Be Exact In Thought And Word

( Originally Published 1885 )

THE great teacher of America used sometimes to say to his pupils, "Young gentlemen, there is a great deal of difference between doing just right and a little wrong."

It is often said that education is a double work : it includes (1) the training and the disciplining of the mind, and (2) the acquisition of useful knowledge. The former is the more important work, and, if the latter have any value at all, the knowledge must necessarily be exact knowledge.

The old lady felt very much delighted when she found a recipe by which she could always tell the good indigo from the poor. "Take a lump of it," said she, " and put it in water, and if it is good it will —it will -it will sink or swim, I have forgotten which ; but no matter, you can try it for yourself any time." I fear a great deal of knowledge is acquired in that way, and it is just good for nothing.

I heard a man telling about a gentleman down in Maine who " owned one hundred and twelve, or three hundred and twelve thousand sheep," he could not quite remember which ; and as I heard his doubt I began to question whether it was not " one hundred and twelve " without the thousand.

A friend of mine was telling of a voyage he took down to Newfoundland in a fishing smack, and he said he "saw a whale fifty feet long."

" Fifty feet long ! " was the response ; " that is a big fish story. Do you expect us to believe it ? "

"Why not? That is my guess ; of course we did not measure him, and if you are going to guess it is just as easy to guess fifty feet as anything else."

I fear much that passes for knowledge is only my friend's guess. One may as well " guess fifty feet as anything else."

Now, in the use of language there is often a lamentable want of accuracy, and it is one of the legitimate and important parts of the school work to make the pupils exact in the use of words. The accurate use of " shall " and " will," " should " and " would," is so important that it is worth spending consider-able time to obtain an accurate knowledge of the exact distinctions to be made in the use of these little auxiliaries. Mrs. Partington has become somewhat notorious for her wrong use of words, or use of wrong words ; and the colored people are frequently quoted as making ludicrous blunders.

But the fear is that this sort of inaccuracy is not confined to these characters. Mrs. Stowe, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," makes " Aunt Chloe " tell about going to make cake and pastry at the " perfectioners " instead of the "confectioners." And John B. Gough tells of the colored preacher who was desirous of having the recess back of the pulpit " frescoed," and he made his wish known to his people in this way : One Sunday evening at the close of the sermon he shut the Bible suddenly, and said, " There, my bredren, the Gospel will not be dispensed with any more from dis pulpit till the collection am sufficient to fricassee dis abcess."

How often we hear misquotations from the Bible and other books ! and what strange passages are sometimes quoted from the sacred Scriptures ! Many persons, well versed in Bible lore, are yet unable to repeat the Lord's Prayer accurately. I found a painter some years since, at work in a church in Boston, out on the Back Bay, painting in elegant letters the Lord's Prayer upon the wall of the church ; and the form of words that he was using was not to be found in the Bible or the prayer-book.

This habit of accuracy is an important element in one's education. Knowledge, to be of any worth, must be accurate ; and the acquisition of knowledge, in order to be of value as a disciplinary process, must be equally accurate. Herein lies much of the value of the study of Latin and Greek. It obliges the student to be accurate in his study, and in his modes of thought. The future indicative and the present subjunctive of the third conjugation, in Latin, are to be carefully discriminated, since the change of a single word will alter the entire meaning of the sentence. The study of the exact force of the subjunctive mood in Latin is a matter of no slight importance to the boy as a disciplinary process. It is training the mind, improving the reasoning powers, sharpening the intellect, and acquiring accuracy of judgment. The application of this may be made in a horse trade, in testing the quality of cotton, in buying wool, or in putting up a physician's prescription.

This constant striving after accuracy greatly improves the power of memory ; and it is to be feared that the importance of this faculty has been seriously underrated by many of our teachers, and multitudes of scholars. " Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." Herein lies a large part of the value of an education. Many a man inquires, " What good will these few pages of history, or this study of algebra or geometry, do my son ? He will never use it in my business."

Ah ! there, my friend, is just where you make a mistake. The accuracy with which those history lessons are learned, the clearness of perception and reasoning acquired by those problems in algebra or those propositions in geometry, will give your son accuracy in whatever he will have to do in life, no matter what his business may be. If " thoroughness " and " accuracy " are your watch words in the school days, you will never for-get them afterward. But if you are careless and inaccurate at school, it will be found hard work to reform subsequently.