“Men dress their children’s minds as they do their bodies, in the prevailing fashion. As the Orinoco Indian puts on his paint before leaving his hut, not with a view to any direct benefit, but because he would be ashamed to be seen without; so a boy’s drilling in Latin and Greek is insisted upon, not because of their intrinsic value, but that he may not be disgraced by being found ignorant of them--that he may have ‘the education of a gentleman’--the badge marking a certain social position, and bringing a consequent respect.... Not what knowledge is of most real worth, is the consideration; but what will bring most applause, honor, respect--what will most conduce to social position and influence--what will be most imposing. As, through life, not what we are, but what we shall be thought, is the question, so in education the question is not the intrinsic value of knowledge so much as its extrinsic effects on others” (7: pp. 23-26). Thus Spencer proposes the determination of the comparative, intrinsic value of different kinds of studies as the matter of first importance in putting education on a surer foundation. “This is,” he says, “the question of questions, which it is high time we discussed in some methodical way.” “What is the use of it?” was the question repeatedly raised by every educational reformer from Bacon down. But Spencer would settle the question once for all in the light of a standard which should be rationally established as universal and necessary. What, then, is this standard? Any value of an object which is intrinsic is determined by its bearing upon our life. Life--this is the ultimate test to which all must appeal either directly or indirectly. Anything which does not serve our individual and social life has no value whatever. “How to live” is the fundamental problem for us all. Every special problem of mankind is comprised in this one problem. “In what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the mind; in what way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize all the sources of happiness which Nature supplies--how to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and others--how to live completely? And this being the greatest thing needful for us to learn, is by consequence the great thing which education has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to discharge; and the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges such function” (7: pp. 30-31). Human life is constituted of various activities which can be classified into: