U niversity
of
O regon M onthly
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! Tl>e T h eo ry of a L ib eral E d u ca biop I
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A liberal education may be defined as that which gives
man a free and cultivated mind, the power to choose the
subjects of his pursuits in order to promote the highest free
dom, to perfect the human understanding,-and to purify and
elevate the soul. '
A liberal education is not properly a technical education.
While a technical education is a specialization on some one
branch bf study, a liberal education is elective and includes
more, arid even all phases of knowledge., A liberal education
is deperident upon the intellectual power of concentration,
distribution, retention, expression, and judgment. Or in
other words, a man must have, the power to lay emphasis
where it belongs—the power of wisdom.
A truly liberal education includes as its essentials) a vig
orous/thorough pursuit of at least five subjects: language,
literature, mathematics, natural science, and philosophy. Un
der these’five divisions may be included nearly all branches
of knowledge, essential to a liberal education. We may nar
row this still farther into three groups,' (1) language and lit
erature, (2). mathematics, and natural science, (3) and phil
osophy,or thè product of reflective thinking. Any education
which js defective in any of these three falls short of beirig
liberal.
, We may say that language is the pass-key to literature.
It is the only way to unlock the treasures of literature. By the
study of language in regard to a liberal education is not meant
a prolonged arid scholastic study of many languages, but the
power tb acquire the;art of interpretation and expression of
thoughts of another people or race. Language is the inner
temple of literature, for we must know how to get at the
meaning of qny literature. ' The ancient classical. languages,
Greek-and Latin, are the best means of acquiring the .art of