e fact, in a different form. If these children have
half their vitality taken out of them for life by premature and
excessive brain-work, it makes no difference whether it is done in the
form of direct taxation or of indirect,--whether they are compelled to
it by authority or allured into it by excitement and emulation. If a
horse breaks a blood-vessel by running too hard, it is no matter whether
he was goaded by whip and spur, or ingeniously coaxed by the Hibernian
method of a lock of hay tied six inches before his nose. The method is
nothing,--it is the pace which kills. Probably the fact is, that for
every extra hour directly required by the teacher, another is indirectly
extorted in addition by the general stimulus of the school. The best
scholars put on the added hour, because they are the best,--and the
inferior scholars, because they are not the best. In either case the
excess is destructive in its tendency, and the only refuge for
individuals is to be found in a combination of fortunate dulness with
happy indifference to shame. But is it desirable, my friend, to
construct our school-system on such a basis that safety and health shall
be monopolized by the stupid and the shameless?

Is this magnificent system of public instruction, the glory of the
world, to turn out merely a vast machine for grinding down Young
America, just as the system of middle-men, similarly organized, has
ground down the Irish peasantry? Look at it! as now arranged, committees
are responsible to the public, teachers to committees, pupils to
teachers,--all pledged to extract a maximum crop from childish brains.
Each is responsible to the authority next above him for a certain
amount, and must get it out of the victim next below him. Constant
improvements in machinery perfect and expedite the work; improved gauges
and metres (in the form of examinations) compute the comparative yield
to a nicety, and allow no evasion. The child cannot spare an hour, for
he must keep up with the other children; the teacher dares not relax,
for he must keep up with the other schools; the committees must only
stimulate, not check, for the eyes of the editors are upon them, and the
municipal glory is at stake: every one of these, from highest to lowest,
has his appointed place in the tread-mill and must keep step with the
rest; and only once a year, at the summer vacation, the vast machine
stops, and the poor remains of childish brain and body are taken out and