THE STATE AS AN EDUCATOR. 667 



* 

 state is the most efficient educator of youth. The vastness of the en- 

 terprise demands the most rigorous system. But the more rigorous 

 the system the less room will there be for the development of individ- 

 ual differences. The tendency of such a system is to make the mind 

 a mere receptacle which receives its daily portion of mental pabulum. 

 Even if trained to think at all, they must of necessity be trained to 

 think very much alike, which is but little better than no thought. In 

 other words, as the system grows stronger the individual grows propor- 

 tionally weaker. 



China, whose philosophers first recognized the supremacy of force, 

 and whose moralists gave us a code which, after twenty-five centuries 

 have elapsed, is yet too exalted for practical life, was reduced to her 

 present condition, not for want of talent, of which she had much, but 

 by a most rigorous system of state education, which consisted, not of 

 investigating new phenomena, but of conning by rote what their an- 

 cestors had taught them. But we need not go to the Orient to wit- 

 ness the effects of state education. Germany has a most unyielding 

 system, whose fruits are already beginning to ripen. This gigantic 

 system, the pride of the Old World and the wonder of the New, is fast 

 reducing the German mind to a mere repository of facts and figures. 

 It will be remembered that no one can enter a German university until 

 he has spent nine years in the gymnasium, chiefly upon Latin and 

 Greek. To show the influence of such a course of study, I can do no 

 better than to quote the words of Lord Macaulay, who says : " Unfor- 

 tunately, those grammatical and philological studies, without which it 

 was impossible to understand the great works of Athenian and Roman 

 genius, have a tendency to contract the views and deaden the sensibili- 

 ties of those who follow them with extreme assiduity. A powerful 

 mind which has been long employed in such studies may be compared 

 to the gigantic spirit in the Arabian tale, who was persuaded to con- 

 tract himself to small dimensions in order to enter within the enchanted 

 vessel, and, when his prison had been closed upon him, found himself 

 unable to escape from the narrow boundaries to the measure of which 

 he had reduced himself." 



France until recently had a most perfect system of state instruc- 

 tion. No private schools could be established without a license from 

 the Minister of Education, and these might be closed at any moment 

 by a simple order from that officer. Under this system France made 

 rapid strides toward that condition in which China has so long re- 

 mained. M. de Tocqueville, that clear-headed Frenchman to whom 

 America owes so much, remarked that his countrymen of his day were 

 much more alike than their ancestors even of the next previous gen- 

 eration. 



There are reasons why the effects of state education will not so 

 readily discover themselves in America. In the first place, our system 

 is yet very imperfect. But the chief reason is our extensive foreign 



