THE word "academy," with its various derivatives, comes down to us from classical history in a very pleasing picture. In the vicinity of Athens was a beautiful garden or park, known as the "Academia." It was planted with olive and lofty plane trees, and adorned with statues; a gentle stream flowed through it, and birds warbled in its sylvan retreats. This garden, "for contemplation framed," was the favorite resort of Plato, the great Athenian scholar and philosopher, who taught many people, and discoursed there with his learned friends upon the great themes of the day. Later, the name was given to the school or teaching of Plato, and gradually it was applied to a school intermediary between a common school and a college, or to a learned society formed for the advancement of the arts and sciences. In general usage, the word "academics," or studies pursued in an academy, now has come to refer to any or all branches of higher education taught in colleges and universities.

In connection with this garden school of Plato, it is interesting to observe the modern trend towards out-of-door schools, classes, instruction camps, travel bureaus, and other arrangements whereby children and youth may be taught, in part, through lectures, observation, and experiment, and, through harmless sports, be allowed to develop freedom, courage, and skill. Such methods are in accord with the high ideals of Christian Science along educational lines, as one may see from a careful study of page 195 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where, in one place, Mrs. Eddy says: "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal."

In line with this idea of "academics of the right sort," Mrs. Eddy refers to astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, and mathematics as being helpful and desirable branches of study, for the reason that in them "thought passes naturally from effect back to cause." This simple distinction gives one an idea of how to test academics and see whether they are of the "right sort," or whether they belong to the "tangled barbarisms of learning," mentioned on the same page, and designated as "the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the nauseous fiction." A careful study of these educational ideas advanced here by Mrs. Eddy would tend to clarify one's thought concerning the line of study he should choose in planning his college course, or in preparing for specialized work of any kind. Mrs. Eddy's use of the word "academics" presupposes, of course, a common school or general high school education as a foundation for the efficient carrying out of study along academic lines, but a knowledge of Christian Science will direct one in selecting the right sort of academics, or branches of study and research. This should not be a difficult task if one has been taught in the home, or in the Christian Science Sunday School, to base his thinking on a spiritual foundation, rather than upon the evidences obtained from the five corporeal senses, or from human theories, doctrines, or hypotheses.

Academics based upon spiritual discernment between things real and unreal need not, necessarily, await one's college course, but may become a part of one's earliest training, and gradually lead up to the higher realms of research and demonstration. Jesus pointed to the progressive method of acquiring knowledge, or of carrying on constructive work of any kind, when he said: "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Natural growth is logical development, expressing itself in normal completeness, and revealing the perfect unfolding of infinite Mind. This is the secret of originality and invention, of thought passing "naturally from effect back to cause," showing the whole line of development to be a clear process of reasoning, a straight road to accomplishment, though often, to human sense, barred by obstacles and trials.

Although not having educational advantages, as we today understand the graded process through which one acquires a liberal education in our schools and higher institutions of learning, many of the great Bible characters developed a keen sense of the right sort of academics, through applied spiritual means. The youthful Joseph was sold by his brethren into slavery in a strange land. From early childhood his thinking had probably been based upon that spiritual foundation of true wisdom which underlies "academics of the right sort," wherever and whenever appropriated. He used the very things Mrs. Eddy mentions in the reference previously given, "observation, invention, study, and original thought," and found them sufficiently "expansive," when he became governor of Egypt, to provide relief not only for the Egyptian nation in a seven-year depression and famine, but for surrounding nations as well.

Moses, it is said, "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," but when he came to mature years he found that much of the academics he had been taught was not of the "right sort," and forty years of quiet contemplation in the desert were required to prepare him for his great life-work of delivering the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and giving them the code of moral law. In the days of his youth, King Solomon chose wisdom above all other gifts, and through it accomplished many wonderful things; but in later life excessive luxury and self-indulgence dimmed his spiritual perception. Saul of Tarsus may have been trained in the right sort of academics, but even so his zeal in persecuting the early followers of Jesus showed that he was then bent on putting his education to base uses. After his conversion and the healing of his blindness, his name was changed to Paul, and he tells how he later under divine direction spent some time in the Arabian desert while receiving "the revelation of Jesus Christ," in preparation for carrying the gospel to the Gentile world.

Many other examples might be given to show that in some form or other "academics of the right sort are requisite," and are obtainable, either through selective educational processes or through the application of spiritual perception to human understanding in the ordinary walks of life. In whatever light one may consider the matter, it is highly important that everyone should strive to make the best use of his talents and opportunities, not only for self-development and in service for others, but in order that, as Mrs. Eddy mentions in the reference already given, such a process of learning may "promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal." Such promotion or spiritualization of thought will bring to light the immortal "academics" of spiritual understanding and the vast resources of infinite Mind.