The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-03

They say that men, generally, will
confess to their errors OF memory but
not to their mistakes of Judgment. What
we call Judgment is the milk of a
mans unphysIcal self gone to cream.
Some times the old red cow, with the
meekness in her eye of humble ancestry,
yet in the proud color of her CREAM
honest parentage. A blue-booded Jer-
shows proper virtue from her poor but
sey comes along and thinks to take the
cake by the cumulative cream-force or
birth. Does she do it? Generally.
But in one case the old red COW gave the
richer cream. 1t is often SO with men
of judgment. A rough, bony man or
raw-hide, crude beginnings little educa-
ton and no travel, and men believe IN
him for what they call his 'horse-sense,
which is but another name for good
Judgment. And they will go to him for
wisdom when they will not listen to an
other brilliantly equipped man, who may,
nevertheless, delight them in other eX-
pressions of mind-force. Parents, of to-
day, in America, at least, may not all be
aware of it, but the chief thing wished
for in their children when they are laid
by is that they shall have good judy
ment. As a rule men make but little
progress without it except in the bril-
liant spec;alties." Some say that good
Judgment is a gift from God and cannot,
like the taste for olives, be acquired. 1t
will do for parents to examine this state
ment closely. They need not despair.
For boy naturally of bad Judgment
may be trained into man of good judg-
mcnt, if only he be persuaded by results
that his judgment has been bad, If he
be led into the habit of trying to know
himself, and if he be brought into pro-
per relations with the external concrete
world.
And to this end one must learn to know
how much to subtract from or add to his
conclusions in order to arrive at the end
that would be reached by what is ac-
knowledged to be good judgment. He
must apply this arithemetical test to
things proved. Thus, if good Judgment
be put down as 10, physical exuberance,
sanguine temperament, partisan tenden-
cy, personal relationship, pecuniary in
terest must each be coldly valued-and
their value must be pretty accurately as
certained in one, before one can come
to right conclusions. And the total of
these forces must be subtracted from the
conclusion reached-aboslutely subtract
ed, before the man naturally OF bad
judgment can get on an even footing
with the ''horse-sense" man above re-
ferred to. know some men, who, un-
consciously or otherwise, do sums like
this every day, and they are accounted
men of good judgment, and so accu-
rately do many of them do their sums
that the world does not sometimes know
A. A. 49, 1lxv ~ Nd
Judgment. These are the very men,
however, that make what are called big
breaks" when they fail from any cause
to do their sums. and men some fine
morning suddenly wonder why So-and-so,
Of such good judgment could have done
S0-and-so. The reason is they failed to
do their sum that particular time. OF
course, it is better to have the man who
stands ut 10 all the time, and, there
fore, does not have TO do any sum.
When men drink whisky. they often
fail to do the sum and if they did THAT
is those who have to subtracD they would
probably find the result to be minus
five... or some other number and that.
therefore. what they were about to do
was fifty per cent or such matter
worse than nothing at all. And yet n
brother rises to remark: ~ have seen
judges ON the bench who were never
calmer or safer than when they were
loaded to the deck with liquor" This
might be explained by the fact that
there are some bilious pessim;stis, ovel
nhlegmatic temperaments whose conclu
sions naluraIly raii snort or the LORNA
and who therefore. have to do some
adding The exuberance of alcohol many
save them the trouble of addition and
bring them to the right level. Other
wise, if they are in their sober senses.
unless they add something to their ma
turally low thermometer, they will find
their minds below bloodheat, below the
good judgment represented here by the
numeral TO- Perhaps, if Longstreet had
added something to what seemed his own
incompleteness of view. he would have
added up to the good Judgment of Lee
and occupied in time the keypoint of
Gettysburg which Hancock's good judg-
ment afterwards took advantage of.
The other element in the formation
of good judgment surely has to do with
ones relationship with concrete things
Many months ago, ] was talking In
Asheville with Prof. Toms, whom | had
met for the first time. He then and
there from his remarks along this line
Impressed me as man who promised to
be of great usefulness to the State. He
was telling me about his system Of max
ing his pupils in Durham's graded
schools have to do with things with their
eyes and their hands-with their senses
with the habit of handling and fashion
ing things. Because a lad learns 10
plane a piece of wood an inch square is
no sign that he is to become a carpenter.
But in the doing of this, there are coun-
less data laid up in the mind for use in
after life. For practical wisdom there
seems to be more of benefit in this than
in page of Caesar. 1t was on this line
that Prof. Toms was forging ahead. The
teacher who turns out his pupil with n
proper idea of distance and dimension
and force gathered as much as may be
from practical experiment has done much
toward turning ont man of good iudg-
ment. That lad in after life will make
his additions or his subtractons with all
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