The Success of the Public Schools 85 



Indeed, a free government can not conceivably exist un- 

 der other conditions. Such government as the Greeks 

 sought, as we seek, is more than a democracy ; it may or 

 may not be a republic; it is a sodality, a fraternity, a 

 brotherhood of equals, each seeking the same thing for 

 all; it is an enlightened socialism. 



No one has more beautifully and exactly stated the 

 purpose the schools have in view than the Puritan poet, 

 John Milton. Milton was a republican, a democrat, if 

 you will, and his remarkable, oft-quoted sentence, writ- 

 ten nearly three hundred years ago, is for our present 

 discussion the sum of political wisdom. ''I call a com- 

 plete and generous education that which fits a man to 

 perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the of- 

 fices [duties] both public and private, of peace and war. " 



Stand off now and contemplate for a little the form 

 of government under which we have elected to live. Di- 

 vest yourself for the moment of all preconceived or in- 

 herited notions of what education ought to be or mean, 

 and think only of the kind of training which a state such 

 as ours shall undertake for itself in order to make the 

 system work; and I believe that you will realize that 

 John Milton's sentence is an extremely pertinent and 

 noble utterance of a wise and noble man. Milton does 

 not describe the educational ideals of the universities, 

 of the church, nor even the education he had himself 

 enjoyed ; nothing of that sort. He was a scholar equal 

 to any of his century; he was secretary of state for 

 Oliver Cromwell and could write the dispatches of his 

 office in the language of the court to which his message 

 was sent; his learning in what we term letters was co- 



