Knowledge for its own sake: Part 2

"It seems to me that education which appeals to the desire for wealth (marks, prizes, scholarships or the like), or to the desire of excelling (as in the taking of places, etc.), or to any other of the natural desires, except that for knowledge, destroys the balance of character, and, what is even more fatal, destroys by inanition that desire for and delight in knowledge which is meant for our joy and enrichment through the whole of life."

--Charlotte Mason, "Books and Things"

From the book Home and School Education