eir lives
wherever they please. If the system is sound and just it must be so by
virtue of some common interest of all the people of the United States in
the social services of men of talent and genius in any part of the
United States.

+699. The superstition of education.+ Popular education and certain
faiths about popular education are in the mores of our time. We regard
illiteracy as an abomination. We ascribe to elementary book learning
power to form character, make good citizens, keep family mores pure,
elevate morals, establish individual character, civilize barbarians,
and cure social vice and disease. We apply schooling as a remedy for
every social phenomenon which we do not like. The information given by
schools and colleges, the attendant drill in manners, the ritual of the
mores practiced in schools, and the mental dexterity produced by school
exercises fit individuals to carry on the struggle for existence better.
A literate man can produce wealth better than an illiterate man. Avenues
are also opened by school work through which influences may be brought
to bear on the reason and conscience which will mold character. Not even
the increased production of wealth, much less the improvement of
character, are assured results. Our faith in the power of book learning
is excessive and unfounded. It is a superstition of the age. The
education which forms character and produces faith in sound principles
of life comes through personal influence and example. It is borne on the
mores. It is taken in from the habits and atmosphere of a school, not
from the school text-books. School work opens an opportunity that a
thing may be, but the probability that it will be depends on the
persons, and it may be _nil_ or contrary to what is desired. High
attainments in school enhance the power obtained, but the ethical value
of it all depends on how it is used. These facts are often misused or
exaggerated in modern educational controversies, but their reality
cannot be denied. Book learning is addressed to the intellect, not to
the feelings, but the feelings are the spring of action.

+700. The loss from education. Missionary-made men.+ Education has
always been recognized as a means of individual success and group
strength. In barbarism the children are educated by their elders,
especially the little boys by the big ones, but the whole mental outfit
possessed by the group is transmitted to the children, and all the mores
pass by