Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1878)
328 TlIK llESUt.T Otf AN EDUCATION. Vdi. Vtt. i I Mb TUB RESULT OF AZV EDUCATION. There can be no doubt that a certain amount of education is necessary to suc cess in life. Youth is the time for im provement, and we must make the most of it. By the fate of circumstances we are not all situated alike, nor do we all have uqual chances to gain an education. Some have to be content with a few years in a public school, not having the advantages of a high school or seminary. A smaller number yet are fortunate enough to have the privilege of attend, ing the University, which is the scat of learning of the state wherein it is situated. It is to the last named class that our sub ject refers. What may be reasonably ex pected as the result of a University ed. ucation ? What is the result of any education? It is the acquisition of knowledge. "Knowledge is power," said Lord Bacon, aud therefore an education adds to our power. This power comes to us us surely as physical strength comes to the man who daily practises with clubs aud dumb bells at the gymnasium. This is a geuer al result. Now, that the student lias gained this power, let us look at the result The ed. ucation which gives him the power should teach him what to do with it. How he uses it is the way in which we must judge of the benefits of an education. If his course in college has fitted him for the ac live duties of life, then he is benefitted. The result of an education depends very much upon the character of the students themselves. Many of them allow their edu. cation to destroy their individuality. They get an idea that they arc horn to achieve some wonderful revolution in the affairs of the world; they think that they arc destined to fill some high position in the affairs of thn country. To reach the height to which they aspire, they must se. lect a learned profession. Nine men out of ten who receive a degree could never entcruiin the idea that they are to be car. pentcrs or shoemakers. Every man has his place, and if any one whom Nature has intended to be a mechanic will allow himself to be humbugged into the idea that he can become a great lawyer, or an eminent physician, simply because he has been through the prescribed curricu lum, he is sure to learn, sooner or later, that he is disappointed. No one is so much to be pitied as thourin who has mistaken his calling. If you were to take a fast trotting horse and harness him to the plow, aud put a farm horse on the track to do the trotting, how much would each do in his new position? The trotting animal would be ruined, aud the draught horse would lumber along at a gait, not much to his credit. So it is with those in life who are out of place. We would not discourage ambition, but we think it should be used in the right direction. It is a worthy act for a man to rise in his sphere, but when he attempts to rise out of it he becomes ridiculous. Education has the general result of making him ca pable of estimating his own ability, teach ing him how to live, and how to be use. ful as a citizen. He must first sufficiently understand himself to know what course to pursue. His education will make thiu course plain to him, and help him over its rough pathway. If the student will but persist in Joing in after life the work to which he truly believes his pow ers adapted, his education will be a bless ing. It is not the fault of the college course that young men are led to false impressions concerning their ability, but of the weakness of their own judgment. They have formed false estimates of them, selves. They have looked foward to the honor of receiving a degree and thought that with this their battle through life would be quite easy. A mechanic is none the worse ofl'for having a diploma in his pocket, but the pettifogger or the quack whom Nuturc intended for mechanics arc not respectable, and all the degrees they could carry would not make them so. U.