THE BATTALION.
23
are admirable for the deeper workings of the mind. The
traveler in a foreign country, if he would pass on his way
without friction, must adapt himself to the manners and cus
toms of the people about him. So those who, in the journey
of life, find themselves travelling in the last decade of the
nineteenth century, should not ape the manners nor adopt
the customs prevailing during the earlier ages. The age in
which we live is intensely utilitarious. The 20th century
which is almost here will demand men, not only with trained
minds, but with trained hands. Men who not only know how
things should be done, but are capable of doing them. Men
whose knowledge will enable them to delve in the secret re
cesses of nature and drag truth from her hiding place and
put her to the actual work of catering to the wants of man.
We must add to the knowledge of the why’s and wherefore’s
a knowledge of the how.
The time is past when knowledge was degraded by asso
ciation with utility. The two are married now and dwelling:
together in unity and concord. Knowledge in these intense^
ly practical days is not degraded by a cognizance of the wants
of man.
Only a few years ago it was considered a disgrace for any
person of the English nobility to be detected in the act of do
ing anything useful to man. Every avenue of business and
labor was closed against them—noble blood must not be con
taminated with anything so “vulgah as labor, don’t you
know.” This theory is antagonistic to the spirit of the age
that many of these noblemen are now useful people, actually
doing and directing the doings of others. They have learn
ed that blue blood and legitimate business will mix if united
in the proper proportions. Those of the nobility who have
failed to recognize this great fact are like peaches grown from
immature seed—they have dried upon the parent tree or
have contracted dry rot and been eaten by worms before the
burial of the carcass.
In like manner, if we would have knowledge let us obtain
an article whose label was printed during the age in which