question implies so much that no rational man can accept it. It is
equivalent to the assertion that barbarism is a better condition than
civilization, and that the progress of modern times has proceeded upon a
misconception of the true ideal perfection of the human race. As no one
can be found who will admit that his happiness has been marred, his
powers limited, or his life degraded, by education, so there is no
process of logic that can commend to the human understanding the
doctrine that bodies of men are either less happy or virtuous for the
culture of the intellect. I am not aware of any human experience that
conflicts with this view; for individual cases of criminals who have
been well educated prove nothing in themselves, but are to be considered
as facts in great classes of facts which indicate the principles and
conduct of bodies of men who are subject to similar influences. In fact,
the statistics to which I have had access tend to show that crime
diminishes as intelligence increases. On this point the experience of
Great Britain is probably more definite, and, of course, more valuable,
than our own. The Aberdeen Feeding Schools were established in 1841, and
during the ten years succeeding the commitments to the jails of children
under twelve years of age were as follows:[1]

In 1842, 30 In 1847, 27

1843, 63 1848, 19

1844, 41 1849, 16

1845, 49 1850, 22

1846, 28 1851, 8
___ ___
211 92

In the work of Mr. Hill it is also stated that "the number of children
under twelve committed for crime to the Aberdeen prisons, during the
last six years, was as follows:

Males. Females. Total.

1849-50, 11 5 16

1850-51, 14 8 22

1851-52, 6 2 8

1852-53, 23 1 24

1853-54, 24 1 25

1854-55, 47 2 49

"It will be observed that in the last three years there has been a great
increase of boy crime, contemporaneously with an almost total absence of
girl crime, though formerly the amount of the latter was considerable.
Now, since this extraordinary difference coincides in point of time with
the fact of full girls' schools and half empty boys' schools, the
inference can hardly be avoided that t