728 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



These people who make their own way, unaided by wealth or influ- 

 ence, have never studied a dozen or more subjects at the village school, 

 where at most they learned the " three R's " — reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic — and where their physical forces were not deteriorated by 

 want of bodily exercise. "What they learned from the country school- 

 master they learned well, not because of any original superiority of 

 their brains over the brains of the children of the present day, but be- 

 cause they did not go to school till they were well-grown children, and, 

 further, for the reason that their minds were not tortured with a mul- 

 tiplicity of subjects to be learned, or goaded by the system of compe- 

 tition which prevails in almost all schools of the present day. Then, 

 when they had arrived at that period of life at which their predilec- 

 tions were formed, they enteFed with ardor upon studies that they 

 selected for themselves ; for they knew exactly what they wanted, and 

 governed themselves accordingly. They frequented reading-rooms 

 and libraries, at such times as they could take from the labor necessary 

 for their support, and they devoted their nights to the study of mat- 

 ters that it was necessary for them to understand. One hour of this 

 kind of mental work, with a brain near its full development, and with 

 the attention roused to its utmost power of exertion by the sense of 

 necessity, the spur of ambition, the longing for success, is worth more 

 than three times the amount Avith brains needing all their force for 

 natural growth, and which are confused and painful from the alternate 

 blandishments and lashings to which they have been subjected. 



If a law were passed prohibiting the public schools teaching chil- 

 dren under ten years of age from books, and restricting the education 

 given therein to the elementary branches of English, I am sure that, 

 as the ages of the pupils increased, healthy differentiations would take 

 place. The principle of natural selection would come into action, and 

 the result would be beneficial both to the individual and to the State. 

 Something like this is now being attempted in a few of our colleges, 

 and it appears to work well. It is not often the case that pupils will, 

 of their own accord, cram themselves beyond their capacity, though 

 cases now and then occur, through the operation of the factors of com- 

 petition and an inordinately stimulated ambition, in which there is 

 such a perversion of the natural tendencies that children eagerly over- 

 work themselves at school. YVc should no more trust children with a 

 superfluity of studies than we should place them at a table filled with 

 toothsome edibles and tell them to eat as much as they wanted. In 

 the one case there would be mental and in the other bodily indigestion. 

 Montaigne speaks with no uncertain voice in regard to this matter. 



" Too much learning," he says, " stifles the soul just as plants are 

 stifled with too much moisture, and lamps by too much oil ; for ped- 

 ants plunder knowledge from books and carry it on the tip of their 

 lips, just as birds carry seeds wherewith to feed their young. The 

 care and expense that we received from our parents in our education 



