one he becomes a blatant creature, without a thought of his own, ready
for any evil to which contagion prompts him. It is because nations tend
to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because
individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all.

In my youth, looking at this man and that, I marvelled that humanity had
made so little progress. Now, looking at men in the multitude, I marvel
that they have advanced so far.

Foolishly arrogant as I was, I used to judge the worth of a person by his
intellectual power and attainment. I could see no good where there was
no logic, no charm where there was no learning. Now I think that one has
to distinguish between two forms of intelligence, that of the brain, and
that of the heart, and I have come to regard the second as by far the
more important. I guard myself against saying that intelligence does not
matter; the fool is ever as noxious as he is wearisome. But assuredly
the best people I have known were saved from folly not by the intellect
but by the heart. They come before me, and I see them greatly ignorant,
strongly prejudiced, capable of the absurdest mis-reasoning; yet their
faces shine with the supreme virtues, kindness, sweetness, modesty,
generosity. Possessing these qualities, they at the same time understand
how to use them; they have the intelligence of the heart.

This poor woman who labours for me in my house is even such a one. From
the first I thought her an unusually good servant; after three years of
acquaintance, I find her one of the few women I have known who merit the
term of excellent. She can read and write--that is all. More
instruction would, I am sure, have harmed her, for it would have confused
her natural motives, without supplying any clear ray of mental guidance.
She is fulfilling the offices for which she was born, and that with a