1 HE 0-A.L 
 
 OP Ed uca t 
 
 BiolooicalIntegrity 
 
 «MnM(*t«*HNItlMMMMMMM0 
 
 DO"YI.E 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE CALL OF 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 Volume One 
 
 Biological I ntegrity 
 
 By 
 J. H. DOYLE 
 
 (Lecturer) 
 
 1^^^ 
 
 Published by 
 
 THE J. H. DOYLE COMPANY 
 
 Hammond, Indiana 
 
 Price Three Dollars, Not Prepaid 
 
 
Copyrighted 
 
 BY 
 
 J. H. doyle: 
 
 1921 
 
 All rights reserved in all 
 countries. 
 
 HAMMOND PRES3 
 3. CONKEY COMPANY 
 CHICAGO 
 
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 V 
 
 ©ebkateb 
 
 To The Childhood Army of The World 
 
 And To Youth 
 
 And To All The Years That Follow 
 
 Wiy±i^f^t :^ 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2008 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.arcliive.org/details/callofeducationOOdoylricli 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface Page Seven 
 chapter page 
 
 I. The Curtain Drawn 9 
 
 II. The Great Question; and The World's Answer . . 30 
 
 III. The Great Question; and My Own Answer ... 50 
 
 IV. The Purpose of Education ; and The World's Answer 63 
 
 V. The Purpose of Education; and My Own Answer . 84 
 
 VI. The Purpose of Education : Biological Integrity and 
 
 Fear 99 
 
 VII. The Purpose of Education : Biological Integi-ity ; 
 
 Fear: Its Genetic Aspects 113 
 
 VIII. The Purpose of Education: Biological Integrity; 
 
 Fear : Its Physical Effects 125 
 
 IX. The Purpose of Education: Biological Integrity; 
 
 Fear: Its Relation to Childhood 141 
 
 X. The Purpose of Education: Biological Integrity; 
 
 The Views of Plato 166 
 
 XI. The Purpose of Education : Biological Integrity ; 
 
 Courage and Cowardice 201 
 
 XII. The Purpose of Education : Biological Integrity ; 
 
 Introversion 220 
 
 XIII. The Purpose of Education: Biological Integrity; 
 
 Psychic Re-education 260 
 
 XIV. The Purpose of Education : Biological Integrity; Con- 
 
 clusion and Summary 275 
 
 5 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE printing press was invented in 1445. At that time 
 I presume that everyone thought that it was going to be 
 a wonderful thing for the world. And perhaps it has been. 
 I do not know. Undoubtedly the sole criterion must be the 
 basic character of the message — the amount of pertinent 
 and essential truth that the printed word is daily sifting 
 into the mind of man, and permanently into the thought im- 
 press of civilization. 
 
 But judged on this basis I often wonder — ^because after 
 nearly five centuries I see vastly more of error and igno- 
 rance and superficiality projected by the printing press 
 than I do of truth. As a result of those centuries, a cast of 
 mental darkness and mental inertia, like some mysterious 
 mesmeric spell, seems everywhere to endure in the human 
 mind as no granite has ever endured in any quarry. In- 
 deed at times it would almost seem as if the chief function 
 of the printing press has been to give voice to things that 
 are worthless and destructive — ^and to perpetuate things 
 that are not so. 
 
 Nor is our own immediate day exempt from this charge 
 in any way — for there has perhaps never been a time in 
 history when there were more writers and speakers, and 
 fewer profound thinkers than at this very hour. In fact the 
 utter mediocrity of present-day thought and leadership is 
 one of the most impeaching realities with which any age 
 was ever marked. 
 
 Well, it is in the midst of such conditions and such 
 an age that I give this book to the world. I do so with the 
 profoundest conviction that there is nothing of such monu- 
 mental importance on this earth today as for every civili- 
 zation to get into its head the correct notion as to what 
 education should consist of — and for every individual to 
 get into his head a like notion. 
 
 7 
 
8 PEEFACE 
 
 Accordingly, this book is written for every country. It 
 is written for the home, the school, the church, and the 
 state. It is written for parents, teachers, students, citizens. 
 And it is written for every library and every educational 
 institution in the world. 
 
 The tone of the book itself is critical and controversial to 
 the last degree — for in my opinion it is high time for some- 
 one to strike a new and fundamental note in education — to 
 go back at once to the springs, rather than waste more time 
 paddling in the streams — and thus to trace to their very 
 lair the fictitious values and the intrenched superficialities 
 that make prey upon mankind everywhere. 
 
 At the same time, the reader will note that this book is 
 volume one of a series. My present plans are to speak to 
 the world again in due time, through volume two. 
 
 August 1, 1921. J.H.D. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 THE CURTAIN DRAWN 
 
 Far above the tedious objectives of history, one problem 
 must forever remain the most important ever undertaken 
 by mankind. It is the problem of education. No other 
 human endeavor can ever match it. No undertaking in all 
 the ages has been so fundamentally sacred and serious. The 
 treasure vaults of eternity have never contained a gem so 
 precious. 
 
 The wreckage and ruin of a crude educational art is to 
 be found in every recess of immemorial antiquity. The 
 earliest gropings of primitive man testify to this fact. Like 
 a great autograph, it has threaded its way over and into the 
 sands of every nation. 
 
 From the dateless dust of the desert, Egypt spoke in 
 her own time. It was a voice from her brickyards and her 
 quarries ; from her priests and her dead — a voice from the 
 flood plains of the Nile. It was perhaps the first Turanian 
 voice from the annals of antiquity. That triad was com- 
 pleted with the voice of Chaldea — and China echoing across 
 the vast stretches of the Orient. Simultaneously the gongs 
 in the Semitic temples were sounded by Babylonia and 
 Assyria. Then too welled up the first tunings of educa- 
 tional symphony in Persia, Media, India. And they were 
 the Aryans. They completed the three great races which 
 were destined to be the torch bearers of civilization. And 
 thus in the night of long lost shadows, gradually awoke the 
 mental glimmerings of savage and barbaric mind every- 
 where, even as reluctant fogs in the rising. Such, in a word, 
 is the antiquity, scope and significance of education. 
 
 But for ages the problem has remained unsolved. The 
 one great riddle of eternity stands as Sphinx-like today as 
 it did along the river Nile sixty centuries ago. And every 
 
 9 
 
10 THE CUETAIN DRAWN 
 
 traveler who has passed by the way has paused to solve it. 
 But still sits the Sphinx by the roadside. Along the defiles 
 of the centuries, like some mighty canyon in ruined relief, 
 the shadows of time have had but one significant companion 
 — the voice of a lost education crying out in the wilderness. 
 And, as the centuries have grown, that voice has not been 
 stilled. Nor has it grown dim. Perhaps as never before in 
 all time does the unheard voice of education call out today 
 for an ear that can hear. Like the sword of Damocles the 
 problem of education hangs at this hour over the heads of 
 every people on the globe. 
 
 And there are reasons for the unsolved riddle and the 
 unheard voice. The greatest of those reasons is this : In no 
 age of history has education ever occupied the center of any 
 human stage. The seriousness of education has never been 
 fully perceived by any civilization. In the mind of man the 
 importance of education has always existed in terms of 
 human consequences only — and never in terms of human 
 consciousness. The mind of no stage of culture has ever 
 viewed education in anything like its real momentousness. 
 Hence, with all its sacredness and all its importance, there 
 has perhaps never been any single word spoken more glibly 
 than this very word education. It is one of time's touching 
 tragedies that education has ever played the role of silent 
 partner in the roar and thunder of human affairs, running 
 noiselessly along like some mighty subterranean river. 
 
 No epoch in all recorded time has ever appreciated the 
 imposing fact that education must be made absolutely and 
 unqualifiedly the basis of every problem on the planet. Let 
 man solve any problem without the counsel of education, 
 and that problem will meet him for solution again tomorrow 
 — and with it a thousand entailing problems. Solving any 
 problem without education is much like drowning a cat — it 
 will beat one home. And let us bear in mind that any edu- 
 cation that mankind invokes must be right. No other type 
 of education will do at all. The word education itself can 
 only delude. It is unquestionably the pursuit and the 
 application of an education merely in name that still enables 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 11 
 
 the Sphinx so persistently and so patiently to remain 
 among us. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that at all times and in all ages, 
 the human race has wanted to know the truth of being. 
 But education has never correctly answered that vague and 
 touching call. Long therefore has mankind struggled in 
 chains. Those chains have ever been the same — the relent- 
 less bondage of ignorance. For the most part, ignorance 
 has been the eternal basis of human existence, individually 
 and socially. To king ignorance, life has been an age-long 
 martyrdom. It seems as if the quicksands of ignorance have 
 carpeted the planet since the da^n of creation. We are told 
 that for two interminable years Spartacus intrenched him- 
 self in the crater of the extinct volcano and baffled the 
 Roman legions. But for interminable centuries ignorance 
 has intrenched itself in the human mind and baffled and 
 bled all mankind. Ignorance is a vile fountain from which 
 there flows forth a steady stream of intelligence wounded 
 to the heart. It has flown on forever in the past, as it flows 
 today, a continuation of Tiber's muddy stream overflooding 
 the world with defilement. And the jeering mockery of the 
 whole spectacle is, that wherever ignorance has ever oper- 
 ated, it has alwaj^s been in the garb of truth. This is why it 
 is that down through the ages actual truth has been so per- 
 sistently burned at the stake. But somehow the stake of 
 ignorance has always survived. And wherever that stake 
 reigns, there principle hangs crucified. 
 
 And thus it is that the call and cry of the human race 
 for that obscure something that might spell relief has never 
 been accurately answered. To that overwhelming extent, 
 ignorance, instead of truth, has directed the gropings of 
 man. I speak plainly and boldly in order that the world 
 may understand. Our answer to the Sphinx is but the hol- 
 lowest mockery. Probably there w^as never a time in all 
 recorded history when humanity was so close to the break- 
 ing point as today. The real drama of life is now on. 
 Wherever one looks, the witnesses are entering the box. On 
 all sides is unrest. It is like the turbulent calm which fore- 
 
12 THE CURTAIN DRAWN 
 
 tells a storm. Everywhere is aimlessness, superficiality, 
 neurotic haste and discontentment. Conflicting purposes 
 abound on every hand. Human despair is abroad with a 
 tempestuosity that is engulfing. The sweep is cyclonic. 
 Poverty stalks broadcast in every civilization. Human 
 misery was perhaps never more intense. Sickness and dis- 
 ease are everywhere — from the palace of the rich to the 
 hovel of the poor. Human ills are multiplying faster than 
 time itself. Cure one disease — and a score of new ones leap 
 to its place. Epidemics chase one another around the 
 world wdth a rapidity and a cleadliness that stagger civi- 
 lization. Insanity is filling our asylums with human wrecks 
 faster than society can foot the bills. Feeblemindedness is 
 beyond all bounds. Our penitentiaries are filled with con- 
 victs. Crime has become colossal in its proportions. Suicide 
 was never so common. Health has deserted the planet. 
 Broken hearts and ruined minds are written into the human 
 countenance wherever we turn. Fal.se ideals dominate the 
 individual and social fabric from one end of the earth to 
 the other. Duplicity is largely the ethical guide of the 
 world. Pretense dominates the human mind. Sincerity has 
 been crushed. 
 
 I submit it as an avowed fact that by sheer virtue of 
 Nature herself, every person in life has an actual, fight on his 
 hands. Furthermore, our social system should help him in 
 that fight — ^and not hinder him. But everywhere and al- 
 ways, society has been anti-social. Both education and 
 w^ealth have made it so. That is why society has always been 
 in the rapids. Today society heaves and tosses as on a thin 
 crust above a volcano. The roar of an impending catas- 
 trophe is already in our ears. Always society has memorial- 
 ized itself in human suffering. I challenge an exception. 
 Life is being burned out at a voltage that is too high. So- 
 ciety is doing but little to reduce that voltage. The vastest 
 accumulation of constitutionally vested rights and legalized 
 thievery of all history perhaps exists today. The blind will 
 not see this. Certainly education does not see it. But the 
 abyss of destruction yawns. The time is not unlike the 
 
THE CUETAIN DEAWN 13 
 
 ancient world before its dissolution. The poor in spirit are 
 legion. But the poor in purse are doubly so. One-tenth of 
 our people own nine-tenths of our wealth. It is as if the 
 gates of reason were slammed shut. Probably one-fifth of 
 the population of our large cities are below the poverty line. 
 The sores of Lazarus are deep and many indeed. Never in 
 all eternity will those sores be healed by the insipid plasters 
 of philanthropy, and never by the surface antiseptics of 
 a superficial education. The past has tried them both — 
 and they have ignominiously failed. 
 
 And thus while educational leaders argue on fine spun 
 theories, the tragedy of the multitudes goes on unceasingly. 
 As Schiller has said, *' While philosophers are wrangling 
 over the government of the world, hunger and love are 
 doing their work ' '. The table of life is wrecked by the few 
 in their revel. They gorge and sicken themselves on the 
 merest sauces of existence. The vast majority seat them- 
 selves tired and exliausted. But they too seat in vain — for 
 they rise hungry from the feast. To those millions, life is 
 a plexus of grease and grime, beltings and wheels, forges 
 and furnaces, triphammers and cranes. In hunger and rags 
 and dejection they tramp the treadmills of life, all but 
 deaf by the hissing of steam, the clanging of bells, the 
 screeching of dynamoes. 
 
 But in it all, life goes on. And age after age lies buried 
 the joy and the genius of the world. It is the price in part 
 that society pays for its waste, its misfits, its futilities. The 
 wastage of talent and opportunity flows ever on. "Bowed 
 by the weight of centuries", the man with the hoe looks 
 down. Markham spoke for us all. But his vision beheld 
 not all of the fields, and saw not into the hearts of all of 
 those in the vineyards. His vision did not see beyond the 
 rulers of state. In yonder councils of school and of church 
 — there could he have seen many of the springs that are 
 feeding perpetually the ceaseless streams of human suffer- 
 ing. There could he have seen that back of all the world's 
 misery; back of all its blind programs of human procedure ; 
 back of every pang of pain or hunger or heart-ache, has 
 
14 THE CURTAIN DRAWN 
 
 primarily lain, and lies today — a set of infamously erron- 
 eous theories — that is, a functioning ignorance usurping 
 the throne of truth. 
 
 Nor do I speak alone for that great army of toilers whose 
 camps are perpetually pitched so close to the poverty line. 
 For misery of one kind or another must always hover wher- 
 ever any hand of ignorance may cast its tents — even for 
 the opulent rich. It is not alone a question of white teeth 
 gnawing at the pillars of time. It is also an issue of be- 
 wildered souls and aching hearts. "When beholding the op- 
 posite side of life's massive and meaningful shield, one is 
 always compelled to look with compassion on the del,uded 
 rich. In the ultimate analysis, satiety is as destructive as 
 poverty. True to the law of polarity, they are twin de- 
 stroyers. The moral turpitude which obtains in high life 
 today is but the clarion voice of unerring causation. Emer- 
 son says that there is an essential duality which bisects all 
 Nature. Poverty and riches constitute the double edged 
 sword that proves it. The inexorable principle is, that there 
 are two poles to every diameter — and man should never get 
 so close to either that he loses sight of the other. In life, 
 therefore, it is not merely a question of fat kine against lean 
 kine. It is more fundamentally a question of the inevitable 
 boomerang that comes back. Life is eminently an equation : 
 Misery in one direction must ultimately be balanced by 
 misery in another direction. Woe unto that individual or 
 that institution whose joy is a source of misery to others. 
 It is indeed astounding that society and government so 
 persistently refuse to learn this lesson. History has fur- 
 nished the warning for ages. 
 
 From whatever standpoint, human misery and human 
 bondage cannot permanently endure. Along the sunburnt 
 trail of the centuries there is no more unmistakable foot- 
 print than the affirmation of that fact. The requiem of the 
 winds over the ashes of crumbled empires everywhere and 
 in every age bears silent mtness to that effect. Among other 
 nations, Rome tried it — and it failed — in spite of the count- 
 less human beings that she nailed upon her crosses. And if 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 15 
 
 any nation could succeed in that direction, Rome should — 
 for hers was one of the most colossal pieces of infamy ever 
 recorded in history. Hers was one continuous feast of cap- 
 tured barbarians butchered and slaughtered in the arena. 
 Emperor Trajan celebrated his victory over the Dacians 
 with shows that lasted more than one hundred days. Dur- 
 ing that festivity more than 10,000 men were used and more 
 than 10,000 wild animals slain. Occasionally a Roman like 
 Seneca had the insight and the courage to denounce the 
 policy as criminal. But Pliny excused the practices as ex- 
 amples for cultivating manliness. During the later republic 
 and the early empire half of the population of the Roman 
 state was slave. The wealthy, like the illiterate rich of every 
 age, dawdled their time in ostentation. Varro classified 
 slaves as ''vocal agricultural instruments".^ About the 
 same period, or during the time of Christ, about eighty-five 
 per cent of the population of the city of Athens were slaves. 
 Out of a total of 200,000 but 30,000 were freemen. Is it 
 any wonder that Greece and Rome passed away ? 
 
 And as we thus look back across the centuries, how in- 
 adequate must language ever be to portray down through 
 all the ages the misery that could have been avoided in this 
 world. It makes no difference whether a suffering humanity 
 is crucified under the bold brazonry of an unholy Roman 
 empire, with its forests of crosses marking its public high- 
 ways — or whether under the sincere name of liberty, human 
 misery lays its withering hand in the form of disease, pov- 
 erty, crushed ambitions, blasted hopes, and life-long bond- 
 age against odds that foredoom certain failure. It makes no 
 difference. Mental anguish is ever the same. Poverty, dis- 
 ease and bondage — they can never be glorified with glamor 
 in any age. Under the banners of culture they \vill be 
 exactly as under the totemic shadows of barbarism. A 
 civilization of rooves, or a civilization of tents — it is all 
 the same. 
 
 But the planet is ripe for something. The boldest and 
 
 ^ See Preston & Dodge: Private Life of the Romans; also Myers' 
 Ancient History, part II. 
 
16 THE CURTAIN DRAWN 
 
 most enthusiastic opponent of progress cannot much longer 
 deny it. The evidence is overwhelming. Everywhere in- 
 visible chisels are at work in the form of human unrest born 
 of human misery. False leaders must abdicate in every 
 field, whether in education, religion or government. Petered- 
 out-tail-end doctrines and policies must vanish. That insti- 
 tution which wdU not reform and evolve, must perish. Any 
 institution or any doctrine which persists in looking upon 
 the Universe as a petrified process rather than a flowing 
 one, must be driven from the earth. For every moment of 
 human suffering caused by the vermiform appendage in the 
 human body, ages of human misery have been caused by 
 the multitudinous appendages of false doctrines obsessing 
 the innermost recesses of the human mind, implanted there 
 by false and ignorant leaders. The social vestiges of the 
 ages are what must be destroyed — ^vestiges, which in their 
 day might have been pardonable for primitive minds, but 
 which today are a shame and a scourge to mankind. Man, 
 the most powerful of all animals, must do something worthy 
 of his kingdom. Life must become an incandescent lump 
 glowing with the unquenchable fires of truth, and not black- 
 ened eternally with the smoke and foUy of ignorance. The 
 silent letters of civilization must pass away. And educa- 
 tion must be the master hand that strikes them out. At the 
 counters of life, there must be but one legal tender, and 
 that tender — truth. Every single transaction in life must 
 be in those terms. 
 
 But here someone will ask: In what way does all this 
 concern education? What has education got to do with 
 human misery? Wherein is the question of education re- 
 lated to the prevalence of disease, poverty, suicide, insanity, 
 feeblemindedness, criminality — ^and in general, the world's 
 highway of aching hearts ? 
 
 Those questions constitute the greatest indictment ever 
 made against education — or against anything else. But 
 those questions are not mine. I have plucked them from the 
 lips of the world. They are unconscious reflections from 
 the thought impress of our civilization. For that reason 
 
THE CURTAIN DEAWN 17 
 
 those questions are infallible indicators. They signify that 
 our education is so far afield from its native haunts and its 
 true estates that neither the world nor its education even 
 recognizes the duties that are duly and truly its own. In 
 the olden days it was credited to Cain that he asked, ''Am 
 I my brother's keeper?" But present day education is far 
 worse. It even denies that it has a brother. It does not 
 recognize its own relations. At best, it may duplicate the 
 question of Cain. If so, my answer is, that education is at 
 least not supposed to be its brother 's robber. 
 
 Now, friends should tell one another the truth. Above 
 all, enemies should be frank. On both scores I want to be 
 honest with the world. I demand a solution of our educa- 
 tional problem anew^ — absolutely anew. Such a solution is 
 incomparably the greatest need of the age. That same need 
 has existed in every age known to man. The problem of 
 education has never been settled right — nor anywhere near 
 right. So convinced am I of this that my scorn for the edu- 
 cational world is boundless. It is that same degree of con- 
 tempt that Rousseau voiced when his heart spoke out in 
 1762 in that never-to-be-forgotten classic, Emile. To be 
 sure, Rousseau was extreme in some respects. But he had a 
 thousand reasons to be. What truly perceiving soul would 
 not be outraged at the mockery of education and the general 
 state of social, affairs as they existed in Rousseau's day? Is 
 it any wonder that Rousseau in his anger and ardor carried 
 his case too far into the realms of an isolated NatMre? I 
 say — no! And indeed, it is a part of my eontempt for 
 present day educational critics, that they should attempt to 
 raise one finger against Rousseau, either against his Emile, 
 or against the unfortunate fact that his three children were 
 sent to a foundling asylum. If taking care of three children 
 would have lost Emile to the world, then I would ten thou- 
 sand times rather have Rousseau do exactly as he did. So, 
 let us hear no more adverse criticism about this great man. 
 Let us rather mingle an infinite compassion for him along 
 with the undying gratitude that he has earned from us all. 
 
 Looking from my own angle, I see in present day edu- 
 
 2— Au«. 21 
 
18 THE CUBTAIN DRAWN 
 
 cation ' ' but the baseless fabric of a dream ; ignorance of a 
 density unequalled ; of an obstinacy unparalleled ' '. And it 
 is all traceable to the doors of our educational philosophers. 
 About those philosophers, what Plato said four centuries 
 before Christ, might well be said today : ' ' Shall we conmiit 
 any fault then if we call these people philodoxical rather 
 than philosophical, that is to say, lovers of opinion rather 
 than lovers of wisdom?"^ Truly, if to love opinion and 
 superficiality is to be philodoxical, then twentieth century 
 educators are among the most philodoxical that ever trod 
 the earth. They are also entitled to another well earned 
 compliment from the pen of Plato: *'We cannot avoid 
 adopting the belief that the real nature of education is at 
 variance with the account given of it by certain of its pro- 
 fessors, who pretend, I believe, to infuse into the mind a 
 knowledge of which it was destitute, just as sight might be 
 instilled into blinded eyes. ' '^ 
 
 Like Plato, in speaking of professors, I shall name none 
 in this connection. Education is too massive a subject to 
 permit of anything but principles. I w^ould simply chal- 
 lenge the present educational world to name one profound 
 educational thought that its coterie has ever uttered. If I 
 wanted to I could name, say, fifty men who stand high in 
 the educational world today. They are leaders in educa- 
 tional, thought. They stand out as gods in State and Na- 
 tional councils. But never yet have I ever heard anything 
 said in any educational council that was entitled to live for 
 fifteen seconds — that is, from the standpoint of things that 
 are fundamental in education. Educational councils every- 
 where are dreary desert wastes of sage brush and alkali. 
 Even educators themselves are coming to feel it. No one ex- 
 pects anything there any more — and those who do are dis- 
 appointed. The educational council has become simply some 
 place to go. Such councils enable one to get out of his own 
 backyard once or twice a year, but that is about all. 
 
 2 Plato's Republic, 196. Davies & Vaughn Trans., 1914, Mac- 
 millan & Co. 
 
 3 Ibid., 240-1. 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 19 
 
 Let anyone take the addresses made and the papers read 
 at educational associations — and he will seek in vain for any 
 spark of originality, for any charm of language, for any 
 nugget of wisdom, for any breath of inspiration. On more 
 than one occasion have I camped faithfully on the trail of 
 some educational leader whose initial words promised hope, 
 only to find in the end that his bow of promise dissolved into 
 nothingness — that he really had nothing to say. That is 
 true of educational leaders in general when it comes right 
 down to things that are bed-rock. Their greatest stock in 
 trade is to make much ado about comparatively insignificant 
 things that have been booted around the world like an old 
 football for centuries. In line with that propensity is their 
 remarkable capacity for generalities — the glittering kind 
 with which the world has been pestered since the beginning 
 of time. Parallel with that capacity is their ravenous avid- 
 ity for words. Well might Goethe have written the follow- 
 ing in Faust after having attended the typical educational 
 association : 
 
 "The best thing that the case affords 
 Is— stick to some doctor's words: 
 Maintain the doctrines out and out, 
 Admit no qualifying doubt; 
 But stick to words, at any rate: 
 Their magic makes the temple gate 
 Of certainty fly safely ope; 
 Words, words alone, are your best hope". 
 
 Now, to be sure, I readily admit that in secondary and 
 tertiary fields we have educators today who are entitled to 
 every credit — and were I dealing with such fields — or did 
 education consist of a mere house of cards built upon the 
 sands — I would extend to them that credit. But education 
 must not be suffered to become anything of the kind. There- 
 fore I am not here to praise trifles. 
 
 I take it that if a great conflagration is raging under the 
 force and impetus of heavy winds, the thing for the fire de- 
 partment to do is to direct every gallon of water where it 
 should be directed — onto the source of the fire and onto the 
 
20 THE CURTAIN DRAWN 
 
 points of greatest danger. I wonder if I am right? But 
 those same fire fighters may shoot the whole Atlantic ocean 
 into that conflagration, and it will do not one iota of good — 
 providing the water is shot through the tops of the flames. 
 The point is, that the water, to be of any service, must in 
 some way come into actual contact with the foundations of 
 the fire. Fighting the tongues of flames that have leaped 
 skyward a thousand feet, amounts to nothing. One's most 
 frantic efforts thus directed can spell but one thing — folly. 
 The inapplicable, even to the point of infinitude, can never 
 utter the slightest response in any field — for the simple rea- 
 son that it lacks the essential condition of contact with 
 cause. 
 
 Again, we pay but little attention to a burning ax handle 
 in the backyard while human beings are calling for help 
 from the tenth story. No one cares a copper about the color 
 of a man's necktie while he is engraving his name on the 
 highest tablets of undying heroism. No — a thousand times 
 — no ! We simply refuse to become excited over toys and in- 
 cidentals, no matter how valuable and necessary they may 
 be in their appropriate places, while the appealing voice of 
 mankind is calling out. The point is, that every single thing 
 in life must rest absolutely on its own degree of worth — on 
 its own pedestal — ^and stay where it belongs. Nothing must 
 be permitted to use any other bridge than itself. I can con- 
 ceive of no greater final injustice or calamity than for some 
 comparatively puny and relatively insignificant truth 
 usurping the throne of some other truth that is a thousand 
 times more vital. Let us have no vain-glorious truths, 
 therefore, parading around among mankind where they do 
 not belong. It is on the basis of that very principle that I 
 refuse to become excited over any of the prevailing major 
 movements in present day education — and over which lead- 
 ers are so frantically fussing, and so profusely perspiring. 
 
 Bear in mind, therefore, that my complaint against edu- 
 cation is not against this or that detail — but against central 
 facts. The school simply has not diagnosed her sickness 
 deeply enough. The educational world must take off its 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 21 
 
 blinders. No plaster can possibly antidote deep seated 
 ulcers. Nature is entirely too old and too wise to be fooled 
 by any physician, however sincere, whose conduct does not 
 suit the case. Even the slightest unseen splinter in one's 
 finger testifies to that fact. The law of Cause and Effect 
 is not so easily repealed as some woul,d think. It is a good 
 deal like the fox that had one hundred tricks in the fable. 
 He had boasted to the cat of his cleverness. Just then a 
 pack of hounds came up. But the fox very soon exhausted 
 his hundred tricks by running and jumping and turning 
 and twisting and dodging. Then the hounds went promptly 
 to work and performed trick — number one hundred one. 
 In due time the cat went to work and executed its single 
 trick, which was simply to climb to the topmost branch of 
 the nearest tree. *'Ah," said the cat, ''I see that one good 
 trick is worth far more than one hundred poor ones"! 
 
 And so it is with our educators. They are running hither 
 and thither. The cat in the fable knew from the beginning 
 the value of one good trick. But our educational leaders en- 
 tertain the fox view of things. Consequently their house is 
 of cards. Their legerdemain is crude. The forces of life 
 are closing in upon them from every possible direction in 
 the Universe. One new trick on their part demands ten 
 more new ones in order to block and checkmate the funda- 
 mental principles that the original trick overlooked. The 
 process thus goes on at an alarming geometrical rate. Every- 
 thing develops into but an infinite complexity. That com- 
 plexity must finally do one of two things — either fall under 
 its own weight and fallacy, or else crush humanity. At the 
 present hour the latter alternative is going on. 
 
 And this brings me partially to the source of some of my 
 convictions. It first happened yonder on the prairies of 
 the west. It was in the fields between the green corn rows — 
 or herding the cattle on the plains — or driving the mowing 
 machine in the meadows. My first convictions were intoned 
 in field, furrow and woodland. As a boy in the old Virgil 
 school I often used to feel that our education is wrong. It 
 seemed to me that the educated person was just about the 
 
22 THE CUETAIN DRAWN 
 
 same life victim as the uneducated — physically, mentally 
 and morally. In a physical way and a mental way, I saw 
 both classes the same victims of the same disease, and just 
 as subject to various other disturbances — while along the 
 line of moral conduct, again I could see no difference. Of 
 course, my observations were not scientific, or anything like 
 it — perhaps. They were simply boyhood impressions. 
 Nevertheless, they were positive convictions. They left me 
 with the definite thought that when education got through 
 with a person he was still a pronounced victim to the world 
 — a master in no real, essential way — and even worse off 
 possibly in some respects than he might have been had he 
 never had the ** advantages " of education at all. 
 
 And now as the years have gone by, and as I have passed 
 from the country school and on into some of our leading 
 universities, making a careful study of the educational 
 philosophies of the world, the while studying life as it is 
 actually lived — my early boyhood convictions have become 
 matters of knowledge. I see in education today a cup so 
 full of error that it must spill under even the steadiest hand. 
 Truly is it hard to carry a full cup. In a shipwreck, most 
 people cling to the first thing that they can grab. Some 
 cling to spars — ^masts — riggings. Others cling to barrels 
 and casks. But the pilot is the one person that knows. I 
 say that education today is a shipwreck. Its leaders are 
 grabbing at everything from riggings to casks — from barrels 
 to masts. But there has been no pilot to grab the one thing 
 that is right. Thus far education has been unsane. It has 
 been dwelling among the tombs. And humanity has been 
 calling and crying. Education has answered. But that 
 answer has been in terms of error, bookishness, and super- 
 ficiality — in terms of unrecognized principle. It has simply 
 been education in Q^gy. The tree of knowledge has been 
 hardly more than a mirage in the desert. The educational 
 world would prune that tree to make it perfect. But it is 
 useless to prune branches from a tree whose fruit is insidi- 
 ous poison. The only thing to do is to lay the ax to its roots. 
 My word to the educational world is just this: Even its 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 23 
 
 theoiy is not good. Fully carried out, it would still be a 
 rank and inglorious failure. 
 
 "When Demetrius Poliorcetes inquired of Stilpo, the 
 Magarian, after his losses by the plunder of Megara, he 
 gave for answer that he had seen no one carrying off his 
 knowledge. When reminded of the immoral life of his 
 daughter, he rejoined that if he could not bring honor on 
 her, neither could she bring disgrace on him. ' '* To the first 
 of these propositions it is in order for me to say that while I 
 have seen pupils and students carting away report cards 
 and diplomas by the thousands, I have seen but very few 
 carrying away any fundamental conceptions of education. 
 With reference to Stilpo 's second answer, in my opinion the 
 educational world is not entitled to the exemption enjoyed 
 by Stilpo. Education per se has no honor. Its only honor 
 must ever lie in what it actually does for its pupils in terms 
 of assembling and assimilating the basic principles of life. 
 Further than this, the only thing that education can ever do 
 to disgrace itself is the monumental human misery that may 
 obtain in this world. By its fruits must education ever be 
 known — the same as any other tree. The measure of its 
 honor and the measure of its disgrace must always be 
 that thermometer which registers the amount of joy and 
 justice which does or does not obtain among mankind. 
 Across the great trade routes of human experience, there 
 must be no such word for education as alibi. 
 
 In my opinion, there is no language anywhere that is 
 capable of expressing the sacred responsibility of education. 
 Nowhere else in all the world is such a responsibility to be 
 found. No sins under all heaven are so fundamental as the 
 sins of education. Overt, objective sins are easy to see. 
 Sins of the flesh, for example, are never slow in coming to 
 the light. But educational sins are not discoverable on the 
 moment of the sinning — far from it ! Educational sins lie 
 deep. When the watchman wakes' up, the perpetrators are 
 in a far off country. And the escape has been made by 
 
 * Socrates and the Socratic Schools, 3rd German Edition: Eduard 
 Zeller; English Trans, by O. J. Reichel, page 277. 
 
24 THE CUETAIN DKAWN 
 
 wave. No tracks have been left by which, to trace the tra- 
 ducer. Such sins are subtle. They kill at long range. They 
 are the most dangerous of all sins. And the powder that 
 education employs in the process is both smokeless and 
 noiseless. A sinner of that type is hard to detect, and al- 
 most impossible to catch. 
 
 It is through such a long-range procedure that educa- 
 tion has constructed for us many of the gilded hells of life 
 — ^where mankind writhes in misery and dies like flies. But 
 worse than that, like the rainbow of old, the only promise 
 in the educational sky today is a set of phenomena that ig- 
 nore every basic principle of reflection and refraction. 
 Faith in such a bow of promise far transcends the mustard 
 seed measure that moves mountains. But in spite of that 
 fact, the people have great faith in their leaders, no matter 
 how short-sighted their educational doctrines may be. The 
 people actually depend on their leaders. In reality, they 
 must do so — for, to the lay world, life is always exceed- 
 ingly busy in its own respective spheres, even when life 
 conditions are the very best. Under false circumstances 
 life is always trebly busied by endeavoring to conform it- 
 self to a series of manifold errors. Humanity then becomes 
 stampeded in the hopeless process of either trying to escape 
 something or else trying to make needless and impossible 
 adjustments. Such a condition means sailing life's cur- 
 rents in a scuttled boat, and without oars. It means word- 
 ing with broken levers, or with none at all. With wagons 
 hitched to false stars, it is no wonder that poverty, disease, 
 crime and misery have taken possession of the world. 
 There is simply a limit to human endurance. It oftentimes 
 looks to me as though our educators have been sounding for 
 that limit. 
 
 To be sure, I admit that education is in part a function 
 of the people. But that is no excuse for those of our edu- 
 cational leaders who would pose as our individual and so- 
 cial saviours. It is the exclusive business of leaders — not to 
 lead, but to be wm^thij of leading. The burden of false 
 educational doctrines must not be shifted over onto the 
 
THE CURTAIN DRAWN 25 
 
 blame and the backs of the people. But a lame excuse 
 never knows which leg to limp on. Consequently, our edu- 
 cators will squirm with even the shadow of an opportunity. 
 But it will do them no good. They and they alone are to 
 blame for their outrageously narrow vision and their corre- 
 spondingly constricted views. We hear a great deal these 
 days about the divine right of liberty. But the thing that 
 is really operating is the divine right of ignorance in the 
 field of education. 
 
 Nor do I reserve for my use or fortification in this 
 connection the fact that from time to time our education 
 has been severely criticized by the lay public generally, in- 
 cluding many attacks in the press. Those who criticize 
 usually do not know why. They oppose as a rule, not be- 
 cause they know what is wrong, but because they feel that 
 something must be w^rong somewhere. No age fully under- 
 stands itself — and rarely does any critic fully comprehend 
 the issues in hand. Consequently, the critic may largely 
 or even totally miss the mark that should be hit. Correct 
 diagnosis and correct therapeutics are one. But there is a 
 vast difference between knowing that something is wrong, 
 and what is wrong. The overwhelming majority of critics 
 in the field of education never get beyond the first stage. 
 Most criticism that wells up from a suffering humanity is 
 but the voice of John the Baptist — 
 
 "An infant crying in the night. 
 An infant ciying for the light, 
 And with no language but a crj^!" 
 
 Casting the critical eye over the pages of history, one 
 might at first be tempted to the conclusion that as a rule 
 man does not care to improve. But that is not the case. 
 The real fact is, that mankind has been afflicted v>dth false 
 leaders. Our leaders have been slow, lazy, inert. Above 
 all, they have been unimpassioned in the cause of truth. 
 They have helped to make of civilization a loafer. Most 
 ages have been drowsier than the proverbial house dog. 
 Nothing was ever more hesitant than the boasted march 
 
26 • THE CUETAIN DRAWN 
 
 of civilization. Ages upon ages have drifted down to 
 us from the remotest antiquity, and yet the golden dream 
 of a golden dawn nowhere gilds the skies of human 
 thought. 
 
 The universal disease today is somnambulism. The world 
 is walking in its sleep. Indeed, civilization seems to be a 
 sleeping sickness. The awful facts that confront us are 
 ignorance and inertia. They endure in the human mind 
 like granite. Old ideas remain steadfastly where they 
 were cradled. Solemn fancies of honest but simple-minded 
 leadership and its trailing clientel abound everywhere — 
 which is not at all strange when we consider the depth and 
 soundness of intellectual sleep. 
 
 Though twenty-three centuries have rolled away since 
 the voice of the great Socrates sounded in the streets of 
 Athens by the sea — education is still being given the cup of 
 hemlock. Though in the lengthening shadows of that same 
 day Plato wrote his marvelous Kepublic and Laws, still sits 
 the Sphinx among us. And though nineteen centuries 
 have stolen past since Jesus uttered that profound message 
 to humanity, ''Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
 make you free" — the night of ignorance still enslaves man- 
 kind. The highways of humanity are still the false ways 
 of unending darkness. Today, after twenty-three centuries, 
 the educational world is divided between two conflicting 
 thoughts — it understands neither itself nor the outside 
 world. Vulgar learning abounds at every point of the 
 compass. By vulgar learning I mean learned nonsense — 
 that learning which is neither fundamental to nor com- 
 prehensive of life — ^that learning which deals with efficiency 
 in superficial things, to the blind neglect of things that are 
 elemental and final. Vulgar learning always deals with 
 decorations. — ^never with desiderata. Its great specialty 
 is chimneys — up tinkering with sky-lights. Such common 
 things as foundations are utterly foreign to that rare 
 brand of culture which I call vulgar learning. 
 
 And so I say that the great re-energizing waves of 
 Socrates, Plato and Jesus faltered and wavered, halted and 
 
THE CUETAIN DRAWN 27 
 
 fell back. Education has been but a piece of lost baggage 
 in the centuries — for even the longest wave is quickly lost 
 in the sea. History has thus come down to us out of the 
 darkness of night. And the miles have been long. The 
 sun of every century has gone down upon forsaken quar- 
 ries — down upon the incomplete and deserted efforts of 
 builders that left them where they last labored. Far too 
 often the deserted workshops of those builders have never 
 been touched since. In many notable instances those work- 
 shops have been obliterated from human vision by the 
 drifting sands of intellectual folly down through the cen- 
 turies. No human trace of them remains. Were Plato to 
 return today he would find the tool^ of his craft where he 
 left them. No one has used them since — though many have 
 chattered his name. Nor could any inhabitant — not even 
 the oldest — point out to Plato the site of his old quarry. 
 Nor could a single scattered gem that he once polished in 
 that quarry anywhere be found in the length and breadth 
 of the educational pa\\Tishops today. Plato might as well 
 prospect the waves of the sea as to attempt to locate what 
 was once his old Athenian world. He would find no func- 
 tioning compass anywhere that could help him. 
 
 But there is a future. The medium of historical trans- 
 mission is not always to be darkness. We are also told 
 that the greatest darkness is before the dawn. The very 
 hope of the world lies in a rise in education — ^not as a mere 
 current, but as a mighty tidal movement, a huge ground 
 swell. What we need is a central sun — a flaming source 
 in a flaming orbit. Education must become the focus of 
 the world. And when that focus is right, then will the 
 golden age dawn. Then will the human soul be taken out 
 of the breadline. Then will the golden hour of history 
 strike. And then will begin the most glorious march 
 across the centuries ever conceived by man. *'Eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
 heart of man to conceive the things possible'' — under a 
 sane education. 
 
 What the world is languishing for today is sub-struc- 
 
28 THE CUETAIN DRAWN 
 
 tion in education. We need a snn-like centrality. Plato 
 apprehended the central facts. So did Jesus. And so in a 
 tremendous measure did Shakespeare. Such an education 
 will be void of varnish and falsehood. It will be an edu- 
 cation that cannot be weighed on the village scales. The 
 human soul will be its balance and its rod. 
 
 Let us be candid. Let us be honest. We must think — 
 not once or twice per year, but every minute of life. The 
 facuUy of nonsense has held forth too long — in which it has 
 simply been true to the instinct never to think. Zoology 
 teaches us that the flying apparatus of the ostrich is in 
 ruins. Common observation would leave any unprejudiced 
 onlooker to conclude that human reason is also in ruins. 
 All told, Darwin tells us that there are about eighty ves- 
 tigial organs in the human body. An outsider would sur- 
 mise that most of the eighty are in the human brain. The 
 normal human cranium is never less than about fifty-five 
 cubic inches. The brain of the largest gorilla is never more 
 than about thirty-five cubic inches. As someone else has 
 said, I also should like to get man to use the extra twenty 
 cubic inches. 
 
 Nor have I started the controversy herein contained. It 
 was started by a false educational world the moment that 
 they cast down a false educational ideal. The invitation 
 has been a standing one for centuries. I merely accept the 
 challenge. To me, that means a challenge to disillusion the 
 world — for the history of all growth has been a history of 
 disillusionment. Wliere there is no disillusionment, there 
 is no growth — and of that disillusionizing the world has had 
 far too little. Long therefore has the atmosphere been 
 fetid. Long has the hut been closed. We must open the 
 doors and the windows — and let in the breezes from the 
 hills. Our scene must shift. The things which once even 
 very imperfectly satisfied the human heart and the human 
 intellect now fail utterly. Our educational and religious 
 formulas are dark enigmas from the womb of the past. They 
 neither convince nor motivate us. Never full size in any 
 single particular, we have completely outgrown them in 
 
THE CUETAIX DRAWN 29 
 
 every dimension. We turn from them as from husks. They 
 are forsaken, even as toys in toyland. Our shrine is but 
 as '*a reed shaken in the wind". 
 
 To me the awful fact today is — that man is at the stake. 
 The barometer should indicate that storm center to even the 
 blind. Always and ever it has been the supremacy of ig- 
 norance versus truth. The tide must turn. The stream of 
 history must be diverted from its ol.d channel. We must 
 have a new spirit — a truth-seeking spirit. We must chart 
 the plan of a radically new and rational destiny. The new 
 structure that we build must be on a world's diameter. The 
 measuring rod of antiquity must pass away — the Tower of 
 Babel — ''A tower whose top may reach into the heavens". 
 Our conceptions of the magnitude of the Universe must be 
 infinitely vaster than that — or any other babble. Our new 
 education must have a firmament of infinity for its roof. 
 We must plot our curves to infinity — and then plot them 
 back again, whatever course they may take. And in the 
 process we must hurry — ^with a serious care — for the day is 
 far gone. Not only must we take time by the forelock — ^we 
 must occasionally grab it by the beard. 
 
 Let us hope that a new day is about to dawn — and that 
 the wreckage and ruin that has been cast up by the tides 
 is at last to be cleared away. The symphony of time has 
 long stood watch by the cisterns of the sea — awaiting a voice 
 to still, the waves. But dreary indeed has been the vigil. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 
 
 What is the greatest question that can he raised in the 
 entire field of education today f 
 
 How strange this question sounds — because no one has 
 ever asked it before I Upon this soil, education has never 
 yet set foot. So I ask the question again. 
 
 Some will at once complain that the question is a very- 
 difficult one to answer. Such a complaint will come from 
 those who haven't even the slightest idea what the correct 
 answer is. 
 
 Others will say that the answer depends on ... . 
 
 My reply is, that it depends on absolutely nothing 
 whatever. There is but one answer to my question — and 
 that is the correct one. No qualifications or conditions of 
 any kind whatsoever can in any way impose themselves. 
 
 Still others will ask me what I mean by my question. 
 
 My response to that reaction is, that my question is 
 worded in plain English — and that I mean exactly what 
 the question asks. To the person, therefore, who may be 
 mystified as to my ** meaning,'' I can only say: Go hack 
 and read the question once more. 
 
 Then there will be those who will respond that the 
 answer to my question today would not be the same as it 
 would be five years ago, or a hundred years ago, or some 
 other time. 
 
 Very well — I accept the challenge. What was the great- 
 est question that could be asked in education in the year 
 1914? In the year 1419? What would be the greatest 
 question when the Prince of Pedagogues labored among 
 the Judean hills ? During the days of Socrates, Plato and 
 
 30 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 31 
 
 Aristotle? Or, to the person who may have choice bits of 
 insight across the footlights of the great stage of history — 
 him will I let pick his own period of history — and then 
 to that person will I put this inquiry : What is the greatest 
 question that can he raised in all education f 
 
 Once more I am compelled to reply : One date or a mil- 
 lion dates — it is all the same. It makes no difference. 
 There can be but one answer to the question. All other 
 answers would be wrong. Therefore, let us go straight 
 back to the inquiry in its original form : What is the great- 
 est question that can he raised in the entire field of edu- 
 cation today? 
 
 Now for some years I have been quietly asking this 
 question of students of education — including public school 
 teachers as well as students and teachers in normal school 
 and university circles. That is how it comes that I know 
 how the educational world reacts to the question under 
 consideration. Then, too, I have read educational liter- 
 ature, past and present — and there is absent from those 
 pages the slightest reference of any kind to the question 
 above propounded. That is why I said in the beginning 
 that upon this soil, education has never yet set foot. 
 
 With respect to this very thought, education is sleeping. 
 It is submerged in a profound slumber. My question 
 catches the educational world napping. Therefore, when 
 I ask my question, it is one in deep, distant dreams that is 
 being addressed. The first reaction is a rubbing of eyes. 
 Then there is a slow awakening. Finally the aroused 
 sleeper is surprised — astounded — shocked — at such a ques- 
 tion. Educational consciousness is taken by storm. The 
 question is a thunderbolt out of a clear sky — because it 
 had never before in all the world occurred to education 
 that there was or could be such a thing in its field as the 
 one higgest question. Big questions — yes, to be sure, edu- 
 cation had often discussed them — but when it came to their 
 higgest question — when it came to centering out and making 
 some specific designation — and then labeling that designa- 
 tion — and then clamping that designation down into the 
 
32 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 very pin point of focal consciousness — indeed, that is a 
 very different matter. That is the one thing that edu- 
 cation has never done. It is no wonder, therefore, that 
 education is at first dazed at the unexpectedness and the 
 unusualness of this question. 
 
 However, every sleeper that I have ever thus far ad- 
 dressed finally establishes some degree of equilibrium. Then, 
 after certain preliminary parleying, and after being driven 
 into the comer for a specific answer of some kind, the typi- 
 cal person will respond with what in his opinion is the 
 biggest question in education today. As a rule all of those 
 answers can be classified under about ten general, headings. 
 Those answers I label the answers of the world. They con- 
 stitute what is in educational consciousness along this line 
 after consciousness is once aroused. I purpose to give the 
 answers which I have gathered from the lips of current 
 education. 
 
 One class tells me that undoubtedly the greatest ques- 
 tion in education today would have to do with the junior 
 high school. In their opinion there is nothing so important 
 today as the perfecting of the junior high school idea. Their 
 major arguments are, that the junior high school form of 
 organization keeps pupils in school longer ; that the end of 
 the sixth year is a more natural, division point than the end 
 of the eighth, as far as the development and interests of 
 youth are concerned; and that better opportunity is thus 
 afforded for election in studies, for departmental teaching, 
 and for correlation between the elementary school and the 
 high school — and so on. Such would be the answer of the 
 junior high school enthusiasts. 
 
 But I am compelled to object to the answer — ^not that I 
 am in any way ''unalterably opposed" to the junior high 
 school, but simply because it doesn't make much difference 
 one way or the other. At best, the junior high school idea 
 is chimney stuff. It is not foundation material at all. Its 
 current glorification is not at all warranted. Education by 
 the 8-4 plan is a failure— but make it 6-6— or 6-3-3— or 9-3 
 — or 12-0 — and by some magical process the world will be 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 33 
 
 saved ! I have oftentimes wondered why some enterprising 
 educational genius has not thought of establishing a ' ' 6-0-6 ' ' 
 plan ! At any rate, to listen to some of the fine spun argu- 
 ments brought forth in behalf of the junior high school is 
 worth far more than a day spent at any circus. I have 
 attended both performances — and I know. 
 
 However, I am not completely condemning the idea. I 
 do say, though, that the junior high school is one of the most 
 dangerous devices ever invented for the adulting of child- 
 hood and youth. It is indeed amazing to me that educators 
 are overlooking this fact — that of throwing seventh and 
 eighth grade pupils into the environment of regular high 
 school pupils. I say that these two groups of pupils are 
 entirely unlike. Their stages of development, both socially 
 and biologically, are different — and on this basis alone, I 
 say that the end of the sixth year is overwhelmingly out 
 of order as a dividing line between the elementary school 
 and the high school — that is, providing that the junior high 
 school organization and administration are such as to throw 
 pupils of that age into school association of any kind what- 
 soever with the regular high school. I say that any such an 
 association is a serious mistake — for it is dangerous. Where 
 it obtains, the aping process starts in immediately. The con- 
 duct of the grade pupils becomes bolder and more mature, 
 for they are thrown into a new world where they do not 
 belong. Their heads ''are turned." Application becomes 
 much less serious. Discipline becomes lax — or at least more 
 difficult. School life becomes pretty much of a ''lark.'* 
 The healthful morale of the w^hole school suffers. The regu- 
 lar high school pupils themselves reflect a less wholesome 
 spirit, for they quickly detect the change in stability and 
 homogeneity of their high school the moment that seventh 
 and eighth grade pupils are throw^l in among them. The 
 plane of social relations becomes lowered — for the grade 
 pupils rush headlong into social notions beyond their years 
 — while the high school, pupils go down to meet them — till, 
 all in all, I pronounce the junior high school idea an unde- 
 sirable social undertaking, unless administered in separate 
 building^. 
 
34 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 But aside from the social phase of the junior high school, 
 there is also a limit to the advisability of departmental 
 teaching. I would reduce departmental teaching to an abso- 
 lute minimum in all the grades — and save for such special 
 subjects as music and drawing I would not permit depart- 
 mental teaching at all in the first six grades — and wherever 
 possible the same plan should be followed in grades seven 
 and eight — for the more teachers any group of pupils have 
 during the day, the more lax and the more disorderly will 
 those pupils become — because no singl,e teacher is respon- 
 sible for either their discipline or their growth — all such 
 responsibility becomes divided — and the more that respon- 
 sibility becomes dispersed, the less responsibility both teach- 
 ers and pupils feel — aside from the fact that the applica- 
 tion and discipline of any group of pupils will always tend 
 to degenerate to the average level of their very poorest 
 teachers. 
 
 And in this connection I want to say that I am surprised 
 at the manner in which the educational world has been 
 hypnotized by the ' ' Gary plan. ' ' Even Dewey^ would make 
 much of that system, which is nothing more or less than the 
 junior high school idea gone completely wild. There depart- 
 mental teaching is carried clear down to the kindergarten 
 — I speak as I saw things during March, 1917. Primary 
 pupils were being handled and drifted about from room to 
 room and from teacher to teacher exactly like high school 
 pupils. Like a set of wandering little Arabs — without a 
 teacher and without a home — such is the correct charac- 
 terization of the grade pupils of the Gary schools — espe- 
 cially in the Emerson building, where pupils are exclusively 
 housed from the day that they enter the kindergarten until 
 they are graduated from the high school. Dewey would 
 make much of this plan of housing — but in my opinion, it 
 is vicious. It is my hope that the schools of tomorrow will 
 not be dedicated to any such a serious mistake — for the 
 one-unit school building is a most glaring violation of every 
 
 5 John Dewej: Schools of Tomorrow. 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 35 
 
 fundamental of child nature. High school pupils belong 
 absolutely by themselves in their own separate building. It 
 is an educational crime to house them with grade pupils — • 
 and above all, it is a most unpardonable educational mis- 
 take to carry on with departmental teaching as it obtains in 
 the Gary schools, which Mr. Dewey and others have so un- 
 fortunately eulogized. 
 
 It is especially unfortunate, it seems to me, that in the 
 recent Gary Survey made by Abraham Flexner and Frank 
 P. Bachman of the General Education Board, no mention 
 is made of the principles which I herewith raise. So far 
 from making any such mention, they actually place their 
 stamp of approval on the Gary plan by pronouncing it 
 ''orignal and ingenious." Their words of conclusion are:* 
 * ' The upshot of our consideration of the Gary organization 
 may be put into a few words. The Gary plan is as large and 
 intelligent a conception as has yet been reached in respect 
 to the scope and bearing of public education. The adminis- 
 trative scheme by which Gary undertakes to carry out the 
 plan is ingenious to the point of originality. The arrange- 
 ments for controlling and supervising the operation of the 
 scheme, are, however, defective; there is, therefore, reason 
 to fear that the execution of the plan will fall short of the 
 conception ' '. 
 
 But I say that the plan itself is not good. In fact, it 
 is defective and destructive. It violates every basic prin- 
 ciple of child life in two distinct respects — first, its perfectly 
 wreck],ess extent of departmental teaching in the grades — 
 and, second, its housing of pupils of all ages under one roof. 
 I say that such a plan of organization and administration is 
 sheer educational nonsense — nothing could be ranker — and, 
 further, that such a plan is not even entitled to be well 
 supervised — and, further still, that even if ''the arrange- 
 ments for controlling and supervising the scheme ' ' were the 
 very best, the ''scheme" would still be a real menace to 
 education. I say that the Gary Survey overlooks quite com- 
 
 6 Copied from School Life, U. S. Bureau of Education, vol. 1, 
 No. 10, p. 1, Dec. 16, 1918. 
 
36 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 pletely the place where the shoe actually pinches down at 
 Gary. 
 
 However, this is no attempt to analyze in any detail 
 either the junior high school idea or the Gary schools. My 
 aim is merely to point out that there is grave danger in 
 mixing up pupils of all ages in one building. Specifically, 
 I do not believe that seventh and eighth grade pupils should 
 in any way whatsoever be thrown into the environment of 
 our senior high schools, for reasons already stated — and 
 neither do I believe that the former pupils should be sub- 
 jected to nearly so much departmental teaching as the latter. 
 My fundamental aim in this connection, however, is simply 
 to take issue with those who would so glorify the junior 
 high school as being the nucleus of the most important 
 question that one might raise in the field of education today. 
 I say that it is not. Nor would it be, even in the absence of 
 the specific objections that I have advanced. I would still 
 insist that the junior high school would not amount to very 
 much one way or the other. If it were not for the adulting 
 process involved I would not care a copper whether a pupil 
 went to a school on the 8-4 plan, or to one on the 6-6 plan. 
 I simply feel that the advocates of the junior high school 
 are magnifying it utterly beyond its just deserts. However, 
 say that they are not, I would yet insist that this new idea 
 in American education is hardly more than tertiary ma- 
 terial. Let us therefore rule it completely out — for it is 
 totally unqualified to occupy educational position number 
 one in our Hall of Fame. 
 
 This clears the stage then for the world 's second answer 
 to my question. That answer is to the effect that the great- 
 est single field in education today has to do with ''tests'' 
 and ' ' measurements. ' ' The educators who give this answer 
 would rate the evaluating of school attainments as the most 
 important thing in all education. Their main argument is, 
 that what we are doing in education must be measured in 
 an accurate and scientific manner. By ''testing" achieve- 
 ments in arithmetic, history, grammar, spelling, writing, 
 and other subjects, this group of educators would cure our 
 most fundamental educational ailments. 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 37 
 
 But once more I would have to object to the world's 
 answer. The weakness in that answer lies in the very mis- 
 taken notion that it takes for granted that our schools are 
 on the right track, if we can only get things measured. It 
 has never once occurred to those advocates that possibly 
 the things being measured may not be worth measuring. 
 That thought has never yet dawned upon the "measure- 
 ment" people. Under such a scheme of things the criterion 
 of advancement pretty largely becomes what effect the 
 child has on the curriculum — and not what effect the curric- 
 ulum is having on the child. Indeed, under such a con- 
 ception, it is no wonder that until quite recently the whole 
 school world has gone to weeds and gone to seed on the 
 subject of trying to measure how fast the child is ''eating 
 up alive ' ' everything from writing to arithmetic. 
 
 And yet I hasten to say that I am by no means an oppo- 
 nent of the measurement idea. My one criticism is, that 
 education has gone beyond all reasonable limits in its faith 
 in — in its claims for — and in its application of — measure- 
 ments of all kinds. The educational world today is already 
 waking up to the truth of that assertion, in spite of the fact 
 that there still exist those advocates who are more enthusi- 
 astic over measurements than anything else in education. 
 We would all have to admit, of course, that kept within 
 rational limits, measurements are capable of rendering a 
 certain service to education. But when that is said, then 
 the story of measurements is pretty well told. Under no 
 circumstances, in my opinion, is this particular field entitled 
 to be called the biggest question in education — or anything 
 like it. In other words, measurements are not worthy by 
 any means of occupying the seat of honor in our Hall of 
 Fame. Let us dismiss it, and pass to the world's third 
 answer. 
 
 The substance of this answer is, that the most important 
 thing in education is the preparation of the teacher. The 
 champions of this answer would make pedagogical refine- 
 ment their watchword. They would insist on better pre- 
 pared teachers. Some would require every teacher in our 
 
38 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 schools to be either a normal school graduate or a university 
 graduate — or both. In every case they would designate a 
 certain number of required units in the theory and practice 
 of education. 
 
 To quite an extent I would be in hearty sympathy with 
 this class of advocates. It must be admitted that we have 
 far too few thoroughly trained teachers in our schools. Most 
 teachers in our schools are not of the first order at all. No 
 one would perhaps deny that fact. Indeed, in the sense of 
 universal and adequate preparation we have no teaching 
 profession at all. Nor do we begin to possess facilities suf- 
 ficient to train the 150,000 new teachers that we need every 
 year. One would have to admit, therefore, that the need 
 for better prepared teachers, and the facilities for the car- 
 rying out of that preparation, are very great from every 
 standpoint. It is undoubtedly an issue of very great impor- 
 tance — and far more fundamental in every way perhaps 
 than the two answers thus far considered and discarded. 
 
 But here my admissions would have to end. I could 
 never admit the preparation of teachers as the greatest 
 question that could be raised in education today, consider- 
 ing our present plane of educational consciousness — because 
 in the absence of a far greater question it is an absolute 
 certainty that no teacher would ever be the most properly 
 trained, regardless of how available normal schools and 
 universities might be. In proof of this I want to quote on 
 the general subject of what the educational world considers 
 necessary in the preparation of teachers : * ' First, a thorough 
 knowledge of the branches to be taught ".^ " It is plain that 
 the very first requisite of the teacher is a competent knowl- 
 edge of the subjects."® 
 
 Those comments represent very fairly what education 
 today believes to be the thing of first importance in the pre- 
 paring of teachers. But the educational world is wrong. 
 The first requisite is not knowledge of subjects. That is why 
 trained teachers today are in reality not trained. It is also 
 
 7 Putnam : Manual of Pedagogics, page 254. 
 
 s Ibid., page 256. Quotation from W. H. Payne. 
 
AKD THE WORLD'S ANSWER 39 
 
 why it will ever be impossible to make the preparation of 
 teachers point one in education — until stock time as we 
 know what preparation onght to consist of. Merely to pre- 
 pare a teacher amounts to but little comparatively, after once 
 knowing the what of our case. Let us therefore determine 
 first of all what to prepare in — and that ''first" is certainly 
 not *'a competent knowledge of subjects". I say that we 
 must raise a question far more fundamental than that — the 
 preparation idea. Consequently, with all its importance, 
 we must rule out preparation — for it has no first right to 
 the great throne in our temple of education. 
 
 We now come to the world 's fourth answer, namely, the 
 contention that the field of administration and supervision 
 is the most important thing in education today. There can 
 of course never be any doubt of the tremendous importance 
 of this field. Nor can anyone doubt the fact that the ad- 
 ministrative and supervisory side of education is at the 
 present time far from what it should be. Probably, on the 
 whole, the rank and file of educators in this field are in- 
 ferior to the actual teaching force. Administration would 
 probably deny this. Teachers would undoubtedly admit it. 
 But unbiased and competent observers would line up with 
 the teachers. 
 
 But the real question is this, namely : Is administration 
 the most important question that could be raised in present- 
 day education? We are speaking, not at all about impor- 
 tant things — nor indeed about things. We are speaking 
 about one thing — and that the most important thing that 
 we can locate in education. We must not lose sight of this 
 fact for a minute. On such a basis, where does the ques- 
 tion of administration stand? Personally, I could never 
 consent to give it first place. Just where it should rank 
 numerically^ I am unable to say. I do know, however, that 
 education affords one question which is infinitely greater 
 than administration ever can be. Consequently, adminis- 
 tration, with all its importance, must be content to take a 
 back seat somewhere. It does not measure up to the size 
 of the ponderous chair that is to occupy the center of our 
 
40 THE GKEAT QUESTION 
 
 colossal stage. This then eliminates administration as an 
 available answer to the question that was raised at the be- 
 ginning of this chapter. 
 
 But other claimants for the honor are waiting. Answer 
 number five tells us that the question of finance is the most 
 important of all. The argument is, that teachers are notori- 
 ously underpaid — and that because of this fact teachers are 
 poorly prepared — that the tenure of office is shorter — that 
 the best teachers leave the profession — and that in the be- 
 ginning the best talent is not attracted to the profession 
 at all — all of which must result in keeping down the stand- 
 ard of education. The argument is also offered, that, since 
 wealth is not equall}^ distributed in different sections of the 
 country, all children do not have equal opportunities for 
 securing the same amount and the same quality of school- 
 ing. The combined argument is, that teachers' salaries 
 should be very greatly increased, and that certain poor dis- 
 tricts or sections should receive financial support and en- 
 couragement from some larger unit of administration that 
 is more able to pay. 
 
 Now, from a fiscal standpoint, education has long suf- 
 fered very greatly indeed. In fact one is pained to think 
 that public consciousness should so long treat its teachers — 
 the worthiest profession known to mankind — ^as a set of 
 beggars. There is perhaps no greater or longer continued 
 shame in all history than the insignificant pittance that 
 society has been paying for the education of its children. 
 I want to say boldly that teachers' salaries should be in- 
 creased fifty per cent. Not only this, but the country over 
 each teacher is teaching on an average about twice as many 
 pupils as sound education demands. The prevailing aver- 
 age in our grade schools today is not far from forty pupils 
 per teacher. That average should be cut squarely in two. 
 Our ideal should be that no teacher ever have more than 
 twenty pupils. This in turn means that society has only 
 about half as many school buildings as it should have — and 
 half as much equipment- — and, above all, only about half as 
 many teachers as it should have. Our aggregate conclusion 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 41 
 
 must be, therefore, that society is paying for education 
 2/3 times 1/2 times 1/2 of what it really should be paying 
 — or 1/6 ! That is to say, where education now invests one 
 dollar in education — it should be investing six dollars ! But 
 I hereby serve notice on society that the day is not far off 
 when education is going to be right fiscally — and that when 
 that day comes teachers will be adequately paid — we shall 
 have twice as many school buildings — twice as much equip- 
 ment — and only one-half as many pupils per teacher as at 
 the present day — and, in addition, every pupil in even the 
 poorest section of the United States shall have educational 
 opportunities equal to those enjoyed by pupils in other sec- 
 tions of the country — and again I repeat that when that 
 day really comes society will be paying about six times as 
 much for its education as it is today — and the funds there- 
 for shall come from what a criminal spendthrift world is 
 now squandering in its bestially drunken orgy of war and 
 more war! 
 
 I have now granted every argument concerning the great 
 importance of the fiscal demands of education. No one, 
 therefore, can accuse me of not being in the heartiest sym- 
 pathy with those educators who would champion the ques- 
 tion of finance as the greatest question that could be raised 
 in education today. And yet, in spite of my unanimous ac- 
 cord with the money side of education, duty compels me 
 to say that the bulFs eye of education can never be hit by 
 even the most perfect financial aim. Indeed, education 
 might well be fiscally perfect, and yet rank and inglorious 
 in every fundamental respect. The greatest issue in all 
 education cannot possibly focus in finance. A bigger ques- 
 tion by far must be raised — a question so much bigger that 
 the question of finance will be dwarfed by comparison. 
 Therefore, with extreme reluctance must we wave the fiscal 
 question aside. In the great educational temple it takes 
 an immortal of the very first order to occupy the honored 
 throne that has been reserved for the eyes of all the world 
 when the last curtain shall have been drawn aside. Con- 
 sequently we pass on to examine into the merits of answer 
 number six. 
 
42 THE GKEAT QUESTION 
 
 Here the friends of rural education greet us. They 
 assure us that the question of rural school reform is the 
 biggest question that can be found in the whole field of 
 education. Among other things they tell us that the con- 
 solidated school is an absolute and immediate necessity all 
 over the country — and that the curriculum of the rural 
 school needs to be completely revolutionized. The great 
 need of scientific insight in agriculture and household man- 
 agement are pointed out. The extreme lack of social op- 
 portunities in rural regions are also emphasized — and 
 accordingly the corresponding demand for community cen- 
 ter opportunities of some kind. Then, too, we are informed 
 of the fact that ambitious rural youth are leaving the 
 farms so rapidly that city life is becoming more and more 
 congested every year, all resulting in the general lowering 
 of rural ability and rural leadership. These and many 
 other arguments of the highest order of truth are advanced 
 — and all born of the fact that thus far rural education 
 has been totally inadequte to meet the many problems of 
 farm life. 
 
 Now, that the question of immediate and radical reform 
 in rural education is an issue of solemn and tremendous 
 importance, no sane person could possibly think of deny- 
 ing, or even questioning. I admit in letter and in spirit 
 the great truth of the call for reform of a most pronounced 
 type in our country schools. But in spite of all that — once 
 more I am compelled to be stubborn. Great as is the ques- 
 tion of rural school improvement, I simply cannot give to it 
 first place in education — because that question does not 
 measure up to the demands of a really great question — for, 
 bear in mind — remember that our question must be a 
 colossal one. It must tower above all others like a giant. 
 Hence, the best that we can do under the circumstances, 
 is simply to seat the rural question some place on our stage 
 where it can get just as good a view of the giant as pos- 
 sible when the final roll call shall have been sounded. We 
 move on, therefore, to inquire into the world's seventh, 
 answer to our question. 
 
AKD THE WORLD'S ANSWER 43 
 
 Here we engage in conversation those advocates who 
 insist that the curriculum itself must ever be made point 
 one in education. They argue that curricula everywhere 
 need to be radically changed — in all schools, elementary, 
 secondary and higher. Their fundamental argument is, 
 that the real value of schools depends primarily on what 
 it is that is being taught therein. But with the same breath 
 they point out that our educational institutions are loaded 
 down with a great deal of useless and traditional ballast — 
 and that that ballast should be thrown out at once. Their 
 watchword would be to teach only what is useful and 
 practical. Different advocates would of course throw out 
 different things — but all would simplify. Between all the 
 advocates of this class, the housecleaning would be a royal 
 one from every standpoint. Some would throw out algebra 
 and geometry. Others would throw out French, German, 
 Latin and Greek. Still others would throw out two-thirds of 
 arithmetic and three-thirds of grammar — and so on — till, 
 everything considered, the fight in this field would be a 
 merry one. 
 
 However that may be, and regardless of any details that 
 might enter into the question, every competent critic would 
 unquestionably say: Reform the curriculum. Everyone 
 would have to admit that the question is an important one. 
 But our real inquiry is, whether or not curriculum reform is 
 the biggest question that can be raised in the field of edu- 
 cation today. My reaction is, that it is not — in spite of the 
 very great improvement that lies ahead for education in 
 proportion to the degree that it makes its curricula right. 
 The best that I can do is to admit that the reformation of 
 our educational curricula is of the most tremendous relative 
 importance. I can go no further than that. At the pres- 
 ent time it is impossible for me to give to the curriculum 
 position number one. Consequently our massive arm chair 
 is still empty. Candidate number seven is unworthy to fill 
 it. Let us therefore inspect the world's eighth answer. 
 
 The substance of this answer is, that the bringing of the 
 high school to every boy and every girl in the land is the 
 
44 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 greatest question that can be raised in education today. 
 Those who advance this answer would extend the compul- 
 sory school age to at least eighteen years. The argument 
 would be that the high school must be made the minimum 
 educational essential for every American — that an elemen- 
 tary school education is inadequate — and furthermore, that 
 for the great bulk of our population the high school must 
 become "the people's college." It would be pointed out 
 that in a democracy — in a republic like our own — safety, 
 politically, socially and industrially, demands that every 
 boy and every girl be assured at least a high school educa- 
 tion. The great fact would be emphasized that the over- 
 whelming majority of our boys and our girls are dropping 
 down and out of school life entirely too young — mere chil- 
 dren who become but industrial and social driftwood, and 
 who for the most part add each year to the world's popula- 
 tion of incompetents and non-thinkers. 
 
 And what is there in those arguments? Indeed, there 
 is very much. In my opinion the demand is right. Our 
 high school must reach everybody. The sooner our compul- 
 sory school age can be increased in this country to at least 
 eighteen years, the better it will be for education and for 
 the country as a whole from every possible angle. Society 
 would be vastly the gainer thereby. But the individual 
 would be even more so. Outside of the immediate imprac- 
 ticability of carrying the plan into effect, there can be no 
 single argument that could be possibly raised that could be 
 advanced in opposition to the idea. It is my hope that the 
 day is not far off when every single pupil who enters grade 
 one of our schools will be a guarantee that that same pupil 
 will later on be graduated from grade twelve. 
 
 But what is the weight of this high school question when 
 placed in the same scales in which we have been weighing 
 all other questions thus far considered? Is it to take the 
 magical place of first position in all the field of education ? 
 If I am reading the scales aright, it will not. It is simply a 
 very, very heavy question — ^but it is not the heaviest ques- 
 tion that can be raised— and that was the understanding 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWER 45 
 
 in the beginning — that we were to make search for the 
 most important of all questions in education. "With all due 
 credit to the high school question, our position of honor be- 
 longs to another question — one that is yet to be- asked. Our 
 Hall of Fame still looks anxiously for the one immortal 
 that can satisfy it and measure up to its requirements. 
 With another measure of reluctance, therefore, are we 
 forced to proceed to an examination of the world's ninth 
 answer. 
 
 This answer was born during the last five years. It is 
 the result of the great world war. Reduced to its simplest 
 terms, this answer is embodied in the one word — Ameri- 
 canization, Unquestionably a large majority of our educa- 
 tors today would make the Americanizing process the most 
 important single question before our schools. By that proc- 
 ess is meant the making of real American citizens out of — 
 not only all foreigners in this country — but also out of many 
 so-called Americans. As a minimum in that process there 
 would be involved a thorough knowledge of the English 
 language, an effective appreciation of the spirit and mean- 
 ing of American ideals, and a participative familiarity with 
 the principles of American government. It would be a com- 
 bined program of national patriotism and civic enlighten- 
 ment — all carried on through the agency of schools of every 
 kind — public and private — and of every grade — elemen- 
 tary, secondary and higher — day schools — ^night schools — 
 continuation schools. 
 
 Now, most emphatically, the Americanization ideal is a 
 good one. In fact it is most imperative that w^ithout fur- 
 ther delay America become a country of one language, one 
 citizenship, one flag. Our own national safety demands 
 that as a minimum requirement. But we doubly require 
 that set of conditions providing that we are going to live up 
 to our bestowed and chosen christening — that of being 
 the melting pot of the world. To live up to that name de- 
 mands that the fires under the melting pot be vigorously 
 kindled anew — and be kept burning from a source that can 
 never die out — or even flicker low, as indeed we have care- 
 
46 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 lessly and shamelessly permitted them to do thus far. 
 Furthermore, educators generally have accepted the prob- 
 lem of Americanization as one which falls very largely 
 within the province of the public school — for all over the 
 country during the past few years this question has taken 
 precedence over all other questions that have been con- 
 sidered by educational associations, county, state, and 
 national. There can be no question, therefore, of the una- 
 nimity with which many educators at this particular hour 
 regard Americanization as the biggest single thing in edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Well, is this very question then the magical answer to 
 the inquiry which has been before us ever since the first 
 word of the present chapter? Have we, after all, raised 
 the greatest possible question within the domains of edu- 
 cation? Is it possible that, after having travelled so cir- 
 cuitously, and after having weighed in the balance and re- 
 jected eight different questions — is it possible now that the 
 world's answer number nine is to be crowned as the one 
 candidate that meets every requirement of our research? 
 In a word, is Americanization ' ' the noblest Roman of them 
 all?'' 
 
 Now, possibly nothing in the world would be more popu- 
 lar than for me to say yes. But I am not going to say it — 
 for my search is for truth, and not for popularity. Already 
 I have admitted everything for Americanization that I am 
 going to — or that it is entitled to — so that no person should 
 be at all deceived as to my unqualified approval of the idea. 
 But right there I stop — for, be it remembered, I am calling 
 for the greatest question that can be raised in the field of 
 education — and, personally, I am positive that Americaniza- 
 tion falls short of the stipulation in that call. Consequently, 
 with all its undoubted greatness, we must assign the world's 
 ninth answer to some other seat than the one which we have 
 reserved for a most special candidate. This means that 
 we must move on and inspect the world's tenth answer — 
 for we have just one more to consider. 
 
 The representatives of this class are considerably in the 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 47 
 
 minority. But they are lacking in neither vigor, ardor nor 
 logic. They are the champions of child study. They tell 
 us that the greatest question in education must always cen- 
 ter about the nature of the child. The burden of their 
 argument is, that any educational problem that does not 
 consult the interests and instincts and capacities of child- 
 hood, is pre-eminently on the wrong track, regardless of 
 what the problem might be. 
 
 It is my firm opinion that the child study advocates have 
 a remarkably strong case — in fact by far the best case thus 
 far presented. But with monotonous regularity, I once 
 more — object — because I am out with microscopes and tele- 
 scopes in search of the biggest of all educational questions. 
 I think that I should be willing to grant to child study 
 position number two — but never number one, for a greater 
 question than that can be raised. This means that our 
 original question still remains unanswered. 
 
 But this does not mean at all that our labors thus far 
 have been in vain. It merely means that we have w^eighed in 
 the balance the world's ten great answers — and that they 
 have been found wanting. A few other scattering answers 
 might be included and considered, but they lack the support 
 of both logic and numbers — and so I leave them out. It 
 should be especially emphasized also that in my examination 
 of the ten answers above rejected, no attempt whatever has 
 been made to analyze any of them in detail. My aim has 
 been simply to introduce them as so many major answers 
 from the world — and then after a few words thereon setting 
 forth my own personal views with regard to their respective 
 importance, to dismiss them as possibilities for first place, 
 regardless of how great the degree of that importance might 
 be in the case of any single one of them. In no case am I 
 belittling the actual import of any one of the ten rejected 
 answers, but simply saying that no one of the ten answers 
 fulfills my question. 
 
 Still, if I am correct, then in my opinion, the educational 
 world is entitled to blame — ^not necessarily for being un- 
 able to answer my question — ^but for having been caught 
 
48 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 asleep at the switch. No person in life may positively 
 know the one great overtowering Aetna in his particular 
 field — but one thing is sure, and that is, that every person 
 should at least be conscious of the fact that his field does 
 contain some one giant mountain peak, whatever it may be. 
 He should at least be dominated and engulfed by this one 
 thought, namely: What is the most important single thing 
 in my field of endeavor f Such a person will have an answer 
 to that question, even though his answer may be wrong. 
 But the answer itself will not necessarily be at once the 
 element of first importance. Far more important than the 
 answer will be the existence in consciousness of the thought 
 that whatever the answer may be, there is some one ele- 
 ment that is undeniably the mighty cornerstone of our struc- 
 ture. Such a thought in consciousness is indispensable and 
 invaluable — for it will finally lead to a correct answer — 
 because at all times it impels and motivates, and inspires 
 one to deep and careful perception. 
 
 In this sense, therefore, possibly the greatest question 
 that one could raise in any field would be exactly that ques- 
 tion itself, namely : What is the greatest question that can 
 be raised ? Such a question is great — because it is the ques- 
 tion that taps the outer consciousness of a slumbering world. 
 It is the key that unlocks the first outer gate of the temple. 
 In the absence of a slumbering world the question would of 
 course be no contribution of any special value. But with a 
 sleeping humanity — with an educational world that is both 
 drowsy and blase — and yet so bold as glibly to take so often 
 the name of education in vain — with such a general state of 
 affairs, the question must be of monumental import. To 
 such a world of somnambulists — many of whom have not yet 
 even gotten up to walk — the question asked plays the part 
 of the gong which is sounded to summon the sleepers back 
 to a waking world. 
 
 But let us waive the service that such a question per- 
 forms in the initial process of awakening mankind. Let us 
 not suffer this question to be its own answer. Let us pass 
 on — and locate an answer that satisfies every demand of the 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWEE 49 
 
 question before us. It is our duty and mission to do that. 
 Therefore, in closing this chapter, we do so exactly as we 
 began it — by propounding the question : What is the great- 
 est question that can he asked in the entire field of edu- 
 cation today? 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 AND MY OWN ANSWER 
 
 The question before us is this: What is the greatest 
 question that can he raised in the entire field of education 
 today? 
 
 In the preceding chapter, ten answers from the educa- 
 tional world were considered — and all of them dismissed as 
 being inadequate. The outstanding fact was, that the pro- 
 pounded question caught educators in a deep slumber, as 
 far as this specific question is concerned. The immediate 
 result was one of shock. Education was astounded at such 
 a question. Finally, however, after a certain degree of 
 awakening, educators lined up in a pell-mell fashion with 
 their replies. But their answers all came from a house on 
 fire. Naturally every one of the world 's ten answers had to 
 be rejected — not that many of those answers were not good 
 ones, but for the reason that they were only relatively good. 
 
 In the present chapter it now becomes my duty to state 
 to the world what my own personal answer is to the ques- 
 tion under consideration. Accordingly I say that the great- 
 est question that can be raised in the entire field of education 
 today is as follows: What is the purpose of education? 
 
 This simple question of six words will at first undoubt- 
 edly paralyze our educational sages with astonishment. I 
 look for education to be petrified with wonder at such an 
 answer — for that would be the most natural reaction of any 
 consciousness that has gone so far afield as education has at 
 the present time. In fact, education has wandered so far 
 off into a distant country, deserting its most sacred duties, 
 that this is about what education will first say to the ques- 
 tion of purpose^ namely: *'I know thee not; thou art an 
 insignificant stranger in my kingdom ; get thee hence ! * * 
 
 50 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 51 
 
 But in order to stagger education with amazement until 
 it finally comes out of its state of stupor, I want to repeat 
 that under all heaven, there is no question so important as 
 that of purpose. This is because of the fact that in any 
 endeavor, educational or otherwise, the purpose indicates 
 not only the end point thereof, but also the starting point — 
 and every foot of procedure lying between these two points. 
 The aim of education therefore becomes education in its 
 totality. Whatever our aim may be, it is the one theoretical 
 determinant of our goal; the exclusive guarantee of what 
 we are trying to do ; the exact measure of the kind and de- 
 gree of consciousness that we are investing in the funda- 
 mental conception of our problem. 
 
 The aim of education — think of it! If the question of 
 aim or purpose is not burned into the focus of consciousness, 
 as the most important of all things, then what is it that we 
 are trying to do ? If the aim of education is not crystallized 
 into the very pin point of the moment at all times — then 
 tell me just exactly what it is that you are trying to accom- 
 plish in "education." In the absence of a flaming, incan- 
 descent purpose, what vague thing is that, about which you 
 so glibly talk when you speak of the ''educative process"? 
 What do you mean by it — anyway ? Where are you going ? 
 Do you know the specifically exact destination toward which 
 you are headed — or do you have in mind any destination? 
 If not, then what is your general direction ? 
 
 Let me remind you that our purpose is our compass — 
 the one thing that leads to the magnetic north pole of at- 
 tainment. Why, even the simplest ten-year-old boy aims 
 at something when he shoots. It may be a fence post, or a 
 barn door — or even straight out into the middle of the air. 
 But it is an aim. Else why should the boy waste his am- 
 munition unless it is for the mere joy of the shooting thrill? 
 Even the boy himself knows that his greatest single element 
 of success is his aim. If he merely shoots, he hits nothing — 
 or, worse yet, he hits what he should not hit — and kills 
 somebody — in which case of course the gun ''was not 
 loaded". The guns of education have killed their millions 
 
52 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 in this manner — by means of ''unloaded" aimlessness. 
 
 And let me remind the educational world that the small 
 boy must aim every time that he shoots. It is not enough 
 for him to aim today — and then just "fire away" for the 
 rest of the year. He must always aim. Neither is it suffi- 
 cient for the boy merely to know that there is a little projec- 
 tion down there on the end of the barrel, called the 
 ''sight." Nor is it enough for the boy to know what that 
 sight is for. And neither is it again sufficient for the boy 
 to be able to shut his left eye and look along the barrel of 
 his rifle. That is by no means enough. The boy must also 
 know the extreme necessity of using at all times every single 
 element entering into the general question of careful aiming. 
 
 And the educational world must be placed on exactly the 
 same plane. It is not enough for education finally to admit 
 with me that purpose is the most gigantic question in our 
 entire field. Nor indeed will it be enough for education 
 to know what the fundamental purpose of its labors is. 
 Such things in themselves are not at all a satisfactory con- 
 summation of our task. No treatment of the purpose of 
 education can at all be accepted which at the same time 
 does not carry with it a consciousness corresponding to the 
 sacred importance of that purpose. A purpose of educa- 
 tion which is merely stored away in some attic recess of 
 education is no purpose at all. An educational aim must 
 be a working one. If it is encased in cobwebs, then it is 
 anything but an aim. At best, it is only formal. In the 
 long run it would be a guarantee that purpose as a funda- 
 mental intensity and as an eternal index finger, is anjrthing 
 but an impelling reality. It would be a virtual denial that 
 purpose amounts to very much. 
 
 Shakespeare has said, "Let the end try the man" — also 
 "The end crowns all." La Fontaine has said with him, 
 "We ought to consider the end in everything." Forget 
 the aim, and every art always degenerates into mere forms 
 and frivolities. But worse than that, a thousand wrong 
 directions are taken. The right direction is never taken — 
 except by chance — and we all know what that means where 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 53 
 
 an infinity of possibilities are involved. I would point it 
 out as a most significant fact that where the tremendous 
 basic seriousness of purpose is not perceived, a set of vulgar 
 and trivial aims and motives always plant themselves in our 
 way. This is one reason why educational aims today are so 
 superficial, so subsidiary, and so spurious. They are the 
 products of a light, hasty reflection. They are casual and 
 incidental. No perceptions deep and prolonged have 
 brought them forth — because the titanic massiveness of pur- 
 pose in education has never weighed heavily upon our edu- 
 cational leaders. It has never once dawned upon them. They 
 would settle educational aims in the same offhand manner 
 that they would decide on some flavor at a soda fountain. 
 I say that the purpose is the fundamental object of any 
 undertaking — and that that fundamental object is the one 
 thing that is all-important. Neither is mere good intention 
 at any time to be accepted as a substitute for purpose. In 
 the sacred field of purpose, there can be no such thing as 
 substitutes — for as Lowell says : 
 
 "For there^s nothing we read of in torture's inventions, 
 Like a well-meaning dunce with the best of intentions." 
 
 It is far from being enough, therefore, for education 
 merely to feel well disposed toward the child — or for it 
 to say: *'Our purpose — our purpose — why, our purpose is 
 to give the child a good education!" Such a grand en- 
 circling movement as that can never be accepted for a 
 minute — for we must still have such well-meaning educa- 
 tors explain to us what they mean by education — and that 
 takes us squarely back to the great question of purpose. 
 The real purpose of education can never be anybody's 
 good intentions — regardless of how good they may be. 
 Seneca says that, * ' It is not the incense or the offering that 
 is acceptable to God, but the purity and devotion of the 
 worshipper." Neither is it the educational incense of our 
 mere good intentions, or of our best objective equipment 
 that can ever answer the sacred call of education — it is 
 the '* purity and devotion" and accuracy of our percep- 
 
54 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 tions in the great field of purpose. That alone will consti- 
 tute ** purity and devotion" on the part of the worshipper 
 in the temple of education. The mind must be positively 
 right on this great central truth — else all of our music will 
 be as ''sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." As Holland 
 puts it, ''Childhood may do without a grand purpose, but 
 manhood cannot." 
 
 Above all, does this statement apply to education — for 
 we have already admitted that education is the most im- 
 portant work ever undertaken by the human race. Shame 
 then — that we should float or drift for a second in such a 
 field ! A purpose is demanded which at every turn shall be 
 commensurate with education itself in its importance. Such 
 a purpose must be so true and so gripping in its effects, 
 and in its power to inspire that we can never desert it. 
 The moment that the world becomes duly conscious of 
 purpose in education as the most important single element 
 therein, well can each educator say to himsell with Shake- 
 speare : 
 
 "Make thick my blood, 
 
 Stop up the access and passage to remorse : 
 That no eompmictious visitings of Nature 
 Shake my fell purpose." 
 
 But even more than all that, purpose is also our ideal. 
 Knowing first the overtowering importance of purpose — 
 and second, knowing unmistakably what correct purpose is 
 — then no other ideal is at all to be thought of. Purpose 
 concentrates into one single word all the immensities that 
 any ideal is competent to inscribe and include. The trouble 
 with ideas generally is, that they are too often without 
 foundations — they lack beneath them the solid rock of 
 legitimate purpose. Where purpose is wrong, one's ideal 
 may take on any one of a thousand erroneous flights. Ideals 
 of that type are without substance. They lack in under- 
 lying qualities. They also lack in specific ones. Most ideals 
 are entirely too general and too undefined — for the reason 
 that ideals always reflect the common color of the set of 
 purposes lying back of them. 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 55 
 
 Emerson says somewhere in his essay on Self-Reliance 
 that ' ' Power consists in darting to an aim. ' ' That expresses 
 it well. Aim develops within us "darting" qualities — ^be- 
 cause the aim itself compels it. Purpose sees to it that we 
 take the one correct direction, and not a thousand wrong 
 ones. Our endeavors in life are as bits of steel around a 
 magnet. Exposed to the magnet of purpose, we dart un- 
 erringly in that direction. If our purpose is wrong, then 
 we find ourselves worshipping at a false shrine — and the 
 while that we do so, we are enemies, not only of ourselves, 
 but also of mankind. For, let it not be forgotten, education 
 is not simply paddling its own canoe — it is also piloting 
 the mighty fleet which carries with it the childhood army 
 of the world. Surely this patent fact need not be em- 
 phasized. 
 
 Then too our aim must actually be formulated. It must 
 be pointedly specific to a fault. The statement of our aim 
 must not obscure. It must illumine. Never must it be 
 general. It must be so clear and so specific that it consti- 
 tutes a definite, unmistakable goal. For example, a triangle 
 may be called a "figure.'* And yet there are thousands 
 of things that are ' ' figures. " It is my conviction that pre- 
 vailing aims in education are overwhelmingly of the "fig- 
 ure ' ' type. And that is a mistake — for, if purpose is of such 
 awful importance, then why should we hang up any signal 
 lights that might be misunderstood? If there is anything 
 in the world that wants to be made "fool proof," it is our 
 statement and analysis of educational aims — for the reason 
 that vague and general aims point nowhere. They are por- 
 cupine directors. They lack the magic of an index finger. 
 Without a single exception education must envelop itself 
 in a world of haze, wherever there is lacking a clear-cut 
 clarity in the statement of our aim. 
 
 And that is the one great reason why education thus far 
 has never correctly answered the crying call of mankind — 
 because education has never yet viewed the question of 
 purpose with such seriousness as to get right down to bed- 
 rock principles. At no time in all the history of education 
 
56 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 has purpose as such burned itself in letters of fire into 
 educational thought. Never has education paused and said 
 to itself while dealing with purpose: "This is point one. 
 By comparison, all else is insignificant. With purpose right, 
 then education is bound to be right. But with a purpose 
 that is wrong, then all education must be wrong. What 
 follows correct purpose is bound to be right, for purpose is 
 the one great line that determines our angle every foot of 
 the way. Purpose is our chart and our compass. We must 
 not budge from our tracks until our purpose is right. ' ' 
 
 No — emphatically no — never has education ever said 
 that. Never has education ever been transfigured by its 
 appreciation or by its treatment of purpose. It is nowhere 
 on record that education has ever held with itself the above 
 soliloquy. To be sure, education has at times in its history 
 talked about purpose — but only at times, and then never in 
 an all-searching manner. The trail of purpose has never 
 been hit right, and then clung to with a tenacity that sur- 
 passes human understanding. In a most dominant sense, 
 purpose in education has been blinded and befogged by the 
 very word education itself — as if education per se is some- 
 thing elemental, ultimate and final. Purpose has at all 
 times been pretty much a taken-for-granted affair. It has 
 at no time been the magical word in education. That posi- 
 tion, tragic to relate, has always been reserved for the word 
 education itself. Education has simply been permitted to 
 get in its own light. It has been looked upon as some sort 
 of a chemical element — when as a matter of fact, education 
 is the most complex compound known to the human race. 
 The basic element is purpose. It is the real salt of the edu- 
 cational universe. 
 
 Purpose is the star to which we hitch our wagon. In 
 the long run it is the wagon itself. It is also the very road 
 over which we travel, or the aerial stretches of infinity 
 through which we sail. Purpose is everything in the 
 makeup of our journey. It is the reins that guide, and 
 the driver that steers. It is every rut in our road, and 
 every jolt in our wagon. But education is not aware of that 
 fact today — and it never has been. 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 57 
 
 But, how do I know that ? I know it because out of the 
 hundreds of educators that I have personally sounded dur- 
 ing the past ten years as to what is the greatest question 
 that one could raise in education, not a single one of them 
 has ever breathed a solitary syllable about purpose. I say 
 most emphatically that purpose is nowhere to be found in 
 the focal consciousness of the educational world. In terms 
 of educational consciousness today, purpose is not the foun- 
 dation of the temple of education at all — it is hardly more 
 than a tack in one of the shingles. Purpose, as far as edu- 
 cation is concerned, is a perfectly settled thing. That 
 little item is completely out of the way — it is a self-settler, 
 somewhat after the manner of coffee grounds. A matter of 
 such insignificance as purpose can simply be put away to 
 bed like a little child. Like the same little child that it is, 
 purpose in education is to be ''seen and not heard" — this 
 is true with the slight exception of the fact that it is not 
 even to be seen. 
 
 But education is more than utterly blase on the ques- 
 tion of educational purpose — it is also as silent as an Indian 
 dummy when it comes to any consciousness or any inquiry 
 as to the concept of what one peak in their field may be the 
 highest. The mind of education is as blank on this issue as 
 Hawthorne's Great Stone Face on the side of the canyon. 
 As far as education is concerned, its field is one vast un- 
 broken plain — no hills — ^no valleys — no contrasts — of any 
 kind. It is no surprise at all that my question awakens in 
 the minds of educators a pronounced wonder as to what 
 sort of puzzle or riddle or conundrum it is to which they 
 are being subjected when I ask them what the biggest ques- 
 tion is that can be asked in education — because, I repeat, 
 that such a thought has never been a part of educational 
 consciousness. * * The noblest Roman of them all" is an idea 
 that has always escaped education. 
 
 And here I want to point out that I lay especial stress 
 on the element of consciousness. Regardless of the great 
 moulding part played by the sub-conscious in every depart- 
 ment of life, the great mountain peaks of human conduct 
 
58 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 and human attainment must rear themselves above the 
 horizon of consciousness. The human mind grasps and pro- 
 jects things only in proportion to the degree that those things 
 get into consciousness. Education must drive home to the 
 dazzling gong of focal consciousness every single thing that 
 it would impart or develop. Drastically conscious must 
 education always be about all things that are its business — 
 and among its most important business is the self-compre- 
 hension of its own principles — and the flooding of the mem- 
 bers of its own profession with an unmistakably definite in- 
 sight into every nook and corner and crevice and cranny as 
 to what it is all about. If the minds of teachers themselves 
 are blurred and clouded and befogged as to the central 
 tenets of education — then what is blinder than education 
 itself ? Then what of the public — and, incidentally, what of 
 that old familiar reference which used to say something 
 about "the blind leading the blind"? 
 
 Education will never in all eternity rise above that plane 
 which is a burning, raging conflagration within its own 
 mind. Neither will the world which we are trying to educate 
 ever rise above that level — for, it is well recorded on the 
 papyrus of the ages, that no stream can ever rise above its 
 source. But consciousness must be the eternal source and 
 plane on which education rests every one of its measuring 
 instruments. Never shall education rise above the level of 
 those principles of which it is conscious. Never shall edu- 
 cation ever impart more to mankind than education itself 
 possesses in terms of conscious material. The number and 
 the degree of those things of which education is sharply 
 and critically conscious — of such is the complete kingdom 
 of education. Let education make up its mind here and 
 now that it will never be able to impart one iota of good to 
 the world in any unconscious or miraculous manner. Pupils 
 do not absorb life values of a positive kind in any such a 
 manner — and neither does the teaching profession itself. 
 Every single issue must be vitalized and vivified by the un- 
 wavering glow of a central purpose burning itself without 
 fend and without limit on the altars of human consciousness. 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 59 
 
 What education would project, let it entertain. And what 
 it would entertain, let it inscribe on a huge signboard — and 
 then elevate that signboard into the skies. If education 
 were about its business it would begin a careful examination 
 of what is in its consciousness. It would take a careful in- 
 voice of everything on its shelves — and then it would know 
 for itself just how close it really is to the verge of bank- 
 ruptcy. It would not then be necessary to take my word 
 for it — or to dispute it. 
 
 But I have an explanation as to why education has so 
 unfortunately drifted along without much of a conscious- 
 ness in the field of purpose. It is because of an undefined 
 faith in education. The name itself has seemed to fill the 
 bill. An accepted faith is always an unchallenged one — and 
 that always means the checkmating of analysis in advance. 
 Such a faith is a blind faith in a double sense — ^first, in the 
 sense that the faith entertained does not see any real why 
 for its being ; and, second, in the sense that that same faith 
 stands in the way of analytical inquiry. Our diffused and 
 generalized faith in education is so great that we have be- 
 come unconscious of both the faith and the education. As 
 a civilization, we have entertained a faith in education for 
 so long that we have simply set the whole affair aside as a 
 matter requiring no particular attention from us. 
 
 We all agree that education is a good thing. We believe 
 that it is better to educate an individual than it is not to 
 educate him. This is the first principle in the philosophy 
 of all our attempts to educate. It is the fundamental rea- 
 son why we have an organized education at all. We be- 
 lieve that our life of civilization and culture is better than 
 primitive man's life of simplicity and savagery. For this 
 reason, education for its children is the chief aim and am- 
 bition of every household — and to such a degree that many 
 are the sacrifices and self-denials made in order to carry 
 out those ideals and those desires. 
 
 But when we invest such faith in education, I insist 
 that we know tvhy. The word education itself has no charm 
 for me. I want to know exactly what the precise and ulti- 
 
60 THE GEEAT QUESTION 
 
 mate object of my faith in education is. I never did believe 
 in buying a cat in a bag, anyway. The faith that we in- 
 vest in any human endeavor is always greater and more 
 sacred than anything else that we invest in that endeavor 
 — and for this reason alone we should examine most critic- 
 ally any object for which we barter away our faith. From 
 every standpoint, faith is a sacred price — and in this case, 
 education, which represents our purchase, should be corre- 
 spondingly sacred. That real purchase is nothing more or 
 less than the daily working purpose underlying our educa^ 
 Hon. I want to know w^hat that purpose is — for I know, 
 without any arguments from books or philosophers, that 
 purpose is the Herculean giant to which we must look. 
 
 Now, the real function of faith in anything is, to hegin 
 where facts leave off. In general, faith must never pre-empt 
 the territory of facts. This side of every horizon, we 
 should see and know; beyond the horizon the fields belong to 
 faith. For this reason, our faith in education should be 
 fortified with facts just as largely as possible. The moment 
 that that does not obtain, our faith becomes blind ; it slum- 
 bers ; it narrows our horizon ; it closes our eyes to what lies 
 within the range of vision — and instead of being an ever- 
 active instrument in the discovery of truth, our faith be- 
 comes but a blanket to blind our eyes. I say that faith must 
 always justify its object to the fullest possible extent. The 
 only road to such justification is never to permit faith to 
 slumber on the territory of facts. 
 
 Most assuredly, we want to know with an alarming ex- 
 actness just what we are trying to do when we say that we 
 are trying to educate our children. The only way to arrive 
 at such exactness is to challenge our faith in education every 
 inch of the way. What we need in education, as indeed in 
 every human endeavor, is a plan — a purpose — an aim — 
 engraved on tablets of gold in advance. The blue print of 
 purpose should precede every single step that we make in 
 life. This is a thousand times truer of education perhaps 
 than it is of anything else. Nothing can possibly equal in 
 its tremendous fundamental importance the carefully drawn 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 61 
 
 map of our plans — the map — which, drawn in advance is 
 to act as our chart and our compass. With a plan and a 
 purpose in our hands w^e are going somewhere — and that 
 somewhere is apt to be right. Without plans, we are going 
 nowhere — and that nowhere is bound to be wrong. Start 
 with no plan, no purpose, and one gets nowhere. Start with 
 a poor, vague plan — nine-tenths buried in the depths of sub- 
 consciousness — and one's chief business will be that of wast- 
 ing his time — and the time of the world. 
 
 And so I charge a superabundance of undefined faith as 
 being one of the main obstacles that have stood in the light 
 of educational progress. We must make education show its 
 passports — and quit eternally accepting things. The man 
 who accepts things, rests on them. The trouble with educa- 
 tion is, that it has been resting and rusting. Education has 
 been too lazy to inquire deeply — and that too without know- 
 ing of her own inertness — thus confirming the fact that 
 "Of all passions, that which is least known to us is in- 
 dolence."^ 
 
 As a closing w^ord of this chapter, I want to say that w^e 
 are standing on sacred ground. Let us prove ourselves worthy 
 of our position. The best interest of the child and of the 
 race are at stake — and Nature appeals to us to select our 
 footsteps with wisdom. Nowhere else in all education shall 
 we find any spot so inviolable as right here in the field of 
 purpose. Whatever tablets of real worth that shall ever 
 come to mankind shall be handed down to us by the Infinite 
 right here on this mountain — the mountain of purpose. I 
 say this because I regard the purpose of education as in- 
 comparably the most fundamental question that education 
 can ever ask. And the great tragedy of it all is — the fact 
 that neither education nor civilization knows it. Upon the 
 vividness of ohject hinges the only hope of attainment. 
 It is that basic truth which I utter over and over 
 again. 
 
 Finally, then, this is my own answer to my own inquiry 
 calling for the greatest question that can be raised in the 
 
 ^ La Rochefoucauld : Pensees, LIV. 
 
62 THE GREAT QUESTION 
 
 entire field of education, namely: What is the purpose of 
 education? 
 
 This at the same time means that education is now called 
 upon to answer another question. In the next chapter the 
 world's answer to this question shall be reviewed. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 
 
 In the preceding chapter I laid down purpose as the 
 most important question that can be raised in education 
 today. In the present chapter we shall inquire into what 
 the world says the purpose of education is. In so doing, let 
 it be remembered that it has never been my contention that 
 the educational world has had nothing to say about aims — 
 but rather that by comparison with the overwhelming im- 
 portance of purpose, education has been notoriously silent, 
 and scandalously superficial. 
 
 Above all, wherever a word has been spoken on the 
 question of purpose, education has been criminally general. 
 Education's great stock in trade has been platitudes. To a 
 very large extent, education has indulged in the use of self- 
 evident propositions of the commonplace type — propositions 
 to which for the most part, no person would think of rais- 
 ing objection — and yet withal, propositions which one would 
 hardly think it worth while to mention. Education has elab- 
 orated on the obvious — with the slight exception that very 
 often most of the important elaborating has been left out. 
 The greatest love of education has been to proclaim prin- 
 ciples that are in no way ultimate — ^principles that are in 
 no way bed-rock — principles whose only sin and crime is, 
 that they do not go far enough — principles which are hardly 
 starting points, much less goals. Generalized principles 
 and definitions of that type have been the bane of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 And yet with all its vagueness, some of our educators 
 would argue about the "science" of education! They 
 would wax warm in controversially affirming that surely 
 there is a science of education. I claim that there can be a 
 
 63 
 
64 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 science of nothing witli such a fog of generalities about it as 
 education has precipitated about itself. If education as it 
 stands today is a science, then it is nothing more or less than 
 the science of vague generality. I emphasize this phase of the 
 situation in particular, because if education is not going to 
 be a science in the very statement of its aim — then what a 
 wild-goose chase education must become in every step be- 
 yond its announced purpose ! 
 
 But let us permit education to speak for itself. Referring 
 to the question of definitions, Putnam says; ''A formal 
 definition of education is not absolutely necessary at the out- 
 set of our work."^^ I insist that such a definition is abso- 
 lutely necessary — at least some place — and the fact that it 
 has no place been set forth gives rise to the conditions 
 pointed out by Putnam when he speaks again: ''This in- 
 quiry is the more necessary from the fact that definitions 
 given by prominent educators are exceedingly diverse, and 
 in not a few cases apparently contradictory."^^ But Put- 
 nam immediately finds consolation in that predicament 
 by extenuating as follows : ' ' A little reflection brings us to 
 see that such a variety of definition and description is 
 exactly what might have been expected. ' '^^ 
 
 Yes, it is indeed, truly what one ''might have expected" 
 — but not at all due to the reasons suspected by Putnam. 
 The real reason for the diversity and contradiction is error 
 — and nothing else. 
 
 But let us continue with Putnam ^s explanation: *' Dif- 
 ferent observers looking at the same natural objects from 
 different directions receive and carry away impressions and 
 mental pictures marvelously unlike Yet each per- 
 son has recorded fairly and truthfully what he saw from 
 his point of view. A correct and complete notion of the 
 whole object, as viewed from all directions and upon all 
 sides, can be obtained only by combining these various and 
 varied descriptions into a single one which shall embrace 
 
 ^0 Putnam: Manual of Pedagogics, page 11. 
 
 11 Ibid., page 12. 
 
 12 Ibid., page 12. 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 65 
 
 everything of importance in them all In like man- 
 ner, students of education approach the subject from differ- 
 ent directions, view it in different aspects, and consider it 
 
 with reference to different purposes and ends Of 
 
 necessity, the view taken by any one individual can be only 
 
 a partial and incomplete one One aspect attracts 
 
 and charms one class of minds ; another aspect attracts and 
 charms another class of minds. The philosopher looks at one 
 aspect, the practical man at another aspect. The states- 
 man takes one view, and has regard to one end. The teacher 
 of morals and religion takes a different view, and has regard 
 to a different end.'"' 
 
 In this, Putnam would liken different students of edu- 
 cation unto ' ' Different observers looking at the same natural 
 object from different directions"! Shame on such a com- 
 parison! Education is not such a tossing of pennies — 
 heads or tails. Yet what Putnam says, very truthfully por- 
 trays what is going on in the world of education everywhere. 
 It seems that no student anywhere is studying education. 
 It is simply a question of one tapping here, and another 
 there — a thousand students and a thousand vievrs — as if 
 education were a few million different things, as the above 
 quotation suggests. How tragic it is, that our educational 
 chaos is such that Putnam must voice the expression that, 
 ' ' Of necessity the view taken by any one individual can be 
 only a partial and incomplete one One aspect at- 
 tracts and charms one class of minds ; another aspect equally 
 attracts and charms another class of minds." 
 
 This reduces education to ashes. It becomes but a com- 
 plex of the passing whims that different ''students of edu- 
 cation" may entertain — and all the time I was laboring un- 
 der the delusion that we were talking about truth — a "sci- 
 ence" of education ! But now it turns out that it is not an 
 educational scientist who is molding our education at all — 
 but simply a mere '' philosopher " — a mere ** practical man" 
 — a mere * ' statesman ' ' — a mere * ' teacher of morals and re- 
 ligion ' ' — and that our education is but a compound * * crazy 
 
 13 Ibid., pages 12 and 13. 
 5 
 
^6 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 quilt" patched together from countless independent views 
 thus gathered. Is it any wonder under such circumstances 
 that education is somewhat like a train wreck that may 
 be viewed in as many different ways as there happen to be 
 sightseers ? Is it any wonder that education has a thousand 
 superficial purposes — instead of one fundamental one? Is 
 it any wonder that education, instead of being built about 
 one grand, central truth, is merely a conglomeration of 
 vague, superficial and generalized opinions ? 
 
 If it is, let us then listen to Butler, who lets the cat 
 completely out of the bag in the following expression : * ' A 
 science of education is analogous to a science of medicine. 
 .... Neither medicine nor education makes any pretense to 
 exactness. "^"^ "What a tragedy to make such a comparison 
 — not that education is any more of a science than medicine 
 is, but that medicine comes by long odds the farthest from 
 being a science of any art to which the human race has ever 
 set hand. How glorious it is, therefore — the spectacle of 
 setting up medicine as the standard by which we shall judge 
 education! What an inspiration in the inference that 
 if education just keeps up with medicine we shall be all 
 right ! What satisfaction in the thought that our scientific 
 obligations are any the less, simply because there are other 
 things in the world that make no "pretense to exactness"! 
 In a word, how misery does love company — and how content 
 to remain misemble just as long as the company will con- 
 sent to stay and sit up with us ! And yet Butler is right — 
 education and medicine are alike — and medicine is no sci- 
 ence at all. Surely no student of human affairs should be in 
 the dark on a fact so patent as that. 
 
 Now, thus far I have given none of the world 's purposes 
 of education. Rather have I been paving the way by point- 
 ing out the general chaos and confusion that exist in the 
 field of education. I have wanted to make it plain in a few 
 introductory words that current educational attitude which 
 has compelled me to take drastic issue with the general tenor 
 
 14 Nicholas Murray Butler: The Meaning of Education (1915), 
 page 6. 
 
AND THE WOKLD'S ANSWER 67 
 
 of educational procedure. We are now ready to take up 
 some of the purposes current in this so-called science. 
 
 1. Formal Discipline. 
 
 The doctrine of formal discipline comes to us from the 
 past. According to this doctrine, thinking is a sort of gen- 
 eralized process — if one is a good thinker in one field, then 
 he will be a good thinker in all fields. Under the heading 
 of this purpose, it makes but little difference what one 
 studies — for, to be a sound thinker in algebra or Latin will 
 guarantee sound thinking in business, statesmanship, farm- 
 ing, cookery — or any other art to which the student may 
 ultimately set hand. The aim is not primarily to secure a 
 mastery of knowledge in various fields, but ''to train the 
 reasoning powers" in general. 
 
 The reliance of such a purpose is, that the human mind 
 is an excessively unified homogeneity — and, that what one 
 learns, completely saturates the entire mind with a sort of 
 generalized power which can be called upon for effective 
 service in any special field of life. Wliat the student learns 
 in any special subject is not thus confined to that particular 
 field, but ''spreads" out in all directions. Such a process is 
 called the "transfer of training." Good training in geom- 
 etry, for example, would help to make one a good reasoner 
 in law. The mind would contain no barriers or insulation 
 of any kind between any special type of knowledge and the 
 power of the mind as a whole for any activity. Such is the 
 claim of this purpose. 
 
 Formal discipline, as thus conceived, has played a very 
 large part in the past in determining the things that we 
 have taught in our educational institutions of all classes. 
 Many subjects and requirements have been retained from 
 generation to generation merely on the assumption that they 
 were trainers of general thinking and general reasoning 
 power. But formal discipline largely overlooks the funda- 
 mental principle of apperception. To take step two in any- 
 thing, the human mind always demands step one as a pre- 
 
68 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 requisite. The mind of man does not reason on nothing. It 
 reasons on experienced and deposited data. When that data 
 is absent, then there is no basis whatever upon which to 
 build any structure of either thought or conduct. Nor will 
 step ten in a certain chain of thought and conduct experi- 
 ence take the place of that very essential step number one 
 in a totally different chain of experience. There obtains no 
 such a vicarious principle in the human mind at all. Apper- 
 ception in itself makes that forever impossible. 
 
 Consequently, formal discipline must be dismissed as a 
 purpose of education. And it may be said to the credit 
 of present-day education that to a very great extent this 
 one-time dominating educational doctrine is passing into 
 disuse. It is one of the contributions of education during 
 the past quarter of a century that formal discipline has 
 fallen into an ever increasing disrepute. The most direct 
 result has been the reorganization and simplifying of school 
 and college curricula everywhere. No longer are subjects 
 being taught for the purpose of developing general reason- 
 ing ability, but for the purpose of applied use in their own 
 special spheres. Greater flexibility has been the result — 
 more selections and fewer fixed requirements in determin- 
 ing what the pupil shall study in school. 
 
 It is the past educational world, therefore, which has 
 been responsible for the doctrine of formal discipline, rather 
 than the immediate present. However, the idea is herewith 
 briefly presented in order to point out the fact that it held 
 forth as a dominating purpose in education for centuries. 
 It is a doctrine that is being increasingly looked upon as 
 unsound. And, yet at the same time, in all fairness, let it 
 be said here that there is perhaps no person today who is 
 able to state positively just what the actual merits or 
 demerits of formal discipline are — our present knowledge 
 of psychology forbids it. 
 
 2. Culture. 
 
 At all times, culture has been conspicuous as one of the 
 avowed purposes of education — ^though, as far as I am 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWER 69 
 
 aware, no one has ever explained in unmistakable terms 
 what culture means. Most people associate the word per- 
 haps with "a knowledge of what the race has said and 
 done." The word has carried with it the implication of 
 knowing things for the sake of not being unlettered — for 
 the sake of polish and refinement, and even outward show. 
 
 As far as the word culture itself is concerned, it tells U3 
 nothing. It must simply sum up the things for which it 
 stands — ^whatever they may be. Whatever magic there is 
 in the word, must come from the things which the word it- 
 self symbolizes. This throws the whole question of the pur- 
 pose of education back upon whatever content is injected 
 into culture. But nowhere is that content to be found in 
 anything like a penetrating analysis of human life. A sec- 
 tion of knowledge here, and another section there, all clad 
 in the most generalized terms, is all that one can find. 
 There is much talk about giving to the child its ''social in- 
 heritance ' * in terms of shotgun phraseology, but nowhere is 
 to be found that rifleshot logic and analysis so essential to 
 strike the gong of central truth. Butler says that, "The 
 child is entitled to his scientific, literary, aesthetic, institu- 
 tional and religious inheritance."^^ Mill gives about the 
 same thought when he states that, "Education is the cul- 
 ture which each generation purposely gives to those who 
 are to be its successors. "^^ 
 
 But neither Butler nor Mill hits the nail on the head — 
 nor the head on the nail. What they say is true enough — 
 but they stop before they get started. Nowhere does either 
 one of them set up a giant final index finger which says -: 
 "Here — here is the path of life education. Take it. There 
 must be none other. Let every single light of life be fo- 
 cused hereon." No — their writings contain no such spe- 
 cific perceptions on education. 
 
 Nor is anything to be found under the culture aim of 
 education that ever gets down to bed-rock — ^not that there 
 
 15 Nicholas Murray Butler: The Meaning of Education, page 26. 
 
 16 John Stuart Mill, quoted from Putnam : Manual of Pedagogics, 
 page 16. 
 
70 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 is anything at all wrong with the word culture, but simply 
 that no one seems to have gone down into a deep and search- 
 ing inquiry as to what culture really should consist of. 
 Hence, the word culture adds nothing whatever to the field 
 of education. It becomes but another blanket to cover up 
 more ignorance as to what education ought to be. Let some- 
 one of the advocates of culture tell us exactly and specificly 
 what education should accomplish — and then we shall not 
 have any use for the word culture at all. 
 
 Finally, must not anyone see, upon a moment's careful 
 reflection, that culture is such a general term that it points 
 nowhere? If this is true — and it is — ^then as a purpose of 
 education, culture is but a huge jest. The teacher armed in 
 the classroom with the culture consciousness is indeed very 
 far adrift when it comes to knowing precisely what should 
 be done for the children that are there to be educated. 
 Such a teacher would be a wanderer in fields that are 
 largely remote from the real territory of education. Indeed, 
 owing to the very vague nature of the word culture, it is 
 undoubtedly true that as a purpose of education, culture 
 has been well nigh as destructive as formal discipline. 
 Culhire illustrates admirably how well education loves to 
 indulge in the projecting of glittering generalities. 
 
 3. Knowledge. 
 
 Closely allied to the culture aim is that of knowledge. 
 The knowledge purpose in education has been to acquire 
 knowledge. Very often that knowledge has been for its o^m 
 sake. Under this aim, the mere fact of knowing things con- 
 stitutes its own reward — somewhat after the old exploded 
 doctrine of ''Art for art's sake." Nor has it made much 
 difference under this aim, just what knowledge is being 
 attained. Regardless of what it may be, ''Knowledge is 
 Power" always. And even if it isn't then the mere satis- 
 faction of knowing is its own imperishable reward. 
 
 It is especially worthy of note, that the knowledge aim 
 has never been critical about its content. That is the part 
 about this aim that is so astounding. There is no necessary 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWER 71 
 
 reason whatever why the knowledge aim of education should 
 not be one of the very highest — providing that the knowl- 
 edge involved is the raost basic to human life. But 
 knowledge as an educational aim has rarely honored in this 
 particular way the name with which it has christened itself. 
 It seems not to have been one whit more critical what gets 
 into education than any other aim. How absurd it is then, 
 that the knowledge aim should lay claim to any special 
 sanctity ! If this aim had been true to the real import of 
 its name, it would have presented, not one million facts out 
 of a million — and not necessarily even one fact out of a 
 million — but if necessary would have gone out on an in- 
 finite excursion into the innermost recesses of life, in order 
 possibly to be able to get one fact out of a trillion that 
 might be worthj^ of presentation to mankind — a thing which 
 education has by no means done. 
 
 To be sure, the knowledge aim has made some inquiry. 
 Among others, Butler has inquired ''what knowledge is of 
 most worth." He says: "The highest and most enduring 
 knowledge is of the things of the spirit That knowl- 
 edge is of most worth which stands in the closest relation to 
 the highest forms of the activity of that spirit which is 
 created in the image of Him who holds Nature and man 
 alike in the hollow of His hand."^^ 
 
 No one could of course question the truth of what But- 
 ler says. But he is vastly too general. Nowhere does he 
 show in a striking analytical manner just how we are to 
 make contact with ' ' things of the spirit. " In no mj^sterious 
 and miraculous manner are we ever going to attain to such 
 knowledge merely by talking about it and recommending it. 
 What Butler must do is to show us the road. And this he 
 fails to do — chiefly due to the fact in my opinion that he 
 himself neither sees nor knows how. Like many another 
 educator, Butler has failed to penetrate critically into the 
 deep sub-cellars of human life. Therefore, his recommen- 
 dations as to the highest type of knowledge fall markedly 
 short. 
 
 1" Nicholas Murray Butler: The Meaning of Education, pages 57 
 and 70. 
 
72 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Again, Tate says that, ''One great end of education is 
 to communicate to the pupil that sort of knowledge which 
 is most likely to be useful to him in the sphere of life which 
 Providence has assigned him".^^ Once more, nothing could 
 be truer. But I inquire : Just exactly what is that knowl- 
 edge — and just as precisely, how is it going to be communi- 
 cated? Tate fails to tell us. The mice in the fable were 
 specifically concrete when they recommended in convention 
 assembled the tying of a bell around the cat*s neck as a 
 warning signal to them of the approach of the cat. Our 
 knowledge advocates are by no means so specific. Nowhere 
 are their suggestions equal to the bell plan of the mice — 
 even though the mice did overlook one little link in their 
 chain. My inquiry of education is this: In the field of 
 knowledge, what is the bell? "Where is it? And who is 
 going to tie it about the cat^s neck? That is my question. 
 
 As Rousseau has said, ''Knowledge as an end in itself is 
 an unfathomable and shoreless ocean. Human intelligence 
 has its limits. We can neither know everything, nor be 
 thoroughly familiar with the little that other men know. 
 "We have to select what is to be taught, as well as the time 
 for learning it. Of the kinds of knowledge within our 
 power, some are false, some useless, some serve only to 
 foster pride. Only the few that really conduce to our well 
 being are worthy of a study of a wise man, or by a youth 
 intended to be a wise man. The question is not, what may 
 be known, but what will be of the most use when it is 
 known. "^« 
 
 No general guide could possibly be safer, yet Rousseau 
 fails (though excusably) to detail in any complete way what 
 that knowledge must be. Of course, it is true that the world 
 of education has always been employing that knowledge 
 which they think useful in one way or another. Presumably 
 their plan has been at all times to deal only in the highest 
 type of knowledge. I admit that the intentions have no 
 
 1® Quoted from Putnam : Manual of Pedagogics, page 16. 
 ^^ J. J. Eousseau : Emile, Trans. Worthington, from extracts J. 
 Steeg, pp. 122-3. 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 73 
 
 doubt been good. But that is no acceptable excuse. The 
 cold, staring fact is, that mountains of inferior knowledge 
 have ever been operative. Never has that knowledge which 
 is most useful to human life been taught — in spite of what 
 this advocate or that advocate may have thought about it. 
 
 The knowledge aim of education has, therefore, failed 
 the world — though nothing at all has been wrong with the 
 aim, per se. Indeed, no aim could be higher — if that aim 
 understood itself in relation to the deep realities of human 
 life, which it has not done, owing to the fact that knowledge 
 right along has been taking entirely too much pride in itself, 
 and because of itself as an ultimate end. "It is not knowl- 
 edge, as such, but in feeling and action that reality is 
 given "^° — a fact which has largely been missed by the 
 knowledge aim right along, even in many of those cases 
 where the knowledge involved is of the right type. 
 
 In fine, I would say that the knowledge aim in educa- 
 tion has failed in at least two directions : First, the knowl- 
 edge dealt with has been too often of the wrong kind ; and, 
 second, the aim has been too largely, not what might be 
 done with the knowledge attained, but merely for the sake 
 of knowing — decorative rather than functional — overlook- 
 ing the important fact that, per se, knowledge is not neces- 
 sarily power at all. In other words, the knowledge aim 
 stands out as one that has never been subjected to critical 
 analysis by its advocates. 
 
 4. Preparation for Life. 
 
 This is another aim which has obtained in education. 
 The pages of educational literature have been liberally 
 sprinkled from age to age with expressions like the follow- 
 ing: ''Education is the preparation for complete living. "^^ 
 "I call a complete and generous education that which fits 
 a man to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all 
 the office s, both public and private, of peace and war."^^ 
 
 20 A. Seth: Man's Place in the Cosmos, page 122. 
 
 21 Herbert Spencer : Education, chapter 1. 
 
 22 John Milton. Quoted from Putnam: Manual of Pedagogics, 
 page 16, 
 
74 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 ''Education should be preparation for life, domestic, eco- 
 nomic, social, politica'l. "^^ ''The aim of life is living hap- 
 pily and beautifully. ' '^^ 
 
 Against such expressions, no one could raise one word 
 of objection — as far as their innate truth is concerned. But 
 when it comes to that precise and pointed treatment neces- 
 sary to show just what "complete living" is, and exactly 
 how it shall be attained — then the story is far different. 
 Nowhere in Spencer, Milton, Mann or Aristotle is there to 
 be found a formula for complete living, much less its path 
 of attainment. It must be admitted, however, that in many 
 ways Spencer has laid down some very specific things for 
 the educational world to follow — but unfortunately, many 
 of the splendid things said by Spencer have fallen upon 
 deaf ears. 
 
 As to the aim itself, certainly nothing could be sounder 
 than the thought of preparation for life. The term is a 
 happy one — as far as a large, general, outlying observation 
 is concerned. But as a specific and technical embodiment of 
 educational aim, it falls short. It is somewhat like saying 
 that the aim in building a house is to construct one in which 
 we can live comfortably — which is true, and yet exactly 
 what everyone would expect without saying it. Such cate- 
 gories of generalized observation can never satisfy that life 
 necessity whose only sustaining food is truth, actual, spe- 
 cific and pertinent. 
 
 Educators must remember that their function is that of 
 finding the last words in educational science — the last notes 
 of world-enthralling harmony for a longing and discordant 
 humanity. That is the function of the educator. It is not 
 the function of some lay member on the street. The edu- 
 cational leader must be concrete, specific, profound. The 
 wisest general observation that could ever fall from the lips 
 of a man might be nothing more or less than a curtain shut- 
 ting off completely the very world of truth which it in- 
 
 23 Horace Mann. Quoted from Davidson: History of Education 
 (1901). 
 
 24 Aristotle: Politics, iii., 9, 14. 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 75 
 
 tended to reveal, and might reveal, providing that that one 
 general observation were divided up into a thousand bits of 
 concrete and ultimate truth. 
 
 It is on the same old altar of broad, sweeping, glitter- 
 ing generalization that the advocates of "preparation for 
 life" permit the banners of education to trail eternally in 
 the dust. It is the same old scaffold which has always swung 
 the same old fatal noose. It is the same old cross on which 
 education has always been crucified. It is the cross of gen- 
 eralization, born of a paltry, petty perception on the part 
 of those whom the world would accept and acclaim as its 
 educational leaders. Let us engrave deeply on our minds 
 that nothing is ever going to spring heaven-born from any 
 phrase — not even from such an alluring one as preparation 
 for life. Educational aims are by no means automata that 
 are going to propel themselves. The good right arm crank 
 of microscopic analysis is the minimum essential of every 
 educational aim — no matter what that aim may be. The 
 aim in itself amounts to nothing as a mere month piece. 
 The extent and accuracy of the invested analysis lying back 
 of that aim — that is the thing that counts. Both the spirit 
 and the substance of an aim are demanded. No mere w^ord 
 jugglery is going to go with mankind when it comes to 
 dealing with the great, hidden truths of education. 
 
 I am compelled, therefore, to say that while preparation 
 for life is a capital theme about which to build educational 
 purpose — education has ignominiously failed to go on with 
 its building. Once more we are forced to say: ** Weighed 
 in the balance and found wanting." 
 
 5. Adjustment. 
 
 Education as adjustment to environment has been a con- 
 spicuous thought in educational circles for at least the last 
 quarter of a century. The thought itself is a good one. It 
 adds to education the concept of plasticity, movement, modi- 
 fication. The individual who would be educated must have 
 such a view of life as to be able to adapt himself and his con- 
 duct to different conditions which may be encountered. In 
 
76 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 a rough way, the thought is, ''When in Rome, do as the 
 Romans do." As times and environments change, man 
 must change. New conditions must be met in new ways. 
 Such is the meaning of the educational aim of adjustment — 
 and it thus constitutes a new and decidedly worth-while 
 thought in education. 
 
 But as an educational aim — ^like any other aim — it can- 
 not be anything ultimate merely because of itself. Every- 
 thing must depend on how its advocates take that aim and 
 analyze it into a thousand different threads — or a million — 
 or until such time as every avenue of human life is taken 
 care of. Merely to chatter the word ''adjustment" will 
 never get us any place. Nor will dealing with it lightly 
 and incompletely ever deliver humanity from the bondage 
 and darkness of ignorance obtaining in daily life. Our 
 treatment of adjustment must be vital, basic, complete. 
 Especially must adjustment take in those principles that 
 are most bed-rock in the guidance and development of every 
 individual. 
 
 Now, outside of the very good concept itself, the adjust- 
 ment aim has added but very little to education. It has not 
 gotten us appreciably closer to things ultimate in education. 
 It has made no penetrating analysis of the great human 
 problem. This is not at all because of any weakness in the 
 aim itself — but because of the same conditions that have ob- 
 tained in every other aim ever set forth in education : Its ad- 
 vocates have deserted their quarry. The wonderful mines 
 lying just beyond have never been prospected. The great trail 
 of adjustment has been forsaken — just as it was approach- 
 ing the first fringes of brushes surrounding the forest 
 where the real treasures lay hidden. Those who have talked 
 about adjustment have hardly scratched the surface of 
 their field. 
 
 We must remember again for the thousandth time that 
 there is positively nothing magical at all about the mere 
 wording of any aim. There is in the adjustment aim, ex- 
 actly what we inject into it — and nothing more. We must 
 demand that every educational aim open up its suit case — 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWER 77 
 
 and let us see what it has inside. When this test is ap- 
 plied, it is found that the typical educational aim consists 
 of a suit case that is — empty. 
 
 And the champions of adjustment have largely fallen 
 into that same old pitfall. Authors who have written on 
 this subject have missed the opportunity of their lives — ^by 
 quitting before ever getting started. Nowhere under ad- 
 justment literature is there to be found anything like a 
 keen analysis of the aim being treated. No writer on adjust- 
 ment has yet begun to perceive deeply enough to fathom 
 those wonderful fields in which adjustment is so sorely 
 needed. The very domains wherein a world of wealth is 
 offered across the counters of adjustment — into those do- 
 mains *' adjustment" advocates have not penetrated at all 
 Yea, hardly have they even headed in that direction. 
 
 Then too I might point out that very often education 
 consists, not in adjustment to environment — but rather in 
 a deliberate refusal to adjust to environment. Had Wen- 
 dell Phillips adjusted himself to his environment, the 
 world 's greatest agitator would never have been heard of — 
 and instead of standing out as one of the great giants of 
 the age, he would have become a petty, grovelling non-entity 
 of a diplomat. In fact every great man in history has been 
 more of a non-adjuster to environment, than an adjuster. 
 Men like Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Bruno, Savanarola, Huss, 
 Columbus, Galileo, Copernicus, Tolstoi — and a legion of 
 others — owe their monumental strength and worth very 
 largely to the fact that they openly refused to adjust them- 
 selves to the existing world environments in which they 
 found themselves. Had Socrates been an ''adjuster" he 
 would have humbled every holy principle known to man. 
 He would have avoided the cup of hemlock — but every cup 
 of hemlock in the world from that day to this would in con- 
 sequence thereof be just that much more bitter. Socrates 
 by virtue of his non-adjustment did much to temper the 
 poison that still obtains in this world — and the same is true 
 of that great army of souls everywhere, and in every age, 
 who have so gloriously refused to align themselves in silence 
 with existing orders that have been wrong. 
 
78 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 This then is perhaps one department of adjustment 
 which has never been touched upon by any of its advocates. 
 The issue which I raise might be called the negative side of 
 adjustment. There is of course no reason at all why it 
 should not be included under the general term of adjust- 
 ment. The aim is sufficiently broad to include it — providing 
 that its champions point that fact out. But advocates of 
 adjustment have apparently failed to see all around their 
 subject — to say nothing of not having seen down into it 
 deeply. 
 
 6. Unfoldment.. 
 
 This doctrine as a purpose of education goes back to 
 other days. As literally stated, it involves "The full and 
 harmonious development of all of our faculties." Plato 
 himself may be accepted as one of the chief contributors to 
 the idea, though from time to time other educational leaders 
 have dwelt upon it. This aim rivets attention upon the 
 thought of self-realization on the part of the individual — 
 or on the unfoldment of faculties or powers innate within 
 the individual. I look upon this aim as being incomparably 
 the most basic technical pronouncement ever made in the 
 history of education. 
 
 But its great significance has so entirely escaped our 
 modern educators that they have completely repudiated it. 
 Plato laid the principle down — and he also elaborated most 
 wonderfully upon it — and yet this rare educational gem has 
 been kicked about from century to century by educators who 
 have not understood. A thousand and one critics have 
 spoken out boldly — most of them picking up their cues from 
 the dense perceptions and the foggy prejudices of others — 
 and not a single one of them has ever gone down to original 
 bedrock for the purpose of seeing what the unfoldment aim 
 is all about. It would be an eminently safe wager that out 
 of one thousand critics who have set Plato's unfoldment 
 doctrine aside with a mere wave of the hand, or else who 
 have merely accepted it — not a solitary one of them has 
 ever actually, carefully and inquiringly read his Republic 
 
AND THE WORLD'S ANSWER 79 
 
 and his Laws from beginning to end. They may have 
 skimmed and skipped around through those two marvelous 
 works in a cursory survey that was impelled and animated 
 by false and superficial perceptions to begin with — but the 
 books themselves, they have never read — or, if they actually 
 did read them, then they were not competent to read them. 
 And, in either or any event, twenty-three centuries of the 
 unfoldment doctrine has been but the casting of pearls be- 
 fore swine — for the world has not grasped or understood 
 that mighty master. 
 
 There is perhaps no way in which the educational atti- 
 tude toward unfoldment can better be showTi than by quo- 
 ting the following adverse words from W. T. Harris, once 
 United States Commissioner of Education: ''It has been 
 fashionable in educational treatises since the days of Pes- 
 talozzi to define the province of education as * The full and 
 harmonious development of all our faculties/ This is, 
 however, a survival of Rousseauism, and, like all survivals 
 
 from that source, is very dangerous It fancies man 
 
 the individual to be something complete in himself and 
 without relation to society. Man has two selves: one his 
 natural self as a puny individual ; the other the higher self 
 embodied in institutions. This is the worst defect in the 
 definition, because it leads the educator away from the es- 
 sential idea of education, which is this: Education is the 
 preparation of the individual for reciprocal union with 
 society ; the preparation of the individual so that he can help 
 his fellow-men, and in turn receive and appropriate their 
 help".-^ 
 
 Now, in my opinion, there is to be found nowhere in all 
 educational literature a more one-sided, a more short-sighted 
 or a more erroneous comment than just the above. "Wliat a 
 tragedy that education has had such non-illumined lead- 
 ership ! No place does either Plato or Eousseau even infer 
 in even the remotest manner in any way whatsoever that 
 man the individual is ''something complete in himself and 
 
 25 W. T. Harris. Quoted from Putnam: Mamial of Pedagogies, 
 pages 14-15. 
 
80 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 without relation to society." Indeed, both of these great 
 men have definitely recorded themselves to the exact con- 
 trary — in proof of which I shall quote as follows, from 
 Rousseau first : ' ' A father when he brings his children into 
 existence and supports them, has, in so doing, fulfilled only 
 a third part of his task. To the human race he owes men ; 
 to society, men fitted for society; to the State, citizens. 
 Every man who can pay this triple debt, and does not, is 
 a guilty man".-^ Let the reader now judge for himself the 
 justice of the criticism by Harris. 
 
 As for Plato, the very spirit and substance of every line 
 that he ever wrote on education is teeming with the doc- 
 trine of social service. The best way to prove this is to let 
 Plato speak for himself: ''Then as soon as they are fifty 
 years old .... and have won distinction in every branch, 
 whether of action or of science .... and though they are 
 to spend most of their time in philosophical pursuits, yet, 
 each when his turn comes is to devote himself to the hard 
 duties of public life, and hold office for their country's 
 
 Now, note carefully that even after the age of fifty, each 
 individual is to hold himself ever ready for ''the hard 
 duties of public life. " I emphasize that this is after the age 
 of fifty. But note carefully again that hefore the age of 
 fifty, each individual was to have ' ' won distinction in every 
 branch, whether of action or of science ".^^ 
 
 Now, I say that in the face of such facts it is simply 
 amazing that education should be so studded with expres- 
 sions of the type given voice to by Harris. I regard it as 
 nothing short of educational tragedy that any educational 
 leader should be so far from the truth as to shout to all the 
 world that "all survivals from that source (Rousseauism) 
 are very dangerous." The trouble with most of the critics 
 of Plato and Rousseau has been that they have not carried 
 into their criticisms any profound degree of educational in- 
 
 26 J. J. Rousseau : Emile, pages 22-3. 
 
 27 Plato: Republic, Davies & Vaughan trans. (1914), Macmillan 
 & Co., page 268. 
 
AND THE WOELD'S ANSWER 81 
 
 sight. I assert that the doctrine of harmomoiis unfoldment 
 is the most fundamental purpose that has ever been pro- 
 pounded in the whole field of education — and I shall prove 
 it later on. 
 
 But before going on to that task I desire to quote further 
 in this same field. Hailman in developing the purpose of 
 education says this: ''Life is a process of self-realization; 
 the innermost essence of life is the instinct of self-expan- 
 sion."^^ Hailman is correct. But he does not begin to go 
 far enough. He lays down a sound proposition — and then 
 he stops stock-still. 
 
 And yet against the words of Hailman, exception is 
 voiced by 'Shea, who comments as follows : * ' People who 
 see the child in this light fix their gaze on spiritual heights 
 which they feel he is destined to attain, rather than on the 
 child himself. Such persons cannot bring themselves to re- 
 gard the mind as given to man to enable him to attain the 
 greatest amount of pleasure and reduce pain to the mini- 
 mum in the world in which he is placed. They consider this 
 
 to be an ignoble conception of the human mind So 
 
 they arrive at the conclusion that the purpose of education 
 is to afford opportunity for the expansion, as it were, of 
 those ideal attributes which are possessed in embryo at the 
 start, to supply the conditions by which they may become 
 * realized.' .... Browning expresses this conception when 
 he makes Paracelsus say : 
 
 'Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
 From outward things, whatever you may believe. 
 There is an inmost center in us all, 
 Where truth abides in fulness; and around, 
 Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
 
 This perfect, clear conception 
 
 .... And to know, 
 Rather consists in opening out a way 
 Whence this imprisoned splendor may escape, 
 Than in effecting entry for a light 
 Supp osed to be without.^ " ^^ 
 
 28 Proe. N. E. A., 1899, page 584. 
 
 29 M. V. O'Shea: Education as Adjustment, pages 66-7. 
 6 
 
82 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 In the above comment, 'Shea misses the mark entirely. 
 He comes so far from perceiving the tremendous meaning 
 and significance of the doctrine of unfoldment — or self- 
 realization — or harmonious development — that he nowhere 
 makes a single point of contact with the facts in the case. 
 Nor is O'Shea even approximately right when he quotes 
 Browning as illustrative material for the doctrine in ques- 
 tion. Browning is dealing with a question of psychology, 
 or the actual basis of knowledge, while the doctrine of un- 
 foldment touches in no way whatever on the question of the 
 origin of knowledge. 
 
 And thus I might quote at great length, showing that the 
 centuries have either completely rejected the master mind of 
 Plato, or else have done something equally outrageous, 
 namely : Accepted him and chattered his words with about 
 as much understanding as a cageful of parrots. The final 
 and outstanding result of the whole matter is, that as far 
 as education in concerned, Plato might just as well never 
 have lived. The name Plato has simply served to make 
 educational writers think themselves sage and scholarly by 
 decorating their works therewith — either in the Aesop fable 
 capacity of taking a kick at a dead lion, or else in the ca- 
 pacity of eulogizing Plato without as much as understanding 
 what the man stood for at all. It is on either one of these 
 two barren highways of the centuries that the world *s great- 
 est educational genius has been lost. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 In closing this chapter, let us see what we have been 
 about. We have been considering the world 's answer to the 
 following most important question, namely: What is the 
 purpose of education? All told, the world's six great 
 answers have been briefly reviewed. Per se, there is not a 
 single blame-worthy aim among them, save in part the first 
 one treated — Formal Discipline. With the other five, the 
 whole trouble has been that educators have not analyzed 
 them. They have injected nothing into them. They have 
 been content with mere general phrases, high sounding in 
 
ANT> THE WOELD'S ANSWER 83 
 
 nature. The result is, that the world 's answer to the great- 
 est question in all education is merely an aim clothed in 
 loose fitting words — and a mere word aim counts for noth- 
 ing. The only thing that can possibly count in any aim 
 is the thousand ultimate threads into which the aim itself is 
 finally unravelled. The educational world has failed to dig 
 down deeply into that unravelling process. It has been hyp- 
 noticly scratching the surface of things for centuries. For 
 this reason, aims which might become monumental in their 
 importance, merely rest today in the ashes of their own 
 ruin — the ruin of decay. 
 
 I assert, therefore, that education is adrift. It is totally 
 without an aim that is at the same time specific and ultimate. 
 And for the whole unfortunate state of affairs I blame a 
 legion of educational leaders that are without eyes. Per- 
 ception in education has all hut gone into hanlcruptcy. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall lay the foundation of my ot\ti 
 answer to this same question, namely : What is the purpose 
 of education? 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 AND MY OWN ANSWER 
 
 The question before us at this time is the same question 
 that occupied our attention in the preceding chapter, 
 namely: What is the purpose of education? But there is 
 this difference between the present chapter and the preced- 
 ing one : Whereas we have just finished a consideration of 
 the world's various answers to this question, my own ans- 
 wer to this same question is now to be introduced. 
 
 Before proceeding, however, it might be well to empha- 
 size the fact once more that my quarrel with education in 
 the field of purpose is, that education is so obsessed with 
 the malady of shallow diagnosis and surface generalization 
 that it never gets down to principles that are bed-rock and 
 ultimate. Education has perceived the great problem of 
 human life so lightly and so loosely that its educational pur- 
 poses have utterly failed to satisfy the deep-seated and in- 
 stinctive cries of a suffering mankind. Among other un- 
 atonable delinquencies it has completely missed the glorious 
 life message which Plato has been holding out in his hand 
 across the stretch of twenty-three centuries of time — ^and I 
 repeat it once more, over and over again, that the sin and 
 tragedy of that educational iniquity is the fact that educa- 
 tional leaders have neglected to perceive deeply their 
 problem. They have failed to carry a critically searching 
 attitude and analysis into their work. In other words, as 
 detectives and guardians of the common welfare of hu- 
 manity, they have been innocently and unwittingly asleep. 
 That is the one basis of my dispute with the educational 
 world — its poverty of perception — its infirmity of feeble 
 analysis. 
 
 Now, very naturally, since I thus accuse education in 
 
 84 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWEE 85 
 
 the above terms, and along the above lines, it shall be my 
 aim at least not to fall into the same pit. My search shall 
 be for ultimate principles and fundamental truth. No mere 
 conditions and contingencies and appearances shall be per- 
 mitted to parade themselves in the place thereof for a min- 
 ute. Our problem demands that it be analyzed in the most 
 scrutinizing manner — and that the results of all analj^sis be 
 given to the world in just as concrete and just as detailed a 
 manner as it is possible to do. It is my aim and hope to do 
 that very thing before we get through. That is a work, 
 however, all of which cannot possibly be attempted in the 
 present chapter. What is offered in this chapter will con- 
 stitute but a beginning of my answer to the question which 
 was first propounded in chapter three. It will require all 
 of the remaining chapters of this book to complete my ans- 
 wer to that question. 
 
 It now becomes, therefore, my solemn and serious duty 
 to state my answer to the world. I say that the purpose of 
 education is this, namely: To guarantee the hiological in- 
 tegrity of the individual. This may seem like another 
 high-sounding generalization added to the educational lit- 
 erature of the human race — but wait until I get through ; 
 and then biological integrity will be seen to be the one sim- 
 ple and ultimate educational note for which all human crea- 
 tion has been blindly but instinctively crying for ages. Let 
 us proceed with our analysis. 
 
 First of all, the purpose of education does not rest on the 
 side of social considerations at all — never! It is on this 
 social plane that educational leaders have wandered so far 
 away — leaders who have never been able to distinguish be- 
 tween means and ends. The purpose of education must ever 
 be to develop the soundest individual in every conceivable 
 way. From this, there can be absolutely no appeal what- 
 ever. Our aim must point eternally toward the best indi- 
 vidual. That one thought must be the very heart of edu- 
 cational consciousness. But the very moment that the fun- 
 damental aim points in the direction of social good, then 
 that moment will the sacred and basic demands of the in- 
 
86 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 dividual be swamped into complete oblivion — exactly the 
 condition obtaining in education today. One of the very 
 first implications, therefore, of the doctrine of biological 
 integrity is, that prevailing educational conceptions must 
 be changed directly around — that is, society must be thought 
 of as only the means , instead of the end; while the indi- 
 vidual must be thought of as the end, instead of the means. 
 With the eye rivetted on the social good, the span is so 
 vast that the individual goes down into unescapable ruin — 
 for a "social good" is trying to be produced without seeing 
 the real individual elements that are prerequisite thereto. 
 That is, the real secret of all social good is overlooked — 
 namely, the sound individual himself. Under such circum- 
 stances, social efforts and social schemes and social panaceas 
 and social theories may be carried out to the thousandth de- 
 gree of refinement — and the result will always be the same : 
 Human chaos and catastrophe. And why ? Simply because 
 the look is one that is skyward, outward and aggregate. It 
 will not be unlike the spectacle, for example, of a well made 
 and well polished barrel, but in spite of all that, well filled 
 with — rotten apples. I would point out that the way to 
 make up a barrel of good apples is not at all to be blindly 
 obsessed with the generalized notion of a barrel of good 
 apples in the composite — ^but rather to be obsessed with the 
 idea of knowing in its minutest detail the bed-rock essentials 
 necessary for the making of one good individual apple. 
 Similarly, in the building of a house, the basic thing is not 
 the blank obsession that a good comfortable house must be 
 constructed — for if such composite formulas constituted the 
 prime condition for the construction of good houses, then 
 all houses would be good, for that is the kind of a house 
 that every person aims to build. But there is nothing at 
 all basic about such a view — and yet it is exactly that ag- 
 gregation view, social in its implications, which dominates 
 education today, and which always has. Instead of such a 
 group and wholesale view of things, what is actually re- 
 quired when it comes to the building of our perfect house 
 is, that intelligent attention be unfalteringly rivetted upon 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 87 
 
 what constitutes perfection in the thousand details or in- 
 dividualities that must be present in the ultimate house. 
 
 The social view of education speaks as follows: Let us 
 build a good society. Let us look after the needs of group 
 relations and interactions. In this process the individual 
 will be but a cog in our great complex machine. Society- 
 will be the end. The individual will be the means. Let 
 us see to it that society is sound — that social needs are 
 uppermost in our mind — and in such a society the indi- 
 vidual will have to be all right. The individual himself 
 must live for the good of our society. 
 
 Such is substantially the song of the socialized siren of 
 present-day education. That doctrine is the rankest in- 
 famy. I denounce it with all the vehemence of my nature. 
 In the first place, their hypothesis is an impossibility — an 
 absurdity. Nothing could be more monstrous than to 
 babble about a perfect composite in any field without first 
 setting down as point number one the perfection of all the 
 individualities that enter into that composite. As well 
 putter and sputter about producing a good crop of fruit 
 without first knowing and attending to the fundamentals 
 that enter into the making of one good single tree. The 
 point is, that a good crop of fruit can never be produced 
 while page one in the human mind is "a good crop of fruit'* 
 — never as long as time endures. Page one must be dedi- 
 cated to the detailed constitution of a good individual tree. 
 
 But in the second place, the social view of education is 
 a dangerous opiate — because it puts humanity to sleep, and 
 so benumbs the senses that it checks all search for indi- 
 vidual prerequisites — that is, it muzzles both the desire and 
 the perception to analyze. It leaves one, therefore, with 
 what I call one of the most perilous of all things — an un- 
 analyzed ideal. "Whenever any sjmthetic composite gets into 
 the human mind it is always a menace — for the reason 
 that it blinds the possessor, and thus prevents the very 
 essential process of self-examination into that ideal or com- 
 posite, whatever it may be. LTnder such circumstances the 
 holder of aggregate views or ideals never gets beyond them 
 
88 THE PUKPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 — because there is such a distinct limit to the span of hu- 
 man attention that no person can occupy two diametrically 
 opposite fieljds of thought at the same time — and, further- 
 more, the mass view of things is the lazy view, since it 
 requires no analysis of any kind in order to endure and 
 satisfy. 
 
 Now under the collective view of educational purpose, 
 the individual is lost sight of completely. He is crowded 
 out. It could not be otherwise, for the consciousness of 
 education is cast about society as in a transfiguration. We 
 have often heard the statement, for example, that ''one 
 could not see the town for the houses.'^ I would a million 
 times rather it be that way than that one could not see the 
 houses for the town. The point is, that we always see 
 whatever gets into consciousness — ^but what does not get 
 into consciousness, that, we do not see. I claim that in the 
 social view of education, the individual is never in con- 
 sciousness at all in any significant sense — and for this rea- 
 son the individual exists in the world as about so much 
 driftwood, which nobody seems to own, or care for, or pay 
 much attention to. That is why I say that the world's 
 aggregate concepts, its unanalyzed ideals, and its synthetic 
 composites are dangerous things. 
 
 Then again, let us expose in another way the utter folly 
 of that view of education which would make society the end. 
 For what does government exist ? We are told that govern- 
 ment exists for the good of the governed. Nowhere is it 
 written or conceived that the governed exist for the good 
 of the government. Think then of the vicious absurdity of 
 that notion which says that individuals exist for the good 
 of society ! Think of it ! I say that society must exist for 
 the good of the individual — and that therefore society is 
 not the end of human effort — but only the means. The in- 
 dividual himself must consequently be the ultimate aim of 
 all education — which he is not by any means today. It is 
 no wonder, therefore, that our educational leaders have suc- 
 ceeded in reversing the fundamental order of human affairs, 
 leaving us today with individuals whose sole reason for 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 89 
 
 being is the good of society, and with governed who exist 
 for the good of the government. I say that education with 
 its mania for mass interpretations is primarily responsible 
 for the fact that the sacred rights and essentials of sound 
 individuality have gone begging down through the centuries. 
 
 And right here before going further, let me solemnly 
 warn any future critic against going forth with the cry that 
 I am standing for an anti-social or a non-social education. 
 Nowhere do I say one single word against the social element 
 in education. I simply denounce any education which sets 
 up the social aim as our basic, ultimate purpose. That 
 sacred position belongs exclusively to the individual. This 
 distinction makes it necessary to exercise great care in dis- 
 tinguishing between our goal and our ladder. Never must 
 society set itself up as our goal. It is our ladder only — our 
 means. But it is an indispensable means — and for this 
 reason our education must be extremely social — indeed, far 
 more social than it has ever been before. We shall use so- 
 ciety to the fullest possible limit — not for itself, but as a 
 matchless means in the development of the individual. In 
 that capacity, society shall be, not our master in education, 
 but our slave and our servant. This word of warning I 
 merely pause to utter here because of the fact that percep- 
 tion in education today is so superficial that the majority 
 of our educational leaders would not otherwise be able to 
 detect the difference between denying society as point one, 
 and denying it altogether. I say plainly that society is 
 point two. The individual himself is point one. 
 
 Now, I said above that the purpose of education Is io 
 guarantee the biological integrity of the individual. In the 
 explanation of this aim I have already pointed out that its 
 first implication is, that it turns away from society as the 
 ultimate aim of education, and substitutes therefor the in- 
 dividual as being the legitimate final criterion of educational 
 purpose. This makes society only the means of education, 
 while the individual himself becomes the end of education — 
 or, as just stated in the preceding paragraph, the individual 
 becomes point one, and society becomes point two. 
 
90 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 But our explanation thus far involves merely tlie out- 
 ward or most obvious inference conveyed by the expression, 
 to guarantee the biological integrity of the individual. The 
 inner significance of this projected purpose of education has 
 not yet been touched upon at all. The keystone of that pur- 
 pose is imbedded in the two words — biological integrity. 
 Our most important and most immediate duty is to arrive 
 at a clear and careful understanding of the significance of 
 these two words as thus employed. Let us therefore set 
 ourselves to the accomplishment of that task. 
 
 When I speak of biological integrity I mean to project 
 the thought that the most basic and the most inalienable 
 organic right of every individual is a psychic organization 
 a7id development of such normal stability and harmony as 
 to guarantee ojie's own undivided and unwavering feeling 
 of self -justification and self -equality in his own eyes. We 
 have all heard of course of the fact that, ' ' Self-preservation 
 is the first law of life. ' ' I simply ask : Why wouldn 't that 
 be a good law to learn? Everyone will reply: ''Why, it 
 would — but what has that got to do with biological in- 
 tegrityf' 
 
 That is the very question that I wanted somebody to 
 raise. Down deep within the sub-cellars of being is a long- 
 ing cry — and in the spirit and the substance of that cry is 
 at once hidden and revealed the secret and magical essence 
 of the very soul of that thing which the world for so many 
 centuries has been so objectively calling self-preservation. 
 That cry is the cry for the very psychic state of attainment 
 which I embody in biological integrityy and which I have 
 technically elaborated on in the forty-one italicized words in 
 the preceding paragraph. That cry is the cry for that 
 deeply ingrained sense of self-sufficiency, which comes only 
 with psychic balance and mental poise. It is the cry for 
 that foundation safety for which every organism instinc- 
 tively craves, and which every organism at the same time 
 just as instinctively recognizes as the only real security in 
 all life. It is the cry for undistur-bed and unruffled con- 
 sciousness — for stable equilibrium within — for unfeigned 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 91 
 
 naturalness — for unflinching courage — for self-faith — for 
 self-harmony — for self -justification. It is the cry for calm 
 in those deep recesses which are the only repositories of 
 power in all the Universe, namely: In that mind where 
 mental harmony reigns. 
 
 That cry I want to repeat and shout it out from the very 
 roof of the world, is the great organic voice which must give 
 to us our one unmistakable clue of the only real self-pre- 
 servation under all heaven — that self-preservation which I 
 have laid down and summed up in the expression, biological 
 integrity — in other words, self-preservation which consists 
 exclusively of each organic individual's mental attitude 
 toward himself and toward the outer world. The meaning 
 and significance of self-preservation therefore rests squarely 
 upon that degree of psychic security and psychic ease which 
 an individual experiences in his course of progression 
 through the multitudinous situations and contests of the 
 world. The true measure of all self-preservation must con- 
 sequently rest solely along psychic lines — ^whereas the world 
 has been making the tragic blunder of thinking of self- 
 preservation in terms of physical life. 
 
 On the world's basis of self-preservation, every person 
 who is physically alive is an embodiment of the principle 
 — and so continues up to the moment of death, for up to 
 that point each person succeeds in the battle of holding on to 
 life. But I say that such a notion of self-preservation is so 
 totally erroneous and superficial that it misses the real 
 import and energy of self-preservation entirely. The fun- 
 damental question is not at all whether or not an individual 
 is dead physically — but whether or not he is crushed men- 
 tally. 
 
 This, I say, is the only basis by which to judge — ^the only 
 criterion by which to determine — ^the only scales on which to 
 measure — ^the status of self-preservation that obtains with 
 any individual. Viewed on this plane of understanding, 
 how different our story of life becomes ! Instead of seeing 
 self-preservation holding forth in the lives of all those ''who 
 live and move and have their being, ' ' we behold that in the 
 
92 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 great countless millions of people self-preservation is but 
 an endless psychic burning at the stake, beginning almost 
 at the very cradle itself, and extending down to the shades 
 and shadows of the grave. 
 
 And why do I say this ? 
 
 Let me answer that question. I say it because of the 
 calamitous fact that the principle of biologic al integrity has 
 been demolished into fragments. 
 
 But let us not talk in parables — or in figures of any 
 kind. Our soil here is too sacred for that. We must speak 
 so that the whole world shall understand. We must be so 
 concrete and so specific that when we shall have finished 
 speaking about biological integrity that expression shall 
 constitute something definite and something unmistakable. 
 
 Speaking in such terms, I want to say that the human 
 mind is in ruins. It represents today the greatest single 
 piece of chaos in the Universe. It is one vast conservatory 
 of discord, contradiction and controversy. It is teeming 
 with the chronic conflict of clashing emotions — and it is 
 close to the breaking point under the dangerous pressure 
 of a false introspection and self-enforced repression. The 
 human mind trembles today as on a pivot. Its instability is 
 as *'a reed shaken in the wind.'' 
 
 We have often heard it said that, *'A house divided 
 against itself cannot stand." This is truer of the human 
 mind than of any other house that was ever constructed. It 
 is equally true that mankind is wrong within today. The 
 human mind is divided against itself. Its various phases 
 or inter-relations or faculties have not been fully and har- 
 moniously developed at all. In the process of education, the 
 human mind has simply happened. It has literally run 
 riot — for the reason that education has been blandly en- 
 gaged in the crystal-gazing process of beholding the marvel- 
 ous beauty of its social aims at work — being too busy the 
 while to be even conscious that man has a mind, much less 
 to take any note of the cyclonic psychic anarchy that in- 
 cessantly strews its wreckage within the sacred precincts of 
 that same mind. 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 93 
 
 Biological integrity demands that there shall be abso- 
 lutely no feeling or spirit of self -inferiority or self-insuf- 
 ficiency in the annals of the human mind. No self-disturb- 
 ance or self-denunciation of any kind must be suffered to 
 endure in the mind of man to paralyze his power to put 
 forth effort, or freeze the fountains of his desire to face the 
 goal of his ambitions, or defeat and destroy the basic ca- 
 pacity and function to enjoy life. The moment that such 
 conditions obtain in the human mind, the very foundations 
 of everything that a comprehensive self-preservation really 
 implies, are swept away in a torrent of devastation — for, I 
 ask: If an organism hasn't got its own full and complete 
 measure of innate self-support, then what possible inherit- 
 ance or legacy can that organism have during a single con- 
 scious moment of its existence, outside of self -misery? There 
 can be but one answer — and that the self-experienced 
 wretchedness of mankind everywhere in the presence of 
 minds that have been dedicated to ruin. 
 
 Our situation therefore is this: Mental harmony does 
 not reign within the human mind. This is the same as 
 saying that the mind of man has deserted him, for it is at 
 war within itself — exactly the same as so many warring 
 members within a family. All unity and harmony of or- 
 ganic action is thus lost — and the different elements of the 
 mind, instead of constructively co-ordinating as one great 
 energizing composite, actually break themselves up as so 
 many isolates and act within the mind parasitically against 
 the normal organization and development of the individual. 
 
 But let us inquire more minutely and more concretely 
 into our case. Let us see wherein mental inharmony has 
 taken possession of the human mind. Let us determine spe- 
 cifically what it is that has thro^vn the human mind out of 
 gear. These are points of information, which most assur- 
 edly every person must want to know. In fact, a number 
 of very explicit questions might be asked, showing our fur- 
 ther interest in viewing the details of this entire issue. 
 
 What, for example, is point number one in the destruc- 
 tion of "biological integrity ? What is the first great handful 
 
94 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 of sand that is thrown into the cogs of our mental ma- 
 chinery, remaining there throughout life to wreck our native 
 destinies? "What destruction is it that eternally keeps on 
 sifting its way into the human mind from infancy to old 
 age ? "What instinct is it in the human mind that civiliza- 
 tion has coached into becoming a wild, runaway horse with 
 the reins dashed to the ground? What monster is it that 
 education has seated upon the throne of human mentality, to 
 reign as monarch of all things, both seen and unseen 1 What 
 beast is it that reverses the order of the world by standing at 
 the gateway of every human faculty and clubbing innate 
 human rights and human powers into insensibility and help- 
 lessness ? What tyrant is it that has usurped every inalien- 
 able right in the republic of the human mind, subjecting 
 mankind to the endless bondage of psychic slavery ? What 
 is this supreme dog in the great manger of human possi- 
 bilities, biting and snapping and growling at every tired 
 and hungry ox that would come there to feed ? What cave 
 man is it that stands at the door of mental life, and casts 
 his shadow as a ghostly and ghastly cloud over the fairest 
 flowers of the human soul? What hermit is it that has 
 taken up his haunts in the mind of man, there to gloat and 
 glory over the psychic desolation and undoing of the Uni- 
 verse ? What massive behemoth is it that has converted the 
 human mind into a seething volcano and into a juggernaut 
 of ruin ? In a word, what is it above all else that has bar- 
 tered away biological integrity down through the ages, and 
 accepted in its place only the coin of chaos ? 
 
 Can we locate that monstrous demon? I say that we 
 can — and I am going to name him right now. This unholy 
 fiend is nothing more or less than the gigantic brute which 
 the world calls fear. 
 
 Fear — that is the beast — ^that is the monster — which has 
 ever been the first to violate and burglarize the temple of 
 mental life, shattering the very keystone of all human power 
 from its arches. I say that the scourge and curse of fear 
 is the first great canker that eats the very heart out of lio- 
 logical integrity. It is the bitter pill of fear that is the 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 95 
 
 parent of every plague that torments and tortures the 
 thought life of mankind today. It is fear which is the one 
 world guarantee that just as long as fear is in the human 
 mind, mental harmony itself can never be there — because 
 everywhere — in every psychic w^orld — fear is eternally an 
 inciter of civil war, and every form of indescribable chaos 
 and anarchy. 
 
 And yet in the face of that awful fact a set of super- 
 ficial educational leaders would lightly talk about ' ' the full 
 and harmonious development of all the faculties," and then 
 set it aside as a child would some toy. They were unwit- 
 tingly employing one of the very richest phrases in all edu- 
 cation. They were totally unconscious of their field. They 
 knew no more of the real meaning and significance of men- 
 tal harmony than a creeping infant would of a stick of dyna,- 
 mite that might accidentally fall into its hands. That is the 
 reason why a set of false educational leaders passed over 
 the most priceless treasures in all the territory of education, 
 and simply said — ^^FooVs Gold''! Indeed that very edu- 
 cator whom leaders had picked out as one of the foremost 
 of all their champions — ^W. T. Harris — said far worse — for, 
 in speaking of the full and harmonious development of the 
 f acuities f he referred to the doctrine as **a dangerous sur- 
 vival. "^° I take it that testimony of that kind, out of the 
 mouths of its ov,ti selected leaders, ought to constitute a 
 most convincing evidence to the world that education must 
 stand self-impeached before the bar of human judgment — 
 and not only that, but as the years go by, and as enlighten- 
 ment dawns within the human mind, present-day education 
 is going to be roundly and soundly denounced for its shame- 
 ful lack of a deep-seeing leadership. 
 
 Then too education w^ould babble about '* adjustment to 
 environment.'' "Why, its leaders have never reached in wis- 
 dom the letter A in this marvelous field. Education has 
 never even dreamed that the greatest adjustment under all 
 heaven is right tvithin the human mind itself. That simple 
 little fact has never once occurred to education. All along 
 
 30 See chapter 4, reference 25. 
 
96 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 the line it has been laboring under the bugbear of a delu- 
 sion that the one great adjustment has to do with ruhhing 
 elbows with one's neighbors I It is no wonder that with the 
 social aim obsession blinding the eyes of educational leaders 
 everywhere they have missed the richest jewel in the entire 
 [field of adjustment. To be sure, we must make external 
 adjustments — no one is denying that. But we may make 
 such adjustments until doom's day — and education will 
 spell nothing but an abyss of endless torment until such 
 time as adjustment number one is made ; The harmonious 
 adjustment of the powers or faculties or instincts within the 
 human mind. Nothing in the Universe can be right for 
 mankind without just as long as mankind is wrong within 
 — and the human within is the human mind. 
 
 Nor will such a process of getting the mind right be 
 looking skyward — or "fixing one's gaze on spiritual 
 heights," as O'Shea has so very erroneously said^^ — ^but it 
 will be coming right down to earth and attending to the 
 bed-rock essentials of common, every-day human affairs. In 
 that process, no single finger is going to be raised against 
 the principle of external adjustments — ^but when those ad- 
 justments are made they shall be seen and understood as 
 but means toward the attainment of that supreme inner 
 adjustment of mental harmony, which must be made the 
 end of all adjustment. 
 
 But in this particular connection, it remains to be pointed 
 out that the principle of liological integrity has never 
 yet dawned in the mind of education. Every passing criti- 
 cism that education has ever made on the educational aim 
 of unfoldment or of the full and harmonious development 
 of the faculties or of self-realization — has been in a world of 
 thought utterly foreign to the concept and thesis of biolog- 
 ical integrity, which I herein and herewith lay down as the 
 fundamental purpose of education. Indeed nowhere today 
 in the entire field of education is a single thought to be 
 found that bears even the remotest resemblance to the 
 proposition that the purpose of education is to guarantee 
 
 SI See chapter 4, reference 29. 
 
AND MY OWN ANSWER 97 
 
 the biological integrity of the individual. Furthermore, this 
 concept has never existed in the minds of even the most 
 zealous champions of such doctrines as harmonious develop- 
 ment, any more than it has in the minds of the critics 
 thereof. Consequently, between the friends of that doctrine 
 and between the enemies of that doctrine, the principle of 
 biological integrity has slumbered on, totally and equally 
 unseen by both camps of followers — and in the meantime an 
 innocent and blameless humanity has wearied its way on, 
 suffering all the punishments of the — just or the unjust. 
 
 And so I would make it clear before closing the present 
 chapter that the most basic right in the Universe is the right 
 of psychic stability and psychic 7iormality. Similarly, the 
 most fundamental desire in the Universe is that instinctive 
 and unquenchable longing for that very same psychic 
 anchorage which will at all times enable the individual to 
 breathe from his conscious and sub-conscious being the most 
 unshakable declarations of self-power and self-justification 
 and self-equality before the whole world in any contest or 
 in any situation. Every individual feels deeply the innate 
 right to go through life — uncrushed in the court of his own 
 mind. He also feels and knows that if such a condition does 
 not obtain, he is a helpless victim before all the world. In- 
 deed he knows better than anything else that has ever en- 
 tered into the mind of man the great central fact that the 
 only self-preservation in all creation is that self-preservation 
 which proceeds from a psychic organization whose emana- 
 tions are not eternally the death shadows of self-deprecia- 
 tion and self-condemnation. Yea, even the simplest organism 
 knows, if only instinctively so, that even though the body 
 may live, a tremulous mind can spell but one thing — and 
 that the incessant and unescapable inner misery which al- 
 ways comes with the feeling of self inferiority and self- 
 inequality to the occasions of the hour. 
 
 I say that every individual feels the instinctive call and 
 necessity to be right within — for where the mind wavers, 
 the individual is lost — and the individual knows it. I say 
 further that it is the most innate and most basic right of 
 
 7 
 
98 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 every individual not to go through life crushed — and every 
 individual feels and knows that, too, as keenly as any razor 
 edge — for no self-destruction is so vivid as that in which 
 there exists and remains a human mind to view and review 
 the desert wastes of its own disorganization and weakness. 
 That is the one great reason why there goes up from that 
 consciousness and that contemplation the infinite desire to 
 be free from the tyranny of mental bondage. 
 
 Now the right to be thus free and equal and self -pre- 
 served on the part of every individual in his own eyes and 
 his own estimation, I say is the sacred right of hiological 
 integrity. Without that right assured and guaranteed and 
 realized, the individual is nothing — absolutely. But with 
 that right realized, every individual becomes a monarch of 
 power and virtue and happiness, no matter what exigencies 
 of life might befall him. That is why I put forth this con- 
 cept, insisting that the first and most sacred duty of educa- 
 tion is to guarantee the hiological integrity of the individual. 
 
 It shall be my duty in the following chapters, to show 
 how this purpose of education is to materialize by means 
 of analyzing in detail the various inverse relations that ob- 
 tain between hiological integrity and fear. 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 
 
 In the preceding chapter it was laid down that the pur- 
 pose of education is to guarantee the biological integrity 
 of the individual. It was also stated that fear in the human 
 mind has ever been the fundamental element that has made 
 biological integrity impossible. In the present chapter 
 there shall be commenced a detailed exposition of that first 
 great fact, showing wherein fear constitutes the one pri- 
 mary violation and the one monumental defeat of the sacred 
 psychic rights of every individual who goes through life 
 mentally crucified. 
 
 At the very outset I want to drive home the following 
 most tremendous truth, namely : The fundamental state of 
 the mind is the basic determinant in the education of the 
 individual. This principle follows directly on the very 
 heels of the concept of biological integrity — for the very 
 moment that we grant the proposition that self-preservation 
 is the most basic right and desire in the Universe ; and fur- 
 ther and especially that the only real self-preservation is 
 that which inheres in the innate consciousness of that 
 psychic stability which spells self-poise and self-equality 
 and self-justification in the eyes of the individual himself — 
 I say that the very moment that we grant those two propo- 
 sitions, then at once it must be admitted that the real 
 measure of any individual's education is the fundamental 
 state of his mind. 
 
 Now, note carefully that this fundamental state of the 
 mind is an entirely different thing than the amount of 
 knowledge that the mind may possess — for a mind may be 
 teeming with knowledge, and yet at the same time be a shiv- 
 ering wreck. The absolute truth of this declaration must 
 
 99 
 
100 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 be perceived and admitted — otherwise the principle of bio- 
 logical integrity with all its implications is missed entirely. 
 Furthermore, since biological integrity is the very first 
 right of every individual ; and since the fundamental state 
 of the mind is the one gauge and guarantee of the exact 
 degree of biological integrity that obtains in the life and 
 conduct of any individual ; and still further since that de- 
 gree of biological integrity should always be the very high- 
 est — it follows that the fundamental state of an individuaVs 
 mind should always be the very best possible. In otheo* 
 words, the problem of education, which is the problem of 
 biological integrity, resolves itself into equipping each in- 
 dividual with the soundest mind — or, the greatest degree of 
 psychic firmness and psychic harmony. 
 
 Our next concern is to inquire of what an individual's 
 fundamental state of mind consists, and how it is produced. 
 My general answer to this question is, that every thought 
 entering into or proceeding from the human mind has its 
 feeling tone — and that it is that feeling tone that is of first 
 importance. Nor is that statement a mere set of words to 
 be glided over. That fact demands to be emphasized — 
 for it has a double significance, the unexpressed phase of 
 which is, that an individual's fundamental state of mind is 
 not the fact tone of his thoughts at all. Let that proposition 
 sink deeply and indelibly into our understanding. It is 
 the feeling tone of all psychic experience that counts — 
 and not the fact tone. That is why I stated in the preced- 
 ing paragraph that the greatest shipwreck of a mind might 
 at the same time be the repository of the greatest amount 
 of knowledge. Suffice it to say, therefore, that the one great 
 dominating ingredient entering into the psychic state of the 
 individual is the feeling tone of the thoughts that cross and 
 recross the threshold of his mental life. 
 
 Having arrived at this stage of agreement, I now desire 
 to plunge into the bearing of fear on the checkmating and 
 undoing of our accepted principle of biological integrity. I 
 lay it down as an elemental fact that fear is the one great 
 feeling tone that has pre-empted and engulfed the human 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 101 
 
 mind. And I say it with all solemnity that, until such time 
 as that feeling tone is destroyed, man will remain a weak- 
 ling, buffeted about in a thousand ways in a world peopled 
 with all the ghosts and spooks and spirits and terrors and 
 hobgoblins of a disordered mentality. As Sadler has said, 
 ''Fear is a mental blight, a moral mildew, an intellectual 
 poison. ' '^- I say that it is the universal blight and mildew 
 and poison of all civilization — and all education. Fear has 
 become a universal mental disease. In the presence of that 
 disease, '*all is vanity and vexation of spirit'^ — regardless 
 of how much alleged education any individual may have 
 — for fear is a demon of such an endless mental functioning 
 that it shatters the very foundations of the entire human 
 mind. 
 
 Fear is a disease which spells distress, destruction, de- 
 generacy. It spells panicky mental action in every depart- 
 ment of human thought. It always produces mental dys- 
 pepsia. Fear is the hand-maiden of mental bondage and 
 moral thraldom. It is a psychic desperado — and it will 
 never be anything else until the end of time. The only 
 thing that it ever gives rise to is false impressions and 
 fraudulent feelings. Fear is the most prolific source of evil 
 of any agency in the Universe. It weakens and paralyzes 
 every fiber and every cell of organic creation. It is fear 
 which is playing eternal havoc with the world today — ^be- 
 cause it is fear which has disrupted human mentality. As 
 Horace Fletcher has said, ''The underlying cause of all 
 weakness and unhappiness in man .... has always been, 
 and still is, weak habit-of-thought.'' Fear is the concen- 
 trated essence which has saturated all mental action in such 
 a way as to place our habit of thought upon a foundation 
 of ashes. 
 
 And how does fear thus perform its unholy work of pros- 
 trating the human mind ? It does it by forcing every single 
 individual fear-victim to self-invoice himself in the role of 
 self-asserting his own ivea'kness, insignificance and inequal- 
 ity — or, in other words, by leading its victim to play the 
 
 S2W. S. Sadler: Psychology of Faith and Fear, page 98. 
 
102 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 ungodly part of mental self -executioner. Fear is not thus 
 what it is ordinarily thought to be : Some independent, iso- 
 lated thing which operates in its own special, fear field — ■ 
 and then stops right there at some imaginary boundary lines. 
 That is not what fear is at all. Fear has no boundary lines. 
 Its field of operation is the entire human mind — and that 
 means the entire human body as well. This means that 
 fear does its wicked work by enforcing on its victims psy- 
 chic suicide. There is no other alternative, whatever, for 
 any victim of fear — because the moment that the human 
 mind becomes a feverish hotbed of tremulous hesitancy, in- 
 decision and doubt, that very moment every iota of thought 
 has washed out of itself every semblance of self -trust and 
 self-approbation — and instead of those absolutely indis- 
 pensable and irreplacable feeling tones, every thought be- 
 comes impregnated through and through with the poison- 
 ous tincture of the most deadly and the most paralyzing 
 enemy that creation has ever had — self-condemnation. That 
 is to say, the fear-victim has no choice of any kind what- 
 soever. He has but one occupation — the one achieved and 
 thrust upon him. It is the endless business of hroiv-h eating 
 himself. 
 
 Let us understand clearly, therefore, that fear breaks 
 down every barrier within the human mind. There is 
 nothing in the psychic world that can possibly isolate the 
 action or the effects of fear. It knows no restrictions of 
 any kind. Its insulation from any physiological section or 
 from any psychological phase of the mind is a total impos- 
 sibility. That is wh}^ fear completely lays waste every con- 
 dition and prerequisite of stable equilibrium in the human 
 mind — and why at the same time it utterly throttles bio- 
 logical integrity within the very precincts of its own estates. 
 
 Now this same fact gives us our clue to another impor- 
 tant proposition, namely: The education of the will is al- 
 ways of infinitely greater importance than that of the in- 
 tellect in the shaping of the destiny of the individual. 
 But psychology one is, that the will is nothing more or less 
 than a composite flowering out of the emotions. Over- 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 103 
 
 powering emotions not only completely override the will — 
 they also completely underride it, for upon the emotions 
 the will is built. As are the grooves in the emotions, so is 
 the will. The machinery of all mentality has its own ruts 
 — and it rapidly settles into them — including all emotional 
 phases. All of our established habits form actual and 
 literal pathways through the nervous mechanism of the 
 body. The grooves of our mentality have an actual, ma- 
 terial foundation — and the work of emotion pervades them 
 all. Fear is the unholy master demon which has injected 
 its indelible coloring into every groove and every rut of the 
 human mind — so that the human will is unstable today and 
 undependable in proportion to the degree that fear is the 
 color tone of the mind. 
 
 The prevention and cure of aberrations in the instincts 
 or emotions is thus our very first duty in education. But 
 all of the aberrations in the human mind are overwhelm- 
 ingly the fruitage of fear. Therefore, we may well lay 
 down the proposition that education has no duties, how- 
 ever sacred they may be, antedating the duty of keeping 
 fear out of the human mind — a duty which education has 
 never even thought of performing, because thus far educa- 
 tion has completely lacked a fundamental consciousness on 
 the subject. Because of that non-performance humanity 
 has been eternally and helplessly tied to a kindled stake 
 whose consuming fires have been but the fanning flames 
 of fear. 
 
 In all the centuries of human misery, fear has been the 
 chief weapon of self-destruction. Fear is the law of self- 
 friction. It is a chasm in every cubic centimeter of which, 
 is to be found loss, death, defeat, accident, catastrophe, de- 
 moralization. It is both the sword and the scabbard which 
 has bled the w^orld of its peace, its happiness, its composure. 
 It is the bottomless pit of nothingness. Its shadows are 
 chaos, collapse and fatality. It is the Iamb-like beast which 
 has crushed from the lion its courage. It rules every house 
 that was ever divided against itself. Of all the world's 
 great slaveholders, fear is incomparably the greatest. It 
 
104 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 is the parent of all mental debility. It is the offspring of 
 ignorance. It is the prince of inquisition. Its choicest 
 fruits are timidity and cowardice, apprehension and worry, 
 superstition and depression, self-consciousness and self- 
 condemnation. It is the leading actor in all the great 
 tragedies of human experience. 
 
 Bear in mind that we are talking about fear — and that 
 the fear of which we speak is enthroned in the human mind. 
 At all times a pessimist, fear is the greatest enemy to health, 
 harmony and happiness that has ever darkened the planet. 
 It runs counter to every feeling of love and courage that 
 ever animated mankind. It is the prophet of evil. It is 
 the veil that blackens every landscape of the future. In 
 the farthest domains of the enemy's country, our only 
 enemy is the fear that we carry in the bosoms of our own 
 minds. In the inner battles of life — there and there alone 
 is where the great contest is on. For this reason, fear is 
 the most pernicious garb that ever clothed a human thought. 
 
 Fear is the seed whose poisonous flower is moral cow- 
 ardice, vacillation and suspicion. It is the thief of time. 
 It is also the thief of all individual and social progress. 
 Every unjustifiable atom of fear of public opinion, censure 
 and criticism is not only a fountain of ceaseless mental tor- 
 ture for the individual — but it is also a pit in which lie 
 buried the social hopes of the world. By its procrastina- 
 tions and paralyzings, fear postpones the very horizon of 
 hope, and turns backwards the hands of social progression 
 on the dial of human aspirations and human longings. It 
 cripples conscience and puts duty upon crutches. It bi- 
 sects truth and places stripes on the innermost vision of the 
 human soul. It is the mother of disobedience and doubt. 
 At the bar of conscience it makes convicts and cowards of 
 all of its victims. At the counters of life it makes beggars 
 and paupers of everyone of them. Its only coin is the tender 
 of bankruptcy and apology. It bows down and worships 
 the foot that kicked and the hand that smote. Abjectly it 
 adores the demon of error, whether it be tradition or cus- 
 tom, usage or style, insult or abuse. 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 105 
 
 Fear is a repeal of the instinct of self-preservation — for, 
 by nullifying every effort of the will, it is a standing invi- 
 tation for the world to pursue and possess us. Fear is the 
 very cornerstone of selt-annihilation. Crowded with old 
 fears, the human mind ever beckons new fears to its shrine. 
 The triumph of mankind over fear must ever be made the 
 aim of life, the aim of education everywhere — for fear is 
 the parent of stampede, and the synonym of death. Fear 
 strangles courage as a terrier would shake the senses out 
 of a rat. Yea, fear crucifies the eternal essence of the Uni- 
 verse — love. 
 
 Wondrous triumphs await the mind that justly knows 
 no fear. But if the very shadow of truth be fear, then 
 what single step can truth ever hope to make when it is 
 hounded by fear at every turn ? Any mind freed from fear 
 is a mind purified, chastened, ennobled. Such a mind 
 mounts as on the wings of an eagle, soaring through the 
 etherialized regions of Infinity. It rises as a benediction, 
 freed from the volcanic pits of torment, and takes its right- 
 ful supremacy in worlds of unlimited power. Nor are such 
 worlds foreign to the rightful deserts of any of us — for 
 every human being has within his consciousness a ray of 
 light of some kind. But fear corrodes, corrupts and 
 crushes that light — and that is why most of the world's 
 singers are voiceless — they die with all their music and their 
 dreams and their ambitions unvoiced within them — thanks 
 to the tragic fact that fear is the one great undercurrent in 
 the human mind, and the one dominant overtone in human 
 conduct. Fear, be it known, is faith in evil. Doubt and 
 worry are a confirmed trust in the same thing. 
 
 Nor must we forget for a minute the permanence and 
 ever-presence of fear in its action as a functioning influence, 
 wherever it has gained a foothold in the human mind. Fear 
 never takes a vacation. This does not mean that some 
 specific fear is always consciously operating in the mind — ■ 
 it does not necessarily mean that at all. What it does mean 
 is the fact that has already been pointed out, namely, the 
 fact that fear is more than fear — that is to say, some spe- 
 
106 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 cific fear, for example, does not stop there simply as that 
 one individual fear, which operates in some one special de- 
 partment of the mind, and then only during that time when 
 it is consciously in the mind. That is not a complete con- 
 ception of fear at all — because fear involves the entire mind, 
 and establishes such an inward mental reality, that in effect 
 fear is a constant operator, whether any acute fear is actu- 
 ally sensed or not. That is to say, fear by degrees estab- 
 lishes its own peculiar state of mind. It lends to the entire 
 mind a feeling tone of chronic fear, which manifests itself 
 in the mind of the victim as self-belittlement. The fear 
 victim is always self -discounting himself and self-exalting 
 the world. He does this not because he wants to, but be- 
 cause of the deeply ingrained footprints that fear has left 
 in his mind. He simply cannot help it. He is ever mak- 
 ing comparisons — and at the conclusion of every comparison 
 he has but taken one more suggestion of his own self- 
 inferiority. 
 
 Now that state of feeling is the world in which the fear- 
 victim lives — for it is the unchanging color tone of his 
 mind. But that is not all. It is far more than a mere 
 mental world to the victim. It is also the victim 's world of 
 conduct. He acts parallel to the mind that is his. As 
 Royce says, ''We not only observe and feel our doings and 
 attitudes as a mass of inner facts, viewed all together, but 
 in particular we attend to them with greater or less care".^^ 
 In the case of that paralyzed mental attitude superinduced 
 by the chronic effects of fear, attention thereto is Tines- 
 capable owing to the fact that a life training in fear finally 
 comes to constitute, as it were, the very protoplasmic color- 
 ing of the innermost essence of the human soul. ''As a man 
 thinketh in his heart, so is he.'* But the mind poisoned 
 and prostrated with fear must think whether it would or 
 not — for the outstanding characteristic of fear is the utter 
 inertia of its perpetual motion in the direction of death. 
 
 Furthermore, the conduct of the fear-victim bears its 
 own death symbols. Chief among those symbols is the 
 
 23 Royce : Outlines of Psychology. Page reference lost. 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGEITY AND FEAR 107 
 
 standing presence of a crippled self-assertion. Outwardly 
 the victim of fear may be dashing boldly forward — but 
 inwardly the weight of his conviction is pulling backwards 
 — for his self-faith is so utterly without a rock foundation 
 that he is ready to run at the shade of the shadow of the 
 first shot. The fear victim, therefore, does not venture. 
 He cannot venture — or, at least if he does, then his venture 
 is but the spasmodic gathering up of the determinations of 
 the moment. But such determinations are usually infirm — 
 because they consist too exclusively of conscious effort, 
 whereas they should have back of them the unshakable bal- 
 last which comes only with the enduring granite of sub- 
 conscious moorings. Consequently the efforts of the fear- 
 victim quickly ooze out — for they are on about the same 
 plane as trying to carry water in a sieve. The sum total 
 of the matter is, that the victim of fear sneaks behind the 
 curtains of life, and hides in their shadows, where his only 
 consciousness and only companionship is the spirit of self- 
 condemnation. Borrowing from the language of Plato, it 
 is the literal and enforced ''pulling back of a soul which is 
 under the influence of thirst ".^^ 
 
 But there is still a larger factor to consider in this con- 
 nection, and that is, that in the fear-victim there sets in a 
 degeneration of personality. The same lack of self-asser- 
 tion and self-poise and self-faith in the foundations of the 
 mind soon crystallizes itself shadow for shadow, and sign 
 for sign, in countenance, in eye, in gait, in speech — and in 
 that indefinable something which we call expression and 
 atmosphere. Instead of a simple sense of strength in the 
 fear-victim we detect one of complex weakness. Instead of 
 poise, we find flurry. Instead of ease, we find a reflection of 
 constant inward concern. Instead of a tone of self-integrity 
 we find one of self-apology. Instead of a feeling of undis- 
 turbed naturalness, we detect one of hurrying seemliness. 
 Instead of undisguised innocence, we see a helpless insin- 
 cerity. Instead of a focused oneness of mind, we behold a 
 dispersed multiplicity of mental action. Instead of a sub- 
 
 2^ Plato: EepuLlic, pages 135-144. 
 
108 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 consciousness of self-power, we perceive a consciousness of 
 self-weakness. 
 
 Such are some of the many conditions carved out by fear 
 in the degeneration of human personality — and wherever 
 they are they always speak for themselves in terms of the 
 negative impressions that they lend. 
 
 Now, briefly speaking, it is along the general lines laid 
 down thus far in the present chapter that fear does its 
 work. It does it by eating the very heart out of the indi- 
 vidual's self-respect — and that too before the wide-open 
 eyes of a protesting consciousness. That is why fear is the 
 great throttler of biological integrity — it robs the mind of 
 its sacredly rightful sense of self-equality, and thereby re- 
 duces the individual to insignificance and zero in his own 
 eyes, and then tortures him with the enormity of the result- 
 ing consciousness. With biological integrity strangled, the 
 only inch of solid ground that the victim has to stand on 
 is the outraged consciousness that it ought not to be as it 
 is — because, bear in mind the very important fact that hio- 
 logical integrity is two-fold in its inner significance : first, 
 it involves the basic right of every individual to be endowed 
 with the consciousness that he is the equal of any other indi- 
 vidual in the Universe; and, second, it involves the basic, 
 instinctive and conscious desire on the part of the indi- 
 vidual to have just such a consciousness. The first part of 
 the principle involves the right of every individual to go 
 through life nn-trodden by his fellow man, or by any other 
 force in the Universe, within or without; the second part 
 of the principle makes the individual consciousness of that 
 right, and the individual desire for that right to be equally 
 sacred with the right itself. 
 
 Now, it is in the second phase of this principle that the 
 victim really suffers — in the desire and consciousness side 
 of it — for even if an individual is eternally hrow-heaten in 
 life, it would not mean nearly so much in terms of actual 
 misery, if Nature had not implanted in the soul of every 
 organism, high or low, the undying conviction of his right 
 not to be trodden upon, The real spiritual slogan engraved 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 109 
 
 on every banner of self-preservation that ever waved is 
 just this — ^^Do not tread upon mel" The implication of 
 that slogan is not at all that it is an aggressive challenge 
 for a fight — but simply Nature's wise assertion that self- 
 respect constitutes the most important prerequisite in the 
 Universe — for the thing that the world calls self-preserva- 
 tion is nothing more or less than the objective manifesta- 
 tion of the deeply implanted psychic right and desire and 
 reality of the sense of self -equality — and even the plunder- 
 ing hand of fear itself cannot take away from the indi- 
 vidual that glimmer of consciousness which ever tells him 
 in unmistakable tones that when Nature chiseled the prin- 
 ciple of biological integrity into the protoplasmic granite 
 of the ages, she chiseled aright. 
 
 Let us therefore emphasize this fact, namely: No indi- 
 vidual is ever really down-trodden in life until he is down- 
 trodden within the judgment and consciousness of his own 
 mind. Furthermore, every individual knows that as un- 
 mistakably as he does the simplest fact in every day life. 
 It matters not what happens to the individual externally 
 — it all depends on what is happening within the precincts 
 of the individual's mind. In human consciousness — there 
 and there alone is where mankind is brow-beaten and trod- 
 den upon. This patent fact is illustrated, for example, by 
 the total unconcern which a very large dog will manifest 
 as a rule toward the persistent and ridiculous impudence of 
 some very small dog in attacking the larger one. By such 
 an attack, the integrity of the big dog is in no way im- 
 peached, for even though he may get bitten his poise of 
 mind stands absolutely unshaken in his consciousness of 
 the very fact that his mind is unshaken. And precisely the 
 same principle holds with human beings — that is, the basic 
 criterion of self-preservation lies within the mind itself. 
 It is the individual's attitude toward what is happening 
 to him. 
 
 Unquestionably it must be a phase of this same principle 
 with which the spirit of the following injunction was orig- 
 inally impregnated, namely: *'But whosoever shall smite 
 
110 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also".^^ I 
 say that originally this injunction must have primarily ap- 
 pealed to the side of the strong, for purely on the grounds 
 of biological integrity, which is the only point of view that 
 I am taking here, there is absolutely no justification what- 
 ever for any sacrifice that is made by the weak — by which I 
 mean sacrifice made on the plane of trembling cowardice. 
 Had Belgium, for example, turned the other cheek to Ger- 
 many, it would have been a colossal violation of the sacred 
 tenet for which I herewith plead — because Germany was a 
 bully, with perceptions so dulled and deadened that such a 
 cheek-turning process would have fallen on German ears that 
 were deaf. The United States, on the other hand, might very 
 well, if thought best, turn the other cheek to a Mexico — ^be- 
 cause in the process of such a turning, there would be repre- 
 sented no psychic defeat for our country. The point sim- 
 ply is, that since the resulting state of mind is the one great 
 criterion of whether or not an individual's integrity is being 
 violated, the gia^it may readily turn the other cheek if he 
 wants to — ^because in the very consciousness of his self- 
 equality he suffers no defeat — for his mind is all right. 
 That is to say, his biological integrity remains absolutely 
 unimpaired. But to turn the other cheek, when that turn- 
 ing is merely a symbol of a crushed and broken mind — such 
 a turning is an unspeakable outrage on every basic concep- 
 tion of right in the Universe. Such a sacrifice can never 
 spell anything but the further sore delay of that hour when 
 mankind must perceive for his own good the psychic truth of 
 being as it actually exists. 
 
 Now the purpose of the above immediate argument is 
 to drive home with increased emphasis the fact that it is 
 in the human mind that all human contests really take 
 place — and that accordingly it is by the mental marks of 
 those contests that we must judge the fundamental state of 
 an individual's mind. By that state of mind must we 
 judge his education — and by that education must we judge 
 whether or not the individual is a victim of the world. If 
 
 35 The Bible. Attributed to Christ in Matthew 5:39. 
 
BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND FEAR 111 
 
 he is a victim of the world, then his education is wrong. 
 If his education is wrong, then his fundamental state of 
 mind is wrong. If his fundamental state of mind is wrong, 
 then the various life contests and life situations through 
 which he passes are eating out the very heart of his being 
 — and if that is true, then that means that the holy prin- 
 ciple of hiological integrity, which Nature implanted in him, 
 lies bruised and bleeding and broken in the rivetted vision of 
 his own eyes — and, finally, if that is so, then we have traced 
 to his last lair the villainous demon of — fear! 
 
 Fear — I say — that is the murderous wretch of the ages ! 
 That is the marauder brigand that has stolen down through 
 the centuries and kidnapped the very foundations of the 
 human mind, leaving not so much as the option of a ran- 
 som. Fear, I say, is the footpad freebooter that has clubbed 
 the human mind into psychic discord, into psj^chic helpless- 
 ness, into psychic self-depreciation. Fear, therefore, is the 
 beast that we must drive from our estates — for I affirm 
 over and over again that with biological integrity violated, 
 all of our alleged education is but the most contemptuous 
 derision of mankind. The thing for which I make appeal is 
 the deep mortising in the human mind of that principle 
 which will enable every individual really to sing with the 
 poet the following most spiritually heroic lines — 
 
 "Out of the night that covers me, 
 
 Black as the pit from Pole to Pole, 
 I thank whatever gods may be 
 For my unconquerable soul. 
 
 In the fell clutch of circumstance 
 
 I have not winced nor cried aloud— 
 Beneath the bludgeonings of chance 
 
 My head is bloody, but unbowed. 
 
 It matters not how strait the gate. 
 
 How charged with punishments the scroll, 
 
 I am the master of my fate, 
 
 I am the captain of my soul".^^ 
 
 26 William Ernest Henley: Invietus. One stanza of the poem is 
 omitted above. 
 
112 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 The spirit of that poem is the birthright of every human 
 soul. It is the spiritual perfume of that soul which is not 
 only conscious of its birthright — but is also the possessor 
 of it. It is the essence of what I herein designate as the 
 first right and the most universal desire known to mankind 
 — the right and desire of biological integrity. 
 
 In the following chapters, fear in its further detailed 
 and destructive relations to this fundamental principle will 
 be considered from a genetic standpoint. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 FEAR: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 
 
 Our historic period is but two seconds on Hseckel's 
 cosmic clock of twenty-four hours. This will give us some 
 idea of the ages during w^hich primitive man has been con- 
 vulsed with fears and terrors unnumbered. But fear is 
 far older than the human race. It is as old as the oldest 
 life on the planet. Back through the remotest pages of 
 time and creation must we go if we would come to the 
 first mile-post in the long, dreary, endless procession of 
 the countless stakes that mark the trail and march of fear. 
 The fact of the matter is, we must go to the animal world. 
 There shall we see fear as it operates — pulsating as cease- 
 lessly as the waves that wash the shores of the seas. 
 
 This fact is testified to unconsciously in many of the 
 nooks and corners of our best literature. Robert Burns, 
 for example, wrote far more than a poem when he penned 
 his famous lines ''To A Mouse." He at the same time 
 touched upon the psychic bedrock of the animal world. I 
 have selected lines from this poem as follows — 
 
 I. 
 
 Wee, sleekit, eowerin', tim'rous beastie, 
 Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie! 
 
 VII. 
 
 But, mousie, thou art no thy lane. 
 In proving foresight may be vain: 
 The best laid plans of mice and men 
 
 Gang aft agley, 
 And lea'e us nought but grief and pain 
 
 For promised joy. 
 8 113 
 
114 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Still, thou art blest compared wi' me! 
 The present only touehet thee: 
 But oeh! I backward cast my e'e 
 
 On prospects drear! 
 An' forward, tho' I canna see, 
 
 I guess and fear! 
 
 In the above few lines Burns gives us one of the most 
 vivid and one of the most significant pictures of fear ever 
 painted. "Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie" — that one 
 line sums up the case of fear as no other combination of 
 words ever can. I shall refer to it often — for it represents 
 exactly the psychic state of any organism — man or beast — 
 in which the principle of biological integrity is undermined. 
 
 But the above poem tells us much of the antiquity of 
 fear. James himself says that fear is one of the oldest 
 of all emotions. He places it beside lust and anger.^^ But 
 in my opinion, lust and anger can never be so basic as fear, 
 at least in terms of effects, for the reason that fear is far 
 less of any subject's own choosing. Certainly fear is the 
 most energetic, the most exciting, the most engulfing and 
 the most paralyzing emotion that has ever taken possession 
 of any mentality. And this fact must argue for us all the 
 inconceivable antiquity of fear. Unquestionably the tap- 
 roots of fear spread themselves throughout the length and 
 breadth of the Universe with the very first dawn of con- 
 sciousness on the scaffoldings of creation. Kipling most 
 penetratingly voices the spirit of this proposition when he 
 wrote ''The Song of the Little Hunter," which is being 
 given herewith. 
 
 The Song of the Little Hunter ^^ 
 
 Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry. 
 Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer. 
 
 37 William James : Psychology, Advanced Course ; volume II., 
 page 415. 
 
 s^Eudyard Kipling: The Second Jungle Book, pages 191-2. 
 
FEAE: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 115 
 
 Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh— 
 
 He is Fear, Little Hunter, he is Fear! 
 Veiy softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade, 
 
 And the whisper spreads and widens far and near; 
 And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now— 
 
 He is Fear, Little Hunter, he is Fear! 
 
 Ere the moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are ribbed 
 with light, 
 When the do^vnward-dripping trails are dank and drear, 
 Comes a breathing hard behind thee— snuffie-snuffle through the 
 night— 
 It is Fear, Little Hunter, it is Fear ! 
 On thy knees and draw thy bow; bid the shrillmg arrows go; 
 
 In the empty, mocking thicket plunge the spear; 
 But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left thy 
 cheek- 
 It is Fear, Little Hunter, it is Fear! 
 
 When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the silvered pine- 
 trees fall. 
 When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer; 
 Through the war-gongs of the thimder rings a voice more lo^^d 
 than all— 
 It is Fear, Little Hunter, it is Fear! 
 Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless bouldei's 
 leap— 
 Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear- 
 But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side 
 Hammers: Fear, Little Hunter— this is Fear! 
 
 With Kipling, fear '^ flits a shadow and a sigh" through 
 all the vastness of the jungles. But Kipling addresses 
 himself to '^The Little Hunter." And who is this ''Little 
 Hunter"? I say that it is that organism or any organism 
 that is enmeshed with fear — that organism of which it may 
 be said, ''What a panic's in thy breastie." Fear is the 
 one fundamental thing which always determines whether 
 any hunter is big or little. It is fear that casts the mold 
 and the gauge of every hunter — because fear is the sole 
 determinant of whether or not any hunter hunts and pur- 
 
116 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 sues himself within his own mind. The subject of fear is 
 always his own prey and his own pursuer. It is therefore 
 no wonder that such a hunter becomes ''little" from every 
 conceivable standpoint. 
 
 Now, the rational function of fear in the beginnings of 
 the animal world was undoubtedly to escape a greater, direct 
 pain by means of a smaller, indirect one. But an over- 
 whelmingly irrational fear has shifted the organic balance 
 in the opposite direction — for fear itself is a pre-eminently 
 painful and destructive state. To a very great extent, the 
 animal world has been one continuous panic of fear. The 
 ages seem to have been one endless pulsation of terror, 
 beating away ever and ever and ever its overtones of fear 
 into the delicate psychic structure of animal creation. In 
 the animal world, fear was thus established as a deep seated 
 instinct. 
 
 Such then is our stage setting when we arrive at man 's 
 first appearance on the earth. Man brought with him, 
 therefore, his fear inheritance — not so much from an unes- 
 capable organic standpoint, but in the sense that the pre- 
 disposition toward fear was there just as long as the out- 
 ward environment was present to implant fear. Not only 
 this, but with the dawTi of human intelligence, the occasions 
 for new and increased fears were actually multiplied. 
 Whereas the animal world in all likelihood took but little 
 note of the phenomena of Nature, primitive man began his 
 speculations in this special field at once. His added intelli- 
 gence, together with his intensified faculties of curiosity and 
 wonder, injected new terrors into every phase of his natural 
 environment. In every cloud, in every crash of lightning, 
 in every tempest, in every tide, in every w4nd, in every rain- 
 bow, in every shadow, in every moving blade of grass, in 
 every rustling leaf, in every dream — ^in every one of them he 
 saw and felt a world peopled with terrors. In his clouded, 
 unschooled mind, there was no fear to which primitive man 
 was not subject. It is of course true, as James has said, 
 that, ''The progress from brute to man is characterized by 
 nothing so much as by decrease in frequency of proper occa- 
 
FEAE: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 117 
 
 sions of fear".^^ But I answer: When was fear in the 
 mind of man ever confined to ^'proper occasions of fear"? 
 I say, never, in my opinion. Indeed, that very fact consti- 
 tutes just one more indictment against fear, namely, the 
 fact that most of its ''occasions" are overwhelmingly 
 groundless. It is therefore unquestionably true that man 
 has always been a greater prey of fear than the animal 
 world ever has. 
 
 From the cradle to the grave, the barbarian, the semi- 
 civilized and the civilized live under the withering blight of 
 fear — during childhood, during adolescence and during old 
 age. ' ' The savage, despite his apparent liberty, is in almost 
 every sense a slave — ^a slave to his own needs and to the 
 dread of unseen powers. Even in the case of material 
 things he has no freedom, for he is continually afraid of the 
 essence contained in them. Hence he wastes his time in 
 the performance of all sorts of propitiary rites, and after 
 
 all he does not get rid of fear For many ages this 
 
 fear prevented savages from applying fire to human uses. 
 It was held to be divine and inviolable. The story of Pro- 
 metheus' theft of it from heaven, and of the vengeance 
 which pursued him, is merely an echo of the feelings which 
 followed this application. In the religion of Zoroaster, this 
 same fear of polluting fire exists even at the present day."**^ 
 
 Herein we see the psychic makeup of the primitive 
 mind. In fact, all of primitive man's religion and all of 
 his science was animism — a fear belief in essences of the 
 most ghostly sort. A similar present-day picture is given 
 us by another writer in speaking of the Bulus in Africa in 
 the following words: ''There is a common enslavement fo 
 the things of fear. In these dim forests, every son of man 
 is born to fear. Temporal and material fears he does in- 
 deed suffer, but these minor fears are as the little finger to 
 the thumb, in comparison with the major fears, which are 
 
 3^ William James: Psychology, Advanced Course, volume II., page 
 415. 
 
 ^0 Davidson: History of Education, page 22; also note bottom 
 same page. See also Frazer: The Golden Bough; passim. 
 
118 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 not material fears. Here is the sum of his terrors : Fear of 
 other-worldly things as they impinge upon the sunny open- 
 ing of his life, and fear of the unknown venture beyond 
 
 death What can we know of the relentless pressure 
 
 upon the human heart of the crowded world of the animist ? 
 To him, the rocks of this world, its rivers, its forests, all the 
 structure of it, and all its ornament, are not sufficient to 
 
 afford lodging for the spirit tenants There is a Bulu 
 
 proverb which says: *A shadow never falls, but a spirit 
 stands' 'V' 
 
 Speaking along a similar line, still another writer has the 
 following to say: ''It is impossible for us to imagine what a 
 
 dreadful power this fear is in the life of the heathen 
 
 With this fetter, every animist is bound. The incessant 
 fear of demons and their evil plots, and of the sorcery 
 closely connected with their worship, by which these people 
 
 are tormented, passes our understanding The heathen 
 
 would furnish an example of how surely fear debases man. 
 .... Men of fearless character are mostly noble minded. 
 The fearful are cruel. Fear poisons every social relationship 
 and distrust becomes a second nature to the harassed. The 
 poor fear the rich, the weak the strong, the sick the healthy. 
 .... But those whom no one needs to fear are mercilessly 
 trodden under foot. What an immense amount of fear is 
 involved in burial ceremonies. Such fear is not to be 
 trifled with. "^2 
 
 Comments like the above could be quoted without num- 
 ber. In every instance the testimony would unanimously 
 point to the fact that down through the centuries the mind 
 of man has been one vast conservatory of fears. Very nat- 
 urally, therefore, fear has been a dominant thought impress 
 in every civilization. Either consciously or unconsciously, 
 fear has threaded its way into the very fibre of all primitive 
 education, Davidson testifies to this fact in the following 
 words : ' 'From what has been said, it is not difficult to divine 
 the nature of Assyro-Babylonian education. It was priestly ; 
 
 *i Jean Kenyon Mackenzie: An African Trail, page 66. 
 ^2 John Warneck : The Living Christ and Dying Heathenism. 
 
FEAR: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 119 
 
 it related chiefly to the unseen ; it was hostile to true edu- 
 cation Their ethics was closely related to their re- 
 ligion, and revolved around the notion of sin or transgres- 
 sion .... not as an expression of character, or as affect- 
 ing human beings, but as an offense against unseen powers. 
 .... In all cases the ethical motive was craven fear, which 
 lay like a dead weight upon men whom superstition had 
 convinced of their utter unworthiness in the presence of 
 irresponsible gods. Such ethics produced their natural re- 
 sults — fanatic religiosity and superstitious observance 
 coupled with every species of vice — incontinence, cruelty, 
 treachery. It is never safe to deprive the human being of 
 his sense of dignity and nohility, by making him feel him- 
 self the slave of any capricious power, seen or unseen, how- 
 ever sublime/^ Thus the Assyro-Babylonians, though con- 
 tributing many and important elements to material civili- 
 zation, stand as a warning to the world, of how little such 
 civilization contributes to human well-being, when not rest- 
 ing on a moral basis. "^* According to the same writer, 
 in Chaldean culture and education, *' Craven superstition 
 was also in full blast ".^^ Likewise, in commenting on con- 
 ditions in India, he makes the significant statement that, 
 ''All the virtues of the two great Indian religions rest upon 
 a foundation of cowardice, and aim only at unconditional 
 sloth, entailing the loss of moral individuality."^^ 
 
 Davidson then makes a jump across the centuries and 
 commits himself to the startling admission that, ''Until 
 after the decay of medisevalism all education, with the ex- 
 ception, perhaps, of that inculcated by Socrates, has been 
 education for subordination.'"'^ Davidson should of course 
 have specifically excepted Plato, in spite of the fact that the 
 latter had been a student of Socrates. But disregrardino: that 
 
 ^3 The italics in this sentence are mine. The italicized words rep- 
 resent very fairly a limited view of one phase of the principle whiah 
 I have designated as hiological integrity. 
 
 *4 Davidson : History of Education, pages 52-4. 
 
 45IbirL, page 36. 
 
 ''^Ibid., page 66. 
 
 ^^Ibid., page 174. 
 
120 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 fact entirely, Davidson's admission, sweeping as it is, and 
 limited as it is to subordination in relation to ' ' unseen pow- 
 ers, ' ' does not begin to go far enough. It is my contention that 
 from the very beginning of mankind, right down to the 
 present time, education has been overwhelmingly a coun- 
 tenanced structure of subordination, by virtue of the spirit 
 of fear which has at all times been permitted to become and 
 remain the master tenant of the human mind. Either con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, the spiritual substance of the 
 world's education has always been a fear education — ^that 
 is to say, education has never given any thought whatever 
 to the fundamental states of mind of those who come to 
 drink at her fountains. The laissez faire policy of a sur- 
 face-seeing ignorance has ever given carte hlanche to fear in 
 all things educational. 
 
 To be sure, our prevailing fears today may be different, 
 and they may also be somewhat more refined — but it is the 
 fact of fear — its actual color-tone presence in the human 
 mind — and not any refined differentiation of it, that counts. 
 The terrible reality itself is fear. No coining of names, 
 and no fashioning of phrases, and no juggling with periods 
 of human history, and no elaborating on epochs of human 
 culture can ever modify one whit the psychic essence of 
 what so-called civilization is depositing year after year, and 
 century after century in the mind of man. All civilizations 
 have made fear the spirit of their deposits. In saying this 
 I take twentieth century semi-civilization squarely by the 
 ear, and march it directly to the misdeeds that it has so 
 long suffered to obtain in the mental annals of our time. 
 
 In referring to the tremendous part that has been played 
 by fear all along the line in the past, Mosso relates the fol- 
 lowing historical incidents: ^'Alexander of Macedonia 
 offered up sacrifices to Fear before he went into battle, and 
 Tullus Hostilius erected temples and consecrated priests to 
 it. In the museum of Turin there are two Roman medals, 
 one of which bears the impression of a terrified woman, the 
 other the head of a man with hair on end, and frightened, 
 staring eyes. They were struck by the consuls of the family 
 
FEAE: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 121 
 
 of the Hostilii in remembrance of the vows made to propi- 
 tiate Fear, which threatened to invade the ranks of the sol- 
 diers, who thereupon were led to victory"/^ 
 
 But it is not necessary for us of modern days to offer 
 up any such artificial sacrifices to the demon of fear. Fear 
 already has them anyway — in terms of cause and effect — 
 her countless victims — and very often the choicest members 
 of the human flock. No — we need offer up no further sacri- 
 fices to fear — because the richest gem of all the ages has 
 already been sacrificed to fear. It is the human nvind. The 
 mind of man has been eternally the workshop of fear. Upon 
 the walls of that shop, fear has hung every conceivable and 
 inconceivable tool of terror and torture — and then with 
 those same tools, fear has carved into the very heart of 
 human consciousness with a glee that has been diabolical 
 beyond measure. 
 
 All along the way, therefore, fear has cast creation into 
 the shadows. Beginning with the animal world, fear gave a 
 cyclonic impetus to all that psychic instability which has 
 spelled subordination, cowardice and chaos. In that early 
 fear fact a strong predisposition was established for neutral, 
 negative, vacillating personality. Biological integrity was 
 unduly shattered in the balance. Weakness, bewilderment 
 and panic pre-empted the psychic thrones of strength, poise 
 and mastery. Biological integrity lay weeping at the 
 fountain. 
 
 That was the state of man's inheritance. His legacy 
 from the animal world was the instinct of fear. But that 
 in itself did not necessarily spell fatality. It spelled merely 
 a predisposition to follow the fear road of the jungle — 
 providing that the food of environment continued such as 
 to feed and nourish that predisposition, the very unfor- 
 tunate condition which actually did obtain. Man's in- 
 creased intelligence only created new jungles for psychic 
 desperation. They were the jungles of natural phenomena 
 — totally misunderstood. And man inhabited those jungles. 
 
 *^ Angelo Mosso : Fear, English translation, Lough and Kiesow, 
 page 275. 
 
122 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 In fact he never moved out. He took up his permanent resi- 
 dence there. His attitude toward his fear predisposition 
 was wrong. His inheritance and his legacy thus became 
 one. That duplex unity was the same old sigh, and the 
 same old shadow of the original jungles — fear. With relig- 
 ious devotion, man therefore bowed down and kneeled down 
 and worshipped at the same old jungle shrine — the shrine of 
 fear. 
 
 And ever since that great ceremonious day when the 
 beasts first transferred their right of world government and 
 world dominion over to man, the god of the human race has 
 been fear — for fear has ever been the dominating spiritual 
 influence which has hovered over the human mind. Fear it 
 is which has influenced the innermost substance of our souls 
 — and such an influence is the god of the world — and not 
 by any means any mere word that we feign to pronounce 
 by the meaningless movement of the lips. Fear stands today 
 as the major keynote of all our culture and all our education 
 — because the general order of our day permits fear to get 
 in on the ground floor of the human mind — and stay there 
 — and neither our *' culture" nor our "education" has ever 
 turned a positive primary hand to take possession of that 
 fear. Fear is the tenant of the mind of man today for the 
 reason that century after century, prevailing culture per- 
 mits it to be. The permanency of fear tenure all but makes 
 it the complete owner and the last and final master of the 
 human mind. 
 
 But I hasten to explain more fully, that this matter can 
 never be justly laid at the door of instinct. In the real 
 sense of the term, comparatively speaking, there is no in- 
 stinct of fear — ^that is, in the sense of an unescapable 
 organic inheritance. The fear in the world in every age has 
 been overwhelmingly a social inheritance. That is to say, 
 fear endures in the world — not because Nature has imposed 
 it — but because the young of every generation absorb the 
 fear culture that is all about them in the thought and the 
 conduct of their elders. That is exactly where fear comes 
 from, from age to age — man feeds it and keeps it alive and 
 
FEAR: ITS GENETIC ASPECTS 123 
 
 thriving with that same stupidity and that same ignorance 
 with which a more primitive man in his own day used to 
 keep himself constantly in a state of hysterics over the 
 simplest phenomena of Nature. 
 
 In other words, the social educations of the past have 
 merely been passed on from generation to generation. Mod- 
 em man in his system of common, or more properly speak- 
 ing "unwT:'itten" system of education has but borrowed his 
 cue from the past — with the result that the heathenish dross 
 and error of things has never been burned out of our doc- 
 trines and our philosophies and our habits of thought. 
 Man has therefore made a doul3le mistake in the whole af- 
 fair: In the first place he committed a colossally childish 
 blunder when he picked up the wild clue of the animal world 
 and ran like a lunatic through the ages, prostrating and 
 paralyzing himself before the simplest phenomena of Na- 
 ture; and in the second place he performed the crowning 
 act of human idiocy when he picked up the pattern of primi- 
 tive education and thus permitted a fear culture to be the 
 perpetual social inheritance of his children from generation 
 to generation. The first of these two awful mistakes may 
 be partly condonable, for primitive man was after all but a 
 beast man. But the second blunder — so-called civilized man 
 here in the twentieth century, still copying after the beast 
 man of old in the jungles — who can excuse it ? I say that 
 it is high time for us to call this dazed and deluded man of 
 civilization to his senses — and to inform him that his first 
 and most sacred duty is so to arm and so to fashion his 
 civilization, his culture and his education as to drive for- 
 ever this demon of fear from the social environment of 
 each on-coming generation. We have accepted the leader- 
 ship of the black jungles of the past long enough — and I 
 say, let us quit it! 
 
 Briefly, then, this is the genetic situation as we find it 
 today after millions of years of animal life on the planet — 
 after one unbroken reign of numberless ages of the most 
 despotic and the most destructive monarch that ever sat 
 upon a throne. In the name of an education in keeping 
 
124 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 with the nobility and dignity of mankind, and in harmony 
 with the holy principle of biological integrity, and all that 
 it implies, I am asking for the exile of this fear monster 
 from the channels of our minds. 
 
 In the next chapter we shall consider the effects of fear 
 on the human organism, chiefly from a physical standpoint. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 FEAR: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 
 
 Despite its many apparent absurdities and contradic- 
 tions, the doctrine of Mrs. Eddy may be said to contain one 
 paramount, unquestionable truth, which stands out like a 
 great Aetna amid the barren knolls of worthless lava, 
 namely: Every creature, however minute, is governed hy 
 a mind. From the mind, the body derives its animation, its 
 senses, its feeling, its intelligence, its reason, its instincts, its 
 perception, its passion, its strength, its life — its everything. 
 
 But there is nothing new whatever in that doctrine. 
 Mrs. Eddy did not invent it. She merely gathered it up 
 and gave it a new and practical setting — and projected it as 
 a serious fact — for which she is entitled to every credit. 
 But the doctrine itself is as old ''as the hills" — because the 
 doctrine states a truth of the Universe. Perhaps the best 
 form in which the supremacy of mind over matter was ever 
 enunciated was in the words of a certain wise man centuries 
 ago during one of his inspired moments: ^^For as a man 
 thinJceth in his heart, so is he*\*^ This same truth was 
 most excellently put in a somewhat different form by a 
 writer of our own time when he said a few years ago that, 
 ** Thoughts are things ".^° Therefore, we are not dealing 
 with any doctrine or any theory, or indeed any newly dis- 
 covered truth when we speak of the influence of the human 
 mind on the human body. 
 
 Now, any person who would be right in his living of life 
 must be right in his understanding of fundamental facts — 
 because the working truths of life are truths that never rest. 
 
 49 The Bible. Solomon: Proverbs 23:7. 
 ^0 Prentice Mulf ord. 
 
 125 
 
126 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Further, there is perhaps no fact that it is so indispensable 
 for every individual to know as the creative reality of 
 thought. Thoughts are tremendous realities. This is neither 
 a whim nor a fancy — it is a fact. Every thought that an 
 individual thinks floods his entire physical being with some 
 kind of a psychic message — and that message becomes either 
 food or poison for every cell within his body. Thoughts 
 are simply psychic chemistry. 
 
 But we must see this fact, not in a large, loose way, but 
 in specific connection with the cell, which is perhaps the 
 final microscopic individuality of the body. It is estimated 
 that there are within the human body at least twenty-five 
 trillion cells. Each of these cells is a separate and distinct 
 being living its own life as well as lending association with 
 every other cell. About two billion of those cells are in the 
 brain and spinal cord. Millions of them are in the sympa- 
 thetic nervous system. 
 
 Now, the important fact is this : Every one of the twenty- 
 five trillion cells of the body is constantly being subjected 
 to two influences — first, chemical messages; and, second, 
 mental messages. The chemical messages are of course the 
 products of the food that we eat, and the air that we breathe 
 — and the resulting disposition of all things material that 
 are taken into the body. The mental messages are the 
 thoughts that we entertain. With unerring certainty, un- 
 escapably and inevitably, those mental messages are flashed 
 into the very heart of every one of the twenty-five trillion 
 cells of which the body is composed. Indeed, when the 
 facts are all known, we shall find that the influence of the 
 mental messages is more important than that of the chem- 
 ical messages. 
 
 Not only this, but the mental message to every cell is 
 also in itself a chemical message. The thoughts that we 
 entertain actually build up their own definite chemicals 
 within our bodies. Students of psychic chemistry have 
 proven this by the chemical analysis of the blood, the per- 
 spiration, and the different secretions of the bodies of 
 persons laboring under the influence of varying emotions — > 
 
FEAE: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 127 
 
 as well as by the analysis of the expired air.*^^ The evil 
 thought always develops the evil chemical; the good 
 thought, the good chemical. All of those chemicals, what- 
 ever they may be, are turned loose to flood the twenty-five 
 trillion cells of the body. The state of the mind thus un- 
 deniably becomes an actual chemical environment, which 
 influences every morsel of food that we eat, every drop of 
 water that we drink, and every breath of air that we 
 breathe. It is through this most basic fact that the mind 
 exerts its tremendous influence over itself and over the 
 physical body. 
 
 The mental state must therefore be accepted as the 
 determining power and the deciding factor in all of life's 
 struggles. Any influence which gains control of the brain 
 and nerve centers will soon gain control of the entire body 
 — to say nothing of the fact that the mind itself, in pro- 
 portion to the degree that it is deranged, becomes hand- 
 cuffed and clamped into chains as if in a vise. But of all 
 the evil mental states which have ever operated in the 
 human mind, fear is incomparably the worst. The greatest 
 havoc of all is wrought by fear. It soon sets up conditions 
 beyond the power of the normal mind to function. In 
 addition to poisoning every cell in the body, it also builds 
 up in the en-tire nervous organization that literal and ma- 
 terial machinery which best serves its unholy purpose. It 
 sets up a set of organic conditions that are pathological to 
 the very core. 
 
 Let us briefly review some of the effects of fear on the 
 human body. The following general comment is from Dar- 
 win: '^That the skin is much affected under the sense of 
 great fear, we see in the marvelous manner in which per- 
 spiration immediately exudes from it. This exudation is 
 
 all the more remarkable, as the surface is then cold 
 
 In connection with the disturbed action of the heart, the 
 breathing is hurried. The salivary glands act imperfectly ; 
 the mouth becomes dry, and is often opened and shut 
 
 51 Elmer Gates, formerly with Smithsonian Institute. See his 
 works. 
 
128 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 The voice becomes husky or indistinct, or may fail 
 
 altogether All the muscles of the body may become 
 
 rigid ".'^^ 
 
 Such words from Darwin should strike conviction. Nor 
 should there be any mystery about the matter at all — 
 and there will be no mystery about it the moment that we 
 quit thinking about the human mind as a sort of airy noth- 
 ingness — and about thought itself as something that is 
 absolutely nothing. We must remember that thoughts 
 are things. We must get hold of that fact. We must think 
 of every thought as so many trillions of infinitesimal mole- 
 cules or microscopic j>articles darting out from the mind 
 in every direction — fiven as wireless waves of electrical 
 energy reaching out to every point of the compass. We 
 must think of thought as a great infinitude of darting sparks 
 that literally shower and bathe our being, and penetrate the 
 very essence of our organization to its innermost depths. 
 Yes, we must think of thoughts as things — and of fear 
 thoughts as the most terrible things that ever inhabited the 
 mind of man. 
 
 Our indictment against fear is positive and unanimous. 
 Its destructive influence on every organ and every func- 
 tion of the body is testified to by every authority every- 
 where. If wo consider the influence of fear on the action 
 of the heart, we have the matter summed up by Dr. Sadler 
 as follows: "Heart strength— decreased, weakened. Rhythm 
 — irregularity, palpitation. Rate — abnormal rapidity. Nu- 
 trition — decreased by overwork and under-rest. Endurance 
 — heart failure in case of profound fear. Cardiac centers — 
 depression and paralysis. Emotional response — attention 
 alters the beat. Psychic response — conscious thumping 
 against the chest when agitated. Referred sensation — un- 
 pleasant and disagreeable".^^ 
 
 But Sadler does not stop merely with the influence of 
 fear on the heart. He deals in detail with the withering 
 effects of fear on the circulation, blood pressure, vital re- 
 
 52 Charles Darwin : Origin of the Emotions, pages 290-2. 
 63 W. S. Sadler : Physiology of Faith and Fear, page 121. 
 
FEAE: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 129 
 
 sistance, secretions, digestion, metabolism, respiration, 
 muscles, skin, brain and nerves. In order to bring this 
 matter fully before us I am quoting herewith Dr. Sadler's 
 summaries under the various headings just named. 
 
 Speaking of the effects of fear on the circulation. Dr. 
 Sadler says'"* that the blood pressure is greatly raised by 
 fear, that the face becomes pale, and the extremities cold. 
 Arteriosclerosis is increased and aggravated, while capillary 
 contraction becomes unnatural, spasmodic and irregular. 
 The blood movement becomes retarded, and also favors and 
 produces congestion. Local congestion is also produced by 
 the fear thought. The circulatory equilibrium is likewise 
 hindered, and local stagnation is favored. The pulse be- 
 comes weak, irregular and rapid. And last, but not least, 
 fear favors apoplexy. 
 
 It is roughly in the above terms that Dr. Sadler sums 
 up his tremendous indictment against fear, as far as its 
 effects on the circulation of the blood are concerned. In the 
 case of blood pressure, the disastrous effects of fear stand 
 out equally prominent, xlmong other things, the same 
 author states that the emotional states may raise the blood 
 pressure from 30 to 50 mm.°^ 
 
 In his treatment of vital resistance. Dr. Sadler says'*^ 
 that the red cells of the blood are decreased and indirectly 
 destroyed, and that the activity of the white cells in destroy- 
 ing body cells is increased. The generation of psychic 
 blood poisons is also favored, while the action of the h-mph 
 cells in the h-mph stream is retarded. Antitoxins are like- 
 wise delayed, both in their production and in their dis- 
 semination. But above all, the alarming fact is established 
 that fear "creates soil favorable to germs"; that healing 
 power is retarded, and recovery delayed; that the vital 
 resistance is ''markedly decreased"; that sickness is ''in- 
 creased"; and that the death rate is "raised." 
 
 Would it be possible for any evidence to be more con- 
 
 5-* rbid., pages 129-30. 
 "^ Ibid., page 142. 
 5«Ibid., pages 151-2. 
 
130 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 demnatory ? But the same condemnation follows in the 
 tracks of fear wherever we turn. When it comes to the 
 effects of fear on the secretions of the body in general,^^ 
 all secretions are retarded, modified, deranged and lessened 
 in quantity. The saliva becomes lessened in quantity and 
 inferior in quality. During fright the mouth becomes very 
 dry. As to metabolism, fear "deranges the nutrition. '^ 
 The digestive power is lessened, for all the secretions are 
 depreciated in both quality and quantity. The mammary 
 secretions are so altered that they are often poisoned. The 
 quantity of urine is also decreased and the quality altered. 
 
 When we pass on to the subject of digestion proper, our 
 story remains unchanged. Exactly the same unanimous 
 condemnation rests upon the shoulders of fear. In the 
 words of Sadler, fear "lessens or entirely suspends secretion 
 of the gastric juice." The quality is also "deteriorated," 
 and the "digestive strength is weak," while psychic dys- 
 pepsia is both "produced and aggravated." The stomach 
 movements are weak, and the digestion time lengthened 
 under the influence of fear. The same fear is the "chief 
 cause of nervous dyspepsia," and also an excitant of the 
 vomiting center. The intestinal secretions become scant, 
 weak and inactive, and the flow thereof very inactive. The 
 movement of the entire alimentary canal becomes irregular 
 and sluggish — and "constipation is increased ".^^ 
 
 What wonder is it that fear is the demon that it is when 
 we thus consider how it strikes at the basic organic func- 
 tionings of our physical organization ? No part of organic 
 makeup can possibly escape the poisonous effects of fear. 
 Continuing his indictment under the heading of "Nutri- 
 tion and Metabolism," Dr. Sadler says that fear "decreases 
 and retards cell nutrition. ' ' That is to say, it carries on a 
 starvation process against the twenty-five trillion cells 
 in the human body. Digestion is "deranged" — assimila- 
 tion "lessened" — well-being "decreased" — oxidation 
 "decreased" — appetite "weakened" — bodily weight "de- 
 
 57 Ibid., page 160. 
 es Ibid., pages 171-2. 
 
FEAE: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 131 
 
 creased." Fear also ^'deranges the secretory action" of 
 the ductless glands, and "increases the size of the thyroid 
 gland".'' 
 
 Taking up the subject of respiration, fear remains the 
 same old robber. Sadler chalks up against it the black 
 marks of ' ' quick, irregular, shallow breathing ' ' — ' ' Greatly- 
 lessened oxygen-intake" — "Decreased carbon dioxide out- 
 put ' ' — ' * Flat and hollow chest ' ' — ' ' Decreased strength ' ' — 
 "Lessened capacity" — "Aggravated coughing" — "Yawn- 
 ing" — "Hiccoughs rendered uncontrollable and even fatal" 
 — "Respiratory curve gradually decreased" — ^" Nerve con- 
 trol weakened ".^° 
 
 Is it necessary to indict further? Yes — ^let us go on 
 and expose to the limit this serpent of fear which mankind 
 has been hugging to its bosom for ages. Sadler's testimony 
 on the muscles is, that "Energy and endurance are de- 
 creased ' ' by fear, while * ' fatigue is increased. " " The gait 
 is dragging and slovenly, and the carriage stooped and 
 weak." "The galvanometer test shows great deflection in 
 psychic response. " " Spasm is favored and increased ' ' and 
 "relaxation is rendered difficult." "Expression becomes 
 downcast and sorrowful" and "work capacity decreased." 
 "The stomach movements are weak and intermittent," 
 while in the field of sensation, "fear perverts and misin- 
 terprets." The situation is summed up in one term — 
 "muscular panic ".^^ 
 
 That same panic is carried directly to the field of the 
 skin. According to Sadler, fear makes "the complexion 
 pale and anaemic, the circulation poor and chilly, and ac- 
 tivity sluggish. " " The local blood supply is spasmodic and 
 disturbed, and hands and feet cold." "The perspiration 
 is checked, and elimination decreased, ' ' while the ' ' electrical, 
 reaction becomes negative at nine feet from the body." 
 "The nutrition of the skin is lessened," and so is that of 
 the hair and scalp to the extent that **gray hair and bald- 
 
 59 Ibid., page 185. 
 
 60 Ibid., page 197. 
 
 61 Ibid., pages 207-8. 
 
132 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 ness are produced." ''Sensation becomes abnormal, pro- 
 ducing itching and pain." "Skin diseases are produced 
 and increased in severity, while both chills and fevers are 
 produced and increased ".^^ 
 
 But when it comes to the brain itself, the organ of the 
 mind, and to the nervous system, then it is that fear plays 
 its most deadly havoc. Sadler's words are, that fear pro- 
 duces "congestion of the brain, headache and insomnia; 
 confused and disordered action of the brain; unnatural and 
 disturbed sleep, and brain fag." In energy, the brain ac- 
 tion and vigor are both lessened. "Hypochondria is produced 
 and apoplexy favored." "The strength ends in despon- 
 dency and health despair".*'^ 
 
 And on the general nervous system the story is the same. 
 Fear "causes nervousness and tremors, and produces nerve 
 starvation." It "decreases the strength and inhibits the 
 trophic nerves." Tt "favors convulsions, may produce fits, 
 and leads to hysteria and unbalanced nerves." It also 
 causes certain forms of epilepsy and "increases the severity 
 of others." It also "causes partial paralysis and loss of 
 function; causes, aggravates and perpetuates pain; and 
 produces general nervousness".^* 
 
 Probably in all literature, there is no more complete 
 indictment against anything than Dr. Sadler makes against 
 fear. The case is unanimous. Great light is thus thrown 
 upon the fact that humanity is becoming more and more 
 neurotic every year — and why our catalogue of ills is mul- 
 tiplying with such alarming rapidity. Fear is the funda- 
 mental cause of it all. Insomnia, hysteria, neurasthenia and 
 hypochondria are all largely the result of fear. Civilized 
 races are shackled today by the bondage of fettered minds 
 and physical maladies — all primarily due to fear — and all 
 preventable by a sane psychic education. The diseases of 
 savagery are due to fear and filth. The diseases of civiliza- 
 tion are due to more of fear and less of filth. 
 
 62Ibifl., pages 218-9. 
 «3Ibi(l., pages 227-8. 
 «*Ibid., page 240. 
 
FKAK: TTS rTTVSKWT, EFFECTS ^:V^ 
 
 But suppose \vc add tlu> li'stitmuiy of otluM-s. ]\l()sso, tlio 
 Italinii aulliority on l\'ar, lias Iho following to say: "I'luo- 
 tioii causos gi'cator oiuT^y in tlio cliomical procc^ssos of tho 
 l)r;iiii ; IIkm'c is a inodilicaliou in tlio milrilion of Iho colls, 
 and (he nrrvous force is more rapiilly cotisumcd "."''* ** Pliny 
 in spcakiiij:: of i'vnv inakinjj: ono close llie eyes, relates that 
 anion<xs( twenty "gladiators, scarcely two wimm^ fonnd ^vllo did 
 not wink when sndilenly nicnactNl".'^'^ *'()n(^ of the most 
 terrible effects of fear is tin* i>nralysis which allows neither 
 of escape nor d(^l\'nse. The history oi* hat tics an«l luas- 
 sacrcs, the chronicles of the courts of justice, are all fidl ol' 
 frightful occurrences, when terror stranj^flcd ev(Mi tho in- 
 stinct of tlij::ht in the victim ir(n-ses tremhle when 
 
 they see a tig(M* and an* no lon^^er ahh* to run. I'veii 
 
 nioidvcys can not move when in threat fear It is a 
 
 well known fact that fear may result in sudden dcilh. 
 Bichat maintained that it was cssiMitially ])aralysis of the 
 
 h(\'irt which eaus(\s divith in sli-on;]f (Miiolious If I 
 
 wci'e to menliou the nanu>s of all the maladies thoufrht to 
 to he produced by fear, 1 should he ohlij^^cd to copy iu\'irly 
 
 the whole index of a ])atholo}^ical text hook Tt is an 
 
 inconipi'cluMisihle ])h(Miomcuoii, but yet aditntti^l by all 
 medical writci-s that fear may of itself "^ivi* rise to ])he- 
 nomena exactly rescnd)lin<jf those of hydro|)hohic infection. 
 A celehrated ])hysician, I'osiniilhui, Ix^lim'iMl that fear alouo 
 was the cause of hydrophobia, and n<»t th<' bit(» or the saliva 
 
 of the (lo;x It is ofhMi iin]>()ssi])le f(U* the physician to 
 
 distiii}2:uish hypoclio!idi-iac hy<lroj)hobia frotn true rabies; 
 even the maiuKM* of d(\ith is no ^uid(\ for tetaTuc contrac- 
 tions of th(> n>spiratory orprans n]>p(Mir also in hypochondria(! 
 
 hydroj)hobia l\T(U*e especially durin*]: epidcMuics does 
 
 f(»ar play havoc During the earth(|uake in Rome in 
 
 17().'?, althoujjfh Tiot a sinj^h* pcM'son was kilhMl, scvei-al died 
 of f(W'(M* through f(\ar, many woukmi miscarried, and all 
 
 bed iidden invalids f^rovv worse Physicians who havo 
 
 described tin* dreadful spectacle of the lazarets durinp: epi- 
 
 ""ll.iJ., pn^M' KI. Vvom riiiiius HisforiH N:if unilis, xi., -tSO. 
 
134 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 demies, mention the great number who die victims of fear, 
 in many of whom the symptoms of plague had not even ap- 
 peared What horror we should feel could we read 
 
 year by year the story of those who have succumbed to 
 nostalgia, grief, humiliation! .... There are men who 
 
 have through fear lost consciousness, sight or speech 
 
 It is a well-known fact that fear sobers the drunk "/^ 
 
 A little further on, Mosso then makes the significant in- 
 quiry : * ' Of what use are the arbitrary and imaginary dis- 
 tinctions that philosophers have made in the functions of 
 the mind when they cannot be distinguished from those of 
 the body?" That question strikes the nail square on the 
 head. The mind is a reality just as fully as the body is. 
 The mind has its own actual material foundations, and as 
 an operator thereon, it is not only delivering its mental 
 messages to every cell in the body — but it at the same time 
 in that very process is also the governing spirit of the body. 
 The mind is at all times lending vital status of some kind 
 and degree to the body. For this reason, the mind is not 
 even second — it is first. It plays second fiddle for nothing 
 or nobody. That position belongs to the body. The. mind 
 is not an influence in the body. It is the influence. It is 
 erroneous to say that man has a mind. Man has not a 
 mind. Man is a mind — and has a body. 
 
 Indeed it is not at all strange that Mosso is able to 
 continue as follows : * * The consciousness of strength makes 
 stronger. The history of medicine is full of the marvelous 
 effects of confidence. If we could cite all the examples of 
 hysterical women, nervous, melancholy, paralytic men, who 
 on the simple word of the physician, through faith in the 
 efficiency of some remedy, have taken courage and re- 
 covered, we should see that every day wonders and miracles 
 worthy of the saints are performed. Neither may we say 
 that it is all the effect of fancy, or imagination, because the 
 modification of the circulation in the brain of one who reso- 
 lutely determines to overcome a difficulty produces such an 
 increase of energy in the nerve centers .... that we some- 
 
 67 Ibid., pages 236-59. 
 
FEAR: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 135 
 
 times see deeds performed by the pusillanimous such as we 
 never expected of them".^^ 
 
 Truly, there is nothing fanciful about the effects of the 
 mind. It is simply in on the ground floor as the master 
 workman in every activity of life. It is the foundation of 
 every function in the human body. According to the 
 deeply ingrained tone of thought — such will be the tone 
 and vigor of all organic functioning. Under the fear tone 
 thought, the mind, the thinking is not alone different — the 
 whole organization is different. Every cell is different — 
 every nerve is different — every muscle is different — every 
 secretion is different — every breath is different — every func- 
 tion is different — the whole body is different, both in the 
 smallest detail and in the largest complex. As well try to 
 think of the fear thought as being isolated from the entire 
 body, as it would be to think of throwing a cup of strych- 
 nine into a barrel of water without the entire contents be- 
 coming poison. The analogy is an exact one. 
 
 Now, in the last quotation above, Mosso speaks of ** con- 
 fidence. '^ He uses the term in contrast to fear. Sadler 
 throughout his work does the same thing, except that he 
 speaks of it as ''faith." Sadler, however, devotes one-half 
 of his entire book to " faith. '^ His treatment of fear is 
 paralleled on every page by his presentation of the case 
 of faith. His testimony in behalf of faith is as overwhelm- 
 ingly unanimous and favorable as his handling of fear is 
 adverse. He pronounces faith the greatest health and 
 curative agent known to man. He shows that no health is 
 at all possible where the faith state of mind is not present. 
 
 Now, what is the science of faith? It is simply this — 
 that not even the shadow of fear is present in either the 
 mind itself, or in the substance of the body. Fear is ab- 
 sent, not only immediately from the mind, but also in 
 terms of every possible past effect, the moment that com- 
 plete faith takes possession of one. There is no fear what- 
 ever. That means that faith — confidence — is present. 
 Under such circumstances, fear — the great disturber — is 
 
 68 Ibid., page 276. 
 
136 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 not present to carry on its unholy work. Like a sliver in 
 the hand — such is fear — withdraw it — and the hand is for 
 the first time ready to begin the process of getting well. 
 That principle is uniformly true throughout the realms of 
 Nature — the moment that we drive out the cause of damage, 
 Nature is permitted to go on functioning in peace. The 
 science of faith is therefore merely the science of the ab- 
 sence of fear. Hence it is no wonder that faith is such a 
 weapon in performing apparent miracles — for it establishes 
 the conditions necessary for health. The fact that it does 
 so, makes it the matchless curative instrument. The mes- 
 sage which faith sends out to the twenty-five trillion cells 
 of the body is one of welcome, buoyancy, poise, peace, har- 
 mony, nutriment, love, good cheer. It is no wonder that 
 under such circumstances, afflictions of all kinds are ban- 
 ished. Sadler's conclusion in the matter is as follows: 
 **Fear then is seen to be the one great barrier to the 
 recovery from sickness, and the healing of disease. Faith 
 becomes the master key which unlocks many an ancient 
 medical mystery and explains many apparent modern 
 miracles. Faith is the great key of mental healing. Mental 
 rest is the keystone of the arch of health ' '.^^ 
 
 Dr. Salisbury delivers a telling blow against fear when 
 he says that, "Fidelity of body is as nothing if not rein- 
 forced by fidelity of soul." Statements of that kind get 
 right down to the foundation of things — for what would 
 even the best foundation in itself amount to, providing that 
 foundation rests upon the sand ? The master mind of Plato 
 clearly perceived this fact when twenty-three centuries ago 
 he uttered the following words: **My belief is not that a 
 good body will by its own excellence, make a good soul ; but 
 on the contrary, that a good soul will by its excellence ren- 
 der the body as perfect as it can be".^° This places the 
 facts exactly as they are, namely: the mind comes first; 
 the body is only second. 
 
 It is the failure to recognize this tremendous fact that 
 
 69 W. S. Sadler: Physiology of Faith and Fear, pages 107-8. 
 ^^ Plato : Bepublie, page 99. 
 
FEAR: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 137 
 
 has given rise to so many expressions like the following: 
 "Physical perfection serves to assure moral perfection. 
 There is nothing more tyrannical than an enfeebled organ- 
 ism. Nothing sooner paralyzes the free activity of the 
 reason, the flight of the imagination, and the exercise of 
 reflection, nothing sooner dries up the sources of human 
 thought than a sickly body whose functions languish, and 
 for which every effort is a source of suffering "."^^ 
 
 This statement is very true in the sense that the con- 
 dition of the body reflects itself back upon the mind. But 
 it is wholly erroneous and misleading when it proceeds with 
 the inference that the body comes first and makes the 
 mind. Such an assumption is a total stranger to truth 
 when it leaves the impression that the body is an indepen- 
 dent variable- — and that the mind is the dependent variable. 
 It is but the epitome of error when it would proceed w^ith 
 the supposition that the body is not the condition and result 
 of the mind. The truth of the matter is, that the bad con- 
 dition of the body adversely affecting the mind, is nothing 
 more or less than the boomerang of a wrong mind return- 
 ing to itself. This must be accepted as the real condition 
 of affairs. Any other factors entering in are but acces- 
 sories. Let us accept the burning fact that for bad physical 
 conditions we must go straight to the source of bad mental 
 conditions, operating through either ourselves or through 
 social environment and through the ages. All bad physical 
 conditions are exclusively explained by ignorance of some 
 kind obtaining in the human mind — and the greatest ignore 
 ance of all is fear. 
 
 But our civilization is completely saturated with the 
 other type of thought. The body is first, last and always — 
 in everything. This fact is further well reflected by the 
 words of another writer : * ' The consensus of opinion in the 
 present age is, that the best basis for spiritual, moral and 
 intellectual growth is a sound and healthy body."^^ Most 
 assuredly we must have sound bodies, in order to have sound 
 
 71 F. Marion. Quoted from Putnam: Manual Pedagogics, page 26. 
 
 72 Mrs. T. W. Birney: Childhood, page 22. 
 
138 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 minds — but ' ' the present age " is on the wrong track. * * The 
 best basis for spiritual, moral and intellectual growth" is — 
 not — "a sound and healthy body" — but "a sound and 
 healthy" mind! The body is not the basis at all! The 
 mind itself is the basis ! Mrs. Birney is right in acclaiming 
 for "a sound and healthy body" — but she is completely 
 wrong in her conception when she assumes that the mind 
 is fundamentally a flowering of the body, rather than vice 
 versa. Most functional and chronic diseases, for example, 
 go straight to derangements in the nervous system — the 
 very harp upon which fear played its first tune — and the 
 very instrument on which it always plays. "With great 
 nerve centers depressed and fatigued and poisoned by the 
 toxicity of fear, it is small wonder that bad conditions in 
 the body soon come back to the mind. Chickens always 
 come home to roost, whether they rest or not. 
 
 Speaking of the effects of the mind on the body, no less 
 a personage than Goethe has this to say: "I was once in- 
 evitably exposed to the infection of malignant fever, and 
 warded off the disease only by means of determined volition. 
 It is almost incredible in such cases how the will can effect. 
 It seems to permeate one's whole being, and to render the 
 condition of the body active enough to repel all harmful 
 influences. Fear is a condition of sloth in which any enemy 
 may take possession of us".'^^ 
 
 It seems to me that no indictment against anything 
 could be stronger. Fear disturbs and paralyzes the very 
 marrow of every single functioning process in the human 
 organization. Wherever the hand of fear is extended, there 
 it leaves its trail of poison. Operating through the mind, 
 fear lays its ax to the very roots of every cell in the human 
 body. By so doing, it makes drunk with weakness and 
 degeneracy the twenty -five trillion cell workers on which all 
 health, all harmony, all energy, all action must finally 
 rest — for in the last analysis, disease is a derangement of 
 the functions of the cell, or a degeneration of the substance 
 
 73 W. Goethe. Quoted from W. S. Sadler: Physiology of Faith 
 and Fear, 269. 
 
FEAE: ITS PHYSICAL EFFECTS 139 
 
 of the cell. Fear is the canker which attacks the cell in 
 both respects — function and substance. 
 
 But let it be noted carefully that there are two phases 
 of fear — the presence of some acute and specific fear in the 
 mind and the body — and the existence of general and 
 chronic fear effects. Under the former phase the victim 
 is conscious of his weakness and his agitation ; while under 
 the latter phase, he may not be conscious of his condition, 
 but he is nevertheless a victim of his psychic and physical 
 state. The point is, that one need not necessarily be terror- 
 ized into convulsions of fear in order to contract some acute 
 disease that is epidemic in the community — the general 
 chronic fear status of the victim may of itself be such as to 
 have the vital resistance of the body so reduced as to invite 
 every disease with which it comes in contact. The victim 
 of fear is therefore a victim in two ways — acutely and 
 chronicly. 
 
 Then too this question may be asked : How far can the 
 mind of the mother affect the child in utero? This is a 
 question which has been discussed pro and con a great 
 deal on account of the claims of many that children have 
 been born *' marked '^ in exact accordance with, and on 
 account of some strong and vivid mental experience on the 
 part of the mother. Of late years, however, most medical 
 authority of the conventional type, has uttered a positive 
 denial of any such a possibility as a marked child due to 
 the mental experiences of the mother. But all of such con- 
 clusions, I believe, have completely overlooked the psychic 
 significance of the human mind. It is of course a fact 
 that there is no direct physical connection between mother 
 and child for the blood to circulate — so from this stand- 
 point, it is true that no fear poison generated in the blood 
 of the mother can directly reach that of the child — but let 
 us note this very important fact, namely : There does exist 
 a direct connection between the nervous systems of mother 
 and child. This means that the mental messages of the 
 mother can reach the nervous organization of the child just 
 as completely as they can her own. Furthermore, if mental 
 
140 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 states of mind are generators of chemicals in the body — 
 and they are — then the same fear messages which produce 
 chemical poisons in the body of the mother, will also pro- 
 duce those same poisons in the body of the child. To just 
 what extent this fact might be able to operate in the marking 
 of the unborn child, we are perhaps unable to say positively. 
 The fact does remain, however, that the unborn child is in 
 close association with the mother through the avenue of 
 the mental message — and because of this fact, I for one, 
 personally believe that the mind of the mother can affect the 
 unborn child very greatly indeed — if not to the extent of 
 marking physically, then at least to the extent of mental and 
 nervous effects. I believe that the psychic chemistry of the 
 mother is to a very great extent the psychic chemistry of 
 the unborn child. 
 
 In closing this chapter, I say that it is high time for 
 civilization to wake up and rub the sleep from its eyes — 
 and to set its understanding in order on the meaning of the 
 human mind as it operates within the human body — and 
 above all to drive out this stealthy wolf of fear from the 
 midst of our choicest folds — for, verily, ''Thoughts are 
 things" — "for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'* 
 The evidence against fear alone most abundantly proves 
 that it is dangerous and deadly for mankind to slumber 
 longer. But, above all, in leaving this chapter, let us bear 
 ever in mind, that the first, the paramount wreckage of 
 fear is a mental one. The physical wreckage is secondary 
 — it is but a symptom, a product of the mental wreckage. 
 
 In the next chapter, fear will be considered in its rela- 
 tion to childhood. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 
 FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 
 
 In the preceding chapter the physical effects of fear 
 were pointed out. In the present chapter we shall review 
 the flourishing of fear in its first field — childhood. 
 
 In all history, there has been no greater crime than the 
 permitted and produced play of fear in the mind of the 
 child. That is crime one on the calendar of civilization. 
 It is in childhood that most of the unholy seeds of fear are 
 sown and planted. There they are spread broadcast on the 
 most plastic soil kno\\Ti to all creation. It is in that mar- 
 vel ously wise manner that civilization lays the foundation 
 for the future of the individual ! How amazing, to start in 
 by wrecking the mental machinery of a child — devastating 
 its nervous organization — demoralizing its physical func- 
 tionings — and then ever expect that child to develop into 
 anything but a comparative piece of human wrecTiage! I 
 say — how amazing ! Still, like a blind ostrich our unseeing 
 civilization mopes along — and that too with its cheery ego- 
 tism undiminished one degree ! 
 
 And here let me warn every person to find no assur- 
 ance or consolation in the proposition that *'fear is an in- 
 stinct" — and that therefore the child inherits its fears — 
 for in all truth, that is a falsehood. It is of course true 
 that every child does inherit a certain predisposition toward 
 fear — but what becomes of that predisposition, all depends 
 upon how society feeds it. The duty of society should of 
 course be plain — namely, to starve every vestige of in- 
 stinctive fear that is found to obtain in the mind of the 
 child from earliest infancy — the very thing which society 
 is most emphatically not doing. I have observed society 
 
 141 
 
142 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 too long to be fooled on a fact so patent as that. As I 
 have stated in the preceding paragraph, fear in the mind of 
 the child is permitted and produced. The fear process is 
 a social one through and through — so no one need attempt 
 to hide himself behind the instinctive shadows of fear at 
 all — because it will do him no good in the light of all the 
 facts that conspire against him. Society simply pets and 
 coaxes and pampers fear — and that is all there is to it. For 
 every ounce of fear that Nature has imposed on mankind, 
 society has imposed its tons. Therefore, let society prepare 
 to shoulder the overwhelming burden of the fear indict- 
 ment — and especially in view of the fact that there is within 
 the mind of every child a certain tendency to fear, society 
 becomes all the more blameworthy that it does not arouse 
 itself to a sense of its high duty in the matter, and check- 
 mate fear — instead of cultivating it so assiduously. 
 
 Every atom of fear injected into the mind of childhood 
 is due to just one thing — adult ignorance ; first, ignorance of 
 the laws and significance of mentality ; and, second, ignor- 
 ance concerning rational methods of directing and disciplin- 
 ing childhood. Not one adult in one hundred knows any- 
 thing about the relation of the human mind to life — thanks 
 to an education so long obsessed with ''social" aims — 
 and perhaps not one in a thousand knows anything about 
 the government of children, save on the diabolical platform 
 of fear and terror. It is on the duplex pedestal of this two- 
 fold piece of ''cultural" ignorance that an unenlightened 
 world proceeds to deal with childhood. Fear is the easy 
 and handy weapon employed by the ignorant adult to whip 
 the child into such a fit of terror that it will "behave"! 
 This conscious and deliberate use of fear, plus the innocent 
 use of more fear at all times by the same ignorant adult — 
 the combination constitutes the cross upon which humanity 
 is being crucified. 
 
 But it is fundamentally in the home where this great 
 fear tragedy of childhood is being carried on. It is of 
 course operating throughout the range of our civilization, 
 but the home is the greatest sinner of all — not because school 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 143 
 
 and society are any less ignorant in this great field, but 
 because the home gets the first chance at the process of 
 crucifixion, on account of the home's being almost the 
 exclusive guardian of the child during about the first six 
 years of child life — that period which is at the same time 
 the most plastic of all the years of life. However, let the 
 school take no consolation in this fact. It is the business 
 of education to point the way with a set of incandescent 
 signal lights that never grow dim — a thing which education 
 has never yet done, because education has never yet been 
 familiar with her duties. Nor should education suffer her- 
 self to find any consolation in the fact of her not knowing 
 her duties — for, as Socrates has said in one of his wise 
 paradoxes : *'It is better to sin knowingly than ignorantly." 
 Perhaps ninety-nine out of every one hundred can tell 
 of childhood terrors that kept them in clutches. The case 
 is well put by Mosso: *' Anxiety, fear, horror will twine 
 themselves perpetually around the memory, like deadly ivy 
 choking the light of reason. At every step we remember 
 the terrors of childhood; the vaults of a cellar, the dark 
 arch of a bridge, the cross-roads losing themselves in dark- 
 ness, the crosses hidden amidst the bushes of a cemetery, a 
 dim light flickering awa}^ in the darkness, a lonely cave 
 washed by the waves of the sea, the ruins of an uninhabited 
 castle, the mysterious silence of a deserted tower, breathe 
 out the memory of childish fear. The eye of the child seems 
 to cast one more look on the scenes from the very depths 
 of the soul. Not only the mother, the nurse, the maid, and 
 the servants, but hundreds of generations have worked to 
 denaturalize the brains of children with the same barbarity 
 of those wild tribes who distort the heads of their children 
 by pressure, deforming what they think to beautify. The 
 children of ancient Greece and Rome used to be frightened 
 with lamias, which would suck their blood, with the masks 
 of the atelland, the Cyclops, or with black Mercury who 
 would carry them away. And this most pernicious error 
 in education has not yet disappeared, for children are still 
 frightened with the bogey-man, with stories of imaginary 
 
144 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 monsters, the ogre, the hobgoblin, the wizard and the 
 witches. Every now and then children are told : ' This will 
 peck at you. That will bite you. Now I'll call the dog. 
 There's the sweep coming' — and a hundred other terrors 
 which make the fears well up and spoil their dispositions, 
 making their life a burden by incessantly agitating them 
 with threats, with tortures which will make them timid and 
 shrinking the rest of their lives. The imagination of a 
 child is far more vivid and excitable than in adults ' '.^* 
 
 It is positively inhuman to ignore the fears of child- 
 hood. But it is far worse, either deliberately or ignorantly, 
 to cultivate any fear tendencies that may already be pres- 
 ent in the mind of any child. What might we say then of 
 that person who would inject outright new fears into the 
 consciousness of childhood ? No language could possibly be 
 condemning enough — ^because all odds are tremendously 
 against any child in the fear battle. Instead of encourag- 
 ing fear growth in any mind, the sworn duty of every in- 
 dividual and of all society is to do everything within all 
 power to check and destroy that fear development. 
 
 In all probability the greatest fear field to which the 
 child is first subjected is that of ''darkness*'. In countless 
 ways fear of the dark is suggested to the child, by means 
 of a look — a word — ^an action — or general conduct on the 
 part of adults. Some will contend that since "fear is an 
 instinct," the child is ''naturally" afraid of the dark any- 
 way. I have even heard more than one alleged child expert 
 make that statement. But nothing could be farther from 
 the truth — for, as already pointed out in the third para- 
 graph of the present chapter, the fear instinct is very largely 
 a mere passive or neutral predisposition. As such it is 
 ready to leap into being, or to subside into nothingness — 
 all depending on the social stimulus. Children are not 
 unescapably afraid of the dark by virtue of instinct, but 
 by virtue of the fact that society goes to work and coaxes 
 that latent tendency into active being. Fuel upon fuel is 
 simply heaped upon a single dying spark — and all fanned 
 
 '4 Angelo Mosso: Fear, pages 226-8. 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 145 
 
 persistently into a leaping flame. The child is permitted 
 to become afraid of the dark — forced to be afraid of the 
 dark — ^not by old Mother Nature — but by those having the 
 child in charge. Then after having done this, some alleged 
 authority on childhood has the amazing audacity to assert 
 that the child is afraid of the dark ''because of instinct"! 
 I assert that the child's fear of the dark is overwhelmingly 
 a man-made product — either positively produced, or else 
 passively permitted to develop for the lack of some simple 
 instruction in the counter direction. 
 
 For example, I have more than once heard some member 
 of a family say to some other member: "For goodness 
 sake, get that child out of that room — don't you know that 
 it is in there in the dark all alone ' ' ! And yet the child gave 
 no thought whatever to the darkness until the suggestion 
 of fear and danger w-as planted directly into its conscious- 
 ness. Is it any wonder that with such remarks flying about 
 the consciousness of childhood, the fear of darkness is soon 
 developed? I think not. And yet some "expert" will 
 come along and shout ^'instinctive''! 
 
 On countless occasions I have known either parents 
 or older children to run out of a dark room, either with 
 actual fear or else wdth deliberate folly, and shout for the 
 benefit of some smaller child somewhat as follow^s: "Boo! 
 The bear is after you ! There comes the blackman ! The 
 chimney sweep is after us I Ghosts ! I see the bogey-man ! 
 The big dog — bow-wow ! Run for your life ! Wolf, wolf — 
 gr-r-r-r! Look out for the dark!" Oftentimes have I be- 
 held such conduct—and its resulting terrorization of some 
 child who was quite indifferent to the dark up to that time. 
 I have also beheld the spectacle of even a mother taking 
 her child to a window, with hands up to the sides of the 
 face, and peering out into the darkness — and striking terror 
 to the heart of the child by making expressions concerning 
 the darkness, similar to the ones just given. Then too I 
 have often witnessed the spectacle of terror-stricken parents 
 or other adults spreading the contagion of fear to the minds 
 of children, merely by the presence of their own excited eon- 
 
 10 
 
146 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 duct — without even speaking a word — ^the entire means of 
 communication consisting of facial expressions, gestures, 
 bodily attitudes and belabored breathing. Every child is an 
 adept at interpreting such symbols, because the first lan- 
 guage of the child is wordless. Their presence and meaning 
 can never possibly escape any normal child — and not only 
 that, those symbols actually speak in louder terms to the 
 child than any words possibly could. 
 
 Well, it is through such channels as the above, either 
 directed by word, or suggested by action, that the fear in- 
 stinct of the child is fanned into flames of consuming activ- 
 ity. The child is afraid of the dark because an exceedingly 
 dense adult world starts the ball a-rolling — and keeps it 
 a-rolling. Childhood fear is fundamentally a social func- 
 tion — and not a biological one. In fact, there are but very 
 few instincts that are fixed and fatal. Instincts are largely 
 present for us to do about what we please with them. I am 
 convinced that this is truer of the fear instinct than it is 
 of any other instinct. It is up to society to face squarely 
 this issue — and to accept full blame for the ghosts and hob- 
 goblins of the childhood world. 
 
 But if society is to blame in a positive way for the child 's 
 fear of darkness, it is still more to blame in a negative way 
 — that is, for its failure to do anything to help the child 
 who in some way or other may already be afraid of the 
 dark. To illustrate: Jean, a girl of four, was somewhat 
 afraid to go out into a dark kitchen to get a drink of water. 
 The mother of that child was about to go out and get the 
 water for her — or else to light a lamp so that Jean could 
 go for herself. But immediately — and unknown to the 
 child — I took the liberty to intercede. I checkmated the al- 
 ternatives of the mother — and went out into the dark 
 kitchen myself, taking Jean with me. All the while I kept 
 talking to Jean about the *' beautiful dark" — ^how wonder- 
 ful it was — ^how nice it was to be in the dark — ^how the 
 grass and the snow and the birds and the trees all love to 
 stay out doors in the dark at night — and so on. I pur- 
 posely remained in the kitchen with the child for some time 
 
FEAE: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 147 
 
 in order to afford opportunity to talk about the dark and 
 become accustomed to it. 
 
 Well, to make a long story short, within two weeks Jean 
 could be sent into any dark room in the house any time of 
 night. The lamp to which her mother had already accus- 
 tomed her in her bedroom was shortly taken away — and 
 Jean was going up stairs in the dark — going to bed in the 
 dark — and sleeping in the dark. Had the mother had the 
 exclusive training of that child, the fear of darkness would 
 have been fully and vividly developed, instead of com- 
 pletely eliminated. 
 
 And what is true of darkness is pretty much true of 
 nearly every other fear tendency in childhood. The predispo- 
 sition to fear may in some vague measure always be present, 
 but the entire field of cultivation is man's to operate just 
 as he will. All fears can be dealt with in about the same 
 manner suggested in the case of darkness above. The gen- 
 eral principle is, always to lead the child to see that its 
 fears are unfounded, either by explanation verbally, or else 
 through assurance by means of conduct — or again if neces- 
 sary by talking with the child freely and having it tell fully 
 what its fear is in any particular case. Above all, under no 
 circumstances, must a child ever be permitted to endure his 
 fears in silence. The first avenue of relief always is, either 
 complete expression concerning one's fears — or else a for- 
 getting of them by having created in the mind some other 
 situation. As in the case of every other field of life, ''An 
 honest confession is good for the soul" when it comes to 
 fears, providing those confessions are listened to by sym- 
 pathetic and intelligent souls who are bent upon helping the 
 child out of his difficulties, rather than scaring him still 
 worse. 
 
 Then too there is another fact which must ever be borne 
 in mind by every prudent adult : The child is oftentimes 
 fearful of things which parents and others may not suspect. 
 It is always the duty of those in association with children 
 to anticipate, but with extreme prudence, what the child's 
 possible fears may be. Hall in his questionnaire study of 
 
148 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 the fears of 1701 persons found enumerated such objects of 
 fear as thunder and lightning — high wind — cyclones — cloud 
 ,$orn},s — ^meteors — ^northern lightsi — comets — ^fog — storms — 
 eclipses — extremely hot weather — extremely cold weather — 
 darkness — ghosts — dreams — solitude — reptiles — domestic 
 animals — wild animals — insects — fire — water — strange per- 
 sons — ^robbers — death and disease/^ 
 
 Now, there is no special reason why many of these fears 
 might not inhabit the mind of any child — not necessarily 
 through "instinct" at all, but primarily through the uncon- 
 scious reactions of adults, or through associations with other 
 children. And let us not forget for an instant that one of 
 the greatest sources of fear spreading and fear contagion is 
 that of children communicating horrible things among them- 
 selves. A dozen innocent and fear-free child minds may 
 be literally poisoned and terrorized by the stories and fears 
 that some single playmate may relate. In the case of Jean, 
 related above, ''bogey-man" came into her life for the first 
 time through a group of three neighbor children ranging 
 in age from seven to twelve. According to Jean's account 
 of it, the three children talked to her at great length about 
 the "bogey-man" and did everything they could to scare 
 her out of her wits. The children of course I am not blam- 
 ing. I merely point out the fact and the source of pro- 
 lific contagion. As far as blame is concerned, there can be 
 but one blame, and that the semi-civilization of the world — 
 all resting down firmly upon the foundations of an educa- 
 tion and a culture so superficial that they are positively 
 dangerous to countenance any longer. 
 
 But the immediate fact is this: The child is troubled 
 with fears. If thunder and lightning is one of those fears, 
 then I would relate to the child the great wonder and beauty 
 of it all. And I would act the part — for actions speak in 
 terms of literal loudness with children. In general, every 
 phenomenon of Nature would be set forth as a thing of 
 beauty. I would inject that unanimous feeling tone into 
 
 75 G. Stanley Hall: A Study of Fears, Am. Jn. Psych., vol. viii., 
 No. 2, 1897. 
 
FEAE: ITS EELATION TO CHILDHOOD 149 
 
 the entire thought world of the child. As to cyclones and 
 other disastrous storms, the treatment should always be that 
 of prudence and fore thought — and never fear thought. 
 There is a vast difference between actually appreciating 
 facts as they are in a cool, clear headed manner — and being 
 perpetually scared and haunted and stampeded by shadows. 
 
 In dealing with such issues as wild animals, no phase 
 of the danger side should ever be permitted to come into 
 contact with the child's mind. I would erase from the 
 stories of childhood, and from all child literature, whether 
 in books or in magazines, every line dealing in any way 
 whatsoever with wild animals from the danger standpoint. 
 I would banish from every account, verbal or otherwise, such 
 mental monstrosities as wild animals chasing people or in- 
 juring them or killing them or eating them — and such 
 psychic poison as ''hair breadth escapes" from wolves, bears, 
 tigers, wild cats — and all forbidden garbage of that kind. 
 My censorship of current literature w^ould be so rigid that 
 no newspaper or periodical of any kind would be permitted 
 to publish a single line that might implant a single fear 
 in the mind of a single child in the land. Any deliberate 
 violation of that principle should be held a more serious 
 crime than deliberate treason to one's country — for, what 
 rights of any country can ever be so sacred as the rights of 
 the mind of childhood, unless indeed that country's rights 
 were specificly the ones that were raised in defense of child- 
 hood itself? 
 
 Perhaps in all literature there is no sounder or more 
 classic comment on the general manner in which the fear 
 issue should be handled in childhood than the remarkable 
 words of Rousseau when he gives voice to the following: 
 ''When in the farewell scene between Hector and Andro- 
 mache, the little Astyanax, terrified at the plume floating 
 from a helmet, fails to recognize his father, throws himself, 
 crying, upon his nurse's breast and wins from his mother 
 a smil.e bright with tears, what ought to be done to soothe 
 his fear? Precisely what Hector does. He places the 
 helmet on the ground and then caresses the child. At a 
 
150 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 more tranquil moment this should not have been all. They 
 should have drawn near the helmet, played with its plumes, 
 and caused the child to handle them. At last the nurse 
 should have lifted the helmet and laughingly set it on her 
 
 own head If I wish to familiarize Emile with the 
 
 noise of fire-arms, I first burn some powder in a pistol. 
 .... By degrees I accustom him to the noise of a gun, to 
 
 bombs, to cannon-shots, to the most terrific noises 
 
 Commonly children fear thunder only when they have been 
 taught that thunder sometimes kills or wounds. When rea- 
 son begins to affright them, then let habit reassure them. 
 By a slow and well conducted process the man or the child 
 is rendered fearless of everything ".^^ 
 
 I would that the above reference, especially the first 
 part of it, might be deeply engraved into the consciousness 
 of our civilization. 
 
 But let us continue with Rousseau in more of his words 
 of wisdom : ' * If Emile fall, if he bruise his head, if his nose 
 bleed, if he cut his finger, I should, instead of bustling about 
 him with a look of alarm, remain quiet .... all my anxiety 
 will only serve to frighten him more, and to increase his 
 sensitiveness. After all, when we hurt ourselves, it is less 
 the shock which pains us than the fright. I will spare him 
 at least this pang. If he sees me run anxiously to comfort 
 and pity him, he will think himself seriously hurt ; but if he 
 sees me keep my presence of mind, he will soon recover his 
 own, and will think the pain cured when he no longer feels 
 it. At his age we learn our first lessons in courage ; and by 
 fearlessly enduring lighter sufferings we gradually learn to 
 bear the heavier ones'\" 
 
 How sound and basic such words are — and how shallow 
 by comparison most of our educational pronouncements of 
 the present day! With his usual wisdom Rousseau lays 
 down this governing principle: **The earliest education 
 ought then to be purely negative. It consists, not in teach- 
 ing truth and virtue, but in shielding the heart from vice, 
 
 ■^6 J. J. Rousseau: Emile, page 26. 
 77 Ibid., page 40. 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 151 
 
 and the mind from error "/^ It is from the miserable bane 
 of fear that I would persistently shield the heart and the 
 mind of every child. 
 
 Then very closely related to what Rousseau has said on 
 fear is what he has to say concerning anger : ' ' Violent pas- 
 sions make a striking impression on the child who notices 
 them, because their manifestations are w^ell-defined, and 
 forcibly attract his attention. Anger especially has such 
 
 stormy indications that its approach is unmistakable 
 
 He sees an inflamed countenance, flashing eyes, threatening 
 gestures; he hears unusually excited tones of voice. . . . . 
 Say to the child calmly, unaffectedly, without mystery : *This 
 poor man is sick ; he has a high fever'. You may take this 
 occasion to give him an idea of maladies and their effects"/^ 
 
 Rousseau's reference to anger is a masterful one in this 
 connection for two reasons: First, it warns us of another 
 manner in which children may become terrorized, or their 
 nervous organizations deeply stampeded; and, second, it 
 gives us a most capital suggestion by saying to the child, 
 "This poor man is sick; he has a high fever"! The sug- 
 gestion constitutes a first rate basis for the control of tem- 
 per and for the ideal of self-mastery in every child. 
 
 And in this particular connection, another very grave 
 source of fear for childhood comes to my mind. I refer 
 to that fear which is born of the attitude taken on by those 
 who in any way have the disciplining of the child in charge 
 — especially when it comes to the administration of corporal 
 punishment. Parents are the chief sinners in this respect, 
 though teachers are not wholly clear of the charge. Re- 
 gardless of what punishment is meted out to a child, under 
 no circumstances, must fear or terror be one of the con- 
 tributing elements — never ! If corporal punishment is ever 
 going to be resorted to, then it must be handled in such a 
 way that bodily pain is the exclusive ingredient. Better a 
 thousand times over that the child go without punishment of 
 any kind, than that obedience be gained at the awful price 
 
 ■^^Ibid., page 57. 
 79 Ibid., page 61. 
 
152 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 of a mind shattered and dethroned by a terrorizing fear. 
 If trembling cowardice is to be our ultimate product, then 
 better by far that the hand be palsied that would raise a 
 whip over the head of any child. The great question in 
 punishment is not what kind of punishment, but rather: 
 What is the punishment doing to the mind and the nervous 
 organization of the child that is heing punished? 
 
 Now, it is primarily because of the great possibility of 
 fear's entering into corporal punishment, that it is a most 
 dangerous weapon in the hands of, say, ninety-nine persons 
 out of every one hundred. For this reason, my voice has 
 always been raised against it. I have never yet recom- 
 mended corporal punishment to any parent or to any 
 teacher. The disastrous thing about corporal punishment is 
 the fear accompaniment of it — the approach of the punish- 
 ment — the anticipation on the part of the child — ^the grow- 
 ing dread — the panic-stricken terror with every advancing 
 step of the whip-wielder — the angrj^ distorted, threatening 
 and determined countenance of the latter — the permament 
 fear effects that settle down into the mind of the child from 
 one whipping to another — the cowardice that is ultimately 
 involved — the timidity that becomes inbred — the sense of 
 self-mastery that is crushed — the sense of inner confidence 
 that is shattered — in fact the wrecking of every corner 
 stone of the mind : It is because of the possibility of this 
 awful price that I always utter an emphatic no against cor- 
 poral punishment. If corporal punishment really were 
 corporal punishment, and that only, I should not object to 
 it. But when I know that as a rule corporal punishment is 
 nothing more or less than a process of wrecking the mind of 
 the child then I say to the world — halt! Corporal punish- 
 ment is usually a pure lie — for its real name is mental 
 punishment — soul torture of the most destructive type. 
 
 Similarly, in the use of any punishment, fear must be 
 eliminated. If the child is afraid of being alone in a closet, 
 then there must be none of that kind of punishment for that 
 particular child. Should there happen to be any child who 
 is afraid of the dark, then that child must never be sent into 
 
FEAE: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 153 
 
 a dark room for punishment, while there remains a single 
 vestige of fear of the dark. And the reason should be very- 
 plain to all. Our aim in punishment is to do something that 
 shall be of ultimate benefit to the child. But if our punish- 
 ment ruins the child, then what folly there is in that pun- 
 ishment. I am convinced that punishment of one kind or 
 another — of the wrong kind and spirit — constitutes one of 
 the most dangerous fear fields in all the annals of child- 
 hood. We must revise and refine our punishments in such 
 a way that the last possible atom of fear shall be removed 
 from every one of them. When that is done, then our dis- 
 ciplining of childhood shall be right. Until that is done, we 
 must submit to calling our civilization barbarism. 
 
 Again, I would mention something else that needs men- 
 tioning in the worst possible way — the conduct of well-mean- 
 ing but foolish neighbors and strangers, or anyone else, 
 who would assume to be *' smart '^ or ''funny" or ''enter- 
 taining" with children that should be left strictly alone. 
 Times without number have I heard some smart dunce come 
 about the premises and say to some child, timid or otherwise : 
 "Look out — I'm going to cut your ears off" — or some other 
 equally ' ' clever ' ' piece of cheap lingo. Such people abound 
 everywhere in life — everywhere from one's own home to 
 stores and streets and parks and railroad coaches, and other 
 public places. It is remarkable how many "clever" people 
 are to be found on trains, who consider it their fundamental 
 duty to "scare" an unoffending childhood with any one of 
 a score of utterly absurd utterances, all calculated at the 
 same time to be high class entertainment for the rest of 
 the passengers. There ought to be a fool killer on every 
 train in the land, and another one in every community in 
 the land, for the express purpose of effectually muzzling 
 every ignoramus who doesn 't know any more than to pester 
 childhood in the manner indicated. The first dut.y of every 
 person is perhaps — to mind his own business. The main 
 function of a stranger is to leave every child absolutely 
 alone — because, under all racial psychology, every stranger 
 is an enemy. There is apt to be in the mind of every child 
 
154 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 a certain predisposition to timidity or fear in the presence 
 of strangers — so that any stranger has but very little to do 
 when he assumes to take liberties of any kind with any child. 
 Let every stranger keep his distance — and his tongue. If 
 any advance is to be made at all, let that advance be made 
 by the child itself — and even then, let every stranger keep 
 his mouth shut unless he has some better contribution to 
 make than the implanting of fear and falsehood and foolish 
 farce. All strangers should take especial notice of this. 
 Acquaintances and relatives will also take notice, for, in the 
 final analysis they have no particular license to carry on 
 with anything that is denied strangers, as far as fear cre- 
 ating in childhood is concerned. 
 
 Now, for the purpose of bringing before us more specific- 
 ly some of the fear problems of the child, let us go back 
 once more to the study of Hall, already referred to in the 
 present chapter. I shall quote some typical sentences se- 
 lected by Dr. Hall from the letters that were written to him 
 by different persons who answered his questionnaire letter. 
 Different persons testified as follows : 
 
 ''Had intense fear of water till eleven; when bathed 
 would scream with fear, and was almost convulsed". Here 
 is a point of information that parents might well bear in 
 mind. If any child has such a fear of water, then most 
 assuredly there should be no tub or basin of water for that 
 child in the beginning. The sponge bath should be resorted 
 to until such time as the child can be made to see and feel 
 for itself that there is nothing about the water to fear. 
 
 "During all childhood, nothing frightened me like wind ; 
 to subdue me, they needed only to say the word". The last 
 part of this testimony is conclusive evidence that the par- 
 ents of this child used its fear of the wind as a constant 
 whip over its head ! Does anyone mean to tell me that that 
 is not a display of barbarism ? It is as plain as the sun in 
 heaven that this child *s fear of the wind was cultivated 
 every day of its life — whereas it could have been completely 
 eliminated merely by the substitution of intelligence for 
 ignorance. Undoubtedly, also, if we had the complete story 
 
FEAE; ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 155 
 
 connected with the case of this child we would have before 
 us just one more instance where "loving" parents uncon- 
 sciously cultivate fears instead of killing them. May heaven 
 some day deliver us from mere "lovingness" that has not 
 within it the leavening spirit of an enlightened intelligence ! 
 
 ''At three had great terror of the full moon, and would 
 always run and yell to get away from it". Just one word: 
 How did the ''loving" parents of this child handle the 
 situation ? 
 
 "I was always terrified at the noise of lighting a match". 
 Can we not see here such a thing's being held so lightly by 
 the parents, that they paid no attention whatever to the 
 matter — and in fact even permitted older children, if there 
 were any, to "play" with the terrorized child in that 
 manner? 
 
 ' ' Must always sleep with a light in her room, or else sees 
 terrible faces". Can anyone doubt for a minute that this 
 child's fear is a manufactured product? I can now see 
 vividly the hundreds of things that happened in that child's 
 home to make it afraid of the dark — and not one single thing 
 being done to checkmate and cure that fear ! I know only 
 too well that the call for that light in the bedroom is not 
 step one in the child's fear world — no — it was closer to step 
 one million. 
 
 "Cannot go home from school alone after she has had 
 one of her bad dreams". Here is a field of which most 
 parents are totally unconscious. The bad dream is largely 
 a question of bad food and bad judgment in permitting 
 children to eat sweets and candies at all hours between 
 meals — and also in permitting children to take violent 
 physical exercise immediately after meals. Nothing is com- 
 moner in our homes than for children to be permitted to 
 "eat" a heavy meal in a few minutes and then immediately 
 to go back to school on the "dead run" to engage there in 
 further violent activities. Indeed there are — oh — so many 
 respects in which parents, when weighed in the balance to- 
 day — are found wanting. Then, too, of course, the bad 
 dream is very often the direct result of a mental and phy- 
 
156 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 sical organization already completely shattered through the 
 deadly effects of fear. 
 
 ''Was cured of fear of thunder by being shown the 
 beauty of lightning at the window by his father ' '. Here is 
 a good constructive suggestion — when judiciously applied. 
 
 ''After reading of wolves in Russia he could not enter 
 a dark room ' '. Such a fact as this is one of the reasons why 
 I would place a strict ban on any literature holding up 
 before children the danger side of wild animals. It is 
 time enough to learn such things about wild animals later 
 on in life when such knowledge may be of some service, 
 instead of loading childhood down with a set of facts that 
 can function only as terrorizing fear. 
 
 "Four children cry with fear if they see false teeth 
 move'\ This is just one more instance illustrating the fact 
 that we never know positively in advance just what may be 
 a fear object in the minds of certain children. Nowhere 
 in all life is vigilance so golden as in the directing of child- 
 hood and youth. 
 
 "Has never quite recovered from the painful bashful- 
 ness of childhood". Bashfulness is another manufactured 
 product. It is a type of fear. It is the result of fear acting 
 in combination with a childhood that is robbed of full and 
 free opportunity for social experience. The reader is espe- 
 cially referred to the chapter on "Introversion". 
 
 ' ' Children, as is well known, fear all prevalent diseases, 
 and often have long spells of imagining, now one, now an- 
 other group of symptoms". This great fact constitutes just 
 one more indictment against an education so "socially" 
 obsessed that what is happening on the inside of the human 
 mind in the meantime is completely lost sight of. One of 
 the worst of all indictments against our civilization today 
 is the fear-panic with which it has peopled the very air in 
 the case of every disease on the calendar. In another volume 
 I hope to give to this phase of the case the treatment that 
 it deserves. 
 
 "Has believed in ghosts since two, and always shall". 
 Where did this person get this belief ? What? Why, it is 
 
FEAR.: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 157 
 
 some more of the ''accumulated culture of the race" ! Any- 
 one who brings a ghost story within sight or hearing of any 
 child — should be strangled on the spot. 
 
 ''The greatest fear is tearing cloth". This is still one 
 more instance in which we cannot foretell what any child's 
 fears may be. 
 
 "Another child caught terror from being lost, and of 
 woods from Babes in the ^Yoods'\^^ Such facts convince 
 me more and more that much of our accepted child litera- 
 ture must be gone over in such a way as to pluck out com- 
 pletely the fear element. Undoubtedly we have many fables 
 that need censoring. 
 
 Hall's conclusion of his study is as follows: "The domi- 
 nant impression left by such a study is that of the degrading 
 
 and belittling effects of excessive fears The fear 
 
 state is but a great psychic-chemical poison widely diffused 
 and profoundly affecting. Fear knows no check. It floods, 
 it dams all the sluices of activity. The child dreads self- 
 betrayal of fears, and hence represses ".^^ Every parent 
 should take especial note of that last sentence — for the 
 very w^orst way in which to handle any fear is to have that 
 fear endure in silence. The child must be led to express 
 its fears, for they can never be gotten rid of silently. 
 
 Another source of childhood fear, as well as a manifes- 
 tation thereof, and which was touched upon in number six 
 of the above quotations, is that of the dream. I desire to elab- 
 orate on that somewhat here. Due to various states of mental 
 and physical inharmony many a child is the victim of 
 intense horrors by means of the dream state. A typical 
 case is so well put by Dr. Williams that I am quoting there- 
 from at considerable length: "Every teacher of young 
 children has encountered at some time what is commonly 
 known as the * nervous' child, with whom all efforts have 
 
 availed nothing The cause of the inefficiency may 
 
 be the outcome of some long-forgotten event in the life 
 
 80 G. Stanley Hall, op. cit., pages 166, 171, 175, 180, 184, 189, 202, 
 205, 212, 216, 224, 230, 233 and 235 respectively for above quotations. 
 
 81 Ibid., page 238. 
 
158 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 of the child, the recital of a terrifying story. The child 
 is often ashamed of her fears, is afraid of being laughed 
 at, and so hides her terrors within herself, in many cases 
 to the detriment of physical and mental health. The effect 
 of emotions like fear, has now been studied by experiments 
 in animals, by which it has been shown that the secretions 
 of the glands can be so changed as to cause even death (see 
 the works of Palow on the digestive glands, of Cannon on 
 
 the adrenal gland, and of Krile on the thyroid gland) 
 
 A girl of sixteen was referred to me for examination. On 
 account of great nervousness for years she had never been 
 
 regularly to school Inquiry showed that she would 
 
 frequently wake in the night very much afraid 
 
 Further inquiries showed that a servant had told terrifying 
 stories to her sister as a child ; the horrors this brought ran 
 through a family of three children, but they passed away 
 from all of them except this patient .... her fears were 
 of either fires or burglars, and they only occurred in bed 
 
 or asleep Then again, in the case of a boy of four 
 
 years the formation of a night terror was nipped in the bud. 
 For several weeks he had been visiting the zoological 
 gardens every afternoon. For a long time all went well, 
 until one evening he began to cry in bed soon after he was 
 
 left for the night He said that there were lions in 
 
 the house, and that he was afraid they would eat him. The 
 source of the idea had been that the lions had roared more 
 loudly than usual on that particular afternoon. I soon 
 convinced the boy that the lions had to remain in their 
 cages and could not get out, so that there was no occasion 
 to fear. Of course it was first necessary to give him the 
 feeling of security gained by embracing me, and secondly 
 to begin the conversation by talking about something else. 
 In this way the state of terror was dismissed, and the feel- 
 ing of protection was induced before we returned to the 
 subject of the lions; then we made rather a joke of the 
 funny roaring of the lions before we had finished, and he 
 finally lay down with the solemn promise to go to sleep 
 and think, as I proposed, of the tram cars and motors 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 159 
 
 passing outside his window It was all a very simple 
 
 substitution, but it was the prevention of what might 
 have become a serious psychosis if injudiciously handled. 
 It should not be difficult to see that these night terrors 
 are the product of a suggestion while awake, implicit or 
 explicit. It should not be difficult for those who are 
 
 forewarned to prevent morbid fears of this type 
 
 It must be remembered that explicit utterance is not 
 essential for the conveyance of ideas; for in the child a 
 vague general notion is quite as effective for producing 
 emotion as a clear-cut concept. Thus in Henry James' 
 novel, 'What Masie Knew', the whole suggestion conveyed 
 by the governess to her two charges was implicit in her 
 general attitude, for until the end there was not one 
 explicit statement of fear. Now, the explanation of this 
 is very simple : it depends upon the fact that gesture pre- 
 cedes speech as a vehicle of thought. The infant compre- 
 hends the varying attitudes and vocal tones of its mother 
 long before it can distinguish words; and in most people 
 this channel of information remains an important mode 
 by which they are influenced, often quite unconsciously".®^ 
 
 The essential fact for all of us to get is this, namely: 
 Fear dreams are very largely man-made affairs. Their 
 substance as a rule consists of fear thoughts of one kind or 
 another that have either been implanted in the mind of 
 the child, or else permitted there, during waking moments. 
 Direct fear, secretiveness or worry; or a combination of 
 them all will be found to be the parent of many of the 
 bad dreams of childhood. Ghostly terrors of some kind, 
 involving the elements of loneliness, darkness, baffling 
 movements, sounds of a dismal character, wild animal 
 stories setting forth hair-breadth escapes, excessive se- 
 cretiveness brought about by socially obstructed channels 
 of expression, fear deposits of past punishments and un- 
 mingled dread of impending ones — in fact a generally 
 wrecked nervous and mental organization due to obsessions 
 of fear, grief, worry, alarm, timidity, despondency, 
 
 82 T. A. Williams, M. D. Proceedings N. E. A., 1914, pages 836-40. 
 
160 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 suspicion, and other like shadows : In all of these lies the 
 sum and the substance, the warp and the woof, of the 
 bad, terrifying dreams of childhood — and of the adult world 
 as well. 
 
 Nor should we think for a minute that fear in childhood 
 remains an undifferentiated product. It does not. It 
 flowers off into deep-seated, permanent and chronic forms. 
 The most common of such fear forms and fear products 
 are worry and grief, pessimism and suspicion, anxiety and 
 alarm, dissatisfaction and hatred, despondency and depres- 
 sion, anger and irritability, cowardice and moroseness. 
 While the fear itself remains ever as an acute thorn in the 
 flesh, its chronic products hover just as constantly as so 
 many shadows in the mind, though the victim is perhaps 
 less conscious of their presence. Many of these chronic 
 shadows are the result of acute fear forms arising from 
 social contacts — ^very often in school life. Generally, the 
 atmosphere of the school is inhibiting and fear-forming. 
 Many a child fears failure in school, day in, day out. But 
 often the fear of examination is still worse. Worry in such 
 fields soon becomes a settled state of mind. Nervousness 
 sets in — and as far as mental poise and mental harmony 
 are concerned, the child may become a wreck — in spite of 
 the fact that one hundred per cent may be drawn in every 
 examination and in every recitation in physiology}! School 
 fears become school worries — and between :e two the 
 pathway to mental ruin is easily paved. The bad dreams 
 of childhood can often be at least partly traced to those evil 
 school conditions which suffer it to be possible for the mind 
 of the child to be stricken in some way with fear of some 
 kind, whether it is fear of the teacher, fear of fellow pupils, 
 fear of ridicule, fear of recitations, fear of examinations, 
 fear of failure, or fear of social conditions which cannot 
 be met as other children meet them — or whether any such 
 fear is a mere flowering out and extension of fears that 
 the child brings to school with him from his own home 
 and social environment. 
 
 And this leads me to the question of social tastes and 
 
FEAE: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 161 
 
 social standards as a provoking source of fear for many a 
 child. I might call it the thought-cast of our civilization. 
 I refer to the ahominable emphasis that our civilization has 
 come to put upon decorations — such things as empty social 
 strivings — the insane desire to imitate others — ^the emphasis 
 placed upon being in style — the copying of false and 
 arbitrary standards of taste — the yearning and straining 
 for dollars and dress. The social sanction that we have 
 placed upon such things produces an immeasurable strain 
 psychically — not only in the adult world, but just as truly 
 in the child world. The whole trouble comes from civil- 
 ization's having held up before the child the wrong model 
 to copy. The child sees that model — and sees it vividly 
 — just as vividly as the grown person in many respects. 
 That same model becomes a fear source in the mind of many 
 a child — for it awakens worry, self-depreciation, unrest, 
 and a spirit of dissatisfaction that is most undesirable. The 
 child in rags looks upon one in silks — and is sore depressed. 
 The taproots of many undesirable mental states are thereby 
 sprouted. The remedy is, that we should teach broadcast 
 in our schools and our homes the folly of the whole thing — • 
 the folly of being blind to the intrinsic worth of the granite 
 of the human mind — the stupidity of being sightless to 
 the eternal realities of life because of any such shadows 
 as the artificial and arbitrary decorations which today 
 dominate the fabric of our social mind from one end of 
 our civilization to the other. Nothing could be better in 
 this direction than to get the civilizations of the world to 
 take one deep and permanent look into the minds of such 
 giants as Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Lincoln, Tolstoy — and 
 many others. Our undying determination and ideal must 
 be to change most radically the models which society has 
 been compelling children to copy through the channels 
 of social imitation. Anything which ultimately causes 
 fear in childhood, or anything related to fear, such as worry 
 and self-depreciation, must be driven from our midst — to 
 say nothing of the fact that it is the duty of civilization 
 to produce master minds that can stand out and alone 
 11 
 
162 THE PURPOSE OF I:DUCATI0N 
 
 with some measure of mental individuality about them, 
 rather than to lay down the pattern of a sheep-fold, in 
 which every single fool goes over the social fences like 
 every other fool, whether it be in the tone of a tie, the shape 
 of a shoe, or the hang of a hat! Give us men! Give us 
 women ! And not weather vanes — whose one consciousness 
 and one law of gravitation is whatever way the fickle fans 
 of fashion may flutter! Yes, childhood everywhere must 
 have different standards of thought and action to emulate ! 
 We will get those standards the moment that our insane 
 civilization arouses from its drunken stupidity and estab- 
 lishes an educational system whose center and whose cir- 
 cumference is the human mind. 
 
 Let us bear in mind the awful fact that our education, our 
 civilization, is producing diseased minds. That is the great 
 fact which confronts us. The chief instrument in that 
 production is fear of one kind or another, combined with 
 its chronic offshoots — and the principal field in that entire 
 process is the plastic mind of the child. Humanity is 
 teeming with its diseased minds everywhere. But the world 
 pays no attention to such a condition of affairs, as a rule, 
 because mental abnormality has come to be the universal 
 disease of the planet. But far more alarming still is the 
 fact that society is completely unconscious of the great 
 truth that mental abnormality of some kind lies at the 
 base of all of her ills. There are authorities, however, who 
 have made careful inquiry into the present prevailing state 
 of the human mind, and who are thus in a position to tell us 
 something of the hidden sides of the typical human minds 
 with which we daily mingle. Dr. Sidis is one of such 
 authorities. In his study he presents a large number of 
 eases in which the victims of various mental and physical 
 ailments recite the concrete tragedies befalling themselves, 
 resulting from fear which crept into their minds when 
 they were children. I am presenting the three following 
 eases out of a large number covered by Dr. Sidis * study. 
 
 Case 17 : * ' From my earliest recollections I was an un- 
 usually brave child, and proud of my bravery. Older 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 163 
 
 brothers, on account of this, tried to frighten me in every 
 manner possible. One appeared with a false face and 
 frightened me so that I have since been afraid of everything 
 else".'' 
 
 Think of the tragedy of such a case! Think of the 
 awful ignorance of our civilization that fear becomes a 
 plaything in the hands of the various associates of child- 
 hood! We label our poison bottles with skull and 
 crossbones, because such poison produces immediate physical 
 effects — but the great psychic poison of mind, soul and 
 body — fear — that poison, civilization toys with ! 
 
 Case 19 : ' ^ I am a married woman of 52. All my life I 
 have been imprisoned in the dungeon keep of fear. Fear 
 paralyzes me in every effort. If I could overcome my 
 enemy I would rejoice for evermore. In childhood every- 
 thing cowered me. I was bred in fear. At five or six my 
 mother died, and I feared and distrusted a God, who would 
 so intimidate and bereave me. I heard tales of burglars 
 being discovered in hiding under beds, and a terrified 
 child retired nightly for years. I was in agony of fear. 
 
 My fears I never told Through childhood I feared 
 
 suicide. It was a world of escape that appealed to me, 
 
 and yet appalled me In my twenties I did attempt 
 
 suicide several times As a child I was always shy, 
 
 fearful, timid, and self-conscious to a painful degree. Even 
 as a grownup woman I am a sufferer from the same cause 
 ..... When I need my nerves in good control so fre- 
 quently, they are in a state of utter collapse In my 
 
 childhood hell-fire was preached. Foreordination and an 
 arbitrary God were held up into my childish comprehension. 
 I was bred in fear, and self-destruction resulted".®* 
 
 The tragedy of such a recital is, that it is but one case 
 out of millions. It is merely the type of what our boasted 
 "social" education and civilization are doing. The mental 
 torture involved in such existence of life-long fear-poison- 
 
 83 Boris Sidis: The Causation and Treatment of Psychopathic 
 Diseases, page 315. 
 
 84 Ibid., pages 320-2. 
 
164 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 ing is in itself beyond the limits of human endurance. 
 The tragedy becomes doubled when we reflect on the 
 drastic and unescapable physical effects of that same fear. 
 It is indeed no wonder that mankind is saturated with 
 constipation and indigestion and insomnia. Nor is it any 
 wonder that humanity is a fit subject for every disease 
 under heaven while the physical organization is so depre- 
 ciated by the undermining of such great organic funda- 
 mentals as nutrition, elimination and rest. 
 
 Case 20: ''About the age of fourteen I began to be 
 obsessed with sexual fears. Advice was given me again and 
 again that all sexual errors make boys sick and finally result 
 in a lingering death. Such advices often threw me into a 
 panic, on account of the fears I already had Occa- 
 sionally I was seized with the fear that my brain might give 
 away, and that I would die in agonies, a miserable dement. 
 .... I am obsessed by fears. Fears pursue me as long as 
 I am awake, and they do not leave me alone in my sleep 
 and dreams. Fears are the curse of my life. And yet I 
 control them — none but you has any suspicion of them. I 
 go about my work in a seemingly cheerful and happy way. 
 The fears, however, are the bane of my life, and torture me 
 
 by their continued presence My mental states grow 
 
 on fear, take their origin on fear, and feed on fear 
 
 Truly the Biblical curse applies to my life : ' The Lord will 
 make thy plague wonderful .... and of long continuance 
 
 and sore sickness And every sickness and every 
 
 plague which is not written in the book of this law, them 
 will the Lord bring upon thee until thou art destroyed. 
 Thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot 
 have rest ; but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart, 
 and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. And .... thou 
 
 shalt fear day and night In the morning thou 
 
 shalt say, ''Would God it were even'M and at even thou shalt 
 say, "Would God it were morning"! for the fear of thine 
 
 heart wherewith thou shalt fear ' I lay my heart 
 
 before you. I permit you to do with this document what- 
 ever you may think fit".^'' 
 w Ibid., pages 325-9. 
 
FEAR: ITS RELATION TO CHILDHOOD 165 
 
 The author of the ease just quoted is an eminent physi- 
 cian. He reveals to the world the inferno of fears that 
 have infested his life. And how truly the Biblical curse 
 that he quotes applies to that great multitude of silent suf- 
 ferers that throng the avenues of life everywhere, victims 
 of the most deadly poison known to all creation! Indeed 
 no curse could possibly outdo the agonies that the fear 
 victims of this w^orld undergo. "When we think of the in- 
 tensity and persistence and universality of the fear plague — 
 and the magnitude of the countless hosts that plod their 
 way, paying life tribute at the birth of every breath and 
 the horizon of every hope — it is horrifying! And yet the 
 world still has a certain section of its population so blind 
 to the play of cause and effect in life here and everywhere 
 that they would professionalize on the doctrine of an arti- 
 ficial punishment at some later day! 
 
 In closing the present chapter, we have now reviewed 
 briefly the relation of fear to childhood, establishing the 
 fact that it is during childhood that biological integrity 
 receives its first great death blow. The question now is 
 this : How long is the process to continue ? The answer is 
 simple : Until such time as education arouses from its slum- 
 bers, and recognizes the things that are fundamental to 
 human perfection and human happiness. When that day 
 of awakening dawns, the elimination of all fear from the 
 world of childhood shall constitute point one in education 
 — not only in our schools, but in our homes, and in the 
 social process everywhere. When childhood becomes a 
 stranger to fear, then shall we begin the building of a 
 Universe of physical and mental giants. Then shall we 
 build real men and real women endowed with the gifts that 
 are commensurate with their real innate ability to com- 
 mand. Then shall happiness and perfection begin to 
 dominate the earth. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall give in considerable detail 
 the educational views of Plato, bringing out their direct 
 bearing on the principle of biological integrity. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 
 THE VIEWS OF PLATO 
 
 In his essay on "Spiritual Laws" Emerson says that, 
 *^ There are not in the world at any one time more than a 
 dozen persons who read and understand Plato — never 
 enough to pay for a single edition of his works '\^^ A sim- 
 ilar thought is expressed by Zielinski when he utters the 
 following words: ''One statesman reads Plato and gathers 
 from Republic and Laws lessons of momentous importance 
 for the conduct of the commonwealth. Another reads Plato^ 
 and vows that he has carried away nothing except Eryxi- 
 machus' remedy for hiccups, so dramatically introduced in 
 the symposium"." 
 
 In a previous chapter I have already stated that in my 
 opinion about all the educational world has ever done with 
 Plato is to chatter his name. Education has carried nothing 
 away from Plato for the tragic reason that education has 
 carried nothing to him. Most of our leaders who have ever 
 written books on education have always considered it neces- 
 sary to go back to the beginning of the world — and do a bit 
 of balancing, as it were, like a carrier pigeon in mid air, 
 circling around to get its bearings before plunging into its 
 journey. It is about thus that our educational writers have 
 gone back to the beginning. Formerly I never knew just 
 why they went back. It was alv/ays a puzzle to me. But 
 now I know — they went back for the sake of the journey — 
 for the sake of the prestige that the journey would add to 
 their writings. Their chief reason has been to repeat the 
 
 ^6 The italics are mine. 
 
 s^ Lane Cooper : The Greek Genius and Its Influence, page 257, in 
 chapter by Zielinski. 
 
 166 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 167 
 
 name of Plato a time or two. Invariably their scholarly 
 contributions from Plato have been about as follows — and 
 note carefully the profundity of them: "As Plato has 
 said" — ''Plato points out" — "Music for the soul and gym- 
 nastics for the body" — "Plato's unfoldment" — "Plato 
 opines" — "The full and harmonious development of all the 
 faculties ' ' — ' ' Plato failed to see ' ' — ' ' Had Plato lived in our 
 ow^n day ' ' ! These and a thousand and one other perfectly 
 inane atoms of nothingness constitute the message that 
 either the intimate friends or the intimate enemies of Plato 
 would give us from that great master! 
 
 To me it is astounding that any such a state of affairs 
 should exist — in the field of education — the very field, above 
 all others, for w^hich Plato wTote! "Wliat a tribute indeed 
 the above words of Emerson are- — when we consider that 
 they are true — and when we realize the thousands of edu- 
 cators that are daily pawing over the name of Plato ! We 
 might excuse the rank and file of the world for neither 
 reading nor understanding Plato — but educators — who can 
 ever forgive them? 
 
 Now, let me say right here, before going further, that I 
 have 7'ead Plato — and I understand him. To the timid 
 reader (as well as that great host of colorless authors and 
 critics, whose chief ingredient is a nauseating tact) I will 
 say that this confession is no display of egotism at all. Nor 
 does it mean that Nature has classified me with the fortun- 
 ate dozen referred to by Emerson. It means neither one of 
 those things. It is a mere statement of fact. I understand 
 Plato because I have — read him. I have studied him. 
 "Whenever, therefore, I assume to quote from Plato I quote 
 from Plato — instead of quoting from somebody else — who 
 has quoted from somebody else — who has quoted from some- 
 body else — who has quoted from somebody else — and so on 
 ad infinitum — until we finally get down to the last fellow, 
 who never saw a copy of Plato in his life ! I say that I have 
 actually read the man himself — and I repeat that not in any 
 boasting spirit at all — but simply to serve notice on the 
 world that I mean business — that I regard education as 
 
168 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 entirely too sacred a piece of human work to engage in any 
 way whatsoever in pretense, or to play in any way the part 
 of an educational knave. The only reason why others have 
 not understood Plato is, that they have not read him. No 
 reason could be simpler or more complete than that. Edu- 
 cators have not read Plato. The chief reason why they 
 have not is, that they have never been able to take the 
 ''social" blinders off their eyes long enough to take one 
 good square look at the rights and prerequisites of that 
 almost extinct animal now which used to be referred to 
 during certain geological epochs as the individual. That is 
 the reason why Plato has gone begging down through the 
 ages of educational speculation — ^because educators have 
 been either ''socially" obsessed — or else too lazy to read — 
 or both. Let each educator classify himself as we proceed. 
 Why — even Davidson fails totally in the presence of 
 Plato — the reasons for which are somewhat more compli- 
 cated. It has always been a marvel to me, for example, 
 since I read Plato, how Davidson ever came to write his 
 "Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals." That is, 
 why did he select Aristotle? Did he first read Plato and 
 Aristotle — and then conclude what his title should be ? That 
 is, did Davidson decide that Aristotle was superior to 
 Plato? If he really did, then no man was ever more mis- 
 taken than Davidson — for as far as the field of education 
 is concerned, Aristotle is a pigmy alongside of Plato. And 
 yet in Davidson's book he makes thirty quotations from 
 Aristotle — and only two from Plato ! 
 
 But this is not all. There is abundant evidence to show 
 at every turn that Davidson went very far astray in even 
 his casual study of Plato. For example, he has this to say 
 in speaking of the Republic : " It is emphatically the prod- 
 uct of a youthful intellect, carried away by an artistic 
 ideal ".^^ In my opinion, nothing could be more amazing 
 than such an expression — for positively Davidson nowhere 
 ever began to penetrate the tremendous educational philo- 
 sophy of Plato. I shall prove this before I get through. 
 88 Davidson: Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals, page 149. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 169 
 
 But still further, I am firmly convinced that from the 
 very start of Davidson's study he had strong pre-percep- 
 tions in the matter. I believe that he was prejudiced in 
 favor of Aristotle from the beginning, for here is what he 
 has to say of him: ''It is pretty definitely settled among 
 men competent to form a judgment, that Aristotle was the 
 best educated man that ever walked on the surface of the 
 earth "."' 
 
 That fact evidently impressed Davidson very much. It 
 does not impress me in the least. I do not care whether 
 Aristotle was the best educated man or the least educated 
 that ever walked on the earth. That does not concern me 
 at all. I am studying education — therefore, the only thing 
 that I care about is the soundness of his educational 
 philosophy. Outside of that philosophy it is utterly im- 
 possible for Aristotle to prejudice me in his behalf, regard- 
 less of how many thousands of excess and irrelevant facts 
 he might have carried around in his mind. Simply to be 
 acquainted with more facts than any other person in the 
 world does not constitute a formidable recommendation in 
 my eyes — especially without first inquiring how many of 
 those ''facts" are true, as Josh Billings would say. The 
 real criterion of any man's education is not extensiveness 
 of intellectuality at all — ^but wisdom, judgment and depth 
 and accuracy and intensity of perception in things that are 
 fundamental to life. Judged on this basis, I can only say 
 that in the field of educational philosophy, Aristotle is in 
 every w^ay distinctly inferior to his illustrious master. I 
 feel sure that if Davidson had really read Plato, instead of 
 letting the intellectuality of Aristotle get in his light, he 
 w^ould have given to the world a far different story than 
 he did. 
 
 Aristotle's contribution to the science of education con- 
 sists of about seventeen pages.^'' Furthermore, practically 
 every word that he says on education is taken from Plato 
 — with exception of the fact that Plato's great central 
 
 89 Ibid., page 154. 
 
 80 Aristotle : Politics, trans. B. Jowett, 1905, book viii. 
 
170 THE PUKPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 thought escapes him entirely. Aristotle contributes not one 
 single new thought that is basic in nature. Further than 
 this, he gives Plato credit for nothing — but he takes him 
 greatly to task over many petty things.®^ For example, in 
 one place,^^ he criticizes Plato for his doctrine of checking 
 the loud crying and screaming of children^^ — and yet he 
 forgets that Plato said everything else on that page with 
 which he himself agrees. 
 
 In order to illustrate about the nature of Aristotle's treat- 
 ment and comprehension of Plato's Republic and Laws, I 
 quote the following : * ' In the Republic Socrates^* has defi- 
 nitely settled in all a few questions only ; such as the com- 
 munity of women and children, the community of property, 
 
 and the constitution of the state The remainder of 
 
 the work is filled up with digressions foreign to the main 
 subject, and with discussions about the education of the 
 guardians. In the Laws, there is hardly anything but 
 laws".'" 
 
 This is about the tenor of Aristotle's disposition of 
 Plato's Republic and Laws, which embody the profoundest 
 treatment of education ever made by man. Aristotle's 
 own contributions to education are negligible. All told he 
 devotes about three pages to the education of infants,®^ 
 whereupon he says: "We have made these remarks in a 
 cursory manner — ^they are enough for the present occasion ; 
 but hereafter we will return to the subject ".^'^ But he 
 never does! He leaves education righi; there. Most as- 
 suredly he must have made his ''remarks" on education in a 
 very ''cursory manner." No better proof of this fact 
 could be demanded than the following expression : "Now, it 
 is clear that in education, habit must go before reason, and 
 the body before the mind".^® 
 
 ^1 Ibid., page 297, beginning with paragraph 4. 
 
 ^2 Ibid., page 297, beginning with paragraph 6. 
 
 93 Plato: Laws, vii., 792. 
 
 »* Merely the name of one of the characters in the Eepublic. 
 
 95 Aristotle: Op. Cit., page 67. 
 
 96 Aristotle: Op. Cit., pages 296-9. 
 
 97 Ibid., page 298. 
 
 98 Ibid., page 304. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 171 
 
 My objection to this last statement partly is, that there 
 is no analogy between the two propositions which Aristotle 
 has thus laid down. In the first proposition he is right up 
 to a certain point, since reason is a delayed product of the 
 intellect. But in the second proposition he is wrong, since 
 feeling is present in the mind from the very start — and 
 feeling must always come first in the makeup and founda- 
 tions of the human body. Aristotle might just as well have 
 said that in a trolley system the network of w^ires is more 
 fundamental than the mind of the engineer that made the 
 dynamo in the power house. To be sure, every last atom of 
 physical equipment is indispensable — and yet let us not 
 become confused when it comes to the question as to which 
 is the more important, the mind of man or some scrap of 
 iron. Let us not be led astray by Aristotle when he says 
 that the body comes before the mind. Let us rather em- 
 brace the truth by listening to Plato, who, completely re- 
 versing Aristotle, says that the mind comes before the body : 
 ''My belief is not that a good body will by its own excel- 
 lence make a good soul; but on the contrary, that a good 
 soul will by its excellence render the body as perfect as it 
 can be".^^ Plato is right. Aristotle is wrong. 
 
 But let us leave the critics of Plato, and go directly to 
 the man himself. Let us go to the very workshop of the 
 master, and interpret him through the medium of his Ee- 
 public and his Laws. Therein shall we find recorded his 
 views on education — that is, if we dig down deep and hunt 
 for them. 
 
 Now, when I first went to study with Plato, it was with 
 the greatest anxiety, interest and curiosity. I had already 
 formulated after years of serious thought the principle 
 which I herein set forth as biological integrity, I felt 
 positive in my own mind that that principle must be our 
 ultimate purpose of education. I could not possibly see 
 why all other purposes of education must not be spurious 
 alongside of that one which aims at building pstjcliic sta- 
 
 89 Plato: Eepublic, page 99. This same quotation was given in 
 chapter 8 under reference 70. 
 
172 THE PUKPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Ulity into the very soul of the individual. But having 
 cast my eye over the entire field of education, as I thought, 
 I detected nowhere even the shadow of an educational pur- 
 pose that bordered on biological integrity — save with the 
 possible exception of Rousseau, who, it seems to me, as I 
 shall point out later, did have in mind an educational pur- 
 pose that involved somewhat the integrity of the individual, 
 though in his Emile he nowhere makes any detailed or spe- 
 cific reference to such a purpose. As a matter of fact Rous- 
 seau's treatment of education is not primarily from the 
 standpoint of a consciousness of purpose at all. 
 
 And, so I say, I went to Plato, almost with fear and 
 trembling, wondering whether I stood alone in my silent 
 advocacy of biological integrity, or whether after all there 
 might be some authority somewhere in the annals of the 
 past who would stand with me, or who would have some- 
 thing to say in such a definite manner that it would rein- 
 force my position. It is with that attitude of mind that I 
 went to Plato, after having threaded my way along the line 
 of the centuries, studying one by one this author and that 
 author, beginning at the present day and finally getting 
 back to Aristotle, Plato and Socrates in the order named. 
 
 And what did I find in Plato ? I found this : The one 
 thing for which I had been looking in education for twenty 
 years — and for which I had looked in vain till I came to 
 Plato. I found in Plato the most detailed and the most 
 fundamental purpose of education that I have found in all 
 literature. And what is that purpose? To answer that 
 question will be to occupy the remaining pages of the pres- 
 ent chapter. Suffice it to say here, however, that while 
 Plato nowhere employs the term biological integrity, or any- 
 thing like it, his treatment of education sets forth in the 
 most unmistakable manner that twenty-three centuries ago 
 he gave to the world essentially the same principle of edu- 
 cation for which I am pleading today. This fact will stand 
 out more and more as we proceed with our analysis. 
 
 Now, the fundamental thing for which Plato stands in 
 his education is harmony within the human mind. He 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 173 
 
 wants the various faculties of the mind harmoniously un- 
 folded. That is Plato's basic thought throughout. His 
 educational consciousness is therefore rivetted squarely on 
 the individual. Nothing can shift Plato's attention for a 
 minute from the fact that the individual must be our ulti- 
 mate criterion in education. But Plato's unfoldment and 
 harmony are not for themselves alone. They are for the 
 purpose of giving to the individual self-mastery and con- 
 sequent happiness. Plato's great thought is, that while 
 there is a fight going on within the human mind itself — 
 when the human mind is out of balance with respect to 
 itself — ^when one faculty is developed, say, ten times as 
 much as it should be, while another faculty has perhaps, 
 only one-fourth of what its development ought to be — ^w^hen 
 the human mind is so out of plumb that there is constant 
 internal psychic warring instead of harmony — that such 
 conditions do not represent education. His plea therefore 
 is for harmonious unfoldment. Plato saw clearly that if an 
 individual is going to be right, that state of being must 
 be funded precisely within the mind itself. At all hazards 
 the mind of man must be right — else all else in the world 
 will be wrong. 
 
 But what was it that Plato had in his consciousness 
 when he made his plea for harmony within the mind ? What 
 was it that he wanted to guard against? What was his 
 concrete conception of harmonious unfoldment ? According 
 to Plato, of what does mental harmony consist? Was 
 harmony a mere word, vague and void, with Plato — or, did 
 Plato have some definite conceptions as to what must 
 obtain in the way of harmony within the human mind, 
 providing our individual is to be considered educated? 
 
 My answer is this — ^listen : The overwhelming burden of 
 Plato's anah^sis of education had to do with keeping the 
 human mind free from every vestige of fear! Strike fear 
 from the human soul! That one thought is the cornerstone 
 of Plato! What? Yes, I repeat it! That very message 
 has lain covered up for twenty-three centuries — for the 
 reason given by Emerson at the beginning of this chapter. 
 
174 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 In Plato's educational philosophy, it is the undue pres- 
 ence of fear, above everything else, that makes psychic har- 
 mony impossible. With fear present, there can be no har- 
 monious unfoldment of the faculties, for the reason that 
 fear in itself represents an abnormal development to begin 
 with, to say nothing of its usurping the rights of every other 
 faculty by robbing them of their spirit and their substance. 
 Plucking out every atom of fear from the human soul, Plato 
 enshrines courage as the essential and indispensable pre- 
 requisite for harmony in the human mind. Both the Re- 
 public and the Laws are teeming with the thesis of courage 
 in the human soul. Cowardice and fear are correspond- 
 ingly condemned without qualification of any kind what- 
 soever. I am in a position to say this, because I have gone 
 through Plato ^s works with the greatest of care. In that 
 study I have collected here and there a large number of his 
 utterances setting forth courage as one of the foundation 
 rocks of harmony in the mind of man. These quotations 
 I am going to present to the world, in order that people may 
 judge for themslves just where Plato stood. Such quota- 
 tions, however, shall necessarily be brief, for to give all of 
 Plato's elaborations on courage, cowardice and fear would 
 be to copy practically every page in his two books. 
 
 What I do quote, however, shall always be verbatim — 
 and always accompanied by definite page references. I 
 shall not make the great mistake that Davidson made in 
 this respect when he wrote his ** Aristotle and Ancient Edu- 
 cational Ideals", in which he never makes a page reference 
 of any kind, and in excusing himself for which he has the 
 following to say : * ' It would have been easy for me to give 
 my book a learned appearance, by checkering its pages with 
 references to ancient authors .... but this seemed to me 
 both unnecessary and unprofitable in a work intended for 
 the general public ' ' !^^° My response to this is, that while 
 in the past authors have done little more in the line of 
 ancient references than merely to ** checker" their pages 
 therewith, very often perhaps for exactly the sake of giving 
 
 100 Davidson : Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals, preface vi. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 175 
 
 to their books ' ' a learned appearance ' ' — yet the mere fact of 
 a writer's ''checkering his pages" with such references can- 
 not in itself condemn him. Furthermore, not to give page 
 references has always seemed to me to be decidedly the lazy 
 way of doing things. Above all, it is an incalculably 
 greater mistake for any author, who instead of quoting an 
 authority word for word — and enclosing those words every 
 time with those magical quotation marks — goes to work and 
 submits his own paraphrased interpretation of what some 
 writer has said. Now, Davidson has made that very great 
 mistake. He has simply gone ahead for the most part 
 without quotations of any kind, making his own comments 
 and drawing his own conclusions. Almost invariably David- 
 son has left his readers completely in the dark as far as 
 verbatim and original source material is concerned. Person- 
 ally, for one, I want to see for myself exactly what it is that 
 some writer has said, and also to have it pointed out to me 
 exactly on what page of what book such and such a quota- 
 tion is to be found. I consider, for example, that it would 
 be very unfair for me to expect the world to accept what I 
 have already said in the present chapter in such an off-hand 
 and commentary-like manner, unless I can go ahead and 
 show by Plato's own words just what right I had to draw 
 any such conclusions about his doctrine of harmonious un- 
 foldment — and I don't care whether I am writing for the 
 specialist in education, or whether I am writing, in the 
 words of Davidson, "for the general public." Consequently 
 I say purely in self-defense that I am not "checkering" the 
 pages of this chapter, or any other chapter, "with references 
 to ancient authors" merely for the sake of giving my book 
 a "learned appearance", but for the express purpose of dis- 
 charging what I consider to be my most evident duty to the 
 world — for the purpose of enabling any person who cares 
 to do so, to locate for himself the exact statements that I 
 am quoting from Plato. Any other way of handling such 
 material I would consider unpardonably loose and unscien- 
 tific in the extreme. Furthermore, in order that the words 
 of Plato may stand out with the prominence that their great 
 
176 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 merit deserves, each one of his quotations shall be embodied 
 as a distinct and separate paragraph. In no case will my 
 own personal comment be included in the same paragraph 
 in which a quotation occurs. By adhering to this plan, 
 what Plato actually said can be much more easily followed. 
 
 Speaking of the harmonies, Plato admits frankly that he 
 does not know fully what they are, as we shall see from 
 the following: 
 
 **I do not know the harmonies myself. Only see that 
 you leave me that particular harmony which will suitably 
 represent the tones and accents of a brave man engaged in 
 a feat of arms, or any violent operation, who if he fails 
 of success, or encounters wounds and death, or falls into 
 any other calamity, in all such contingencies with unflinch- 
 ing endurance parries the blows of fortune. Leave me also 
 another harmony, expressive of the feelings of one. . . . not 
 behaving arrogantly, but acting in all these circumstances 
 with soberness and moderation, and in the same spirit 
 acquiescing in every result. Leave me these two harmonies, 
 the one violent, the other tranquil, such as shall best imi- 
 tate the tones and accents of men in adversity and pros- 
 perity, in a temperate and a courageous mood".^^^ 
 
 When Plato thus admits that he does not know all of 
 the harmonies, he is simply saying that he does not under- 
 stand fully all of the balance of the human mind. He ad- 
 mits that his understanding of the mind is not complete. 
 But regardless of what may constitute complete harmony 
 within the mind, Plato would thus unmistakably lay down 
 that state of harmony which calls for courage and temper- 
 ance. He is sure of that foundation. He wants self-mas- 
 tery. He wants to be sure that under all circumstances 
 every individuaFs inner state of harmony be such that he 
 will be able to conduct himself with the tones and accents of 
 a hrave man. Plato wants to be sure that there is never a 
 trembling heart within our individual. This great fact is 
 still more clearly brought out in the following question : 
 
 101 Plato: Republic, Davies & Vaughan trans,, 1914, Macmillan & 
 Co., 93-4. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 177 
 
 *'So of the mind, is it not the bravest and the wisest 
 that will be the least disturbed hy any influence from 
 without f'^'^'- 
 
 Plato thus speaks for the brave, courageous personality. 
 He would have him not subject to every storm or cloud or 
 threat from without. He knew further that the only guar- 
 antee against any such disturbance from without is a mind 
 solidly secured within. Above all he specificly knew that 
 it is fear in the mind that spells the heart of the coward — 
 who is the most disturhed by influence from without of 
 any entity on the face of the earth. 
 
 *'To proceed then : if we intend our citizens to be brave, 
 must we not add to this such lessons as are likely to preserve 
 them most effectually from being afraid of death? Or, do 
 you think that a man can ever become brave who is haunted 
 by fear of death r'^^^ 
 
 It is plain that Plato would leave no field of human ex- 
 perience untouched, which might in any way develop the 
 faculty of fear in mankind. He would go to the very grave 
 and rob it of all its terrors, in developing his man of cour- 
 age. Indeed he would go into whatever world there may 
 be beyond the grave and set the mind of man right in that 
 unknown field also, for he contiijues : 
 
 "Well, do you imagine that a believer in Hades and its 
 terrors will be free from all fear of death, and in the day 
 of battle will prefer it to defeat and slavery? .... Then 
 apparently we must assume control over those who under- 
 take to set forth these fables Then we shall expunge 
 
 the following passage, and with it all that are like it : 
 'I would e'en be villain, and drudge on the lands of 
 
 a master 
 Under a portionless wight, whose garner was scantily 
 
 furnished. 
 Sooner than reign supreme in the reahus of the dead 
 that have perished'.^"* 
 
 ^*^2 Ibid., page 70. The italics are mine. 
 
 103 Ibid., page 75. 
 
 104 Homer: Odyssey, xi., 4S9. 
 
 12 
 
178 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 .... SO much the less ought they to be recited in the hear- 
 ing of boys and men, whom we require to be freemen, fear- 
 ing slavery more than death ".^°^ 
 
 So high a rating does Plato thus place upon courage 
 as a fundamental element in the building of inner mental 
 harmony, that he would destroy every element entering 
 into the world's accepted ''culture", which might in any 
 way contaminate with fear any mind in the making. Plato 
 would expunge from our time and from our literature every 
 single thought and every single sentence which might in 
 any way tend to turn the mind from the channels of courage 
 to the channels of cowardice. 
 
 ' ' Then we must likewise cast away all those terrible and 
 alarming names .... the mention of which makes men 
 shudder to the last degree of fear What we main- 
 tain is, that a good man will not look upon death as a 
 dreadful thing for another good man to undergo, whose 
 friend he also is".^*^" 
 
 With unending persistency, Plato keeps ever at this 
 theme : Away with fear, the parent of cowardice. 
 
 ''Or, if they do imitate, let them imitate from very 
 childhood whatever is proper to their profession — ^brave, 
 
 sober, religious, honorable men Then we shall not 
 
 permit those in whom we profess to take an interest .... 
 to imitate slaves of either sex .... nor yet lad men, 
 it would seem, such as cowards' \'^^'^ 
 
 Plato would not have the slave imitated because the 
 slave is a coward — because, as was inferred in the last sen- 
 tence of reference 105 above, the slave fears death more 
 than he does slavery. The coward slave is therefore a bad 
 man. He is the essence of fear. With the one central 
 thought of courage, Plato is rightly obsessed at all times. 
 He would rigidly censor anything and everything that 
 might contribute to the building of a coward. For this 
 reason he would have no cowardly models of any kind about 
 for children to imitate. 
 
 ' 105 Plato: T?epiiblie, pages 75-6. 
 
 106 Ibid., page 77. 
 
 107 Ibid., pages 88-9. The italics are mine. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 179 
 
 ''And the presence of grace and rhythm and harmony 
 is allied to and expressive of the character which is brave 
 
 and soberminded This being the case ought we not 
 
 confine ourselves to superintending our poets, and compel- 
 ling them to impress on their productions the likeness of a 
 good moral character, on pain of not composing among us ? 
 And ought we not to superintend our artists? .... Shall 
 we in like manner ever become truly musical .... until 
 we know the essential forms of temperance, courage, liber- 
 ality and munificence, and all that are akin to these T'^^^ 
 
 With a keen eye, Plato clearly saw that there can be no 
 real grace, rhythm or harmony where the soul is enmeshed 
 with cowardice and fear. Every essential basis for poise 
 and appreciation would be lacking. Plato would have our 
 poets and our artists project such messages as would help 
 to guarantee individuals that are * ' brave and soberminded ' ' 
 — and with remarkable insight he says that true music 
 must rest on our knowing "the essential forms of temper- 
 ance, courage, liberality and munificence." That is to say, 
 great music must come from a great soul. No such a keen 
 commentary on music has ever been made by any other 
 writer in the world. 
 
 "So must we bring our men while still young into the 
 
 presence of objects of terror And whoever from 
 
 time to time, after being put to the proof, as a child, as a 
 youth, and as a man, comes forth uninjured from the trial, 
 must be appointed a ruler and a guardian of the city, and 
 must receive honors in life and in death, and be admitted to 
 the highest privileges, in the way of funeral rites, and other 
 tributes to his memory. And all who are the reverse of this 
 character must be rejected. "^^^ 
 
 From the above quotation alone one might think at first 
 examination that Plato was advocating the terrorizing of 
 children. But that is not the case at all, as the reader can 
 fully verify for himself by turning over to reference 137 
 in the present chapter. Plato would accustom children to 
 
 108 Ibid., pages 96-7. 
 losibid., page 112. 
 
180 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 objects of terror by the most imperceptible degrees, and in 
 the same judicious manner as Rousseau, as quoted in refer- 
 ence 76, preceding chapter. Plato's thought in the above 
 quotation simply is, that ultimately we must pick only the 
 very bravest for our rulers and guardians. His education 
 would be designed to make courageous characters of all, 
 but since by virtue of Nature alone there is bound to be 
 some variation, Plato wants to be sure that none but the 
 most courageous shall be selected as models of imitation 
 and emulation for the rest of the population of the country. 
 Plato is therefore eminently sound when we understand 
 what he means. He is simply grading people in the trait 
 of courage. He is emphatically not advocating the terror- 
 izing of children. 
 
 ''And again there can assuredly be no great difficulty 
 
 in discerning the quality of courage I say that 
 
 courage is a kind of safe keeping — that kind of safe keep- 
 ing which through education teaches what things are to be 
 
 feared Pain and fear and desire are more potent 
 
 than any other solvent in the world. This power, therefore, 
 to hold fast continually to the right and lawful opinion con- 
 cerning things to he feared and things not to he feared, I 
 define to be courage^ \^^^ 
 
 "This power .... to hold fast continually" — think 
 of the wisdom of the man ! No such an analysis of courage 
 as that has ever been made since. The coward cannot 
 hold fast continually or even for a second to what is right. 
 Indeed the coward must even apologize for being right — 
 for he trembles at the very presence of his own shadow. 
 Right or wrong, he is the same haunted and hunted slave 
 within the very precincts of his own mind — and the world 
 knows it — and takes corresponding chase. Truly, ' ' courage 
 is a kind of safe keeping. ' ' That sentence alone is enough 
 to immortalize Plato. At the same time, in this same quo- 
 tation Plato makes it plain that it is the duty and function 
 of education to teach to the individual ' ' what things are to 
 be feare d" and "what things are not to be feared." It 
 
 110 Ibid., page 130. The italics are mine. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 181 
 
 would seem, therefore, that there really are some things 
 which the individual should fear. Yes, that is right — 
 there is one fear which Plato would never abstract from 
 any mind. What this is will be fully explained in due time 
 in the present chapter under the comments following refer- 
 ences 113, 114, 115 and 116. Continuing with his analysis, 
 Plato now introduces another thought : 
 
 "The three principles in the soul are the rational, the 
 irrational and spirit (or that by which we feel indig- 
 nant) 'V^^ 
 
 By the rational Plato means about the same as we when 
 we speak of reason. By the irrational he means the im- 
 pulses and physical appetites. By the spirit he means the 
 power of willy with especial reference to courage. It is 
 complete harmony among these three principles that Plato 
 would establish. 
 
 *'We must bear in mind then that each of us also, if his 
 inward faculties do severally their proper work, will in 
 virtue of that, be a just man, and a doer of his proper 
 work. "^^2 
 
 In this statement we have before us the fact that Plato 
 does not contend that courage alone makes the completed 
 individual. While he does insist that courage is the basic 
 element, he nevertheless admits that other principles are 
 required. In his further analysis of the above three prin- 
 ciples, he inquires with the following very penetrating 
 judgment : 
 
 "And would not these two principles (the rational and 
 the spirit, or courage) be the best qualified to guard the 
 entire soul and body against enemies from without ; the one 
 taking counsel, and the other fighting its battles, in obedi- 
 ence to the governing power, to whose designs it gives 
 effect by its bravery ? In like manner, I think we call an 
 individual brave, in virtue of the spirited element of his 
 nature, when this part of him holds fast, through pain and 
 
 111 Ibid., page 144. 
 
 112 Ibid., page 146. 
 
182 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 disease, the instructions of the reason as to what is to be 
 feared, and what is not to be feared ".^^^ 
 
 Here it must be explained what Plato means by the 
 expression, *'what is to be feared, and what is not to be 
 feared." For this explanation, let us turn to the words of 
 Plato from another source : 
 
 ''Let us not forget that there are two qualities that 
 should be cultivated in the soul — ^first, the greatest fear- 
 lessness ; and secondly the greatest fear. Both are parts of 
 reverence ".^^* 
 
 The above quotation may seem contradictory within 
 itself, but it is not. Direct light is thrown upon this when 
 Plato says later on : 
 
 ' ' There are two fears, the fear of expected evil, and the 
 fear of being tJiougJii evil/'^^^ 
 
 It is the first of the above two fears that Plato would 
 crush utterly from the mind of man. It is the second fear 
 that he would leave and implant in every mind. This fact 
 is clearly shown when Plato says further : 
 
 ''We ought to train ourselves so as to be afraid to say 
 or suffer or do anything that is base"."^ 
 
 That is the one and only fear that Plato would have 
 stationed in the human mind — abhorrence of doing wrong. 
 It is a conception which constitutes an ethical conduct on 
 the highest possible plane. But it means even more than 
 this, for Plato wants nothing to take place in the process of 
 mental action that may in any way interfere with the 
 courage of the individual. Plato is keen enough to see that 
 if a person fears not to do wrong — that is, if a person's 
 mental constitution is not such that he becomes self-crucified 
 if he ''says or suffers or does anything base," then such a 
 person cannot possibly represent a sound condition of inner 
 mental harmony. A part of Plato's harmony is, that every 
 person shall fear to do wrong — not at all through cowardice 
 
 113 Ibid., page 147. 
 
 114 Plato: Laws, translation by B. Jowett; introduction, page 29. 
 
 115 Plato: Laws, pages 177-8. The italics are mine, 
 lie Plato: Laws, page 180. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 183 
 
 of public opinion, but because at the bar of conscience the 
 wrong-doing does not find justification in the eyes of the 
 individual himself. Every other atom of fear Plato would 
 pluck out, root and branch from the human soul. 
 
 But let us digress here just a moment to say a word 
 further about Plato's ethical conception of goodness as 
 based on the individual 's inner fear ' ' to say or suffer or do 
 anything that is base." In my opinion that is the sound- 
 est foundation of ethics in all the world — and that as such, 
 it is infinitely more basic than the injunction ' Ho do good. ' ' 
 Rousseau held to this same view. While he has never made 
 any mention of Plato in this connection, yet his expressions 
 bordering along this particular line are so illuminating and 
 so supplemental of what Plato himself said twenty-one 
 centuries before, that I am quoting herewith the following 
 paragraph from Rousseau : 
 
 ''The only moral lesson suited to childhood, and the 
 most important to every age is, 7iever io injure any one. 
 Even the principle of doing good, if not subordinated to 
 this, is dangerous, false and contradictory. For, who does 
 not do good? Everybody does, even a wicked man who 
 makes one happy at the expense of making a hundred mis- 
 erable; and thence arise all our calamities. The most ex- 
 alted virtues are negative: they are the hardest to attain, 
 too, because they are unostentatious, and arise above even 
 that gratification dear to the human heart — sending another 
 person away pleased with us. If there be a man who never 
 injures one of his fellow creatures, what good must he 
 achieve for them ! What fearlessness, what vigor of mind 
 he requires for it ! ' '^^^ 
 
 Thus we see that Rousseau designates as '* fearlessness" 
 the very thing that Plato called fear of doing wrong — 
 exactly the condition that Plato's formula was calculated to 
 establish, namely: Greater courage on the part of the 
 individual. It is indeed most gratifying thus to note the 
 unanimity of those two great minds on the question im- 
 mediately under consideration. 
 
 ^1^ J. J. BoiTsseau: Emile, pages 73-4. The italics are mine. 
 
184 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Let us now go back to Plato once more and continue with 
 his discussion of harmony. 
 
 *'The just man will not allow the distinct classes in his 
 soul to interfere with each other, but will really set his 
 house in order; and having gained the mastery over him- 
 self, will regulate his own character as to be on good terms 
 with himself, and to set those three principles in tune to- 
 gether, as if they were verily three chords of a harmony, 
 a higher and a lower and a middle, and whatever may lie 
 between these; and .... as a duly harmonized man, he 
 will then at length proceed to do whatever he may have to 
 do, whether it involve the acquisition of property or atten- 
 tion to the wants of his body, whether it be a state affair 
 
 or a business transaction of his own Strife between 
 
 the three principles, confusion and bewilderment of the 
 aforesaid principles, will, in our opinion, constitute injus- 
 tice and licentiousness and cowardice and folly, and in one 
 word, all vice '7^^ 
 
 The three principles above referred to are the ones pre- 
 viously discussed — the rational, the irrational and the 
 spirit — or, reason, physical appetites and courage (the 
 reader is referred to reference 111 and the comment fol- 
 lowing it). Plato's wisdom is matchless. He would *'not 
 allow the distinct classes in the soul to interfere with each 
 other ' ', but would have every person ' ' really set his house 
 in order". He would have no "strife" in the mind. But 
 think of the st?^ife there is in the mind when fear is there! 
 "What interference! How very much indeed is such a house 
 out of order! A mind under such a state of discord and 
 inharmony Plato refers to in the following well-chosen 
 words : 
 
 ''A motley, many-headed monster, the form of a lion and 
 the form of a man .... without making any attempt to 
 habituate or reconcile them to one another, but leaving 
 them together to bite and struggle and devour each 
 other "."^ 
 
 lis Plato: Eepublic, pages 149-50. The italics are mine. 
 "9 Ibid., pages 329-30. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 185 
 
 It is profound utterances like the above, and like tlie 
 utterances of Plato everywhere, that Davidson has desig- 
 nated as ''pre-eminently the product of a youthful mind, 
 carried away by artistic ideals ".^^^ Indeed, Davidson could 
 not have made a greater mistake had he referred to such a 
 masterpiece as Bryant's ''Thanatopsis" in the same terms 
 that he applied to Plato. But the best way to refute David- 
 son's erroneous estimate of Plato is to let Plato continue 
 to speak for himself : 
 
 ''Again, are not luxury and effeminacy censured because 
 they relax and unnerve this same creature, by begetting 
 cowardice in him?"^^^ 
 
 Plato perceives very clearly that "luxury and effem- 
 inacy" only tend to make the disordered elements of a 
 disordered mind "bite and struggle and devour each other" 
 all the more — hy hegetting cowardice in Mm, He would 
 therefore eliminate "luxury and effeminacy" as basic evils 
 because they are destructive in the process of building 
 courage. He also makes further inquiry concerning 
 harmony : 
 
 "Now, in this variety of circumstances, is a man's state 
 one of unanimity ? Or, is he at feud and war with himself 
 in his actions ? ' '^^^ 
 
 How true and penetrating those words are ! They get 
 into the inside of the human mind and depict for us the 
 psychic anarchy that obtains wherever fear has been the 
 spiritual furnisher of our thought world, invariably setting 
 up for one such demons as doubt, indecision, tvorry, anxiety, 
 self -consciousness and self-condemnation. Under such cir- 
 cumstances the individual is always "at feud and war with 
 himself in his actions" instead of having his thoughts and 
 his actions co-ordinate in a state of peace and harmony. 
 
 "We ought ever to habituate the soul to turn with all 
 speed to the task of healing and righting the fallen and dis- 
 
 120 See reference 88 and comments connected therewith in present 
 chapter. 
 
 121 Plato: Republic, page 331. 
 
 122 Ibid., page 347. 
 
186 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 eased part, thus putting a stop to lamentation .... which 
 is irrational, and idle and the friend of cowardice" ^^^ 
 
 ^'Lamentation" — does not that one word epitomize the 
 inner state of the mind that has been fear-fed ? Above all, 
 let us understand that this lamentation is inward debate and 
 soliloquy. It is not something that is spoken outwardly to 
 the neighbors. It is an inner psychic agitation and unrest 
 that are eating out the very vitals of the individual 's power. 
 The situation is this : Mental power demands mental har- 
 mony — and mental harmony demands undivided unanimity 
 in the field of mental action. What is spoken and what is 
 felt must be absolutely parallel. There must be no insin- 
 cerity, no pretending — and no desire for such things. Peace 
 must 1)6 in the mind — and not ' ' feud and war. ' ' The first 
 duty therefore is ''to habituate the soul" to heal its diseased 
 sections — that is, get rid of any condition ''which is irra- 
 tional and idle and the friend of cowardice." That first 
 great task, Plato would have us understand consists of 
 sending fear into exile. Without rest of any kind, Plato 
 pursues this thought everywhere, and in such a range of 
 phraseology that one must admire the man for the tremend- 
 ous perception that he invested in his problem. From every 
 possible angle he peers deeply into the action of the mind 
 that is not harmonized. In the two following questions, 
 for example, he gives us another view of cowardice : 
 
 "So that a mean and cowardly character can have no 
 part, as it seems, in true philosophy ? Can the man whose 
 mind is well regulated and free from covetousness, mean- 
 ness, pretentiousness and cowardice, be hard to deal with 
 or unjust?"''' 
 
 Nowhere does Plato associate cowardice with anything 
 but the most undesirable and unfortunate traits operating 
 in a discordant mind. His analysis too of the accompani- 
 ments of cowardice is always the soundest. He even points 
 out the following traits as being foreign to the harmonious 
 mind: 
 
 123 Ibid., page 349. The Holies are mine. 
 12* Ibid., page 200. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 187 
 
 ''Well then I alluded to that class of idle and extrava- 
 gant men, in which the bravest lead and the more cowardly 
 follow. We compared them if you will recollect, to sting- 
 ing and stingless drones, respectively ".^^^ 
 
 It is in those most apt terms that Plato denounces the 
 ''idle and extravagant." To him, both sets are "drones." 
 Shortly afterwards he quotes from the Oracle given to Croesus : 
 
 " 'By the pebbly bed of the Hermus, 
 Flies he, and halts no more, nor shuns the reproach 
 of a coward' '\^^^ 
 
 To Plato, that represents the lowest depths of cowardice 
 
 nor shuns the reproach of a coward! Flies he — how 
 
 truly that represents the trembling heart of the helpless 
 coward in the very face of what he knows to be right! 
 And halts no more — was there ever a fear victim in any 
 field that ever ran by any other formula? Never! The 
 coward always shows his heels— if no other way, then 
 by his lack of positive self-assertion, and by his halting 
 hesitancy. 
 
 And thus it is, from the beginning of Plato's Republic 
 to the end of it, the one message that he is trying to lay 
 down is the sacred fundamental right of every individual 
 to psychic soundness — and furthermore he makes it clear 
 that courage must be made the keystone of every human 
 mind— and still clearer that fear is the one great beast that 
 stands in the way. In other words, in my plea for biological 
 integrity I claim that I have the complete sanction of Plato 
 in every word of his Republic. 
 
 But when we turn from Plato's Republic to his Laws we 
 find the same unanimous story— an eternal driving away 
 at the great fact overlooked by all the ages, namely: The 
 getting of the human mind right within itself and with 
 reference to itself as the lasic principle of all education. 
 Let us sit at the feet of the greatest master mind that ever 
 wrote in education as he speaks the following words to us : 
 
 125 Ibid., page 297. 
 
 126 Ibid., page 300. Italics mine. 
 
188 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 "There is a victory and a defeat — the first and best of 
 victories, the lowest and worst of defeats— which each man 
 gains or sustains at the hands, not of another, hut of him- 
 self; this shows that there is a war against ourselves going 
 
 on within every individual of us Inasmuch as every 
 
 individual is either his own superior or his own inferior, 
 shall we say that there is the same principle in the house, 
 the village, and the state ?"''' 
 
 The greatest of all victories, therefore, is that state of 
 psychic stability in which each individual is his own self- 
 master — and ''the lowest and worst of all defeats" is that 
 mental state within in which psychic war debases or de- 
 stroys us. Each individual's greatest friend or worst 
 enemy is therefore the state of his own mind. 
 
 ''And, in like manner, no one can be a true statesman, 
 whether he aims at the happiness of the individual or the 
 state, who looks only, or first of all, to external warfare; 
 nor will he ever be a sound legislator who orders peace for 
 the sake of war, and not war for the sake of peace. ... Of 
 all wars, the one which men call civil war is the worst ' '.^"^ 
 
 Who can doubt that proposition for a minute ? In fact, 
 the only real war is the civil war. Indeed every states- 
 man on earth might well listen to Plato when he says that 
 external warfare is a relatively insignificant thing along- 
 side of internal warfare. It is in the human mind where 
 each individual's civil war is raging — due to that discord 
 which is the result of a set of faculties which are anything 
 but harmoniously unfolded and developed — and chief 
 among which discord is fear, that thief which has stolen 
 away the basic chords and the dominant tones of harmony 
 from our innermost mental estates. Yes — let both the indi- 
 vidual and the State understand that all real destruction 
 and danger always proceeds from internal unsoundness. 
 
 But if there be any who think that in speaking of cour- 
 age as the one great desideratum, and as the basis of mental 
 harmony, Plato had any specific thought of the soldier or 
 
 127 Plato : Laws^ translation by B. Jowett, page 157. Italics mine. 
 128 Plato: Laws, page 159 and page 160. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 189 
 
 the warrior in mind, then such persons are very much mis- 
 taken. In order to prove this in the most unmistakable 
 terms, I am going to quote first a sentence which was quoted 
 by Plato from the words of Tyrt^us, an Athenian by birth, 
 but a Spartan by adoption: "I sing not, I care not about 
 any man, even if he were the richest of men, and possessed 
 of every good, unless he be the bravest in war".^-^ Plato 
 then comments on this quotation as follows : 
 
 ''And we have a poet also whom we summon as a wit- 
 ness, Theognis, citizen of Megara in Sicily, who says, * Cyr- 
 nus, he who is faithful in a civil broil is worth his weight in 
 gold and silver,' and such a one is far better as we affirm, 
 than the other, in a more difficult kind of war, much in 
 the same degree as justice and temperance and wisdom, 
 when united with courage, are better than courage alone. 
 .... In the kind of war of which Tyrtaeus speaks, many a 
 mercenary soldier will take his stand and be ready to die 
 at his post, and yet they are generally, and almost without 
 exception, insolent, unjust, violent, and the most senseless 
 of human beings .... and yet in place and dignity, that 
 virtue may be truly said to be only fourth rate".^^° 
 
 Nothing could be plainer or more convincing than that. 
 Plato in his treatment of education is not speaking about 
 courage for the warrior — ^but courage for every human per- 
 sonality, regardless of his walk or profession in life. This 
 fact is unshakable. The spirit of it impregnates every word 
 that Plato ever wrote. Plato was not speaking about 
 soldiers — he was speaking about Jiumanity. He was cham- 
 pioning primarily — not a war courage, but a peace courage. 
 At this time the reader is also informed that in the follow- 
 ing chapter under the comments following quotations from 
 Emerson's essay on Heroism, will be found some detailed 
 expressions that will help to illumine this phase of our 
 subject still further. In the meantime, let us continue with 
 Plato : 
 
 "We must begin as before, and discuss the habit of 
 
 129 Ibid., page 160. This is a quotation from Tyrtaeus. 
 ISO Ibid., page 161. 
 
190 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 courage, and then we will go through the other forms of 
 virtue".^'' 
 
 This is but one more evidence that Plato places courage 
 first in his analysis of harmonized faculties. He knows 
 that with courage absent, no mental harmony is at all pos- 
 sible. Then Plato inquires further : 
 
 * ' But how ought we to define courage — merely as a com- 
 bat against fears and pains, or also against desires and 
 pleasures, and against flatteries ? "^^^ 
 
 Plato's reply is, that courage must also include the lat- 
 ter fields. The mind must be such that it has a strong 
 psychic anchorage against inward feelings as well as against 
 all external influences. The harmony, in other words, must 
 be complete. Otherwise — 
 
 ' ' One-half of their souls will be slave, the other free. ' '^^^ 
 
 This sentence would remind one of a similar utterance 
 by Lincoln during slavery — and indeed of the recent war 
 statement concerning the impossibility of the world 's longer 
 enduring half democracy and half autocracy. What Plato 
 said, however, was vastly more fundamental, since it was 
 aimed directly at the soul of the individual. It is also an 
 alarming fact that what Plato said in the specific utterance 
 represents exactly where humanity stands today, and has 
 ever stood — directed by warring souls, at least one-half of 
 which is slave. 
 
 ^'And we agreed that they are good men who are able 
 to rule themselves, and bad men who are not".^^* 
 
 That is, the good man is able to rule himself in the 
 presence of every internal or external influence. The bad 
 man is not able to rule himself for he is in a state of inner 
 war with himself — and he suffers defeat at his own hands. 
 Plato is speaking for self-mastery in the sense of self-poise 
 and self -naturalness. With Plato, the individual must be 
 sincere — 
 
 131 Ibid., page 163. 
 
 132 Ibid., page 164. 
 
 133 Ibid., page 166. 
 
 134 Ibid., page 174. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO l9l 
 
 * ' His virtue being such that he never fell into any great 
 unseemliness' \^^^ 
 
 That one sentence well represents Plato 's remarkable in- 
 sight when it comes to analyzing personality and mental 
 harmony in terms of poise. No great unseemliness — in the 
 sound soul, there will be none of that. The individual, 
 when he is right, will be so sound that there will be in his 
 makeup no trace of pretense or iyisincerity — no mind think- 
 ing of one thing while the tongue is trying to say another. 
 Let us remember Plato's exact statement as given above: 
 His virtue being such that he never fell into any great 
 unseemliness. 
 
 "When a manly soul is in trouble, and when a cowardly 
 soul is in like case, are they likely to behave the same? 
 .... You can speak of the melodies or figures of the brave 
 and the coward, praising the one and censuring the 
 other".''' 
 
 And here let it be borne carefully in mind, that in speak- 
 ing about "a manly soul being in trouble, and a cow^ardly 
 soul in like case", Plato involves every issue of life. 
 "Trouble" refers to nothing specific or exclusive. It in- 
 cludes every life task and problem, whether we be on the 
 defensive or the aggressive. Above all, it does not mean 
 some special calamity that may befall one. It refers to the 
 field of all our labors — all our duties — every work to which 
 we might set hand, in which the shadows of fear might over- 
 take us. Whatever the task, Plato wants us to be cour- 
 ageous — not cowardly. He w^ould get rid of the trembling 
 mind that is haunted by fear. He would begin that process 
 of fear elimination and harmony building in earliest child- 
 hood, for he makes the following very clear pronouncement: 
 
 "The affection both of the Corybantes and of their chil- 
 dren is an emotion of fear ; and fear springs out of an evil 
 
 habit of the soul Every soul which from youth 
 
 upward has been subject to fear, will be rendered more tim- 
 orous ; this is the way to form the habit of cowardice rather 
 
 ^25 1131(3. J page 179. The italics are mine. 
 136 Ibid., page 184. 
 
192 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 than courage And on the other hand, the habit of 
 
 overcoming from youth upwards, the fears and terrors 
 which beset us, may be said to be the exercise of courage ".^^^ 
 
 The above statement also serves to throw light upon 
 reference 109 in the present chapter, in which Plato speaks 
 of bringing children ''into the presence of objects of ter- 
 ror." By suhjecting children to fear, Plato means terror- 
 izing them with fear and making them victims of fear — 
 the very kind of a procedure that Plato does not believe in. 
 Plato's doctrine toward fear is this: the habit of over- 
 coming from youth upwards the fears and terrors which 
 heset us. His treatment of fear stands out as one of the 
 plainest things in all literature. It would be even more so, 
 were it not for the fact that in Plato's day slavery was 
 accepted as a universal and unquestioned social condi- 
 tion.^^^ To Plato every slave was a coward though he was 
 by no means speaking primarily or even of slaves at all 
 when he enunciated his educational doctrines. Plato, as 
 I have said many times before, was speaking for an educa- 
 tion for all humanity — and not for any one particular sec- 
 tion thereof. Plato's educational program is fundamen- 
 tally a weeding out of cowardice from the human soul. 
 Nor would he allow any ''natural selection" to rule in this 
 field for a minute. Every mind, through sound education, 
 would have to embrace its birthright : Freedom from fear. 
 Every mind would have to be washed clear and kept clear 
 of every trace of fear — for fear is a double slavery — slavery 
 to self and slavery to the world. Plato would have every 
 free-born man an unflinching epitome of courage in his own 
 eyes, and in the eyes of others — and, to accomplish which, 
 Plato knew very well that the entire fear question had to 
 be properly handled from earliest infancy. Plato has this 
 partly in mind when he makes the following very pointed 
 statement : 
 
 **No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of 
 the free-born man".^^^ 
 
 137 Ibid., page 309. 
 
 138 See reference 1, chapter 1, and comments immediately in touch 
 therewith. 
 
 139 Plato: Republic, page 264. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 193 
 
 It is thus Plato's distinct message ringing down across 
 the centuries that the fear victim is his own slave driver, 
 and that anything savoring of slavery is bad, owing to the 
 fact that it undermines the integrity of the individual by 
 destroying for him his own self-respect. Furthermore, Plato 
 warns the world that the entire question of the harmonized 
 faculties of which he speaks is of the greatest importance, 
 for he says : 
 
 "This question involves not the mere turning of a shell, 
 but the turning of a souV\^^^ 
 
 The harmony of the human mind is fundamental — and 
 not mere coin flipping. The harmonious unfoldment of the 
 faculties, Plato tells us, is the very bedrock upon which we 
 must place our educational structure. Unless we make the 
 harmony of the mind the very foundation, then anything 
 else that we may do, however careful, or however refined, is 
 but the idlest folly and the hollowest vanity. 
 
 And now that we have completed, for the most part, our 
 educational quotations from Republic and Laws, what is 
 there in the contention of thoroughly uninformed critics 
 that Plato was an idle dreamer — that by his unfoldment 
 doctrine he would simply wander about in an isolated man- 
 ner within the precincts of his own mind, wholly withdrawn 
 from the outer world of human affairs? Wliat is there in 
 that charge? Never has there been in all history a more 
 infamous falsehood and libel — or a more purely unadulter- 
 ated piece of ignorance — than that most notorious charge. 
 I would defy anyone to point to a single line in Plato argu- 
 ing for, or even intimating one's withdrawal from the world. 
 There is simply no such a spirit to be found in his scheme 
 of education at all. How such a contention ever started is 
 beyond me. It is very likely, however, that some person who 
 never even read Plato, or who was utterly incompetent to 
 read him, started the fable sometime in the past — and the 
 fable has been going ever since. A prejudice was thus 
 established. Preperceptions of the most erroneous type took 
 possession of the world concerning Plato — and the momen- 
 
 i^^rbiti page 243. The italics are mine. 
 13 ^ 
 
194 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 turn of that fabulous falsehood has been increasing with 
 every century, apparently. Today it has become popular, 
 therefore, either to decry Plato entirely, or else to praise 
 him blankly in the highest terms, or else to dismiss him in 
 some other way with a mere wave of the hand. How amaz- 
 ing that our scholars are devoid of ability and attitude to 
 make their researches independent of the fables and super- 
 stitions and traditions of the day ! 
 
 The reader will here recall that I have already spoken in 
 this respect of the work of Davidson (see reference 88 and 
 the comments immediately preceding and following that 
 reference, present chapter). No one has fallen down more 
 lamentably than Davidson in his treatment of Plato. Among 
 other things he has this to say: *'It (Plato's theory) in- 
 volves that Oriental ascetic view of life which makes men 
 turn away from the sensible world, and seek their end and 
 happiness in a colorless world of thought ".^^^ And yet in 
 the face of such an assertion, Davidson fails to quote a single 
 line from Plato in substantiation of his contention! One 
 must feel convinced, therefore, that Davidson was arguing, 
 not from fact, but wholly from preperceptions. 
 
 The fact of the matter is this : All of Plato's education 
 has to do with conduct. There is nothing abstract in any 
 of his principles. He simply recognizes that the human 
 mind must be right within itself — a thought which scares 
 education — a thought so astoundingly foreign to the world 
 of modern education, that Plato is at once pronounced a 
 "dreamer'' the moment that he gives voice to it! That 
 charge is in itself the most damaging condemnation of 
 Plato's critics that it is possible to conceive. It is a tragic 
 testimony to the fact that education is going on today with- 
 out paying any regard whatever as to what is going on 
 within the human mind! Nor shall anyone even inquire 
 concerning what kind of an inner mental world is being 
 built up within the individual — or, if he does inquire — then 
 — fair warning — such a person is an '^Oriental ascetic^'! 
 
 But let us listen to what Plato himself says on this very 
 "1 Davidson : Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals, page 136. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 195 
 
 question, by repeating a quotation which has already been 
 given under reference 27 in chapter four : 
 
 "Then as soon as they are fifty years old .... and 
 have won distinction in every branch, whether of action or 
 of science .... and though they are to spend most of 
 their time in philosophical pursuits, yet, each when his turn 
 comes is to devote himself to the hard duties of public life, 
 and hold office for their country 's sake ' '."^ 
 
 That is, et;ei^ after the age of fifty, each individual is 
 to hold himself ever ready for the hard duties of puhlio 
 life. I emphasize that this is after the age of fifty. But 
 he fore the age of fift}^, each individual was to have ivon 
 distinction in every hranch, whether of action or of science. 
 Where does the ''Oriental asceticism" come in? Where 
 is there any room there for * * a colorless world of thought ' ' ? 
 
 There is none! Nor is even a shadow of such an in- 
 ference to be found from the first page of the Republic 
 to the last page of the Laws! And yet, in spite of all 
 that, Davidson would condemn Plato as an "Oriental 
 ascetic" wandering about "in a colorless world of 
 thought"! But a more astounding thing is this, namely: 
 He would eulogize Aristotle for saying something w^hich 
 Plato had previously said in a better way. Note care- 
 fully the following words of praise which Davidson has 
 for Aristotle: "When their active duties cease, they are 
 able to devote themselves to Speculative Philosophy or 
 
 Theocratics They spend their days in cultured 
 
 leisure, and the contemplation of divine things In 
 
 this way Aristotle settles the vexed question with regard to 
 the compatibility and relative value of the practical and 
 contemplative life ' '.^^^ 
 
 But what is there in such a doctrine that Plato had 
 not already laid down ? Has not Plato made it plain that 
 even after the age of fifty each individual shall hold 
 himself ever ready for the hard duties of puhlic life — while 
 up to that time each person w^as to "have won dis- 
 
 1^2 Plato : Eepnblic, page 268. The italics are mine. 
 
 1^3 Davidson: Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals, page 201. 
 
196 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 tinction in every branch, whether of action or of science"? 
 Consequently, if there is anyone who has settled "the 
 vexed question with regard to the compatibility and rela- 
 tive value of the practical and contemplative life," why 
 isn't it Plato, instead of Aristotle? 
 
 Now, my specific criticism is this: It almost seems 
 that down through the ages, right to the very threshold 
 of the present day, there has been constant injustice meted 
 out to Plato — ^the grossest form of which is that which 
 would praise Aristotle at Plato's expense. Indeed it is 
 by no means clear to me that even Aristotle himself has 
 always dealt with Plato on that high ethical plane that 
 one would hope to expect. At any rate, the critics of 
 Plato have missed their mark by a very wide margin — and 
 for a very good reason: Most of them have never read 
 him at all. Many, for example, have taken a childishly 
 gleeful delight in calling Plato a ^'dialectician^' — as if that 
 were some awful thing! But here is Plato's own view 
 on that question: 
 
 ''According as a man can survey a subject as a 
 whole, he is or he is not a dialectician".^^* 
 
 What an awful tragedy it thus is to be a dialectician! 
 Is it any wonder that our modern critics shy away so 
 stormingly from a thing which is so foreign and so 
 strange to them? I think not. 
 
 It of course matters not that Plato has spoken plainly 
 and fully at all times, recorded himself with detailed care 
 — for an education which spells wisdom, temperance, cour- 
 age and justice — ^not in terms of dreaming and asceticism 
 — ^but in terms of conduct — that, I say, matters not to 
 critics who are devoid of powers of perception. Nor 
 does it matter in the least that Plato has spoken in the 
 following clear-cut language: 
 
 "We are speaking of education in virtue from youth 
 upwards, which makes a man eagerly pursue the ideal 
 perfection of citizenship That other sort of ed- 
 ucation which aims at the acquisition of wealth or bodily 
 
 "4 Plato : Eepublic, page 265. 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 197 
 
 strength, or mere cleverness apart from intelligence and 
 justice, is mean and illiberal, and is not worth, to be 
 called education at all"/^^ 
 
 It is thus that Plato argues for the ideal perfection 
 of citizenship everywhere. Does such a commitment as 
 that look like ''Oriental asceticism" — or like the seeking 
 of an isolated ''happiness in a colorless world of thought?" 
 I presume that if Plato had laid down an educational 
 philosophy which in effect argued foft* the making of 
 billionaires and professional athletes and clever com- 
 mercial rascals, instead of coming out pointedly and 
 specificly for the ideal perfection of citizenship, he 
 would then be in line for the approval and approbation 
 of modern educators! As it is, he stands condemned as 
 an idle dreamer! The awful irony of fate! But the 
 ironic awfulness of ignorance! 
 
 Now, I want to say once more that Plato is the sound- 
 est mind that has ever written in the field of education. 
 His doctrine concerning the unfoldment of the faculties, 
 or the development of self-harmony within the human 
 mind, is the most fundamental commentary ever made by 
 man on the purpose of education. His further analysis 
 that the corner stone of that unfoldment and that harmony 
 must he the development of courage, is again one of the 
 profoundest pieces of wisdom that has ever proceeded 
 from any human being. Plato spoke as a very god when he 
 would first of all strike out the demon of fear from the 
 mind of man in the process of education. He knew that 
 with fear in the mind, there could be no psychic harmony. 
 With fear present he saw that the right of every normal 
 function and faculty of the mind was bodily usurped — 
 and that accordingly any education in the real sense of 
 the word was checkmated. Plato spoke for a self-mastery 
 in the makeup of personality — and he saw with the power 
 and vision of a microscope that all self-mastery must 
 ever find its spirit and its substance in psychic poise — in 
 psychic self-respect — in psychic self-approval. That was 
 the keystone in his arch of education. 
 
 1^5 Plato: Laws, page 174. The italics are mine. 
 
198 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Plato's aim in education was therefore pre-eminently 
 esoteric — that is, he wanted things right within. His ulti- 
 mate aim was the internal soundness of the individual. But 
 his means of obtaining that education was overwhelmingly 
 exoteric — that is, in association with the world. Plato never 
 spoke from the cave of a hermit. His education was for 
 sane conduct — and most emphatically not for thought in 
 itself. Indeed, nothing would more surely upset the har- 
 mony of the human mind than a life of introverted men- 
 tality — a fact in itself which should prove to anyone the 
 utter folly of the charge that Plato 's education would turn 
 the mind inward upon itself to ramble around in *'a color- 
 less world of thought ' '. Plato was entirely too wise a man 
 not to see that expression is a principle of growth — and ac- 
 cordingly that conduct is the one means of education that 
 can never be dispensed with under any circumstances. Of 
 course, Plato never came out with a definite enunciation of 
 this specific thought — but just the same I can read clearly 
 the spirit of the man. 
 
 But in spite of the fact and indispensability of exoteric 
 instruments, Plato was not a man to be blinded by means. 
 In his eye was ever the end of education — and he saw 
 that clearly to be the individual, and not society. He per- 
 ceived with an unwavering attention, that the first great 
 desideratum in the educational process is to focus con- 
 sciousness on what it is that is taking place in the mind 
 of the child, the youth and the man. It was that great 
 fact which led Plato to propound his principle of inner 
 mental harmony. In so doing Plato simply established 
 the fact that he had the perception to detect the dif- 
 ference between the hasehall and the hat. He knew that 
 the thing that we must keep our eye on in life is the ball — 
 and not the bat, in spite of the fact that in a ball game 
 the bat is just as indispensahle as the ball is. But, just 
 the same, no one would ever expect to get any place in 
 a ball game hy keeping Ms eye on the hat. Any ten year 
 old boy in this country could tell our educators that just 
 as well as Plato could. The distinction herein involved 
 
THE VIEWS OF PLATO 199 
 
 is a very important one — for it is right here along this 
 line that education has gotten lost. The question primarily 
 at stake here is not essentially that of indispensahility 
 at all — no — but of relative importance when the right of 
 fii^st claim on consciousness is invoked. To be sure, there 
 are thousands of things that are indispensahle in education 
 — but that thought does not come within planet-distance of 
 our actual problem, which rather is just this, namely: 
 How relatively important is this thing or that thing — 
 what are its claims to focal consciousness in the human 
 mind ? 
 
 Well, I repeat, therefore, that in this particular ques- 
 tion our great educational concern must be : What are ive 
 goi7ig to keep our eye on? That is to say, ivliat is the hall? 
 
 Plato says that it is the hiim.an mind. I say that 
 Plato is right. But Plato does not say that the human 
 mind is the entire game and the entire equipment of the 
 game. He admits that there are other things — such as 
 bats and bases and players and spectators. The human 
 mind is the hall only. Plato has never pretended that 
 the baseball is for individual juggling in the realms of 
 ''Oriental asceticism" or in **a colorless world of thought '\ 
 Those who would charge that he has ever laid down any 
 such a ridiculous claim are simply not acquainted with 
 the facts. 
 
 Finally now in closing this chapter I am compelled 
 to say that I have purposely stepped out of my regular 
 way to defend at considerable length the name of Plato. 
 But I have done so only as a deeply felt duty to the cause 
 of truth, and out of pure justice to that great man. I 
 therefore have no apology to offer to any person for my 
 apparent digressions at times. In fact, a large part of 
 my defense of Plato is nothing more or less than a 
 detailed elaboration on his educational doctrine — and that 
 has been my aim throughout : To reveal Plato as he is — and 
 not as libel has labeled him. I heartily trust that in 
 the future those who- attempt to criticise f*lato ^hall 
 first read him — also that those who proceed to read him 
 
200 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 may first place themselves in a neutral attitude by wash- 
 ing out of their minds the dominating obsession of the 
 social fallacy as the purpose of education. 
 
 Then too some might inquire at the last minute how it 
 comes that I have devoted all my attention to the courage 
 for which Plato argues, without scarcely more than men- 
 tioning Plato's call for the presence of justice and temper- 
 ance as further ingredients of the harmonized mind. My 
 answer: First, because I regard courage as the keystone of 
 mental harmony, as Plato does; second, because the prin- 
 ciple of hiological integrity rests so squarely on the driving 
 out of fear from the soul of the individual, that to 
 attempt to talk about justice and temperance at the same 
 time in the work which I have herein undertaken would 
 be only to add complexity to the task, and weaken our 
 presentation of the main issue — that is, the pedagogy of 
 the case alone demands that courage occupy our undivided 
 attention, at least for the present; third, our time and 
 space are limited. At some later day we may return 
 to Plato's two remaining elements and deal with them 
 apart from co\irage. For the time being, suffice it to 
 say that we must be in entire agreement with Plato when 
 he includes justice and temperance as the two minors in 
 his triad of mental harmony. Then too let the reader 
 never forget, that Plato's comprehension and treatment of 
 courage is so vast and illuminating as to include, in the 
 larger sense, both justice and temperance^ since he would 
 leave with every individual one fear: The fear **to say or 
 suffer or do anything hase'' (see references 115 and 116). 
 I too would leave that same fear with every individual 
 in the great mental harmony process of courage building. 
 The solidity of life's psychic fibre demands it. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall deal with the special sig- 
 nificance of courage from the standpoint of hiological 
 integrity. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 
 COURAGE AND COWARDICE 
 
 In the last chapter the educational doctrines of Plato 
 were discussed. They were seen to relate to the develop- 
 ment of harmony within the human mind, or the unfold- 
 ment of the faculties in accordance with the demands of 
 self-mastery and happiness. The presence of courage was 
 set forth as the very keystone of mental harmony. The 
 other principles imposed by Plato, namely, temperance and 
 justice^ were not elaborated on by me because of pedagogical 
 reasons and owing to the fact' that courage is the great 
 lost note in education today — as it has ever been. In the 
 present chapter I shall deal with courage in a more spe- 
 cific way, contrasting it with cowardice. 
 
 First of all, there exists a desire for courage from one 
 end of creation to the other — from the lowest amoeba to 
 the highest man. The desire for courage is innate, in- 
 stinctive and universal. Any conscious organism which 
 lacks courage, knows it — and feels that lack bitterly, deeply, 
 indeed — because self-preservation', which is always a spir- 
 itual affair, demands courage as its chief psychic ingredient. 
 The very spirit of self-mastery and self -approval in one's 
 own eyes craves for courage as for nothing else that has 
 ever entered into the mental domains of a created world. 
 The longing call for courage is absolutely the most funda- 
 mental feeling and the most universally innate craving 
 of any feeling or instinct known to creation. Nothing else 
 is so persistently operative as a feeling as the call for cour- 
 age. And just as certainly the consciousness that that 
 mental quality is lacking causes the greatest feeling of 
 
 201 
 
202 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 void and vacancy and helplessness and insufficiency and 
 weakness and worthlessness, of any consciousness that could 
 befall an individual. There is simply nothing at all com- 
 parable to the self-enforced admission that courage is 
 lacking. Other feelings may engulf one for the time being 
 in a certain way, such as sadness, sorrow, anger, hatred, 
 shame, disappointment, and the like — but it remains for 
 cowardice alone to transform consciousness into a desert of 
 unspeakable and undefinable despair, combined with the 
 haunting horror of admitted helplessness and self-accusa- 
 tion. So I say, therefore, since the call for courage is a 
 great surging instinct, consequently the consciousness of 
 cowardice is the most horrible and destructive of all mental 
 states. 
 
 Then in the second place, closely related to the instinc- 
 tive nature of courage, is the fact that down deep within 
 the human heart every person thoroughly believes that by 
 proper conduct his life is to become great. That feeling 
 we might say is also instinctive. But it is likewise just as 
 instinctive to feel that courage is the one magical power 
 that leads to the gateway of attainment for which the indi- 
 vidual longs. But that courage is always lacking where 
 the individual 's education has not been normal with respect 
 to the faculty of courage — and that is the case with perhaps 
 at least 999 people out of every 1000, almost regardless of 
 the kind or number of diplomas that they may carry 
 around — ^because current diplomas have to do with the in- 
 tellect only. They have almost nothing whatever to do with 
 courage, since world education has been literally an intel- 
 lectual obsession. The feelings and the will have been 
 thrown into the discard of oblivion. Cowardice is there- 
 fore the chief mental equipment of the typical individual 
 everywhere. Consequently the instinctive dream of every 
 individual for courage and greatness goes as a beggar trail- 
 ing past the rich counters of life — and the victim of it all 
 knows only too vividly that he is in fact a victim. 
 
 From Emerson's essay on Self -Reliance I have gleaned 
 the following pertinent sentences : * ' In every work of genius 
 
COUEAGE AND COWAEDICE 203 
 
 we recognize our own rejected thoughts Bravely 
 
 let him speak the utmost syllable of his confession 
 
 We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that 
 
 divine idea which each of us represents God will not 
 
 have his work made manifest by cowards The sinew 
 
 and the heart of man seems to be drawn out, and we are 
 
 become timorous whimperers It is easy to see that 
 
 a greater self-reliance — a new respect for the divinity of 
 man — must work a revolution in all the offices and relations 
 of men ; in their religion ; in their education ; in their pur- 
 suits; in their modes of living; in their association; in 
 
 their property ; in their speculative views Caratach 
 
 in Fletcher's Bonduca, when admonished to inquire the 
 mind of the God Audate, replies : 
 
 'His hidden meaning lies in our endeavors, 
 Our valors are our best Gods' ". 
 
 And the secret of everything that Emerson thus says 
 lies in the one single sentence that he speaks, namely : ' * God 
 will not have his work made manifest by cowards." And 
 the tragedy of the whole matter is, that the coward knows 
 that fact better than Emerson. To be sure *'In every work 
 of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts" — for 
 the reason that we lacked the courage to carry those 
 thoughts through — for the reason that we are silently domi- 
 nated by paralyzed feelings. As Kant has said, it is our 
 own emotional possibilities, rather than the moral law be- 
 fore which each individual stands in awe. But the awe 
 of cowardice, in which every coward stands, is without equal 
 or parallel or comparison in all the Universe. Emerson 
 understated his case — the sinew and heart of man is drawn 
 out — there is no seeming whatever about it. 
 
 Seneca has said that, "The greatest man is he who 
 chooses right with the most invincible determination". 
 Countless millions know what is right, and with that knowl- 
 edge they have the vision of high attainment and noble 
 service — but, alas, the invincible determination is not there, 
 for their portion is cowardice! For the want of courage 
 
204 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 their entire mental estates are as a desert before their very 
 eyes — and thereon lie their hopes and dreams and inspira- 
 tions withered to the last degree of depletion. It is no 
 wonder that Sydney Smith saw fit to utter the following 
 words : ' ' A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the 
 want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves 
 men who have only remained in obscurity because their 
 timidity has prevented them from making a first effort". 
 That timidity is of course cowardice — and cowardice is 
 always the flower and the fruitage of fear. Fear is always 
 cowardice in the making. The fears that education and 
 civilization permit to implant themselves in the mind of 
 the individual are therefore responsible for more than the 
 cowardice of mankind — they are also the robbers of the 
 highest destinies of every individual who ever entertained a 
 dream of becoming great in terms of self-mastery and in 
 terms of a worthy service rendered to the world. Indeed, 
 cowardice is guilty of a thousand times more than pre- 
 venting its legions of victims **from making a first effort" 
 — it also is guilty of nullifying and abrogating every effort 
 that a coward may make. 
 
 Lord Lytton spoke with a true vision when he gave 
 voice to the following words — 
 
 "All things are thine estate; yet must 
 Thou first display the title deeds, 
 And sue the world. Be strong; and trust 
 High instincts more than all the creeds." 
 But if the essence and the background of strength are 
 lacking, then it avails nothing merely to admonish the vic- 
 tim to ''be strong". The coward has no basis on which 
 to be strong — for courage, the highest of all ''high in- 
 stincts", is gone. The very will with which such a person 
 would determine is paralyzed, and the innermost substance 
 of his mind is but an amorphous mass of nothingness. The 
 foundations of possible power haven't even the shade of a 
 shadow to rest upon. 
 
 And yet in the presence of the awful mental wreckage 
 induced and imposed by cowardice, present day education 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 205 
 
 stands as deaf and as dumb as a tombstone. Dewey, for 
 example, has this to say: "I believe that if we can only 
 secure right habits of action and thought, with reference 
 to the good, the true, the beautiful, the emotions will for 
 the most part take care of themselves"."^ 
 
 This is how Dewey would dispose of the emotions in 
 education ! He would devote a few general lines to a mere 
 mention of ''the good, the true, the beautiful" — and then 
 he bids farewell to the education of the emotions! Then 
 "the emotions will for the most part take care of them- 
 selves" ! And it may well be added that they most assuredly 
 have — cowardice and fear have seen to that part of it ! The 
 emotions have become auto-educated, as Dewey w^ould have 
 them ! At any rate, in his educational creed, he thus de- 
 votes but 34 words of the most general type to the entire 
 field of the emotions — and not once does he so much as 
 even mention the word courage! Plato devoted the greater 
 part of his two great w^orks to that element in the keenest 
 and most specific analytical manner conceivable — ^but mod- 
 ern education would generalize in a few words about "the 
 good, the true, the beautiful", and then set the individual 
 adrift for himself, to fioat out on the great sea of cowardice ! 
 That is about the type of educational consciousness and 
 educational penetration entering into the educational creeds 
 of modern educators! That fact marks well in itself the 
 difference between Plato and the typical pedagogue of the 
 twentieth century. 
 
 Let us face the fact, that the emotions wdll not "take 
 care of themselves". A thousand times would I rather re- 
 sign the intellect to "take care of" itself, than for the 
 emotions thus to be resigned. Plato's educational doctrine 
 demands harmony between the development of the intel- 
 lect, the emotions and the will. But in modem education, 
 there is no harmony. The intellect has usurped everything. 
 The emotions and the will have gone completely to weeds. 
 They have been left ' ' to take care of themselves " ! I speak 
 
 1^6 John Dewey in Educational Creeds of the Nineteenth Century ; 
 edited by Lang, page 17. 
 
206 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 of the emotions and the will together, because the latter is 
 largely a flowering out of the former. The emotions are 
 therefore the very cornerstone of our mental structure — 
 and courage of course is the keystone of the emotions. 
 Therefore, as are the emotions, so will be the will. 
 
 But let us note carefully the diseases of the will. They 
 are three in number: 1. Insanity. 2. An ill-developed 
 mind. 3. Some single faculty itself abnormal. But the 
 overwhelming number of cases of diseased will come under 
 heading number two — an ill-developed mind wnth ajl the 
 individual functions remaining normal! Think of that — 
 all individual functions remaining normal, hut merely in- 
 harmony letiveen them! A perfectly good mind — a per- 
 fectly good brain — but everything in a state of chaos and 
 wreckage, due to inharmony in the process of mental de- 
 velopment! Merely a case of inharynony! Simply a case 
 of fear and cowardice throttling not only the emotions and 
 the will, but the intellect as well ! And yet Plato was only 
 an old fool ! Once upon a time he used to write along such 
 lines — warning the world to look well and first of all to 
 mental harmony within the mind of the individual — and 
 behold, the world in turn called him a dreamer — an idealist 
 — an Oriental ascetic! And foremost among them our edu- 
 cational leaders ! '^Et tu, Brute^l 
 
 Our immediate and overawing fact is this: Cowardice 
 is a disease of the will. That simply means that it is a dis- 
 ease of the emotions. That is fundamentally where coward- 
 ice and fear must rest. As pointed out in chapter six it is 
 the tone of an individual's feelings that counts. Cowardice 
 is always the dominant tone of any mind that has been 
 fed on fears. And that tone is so impelling and so per- 
 sistent, and so totally foreign to the state and demands of 
 a normally harmonized mind, that cowardice is a disease. 
 It represents a pathological condition in the mental and 
 nervous organization of the individual — not inherited at all, 
 but simply acquired within the life term of the victim by 
 and through the process of an education which simply 
 does not know its business. 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 207 
 
 The first duty of education is therefore to prevent and 
 checkmate the development of pathological conditions in 
 the human mind. The ill-developed mind is the one great 
 disease that has always afflicted mankind. It is the one 
 supreme pathology, to which all else is subordinate. The 
 therapeutics for it all is — not grammar and arithmetic — 
 but rational education with respect to fear in every con- 
 scious and unconscious educational process from the cradle 
 to the grave. Then courage will energize the entire mind 
 and being. And with courage in the soul the last vestige 
 of major mental pathology is washed away. 
 
 ' ' Courage conquers all things ; it even gives strength to 
 the body. A spirit is superior to every weapon. To wish 
 for death is the coward's part"."^ But as Shakespeare 
 has said, ''A coward dies many times before his death". 
 The coward's wish for death is in vaiu, for his very exist- 
 ence is death to the uttermost. No death can possibly com- 
 pare with that death which is unending, and whose vigilant 
 witness is the eternal and accusing eye of self-consciousness. 
 As Plautus has stated, ''It does not matter a feather 
 whether a man be supported by patron or client, if he 
 himself wants courage." No more does it matter that the 
 birds sing if there be no ears to establish the reality of 
 their songs. 
 
 Thackeray has wondered if it is "because men are cow- 
 ards in their hearts, that they admire bravery so much.'* 
 By no means is that the answer. As I have pointed out 
 from the very beginning the call for courage is imtincUve, 
 Biological integrity demands it and must have it wherever 
 it obtains. Courage is the one great guarantee that degener- 
 acy can be averted. Every personality feels the courage 
 call through and through. It is call one. The presence of 
 bravery in others merely awakens within us the perception 
 of our innermost longings — the recognition of that soul ele- 
 ment which should be duly and truly our own — and while 
 we admire, we are the same time crushed at the mocks and 
 
 "7 From Ovid. 
 
208 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 taunts of that vivid awareness of our own lack, of our 
 own weakness. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott well said that, "Without courage, 
 there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no 
 other virtue." If this be true in an outward public way, 
 how infinitely truer it is when it comes to dealing with the 
 inner realms of personality! Johnson himself has said 
 that ''Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining 
 virtue, that it is always respected, even when associated 
 with vice ' \ This is because of the fact that of all mental 
 elements in the Universe courage is the soundest and has 
 back of it the largest measure of creative sanction of any 
 feeling known to consciousness. There is something about 
 courage, the necessity for which no one would any more 
 think of denying than the necessity for food and air. * ' The 
 conscience of every man recognizes courage as the foun- 
 dation of manliness, and manliness as the perfection of hu- 
 man character". Thus has spoken Thomas Hughes. We 
 must not make the mistake, however, of associating courage 
 as a characteristic belonging exclusively to 7nen. Courage 
 must be accepted as a universal trait, and as such it is 
 just as much an estate of womanhood as it is of manhood. 
 
 Plutarch says that, ''Courage consists in hazarding with- 
 out fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause". In 
 that one sentence Plutarch voices the unmistakable bearing 
 of fear upon courage. He would root fear out of the human 
 soul in order that each individual might be "resolutely 
 minded in a just cause". As Emerson puts it in his essay 
 on "Heroism" — "Each of the Lives of Plutarch is a refu- 
 tation of the despondency and cowardice of our religious 
 and political theorists. A wild courage, a stoicism, not of 
 the schools, but of the blood, shines in every anecdote, and 
 has given that book its immense fame. Our culture, there- 
 fore, must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in 
 season .... that he should not go dancing in the weeds 
 of peace, but warned, self-collected, and neither defying nor 
 dreading the thunder ; let him take both reputation and life 
 in hand, and with a perfect urbanity, dare the gibbet and 
 
COURAGE A^'D COWARDICE 209 
 
 the mob by the absolute truth of his speech, and the recti- 
 tude of his behavior. To this military attitude of the soul 
 we give the name Heroism. The hero is a mind of such 
 stuff that no disturbance can shake his will. Self-trust is 
 the essence of heroism. When the spirit is not the master 
 of the world, then is it its dupe. The temperance of the 
 hero proceeds from the wish to do no dishonor to the 
 worthiness that he has. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Sea 
 Voyage, Juletta tells the stout captain and his company — 
 Juletta : Why, slaves, 'tis in our power to hang ye. Master : 
 Very likely, 'tis in our powers then to be hanged, and scorn 
 ye"! 
 
 Emerson's words are gems of the profoundest wisdom: 
 When the spirit is not the master of the world, then is it 
 its dupe! Let us remember that one sentence as the essen- 
 tial inner essence of self-preservation — and as a further 
 illumination of the principle of hiological integrity, which I 
 am laying down as purpose one in all education. Indeed, 
 I am astounded that education has never picked up any 
 educational cues from such a giant as Emerson — for Emer- 
 son wrote as wisely in many of his utterances as did Plato, 
 as for example in the very keen association that he makes 
 between courage and temperance in one of the above sen- 
 tences, namely : The temperance of the hero proceeds from 
 the wish to do no dishonor to the worthiness that he has. 
 As a thought, that is something which is distinctly supple- 
 mental to Plato's conception of temperance. 
 
 However, if Emerson insists on speaking literally at all 
 times, which I know that he does not, then I should be 
 compelled to take issue w^ith him when he refers above to 
 "the arming of the man." No one can ever make me be- 
 lieve that the real courage of the world is to be found on 
 the battlefields of war — where a great mob mind is pre- 
 vailing — and where individual hazards are swallowed up in 
 the fog of either numbers or excitement or both. No ! The 
 courage of the world is demanded on the battlefields of 
 peace — where sanity reigns — where a million focused eyes are 
 upon every individual contestant — and where the roar and 
 11 
 
I^IU THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 thunder of cannon and music are not. Plato saw this fact 
 most clearly when he pointed out the overwhelming superi- 
 ority of the courage of peace over the courage of war (see 
 references 129 and 130, preceding chapter, together with 
 the comments which immediately precede and follow) . The 
 great demands of life are the demands of peace. I question 
 most seriously the attempt to inject courage into mankind 
 by means of military training. Such a formula is entirely 
 too crude — too superficial — and above all, too far removed 
 from the foundations of courage : Childhood. By this I do 
 not mean at all to despise or belittle the courage that goes 
 with things military, but simply to point out that I object 
 to the literal ' * arming of the man, ' ' as the essential founda- 
 tion of either individual or national courage. However, 
 Emerson had no such literal meaning in his mind at all. 
 I have merely taken advantage of this opportunity to make 
 it clear to the world that in speaking of courage I am not 
 primarily thinking about the making of either soldiers or 
 pugilists — though every individual should have within him 
 the spirit to make either. Therefore, when it comes to the 
 spiritual *' arming of the man" I am unanimously with 
 Emerson. Aside of such an arming any mere physical 
 arming is a very secondary matter. 
 
 Speaking of courage, Shakespeare says that, ''He hath 
 borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the 
 figure of a lamb the feats of a lion." The biological in- 
 tegrity of every individual demands a balanced and un- 
 shakable mind in just that degree. That is, in truth, a 
 real arming. ''In the whole range of earthly experience", 
 says J. McHolmes, "no quality is more attractive and en- 
 nobling than moral courage." But the fact to be remem- 
 bered is, that moral courage is neither a dream nor an aim- 
 less wish. Its background is a normally educated and de- 
 veloped mind, devoid of every trace of cowardice-pathology. 
 Moral courage and a wrecked mental and nervous organiza- 
 tion cannot dwell together in the same being. The essence 
 of moral courage is the simple essence of common courage — 
 the simple essence of harmoniously unfolded souls at work. 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 211 
 
 In this particular connection, John Flavel most perti- 
 nently inquires : ' ' Is it for the honor of religion that Chris- 
 tians should be as timorous as hares, to start at every 
 sound ? ' ' Most assuredly, it is not ! Plutarch gave a sig- 
 nificant answer when he said that, ' ' God is the brave man 's 
 hope, and the coward's excuse". The point is this: The 
 embracing of any ideal in itself amounts to nothing — unless 
 that ideal is analyzed, and its basic elements comprehended 
 and appropriated. Granted an ill-developed mind through 
 the constant feeding in from a thousand torrents of fear, 
 then Christianity degenerates into a mere, nominal affair. 
 It would be no more of a guarantee of individual courage 
 than the clothes that one might wear. Religion must con- 
 stitute a rational and living philosophy, or else it is next 
 to nothing. This is equivalent to saying that religion 
 must dovetail in every particular with the demands of 
 sound mind hnilding. It must harmonize in every way 
 with the interaction of a sound mind in a sound body. 
 Such a religion will be rooted in the basic requirements of 
 a personality that is shot through and through with courage. 
 With such a foundation, moral courage will not be lacking 
 in the world — nor will it longer be necessary for Flavel to 
 be exercised concerning the cowardice of Christians. 
 
 Voltaire has said that, ''It is the misfortune of worthy 
 people that they are cowards." No more pathetic truth 
 was ever uttered — for it makes no difference how worthy a 
 person may be, if he is a coward. Regardless of his wisdo7n, 
 his justice, his temperance, if courage be lacking, then his 
 personality and his power are wreckage. The worthy per- 
 son of that type is simply lacking the mental harmony for 
 which Plato pleaded. Civilization therefore has but itself 
 to thank for its cowards. It has turned a deaf ear to a 
 set of mental faculties, whose fundamental demand is, that 
 they be harmoniously unfolded. It is indeed no wonder 
 that so many worthy people never do anything in the way 
 of aggression for community and national and world better- 
 ment. They are cowards. They are afraid of their own 
 shadows. In the midst of anything that looks like even the 
 
212 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 cloud of a contest they collapse — hastening to apologize to 
 their adversaries for being in the right, or even for being 
 on earth at all ! It is no wonder that Dryden says : 
 
 "A coward is the kindest animal; 
 'Tis the most forgiving creature in a fight." 
 
 Rightly understood, there is nothing sounder than the 
 philosophy which says, '^Turn the other cheek." But as 
 commonly understood and accepted in the abstract, no doc- 
 trine could be more vicious. The principle is sound when 
 it is the strong who do the turning — and by the strong I 
 mean those who are not crushed in spirit. But it is the 
 essence of folly when the turning is done hy a coward. 
 There is absolutely nothing whatever in any philosophy, 
 save hollowness, which would project sacrifice as a desirable 
 trait for weaklings. All sacrifice belongs to the strong — 
 and then indeed is sacrifice really noble. To account sac- 
 rifice noble for the weakling, when cowardice alone impels, 
 is one of the most dangerous rules of action or of ethics 
 that one could possibly conceive. In the same light, ' ' Dis- 
 cretion is the better part of valor" belongs to the cour- 
 ageous alone. At heart, every coward in the world knows 
 that it does not belong to him. There is a great deal of 
 doctrine in the world, therefore, that rings sound in the 
 heart of the courageous — but which is utterly fallacious in 
 the hands of the cowardly. 
 
 With his usual insight, Alexander Pope says that, *'A 
 brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an 
 injury; for he has it in his power to make himself superior 
 to the other by forgiving it". That is it exactly — the hrave 
 man. To be sure, the coward may also forgive — ^but when 
 he does so he is performing but a helpless and hopeless 
 imitation of real worth. His forgiveness carries with it 
 but a burning consciousness of his own crushing. Instead 
 of a resulting nobility of feeling and a sense of self-mastery, 
 there is but the gnawing sensation of self-mortification. As 
 Goethe puts it, ''Courage and modesty are the most un- 
 equivocal of virtues, for they are a kind that hypocrisy 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 213 
 
 cannot imitate". The coward of course does not aim at 
 hypocrisy — he simply hits that mark without being able 
 to help it. Any insincerity is but the mantle of his fears, 
 which he cannot help, and for which he is to be pitied — • 
 and for which the education of the world is to be condemned 
 in the most merciless terms. The modesty of the coward 
 is but the spirit of the indefinable weakness which engulfs 
 him. His seeming modesty is ever with him but a gift 
 of regret — for it is not in his power to do otherwise than to 
 submit to everything. 
 
 All the world is perhaps familiar with the famous in- 
 scriptions on the gates of Busyrane. On the first gate is: 
 ''Be Bold". On the second gate: ''Be bold, be bold, and 
 evermore be bold " ! On the third gate : " Be not too bold ' ' ! 
 Inspired by these inscriptions and the great principle of 
 courage for which they stand, Longfellow was led to pen the 
 following lines: 
 
 "Write on your doors the saying wise and old 
 Be bold! be bold! and evermore— be bold; 
 Be not too bold ! Yet better the excess 
 Than the defect; better the more than the less; 
 Better like Hector in the field to die 
 Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly". 
 
 Longfellow would thus have every individual err on the 
 side of pronounced boldness rather than on the side of 
 trembling timidity. It is his way of ranking courage as a 
 virtue, and cowardice as a vice. All the great minds and 
 hearts of literature have viewed the matter in exactly the 
 same light. Milton, for example, has exclaimed — 
 
 "What though the field be lost 
 All is not lost; the ungovernable will .... 
 And courage never to submit or yield, 
 And what is else, not to be overcome." 
 
 Shakespeare is teeming with the philosophy of courage 
 throughout. The following references are but three out of 
 the numberless tributes that he has paid to courage. 
 
214 THE PUEPOSE OP EDUCATION 
 
 "But screw your courage to the sticking place, 
 
 And we'll not fail . . . ." 
 "The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, 
 
 Shall never sag with doubt, nor quake with fear " 
 
 "Cowards die many times before their deaths: 
 
 The valiant never taste of death but once." 
 
 The same great insight that led Shakespeare to extol 
 courage, also led him to condemn cowardice most scathingly. 
 The following are but two examples : 
 
 "How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false 
 Stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins 
 The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars, 
 Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk " 
 
 "Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! 
 Thou little valiant, great in villainy! 
 Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! 
 Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight" ! 
 
 But Shakespeare was wrong in one particular — the 
 coward is not to be condemned, but pitied. The coward is 
 but a product — but a symptom. The thing to be condemned 
 Is the cause that is responsible for him. That cause is a 
 false education. Civilization must learn to distinguish be- 
 tween symptoms and diseases. Our real disease is an edu- 
 cation which is not even aiming at the right mark. The 
 coward is a manufactured product. Sole responsibility 
 must rest upon those who do the manufacturing. The way 
 to drive cowardice from civilization is not by condemning 
 it, but for civilization itself to wake up and try for awhile 
 the simple experiment of using its eyes. When it does so, 
 it will listen to the matchless genius of the great Plato and 
 guarantee to every individual his rightful inheritance of 
 courage, of which Farquhar has spoken as follows : 
 
 "Courage, the highest gift .... 
 Courage— an independent spark from heaven's bright 
 
 throne .... 
 Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above- . . . • 
 The spring of all brave acts is seated here". 
 
COUEAGE AND COWAEDICE 215 
 
 It is that gift which civilization must bestow upon every 
 personality within its province. And well indeed may 
 courage be called "an independent spark from heaven's 
 bright throne", for courage in the human mind is a har- 
 mony in accordance with heaven's first and highest law. 
 And when Shakespeare in his turn speaks of those ''Who, 
 inward searched, have livers white as milk," we may well 
 know that those white livers are but the pathetic reflections 
 of minds that never knew a moment of harmony in all their 
 chaotic development, from their first breath to their last. 
 
 Joaquin Miller says that, ''Men lie who lack the courage 
 to tell the truth — the cowards ' ' ! But cowardice is the help- 
 less habit of habits — the most deeply ingrained of them all — 
 so cowards are but true to the momentum which was given 
 them in their childhood. "It is the coward, ' ' says Junius, 
 "who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward that 
 is insolent whenever he dare so". But to fawn and to be a 
 coward are but one and the same thing — so what would 
 Junius expect? Likewise the coward's insolence is but the 
 coward's sorrowful attempt at courage in small affairs. 
 Like a bird that has been caged for life, the coward flut- 
 ters wildly and irresponsibly when first given wing to the 
 prospect of momentary freedom and mastery. It would be 
 indeed most remarkable were the coward to manifest either 
 courage, temperance or justice under such new and fleet- 
 ing circumstances. Having been robbed of all apprentice- 
 ship in the self-mastery that goes with mental harmony, 
 how could the coward be expected to conduct himself in any 
 other way but with insolence and discredit — since psychic 
 poise is no real part of his personality ? 
 
 Bovee has said that, "For cowards the road of desertion 
 should be left open. They will carry over to the enemy 
 nothing but their fears." Bovee thus places cowardice 
 where it belongs — on the fears that animate the mind. But 
 every coward who deserts life's duties and demands, does 
 more than to desert. He also carries with him an undying 
 testimonial to the infamy of those who made him a coward. 
 Let no one pride himself on the fact of getting rid of 
 
216 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 cowards by way of desertion. Rather let the person who 
 would be thus thankful burn with shame for the execrable 
 teachings that made the coward what he is. It is exclusively 
 for those to speak who may help to rid the world of its 
 cowardice by means of a new education. Let all others 
 maintain their silence! 
 
 We must remember that at every turn of the road, the 
 coward is a diseased victim. This fact is set forth with 
 faultless perception by J. Beaumont in the following 
 words: ''When the passengers gallop by as if fear made 
 them speedy, the cur follows them with an open mouth; 
 let them walk by in confident neglect, and the dog will not 
 stir at all; it is a weakness that every creature takes ad- 
 vantage of ' \ Aside from the fact that internally the cow- 
 ard is eternally on the cross, he also invites external defeat 
 and destruction — and there is nothing in his power to help 
 it. His very cowardice is a magnet which attracts every- 
 thing that spells annihilation — for complete ruin is already 
 within him. Johnson has said that, ** Cowardice encroaches 
 fast upon such as spend their lives in company of persons 
 higher than themselves. ' ' But Johnson neglected to say or 
 to see that such is the case only where the generous germs of 
 cowardice are present to begin with — or where the spiritual 
 attitude of the individual is started wrong. What John- 
 son has observed is but one of the ways in which cowardice 
 is cultivated in childhood, or completed later on in life. 
 Any person who has been given his full quota of courage 
 in childhood, however, will never be encroached upon by 
 cowardice later on in life in the ''company of persons 
 higher than themselves", for the simple reason that a per- 
 son harmoniously trained in the field of courage, knows 
 no superiors. Wherever hiological integrity obtains in the 
 mind of the individual, there is no such a classification in 
 his thought world as superiors in the auto-suggested sense 
 that he himself is an inferior. The courageously spiritualized 
 person never admits in the sense of self-debasement or self- 
 cringing that there exists any such thing as "company 
 higher than himself". Courage is exactly that element 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 217 
 
 when diffused through a harmonious mind, which effectually 
 guards against any individual's ever becoming a victim of 
 cowardice in the presence of anyone — because cowardice is 
 not a question of external classification — but a state of 
 inward reality. 
 
 ' * True courage is like a kite ; a contrary wind raises it 
 higher", says J. Petit-Senn. There need be no fear of 
 courage failing in the presence of any environment — for 
 courage is the voice within every individual which tells him 
 in clear and unmistakable tones that he is the equal of any 
 individual on earth. Cowardice can never be the lot of such 
 a person, any more than darkness can be light. 
 
 Then too let this fact be borne in mind — courage is 
 courage. It is not cowardly insolence. As Beaconsfield 
 said, "Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke". Where 
 the element of bullying exists it is final evidence that either 
 cowardice is present, or else that the perspective of courage 
 is wrong — that is to say, Plato's other two elements of 
 temperance and justice are lacking. In either event the 
 cause is to be found in the lack of harmony in the develop- 
 ment of the mind that is doing the bullying. Shakespeare 
 has wisely said, ''How great to have the strength of a giant, 
 but how cowardly to use it as a giant"! That sentiment 
 strikes the nail squarely upon the head. It is one of the 
 things which Plato had in mind when he was pleading for 
 justice and temperance alongside of courage. It is the 
 thought which must be indelibly imbedded into the very soul 
 of the courageous mind. An essential part of all courage 
 education is to implant firmly and deeply the fact that to 
 use one's strength as a giant is even worse than cowardice 
 — and that bullying is perhaps the most currishly despicable 
 trait that ever entered into the mind of either man or beast. 
 In the process of courage training, every child must by de- 
 grees be led to shun becoming a bully as he would shun 
 becoming the vilest kind of a reptile. As Froude says, 
 ''Courage is on all hands, considered as an essential of high 
 character '\ When this thought is imparted to personality, 
 let there also be imparted the thought that bullying and 
 
218 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 insolence bespeak nothing but the rankest type of infamy 
 and degeneracy. In other words, we shall see more and 
 more as we go into the doctrine of Plato and his three-fold 
 state of mental harmony, that that man did in fact pene- 
 trate the field of education as no other writer ever has. 
 
 Then too let us assimilate the following thought from 
 Shaftesbury ; ' * True courage has so little to do with anger, 
 that there lies always the strongest suspicion against it 
 where this passion is the highest ' '. The reason for this is, 
 the fact that the very basis of courage stands for self- 
 mastery. Courage is not primarily an instrument of of- 
 fensive aggression. It is not a chip-on-the-shoulder attitude 
 at all. It is first of all an institution of inner psychic self- 
 justification or self-approval. It is a state of defense and 
 poise and power. It spells calm and serenity and confi- 
 dence. The most courageous person in the world should 
 be at the same time the least offensive. The function of 
 courage becomes prostituted the moment that any person 
 sees in it a weapon for indiscriminate attack upon the 
 world. Courage exists for but one purpose — and that pur- 
 pose is hiological integrity. But the demands of such in- 
 tegrity are those of multiple defense — involving self-confi- 
 dence; an unshakable will to strike back if need he when 
 attacked; and, above all, a personality of such forceful 
 security that no wholesale liberties will be attempted by 
 anyone. Coupled with this fact is the undeniable proposi- 
 tion that anger shatters self-control. Anger, therefore, 
 should be one of the very last evidences or manifestations 
 that one should expect to see as an accompaniment of cour- 
 age. Plato 's element of temperance alone would reduce 
 every individuaPs display of anger to the lowest possible 
 minimum. 
 
 Let us now sum up the contents of the present chapter. 
 The substance of what has been said is this: Courage is 
 the cornerstone of harmony in any mind. Without courage, 
 there can be no mental harmony, regardless of how much 
 temperance or justice there may be present — for courage 
 is our foundation. Biological integrity rests squarely on 
 
COURAGE AND COWARDICE 219 
 
 the bedrock of courage — mortised of course, as Plato would 
 have it, with the cement of temperance and justice — the re- 
 sulting complex of all being wisdom.^^^ Courage spells 
 strength. Cowardice spells weakness. Both courage and 
 cowardice are made. Literature is teeming with the praise 
 of courage, and the condemnation of cowardice. Courage 
 has been the essential substance of every hero that has ever 
 lived. No human trait known to mankind has ever been so 
 admired and so extolled as courage. No feeling is more 
 instinctive or universal than the innate desire for, and 
 approbation of, courage. As an element of mental har- 
 mony, it is defensive, not aggressive. It bears no relation 
 to anger, insolence or bullying. It means but the poise 
 and the power which comes from inner harmony. It is 
 the one sure guard against psychological panic and bodily 
 discomfort. Its price is low — merely the inalienable right 
 of every individual to a sane education — the education of 
 Plato's Republic and Plato's Laws — that education which 
 says over and over again : Harmony in the human mind — 
 and the first note of all in that harmony — courage. 
 
 In the next chapter I shall deal with the subject of 
 introversion, or that mental state which always sets in where 
 the right of courage has been denied. 
 
 1^8 With Plato wisdom is a fourth element. But it is a derivative 
 element. It is what results from the harmonious adjustment of the 
 mind in terms of his three other elements, courage, justice and iem- 
 perance. See Republic and Laws, passim. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 
 INTROVERSION 
 
 In the last chapter courage was dealt with specificly as 
 the first condition of mental harmony. In the present 
 chapter we shall consider introversion, or that state of 
 mind which always takes possession of the individual in 
 whom courage has been destroyed. In particular, the in- 
 verse relation between cowardice and expression will be 
 shown. It is largely because of that inverse relation that 
 introversion obtains in the mental world today. 
 
 As previously pointed out, it is impossible for one to 
 analyze his ideals too fully or too minutely .^*^ An un- 
 analyzed ideal is always a blind ideal — and blindness always 
 means danger — for blindness and ignorance are one. There- 
 fore, nothing must be left unsaid or undone, which might 
 in any way tend to hinder or hamper the fullest possible 
 development of courage and harmony in the mind of the 
 individual. The most specific directions must be laid down 
 as to how to attain courage — and how to avoid cowardice. 
 In the absence of such directions, we are not going to know 
 when the laws of courage building are being violated. Under 
 such circumstances, many things are going to take place that 
 really constitute contributions to the construction of cow- 
 ardice, rather than of courage. Every trail and every gate 
 that we know anything about must be carefully, jealously 
 guarded — for, we are dealing with the plastic mind of 
 childhood and youth — and no enemy of any color must be 
 permitted to pass. No slogan could possibly be better here 
 
 1^^ See chapters 3 and 5, where the danger of mere generalizations 
 la touched upon. 
 
 220 
 
INTEOVEESION 221 
 
 than that of the French at the Marne — '^They shall not 
 pass"! 
 
 The great derivative enemy of which I wish to speak 
 in this chapter is — introversioii. By introversion I mean 
 the mind's turning itself inward upon itself and eating it- 
 self out — the mind's being its own subject and its own object 
 — the mind's chewing up its own content and working it 
 up into a world of hiner ivorry, debate, remorse, anguish, 
 disappointment, melancholia — in other words: a general, 
 all-around pathological introspection superinduced by fear. 
 Introversion is both the highway and the goal of cowardice. 
 It is one of the broadest of all avenues leading to mental 
 inharmony. Introversion diametrically reverses the normal 
 direction of the human mind. 
 
 If I were called upon to name the first law of the Uni- 
 verse I would unhesitatingly answer: Expression — or an 
 outward-going process of energy. All the Universe ex- 
 presses itself — in an external way — ^by a giving-out process. 
 This fact is manifest everywhere from the flower that 
 blooms to the bird that sings. Expression is the one eternal 
 symphony of all Nature. From the lowest organism to the 
 most refined, there is everywhere present and manifest 
 the great infinite urge toward expression. Everything in the 
 Universe is trying to translate something within into terms 
 of something without. No organism anywhere in all Nature 
 is to be found that is not doing its utmost to express itself. 
 In the principle of expression I see the broad, massive, im- 
 posing highway leading up to the goal of all growth. Indeed 
 if I view life aright, then expression and growth are one. 
 All organic growth must be nothing more or less than the 
 expression or unfoldment of energies that are latent and 
 potential within, and the nature of which energies is per- 
 haps a sort of clamoring to burst forth, due to what we 
 might call an internal pressure of some kind. Dreams, for 
 example, are one sort of attempt on the part of that pres- 
 sure to release itself. While the dream is fundamentally 
 the result of a repression of some kind, it is at the same 
 time a channel of expression. 
 
222 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 Now, introversion is a process which would reverse this 
 fundamental order of the Universe. It blocks every avenue 
 of outward expression. It does this by having the mind 
 settle down within its own precincts and ruminate eternally 
 on its own contents. The only expression is that of in- 
 ward reflection and soliloquy. It is living in an esoteric 
 world — a hermit, shut up within one's own mind as in 
 some lost or hidden cave. Introversion constitutes a com- 
 plete violation of Nature 's first great voice, whose constant 
 call is : ' ' Out— out— out ! ' ' 
 
 The crime of introversion is, that it upsets the organized 
 design of Nature. It is an anarchy which would run coun- 
 ter to the sound principles to which creation has so long 
 given sanction. The immediate result of introversion is 
 that of excessive internal pressure. Impression demands 
 outlet. It is upon that fact that we have based the well 
 known principle in psychology — for every impression an 
 equal expression. If that outlet is not granted, then that 
 pressure within must become dangerously abnormal. That 
 pressure must exert itself in all the functionings of the 
 mind, and indeed in all the physical scaffoldings of the 
 mind, thus involving directly the entire nervous organiza- 
 tion. This undue mental pressure must in its turn spell 
 the destruction of mental poise, balance, or equilibrium. 
 Mental riot must result. The mind becomes a prison. The 
 impressions within it are prisoners — innocent victims of a 
 mind that has turned the key of every lock, and barred the 
 approach of every gate. With every added impression, 
 there is more introversion, till all in all, the ideas and re- 
 flections and ramblings in the mind are as so many wild 
 animals in a cage, each straining madly to get out. 
 
 Now, the outstanding product of this mental tension is 
 what I term self -consciousness. Since impressions cannot 
 be crushed into nothingness, then they must have their un- 
 escapable effect of some kind. That effect is always self- 
 consciousness — one of the most disastrous states into which 
 any mind can possibly fall. Itself a product of repression 
 and resistance, due to the process and practice of intro- 
 
INTROVEESION 223 
 
 version, either selected or enforced, nothing could more 
 completely strangle the various avenues of expression, and 
 the essential conditions of harmony, than self-consoious- 
 ness. It is the hand-maiden of cowardice, for cowardice 
 withdraws from the world, and is in itself a process of in- 
 troversion. Self-consciousness is also deadly in that at the 
 same time it atrophies every instinct to participate freely 
 in social communion. Any organism afflicted with self- 
 consciousness is hand-cuffed and in chains — for great 
 seemingness colors every act. 
 
 Psychical activity, if its way is barred in specific normal 
 directions, will always divert itself into whatever channels 
 it can find. That is the fundamental proposition that con- 
 fronts us. If expression does not come out normally, then 
 it will go in and torture the victim in a thousand untold 
 ways — and then finally come out and advertise the fact of 
 its abnormal functioning to the outer world in the form 
 of cowardioe, self-consciousness, unrest, nervousness, men- 
 tal panic, unnaturalness, timidity, bodily disease — and 
 every other symptom of psychic discord. The outer con- 
 duct and the inner purpose are hopelessly apart. Conduct 
 becomes a lie, for the false director at the wheel is self- 
 consciousness, making impossible any real parallelism be- 
 tween what an individual says and does on the one hand 
 and what he feels on the other. Expression becomes stiff, 
 stilted, stifled. The individual himself becomes a living 
 lie, for the harmony of his mind is destroyed. The un- 
 natural rambling about and clashing of thoughts penned 
 up within the mind, with no normal avenue of escape, is 
 one of the most deadly of all assassins of mental harmony. 
 
 Let no person question for a second the primary nature 
 of expression, not only as an instrument and synonym of 
 growth, but also as an indispensable safety valve to guard 
 against the utter destruction of a dangerous inner pressure. 
 Expression is an outlet, and that too for a good and con- 
 structive purpose. This is just as true in the animal world 
 as it is in man. Hall, for example, has said: *' Caged ani- 
 mals terrified, but unable to fight or fly, show more depleted 
 
224 THE PURPOSE or EDUCATION 
 
 brain cells than those that can react normally To 
 
 have the blood flushed with secretions from the thyroids, 
 adrenals and liver, to have it charged with oxygen and at 
 the highest pressure, the heart throbbing, respiration rapid, 
 and yet be able to do nothing definite, may be perilous, and 
 at any rate wearing, like running the machinery of an auto 
 with the throttle thrust forward "/^^ 
 
 But it is far worse than that, for the throttle of an auto 
 is made to go forward. Introversion, by reversing the 
 whole machinery of a non-reversible Nature, is not only 
 running the mind under full steam — it is also running the 
 mind against itself with no normal outlet. It is more like 
 a piece of machinery beating itself into wreckage, with no 
 escape for any of the products of friction and combustion, 
 and with sand and gravel and broken fragments of steel in 
 every cog of every gearing. In fact, there is nothing at all 
 comparable in the mechanical world to what we call intro- 
 version in the human mind. 
 
 But let us ask this question : What is the cause of intro- 
 version? How does it come that minds turn themselves 
 inward in a state of hermitage, rather than outward in a 
 state of free expression? Why don't minds give outward 
 what is within them as naturally as a flower in the expres- 
 sion of its color and its perfume to the outer world ? 
 
 The answer is this : Introversion is 7nade — ^not born. The 
 natural and normal tendency of every mind is to express 
 itself freely. No mind of itself ever resorts to introversion. 
 Introversion is always thrust upon the mind through the 
 channels of some external influence strangling expression. 
 The one great cause of introversion is repression. The mo- 
 ment that a mind cannot express itself, then it is inevitably 
 compelled to turn itself inward and express itself to itself, 
 and think over in countless forms of worry and reflection 
 and introspection the subject matter that was denied a 
 free passport to the outer world. If expression cannot come 
 out, then it must go in. That is what repression always 
 
 150 G-. Stanley Hall: Am. Jn. Psyeh., April, 1914, vol. xxv., page 
 198. 
 
INTBOVEESION 225 
 
 means — the clamping down of every lid, and the closing of 
 every window of the soul, so that not even a flutter of ex- 
 pression can manifest itself. In proportion to the degree 
 of course that repression is complete, so too is introversion 
 complete. Kepression then becomes the right hand tool 
 of cowardice — for repression means introversion — and in- 
 troversion means abnormal mental pressure — and mental 
 pressure means self-consciousness — and self-consciousness 
 means self-condemnation— and self-condemnation means cau- 
 tion, hitching hesitancy and the destruction of all poise — • 
 and all of that is cowardice. 
 
 But what is the cause of repression? The answer is 
 this: An ignorant world clamping the brakes of its iron 
 hand down upon the wealth of expressive instinct within 
 every child — the miserable doctrine in part that, *' Children 
 are to be seen and not heard". The shut \ip policy toward 
 childhood is one of the taproots of all repression in the Uni- 
 verse. The parent in part of all repression is the fear and 
 keep still doctrine which is imposed upon the child. Through 
 numberless avenues, the child is either partly or completely 
 blocked in expressing itself — and that too during those 
 very years when all the formative elements of expression 
 are the most plastic and the most promising. 
 
 But let us ask another question, namely: How is re- 
 pression brought about? I answer: In the majority of 
 instances the child is taught the lesson of repression through 
 fear. The exercise of authority compels the child to say 
 nothing. The child knows better than to express itself. 
 Thus locked up in a world of silence and reflection, there is 
 nothing for the child to do but to brood. Since the great 
 gift of expression is not welcome, but met with storm and 
 frown and threat, then that wonderful instinct and inherit- 
 ance must isolate itself from the external world, and ac- 
 cept the enforced fate of a sulking hermitage within its own 
 sacred dominions. 
 
 But it is not always necessarily a direct fear that is 
 the weapon employed in the repression of childhood. Very 
 often it is the sense of self -superiority projected by parents 
 
 15 
 
226 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 and teachers and adults generally toward children. If a 
 child is constantly treated with contempt and neglect and 
 inattention, and made to feel its own inferiority, then all 
 the conditions for repression are present. This process of 
 minimizing childhood may occur in many ways. The com- 
 monest way is simply to neglect the child, and not take it 
 in as a full partner in the various social doings of the home 
 and community life. To proceed as if the child were noth- 
 ing, and to show it no co-operative consideration — to leave 
 the child pretty much out of things entirely — to act as 
 though there were nothing of less consequence than a child 
 — that tenor of behavior is immediately sensed by the 
 child ; and, accordingly, it effectually discourages childhood 
 participation and expression — and enforces repression. By 
 degrees, under such surroundings, the child comes to the 
 point of consciousness that it feels small, shy, bashful, timid, 
 backward, inferior and insignificant. The child's sense of 
 self -worth is dwarfed, its feeling of self-mastery atrophied, 
 its right of self-confidence destroyed. It is convicted in 
 its own mind of being a non-entity, wholly inferior, and 
 wholly unequal to any occasion. Its instinct of dignity 
 and nobility is crushed. Every possible energy of its ex- 
 pressive nature falls into withered disuse. It is consigned 
 to the seat of repression. There it plays its part — and 
 that part is silence. Henceforth the child's world is 
 introversion. 
 
 Then closely allied to the above method of making in- 
 troverts is that which fails to invite the confidence of the 
 child. Expression is exactly like any other flower — it can 
 be coaxed and cultivated — and furthermore no flower needs 
 it more. Expression demands to be nurtured and encour- 
 aged in every possible way. Confidence is one of the most 
 capital of all ways in which to cultivate expression, and 
 bring it to its highest possible development. With absolute 
 confidence present, the last barrier to free expression is 
 gone. The child then becomes free to reveal every angle of 
 its soul to those who may be in charge. In the absence of 
 the freedom which can come only through that confidence, 
 
INTEOVEESION 227 
 
 the child must harbor in silence its own secret world. In 
 that case the numberless things that should be revealed 
 through the avenues of expression shall be closeted away in 
 the mind of the child to constitute an inferno of 
 introversion. 
 
 Now, the destruction of confidence may be caused in at 
 least two ways. In the first place the whole question of 
 confidence may passively be permitted to starve. Those in 
 charge of the child may assume merely a negative or neutral 
 attitude toward the entire field — and confidence soon dies. 
 Again, confidence may be crushed outright. Instead of 
 being received with a sj^mpathetic ear, the child that would 
 confide may be sent away with a blow. That child is not 
 going to return many times to give expression to whatever 
 may be on its mind. Then through a general atmosphere 
 of omni-present fear, mental stress, hard feelings, hatred, 
 resentment, and the like, obtaining in the environment of 
 the child, no whole-hearted advance toward confidential ex- 
 pression is ever going to be made. Everything under such 
 surroundings will be at arm's length. Confidence will be 
 crucified as if at a stake. The child will live in its own 
 secluded world. Expression will dangle from the cross. 
 Repression, inhibition and resistance will be everywhere. 
 Introversion shall stand as a monument to the folly and 
 ruin of it all. 
 
 In fact, many are the ways in which introversion is 
 caused. But the strangling of expression, in one way or 
 another is the cause of it all. It is all repression of some 
 kind. That repression may be caused through the fear of 
 authority, through the feeling of an imposed sense of self- 
 inferiority, or through the crushing of confidence — and so 
 on. But it is all the same in the end. It all leads to in- 
 troversion. And the introverted mind is always synony- 
 mous with blasted human hopes and happiness. Let us 
 see more specificly why. 
 
 "A wish earnestly desired 
 Produced by will, and nourished 
 
228 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 When gradually it must be thwarted, 
 Burrows like an arrow in the flesh"/^^ 
 
 But there is no wish, however ''earnestly desired" that 
 can in any way compare with the fundamental significance 
 of the great and universal desire for expression. Thwart 
 that desire, and the poisonous pangs of introversion burrow 
 into the mind as no arrow could ever burrow into the flesh. 
 The cult of Nature is the cult of nakedness — openness, 
 honesty, sincerity. But the cult of repression breeds every- 
 thing that means just the opposite. Every piece of con- 
 quered life of the childish soul goes into the construction 
 of a temple of future torment. 
 
 When truth is concealed, he who conceals is a victim. 
 That victim always suffers in silence. In a very fundamen- 
 tal sense, education is a confession — a giving back or out 
 to the world the infinity of impressions that are within. 
 Expression is the sacred instrument through which that 
 confession is made. Nothing was ever truer than that * ' An 
 open confession is good for the soul". The truth of the 
 proposition lies in the primary desire and demand of every 
 organism for expression. As Emerson has said in his essay 
 on Spiritual Laws, ''Nature will not have us fret or fume". 
 This is true universally. But in all the range of human 
 experience, there is positively no fretting or fuming which 
 is so destructive as that which is born of a blocked 
 expression. 
 
 What is needed in the education of every individual is 
 a profound and perfect harmony of the heart. I tell you 
 this in confidence and sincerity. What our education must 
 do is to produce a sincere and simple life for the soul. The 
 demands of that simplicity and sincerity are honesty — 
 absolute honesty — ^the only thinkable basis of human action. 
 But repression gives the lie to all Nature, for repression is 
 the parent of self-consciousness, which in turn is one of the 
 master builders of cowardice, fraud and falsehood. Therein 
 
 151 Gautama Buddha: Speeches of G. Buddha by K. E. ISTemnann, 
 translated from German colleotion of fragments of Suttanipato of 
 the Pali-Kanon. 
 
INTEOVERSION 229 
 
 lies the source of many of the great wounds of the soul — 
 and the centuries have done nothing to heal and overcome 
 them. 
 
 In his essay on Self-Reliance, Emerson says that, **The 
 centuries are conspirators against the sanity and majesty of 
 
 the human soul Man is timid and apologetic 
 
 He is no longer upright He dares not say I think — 
 
 I am — but quotes some saint or sage". In the same essay 
 he writes: ''And not pinched in the corner like cowards. 
 .... But man, as it were, is clapped into jail by his con- 
 sciousness Unaffected, unbiased, unbribable, un- 
 
 affrighted innocence must always be formidable 
 
 Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own 
 mind." 
 
 Emerson has expressed it exactly — mankind has been 
 *' pinched in the corner like cowards". No phrase could 
 more accurately set forth the picture of any individual who 
 is the crouching, helpless victim of introversion. Emerson 
 perhaps did not specificly see just what officer ^s club it is 
 that has made a jail for man out of his own consciousness, 
 and at the same time robbed him of his innocence. It is the 
 club of repression operating in the fist of fear, which like a 
 sledge hammer has driven expression from the lips of the 
 child, and then sealed those lips against the holiest rights 
 and pleadings of the human soul. 
 
 ''Nothing is at last sacred except the integrity of our 
 own mind. ' ' Plato said the same thing in different words. 
 What a crime then against that integrity when introversion 
 is permitted to step into the mind ! Most assuredly, * ' The 
 centuries have been conspirators against the sanity and 
 majesty of the human soul" — ^by virtue of minimizing the 
 individual's self -sense of dignity and nobility. 
 
 Says one writer, "It is hardly too much to say that all 
 the important errors of conduct, all the burdens of men or 
 of societies are caused by the inadequacies in the association 
 of the primal emotions with those mental powers which 
 have been so rapidly developed in mankind ".^^^ If this 
 152 Prof. N. S lialer : The Neighbors, page reference lost. 
 
230 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 principle be truer in any one field than in any other, then 
 I am convinced that that field is the instinct of expression. 
 Nowhere has the inadequacy been so great as the failure of 
 civilization to comprehend the meaning and significance of 
 expression as a basic prerequisite of all growth and happi- 
 ness. It is of course true that our penitentiaries have 
 learned that solitary confinement is the worst of all forms 
 of punishment — but, some way, civilization at large has 
 failed to recognize that introversion inflicts the same form 
 of punishment permanently upon its legions of victims 
 everywhere. The cause of it all I would not so generously 
 attribute to *' those mental powers which have been so 
 rapidly developed in mankind", but rather to the opaque- 
 ness of education concerning the simplest demands and 
 tenets of the human mind. 
 
 Now in the blocking of expression we are not through 
 with the game at all — ^by no means ! Let no repressive hand 
 flatter itself with that delusion for a second. Every atom 
 of undue, irrational repression must bury itself in the mind 
 of the victim. The great cemetery of the human mind 
 testifies to that fact most abundantly. For every degree of 
 crushed, denied and inhibited expression, there is just that 
 much of undesirable deposit in the mind. Some of that de- 
 posit is conscious. The rest of it is sub-conscious. But it 
 all marks death, dross, decay. It is the haunting deposit 
 of a series of tombs and tombstones which never give to 
 the afflicted mind a moment of normal rest. 
 
 Our word, therefore, is deposits. That is the immediate 
 product of repression. The mind becomes filled up and 
 clogged and choked with things that do not belong there — 
 the things that should have been expressed. Those de- 
 posits set to work — and they are at work night and day, 
 upsetting the normal order of the mind. Everything be- 
 comes disturbance. 
 
 And let it be emphasized that none of the false deposits 
 of the mind are lost. Expression can no more be crushed 
 into an ultimate nothingness than can the simplest bit of 
 physical matter. Crush expression, and it shall turn up 
 
INTROVEKSION 231 
 
 again somewhere in some form. The desire for expression 
 is nothing more or less than psychological energy of some 
 kind — and as such that desire and that energy must con- 
 form to the law of conservation just as truly as in the case 
 of something else. Psychical energy must be just as eter- 
 nally ineffacable as any other form or type of energy. Often- 
 times, apparently, the deposits of introversion may be lost — 
 but that is simply due to the fact that perhaps not less than 
 95 per cent of our mental world is sub-conscious. What is 
 not in consciousness we think does not exist, because we 
 know nothing about it. 
 
 Hidden psychic influences are ever at work in the sub- 
 cellars of the mind. They are deposits, either good or bad. 
 If the latter, then they are born of repression. Those de- 
 posits are largely at the basis of many of the world's prob- 
 lems, both individual and social. Man's outward life is 
 largely influenced by events of the moment. But the great 
 current of his being — ^his inner life — is determined by mem- 
 ories of the past — and alas, far too often, those memories 
 are pathological. They are pathological for the reason that 
 they have gotten into the mind in violation of every law 
 and every demand of mentality. Those memories may be 
 vivid — or they may hang as mute harps within the walls 
 of the mind — but it is all the same. They are retrospective 
 longings which crush — ^poisons which rob Nature of its 
 glamor and life of its joy. 
 
 It is ours to remember that Nature while lavishing so 
 many beauties on the outside, has bestowed the grand and 
 complex secret of all within. The most thrilling facts of all 
 are concealed, as if swallowed up within the very depths of 
 life itself. Such a matchless gallery as the delicate and 
 mysterious architecture of the human mind is entitled to 
 all the refinement, all the immaculate smoothness, all the 
 irreproachable purity of an inner harmony which is within 
 the gift and province of mankind to bestow. But judging 
 from the indiscriminate manner in which education has 
 made a scrap heap of the human mind one would think that 
 civilization has regarded the mind of man as of no more 
 
232 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 consequence than some old junk pile on a vacant lot. Plu- 
 tarch has wisely said that, ' ' If Nature be not improved by 
 instruction, it is blind; if instruction be not assisted by 
 Nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the assistance 
 of both, it is imperfect". I would say that education has 
 miserably failed to catch the voice of Nature as it speaks 
 from the inner psychic throne of man. 
 
 Antisthenes says that, *'Man must either make provi- 
 sion of sense to understand, or of a halter to hang himself ' '. 
 I say that he has provided the halter — in the form of con- 
 stant internecine war raging in the mind. No halter could 
 be more effectual than that when it comes to strangling the 
 highest happiness and development of the individual. A 
 most striking contrast such a situation is alongside the 
 standard laid down by Seneca : * ' The mind is never right 
 but when it is at peace with itself ' '. It is the philosophy of 
 Plato over again. In the eyes of the Earl of Sterling, 
 * ' Modern education too often covers the fingers with rings, 
 and at the same time severs the sinews at the wrists". He 
 perhaps did not see fully that the sinews of man's wrists 
 are in his mind. There is where all the real severing of 
 life is done. 
 
 The most dangerous and determined enemies in any field 
 are those who bring in the Trojan horse. Civilization has 
 unloaded its Trojan horse in the mind of man for centuries 
 — turning loose when once on the inside so many mental 
 warriors and raiding outlaws, all gaining possession of the 
 psychic estates of man through the innocent but shallow 
 bribe of a few superficial bits of intellectual knowledge. It 
 is thus the stealthiness of the anti-educational process which 
 must concern us. It matters not how many cold intellectual 
 facts of school subject scholarship a child may be appropri- 
 ating, providing the mind that is involved is at the same 
 time becoming one vast vault for the awful inharmony of 
 those deposits which proceed from fear, repression and in- 
 troversion. **Not in the knowledge of things without", 
 says Bulwer-Lytton, ''but in the perfection of the soul 
 within, lies the empire of man aspiring to be more than 
 
INTEOVEESION 233 
 
 And he was right. But I would amend it to include 
 also the being as much as a man. I would also emphasize 
 that all our talk about the human soul must couple itself 
 inseparably wdth the human mind. Whatever the soul may 
 be, the avenues to it and from it, must be psychic. As far, 
 therefore, as the present knowledge of mankind extends, I 
 would say that ''the perfection of the soul" can mean noth- 
 ing more to us than the existence and activity of harmony 
 in the mind. The natural state of man, and all that the 
 perfection of the soul may mean is well voiced by Dryden 
 when he sang: 
 
 'Trom harmony, from heavenly harmony, 
 This universal frame began; 
 From harmony to harmony 
 Through all the compass of the notes it ran, 
 The diapason closing full in man". 
 
 In the above words Dryden gives a true picture of the 
 rightful inheritance of man. Dryden perhaps did not 
 have in his consciousness the fact that the one measure of 
 the harmony of man is the harmony that exists in his mind. 
 Nor did he perhaps have specially in mind the fact that 
 human happiness and mental harmony are one. Above all, 
 he perhaps did not entertain any specific formula of pro- 
 cedure in the building of human happiness and harmony. 
 The real formula concerns mentality. Schopenhauer spoke 
 profoundly when he said that, ' ' Happiness is really but the 
 termination of unhappiness". He undoubtedly did not 
 understand the import of his own words. My own inter- 
 pretation is, that the roots of most unhappiness are im- 
 bedded in the abnormal deposits of an ill-developed mind — 
 and accordingly that the prerequisite of happiness is to 
 block the avenues of entrance to the mind against every iota 
 of deposit that does not belong there. This is equivalent to 
 saying that the way to lock the mind up against foreign 
 intrusion is to open it up to the communion that life de- 
 mands — throw open the gateways of expression — in other 
 words, get rid of the beast of introversion. 
 
234 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 I say heast! Yes — and I speak the truth! When one 
 thinks of the great range of human maladies dwelling within 
 the human mind, it should jar one into a most sober and 
 serious reflection. Aside from the constant toll of human 
 misery due to mental inharmony, we are confronted with 
 the copious catalogue of psychopathic diseases — such as 
 delirium, neurasthenia, melancholia, hypochondria, brain- 
 fag, general nervousness, hysteric blindness, hysterical par- 
 alysis, headaches, spasms, convulsions, trophic disorders, illu- 
 sions, delusions, hallucinations, nervous prostration, and 
 certain forms of epilepsy and insanity — and so on. These 
 diseases are a part of the price that mankind is paying for 
 the purpose of wielding its w^hip hand of fear and repres- 
 sion — and intellectuality. I of course know that it has been 
 quite fashionable in the past — and indeed still is — to look 
 upon psychopathic diseases as the product of inheritance. 
 But let us listen to the positive, unqualified expressions of 
 an authority on this subject : 
 
 ^'Psychopathic diseases are not hereditary — they are 
 acquired characteristics. There is nowadays a veritable 
 craze for heredity and eugenics. Biology is misconceived, 
 misinterpreted and misapplied to social problems, and to 
 individual needs and ailments. Everything is ascribed to 
 heredity, from folly and crime to scratches and sneezes. 
 The goddess Heredity is invoked at each flea-bite — in morsu 
 pulicis Deum invocare All nervous, mental, neuro- 
 pathic and psychopathic maladies are supposed to be a 
 
 matter of heredity Such is the doctrine of our 
 
 medico-biological sages The practical aspect is clear. 
 
 Psychopathic neurosis in its two varieties is not hereditary, 
 but acquired. We should not shift the blame on grand 
 
 parents It is about time to face the truth fairly and 
 
 squarely Neurosis arises within the life cycle of the 
 
 individual. It is due to the faulty training and harmful 
 experiences of early child life}^^. . . = We must look to the 
 improvement of mental hygienic conditions of early child- 
 hood and to the proper education of the individual 
 
 153 The italics are mine. 
 
INTROVEESION 235 
 
 It is time that the medical and teaching professions should 
 realize that functional neurosis is not congenital, not inborn, 
 not hereditary, hut is essentially the result of defective edu- 
 cation in early child life''^^"^ 
 
 Dr. Sidis shows throughout his book the intimate rela- 
 tion between fear and psychopathic diseases. Since fear is 
 the one element which enters very largely into all repres- 
 sion and introversion, I shall quote further : 
 
 ''The main source of psychopathic diseases is the fun- 
 damental instinct of fear, with its manifestations, the feel- 
 ings of anxiety and anguish All taboos of primitive 
 
 societies, of savages, of barbarians, and also of civilized peo- 
 ple take their origin, according to recent anthropological 
 researches, in the 'perils of the soul', or in the fear of im- 
 pending evil. As the great anthropologist Frazer puts it, 
 'Men are undoubtedly more influenced by what they fear 
 than by what they love' Superstitions, and espe- 
 cially the early cultivation of religion, w^ith its 'fear of the 
 Lord' and of unknown mysterious agencies, are especially 
 potent in the development of the instinct of fear. Even the 
 early cultivation of morality and conscientiousness with 
 their fears of right and wrong, often causes psychoneurotic 
 states later in life. Religious, social and moral taboos and 
 superstitions, associated with apprehension of threatening 
 impending evil, based on fear instinct, form the germs of 
 psychopathic affections ".^^^ 
 
 My general use of the word repression includes much 
 referred to by Dr. Sidis as "taboos". But it also includes 
 much more, namely, the suppression of the child's right 
 to normal expression — not on account of any technical 
 tahoo at all, but simply on account of the wholesale igno- 
 rance of the world in not knowing and not appreciating the 
 tragic importance of expression as 5 fundamental life builder. 
 It is also significant, the emphasis that Dr. Sidis places 
 
 154 Boris Sidis, M. D. : Causation and Treatment Psychopathic 
 Diseases, introduction, passim; but especially i. and iv. to x. Italics 
 mine. 
 
 1" Ibid., pages 33, 35, 37. 
 
236 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 upon fear of some kind as a maker of psychopathic diseases. 
 In all probability fear is never to be separated from 
 repression and introversion, and consequently from psycho- 
 pathic diseases. 
 
 ''Carlyle laid his finger upon the truth when he said 
 that the reason why the pictures of the past were always 
 so golden in tone, so delicate in outline, was because the 
 quality of fear was taken from them. It is fear of w^hat 
 may be and what must be that overshadows present hap- 
 piness; and if fear is taken from us we are happy 
 
 if we could but find a reason for the mingling of fear with 
 our lives, we should have gone far toward solving the riddle 
 of the world ' '.^^^ These words, which were written by a well 
 known author and psychopathic sufferer, must at once meet 
 with the approbation of a universal mankind which suffers 
 everywhere in silence. 
 
 But in answer to this writer I reply that the ** reason 
 for the mingling of fear with our lives " is no secret to me. 
 I know very well what the answer is. It is as follows: 
 The ignorance of civilization — in particular the ignorance 
 of our educational and religious leaders — as to what edu- 
 cation should consist of. As far as our civilization is 
 concerned, and as far as the full and complete right of 
 anything to take place in the human mind, that wants to 
 take place there, why there simply is no human mind at all. 
 Anything can happen in the mind of man that wants to. 
 There is no one to raise a single finger against it. In fact, 
 the home, the school, the church and the state are boosters 
 in the process of destruction. But they are to be forgiven 
 — for in the language of the past, ''They know not what 
 they do". They are ignorant of the psychic world. Con- 
 sequently carte blanche is the wholesale right that is given 
 to them to do whatever they will with their Trojan horse. 
 And thus civilization goes on from age to age with its fears, 
 its repressions, its taboos, its introversions, its psycho- 
 pathic diseases. What a monumental piece of folly it all 
 is! 
 
 i^^rbid., page 48; quotation from a correspondent. 
 
INTEOVEESION 237 
 
 But all of the fear and repression and introversion of 
 life does not necessarily begin in early childhood. There 
 comes the age of puberty and adolescence — and with them 
 sex, the most fundamental and the most enduring problem of 
 all history. Areal and serious sex problem has always existed. 
 Nor is the problem primarily a physical one. Indeed, it 
 is fundamentally a mental problem. Thus far this fact 
 has very largely been overlooked. The problem is a mental 
 one from two standpoints : First, the mind demands sex en- 
 lightenment : second, it demands communion and expression 
 thereon. Civilization has thrown a wet heavy blanket over 
 both propositions. In this move, it has simply followed the 
 blind and superstitious lead of savagery and barbarism. 
 Ignorant primitive man has always placed a taboo on sex 
 light — and, of course, like a flock of sheep passing through a 
 gate, civilization — or rather semi-civilization — ^has to do the 
 same thing. The total result has been to throw the entire 
 subject of sex back into the mind, unexplained. That fact 
 constitutes one of the very largest chapters of introversion 
 in the history of mankind. Under those circumstances the 
 mind becomes an endless field of sex fears, sex worries, 
 sex anxiety, sex anguish, sex reflections, sex introspection — 
 in a word, sex introversion of the intensest type. 
 
 And yet civilization would go on with its repression — 
 its taboo on Nature 's sacred call for sex light. Any attempt 
 to delineate in full the misery of mankind due to sex in- 
 troversion operating in the human mind would be to exhaust 
 the languages of the world. Among that misery is to be 
 found fear, cowardice, self-consciousness, self-condemnation, 
 mental unrest, and all the range of psychopathic diseases 
 reaching from headache to insanity — to say nothing of the 
 physical misery that is involved. 
 
 Now let us understand clearly once more that when we 
 repress any issue we do not get rid of that issue at all. 
 The moment that we repress sex enlightenment, that moment 
 the entire question of sex is going to march itself straight 
 back into the very depths of the mind in the form of raw 
 material for introversion. That material constitutes just 
 
238 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 SO much abnormal deposits — and about those deposits the 
 mind shall revolve in solitary contemplation. Part of those 
 deposits remain in consciousness v^here they act as a base 
 to disturb and unbalance life. The rest of such sex de- 
 posits sink into the depths of sub-consciousness, v^^here they 
 repose tranquilly, but actively. There they operate as a 
 constant influence in all the doings of the mind, the con- 
 scious mind included, to which they give abnormal feeling 
 tones. So far as memory and consciousness are concerned, 
 the domains of a poisoned sub-conscious are passive and 
 quiescent — ^but as far as actual mental destruction is con- 
 cerned, the poisoned sub-conscious is a seething turmoil of 
 unrest and pathological activity. 
 
 Among other things then, sex introversion, as indeed any 
 other introversion, always means the possession of great 
 subjective secrets — in the form of fears, longings, worries, 
 wishes — all the result of suppression. But the possession 
 of such subjective secrets always spells disturbance — for 
 the subcellars of the mind are always lying in wait either 
 to welcome or waylay. The ambush of sub-consciousness 
 is always what crushes or constructs us. It is never any 
 arrows or assistance from without. 
 
 Our fundamental principle is this: If any feeling is 
 not expressed, then it must be assimilated. That assim- 
 ilated feeling, if it should have been expressed, becomes a 
 poison which contaminates and throws out of plumb the 
 normal lineup of the individual 's psychic organization. Its 
 action in the mind is as unwelcome and as undesirable and 
 as disastrous as so much sand thrown into the gearings of 
 a delicately balanced machine. The products of such as- 
 similated or unexpressed feelings manifest themselves in 
 many ways. Much of the world's modesty and shame, for 
 example, is but a conglomerate mixture of superconscious- 
 ness concerning things unduly lodged in the mind on 
 account of the blocking of natural channels of expression. 
 Sex introversion and fear of one kind or another constitute 
 a great share of those lodgements. Their deposits pollute 
 the mind at every turn. A spirit of false modesty and 
 
INTROVERSION 239 
 
 false shame is but a small portion of their products. Shy- 
 ness itself, which is closely related to fear, is largely an 
 emanation from a bad mental state. Secretiveness is also 
 a kind of dread. It is another overtone which always goes 
 with a repressed mind. Bashfulness is still another offshoot 
 of fear, repression and introversion of some kind. All three 
 last named traits — ^shyness, secretiveness and bashfulness — 
 also bespeak in the victim an undue respect and awe for the 
 world. The reason for this is, that all fear, repression and 
 introversion combine to spell self-depreciation and self- 
 helittlement on the part of the victim. By inversion, the 
 world becomes magnified in that degree, but at an alarming 
 geometrical rate — and as the individual magnifies the world, 
 he is strangling to that extent the biological integrity that 
 rightfully belongs to him. 
 
 One of the most fundamental problems of life and edu- 
 cation, therefore, is how to free the inner instinctive mental 
 energies of the individual into the best channels of expres- 
 sion. That demand is absolutely imperative— so imperative 
 that every possible avenue of normal expression must be 
 aggressively studied, and the consequent expression of the 
 individual aggressively invited and aggressively welcomed. 
 There must be nothing at all passive or neutral about this 
 proposition. No laissez faire policy will do on this sacred 
 ground. The rights involved are too imperious to tinker 
 with. And yet so far afield has civilization been that its 
 general policy has been one of repression — from the simplest 
 fears and doubts and suspicions and worries and wishes of 
 childhood to a complete blanketing of the sex question. 
 What a splendid illustration of how not to do a thing ! 
 
 Civilization must learn this lesson : The way to get things 
 out of the mind is to let them come out — and not drive them 
 back in and then attempt to seal them up there. The very 
 last way in the world, for example, to deal with any fear 
 in the mind of any child, is to leave that fear in the mind 
 by ignoring it — for that process leaves the fear there, and 
 thus furnishes so much more material for introversion 
 — aside from the direct fact that the fear in itself is a deadly 
 
240 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 thing. The mind must be given up to just the oppX)site — 
 to open confession and free expression in order that a 
 rational illumination and a poised mentality may result. 
 To attempt to forget fears — that is to desert them and leave 
 them in the mind — that is disastrous. Woe unto such for- 
 getting, for it prevents the seeking of an antidote against 
 material which only remains to contribute to the general 
 unreliability of the mind. 
 
 Nature never intended any organism to pasture in the 
 greatness or the littleness of its own thoughts. To 
 attempt to do so is to dam up the flood tides of expression. 
 And even if such a process were not positively destructive, 
 why should it be resorted to anyway? What is there so 
 shameful in any of the great Nature secrets of the soul? 
 Why must civilization surround sex with silence and shame ? 
 Also — why must it subject the process and function of 
 bodily elimination to the same sickening prudery? Has 
 it come that mankind is ashamed of the plan of Nature? 
 May heaven banish that atmosphere ! 
 
 In the process of life, one must be in full possession 
 of his own personality — nothing more or less than the very 
 mental harmony of Plato. That mental balance is very 
 largely the proper equilibrium between the conscious and 
 subconscious content of the mind. It is therefore of the 
 primest importance that no undesirable deposits lodge them- 
 selves in either the conscious or the subconscious mind. 
 If this principle is violated we then have deposits breaking 
 through from either mind into the other and destroying 
 the mental balance. That principle actually is violated 
 in legions of instances — ^under the very name of a pretended 
 moral environment by making the child ioe marks and as- 
 similate models that never should obtain. 
 
 Now, since the individual is so often denied the adapta- 
 tion of his personality by means of freely expressed feelings, 
 then the individual must adapt by the only other means left 
 — by thought — by the sulking soliloquy of solitude and 
 silence. It is an attempt at self-cure — self-satisfaction — a 
 resort to subjectifying. But it must fail utterly, for the 
 
INTRO^rERSION 241 
 
 very act of natural adaptation which was denied through 
 the channels of expression is * ' The stone which the builders 
 have rejected" — and it now becomes the keystone of the 
 temple of mental wreckage. The introspection method or 
 attempt at self-cure fails disastrously — for that is the very 
 method which kills. That method is a catastrophe just in 
 proportion to the degree that it is resorted to. The victim's 
 chief reward for his pains is a wrecked nervous organization 
 along physical lines — and a mind tortured with fears and 
 doubts and worries along psychic lines. 
 
 It is in the mind of such an individual that the wildest 
 and most sweeping of all life dramas are played. Contrary 
 to common notions, life's great tragedies are never played 
 on any theatrical stage. They are played in the tremendous 
 arena of civil contest within the stageless settings of the 
 human mind — in the heart of man between the pivot points 
 of the two minds that are warring with each other. The 
 fundamental law of power and personality is, that one must 
 not be making war on himself. One must — ^without 
 effort of any kind whatever — tolerate himself. To do this, 
 one must liberate the psychic energies of his being by trans- 
 lating them into positive social contributions of some kind — 
 for if those energies are not liberated, then they shall consti- 
 tute a state of siege and internecine war. That inner civil 
 war comprises the sum and substance of life's real tragedies 
 — it is the one inferno that actually lays hold of its victim. 
 
 It is this psychic war that is the curse of the world. 
 Positively, no worse plague was ever known to mankind 
 than self -consciousness — no scourge more terrible than self- 
 condemnation. The one always begets the other. The latter 
 is a pronounced feeling of self -inferior it xj. It is an eternal 
 auto-suggestion of one's own utter insignificance — all due 
 to the deposits of fear, repression and introversion working 
 destruction in the precincts of the mind. When the human 
 mind comes day after day face to face with endless collisions 
 and resistances between different phases of its own self — 
 and that is exactly what introversion always means — ^then 
 what are we to expect but cowardice and self-condemnation, 
 
 16 
 
242 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 and the various birds of a feather that always fly with 
 them? 
 
 Now on the entire subject of introversion we are led 
 to inquire more definitely : What is to be done in a con- 
 structive way ? How are we to extract the poisonous fangs 
 of introversion from the mind of mankind? In what way 
 is the human mind to be redeemed ? 
 
 Everything that has been said in this book thus far is 
 my answer to that question. Drive fear from the world, 
 and destroy all undue repression. Then introversion must 
 die of starvation — for it is upon the deposits of fear and 
 repression that introversion feeds. Immediately — as far 
 as our present chapter is concerned — the watchword of the 
 world must be expression. 
 
 Now, in the direction of any child, two things are 
 absolutely necessary^ — intelligence and love — ^ninety-nine 
 parts of the former to one of the latter — preferably that 
 than the reverse — assuming that nothing is fraught with 
 greater possible mischief than a love which is founded 
 merely on good intentions minus enlightenment. Our great 
 demand is not love alone, but rather an accurate knowledge 
 as to just what we are about at every turn in the guidance 
 of childhood. We need to know above all what the real 
 demands of the highest life attainments actually are. That 
 is why I place intelligence first. This intelligence must 
 always involve a sacred appreciation of the fact that the 
 child has a mind — that something is constantly going on 
 wdthin that mind — ^that the basis of all education must be 
 made to consist of harmony in that same mind— and above 
 all, that the most heinous crime ever known to mankind is 
 the planting of the seeds of fear in the mind of childhood. 
 All of that indicated intelligence must be involved — not 
 merely as so much knoiun data — ^but as moving facts and 
 sacredly felt convictions. I would here suggest that the 
 reader turn back and re-read from chapters five to eleven 
 inclusive, in order that the contents thereof may be seen 
 in the additional light of having a direct relation to the 
 general subject of repression and introversion. 
 
INTROVERSION 243 
 
 In addition, I desire to say something more specific on 
 the developement of expression, both in the home and in the 
 school. 
 
 There is perhaps no deader letter anywhere in all 
 education than that well known psychological common place 
 — ' ' For every impression an equal expression. ' ' Education 
 is teeming with impression elements — and it matters not 
 for the present that the majority of those impressions are 
 wrong — but when it comes to expression elements education 
 is pretty much of a desert. The child in our schools is 
 still pretty much of a sphinx. Education today lays vastly 
 too much emphasis on intellectual impression, and vastly 
 too little on vocal expression. To that extent our schools 
 are manufacturing mental introverts. It is of course true 
 that impression is of the most sacred importance as far as 
 the fact and necessity of those impressions being absolutely 
 correct is concerned — but aside from this thought, education 
 is entirely too much obsessed with the concept that edu- 
 cation is a 'Haking-in process'', I insist that education is 
 more primarily a ^'giving-out process" — an expression 
 proposition — and that the real education of no child is at 
 all to be measured by his examination marks in the field 
 of intellectual impression. The very child that is receiving 
 marks of one hundred in such a field may be rapidly de- 
 veloping into zero in the great field of courage, vocal ex- 
 pression, poise, self-mastery — and all other elements that go 
 to make up mental harmony. If the school only knew it, its 
 real contribution to civilization is not the arithmetic or the 
 grammar that it teaches, but whatever of opportunity it 
 unconsciously offers to the child in the way of expression 
 and contact through social communion. 
 
 I say frankly that there is too much deadly silence in 
 the schoolroom — too much fear-imposed silence, leading 
 to introversion rather than to industry — not that I do not 
 believe in order and quietude, for I do — but that the pupil 
 is holding forth entirely too little as an independent agent 
 in the field of vocal expression. My insistence is, that 
 expression in the schoolroom at least equal impression 
 
244 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 therein. There must be maintained at all times harmony 
 between the pupil's intellectual grasp and the general tone 
 of his emotional development. The latter must be taken 
 care of exclusively in two ways: First, through the fear 
 impressions that are kept out of the mind; and, second, 
 through the elements of expression that are let out of the 
 mind. Our immediate concern is of course with the latter. 
 
 But how shall the expression demands of growth be 
 catered to more fully in the schoolroom ? 
 
 I answer, fundamentally in two ways — through the 
 recitation and through the platform. To both of these 
 ends the educational forces must have ever in mind the 
 purpose of education. That purpose as I have laid it 
 down is biological integrity. But we are apt to get lost if 
 we go no further than such a term. Analysis thereof in 
 the past chapters has led to the elimination of fear — to 
 the development of courage — to the requirements of mental 
 harmony — to the dangers of repression and introversion — 
 and at the same time to the place of expression as an indis- 
 pensable element in the process of all growth. It is with this 
 same expression that our schools come into the closest and 
 most persistent touch. Consequently, were I asked what the 
 purpose of education is as far as the dominating element 
 in the consciousness of the teacher is concerned immediately 
 in the classroom, I should reply: The development of 
 expression. That is, I would intend that as a working 
 slogan for the teacher. Back of all that I would of course 
 insist that every teacher have ever in mind the principle of 
 biological integrity as our larger purpose, together with 
 everything that the mental harmony of Plato stands for. 
 However, as an immediate classroom guidance, I know of 
 nothing that should be more indelibly engraved into the 
 consciousness of every teacher in the land than just that: 
 The development of expression. 
 
 In the pursuance of that great object, I regard the plat- 
 form as a completely overlooked educational factor in our 
 schools. In every school I would make platform expres- 
 sion intellectual subject number one in the curriculum, 
 
INTROVERSION 245 
 
 Arithmetic and reading and writing — and every other in- 
 tellectual subject known to education — would have to be 
 content with position number two. The lot of every pupil 
 would be regular, required and systematic platform work, 
 extending from the first day of the kindergarten to the last 
 day of the high school. My aim would not be exclusively or 
 even primarily the making of orators, entertainers or 
 musicians, but as Rousseau might say, the making of men 
 and women. My aim would be to make courageous charac- 
 ters who are neither afraid of their own shadows, nor 
 tongue-tied with the ghosts of self -consciousness and self- 
 condemnation. I would make men and women who would 
 never be ''pinched in the corner like cowards," as Emerson 
 has said, or slink away behind the curtains or into the 
 shadows to ruminate as convicts in their prisons of 
 introversion. 
 
 As far as all regular classroom recitations are concerned, 
 I would convert them into the nature of platform activi- 
 ties just as largely as possible. I would think of the pupil 
 reciting at the blackboard, or at his seat, before his class- 
 mates, as one holding forth in some contest of expression. 
 If a pupil, for example, were explaining some problem in 
 arithmetic at the blackboard, I should regard his work in 
 arithmetic as secondary in value to his experience in ex- 
 pressing himself before his mates, and his ability to com- 
 mand himself in the face of any questions that his associates 
 might ask him. The state of the pupil's mind, as evidenced 
 by his conduct and expression, would mean more to me 
 than his arithmetic. 
 
 As a teacher I would keep still — and do my best to make 
 a Socratic expert of every pupil in the field of questioning. 
 During recitation, the teacher should be a part of the audi- 
 ence. As chairman of the meeting, the teacher should never 
 ask a question that pupils should ask among themselves. The 
 pupils will, of course, ask now and then many foolish ques- 
 tions—but far better that than that they play the part of 
 dummies in the making. Our immediate aim is to do all in 
 our power to head off repression and introversion. It is not 
 
210 Tiii'i iMnn'osi-: of kdik'ation 
 
 «1; all to iiiHisI on cillicr wisdom or hiIphco. No folly couUl 
 be jrrivHcr jlinii lo ;isU Tor |)orr(»ction from \\w hUwI. 
 
 iiiil llic (Icimmd I'oi' cxprcsHioii is \',\\' iikmh* iiiipcrjiiivc 
 ill lli(» li()iii(», (\s|)(M*i}iIl.v (luriii|j: lli()S(> six ycjirs wlicii llic 
 school (Iocs not coinc into coiitncl vvilli tiio child nl nil. in 
 r.Mct, Ihc child's |)I,mI ronii experience shoiild bcfjjin in the 
 lioiiic. The riillcsl iind i'recsj rijj;]its of coiivcM'sntion siionld 
 lie }j;rnnled lo Ihe child. Uy this I mean invited iind cnlli- 
 vjiled. Tlu^ very first nMinirement in this direction is, that 
 1h(» seeds of scMf-inferiority iicvm't he plnnlc(l in the mind of 
 the child — for no siiifjjle word can ever he spoken j'i^ht while 
 the mind is wron^. T\\o child must l)(» a complete citizen 
 of th(» home, fr(M' under r(»asonal)l(» f.,Mii(hniee to en^aj^e in 
 conversation at all times. When tiie child talks, it must be 
 heard. Its trials, its troubles, its sorrows, its joys, its stories, 
 its (piestioniiifjs, whatever they nmy be, must be listened to. 
 The child must be one of the company makiiifj: up Ihe mem- 
 bcrslii|> (d' the home — and made to fiM'l fully e(|ual in its own 
 itiiiid to anybody. That feeling will, of course, always be 
 jn-esenl, providinjj: nothing is (*ver done to implant the op- 
 j)osite IVelin}.^ in the mind. 
 
 Abov(» all, most jirofound must be llie lable communion. 
 In saying this I am not writiny^ for the rich — or any class. 
 I am writinjr lor every class — for all the people. There are 
 fewer opportunities ricluM* for the bnildinij: of expression 
 than tlu* table, whei'e all uuMiibers nvo in association, l^'rom 
 the very start the cliild must participate and be listened 
 to in its tni'ii — and with as |)rofoun(l a respect and simMM'ity 
 as mi<i:ht be ])aid to tlie most distinguished {j^uest. A mind 
 is b(Mn«j: made for life — and any other attitude is bound 
 lo spell all the misery and unhai)pin(^ss and ineflicieney that 
 p:o with cowardice, repression, introversion, scd f-conseious- 
 ness and self condiMunat ion. So drastically important is the 
 principle involv(Ml, that those in charge of children in the 
 home must carefully set* to it that lU) child is <}:ettinj]: lost 
 at the table in the direction of any of tbe destructive ele- 
 ments just irnnu^d — or in the direction of any other ele- 
 ments that mijjfht in any possible way tend to check the 
 
INTROVEKSION 247 
 
 attainment of our great educational goal — biological 
 integrity. 
 
 Then there comes the question of a larger social ex- 
 perience in the home. No child can possibly develop 
 normally who is robbed of the opportunity to meet and 
 associate with people from the outside. If friends, neigh- 
 bors, or even strangers, come to the home, the child by 
 degrees must meet them all. While grown members of 
 the home are being introduced in a formal way, so also must 
 the child be brought to the front and introduced. The 
 child must be freely habituated to meeting people — and 
 being at home and at ease in the midst of them. Under 
 no ordinary circumstances is the child to be left out. To do 
 so is surely bound in the end to give to the child a sense of 
 self-inferiority, self-insignificance, self-consciousness, self- 
 condemnation, and everything else that goes with repression 
 and introversion. Also in this phase of social home life, the 
 child must be granted a reasonable opportunity to come 
 right out in the center of the ring and participate. It 
 will not do at all to have the chil.d constantly kept in the 
 background, *' pinched in the comer like a coward," re- 
 gardless of what the social circumstances may be. The 
 child must have the right to talk with different individual 
 members of the company, or even to command the attention 
 of all members with its stories and its questionings. The 
 child, in terms of innate self-respect, must be made a 
 veritable Jesus in miniature, * 'sitting among the doctors, 
 listening to them and asking them questions ".^^^ 
 
 Then in the home the child must have an abundance of 
 its own social affairs. Nothing is more capital than the 
 birthday party. On such occasions, the child holds forth 
 as the master of ceremonies. Never should a single birth- 
 day be skipped. If a social experience of that kind is kept 
 up for, say, twenty years, an educational value has been 
 gained that could not well he overestimated. The whole 
 process, rightly conducted will contribute to the building 
 of poise and power in the great structure of harmonious 
 
 157 The Bible, Luke 2:46. 
 
248 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 personality. Nothing could more effectively cater to the 
 development of a free and easy expression, and lend to 
 the individual an ultimate sense of courage and self- 
 mastery. The child that misses such opportunities is as a 
 rule more apt to go through life a coward with a tongue- 
 tied hitch in everything that he says and does. 
 
 Again, we must not lose sight of the educational values 
 that lie outside of the home. The child that never gets 
 out of its own home for the purpose of mingling with the 
 world, and seeing how people do things, is suffering an 
 incalculable loss. The child must be thoroughly habituated 
 to the world in order that it may never be nonplussed or 
 over-awed by the world. The child 's respect for the power 
 and strength of the world must never be too great — in the 
 sense that his own feeling of self-respect and self-greatness 
 is diminished. But if the child is held a stranger to the 
 world, then later on when the world is seen for the first time, 
 the child is doomed to stand a trembling coward in its pres- 
 ence — completely over-awed at everything because of his 
 great strangeness to them — ^his own mind obsessed with an 
 ingrowing sense of self -inferiority which he simply cannot 
 shake off. 
 
 Therefore, the child must be taken out to witness and to 
 take part in the various activities of the world. If the child 
 always dines at home exclusively, for example, and never 
 is taken to hotels and cafes to mingle with behavior there, 
 then the child is being robbed of experiences that are 
 fundamental and indispensable. Let the child be taken 
 then occasionally to dining rooms outside of its own 
 immediate home — and to as many different dining rooms 
 as possible. The child must also be brought into associa- 
 tion with groups and crowds of different kinds, such as in 
 parks, in depots, in theatres, in lecture halls, in churches — 
 and so on. But in the latter case, care must be taken that 
 the child is not adversely influenced by the atmosphere of 
 a prolonged and mysterious silence, or by any pronounce- 
 ments that might be beyond or antagonistic to child 
 psychology. 
 
INTROVERSION 249 
 
 In case that the child lives in the country, then no more 
 unnecessary tragedy could perhaps befall it than to be 
 robbed of a certain amount of city association. If the regular 
 duties of parents do not take them to the city often enough, 
 then special trips must be made for the specific purpose 
 of giving to the child a certain acquaintance with city ways. 
 The circus, the fair, the carnival, and other special day 
 celebrations are all thoroughly worth while if for no other 
 reason than merely to enlarge the horizon of the child. No 
 one believes more thoroughly than I do in rural life as the 
 best possible environment for the raising of children — and 
 yet at the same time I know that a great injustice is 
 enacted whenever any child is tied down exclusively to the 
 farm one year after another. I am impelled to say frankly 
 to parents: Take your children to the city just as many 
 times each year as possible. "When you arrive there your 
 children will act with that degree of poise and naturalness 
 to which they have been accustomed in the past. But the 
 opportunity is yours at all times to extend, unknown to 
 them, their own training. Accept that opportunity with- 
 out exception. When the hour of hunger strikes, go with 
 your children to some dining room. Do not make the 
 mistake of sneaking off into some back alley to dine on 
 crackers and cheese and sardines — with the spirit of a tramp 
 or a beggar — but get in line with successful, people. The 
 fundamental demand here is not at all to save a few dimes 
 — but to give to your children such a large and wholesome 
 social experience that they will never feel like hanging 
 their heads in the presence of any associations. Bear in 
 mind that biological integrity is never going to obtain just 
 as long as the plane of childhood action is to be *' pinched 
 in the corner like cowards". Let no parent forget that 
 bedrock fact for a minute! To be sure, I admit that no 
 objective conduct is ever a flawless criterion of what is really 
 happening to any child; one must look into the heart— 
 into the mind, to determine that. 
 
 Nevertheless as I have observed country life, there is 
 permitted to be so much ''commonness" about it — so much 
 
250 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 "informality" of an undesirable order — so many '^ cheap'* 
 models of behavior — ^so much imitative material that is 
 *' crude" — and so on — ^that the typical child as a rule is 
 permanently dedicated to a plane of mental tone that does 
 not contribute to a high state of self-respect. That is, 
 a mental ' ' cheapness ' ' is far too often the inevitable result. 
 The stage of psychic action is pitched too low — so low that 
 there is apt to be a feeling of self-depreciation setting in 
 and taking possession of the individual, especially when 
 city people are encountered. There is very likely to become 
 deeply ingrained the thought and feeling of city superiority. 
 The child thus becomes a victim of self-depreciation — a 
 state or condition which strangles the very life breath out 
 of the principle of biological integrity. Self-repression sets 
 in. Introversion follows. Mental harmony is by degrees 
 superseded by mental discord — and in the whole process 
 the individual is being groomed and trained and appren- 
 ticed for future failure — ^because I say once more for the 
 thousandth time that the one exclusive criterion of any 
 individual is the feeling ione of his mind. Therefore, I 
 would say to rural parents, and to all parents : Avoid crude 
 commonness for your children as you would avoid a nest 
 of rattlesnakes. 
 
 Similarly I would say to parents in the poorer districts 
 of our cities: Your commonness is destructive to your 
 children, in that it is building up within them small con- 
 ceptions of self -power. Every rich and successful and well- 
 dressed person that passes through your midst is a king or 
 a giant in the eyes of your children — and accordingly they 
 themselves become pigmies in their own eyes — devoid of 
 self-respect — devoid of a sense of self-equality — devoid of 
 a feeling of self-mastery. Children raised in such an 
 atmosphere are thus apt to be doomed in advance to a 
 state of inferiority. In that way caste is permanently con- 
 structed, each succeeding generation being almost destined 
 to repeat in the social scale the generations that have 
 preceded them — and the whole thing a wholesale process 
 of human belittlement — a process of making cowards and 
 
INTROVERSION - 251 
 
 slaves by perpetuating an outrageously unwholesome stato 
 of mind. With the majority of children raised in such 
 an environment, the lot is one of social repression and 
 social introversion, and a pronounced self-consciousness of 
 inferiority in comparison with the rest of the world. 
 Verily, the entire process is one of pinching humanity in 
 the corner like cowards. The demands of course under such 
 adverse circumstances are, that parents be familiar with 
 these very facts, and do everything within human power to 
 give their children exactly the opposite type of mental 
 equipment — for by no means is the poverty of the poorer 
 sections of our cities the real tragedy ; it is rather the psychic 
 destruction that is going on there constantly. Ragged bodies 
 and empty stomachs are only the objective part of our prob- 
 lem. The real problem itself is overwhelmingly a subjec- 
 tive one. It must be met fundamentally by recognizing the 
 psychic elements that enter into it. 
 
 Then too city parents in general have this fact to learn : 
 Let them too get out with their children, giving them 
 every opportunity to gain a participative familiarity with 
 various social activities outside of their own homes. To 
 remain in one's own home constantly is apt to be one of the 
 most anti-educational of all processes. Generally speaking, 
 it is almost sure to be — for in spite of the fact that the end 
 of education is biological integrity, the means of education 
 is social relations of every wholesome kind. Other things 
 being equal, the more group relationship entering into the 
 child's life, the better — for those relationships are ladders, 
 all of which we are constantly and consciously directing 
 toward our one great goal : Harmony in the human mind. 
 For this same reason, the city child should not be robbed 
 of its right of a certain amount of association with country 
 life. The more bits and sections of life the child can become 
 master of, the better — for to that thing of which an indi- 
 vidual, in terms of familiarity, is not a master, he is apt to 
 be a slave — because, as a rule, for a person not to be ac- 
 quainted with things means that when he finally does meet 
 them he is going to be overcome by them. Therefore, let 
 
252 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 neither the country parent nor the city parent pursue any 
 course of conduct in the direction of the child that might 
 in any particular tend toward stagnation of the child mind 
 because of a circumscribing of social opportunities. 
 
 But I spoke above of the agency of love as an essential 
 in the guidance of all childhood. The reason for this is 
 that love is the most magical of all keys in turning the lock 
 against introversion. Nothing so invites expression, sin- 
 cerity and confidence as does love. It always spells freedom 
 of passports between parent and child. Then love is one 
 of the great guarantees against fear. *' Perfect love casteth 
 out fear" for the reason that love is a mental state which 
 means in itself the absence of fear. Love between parent 
 and child, for example, means that there is no fear ex- 
 isting there between them. Now fear is the very thing that 
 we want to get rid of — ^because fear always means friction, 
 no matter what home it may be in. Friction, on the 
 other hand, is the very seeds of repression and introversion 
 — for wherever friction exists there one is sure to find 
 enmity, hatred, anger, secretiveness, and a deplorable lack 
 of wholesome communion — and those conditions, be it re- 
 membered, are exactly the ones that turn minds inward to 
 sulk and brood and worry — aU of which is repression and 
 introversion. Love is therefore a most marvelous instru- 
 ment in the building of mental harmony, 
 
 Where love is established in the home as the instrument 
 in power, all is strong, solid, fruitful. Hitherto love has 
 largely been looked upon as a sort of a crisis — a drama in 
 one act. But such a view regards love in by far its least 
 instructive and most limited phase — for love is an endless 
 life force. Love is a superhuman word — in reality, divine. 
 I will not retract it. Love creates love and augments it. 
 Love — along with intelligence — is the method which leads 
 to the attainment of the mental harmony and the hiological 
 integrity for which I have everywhere pleaded. In the en- 
 tire process, I say that the art of love is needed. Each per- 
 son must institute himself the child's protector against 
 himself. The parent in spite of his own best intentions may 
 
INTEOVERSION 253 
 
 oftentimes actually be a fear object in the mind of the child 
 by virtue of an undue absence of the spirit of love obtaining 
 between them. Whenever that is the case, repression and 
 introversion are bound to result, for where love is lacking, 
 then and there the mental enemies of the human mind begin 
 to lay siege — and one by one the Trojan horses will be 
 brought in. 
 
 Love is a flame, a fire, a desire. It is a heaven to be 
 found everywhere. Mental harmony has no more essential 
 base than love. The cement and solvent of love is always 
 needed, no matter how much intelligence otherwise may be 
 involved. Love is so powerful that though one catches a 
 flash of it by its reflection alone, it sets everything on fire. 
 The coldest heart is warmed thereby. The boundless pride, 
 the sudden joy, the violent delight that spring up from the 
 presence of love, animate as nothing else can. The great 
 power of love lies in the matchless harmony that it creates. 
 Love helps to construct the very state for which Plato 
 argued and reasoned everywhere in both Republic and 
 Laws : Harmony in the human mind. It does this by very 
 materially helping to banish those conditions which breed 
 fear, repression, cowardice and introversion. Love invites 
 freedom and ease of communion, and establishes a state of 
 equality between parent and child. It is the foundation of 
 confidence and the superstructure of sincerity. The wise 
 and the foolish will tell you this and that — but I tell you 
 frankly that the whole question of childhood is to evoke by 
 wisdom and love. Let those solemn words be inscribed in 
 every heart. 
 
 Rousseau himself has said : * ' Childhood is to be loved. . . . 
 The years that ought to be bright and cheerful are passed 
 in tears amid punishments, threats and slavery. ' '^^^ Pre- 
 vious to this he had already said the following words: 
 * ' Cruel restraints, both physical and psychical, have an evil 
 
 influence upon temper and constitution The first 
 
 gifts they receive from you are chains, the first treatment 
 they undergo is torment ' '.^^^ 
 
 158 J. J. Eonsseau: Emile, page 42. 
 
 159 Ibid., page 16. 
 
254 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 I am not sure that Kousseau ever analyzed in his own 
 mind the psychology of love as a constructive agency, or the 
 significance of psychical restraints from the standpoint of 
 repression and introversion, but his general propositions are 
 eminently correct. If there is to be psychic harmony in the 
 human mind, then children must be guided by the sweet 
 and patient instrument of love. To that end, conviction 
 should always be made the keynote in the disciplining of 
 childhood to the fullest possible extent — for as Mosso has 
 said; ''Whatever be the force of authority, it can never 
 compare with conviction in efficacy ".^^° 
 
 The difficulty with any discipline of authority which is 
 divorced from love and conviction is, that while it may exact 
 obedience, it may be doing so at the price of demoralizing 
 the mind of the child — and that means wrecking the future. 
 The great desideratum in the disciplining of childhood is 
 not obedience, regardless of how that obedience is obtained, 
 but discipline in conformity with the best demands of the 
 biological integrity of the future individual. The final 
 product of our discipline must be matchless mental har- 
 mony in which reposes the bedrock of courage, self-mastery, 
 naturalness, and a perfected ease and freedom of expres- 
 sion. In case that our ultimate product is a poor, trembling 
 coward, both directed and betrayed by a mind engulfed vnih. 
 the deadly poisons of fear and introversion, then indeed it 
 would be far better that that kind of discipline were sunk 
 into the bottom of the sea. 
 
 The sum total of our discipline and our guidance of 
 childhood must be to head off cowardice, self-consciousness 
 and introversion at all costs. To perform that task may 
 seem a humble function. But I want to assure the world 
 that nothing is holier. Indeed, the world's moral, responsi- 
 bility in this direction is much greater than it has ever 
 dreamed thus far — ^because the world in the past has seen 
 simply a physical child, without either seeing or dreaming 
 of the tremendous significance of the mind within. Hitherto 
 the world has been pitiably blind concerning the psychic 
 
 leo^ngelo Mosso: Fear, page 265. 
 
INTROVEESION 255 
 
 anarchy that its civilization has set up within the mind 
 of man. 
 
 But it is now time for the world to awaken from its long 
 sleep of ignorance — and to judge all of our educational 
 endeavors by the mind deposits that the individual carries 
 away with him. We must see that introversion is a deadly 
 poison. We must see that expression is the first law of 
 growth, and that accordingly anything that blocks expres- 
 sion is not to be tolerated. We must see that undue repres- 
 sion fills the mind up with poison deposits, and that those 
 deposits through their lodgement therein shatter the very 
 mind that shelters them. We must see that the deposits in 
 any mind constitute what one might call the permanent cast 
 of that mind. All opinions and all attitudes of conduct are 
 ever at the mercy of those deposits, regardless of whether 
 they are in the conscious mind or the subconscious. The 
 life line of any individual at any time may be said to be 
 exactly the composite resultant of those same deposits, oper- 
 ating as a balance between the two subdivisions of the mind. 
 By removing repressions and the fears connected therewith, 
 by means of resort to free expression, we distinctly prevent 
 those restrictions and those inhibitions which interfere with 
 the development of power and personality. It is largely the 
 knowledge of this fundamental fact that makes the scien- 
 tific direction of childhood possible. 
 
 Above all, let us not underestimate the tremendous prin- 
 ciple with which we are here dealing. Introversion is an 
 agency which is undermining the health and sanity of the 
 human mind. Its inevitable product is self-consciousness. 
 It in turn spells self-condemnation — and both together con- 
 stitute two of the greatest curses ever visited upon civiliza- 
 tion. Indeed, in a certain immediate sense I might be per- 
 mitted to say that the very purpose of education is to keep 
 self-consciousness out of the human mind. The way to do 
 that is to banish fear from the world, and then never to 
 burden the mind with unexpressed desires and wishes — and 
 never by any course of conduct to force the mind to harbor 
 within its depths any secrets or any series of secrets which 
 
256 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 under all normal conditions it would speedily give up. In 
 other words, the subject matter of the mind must not be in 
 the mind, but outside of the mind. That simply calls for 
 the release of the mind, rather than for the storage of it. 
 In a most significant sense, expression is the one great friend 
 that a troubled creation can call its own. 
 
 The instinctive urge of expression is testified to by a 
 thousand facts in daily life. Every invention ever made by 
 man spells expression — every piece of machinery from the 
 simplest to the most complex. Speech itself, which was 
 originally but a system of emotional sounds, is the in- 
 stinctive echo of expression from the soul. If expression 
 were not both a demand and a command of creation, there 
 would be no language in the Universe at all. But in con- 
 trast to such a state of void, think of the social mediums of 
 expression everywhere — the press, the telephone, the tele- 
 graph, the mail service : All bear evidence of the great need 
 of expression — ^not fundamentally at all for social ends, but 
 for basic, biological ends, although of course social ends are 
 at the same time served. Gossip itself is one of the best 
 possible evidences of the instinctiveness of expression — and 
 of the need of it. Even secrets are almost impossible to 
 keep for the same reason — for the reason that expression is 
 the law of Nature everywhere. Convicts themselves, as a 
 rule, find nothing more torturing than the very secrets that 
 they would try to dam up within their own mental haunts. 
 For this reason it has not been at all uncommon for unap- 
 prehended criminals voluntarily to *'give themselves up". 
 Much of the pain and poison of the pangs of a ''troubled 
 conscience'' is little else than the pressure of introversion 
 in a troubled mind. 
 
 The line of our duty should therefore be clear: Educa- 
 tion must not deal ex-officio with children. They must be 
 treated as responsible beings, in that they are the infallible 
 carriers and embodiments of Nature 's instinctive mandates. 
 What resistance, I ask, can possibly be offered by a delicate 
 personality to the chains of an imposed ignorance from 
 without? If the world would see an image of fear, frank 
 
INTEOVEESION 257 
 
 fear, anxiety and anguish, let it look upon either childhood 
 or youth during those awful moments when silence and soli- 
 tude are sought out to live in an introverted world, because 
 there is no place where either may lay its head and tell in 
 confidence and love the secrets, the wishes, the desires that 
 Nature is so ],oath to give hermitage in the human soul. If 
 parents could see the fundamental manner in which they are 
 builders of life psychology, they would so arm themselves 
 w^ith the compound of intelligence and love, as to contribute 
 no more to the morbidity of childhood and the world. In- 
 stead of crushing expression in childhood, they would invite 
 it and cultivate it in thousands of ways that can never be writ- 
 ten into any book. Above all, the mental health and mental 
 naturalness of children and all mankind absolutely demand 
 rational light on the bodily processes of reproduction and 
 elimination. To forbid light on these functions is nothing 
 short of mental and physical calamity. From the beginning 
 of time the sex instinct has been enshrined in love in terms 
 of art, literature, music, drama. Let us enshrine it in our 
 education in terms of the light that every mind by virtue of 
 Nature demands. 
 
 Finally, I warn parents and others against the great 
 danger of showing preferences among children. Nothing 
 in all the world will make certain temperaments turn to 
 introversion more quickly than just that — for, be it borne 
 in mind, that as false as is the siren of introversion, its 
 call has a charm that is all its own — ^the charm of holding 
 out a self-cure for evils, either real or fancied, and the 
 treacherous feeling that in the subjectifying process a satis- 
 fying revenge of some sort or other is being worked out. 
 The attempt, therefore, to prevent introversion in the mind 
 of childhood and youth, must by no means be a half-hearted, 
 neutral one. It must be a positive, aggressive, sympathetic, 
 intelligent one. Anything that tends to clamp up the 
 mind, and lock it up in silence, will be vigorously avoided. 
 On account of this fact, the very shadows of fear will be 
 banished. Corporal punishments will be looked upon with 
 the most tremendous suspicion as being fraught with great 
 
 17 
 
258 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 dangers in the long run — because of the fact that such pun- 
 ishment is ordinarily an introversion breeder. Friction of 
 all kinds in every home will be reduced to the lowest pos- 
 sible minimum — for, I say solemnly, show me a home where 
 friction is the rule and the spirit, and I will point out to 
 the world a home whose children are almost fatally doomed 
 to small things in life. Friction and failure ought to be 
 accepted as synonymous terms in every home in the land. 
 
 Furthermore, such things as concealed discord in the 
 home must be banished from the environment of children 
 — for, as far as children are concerned, nothing is ever 
 really concealed. The mental states of parents, and the 
 mental atmosphere of the home, find their way into the 
 child mind in a most positive and unmistakable way. The 
 conscious and subconscious states of children thus become 
 in this way exactly what the general atmosphere of the 
 home is. For this reason, just as the parents adapt them- 
 selves to the world, so too does the child. This fact is 
 utterly unescapable. Never was there a photographic plate 
 so sensitive or so enduring as the mind of childhood. 
 
 Once more then, the interplay of deposits between the 
 conscious and subconscious minds constitutes the very arch- 
 way of the individual. The interplay of deposits estab- 
 lishes the feeling tone of the individual in every case. It 
 is on the basis of what deposits are in the human mind, that 
 we must revalue all human conduct. Accordingly the voice 
 of all civilization must be raised against fear and repres- 
 sion, the two chief springs of introversion in every age. 
 Self-consciousness and self-condemnation must be seen as 
 two of the most terrible scourges ever visited upon man- 
 kind — and that both of those afflictions are the ever-present 
 symptoms of introversion. The reversion of the human 
 mind must end. Those instruments which have converted 
 the mind of man into an inferno of nameless and eternal 
 torment must be driven from our midst. The inquisition 
 of introversion must be ended. Mankind must no longer 
 be ''pinched in the corner like a coward '^ A part of that 
 great reform will rest in a sane recognition of the fact that. 
 
INTEOVERSION 259 
 
 Nature's first great law of growth and development is 
 expression}^^ 
 
 In the next chapter we shall deal with the subject of 
 Psychic Be-education, or the clothing of the mind anew. 
 
 161 For a detailed treatment of the effects of repressed wishes and 
 desires in childhood and youth, the reader is referred to the various 
 works by Freud and Jung. I believe, however, that these authors 
 have made a mistake in tracing so much of their philosophy to the 
 repression of thoughts concerning sex alone. I am convinced that 
 the most prolific source of introversion is fear. It has done more to 
 strangle expression than everything else in the Universe. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 PSYCHIC RE-EDUCATION 
 
 Reduced to its lowest terms, my educational treatment 
 thus far might be said to be about as follows : That the com- 
 bined forces of civilization have ever been blind to the fact 
 that man has a mind ; that the human mind has accordingly- 
 been fed on the wrong kind of material at all times; that 
 the mind of man is therefore in a state of psychic chaos and 
 profound psychic unharmony; and finally that education 
 has been tragicly unconscious of the fact that this mentally 
 abnormal by-product of the educational processes has been 
 more stupendous in its far reaching effects than has their 
 main output. The question then becomes this, namely: 
 What is the minimum requirement necessary in the way of 
 reform and revolution in order to make education right? 
 
 This question has been quite completely answered time 
 and time again in the preceding chapters. In the last 
 chapter, for example, it was pointed out that no education 
 is at all thinkable where introversion exists — and further- 
 more that the only way to eliminate introversion, is, first 
 to drive fear from the world; and, second to honor ex- 
 pression as Nature's first great law of growth. But there 
 is still at least one more thought to add for the sake of sum- 
 ming up in one perfected concept the substance of every- 
 thing that has been presented thus far from chapter to 
 chapter. I refer to the subject of the present chapter — 
 Psychic Re-education. 
 
 By psychic re-education I mean a refurnishing of the 
 human mind. It is a compl,ete changing of the individual 's 
 habits of thoughts concerning himself and the external 
 world. Civilization must clothe the mind of man anew — 
 
 260 
 
VSYCHIC EE-EDUCATIOK 261 
 
 because, for all impaired human efficiency, as well as for all 
 of life's misery, we must always go straight to the psycho- 
 logical. The real battle of l,ife is not in the words of the 
 proverb — ''to keep the wolf from the door" — it is vastly 
 deeper than that: It is an infinite and endless struggle 
 against the anarchy and unharmony of the human mind — 
 against the inner torture of the ghosts and hobgoblins of 
 haunting fears. The only hope of deliverance from that 
 bondage is a sweeping psychic housecleaning. That is 
 what I mean by psychic re-education. 
 
 The crying need of the hour — what is it ? Self-control — 
 positively! But self-mastery today lies weeping at the 
 fountain — because civilization has unconsciously been doing 
 a great negative injustice to her pupils: Endowing them 
 with cowardice. As educational forces, the home, the school, 
 the church and the State have all had their respective hands 
 in that process. The mistake, like most mistakes, has been 
 one born, not of intent, but of — ignorance. Hitherto the 
 world has simply not understood the true standard of hu- 
 man value. It has not seen that the real standard of edu- 
 cational value is what is actually happening to the pupil 
 on the inside of his mind. The world has been thinking 
 right along that the criterion of education is the degree of 
 favorableness with which certain ponderous statistical tabu^ 
 lations concerning attendance and promotion reflect back 
 upon the school — or the rapidity and the accuracy with 
 which numberless intellectual facts have been fed into the 
 mind of the child. The constant emotional deposits which 
 have endlessly found their way into the human mind, thus 
 completely establishing the feeling tone of the individual 
 — those deposits have never constituted any criterion of 
 the world's education, for the reason that the world has 
 been blinded by its social goggles. 
 
 This fact is evidenced by the finished products of our 
 education — and by the failure of educational literature 
 everywhere to strike deeply. One writer, for example, has 
 this to say: ''The complex process through which the child 
 passes in reaching full development and maturity forms one 
 
262 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 harmonious, consistent and beautiful whole ' '.^^^ From the 
 standpoint of Nature's organic plan, that is entirely cor- 
 rect. But when we consider what an abominable jumble 
 society makes of the psychic side of that same child, the 
 hideous fact of the matter is, that the ''harmonious, con- 
 sistent and beautiful whole" of which Putnam speaks does 
 not materialize at all — for no organism can be either "har- 
 monious'' — ''consistent" — or "beautiful" where its mind 
 is wrong. Putnam made the mistake of getting Nature's 
 wonderful design mixed up with what a false education 
 actually does. Education must take unto itself no credit 
 whatever for Nature's raw material. The only thing of 
 which education is entitled to boast is what she finally does 
 with the material and designs that Nature places in her 
 hands. This fact has been overlooked generally by the 
 educational world. 
 
 A somewhat related fact that has been missed by edu- 
 cation is brought to mind by the following words: "Many 
 years ago, on being asked for a definition of education I 
 described it as the process by which the individual is ele- 
 vated into the species I set a very high value on the 
 
 accumulated wisdom of the race".^^^ My objection to this 
 statement is, that I personally entertain a far greater con- 
 cern for the "accumulated" ignorance of the race. It has 
 been amazing to me that educators can talk with such 
 equanimity of the child's social inheritance in terms of 
 "accumulated wisdom" — and yet never utter one syllable 
 about our "accumulated" ignorance, when the latter out- 
 weighs the former, in my opinion, as a mountain a mole- 
 hill. Talk about "accumulated wisdom"! Let us no 
 longer labor under that delusion — that our social accumula- 
 tions from the ages are wisdom, and wisdom only! Let 
 us rather get conscious of the fact that our accumulations 
 are teeming with ignorance everywhere — an ignorance that 
 must be guarded against on every hand — and that we must 
 
 162 Putnam : Manual of Pedagogics, page 23. The italics are mine. 
 
 163 w. T. Harris in Lang: Educational Creeds of the Nineteenth 
 Century, pages 36-7. The italics are mine. 
 
PSYCHIC RE-EDUCATION 263 
 
 be scrupulously careful what ''accumulated wisdom" 
 it is that we pass on to the individual in the process of 
 ' ' elevating him into the species ' '. 
 
 The race has no right to impose any of its acciimulatiotis, 
 per se, upon any individual. The whole question must be 
 determined by the truth of those accumulations — that is, 
 their actual food val.ue to the individual in the process of 
 the making. Anything which looks like food, but which is 
 in reality poison, must be cast out and away. And, in this 
 respect — what is poison? I answer: Fundamentally any- 
 thing which finally sets the individual adrift with a dis- 
 cordant, unbalanced mind. In proportion to the degree 
 that the human mind is not right, then the "accumulated 
 wisdom" of the race is only accumulated ignorance — and 
 nothing under all heaven can make it anything else. The 
 ultimate stuff of the mind must be our criterion. 
 
 It has been said that, ' ' The Olympic dust was the richest 
 treasure which a young Greek could gather on his brow"/^* 
 There is likewise a one richest treasure which education 
 can bestow on the brow of every individual within her 
 arenas. It is that self -poise and that self-power which are 
 the matchless and enduring wreaths of psychic harmony. 
 Kant, who is our modern Socrates, had a vision of this 
 great psychic garland when he said: ''Let each soul build 
 up within itself a coherent and rational world, so that it 
 can lead a free, moral, natural life in the society of others". 
 Socrates adopted the old Delphic oracle — Knoio Thyself. 
 That oracle can mean but one thing : Biological integrity — 
 a harmonized mind. 
 
 But in so far as we lose sight of the human or biological 
 aim for the social or national aim we err — and our 
 education degenerates. We err and degenerate because we 
 miss the colossal and indispensable mark of principle. A 
 sure symptom of that erring is endless controversy and per- 
 petual unrest. We may always be sure that some great 
 underlying principle is being lost sight of where a thou- 
 
 164 S. S. Laurie : Historical Survey Pre-Christian Education, page 
 213. 
 
264 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 sand and one conflicting opinions and doctrines hold the 
 attention of the world. The reason for this is, that Nature 
 eternally refuses to become a party to any process that 
 would attempt to salve over even the smallest iota of 
 underlying error. 
 
 Educators, for example, have been quarreling for many 
 a day whether it should be science, classics or mathematics. 
 Mill, Newman and Gladstone were strong for the classics. 
 They said that they are necessary for culture. Locke, Car- 
 lyle and Spencer considered the classics not only as a waste 
 of time, but also a hindrance to soul growth — and so on, 
 with no end of controversy. Similar conditions have always 
 prevailed. In his own day, Aristotle summed up the mat- 
 ter as follows : * * For mankind are by no means agreed about 
 the things to be taught, whether we look to virtue or the 
 best life. Neither is it clear whether education is more 
 concerned with intellectual or moral virtue. The existing 
 practice is perplexing ; no one knows on what principle we 
 should proceed — should the useful in life, or should virtue, 
 or should the higher knowledge, be the aim of our train- 
 ing? All three opinions have been entertained ".^^^ 
 
 I say that the quarrels of education are due to the fact 
 that all of the parties to the controversy have missed the 
 gigantic principle for which Plato pleaded — harmony 
 within the human mind — and that it is not classics or 
 mathematics or science or anything else where the shoe 
 pinches at all. The real tack in the shoe is not any of these 
 things. It is the mind itself where things are wrong. In 
 my opinion, it makes no difference whatever what it is that 
 any individual studies, primarily. The thing, however, that 
 does make a very great difference is what is happening 
 to the individual from day to day and year to year on the 
 inside of his own mind. That is why I go so far as to 
 say that it is practically immaterial what a person studies. 
 The big issue simply does not lie in the field of what one 
 studies at all. It lies in that other field — that field to which 
 I have been referring over and over again with an almost 
 
 185 Aristotle: Politics, Jowett's translation, page 301. 
 
PSYCHIC RE-EDUCATION 265 
 
 monotonous regularity and emphasis — the field of psychic 
 harmony : The biological integrity of the individual. 
 
 It is the very first and very last function of education 
 so to train the individual that he may have the highest 
 possible degree of psychic poise. This poise or harmony 
 is the one great bed-rock condition of aU individual devel- 
 opment, evolution and attainment. It is furthermore two- 
 fold in its nature. It involves, first a harmony within the 
 mental faculties themselves; and second a harmony with 
 one's mental environment. But the former is by far the 
 more important of the two — for it is the end. The latter 
 is only a means — ^yet a very important one, since it caters 
 to the first. The awful tragedy has been that education 
 at its very best has never gotten beyond the single concept 
 of external adjustment. 
 
 The great desideratum in education is what Rousseau 
 partly sees, but which he does not fully develop, when he 
 speaks the following words : "In the natural order of things, 
 the vocation common to all is the state of manhood; and 
 whoever is well trained for that, cannot badly fulfill any 
 vocation which depends upon it. Whether my pupil be 
 destined for the army, the church, or the bar, matters little 
 to me. Before he can think of adopting the vocation of his 
 parents, Nature calls upon him to be a man. How to live is 
 the business I wish to teach him. On leaving my hands, he 
 will not, I admit, be a magistrate, a soldier, or a priest; 
 first of all he will be a man. All that a man ought to be 
 he can be, at need, as well as any one else can. Fortune 
 will in vain alter his position, for he will occupy his own. 
 Our real study is that of the state of man. We must take 
 a broader view of things and consider man in the 
 abstract ".^'^ 
 
 For ''the state of manhood" used by Rousseau I would 
 substitute the term, the state of psychic soundness. I would 
 do that for the sake of making it unmistakably clear what it 
 is, in my opinion, that *'the state of manhood" consists of — 
 and also for the sake of focusing the attention of educa- 
 166 J, J. Rousseau: Emile, pages 13-14. 
 
266 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 tional consciousness still further upon the one constant 
 theme of the present book. I of course do not know just 
 what Rousseau meant by ''manhood in the abstract" — 
 but I believe that he held in his perceptions many of the 
 very things that I have been analyzing. I am positive that 
 before any individual becomes a priest, a magistrate, or a 
 soldier — or anything else — he should first be sound and 
 harmonic in his mental organization. As Rousseau said, 
 he must be a man — not a coward. He must be the complete 
 embodiment of biological integrity. With that foundation, 
 indeed ''Fortune will in vain alter his position". Rous- 
 seau was right. 
 
 Long ago it was said that a house divided against itself 
 cannot stand.^^^ The reason is, that a house so constituted 
 rests upon the purest sand foundation of them all — and in 
 the very path of the most dangerous breakers. If this be 
 so, how then can a living human being whose nature is out 
 of self -balance expect to be able to stand? When the mind 
 of any individual is divided against itself, what else is 
 there for it to do but to fall — -and to keep falling eternally 
 in failure and distress and oblivion until death finally puts 
 an end to it all ? Verily, the principle of the divided house 
 operating within the mind of man is the cause of far more 
 human misery than anything else operating in the whole 
 world. Little perhaps did the poet Gray dream of this 
 when he wrote the following lines in his Elegy in a Country 
 Churchyard : 
 
 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
 
 Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 
 
 Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
 Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 
 
 But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
 Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ; 
 
 Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the soul. 
 
 167 The Bible. Attributed to Jesus in Matthew 12:25. 
 
PSYCHIC EE-EDUCATION 267 
 
 Full many a gem of purest ray serene 
 
 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear, 
 
 Full many a flower is born to blush unseen 
 And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 
 
 Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast 
 The little tyrant of his fields withstood; 
 
 Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, 
 
 Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. 
 
 The Epitaph 
 
 Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, 
 A youth to fortune and to fame unknown; 
 
 Fair science frowned not on his humble birth. 
 And melancholy marked him for her own. 
 
 If the educational forces of the world could only under- 
 stand that the highways and byways of life are literally 
 thronged and choked with people everywhere who carry 
 about with them wherever they go, silently and secretly, the 
 very mystery of their failure and lifelong misery — their 
 crushed dreams and hopes and ambitions! If humanity 
 only knew the great fountain haunts of the desert air of 
 life, by which the choicest flowers are withered away ! If 
 they only knew the name and the place of all the most 
 hideous ''dark, unfathomed caves of ocean" ! If they only 
 knew what it is that assigns to troubled oblivion its count- 
 less gems ' ' of purest ray serene ! " If the world only knew 
 just why it is that for the countless multitudes of life's 
 labors ' ' Chill penury repressed their noble rage. And froze 
 the genial current of the soul"! I say that if civilization 
 only knew that the blasting breath of fear, converting the 
 human mind into a Sahara of wreckage and desolation, is 
 the one mighty secret as to why *'Some mute inglorious 
 Milton here may rest"! If humanity only knew that the 
 greatest crime known to eternity is the planting or the per- 
 mitting of seeds of fear in the mind of a child! If the 
 world only knew that between hobgoblins, devils, demons, 
 bogey-men, corporal punishment and a Supreme Being 
 
268 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 whose chief characteristic is wrath and revenge, humanity 
 has been perpetually on the cross of a living death — then 
 the world would see the real meaning of the observations 
 made by Thomas Gray — and understand that the call for 
 the psychic re-education of all civilization is the very first 
 voice to which the world should lend its ear. 
 
 Now, if civilization were really true to its name, then 
 indeed civilization might well be defined as so many escapes 
 from fear. But since civilization has not been true to its 
 name, but has rather lived continually under a usurped 
 name, the real escapes from fear have been few — for, while 
 in point of chronological order, fear is one of the very first 
 of all emotions, it is still with us — still abroad in the land 
 as a withering, pestilential breath — still the same old ac- 
 quired trait due to the world's elaborate machinery for per- 
 fected education therein ! At the same time the intensity 
 of fear and the ultimate effects of fear remain the same age 
 after age. As one writer has said : *'No matter how refined 
 we are, we fear in the same terms of the same old gross 
 organs and functions as do the brutes. We fear in the 
 heart, the lungs, the skeletal muscles, the brain, the kidneys 
 and the stomach — and sweat because this was once neces- 
 sary in order to regulate the temperature in violent 
 effort 'V®^ The same author says again: **Fear^^^ is a 
 pathis, obsessive, so concrete that it is no wonder that it was 
 long hel.d to be a morbid entity, or even that Brown-Sequard 
 thought that he could inoculate its bacilli". 
 
 Indeed after its full swing down through the ages, so 
 tremendously far-reaching and destructive and organicly 
 undermining are the effects of fear that an authority on 
 this subject is led to speak as follows: ''"We might almost 
 say that Nature had not been able to frame a substance 
 which should be excitable enough to compose the brain and 
 spinal marrow, and yet should not be so excited by excep- 
 tional stimulation as to overstep in its reactions those psy- 
 
 168 G. Stanley Hall: Am. Jn. Psyeh., April, 1914, vol. xxv., page 
 195. 
 
 169a Stanley Hall: Am. Jn. Psych., vol. viii., No. 2, 1897, page 
 243. 
 
PSYCHIC EE-EDUCATION 269 
 
 chological bounds which are useful to the conservation of 
 the creature ".''° 
 
 Think of it ! Mosso 's suspicion is that fear is so fun- 
 damentally overwhelming in its destructiveness that it has 
 actually outdone Nature in the ability of her nervous sub- 
 stance to cope therewith ! Let us think of that if we will ! 
 Behold fear — that psychic fraud and traitor that is too 
 much for the processes of Nature! Fear — ^that lamb-like 
 beast which has crushed from the lion its courage and sub- 
 stance ! Fear — that pest of the psychic world, which should 
 have been cast off ages ago with all her trappings of related 
 ignorance ! 
 
 The word fear in itself may look very simple, but its 
 nature is such that it attacks and deteriorates the entire 
 psychic fibre of each and every organism that it touches. 
 Fear eats the very heart out of creation — in exactly the way 
 that Mosso has just said. It is the most deadly enemy that 
 the Universe has ever known — ^because in addition to its 
 organic attach, it nullifies every act of the will in such a 
 manner as to leave its victim in a permanent state of the 
 most abject slavery. It does this all the more completely 
 because of the accusing fact that most of the fetters of fear 
 are forged in childhood — ^by parents, teachers, playmates, 
 neighbors, strangers. The arch enemies of childhood are 
 therefore pretty largely those very persons who would 
 gladly lay down their lives for them. 
 
 Now here is the consideration before us: Psychic re- 
 education should have proceeded by marked degrees from 
 century to century down through the past. But it has not. 
 Therefore it must begin noiv. That process must be pri- 
 marily through the psychic re-education of society, of 
 civilization, itself — for just as long as the *' accumulated 
 wisdom" of the race is simply nothing of the kind, then 
 must the individual be eternally subject to the inheritance of 
 a false social environment. That has been the condition 
 in the past — and it is the condition in the present — and 
 it will continue to be the condition in the future, until such 
 
 170 Angelo Mosso: Fear, page 295. 
 
270 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 time as civilization purges itself of its accumulated igno- 
 rance and stupidity. 
 
 Let us note therefore that psychic re-education means a 
 purification of all our concepts. For the individual, for 
 example, as well as for society, psychic re-education is 
 going to involve more than the attainment of courage 
 through the driving out of fear. It is going to mean more 
 than the self-realization of that spirit of which Whyte- 
 Melvile has spoken somewhere in referring to a fox — ''His 
 heart, like his little body, was multum in parvo, tough, 
 tameless and strong as brandy ' \ Psychic re-education will 
 be more embracing than the priceless jewel that we have 
 called courage. Among other things, our work of psychic 
 housecleaning will embrace the setting up of absolute can- 
 dor and honesty as one of the essential bases of the har- 
 monized mind. As a condition it will be somewhat com- 
 parable to the justice of Plato, but its fundamental bear- 
 ing will be rather that of justice to self — because no real 
 mental harmony is at all possible where deceit, falsehood 
 and treachery exist ; for, the moment that any individual is 
 the conscious possessor of such traits he begins living at once 
 in a double world : a world of actual inward reality, and a 
 fraudulent world of outward pretending. 
 
 Of course, on the other hand, it must be admitted that 
 all mental dishonesty and insincerity is very largely the 
 product of fear. The very moment that fear begins to 
 operate in the mind of any child, that moment mental 
 candor takes its flight. That moment psychic deceit steps 
 in. That moment our individual becomes a seeming and 
 defensive one. That moment treachery, silence and reti- 
 cence take possession of the mind. That moment self- 
 consciousness is born. That moment introversion begins. 
 That moment the great insidious taproots of self-condemna- 
 tion convert the entire mental organization into a wilder- 
 ness of obnoxious and worthless weeds. 
 
 We are thus confronted by the great fact that the ac- 
 cepted principles and laws of moral action must center 
 themselves in the human mind — hut the world thus far does 
 
PSYCHIC RE-EDUCATION 271 
 
 not know it. The reasons, for example, why one should 
 neither lie nor steal, outside of the fact of injury to others, 
 are by no means the ones ordinarily given — ^those based 
 upon mere external pronouncements of a prohibitory 
 nature. The reasons do not at all fundamentally rest in 
 any supremely authoritative injunction to the effect that 
 "Thou shalt not". Such pronouncements are but crys- 
 tallized rules of action. The real reasons therefor, when 
 once all the lights of understanding are turned on, are seen 
 to be purely psychic in their essential essence. The re- 
 quirements of mental harmony demand the presence of 
 those conditions that are prerequisite thereto. Anything 
 that savors of falsehood and deceit is of course directly an- 
 tagonistic to those requirements. Consequently, we m-ay 
 set it down as a fact that in general any life philosophy is 
 right only in proportion to the degree that it finds its 
 sanction in the field of inner mental harmony. It is funda- 
 mentally on the basis of psychic results that human conduct 
 must be governed. What an individual soivs, that also 
 shall he reap is not all a vindictive, artificial and external 
 proposition. It is purely a question of iinescapable psy- 
 chology. The world would be much better off today if instead 
 of the utterly fallacious and childishly ridiculous dogma 
 of theological hell-fire, there were provided the actual 
 truth — that of psychological and physiological hell-fire here 
 and now — and if indeed there be a hereafter then a psycho- 
 logical hell-fire of psychic-torment. In othe-r words, it is 
 about the unseen biological laws operating in the living 
 human brain that the motives and the results of human 
 conduct must center. 
 
 Psychic re-education demands therefore that every social 
 thought-crudity make its hasty exit from the shores of our 
 civilization. In my opinion, nothing could be more mon- 
 strous in its effects, for example, than the artificial creation 
 of an artificial hell and an artificial purgatory for the pur- 
 pose of scaring people into right conduct by means of hold- 
 ing up before the mind the fear of ultimate punishment. 
 It is monstrous, because in the first place it is built upon 
 
272 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 fear; and in the second place it is built upon the blackest 
 falsehood that ever darkened the planet; and in the third 
 place it paralyzes the logical faculties of the world with 
 unspeakable stupidity; and in the fourth place, it decoys 
 with its juggling the eyes of humanity away from the real 
 truth — away from the actual hell and the actual purgatory 
 of the Universe : The great law of Cause and Effect oper- 
 ating right within the precincts of the human mind itself. 
 I say that anything which steers mankind away from the 
 truth, instead of toward the truth, is a curse. 
 
 Now it is not my intention at all to minimize or deny 
 in any particular the principle of punishment. Rather do 
 I emphasize the fact that it is a principle. It follows vio- 
 lated law naturally. I deny that it follows any artificial 
 whim mechanically. I also deny that there is anything vin- 
 dictive about any punishment that is not administered by 
 the hand of man. Punishment is simply the inevitable 
 penalty of violated law. That is one principle which must 
 be deeply ingrained in the psychic re-education of the 
 world. I emphasize over and over again that punishment 
 is a natural thing. This Universe is by no means so un- 
 sufficient unto itself as to require any artificial bolstering 
 up from the outside by means of such childishly mechanical 
 devices as Dante has described to us. The laws of the Uni- 
 verse, I say, can take care of themselves. They are not 
 built upon idiocy. Slap any single one of Nature 's laws in 
 the face, be that law physical or psychical, and see how 
 positively Nature will slap back — and that too with a good 
 high rate of compound interest thrown in ! It is not at all 
 necessary for Nature to yell ''Fire'* or ''Murder" or 
 ' ' Help ' ' for the purpose of getting some assistance from the 
 outside, in order to enable her to whip to the uttermost any 
 person who would presume to violate her laws. By no 
 means is this Universe constructed so ridiculously as that. 
 Attached to every law in the Universe is its own provision 
 for complete, inevitable and adequate punishment in case 
 that that law is infringed upon. If anyone doubts this 
 fundamental proposition, let him walk through any insane 
 
PSYCHIC EE-EDUCATION 273 
 
 asylum, any hospital, or any invalids' home — or into any 
 mercurial paradise of the world, such as Hot Springs, 
 Arkansas — and if the observer's eyes are open, he should 
 soon come to the conclusion that I am speaking the truth. 
 
 Furthermore, social law works in conjunction with 
 natural law, producing in the mind of the individual cer- 
 tain states of consciousness. It is through this point of 
 contact between the two sets of laws, natural and social, 
 that I put forth the proposition that as far as mankind is 
 concerned, all law centers its operation and its effects in the 
 human mind. It is in the mind of man that we must look 
 for the reward of all good conduct, and for the punishment 
 of all evil conduct. It is on the basis of this principle that 
 the psychic re-education of the world must proceed. 
 
 And it is on this very same basis that the day for such 
 re-education must be hastened. The world has already too 
 long put up with the shameful results of a life philosophy 
 that is built upon the thought-crudities of pagan supersti- 
 tion and pagan ignorance. Instead of the mechanical mo- 
 tive of fear, we must substitute the natural motive of love 
 and law. Instead of some postponed, vindictive, artificial 
 and whimsical punishment, we must substitute a punish- 
 ment that is immediate, remedial, natural and logical. The 
 eyes of the world must be centered upon the monumental 
 fact that psychic and physical and social law is constantly 
 at play in the human mind — and that it is on that battle- 
 field alone that each individual is either crowned with gar- 
 lands or crucified with thorns. This great fact must com- 
 mand the attention of every civilization — ^while every 
 superstition, every falseliood, every tradition, every dogma 
 that would blind and seal the eyes of mankind to truth, 
 must be driven out bodily into the dark night of past ignor- 
 ance, whence they have come. 
 
 I would emphasize once more, therefore, that in the 
 work of psychic re-education, first of all, society must 
 reorganize its body of concepts. It must get rid of all 
 those notions which run counter to truth and law and 
 logic. For example, in the direction and discipline of child- 
 
274 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 hood, society must root out of its philosophy all that part of 
 its alleged culture which rests upon fear. This will take 
 away every ghost and every hobgoblin with which children 
 are terrified. It will take away cowardice and implant in 
 its stead courage. It will eliminate all terrorism and all 
 violent outbursts of anger in the treatment of every child. 
 It wiU also take away from our social culture all the de- 
 basing and destructive fears which pagan religions have 
 fastened upon us. 
 
 It is thus by a social refinement and social rebirth of 
 the concepts that we entertain, that society will be in pos- 
 session — not of an alleged * ' accumulated wisdom ' ', but of a 
 real truth-culture that will be both safe and worthy to pass 
 on to the individual. Psychic re-education must plainly 
 depend on society's having in its tenure just such a culture 
 on which to feed the person who is being elevated into the 
 species. Just as long as society's cuUure is falsehood, 
 just that long will society saturate the human mind with 
 rubbish and deadly poison. The true measure of society's 
 culture may be said to lie in society's attitude toward the 
 Universe. If that attitude is fear — ^then the resulting cul- 
 ture is savagery. If the attitude is utter defiance or denial 
 — then the corresponding culture is brutality and stupidity. 
 If the attitude is merely to idealize the Universe, and sing 
 its beauties and harmonies — that is blind art. But if the 
 attitude is to learn its laws as they live and move and have 
 their being in the mind of man — then society's culture is 
 science. No civilization on the globe has ever yet reached 
 that last stage of culture. Psychic re-education points out 
 the way "by which it may be reached. Thus far no society 
 has ever gotten beyond the stages of blind art. Of course, 
 along mechanical lines the scientific stage is reached every- 
 where — but, bear in mind, we are now talking under a new 
 order: About man — and not machines. I say that the 
 stage of human science has never been reached in history. 
 That is why I say that the psychic re-education of the world 
 must begin now — and march on forever! 
 
 The next chapter will be the final one. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY 
 CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 
 
 In the writing of this book I have had a plan. That 
 plan has been to talk seriously to civilization everywhere 
 about the most important question that one could ask in 
 the entire field of human affairs — The Purpose of Educa- 
 tion. It has been the burden of my efforts to show that 
 in the consciousness of aim — and in the rightness of aim 
 — and in the specificness of aim — lies the real dynamite 
 of everything. I have tried to show that the actual value 
 of all educational endeavor must forever rest upon the 
 degree with which educational consciousness is engulfed 
 with the importance of the purpose concept; upon the 
 detailed and unassailable accuracy of that purpose; and 
 upon the unyielding persistence with which that purpose 
 is held ever in mind at every single step. My plan has 
 been to place in the sky, as it were, a great sign-board 
 calling the attention of the world to the fact that the 
 end-point of education is a matter of serious, solemn and 
 immediate concern for every civilization on the globe. 
 
 The reader is of course familiar by this time with my 
 procedure from chapter to chapter. In the very begin- 
 ning I laid down the proposition that, although educa- 
 tion is incomparably the most important problem ever 
 undertaken by the human race, that problem has never 
 been solved right — that it .still remains the same old 
 Sphinx by the roadside today as it was in the lost 
 centuries of immemorial antiquity. The widespread 
 prevalence of intense human misery in the form of crime, 
 disease, unrest and poverty was accepted and submitted 
 as most ample evidence that education has failed miser- 
 
 275 
 
276 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 ably to answer correctly the instinctive and longing cry 
 of mankind for the truth that would make them free. 
 But I went further. I showed that education today is 
 asleep at the switch — so sound asleep that it is not even 
 conscious of what it is that ought to be the mightiest 
 mountain peak within its entire dominions: Purpose. 
 When .education was asked in chapter two what the 
 greatest question is that might be raised in the length 
 and breadth of the whole world — education was aroused 
 out of a heavy Rip Van Winkle slumber. Upon awak- 
 ing, it was astounded at such a question. Then when 
 education began formulating its answers, it talked with 
 about as much depth of perception in the field of fun- 
 damental educational values, as a child in the first reader. 
 None of its submitted answers were entitled to live for 
 ten seconds as final satisfaction for the question that had 
 been asked. The answers that education gave were over- 
 whelmingly in the category of chimney stuff — up in the 
 gallery tinkering with skylights before the foundations 
 were laid. All of the answers in question were splendid 
 secondary or tertiary material — but not a single one of 
 them consisted of substance that was primary. They all 
 confused secondary things with essential things. 
 
 Then in the third chapter my own answer to my own 
 question was given. That answer was, that the great- 
 est possible question that one could ask in the field of 
 education is this, namely : What is the purpose of education? 
 That interrogational answer came as another shock to the 
 educational world — for the reason, first, that education did 
 not have anything so foolishly simple as that on its mind ; 
 and, second, for the reason that education has long been 
 laboring under the profound delusion that it had set- 
 tled the purpose of education a long time ago — or, more 
 properly speaking perhaps, that educational purpose is 
 a sort of self -settler that doesn't require any conscious 
 attention from anything or anybody. 
 
 My next step came in chapter four, when education 
 was asked what, in its opinion, the true purpose of edu- 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMAEY 277 
 
 cation is. All told, six of its prevailing purposes were 
 considered, in addition to a number of side comments by 
 various educational leaders. But all of those answers 
 and comments, upon being weighed in the balance, were 
 found wanting. None of them measured up to the basic 
 demands of the sacred thing that we call education. The 
 chief criticism offered against current educational pur- 
 poses in that chapter was, that those purposes are too 
 vague, too general, too incidental, too secondary, too 
 commentary-like in nature. None of them are funda- 
 mental. Not one of them focuses educational attention 
 upon the one eternal goal from which education must 
 never let its gaze fluctuate for even a second. As state- 
 ments intended for some other field than iiltimate pur- 
 pose, each of the answers and comments in question would 
 be eminently true enough. But when it comes to the 
 great foundation of purpose, then each and every one 
 of education's submitted answers must be branded as a 
 usurper of the most dangerous type. Think — any way 
 — of the mere fact that education has — ^not one purpose of 
 education, but at least six! 
 
 The reader will next recall that in chapter five my 
 own purpose of education was advanced, namely: The 
 purpose of education is to guarantee the biological in- 
 tegrity of the individual. By this it was meant that the 
 first great, instinctive, universal and inalienable right of 
 every individual is that of spiritual self-preservation — 
 that endowment which gives to every individual the in- 
 nate sense of self-poise — self-security — self-poiver — self- 
 command — self-respect — self -approval — self -justification: 
 That development which enshrines every individual with 
 the spirit of courage — leaving no single trace of cowardice 
 — no trace of fear — no trace of self-consciousness — no 
 trace of self-condemnation — no trace of introversion — no 
 trace of anything which might in any way tend to break 
 down the granite of sound psychic-personality. It was 
 shown that the real criterion of education is not any 
 mountain of facts that may take up their residence in 
 
278 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 the human mind — hut positively the degree of inner mental 
 harmony that exists within that same mind. The thesis 
 was set forth that no coward is entitled to be called 
 educated, since cowardice is the one sure guarantee that 
 biological integrity does not exist for that individual. The 
 fruits of mental harmony were shown to consist primarily 
 of courage. Where biological integrity obtains, the in- 
 dividual easily and unceasingly endures his own presence 
 and existence. But where it does not obtain, then we have 
 the case of the coward silently shot through and through 
 with the degrading spirit of self-apology. Biological in- 
 tegrity therefore hinges upon courage. In that same chap- 
 ter the further fact was introduced that the setting of 
 our educational stage must shift from society to the in- 
 dividual. It was emphasized that the individual himself 
 must be made the end of education — and that society is 
 only the means of education.. 
 
 But further analysis led to the fact that the one thing 
 that has ever stood as an eternal foe and enemy of 
 biological integrity is the world-wide beast that we call 
 fear. That fact was developed in considerable detail in 
 chapters six, seven, eight and nine. In terms of both 
 psychic and physical arguments, fear was shown to be 
 the most appallingly destructive monster in all the 
 Universe. It was pointed out at much length that fear 
 is the murderous outlaw and the insidious traitor that 
 has had biology by the throat for ages. Its victims have 
 been both man and beast. Even today, in the very heart 
 of so-called twentieth century civilization, the great ravish- j 
 ing field of operation for this most deadly of all serpents 
 is the holy and delicate mind of childhood. 
 
 It is of course unnecessary to repeat here the unspeak- 
 able misery and the colossal outrage that fear thus works 
 upon the typical individual as he walks up and down the 
 avenues of life, ever carrying with him the great burdens 
 that are his — in the form of cowardice — crucified expression 
 — ^introversion — self-condemnation — and every psychic and 
 physical disease that has ever tortured mankind— with 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 279 
 
 every instinctive vestige of biological integrity within 
 him crushed, withered and blasted before his very eyes 
 — to haunt and hound and humiliate at every footstep — 
 and all because a purposeless education has been holding 
 forth in the world. And thus it is that one might say 
 in a different phraseology that the purpose of educa- 
 tion is to keep fear out of the human mind. I say ''to 
 keep fear out" because it gets into the mind from the 
 outside through the contact of the individual mind with the 
 ''accumulated wisdom of the race". 
 
 The problem of education is therefore overwhelmingly 
 an esoteric one. Past education has ever been blinded by 
 thinking of its problem in exoteric terms. It is exoteric 
 obsession to the point of fanaticism that has closed the eyes 
 of the world for twenty-three centuries to the great edu- 
 cational philosophy of Plato. Present day educational 
 leaders have been so crazed over the thought of adjust- 
 ment as the final word in education — and so enthused over 
 comparatively childish projects of every kind — that the 
 infinite world of inner mental adjustment has never even 
 occurred to them. Plato's great scheme of mental harmony 
 has consequently gone begging before the very eyes of those 
 educational physicians who have claimed right along to 
 have the ability to diagnose and prescribe correctly for 
 a suffering mankind. 
 
 In this connection it will be recalled that in chapter 
 ten the educational doctrine of Plato was given with 
 detailed analysis — perhaps the first serious attempt that 
 has ever been made to interpret and present what Plato 
 has stood for in education. The keystone of that great 
 man's doctrine was seen to center about the hannonized 
 mind, the cornerstone of which was to be courage. We 
 saw that Plato made education primarily consist of driv- 
 ing fear and cowardice from the human mind — and that 
 his first concern was, not society, but the sou7id i^idivid- 
 ual in society. It was shown conclusively that Plato was 
 eminently a practical man, and totally undeserving of 
 the charge of ^'Oriental asceticism* \ The fact was further 
 
280 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 emphasized that while Plato nowhere used a term compar- 
 able to biological integrity — ^yet, in its essential substance, 
 that was the very principle for which the man pleaded 
 throughout, in both Republic and Laws. I therefore claim 
 to have the spiritual sanction of Plato for every argument 
 that I am putting forth in this book. 
 
 Then in chapter eleven the significance of courage 
 versus cowardice was considered in greater detail, and 
 the point brought out that courage is the one instinctive 
 right and desire and guarantee of every individual in the 
 Universe. By the use of abundant references from litera- 
 ture it was seen that courage is a trait that has always 
 been universally extolled — and cowardice one that has 
 been just as universally condemned. The fact was brought 
 out, however, that cowardice is a manufactured product — 
 that cowards are made, and not born — and that accordingly 
 the coward himself is not to be blamed, but pitied. The 
 only thing at all that is blameworthy in the case is society 
 with its elaborate fear-culture — that institution which guar- 
 antees a coward for almost every surviving birth. 
 
 It was then in chapter twelve that the great evil of in- 
 troversion was dealt with — that inward-turning of the 
 human mind. The thesis was sustained that expression 
 is the first law of all growth and development — and that 
 accordingly nothing can be more dangerous than to deny 
 the right and exercise of normal expression — and that 
 furthermore wherever that right is denied, then the mind 
 must become in-growing, instead of out-growing — the pro- 
 cess of which we have called introversion. In addition to 
 the bearing of repression thereon, the meaning of fear was 
 also shown in that same direction, together with the disas- 
 trous resulting products of self -consciousness and self- 
 condemnation. It is of course not my purpose to repeat 
 any of those detailed arguments here — further than to 
 emphasize once more that introversion is one of the deadly 
 prowlers that helps to strangle biological integrity in its 
 very lair. 
 
 Then finally it was shown in chapter thirteen that 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMAEY 281 
 
 since the human mind is wrong in manifold ways, it must 
 he made right. The world must make a sweeping psychic 
 housecleaning. The mind of civilization must be furnished 
 anew. The name given to that process was psychic re- 
 education. Fundamentally that re-education must be a so- 
 cial one, since it is impossible to give to the individual a 
 new education until such time as the mind of society 
 itself becomes re-purified — because for any education that 
 any individual succeeds in getting he must primarily 
 depend on what he absorbs from the prevailing culture 
 of the environment in which he lives. Society must there- 
 fore get rid of every thought-crudity and every element of 
 so-called culture that might tend to feed the individual 
 upon error rather than truth. In particular, society must 
 have such a psychic re-education that every vestige of fear 
 is driven from the world, especially the child world. 
 In other words, if biological integrity is to obtain among 
 mankind, then everything that hinders that integrity 
 must be banished from our social and individual atmo- 
 sphere. Psychic re-education is therefore distinctly needed 
 as a guiding concept in any program of education which 
 would place upon the brow of every individual the mark 
 of positive personality and the signature of that mental 
 harmony immortalized by Plato. 
 
 And thus we arrive at the present chapter, having fol- 
 lowed carefully the plan that was laid down in the begin- 
 ning, and having developed step by step the meaning and 
 the justification of the principle which has so many times 
 been referred to as biological integrity. No further argu- 
 ments now remain to be offered. There are, however, a few 
 explanatory thoughts which may be offered before closing — 
 to say nothing of the fact that there is not a single one of 
 the preceding chapters which might not have been treated 
 at considerably greater length. 
 
 But let us go on. The reader will note that throughout 
 this work a very frequent use of the term individual has 
 been made. It now becomes necessary for me to explain 
 that matter somewhat. Never in speaking of the individual 
 
282 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 have I at any time had in mind individuality. That thought 
 must be made clear. I have not been talking about individ- 
 uality at all. No place, for example, has the intent of my 
 thesis been anything like that touched upon by one writer 
 when he expresses himself as follows: "In attempting to 
 standardize, the curriculum has ignored the needs of the 
 individual child "/^^ Dewey is here talking about the fact 
 of individual variation — the fact that no two individuals 
 are exactly alike — the fact that no two persons can be ac- 
 corded precisely the same treatment if we are to expect the 
 best educational results. Dewey is, of course, right. 
 
 But that is not the argument that has concerned me in 
 even the slightest particular. I am talking about the ulti- 
 mate aim in education — and say that it is the biological 
 integrity of the individual, by which I mean the sacred 
 right of all persons to the priceless principle of psychic 
 sanity. As far as my theme is concerned, eliminate indi- 
 viduality from the plan of creation entirely — do away with 
 variation altogether — make all individuals alike — and my 
 message to humanity would remain unchanged — and that is, 
 that education is a monumental failure owing to the fact 
 that its principles and its purposes contain no provisions 
 anywhere for the building of a good human being in the 
 abstract. Education has never charted the basic, common 
 needs of every individual, regardless of what his individu- 
 ality might be — therefore, how would it be possible for 
 education to square itself with truth were there no such 
 thing as individuality ? Or, granting that our educational 
 leaders along with society attempted ''to systematize and 
 standardize'^ less, and thus cater markedly to the principle 
 of individuality, how would it still be possible for education 
 to cure its patients, merely by drawing upon its present 
 stock of prescriptions, varying their compounding to suit 
 the taste, and regulating the size of the dose to the peculiar 
 needs of each patient? In other words, how would it be 
 possible for a defective education to meet all comers when 
 it has so abundantly proven in the past that it is not able 
 
 171 John Dewey: Schools of Tomorrow, page 41. 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMAEY 283 
 
 to meet even the commonest comer? The ridiculosity of 
 blaming Nature's law of variation for the shortcoming of 
 educational performance should be apparent to everyone. 
 
 Well, I trust then that I have made myself clear in the 
 distinction that I have drawn between the individual as 
 used by myself and by others. While others have in mind 
 individuality, I have in mind nothing of the kind. I merely 
 and exclusively submit the proposition that in the great 
 game of education we must at all times keep our eye on the 
 ball — and furthermore that the ball positively is not society 
 — it is the individual. This proposition does not aim in the 
 least to minimize the great value and indispensability of 
 society. It is simply drawing a century-upon-century- 
 delayed distinction between means and e^ids. 
 
 But this distinction is of the most appalling importance 
 — because it is fundamental through and through. Society 
 is a means only. Let us never forget that. The individual 
 is the end. From this there is absolutely no escape what- 
 ever. Here and now, education must resign and reform 
 itself to this fact. 
 
 Now, those who do not understand will think that this 
 distinction means the destruction of society. But it means 
 nothing of the kind. On the contrary, it means just the 
 reverse. It means the supplying of society with individuals 
 enormously more perfected than they are at the present 
 time. It means a society of individuals endowed with 
 psychic sanity rather than with psychic chaos and psychic 
 anarchy. It means a society of individuals whose substance 
 is health and harmony rather than disease and discord; 
 whose fibre is courage rather than cowardice ; whose essence 
 is love rather than fear. Wliat an awful tragedy it would 
 be for society to consist of individuals psychicly sane and 
 physically sound! Would that not be a most shocking 
 calamity! But — ^then — perhaps society simply could not 
 endure at all unless the great majority of its individuals 
 were neurotic wrecks, whose life sustenance has been cow- 
 ardice, chaos and fear! Some way or other I had never 
 once thought of that ! 
 
284 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATIOK 
 
 Still I cannot lielp lingering longer on this soil. Where, I 
 ask society, ultimately lies all of her troubles ? Why, with 
 her individuals, most emphatically! I say that individual 
 causes lie at the base of all social complications. It is in 
 the individual that society collapses. But let society pretty 
 much thank herself — because she has never looked to the 
 perfection of the individual. No wonder that the machine 
 which we call society is constantly out of order and break- 
 ing down — the individual parts that enter into that machine 
 are faulty to the last degree, not in their quality, but in their 
 construction. Out of chance, neglected, haphazard parts, 
 society would build a good machine — but I say to society 
 that she is doomed until she changes her plans — ^until she 
 shifts her gaze from the machine to the perfection of the 
 parts that make the machine. The time to make a machine 
 is when you make it. Any mechanic will tell you that. But 
 society's formula for making a machine is to throw scraps 
 of junk together — and then spend the rest of a lifetime 
 trying to make repairs fast enough to keep up with the 
 breakdowns — thanks to the hypnosis of that childish glee 
 which renders one blind to things elemental and elementary ! 
 
 I say that man must be made absolutely the center of 
 all shifting circumstances. That center can never be so- 
 ciety — never be civilization — never be liberty — ^never be cul- 
 ture. Those things are but the frame of our picture. The 
 picture itself is man, the individual — and whatever that 
 picture is, never worry: It will always be appropriate to 
 the frame. 
 
 But here society asks : What shall we do ? I answer : 
 Pitiful heavens — get your gaze away from the frame, and 
 look at the picture ! How this is to be done has been my 
 ceaseless effort throughout the range of this book. 
 
 I have reiterated over and over again one message (and 
 no doubt to the point of extreme monotony) , but I will say 
 it again: The psychic sanity of the individual is the one 
 and only antitoxin for the ills and the evils of the world. 
 It will be recalled that Plato's formula for such sanity is 
 an education which harmoniously unfolds the mind with 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 285 
 
 reference to the three major elements of courage, justice 
 and temperance. Now if education is not to consist of 
 exactly what Plato has called for, then what wonder is it 
 that society is one endless conservatory of rogues and 
 rascals and robbers and hypocrites and murderers and 
 prisons and asylums and divorces and sin and crime of 
 every color! What wonder that we have millionaires and 
 mendicants! What wonder that gorged indolence and 
 famished industry abound everywhere ! What wonder that 
 "civilization'' is a process of endless war, with 95% of its 
 wealth permanently dedicated to the hellish policy of battle- 
 ships and bayonets and poison gases ! What wonder when 
 our educational gods have converted the human mind into 
 a storage bin for intellectual chaff! 
 
 But the spirit -and the substance of all that procedure 
 must change. Civilization must symmetrize ; it must pre- 
 vent by the soundness of its education every disproportion 
 in the mind of man. It must build human mentalities that 
 are true in their multiple inner dimensions. Above all, 
 society must exalt man far ahove the popular current in- 
 fidelities to truth, humanity, justice. 
 
 But it is useless to argue further in this direction. Both 
 education and society must be left to see for themselves — 
 or else they shall never see at all. 
 
 There is one tragedy, however, that I cannot forget — 
 and that is, that humanity is at the stake. It is beset with 
 terrors. I take this to mean that something is wrong. To 
 me it means that our educational caravan is on the wrong 
 route. Education is wrong because the context of life has 
 been lost. Across the great trade routes of life sweep the 
 chords of the soul. We must therefore explore the foun- 
 dations of education in our own nature. But we are in- 
 habiting billows — and we need a ship. **As sheep having 
 no shepherd", humanity plods on oblivious to the violated 
 laws that make slaves of all. It is in this way that educa- 
 tion — a great angel — has unwittingly been performing the 
 work of a great demon — ^by regularly, incessantly and un- 
 molestedly letting the gigantic Trojan horse of fear into 
 the mind of man. 
 
286 THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 In saying tliis I but speak frankly. And, indeed, I have 
 spoken frankly throughout. Unless I speak plainly and 
 frankly the thoughts within me, then better a thousand 
 times that I remain silent. If there be those who enter- 
 tain the notion that I have at any time spoken too frankly, 
 then let me remind them that when a sick man is tossing 
 at the point of death, it is not the time to waste precious 
 moments telling him what pretty eyes and teeth and hair 
 he may have! The thing to do then is to deal with the 
 man's sickness hy diagnosing it and showing how it is to 
 he cured. Neither therefore have I been concerned in this 
 book with praising some or any of the trifling perfections 
 of education. The main concern with me is, that we have 
 a dangerously sick man on our hands — and for the time 
 being I care nothing whatever about the cut of his shoes or 
 the cut of his hair. We have already had puttering and 
 sputtering enough in education. In my opinion it is high 
 time that we at least make a serious attempt at educa- 
 tional statesmanship. Furthermore if one would under- 
 stand our educational landscape he had better be viewing 
 its mountains and its valleys, rather than out trying to 
 count all of the rocks and the bushes. Then later on when 
 the high tidal wave of ignorance shall have passed away, 
 leaving the white sands beneath, we shall gather up the 
 present scattered jewels of education and store them away 
 in the casket of permanent attainment. 
 
 But for the immediate hour — and for all time — I would 
 lessen the pain and vulnerability of the world. To sit weep- 
 ing by the grave should not, in my opinion, be the per- 
 manent occupation of mankind. Education must be made, 
 not a decorative adjunct, but life itself transfigured and 
 ennobled — through a universal acquaintance with the psy- 
 chic laws of being. Education must be made to wear the 
 color of the spirit — for the springs of power are in the in- 
 terior chambers of the soul. What the frame of the 
 mind is — that is the one hope of the world. That alone is 
 basic truth. That is the one real social explosive — **safe, 
 sure, serviceable, attainable''. 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 287 
 
 But in contrast with such a desideratum, our education 
 is wobbly to the point of the comic. It teaches people 
 the names of a few mountains — the locations of a few rivers 
 — and the capitals of a few states — and then it tells them 
 that they are educated! Why, there isn't a greater piece 
 of false pretense in the whole world! Educated! A few 
 petty facts in the intellect — and then an army of vacant 
 victim-souls turned adrift in the world! I want to tell 
 you that if humanity should wake up to this fact all at 
 once, somebody is going to get hurt ! 
 
 My warning to education is, that no amount of commonly 
 accepted educational facts shovelled into the mind of any 
 human being can ever educate anyone. It is not education, 
 for example, to know the famous three R's — no matter how 
 great the mastery in them. Neither is it education to be 
 master of any other purely intellectual tasks. No matter 
 how desirable and indispensable such social and individual 
 acquisitions may be — they nevertheless do not constitute 
 education, save in a suhsidiary sense. The sacred name 
 and sacred honor of education must be reserved at all times 
 for the state of hiological integrity that exists and obtains 
 within the mind itself. It were better a million times over 
 to be an illiterate and be endowed with the priceless treas- 
 ures that mental harmony stands for, than to be the first 
 scholar in the world and at the same time a victim of a 
 psychic organization whose integrity has been destroyed — 
 whose mental universe is fear, cowardice, introversion, self- 
 consciousness, self-condemnation. 
 
 I am simply saying that the real disease of the world is 
 not intellectual illiteracy at all — not in the least — though 
 let no person pride himself for a minute that he is a greater 
 enemy of such illiteracy than I am. The real disease of 
 the world is psychic illiteracy: Things are wrong on the 
 inside of the human mind— for the human mind stands 
 today as the rubbish heap of the ages. This is so chiefly 
 because the world's education is suffering from the captive 
 spell and inertia of conservatism— that inferno which is 
 mesmeric — that corrosive force which preserves the status 
 
288 THE PUEPOSE OF EDUCATION 
 
 quo. It has been one of the tragedies of life and education 
 that most people have always been ready to recommend 
 their own personal experiences to others — whether it is a 
 grave digger who has studied infinitesimal calculus, or a 
 hod carrier who has studied Sanskrit — and that too, without 
 ever stopping to inquire into the possible existence of far 
 better fields that have never been touched. It is that spirit 
 which has partly helped to keep the dark shadows of educa- 
 tional conservatism stalking around in our midst. 
 
 And thus it is that I want to send out to the whole world 
 the solemn and warning message that the educational sys- 
 tems of the age nowhere make contact with profound 
 educational philosophy. Those systems are so imperfect in 
 their basic conceptions as to what education should consist 
 of, that the more perfect they become along their chosen 
 and projected lines, the worse it will be for civilization — 
 because perfection in error as a science can never do any- 
 thing but lead farther and farther away from truth. The 
 world's educational leaders are merely flitting and skim- 
 ming along the surface of things, like so many barn swal- 
 lows darting hither and thither over vast meadows. 
 Our ** trained'* teachers are therefore not trained at 
 all — ^because they are pastured in the fallacious philos- 
 ophies of blind leaders. They are trained in the wrong 
 thing : The concept of giving to man a stuffed mind, rather 
 than a state of mind — the concept of intellectuality, rather 
 than psychicaUty, The what — ^the principle — the content — 
 of our education is false — and no amount of mere peda- 
 gogical juggling with the how — the formula — or the 
 method — can ever make it right. 
 
 Finally, I have faith that there is to be a new and 
 glorious dawning in education. If I mistake not, the light 
 of the stars already grows dim — and in due time it will be 
 morning. I see the world — not at all deserting in full all 
 of her exoteric shrines — but rather embracing a new 
 shrine — an esoteric one — set up in the midst of them all. 
 This new shrine is both gigantic and central. It looks 
 down upon the world's exoteric shrines like some mighty 
 
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY 289 
 
 Aetna. This colossal shrine is the human mind itself, 
 glorified with a harmony that will go far toward healing 
 the wounds of a long-suffering world. "Within the shadows 
 of this shrine an infinite calm and poise will know no 
 cowardice, and know no fear. The long-silent voice of the 
 great Plato will at last be heard — and; 
 
 **Then virtue, it appears, wdll be a kind of health and 
 beauty and good habit of the soul; and vice will be a dis- 
 ease and deformity and sickness of it".^^^ 
 
 Such will be the new education when consciousness of 
 purpose comes first ; when that purpose is the correct one, 
 an esoteric one — the hiological integrity of the individual; 
 when society is only the means, and the individual is the 
 end; when fear, cowardice, introversion, self -consciousness 
 and self-condemnation are driven from the earth; when 
 courage, self-trust, self-possession and self -approval are 
 glorified as the holiest altars of the human temple; when 
 childhood is looked upon as the playground and the quarry 
 of everything that is holiest and most prophetic in Nature ; 
 when the clear concept of psychic re-education grips the 
 world; when mankind bows down and worships at the 
 sacred shrine of psychic harmony : That is the new dawn- 
 ing and the new day that I see for a new education. 
 
 It is my trust that I have confined myself to the quick- 
 ening and to the birth of such an education in the endeavor 
 w^hich I hope only begins here. 
 
 172 Plato: Republic, page 151. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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