CONTENTS 



PAGE 



and thus will merely produce needless misery and mischief . . 339 



Education, again, stimulates faculties that can really produce excep- 

 tional results, but not results that are complete . . . 339 

 The progressive struggle requires that the intellects of some should be 



stimulated, whose efforts fail ..... 340 



But those failures that promote progress are failures that partially 



succeed ..... . 340 



But there are abortive talents which produce failures that have no 



relation to success. Those talents are purely mischievous ; . 341 



for example, the failure of the would-be artist, . . . 341 



or that of the man who popularises wrong medical treatment . . 342 



But the commonest example of this kind of man is the socialistic 



agitator, ........ 342 



who demands the redistribution of wealth, whilst absolutely powerless 



to produce it, ....... 343 



and who consequently invents false theories about its production, 



which do nothing but demoralise those who are duped by them . 343 

 (though even these theories can be discussed with profit under certain 



circumstances) ....... 344 



Men like these embody the two chief dangers of the equalisation of 



educational opportunity, ...... 345 



namely, the rousing in the average man wants he cannot satisfy, and 



the stimulating of talents that are constitutionally imperfect . 345 



The latter of these dangers is the source of the former . . . 346 



It cannot be completely avoided, but the present theories of educa- 

 tion tend to heighten, not to minimise it . . . . 346 



The current theory that- all talents should be developed is false, . 347 



so is the theory that all tastes should be cultivated in all alike. The 



education proper for the rich is not a type but an exception . 347 



These false theories rest on the false belief that equal education could 



ever produce equal social conditions .... 348 



The majority of each class will remain in the class in which they were 



born ........ 348 



Only the efficiently exceptional can rise out of their own class, . 348 



and it is the ambition of the efficiently exceptional only that it is really 



desirable to stimulate ...... 349 



The average man should be taught to aim at embellishing his position, 



not at escaping from it . . . . . 349 



