Alfred Russel Wallace 



every youth should be trained for one day a week or one 

 week in a month, according to the demand for labour, in 

 some of the various operations of farming or gardening. 

 Not only would this improve the general health of the 

 workers, but it would also add much to the interest and 

 enjoyment of their lives. 



^' There is one point," he wrote, " in connection with 

 this problem which I do not think has ever been much con- 

 sidered or discussed. It is the undoubted benefit to all the 

 members of a society of the greatest possible diversity of 

 character^ as a means both towards the greatest enjoyment 

 and interest of association, and to the highest ultimate de- 

 velopment of the race. If we are to suppose that man might 

 have been created or developed with none of those extremes 

 of character which now often result in what we call wicked- 

 ness, vice, or crime, there would certainly have been a greater 

 monotony in human nature, which would, perhaps, have led 

 to less beneficial results than the variety which actually 

 exists may lead to. We are more and more getting to see 

 that very much, perhaps all, the vice, crime, and misery 

 that exists in the world is the result, not of the wickedness 

 of individuals, but of the entire absence of sympathetic 

 training from infancy onwards. So far as I have heard, 

 the only example of the effects of such a training on a large 

 scale was that initiated by Robert Owen at New Lanark, 

 which, with most unpromising materials, produced such 

 marvellous results on the character and conduct of the 

 children as to seem almost incredible to the numerous 

 persons who came to see and often critically to examine 

 them. There must have been all kinds of characters in 

 his schools, yet none were found to be incorrigible, none 

 beyond control, none who did not respond to the love and 

 sympathetic instruction of their teachers. It is therefore 

 quite possible that all the evil in the world is directly due 



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