PURPOSE IN EDUCATION. 487 



policy of laisses fairc. It is consequently man's duty to decide 

 on a final goal. 



Apart from the general question O'f man's duty, seeing that 

 change will inevitably take place, it is the prerogative of teachers 

 to demand instructions as to the changes for which they are to 

 prepare their pupils. Pupils when they leave the teachers's hands 

 will enter a world which is different from that which exists when 

 they come into his hands. Though the teacher is only a journey- 

 man, and may be an expert in teaching only, yet he does not deal 

 with inanimate materials, and the quality of his teaching must 

 vary with his ultimate aim. Indeed the more expert he is the 

 more it will vary. It is imperative, therefore, that the supreme 

 authority over him should have clear and precise views as to the 

 desired direction of evolution. What that direction should be it 

 would perhaps be presumptuous on the part of the writer to 

 state, but the suggestion may be hazarded that it should be 

 happiness for all. That, however, is a distinct gaol and cannot 

 be reached without a knowledge of the means to do so. There 

 may, therefore, be a whole series of intermediate and subsidiary 

 aims in education. It is necessary that these aims should be 

 defined, and wnth all the greater precision the nearer they are to 

 attainment. 



The course of evolution has turned man into a social being, 

 and it is evident that the preservation iind progress of the species 

 is intimately bound up with this |X>sition. Indeed the limits of 

 his social activities are steadily being extended, that is to say he 

 is becoming more and more social. As a consequence man's 

 relations, with his fellows is becoming of greater antl greater 

 importance. This supplies a clue to the subsidiary aims of 

 education. An nispection of tlie social activities of man ought 

 to furnish the solution. The pupil will develop into an adult 

 member of the human species, a member of the Aryan family, 

 possibly a member of the British Empire, a citizen of a State, a 

 province, a town or country district, an acquaintance, friend, 

 husband, brother, parent and producer. For all these positions 

 he requires preparation. 



It is of course impossible to turn him out perfectly equipped 

 for all these activities by any course of formal education, but at 

 least it is the duty of those in authority to give the deepest con- 

 sideration as to whether these, or any part of them, should form 

 a portion of a course of formal education. What is the position at 

 the present moment? Education is supposed to be cultural, 

 vocational and incidentally, and mainly indirectly, to form the 

 character, but one looks in vain for any indication that it has 

 been adopted with a definite view to his social activities. If it 

 were to be found anywhere it should certainly be found in the 

 Transvaal code, btit it is not there. There is a good deal of 

 discussion of the effect of one subiect or the other on the mind 

 and faculties of the pupil, but of the use to which the ex-pupil 

 is to put his mind not one word. Perhaps this is only to be 



