burden to himself
and to those by whom he is surrounded. Natural tendencies cannot be
wholly suppressed, even by education systems; and the victim's existence
is not rendered more bearable by the reflection that, but for
circumstances which he is rarely able to analyze, he might have
succeeded in some other and more agreeable occupation had he only
received the necessary encouragement in his youth.

Secondly, there is the fact that the progress of civilization is
enormously retarded by its being rarely in the hands of the most fit.
The most fit are not, and cannot be, produced under prevailing
conditions. The whole machinery of education is directed towards the
production of a dead level of mediocrity. In many cases--such as, for
example, in Prussia--this is done by design, and not by accident.
Instruction is imparted in such a manner that no regard is paid to
individual propensities. All are subjected, more or less, to the same
process. They are fitted for nothing in particular, and no trouble is
taken to ascertain the direction in which an individual mind should be
developed. The consequence is that, from one end of the civilized world
to the other, resounds the cry, 'What shall we do with our boys?'

And, lastly, it scarcely requires pointing out that the enormous sums of
money spent by Governments, by municipalities, and by private persons
upon education, in order to produce this lamentable state of affairs, is
so much waste and extravagance. Not only does it bring in no practical
return, but it works out in a precisely opposite direction. Schools and
colleges that only serve to produce anomalous and unnatural social
conditions, that stifle genius and talent, and that cause widespread
misery among the unsuitably educated, must be reckoned as a national
loss.

People deplore the heavy sums spent on armaments and on the maintenance
of enormous fleets and armies; but it may be doubted if this expenditure
is as costly in the end as that which goes to support a systematic
manufacture of the unfit, and to assist in the distribution of
individuals to stations in the social scheme for which they are wholly
unsuited.

CHAPTER III

THE DESTRUCTION OF GENIUS

Most people labour under the delusion that genius only makes its
appearance twice or thrice during a generation. It is certainly the fact
that a Napoleon, a Shakespeare, or a Beethoven, is only born once in a
century; and colossal intellects such as these