Lectures, Discussions, and Proceedings Volume 43 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...genius, of mercantile enterprise, popular equality and civil power. It is in the schoolhouse that peoples have passed from childhood to manhood, from subordination to independence, from pupilage to mastership. At these fountains we drink the inspiration to great deeds and lofty character, and engender thoughts that ripen into divine philosophies and imperishahle literatures. From these science goes forth to marshal her countless utilities, and art to-fill her canvas with enduring beauty, and build her temples that teach through the ages. Our own Franklin has said, "If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him." Not even a bold man would dare impeach the practical wisdom of the philosopher on a question so obvious, but his axiom is only half the truth. The investment of capital in knowledge is not simply the safest, but it is the most profitable disposition we can make of our fortunes. He who so invests may, after a time, empty his head into his purse, if it possessed any raw material originally. A stupid clod-hopper sows his grain and reaps fifteen bushels to the acre; his neighbor puts his brains into his work and reaps fifty bushels to the acre. A similar disproportion of income runs into every branch of human industry. ' Intelligent labor is not limited to single lines of pursuit, and the quality of its work is as superior as its quantity, and hence the demand for it, and the price which it is paid is greater than for the simpler and ruder efforts of the uninformed. The ignorant sometimes attribute to partial legislation, or to a defective political or social organization, the infelicities and-misfortunes due to their own defective education, and demand laws which shall equalize things in themselves...