386 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A liberal education, let it be 

 thoroughly understood, is not one 

 which delivers over an individual to 

 the dominant influences of his place 

 and time, whatever they may be, 

 but one which enables him to react, 

 when necessary, against such influ- 

 ences under the guidance of wider 

 views and deeper principles. It is 

 an illiberal education, let it em- 

 brace what it may, which simply 

 equips a man for exploiting for his 

 own benefit the conditions and tend- 

 encies which he finds prevailing in 

 the society around him; and too 

 much of what passes for liberal 

 education has, we fear, had no bet- 

 ter result. In a country like ours, 

 liable to be swept by gusts of popu- 

 lar excitement, not to say passion, 

 the aim of all higher education 

 should be to create a class of citi- 

 zens trained for social influence, 

 and yet able to stand on their guard 

 against sensational politics, to dis- 

 tinguish between true and false pa- 

 triotism, and to uphold the claims 

 of justice and honor when threat- 

 ened by popular infatuation and 

 tumult. We read in Thucydides 

 that Cleon, the typical demagogue 

 of ancient Athens, did not hesitate 

 to tell his fellow-citizens that re- 

 publics were not adapted for hold- 

 ing distant territories in subjec- 

 tion. If Cleon was a demagogue, 

 what are we to think of the highly 

 educated men who in our country 

 echo the popular cry for an im- 

 perial policy, and say that millions 

 of people beyond sea who ask only 

 for liberty should be compelled by 

 force of arms to be our subjects? 

 Let our colleges and universities see 

 to it that they understand " a lib- 

 eral education " in the right sense. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 

 AGGRESSION. 



Much surprise has been expressed 

 at the unusual prevalence of vio- 

 lence of all kinds in the United 



States during the past year. It has 

 seemed quite extraordinary that in 

 a nation devoted, as the American 

 nation is, to vast schemes of phi- 

 lanthropy at home and abroad, such 

 atrocious crimes as the mutilation 

 and burning of negroes and the ex- 

 plosion of dynamite under street 

 cars should be committed. From 

 the sympathetic and self-sacrificing 

 spirit manifested in the enthusiastic 

 response to the appeal to arms to 

 free Cuba and Puerto Rico from 

 Spanish cruelty and despotism, and 

 the repression of the insurrection in 

 the Philippine Islands for the pur- 

 pose of introducing order and civi- 

 lization, something quite different 

 was expected. There should have 

 been a deeper interest in the welfare 

 of the negro and a greater effort to 

 protect him in the enjoyment of hia 

 rights. There should have been cre- 

 ated a tie between capital and labor 

 that no differences about wages or 

 hours of toil could have ruptured 

 with murderous animosities. In a 

 word, there should have been a mani- 

 festation of fraternal feeling among 

 all classes and in all sections that 

 would have advanced the United 

 States a long step toward the goal of 

 civilization. So general has been 

 the anticipation of these fruits from 

 the war with Spain that one of the 

 most familiar arguments in favor of 

 it has been the subjective regenera- 

 tion that would follow the attempt 

 at objective regeneration. That is 

 to say, the American people were to 

 find a cure for their own moral dis- 

 orders in their cure of the moral dis- 

 orders of their neighbors. 



To a student of the social phi- 

 losophy of Herbert Spencer it will 

 be no surprise nor disappointment 

 that this expectation, so worthy of 

 a generous and self-sacrificing peo- 

 ple, has not been and is not likely 

 to be realized. No truth set forth 

 in his works is more firmly estab- 

 lished than his profound induction 

 that external aggression always be- 



