Meaning of “The fear of the LORD is the instruction…”

Self-Help, Chapter XII, “Example—Models,” Project Gutenberg #935. Smiles argues that character education depends heavily on models because people unconsciously mould themselves after the characters, manners, habits and opinions around them.

Chapter 41; the Astronomer explains why both competence and moral character are needed for trust.

“The American Scholar” (1837), represented in Emerson’s Essays, Project Gutenberg #16643. Emerson contrasts thought as a partial function with the fuller act of living one’s truth; the line elevates character without dismissing intellectual life.

Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.

The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), first-edition scholar passage, Wikisource scan leaf 28. “And pause awhile from Learning to be wise” turns from the ambitious student’s pursuit of knowledge toward Johnson’s satirical warning that learning does not by itself remove grief, danger or error. This is eighteenth-century moral-satirical poetry after Juvenal, not a modern educational rule.

Little Men; the observation describes the mutual education taking place in the Plumfield household and school rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge.