Education 245 



fitted for certain contingencies; yet as against the limitless 

 possibilities of circumstances which arise moment by 

 moment, such reasoning is often useless. The trained in- 

 tellect of the court of judges, bearing upon a question stated 

 in simple form, requires many days of reasoning under 

 favorable conditions, to decide the right or wrong of it. It 

 is not possible for a human being face to face with an 

 emergency to exercise the power of reason as a guide to 

 conduct. And we have seen that the laws of democratic 

 government teach, and care for, only that which the com- 

 munity demands, in restraint or for common benefit, and 

 leave untouched lawful activities and the guidance of the 

 individual in his own concerns. And the religious and 

 moral teachers, although still in active effort, are in their 

 ancient standards often far removed from sympathetic 

 understanding of these concerns, by their desire to teach 

 great principles. Where then shall the individual look for 

 guidance in the little things which constitute daily life? 

 And especially the new daily life which is unlike the old. 



Associated life is not an immediate result of the meeting 

 of units. It is not a spontaneous, or even rapid amalgama- 

 tion by inorganic affinity. It is a slowly evolved intricate 

 organization, requiring many successive generations of indi- 

 viduals, and many long lineages in which to develop. 



The individual sharing the benefits of this organization 

 does so by contribution to the common fund of experience 

 and enjoyment of the accumulated wisdom derived from 

 that experience. His access to this accumulated wisdom is 

 traceable in three chief ways which are heredity, education 

 and conscience; the two last named being in some sense 



