ESSAY-REVIEWS 339 



Finally, if success ever attended the effort to force any considerable part of the 

 population through such an examination, there is danger of grave injustice through 

 mistakes ; injustice to individuals through which social disturbance might arise. 

 England is obviously wearying of officialism. The establishment of an autocratic 

 educational bureaucracy with power to compel an examination of " capacity," and 

 to settle individual careers accordingly, might bring disaster reaching far beyond 

 the educational world. That the author might not shrink from such a plan is 

 suggested by the book's distressing lack of humour. For instance, in the melan- 

 choly satisfaction which escapes round the recital of the life-histories of the 

 deplorable " Kallikak," " Nam " and " Jukes " Families, it never seems to strike 

 him that to embark on life's voyage with such patronymics is, in itself, no 

 negligible handicap. 



Yet teachers may lose something if they leave the book unread. At least, it 

 shines in comparison with some of its kind, in containing definite, comprehensible 

 matter. It is not, as many are, interminable verbiage wound round shadowy 

 hypotheses. Its propositions may be disputable, its mistakes apparent ; but it is 

 suggestive, even if sometimes only of what not to do. 



