The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-06-02

ar,rsas the long years of prison and
a,,+rnrsh,p ana its not uniting close, IN
N. English statesman's death by the
ead~man-so tranquil though violent, -
tremendously solemn. 80 composed, 50
dignifed-such a contrast TO all othef
forms Of capital punishment. then or
since" Spenser celebrates Raleigh IN
some parts OF the great poem.
There are two sides TO almost all ques-
tions The Latins had . wise saying
sort Of protest-audi aIteram parten-
heaT me otlcr side. There are two sides
to the negro question. and after weil-mgh
forty years of blindness, of ignorance, 81
infatuation, Northern people with intel
Ggence are finding ii out, and now freely
admit the blunder OF the mad Congress
that e~nfranchised the negro IN his stupid
tv. folly. ignorance and superstition. As
to education il also has two sides. The
enthusiastic devotees OF education make IL
everything. They are as blnd followers
of Horace Mann as were any OF his bind
cd disciples in Massachusetts fifty years
ago. Education Is made now the great
lever power Of government As well as the
supreme gift to man. 1t opens the gates
of Heaven to It's recipients, and make all
who are so blessed as To mental lnstruc-
ton the great makers and builders OF the
world. Education OF the mind Is pro
nounced to be the great and primal moral
and intellectual uplitter and benciactor.
But there is another side. IT Is argued
that education is. not a Regeneration, sanvtI-
fer and savior Of the world. 1t Is under
stood that great men are not necessarily
wise men, nor educated men necessarily
moral. pure, good men. In the Literary
Digest for eth March, 1903, there Is an
instructive paper, but / can not use
enough of it here to show its real value
and significance. 1t shows something OF
the actual disadvantages of education. It
quotes a we'll known saying OF the great
est German, Goethe, that The greater the
knowledge, the greater the doubt" It
also copies another saying, the latter be
ing by the great English critic of the
first thirty years of the last century.
Hazlitt, that THE most learned are Of the
most narrow-minded.' Both sayings are
true, and literature and history abound in
striking examples to justify the statement.
The great English Review, THE Nine
teenth Century and After" in Its Febru-
airy number, has an article strikingly i'm
| pressive as to the disadvantages OF edu-
| cation as well as advantages. in which it
is affirmed that 'the most prominent men
IN nearly every province Of human ac-
tivity have been amateurs. | must take
some selections to establish the truth Of
the contention. The great Review says,
and it is surely impressively illustrative:
Amateurs, and not professionals, are
selected to rule our great public depart
rnents- Our great administrator have
nearly all been amateurs and autodidacts
To take a few of the best known examples:
Cromwell was a farmer, Warren Hastings
and Give were clerks, Mr.. Chamberlain
was brought up for trade, Lord Goschen
for commerce, Lord CrOmer for the army.
Other countries have had the same expert
ence with self-taught amateurs. Prince
Bismarck was brought up for law. failed
twice to pass his examination, became a
country squire, and drifted without any
training into the Prussian diplomatic ser
vice and the cabinet, and founded the
German empire. George Washington was
a surveyor, Benjamin Franklin a printer,
Abraham Lincoln a lumberman, Nj. de
White a railway official.
In a less exalted sphere we meet with
the same phenomenon. Sir William
Herschell was a musician, Faraday Il
DOOhDIiiiCI, pcOJC al Id yer : clerk. mural
a student of theology. Ney Il notary's
clerk, Arkwright, the inventor of the
spinning-machine and the first cotton
manufacturer, a barber, Spinoza a glass
blower, Adam Smith a clergyman, Lord
Armstrong an attorney, Herbert Spencer
an engineer, Pasteur, the father Of mod
ern medicine and chirurgy, a chemist; Ed
son a news-vender; George Stephenson and
moot 1f tho oraot inuantprc md ,rn,+n-.
of industry of his time were ordinary
workin2men."
1t also refers 10 Lincoln who learned at
school but The three RS; Garfield, "A boat
man IN bOyhood; Andrew Jackson a sad
der who could never spell correctly; An
drew Johnson, a tailor; George Peabody.
a working lad at twelve; SchWab, presi-
dent United States Steel corporation. a
coach boy, a stake-driver later; Wedge
wood, a labOrer at eleven; Arkwright.
never at school; Maxim, an apprentice at
fourteen: Cornelius Vanderbilt, d ferry
man when a boy; William h. Aston. head
OF FANNY, a butchers boy; BaIon Roths-
child, a pedler; Krupp, an iron smith;
Rockefeller, a clerk. These are only a
lew OF the obscure rising to fame or
wealth. The Review is inclined to believe
that the learned must begin TO waver as
to the much vaunted benefits of learning
The tact IS not many who are supposed to
be educated are even learned" in any
proper sense. The education commonly
secured IS Of a very superficial primary
character. The review makes a sugges-
tive remark as follows:
1T has been truly said knowledge i
power but knowledge in itself Is not
power, only applied knowledge is power.
knowledge Is k money. not valuable in
itself, put only valuable for what it Will
but the best weapon is useless to = man
but the NEST weapon is useless to a man
who does not know how to WELD If
knowledge is an elementary power but
the power of the Niagara. or OF steam or
electricity, would be useless to maukind
unless intelligence directs that power to
some practical purposes. The Chinese
knew magnetic iron long before Europeans
knew It, To them it was a piece of iron
and nothing more
The Review says 'that schools have ever