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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

mind, the influence of which has increased as the authority once associated with the word culture has declined. The word practical acts on large numbers in every mod­ern community as a charm in superstitious eras acted upon its victims.

Let any new interpretation of religion, any new system of education, any scheme of finance, any civil policy be heralded as practical, and its advocates may rely upon an immediate following to be’ enumerated by thousands. It is by the victims of this epithet, by the worshipers of utility, by the self-styled practical people, that culture is held in disdain. One sometimes questions whether the disdain springs from con­scious superiority or from envy, which is the forced confession of conscious inferior­ity. Whatever its source, disdain is a poisoned weapon, and it is the weapon of suicide.

The man of action is the hero of the practical world, and hardly less does the woman of action control the imagination of contemporary maidenhood. But far from being, what numbers of their admirers proclaim them to be, the foes of culture, living proofs of the uselessness of culture, men of action and in a very particular sense women of action, are the heralds of culture, its prerequisites, and almost always its agents.

The achievements of practical men are, to the great and permanent detriment of numberless young people in this generation, frequently cited to show how unessential to success culture is. When men of action, like Fulton or Whitney, like A. T. Stew­art, Vanderbilt or Jay Gould, or in very different lines of action, like Edison, or Pull­man, or Powderly are under discussion, the feature of their careers which is dwelt upon with particular insistence is, that “they were or are men of no culture;” that “ they were or are men of no education,” or “ men of the most elementary,” or in favorite phrase “ of the most practical education.” It is readily admitted that the inadequate education of these men is an element which, in their careers, was calculated to attract attention; an element properly emphasized by biographers and economists, since the fact emphasizes their extraordinary ability in the direction of their successes.

Such careers may be regarded with complacency, with certain pride by every human being, since they indicate the dignity, the potency of the human spirit, which can set all obstacles at defiance and transcend circumstances. But such careers do not, as too many young people are led to believe, prove that success is the logical out­come of ignorance, the calculable goal of mind minus culture. What the man with­out culture, the practical man, has achieved in the world of matter may but grossly figure what the same man with culture might have achieved in the world of thought; and one element never to be forgotten in calculating one’s achievements is the plane upon which they are won. It is mainly the result of such careers and of the partial interpretation given to them that, in popular language, the antithesis of culture is practical education. It is by the advocates of practical education, who assume the role of the natural and necessary sponsors of progress, that culture has been put on the defensive. By them she, who, like beauty, has been wont to consider herself her own divine excuse for being, is compelled to state other and lower grounds which justify her continued existence. Thus any analysis of culture seems to involve an analysis of practical education; and in attempting such an analysis a numble disciple of culture hopes to show that the practical education, far from being the antithesis of culture, is the straight, broad path to it.

You will see then that the first question that arises in an attempt to define culture is: What is meant by a practical education? Is it not fair to reply that a practical , education is such an education in kind and degree as can be practical, as can be used with effectiveness in subsequent life? Is not a practical education one that looks to a definite, a distinct and probably attainable end, instead of to the vague and intangible end of personal development, which is culture’s avowed aim? One of the striking advantages of the practical education is that its end is thus definable; that it has an infallible test. One laying claim to a practical education must be ready at any hour to make answer to the pass-word of the work-a-day world: “What can you do?”