Chapter VIII

The Larger Education


The old idea that the necessity of working was imposed upon men as a
punishment is responsible, in large measure, for the radical
misunderstanding of the function and uses of work which has so widely
prevailed. In the childhood of the world a garden for innocence to play in
secured the consummation of all deep human longings for happiness; but
there is a higher state than innocence: there is the state to which men
attain through knowledge and trial. Knowledge involves great perils, but
it is better than innocuous ignorance; virtue involves grave dangers, but
it is nobler than innocence. Character cannot be secured if choice between
higher and lower aims is denied; and without character the world would be
meaningless. There can be no unfolding of character without growth, and
growth is inconceivable without the aid of work. The process of self-
expression through action is wrought, therefore, into the very structure
of man's life; it is not a penalty, but a spiritual opportunity of the
highest order. It is the most comprehensive educational process to which
men are subjected, and it has done more, probably, than all other
processes to lift the moral and social level of the race.

Instead of being a prison, the workshop has been a place of training,
discipline, and education. The working races have been the victorious
races; the non-working races have been the subject races. Wandering