances, Of brilliant intel
lect coupled with moral depravity and
ending in early death.
i One result of an unusually bright in
tellect is apt to be inattention to physi
cal requirements and the overtaxing Of
the physical energies. A really sound
mind can only exist in sound body.
Our greatest men have been great phgsi-
| eally as well as mentally. And sound
mind can only exist in conjunction with
sound morals. Therefore true education