LEARXIXG AXD HEALTH. 



399 



fied, when they even attain to all they aspire to 

 as scholars. They feel themselves, perhaps justly 

 know themselves, to be great scholars ; and yet, 

 how little are they recognized above the common 

 people who are well-to-do and are no scholars at 

 all ! But what other course is open to laudable 

 ambition ? 



There is in this way induced, therefore, a strain 

 after knowledge as a means of getting that re- 

 maining part, that skeleton of distinction, which 

 so soon will he put up as a curiosity of the past. 



The acquisition of much knowledge has, how- 

 ever, another meaning and object beyond mere 

 ambition. In this so-called practical day it is 

 imagined that knowledge must be extended with- 

 out limitation among the young, in order that it 

 may be limited without extension among those 

 who have passed their youth and have become 

 engaged in the practical affairs of life. School- 

 days and student-days must be given up to the 

 attainment of mastery over subjects included in 

 the whole domain of the human understanding. 

 The days of active life, in which men are made or 

 marred, must be devoted to the perfect mastery, 

 or supposed perfect mastery, of one particular 

 subject. Branches of great divisions, and in time 

 branches of divisions of great divisions, and in 

 time again branches of little divisions derived 

 from We secondary divisions, must be made the 

 subjects of special study by special men. 



It is very singular to observe in common con- 

 versation the expression of these two lines of 

 mental activity. A fond parent, speaking in 

 terms of admiration of his son at school, unfolds 

 with pride the school report. His boy has been 

 working with a zeal that cannot be too much ap- 

 plauded. In that monthly report-sheet the lad 

 has the highest number of marks in Greek, and 

 the same in Latin. He fails only one mark from 

 the highest in Latin exercise, he is equally near 

 to the top in French, and in German he is but 

 one lower down. In what is called English he is 

 third, in Grecian history second, in Roman history 

 first, in English fourth. In geography he is first, 

 in chemistry fifth, in natural philosophy second, 

 in mathematics third, in algebra third, in arith- 

 metic first, in mental arithmetic second, and in 

 writing fifth. Poor boy ! what a month of close 

 work has been spent on that long list ! Four 

 hours of school in the morning, three in the 

 afternoon. Lessons after school, assisted by an 

 intelligent and active tutor devoted to the prog- 

 ress of his pupil, and very determined, though 

 so exceedingly kind, for three hours and some- 

 times four hours more. 



The father is delighted with the progress of 

 the son. Suppose, however, you take the father 

 on these very subjects, and see his position in re- 

 spect to them. In nine cases out of ten you find 

 that for him such learnings are vanities. He tells 

 you he has no time for the gaining of any infor- 

 mation on other subjects save the one which is 

 the matter of his life. You may hear him say of 

 men placed as he is, that they must keep to the 

 single calling. Division of labor is the soul of 

 success. In these times, to master one subject 

 is to do all that is required. An accomplished 

 man ! Where is there such a man, and of what 

 use is he if he do exist, which is improbable? 

 An accomplished woman ! Yes, an accomplished 

 woman is now and then met with, but she, too, is 

 rare, and not of much use either ; but women 

 have more time, and may be excused if they let 

 their minds run after many things in learning. 



This picture may perhaps be thought to have 

 a mercantile or business character of too exclu- 

 sive a kind. I do not think so. In science, the 

 same kind of argument is not wanting in respect 

 to the young and to middle-aged men. The stu- 

 dent of science must, in the period of his student- 

 ship, go through the whole range of scientific 

 learning. He must struggle for his degrees and 

 get them. Once through the ordeal necessary 

 for so much successful winning, he must settle 

 down into minuteness ; he must find some little 

 point in the great world he has tried to traverse, 

 fix on that, and seek to live on it in competency 

 and reputation. He must touch no one else in 

 his course, and let no one touch him. His magic 

 circle, his ground of specialistic thought, is to be 

 considered sacred. The same fashion, for I can- 

 not call it a principle — nay, I cannot, without 

 abusing the word, call it a method — is maintained 

 in the professions ; in two of them, the medical 

 and the legal, in the most marked degree. A 

 modern medical student, through the ordinary 

 term of his studies, from the day he enters school 

 until the day he gets his diploma, may work like 

 a galley-slave at the whole world of natural 

 science, and then, having seized his envied prize, 

 may settle in life to the exclusive study and prac- 

 tice of disease of some section of the animal 

 body. To be successful, he cannot draw the line 

 too sharply round his particular pasture. Into 

 that no man must enter unless he have a pasture 

 somewhat similar, and such a one is not over- 

 welcome. In deference to other men of other past- 

 ures, our man of men must not go out of his own. 

 If he knows another department ever so well, he 

 must not profess to know it — it is out of his line. 



