38 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
I wish to greet and to congratulate the International Educational 
Congress, but I will not address my congratulations to an apparently 
insignificant thing. I will not congratulate it upon the fact that it has 
the honor of being presided over by a man of such merits as Dr. Harris; 
[ will not congratulate it upon the brilliant names that constitute the long 
list of its members, nor upon the extensiveness of its programmes, or the 
variety of its subjects. I wish to congratulate it simply upon its name : 
““ International, Educational.” May these two words be written in fiery 
letters on the dark sky of this summer night, so as to shine for every one 
who will attend the sessions of this congress. Then he who will treat an 
sducational question will remember that, even in the case when it has 
arisen from purely national considerations, it must have in its results a 
value from the “international ” point of view; for education, if not aim- 
ing to ingpire humanitarian feelings of international brotherhood, is but a 
dead letter. And he who will preach theories of “international ” equality 
of men will remember that this equality should be obtained by way of 
““ education ”’—that is, by way of arising, of building up; by way of noble 
smulation in improving, in learning, in accepting and assimilating things 
shat others have discovered ; in one word, international equality should be 
obtained by way of acquiring and not by way of restricting ; for tenden- 
cies of equality, if not inspired by motives of education, must bring 
humanity back to the animal equality of the beasts. And so the union of 
hese two words, “international” and ‘educational ”—may it be blessed ; 
may it resound in the hearts of all who will be present here; may it 
‘nspire the words and acts of the congress with great ideas of universal 
impartiality ; may it loudly proclaim that every one of us belongs, first, to 
humanity, and, secondly, to one or another nation ; may it teach that there 
is more honor for any one of us in being @ man than in being an American, 
or a Russian, or a German, or an Italian, or a Greek, or a Japanese, or 
whatever else it may be. 
Now, if we ask ourselves what is the surest way of obtaining universal 
.mpartiality, we will answer that it consists in observing this rule : That 
a smaller thing should not hide a greater one; that a partial question 
should not’ obstruct the view of its whole. In the physical world the 
perception of dimensions is relative ; a house, when we stand near it, 
appears greater than the mountain in the distance ; a small button, if 
held close to our eye, may obstruct the view of the sunshine and hide the 
whole universe ; but in the moral and intellectual domain we must not 
allow the same phenomena ; we must not allow that discussions between 
Methodism and Presbyterianism should obstruct Christianity. We should 
not suffer that interests of a town or of a community should grow bigger 
than interests of a State; that rivalry between one nation and another 
should make us forget humanity. 
These are the wishes I make in congratulating the congress upon the 
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