ED UCA TION AND IMPERFE CT TALENTS 337 



important political movements have been produced Book iv 

 by men whose greatness consisted merely in ordinary 

 sense joined to, and made efficient by, an extra- 

 ordinary strength of will. It is necessary now to but whose 

 follow this line of observation farther, and to point ft3^ai. 

 out that if extraordinary strength of will can pro- b alanced or 



* o have some 



duce beneficial effects when allied with ordinary flaw in them - 

 sense, it is equally capable of producing effects that 

 are mischievous when allied with stupidity, or with 

 that kind of imperfect intellect which is as quick in 

 defending and popularising, as it is in being duped 

 by fallacies. And with these latter qualities it is 

 allied as often as with the former. It is a great 

 mistake to suppose that even the most false and 

 foolish opinions which have influenced multitudes 

 to their own detriment have been originated and 

 promulgated by men who were altogether weak and 

 inferior. On the contrary, most of the follies which 

 have disturbed or retarded civilisation have been 

 due to the influence of men who, though morally or 

 intellectually contemptible, have possessed a vigour 

 of character far beyond what is ordinary. 



Now, if education has the effect attributed to it For if educa- 

 of liberating the will and developing the intellectual and stimulates 

 powers of men in whom the intellect is really acute le^uai'powers, 

 and sound, there is an obvious danger of its having 

 the same effect on men whose intellect is unbalanced 

 and imperfect. To some of such intellects, no doubt, 

 it may give clearness and equilibrium ; but there are it wm similarly 



1 r i 1 i i stimulate 



others for which it does nothing, except to increase intellects that 

 their powers of reasoning wrongly ; and when an ar 



