V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 229 



become a burden upon, and, so far, an infringer of 

 the liberty of, his fellows, and an obstacle to their 

 success. Under such circumstances an education 

 rate is, in fact, a war tax, levied for purposes of 

 defence. 



That State action always has been more or less 

 misdirected, and always will be so, is, I believe, 

 perfectly true. But I am not aware that it is 

 more true of the action of men in their corporate 

 capacity than it is of the doings of individuals. 

 The wisest and most dispassionate man in exist- 

 ence, merely wishing to go from one stile in a 

 field to the opposite, will not walk quite straight 

 — he is always going a little wrong, and always 

 correcting himself; and I can only congratulate 

 the individualist who is able to say that his 

 general course of life has been of a less undula- 

 tory character. To abolish State action, because 

 its direction is never more than approximately 

 correct, appears to me to be much the same thing 

 as abolishing the man at the wheel altogether, 

 because, do what he will, the ship yaws more or 

 less. " Why should I be robbed of my property 

 to pay for teaching another man's children ? " is an 

 individualist question, which is not unfrequently 

 put as if it settled the whole business. Perhaps 

 it does, but I find difficulties in seeing why it 

 should. The parish in which I live makes me 

 pay my share for the paving and lighting of a 

 great many streets that I never pass through; 



