*
All opinions, properly so called, are stages on the road to
truth. It does not follow that a man will travel any
further; but if he has really considered the world and
drawn a conclusion, he has travelled so far. This does not
apply to formulae got by rote, which are stages on the road
to nowhere but second childhood and the grave. To have a
catchword in your mouth is not the same thing as to hold an
opinion; still less is it the same thing as to have made
one for yourself.
*
It is surely beyond a doubt that people should be a good
deal idle in youth. For though here and there a Lord
Macaulay may escape from school honours with all his wits
about him, most boys pay so dear for their medals that they
never afterwards have a shot in their locker, and begin the
world bankrupt. And the same holds true during all the
time a lad is educating himself, or suffering others to
educate him.... Books are good enough in their own way, but
they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. It seems
a pity to sit, like the Lady of Shalott, peering into a
mirror, with your back turned on all the bustle and glamour
of reality. And if a man reads very hard, as the old
anecdote reminds us, he will have little time for thought.
*
It is supposed that all knowledge is at the bottom of a
well, or the far end of a telescope. As a matter of fact,
an intelligent person, looking out of his eyes and
hearkening in his ears, with a smile on his face all the
time, will get more true education than many another in a
life of heroic vigils.
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