36 MYSTICISM AND LOGIC 



until it is dead is too apt to be the result of a purely 

 bookish life, and a culture based wholly on the past will 

 seldom be able to pierce through everyday surroundings 

 to the essential splendour of contemporary things, or to 

 the hope of still greater splendour in the future. 



" My eyes saw not the men of old ; 

 And now their age away has rolled. 

 I weep to think I shall not see 

 The heroes of posterity." 



So says the Chinese poet ; but such impartiality is rare 

 in the more pugnacious atmosphere of the West, where 

 the champions of past and future fight a never-ending 

 battle, instead of combining to seek out the merits of 

 both. 



This consideration, which militates not only against 

 the exclusive study of the classics, but against every 

 form of culture which has become static, traditional, and 

 academic, leads inevitably to the fundamental ques- 

 tion : What is the true end of education ? But before 

 attempting to answer this question it will be well to 

 define the sense in which we are to use the word " educa- 

 tion." For this purpose I shall distinguish the sense in 

 which I mean to use it from two others, both perfectly 

 legitimate, the one broader and the other narrower than 

 the sense in which I mean to use the word. 



In the broader sense, education will include not only 

 what we learn through instruction, but all that we learn 

 through personal experience the formation of character 

 through the education of life. Of this aspect of education, 

 vitally important as it is, I will say nothing, since its 

 consideration would introduce topics quite foreign to the 

 question with which we are concerned. 



In the narrower sense, education may be confined to 

 instruction, the imparting of definite information on 



