t in keen quest of its object, and at
its own and not at another's bidding. An education is intended to make
a man his own master, and so far as any man is not his own master, in
just so far is he uneducated. What he knows, or does not know, of
books does not alter the fact.

Much of the pharisaism and priggishness
on the subject of education arises from the fact that the world is
divided into two camps as regards knowledge: those who believe that
the astronomer alone knows the stars, and those who believe that he
knows them best who sleeps in the open beneath them. In reality,
neither type of mind is complete without the other.

To turn from any
theoretical discussion of the subject, it remains to be said that
Germany has trained her whole population into the best working team in
the world. Without the natural advantages of either England or America
she has become the rival of both. Her superior mental training has
enabled her to wrest wealth from by-products, and she saves and grows
rich on what America wastes. Whether Germany has succeeded in giving
the ply of character to her youth, as she folds them in her
educational factories, I sometimes doubt. That she has not made them
independent and ready to grapple with new situations, and strange
peoples, and swift emergencies, their own past and present history
shows.

It is a very strenuous and economical existence, however, for
everybody, and it requires a politically tame population to be thus
driven. The dangerous geographical situation of Germany, ringed round
by enemies, has made submission to hard work, and to an iron
autocratic government necessary. To be a nation at all it was
necessary to obey and to submit, to sacrifice and to save. These
things they have been taught as have no other European people. Greater
wealth, increased power, a larger role in the world, are bringing new
problems. Education thus far has been in the direction of fitting each
one into his place in a great machine, and less attention has been
paid to the development of that elasticity of mind which makes for
independence; but men educate themselves into independence, and that
time is coming swiftly for Germany.

"Also he hath set the world in their heart," and one wonders what this
population, hitherto so amenable, so economical, and so little
worldly, will do with this new world. The temptations of wealth, the
sirens of luxury, the opportunities for amusement and dissipation, are
all