ory, and the dogmas of democracy make history unimportant. If "the
people" always know what is right and wise, then we have the supreme
oracle always with us and always up to date. In the report of a
civil-service examination which got into the newspapers, it was said
that one candidate for a position on the police answered the question,
Who was Abraham Lincoln? by saying that he was a distinguished general
on the Southern side in the Civil War. Nevertheless, if appointed, he
might have made an excellent policeman. His ludicrous ignorance of
American biography proved nothing to the contrary. The question brought
into doubt the intelligence of the examiners. If all policemen were
examined on American history, it is fair to believe that incredible
ignorance and errors would be displayed. No amount of study of American
history would make them better policemen. The same may be said of the
masses as a whole. A knowledge of history is a fine accomplishment, but
ignorance of it does not hinder the success of men in their own lines
of industry. They do not, therefore, care about history or appreciate
it. Its rank in school studies is an inheritance of European tradition.
Popular opinion does not recognize its position as fit and just. Its
effect on the minds and mores of the pupils is almost _nil_, unless the
history deals directly with the mores.

+709. The study of history and the study of the mores.+ There is,
therefore, great need for a clearer understanding of the relation
between the study of history and the study of the mores. Abraham
Lincoln's career illustrated in many ways the mores of his time, and the
knowledge of some of the facts about the mores would have been by no
means idle or irrelevant for a policeman. In like manner it may well be
that other branches of study pursued in our schools contain valuable
instruction or discipline, but it does not lie on the surface, and it is
an art to get it out and bring it to the attention of the scholar.

+710. The most essential element in education.+ A man's education never
stops as long as he lives. All the experience of life is educating him.
In school days he is undergoing education by the contact of life, and by
what he does or suffers. This education is transferring to him the
mores. He learns what conduct is approved or disapproved; what kind of
man is admired most; how he ought to behave in all kinds of cases; and
what he ought to believe or reject. This education go