The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1895-01-30
A FINISHED
EDUCATION.
There is No Such Thing, For We
All Learn Something New Every
Day That We Live.
II Is Not What We Learn In School
But What We Learn After
Leaving II,
That Fits Us for the Duties of Life
Lay Aside Your Books, Study
Men and Things, God
And Nature.
AND DO YOUR OWN THINKING.
Cast OF the Yoke of Human 0pin-
ion, And Cultivate Individual
Judgment.
Dress Your Minds More Than
Your Bodies.

We hear much in this age about a
finished education at college" There
is, alas, too much truth in the expression
finished" on the day of graduation.
Before the discovery of America, Span
iards prided themselves on the supposed
fact that their country was the last point
of solid land on the earth westward.
Beyond them, they thought there was
nothing but vast expanse of water-a
shareless ocean-a mystery never to be
solved. Consequently the early coins Of
that country in order to give prominence
to this idea, were indented with a pic
ture of the pillars of HeTcule, the two
great sentries on each side of the Straits
of Gibraltar. Encircling these pillars on
their coins was the inscription, nothing
beyond" and how often is it that young
men just through college place the same
inscription on themselves, nothing be-
yond" and there they cease TO study.
How few young men meet the expecta-
tons raised by their educational advant-
ages? How few years sadden, loving
haarts; with disappointed hopes? How
many stais shine brilliantly within COL
lege walls, then go out to be seen no
more; and all this the result of "insh-
ed education" They may have promis-
ed much at the beginning. On their
success high hopes were built; loving
hands were impatient to wreathe their
brows with garlands of victory. But,
alas, those hopes have been blighted and
those garlands have withered, We see
them in the pulpit, at the bar and in all
the other vocations of life. They are
failues, not for want of mind, but for
want of application They have not fol-
lowed up their victories, and their victor
les have turned to defeat, They are
resting on the honors Of faded laurels
1t is not what we learn in school, but
what we learn after leaving it,, that de-
termines our success or failure, for the
collection Of facts amounts to but little
unless with those facts we build towers
from which to take higher and wider
views of truth
A Finished education" there is no
such thing One may have finished his
books, but an education is not derived
simply from books. These we need, but
we need them simply as help. We
should make them our servants, not our
masters, thus it is that an education de-
man1s them as means, not AZ an end.
A "bookworm" is sometimes a very in
ferior kind OF worm. Some men that
the schools call highly educated rely so
much on books that they are nothing in
themselves. They have no mind OF their
own. They deal altogether in second
handed goods. We need to lay aside
our books, and study men and things
commence with God and nature. We
must be educated TO think. To think
much-to think accurately. To do our
own thinking, not have il done for us,
We must learn to do the right thing at
the right time. Thus in order to do the
right thing at the right time, and do il
well, we must learn to think about the
right thing at the right time. This il
one OF the most important features in
mental training. Another important
end to be attainei in an education is in
dependence Of thought. We need "a
cast off the yoke Of human opinion and
cultivate the individual judgment We
are too much the slaves OF fashion. We
are disposed TO dress our minds as well
as our bodies after the fashion OF the
4 times. This destroys originality ami in
dependence OF thought ] know it il
argued by some that an education will
lift the masses above their vacations and
cause them TO become dissatisfied with
their lot, that the cultured mind despis,
drudgery. The very reverse OF this il
true. Culture dienihss labor and de
stroys drudgery. The man determines
the dignity Of the calling, not the call
ing the dignity OF the man, the princi
pies apply with equal force TO the womer
Of this day. One Of the great evils O
-. I...I .nI ao.aotaIlxs an fIo ao..fI L.