DENMARK HILL, April 1st, 1871.
_My Friends:_
It cannot but be pleasing to us to reflect, this day, that if we are
often foolish enough to talk English without understanding it, we are
often wise enough to talk Latin without knowing it. For this month
retains its pretty Roman name, which means the month of Opening; of
the light in the days, and the life in the leaves, and of the voices
of birds, and of the hearts of men.
And being the month of Manifestation, it is pre-eminently the month
of Fools;--for under the beatific influence of moral sunshine, or
Education, the Fools always come out first.
But what is less pleasing to reflect upon, this spring morning, is,
that there are some kinds of education which may be described, not as
moral sunshine, but as moral moonshine; and that, under these, Fools
come out both First--and Last.
We have, it seems, now set our opening hearts much on this one point,
that we will have education for all men and women now, and for all
girls and boys that are to be. Nothing, indeed, can be more desirable,
if only we determine also what kind of education we are to have. It is
taken for granted that any education must be good;--that the more of
it we get, the better; that bad education only means little education;
and that the worst we have to fear is getting none. Alas that is not
at all so. Getting no education is by no means the worst thing that
can happen to us. The real thing to be feared is getting a bad one.