life;
then all kinds of elementary and necessary trades, like agriculture in
some form or other, metal-work, wood-work, cloth-work, tailoring,
bootmaking; then such things as rifle-shooting, ambulance-work, nursing,
cookery, and so on. Let it be understood that _every one_, male or
female, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, is expected to qualify--not
in the whole programme, but first of all and as far as humanly possible
in the primary condition of physical health and development, and then
after that in some one, at any rate, of the above-mentioned or similar
trades--so that in case of general need or distress he can do
_something_ of use. That would at least be an approach to a valuable and
reasonable institution.

As things are it is appalling to think of the abject futility and
_uselessness_ of vast classes in all the modern nations of to-day,--but
perhaps especially in our own nation. Think of the populations of our
drawing-rooms, of our well-to-do clubs, of our universities, of our
commercial and professional offices, whose occupations, whatever they
are, are entirely remote from the direct needs and meanings of life; or
again of the vast masses who inhabit the mean streets of our great
towns, ignorant, ill-grown, unskilled, and in a chronic state of most
precarious and uncertain employment. What would these populations do in
any case of national crisis--say in a case of serious war or famine or
huge bankruptcy of trade or multitudinous invasion by Chinese or
Japanese, or of total collapse of credit and industry? With a few
brilliant exceptions they would collapse too. They could not feed
themselves, clothe themselves, or defend themselves; they could not
build shelters from the storm, or make tools or weapons of any kind for
their own use; they would be unable to nurse each other in illness or
cook for each other in health. A tribe of Arabs or a commando of Boer
farmers would be far more competent than they.

But the said deficiency, which would be painfully illustrated by a
serious crisis, is there equally in ordinary humdrum times of peace. The
crippled and idiotic life which would bring disaster _then_ is
undermining our very existence _now_. Is it not time that a sensible
nation should look to it that every one of its members, when adult,
should at least be healthy, well-fed, and well-grown, and that each
should not only be decently developed in himself or herself, but should
be capable of bearing a useful