Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/695

Rh The training of the specialist requires the most stimulating influences, and the process should be one of continuous and welldirected effort. If we learn, step by step, what Nature has in store for us, without hurry, we incur a minimum cerebral fatigue and a maximum acquirement. A strong constitution is required for successful work in any pursuit. The natural and physical sciences promote this because their study begets cheerfulness; they make life pleasant and interesting, and instead of injuring the nervous system as many other studies do, they give it tone and vigor in much the same way that manual exercise gives strength to the muscular system.

I believe that in some of our technical schools which provide for the most thorough and scholarly study of principles directed immediately upon the useful arts, and rising in their higher grades into original investigation and research, is to be found the ideal education for young men. Too long have these institutions been branded as furnishing only an inferior education to the socalled liberal arts, because it is practical and useful. Too long have they been regarded as furnishing only an inferior substitute for the classics, and their graduates have been spoken of as though they had acquired the art of livelihood at some sacrifice of mental development and intellectual culture. It is true that form and style may be sacrificed in the earnest, direct, and laborious endeavor of students of science, but that all the essentials of intellect and character are happily developed in these schools is thoroughly demonstrated by the eminent success of their graduates. When measured by the only true standard of intelligence, that of use in the world, these men will rise through their work and power of gaining knowledge to high positions of usefulness and influence.

The demands of the times have forced us to a high appreciation of specialization in all departments of knowledge, and he who attempts on general attainments to cope with advanced problems in practice generally meets with defeat in much of his work. A mere smattering of knowledge no longer suffices in professional pursuits, and the proverb—

 A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring"

is too often realized by those who attempt work for which they are not fitted by professional training, or by those who have scattered their capacities over widely diversified fields. The weakest individual, by concentrating his energies on a single pursuit, may meet with success; but the strongest, by distributing his powers over many, may and often does fail to accomplish anything. Berzelius said that he was the last general chemist, and the single