king
about some occurrence, said to me, "The trouble with Decatur was, that
he was not a seaman." I repeated the remark to one of our lieutenants,
and he ejaculated, with emphasis, "Yes, that is true." I cannot tell
how far these opinions were the result of prepossession in those from
whom they derived. There had been hard and factious division in the
navy of Decatur's day, culminating in the duel in which he fell; and
the lieutenant, at least, was associated by family ties with Decatur's
antagonist.

To deny that the methods of the Naval Academy were open to criticism
would be to claim for them infallibility. Upon the whole, however, in
my time they erred rather on the side of being over-conservative than
unduly progressive. Twenty years later, recalling some of our Academy
experiences to one of my contemporaries, himself more a man of action
than a student, and who had meanwhile distinguished himself by
extraordinary courage in the War of Secession--I mean Edward Terry--he
said, "Oh yes, those were the days before the flood." The hold-back
element was strong, though not sufficiently so to suit such as my
friend of the railroad. Objectors laid great stress on the word
"practical;" than which, with all its most respectable derivation and
association, I know none more frequently--nor more effectually--used
as a bludgeon for slaying ideas. Strictly, of course, it means knowing
how to do things, and doing them; but colloquially it usually means
doing them before learning how. Leap before you look. The practical
part is bruising your shins for lack of previous reflection. Of
course, no one denies the educational value of breaking your shins,
and everything else your own--a burnt child dreads the fire; but the
question remains whether an equally good result may not be reached at
less cost, and so be more really practical. I recall the fine scorn
with which one of our professors, Chauvenet, a man of great and
acknowledged ability, practical and other, used to speak of "practical
men." "Now, young gentlemen, in adjusting your theodolites in the
field, remember not to bear too hard on the screws. Don't put them
down with main force, as though the one object was never to unscrew
them. If you do, you indent the plate, and it will soon be quite
impossible to level the instrument properly. That," he would continue,
"is the way with your practical men. There, for instance, is Mr.
----," naming an assistant in another department, kn