son, and logic, and common sense, and which, to outsiders, often
appears to be merely a clutching at straws. But these straws save us,
and, through their means, we eventually reach the shore where doubts
cannot flourish and agnosticism gives way to a Faith which we _feel_ more
than we can actually define.

_Aristocracy and Democracy_

I believe in the _heart_ of democracy, but I am extremely suspicious of
its _head_. Popular education among the masses is the most derelict
thing in all our much-vaunted civilisation. To talk to the masses
concerning anything outside the radius of their own homes and stomachs
is, for the most part, like talking to children. It is not their fault.
They have never had a real chance to be otherwise. When I contemplate
the kind of education which the average child of the slums and country
villages is given--and the type of man and woman who is popularly
supposed to be competent to give it--I do not wonder that they are the
victims of any firebrand, crank, or plutocrat who comes to them and sails
into the Mother-of-All-Parliaments upon their votes. For the last six
years I have been placed in circumstances which have enabled me to
observe the results of what education has done for the average poor man.
The result has made me angry and appalled. The figure is low when I
declare that ninety per cent. of the poor not only cannot write the
King's English, but can neither read it nor understand it--beyond the
everyday common words which a child of twelve uses in his daily
vocabulary. Of history, of geography, of the art and literature of his
country, of politics or law, of domestic economy--he knows absolutely
nothing. Nothing of any real value is taught him. Even what he knows he
knows so imperfectly that absolute ignorance were perhaps a healthier
mental state. Until education is regarded with the same seriousness as
the law, it is hopeless to expect a new and better world. For education
is the very foundation of this finer existence. You can't expect an A1
nation among B3 intellects. Ornamental education is not wanted--it is
worse than useless until a _useful education_ has been inculcated. And
what is a useful education? It is an education which teaches a man and
woman to be of some immediate use in the world; to know something of the
world in which they live, and how best to fulfil their duty as useful
members of a community and in the world at large. At present the ave