in
establishing the great peace in this country and that this government and
nation may spread it to all the world.

3 May 1912
Talk at Hotel Plaza
Chicago, Illinois

Notes by Marzieh Moss

According to the statement of philosophers the difference in degree of
humankind from lowest to highest is due to education. The proofs they
advance are these. The civilization of Europe and America is an evidence
and outcome of education, whereas the semicivilized and barbarous peoples
of Africa bear witness in their condition that they have been deprived of
its advantages. Education makes the ignorant wise, the tyrant just,
promotes happiness, strengthens the mind, develops the will and makes
fruitless trees of humanity fruitful. Therefore, in the human world some
have attained lofty degrees, while others grope in the abyss of despair.
Nevertheless, the highest attainment is possible for every member of the
human race even to the station of the Prophets. This is the statement and
reasoning of the philosophers.

The Prophets of God are the first Educators. They bestow universal
education upon man and cause him to rise from the lowest levels of
savagery to the highest pinnacles of spiritual development. The
philosophers, too, are educators along lines of intellectual training. At
most, they have only been able to educate themselves and a limited number
about them, to improve their own morals and, so to speak, civilize
themselves; but they have been incapable of universal education. They have
failed to cause an advancement for any given nation from savagery to
civilization.

It is evident that although education improves the morals of mankind,
confers the advantages of civilization and elevates man from lowest
degrees to the station of sublimity, there is, nevertheless, a difference
in the intrinsic or natal capacity of individuals. Ten children of the
same age, with equal station of birth, taught in the same school,
partaking of the same food, in all respects subject to the same
environment, their interests equal and in common, will evidence separate
and distinct degrees of capability and advancement; some will be
exceedingly intelligent and progressive, some of mediocre ability, others
limited and incapable. One may become a learned professor, while another
under the same course of education proves dull and stupid. From all
standpoints the opportunities have been equal, but the results and
outcomes vary from the hig