THE OTHER SIDE. 47 



would have fallen into debauchery ; but his wildest pas- 

 sion was a passion for freedom ; his dissipation was to 

 wander in the wood or by the wave. Neither morally 

 nor intellectually was he, at any time, dissolute. 



And yet it is impossible to hide from ourselves that 

 there is another side to all this. It is difficult to believe 

 that insubordination, turbulence, habitual neglect of 

 tasks with which a sentiment of duty is more or less 

 associated, can be other than disadvantageous to the 

 mind. To check the lawlessness natural to man, to 

 break self-will to the yoke, to change the faculties 

 from a confused barbarian herd or horde (heer of the 

 old German tribes) into a disciplined or exercised com- 

 pany (exercitus of the Romans) must ever be an essen- 

 tial part of the training of youth. Educated human 

 nature is more natural than uneducated. Shakespeare 

 says again, 



' Nature is made better by no mean 

 But nature makes that mean : so, o'er that art, 

 Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art 

 That nature makes.' 



Does not this throw us back on the reflection that 

 education of the highest kind, based on nature, guided 

 by nature, yet raising nature to heights otherwise un- 

 attainable, is not to be easily attained ? In every case 

 where an original mind is concerned, education is too 

 subtle a process, requiring too intimate and individual a 

 communion of soul with soul, to be managed by the 

 rough common methods. A boy of genius would re- 

 quire a teacher of genius, one whose perceptions were so 

 keen, whose sympathies were so fine and true, that he 

 could understand the exceptional mind, obey its moni- 

 tions as he led it on, apply to it a constraint which 

 would be felt as gentleness, and a gentleness which 



