The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-01

LduGllt It us we may, we must dS~ knowledge the fact that the future Is for one-sided men, those who have made the most of their special gift or, If they are endowed with several have ruthlessly concentrated themselves upon one. Now, it is just this particu- lar2ation, this possibly lop-sided de- velopment which is checked if the learning years are spent, and the after life Is moulded, on the old-fashtoned
 training-the almost equal division be-
 tween mental and bodily education
 It's demands on the time and energy of
 those who undergo 1t are so eXacting that no chance Is left for a man to diff ferentiate himself from his likes. He has no reason to show why he should be chosen iii preference to anybody else who is similarly furnished inside and
 outside
 It is the experience of most menWho
 have worked their. way upward with
 out special interest or exceptional op-
 portunities that the long-awaited chance of distinction has come through
 an almost casual aptitude for some po-
 stion, for some undertaking, a little
 out of the ordinary run. And it is
 painfully common to hear one of our
 meritorlous failures lamenting that he
 has lost such a capital opening" just
 because he did not know, or had for
 gotten, some 'pOtty little thing" that
 nobody could ever have thought would
 be of any use. It is the stray frag-
 ment of botany, perhaps, or chemistry,
 the sudden flash of a geographical or
 legal reminiscence which makes a
 man valuable in an emergency; which
 suggests lucrative enterprise or gives
 him the advantage in a technical con
 troversy over an opponent who knows
 everything else as well as he does--ex-
 cept the one little thing that happns to
 matter This is the sort of luck" that
 does not occur to the man who has
 learned just what other men know,
 even if he has learned it a tride better
 than most of them. In the strenuous
 hackneyed occupations of liberal edu-
 cation there Is little opportunity for
 picking up the extra bits of knowledge
 which may lead to fame or fortune
 The routine games and sports are at
 "NtNN'I IIonol
 the ordinary young man has no time to
 think, no time to observe. He is hur-
 ried from work to play, from play back
 to work. The system, it should be eX-
 plained, has not grown up accidentally.
 It is pursued of set purpose--it keeps
 the boys out of mischief. It acts as a
 sort of auto-motor sanction of moral-
 ty. Nor can it's efficacy or the impor-
 tance of it's results be called into ques-
 tion. But we must count the cost.
 God never wastes his candle-e ends"
 MT Sturgeon said, or is reported to
 have said. Whatever he meant by that
 audacious metaphor, it may be applied to the present argument-that modern
 fortunes are made out of bye-products, and made by those who have the eye to
 discover them, by the men who either were never cramped by routine or have
 broken loose from the restraint The
 virtues which MT. Balfour praises as
 the results of excellence in physical
 pursuits (patience sobriety, courage
 temper, discipline, subOrdinaton) make
 an imposing list for the moral expert though one might remark that they are all very much of the same type But if
 cricket and football really have a good
 result on the character then they have a good deal to answer for. They are
 all virtues which have their correspon- ; ding faults-faults that are obviously hostile to alertness of mind and per-
 sonal initiative. The qualities held up for our admiration In the perfect ath-
 lot ,1l, T
 good man in diversity than help an
 ambitious one to make a start for sue
 cess, There is no need however, to
 press that point. The worst drawback
 is that athletics consume the whole : leisure of their votary, and prevent him , from ever being by himself" making the acquaintance of his own mind and , discovering that he is, perchance, en- dowed with powers or haunted by as pirations, which are not exactly the } same as those of all the other good fel- lows with whom he is living in daily Whirl of unreAecting activity. Every night he goes to bed ready for the vac : uous wholesome sleep that will not be
 broken until it is time to begin another . round of task work and regulation play. There is no disturbing or inspiring , sense of a something wanting, no feel , ing about for self that has got itself lost in the hum and hustle of a corpo- rate existence. The aim is rather to , conform to the recognized standard to 5 live up to the highest mark of the es- . tablished "ethos," to win as many
 prizes in the examinations and as many } | caps and ribbons in the playing fields as possible, to excel ones companions, ) if one can, but only on their own lines. l And so the days and the months go by = -"pereunt ct imputateur!" Before $ leisure has been found for thinking, for | discovering ones own nature, the r learning years are lost, and it is time to l go out in the world and make living = only to discover that the qualities which won so much respect in the lit ' tie society of school and college life ? have no value outside it, and that the l work of self-preparation has to be be-
 gun again-unless a vigorous youth, f accustomed to praise and more or less facile success, is content to drop into , some subordinate post without any req ', sOnable prospects of promotion. The