When the sage counsels us "to listen to stars and birds, to babes and
sages," he opens to us the secrets of the soul's increase in wisdom and
happiness. All culture begins with listening. Growth is not through shrewd
thinking or eloquent speaking, but through accurate seeing and hearing. Our
world is one vast whispering gallery, yet only those who listen hear "the
still, small voice" of truth. Putting his ear down to the rocks, the
listening geologist hears the story of the rocks. Standing under the stars,
the listening astronomer hears the music of the spheres. Leaving behind the
din and dirt of the city, Agassiz plunged into the forests of the Amazon,
and listening to boughs and buds and birds he found out all their secrets.
One of our wisest teachers has said, "The greatest thing a human soul ever
does in this world, is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain
way. Hundreds of people can talk, for one who can think. But thousands can
think for one who can see; to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion
all in one. Therefore finding the world of literature more or less divided
into thinkers and seers, I believe we shall find also, that the seers are
wholly the greater race of the two." For greatness is vision. Opening his
eyes, Newton sees the planets revolve and finds his fame. Opening his ears,
Watt hears the movement of steam and finds his fortune. Millet explained
his fame by saying he copied the colors of the sunset at the moment when
reapers bow the head in silent prayer. The great bard, too, tells us he
went apart and listened to find "sermons in stones, and books in the
running brooks."