RELATIVITY OF OPPORTUNITY 349 



developed it renders those who possess it actual Book iv 

 additions to the civilising forces of the community. 



With regard, then, to exceptional men, the object of 

 education should be to stimulate the ambitions of those and it is the 

 of them whose talents are efficient, whilst discourag- efficient 

 ing the ambitions of those whose talents are inherently oniy P tht u is 

 defective. The stronger the ambitions of the former real1 ? desirable 



o to stimulate. 



are, the better for themselves and for the community. 

 Men like these are the true gold-mines of their 

 country. The stronger the ambitions and the larger 

 the opportunities of the latter, the more will the 

 health and strength of the social organism be inter- 

 fered with. 



With regard to the average man, the object of The average 



, . ill! i i t i man should be 



education should be to develop in him such tastes or taught to 

 accomplishments as will assist him in the work by ^po 

 which he is to live, and enable him to make the most ^ r ^\i 

 of such means of enjoyment as are within his reach, 

 whilst leaving him untormented with a desire for 

 enjoyments that are beyond it ; and the crucial fact 

 on which it is necessary to insist is that the circum- 

 stances of different classes are permanently and 

 necessarily different, and that for the average man 

 of each class the education that will make the most 

 of his life is necessarily different also. 



In other words, the only true equality of edu- 

 cational opportunity is an equal opportunity for each, 

 not of acquiring the same knowledge or developing 

 the same faculties, but of acquiring the knowledge 

 and of developing the faculties which, given his 

 circumstances and given his natural capacities, will 



