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Show MENTAL EMBROIDERIES. The trouble with the average student, in the opinion of the Boston Transcript, is that he docs not go to college to form his mind, but to decor-ate decor-ate it. The confidence of youth is the sublimcst thing in the world. Contemplating his assur-nnce assur-nnce of certainty about the principles of all things, the elder man, some if not nil of whose bases have been shaken by experience, feels about the sophomore at college as Peel felt about Macaulcy, that he would give all his worldly wealth if he could be as sure of anything as that chap is of everything. Looking back over his life, the elderly man can find in, it no other moment mo-ment when his knowledge was so completely satisfactory sat-isfactory to him as when he was 20 years old. Nor Is the reason for this far to seek. Relatively Relative-ly to his understanding ns u boy of 15, the knowledge knowl-edge of a young man of 20 is enormous. He finds himself in the possession of the keys that unlock the secrets of the gods. He unlocks the door. It is natural for him to suppose that the glittering and glorious prospect that he beholds constitutes the whole trensure house. The enlightenment has fallen upon him. It is enough. His task thereafter, as the Transcript hns expressed it, is to decorate his mind with the jewels that lie at his hand. He does not think about changing others or himself all he wants is to shine. The confidence of the youth in the nbidingness of his knowledge, in the completeness of his discoveries, dis-coveries, in the correctness of his ncceptcd way is a very beautiful thing. But some time he is likely to lose all its glamour and discover that ornnmcntatlon is not going toarry him through a busy and critical world. For that is what he goes out in the world to do to lose his sublime assurances and to awake to the realization that what he had valued as precious jewels were poor substitutes for the tools of intellectual and physical phy-sical Industry with which he must hew his way through a busy and indifferent world. His mind, if it be not opened in college must be enclosed by the rude processes of everyday existence nnd struggle. The necessity of this disillusioning experience is the very thing which has caused so many grownup men to complain thnt college taught them nothing that they had to leant everything afterward and sometimes unlearn a great deal of what they had thought was most worth while, but which failed when put to the test of practical use. And it is also this same fact that has enabled so many men of good ability, abil-ity, men who never went to college, but who were getting this mental unclosing experience while their brothers in college were busy accumulating ac-cumulating mental embroidery and lace, to surpass sur-pass In the achievements of life the best efforts of the college graduate, Thu imxrtnnt thing) it seems to The Sun, is for the young man who goes to college to have a well defined object to attain, and concentrate as far as possible his greatest endeavors toward mastering that which will enable him to most effectively ef-fectively grasp the goal of his ambition. It is not necessary to avoid the ornamental, in education educa-tion no more than in any other phase of IRc. Beauty is a great thing ifnd art is a jewel. But ornamentation should be valued only as ornamentation orna-mentation and should not be allowed to take up too much time nnd attention thnt belong to the scriouB things of life. For there Is no more seri-ous seri-ous thing in a young man's life than the acquirement acquire-ment of thoso tilings which will best help him to make a useful and n successful citizen. |
