AND SUBORDINATION. 71 



of its life, and again at the end of twenty or thirty years. 

 What chance have simple shoots with a few leaves, the 

 normal growth of one year against powerful branches which 

 are, it may be, the growth of centuries, which put forth a 

 hundred shoots, like themselves, from their sides and sum- 

 mit, the leaves of which are all subservient to their deve- 

 lopment ? It is plain that inequality of condition, once en- 

 gendered, has a tendency to go on increasing, and that 

 the shoots and branches of a tree, when once ahead, are 

 very apt to keep ahead. 



And is there nothing analogous to this in the social world ? 

 Is not the whole framework of our present social system 

 founded on the eternally unchangeable law of the subor- 

 dination and subserviency of one human organism to 

 another ? In order to be happy, man must be free to de- 

 velope himself. But individual freedom must necessarily 

 generate inequality so long as one human organism 'has 

 more life-energy than another. We see the results of this 

 inequality of natural gift in a common school, where all are 

 placed in the same circumstances and on an equal footing. 

 What a remarkable difference in the aptness of boys for 

 particular branches of study ! With what rapidity and 

 apparent ease some get through the tasks allotted them ! 

 How slow and wearisome the progress made by others ! 

 Undoubtedly the diligent and attentive student is generally, 

 at the end of the term, the most advanced in his class. But 

 even in a well-regulated school, where industrious habits 

 are carefully cultivated, where the strictest discipline is 

 rigidly enforced, and where all are not only expected but 

 actually made to study, there is the same variety in the 

 natural capacities of the scholars the same striking diver- 

 sity in their intellectual progress. When reference is made 

 to the standing of each at the commencement and then at 

 the close of the session, some boys have got far ahead of 

 the others in the same branch, notwithstanding those who 

 have had the misfortune to fall back in their class, have not 

 unfrequently received the greatest share of the time and 

 attention of their teacher. Thus, notwithstanding the oft- 

 cited saying of Euclid, " There is no royal road to learn- 



