In the evening we had
a general conversation, opened by me, upon Education, in its
largest sense, and on what we can do for ourselves and others.
I took my usual ground: The aim is perfection; patience the
road. The present object is to give ourselves and others a
tolerable chance. Let us not be too ambitious in our hopes
as to immediate results. Our lives should be considered as a
tendency, an approximation only. Parents and teachers
expect to do too much. They are not legislators, but only
interpreters to the next generation. Soon, very soon, does the
parent become merely the elder brother of his child;--a little
wiser, it is to be hoped. ---- differed from me as to some
things I said about the gradations of experience,--that "to
be brought prematurely near perfect beings would chill and
discourage." He thought it would cheer and console. He spoke
well,--with a youthful nobleness. ---- said "that the most
perfect person would be the most impersonal"--philosophical
bull that, I trow--"and, consequently, would impede us least
from God." Mr. R. spoke admirably on the nature of loyalty.
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