al, vegetable, animal and
human worlds are all in need of an educator.

If the earth is not cultivated, it becomes a jungle where useless weeds
grow; but if a cultivator comes and tills the ground, it produces crops
which nourish living creatures. It is evident, therefore, that the soil
needs the cultivation of the farmer. Consider the trees: if they remain
without a cultivator, they will be fruitless, and without fruit they are
useless; but if they receive the care of a gardener, these same barren
trees become fruitful, and through cultivation, fertilization and
engrafting the trees which had bitter fruits yield sweet fruits. These are
rational proofs; in this age the peoples of the world need the arguments
of reason.

The same is true with respect to animals: notice that when the animal is
trained it becomes domestic, and also that man, if he is left without
education, becomes bestial, and, moreover, if left under the rule of
nature, becomes lower than an animal, whereas if he is educated he becomes
an angel. For the greater number of animals do not devour their own kind,
but men, in the Sudan, in the central regions of Africa, kill and eat each
other.

Now reflect that it is education that brings the East and the West under
the authority of man; it is education that produces wonderful industries;
it is education that spreads great sciences and arts; it is education that
makes manifest new discoveries and institutions. If there were no
educator, there would be no such things as comforts, civilization or
humanity. If a man be left alone in a wilderness where he sees none of his
own kind, he will undoubtedly become a mere brute; it is then clear that
an educator is needed.

But education is of three kinds: material, human and spiritual. Material
education is concerned with the progress and development of the body,
through gaining its sustenance, its material comfort and ease. This
education is common to animals and man.

Human education signifies civilization and progress--that is to say,
government, administration, charitable works, trades, arts and
handicrafts, sciences, great inventions and discoveries and elaborate
institutions, which are the activities essential to man as distinguished
from the animal.

Divine education is that of the Kingdom of God: it consists in acquiring
divine perfections, and this is true education; for in this state man
becomes the focus of divine blessings, the manifestation of the w