tamped it, so that it may be received of
all men as true; or earned it fairly, being already assayed: but if he
has done none of these things, but only had it thrown in his face by a
passer-by, what cause has he to be proud? And though, in this mendicant
fashion, he had heaped together the wealth of Croesus, would pride any
more, for this, become him, as, in some sort, it becomes the man who has
labored for his fortune, however small? So, if a man tells me the sun is
larger than the earth, have I any cause for pride in knowing it? or, if
any multitude of men tell me any number of things, heaping all their
wealth of knowledge upon me, have I any reason to be proud under the
heap? And is not nearly all the knowledge of which we boast in these
days cast upon us in this dishonorable way; worked for by other men,
proved by them, and then forced upon us, even against our wills, and
beaten into us in our youth, before we have the wit even to know if it
be good or not? (Mark the distinction between knowledge and thought.)
Truly a noble possession to be proud of! Be assured, there is no part of
the furniture of a man's mind which he has a right to exult in, but that
which he has hewn and fashioned for himself. He who has built himself a
hut on a desert heath, and carved his bed, and table, and chair out of
the nearest forest, may have some right to take pride in the appliances
of his narrow chamber, as assuredly he will have joy in them. But the
man who has had a palace built, and adorned, and furnished for him, may,
indeed, have many advantages above the other, but he has no reason to be
proud of his upholsterer's skill; and it is ten to one if he has half
the joy in his couches of ivory that the other will have in his pallet
of pine.

Sec. XXXV. And observe how we feel this, in the kind of respect we pay to
such knowledge as we are indeed capable of estimating the value of. When
it is our own, and new to us, we cannot judge of it; but let it be
another's also, and long familiar to us, and see what value we set on
it. Consider how we regard a schoolboy, fresh from his term's labor. If
he begin to display his newly acquired small knowledge to us, and plume
himself thereupon, how soon do we silence him with contempt! But it is
not so if the schoolboy begins to feel or see anything. In the strivings
of his soul within him he is our equal; in his power of sight and
thought he stands separate from us, and may be a greater than we. We