d not pass muster. (A laugh.)
He considers that the highest pitch to which human culture can go; and
he watches with great industry how it is to be brought about with men
who have a turn for it.

Very wise and beautiful it is. It gives one an idea that something
greatly better is possible for man in the world. I confess it seems to
me it is a shadow of what will come, unless the world is to come to
a conclusion that is perfectly frightful; some kind of scheme of
education like that, presided over by the wisest and most sacred men
that can be got in the world, and watching from a distance--a training
in practicality at every turn; no speech in it except that speech that
is to be followed by action, for that ought to be the rule as nearly
as possible among them. For rarely should men speak at all unless it
is to say that thing that is to be done; and let him go and do his
part in it, and to say no more about it. I should say there is nothing
in the world you can conceive so difficult, _prima facie_, as that
of getting a set of men gathered together--rough, rude, and ignorant
people--gather them together, promise them a shilling a day, rank
them up, give them very severe and sharp drill, and by bullying and
drill--for the word "drill" seems as if it meant the treatment that
would force them to learn--they learn what it is necessary to learn;
and there is the man, a piece of an animated machine, a wonder of
wonders to look at. He will go and obey one man, and walk into the
cannon's mouth for him, and do anything whatever that is commanded of
him by his general officer. And I believe all manner of things in
this way could be done if there were anything like the same attention
bestowed. Very many things could be regimented and organized into the
mute system of education that Goethe evidently adumbrates there. But I
believe, when people look into it, it will be found that they will not
be very long in trying to make some efforts in that direction; for the
saving of human labour, and the avoidance of human misery, would be
uncountable if it were set about and begun even in part.

Alas! it is painful to think how very far away it is--any fulfilment
of such things; for I need not hide from you, young gentlemen--and
that is one of the last things I am going to tell you--that you have
got into a very troublous epoch of the world; and I don't think
you will find it improve the footing you have, though you have many
advantages whic