The Teacher and the State 67 



Now this is the outcome of the shepherd's experience; 

 this is his attitude of mind, his philosophy. Professor 

 James says, a man's philosophy is the most interesting 

 thing about him. And here the shepherd, as each of us, 

 has his philosophy, his sense of the world, his estimate of 

 realities, of values ; he has his way of looking at things ; 

 he is an optimist, a pessimist, or what not; he is dis- 

 couraged or hopeful; and this is what we get from our 

 contact with the things about us, with books, and teach- 

 ers, and classes. From the atmosphere of this fine- 

 builded hilltop on the prairie, from all our study, this 

 alone we gain, this that abides. You came here to learn 

 to be teachers, builders for the state, not to study arith- 

 metic; you could do that anywhere; numbers may carry 

 magic, as you begin to see, and transcend arithmetic ; not 

 grammar, only, but the grammar, the correct ordering of 

 human life; you came for personal culture, for inspira- 

 tion, for intellectual direction, for spiritual power, for a 

 new vision of this world, for an attitude of mind : ' ' Hast 

 thou any philosophy in thee," teacher? 



But not yet have I closed my briefest inventory of 

 your winning, here beneath the elms, in these lovely as- 

 sociations; not yet. At least two more entries must be 

 made to the credit side of your account. The first rises 

 directly from the condition I have just described. It is 

 an asset even more valuable than that attitude of mind 

 which seems so all-important now. It is an acquisition 

 that others, fortunately indeed, recognize better than we 

 ever do ourselves ; perhaps in ourselves we know it never ; 

 therefore I may tell it. I mean now that wondrous abil- 

 ity which God gives a man, of becoming better than he 



