144 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



they accomplished what they did without any 

 National Elementary Free Compulsory Education ? 

 And that after forty years' operation of this national 

 fetish neither a Shakespeare nor a Stephenson have 

 arisen from the people as the outcome of it ? 

 If all that she contends be true, can she vouchsafe 

 to us why it is that, now we have Nature Study 

 classes in the Elementary Schools, the Surrey County 

 Council finds it incumbent to frame a regulation 

 imposing a fine for the destruction of flowers in the 

 fields ? When that question has been answered, 

 is it possible that we may be further informed from 

 those heights of metaphysics accessible only to the 

 elect, why it is that boys instructed in Nature Study 

 classes and reared in the influence of the sentiments 

 that appear to have become vicariously attached to 

 them, should go into every byeway and field they 

 can find, and wring the necks of nestlings just for 

 the fun of the thing ? Before compulsory education 

 for the masses was instituted, cock-fighting was one 

 of their amusements. We have striven by various 

 means — including a costly national education — ^to 

 suppress this form of recreation. While we have not 

 altogether succeeded, wringing " nestlings' necks for 

 fun " has appeared as a substitute for it. It may be 

 possible to change the form in which cruelty or 

 viciousness may be manifested, but we cannot by any 

 means at our disposal convert the inherent instincts 

 which lie at the root of these things. That is why 

 the unmetaphysical prophets of old said : " Who 

 can make straight that which the Lord has made 



