Very soon a marked change would come over the nation. Its present highly strung and hysterical condition, which has been induced chiefly by the sensationalism of its vulgar newspapers and other cheap literature, would yield before a more sober and more dignified state of mind. Not a child whose spirits had been brought into vivifying contact with the noblest of the nation’s thoughts and sentiments, could help manifesting signs of this invigorating intercourse in later life. Among the meanest of them it would leave behind at least the dim recollection that there were things in heaven and earth that were greater than themselves, that there were sacred and lofty heights in the intellectual productions of their nation, which they had once gazed upon as it were from afar, and while this memory would sustain them in their patriotism and fortify them in their self-respect, it would also tend to check that spirit of irreverence for all things which is one of the most alarming features of the Age. Again, instead of opening the school gates to let loose a flood of fourteen-year-old hooligans, with no mental equipment except gutter smartness, children taught in this [p152] way would be sent forth into the world possessing at least a foundation of sound knowledge, a basis of valuable ideas and principles concerning life and humanity, the benefit of which they themselves and their neighbours would feel at every moment of their lives. And this immensely desirable result, this crying need of the present day, could be obtained at what cost? At the cost of small smatterings of History, Geography, Drawing, Hygiene, and Physics, which are forgotten within nine months of leaving school, which even remembered would be of little practical value, and which, so far from having been introduced into the curriculum with serious intent, appear rather to have found their way there by accident and to have been retained purely from motives of idle and fruitless display. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 24: Even John Locke, who, as a thinker was, in many respects, surprisingly superficial, exclaims with regard to education: “You will wonder, perhaps, that I put learning last, especially if I tell you I think it the least part.” (_Some Thoughts concerning Education_). While Aristotle lays it down definitely: “That there is a sort of education in which parents should train their sons, not as being useful or necessary, but because it is liberal or noble.” (Politics VIII., 5).] [Footnote 25: The German _lesen_ and the French _lire_, both have the same implication. They both imply discernment, understanding. The old high German _lësan_ meant to collect with discrimination, and, with the French _lire_ was allied to the Latin _legere_, which may mean to choose, to pick out, to single out, and to select,--all actions implying discernment and understanding.]