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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34257-8.txt b/34257-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46a967d --- /dev/null +++ b/34257-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5244 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Means and Ends of Education, by J. L. Spalding + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Means and Ends of Education + +Author: J. L. Spalding + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34257] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +MEANS AND ENDS + +OF EDUCATION + + + +BY + +J. L. SPALDING + +Bishop of Peoria + + + + + WHO BRINGETH MANY THINGS, + FOR EACH ONE SOMETHING BRINGS + + + + +CHICAGO + +A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY + +1895 + + + + +COPYRIGHT + +BY A. C. MCCLURG £ Co. + +A.D. 1895 + + + + + +By Bishop Spalding + + EDUCATION AND THE HIGHER LIFE. 12mo. $1.00. + THINGS OF THE MIND. 12mo. $1.00. + MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. 12mo. $1.00. + + +A. C. McCLURG AND CO. + CHICAGO. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER + + I. TRUTH AND LOVE + II. TRUTH AND LOVE + III. THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF + IV. WOMAN AND EDUCATION + V. THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION + VI. THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION + VII. THE HIGHER EDUCATION + + + + +MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +TRUTH AND LOVE. + +None of us yet know, for none of us have yet been taught in early +youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought--proof +against all adversity;--bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble +histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful +thoughts; which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty +take away from us--houses built without hands for our souls to live +in.--RUSKIN. + +Stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy +patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages.--MILTON. + + +A great man's house is filled chiefly with menials and creatures of +ceremony; and great libraries contain, for the most part, books as dry +and lifeless as the dust that gathers on them: but from amidst these +dead leaves an immortal mind here and there looks forth with light and +love. + +From the point of view of the bank president, Emerson tells us, books +are merely so much rubbish. But in his eyes the flowers also, the +flowing water, the fresh air, the floating clouds, children's voices, +the thrill of love, the fancy's play, the mountains, and the stars are +worthless. + +Not one in a hundred who buy Shakspere, or Milton, or a work of any +other great mind, feels a genuine longing to get at the secret of its +power and truth; but to those alone who feel this longing is the secret +revealed. We must love the man of genius, if we would have him speak +to us. We learn to know ourselves, not by studying the behavior of +matter, but through experience of life and intimate acquaintance with +literature. Our spiritual as well as our physical being springs from +that of our ancestors. Freedom, however, gives the soul the power not +only to develop what it inherits, but to grow into conscious communion +with the thought and love, the hope and faith of the noble dead, and, +in thus enlarging itself, to become the inspiration and source of +richer and wider life for those who follow. As parents are consoled by +the thought of surviving in their descendants, great minds are upheld +and strengthened in their ceaseless labors by the hope of entering as +an added impulse to better things, from generation to generation, into +the lives of thousands. The greatest misfortune which can befall +genius is to be sold to the advocacy of what is not truth and love and +goodness and beauty. The proper translation of _timeo hominem unius +libri_ is not, "I fear a man of one book," but "I dread a man of one +book:" for he is sure to be narrow, one-sided, and unreasonable. The +right phrase enters at once into our spiritual world, and its power +becomes as real as that of material objects. The truth to which it +gives body is borne in upon us as a star or a mountain is borne in upon +us. Kings and rich men live in history when genius happens to throw +the light of abiding worlds upon their ephemeral estate. Carthage is +the typical city of merchants and traders. Why is it remembered? +Because Hannibal was a warrior and Virgil a poet. + +The strong man is he who knows how and is able to become and be +himself; the magnanimous man is he who, being strong, knows how and is +able to issue forth from himself, as from a fortress, to guide, +protect, encourage, and save others. Life's current flows pure and +unimpeded within him, and on its wave his thought and love are borne to +bless his fellowmen. If he who gives a cup of water in the right +spirit does God's work, so does he who sows or reaps, or builds or +sweeps, or utters helpful truth or plays with children or cheers the +lonely, or does any other fair or useful thing. Take not seriously one +who treats with derision men or books that have been deemed worthy of +attention by the best minds. He is false or foolish. As we cherish a +human being for the courage and love he inspires, so books are dear to +us for the noble thoughts and generous moods they call into being. To +drink the spirit of a great author is worth more than a knowledge of +his teaching. + +He who desires to grow wise should bring his reason to bear habitually +upon what he sees and hears not less than upon what he reads; for thus +he soon comes to understand that whatever he thinks or feels, says or +does, whatever happens within the sphere of his conscious life, may be +made the means of self-improvement. "He is not born for glory," says +Vauvenargues, "who knows not the worth of time." The educational value +of books lies in their power to set the intellectual atmosphere in +vibration, thereby rousing the mind to self-activity; and those which +have not this power lack vitality. + +If in a whole volume we find one passage in which truth is expressed in +a noble and striking manner, we have not read in vain. To read with +profit, we should read as a serious student reads, with the mind all +alive and held to the subject; for reading is thinking, and it is +valuable in proportion to the stimulus it gives to the exercise of +faculty. The conversation of high and ingenuous minds is doubtless as +instructive as it is delightful, but it is seldom in our power to call +around us those with whom we should wish to hold discourse; and hence +we go back to the emancipated spirits, who having transcended the +bounds of time and space, are wherever they are desired and are always +ready to entertain whoever seeks their company. Genius neither can nor +will discover its secret. Why his thought has such a mould and such a +tinge he no more knows than why the flowers have such a tint and such a +perfume; and if he knew he would not care to tell. Nothing is wholly +manifest. In the most trivial object, as in the simplest word, there +lies a world of meaning which does not reveal itself to a passing +glance. If therefore thou wouldst come to right understanding, +consider all things with an awakened and interested curiosity. + +When the mind at last finds itself rightly at home in its world, it is +as delighted as children making escape from restraining walls, as full +of spirit as colts newly turned upon the greensward. + +In the realm of truth each one is king, and what he knows is as much +his own as though he were its first discoverer. However firmly thou +holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw +down thy arms at once. A book has the power almost of a human being to +inspire admiration or disgust, love or hatred. To be useful is a noble +thing, to be necessary is not desirable. The youth has not enough +ambition unless he has too much. It is difficult to give lessons in +the art of pleasing without teaching that of lying. The discouraged +are already vanquished. In judging the deed let not the character of +the doer influence thy opinion, for good is good, evil evil, by +whomsoever done. When the author is rightly inspired his words need +not interpretation. They are as natural and as beautiful as the faces +of children or as new-blown flowers, and their meaning is plain. The +spirit and love of dogmatism is characteristic of the imperfectly +educated. As there is a communion of saints, there is a communion of +noble minds, living and dead. To speak of love which is not felt, of +piety which is not a living sentiment within us, is to weaken both in +ourselves and in those who hear us the power of faith and affection. +The best that has been known and experienced by minds and hearts lies +asleep in books, ready to awaken for whoever holds the magician's wand. +Books which at their first appearance create a breeze of excitement, +are forgotten when the wind falls. + +A human soul rightly uttering itself, in whatever age or country, +ceases to belong to any age or country, and becomes part of the +universal life of man. A sprightly wit may serve only to lead us +astray, and to enmesh us more hopelessly in error. Deeper knowledge is +the remedy for the foolishness of sciolism: like cures like. In the +books in which men worth knowing have put some of the vital quality +which makes them worth knowing, there is perennial inspiration. They +are the form and substance of an immortal spirit which, in creating +them, became itself. "I have not made my book," says Montaigne, "more +than my book has made me." + +Were one to ask an acquaintance who knows men to point out the +individuals whom he should make his friends, his request would probably +receive an unsatisfactory reply: for how, except by trial, is it +possible to say who will suit whom? Those whose friendship would be +valuable might, for whatever cause, be disagreeable to him, as the +greatest and noblest may be unpleasant companions. Many a one whom we +admire as he stands forth in history, whose words and deeds thrill and +uplift us, we should detest had we known him in life; and others to +whom we might have been drawn would have cared nothing for us. Between +men and books there is doubtless a wide difference, though a good book +contains the best of the life of some true man. But when we are asked +to point out the books one should learn to love, we are confronted with +much the same difficulty as had we been asked to name the persons whom +he should make his friends. A book can have worth for us only when we +have learned to love it; and since a real book, like a real man, has +its proper character, it is not easy to determine whom it will please +or displease. Once it has taken a safe place in literature, it will, +of course, be praised by everybody; but this, like the praise of men, +is often meaningless. All who read know something about the great +books, but their knowledge, unless it leads them to intimate +acquaintance with some one or several of these books, has little worth. +Books are, indeed, a world which each one must discover for himself. +Another may tell us about them, but the truth and beauty there is in +them for each one, each one must find. The value of a book, like that +of a man, lies not in its freedom from fault, but in its qualities, in +the good it contains. Words which inspire the love of spiritual beauty +and noble action cannot be false: the consent of the wise places them +in the canon. The imperishable goods are truth, freedom, love, and +beauty. Valuable alone is that which enriches and ennobles life. +There are natures for whom the lack of knowledge is as painful as the +lack of food. They are ahungered and athirst for it, and their +suffering impels them to ceaseless meditation and study, as the only +means of relief. + +The self-educator's first and simplest aim should be to learn to know +and do well whatever he knows and does; and to this end let him often +observe and consider how rare are they who know anything thoroughly or +do well any of the hundred things which are part of daily life: who +talk well, or write well, or behave well. Herbert Spencer affirms that +it is better to learn the meanings of things than the meanings of +words; but he loses sight of the fact that the meanings of things +become plain only when things are clothed in words, which, in truth, +are things, being nothing else than the very form and body of nature as +it reveals itself within the mind of man. The world is chiefly a +mental fact. From mind it receives the forms of time and space, the +principle of causality, color, warmth, and beauty. Were there no mind, +there would be no world. The end of man is the pursuit of perfection, +through communion with God, his fellows, and nature, by means of +knowledge and conduct, of faith, hope, admiration, and love. It is +easy to praise work overmuch. Like money, it is a means, not an end, +and it is good or evil as it is made to help or harm the worker, for +man is an end, not a means. The work which millions are still forced +to do is a curse,--the trail of the serpent is over it all, and no +people has the right to call itself civilized, while work which +dehumanizes is not merely permitted, but encouraged. + +Let us not teach the young to believe they are born into a world of +delights and pleasures, but let us strive to enable them to realize +that, upon this earth, only the wise and good and strong can make +themselves really at home; that for the wicked and the weak its very +delights and pleasures turn to sorrow and suffering. We pity the +hard-driven beast of burden. How then is it possible to look with +complacency on a world in which multitudes of human beings are +condemned to the work of the ox and the ass? For the healthy man, +wealth and happiness would seem to be identical, if his desires are +confined to the things of which money is the equivalent. But this is a +delusion, for the plenary possession of these things has never +satisfied a human being. Man needs virtue, knowledge, love, and to +take the obvious view, he needs the power to enjoy the things money +buys; and of this money deprives him. + +When we consider the many unworthy means men take to gain wealth and +office, we are forced to believe that to reach their ends they are +ready to profess to hold opinions and beliefs about which they care +nothing or which they really do not accept at all. By this following +of time-servers and place-hunters every noble cause is weakened and the +purest faith is corrupted. + +To labor for those we love, to sit in the hours of rest, with wife and +children about us, smiling in the blaze of the fire we have lighted, +sheltered by the roof we have built, secure in the sense of protection +our presence inspires, is to feel that life is good. But is it not a +higher thing to turn away, in disrespect of all this peace and comfort, +and to strive alone, by thought and deed, to find the way which leads +to God and to be a pioneer therein for those who wander helpless and +astray? The more we dwell with truth and love, the more conscious we +become that they are the best, and are everlasting; and thus our +immortality is revealed to us. Visibly we float on the boundless +stream and disappear; but inasmuch as we are truth-loving and +love-cherishing, we dwell in an abiding city, and may behold our bodies +carried forth by the flood, as a man sees his house swept away, while +he himself remains. Our thoughtlessness and indifference, our +indolence and frivolousness, blind us to the infinite worth and +significance of life; and they who call themselves religious often take +it as lightly as worldlings and unbelievers. + +In the Universe there is nothing which exists separate and apart from +other things. The satellites hold to the planets, the planets to the +suns, the suns to one another, all in obedience to the same laws which +bind the body to earth, and cause the water to flow and the vapor to +rise. For the senses there is separateness, but for the mind there is +union and unity. Communion is the law of souls as of bodies. Both are +immersed in a boundless world, from which if they could be drawn forth +they would cease to be. The principle of this infinite harmony is +love, is God. + +The right human bond is that which unites soul with soul; and only they +are truly akin who consciously live in the same world, who think, +believe, and love alike, who hope for the same things, aspire to the +same ends. + +Our mental view never reaches the ultimate nature of being, and hence +our knowledge, whether of material or of spiritual things, is +incomplete. Faith is the effort to supply the defect which inheres in +all our knowing. Knowledge springs from faith, faith from knowledge, +as rivers from clouds, clouds from rivers. The more we know, the more +we believe; and our growing consciousness does not make us content to +rest in a mechanical view of nature, but it brings home to us with +increasing power the awfulness of the infinite mystery, which we more +and more clearly perceive to be a spiritual rather than a material +fact. If at present there is a certain failure of will and consequent +discouragement in the pursuit of moral and intellectual perfection, +this is a result of our passing bewilderment in the presence of the +revelations of science and of the mighty forces it places in the hands +of man, and not of any new knowledge which tends to inspire misgivings +concerning the being of God and our kinship with Him:--- + + From nature up to law, from law to love: + This is the ascendant path in which we move, + Impelled by God in ways that lighten still, + Till all things meet in one eternal thrill. + + +As the Universe revealed by the Copernican astronomy and the other +natural sciences is infinitely more sublime and marvellous than such a +world as the Israelites, the Greeks, or the Romans imagined, so they +who see rightly in the luminous ether of modern intelligence understand +better than the ancients that human life is not an ephemeral and +superficial, but an immortal and central power, enrooted in God, and +drawing its substance and sustenance from Him. + +The appeal to shame is a poor argument. The fact that men of great +intellectual power and learning have held an opinion to be true does +not make it so. New knowledge may have shown it to be false, or the +general advance of the race may have changed the point of view. The +presumption of the larger wisdom of the Ancients we cannot accept: for +we, not they, are the true ancients. The purest and the holiest prayer +men speak is this: "Thy will be done." They who utter it from the +inmost soul, find peace, even as a fretful child sinks to rest upon the +mother's bosom. In learning to love the will of God they come at last +not merely to believe, but to feel that His will guides the Universe, +and that all will be well. When an utterance comes forth from the +depths of our spiritual being, men cannot but hearken. It is as though +we should bring to exiles tidings of a long-lost home and country. + +To what a weight he stoops who addresses himself with fixed resolve to +the life of thought! The burden indeed is heavy, but the pathway lies +through pleasant fields where great souls move to and fro in freedom +and at peace. And as he grows accustomed to his labor, the world +widens, the heavens break open, the dead live again, and with them he +rises into the high regions where the petty cares and passions of +mortals do not reach. + +He who would educate himself must make use of his own powers. He must +observe, think, examine, read, argue, ponder; he must learn when to +hold judgment in suspense, and when to give the wings of the soul free +sweep through the high and serene realms of truth and beauty. The +farther we dwell from the crowd, with its current opinion, the better +and truer shall we and our thoughts become. They who write for +multitudinous readers rise with difficulty above the dignity of +mountebanks. + +There is a radical defect in the character of whoever works in the +spirit of a trifler, however blameless his conduct. The power to +inspire faith in the seriousness and goodness of life is a sufficient +test of the worth of a scheme of education. + +No one should fill an office which he is unable to hold without +hindrance to the play of mind and heart that makes him a man. The +dignities we possess at the cost of knowledge and virtue are like +jewels for the sake of which one goes hungry and naked; mere glittering +baubles for which we barter the soul's prosperity. + +Experience is personal, and it is largely incommunicable; but +genius--and in this lies its power and charm--renders it communicable. +What the poet or the painter has felt and seen, he makes all men feel +and see. The difference between man and man, between the child and the +youth, the youth and the adult, is chiefly a difference in feeling, in +the manner in which they are impressed; and it is our nature to be +drawn in admiration or reverence to those who by their words or deeds +give us deeper impressions of the worth of life, and thus open for us +new sources of feeling. + +Fair thoughts rise in the heart and mind of genius, like the fragrant +breath which the dewy flowers exhale in the face of the rising sun, and +they utter themselves as simply as matin songs warbled by +sweet-throated birds. + +Faith in the infinite nature and worth of truth, goodness, and love, is +the dawn which shall merge into the fulness of day, when, in other +worlds, God looks upon the soul, reborn from out this seemingness. + +Our position, our reputation, our wealth, our comforts, are but a +vesture like the body itself. They shall fall away, and we shall +remain with God. There is no liberty but obedience to the impulse of +the higher nature which urges us to think nobly, to act rightly, and to +love constantly. The dominion of appetite is slavery; the dominion of +reason and conscience is freedom. + +Renan somewhere says he could wish for nothing better than that a +little volume of selections from his writings might commend itself to +young women, whose fair faces should bend over it, and find there a +reflection of their own pure souls. But where there is no God, the +soul is not mirrored, and we never really love an author who weakens +faith and hope. + +With whatever success we advance towards the wide and serene life of +the pure reason, let us still cling to faith, hope, and love, the +primal powers which keep watch at our birth, and which bend over our +cradles, and which alone lift us into the world of enduring peace and +hold us within the sheltering arms of God. In the enlightened mind, +faith is a higher virtue than it can be for the ignorant, and to +sustain it there is need of a nobler life. + +He whom neither learning nor power nor wealth can corrupt must have +virtue; for learning breeds conceit, and power begets pride, and wealth +debases both the mind and heart. + +The intellect does not recognize that conscience may forbid its +exercise, since knowledge cannot be evil. If earth were a hell and +life a curse and the Universe but a cinder, it would still be good to +know the fact. The saddest truth is better than the merriest lie. + +To know a thing is to be conscious of its relation to the mind. We +know it, not in itself, but in and through this relation. Our +knowledge of God, who is the absolute, is not absolute knowledge, but a +knowledge of Him in so far as He is related to the mind of man. Since, +however, mind is reason and not unreason, there is harmony between it +and things, between it and God; and hence to be conscious of its +relation to God and the universe is to be conscious of a real relation, +in which both the thinker and his thought are in truth what they seem +to be. The ultimate reality is inferred, not directly perceived. It +reveals itself to the purest faith and love, and may be hidden from one +who knows all the sciences. + +As man's relations to his fellows make him a social and political +being, so his relations to the unseen power behind and within the +visible world, of whose presence he is always, however dimly, +conscious, and to whom he refers whatever touches the senses, as well +as the principle of life itself, make him a religious being. + +In identifying what seem to be our particular interests with the +interests of all, we make escape from narrowness and isolation into the +general life of humanity; and when we come to understand that not only +mankind but all nature is a Unity in the Consciousness of the Infinite +and Eternal, bound together by thought and love, we enter into the +glorious liberty of the Sons of God, and feel that nor height nor depth +nor things past nor things to come shall separate us from the divine +charity. We are akin to all that may become part of our life; and +whatever we know or love or admire is spiritualized and made human. To +understand the things of the spirit we must have spiritual experience. +The intuitions of time and space, as well as the principle of +causality, are given in the constitution of the mind. So is the idea +of being, of perfection, of beauty, of eternity, of infinity, of duty. +To think implies being, to perceive things as existing in time and +space implies consciousness of eternity and infinity. To know the +imperfect is possible only in the light of the perfect. Subject is +itself object, the first known and best understood, and the laws of +mind are laws of being. If the constitution of mind makes the +revelation of the material world possible only under the forms of time +and space, intelligible only as sequence of cause and effect, the +reason is to be found in the nature of things. If the constitution of +mind postulates one who knows and shapes, in a world in which whatever +is, is intelligible, in which there is order, proportion, and purpose, +it is because such an One is given in the nature of things, and He is +God. However living our faith, it is faith and not knowledge; and +should it become knowledge, it would cease to be faith. + +There are three kinds of authors,--those who impart knowledge, those +who give delight, and those who strengthen and inspire. + +A noble thought rightly expressed sweeps the higher nerve centres as +the touch of a perfect performer the strings of an instrument; but if +the instrument is poor and irresponsive, the appeal is made in vain. +Life has the power to propagate itself, and if the words thou utterest +are living, they will strike root somewhere and bud and blossom and +bear fruit; but if there is no life in them, be content to have them +fall and lie amid the dust of the dead. God and the universe are what +they are, and the best even genius can do is to throw over them a +revealing light. He who feels that he is always in the presence of God +will strive as religiously to think only what is true as he will strive +to do only what is right. A phrase which leaps forth aglow with life +from the heart and brain of genius, not only lives forever, but retains +forever the power to awaken, when brought into contact with a brain and +heart, the thrill with which it first came into being. + +Only a few know and love the poet, but they are young and fair, and the +music of high thoughts and pure love is rhythmic with the current of +their blood; and if among them there be found some who are old, they +are choice spirits who have risen from out the lapses of time into +regions where what is true and beautiful is so forever. This little +band of chosen ones accompanies him adown the centuries, and listens to +the melody which wells in his heart and breaks into songs that shall +give delight as long as the air of spring is pleasant and the flowers +fragrant and the carollings of birds delightful; and while the poet +strolls on the outskirts of time, thus loved and thus attended, the +stormy and glittering favorites of the crowd drop from sight and are +forgotten, or remembered but as the echo of a name. + +A line from Homer, which sounds like a response from our own heart, is +clothed with the mystery of diviner power, because it makes us feel +that we were alive thousands of years ago amid the Grecian isles, thus +revealing to us the unreality of time and space, and the everlasting +nature of truth and beauty. + +As it is right to admire and love whatever is good wherever it is +found, it needs must be the part of wisdom to seek to know and +appreciate all that is true and high in the works of genius, though +there, like precious stones and metals in the mine, it be mingled with +baser matter. It is but narrowness or intellectual pharisaism to turn +from a great author because in his life and works there may be things +of which we cannot approve. Shall we abandon God because His world is +full of evil, or Christ because there is corruption in the church? St. +Paul appeals to pagan literature, St. Augustine is the disciple of +Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas of Aristotle, and the culture and +civilization of Christendom are largely due to influences which are not +Christian. Whatever is good is from God. There is no surer mark of +the lack of culture than the use of ill-natured and abusive epithets. +To feel the need of injurious words to express one's opinion, merely +shows that one is angry, and anger is vulgar. + +Whatever is inspired by vanity is in bad taste. This is why a showy +style is a false style, why fine writing is poor writing. The author +yields to the spirit of vainglory, whereas he should be wholly bent +upon uttering his thought as he knows it. It is as though he should +call our attention to a costly garb when what we want to see is a man. + +As a plain face is better than a mask, though fine, so one's own style, +though inferior, is better than any which is borrowed. + +True books survive without help or let of critics, by virtue of their +vital quality, which attracts kindred spirits with irresistible power. + +When their worth becomes known, the critics set up a howl of praise, +and many buy; but only a few make them their serious study, and learn +to know and love them. Truth is the mind's food; and, like that of the +body, it is nourishment only when it has been digested and assimilated. +It is, after all, but a little while since man began to think. As yet +he is learning the alphabet. Take heart then, and apply thy mind. As +we grow older the years seem to run to months, the months to weeks, the +weeks to days, the days to hours, the hours to moments, until time, +like an exhalation, appears to dissolve in the inane, and become the +nothing it was and is and will be for eternity. + +If thought were given us, like house and clothing, merely for our +personal comfort, wisdom would lead us to think with and like all the +world. They who are eager for the good opinion of others seem to have +but weak faith in their own worth. + +The art of pleasing would better deserve our study were there more who +are worth pleasing, or were it less difficult to please without loss of +sincerity and without stooping to the service of vulgar interests. Not +how much or how many things thou knowest is of import. An industrious +reader, of retentive memory, will easily know more things than a great +philosopher compared with whom he is but a child. + +Know thyself was the sum of what Socrates taught, and each of the seven +wise men rested his fame upon an apothegm. To expect the multitude to +appreciate the best in life or literature, is to expect them to be what +they have never been and will probably never be. Would you have an ox +admire the sunrise or the pearly dew, when all he feels the need of is +grass? Appeal to the many if you will, but if your appeal is for the +highest, only the few will hearken. + +Consider not what great men or books are worth in themselves, but what +they are worth to thee; for thou art able to judge of their value only +in so far as thou understandest and lovest them. + +If thou canst not bear trouble, sorrow, and disappointment without loss +of composure, thou art poorly equipped for life's struggle. If thou +mayst not lead the life thou wouldst wish, thou canst at least make the +life thou leadest the means to improve thyself. If we were so +constituted that thought, feeling, and imagination might have free and +healthful play in ever-during darkness and isolation, life would still +be good. Could I live surrounded by those I love, I should feel less +keenly the discontent which the consciousness of my higher needs +creates; and besides, it is not easy to rest in the comforts and +luxuries which make and keep us inferior, except in the company of +those we love. If our ordinary power of sight were as great as that we +gain with the help of the microscope, the world would become for us a +place of horrors; and if we could clearly see ourselves as we are, life +would be less endurable. God blurs our vision as a mother hides from +her child its wound. + +Pleasures which quickly end in revulsion of feeling are but momentary +escapes from pain; and they alone are fortunate who are able to +persevere in pursuits which give them pure delight. "All good," says +Kant, "which is not based on the highest moral principle is but empty +appearance and splendid misery." + +Sensations of color, taste, sound, smell, touch, heat and cold, +perceptions of magnitude, and temporal and spatial relations, is the +sum of what we know; and yet we are conscious that reason means +infinitely more than this, that its proper object is the eternal world +of truth, goodness, and beauty. Think for thyself with a single view +to truth; for so only will thy thought be of worth and service to +others. We feel ourselves only in action, and hence the need of doing +lest we lose ourselves and be swallowed in nothingness. And for the +old and feeble even worry, I suppose, is a comfort, for it helps to +keep this self-consciousness alive. It is impossible to say whence a +thought comes, and it is often difficult to determine the occasion by +which it has been suggested. + +Fortunate are the children all of whose knowledge comes from man and +nature in their purity, whose memory holds no words which are not the +symbols of what they themselves have seen and felt, in whose minds no +will-o'-the-wisp from chimera worlds flits to and fro. It is only by +keeping men in ignorance and vice that it is possible to keep them from +the contagion of great thoughts. They who have little are thought to +have no right to anything. Thus the plagiarized sayings of Napoleon +and other nurslings of fame pass for their own; who their real authors +were, seeming to be a matter of indifference. + +If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, +why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I +am? Should I publish what I believe to be true and well expressed, and +competent judges should declare it to be worthless in form and +substance, the verdict would be interesting to me, and I should set to +work to discover why and how I had so far failed in discernment. "A +thoroughly cultivated man," says Fontenelle, "is informed by all the +thinkers of the past, as though he had lived and continued to grow in +knowledge during all the centuries." The author is rewarded when his +readers are made better. + +The most persuasive of men are the praisers of patent medicines. Their +eloquence is more richly rewarded than that of all the orators, who +also are paid, for the most part, in inverse ratio to the amount of +truth they utter. Fame, as fame, is the merest vanity. No wise man +wishes to be talked and written about, living or dead, to be a theme +chiefly for fools. + +Literature is writing in which genuine thought and feeling are rightly +expressed. They who content themselves with what others have uttered, +learn nothing. The blind need a guide, but they who are able to see +should look for themselves. There is, indeed, in the words of genius a +glow which never dies; but it only dazzles and misleads, if it fails to +stimulate and strengthen our own powers of vision. True speech is not +idle; it is utterance of life, the mate of action, and the begetter of +noble deeds. Strive for knowledge and strength, but do not appear to +have them. + +"A book," says La Bruyère, "which exalts the mind and inspires high and +manly thoughts, is good, and the work of a master." A phrase suffices +to tell the man is ignorant or the book worthless. As the body is +nourished by dead things, vegetable and animal, so the mind feeds on +the thoughts of those who have ceased to live, which, it would seem, +are never rightly understood until the thinkers have passed away. + +To be unwilling to be proved wrong is to fail in love of truth; to +resent an objection is to lack culture. One may believe what cannot be +demonstrated, but to grow angry because there is no proof is absurd. + +To do deeds and to utter thoughts which long after we have departed +shall remain to cheer, to illumine, to strengthen and console, is to be +like God; and the desire of noble minds is not of praise, but of +abiding power for good. + +He who is certain of himself needs not the good opinion of men, not of +those even who are competent to judge. Only the vain and foolish or +the designing and dishonest will wish to receive credit for more +ability and virtue than they have. An exaggerated reputation may +nourish conceit or win favor; but the wise and the good put away +conceit, and desire not favors which are granted from mistaken notions. + +"I hate false words," says Landor, "and seek with care, difficulty, and +moroseness those that fit the thing." + +Dwell not with complacency upon aught thou hast or hast achieved, but +address thyself each day, like a simple-hearted child, to the task God +sets thee; and remember when the last hour comes thou canst carry +nothing to Him but faith in His mercy and goodness. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TRUTH AND LOVE. + +Truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of +truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it; the knowledge of +truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is +the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.--BACON. + + +As those who have little think their little much, so those who have few +ideas believe with obstinacy that they are the sum of all truth. If +the world could but be made to see what they see there would be no +ills. They have not even a suspicion of the unutterable complexity of +the warp and woof of nature and of life; and when their opinions are +combated they imagine they thereby acquire new importance, and they +defend them with such zeal that they make proselytes and found sects in +religion, politics, and literature. The source of the greater part of +error is the absoluteness the mind attributes to its knowledge and, as +part of this, the persuasion that at each stage of our mental life, we +are capable of seeing things as they are. The aim of the philosopher, +as of the Christian, is to escape from the ephemeral self by renouncing +what is petty, partial, apparent, and transitory, that the true self +may unfold in the world of the permanent, of things which have an +aptitude for perpetuity; but the philosopher's efforts are intellectual +and moral, while the Christian's source of strength is the love which +is enrooted in divine faith. + +"The brief precept," says St. Augustine, "is given there once for +all,--Love, and do what thou wilt. If thou art silent, be silent for +love; if thou speakest, speak for love; if thou correctest, correct for +love; if thou sparest, spare for love. The root of love is within, and +from it only good can come." Life springs from love, and love is its +being, aim, and end. Each soul is born of souls yearning that he be +born, and he lives only so far as he leaves himself and becomes through +love part of the life of God and the race of man. + +Primordial matter, with which the physicists start, is twin brother of +nothing. In every conceivable hypothesis, we assume either that +nothing is the cause of something, or that from the beginning there was +something or some one who is all the universe may become. If truth and +love and goodness are of the essence of the highest life evolved in +nature, they are of the essence of that by which nature exists and +energizes. If reason is valid at all, it avails as an immovable +foundation for faith in God and in man's kinship with him. The larger +the world we live in, the greater the opportunities for self-education. +He who knows friends and foes, who is commended and found fault with, +who tastes the delights of home and breathes the air of strange lands, +who is followed and opposed, who triumphs and suffers defeat, who +contends with many and is left alone, who dwells with his own thoughts +and in the company of the great minds of all time,--necessarily gains +wisdom and power, and learns to feel himself a man. + +Science springs from man's yearning for truth; art, from his yearning +for beauty; religion, from his yearning for love: and as truth, beauty, +and love are a harmony, so are science, art, and religion; and if +conflicts arise, they are the results of ignorance and passion. The +charm of faith, hope, and love, of knowledge, beauty, and religion, +lies in their power to open life's prison, thus permitting the soul to +escape to commune with the Infinite and Eternal, with the boundless +mysterious world of being which forever draws us on and forever eludes +our grasp. The higher the man, the more urgent this need of +self-escape. + +We look upon lifelong imprisonment of the body as among the greatest of +evils, but that the mind should be suffered to languish in the dungeon +of ignorance, error, and prejudice, seems comparatively a slight thing. +Thy whole business, as a rational being, is to know and follow +truth,--with gratitude and joy if possible, but, in any case, with +courage and resignation. Mind maketh man; and the most money and place +can do, is to make millionnaires and titularies. + +The Alpine guides, who lead travellers through the sublimest scenery in +the world, are as insensible to its grandeur as the stocks they grasp; +and we nearly all are as indifferent as these drudges to Nature's +divine spectacle, with its starlit heavens, its risings and settings of +sun and moon, its storms and calms, its changes of season, its clouds +and snows and breath of many-tinted flowers, its children's faces, and +plumage and songs of birds. + +As we judge of many things by samples, a glance may suffice to show the +worthlessness of a book, but the value of one that is genuine is not +quickly perceived, for it reveals itself the more the oftener it is +read and pondered. There is not a more certain, a purer, or a more +delightful source of contentment and independence than a taste for the +best literature. In the midst of occupations and cares of whatever +kind it enables us to look forward to the hour when the noblest minds +and most generous hearts shall welcome us to their company to be +entertained with great thoughts rightly uttered and with information +concerning whatever is of interest to man. + +In every home the best works of the great poets, historians, +philosophers, orators, and story-writers should lie within reach of the +young, who should be permitted, not urged, to read them. We may know a +man by the company he keeps; we may know him better still by the books +he loves: and if he loves none, he is not worth knowing. + +Matthew Arnold praises culture for "its inexhaustible indulgence, its +consideration of circumstances, its severe judgment of actions joined +to its merciful judgment of persons." + +When we have learned to love work, to love honest work, work well done, +excellently well done, we have within ourselves the most fruitful +principle of education. + +Who shall speak ill of bodily health and vigor? Herbert Spencer +affirms that it is man's first duty to be a good animal. But since we +cannot all be athletes or be well even, let us not refuse to find +consolation in the fact that much of what is greatest, whether in the +world of thought or action, has been wrought by mighty souls in feeble +and suffering bodies; and since men gladly risk health and life to +acquire gold, shall we not be willing, if need be, to be "sicklied o'er +with the pale cast of thought," if so we may attain to truth and love? + +Great things are accomplished only by concentration. What we ourselves +think, love, and do, until it becomes a habit, is the form and +substance of our life. + +To live in the company of those who have or seek culture is to breathe +the vital air of mental health and vigor. + +The scientific investigator gives his whole attention to the facts +before him; but the discipline of close observation, however favorable +it may be to accuracy, weakens capacity for wide and profound views. +On the other hand, the speculative thinker is apt to grow heedless or +oblivious of facts. Hence a minute observer is seldom a great +philosopher, a great philosopher rarely a careful observer. + +"Employment," says Ruskin, "is the half, and the primal half of +education, for it forms the habits of body and mind, and these are the +constitution of man." Tell me at and in what thou workest, and I will +tell thee what thou art. The secret of education lies in the words of +Christ,--He that hath eyes to see, let him see; he that hath ears to +hear, let him hear. The soul must flow through the channels of the +senses until it meets the universe and clothes it with the beauty and +meaning which reveal God. + +When I think of all the truth which still remains for me to learn, of +all the good I yet may do, of all the friends I still may serve, of all +the beauty I may see, life seems as fresh and fair, as full of promise, +as is to loving souls the dawn of their bridal day. Animals, children, +savages, the thoughtless and frivolous, live in the present alone; they +consequently lead a narrow, ephemeral, and superficial existence. They +strike no deep roots into the past, they forebode no divine future, +they enter not behind the veil where the soul finds ever-during truth +and power. + + "The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." + + +Whatever sets the mind in motion may lead us to secret worlds, though +it be a falling apple, as with Newton, or the swing of the pendulum, as +with Galileo, or a boy's kite, as with Franklin, or throwing pebbles +into the water, as with Turner. Watt sat musing by the fire, and +noticed the rise and fall of the lid of the boiling kettle, and the +steam engine, like a vision from unknown spheres, rose before his +imagination. A child, carelessly playing with the glasses that lay on +the table of a spectacle-maker, gave the clew to the invention of the +telescope. The pestle, flying from the hand of Schwarz, told him he +had found the explosive which has transformed the world. Drifting +plants, of a strange species, whispered to Columbus of a continent that +lay across the Atlantic. Patient observation and work are the +mightiest conquerors. + +Among the maxims, called triads, which have come down to us from the +Celtic bards, we find this: "The three primary requisites of +genius,--an eye that can see nature; a heart that can feel nature; and +boldness that dares follow nature." He who has no philosophy and no +religion, no theory of life and the world, has nothing which he finds +it greatly important to say or do. He lacks the impulse of genius, the +educator's energy and enthusiasm. Having no ideal, he has no end to +which he may point and lead. To do well it is necessary to believe in +the worth of what we do. The power which upholds and leads us on is +faith,--faith in God, in ourselves, in life, in education. + +Forever to be blessed and cherished is the love-inspired mother or the +teacher whose generous heart and luminous mind first leads us to +believe in the priceless worth of wisdom and virtue, thus kindling +within the soul a quenchless fire which warms and irradiates our whole +being. + +To be God's workman, to strive, to endure, to labor, even to the end, +for truth and righteousness, this is life. + +"My desire," says Dante, "and my will rolled onward, like a wheel in +even motion, swayed by the love which moves the sun and all the stars." + +If there are any who shrink from wrong more than from disgrace they +best deserve to be called religious. + +Strive not to be original or profound, but to think justly and to +express clearly what thou seest; and so it may happen that thy view +shall pierce deeper than thou knowest. + +The words and deeds which are most certain to escape oblivion are those +which nourish the higher life of the soul. Self-love, the love of +one's real self, of one's soul, is the indispensable virtue. It is +this we seek when we strive to know and love truth and justice; it is +this we seek, when we love God and our fellow-men. In turning from +ourselves to find them, we still seek ourselves; in abandoning life we +seek richer and fuller life. + +Truth separate from love is but half truth. Think of that which unites +thee with thy fellows rather than of what divides thee from them. +Religion is the bond of love, and not a subject for a debating club. +If thou wouldst refute thy adversaries, commit the task to thy life +more than to thy words. Read the history of controversy and ask +thyself whether there is in it the spirit of Christ, the meek and lowly +One? Its champions belong to the schools of the sophists rather than +to the worshippers of God in spirit and in truth. And what has been +the issue of all their disputes but hatreds and sects, persecutions and +wars? If it is my duty to be polite and helpful to my neighbor, it is +plainly also my duty to treat his opinions and beliefs with +consideration and fairness. + +There is a place in South America where the whole population have the +goitre, and if a stranger who is free from the deformity chances to +pass among them, they jeer and cry, "There goes one who has no goitre." +What could be more delightfully human? We think it a holy thing to put +down duelling, the battle of one with one; but we are full of +enthusiasm over battles of a hundred thousand with a hundred thousand. +Thus the Southern slave-owners were sworn advocates of the rights of +man and of popular liberty. + +The explanation of many provoking things is to be found in Dr. +Johnson's words,--"Ignorance, simple ignorance;" but of many more +probably in these other words,--Greed, simple greed. + +"In science," says Bulwer, "read by preference the newest books; in +literature, the oldest." This is wiser than Emerson's saying: "Never +read a book which is not a year old." + +The facility with which it is now possible to get at whatever is known +on any subject has a tendency to create the opinion that reading up in +this or that direction is education, whereas such reading as is +generally done, is unfavorable to discipline of mind. Shall our +Chautauquas and summer schools help to foster this superstition? + +What passion can be more innocent than the passion for knowledge? And +what passion gives better promise of blessings to one's self and to +one's fellow-men? Why desire to have force and numbers on thy side? +Is it not enough that thou hast truth and justice? + +The loss of the good opinion of one's friends is to be regretted, but +the loss of self-respect is the only true beggary. + +Zeal for a party or a sect is more certain of earthly reward than zeal +for truth and religion. + +As it is unfortunate for the young to have abundance of money, fine +clothes, and social success, so popularity is hurtful to the prosperity +of the best gifts. It draws the mind away from the silence and +strength of eternal truth and love into a world of clamor and noise. +Patience is the student's great virtue; it is the mark of the best +quality of mind. It takes an eternity to unfold a universe; man is the +sum of the achievements of innumerable ages, and whatever endures is +slow in acquiring the virtues which make for permanence. + +The will to know, manifesting itself in persistent impulse, in +never-satisfied yearning, is the power which urges to mental effort and +enables us to attain culture. + +"If a thing is good," says Landor, "it may be repeated. The repetition +shows no want of invention; it shows only what is uppermost in the +mind, and by what the writer is most agitated and inflamed." What hast +thou learned to admire, to long for, to love, genuinely to hope for and +believe? The answer tells thy worth and that of the education thou +hast received. + +When we have said a thousand things in praise of education, we must, at +last, come back to the fundamental fact that nearly everything depends +on the kind of people of whom we are descended, and on the kind of +family in which our young years have passed. Nearly everything, but +not everything; and it is this little which makes liberty possible, +which inspires hope and courage, which, like the indefinable something +that gives the work of genius its worth and stamp, makes us children of +God and masters of ourselves. "Wisdom is the principal thing," says +Solomon; "therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get +understanding." + +He who makes himself the best man is the most successful one, while he +who gains most money or notoriety may fail utterly as man. + +With the advance of civilization our wants increase; and yet it is the +business of religion and culture to raise us above the things money +buys, and consequently to diminish our wants. They who are nearest to +God have fewest wants; and they who know and follow truth need not +place or title or wealth. + +To every one the tempter comes, with a thousand pretexts drawn both +from the intellect and the emotional nature, promising to lull +conscience to sleep that he may lead the lower life in peace; but he +who hearkens becomes a victim as helpless and as wretched as the +victims of alcohol and opium. + +In deliberate persevering action for high ends, all the subconscious +forces within us, the many currents, which, like hidden water-veins, go +to make our being, are taken up and turned in a deep-flowing stream +into the ocean of our life. In such course of conduct the baser self +is swallowed, and we learn to feel that we are part of the divine +energy which moves the universe to finer issues. As life is only by +moments and in narrow space, a little thing may disturb us and a little +thing may take away the cause of our trouble. We are petty beings in a +world of petty concerns. A little food, a little sleep, a little joy +is enough to make us happy. A word can fill us with dismay, a breath +can blow out the flickering flame of our self-consciousness. I often +ride among graves, and think how easy it is for the fretful children of +men to grow quiet. There they lie, having become weary of their toys +and plays, on the breast of the great mother from whom they sprang, +about whose face they frolicked and fought and cried for a day, and +then fell back into her all-receiving arms, as raindrops fall into the +water and mingle with it and are lost. No sight is so pathetic as that +of a vast throng seeking to enjoy themselves. The hopelessness of the +task is visible on all their thousand faces, athwart which, while they +talk or listen or look, the shadow of care flits as if thrown from dark +wings wheeling in circuits above them. The sorrow and toil and worry +they have thought to put away, still lie close to them, like a burden +which, having been set down, waits to be taken up again. God surely +sees with love and pity His all-enduring and all-hoping children; it is +His voice we hear in the words of Christ, "Misereor super turbam." I +cannot but wish to be myself, and therefore to be happy; but when I +think of God as essential to my happiness, I feel it is enough for me +to know and love Him; for to imagine I might be of service to Him would +be the fondest conceit. But He makes it possible for me to help my +fellows, and in doing this, I fulfil the will of Him who is the father +of all. The divine reveals itself in the human; and that religion +alone is true which, striking its roots deep into humanity, exerts all +its power to make men more godlike by making them more human. + +They who in good faith inflicted the tortures of the Inquisition were +led not by the light of reason, or that which springs from the +contemplation of the life of Christ, but by the notion that the rack +and fagot are instruments of mercy, if employed to save men from +eternal torments; and tyrants, who are always cruel, gave encouragement +and aid to the victims of fanaticism. Why should the sorrow or the sin +or the loss of any human being give me pleasure? Is it not always the +same story? In the fall of one we all are degraded, since, whoever +fails, it is our common nature which suffers hurt. + +Whether or not we have come forth from a merely animal condition, let +us thank God we are human, and bend all our energies to remove the race +farther and farther from the life over which thought and love and +conscience have no dominion. + +In the presence of the mighty machine, whose wheels and arms are +everywhere, whose power is drawn from the exhaustless oceans and the +boundless heavens, the importance of the individual dwindles and seems +threatened with extinction. At such a time it is good to know that a +right human soul is greater than a universe of machinery. + +We feel that we are higher than all the suns and planets, because we +know and love, and they do not; but when, in the light of this +superiority, we turn to the thought of our own littleness, being +scarcely more than nothing, such trouble rises in the soul that we +throw ourselves upon God to escape doubt of the reality of life. If we +believe that man is what he eats, his education is simply a question of +alimentation; but if we hold that he is what he knows, and loves, and +yearns, and strives for, his education is a problem of soul-nutrition. + +The child is made educable by its faith in the father and mother, which +is nothing else than faith in their truth and love; and the +educableness of the man is in proportion to his faith in the sovereign +and infinite nature of truth and love, which is faith in God. + +It is in youth that we are most susceptible of education, because it is +the privilege of youth to be free from tyrannic cares, and to be +sensitive to the charm of noble and disinterested passions. If we show +the young soul the way to higher worlds, he will not ask us to strew it +with flowers, or pave it with gold, but he will be content to walk with +bruised feet along mountain wastes, if at the summit is illumination +and joy and peace. + +As in religion many are called but few chosen, as in the race for +wealth and place many start but few win the prize, so in the pursuit of +intellectual and moral excellence, of the few who begin, the most soon +weary, while of the remnant, many grow infirm in purpose or in body +before the goal is reached. + +Time and space, which hold all things, separate all things; but +religion and culture bind them into unity through faith in God and +through knowledge, thus forming a communion of holy souls and noble +minds, for whom discord and division disappear in the harmony of the +divine order in which temporal and spatial conditions of separateness +yield to the eternal presence of truth and love. New ideas seem at +first to remain upon the surface of the soul, and generations sometimes +pass before they enter into its substance and become motives of +conduct; and, in the same way, sentiments may influence conduct, when +the notions from which they sprang have long been rejected. The old +truth must renew itself as the race renews itself; it must be +re-interpreted and re-applied to the life of each individual and of +each generation, if its liberating and regenerating power is to have +free scope. Reason and conscience are God's most precious gifts; and +what does He ask but that we make use of them? + +Right thinking, like right doing, is the result of innumerable efforts, +innumerable failures, the final outcome of which is a habit of right +thought and conduct. + +Whoever believes in truth, freedom, and love, and follows after them +with his whole heart, walks in God's highway, which leads to peace and +blessedness. + +A thing may be obscure from defect of light or defect of sight; and in +the same way an author may be found dull either because he is so, or +because his readers are dull. The noblest book even is but dead matter +until a mind akin to its creator's awakens it to life again. + +The appeal to the imagination has infinitely more charm than the appeal +to the senses. + +"But when evening falls," says Machiavelli, "I go home and enter my +study. On the threshold I lay aside my country garments, soiled with +mire, and array myself in courtly garb. Thus attired, I make my +entrance into the ancient courts of the men of old, where they receive +me with love, and where I feed upon that food which only is my own, and +for which I was born. For four hours' space I feel no annoyance, +forget all care; poverty cannot frighten nor death appall me." A man +of genius works for all, for he compels all to think. An enlightened +mind and a generous heart make the world good and fair. + +Where there is perfect confidence, conversation does not drag; while +for those who love it is enough that they be together: if they are +silent, it is well; if they speak, mere nothings suffice. + +The world of knowledge, all that men know, is, in truth, little and +simple enough. It seems vast and intricate because we are imperfectly +educated. + +The soul, like the body, has its atmosphere, out of which it cannot +live. + +When opinions take the place of convictions, ideas that of beliefs, +great characters become rare. + +The pith of virtue lies not in thinking, but in doing. A real man +strives to assert himself; for whether he seeks wealth, or power, or +fame, or truth, or virtue, or the good of his fellows, he knows that he +can succeed only through self-assertion, through the prevalence of his +own thought and life. + +They who abdicate the rights God gives the individual, seek in vain to +preserve by constitutional enactments a semblance of liberty. + +If it is human to hate whom we have injured, it is not less so to +despise whom we have deceived; and yet those who are easily deceived +are the most innocent or the most high-minded and generous. It seems +hardly a human and must therefore be a divine thing, to live and deal +with men without in any way giving them trouble and annoyance. Truth +loves not contention, and when men fight for it, it vanishes in the +noise and smoke of the combat. + +The controversies of the schools, whether of philosophy, theology, +literature, or natural science, have been among the saddest exhibitions +of ineptitude. Is it conceivable that a thinker, or a believer, or a +scholar, or an investigator should wrangle in the spirit of a pothouse +politician? The more certain we are of ourselves and of the truth of +what we hold, the easier it is for us to be patient and tolerant. + +Wicked is whoever finds pleasure in another's pain. We can know more +than we can love. Hence communion with the world is wider through the +mind than through the heart, though less intimate and less satisfying. +It is, however, longer active, for we continue to be delighted by new +truth when we have ceased to care to make new friends. Learn to bear +the faults of men as thou sufferest the changes of weather,--with +equanimity; for impatience and anger will no more improve thy neighbors +than they will prevent its being hot or cold. What men think or say of +thee is unimportant--give heed to what thou thyself thinkest and sayst. +If thou art ignored or reviled, remember such has been the fate of the +best, while the world's favorites are often men of blood or lust or +mere time-servers. He who does genuine work is conscious of the worth +of what he does, and is not troubled with misgivings or discouraged by +lack of recognition. If God looked away from His universe it would +cease to be; and He sees him. The more we detach ourselves from crude +realism, from the naive views of uneducated minds, the easier it +becomes for us to lead an intellectual and religious life, for such +detachment enables us to realize that the material world has meaning +and beauty only when it has passed through the alembic of the spirit +and become purified, fit object for the contemplation of God and of +souls. They are true students who are drawn to seek knowledge by +mental curiosity, by affinity with the intelligible, like that which +binds and holds lover to lover, making their love all-sufficient and +above all price. All that is of value in thy opinions is the truth +they contain--to hold them dearer than truth is to be irrational and +perverse. Thy faith is what thou believest, not what thou knowest. +The crowd loves to hear those who treat the tenets of their opponents +with scorn, who overwhelm their adversaries with abuse, who make a +mockery of what their foes hold sacred; but to vulgarity of this kind a +cultivated mind cannot stoop. To do so is a mark of ignorance and +inferiority; is to confuse judgment, to cloud intellect, and to +strengthen prejudice. If there are any who are so absurd or so +perverse as to be unworthy of fair and rational treatment, to refute +them is loss of time, to occupy one's self with them is to keep bad +company. With the contentious, who are always dominated by narrow and +petty views and motives, enter not into dispute, but look beyond to the +wide domain of reason and to the patience and charity of Christ. When +minds are alive and active, opposing currents of thought necessarily +arise. Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption. +As we let the light fall at different angles upon a precious stone, and +change our position from point to point to study a work of art, so it +is well to give more than one expression to the same truth, that the +intellectual rays falling upon it from several directions, and breaking +into new tints and shades, its full meaning and worth may finally be +brought clearly into view. If those with whom thou art thrown appear +to thee to be hard and narrow, call to mind that they have the same +troubles and sorrows as thyself, essentially too the same thoughts and +yearnings; and as, in spite of all thy faults, thou still lovest +thyself, so love them too, even though they be too warped and +prejudiced to appreciate thy worth. + + The wise man never utters words of scorn, + For he best knows such words are devil-born. + + +Our opponents are as necessary to us as our friends, and when those who +have nobly combated us die, they seem to take with them part of our +mental vigor; they leave us with a deeper sense of the illusiveness of +life. Freedom is found only where honest criticism of men and measures +is recognized as a common right. + +As one man's meat is another's poison, so in the world of intelligible +things what refreshes and invigorates one, may weary and depress +another. What delights the child makes no impression upon the man. +Men and women, the ignorant and the learned, philosophers and poets, +mothers and maidens, doers and dreamers, find their entertainment +largely in different worlds. Napoleon despised the idealogue; the +idealogue sees in him but a conscienceless force. + +Outcries against wrong have little efficacy. They alone improve men +who inspire them with new confidence, new courage, who help them to +renew and purify the inner sources of life. Harsh zeal provokes +excess, because it provokes contradiction. Whoever stirs the soul to +new depths, whoever awakens the mind to new thoughts and aspirations, +is a benefactor. The common man sees the fruits of his toil; the seed +which divine men sow, ripens for others. The counsels worldlings give +to genius can only mislead. Not only the truth which Christ taught, +but the truth which nearly all sublime thinkers have taught, has seemed +to the generation to which it was announced but a beggarly lie. The +powerful have sneered with Pilate, while the mob have done the teachers +to death. + +Make truth thy garb, thy house, wherein thou movest and dwellest, and +art comfortable and at home. + +If thou knowest what thou knowest and believest what thou believest, +thou canst not be disturbed by contradiction, but shalt feel that thy +opposers are appointed by God to confirm thee in truth. + +As the merchant keeps journal and ledger, so should he whose wealth is +truth, take account in writing of the thoughts he gains from +observation, reflection, reading, and intercourse with men. We become +perfectly conscious of our impressions only in giving expression to +them; hence ability to express what we feel and know is one of the +chief and most important aims and ends of education. + +What thou mayst not learn without employing spies, or listening to the +stories of the malignant or the gossip of the vulgar, be content not to +know. + +Our miseries spring from idleness and sin; and idleness is sin and the +mother of sin. "To confide in one's self and become something of +worth," says Michelangelo, "is the best and safest course." +Life-weariness, when it is not the result of long suffering, comes of +lack of love, for to love any human being in a true and noble way makes +life good. Whatever mistakes thou mayst have made in the choice of a +profession and in other things, it is still possible for thee to will +and do good, to know truth, and to love beauty, and this is the best +life can give. Think of living, and thou shalt find no time to repine. + +The character of the believer determines the character of his faith, +whatever the formulas by which it is expressed. What we are is the +chief constituent of the world in which we now live, and this must be +true also of the world in which we believe and for which we hope. For +the sensualist a spiritual heaven has neither significance nor +attractiveness. The highest truth the noblest see has no meaning for +the multitude, or but a distorted meaning. What is divinest in the +teaching of Christ, only one in thousands, now after the lapse of +centuries, rightly understands and appreciates. It is not so much the +things we believe, know, and do, as the things on which we lay the +chief stress of hope and desire, that shape our course and decide our +destiny. + +They alone receive the higher gifts, who, to obtain them, renounce the +lower pleasures and rewards of life. Those races are noblest, those +individuals are noblest, who care most for the past and the future, +whose thoughts and hopes are least confined to the world of sense which +from moment to moment ceaselessly urges its claims to attention. +Desire fanned by imagination, when it turns to sensual things, makes +men brutish; but when its object is intellectual and moral, it lifts +them to worlds of pure and enduring delight. + +When we would form an estimate of a man, we consider not what he knows, +believes, and does, but what kind of being his knowledge, faith, and +works have made of him. He who makes us learn more than he teaches has +genius. Whoever has freed himself from envy and bitterness may begin +to try to see things as they are. + +Each one is the outcome of millions of causes, which, so far as he can +see, are accidental. How ridiculous then to complain that if this or +that only had not happened, all would be well. It is ignorance or +prejudice to make a man's conduct an argument against the worth of his +writings. Byron was a bad man, but a great poet; Bacon was venal, but +a marvellous thinker. + +Books, to be interesting to the many, must abound in narrative, must +run on like chattering girls, and make little demand upon attention. +The appeal to thought is like a beggar's appeal for alms,--heeded by +one only in hundreds who pass; for, to the multitude, mental effort is +as disagreeable as parting with their money. + +A newspaper is old the day after its publication, and there are many +books which issue from the press withered and senile, but the best, +like the gods, are forever young and delightful. + +"Whatever bit of a wise man's work," says Ruskin, "is honestly and +benevolently done, that bit is his book or his piece of art. It is +mixed always with evil fragments,--ill-done, redundant, affected work; +but if you read rightly, you will easily discover the true bits, and +_those_ are the book." Again: "No book is worth anything which is not +worth much; nor is it serviceable until it has been read and re-read, +and loved, and loved again; and marked so that you may refer to the +passages you want in it." + +Unity, steadfastness, and power of will mark the great workers. A +dominant impulse urges them forward, and with firm tread they move on +till death bids them stay. As the will succumbs to idleness and sin, +it can be developed and maintained in health and vigor only by right +action. + +If thou makest thy intellectual and moral improvement thy chief +business, thou shalt not lack for employment, and with thy progress thy +joy and freedom shall increase. + +Progress is betterment of life. The accumulation of discoveries, the +multiplication of inventions, the improvement of the means of comfort, +the extension of instruction, and the perfecting of methods, are +valuable in the degree in which they contribute to this end. The +characteristic of progress is increase of spiritual force. In material +progress even, the intellectual and moral element is the value-giving +factor. Progress begets belief in progress. As we grow in worth and +wisdom, our faith in knowledge and conduct is developed and confirmed, +and with more willing hearts we make ourselves the servants of +righteousness and love; for in the degree in which religion and culture +prevail within us, co-operation for life tends to supersede the +struggle for life, which if not the dominant law, is, at least, the +general course of things when left to Nature's sway. + +Catchwords, such as progress, culture, enlightenment, and liberty, are +for the multitude rarely more than psittacisms, mere parrot sounds. So +long as we genuinely believe in an ideal and strive to incarnate it, +the spirit of hope kindles the flame of enthusiasm within the breast. +Its attainment, however, if the ideal is sensual or material, leads to +disappointment and weariness. Behold yonder worshipper at the shrine +of money and pleasure, whose life is but a yawn between his woman and +his wine. But if the ideal is spiritual, failure in the pursuit cannot +dishearten us, and success but opens to view diviner worlds towards +which we turn our thought and love with self-renewing freshness of mind. + +If thou seekest for beauty, it is everywhere; if for hideousness, it +too is everywhere. + +To believe in one's self, to have genuine faith in the impressions, +thoughts, hopes, loves, and aspirations which are in one's own soul, +and to strive ceaselessly to come to clear knowledge of this inner +world which each one bears within himself, is the secret of culture. +To bend one's will day by day to the weaving this light of the mind and +warmth of the heart into the substance of life, into conduct, is the +secret of character. At whatever point of time or space we find +ourselves, we can begin or continue the task of self-improvement; for +the only essential thing is the activity of the soul, seeking to become +conscious of itself, through and in God and His universe. + + The little bird upbuilds its nest + Of little things by ceaseless quest: + And he who labors without rest + By little steps will reach life's crest. + + +The true reader is brought into contact with a personality which +reveals itself or permits its secret to be divined. In spirit and +imagination he lives the life of the author. In his book he finds the +experience and wisdom of years compressed into a few pages which he +reads in an hour. The vital sublimation of what made a man is thus +given him in its essence to exalt or to degrade, to inspire or to +deaden his soul. In looking through the eyes of another, he learns to +see himself, to understand his affinities and his tendencies, his +strength and his weakness. Eat this volume and go speak to the +children of Israel, said the spirit to the prophet Ezekiel. The +meaning is--mentally devour, digest, and assimilate the book into the +fibre and structure of thy very being, and then shalt thou be able to +utter words of truth and wisdom to God's chosen ones. The world's +spiritual wealth, so far as it has existence other than in the minds of +individuals, is stored in literature, in books,--the great +treasure-house of the soul's life, of what the best and greatest have +thought, known, believed, felt, suffered, desired, toiled, and died +for; and whoever fails to make himself a home in this realm of truth, +light, and freedom, is shut out from what is highest and most divine in +human experience, and sinks into the grave without having lived. + +To those who have uttered themselves in public speech, there comes at +times a feeling akin to self-reproach. They have taken upon themselves +the office of teacher, and yet what have they taught that is worth +knowing and loving? They have lost the privacy in which so much of the +charm and freedom of life consists; they have been praised or blamed +without discernment; and a great part of what they have said and +written seems to themselves little more than a skeleton from which the +living vesture has fallen. Ask them not to encourage any one to become +an author. The more they have deafened the world with their voices, +the more will they, like Carlyle, praise the Eternal Silence. They +have in fact been taught, by hard experience, that the worth of life +lies not in saying or writing anything whatever, but in pure faith, in +humble obedience, in brave and steadfast striving. The woman who +sweeps a room, the mother who nurses her child, the laborer who sows +and reaps, believing and feeling that they are working with God, are +leading nobler lives and doing diviner things than the declaimers and +theorizers, and the religion which upholds them and lightens their +burdens is better than all the philosophies. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF. + +The wise man will esteem above everything and will cultivate those +sciences which further the perfection of his soul.--PLATO. + + +It has become customary to call these endings of the scholastic year +commencements; just as the people of the civilized world have agreed to +make themselves absurd by calling the ninth month the seventh, the +tenth the eighth, the eleventh the ninth, and the twelfth the tenth. +And, indeed, the discourses which are delivered on these occasions +would be more appropriate and more effective if made to students who, +having returned from the vacations with renewed physical vigor, feel +also fresh urgency to exercise of mind. But now, so little is man in +love with truth, the approach of the moment when you are to make escape +and find yourselves in what you imagine to be a larger and freer world, +occupies all your thoughts, and thrills you with an excitement which +makes attention difficult; and, like the noise of crowds and brazen +trumpets, prevents the soul from mounting to the serene world where +alone it is free and at home. + +Since, however, the invitation with which I have been honored directs +my address to the graduates of Notre Dame in this her year of Golden +Jubilee, I may, without abuse of the phrase, entitle it a commencement +oration; for the day on which a graduate worthy of the name leaves his +college is the commencement day of a new life of study, more earnest +and more effectual than that which is followed within academic walls, +because it is the result of his sense of duty alone and of his +uncontrolled self-activity. And, though I am familiar with the serious +disadvantages with which a reader as compared with a speaker has to +contend, I shall read my address, if for no other reason, because I +shall thus be able to measure my time; and if I am prolix, I shall be +so maliciously, and not become so through the obliviousness which may +result from the illusive enthusiasm that is sometimes produced in the +speaker by his own vociferation, and which he fondly imagines he +communicates to his hearers. + +The chief benefit to be derived from the education we receive in +colleges and universities, and from the personal contact into which we +are there thrown with enlightened minds, is the faith it tends to +inspire and confirm in the worth of knowledge and culture, of conduct +and religion; for nothing else we there acquire will abide with us as +an inner impulse to self-activity, a self-renewing urgency to the +pursuit of excellence. If we fail, we fail for lack of faith; but +belief is communicated from person to person,--_fides ex auditu_,--and +to mediate it is the educator's chief function. Through daily +intercourse with one who is learned and wise and noble, the young gain +a sense of the reality of science and culture, of religion and +morality; which thus cease to be for them vague somethings of which +they have heard and read, and become actual things,--realities, like +monuments they have inspected, or countries through which they have +travelled. They have been taken by the hand and led where, left to +themselves, they would never have gone. The true educator inspires not +only faith, but admiration also, and confidence and love,--all +soul-evolving powers. He is a master whose pupils are +disciples,--followers of him and believers in the wisdom he teaches. +He founds a school which, if it does not influence the whole course of +thought and history, like that of Plato or Aristotle, does at least +form a body of men, distinguished by zeal for truth and love of +intellectual and moral excellence. To be able thus, in virtue of one's +intelligence and character, to turn the generous heart and mind of +youth to sympathy with what is intelligible, fair, and good in thought +and life, is to be like God,--is to have power in its noblest and most +human form; and its exercise is the teacher's chief and great reward. +To be a permanent educational force is the highest earthly distinction. +Is not this the glory of the founders of religions, of the discoverers +of new worlds? + +In stooping to the mind and heart of youth, to kindle there the divine +flame of truth and love, we ourselves receive new light and warmth. To +listen to the noise made by the little feet of children when at play, +and to the music of their merry laughter, is pleasant; but to come +close to the aspiring soul of youth, and to feel the throbbings of its +deep and ardent yearnings for richer and wider life, is to have our +faith in the good of living revived and intensified. It is the divine +privilege of the young to be able to believe that the world can be +moulded and controlled by thought and spiritual motives; and in +breathing this celestial air, the choice natures among them learn to +become sages and saints; or if it be their lot to be thrown into the +fierce struggles where selfish and cruel passions contend for the +mastery over justice and humanity, they carry into the combat the +serene strength of reason and conscience; for their habitual and real +home is in the unseen world, where what is true and good has the +Omnipotent for its defence. Of this soul of youth we may affirm +without fear of error-- + + "The soul seeks God; from sphere to sphere it moves, + Immortal pilgrim of the Infinite." + + +Life is the unfolding of a mysterious power, which in man rises to +self-consciousness, and through self-consciousness to the knowledge of +a world of truth and order and love, where action may no longer be left +wholly to the sway of matter or to the impulse of instinct, but may and +should be controlled by reason and conscience. To further this process +by deliberate and intelligent effort is to educate. Hence education is +man's conscious co-operation with the Infinite Being in promoting the +development of life; it is the bringing of life in its highest form to +bear upon life, individual and social, that it may raise it to greater +perfection, to ever-increasing potency. To educate, then, is to work +with the Power who makes progress a law of living things, becoming more +and more active and manifest as we ascend in the scale of being. The +motive from which education springs is belief in the goodness of life +and the consequent desire for richer, freer, and higher life. It is +the point of union of all man's various and manifold activity; for +whether he seeks to nourish and preserve his life, or to prolong and +perpetuate it in his descendants, or to enrich and widen it in domestic +and civil society, or to grow more conscious of it through science and +art, or to strike its roots into the eternal world through faith and +love, or in whatever other way he may exert himself, the end and aim of +his aspiring and striving is educational,--is the unfolding and +uplifting of his being. + +The radical craving is for life,--for the power to feel, to think, to +love, to enjoy. And as it is impossible to reach a state in which we +are not conscious that this power may be increased, we can find +happiness only in continuous progress, in ceaseless self-development. +This craving for fulness of life is essentially intellectual and moral, +and its proper sphere of action is the world of thought and conduct. +He who has a healthy appetite does not long for greater power to eat +and drink. A sensible man who has sufficient wealth for independence +and comfort does not wish for more money; but he who thinks and loves +and acts in obedience to conscience feels that he is never able to do +so well enough, and hence an inner impulse urges him to strive for +greater power of life, for perfection. He is akin to all that is +intelligible and good, and is drawn to bring himself into +ever-increasing harmony with this high world. Hence attention is for +him like a second nature, for attention springs from interest; and +since he feels an affinity with all things, all things interest him. +And what is thus impressed upon his mind and heart he is impelled to +utter in deed or speech or gesture or song, or in whatever way thought +and sentiment may manifest themselves. Attention and expression are +thus the fundamental forms of self-activity, the primary and essential +means of education, of developing intellectual and moral power. + +Interest is aroused and held by need, which creates desire. If we are +hungry, whatever may help us to food interests us. Our first and +indispensable interests relate to the things we need for +self-preservation and the perpetuation of the race; and to awaken +desire and stimulate effort to obtain them, instinct is sufficient, as +we may see in the case of mere animals. But as progress is made, +higher and more subtle wants are developed. We crave for more than +food and wife and children. The social organism evolves itself; and as +its complexity increases, the relations of the individual to the body +of which he is a member are multiplied, and become more intricate. As +we pass from the savage to the barbarous, and from the barbarous to the +civilized state, intellect and conscience are brought more and more +into play. Mental power gains the mastery over brute force, and little +by little subdues the energies of inorganic nature, and makes them +serve human ends. Iron is forced to become soft and malleable, and to +assume every shape; the winds bear man across the seas; the sweet and +gentle water is imprisoned and tortured until with its fierce breath it +does work in comparison with which the mythical exploits of gods and +demi-gods are as the play of children. Strength of mind and character +takes precedence of strength of body. Hercules and Samson are but +helpless infants in the presence of the thinker who reads Nature's +secret and can compel her to do his bidding. If we bend our thoughts +to this subject, we shall gain insight into the meaning and purpose of +education, which is nothing else than the urging of intellect and +conscience to the conquest of the world, and to the clear perception +and practical acknowledgment of the primal and fundamental truth that +man is man in virtue of his thought and love. + +Instruction, which is but part of education, has for its object the +development of the intellect and the transmission of knowledge. This, +whether we consider the individual or society, is indispensable. It is +good to know. Knowledge is not only the source of many of our highest +and purest joys, but without it we can attain neither moral nor +material good in the nobler forms. Virtue when it is enlightened gains +a higher quality. And if we hold that action and not thought is the +end of life, we cannot deny that action is, in some degree at least, +controlled and modified by thought. Nevertheless, instruction is not +the principal part of education; for human worth is more essentially +and more intimately identified with character and heart than with +knowledge and intellect. What we will is more important than what we +know; and the importance of what we know is derived largely from its +influence on the will or conduct. + +A nation, like an individual, receives rank from character more than +from knowledge; since the true measure of human worth is moral rather +than intellectual. The teaching of the school becomes a subject of +passionate interest, through our belief in its power to educate +sentiment, stimulate will, and mould character. For in the school we +do more than learn the lessons given us: we live in an intellectual and +moral atmosphere, acquire habits of thought and behavior; and this, +rather than what we learn, is the important thing. To imagine that +youths who have passed through colleges and universities, and have +acquired a certain knowledge of languages and sciences, but have not +formed strongly marked characters, should forge to the front in the +world and become leaders in the army of religion and civilization, is +to cherish a delusion. The man comes first; and scholarship without +manhood will be found to be ineffectual. The semi-culture of the +intellect, which is all a mere graduate can lay claim to, will but help +to lead astray those who lack the strength of moral purpose; and they +whom experience has made wise expect little from young men who have +bright minds and have passed brilliant examinations, but who go out +into the world without having trained themselves to habits of patient +industry and tireless self-activity. + +Man is essentially a moral being; and he who fails to become so, fails +to become truly human. Individuals and nations are brought to ruin not +by lack of knowledge, but by lack of conduct. "Now that the world is +filled with learned men," said Seneca, "good men are wanting." He was +Nero's preceptor, and saw plainly how powerless intellectual culture +was to save Rome from the degeneracy which undermined its civilization +and finally brought on its downfall. If in college the youth does not +learn to govern and control himself,--to obey and do right in all +things, not because he has not the power to disobey and do wrong, but +because he has not the will,--nothing else he may learn will be of +great service. It seems to me I perceive in our young men a lack of +moral purpose, of sturdiness, of downright obstinate earnestness, in +everything--except perhaps in money-getting pursuits; for even in these +they are tempted to trust to speculation and cunning devices rather +than to persistent work and honesty, which become a man more than +crowns and all the gifts of fortune. Without truthfulness, honesty, +honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect no worthy or noble life can be led. And unless we can get +into our colleges youths who can be made to drink into their inmost +being this vital truth, little good can be accomplished there. Now, it +often happens that these institutions are, in no small measure, refuges +into which the badly organized families of the wealthy send their sons +in the vain expectation that the fatal faults of inheritance and +domestic training will be repaired. In college, as wherever there are +men, quality is more precious than quantity. The number of students is +great enough when they are of the right kind; and the work which now +lies at our hand is to make it possible that those who have talent and +the will to improve themselves may enter our institutions of learning. +But those who are shown to be insusceptible of education should be +eliminated; for they profit not themselves, and are a hindrance to the +others. + +Gladly I turn from them to you, young gentlemen, who have persevered in +the pursuit of knowledge and virtue, and to-day are declared worthy to +receive the highest honor Notre Dame can confer. The deepest and the +best thing in us is faith in reason; for when we look closely, we +perceive that faith in God, in the soul, in good, in freedom, in truth, +is faith in reason. Individuals, nations, the whole race, wander in a +maze of errors. The world of the senses is apparent and illusive, that +of pure thought vague and shadowy. Science touches but the form and +surface; speculation is swallowed in abysses and disperses itself; +ignorance darkens, passion blinds the mind; the truth of one age +becomes the error of a succeeding; opinions change from continent to +continent and from century to century. The more we learn, the less we +know; and what we most of all desire to know eludes our grasp. But, +nevertheless, our faith in reason is unshaken; and holding to this +faith, we hold to God, to good, to freedom, and to truth. + +Goodness is the radical principle; the good, the primal aim and final +end of life; for the good is whatever is helpful to life. Hence what +is true is good, what is useful is good, what is fair is good, what is +right is good; and the true, the useful, the fair, and the right are +intertwined and circle about man like a noble sisterhood, to waken him +to life, and to urge him toward God, the supreme good, whose being is +power, wisdom, love without limit. The degree of goodness in all +things is measured by their approach to this absolute Being. Hence the +greater our strength, wisdom, and love, the greater our good, the +richer and more perfect our life. There is no soul which does not bow +with delight and reverence before Beauty and Power; and when we come to +true insight, we perceive that holiness is Beauty and goodness Power. +Genuine spiritual power is from God, and compels the whole mechanic +world to acknowledge its absoluteness. The truths of religion and +morality are of the essence of our life; they cannot be learned from +another, but must be wrought into self-consciousness by our own +thinking and doing,--by habitual meditation, and constant obedience to +conscience. Virtue, knowledge, goodness, and greatness are their own +reward: they are primarily and essentially ends, and only incidentally +means. Hence those who strive for perfection with the view thereby to +gain recognition, money, or place, do not really strive for perfection +at all. They are also unwise; for virtue, knowledge, goodness, and +greatness are not the surest means to such ends, and they can be +acquired only with infinite pains. The highest human qualities cease +to be the highest when they are made subordinate to the externalities +of office and wealth. The one aim of a mind smitten with the love of +excellence is to live consciously and lovingly with whatever is true or +good or fair. And such a one cannot be disturbed whether by the +general indifference of men or by their praise or blame. The +standpoint of the soul is: What thou art, not what others think thee. +If thou art at one with thy true self, God and the eternal laws bear +thee up and onward. The moral and the religious life interpenetrate +each other. To sunder them is to enfeeble both. To weaken faith is to +undermine character; to fail in conduct is to deprive faith of +inspiration and vigor. Learn to live thy religion, and thou shalt have +little need or desire to argue and dispute about it. Truth is mightier +than its witnesses, religion greater than its saints and martyrs. +Learn to think, and thou shalt easily learn to live. + +In the presence of the highest manifestations of thought and love, of +truth and beauty, nothing perfect or divine is incredible. Men of +genius, philosophers, poets, and saints, who by thinking and doing make +this ethereal but most real world rise before us in concrete form and +substance, are heavenly messengers and illuminators of the soul. Had +none of them lived, how should we see and understand that man is +Godlike and that God is truth and love? We cannot make this high world +plain by telling about it. It is not a land which may be described. +It is a state of soul which they alone comprehend who have been +transformed by patient meditation and faithful striving. But once it +is revealed, a thousand errors and obscurities fall away from us. If +not educated, strive at least to be educable,--a believer in wisdom, +and sensitive to all high influence, and eager to be quit of thy +ignorance and hardness. As the dead cannot produce the live, so +mechanical minds, however much they may be able to drill, train, and +instruct, cannot educate. The secret of the mother's specific +educational power lies in the fact that she is a spiritual not a +mechanical force, loves and is loved by her pupils. The most ennobling +and the most thoroughly satisfying sentiment of which we are capable is +love. Until we love we are strangers to ourselves. We are like beings +asleep or lost to the knowledge of themselves and all things, till, +awakening to the appeal of the pure light and the balmy air, they look +upon what is not themselves; and, finding it fair and beautiful, learn +in loving it to feel and know themselves. + +Increase of the power to love is increase of life. But love needs +guidance. We first awaken in the world of the senses, and are +attracted by what we see and touch and taste. The aim of education is +to help the soul to rise above this world, in which, if we remain, we +are little better than brutes. Hence the teacher seeks in many ways to +reveal to the young the fact that the perfect, the best, cannot be seen +or touched, cannot be grasped even by the mind; but that it is, +nevertheless, that which they should strive to make themselves capable +of loving above all things. And thus he prepares them to understand +what is meant by the love of truth and righteousness, by the love of +God. In the training of animals even, patience and gentleness are more +effective than violence. How, then, shall we hope by physical +constraint and harsh methods to educate human beings, who are human +precisely because they are capable of love and are swayed by rational +motives? There is no soul so gross, so deeply buried in matter, but it +shall from some point or other make a sally to show it still bears the +impress of God's image. At such points the educator will keep watch, +studying how he may make this single ray of light interfuse itself with +his pupil's whole being. + +It is not possible to know there is no God, no soul, no free will, no +right or wrong; at the worst, it is only possible to doubt all this. +The universe is as inconceivable as God, and theories of matter as full +of difficulties as theories of spirit. It is a question of belief or +unbelief; ultimately a question of health or disease, of life or death. +They who have no faith in God can have little faith in the worth of +life, which can be for them but an efflorescence of death, a sort of +inexplicable malady of atoms dreaming they are conscious. If the age +tends irresistibly to destroy belief in God, the end will be the ruin +of belief in the good of life. In the mean while the doubt which +weakens the springs of hope and love is not a symptom of health but of +disease, pregnant with suffering and misery for all, but most of all +for the young. He who is loved in a true and noble way is surrounded +by an element of spiritual light in which his worth is revealed to him. +In perceiving what he is to another, he comes to understand what he is +or may be in himself. + +Our self respect even is largely due to the love we receive in +childhood and youth. Enthusiasm springs from faith in God and in the +soul, which begets in us a high and heroic belief in the divine good of +life. It is thus an educational force of highest value. It calms and +exalts the soul like the view of the starlit heavens and the +everlasting mountains. It is, in every good and noble cause, a +fountain head of endurance and perseverance. It bears us on with a +sense of joy and vigor, such as is felt when, mounted on a high-mettled +steed, we ride in the pleasant air of a spring morning, amid the +beauties and grandeurs of nature. In the front of battle and in the +presence of death it throws around the soul the light of immortal +things. It gives us the plenitude of existence, the full and high +enjoyment of living. On its wings the poet, the lover, the orator, the +hero, and the saint are borne in rapture through worlds whose celestial +glory and delightfulness cold and unmoved minds do not suspect. It is +not a flame from the dry wood and withered grass, but a heat and glow +from the abysmal depths of being. It makes us content to follow after +truth and love in dark and narrow ways, as the miner, in central deeps +where sunlight has never fallen, seeks his treasure. It keeps us fresh +and young; and, like the warmer sun, reclothes the world day by day +with new beauty. It teaches patience, the love of work without haste +and without worry. It gives strength to hear and speak truth, and to +walk in the sacred way of truth, as though we but idly strolled with +pleasant friends amid fragrant flowers. It gives us deeper +consciousness of our own liberty, faith in human perfectibility, which +lies at the root of our noblest efforts; to which the more we yield +ourselves the more we feel that we are free. It knows a thousand words +of truth and might, which it whispers in gentlest tones to rightly +attuned ears: Since the universe is a harmony whose diapason is God, +why should thy life strike a discordant note? Yield not to +discouragement; thou art alive, and God is in His world. The combat +and not the victory proclaims the hero. If thy success had been +greater, thou hadst been less. The noisy participants in great +conflicts, of whatever kind, exercise less influence upon the outcome +than choice spirits, who, turning aside from the thunder and smoke of +battle, gain in lonely striving and meditation view of new truth by +which the world is transformed. + +We owe more to Columbus than to Isabella; to Descartes than to Louis +XIV.; to Bacon than to Elizabeth; to Pestalozzi than to Napoleon; to +Goethe than to Blücher; to Pasteur than to Bismarck. If thou wouldst +be persuaded and convinced, persuade and convince thyself. Be thy aim +not increase of happiness, but of knowledge, wisdom, power, and virtue; +and thou shalt, without thinking of it, find thyself also happy. +Character is formed by effort, resistance, and patience. If necessity +is the mother of invention, suffering is the mother of high moods and +great thoughts. Poets have sung to ease their sorrow-burdened or +love-tortured hearts; and the travail of souls yearning with ineffable +pain for truth has led to the nearest view of God. Wisdom is the child +of suffering, as beauty is the child of love. If a truth discourages +thee, thou art not yet ripe for it; for thee it is not yet wholly true. +Work not like an ox at the plough, but like a setter afield; not +because thou must, but because thou takest delight in thy task. Only +they have come of age who have learned how to educate themselves. +Education, like life, works from within outward: the teacher loosens +the soil and removes the obstacles to light and warmth and moisture; +but growth comes of the activity of the soul itself. + +A new century will not make new men; but if, in truth, it be a new +century, it will be made so by the deeper thought and diviner love of +men and women. Let the old tell what they have done, the young what +they are doing, and fools what they intend to do. + +The power to control attention, as a good rider holds his horse to the +road and to his gait, is a result of education; and when it is acquired +other things become easy. + +Let not poverty or misfortune or insult or flattery or success, O +seeker after truth and beauty! turn thee from thy divine task and +purpose. Pardon every one except thyself, and put thy trust in God and +in thyself. "If I buy thee," asked one of a Spartan captive, "and +treat thee well, wilt thou be good?"--"I will," he replied, "if thou +buy me or not; or if, having bought me, thou treat me ill." + +If there be anything of worth in thee, it will make thee strong and +contented; it is so good for thee to have it that thou canst easily +forget it is unrecognized by others. + +If all sufferings, sorrows, and disappointments had been left out of +thy life, wouldst thou be more or less than thou art? Less worthy, +doubtless, and less wise. In these evils, then, there is something +good. If thou couldst but bear this always in mind, thou shouldst be +better able to suffer pain, whether of body or soul. There are things +thou hast greatly desired which, had they been given thee, would make +thee wretched. The wiser thou growest, the better shalt thou +understand how little we know what is for the best. + +"Had I but lived!" cried Obermann. And a woman of genius replied: "Be +consoled, O Obermann! Hadst thou lived, thou hadst lived in vain." So +it is. In the end we neither regret that pleasures have been denied +us, nor feel that those we have enjoyed were a gain unless they are +associated with the memory of high faith and thought and virtuous +action. He who is careful to fill his mind with truth and his heart +with love will not lack for retreats in which he may take refuge from +the stress and storms of life. Noise, popularity, and buncombe: +onions, smoke, and bedbugs. + +Be thy own rival, comparing thyself with thyself, and striving day by +day to be self-surpassed. If thy own little room is well lighted the +whole world is less dark. If thou art busy seeking intellectual and +moral illumination and strength, thou shalt easily be contented. +Higher place would mean for thee less liberty, less opportunity to +become thyself. The secret of progress lies in knowing how to make +use, not of what we have chosen, but of what is forced upon us. To +occupy one's self with trifles weans from the habit of work more +effectually than idleness. Perfect skill comes of talent, study, and +exercise; and the study and exercise must continue through the whole +course of life. To cease to learn is to lose freshness and the power +to interest. We lack will rather than strength; are able to do more +and better than we are inclined to do; and say we can not because we +have not the courage to say we will not. The law of unstable +equilibrium applies to thee, as to whatever has life. Thou canst not +remain what thou art, but must rise or fall. The body is under the +sway of physical law, but the progress of the mind is left in a large +measure to the play of free will. If thou willest what thou oughtest, +thou canst do what thou willest; for obligation cannot transcend +ability. Happy are they who from earliest youth understand the meaning +of duty, and hearken to the stern but all-reasonable voice of this +daughter of God, the smile upon whose face is the fairest thing we know. + +He who willingly accepts the law of moral necessity is free; for in +thus accepting it he transcends it, and is self-determined; while he +who rebels against this law sinks to a lower plane of being than the +properly human, and becomes the slave of appetite and passion. Duty +means sacrifice; it is a turning from the animal to the spiritual self; +from the allurements of the world of manifold sensation--from ease, +idleness, gain, and pleasure--to the high and lonely regions, where the +command of conscience speaks in the name of God and of the nature of +things. Forget thyself and do thy best, as unconscious of +vain-glorious thoughts as though thou wert a wind or a stream, an +impersonal force in the service of God and man. Obey conscience, and +laugh in the face of death. Convince thyself that the best thing for +thee is to know truth and to make truth the law of thy life. Let this +faith subordinate all else, as it is, indeed, faith in reason and in +God. Abhorrence of lies is the test of character. Hold fast by what +thou knowest to be true, not doubting for a moment because thou canst +not reconcile it with other truth. Somewhere, somehow, truth will be +matched with truth, as love mates heart with heart. + +A man's word is himself, his reason, his conscience, his faith, his +love, his aspiration. If it is false or vain or vile, he is so. It is +the expression of life as it has come to consciousness within him. It +is the revelation of quality of being; it is of the man himself, his +sign and symbol, the form and mould and mirror of his soul. + + Thou thinkest to serve God with lies, + Thou devil-worshipper and fool! + +The moral value of the study of science lies in the love of truth it +inspires and inculcates. He who knows science knows that liars are +imbeciles. From the educator's point of view, truthfulness is the +essential thing. His aim and end is to teach truth, and the love of +truth, which leavens the whole mass and makes it life-giving. But the +liar has no proper virtue of any kind. + +The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient, and laborious mind is +worthy of respect. In such doubt there may be found indeed more faith +than in half the creeds. But the scepticism of sciolists lacks the +depth and genuineness of truth. To be frivolous where there is +question of all that gives life meaning and value is want of sense. +The sciolist is one who has a superficial knowledge of various things, +which for lack of deep views and coherent thought, for lack of the +understanding of the principles of knowledge itself, he is unable to +bring into organic unity. The things he knows are confused and +intermingled, and thus fail either to enlighten his mind or to impel +him to healthful activity. He forms opinions lightly and pronounces +judgment rashly. Knowing nothing thoroughly, he has no suspicion of +the infinite complexity of the world of life and thought. The evil +effects of this semi-culture are most disagreeable and most harmful in +those whose being has been developed only on its temporal and earthly +side. Their spiritual and moral nature has no centre about which it +may move, and they wander on the surface of things in self-satisfied +conceit, proclaiming that what is beyond the senses is beyond the reach +of the mind, as though our innermost consciousness were not of what is +intangible and invisible. + +All divine things are within and about us, here and now; but we are too +gross to see the celestial light, or to catch the whisperings of the +heavenly voices. God is here; but we, like plants and mollusks, live +in worlds of which we do not dream, upheld and nourished and borne +onward by a Power of whom we are but dimly conscious,--nay, of whom, +for the most part, we are unconscious. + +There is a truth above the reach of logic, an impulse of the mind and +heart which urges beyond the realms of sense, beyond the ken of the +dialectician, to the Infinite and Eternal, before whom the material +universe is but a force at whose finest touch souls awaken to the +thrill of thought and love. + +When we are made conscious of the fact that the Divine Word is the +light of men, we readily understand that our every true thought, our +every good deed, our every deeper view of nature and of life, comes +from God, who is always urging us into the glorious liberty of His +children, until we become a heavenly republic in which righteousness, +peace, and joy shall reign. "The restless desire of every man to +improve his position in the world is the motive power of all social +development, of all progress," says Scherr, unable to perceive that the +mightiest impulses to nobler and wider life have been given by those +who were not thinking at all of improving their position, but were +wholly bent upon improving themselves. Make choice, O youth! between +having and being. If having is thy aim, consent to be inferior; if +being is thy aim, be content with having little. Real students, +cultivators of themselves, are not inspired by the love of fame or +wealth or position, but they are driven by an inner impulse to which +they cannot but yield. Their enthusiasm is not a fire that blazes for +an hour and then dies out; it is a heat from central depths of life, +self-fed and inextinguishable. + +The impulse to nobler and freer life springs, never from masses of men, +but always from single luminous minds and glowing hearts. The +lightning of great thoughts shows the way to heroic deeds. It is +better to know than to be known, to love than to be loved, to help than +to be helped; for since life is action, it is better to act than to be +acted upon. Whosoever makes himself purer, worthier, wiser, works for +his country, works for God. The belief that the might of truth is so +great that it must prevail in spite of whatever opposition, needs, to +say the least, interpretation; for it has often happened that truth has +been overcome for whole generations and races; and the important +consideration is not whether it shall finally prevail, but whether it +shall prevail for us, for our own age and people. It is of the nature +of spiritual gifts to work in every direction; they enrich the +individual and the nation; they develop, purify, and refine the +intellectual, moral, and physical worlds in which men live and strive. +The State and the Church are organisms; the body, the social and +religious soul, under the guidance of God, creates for itself. And not +only should there be no conflict between them, but there should be none +between them and the free and full development of the individual. A +peasant whose mental state is what it might have been a thousand years +ago is for us, however moral and religious, an altogether +unsatisfactory kind of man. All knowledge is pure, and all speech is +so if it spring from the simple desire to utter what is seen and +recognized as truth. The love of liberty is rare. It is not found in +those whose life-aim is money, pleasure, and place, which enslave; but +in those who love truth, which is the only liberating power. Knowledge +is the correlative of being, and only a high and loving soul can know +what truth is or understand what Christ meant when He said: "Ye shall +know truth, and truth shall make you free." High thinking and right +loving may make enemies of those around us, but they make us Godlike. +How seldom in our daily experience of men do we find one who wishes to +be enlightened, reformed, and made virtuous! How easy it is to find +those who wish to be pleased and flattered! + +At no period in history has civilization been so widespread or so +complex as to-day. Never have the organs of the social body been so +perfect. Never has it been possible for so many to co-operate +intelligently in the work of progress. You, gentlemen, have youth and +faith and the elements of intellectual and moral culture. In the +freshness and vigor of early manhood, you stand upon the threshold of +the new century. You speak Shakspeare's and Milton's tongue; in your +veins is the blood which in other lands and centuries has nourished the +spirit which makes martyrs, heroes, and saints. Your religion strikes +its roots into the historic past of man's noblest achievements, and +looks to the future with the serene confidence with which it looks to +God. Your country, if not old, is not without glory. Its soil is as +fertile, its climate as salubrious as its domain is vast. It is +peopled by that Aryan race, which, from most ancient days, has been the +creator and invincible defender of art and science and philosophy and +liberty; and with all this the divine spirit and doctrine of the Son of +Man have been interfused. + +We are here in America constituted on the wide basis of universal +freedom, universal opportunity, universal intelligence, universal +good-will. Our government is the rule of all for the welfare of all; +it has stood the test of civil war, and in many ways proved itself both +beneficent and strong. Already we have subdued this continent to the +service of man. Within a hundred years we have grown to be one of the +most populous and wealthy and also one of the most civilized and +progressive nations of the earth. Your opportunities are equal to the +fullest measure of human worth and genius. In the midst of a high and +noble environment it were doubly a disgrace to be low and base. In +intellectual and moral processes and results the important +consideration is not how much, but what and how. How much, for +instance, one has read or written gives us little insight into his +worth and character; but when we know what and how he has read and +written, we know something of his life. When I am told that America +has more schools, churches, and newspapers than any other land, I think +of their kind, and am tempted to doubt whether it were not better if we +had fewer. + +The more general and the higher the average education of the people, +the more urgent is the need of thoroughly cultivated and enlightened +minds to lead them wisely. The standard of our intellectual and +professional education is still low; and neither from the press nor the +pulpit nor legislative halls do we hear highest wisdom rightly uttered. +To be an intellectual force in this age one must know--must know much +and know thoroughly; for now in many places there are a few, at least, +who are acquainted with the whole history of thought and discovery, who +are familiar with the best thinking of the noblest minds that have ever +lived; and to imagine that a sciolist, a half-educated person, can have +anything new or important to impart is to delude one's self. + +But if you fail, you will fail like all who fail,--not from lack of +knowledge, but from lack of conduct; for the burden which in the end +bears us down is that of our moral delinquencies. All else we may +endure, but that is a sinking and giving way of the source of life +itself. It is better, in every way, that you should be true Christian +men than that you should do deeds which will make your names famous. +And if you could believe this with all your heart, you would find peace +and freedom of spirit, even though your labors should seem vain and +your lives of little moment. The more reason and conscience are +brought to bear upon you, the more will you be lifted into the high and +abiding world, where truth and love and holiness are recognized to be +man's proper and imperishable good. Become all it is possible for you +to become. What this is you can know only by striving day by day, from +youth to age, even unto the end; leaving the issue with God and His +master-workman, Time. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION. + + Progress, man's distinctive mark alone; + Not God's and not the beasts'; God is, they are; + Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.--Browning. + + +The partialness of man's life, the low level on which the race has been +content to dwell, is attributable, in no small measure, to the +injustice done to woman. It was assumed she was inferior, and to make +the assumption true, she was kept in ignorance, dwarfed and treated as +a means rather than as an end. + +The right to grow is the primal right; it is the right to live, to +unfold our being on every side in the ceaseless striving for truth and +love and beauty. In comparison with this, purely political and civil +rights are unimportant. And in a free state this fundamental right +must not only be acknowledged and defended, but a public opinion must +be created which shall declare it to be the most sacred and inviolable. +The principle is universal, and is as applicable to woman as to man. + +There is not a religion, a philosophy, a science, an art for man and +another for woman. Consequently there is not, in its essential +elements at least, an education for man and another for woman. In +souls, in minds, in consciences, in hearts, there is no sex. What is +the best education for woman? That which will best help her to become +a perfect human being, wise, loving, and strong. What is her work? +Whatever may help her to become herself. What is forbidden her? +Nothing but what degrades or narrows or warps. What has she the right +to do? Any good and beautiful and useful thing she is able to do +without hurt to her dignity and worth as a human being. + +Between her and man the real question is not of more and less, of +inferiority and superiority, but of unlikeness. Chastity is woman's +great virtue; truthfulness, which is the highest form of courage, is +man's; yet men and women are equally bound to be chaste and truthful. +Mildness and sweet reasonableness are woman's subtlest charms; wisdom +and valor, man's; yet women should be wise and brave, and men should be +mild and reasonable. The spiritual endowment of the sexes is much the +same, but they are not equally interested in the same things. Man +prefers thought; woman, sentiment; he reaches his conclusions through +analysis and argument; she, through feeling and intuition. He has +greater power of self-control; she, of self-sacrifice. He is guided by +law and principle; she, by insight and tact; he demands justice; she, +equity. He wishes to be honored for wealth and position; she, for +herself. For him what he possesses is a means; for her, something to +which she holds and is attached. He asks for power; she, for +affection. He derives his idea of duty from reason; she, from faith +and love. He prefers science and philosophy; she, literature and art. +His religion is a code of morality; hers, faith and hope and love and +imagination. For her, things easily become persons; for him, persons +are little more than things. She has greater power of self-effacement, +forgetting herself wholly in her love. Whether she marry or become a +nun, she abandons her name, the symbol of her identity, in proof that +she is dedicate to the race and to God. The arguments of infidels have +less weight with her than with man, for her sense of religion is more +genuine, her faith more inevitable. She passes over objections as a +chaste mind passes over what is coarse or impure. She more easily +finds complacency in her appearance and surroundings, but she has less +pride and conceit than man. She is more grateful, too, because she +loves more, and the heart makes memory true. If her greater fondness +for jewelry and showy adornment proves her to be more barbarous, her +greater refinement and chastity prove her to be more civilized than +man. And does not her delight in dress come of her care for beauty, +which in a world of coarse and ugly creatures is a virtue as fair as +the face of spring? Why should the flowers and the fields, the hills +and the heavens, be beautiful, and man hideous, and the cities where he +abides dismal? Are we but cattle to be stalled and fed? Are corn and +beef and iron the only good and useful things? Are we not human +because we think and admire, and are exalted in the presence of what is +infinitely true and divinely fair? + +Faith, hope, and love are larger and more enduring powers for woman +than for man. She feeds the sacred fire which never dies on the altars +of home and religion and country. She lives a more interior life, and +more easily retains consciousness of the soul's reality and of God's +presence. If she speaks less of patriotism in peaceful times, in the +hour of danger the white light flashes from her soul. It is this that +makes brave men think of their mothers and wives and sisters when they +march to battle. They know that those sweet hearts, however keen the +pangs they suffer, would rather have them dead than craven. When woman +shall grow to the full measure of her endowments, a purer flame will +glow upon the hearth, and love of country will be a more genuine +passion. + +If she gain a wider and more varied interest in life, she will become +happier, more willing and more able to help the progress of the race. +Like man, she exists for herself and God, and in her relations to +others, her duties are not to the home alone, but to the whole social +body, religious and civil. Whether man or woman, is a minor thing; to +be wise and worthy and loving is all in all. Our deeper consciousness +and practical recognition of the equality of the sexes is better +evidence that we are becoming Christian and civilized than popular +government and all our mechanical devices. We, however, still have +prejudices as ridiculous and harmful as that which made it unbecoming +in a woman to know anything or in a man of birth to engage in business. +If we hold that every human being has the right to do whatever is fair +or noble or useful, we must also hold that it is wrong to throw +hindrance in the way of the complete education of any human being. We +at last, however slowly, are approaching the standpoint of Christ, who, +with his divine eye upon the sexless soul, overlooks distinctions of +sex, and placing the good of life in knowing and loving, in being and +doing, makes it the privilege and duty of all to help all to know and +love, to become and do. Is it true? Is it right? These are the +immortal questions, springing from what within us is most like God, and +they who deal deceitfully with them have no claim upon attention. They +are jugglers and liars. + +What is developed is not really changed, but made more fully itself, +and by giving to woman a truer education, the beauty and charm of her +nature will be brought more effectively into play. None of us love "a +woman impudent and mannish grown;" but knowledge and culture and +strength of mind and heart and body have no tendency to produce such a +caricature. Whether there is question of man or woman, the aim and end +of education is to bring forth in the individual the divine image of +humanity as it exists in the thought of God, as it is revealed in the +life of Christ. + + "Yet in the long years liker must they grow; + The man be more of woman, she more of man: + He gain in sweetness and in moral height, + Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; + She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care; + More as the double-natured poet each." + + +The apothegm, man is born to do, woman to endure, no longer commends +itself to our judgment. Both are born to do and to endure; and in +educating girls, we now understand that it is our business to +strengthen them and to stimulate them to self-activity. We strive to +give them self-control, sanity, breadth of view, wide sympathies, and +an abiding sense of justice. One might, indeed, be tempted to think it +were well woman should retain a touch of folly, that she still may be +able to believe the man she loves is half divine; but to think so one +must be a man, with his genius for self-conceit. To train a girl +chiefly with a view to success in society is to pervert, is to hinder +from attaining to the power of free, rich, and varied life. It is to +neglect education for accomplishments; it is to prefer form to +substance, manner to conduct, graceful carriage and dress to thought +and love. We degrade her when we consider her as little else than a +candidate for matrimony. A man may remain single and become the +noblest of his kind, and so may a woman. Marriage is first of all for +the race; the individual may stand alone and grow to the full measure +of human strength and worth. The popular contempt for single women who +have reached a certain age, is but a survival of the contempt for all +women which is found among savages and barbarians. In the education of +woman, as of man, the end is increase of power,--of the might there is +in intelligence and love, of the strength there is in gentleness and +sweetness and light, of the vigor there is in health, in the rhythmic +pulse and in deep breathing, of the sustaining joy there is in pure +affection and in devotion to high purposes. Whether there is question +of boys or of girls, the safe way is to strive to make them all it is +possible for them to become, putting our trust for the rest in human +nature and in God; for talent, like genius, is a divine gift, and to +prevent its development is to sin against religion and humanity. For +girls as for boys, the aim should be not knowledge, but power; not +accomplishments, but faculty. Nine-tenths of what we learn in school +is quickly forgotten, and is valueless unless it issue in increase of +moral and intellectual strength. "In whatever direction I turn my +thoughts," says Schleiermacher, "it seems to me that woman's nature is +nobler and her life happier than man's; and if ever I play with an idle +wish it is that I might be a woman." Hardly any man, I imagine, would +rather be a woman, and many women doubtless would rather be men; and +yet there is much in Schleiermacher's thought, if we believe, as the +wise do believe, that love is the best, and that they who love most are +the highest and, therefore, the happiest, since the noblest mind the +best contentment has. + + What fountains to the desert are, + What flowers to the fresh young spring, + What heaven's breast is to the star, + That woman's love to earth doth bring. + + Whether mid deserts she is found, + Or girt about by happy home, + Where'er she treads is holy ground + Above which rises love's high dome. + + Or be she mother called or wife, + Or sister or the soul's twin mate, + She still is each man's best of life, + His crown of joy, his high estate. + + +What is our Christian faith but the revelation of the supreme and +infinite worth of love, as being of the essence of God himself? Is it +not easy to believe that to a loving soul in an all-chaste body the +unseen world may lie open to view? That Joan of Arc saw heavenly +visions and heard whisperings from higher worlds, who can doubt that +has considered how her most pure womanly soul redeemed a whole people, +and, by them forsaken, from midst fierce flames took its flight to God? + +Should women vote? The rule of the people is good only when it is the +rule of the good and wise among the people, and of these, women, in +great numbers, are part. The leadership of the best comes near to +being the leadership of God. But the question of the suffrage for +women is grave; it is one on which an enlightened mind will long hold +judgment in suspense. Does not political life, as it exists in our +democracy, tend to corrupt both voters and office-seekers? Is it not +largely a life of cant, pretence, and hypocrisy, of venality, +corruption, and selfishness, of lying, abuse, and vulgarity? Do not +public men, like public women, sell themselves, though in a different +way? Is the professional politician, the professional +caucus-manipulator, the professional voter, the type of man we can +admire or respect even? The objection so frequently raised, that +political life would corrupt women, has, at least, the merit of a +certain grim humorousness. Could it by any chance make them as bad as +it makes men? To tell them they are the queens of the home, to whom +the mingling with plebeians is degrading, is an insult to their +intelligence. We have forsworn kings and queens, both in private and +in public life, and at home women are, for the most part, drudges. +What need is there of a hollow phrase when the appeal to truth is +obvious? + + "A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine; + Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, + Makes that and the action fine." + +Active participation in political life is not a refining, an ennobling, +a purifying influence. Is it desirable that the half of the people to +which the interests of the home, of the heart, of the religious and +moral education of the young are especially committed, should be hurled +into the maelstrom of selfish passion and coarse excitement? + +The smartness and self-assertiveness of American women are already +excessive; they lack repose, serenity, and self-restraint. If they +rush into the arena of noisy and vulgar strife, will not the evil be +increased? Will not the political woman lose something of the sacred +power of the wife and mother? Are not the primal virtues, those which +make life good and fair and which are a woman's glory,--are they not +humble and quiet and unobtrusive? The suffrage has not emancipated the +masses of men, who are still held captive in the chains of poverty and +dehumanizing toil. + +Do women themselves, those, at least, in whom the woman soul, which +draws us on and upward, is most itself, desire that the vote be given +them? + +But whatever our opinions on the subject may be, let us not lose +composure. "If a great change is to be made," says Edmund Burke, "the +minds of men will be fitted to it, the general opinions and feelings +will draw that way. Every fear, every hope will forward it; and then +they who persist in opposing the mighty current will appear rather to +resist the decrees of Providence itself than the mere designs of men. +They will not be resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate." + +Whether or not woman shall become a politician, there is no doubt that +she is becoming a worker in a constantly widening field. The +elementary education of the country is already intrusted to her. She +is taking her position in the higher institutions of learning. She has +gained admission to professional life. In the business world, her +competition with man is more and more felt. In literature, in our +country at least, her appreciativeness is greater than man's, and her +performance not inferior to his. There is a larger number of serious +students among women than among men. In the divinely imposed task of +self-education, they are fast becoming the chief workers. They are the +great readers of books, especially of poetry. The muse was the first +school-mistress, and the love of genuine poetry is still the finest +educational influence. The vulgar passions and coarse appetites which +rob young men of faith in the higher life and of the power to labor +perseveringly for ideal ends, have little hold upon the soul of woman. +Her betrayers are frivolity and vanity, and a too confiding heart; and +the more she is educated the less will she take delight in what is +merely external, and the greater will become her ability to bring +sentiment under the control of reason and conscience. + +There are not two educations, then, one for man, and another for woman, +but both alike we bid contend to the uttermost for completeness of +life; bid both trust in human educableness, which makes possible the +hope of attaining all divine things. True faith in education is ever +associated with genuine humility. Only they strive infinitely who feel +that their lack is infinite. + +The power of education is as many sided and as manifold as life. There +is no finest seed or flower or fruit, no most serviceable animal, which +has not been brought to perfection by human thought and labor, or +which, were this help withdrawn, would not degenerate; and if the +highest thought and the most intelligent labor were made to bear +ceaselessly upon the improvement of the race of man, we should have a +new world. + +When we consider all the beauty, knowledge, and love which are within +man's reach, how is it possible not to believe that infinitely more and +higher lie beyond? Call to mind whatever quality of life, physical, +intellectual, or moral, and you will have little difficulty in seeing +that it is a result of education. We are born, indeed, with unequal +endowments; but strength of limb, ease and swiftness of motion, grace +and fluency of speech, modulation of voice, distinctness of +articulation, correctness of pronunciation, power of attention, +fineness of ear, clearness of vision, control of hand and certainty of +touch in drawing, writing, painting, playing upon instruments and +operating with the knife, truth and vividness of imagination, force of +will, refinement of manner, perfection of taste, skill in argument, +purity of desire, rectitude of purpose, power of sympathy and love, +together with whatever else goes to the making of a perfect man or +woman, are all acquired through educational processes. + +Education is the training of a human being with a view to make him all +he may become; and hence it is possible to educate one's self in many +ways and on many sides. + +Refinement, grace, and cleanliness are aims and ends, as truly as are +vigor and suppleness of mind and strength and purity of heart. Like +sunshine and flowers and the songs of birds, they help to make life +pleasant and beautiful. Even the fishes are not clean, but the only +clean animal is here and there a man or a woman who has forsworn dirt +visible and invisible. We can educate ourselves in every direction, to +sleep well even, and neither physicians nor poets have told half the +good there is in sleep. The bare thought of it always brings to me the +memory of lulling showers, and grazing sheep, and murmuring streams, +and bees at work, and the breath of flowers and cooing doves and +children lying on the sward, and lazy clouds slumbering in azure skies. +It is pleasant as the approach of evening, fresh and fair as the rising +sun which sets all the world singing, sacred and pure as babes smiling +in their dreams on the breasts of gentle mothers. If thou canst not +see the divine worth in nature and in works of genius, it is because +thou art what thou art. Can the worm at thy feet recognize thy +superiority? The blind and the heedless see nothing, O foolish maid. + +What I know and love is of my very being, is, in fact, my knowing and +loving self. Quality of knowledge and love determines quality of life, +and when I know and love God I am divine. As trees are enrooted in +earth, as fishes are immersed in water, and our bodies in air, that +they may live, so the soul has its being in God that it may have life, +that it may know and love. I become self-conscious only in becoming +conscious of what is not myself; and when the not-myself is the +Eternal, is God, my self-consciousness is divine. The marvel and the +mystery of our being is that self-consciousness should exist at all, +not that it should continue to exist forever. But words cannot +strengthen or explain or destroy our belief in God, in the immortality +of the soul, and in the freedom of the will. The antagonism supposed +to exist between scientific facts or theories and religious faith would +cease to be recognized as real, were it not for the eagerness with +which those who are incapable of profound and comprehensive views, +catch up certain shibboleths and hurl them like firebrands upon the +combustible imaginations of the unthinking. + +To prove, means, in the proper sense of the word, to test, to bring +ideas, opinions, and beliefs to the ordeal of reason, of accepted +standards of judgment. It is a criticism of the mind and its +operations, and hence it may easily happen that to prove is to weaken +and unsettle. In what is most vital, in belief in God, immortality, +and freedom of the will, in religion and morality, our faith is +stronger than any proof that may be brought in its defence; and this is +not less true of our faith in the reality of nature and the laws of +science; and when this is made plain by criticism, those whose mental +grasp is weak or partial, are confused and tempted to doubt. They are +not helped, but harmed, and our ceaseless discussions and provings, in +press and pulpit, are the source of much of the unrest, religious +doubt, and moral weakness of the age. The people need to be taught by +those who know and believe, not by those whose skill is chiefly +syllogistic and critical. Philosophic speculation is like a vast +mountain into which men, generation after generation, have sunk shafts +in search of some priceless treasure, and have left in the materials +they have thrown out the mark and evidence of failure. But the noblest +minds will still be haunted by the infinite mystery which they will +seek in vain to explain. Their faith in reason, like that of the +vulgar, cannot be shaken, nor can defeat, running through thousands of +years, enfeeble their courage or dampen their ardor. Let our +increasing insight into Nature's laws fill us with thankfulness and +joy. It is good, and makes for good. Let us bow with respect and +reverence before the army of patient investigators who bring highly +disciplined faculties to bear upon the most useful researches. Let +knowledge grow. A nearer and truer view of the boundless fact will not +make the world less wonderful, or the soul less divine, or God less +adorable. If one should declare that it is contrary to the teachings +of faith to hold that conversation may be carried on by persons a +thousand miles apart, it would be sufficient to reply that such +conversation takes place, and that to attempt to annul fact by doctrine +is absurd. There is no excuse for the controversial conflict between +science and religion; for science is ascertained fact, not theory about +fact, and when fact is rightly ascertained it is accepted of all men. +The most certain fact, for each one, is that he knows and loves, and +that this power comes to him through communion with what is higher and +deeper and wider than himself,--with God. + +There was a time when collisions among the masses of the sidereal +system were frequent, shocks of unimaginable force by which the +celestial bodies were shivered into atoms, so that what now remains is +but a survival of worlds which escaped destruction in the chaotic +struggle when suns madly rushed on one another and rose in star-dust +about the face of God, who was, and is, and shall be, eternal and +forever the same. Where there is no thinker, there is no thing. It is +in, and through, and with Him that we know ourselves and our +environment; and recognize that our particular life is, in its +implications, universal and divine. He is the principle of unity which +is present in whatever is an object of thought, and which gives the +mind the power to co-ordinate the manifold of sensation into the +harmony of truth; He is the principle of goodness and beauty, which +makes the universe fair, and thrills the heart of man with hope and +love. Amid endless change, He alone is permanent, and He is power and +wisdom and love, and they only are good and wise and strong who cleave +to His eternal and absolute being. But since here and now the real +world of matter as distinguished from the apparent is hidden behind the +veil of sense, it is vain to hope that the world of eternal life shall +be made plain to the pure reason. Religion, like life, is faith, hope, +and love, striving and doing, not intellectual intuition and beatific +vision. We find it impossible to separate our thought of God from that +of infinite goodness and love; but when we look away from our own souls +to Nature's pitiless and fatal laws, we realize that this faith in +all-embracing and all-conquering love is opposed by seemingly +insurmountable difficulties. It is a mystery we believe, not a truth +we comprehend. Systems of philosophy, morality, and religion, however +cunningly devised, cannot make men philosophers, sages, or saints. +This they can become only through the communion which faith, hope, and +love have power to establish with the living fountain-head of truth, +wisdom, and goodness. + +The pursuit of knowledge, like the struggle for wealth and place, ends +in disillusion, in the disappointment which results from the contrast +between what we hope for and what we attain. The greater the success, +the more complete the disenchantment. As the rich and famous best see +the unsatisfactoriness of wealth and honor, so they who know much best +understand how knowledge avails not, how it is but a cloud-built +citadel, whose foundations rest upon the uncertain air, whose walls and +turrets lose in substance what they gain in height. When we imagine we +know all things, we awake as from a dream to find that we know nothing, +that our knowing is but a believing, our science but a faith. We are +little children who wander in a father's wide domain, seeing many +things and understanding not anything, who imagine we are in a real and +abiding world, while in truth we are but passing through the +picture-gallery of the senses. + + Faith, Hope, and Love:--these three + Are life's deep root; + They reach into infinity, + Whence life doth shoot. + But Faith and Hope have not attained + The Eternal best; + While Love, sweet Love, the end has gained,-- + In God to rest. + + +So long as these life-begetting, life-sustaining, and life-developing +powers hold mightier sway over the soul of woman than over that of man, +so long will woman's heel crush the serpent's head and woman's arms +bear salvation to the world. She will not worship the rising sun, or +become the idolatress of success, but within her heart will cherish +fallen heroes and lost causes and the memory of all the sorrows by +which God humanizes the world. + +If we consider mankind merely as a phenomenon, the extinction of the +race need give us little more concern than the disappearance of +Pterodactyls and Ichthyosauri. What repels from such contemplation is +not man's physical, but his spiritual being,--that which makes him +capable of thought and love, of faith and hope. The universe is +anthropomorphized, for whithersoever man looks he sees the reflection +of his own countenance. What he calls things are stamped with the +impress and likeness of himself, as he himself is an image of the +eternal mind, in which all things are mirrored. + +An atheist or a materialist, an agnostic or a pessimist, may have +greater knowledge, greater intellectual force than the most devout +believer in God; but is it possible for him to feel so thoroughly at +home in the world, to feel so deeply that, whatever happens, it is and +will be well with him? In an atheistic world the spirit of man is ill +at ease. He who has no God makes himself the centre of all things, +and, like a spoiled child, loses the power to admire, to enjoy, and to +love. Genuine faith in God is such an infinite force that one may be +tempted to doubt whether it is found. + +Undisciplined minds become victims of the formulas they receive, and if +what they have accepted as truth is shown to be false or incomplete, +they grow discouraged and lose faith; but the wise know that the verbal +vesture of truth is a symbol which has but a proximate and relative +value. The spirit is alive, and ceaselessly outgrows or transmutes the +body with which it is clothed. What we can do with anything,--with +money, knowledge, wealth,--depends on what we are. Ruskin prefers holy +work to holy worship; but the antithesis is mistaken, for if worship is +holy it impels to work, if work is holy it impels to worship. God's +most sacred visible temple is a human body, and its profanation is the +worst sacrilege. + +All true belief, when we come to the last analysis, is belief in God, +and the teacher of religion must keep this fact always in view. + +The law of the struggle for life applies to opinions, beliefs, hopes, +aims, ideals, just as it applies to individuals and species. Whatever +survives, survives through conflict, because it is fit to survive. It +does not follow, however, that the best survives, though we must think +that in the end this is so, since we believe in God. When serious +minds grapple with problems so remote from vulgar opinion that they +seem to be meaningless or insoluble, the multitude, ever ready, like a +crowd of boys, to mock and jeer, break forth into insult. These men, +they cry are wicked, or they are fools. + +In a society where it is assumed that all are equal, those who are +really superior incur suspicion as though it were criminal to be +different from the multitude; and hence they rarely win the favor of +the crowd. The life-current of those who stir up a noise about them, +runs shallow. The champion of the prize-ring or the race-course is +hailed with shouts, for the crowd understand the achievement; but what +can they know of the worth of a sage or a saint? The noblest struggles +are of the mind and heart wrestling with unseen powers, with spirits, +as St. Paul says, that they may compel them to give up the secret of +truth and holiness. A glimpse of truth, a thrill of love, is better +than the applause of a whole city. In striving steadfastly for thy own +perfection and the happiness of others thou walkest and workest with +God. Thy progress will help others to labor for their own, and the +happiness thou givest will return to thee and become thine; and what is +the will of God, if it is not the perfection and happiness of his +children? To have merely enough strength to bear life's burden, to do +the daily task, to face the cares which return with the sun and follow +us into the night, is to be weak, is to lack the strong spirit for +which work is light as play, and whose secret is heard in whispers by +the hero and the saint. To be able to give joy and help to others we +must have more life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness than we need for +ourselves; and it is in giving joy and help to others that we ourselves +receive increase of life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness. Be persuaded +within thy deepest soul, that moral evil can never be good, and that +sin can never be gain. So act that if all men acted as thou, all would +be well. If to be like others is thy aim, thou art predestined to +remain inferior. To be followed and applauded is to be diverted from +one's work. Better alone with it in a garret than a guest in a banquet +hall. + + Let thy prayer be work and work thy prayer, + As God's truth and love are everywhere, + And whether by word or deed thou strive + In Him alone thou canst be alive. + + +If thou hast done thy best, God will give it worth. + +If thou carest not for truth and love, for thee they are nothing worth; +but it is because thou thyself art worthless. Wisdom and virtue is all +thou lackest; of other things thou hast enough. When the passion for +self-improvement is strong within us, all our relations to our +fellow-men and nature receive new meaning and power, as opportunities +to make ourselves what it is possible for us to become; and as we grow +accustomed to take this view of whatever happens, we are made aware +that disagreeable things are worth as much as the pleasant, that foes +are as useful as friends. The obstacle arrests attention, provokes +effort, and educates. It throws the light back upon the eye, and +reveals the world of color and form; from it all sounds reverberate. +We grow by overcoming; the force we conquer becomes our own. We rise +on difficulties we surmount. What opposes, arouses, strengthens, and +disciplines the will, discloses to the mind its power, and implants +faith in the efficacy of patient, persevering labor. They who shrink +from the combat are already defeated. To make everything easy is to +smooth the way whereby we descend. To surround the young with what +they ought themselves to achieve is to enfeeble and corrupt them. +Happy is the poor man's son, who whithersoever he turns, sees the +obstacle rise to challenge him to become a man; miserable the children +of the rich, whose cursed-blessed fortune is an ever-present invitation +to idleness and conceit. O mothers, you whose love is the best any of +us have known, harden your sons, and urge them on, not in the race for +wealth, but in the steep and narrow way wherein, through self-conquest +and self-knowledge, they rise toward God and all high things. Nothing +that has ever been said of your power tells the whole truth, and the +only argument against you is the men who are your children. Education +is always the result of personal influence. A mother, a father in the +home, a pure and loving heart at the altar, a true man or woman in the +school, a noble mind uttering itself in literature, which is personal +thought and expression,--these are the forces which educate. Life +proceeds from life, and religion, which is the highest power of life, +can proceed only from God and religious souls. Not by preaching and +teaching, but by living the life, can we make ourselves centres of +spiritual influence. + +Be like others, walk in the broad way, one of a herd, content to graze +in a common pasture, believing equality man's highest law, though its +meaning be equality with the brute. Is this our ideal? It is an +atheistic creed. There is no God, there is nothing but matter, but +atoms, and atoms are alike and equal,--let men be so too. To struggle +with infinite faith and hope for some divine good is idolatry, is to +believe in God; to be one's self is the unpardonable sin. It is thy +aim to rise, to distinguish thyself; this means thou wouldst have +higher place, more money, a greater house than thy neighbor's. It is a +foolish ambition. Instead of trying to distinguish thyself, strive to +become thyself, to make thyself worthy of the approval of God and wise +men. "I am not to be pitied, my lord," said Bayard; "I die doing my +duty." God has not given His world into thy keeping, but he has given +thee to thyself to fashion and complete. If thou art busy seeking +money or pleasure or praise, little time will remain wherein to seek +and find thyself. They who are interesting to themselves, are +interesting to themselves alone. The self-absorbed are the victims of +mental and moral disease. The life which flows out to others, bearing +light and warmth and fragrance, feels itself in the blessings it gives; +that which is self-centred, stagnates like a pool, and becomes the +habitation of doleful creatures. + +There is a popularity which is born of the worship of noble deeds,--it +is the best. There is another, which comes of the crowd's passion for +what is noisy and spectacular,--it is the worst. The one is the +popularity of heroes, the other that of charlatans. + +Whatever thy chosen work, it is thy business to make thyself a man or a +woman, and not a mere specialist; yet in following a specialty with +enthusiasm, thou shalt go farther towards perfection and completeness +of life than the multitude of pretenders, who are not in earnest about +anything. Every harsh and unjust sentiment, every narrow and unworthy +thought consented to and entertained, remains like a stain upon +character. Whoever speaks or writes against freedom or knowledge or +faith in God, or love of man or reverence of woman, but makes himself +ridiculous; for men feel and believe that their true world is a world +of high thoughts and noble sentiments, and they can neither respect nor +trust those who strive to weaken their hold upon this world. Become +thyself; do thy work. For this, all thy days are not too many or too +long. If thou and it are worthy to be known, the presentation can be +made in briefest time; and it matters little though it be deferred +until after thy death. + +Besides whatever other conditions, time is necessary to bring the best +things to maturity, and to imagine that excellence demands less than +lifelong work, is to mistake. It is by the patient observation of the +infinitesimal that science has done its best work; and it is only by +unwearying attention to the thousand little things of life that we may +hope to make some approach to moral and intellectual perfection. He +who works with joy and cheerfulness in the field which himself has +found and chosen, will acquire knowledge and skill, and his labor will +be transformed into increase and newness of life. + +We gain a clear view of things only when we set them apart from +ourselves, and contemplate them simply as objects of thought. To see +them aright we must be free from emotion and behold them in the cold +air of the intellect. To look on them as in some way bound up with our +personal good or evil, is to have the vision blurred. Study in the +spirit of an investigator, who has no other than a scientific interest +in what he sets himself to examine. The wise physician is wholly +intent upon making a correct diagnosis, though the patient be his +mother. What gain would self-delusion bring him or her he loves? +Things are what they are, and it is our business to know them. Observe +and hold thy judgment in suspense until patient looking shall have made +truth so plain that to pass judgment is superfluous. + +The aim of mental training is clearness and accuracy of view, together +with the strength to keep steadfastly looking into the world of +intelligible things. What rouses desire tends to enslave; what gives +delight tends to liberate; the one appeals to the senses, the other to +the soul. Hence, intellectual and moral pleasures alone are associated +with the sense of freedom and pure joy. The lovers of freedom are as +rare as the lovers of truth and of God. For most, liberty is but a +trader's commodity, to be parted with for price, as their obedience is +a slave's service. The chief good consists in acting justly and nobly, +rather than in thinking acutely and profoundly. The free play of the +mind is delightful, but the law of moral obligation is the deepest +thing in us. Honor, place, and wealth, which are won at the price of +self-improvement, the wise will not desire. Great opportunities seldom +present themselves, but every moment of every hour of thy conscious +life is an opportunity to improve thyself, which for thee is the best +and most necessary thing. Since our power over others is small, but +over ourselves large, let us devote our energies to self-improvement. +"Nor let any man say," writes Locke, "he cannot govern his passions, +nor hinder them from breaking out and carrying him into action; for +what he can do before a prince or great man he can do alone or in the +presence of God, if he will." + +The sure way to happiness is to yield ourselves wholly to God, knowing +that he has care of us, and at the same time to seek to draw from life +whatever joy and delight it may bestow upon a high mind and a pure +heart, receiving the blessing gladly, conscious all the while that what +is external cannot really be ours, and is not, therefore, necessary to +our contentment. + +That many are wiser and stronger than thou, is not a motive for +discouragement; the depressing thought is, that so few are wise and +strong. He who gives his whole life to what he believes he is most +capable of doing, succeeds, whatever be the worth of his work. There +are many who are busy with many things; but one who has a high purpose, +and who devotes all his energies to its fulfillment, is not easily +found; and great and interesting characters are, therefore, rare. + +To what better use can we put life than to employ it in ameliorating +life? It is to this every wise and good man devotes himself, whether +he be priest or teacher, physician or lawyer, philosopher or poet, +captain of industry or statesman. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION. + +Our system of Public-School Education is a result of the faith of the +people in the need of universal intelligence for the maintenance of +popular government. Does this system include moral training? Since +the teaching of religious doctrines is precluded, this, I imagine, is +what we are to consider in discussing the Scope of Public-School +Education. The equivalents of scope are aim, end, opportunity, range +of view; and the equivalents of education are training, discipline, +development, instruction. The proper meaning of the word education, it +seems, is not a drawing out, but a training up, as vines are trained to +lay hold of and rise by means of what is stronger than themselves. My +subject, then, is the aim, end, opportunity, and range of view of +public-school education, which to be education at all, in any true +sense, must be a training, discipline, development, and instruction of +man's whole being, physical, intellectual, and moral. This, I suppose, +is what Herbert Spencer means when he defines education to be a +preparation for complete living. Montaigne says the end of education +is wisdom and virtue; Comenius declares it to be knowledge, virtue, and +religion; Milton, likeness to God through virtue and faith; Locke, +health of body, virtue, and good manners; Herbart, virtue, which is the +realization in each one of the idea of inner freedom; while Kant and +Fichte declare it to consist chiefly in the formation of character. +All these thinkers agree that the supreme end of education is spiritual +or ethical. The controlling aim, then, should be, not to impart +information, but to upbuild the being which makes us human, to form +habits of right thinking and doing. The ideal is virtually that of +Israel,--that righteousness is life,--though the Greek ideal of beauty +and freedom may not be excluded. It is the doctrine that manners make +the man, that conduct is three-fourths of life, leaving but one-fourth +for intellectual activity and æsthetic enjoyment; and into this fourth +of life but few ever enter in any real way, while all are called and +may learn to do good and avoid evil. + +"In the end," says Ruskin, "the God of heaven and earth loves active, +modest, and kind people, and hates idle, proud, greedy, and cruel +ones." We can all learn to become active, modest, and kind; to turn +from idleness, pride, greed, and cruelty. But we cannot all make +ourselves capable of living in the high regions of pure thought and +ideal beauty; and for the few even who are able to do this, it is still +true that conduct is three-fourths of life. + +"The end of man," says Büchner, "is conversion into carbonic acid, +water, and ammonia." This also is an ideal, and he thinks we should be +pleased to know that in dying we give back to the universe what had +been lent. He moralizes too; but if all we can know of our destiny is +that we shall be converted into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, the +sermon may be omitted. On such a faith it is not possible to found a +satisfactory system of education. Men will always refuse to think thus +meanly of themselves, and in answer to those who would persuade them +that they are but brutes, they will, with perfect confidence, claim +kinship with God; for from an utterly frivolous view of life both our +reason and our instinct turn. + +The Scope of Public-School Education is to co-operate with the +physical, social, and religious environment to form good and wise men +and women. Unless we bear in mind that the school is but one of +several educational agencies, we shall not form a right estimate of its +office. It depends almost wholly for its success upon the kind of +material furnished it by the home, the state, and the church; and, to +confine our view to our own country, I have little hesitation in +affirming that our home life, our social and political life, and our +religious life have contributed far more to make us what we are than +any and all of our schools. The school, unless it works in harmony +with these great forces, can do little more than sharpen the wits. +Many of the teachers of our Indian schools are doubtless competent and +earnest; but their pupils, when they return to their tribes, quickly +lose what they have gained, because they are thrown into an environment +which annuls the ideals that prevailed in the school. The controlling +aim of our teachers should be, therefore, to bring their pedagogical +action into harmony with what is best in the domestic, social, and +religious life of the child; for this is the foundation on which they +must build, and to weaken it is to expose the whole structure to ruin. +Hence the teacher's attitude toward the child should be that of +sympathy with him in his love for his parents, his country, and his +religion. His reason is still feeble, and his life is largely one of +feeling; and the fountain-heads of his purest and noblest feelings are +precisely his parents, his country, and his religion, and to tamper +with them is to poison the wells whence he draws the water of life. To +assume and hold this attitude with sincerity and tact is difficult; it +requires both character and culture; it implies a genuine love of +mankind and of human excellence; reverence for whatever uplifts, +purifies, and strengthens the heart; knowledge of the world, of +literature, and of history, united with an earnest desire to do +whatever may be possible to lead each pupil toward life in its +completeness, which is health and healthful activity of body and mind +and heart and soul. + +As the heart makes the home, the teacher makes the school. What we +need above all things, wherever the young are gathered for education, +is not a showy building, or costly apparatus, or improved methods or +text-books, but a living, loving, illumined human being who has deep +faith in the power of education and a real desire to bring it to bear +upon those who are intrusted to him. This applies to the primary +school with as much force as to the high school and university. Those +who think, and they are, I imagine, the vast majority, that any one who +can read and write, who knows something of arithmetic, geography, and +history, is competent to educate young children, have not even the most +elementary notions of what education is. + +What the teacher is, not what he utters and inculcates, is the +important thing. The life he lives, and whatever reveals that life to +his pupils; his unconscious behavior, even; above all, what in his +inmost soul he hopes, believes, and loves, have far deeper and more +potent influence than mere lessons can ever have. It is precisely here +that we Americans, whose talent is predominantly practical and +inventive, are apt to go astray. We have won such marvellous victories +with our practical sense and inventive genius that we have grown +accustomed to look to them for aid, whatever the nature of the +difficulty or problem may be. Machinery can be made to do much, and to +do well what it does. With its help we move rapidly; we bring the ends +of the earth into instantaneous communication; we print the daily +history of the world and throw it before every door; we plough and we +sow and we reap; we build cities, and we fill our houses with whatever +conduces to comfort or luxury. All this and much more machinery +enables us to do. But it cannot create life, nor can it, in any +effective way, promote vital processes. Now, education is essentially +a vital process. It is a furthering of life; and as the living proceed +from the living, they can rise into the wider world of ideas and +conduct only by the help of the living; and as in the physical realm +every animal begets after its own likeness, so also in the spiritual +the teacher can give but what he has. If the well-spring of truth and +love has run dry within himself, he teaches in vain. His words will no +more bring forth life than desert winds will clothe arid sands with +verdure. Much talking and writing about education have chiefly helped +to obscure a matter which is really plain. The purpose of the public +school is or should be not to form a mechanic or a specialist of any +kind, but to form a true man or woman. Hence the number of things we +teach the child is of small moment. Those schools, in fact, in which +the greatest number of things are taught give, as a rule, the least +education. The character of the Roman people, which enabled them to +dominate the earth and to give laws to the world, was formed before +they had schools, and when their schools were most flourishing they +themselves were in rapid moral and social dissolution. We make +education and religion too much a social affair, and too little a +personal affair. Their essence lies in their power to transform the +individual, and it is only in transforming him that they recreate the +wider life of the community. The Founder of Christianity addressed +himself to the individual, and gave little heed to the state or other +environment. He looked to a purified inner source of life to create +for itself a worthier environment, and simply ignored devices for +working sudden and startling changes. They who have entered into the +hidden meaning of this secret and this method turn in utter incredulity +from the schemes of declaimers and agitators. + +The men who fill the world, each with his plan for reforming and saving +it, may have their uses, since the poet tells us there are uses in +adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a +precious jewel in its head; but to one deafened by their discordant and +clamorous voices, the good purpose they serve seems to be as mythical +as the jewel in the toad's head. + +Have not those who mistake their crotchets for Nature's laws invaded +our schools? Have they not succeeded in forming a public opinion and +in setting devices at work which render education, in the true sense of +the word, if not impossible, difficult? Literature is a criticism of +life, made by those who are in love with life, and have the deepest +faith in its possibilities; and all criticism which is inspired by +sympathy and faith and controlled by knowledge is helpful. Complacent +thoughts are rarely true, and hardly ever useful. It is a prompting of +nature to turn from what we have to what we lack, for thus only is +there hope of amendment and progress. We are, to quote Emerson, + + "Built of furtherance and pursuing, + Not of spent deeds, but of doing." + + +Hence the wise and the strong dwell not upon their virtues and +accomplishments, but strive to learn wherein they fail, for it is in +correcting this they desire to labor. They wish to know the truth +about themselves, are willing to try to see themselves as others see +them, that self-knowledge may make self-improvement possible. They +turn from flattery, for they understand that flattery is insult. Now, +if this is the attitude of wise and strong men, how much more should it +not be that of a wise and strong people? Whenever persons or things +are viewed as related in some special way to ourselves, our opinions of +them will hardly be free from bias. When, for instance, I think or +speak of my country, my religion, my friends, my enemies, I find it +difficult to put away the prejudice which my self-esteem and vanity +create, and which, like a haze, ever surrounds me to color or obscure +the pure light of reason. It cannot do us harm to have our defects and +shortcomings pointed out to us; but to be told by demagogues and +declaimers that we are the greatest, the most enlightened, the most +virtuous people which exists or has existed, can surely do us no good. +If it is true, we should not dwell upon it, for this will but distract +us from striving for the things in which we are deficient; and if it is +false, it can only mislead us and nourish a foolish conceit. It is the +orator's misfortune to be compelled to think of his audience rather +than of truth. It is his business to please, persuade, and convince; +and men are pleased with flattering lies, persuaded and convinced by +appeals to passion and interest. Happier is the writer, who need not +think of a reader, but finds his reward in the truth he expresses. + +It is not possible for an enlightened mind not to take profound +interest in our great system of public education. To do this he need +not think it the best system. He may deem it defective in important +requisites. He may hold, as I hold, that the system is of minor +importance, the kind of teacher being all important. But if he loves +his country, if he loves human excellence, if he has faith in man's +capacity for growth, he cannot but turn his thoughts, with abiding +attention and sympathy, to the generous and determined efforts of a +powerful and vigorous people to educate themselves. Were our +public-school system nothing more than the nation's profession of faith +in the transforming power of education, it would be an omen of good and +a ground for hope; and one cannot do more useful work than to help to +form a public opinion which will accept with thankfulness the free play +of all sincere minds about this great question, and which will cause +the genuine lovers of our country to turn in contempt from the clamors +politicians and bigots are apt to raise when an honest man utters +honest thought on this all-important subject. + +I am willing to assume and to accept as a fact that our theological +differences make it impossible to introduce the teaching of any +religious creed into the public school. I take the system as it +is,--that is, as a system of secular education,--and I address myself +more directly to the question proposed: What is or should be its scope? + +The fact that religious instruction is excluded makes it all the more +necessary that humanizing and ethical aims should be kept constantly in +view. Whoever teaches in a public school should be profoundly +convinced that man is more than an animal which may be taught cunning +and quickness. A weed in blossom may have a certain beauty, but it +will bear no fruit; and so the boy or youth one often meets, with his +irreverent smartness, his precocious pseudo-knowledge of a hundred +things, may excite a kind of interest, but he gives little promise of a +noble future. The flower of his life is the blossom of the weed, which +in its decay will poison the air, or, at the best, serve but to +fertilize the soil. If we are to work to good purpose we must take our +stand, with the great thinkers and educators, on the broad field of +man's nature, and act in the light of the only true ideal of +education,--that its end is wisdom, virtue, knowledge, power, +reverence, faith, health, behavior, hope, and love; in a word, whatever +powers and capacities make for intelligence, for conduct, for +character, for completeness of life. Not for a moment should we permit +ourselves to be deluded by the thought that because the teaching of +religious creeds is excluded, therefore we may make no appeal to the +fountain-heads which sleep within every breast, the welling of whose +waters alone has power to make us human. If we are forbidden to turn +the current into this or that channel, we are not forbidden to +recognize the universal truth that man lives by faith, hope, and love, +by imagination and desire, and that it is precisely for this reason +that he is educable. We move irresistibly in the lines of our real +faith and desire, and the educator's great purpose is to help us to +believe in what is high and to desire what is good. Since for the +irreverent and vulgar spirit nothing is high or good, reverence, and +the refinement which is the fruit of true intelligence, urge +ceaselessly their claims on the teacher's attention. Goethe, I +suppose, was little enough of a Christian to satisfy the demands of an +agnostic cripple even, and yet he held that the best thing in man is +the thrill of awe; and that the chief business of education is to +cultivate reverence for whatever is above, beneath, around, and within +us. This he believed to be the only philosophical and healthful +attitude of mind and heart towards the universe, seen and unseen. May +not the meanest flower that blows bring thoughts that lie too deep for +tears? Is not reverence a part of all the sweetest and purest feelings +which bind us to father and mother, to friends and home and country? +Is it not the very bloom and fragrance, not only of the highest +religious faith, but also of the best culture? Let the thrill of awe +cease to vibrate, and you will have a world in which money is more than +man, office better than honesty, and books like "Innocents Abroad" or +"Peck's Bad Boy" more indicative of the kind of man we form than are +the noblest works of genius. What is the great aim of the primary +school, if it is not the nutrition of feeling? The child is weak in +mind, weak in will, but he is most impressionable. Feeble in thought, +he is strong in capacity to feel the emotions which are the sap of the +tree of moral life. He responds quickly to the appeals of love, +tenderness, and sympathy. He is alive to whatever is noble, heroic, +and venerable. He desires the approbation of others, especially of +those whom he believes to be true and high and pure, he has +unquestioning faith, not only in God but in great men, who, for him, +indeed, are earthly gods. Is not his father a divine man, whose mere +word drives away all fear and fills him with confidence? The touch of +his mother's hand stills his pain; if he is frightened, her voice is +enough to soothe him to sleep. To imagine that we are educating this +being of infinite sensibility and impressionability when we do little +else than teach him to read, write, and cipher, is to cherish a +delusion. It is not his destiny to become a reading, writing, and +ciphering machine, but to become a man who believes, hopes, and loves; +who holds to sovereign truth, and is swayed by sympathy; who looks up +with reverence and awe to the heavens, and hearkens with cheerful +obedience to the call of duty; who has habits of right thinking and +well doing which have become a law unto him, a second nature. And if +it be said that we all recognize this to be so, but that it is not the +business of the school to help to form such a man; that it does its +work when it sharpens the wits, I will answer with the words of William +von Humboldt: "Whatever we wish to see introduced into the life of a +nation must first be introduced into its schools." + +Now, what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation is not +the power of shrewd men, wholly absorbed in the striving for wealth, +reckless of the means by which it is gotten, and who, whether they +succeed or whether they fail, look upon money as the equivalent of the +best things man knows or has; who therefore think that the highest +purpose of government, as of other social forces and institutions, is +to make it easy for all to get abundance of gold and to live in sloven +plenty; but what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation +is the power of intelligence and virtue, of wisdom and conduct. We +believe, and in fact know, that humanity, justice, truthfulness, +honesty, honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect are higher and mightier than anything mere sharpened wits +can accomplish. But if these virtues, which constitute nearly the +whole sum of man's strength and worth, are to be introduced into the +life of the nation, they must be introduced into the schools, into the +process of education. We must recognize, not in theory alone but in +practice, that the chief end of education is ethical, since conduct is +three-fourths of human life. The aim must be to make men true in +thought and word, pure in desire, faithful in act, upright in deed; men +who understand that the highest good does not lie in the possession of +anything whatsoever, but that it lies in power and quality of being; +for whom what we are and not what we have is the guiding principle; who +know that the best work is not that for which we receive most pay, but +that which is most favorable to life, physical, moral, intellectual, +and religious; since man does not exist for work or the Sabbath, but +work and rest exist for him, that he may thrive and become more human +and more divine. We must cease to tell boys and girls that education +will enable them to get hold of the good things of which they believe +the world to be full; we must make them realize rather that the best +thing in the world is a noble man or woman, and to be that is the only +certain way to a worthy and contented life. All talk about patriotism +which implies that it is possible to be a patriot or a good citizen +without being a true and good man, is sophistical and hollow. How +shall he who cares not for his better self care for his country? + +We must look, as educators, most closely to those sides of the national +life where there is the greatest menace of ruin. It is plain that our +besetting sin, as a people, is not intemperance or unchastity, but +dishonesty. From the watering and manipulating of stocks to the +adulteration of food and drink, from the booming of towns and lands to +the selling of votes and the buying of office, from the halls of +Congress to the policeman's beat, from the capitalist who controls +trusts and syndicates to the mechanic who does inferior work, the taint +of dishonesty is everywhere. We distrust one another, distrust those +who manage public affairs, distrust our own fixed will to suffer the +worst that may befall rather than cheat or steal or lie. Dishonesty +hangs, like mephitic air, about our newspapers, our legislative +assemblies, the municipal government of our towns and cities, about our +churches even, since our religion itself seems to lack that highest +kind of honesty, the downright and thorough sincerity which is its +life-breath. + +If the teacher in the public school may not insist that an honest man +is the noblest work of God, he may teach at least that he who fails in +honesty fails in the most essential quality of manhood, enters into +warfare with the forces which have made him what he is, and which +secure him the possession of what he holds dearer than himself, since +he barters for it his self-respect; that the dishonest man is an +anarchist and dissocialist, one who does what in him lies to destroy +credit, and the sense of the sacredness of property, obedience to law, +and belief in the rights of man. If our teachers are to work in the +light of an ideal, if they are to have a conscious end in view, as all +who strive intelligently must have, if they are to hold a principle +which will give unity to their methods, they must seek it in the idea +of morality, of conduct, which is three-fourths of life. + +I myself am persuaded that the real and philosophical basis of morality +is the being of God, a being absolute, infinite, unimaginable, +inconceivable, of whom our highest and nearest thought is that he is +not only almighty, but all-wise and all-good as well. But it is +possible, I think, to cultivate the moral sense without directly and +expressly assigning to it this philosophical and religious basis; for +goodness is largely its own evidence, as virtue is its own reward. It +all depends on the teacher. Life produces life, life develops life; +and if the teacher have within himself a living sense of the +all-importance of conduct, if he thoroughly realize that what we call +knowledge is but a small part of man's life, his influence will nourish +the feelings by which character is evolved. The germ of a moral idea +is always an emotion, and that which impels to right action is the +emotion rather than the idea. The teachings of the heart remain +forever, and they are the most important; for what we love, genuinely +believe in, and desire decides what we are and may become. Hence the +true educator, even in giving technical instruction, strives not merely +to make a workman, but to make also a man, whose being shall be touched +to finer issues by spiritual powers, who shall be upheld by faith in +the worth and sacredness of life, and in the education by which it is +transformed, enriched, purified, and ennobled. He understands that an +educated man, who, in the common acceptation of the phrase, is one who +knows something, who knows many things, is, in truth, simply one who +has acquired habits of right thinking and right doing. The culture +which we wish to see prevail throughout our country is not learning and +literary skill; it is character and intellectual openness,--that higher +humanity which is latent within us all; which is power, wisdom, truth, +goodness, love, sympathy, grace, and beauty; whose surpassing +excellence the poor may know as well as the rich; whose charm the +multitude may feel as well as the chosen few. + +"He who speaks of the people," says Guicciardini, "speaks, in sooth, of +a foolish animal, a prey to a thousand errors, a thousand confusions, +without taste, without affection, without firmness." The scope of our +public-school education is to make common-places of this kind, by which +all literature is pervaded, so false as to be absurd; and when this end +shall have been attained, Democracy will have won its noblest victory. + +How shall we find the secret from which hope of such success will +spring? By so forming and directing the power of public opinion, of +national approval, and of money, as to make the best men and women +willing and ready to enter the teacher's profession. The kind of man +who educates is the test of the kind of education given, and there is +properly no other test. When we Americans shall have learned to +believe with all our hearts and with all the strength of irresistible +conviction that a true educator is a more important, in every way a +more useful, sort of man than a great railway king, or pork butcher, or +captain of industry, or grain buyer, or stock manipulator, we shall +have begun to make ourselves capable of perceiving the real scope of +public-school education. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. + +The theory of development, which is now widely received and applied to +all things, from star dust to the latest fashion, is at once a sign and +a cause of the almost unlimited confidence which we put in the remedial +and transforming power of education. We no longer think of God as +standing aloof from nature and the course of history. He it is who +works in the play of atoms and in the throbbings of the human heart; +and as we perceive his action in the evolution both of matter and of +mind, we know and feel that, when with conscious purpose we strive to +call forth and make living the latent powers of man's being, we are +working with him in the direction in which he impels the universe. +Education, therefore, we look upon as necessary, not merely because it +is indispensable to any high and human kind of life, but also because +God has made development the law both of conscious and unconscious +nature. He is in act all that the finite may become, and the effort to +grow in strength, knowledge, and virtue springs from a divine impulse. + +Although we know that the earth is not the centre of the universe, that +it is but a minor satellite, a globule lost in space, our deepest +thought still finds that the end of nature is the production of +rational beings, of man; for the final reason for which all things +exist is that the infinite good may be communicated; and since the +highest good is truth and holiness, it can be communicated only to +beings who think and love. Hence all things are man's, and he exists +that he may make himself like God; in other words, that he may educate +himself; for the end of education is to fit him for completeness of +life, to train all his faculties, to call all his endowments into play, +to make him symmetrical and whole in body and soul. This, of course, +is the ideal, and consequently the unattainable; but in the light of +ideals alone do we see rightly and judge truly; and to take a lower +view of the aim and end of education is to take a partial view. To +hold that God is, and that man truly lives only in so far as he is made +partaker of the divine life, is, by implication, to hold that his +education should be primarily and essentially religious. Our opinions +and beliefs, however, are never the result of purely rational +processes, and hence a mere syllogism has small persuasive force, or +even no influence at all, upon our way of looking at things, or the +motives which determine action. + +As it is useless to argue against the nature of things, so we generally +plead in vain when our world-view is other than that of those whom we +seek to convince; for those who observe from different points either do +not see the same objects or do not see them in the same light. Life is +complex, and the springs of thought and action are controlled in +mysterious ways by forces and impulses which we neither clearly +understand nor accurately measure. What is called the spirit of the +age, the spirit which, as the Poet says, sits at the roaring loom of +time and weaves for God the garment whereby He is made visible to us, +exercises a potent influence upon all our thinking and doing. We live +in an era of progress, and progress means differentiation of structure +and specialization of function. The more perfect the organism, the +more are its separate functions assigned to separate parts. As social +aggregates develop, a similar differentiation takes place. Offices +which were in the hands of one are distributed among several. Agencies +are evolved by which processes of production, distribution, and +exchange are carried on. Trades and professions are called into +existence. As enlightenment and skill increase, men become more +difficult to please. They demand the best work, and the best work can +be done, as a rule, only by specialists. Specialization thus becomes a +characteristic of civilization. The patriarch is both king and priest. +In Greece and Rome, religion is a function of the State. In the Middle +Age, the Church and the State coalesce, and form such an intimate union +that the special domain of either is invaded by both. But +differentiation finally takes place, and we all learn to distinguish +between the things of Cæsar and the things of God. This separation has +far-reaching results. In asserting its independence, the State was +driven to use argument as well as force. Thus learning, which in the +confusion that succeeded the incursions of the Barbarians was +cultivated almost exclusively by ecclesiastics, grew to be of interest +and importance to laymen. They began to study, and the subjects which +most engaged their thoughts were not religious, in the accepted sense +of the word. The Protestant rebellion is but a phase of this +revolution. It began with the introduction of the literature of Greece +into Western Europe. The spirit of inquiry and mental curiosity was +thereby awakened in wider circles; enthusiasm for the truth and beauty +to which Greek genius has given the most perfect expression, was +aroused; and interest in intellectual and artistic culture was called +forth. New ideals were upheld to fresh and wondering minds. The +contagion spread, and the thirst for knowledge was carried to +ever-widening spheres. It thus came to pass that the cleric and the +scholar ceased to be identical. The boundaries of knowledge were +enlarged when the inductive method was applied to the study of nature, +and it soon became impossible for one man to pretend to a mastery of +all science. And so the principle of the division of labor was +introduced into things of the intellect. Of old, the prophet or the +philosopher was supposed to possess all wisdom; but now it had become +plain that proficiency could be hoped for only by lifelong devotion to +some special branch of knowledge. This led to other developments. The +business of teaching, which had been almost exclusively in the hands of +ecclesiastics, was now necessarily taken up by laymen also. As +feudalism fell to decay, and the assertion of popular rights began to +point to the advent of democracy, the movement in opposition to +privilege logically led to the claim that learning should no longer be +held to be the appanage of special classes, but that the gates of the +temple of knowledge should be thrown open to the whole people. To make +education universal, the most ready and the simplest means was to levy +a school tax; and as this could be done only by the State, the State +established systems of education and assumed the office of teacher. +The result of all this has been that the school, which throughout +Christendom is the creation of the church, has in most countries very +largely passed into the control of the civil government. + +This transference of control need not, however, involve the exclusion +of religious influence and instruction; though once the State has +gained the ascendency, the natural tendency is to take a partial and +secular view of the whole question of education, and to limit the +functions of the school to the training of the mental faculties. And, +as a matter of fact, this tendency is found in men of widely differing +and even conflicting opinions and convictions concerning religion +itself. It is most pronounced, however, in the educational theories +and systems of positivists and agnostics. As they hold that there is +no God, or that we cannot know that there is a God, they necessarily +conclude that it is absurd to attempt to teach children anything about +God. This view is forcibly expressed by Issaurat, a French writer on +education, in a recently published volume, which he calls "The +Evolution and History of Pedagogy." + +"All religion," he affirms, in the concluding chapter of his book, +"impedes, thwarts, misdirects, and troubles the natural education of +man, the normal and harmonious development of his physical, moral, and +intellectual faculties; and since educational reform is not possible +without reformation in the government, it is the duty of the State, not +merely to separate itself from the church, but to suppress the church +and to found the science of education upon biological philosophy, upon +transformism--let us say the word, upon materialism." This view is +manifestly the inevitable result of Issaurat's general system of +thought and belief. In his opinion, matter alone really exists, and +what is called spirit is but a phase of its evolution. The world of +spirit, therefore, is illusory; and to bring up the young to believe +that it is the infinite, essential reality, is to teach them what is +false, and to give a wrong direction to the whole course of life. For +practical purposes this is the view not only of materialists and +positivists, but of agnostics as well, who, though they do not deny the +existence of spirit, assert that only the phenomenal can be known, or +become the subject-matter of teaching. They all agree in holding that +the theological world-view was the primitive one, which, yielding to +the metaphysical, has been finally superseded by the scientific, the +sole basis of a rational philosophy. The ideas of God, substance, +cause, and end, are metaphysical ideas, which, if we wish to understand +nature, must be ignored; for the study of nature is the study simply of +facts and their relations with one another. There is, so they think, +no such thing as substance, any more than there is such a thing as a +principle of gravity, heat, light, electricity, or chemical affinity. +The vital principle too, which has played so great a part in +physiological inquiries, must be given up; and therefore, while nearly +all the philosophers, from Kant to our own day, have made psychology +the foundation of the science of education, there is at present a +marked tendency to have it rest solely on biology. Whether and to what +extent these theories are true or false, is beyond the purpose of this +argument. True or false, they fairly describe the views of a large +number of thinkers in our day, and enable us to form a conception of +their philosophy of education. "Why trouble ourselves," asks Professor +Huxley, "about matters of which, however important they may be, we do +know nothing and can know nothing? With a view to our duty in this +life, it is necessary to be possessed of only two beliefs: The first, +that the order of nature is ascertainable by our faculties to an extent +that is practically unlimited; the second, that our volition counts for +something as a condition of the course of events." Our volition counts +as a condition, but it is after all only a part of the course of +events, and, consequently, the only belief it is necessary to hold is, +that the course of events is ascertainable by our faculties to a +practically unlimited extent. Such is the brief creed of materialists +and agnostics. The order of nature is the only known god, and man's +sole end and duty is to make himself acquainted with it, that through +obedience he may attain the highest perfection and happiness of which +he is capable. This is the one true religion, and an enlightened +people should forbid that any other be taught in their schools. Here +we have an intelligible and well-defined position, and the one which, +from the point of view of such men as Issaurat and Huxley, is alone +tenable. + +Every one now, who thinks at all, has some theory of the world, and +hence the shades of unbelief as of belief are many; and since views of +education are part of a more general system of philosophy, it is +inevitable that those who disagree upon the fundamental questions of +thought, disagree also in their notions as to what is the school's +proper office. + +Materialists, pantheists, positivists, secularists, and pessimists +unite in denying that there is a God above and distinct from nature, +while agnostics and cosmists affirm that such a being, if he exist, +must necessarily lie outside the domain of knowledge. Positive +religious doctrines, therefore, are superstition. As these views are +reflected in a more or less vague way in the writings of the multitude +of those who make the current literature, public opinion becomes averse +to religious dogmas. A large number of cultivated minds turn from all +definite systems, whether of thought or belief. Everything may be +tolerated, if only the spirit of dogmatism is away. They recognize how +great a thing religion is, how profoundly it touches life, how +powerfully it shapes conduct. Without it, civilization is hard and +mechanical, art is formal and feeble, and man himself but a shrewd +animal. But, from their points of view, doctrines about God and Christ +and the church have nothing to do with religion. To think of God as +substance is to convert him into nature, to think of him as a person is +to limit him. The only absolute is the moral order of the world. The +religion of Christ is not a theory or a system of thought; it is a view +of life, and its essence is found in belief in the reality of moral +ideas. The supernatural may fall away,--even the notion of a +Providence which rules the world in the interest of the good may be +given up,--and we still have the method and the secret of Jesus, all +that is of value in his life and teaching. All theology is an +illusion, all creeds are a mistake. Religion rests upon the moral +power, which is not a conclusion drawn from facts, but the fact +itself,--the primal and essential fact in human life. Religion is +simply morality suffused by the glow and warmth of a devout and +reverent temper, and to teach doctrines about God and the church will +not make men religious. + +It is obvious to object that morality supposes belief in a Personal God +and in the soul of man, as law implies a law-giver. This objection is +meaningless, not only for the thinkers whom I have mentioned, but for +others who find little interest in the literary and religious ideas of +such men as Matthew Arnold. Morality, they claim, is independent, not +only of metaphysics, but of religion as well. It is a science, as yet, +indeed, imperfectly developed, but a science nevertheless, just as +chemistry or physiology is a science. Human acts are controlled, not +by a higher will or man's freedom of choice, but by physical laws. The +peculiarity of this view does not lie in the contention that ethics is +a science, but in the claim that it is a science altogether independent +of metaphysical and religious dogmas. All forces, it is asserted, +physical, mental, and moral, are identical; and morality, like bodily +vigor, is a product of organism. It is, in fact, but an elaboration of +the two radical instincts of nutrition and propagation, from which +springs the twofold movement of conscious life, the egoistic and the +altruistic. This theory is accepted alike in the German school of +materialism, in the French school of positivism, and in the English +school of utilitarianism. What the influence of modern empiricism upon +American opinion may be, it is difficult to determine. Americans +certainly are a practical people, but they are not devoid of interest +in speculative views. More than any other people, possibly, they have +faith in the marvellous things which science is destined to accomplish, +and they willingly listen to men of science, even when they quit the +regions of fact for those of opinion. Thus the various theories, to +which the progress of natural knowledge has given rise, are received by +them, if not with implicit trust, with a kind of feeling, at least, +that they may be true. + +There is even a disposition to treat doubts of the truth of +Christianity as a mark of intellectual vigor, and sometimes as a sign +of religious sincerity. Preoccupied with material interests, but yet +finding time to read the thoughts of many minds and to hear the +discussion of antagonistic opinions and systems, they find it difficult +to trust with entire confidence to what they know or believe. It all +seems to be relative, and another generation may see everything in a +different light. Problems take the place of principles, religious +convictions are feeble, the grasp of Christian truth is relaxed, and +the result is a certain moral hesitancy and infirmity. + +They are not hostile to the churches, but they are more or less +indifferent to their doctrines. As each sect has its peculiar creed, +the dogmatic position of the church is thought to be of little moment. +The important thing is to promote intelligence and virtue. The +distinctively sectarian view they look upon as narrow and false, and +the good which ecclesiastical organizations do is done in spite of +their characteristic doctrines. The note of sectarianism is to them +what the note of provincialism is to a man of culture, or lack of +breeding to a gentleman. The moral fervor, which sectarians more than +others feel, is, they freely grant, a power for good. It has a +wholesome influence upon character, and is a support of the virtues +which make free institutions possible, and which alone can make them +permanent. But it has no necessary connection with theological +doctrines, since it is found in earnest believers, whatever their +creed. It is the child of enthusiastic faith, and is nourished and +kept living by worship, not by dogmatic asseverations. As the power of +the churches does not lie in their creeds, to make these creeds a +school lesson cannot be desirable, especially when we reflect that the +method of religion and the method of science are at variance. + +Such, I imagine, are the views of large numbers of Americans, who are +not members of any church, but whose influence is strongly felt in +political and commercial as well as in social and professional life. +And numbers of zealous Protestants are in substantial agreement with +them, since they hold that faith is an emotional rather than an +intellectual state of mind, and that religion is not so much a way of +thinking as a way of feeling and acting. They assume, of course, as +the prerequisites of religious belief, the dogmas of the existence of a +personal God and of an immortal human soul; but, for the rest, they lay +stress upon conduct and piety, not upon orthodox faith. A church must +have a creed, as a party must have a platform; but unhesitating +confidence in the truth of the doctrines which it thus formulates is +not indispensable. American churches tend to ignore creeds. This is +due, in a measure, to the growing desire to form a union among the +several sects; but it is none the less a sign of waning belief in +dogmatic religion. Hence the increasing emphasis which preaching lays +upon the moral, æsthetic, and emotional aspects of the religious life. +Hence, too, the assumption that the soul of the church may live, though +the body be dead. + +But, apart from all theories and systems of belief and thought, public +opinion in America sets strongly against the denominational school. + +The question of education is considered from a practical rather than +from a theoretical point of view, and public sentiment on the subject +may be embodied in the following words: The civilized world now +recognizes the necessity of popular education. In a government of the +people, such as this is, intelligence should be universal. In such a +government, to be ignorant is not merely to be weak, it is also to be +dangerous to the common welfare; for the ignorant are not only the +victims of circumstances, they are the instruments which unscrupulous +and designing men make use of, to taint the source of political +authority and to thwart the will of the people. To protect itself, the +State is forced to establish schools and to see that all acquire at +least the rudiments of letters. This is so plain a case that argument +becomes ridiculous. They who doubt the good of knowledge are not to be +reasoned with, and in America not to see that it is necessary, is to +know nothing of our political, commercial, and social life. But the +American State can give only a secular education, for it is separate +from the church, and its citizens profess such various and even +conflicting beliefs, that in establishing a school system, it is +compelled to eliminate the question of religion. Church and State are +separate institutions, and their functions are different and distinct. +The church seeks to turn men from sin, that they may become pleasing to +God and save their souls; the State takes no cognizance of sin, but +strives to prevent crime, and to secure to all its citizens the +enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. Americans are a Christian +people. Religious zeal impelled their ancestors to the New World, and +when schools were first established here, they were established by the +churches, and religious instruction formed an important part of the +education they gave. This was natural, and it was desirable even, in +primitive times, when each colony had its own creed and worship, when +society was simple, and the State as yet imperfectly organized. Here, +as in the Old World, the school was the daughter of the church, and she +has doubtless rendered invaluable service to civilization, by fostering +a love for knowledge among barbarous races and in struggling +communities. But the task of maintaining a school system such as the +requirements of a great and progressive nation demands, is beyond her +strength. This is so, at least, when the church is split into jealous +and warring sects. + +To introduce the spirit of sectarianism into the class-room would +destroy the harmony and good-will among citizens, which it is one of +the aims of the common school to cherish. There is, besides, no reason +why this should be done, since the family and the church give all the +religious instruction which children are capable of receiving. + +This, it seems to me, is a fair presentation of the views and ideas +which go to the making of current American opinion on the question of +religious instruction in State schools; and current opinion, when the +subject-matter is not susceptible of physical demonstration, cannot be +turned suddenly in an opposite direction. When men have grown +accustomed to look at things in a certain way, they have acquired a +mental habit, which no mere argument, however cogent or eloquent, is +able to overcome. To what extent this view of the school question +prevails is readily perceived by whoever recalls to mind that not one +of the States of the Union has attempted to introduce the +denominational system of education, while all the political parties +have bound themselves to uphold the present purely secular system. The +opinion that the prosperity of the nation depends upon the intelligence +and activity of the people, and to no appreciable extent upon the +influence of ecclesiastical organizations, has so far prevailed, that +the general feeling has come to be that the State has no direct +interest in the church, which is the concern merely of individuals. +The religious denominations themselves have helped to inspire this +sentiment by their jealousies and rivalries. The smaller sects feel +that State aid for denominational schools would accrue to the benefit +chiefly of the larger; and the others are willing to forego favors +which they could not receive without permitting the Catholic Church to +participate also in the bounty of the government. + +The Catholic view of the school question is as clearly defined as it is +well known. It rests upon the general ground that man is created for a +supernatural end, and that the church is the divinely appointed agency +to help him to attain his supreme destiny. If education is a training +for completeness of life, its primary element is the religious, for +complete life is life in God. Hence we may not assume an attitude +toward the child, whether in the home, in the church, or in the school, +which might imply that life apart from God could be anything else than +broken and fragmentary. A complete man is not one whose mind only is +active and enlightened; but he is a complete man who is alive in all +his faculties. The truly human is found not in knowledge alone, but +also in faith, in hope, in love, in pure-mindedness, in reverence, in +the sense of beauty, in devoutness, in the thrill of awe, which Goethe +says is the highest thing in man. If the teacher is forbidden to touch +upon religion, the source of these noble virtues and ideal moods is +sealed. His work and influence become mechanical, and he will form but +commonplace and vulgar men. And if an educational system is +established on this narrow and material basis, the result will be +deterioration of the national type, and the loss of the finer qualities +which make men many-sided and interesting, which are the safeguards of +personal purity and of unselfish conduct. + +Religion is the vital element in character, and to treat it as though +it were but an incidental phase of man's life is to blunder in a matter +of the highest and most serious import. Man is born to act, and +thought is valuable mainly as a guide to action. Now, the chief +inspiration to action, and above all to right action, is found in +faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion, and not in knowledge, +the virtue of the intellect. Knowledge, indeed, is effectual only when +it is loved, believed in, and held to be a ground for hope. Man does +not live on bread alone, and if he is brought up to look to material +things, as to the chief good, his higher faculties will be stunted. If +to do rightly rather than to think keenly is man's chief business here +on earth, then the virtues of religion are more important than those of +the intellect; for to think is to be unresolved, whereas to believe is +to be impelled in the direction of one's faith. In epochs of doubt +things fall to decay; in epochs of faith the powers which make for full +and vigorous life, hold sway. The education which forms character is +indispensable, that which trains the mind is desirable. The essential +element in human life is conduct, and conduct springs from what we +believe, cling to, love, and yearn for, vastly more than from what we +know. The decadence and ruin of individuals and of societies come from +lack of virtue, not from lack of knowledge. "The hard and valuable +part of education," says Locke, "is virtue; this is the solid and +substantial good, which the teacher should never cease to inculcate +till the young man places his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in +it." We may, of course, distinguish between morality and religion, +between ethics and theology. As a matter of fact, however, moral laws +have everywhere reposed upon the basis of religion, and their sanction +has been sought in the principles of faith. As an immoral religion is +false, so, if there is no God, a moral law is meaningless. + +Theorists may be able to construct a system of ethics upon a foundation +of materialism; but their mechanical and utilitarian doctrines have not +the power to exalt the imagination or to confirm the will. Their +educational value is feeble. Here in America we have already passed +the stage of social development in which we might hold out to the +young, as an ideal, the hope of becoming President of the Republic, or +the possessor of millions of money. We know what sorry men presidents +and millionnaires may be. We cannot look upon our country simply as a +wide race-course with well-filled purses hanging at the goal for the +prize-winners. We clearly perceive that a man's possessions are not +himself, and that he is or ought to be more than anything which can +belong to him. Ideals of excellence, therefore, must be substituted +for those of success. Opinion governs the world, but ideals draw souls +and stimulate to noble action. The more we transform with the aid of +machinery the world of matter, the more necessary does it become that +we make plain to all that man's true home is the world of thought and +love, of hope and aspiration. The ideals of utilitarianism and +secularism are unsatisfactory. They make no appeal to the infinite in +man, to that in him which makes pursuit better than possession, and +which, could he believe there is no absolute truth, love, and beauty, +would lead him to despair. To-day, as of old, the soul is born of God +and for God, and finds no peace unless it rest in him. Theology, +assuredly, is not religion; but religion implies theology, and a church +without a creed is a body without articulation. The virtues of +religion are indispensable. Without them, it is not well either with +individuals or with nations; but these virtues cannot be inculcated by +those who, standing aloof from ecclesiastical organizations, are +thereby cut off from the thought and work of all who in every age have +most loved God, and whose faith in the soul has been most living. +Religious men have wrought for God in the church, as patriots have +wrought for liberty and justice in the nation; and to exclude the +representatives of the churches from the school is practically to +exclude religion,--the power which more than all others makes for +righteousness, which inspires hope and confidence, which makes possible +faith in the whole human brotherhood, in the face even of the political +and social wrongs which are still everywhere tolerated. To exclude +religion is to exclude the spirit of reverence, of gentleness and +obedience, of modesty and purity; it is to exclude the spirit by which +the barbarians have been civilized, by which woman has been uplifted +and ennobled and the child made sacred. From many sides the demand is +made that the State schools exercise a greater moral influence, that +they be made efficient in forming character as well as in training the +mind. It is recognized that knowing how to read and write does not +insure good behavior. Since the State assumes the office of teacher, +there is a disposition among parents to make the school responsible for +their children's morals as well as for their minds, and thus the +influence of the home is weakened. Whatever the causes may be, there +seems to be a tendency, both in private and in public life, to lower +ethical standards. The moral influence of the secular school is +necessarily feeble, since our ideas of right and wrong are so +interfused with the principles of Christianity that to ignore our +religious convictions is practically to put aside the question of +conscience. If the State may take no cognizance of sin, neither may +its school do so. But in morals sin is the vital matter; crime is but +its legal aspect. Men begin as sinners before they end as criminals. + +The atmosphere of religion is the natural medium for the development of +character. If we appeal to the sense of duty, we assume belief in God +and in the freedom of the will; if we strive to awaken enthusiasm for +the human brotherhood, we imply a divine fatherhood. Accordingly, as +we accept or reject the doctrines of religion, the sphere of moral +action, the nature of the distinction between right and wrong, and the +motives of conduct all change. In the purely secular school only +secular morality may be taught; and whatever our opinion of this system +of ethics may otherwise be, it is manifestly deficient in the power +which appeals to the heart and the conscience. The child lives in a +world which imagination creates, where faith, hope, and love beckon to +realms of beauty and delight. The spiritual and moral truths which are +to become the very life-breath of his soul he apprehends mystically, +not logically. Heaven lies about him; he lives in wonderland, and +feels the thrill of awe as naturally as he looks with wide-open eyes. +Do not seek to persuade him by telling him that honesty is the best +policy, that poverty overtakes the drunkard, that lechery breeds +disease, that to act for the common welfare is the surest way to get +what is good for one's self; for such teaching will not only leave him +unimpressed, but it will seem to him profane, and almost immoral. He +wants to feel that he is the child of God, of the infinitely good and +all-wonderful; that in his father, divine wisdom and strength are +revealed; in his mother, divine tenderness and love. He so believes +and trusts in God that it is our fault if he knows that men can be +base. In nothing does the godlike character of Christ show forth more +beautifully than in His reverence for children. Shall we profess to +believe in Him, and yet forbid His name to be spoken in the houses +where we seek to train the little ones whom He loved? Shall we shut +out Him whose example has done more to humanize, ennoble, and uplift +the race of man than all the teachings of the philosophers and all the +disquisitions of the moralists? If the thinkers, from Plato and +Aristotle to Kant and Pestalozzi, who have dealt with the problems of +education, have held that virtue is its chief aim and end, shall we +thrust from the school the one ideal character who, for nearly nineteen +hundred years, has been the chief inspiration to righteousness and +heroism; to whose words patriots and reformers have appealed in their +struggles for liberty and right; to whose example philanthropists have +looked in their labors to alleviate suffering; to whose teaching the +modern age owes its faith in the brotherhood of men; by whose courage +and sympathy the world has been made conscious that the distinction +between man and woman is meant for the propagation of the race, but +that as individuals they have equal rights and should have equal +opportunities? We all, and especially the young, are influenced by +example more than by precepts and maxims, and it is unjust and +unreasonable to exclude from the schoolroom the living presence of the +noblest and best men and women, of those whose words and deeds have +created our Christian civilization. In the example of their lives we +have truth and justice, goodness and greatness, in concrete form; and +the young who are brought into contact with these centres of influence +will be filled with admiration and enthusiasm; they will be made gentle +and reverent; and they will learn to realize the ever-fresh charm and +force of personal purity. Teachers who have no moral criteria, no +ideals, no counsels of perfection, no devotion to God and godlike men, +cannot educate, if the proper meaning of education is the complete +unfolding of all man's powers. + +The school, of course, is but one of the many agencies by which +education is given. We are under the influence of our whole +environment,--physical, moral, and intellectual; political, social, and +religious; and if, in all this, aught were different, we ourselves +should be other. The family is a school and the church is a school; +and current American opinion assigns to them the business of moral and +religious education. But this implies that conduct and character are +of secondary importance; it supposes that the child may be made subject +to opposite influences at home and in the school, and not thereby have +his finer sense of reverence, truth, and goodness deadened. The +subduing of the lower nature, of the outward to the inner man, is a +thing so arduous that reason, religion, and law combined often fail to +accomplish it. If one should propose to do away with schools +altogether, and to leave education to the family and the Church, he +would be justly considered ridiculous; because the carelessness of +parents and the inability of the ministry of the Church would involve +the prevalence of illiteracy. Now, to leave moral and religious +education to the family and the churches involves, for similar reasons, +the prevalence of indifference, sin, and crime. If illiteracy is a +menace to free institutions, vice and irreligion are a greater menace. +The corrupt are always bad citizens; the ignorant are not necessarily +so. Parents who would not have their children taught to read and +write, were there no free schools, will as a rule neglect their +religious and moral education. In giving religious instruction to the +young, the churches are plainly at a disadvantage; for they have the +child but an hour or two in seven days, and they get into their Sunday +classes only the children of the more devout. + +If the chief end of education is virtue; if conduct is three-fourths of +life; if character is indispensable, while knowledge is only +useful,--then it follows that religion--which, more than any other +vital influence, has power to create virtue, to inspire conduct, and to +mould character--should enter into all the processes of education. Our +school system, then, does not rest upon a philosophic view of life and +education. We have done what it was easiest to do, not what it was +best to do; and in this, as in other instances, churchmen have been +willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to the whims of a +narrow and jealous temper. The denominational system of popular +education is the right system. The secular system is a wrong system. +The practical difficulties to be overcome that religious instruction +may be given in the schools are relatively unimportant, and would be +set aside if the people were thoroughly persuaded of its necessity. An +objection which Dr. Harris, among others, insists upon, that the method +of science and the method of religion are dissimilar, and that +therefore secular knowledge and religious knowledge should not be +taught in the same school, seems to me to have no weight. The method +of mathematics is not the method of biology; the method of logic is not +the method of poetry; but they are all taught in the same school. A +good teacher, in fact, employs many methods. In teaching the child +grammatical analysis, he has no fear of doing harm to his imagination +or his talent for composition. + +No system, however, can give assurance that the school is good. To +determine this we must know the spirit which lives in it. The +intellectual, moral, and religious atmosphere which the child breathes +there is of far more importance, from an educational point of view, +than any doctrines he may learn by rote, than any acts of worship he +may perform. + +The teacher makes the school; and when high, pure, devout, and +enlightened men and women educate, the conditions favorable to mental +and moral growth will be found, provided a false system does not compel +them to assume a part and play a role, while the true self--the faith, +hope, and love whereby they live--is condemned to inaction. The deeper +tendency of the present age is not, I think, to exclude religion from +any vital process, but rather to widen the content of the idea of +religion until it embrace the whole life of man. The worship of God is +not now the worship of infinite wisdom, holiness, and justice alone, +but is also the worship of the humane, the beautiful, and the +industriously active. Whether we work for knowledge or freedom, or +purity or strength, or beauty or health, or aught else that is friendly +to completeness of life, we work with God and for God. In the school, +as in whatever other place in the boundless universe a man may find +himself, he finds himself with God, in Him moves, lives, and has his +being. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE HIGHER EDUCATION.[1] + +[1] A discourse pronounced at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, +which, being enforced by the offer of three hundred thousand dollars by +Miss Caldwell, led to the founding of the University at Washington. + + +The subject which I have been asked to treat is the higher education of +priests; which, I suppose, is the highest education of man, since the +ideal of the Christian priest is the most exalted, his vocation the +most sublime, his office the most holy, his duties the most spiritual, +and his mission--whether we consider its relation to morality, which is +the basis of individual and social welfare, or to religion, which is +the promise and the secret of immortal and godlike life--is the most +important and the most sacred which can be assigned to a human being. + +Religion and education--like religion and morality--are nearly related. +Pure religion, indeed, is more than right education; and yet it may be +said with truth that it is but a part of the best education, for it +co-operates with other forces--with climate, custom, social conditions, +and political institutions--to develop and fashion the complete man; +and the special instruction of teachers--which is the narrow meaning of +the word--is modified, and to a great extent controlled, by these +powers which work unseen, and are the vital agents that make possible +all conscious educational efforts. + +The faith we hold, the laws we obey, the domestic and social customs to +which our thoughts and loves are harmonized, the climate we live in, +mould our characters and give to our souls a deeper and more lasting +tinge than any school, though it were the best. + +My subject, however, does not demand that I consider these general and +silent agencies by which life is influenced, but leads me to the +discussion of the methods by which man, with conscious purpose, seeks +to form and instruct his fellow-man; to the discussion of the special +education which brings art to the aid of nature, and becomes the +auxiliary and guide of the other forces which contribute to the +development of our being. + +In this age, when all who think at all turn their thoughts to questions +of education, it is needless to call attention to the interest of the +subject, which, like hope, is immortal, and fresh as the innocent face +of laughing childhood. + +Is not the school for all men a shrine to which their pilgrim thoughts +return to catch again the glow and gladness of a world wherein they +lived by faith and hope and love when round the morning sun of life the +golden purple clouds were hanging, and earth lay hidden in mist, +beneath which the soul created a new paradise? To the opening mind all +things are young and fair; and to remember the delight that accompanied +the gradual dawn of knowledge upon our mental vision, sweet and +beautiful as the upglowing of day from the bosom of night, is to be +forever thankful for the gracious power of education. And is there not +in all hearts a deep and abiding yearning for great and noble men, and +therefore an imperishable interest in the power by which they are +moulded? When fathers and mothers look upon the fair blossoming +children that cling to them as the vine wraps its tendrils round the +spreading bough, and when their great love fills them with ineffable +longing to shield these tender souls from the blighting blasts of a +cold and stormy world, and little by little to prepare them to stand +alone and breast the gales of fortune, do they not instinctively put +their trust in the power of education? + +When, at the beginning of the present century, Germany lay prostrate at +the feet of Napoleon, the wise and the patriotic among her children +yielded not to despondency, but turned with confidence to truer methods +and systems of education, and assiduous teaching and patient waiting +finally brought them to Sedan. + +When, in the sixteenth century, heresy and schism seemed near to final +victory over the Church, Pope Julius III. declared that the evils and +abuses of the times were the outgrowth of the shameful ignorance of the +clergy, and that the chief hope of the dawning of a brighter day lay in +general and thorough ecclesiastical education. And the Catholic +leaders who finally turned back the advancing power of Protestantism, +re-established the Church in half the countries in which it had been +overthrown, and converted more souls in America and Asia than had been +lost in Europe, belonged to the greatest educational body the world has +ever seen. What is history but examples of success through knowledge +and righteousness, and of failure through lack of understanding and of +virtue? + +Wherein lies the superiority of civilized races over barbarians if not +in their greater knowledge and superior strength of character? And +what but education has placed in the hands of man the thousand natural +forces which he holds as a charioteer his well-reined steeds, bidding +the winds carry him to distant lands, making steam his tireless, +ever-ready slave, and commanding the lightning to speak his words to +the ends of the earth? What else than this has taught him to map the +boundless heavens, to read the footprints of God in the crust of the +earth ages before human beings lived, to measure the speed of light, to +weigh the imperceptible atom, to split up all natural compounds, to +create innumerable artificial products with which he transforms the +world and with a grain of powder marches like a conquering god around +the globe? + +What converts the meaningless babbling of the child into the stately +march of oratoric phrase or the rhythmic flow of poetic language? What +has developed the rude stone and bronze implements of savage and +barbarous hordes into the miraculous machinery which we use? By what +power has man been taught to carve the shapeless rock into an image of +ideal beauty, or with it to build his thought into a temple of God, +where the soul instinctively prostrates itself in adoration? + +Is not all this, together with whatever else is excellent in human +works, the result of education, which gives to man a second nature with +more admirable endowments? And is not religion itself a kind of +celestial education, which trains the soul to godlike life? + +No progress in things divine or human is made by man except through +effort, and effort is the power and the law of education. The maxim of +the spiritual writers that not to struggle upward and onward is to be +drawn downward, applies to every phase of our life. Whence do we +derive strength of soul but from the uplifting of the mind and heart to +God which we call prayer? To pray is to think, to attend, to hold the +mind lovingly to its object; and this is what we do when we study. +Hence prayer, which is the voice of religion, is a part of +education,--nay, its very soul, breathing on all the chords of life, +till their thousand dissonances meet in rhythmic harmony. What is the +pulpit but the holiest teacher's chair that has been placed upon the +earth? + +And as the presence of a noble character is a more potent influence +than words, so sacramental communion with Christ is man's chief school +of faith, of hope, and love. There are worthy persons who turn, as +from an unholy thought, from the emphatic announcement of the need of +the best human qualities for the proper defence of the cause of God in +the world. Such speech seems to them to be vain and unreal; for God is +all in all, and man is nothing. But in our day it is easier to go +astray in the direction of self-annihilation than in that of +self-assertion; since the common tendency now of all false philosophies +is pantheistic, and issues in unconscious contempt of individual life. +If man is but a bubble, merging forth and re-absorbed, without past or +future, then indeed both he, and what he seems to do, sink into the +eternal flow of matter, and are undeserving of a thought. This +certainly is not the Christian view, to which man is revealed as a +lesser god, and co-worker with the Eternal, whose thought can reach the +infinite, and whose will can oppose that of the Omnipotent. In Christ, +God co-operates with man for the salvation of the world; and in the +Church, man co-operates with God to this same end. The more complete +the man, the more fit is he to work with God. Even bodily +disfigurement is looked upon as an obstacle; how much more, then, shall +lack of intelligence and want of heart render us unworthy of the divine +office? I certainly shall never deny that love, which the Apostle +exalts above faith and hope, is higher also than knowledge. The light +of the mind is as that of the moon--fair and soft and soothing, without +heat, without the power to call forth and nourish life; but the light +of the soul, which is love, is the sunlight, whose kiss, like a word of +God, makes the dead to live, and clothes the world in strength and +beauty. Character is more than intellect, love is more than knowledge, +religion is more than morality; and a great heart brings us closer to +God, nearer to all goodness, than a bright mind. Education is +essentially moral, and the intellectual qualities themselves, which we +seek to develop, derive their chief efficacy from underlying ethical +qualities upon which they rest and from which they receive their energy +and the power of self-control. Inequality of will is the great cause +of inequality of mind; and the will is strengthened by the practice of +virtue, as the body by food and exercise. If this is a general truth, +with what special force must it not apply to the ministers of a +religion the paramount and ceaseless aim of which is to make men holy, +so that at times it has almost seemed as though the Church were +indifferent as to whether they are learned or beautiful or strong? She +pronounces no man a doctor unless he be also a saint; and when I insist +that the priest shall possess the best mental culture of his age,--that +without this he fights with broken weapons, speaks with harsh voice a +language men will neither hear nor understand, teaches truths which, +having not the freshness and the glow of truth, neither kindle the +heart nor fire the imagination,--I do not forget that, without the +moral earnestness which is born of faith and purity of life, mere +cultivation of mind will not give him power to unseal the fountains of +living waters which refresh the garden of God. The universal harmony +is felt by a pure heart better than it can be perceived by a keen +intellect. To a sinless soul the darker side even of life and nature +is not wholly dark, and the mental difficulties which the existence of +evil involves in no way weaken the consciousness of the essential +goodness that lies at the heart of all things. In the religious, as in +the moral world, men trust to what we are rather than to what we say, +and the teacher of spiritual truth is never strong, unless his life and +character inspire a confidence which arguments alone do not create; for +in questions that reach beyond the sphere of sensation, we feel that +insight is better than reasons, and hence we instinctively prefer the +testimony of a god-like soul to the conclusions of a cultivated mind: +and indeed our Blessed Lord ever assumes that the obstacle to the +perception of divine truth is moral and not intellectual. The pure of +heart see God; the evil-doer loves darkness and shuns the light. St. +Paul goes even farther, and associates mental cultivation with a +tendency directly opposed to religious faith, which is humble. +"Knowledge puffeth up." But the words of the Apostle should not be +stretched beyond his purpose, which is to point to pride as a special +danger of the intellectual as sensuality is a danger of the ignorant. +For man to have aught is to run a risk, and hence to do as little as +possible is in the thought of the timid a mark of prudence. And +indeed, if fear be nearer to wisdom than courage, then should we fear +everything, for danger is everywhere. A breath may sow the seed of +death; a look may slay the soul. In knowledge, in ignorance, in +strength, in weakness, in wealth, in poverty, in genius, in stupidity, +in company, in solitude, in innocence itself, danger lurks. But God +does not abolish life that danger may cease to be; and they who put +their trust in Him will not seek to darken the mind lest knowledge lead +man astray, but will rather in a righteous cause make the venture of +all things, as St. Ignatius preferred the hope of saving others to the +certainty of his own salvation. And may we not maintain, since we hold +that there is no inappeasable conflict between God and Nature, between +the soul and matter, between revelation and science, that the apparent +antagonism lies in our apprehension, and not in things themselves, and +consequently that reconcilement is to be sought for through the help of +thoroughly trained minds? The poet speaks the truth, "A little +knowledge is a dangerous thing." They who know but little and +imperfectly, see but their knowledge, if so it may be called, and walk +in innocent unconsciousness of their infinite nescience. The narrower +the range of our mental vision, the greater the obstinacy with which we +cling to our opinions; and the half-educated, like the weak and the +incompetent, are often contentious, but whosoever is able to do his +work does it, and finds no time for dispute. He who possesses a +disciplined mind, and is familiar with the best thoughts that live in +the great literatures, will be the last to attach undue importance to +his own thinking. A sense of decency and a kind of holy shame will +keep him far from angry and unprofitable controversy; nor will he +mistake a crotchet for a panacea, nor imagine that irritation is +enlightenment. The blessings of a cultivated mind are akin to those of +religion. They are larger liberty, wider life, purer delights, and a +juster sense of the relative values of the means and ends which lie +within our reach. Knowledge, like religion, leads us away from what +appears to what is, from what passes to what remains, from what +flatters the senses to that which speaks to the soul. Wisdom and +religion converge, as love and knowledge meet in God; and to the wise +as to the religious man, no great evil can happen. Into prison they +both carry the sweet company of their thoughts, their faith and hope, +and are freer in chains than the great in palaces. In death they are +in the midst of life, for they see that what they know and love is +imperishable, nor subject even to atomic disintegration. He who lives +in the presence of truth yearns not for the company of men, but loves +retirement as a saint loves solitude; and in times like ours, when men +no longer choose the desert for a dwelling-place, the passionate desire +of intellectual excellence co-operates with religious faith to guard +them against dissipation and to lift them above the spirit of the age. +The thinker is never lonely, as he who lives with God is never unhappy. +Is not the love of excellence, which is the scholar's love, a part of +the love of goodness which makes the saint? And are not intellectual +delights akin to those religion brings? They are pure, they elevate, +they refine; time only increases their charm, and in the winter of age, +when the body is but the agent of pain, contemplation still remains +like the light of a higher world, to tinge with beauty the clouds that +gather around life's setting. How narrow and monotonous is sensation! +how wide and various is thought! They who live in the senses are +fettered and ill at ease; they who live in the soul are free and +joyful. And since the priest, unless he be a saint, must have, like +other men, some human joy, and since he dwells not in the sacred circle +of the love of wife and children, in which the multitudes find repose +and contentment, what solace, what refreshment, in the midst of cares +and labors, shall we offer him? If there be aught for him that is not +unworthy or dangerous, except the pleasures of the mind, to me it is +unknown; and though a well-trained intellect should do no more than to +enable us to take delight in pure and noble objects, it would be a +chief help to worthy life. And when the whole tendency of our social +existence is to draw men out of themselves and to make them seek the +good of life in what is external, as money, display, position, renown, +is it not a gain, if, while we open their minds to the charm of +intellectual beauty, we make them see that this eager striving for +wealth and place is a vulgar chase? And does not the spirit of +refinement in thought, in speech, in manner, add worth and fairness to +him whom it inspires, though the motive which preserves him from what +is low or gross be no higher than a fastidious delicacy and +self-respect? + +To deny the moral influence of intellectual culture is as great an +error as to affirm that it alone is a sufficient safeguard of morality. +Its tendency unquestionably is to make men gentle, amiable, +fair-minded, truthful, benevolent, modest, sober. It curbs ambition +and teaches resignation; chastens the imagination and mitigates +ferocity; dissuades from duelling because it is barbarous, and from war +because it is cruel, and from persecution because it trusts in the +prevalence of reason. It seeks to fit the mind and the character to +the world, to all possible circumstances, so that whatever happens we +remain ourselves,--calm, clear-seeing, able to do and to suffer. At +great heights, or in the presence of irresistible force, as of a mighty +waterfall, we grow dizzy; and in the same way, in the midst of +multitudes, in the eagerness of strife, in the whirlwind of passion, +equipoise is lost, and we cease to be ourselves, to become part of an +aggregate of forces that hurry us on, whither we know not. To be able +to stand in the presence of such power, and to feel its influence, and +yet not to lose self-possession, is to be strong; is, on proper +occasion, to be great. And the aim of the best education is to teach +us the secret and the method of this complete self-control; and in so +far it is not only moral, but also religious, though religion walks in +a more royal road, and bids us love God and trust so absolutely in Him +that life and death become equal, and all the ways and workings of men +as the storm to one who on lofty mountain peak, amid the blue heavens, +with the sunlight around him and the quiet breathing of the winds, sees +far below, as in another world, the black clouds and lurid lightning +flash and hears the roll of distant thunder. + +It is far from my thought, it is needless to say, that mental +cultivation can be made to take the place or do the work of religion, +even in the case of the very few for whom the best discipline of mind +is possible. My aim is simply to show that the type of character which +it tends to create is not necessarily at variance with religious +principle and life, as is, for instance, that of the mere worldling; +but that it conspires with Christian faith to produce, if not the same, +at least similar virtues, though its ethical influence is comparatively +superficial, and the moral qualities which it produces lack consistency +and the power to withstand the fire of the passions. It is enough for +my purpose to point out that if intellectualism is often the foe of +religious truth, there is no good reason why it should not also be its +ally. + +No excellence, as I conceive, of whatever kind, is rejected by Catholic +teaching, and the perfection of the mind is not less divine than the +perfection of the heart. It is good to know, as it is good to hope, to +believe, to love. A cultivated intellect, an open mind, a rich +imagination, with correctness of thought, flexibility of view, and +eloquent expression, are among the noblest endowments of man; and +though they should serve no other purpose than to embellish life, to +make it fairer and freer, they would nevertheless be possessions +without price, for the most nobly useful things are those which make +life good and beautiful. Like virtue they are their own reward, and +like mercy they bear a double blessing. It is the fashion with many to +affect contempt for men of superior culture, because they look upon +education as simply a means to tangible ends, and think knowledge +valuable only when it can be made to serve practical purposes. This is +a narrow and a false view; for all men need the noble and the +beautiful, and he who lives without an ideal is hardly a man. Our +material wants are not the most real for being the most sensible and +pressing, and they who create or preserve for us models of spiritual +and intellectual excellence are our greatest benefactors. Which were +the greater loss for England, to be without Wellington and Nelson, or +to be without Shakspeare and Milton? Whatever the answer be, in the +one case England would suffer, in the other the whole world would feel +the loss. Though a thoroughly trained intellect is less worthy of +admiration than a noble character, its power is immeasurably greater; +for, example can influence but a few and for a short time, but when a +truth or a sentiment has once found its best expression, it becomes a +part of literature, and like a proverb is current forevermore; and so +the kings of thought become immortal rulers, and without their help the +godlike deeds of saints and heroes would be buried in oblivion. "Words +pass," said Napoleon, "but deeds remain." The man of action +exaggerates the worth of action, but the philosopher knows that to act +is easy, to think, difficult; and that great deeds spring from great +thoughts. There are words that never grow silent, there are words that +have changed the face of the earth, and the warrior's wreath of victory +is entwined by the Muse's hand. The power of Athens is gone, her +temples are in ruins, the Acropolis is discrowned, and from Mars' Hill +no voice thunders now; but the words of Socrates, the great deliverer +of the mind, and the father of intellectual culture, still breathe in +the thoughts of every cultivated man on earth. The glory of Jerusalem +has departed, the broken stones of Solomon's Temple lie hard by the +graves that line the brook of Kedron, and from the minaret of Mount +Sion the misbeliever's melancholy call sounds like a wail over a lost +world; but the songs of David still rise from the whole earth in +heavenly concert, upbearing to the throne of God the faith and hope and +love of countless millions. And is not the Blessed Saviour the Eternal +Word? And is not the Bible God's word? And is not the Gospel the +Word, which, like an electric thrill, runs to the ends of the world? +"Currit verbum," says St. Paul. "Man lives not on bread alone, but on +every word that cometh forth from the mouth of God." Nay, there is +life in all the true and noble thoughts that have blossomed in the mind +of genius and filled the earth with fragrance and with fruit. + +Shall I be told that the intellectual cultivation and discipline, which +gives to man control of his knowledge, the perfect use of his +faculties, justness of perception with ease and grace of expression, +cannot bring serviceable advocacy or defence to the cause of divine +truth? What does truth need but to be known? And since to reach the +mind and heart of man it must be clothed in words, what is so necessary +to it as the garb and vesture, the form and color, the warmth and life, +which shall so mark it that to be loved it needs but be seen? And who +shall so clothe it, if not he who has the freest, the most flexible, +the clearest, the best disciplined mind? In the apostolic age, when +the manifestations of miraculous power accompanied the announcement of +Christian doctrine, the lack of the persuasive words of human eloquence +was not felt. Let him who can drink poison and touch scorpions, and +not suffer harm, despise the aid of learning; but for us, who are not +so assisted, no cultivation of mind or preparation of heart can be too +great; and to appear in the garb of a savage were less unseemly than to +speak the holiest and the highest truths in the barbarous tongue of +ignorance. + +Our way here cannot be doubtful. Either we must hold with certain +peculiar heretics that learning is a hindrance to the efficacious +teaching of religious truth, or, denying this, we must hold, since +mental culture is serviceable, that the best is most serviceable. + +May we not take this for a principle,--to believe that God does +everything, and then to act as though He left everything for us to do? +Or this: Since grace supposes nature, the growth and strength of the +Church is not wholly independent of the natural endowments of her +ministers? + +As a matter of fact we Catholics are constantly speaking and acting +upon principles of this kind. We maintain that without a proper +education our children must lose the faith; and that without careful +moral and mental training no man is likely to become a good priest; and +all that I further insist upon is that if he is to do the best work, he +must have the best intellectual discipline. In an intellectual age, at +least, he cannot be the worthy minister of worship, unless he is also +the accomplished teacher of truth. In vain shall we clothe him in rich +symbolic vestments, place him in majestic temples, before marble +altars, in the midst of solemn music, in the dim sober-tinted light, +with the great and noble looking out upon him, as from a spirit +world,--in vain shall all this be, if when he himself speaks, his words +are felt to be but the echo of a coarse and empty mind. And hence our +enemies would gladly leave us the poetry of our worship, would even +enter our churches to be comforted, to be soothed, to seek the +elevation and enlargement of thought and sentiment which comes upon us +in the presence of what is vast, mysterious, and sublime, if we would +but confess that it is only poetry, good and beautiful only as art is +good and beautiful. The spirit of the time, in fact, it seems to me, +is more and more disposed to grant us everything except the possession +of intellectual truth. That the Catholic Church is a marvellous power; +that her triumphs have been so enduring and so unexpected that only the +foolish or the ignorant will predict her downfall; that she overcame +paganism; that she saved Christianity when Rome fell; that she +restrained the ferocity of the barbarians, protected the weak, +encouraged labor, preserved the classics, maintained the unity and +sanctity of marriage, defended the purity and dignity of woman, +espoused the cause of the oppressed, and in a lawless and ignorant age +proclaimed the supremacy of right and the worth of learning; that to +these signal services must be added her power to give ease and +pleasantness to the social relations of men, keeping them equally +remote from Puritan severity and pagan license; her eye for beauty and +grace, which has made her the foster-mother of all the arts; her love +of the excellent and the noble, which has enabled her to create types +of character that are immortal; her practical wisdom, giving her the +secret of dealing with every phase of life, so that her saints are +doctors, apostles, mystics, philanthropists, artists, poets, kings, +beggars, warriors, peasants, barbarians, philosophers,--all this, if I +mistake not, unbelievers even are more and more willing to concede. +Nor are they slow to express their admiration of the strength and +majesty of this single power amid the Christian nations, which reaches +back to the great civilizations that have perished, which has preserved +its organic unity intact amid the social revolutions of two thousand +years, and which is acknowledged still to be the greatest moral force +in the world. But, underlying all they say and think, is the +assumption that the foundations of this noble structure are crumbling; +that the world of faith and thought in which it was upbuilt is become a +desert where no flower blooms, no living soul is found; that the temple +is beautiful only as a ruin is beautiful, where owls hoot and bats flit +to and fro. "There is not a creed, we are told, which is not shaken, +nor an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable; not a +received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve." + +The conquests of the human mind in the realms of nature have produced a +world-wide ferment of thought, an intellectual activity which is +without a parallel. They have increased the power of man to an almost +incredible degree, have given him control of the earth and the seas, +have placed within his grasp undreamed-of forces, have opened to his +view unsuspected mysteries; they have placed him on a new earth and +under new heavens, and thrown a light never seen before upon the +history of his race. As a part of this vast development new questions +have risen, new theories have been broached, new doubts have suggested +themselves; and because we have changed, all else seems to have changed +also. And since, underlying all questions, there is found a question +of religion, the discussion of religious and philosophic problems has, +in our day, become a social necessity, and the science of criticism, +together with the physical sciences, has driven the disputants upon new +and difficult ground, where the battle must be fought, and where +retreat is not possible. + +As well imagine that society will again take on the form of feudalism, +as that the human mind will return to the point of view from which our +ancestors looked on nature. + +And this world-view shapes and colors all our thinking, in theology as +in other sciences, so that truths which were latent have come to light, +and principles which have long been held find new and wider application. + +Never has the defence of religion required so many and such excellent +qualities of intellect as in the present day. The early apologists who +contrasted the sublimity and purity of Christian faith with a corrupt +paganism had not a difficult task. In the Middle Age the intellect of +the world was on the side of Christ. The controversy which sprang up +with the advent of Protestantism was biblical and historical, and its +criticism was superficial. The anti-Christian schools of thought of +the eighteenth century were literary rather than philosophical, and the +objections they urged were founded chiefly upon political and social +considerations. In all these discussions the territory in dispute was +well defined and relatively small. But into what a different world are +not we thrown! These earlier explorers sailed upon rivers whose banks +were lined by firm-set rocky cliffs, by the overshadowing boughs of +primeval forests, with here and there pleasant slopes of green where +they might lie at rest amid the fragrance of wild flowers; but from our +Peter's bark we look out upon the dark unfathomed seas towards an +unknown world whose margin ever fades and recedes as we seem to draw +near the haven of our desire. + +As in the beginning of the twelfth century the cry, "God wills it!" +rang through Europe, and from all her lands armies of mailed knights +sprang into battle-array and turned their faces towards the Holy City, +resolved to wrench from infidel hands the Sacred Tomb of Christ, so +now, from her thousand watch-towers, science sounds her clarion note +with quite other intent, urging on to the attack of the citadel of God +in the heart of man, renewing upon lower fields the war in which +immortal spirits contended with the Almighty "in dubious battle on the +plains of heaven, and shook his throne." As "he jests at scars that +never felt a wound," so here the lesser knowledge makes the bolder man. +Not that difficulties should create doubts, or that objections may not +be answered, or that it is necessary to refute each hypothesis that +appears and fades like a dissolving view, or to notice each +unwarrantable inference from unquestioned facts, or that it is worth +while to address ourselves to minds whose nebulous and shifting +opinions make it impossible that they should receive correct +impressions; but the field upon which attacks upon religion are now +made is so vast, the confusion of thought into which new discoveries +and speculations have thrown the minds of even educated men is so +bewildering, the methods for the ascertainment of truth are so tangled +and misapplied, the rushing on of multitudes to discuss problems which +have hitherto been left to philosophers, and which they alone can +rightly enunciate, is so stupefying, that those who have the clearest +perception of the mental state of the modern world, and who are able to +take the finest and most comprehensive view of the religious, +philosophic, and scientific controversies of the day, seem loath to +enter into a struggle where the ground continually changes, and where +victory at the best is only partial, and but leads to further contest. +It is well to remember, also, that in the intellectual arena to attack +is easier than to defend, and any shallow, incoherent talker or writer +can propose difficulties which the keenest thinker will find great +trouble to explain. Since we and our works fall to ruin and pass away, +we seem instinctively to take the side of those who seek to undermine +and overthrow systems of thought and belief which claim to be +indestructible, and the human heart is half a traitor to the Church +which declares that she is indefectible and infallible. Is there not +indeed, however we account for it, in all nature a kind of dread and +horror of the supernatural, such as one who hides within his bosom a +secret of dark guilt feels in the presence of the conscience of +mankind? And does not this make the world lean to the side of those +who would eliminate God from nature? + +And yet, since man's heart is the home of contradictions, is it not +also true to say that he is naturally religious? His faith in God is +as deep and unwavering as his faith in the testimony of the senses; and +if there are atheists there are also men who hold that all things are +unreal and only appear to be; that the world is but a myriad-formed, a +myriad-tinted idea, the dream of a substanceless dreamer. Not only do +we believe in God and in the soul, but all that we love, all that we +hope for, all that gives to life charm, dignity, and sacredness, is +interpenetrated, perfumed, and illumined by this faith. If men could +be persuaded that the unconscious is the beginning and the end of all +things, what good would have been gained? The light of heaven would +fade away, and the soul's high faith be made a lie; the poor would have +no friend, and the rich no heart; the wicked would be without fear, and +the good without hope; success would be consecrated, and death alone +would remain as the refuge of the unfortunate. Even animal indulgence, +in sinking out of the moral order, would lose its human charm. If then +in our day there is wide-spread scepticism, a sort of vague feeling +that science is undermining religion and that the most sacred beliefs +are dissolving, the cause of this lies not so much in the natural +tendencies of the mind and heart, as in social conditions, in passing +phases of thought, in the shifting of the point of view from which men +have hitherto been accustomed to look on nature; and the continuance +and the progress of doubt, and consequently of indifference, is, to +some extent at least, to be ascribed also to the fact that the most +earnest believers in God and in Christianity have, for now more than a +century, been less eager to acquire the best philosophic and literary +cultivation of mind than others who, having lost faith in the +supernatural, seek for compensation in a wider and deeper knowledge of +nature, and in the mental culture which enables them to enjoy more +keenly the high thoughts and fair images which live in literature and +art. As a well-trained intellect, in argument with the unskilful, +easily makes the worse appear the better cause, so in an age or a +country where the best discipline of mind is found chiefly among those +who are not Christians, or at least not Catholics, public opinion will +drift away from the Church, until the view finally becomes general +that, whatever she may have been in other times, her day is past. Nor +will aught external, however fair or glorious, secure her against this +danger. How often in the history of nations and of religions is not +outward splendor the mark of inward decay? When Rome was free, a +simple life sufficed; but when liberty fled, marble palaces arose. The +monarch who built Versailles made the scaffold on which French royalty +perished; and so a dying faith, like the setting sun, may drape itself +in glory. The Kingdom of God is within; there is the source of life +and strength, without which nor numbers nor wealth, nor stately +edifices nor solemn rites, avail. Nor can we be certain of men's love +when we cease to have influence over their thoughts. The proper appeal +is to the heart through the mind; and even a mother loses half her +power when she ceases to be the intellectual superior of her children. +How then shall the heavenly Mother of the soul keep her place in the +world, if those who speak in her name mar by imperfect and ignorant +utterance the celestial harmony of her doctrines? + +Ah! let us learn to see things as they are. In face of the modern +world, that which the Catholic priest most needs, after virtue, is the +best cultivation of mind, which issues in comprehensiveness of view, in +exactness of perception, in the clear discernment of the relations of +truths and of the limitations of scientific knowledge, in fairness and +flexibility of thought, in ease and grace of expression, in candor, in +reasonableness; the intellectual culture which brings the mind into +form gives it the control of its faculties, creates the habit of +attention, and develops firmness of grasp. The education of which I +speak is expansion and discipline of mind rather than learning; and its +tendency is not so much to form profound dogmatists, or erudite +canonists, or acute casuists, as to cultivate a habit of mind, which, +for want of a better word, may be called philosophical; to enlarge the +intellect, to strengthen and supple its faculties, to enable it to take +connected views of things and their relations, and to see clear amid +the mazes of human error and through the mists of human passion. I +speak of that perfection of the intellect, which, to use the words of +Cardinal Newman, "is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension +of all things as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its +place and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost prophetic +from its knowledge of history; it is almost heart-searching from its +knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its +freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of +faith because nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and +harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal +order of things and the music of the spheres." This is, indeed, ideal; +but they who believe not in ideals were not born to know the real worth +of things: + + "Spite of proudest boast + Reason, best reason is to imperfect man + An effort only and a noble aim,-- + A crown, an attribute of sovereign power, + Still to be courted, never to be won." + + +It is plain that education of this kind aims at something quite +different from the mere imparting of useful knowledge. It takes the +view that it is good to know, even though knowledge should not be a +means to wealth or power or any other common aim of life. It regards +the mind as the organ of truth, and trains it for its own sake, without +reference to the exercise of a profession. Hence its distinguishing +characteristic is that it is liberal and not professional. It holds +cultivated faculties in higher esteem than learning, and it makes use +of knowledge to improve the intellect, rather than of the intellect to +acquire knowledge. Hence, one may be a skilful physician, a judicious +lawyer, a learned theologian, and yet be greatly lacking in mental +culture. It is a common experience to find that professional men are +apt to be narrow and one-sided. Their mind, like the dyer's hand, is +subdued to what it works in. They want comprehensiveness of view, +flexibility of thought, openness to light, and freedom of mental play. +They think in grooves, make the rules of their art the measure of +truth, and their own methods of inquiry the only valid laws of +reasoning. These same defects may be observed in those who are given +exclusively to the study of physical science. When they sweep the +heavens with the telescope and do not find God, they conclude that +there is no God. When the soul does not reveal itself under the +microscope, they argue it does not exist; and since there is no thought +without nervous movement, they claim that the brain thinks. + +Now, if it is desirable that those who are charged with the teaching +and defence of divine truth should be free from this narrowness and +one-sidedness, this lack of openness to light and freedom of mental +play, the education of the priest must be more than a professional +education; and he must be sent to a school higher and broader than the +ecclesiastical seminary, which is simply a training college for the +practical work of the ministry. The purpose for which it was +instituted is to prepare young men for the worthy exercise of the +general functions of the priestly office, and the good it has done is +too great and too manifest to need commendation. But the +ecclesiastical seminary is not a school of intellectual culture, either +here in America or elsewhere, and to imagine that it can become the +instrument of intellectual culture is to cherish a delusion. It must +impart a certain amount of professional knowledge, fit its students to +become more or less expert catechists, rubricists, and casuists, and +its aim is to do this; and whatever mental improvement, if any, thence +results, is accidental. Hence its methods are not such as one would +choose who desires to open the mind, to give it breadth, flexibility, +strength, refinement, and grace. Its text-books are written often in a +barbarous style, the subjects are discussed in a dry and mechanical +way, and the professor, wholly intent upon giving instruction, is +frequently indifferent as to the manner in which it is imparted; or +else not possessing himself a really cultivated intellect, he holds in +slight esteem expansion and refinement of mind, looking upon it as at +the best a mere ornament. I am not offering a criticism upon the +ecclesiastical seminary, but am simply pointing to the plain fact that +it is not a school of intellectual culture, and consequently, if its +course were lengthened to five, to six, to eight, to ten years, its +students would go forth to their work with a more thorough professional +training, but not with more really cultivated minds. The test of +intellect is not so much what we know as the manner in which it is +known; just as in the moral world, the important consideration is not +what virtues we possess, but the completeness with which they are ours. +He who really believes in God, serves Him, loves Him, is a hero, a +saint; whereas he who half believes may have a thousand good qualities, +but not a great character. Knowledge is not education any more than +food is nutrition; and as one may eat voraciously, and yet remain +without bodily health or strength, so one may have great learning, and +yet be almost wholly lacking in intellectual cultivation. His learning +may only oppress and confuse him, be felt as a load, and not as a vital +principle, which upraises, illumines, and beautifies the mind; mentally +he may still be a boy, in whom memory predominates, and whose intellect +is only a receptacle of facts. Memory is the least noble of the +intellectual faculties, and the nearest to animal intelligence; and to +know well is, in the eyes of a true educator, of quite other importance +than to know much. But a memory, more or less well-stored, is nearly +all a youth carries with him from the college to the seminary, and here +he enters, as I have already pointed out, upon a course not of +intellectual discipline, but of professional studies, whose object is +not "to open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to +know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it +power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, +critical exactness, sagacity, resource, eloquent expression," but +simply to impart the requisite skill for the ordinary exercise of the +holy ministry. Hence it is not surprising that priests who are +zealous, earnest, self-sacrificing, who to piety join discretion and +good sense, rarely possess the intellectual culture of which I am +speaking, for the simple reason that a university and not a seminary is +the school in which this kind of education is received. That the +absence of such trained intellects is a most serious obstacle to the +progress of the Catholic faith, no thoughtful man will doubt or deny. +Since the mind is a power, in religion, as in every sphere of thought +and life, the discipline which best develops and perfects its faculties +will fit it to do its work, whatever it may be, in the most effective +manner. Hence, though the education of which I speak does not directly +aim at being useful, it is in fact the most useful, and prepares better +than any other for the business of life. It enables a man to master a +subject with ease, to fill an office with honor; and whatever he does, +the mark of completeness and finish will be found upon his work. He +sees more clearly, judges more calmly, reasons more pertinently, speaks +more seasonably than other men. The free and full possession of his +faculties gives him power to turn himself to whatever may be demanded +of him, whether it be to govern wisely, or to counsel judiciously, or +to write gracefully, or to plead eloquently. Whatever course in life +he may take, whatever line of thought or investigation he may pursue, +his intellectual culture will give him superiority over men who, with +equal or greater talents, lack his education; and he possesses withal +resources within himself, which in a measure make him independent of +fortune, and which, when failure comes and the world abandons him, +remain, like faith, or hope, or a friend, to make him forget his +misfortunes. + +Of the English universities, with all their shortcomings, Cardinal +Newman says: "At least they can boast of a succession of heroes and +statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for +great natural virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, +for practical judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who +have made England what it is,--able to subdue the earth, able to +domineer over Catholics." It is only in a university that all the +sciences are brought together, their relations adjusted, their +provinces assigned. There natural science is limited by metaphysics; +morality is studied in the light of history; language and literature +are viewed from the standpoint of ethnology; the criticism which seeks +beauty and not deformity, which in the gardens of the mind takes the +honey and leaves the poison, is applied to the study of eloquence and +poetry; and over all religion throws the warmth and life of faith and +hope, like a ray from heaven. The mind thus lives in an atmosphere in +which the comparison of ideas and truths with one an other is +inevitable; and so it grows, is strengthened, enlarged, refined, made +pliant, candid, open, equitable. + +When numbers of priests will be able to bring this cultivation of +intellect to the treatment of religious subjects, then will Catholic +theology again come forth from its isolation in the modern world; then +will Catholic truth again irradiate and perfume the thoughts and +opinions of men; then will Catholic doctrines again sink into their +hearts, and not remain loose in the mind to be thrown aside, as one +casts away the outworn vesture of the body; then will it be felt that +the fascination of Christian faith is still fresh, supreme, as far +above the charm of science as the joy of a poet's soul is above the +pleasures of sense. The religious view of life must forever remain the +true view, since no other explains our longings and aspirations, or +justifies hope and enthusiasm; and the worship of God in spirit and in +truth, which Christ has revealed to the world, the religion not of an +age or a people, but of all time and of the human race, must eternally +prevail when brought home to us in a language which we understand; for +we place the testimony of reason above that of the senses. To the eye +the sun rises and sets, to the mind it is stationary; and we accept, +not what is seen, but what is known. Is there need of stronger +evidence that the power within, which is our real self, is spiritual? +And is it not enough to see clearly, to perceive that in the struggle +of mind with matter, which is the essential form of the conflict of +spiritualism with materialism, of religion with science, the soul, in +the end, will be victorious, and rest in the real world of faith and +intuition, and not in the pictured world of the senses? + +Religion, indeed, like morality, is in the nature of things, and +Catholic faith is Una's Red Cross Knight, on whose shield are old dints +of deep wounds and cruel marks of many a bloody field, who is assailed +by all the powers of earth and of the nether world, armed with whatever +weapons may hurt the mind or corrupt the heart, but whom heavenly +Providence rescues from the jaws of monsters and leads on to victory. + +But what true believer thinks himself excused from effort, because +Christ has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against +His Church? Does he not know that though, when we consider her whole +course through the world, she has triumphed, so as to have become the +miracle of history, yet has she at many points suffered disastrous +defeat? Hence, those who love her must be vigilant, and stand prepared +for battle. And in an age when persecution has either died away or +lost its harshness, when crying abuses have disappeared, when heresy +has run its course, and the struggle of the world with the Church has +become almost wholly intellectual, it is not possible, assuredly, that +her ministers should have too great power of intellect. And +consequently it is not possible that the bishops, in whose hands the +education of priests is placed, should have too great a care that they +receive the best mental culture. And if this is a general truth, with +what pertinency does it not come home to us here in America, who are +the descendants of men who, on account of their faith, have for +centuries been oppressed and thrust back from opportunities of +education, and who, when persecution and robbery had reduced them to +ignorance and poverty, were forced to hear their religion reproached +with the crimes of her foes? And now, when at length a fairer day has +dawned for us in this new world, what can be more natural than our +eager desire to move out from the valleys of darkness towards the hills +and mountain tops that are bathed in sunlight? What more praiseworthy +than the fixed resolve to prove that not our faith, but our misfortunes +made and kept us inferior. And, since we live in the midst of millions +who have indeed good will towards us, but who still bear the yoke of +inherited prejudices, and who, because for three hundred years real +cultivation of mind was denied to Catholics who spoke English, conclude +that Protestantism is the source of enlightenment, and the Church the +mother of ignorance, do not all generous impulses urge us to make this +reproach henceforth meaningless? And in what way shall we best +accomplish this task? Surely not by writing or speaking about what the +influence of the Church is, or by pointing to what she has done in +other ages, but by becoming what we claim her spirit tends to make us. +Here, if anywhere, the proverb is applicable--_verba movent, exempla +trahunt_. As the devotion of American Catholics to this country and +its free institutions, as shown not on battle-fields alone, but in our +whole bearing and conduct, convinces all but the unreasonable of the +depth and sincerity of our patriotism, so when our zeal for +intellectual excellence shall have raised up men who will take place +among the first writers and thinkers of their day their very presence +will become the most persuasive of arguments to teach the world that no +best gift is at war with the spirit of Catholic faith, and that, while +the humblest mind may feel its force, the lofty genius of Augustine, of +Dante, and of Bossuet is upborne and strengthened by the splendor of +its truth. But if we are to be intellectually the equals of others, we +must have with them equal advantages of education; and so long as we +look rather to the multiplying of schools and seminaries than to the +creation of a real university, our progress will be slow and uncertain, +because a university is the great ordinary means to the best +cultivation of mind. The fact that the growth of the Church here, like +that of the country itself, is chiefly external, a growth in wealth and +in numbers, makes it the more necessary that we bring the most +strenuous efforts to improve the gifts of the soul. The whole tendency +of our social life insures the increase of churches, convents, schools, +hospitals, and asylums; our advance in population and in wealth will be +counted from decade to decade by millions, and our worship will +approach more and more to the pomp and splendor of the full ritual; but +this very growth makes such demands upon our energies, that we are in +danger of forgetting higher things, or at least of thinking them less +urgent. Few men are at once thoughtful and active. The man of deeds +dwells in the world around him; the thinker lives within his mind. +Contemplation, in widening the view, makes us feel that what even the +strongest can do is lost in the limitless expanse of space and time; +and the soul is tempted to fall back upon itself and to gaze passively +upon the course of the world, as though the general stream of human +events were as little subject to man's control as the procession of the +seasons. Busy workers, on the other hand, having little taste or time +for reflection, see but the present and what lies close to them, and +the energy of their doing circumscribes their thinking. + +But the Church needs both the men who act and the men who think; and +since with us everything pushes to action, wisdom demands that we +cultivate rather the powers of reflection. And this is the duty alike +of true patriots and of faithful Catholics. All are working to develop +our boundless material resources; let a few at least labor to develop +man. The millions are building cities, reclaiming wildernesses, and +bringing forth from the earth its buried treasures; let at least a +remnant cherish the ideal, cultivate the beautiful, and seek to inspire +the love of moral and intellectual excellence. And since we believe +that the Church which points to heaven is able also to lead the nations +in the way of civilization and of progress, why should we not desire to +see her become a beneficent and ennobling influence in the public life +of our country? She can have no higher temporal mission than to be the +friend of this great republic, which is God's best earthly gift to His +children. If, as English critics complain, our style is inflated, it +is because we feel the promise of a destiny which transcends our powers +of expression. Whatever fault men may find with us, let them not doubt +the world-wide significance of our life. If we keep ourselves strong +and pure, all the peoples of the earth shall yet be free; if we fulfil +our providential mission, national hatred shall give place to the +spirit of generous rivalry, the people shall become wiser and stronger, +society shall grow more merciful and just, and the cry of distress +shall be felt, like the throb of a brother's heart, to the ends of the +world. Where is the man who does not feel a kind of religious +gratitude as he looks upon the rise and progress of this nation? Above +all, where is the Catholic whose heart is not enlarged by such +contemplation? Here, almost for the first time in her history, the +Church is really free. Her worldly position does not overshadow her +spiritual office, and the State recognizes her autonomy. The monuments +of her past glory, wrenched from her control, stand not here to point, +like mocking fingers, to what she has lost. She renews her youth, and +lifts her brow, as one who, not unmindful of the solemn mighty past, +yet looks with undimmed eye and unfaltering heart to a still more +glorious future. Who in such a presence, can abate hope, or give heed +to despondent counsel, or send regretful thoughts to other days and +lands? Whoever at any time, in any place, might have been sage, saint, +or hero, may be so here and now; and though he had the heart of +Francis, and the mind of Augustine, and the courage of Hildebrand, here +is work for him to do. + +In whatsoever direction we turn our thoughts, arguments rush in to show +the pressing need for us of a centre of life and light such as a +Catholic university would be. Without this we can have no hope of +entering as a determining force into the living controversies of the +age; without this it must be an accident if we are represented at all +in the literature of our country; without this we shall lack a point of +union to gather up, harmonize, and intensify our scattered forces; +without this our bishops must remain separated, and continue to work in +random ways; without this the noblest souls will look in vain for +something larger and broader than a local charity to make appeal to +their generous hearts; without this we shall be able to offer but +feeble resistance to the false theories and systems of education which +deny to the Church a place in the school; without this the sons of +wealthy Catholics will, in ever increasing numbers, be sent to +institutions where their faith is undermined; without this we shall +vainly hope for such treatment of religious questions and their +relations to the issues and needs of the day, as shall arrest public +attention and induce Catholics themselves to take at least some little +notice of the writings of Catholics; without this in struggles for +reform and contests for rights we shall lack the wisdom of best counsel +and the courage which skilful leaders inspire. We are a small minority +in the presence of a vast majority; we still bear the disfigurements +and weaknesses of centuries of persecution and suffering; we cling to +an ancient faith in an age when new sciences, discoveries, and theories +fascinate the minds of men, and turn their thoughts away from the past +to the future; we preach a spiritual religion to a people whose +prodigious wealth and rapid triumphs over nature have caused them to +exaggerate the value of material progress; we teach the duty of +self-denial to a refined and intellectual generation, who regard +whatever is painful as evil, whatever is difficult as omissible; we +insist upon religious obedience to the Church in face of a society +where children are ceasing to reverence and obey even their +parents;--if in spite of all this we are to hold our own, not to speak +of larger hopes, it is plain that we may neglect nothing which will +help us to put forth our full strength. + +I do not, of course, pretend that this higher education is all that we +need, or that, of itself, it is sufficient; but what I claim is that it +would be a source of strength for us who are in want of help. God +works in many ways, through many agencies, and I bow in homage to the +humblest effort in a righteous cause of the lowliest human being. +There are diversities of graces, but the same spirit; diversities of +ministries, but the same Lord. _Numquid omnes doctores?_ asks St. +Paul. But since he places teachers by the side of apostles and +prophets, surely they will teach to best purpose who to the humility of +faith add the luminousness of knowledge. To those who reject the idea +of human co-operation in things divine I speak not; but we who believe +that we are co-operators with Christ cannot think that it is possible +to bring to this godlike work either too great preparation of heart or +too great cultivation of mind. Nor must we think lightly even of +refinement of thought and speech and behavior, for we know that manners +come of morals, and that morals in turn are born of manners, as the +ocean breathes forth the clouds and the clouds fill the ocean. + +Let there be then an American Catholic university, where our young men, +in the atmosphere of faith and purity, of high thinking and plain +living, shall become more intimately conscious of the truth of their +religion and of the genius of their country; where they shall learn the +repose and dignity which belong to their ancient Catholic descent, and +yet not lose the fire which glows in the blood of a new people; to +which from every part of the land our eyes may turn for guidance and +encouragement, seeking light and self-confidence from men in whom +intellectual power is not separate from moral purpose, who look to God +and His universe from bending knees of prayer, who uphold-- + + "The cause of Christ and civil liberty + As one, and moving to one glorious end." + + +Should such an intellectual centre serve no other purpose than to bring +together a number of eager-hearted, truth-loving youths, what light and +heat would not leap forth from the shock of mind with mind; what +generous rivalries would not spring up; what intellectual sympathies, +resting on the breast of faith, would not become manifest, grouping +souls like atoms, to form the substance and beauty of a world? + +O solemn groves that lie close to Louvain and to Freiburg, whose air is +balm and whose murmuring winds sound like the voices of saints and +sages whispering down the galleries of time, what words have ye not +heard bursting forth from the strong hearts of keen-witted youths, who, +Titan-like, believed they might storm the citadel of God's truth! How +many a one, heavy and despondent, in the narrow, lonesome path of duty, +has remembered you, and moved again in unseen worlds, upheld by faith +and hope! Who has listened to the words of your teachers and not felt +the truth of the saying of Pope Pius II.,--that the world holds nothing +more precious or more beautiful than a cultivated intellect? The +presence of such men invigorates like mountain air, and their speech is +as refreshing as clear-flowing fountains. To know them is to be +forever their debtor. The company of a saint is the school of saints; +a strong character develops strength in others, and a noble mind makes +all around him luminous. + +Why may not eight million Catholics upbuild a home for great teachers, +for men who, to real learning and cultivation of mind, shall add the +persuasiveness of easy and eloquent diction; whose manifest and +indisputable superiority shall put to shame the self-conceit of +American young men, our most familiar intellectual bane, and an +insuperable obstacle to all improvement,--self-conceit, which is the +beatitude of vulgar characters and shallow minds? If our students +should find in such an institution but one man, who, like Socrates, +with ironic questioning might make for them the discovery of the new +world of their own ignorance, the gain would be great enough. + +Why may we not have a centre of light and truth which will raise up +before us standards of intellectual excellence; which will enable us to +see that our so-called educated men are as far from being scholars as +the makers of our horrible show-bills are from being artists; which +will teach us that it is not only false but vulgar to call things by +pretentious names,--as, for instance, to call a politician a statesman, +a declaimer an orator, or a Latin school a university. + +Ah! surely as to whether an American Catholic university is desirable +there cannot be two opinions among enlightened men. But is it +feasible? A true university is one of the noblest foundations of the +great Catholic ages, when faith rose almost to the height of creative +power, and it were folly in me to maintain that such an undertaking is +not surrounded by many and great difficulties. To begin with the +material for foundation, money is necessary, and this, I am persuaded, +we may have. A noble cause will find or make generous hearts. Men +above all we need, for every kind of existence propagates itself only +by itself. But let us bear in mind that the best teacher is not +necessarily or often he who knows the most, but he who has most power +to determine the student to self-activity; for in the end the mind +educates itself. As distrust is the mark of a narrow intellect or a +bad heart, so a readiness to believe in the ability of others is not +only a characteristic of able men, but it is also the secret charm +which calls around them helpers and followers. Hence, a strong man who +loves his work is a better educator than a half-hearted professor who +carries whole libraries in his head. + +To bring together in familiar and daily life a number of young men, +chosen for the brightness of their minds and an eager yearning for +knowledge, is to create an atmosphere of intellectual warmth and light, +which invigorates and inspires the master, while it stimulates his +disciples. In such company it will not be difficult to form teachers. +But will it be possible to find young men who will consent, when after +years of study they have finally reached the priesthood, to continue in +a higher institution the arduous and confining labors to the end of +which they have looked as to the beginning of a new life? In other +lands such students are found, and if with us there is a tendency to +rush with precipitancy and insufficient preparation to whatever work we +may have chosen, this is but a proof of the need of special efforts to +restrain an ardor which springs from weakness and not from strength. +Haste is a mark of immaturity. He who is certain of himself and master +of his tools, knows that he is able, and neither hurries nor worries, +but works and waits. The rank weed shoots up in a day and as quickly +dies; but the long-growing olive-tree stands from century to century, +and drops from its gently waving boughs ripe fruit through the quiet +autumn air. The Church endures forever; and we American Catholics, in +the midst of our rapidly-moving and ever-changing society, should be +the first to learn to temper energy with the patient strength which +gives the courage to toil and wait through a long life, if so we make +ourselves worthy to speak some fit word or do some needful deed. And +to whom shall this lesson first be taught if not to the clerics, whose +natural endowments single them out as future leaders of Catholic +thought and enterprise; and where can this lesson so well be learned as +in a school whose standard of intellectual excellence shall be the +highest? + +While we look, therefore, to the founding of a true university, we will +begin, as the university of Paris began in the twelfth century, and as +the present university of Louvain began fifty years ago, with a +national school of philosophy and theology, which will form the central +faculty of a complete educational organism. Around this, the other +faculties will take their places, in due course of time; and so the +beginning which we make will grow, until like the seed planted in the +earth, it shall wear the bloomy crown of its own development. + +And though the event be less than our hope, though even failure be the +outcome, is it not better to fail than not to attempt a worthy work +which might be ours? Only they who do nothing derive comfort from the +mistakes of others; and the saying that a blunder is worse than a crime +is doubtless true for those who have no other measure of worth and +success than the conventional standards of a superficial public +opinion. We at least know-- + + "There lives a Judge + To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim + Faithfully kept is as a noble deed; + In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed." + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Means and Ends of Education, by J. L. 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L. Spalding +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.intro {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: 5% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Means and Ends of Education, by J. L. Spalding + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Means and Ends of Education + +Author: J. L. Spalding + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34257] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +MEANS AND ENDS +<BR> +OF EDUCATION +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +J. L. SPALDING +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Bishop of Peoria +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +WHO BRINGETH MANY THINGS,<BR> +FOR EACH ONE SOMETHING BRINGS<BR> +</H5> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHICAGO +<BR> +A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY +<BR> +1895 +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +COPYRIGHT +<BR> +BY A. C. MCCLURG £ Co. +<BR> +A.D. 1895 +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 10%"> +By Bishop Spalding +<BR><BR> +EDUCATION AND THE HIGHER LIFE. 12mo. $1.00.<BR> +THINGS OF THE MIND. 12mo. $1.00.<BR> +MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. 12mo. $1.00.<BR> +<BR> +A. C. McCLURG AND CO.<BR> +CHICAGO.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">TRUTH AND LOVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">TRUTH AND LOVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">WOMAN AND EDUCATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">THE HIGHER EDUCATION</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TRUTH AND LOVE. +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +None of us yet know, for none of us have yet been taught in early +youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought—proof +against all adversity;—bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble +histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful +thoughts; which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty +take away from us—houses built without hands for our souls to live +in.—RUSKIN. +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy +patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages.—MILTON. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +A great man's house is filled chiefly with menials and creatures of +ceremony; and great libraries contain, for the most part, books as dry +and lifeless as the dust that gathers on them: but from amidst these +dead leaves an immortal mind here and there looks forth with light and +love. +</P> + +<P> +From the point of view of the bank president, Emerson tells us, books +are merely so much rubbish. But in his eyes the flowers also, the +flowing water, the fresh air, the floating clouds, children's voices, +the thrill of love, the fancy's play, the mountains, and the stars are +worthless. +</P> + +<P> +Not one in a hundred who buy Shakspere, or Milton, or a work of any +other great mind, feels a genuine longing to get at the secret of its +power and truth; but to those alone who feel this longing is the secret +revealed. We must love the man of genius, if we would have him speak +to us. We learn to know ourselves, not by studying the behavior of +matter, but through experience of life and intimate acquaintance with +literature. Our spiritual as well as our physical being springs from +that of our ancestors. Freedom, however, gives the soul the power not +only to develop what it inherits, but to grow into conscious communion +with the thought and love, the hope and faith of the noble dead, and, +in thus enlarging itself, to become the inspiration and source of +richer and wider life for those who follow. As parents are consoled by +the thought of surviving in their descendants, great minds are upheld +and strengthened in their ceaseless labors by the hope of entering as +an added impulse to better things, from generation to generation, into +the lives of thousands. The greatest misfortune which can befall +genius is to be sold to the advocacy of what is not truth and love and +goodness and beauty. The proper translation of <I>timeo hominem unius +libri</I> is not, "I fear a man of one book," but "I dread a man of one +book:" for he is sure to be narrow, one-sided, and unreasonable. The +right phrase enters at once into our spiritual world, and its power +becomes as real as that of material objects. The truth to which it +gives body is borne in upon us as a star or a mountain is borne in upon +us. Kings and rich men live in history when genius happens to throw +the light of abiding worlds upon their ephemeral estate. Carthage is +the typical city of merchants and traders. Why is it remembered? +Because Hannibal was a warrior and Virgil a poet. +</P> + +<P> +The strong man is he who knows how and is able to become and be +himself; the magnanimous man is he who, being strong, knows how and is +able to issue forth from himself, as from a fortress, to guide, +protect, encourage, and save others. Life's current flows pure and +unimpeded within him, and on its wave his thought and love are borne to +bless his fellowmen. If he who gives a cup of water in the right +spirit does God's work, so does he who sows or reaps, or builds or +sweeps, or utters helpful truth or plays with children or cheers the +lonely, or does any other fair or useful thing. Take not seriously one +who treats with derision men or books that have been deemed worthy of +attention by the best minds. He is false or foolish. As we cherish a +human being for the courage and love he inspires, so books are dear to +us for the noble thoughts and generous moods they call into being. To +drink the spirit of a great author is worth more than a knowledge of +his teaching. +</P> + +<P> +He who desires to grow wise should bring his reason to bear habitually +upon what he sees and hears not less than upon what he reads; for thus +he soon comes to understand that whatever he thinks or feels, says or +does, whatever happens within the sphere of his conscious life, may be +made the means of self-improvement. "He is not born for glory," says +Vauvenargues, "who knows not the worth of time." The educational value +of books lies in their power to set the intellectual atmosphere in +vibration, thereby rousing the mind to self-activity; and those which +have not this power lack vitality. +</P> + +<P> +If in a whole volume we find one passage in which truth is expressed in +a noble and striking manner, we have not read in vain. To read with +profit, we should read as a serious student reads, with the mind all +alive and held to the subject; for reading is thinking, and it is +valuable in proportion to the stimulus it gives to the exercise of +faculty. The conversation of high and ingenuous minds is doubtless as +instructive as it is delightful, but it is seldom in our power to call +around us those with whom we should wish to hold discourse; and hence +we go back to the emancipated spirits, who having transcended the +bounds of time and space, are wherever they are desired and are always +ready to entertain whoever seeks their company. Genius neither can nor +will discover its secret. Why his thought has such a mould and such a +tinge he no more knows than why the flowers have such a tint and such a +perfume; and if he knew he would not care to tell. Nothing is wholly +manifest. In the most trivial object, as in the simplest word, there +lies a world of meaning which does not reveal itself to a passing +glance. If therefore thou wouldst come to right understanding, +consider all things with an awakened and interested curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +When the mind at last finds itself rightly at home in its world, it is +as delighted as children making escape from restraining walls, as full +of spirit as colts newly turned upon the greensward. +</P> + +<P> +In the realm of truth each one is king, and what he knows is as much +his own as though he were its first discoverer. However firmly thou +holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw +down thy arms at once. A book has the power almost of a human being to +inspire admiration or disgust, love or hatred. To be useful is a noble +thing, to be necessary is not desirable. The youth has not enough +ambition unless he has too much. It is difficult to give lessons in +the art of pleasing without teaching that of lying. The discouraged +are already vanquished. In judging the deed let not the character of +the doer influence thy opinion, for good is good, evil evil, by +whomsoever done. When the author is rightly inspired his words need +not interpretation. They are as natural and as beautiful as the faces +of children or as new-blown flowers, and their meaning is plain. The +spirit and love of dogmatism is characteristic of the imperfectly +educated. As there is a communion of saints, there is a communion of +noble minds, living and dead. To speak of love which is not felt, of +piety which is not a living sentiment within us, is to weaken both in +ourselves and in those who hear us the power of faith and affection. +The best that has been known and experienced by minds and hearts lies +asleep in books, ready to awaken for whoever holds the magician's wand. +Books which at their first appearance create a breeze of excitement, +are forgotten when the wind falls. +</P> + +<P> +A human soul rightly uttering itself, in whatever age or country, +ceases to belong to any age or country, and becomes part of the +universal life of man. A sprightly wit may serve only to lead us +astray, and to enmesh us more hopelessly in error. Deeper knowledge is +the remedy for the foolishness of sciolism: like cures like. In the +books in which men worth knowing have put some of the vital quality +which makes them worth knowing, there is perennial inspiration. They +are the form and substance of an immortal spirit which, in creating +them, became itself. "I have not made my book," says Montaigne, "more +than my book has made me." +</P> + +<P> +Were one to ask an acquaintance who knows men to point out the +individuals whom he should make his friends, his request would probably +receive an unsatisfactory reply: for how, except by trial, is it +possible to say who will suit whom? Those whose friendship would be +valuable might, for whatever cause, be disagreeable to him, as the +greatest and noblest may be unpleasant companions. Many a one whom we +admire as he stands forth in history, whose words and deeds thrill and +uplift us, we should detest had we known him in life; and others to +whom we might have been drawn would have cared nothing for us. Between +men and books there is doubtless a wide difference, though a good book +contains the best of the life of some true man. But when we are asked +to point out the books one should learn to love, we are confronted with +much the same difficulty as had we been asked to name the persons whom +he should make his friends. A book can have worth for us only when we +have learned to love it; and since a real book, like a real man, has +its proper character, it is not easy to determine whom it will please +or displease. Once it has taken a safe place in literature, it will, +of course, be praised by everybody; but this, like the praise of men, +is often meaningless. All who read know something about the great +books, but their knowledge, unless it leads them to intimate +acquaintance with some one or several of these books, has little worth. +Books are, indeed, a world which each one must discover for himself. +Another may tell us about them, but the truth and beauty there is in +them for each one, each one must find. The value of a book, like that +of a man, lies not in its freedom from fault, but in its qualities, in +the good it contains. Words which inspire the love of spiritual beauty +and noble action cannot be false: the consent of the wise places them +in the canon. The imperishable goods are truth, freedom, love, and +beauty. Valuable alone is that which enriches and ennobles life. +There are natures for whom the lack of knowledge is as painful as the +lack of food. They are ahungered and athirst for it, and their +suffering impels them to ceaseless meditation and study, as the only +means of relief. +</P> + +<P> +The self-educator's first and simplest aim should be to learn to know +and do well whatever he knows and does; and to this end let him often +observe and consider how rare are they who know anything thoroughly or +do well any of the hundred things which are part of daily life: who +talk well, or write well, or behave well. Herbert Spencer affirms that +it is better to learn the meanings of things than the meanings of +words; but he loses sight of the fact that the meanings of things +become plain only when things are clothed in words, which, in truth, +are things, being nothing else than the very form and body of nature as +it reveals itself within the mind of man. The world is chiefly a +mental fact. From mind it receives the forms of time and space, the +principle of causality, color, warmth, and beauty. Were there no mind, +there would be no world. The end of man is the pursuit of perfection, +through communion with God, his fellows, and nature, by means of +knowledge and conduct, of faith, hope, admiration, and love. It is +easy to praise work overmuch. Like money, it is a means, not an end, +and it is good or evil as it is made to help or harm the worker, for +man is an end, not a means. The work which millions are still forced +to do is a curse,—the trail of the serpent is over it all, and no +people has the right to call itself civilized, while work which +dehumanizes is not merely permitted, but encouraged. +</P> + +<P> +Let us not teach the young to believe they are born into a world of +delights and pleasures, but let us strive to enable them to realize +that, upon this earth, only the wise and good and strong can make +themselves really at home; that for the wicked and the weak its very +delights and pleasures turn to sorrow and suffering. We pity the +hard-driven beast of burden. How then is it possible to look with +complacency on a world in which multitudes of human beings are +condemned to the work of the ox and the ass? For the healthy man, +wealth and happiness would seem to be identical, if his desires are +confined to the things of which money is the equivalent. But this is a +delusion, for the plenary possession of these things has never +satisfied a human being. Man needs virtue, knowledge, love, and to +take the obvious view, he needs the power to enjoy the things money +buys; and of this money deprives him. +</P> + +<P> +When we consider the many unworthy means men take to gain wealth and +office, we are forced to believe that to reach their ends they are +ready to profess to hold opinions and beliefs about which they care +nothing or which they really do not accept at all. By this following +of time-servers and place-hunters every noble cause is weakened and the +purest faith is corrupted. +</P> + +<P> +To labor for those we love, to sit in the hours of rest, with wife and +children about us, smiling in the blaze of the fire we have lighted, +sheltered by the roof we have built, secure in the sense of protection +our presence inspires, is to feel that life is good. But is it not a +higher thing to turn away, in disrespect of all this peace and comfort, +and to strive alone, by thought and deed, to find the way which leads +to God and to be a pioneer therein for those who wander helpless and +astray? The more we dwell with truth and love, the more conscious we +become that they are the best, and are everlasting; and thus our +immortality is revealed to us. Visibly we float on the boundless +stream and disappear; but inasmuch as we are truth-loving and +love-cherishing, we dwell in an abiding city, and may behold our bodies +carried forth by the flood, as a man sees his house swept away, while +he himself remains. Our thoughtlessness and indifference, our +indolence and frivolousness, blind us to the infinite worth and +significance of life; and they who call themselves religious often take +it as lightly as worldlings and unbelievers. +</P> + +<P> +In the Universe there is nothing which exists separate and apart from +other things. The satellites hold to the planets, the planets to the +suns, the suns to one another, all in obedience to the same laws which +bind the body to earth, and cause the water to flow and the vapor to +rise. For the senses there is separateness, but for the mind there is +union and unity. Communion is the law of souls as of bodies. Both are +immersed in a boundless world, from which if they could be drawn forth +they would cease to be. The principle of this infinite harmony is +love, is God. +</P> + +<P> +The right human bond is that which unites soul with soul; and only they +are truly akin who consciously live in the same world, who think, +believe, and love alike, who hope for the same things, aspire to the +same ends. +</P> + +<P> +Our mental view never reaches the ultimate nature of being, and hence +our knowledge, whether of material or of spiritual things, is +incomplete. Faith is the effort to supply the defect which inheres in +all our knowing. Knowledge springs from faith, faith from knowledge, +as rivers from clouds, clouds from rivers. The more we know, the more +we believe; and our growing consciousness does not make us content to +rest in a mechanical view of nature, but it brings home to us with +increasing power the awfulness of the infinite mystery, which we more +and more clearly perceive to be a spiritual rather than a material +fact. If at present there is a certain failure of will and consequent +discouragement in the pursuit of moral and intellectual perfection, +this is a result of our passing bewilderment in the presence of the +revelations of science and of the mighty forces it places in the hands +of man, and not of any new knowledge which tends to inspire misgivings +concerning the being of God and our kinship with Him:—- +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +From nature up to law, from law to love:<BR> +This is the ascendant path in which we move,<BR> +Impelled by God in ways that lighten still,<BR> +Till all things meet in one eternal thrill.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As the Universe revealed by the Copernican astronomy and the other +natural sciences is infinitely more sublime and marvellous than such a +world as the Israelites, the Greeks, or the Romans imagined, so they +who see rightly in the luminous ether of modern intelligence understand +better than the ancients that human life is not an ephemeral and +superficial, but an immortal and central power, enrooted in God, and +drawing its substance and sustenance from Him. +</P> + +<P> +The appeal to shame is a poor argument. The fact that men of great +intellectual power and learning have held an opinion to be true does +not make it so. New knowledge may have shown it to be false, or the +general advance of the race may have changed the point of view. The +presumption of the larger wisdom of the Ancients we cannot accept: for +we, not they, are the true ancients. The purest and the holiest prayer +men speak is this: "Thy will be done." They who utter it from the +inmost soul, find peace, even as a fretful child sinks to rest upon the +mother's bosom. In learning to love the will of God they come at last +not merely to believe, but to feel that His will guides the Universe, +and that all will be well. When an utterance comes forth from the +depths of our spiritual being, men cannot but hearken. It is as though +we should bring to exiles tidings of a long-lost home and country. +</P> + +<P> +To what a weight he stoops who addresses himself with fixed resolve to +the life of thought! The burden indeed is heavy, but the pathway lies +through pleasant fields where great souls move to and fro in freedom +and at peace. And as he grows accustomed to his labor, the world +widens, the heavens break open, the dead live again, and with them he +rises into the high regions where the petty cares and passions of +mortals do not reach. +</P> + +<P> +He who would educate himself must make use of his own powers. He must +observe, think, examine, read, argue, ponder; he must learn when to +hold judgment in suspense, and when to give the wings of the soul free +sweep through the high and serene realms of truth and beauty. The +farther we dwell from the crowd, with its current opinion, the better +and truer shall we and our thoughts become. They who write for +multitudinous readers rise with difficulty above the dignity of +mountebanks. +</P> + +<P> +There is a radical defect in the character of whoever works in the +spirit of a trifler, however blameless his conduct. The power to +inspire faith in the seriousness and goodness of life is a sufficient +test of the worth of a scheme of education. +</P> + +<P> +No one should fill an office which he is unable to hold without +hindrance to the play of mind and heart that makes him a man. The +dignities we possess at the cost of knowledge and virtue are like +jewels for the sake of which one goes hungry and naked; mere glittering +baubles for which we barter the soul's prosperity. +</P> + +<P> +Experience is personal, and it is largely incommunicable; but +genius—and in this lies its power and charm—renders it communicable. +What the poet or the painter has felt and seen, he makes all men feel +and see. The difference between man and man, between the child and the +youth, the youth and the adult, is chiefly a difference in feeling, in +the manner in which they are impressed; and it is our nature to be +drawn in admiration or reverence to those who by their words or deeds +give us deeper impressions of the worth of life, and thus open for us +new sources of feeling. +</P> + +<P> +Fair thoughts rise in the heart and mind of genius, like the fragrant +breath which the dewy flowers exhale in the face of the rising sun, and +they utter themselves as simply as matin songs warbled by +sweet-throated birds. +</P> + +<P> +Faith in the infinite nature and worth of truth, goodness, and love, is +the dawn which shall merge into the fulness of day, when, in other +worlds, God looks upon the soul, reborn from out this seemingness. +</P> + +<P> +Our position, our reputation, our wealth, our comforts, are but a +vesture like the body itself. They shall fall away, and we shall +remain with God. There is no liberty but obedience to the impulse of +the higher nature which urges us to think nobly, to act rightly, and to +love constantly. The dominion of appetite is slavery; the dominion of +reason and conscience is freedom. +</P> + +<P> +Renan somewhere says he could wish for nothing better than that a +little volume of selections from his writings might commend itself to +young women, whose fair faces should bend over it, and find there a +reflection of their own pure souls. But where there is no God, the +soul is not mirrored, and we never really love an author who weakens +faith and hope. +</P> + +<P> +With whatever success we advance towards the wide and serene life of +the pure reason, let us still cling to faith, hope, and love, the +primal powers which keep watch at our birth, and which bend over our +cradles, and which alone lift us into the world of enduring peace and +hold us within the sheltering arms of God. In the enlightened mind, +faith is a higher virtue than it can be for the ignorant, and to +sustain it there is need of a nobler life. +</P> + +<P> +He whom neither learning nor power nor wealth can corrupt must have +virtue; for learning breeds conceit, and power begets pride, and wealth +debases both the mind and heart. +</P> + +<P> +The intellect does not recognize that conscience may forbid its +exercise, since knowledge cannot be evil. If earth were a hell and +life a curse and the Universe but a cinder, it would still be good to +know the fact. The saddest truth is better than the merriest lie. +</P> + +<P> +To know a thing is to be conscious of its relation to the mind. We +know it, not in itself, but in and through this relation. Our +knowledge of God, who is the absolute, is not absolute knowledge, but a +knowledge of Him in so far as He is related to the mind of man. Since, +however, mind is reason and not unreason, there is harmony between it +and things, between it and God; and hence to be conscious of its +relation to God and the universe is to be conscious of a real relation, +in which both the thinker and his thought are in truth what they seem +to be. The ultimate reality is inferred, not directly perceived. It +reveals itself to the purest faith and love, and may be hidden from one +who knows all the sciences. +</P> + +<P> +As man's relations to his fellows make him a social and political +being, so his relations to the unseen power behind and within the +visible world, of whose presence he is always, however dimly, +conscious, and to whom he refers whatever touches the senses, as well +as the principle of life itself, make him a religious being. +</P> + +<P> +In identifying what seem to be our particular interests with the +interests of all, we make escape from narrowness and isolation into the +general life of humanity; and when we come to understand that not only +mankind but all nature is a Unity in the Consciousness of the Infinite +and Eternal, bound together by thought and love, we enter into the +glorious liberty of the Sons of God, and feel that nor height nor depth +nor things past nor things to come shall separate us from the divine +charity. We are akin to all that may become part of our life; and +whatever we know or love or admire is spiritualized and made human. To +understand the things of the spirit we must have spiritual experience. +The intuitions of time and space, as well as the principle of +causality, are given in the constitution of the mind. So is the idea +of being, of perfection, of beauty, of eternity, of infinity, of duty. +To think implies being, to perceive things as existing in time and +space implies consciousness of eternity and infinity. To know the +imperfect is possible only in the light of the perfect. Subject is +itself object, the first known and best understood, and the laws of +mind are laws of being. If the constitution of mind makes the +revelation of the material world possible only under the forms of time +and space, intelligible only as sequence of cause and effect, the +reason is to be found in the nature of things. If the constitution of +mind postulates one who knows and shapes, in a world in which whatever +is, is intelligible, in which there is order, proportion, and purpose, +it is because such an One is given in the nature of things, and He is +God. However living our faith, it is faith and not knowledge; and +should it become knowledge, it would cease to be faith. +</P> + +<P> +There are three kinds of authors,—those who impart knowledge, those +who give delight, and those who strengthen and inspire. +</P> + +<P> +A noble thought rightly expressed sweeps the higher nerve centres as +the touch of a perfect performer the strings of an instrument; but if +the instrument is poor and irresponsive, the appeal is made in vain. +Life has the power to propagate itself, and if the words thou utterest +are living, they will strike root somewhere and bud and blossom and +bear fruit; but if there is no life in them, be content to have them +fall and lie amid the dust of the dead. God and the universe are what +they are, and the best even genius can do is to throw over them a +revealing light. He who feels that he is always in the presence of God +will strive as religiously to think only what is true as he will strive +to do only what is right. A phrase which leaps forth aglow with life +from the heart and brain of genius, not only lives forever, but retains +forever the power to awaken, when brought into contact with a brain and +heart, the thrill with which it first came into being. +</P> + +<P> +Only a few know and love the poet, but they are young and fair, and the +music of high thoughts and pure love is rhythmic with the current of +their blood; and if among them there be found some who are old, they +are choice spirits who have risen from out the lapses of time into +regions where what is true and beautiful is so forever. This little +band of chosen ones accompanies him adown the centuries, and listens to +the melody which wells in his heart and breaks into songs that shall +give delight as long as the air of spring is pleasant and the flowers +fragrant and the carollings of birds delightful; and while the poet +strolls on the outskirts of time, thus loved and thus attended, the +stormy and glittering favorites of the crowd drop from sight and are +forgotten, or remembered but as the echo of a name. +</P> + +<P> +A line from Homer, which sounds like a response from our own heart, is +clothed with the mystery of diviner power, because it makes us feel +that we were alive thousands of years ago amid the Grecian isles, thus +revealing to us the unreality of time and space, and the everlasting +nature of truth and beauty. +</P> + +<P> +As it is right to admire and love whatever is good wherever it is +found, it needs must be the part of wisdom to seek to know and +appreciate all that is true and high in the works of genius, though +there, like precious stones and metals in the mine, it be mingled with +baser matter. It is but narrowness or intellectual pharisaism to turn +from a great author because in his life and works there may be things +of which we cannot approve. Shall we abandon God because His world is +full of evil, or Christ because there is corruption in the church? St. +Paul appeals to pagan literature, St. Augustine is the disciple of +Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas of Aristotle, and the culture and +civilization of Christendom are largely due to influences which are not +Christian. Whatever is good is from God. There is no surer mark of +the lack of culture than the use of ill-natured and abusive epithets. +To feel the need of injurious words to express one's opinion, merely +shows that one is angry, and anger is vulgar. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever is inspired by vanity is in bad taste. This is why a showy +style is a false style, why fine writing is poor writing. The author +yields to the spirit of vainglory, whereas he should be wholly bent +upon uttering his thought as he knows it. It is as though he should +call our attention to a costly garb when what we want to see is a man. +</P> + +<P> +As a plain face is better than a mask, though fine, so one's own style, +though inferior, is better than any which is borrowed. +</P> + +<P> +True books survive without help or let of critics, by virtue of their +vital quality, which attracts kindred spirits with irresistible power. +</P> + +<P> +When their worth becomes known, the critics set up a howl of praise, +and many buy; but only a few make them their serious study, and learn +to know and love them. Truth is the mind's food; and, like that of the +body, it is nourishment only when it has been digested and assimilated. +It is, after all, but a little while since man began to think. As yet +he is learning the alphabet. Take heart then, and apply thy mind. As +we grow older the years seem to run to months, the months to weeks, the +weeks to days, the days to hours, the hours to moments, until time, +like an exhalation, appears to dissolve in the inane, and become the +nothing it was and is and will be for eternity. +</P> + +<P> +If thought were given us, like house and clothing, merely for our +personal comfort, wisdom would lead us to think with and like all the +world. They who are eager for the good opinion of others seem to have +but weak faith in their own worth. +</P> + +<P> +The art of pleasing would better deserve our study were there more who +are worth pleasing, or were it less difficult to please without loss of +sincerity and without stooping to the service of vulgar interests. Not +how much or how many things thou knowest is of import. An industrious +reader, of retentive memory, will easily know more things than a great +philosopher compared with whom he is but a child. +</P> + +<P> +Know thyself was the sum of what Socrates taught, and each of the seven +wise men rested his fame upon an apothegm. To expect the multitude to +appreciate the best in life or literature, is to expect them to be what +they have never been and will probably never be. Would you have an ox +admire the sunrise or the pearly dew, when all he feels the need of is +grass? Appeal to the many if you will, but if your appeal is for the +highest, only the few will hearken. +</P> + +<P> +Consider not what great men or books are worth in themselves, but what +they are worth to thee; for thou art able to judge of their value only +in so far as thou understandest and lovest them. +</P> + +<P> +If thou canst not bear trouble, sorrow, and disappointment without loss +of composure, thou art poorly equipped for life's struggle. If thou +mayst not lead the life thou wouldst wish, thou canst at least make the +life thou leadest the means to improve thyself. If we were so +constituted that thought, feeling, and imagination might have free and +healthful play in ever-during darkness and isolation, life would still +be good. Could I live surrounded by those I love, I should feel less +keenly the discontent which the consciousness of my higher needs +creates; and besides, it is not easy to rest in the comforts and +luxuries which make and keep us inferior, except in the company of +those we love. If our ordinary power of sight were as great as that we +gain with the help of the microscope, the world would become for us a +place of horrors; and if we could clearly see ourselves as we are, life +would be less endurable. God blurs our vision as a mother hides from +her child its wound. +</P> + +<P> +Pleasures which quickly end in revulsion of feeling are but momentary +escapes from pain; and they alone are fortunate who are able to +persevere in pursuits which give them pure delight. "All good," says +Kant, "which is not based on the highest moral principle is but empty +appearance and splendid misery." +</P> + +<P> +Sensations of color, taste, sound, smell, touch, heat and cold, +perceptions of magnitude, and temporal and spatial relations, is the +sum of what we know; and yet we are conscious that reason means +infinitely more than this, that its proper object is the eternal world +of truth, goodness, and beauty. Think for thyself with a single view +to truth; for so only will thy thought be of worth and service to +others. We feel ourselves only in action, and hence the need of doing +lest we lose ourselves and be swallowed in nothingness. And for the +old and feeble even worry, I suppose, is a comfort, for it helps to +keep this self-consciousness alive. It is impossible to say whence a +thought comes, and it is often difficult to determine the occasion by +which it has been suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunate are the children all of whose knowledge comes from man and +nature in their purity, whose memory holds no words which are not the +symbols of what they themselves have seen and felt, in whose minds no +will-o'-the-wisp from chimera worlds flits to and fro. It is only by +keeping men in ignorance and vice that it is possible to keep them from +the contagion of great thoughts. They who have little are thought to +have no right to anything. Thus the plagiarized sayings of Napoleon +and other nurslings of fame pass for their own; who their real authors +were, seeming to be a matter of indifference. +</P> + +<P> +If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, +why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I +am? Should I publish what I believe to be true and well expressed, and +competent judges should declare it to be worthless in form and +substance, the verdict would be interesting to me, and I should set to +work to discover why and how I had so far failed in discernment. "A +thoroughly cultivated man," says Fontenelle, "is informed by all the +thinkers of the past, as though he had lived and continued to grow in +knowledge during all the centuries." The author is rewarded when his +readers are made better. +</P> + +<P> +The most persuasive of men are the praisers of patent medicines. Their +eloquence is more richly rewarded than that of all the orators, who +also are paid, for the most part, in inverse ratio to the amount of +truth they utter. Fame, as fame, is the merest vanity. No wise man +wishes to be talked and written about, living or dead, to be a theme +chiefly for fools. +</P> + +<P> +Literature is writing in which genuine thought and feeling are rightly +expressed. They who content themselves with what others have uttered, +learn nothing. The blind need a guide, but they who are able to see +should look for themselves. There is, indeed, in the words of genius a +glow which never dies; but it only dazzles and misleads, if it fails to +stimulate and strengthen our own powers of vision. True speech is not +idle; it is utterance of life, the mate of action, and the begetter of +noble deeds. Strive for knowledge and strength, but do not appear to +have them. +</P> + +<P> +"A book," says La Bruyère, "which exalts the mind and inspires high and +manly thoughts, is good, and the work of a master." A phrase suffices +to tell the man is ignorant or the book worthless. As the body is +nourished by dead things, vegetable and animal, so the mind feeds on +the thoughts of those who have ceased to live, which, it would seem, +are never rightly understood until the thinkers have passed away. +</P> + +<P> +To be unwilling to be proved wrong is to fail in love of truth; to +resent an objection is to lack culture. One may believe what cannot be +demonstrated, but to grow angry because there is no proof is absurd. +</P> + +<P> +To do deeds and to utter thoughts which long after we have departed +shall remain to cheer, to illumine, to strengthen and console, is to be +like God; and the desire of noble minds is not of praise, but of +abiding power for good. +</P> + +<P> +He who is certain of himself needs not the good opinion of men, not of +those even who are competent to judge. Only the vain and foolish or +the designing and dishonest will wish to receive credit for more +ability and virtue than they have. An exaggerated reputation may +nourish conceit or win favor; but the wise and the good put away +conceit, and desire not favors which are granted from mistaken notions. +</P> + +<P> +"I hate false words," says Landor, "and seek with care, difficulty, and +moroseness those that fit the thing." +</P> + +<P> +Dwell not with complacency upon aught thou hast or hast achieved, but +address thyself each day, like a simple-hearted child, to the task God +sets thee; and remember when the last hour comes thou canst carry +nothing to Him but faith in His mercy and goodness. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TRUTH AND LOVE. +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of +truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it; the knowledge of +truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is +the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.—BACON. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +As those who have little think their little much, so those who have few +ideas believe with obstinacy that they are the sum of all truth. If +the world could but be made to see what they see there would be no +ills. They have not even a suspicion of the unutterable complexity of +the warp and woof of nature and of life; and when their opinions are +combated they imagine they thereby acquire new importance, and they +defend them with such zeal that they make proselytes and found sects in +religion, politics, and literature. The source of the greater part of +error is the absoluteness the mind attributes to its knowledge and, as +part of this, the persuasion that at each stage of our mental life, we +are capable of seeing things as they are. The aim of the philosopher, +as of the Christian, is to escape from the ephemeral self by renouncing +what is petty, partial, apparent, and transitory, that the true self +may unfold in the world of the permanent, of things which have an +aptitude for perpetuity; but the philosopher's efforts are intellectual +and moral, while the Christian's source of strength is the love which +is enrooted in divine faith. +</P> + +<P> +"The brief precept," says St. Augustine, "is given there once for +all,—Love, and do what thou wilt. If thou art silent, be silent for +love; if thou speakest, speak for love; if thou correctest, correct for +love; if thou sparest, spare for love. The root of love is within, and +from it only good can come." Life springs from love, and love is its +being, aim, and end. Each soul is born of souls yearning that he be +born, and he lives only so far as he leaves himself and becomes through +love part of the life of God and the race of man. +</P> + +<P> +Primordial matter, with which the physicists start, is twin brother of +nothing. In every conceivable hypothesis, we assume either that +nothing is the cause of something, or that from the beginning there was +something or some one who is all the universe may become. If truth and +love and goodness are of the essence of the highest life evolved in +nature, they are of the essence of that by which nature exists and +energizes. If reason is valid at all, it avails as an immovable +foundation for faith in God and in man's kinship with him. The larger +the world we live in, the greater the opportunities for self-education. +He who knows friends and foes, who is commended and found fault with, +who tastes the delights of home and breathes the air of strange lands, +who is followed and opposed, who triumphs and suffers defeat, who +contends with many and is left alone, who dwells with his own thoughts +and in the company of the great minds of all time,—necessarily gains +wisdom and power, and learns to feel himself a man. +</P> + +<P> +Science springs from man's yearning for truth; art, from his yearning +for beauty; religion, from his yearning for love: and as truth, beauty, +and love are a harmony, so are science, art, and religion; and if +conflicts arise, they are the results of ignorance and passion. The +charm of faith, hope, and love, of knowledge, beauty, and religion, +lies in their power to open life's prison, thus permitting the soul to +escape to commune with the Infinite and Eternal, with the boundless +mysterious world of being which forever draws us on and forever eludes +our grasp. The higher the man, the more urgent this need of +self-escape. +</P> + +<P> +We look upon lifelong imprisonment of the body as among the greatest of +evils, but that the mind should be suffered to languish in the dungeon +of ignorance, error, and prejudice, seems comparatively a slight thing. +Thy whole business, as a rational being, is to know and follow +truth,—with gratitude and joy if possible, but, in any case, with +courage and resignation. Mind maketh man; and the most money and place +can do, is to make millionnaires and titularies. +</P> + +<P> +The Alpine guides, who lead travellers through the sublimest scenery in +the world, are as insensible to its grandeur as the stocks they grasp; +and we nearly all are as indifferent as these drudges to Nature's +divine spectacle, with its starlit heavens, its risings and settings of +sun and moon, its storms and calms, its changes of season, its clouds +and snows and breath of many-tinted flowers, its children's faces, and +plumage and songs of birds. +</P> + +<P> +As we judge of many things by samples, a glance may suffice to show the +worthlessness of a book, but the value of one that is genuine is not +quickly perceived, for it reveals itself the more the oftener it is +read and pondered. There is not a more certain, a purer, or a more +delightful source of contentment and independence than a taste for the +best literature. In the midst of occupations and cares of whatever +kind it enables us to look forward to the hour when the noblest minds +and most generous hearts shall welcome us to their company to be +entertained with great thoughts rightly uttered and with information +concerning whatever is of interest to man. +</P> + +<P> +In every home the best works of the great poets, historians, +philosophers, orators, and story-writers should lie within reach of the +young, who should be permitted, not urged, to read them. We may know a +man by the company he keeps; we may know him better still by the books +he loves: and if he loves none, he is not worth knowing. +</P> + +<P> +Matthew Arnold praises culture for "its inexhaustible indulgence, its +consideration of circumstances, its severe judgment of actions joined +to its merciful judgment of persons." +</P> + +<P> +When we have learned to love work, to love honest work, work well done, +excellently well done, we have within ourselves the most fruitful +principle of education. +</P> + +<P> +Who shall speak ill of bodily health and vigor? Herbert Spencer +affirms that it is man's first duty to be a good animal. But since we +cannot all be athletes or be well even, let us not refuse to find +consolation in the fact that much of what is greatest, whether in the +world of thought or action, has been wrought by mighty souls in feeble +and suffering bodies; and since men gladly risk health and life to +acquire gold, shall we not be willing, if need be, to be "sicklied o'er +with the pale cast of thought," if so we may attain to truth and love? +</P> + +<P> +Great things are accomplished only by concentration. What we ourselves +think, love, and do, until it becomes a habit, is the form and +substance of our life. +</P> + +<P> +To live in the company of those who have or seek culture is to breathe +the vital air of mental health and vigor. +</P> + +<P> +The scientific investigator gives his whole attention to the facts +before him; but the discipline of close observation, however favorable +it may be to accuracy, weakens capacity for wide and profound views. +On the other hand, the speculative thinker is apt to grow heedless or +oblivious of facts. Hence a minute observer is seldom a great +philosopher, a great philosopher rarely a careful observer. +</P> + +<P> +"Employment," says Ruskin, "is the half, and the primal half of +education, for it forms the habits of body and mind, and these are the +constitution of man." Tell me at and in what thou workest, and I will +tell thee what thou art. The secret of education lies in the words of +Christ,—He that hath eyes to see, let him see; he that hath ears to +hear, let him hear. The soul must flow through the channels of the +senses until it meets the universe and clothes it with the beauty and +meaning which reveal God. +</P> + +<P> +When I think of all the truth which still remains for me to learn, of +all the good I yet may do, of all the friends I still may serve, of all +the beauty I may see, life seems as fresh and fair, as full of promise, +as is to loving souls the dawn of their bridal day. Animals, children, +savages, the thoughtless and frivolous, live in the present alone; they +consequently lead a narrow, ephemeral, and superficial existence. They +strike no deep roots into the past, they forebode no divine future, +they enter not behind the veil where the soul finds ever-during truth +and power. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"The world is too much with us; late and soon,<BR> +Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Whatever sets the mind in motion may lead us to secret worlds, though +it be a falling apple, as with Newton, or the swing of the pendulum, as +with Galileo, or a boy's kite, as with Franklin, or throwing pebbles +into the water, as with Turner. Watt sat musing by the fire, and +noticed the rise and fall of the lid of the boiling kettle, and the +steam engine, like a vision from unknown spheres, rose before his +imagination. A child, carelessly playing with the glasses that lay on +the table of a spectacle-maker, gave the clew to the invention of the +telescope. The pestle, flying from the hand of Schwarz, told him he +had found the explosive which has transformed the world. Drifting +plants, of a strange species, whispered to Columbus of a continent that +lay across the Atlantic. Patient observation and work are the +mightiest conquerors. +</P> + +<P> +Among the maxims, called triads, which have come down to us from the +Celtic bards, we find this: "The three primary requisites of +genius,—an eye that can see nature; a heart that can feel nature; and +boldness that dares follow nature." He who has no philosophy and no +religion, no theory of life and the world, has nothing which he finds +it greatly important to say or do. He lacks the impulse of genius, the +educator's energy and enthusiasm. Having no ideal, he has no end to +which he may point and lead. To do well it is necessary to believe in +the worth of what we do. The power which upholds and leads us on is +faith,—faith in God, in ourselves, in life, in education. +</P> + +<P> +Forever to be blessed and cherished is the love-inspired mother or the +teacher whose generous heart and luminous mind first leads us to +believe in the priceless worth of wisdom and virtue, thus kindling +within the soul a quenchless fire which warms and irradiates our whole +being. +</P> + +<P> +To be God's workman, to strive, to endure, to labor, even to the end, +for truth and righteousness, this is life. +</P> + +<P> +"My desire," says Dante, "and my will rolled onward, like a wheel in +even motion, swayed by the love which moves the sun and all the stars." +</P> + +<P> +If there are any who shrink from wrong more than from disgrace they +best deserve to be called religious. +</P> + +<P> +Strive not to be original or profound, but to think justly and to +express clearly what thou seest; and so it may happen that thy view +shall pierce deeper than thou knowest. +</P> + +<P> +The words and deeds which are most certain to escape oblivion are those +which nourish the higher life of the soul. Self-love, the love of +one's real self, of one's soul, is the indispensable virtue. It is +this we seek when we strive to know and love truth and justice; it is +this we seek, when we love God and our fellow-men. In turning from +ourselves to find them, we still seek ourselves; in abandoning life we +seek richer and fuller life. +</P> + +<P> +Truth separate from love is but half truth. Think of that which unites +thee with thy fellows rather than of what divides thee from them. +Religion is the bond of love, and not a subject for a debating club. +If thou wouldst refute thy adversaries, commit the task to thy life +more than to thy words. Read the history of controversy and ask +thyself whether there is in it the spirit of Christ, the meek and lowly +One? Its champions belong to the schools of the sophists rather than +to the worshippers of God in spirit and in truth. And what has been +the issue of all their disputes but hatreds and sects, persecutions and +wars? If it is my duty to be polite and helpful to my neighbor, it is +plainly also my duty to treat his opinions and beliefs with +consideration and fairness. +</P> + +<P> +There is a place in South America where the whole population have the +goitre, and if a stranger who is free from the deformity chances to +pass among them, they jeer and cry, "There goes one who has no goitre." +What could be more delightfully human? We think it a holy thing to put +down duelling, the battle of one with one; but we are full of +enthusiasm over battles of a hundred thousand with a hundred thousand. +Thus the Southern slave-owners were sworn advocates of the rights of +man and of popular liberty. +</P> + +<P> +The explanation of many provoking things is to be found in Dr. +Johnson's words,—"Ignorance, simple ignorance;" but of many more +probably in these other words,—Greed, simple greed. +</P> + +<P> +"In science," says Bulwer, "read by preference the newest books; in +literature, the oldest." This is wiser than Emerson's saying: "Never +read a book which is not a year old." +</P> + +<P> +The facility with which it is now possible to get at whatever is known +on any subject has a tendency to create the opinion that reading up in +this or that direction is education, whereas such reading as is +generally done, is unfavorable to discipline of mind. Shall our +Chautauquas and summer schools help to foster this superstition? +</P> + +<P> +What passion can be more innocent than the passion for knowledge? And +what passion gives better promise of blessings to one's self and to +one's fellow-men? Why desire to have force and numbers on thy side? +Is it not enough that thou hast truth and justice? +</P> + +<P> +The loss of the good opinion of one's friends is to be regretted, but +the loss of self-respect is the only true beggary. +</P> + +<P> +Zeal for a party or a sect is more certain of earthly reward than zeal +for truth and religion. +</P> + +<P> +As it is unfortunate for the young to have abundance of money, fine +clothes, and social success, so popularity is hurtful to the prosperity +of the best gifts. It draws the mind away from the silence and +strength of eternal truth and love into a world of clamor and noise. +Patience is the student's great virtue; it is the mark of the best +quality of mind. It takes an eternity to unfold a universe; man is the +sum of the achievements of innumerable ages, and whatever endures is +slow in acquiring the virtues which make for permanence. +</P> + +<P> +The will to know, manifesting itself in persistent impulse, in +never-satisfied yearning, is the power which urges to mental effort and +enables us to attain culture. +</P> + +<P> +"If a thing is good," says Landor, "it may be repeated. The repetition +shows no want of invention; it shows only what is uppermost in the +mind, and by what the writer is most agitated and inflamed." What hast +thou learned to admire, to long for, to love, genuinely to hope for and +believe? The answer tells thy worth and that of the education thou +hast received. +</P> + +<P> +When we have said a thousand things in praise of education, we must, at +last, come back to the fundamental fact that nearly everything depends +on the kind of people of whom we are descended, and on the kind of +family in which our young years have passed. Nearly everything, but +not everything; and it is this little which makes liberty possible, +which inspires hope and courage, which, like the indefinable something +that gives the work of genius its worth and stamp, makes us children of +God and masters of ourselves. "Wisdom is the principal thing," says +Solomon; "therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get +understanding." +</P> + +<P> +He who makes himself the best man is the most successful one, while he +who gains most money or notoriety may fail utterly as man. +</P> + +<P> +With the advance of civilization our wants increase; and yet it is the +business of religion and culture to raise us above the things money +buys, and consequently to diminish our wants. They who are nearest to +God have fewest wants; and they who know and follow truth need not +place or title or wealth. +</P> + +<P> +To every one the tempter comes, with a thousand pretexts drawn both +from the intellect and the emotional nature, promising to lull +conscience to sleep that he may lead the lower life in peace; but he +who hearkens becomes a victim as helpless and as wretched as the +victims of alcohol and opium. +</P> + +<P> +In deliberate persevering action for high ends, all the subconscious +forces within us, the many currents, which, like hidden water-veins, go +to make our being, are taken up and turned in a deep-flowing stream +into the ocean of our life. In such course of conduct the baser self +is swallowed, and we learn to feel that we are part of the divine +energy which moves the universe to finer issues. As life is only by +moments and in narrow space, a little thing may disturb us and a little +thing may take away the cause of our trouble. We are petty beings in a +world of petty concerns. A little food, a little sleep, a little joy +is enough to make us happy. A word can fill us with dismay, a breath +can blow out the flickering flame of our self-consciousness. I often +ride among graves, and think how easy it is for the fretful children of +men to grow quiet. There they lie, having become weary of their toys +and plays, on the breast of the great mother from whom they sprang, +about whose face they frolicked and fought and cried for a day, and +then fell back into her all-receiving arms, as raindrops fall into the +water and mingle with it and are lost. No sight is so pathetic as that +of a vast throng seeking to enjoy themselves. The hopelessness of the +task is visible on all their thousand faces, athwart which, while they +talk or listen or look, the shadow of care flits as if thrown from dark +wings wheeling in circuits above them. The sorrow and toil and worry +they have thought to put away, still lie close to them, like a burden +which, having been set down, waits to be taken up again. God surely +sees with love and pity His all-enduring and all-hoping children; it is +His voice we hear in the words of Christ, "Misereor super turbam." I +cannot but wish to be myself, and therefore to be happy; but when I +think of God as essential to my happiness, I feel it is enough for me +to know and love Him; for to imagine I might be of service to Him would +be the fondest conceit. But He makes it possible for me to help my +fellows, and in doing this, I fulfil the will of Him who is the father +of all. The divine reveals itself in the human; and that religion +alone is true which, striking its roots deep into humanity, exerts all +its power to make men more godlike by making them more human. +</P> + +<P> +They who in good faith inflicted the tortures of the Inquisition were +led not by the light of reason, or that which springs from the +contemplation of the life of Christ, but by the notion that the rack +and fagot are instruments of mercy, if employed to save men from +eternal torments; and tyrants, who are always cruel, gave encouragement +and aid to the victims of fanaticism. Why should the sorrow or the sin +or the loss of any human being give me pleasure? Is it not always the +same story? In the fall of one we all are degraded, since, whoever +fails, it is our common nature which suffers hurt. +</P> + +<P> +Whether or not we have come forth from a merely animal condition, let +us thank God we are human, and bend all our energies to remove the race +farther and farther from the life over which thought and love and +conscience have no dominion. +</P> + +<P> +In the presence of the mighty machine, whose wheels and arms are +everywhere, whose power is drawn from the exhaustless oceans and the +boundless heavens, the importance of the individual dwindles and seems +threatened with extinction. At such a time it is good to know that a +right human soul is greater than a universe of machinery. +</P> + +<P> +We feel that we are higher than all the suns and planets, because we +know and love, and they do not; but when, in the light of this +superiority, we turn to the thought of our own littleness, being +scarcely more than nothing, such trouble rises in the soul that we +throw ourselves upon God to escape doubt of the reality of life. If we +believe that man is what he eats, his education is simply a question of +alimentation; but if we hold that he is what he knows, and loves, and +yearns, and strives for, his education is a problem of soul-nutrition. +</P> + +<P> +The child is made educable by its faith in the father and mother, which +is nothing else than faith in their truth and love; and the +educableness of the man is in proportion to his faith in the sovereign +and infinite nature of truth and love, which is faith in God. +</P> + +<P> +It is in youth that we are most susceptible of education, because it is +the privilege of youth to be free from tyrannic cares, and to be +sensitive to the charm of noble and disinterested passions. If we show +the young soul the way to higher worlds, he will not ask us to strew it +with flowers, or pave it with gold, but he will be content to walk with +bruised feet along mountain wastes, if at the summit is illumination +and joy and peace. +</P> + +<P> +As in religion many are called but few chosen, as in the race for +wealth and place many start but few win the prize, so in the pursuit of +intellectual and moral excellence, of the few who begin, the most soon +weary, while of the remnant, many grow infirm in purpose or in body +before the goal is reached. +</P> + +<P> +Time and space, which hold all things, separate all things; but +religion and culture bind them into unity through faith in God and +through knowledge, thus forming a communion of holy souls and noble +minds, for whom discord and division disappear in the harmony of the +divine order in which temporal and spatial conditions of separateness +yield to the eternal presence of truth and love. New ideas seem at +first to remain upon the surface of the soul, and generations sometimes +pass before they enter into its substance and become motives of +conduct; and, in the same way, sentiments may influence conduct, when +the notions from which they sprang have long been rejected. The old +truth must renew itself as the race renews itself; it must be +re-interpreted and re-applied to the life of each individual and of +each generation, if its liberating and regenerating power is to have +free scope. Reason and conscience are God's most precious gifts; and +what does He ask but that we make use of them? +</P> + +<P> +Right thinking, like right doing, is the result of innumerable efforts, +innumerable failures, the final outcome of which is a habit of right +thought and conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Whoever believes in truth, freedom, and love, and follows after them +with his whole heart, walks in God's highway, which leads to peace and +blessedness. +</P> + +<P> +A thing may be obscure from defect of light or defect of sight; and in +the same way an author may be found dull either because he is so, or +because his readers are dull. The noblest book even is but dead matter +until a mind akin to its creator's awakens it to life again. +</P> + +<P> +The appeal to the imagination has infinitely more charm than the appeal +to the senses. +</P> + +<P> +"But when evening falls," says Machiavelli, "I go home and enter my +study. On the threshold I lay aside my country garments, soiled with +mire, and array myself in courtly garb. Thus attired, I make my +entrance into the ancient courts of the men of old, where they receive +me with love, and where I feed upon that food which only is my own, and +for which I was born. For four hours' space I feel no annoyance, +forget all care; poverty cannot frighten nor death appall me." A man +of genius works for all, for he compels all to think. An enlightened +mind and a generous heart make the world good and fair. +</P> + +<P> +Where there is perfect confidence, conversation does not drag; while +for those who love it is enough that they be together: if they are +silent, it is well; if they speak, mere nothings suffice. +</P> + +<P> +The world of knowledge, all that men know, is, in truth, little and +simple enough. It seems vast and intricate because we are imperfectly +educated. +</P> + +<P> +The soul, like the body, has its atmosphere, out of which it cannot +live. +</P> + +<P> +When opinions take the place of convictions, ideas that of beliefs, +great characters become rare. +</P> + +<P> +The pith of virtue lies not in thinking, but in doing. A real man +strives to assert himself; for whether he seeks wealth, or power, or +fame, or truth, or virtue, or the good of his fellows, he knows that he +can succeed only through self-assertion, through the prevalence of his +own thought and life. +</P> + +<P> +They who abdicate the rights God gives the individual, seek in vain to +preserve by constitutional enactments a semblance of liberty. +</P> + +<P> +If it is human to hate whom we have injured, it is not less so to +despise whom we have deceived; and yet those who are easily deceived +are the most innocent or the most high-minded and generous. It seems +hardly a human and must therefore be a divine thing, to live and deal +with men without in any way giving them trouble and annoyance. Truth +loves not contention, and when men fight for it, it vanishes in the +noise and smoke of the combat. +</P> + +<P> +The controversies of the schools, whether of philosophy, theology, +literature, or natural science, have been among the saddest exhibitions +of ineptitude. Is it conceivable that a thinker, or a believer, or a +scholar, or an investigator should wrangle in the spirit of a pothouse +politician? The more certain we are of ourselves and of the truth of +what we hold, the easier it is for us to be patient and tolerant. +</P> + +<P> +Wicked is whoever finds pleasure in another's pain. We can know more +than we can love. Hence communion with the world is wider through the +mind than through the heart, though less intimate and less satisfying. +It is, however, longer active, for we continue to be delighted by new +truth when we have ceased to care to make new friends. Learn to bear +the faults of men as thou sufferest the changes of weather,—with +equanimity; for impatience and anger will no more improve thy neighbors +than they will prevent its being hot or cold. What men think or say of +thee is unimportant—give heed to what thou thyself thinkest and sayst. +If thou art ignored or reviled, remember such has been the fate of the +best, while the world's favorites are often men of blood or lust or +mere time-servers. He who does genuine work is conscious of the worth +of what he does, and is not troubled with misgivings or discouraged by +lack of recognition. If God looked away from His universe it would +cease to be; and He sees him. The more we detach ourselves from crude +realism, from the naive views of uneducated minds, the easier it +becomes for us to lead an intellectual and religious life, for such +detachment enables us to realize that the material world has meaning +and beauty only when it has passed through the alembic of the spirit +and become purified, fit object for the contemplation of God and of +souls. They are true students who are drawn to seek knowledge by +mental curiosity, by affinity with the intelligible, like that which +binds and holds lover to lover, making their love all-sufficient and +above all price. All that is of value in thy opinions is the truth +they contain—to hold them dearer than truth is to be irrational and +perverse. Thy faith is what thou believest, not what thou knowest. +The crowd loves to hear those who treat the tenets of their opponents +with scorn, who overwhelm their adversaries with abuse, who make a +mockery of what their foes hold sacred; but to vulgarity of this kind a +cultivated mind cannot stoop. To do so is a mark of ignorance and +inferiority; is to confuse judgment, to cloud intellect, and to +strengthen prejudice. If there are any who are so absurd or so +perverse as to be unworthy of fair and rational treatment, to refute +them is loss of time, to occupy one's self with them is to keep bad +company. With the contentious, who are always dominated by narrow and +petty views and motives, enter not into dispute, but look beyond to the +wide domain of reason and to the patience and charity of Christ. When +minds are alive and active, opposing currents of thought necessarily +arise. Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption. +As we let the light fall at different angles upon a precious stone, and +change our position from point to point to study a work of art, so it +is well to give more than one expression to the same truth, that the +intellectual rays falling upon it from several directions, and breaking +into new tints and shades, its full meaning and worth may finally be +brought clearly into view. If those with whom thou art thrown appear +to thee to be hard and narrow, call to mind that they have the same +troubles and sorrows as thyself, essentially too the same thoughts and +yearnings; and as, in spite of all thy faults, thou still lovest +thyself, so love them too, even though they be too warped and +prejudiced to appreciate thy worth. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The wise man never utters words of scorn,<BR> +For he best knows such words are devil-born.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Our opponents are as necessary to us as our friends, and when those who +have nobly combated us die, they seem to take with them part of our +mental vigor; they leave us with a deeper sense of the illusiveness of +life. Freedom is found only where honest criticism of men and measures +is recognized as a common right. +</P> + +<P> +As one man's meat is another's poison, so in the world of intelligible +things what refreshes and invigorates one, may weary and depress +another. What delights the child makes no impression upon the man. +Men and women, the ignorant and the learned, philosophers and poets, +mothers and maidens, doers and dreamers, find their entertainment +largely in different worlds. Napoleon despised the idealogue; the +idealogue sees in him but a conscienceless force. +</P> + +<P> +Outcries against wrong have little efficacy. They alone improve men +who inspire them with new confidence, new courage, who help them to +renew and purify the inner sources of life. Harsh zeal provokes +excess, because it provokes contradiction. Whoever stirs the soul to +new depths, whoever awakens the mind to new thoughts and aspirations, +is a benefactor. The common man sees the fruits of his toil; the seed +which divine men sow, ripens for others. The counsels worldlings give +to genius can only mislead. Not only the truth which Christ taught, +but the truth which nearly all sublime thinkers have taught, has seemed +to the generation to which it was announced but a beggarly lie. The +powerful have sneered with Pilate, while the mob have done the teachers +to death. +</P> + +<P> +Make truth thy garb, thy house, wherein thou movest and dwellest, and +art comfortable and at home. +</P> + +<P> +If thou knowest what thou knowest and believest what thou believest, +thou canst not be disturbed by contradiction, but shalt feel that thy +opposers are appointed by God to confirm thee in truth. +</P> + +<P> +As the merchant keeps journal and ledger, so should he whose wealth is +truth, take account in writing of the thoughts he gains from +observation, reflection, reading, and intercourse with men. We become +perfectly conscious of our impressions only in giving expression to +them; hence ability to express what we feel and know is one of the +chief and most important aims and ends of education. +</P> + +<P> +What thou mayst not learn without employing spies, or listening to the +stories of the malignant or the gossip of the vulgar, be content not to +know. +</P> + +<P> +Our miseries spring from idleness and sin; and idleness is sin and the +mother of sin. "To confide in one's self and become something of +worth," says Michelangelo, "is the best and safest course." +Life-weariness, when it is not the result of long suffering, comes of +lack of love, for to love any human being in a true and noble way makes +life good. Whatever mistakes thou mayst have made in the choice of a +profession and in other things, it is still possible for thee to will +and do good, to know truth, and to love beauty, and this is the best +life can give. Think of living, and thou shalt find no time to repine. +</P> + +<P> +The character of the believer determines the character of his faith, +whatever the formulas by which it is expressed. What we are is the +chief constituent of the world in which we now live, and this must be +true also of the world in which we believe and for which we hope. For +the sensualist a spiritual heaven has neither significance nor +attractiveness. The highest truth the noblest see has no meaning for +the multitude, or but a distorted meaning. What is divinest in the +teaching of Christ, only one in thousands, now after the lapse of +centuries, rightly understands and appreciates. It is not so much the +things we believe, know, and do, as the things on which we lay the +chief stress of hope and desire, that shape our course and decide our +destiny. +</P> + +<P> +They alone receive the higher gifts, who, to obtain them, renounce the +lower pleasures and rewards of life. Those races are noblest, those +individuals are noblest, who care most for the past and the future, +whose thoughts and hopes are least confined to the world of sense which +from moment to moment ceaselessly urges its claims to attention. +Desire fanned by imagination, when it turns to sensual things, makes +men brutish; but when its object is intellectual and moral, it lifts +them to worlds of pure and enduring delight. +</P> + +<P> +When we would form an estimate of a man, we consider not what he knows, +believes, and does, but what kind of being his knowledge, faith, and +works have made of him. He who makes us learn more than he teaches has +genius. Whoever has freed himself from envy and bitterness may begin +to try to see things as they are. +</P> + +<P> +Each one is the outcome of millions of causes, which, so far as he can +see, are accidental. How ridiculous then to complain that if this or +that only had not happened, all would be well. It is ignorance or +prejudice to make a man's conduct an argument against the worth of his +writings. Byron was a bad man, but a great poet; Bacon was venal, but +a marvellous thinker. +</P> + +<P> +Books, to be interesting to the many, must abound in narrative, must +run on like chattering girls, and make little demand upon attention. +The appeal to thought is like a beggar's appeal for alms,—heeded by +one only in hundreds who pass; for, to the multitude, mental effort is +as disagreeable as parting with their money. +</P> + +<P> +A newspaper is old the day after its publication, and there are many +books which issue from the press withered and senile, but the best, +like the gods, are forever young and delightful. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever bit of a wise man's work," says Ruskin, "is honestly and +benevolently done, that bit is his book or his piece of art. It is +mixed always with evil fragments,—ill-done, redundant, affected work; +but if you read rightly, you will easily discover the true bits, and +<I>those</I> are the book." Again: "No book is worth anything which is not +worth much; nor is it serviceable until it has been read and re-read, +and loved, and loved again; and marked so that you may refer to the +passages you want in it." +</P> + +<P> +Unity, steadfastness, and power of will mark the great workers. A +dominant impulse urges them forward, and with firm tread they move on +till death bids them stay. As the will succumbs to idleness and sin, +it can be developed and maintained in health and vigor only by right +action. +</P> + +<P> +If thou makest thy intellectual and moral improvement thy chief +business, thou shalt not lack for employment, and with thy progress thy +joy and freedom shall increase. +</P> + +<P> +Progress is betterment of life. The accumulation of discoveries, the +multiplication of inventions, the improvement of the means of comfort, +the extension of instruction, and the perfecting of methods, are +valuable in the degree in which they contribute to this end. The +characteristic of progress is increase of spiritual force. In material +progress even, the intellectual and moral element is the value-giving +factor. Progress begets belief in progress. As we grow in worth and +wisdom, our faith in knowledge and conduct is developed and confirmed, +and with more willing hearts we make ourselves the servants of +righteousness and love; for in the degree in which religion and culture +prevail within us, co-operation for life tends to supersede the +struggle for life, which if not the dominant law, is, at least, the +general course of things when left to Nature's sway. +</P> + +<P> +Catchwords, such as progress, culture, enlightenment, and liberty, are +for the multitude rarely more than psittacisms, mere parrot sounds. So +long as we genuinely believe in an ideal and strive to incarnate it, +the spirit of hope kindles the flame of enthusiasm within the breast. +Its attainment, however, if the ideal is sensual or material, leads to +disappointment and weariness. Behold yonder worshipper at the shrine +of money and pleasure, whose life is but a yawn between his woman and +his wine. But if the ideal is spiritual, failure in the pursuit cannot +dishearten us, and success but opens to view diviner worlds towards +which we turn our thought and love with self-renewing freshness of mind. +</P> + +<P> +If thou seekest for beauty, it is everywhere; if for hideousness, it +too is everywhere. +</P> + +<P> +To believe in one's self, to have genuine faith in the impressions, +thoughts, hopes, loves, and aspirations which are in one's own soul, +and to strive ceaselessly to come to clear knowledge of this inner +world which each one bears within himself, is the secret of culture. +To bend one's will day by day to the weaving this light of the mind and +warmth of the heart into the substance of life, into conduct, is the +secret of character. At whatever point of time or space we find +ourselves, we can begin or continue the task of self-improvement; for +the only essential thing is the activity of the soul, seeking to become +conscious of itself, through and in God and His universe. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +The little bird upbuilds its nest<BR> +Of little things by ceaseless quest:<BR> +And he who labors without rest<BR> +By little steps will reach life's crest.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The true reader is brought into contact with a personality which +reveals itself or permits its secret to be divined. In spirit and +imagination he lives the life of the author. In his book he finds the +experience and wisdom of years compressed into a few pages which he +reads in an hour. The vital sublimation of what made a man is thus +given him in its essence to exalt or to degrade, to inspire or to +deaden his soul. In looking through the eyes of another, he learns to +see himself, to understand his affinities and his tendencies, his +strength and his weakness. Eat this volume and go speak to the +children of Israel, said the spirit to the prophet Ezekiel. The +meaning is—mentally devour, digest, and assimilate the book into the +fibre and structure of thy very being, and then shalt thou be able to +utter words of truth and wisdom to God's chosen ones. The world's +spiritual wealth, so far as it has existence other than in the minds of +individuals, is stored in literature, in books,—the great +treasure-house of the soul's life, of what the best and greatest have +thought, known, believed, felt, suffered, desired, toiled, and died +for; and whoever fails to make himself a home in this realm of truth, +light, and freedom, is shut out from what is highest and most divine in +human experience, and sinks into the grave without having lived. +</P> + +<P> +To those who have uttered themselves in public speech, there comes at +times a feeling akin to self-reproach. They have taken upon themselves +the office of teacher, and yet what have they taught that is worth +knowing and loving? They have lost the privacy in which so much of the +charm and freedom of life consists; they have been praised or blamed +without discernment; and a great part of what they have said and +written seems to themselves little more than a skeleton from which the +living vesture has fallen. Ask them not to encourage any one to become +an author. The more they have deafened the world with their voices, +the more will they, like Carlyle, praise the Eternal Silence. They +have in fact been taught, by hard experience, that the worth of life +lies not in saying or writing anything whatever, but in pure faith, in +humble obedience, in brave and steadfast striving. The woman who +sweeps a room, the mother who nurses her child, the laborer who sows +and reaps, believing and feeling that they are working with God, are +leading nobler lives and doing diviner things than the declaimers and +theorizers, and the religion which upholds them and lightens their +burdens is better than all the philosophies. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF. +</H4> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The wise man will esteem above everything and will cultivate those +sciences which further the perfection of his soul.—PLATO. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It has become customary to call these endings of the scholastic year +commencements; just as the people of the civilized world have agreed to +make themselves absurd by calling the ninth month the seventh, the +tenth the eighth, the eleventh the ninth, and the twelfth the tenth. +And, indeed, the discourses which are delivered on these occasions +would be more appropriate and more effective if made to students who, +having returned from the vacations with renewed physical vigor, feel +also fresh urgency to exercise of mind. But now, so little is man in +love with truth, the approach of the moment when you are to make escape +and find yourselves in what you imagine to be a larger and freer world, +occupies all your thoughts, and thrills you with an excitement which +makes attention difficult; and, like the noise of crowds and brazen +trumpets, prevents the soul from mounting to the serene world where +alone it is free and at home. +</P> + +<P> +Since, however, the invitation with which I have been honored directs +my address to the graduates of Notre Dame in this her year of Golden +Jubilee, I may, without abuse of the phrase, entitle it a commencement +oration; for the day on which a graduate worthy of the name leaves his +college is the commencement day of a new life of study, more earnest +and more effectual than that which is followed within academic walls, +because it is the result of his sense of duty alone and of his +uncontrolled self-activity. And, though I am familiar with the serious +disadvantages with which a reader as compared with a speaker has to +contend, I shall read my address, if for no other reason, because I +shall thus be able to measure my time; and if I am prolix, I shall be +so maliciously, and not become so through the obliviousness which may +result from the illusive enthusiasm that is sometimes produced in the +speaker by his own vociferation, and which he fondly imagines he +communicates to his hearers. +</P> + +<P> +The chief benefit to be derived from the education we receive in +colleges and universities, and from the personal contact into which we +are there thrown with enlightened minds, is the faith it tends to +inspire and confirm in the worth of knowledge and culture, of conduct +and religion; for nothing else we there acquire will abide with us as +an inner impulse to self-activity, a self-renewing urgency to the +pursuit of excellence. If we fail, we fail for lack of faith; but +belief is communicated from person to person,—<I>fides ex auditu</I>,—and +to mediate it is the educator's chief function. Through daily +intercourse with one who is learned and wise and noble, the young gain +a sense of the reality of science and culture, of religion and +morality; which thus cease to be for them vague somethings of which +they have heard and read, and become actual things,—realities, like +monuments they have inspected, or countries through which they have +travelled. They have been taken by the hand and led where, left to +themselves, they would never have gone. The true educator inspires not +only faith, but admiration also, and confidence and love,—all +soul-evolving powers. He is a master whose pupils are +disciples,—followers of him and believers in the wisdom he teaches. +He founds a school which, if it does not influence the whole course of +thought and history, like that of Plato or Aristotle, does at least +form a body of men, distinguished by zeal for truth and love of +intellectual and moral excellence. To be able thus, in virtue of one's +intelligence and character, to turn the generous heart and mind of +youth to sympathy with what is intelligible, fair, and good in thought +and life, is to be like God,—is to have power in its noblest and most +human form; and its exercise is the teacher's chief and great reward. +To be a permanent educational force is the highest earthly distinction. +Is not this the glory of the founders of religions, of the discoverers +of new worlds? +</P> + +<P> +In stooping to the mind and heart of youth, to kindle there the divine +flame of truth and love, we ourselves receive new light and warmth. To +listen to the noise made by the little feet of children when at play, +and to the music of their merry laughter, is pleasant; but to come +close to the aspiring soul of youth, and to feel the throbbings of its +deep and ardent yearnings for richer and wider life, is to have our +faith in the good of living revived and intensified. It is the divine +privilege of the young to be able to believe that the world can be +moulded and controlled by thought and spiritual motives; and in +breathing this celestial air, the choice natures among them learn to +become sages and saints; or if it be their lot to be thrown into the +fierce struggles where selfish and cruel passions contend for the +mastery over justice and humanity, they carry into the combat the +serene strength of reason and conscience; for their habitual and real +home is in the unseen world, where what is true and good has the +Omnipotent for its defence. Of this soul of youth we may affirm +without fear of error— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"The soul seeks God; from sphere to sphere it moves,<BR> +Immortal pilgrim of the Infinite."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Life is the unfolding of a mysterious power, which in man rises to +self-consciousness, and through self-consciousness to the knowledge of +a world of truth and order and love, where action may no longer be left +wholly to the sway of matter or to the impulse of instinct, but may and +should be controlled by reason and conscience. To further this process +by deliberate and intelligent effort is to educate. Hence education is +man's conscious co-operation with the Infinite Being in promoting the +development of life; it is the bringing of life in its highest form to +bear upon life, individual and social, that it may raise it to greater +perfection, to ever-increasing potency. To educate, then, is to work +with the Power who makes progress a law of living things, becoming more +and more active and manifest as we ascend in the scale of being. The +motive from which education springs is belief in the goodness of life +and the consequent desire for richer, freer, and higher life. It is +the point of union of all man's various and manifold activity; for +whether he seeks to nourish and preserve his life, or to prolong and +perpetuate it in his descendants, or to enrich and widen it in domestic +and civil society, or to grow more conscious of it through science and +art, or to strike its roots into the eternal world through faith and +love, or in whatever other way he may exert himself, the end and aim of +his aspiring and striving is educational,—is the unfolding and +uplifting of his being. +</P> + +<P> +The radical craving is for life,—for the power to feel, to think, to +love, to enjoy. And as it is impossible to reach a state in which we +are not conscious that this power may be increased, we can find +happiness only in continuous progress, in ceaseless self-development. +This craving for fulness of life is essentially intellectual and moral, +and its proper sphere of action is the world of thought and conduct. +He who has a healthy appetite does not long for greater power to eat +and drink. A sensible man who has sufficient wealth for independence +and comfort does not wish for more money; but he who thinks and loves +and acts in obedience to conscience feels that he is never able to do +so well enough, and hence an inner impulse urges him to strive for +greater power of life, for perfection. He is akin to all that is +intelligible and good, and is drawn to bring himself into +ever-increasing harmony with this high world. Hence attention is for +him like a second nature, for attention springs from interest; and +since he feels an affinity with all things, all things interest him. +And what is thus impressed upon his mind and heart he is impelled to +utter in deed or speech or gesture or song, or in whatever way thought +and sentiment may manifest themselves. Attention and expression are +thus the fundamental forms of self-activity, the primary and essential +means of education, of developing intellectual and moral power. +</P> + +<P> +Interest is aroused and held by need, which creates desire. If we are +hungry, whatever may help us to food interests us. Our first and +indispensable interests relate to the things we need for +self-preservation and the perpetuation of the race; and to awaken +desire and stimulate effort to obtain them, instinct is sufficient, as +we may see in the case of mere animals. But as progress is made, +higher and more subtle wants are developed. We crave for more than +food and wife and children. The social organism evolves itself; and as +its complexity increases, the relations of the individual to the body +of which he is a member are multiplied, and become more intricate. As +we pass from the savage to the barbarous, and from the barbarous to the +civilized state, intellect and conscience are brought more and more +into play. Mental power gains the mastery over brute force, and little +by little subdues the energies of inorganic nature, and makes them +serve human ends. Iron is forced to become soft and malleable, and to +assume every shape; the winds bear man across the seas; the sweet and +gentle water is imprisoned and tortured until with its fierce breath it +does work in comparison with which the mythical exploits of gods and +demi-gods are as the play of children. Strength of mind and character +takes precedence of strength of body. Hercules and Samson are but +helpless infants in the presence of the thinker who reads Nature's +secret and can compel her to do his bidding. If we bend our thoughts +to this subject, we shall gain insight into the meaning and purpose of +education, which is nothing else than the urging of intellect and +conscience to the conquest of the world, and to the clear perception +and practical acknowledgment of the primal and fundamental truth that +man is man in virtue of his thought and love. +</P> + +<P> +Instruction, which is but part of education, has for its object the +development of the intellect and the transmission of knowledge. This, +whether we consider the individual or society, is indispensable. It is +good to know. Knowledge is not only the source of many of our highest +and purest joys, but without it we can attain neither moral nor +material good in the nobler forms. Virtue when it is enlightened gains +a higher quality. And if we hold that action and not thought is the +end of life, we cannot deny that action is, in some degree at least, +controlled and modified by thought. Nevertheless, instruction is not +the principal part of education; for human worth is more essentially +and more intimately identified with character and heart than with +knowledge and intellect. What we will is more important than what we +know; and the importance of what we know is derived largely from its +influence on the will or conduct. +</P> + +<P> +A nation, like an individual, receives rank from character more than +from knowledge; since the true measure of human worth is moral rather +than intellectual. The teaching of the school becomes a subject of +passionate interest, through our belief in its power to educate +sentiment, stimulate will, and mould character. For in the school we +do more than learn the lessons given us: we live in an intellectual and +moral atmosphere, acquire habits of thought and behavior; and this, +rather than what we learn, is the important thing. To imagine that +youths who have passed through colleges and universities, and have +acquired a certain knowledge of languages and sciences, but have not +formed strongly marked characters, should forge to the front in the +world and become leaders in the army of religion and civilization, is +to cherish a delusion. The man comes first; and scholarship without +manhood will be found to be ineffectual. The semi-culture of the +intellect, which is all a mere graduate can lay claim to, will but help +to lead astray those who lack the strength of moral purpose; and they +whom experience has made wise expect little from young men who have +bright minds and have passed brilliant examinations, but who go out +into the world without having trained themselves to habits of patient +industry and tireless self-activity. +</P> + +<P> +Man is essentially a moral being; and he who fails to become so, fails +to become truly human. Individuals and nations are brought to ruin not +by lack of knowledge, but by lack of conduct. "Now that the world is +filled with learned men," said Seneca, "good men are wanting." He was +Nero's preceptor, and saw plainly how powerless intellectual culture +was to save Rome from the degeneracy which undermined its civilization +and finally brought on its downfall. If in college the youth does not +learn to govern and control himself,—to obey and do right in all +things, not because he has not the power to disobey and do wrong, but +because he has not the will,—nothing else he may learn will be of +great service. It seems to me I perceive in our young men a lack of +moral purpose, of sturdiness, of downright obstinate earnestness, in +everything—except perhaps in money-getting pursuits; for even in these +they are tempted to trust to speculation and cunning devices rather +than to persistent work and honesty, which become a man more than +crowns and all the gifts of fortune. Without truthfulness, honesty, +honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect no worthy or noble life can be led. And unless we can get +into our colleges youths who can be made to drink into their inmost +being this vital truth, little good can be accomplished there. Now, it +often happens that these institutions are, in no small measure, refuges +into which the badly organized families of the wealthy send their sons +in the vain expectation that the fatal faults of inheritance and +domestic training will be repaired. In college, as wherever there are +men, quality is more precious than quantity. The number of students is +great enough when they are of the right kind; and the work which now +lies at our hand is to make it possible that those who have talent and +the will to improve themselves may enter our institutions of learning. +But those who are shown to be insusceptible of education should be +eliminated; for they profit not themselves, and are a hindrance to the +others. +</P> + +<P> +Gladly I turn from them to you, young gentlemen, who have persevered in +the pursuit of knowledge and virtue, and to-day are declared worthy to +receive the highest honor Notre Dame can confer. The deepest and the +best thing in us is faith in reason; for when we look closely, we +perceive that faith in God, in the soul, in good, in freedom, in truth, +is faith in reason. Individuals, nations, the whole race, wander in a +maze of errors. The world of the senses is apparent and illusive, that +of pure thought vague and shadowy. Science touches but the form and +surface; speculation is swallowed in abysses and disperses itself; +ignorance darkens, passion blinds the mind; the truth of one age +becomes the error of a succeeding; opinions change from continent to +continent and from century to century. The more we learn, the less we +know; and what we most of all desire to know eludes our grasp. But, +nevertheless, our faith in reason is unshaken; and holding to this +faith, we hold to God, to good, to freedom, and to truth. +</P> + +<P> +Goodness is the radical principle; the good, the primal aim and final +end of life; for the good is whatever is helpful to life. Hence what +is true is good, what is useful is good, what is fair is good, what is +right is good; and the true, the useful, the fair, and the right are +intertwined and circle about man like a noble sisterhood, to waken him +to life, and to urge him toward God, the supreme good, whose being is +power, wisdom, love without limit. The degree of goodness in all +things is measured by their approach to this absolute Being. Hence the +greater our strength, wisdom, and love, the greater our good, the +richer and more perfect our life. There is no soul which does not bow +with delight and reverence before Beauty and Power; and when we come to +true insight, we perceive that holiness is Beauty and goodness Power. +Genuine spiritual power is from God, and compels the whole mechanic +world to acknowledge its absoluteness. The truths of religion and +morality are of the essence of our life; they cannot be learned from +another, but must be wrought into self-consciousness by our own +thinking and doing,—by habitual meditation, and constant obedience to +conscience. Virtue, knowledge, goodness, and greatness are their own +reward: they are primarily and essentially ends, and only incidentally +means. Hence those who strive for perfection with the view thereby to +gain recognition, money, or place, do not really strive for perfection +at all. They are also unwise; for virtue, knowledge, goodness, and +greatness are not the surest means to such ends, and they can be +acquired only with infinite pains. The highest human qualities cease +to be the highest when they are made subordinate to the externalities +of office and wealth. The one aim of a mind smitten with the love of +excellence is to live consciously and lovingly with whatever is true or +good or fair. And such a one cannot be disturbed whether by the +general indifference of men or by their praise or blame. The +standpoint of the soul is: What thou art, not what others think thee. +If thou art at one with thy true self, God and the eternal laws bear +thee up and onward. The moral and the religious life interpenetrate +each other. To sunder them is to enfeeble both. To weaken faith is to +undermine character; to fail in conduct is to deprive faith of +inspiration and vigor. Learn to live thy religion, and thou shalt have +little need or desire to argue and dispute about it. Truth is mightier +than its witnesses, religion greater than its saints and martyrs. +Learn to think, and thou shalt easily learn to live. +</P> + +<P> +In the presence of the highest manifestations of thought and love, of +truth and beauty, nothing perfect or divine is incredible. Men of +genius, philosophers, poets, and saints, who by thinking and doing make +this ethereal but most real world rise before us in concrete form and +substance, are heavenly messengers and illuminators of the soul. Had +none of them lived, how should we see and understand that man is +Godlike and that God is truth and love? We cannot make this high world +plain by telling about it. It is not a land which may be described. +It is a state of soul which they alone comprehend who have been +transformed by patient meditation and faithful striving. But once it +is revealed, a thousand errors and obscurities fall away from us. If +not educated, strive at least to be educable,—a believer in wisdom, +and sensitive to all high influence, and eager to be quit of thy +ignorance and hardness. As the dead cannot produce the live, so +mechanical minds, however much they may be able to drill, train, and +instruct, cannot educate. The secret of the mother's specific +educational power lies in the fact that she is a spiritual not a +mechanical force, loves and is loved by her pupils. The most ennobling +and the most thoroughly satisfying sentiment of which we are capable is +love. Until we love we are strangers to ourselves. We are like beings +asleep or lost to the knowledge of themselves and all things, till, +awakening to the appeal of the pure light and the balmy air, they look +upon what is not themselves; and, finding it fair and beautiful, learn +in loving it to feel and know themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Increase of the power to love is increase of life. But love needs +guidance. We first awaken in the world of the senses, and are +attracted by what we see and touch and taste. The aim of education is +to help the soul to rise above this world, in which, if we remain, we +are little better than brutes. Hence the teacher seeks in many ways to +reveal to the young the fact that the perfect, the best, cannot be seen +or touched, cannot be grasped even by the mind; but that it is, +nevertheless, that which they should strive to make themselves capable +of loving above all things. And thus he prepares them to understand +what is meant by the love of truth and righteousness, by the love of +God. In the training of animals even, patience and gentleness are more +effective than violence. How, then, shall we hope by physical +constraint and harsh methods to educate human beings, who are human +precisely because they are capable of love and are swayed by rational +motives? There is no soul so gross, so deeply buried in matter, but it +shall from some point or other make a sally to show it still bears the +impress of God's image. At such points the educator will keep watch, +studying how he may make this single ray of light interfuse itself with +his pupil's whole being. +</P> + +<P> +It is not possible to know there is no God, no soul, no free will, no +right or wrong; at the worst, it is only possible to doubt all this. +The universe is as inconceivable as God, and theories of matter as full +of difficulties as theories of spirit. It is a question of belief or +unbelief; ultimately a question of health or disease, of life or death. +They who have no faith in God can have little faith in the worth of +life, which can be for them but an efflorescence of death, a sort of +inexplicable malady of atoms dreaming they are conscious. If the age +tends irresistibly to destroy belief in God, the end will be the ruin +of belief in the good of life. In the mean while the doubt which +weakens the springs of hope and love is not a symptom of health but of +disease, pregnant with suffering and misery for all, but most of all +for the young. He who is loved in a true and noble way is surrounded +by an element of spiritual light in which his worth is revealed to him. +In perceiving what he is to another, he comes to understand what he is +or may be in himself. +</P> + +<P> +Our self respect even is largely due to the love we receive in +childhood and youth. Enthusiasm springs from faith in God and in the +soul, which begets in us a high and heroic belief in the divine good of +life. It is thus an educational force of highest value. It calms and +exalts the soul like the view of the starlit heavens and the +everlasting mountains. It is, in every good and noble cause, a +fountain head of endurance and perseverance. It bears us on with a +sense of joy and vigor, such as is felt when, mounted on a high-mettled +steed, we ride in the pleasant air of a spring morning, amid the +beauties and grandeurs of nature. In the front of battle and in the +presence of death it throws around the soul the light of immortal +things. It gives us the plenitude of existence, the full and high +enjoyment of living. On its wings the poet, the lover, the orator, the +hero, and the saint are borne in rapture through worlds whose celestial +glory and delightfulness cold and unmoved minds do not suspect. It is +not a flame from the dry wood and withered grass, but a heat and glow +from the abysmal depths of being. It makes us content to follow after +truth and love in dark and narrow ways, as the miner, in central deeps +where sunlight has never fallen, seeks his treasure. It keeps us fresh +and young; and, like the warmer sun, reclothes the world day by day +with new beauty. It teaches patience, the love of work without haste +and without worry. It gives strength to hear and speak truth, and to +walk in the sacred way of truth, as though we but idly strolled with +pleasant friends amid fragrant flowers. It gives us deeper +consciousness of our own liberty, faith in human perfectibility, which +lies at the root of our noblest efforts; to which the more we yield +ourselves the more we feel that we are free. It knows a thousand words +of truth and might, which it whispers in gentlest tones to rightly +attuned ears: Since the universe is a harmony whose diapason is God, +why should thy life strike a discordant note? Yield not to +discouragement; thou art alive, and God is in His world. The combat +and not the victory proclaims the hero. If thy success had been +greater, thou hadst been less. The noisy participants in great +conflicts, of whatever kind, exercise less influence upon the outcome +than choice spirits, who, turning aside from the thunder and smoke of +battle, gain in lonely striving and meditation view of new truth by +which the world is transformed. +</P> + +<P> +We owe more to Columbus than to Isabella; to Descartes than to Louis +XIV.; to Bacon than to Elizabeth; to Pestalozzi than to Napoleon; to +Goethe than to Blücher; to Pasteur than to Bismarck. If thou wouldst +be persuaded and convinced, persuade and convince thyself. Be thy aim +not increase of happiness, but of knowledge, wisdom, power, and virtue; +and thou shalt, without thinking of it, find thyself also happy. +Character is formed by effort, resistance, and patience. If necessity +is the mother of invention, suffering is the mother of high moods and +great thoughts. Poets have sung to ease their sorrow-burdened or +love-tortured hearts; and the travail of souls yearning with ineffable +pain for truth has led to the nearest view of God. Wisdom is the child +of suffering, as beauty is the child of love. If a truth discourages +thee, thou art not yet ripe for it; for thee it is not yet wholly true. +Work not like an ox at the plough, but like a setter afield; not +because thou must, but because thou takest delight in thy task. Only +they have come of age who have learned how to educate themselves. +Education, like life, works from within outward: the teacher loosens +the soil and removes the obstacles to light and warmth and moisture; +but growth comes of the activity of the soul itself. +</P> + +<P> +A new century will not make new men; but if, in truth, it be a new +century, it will be made so by the deeper thought and diviner love of +men and women. Let the old tell what they have done, the young what +they are doing, and fools what they intend to do. +</P> + +<P> +The power to control attention, as a good rider holds his horse to the +road and to his gait, is a result of education; and when it is acquired +other things become easy. +</P> + +<P> +Let not poverty or misfortune or insult or flattery or success, O +seeker after truth and beauty! turn thee from thy divine task and +purpose. Pardon every one except thyself, and put thy trust in God and +in thyself. "If I buy thee," asked one of a Spartan captive, "and +treat thee well, wilt thou be good?"—"I will," he replied, "if thou +buy me or not; or if, having bought me, thou treat me ill." +</P> + +<P> +If there be anything of worth in thee, it will make thee strong and +contented; it is so good for thee to have it that thou canst easily +forget it is unrecognized by others. +</P> + +<P> +If all sufferings, sorrows, and disappointments had been left out of +thy life, wouldst thou be more or less than thou art? Less worthy, +doubtless, and less wise. In these evils, then, there is something +good. If thou couldst but bear this always in mind, thou shouldst be +better able to suffer pain, whether of body or soul. There are things +thou hast greatly desired which, had they been given thee, would make +thee wretched. The wiser thou growest, the better shalt thou +understand how little we know what is for the best. +</P> + +<P> +"Had I but lived!" cried Obermann. And a woman of genius replied: "Be +consoled, O Obermann! Hadst thou lived, thou hadst lived in vain." So +it is. In the end we neither regret that pleasures have been denied +us, nor feel that those we have enjoyed were a gain unless they are +associated with the memory of high faith and thought and virtuous +action. He who is careful to fill his mind with truth and his heart +with love will not lack for retreats in which he may take refuge from +the stress and storms of life. Noise, popularity, and buncombe: +onions, smoke, and bedbugs. +</P> + +<P> +Be thy own rival, comparing thyself with thyself, and striving day by +day to be self-surpassed. If thy own little room is well lighted the +whole world is less dark. If thou art busy seeking intellectual and +moral illumination and strength, thou shalt easily be contented. +Higher place would mean for thee less liberty, less opportunity to +become thyself. The secret of progress lies in knowing how to make +use, not of what we have chosen, but of what is forced upon us. To +occupy one's self with trifles weans from the habit of work more +effectually than idleness. Perfect skill comes of talent, study, and +exercise; and the study and exercise must continue through the whole +course of life. To cease to learn is to lose freshness and the power +to interest. We lack will rather than strength; are able to do more +and better than we are inclined to do; and say we can not because we +have not the courage to say we will not. The law of unstable +equilibrium applies to thee, as to whatever has life. Thou canst not +remain what thou art, but must rise or fall. The body is under the +sway of physical law, but the progress of the mind is left in a large +measure to the play of free will. If thou willest what thou oughtest, +thou canst do what thou willest; for obligation cannot transcend +ability. Happy are they who from earliest youth understand the meaning +of duty, and hearken to the stern but all-reasonable voice of this +daughter of God, the smile upon whose face is the fairest thing we know. +</P> + +<P> +He who willingly accepts the law of moral necessity is free; for in +thus accepting it he transcends it, and is self-determined; while he +who rebels against this law sinks to a lower plane of being than the +properly human, and becomes the slave of appetite and passion. Duty +means sacrifice; it is a turning from the animal to the spiritual self; +from the allurements of the world of manifold sensation—from ease, +idleness, gain, and pleasure—to the high and lonely regions, where the +command of conscience speaks in the name of God and of the nature of +things. Forget thyself and do thy best, as unconscious of +vain-glorious thoughts as though thou wert a wind or a stream, an +impersonal force in the service of God and man. Obey conscience, and +laugh in the face of death. Convince thyself that the best thing for +thee is to know truth and to make truth the law of thy life. Let this +faith subordinate all else, as it is, indeed, faith in reason and in +God. Abhorrence of lies is the test of character. Hold fast by what +thou knowest to be true, not doubting for a moment because thou canst +not reconcile it with other truth. Somewhere, somehow, truth will be +matched with truth, as love mates heart with heart. +</P> + +<P> +A man's word is himself, his reason, his conscience, his faith, his +love, his aspiration. If it is false or vain or vile, he is so. It is +the expression of life as it has come to consciousness within him. It +is the revelation of quality of being; it is of the man himself, his +sign and symbol, the form and mould and mirror of his soul. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Thou thinkest to serve God with lies,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Thou devil-worshipper and fool!</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +The moral value of the study of science lies in the love of truth it +inspires and inculcates. He who knows science knows that liars are +imbeciles. From the educator's point of view, truthfulness is the +essential thing. His aim and end is to teach truth, and the love of +truth, which leavens the whole mass and makes it life-giving. But the +liar has no proper virtue of any kind. +</P> + +<P> +The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient, and laborious mind is +worthy of respect. In such doubt there may be found indeed more faith +than in half the creeds. But the scepticism of sciolists lacks the +depth and genuineness of truth. To be frivolous where there is +question of all that gives life meaning and value is want of sense. +The sciolist is one who has a superficial knowledge of various things, +which for lack of deep views and coherent thought, for lack of the +understanding of the principles of knowledge itself, he is unable to +bring into organic unity. The things he knows are confused and +intermingled, and thus fail either to enlighten his mind or to impel +him to healthful activity. He forms opinions lightly and pronounces +judgment rashly. Knowing nothing thoroughly, he has no suspicion of +the infinite complexity of the world of life and thought. The evil +effects of this semi-culture are most disagreeable and most harmful in +those whose being has been developed only on its temporal and earthly +side. Their spiritual and moral nature has no centre about which it +may move, and they wander on the surface of things in self-satisfied +conceit, proclaiming that what is beyond the senses is beyond the reach +of the mind, as though our innermost consciousness were not of what is +intangible and invisible. +</P> + +<P> +All divine things are within and about us, here and now; but we are too +gross to see the celestial light, or to catch the whisperings of the +heavenly voices. God is here; but we, like plants and mollusks, live +in worlds of which we do not dream, upheld and nourished and borne +onward by a Power of whom we are but dimly conscious,—nay, of whom, +for the most part, we are unconscious. +</P> + +<P> +There is a truth above the reach of logic, an impulse of the mind and +heart which urges beyond the realms of sense, beyond the ken of the +dialectician, to the Infinite and Eternal, before whom the material +universe is but a force at whose finest touch souls awaken to the +thrill of thought and love. +</P> + +<P> +When we are made conscious of the fact that the Divine Word is the +light of men, we readily understand that our every true thought, our +every good deed, our every deeper view of nature and of life, comes +from God, who is always urging us into the glorious liberty of His +children, until we become a heavenly republic in which righteousness, +peace, and joy shall reign. "The restless desire of every man to +improve his position in the world is the motive power of all social +development, of all progress," says Scherr, unable to perceive that the +mightiest impulses to nobler and wider life have been given by those +who were not thinking at all of improving their position, but were +wholly bent upon improving themselves. Make choice, O youth! between +having and being. If having is thy aim, consent to be inferior; if +being is thy aim, be content with having little. Real students, +cultivators of themselves, are not inspired by the love of fame or +wealth or position, but they are driven by an inner impulse to which +they cannot but yield. Their enthusiasm is not a fire that blazes for +an hour and then dies out; it is a heat from central depths of life, +self-fed and inextinguishable. +</P> + +<P> +The impulse to nobler and freer life springs, never from masses of men, +but always from single luminous minds and glowing hearts. The +lightning of great thoughts shows the way to heroic deeds. It is +better to know than to be known, to love than to be loved, to help than +to be helped; for since life is action, it is better to act than to be +acted upon. Whosoever makes himself purer, worthier, wiser, works for +his country, works for God. The belief that the might of truth is so +great that it must prevail in spite of whatever opposition, needs, to +say the least, interpretation; for it has often happened that truth has +been overcome for whole generations and races; and the important +consideration is not whether it shall finally prevail, but whether it +shall prevail for us, for our own age and people. It is of the nature +of spiritual gifts to work in every direction; they enrich the +individual and the nation; they develop, purify, and refine the +intellectual, moral, and physical worlds in which men live and strive. +The State and the Church are organisms; the body, the social and +religious soul, under the guidance of God, creates for itself. And not +only should there be no conflict between them, but there should be none +between them and the free and full development of the individual. A +peasant whose mental state is what it might have been a thousand years +ago is for us, however moral and religious, an altogether +unsatisfactory kind of man. All knowledge is pure, and all speech is +so if it spring from the simple desire to utter what is seen and +recognized as truth. The love of liberty is rare. It is not found in +those whose life-aim is money, pleasure, and place, which enslave; but +in those who love truth, which is the only liberating power. Knowledge +is the correlative of being, and only a high and loving soul can know +what truth is or understand what Christ meant when He said: "Ye shall +know truth, and truth shall make you free." High thinking and right +loving may make enemies of those around us, but they make us Godlike. +How seldom in our daily experience of men do we find one who wishes to +be enlightened, reformed, and made virtuous! How easy it is to find +those who wish to be pleased and flattered! +</P> + +<P> +At no period in history has civilization been so widespread or so +complex as to-day. Never have the organs of the social body been so +perfect. Never has it been possible for so many to co-operate +intelligently in the work of progress. You, gentlemen, have youth and +faith and the elements of intellectual and moral culture. In the +freshness and vigor of early manhood, you stand upon the threshold of +the new century. You speak Shakspeare's and Milton's tongue; in your +veins is the blood which in other lands and centuries has nourished the +spirit which makes martyrs, heroes, and saints. Your religion strikes +its roots into the historic past of man's noblest achievements, and +looks to the future with the serene confidence with which it looks to +God. Your country, if not old, is not without glory. Its soil is as +fertile, its climate as salubrious as its domain is vast. It is +peopled by that Aryan race, which, from most ancient days, has been the +creator and invincible defender of art and science and philosophy and +liberty; and with all this the divine spirit and doctrine of the Son of +Man have been interfused. +</P> + +<P> +We are here in America constituted on the wide basis of universal +freedom, universal opportunity, universal intelligence, universal +good-will. Our government is the rule of all for the welfare of all; +it has stood the test of civil war, and in many ways proved itself both +beneficent and strong. Already we have subdued this continent to the +service of man. Within a hundred years we have grown to be one of the +most populous and wealthy and also one of the most civilized and +progressive nations of the earth. Your opportunities are equal to the +fullest measure of human worth and genius. In the midst of a high and +noble environment it were doubly a disgrace to be low and base. In +intellectual and moral processes and results the important +consideration is not how much, but what and how. How much, for +instance, one has read or written gives us little insight into his +worth and character; but when we know what and how he has read and +written, we know something of his life. When I am told that America +has more schools, churches, and newspapers than any other land, I think +of their kind, and am tempted to doubt whether it were not better if we +had fewer. +</P> + +<P> +The more general and the higher the average education of the people, +the more urgent is the need of thoroughly cultivated and enlightened +minds to lead them wisely. The standard of our intellectual and +professional education is still low; and neither from the press nor the +pulpit nor legislative halls do we hear highest wisdom rightly uttered. +To be an intellectual force in this age one must know—must know much +and know thoroughly; for now in many places there are a few, at least, +who are acquainted with the whole history of thought and discovery, who +are familiar with the best thinking of the noblest minds that have ever +lived; and to imagine that a sciolist, a half-educated person, can have +anything new or important to impart is to delude one's self. +</P> + +<P> +But if you fail, you will fail like all who fail,—not from lack of +knowledge, but from lack of conduct; for the burden which in the end +bears us down is that of our moral delinquencies. All else we may +endure, but that is a sinking and giving way of the source of life +itself. It is better, in every way, that you should be true Christian +men than that you should do deeds which will make your names famous. +And if you could believe this with all your heart, you would find peace +and freedom of spirit, even though your labors should seem vain and +your lives of little moment. The more reason and conscience are +brought to bear upon you, the more will you be lifted into the high and +abiding world, where truth and love and holiness are recognized to be +man's proper and imperishable good. Become all it is possible for you +to become. What this is you can know only by striving day by day, from +youth to age, even unto the end; leaving the issue with God and His +master-workman, Time. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WOMAN AND EDUCATION. +</H4> + +<P CLASS="poem" STYLE="font-size: 90%"> +Progress, man's distinctive mark alone;<BR> +Not God's and not the beasts'; God is, they are;<BR> +Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.—Browning.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The partialness of man's life, the low level on which the race has been +content to dwell, is attributable, in no small measure, to the +injustice done to woman. It was assumed she was inferior, and to make +the assumption true, she was kept in ignorance, dwarfed and treated as +a means rather than as an end. +</P> + +<P> +The right to grow is the primal right; it is the right to live, to +unfold our being on every side in the ceaseless striving for truth and +love and beauty. In comparison with this, purely political and civil +rights are unimportant. And in a free state this fundamental right +must not only be acknowledged and defended, but a public opinion must +be created which shall declare it to be the most sacred and inviolable. +The principle is universal, and is as applicable to woman as to man. +</P> + +<P> +There is not a religion, a philosophy, a science, an art for man and +another for woman. Consequently there is not, in its essential +elements at least, an education for man and another for woman. In +souls, in minds, in consciences, in hearts, there is no sex. What is +the best education for woman? That which will best help her to become +a perfect human being, wise, loving, and strong. What is her work? +Whatever may help her to become herself. What is forbidden her? +Nothing but what degrades or narrows or warps. What has she the right +to do? Any good and beautiful and useful thing she is able to do +without hurt to her dignity and worth as a human being. +</P> + +<P> +Between her and man the real question is not of more and less, of +inferiority and superiority, but of unlikeness. Chastity is woman's +great virtue; truthfulness, which is the highest form of courage, is +man's; yet men and women are equally bound to be chaste and truthful. +Mildness and sweet reasonableness are woman's subtlest charms; wisdom +and valor, man's; yet women should be wise and brave, and men should be +mild and reasonable. The spiritual endowment of the sexes is much the +same, but they are not equally interested in the same things. Man +prefers thought; woman, sentiment; he reaches his conclusions through +analysis and argument; she, through feeling and intuition. He has +greater power of self-control; she, of self-sacrifice. He is guided by +law and principle; she, by insight and tact; he demands justice; she, +equity. He wishes to be honored for wealth and position; she, for +herself. For him what he possesses is a means; for her, something to +which she holds and is attached. He asks for power; she, for +affection. He derives his idea of duty from reason; she, from faith +and love. He prefers science and philosophy; she, literature and art. +His religion is a code of morality; hers, faith and hope and love and +imagination. For her, things easily become persons; for him, persons +are little more than things. She has greater power of self-effacement, +forgetting herself wholly in her love. Whether she marry or become a +nun, she abandons her name, the symbol of her identity, in proof that +she is dedicate to the race and to God. The arguments of infidels have +less weight with her than with man, for her sense of religion is more +genuine, her faith more inevitable. She passes over objections as a +chaste mind passes over what is coarse or impure. She more easily +finds complacency in her appearance and surroundings, but she has less +pride and conceit than man. She is more grateful, too, because she +loves more, and the heart makes memory true. If her greater fondness +for jewelry and showy adornment proves her to be more barbarous, her +greater refinement and chastity prove her to be more civilized than +man. And does not her delight in dress come of her care for beauty, +which in a world of coarse and ugly creatures is a virtue as fair as +the face of spring? Why should the flowers and the fields, the hills +and the heavens, be beautiful, and man hideous, and the cities where he +abides dismal? Are we but cattle to be stalled and fed? Are corn and +beef and iron the only good and useful things? Are we not human +because we think and admire, and are exalted in the presence of what is +infinitely true and divinely fair? +</P> + +<P> +Faith, hope, and love are larger and more enduring powers for woman +than for man. She feeds the sacred fire which never dies on the altars +of home and religion and country. She lives a more interior life, and +more easily retains consciousness of the soul's reality and of God's +presence. If she speaks less of patriotism in peaceful times, in the +hour of danger the white light flashes from her soul. It is this that +makes brave men think of their mothers and wives and sisters when they +march to battle. They know that those sweet hearts, however keen the +pangs they suffer, would rather have them dead than craven. When woman +shall grow to the full measure of her endowments, a purer flame will +glow upon the hearth, and love of country will be a more genuine +passion. +</P> + +<P> +If she gain a wider and more varied interest in life, she will become +happier, more willing and more able to help the progress of the race. +Like man, she exists for herself and God, and in her relations to +others, her duties are not to the home alone, but to the whole social +body, religious and civil. Whether man or woman, is a minor thing; to +be wise and worthy and loving is all in all. Our deeper consciousness +and practical recognition of the equality of the sexes is better +evidence that we are becoming Christian and civilized than popular +government and all our mechanical devices. We, however, still have +prejudices as ridiculous and harmful as that which made it unbecoming +in a woman to know anything or in a man of birth to engage in business. +If we hold that every human being has the right to do whatever is fair +or noble or useful, we must also hold that it is wrong to throw +hindrance in the way of the complete education of any human being. We +at last, however slowly, are approaching the standpoint of Christ, who, +with his divine eye upon the sexless soul, overlooks distinctions of +sex, and placing the good of life in knowing and loving, in being and +doing, makes it the privilege and duty of all to help all to know and +love, to become and do. Is it true? Is it right? These are the +immortal questions, springing from what within us is most like God, and +they who deal deceitfully with them have no claim upon attention. They +are jugglers and liars. +</P> + +<P> +What is developed is not really changed, but made more fully itself, +and by giving to woman a truer education, the beauty and charm of her +nature will be brought more effectively into play. None of us love "a +woman impudent and mannish grown;" but knowledge and culture and +strength of mind and heart and body have no tendency to produce such a +caricature. Whether there is question of man or woman, the aim and end +of education is to bring forth in the individual the divine image of +humanity as it exists in the thought of God, as it is revealed in the +life of Christ. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Yet in the long years liker must they grow;<BR> +The man be more of woman, she more of man:<BR> +He gain in sweetness and in moral height,<BR> +Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world;<BR> +She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care;<BR> +More as the double-natured poet each."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The apothegm, man is born to do, woman to endure, no longer commends +itself to our judgment. Both are born to do and to endure; and in +educating girls, we now understand that it is our business to +strengthen them and to stimulate them to self-activity. We strive to +give them self-control, sanity, breadth of view, wide sympathies, and +an abiding sense of justice. One might, indeed, be tempted to think it +were well woman should retain a touch of folly, that she still may be +able to believe the man she loves is half divine; but to think so one +must be a man, with his genius for self-conceit. To train a girl +chiefly with a view to success in society is to pervert, is to hinder +from attaining to the power of free, rich, and varied life. It is to +neglect education for accomplishments; it is to prefer form to +substance, manner to conduct, graceful carriage and dress to thought +and love. We degrade her when we consider her as little else than a +candidate for matrimony. A man may remain single and become the +noblest of his kind, and so may a woman. Marriage is first of all for +the race; the individual may stand alone and grow to the full measure +of human strength and worth. The popular contempt for single women who +have reached a certain age, is but a survival of the contempt for all +women which is found among savages and barbarians. In the education of +woman, as of man, the end is increase of power,—of the might there is +in intelligence and love, of the strength there is in gentleness and +sweetness and light, of the vigor there is in health, in the rhythmic +pulse and in deep breathing, of the sustaining joy there is in pure +affection and in devotion to high purposes. Whether there is question +of boys or of girls, the safe way is to strive to make them all it is +possible for them to become, putting our trust for the rest in human +nature and in God; for talent, like genius, is a divine gift, and to +prevent its development is to sin against religion and humanity. For +girls as for boys, the aim should be not knowledge, but power; not +accomplishments, but faculty. Nine-tenths of what we learn in school +is quickly forgotten, and is valueless unless it issue in increase of +moral and intellectual strength. "In whatever direction I turn my +thoughts," says Schleiermacher, "it seems to me that woman's nature is +nobler and her life happier than man's; and if ever I play with an idle +wish it is that I might be a woman." Hardly any man, I imagine, would +rather be a woman, and many women doubtless would rather be men; and +yet there is much in Schleiermacher's thought, if we believe, as the +wise do believe, that love is the best, and that they who love most are +the highest and, therefore, the happiest, since the noblest mind the +best contentment has. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +What fountains to the desert are,<BR> +What flowers to the fresh young spring,<BR> +What heaven's breast is to the star,<BR> +That woman's love to earth doth bring.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Whether mid deserts she is found,<BR> +Or girt about by happy home,<BR> +Where'er she treads is holy ground<BR> +Above which rises love's high dome.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Or be she mother called or wife,<BR> +Or sister or the soul's twin mate,<BR> +She still is each man's best of life,<BR> +His crown of joy, his high estate.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +What is our Christian faith but the revelation of the supreme and +infinite worth of love, as being of the essence of God himself? Is it +not easy to believe that to a loving soul in an all-chaste body the +unseen world may lie open to view? That Joan of Arc saw heavenly +visions and heard whisperings from higher worlds, who can doubt that +has considered how her most pure womanly soul redeemed a whole people, +and, by them forsaken, from midst fierce flames took its flight to God? +</P> + +<P> +Should women vote? The rule of the people is good only when it is the +rule of the good and wise among the people, and of these, women, in +great numbers, are part. The leadership of the best comes near to +being the leadership of God. But the question of the suffrage for +women is grave; it is one on which an enlightened mind will long hold +judgment in suspense. Does not political life, as it exists in our +democracy, tend to corrupt both voters and office-seekers? Is it not +largely a life of cant, pretence, and hypocrisy, of venality, +corruption, and selfishness, of lying, abuse, and vulgarity? Do not +public men, like public women, sell themselves, though in a different +way? Is the professional politician, the professional +caucus-manipulator, the professional voter, the type of man we can +admire or respect even? The objection so frequently raised, that +political life would corrupt women, has, at least, the merit of a +certain grim humorousness. Could it by any chance make them as bad as +it makes men? To tell them they are the queens of the home, to whom +the mingling with plebeians is degrading, is an insult to their +intelligence. We have forsworn kings and queens, both in private and +in public life, and at home women are, for the most part, drudges. +What need is there of a hollow phrase when the appeal to truth is +obvious? +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"A servant with this clause<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Makes drudgery divine;</SPAN><BR> +Who sweeps a room as for thy laws,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Makes that and the action fine."</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Active participation in political life is not a refining, an ennobling, +a purifying influence. Is it desirable that the half of the people to +which the interests of the home, of the heart, of the religious and +moral education of the young are especially committed, should be hurled +into the maelstrom of selfish passion and coarse excitement? +</P> + +<P> +The smartness and self-assertiveness of American women are already +excessive; they lack repose, serenity, and self-restraint. If they +rush into the arena of noisy and vulgar strife, will not the evil be +increased? Will not the political woman lose something of the sacred +power of the wife and mother? Are not the primal virtues, those which +make life good and fair and which are a woman's glory,—are they not +humble and quiet and unobtrusive? The suffrage has not emancipated the +masses of men, who are still held captive in the chains of poverty and +dehumanizing toil. +</P> + +<P> +Do women themselves, those, at least, in whom the woman soul, which +draws us on and upward, is most itself, desire that the vote be given +them? +</P> + +<P> +But whatever our opinions on the subject may be, let us not lose +composure. "If a great change is to be made," says Edmund Burke, "the +minds of men will be fitted to it, the general opinions and feelings +will draw that way. Every fear, every hope will forward it; and then +they who persist in opposing the mighty current will appear rather to +resist the decrees of Providence itself than the mere designs of men. +They will not be resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate." +</P> + +<P> +Whether or not woman shall become a politician, there is no doubt that +she is becoming a worker in a constantly widening field. The +elementary education of the country is already intrusted to her. She +is taking her position in the higher institutions of learning. She has +gained admission to professional life. In the business world, her +competition with man is more and more felt. In literature, in our +country at least, her appreciativeness is greater than man's, and her +performance not inferior to his. There is a larger number of serious +students among women than among men. In the divinely imposed task of +self-education, they are fast becoming the chief workers. They are the +great readers of books, especially of poetry. The muse was the first +school-mistress, and the love of genuine poetry is still the finest +educational influence. The vulgar passions and coarse appetites which +rob young men of faith in the higher life and of the power to labor +perseveringly for ideal ends, have little hold upon the soul of woman. +Her betrayers are frivolity and vanity, and a too confiding heart; and +the more she is educated the less will she take delight in what is +merely external, and the greater will become her ability to bring +sentiment under the control of reason and conscience. +</P> + +<P> +There are not two educations, then, one for man, and another for woman, +but both alike we bid contend to the uttermost for completeness of +life; bid both trust in human educableness, which makes possible the +hope of attaining all divine things. True faith in education is ever +associated with genuine humility. Only they strive infinitely who feel +that their lack is infinite. +</P> + +<P> +The power of education is as many sided and as manifold as life. There +is no finest seed or flower or fruit, no most serviceable animal, which +has not been brought to perfection by human thought and labor, or +which, were this help withdrawn, would not degenerate; and if the +highest thought and the most intelligent labor were made to bear +ceaselessly upon the improvement of the race of man, we should have a +new world. +</P> + +<P> +When we consider all the beauty, knowledge, and love which are within +man's reach, how is it possible not to believe that infinitely more and +higher lie beyond? Call to mind whatever quality of life, physical, +intellectual, or moral, and you will have little difficulty in seeing +that it is a result of education. We are born, indeed, with unequal +endowments; but strength of limb, ease and swiftness of motion, grace +and fluency of speech, modulation of voice, distinctness of +articulation, correctness of pronunciation, power of attention, +fineness of ear, clearness of vision, control of hand and certainty of +touch in drawing, writing, painting, playing upon instruments and +operating with the knife, truth and vividness of imagination, force of +will, refinement of manner, perfection of taste, skill in argument, +purity of desire, rectitude of purpose, power of sympathy and love, +together with whatever else goes to the making of a perfect man or +woman, are all acquired through educational processes. +</P> + +<P> +Education is the training of a human being with a view to make him all +he may become; and hence it is possible to educate one's self in many +ways and on many sides. +</P> + +<P> +Refinement, grace, and cleanliness are aims and ends, as truly as are +vigor and suppleness of mind and strength and purity of heart. Like +sunshine and flowers and the songs of birds, they help to make life +pleasant and beautiful. Even the fishes are not clean, but the only +clean animal is here and there a man or a woman who has forsworn dirt +visible and invisible. We can educate ourselves in every direction, to +sleep well even, and neither physicians nor poets have told half the +good there is in sleep. The bare thought of it always brings to me the +memory of lulling showers, and grazing sheep, and murmuring streams, +and bees at work, and the breath of flowers and cooing doves and +children lying on the sward, and lazy clouds slumbering in azure skies. +It is pleasant as the approach of evening, fresh and fair as the rising +sun which sets all the world singing, sacred and pure as babes smiling +in their dreams on the breasts of gentle mothers. If thou canst not +see the divine worth in nature and in works of genius, it is because +thou art what thou art. Can the worm at thy feet recognize thy +superiority? The blind and the heedless see nothing, O foolish maid. +</P> + +<P> +What I know and love is of my very being, is, in fact, my knowing and +loving self. Quality of knowledge and love determines quality of life, +and when I know and love God I am divine. As trees are enrooted in +earth, as fishes are immersed in water, and our bodies in air, that +they may live, so the soul has its being in God that it may have life, +that it may know and love. I become self-conscious only in becoming +conscious of what is not myself; and when the not-myself is the +Eternal, is God, my self-consciousness is divine. The marvel and the +mystery of our being is that self-consciousness should exist at all, +not that it should continue to exist forever. But words cannot +strengthen or explain or destroy our belief in God, in the immortality +of the soul, and in the freedom of the will. The antagonism supposed +to exist between scientific facts or theories and religious faith would +cease to be recognized as real, were it not for the eagerness with +which those who are incapable of profound and comprehensive views, +catch up certain shibboleths and hurl them like firebrands upon the +combustible imaginations of the unthinking. +</P> + +<P> +To prove, means, in the proper sense of the word, to test, to bring +ideas, opinions, and beliefs to the ordeal of reason, of accepted +standards of judgment. It is a criticism of the mind and its +operations, and hence it may easily happen that to prove is to weaken +and unsettle. In what is most vital, in belief in God, immortality, +and freedom of the will, in religion and morality, our faith is +stronger than any proof that may be brought in its defence; and this is +not less true of our faith in the reality of nature and the laws of +science; and when this is made plain by criticism, those whose mental +grasp is weak or partial, are confused and tempted to doubt. They are +not helped, but harmed, and our ceaseless discussions and provings, in +press and pulpit, are the source of much of the unrest, religious +doubt, and moral weakness of the age. The people need to be taught by +those who know and believe, not by those whose skill is chiefly +syllogistic and critical. Philosophic speculation is like a vast +mountain into which men, generation after generation, have sunk shafts +in search of some priceless treasure, and have left in the materials +they have thrown out the mark and evidence of failure. But the noblest +minds will still be haunted by the infinite mystery which they will +seek in vain to explain. Their faith in reason, like that of the +vulgar, cannot be shaken, nor can defeat, running through thousands of +years, enfeeble their courage or dampen their ardor. Let our +increasing insight into Nature's laws fill us with thankfulness and +joy. It is good, and makes for good. Let us bow with respect and +reverence before the army of patient investigators who bring highly +disciplined faculties to bear upon the most useful researches. Let +knowledge grow. A nearer and truer view of the boundless fact will not +make the world less wonderful, or the soul less divine, or God less +adorable. If one should declare that it is contrary to the teachings +of faith to hold that conversation may be carried on by persons a +thousand miles apart, it would be sufficient to reply that such +conversation takes place, and that to attempt to annul fact by doctrine +is absurd. There is no excuse for the controversial conflict between +science and religion; for science is ascertained fact, not theory about +fact, and when fact is rightly ascertained it is accepted of all men. +The most certain fact, for each one, is that he knows and loves, and +that this power comes to him through communion with what is higher and +deeper and wider than himself,—with God. +</P> + +<P> +There was a time when collisions among the masses of the sidereal +system were frequent, shocks of unimaginable force by which the +celestial bodies were shivered into atoms, so that what now remains is +but a survival of worlds which escaped destruction in the chaotic +struggle when suns madly rushed on one another and rose in star-dust +about the face of God, who was, and is, and shall be, eternal and +forever the same. Where there is no thinker, there is no thing. It is +in, and through, and with Him that we know ourselves and our +environment; and recognize that our particular life is, in its +implications, universal and divine. He is the principle of unity which +is present in whatever is an object of thought, and which gives the +mind the power to co-ordinate the manifold of sensation into the +harmony of truth; He is the principle of goodness and beauty, which +makes the universe fair, and thrills the heart of man with hope and +love. Amid endless change, He alone is permanent, and He is power and +wisdom and love, and they only are good and wise and strong who cleave +to His eternal and absolute being. But since here and now the real +world of matter as distinguished from the apparent is hidden behind the +veil of sense, it is vain to hope that the world of eternal life shall +be made plain to the pure reason. Religion, like life, is faith, hope, +and love, striving and doing, not intellectual intuition and beatific +vision. We find it impossible to separate our thought of God from that +of infinite goodness and love; but when we look away from our own souls +to Nature's pitiless and fatal laws, we realize that this faith in +all-embracing and all-conquering love is opposed by seemingly +insurmountable difficulties. It is a mystery we believe, not a truth +we comprehend. Systems of philosophy, morality, and religion, however +cunningly devised, cannot make men philosophers, sages, or saints. +This they can become only through the communion which faith, hope, and +love have power to establish with the living fountain-head of truth, +wisdom, and goodness. +</P> + +<P> +The pursuit of knowledge, like the struggle for wealth and place, ends +in disillusion, in the disappointment which results from the contrast +between what we hope for and what we attain. The greater the success, +the more complete the disenchantment. As the rich and famous best see +the unsatisfactoriness of wealth and honor, so they who know much best +understand how knowledge avails not, how it is but a cloud-built +citadel, whose foundations rest upon the uncertain air, whose walls and +turrets lose in substance what they gain in height. When we imagine we +know all things, we awake as from a dream to find that we know nothing, +that our knowing is but a believing, our science but a faith. We are +little children who wander in a father's wide domain, seeing many +things and understanding not anything, who imagine we are in a real and +abiding world, while in truth we are but passing through the +picture-gallery of the senses. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Faith, Hope, and Love:—these three<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Are life's deep root;</SPAN><BR> +They reach into infinity,<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Whence life doth shoot.</SPAN><BR> +But Faith and Hope have not attained<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">The Eternal best;</SPAN><BR> +While Love, sweet Love, the end has gained,—<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">In God to rest.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +So long as these life-begetting, life-sustaining, and life-developing +powers hold mightier sway over the soul of woman than over that of man, +so long will woman's heel crush the serpent's head and woman's arms +bear salvation to the world. She will not worship the rising sun, or +become the idolatress of success, but within her heart will cherish +fallen heroes and lost causes and the memory of all the sorrows by +which God humanizes the world. +</P> + +<P> +If we consider mankind merely as a phenomenon, the extinction of the +race need give us little more concern than the disappearance of +Pterodactyls and Ichthyosauri. What repels from such contemplation is +not man's physical, but his spiritual being,—that which makes him +capable of thought and love, of faith and hope. The universe is +anthropomorphized, for whithersoever man looks he sees the reflection +of his own countenance. What he calls things are stamped with the +impress and likeness of himself, as he himself is an image of the +eternal mind, in which all things are mirrored. +</P> + +<P> +An atheist or a materialist, an agnostic or a pessimist, may have +greater knowledge, greater intellectual force than the most devout +believer in God; but is it possible for him to feel so thoroughly at +home in the world, to feel so deeply that, whatever happens, it is and +will be well with him? In an atheistic world the spirit of man is ill +at ease. He who has no God makes himself the centre of all things, +and, like a spoiled child, loses the power to admire, to enjoy, and to +love. Genuine faith in God is such an infinite force that one may be +tempted to doubt whether it is found. +</P> + +<P> +Undisciplined minds become victims of the formulas they receive, and if +what they have accepted as truth is shown to be false or incomplete, +they grow discouraged and lose faith; but the wise know that the verbal +vesture of truth is a symbol which has but a proximate and relative +value. The spirit is alive, and ceaselessly outgrows or transmutes the +body with which it is clothed. What we can do with anything,—with +money, knowledge, wealth,—depends on what we are. Ruskin prefers holy +work to holy worship; but the antithesis is mistaken, for if worship is +holy it impels to work, if work is holy it impels to worship. God's +most sacred visible temple is a human body, and its profanation is the +worst sacrilege. +</P> + +<P> +All true belief, when we come to the last analysis, is belief in God, +and the teacher of religion must keep this fact always in view. +</P> + +<P> +The law of the struggle for life applies to opinions, beliefs, hopes, +aims, ideals, just as it applies to individuals and species. Whatever +survives, survives through conflict, because it is fit to survive. It +does not follow, however, that the best survives, though we must think +that in the end this is so, since we believe in God. When serious +minds grapple with problems so remote from vulgar opinion that they +seem to be meaningless or insoluble, the multitude, ever ready, like a +crowd of boys, to mock and jeer, break forth into insult. These men, +they cry are wicked, or they are fools. +</P> + +<P> +In a society where it is assumed that all are equal, those who are +really superior incur suspicion as though it were criminal to be +different from the multitude; and hence they rarely win the favor of +the crowd. The life-current of those who stir up a noise about them, +runs shallow. The champion of the prize-ring or the race-course is +hailed with shouts, for the crowd understand the achievement; but what +can they know of the worth of a sage or a saint? The noblest struggles +are of the mind and heart wrestling with unseen powers, with spirits, +as St. Paul says, that they may compel them to give up the secret of +truth and holiness. A glimpse of truth, a thrill of love, is better +than the applause of a whole city. In striving steadfastly for thy own +perfection and the happiness of others thou walkest and workest with +God. Thy progress will help others to labor for their own, and the +happiness thou givest will return to thee and become thine; and what is +the will of God, if it is not the perfection and happiness of his +children? To have merely enough strength to bear life's burden, to do +the daily task, to face the cares which return with the sun and follow +us into the night, is to be weak, is to lack the strong spirit for +which work is light as play, and whose secret is heard in whispers by +the hero and the saint. To be able to give joy and help to others we +must have more life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness than we need for +ourselves; and it is in giving joy and help to others that we ourselves +receive increase of life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness. Be persuaded +within thy deepest soul, that moral evil can never be good, and that +sin can never be gain. So act that if all men acted as thou, all would +be well. If to be like others is thy aim, thou art predestined to +remain inferior. To be followed and applauded is to be diverted from +one's work. Better alone with it in a garret than a guest in a banquet +hall. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Let thy prayer be work and work thy prayer,<BR> +As God's truth and love are everywhere,<BR> +And whether by word or deed thou strive<BR> +In Him alone thou canst be alive.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +If thou hast done thy best, God will give it worth. +</P> + +<P> +If thou carest not for truth and love, for thee they are nothing worth; +but it is because thou thyself art worthless. Wisdom and virtue is all +thou lackest; of other things thou hast enough. When the passion for +self-improvement is strong within us, all our relations to our +fellow-men and nature receive new meaning and power, as opportunities +to make ourselves what it is possible for us to become; and as we grow +accustomed to take this view of whatever happens, we are made aware +that disagreeable things are worth as much as the pleasant, that foes +are as useful as friends. The obstacle arrests attention, provokes +effort, and educates. It throws the light back upon the eye, and +reveals the world of color and form; from it all sounds reverberate. +We grow by overcoming; the force we conquer becomes our own. We rise +on difficulties we surmount. What opposes, arouses, strengthens, and +disciplines the will, discloses to the mind its power, and implants +faith in the efficacy of patient, persevering labor. They who shrink +from the combat are already defeated. To make everything easy is to +smooth the way whereby we descend. To surround the young with what +they ought themselves to achieve is to enfeeble and corrupt them. +Happy is the poor man's son, who whithersoever he turns, sees the +obstacle rise to challenge him to become a man; miserable the children +of the rich, whose cursed-blessed fortune is an ever-present invitation +to idleness and conceit. O mothers, you whose love is the best any of +us have known, harden your sons, and urge them on, not in the race for +wealth, but in the steep and narrow way wherein, through self-conquest +and self-knowledge, they rise toward God and all high things. Nothing +that has ever been said of your power tells the whole truth, and the +only argument against you is the men who are your children. Education +is always the result of personal influence. A mother, a father in the +home, a pure and loving heart at the altar, a true man or woman in the +school, a noble mind uttering itself in literature, which is personal +thought and expression,—these are the forces which educate. Life +proceeds from life, and religion, which is the highest power of life, +can proceed only from God and religious souls. Not by preaching and +teaching, but by living the life, can we make ourselves centres of +spiritual influence. +</P> + +<P> +Be like others, walk in the broad way, one of a herd, content to graze +in a common pasture, believing equality man's highest law, though its +meaning be equality with the brute. Is this our ideal? It is an +atheistic creed. There is no God, there is nothing but matter, but +atoms, and atoms are alike and equal,—let men be so too. To struggle +with infinite faith and hope for some divine good is idolatry, is to +believe in God; to be one's self is the unpardonable sin. It is thy +aim to rise, to distinguish thyself; this means thou wouldst have +higher place, more money, a greater house than thy neighbor's. It is a +foolish ambition. Instead of trying to distinguish thyself, strive to +become thyself, to make thyself worthy of the approval of God and wise +men. "I am not to be pitied, my lord," said Bayard; "I die doing my +duty." God has not given His world into thy keeping, but he has given +thee to thyself to fashion and complete. If thou art busy seeking +money or pleasure or praise, little time will remain wherein to seek +and find thyself. They who are interesting to themselves, are +interesting to themselves alone. The self-absorbed are the victims of +mental and moral disease. The life which flows out to others, bearing +light and warmth and fragrance, feels itself in the blessings it gives; +that which is self-centred, stagnates like a pool, and becomes the +habitation of doleful creatures. +</P> + +<P> +There is a popularity which is born of the worship of noble deeds,—it +is the best. There is another, which comes of the crowd's passion for +what is noisy and spectacular,—it is the worst. The one is the +popularity of heroes, the other that of charlatans. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever thy chosen work, it is thy business to make thyself a man or a +woman, and not a mere specialist; yet in following a specialty with +enthusiasm, thou shalt go farther towards perfection and completeness +of life than the multitude of pretenders, who are not in earnest about +anything. Every harsh and unjust sentiment, every narrow and unworthy +thought consented to and entertained, remains like a stain upon +character. Whoever speaks or writes against freedom or knowledge or +faith in God, or love of man or reverence of woman, but makes himself +ridiculous; for men feel and believe that their true world is a world +of high thoughts and noble sentiments, and they can neither respect nor +trust those who strive to weaken their hold upon this world. Become +thyself; do thy work. For this, all thy days are not too many or too +long. If thou and it are worthy to be known, the presentation can be +made in briefest time; and it matters little though it be deferred +until after thy death. +</P> + +<P> +Besides whatever other conditions, time is necessary to bring the best +things to maturity, and to imagine that excellence demands less than +lifelong work, is to mistake. It is by the patient observation of the +infinitesimal that science has done its best work; and it is only by +unwearying attention to the thousand little things of life that we may +hope to make some approach to moral and intellectual perfection. He +who works with joy and cheerfulness in the field which himself has +found and chosen, will acquire knowledge and skill, and his labor will +be transformed into increase and newness of life. +</P> + +<P> +We gain a clear view of things only when we set them apart from +ourselves, and contemplate them simply as objects of thought. To see +them aright we must be free from emotion and behold them in the cold +air of the intellect. To look on them as in some way bound up with our +personal good or evil, is to have the vision blurred. Study in the +spirit of an investigator, who has no other than a scientific interest +in what he sets himself to examine. The wise physician is wholly +intent upon making a correct diagnosis, though the patient be his +mother. What gain would self-delusion bring him or her he loves? +Things are what they are, and it is our business to know them. Observe +and hold thy judgment in suspense until patient looking shall have made +truth so plain that to pass judgment is superfluous. +</P> + +<P> +The aim of mental training is clearness and accuracy of view, together +with the strength to keep steadfastly looking into the world of +intelligible things. What rouses desire tends to enslave; what gives +delight tends to liberate; the one appeals to the senses, the other to +the soul. Hence, intellectual and moral pleasures alone are associated +with the sense of freedom and pure joy. The lovers of freedom are as +rare as the lovers of truth and of God. For most, liberty is but a +trader's commodity, to be parted with for price, as their obedience is +a slave's service. The chief good consists in acting justly and nobly, +rather than in thinking acutely and profoundly. The free play of the +mind is delightful, but the law of moral obligation is the deepest +thing in us. Honor, place, and wealth, which are won at the price of +self-improvement, the wise will not desire. Great opportunities seldom +present themselves, but every moment of every hour of thy conscious +life is an opportunity to improve thyself, which for thee is the best +and most necessary thing. Since our power over others is small, but +over ourselves large, let us devote our energies to self-improvement. +"Nor let any man say," writes Locke, "he cannot govern his passions, +nor hinder them from breaking out and carrying him into action; for +what he can do before a prince or great man he can do alone or in the +presence of God, if he will." +</P> + +<P> +The sure way to happiness is to yield ourselves wholly to God, knowing +that he has care of us, and at the same time to seek to draw from life +whatever joy and delight it may bestow upon a high mind and a pure +heart, receiving the blessing gladly, conscious all the while that what +is external cannot really be ours, and is not, therefore, necessary to +our contentment. +</P> + +<P> +That many are wiser and stronger than thou, is not a motive for +discouragement; the depressing thought is, that so few are wise and +strong. He who gives his whole life to what he believes he is most +capable of doing, succeeds, whatever be the worth of his work. There +are many who are busy with many things; but one who has a high purpose, +and who devotes all his energies to its fulfillment, is not easily +found; and great and interesting characters are, therefore, rare. +</P> + +<P> +To what better use can we put life than to employ it in ameliorating +life? It is to this every wise and good man devotes himself, whether +he be priest or teacher, physician or lawyer, philosopher or poet, +captain of industry or statesman. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION. +</H4> + +<P> +Our system of Public-School Education is a result of the faith of the +people in the need of universal intelligence for the maintenance of +popular government. Does this system include moral training? Since +the teaching of religious doctrines is precluded, this, I imagine, is +what we are to consider in discussing the Scope of Public-School +Education. The equivalents of scope are aim, end, opportunity, range +of view; and the equivalents of education are training, discipline, +development, instruction. The proper meaning of the word education, it +seems, is not a drawing out, but a training up, as vines are trained to +lay hold of and rise by means of what is stronger than themselves. My +subject, then, is the aim, end, opportunity, and range of view of +public-school education, which to be education at all, in any true +sense, must be a training, discipline, development, and instruction of +man's whole being, physical, intellectual, and moral. This, I suppose, +is what Herbert Spencer means when he defines education to be a +preparation for complete living. Montaigne says the end of education +is wisdom and virtue; Comenius declares it to be knowledge, virtue, and +religion; Milton, likeness to God through virtue and faith; Locke, +health of body, virtue, and good manners; Herbart, virtue, which is the +realization in each one of the idea of inner freedom; while Kant and +Fichte declare it to consist chiefly in the formation of character. +All these thinkers agree that the supreme end of education is spiritual +or ethical. The controlling aim, then, should be, not to impart +information, but to upbuild the being which makes us human, to form +habits of right thinking and doing. The ideal is virtually that of +Israel,—that righteousness is life,—though the Greek ideal of beauty +and freedom may not be excluded. It is the doctrine that manners make +the man, that conduct is three-fourths of life, leaving but one-fourth +for intellectual activity and æsthetic enjoyment; and into this fourth +of life but few ever enter in any real way, while all are called and +may learn to do good and avoid evil. +</P> + +<P> +"In the end," says Ruskin, "the God of heaven and earth loves active, +modest, and kind people, and hates idle, proud, greedy, and cruel +ones." We can all learn to become active, modest, and kind; to turn +from idleness, pride, greed, and cruelty. But we cannot all make +ourselves capable of living in the high regions of pure thought and +ideal beauty; and for the few even who are able to do this, it is still +true that conduct is three-fourths of life. +</P> + +<P> +"The end of man," says Büchner, "is conversion into carbonic acid, +water, and ammonia." This also is an ideal, and he thinks we should be +pleased to know that in dying we give back to the universe what had +been lent. He moralizes too; but if all we can know of our destiny is +that we shall be converted into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, the +sermon may be omitted. On such a faith it is not possible to found a +satisfactory system of education. Men will always refuse to think thus +meanly of themselves, and in answer to those who would persuade them +that they are but brutes, they will, with perfect confidence, claim +kinship with God; for from an utterly frivolous view of life both our +reason and our instinct turn. +</P> + +<P> +The Scope of Public-School Education is to co-operate with the +physical, social, and religious environment to form good and wise men +and women. Unless we bear in mind that the school is but one of +several educational agencies, we shall not form a right estimate of its +office. It depends almost wholly for its success upon the kind of +material furnished it by the home, the state, and the church; and, to +confine our view to our own country, I have little hesitation in +affirming that our home life, our social and political life, and our +religious life have contributed far more to make us what we are than +any and all of our schools. The school, unless it works in harmony +with these great forces, can do little more than sharpen the wits. +Many of the teachers of our Indian schools are doubtless competent and +earnest; but their pupils, when they return to their tribes, quickly +lose what they have gained, because they are thrown into an environment +which annuls the ideals that prevailed in the school. The controlling +aim of our teachers should be, therefore, to bring their pedagogical +action into harmony with what is best in the domestic, social, and +religious life of the child; for this is the foundation on which they +must build, and to weaken it is to expose the whole structure to ruin. +Hence the teacher's attitude toward the child should be that of +sympathy with him in his love for his parents, his country, and his +religion. His reason is still feeble, and his life is largely one of +feeling; and the fountain-heads of his purest and noblest feelings are +precisely his parents, his country, and his religion, and to tamper +with them is to poison the wells whence he draws the water of life. To +assume and hold this attitude with sincerity and tact is difficult; it +requires both character and culture; it implies a genuine love of +mankind and of human excellence; reverence for whatever uplifts, +purifies, and strengthens the heart; knowledge of the world, of +literature, and of history, united with an earnest desire to do +whatever may be possible to lead each pupil toward life in its +completeness, which is health and healthful activity of body and mind +and heart and soul. +</P> + +<P> +As the heart makes the home, the teacher makes the school. What we +need above all things, wherever the young are gathered for education, +is not a showy building, or costly apparatus, or improved methods or +text-books, but a living, loving, illumined human being who has deep +faith in the power of education and a real desire to bring it to bear +upon those who are intrusted to him. This applies to the primary +school with as much force as to the high school and university. Those +who think, and they are, I imagine, the vast majority, that any one who +can read and write, who knows something of arithmetic, geography, and +history, is competent to educate young children, have not even the most +elementary notions of what education is. +</P> + +<P> +What the teacher is, not what he utters and inculcates, is the +important thing. The life he lives, and whatever reveals that life to +his pupils; his unconscious behavior, even; above all, what in his +inmost soul he hopes, believes, and loves, have far deeper and more +potent influence than mere lessons can ever have. It is precisely here +that we Americans, whose talent is predominantly practical and +inventive, are apt to go astray. We have won such marvellous victories +with our practical sense and inventive genius that we have grown +accustomed to look to them for aid, whatever the nature of the +difficulty or problem may be. Machinery can be made to do much, and to +do well what it does. With its help we move rapidly; we bring the ends +of the earth into instantaneous communication; we print the daily +history of the world and throw it before every door; we plough and we +sow and we reap; we build cities, and we fill our houses with whatever +conduces to comfort or luxury. All this and much more machinery +enables us to do. But it cannot create life, nor can it, in any +effective way, promote vital processes. Now, education is essentially +a vital process. It is a furthering of life; and as the living proceed +from the living, they can rise into the wider world of ideas and +conduct only by the help of the living; and as in the physical realm +every animal begets after its own likeness, so also in the spiritual +the teacher can give but what he has. If the well-spring of truth and +love has run dry within himself, he teaches in vain. His words will no +more bring forth life than desert winds will clothe arid sands with +verdure. Much talking and writing about education have chiefly helped +to obscure a matter which is really plain. The purpose of the public +school is or should be not to form a mechanic or a specialist of any +kind, but to form a true man or woman. Hence the number of things we +teach the child is of small moment. Those schools, in fact, in which +the greatest number of things are taught give, as a rule, the least +education. The character of the Roman people, which enabled them to +dominate the earth and to give laws to the world, was formed before +they had schools, and when their schools were most flourishing they +themselves were in rapid moral and social dissolution. We make +education and religion too much a social affair, and too little a +personal affair. Their essence lies in their power to transform the +individual, and it is only in transforming him that they recreate the +wider life of the community. The Founder of Christianity addressed +himself to the individual, and gave little heed to the state or other +environment. He looked to a purified inner source of life to create +for itself a worthier environment, and simply ignored devices for +working sudden and startling changes. They who have entered into the +hidden meaning of this secret and this method turn in utter incredulity +from the schemes of declaimers and agitators. +</P> + +<P> +The men who fill the world, each with his plan for reforming and saving +it, may have their uses, since the poet tells us there are uses in +adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a +precious jewel in its head; but to one deafened by their discordant and +clamorous voices, the good purpose they serve seems to be as mythical +as the jewel in the toad's head. +</P> + +<P> +Have not those who mistake their crotchets for Nature's laws invaded +our schools? Have they not succeeded in forming a public opinion and +in setting devices at work which render education, in the true sense of +the word, if not impossible, difficult? Literature is a criticism of +life, made by those who are in love with life, and have the deepest +faith in its possibilities; and all criticism which is inspired by +sympathy and faith and controlled by knowledge is helpful. Complacent +thoughts are rarely true, and hardly ever useful. It is a prompting of +nature to turn from what we have to what we lack, for thus only is +there hope of amendment and progress. We are, to quote Emerson, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Built of furtherance and pursuing,<BR> +Not of spent deeds, but of doing."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Hence the wise and the strong dwell not upon their virtues and +accomplishments, but strive to learn wherein they fail, for it is in +correcting this they desire to labor. They wish to know the truth +about themselves, are willing to try to see themselves as others see +them, that self-knowledge may make self-improvement possible. They +turn from flattery, for they understand that flattery is insult. Now, +if this is the attitude of wise and strong men, how much more should it +not be that of a wise and strong people? Whenever persons or things +are viewed as related in some special way to ourselves, our opinions of +them will hardly be free from bias. When, for instance, I think or +speak of my country, my religion, my friends, my enemies, I find it +difficult to put away the prejudice which my self-esteem and vanity +create, and which, like a haze, ever surrounds me to color or obscure +the pure light of reason. It cannot do us harm to have our defects and +shortcomings pointed out to us; but to be told by demagogues and +declaimers that we are the greatest, the most enlightened, the most +virtuous people which exists or has existed, can surely do us no good. +If it is true, we should not dwell upon it, for this will but distract +us from striving for the things in which we are deficient; and if it is +false, it can only mislead us and nourish a foolish conceit. It is the +orator's misfortune to be compelled to think of his audience rather +than of truth. It is his business to please, persuade, and convince; +and men are pleased with flattering lies, persuaded and convinced by +appeals to passion and interest. Happier is the writer, who need not +think of a reader, but finds his reward in the truth he expresses. +</P> + +<P> +It is not possible for an enlightened mind not to take profound +interest in our great system of public education. To do this he need +not think it the best system. He may deem it defective in important +requisites. He may hold, as I hold, that the system is of minor +importance, the kind of teacher being all important. But if he loves +his country, if he loves human excellence, if he has faith in man's +capacity for growth, he cannot but turn his thoughts, with abiding +attention and sympathy, to the generous and determined efforts of a +powerful and vigorous people to educate themselves. Were our +public-school system nothing more than the nation's profession of faith +in the transforming power of education, it would be an omen of good and +a ground for hope; and one cannot do more useful work than to help to +form a public opinion which will accept with thankfulness the free play +of all sincere minds about this great question, and which will cause +the genuine lovers of our country to turn in contempt from the clamors +politicians and bigots are apt to raise when an honest man utters +honest thought on this all-important subject. +</P> + +<P> +I am willing to assume and to accept as a fact that our theological +differences make it impossible to introduce the teaching of any +religious creed into the public school. I take the system as it +is,—that is, as a system of secular education,—and I address myself +more directly to the question proposed: What is or should be its scope? +</P> + +<P> +The fact that religious instruction is excluded makes it all the more +necessary that humanizing and ethical aims should be kept constantly in +view. Whoever teaches in a public school should be profoundly +convinced that man is more than an animal which may be taught cunning +and quickness. A weed in blossom may have a certain beauty, but it +will bear no fruit; and so the boy or youth one often meets, with his +irreverent smartness, his precocious pseudo-knowledge of a hundred +things, may excite a kind of interest, but he gives little promise of a +noble future. The flower of his life is the blossom of the weed, which +in its decay will poison the air, or, at the best, serve but to +fertilize the soil. If we are to work to good purpose we must take our +stand, with the great thinkers and educators, on the broad field of +man's nature, and act in the light of the only true ideal of +education,—that its end is wisdom, virtue, knowledge, power, +reverence, faith, health, behavior, hope, and love; in a word, whatever +powers and capacities make for intelligence, for conduct, for +character, for completeness of life. Not for a moment should we permit +ourselves to be deluded by the thought that because the teaching of +religious creeds is excluded, therefore we may make no appeal to the +fountain-heads which sleep within every breast, the welling of whose +waters alone has power to make us human. If we are forbidden to turn +the current into this or that channel, we are not forbidden to +recognize the universal truth that man lives by faith, hope, and love, +by imagination and desire, and that it is precisely for this reason +that he is educable. We move irresistibly in the lines of our real +faith and desire, and the educator's great purpose is to help us to +believe in what is high and to desire what is good. Since for the +irreverent and vulgar spirit nothing is high or good, reverence, and +the refinement which is the fruit of true intelligence, urge +ceaselessly their claims on the teacher's attention. Goethe, I +suppose, was little enough of a Christian to satisfy the demands of an +agnostic cripple even, and yet he held that the best thing in man is +the thrill of awe; and that the chief business of education is to +cultivate reverence for whatever is above, beneath, around, and within +us. This he believed to be the only philosophical and healthful +attitude of mind and heart towards the universe, seen and unseen. May +not the meanest flower that blows bring thoughts that lie too deep for +tears? Is not reverence a part of all the sweetest and purest feelings +which bind us to father and mother, to friends and home and country? +Is it not the very bloom and fragrance, not only of the highest +religious faith, but also of the best culture? Let the thrill of awe +cease to vibrate, and you will have a world in which money is more than +man, office better than honesty, and books like "Innocents Abroad" or +"Peck's Bad Boy" more indicative of the kind of man we form than are +the noblest works of genius. What is the great aim of the primary +school, if it is not the nutrition of feeling? The child is weak in +mind, weak in will, but he is most impressionable. Feeble in thought, +he is strong in capacity to feel the emotions which are the sap of the +tree of moral life. He responds quickly to the appeals of love, +tenderness, and sympathy. He is alive to whatever is noble, heroic, +and venerable. He desires the approbation of others, especially of +those whom he believes to be true and high and pure, he has +unquestioning faith, not only in God but in great men, who, for him, +indeed, are earthly gods. Is not his father a divine man, whose mere +word drives away all fear and fills him with confidence? The touch of +his mother's hand stills his pain; if he is frightened, her voice is +enough to soothe him to sleep. To imagine that we are educating this +being of infinite sensibility and impressionability when we do little +else than teach him to read, write, and cipher, is to cherish a +delusion. It is not his destiny to become a reading, writing, and +ciphering machine, but to become a man who believes, hopes, and loves; +who holds to sovereign truth, and is swayed by sympathy; who looks up +with reverence and awe to the heavens, and hearkens with cheerful +obedience to the call of duty; who has habits of right thinking and +well doing which have become a law unto him, a second nature. And if +it be said that we all recognize this to be so, but that it is not the +business of the school to help to form such a man; that it does its +work when it sharpens the wits, I will answer with the words of William +von Humboldt: "Whatever we wish to see introduced into the life of a +nation must first be introduced into its schools." +</P> + +<P> +Now, what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation is not +the power of shrewd men, wholly absorbed in the striving for wealth, +reckless of the means by which it is gotten, and who, whether they +succeed or whether they fail, look upon money as the equivalent of the +best things man knows or has; who therefore think that the highest +purpose of government, as of other social forces and institutions, is +to make it easy for all to get abundance of gold and to live in sloven +plenty; but what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation +is the power of intelligence and virtue, of wisdom and conduct. We +believe, and in fact know, that humanity, justice, truthfulness, +honesty, honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect are higher and mightier than anything mere sharpened wits +can accomplish. But if these virtues, which constitute nearly the +whole sum of man's strength and worth, are to be introduced into the +life of the nation, they must be introduced into the schools, into the +process of education. We must recognize, not in theory alone but in +practice, that the chief end of education is ethical, since conduct is +three-fourths of human life. The aim must be to make men true in +thought and word, pure in desire, faithful in act, upright in deed; men +who understand that the highest good does not lie in the possession of +anything whatsoever, but that it lies in power and quality of being; +for whom what we are and not what we have is the guiding principle; who +know that the best work is not that for which we receive most pay, but +that which is most favorable to life, physical, moral, intellectual, +and religious; since man does not exist for work or the Sabbath, but +work and rest exist for him, that he may thrive and become more human +and more divine. We must cease to tell boys and girls that education +will enable them to get hold of the good things of which they believe +the world to be full; we must make them realize rather that the best +thing in the world is a noble man or woman, and to be that is the only +certain way to a worthy and contented life. All talk about patriotism +which implies that it is possible to be a patriot or a good citizen +without being a true and good man, is sophistical and hollow. How +shall he who cares not for his better self care for his country? +</P> + +<P> +We must look, as educators, most closely to those sides of the national +life where there is the greatest menace of ruin. It is plain that our +besetting sin, as a people, is not intemperance or unchastity, but +dishonesty. From the watering and manipulating of stocks to the +adulteration of food and drink, from the booming of towns and lands to +the selling of votes and the buying of office, from the halls of +Congress to the policeman's beat, from the capitalist who controls +trusts and syndicates to the mechanic who does inferior work, the taint +of dishonesty is everywhere. We distrust one another, distrust those +who manage public affairs, distrust our own fixed will to suffer the +worst that may befall rather than cheat or steal or lie. Dishonesty +hangs, like mephitic air, about our newspapers, our legislative +assemblies, the municipal government of our towns and cities, about our +churches even, since our religion itself seems to lack that highest +kind of honesty, the downright and thorough sincerity which is its +life-breath. +</P> + +<P> +If the teacher in the public school may not insist that an honest man +is the noblest work of God, he may teach at least that he who fails in +honesty fails in the most essential quality of manhood, enters into +warfare with the forces which have made him what he is, and which +secure him the possession of what he holds dearer than himself, since +he barters for it his self-respect; that the dishonest man is an +anarchist and dissocialist, one who does what in him lies to destroy +credit, and the sense of the sacredness of property, obedience to law, +and belief in the rights of man. If our teachers are to work in the +light of an ideal, if they are to have a conscious end in view, as all +who strive intelligently must have, if they are to hold a principle +which will give unity to their methods, they must seek it in the idea +of morality, of conduct, which is three-fourths of life. +</P> + +<P> +I myself am persuaded that the real and philosophical basis of morality +is the being of God, a being absolute, infinite, unimaginable, +inconceivable, of whom our highest and nearest thought is that he is +not only almighty, but all-wise and all-good as well. But it is +possible, I think, to cultivate the moral sense without directly and +expressly assigning to it this philosophical and religious basis; for +goodness is largely its own evidence, as virtue is its own reward. It +all depends on the teacher. Life produces life, life develops life; +and if the teacher have within himself a living sense of the +all-importance of conduct, if he thoroughly realize that what we call +knowledge is but a small part of man's life, his influence will nourish +the feelings by which character is evolved. The germ of a moral idea +is always an emotion, and that which impels to right action is the +emotion rather than the idea. The teachings of the heart remain +forever, and they are the most important; for what we love, genuinely +believe in, and desire decides what we are and may become. Hence the +true educator, even in giving technical instruction, strives not merely +to make a workman, but to make also a man, whose being shall be touched +to finer issues by spiritual powers, who shall be upheld by faith in +the worth and sacredness of life, and in the education by which it is +transformed, enriched, purified, and ennobled. He understands that an +educated man, who, in the common acceptation of the phrase, is one who +knows something, who knows many things, is, in truth, simply one who +has acquired habits of right thinking and right doing. The culture +which we wish to see prevail throughout our country is not learning and +literary skill; it is character and intellectual openness,—that higher +humanity which is latent within us all; which is power, wisdom, truth, +goodness, love, sympathy, grace, and beauty; whose surpassing +excellence the poor may know as well as the rich; whose charm the +multitude may feel as well as the chosen few. +</P> + +<P> +"He who speaks of the people," says Guicciardini, "speaks, in sooth, of +a foolish animal, a prey to a thousand errors, a thousand confusions, +without taste, without affection, without firmness." The scope of our +public-school education is to make common-places of this kind, by which +all literature is pervaded, so false as to be absurd; and when this end +shall have been attained, Democracy will have won its noblest victory. +</P> + +<P> +How shall we find the secret from which hope of such success will +spring? By so forming and directing the power of public opinion, of +national approval, and of money, as to make the best men and women +willing and ready to enter the teacher's profession. The kind of man +who educates is the test of the kind of education given, and there is +properly no other test. When we Americans shall have learned to +believe with all our hearts and with all the strength of irresistible +conviction that a true educator is a more important, in every way a +more useful, sort of man than a great railway king, or pork butcher, or +captain of industry, or grain buyer, or stock manipulator, we shall +have begun to make ourselves capable of perceiving the real scope of +public-school education. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. +</H4> + +<P> +The theory of development, which is now widely received and applied to +all things, from star dust to the latest fashion, is at once a sign and +a cause of the almost unlimited confidence which we put in the remedial +and transforming power of education. We no longer think of God as +standing aloof from nature and the course of history. He it is who +works in the play of atoms and in the throbbings of the human heart; +and as we perceive his action in the evolution both of matter and of +mind, we know and feel that, when with conscious purpose we strive to +call forth and make living the latent powers of man's being, we are +working with him in the direction in which he impels the universe. +Education, therefore, we look upon as necessary, not merely because it +is indispensable to any high and human kind of life, but also because +God has made development the law both of conscious and unconscious +nature. He is in act all that the finite may become, and the effort to +grow in strength, knowledge, and virtue springs from a divine impulse. +</P> + +<P> +Although we know that the earth is not the centre of the universe, that +it is but a minor satellite, a globule lost in space, our deepest +thought still finds that the end of nature is the production of +rational beings, of man; for the final reason for which all things +exist is that the infinite good may be communicated; and since the +highest good is truth and holiness, it can be communicated only to +beings who think and love. Hence all things are man's, and he exists +that he may make himself like God; in other words, that he may educate +himself; for the end of education is to fit him for completeness of +life, to train all his faculties, to call all his endowments into play, +to make him symmetrical and whole in body and soul. This, of course, +is the ideal, and consequently the unattainable; but in the light of +ideals alone do we see rightly and judge truly; and to take a lower +view of the aim and end of education is to take a partial view. To +hold that God is, and that man truly lives only in so far as he is made +partaker of the divine life, is, by implication, to hold that his +education should be primarily and essentially religious. Our opinions +and beliefs, however, are never the result of purely rational +processes, and hence a mere syllogism has small persuasive force, or +even no influence at all, upon our way of looking at things, or the +motives which determine action. +</P> + +<P> +As it is useless to argue against the nature of things, so we generally +plead in vain when our world-view is other than that of those whom we +seek to convince; for those who observe from different points either do +not see the same objects or do not see them in the same light. Life is +complex, and the springs of thought and action are controlled in +mysterious ways by forces and impulses which we neither clearly +understand nor accurately measure. What is called the spirit of the +age, the spirit which, as the Poet says, sits at the roaring loom of +time and weaves for God the garment whereby He is made visible to us, +exercises a potent influence upon all our thinking and doing. We live +in an era of progress, and progress means differentiation of structure +and specialization of function. The more perfect the organism, the +more are its separate functions assigned to separate parts. As social +aggregates develop, a similar differentiation takes place. Offices +which were in the hands of one are distributed among several. Agencies +are evolved by which processes of production, distribution, and +exchange are carried on. Trades and professions are called into +existence. As enlightenment and skill increase, men become more +difficult to please. They demand the best work, and the best work can +be done, as a rule, only by specialists. Specialization thus becomes a +characteristic of civilization. The patriarch is both king and priest. +In Greece and Rome, religion is a function of the State. In the Middle +Age, the Church and the State coalesce, and form such an intimate union +that the special domain of either is invaded by both. But +differentiation finally takes place, and we all learn to distinguish +between the things of Cæsar and the things of God. This separation has +far-reaching results. In asserting its independence, the State was +driven to use argument as well as force. Thus learning, which in the +confusion that succeeded the incursions of the Barbarians was +cultivated almost exclusively by ecclesiastics, grew to be of interest +and importance to laymen. They began to study, and the subjects which +most engaged their thoughts were not religious, in the accepted sense +of the word. The Protestant rebellion is but a phase of this +revolution. It began with the introduction of the literature of Greece +into Western Europe. The spirit of inquiry and mental curiosity was +thereby awakened in wider circles; enthusiasm for the truth and beauty +to which Greek genius has given the most perfect expression, was +aroused; and interest in intellectual and artistic culture was called +forth. New ideals were upheld to fresh and wondering minds. The +contagion spread, and the thirst for knowledge was carried to +ever-widening spheres. It thus came to pass that the cleric and the +scholar ceased to be identical. The boundaries of knowledge were +enlarged when the inductive method was applied to the study of nature, +and it soon became impossible for one man to pretend to a mastery of +all science. And so the principle of the division of labor was +introduced into things of the intellect. Of old, the prophet or the +philosopher was supposed to possess all wisdom; but now it had become +plain that proficiency could be hoped for only by lifelong devotion to +some special branch of knowledge. This led to other developments. The +business of teaching, which had been almost exclusively in the hands of +ecclesiastics, was now necessarily taken up by laymen also. As +feudalism fell to decay, and the assertion of popular rights began to +point to the advent of democracy, the movement in opposition to +privilege logically led to the claim that learning should no longer be +held to be the appanage of special classes, but that the gates of the +temple of knowledge should be thrown open to the whole people. To make +education universal, the most ready and the simplest means was to levy +a school tax; and as this could be done only by the State, the State +established systems of education and assumed the office of teacher. +The result of all this has been that the school, which throughout +Christendom is the creation of the church, has in most countries very +largely passed into the control of the civil government. +</P> + +<P> +This transference of control need not, however, involve the exclusion +of religious influence and instruction; though once the State has +gained the ascendency, the natural tendency is to take a partial and +secular view of the whole question of education, and to limit the +functions of the school to the training of the mental faculties. And, +as a matter of fact, this tendency is found in men of widely differing +and even conflicting opinions and convictions concerning religion +itself. It is most pronounced, however, in the educational theories +and systems of positivists and agnostics. As they hold that there is +no God, or that we cannot know that there is a God, they necessarily +conclude that it is absurd to attempt to teach children anything about +God. This view is forcibly expressed by Issaurat, a French writer on +education, in a recently published volume, which he calls "The +Evolution and History of Pedagogy." +</P> + +<P> +"All religion," he affirms, in the concluding chapter of his book, +"impedes, thwarts, misdirects, and troubles the natural education of +man, the normal and harmonious development of his physical, moral, and +intellectual faculties; and since educational reform is not possible +without reformation in the government, it is the duty of the State, not +merely to separate itself from the church, but to suppress the church +and to found the science of education upon biological philosophy, upon +transformism—let us say the word, upon materialism." This view is +manifestly the inevitable result of Issaurat's general system of +thought and belief. In his opinion, matter alone really exists, and +what is called spirit is but a phase of its evolution. The world of +spirit, therefore, is illusory; and to bring up the young to believe +that it is the infinite, essential reality, is to teach them what is +false, and to give a wrong direction to the whole course of life. For +practical purposes this is the view not only of materialists and +positivists, but of agnostics as well, who, though they do not deny the +existence of spirit, assert that only the phenomenal can be known, or +become the subject-matter of teaching. They all agree in holding that +the theological world-view was the primitive one, which, yielding to +the metaphysical, has been finally superseded by the scientific, the +sole basis of a rational philosophy. The ideas of God, substance, +cause, and end, are metaphysical ideas, which, if we wish to understand +nature, must be ignored; for the study of nature is the study simply of +facts and their relations with one another. There is, so they think, +no such thing as substance, any more than there is such a thing as a +principle of gravity, heat, light, electricity, or chemical affinity. +The vital principle too, which has played so great a part in +physiological inquiries, must be given up; and therefore, while nearly +all the philosophers, from Kant to our own day, have made psychology +the foundation of the science of education, there is at present a +marked tendency to have it rest solely on biology. Whether and to what +extent these theories are true or false, is beyond the purpose of this +argument. True or false, they fairly describe the views of a large +number of thinkers in our day, and enable us to form a conception of +their philosophy of education. "Why trouble ourselves," asks Professor +Huxley, "about matters of which, however important they may be, we do +know nothing and can know nothing? With a view to our duty in this +life, it is necessary to be possessed of only two beliefs: The first, +that the order of nature is ascertainable by our faculties to an extent +that is practically unlimited; the second, that our volition counts for +something as a condition of the course of events." Our volition counts +as a condition, but it is after all only a part of the course of +events, and, consequently, the only belief it is necessary to hold is, +that the course of events is ascertainable by our faculties to a +practically unlimited extent. Such is the brief creed of materialists +and agnostics. The order of nature is the only known god, and man's +sole end and duty is to make himself acquainted with it, that through +obedience he may attain the highest perfection and happiness of which +he is capable. This is the one true religion, and an enlightened +people should forbid that any other be taught in their schools. Here +we have an intelligible and well-defined position, and the one which, +from the point of view of such men as Issaurat and Huxley, is alone +tenable. +</P> + +<P> +Every one now, who thinks at all, has some theory of the world, and +hence the shades of unbelief as of belief are many; and since views of +education are part of a more general system of philosophy, it is +inevitable that those who disagree upon the fundamental questions of +thought, disagree also in their notions as to what is the school's +proper office. +</P> + +<P> +Materialists, pantheists, positivists, secularists, and pessimists +unite in denying that there is a God above and distinct from nature, +while agnostics and cosmists affirm that such a being, if he exist, +must necessarily lie outside the domain of knowledge. Positive +religious doctrines, therefore, are superstition. As these views are +reflected in a more or less vague way in the writings of the multitude +of those who make the current literature, public opinion becomes averse +to religious dogmas. A large number of cultivated minds turn from all +definite systems, whether of thought or belief. Everything may be +tolerated, if only the spirit of dogmatism is away. They recognize how +great a thing religion is, how profoundly it touches life, how +powerfully it shapes conduct. Without it, civilization is hard and +mechanical, art is formal and feeble, and man himself but a shrewd +animal. But, from their points of view, doctrines about God and Christ +and the church have nothing to do with religion. To think of God as +substance is to convert him into nature, to think of him as a person is +to limit him. The only absolute is the moral order of the world. The +religion of Christ is not a theory or a system of thought; it is a view +of life, and its essence is found in belief in the reality of moral +ideas. The supernatural may fall away,—even the notion of a +Providence which rules the world in the interest of the good may be +given up,—and we still have the method and the secret of Jesus, all +that is of value in his life and teaching. All theology is an +illusion, all creeds are a mistake. Religion rests upon the moral +power, which is not a conclusion drawn from facts, but the fact +itself,—the primal and essential fact in human life. Religion is +simply morality suffused by the glow and warmth of a devout and +reverent temper, and to teach doctrines about God and the church will +not make men religious. +</P> + +<P> +It is obvious to object that morality supposes belief in a Personal God +and in the soul of man, as law implies a law-giver. This objection is +meaningless, not only for the thinkers whom I have mentioned, but for +others who find little interest in the literary and religious ideas of +such men as Matthew Arnold. Morality, they claim, is independent, not +only of metaphysics, but of religion as well. It is a science, as yet, +indeed, imperfectly developed, but a science nevertheless, just as +chemistry or physiology is a science. Human acts are controlled, not +by a higher will or man's freedom of choice, but by physical laws. The +peculiarity of this view does not lie in the contention that ethics is +a science, but in the claim that it is a science altogether independent +of metaphysical and religious dogmas. All forces, it is asserted, +physical, mental, and moral, are identical; and morality, like bodily +vigor, is a product of organism. It is, in fact, but an elaboration of +the two radical instincts of nutrition and propagation, from which +springs the twofold movement of conscious life, the egoistic and the +altruistic. This theory is accepted alike in the German school of +materialism, in the French school of positivism, and in the English +school of utilitarianism. What the influence of modern empiricism upon +American opinion may be, it is difficult to determine. Americans +certainly are a practical people, but they are not devoid of interest +in speculative views. More than any other people, possibly, they have +faith in the marvellous things which science is destined to accomplish, +and they willingly listen to men of science, even when they quit the +regions of fact for those of opinion. Thus the various theories, to +which the progress of natural knowledge has given rise, are received by +them, if not with implicit trust, with a kind of feeling, at least, +that they may be true. +</P> + +<P> +There is even a disposition to treat doubts of the truth of +Christianity as a mark of intellectual vigor, and sometimes as a sign +of religious sincerity. Preoccupied with material interests, but yet +finding time to read the thoughts of many minds and to hear the +discussion of antagonistic opinions and systems, they find it difficult +to trust with entire confidence to what they know or believe. It all +seems to be relative, and another generation may see everything in a +different light. Problems take the place of principles, religious +convictions are feeble, the grasp of Christian truth is relaxed, and +the result is a certain moral hesitancy and infirmity. +</P> + +<P> +They are not hostile to the churches, but they are more or less +indifferent to their doctrines. As each sect has its peculiar creed, +the dogmatic position of the church is thought to be of little moment. +The important thing is to promote intelligence and virtue. The +distinctively sectarian view they look upon as narrow and false, and +the good which ecclesiastical organizations do is done in spite of +their characteristic doctrines. The note of sectarianism is to them +what the note of provincialism is to a man of culture, or lack of +breeding to a gentleman. The moral fervor, which sectarians more than +others feel, is, they freely grant, a power for good. It has a +wholesome influence upon character, and is a support of the virtues +which make free institutions possible, and which alone can make them +permanent. But it has no necessary connection with theological +doctrines, since it is found in earnest believers, whatever their +creed. It is the child of enthusiastic faith, and is nourished and +kept living by worship, not by dogmatic asseverations. As the power of +the churches does not lie in their creeds, to make these creeds a +school lesson cannot be desirable, especially when we reflect that the +method of religion and the method of science are at variance. +</P> + +<P> +Such, I imagine, are the views of large numbers of Americans, who are +not members of any church, but whose influence is strongly felt in +political and commercial as well as in social and professional life. +And numbers of zealous Protestants are in substantial agreement with +them, since they hold that faith is an emotional rather than an +intellectual state of mind, and that religion is not so much a way of +thinking as a way of feeling and acting. They assume, of course, as +the prerequisites of religious belief, the dogmas of the existence of a +personal God and of an immortal human soul; but, for the rest, they lay +stress upon conduct and piety, not upon orthodox faith. A church must +have a creed, as a party must have a platform; but unhesitating +confidence in the truth of the doctrines which it thus formulates is +not indispensable. American churches tend to ignore creeds. This is +due, in a measure, to the growing desire to form a union among the +several sects; but it is none the less a sign of waning belief in +dogmatic religion. Hence the increasing emphasis which preaching lays +upon the moral, æsthetic, and emotional aspects of the religious life. +Hence, too, the assumption that the soul of the church may live, though +the body be dead. +</P> + +<P> +But, apart from all theories and systems of belief and thought, public +opinion in America sets strongly against the denominational school. +</P> + +<P> +The question of education is considered from a practical rather than +from a theoretical point of view, and public sentiment on the subject +may be embodied in the following words: The civilized world now +recognizes the necessity of popular education. In a government of the +people, such as this is, intelligence should be universal. In such a +government, to be ignorant is not merely to be weak, it is also to be +dangerous to the common welfare; for the ignorant are not only the +victims of circumstances, they are the instruments which unscrupulous +and designing men make use of, to taint the source of political +authority and to thwart the will of the people. To protect itself, the +State is forced to establish schools and to see that all acquire at +least the rudiments of letters. This is so plain a case that argument +becomes ridiculous. They who doubt the good of knowledge are not to be +reasoned with, and in America not to see that it is necessary, is to +know nothing of our political, commercial, and social life. But the +American State can give only a secular education, for it is separate +from the church, and its citizens profess such various and even +conflicting beliefs, that in establishing a school system, it is +compelled to eliminate the question of religion. Church and State are +separate institutions, and their functions are different and distinct. +The church seeks to turn men from sin, that they may become pleasing to +God and save their souls; the State takes no cognizance of sin, but +strives to prevent crime, and to secure to all its citizens the +enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. Americans are a Christian +people. Religious zeal impelled their ancestors to the New World, and +when schools were first established here, they were established by the +churches, and religious instruction formed an important part of the +education they gave. This was natural, and it was desirable even, in +primitive times, when each colony had its own creed and worship, when +society was simple, and the State as yet imperfectly organized. Here, +as in the Old World, the school was the daughter of the church, and she +has doubtless rendered invaluable service to civilization, by fostering +a love for knowledge among barbarous races and in struggling +communities. But the task of maintaining a school system such as the +requirements of a great and progressive nation demands, is beyond her +strength. This is so, at least, when the church is split into jealous +and warring sects. +</P> + +<P> +To introduce the spirit of sectarianism into the class-room would +destroy the harmony and good-will among citizens, which it is one of +the aims of the common school to cherish. There is, besides, no reason +why this should be done, since the family and the church give all the +religious instruction which children are capable of receiving. +</P> + +<P> +This, it seems to me, is a fair presentation of the views and ideas +which go to the making of current American opinion on the question of +religious instruction in State schools; and current opinion, when the +subject-matter is not susceptible of physical demonstration, cannot be +turned suddenly in an opposite direction. When men have grown +accustomed to look at things in a certain way, they have acquired a +mental habit, which no mere argument, however cogent or eloquent, is +able to overcome. To what extent this view of the school question +prevails is readily perceived by whoever recalls to mind that not one +of the States of the Union has attempted to introduce the +denominational system of education, while all the political parties +have bound themselves to uphold the present purely secular system. The +opinion that the prosperity of the nation depends upon the intelligence +and activity of the people, and to no appreciable extent upon the +influence of ecclesiastical organizations, has so far prevailed, that +the general feeling has come to be that the State has no direct +interest in the church, which is the concern merely of individuals. +The religious denominations themselves have helped to inspire this +sentiment by their jealousies and rivalries. The smaller sects feel +that State aid for denominational schools would accrue to the benefit +chiefly of the larger; and the others are willing to forego favors +which they could not receive without permitting the Catholic Church to +participate also in the bounty of the government. +</P> + +<P> +The Catholic view of the school question is as clearly defined as it is +well known. It rests upon the general ground that man is created for a +supernatural end, and that the church is the divinely appointed agency +to help him to attain his supreme destiny. If education is a training +for completeness of life, its primary element is the religious, for +complete life is life in God. Hence we may not assume an attitude +toward the child, whether in the home, in the church, or in the school, +which might imply that life apart from God could be anything else than +broken and fragmentary. A complete man is not one whose mind only is +active and enlightened; but he is a complete man who is alive in all +his faculties. The truly human is found not in knowledge alone, but +also in faith, in hope, in love, in pure-mindedness, in reverence, in +the sense of beauty, in devoutness, in the thrill of awe, which Goethe +says is the highest thing in man. If the teacher is forbidden to touch +upon religion, the source of these noble virtues and ideal moods is +sealed. His work and influence become mechanical, and he will form but +commonplace and vulgar men. And if an educational system is +established on this narrow and material basis, the result will be +deterioration of the national type, and the loss of the finer qualities +which make men many-sided and interesting, which are the safeguards of +personal purity and of unselfish conduct. +</P> + +<P> +Religion is the vital element in character, and to treat it as though +it were but an incidental phase of man's life is to blunder in a matter +of the highest and most serious import. Man is born to act, and +thought is valuable mainly as a guide to action. Now, the chief +inspiration to action, and above all to right action, is found in +faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion, and not in knowledge, +the virtue of the intellect. Knowledge, indeed, is effectual only when +it is loved, believed in, and held to be a ground for hope. Man does +not live on bread alone, and if he is brought up to look to material +things, as to the chief good, his higher faculties will be stunted. If +to do rightly rather than to think keenly is man's chief business here +on earth, then the virtues of religion are more important than those of +the intellect; for to think is to be unresolved, whereas to believe is +to be impelled in the direction of one's faith. In epochs of doubt +things fall to decay; in epochs of faith the powers which make for full +and vigorous life, hold sway. The education which forms character is +indispensable, that which trains the mind is desirable. The essential +element in human life is conduct, and conduct springs from what we +believe, cling to, love, and yearn for, vastly more than from what we +know. The decadence and ruin of individuals and of societies come from +lack of virtue, not from lack of knowledge. "The hard and valuable +part of education," says Locke, "is virtue; this is the solid and +substantial good, which the teacher should never cease to inculcate +till the young man places his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in +it." We may, of course, distinguish between morality and religion, +between ethics and theology. As a matter of fact, however, moral laws +have everywhere reposed upon the basis of religion, and their sanction +has been sought in the principles of faith. As an immoral religion is +false, so, if there is no God, a moral law is meaningless. +</P> + +<P> +Theorists may be able to construct a system of ethics upon a foundation +of materialism; but their mechanical and utilitarian doctrines have not +the power to exalt the imagination or to confirm the will. Their +educational value is feeble. Here in America we have already passed +the stage of social development in which we might hold out to the +young, as an ideal, the hope of becoming President of the Republic, or +the possessor of millions of money. We know what sorry men presidents +and millionnaires may be. We cannot look upon our country simply as a +wide race-course with well-filled purses hanging at the goal for the +prize-winners. We clearly perceive that a man's possessions are not +himself, and that he is or ought to be more than anything which can +belong to him. Ideals of excellence, therefore, must be substituted +for those of success. Opinion governs the world, but ideals draw souls +and stimulate to noble action. The more we transform with the aid of +machinery the world of matter, the more necessary does it become that +we make plain to all that man's true home is the world of thought and +love, of hope and aspiration. The ideals of utilitarianism and +secularism are unsatisfactory. They make no appeal to the infinite in +man, to that in him which makes pursuit better than possession, and +which, could he believe there is no absolute truth, love, and beauty, +would lead him to despair. To-day, as of old, the soul is born of God +and for God, and finds no peace unless it rest in him. Theology, +assuredly, is not religion; but religion implies theology, and a church +without a creed is a body without articulation. The virtues of +religion are indispensable. Without them, it is not well either with +individuals or with nations; but these virtues cannot be inculcated by +those who, standing aloof from ecclesiastical organizations, are +thereby cut off from the thought and work of all who in every age have +most loved God, and whose faith in the soul has been most living. +Religious men have wrought for God in the church, as patriots have +wrought for liberty and justice in the nation; and to exclude the +representatives of the churches from the school is practically to +exclude religion,—the power which more than all others makes for +righteousness, which inspires hope and confidence, which makes possible +faith in the whole human brotherhood, in the face even of the political +and social wrongs which are still everywhere tolerated. To exclude +religion is to exclude the spirit of reverence, of gentleness and +obedience, of modesty and purity; it is to exclude the spirit by which +the barbarians have been civilized, by which woman has been uplifted +and ennobled and the child made sacred. From many sides the demand is +made that the State schools exercise a greater moral influence, that +they be made efficient in forming character as well as in training the +mind. It is recognized that knowing how to read and write does not +insure good behavior. Since the State assumes the office of teacher, +there is a disposition among parents to make the school responsible for +their children's morals as well as for their minds, and thus the +influence of the home is weakened. Whatever the causes may be, there +seems to be a tendency, both in private and in public life, to lower +ethical standards. The moral influence of the secular school is +necessarily feeble, since our ideas of right and wrong are so +interfused with the principles of Christianity that to ignore our +religious convictions is practically to put aside the question of +conscience. If the State may take no cognizance of sin, neither may +its school do so. But in morals sin is the vital matter; crime is but +its legal aspect. Men begin as sinners before they end as criminals. +</P> + +<P> +The atmosphere of religion is the natural medium for the development of +character. If we appeal to the sense of duty, we assume belief in God +and in the freedom of the will; if we strive to awaken enthusiasm for +the human brotherhood, we imply a divine fatherhood. Accordingly, as +we accept or reject the doctrines of religion, the sphere of moral +action, the nature of the distinction between right and wrong, and the +motives of conduct all change. In the purely secular school only +secular morality may be taught; and whatever our opinion of this system +of ethics may otherwise be, it is manifestly deficient in the power +which appeals to the heart and the conscience. The child lives in a +world which imagination creates, where faith, hope, and love beckon to +realms of beauty and delight. The spiritual and moral truths which are +to become the very life-breath of his soul he apprehends mystically, +not logically. Heaven lies about him; he lives in wonderland, and +feels the thrill of awe as naturally as he looks with wide-open eyes. +Do not seek to persuade him by telling him that honesty is the best +policy, that poverty overtakes the drunkard, that lechery breeds +disease, that to act for the common welfare is the surest way to get +what is good for one's self; for such teaching will not only leave him +unimpressed, but it will seem to him profane, and almost immoral. He +wants to feel that he is the child of God, of the infinitely good and +all-wonderful; that in his father, divine wisdom and strength are +revealed; in his mother, divine tenderness and love. He so believes +and trusts in God that it is our fault if he knows that men can be +base. In nothing does the godlike character of Christ show forth more +beautifully than in His reverence for children. Shall we profess to +believe in Him, and yet forbid His name to be spoken in the houses +where we seek to train the little ones whom He loved? Shall we shut +out Him whose example has done more to humanize, ennoble, and uplift +the race of man than all the teachings of the philosophers and all the +disquisitions of the moralists? If the thinkers, from Plato and +Aristotle to Kant and Pestalozzi, who have dealt with the problems of +education, have held that virtue is its chief aim and end, shall we +thrust from the school the one ideal character who, for nearly nineteen +hundred years, has been the chief inspiration to righteousness and +heroism; to whose words patriots and reformers have appealed in their +struggles for liberty and right; to whose example philanthropists have +looked in their labors to alleviate suffering; to whose teaching the +modern age owes its faith in the brotherhood of men; by whose courage +and sympathy the world has been made conscious that the distinction +between man and woman is meant for the propagation of the race, but +that as individuals they have equal rights and should have equal +opportunities? We all, and especially the young, are influenced by +example more than by precepts and maxims, and it is unjust and +unreasonable to exclude from the schoolroom the living presence of the +noblest and best men and women, of those whose words and deeds have +created our Christian civilization. In the example of their lives we +have truth and justice, goodness and greatness, in concrete form; and +the young who are brought into contact with these centres of influence +will be filled with admiration and enthusiasm; they will be made gentle +and reverent; and they will learn to realize the ever-fresh charm and +force of personal purity. Teachers who have no moral criteria, no +ideals, no counsels of perfection, no devotion to God and godlike men, +cannot educate, if the proper meaning of education is the complete +unfolding of all man's powers. +</P> + +<P> +The school, of course, is but one of the many agencies by which +education is given. We are under the influence of our whole +environment,—physical, moral, and intellectual; political, social, and +religious; and if, in all this, aught were different, we ourselves +should be other. The family is a school and the church is a school; +and current American opinion assigns to them the business of moral and +religious education. But this implies that conduct and character are +of secondary importance; it supposes that the child may be made subject +to opposite influences at home and in the school, and not thereby have +his finer sense of reverence, truth, and goodness deadened. The +subduing of the lower nature, of the outward to the inner man, is a +thing so arduous that reason, religion, and law combined often fail to +accomplish it. If one should propose to do away with schools +altogether, and to leave education to the family and the Church, he +would be justly considered ridiculous; because the carelessness of +parents and the inability of the ministry of the Church would involve +the prevalence of illiteracy. Now, to leave moral and religious +education to the family and the churches involves, for similar reasons, +the prevalence of indifference, sin, and crime. If illiteracy is a +menace to free institutions, vice and irreligion are a greater menace. +The corrupt are always bad citizens; the ignorant are not necessarily +so. Parents who would not have their children taught to read and +write, were there no free schools, will as a rule neglect their +religious and moral education. In giving religious instruction to the +young, the churches are plainly at a disadvantage; for they have the +child but an hour or two in seven days, and they get into their Sunday +classes only the children of the more devout. +</P> + +<P> +If the chief end of education is virtue; if conduct is three-fourths of +life; if character is indispensable, while knowledge is only +useful,—then it follows that religion—which, more than any other +vital influence, has power to create virtue, to inspire conduct, and to +mould character—should enter into all the processes of education. Our +school system, then, does not rest upon a philosophic view of life and +education. We have done what it was easiest to do, not what it was +best to do; and in this, as in other instances, churchmen have been +willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to the whims of a +narrow and jealous temper. The denominational system of popular +education is the right system. The secular system is a wrong system. +The practical difficulties to be overcome that religious instruction +may be given in the schools are relatively unimportant, and would be +set aside if the people were thoroughly persuaded of its necessity. An +objection which Dr. Harris, among others, insists upon, that the method +of science and the method of religion are dissimilar, and that +therefore secular knowledge and religious knowledge should not be +taught in the same school, seems to me to have no weight. The method +of mathematics is not the method of biology; the method of logic is not +the method of poetry; but they are all taught in the same school. A +good teacher, in fact, employs many methods. In teaching the child +grammatical analysis, he has no fear of doing harm to his imagination +or his talent for composition. +</P> + +<P> +No system, however, can give assurance that the school is good. To +determine this we must know the spirit which lives in it. The +intellectual, moral, and religious atmosphere which the child breathes +there is of far more importance, from an educational point of view, +than any doctrines he may learn by rote, than any acts of worship he +may perform. +</P> + +<P> +The teacher makes the school; and when high, pure, devout, and +enlightened men and women educate, the conditions favorable to mental +and moral growth will be found, provided a false system does not compel +them to assume a part and play a role, while the true self—the faith, +hope, and love whereby they live—is condemned to inaction. The deeper +tendency of the present age is not, I think, to exclude religion from +any vital process, but rather to widen the content of the idea of +religion until it embrace the whole life of man. The worship of God is +not now the worship of infinite wisdom, holiness, and justice alone, +but is also the worship of the humane, the beautiful, and the +industriously active. Whether we work for knowledge or freedom, or +purity or strength, or beauty or health, or aught else that is friendly +to completeness of life, we work with God and for God. In the school, +as in whatever other place in the boundless universe a man may find +himself, he finds himself with God, in Him moves, lives, and has his +being. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE HIGHER EDUCATION.[<A NAME="chap07fn1text"></A><A HREF="#chap07fn1">1</A>] +</H4> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +<A NAME="chap07fn1"></A> +[<A HREF="#chap07fn1text">1</A>] A discourse pronounced at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, +which, being enforced by the offer of three hundred thousand dollars by +Miss Caldwell, led to the founding of the University at Washington. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The subject which I have been asked to treat is the higher education of +priests; which, I suppose, is the highest education of man, since the +ideal of the Christian priest is the most exalted, his vocation the +most sublime, his office the most holy, his duties the most spiritual, +and his mission—whether we consider its relation to morality, which is +the basis of individual and social welfare, or to religion, which is +the promise and the secret of immortal and godlike life—is the most +important and the most sacred which can be assigned to a human being. +</P> + +<P> +Religion and education—like religion and morality—are nearly related. +Pure religion, indeed, is more than right education; and yet it may be +said with truth that it is but a part of the best education, for it +co-operates with other forces—with climate, custom, social conditions, +and political institutions—to develop and fashion the complete man; +and the special instruction of teachers—which is the narrow meaning of +the word—is modified, and to a great extent controlled, by these +powers which work unseen, and are the vital agents that make possible +all conscious educational efforts. +</P> + +<P> +The faith we hold, the laws we obey, the domestic and social customs to +which our thoughts and loves are harmonized, the climate we live in, +mould our characters and give to our souls a deeper and more lasting +tinge than any school, though it were the best. +</P> + +<P> +My subject, however, does not demand that I consider these general and +silent agencies by which life is influenced, but leads me to the +discussion of the methods by which man, with conscious purpose, seeks +to form and instruct his fellow-man; to the discussion of the special +education which brings art to the aid of nature, and becomes the +auxiliary and guide of the other forces which contribute to the +development of our being. +</P> + +<P> +In this age, when all who think at all turn their thoughts to questions +of education, it is needless to call attention to the interest of the +subject, which, like hope, is immortal, and fresh as the innocent face +of laughing childhood. +</P> + +<P> +Is not the school for all men a shrine to which their pilgrim thoughts +return to catch again the glow and gladness of a world wherein they +lived by faith and hope and love when round the morning sun of life the +golden purple clouds were hanging, and earth lay hidden in mist, +beneath which the soul created a new paradise? To the opening mind all +things are young and fair; and to remember the delight that accompanied +the gradual dawn of knowledge upon our mental vision, sweet and +beautiful as the upglowing of day from the bosom of night, is to be +forever thankful for the gracious power of education. And is there not +in all hearts a deep and abiding yearning for great and noble men, and +therefore an imperishable interest in the power by which they are +moulded? When fathers and mothers look upon the fair blossoming +children that cling to them as the vine wraps its tendrils round the +spreading bough, and when their great love fills them with ineffable +longing to shield these tender souls from the blighting blasts of a +cold and stormy world, and little by little to prepare them to stand +alone and breast the gales of fortune, do they not instinctively put +their trust in the power of education? +</P> + +<P> +When, at the beginning of the present century, Germany lay prostrate at +the feet of Napoleon, the wise and the patriotic among her children +yielded not to despondency, but turned with confidence to truer methods +and systems of education, and assiduous teaching and patient waiting +finally brought them to Sedan. +</P> + +<P> +When, in the sixteenth century, heresy and schism seemed near to final +victory over the Church, Pope Julius III. declared that the evils and +abuses of the times were the outgrowth of the shameful ignorance of the +clergy, and that the chief hope of the dawning of a brighter day lay in +general and thorough ecclesiastical education. And the Catholic +leaders who finally turned back the advancing power of Protestantism, +re-established the Church in half the countries in which it had been +overthrown, and converted more souls in America and Asia than had been +lost in Europe, belonged to the greatest educational body the world has +ever seen. What is history but examples of success through knowledge +and righteousness, and of failure through lack of understanding and of +virtue? +</P> + +<P> +Wherein lies the superiority of civilized races over barbarians if not +in their greater knowledge and superior strength of character? And +what but education has placed in the hands of man the thousand natural +forces which he holds as a charioteer his well-reined steeds, bidding +the winds carry him to distant lands, making steam his tireless, +ever-ready slave, and commanding the lightning to speak his words to +the ends of the earth? What else than this has taught him to map the +boundless heavens, to read the footprints of God in the crust of the +earth ages before human beings lived, to measure the speed of light, to +weigh the imperceptible atom, to split up all natural compounds, to +create innumerable artificial products with which he transforms the +world and with a grain of powder marches like a conquering god around +the globe? +</P> + +<P> +What converts the meaningless babbling of the child into the stately +march of oratoric phrase or the rhythmic flow of poetic language? What +has developed the rude stone and bronze implements of savage and +barbarous hordes into the miraculous machinery which we use? By what +power has man been taught to carve the shapeless rock into an image of +ideal beauty, or with it to build his thought into a temple of God, +where the soul instinctively prostrates itself in adoration? +</P> + +<P> +Is not all this, together with whatever else is excellent in human +works, the result of education, which gives to man a second nature with +more admirable endowments? And is not religion itself a kind of +celestial education, which trains the soul to godlike life? +</P> + +<P> +No progress in things divine or human is made by man except through +effort, and effort is the power and the law of education. The maxim of +the spiritual writers that not to struggle upward and onward is to be +drawn downward, applies to every phase of our life. Whence do we +derive strength of soul but from the uplifting of the mind and heart to +God which we call prayer? To pray is to think, to attend, to hold the +mind lovingly to its object; and this is what we do when we study. +Hence prayer, which is the voice of religion, is a part of +education,—nay, its very soul, breathing on all the chords of life, +till their thousand dissonances meet in rhythmic harmony. What is the +pulpit but the holiest teacher's chair that has been placed upon the +earth? +</P> + +<P> +And as the presence of a noble character is a more potent influence +than words, so sacramental communion with Christ is man's chief school +of faith, of hope, and love. There are worthy persons who turn, as +from an unholy thought, from the emphatic announcement of the need of +the best human qualities for the proper defence of the cause of God in +the world. Such speech seems to them to be vain and unreal; for God is +all in all, and man is nothing. But in our day it is easier to go +astray in the direction of self-annihilation than in that of +self-assertion; since the common tendency now of all false philosophies +is pantheistic, and issues in unconscious contempt of individual life. +If man is but a bubble, merging forth and re-absorbed, without past or +future, then indeed both he, and what he seems to do, sink into the +eternal flow of matter, and are undeserving of a thought. This +certainly is not the Christian view, to which man is revealed as a +lesser god, and co-worker with the Eternal, whose thought can reach the +infinite, and whose will can oppose that of the Omnipotent. In Christ, +God co-operates with man for the salvation of the world; and in the +Church, man co-operates with God to this same end. The more complete +the man, the more fit is he to work with God. Even bodily +disfigurement is looked upon as an obstacle; how much more, then, shall +lack of intelligence and want of heart render us unworthy of the divine +office? I certainly shall never deny that love, which the Apostle +exalts above faith and hope, is higher also than knowledge. The light +of the mind is as that of the moon—fair and soft and soothing, without +heat, without the power to call forth and nourish life; but the light +of the soul, which is love, is the sunlight, whose kiss, like a word of +God, makes the dead to live, and clothes the world in strength and +beauty. Character is more than intellect, love is more than knowledge, +religion is more than morality; and a great heart brings us closer to +God, nearer to all goodness, than a bright mind. Education is +essentially moral, and the intellectual qualities themselves, which we +seek to develop, derive their chief efficacy from underlying ethical +qualities upon which they rest and from which they receive their energy +and the power of self-control. Inequality of will is the great cause +of inequality of mind; and the will is strengthened by the practice of +virtue, as the body by food and exercise. If this is a general truth, +with what special force must it not apply to the ministers of a +religion the paramount and ceaseless aim of which is to make men holy, +so that at times it has almost seemed as though the Church were +indifferent as to whether they are learned or beautiful or strong? She +pronounces no man a doctor unless he be also a saint; and when I insist +that the priest shall possess the best mental culture of his age,—that +without this he fights with broken weapons, speaks with harsh voice a +language men will neither hear nor understand, teaches truths which, +having not the freshness and the glow of truth, neither kindle the +heart nor fire the imagination,—I do not forget that, without the +moral earnestness which is born of faith and purity of life, mere +cultivation of mind will not give him power to unseal the fountains of +living waters which refresh the garden of God. The universal harmony +is felt by a pure heart better than it can be perceived by a keen +intellect. To a sinless soul the darker side even of life and nature +is not wholly dark, and the mental difficulties which the existence of +evil involves in no way weaken the consciousness of the essential +goodness that lies at the heart of all things. In the religious, as in +the moral world, men trust to what we are rather than to what we say, +and the teacher of spiritual truth is never strong, unless his life and +character inspire a confidence which arguments alone do not create; for +in questions that reach beyond the sphere of sensation, we feel that +insight is better than reasons, and hence we instinctively prefer the +testimony of a god-like soul to the conclusions of a cultivated mind: +and indeed our Blessed Lord ever assumes that the obstacle to the +perception of divine truth is moral and not intellectual. The pure of +heart see God; the evil-doer loves darkness and shuns the light. St. +Paul goes even farther, and associates mental cultivation with a +tendency directly opposed to religious faith, which is humble. +"Knowledge puffeth up." But the words of the Apostle should not be +stretched beyond his purpose, which is to point to pride as a special +danger of the intellectual as sensuality is a danger of the ignorant. +For man to have aught is to run a risk, and hence to do as little as +possible is in the thought of the timid a mark of prudence. And +indeed, if fear be nearer to wisdom than courage, then should we fear +everything, for danger is everywhere. A breath may sow the seed of +death; a look may slay the soul. In knowledge, in ignorance, in +strength, in weakness, in wealth, in poverty, in genius, in stupidity, +in company, in solitude, in innocence itself, danger lurks. But God +does not abolish life that danger may cease to be; and they who put +their trust in Him will not seek to darken the mind lest knowledge lead +man astray, but will rather in a righteous cause make the venture of +all things, as St. Ignatius preferred the hope of saving others to the +certainty of his own salvation. And may we not maintain, since we hold +that there is no inappeasable conflict between God and Nature, between +the soul and matter, between revelation and science, that the apparent +antagonism lies in our apprehension, and not in things themselves, and +consequently that reconcilement is to be sought for through the help of +thoroughly trained minds? The poet speaks the truth, "A little +knowledge is a dangerous thing." They who know but little and +imperfectly, see but their knowledge, if so it may be called, and walk +in innocent unconsciousness of their infinite nescience. The narrower +the range of our mental vision, the greater the obstinacy with which we +cling to our opinions; and the half-educated, like the weak and the +incompetent, are often contentious, but whosoever is able to do his +work does it, and finds no time for dispute. He who possesses a +disciplined mind, and is familiar with the best thoughts that live in +the great literatures, will be the last to attach undue importance to +his own thinking. A sense of decency and a kind of holy shame will +keep him far from angry and unprofitable controversy; nor will he +mistake a crotchet for a panacea, nor imagine that irritation is +enlightenment. The blessings of a cultivated mind are akin to those of +religion. They are larger liberty, wider life, purer delights, and a +juster sense of the relative values of the means and ends which lie +within our reach. Knowledge, like religion, leads us away from what +appears to what is, from what passes to what remains, from what +flatters the senses to that which speaks to the soul. Wisdom and +religion converge, as love and knowledge meet in God; and to the wise +as to the religious man, no great evil can happen. Into prison they +both carry the sweet company of their thoughts, their faith and hope, +and are freer in chains than the great in palaces. In death they are +in the midst of life, for they see that what they know and love is +imperishable, nor subject even to atomic disintegration. He who lives +in the presence of truth yearns not for the company of men, but loves +retirement as a saint loves solitude; and in times like ours, when men +no longer choose the desert for a dwelling-place, the passionate desire +of intellectual excellence co-operates with religious faith to guard +them against dissipation and to lift them above the spirit of the age. +The thinker is never lonely, as he who lives with God is never unhappy. +Is not the love of excellence, which is the scholar's love, a part of +the love of goodness which makes the saint? And are not intellectual +delights akin to those religion brings? They are pure, they elevate, +they refine; time only increases their charm, and in the winter of age, +when the body is but the agent of pain, contemplation still remains +like the light of a higher world, to tinge with beauty the clouds that +gather around life's setting. How narrow and monotonous is sensation! +how wide and various is thought! They who live in the senses are +fettered and ill at ease; they who live in the soul are free and +joyful. And since the priest, unless he be a saint, must have, like +other men, some human joy, and since he dwells not in the sacred circle +of the love of wife and children, in which the multitudes find repose +and contentment, what solace, what refreshment, in the midst of cares +and labors, shall we offer him? If there be aught for him that is not +unworthy or dangerous, except the pleasures of the mind, to me it is +unknown; and though a well-trained intellect should do no more than to +enable us to take delight in pure and noble objects, it would be a +chief help to worthy life. And when the whole tendency of our social +existence is to draw men out of themselves and to make them seek the +good of life in what is external, as money, display, position, renown, +is it not a gain, if, while we open their minds to the charm of +intellectual beauty, we make them see that this eager striving for +wealth and place is a vulgar chase? And does not the spirit of +refinement in thought, in speech, in manner, add worth and fairness to +him whom it inspires, though the motive which preserves him from what +is low or gross be no higher than a fastidious delicacy and +self-respect? +</P> + +<P> +To deny the moral influence of intellectual culture is as great an +error as to affirm that it alone is a sufficient safeguard of morality. +Its tendency unquestionably is to make men gentle, amiable, +fair-minded, truthful, benevolent, modest, sober. It curbs ambition +and teaches resignation; chastens the imagination and mitigates +ferocity; dissuades from duelling because it is barbarous, and from war +because it is cruel, and from persecution because it trusts in the +prevalence of reason. It seeks to fit the mind and the character to +the world, to all possible circumstances, so that whatever happens we +remain ourselves,—calm, clear-seeing, able to do and to suffer. At +great heights, or in the presence of irresistible force, as of a mighty +waterfall, we grow dizzy; and in the same way, in the midst of +multitudes, in the eagerness of strife, in the whirlwind of passion, +equipoise is lost, and we cease to be ourselves, to become part of an +aggregate of forces that hurry us on, whither we know not. To be able +to stand in the presence of such power, and to feel its influence, and +yet not to lose self-possession, is to be strong; is, on proper +occasion, to be great. And the aim of the best education is to teach +us the secret and the method of this complete self-control; and in so +far it is not only moral, but also religious, though religion walks in +a more royal road, and bids us love God and trust so absolutely in Him +that life and death become equal, and all the ways and workings of men +as the storm to one who on lofty mountain peak, amid the blue heavens, +with the sunlight around him and the quiet breathing of the winds, sees +far below, as in another world, the black clouds and lurid lightning +flash and hears the roll of distant thunder. +</P> + +<P> +It is far from my thought, it is needless to say, that mental +cultivation can be made to take the place or do the work of religion, +even in the case of the very few for whom the best discipline of mind +is possible. My aim is simply to show that the type of character which +it tends to create is not necessarily at variance with religious +principle and life, as is, for instance, that of the mere worldling; +but that it conspires with Christian faith to produce, if not the same, +at least similar virtues, though its ethical influence is comparatively +superficial, and the moral qualities which it produces lack consistency +and the power to withstand the fire of the passions. It is enough for +my purpose to point out that if intellectualism is often the foe of +religious truth, there is no good reason why it should not also be its +ally. +</P> + +<P> +No excellence, as I conceive, of whatever kind, is rejected by Catholic +teaching, and the perfection of the mind is not less divine than the +perfection of the heart. It is good to know, as it is good to hope, to +believe, to love. A cultivated intellect, an open mind, a rich +imagination, with correctness of thought, flexibility of view, and +eloquent expression, are among the noblest endowments of man; and +though they should serve no other purpose than to embellish life, to +make it fairer and freer, they would nevertheless be possessions +without price, for the most nobly useful things are those which make +life good and beautiful. Like virtue they are their own reward, and +like mercy they bear a double blessing. It is the fashion with many to +affect contempt for men of superior culture, because they look upon +education as simply a means to tangible ends, and think knowledge +valuable only when it can be made to serve practical purposes. This is +a narrow and a false view; for all men need the noble and the +beautiful, and he who lives without an ideal is hardly a man. Our +material wants are not the most real for being the most sensible and +pressing, and they who create or preserve for us models of spiritual +and intellectual excellence are our greatest benefactors. Which were +the greater loss for England, to be without Wellington and Nelson, or +to be without Shakspeare and Milton? Whatever the answer be, in the +one case England would suffer, in the other the whole world would feel +the loss. Though a thoroughly trained intellect is less worthy of +admiration than a noble character, its power is immeasurably greater; +for, example can influence but a few and for a short time, but when a +truth or a sentiment has once found its best expression, it becomes a +part of literature, and like a proverb is current forevermore; and so +the kings of thought become immortal rulers, and without their help the +godlike deeds of saints and heroes would be buried in oblivion. "Words +pass," said Napoleon, "but deeds remain." The man of action +exaggerates the worth of action, but the philosopher knows that to act +is easy, to think, difficult; and that great deeds spring from great +thoughts. There are words that never grow silent, there are words that +have changed the face of the earth, and the warrior's wreath of victory +is entwined by the Muse's hand. The power of Athens is gone, her +temples are in ruins, the Acropolis is discrowned, and from Mars' Hill +no voice thunders now; but the words of Socrates, the great deliverer +of the mind, and the father of intellectual culture, still breathe in +the thoughts of every cultivated man on earth. The glory of Jerusalem +has departed, the broken stones of Solomon's Temple lie hard by the +graves that line the brook of Kedron, and from the minaret of Mount +Sion the misbeliever's melancholy call sounds like a wail over a lost +world; but the songs of David still rise from the whole earth in +heavenly concert, upbearing to the throne of God the faith and hope and +love of countless millions. And is not the Blessed Saviour the Eternal +Word? And is not the Bible God's word? And is not the Gospel the +Word, which, like an electric thrill, runs to the ends of the world? +"Currit verbum," says St. Paul. "Man lives not on bread alone, but on +every word that cometh forth from the mouth of God." Nay, there is +life in all the true and noble thoughts that have blossomed in the mind +of genius and filled the earth with fragrance and with fruit. +</P> + +<P> +Shall I be told that the intellectual cultivation and discipline, which +gives to man control of his knowledge, the perfect use of his +faculties, justness of perception with ease and grace of expression, +cannot bring serviceable advocacy or defence to the cause of divine +truth? What does truth need but to be known? And since to reach the +mind and heart of man it must be clothed in words, what is so necessary +to it as the garb and vesture, the form and color, the warmth and life, +which shall so mark it that to be loved it needs but be seen? And who +shall so clothe it, if not he who has the freest, the most flexible, +the clearest, the best disciplined mind? In the apostolic age, when +the manifestations of miraculous power accompanied the announcement of +Christian doctrine, the lack of the persuasive words of human eloquence +was not felt. Let him who can drink poison and touch scorpions, and +not suffer harm, despise the aid of learning; but for us, who are not +so assisted, no cultivation of mind or preparation of heart can be too +great; and to appear in the garb of a savage were less unseemly than to +speak the holiest and the highest truths in the barbarous tongue of +ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +Our way here cannot be doubtful. Either we must hold with certain +peculiar heretics that learning is a hindrance to the efficacious +teaching of religious truth, or, denying this, we must hold, since +mental culture is serviceable, that the best is most serviceable. +</P> + +<P> +May we not take this for a principle,—to believe that God does +everything, and then to act as though He left everything for us to do? +Or this: Since grace supposes nature, the growth and strength of the +Church is not wholly independent of the natural endowments of her +ministers? +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact we Catholics are constantly speaking and acting +upon principles of this kind. We maintain that without a proper +education our children must lose the faith; and that without careful +moral and mental training no man is likely to become a good priest; and +all that I further insist upon is that if he is to do the best work, he +must have the best intellectual discipline. In an intellectual age, at +least, he cannot be the worthy minister of worship, unless he is also +the accomplished teacher of truth. In vain shall we clothe him in rich +symbolic vestments, place him in majestic temples, before marble +altars, in the midst of solemn music, in the dim sober-tinted light, +with the great and noble looking out upon him, as from a spirit +world,—in vain shall all this be, if when he himself speaks, his words +are felt to be but the echo of a coarse and empty mind. And hence our +enemies would gladly leave us the poetry of our worship, would even +enter our churches to be comforted, to be soothed, to seek the +elevation and enlargement of thought and sentiment which comes upon us +in the presence of what is vast, mysterious, and sublime, if we would +but confess that it is only poetry, good and beautiful only as art is +good and beautiful. The spirit of the time, in fact, it seems to me, +is more and more disposed to grant us everything except the possession +of intellectual truth. That the Catholic Church is a marvellous power; +that her triumphs have been so enduring and so unexpected that only the +foolish or the ignorant will predict her downfall; that she overcame +paganism; that she saved Christianity when Rome fell; that she +restrained the ferocity of the barbarians, protected the weak, +encouraged labor, preserved the classics, maintained the unity and +sanctity of marriage, defended the purity and dignity of woman, +espoused the cause of the oppressed, and in a lawless and ignorant age +proclaimed the supremacy of right and the worth of learning; that to +these signal services must be added her power to give ease and +pleasantness to the social relations of men, keeping them equally +remote from Puritan severity and pagan license; her eye for beauty and +grace, which has made her the foster-mother of all the arts; her love +of the excellent and the noble, which has enabled her to create types +of character that are immortal; her practical wisdom, giving her the +secret of dealing with every phase of life, so that her saints are +doctors, apostles, mystics, philanthropists, artists, poets, kings, +beggars, warriors, peasants, barbarians, philosophers,—all this, if I +mistake not, unbelievers even are more and more willing to concede. +Nor are they slow to express their admiration of the strength and +majesty of this single power amid the Christian nations, which reaches +back to the great civilizations that have perished, which has preserved +its organic unity intact amid the social revolutions of two thousand +years, and which is acknowledged still to be the greatest moral force +in the world. But, underlying all they say and think, is the +assumption that the foundations of this noble structure are crumbling; +that the world of faith and thought in which it was upbuilt is become a +desert where no flower blooms, no living soul is found; that the temple +is beautiful only as a ruin is beautiful, where owls hoot and bats flit +to and fro. "There is not a creed, we are told, which is not shaken, +nor an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable; not a +received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve." +</P> + +<P> +The conquests of the human mind in the realms of nature have produced a +world-wide ferment of thought, an intellectual activity which is +without a parallel. They have increased the power of man to an almost +incredible degree, have given him control of the earth and the seas, +have placed within his grasp undreamed-of forces, have opened to his +view unsuspected mysteries; they have placed him on a new earth and +under new heavens, and thrown a light never seen before upon the +history of his race. As a part of this vast development new questions +have risen, new theories have been broached, new doubts have suggested +themselves; and because we have changed, all else seems to have changed +also. And since, underlying all questions, there is found a question +of religion, the discussion of religious and philosophic problems has, +in our day, become a social necessity, and the science of criticism, +together with the physical sciences, has driven the disputants upon new +and difficult ground, where the battle must be fought, and where +retreat is not possible. +</P> + +<P> +As well imagine that society will again take on the form of feudalism, +as that the human mind will return to the point of view from which our +ancestors looked on nature. +</P> + +<P> +And this world-view shapes and colors all our thinking, in theology as +in other sciences, so that truths which were latent have come to light, +and principles which have long been held find new and wider application. +</P> + +<P> +Never has the defence of religion required so many and such excellent +qualities of intellect as in the present day. The early apologists who +contrasted the sublimity and purity of Christian faith with a corrupt +paganism had not a difficult task. In the Middle Age the intellect of +the world was on the side of Christ. The controversy which sprang up +with the advent of Protestantism was biblical and historical, and its +criticism was superficial. The anti-Christian schools of thought of +the eighteenth century were literary rather than philosophical, and the +objections they urged were founded chiefly upon political and social +considerations. In all these discussions the territory in dispute was +well defined and relatively small. But into what a different world are +not we thrown! These earlier explorers sailed upon rivers whose banks +were lined by firm-set rocky cliffs, by the overshadowing boughs of +primeval forests, with here and there pleasant slopes of green where +they might lie at rest amid the fragrance of wild flowers; but from our +Peter's bark we look out upon the dark unfathomed seas towards an +unknown world whose margin ever fades and recedes as we seem to draw +near the haven of our desire. +</P> + +<P> +As in the beginning of the twelfth century the cry, "God wills it!" +rang through Europe, and from all her lands armies of mailed knights +sprang into battle-array and turned their faces towards the Holy City, +resolved to wrench from infidel hands the Sacred Tomb of Christ, so +now, from her thousand watch-towers, science sounds her clarion note +with quite other intent, urging on to the attack of the citadel of God +in the heart of man, renewing upon lower fields the war in which +immortal spirits contended with the Almighty "in dubious battle on the +plains of heaven, and shook his throne." As "he jests at scars that +never felt a wound," so here the lesser knowledge makes the bolder man. +Not that difficulties should create doubts, or that objections may not +be answered, or that it is necessary to refute each hypothesis that +appears and fades like a dissolving view, or to notice each +unwarrantable inference from unquestioned facts, or that it is worth +while to address ourselves to minds whose nebulous and shifting +opinions make it impossible that they should receive correct +impressions; but the field upon which attacks upon religion are now +made is so vast, the confusion of thought into which new discoveries +and speculations have thrown the minds of even educated men is so +bewildering, the methods for the ascertainment of truth are so tangled +and misapplied, the rushing on of multitudes to discuss problems which +have hitherto been left to philosophers, and which they alone can +rightly enunciate, is so stupefying, that those who have the clearest +perception of the mental state of the modern world, and who are able to +take the finest and most comprehensive view of the religious, +philosophic, and scientific controversies of the day, seem loath to +enter into a struggle where the ground continually changes, and where +victory at the best is only partial, and but leads to further contest. +It is well to remember, also, that in the intellectual arena to attack +is easier than to defend, and any shallow, incoherent talker or writer +can propose difficulties which the keenest thinker will find great +trouble to explain. Since we and our works fall to ruin and pass away, +we seem instinctively to take the side of those who seek to undermine +and overthrow systems of thought and belief which claim to be +indestructible, and the human heart is half a traitor to the Church +which declares that she is indefectible and infallible. Is there not +indeed, however we account for it, in all nature a kind of dread and +horror of the supernatural, such as one who hides within his bosom a +secret of dark guilt feels in the presence of the conscience of +mankind? And does not this make the world lean to the side of those +who would eliminate God from nature? +</P> + +<P> +And yet, since man's heart is the home of contradictions, is it not +also true to say that he is naturally religious? His faith in God is +as deep and unwavering as his faith in the testimony of the senses; and +if there are atheists there are also men who hold that all things are +unreal and only appear to be; that the world is but a myriad-formed, a +myriad-tinted idea, the dream of a substanceless dreamer. Not only do +we believe in God and in the soul, but all that we love, all that we +hope for, all that gives to life charm, dignity, and sacredness, is +interpenetrated, perfumed, and illumined by this faith. If men could +be persuaded that the unconscious is the beginning and the end of all +things, what good would have been gained? The light of heaven would +fade away, and the soul's high faith be made a lie; the poor would have +no friend, and the rich no heart; the wicked would be without fear, and +the good without hope; success would be consecrated, and death alone +would remain as the refuge of the unfortunate. Even animal indulgence, +in sinking out of the moral order, would lose its human charm. If then +in our day there is wide-spread scepticism, a sort of vague feeling +that science is undermining religion and that the most sacred beliefs +are dissolving, the cause of this lies not so much in the natural +tendencies of the mind and heart, as in social conditions, in passing +phases of thought, in the shifting of the point of view from which men +have hitherto been accustomed to look on nature; and the continuance +and the progress of doubt, and consequently of indifference, is, to +some extent at least, to be ascribed also to the fact that the most +earnest believers in God and in Christianity have, for now more than a +century, been less eager to acquire the best philosophic and literary +cultivation of mind than others who, having lost faith in the +supernatural, seek for compensation in a wider and deeper knowledge of +nature, and in the mental culture which enables them to enjoy more +keenly the high thoughts and fair images which live in literature and +art. As a well-trained intellect, in argument with the unskilful, +easily makes the worse appear the better cause, so in an age or a +country where the best discipline of mind is found chiefly among those +who are not Christians, or at least not Catholics, public opinion will +drift away from the Church, until the view finally becomes general +that, whatever she may have been in other times, her day is past. Nor +will aught external, however fair or glorious, secure her against this +danger. How often in the history of nations and of religions is not +outward splendor the mark of inward decay? When Rome was free, a +simple life sufficed; but when liberty fled, marble palaces arose. The +monarch who built Versailles made the scaffold on which French royalty +perished; and so a dying faith, like the setting sun, may drape itself +in glory. The Kingdom of God is within; there is the source of life +and strength, without which nor numbers nor wealth, nor stately +edifices nor solemn rites, avail. Nor can we be certain of men's love +when we cease to have influence over their thoughts. The proper appeal +is to the heart through the mind; and even a mother loses half her +power when she ceases to be the intellectual superior of her children. +How then shall the heavenly Mother of the soul keep her place in the +world, if those who speak in her name mar by imperfect and ignorant +utterance the celestial harmony of her doctrines? +</P> + +<P> +Ah! let us learn to see things as they are. In face of the modern +world, that which the Catholic priest most needs, after virtue, is the +best cultivation of mind, which issues in comprehensiveness of view, in +exactness of perception, in the clear discernment of the relations of +truths and of the limitations of scientific knowledge, in fairness and +flexibility of thought, in ease and grace of expression, in candor, in +reasonableness; the intellectual culture which brings the mind into +form gives it the control of its faculties, creates the habit of +attention, and develops firmness of grasp. The education of which I +speak is expansion and discipline of mind rather than learning; and its +tendency is not so much to form profound dogmatists, or erudite +canonists, or acute casuists, as to cultivate a habit of mind, which, +for want of a better word, may be called philosophical; to enlarge the +intellect, to strengthen and supple its faculties, to enable it to take +connected views of things and their relations, and to see clear amid +the mazes of human error and through the mists of human passion. I +speak of that perfection of the intellect, which, to use the words of +Cardinal Newman, "is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension +of all things as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its +place and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost prophetic +from its knowledge of history; it is almost heart-searching from its +knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its +freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of +faith because nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and +harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal +order of things and the music of the spheres." This is, indeed, ideal; +but they who believe not in ideals were not born to know the real worth +of things: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 3em">"Spite of proudest boast</SPAN><BR> +Reason, best reason is to imperfect man<BR> +An effort only and a noble aim,—<BR> +A crown, an attribute of sovereign power,<BR> +Still to be courted, never to be won."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It is plain that education of this kind aims at something quite +different from the mere imparting of useful knowledge. It takes the +view that it is good to know, even though knowledge should not be a +means to wealth or power or any other common aim of life. It regards +the mind as the organ of truth, and trains it for its own sake, without +reference to the exercise of a profession. Hence its distinguishing +characteristic is that it is liberal and not professional. It holds +cultivated faculties in higher esteem than learning, and it makes use +of knowledge to improve the intellect, rather than of the intellect to +acquire knowledge. Hence, one may be a skilful physician, a judicious +lawyer, a learned theologian, and yet be greatly lacking in mental +culture. It is a common experience to find that professional men are +apt to be narrow and one-sided. Their mind, like the dyer's hand, is +subdued to what it works in. They want comprehensiveness of view, +flexibility of thought, openness to light, and freedom of mental play. +They think in grooves, make the rules of their art the measure of +truth, and their own methods of inquiry the only valid laws of +reasoning. These same defects may be observed in those who are given +exclusively to the study of physical science. When they sweep the +heavens with the telescope and do not find God, they conclude that +there is no God. When the soul does not reveal itself under the +microscope, they argue it does not exist; and since there is no thought +without nervous movement, they claim that the brain thinks. +</P> + +<P> +Now, if it is desirable that those who are charged with the teaching +and defence of divine truth should be free from this narrowness and +one-sidedness, this lack of openness to light and freedom of mental +play, the education of the priest must be more than a professional +education; and he must be sent to a school higher and broader than the +ecclesiastical seminary, which is simply a training college for the +practical work of the ministry. The purpose for which it was +instituted is to prepare young men for the worthy exercise of the +general functions of the priestly office, and the good it has done is +too great and too manifest to need commendation. But the +ecclesiastical seminary is not a school of intellectual culture, either +here in America or elsewhere, and to imagine that it can become the +instrument of intellectual culture is to cherish a delusion. It must +impart a certain amount of professional knowledge, fit its students to +become more or less expert catechists, rubricists, and casuists, and +its aim is to do this; and whatever mental improvement, if any, thence +results, is accidental. Hence its methods are not such as one would +choose who desires to open the mind, to give it breadth, flexibility, +strength, refinement, and grace. Its text-books are written often in a +barbarous style, the subjects are discussed in a dry and mechanical +way, and the professor, wholly intent upon giving instruction, is +frequently indifferent as to the manner in which it is imparted; or +else not possessing himself a really cultivated intellect, he holds in +slight esteem expansion and refinement of mind, looking upon it as at +the best a mere ornament. I am not offering a criticism upon the +ecclesiastical seminary, but am simply pointing to the plain fact that +it is not a school of intellectual culture, and consequently, if its +course were lengthened to five, to six, to eight, to ten years, its +students would go forth to their work with a more thorough professional +training, but not with more really cultivated minds. The test of +intellect is not so much what we know as the manner in which it is +known; just as in the moral world, the important consideration is not +what virtues we possess, but the completeness with which they are ours. +He who really believes in God, serves Him, loves Him, is a hero, a +saint; whereas he who half believes may have a thousand good qualities, +but not a great character. Knowledge is not education any more than +food is nutrition; and as one may eat voraciously, and yet remain +without bodily health or strength, so one may have great learning, and +yet be almost wholly lacking in intellectual cultivation. His learning +may only oppress and confuse him, be felt as a load, and not as a vital +principle, which upraises, illumines, and beautifies the mind; mentally +he may still be a boy, in whom memory predominates, and whose intellect +is only a receptacle of facts. Memory is the least noble of the +intellectual faculties, and the nearest to animal intelligence; and to +know well is, in the eyes of a true educator, of quite other importance +than to know much. But a memory, more or less well-stored, is nearly +all a youth carries with him from the college to the seminary, and here +he enters, as I have already pointed out, upon a course not of +intellectual discipline, but of professional studies, whose object is +not "to open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to +know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it +power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, +critical exactness, sagacity, resource, eloquent expression," but +simply to impart the requisite skill for the ordinary exercise of the +holy ministry. Hence it is not surprising that priests who are +zealous, earnest, self-sacrificing, who to piety join discretion and +good sense, rarely possess the intellectual culture of which I am +speaking, for the simple reason that a university and not a seminary is +the school in which this kind of education is received. That the +absence of such trained intellects is a most serious obstacle to the +progress of the Catholic faith, no thoughtful man will doubt or deny. +Since the mind is a power, in religion, as in every sphere of thought +and life, the discipline which best develops and perfects its faculties +will fit it to do its work, whatever it may be, in the most effective +manner. Hence, though the education of which I speak does not directly +aim at being useful, it is in fact the most useful, and prepares better +than any other for the business of life. It enables a man to master a +subject with ease, to fill an office with honor; and whatever he does, +the mark of completeness and finish will be found upon his work. He +sees more clearly, judges more calmly, reasons more pertinently, speaks +more seasonably than other men. The free and full possession of his +faculties gives him power to turn himself to whatever may be demanded +of him, whether it be to govern wisely, or to counsel judiciously, or +to write gracefully, or to plead eloquently. Whatever course in life +he may take, whatever line of thought or investigation he may pursue, +his intellectual culture will give him superiority over men who, with +equal or greater talents, lack his education; and he possesses withal +resources within himself, which in a measure make him independent of +fortune, and which, when failure comes and the world abandons him, +remain, like faith, or hope, or a friend, to make him forget his +misfortunes. +</P> + +<P> +Of the English universities, with all their shortcomings, Cardinal +Newman says: "At least they can boast of a succession of heroes and +statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for +great natural virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, +for practical judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who +have made England what it is,—able to subdue the earth, able to +domineer over Catholics." It is only in a university that all the +sciences are brought together, their relations adjusted, their +provinces assigned. There natural science is limited by metaphysics; +morality is studied in the light of history; language and literature +are viewed from the standpoint of ethnology; the criticism which seeks +beauty and not deformity, which in the gardens of the mind takes the +honey and leaves the poison, is applied to the study of eloquence and +poetry; and over all religion throws the warmth and life of faith and +hope, like a ray from heaven. The mind thus lives in an atmosphere in +which the comparison of ideas and truths with one an other is +inevitable; and so it grows, is strengthened, enlarged, refined, made +pliant, candid, open, equitable. +</P> + +<P> +When numbers of priests will be able to bring this cultivation of +intellect to the treatment of religious subjects, then will Catholic +theology again come forth from its isolation in the modern world; then +will Catholic truth again irradiate and perfume the thoughts and +opinions of men; then will Catholic doctrines again sink into their +hearts, and not remain loose in the mind to be thrown aside, as one +casts away the outworn vesture of the body; then will it be felt that +the fascination of Christian faith is still fresh, supreme, as far +above the charm of science as the joy of a poet's soul is above the +pleasures of sense. The religious view of life must forever remain the +true view, since no other explains our longings and aspirations, or +justifies hope and enthusiasm; and the worship of God in spirit and in +truth, which Christ has revealed to the world, the religion not of an +age or a people, but of all time and of the human race, must eternally +prevail when brought home to us in a language which we understand; for +we place the testimony of reason above that of the senses. To the eye +the sun rises and sets, to the mind it is stationary; and we accept, +not what is seen, but what is known. Is there need of stronger +evidence that the power within, which is our real self, is spiritual? +And is it not enough to see clearly, to perceive that in the struggle +of mind with matter, which is the essential form of the conflict of +spiritualism with materialism, of religion with science, the soul, in +the end, will be victorious, and rest in the real world of faith and +intuition, and not in the pictured world of the senses? +</P> + +<P> +Religion, indeed, like morality, is in the nature of things, and +Catholic faith is Una's Red Cross Knight, on whose shield are old dints +of deep wounds and cruel marks of many a bloody field, who is assailed +by all the powers of earth and of the nether world, armed with whatever +weapons may hurt the mind or corrupt the heart, but whom heavenly +Providence rescues from the jaws of monsters and leads on to victory. +</P> + +<P> +But what true believer thinks himself excused from effort, because +Christ has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against +His Church? Does he not know that though, when we consider her whole +course through the world, she has triumphed, so as to have become the +miracle of history, yet has she at many points suffered disastrous +defeat? Hence, those who love her must be vigilant, and stand prepared +for battle. And in an age when persecution has either died away or +lost its harshness, when crying abuses have disappeared, when heresy +has run its course, and the struggle of the world with the Church has +become almost wholly intellectual, it is not possible, assuredly, that +her ministers should have too great power of intellect. And +consequently it is not possible that the bishops, in whose hands the +education of priests is placed, should have too great a care that they +receive the best mental culture. And if this is a general truth, with +what pertinency does it not come home to us here in America, who are +the descendants of men who, on account of their faith, have for +centuries been oppressed and thrust back from opportunities of +education, and who, when persecution and robbery had reduced them to +ignorance and poverty, were forced to hear their religion reproached +with the crimes of her foes? And now, when at length a fairer day has +dawned for us in this new world, what can be more natural than our +eager desire to move out from the valleys of darkness towards the hills +and mountain tops that are bathed in sunlight? What more praiseworthy +than the fixed resolve to prove that not our faith, but our misfortunes +made and kept us inferior. And, since we live in the midst of millions +who have indeed good will towards us, but who still bear the yoke of +inherited prejudices, and who, because for three hundred years real +cultivation of mind was denied to Catholics who spoke English, conclude +that Protestantism is the source of enlightenment, and the Church the +mother of ignorance, do not all generous impulses urge us to make this +reproach henceforth meaningless? And in what way shall we best +accomplish this task? Surely not by writing or speaking about what the +influence of the Church is, or by pointing to what she has done in +other ages, but by becoming what we claim her spirit tends to make us. +Here, if anywhere, the proverb is applicable—<I>verba movent, exempla +trahunt</I>. As the devotion of American Catholics to this country and +its free institutions, as shown not on battle-fields alone, but in our +whole bearing and conduct, convinces all but the unreasonable of the +depth and sincerity of our patriotism, so when our zeal for +intellectual excellence shall have raised up men who will take place +among the first writers and thinkers of their day their very presence +will become the most persuasive of arguments to teach the world that no +best gift is at war with the spirit of Catholic faith, and that, while +the humblest mind may feel its force, the lofty genius of Augustine, of +Dante, and of Bossuet is upborne and strengthened by the splendor of +its truth. But if we are to be intellectually the equals of others, we +must have with them equal advantages of education; and so long as we +look rather to the multiplying of schools and seminaries than to the +creation of a real university, our progress will be slow and uncertain, +because a university is the great ordinary means to the best +cultivation of mind. The fact that the growth of the Church here, like +that of the country itself, is chiefly external, a growth in wealth and +in numbers, makes it the more necessary that we bring the most +strenuous efforts to improve the gifts of the soul. The whole tendency +of our social life insures the increase of churches, convents, schools, +hospitals, and asylums; our advance in population and in wealth will be +counted from decade to decade by millions, and our worship will +approach more and more to the pomp and splendor of the full ritual; but +this very growth makes such demands upon our energies, that we are in +danger of forgetting higher things, or at least of thinking them less +urgent. Few men are at once thoughtful and active. The man of deeds +dwells in the world around him; the thinker lives within his mind. +Contemplation, in widening the view, makes us feel that what even the +strongest can do is lost in the limitless expanse of space and time; +and the soul is tempted to fall back upon itself and to gaze passively +upon the course of the world, as though the general stream of human +events were as little subject to man's control as the procession of the +seasons. Busy workers, on the other hand, having little taste or time +for reflection, see but the present and what lies close to them, and +the energy of their doing circumscribes their thinking. +</P> + +<P> +But the Church needs both the men who act and the men who think; and +since with us everything pushes to action, wisdom demands that we +cultivate rather the powers of reflection. And this is the duty alike +of true patriots and of faithful Catholics. All are working to develop +our boundless material resources; let a few at least labor to develop +man. The millions are building cities, reclaiming wildernesses, and +bringing forth from the earth its buried treasures; let at least a +remnant cherish the ideal, cultivate the beautiful, and seek to inspire +the love of moral and intellectual excellence. And since we believe +that the Church which points to heaven is able also to lead the nations +in the way of civilization and of progress, why should we not desire to +see her become a beneficent and ennobling influence in the public life +of our country? She can have no higher temporal mission than to be the +friend of this great republic, which is God's best earthly gift to His +children. If, as English critics complain, our style is inflated, it +is because we feel the promise of a destiny which transcends our powers +of expression. Whatever fault men may find with us, let them not doubt +the world-wide significance of our life. If we keep ourselves strong +and pure, all the peoples of the earth shall yet be free; if we fulfil +our providential mission, national hatred shall give place to the +spirit of generous rivalry, the people shall become wiser and stronger, +society shall grow more merciful and just, and the cry of distress +shall be felt, like the throb of a brother's heart, to the ends of the +world. Where is the man who does not feel a kind of religious +gratitude as he looks upon the rise and progress of this nation? Above +all, where is the Catholic whose heart is not enlarged by such +contemplation? Here, almost for the first time in her history, the +Church is really free. Her worldly position does not overshadow her +spiritual office, and the State recognizes her autonomy. The monuments +of her past glory, wrenched from her control, stand not here to point, +like mocking fingers, to what she has lost. She renews her youth, and +lifts her brow, as one who, not unmindful of the solemn mighty past, +yet looks with undimmed eye and unfaltering heart to a still more +glorious future. Who in such a presence, can abate hope, or give heed +to despondent counsel, or send regretful thoughts to other days and +lands? Whoever at any time, in any place, might have been sage, saint, +or hero, may be so here and now; and though he had the heart of +Francis, and the mind of Augustine, and the courage of Hildebrand, here +is work for him to do. +</P> + +<P> +In whatsoever direction we turn our thoughts, arguments rush in to show +the pressing need for us of a centre of life and light such as a +Catholic university would be. Without this we can have no hope of +entering as a determining force into the living controversies of the +age; without this it must be an accident if we are represented at all +in the literature of our country; without this we shall lack a point of +union to gather up, harmonize, and intensify our scattered forces; +without this our bishops must remain separated, and continue to work in +random ways; without this the noblest souls will look in vain for +something larger and broader than a local charity to make appeal to +their generous hearts; without this we shall be able to offer but +feeble resistance to the false theories and systems of education which +deny to the Church a place in the school; without this the sons of +wealthy Catholics will, in ever increasing numbers, be sent to +institutions where their faith is undermined; without this we shall +vainly hope for such treatment of religious questions and their +relations to the issues and needs of the day, as shall arrest public +attention and induce Catholics themselves to take at least some little +notice of the writings of Catholics; without this in struggles for +reform and contests for rights we shall lack the wisdom of best counsel +and the courage which skilful leaders inspire. We are a small minority +in the presence of a vast majority; we still bear the disfigurements +and weaknesses of centuries of persecution and suffering; we cling to +an ancient faith in an age when new sciences, discoveries, and theories +fascinate the minds of men, and turn their thoughts away from the past +to the future; we preach a spiritual religion to a people whose +prodigious wealth and rapid triumphs over nature have caused them to +exaggerate the value of material progress; we teach the duty of +self-denial to a refined and intellectual generation, who regard +whatever is painful as evil, whatever is difficult as omissible; we +insist upon religious obedience to the Church in face of a society +where children are ceasing to reverence and obey even their +parents;—if in spite of all this we are to hold our own, not to speak +of larger hopes, it is plain that we may neglect nothing which will +help us to put forth our full strength. +</P> + +<P> +I do not, of course, pretend that this higher education is all that we +need, or that, of itself, it is sufficient; but what I claim is that it +would be a source of strength for us who are in want of help. God +works in many ways, through many agencies, and I bow in homage to the +humblest effort in a righteous cause of the lowliest human being. +There are diversities of graces, but the same spirit; diversities of +ministries, but the same Lord. <I>Numquid omnes doctores?</I> asks St. +Paul. But since he places teachers by the side of apostles and +prophets, surely they will teach to best purpose who to the humility of +faith add the luminousness of knowledge. To those who reject the idea +of human co-operation in things divine I speak not; but we who believe +that we are co-operators with Christ cannot think that it is possible +to bring to this godlike work either too great preparation of heart or +too great cultivation of mind. Nor must we think lightly even of +refinement of thought and speech and behavior, for we know that manners +come of morals, and that morals in turn are born of manners, as the +ocean breathes forth the clouds and the clouds fill the ocean. +</P> + +<P> +Let there be then an American Catholic university, where our young men, +in the atmosphere of faith and purity, of high thinking and plain +living, shall become more intimately conscious of the truth of their +religion and of the genius of their country; where they shall learn the +repose and dignity which belong to their ancient Catholic descent, and +yet not lose the fire which glows in the blood of a new people; to +which from every part of the land our eyes may turn for guidance and +encouragement, seeking light and self-confidence from men in whom +intellectual power is not separate from moral purpose, who look to God +and His universe from bending knees of prayer, who uphold— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"The cause of Christ and civil liberty<BR> +As one, and moving to one glorious end."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Should such an intellectual centre serve no other purpose than to bring +together a number of eager-hearted, truth-loving youths, what light and +heat would not leap forth from the shock of mind with mind; what +generous rivalries would not spring up; what intellectual sympathies, +resting on the breast of faith, would not become manifest, grouping +souls like atoms, to form the substance and beauty of a world? +</P> + +<P> +O solemn groves that lie close to Louvain and to Freiburg, whose air is +balm and whose murmuring winds sound like the voices of saints and +sages whispering down the galleries of time, what words have ye not +heard bursting forth from the strong hearts of keen-witted youths, who, +Titan-like, believed they might storm the citadel of God's truth! How +many a one, heavy and despondent, in the narrow, lonesome path of duty, +has remembered you, and moved again in unseen worlds, upheld by faith +and hope! Who has listened to the words of your teachers and not felt +the truth of the saying of Pope Pius II.,—that the world holds nothing +more precious or more beautiful than a cultivated intellect? The +presence of such men invigorates like mountain air, and their speech is +as refreshing as clear-flowing fountains. To know them is to be +forever their debtor. The company of a saint is the school of saints; +a strong character develops strength in others, and a noble mind makes +all around him luminous. +</P> + +<P> +Why may not eight million Catholics upbuild a home for great teachers, +for men who, to real learning and cultivation of mind, shall add the +persuasiveness of easy and eloquent diction; whose manifest and +indisputable superiority shall put to shame the self-conceit of +American young men, our most familiar intellectual bane, and an +insuperable obstacle to all improvement,—self-conceit, which is the +beatitude of vulgar characters and shallow minds? If our students +should find in such an institution but one man, who, like Socrates, +with ironic questioning might make for them the discovery of the new +world of their own ignorance, the gain would be great enough. +</P> + +<P> +Why may we not have a centre of light and truth which will raise up +before us standards of intellectual excellence; which will enable us to +see that our so-called educated men are as far from being scholars as +the makers of our horrible show-bills are from being artists; which +will teach us that it is not only false but vulgar to call things by +pretentious names,—as, for instance, to call a politician a statesman, +a declaimer an orator, or a Latin school a university. +</P> + +<P> +Ah! surely as to whether an American Catholic university is desirable +there cannot be two opinions among enlightened men. But is it +feasible? A true university is one of the noblest foundations of the +great Catholic ages, when faith rose almost to the height of creative +power, and it were folly in me to maintain that such an undertaking is +not surrounded by many and great difficulties. To begin with the +material for foundation, money is necessary, and this, I am persuaded, +we may have. A noble cause will find or make generous hearts. Men +above all we need, for every kind of existence propagates itself only +by itself. But let us bear in mind that the best teacher is not +necessarily or often he who knows the most, but he who has most power +to determine the student to self-activity; for in the end the mind +educates itself. As distrust is the mark of a narrow intellect or a +bad heart, so a readiness to believe in the ability of others is not +only a characteristic of able men, but it is also the secret charm +which calls around them helpers and followers. Hence, a strong man who +loves his work is a better educator than a half-hearted professor who +carries whole libraries in his head. +</P> + +<P> +To bring together in familiar and daily life a number of young men, +chosen for the brightness of their minds and an eager yearning for +knowledge, is to create an atmosphere of intellectual warmth and light, +which invigorates and inspires the master, while it stimulates his +disciples. In such company it will not be difficult to form teachers. +But will it be possible to find young men who will consent, when after +years of study they have finally reached the priesthood, to continue in +a higher institution the arduous and confining labors to the end of +which they have looked as to the beginning of a new life? In other +lands such students are found, and if with us there is a tendency to +rush with precipitancy and insufficient preparation to whatever work we +may have chosen, this is but a proof of the need of special efforts to +restrain an ardor which springs from weakness and not from strength. +Haste is a mark of immaturity. He who is certain of himself and master +of his tools, knows that he is able, and neither hurries nor worries, +but works and waits. The rank weed shoots up in a day and as quickly +dies; but the long-growing olive-tree stands from century to century, +and drops from its gently waving boughs ripe fruit through the quiet +autumn air. The Church endures forever; and we American Catholics, in +the midst of our rapidly-moving and ever-changing society, should be +the first to learn to temper energy with the patient strength which +gives the courage to toil and wait through a long life, if so we make +ourselves worthy to speak some fit word or do some needful deed. And +to whom shall this lesson first be taught if not to the clerics, whose +natural endowments single them out as future leaders of Catholic +thought and enterprise; and where can this lesson so well be learned as +in a school whose standard of intellectual excellence shall be the +highest? +</P> + +<P> +While we look, therefore, to the founding of a true university, we will +begin, as the university of Paris began in the twelfth century, and as +the present university of Louvain began fifty years ago, with a +national school of philosophy and theology, which will form the central +faculty of a complete educational organism. Around this, the other +faculties will take their places, in due course of time; and so the +beginning which we make will grow, until like the seed planted in the +earth, it shall wear the bloomy crown of its own development. +</P> + +<P> +And though the event be less than our hope, though even failure be the +outcome, is it not better to fail than not to attempt a worthy work +which might be ours? Only they who do nothing derive comfort from the +mistakes of others; and the saying that a blunder is worse than a crime +is doubtless true for those who have no other measure of worth and +success than the conventional standards of a superficial public +opinion. We at least know— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 2em">"There lives a Judge</SPAN><BR> +To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim<BR> +Faithfully kept is as a noble deed;<BR> +In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed."<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Means and Ends of Education, by J. L. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Means and Ends of Education + +Author: J. L. Spalding + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34257] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +MEANS AND ENDS + +OF EDUCATION + + + +BY + +J. L. SPALDING + +Bishop of Peoria + + + + + WHO BRINGETH MANY THINGS, + FOR EACH ONE SOMETHING BRINGS + + + + +CHICAGO + +A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY + +1895 + + + + +COPYRIGHT + +BY A. C. MCCLURG L Co. + +A.D. 1895 + + + + + +By Bishop Spalding + + EDUCATION AND THE HIGHER LIFE. 12mo. $1.00. + THINGS OF THE MIND. 12mo. $1.00. + MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. 12mo. $1.00. + + +A. C. McCLURG AND CO. + CHICAGO. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER + + I. TRUTH AND LOVE + II. TRUTH AND LOVE + III. THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF + IV. WOMAN AND EDUCATION + V. THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION + VI. THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION + VII. THE HIGHER EDUCATION + + + + +MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +TRUTH AND LOVE. + +None of us yet know, for none of us have yet been taught in early +youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought--proof +against all adversity;--bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble +histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful +thoughts; which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty +take away from us--houses built without hands for our souls to live +in.--RUSKIN. + +Stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy +patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages.--MILTON. + + +A great man's house is filled chiefly with menials and creatures of +ceremony; and great libraries contain, for the most part, books as dry +and lifeless as the dust that gathers on them: but from amidst these +dead leaves an immortal mind here and there looks forth with light and +love. + +From the point of view of the bank president, Emerson tells us, books +are merely so much rubbish. But in his eyes the flowers also, the +flowing water, the fresh air, the floating clouds, children's voices, +the thrill of love, the fancy's play, the mountains, and the stars are +worthless. + +Not one in a hundred who buy Shakspere, or Milton, or a work of any +other great mind, feels a genuine longing to get at the secret of its +power and truth; but to those alone who feel this longing is the secret +revealed. We must love the man of genius, if we would have him speak +to us. We learn to know ourselves, not by studying the behavior of +matter, but through experience of life and intimate acquaintance with +literature. Our spiritual as well as our physical being springs from +that of our ancestors. Freedom, however, gives the soul the power not +only to develop what it inherits, but to grow into conscious communion +with the thought and love, the hope and faith of the noble dead, and, +in thus enlarging itself, to become the inspiration and source of +richer and wider life for those who follow. As parents are consoled by +the thought of surviving in their descendants, great minds are upheld +and strengthened in their ceaseless labors by the hope of entering as +an added impulse to better things, from generation to generation, into +the lives of thousands. The greatest misfortune which can befall +genius is to be sold to the advocacy of what is not truth and love and +goodness and beauty. The proper translation of _timeo hominem unius +libri_ is not, "I fear a man of one book," but "I dread a man of one +book:" for he is sure to be narrow, one-sided, and unreasonable. The +right phrase enters at once into our spiritual world, and its power +becomes as real as that of material objects. The truth to which it +gives body is borne in upon us as a star or a mountain is borne in upon +us. Kings and rich men live in history when genius happens to throw +the light of abiding worlds upon their ephemeral estate. Carthage is +the typical city of merchants and traders. Why is it remembered? +Because Hannibal was a warrior and Virgil a poet. + +The strong man is he who knows how and is able to become and be +himself; the magnanimous man is he who, being strong, knows how and is +able to issue forth from himself, as from a fortress, to guide, +protect, encourage, and save others. Life's current flows pure and +unimpeded within him, and on its wave his thought and love are borne to +bless his fellowmen. If he who gives a cup of water in the right +spirit does God's work, so does he who sows or reaps, or builds or +sweeps, or utters helpful truth or plays with children or cheers the +lonely, or does any other fair or useful thing. Take not seriously one +who treats with derision men or books that have been deemed worthy of +attention by the best minds. He is false or foolish. As we cherish a +human being for the courage and love he inspires, so books are dear to +us for the noble thoughts and generous moods they call into being. To +drink the spirit of a great author is worth more than a knowledge of +his teaching. + +He who desires to grow wise should bring his reason to bear habitually +upon what he sees and hears not less than upon what he reads; for thus +he soon comes to understand that whatever he thinks or feels, says or +does, whatever happens within the sphere of his conscious life, may be +made the means of self-improvement. "He is not born for glory," says +Vauvenargues, "who knows not the worth of time." The educational value +of books lies in their power to set the intellectual atmosphere in +vibration, thereby rousing the mind to self-activity; and those which +have not this power lack vitality. + +If in a whole volume we find one passage in which truth is expressed in +a noble and striking manner, we have not read in vain. To read with +profit, we should read as a serious student reads, with the mind all +alive and held to the subject; for reading is thinking, and it is +valuable in proportion to the stimulus it gives to the exercise of +faculty. The conversation of high and ingenuous minds is doubtless as +instructive as it is delightful, but it is seldom in our power to call +around us those with whom we should wish to hold discourse; and hence +we go back to the emancipated spirits, who having transcended the +bounds of time and space, are wherever they are desired and are always +ready to entertain whoever seeks their company. Genius neither can nor +will discover its secret. Why his thought has such a mould and such a +tinge he no more knows than why the flowers have such a tint and such a +perfume; and if he knew he would not care to tell. Nothing is wholly +manifest. In the most trivial object, as in the simplest word, there +lies a world of meaning which does not reveal itself to a passing +glance. If therefore thou wouldst come to right understanding, +consider all things with an awakened and interested curiosity. + +When the mind at last finds itself rightly at home in its world, it is +as delighted as children making escape from restraining walls, as full +of spirit as colts newly turned upon the greensward. + +In the realm of truth each one is king, and what he knows is as much +his own as though he were its first discoverer. However firmly thou +holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw +down thy arms at once. A book has the power almost of a human being to +inspire admiration or disgust, love or hatred. To be useful is a noble +thing, to be necessary is not desirable. The youth has not enough +ambition unless he has too much. It is difficult to give lessons in +the art of pleasing without teaching that of lying. The discouraged +are already vanquished. In judging the deed let not the character of +the doer influence thy opinion, for good is good, evil evil, by +whomsoever done. When the author is rightly inspired his words need +not interpretation. They are as natural and as beautiful as the faces +of children or as new-blown flowers, and their meaning is plain. The +spirit and love of dogmatism is characteristic of the imperfectly +educated. As there is a communion of saints, there is a communion of +noble minds, living and dead. To speak of love which is not felt, of +piety which is not a living sentiment within us, is to weaken both in +ourselves and in those who hear us the power of faith and affection. +The best that has been known and experienced by minds and hearts lies +asleep in books, ready to awaken for whoever holds the magician's wand. +Books which at their first appearance create a breeze of excitement, +are forgotten when the wind falls. + +A human soul rightly uttering itself, in whatever age or country, +ceases to belong to any age or country, and becomes part of the +universal life of man. A sprightly wit may serve only to lead us +astray, and to enmesh us more hopelessly in error. Deeper knowledge is +the remedy for the foolishness of sciolism: like cures like. In the +books in which men worth knowing have put some of the vital quality +which makes them worth knowing, there is perennial inspiration. They +are the form and substance of an immortal spirit which, in creating +them, became itself. "I have not made my book," says Montaigne, "more +than my book has made me." + +Were one to ask an acquaintance who knows men to point out the +individuals whom he should make his friends, his request would probably +receive an unsatisfactory reply: for how, except by trial, is it +possible to say who will suit whom? Those whose friendship would be +valuable might, for whatever cause, be disagreeable to him, as the +greatest and noblest may be unpleasant companions. Many a one whom we +admire as he stands forth in history, whose words and deeds thrill and +uplift us, we should detest had we known him in life; and others to +whom we might have been drawn would have cared nothing for us. Between +men and books there is doubtless a wide difference, though a good book +contains the best of the life of some true man. But when we are asked +to point out the books one should learn to love, we are confronted with +much the same difficulty as had we been asked to name the persons whom +he should make his friends. A book can have worth for us only when we +have learned to love it; and since a real book, like a real man, has +its proper character, it is not easy to determine whom it will please +or displease. Once it has taken a safe place in literature, it will, +of course, be praised by everybody; but this, like the praise of men, +is often meaningless. All who read know something about the great +books, but their knowledge, unless it leads them to intimate +acquaintance with some one or several of these books, has little worth. +Books are, indeed, a world which each one must discover for himself. +Another may tell us about them, but the truth and beauty there is in +them for each one, each one must find. The value of a book, like that +of a man, lies not in its freedom from fault, but in its qualities, in +the good it contains. Words which inspire the love of spiritual beauty +and noble action cannot be false: the consent of the wise places them +in the canon. The imperishable goods are truth, freedom, love, and +beauty. Valuable alone is that which enriches and ennobles life. +There are natures for whom the lack of knowledge is as painful as the +lack of food. They are ahungered and athirst for it, and their +suffering impels them to ceaseless meditation and study, as the only +means of relief. + +The self-educator's first and simplest aim should be to learn to know +and do well whatever he knows and does; and to this end let him often +observe and consider how rare are they who know anything thoroughly or +do well any of the hundred things which are part of daily life: who +talk well, or write well, or behave well. Herbert Spencer affirms that +it is better to learn the meanings of things than the meanings of +words; but he loses sight of the fact that the meanings of things +become plain only when things are clothed in words, which, in truth, +are things, being nothing else than the very form and body of nature as +it reveals itself within the mind of man. The world is chiefly a +mental fact. From mind it receives the forms of time and space, the +principle of causality, color, warmth, and beauty. Were there no mind, +there would be no world. The end of man is the pursuit of perfection, +through communion with God, his fellows, and nature, by means of +knowledge and conduct, of faith, hope, admiration, and love. It is +easy to praise work overmuch. Like money, it is a means, not an end, +and it is good or evil as it is made to help or harm the worker, for +man is an end, not a means. The work which millions are still forced +to do is a curse,--the trail of the serpent is over it all, and no +people has the right to call itself civilized, while work which +dehumanizes is not merely permitted, but encouraged. + +Let us not teach the young to believe they are born into a world of +delights and pleasures, but let us strive to enable them to realize +that, upon this earth, only the wise and good and strong can make +themselves really at home; that for the wicked and the weak its very +delights and pleasures turn to sorrow and suffering. We pity the +hard-driven beast of burden. How then is it possible to look with +complacency on a world in which multitudes of human beings are +condemned to the work of the ox and the ass? For the healthy man, +wealth and happiness would seem to be identical, if his desires are +confined to the things of which money is the equivalent. But this is a +delusion, for the plenary possession of these things has never +satisfied a human being. Man needs virtue, knowledge, love, and to +take the obvious view, he needs the power to enjoy the things money +buys; and of this money deprives him. + +When we consider the many unworthy means men take to gain wealth and +office, we are forced to believe that to reach their ends they are +ready to profess to hold opinions and beliefs about which they care +nothing or which they really do not accept at all. By this following +of time-servers and place-hunters every noble cause is weakened and the +purest faith is corrupted. + +To labor for those we love, to sit in the hours of rest, with wife and +children about us, smiling in the blaze of the fire we have lighted, +sheltered by the roof we have built, secure in the sense of protection +our presence inspires, is to feel that life is good. But is it not a +higher thing to turn away, in disrespect of all this peace and comfort, +and to strive alone, by thought and deed, to find the way which leads +to God and to be a pioneer therein for those who wander helpless and +astray? The more we dwell with truth and love, the more conscious we +become that they are the best, and are everlasting; and thus our +immortality is revealed to us. Visibly we float on the boundless +stream and disappear; but inasmuch as we are truth-loving and +love-cherishing, we dwell in an abiding city, and may behold our bodies +carried forth by the flood, as a man sees his house swept away, while +he himself remains. Our thoughtlessness and indifference, our +indolence and frivolousness, blind us to the infinite worth and +significance of life; and they who call themselves religious often take +it as lightly as worldlings and unbelievers. + +In the Universe there is nothing which exists separate and apart from +other things. The satellites hold to the planets, the planets to the +suns, the suns to one another, all in obedience to the same laws which +bind the body to earth, and cause the water to flow and the vapor to +rise. For the senses there is separateness, but for the mind there is +union and unity. Communion is the law of souls as of bodies. Both are +immersed in a boundless world, from which if they could be drawn forth +they would cease to be. The principle of this infinite harmony is +love, is God. + +The right human bond is that which unites soul with soul; and only they +are truly akin who consciously live in the same world, who think, +believe, and love alike, who hope for the same things, aspire to the +same ends. + +Our mental view never reaches the ultimate nature of being, and hence +our knowledge, whether of material or of spiritual things, is +incomplete. Faith is the effort to supply the defect which inheres in +all our knowing. Knowledge springs from faith, faith from knowledge, +as rivers from clouds, clouds from rivers. The more we know, the more +we believe; and our growing consciousness does not make us content to +rest in a mechanical view of nature, but it brings home to us with +increasing power the awfulness of the infinite mystery, which we more +and more clearly perceive to be a spiritual rather than a material +fact. If at present there is a certain failure of will and consequent +discouragement in the pursuit of moral and intellectual perfection, +this is a result of our passing bewilderment in the presence of the +revelations of science and of the mighty forces it places in the hands +of man, and not of any new knowledge which tends to inspire misgivings +concerning the being of God and our kinship with Him:--- + + From nature up to law, from law to love: + This is the ascendant path in which we move, + Impelled by God in ways that lighten still, + Till all things meet in one eternal thrill. + + +As the Universe revealed by the Copernican astronomy and the other +natural sciences is infinitely more sublime and marvellous than such a +world as the Israelites, the Greeks, or the Romans imagined, so they +who see rightly in the luminous ether of modern intelligence understand +better than the ancients that human life is not an ephemeral and +superficial, but an immortal and central power, enrooted in God, and +drawing its substance and sustenance from Him. + +The appeal to shame is a poor argument. The fact that men of great +intellectual power and learning have held an opinion to be true does +not make it so. New knowledge may have shown it to be false, or the +general advance of the race may have changed the point of view. The +presumption of the larger wisdom of the Ancients we cannot accept: for +we, not they, are the true ancients. The purest and the holiest prayer +men speak is this: "Thy will be done." They who utter it from the +inmost soul, find peace, even as a fretful child sinks to rest upon the +mother's bosom. In learning to love the will of God they come at last +not merely to believe, but to feel that His will guides the Universe, +and that all will be well. When an utterance comes forth from the +depths of our spiritual being, men cannot but hearken. It is as though +we should bring to exiles tidings of a long-lost home and country. + +To what a weight he stoops who addresses himself with fixed resolve to +the life of thought! The burden indeed is heavy, but the pathway lies +through pleasant fields where great souls move to and fro in freedom +and at peace. And as he grows accustomed to his labor, the world +widens, the heavens break open, the dead live again, and with them he +rises into the high regions where the petty cares and passions of +mortals do not reach. + +He who would educate himself must make use of his own powers. He must +observe, think, examine, read, argue, ponder; he must learn when to +hold judgment in suspense, and when to give the wings of the soul free +sweep through the high and serene realms of truth and beauty. The +farther we dwell from the crowd, with its current opinion, the better +and truer shall we and our thoughts become. They who write for +multitudinous readers rise with difficulty above the dignity of +mountebanks. + +There is a radical defect in the character of whoever works in the +spirit of a trifler, however blameless his conduct. The power to +inspire faith in the seriousness and goodness of life is a sufficient +test of the worth of a scheme of education. + +No one should fill an office which he is unable to hold without +hindrance to the play of mind and heart that makes him a man. The +dignities we possess at the cost of knowledge and virtue are like +jewels for the sake of which one goes hungry and naked; mere glittering +baubles for which we barter the soul's prosperity. + +Experience is personal, and it is largely incommunicable; but +genius--and in this lies its power and charm--renders it communicable. +What the poet or the painter has felt and seen, he makes all men feel +and see. The difference between man and man, between the child and the +youth, the youth and the adult, is chiefly a difference in feeling, in +the manner in which they are impressed; and it is our nature to be +drawn in admiration or reverence to those who by their words or deeds +give us deeper impressions of the worth of life, and thus open for us +new sources of feeling. + +Fair thoughts rise in the heart and mind of genius, like the fragrant +breath which the dewy flowers exhale in the face of the rising sun, and +they utter themselves as simply as matin songs warbled by +sweet-throated birds. + +Faith in the infinite nature and worth of truth, goodness, and love, is +the dawn which shall merge into the fulness of day, when, in other +worlds, God looks upon the soul, reborn from out this seemingness. + +Our position, our reputation, our wealth, our comforts, are but a +vesture like the body itself. They shall fall away, and we shall +remain with God. There is no liberty but obedience to the impulse of +the higher nature which urges us to think nobly, to act rightly, and to +love constantly. The dominion of appetite is slavery; the dominion of +reason and conscience is freedom. + +Renan somewhere says he could wish for nothing better than that a +little volume of selections from his writings might commend itself to +young women, whose fair faces should bend over it, and find there a +reflection of their own pure souls. But where there is no God, the +soul is not mirrored, and we never really love an author who weakens +faith and hope. + +With whatever success we advance towards the wide and serene life of +the pure reason, let us still cling to faith, hope, and love, the +primal powers which keep watch at our birth, and which bend over our +cradles, and which alone lift us into the world of enduring peace and +hold us within the sheltering arms of God. In the enlightened mind, +faith is a higher virtue than it can be for the ignorant, and to +sustain it there is need of a nobler life. + +He whom neither learning nor power nor wealth can corrupt must have +virtue; for learning breeds conceit, and power begets pride, and wealth +debases both the mind and heart. + +The intellect does not recognize that conscience may forbid its +exercise, since knowledge cannot be evil. If earth were a hell and +life a curse and the Universe but a cinder, it would still be good to +know the fact. The saddest truth is better than the merriest lie. + +To know a thing is to be conscious of its relation to the mind. We +know it, not in itself, but in and through this relation. Our +knowledge of God, who is the absolute, is not absolute knowledge, but a +knowledge of Him in so far as He is related to the mind of man. Since, +however, mind is reason and not unreason, there is harmony between it +and things, between it and God; and hence to be conscious of its +relation to God and the universe is to be conscious of a real relation, +in which both the thinker and his thought are in truth what they seem +to be. The ultimate reality is inferred, not directly perceived. It +reveals itself to the purest faith and love, and may be hidden from one +who knows all the sciences. + +As man's relations to his fellows make him a social and political +being, so his relations to the unseen power behind and within the +visible world, of whose presence he is always, however dimly, +conscious, and to whom he refers whatever touches the senses, as well +as the principle of life itself, make him a religious being. + +In identifying what seem to be our particular interests with the +interests of all, we make escape from narrowness and isolation into the +general life of humanity; and when we come to understand that not only +mankind but all nature is a Unity in the Consciousness of the Infinite +and Eternal, bound together by thought and love, we enter into the +glorious liberty of the Sons of God, and feel that nor height nor depth +nor things past nor things to come shall separate us from the divine +charity. We are akin to all that may become part of our life; and +whatever we know or love or admire is spiritualized and made human. To +understand the things of the spirit we must have spiritual experience. +The intuitions of time and space, as well as the principle of +causality, are given in the constitution of the mind. So is the idea +of being, of perfection, of beauty, of eternity, of infinity, of duty. +To think implies being, to perceive things as existing in time and +space implies consciousness of eternity and infinity. To know the +imperfect is possible only in the light of the perfect. Subject is +itself object, the first known and best understood, and the laws of +mind are laws of being. If the constitution of mind makes the +revelation of the material world possible only under the forms of time +and space, intelligible only as sequence of cause and effect, the +reason is to be found in the nature of things. If the constitution of +mind postulates one who knows and shapes, in a world in which whatever +is, is intelligible, in which there is order, proportion, and purpose, +it is because such an One is given in the nature of things, and He is +God. However living our faith, it is faith and not knowledge; and +should it become knowledge, it would cease to be faith. + +There are three kinds of authors,--those who impart knowledge, those +who give delight, and those who strengthen and inspire. + +A noble thought rightly expressed sweeps the higher nerve centres as +the touch of a perfect performer the strings of an instrument; but if +the instrument is poor and irresponsive, the appeal is made in vain. +Life has the power to propagate itself, and if the words thou utterest +are living, they will strike root somewhere and bud and blossom and +bear fruit; but if there is no life in them, be content to have them +fall and lie amid the dust of the dead. God and the universe are what +they are, and the best even genius can do is to throw over them a +revealing light. He who feels that he is always in the presence of God +will strive as religiously to think only what is true as he will strive +to do only what is right. A phrase which leaps forth aglow with life +from the heart and brain of genius, not only lives forever, but retains +forever the power to awaken, when brought into contact with a brain and +heart, the thrill with which it first came into being. + +Only a few know and love the poet, but they are young and fair, and the +music of high thoughts and pure love is rhythmic with the current of +their blood; and if among them there be found some who are old, they +are choice spirits who have risen from out the lapses of time into +regions where what is true and beautiful is so forever. This little +band of chosen ones accompanies him adown the centuries, and listens to +the melody which wells in his heart and breaks into songs that shall +give delight as long as the air of spring is pleasant and the flowers +fragrant and the carollings of birds delightful; and while the poet +strolls on the outskirts of time, thus loved and thus attended, the +stormy and glittering favorites of the crowd drop from sight and are +forgotten, or remembered but as the echo of a name. + +A line from Homer, which sounds like a response from our own heart, is +clothed with the mystery of diviner power, because it makes us feel +that we were alive thousands of years ago amid the Grecian isles, thus +revealing to us the unreality of time and space, and the everlasting +nature of truth and beauty. + +As it is right to admire and love whatever is good wherever it is +found, it needs must be the part of wisdom to seek to know and +appreciate all that is true and high in the works of genius, though +there, like precious stones and metals in the mine, it be mingled with +baser matter. It is but narrowness or intellectual pharisaism to turn +from a great author because in his life and works there may be things +of which we cannot approve. Shall we abandon God because His world is +full of evil, or Christ because there is corruption in the church? St. +Paul appeals to pagan literature, St. Augustine is the disciple of +Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas of Aristotle, and the culture and +civilization of Christendom are largely due to influences which are not +Christian. Whatever is good is from God. There is no surer mark of +the lack of culture than the use of ill-natured and abusive epithets. +To feel the need of injurious words to express one's opinion, merely +shows that one is angry, and anger is vulgar. + +Whatever is inspired by vanity is in bad taste. This is why a showy +style is a false style, why fine writing is poor writing. The author +yields to the spirit of vainglory, whereas he should be wholly bent +upon uttering his thought as he knows it. It is as though he should +call our attention to a costly garb when what we want to see is a man. + +As a plain face is better than a mask, though fine, so one's own style, +though inferior, is better than any which is borrowed. + +True books survive without help or let of critics, by virtue of their +vital quality, which attracts kindred spirits with irresistible power. + +When their worth becomes known, the critics set up a howl of praise, +and many buy; but only a few make them their serious study, and learn +to know and love them. Truth is the mind's food; and, like that of the +body, it is nourishment only when it has been digested and assimilated. +It is, after all, but a little while since man began to think. As yet +he is learning the alphabet. Take heart then, and apply thy mind. As +we grow older the years seem to run to months, the months to weeks, the +weeks to days, the days to hours, the hours to moments, until time, +like an exhalation, appears to dissolve in the inane, and become the +nothing it was and is and will be for eternity. + +If thought were given us, like house and clothing, merely for our +personal comfort, wisdom would lead us to think with and like all the +world. They who are eager for the good opinion of others seem to have +but weak faith in their own worth. + +The art of pleasing would better deserve our study were there more who +are worth pleasing, or were it less difficult to please without loss of +sincerity and without stooping to the service of vulgar interests. Not +how much or how many things thou knowest is of import. An industrious +reader, of retentive memory, will easily know more things than a great +philosopher compared with whom he is but a child. + +Know thyself was the sum of what Socrates taught, and each of the seven +wise men rested his fame upon an apothegm. To expect the multitude to +appreciate the best in life or literature, is to expect them to be what +they have never been and will probably never be. Would you have an ox +admire the sunrise or the pearly dew, when all he feels the need of is +grass? Appeal to the many if you will, but if your appeal is for the +highest, only the few will hearken. + +Consider not what great men or books are worth in themselves, but what +they are worth to thee; for thou art able to judge of their value only +in so far as thou understandest and lovest them. + +If thou canst not bear trouble, sorrow, and disappointment without loss +of composure, thou art poorly equipped for life's struggle. If thou +mayst not lead the life thou wouldst wish, thou canst at least make the +life thou leadest the means to improve thyself. If we were so +constituted that thought, feeling, and imagination might have free and +healthful play in ever-during darkness and isolation, life would still +be good. Could I live surrounded by those I love, I should feel less +keenly the discontent which the consciousness of my higher needs +creates; and besides, it is not easy to rest in the comforts and +luxuries which make and keep us inferior, except in the company of +those we love. If our ordinary power of sight were as great as that we +gain with the help of the microscope, the world would become for us a +place of horrors; and if we could clearly see ourselves as we are, life +would be less endurable. God blurs our vision as a mother hides from +her child its wound. + +Pleasures which quickly end in revulsion of feeling are but momentary +escapes from pain; and they alone are fortunate who are able to +persevere in pursuits which give them pure delight. "All good," says +Kant, "which is not based on the highest moral principle is but empty +appearance and splendid misery." + +Sensations of color, taste, sound, smell, touch, heat and cold, +perceptions of magnitude, and temporal and spatial relations, is the +sum of what we know; and yet we are conscious that reason means +infinitely more than this, that its proper object is the eternal world +of truth, goodness, and beauty. Think for thyself with a single view +to truth; for so only will thy thought be of worth and service to +others. We feel ourselves only in action, and hence the need of doing +lest we lose ourselves and be swallowed in nothingness. And for the +old and feeble even worry, I suppose, is a comfort, for it helps to +keep this self-consciousness alive. It is impossible to say whence a +thought comes, and it is often difficult to determine the occasion by +which it has been suggested. + +Fortunate are the children all of whose knowledge comes from man and +nature in their purity, whose memory holds no words which are not the +symbols of what they themselves have seen and felt, in whose minds no +will-o'-the-wisp from chimera worlds flits to and fro. It is only by +keeping men in ignorance and vice that it is possible to keep them from +the contagion of great thoughts. They who have little are thought to +have no right to anything. Thus the plagiarized sayings of Napoleon +and other nurslings of fame pass for their own; who their real authors +were, seeming to be a matter of indifference. + +If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, +why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I +am? Should I publish what I believe to be true and well expressed, and +competent judges should declare it to be worthless in form and +substance, the verdict would be interesting to me, and I should set to +work to discover why and how I had so far failed in discernment. "A +thoroughly cultivated man," says Fontenelle, "is informed by all the +thinkers of the past, as though he had lived and continued to grow in +knowledge during all the centuries." The author is rewarded when his +readers are made better. + +The most persuasive of men are the praisers of patent medicines. Their +eloquence is more richly rewarded than that of all the orators, who +also are paid, for the most part, in inverse ratio to the amount of +truth they utter. Fame, as fame, is the merest vanity. No wise man +wishes to be talked and written about, living or dead, to be a theme +chiefly for fools. + +Literature is writing in which genuine thought and feeling are rightly +expressed. They who content themselves with what others have uttered, +learn nothing. The blind need a guide, but they who are able to see +should look for themselves. There is, indeed, in the words of genius a +glow which never dies; but it only dazzles and misleads, if it fails to +stimulate and strengthen our own powers of vision. True speech is not +idle; it is utterance of life, the mate of action, and the begetter of +noble deeds. Strive for knowledge and strength, but do not appear to +have them. + +"A book," says La Bruyere, "which exalts the mind and inspires high and +manly thoughts, is good, and the work of a master." A phrase suffices +to tell the man is ignorant or the book worthless. As the body is +nourished by dead things, vegetable and animal, so the mind feeds on +the thoughts of those who have ceased to live, which, it would seem, +are never rightly understood until the thinkers have passed away. + +To be unwilling to be proved wrong is to fail in love of truth; to +resent an objection is to lack culture. One may believe what cannot be +demonstrated, but to grow angry because there is no proof is absurd. + +To do deeds and to utter thoughts which long after we have departed +shall remain to cheer, to illumine, to strengthen and console, is to be +like God; and the desire of noble minds is not of praise, but of +abiding power for good. + +He who is certain of himself needs not the good opinion of men, not of +those even who are competent to judge. Only the vain and foolish or +the designing and dishonest will wish to receive credit for more +ability and virtue than they have. An exaggerated reputation may +nourish conceit or win favor; but the wise and the good put away +conceit, and desire not favors which are granted from mistaken notions. + +"I hate false words," says Landor, "and seek with care, difficulty, and +moroseness those that fit the thing." + +Dwell not with complacency upon aught thou hast or hast achieved, but +address thyself each day, like a simple-hearted child, to the task God +sets thee; and remember when the last hour comes thou canst carry +nothing to Him but faith in His mercy and goodness. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TRUTH AND LOVE. + +Truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of +truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it; the knowledge of +truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is +the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.--BACON. + + +As those who have little think their little much, so those who have few +ideas believe with obstinacy that they are the sum of all truth. If +the world could but be made to see what they see there would be no +ills. They have not even a suspicion of the unutterable complexity of +the warp and woof of nature and of life; and when their opinions are +combated they imagine they thereby acquire new importance, and they +defend them with such zeal that they make proselytes and found sects in +religion, politics, and literature. The source of the greater part of +error is the absoluteness the mind attributes to its knowledge and, as +part of this, the persuasion that at each stage of our mental life, we +are capable of seeing things as they are. The aim of the philosopher, +as of the Christian, is to escape from the ephemeral self by renouncing +what is petty, partial, apparent, and transitory, that the true self +may unfold in the world of the permanent, of things which have an +aptitude for perpetuity; but the philosopher's efforts are intellectual +and moral, while the Christian's source of strength is the love which +is enrooted in divine faith. + +"The brief precept," says St. Augustine, "is given there once for +all,--Love, and do what thou wilt. If thou art silent, be silent for +love; if thou speakest, speak for love; if thou correctest, correct for +love; if thou sparest, spare for love. The root of love is within, and +from it only good can come." Life springs from love, and love is its +being, aim, and end. Each soul is born of souls yearning that he be +born, and he lives only so far as he leaves himself and becomes through +love part of the life of God and the race of man. + +Primordial matter, with which the physicists start, is twin brother of +nothing. In every conceivable hypothesis, we assume either that +nothing is the cause of something, or that from the beginning there was +something or some one who is all the universe may become. If truth and +love and goodness are of the essence of the highest life evolved in +nature, they are of the essence of that by which nature exists and +energizes. If reason is valid at all, it avails as an immovable +foundation for faith in God and in man's kinship with him. The larger +the world we live in, the greater the opportunities for self-education. +He who knows friends and foes, who is commended and found fault with, +who tastes the delights of home and breathes the air of strange lands, +who is followed and opposed, who triumphs and suffers defeat, who +contends with many and is left alone, who dwells with his own thoughts +and in the company of the great minds of all time,--necessarily gains +wisdom and power, and learns to feel himself a man. + +Science springs from man's yearning for truth; art, from his yearning +for beauty; religion, from his yearning for love: and as truth, beauty, +and love are a harmony, so are science, art, and religion; and if +conflicts arise, they are the results of ignorance and passion. The +charm of faith, hope, and love, of knowledge, beauty, and religion, +lies in their power to open life's prison, thus permitting the soul to +escape to commune with the Infinite and Eternal, with the boundless +mysterious world of being which forever draws us on and forever eludes +our grasp. The higher the man, the more urgent this need of +self-escape. + +We look upon lifelong imprisonment of the body as among the greatest of +evils, but that the mind should be suffered to languish in the dungeon +of ignorance, error, and prejudice, seems comparatively a slight thing. +Thy whole business, as a rational being, is to know and follow +truth,--with gratitude and joy if possible, but, in any case, with +courage and resignation. Mind maketh man; and the most money and place +can do, is to make millionnaires and titularies. + +The Alpine guides, who lead travellers through the sublimest scenery in +the world, are as insensible to its grandeur as the stocks they grasp; +and we nearly all are as indifferent as these drudges to Nature's +divine spectacle, with its starlit heavens, its risings and settings of +sun and moon, its storms and calms, its changes of season, its clouds +and snows and breath of many-tinted flowers, its children's faces, and +plumage and songs of birds. + +As we judge of many things by samples, a glance may suffice to show the +worthlessness of a book, but the value of one that is genuine is not +quickly perceived, for it reveals itself the more the oftener it is +read and pondered. There is not a more certain, a purer, or a more +delightful source of contentment and independence than a taste for the +best literature. In the midst of occupations and cares of whatever +kind it enables us to look forward to the hour when the noblest minds +and most generous hearts shall welcome us to their company to be +entertained with great thoughts rightly uttered and with information +concerning whatever is of interest to man. + +In every home the best works of the great poets, historians, +philosophers, orators, and story-writers should lie within reach of the +young, who should be permitted, not urged, to read them. We may know a +man by the company he keeps; we may know him better still by the books +he loves: and if he loves none, he is not worth knowing. + +Matthew Arnold praises culture for "its inexhaustible indulgence, its +consideration of circumstances, its severe judgment of actions joined +to its merciful judgment of persons." + +When we have learned to love work, to love honest work, work well done, +excellently well done, we have within ourselves the most fruitful +principle of education. + +Who shall speak ill of bodily health and vigor? Herbert Spencer +affirms that it is man's first duty to be a good animal. But since we +cannot all be athletes or be well even, let us not refuse to find +consolation in the fact that much of what is greatest, whether in the +world of thought or action, has been wrought by mighty souls in feeble +and suffering bodies; and since men gladly risk health and life to +acquire gold, shall we not be willing, if need be, to be "sicklied o'er +with the pale cast of thought," if so we may attain to truth and love? + +Great things are accomplished only by concentration. What we ourselves +think, love, and do, until it becomes a habit, is the form and +substance of our life. + +To live in the company of those who have or seek culture is to breathe +the vital air of mental health and vigor. + +The scientific investigator gives his whole attention to the facts +before him; but the discipline of close observation, however favorable +it may be to accuracy, weakens capacity for wide and profound views. +On the other hand, the speculative thinker is apt to grow heedless or +oblivious of facts. Hence a minute observer is seldom a great +philosopher, a great philosopher rarely a careful observer. + +"Employment," says Ruskin, "is the half, and the primal half of +education, for it forms the habits of body and mind, and these are the +constitution of man." Tell me at and in what thou workest, and I will +tell thee what thou art. The secret of education lies in the words of +Christ,--He that hath eyes to see, let him see; he that hath ears to +hear, let him hear. The soul must flow through the channels of the +senses until it meets the universe and clothes it with the beauty and +meaning which reveal God. + +When I think of all the truth which still remains for me to learn, of +all the good I yet may do, of all the friends I still may serve, of all +the beauty I may see, life seems as fresh and fair, as full of promise, +as is to loving souls the dawn of their bridal day. Animals, children, +savages, the thoughtless and frivolous, live in the present alone; they +consequently lead a narrow, ephemeral, and superficial existence. They +strike no deep roots into the past, they forebode no divine future, +they enter not behind the veil where the soul finds ever-during truth +and power. + + "The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." + + +Whatever sets the mind in motion may lead us to secret worlds, though +it be a falling apple, as with Newton, or the swing of the pendulum, as +with Galileo, or a boy's kite, as with Franklin, or throwing pebbles +into the water, as with Turner. Watt sat musing by the fire, and +noticed the rise and fall of the lid of the boiling kettle, and the +steam engine, like a vision from unknown spheres, rose before his +imagination. A child, carelessly playing with the glasses that lay on +the table of a spectacle-maker, gave the clew to the invention of the +telescope. The pestle, flying from the hand of Schwarz, told him he +had found the explosive which has transformed the world. Drifting +plants, of a strange species, whispered to Columbus of a continent that +lay across the Atlantic. Patient observation and work are the +mightiest conquerors. + +Among the maxims, called triads, which have come down to us from the +Celtic bards, we find this: "The three primary requisites of +genius,--an eye that can see nature; a heart that can feel nature; and +boldness that dares follow nature." He who has no philosophy and no +religion, no theory of life and the world, has nothing which he finds +it greatly important to say or do. He lacks the impulse of genius, the +educator's energy and enthusiasm. Having no ideal, he has no end to +which he may point and lead. To do well it is necessary to believe in +the worth of what we do. The power which upholds and leads us on is +faith,--faith in God, in ourselves, in life, in education. + +Forever to be blessed and cherished is the love-inspired mother or the +teacher whose generous heart and luminous mind first leads us to +believe in the priceless worth of wisdom and virtue, thus kindling +within the soul a quenchless fire which warms and irradiates our whole +being. + +To be God's workman, to strive, to endure, to labor, even to the end, +for truth and righteousness, this is life. + +"My desire," says Dante, "and my will rolled onward, like a wheel in +even motion, swayed by the love which moves the sun and all the stars." + +If there are any who shrink from wrong more than from disgrace they +best deserve to be called religious. + +Strive not to be original or profound, but to think justly and to +express clearly what thou seest; and so it may happen that thy view +shall pierce deeper than thou knowest. + +The words and deeds which are most certain to escape oblivion are those +which nourish the higher life of the soul. Self-love, the love of +one's real self, of one's soul, is the indispensable virtue. It is +this we seek when we strive to know and love truth and justice; it is +this we seek, when we love God and our fellow-men. In turning from +ourselves to find them, we still seek ourselves; in abandoning life we +seek richer and fuller life. + +Truth separate from love is but half truth. Think of that which unites +thee with thy fellows rather than of what divides thee from them. +Religion is the bond of love, and not a subject for a debating club. +If thou wouldst refute thy adversaries, commit the task to thy life +more than to thy words. Read the history of controversy and ask +thyself whether there is in it the spirit of Christ, the meek and lowly +One? Its champions belong to the schools of the sophists rather than +to the worshippers of God in spirit and in truth. And what has been +the issue of all their disputes but hatreds and sects, persecutions and +wars? If it is my duty to be polite and helpful to my neighbor, it is +plainly also my duty to treat his opinions and beliefs with +consideration and fairness. + +There is a place in South America where the whole population have the +goitre, and if a stranger who is free from the deformity chances to +pass among them, they jeer and cry, "There goes one who has no goitre." +What could be more delightfully human? We think it a holy thing to put +down duelling, the battle of one with one; but we are full of +enthusiasm over battles of a hundred thousand with a hundred thousand. +Thus the Southern slave-owners were sworn advocates of the rights of +man and of popular liberty. + +The explanation of many provoking things is to be found in Dr. +Johnson's words,--"Ignorance, simple ignorance;" but of many more +probably in these other words,--Greed, simple greed. + +"In science," says Bulwer, "read by preference the newest books; in +literature, the oldest." This is wiser than Emerson's saying: "Never +read a book which is not a year old." + +The facility with which it is now possible to get at whatever is known +on any subject has a tendency to create the opinion that reading up in +this or that direction is education, whereas such reading as is +generally done, is unfavorable to discipline of mind. Shall our +Chautauquas and summer schools help to foster this superstition? + +What passion can be more innocent than the passion for knowledge? And +what passion gives better promise of blessings to one's self and to +one's fellow-men? Why desire to have force and numbers on thy side? +Is it not enough that thou hast truth and justice? + +The loss of the good opinion of one's friends is to be regretted, but +the loss of self-respect is the only true beggary. + +Zeal for a party or a sect is more certain of earthly reward than zeal +for truth and religion. + +As it is unfortunate for the young to have abundance of money, fine +clothes, and social success, so popularity is hurtful to the prosperity +of the best gifts. It draws the mind away from the silence and +strength of eternal truth and love into a world of clamor and noise. +Patience is the student's great virtue; it is the mark of the best +quality of mind. It takes an eternity to unfold a universe; man is the +sum of the achievements of innumerable ages, and whatever endures is +slow in acquiring the virtues which make for permanence. + +The will to know, manifesting itself in persistent impulse, in +never-satisfied yearning, is the power which urges to mental effort and +enables us to attain culture. + +"If a thing is good," says Landor, "it may be repeated. The repetition +shows no want of invention; it shows only what is uppermost in the +mind, and by what the writer is most agitated and inflamed." What hast +thou learned to admire, to long for, to love, genuinely to hope for and +believe? The answer tells thy worth and that of the education thou +hast received. + +When we have said a thousand things in praise of education, we must, at +last, come back to the fundamental fact that nearly everything depends +on the kind of people of whom we are descended, and on the kind of +family in which our young years have passed. Nearly everything, but +not everything; and it is this little which makes liberty possible, +which inspires hope and courage, which, like the indefinable something +that gives the work of genius its worth and stamp, makes us children of +God and masters of ourselves. "Wisdom is the principal thing," says +Solomon; "therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get +understanding." + +He who makes himself the best man is the most successful one, while he +who gains most money or notoriety may fail utterly as man. + +With the advance of civilization our wants increase; and yet it is the +business of religion and culture to raise us above the things money +buys, and consequently to diminish our wants. They who are nearest to +God have fewest wants; and they who know and follow truth need not +place or title or wealth. + +To every one the tempter comes, with a thousand pretexts drawn both +from the intellect and the emotional nature, promising to lull +conscience to sleep that he may lead the lower life in peace; but he +who hearkens becomes a victim as helpless and as wretched as the +victims of alcohol and opium. + +In deliberate persevering action for high ends, all the subconscious +forces within us, the many currents, which, like hidden water-veins, go +to make our being, are taken up and turned in a deep-flowing stream +into the ocean of our life. In such course of conduct the baser self +is swallowed, and we learn to feel that we are part of the divine +energy which moves the universe to finer issues. As life is only by +moments and in narrow space, a little thing may disturb us and a little +thing may take away the cause of our trouble. We are petty beings in a +world of petty concerns. A little food, a little sleep, a little joy +is enough to make us happy. A word can fill us with dismay, a breath +can blow out the flickering flame of our self-consciousness. I often +ride among graves, and think how easy it is for the fretful children of +men to grow quiet. There they lie, having become weary of their toys +and plays, on the breast of the great mother from whom they sprang, +about whose face they frolicked and fought and cried for a day, and +then fell back into her all-receiving arms, as raindrops fall into the +water and mingle with it and are lost. No sight is so pathetic as that +of a vast throng seeking to enjoy themselves. The hopelessness of the +task is visible on all their thousand faces, athwart which, while they +talk or listen or look, the shadow of care flits as if thrown from dark +wings wheeling in circuits above them. The sorrow and toil and worry +they have thought to put away, still lie close to them, like a burden +which, having been set down, waits to be taken up again. God surely +sees with love and pity His all-enduring and all-hoping children; it is +His voice we hear in the words of Christ, "Misereor super turbam." I +cannot but wish to be myself, and therefore to be happy; but when I +think of God as essential to my happiness, I feel it is enough for me +to know and love Him; for to imagine I might be of service to Him would +be the fondest conceit. But He makes it possible for me to help my +fellows, and in doing this, I fulfil the will of Him who is the father +of all. The divine reveals itself in the human; and that religion +alone is true which, striking its roots deep into humanity, exerts all +its power to make men more godlike by making them more human. + +They who in good faith inflicted the tortures of the Inquisition were +led not by the light of reason, or that which springs from the +contemplation of the life of Christ, but by the notion that the rack +and fagot are instruments of mercy, if employed to save men from +eternal torments; and tyrants, who are always cruel, gave encouragement +and aid to the victims of fanaticism. Why should the sorrow or the sin +or the loss of any human being give me pleasure? Is it not always the +same story? In the fall of one we all are degraded, since, whoever +fails, it is our common nature which suffers hurt. + +Whether or not we have come forth from a merely animal condition, let +us thank God we are human, and bend all our energies to remove the race +farther and farther from the life over which thought and love and +conscience have no dominion. + +In the presence of the mighty machine, whose wheels and arms are +everywhere, whose power is drawn from the exhaustless oceans and the +boundless heavens, the importance of the individual dwindles and seems +threatened with extinction. At such a time it is good to know that a +right human soul is greater than a universe of machinery. + +We feel that we are higher than all the suns and planets, because we +know and love, and they do not; but when, in the light of this +superiority, we turn to the thought of our own littleness, being +scarcely more than nothing, such trouble rises in the soul that we +throw ourselves upon God to escape doubt of the reality of life. If we +believe that man is what he eats, his education is simply a question of +alimentation; but if we hold that he is what he knows, and loves, and +yearns, and strives for, his education is a problem of soul-nutrition. + +The child is made educable by its faith in the father and mother, which +is nothing else than faith in their truth and love; and the +educableness of the man is in proportion to his faith in the sovereign +and infinite nature of truth and love, which is faith in God. + +It is in youth that we are most susceptible of education, because it is +the privilege of youth to be free from tyrannic cares, and to be +sensitive to the charm of noble and disinterested passions. If we show +the young soul the way to higher worlds, he will not ask us to strew it +with flowers, or pave it with gold, but he will be content to walk with +bruised feet along mountain wastes, if at the summit is illumination +and joy and peace. + +As in religion many are called but few chosen, as in the race for +wealth and place many start but few win the prize, so in the pursuit of +intellectual and moral excellence, of the few who begin, the most soon +weary, while of the remnant, many grow infirm in purpose or in body +before the goal is reached. + +Time and space, which hold all things, separate all things; but +religion and culture bind them into unity through faith in God and +through knowledge, thus forming a communion of holy souls and noble +minds, for whom discord and division disappear in the harmony of the +divine order in which temporal and spatial conditions of separateness +yield to the eternal presence of truth and love. New ideas seem at +first to remain upon the surface of the soul, and generations sometimes +pass before they enter into its substance and become motives of +conduct; and, in the same way, sentiments may influence conduct, when +the notions from which they sprang have long been rejected. The old +truth must renew itself as the race renews itself; it must be +re-interpreted and re-applied to the life of each individual and of +each generation, if its liberating and regenerating power is to have +free scope. Reason and conscience are God's most precious gifts; and +what does He ask but that we make use of them? + +Right thinking, like right doing, is the result of innumerable efforts, +innumerable failures, the final outcome of which is a habit of right +thought and conduct. + +Whoever believes in truth, freedom, and love, and follows after them +with his whole heart, walks in God's highway, which leads to peace and +blessedness. + +A thing may be obscure from defect of light or defect of sight; and in +the same way an author may be found dull either because he is so, or +because his readers are dull. The noblest book even is but dead matter +until a mind akin to its creator's awakens it to life again. + +The appeal to the imagination has infinitely more charm than the appeal +to the senses. + +"But when evening falls," says Machiavelli, "I go home and enter my +study. On the threshold I lay aside my country garments, soiled with +mire, and array myself in courtly garb. Thus attired, I make my +entrance into the ancient courts of the men of old, where they receive +me with love, and where I feed upon that food which only is my own, and +for which I was born. For four hours' space I feel no annoyance, +forget all care; poverty cannot frighten nor death appall me." A man +of genius works for all, for he compels all to think. An enlightened +mind and a generous heart make the world good and fair. + +Where there is perfect confidence, conversation does not drag; while +for those who love it is enough that they be together: if they are +silent, it is well; if they speak, mere nothings suffice. + +The world of knowledge, all that men know, is, in truth, little and +simple enough. It seems vast and intricate because we are imperfectly +educated. + +The soul, like the body, has its atmosphere, out of which it cannot +live. + +When opinions take the place of convictions, ideas that of beliefs, +great characters become rare. + +The pith of virtue lies not in thinking, but in doing. A real man +strives to assert himself; for whether he seeks wealth, or power, or +fame, or truth, or virtue, or the good of his fellows, he knows that he +can succeed only through self-assertion, through the prevalence of his +own thought and life. + +They who abdicate the rights God gives the individual, seek in vain to +preserve by constitutional enactments a semblance of liberty. + +If it is human to hate whom we have injured, it is not less so to +despise whom we have deceived; and yet those who are easily deceived +are the most innocent or the most high-minded and generous. It seems +hardly a human and must therefore be a divine thing, to live and deal +with men without in any way giving them trouble and annoyance. Truth +loves not contention, and when men fight for it, it vanishes in the +noise and smoke of the combat. + +The controversies of the schools, whether of philosophy, theology, +literature, or natural science, have been among the saddest exhibitions +of ineptitude. Is it conceivable that a thinker, or a believer, or a +scholar, or an investigator should wrangle in the spirit of a pothouse +politician? The more certain we are of ourselves and of the truth of +what we hold, the easier it is for us to be patient and tolerant. + +Wicked is whoever finds pleasure in another's pain. We can know more +than we can love. Hence communion with the world is wider through the +mind than through the heart, though less intimate and less satisfying. +It is, however, longer active, for we continue to be delighted by new +truth when we have ceased to care to make new friends. Learn to bear +the faults of men as thou sufferest the changes of weather,--with +equanimity; for impatience and anger will no more improve thy neighbors +than they will prevent its being hot or cold. What men think or say of +thee is unimportant--give heed to what thou thyself thinkest and sayst. +If thou art ignored or reviled, remember such has been the fate of the +best, while the world's favorites are often men of blood or lust or +mere time-servers. He who does genuine work is conscious of the worth +of what he does, and is not troubled with misgivings or discouraged by +lack of recognition. If God looked away from His universe it would +cease to be; and He sees him. The more we detach ourselves from crude +realism, from the naive views of uneducated minds, the easier it +becomes for us to lead an intellectual and religious life, for such +detachment enables us to realize that the material world has meaning +and beauty only when it has passed through the alembic of the spirit +and become purified, fit object for the contemplation of God and of +souls. They are true students who are drawn to seek knowledge by +mental curiosity, by affinity with the intelligible, like that which +binds and holds lover to lover, making their love all-sufficient and +above all price. All that is of value in thy opinions is the truth +they contain--to hold them dearer than truth is to be irrational and +perverse. Thy faith is what thou believest, not what thou knowest. +The crowd loves to hear those who treat the tenets of their opponents +with scorn, who overwhelm their adversaries with abuse, who make a +mockery of what their foes hold sacred; but to vulgarity of this kind a +cultivated mind cannot stoop. To do so is a mark of ignorance and +inferiority; is to confuse judgment, to cloud intellect, and to +strengthen prejudice. If there are any who are so absurd or so +perverse as to be unworthy of fair and rational treatment, to refute +them is loss of time, to occupy one's self with them is to keep bad +company. With the contentious, who are always dominated by narrow and +petty views and motives, enter not into dispute, but look beyond to the +wide domain of reason and to the patience and charity of Christ. When +minds are alive and active, opposing currents of thought necessarily +arise. Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption. +As we let the light fall at different angles upon a precious stone, and +change our position from point to point to study a work of art, so it +is well to give more than one expression to the same truth, that the +intellectual rays falling upon it from several directions, and breaking +into new tints and shades, its full meaning and worth may finally be +brought clearly into view. If those with whom thou art thrown appear +to thee to be hard and narrow, call to mind that they have the same +troubles and sorrows as thyself, essentially too the same thoughts and +yearnings; and as, in spite of all thy faults, thou still lovest +thyself, so love them too, even though they be too warped and +prejudiced to appreciate thy worth. + + The wise man never utters words of scorn, + For he best knows such words are devil-born. + + +Our opponents are as necessary to us as our friends, and when those who +have nobly combated us die, they seem to take with them part of our +mental vigor; they leave us with a deeper sense of the illusiveness of +life. Freedom is found only where honest criticism of men and measures +is recognized as a common right. + +As one man's meat is another's poison, so in the world of intelligible +things what refreshes and invigorates one, may weary and depress +another. What delights the child makes no impression upon the man. +Men and women, the ignorant and the learned, philosophers and poets, +mothers and maidens, doers and dreamers, find their entertainment +largely in different worlds. Napoleon despised the idealogue; the +idealogue sees in him but a conscienceless force. + +Outcries against wrong have little efficacy. They alone improve men +who inspire them with new confidence, new courage, who help them to +renew and purify the inner sources of life. Harsh zeal provokes +excess, because it provokes contradiction. Whoever stirs the soul to +new depths, whoever awakens the mind to new thoughts and aspirations, +is a benefactor. The common man sees the fruits of his toil; the seed +which divine men sow, ripens for others. The counsels worldlings give +to genius can only mislead. Not only the truth which Christ taught, +but the truth which nearly all sublime thinkers have taught, has seemed +to the generation to which it was announced but a beggarly lie. The +powerful have sneered with Pilate, while the mob have done the teachers +to death. + +Make truth thy garb, thy house, wherein thou movest and dwellest, and +art comfortable and at home. + +If thou knowest what thou knowest and believest what thou believest, +thou canst not be disturbed by contradiction, but shalt feel that thy +opposers are appointed by God to confirm thee in truth. + +As the merchant keeps journal and ledger, so should he whose wealth is +truth, take account in writing of the thoughts he gains from +observation, reflection, reading, and intercourse with men. We become +perfectly conscious of our impressions only in giving expression to +them; hence ability to express what we feel and know is one of the +chief and most important aims and ends of education. + +What thou mayst not learn without employing spies, or listening to the +stories of the malignant or the gossip of the vulgar, be content not to +know. + +Our miseries spring from idleness and sin; and idleness is sin and the +mother of sin. "To confide in one's self and become something of +worth," says Michelangelo, "is the best and safest course." +Life-weariness, when it is not the result of long suffering, comes of +lack of love, for to love any human being in a true and noble way makes +life good. Whatever mistakes thou mayst have made in the choice of a +profession and in other things, it is still possible for thee to will +and do good, to know truth, and to love beauty, and this is the best +life can give. Think of living, and thou shalt find no time to repine. + +The character of the believer determines the character of his faith, +whatever the formulas by which it is expressed. What we are is the +chief constituent of the world in which we now live, and this must be +true also of the world in which we believe and for which we hope. For +the sensualist a spiritual heaven has neither significance nor +attractiveness. The highest truth the noblest see has no meaning for +the multitude, or but a distorted meaning. What is divinest in the +teaching of Christ, only one in thousands, now after the lapse of +centuries, rightly understands and appreciates. It is not so much the +things we believe, know, and do, as the things on which we lay the +chief stress of hope and desire, that shape our course and decide our +destiny. + +They alone receive the higher gifts, who, to obtain them, renounce the +lower pleasures and rewards of life. Those races are noblest, those +individuals are noblest, who care most for the past and the future, +whose thoughts and hopes are least confined to the world of sense which +from moment to moment ceaselessly urges its claims to attention. +Desire fanned by imagination, when it turns to sensual things, makes +men brutish; but when its object is intellectual and moral, it lifts +them to worlds of pure and enduring delight. + +When we would form an estimate of a man, we consider not what he knows, +believes, and does, but what kind of being his knowledge, faith, and +works have made of him. He who makes us learn more than he teaches has +genius. Whoever has freed himself from envy and bitterness may begin +to try to see things as they are. + +Each one is the outcome of millions of causes, which, so far as he can +see, are accidental. How ridiculous then to complain that if this or +that only had not happened, all would be well. It is ignorance or +prejudice to make a man's conduct an argument against the worth of his +writings. Byron was a bad man, but a great poet; Bacon was venal, but +a marvellous thinker. + +Books, to be interesting to the many, must abound in narrative, must +run on like chattering girls, and make little demand upon attention. +The appeal to thought is like a beggar's appeal for alms,--heeded by +one only in hundreds who pass; for, to the multitude, mental effort is +as disagreeable as parting with their money. + +A newspaper is old the day after its publication, and there are many +books which issue from the press withered and senile, but the best, +like the gods, are forever young and delightful. + +"Whatever bit of a wise man's work," says Ruskin, "is honestly and +benevolently done, that bit is his book or his piece of art. It is +mixed always with evil fragments,--ill-done, redundant, affected work; +but if you read rightly, you will easily discover the true bits, and +_those_ are the book." Again: "No book is worth anything which is not +worth much; nor is it serviceable until it has been read and re-read, +and loved, and loved again; and marked so that you may refer to the +passages you want in it." + +Unity, steadfastness, and power of will mark the great workers. A +dominant impulse urges them forward, and with firm tread they move on +till death bids them stay. As the will succumbs to idleness and sin, +it can be developed and maintained in health and vigor only by right +action. + +If thou makest thy intellectual and moral improvement thy chief +business, thou shalt not lack for employment, and with thy progress thy +joy and freedom shall increase. + +Progress is betterment of life. The accumulation of discoveries, the +multiplication of inventions, the improvement of the means of comfort, +the extension of instruction, and the perfecting of methods, are +valuable in the degree in which they contribute to this end. The +characteristic of progress is increase of spiritual force. In material +progress even, the intellectual and moral element is the value-giving +factor. Progress begets belief in progress. As we grow in worth and +wisdom, our faith in knowledge and conduct is developed and confirmed, +and with more willing hearts we make ourselves the servants of +righteousness and love; for in the degree in which religion and culture +prevail within us, co-operation for life tends to supersede the +struggle for life, which if not the dominant law, is, at least, the +general course of things when left to Nature's sway. + +Catchwords, such as progress, culture, enlightenment, and liberty, are +for the multitude rarely more than psittacisms, mere parrot sounds. So +long as we genuinely believe in an ideal and strive to incarnate it, +the spirit of hope kindles the flame of enthusiasm within the breast. +Its attainment, however, if the ideal is sensual or material, leads to +disappointment and weariness. Behold yonder worshipper at the shrine +of money and pleasure, whose life is but a yawn between his woman and +his wine. But if the ideal is spiritual, failure in the pursuit cannot +dishearten us, and success but opens to view diviner worlds towards +which we turn our thought and love with self-renewing freshness of mind. + +If thou seekest for beauty, it is everywhere; if for hideousness, it +too is everywhere. + +To believe in one's self, to have genuine faith in the impressions, +thoughts, hopes, loves, and aspirations which are in one's own soul, +and to strive ceaselessly to come to clear knowledge of this inner +world which each one bears within himself, is the secret of culture. +To bend one's will day by day to the weaving this light of the mind and +warmth of the heart into the substance of life, into conduct, is the +secret of character. At whatever point of time or space we find +ourselves, we can begin or continue the task of self-improvement; for +the only essential thing is the activity of the soul, seeking to become +conscious of itself, through and in God and His universe. + + The little bird upbuilds its nest + Of little things by ceaseless quest: + And he who labors without rest + By little steps will reach life's crest. + + +The true reader is brought into contact with a personality which +reveals itself or permits its secret to be divined. In spirit and +imagination he lives the life of the author. In his book he finds the +experience and wisdom of years compressed into a few pages which he +reads in an hour. The vital sublimation of what made a man is thus +given him in its essence to exalt or to degrade, to inspire or to +deaden his soul. In looking through the eyes of another, he learns to +see himself, to understand his affinities and his tendencies, his +strength and his weakness. Eat this volume and go speak to the +children of Israel, said the spirit to the prophet Ezekiel. The +meaning is--mentally devour, digest, and assimilate the book into the +fibre and structure of thy very being, and then shalt thou be able to +utter words of truth and wisdom to God's chosen ones. The world's +spiritual wealth, so far as it has existence other than in the minds of +individuals, is stored in literature, in books,--the great +treasure-house of the soul's life, of what the best and greatest have +thought, known, believed, felt, suffered, desired, toiled, and died +for; and whoever fails to make himself a home in this realm of truth, +light, and freedom, is shut out from what is highest and most divine in +human experience, and sinks into the grave without having lived. + +To those who have uttered themselves in public speech, there comes at +times a feeling akin to self-reproach. They have taken upon themselves +the office of teacher, and yet what have they taught that is worth +knowing and loving? They have lost the privacy in which so much of the +charm and freedom of life consists; they have been praised or blamed +without discernment; and a great part of what they have said and +written seems to themselves little more than a skeleton from which the +living vesture has fallen. Ask them not to encourage any one to become +an author. The more they have deafened the world with their voices, +the more will they, like Carlyle, praise the Eternal Silence. They +have in fact been taught, by hard experience, that the worth of life +lies not in saying or writing anything whatever, but in pure faith, in +humble obedience, in brave and steadfast striving. The woman who +sweeps a room, the mother who nurses her child, the laborer who sows +and reaps, believing and feeling that they are working with God, are +leading nobler lives and doing diviner things than the declaimers and +theorizers, and the religion which upholds them and lightens their +burdens is better than all the philosophies. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF. + +The wise man will esteem above everything and will cultivate those +sciences which further the perfection of his soul.--PLATO. + + +It has become customary to call these endings of the scholastic year +commencements; just as the people of the civilized world have agreed to +make themselves absurd by calling the ninth month the seventh, the +tenth the eighth, the eleventh the ninth, and the twelfth the tenth. +And, indeed, the discourses which are delivered on these occasions +would be more appropriate and more effective if made to students who, +having returned from the vacations with renewed physical vigor, feel +also fresh urgency to exercise of mind. But now, so little is man in +love with truth, the approach of the moment when you are to make escape +and find yourselves in what you imagine to be a larger and freer world, +occupies all your thoughts, and thrills you with an excitement which +makes attention difficult; and, like the noise of crowds and brazen +trumpets, prevents the soul from mounting to the serene world where +alone it is free and at home. + +Since, however, the invitation with which I have been honored directs +my address to the graduates of Notre Dame in this her year of Golden +Jubilee, I may, without abuse of the phrase, entitle it a commencement +oration; for the day on which a graduate worthy of the name leaves his +college is the commencement day of a new life of study, more earnest +and more effectual than that which is followed within academic walls, +because it is the result of his sense of duty alone and of his +uncontrolled self-activity. And, though I am familiar with the serious +disadvantages with which a reader as compared with a speaker has to +contend, I shall read my address, if for no other reason, because I +shall thus be able to measure my time; and if I am prolix, I shall be +so maliciously, and not become so through the obliviousness which may +result from the illusive enthusiasm that is sometimes produced in the +speaker by his own vociferation, and which he fondly imagines he +communicates to his hearers. + +The chief benefit to be derived from the education we receive in +colleges and universities, and from the personal contact into which we +are there thrown with enlightened minds, is the faith it tends to +inspire and confirm in the worth of knowledge and culture, of conduct +and religion; for nothing else we there acquire will abide with us as +an inner impulse to self-activity, a self-renewing urgency to the +pursuit of excellence. If we fail, we fail for lack of faith; but +belief is communicated from person to person,--_fides ex auditu_,--and +to mediate it is the educator's chief function. Through daily +intercourse with one who is learned and wise and noble, the young gain +a sense of the reality of science and culture, of religion and +morality; which thus cease to be for them vague somethings of which +they have heard and read, and become actual things,--realities, like +monuments they have inspected, or countries through which they have +travelled. They have been taken by the hand and led where, left to +themselves, they would never have gone. The true educator inspires not +only faith, but admiration also, and confidence and love,--all +soul-evolving powers. He is a master whose pupils are +disciples,--followers of him and believers in the wisdom he teaches. +He founds a school which, if it does not influence the whole course of +thought and history, like that of Plato or Aristotle, does at least +form a body of men, distinguished by zeal for truth and love of +intellectual and moral excellence. To be able thus, in virtue of one's +intelligence and character, to turn the generous heart and mind of +youth to sympathy with what is intelligible, fair, and good in thought +and life, is to be like God,--is to have power in its noblest and most +human form; and its exercise is the teacher's chief and great reward. +To be a permanent educational force is the highest earthly distinction. +Is not this the glory of the founders of religions, of the discoverers +of new worlds? + +In stooping to the mind and heart of youth, to kindle there the divine +flame of truth and love, we ourselves receive new light and warmth. To +listen to the noise made by the little feet of children when at play, +and to the music of their merry laughter, is pleasant; but to come +close to the aspiring soul of youth, and to feel the throbbings of its +deep and ardent yearnings for richer and wider life, is to have our +faith in the good of living revived and intensified. It is the divine +privilege of the young to be able to believe that the world can be +moulded and controlled by thought and spiritual motives; and in +breathing this celestial air, the choice natures among them learn to +become sages and saints; or if it be their lot to be thrown into the +fierce struggles where selfish and cruel passions contend for the +mastery over justice and humanity, they carry into the combat the +serene strength of reason and conscience; for their habitual and real +home is in the unseen world, where what is true and good has the +Omnipotent for its defence. Of this soul of youth we may affirm +without fear of error-- + + "The soul seeks God; from sphere to sphere it moves, + Immortal pilgrim of the Infinite." + + +Life is the unfolding of a mysterious power, which in man rises to +self-consciousness, and through self-consciousness to the knowledge of +a world of truth and order and love, where action may no longer be left +wholly to the sway of matter or to the impulse of instinct, but may and +should be controlled by reason and conscience. To further this process +by deliberate and intelligent effort is to educate. Hence education is +man's conscious co-operation with the Infinite Being in promoting the +development of life; it is the bringing of life in its highest form to +bear upon life, individual and social, that it may raise it to greater +perfection, to ever-increasing potency. To educate, then, is to work +with the Power who makes progress a law of living things, becoming more +and more active and manifest as we ascend in the scale of being. The +motive from which education springs is belief in the goodness of life +and the consequent desire for richer, freer, and higher life. It is +the point of union of all man's various and manifold activity; for +whether he seeks to nourish and preserve his life, or to prolong and +perpetuate it in his descendants, or to enrich and widen it in domestic +and civil society, or to grow more conscious of it through science and +art, or to strike its roots into the eternal world through faith and +love, or in whatever other way he may exert himself, the end and aim of +his aspiring and striving is educational,--is the unfolding and +uplifting of his being. + +The radical craving is for life,--for the power to feel, to think, to +love, to enjoy. And as it is impossible to reach a state in which we +are not conscious that this power may be increased, we can find +happiness only in continuous progress, in ceaseless self-development. +This craving for fulness of life is essentially intellectual and moral, +and its proper sphere of action is the world of thought and conduct. +He who has a healthy appetite does not long for greater power to eat +and drink. A sensible man who has sufficient wealth for independence +and comfort does not wish for more money; but he who thinks and loves +and acts in obedience to conscience feels that he is never able to do +so well enough, and hence an inner impulse urges him to strive for +greater power of life, for perfection. He is akin to all that is +intelligible and good, and is drawn to bring himself into +ever-increasing harmony with this high world. Hence attention is for +him like a second nature, for attention springs from interest; and +since he feels an affinity with all things, all things interest him. +And what is thus impressed upon his mind and heart he is impelled to +utter in deed or speech or gesture or song, or in whatever way thought +and sentiment may manifest themselves. Attention and expression are +thus the fundamental forms of self-activity, the primary and essential +means of education, of developing intellectual and moral power. + +Interest is aroused and held by need, which creates desire. If we are +hungry, whatever may help us to food interests us. Our first and +indispensable interests relate to the things we need for +self-preservation and the perpetuation of the race; and to awaken +desire and stimulate effort to obtain them, instinct is sufficient, as +we may see in the case of mere animals. But as progress is made, +higher and more subtle wants are developed. We crave for more than +food and wife and children. The social organism evolves itself; and as +its complexity increases, the relations of the individual to the body +of which he is a member are multiplied, and become more intricate. As +we pass from the savage to the barbarous, and from the barbarous to the +civilized state, intellect and conscience are brought more and more +into play. Mental power gains the mastery over brute force, and little +by little subdues the energies of inorganic nature, and makes them +serve human ends. Iron is forced to become soft and malleable, and to +assume every shape; the winds bear man across the seas; the sweet and +gentle water is imprisoned and tortured until with its fierce breath it +does work in comparison with which the mythical exploits of gods and +demi-gods are as the play of children. Strength of mind and character +takes precedence of strength of body. Hercules and Samson are but +helpless infants in the presence of the thinker who reads Nature's +secret and can compel her to do his bidding. If we bend our thoughts +to this subject, we shall gain insight into the meaning and purpose of +education, which is nothing else than the urging of intellect and +conscience to the conquest of the world, and to the clear perception +and practical acknowledgment of the primal and fundamental truth that +man is man in virtue of his thought and love. + +Instruction, which is but part of education, has for its object the +development of the intellect and the transmission of knowledge. This, +whether we consider the individual or society, is indispensable. It is +good to know. Knowledge is not only the source of many of our highest +and purest joys, but without it we can attain neither moral nor +material good in the nobler forms. Virtue when it is enlightened gains +a higher quality. And if we hold that action and not thought is the +end of life, we cannot deny that action is, in some degree at least, +controlled and modified by thought. Nevertheless, instruction is not +the principal part of education; for human worth is more essentially +and more intimately identified with character and heart than with +knowledge and intellect. What we will is more important than what we +know; and the importance of what we know is derived largely from its +influence on the will or conduct. + +A nation, like an individual, receives rank from character more than +from knowledge; since the true measure of human worth is moral rather +than intellectual. The teaching of the school becomes a subject of +passionate interest, through our belief in its power to educate +sentiment, stimulate will, and mould character. For in the school we +do more than learn the lessons given us: we live in an intellectual and +moral atmosphere, acquire habits of thought and behavior; and this, +rather than what we learn, is the important thing. To imagine that +youths who have passed through colleges and universities, and have +acquired a certain knowledge of languages and sciences, but have not +formed strongly marked characters, should forge to the front in the +world and become leaders in the army of religion and civilization, is +to cherish a delusion. The man comes first; and scholarship without +manhood will be found to be ineffectual. The semi-culture of the +intellect, which is all a mere graduate can lay claim to, will but help +to lead astray those who lack the strength of moral purpose; and they +whom experience has made wise expect little from young men who have +bright minds and have passed brilliant examinations, but who go out +into the world without having trained themselves to habits of patient +industry and tireless self-activity. + +Man is essentially a moral being; and he who fails to become so, fails +to become truly human. Individuals and nations are brought to ruin not +by lack of knowledge, but by lack of conduct. "Now that the world is +filled with learned men," said Seneca, "good men are wanting." He was +Nero's preceptor, and saw plainly how powerless intellectual culture +was to save Rome from the degeneracy which undermined its civilization +and finally brought on its downfall. If in college the youth does not +learn to govern and control himself,--to obey and do right in all +things, not because he has not the power to disobey and do wrong, but +because he has not the will,--nothing else he may learn will be of +great service. It seems to me I perceive in our young men a lack of +moral purpose, of sturdiness, of downright obstinate earnestness, in +everything--except perhaps in money-getting pursuits; for even in these +they are tempted to trust to speculation and cunning devices rather +than to persistent work and honesty, which become a man more than +crowns and all the gifts of fortune. Without truthfulness, honesty, +honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect no worthy or noble life can be led. And unless we can get +into our colleges youths who can be made to drink into their inmost +being this vital truth, little good can be accomplished there. Now, it +often happens that these institutions are, in no small measure, refuges +into which the badly organized families of the wealthy send their sons +in the vain expectation that the fatal faults of inheritance and +domestic training will be repaired. In college, as wherever there are +men, quality is more precious than quantity. The number of students is +great enough when they are of the right kind; and the work which now +lies at our hand is to make it possible that those who have talent and +the will to improve themselves may enter our institutions of learning. +But those who are shown to be insusceptible of education should be +eliminated; for they profit not themselves, and are a hindrance to the +others. + +Gladly I turn from them to you, young gentlemen, who have persevered in +the pursuit of knowledge and virtue, and to-day are declared worthy to +receive the highest honor Notre Dame can confer. The deepest and the +best thing in us is faith in reason; for when we look closely, we +perceive that faith in God, in the soul, in good, in freedom, in truth, +is faith in reason. Individuals, nations, the whole race, wander in a +maze of errors. The world of the senses is apparent and illusive, that +of pure thought vague and shadowy. Science touches but the form and +surface; speculation is swallowed in abysses and disperses itself; +ignorance darkens, passion blinds the mind; the truth of one age +becomes the error of a succeeding; opinions change from continent to +continent and from century to century. The more we learn, the less we +know; and what we most of all desire to know eludes our grasp. But, +nevertheless, our faith in reason is unshaken; and holding to this +faith, we hold to God, to good, to freedom, and to truth. + +Goodness is the radical principle; the good, the primal aim and final +end of life; for the good is whatever is helpful to life. Hence what +is true is good, what is useful is good, what is fair is good, what is +right is good; and the true, the useful, the fair, and the right are +intertwined and circle about man like a noble sisterhood, to waken him +to life, and to urge him toward God, the supreme good, whose being is +power, wisdom, love without limit. The degree of goodness in all +things is measured by their approach to this absolute Being. Hence the +greater our strength, wisdom, and love, the greater our good, the +richer and more perfect our life. There is no soul which does not bow +with delight and reverence before Beauty and Power; and when we come to +true insight, we perceive that holiness is Beauty and goodness Power. +Genuine spiritual power is from God, and compels the whole mechanic +world to acknowledge its absoluteness. The truths of religion and +morality are of the essence of our life; they cannot be learned from +another, but must be wrought into self-consciousness by our own +thinking and doing,--by habitual meditation, and constant obedience to +conscience. Virtue, knowledge, goodness, and greatness are their own +reward: they are primarily and essentially ends, and only incidentally +means. Hence those who strive for perfection with the view thereby to +gain recognition, money, or place, do not really strive for perfection +at all. They are also unwise; for virtue, knowledge, goodness, and +greatness are not the surest means to such ends, and they can be +acquired only with infinite pains. The highest human qualities cease +to be the highest when they are made subordinate to the externalities +of office and wealth. The one aim of a mind smitten with the love of +excellence is to live consciously and lovingly with whatever is true or +good or fair. And such a one cannot be disturbed whether by the +general indifference of men or by their praise or blame. The +standpoint of the soul is: What thou art, not what others think thee. +If thou art at one with thy true self, God and the eternal laws bear +thee up and onward. The moral and the religious life interpenetrate +each other. To sunder them is to enfeeble both. To weaken faith is to +undermine character; to fail in conduct is to deprive faith of +inspiration and vigor. Learn to live thy religion, and thou shalt have +little need or desire to argue and dispute about it. Truth is mightier +than its witnesses, religion greater than its saints and martyrs. +Learn to think, and thou shalt easily learn to live. + +In the presence of the highest manifestations of thought and love, of +truth and beauty, nothing perfect or divine is incredible. Men of +genius, philosophers, poets, and saints, who by thinking and doing make +this ethereal but most real world rise before us in concrete form and +substance, are heavenly messengers and illuminators of the soul. Had +none of them lived, how should we see and understand that man is +Godlike and that God is truth and love? We cannot make this high world +plain by telling about it. It is not a land which may be described. +It is a state of soul which they alone comprehend who have been +transformed by patient meditation and faithful striving. But once it +is revealed, a thousand errors and obscurities fall away from us. If +not educated, strive at least to be educable,--a believer in wisdom, +and sensitive to all high influence, and eager to be quit of thy +ignorance and hardness. As the dead cannot produce the live, so +mechanical minds, however much they may be able to drill, train, and +instruct, cannot educate. The secret of the mother's specific +educational power lies in the fact that she is a spiritual not a +mechanical force, loves and is loved by her pupils. The most ennobling +and the most thoroughly satisfying sentiment of which we are capable is +love. Until we love we are strangers to ourselves. We are like beings +asleep or lost to the knowledge of themselves and all things, till, +awakening to the appeal of the pure light and the balmy air, they look +upon what is not themselves; and, finding it fair and beautiful, learn +in loving it to feel and know themselves. + +Increase of the power to love is increase of life. But love needs +guidance. We first awaken in the world of the senses, and are +attracted by what we see and touch and taste. The aim of education is +to help the soul to rise above this world, in which, if we remain, we +are little better than brutes. Hence the teacher seeks in many ways to +reveal to the young the fact that the perfect, the best, cannot be seen +or touched, cannot be grasped even by the mind; but that it is, +nevertheless, that which they should strive to make themselves capable +of loving above all things. And thus he prepares them to understand +what is meant by the love of truth and righteousness, by the love of +God. In the training of animals even, patience and gentleness are more +effective than violence. How, then, shall we hope by physical +constraint and harsh methods to educate human beings, who are human +precisely because they are capable of love and are swayed by rational +motives? There is no soul so gross, so deeply buried in matter, but it +shall from some point or other make a sally to show it still bears the +impress of God's image. At such points the educator will keep watch, +studying how he may make this single ray of light interfuse itself with +his pupil's whole being. + +It is not possible to know there is no God, no soul, no free will, no +right or wrong; at the worst, it is only possible to doubt all this. +The universe is as inconceivable as God, and theories of matter as full +of difficulties as theories of spirit. It is a question of belief or +unbelief; ultimately a question of health or disease, of life or death. +They who have no faith in God can have little faith in the worth of +life, which can be for them but an efflorescence of death, a sort of +inexplicable malady of atoms dreaming they are conscious. If the age +tends irresistibly to destroy belief in God, the end will be the ruin +of belief in the good of life. In the mean while the doubt which +weakens the springs of hope and love is not a symptom of health but of +disease, pregnant with suffering and misery for all, but most of all +for the young. He who is loved in a true and noble way is surrounded +by an element of spiritual light in which his worth is revealed to him. +In perceiving what he is to another, he comes to understand what he is +or may be in himself. + +Our self respect even is largely due to the love we receive in +childhood and youth. Enthusiasm springs from faith in God and in the +soul, which begets in us a high and heroic belief in the divine good of +life. It is thus an educational force of highest value. It calms and +exalts the soul like the view of the starlit heavens and the +everlasting mountains. It is, in every good and noble cause, a +fountain head of endurance and perseverance. It bears us on with a +sense of joy and vigor, such as is felt when, mounted on a high-mettled +steed, we ride in the pleasant air of a spring morning, amid the +beauties and grandeurs of nature. In the front of battle and in the +presence of death it throws around the soul the light of immortal +things. It gives us the plenitude of existence, the full and high +enjoyment of living. On its wings the poet, the lover, the orator, the +hero, and the saint are borne in rapture through worlds whose celestial +glory and delightfulness cold and unmoved minds do not suspect. It is +not a flame from the dry wood and withered grass, but a heat and glow +from the abysmal depths of being. It makes us content to follow after +truth and love in dark and narrow ways, as the miner, in central deeps +where sunlight has never fallen, seeks his treasure. It keeps us fresh +and young; and, like the warmer sun, reclothes the world day by day +with new beauty. It teaches patience, the love of work without haste +and without worry. It gives strength to hear and speak truth, and to +walk in the sacred way of truth, as though we but idly strolled with +pleasant friends amid fragrant flowers. It gives us deeper +consciousness of our own liberty, faith in human perfectibility, which +lies at the root of our noblest efforts; to which the more we yield +ourselves the more we feel that we are free. It knows a thousand words +of truth and might, which it whispers in gentlest tones to rightly +attuned ears: Since the universe is a harmony whose diapason is God, +why should thy life strike a discordant note? Yield not to +discouragement; thou art alive, and God is in His world. The combat +and not the victory proclaims the hero. If thy success had been +greater, thou hadst been less. The noisy participants in great +conflicts, of whatever kind, exercise less influence upon the outcome +than choice spirits, who, turning aside from the thunder and smoke of +battle, gain in lonely striving and meditation view of new truth by +which the world is transformed. + +We owe more to Columbus than to Isabella; to Descartes than to Louis +XIV.; to Bacon than to Elizabeth; to Pestalozzi than to Napoleon; to +Goethe than to Bluecher; to Pasteur than to Bismarck. If thou wouldst +be persuaded and convinced, persuade and convince thyself. Be thy aim +not increase of happiness, but of knowledge, wisdom, power, and virtue; +and thou shalt, without thinking of it, find thyself also happy. +Character is formed by effort, resistance, and patience. If necessity +is the mother of invention, suffering is the mother of high moods and +great thoughts. Poets have sung to ease their sorrow-burdened or +love-tortured hearts; and the travail of souls yearning with ineffable +pain for truth has led to the nearest view of God. Wisdom is the child +of suffering, as beauty is the child of love. If a truth discourages +thee, thou art not yet ripe for it; for thee it is not yet wholly true. +Work not like an ox at the plough, but like a setter afield; not +because thou must, but because thou takest delight in thy task. Only +they have come of age who have learned how to educate themselves. +Education, like life, works from within outward: the teacher loosens +the soil and removes the obstacles to light and warmth and moisture; +but growth comes of the activity of the soul itself. + +A new century will not make new men; but if, in truth, it be a new +century, it will be made so by the deeper thought and diviner love of +men and women. Let the old tell what they have done, the young what +they are doing, and fools what they intend to do. + +The power to control attention, as a good rider holds his horse to the +road and to his gait, is a result of education; and when it is acquired +other things become easy. + +Let not poverty or misfortune or insult or flattery or success, O +seeker after truth and beauty! turn thee from thy divine task and +purpose. Pardon every one except thyself, and put thy trust in God and +in thyself. "If I buy thee," asked one of a Spartan captive, "and +treat thee well, wilt thou be good?"--"I will," he replied, "if thou +buy me or not; or if, having bought me, thou treat me ill." + +If there be anything of worth in thee, it will make thee strong and +contented; it is so good for thee to have it that thou canst easily +forget it is unrecognized by others. + +If all sufferings, sorrows, and disappointments had been left out of +thy life, wouldst thou be more or less than thou art? Less worthy, +doubtless, and less wise. In these evils, then, there is something +good. If thou couldst but bear this always in mind, thou shouldst be +better able to suffer pain, whether of body or soul. There are things +thou hast greatly desired which, had they been given thee, would make +thee wretched. The wiser thou growest, the better shalt thou +understand how little we know what is for the best. + +"Had I but lived!" cried Obermann. And a woman of genius replied: "Be +consoled, O Obermann! Hadst thou lived, thou hadst lived in vain." So +it is. In the end we neither regret that pleasures have been denied +us, nor feel that those we have enjoyed were a gain unless they are +associated with the memory of high faith and thought and virtuous +action. He who is careful to fill his mind with truth and his heart +with love will not lack for retreats in which he may take refuge from +the stress and storms of life. Noise, popularity, and buncombe: +onions, smoke, and bedbugs. + +Be thy own rival, comparing thyself with thyself, and striving day by +day to be self-surpassed. If thy own little room is well lighted the +whole world is less dark. If thou art busy seeking intellectual and +moral illumination and strength, thou shalt easily be contented. +Higher place would mean for thee less liberty, less opportunity to +become thyself. The secret of progress lies in knowing how to make +use, not of what we have chosen, but of what is forced upon us. To +occupy one's self with trifles weans from the habit of work more +effectually than idleness. Perfect skill comes of talent, study, and +exercise; and the study and exercise must continue through the whole +course of life. To cease to learn is to lose freshness and the power +to interest. We lack will rather than strength; are able to do more +and better than we are inclined to do; and say we can not because we +have not the courage to say we will not. The law of unstable +equilibrium applies to thee, as to whatever has life. Thou canst not +remain what thou art, but must rise or fall. The body is under the +sway of physical law, but the progress of the mind is left in a large +measure to the play of free will. If thou willest what thou oughtest, +thou canst do what thou willest; for obligation cannot transcend +ability. Happy are they who from earliest youth understand the meaning +of duty, and hearken to the stern but all-reasonable voice of this +daughter of God, the smile upon whose face is the fairest thing we know. + +He who willingly accepts the law of moral necessity is free; for in +thus accepting it he transcends it, and is self-determined; while he +who rebels against this law sinks to a lower plane of being than the +properly human, and becomes the slave of appetite and passion. Duty +means sacrifice; it is a turning from the animal to the spiritual self; +from the allurements of the world of manifold sensation--from ease, +idleness, gain, and pleasure--to the high and lonely regions, where the +command of conscience speaks in the name of God and of the nature of +things. Forget thyself and do thy best, as unconscious of +vain-glorious thoughts as though thou wert a wind or a stream, an +impersonal force in the service of God and man. Obey conscience, and +laugh in the face of death. Convince thyself that the best thing for +thee is to know truth and to make truth the law of thy life. Let this +faith subordinate all else, as it is, indeed, faith in reason and in +God. Abhorrence of lies is the test of character. Hold fast by what +thou knowest to be true, not doubting for a moment because thou canst +not reconcile it with other truth. Somewhere, somehow, truth will be +matched with truth, as love mates heart with heart. + +A man's word is himself, his reason, his conscience, his faith, his +love, his aspiration. If it is false or vain or vile, he is so. It is +the expression of life as it has come to consciousness within him. It +is the revelation of quality of being; it is of the man himself, his +sign and symbol, the form and mould and mirror of his soul. + + Thou thinkest to serve God with lies, + Thou devil-worshipper and fool! + +The moral value of the study of science lies in the love of truth it +inspires and inculcates. He who knows science knows that liars are +imbeciles. From the educator's point of view, truthfulness is the +essential thing. His aim and end is to teach truth, and the love of +truth, which leavens the whole mass and makes it life-giving. But the +liar has no proper virtue of any kind. + +The doubt of an earnest, thoughtful, patient, and laborious mind is +worthy of respect. In such doubt there may be found indeed more faith +than in half the creeds. But the scepticism of sciolists lacks the +depth and genuineness of truth. To be frivolous where there is +question of all that gives life meaning and value is want of sense. +The sciolist is one who has a superficial knowledge of various things, +which for lack of deep views and coherent thought, for lack of the +understanding of the principles of knowledge itself, he is unable to +bring into organic unity. The things he knows are confused and +intermingled, and thus fail either to enlighten his mind or to impel +him to healthful activity. He forms opinions lightly and pronounces +judgment rashly. Knowing nothing thoroughly, he has no suspicion of +the infinite complexity of the world of life and thought. The evil +effects of this semi-culture are most disagreeable and most harmful in +those whose being has been developed only on its temporal and earthly +side. Their spiritual and moral nature has no centre about which it +may move, and they wander on the surface of things in self-satisfied +conceit, proclaiming that what is beyond the senses is beyond the reach +of the mind, as though our innermost consciousness were not of what is +intangible and invisible. + +All divine things are within and about us, here and now; but we are too +gross to see the celestial light, or to catch the whisperings of the +heavenly voices. God is here; but we, like plants and mollusks, live +in worlds of which we do not dream, upheld and nourished and borne +onward by a Power of whom we are but dimly conscious,--nay, of whom, +for the most part, we are unconscious. + +There is a truth above the reach of logic, an impulse of the mind and +heart which urges beyond the realms of sense, beyond the ken of the +dialectician, to the Infinite and Eternal, before whom the material +universe is but a force at whose finest touch souls awaken to the +thrill of thought and love. + +When we are made conscious of the fact that the Divine Word is the +light of men, we readily understand that our every true thought, our +every good deed, our every deeper view of nature and of life, comes +from God, who is always urging us into the glorious liberty of His +children, until we become a heavenly republic in which righteousness, +peace, and joy shall reign. "The restless desire of every man to +improve his position in the world is the motive power of all social +development, of all progress," says Scherr, unable to perceive that the +mightiest impulses to nobler and wider life have been given by those +who were not thinking at all of improving their position, but were +wholly bent upon improving themselves. Make choice, O youth! between +having and being. If having is thy aim, consent to be inferior; if +being is thy aim, be content with having little. Real students, +cultivators of themselves, are not inspired by the love of fame or +wealth or position, but they are driven by an inner impulse to which +they cannot but yield. Their enthusiasm is not a fire that blazes for +an hour and then dies out; it is a heat from central depths of life, +self-fed and inextinguishable. + +The impulse to nobler and freer life springs, never from masses of men, +but always from single luminous minds and glowing hearts. The +lightning of great thoughts shows the way to heroic deeds. It is +better to know than to be known, to love than to be loved, to help than +to be helped; for since life is action, it is better to act than to be +acted upon. Whosoever makes himself purer, worthier, wiser, works for +his country, works for God. The belief that the might of truth is so +great that it must prevail in spite of whatever opposition, needs, to +say the least, interpretation; for it has often happened that truth has +been overcome for whole generations and races; and the important +consideration is not whether it shall finally prevail, but whether it +shall prevail for us, for our own age and people. It is of the nature +of spiritual gifts to work in every direction; they enrich the +individual and the nation; they develop, purify, and refine the +intellectual, moral, and physical worlds in which men live and strive. +The State and the Church are organisms; the body, the social and +religious soul, under the guidance of God, creates for itself. And not +only should there be no conflict between them, but there should be none +between them and the free and full development of the individual. A +peasant whose mental state is what it might have been a thousand years +ago is for us, however moral and religious, an altogether +unsatisfactory kind of man. All knowledge is pure, and all speech is +so if it spring from the simple desire to utter what is seen and +recognized as truth. The love of liberty is rare. It is not found in +those whose life-aim is money, pleasure, and place, which enslave; but +in those who love truth, which is the only liberating power. Knowledge +is the correlative of being, and only a high and loving soul can know +what truth is or understand what Christ meant when He said: "Ye shall +know truth, and truth shall make you free." High thinking and right +loving may make enemies of those around us, but they make us Godlike. +How seldom in our daily experience of men do we find one who wishes to +be enlightened, reformed, and made virtuous! How easy it is to find +those who wish to be pleased and flattered! + +At no period in history has civilization been so widespread or so +complex as to-day. Never have the organs of the social body been so +perfect. Never has it been possible for so many to co-operate +intelligently in the work of progress. You, gentlemen, have youth and +faith and the elements of intellectual and moral culture. In the +freshness and vigor of early manhood, you stand upon the threshold of +the new century. You speak Shakspeare's and Milton's tongue; in your +veins is the blood which in other lands and centuries has nourished the +spirit which makes martyrs, heroes, and saints. Your religion strikes +its roots into the historic past of man's noblest achievements, and +looks to the future with the serene confidence with which it looks to +God. Your country, if not old, is not without glory. Its soil is as +fertile, its climate as salubrious as its domain is vast. It is +peopled by that Aryan race, which, from most ancient days, has been the +creator and invincible defender of art and science and philosophy and +liberty; and with all this the divine spirit and doctrine of the Son of +Man have been interfused. + +We are here in America constituted on the wide basis of universal +freedom, universal opportunity, universal intelligence, universal +good-will. Our government is the rule of all for the welfare of all; +it has stood the test of civil war, and in many ways proved itself both +beneficent and strong. Already we have subdued this continent to the +service of man. Within a hundred years we have grown to be one of the +most populous and wealthy and also one of the most civilized and +progressive nations of the earth. Your opportunities are equal to the +fullest measure of human worth and genius. In the midst of a high and +noble environment it were doubly a disgrace to be low and base. In +intellectual and moral processes and results the important +consideration is not how much, but what and how. How much, for +instance, one has read or written gives us little insight into his +worth and character; but when we know what and how he has read and +written, we know something of his life. When I am told that America +has more schools, churches, and newspapers than any other land, I think +of their kind, and am tempted to doubt whether it were not better if we +had fewer. + +The more general and the higher the average education of the people, +the more urgent is the need of thoroughly cultivated and enlightened +minds to lead them wisely. The standard of our intellectual and +professional education is still low; and neither from the press nor the +pulpit nor legislative halls do we hear highest wisdom rightly uttered. +To be an intellectual force in this age one must know--must know much +and know thoroughly; for now in many places there are a few, at least, +who are acquainted with the whole history of thought and discovery, who +are familiar with the best thinking of the noblest minds that have ever +lived; and to imagine that a sciolist, a half-educated person, can have +anything new or important to impart is to delude one's self. + +But if you fail, you will fail like all who fail,--not from lack of +knowledge, but from lack of conduct; for the burden which in the end +bears us down is that of our moral delinquencies. All else we may +endure, but that is a sinking and giving way of the source of life +itself. It is better, in every way, that you should be true Christian +men than that you should do deeds which will make your names famous. +And if you could believe this with all your heart, you would find peace +and freedom of spirit, even though your labors should seem vain and +your lives of little moment. The more reason and conscience are +brought to bear upon you, the more will you be lifted into the high and +abiding world, where truth and love and holiness are recognized to be +man's proper and imperishable good. Become all it is possible for you +to become. What this is you can know only by striving day by day, from +youth to age, even unto the end; leaving the issue with God and His +master-workman, Time. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION. + + Progress, man's distinctive mark alone; + Not God's and not the beasts'; God is, they are; + Man partly is and wholly hopes to be.--Browning. + + +The partialness of man's life, the low level on which the race has been +content to dwell, is attributable, in no small measure, to the +injustice done to woman. It was assumed she was inferior, and to make +the assumption true, she was kept in ignorance, dwarfed and treated as +a means rather than as an end. + +The right to grow is the primal right; it is the right to live, to +unfold our being on every side in the ceaseless striving for truth and +love and beauty. In comparison with this, purely political and civil +rights are unimportant. And in a free state this fundamental right +must not only be acknowledged and defended, but a public opinion must +be created which shall declare it to be the most sacred and inviolable. +The principle is universal, and is as applicable to woman as to man. + +There is not a religion, a philosophy, a science, an art for man and +another for woman. Consequently there is not, in its essential +elements at least, an education for man and another for woman. In +souls, in minds, in consciences, in hearts, there is no sex. What is +the best education for woman? That which will best help her to become +a perfect human being, wise, loving, and strong. What is her work? +Whatever may help her to become herself. What is forbidden her? +Nothing but what degrades or narrows or warps. What has she the right +to do? Any good and beautiful and useful thing she is able to do +without hurt to her dignity and worth as a human being. + +Between her and man the real question is not of more and less, of +inferiority and superiority, but of unlikeness. Chastity is woman's +great virtue; truthfulness, which is the highest form of courage, is +man's; yet men and women are equally bound to be chaste and truthful. +Mildness and sweet reasonableness are woman's subtlest charms; wisdom +and valor, man's; yet women should be wise and brave, and men should be +mild and reasonable. The spiritual endowment of the sexes is much the +same, but they are not equally interested in the same things. Man +prefers thought; woman, sentiment; he reaches his conclusions through +analysis and argument; she, through feeling and intuition. He has +greater power of self-control; she, of self-sacrifice. He is guided by +law and principle; she, by insight and tact; he demands justice; she, +equity. He wishes to be honored for wealth and position; she, for +herself. For him what he possesses is a means; for her, something to +which she holds and is attached. He asks for power; she, for +affection. He derives his idea of duty from reason; she, from faith +and love. He prefers science and philosophy; she, literature and art. +His religion is a code of morality; hers, faith and hope and love and +imagination. For her, things easily become persons; for him, persons +are little more than things. She has greater power of self-effacement, +forgetting herself wholly in her love. Whether she marry or become a +nun, she abandons her name, the symbol of her identity, in proof that +she is dedicate to the race and to God. The arguments of infidels have +less weight with her than with man, for her sense of religion is more +genuine, her faith more inevitable. She passes over objections as a +chaste mind passes over what is coarse or impure. She more easily +finds complacency in her appearance and surroundings, but she has less +pride and conceit than man. She is more grateful, too, because she +loves more, and the heart makes memory true. If her greater fondness +for jewelry and showy adornment proves her to be more barbarous, her +greater refinement and chastity prove her to be more civilized than +man. And does not her delight in dress come of her care for beauty, +which in a world of coarse and ugly creatures is a virtue as fair as +the face of spring? Why should the flowers and the fields, the hills +and the heavens, be beautiful, and man hideous, and the cities where he +abides dismal? Are we but cattle to be stalled and fed? Are corn and +beef and iron the only good and useful things? Are we not human +because we think and admire, and are exalted in the presence of what is +infinitely true and divinely fair? + +Faith, hope, and love are larger and more enduring powers for woman +than for man. She feeds the sacred fire which never dies on the altars +of home and religion and country. She lives a more interior life, and +more easily retains consciousness of the soul's reality and of God's +presence. If she speaks less of patriotism in peaceful times, in the +hour of danger the white light flashes from her soul. It is this that +makes brave men think of their mothers and wives and sisters when they +march to battle. They know that those sweet hearts, however keen the +pangs they suffer, would rather have them dead than craven. When woman +shall grow to the full measure of her endowments, a purer flame will +glow upon the hearth, and love of country will be a more genuine +passion. + +If she gain a wider and more varied interest in life, she will become +happier, more willing and more able to help the progress of the race. +Like man, she exists for herself and God, and in her relations to +others, her duties are not to the home alone, but to the whole social +body, religious and civil. Whether man or woman, is a minor thing; to +be wise and worthy and loving is all in all. Our deeper consciousness +and practical recognition of the equality of the sexes is better +evidence that we are becoming Christian and civilized than popular +government and all our mechanical devices. We, however, still have +prejudices as ridiculous and harmful as that which made it unbecoming +in a woman to know anything or in a man of birth to engage in business. +If we hold that every human being has the right to do whatever is fair +or noble or useful, we must also hold that it is wrong to throw +hindrance in the way of the complete education of any human being. We +at last, however slowly, are approaching the standpoint of Christ, who, +with his divine eye upon the sexless soul, overlooks distinctions of +sex, and placing the good of life in knowing and loving, in being and +doing, makes it the privilege and duty of all to help all to know and +love, to become and do. Is it true? Is it right? These are the +immortal questions, springing from what within us is most like God, and +they who deal deceitfully with them have no claim upon attention. They +are jugglers and liars. + +What is developed is not really changed, but made more fully itself, +and by giving to woman a truer education, the beauty and charm of her +nature will be brought more effectively into play. None of us love "a +woman impudent and mannish grown;" but knowledge and culture and +strength of mind and heart and body have no tendency to produce such a +caricature. Whether there is question of man or woman, the aim and end +of education is to bring forth in the individual the divine image of +humanity as it exists in the thought of God, as it is revealed in the +life of Christ. + + "Yet in the long years liker must they grow; + The man be more of woman, she more of man: + He gain in sweetness and in moral height, + Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; + She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care; + More as the double-natured poet each." + + +The apothegm, man is born to do, woman to endure, no longer commends +itself to our judgment. Both are born to do and to endure; and in +educating girls, we now understand that it is our business to +strengthen them and to stimulate them to self-activity. We strive to +give them self-control, sanity, breadth of view, wide sympathies, and +an abiding sense of justice. One might, indeed, be tempted to think it +were well woman should retain a touch of folly, that she still may be +able to believe the man she loves is half divine; but to think so one +must be a man, with his genius for self-conceit. To train a girl +chiefly with a view to success in society is to pervert, is to hinder +from attaining to the power of free, rich, and varied life. It is to +neglect education for accomplishments; it is to prefer form to +substance, manner to conduct, graceful carriage and dress to thought +and love. We degrade her when we consider her as little else than a +candidate for matrimony. A man may remain single and become the +noblest of his kind, and so may a woman. Marriage is first of all for +the race; the individual may stand alone and grow to the full measure +of human strength and worth. The popular contempt for single women who +have reached a certain age, is but a survival of the contempt for all +women which is found among savages and barbarians. In the education of +woman, as of man, the end is increase of power,--of the might there is +in intelligence and love, of the strength there is in gentleness and +sweetness and light, of the vigor there is in health, in the rhythmic +pulse and in deep breathing, of the sustaining joy there is in pure +affection and in devotion to high purposes. Whether there is question +of boys or of girls, the safe way is to strive to make them all it is +possible for them to become, putting our trust for the rest in human +nature and in God; for talent, like genius, is a divine gift, and to +prevent its development is to sin against religion and humanity. For +girls as for boys, the aim should be not knowledge, but power; not +accomplishments, but faculty. Nine-tenths of what we learn in school +is quickly forgotten, and is valueless unless it issue in increase of +moral and intellectual strength. "In whatever direction I turn my +thoughts," says Schleiermacher, "it seems to me that woman's nature is +nobler and her life happier than man's; and if ever I play with an idle +wish it is that I might be a woman." Hardly any man, I imagine, would +rather be a woman, and many women doubtless would rather be men; and +yet there is much in Schleiermacher's thought, if we believe, as the +wise do believe, that love is the best, and that they who love most are +the highest and, therefore, the happiest, since the noblest mind the +best contentment has. + + What fountains to the desert are, + What flowers to the fresh young spring, + What heaven's breast is to the star, + That woman's love to earth doth bring. + + Whether mid deserts she is found, + Or girt about by happy home, + Where'er she treads is holy ground + Above which rises love's high dome. + + Or be she mother called or wife, + Or sister or the soul's twin mate, + She still is each man's best of life, + His crown of joy, his high estate. + + +What is our Christian faith but the revelation of the supreme and +infinite worth of love, as being of the essence of God himself? Is it +not easy to believe that to a loving soul in an all-chaste body the +unseen world may lie open to view? That Joan of Arc saw heavenly +visions and heard whisperings from higher worlds, who can doubt that +has considered how her most pure womanly soul redeemed a whole people, +and, by them forsaken, from midst fierce flames took its flight to God? + +Should women vote? The rule of the people is good only when it is the +rule of the good and wise among the people, and of these, women, in +great numbers, are part. The leadership of the best comes near to +being the leadership of God. But the question of the suffrage for +women is grave; it is one on which an enlightened mind will long hold +judgment in suspense. Does not political life, as it exists in our +democracy, tend to corrupt both voters and office-seekers? Is it not +largely a life of cant, pretence, and hypocrisy, of venality, +corruption, and selfishness, of lying, abuse, and vulgarity? Do not +public men, like public women, sell themselves, though in a different +way? Is the professional politician, the professional +caucus-manipulator, the professional voter, the type of man we can +admire or respect even? The objection so frequently raised, that +political life would corrupt women, has, at least, the merit of a +certain grim humorousness. Could it by any chance make them as bad as +it makes men? To tell them they are the queens of the home, to whom +the mingling with plebeians is degrading, is an insult to their +intelligence. We have forsworn kings and queens, both in private and +in public life, and at home women are, for the most part, drudges. +What need is there of a hollow phrase when the appeal to truth is +obvious? + + "A servant with this clause + Makes drudgery divine; + Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, + Makes that and the action fine." + +Active participation in political life is not a refining, an ennobling, +a purifying influence. Is it desirable that the half of the people to +which the interests of the home, of the heart, of the religious and +moral education of the young are especially committed, should be hurled +into the maelstrom of selfish passion and coarse excitement? + +The smartness and self-assertiveness of American women are already +excessive; they lack repose, serenity, and self-restraint. If they +rush into the arena of noisy and vulgar strife, will not the evil be +increased? Will not the political woman lose something of the sacred +power of the wife and mother? Are not the primal virtues, those which +make life good and fair and which are a woman's glory,--are they not +humble and quiet and unobtrusive? The suffrage has not emancipated the +masses of men, who are still held captive in the chains of poverty and +dehumanizing toil. + +Do women themselves, those, at least, in whom the woman soul, which +draws us on and upward, is most itself, desire that the vote be given +them? + +But whatever our opinions on the subject may be, let us not lose +composure. "If a great change is to be made," says Edmund Burke, "the +minds of men will be fitted to it, the general opinions and feelings +will draw that way. Every fear, every hope will forward it; and then +they who persist in opposing the mighty current will appear rather to +resist the decrees of Providence itself than the mere designs of men. +They will not be resolute and firm, but perverse and obstinate." + +Whether or not woman shall become a politician, there is no doubt that +she is becoming a worker in a constantly widening field. The +elementary education of the country is already intrusted to her. She +is taking her position in the higher institutions of learning. She has +gained admission to professional life. In the business world, her +competition with man is more and more felt. In literature, in our +country at least, her appreciativeness is greater than man's, and her +performance not inferior to his. There is a larger number of serious +students among women than among men. In the divinely imposed task of +self-education, they are fast becoming the chief workers. They are the +great readers of books, especially of poetry. The muse was the first +school-mistress, and the love of genuine poetry is still the finest +educational influence. The vulgar passions and coarse appetites which +rob young men of faith in the higher life and of the power to labor +perseveringly for ideal ends, have little hold upon the soul of woman. +Her betrayers are frivolity and vanity, and a too confiding heart; and +the more she is educated the less will she take delight in what is +merely external, and the greater will become her ability to bring +sentiment under the control of reason and conscience. + +There are not two educations, then, one for man, and another for woman, +but both alike we bid contend to the uttermost for completeness of +life; bid both trust in human educableness, which makes possible the +hope of attaining all divine things. True faith in education is ever +associated with genuine humility. Only they strive infinitely who feel +that their lack is infinite. + +The power of education is as many sided and as manifold as life. There +is no finest seed or flower or fruit, no most serviceable animal, which +has not been brought to perfection by human thought and labor, or +which, were this help withdrawn, would not degenerate; and if the +highest thought and the most intelligent labor were made to bear +ceaselessly upon the improvement of the race of man, we should have a +new world. + +When we consider all the beauty, knowledge, and love which are within +man's reach, how is it possible not to believe that infinitely more and +higher lie beyond? Call to mind whatever quality of life, physical, +intellectual, or moral, and you will have little difficulty in seeing +that it is a result of education. We are born, indeed, with unequal +endowments; but strength of limb, ease and swiftness of motion, grace +and fluency of speech, modulation of voice, distinctness of +articulation, correctness of pronunciation, power of attention, +fineness of ear, clearness of vision, control of hand and certainty of +touch in drawing, writing, painting, playing upon instruments and +operating with the knife, truth and vividness of imagination, force of +will, refinement of manner, perfection of taste, skill in argument, +purity of desire, rectitude of purpose, power of sympathy and love, +together with whatever else goes to the making of a perfect man or +woman, are all acquired through educational processes. + +Education is the training of a human being with a view to make him all +he may become; and hence it is possible to educate one's self in many +ways and on many sides. + +Refinement, grace, and cleanliness are aims and ends, as truly as are +vigor and suppleness of mind and strength and purity of heart. Like +sunshine and flowers and the songs of birds, they help to make life +pleasant and beautiful. Even the fishes are not clean, but the only +clean animal is here and there a man or a woman who has forsworn dirt +visible and invisible. We can educate ourselves in every direction, to +sleep well even, and neither physicians nor poets have told half the +good there is in sleep. The bare thought of it always brings to me the +memory of lulling showers, and grazing sheep, and murmuring streams, +and bees at work, and the breath of flowers and cooing doves and +children lying on the sward, and lazy clouds slumbering in azure skies. +It is pleasant as the approach of evening, fresh and fair as the rising +sun which sets all the world singing, sacred and pure as babes smiling +in their dreams on the breasts of gentle mothers. If thou canst not +see the divine worth in nature and in works of genius, it is because +thou art what thou art. Can the worm at thy feet recognize thy +superiority? The blind and the heedless see nothing, O foolish maid. + +What I know and love is of my very being, is, in fact, my knowing and +loving self. Quality of knowledge and love determines quality of life, +and when I know and love God I am divine. As trees are enrooted in +earth, as fishes are immersed in water, and our bodies in air, that +they may live, so the soul has its being in God that it may have life, +that it may know and love. I become self-conscious only in becoming +conscious of what is not myself; and when the not-myself is the +Eternal, is God, my self-consciousness is divine. The marvel and the +mystery of our being is that self-consciousness should exist at all, +not that it should continue to exist forever. But words cannot +strengthen or explain or destroy our belief in God, in the immortality +of the soul, and in the freedom of the will. The antagonism supposed +to exist between scientific facts or theories and religious faith would +cease to be recognized as real, were it not for the eagerness with +which those who are incapable of profound and comprehensive views, +catch up certain shibboleths and hurl them like firebrands upon the +combustible imaginations of the unthinking. + +To prove, means, in the proper sense of the word, to test, to bring +ideas, opinions, and beliefs to the ordeal of reason, of accepted +standards of judgment. It is a criticism of the mind and its +operations, and hence it may easily happen that to prove is to weaken +and unsettle. In what is most vital, in belief in God, immortality, +and freedom of the will, in religion and morality, our faith is +stronger than any proof that may be brought in its defence; and this is +not less true of our faith in the reality of nature and the laws of +science; and when this is made plain by criticism, those whose mental +grasp is weak or partial, are confused and tempted to doubt. They are +not helped, but harmed, and our ceaseless discussions and provings, in +press and pulpit, are the source of much of the unrest, religious +doubt, and moral weakness of the age. The people need to be taught by +those who know and believe, not by those whose skill is chiefly +syllogistic and critical. Philosophic speculation is like a vast +mountain into which men, generation after generation, have sunk shafts +in search of some priceless treasure, and have left in the materials +they have thrown out the mark and evidence of failure. But the noblest +minds will still be haunted by the infinite mystery which they will +seek in vain to explain. Their faith in reason, like that of the +vulgar, cannot be shaken, nor can defeat, running through thousands of +years, enfeeble their courage or dampen their ardor. Let our +increasing insight into Nature's laws fill us with thankfulness and +joy. It is good, and makes for good. Let us bow with respect and +reverence before the army of patient investigators who bring highly +disciplined faculties to bear upon the most useful researches. Let +knowledge grow. A nearer and truer view of the boundless fact will not +make the world less wonderful, or the soul less divine, or God less +adorable. If one should declare that it is contrary to the teachings +of faith to hold that conversation may be carried on by persons a +thousand miles apart, it would be sufficient to reply that such +conversation takes place, and that to attempt to annul fact by doctrine +is absurd. There is no excuse for the controversial conflict between +science and religion; for science is ascertained fact, not theory about +fact, and when fact is rightly ascertained it is accepted of all men. +The most certain fact, for each one, is that he knows and loves, and +that this power comes to him through communion with what is higher and +deeper and wider than himself,--with God. + +There was a time when collisions among the masses of the sidereal +system were frequent, shocks of unimaginable force by which the +celestial bodies were shivered into atoms, so that what now remains is +but a survival of worlds which escaped destruction in the chaotic +struggle when suns madly rushed on one another and rose in star-dust +about the face of God, who was, and is, and shall be, eternal and +forever the same. Where there is no thinker, there is no thing. It is +in, and through, and with Him that we know ourselves and our +environment; and recognize that our particular life is, in its +implications, universal and divine. He is the principle of unity which +is present in whatever is an object of thought, and which gives the +mind the power to co-ordinate the manifold of sensation into the +harmony of truth; He is the principle of goodness and beauty, which +makes the universe fair, and thrills the heart of man with hope and +love. Amid endless change, He alone is permanent, and He is power and +wisdom and love, and they only are good and wise and strong who cleave +to His eternal and absolute being. But since here and now the real +world of matter as distinguished from the apparent is hidden behind the +veil of sense, it is vain to hope that the world of eternal life shall +be made plain to the pure reason. Religion, like life, is faith, hope, +and love, striving and doing, not intellectual intuition and beatific +vision. We find it impossible to separate our thought of God from that +of infinite goodness and love; but when we look away from our own souls +to Nature's pitiless and fatal laws, we realize that this faith in +all-embracing and all-conquering love is opposed by seemingly +insurmountable difficulties. It is a mystery we believe, not a truth +we comprehend. Systems of philosophy, morality, and religion, however +cunningly devised, cannot make men philosophers, sages, or saints. +This they can become only through the communion which faith, hope, and +love have power to establish with the living fountain-head of truth, +wisdom, and goodness. + +The pursuit of knowledge, like the struggle for wealth and place, ends +in disillusion, in the disappointment which results from the contrast +between what we hope for and what we attain. The greater the success, +the more complete the disenchantment. As the rich and famous best see +the unsatisfactoriness of wealth and honor, so they who know much best +understand how knowledge avails not, how it is but a cloud-built +citadel, whose foundations rest upon the uncertain air, whose walls and +turrets lose in substance what they gain in height. When we imagine we +know all things, we awake as from a dream to find that we know nothing, +that our knowing is but a believing, our science but a faith. We are +little children who wander in a father's wide domain, seeing many +things and understanding not anything, who imagine we are in a real and +abiding world, while in truth we are but passing through the +picture-gallery of the senses. + + Faith, Hope, and Love:--these three + Are life's deep root; + They reach into infinity, + Whence life doth shoot. + But Faith and Hope have not attained + The Eternal best; + While Love, sweet Love, the end has gained,-- + In God to rest. + + +So long as these life-begetting, life-sustaining, and life-developing +powers hold mightier sway over the soul of woman than over that of man, +so long will woman's heel crush the serpent's head and woman's arms +bear salvation to the world. She will not worship the rising sun, or +become the idolatress of success, but within her heart will cherish +fallen heroes and lost causes and the memory of all the sorrows by +which God humanizes the world. + +If we consider mankind merely as a phenomenon, the extinction of the +race need give us little more concern than the disappearance of +Pterodactyls and Ichthyosauri. What repels from such contemplation is +not man's physical, but his spiritual being,--that which makes him +capable of thought and love, of faith and hope. The universe is +anthropomorphized, for whithersoever man looks he sees the reflection +of his own countenance. What he calls things are stamped with the +impress and likeness of himself, as he himself is an image of the +eternal mind, in which all things are mirrored. + +An atheist or a materialist, an agnostic or a pessimist, may have +greater knowledge, greater intellectual force than the most devout +believer in God; but is it possible for him to feel so thoroughly at +home in the world, to feel so deeply that, whatever happens, it is and +will be well with him? In an atheistic world the spirit of man is ill +at ease. He who has no God makes himself the centre of all things, +and, like a spoiled child, loses the power to admire, to enjoy, and to +love. Genuine faith in God is such an infinite force that one may be +tempted to doubt whether it is found. + +Undisciplined minds become victims of the formulas they receive, and if +what they have accepted as truth is shown to be false or incomplete, +they grow discouraged and lose faith; but the wise know that the verbal +vesture of truth is a symbol which has but a proximate and relative +value. The spirit is alive, and ceaselessly outgrows or transmutes the +body with which it is clothed. What we can do with anything,--with +money, knowledge, wealth,--depends on what we are. Ruskin prefers holy +work to holy worship; but the antithesis is mistaken, for if worship is +holy it impels to work, if work is holy it impels to worship. God's +most sacred visible temple is a human body, and its profanation is the +worst sacrilege. + +All true belief, when we come to the last analysis, is belief in God, +and the teacher of religion must keep this fact always in view. + +The law of the struggle for life applies to opinions, beliefs, hopes, +aims, ideals, just as it applies to individuals and species. Whatever +survives, survives through conflict, because it is fit to survive. It +does not follow, however, that the best survives, though we must think +that in the end this is so, since we believe in God. When serious +minds grapple with problems so remote from vulgar opinion that they +seem to be meaningless or insoluble, the multitude, ever ready, like a +crowd of boys, to mock and jeer, break forth into insult. These men, +they cry are wicked, or they are fools. + +In a society where it is assumed that all are equal, those who are +really superior incur suspicion as though it were criminal to be +different from the multitude; and hence they rarely win the favor of +the crowd. The life-current of those who stir up a noise about them, +runs shallow. The champion of the prize-ring or the race-course is +hailed with shouts, for the crowd understand the achievement; but what +can they know of the worth of a sage or a saint? The noblest struggles +are of the mind and heart wrestling with unseen powers, with spirits, +as St. Paul says, that they may compel them to give up the secret of +truth and holiness. A glimpse of truth, a thrill of love, is better +than the applause of a whole city. In striving steadfastly for thy own +perfection and the happiness of others thou walkest and workest with +God. Thy progress will help others to labor for their own, and the +happiness thou givest will return to thee and become thine; and what is +the will of God, if it is not the perfection and happiness of his +children? To have merely enough strength to bear life's burden, to do +the daily task, to face the cares which return with the sun and follow +us into the night, is to be weak, is to lack the strong spirit for +which work is light as play, and whose secret is heard in whispers by +the hero and the saint. To be able to give joy and help to others we +must have more life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness than we need for +ourselves; and it is in giving joy and help to others that we ourselves +receive increase of life, wisdom, virtue, and happiness. Be persuaded +within thy deepest soul, that moral evil can never be good, and that +sin can never be gain. So act that if all men acted as thou, all would +be well. If to be like others is thy aim, thou art predestined to +remain inferior. To be followed and applauded is to be diverted from +one's work. Better alone with it in a garret than a guest in a banquet +hall. + + Let thy prayer be work and work thy prayer, + As God's truth and love are everywhere, + And whether by word or deed thou strive + In Him alone thou canst be alive. + + +If thou hast done thy best, God will give it worth. + +If thou carest not for truth and love, for thee they are nothing worth; +but it is because thou thyself art worthless. Wisdom and virtue is all +thou lackest; of other things thou hast enough. When the passion for +self-improvement is strong within us, all our relations to our +fellow-men and nature receive new meaning and power, as opportunities +to make ourselves what it is possible for us to become; and as we grow +accustomed to take this view of whatever happens, we are made aware +that disagreeable things are worth as much as the pleasant, that foes +are as useful as friends. The obstacle arrests attention, provokes +effort, and educates. It throws the light back upon the eye, and +reveals the world of color and form; from it all sounds reverberate. +We grow by overcoming; the force we conquer becomes our own. We rise +on difficulties we surmount. What opposes, arouses, strengthens, and +disciplines the will, discloses to the mind its power, and implants +faith in the efficacy of patient, persevering labor. They who shrink +from the combat are already defeated. To make everything easy is to +smooth the way whereby we descend. To surround the young with what +they ought themselves to achieve is to enfeeble and corrupt them. +Happy is the poor man's son, who whithersoever he turns, sees the +obstacle rise to challenge him to become a man; miserable the children +of the rich, whose cursed-blessed fortune is an ever-present invitation +to idleness and conceit. O mothers, you whose love is the best any of +us have known, harden your sons, and urge them on, not in the race for +wealth, but in the steep and narrow way wherein, through self-conquest +and self-knowledge, they rise toward God and all high things. Nothing +that has ever been said of your power tells the whole truth, and the +only argument against you is the men who are your children. Education +is always the result of personal influence. A mother, a father in the +home, a pure and loving heart at the altar, a true man or woman in the +school, a noble mind uttering itself in literature, which is personal +thought and expression,--these are the forces which educate. Life +proceeds from life, and religion, which is the highest power of life, +can proceed only from God and religious souls. Not by preaching and +teaching, but by living the life, can we make ourselves centres of +spiritual influence. + +Be like others, walk in the broad way, one of a herd, content to graze +in a common pasture, believing equality man's highest law, though its +meaning be equality with the brute. Is this our ideal? It is an +atheistic creed. There is no God, there is nothing but matter, but +atoms, and atoms are alike and equal,--let men be so too. To struggle +with infinite faith and hope for some divine good is idolatry, is to +believe in God; to be one's self is the unpardonable sin. It is thy +aim to rise, to distinguish thyself; this means thou wouldst have +higher place, more money, a greater house than thy neighbor's. It is a +foolish ambition. Instead of trying to distinguish thyself, strive to +become thyself, to make thyself worthy of the approval of God and wise +men. "I am not to be pitied, my lord," said Bayard; "I die doing my +duty." God has not given His world into thy keeping, but he has given +thee to thyself to fashion and complete. If thou art busy seeking +money or pleasure or praise, little time will remain wherein to seek +and find thyself. They who are interesting to themselves, are +interesting to themselves alone. The self-absorbed are the victims of +mental and moral disease. The life which flows out to others, bearing +light and warmth and fragrance, feels itself in the blessings it gives; +that which is self-centred, stagnates like a pool, and becomes the +habitation of doleful creatures. + +There is a popularity which is born of the worship of noble deeds,--it +is the best. There is another, which comes of the crowd's passion for +what is noisy and spectacular,--it is the worst. The one is the +popularity of heroes, the other that of charlatans. + +Whatever thy chosen work, it is thy business to make thyself a man or a +woman, and not a mere specialist; yet in following a specialty with +enthusiasm, thou shalt go farther towards perfection and completeness +of life than the multitude of pretenders, who are not in earnest about +anything. Every harsh and unjust sentiment, every narrow and unworthy +thought consented to and entertained, remains like a stain upon +character. Whoever speaks or writes against freedom or knowledge or +faith in God, or love of man or reverence of woman, but makes himself +ridiculous; for men feel and believe that their true world is a world +of high thoughts and noble sentiments, and they can neither respect nor +trust those who strive to weaken their hold upon this world. Become +thyself; do thy work. For this, all thy days are not too many or too +long. If thou and it are worthy to be known, the presentation can be +made in briefest time; and it matters little though it be deferred +until after thy death. + +Besides whatever other conditions, time is necessary to bring the best +things to maturity, and to imagine that excellence demands less than +lifelong work, is to mistake. It is by the patient observation of the +infinitesimal that science has done its best work; and it is only by +unwearying attention to the thousand little things of life that we may +hope to make some approach to moral and intellectual perfection. He +who works with joy and cheerfulness in the field which himself has +found and chosen, will acquire knowledge and skill, and his labor will +be transformed into increase and newness of life. + +We gain a clear view of things only when we set them apart from +ourselves, and contemplate them simply as objects of thought. To see +them aright we must be free from emotion and behold them in the cold +air of the intellect. To look on them as in some way bound up with our +personal good or evil, is to have the vision blurred. Study in the +spirit of an investigator, who has no other than a scientific interest +in what he sets himself to examine. The wise physician is wholly +intent upon making a correct diagnosis, though the patient be his +mother. What gain would self-delusion bring him or her he loves? +Things are what they are, and it is our business to know them. Observe +and hold thy judgment in suspense until patient looking shall have made +truth so plain that to pass judgment is superfluous. + +The aim of mental training is clearness and accuracy of view, together +with the strength to keep steadfastly looking into the world of +intelligible things. What rouses desire tends to enslave; what gives +delight tends to liberate; the one appeals to the senses, the other to +the soul. Hence, intellectual and moral pleasures alone are associated +with the sense of freedom and pure joy. The lovers of freedom are as +rare as the lovers of truth and of God. For most, liberty is but a +trader's commodity, to be parted with for price, as their obedience is +a slave's service. The chief good consists in acting justly and nobly, +rather than in thinking acutely and profoundly. The free play of the +mind is delightful, but the law of moral obligation is the deepest +thing in us. Honor, place, and wealth, which are won at the price of +self-improvement, the wise will not desire. Great opportunities seldom +present themselves, but every moment of every hour of thy conscious +life is an opportunity to improve thyself, which for thee is the best +and most necessary thing. Since our power over others is small, but +over ourselves large, let us devote our energies to self-improvement. +"Nor let any man say," writes Locke, "he cannot govern his passions, +nor hinder them from breaking out and carrying him into action; for +what he can do before a prince or great man he can do alone or in the +presence of God, if he will." + +The sure way to happiness is to yield ourselves wholly to God, knowing +that he has care of us, and at the same time to seek to draw from life +whatever joy and delight it may bestow upon a high mind and a pure +heart, receiving the blessing gladly, conscious all the while that what +is external cannot really be ours, and is not, therefore, necessary to +our contentment. + +That many are wiser and stronger than thou, is not a motive for +discouragement; the depressing thought is, that so few are wise and +strong. He who gives his whole life to what he believes he is most +capable of doing, succeeds, whatever be the worth of his work. There +are many who are busy with many things; but one who has a high purpose, +and who devotes all his energies to its fulfillment, is not easily +found; and great and interesting characters are, therefore, rare. + +To what better use can we put life than to employ it in ameliorating +life? It is to this every wise and good man devotes himself, whether +he be priest or teacher, physician or lawyer, philosopher or poet, +captain of industry or statesman. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION. + +Our system of Public-School Education is a result of the faith of the +people in the need of universal intelligence for the maintenance of +popular government. Does this system include moral training? Since +the teaching of religious doctrines is precluded, this, I imagine, is +what we are to consider in discussing the Scope of Public-School +Education. The equivalents of scope are aim, end, opportunity, range +of view; and the equivalents of education are training, discipline, +development, instruction. The proper meaning of the word education, it +seems, is not a drawing out, but a training up, as vines are trained to +lay hold of and rise by means of what is stronger than themselves. My +subject, then, is the aim, end, opportunity, and range of view of +public-school education, which to be education at all, in any true +sense, must be a training, discipline, development, and instruction of +man's whole being, physical, intellectual, and moral. This, I suppose, +is what Herbert Spencer means when he defines education to be a +preparation for complete living. Montaigne says the end of education +is wisdom and virtue; Comenius declares it to be knowledge, virtue, and +religion; Milton, likeness to God through virtue and faith; Locke, +health of body, virtue, and good manners; Herbart, virtue, which is the +realization in each one of the idea of inner freedom; while Kant and +Fichte declare it to consist chiefly in the formation of character. +All these thinkers agree that the supreme end of education is spiritual +or ethical. The controlling aim, then, should be, not to impart +information, but to upbuild the being which makes us human, to form +habits of right thinking and doing. The ideal is virtually that of +Israel,--that righteousness is life,--though the Greek ideal of beauty +and freedom may not be excluded. It is the doctrine that manners make +the man, that conduct is three-fourths of life, leaving but one-fourth +for intellectual activity and aesthetic enjoyment; and into this fourth +of life but few ever enter in any real way, while all are called and +may learn to do good and avoid evil. + +"In the end," says Ruskin, "the God of heaven and earth loves active, +modest, and kind people, and hates idle, proud, greedy, and cruel +ones." We can all learn to become active, modest, and kind; to turn +from idleness, pride, greed, and cruelty. But we cannot all make +ourselves capable of living in the high regions of pure thought and +ideal beauty; and for the few even who are able to do this, it is still +true that conduct is three-fourths of life. + +"The end of man," says Buechner, "is conversion into carbonic acid, +water, and ammonia." This also is an ideal, and he thinks we should be +pleased to know that in dying we give back to the universe what had +been lent. He moralizes too; but if all we can know of our destiny is +that we shall be converted into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, the +sermon may be omitted. On such a faith it is not possible to found a +satisfactory system of education. Men will always refuse to think thus +meanly of themselves, and in answer to those who would persuade them +that they are but brutes, they will, with perfect confidence, claim +kinship with God; for from an utterly frivolous view of life both our +reason and our instinct turn. + +The Scope of Public-School Education is to co-operate with the +physical, social, and religious environment to form good and wise men +and women. Unless we bear in mind that the school is but one of +several educational agencies, we shall not form a right estimate of its +office. It depends almost wholly for its success upon the kind of +material furnished it by the home, the state, and the church; and, to +confine our view to our own country, I have little hesitation in +affirming that our home life, our social and political life, and our +religious life have contributed far more to make us what we are than +any and all of our schools. The school, unless it works in harmony +with these great forces, can do little more than sharpen the wits. +Many of the teachers of our Indian schools are doubtless competent and +earnest; but their pupils, when they return to their tribes, quickly +lose what they have gained, because they are thrown into an environment +which annuls the ideals that prevailed in the school. The controlling +aim of our teachers should be, therefore, to bring their pedagogical +action into harmony with what is best in the domestic, social, and +religious life of the child; for this is the foundation on which they +must build, and to weaken it is to expose the whole structure to ruin. +Hence the teacher's attitude toward the child should be that of +sympathy with him in his love for his parents, his country, and his +religion. His reason is still feeble, and his life is largely one of +feeling; and the fountain-heads of his purest and noblest feelings are +precisely his parents, his country, and his religion, and to tamper +with them is to poison the wells whence he draws the water of life. To +assume and hold this attitude with sincerity and tact is difficult; it +requires both character and culture; it implies a genuine love of +mankind and of human excellence; reverence for whatever uplifts, +purifies, and strengthens the heart; knowledge of the world, of +literature, and of history, united with an earnest desire to do +whatever may be possible to lead each pupil toward life in its +completeness, which is health and healthful activity of body and mind +and heart and soul. + +As the heart makes the home, the teacher makes the school. What we +need above all things, wherever the young are gathered for education, +is not a showy building, or costly apparatus, or improved methods or +text-books, but a living, loving, illumined human being who has deep +faith in the power of education and a real desire to bring it to bear +upon those who are intrusted to him. This applies to the primary +school with as much force as to the high school and university. Those +who think, and they are, I imagine, the vast majority, that any one who +can read and write, who knows something of arithmetic, geography, and +history, is competent to educate young children, have not even the most +elementary notions of what education is. + +What the teacher is, not what he utters and inculcates, is the +important thing. The life he lives, and whatever reveals that life to +his pupils; his unconscious behavior, even; above all, what in his +inmost soul he hopes, believes, and loves, have far deeper and more +potent influence than mere lessons can ever have. It is precisely here +that we Americans, whose talent is predominantly practical and +inventive, are apt to go astray. We have won such marvellous victories +with our practical sense and inventive genius that we have grown +accustomed to look to them for aid, whatever the nature of the +difficulty or problem may be. Machinery can be made to do much, and to +do well what it does. With its help we move rapidly; we bring the ends +of the earth into instantaneous communication; we print the daily +history of the world and throw it before every door; we plough and we +sow and we reap; we build cities, and we fill our houses with whatever +conduces to comfort or luxury. All this and much more machinery +enables us to do. But it cannot create life, nor can it, in any +effective way, promote vital processes. Now, education is essentially +a vital process. It is a furthering of life; and as the living proceed +from the living, they can rise into the wider world of ideas and +conduct only by the help of the living; and as in the physical realm +every animal begets after its own likeness, so also in the spiritual +the teacher can give but what he has. If the well-spring of truth and +love has run dry within himself, he teaches in vain. His words will no +more bring forth life than desert winds will clothe arid sands with +verdure. Much talking and writing about education have chiefly helped +to obscure a matter which is really plain. The purpose of the public +school is or should be not to form a mechanic or a specialist of any +kind, but to form a true man or woman. Hence the number of things we +teach the child is of small moment. Those schools, in fact, in which +the greatest number of things are taught give, as a rule, the least +education. The character of the Roman people, which enabled them to +dominate the earth and to give laws to the world, was formed before +they had schools, and when their schools were most flourishing they +themselves were in rapid moral and social dissolution. We make +education and religion too much a social affair, and too little a +personal affair. Their essence lies in their power to transform the +individual, and it is only in transforming him that they recreate the +wider life of the community. The Founder of Christianity addressed +himself to the individual, and gave little heed to the state or other +environment. He looked to a purified inner source of life to create +for itself a worthier environment, and simply ignored devices for +working sudden and startling changes. They who have entered into the +hidden meaning of this secret and this method turn in utter incredulity +from the schemes of declaimers and agitators. + +The men who fill the world, each with his plan for reforming and saving +it, may have their uses, since the poet tells us there are uses in +adversity, which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a +precious jewel in its head; but to one deafened by their discordant and +clamorous voices, the good purpose they serve seems to be as mythical +as the jewel in the toad's head. + +Have not those who mistake their crotchets for Nature's laws invaded +our schools? Have they not succeeded in forming a public opinion and +in setting devices at work which render education, in the true sense of +the word, if not impossible, difficult? Literature is a criticism of +life, made by those who are in love with life, and have the deepest +faith in its possibilities; and all criticism which is inspired by +sympathy and faith and controlled by knowledge is helpful. Complacent +thoughts are rarely true, and hardly ever useful. It is a prompting of +nature to turn from what we have to what we lack, for thus only is +there hope of amendment and progress. We are, to quote Emerson, + + "Built of furtherance and pursuing, + Not of spent deeds, but of doing." + + +Hence the wise and the strong dwell not upon their virtues and +accomplishments, but strive to learn wherein they fail, for it is in +correcting this they desire to labor. They wish to know the truth +about themselves, are willing to try to see themselves as others see +them, that self-knowledge may make self-improvement possible. They +turn from flattery, for they understand that flattery is insult. Now, +if this is the attitude of wise and strong men, how much more should it +not be that of a wise and strong people? Whenever persons or things +are viewed as related in some special way to ourselves, our opinions of +them will hardly be free from bias. When, for instance, I think or +speak of my country, my religion, my friends, my enemies, I find it +difficult to put away the prejudice which my self-esteem and vanity +create, and which, like a haze, ever surrounds me to color or obscure +the pure light of reason. It cannot do us harm to have our defects and +shortcomings pointed out to us; but to be told by demagogues and +declaimers that we are the greatest, the most enlightened, the most +virtuous people which exists or has existed, can surely do us no good. +If it is true, we should not dwell upon it, for this will but distract +us from striving for the things in which we are deficient; and if it is +false, it can only mislead us and nourish a foolish conceit. It is the +orator's misfortune to be compelled to think of his audience rather +than of truth. It is his business to please, persuade, and convince; +and men are pleased with flattering lies, persuaded and convinced by +appeals to passion and interest. Happier is the writer, who need not +think of a reader, but finds his reward in the truth he expresses. + +It is not possible for an enlightened mind not to take profound +interest in our great system of public education. To do this he need +not think it the best system. He may deem it defective in important +requisites. He may hold, as I hold, that the system is of minor +importance, the kind of teacher being all important. But if he loves +his country, if he loves human excellence, if he has faith in man's +capacity for growth, he cannot but turn his thoughts, with abiding +attention and sympathy, to the generous and determined efforts of a +powerful and vigorous people to educate themselves. Were our +public-school system nothing more than the nation's profession of faith +in the transforming power of education, it would be an omen of good and +a ground for hope; and one cannot do more useful work than to help to +form a public opinion which will accept with thankfulness the free play +of all sincere minds about this great question, and which will cause +the genuine lovers of our country to turn in contempt from the clamors +politicians and bigots are apt to raise when an honest man utters +honest thought on this all-important subject. + +I am willing to assume and to accept as a fact that our theological +differences make it impossible to introduce the teaching of any +religious creed into the public school. I take the system as it +is,--that is, as a system of secular education,--and I address myself +more directly to the question proposed: What is or should be its scope? + +The fact that religious instruction is excluded makes it all the more +necessary that humanizing and ethical aims should be kept constantly in +view. Whoever teaches in a public school should be profoundly +convinced that man is more than an animal which may be taught cunning +and quickness. A weed in blossom may have a certain beauty, but it +will bear no fruit; and so the boy or youth one often meets, with his +irreverent smartness, his precocious pseudo-knowledge of a hundred +things, may excite a kind of interest, but he gives little promise of a +noble future. The flower of his life is the blossom of the weed, which +in its decay will poison the air, or, at the best, serve but to +fertilize the soil. If we are to work to good purpose we must take our +stand, with the great thinkers and educators, on the broad field of +man's nature, and act in the light of the only true ideal of +education,--that its end is wisdom, virtue, knowledge, power, +reverence, faith, health, behavior, hope, and love; in a word, whatever +powers and capacities make for intelligence, for conduct, for +character, for completeness of life. Not for a moment should we permit +ourselves to be deluded by the thought that because the teaching of +religious creeds is excluded, therefore we may make no appeal to the +fountain-heads which sleep within every breast, the welling of whose +waters alone has power to make us human. If we are forbidden to turn +the current into this or that channel, we are not forbidden to +recognize the universal truth that man lives by faith, hope, and love, +by imagination and desire, and that it is precisely for this reason +that he is educable. We move irresistibly in the lines of our real +faith and desire, and the educator's great purpose is to help us to +believe in what is high and to desire what is good. Since for the +irreverent and vulgar spirit nothing is high or good, reverence, and +the refinement which is the fruit of true intelligence, urge +ceaselessly their claims on the teacher's attention. Goethe, I +suppose, was little enough of a Christian to satisfy the demands of an +agnostic cripple even, and yet he held that the best thing in man is +the thrill of awe; and that the chief business of education is to +cultivate reverence for whatever is above, beneath, around, and within +us. This he believed to be the only philosophical and healthful +attitude of mind and heart towards the universe, seen and unseen. May +not the meanest flower that blows bring thoughts that lie too deep for +tears? Is not reverence a part of all the sweetest and purest feelings +which bind us to father and mother, to friends and home and country? +Is it not the very bloom and fragrance, not only of the highest +religious faith, but also of the best culture? Let the thrill of awe +cease to vibrate, and you will have a world in which money is more than +man, office better than honesty, and books like "Innocents Abroad" or +"Peck's Bad Boy" more indicative of the kind of man we form than are +the noblest works of genius. What is the great aim of the primary +school, if it is not the nutrition of feeling? The child is weak in +mind, weak in will, but he is most impressionable. Feeble in thought, +he is strong in capacity to feel the emotions which are the sap of the +tree of moral life. He responds quickly to the appeals of love, +tenderness, and sympathy. He is alive to whatever is noble, heroic, +and venerable. He desires the approbation of others, especially of +those whom he believes to be true and high and pure, he has +unquestioning faith, not only in God but in great men, who, for him, +indeed, are earthly gods. Is not his father a divine man, whose mere +word drives away all fear and fills him with confidence? The touch of +his mother's hand stills his pain; if he is frightened, her voice is +enough to soothe him to sleep. To imagine that we are educating this +being of infinite sensibility and impressionability when we do little +else than teach him to read, write, and cipher, is to cherish a +delusion. It is not his destiny to become a reading, writing, and +ciphering machine, but to become a man who believes, hopes, and loves; +who holds to sovereign truth, and is swayed by sympathy; who looks up +with reverence and awe to the heavens, and hearkens with cheerful +obedience to the call of duty; who has habits of right thinking and +well doing which have become a law unto him, a second nature. And if +it be said that we all recognize this to be so, but that it is not the +business of the school to help to form such a man; that it does its +work when it sharpens the wits, I will answer with the words of William +von Humboldt: "Whatever we wish to see introduced into the life of a +nation must first be introduced into its schools." + +Now, what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation is not +the power of shrewd men, wholly absorbed in the striving for wealth, +reckless of the means by which it is gotten, and who, whether they +succeed or whether they fail, look upon money as the equivalent of the +best things man knows or has; who therefore think that the highest +purpose of government, as of other social forces and institutions, is +to make it easy for all to get abundance of gold and to live in sloven +plenty; but what we wish to see introduced into the life of the nation +is the power of intelligence and virtue, of wisdom and conduct. We +believe, and in fact know, that humanity, justice, truthfulness, +honesty, honor, fidelity, courage, integrity, reverence, purity, and +self-respect are higher and mightier than anything mere sharpened wits +can accomplish. But if these virtues, which constitute nearly the +whole sum of man's strength and worth, are to be introduced into the +life of the nation, they must be introduced into the schools, into the +process of education. We must recognize, not in theory alone but in +practice, that the chief end of education is ethical, since conduct is +three-fourths of human life. The aim must be to make men true in +thought and word, pure in desire, faithful in act, upright in deed; men +who understand that the highest good does not lie in the possession of +anything whatsoever, but that it lies in power and quality of being; +for whom what we are and not what we have is the guiding principle; who +know that the best work is not that for which we receive most pay, but +that which is most favorable to life, physical, moral, intellectual, +and religious; since man does not exist for work or the Sabbath, but +work and rest exist for him, that he may thrive and become more human +and more divine. We must cease to tell boys and girls that education +will enable them to get hold of the good things of which they believe +the world to be full; we must make them realize rather that the best +thing in the world is a noble man or woman, and to be that is the only +certain way to a worthy and contented life. All talk about patriotism +which implies that it is possible to be a patriot or a good citizen +without being a true and good man, is sophistical and hollow. How +shall he who cares not for his better self care for his country? + +We must look, as educators, most closely to those sides of the national +life where there is the greatest menace of ruin. It is plain that our +besetting sin, as a people, is not intemperance or unchastity, but +dishonesty. From the watering and manipulating of stocks to the +adulteration of food and drink, from the booming of towns and lands to +the selling of votes and the buying of office, from the halls of +Congress to the policeman's beat, from the capitalist who controls +trusts and syndicates to the mechanic who does inferior work, the taint +of dishonesty is everywhere. We distrust one another, distrust those +who manage public affairs, distrust our own fixed will to suffer the +worst that may befall rather than cheat or steal or lie. Dishonesty +hangs, like mephitic air, about our newspapers, our legislative +assemblies, the municipal government of our towns and cities, about our +churches even, since our religion itself seems to lack that highest +kind of honesty, the downright and thorough sincerity which is its +life-breath. + +If the teacher in the public school may not insist that an honest man +is the noblest work of God, he may teach at least that he who fails in +honesty fails in the most essential quality of manhood, enters into +warfare with the forces which have made him what he is, and which +secure him the possession of what he holds dearer than himself, since +he barters for it his self-respect; that the dishonest man is an +anarchist and dissocialist, one who does what in him lies to destroy +credit, and the sense of the sacredness of property, obedience to law, +and belief in the rights of man. If our teachers are to work in the +light of an ideal, if they are to have a conscious end in view, as all +who strive intelligently must have, if they are to hold a principle +which will give unity to their methods, they must seek it in the idea +of morality, of conduct, which is three-fourths of life. + +I myself am persuaded that the real and philosophical basis of morality +is the being of God, a being absolute, infinite, unimaginable, +inconceivable, of whom our highest and nearest thought is that he is +not only almighty, but all-wise and all-good as well. But it is +possible, I think, to cultivate the moral sense without directly and +expressly assigning to it this philosophical and religious basis; for +goodness is largely its own evidence, as virtue is its own reward. It +all depends on the teacher. Life produces life, life develops life; +and if the teacher have within himself a living sense of the +all-importance of conduct, if he thoroughly realize that what we call +knowledge is but a small part of man's life, his influence will nourish +the feelings by which character is evolved. The germ of a moral idea +is always an emotion, and that which impels to right action is the +emotion rather than the idea. The teachings of the heart remain +forever, and they are the most important; for what we love, genuinely +believe in, and desire decides what we are and may become. Hence the +true educator, even in giving technical instruction, strives not merely +to make a workman, but to make also a man, whose being shall be touched +to finer issues by spiritual powers, who shall be upheld by faith in +the worth and sacredness of life, and in the education by which it is +transformed, enriched, purified, and ennobled. He understands that an +educated man, who, in the common acceptation of the phrase, is one who +knows something, who knows many things, is, in truth, simply one who +has acquired habits of right thinking and right doing. The culture +which we wish to see prevail throughout our country is not learning and +literary skill; it is character and intellectual openness,--that higher +humanity which is latent within us all; which is power, wisdom, truth, +goodness, love, sympathy, grace, and beauty; whose surpassing +excellence the poor may know as well as the rich; whose charm the +multitude may feel as well as the chosen few. + +"He who speaks of the people," says Guicciardini, "speaks, in sooth, of +a foolish animal, a prey to a thousand errors, a thousand confusions, +without taste, without affection, without firmness." The scope of our +public-school education is to make common-places of this kind, by which +all literature is pervaded, so false as to be absurd; and when this end +shall have been attained, Democracy will have won its noblest victory. + +How shall we find the secret from which hope of such success will +spring? By so forming and directing the power of public opinion, of +national approval, and of money, as to make the best men and women +willing and ready to enter the teacher's profession. The kind of man +who educates is the test of the kind of education given, and there is +properly no other test. When we Americans shall have learned to +believe with all our hearts and with all the strength of irresistible +conviction that a true educator is a more important, in every way a +more useful, sort of man than a great railway king, or pork butcher, or +captain of industry, or grain buyer, or stock manipulator, we shall +have begun to make ourselves capable of perceiving the real scope of +public-school education. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. + +The theory of development, which is now widely received and applied to +all things, from star dust to the latest fashion, is at once a sign and +a cause of the almost unlimited confidence which we put in the remedial +and transforming power of education. We no longer think of God as +standing aloof from nature and the course of history. He it is who +works in the play of atoms and in the throbbings of the human heart; +and as we perceive his action in the evolution both of matter and of +mind, we know and feel that, when with conscious purpose we strive to +call forth and make living the latent powers of man's being, we are +working with him in the direction in which he impels the universe. +Education, therefore, we look upon as necessary, not merely because it +is indispensable to any high and human kind of life, but also because +God has made development the law both of conscious and unconscious +nature. He is in act all that the finite may become, and the effort to +grow in strength, knowledge, and virtue springs from a divine impulse. + +Although we know that the earth is not the centre of the universe, that +it is but a minor satellite, a globule lost in space, our deepest +thought still finds that the end of nature is the production of +rational beings, of man; for the final reason for which all things +exist is that the infinite good may be communicated; and since the +highest good is truth and holiness, it can be communicated only to +beings who think and love. Hence all things are man's, and he exists +that he may make himself like God; in other words, that he may educate +himself; for the end of education is to fit him for completeness of +life, to train all his faculties, to call all his endowments into play, +to make him symmetrical and whole in body and soul. This, of course, +is the ideal, and consequently the unattainable; but in the light of +ideals alone do we see rightly and judge truly; and to take a lower +view of the aim and end of education is to take a partial view. To +hold that God is, and that man truly lives only in so far as he is made +partaker of the divine life, is, by implication, to hold that his +education should be primarily and essentially religious. Our opinions +and beliefs, however, are never the result of purely rational +processes, and hence a mere syllogism has small persuasive force, or +even no influence at all, upon our way of looking at things, or the +motives which determine action. + +As it is useless to argue against the nature of things, so we generally +plead in vain when our world-view is other than that of those whom we +seek to convince; for those who observe from different points either do +not see the same objects or do not see them in the same light. Life is +complex, and the springs of thought and action are controlled in +mysterious ways by forces and impulses which we neither clearly +understand nor accurately measure. What is called the spirit of the +age, the spirit which, as the Poet says, sits at the roaring loom of +time and weaves for God the garment whereby He is made visible to us, +exercises a potent influence upon all our thinking and doing. We live +in an era of progress, and progress means differentiation of structure +and specialization of function. The more perfect the organism, the +more are its separate functions assigned to separate parts. As social +aggregates develop, a similar differentiation takes place. Offices +which were in the hands of one are distributed among several. Agencies +are evolved by which processes of production, distribution, and +exchange are carried on. Trades and professions are called into +existence. As enlightenment and skill increase, men become more +difficult to please. They demand the best work, and the best work can +be done, as a rule, only by specialists. Specialization thus becomes a +characteristic of civilization. The patriarch is both king and priest. +In Greece and Rome, religion is a function of the State. In the Middle +Age, the Church and the State coalesce, and form such an intimate union +that the special domain of either is invaded by both. But +differentiation finally takes place, and we all learn to distinguish +between the things of Caesar and the things of God. This separation has +far-reaching results. In asserting its independence, the State was +driven to use argument as well as force. Thus learning, which in the +confusion that succeeded the incursions of the Barbarians was +cultivated almost exclusively by ecclesiastics, grew to be of interest +and importance to laymen. They began to study, and the subjects which +most engaged their thoughts were not religious, in the accepted sense +of the word. The Protestant rebellion is but a phase of this +revolution. It began with the introduction of the literature of Greece +into Western Europe. The spirit of inquiry and mental curiosity was +thereby awakened in wider circles; enthusiasm for the truth and beauty +to which Greek genius has given the most perfect expression, was +aroused; and interest in intellectual and artistic culture was called +forth. New ideals were upheld to fresh and wondering minds. The +contagion spread, and the thirst for knowledge was carried to +ever-widening spheres. It thus came to pass that the cleric and the +scholar ceased to be identical. The boundaries of knowledge were +enlarged when the inductive method was applied to the study of nature, +and it soon became impossible for one man to pretend to a mastery of +all science. And so the principle of the division of labor was +introduced into things of the intellect. Of old, the prophet or the +philosopher was supposed to possess all wisdom; but now it had become +plain that proficiency could be hoped for only by lifelong devotion to +some special branch of knowledge. This led to other developments. The +business of teaching, which had been almost exclusively in the hands of +ecclesiastics, was now necessarily taken up by laymen also. As +feudalism fell to decay, and the assertion of popular rights began to +point to the advent of democracy, the movement in opposition to +privilege logically led to the claim that learning should no longer be +held to be the appanage of special classes, but that the gates of the +temple of knowledge should be thrown open to the whole people. To make +education universal, the most ready and the simplest means was to levy +a school tax; and as this could be done only by the State, the State +established systems of education and assumed the office of teacher. +The result of all this has been that the school, which throughout +Christendom is the creation of the church, has in most countries very +largely passed into the control of the civil government. + +This transference of control need not, however, involve the exclusion +of religious influence and instruction; though once the State has +gained the ascendency, the natural tendency is to take a partial and +secular view of the whole question of education, and to limit the +functions of the school to the training of the mental faculties. And, +as a matter of fact, this tendency is found in men of widely differing +and even conflicting opinions and convictions concerning religion +itself. It is most pronounced, however, in the educational theories +and systems of positivists and agnostics. As they hold that there is +no God, or that we cannot know that there is a God, they necessarily +conclude that it is absurd to attempt to teach children anything about +God. This view is forcibly expressed by Issaurat, a French writer on +education, in a recently published volume, which he calls "The +Evolution and History of Pedagogy." + +"All religion," he affirms, in the concluding chapter of his book, +"impedes, thwarts, misdirects, and troubles the natural education of +man, the normal and harmonious development of his physical, moral, and +intellectual faculties; and since educational reform is not possible +without reformation in the government, it is the duty of the State, not +merely to separate itself from the church, but to suppress the church +and to found the science of education upon biological philosophy, upon +transformism--let us say the word, upon materialism." This view is +manifestly the inevitable result of Issaurat's general system of +thought and belief. In his opinion, matter alone really exists, and +what is called spirit is but a phase of its evolution. The world of +spirit, therefore, is illusory; and to bring up the young to believe +that it is the infinite, essential reality, is to teach them what is +false, and to give a wrong direction to the whole course of life. For +practical purposes this is the view not only of materialists and +positivists, but of agnostics as well, who, though they do not deny the +existence of spirit, assert that only the phenomenal can be known, or +become the subject-matter of teaching. They all agree in holding that +the theological world-view was the primitive one, which, yielding to +the metaphysical, has been finally superseded by the scientific, the +sole basis of a rational philosophy. The ideas of God, substance, +cause, and end, are metaphysical ideas, which, if we wish to understand +nature, must be ignored; for the study of nature is the study simply of +facts and their relations with one another. There is, so they think, +no such thing as substance, any more than there is such a thing as a +principle of gravity, heat, light, electricity, or chemical affinity. +The vital principle too, which has played so great a part in +physiological inquiries, must be given up; and therefore, while nearly +all the philosophers, from Kant to our own day, have made psychology +the foundation of the science of education, there is at present a +marked tendency to have it rest solely on biology. Whether and to what +extent these theories are true or false, is beyond the purpose of this +argument. True or false, they fairly describe the views of a large +number of thinkers in our day, and enable us to form a conception of +their philosophy of education. "Why trouble ourselves," asks Professor +Huxley, "about matters of which, however important they may be, we do +know nothing and can know nothing? With a view to our duty in this +life, it is necessary to be possessed of only two beliefs: The first, +that the order of nature is ascertainable by our faculties to an extent +that is practically unlimited; the second, that our volition counts for +something as a condition of the course of events." Our volition counts +as a condition, but it is after all only a part of the course of +events, and, consequently, the only belief it is necessary to hold is, +that the course of events is ascertainable by our faculties to a +practically unlimited extent. Such is the brief creed of materialists +and agnostics. The order of nature is the only known god, and man's +sole end and duty is to make himself acquainted with it, that through +obedience he may attain the highest perfection and happiness of which +he is capable. This is the one true religion, and an enlightened +people should forbid that any other be taught in their schools. Here +we have an intelligible and well-defined position, and the one which, +from the point of view of such men as Issaurat and Huxley, is alone +tenable. + +Every one now, who thinks at all, has some theory of the world, and +hence the shades of unbelief as of belief are many; and since views of +education are part of a more general system of philosophy, it is +inevitable that those who disagree upon the fundamental questions of +thought, disagree also in their notions as to what is the school's +proper office. + +Materialists, pantheists, positivists, secularists, and pessimists +unite in denying that there is a God above and distinct from nature, +while agnostics and cosmists affirm that such a being, if he exist, +must necessarily lie outside the domain of knowledge. Positive +religious doctrines, therefore, are superstition. As these views are +reflected in a more or less vague way in the writings of the multitude +of those who make the current literature, public opinion becomes averse +to religious dogmas. A large number of cultivated minds turn from all +definite systems, whether of thought or belief. Everything may be +tolerated, if only the spirit of dogmatism is away. They recognize how +great a thing religion is, how profoundly it touches life, how +powerfully it shapes conduct. Without it, civilization is hard and +mechanical, art is formal and feeble, and man himself but a shrewd +animal. But, from their points of view, doctrines about God and Christ +and the church have nothing to do with religion. To think of God as +substance is to convert him into nature, to think of him as a person is +to limit him. The only absolute is the moral order of the world. The +religion of Christ is not a theory or a system of thought; it is a view +of life, and its essence is found in belief in the reality of moral +ideas. The supernatural may fall away,--even the notion of a +Providence which rules the world in the interest of the good may be +given up,--and we still have the method and the secret of Jesus, all +that is of value in his life and teaching. All theology is an +illusion, all creeds are a mistake. Religion rests upon the moral +power, which is not a conclusion drawn from facts, but the fact +itself,--the primal and essential fact in human life. Religion is +simply morality suffused by the glow and warmth of a devout and +reverent temper, and to teach doctrines about God and the church will +not make men religious. + +It is obvious to object that morality supposes belief in a Personal God +and in the soul of man, as law implies a law-giver. This objection is +meaningless, not only for the thinkers whom I have mentioned, but for +others who find little interest in the literary and religious ideas of +such men as Matthew Arnold. Morality, they claim, is independent, not +only of metaphysics, but of religion as well. It is a science, as yet, +indeed, imperfectly developed, but a science nevertheless, just as +chemistry or physiology is a science. Human acts are controlled, not +by a higher will or man's freedom of choice, but by physical laws. The +peculiarity of this view does not lie in the contention that ethics is +a science, but in the claim that it is a science altogether independent +of metaphysical and religious dogmas. All forces, it is asserted, +physical, mental, and moral, are identical; and morality, like bodily +vigor, is a product of organism. It is, in fact, but an elaboration of +the two radical instincts of nutrition and propagation, from which +springs the twofold movement of conscious life, the egoistic and the +altruistic. This theory is accepted alike in the German school of +materialism, in the French school of positivism, and in the English +school of utilitarianism. What the influence of modern empiricism upon +American opinion may be, it is difficult to determine. Americans +certainly are a practical people, but they are not devoid of interest +in speculative views. More than any other people, possibly, they have +faith in the marvellous things which science is destined to accomplish, +and they willingly listen to men of science, even when they quit the +regions of fact for those of opinion. Thus the various theories, to +which the progress of natural knowledge has given rise, are received by +them, if not with implicit trust, with a kind of feeling, at least, +that they may be true. + +There is even a disposition to treat doubts of the truth of +Christianity as a mark of intellectual vigor, and sometimes as a sign +of religious sincerity. Preoccupied with material interests, but yet +finding time to read the thoughts of many minds and to hear the +discussion of antagonistic opinions and systems, they find it difficult +to trust with entire confidence to what they know or believe. It all +seems to be relative, and another generation may see everything in a +different light. Problems take the place of principles, religious +convictions are feeble, the grasp of Christian truth is relaxed, and +the result is a certain moral hesitancy and infirmity. + +They are not hostile to the churches, but they are more or less +indifferent to their doctrines. As each sect has its peculiar creed, +the dogmatic position of the church is thought to be of little moment. +The important thing is to promote intelligence and virtue. The +distinctively sectarian view they look upon as narrow and false, and +the good which ecclesiastical organizations do is done in spite of +their characteristic doctrines. The note of sectarianism is to them +what the note of provincialism is to a man of culture, or lack of +breeding to a gentleman. The moral fervor, which sectarians more than +others feel, is, they freely grant, a power for good. It has a +wholesome influence upon character, and is a support of the virtues +which make free institutions possible, and which alone can make them +permanent. But it has no necessary connection with theological +doctrines, since it is found in earnest believers, whatever their +creed. It is the child of enthusiastic faith, and is nourished and +kept living by worship, not by dogmatic asseverations. As the power of +the churches does not lie in their creeds, to make these creeds a +school lesson cannot be desirable, especially when we reflect that the +method of religion and the method of science are at variance. + +Such, I imagine, are the views of large numbers of Americans, who are +not members of any church, but whose influence is strongly felt in +political and commercial as well as in social and professional life. +And numbers of zealous Protestants are in substantial agreement with +them, since they hold that faith is an emotional rather than an +intellectual state of mind, and that religion is not so much a way of +thinking as a way of feeling and acting. They assume, of course, as +the prerequisites of religious belief, the dogmas of the existence of a +personal God and of an immortal human soul; but, for the rest, they lay +stress upon conduct and piety, not upon orthodox faith. A church must +have a creed, as a party must have a platform; but unhesitating +confidence in the truth of the doctrines which it thus formulates is +not indispensable. American churches tend to ignore creeds. This is +due, in a measure, to the growing desire to form a union among the +several sects; but it is none the less a sign of waning belief in +dogmatic religion. Hence the increasing emphasis which preaching lays +upon the moral, aesthetic, and emotional aspects of the religious life. +Hence, too, the assumption that the soul of the church may live, though +the body be dead. + +But, apart from all theories and systems of belief and thought, public +opinion in America sets strongly against the denominational school. + +The question of education is considered from a practical rather than +from a theoretical point of view, and public sentiment on the subject +may be embodied in the following words: The civilized world now +recognizes the necessity of popular education. In a government of the +people, such as this is, intelligence should be universal. In such a +government, to be ignorant is not merely to be weak, it is also to be +dangerous to the common welfare; for the ignorant are not only the +victims of circumstances, they are the instruments which unscrupulous +and designing men make use of, to taint the source of political +authority and to thwart the will of the people. To protect itself, the +State is forced to establish schools and to see that all acquire at +least the rudiments of letters. This is so plain a case that argument +becomes ridiculous. They who doubt the good of knowledge are not to be +reasoned with, and in America not to see that it is necessary, is to +know nothing of our political, commercial, and social life. But the +American State can give only a secular education, for it is separate +from the church, and its citizens profess such various and even +conflicting beliefs, that in establishing a school system, it is +compelled to eliminate the question of religion. Church and State are +separate institutions, and their functions are different and distinct. +The church seeks to turn men from sin, that they may become pleasing to +God and save their souls; the State takes no cognizance of sin, but +strives to prevent crime, and to secure to all its citizens the +enjoyment of life, liberty, and property. Americans are a Christian +people. Religious zeal impelled their ancestors to the New World, and +when schools were first established here, they were established by the +churches, and religious instruction formed an important part of the +education they gave. This was natural, and it was desirable even, in +primitive times, when each colony had its own creed and worship, when +society was simple, and the State as yet imperfectly organized. Here, +as in the Old World, the school was the daughter of the church, and she +has doubtless rendered invaluable service to civilization, by fostering +a love for knowledge among barbarous races and in struggling +communities. But the task of maintaining a school system such as the +requirements of a great and progressive nation demands, is beyond her +strength. This is so, at least, when the church is split into jealous +and warring sects. + +To introduce the spirit of sectarianism into the class-room would +destroy the harmony and good-will among citizens, which it is one of +the aims of the common school to cherish. There is, besides, no reason +why this should be done, since the family and the church give all the +religious instruction which children are capable of receiving. + +This, it seems to me, is a fair presentation of the views and ideas +which go to the making of current American opinion on the question of +religious instruction in State schools; and current opinion, when the +subject-matter is not susceptible of physical demonstration, cannot be +turned suddenly in an opposite direction. When men have grown +accustomed to look at things in a certain way, they have acquired a +mental habit, which no mere argument, however cogent or eloquent, is +able to overcome. To what extent this view of the school question +prevails is readily perceived by whoever recalls to mind that not one +of the States of the Union has attempted to introduce the +denominational system of education, while all the political parties +have bound themselves to uphold the present purely secular system. The +opinion that the prosperity of the nation depends upon the intelligence +and activity of the people, and to no appreciable extent upon the +influence of ecclesiastical organizations, has so far prevailed, that +the general feeling has come to be that the State has no direct +interest in the church, which is the concern merely of individuals. +The religious denominations themselves have helped to inspire this +sentiment by their jealousies and rivalries. The smaller sects feel +that State aid for denominational schools would accrue to the benefit +chiefly of the larger; and the others are willing to forego favors +which they could not receive without permitting the Catholic Church to +participate also in the bounty of the government. + +The Catholic view of the school question is as clearly defined as it is +well known. It rests upon the general ground that man is created for a +supernatural end, and that the church is the divinely appointed agency +to help him to attain his supreme destiny. If education is a training +for completeness of life, its primary element is the religious, for +complete life is life in God. Hence we may not assume an attitude +toward the child, whether in the home, in the church, or in the school, +which might imply that life apart from God could be anything else than +broken and fragmentary. A complete man is not one whose mind only is +active and enlightened; but he is a complete man who is alive in all +his faculties. The truly human is found not in knowledge alone, but +also in faith, in hope, in love, in pure-mindedness, in reverence, in +the sense of beauty, in devoutness, in the thrill of awe, which Goethe +says is the highest thing in man. If the teacher is forbidden to touch +upon religion, the source of these noble virtues and ideal moods is +sealed. His work and influence become mechanical, and he will form but +commonplace and vulgar men. And if an educational system is +established on this narrow and material basis, the result will be +deterioration of the national type, and the loss of the finer qualities +which make men many-sided and interesting, which are the safeguards of +personal purity and of unselfish conduct. + +Religion is the vital element in character, and to treat it as though +it were but an incidental phase of man's life is to blunder in a matter +of the highest and most serious import. Man is born to act, and +thought is valuable mainly as a guide to action. Now, the chief +inspiration to action, and above all to right action, is found in +faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion, and not in knowledge, +the virtue of the intellect. Knowledge, indeed, is effectual only when +it is loved, believed in, and held to be a ground for hope. Man does +not live on bread alone, and if he is brought up to look to material +things, as to the chief good, his higher faculties will be stunted. If +to do rightly rather than to think keenly is man's chief business here +on earth, then the virtues of religion are more important than those of +the intellect; for to think is to be unresolved, whereas to believe is +to be impelled in the direction of one's faith. In epochs of doubt +things fall to decay; in epochs of faith the powers which make for full +and vigorous life, hold sway. The education which forms character is +indispensable, that which trains the mind is desirable. The essential +element in human life is conduct, and conduct springs from what we +believe, cling to, love, and yearn for, vastly more than from what we +know. The decadence and ruin of individuals and of societies come from +lack of virtue, not from lack of knowledge. "The hard and valuable +part of education," says Locke, "is virtue; this is the solid and +substantial good, which the teacher should never cease to inculcate +till the young man places his strength, his glory, and his pleasure in +it." We may, of course, distinguish between morality and religion, +between ethics and theology. As a matter of fact, however, moral laws +have everywhere reposed upon the basis of religion, and their sanction +has been sought in the principles of faith. As an immoral religion is +false, so, if there is no God, a moral law is meaningless. + +Theorists may be able to construct a system of ethics upon a foundation +of materialism; but their mechanical and utilitarian doctrines have not +the power to exalt the imagination or to confirm the will. Their +educational value is feeble. Here in America we have already passed +the stage of social development in which we might hold out to the +young, as an ideal, the hope of becoming President of the Republic, or +the possessor of millions of money. We know what sorry men presidents +and millionnaires may be. We cannot look upon our country simply as a +wide race-course with well-filled purses hanging at the goal for the +prize-winners. We clearly perceive that a man's possessions are not +himself, and that he is or ought to be more than anything which can +belong to him. Ideals of excellence, therefore, must be substituted +for those of success. Opinion governs the world, but ideals draw souls +and stimulate to noble action. The more we transform with the aid of +machinery the world of matter, the more necessary does it become that +we make plain to all that man's true home is the world of thought and +love, of hope and aspiration. The ideals of utilitarianism and +secularism are unsatisfactory. They make no appeal to the infinite in +man, to that in him which makes pursuit better than possession, and +which, could he believe there is no absolute truth, love, and beauty, +would lead him to despair. To-day, as of old, the soul is born of God +and for God, and finds no peace unless it rest in him. Theology, +assuredly, is not religion; but religion implies theology, and a church +without a creed is a body without articulation. The virtues of +religion are indispensable. Without them, it is not well either with +individuals or with nations; but these virtues cannot be inculcated by +those who, standing aloof from ecclesiastical organizations, are +thereby cut off from the thought and work of all who in every age have +most loved God, and whose faith in the soul has been most living. +Religious men have wrought for God in the church, as patriots have +wrought for liberty and justice in the nation; and to exclude the +representatives of the churches from the school is practically to +exclude religion,--the power which more than all others makes for +righteousness, which inspires hope and confidence, which makes possible +faith in the whole human brotherhood, in the face even of the political +and social wrongs which are still everywhere tolerated. To exclude +religion is to exclude the spirit of reverence, of gentleness and +obedience, of modesty and purity; it is to exclude the spirit by which +the barbarians have been civilized, by which woman has been uplifted +and ennobled and the child made sacred. From many sides the demand is +made that the State schools exercise a greater moral influence, that +they be made efficient in forming character as well as in training the +mind. It is recognized that knowing how to read and write does not +insure good behavior. Since the State assumes the office of teacher, +there is a disposition among parents to make the school responsible for +their children's morals as well as for their minds, and thus the +influence of the home is weakened. Whatever the causes may be, there +seems to be a tendency, both in private and in public life, to lower +ethical standards. The moral influence of the secular school is +necessarily feeble, since our ideas of right and wrong are so +interfused with the principles of Christianity that to ignore our +religious convictions is practically to put aside the question of +conscience. If the State may take no cognizance of sin, neither may +its school do so. But in morals sin is the vital matter; crime is but +its legal aspect. Men begin as sinners before they end as criminals. + +The atmosphere of religion is the natural medium for the development of +character. If we appeal to the sense of duty, we assume belief in God +and in the freedom of the will; if we strive to awaken enthusiasm for +the human brotherhood, we imply a divine fatherhood. Accordingly, as +we accept or reject the doctrines of religion, the sphere of moral +action, the nature of the distinction between right and wrong, and the +motives of conduct all change. In the purely secular school only +secular morality may be taught; and whatever our opinion of this system +of ethics may otherwise be, it is manifestly deficient in the power +which appeals to the heart and the conscience. The child lives in a +world which imagination creates, where faith, hope, and love beckon to +realms of beauty and delight. The spiritual and moral truths which are +to become the very life-breath of his soul he apprehends mystically, +not logically. Heaven lies about him; he lives in wonderland, and +feels the thrill of awe as naturally as he looks with wide-open eyes. +Do not seek to persuade him by telling him that honesty is the best +policy, that poverty overtakes the drunkard, that lechery breeds +disease, that to act for the common welfare is the surest way to get +what is good for one's self; for such teaching will not only leave him +unimpressed, but it will seem to him profane, and almost immoral. He +wants to feel that he is the child of God, of the infinitely good and +all-wonderful; that in his father, divine wisdom and strength are +revealed; in his mother, divine tenderness and love. He so believes +and trusts in God that it is our fault if he knows that men can be +base. In nothing does the godlike character of Christ show forth more +beautifully than in His reverence for children. Shall we profess to +believe in Him, and yet forbid His name to be spoken in the houses +where we seek to train the little ones whom He loved? Shall we shut +out Him whose example has done more to humanize, ennoble, and uplift +the race of man than all the teachings of the philosophers and all the +disquisitions of the moralists? If the thinkers, from Plato and +Aristotle to Kant and Pestalozzi, who have dealt with the problems of +education, have held that virtue is its chief aim and end, shall we +thrust from the school the one ideal character who, for nearly nineteen +hundred years, has been the chief inspiration to righteousness and +heroism; to whose words patriots and reformers have appealed in their +struggles for liberty and right; to whose example philanthropists have +looked in their labors to alleviate suffering; to whose teaching the +modern age owes its faith in the brotherhood of men; by whose courage +and sympathy the world has been made conscious that the distinction +between man and woman is meant for the propagation of the race, but +that as individuals they have equal rights and should have equal +opportunities? We all, and especially the young, are influenced by +example more than by precepts and maxims, and it is unjust and +unreasonable to exclude from the schoolroom the living presence of the +noblest and best men and women, of those whose words and deeds have +created our Christian civilization. In the example of their lives we +have truth and justice, goodness and greatness, in concrete form; and +the young who are brought into contact with these centres of influence +will be filled with admiration and enthusiasm; they will be made gentle +and reverent; and they will learn to realize the ever-fresh charm and +force of personal purity. Teachers who have no moral criteria, no +ideals, no counsels of perfection, no devotion to God and godlike men, +cannot educate, if the proper meaning of education is the complete +unfolding of all man's powers. + +The school, of course, is but one of the many agencies by which +education is given. We are under the influence of our whole +environment,--physical, moral, and intellectual; political, social, and +religious; and if, in all this, aught were different, we ourselves +should be other. The family is a school and the church is a school; +and current American opinion assigns to them the business of moral and +religious education. But this implies that conduct and character are +of secondary importance; it supposes that the child may be made subject +to opposite influences at home and in the school, and not thereby have +his finer sense of reverence, truth, and goodness deadened. The +subduing of the lower nature, of the outward to the inner man, is a +thing so arduous that reason, religion, and law combined often fail to +accomplish it. If one should propose to do away with schools +altogether, and to leave education to the family and the Church, he +would be justly considered ridiculous; because the carelessness of +parents and the inability of the ministry of the Church would involve +the prevalence of illiteracy. Now, to leave moral and religious +education to the family and the churches involves, for similar reasons, +the prevalence of indifference, sin, and crime. If illiteracy is a +menace to free institutions, vice and irreligion are a greater menace. +The corrupt are always bad citizens; the ignorant are not necessarily +so. Parents who would not have their children taught to read and +write, were there no free schools, will as a rule neglect their +religious and moral education. In giving religious instruction to the +young, the churches are plainly at a disadvantage; for they have the +child but an hour or two in seven days, and they get into their Sunday +classes only the children of the more devout. + +If the chief end of education is virtue; if conduct is three-fourths of +life; if character is indispensable, while knowledge is only +useful,--then it follows that religion--which, more than any other +vital influence, has power to create virtue, to inspire conduct, and to +mould character--should enter into all the processes of education. Our +school system, then, does not rest upon a philosophic view of life and +education. We have done what it was easiest to do, not what it was +best to do; and in this, as in other instances, churchmen have been +willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to the whims of a +narrow and jealous temper. The denominational system of popular +education is the right system. The secular system is a wrong system. +The practical difficulties to be overcome that religious instruction +may be given in the schools are relatively unimportant, and would be +set aside if the people were thoroughly persuaded of its necessity. An +objection which Dr. Harris, among others, insists upon, that the method +of science and the method of religion are dissimilar, and that +therefore secular knowledge and religious knowledge should not be +taught in the same school, seems to me to have no weight. The method +of mathematics is not the method of biology; the method of logic is not +the method of poetry; but they are all taught in the same school. A +good teacher, in fact, employs many methods. In teaching the child +grammatical analysis, he has no fear of doing harm to his imagination +or his talent for composition. + +No system, however, can give assurance that the school is good. To +determine this we must know the spirit which lives in it. The +intellectual, moral, and religious atmosphere which the child breathes +there is of far more importance, from an educational point of view, +than any doctrines he may learn by rote, than any acts of worship he +may perform. + +The teacher makes the school; and when high, pure, devout, and +enlightened men and women educate, the conditions favorable to mental +and moral growth will be found, provided a false system does not compel +them to assume a part and play a role, while the true self--the faith, +hope, and love whereby they live--is condemned to inaction. The deeper +tendency of the present age is not, I think, to exclude religion from +any vital process, but rather to widen the content of the idea of +religion until it embrace the whole life of man. The worship of God is +not now the worship of infinite wisdom, holiness, and justice alone, +but is also the worship of the humane, the beautiful, and the +industriously active. Whether we work for knowledge or freedom, or +purity or strength, or beauty or health, or aught else that is friendly +to completeness of life, we work with God and for God. In the school, +as in whatever other place in the boundless universe a man may find +himself, he finds himself with God, in Him moves, lives, and has his +being. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE HIGHER EDUCATION.[1] + +[1] A discourse pronounced at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, +which, being enforced by the offer of three hundred thousand dollars by +Miss Caldwell, led to the founding of the University at Washington. + + +The subject which I have been asked to treat is the higher education of +priests; which, I suppose, is the highest education of man, since the +ideal of the Christian priest is the most exalted, his vocation the +most sublime, his office the most holy, his duties the most spiritual, +and his mission--whether we consider its relation to morality, which is +the basis of individual and social welfare, or to religion, which is +the promise and the secret of immortal and godlike life--is the most +important and the most sacred which can be assigned to a human being. + +Religion and education--like religion and morality--are nearly related. +Pure religion, indeed, is more than right education; and yet it may be +said with truth that it is but a part of the best education, for it +co-operates with other forces--with climate, custom, social conditions, +and political institutions--to develop and fashion the complete man; +and the special instruction of teachers--which is the narrow meaning of +the word--is modified, and to a great extent controlled, by these +powers which work unseen, and are the vital agents that make possible +all conscious educational efforts. + +The faith we hold, the laws we obey, the domestic and social customs to +which our thoughts and loves are harmonized, the climate we live in, +mould our characters and give to our souls a deeper and more lasting +tinge than any school, though it were the best. + +My subject, however, does not demand that I consider these general and +silent agencies by which life is influenced, but leads me to the +discussion of the methods by which man, with conscious purpose, seeks +to form and instruct his fellow-man; to the discussion of the special +education which brings art to the aid of nature, and becomes the +auxiliary and guide of the other forces which contribute to the +development of our being. + +In this age, when all who think at all turn their thoughts to questions +of education, it is needless to call attention to the interest of the +subject, which, like hope, is immortal, and fresh as the innocent face +of laughing childhood. + +Is not the school for all men a shrine to which their pilgrim thoughts +return to catch again the glow and gladness of a world wherein they +lived by faith and hope and love when round the morning sun of life the +golden purple clouds were hanging, and earth lay hidden in mist, +beneath which the soul created a new paradise? To the opening mind all +things are young and fair; and to remember the delight that accompanied +the gradual dawn of knowledge upon our mental vision, sweet and +beautiful as the upglowing of day from the bosom of night, is to be +forever thankful for the gracious power of education. And is there not +in all hearts a deep and abiding yearning for great and noble men, and +therefore an imperishable interest in the power by which they are +moulded? When fathers and mothers look upon the fair blossoming +children that cling to them as the vine wraps its tendrils round the +spreading bough, and when their great love fills them with ineffable +longing to shield these tender souls from the blighting blasts of a +cold and stormy world, and little by little to prepare them to stand +alone and breast the gales of fortune, do they not instinctively put +their trust in the power of education? + +When, at the beginning of the present century, Germany lay prostrate at +the feet of Napoleon, the wise and the patriotic among her children +yielded not to despondency, but turned with confidence to truer methods +and systems of education, and assiduous teaching and patient waiting +finally brought them to Sedan. + +When, in the sixteenth century, heresy and schism seemed near to final +victory over the Church, Pope Julius III. declared that the evils and +abuses of the times were the outgrowth of the shameful ignorance of the +clergy, and that the chief hope of the dawning of a brighter day lay in +general and thorough ecclesiastical education. And the Catholic +leaders who finally turned back the advancing power of Protestantism, +re-established the Church in half the countries in which it had been +overthrown, and converted more souls in America and Asia than had been +lost in Europe, belonged to the greatest educational body the world has +ever seen. What is history but examples of success through knowledge +and righteousness, and of failure through lack of understanding and of +virtue? + +Wherein lies the superiority of civilized races over barbarians if not +in their greater knowledge and superior strength of character? And +what but education has placed in the hands of man the thousand natural +forces which he holds as a charioteer his well-reined steeds, bidding +the winds carry him to distant lands, making steam his tireless, +ever-ready slave, and commanding the lightning to speak his words to +the ends of the earth? What else than this has taught him to map the +boundless heavens, to read the footprints of God in the crust of the +earth ages before human beings lived, to measure the speed of light, to +weigh the imperceptible atom, to split up all natural compounds, to +create innumerable artificial products with which he transforms the +world and with a grain of powder marches like a conquering god around +the globe? + +What converts the meaningless babbling of the child into the stately +march of oratoric phrase or the rhythmic flow of poetic language? What +has developed the rude stone and bronze implements of savage and +barbarous hordes into the miraculous machinery which we use? By what +power has man been taught to carve the shapeless rock into an image of +ideal beauty, or with it to build his thought into a temple of God, +where the soul instinctively prostrates itself in adoration? + +Is not all this, together with whatever else is excellent in human +works, the result of education, which gives to man a second nature with +more admirable endowments? And is not religion itself a kind of +celestial education, which trains the soul to godlike life? + +No progress in things divine or human is made by man except through +effort, and effort is the power and the law of education. The maxim of +the spiritual writers that not to struggle upward and onward is to be +drawn downward, applies to every phase of our life. Whence do we +derive strength of soul but from the uplifting of the mind and heart to +God which we call prayer? To pray is to think, to attend, to hold the +mind lovingly to its object; and this is what we do when we study. +Hence prayer, which is the voice of religion, is a part of +education,--nay, its very soul, breathing on all the chords of life, +till their thousand dissonances meet in rhythmic harmony. What is the +pulpit but the holiest teacher's chair that has been placed upon the +earth? + +And as the presence of a noble character is a more potent influence +than words, so sacramental communion with Christ is man's chief school +of faith, of hope, and love. There are worthy persons who turn, as +from an unholy thought, from the emphatic announcement of the need of +the best human qualities for the proper defence of the cause of God in +the world. Such speech seems to them to be vain and unreal; for God is +all in all, and man is nothing. But in our day it is easier to go +astray in the direction of self-annihilation than in that of +self-assertion; since the common tendency now of all false philosophies +is pantheistic, and issues in unconscious contempt of individual life. +If man is but a bubble, merging forth and re-absorbed, without past or +future, then indeed both he, and what he seems to do, sink into the +eternal flow of matter, and are undeserving of a thought. This +certainly is not the Christian view, to which man is revealed as a +lesser god, and co-worker with the Eternal, whose thought can reach the +infinite, and whose will can oppose that of the Omnipotent. In Christ, +God co-operates with man for the salvation of the world; and in the +Church, man co-operates with God to this same end. The more complete +the man, the more fit is he to work with God. Even bodily +disfigurement is looked upon as an obstacle; how much more, then, shall +lack of intelligence and want of heart render us unworthy of the divine +office? I certainly shall never deny that love, which the Apostle +exalts above faith and hope, is higher also than knowledge. The light +of the mind is as that of the moon--fair and soft and soothing, without +heat, without the power to call forth and nourish life; but the light +of the soul, which is love, is the sunlight, whose kiss, like a word of +God, makes the dead to live, and clothes the world in strength and +beauty. Character is more than intellect, love is more than knowledge, +religion is more than morality; and a great heart brings us closer to +God, nearer to all goodness, than a bright mind. Education is +essentially moral, and the intellectual qualities themselves, which we +seek to develop, derive their chief efficacy from underlying ethical +qualities upon which they rest and from which they receive their energy +and the power of self-control. Inequality of will is the great cause +of inequality of mind; and the will is strengthened by the practice of +virtue, as the body by food and exercise. If this is a general truth, +with what special force must it not apply to the ministers of a +religion the paramount and ceaseless aim of which is to make men holy, +so that at times it has almost seemed as though the Church were +indifferent as to whether they are learned or beautiful or strong? She +pronounces no man a doctor unless he be also a saint; and when I insist +that the priest shall possess the best mental culture of his age,--that +without this he fights with broken weapons, speaks with harsh voice a +language men will neither hear nor understand, teaches truths which, +having not the freshness and the glow of truth, neither kindle the +heart nor fire the imagination,--I do not forget that, without the +moral earnestness which is born of faith and purity of life, mere +cultivation of mind will not give him power to unseal the fountains of +living waters which refresh the garden of God. The universal harmony +is felt by a pure heart better than it can be perceived by a keen +intellect. To a sinless soul the darker side even of life and nature +is not wholly dark, and the mental difficulties which the existence of +evil involves in no way weaken the consciousness of the essential +goodness that lies at the heart of all things. In the religious, as in +the moral world, men trust to what we are rather than to what we say, +and the teacher of spiritual truth is never strong, unless his life and +character inspire a confidence which arguments alone do not create; for +in questions that reach beyond the sphere of sensation, we feel that +insight is better than reasons, and hence we instinctively prefer the +testimony of a god-like soul to the conclusions of a cultivated mind: +and indeed our Blessed Lord ever assumes that the obstacle to the +perception of divine truth is moral and not intellectual. The pure of +heart see God; the evil-doer loves darkness and shuns the light. St. +Paul goes even farther, and associates mental cultivation with a +tendency directly opposed to religious faith, which is humble. +"Knowledge puffeth up." But the words of the Apostle should not be +stretched beyond his purpose, which is to point to pride as a special +danger of the intellectual as sensuality is a danger of the ignorant. +For man to have aught is to run a risk, and hence to do as little as +possible is in the thought of the timid a mark of prudence. And +indeed, if fear be nearer to wisdom than courage, then should we fear +everything, for danger is everywhere. A breath may sow the seed of +death; a look may slay the soul. In knowledge, in ignorance, in +strength, in weakness, in wealth, in poverty, in genius, in stupidity, +in company, in solitude, in innocence itself, danger lurks. But God +does not abolish life that danger may cease to be; and they who put +their trust in Him will not seek to darken the mind lest knowledge lead +man astray, but will rather in a righteous cause make the venture of +all things, as St. Ignatius preferred the hope of saving others to the +certainty of his own salvation. And may we not maintain, since we hold +that there is no inappeasable conflict between God and Nature, between +the soul and matter, between revelation and science, that the apparent +antagonism lies in our apprehension, and not in things themselves, and +consequently that reconcilement is to be sought for through the help of +thoroughly trained minds? The poet speaks the truth, "A little +knowledge is a dangerous thing." They who know but little and +imperfectly, see but their knowledge, if so it may be called, and walk +in innocent unconsciousness of their infinite nescience. The narrower +the range of our mental vision, the greater the obstinacy with which we +cling to our opinions; and the half-educated, like the weak and the +incompetent, are often contentious, but whosoever is able to do his +work does it, and finds no time for dispute. He who possesses a +disciplined mind, and is familiar with the best thoughts that live in +the great literatures, will be the last to attach undue importance to +his own thinking. A sense of decency and a kind of holy shame will +keep him far from angry and unprofitable controversy; nor will he +mistake a crotchet for a panacea, nor imagine that irritation is +enlightenment. The blessings of a cultivated mind are akin to those of +religion. They are larger liberty, wider life, purer delights, and a +juster sense of the relative values of the means and ends which lie +within our reach. Knowledge, like religion, leads us away from what +appears to what is, from what passes to what remains, from what +flatters the senses to that which speaks to the soul. Wisdom and +religion converge, as love and knowledge meet in God; and to the wise +as to the religious man, no great evil can happen. Into prison they +both carry the sweet company of their thoughts, their faith and hope, +and are freer in chains than the great in palaces. In death they are +in the midst of life, for they see that what they know and love is +imperishable, nor subject even to atomic disintegration. He who lives +in the presence of truth yearns not for the company of men, but loves +retirement as a saint loves solitude; and in times like ours, when men +no longer choose the desert for a dwelling-place, the passionate desire +of intellectual excellence co-operates with religious faith to guard +them against dissipation and to lift them above the spirit of the age. +The thinker is never lonely, as he who lives with God is never unhappy. +Is not the love of excellence, which is the scholar's love, a part of +the love of goodness which makes the saint? And are not intellectual +delights akin to those religion brings? They are pure, they elevate, +they refine; time only increases their charm, and in the winter of age, +when the body is but the agent of pain, contemplation still remains +like the light of a higher world, to tinge with beauty the clouds that +gather around life's setting. How narrow and monotonous is sensation! +how wide and various is thought! They who live in the senses are +fettered and ill at ease; they who live in the soul are free and +joyful. And since the priest, unless he be a saint, must have, like +other men, some human joy, and since he dwells not in the sacred circle +of the love of wife and children, in which the multitudes find repose +and contentment, what solace, what refreshment, in the midst of cares +and labors, shall we offer him? If there be aught for him that is not +unworthy or dangerous, except the pleasures of the mind, to me it is +unknown; and though a well-trained intellect should do no more than to +enable us to take delight in pure and noble objects, it would be a +chief help to worthy life. And when the whole tendency of our social +existence is to draw men out of themselves and to make them seek the +good of life in what is external, as money, display, position, renown, +is it not a gain, if, while we open their minds to the charm of +intellectual beauty, we make them see that this eager striving for +wealth and place is a vulgar chase? And does not the spirit of +refinement in thought, in speech, in manner, add worth and fairness to +him whom it inspires, though the motive which preserves him from what +is low or gross be no higher than a fastidious delicacy and +self-respect? + +To deny the moral influence of intellectual culture is as great an +error as to affirm that it alone is a sufficient safeguard of morality. +Its tendency unquestionably is to make men gentle, amiable, +fair-minded, truthful, benevolent, modest, sober. It curbs ambition +and teaches resignation; chastens the imagination and mitigates +ferocity; dissuades from duelling because it is barbarous, and from war +because it is cruel, and from persecution because it trusts in the +prevalence of reason. It seeks to fit the mind and the character to +the world, to all possible circumstances, so that whatever happens we +remain ourselves,--calm, clear-seeing, able to do and to suffer. At +great heights, or in the presence of irresistible force, as of a mighty +waterfall, we grow dizzy; and in the same way, in the midst of +multitudes, in the eagerness of strife, in the whirlwind of passion, +equipoise is lost, and we cease to be ourselves, to become part of an +aggregate of forces that hurry us on, whither we know not. To be able +to stand in the presence of such power, and to feel its influence, and +yet not to lose self-possession, is to be strong; is, on proper +occasion, to be great. And the aim of the best education is to teach +us the secret and the method of this complete self-control; and in so +far it is not only moral, but also religious, though religion walks in +a more royal road, and bids us love God and trust so absolutely in Him +that life and death become equal, and all the ways and workings of men +as the storm to one who on lofty mountain peak, amid the blue heavens, +with the sunlight around him and the quiet breathing of the winds, sees +far below, as in another world, the black clouds and lurid lightning +flash and hears the roll of distant thunder. + +It is far from my thought, it is needless to say, that mental +cultivation can be made to take the place or do the work of religion, +even in the case of the very few for whom the best discipline of mind +is possible. My aim is simply to show that the type of character which +it tends to create is not necessarily at variance with religious +principle and life, as is, for instance, that of the mere worldling; +but that it conspires with Christian faith to produce, if not the same, +at least similar virtues, though its ethical influence is comparatively +superficial, and the moral qualities which it produces lack consistency +and the power to withstand the fire of the passions. It is enough for +my purpose to point out that if intellectualism is often the foe of +religious truth, there is no good reason why it should not also be its +ally. + +No excellence, as I conceive, of whatever kind, is rejected by Catholic +teaching, and the perfection of the mind is not less divine than the +perfection of the heart. It is good to know, as it is good to hope, to +believe, to love. A cultivated intellect, an open mind, a rich +imagination, with correctness of thought, flexibility of view, and +eloquent expression, are among the noblest endowments of man; and +though they should serve no other purpose than to embellish life, to +make it fairer and freer, they would nevertheless be possessions +without price, for the most nobly useful things are those which make +life good and beautiful. Like virtue they are their own reward, and +like mercy they bear a double blessing. It is the fashion with many to +affect contempt for men of superior culture, because they look upon +education as simply a means to tangible ends, and think knowledge +valuable only when it can be made to serve practical purposes. This is +a narrow and a false view; for all men need the noble and the +beautiful, and he who lives without an ideal is hardly a man. Our +material wants are not the most real for being the most sensible and +pressing, and they who create or preserve for us models of spiritual +and intellectual excellence are our greatest benefactors. Which were +the greater loss for England, to be without Wellington and Nelson, or +to be without Shakspeare and Milton? Whatever the answer be, in the +one case England would suffer, in the other the whole world would feel +the loss. Though a thoroughly trained intellect is less worthy of +admiration than a noble character, its power is immeasurably greater; +for, example can influence but a few and for a short time, but when a +truth or a sentiment has once found its best expression, it becomes a +part of literature, and like a proverb is current forevermore; and so +the kings of thought become immortal rulers, and without their help the +godlike deeds of saints and heroes would be buried in oblivion. "Words +pass," said Napoleon, "but deeds remain." The man of action +exaggerates the worth of action, but the philosopher knows that to act +is easy, to think, difficult; and that great deeds spring from great +thoughts. There are words that never grow silent, there are words that +have changed the face of the earth, and the warrior's wreath of victory +is entwined by the Muse's hand. The power of Athens is gone, her +temples are in ruins, the Acropolis is discrowned, and from Mars' Hill +no voice thunders now; but the words of Socrates, the great deliverer +of the mind, and the father of intellectual culture, still breathe in +the thoughts of every cultivated man on earth. The glory of Jerusalem +has departed, the broken stones of Solomon's Temple lie hard by the +graves that line the brook of Kedron, and from the minaret of Mount +Sion the misbeliever's melancholy call sounds like a wail over a lost +world; but the songs of David still rise from the whole earth in +heavenly concert, upbearing to the throne of God the faith and hope and +love of countless millions. And is not the Blessed Saviour the Eternal +Word? And is not the Bible God's word? And is not the Gospel the +Word, which, like an electric thrill, runs to the ends of the world? +"Currit verbum," says St. Paul. "Man lives not on bread alone, but on +every word that cometh forth from the mouth of God." Nay, there is +life in all the true and noble thoughts that have blossomed in the mind +of genius and filled the earth with fragrance and with fruit. + +Shall I be told that the intellectual cultivation and discipline, which +gives to man control of his knowledge, the perfect use of his +faculties, justness of perception with ease and grace of expression, +cannot bring serviceable advocacy or defence to the cause of divine +truth? What does truth need but to be known? And since to reach the +mind and heart of man it must be clothed in words, what is so necessary +to it as the garb and vesture, the form and color, the warmth and life, +which shall so mark it that to be loved it needs but be seen? And who +shall so clothe it, if not he who has the freest, the most flexible, +the clearest, the best disciplined mind? In the apostolic age, when +the manifestations of miraculous power accompanied the announcement of +Christian doctrine, the lack of the persuasive words of human eloquence +was not felt. Let him who can drink poison and touch scorpions, and +not suffer harm, despise the aid of learning; but for us, who are not +so assisted, no cultivation of mind or preparation of heart can be too +great; and to appear in the garb of a savage were less unseemly than to +speak the holiest and the highest truths in the barbarous tongue of +ignorance. + +Our way here cannot be doubtful. Either we must hold with certain +peculiar heretics that learning is a hindrance to the efficacious +teaching of religious truth, or, denying this, we must hold, since +mental culture is serviceable, that the best is most serviceable. + +May we not take this for a principle,--to believe that God does +everything, and then to act as though He left everything for us to do? +Or this: Since grace supposes nature, the growth and strength of the +Church is not wholly independent of the natural endowments of her +ministers? + +As a matter of fact we Catholics are constantly speaking and acting +upon principles of this kind. We maintain that without a proper +education our children must lose the faith; and that without careful +moral and mental training no man is likely to become a good priest; and +all that I further insist upon is that if he is to do the best work, he +must have the best intellectual discipline. In an intellectual age, at +least, he cannot be the worthy minister of worship, unless he is also +the accomplished teacher of truth. In vain shall we clothe him in rich +symbolic vestments, place him in majestic temples, before marble +altars, in the midst of solemn music, in the dim sober-tinted light, +with the great and noble looking out upon him, as from a spirit +world,--in vain shall all this be, if when he himself speaks, his words +are felt to be but the echo of a coarse and empty mind. And hence our +enemies would gladly leave us the poetry of our worship, would even +enter our churches to be comforted, to be soothed, to seek the +elevation and enlargement of thought and sentiment which comes upon us +in the presence of what is vast, mysterious, and sublime, if we would +but confess that it is only poetry, good and beautiful only as art is +good and beautiful. The spirit of the time, in fact, it seems to me, +is more and more disposed to grant us everything except the possession +of intellectual truth. That the Catholic Church is a marvellous power; +that her triumphs have been so enduring and so unexpected that only the +foolish or the ignorant will predict her downfall; that she overcame +paganism; that she saved Christianity when Rome fell; that she +restrained the ferocity of the barbarians, protected the weak, +encouraged labor, preserved the classics, maintained the unity and +sanctity of marriage, defended the purity and dignity of woman, +espoused the cause of the oppressed, and in a lawless and ignorant age +proclaimed the supremacy of right and the worth of learning; that to +these signal services must be added her power to give ease and +pleasantness to the social relations of men, keeping them equally +remote from Puritan severity and pagan license; her eye for beauty and +grace, which has made her the foster-mother of all the arts; her love +of the excellent and the noble, which has enabled her to create types +of character that are immortal; her practical wisdom, giving her the +secret of dealing with every phase of life, so that her saints are +doctors, apostles, mystics, philanthropists, artists, poets, kings, +beggars, warriors, peasants, barbarians, philosophers,--all this, if I +mistake not, unbelievers even are more and more willing to concede. +Nor are they slow to express their admiration of the strength and +majesty of this single power amid the Christian nations, which reaches +back to the great civilizations that have perished, which has preserved +its organic unity intact amid the social revolutions of two thousand +years, and which is acknowledged still to be the greatest moral force +in the world. But, underlying all they say and think, is the +assumption that the foundations of this noble structure are crumbling; +that the world of faith and thought in which it was upbuilt is become a +desert where no flower blooms, no living soul is found; that the temple +is beautiful only as a ruin is beautiful, where owls hoot and bats flit +to and fro. "There is not a creed, we are told, which is not shaken, +nor an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable; not a +received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve." + +The conquests of the human mind in the realms of nature have produced a +world-wide ferment of thought, an intellectual activity which is +without a parallel. They have increased the power of man to an almost +incredible degree, have given him control of the earth and the seas, +have placed within his grasp undreamed-of forces, have opened to his +view unsuspected mysteries; they have placed him on a new earth and +under new heavens, and thrown a light never seen before upon the +history of his race. As a part of this vast development new questions +have risen, new theories have been broached, new doubts have suggested +themselves; and because we have changed, all else seems to have changed +also. And since, underlying all questions, there is found a question +of religion, the discussion of religious and philosophic problems has, +in our day, become a social necessity, and the science of criticism, +together with the physical sciences, has driven the disputants upon new +and difficult ground, where the battle must be fought, and where +retreat is not possible. + +As well imagine that society will again take on the form of feudalism, +as that the human mind will return to the point of view from which our +ancestors looked on nature. + +And this world-view shapes and colors all our thinking, in theology as +in other sciences, so that truths which were latent have come to light, +and principles which have long been held find new and wider application. + +Never has the defence of religion required so many and such excellent +qualities of intellect as in the present day. The early apologists who +contrasted the sublimity and purity of Christian faith with a corrupt +paganism had not a difficult task. In the Middle Age the intellect of +the world was on the side of Christ. The controversy which sprang up +with the advent of Protestantism was biblical and historical, and its +criticism was superficial. The anti-Christian schools of thought of +the eighteenth century were literary rather than philosophical, and the +objections they urged were founded chiefly upon political and social +considerations. In all these discussions the territory in dispute was +well defined and relatively small. But into what a different world are +not we thrown! These earlier explorers sailed upon rivers whose banks +were lined by firm-set rocky cliffs, by the overshadowing boughs of +primeval forests, with here and there pleasant slopes of green where +they might lie at rest amid the fragrance of wild flowers; but from our +Peter's bark we look out upon the dark unfathomed seas towards an +unknown world whose margin ever fades and recedes as we seem to draw +near the haven of our desire. + +As in the beginning of the twelfth century the cry, "God wills it!" +rang through Europe, and from all her lands armies of mailed knights +sprang into battle-array and turned their faces towards the Holy City, +resolved to wrench from infidel hands the Sacred Tomb of Christ, so +now, from her thousand watch-towers, science sounds her clarion note +with quite other intent, urging on to the attack of the citadel of God +in the heart of man, renewing upon lower fields the war in which +immortal spirits contended with the Almighty "in dubious battle on the +plains of heaven, and shook his throne." As "he jests at scars that +never felt a wound," so here the lesser knowledge makes the bolder man. +Not that difficulties should create doubts, or that objections may not +be answered, or that it is necessary to refute each hypothesis that +appears and fades like a dissolving view, or to notice each +unwarrantable inference from unquestioned facts, or that it is worth +while to address ourselves to minds whose nebulous and shifting +opinions make it impossible that they should receive correct +impressions; but the field upon which attacks upon religion are now +made is so vast, the confusion of thought into which new discoveries +and speculations have thrown the minds of even educated men is so +bewildering, the methods for the ascertainment of truth are so tangled +and misapplied, the rushing on of multitudes to discuss problems which +have hitherto been left to philosophers, and which they alone can +rightly enunciate, is so stupefying, that those who have the clearest +perception of the mental state of the modern world, and who are able to +take the finest and most comprehensive view of the religious, +philosophic, and scientific controversies of the day, seem loath to +enter into a struggle where the ground continually changes, and where +victory at the best is only partial, and but leads to further contest. +It is well to remember, also, that in the intellectual arena to attack +is easier than to defend, and any shallow, incoherent talker or writer +can propose difficulties which the keenest thinker will find great +trouble to explain. Since we and our works fall to ruin and pass away, +we seem instinctively to take the side of those who seek to undermine +and overthrow systems of thought and belief which claim to be +indestructible, and the human heart is half a traitor to the Church +which declares that she is indefectible and infallible. Is there not +indeed, however we account for it, in all nature a kind of dread and +horror of the supernatural, such as one who hides within his bosom a +secret of dark guilt feels in the presence of the conscience of +mankind? And does not this make the world lean to the side of those +who would eliminate God from nature? + +And yet, since man's heart is the home of contradictions, is it not +also true to say that he is naturally religious? His faith in God is +as deep and unwavering as his faith in the testimony of the senses; and +if there are atheists there are also men who hold that all things are +unreal and only appear to be; that the world is but a myriad-formed, a +myriad-tinted idea, the dream of a substanceless dreamer. Not only do +we believe in God and in the soul, but all that we love, all that we +hope for, all that gives to life charm, dignity, and sacredness, is +interpenetrated, perfumed, and illumined by this faith. If men could +be persuaded that the unconscious is the beginning and the end of all +things, what good would have been gained? The light of heaven would +fade away, and the soul's high faith be made a lie; the poor would have +no friend, and the rich no heart; the wicked would be without fear, and +the good without hope; success would be consecrated, and death alone +would remain as the refuge of the unfortunate. Even animal indulgence, +in sinking out of the moral order, would lose its human charm. If then +in our day there is wide-spread scepticism, a sort of vague feeling +that science is undermining religion and that the most sacred beliefs +are dissolving, the cause of this lies not so much in the natural +tendencies of the mind and heart, as in social conditions, in passing +phases of thought, in the shifting of the point of view from which men +have hitherto been accustomed to look on nature; and the continuance +and the progress of doubt, and consequently of indifference, is, to +some extent at least, to be ascribed also to the fact that the most +earnest believers in God and in Christianity have, for now more than a +century, been less eager to acquire the best philosophic and literary +cultivation of mind than others who, having lost faith in the +supernatural, seek for compensation in a wider and deeper knowledge of +nature, and in the mental culture which enables them to enjoy more +keenly the high thoughts and fair images which live in literature and +art. As a well-trained intellect, in argument with the unskilful, +easily makes the worse appear the better cause, so in an age or a +country where the best discipline of mind is found chiefly among those +who are not Christians, or at least not Catholics, public opinion will +drift away from the Church, until the view finally becomes general +that, whatever she may have been in other times, her day is past. Nor +will aught external, however fair or glorious, secure her against this +danger. How often in the history of nations and of religions is not +outward splendor the mark of inward decay? When Rome was free, a +simple life sufficed; but when liberty fled, marble palaces arose. The +monarch who built Versailles made the scaffold on which French royalty +perished; and so a dying faith, like the setting sun, may drape itself +in glory. The Kingdom of God is within; there is the source of life +and strength, without which nor numbers nor wealth, nor stately +edifices nor solemn rites, avail. Nor can we be certain of men's love +when we cease to have influence over their thoughts. The proper appeal +is to the heart through the mind; and even a mother loses half her +power when she ceases to be the intellectual superior of her children. +How then shall the heavenly Mother of the soul keep her place in the +world, if those who speak in her name mar by imperfect and ignorant +utterance the celestial harmony of her doctrines? + +Ah! let us learn to see things as they are. In face of the modern +world, that which the Catholic priest most needs, after virtue, is the +best cultivation of mind, which issues in comprehensiveness of view, in +exactness of perception, in the clear discernment of the relations of +truths and of the limitations of scientific knowledge, in fairness and +flexibility of thought, in ease and grace of expression, in candor, in +reasonableness; the intellectual culture which brings the mind into +form gives it the control of its faculties, creates the habit of +attention, and develops firmness of grasp. The education of which I +speak is expansion and discipline of mind rather than learning; and its +tendency is not so much to form profound dogmatists, or erudite +canonists, or acute casuists, as to cultivate a habit of mind, which, +for want of a better word, may be called philosophical; to enlarge the +intellect, to strengthen and supple its faculties, to enable it to take +connected views of things and their relations, and to see clear amid +the mazes of human error and through the mists of human passion. I +speak of that perfection of the intellect, which, to use the words of +Cardinal Newman, "is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension +of all things as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its +place and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost prophetic +from its knowledge of history; it is almost heart-searching from its +knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its +freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of +faith because nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and +harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal +order of things and the music of the spheres." This is, indeed, ideal; +but they who believe not in ideals were not born to know the real worth +of things: + + "Spite of proudest boast + Reason, best reason is to imperfect man + An effort only and a noble aim,-- + A crown, an attribute of sovereign power, + Still to be courted, never to be won." + + +It is plain that education of this kind aims at something quite +different from the mere imparting of useful knowledge. It takes the +view that it is good to know, even though knowledge should not be a +means to wealth or power or any other common aim of life. It regards +the mind as the organ of truth, and trains it for its own sake, without +reference to the exercise of a profession. Hence its distinguishing +characteristic is that it is liberal and not professional. It holds +cultivated faculties in higher esteem than learning, and it makes use +of knowledge to improve the intellect, rather than of the intellect to +acquire knowledge. Hence, one may be a skilful physician, a judicious +lawyer, a learned theologian, and yet be greatly lacking in mental +culture. It is a common experience to find that professional men are +apt to be narrow and one-sided. Their mind, like the dyer's hand, is +subdued to what it works in. They want comprehensiveness of view, +flexibility of thought, openness to light, and freedom of mental play. +They think in grooves, make the rules of their art the measure of +truth, and their own methods of inquiry the only valid laws of +reasoning. These same defects may be observed in those who are given +exclusively to the study of physical science. When they sweep the +heavens with the telescope and do not find God, they conclude that +there is no God. When the soul does not reveal itself under the +microscope, they argue it does not exist; and since there is no thought +without nervous movement, they claim that the brain thinks. + +Now, if it is desirable that those who are charged with the teaching +and defence of divine truth should be free from this narrowness and +one-sidedness, this lack of openness to light and freedom of mental +play, the education of the priest must be more than a professional +education; and he must be sent to a school higher and broader than the +ecclesiastical seminary, which is simply a training college for the +practical work of the ministry. The purpose for which it was +instituted is to prepare young men for the worthy exercise of the +general functions of the priestly office, and the good it has done is +too great and too manifest to need commendation. But the +ecclesiastical seminary is not a school of intellectual culture, either +here in America or elsewhere, and to imagine that it can become the +instrument of intellectual culture is to cherish a delusion. It must +impart a certain amount of professional knowledge, fit its students to +become more or less expert catechists, rubricists, and casuists, and +its aim is to do this; and whatever mental improvement, if any, thence +results, is accidental. Hence its methods are not such as one would +choose who desires to open the mind, to give it breadth, flexibility, +strength, refinement, and grace. Its text-books are written often in a +barbarous style, the subjects are discussed in a dry and mechanical +way, and the professor, wholly intent upon giving instruction, is +frequently indifferent as to the manner in which it is imparted; or +else not possessing himself a really cultivated intellect, he holds in +slight esteem expansion and refinement of mind, looking upon it as at +the best a mere ornament. I am not offering a criticism upon the +ecclesiastical seminary, but am simply pointing to the plain fact that +it is not a school of intellectual culture, and consequently, if its +course were lengthened to five, to six, to eight, to ten years, its +students would go forth to their work with a more thorough professional +training, but not with more really cultivated minds. The test of +intellect is not so much what we know as the manner in which it is +known; just as in the moral world, the important consideration is not +what virtues we possess, but the completeness with which they are ours. +He who really believes in God, serves Him, loves Him, is a hero, a +saint; whereas he who half believes may have a thousand good qualities, +but not a great character. Knowledge is not education any more than +food is nutrition; and as one may eat voraciously, and yet remain +without bodily health or strength, so one may have great learning, and +yet be almost wholly lacking in intellectual cultivation. His learning +may only oppress and confuse him, be felt as a load, and not as a vital +principle, which upraises, illumines, and beautifies the mind; mentally +he may still be a boy, in whom memory predominates, and whose intellect +is only a receptacle of facts. Memory is the least noble of the +intellectual faculties, and the nearest to animal intelligence; and to +know well is, in the eyes of a true educator, of quite other importance +than to know much. But a memory, more or less well-stored, is nearly +all a youth carries with him from the college to the seminary, and here +he enters, as I have already pointed out, upon a course not of +intellectual discipline, but of professional studies, whose object is +not "to open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to +know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it +power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, +critical exactness, sagacity, resource, eloquent expression," but +simply to impart the requisite skill for the ordinary exercise of the +holy ministry. Hence it is not surprising that priests who are +zealous, earnest, self-sacrificing, who to piety join discretion and +good sense, rarely possess the intellectual culture of which I am +speaking, for the simple reason that a university and not a seminary is +the school in which this kind of education is received. That the +absence of such trained intellects is a most serious obstacle to the +progress of the Catholic faith, no thoughtful man will doubt or deny. +Since the mind is a power, in religion, as in every sphere of thought +and life, the discipline which best develops and perfects its faculties +will fit it to do its work, whatever it may be, in the most effective +manner. Hence, though the education of which I speak does not directly +aim at being useful, it is in fact the most useful, and prepares better +than any other for the business of life. It enables a man to master a +subject with ease, to fill an office with honor; and whatever he does, +the mark of completeness and finish will be found upon his work. He +sees more clearly, judges more calmly, reasons more pertinently, speaks +more seasonably than other men. The free and full possession of his +faculties gives him power to turn himself to whatever may be demanded +of him, whether it be to govern wisely, or to counsel judiciously, or +to write gracefully, or to plead eloquently. Whatever course in life +he may take, whatever line of thought or investigation he may pursue, +his intellectual culture will give him superiority over men who, with +equal or greater talents, lack his education; and he possesses withal +resources within himself, which in a measure make him independent of +fortune, and which, when failure comes and the world abandons him, +remain, like faith, or hope, or a friend, to make him forget his +misfortunes. + +Of the English universities, with all their shortcomings, Cardinal +Newman says: "At least they can boast of a succession of heroes and +statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for +great natural virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, +for practical judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who +have made England what it is,--able to subdue the earth, able to +domineer over Catholics." It is only in a university that all the +sciences are brought together, their relations adjusted, their +provinces assigned. There natural science is limited by metaphysics; +morality is studied in the light of history; language and literature +are viewed from the standpoint of ethnology; the criticism which seeks +beauty and not deformity, which in the gardens of the mind takes the +honey and leaves the poison, is applied to the study of eloquence and +poetry; and over all religion throws the warmth and life of faith and +hope, like a ray from heaven. The mind thus lives in an atmosphere in +which the comparison of ideas and truths with one an other is +inevitable; and so it grows, is strengthened, enlarged, refined, made +pliant, candid, open, equitable. + +When numbers of priests will be able to bring this cultivation of +intellect to the treatment of religious subjects, then will Catholic +theology again come forth from its isolation in the modern world; then +will Catholic truth again irradiate and perfume the thoughts and +opinions of men; then will Catholic doctrines again sink into their +hearts, and not remain loose in the mind to be thrown aside, as one +casts away the outworn vesture of the body; then will it be felt that +the fascination of Christian faith is still fresh, supreme, as far +above the charm of science as the joy of a poet's soul is above the +pleasures of sense. The religious view of life must forever remain the +true view, since no other explains our longings and aspirations, or +justifies hope and enthusiasm; and the worship of God in spirit and in +truth, which Christ has revealed to the world, the religion not of an +age or a people, but of all time and of the human race, must eternally +prevail when brought home to us in a language which we understand; for +we place the testimony of reason above that of the senses. To the eye +the sun rises and sets, to the mind it is stationary; and we accept, +not what is seen, but what is known. Is there need of stronger +evidence that the power within, which is our real self, is spiritual? +And is it not enough to see clearly, to perceive that in the struggle +of mind with matter, which is the essential form of the conflict of +spiritualism with materialism, of religion with science, the soul, in +the end, will be victorious, and rest in the real world of faith and +intuition, and not in the pictured world of the senses? + +Religion, indeed, like morality, is in the nature of things, and +Catholic faith is Una's Red Cross Knight, on whose shield are old dints +of deep wounds and cruel marks of many a bloody field, who is assailed +by all the powers of earth and of the nether world, armed with whatever +weapons may hurt the mind or corrupt the heart, but whom heavenly +Providence rescues from the jaws of monsters and leads on to victory. + +But what true believer thinks himself excused from effort, because +Christ has declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against +His Church? Does he not know that though, when we consider her whole +course through the world, she has triumphed, so as to have become the +miracle of history, yet has she at many points suffered disastrous +defeat? Hence, those who love her must be vigilant, and stand prepared +for battle. And in an age when persecution has either died away or +lost its harshness, when crying abuses have disappeared, when heresy +has run its course, and the struggle of the world with the Church has +become almost wholly intellectual, it is not possible, assuredly, that +her ministers should have too great power of intellect. And +consequently it is not possible that the bishops, in whose hands the +education of priests is placed, should have too great a care that they +receive the best mental culture. And if this is a general truth, with +what pertinency does it not come home to us here in America, who are +the descendants of men who, on account of their faith, have for +centuries been oppressed and thrust back from opportunities of +education, and who, when persecution and robbery had reduced them to +ignorance and poverty, were forced to hear their religion reproached +with the crimes of her foes? And now, when at length a fairer day has +dawned for us in this new world, what can be more natural than our +eager desire to move out from the valleys of darkness towards the hills +and mountain tops that are bathed in sunlight? What more praiseworthy +than the fixed resolve to prove that not our faith, but our misfortunes +made and kept us inferior. And, since we live in the midst of millions +who have indeed good will towards us, but who still bear the yoke of +inherited prejudices, and who, because for three hundred years real +cultivation of mind was denied to Catholics who spoke English, conclude +that Protestantism is the source of enlightenment, and the Church the +mother of ignorance, do not all generous impulses urge us to make this +reproach henceforth meaningless? And in what way shall we best +accomplish this task? Surely not by writing or speaking about what the +influence of the Church is, or by pointing to what she has done in +other ages, but by becoming what we claim her spirit tends to make us. +Here, if anywhere, the proverb is applicable--_verba movent, exempla +trahunt_. As the devotion of American Catholics to this country and +its free institutions, as shown not on battle-fields alone, but in our +whole bearing and conduct, convinces all but the unreasonable of the +depth and sincerity of our patriotism, so when our zeal for +intellectual excellence shall have raised up men who will take place +among the first writers and thinkers of their day their very presence +will become the most persuasive of arguments to teach the world that no +best gift is at war with the spirit of Catholic faith, and that, while +the humblest mind may feel its force, the lofty genius of Augustine, of +Dante, and of Bossuet is upborne and strengthened by the splendor of +its truth. But if we are to be intellectually the equals of others, we +must have with them equal advantages of education; and so long as we +look rather to the multiplying of schools and seminaries than to the +creation of a real university, our progress will be slow and uncertain, +because a university is the great ordinary means to the best +cultivation of mind. The fact that the growth of the Church here, like +that of the country itself, is chiefly external, a growth in wealth and +in numbers, makes it the more necessary that we bring the most +strenuous efforts to improve the gifts of the soul. The whole tendency +of our social life insures the increase of churches, convents, schools, +hospitals, and asylums; our advance in population and in wealth will be +counted from decade to decade by millions, and our worship will +approach more and more to the pomp and splendor of the full ritual; but +this very growth makes such demands upon our energies, that we are in +danger of forgetting higher things, or at least of thinking them less +urgent. Few men are at once thoughtful and active. The man of deeds +dwells in the world around him; the thinker lives within his mind. +Contemplation, in widening the view, makes us feel that what even the +strongest can do is lost in the limitless expanse of space and time; +and the soul is tempted to fall back upon itself and to gaze passively +upon the course of the world, as though the general stream of human +events were as little subject to man's control as the procession of the +seasons. Busy workers, on the other hand, having little taste or time +for reflection, see but the present and what lies close to them, and +the energy of their doing circumscribes their thinking. + +But the Church needs both the men who act and the men who think; and +since with us everything pushes to action, wisdom demands that we +cultivate rather the powers of reflection. And this is the duty alike +of true patriots and of faithful Catholics. All are working to develop +our boundless material resources; let a few at least labor to develop +man. The millions are building cities, reclaiming wildernesses, and +bringing forth from the earth its buried treasures; let at least a +remnant cherish the ideal, cultivate the beautiful, and seek to inspire +the love of moral and intellectual excellence. And since we believe +that the Church which points to heaven is able also to lead the nations +in the way of civilization and of progress, why should we not desire to +see her become a beneficent and ennobling influence in the public life +of our country? She can have no higher temporal mission than to be the +friend of this great republic, which is God's best earthly gift to His +children. If, as English critics complain, our style is inflated, it +is because we feel the promise of a destiny which transcends our powers +of expression. Whatever fault men may find with us, let them not doubt +the world-wide significance of our life. If we keep ourselves strong +and pure, all the peoples of the earth shall yet be free; if we fulfil +our providential mission, national hatred shall give place to the +spirit of generous rivalry, the people shall become wiser and stronger, +society shall grow more merciful and just, and the cry of distress +shall be felt, like the throb of a brother's heart, to the ends of the +world. Where is the man who does not feel a kind of religious +gratitude as he looks upon the rise and progress of this nation? Above +all, where is the Catholic whose heart is not enlarged by such +contemplation? Here, almost for the first time in her history, the +Church is really free. Her worldly position does not overshadow her +spiritual office, and the State recognizes her autonomy. The monuments +of her past glory, wrenched from her control, stand not here to point, +like mocking fingers, to what she has lost. She renews her youth, and +lifts her brow, as one who, not unmindful of the solemn mighty past, +yet looks with undimmed eye and unfaltering heart to a still more +glorious future. Who in such a presence, can abate hope, or give heed +to despondent counsel, or send regretful thoughts to other days and +lands? Whoever at any time, in any place, might have been sage, saint, +or hero, may be so here and now; and though he had the heart of +Francis, and the mind of Augustine, and the courage of Hildebrand, here +is work for him to do. + +In whatsoever direction we turn our thoughts, arguments rush in to show +the pressing need for us of a centre of life and light such as a +Catholic university would be. Without this we can have no hope of +entering as a determining force into the living controversies of the +age; without this it must be an accident if we are represented at all +in the literature of our country; without this we shall lack a point of +union to gather up, harmonize, and intensify our scattered forces; +without this our bishops must remain separated, and continue to work in +random ways; without this the noblest souls will look in vain for +something larger and broader than a local charity to make appeal to +their generous hearts; without this we shall be able to offer but +feeble resistance to the false theories and systems of education which +deny to the Church a place in the school; without this the sons of +wealthy Catholics will, in ever increasing numbers, be sent to +institutions where their faith is undermined; without this we shall +vainly hope for such treatment of religious questions and their +relations to the issues and needs of the day, as shall arrest public +attention and induce Catholics themselves to take at least some little +notice of the writings of Catholics; without this in struggles for +reform and contests for rights we shall lack the wisdom of best counsel +and the courage which skilful leaders inspire. We are a small minority +in the presence of a vast majority; we still bear the disfigurements +and weaknesses of centuries of persecution and suffering; we cling to +an ancient faith in an age when new sciences, discoveries, and theories +fascinate the minds of men, and turn their thoughts away from the past +to the future; we preach a spiritual religion to a people whose +prodigious wealth and rapid triumphs over nature have caused them to +exaggerate the value of material progress; we teach the duty of +self-denial to a refined and intellectual generation, who regard +whatever is painful as evil, whatever is difficult as omissible; we +insist upon religious obedience to the Church in face of a society +where children are ceasing to reverence and obey even their +parents;--if in spite of all this we are to hold our own, not to speak +of larger hopes, it is plain that we may neglect nothing which will +help us to put forth our full strength. + +I do not, of course, pretend that this higher education is all that we +need, or that, of itself, it is sufficient; but what I claim is that it +would be a source of strength for us who are in want of help. God +works in many ways, through many agencies, and I bow in homage to the +humblest effort in a righteous cause of the lowliest human being. +There are diversities of graces, but the same spirit; diversities of +ministries, but the same Lord. _Numquid omnes doctores?_ asks St. +Paul. But since he places teachers by the side of apostles and +prophets, surely they will teach to best purpose who to the humility of +faith add the luminousness of knowledge. To those who reject the idea +of human co-operation in things divine I speak not; but we who believe +that we are co-operators with Christ cannot think that it is possible +to bring to this godlike work either too great preparation of heart or +too great cultivation of mind. Nor must we think lightly even of +refinement of thought and speech and behavior, for we know that manners +come of morals, and that morals in turn are born of manners, as the +ocean breathes forth the clouds and the clouds fill the ocean. + +Let there be then an American Catholic university, where our young men, +in the atmosphere of faith and purity, of high thinking and plain +living, shall become more intimately conscious of the truth of their +religion and of the genius of their country; where they shall learn the +repose and dignity which belong to their ancient Catholic descent, and +yet not lose the fire which glows in the blood of a new people; to +which from every part of the land our eyes may turn for guidance and +encouragement, seeking light and self-confidence from men in whom +intellectual power is not separate from moral purpose, who look to God +and His universe from bending knees of prayer, who uphold-- + + "The cause of Christ and civil liberty + As one, and moving to one glorious end." + + +Should such an intellectual centre serve no other purpose than to bring +together a number of eager-hearted, truth-loving youths, what light and +heat would not leap forth from the shock of mind with mind; what +generous rivalries would not spring up; what intellectual sympathies, +resting on the breast of faith, would not become manifest, grouping +souls like atoms, to form the substance and beauty of a world? + +O solemn groves that lie close to Louvain and to Freiburg, whose air is +balm and whose murmuring winds sound like the voices of saints and +sages whispering down the galleries of time, what words have ye not +heard bursting forth from the strong hearts of keen-witted youths, who, +Titan-like, believed they might storm the citadel of God's truth! How +many a one, heavy and despondent, in the narrow, lonesome path of duty, +has remembered you, and moved again in unseen worlds, upheld by faith +and hope! Who has listened to the words of your teachers and not felt +the truth of the saying of Pope Pius II.,--that the world holds nothing +more precious or more beautiful than a cultivated intellect? The +presence of such men invigorates like mountain air, and their speech is +as refreshing as clear-flowing fountains. To know them is to be +forever their debtor. The company of a saint is the school of saints; +a strong character develops strength in others, and a noble mind makes +all around him luminous. + +Why may not eight million Catholics upbuild a home for great teachers, +for men who, to real learning and cultivation of mind, shall add the +persuasiveness of easy and eloquent diction; whose manifest and +indisputable superiority shall put to shame the self-conceit of +American young men, our most familiar intellectual bane, and an +insuperable obstacle to all improvement,--self-conceit, which is the +beatitude of vulgar characters and shallow minds? If our students +should find in such an institution but one man, who, like Socrates, +with ironic questioning might make for them the discovery of the new +world of their own ignorance, the gain would be great enough. + +Why may we not have a centre of light and truth which will raise up +before us standards of intellectual excellence; which will enable us to +see that our so-called educated men are as far from being scholars as +the makers of our horrible show-bills are from being artists; which +will teach us that it is not only false but vulgar to call things by +pretentious names,--as, for instance, to call a politician a statesman, +a declaimer an orator, or a Latin school a university. + +Ah! surely as to whether an American Catholic university is desirable +there cannot be two opinions among enlightened men. But is it +feasible? A true university is one of the noblest foundations of the +great Catholic ages, when faith rose almost to the height of creative +power, and it were folly in me to maintain that such an undertaking is +not surrounded by many and great difficulties. To begin with the +material for foundation, money is necessary, and this, I am persuaded, +we may have. A noble cause will find or make generous hearts. Men +above all we need, for every kind of existence propagates itself only +by itself. But let us bear in mind that the best teacher is not +necessarily or often he who knows the most, but he who has most power +to determine the student to self-activity; for in the end the mind +educates itself. As distrust is the mark of a narrow intellect or a +bad heart, so a readiness to believe in the ability of others is not +only a characteristic of able men, but it is also the secret charm +which calls around them helpers and followers. Hence, a strong man who +loves his work is a better educator than a half-hearted professor who +carries whole libraries in his head. + +To bring together in familiar and daily life a number of young men, +chosen for the brightness of their minds and an eager yearning for +knowledge, is to create an atmosphere of intellectual warmth and light, +which invigorates and inspires the master, while it stimulates his +disciples. In such company it will not be difficult to form teachers. +But will it be possible to find young men who will consent, when after +years of study they have finally reached the priesthood, to continue in +a higher institution the arduous and confining labors to the end of +which they have looked as to the beginning of a new life? In other +lands such students are found, and if with us there is a tendency to +rush with precipitancy and insufficient preparation to whatever work we +may have chosen, this is but a proof of the need of special efforts to +restrain an ardor which springs from weakness and not from strength. +Haste is a mark of immaturity. He who is certain of himself and master +of his tools, knows that he is able, and neither hurries nor worries, +but works and waits. The rank weed shoots up in a day and as quickly +dies; but the long-growing olive-tree stands from century to century, +and drops from its gently waving boughs ripe fruit through the quiet +autumn air. The Church endures forever; and we American Catholics, in +the midst of our rapidly-moving and ever-changing society, should be +the first to learn to temper energy with the patient strength which +gives the courage to toil and wait through a long life, if so we make +ourselves worthy to speak some fit word or do some needful deed. And +to whom shall this lesson first be taught if not to the clerics, whose +natural endowments single them out as future leaders of Catholic +thought and enterprise; and where can this lesson so well be learned as +in a school whose standard of intellectual excellence shall be the +highest? + +While we look, therefore, to the founding of a true university, we will +begin, as the university of Paris began in the twelfth century, and as +the present university of Louvain began fifty years ago, with a +national school of philosophy and theology, which will form the central +faculty of a complete educational organism. Around this, the other +faculties will take their places, in due course of time; and so the +beginning which we make will grow, until like the seed planted in the +earth, it shall wear the bloomy crown of its own development. + +And though the event be less than our hope, though even failure be the +outcome, is it not better to fail than not to attempt a worthy work +which might be ours? Only they who do nothing derive comfort from the +mistakes of others; and the saying that a blunder is worse than a crime +is doubtless true for those who have no other measure of worth and +success than the conventional standards of a superficial public +opinion. We at least know-- + + "There lives a Judge + To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim + Faithfully kept is as a noble deed; + In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed." + + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Means and Ends of Education, by J. L. 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