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