Means and Ends of Education

e-making or wooing of it; the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the be

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 philoso

hou 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

ved 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 f

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 e

e, 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

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

ndered. 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

ie within reach of the young, who should be permitted, not urged, to read them. We may know a man by the compa

gence, its consideration of circumstances, its severe judgm

k, work well done, excellently well done, we have wit

t 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

What we ourselves think, love, and do, until it bec

ave or seek culture is to breathe the

rable it may be to accuracy, weakens capacity for wide and profound views. On the other hand, the speculative thinker is apt to grow

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 e

, 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,

oo much with us

nding, we lay w

iced 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 telescop

ow 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. Havin

heart and luminous mind first leads us to believe in the priceless worth of wisdom and virtu

dure, to labor, even to the end, for

nward, like a wheel in even motion, swayed by

rong more than from disgrace they

y and to express clearly what thou seest; and so it may h

l 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

ask 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 a

ry, "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

Dr. Johnson's words,-"Ignorance, simple ignorance;" but of

books; in literature, the oldest." This is wiser than Emer

the opinion that reading up in this or that direction is education, whereas such reading as is generally done,

ves better promise of blessings to one's self and to one's fellow-men? Why desire to

iends is to be regretted, but the loss o

ore certain of earthly reward t

way 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.

ulse, in never-satisfied yearning, is the power which

uppermost in the mind, and by what the writer is most agitated and inflamed." What hast thou learned to admire, to long

amily 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

st successful one, while he who gains most

ure to raise us above the things money buys, and consequently to diminish our wants. They who are ne

tional nature, promising to lull conscience to sleep that he may lead the lower life in peace; but

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

ck 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

God we are human, and bend all our energies to remove the race farther and fa

austless oceans and the boundless heavens, the importance of the individual dwindles and seems threatened with

tleness, 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 e

than faith in their truth and love; and the educableness of the man is in proportion to

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

win the prize, so in the pursuit of intellectual and moral excellence, of the few who begin, the mos

teness 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 r

numerable efforts, innumerable failures, the final ou

follows after them with his whole heart, walks in

hor may be found dull either because he is so, or because his readers are dull. The nobles

n has infinitely more charm

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 an

hile for those who love it is enough that they be together: if t

truth, little and simple enough. It seems vast a

has its atmosphere, out

convictions, ideas that of belie

ether he seeks wealth, or power, or fame, or truth, or virtue, or the good of his fellows, he knows

ndividual, seek in vain to preserve by const

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

s of ineptitude. Is it conceivable that a thinker, or a believer, or a scholar, or an investigator should wrangle in the spirit of a poth

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 i

never utters

ows such words

seem to take with them part of our mental vigor; they leave us with a deeper sense of the illusiveness

elights the child makes no impression upon the man. Men and women, the ignorant and the learned, philosophers and poets, mothers and maidens, doers and

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 o

wherein thou movest and dwellest

est, thou canst not be disturbed by contradiction, but shalt fee

om observation, reflection, reading, and intercourse with men. We become perfectly conscious of our impressions only in giving ex

, or listening to the stories of the malignant or

iness, 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 pro

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

st 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

d of being his knowledge, faith, and works have made of him. He who makes us learn more than he teaches

n 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 a

little demand upon attention. The appeal to thought is like a beggar's appeal for alms,-heeded by one only

re many books which issue from the press withered and senile,

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

forward, and with firm tread they move on till death bids them stay. As the will succumbs to

hy chief business, thou shalt not lack for employment,

rogress 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

les 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

t is everywhere; if for hideo

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 poi

bird upbuil

ings by ceas

labors wi

ps will reach

f 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 a

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,