The man
without instructors, like a traveler without guide-boards, must take
many a useless step, and often retrace his way. He may, after this
experimental traveling, at length reach the same point with the person
who has enjoyed superior literary aids, but it will cost the waste of
many a precious hour, which might have been spent in enlarging the
sphere of his vision and perfecting the symmetry of his intellectual
powers. In cases of large attainments and ripe character, in either sex,
the process of growth is laborious. Thinking is hard work. All things
most excellent are the fruits of slow, patient working. The trees grow
slowly, grain by grain; the planets creep round their orbits, inch by
inch; the river hastens to the ocean by a gentle progress; the clouds
gather the rain-drop from the invisible air, particle by particle, and
we are not to ask that this immortal mind, the grandest thing in the
world, shall reach its perfection by a single stride, or independently
of the most early, profound and protracted self-labor. It is enough for
us that, thankfully accepting the assistance of those who have ascended
above us, we give ourselves to assiduous toil, until our souls grow up
to the stature of perfect men.
The third thing pre-supposed in education is the divine benediction. In
all spheres of action, we recognize the over-ruling providence of God
working without us, and his Spirit commissioned to work within us.
Pages:
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391