EDUCATION
296
EDUCATION
will later, as members of society, be useful or harmful,
there is evidently needed some higher direction than
that of tlie individual teacher, in order that the pur-
pose of education may be realized. Both the Church
and the State, therefore, have interests to safeguard ;
each in its own sphere must exercise its authority, if
education is to strive for the true ideal through the
best content and by the soundest methods. It is thus
obvious that education at any given time expresses
the dominant ideas in philosophy, religion, and science,
while, in its practical control, the existing relations be-
tween the temporal power and the spiritual assume
concrete form. As, moreover, these ideas and rela-
tions have varied considerably in the course of time, it
is quite intelligible that a solution of the central edu-
cational problems should be sought in history ; and it is
further beyond question that historical study, in this
as in other departments, has a manifold utility. But
a mere recital of facts is of little avail unless certain
fundamental principles be kept in view, and unless the
fact of Christian revelation be given its due impor-
tance. It is needful, then, to distinguish the constant
elements in education from those that are variable;
the former including man's nature, destiny, and rela-
tions to God, the latter all those changes in theory,
practice, and organization which affect the actual
conduct of educational work. It is with the first
aspect of the subject that the present article is
mainly concerned ; and from this standpoint education
may be defined as that form of social activity whereby,
under the direction of mature minds and by the use of
adequate means, the phj'sical, intellectual, and moral
powers of the immature human being are so developed
as to prepare him for the accomplishment of his life-
work here and for the attainmentof hiseternaldestiny.
Neither this nor any other definition was formulated
from the beginnuig. In primitive times the helpless-
ness and needs of the child were so obvious that his
elders by a natural impulse gave him a training in the
rude arts that enabled him to procure the necessaries
of life, while they taught him to propitiate the hidden
powers in each object of nature, and handed on to him
the tribal customs and traditions. But of education
properly so called the savage knows nothing, and
much less does he busy himself with theory or plan.
Even civilized peoples carry on the work of education
for a long time before they begin to reflect upon its
meaning, and such reflection is guided by philosophical
speculation and by established social, religious, and
political institutions. Often, too, their theorizing is
the work of exceptional minds, and presents a higher
ideal than might be inferred from their educational
practice. Nevertheless, an account of what was done
by the principal peoples of antiquity will prove useful
by bringing out the profound modification which
Christianity wrought.
Orient.\l Education. — The invention of WTiting was of the utmost importance for the development of language and the keeping of records. The earliest texts, chiefly of a religious nature, became the sources of knowledge and the means of education. Such were in China the writings of Confucius, in India the Vedas, in Egypt the Book of the Dead, in Persia the .4 vesta. The main purpose in having these books studied by youth was to secure uniformity of thought and cus- tom, and unvarying conformity with the past. In this respect Chinese education is typical. The sacred writings contained minute prescriptions for conduct in every circumstance and station of life. These the pupil was obliged to memorize in a purely mechanical fashion; whether he miderstood the words as he re- peated them was quite indilTerent. He simply stored his memory with a multitude of established forms and phrases, which subsequently he employed in the prep- aration of essays and in pa.ssing the governmental examinations. That he -should learn to think for him- self was of course out of the question. With such a
training, the development of free personality was im-
possible. In China, the family, with its sacred tradi-
tions and its ancestor- wor.ship, was dominant; in Per-
sia, education was controlled by the State; in Egypt
by the priesthood; in India by the difi'erent castes.
There was, doubtless, in the Oriental mind a conscious-
ness of personality; but no effort was made to
strengthen it and give it value. On the contrary, the
Hindu philosophy, which regarded knowleiige as the
means of redemption from the miseries of life, placed
that redemption itself in nirvana, the extinction of the
individual through absorption into the being of the
world. The position of woman was, in general, a de-
graded one. Though the early training of the child
devolved upon the mother, her responsibility lirought
with it no dignity. But little provision was made for
the education of girls; their only vocation was to
marry, bear children, and render service to the head of
the family.
In view of these facts, it cannot be said that educa- tion as the Western world conceives it owes any great debt to the East. It is true that some of the sciences, as mathematics, astronomy, ami chronology, and some of the arts, as sculpture and architecture, were carried to a certain degree of perfection ; but the very success of Oriental ability and skill in these lines only empha- sizes by contrast the deficiencies of Oriental education. Even in the sphere of morality the same antagonism appears between precept and practice. It cannot and need not be denied that many of the sayings, e. g. of Confucius, evince a high ideal of virtue, while some of the Hindu proverbs, such as those of the " Pantscha- tantra", are full of practical wisdom. Yet these facts only make it more difficult to answer the cjuestion: Why was the actual living of these people so far re- moved from the formally accepted standardsof virtue? Nevertheless, Oriental education has a peculiar sig- nificance; it shows quite plainly the consequences of sacrificing the individual to the interests of human in- stitutions, and of reducing education to a machine- like process, the aim of which is to mould all mmds upon one unchanging pattern; and it further shows how little can be accomplished for real education by despotic authority, which demands, and is satisfied with, an outward observance of custom and law. (See Davidson, "A History of Education", New York, 1901.)
The Greeks. — If the education of the Oriental peo- ples was stationary, that of the Greeks exhibits a pro- gressive development which passes from one extreme to another through a variety of movements and reac- tions, of ideals and practice. What remains constant throughout is the idea that the purpose of education is to train youth for citizenship. This, however, was conceived, and its realization attempted, in different ways by the several City-States. In Sparta, the child, according to the Code of Lycurgus, was the property of the State. From his seventh year onward he received a public training whose one object was to make him a soldier, by developing physical strength, courage, self- control, and obedience to law. It was a hard training in gymnastic exercises, with little attention to the in- tellectual side and less to the a>sthetic;even music and dancing took on a military character. Girls were sub- jected to the same severe discipline, not so much to emphasize the equality of the sexes as to train the sturdy mothers of a warrior race.
The ideal of Athenian edvication was the completely- developed man. Beauty of mind and body, the culti- vation of every inborn faculty and energy, harmony between thought and life, decorum, temperance, and regularity — such were the results aimed at in the home and in the school, in social intercourse, and in civic relations. " We are lovers of the beautiful ", said Pericles, "yet simple in our tastes, and wc cultivate the mind without loss of manliness" (Thucydidcs, II, ■K)). The means of culture were music and gymnas-
