 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
526
Education
What is it to educate a human soul?Is it to teach it how to read, and write,
Grammar, Arithmetic; is this the whole?
Can these alone teach it to live aright?
Such knowledge is but means unto an end,
Too oft to earth's brief, narrow sphere confined;
But higher thoughts there are, that these transcend,
Motives enduring as the human mind;
The love of knowledge, human and divine,
The love of goodness, purity, and truth;
Happy the teacher, who can souls incline
To virtuous ends, in early days of youth;
And, while he useful knowledge doth impart,
Inspires the soul, the teacher's noblest art.
Poem No. 775; c. 11 April 1879
| Jones Very : The Complete Poems | |