He should see this apparently solid sphere as a whirl
of atoms, and come face to face with the old puzzles of matter and
mind. He should be able to trace in imagination the growth of stellar
systems; the history of our own earth; the evolution of plant and animal
life, from the first protoplasmic nuclei to the mammoth and mastodon;
the emergence of man from brute hood into self-consciousness, his triumph
over nature and the other animals, and his achievement of civilization.
He should watch primitive man wrestling with problems as yet partly
unsolved, see him gradually establishing law and order, inventing and
discovering, mastering his fate. He should follow the floods and ebbs
of progress, the rise and fall of nations, know the great names of
history and have for friends humanity's saints and heroes. He should
be at home in ancient Israel, in classic Greece, in Rome of the Republic,
in Italy of the Renaissance, especially in the early days of our own
land, learning to comprehend and sympathize with the struggles and
ideals that have made our nation what it is. He should understand the
clash of creeds and codes, follow the thoughts of Plato, of Bacon,
of Emerson, and grasp the essence of the problems that now confront
us. What dangers lie before us, what the great statesmen and reformers
are aiming at, what are the meaning and use of our institutions, our
government, our laws, our morals, our religion - here is a hint of
the knowledge that every man who comes into the world should amass.
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