By a large body of the people of England and of Europe a man is called
educated if he can write Latin verses and construe a Greek chorus. By
some few more enlightened persons it is confessed that the construction
of hexameters is not in itself an important end of human existence; but
they say, that the general discipline which a course of classical
reading gives to the intellectual powers, is the final object of our
scholastical institutions.
But it seems to me, there is no small error even in this last and more
philosophical theory. I believe, that what it is most honorable to know,
it is also most profitable to learn; and that the science which it is
the highest power to possess, it is also the best exercise to acquire.
And if this be so, the question as to what should be the materiel of
education, becomes singularly simplified. It might be matter of dispute
what processes have the greatest effect in developing the intellect; but
it can hardly be disputed what facts it is most advisable that a man
entering into life should accurately know.
I believe, in brief, that he ought to know three things:
First. Where he is.
Secondly. Where he is going.
Thirdly. What he had best do, under those circumstances.
First. Where he is.--That is to say, what sort of a world he has got
into; how large it is; what kind of creatures live in it, and how; what
it is made of, and what may be made of it.
Secondly. Where he is going.--That is to say, what chances or reports
there are of any other world besides this; what seems to be the nature
of that other world; and whether, for information respecting it, he had
better consult the Bible, Koran, or Council of Trent.
Thirdly. What he had best do under those circumstances.--That is to say,
what kind of faculties he possesses; what are the present state and
wants of mankind; what is his place in society; and what are the
readiest means in his power of attaining happiness and diffusing it. The
man who knows these things, and who has had his will so subdued in the
learning them, that he is ready to do what he knows he ought, I should
call educated; and the man who knows them not,--uneducated, though he
could talk all the tongues of Babel.
Our present European system of so-called education ignores, or despises,
not one, nor the other, but all the three, of these great branches of
human knowledge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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