12 An Appeal to the Young. 



mass of workers, mere machines as they are to-day, 

 will then become thinking beings who apply to in- 

 dustry their intelligence, strengthened by study and 

 skilled in inanual labor, and thus mechanical prog- 

 ress will take a bound forward which Vv^ill carry out in 

 fifty years what now-a-days we cannot even dream of." 



And what shall I say to the schoolmaster — not to 

 the man who looks upon his profession as a wearisome 

 business, but to him who, when surrounded by a joy- 

 ous band of children, feels exhilarated by their cheery 

 looks and in the midst of their happy laughter, to him 

 who tries to plant in their little heads those ideas of 

 humanity which he cherished himself when he was 

 young. 



Often I see that you are sad, and I know what it 

 is that makes you knit your brows. This very day, 

 your favorite pupil, who is not very well up in Latin, 

 it is true, but who has none the less an excellent 

 heart, recited the story of William Tell with so much 

 vigor ! His eyes sparkled ; he seemed to wish to stab 

 all tyrants there and then ; he gave with such fire 

 the passionate lines of Schiller: 



Before the slave when he breaks his chain, 

 Before the free man tremble not. 



But when he returned home, his mother, his father, 

 his uncle, sharply rebuked him for want of respect 

 to the minister or the rural policeman ; they held 

 forth to him by the hour on "prudence, respect for 

 authority, submission to his betters," till he put 

 Schiller aside in order to read " Self-Help." 



And then only yesterday you were told that your 

 best pupils have all turned out badly. One does 

 nothing but dream of becoming an officer; another 

 in league with his master robs the workers of their 

 slender wages ; and you, who had such hopes of 

 these young people, you now brood over the sad 

 contrast between your ideal and life as it is. 



