The actual available power of a state is in its adult population; but
its hope is in the classes of children and youth whose plastic minds
yield to good influences, and are moulded to higher forms of beauty than
have been conceived by Italian or Grecian art. Excellence is always
adorable and to be adored. If it appear in beauty of person, it commands
our admiration; and how much more ought wisdom, which is the beauty of
the mind and the excellency of the soul, to be cultivated and cherished
by every human being! "For what is there, O, ye gods!" says Cicero,
"more desirable than wisdom? What more excellent and lovely in itself?
What more useful and becoming for a man? Or what more worthy of his
reasonable nature?"
But wisdom cannot be acquired in a day, nor without devotion and toil.
It is the achievement of a life. It is to be pursued carefully through
schools, colleges, and the world,--to be mastered by study, intense
thought, rigid mental discipline, and an extensive acquaintance with the
best authors of ancient and modern times. It is not the child of ease,
indolence, or luxury; and it is well that it is not, The best of human
possessions are cheapened their attainment is no longer difficult. The
wealth of California and Australia has made silver, as an article of
luxury, the rival of gold; and the pearl loses its beauty when the
mountain streams are as fertile as the depths of the sea.
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