The Germans have been encouraged by their bad thinking to exercise certain virtues perversely and to bad ends, but still to exercise them in a manner which has astonished the world; while we have been little encouraged by thinking, good or bad, to exercise any virtues.”[102] There is ample room for more _outspoken_ interest in the ends and principles of human life, more earnest and stringent consideration of the problems of social organisation--provided our discussions be undertaken, not in the spirit of silly contention, mere bolstering up of unconsidered prejudice, but in a sincerity that will be both more critical and yet more humbly eager, for truth’s sake, to learn one from another. For it is not division of opinion, or even real conflict of interest that prevents and retards reform, so much as the dead weight of ignorance, of indifference and of paltry pride in argument--the very sins which in the past were the prime cause of the evils that call for remedy. No less than the ancient Hebrews we moderns stand in need of the exhortation to let Wisdom _enter into our hearts and knowledge be pleasant unto our souls_ (cp. Pr. 2^{10}). Neither with all our heart, nor even with all our mind, far less with all our soul, have we yet sought her whose _ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace_ (Pr. 3^{17}); nor have we understood sufficiently that _she is a tree of life to all that lay hold on her, and happy is every one that retaineth her_ (Pr. 3^{18}). Says a later Jewish proverb, _Lackest thou Wisdom, what hast thou acquired? Hast acquired Wisdom, what lackest thou?_ (C. 93.) Secondly, the constant intimate contact that the Wise maintained with the actualities of men’s ordinary experience was beneficial not only to the taught but to the teachers. It kept the Wise in touch with work-a-day problems (the most difficult of tasks for the idealistic thinker), and so helped to make their toil productive. It taught them how to bring Heavenly Wisdom down from the right hand of God that she might dwell with men, and make their homes pure and loving, and their business just, and their pleasures clean. And herein is a thought of no little encouragement for preachers and teachers in these days of not overcrowded Churches. Somehow it seems that personal contact is invaluable in the moral and spiritual education of man. That is why the leading article, with its scores of thousands of readers, may sometimes have less effect than a good sermon heard by a few hundred. The Press addresses us from an Olympian but distant Fleet Street, thundering at us--but in cold print; whereas the parson and the teacher, if he is a true man, somewhere and to some few is a neighbour and a friend. However excellent the Manual of Ethics, it will not serve to influence the lives of many. The Son of Man, it seems, must come eating and drinking and teaching in our streets.