EDUCATION FOE PROFESSIONS. 445 



The preparation of the aspirant for entrance into a profession in- 

 volves the provision of a fundamental knowledge of means of acquire- 

 ment of professional knowledge and this means acquaintance with the 

 languages in which the literatures of the profession are to be found. 

 In the case of the law school, this means Latin; with the theologist it 

 includes Greek and Hebrew; with the medical man, it means mainly 

 Latin, as with the others, so far as affecting early history; while, with 

 all, this means the necessary acquirement of the modern languages, 

 French or German, or more commonly both, and sometimes Italian and 

 others. In engineering, it involves the acquisition of the modern lan- 

 guages, the sciences of the physicist and the chemist, of the mathema- 

 tician, sometimes of the geologist and of the mineralogist; and it sup- 

 plements these with special studies furnishing the peculiar, 'expert,' 

 knowledge constituting preparation for the characteristic branches of 

 the professional course. 



When the whole course of preparatory work is surveyed, from pri- 

 mary to secondary and special, and when its relation to the strictly 

 professional course is noted, it will be found that the latter involves 

 so much of the admittedly educational, as distinguished from the pro- 

 fessional, work that it thus becomes practicable for the aspirant to give 

 all the years which his individual means and his time may allow, and 

 most profitably, to liberally educating his faculties and to the storing 

 of his mind with useful knowledge. 



Says Dr. W. T. Harris, the philosophic educator and psychologist:* 



Specialization in science leads to the division of aggregates of knowledge 

 into narrow fields for closer observation. This is all right. But, in the course 

 of study in the common school, it is proper and necessary that the human in- 

 terest should always be kept somewhat in advance of the physical. 



This is simply a statement of the fact, admitted by all, that pro- 

 fessional training in the special school is the application, in a restricted 

 field, of principles which should be applied in every field and in all 

 studies, whether those characteristic of a profession or those which con- 

 stitute divisions of a broad, liberal and cultural education. But it is 

 also true that, before specialization can be properly commenced, the 

 scholar must have terminated that division of his education which is 

 intended to give him general preparation for 'the future of his life.' 

 It is true that a certain amount of specialization may be practicable 

 in the preparatory years ; but it is none the less true that, in prepara- 

 tion for the latest stage, the student must give main attention to the 

 educational side and leave the professional to be given main attention 

 in years following those of growth and of development of character 

 and of intellectual power. 



The guiding hands of parent and teacher may do much in the 



* The Forum, January, 1901. 



