"Love is ever the beginning of knowledge, as fire is of light." THOMAS CArlyle. "A desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being whose mind is not debased, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge." 66 SAMUEL JOHNSON. Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman-repose in energy." R. W. EMERSON. VIII UNCONSCIOUS EDUCATION WE all understand that education is a growth, a development. The mind is not a storehouse to be filled or a machine to be set in motion; it is a spiritual principle, putting forth its own energies and working out its own ends. We also understand that in its processes of growth the mind is constantly influenced by the things towards which its activity is directed. We grow to be like the things which we think most about. He who habitually thinks of low or selfish things will be himself debased, while the mind which is filled with noble conceptions tends to become strong and pure. One's likes and dislikes are usually reflected in his habits of thought. I wish this morning to think with you. for a few minutes along the line of the indirect or unconscious education we are constantly receiving. We recognize, of course, the value of the discipline gained in the recitation-room and laboratory. The intellectual powers are trained and developed by study and drill. The college work stands first; it is the soil into which our mental growth strikes its roots. But I remember that the experiment was once tried in the royal botanical gardens at Kew of planting a tree in a large box in which it grew rapidly for some years. It was then transplanted and, while the tree had gained hundreds of pounds in weight, the box of earth weighed nearly as much as when the tree was first set in it. The mind, like the tree, derives the materials of its growth largely from the atmosphere which surrounds it, and while, like the tree, it grows best in a good soil, it also requires certain other favorable conditions of air and warmth and sunshine. We will look for a mo ment at some of these unconscious influences of growth which are of special importance during our college days. The first of these is our environment. Buckle has pointed out in his great work on the Intellectual Development of Europe that the type of civilization developed by the people of each country is largely due to their natural surroundings. Thus we find in the Swiss mountaineer, the Scotch highlander, the Yarmouth fisherman, and the Hollander guarding his dykes and canals, marked characteristics and differences due to their locality and the life which they lead. Most persons are deeply influenced by the home in which their childhood is passed. Some years ago Washington Gladden wrote to several hundred of the most successful men of his city asking them certain questions concerning their early life and habits of work. The replies showed that the boyhood of over ninety per cent. of these men was |