252 ADMINISTRATIVE NIHILISM vi 



sharply defined, if not as numerous, as those of 

 Tudia. It is maintained that the whole fabric 

 jof society will be destroyed if the poor, as well 

 I as the rich, are educated ; that anything like 

 ' sound and good education will only make them 

 discontented with their station and raise hopes 

 which, in the great majority of cases, will be 

 bitterly disappointed. It is said : There must be 

 hewers of wood and drawers of water, scavengers 

 and coalheavers, day labourers and domestic ser- 

 vants, or the work of society will come to a stand- 

 still. But, if you educate and refine everybody, 

 nobody will be content to assume these functions, 

 and all the world will want to be gentlemen and 

 ladies. 



One hears this argument most frequently from 

 the representatives of the well-to-do midd 

 and, coming from them, it strikes me as peculiarly 

 inconsistent, as the one thing they admire, strive 

 after, and advise their own children to do, is to 

 get on in the world, and, if possible, rise out of 

 the classlrTwhich they were born into that above 

 them. Society needs grocers and merchant:- 

 much as it needs coalheavers; but if a merchant 

 accumulates wealth and works his way to a 

 baronetcy, or if the son of a greengrocer becomes 

 a lord chancellor, or an archbishop, or, as a success- 

 ful soldier, wins a peerage, all the world udmiivs 

 ihcin ; and looks with pr -<-ial sys- 



tem which renders such ts possible. 



