at the truth of any subject, I need have no worry about sleepy
heads or Inertia. A disclosure of truth, and the process of it made
clear, is the perfect awakener, for truth is the aliment of the soul. It
is not what I say, but what a truth suggests to them, that determines
the value of their expression of it.
Expression is the triumph. Every time the brain gives expression to the
real self, there is a memorable vitality, not only in the expression,
but strength and authority added to the brain itself. This is training
for writers, but words are the natural implements for us all.... So the
ardent aim of the classes here is to awaken the deeper vitalities of
those who listen. When one awakens a soul interest, you may rely upon
it the brain is open to its full zest and capacity. Pattering of
uncohered facts upon the temporal surface of the brain in the effort to
lodge them in the tentacles of memory, does not construct the character
of man or woman.
The superb flower of any educational work is the occasional disclosure
of the real bent of a student. That is always like the discovery of el
dorado. The most important fact to be considered in any educational
ideal is that the soul of every one has its own especial treasures and
bestowals; and when one succeeds in touching with fresh fire an ancient
facility or proclivity in the breast of a boy or girl--the rest is but
following the gleam.... The world finds us significant, even heroic,
only in so far as we give expression to a power intrinsic.
* * * * *
Another day we found more water-worn bricks. An old brick house long ago
had rubbed itself into the falling bank, and now its parts are spread
along certain portions of the shore and buried in the sand. The boys
brought in a half-bushel of this red treasure, and we set about
constructing a narrow cement walk of quality. Our idea was to carry out
and make perpetual the affinity of the red gleams as insets in a grey
pebble walk.
We worked raptly, even through the hard, dull labour of levelling,
setting the frames and laying the concrete foundation. The finishing
was the absorbing part. The idea was not for a fine-grained sand walk,
but a mixture of all sizes from a penny large down to the finest sand.
The cement makes the most lasting bond in a mixture of this kind;
moreover, the pebbly finish was effective and darker for the insets.
The walk was less than two feet wide and roughly squa
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