The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-09-17
CULTURE AND DEMOCRACY
Professor Charles Zueblin.

I
cognizant of tendency and connet
ton in human achievement, able an
Industrious in discerning the grea
from the trivial.
Culture is the habit of min
instinct with purpose 1t is not tn
accumulation of knowledge, the pill
ing up of facts; it is something that
acquired, becomes habit.
Culture is the habit Of mine
instinct with purpose. You remem
Der, perhaps, some of your schoo
companions who had a great thris
for knowledge. who were always I
little ahead of the class, gathering In
formation from every source, con
stantly tapping the teacher and the
books, but who never seemed to know
what to do with it, and have made
no use of it since then. They had
not the habit of mind instinct with
purpose, except the purpose to ac-
quire facts. Sometimes the acquisi-
ton of knowledge, like the acquiring
of gold, makes one misery, and one
spends ones time in counting up the
accumulations, instead of using them
We bring home our great masters,
and hang them up in room hideous-
ly furnished, and are not nauseated
by it at all That is knowledge, but
not culture, Take child in the slums,
and let him play with the forms Of
things; let him put himself into clay,
wood and metal; let him put himself
into music, and you may soon get an
artist. He may have the right APP
probation without having special in
tellectual talents. In some proper
ton we all have the element of cul-
ture, and yet almost all live in ugli-
ness, and are deprived of access to
the beautiful. The opening of our art
galleries is not going to let light in
to the souls, unless 1t is accomplished
by q definite movement toward maxi
ing all other things beautiful. We
have art study classes pursuing differ
ent courses in architecture, literature,
painting, and the utmost that they
get is verbal knowledge, not a
of form, color and proper
ton, and knowledge of the beauties
Of nature. 1t would be much better
IL all our numerous clubs engaged In
the study of art were.to spend a year
with their fingers, however
clumsily, so that they work under the
guidance of skilled directors. They
would then learn to feel something,
and their senses might respond to
art.
Similarly with the attitude we have
toward literature, a great many peo-
pie just rush through literature. 1t is
so much easier to get knowledge out
Of book than in any other way, and
also 1t is much easier to measure
ones attachments. We have all read
shakespeare; we may have had dis
,ipline In the romatic literature of
France and Germany, and we have
Jagged and measured and folded 1t
away; We do not have to do it again,
md we can 60 on to some other ac-
'omplishment. That is not getting at
he spirit of literature. Some of our
most distinguished authorities say
hat we must not read book until
t is five or ten years old, as by that |
line the bad books will have been
'ifted out. Where are we going to
ret our standard of judgment, If we
10 not know enough to tell whether
no0'. is good or bad? It is better.
erhaps, to waste little time in read
ng trash than never to read any
hing, except what you are told to
cad by a superior authority to whom
'ou bow in allegiance.
To refer again to our text-"Cul-
ure Is the habit of a mind instinct
With purpose, cognizant of tendency
nd connection in human achieve
nent." Mr.. Bosanquet's words are
most carefully chosen, and you can
ot afford to miss one of them. Cog
liant of tendency and connection
human achievement everything
hat ever was may be important and
ways may be. That point of view
oes not allow you to sit back in your
brary and content yourself with in
'llectual satisfaction, or communion
18th the saints; you must be alive to
that is going on now. If [
BUR culture does not meet with the /
)proval and acknowledgment of the
sople you meet every day. it has '
NV in it. The people of book culture 4
ay say, one must have a sound
lowledge of the, classics, but we de- y
and the privilege Of retaliating. II
ur culture does not enable you to '
e little more clearly the vital {