Often one thinks it was good to have a faith of that kind--that
always, even in the most degraded, sunken, and unbelieving times, he
calculates there will be found some few souls who will recognise what
that meant; and that the world, having once received it, there is no
fear of its retrograding. He goes on then to tell us the way in which
they seek to teach boys, in the sciences particularly, whatever the
boy is fit for. Wilhelm left his own boy there, expecting they would
make him a Master of Arts, or something of that kind; and when he came
back for him he saw a thundering cloud of dust coming over the plain,
of which he could make nothing. It turned out to be a tempest of wild
horses, managed by young lads who had a turn for hunting with their
grooms. His own son was among them, and he found that the breaking of
colts was the thing he was most suited for. (Laughter.) This is
what Goethe calls Art, which I should not make clear to you by any
definition unless it is clear already. (A laugh.) I would not attempt
to define it as music, painting, and poetry, and so on; it is in quite
a higher sense than the common one, and in which, I am afraid, most of
our painters, poets, and music men would not pass muster. (A laugh.)
He considers that the highest pitch to which human culture can go; and
he watches with great industry how it is to be brought about with men
who have a turn for it.
Very wise and beautiful it is. It gives one an idea that something
greatly better is possible for man in the world. I confess it seems to
me it is a shadow of what will come, unless the world is to come to
a conclusion that is perfectly frightful; some kind of scheme of
education like that, presided over by the wisest and most sacred men
that can be got in the world, and watching from a distance--a training
in practicality at every turn; no speech in it except that speech that
is to be followed by action, for that ought to be the rule as nearly
as possible among them. For rarely should men speak at all unless it
is to say that thing that is to be done; and let him go and do his
part in it, and to say no more about it. I should say there is nothing
in the world you can conceive so difficult, _prima facie_, as that
of getting a set of men gathered together--rough, rude, and ignorant
people--gather them together, promise them a shilling a day, rank
them up, give them very severe and sharp drill, and by bullying and
drill--for the word "drill" seems as if it meant the treatment that
would force them to learn--they learn what it is necessary to learn;
and there is the man, a piece of an animated machine, a wonder of
wonders to look at. He will go and obey one man, and walk into the
cannon's mouth for him, and do anything whatever that is commanded of
him by his general officer. And I believe all manner of things in
this way could be done if there were anything like the same attention
bestowed. Very many things could be regimented and organized into the
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