Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/226

214 to appreciate these connections, to feel their force, is a valuable acquisition, and one in which our youth are sadly deficient. It is a power, for want of which no amount of use of the dictionary will compensate; it is most requisite where the dictionary is not thought of, and should not be, in cases where common words are used with modified or figurative meanings. The intellect is not so robust under our modern methods, as when every boy ciphered for himself, and overcame his difficulties as best he could. The power to grasp another's thought seems to have deteriorated with the other faculties. Now every thing has to be explained. The ability to see through good English without the aid of commentary, tone and inflection, seems to be a lost art in our schools. Recently a large class in one of the best high-schools in the country showed itself to be entirely unable to comprehend such sentences as these: "Words are the counters of wise men; the coin of fools." "Worth makes the man; the want of it the fellow." In such cases nothing will avail but the perfect appreciation of the words from their connections. I would not encourage the habit of "jumping at the idea," but I would encourage the habit of digging it out by main strength. There is such a thing as wrestling with a thought until it seems to unfold itself to our comprehension: and he is not worth much as a reader who does not know by experience what it is to grapple with a passage, and to hold on to it until light breaks from within it. Our education tends to shield us entirely from such contests. We are taught to hasten to the quarto oracle. When it fails to respond, we give up in despair. We do not learn the use of native strength; too much assistance has shorn us of our locks.

Although there is this important duty to be performed quite independent of the dictionary, it by no means lessens the value of that book. Because it is the custom to dilute thoughts until their vigor is gone, and to explain text-books until no thought is required to comprehend them, it does not follow that explanation is never of use. The old adage is simply to be recalled: "A place for every thing, and every thing in its place." There is a place for explanations and for definitions; but there is a larger place for active thought, for strong, unaided wrestling with the printed page, for a keen appreciation of the connections of words.

There is no guarantee of thorough scholarship and character so sure as the proper use and appreciation of the dictionary. It is an infallible omen as to the future of any boy or girl. The right habit is acquired only painfully and slowly. It represents a most high and valuable degree of self-discipline, as well as of intellectual activity. Much more can be, and should be, done for it in our upper schools than is accomplished. Any course of training is defective from which pupils pass without that appreciation for the dictionary and that interest in it which they feel for a worthy teacher, full of knowledge, always accessible, and ever in the best humor.