"What we need is a grand moral revolution which shall touch and vivify the inner life of a people, which shall give them dissatisfaction with ignoble motives and sensual desires, which shall bring to them a resurrection from inferior ideas and lowly ambitions; which shall shed illumination through all the chambers of their souls, which shall lift them up to lofty aspirations, which shall put them in the race for manly moral superiority....
"The revolution I speak of is one which must find its primal elements in qualities, latent though they be, which reside in the people who need this revolution, and which can be drawn out of them, and thus secure form and reality.
"The basis of this revolution must be character. That is the rock on which this whole race in America is to be built up. Our leaders and teachers are to address themselves to this main and master endeavor, viz., to free them from false ideas and injurious habits, to persuade them to the adoption of correct principles, to lift them up to superior modes of living, and so bring forth, as permanent factors in their life, the qualities of thrift, order, acquisitiveness, virtue, and manliness.
"And who are the agents to bring about this grand change in this race?...
"'They' are to be the scholars; for to transform, stimulate, and uplift a people is a work of intelligence; it is a work which demands a clear induction of historic facts and their application to new circumstances,--a work which will require the most skillful resources and the wise practicality of superior men.
"But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims. And hence, these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists; the intellect rightly discerning the conditions, and the gracious and godly heart stimulating to the performance of the noblest duties of a people."
p. 132-133, "The Need for New Ideas and New Aims," (1885) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS: SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL ON THE SOUTH edited by J.R. Oldfield (University of Virginia Press: 1995)
Saturday, February 28, 2015
SCHOLARLY PHILANTHROPISTS OF CHARACTER
SCHOLARLY PHILANTHROPISTS OF CHARACTER
"What we need is a grand moral revolution which shall touch and vivify the inner life of a people, which shall give them dissatisfaction with ignoble motives and sensual desires, which shall bring to them a resurrection from inferior ideas and lowly ambitions; which shall shed illumination through all the chambers of their souls, which shall lift them up to lofty aspirations, which shall put them in the race for manly moral superiority....
"The revolution I speak of is one which must find its primal elements in qualities, latent though they be, which reside in the people who need this revolution, and which can be drawn out of them, and thus secure form and reality.
"The basis of this revolution must be character. That is the rock on which this whole race in America is to be built up. Our leaders and teachers are to address themselves to this main and master endeavor, viz., to free them from false ideas and injurious habits, to persuade them to the adoption of correct principles, to lift them up to superior modes of living, and so bring forth, as permanent factors in their life, the qualities of thrift, order, acquisitiveness, virtue, and manliness.
"And who are the agents to bring about this grand change in this race?...
"'They' are to be the scholars; for to transform, stimulate, and uplift a people is a work of intelligence; it is a work which demands a clear induction of historic facts and their application to new circumstances,--a work which will require the most skillful resources and the wise practicality of superior men.
"But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims. And hence, these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists; the intellect rightly discerning the conditions, and the gracious and godly heart stimulating to the performance of the noblest duties of a people."
p. 132-133, "The Need for New Ideas and New Aims," (1885) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS: SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL ON THE SOUTH edited by J.R. Oldfield (University of Virginia Press: 1995)
"What we need is a grand moral revolution which shall touch and vivify the inner life of a people, which shall give them dissatisfaction with ignoble motives and sensual desires, which shall bring to them a resurrection from inferior ideas and lowly ambitions; which shall shed illumination through all the chambers of their souls, which shall lift them up to lofty aspirations, which shall put them in the race for manly moral superiority....
"The revolution I speak of is one which must find its primal elements in qualities, latent though they be, which reside in the people who need this revolution, and which can be drawn out of them, and thus secure form and reality.
"The basis of this revolution must be character. That is the rock on which this whole race in America is to be built up. Our leaders and teachers are to address themselves to this main and master endeavor, viz., to free them from false ideas and injurious habits, to persuade them to the adoption of correct principles, to lift them up to superior modes of living, and so bring forth, as permanent factors in their life, the qualities of thrift, order, acquisitiveness, virtue, and manliness.
"And who are the agents to bring about this grand change in this race?...
"'They' are to be the scholars; for to transform, stimulate, and uplift a people is a work of intelligence; it is a work which demands a clear induction of historic facts and their application to new circumstances,--a work which will require the most skillful resources and the wise practicality of superior men.
"But these reformers must not be mere scholars. The intellect is to be used, but mainly as the vehicle of mind and spiritual aims. And hence, these men must needs be both scholars and philanthropists; the intellect rightly discerning the conditions, and the gracious and godly heart stimulating to the performance of the noblest duties of a people."
p. 132-133, "The Need for New Ideas and New Aims," (1885) CIVILIZATION AND BLACK PROGRESS: SELECTED WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER CRUMMELL ON THE SOUTH edited by J.R. Oldfield (University of Virginia Press: 1995)
