MENTAL CULTURE; OR, THE POWER OF THOUGHT.
By Editor
IN the Methodist of Dec. 25, there appeared a sermon upon this subject from the pen of Rev. J. A. M. Chapman, D. D. The sermon is replete with ideas deserving of "earnest, consecutive thinking" which the author pronounces as the only method of making mind. We wish we had room to give the whole article, but must content ourselves with a few paragraphs only. Here they are:— "Thinking is to mind, what exercise and digestion are to the body. Physical strength and health do not depend so much upon the quantity of food consumed as the amount thoroughly digested, converted into blood, bone, muscle and flesh, and the various parts of the body. Eating may make a full man, but digestion a healthy, strong man. Reading, listening, may make a full man; thinking alone a strong man. Lord Bacon says: 'Reading makes a full man; conversing, a ready man; writing, a correct man.' And we may add: thinking, a strong man. It is a matter of comparatively little importance how much we know, how many facts we have stored away in our minds, how many truths we have become acquainted with; a few are of some practical importance; most, utterly useless in themselves—they will soon pass away; they relate to the perishing, and, with their subjects, will soon cease to be. But it is of infinite importance how much mind we have: this determines our mental standing in the universe, and modifies our enjoyment through all the future. Mental power is better than knowledge; and I insist upon it: the grand end of all education is, not to impart knowledge, not to store the memory with facts, but to evolve, develop, mind and facility of mental action. I confess I look with apprehension upon the modern modification of the school and college curriculum, so as to make it involve as little severe discipline and hard thinking as possible, which I conceive to be the most important thing in it. For a man's efficiency in this world, other things being equal, will depend upon the amount of brain-power he possesses. Facts and truths are weapons. It is better to have but a single weapon, and, possessing a stalwart arm and veteran skill, wield it with power and success, than to stand in an armory bristling with the most approved weapons, and have neither the strength nor skill to use any efficiently. Better be a Samson, with the jaw-bone of a brute for a weapon, carrying havoc and destruction into the ranks of the enemy, than a weakling with a sword of the purest steel and keenest edge. "At the present day we not infrequently hear a former age sneered at for its narrow, restricted, limited range of thought and feeling; and the boast is made that the present is an age of broad and generous culture—little dreaming that all we gain in breadth we may be losing in depth; all we gain in polish and culture, we may be losing in weight. The very process of æsthetic refinement, it is to be feared, is sapping the mind of its vital power and vigor, is unnerving the mind for the stern, rugged, inexorable duties of life. If you cannot polish granite without destroying its solidity and strength, then let it remain rough-hewn; we want the strength, whether we have the polish or not. As a people, we are constantly hearing and reading and thinking too little, and so becoming largely superficial; to know being the very mania of the age in which we live, and the people among whom we live. Show is more sought after than reality, the plated looks as well as the solid, and, besides, it is less expensive. "This spirit develops itself in the books we read and the kind of oratory that is popular. Go into our public and circulating libraries, and you will find that fifty light, trashy, sensational books are taken out to one solid, substantial one that is worth reading. And I am sorry to say that, to an alarming extent, this vitiated taste is putting books of a doubtful tendency into the hands of our Sabbath-school scholars through our Sabbath-school libraries. Indeed, we are now told that morals can be successfully inculcated only through fiction; and so fancy creates its world and its people as exponents and illustrations of moral truth. And soon we may expect to be told that this is the best method of teaching science; nay, already Jules Verne is pioneering the way. In popular preaching we see the same tendency: the brilliant, the flashy, the sensational is sought and applauded. A sermon, to suit some congregations, must be a pyrotechnic display. If a preacher only coruscates, regales his audience with scintillations of genius, wit and poetry, it matters not what is the subject or substance of his discourse."