Page:Education and Life; (IA educationlife00bakerich).pdf/263

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

reaction arouses again his better impulse, and he counts "the gray barbarian lower than the Christian child."

Every young man who aims at medicine, theology, law, or teaching, who aims at the best development of his powers, needs all the education he can gain before he enters upon independent labor. All need a broad foundation of general knowledge upon which to rear the structure of special knowledge and skill. Our grandfathers got along with the grammar school, the academy, college, and apprentice system; we need the high school, the graduate school, and the professional school. Men go into the field of labor without map, implements, or skill, and then wonder why they do not succeed. The generation has advanced; more is known, more is demanded, and undeveloped thought and skill soon find their limitations in the practical world.

We are called upon not only to feel, but to act; not merely to know, but to impart. The inner life is to realize itself in the outer world of action. Ideals are to be followed closely by deeds. A mere recluse is not in harmony with the times.

There is a thought in the following passage from Goethe not inappropriate in this place:

"Wouldst thou win desires unbounded?
  Yonder see the glory burn!
Lightly is thy life surrounded—
  Sleep's a shell, to break and spurn!
When the crowd sways, unbelieving,
  Show the daring will that warms!
He is crowned with all achieving
  Who perceives and then performs."