Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another; good sense is not conscience,
refinement2 is not
humility3, nor is largeness and justness of view faith. Philosophy, however enlightened, however profound, gives no command over the passions, no
influential4 motives5, no vivifying principles. Liberal Education makes not the
Christian6, not the Catholic, but the gentleman.It is well to be a gentleman, it is well to have a cultivated intellect, a delicate taste, a
candid7,
equitable8, dispassionate mind, a noble and
courteous9 bearing in the conduct of life—these are the connatural qualities of a large knowledge; they are the objects of a University. I am advocating, I shall
illustrate10 and insist upon them; but still, I repeat, they are no guarantee for sanctity or even for
conscientiousness11, and they may attach to the man of the world, to the
profligate12, to the heartless, pleasant,
alas13, and attractive as he shows when decked out in them. Taken by themselves, they do but seem to be what they are not; they look like virtue at a distance, but they are detected by close observers, and in the long run; and hence it is that they are popularly accused of
pretense14 and
hypocrisy15, not, I repeat, from their own fault, but because their professors and their admirers persist in taking them for what they are not, and are officious in
arrogating16 for them a praise to which they have no claim.
Quarry17 the
granite18 rock with razors, or
moor19 the
vessel20 with a thread of silk, then may you hope with such keen and delicate instruments as human knowledge and human reason to contend against those giants,the passion and the pride of man.
