nvariable' evil; while in the other
case, men may at least act well by accident. A governing class, that
is with interests separate from those of the government, _must_ be
bad. If the interests be identical, the government _may_ be bad. It
will be bad if ignorant, but ignorance is curable. Here he appeals for
once to a historical case. The priesthood at the Reformation argued on
behalf of their own power from the danger that the people would make a
bad use of the Bible. The Bible should therefore be kept for the
sacred caste. They had, Mill thinks, a stronger case in appearance
than the Tories, and yet the effect of allowing the people to judge
for themselves in religious matters has been productive of good
effects 'to a degree which has totally altered the condition of human
nature.'[99] Why should not the people be trusted to judge for
themselves in politics? This implies a doctrine which had great
influence with the Utilitarians. In the remarkable essay upon
'Education,' which is contained in the volume of reprints, Mill
discusses the doctrine of Helvetius that all the differences between
men are due to education. Without pronouncing positively upon the
differences between individuals, Mill observes that, at any rate, the
enormous difference between classes of men is wholly due to
education.[100] He takes education, it must be observed, in the widest
possible sense, as meaning what would now be called the whole action
of the 'environment' upon the individual. This includes, as he shows
at length, domestic education, all the vast influence exercised upon a
child in his family, 'technical education,' by which he means the
ordinary school teaching, 'social education,' that is the influences
which we imbibe from the current opinions of our neighbours, and
finally, 'political education,' which he calls the 'keystone of the
arch.' The means, he argues, by which the 'grand objects of desire may
be attained, depend almost wholly upon the political machine.'[101] If
that 'machine' be so constituted as to make the grand objects of
desire the 'natural prizes of just and virtuous conduct, of high
services to mankind and of the generous and amiable sentiments from
which great endeavours in the service of mankind naturally proceed, it
is natural to see diffused among mankind a generous ardour in the
acquisition of those admirable qualities which prepare a man for
admirable action, great intelligence, perfect self-command, and
over