rtainly not the whole
truth. Education, as it has to be carried on, whether in elementary or in
public schools, is no doubt a heavy weight which might well press down the
most independent spirit; it is, in fact, neither more nor less than
placing, in a systematized form, on the shoulders of every generation the
ever-increasing mass of knowledge, experience, custom, and tradition that
has been accumulated by former generations. We need not wonder, therefore,
if in some schools all spring, all vigor, all joyousness of work is
crushed out under that load of names and dates, of anomalous verbs and
syntactic rules, of mathematical formulas and geometrical theories which
boys are expected to bring up for competitive examinations.

But a remedy has been provided, and we are ourselves to blame if we do not
avail ourselves of it to the fullest extent. Europe erected its
Universities, and called them the homes of the Liberal Arts, and
determined that between the mental slavery of the school and the physical
slavery of busy life every man should have at least three years of
freedom. What Sokrates and his great pupil Plato had done for the youth of
Greece,(19) these new academies were to do for the youth of Italy, France,
England, Spain, and Germany; and, though with varying success, they have
done it. The mediaeval and modern Universities have been from century to
century the homes of free thought. Here the most eminent men have spent
their lives, not in retailing traditional knowledge, as at school, but in
extending the frontiers of science in all directions. Here, in close
intercourse with their teachers, or under their immediate guidance,
generation after generation of boys fresh from school have grown up into
men during the three years of their academic life. Here, for the first
time, each man has been encouraged to dare to be himself, to follow his
own tastes, to depend on his own judgment, to try the wings of his mind,
and, lo, like young eagles thrown out of their nest, they could fly. Here
the old knowledge accumulated at school was tested, and new knowledge
acquired straight from the fountain-head. Here knowledge ceased to be a
mere burden, and became a power invigorating the whole mind, like snow
which during winter lies cold and heavy on the meadows, but when it is
touched by the sun of spring melts away, and fertilizes the ground for a
rich harvest.

That was the original purpose of the Universities; and the more they