338 



ARISTO CRA C Y AND E VGL UTION 



Book iv 



or win that has 

 match, and* 



capable of 



creating it, 



intellect of this kind is allied with a naturally strong 

 will, the effect of education is to let loose a wild 

 horse, merely in order that it may run away with a 

 lunatic. 



It must be remembered that the strength of a 

 man ' s w ill> though depending as a potentiality on 

 t ^ ie character with which he happens to be born, 

 wealth in men depends as an actual force on his desire for certain 



who are not \ 



objects or results, coupled with the belief that he 



i i -NT i > 



can attain these by action. JNow, when a mans 

 powers of action are capable of realising his desires 

 as when a man who desires to be wealthy has the 

 talents that produce wealth, or when the man who 

 desires to be Prime Minister has the talents of a 

 great statesman his career satisfies himself, and is 

 presumably serviceable to his country. In many 

 cases, however, desire is exceptionally great, and 

 generates also a strong impulse to act, but the 

 capacity for that kind of action by which the desired 

 object might be obtained is small. Thus many men 

 desire exceptional wealth, but find themselves in- 

 capable of the peculiar kind of action that produces 

 it. Their will, accordingly, if it makes them act at 

 all, is like a steam-engine which merely puts useless 

 machinery into motion ; or if it fails to make them 

 act, as it very often does, it shakes them to pieces 

 with a kind of intellectual retching. These unhappy 

 persons owe the condition in which they find them- 

 selves mainly to an over - estimate of their own 

 powers ; and this over - estimate is generally the 

 Direct result of education, which, by making them 



thus will 



and mischief. 



