OUTLINES FROM THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 22 1 



remain unimpaired. Mr. Spencer believes that man's nature should 

 be unfolded for the sake of making him a complete liver — we believe 

 that man's nature should be unfolded for its own sake, for what there 

 is in it of power for goodness, for what he, the man, can become by 

 loving reality and by serving his fellow-beings. These ideas are 

 essentially different ; as much so as the culture-idea of humanism and 

 the useful idea of philanthropism. It should be understood, however, 

 that we are not restating, in slightly different language, this culture- 

 idea which humanism advocates. The word culture labors under the 

 misfortune of being either too indefinite or too narrow. It means 

 nothing, or it stands for general sesthetical development. The cult- 

 ured man is thought of more from the side of mind and taste than 

 from the side of moral excellence. The true education-idea embraces 

 the development of the entire man, and any system which aims at else 

 than this or less than this is defective in theory, and will be defective in 

 practice. Let us interpret Mr. Spencer's language, not in itself alone, 

 but in its connections, and as related to the entire course of his argu- 

 ment. " How to live — that is the essential question for us ; not, how 

 to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest sense. The 

 general problem, which comprehends every special problem, is, the 

 right ruling of conduct in all directions, under all circumstances : in 

 what way to treat the body, in what way to treat the mind, in what 

 way to manage our affairs, in what way to bring up a family, in what 

 way to behave as a citizen, in what way to utilize all those sources of 

 happiness which Nature supplies ; how to use all our faculties to the 

 greatest advantage of ourselves and others ; how to live completely ; 

 and this, being the great thing needful for us to learn, is, by conse- 

 quence, the great thing which education has to teach." By the aid of 

 this fundamental position Mr. Spencer sets forth the kind of material 

 which he believes best qualified to educate man. " Our first step is to 

 classify, in the order of their importance [italics the writer's], the 

 leading kinds of activity which constitute human life." Mr. Spencer 

 gives the following classification : I. Those activities which directly 

 minister to self-preservation. II. Those activities which, by securing the 

 necessaries of life, indirectly minister to self-preservation. III. Those 

 activities which have for their end the rearing and discipline of off- 

 spring. IV. Those activities which are involved in the maintenance 

 of proper social and political relations. V. Those miscellaneous activi- 

 ties which make up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratification 

 of the tastes and the feelings." This classification, so far as it is to be 

 made the basis of educational endeavor, I can not but regard as funda- 

 mentally defective. It proceeds from a confusion of primary necessity 

 with primary value. Mr. Spencer, in commending his classification, 

 says, " The actions and precautions by which, from moment to mo- 

 ment we secure personal safety, must clearly take precedence of all 

 others." Admitted, on a proper interpretation of this word precedence. 



