The value of the classics in engineering education

Education is not the learning of a trade or profession, but is the development of the intellect and the broadening of the mind, afforded by a general knowledge of all the subjects of interest to the human race, as required to enable a man to intelligently attack and solve problems in which no previous detail experience guides, and to decide the questions arising in his intellectual, social, and industrial life by impartially weighing the different factors and judge their relative importance. These problems, and thus the educational preparation required to cope with them, are practically the same in all walks of life, and the general education of mind and intellect, required by the engineer, the lawyer, the physician, etc., thus is essentially the same. The only legitimate differences in the training for the life's work, required by the different professions, thus are those pertaining to the specific instruction and study of the details of the particular branch of human knowledge, by which the student desires to make his living.