EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE. 421 



propose to regard it*, although an adjunct to some of its legitimate 

 functions. 



Mill's narrower expression of the scope of the subject is not ex- 

 actly erroneous ; the moulding of each generation by the one pre- 

 ceding is not improperly described as an education. It is, however, 

 grandiose rather than scientific. Nothing is to be got out of it. It 

 does not give the lead to the subsequent exposition. 



I find in the article "Education," in " Chambers's Encyclopaedia," 

 a definition to the following effect : " In the widest sense of the word 

 a man is educated, either for good or for evil, by everything that he 

 experiences from the cradle to the grave [say, rather, ' formed,' ' made,' 

 ' influenced ']. But, in the more limited and usual sense, the term edu- 

 cation is confined to the efforts made, of set purpose, to train men in 

 a particular way the efforts of the grown-up part of the community 

 to inform the intellect and mould the character of the young [rather 

 too much stress on the fact of influence from without] ; and more 

 especially to the labors of professional educators or schoolmasters." 

 The concluding clause is the nearest to the point the arts and 

 methods employed by the schoolmaster; for, although he is not alone 

 in the work that he is expressly devoted to, yet he it is that typifies 

 the process in its greatest singleness and purity. If by any investi 

 gations, inventions, or discussions, we can improve his art to the ideal 

 pitch, we shall have done nearly all that can be required of a science 

 and art of education. 



I return to the greater difficulty namely, the question, what is the 

 end of all teaching ; or, if the end be human happiness and perfection, 

 what definite guidance does this furnish to the educator ? I have 

 already remarked that the inquiry is acknowledged to belong to other 

 departments ; and, if in these departments clear and unanimous an- 

 swers have not been arrived at, the educationist is not bound to make 

 good the deficiency. 



For this emergency, there is one thing obvious, another less obvi- 

 ous ; the two together exhausting the resources of the educator. 



The obvious thing is to fix upon whatever matters people are 

 agreed upon. Of such the number is considerable, and the instances 

 important. They make the universal topics of the schools. 



The less obvious thing is, with reference to matters not agreed 

 upon, that the educator should set forth at what cost these doubtful 

 acquisitions would have to be made; for the cost must be at least one 

 element in the decision respecting them. Whoever knows most about 

 education is best able to say how far its appliances can cope with 

 such aims as softening the manners, securing self-renunciation, bring 

 ing about the balanced action of all the powers, training the whole 

 man, etc. 



We shall see that one part of the science of education consists in 

 giving the ultimate analysis of all complex growths. It is on such 



