IV.  THE WORLD-MARCH:  OF SAGES

     [ADESTE FIDELES]

     Our Father in Heaven,
       Creator of all,
     O source of all wisdom,
       On Thee we would call! 
     Thou only canst teach us,
       And show us our need,
     And give to Thy children
       True knowledge indeed.

     But vain our instruction,
       And blind we must be,
     Unless with our learning
       Be knowledge of Thee. 
     Then pour forth Thy Spirit
       And open our eyes,
     And fill with the knowledge
       That only makes wise.

     From pride and presumption,
       O Lord, keep us free,
     And make our hearts humble,
       And loyal to Thee,
     That living or dying,
       In Thee we may rest,
     And prove to the scornful
       Thy statutes are best._

     THOMAS WISTAR

If we should be told that at birth a strange and wonderful gift had been bestowed upon us, one such that by means of it, in after life, we could accomplish almost anything we wished, how we should guard it!  With what delight we would make it work, to see what it would do!  We should never be tired of such a toy, because every day it would reveal new possibilities of power and delight.

Such a gift God has given us in our power to think.  What a mysterious and deep-hid gift it is!  Nerves and sensations, a few convolutions in the brain, acts of attention and observation, certain reactions following certain stimuli:  the result, a world of worlds spread out before us; unlimited intellectual possibilities within our grasp!

What is thinking?  Thinking is an attempt to express infinite thoughts, affections, relations, and events, in finite terms.  The child strings buttons.  The philosopher strings God, angels, devils, brutes, men, and their appurtenances and deeds.  Hence no real thought will quite go into words.  Out beyond the word hangs the infinite remainder of our idea.  The search for a vocabulary is the search for a clearer articulation of ideas.

Thinking is the power to take up life where the race has left off attainment, and to lead the race one step farther on, by a new concept or idea.  It is a curious thing, this little turn in the brain, a thought.  We cannot see it, or touch it, or handle it.  Yet we can give it, one to another, or one man to the race.  It has an infinite leverage.  One great thought moves millions onward.  Plant the word steam, and globe-transport changes.  Plant electricity, and a hundred new industries spring up.  Plant liberty, tyrants fall.  Plant love, chaotic angers disappear.

If we refuse to learn to think, we refuse to do our share of the world’s work.  We are like a horse that balks and will not pull.  While we sulk the universe is at a standstill.

Spelling and arithmetic, history, etymology, and geography, are not tasks set over school-children by a hard taskmaster, who keeps them from sunshine and out-of-door play.  They are catch-words of the universe.  They are the implements by which each brain is to be trained to do great work for the one in whom it lives.  What every earnest soul asks is not gold, fame, or pleasure.  It is:  Let me not die till I have brought millions farther on.