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Show li. iiil ily County Supt. D. C. llub-IkucI llub-IkucI j AT THE LAST TKAIIIKIW lAXTITiTK. An Important Subject Handled With Care and Ability Numerous Valuable Hints. I The following i:i-el- iva.- written by 1). C. JIublurd, Supt.c.f District Schools ol' Box EUKt County, :uul re;ul lit t lie Te;iehurs' Institut'.' lieM in iiri;:lKim City, Saturday, Jn unary un-ary 21st, IS'.):;. It is published by request of the teuelierff. arc to biek of time and ton po, r memory. if we have a poor memory it is because we ,lo not properly employ it. Tlie fault lies not with the mind, but in its training and nourishment. nour-ishment. Sir Robert Peel, who was one of ! Xnlaud's most famous statesmen, j was early trained by his father to repeat the sermon he heard on 81111-day. 81111-day. At first his efforts were feeble, but by continued practice j he acquired a facility for retaining retain-ing a speech and reproducing it that has, perhaps, never been rivalled. ri-valled. Tnas this traininn that made him so famous in his ability to remember and answer the arguments argu-ments of his opponents in Parliament. Parlia-ment. r.,..l.:...i . , is able to concentrate his thoughts in the direction of his work, whatever what-ever it be, will surely succeed. "I will" knows no defeat, but "I can't" yields before the first blow is struck. I 'Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment employ-ment of which his nature is capable, capa-ble, ami die with the consciousness that he has done his best." Sidney Sid-ney Smith. Idleness is the curse of mankind, fts tendency is downward and will eventually lead to degrodalion, misery and want. No matter how brilliant may be the intellect, if its possessor yields to idleness he will not advance with the age; he will be unable to keep pace, with his more industrious followers and sooner or later he will sink into insignificance, his life having been a failure. What has caused the mighty dilicrcnee in intelligence between civilized man and the savage? Is it not, in a great measure, due to the energy and industry each has employed? em-ployed? True, much depends upon the environments, but without with-out industry, energy and ambition man would never have attained unto the high platform of intelligence intelli-gence upon which he now stands. Every great improvement of the -T1..JLUUIU aiu won i 10 aiiriuute the greatness to which men achieve to their brilliancy of irtellect, to their superior mental powers; but this is a grave mistake. In almost every instance the mediocre outstrips out-strips his brilliant competitor in the end, although at first he seemed able in no way to compete villi him Why is this? It is simply bcrniisc the mind of one is precocious and matures rapidly, while the other is slow in its development. de-velopment. Oneobfains his knowledge knowl-edge by persistent effort ; but each ellort he puts forth strengthens his powers, cultivates his will; increases in-creases his confidence and devel ops original thought; while, the other, through natural aptness, acquires with ease; he over-estimates his ability and often i falls into idle and vicious habits. The one has trained his mind and energies to bend in the direction direc-tion of his effort, while the other has relied upon his brilliancy as being ample to overcome every obstacle; his mind has not been e may allow ourselves to be deluded de-luded with the thought that we have no time with which to educate edu-cate ourselves, that our time is so occupied with school and other ! labors that we have no time to pur-! pur-! sue a course of study, but if we ; have cherished such ideas in the ! past let us riu ourselves of thein : instantly. If we systematize our i time we can each find ample time ! for study. We must not expect ; immediate results. An eminent j writer has said that education is cultured growth. All growth, if natural, must be slow and regular. The tree of greatest strength is the one that matures the slowest, its growth will in no way compare with many of lighter tissue, but it will brave the storms after they have decayed and returned to 1 mother earth. If the knowledge be lasting it must be acquired with slow and : persistent effort. I The groat philosopher Newton, ; when asked how he made such ! great discoveries, said: "By con- stantly thinking into them. It 1 have done the public any service, it is due to nothing but industry and patient thought." Lord St. Leonards, in explaining to a friend the secret of his success, suc-cess, said: l(I resolved to make everything I accomplished perfectly per-fectly my own, and never go to a second tiling until I had entirely accomplished the first. Many of my competitors read as much in a day as I did in a week, but at the end of twelve months my knowledge knowl-edge was as fresh as the day it was acquired, wdiile theirs had glided : away from recollection." Education requires time. How true are tlie words of the poet: The heights by pretit men reached and kept Were not ulitaineil by Kiiddeii flight; Dill they while their companions slept Were toilfns upward In the night. age, every uneiiLiun n;iu ur uiigm in the fertile brain of an active, energetic and indefatigable worker. On the other hand, what has idleness contributed to the world? Has she wrought great inventions? Has she performed any great achievements? No; but she is responsible for most of the crime, misery and want that exist today upon the earth. Were we able to trace the budding bud-ding of sin in youth, its blooming in manhood and its ripening in more mature years, we would find that, the root of the evil lies in idleness and indolence. True, many great workers have been morally corrupt; they have "fallen from grace;" but this does not prove that their evil thoughts did not originate in an idle moment when they allowed the evil seeds planted by Satan to germinate and crow, chokii.a out the good and properly trained; the will has not been exorcised ; he has not the power to resist temptation, whieh often loads to vice. Wc grow strong by the obstacles we have to surmount. If they be few ami small we gain but little strength of mind or body. Demosthenes was an awkward, sickly, stammering boy, yet by his perseverance, energy and will, he became the greatest of ancient orators. ora-tors. It is said he filled his mouth 1 with pebbles, and standing by the seashore, exercised his voice until it could be heard above the tumult of the waves. lie copied the history written by the great Athenian his-! his-! torian, Thucydides, eight . times I that lie might possess its concentrated concen-trated thought, and practiced gesticulation ges-ticulation before a mirror until lie had overcome every awkward de feet. His example and many others noble thoughts that every intelligent intelli-gent being should and docs possess. Having briefly treated the evil results of idleness, let us now consider con-sider our own condition. The question arises, "How can we employ ourselves to the best advantage; ad-vantage; in what way can we obtain ob-tain the most satisfactory results?'1 First let us review the past. Do all of us feel that our time has been employed in the past to the best advantage; have we labored with a definite end in view, pursuing pursu-ing daily some study to its completion comple-tion or have wc allowed ourselves lo drift along, reading much in a desultory way, trying - to get n smattering of everything nnd accomplishing ac-complishing nothing? Here, in my opinion, rests our destiny. If we do -iot pursue our studies systematically, with ;i definite end in view; if we do not bend our whole energy in the di- of a similar nature proves to us thai the obstacles wc surmount prove to he our greatest blessings. 'The best pari of every man's education," said Sir Walter Scott, "is that which he gives himself." There is a vast difference between learning and education, although they are generally regarded as meau'iig the i-ame. A man may be learned but not educated. Hewitt says: "Learning is a po-:-'i'ssion, but education is a part of one's self." A man may have an extensivoknowlodge of science, eve. hut not be able to use the same as a pouree of power to himself. Such a. man is learned but not educated. The educated man is able lo apply ap-ply his knowledge; it has become a part of himself in its acquisition, lie. through thought and investigation, investi-gation, obtained a perfect mastery nf it. Hewitt says: "Education is the development of the faculties rection of our labors; if we have not so trained our minds, or rather educated thorn, so that wc can rivet them upon the study pursued we would accomplish but little, j Our time will Hitter away; wo I will make but little progress and in j the end we will attribute our fail- in germs ot power in man. and the training of them into harmonious action, in obedience to the laws of reason and morality." Education is not tlie mere stor- j ing of fact., but it is the thought. : the training, the development of the faculties of the mind. He who I |