CONCLUSION 335 



years, and wants changing again. I remember in my youth seeing 

 the couplet circulated : 



" The man to the plough, 

 And the wife to the cow ; 

 The boy to the flail, 

 And the girl to the pail, 



Your rent you will net." 

 But: 



" The man tally-ho ! 

 And the girl piano, 

 The boy Greek and Latin, 

 And the wife silk and satin, 



You will be in the Gazette." 



There is very good sense in that, which is worth taking to heart 

 even now. But in turning its point invidiously against " piano " 

 and " Greek " and " Latin," the verselet suggests what may be 

 misunderstood. Unquestionably too much " tally-ho " and " silk 

 and satin," that is, the farmer and his wife turning their mind away 

 from " business " to pleasure and fancy, must mean mischief. 

 But why " the girl " should not in her off hours delight the family 

 with a bit of " piano," one does not in these modern days quite see. 

 And " the boy's " " Greek and Latin " clearly were intended to 

 stand for " liberal education " generally — which " education," in 

 an altered form, bringing chemistry and botany, and plant and 

 animal physiology and the like on the scene as necessary allies and 

 auxiliaries to farming, modern development has shown to be very 

 essential and has, indeed, forced upon us. The test of utility lies, 

 not in the acceptance of " education," but in the choice of the 

 subjects and the mode of teaching adopted. 



There is, in education also, this to be borne in mind. In any 

 case, education, like food, if it is to do good, wants to be balanced as 

 between different component parts. The ducks allowed, in an experi- 

 ment made, to feed upon as much pure starch as they pleased were 

 soon found to be starving in the midst of plenty ; and the sheep 

 fed, likewise by way of experiment, on sawdust were found to be 

 making nothing but blood, which endangered their life. 



Medicine likewise teaches us that one-sided treatment, such as 

 in education we now give to our country children, does harm rather 

 than good. Useful as medicinal remedies are, doctors will have it — 

 and rightly so — that " omne medicamentum simpler nocet." 

 There is harm to human health in every drug taken by itself ; it 

 wants to be balanced so as to have its noxious qualities checked by 

 others neutralising the mischief. For country use under all circum- 

 stances the learned teaching of the town wants, in a similar way, 



