memory of their country.

The passage of years has a way of diminishing the stature of men thought
great, and often of increasing that of men thought little. Few American
statesmen, for example, loom as large to-day as they appeared to their
contemporaries. Looking back at them, we perceive that, for the most
part, they wasted their days in fighting wind-mills, or in doing things
which had afterwards to be undone. Only through the vista of the years
do we get a true perspective, just as only from a distance can we see
which peaks of the mountain-range loom highest. But even the mist of
years cannot dim essential heroism and nobility of achievement. Indeed,
it enhances them; the voyage of Columbus seems to us a far greater thing
than his contemporaries thought it; Washington is for us a more
venerable figure than he was for the new-born Union; and Lincoln is just
coming into his own as a leader among men.

Every boy and girl ought to try to gain as true and clear an idea as
possible of their country's history, and of the men who made that
history. It is a pleasant study, and grows more and more fascinating as
one proceeds with it. The great pleasure in reading is to understand
every word, and so to catch the writer's thought completely. Knowledge
always gives pleasure in just that way--by a wider understanding.
Indeed, that is the principal aim of education: to enable the individual
to get the most out of life by broadening his horizon, so that he sees
more and understands more than he could do if he remained ignorant. And
since you are an American, you will need especially to understand your
country. You will be quite unable to grasp the meaning of the references
to her story which are made every day in conversation, in newspapers, in
books and magazines, unless you know that story; and you will also be
unable properly to fulfil your duties as a citizen of this Republic