Evening star., 1926-10-19

Although much that Herbert Spen.
Ger advocated has been adopted in
modern education, it remains interest
Ing and instructive to read his book
upon the theme in order to see how
far the world has yet to go In this
direction.
It is distinctly fine to station police
men and older boys in front Of school
buildings, to save the little ones from
being run over, in this motorized age
1T Is distinctly another to see to it
that no child gets the idea that pleas.
ure, per Sc, is the sole end and aim
Of life.
Last week. considering Spencer's
Education" we discovered that the
leading activities of life, in the order
or their Importance are those which
directly minister to self protection;
those which (by securing the necessi-
ties OF life) indirectly SO minister; those
which have for their end the rearing
and discipline Of offspring; those which
are involved in the maintenance of
proper social and political relations.
and those which make up the leisure
part of life, devoted to the gratifica-
tion OF the tastes and feelings.
1t is hard for a child of today, born
In the midst of prosperous, civilized
nation, to accurately get the facts of
life before him in proper relationship
to one another. The accent is often
put SO far off-plumb that even his ell
ders misjudge what is important and
what Is not SO important.
Spencer gets down to rock-bottom,
wipes away our pretense and comes
out flat-footedly for self-preservation
as the most important duty. The
whole world acts on that theory. as
we'll 1t must, but many will arise, even
at this date. to say it Is not true. They
are, of course, fighting a shadow, for
Spencer recognized, as we'll as they,
the vast primary Importance in life of
spiritual truths. He had no argument
with any one on that head.
Speaking of his five leading kinds
of activities, Spencer succinctly said:
THAT these stand in something like
their true order of subordination, it
needs no long consideration to show.
The actions and precautions by which,
from moment to moment, we secure
personal safety, must clearly take
precedence Of all others.
"Could there be q man ignorant as
an infant Of all surrounding objects
and movements, or how to guide him
self among them, he would pretty Ger.
tainly lose his life the first time he
went into the street; notwithstanding
any amount of learning he might
have on other matters. And as entire
ignorance in all other directions would
be less promptly fatal than entire ig-
norance in this direction, 1T must be
admitted that knowledge Immediately
conducive to self-preservation Is of
primary Importance"
This knowledge is so fundamental
that commonly we tend to forget 1t,
scarcely realizing that we possess 1t.
1t is salutary, now and then, to de-
liberately stop and realize its prime
necessity.
One often sees persons. especially
since the automobile came into its
present place of importance in the
social and industrial world, who seem
utterly lacking in the instinct of self
preservation. The thrill of power un-
der their hands seems to make them
insensible to the fact that men are
made Of flesh and bone.
We give but one more OF Spencer g
arguments in favor of his placing the
kinds of knowledge in the order in
| which he did place them. He says:
| "That next after direct self-preServa-