Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Annual Address Delivered Before the Belles-Lettres and Union Philosophical Societies of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa;, July 19, 1837
Academical instruction must, of necessity, be elementary. The notion that youth can be qualified, either in primary schools or colleges, to assume at once the practice of any of the professions or callings of active life, surprises by its extreme simplicity. The real business of men is made up of practical and minute details, which nothing but experience in business can teach. A proposition so evident, every mind is ready to admit; and yet the idea to which we have adverted, has influenced, in no inconsiderable degree, the opinion of those who condemn the study of the ancient languages. It has manifestly swayed the speculations of the philosophic Mr. Combe. A young lady, says he, who can draw a very handsome cottage, could not rear a fabric corresponding to it. She is not an architect; and the difference between her and an architect consists in this: that she is defective in all the practical knowledge, skill, and experience, which are indispensable to render her design an actual house. A scholar in Greek and Latin is not a man of business, for a similar reason. He is not instructed in that knowledge of affairs and things that exist - the knowledge of which constitutes practical busi ness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
