More JHC Newman for your intellectual stimulation. Thursdays are long, but they are good and weighty and meaty, not to be digested passively, but taken in with large bites and much chewing [bad analogy. now i'm hungry].
A great good will impart great good. If then the intellect is so excellent a portion of us, and its cultivation so excellent, it is not only beautiful, perfect, admirable, and noble in itself, but in a true and high sense it must be useful to the possessor and to all around him; not useful in any low, mechanical, mercantile sense, but as diffusing good, or as a blessing, or a gift, or a power, or a treasure, first to the owner, then through him to the world. I say then, if a liberal education be good, it must necessarily be useful too.
I say that a cultivated intellect, because it is a good in itself, brings with it a power and a grace to every work and occupation which it undertakes, and enables us to be more useful, and to a greater number.
[from discourse 7: knowledge viewed in relation to professional skill, sections 5 and 6]
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1 comment:
Ah, dear JHN. An encouraging paragraph.
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