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APPENDIX, 7. 221
as without the sunset, so long as we are human. Of the celestial city we are told there shall be "no night there," and then
we shall know even as also we are known : but the night and
the mystery have both their service here ; and our business is
not to strive to turn the night into day, but to be sure that we
are as they that watch for the morning.
Therefore, in the education either of lower or upper classes,
it matters not the least how much ov how little they know, provided they know just what will fit them to do their work, and
to be happy in it. What the sum or the nature of their knowledge ought to be at a given time or in a given case, is a totally
different question: the main thing to be understood is, that a
man is not educated, in any sense whatsoever, because he can
read Latin, or write English, or can behave well in a drawing-
room ; but that he is only educated if he is happy, busy, beneficent, and effective in the world ; that millions of peasants are
therefore at this moment better educated than most of those
who call themselves gentlemen; and that the means taken to
"educate" the lower classes in any other sense may very often
be productive of a precisely opposite result.
Observe: I do not say, nor do I believe, that the lower classes
ought not to be better educated, in millions of ways, than they
are. I believe every man in a Christian kingdom ought to be
equally icell educated. But I would have it education to purpose;
stern, practical, irresistible, in moral habits, in bodily strength
and beauty, in all faculties of mind capable of being developed
under the circumstances of the individual, and especially in the
technical knowledge of his own business; but yet, infinitely various in its effort, directed to make one youth humble, and another
confident; to tranquillize this mind, to put some spark of ambition into that; now to urge, and now to restrain: and in the
doing of all this, considering knowledge as one only out of myriads
of means in its hands, or myriads of gifts at its disposal; and
giving it or withholding it as a good husbandman waters his
garden, giving the full shower only to the thirsty plants, and at
times when they are thirsty, whereas at present we pour it upon
the heads of our youth as the snow falls on the Alps, on one and
another alike, till they can bear no more, and then take honor to
ourselves because here and there a river descends from their
| Title | The stones of Venice - 3 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000239 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | APPENDIX, 7. 221 as without the sunset, so long as we are human. Of the celestial city we are told there shall be "no night there," and then we shall know even as also we are known : but the night and the mystery have both their service here ; and our business is not to strive to turn the night into day, but to be sure that we are as they that watch for the morning. Therefore, in the education either of lower or upper classes, it matters not the least how much ov how little they know, provided they know just what will fit them to do their work, and to be happy in it. What the sum or the nature of their knowledge ought to be at a given time or in a given case, is a totally different question: the main thing to be understood is, that a man is not educated, in any sense whatsoever, because he can read Latin, or write English, or can behave well in a drawing- room ; but that he is only educated if he is happy, busy, beneficent, and effective in the world ; that millions of peasants are therefore at this moment better educated than most of those who call themselves gentlemen; and that the means taken to "educate" the lower classes in any other sense may very often be productive of a precisely opposite result. Observe: I do not say, nor do I believe, that the lower classes ought not to be better educated, in millions of ways, than they are. I believe every man in a Christian kingdom ought to be equally icell educated. But I would have it education to purpose; stern, practical, irresistible, in moral habits, in bodily strength and beauty, in all faculties of mind capable of being developed under the circumstances of the individual, and especially in the technical knowledge of his own business; but yet, infinitely various in its effort, directed to make one youth humble, and another confident; to tranquillize this mind, to put some spark of ambition into that; now to urge, and now to restrain: and in the doing of all this, considering knowledge as one only out of myriads of means in its hands, or myriads of gifts at its disposal; and giving it or withholding it as a good husbandman waters his garden, giving the full shower only to the thirsty plants, and at times when they are thirsty, whereas at present we pour it upon the heads of our youth as the snow falls on the Alps, on one and another alike, till they can bear no more, and then take honor to ourselves because here and there a river descends from their |
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