Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
176 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
one-sided. The hot rays of the sun have tanned
him, and the rugged road over which he has
traveled has marred his feet. The world has a
value for skill and power, and for polish and
beauty as well. It was not alone the hard work
and good sense of Horace Greeley and Abraham
Lincoln that made them successful, but the
thoroughly educated men whom they had the
wisdom to call into their councils.
" So far from disparaging and underrating the
importance of educational institutions, I am
bound to say there never was a self-educated
man in the world who, with the same exertion,
would not have been better educated by the aid
of schools.
" I admit that self-made men are apt to
underrate the value of schools and colleges.
It is a natural result of the means by which
they have obtained knowledge. Having made
their way without such help, they naturally think
that others can as well do the same. They
forget that their own success might have been
vastly greater with the help of these institutions
than without them. They also forget that most
young people need the spur to exertion which
these institutions are fitted to give.
" Another criticism upon self-made men is
they are not over-modest. Like a great many
others, they are apt to think more highly of