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,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 on 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.
知識(shí)與美德
知識(shí)是一回事,美德是另一回事.好意并非良心,優(yōu)雅并非謙讓,廣博與公正的觀點(diǎn)也并非信仰.哲學(xué),無(wú)論多么富有啟迪和深?yuàn)W莫測(cè),都無(wú)法駕馭情感,不具備有影響力的動(dòng)機(jī),不具有導(dǎo)致生動(dòng)活潑的原理.文科教育并不造就基督教徒抑或天主教徒,而是造就了紳士.造就一個(gè)紳士誠(chéng)為美事.有教養(yǎng)的才智,優(yōu)雅的情趣,正直、公正而冷靜的頭腦,高貴而彬彬有禮的舉止--這些是與淵博的學(xué)識(shí)生來(lái)固有的品質(zhì),它也是大學(xué)教育的目的.對(duì)此我提倡之,并將加以闡釋和堅(jiān)持.然而我要說的是,它們?nèi)匀徊荒艽_保圣潔,或甚至不能保證誠(chéng)實(shí).它們可以附庸于世故的俗人,附庸于玩世不恭的浪子.唉,當(dāng)他們用它偽裝起來(lái)時(shí),就更增加了他們外表上的冷靜、快活和魅力.就其本身而言,它們似乎已遠(yuǎn)非其本來(lái)面目,它們似乎一遠(yuǎn)看的美德,經(jīng)久久細(xì)察方可探知.因此它們受到廣泛的責(zé)難,指責(zé)其虛飾與偽善.我要強(qiáng)調(diào),這絕非是因?yàn)槠渥陨碛惺裁催^錯(cuò),而是因?yàn)榻淌趥兒唾澝勒邆円晃兜匕阉鼈兣妹婺咳?并且還要殷勤地獻(xiàn)上其本身并不希冀的贊頌.如若用剃刀就可以開采出花崗巖,用絲線即能系泊位船只,那么,也許你才能希望用人的知識(shí)和理性這樣美妙而優(yōu)雅的東西去與人類的情感與高傲那樣的龐然大物進(jìn)行抗?fàn)?