The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-21

| the innocent and we'll meaning victims
| away from real education. They create
and they foster the Ills and the evils
which the Greek sophists in the time Of
Socrates was accused Of promoting. and
did-some OF them at least--promote.
These quacks are oeunterfeiters of the
| intellectual currency, Of thought. OF
knowledge and of intellectual power.
| The cause of such intellectual quack-
| cry is at once general and particular.
permanent and timely. The general and
lasting cause is found in the quality Of
human nature which likes to get some
thing for nothing, the hard for the easy,
the more for the less, the most for the
least 1t stands for. intellectual cheap
| jewelry. 1t represents intellectual lazi-
ness. 1t is desire to get culture while
you wait, as you get your clothes pressed
| or your boots half-soled. The cause has
| been in humanity's bosom since the time
of Alcibiades. the Greek sophist, and APP
| parently is to lie there still for twenty
| five hundred more years. The timely
cause is found in the fact that there is
| q large amount OF intellectual activity
in these energetic countrymen of ours.
1t Is an activity devoted to direct ends.
and not to general and purely intellec-
tual culture. In fact, the larger part
OF humanity's Intellect as found existing
and acting in the United States is given
| to direct material ends. Little research
Is pure. 1t is moved by an industrial
| and material aim. 1t represents material
efficiency. Out of this spring of in
tellectual energy flows forth the stream
OF quackery. The general source Of
energy is good, or at least only one-half
corrupt, and parts OF the stream thus
Issuing are also good. But certain pro-
portions are pestiferous. A further cause
l. - 80 en-
get up. The common idea Of getting
on and getting up is to have a pro-
fession rather than a trade. to use your
brain primarily rather than to work
with your hands. to receive a salary
rather than wages. Whether this def
inition be true or false, II Is yet true
that America does not realize that
profession poorly followed Is not SO good
as trade well pursued. 1t fails to see
and to appreciate that II Is far better TO
use your hands in laying strong brick
wall for a home than to use your loose
mind in making speeches In looser Eng
lish and looser logic based on narrow
premises and leading to pestiferous and
disastrous conclusions.
/ also am inclined to believe that the
current American doctrine OF American
efficiency Is In part to blame for the cur
rent uuackery. This doctrine In essence
is, of course most worthy. 1t represents
getting the greatest results for the least
expenditure. But this doctrine has been
applied to a field where 1t does not be-
long, or where &c does not belong in the
way it has been laid down. The doctrine
belongs primarily not to the intellectual,
but the physical and material field. For
the culture OF the intellect takes time
even eternity, II you could afford to take
that Time may not do anything but
II Is necessary for the doing. To culti-
vate a lawn or the human mind you
should use the best fertilizer, intellectual
or agricultural. and time. leisure. Ia one
OF the best 60 to now, want to write
an essay while my shoes are being
tapped. Stop a moment; want to die
tate this sonnet which has been running
in my head for half an hour" Efficiency
applied TO the intellectual side of educa-
ton as bare efficiency is a curse,
blight, a frost, a drought. 1t creates coun-
terfeits 1t debases the gold standard.
It means tinsel and hollowness--a mere
sound.
Such are some of the reasons perma-
nent in human nature, and timely of our
age, which cause the prevalence Of this
wretched quackery.
And what is the cure for this intel
lectual and educational pestilence? To
this question 1 wish to give three or four
| answers.
First-Quackery may be removed by a
knowledge of the nature and history Of
the human mind. The human mind Is
among the most delicate and complex Of
all forces. What 1t Is not Ia much easier
to tell than to tell what It is-and to
say what II is not Is indeed difficult
The mind is man knowing. man think
ing. man reasoning. man feeling and
| feeling emotions of all sorts and condi-
tions. 1t is man approaching the beau
| tiful, the sublime-man choosing, and
choosing the right and also the wrong
| separating the wise from the foolish and
the evil from the good The mind OF
man is the historian of the past and the
prophet of the unknown future. Tho
knowledge and understanding of the dell
cate methods OF mighty forces. OF the
| human mind. should give curbing to
this intellectual quackery and should help
TO spill out It's nostrums.
Second-A cure also would be aided by
| a knowledge of the quacks themselves
and of their vain promises. Genuine
| teachers are not inclined to make prom
Ises. Quacks abound in promises. Genuine
| teachers are gentle In manner, quiet In
| their speech. Quacks are noisy. Genu-
inc teachers recognize the laws of mental
| BTOWlu anu ucNclOpTuOul- NSuoSho oopA-
to overturn law and to corrupt the prln-
| ciples of human nature. Genuine teach
ers embody relationships. Ouacks are
theatrical showmen and masters Of the
unrelated and the immediate. Genuine
| teachers have at heart the good Of their
pupils. They teach and live for and
| sacrifice themselves for their students.
Quacks have at heart their own profit. I
would not call them Judases, but might
call them Benedict Arnolds. The genu-
inc teachers are individual. Quacks ad-
minister one remedy. or a single set OF
remedies, for all mental weaknesses and
| Ills.
Third-An understanding OF the re-
suits Of an education given by the teach
ors and by the quacks would aid In
working a cure. MY teacher gave me
my intellectual life." is the common and
hearty testimony OF most educated men
| OF thoughtfulness. my teacher taught
me to see, he inspired me to think" Is
often heard in commentator Of a
teacher by the reyerent and grateful
pupil. "He opened to me the beauty OF
our literature" "He showed me that !
had stun of which I should not be
ashamed" Gle helped me to be a
thoughtful man." HE aided mo In In
| terpreting life and to see things as they
are" And what does the quack do? His
doing Is promises. assurances, the hold
Ing out OF rainbow visions. OF achieve
ments yet to be made. These achieve
ments are the achievements OF auc-
| tioneers bent only on their commission.
| A further method OF doing away with
the quack and his quackeries lies in