to show the fallacy of deducing the necessity of a general system of industrial education in this country from the educational experience of countries where the occupations of life are inherited and predetermined. The future calling of an American boy does not fall within the certainties of intuition or instinct, and by no calculation of chances can he foretell what knowledge, or what quality of mind he may need in the affairs of life. A majority of American students come to the beginning of their school courses ignorant of their own bent or aptitude. It is only after a wide and varied trial of their powers in the mastery of branches in all the great departments of knowledge that they find out the studies and pursuits for which they have special taste or fitness. It is one of the purposes of general education to disclose the pupil's bent and mission. The idea of putting before a young lad a catalogue of studies from which he is to select his course, is about as hazardous as a later attempt to choose a wife from a collection of photographs, or, what is a fitter illustration, from a list of names of the feminine gender. Our likes and tastes are quite dependent upon knowledge, and love before sight is not quite sure to be love at sight-and especially after sight.

The truth is, that what man most needs for the business and labor of life is, not so much specific knowledge, as mental aptitude and power. "Education," says Mill," makes a man a more intelligent shoemaker, if that be his occupation, but not by teaching him how to make shoes; it does so by the

mental exercise it gives, and the habits it impresses." The abiding, practical result of school training is soul-power. A knowledge of the facts and principles relating to a given pursuit, is very important, but higher than this is that developed strength and ability, that power of discernment and application, which can change the dead facts of knowledge into the living realities of human action and endeavor. Knowledge may guide and enlighten, but discipline gives acumen, strength, self-poise, grasp, inspiration—and these are the lucky winners of success in all the conflicts and emergencies of life. The superficial empiricist with a stock of scientific facts in his head, but with no clear insight into their causes and relations, is liable to blunder in every new application of his knowledge. Practical facts, to be of practical utility for the purposes of guidance, must be applied by an intelligent mind. "With brains, Sir," was Mr. Opie's reply to the student who wished to know with what he mixed his paints, and this answer contains the true practical philosophy of both art and business. The prime want in getting a living, which Mr. Froude makes the chief end of life, is "brains, Sir," -a mind keen-sighted and far-sighted, steady in aim and purpose, and full of faith. Thought is the highest practical result of intellectual training. This is the alchemy that changes plodding toil to manyhanded industry, and makes the brain of labor stronger than its muscles. It was Prussian brains that won on the fields of Sadowa and Sedan.

But I am impatient to leave this low ground of

business utility, to pass to those higher duties of life which are the chief concern of education, and the truest measure of its practical worth. The prime question to determine the worth of knowledge for guidance is not, whether it bears directly upon the labor of the farmer or the mechanic as such; but rather, will it fit him as a man for complete and successful living. "Man does not live by bread alone." The artisan must also be the guide of the family, a member of society, a citizen of the State, the guardian of liberty, and the subject of divine government, and out of these relations flow duties of the highest importance. In educating an American citizen we are not training an English operative or a Chinese coolie. He may be a hewer of wood; but if his life answers life's great end, he will also be a hewer of error and wrong. Every child born into American citizenship is confronted by the grandest political and social problems of earth's history, demanding a ripeness of judgment, a breadth of information, and a catholicity of spirit. Here the knowledge of most value for guidance is that which prepares man to discharge the duties of a complete life, and to meet the obligations of an exalted, noble manhood. The engineer must be swifter than his engine, the plowman wider and deeper than his furrow, and the merchant longer than his yard-stick!

One other view seems necessary to complete this discussion. Knowledge has its intrinsic value; and its possession is its own satisfying reward. We hear much said of the scholarly zeal of those who seek

knowledge with a view of coining it into money, reputation, or power; but, the fact is, that the devotion to study which has most honored learning and widened its domain, has sprung from a love of truth for her own sake; and, we may add, that it is only to those who thus seek her, that she reveals her highest beauty and glory. Who of my hearers has never spent an hour under the full inspiration of the star-lit heavens, in fancy, sweeping with the planets through their orbits, then on the wings of the comet darting out toward the confines of space to the homes of Orion and Arcturus, then through creation looking up to Him whose glory fills the heavens and rejoicing to say, "Our Father." Tell me the price of such an hour's communion.

A little boy of six years became very impatient in waiting for the long-talked of eclipse of the sun, and exclaimed, "O papa! it will never come," and then, as if to cover his impatience, he asked, "What is it good for?"-not an easy question for utilitarianism to answer. And yet there may be those pres

ent who have traveled hundreds of miles to see the King of Day illustrate the divine law of good for evil by giving to the intrusive moon his own coronal of glory.

Permit me to add, in conclusion, that the principles reached in this discussion shed a clear light upon the great problem of American education. They show that our schools and colleges should have for their first aim, the development and culture of man as man, and his elevation toward the highest and best

ideal of a human being; and, secondly, that they should furnish him with the knowledge necessary for guidance in the activities of life. They show that such is the harmony between man's nature and his life-mission, that the education which best meets the needs of the former is the best general preparation for the latter-thus converting the terms of Herbert Spencer's famous aphorism. They indicate that the reform needed in our courses of study, is not one of exclusion, but of addition and adjustment; that the "new education" of the near future, will be as wide as the soul's needs, and as comprehensive as the duties of life. They welcome the physical sciences to their true and important place, their study beginning with observation in the primary school, and extending upwards through every grade of instruction to the end of the course. They give an important place to what is called industrial training, but leave the duty of teaching trades to the workshop. They welcome and honor the technical and professional schools as needed agencies to supplement the public school and the college.

But I forbear, entering a respectful protest against the adoption of any criterion of school education that subordinates man to industry, and the soul to its physical conditions and needs. My earnest plea is for an education which seeks the perfection of man, in nature, enjoyment, and labor; an education whose polar idea is " not the mind only, but the man an education that prepares the mind to think the truth;