Social problems; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918
There is food for thought in every human pursuit. In order to be
successful, in order to achieve high aims, the laboring man must not
only think, but be capable of thinking profoundly. Indeed, every man may
live like a philosopher, and be a philosopher, if he will. But no man
can be a true philosopher who is not both a practical worker and a
practical thinker. There is nothing the world needs more than workers
and thinkers to make it a paradise. The masses are workers, and if
educated, would become thinkers. It is only once or twice in a century,
it is said, that "God lets loose upon the earth a great thinker." Of the
past, this may be true, but not of the present. We have scores of men
now living who are greater thinkers than Plato, Newton, or Franklin,
because modern science has introduced them into broader fields of
thought. The chemists, geologists, inventors, and discoverers of the
present day have never been excelled as profound thinkers. Ours is
literally an age of philosophers.
Truth, though eternal, is never stationary; nor will the law of progress
ever reach a standpoint. There is always something to be done, some
vacuum to be filled. It is said by philosophers that Nature abhors a
vacuum. I do not doubt it, especially if it be a vacuum in the human
head. It is pretty certain that the youthful head, if not filled with
sense at the proper time, will soon be filled with nonsense. Neither
errors of the head nor errors of the heart can be easily eradicated,
when once implanted. The moral nature of the child may be moulded at
will; but the cherished opinions of age can seldom, if ever, be either
reversed or essentially modified. In the great battle of life our
success as individuals must depend on the kind of armor in which we are
clad, and the kind of weapons with which we are supplied. For effective
service there is nothing which can be brought into the field so
formidable or so irresistible as the artillery of logic. Intellect is
always sure of becoming the ultimate victor. We read of giants in the
chronicles of the early ages,--physical giants, who could overthrow the
pillars of the proudest temples, and bear off mountains upon their
shoulders; yet of what value to the world were their marvellous
exploits, if really true, compared with the achievements of those
intellectual giants who have appeared at different epochs, and taught
mankind the most useful lessons in the arts, in the sciences, and in
philosophy? And here let me say to the young aspirant for worldly honors
that if he would achieve high aims, he must not only aim high, but have
faith in himself as well as in a Divine Providence. Indeed, every man,
however humble, may become great in his vocation, if he will; yet no man
can become truly great who is not truly good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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