IY A LIBERAL EDUCATION 77 



state, he keeps his thoughts to himself. In fact, 

 there is a chorus of voices, almost distressing in 

 their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine 

 that education is the great panacea for human 

 troubles, and that, if the country is not shortly to 

 go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. 



The politicians tells us, " You must educate the 

 masses because they are going to be masters/' 

 The clergy join in the cry for education, for they 

 affirm that the people are drifting away from 

 church and chapel into the broadest infidelity. 

 The manufacturers and the capitalists swell the 

 chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance 

 makes bad workmen ; that England will soon be 

 unable to turn out cotton goods, or steam engines, 

 cheaper than other people ; and then, Ichabod ! 

 Ichabod ! the glory will be departed from us. 

 And a few voices are lifted up in favour of the 

 doctrine that the masses should be educated 

 because they are men and women with unlimited 

 capacities of being, doing, and suffering, and that 

 it is as true now, as ever it was, that the people 

 perish for lack of knowledge. 



These members of the minority, with whom I 

 confess I have a good deal of sympathy, are 

 doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged 

 in favour of the education of the people are of 

 much value whether, indeed, some of them are 

 based upon either wise or noble grounds of action. 

 They question if it be wise to tell people that you 



