The first mistake in the world's action is this. In this partition,
thoughts and actions have become separated, the world is filled and the
individual confounded by new religions, methods of education, theories
of government, propounded by those _par excellence_ called the thinking
men, while the men who work have no time for thought. Wisdom is theory
proved by experience, but here, alas! the reasoning man and the
practical man are separated, so that we are farther than ever from the
living truth.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and I linger on the shore,
And the individual withers, and the world is more and more.'
Behind this first mistake, that one man can do the thinking for another,
the great error in the world's reasoning on this subject is this, that
one man can perform another's duties at all. The duty is his, the
responsibility is his, and none can perform the one or assume the other.
Granting that he may supply the thought or mechanical; the dynamical,
the love and soul power which would make that logic effectual, can come
only from each individual himself.
The duty which each man owes to his children is education and training.
Schools and teachers may supply schemes of education, improved methods
of study, and instil some facts or even ideas into the mind; but that
which vivifies the intellect and brings out every power in its fullest
development is the motive of love; and it was meant that the filial
affection of the child toward its parent should be the life of its
opening mind.
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