St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-01-02

gives us better hope and courage for
endeavor along lines of improvement
in the future. And after all, it is a
great achievement for us, for we are
not wealthy town, nor even an in
tellectual one. Scholars and college
graduates. (the terms are by no means
synonymous) are about as plenty
among us as hens teeth. Ana there is
no doubt most of~us would prefer a
minstrel show to a philosophical lee
ture any day. In fact, the "man
with the hoe" is far more typical
representative than the man with the
pen; and yet the men and women who
have given their time and service and
substance t, the formation of this
library cannot justly be termed
''brothers to the OK"
Now that we have reviewed the
past, let us look into the future lit
tie and see what this library shall be
to us of permanent value. Until
within few years, perhaps less than
a century, you all know that the cult
of the scholar was an unshakable in
stitution. A few people monopolized
the rains and learning of the world
and few other people the wealth
aud power, while the great mass of
the population, without any of these
things, logged on in ignorance and
poverty. Learning was mostly in the
hands of monks and priests and the
scholar was the man of eminence.
With the dawn of the nineteenth
century, and the great scientific, in,
dustyial and commercial changes that
then took place, "a new figure appear
ed upon the scene. No longer the re-
cuse, the scholar and the thinker,
but the man of action. the captain of
industry, became the man of the hour.
Not to think, but to do has become
the slogan of the day. and the whole
trend of our education, the very
curriculum of our schools, shows the
effect of the change Our boys, once
exercised in digging Greek roots, now
dig potatoes i'll school gardens, and
the most sought after degree, if any
college conferred it, would be, not A.
Nor l.. l.. D., but G. II b., Celebrated
Half-Back. Our girls, whose educa-
ton has always been a puzzling prob
lem, since the days of the oldest
daughter of Eve, are now, in the hope
of making them more practical
struggling with scientific cookery,
and the composition of infants foods.
Books are out of favor, and their
place is taken by the saw and the
plane, the broom and the egg beaten.
Now this is an excellent thing, no
doubt, for the Creator intended that
man should develop every side of his
three fold nature, body, soul, and
mind. But let US not forget that the
pendulum may swing too far. In the
long run the world is going to be
ruled by the man who thinks, and
manual training and plain sewing
alone, will never breed race of
thinkers. We have the spectacle be-
fore us today, across the sea, in Rus
STA, of a great and mighty people
struggling to rise themselves from
the oppression and serfdom of ages.
So far their efforts have been futile,
not because they have not the power
but they do not know how to use that
power. They do not know how to
think, and they have never had a
chance to learn to think. And unless
men arise of brains and Judgment,
men who can think and reason, and
lead this heterogeneous mob to some
definite end, their struggles will end
as they began, in chaos I'd confusion.
Such will be the fate of all democra-
ces, unless the people are taught to
think, for "as man thinketh in his
heart, so is he"
You may ask, what has all this to
do with our library. Much. The
aim of education is threefOld. TO
exercise the soul, that is, to be good;
to exercise the mind, that is, to be
wise; to exercise the body. that is. to
be strong. Educative Influences are
many, the home, the school, the
church, the street, each have part,
and among them all, the library has
by no means an insignificant one.
The librarian, especially in a small
town, has power and influence sec
ond to few. For the thinking man
is essentially reading man. Not that
the reading man is always thinking
man, for some people can absorb a
vast amount of literature without any
strain whatever on their mental ma
chinery. But to the thinker books
are the tools of life, and he uses them
with skill and discretion. OF some
he merely tastes, a flavor being all
he requires; some he squeeZes like a
lemon, and having absorbed all their
goodness, throws away the dry and
worthless rind; while some few he
reads, digests, and assimilates, until
they become very brain of his brain,
and soul of his soul. For we are the
heirs of all the ages, and the we'll
equipped man Of today needs not only
that knowledge of past human expert
ence which comes from wide reading;
that knowledge of the present which
comes from a cultivated observation
and receptive mind; and that
prophetic insight into the future
helped by a trained reason and keen
judgment.