Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-13

HA1etSIS years IL the soul 1S young.
Keep young and If you have that in
you which can bless mankind. the age
Will ever love you and the memory of
your life will never die. Youth is
called. He must be young" says the
spirit OF the age.
| But it is nothing to be young unless
we are also prepared to do the work re-
quired. The next morning after re-
opened the temple doors. And the adver-
opened teh temple doors. An the adver-
tisement said. He must be we'll edu-
Gated" What does that mean?
Well, he'd have to go through the
high school," Likely and yet I don't
know about that. He'd have to be a
| graduate of some college," Maybe, and
yet perhaps not. He must needs have
| taken a course in the graduate depart
| ment of some University" Perhaps so.
and perhaps not. He might do all that
| and not be well educated. To say that
1t is not necessary to go through school
or college would be likely to put a
premium on ignorance, but it can do
no harm to say that one can go
through both and yet not be educated.
In the days of Emerson and his as
s'oSittco, d yOuIiS man got WHAT HAIR
ward could offer him in four years.
Since then departments have been null
tiplying and courses have been in
creasfng.
So that now if one were to take all
the courses of study that that institu-
ton affords, he must spend there a
term of IS years. Yet we admit that
Emerson was an educated man. 1t
would scarcely be wisdom to spend Sc
years in college; you might die before
you got through. If it We're necessary
to know all that the schools can teach
to be educated, no one could ever lay
claim to that distinction, because lie
is too short and knowledge increases
with the years.
Reading is a good thing. and now
a-days, l think, quite Indispensable to
an education. But one must read the
newspapers as well as the classic and
modern literature. But it is estimated
that there are turned out seven hun
bred thousand editions Of newspapers
and periodicals i'm English every year.
So that to read the product Of that
branch of the press for one month
would require more than a lifetime
the press at the rate of $4,000 a year.
If you should read book a day, it
would take you 6S years to read that
number; and then there would be GS
times $4,000 books to read to bring you
up to date. A man visited the public
library in Boston and asked for book,
What book" ANY book, said he,
I'm going to read the library through,
and may as well begin anywhere"
But that library contains over 400. 900
volumes, and thousands are being add
ed yearly.
And SO to be educated can scarcely
mean to have read everything. Educa-
ton does not meaA in schooling or
reading. through there may be neces-
sary enough, but in being. 1t is neces-
sary to know considerable in order to
live at all. Think of the destruction of
life there could be from such an eie-
ment as electricity in it's modern ap-
plicatiOn if the, mass of mankind did
not somewhat. understand and appre-
ciate it's power!I And such are the tools
with which we have to work. New in
struments and discoveries affect our
while existence, change the conditions
under which we live and must get our
living, and unite us in a new and large
sense with the outlaying universe
Former people did not need to know
some things that we must know. They
knew other things that served them in
their day.
To know what it is most necessary
to know, to understand and appreciate
the age we live in. to be able to think
right under the existing conditions and
express ourselves intelIigibly in words
and especially in deeds, is to be edu-
Gated. Inasmuch as cur schooling and
reading help toward these results,
they minister to our education: To say
that there is no new novel that you
have not read might be a matter for
boastins but from an educational
standpoint it no more than to say that
there is no kind of broom-stick' or hoe
handle that you do not know the use
of. Education is no more knowl-
edge than the requirement of the
ability to use the knowledge.
Now, doubtless the most burning ques.
tons of all for you young people are
what shall make my life-work and have
l enough education or. rather, schooling
to begin right away? If youth is called
II must be called to something and must
have some channel through which to ex.
press itself. Many of the old caIlinas
still of necessity remain. and new discov.
cries neceSsitate new ones 1t is not the
true business of any man to tell another
Just what work to pursue. There has
been much harm done and much misery
caused by one person deciding the career
of another Let each one be fully per-
suaded in his own mind. For not one
parent knows the real gilt or their chill
dren. Choose for yourself and you will
relieve the rest of us from a vast amount
OF responsibility. and you will be more
likely to be happy in your choice.
This, of course, is not to say that there
is no help anywhere for you in the settle.
ment Of the problem. The advice of 9th.
ers may greatly assist you in deciding
your own choice. Some-youths are in toe
much hurry to begin with settled voca.
ton and others are not in haste enough
The result in the one case is that tho
vocation overtakes the youth before he
is actually ready for it, and in the other
manhood overtakes him before he las any
definite plans. AS a rule, then, it ought
to be good advice to say, while we would
not have you spend all your life in school
yet DO not be in too much of a hurry to
get away from books and teachers. a
year or two longer at your tasks soor
passes and you Will be glad in many ways
that you had them. Your work, no mat.