attitude in courtship and in marriage,
and by the gross anomaly of militarism, in all its senseless waste
of life and wealth and joy, we may perceive this little masculine
exception:

"All's fair in love and war."

VIII. EDUCATION.

The origin of education is maternal. The mother animal is seen to teach
her young what she knows of life, its gains and losses; and, whether
consciously done or not, this is education. In our human life,
education, even in its present state, is the most important process.
Without it we could not maintain ourselves, much less dominate and
improve conditions as we do; and when education is what it should be,
our power will increase far beyond present hopes.

In lower animals, speaking generally, the powers of the race must be
lodged in each individual. No gain of personal experience is of avail to
the others. No advantages remain, save those physically transmitted. The
narrow limits of personal gain and personal inheritance rigidly hem
in sub-human progress. With us, what one learns may be taught to the
others. Our life is social, collective. Our gain is for all, and profits
us in proportion as we extend it to all. As the human soul develops in
us, we become able to grasp more fully our common needs and advantages;
and with this growth has come the extension of education to the people
as a whole. Social functions are developed under natural laws, like
physical ones, and may be studied similarly.

In the evolution of this basic social function, what has been the effect
of wholly masculine influence?

The original process, instruction of individual child by individual
mother, has been largely neglected in our man-made world. That was
considered as a subsidiary sex-function of the woman, and as such,
left to her "instinct." This is the main reason why we show such great
progress in education for older children, and especially for youths, and
so little comparatively in that given to little ones.

We have had on the one side the natural current of maternal education,
with its first assistant, the nursemaid, and its second, the
"dame-school"; and on the other the influence of the dominant class,
organized in university, college, and public school, slowly filtering
downward.

Educational forces are many. The child is born into certain conditions,
physical and psychic, and "educated" thereby. He grows up into social,
political and economic conditions, and is further modified by them.