CHAPTER SIX
ASPIRATION
Browning says, "'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man
Would do." The boy who has acquired the habit of wishing ardently in right
directions is well on the way toward becoming educated. For earnest
wishing precedes and conditions every achievement that is worthy the name.
The man who does not wish does not achieve, and the man who does wish with
persistency and consistency does not fail of achievement. Had Columbus not
wished with consuming ardor to circumnavigate the globe, he would never
have encountered America. The Atlantic cable figured in the dreams and
wishes of Cyrus W. Field long before even the preliminaries became
realities. The wish evermore precedes the blueprint. It required forty-two
years for Ghiberti to translate his dream into the reality that we know as
the bronze doors of the Baptistry. But had there been no dreams there had
been no bronze doors, and the world of art would have been the poorer.
Every tunnel that pierces a mountain; every bridge that spans a river;
every building whose turrets pierce the sky; every invention that lifts a
burden from the shoulders of humanity; every reform that gilds the world
with the glow of hope, was preceded by a wish whose gossamer strands were
woven in a human brain. The Red Cross of today is but a dream of Henri
Dunant realized and grown large.
The student who scans the records of historical achievements and of the
triumphs of art, music, science, literature, and philanthropy must realize
that ardent wishing is the condition precedent to further extension in any
of these lines, and he must be aware, too, that the ranks of wishers must
be recruited from among the children of our schools.
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