Means and Ends of EducationSpalding, John Lancaster
Philosophy
Means and Ends of Education
Spalding, John Lancaster
Culture; Education
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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