run afield with his understanding. With what images does he not
surround himself and store his mind! With what fondness does he
con travelers' tales and credit poets' fancies! With what
patience does he follow science and pore upon old records, and
with what eagerness does he ask the news of the day! No great
part of what he learns immediately touches his own life or the
course of his own affairs: he is not pursuing a business, but
satisfying as he can an insatiable mind. No doubt the highest
form of this noble curiosity is that which leads us, without
self-interest, to look abroad upon all the field of man's life at
home and in society, seeking more excellent forms of government,
more righteous ways of labor, more elevating forms of art, and
which makes the greater among us statesmen, reformers,
philanthropists, artists, critics, men of letters. It is
certainly human to mind your neighbor's business as well as your
own. Gossips are only sociologists upon a mean and petty scale.
The art of being human lifts to be a better level than that of
gossip; it leaves mere chatter behind, as too reminiscent of a
lower stage of existence, and is compassed by those whose outlook
is wide enough to serve for guidance and a choosing of ways.


V

Luckily we are not the first human beings. We have come into a
great heritage of interesting things, collected and piled all
about us by the curiousity of past generations. And so our
interest is selective. Our education consists in learning
intelligent choice. Our energies do not clash or compete: each is
free to take his own path to knowledge. Each has that choice,