90 A LIBERAL EDUCATION ; iv 



while ago ; and that the Queen and the gentlefolks 

 govern the country much after the fashion of 

 King David and the elders and nohles of Israel 

 his sole models. Will you give a man with this 

 much information a vote ? In easy times he sells 

 it for a pot of beer. Why should he not ? It is 

 of about as much use to him as a chignon, and he 

 knows as much what to do with it, for any other 

 purpose. In bad times, on the contrary, he applies 

 his simple theory of government, and believes that 

 his rulers are the cause of his sufferings a belief 

 which sometimes bears remarkable practical 

 fruits. 



Least of all, does the child gather from this 

 primary " education " of ours a conception of the 

 laws of the physical world, or of the relations of 

 cause and effect therein. And this is the more to 

 be lamented, as the poor are especially exposed to 

 physical evils, and are more interested in removing 

 them than any other class of the community. If 

 any one is concerned in knowing the ordinary laws 

 of mechanics one would think it is the hand- 

 labourer, whose daily toil lies among levers and 

 pulleys ; or among the other implements of artisan 

 work. And if any one is interested in the laws of 

 health, it is the poor workman, whose strength is 

 wasted by ill-prepared food, whose health is sapped 

 by bad ventilation and bad drainage, and half 

 whose children are massacred by disorders which 

 might be prevented. Not only does our present 



