THE QUALITIES OF AN EDUCATED MAN
An English Catholic theologian,
academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
is known for such writings as reflect his fine gift for wit, clear
organization, and simple but direct style.
“The Educated Man” is one of his
famous essays which will never lose its importance. Look at the following extracts----.
A University is not a birthplace of
poets or of immortal authors, of founders of schools, leaders of colonies, or
conquerors of nations.
It does not promise a generation of
Aristotles or Newtons, of Napoleans or Washingtons, of Raphaels or
Shakespeares, though such miracles of nature it has in its precincts.
A university training is :
The great
ordinary means to a great but ordinary end. It gives a man a clear conscious view
of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in
expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as
they are, to get right to the point, to disentangle a skein (web) of thought,
to detect what is sophistical, and to discard what is irrelevant.
It also prepares him to fill any
post with credit, and to master any subject with facility. It shows him how to accommodate
himself to others, how to throw himself into their state of mind, how to bring
before them his own, how to influence them, how to come to an understanding
with them, and how to bear with them.
A University trained person is at
home in any society, he has common ground with every class; he knows when to
speak and when to be silent; he is able to converse, he is able to listen, he
can ask a question pertinently, and gain a lesson seasonably, when he has
nothing to impart himself; he is ever ready, yet never in the way; he is a pleasant
companion, and a comrade you can depend upon; he knows when to be serious and
when to trifle, and he has a sure tact which enables him to trifle with gracefulness
and to be serious with effect.
He has the repose of mind which
lives in itself, while it lives in the world, and which has resources for its
happiness at home when it cannot go abroad.
Finally, he
has a gift which serves him in public, and supports him in retirement, without
which good fortune is but vulgar, and with which failure and disappointment
have a charm.
Note: Newman believed that to live is to change, and
to be perfect is to have changed often.
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G.R.Kanwal
13 May 2025
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