



Produced by Al Haines










MEANS AND ENDS

OF EDUCATION



BY

J. L. SPALDING

Bishop of Peoria




  WHO BRINGETH MANY THINGS,
  FOR EACH ONE SOMETHING BRINGS




CHICAGO

A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY

1895




COPYRIGHT

BY A. C. MCCLURG L Co.

A.D. 1895





By Bishop Spalding

  EDUCATION AND THE HIGHER LIFE.  12mo.  $1.00.
  THINGS OF THE MIND.  12mo.  $1.00.
  MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION.  12mo.  $1.00.


A. C. McCLURG AND CO.
  CHICAGO.




CONTENTS.


CHAPTER

   I.  TRUTH AND LOVE
  II.  TRUTH AND LOVE
 III.  THE MAKING OF ONE'S SELF
  IV.  WOMAN AND EDUCATION
   V.  THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION
  VI.  THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN EDUCATION
 VII.  THE HIGHER EDUCATION




MEANS AND ENDS OF EDUCATION.




CHAPTER I.

TRUTH AND LOVE.

None of us yet know, for none of us have yet been taught in early
youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought--proof
against all adversity;--bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble
histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful
thoughts; which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty
take away from us--houses built without hands for our souls to live
in.--RUSKIN.

Stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy
patriots, dear to God and famous to all ages.--MILTON.


A great man's house is filled chiefly with menials and creatures of
ceremony; and great libraries contain, for the most part, books as dry
and lifeless as the dust that gathers on them: but from amidst these
dead leaves an immortal mind here and there looks forth with light and
love.

From the point of view of the bank president, Emerson tells us, books
are merely so much rubbish.  But in his eyes the flowers also, the
flowing water, the fresh air, the floating clouds, children's voices,
the thrill of love, the fancy's play, the mountains, and the stars are
worthless.

Not one in a hundred who buy Shakspere, or Milton, or a work of any
other great mind, feels a genuine longing to get at the secret of its
power and truth; but to those alone who feel this longing is the secret
revealed.  We must love the man of genius, if we would have him speak
to us.  We learn to know ourselves, not by studying the behavior of
matter, but through experience of life and intimate acquaintance with
literature.  Our spiritual as well as our physical being springs from
that of our ancestors.  Freedom, however, gives the soul the power not
only to develop what it inherits, but to grow into conscious communion
with the thought and love, the hope and faith of the noble dead, and,
in thus enlarging itself, to become the inspiration and source of
richer and wider life for those who follow.  As parents are consoled by
the thought of surviving in their descendants, great minds are upheld
and strengthened in their ceaseless labors by the hope of entering as
an added impulse to better things, from generation to generation, into
the lives of thousands.  The greatest misfortune which can befall
genius is to be sold to the advocacy of what is not truth and love and
goodness and beauty.  The proper translation of _timeo hominem unius
libri_ is not, "I fear a man of one book," but "I dread a man of one
book:" for he is sure to be narrow, one-sided, and unreasonable.  The
right phrase enters at once into our spiritual world, and its power
becomes as real as that of material objects.  The truth to which it
gives body is borne in upon us as a star or a mountain is borne in upon
us.  Kings and rich men live in history when genius happens to throw
the light of abiding worlds upon their ephemeral estate.  Carthage is
the typical city of merchants and traders.  Why is it remembered?
Because Hannibal was a warrior and Virgil a poet.

The strong man is he who knows how and is able to become and be
himself; the magnanimous man is he who, being strong, knows how and is
able to issue forth from himself, as from a fortress, to guide,
protect, encourage, and save others.  Life's current flows pure and
unimpeded within him, and on its wave his thought and love are borne to
bless his fellowmen.  If he who gives a cup of water in the right
spirit does God's work, so does he who sows or reaps, or builds or
sweeps, or utters helpful truth or plays with children or cheers the
lonely, or does any other fair or useful thing.  Take not seriously one
who treats with derision men or books that have been deemed worthy of
attention by the best minds.  He is false or foolish.  As we cherish a
human being for the courage and love he inspires, so books are dear to
us for the noble thoughts and generous moods they call into being.  To
drink the spirit of a great author is worth more than a knowledge of
his teaching.

He who desires to grow wise should bring his reason to bear habitually
upon what he sees and hears not less than upon what he reads; for thus
he soon comes to understand that whatever he thinks or feels, says or
does, whatever happens within the sphere of his conscious life, may be
made the means of self-improvement.  "He is not born for glory," says
Vauvenargues, "who knows not the worth of time."  The educational value
of books lies in their power to set the intellectual atmosphere in
vibration, thereby rousing the mind to self-activity; and those which
have not this power lack vitality.

If in a whole volume we find one passage in which truth is expressed in
a noble and