Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/74

 tenable theories as to the basis on which our system of public education rests. If this system rests solely on the principle of self-preservation, one must hold that the high-schools of the country, as at present constituted, have no right to existence whatever. It may be argued that the preservation of the state requires that every citizen should have an elementary education; but it cannot be shown that to impart a little algebra, and a little chemistry, and a little music, and a little drawing, etc., is a measure of public safety.

But suppose one to hold (as I have little hesitation in holding) that states, like noble individuals, and like God himself, should not be satisfied with doing what is necessary to the bare preservation of existence. Let our theory be, that states, in the long run and wide extent of their being, should strive by collective action to nurture intelligence, intellectual variety, and beauty of multiform and high development, in as many as may be of their citizens. This they should do, both because it pays and because it is intrinsically noble. Let the theory of public education be a generous paternal theory. But even with this theory the work of expensive specialization of education at the public cost cannot be carried beyond a certain limit. That limit, it is the opinion of most thoughtful and observing persons, has been already reached, and perhaps passed. Still, it is my contention that