"When he would teach men to aspire he writes _Excelsior_ and so causes
them to know that only he who aspires really lives. They see the
groundling, the boor, the drudge, and the clown content to dwell in the
valley amid the loaves and fishes of animal desires, while the man who
aspires is struggling toward the heights whence he may gain an outlook
upon the glories that are, know the throb and thrill of new life, and
experience the swing and sweep of spiritual impulses. He makes them to
know that the man who aspires recks not of cold, of storm, or of snow, if
only he may reach the summit and lave his soul in the glory that crowns
the marriage of earth and sky. They feel that the aspirant is but yielding
obedience to the behests of his better self to scale the heights where
sublimity dwells."

It were useless for teachers to pooh-pooh this matter as visionary and
inconsequential or to disregard aspiration as a vital factor in the scheme
of education. This quality is fundamental and may not, therefore, be
either disregarded or slurred. Fundamental qualities must engage the
thoughtful attention of all true educators, for these fundamentals must
constitute the ground-work of every reform in our school procedure. There
can be life without arithmetic, but there can be no real life without
aspiration. It points to higher and fairer levels of life and impels its
possessor onward and upward. This needs to be fully recognized by the
schools that would perform their high functions worthily, and no teacher
can with impunity evade this responsibility. Somehow, we must contrive to
instill the quality of aspiration into the lives of our pupils if we would
acquit ourselves of this obligation. To do less than this is to convict
ourselves of stolidity or impotence.

Chief among the agencies that may be made to contribute generously in this
high enterprise is history, or more specifically, biography, which is