EDITOR'S TABLE. 



271 



the results will be none the less de- 

 plorable, if we ignore the limits 

 which Nature and history have 

 set to our efforts. " We talk 

 complacently," says the professor, 

 " about the mysterious decay of sav- 

 ages before white men." There is 

 nothing mysterious about it ; we 

 change their environment, we sub- 

 ject them to new laws, force them to 

 adopt new habits, give an unwonted 

 direction and exercise to their men- 

 tal faculties, subject them in a hun- 

 dred ways to a psychological strain 

 which they are unable to stand, and 

 the result is that they wither just as 

 we should do if we were similarly 

 treated. Of all systems, that which 

 the Anglo-Saxon race seeks to im- 

 pose upon the weaker peoples with 

 which it comes into contact is the 

 most oppressive. "Scarcely a single 

 race," the professor emphatically de- 

 clares, " can bear the contact and the 

 burden." In regard to the Egyp- 

 tians, he gives his own experience. 

 4 'Some of the peasantry are taught 

 to read and write, and the result is 

 that they become fools. I can not 

 say this too plainly : an Egyptian 

 who has had reading and writing 

 thrust upon him is, in every case 

 that I have met with, half-witted, 

 silly, or incapable of taking care of 

 himself. His intellect and his health 

 have been undermined and crippled 

 by the forcing of education." 



Is it impossible, then, for the more 

 advanced races to lend any real as- 

 sistance to the less advanced ? It is, 

 if the only idea of assisting them is 

 to Europeanize them ; but not, if the 

 more rational idea is adopted of a 

 gradual education along wholly nat- 

 ural lines, with due regard to condi- 

 tions both present and antecedent. 

 44 Our bigoted belief," says Prof. Pe- 

 trie. " in reading and writing is not 

 in the least justified when we look at 

 the mass of mankind. The exquisite 

 art and noble architecture of Myke- 



nae, the undying song of Homer, the 

 extensive trade of the bronze age, all 

 belonged to people who neither read 

 nor wrote. The great essentials of a 

 valuable character moderation, jus- 

 tice, sympathy, politeness and con- 

 sideration, quick observation, shrewd- 

 ness, ability to plan and prearrange, 

 a keen sense of the uses and prop- 

 erties of things all these are the 

 qualities on which I value my Egyp- 

 tian friends, and such qualities are 

 what should be evolved by any edu- 

 cation worth the name." The most 

 valuable educative influence is ex- 

 ample, if only it be of the right kind ; 

 and if the higher races could, in their 

 dealings with the lower, show that 

 they were steadily actuated by a 

 purer and higher morality, they 

 would insensibly modify for the bet- 

 ter the institutions and customs of 

 the latter. 



The words in which Prof. Petrie 

 describes the characteristic results of 

 education in the best sense, and also 

 his remarks on the effect of forcing 

 education on minds unfitted for it, 

 may well afford matter for reflec- 

 tion, not only in connection with 

 the treatment of lower races, but 

 with the working out of problems 

 nearer home. In answer to the 

 question, 4 ' What can be the harm of 

 raising the intellect in some cases if 

 we can not do it in all ? " the pro- 

 fessor says, 4 'The harm is that you 

 manufacture idiots. " Now, seriously, 

 are we quite sure that our own edu- 

 cational methods does not in some, 

 nay in many, cases tend to the manu- 

 facture of idiots ? Does every young 

 man, or every second, or even every 

 third, young man who goes through 

 college come out of it intellectually 

 to say nothing of morally stronger 

 than he went in ? When we read 

 of the reckless and riotous insubor- 

 dination that sometimes marks " com- 

 mencement " days, we can not help 

 wondering whether the right kind 



