Intellectual Opportunities, Past and Present [pp. 88-100]

INTELLECTUAL OPPOR TUNITIES,
of the facilities of the present day. Let us see if we are as well
off as we imagine ourselves to be. Though in many respects we
are, of course, in a far more enviable position than our ancestors;
though, indeed, we may safely say that, on the whole, our age
has made a real step in advance, yet, if we consider attentively,
we are very much mistaken if we shall not find that, with all
our boasts and self-complacency, we are nevertheless laboring
under certain disadvantages and drawbacks from which our predecessors were in a great measure free. We will point out some,
such as they occur to us.
First. If, as there is little question, our knowledge is more vast
and extended, it is yet not so certain and well founded. We
know much because we read much, but our knowledge is secondhand. Time will not permit us to sift and winnow an author's
words, or by actual experiment to make his knowledge our very
own. We must take his dicta on faith. We must accept his
statements in great part for no better reason than because he
has made them. To master every science and examine every
theory has long since become impossible. This could be done,
at least to a very much greater extent, a couple of hundred years
ago. Besides, men's minds then ran in grooves much more than
they do at present. The philosopher was content to remain a
philosopher, the poet a poet, but now each man would rather
skim over every subject than master one. It is the present
fashion. of the world, and she is imperative in her demands.
One must know something of everything and be able to converse on every conceivable topic. One must know something
about the writers of the day, and have read or peeped into their
works, even if they be nothing more than mere novelists or
poetasters. It thus becomes impossible to be profound in any
subject. Do what we can, we can hardly even keep pace with
the current literature of the day, with the reviews and periodicals that surround us. Add to this the literature of other countries-of France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany-which flow into
the country with every tide. Think, too, that all these must
find readers and purchasers. The more we reflect, indeed, the
more obviously it appears that knowledge generally-knowledge
in the masses, knowledge such as we find it in the gay man of
the world or the young ladies of the period-is shallow, superficial, and frothy. We will quote in support of this view no less
an authority than that of Cardinal Newman:
"I will tell you," he says, "what has been the practical error of the last
twenty years: not to load the student with a mass of undigested knowledge,
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[April,