EDUCATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP 
229 
I speak of language study, by way of illustration merely. The 
principle stated will apply equally well to any other subject. All 
minds are not alike and so we should not have one stereotyped 
course of study for all. We might apply to education what 
Bacon said concerning food, ^^Now good digestion waits on appe- 
tite and health on both. The educational food must be appetiz- 
ing if the student is to digest it and grow mentally by reason 
of it. While the tastes and aptitudes of the student should be 
influential in determining the choice of his studies, they should 
not be the exclusive consideration, any more than we should f eed 
our children exclusively on candy just because they like it. We 
feed them what we think is good for them and try to present it 
to them in an appetizing form. That seems to be the essence of 
rational child feeding. 
Pope’s dictum that ^^The proper study of mankind is man” 
is often quoted by those who favor the humanities in educational 
programs: language, literature, history, philosophy, and the 
like; and it must be admitted that such studies have the widest 
appeal, since they embody an epitome of all that man has thought, 
said or done since he emerged from savagery, and thus involve 
the rudiments of civilization. 
But the story of man before the beginning of the historical 
period is a much longer one than that which deals with the com- 
paratively brief and modern civilized period. Yet it is a harder 
task to decipher that story. It has to be done in the light of 
archeology and anthropology, which in turn lean strongly on 
zoology and botany, and they on geology, chemistry, physics, 
and astronomy, and all of them on mathematics. So there is 
no subject which is not important to a proper understanding 
of man and his place in nature. The task is too great for any one 
mind to undertake to master them all and so scholars have to 
divide the field among them and each one work in his own corner. 
Only when the mind is young and fresh and receptive is it given 
to anyone to make a general survey of the whole field of knowl- 
edge, and select the small portion which with proper industry 
he may hope to make his own. These are the glorious days of 
youth, college days, when under the guidance of inspiring teach- 
