XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS 401 



one that ability should be neither wasted, nor 

 misapplied, by any one: and, therefore, that every 

 one's representative, the State, is necessarily 

 fulfilling the wishes of its constituents when 

 it is helping the capacities to reach their proper 

 places. 



It may be said that the scheme of education 

 here sketched is too large to be affected in the 

 time during which the children will remain at 

 school; and, secondly, that even if this objection 

 did not exist, it would cost too much. 



I attach no importance whatever to the first 

 objection until the experiment has been fairly 

 tried. Considering how much catechism, lists of 

 the kings of Israel, geography of Palestine, and the 

 like, children are made to swallow now, I cannot 

 believe there will be any difficulty in inducing 

 them to go through the physical training, which 

 is more than half play; or the instruction in 

 household work, or in those duties to one another 

 and to themselves, which have a daily and hourly 

 practical interest. That children take kindly to 

 elementary science and art no one can doubt who 

 has tried the experiment properly. And if Bible- 

 reading is not accompanied by constraint and so- 

 lemnity, as if it were a sacrarnental operation, I 

 do not believe there is anything in which children 

 take more pleasure. At least I know that some 

 of the pleasantest recollections of my childhood 

 are connected with the voluntary study of an an- 



