Huntsville gazette., 1885-04-11


injured, and the balance between all
destroyed, may not this over-cultiva-
ton OF memory prove destructive to
the end in view?
What is the end in view? Do you
desire your son to leave school or col
lege a walking encyclopedia of facts
= and figures, very learned, indeed an
lnfallible authority in the family parlor,
yet unable, despite the volumes of men,
5see orial knowledge within him, to earn
asss over ten dollars week as the literary
asa hack in some stereotyped department
go . of a school book publishing firm?
Or would you rather see him pos
sessed even of fewer facts and more
constructive ability-ability to make
his knowledge useful in building up
business; ability to select what knowl-
edge he needs for that business and
skill to apply it; in brief, ability to
"a. build his own bridges when he needs
them, rather than ever to be dependent
~ az, on others to build them?
One sea captain, being shipwrecked
on an uninhahited coast, may from the
planks and timbers of his shattered
A vessel construct a craft capable oj car
rying passengers and crew to a safe
p port. A mere routine sea captain, in
like situation and without constructive
i - ability, is helpless. The first has the
new situations and emergencies. The
second is trained only to walk over the
- s-a bridge built for him by Others
Should not education largely involve
a capacity to love to learn new things,
and skill in the art of learning all
things, and this at any time of life?
With such learning, its power ever in
creasing by exercise, men, and women
would; having more confidence in them
caIvYo 1ncc TO foor. foil
:. tations in business and would also be
| less the slaves of circumstance or posi-
tion. At
4 Some men and women are Younger
at sixty than others are at thirty. The
assa first mentioned. are ever learning, ever
aasaa seeking, exploring, investigating. Moth
sss- ~ ing, where opportunity offers, is too
great for them to attempt graphing
with; nothing is deemed so small as to
be unworthy an effort. Study becomes
IS So their chief amusement. By ''study'' is
s>irvs not implied an incessant poring over
books. Place them on shipboard and
they commence ''picking up'' whatever
.t.s belongs to maritime life or science; in
the artists studio their "dabbling," as
-. some may contemptuously style it,
grants them fresh interest and appreci-
alton in art at the theater, an aspira-
- ton for the stage, though never real
''front," the actors methods even as
49,. they do those of the artist, enabling to
see and therefore enjoy in the perform
ance far more than the ordinary play
geer.
So wherever they 60 they find some
new interest and each new interest is
a new life.
= They love to learn, and find pleasure
Y in the act and effort of learning.
> Another and. much larger class are
through with all their learning, and
- large portion. of active amusement by
the age of twenty They ''settle
down" into a routine, set their faces
resolutely against learning anything
new, relegate AL the more active recre-
alton to the young, become plodders
81 from house to office and office to house,
get stiff in the physical joints at forty
and rusty in the mental ones at the
same age, and are to all intents and
purposes '.old men, at fifty, whose talk
is mainly of the weather, who are about
as entertaining in company as the
clock, and who are more endured than
liked.
These can find no pleasure in the
effort Of learning. Every step in such
= effort is irksome to them and becomes
more so as they advance in years.
Half the stimulus and vitality of
- for learning new things. Boyhood is a
= period Of investigation, exploration and
: 80 studysin games and sports. The world
- is new to the boy, because there are so
: many new things to learn. The world
= becomes old to the boy and the boy
soon also becomes old when he imae-
= ines he has nothing new to acquire
But what is the benefit of learning
anything at middle age or past it?
1t is the benefit of healthy stimula.
tion.. When the faculties are ever on
the alert to acquire and appropriate all
manner of knowledge and skill there
results a continual influx of power and
new life both to mind and body
''What is the use of my learning any,
thing not necessary in my business, or
anything which l may never be required
to pfactice?'" asks
-. One use is that mind constantly so ex-
ercised acquires more and more facili-
ty in the art Of learning. Otherwise
it grows rusty, and worse, disin-
- sclined to seek Or learn the new 1t
loses more and more the art of making
study an amusement When all study
becomes amusement to o man or ]