r example, in Jane Austen's
novels; with what complacent rhetoric in Tennyson (and in spite
of Lady Clara Vere de Vere)! Let me remind you that by allowing
an idea to take hold of our animosity we may be as truly
`possessed' by it as though it claimed our allegiance. The notion
that culture may be drilled to march in step with a trade or
calling endured through the Victorian age of competition and
possessed the mind not only of Samuel Smiles who taught by
instances how a bright and industrious boy might earn money and
lift himself out of his 'station,' but of Ruskin himself, who in
the first half of "Sesame and Lilies," in the lecture "Of Kings'
Treasuries," discussing the choice of books, starts vehemently
and proceeds at length to denounce the prevalent passion for
self-advancement--of rising above one's station in life--quite as
if it were the most important thing, willy-nilly, in talking of
the choice of books. Which means that, to Ruskin, just then, it
was the most formidable obstacle. Can we, at this time of day, do
better by simply turning the notion out of doors? Yes, I believe
that we can: and upon this _credo_:

_I believe that while it may grow--and grow infinitely--with
increase of learning, the grace of a liberal education, like the
grace of Christianity, is so catholic a thing--so absolutely
above being trafficked, retailed, apportioned, among `stations in
life'--that the humblest child may claim it by indefeasible
right, having a soul._

_Further, I believe that Humanism is, or should he, no decorative
appanage, purchased late in the process of education, within the
means of a few: but a quality, rather, which should, and can,
condition all teaching, from a child's first lesson in Reading:
that its unmistakable hall-mark can be impressed upon the
earliest task set in an Elementary School._

VIII

I am not preaching red Radicalism in this: I am not telling you
that Jack is as good as his master: if he were, he would be a
great deal better; for he would understand Homer (say) as well as
his master, the child of parents who could afford to have him
taught Greek. As Greek is commonly taught, I regret to say,
whether they have learnt it or not makes a distressingly small
difference to most boys' appreciation of Homer. Still it does
make a vast difference to some, and should make a vast difference
to all. And yet, if you will read the passage in Kinglake's
"Eoethen" in which he tells--in words that find