ho were educated. Of course all
education is comparative; but these five are so beyond the rest of
mankind that they form a class by themselves.

An educated man means a developed man--a man rounded on every side of
his nature. We are aware of no limit to which the mind of man may
evolve; other men may appear who will surpass the Immortal Five, but
this fact remains: none that we know have. Great men, so-called, are
usually specialists: clever actors, individuals with a knack, talented
comedians--who preach, carve, paint, orate, fight, manipulate, manage,
teach, write, perform, coerce, bribe, hypnotize, accomplish, and get
results. There are great financiers, sea-captains, mathematicians,
football players, engineers, bishops, wrestlers, runners, boxers, and
players on zithern-strings. But these are not necessarily very great
men, any more than poets, painters and pianists, with wonderful hirsute
effects and strange haberdashery are great men.

For it is intellect and emotion expanded in every direction that give
the true title to greatness. Judged in this way, how rare is the
educated man--five in six thousand years! And yet one of these five
educated men had a brother nearly as great as he.

Alexander von Humboldt was past fifty before the world of thinking men
realized that he had outstripped his brother William--and Alexander
would never admit he had.

These two men, handsome in face, form and feature: strong in body and
poised in mind, with souls athirst to realize and to know--happy men,
living long lives of useful effort--surely should be classed as educated
persons.

And in passing, let us note that all education is preparatory--it is
life that gives the finals, not the college. The education of the von
Humboldt boys was the Natural Method--the method advocated by
Rousseau--the education by play and work so combined that study never
becomes irksome nor work repulsive. Rousseau said, "Make a task
repugnant and the worker will forever quit it as soon as the pressure
that holds him to it is removed."

The parents of Alexander and William von Humboldt carefully studied the
new plan of education that was at that time being advocated by some of
the best professors at Berlin. "A child must have a teacher," said Jean
Jacques, "but a professional teacher is apt to become the slave of his
profession, and when this occurs he has separated himself from life, and
therefore to that degree is unfitted to teach."

A sch