Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/219

Rh endow a man with great intellectual power, mating, now and then, a million-minded man? Is that superiority of gift solely for tho man's own sake? Shame on such a thought! It is of little value to him unless ho use it for me; it is for your sake and my sake, more than for is own. He is a precious almoner of wisdom; one of the public guardians of mankind, to think for us, to help us think for ourselves; born to educate tho world of feebler men. I call on such men, men of culture, men of genius, to help build up institutions for the education of the people. If they neglect this, they are false to their trust. The culture which hinders a man from sympathy with the ignorant, is a curse to both, and tho genius which separates a man from his fellow-creatures, lowlier born than he. is the genius of a demon.

Men and women, practical teachers now before me, a great trust is in your hands; nine-tenths of the children of the people depend on you for their early culture, for all the scholastic discipline they will ever get; their manly culture will depend on that, their prosperity thereon, all these on you. When they are men, you know what evils they will easily learn from State and church, from business and the press. It is for you to give them such a developing, and such a furnishing of their powers, that they will withstand, counteract, and exterminate that evil. Teach them to love justice better than their native land, truth better than their church, humanity more than money, and fidelity to their own nature better than the public opinion of the press. As the chief thing of all, teach them to love man and God. Your characters will be the inspiration of these children; your prayers their practice, your faith their works.

The rising generation is in your hands, you can fashion them in your image, you will, you must do this. Great duties will devolve on these children when grown up to be men; you are to fit them for these duties. Since the Revolution, there has not been a question before the country, not a question of constitution or confederacy, free trade or protective tariff, sub-treasury or bank, of peace or war, freedom or slavery, the extension of liberty, or the extension of bondage—not a question of this sort has come