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