out reference to history,
the exact date upon which King John signed Magna Charta, and the precise
number of battles fought in the Wars of the Roses.

Such are the literary accomplishments of numberless university
graduates, and it is small wonder that they often lead to the workhouse.
The demand for the dressed-up ideas of the poets, philosophers, and
scientists of a former generation is not great. Those who like their
literature at second hand prefer snippets from the Newgate Calendar to
the wise saws of Bacon; and they would rather have their blood stirred
by quotations from 'The Charge of the Light Brigade,' or 'Pay, pay,
pay,' than read a paraphrase of the combined wisdom of all the
philosophers of the nineteenth century.

The same argument holds good in relation to other professions and
occupations. The university graduate has no practical accomplishments.
He may be an ornamental, but he is certainly not _ipso facto_ a useful,
member of society. The only thing for which he is pre-eminently fitted
is to assist others, by means of extension lectures and cramming, to be
his companions in misfortune. But this can hardly be designated a
beneficial sphere of activity, and he is handicapped in all he
undertakes by the fact that thousands of others possess the same
educational equipment as himself.

Why should every educated man be like the other? There is absolutely no
reason for it. The similarity is purely artificial. Nature never
intended all men to be cast in the same mould, and it is only the
perversity of man himself that has brought the human race down to such a
level. The stupidity of giving every scholar the same mental outfit is
so self-evident as scarcely to need further comment. Even following the
modern plan of stuffing minds instead of developing them, one would have
thought that common sense would dictate the necessity of manufacturing
as much variety as possible.

The whole trend of evolution is to differentiate; and if natural laws
were not completely disregarded by education systems, the absurdity of
filling the world with two or three human species instead of a hundred
thousand would never have been perpetrated. As long as this arbitrary
interference with Nature is continued, educated men will not cease to be
a drug in the market. Its immediate effect is not to endow the
individual with special qualities, but to handicap him heavily for the
real business of life.

Competition amongst the 'well-ed