i6 



no doubt found at an early period that one great factor in the 

 process of imparting education was the imparting of knowledge 

 to the pupil. It was only a factor, and it no more formed the 

 total of education than the supply of an elaborate set of musical 

 instruments produces sweet music. 



" Of education," says Butler, "information is the least part." 

 But the masses saw that the educated man, the man who had 

 in himself power over matter and mind was necessarily a man 

 of knowledge, and they put the cart before the horse, and said 

 " knowledge is power," and the Ich kenne — I know — of the 

 Germans seemed no doubt almost synonymous with the Ich 

 kann — I am able. 



Knowledge guides power. If knowledge itself were power, 

 then one of the most powerful things on earth would be the 

 Encyclopedia Britannica, seeing it is full of knowledge. 

 It is not the first time in the annals of humanity that the idolatry 

 of the tree of knowledge has led to a fall, and to dire need for a 

 tree of life. 



Solomon said : " Of all thy getting, get " — not know- 

 ledge — " get understanding." Solomon was a true educator. 

 Thring says : — " The idolatry of knowledge must cease or 

 education cannot begin." The authors of our modern school 

 system, however, having set up the old traditional knowledge 

 idol, naturally proceed to cram in information regardless often 

 of either its suitability or permanence. They remind me of 

 a travelling tinker that did a job for my mother once : " Will 

 that stick now ? " said she. " Yes, ma'm, it'll stick till I get 

 out of the gate, anyway." The tinker was honest. 



Thring says : " If school work means the spending year after 

 year in making up little packets of knowledge of every boy, and 

 packing them tight like portmanteaus, jumping on the lid 

 when things won't fit in at last, nothing more need be said. 

 There is no immortality in a grocer's paper bag or a knowledge 

 packer." " Mere knowledge is not power, and mere knowledge is 

 not education." 



It is sometimes claimed for the mere knowledge system 

 as an educator, that it is supposed to cultivate memory. 



