Helen explains her reasoning for this statement in the last paragraph of Chapter 20. Earlier in the chapter, she provides details about her educational pursuits. She outlines the courses she is taking, who her teachers are, and how difficult it is to study for tests. Then she quotes the typical quip, “Knowledge is power.” She refutes this with “Rather, knowledge is happiness.” She explains that knowing history and philosophy and all the rest of it...
Helen explains her reasoning for this statement in the last paragraph of Chapter 20. Earlier in the chapter, she provides details about her educational pursuits. She outlines the courses she is taking, who her teachers are, and how difficult it is to study for tests. Then she quotes the typical quip, “Knowledge is power.” She refutes this with “Rather, knowledge is happiness.” She explains that knowing history and philosophy and all the rest of it provides a person with vital connections to both the people of the past and to those in the present. It places you in the middle of the universe and makes you feel as though you belong to all of it. This is a warm thought for her, and one that borders on the spiritual or religious. Here’s the way she says it:
To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward-striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life.
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