•6
THE BATTALION
-^always—but it has become more apparent with us.
So much stress indeed, has been laid in the past few years
>on the fact that for careers to be successful they must be de
voted to one occupation, that many think it a new idea. It is
in fact as old as mankind, but the experience of history teaches
•one kind of specialism, and the temporary craze of this gen
eration another.
That specialism is necessary to success is plain to every
body. Your attention is simply called to the fact that it is
no new discovery.
The success of so many men who never went through the
preliminary training of a college has misled many into the
idea that there are no benefits to be derived from such a train
ing, and that time spent on it is onlv so much time wasted.
A certain amount of training is necessary. For, if there is
-anything which obscures a clear insight, it is the habit of
looking at things from only one point of view. This defect,
which we call narrow-mindedness, is especially noticeable in
those whose knowledge of some one subject is greater than
that of th£ir neighbors, but whose culture is so deficient,
r whose lack of general information is so marked, that they do
-not comprehend the value of what they do see and know.
Nor do they realize its bearings on related subjects. And
i this (narrow mindedness is usually accompanied by an over-
. weening self conceit that is sure to subject them to ridicule.
'You remember the story in Puck called “Amateur Work-
mianship
Jinks.—“I am a self-made man.”
Binks.—“I see—first job, eh?”
The reason why so many “self-made” men give grounds
ffor such ridicule as this, is that they have not appreciated the
truth that all sciences and arts are directly or indirectly in
-.touch with each other, and that no form of knowledge is ever-
wasted with an intelligent man. They devote all their time
and energies to one object, and in consequence their knowl
edge is crude and one-sided.
It is this false idea of concentrating all their energies on
...one subject that has led many astray.
Take a special illustration. The farmers of the south,