1 08 THE NA TURE-SrUD V RE VIE W , 3 : 4_aph., 1907 



And in defence of this we can do no better and go no farther today 

 than did Aristotle when he said: 



** It is clear then that there are branches of education and learning which wc 

 must study with a view to the enjoyment of leisure, and these are to be 

 valued for their own sake, whereas those kinds of knowledge which are use- 

 ful in business are to be deemed necessary, and exist for the sake of other 

 things. It is evident then that there is a sort of education in which parents 

 should train their sons, not as being useful or necessary, but because it is 

 liberal or noble." 



In commenting upon this passage in "Aristotle on Education," 

 Burnet says: 



** Aristotle's System of Education aims at producing such a character as 

 will issue in acts leading to the happiness of the state; in the second place it 

 aims at preparing the soul for the right enjoyment of leisure which becomes 

 possible when practical needs have been satisfied. 



*'We must do what is necessary and useful, but still more what is fine. 



**Here in simple form is the perennial problem as to whether the end of 

 education is culture, or to fit us for the business of life. The most ardent 

 business men will tell you that they work hard in order that they may be 

 able to retire; the misfortune is that when they have retired they arc very 

 often at a loss what to do with their time. 



**An education which took as its aim to train people in such a way that they 

 could rightly enjoy the rest which they have earned by a life of toil would, 

 we can ^ee, have a good deal to say for itself, and might be quite as 'practical' 

 as one which merely anticipated the 'useful and necessary' acdvhies of the 

 business life itself. It might sound strange at first, but it would not be amiss 

 if we were once more to speak with Aristotle of the noble enjoyment of 

 lci«ure as the end of education in its highest sense. It is just the want of 

 such an education that makes men put up with that very poor and cheap 

 substitute for theoria, the life of amusement. 



'*The Gospel of Work is a noble one and has been nobly preached, but the 

 neglect of the still higher Gospel of Leisure has produced the results which 

 Aristotle has indicated so clearly. We cannot always work, and if our 

 education has not fitted us to use our spare time rightly, we are sure to take 

 to the life of mere amusement. We all know men who would be trans- 

 formed if only they knew what to do with themselves when they are not at 

 work. We can all see that whole classes of the community are sunk in need- 

 less degradation just because their lives are a succession of periods of overwork 

 and intervals of low or vicious relaxation. And we can see too that the end of 

 the nineteenth century, the century of work, has been marked by a morbid. 



