to see the importance of
education. And in the course of these three or four centuries before
the coming of Christ there grew up two kinds of schools and two kinds
of teachers, first, an _open air_ school where life itself was
studied, and then later, in the second place, an _indoor_ school,
where the chief study was that of books.

SCHOOLS IN THE OPEN AIR

These open-air schools were most often to be seen in the "city gate."
The Jews meant by the "gate" of the city the broad open space in front
of the actual opening in the city wall. It was like the public square
in our modern towns.

=Scenes in the "Gate."=--Suppose we visit one of the "gates." It is
early morning. Everything is noise and confusion. Here are merchants
peddling their wheat, or dates, or honey, their wool or their flax.
Customers are haggling over prices. Each one is shouting with a
shrill voice and with many gestures that the price asked is an
outrage. Besides the merchants there are judges. Here sits one of the
city elders with a long white beard. Before him are two farmers
disputing over a boundary line--also witnesses and spectators.

Out in the middle of the area children are playing. Every now and then
a mangy yellow dog noses his way through the crowd looking for scraps
of food. And everywhere are the folks who came out just to see their
neighbors and to hear the news.

In one corner of the open space by the "gate" we notice a dignified
figure, an old man with a circle of friends and listeners. He is
watching the varied scenes around him and occasionally talking with
those about him.

"Who is that old man?" we ask.

"That is one of the wise men," we are told.

These "wise men" among the Hebrews studied human nature, and gave to
young men and to any less-experienced people who cared to listen, the
benefit of their practical good sense. They loved to teach through
"proverbs," that is, short and witty sentences. A large number of the
"proverbs" of these teachers are preserved in the Book of Proverbs in
our Old Testament.

THE TEACHING OF THE WISE MEN

One of the most important keys to success in life is a knowledge of
people. This the wise men helped their students to obtain. Let us sit
for a while beside one of them and look through his eyes at the people
who pass by. Here comes young Mr. Know-it-all. He wears a very fine
garment, and walks with a swagger. His father and mother and all his
aunts and uncles have always told him th