too radical and was soon rescinded. In 1903 the Empress Dowager substituted examinations in Occidental sciences and languages for those in literary composition. These radical educational changes with others of a social character are proceeding rapidly at the present time.

EDUCATION OF THE HINDUS. While the characteristic details of purpose, organization, method, and content of curricu lum of Hindu education differ from those of the Chinese, its essential features are typically Oriental. The divergence in details from other Oriental systems is caused mainly (1) by the caste system and (2) by the more philosophic character of Hindu sacred literature. A partial cause of this divergence may be found in the Aryan origin of the dominant class; but the racial characteristics were the result of the fusion of this small Aryan element with an overwhelming pre-Aryan population.

Causes of difference in their

details of

educational

system

system

While the caste system, as well as the educational system, has The caste been largely modified during the nineteenth century by English influence, it is the historic condition in which we are here interested. The Hindu castes are four: (1) The Brahmins, or priests: this class also furnishes all teachers, and controls all legislation; (2) the Kshatriyas, the warrior, or military executive class; (3) the Vaisyas, or industrial class; (4) the Sudras, or servile class. Altogether outside of the Brahminical social organization are the pariahs, or outcasts.

the lower

castes

The Sudras and pariahs received no formal education whatever. Education o The members of the warrior and industrial classes had access to the literary schools kept by the members of the higher class, but never availed themselves of these privileges to any great extent. A knowledge of certain portions of the sacred texts, chiefly the ceremonial, and a memorizing of briefer portions was the extent of the education gained by the members of these castes. A training of a practical and professional nature was gained through the traditions and the customs of the home and of the village community. These two institutions were

Education of the

Brahmins

acred writigs of the Lindus

in reality the schools. But neither in the schools of the Brahmins nor in the home or the village community did instruction in reading and writing form a part of the education gained by most of the members of these castes. In a caste system, where the child follows the occupation of the parent, the necessary training is provided automatically by a universal system of apprenticeship. Not only training in handicrafts, but such practical knowledge of arithmetic or other subjects as was essential would result from the apprenticeship training given chiefly in the family.

The elaborate literary education was reserved for he Brahmins. All members of this class were supposed to acquire a most minute knowledge of the sacred writings, and a general knowledge of the literature and the philosophical beliefs of the Hindus. Through this knowledge of religious writings and approved forms of conduct, the literary priestly class became the ruling class politically as well as socially and religiously. Theoretically every member of the group must devote his life to such studies and to the appropriate accompanying activities. Practically it was possible only for the most devout to follow the life of literary study and philosophical reflection. This literary ruling class in India differed markedly from that in China not only because membership was unattainable by any of lower class origin, but because, on account of its religious character, the enjoyment of the privileges of this life carried with it practically no obligation of immediate service to the community.

Only through some knowledge of the Hindu religion and sacred literature can one obtain an understanding of this higher education and of its bearing, both in theory and in practice, on the development of the individual. The Hindu sacred writings, the Vedas, consist of four treatises, one for each of the three orders of Brahmins, and one for the guidance in conduct of the warrior or executive class. Each Veda consists of three parts: (1) the sacrificial formulas, mostly in verse; (2) instruction in the meaning and use of the former; (3) an abstract for the con

Character-"

istics of the Hindu geniu

venience of the priests. The second portion of each Veda contains a section of philosophical reflections or suggestions, out of which has grown the Hindu philosophy, and the study of which constitutes the most important part of their higher education. The chief aim of Hindu philosophy is to reduce the multiplicity of the phenomenal world to unity; the aim of their ethics, to change the chaos of the world of conduct to harmony; and the aim of their religion, to escape from the transitoriness and suffering of the present world into the peace and enjoyment of a life to come. The solution of their philosophical problem is found in mysticism; of their ethical and moral problem, in asceticism, with its isolation from the activities, interests, enjoyments, and evils of the present life. Their religion asserts not only the immortality of the soul, but its transmigration through successive incarnations, each dependent upon the character of the preceding life, and all subject to the evils and sufferings incident to this life of mortals. All individual existence, then, is an evil, morally and religiously as well as philosophically. The ideal is to escape Hindu ideal from such sufferings, to terminate this process of reincarnation, of life by the absorption of the individual soul in the world soul. Nirvana, which means extinction or may mean perfect peace, wisdom and goodness, is their ideal. This can be obtained only through extinction of individuality. Thus we reach the highest philosophical expression of the Oriental hostility to individuality.

the moral and

religious ele

ment to mod ern civiliza

tion

JEWISH EDUCATION.-In one respect the Jews formed a Contributed marked variation from the Oriental type. In regard to the moral and religious aspect of life, far more opportunity for the development of personality was given than with any other Oriental people. In this respect they contributed much to the development of Western culture. But in all other aspects of education, school organization, school method, etc., they did not vary from the Oriental type. In regard to schooling Tardy dethey were not nearly so advanced as were the Chinese. In velopment o fact, they did not possess schools for the laity until a short time system

educational

aspects of

heir cerenonial reli

ţion

before the loss of their national organization. Following the return of Ezra (458 B.C.), synagogues were gradually established in all the towns, and in them the law was expounded and religious services were held. Thus in addition to the ceremonial law to be observed everywhere, and the temple worship to be participated in at Jerusalem, the Jews had institutions for furEducational nishing instruction, chiefly religious, throughout the land. In connection with the synagogues there grew up the scribes, or expounders of the law, who were teachers, and who came to rival the priesthood in power. Later, from the second century B.C., minor officers of the synagogue began to teach the children during the week. After the Maccabean revolt (167 B.C.) such schools became quite general. Reading and writing, hitherto taught together with the rudiments of arithmetic in a few of the well-to-do families, now came to be taught in a public school to the children of the masses. Soon after this period the Hebrew national identity, as well as national life, was lost, and their educational system never developed beyond these germs. All instruction of a literary character, as well as all instruction of the people by the scribes and priests, centered in the law, that is, in the Bible and the Talmud. It is to be remembered that this law, mostly moral or ceremonial precept but containing more of principle than other Oriental sacred literature, was imposed by external authority, either that of biblical revelation or of priestly authority. On the other hand, through their conception of personal Deity and their belief in close personal contact with Him and personal responsibility to Him, which ever formed a permanent factor in the Jewish religion, greater ts moral and emphasis was laid by the Jew than by any other Oriental upon development of individuality in this one respect. But the period from Ezra to Christ was peculiarly one of the exaltation of the law. The conception of moral and religious personality, obtained not under the law objectively, but in and through a higher law, was reached only through the Christian religion and through the rejection of the ceremonial law. This con

Literary in enters in the

truction

ceremonial

aw

Develop

nent of personality in

eligious as

>ects

Fruition in

the Christian

eligion

ception was not clearly worked out till Jewish life came into contact with that of Greek and Roman. Hence this highest contribution of the Jews to education and to life, and that in which they differed most from other Oriental peoples, will be considered more fully in connection with the education of the early Christian Church.

THE CHINESE AS A TYPE OF ORIENTAL EDUCATION. Oriental systems of education differ much in detail. While the Chinese system is more complex and elaborate than those of other Asiatic peoples, yet in its main features it is a type of them all.

the center c the formal

the Orien

tals

As with the Chinese, so with the Hindu, the Egyptian, and the Literature Hebrew, education centered in the knowledge of a language technically complex and difficult of mastery, and in the pos- education of session of the lore of the past contained in its literature. In all cases that literature related largely to forms of conduct and religious ceremonial; and with the Hindu, the Egyptian, and the Hebrew it was the possession of the priesthood alone. If in China this learned class is not the priesthood, it is, as in the other cases, the dominant class in society.

The literary ruling class. Usually this

class is the

class is the priesthood

In all instances the masters of this literature are steeped in the knowledge of the past, and are especially interested in preserving traditional ways of action. So far as the masses of the people are concerned, their education yet consists in being told "What to do" and "How to do it." With most Oriental peoples the. class into whose charge the conduct of the masses is committed is the educated priesthood; with the Chinese it is the educated office-holders. For the masses of the people there is no formal Education o education. Their informal education consists of the training the masses in conduct and practical activities given by the priests, the literary ruling class governing class, and the adult generation in the home. For the chosen class there is a training in reading, writing, literary composition, and in the exposition of literature.

For the individual no variation from established forms is permissible. In most minute details conduct is prescribed.