From the few pages that the author of the “Social Life” devoted to the latter subject, I feel sure that the Atlanteans would have been horrified at our system of herding forty or fifty children together in subjection to a glowering pedagogue: their theory was that personal and friendly contact with the teacher was the important thing, and so their boys and girls were taught in small groups, and never for many hours a day, nor with more than a minimum of restraint upon their natural spirits, nor in a specified and unvarying place, for as often as not their school-room was a marble colonnade or the court of a temple or even the open fields. And, in the same way, the higher education among the Atlanteans (except in the case of scientific work requiring laboratory training) was much less formal than among us. There were no such things as universities or university degrees, but men and women of recognized wisdom and learning were chosen to commune with the young and discuss with them the problems of life, much as Socrates did when he presided among his disciples; and these “Guardians of the Mind,” as they were called, would counsel and direct their young charges, and guide them in that reading which constituted their primary source of information. CHAPTER XXV Duties and Pastimes It is from my first visit to the library that I date my real initiation into the affairs of Atlantis. From that time forth I was no longer a stranger in an unknown world; I became involved in such a round of activities that I began to feel almost at home. For it was my good fortune to have plenty to do, far more to do, in fact, than the average Atlantean; and with the demands of the Sunken World calling me on the one hand, and my old companions of the X-111 drawing me on the other, I did not have far to seek for an interest in life. First of all, of course, I was applying myself to my “History of the Upper World.” It took me a month to plan the book, though meanwhile I devoted hours a day to improving my knowledge of the Atlantean language and institutions. And when finally I had completed my preliminary outline it did not satisfy me entirely, and yet seemed adequate as a working basis. The introductory section of the book--necessarily a lengthy affair--was to be devoted to a description of the modern world, to the various nations, their customs, languages, social systems, scientific advances and wars; and having begun with this grand resume of modern achievement, I intended to show the steps by which that achievement had been consummated, and to picture in general the course of those social fluctuations, those invasions, battles, slave-raids, civil conflicts, religious persecutions, crusades, economic revolutions, industrial tumults and international blood-feuds that have brought civilisation to its present proud estate.