The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1888-07-14
Intellectual Character.
CLAYTON T. CANN.

The desire and the duty OF this
age is education, or that culture
which develops, and enriches each
individual according to the measure
of his capacity by familiarizing him
with the facts and the laws of hum
an nature.
No person can be called educated
until he LIS systematized his
knowledge and can WELD it as a
weapon.
Intellectual character is the last
and highest result of intellectual
education, and the indispensable
condition of intellectual success.
1t is evident that when a young
man leaves school to take his place
in the world, he must be something
as well as know something; and it
will reqnire but little experience to
prove to him that what he knows is
little more than what he really is.
The moment he comes in contact
with the stern and stubborn real
tiles which frown over his entrance
into practical life, he will discover
that power is the soul of knowledge,
and character the condition of in
telligence.
He will also discover that intellec-
tual success depends primarily on
the qualities which are not strictly
intellectual, but rather personal and
constitutional.
The test of success is influence.
In every act of earnest thinking the
extent of the thought depends on
the pleasure of the will, and the
culture of this power is one of the
requirements of intellectual success,
for it gives that discipline of the
individual which develops dim ten
denotes into positive sentiments and
sentiments into ideas in such a way
as to penetrate one through and
through with the qualities of man.
hood.
This is intellectual character, and
the first great question to be answer
cd by every young man who has
passed through the course of in
struction called education, is,
What do you intend to be, and
what do you intend to do?
Do you propose to play at living,
or do you propose to HUe?
No varnish and veneer of scholar
ship, no command of Rhetoric can
ever make you positive force in the
world.
Look around you in the commu-
nifty of educated men, and see how
many who started on their career
with minds as bright and eager, and |
hearts as hopeful as yours, have
been mysteriously arressed in their
growth, have lost all the kindling
sentiments which once glorifed |
their youthful studies, and dwindle
into mere echoes of surrounding
mediorcrity, have begun, indeed to
die on the very threshold of man.
hood, and stand in society as tombs
rather than temples of immortal
souls.
See to the wide distance between
knowledge and life; heaps of infor-
nation piled upon little heads;
everybody speaking, but .te,o who
have the right to speak.
Now this disposition to shirk the
serious requirements of intellectual
growth in an indolent surrender of
the minds power OF self-direction,
must be overcome at the out set, or
in spite of our grand generalities, we
will be at the mercy of every bully
ing lie, and shape our life in accord
ance with every low motive.
All solid intellectual culture is
simply the right development of
individuality into its true intellect
ual form.
What is meant by individuality
for the word is commonly used to
signify some popularity Or unreas-
enable twist of the mind or dispo-
sition.
An individual in the sense in
which we use the term, is an inner
force who lives, grows and builds up
his nature in time. All the object of
sense and thought, all facts and
ideas, are external to him.
But he has bound up in his being
sympathies and capacities which
connect him with external objects,
and enable him to transmit their
inner spirit and substance into his
own personal life.
The progress of his growth there
fore is development of power from
within to assimilate objects from
without, and result of this assimila-
ton is character. The principal
4 .. ,;.;, sc ,,,o,, - . Jos;ro 10 /