t is right in the
way of what is wrong. They do not see the first principles of law in a
law book; they only see its last results in the police news. They do not
see the truths of politics in a general survey. They only see the lies
of politics, at a General Election.

But whatever be the pathos of the London poor, it has nothing to do with
being uneducated. So far from being without guidance, they are guided
constantly, earnestly, excitedly; only guided wrong. The poor are not
at all neglected, they are merely oppressed; nay, rather they are
persecuted. There are no people in London who are not appealed to by the
rich; the appeals of the rich shriek from every hoarding and shout
from every hustings. For it should always be remembered that the queer,
abrupt ugliness of our streets and costumes are not the creation of
democracy, but of aristocracy. The House of Lords objected to the
Embankment being disfigured by trams. But most of the rich men who
disfigure the street-walls with their wares are actually in the House
of Lords. The peers make the country seats beautiful by making the town
streets hideous. This, however, is parenthetical. The point is, that the
poor in London are not left alone, but rather deafened and bewildered
with raucous and despotic advice. They are not like sheep without a
shepherd. They are more like one sheep whom twenty-seven shepherds are
shouting at. All the newspapers, all the new advertisements, all the
new medicines and new theologies, all the glare and blare of the gas and
brass of modern times--it is against these that the national school must
bear up if it can. I will not question that our elementary education is
better than barbaric ignorance. But there is no barbaric ignorance. I
do not doubt that our schools would be good for uninstructed boys. But
there are no uninstructed boys. A modern London school ought not merely
to be clearer, kindlier, more clever and more rapid than ignorance and
darkness. It must also be clearer than a picture postcard, cleverer than
a Limerick competition, quicker than the tram, and kindlier than
the tavern. The school, in fact, has the responsibility of universal
rivalry. We need not deny that everywhere there is a light that must
conquer darkness. But here we demand a light that can conquer light.

*****

VIII. THE BROKEN RAINBOW

I will take one case that will serve both as symbol and example: the
case of color. We hear the realists (those senti