Theism Doctrinal and Practical, or, Didactic Religious Utterances. By Francis W. Newman |
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Instruction in Virtue.
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Instruction in Virtue.
Virtue has three kinds of instruction, from Precept, Experience and Example.
Precepts are delivered by the Preacher, by the Moralist, by the writer of Books.
No man overlooks that which is obvious, the instruction of direct teaching:
And some who least listen to the Teacher, suppose him the only Instructor,
And believe the precepts of virtue to be a law from without,
Stamped on the brain by authority foreign and untested,
Nor are aware that all the sanction is from within, by the verdict of conscience.
Thus they magnify the Church and the Creed and the Priest and the Book,
And look no deeper than the surface, yet learn many wholesome truths.
No man overlooks that which is obvious, the instruction of direct teaching:
And some who least listen to the Teacher, suppose him the only Instructor,
And believe the precepts of virtue to be a law from without,
Stamped on the brain by authority foreign and untested,
Nor are aware that all the sanction is from within, by the verdict of conscience.
Thus they magnify the Church and the Creed and the Priest and the Book,
And look no deeper than the surface, yet learn many wholesome truths.
But Instruction is also earned by each man in his own Experience,
In the wear and tear of life, in sorrow and in joy,
In the wrestlings of temptation, by the warnings of prudence,
From the perplexities of error and from the strength of inward freedom,
By the visitings of God's good spirit, by the earnestnesses of prayer,
By the love of dear kinsfolk and by the neglect of the heartless.
Each man's experience may be narrow, yet no instruction pierces so deep;
None gives conviction so unshakable or strength so abiding.
In the wear and tear of life, in sorrow and in joy,
In the wrestlings of temptation, by the warnings of prudence,
From the perplexities of error and from the strength of inward freedom,
By the visitings of God's good spirit, by the earnestnesses of prayer,
By the love of dear kinsfolk and by the neglect of the heartless.
Each man's experience may be narrow, yet no instruction pierces so deep;
None gives conviction so unshakable or strength so abiding.
But if Experience be narrow, it is widened by Example,
It is roused, it is kindled, it is blown into a flame.
The child learns less from the parent's precepts than from the parent's life,
From the deeds done carelessly, from the words dropt casually,
From the unstudied outbursting of inward character.
The man who is apathetic to goodness, hardened in worldly incredulity,
Supposing virtue to be a fable and religion hypocrisy,
Admires the simple goodness of the virtuous and unconscious poor;
Nay, he respects the philanthropist who sacrifices wealth and ease,
Though he continue blind to all goodness which enjoys outward good.
The Example of virtue is the best Instructor.
A Religion whose example pleads not its cause, is decaying and about to die.
It is roused, it is kindled, it is blown into a flame.
The child learns less from the parent's precepts than from the parent's life,
From the deeds done carelessly, from the words dropt casually,
From the unstudied outbursting of inward character.
The man who is apathetic to goodness, hardened in worldly incredulity,
Supposing virtue to be a fable and religion hypocrisy,
Admires the simple goodness of the virtuous and unconscious poor;
Nay, he respects the philanthropist who sacrifices wealth and ease,
Though he continue blind to all goodness which enjoys outward good.
The Example of virtue is the best Instructor.
A Religion whose example pleads not its cause, is decaying and about to die.
But not of virtuous men only are the examples useful,
Nor is the example of the vicious chiefly useful in his vice,
Or the example of the thoughtless in his thoughtlessness and error.
To the student of virtue Wild Virtues are an example,
The sweet wild flowers that bloom in common homes,
In the cottage of the peasant, in the boat of the fisherman,
In the rash heart of the sailor, the pagan or the savage;
Beneath the trader's hard outside, or the lawyer's subtle falsehood,
Amid the recklessness of gaiety, under the purple of royalty.
Much may the wise man learn from the example of the foolish,
Often may the virtuous take shame at the virtues of the vicious,
And the teacher go to school at the foot of the pupil.
Virtue and Science are unscrupulous whence they draw their wholesome lessons,
From the dark chambers of iniquity, from the loathsome abodes of filth.
For, their selective touch transmutes and purifies,
And all things to them become pure, and all things holy;
So they suck sweetness out of the spoiler, and “despoil the Egyptians.”
Nor is the example of the vicious chiefly useful in his vice,
Or the example of the thoughtless in his thoughtlessness and error.
To the student of virtue Wild Virtues are an example,
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In the cottage of the peasant, in the boat of the fisherman,
In the rash heart of the sailor, the pagan or the savage;
Beneath the trader's hard outside, or the lawyer's subtle falsehood,
Amid the recklessness of gaiety, under the purple of royalty.
Much may the wise man learn from the example of the foolish,
Often may the virtuous take shame at the virtues of the vicious,
And the teacher go to school at the foot of the pupil.
Virtue and Science are unscrupulous whence they draw their wholesome lessons,
From the dark chambers of iniquity, from the loathsome abodes of filth.
For, their selective touch transmutes and purifies,
And all things to them become pure, and all things holy;
So they suck sweetness out of the spoiler, and “despoil the Egyptians.”
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