It devolves upon the superintendent and teachers, therefore, to determine
what studies already in the schools or what others that may be introduced
will best serve the purpose of fostering aspiration. They cannot deny that
this quality is an essential element in the spiritual composition of every
well-conditioned child as well as of every rightly constituted man and
woman. For aspiration means life, and the lack of aspiration means death.
The man who lacks aspiration is static, dormant, lifeless, inert; the man
who has aspiration is dynamic, forceful, potent, regnant. Aspiration is
the animating power that gives wings to the forces of life. It is the
motive power that induces the currents of life. The man who has aspiration
yearns to climb to higher levels, to make excursions into the realms that
lie beyond his present horizon, and to traverse the region that lies
between what he now is and what he may become. It is the dove that goes
forth from the ark to make discovery of the new lands that beckon.
In a former book the author tried to set forth the influence of the poet
in generating aspiration, and in this attempt used the following words:
"When he would teach men to aspire he writes _Excelsior_ and so causes
them to know that only he who aspires really lives. They see the
groundling, the boor, the drudge, and the clown content to dwell in the
valley amid the loaves and fishes of animal desires, while the man who
aspires is struggling toward the heights whence he may gain an outlook
upon the glories that are, know the throb and thrill of new life, and
experience the swing and sweep of spiritual impulses.
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