A  Aug°usrt  Vm™'  \       The  Significance  of  Education.  533 
individual.  A  great  philosopher,  Francis  Bacon,  three  centuries  back 
expressed  this  matter  in  terms  that  cannot  be  better  stated  today : 
"I  hold  every  man  a  debtor  to  his  profession,  from  the  which,  as 
men  of  course  do  seek  to  receive  countenance  and  profit,  so  ought 
they  of  duty  to  endeavor  themselves  .  .  .  to  be  a  help  and  orna- 
ment thereunto."  There  can  be,  however,  no  thought  to  live  for  it 
alone,  because,  in  the  end,  it  is  only  one  of  the  manifold  parts  of 
life. 
A  real  education  is  more  than  a  special  equipment  in  any  single 
direction  of  human  energy,  and  its  intention  is  to  unfold  to  its  high- 
est potentiality  the  nature  of  man.  The  best  definition  that  I  have 
ever  read  of  the  true  significance  of  such  an  education  to  the  man 
who  wears  it  as  his  crown  of  accomplishment  is  that  contained  in 
Huxley's  "Essays,"  from  which  I  copied  it  many  years  ago  and  have 
kept  in  sight  as  a  precious  possession.  It  is  only  a  part  of  a  longer 
statement  of  the  position  of  man  in  the  universe  and  his  relation  to 
it,  but  it  bears  directly  on  the  present  case,  and  this  is  what  he  says : 
"That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  education,  who  has  been  so 
trained  in  youth  that  his  body  is  the  ready  servant  of  his  will,  ana 
does  with  ease  and  pleasure  all  the  work  that  as  a  mechanism  it  is 
capable  of ;  whose  intellect  is  a  clear,  cold  logic  engine,  with  all  its 
parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in  smooth,  working  order;  ready,  like  a 
steam  engine,  to  be  turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the  gos- 
samers as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the  mind;  whose  mind  is 
stored  with  a  knowledge  of  great  and  fundamental  truths  of  nature 
and  of  the  laws  of  her  operations;  one  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is 
full  of  life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to  come  to  heel 
by  a  vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender  conscience;  who  has 
learned  to  love  all  beauty,  whether  of  nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all 
vileness,  and  to  respect  others  as  himself." 
Such  a  man,  it  seems'to  me,  has  realized  to  the  full  the  signifi- 
cance of  education  as  I  have  wished  it  to  appear  in  these  somewhat 
scattered  remarks  this  morning,  fitted  in  his  mind  and  soul  to  serve 
at  least  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  purpose  of  what  long  ago  was 
called  "the  great  appetites  of  honor." 
