Right Views of Education by D. P. Page

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 12, 1907

Right Views of Education

By D. P. Page

EVERY teacher, before he begins the work of instruction, should have some definite idea of what constitutes an education; otherwise he may work to very little purpose. The painter who would execute a beautiful picture, must have beforehand a true and clear conception of beauty in his own mind. The same may be said of the sculptor. That rude block of marble, unsightly to the eyes of other men, contains the godlike form, the symmetrical proportion, the lifelike attitude of the finished and polished statue; and the whole is as clear to his mental eye before the chisel is applied as it is to his bodily vision when the work is completed. With this perfect ideal in the mind at the outset, every stroke of the chisel has its object. Not a blow is struck, but it is guided by consummate skill; not a chip is removed, but to develop the ideal of the artist. And when the late unsightly marble, as if by miraculous power, stands out before the astonished spectator in all the perfection of beauty,—when it almost breathes and speaks,—it is to the artist but the realization of his own conception.

D. P. PAGE.