We hear often of popular fallacies. Books have been written on them. But there are also learned fallacies, and among these we know of no one more common than that which prevails respecting the word _education_. It is quite usual with lecturers and essayists to derive a profound philosophical meaning from the bare etymology of the term. It is from _educo_, they tell us, to _lead or draw out_. It means the _drawing_ out or developing the faculties. It is the bringing out the unwrought man, like the polished statue from the rough block of marble. All sorts of changes are rung upon the word. With some it is the _educing_ of the individuality, with others, of the humanity. Others again talk much of _drawing out the ideas_, and that, too, without any previous exact _in_struction, or the furnishing of what might be styled the prepared material of thought--about as wise a course as to attempt to develop, or draw _out_ the faculties of a nail-making machine, without ever thinking of putting any well-wrought iron _into_ it. Now, all this is pedantic nonsense. The old Roman Roundheads, from whom the term is derived, never dreamed of any such transcendental conception. The word, in its primary sense, simply means _nursing_, _fostering_, _rearing_. Hence is it afterward applied to knowledge and discipline. It is educed from the simple conception of holding the child by the hand, and leading him forth when he first begins to walk. From the same primitive thought comes the word _pedagogue_, which simply means, _one who leads a boy_, and was first applied to the slave, or servant, who conducted the Athenian child to and from school. It would, however, be hardly worth our while to show the fallacy of this very common etymological deduction, were it not sometimes made the ground of very false ideas. The old view, although it have no great philosophy, will be found to be the true one. It is to hold a child up, and lead him forth by the hand, before you set him to walk alone by himself, under pretense of developing his _faculties_, either of thinking or of locomotion. * * * * *