After  the  child  has  acquired  a  vocabulary  fairly  ade-
quate to  his  life  wants,  education — even  school  educa-
tion— consists  largely  in  giving  a  fuller,  or  new,  or
corrected  content  to  these  familiar  words,  as  well  as
giving  him  altogether  new  ideas  through  new  experi-
ences, for  which  he  acquires  new  terms.  The  teacher
may  fairly  be  held  responsible  for  putting  the  child's
meaning  into  the  child's  words  as  a  common  ground
upon  which  to  build  his  corrected  notion ;  the  child,  on
the  other  hand,  must  be  educated  up  to  putting  into  his
own  words  the  teacher's  meaning  or  learning's  content.
Between  two  persons  who  engage  in  any  mutual  com-
munication there  must,  of  course,  be  a  common  lan-
guage; but  the  common  ground  of  intercourse  is  the
meaning  underlying  the  language,  not  the  symbols
alone,  of  speech  or  manner.
So,  in  a  somewhat  similar  sense,  if  the  author  is  to


Education  and  the  Allied  Arts          27

be  understood,  his  meaning  must  be  used  in  interpret-
ing his  words.  Let  it  be  said  here,  therefore,  as  it
will  be  said  many  times  in  the  following  pages,  that
what  is  being  here  considered  is  education,  and  not
schooling;  the  process  of  maturing  and  acquiring  effi-
ciency ;  of  knowing  how,  and  being  able,  and  disposed,
to  live,  and  live  more  abundantly;  not  merely  or  nar-
rowly the  learning  of  books.  This  latter  has  its  place
as  one  of  the  instruments  of  furthering  and  directing
education  to  wise  and  wholesome  ends.  But  it  is  not
education,  it  is  a  tool  only;  sometimes  the  best  tool,
upon  occasion  an  inferior  one.
