The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-02-04

5I4OO04&A6 ~
by nature are too angular. Bacon
put conference" on a par with
reading and writing as an educa-
tional agent, because it 'maketh a
ready man" Doubtless President
friend owed mainly 30 his
business experience the training
which made him a match for the
leader of the bar. In every city one
may meet men whose daily practice
on the exchange has given them
keen insight and rapid Judgment, and
has enabled them to deal compre-
hensively with a large question, in
stead Of being overwhelmed by de
tails. But here, even more than in
a college education, varying degrees
of natural sagaoity may make a
world of difference between the ef-
fects of Identical experiences upon
two men. 1t has been truly said
that experience can teach us no more
useful lesson than how TO interpret
itself. And there is always a dan
ger in this kind of education lest it
produce mere smartness or clever
ness, which is by no means the same
thing as culture,-the quality of the
competent horse dealer rather than
of the thoughtful citizen.
This training by contact and 1880
citation is greatly enlarged by foreign
travel. For a man who was debarred
from a schooling by the hard condi-
tons of his early life, but who has
gained wealth in later years, the
royal road to learning is the railroad.
He finds it difficult TO acquire the
habit of steady reading, but his ou-
riosity is awakened without effort
by the sight of strange scenery and
novel customs. There have been
instances in which the unfamiliar
forms of tropical vegetation have
introduced to the study of botany
travellers who, all their lives pre-.
viously, had passed without interest
the flowers of their native land. The
love of this newly acquired science
accompanied them when they re.
turned, and gave a new pleasure to
their later rambles in the neighbor-
hood of their home. That a foreign
tour may be educationally effected,
it is essential that national preju-
dices be left behind. The man who
has made up his mind, before he
starts, that he will not find anything
to compare with his own CITY is
doomed to return as narrow and
bigoted as when he set out. In
other words, cannot learn any
thing without being teaohable.
Sufficient attention has been paid
by educational writer's to the intel
lectual value of strong and unselfish
religious interests. 1t would be an
edifying study to trace the indirect
intellectual results of the great re-
ligiOus reviv8ls Every minister
could give instances in which men
have gained a distinct intellectual
impulse on their conversion. Strictly
speaking, this is not a case of educa-
ton without books, for with such an
impulse there is always zeal in the
study of that Book which has a
greater value for culture than any
other. But in addition to this there
is a deep educative value in preach
ing, Sunday school teaching, and
other forms of Christian effort. II
is impossible TO spend the leisure of
years in suoh employment without
a certain mental az we'll as spiritual
expansion.
If 1t be true that a college course
is not the only possible means of ed
ucat1on for an intelligent person, the
fact must not be misinterpreted.
But there is consolidation here for
men and women whose appetite for
best things had little possibility of
satisfaction in youth, and who were
compelled to spend at the desk or in
the workshop the years in which
others made deeper and wider their
preparation for life. They lose
something, they lose much, by their
lack of early discipline, but a n hon
est conscientious devotion to dutv
will bring its own oompensations.
A member of the British House OF
Commons, who had acquired an un-
rivaled knowledge of parliamentary
procedure, was once asked how he
came to know 1.-The rules of the
House. so perfectly. "By breaking