Page:The new ideal in education - an address given before the League of the Empire on July 16th, 1916 (IA newidealineducat00veliiala).djvu/11

 human creatures; not some few great men, but all men, all together, all without exception.

From this point of view we get the true ideal of education. The purpose of education is not to make grand personalities, but to make bricks for the building, i.e., to make suitable members of a collective body and suitable workers of a collective work.

are greater than personal works. A pupil from the old, individualistic school would object:

—And what do you think of the work of Ibsen?

I: I think it is incomparably smaller than the ancient Scandinavian legends.

He: Do you not grant that Alfred the Great was the real creator of the English Kingdom?

I: Never. Millions and millions of human creatures are built into this building that we call England, or English history, or English civilisation.

He: And what about the man who built St. Paul's Cathedral?

I: It is a collective work, as are all the great works that have been done. The architecture of St. Paul's is one of the ancient styles, and no style in architecture was ever invented or created by one person, but by generations and generations.

He: And what about Victor Hugo and Milton? Are they not great poets?

I: Yes, they are if compared with certain minor poets, but they are not great if compared with the popular poetry of India or Greece. Mahabarata, the Koran, and Zend-Avesta, and the Bible, are products of collective efforts—therefore they are superior to every personal effort.

He: Do you not appreciate the great economists and what they did for the household, and common-wealth in general?