It is this divine philosophy which the spiritually minded grasp, and which is the sum and substance of their education. It is this human philosophy, or natural philosophy, which in the sight of God is folly, that Egypt and her followers adopted. Minds delving into human philosophy never find God, nor do they approach the realms of divine philosophy. There is a divine philosophy, and it is grasped by faith; and there is a human philosophy, a creation of the human mind, a science formulated from deductions which appeal to natural senses. But the man, wisest in human learning alone, remains still a fool in the eyes of God, for the inner man has not been reached.
Egyptian wisdom
Our study of pagan education is not, however, confined to the Nile Valley. Indeed, some of the most interesting phases, some of the strongest features of the system, were developed elsewhere. Egypt was the cradle, but Greece and Rome were fields in which these ideas gained strength. We read: “The ancients looked upon Egypt as a school of wisdom. Greece sent thither illustrious philosophers and lawgivers—Pythagoras and Plato, Lycurgus and Solon—to complete their studies.” “Hence, even the Greeks in ancient times were accustomed to borrow their politics and their learning from the Egyptians.”[36]
Spartan education and Egypt
Of the four men mentioned, we look upon Lycurgus as the founder of the Spartan government, noted for the physical training it gave and the utter subjection of the individual to the state. Every historian recognized this as due to the system of education introduced by Lycurgus, and followed out by his people. The newborn babe was adjudged worthy of life or death by a council of the state, the decision being based on the physical condition of the infant. At the age of seven the child became the property of the state, and so remained until sixty. It was more exclusively a physical or purely secular education than that offered elsewhere on earth.
Athens and Egypt
The prosperity of Athens, where was “wrought out the most perfect form of heathen civilization,” dates from the time of Solon, who, as we have already learned, finished his education in Egypt. In these two men we see the leaning toward the physical side, made so prominent in pagan education. “The course of study in the school of Pythagoras embraced mathematics, physics, metaphysics, and medicine. Especial prominence was given mathematics, which Pythagoras regarded as the noblest science.” Here is revealed the inclination of the pagan education toward the purely intellectual. Of Plato we shall read later.
Egyptian education universal
If Egypt offered ground for the germination of the seed of pagan education, Greece brought the plant to its seed-producing state; and Rome, acting as the wind with the thistle down, scattered pagan education broadcast. Of Rome we read: “It gathered into its arms the elements of Grecian and Oriental culture, and as its end drew nigh, it scatters them freely over the rest of Europe. Rome has been the bearer of culture to the modern world.”[37]
Plato in education