Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-11-10

All England stirred by PROFESSOR
Mayhany's Pessfmfstic Views

tLeWlStOn JOurndi1
II contentment is the highest good. 1t
Is probable that education Is mistake,
since contentment and ignorance are
more frequent coincidence than content
ment and learning 1t Is the function OF
education to kindle ambition and TO
crafty It, but not to satisfy II. There
is always more beyond. All England Is
now stirred by the pessimistic version OF
education already alluded to In these
columns. given by Professor Mahaffy,
in a collegiate event at Birmingham. de
doubts II the schools give as good an
education as they did thirty years ago;
at any rate. he discovers frightful ig-
norance among graduates Of his acquaint-
ance. He has himself known students
OF his own Trinity College. Dublin, to
turn out remarkable criminals. Did not
that argue something wrong with the
system? He modestly said nothing
about what 1t argued in the teachers.
But. however. that might be, he had the
gravest doubts whether the diffusion or
education had diffused morality or hap
piness.
That a distinguished professor should
take such superficial views is the strong
est indictment that we have seen OF sucn
partial mental discipline as that of Pro-
fessor Hahaffy. Everybody knows that
the intellect and the character are not
Invariably developed In the same degree;
but everybody, except Professor Mahaffy'
knows that ignorance and vice average TO
go together, although, fortunately Tor
society. only a moiety of the ignorant
are criminals. and only a moiety OF the
vicious are educated. We are concerned
not with exceptions, but with rules. The
Duke of Devonshire says that even II
education does not make happiness. 1t Is
necessary IL the modern man and woman
is successfully to compete for larger
existence The fact is that education
makes usefulness. not contentment. the
basis of happiness, and thus substitutes
a larger for a smaller lie.
The fact is that false education sup
plies Professor Mahaffy the basis or his
Indictment An education that units
man for life, that leaves him powerless,
Is not education in the sense Of relation
to the actual world: They talk In Eu-
rope Of the learned proletariat-that u.s.
Of a body of scholars that can scan
Virgil and interpret Plato, but who
know nothing Of affairs, little OF science
and art. Here is where our educational
systems are weak. To enter upon life
we must have science and art, because
modern life is scientific, and Its sue
cesses must be wrought out-that Is,
the worker must know how to think
Alright and how to act Alright. The trade
school. the technical school, are essen
tial II we are to produce something
above Professor Mahaffy's pessimism.
England is fast losing her Industrial
pre-eminence, because her technical
education is far beneath that OF Ger
many. The application Of science to
art, OF knowledge of things to construc-
ton. is the German genius In the
United States we need especially to en-
courage general education, as we now
do. but to turn the enthusiasms or mus
cular effort from football fads TO the
scientific battle with steam, water, n.y.
drogen, oxygen, and the factors of force
and matter. In grammar and in high
schools we are wasting the highest
power by allowing ourselves to be dis
suaded from constructive effort by de-
structive engagements. from the con-
structive genius of peace 10 the de-
structiye genius of war To nourish
courage we want less pigslxin and more
of the spirit that suffers long and as
kind in the science and art OF indus
trial evolution on which social evolu-
ton is based.