The Washington times., 1920-05-09

Spencer divides his book into
four chapters:
what knowledge Is of Most
Worth"
"Intellectual Education"
!. moral Education"
I Physical Education"
We intellectual savages acquire
mental clothing or education as the
wilder, jungle savages acquire
| bodily clothing, more for show than
real use.
Humboldt's Indian on the bank
of the Orinoco cared nothing for
personal comfort, but would work
fourteen days to get money to buy
paint, then smear himself and be
admired.
And his wife, "who would not
hesitate to leave her hut without
fragment of clothing on, would not
dare to commit such breach of
decorum as to go out unpainted."
All travellers tell you that col
ored beads are more priced by wild
tribes than substantial cloth.
Captain Speke tells of African
attendants "who strutted about in
goat-skin mantles when the
weather was fine, when it rained
took them off, folded them up
and went around naked shivering
in the rain"
First among savages came dec
orations to gain admiration; cloth
. ing for comfort followed.
= First among us Intellectual saw
ages comes mental ornamentation,
something that will enable US to
show how much we know.
knowledge for real use is to
come later.
In at least ninety-nine cases out
of hundred, we want to be "edu-
Gated" for the sake of admiration.
The Englishman sends his boy to
Oxford to learn Greek and Latin,
not that he will use them, but that
he may have "the education of a
gentleman"
The farmer in the country
teaches his little girl to play the
piano, not that she will ever be a
musician, but that she may show
off by pounding out "The Maiden's
Prayer" while neighbors say, "She
ought to go to Paris to study"
Not what we are, but what we
can make people think we are, is
the uppermost thought shown in
the way we dress our women, as
in the way we dress our minds.
We are ignorant, glib, ready, To-
ouacious and take a good deal of
trouble to get the mental paint to
decorate ourselves. There, as
rule, education ends.
Francis Bacon said every man
must determine "the relative val
ues of knowledge" There are
many kinds of knowledge-which
are worth while?
Spencer says, ITO prepare us for
complete living is the function
which education has to discharge"
Among different "knowledges"
Spencer says:
First, knowledge Of self-preser-
walton; without that we wouldn't
last.
Second, indirect self-preserva-
ton, knowing how to make liv-
ing that you may go on living.
Third, knowledge of the duties
of parents, for while the state is
higher than the family, it cannot
prosper, unless the family is prop
. erly cared for.
Next, after education that pre-
pares for parenthood, comes edu-
cation that prepares for citizen
shin, and last "the miscellaneous
,refinements of lifc," music, poetry,
painting, etc. They come distinct
ly LAST.
Education is valuable in two
ways. First, as kpow'Cdgc, and
second, as discipline.
There is absolute knowledge,
such as "twice two make four" or
"thc resistance Of water, to a body
moving through it varies as the
square Of the velocity" That
knowledge will be as valuable ana
necessary a million years hence.
There is another kind of knowl-
edge, of history, Of literature, i'm
portant because such knowledge
feeds the mind and helps II to
grow. It will be totally unimport-
ant million years from now,
when all that we know OF history
and literature will not be worth
three lines.
We need TO know about our
selves, but in the world ten thou
sand men know about q carburetor
for one that knows about the
Eustachian tubes that carry in
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