86 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



It will naturally be asked then to what are we to attribute this 

 state of affairs? Are we not, it will be pertinently asked, as clever 

 as our parents, and are not our facilities greater ? To which it musj- 

 be promptly answered that there is no evidence of mental degener. 

 ation, nor are we wanting in facilities, but on the contrary we are 

 truly blessed in this respect and are justly proud of our posses- 

 sions. 



But this pride, alas, is a presage of our coming destruction, and 

 to this abundance of riches we must attribute our poverty, for, unfor- 

 tunately, where we have so many means of achieving what we desire 

 we do not content ourselves with one or two implements but are ever 

 looking for new ones or else too gladly trying the new ones that are 

 advocated. 



Another evil arises from the apparent greater activity of our 

 minds. We are so constantly like the Athenians of old, looking for 

 something new, that we forget the injunction of the ancient sage that 

 there is nothing new under the sun. 



As a result of this constant looking out for new objects of in- 

 terest we find there is either a continual neglect of the old reliable 

 interests or else there is a tendency to superficiality. We get only a 

 smattering of knowledge of the various branches of education to 

 which we apply ourselves, and our time is so taken up with our 

 various occupations that we have no time for any of them and are 

 liable to neglect often some of the most important ones. Like a child 

 surfeited with new toys we will ere long have a cupboard full of cast- 

 off occupations and recreations. 



This too constant absorption and ill-advised arrangement of our 

 time is, I take it, one of the features of our times which is of rather 

 grave omen, and should require our most serious consideration, for in 

 time, as a result of the anxiety and worry which are often necessary 

 concomitants, there cannot but follow exhaustion of the intellectual 

 faculties with all that that means, in fact at times insanity and even 

 death. 



Another evil too that we sometimes see is that by an apparent 

 repulsion we lose heart at the thought of so many expedients lying 

 before us, and we do not exert ourselves to make a proper selection 

 of the materials at hand, but having one or two fairly servicable we 

 •content ourselves with them, and so drop into a stereotyped method 



