Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1877 — “Knowledge Is Power.” [ARTICLE]

“Knowledge Is Power.”

Every vear an oration is delivered before the Hunterian Society of London, in eulogy of John Hunter, the celebrated physician, from whom the society takes its name. The address of Dr. W. Moxon for the present year is remarkably vigorous. The following is an extract: “ The great fallacy of the age is the vulgar fallacy that knowledge is power. But not all knowledge is power. Only the knowledge you have faith and aim to use is power; and the instinct of each mind Is. I believe, a far better judge of how much knowledge it has faith and aim to use than we commonly suppose. Knowl ledge is not power. "Any fourth year’s student knows much that Hunter did not, and could not, know. But where is the power of Hunter ? Power arises by training in the use of knowledge. Consider the difference between training and teaching. The teacher carries over the things he knows, and fixes them in the learner’s memory; the trainer takes what is in the memory, and converts it into an organ for the pupil’s own use. The store of memory of things taught is totally distinct and separate from the trained mech anism for use of knowledge. And these two different things— the store and mechanism—are in separate places in the brain. It is only of late years we can b§ sure of this. We have it proved obviously in the case of language in what is called aphasia. In aphasia, a person paralyzed on the right side of his body has lost the power of using language, and yet understands all you say. Obviously, then, the understanding of speech is in one place, aud the power framing language is in another place, in the brain. The same is true throughout all human acquirements. The power of knowing is the fruit of knowing, and the pover of actiug is the fruit of acting. There is knowledge stored in one place, and the power of using it stored in another place. Teaching is the storing of knowledge; it may be done quickly. Training is the creation of an organ for the use of knowledge ; it needs much time; it Is a slow process. The trainer has to convert the pupil's knowledge into motive, his desire into patience, his will into skill. Every good trainer aims to raise up in the pupil’s mind a self-training faculty, which shall itself continue to tram more and more knowledge into motive. By such training knowledge becomes power. But knowledge, as given by the mere teacher into the memory, is not power; it is so much weight, which by training may become the instrument* of power. Now, the self-training spirit is natural to some men—to all great men. On the other hand, the self training spirit is almost absentJnjoine men. These are the fools, and they trouble''eveiy bne as to what Is to be done with them. Bnt the vast majority of men have some self-training faculty ; and the proper aim of education is to support this, which I may call the vital spark of character, by help from the training faculties of others.” A very singular feature in the marine landscapes between Terra del Fuego and the contiguous mainland is the floating gardens of seaweed. The plant frequently grows to a length of between 800 and 400 feet. It gives cover and pasturage to every species of Crustacea, great and small, while the intertangled mass, swaying like a ponderous curtain in the water, effectually breaks the shock of the most tremendous rollers.