Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/129

 But first of all let us see clearly just what the question before us really is. For I cannot help thinking that, while the spirit in which it is debated and the inducements brought forward are often much too narrow, the question itself is rarely defined with sufficient limitation. As to the very meaning of the question, then, I offer these three statements:—

It is a liberal education the nature of which we are briefly to discuss. Now this term necessarily implies some sort of differentiation. Freeing it, as far as possible, from all false pride and also from jealousy and unreasoning opprobrium, the term must be held to signify something more than mere education. It must signify—let us frankly confess—education for the few as distinguished from education for the great multitude, or for the very many. The public schools, then, however supplemented by private generosity, cannot reasonably be expected to provide the body of the people with a liberal education. I wish this declaration, however, to be considered as different trom the important and closely connected practical question: "What part should the public schools take in starting a few selected pupils on their way to a truly liberal education?"

Neither is a liberal education properly a technical education, such as our manual-training and trades schools, our business colleges, and even most of