THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 201 



than among peasants, even though the working-men may be the better 

 instructed. Some statisticians have remarked that the moral influence 

 of knowledge begins to be real at the moment when learning ceases to 

 be a tool to become a work of art. To exert a moral influence is, in 

 fact, to raise minds above egotist views and purely material interests, 

 toward general ideas and impersonal sentiments. For that reason, 

 instruction should be not only professional, and technical or scientific, 

 but literary and aesthetic as well. 



The citizen of a democracy must, further, have precise knowledge 

 in public polity, and this should be made obligatory. It may be that 

 a man has a right to be and continue incapable in matters that concern 

 himself alone, but that can not be allowed in affairs that concern all. 

 Society as a whole must demand some guarantees from the associated 

 individuals — a certain maturity, not of age alone, but also of intelli- 

 gence and education. John Stuart Mill says that the elector ought 

 to be able to copy a few lines of English, and do a sum in the rule of 

 three. We have not much faith in the virtue, in this matter, of the 

 rule of three. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are double-edged 

 blades ; everything depends on what one reads and how he uses his 

 arithmetic. Mr. Spencer remarks with much force that the multipli- 

 cation-table will not help one to comprehend the falsity of the social- 

 ist dogmas. What good does the laborer's ability to read do him if 

 he only reads what confii-ms him in his delusions ? The higher grades 

 of instruction are doubtless more efiicacious than the primary ; but 

 they are far from being of themselves competent to develop political 

 capacity. Mr, Spencer, having shown how poorly prepared is the Eng- 

 glish university graduate, with his knowledge of Homer and Sopho- 

 cles, to perform his duties as a member of Parliament, adds that to 

 prepare a person for political life he ought to be given education in 

 politics, while the contrary is done. Yet, when we wish to teach our 

 daughters to become good musicians, we do not furnish them with a 

 painter's apparatus, but seat them in front of a piano. The classical 

 studies, so much criticised, have at least an aesthetic and moral influ- 

 ence, if they do not develop the political sense ; but the study of the 

 sciences, as it is ordinarily pursued, has neither of these advantages. 

 Our courses are overcharged with historical and scientific studies, the 

 tendency of which is to overload the memory of the pupils, without 

 developing their judgment or elevating their character, and the result 

 has been deplorable. Courses charged with calculations, analyses, and 

 classifications, can not even contribute to the moral and intellectual 

 elevation of the mind. There should be taught, besides the element- 

 ary and practical principles, the most speculative principles, and the 

 most general results of the sciences, or, in short, their philosophy. In 

 this way only has science an educational virtue ; in this way it lifts 

 the mind instead of merely furnishing the memory, and is liberal in- 

 stead of servile and military. As usually taught, it serves only to 



