to the
country. Under our party system it is obvious that it could not be done
with the remotest chance of success. And even if it were possible to
obtain steady uniform State interference, working always towards a
specific end, German methods would only be adopted at the expense of
increasing the pressure of cramming _en bloc_, and thereby multiplying
the evils which have been but faintly depicted in the foregoing pages.

CHAPTER XIV

THE GREAT FALLACY

That the world is badly ordered for humanity is a self-evident truth of
which the observant scarcely need reminding. It is equally obvious, from
the exquisite order and symmetry of animal and vegetable life, that
Providence is not to blame for the colossal mess into which civilization
has managed to lead the majority of mankind.

Man is himself responsible for the present state of human affairs; and
although great things have been undeniably accomplished during the
progress of the nations, the magnificent achievements of exceptional
individuals pale beside the stupendous blundering of the many.

It must surely be clear to everybody that there has been some evil
influence at work to arrest the fair promise and development of the
human race. The splendid march of intellectual progress from the dark
ages to the brilliant dawn of the nineteenth century, with its
glittering array of master minds and its titanic roll of genius, has
been suddenly brought to a dead halt. Here and there, during the past
generation, great figures have struggled up on to the world's stage and
grappled with the ebb-tide. But the majestic stream of mediocrity has
swept away their dykes, and obliterated their landmarks with its
increasing volume.

The remarkable fact can hardly have escaped attention that the more
humanity attempts to equip itself for the serious business of life, by
forcing itself into an educational strait-waistcoat, the more rapid
becomes the disappearance of character and genius, and even of ordinary
talent. Everybody is getting ground down to a level. It is scarcely
possible to point to a single civilized man and say: 'There is somebody
in whom every faculty has been developed and natural talent perfected to
its utmost capability.' The most that can be said of the individual is:
'There goes a Cambridge man or a grammar-school man, and when you have
knocked all the nonsense out of him you'll find he's not a bad fellow at
bottom.'

We are not what we have made our