Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
bugimike
Yoda
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This is an essay (it's only two paragraphs long) taken from an old, leather-bound, campfire-charred book I picked up in a remote "antique shop" years ago. Iread exerpts from it regularly. It was published in 1826. Our country was only 50 years old when this was written. I think it speaks to and explains a lot of things about the success of this forum, especially as you read through the second paragraph!! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF PROSE
Importance of Knowledge to the Mechanic
G.B. EMERSON
Let us imagine for a moment the condition of an individual, who has not advanced beyond the merest elements of knowledge, who understands nothing of the principals even of his own art., and inquire what change will be wrought in his feeling, his hopes, and happiness, in all that make up the character, by the gradual inpouring of knowledge. He has now the capacity of thought, but it is a barren faculty, never nourished by the food of the mind, and never rising above the poor objects of sense. Labour and rest, the hope of mere animal enjoyment, or the fear of want, the care of providing covering and food make up the whole sum of his existence. Such a man may be industrious, but he cannot love labor, for it is not relieved by the excitement of improving or changing the processes of his art, nor cheered by the hope of a better condition. When released from labour, he does not rejoice, for mere idleness is not enjoyment; and he has no book, no lesson of science, no play of the mind, no interesting pursuit, to give a zest to the hour of leisure. Home has few charms for him; he has little taste for the quiet, the social converse, the exchange of feeling or thought, the innocent enjoyments that ought to dwell there. Society has little to interest him, for he has no sympathy for the pleasures or the pursuits, the cares or troubles of others, to whom he cannot feel nor perceive his bounds of relationship. All of life is but a poor boon for such a man; and happy for himself and for mankind, if the few ties that hold him to this negative existence be not broken. Happy for him if that best and surest friend of man, that messenger of good news from Heaven to the poorest wretch on earth, Religion, bringing the fear of God, appear to save him. Without her support, should temptation assail him, what an easy victim would he fall to vice or crime! How little would be necessary to overturn his ill balanced principals, and throw him grovelling in in temperance, or send him abroad on the ocean or the highway, an enemy to himself and his kind!
But let the light of science fall upon that man; open to him the fountain of knowledge; a few principles of philosophy enter his mind, and awaken the dormant power of thought; he begins to look upon his art with an altered eye. It ceases to be a dark mechanical process, which he cannot understand; he regards it as an object of inquiry, and begins to penetrate the reasons, and acquire new mastery over his own instruments. He finds other and better modes of doing what he has done before, blindly and without interest, a thousand times. He learns to profit by the experience of others and ventures upon untried paths. Difficulties, which before would have stopped him at the outset, receive a ready solution from some luminous principle of science. He gains new knowledge and new skill, and can improve the quality of his manufacture, while he shortens the process and diminishes his own labour. Then labour becomes sweet to him; it is accompanied by the consciousness of increasing power; It is leading him forward to a higher place among his fellow men. Relaxation, too, is sweet to him, as it enables him to add to his intellectual stores, and to mature, by undisturbed meditation, the plans and conceptions of the hour of labour. His home has aquired a new charm; because he has become a man of thought, and feels and enjoys the peace and seclusion of that sacred retreat; and he carries this thither the honest complacency which is the companion of well-earned success. There, too, bright visions of the future sphere upon him, and excite a kindly feeling towards those who are to share in his prosperity. Thus his heart and mind expand together. He has become an intelligent being, and, while he has learnt to esteem himself, he has also learnt to live no longer for himself alone. Society opens like a new world to him, he looks upon his fellow-creatures with interest and sympathy, and feels that he has a place in their affections and respect. Temptations assail him in vain. He is armed by high and pure thoughts. He takes a wider view of his relations with the beings about and above him. He welcomes every generous virtue that adorns and dignifies the human character. He delights in the exercise of reason - he glories in the consciousness and the hope of immortality
COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF PROSE
Importance of Knowledge to the Mechanic
G.B. EMERSON
Let us imagine for a moment the condition of an individual, who has not advanced beyond the merest elements of knowledge, who understands nothing of the principals even of his own art., and inquire what change will be wrought in his feeling, his hopes, and happiness, in all that make up the character, by the gradual inpouring of knowledge. He has now the capacity of thought, but it is a barren faculty, never nourished by the food of the mind, and never rising above the poor objects of sense. Labour and rest, the hope of mere animal enjoyment, or the fear of want, the care of providing covering and food make up the whole sum of his existence. Such a man may be industrious, but he cannot love labor, for it is not relieved by the excitement of improving or changing the processes of his art, nor cheered by the hope of a better condition. When released from labour, he does not rejoice, for mere idleness is not enjoyment; and he has no book, no lesson of science, no play of the mind, no interesting pursuit, to give a zest to the hour of leisure. Home has few charms for him; he has little taste for the quiet, the social converse, the exchange of feeling or thought, the innocent enjoyments that ought to dwell there. Society has little to interest him, for he has no sympathy for the pleasures or the pursuits, the cares or troubles of others, to whom he cannot feel nor perceive his bounds of relationship. All of life is but a poor boon for such a man; and happy for himself and for mankind, if the few ties that hold him to this negative existence be not broken. Happy for him if that best and surest friend of man, that messenger of good news from Heaven to the poorest wretch on earth, Religion, bringing the fear of God, appear to save him. Without her support, should temptation assail him, what an easy victim would he fall to vice or crime! How little would be necessary to overturn his ill balanced principals, and throw him grovelling in in temperance, or send him abroad on the ocean or the highway, an enemy to himself and his kind!
But let the light of science fall upon that man; open to him the fountain of knowledge; a few principles of philosophy enter his mind, and awaken the dormant power of thought; he begins to look upon his art with an altered eye. It ceases to be a dark mechanical process, which he cannot understand; he regards it as an object of inquiry, and begins to penetrate the reasons, and acquire new mastery over his own instruments. He finds other and better modes of doing what he has done before, blindly and without interest, a thousand times. He learns to profit by the experience of others and ventures upon untried paths. Difficulties, which before would have stopped him at the outset, receive a ready solution from some luminous principle of science. He gains new knowledge and new skill, and can improve the quality of his manufacture, while he shortens the process and diminishes his own labour. Then labour becomes sweet to him; it is accompanied by the consciousness of increasing power; It is leading him forward to a higher place among his fellow men. Relaxation, too, is sweet to him, as it enables him to add to his intellectual stores, and to mature, by undisturbed meditation, the plans and conceptions of the hour of labour. His home has aquired a new charm; because he has become a man of thought, and feels and enjoys the peace and seclusion of that sacred retreat; and he carries this thither the honest complacency which is the companion of well-earned success. There, too, bright visions of the future sphere upon him, and excite a kindly feeling towards those who are to share in his prosperity. Thus his heart and mind expand together. He has become an intelligent being, and, while he has learnt to esteem himself, he has also learnt to live no longer for himself alone. Society opens like a new world to him, he looks upon his fellow-creatures with interest and sympathy, and feels that he has a place in their affections and respect. Temptations assail him in vain. He is armed by high and pure thoughts. He takes a wider view of his relations with the beings about and above him. He welcomes every generous virtue that adorns and dignifies the human character. He delights in the exercise of reason - he glories in the consciousness and the hope of immortality
