orrow is
inseparable from any hour of life; but we may make their poverty such as
shall inherit the earth, and the sorrow, such as shall be hallowed by
the hand of the Comforter, with everlasting comfort. We _can_, if we
will but shake off this lethargy and dreaming that is upon us, and take
the pains to think and act like men, we can, I say, make kingdoms to be
like well-governed households, in which, indeed, while no care or
kindness can prevent occasional heart-burnings, nor any foresight or
piety anticipate all the vicissitudes of fortune, or avert every stroke
of calamity, yet the unity of their affection and fellowship remains
unbroken, and their distress is neither embittered by division,
prolonged by imprudence, nor darkened by dishonor.

* * * * *

The great leading error of modern times is the mistaking erudition for
education. I call it the leading error, for I believe that, with little
difficulty, nearly every other might be shown to have root in it; and,
most assuredly, the worst that are fallen into on the subject of art.

Education then, briefly, is the leading human souls to what is best, and
making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always
attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes men
happiest in themselves, also makes them most serviceable to others. True
education, then, has respect, first to the ends which are proposable to
the man, or attainable by him; and, secondly, to the material of which
the man is made. So far as it is able, it chooses the end according to
the material: but it cannot always choose the end, for the position of
many persons in life is fixed by necessity; still less can it choose
the material; and, therefore, all it can do, is to fit the one to the
other as wisely as may be.

But the first point to be understood, is that the material is as various
as the ends; that not only one man is unlike another, but _every_ man is
essentially different from _every_ other, so that no training, no
forming, nor informing, will ever make two persons alike in thought or
in power. Among all men, whether of the upper or lower orders, the
differences are eternal and irreconcilable, between one individual and
another, born under absolutely the same circumstances. One man is made
of agate, another of oak; one of slate, another of clay. The education
of the first is polishing; of the second, seasoning; of the third,
rending;