Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-01-14
Books, Bookish People and Things
We get no good by being ungenerous book.
E. B. Browning.

They should not be educated above
their station"
DR.. n. u. Hills takes different but
still pessimistic view of this misdrect.
cd rage for letters. He says In his
Quest of Happiness:
Education has become an irritant.
1t eXCites, when 1t should soothe.
knowledge is no longer sedative. To
these feverish stimulants are added
the financial prizes that have excited
our people, and strung them up to the
last point of nervous tension.
Even the women have taken all knowl.
edge for their province and forming
innumerablc classes, have come to.
gether to study and club and worry
themselves to death"
The trouble does not lie in a too
general schooling OF an elemental
kind. There are few who haven't
brains enough to stand educating I'D
20 the rule OF Three The injury
comes when certain individuals are
pushed on into subjects which to then,
will always be imponderable. Their
simple, undeveloped brain cells ara
made for a certain amount only, but
they are now Crammed with every
sort Of information until they have no
intcrspaces.
II the higher schools served more tho
purpose of educational Crucibles: II
their teachers were selected for their
knowledge OF human nature and praC-
teal psychology as well as letters; If
the State would demand not universal
examining but the selection by these
teachers and schools of the 1T to be
educated. we might have fewer incap-
ables holding diplomas and offices.
The majority of the people do not
need any more than Reading, 'Riting
and 'Rithmetic. With these they
would not wraCk and crack their I'm.
stable nerve Centers, but find their
best development in useful vOCations
such as farming, carpentering, black.
smithlng. and so on. These lines de.
mand enough brains to make them
highly respectable trades. There IL
absolutely no honor in being an over.
educated simpeton, and there can 10
little satisfaction in II.
Even the mentally adequate but
physically incapable child that has
not stamina enough to stand an intel.
lectual strain, could find In manual
labor degree Of satisfaction, and al.
ways good living. He would have
the daily sedative he needs.
Otherwise, he will degenerate into
habits that may ruin him in every re.
spect. large number of the crimi.
nails of the land are those who have
strayed through loss of will power
into devious paths of drink narcOtism
and perversion; strayed there because
they were out Of the place they wera
intended to occupy. Nothing is so in.
beXible as the Law of Nature A man
whom nature has given peck Of
brains cannot be made to exercise a
bushcl Of sense. Pump him as full az
you may of other mems thoughts, he
VIII always betray his own folly. We
need not fear that we may hide away
some genius under a bushel. Genius
and even talent are possessed of in
Hnitesimal energy. like certain chemi-
cal elements, they cannot be confined.
But we would save ourselves from the
horde Of half.educated who disfgurs
our intellectual sky line, and keep in
Usefulness and happiness, too, many
who are now wearing themselves and
others out trying to preach, to write,
to practice law and medicine.
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