"Let none but skilful workmen elaborate precious material."
Think not that the truly great Vyora was but little honoured by being
appointed to an office connected with little children.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Ante_, p. 8.]
The character-divers were entrusted by me with grave duties, on the
proper discharge of which depended the enduring success of my polity.
The education of the young of both sexes engaged from the first my
deepest study, for I had early convinced myself that the many evils to
be eradicated had their stronghold in the mode in which education had
been conducted, and soon after the commencement of my reign I put into
execution a portion of my laws for making education a powerful lever in
the regeneration of my world.
Men of genius had been compelled by ignorance or driven by necessity to
follow occupations for which they were not fitted, and which they,
indeed, often loathed; the really valuable tendencies of these men, bent
in an opposite direction, were allowed to run to waste, or perhaps be
used to the injury and destruction of others.
I felt that to do justice to all and effect good incalculable, evil
tendencies must be destroyed in their birth, the germs of the
imperfections and crimes of the man, detected and eradicated in the
child; whilst valuable qualities and good tendencies must be searched
out, and effective means devised for their healthful development.
The most ordinary men, those even who would otherwise be swayed by gross
passions, would become contented workmen in the cause of good when
occupied with pursuits for which nature and education had fitted them;
whilst the power and works of men of genius would be many times
increased and multiplied if their education were adapted to strengthen
and develop their talents, eradicate their faults, and generate
auxiliary excellencies.
But how could all this be effected if the first step to so desirable an
end were wanting?
In my visits to the schools I had been struck with the fact that little
account was taken of the characters of children,--their qualifications
and natural tendencies physical or mental: the attempt was to force the
boy to the system, not to adapt the system to the boy.
One routine existed for all pupils, whether for the inculcation of the
love of study or for the correction of faults. The earnest and
passionate nature was treated in the same way as the cold and
phlegmatic; the boy of genius or talent, as the dullard; the one who
loved, as he who disliked, or had a tendency to dislike, study; the
weakly, as the strong. They were all driven together like a flock of
sheep, with scarcely any regard to individual capabilities, bent of
genius, or physical constitution, which indeed little effort, and that
ill-directed, had been made to discover.
I had observed, also, boys with the germs of great genius, who, for want
of some minor quality, were rejected and perhaps placed in some lower
division, humiliated and discouraged, although with care the deficient
quality could have been supplied. The want of this perhaps would make
the boy a recruit to the ranks of evil, or at least unfit him, when a
man, for the real business of life. It was the small bolt wanting to
enable the machine to do its work properly.