INTRODUCTION. 



BY PROFESSOR J. P. GORDY, PH.D., LL.D. 



Every revolution in the history of thought is 

 followed by a revolution in the history of educa- 

 tion. It was so in the fifth century before Christ, 

 when the Sophists discredited the idea that the 

 individual exists solely for the State ; it was so in 

 Rome two hundred years later, when the old 

 Roman ideal of citizenship gave place to the 

 Greek ideal of individualism ; it was so at the be- 

 ginning of the Middle Ages, when the pagan ideal 

 of culture and enjoyment was supplanted by the 

 ideal of monasticism ; it was so at the beginning of 

 the Renaissance, when the ideal of asceticism and 

 self-denial gave place to the ideal of enjoyment 

 and self-culture ; it was so in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, when the vast enlargement of our knowledge 

 of the physical universe and its varied application 

 to practical uses, transformed men's attitude to- 

 wards nature, and made them realize that a serv- 

 ant of almost infinite power stood ready to obey 



them, whenever they learned enough about the 



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