1 8 THE TEACHING BOTANIST 



been that it conduces more than any other to the 

 attainment of Culture. It assumes as true two things 

 now widely doubted, first, that Culture can best be 

 obtained in the same way by all men, and second, 

 that the Sciences and History are inferior as cul- 

 tural subjects to the Classics and Mathematics. That 

 Culture is the first aim of Education, we all agree, 

 but in what does it consist ? Whatever it may have 

 been in the past, the conditions of modern society 

 are rapidly fixing this standard, that it does not con- 

 sist in knowledge or training of any particular, pre- 

 determined kind, but rather in thorough knowledge 

 and training of some special useful kind, combined 

 with a general knowledge of what is passing in the 

 world around. Culture consists less in wide knowl- 

 edge than in wider sympathy ; not so much in stores 

 of facts as in ability to transmute facts into knowl- 

 edge ; not only in well-grounded conviction, but in 

 toleration; not alone in absorption of wisdom, but as 

 well in its radiation ; in patriotism that is without 

 provincialism ; in the development of character. But 

 since individual minds differ much in their composi- 

 tion, no one kind of treatment can be best for all, 

 and the ideal system will be that which is elastic 

 enough to allow each to receive what is best for it. 

 True culture, then, cannot be attained by forcing all 

 minds into any one mould, however carefully that 

 may be made, but is rather to be attained by allow- 



