THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION 121 



forever ; but heat, moisture, frost, pelting rain, 

 and driving wind gradually destroy, not the rock 

 itself, but the form in. which it existed. Now, 

 every child is the product of the generations 

 before him. He is not himself alone, but a 

 being packed with potencies derived from no 

 one knows how many or what personalities that 

 have lived before him. The problem of educa- 

 tion is, by means of environment, to modify, and 

 as far as possible destroy, the evil and bring the 

 good into expression and power. Nor is this all ; 

 for tendencies to good, when improperly bal- 

 anced, are more or less mischievous. Education, 

 therefore, has to do with the elimination of ten- 

 dencies toward deterioration and the proper de- 

 velopment and balancing of tendencies toward 

 good. The word education is fossil history. It 

 implies heredity, for it indicates something to be 

 drawn out; and as that something could not 

 originate with the child, it must have been trans- 

 mitted. The word presupposes powers which 

 have come from others and which are to be 

 trained. So of the word culture. Where does 

 culture begin } It should begin with birth. The 

 age of impression is quite as important as the 

 age of reason. But culture implies something to 

 cultivate. That something is not implanted by 



