Knowledge and Virtue
Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another;
good sense is not conscience,
refinement is not humility,
nor is largeness and justness of view faith.
Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound,
gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal
Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a
gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect,
a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate
mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life these are the connatural qualities of a
large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.
I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;
but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for
sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the
profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in
them. Taken by themselves,
they do but seem to be what they are not;
they look like virtue at a
distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run;
and hence it is that they are
popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy,
not, I repeat, from their own fault,
but because their professors and
their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,
and are officious in
arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or
moor the vessel with a thread of silk,
then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments
as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride
of man.
good sense is not conscience,
refinement is not humility,
nor is largeness and justness of view faith.
Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound,
gives no command over the passions, no influential motives, no vivifying principles. Liberal
Education makes not the Christian, not the Catholic, but the gentleman. It is well to be a
gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect,
a delicate taste, a candid, equitable, dispassionate
mind, a noble and courteous bearing in the conduct of life these are the connatural qualities of a
large knowledge; they are the objects of a University.
I am advocating, I shall illustrate and insist upon them;
but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for
sanctity or even for conscientiousness, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the
profligate, to the heartless, pleasant, alas, and attractive as he shows when decked out in
them. Taken by themselves,
they do but seem to be what they are not;
they look like virtue at a
distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run;
and hence it is that they are
popularly accused of pretense and hypocrisy,
not, I repeat, from their own fault,
but because their professors and
their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not,
and are officious in
arrogating for them a praise to which they have no claim. Quarry the granite rock with razors, or
moor the vessel with a thread of silk,
then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments
as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants, the passion and the pride
of man.
下一篇:道路交通安全法
声明:以上文章均为用户自行添加,仅供打字交流使用,不代表本站观点,本站不承担任何法律责任,特此声明!如果有侵犯到您的权利,请及时联系我们删除。
文章热度:★★★☆☆
文章难度:★★☆☆☆
文章质量:★★☆☆☆
说明:系统根据文章的热度、难度、质量自动认证,已认证的文章将参与打字排名!
本文打字排名TOP20
登录后可见
用户更多文章推荐
- 等你下课2018-03-29
- The Road to Happiness2017-06-07
- “ Packing ” a Person2017-06-07
- Yesterday Once More2017-06-03
- The Grand Canyon2017-05-28
- You Have Only One Life2017-05-21
- Those years, those days of do2017-05-19
- regist.js2017-05-19