NOTES 655 



be to stimulate the flow of saliva by the exhibition of dishes 

 which, like those put before Sancho Panza, are not to be 

 eaten. Thus, ultimately, we shall reach the nirvana of abso- 

 lute ignorance (and starvation) where we shall remain for ever 

 seated in the beatific contemplation of our own virtue (and 

 hunger). 



A false philosophy, this modern English one of fakirism — 

 as false as the opposite German one of thuggism. Neither for 

 fakirs nor for thugs has the world any use. Both are only 

 morbidities — the fakir the worse because of his decadence. 



The world requires people who do things — not those who 

 can do things if they wish but do not do them . Such are only 

 wastrels ; and the complaint against our education is that it 

 breeds too many wastrels. For centuries instruction has 

 been given in the schools because the instructed person is useful 

 to his fellows, while the uninstructed person is fit only for 

 unskilled manual work ; and the experience of centuries is 

 apt to teach something of truth. It is idle to talk of the 

 love of knowledge being something apart from knowledge — 

 one might as well admire the love of swimming in one who 

 cannot swim. Per contra, the world judges rightly that one 

 who cannot swim is too lazy to learn and that one who knows 

 nothing is a loafer. To tell the young that they should seek 

 knowledge but that knowledge when found is of little account, 

 is a paradox which they will detect at once but employ as an 

 excuse for idleness ; yet from every side comes the complaint 

 that this is the doctrine actually taught in many of our schools. 

 Science is a bore, literature ridiculous, languages too much 

 trouble ; the only things that matter are games and the cut 

 of one's collars. This kind of spirit will serve no longer. It 

 breeds only intuitive philosophers, conscientious objectors, 

 anti-vivisectionists, party politicians, and other charlatans ; 

 and a nation which accepts it too frequently will itself become 

 a fakir sitting begging by the roadside of progress. 



Fakirism is the degeneration of minds which possess intel- 

 lectual tendencies but not the vigour required to digest the 

 wholesome food of facts which alone can raise intellectual 

 tendencies to the difficult summit of achievement. It is a 

 paralysis which often overtakes fine but delicate souls, as 

 heart-failure often overtakes athletes. We shall always find 

 it easier to give up the ascent, to sit down, sigh, and complain 



