8 



The West American Scientist. 



LITERATURE IN SCHOOLS. 



The notion that literature can be 

 taken up as a branch of education, 

 and learned at the proper time and 

 when other studies permit, is one of 

 the most farcical in our scheme of 

 education. It is only matched in ab- 

 surdity by the other current idea, 

 that literature is something- separate 

 and apart from general knowledge. 

 Here is the whole body of accumu- 

 lated thought and experience of all 

 the ages, whicn indeed forms our 

 present life and explains it, existing 

 partly in tradition and training, but 

 more largely in books; and most 

 teachers think, and most people are 

 led to believe, that this most import- 

 ant former of the mind, maker of 

 character, and guide to action, can 

 be acquired in a certain number of 

 lessons out of a text-book ! Because 

 this is so, young men and young 

 women come up to college almost 

 absolutely ignorant of the history of 

 fheir race, and of the ideas that have 

 made our civilization. Some of them 

 have never read a book, except the 

 text-books, on the specialties in which 

 they have prepared themselves for 

 examination. We have a saying 

 concerning people whose minds ap- 

 pear to be made up of dry, isolated 

 facts, that they have no atmosphere. 

 Well, literature is the atmosphere. 

 In it we live and move, and have our 

 being, intellectually. The first les- 

 son read to or read by the child, 

 should begin to put him in relations 

 with the world and the thought of 

 the world. — Charles Dudley Warner. 



ON LACKOF CONSCIENCE AS 

 A MEANS OF SUCCESS. 



The novelette in the August num- 

 ber of The Chaiauquan^ is by J. 

 Rankin Towse. The title, 'A Lucky 

 Accident,' promises a happy de- 

 nouement, but just what it is to be 

 the reader is not sure of until he 

 reaches the closing chapter. It 

 abounds in picturesque descriptions 

 of the places where the events oc- 

 curred, the actual names being given. 

 An account of one of the University 

 boat races on the Cam is among the 

 pleasant features. 



The following closes an editorial 

 in the Century with the above title: 

 'The fact is that there is altogether 

 too much reverence for rascals, and 

 for rascally methods, on the part of 

 tolerably decent people. Rascality is 

 picturesque, doubtless, and in fiction 

 it has even its moral uses ; but in real 

 life it should have no toleration; and 

 it is, as a matter of fact, seldom ac- 

 companied by the ability that it 

 brags. 



' One proof that the smart rogue 

 is not so smart as he thinks, and as 

 others think, is that he so often comes 

 to grief. He arrives at his successes 

 through his knowlege of the evil in 

 men; he comes to grief through his 

 ignorance of the good in men. He 

 thinks he knows 'human nature,' but 

 he only half knows it. Therefore, 

 he is constantly in danger of making 

 a fatal mistake. For instance, his 

 excuse to himself for lying and trick- 

 ery is that lying and trickery are in- 

 dulged in by others — even by some 

 men who make a loud boast of vir- 

 tue before the world. A little more 

 or less of lying and trickery seems to 

 make no difference, he assumes, — 

 especially so long as there is no pub- 

 lic display of lies and tricks, — for he 

 understands that there must always 

 be a certain outward propriety in or- 

 der to insure even the inferior kind 

 of success he is aiming at. But 

 having no usable conscience to guide 

 him, he underrates the sensitiveness 

 of other consciences. — and especially 

 the sensitiveness of that vague sen- 

 timent called 'public opinion,' — and 

 he makes a miscalculation, which, 

 if it does not land him in the peni- 

 tentiary, at least makes him of no 

 use to his respectable allies; there- 

 fore, of no use to his semi-criminal 

 associates; therefore, a surprised, 

 miserable, and vindictive failure." 



Margaret Fuller says 'A house is 

 no home unless it contains food and 

 fire for the mind as well as for the 

 body.' 



