PURPOSE IN EDUCATION. 485 



Education has been advocated froua every possible point of view. It 

 has been said that education will reduce the rates, that it will empty the 

 prisons, that it will enable our workmen to hold their own in competition 

 with other nations. But 1 don't believe that the working men of England 

 want education on any of these grounds, but they want it because it will 

 make them better, wiser and happier men. 



It is a line ideal, but it does not go far enough. Why should 

 man reach after goodness? Why should he strive to attain 

 happiness? What is wisdom, and to what use is it to be put? 

 It may be said that these questions do not deal with education 

 but with philosophy — that the answers to these questions would 

 solve the riddle of existence. The implication, of course, is that 

 the enigma is insoluble. So it may be, but that is not the point. 

 What we have to consider is whether it is possible to construct 

 a sensible scheme of education unless answers of some kind to 

 these questions are forthcoming, whether they be right or wrong. 



Just as with respect to its purpose, so with respect to a 

 definition of education itself there is complete lack of agreement. 

 However, for the purpose of this paper, there is no need to enter 

 deeply into the matter. Education doubtless is, or should be. a 

 lifelong process. Whatever it may be in that case, so far as 

 formal, or school, education is concerned it will not be disputed 

 that it is a preparation. If we go further and inquire for what 

 it is a preparation we may be able to arrive at its purpose. 



There appear to be three main possibilities. It is a pre- 

 paration for (i) this life, or (2) a future life, or (3) both. If it 

 is a preparation for a future life then that life must be in some 

 way afifected by the present one, and it comes to the same thing 

 as a preparation for this life, or mainly so. There are many who 

 deny that this life, except in its last few moments, has any efifect 

 on the next. These people may be divided into two classes — 

 those who, like the old hermits, cannot see any value in education 

 at all. and those who consider education as concerned with this 

 life only. In this country the majority probably consider in a 

 vague kind of way that it is concerned with both. When, how- 

 ever, such analysis, as is possible, is made of their views it is 

 found that, so far as education is concerned, preparation for a 

 future life consists of the inculcation of morality. Now, what- 

 ever credit a moral life here may gain in a future state, morality 

 itself is admittedly concerned with this life only. So far then 

 as education is concerned two of these possibilities may fairly 

 be ruled out, and education be considered as a preparation for 

 this life. In any case with those who disagree with this position 

 rests the responsibility of defining just how far it is concerned 

 with this life, and how far with any other. This does not appear 

 to have been done as yet. 



Even thousrh we may have decided that education is a pre- 

 paration for this life, we have not arrived at its final purpose. 

 Man has existed on this earth for many thousands of years — 

 Geikie sets it down at half-a-milHon. We have no reason to 

 suppose that he will not continue for tens of thousands more. 



