The Press Saturday, December 8, 1923. The Educated Man.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17941, 8 December 1923, Page 14

The Press Saturday, December 8, 1923. The Educated Man.

The old question, What are the marks of an educated man? has been raised again by an address that Dr. » • Murray Butler, president of Columbia, University, delivered during his recent visit to England. Dr. Butler considered the live chief marks of an educated man to be correctness and precision in the use of his mother tongue, refined and gentle manners (as the result of fixed habits of thought and action), sound standards of appreciation of beauty and of worth and character built on those standards, the power and habit of reflection, and efficiency, or "power to do." As a sequel to this the "Teachers' World - ' published the opinions of a number of prominent people on the same subject; from the summary of which, published in the "Manchester Guardian,'' one learns that Dr. Butler's points received strong support. It is true that Mr Bernard Shaw regarded the marks of an educated man as intellectual and moral imbecility, and contended that the only remedy yet discovered was "the destruction of civilisation by the action "of educated man," which would involve incidentally "the destruction of educational institutions, and the conse"quent escape of mankind from education arid the comparative sanity and ""mental competence of H we took this as a joke, good Shavians would be indignant. If it is to betaken seriously, it shows what many of via have long suspected, that Mi' Shaw is not an educated man in the true sense of the term, for the educated man has a better sense of realities than to write such folly. On a question like this a man like Sir Oliver Lodge has a much stronger claim on our attention. He regards Dr. Butler's mafks as "admirable .selections "from what may bo expected as the "result of a good education." Sir Oliver specially emphasises th& first point—proper use of the mother —and considers that its attainment is barely possible without some classical education and acquaintance with other languages—a significant statement from a great scientist. Mr Clyhes, Deputy-Leader of the Labour Party, add* an excellent sixth point—publicspirited interest in the good government of nations. Miss May toinolair entirely agrees with Dr. Butler, but is inclined to think that a completely educated man should have a knowledge of history, of Greek and Latin, and of at least two modern, languages. Mr Hilair© Belloc's requirements are characteristic: Power to appreciate irony, the intelligence to admit mystery both as a general principle and in particular, especially religious and academic examples; clear thinking and sufficient instruction, especially in Latin and Greek and history, to enable him to support argument and conclusion by illustration.

The utilitarian educationist will get little-satisfaction from these views. The only direct reference to connexion between education and livelihood is Dr. Butler's "efficiency," and he would probably explain that he intended the term to mean much, more than getting on in the world in the usual sense or that phrase. We are left to.form our own ideas of -what actual knowledge an educated man should have. Opinions will differ, but it should be possible to get some common ground of agreement. How will it do to define that knowledge as that which is necessary in order that a man may take an intelligent interest in tho" history and current events of his own country ami of the world ? He should have a sound kno-wledge of the development of his own country and of tho leading events in the story of mankind. Omniscience is an impossible but it is reasonable to require that an educated Englishman should know something about Homer and Virgil, Thermopylae and Actrum, the French Revolution and the Risorgimento, Dante and Tolstoi, Cortes and Velasquez. Machiavelli and Raphael. Whatever his religious convictions may be, he should know his Bible, and ho should not Be quite ignorant of tho underlying principles of the other great religions of. the world. He should also know at least the elementary facts of science. Sherlock Holmes felt no shame in knowing nothing about the 6olar system; such knowledge, he said, would only lumber up his brain. The great — or, shall we say, the greatest P—detective, took the materialistic view of knowledge. The educated man should also be, as Mr Clynes has said, a good citizen of his country and of the world. It is an ill-balanced intelligence that ijrrsuM itself uo in soma interest or

other—business, art or science —and refuses to concern, itself with the government of mankind.' Dr. Butler and those others la? stress on the development of mental powers and taste; they would have a man make the best of life in the best sense. It is therefore fitting that Dr. Butler's iirst point should be good use of the language a man is accustomed to speak. A Briton may be profoundly learned in half-a-dozen subjects, hut if he cannot express himself well in English he is not educated in tho true sense in the English-speaking -world. Proper u>-e and appreciation of English is the beginning of education. "Sound 'standards of appreciation of beauty '■' and of worth and character built on ••those standards" is a comprehensive condition. It means that to be educated a man must have a more or less trained eye for beauty and moral worth. It does not imply that educated men .should think alike all things, hutthat they should be in agreement on certain principles, and be able to recognise quackery in l various forms; They see the danger signals flown by a man like Horatio Bottomley and they fire nuti taken in by the "'stunts" of « sensational Press. "The power •'and habit of reflection" is also an essential. The educated man is distinguished from the uneducated by nothing more than by the capacity to think about abstract subjects. Many r. man who is voluble and interesting so long as talk is confined to the concrete affairs of life, such as business) sport, and politics, becomes dumb the moment anything philosophical is brought up. We should add to these marks, humility and the power of mental projection into opposing cemps and conditions other than one's own. Possession of the sense of humility does not imply the absence of strong conviction. It implies humbleness in the face of the vsstness and mysterv of things, and the capacity to conceive the possibility that one may be wrong. By the power of projection we mean tho ability to put oneself in the position of an opponent and understand at least part of his case, or to imagine oneself an inhabitant of another country or another age. The greater this factoT of imagination, the more tolerant is a man, and the better is ho able to understand and appreciate societies other than his own. A man must have this faculty if he is to read history aright. It is the great defect of Mr H. 6. Wells as a historian that he is weak in this. Not being able to live in the past, he sometimes judges it contemptuously; it has been wittily said of him that he condemns the ancients because they did not invent penny postage. From all this it appears that the moral factor in education will not be denied. Education is to be judged not only byW'hdt it makes a man do, both in his daily work and his behaviour towards his neighbour, but by its effect on his feelings. Yve may say of education generally what Mr Asquith has said of a University, that it will be judged not merely or mainly by the worldly success of its material, of by "the excellence of its " mental gymnastic, or its contributions to scholarship and science," but also "by the influence which it is "exerting upon the imagination and "the character; by the ideals which it " has implanted and nourished; by the " new resources of faith, tenacity, " aspiration, with whioh it has recruited and reinforced the 'untrained "and undeveloped nature; by the de"gree in which it has helned to raise, 'to enlarge, ,to enrich, complete, the " true life of the man, and by him and "through him, the corporate life of tne " community."