USEFUL KNOWLEDGE; WITH A FEW HINTS TO MEMBERS OF MUTUAL INSTRUCTION SOCIETIES.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 7, 23 August 1842, Page 4

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE; WITH A FEW HINTS TO MEMBERS OF MUTUAL INSTRUCTION SOCIETIES.

(From the London Saturday Journal.) [Concluded from our last.]

Addressing ourselves to members of such associations, and to intelligent young men generally, we may be permitted to ask —What is useful knowledge ? Does it sound like a very common truism, to say that useful knowledge is wholly a relative term, varying with the characters and conditions of individuals ? Obvious, however, as it may be, we fear that most young men, in their acquisitive desire for information, overlook it. It is exceedingly useful to be familiar with the machinery of the steam-engine. It is exceedingly useful to know Greek and Latin, French and German. It is exceedingly useful to be acquainted with algebra. It is useful to know more or less of chemistry; it is even useful to know something about the history of alchemy. It would be useful to a professor of Sanscrit, if he knew how to make a pudding; a knowledge of Greek might be useful to a working engineer; but we think it far more useful for the Sanscrit professor to know Greek in preference to pudding-making; and the working* engineer may well be excused for studying mathematics in preference to languages. “ A time for everything, and evertliing in its place,” is a good household maxim; and it is just as good a maxim in education, that necessary knowledge should precede the agreeable or the ornamental. The great mistake, then, which young men too often commit is, not the acquiring of useless knowledge—for we would not call any knowledge useless, unless it were pernicious—but wasting their time on matters or questions having no reference to their professions, their stations in life, and without relation to their time and their opportunities. We quite eschew the cant about “ a little knowledge” being “ a dangerous thing”—for the quotation is often used in a sense in which Pope never meant it. Mere smatterers are, of course, more likely to be conceited than those who have a profounder knowledge ; but it is not the “ smattering” that makes them conceited, for the conceit lies in the mind of the individual, and if he were not conceited about his “ smattering,” he would be conceited about something else. The learning of the greatest scholar must be “ little,” compared with what is still to be known; and, however small may be the portion of knowledge which a person in humble circumstances is able to acquire, that “ little” can only be “ dangerous” to those who selfishly wish him to know less.

But though a “ superficial” knowledge is far better than no knowledge at all, it is good for even the humblest to be well acquainted with some branch or branches, and these should relate, more or less, to the particular profession by which subsistence is earned. There is perhaps no profession to which a universal knowledge is more valuable than that of the law; a lawyer may have to undertake cases bringing him in contact with “ all ranks and conditions of men”—may have to argue on the merits of a mechanical invention, discuss the virtues of a horse, or manage the nicest degrees of scientific evidence in application to the detection of crime.

Yet wc are generally disposed to forgive a barrister for general ignorance, if he is a profound lawyer. And so of all other professions. Let young men, then, in forming themselves into Mutual Instruction Societies, weigh their capabilities, their time, and their prospects. If the club is composed of individuals mostly in the mercantile profession, the questions discussed should be of a diversified nature; they should seek to get acquainted with the constitutional history of their country, with the “ machinery of government,” and the characters of the great men who have influenced the national destinies. They should also familiarise themselves with questions relating to the national literature, the characters of our historians and poets, the progress of science, and the prospects of the human race. Should the majority of the club belong to businesses connected with manufactures and trades, there certainly should be a sprinkling of technical questions. But let the form of the questions be well considered befoi’e they are given out for discussion; for not a few of those discussed in Mutual Instruction Societies have no higher character than the notable one —“ Where was Moses when the candle went out ?” and their discussion frequently leaves the disputants in much the same situation in which the question supposes Moses to be left—namely, in the dark.

Above all, let the members of Mutual Instruction Societies be in earnest , and they will not only benefit themselves, but escape the “ besetting sin” of debating societies, that of the members striving to be orators —i. e. babblers. Not a few juveniles fancy that, because they can stand “ on their legs,” and pour out a number of phrases, therefore they are orators. Poetry and oratory are only produced by geniuses, and every Mutual Instruction Society cannot number a genius in its ranks. Let them be content with what they can do —that is, enable themselves to appreciate poetry and oratory, without striving to produce it; or, like the frog in the fable, to do what is beyond them. A selection of exercises and questions for discussion, on the whole very good, is appended to Mr. Timothy Claxton’s “ Hints to Mechanics,” to which we refer those who wish to have a list of topics worth discussion.