The Democratic advocate., 1893-03-25
VOL. XXVIII.-NO. 21.


home circle and studied to cause even for
eigners to live together in freedom. Free
dom meant more to him than to any of
the Asiatic nations 1t meant the power
of the individual to hold, ALLEVIATE and de-
wise property. This was. an enormous
step upward in educational progress
Hitherto property could only be held by
the family.
The contract was the supreme idea of
the Roman. He even carries it into his
religion. He even declines to do anything
for his gods except by contract. Thus,
he prays to one of his deities to help him
in some extremity or to give him his de-
sire, and he promises, in turn, to build the
god temple and see that only the best
material enters into its construction. The
Roman wants to conquer all peoples and
to make them free.
Passing from the Roman era to modern
times the greatest educational lesson is
derived from the Hebrew people They
teach the personality of the Divine apart
from Nature. This Divine Principle ere
ates Nature in order that he shall have
something to recognize Him. The Divine
Being does not etface man simply, but is
the embodiment of goodness and right
eousness- righteousness which breathes
the spirit of loving kindness, holding His
creatures responsible only so far as they
are responsible, and returning their deeds
upon them.
Religious education ranked first in the
Greek mind. Then came science, litera-
ture and art, as taught in the schools.
From them we get those elements of our
educational curriculum. From the Ro-
mans we get the study of organization.
Whether or not a person is educated
refectingly into civilization, he finds him
self in the great network of usages which
go to make up civilization.
Education is intended to give one an in
sight into the genesis of these things, SO
that he can detect an element of each in
the threads of his civilization.
In conclusion DR.. Harris said ''I have
dwelt on what education does for the in
dividual. Ninety-nine out of hundred
people in every civilized nation are auto
mata, careful to walk in the prescribed
paths, careful to do the will of the people
This is the result of substantial education,
which scientifically identified, means the
subsumption of the individual under his
species. The other educational principle
is the emancipation from this subsump-
tion. This is subordinate, and, yet, in our
time, we lay more stress upon it than upon
the other. Look at the French Revolu-
ton. What a prodigious emancipation
that was 1t was predicted by Rosseau,
but those who read him only specifically
without first studying his genesis will find
that their minds are poisoned for all time,
and that they will ever after stumble over
themselves. .s, e.
"Comenius taught the emancipation of
the individual from the printed page.
Spencer says that the modern school sys-
TEN is all wrong, and has tendency to
get away from science and cause students
to waste time in the study of dead rather
than live languages. Emancipation has
now become the important side of the edu-
cational question. But the student of ad-
vanced education must first avail himself
of the wisdom of the race, and learn how
not to be limited by it. He cannot pro-
gress unless he is free man, for he must
not be SO much subsumed but that he can
investigate scientifically and with safety to
himself all problems that present them
selves"