To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires.

Lowell’s line treats education not as the mere accumulation of facts but as a transformation of appetite. As intelligence is cultivated, a person becomes capable of imagining more possibilities—intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and social—and therefore comes to want more than basic comfort or routine satisfactions. The “horizon” metaphor suggests that learning widens the range of what one can perceive as valuable or attainable, and with that widening comes new desires: for knowledge, for refinement, for justice, for meaningful work, or for higher standards of life. The quote also implies a double edge: education can unsettle contentment by making one aware of what is missing, thereby creating aspirations that demand effort and growth.