ily be
the one perfect method--just as the fond mother, whose infant has been
enabled by means of a phenomenal digestion to outlive a particular food,
believes that it is the only food upon which babies can possibly be
brought up.

When we come to survey impartially the effects of this system of
education upon boys in general, it must surely be brought home to us
that something is radically wrong somewhere. If a few manage to survive
the treatment and remain the ten righteous individuals, what is to be
said of the degeneration of the majority? It is surely absurd, with the
anomalies and defects of the whole method of educating youth staring one
in the face, to ascribe it to mere boy nature.

The truth is that in boyhood the natural tendencies incline to push
their way boisterously to the front. They are constantly trying to find
an egress. But the parent and the pedagogue, in their blindness, can
only see in this law of nature a wicked and perverse propensity that
must be restrained at all hazards by a speedy application of the
educational strait-waistcoat.

CHAPTER VIII

THE STRUGGLE OF THE EDUCATED

So far we have chiefly discussed the effect produced upon the individual
by a compulsory course of study. It has been seen that he suffers in a
number of ways, through being subjected, from his earliest childhood, to
a more or less inflexible method of training. All of these, however,
have been directly attributable to his education. We may now consider,
before pursuing the subject any further, certain disabilities that may
be traced to the same cause, but which are brought about indirectly.

It is bad enough, as most of us will have perceived, to compel a boy to
learn certain things whether they are congenial to him or not. But it is
preposterous that the same stock of knowledge should be forced upon all
alike. This is, however, exactly what is being done in every educational
establishment throughout the Empire, with the most disastrous
consequences to the victims of the system.

Let us turn once more to the map of life for an illustration.

The average educated man begins to learn his alphabet at the age of four
or five. During the following years he receives the necessary grounding
to prepare him for the lower forms of a public school. At eleven, or
thereabouts, he commences his school career. Throughout the whole of
this period he is put through a course of study identical in every
respect with that p