SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE IN SCHOOLS. 227 
it would not bear the least scratch of practical experience. "Superficial informa - 
tion is the bane of this country," said he. 
The answer to his complaint did not immediately occur to me, or rather, I 
did not at once group all my argunients against his assertion in a sufficiently con- 
nected manner to think it wise to take up his valuable time by presenting them 
at that moment. Since then I have considered the subject and venture to pre- 
sent my views as fol'ows : 
There is, I think, a wide difference between knowing of things and knowing 
the things themselves; also, of knowing about things and about the uses of things, 
— that is people. It seems to me a superficial knowledge of a good many things 
is not such a bad education; for example, when a lad from the country first comes 
to the city he is hopelessly confused; he loses his way; he is ignorant of prices; 
of articles he requires; of the means of obtaining them, and of the proper place 
for seeking instruction. His ignorance is not that of capacity but of locality. 
He is not like a man to whom music is a sealed art, having neither taste nor 
instruction, neither is he like a man skilled in one profession who, late in life,, 
is forced to attempt another for which he has neither aptitude nor training, for 
in these instances nothing derogatory to the person is implied. But we all ridi- 
cule the simple-minded who cannot readily group and use for their benefit the 
thousand appliances of civilized life with which we are surrounded. It denotes, 
we think, a want of that adaptiveness which in practical life is the most valuable 
attribute for success. A student, by diligent application, may become a pro- 
found Grecian, but in how few instances will his thoroughness avail against the 
annoying intricacies which the adaptive man so readily escapes. 
I do not wish to imply that this superficial knowledge of common forms is a 
matter of very great importance, but it is certainly worth considering as an ele- 
ment of a man's life. 
It frequently happens that to know men is better than to know things. It 
would not answer if nobody was to be learned, or wise, or thorough. But it is 
one of the peculiarities of the human brain that one boy will learn easily one 
thing and not another, and that culture consists in training those facilities which 
the youth is naturally disinclined to use. The study of human nature would be 
quite unnecessary if all in the school intended to become commercial travellers. 
They learn the lesson soon enough. They are obliged to do so and if by com- 
merce with the world of tradesmen that congregate at hotels they learn too thor- 
oughly an objectionable side of human nature, yet to them it is possibly only the 
extreme of adaptiveness which we lament the lack of in a student who, perhaps, 
has a profound knowledge of ferns and does not know one man from another. 
It may be asked what text-books could be advantageously employed ? Well, 
they would have to be written, that is certain. I do not incline to the phrenolog- 
ical chart. It too frequently happens that a man inherits the external presence 
of a progenitor without his ability. He is walking about and masquerading in 
another man's dress. I do not say but that a practiced scientific phrenologist 
could readily detect the imposture. They pretend to do things much more 
