gone," might be expressed in somewhat different form: "Easily gotten, easily gone." Dr. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, whose fame as an educator is widely acknowledged, has well said: "Only great, concentrated and prolonged efforts in one direction really train the mind, because they alone train the will beneath it." President Jones of Hobart College speaks to a like purpose: "The college must not always follow the line of least resistance. The intellectual life has also its athletic exercises, and mental slouchiness is no less to be regretted than physical insufficiency. The youthful will needs cultivation no less than the growing body."[1]
On the same head Mr. Townsend Austen wrote most appositely in the North American Review (May 1898). He severely censures those systems of education which attempt to remove as far as possible the obstacles from the course of study. He rightly maintains that the finest nature is the one out of which the dross has been squeezed by painful pressure, and the precious metal has been hammered and beaten into shape. The human being rarely works more than he has to. He appreciates by instinct an easy thing – what college students call a 'snap'. Some of the strongest points of our nature are best called out by resistance. This element in education should never be overlooked. To eliminate the element of difficulty from a study is an act of dishonesty; it deceives the student. The practice side of almost any study is not interesting, but is often rather tedious and must be so: for instance, to spell correctly, to write good English, to draw well, to reason clearly. – This repugnance
- ↑ The Forum, January 1901, p. 592.
