e carried into
execution my training ensured success."

I had thought of some examples, and there are several great men who have
left us noble examples of self-discipline; but, in the range and
completeness of that discipline, in the foresight to discern what would
be wanted, in the humility to perceive that it was wanting, in the
resolution that it should _not_ be wanting when the time came that such
knowledge or faculty should be called for, one colossal figure so far
excels all others that I cannot write down their names with that of
Alexander Humboldt. The world sees the intellectual greatness of such a
man, but does not see the substantial moral basis on which the towering
structure rose. When I think of his noble dissatisfaction with what he
knew; his ceaseless eagerness to know more, and know it better; of the
rare combination of teachableness that despised no help (for he accepted
without jealousy the aid of everybody who could assist him), with
self-reliance that kept him always calm and observant in the midst of
personal danger, I know not which is the more magnificent spectacle, the
splendor of intellectual light, or the beauty and solidity of the moral
constitution that sustained it.

LETTER III.

TO A FRIEND WHO SUGGESTED THE SPECULATION "WHICH OF THE MORAL VIRTUES
WAS MOST ESSENTIAL TO THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE."

The most essential virtue is disinterestedness--The other virtues
possessed by the opponents of intellectual liberty--The Ultramontane
party--Difficulty of thinking disinterestedly even about the affairs
of another nation--English newspapers do not write disinterestedly
about foreign affairs--Difficulty of disinterestedness in recent
history--Poets and their readers feel it--Fine subjects for poetry in
recent events not yet available--Even history of past times rarely
disinterested--Advantages of the study of the dead languages in this
respect--Physicians do not trust their own judgment about their
personal health--The virtue consists in endeavoring to be
disinterested.

I think there cannot be a doubt that the most essential virtue is
disinterestedness.

Let me tell you, after this decided answer, what are the considerations
which have led me to it. I began by taking the other important virtues
one by one--industry, perseverance, courage, discipline, humility, and
the rest; and then asked myself whether any class of persons possessed
and cultivated these virtues who w