166 THE PORTAL OF EVOLUTION 



There is one great error that must be cured if we are to 

 make any advancement towards the prevention of crime. That 

 is, the public must be taught that what we generally call 

 education (but erroneously) is only culture, not true educa- 

 tion, and that knowledge is a two-edged sword, producing 

 both excess of virtue and of vice. I hear you say " if educa- 

 tion is not the possession of knowledge, what then is educa- 

 tion ?" Education is proficiency in the knowledge most re- 

 quired for the path, work or business of life, combined with 

 habits of rectitude, a love of work and duty, and habits of 

 discipline before all else, and of economy, thrift and moral 

 rectitude. Hence to educate our children is to make them 

 virtuous tinkers, tailors, ploughmen, carpenters, miners, 

 parsons or doctors not to teach them to read or write, sing or 

 play music ; these latter are branches of culture, and will not 

 bake bread for starving children or keep our jails empty. And 

 the one education -we want is how to make the best of our 

 energy and time so as to maintain our fellow-beings in joy, 

 peace, happiness and content. For culture is only the manure 

 of the mind, and it can only enrich the growth of education 

 it cannot create it. 



Now, if the seed is good it will produce virtue ; if it is the 

 seed of folly, extravagance, and sloth, it will only grow into 

 vice. Hence, if we wish to educate our children, we must in- 

 culcate in them habits of charity (i.e., a desire to assist others 

 by the use of our time, strength and energy for pecuniary 

 aid is the least form of charity, and luckily, except in the 

 form of capital, we are seldom called upon to use it ; real charity 

 is to work for all, speak kindly to all, and act kindly to all, 

 and to assist those who are worthy of help to rise in the social 

 scale). Hence, we must first educate our children by teach- 

 ing them habits of charity, mercy, and justice, combined with 

 those of perseverance, industry and economy. These are the 

 true seeds of all virtue, and if these seeds are not sown, all 

 literary knowledge and culture is only good manure wasted 

 by spreading it on unsown ground, or, at best, on ground 

 sown with the weedy seeds of folly, extravagance and lazi- 

 ness, weeds which can only produce a fine crop of vice. But 

 if we sow the right seeds on mental soil already prepared to 

 receive it by habits of energy, perseverance, skill and thrift, 

 we only require proficiency in the knowledge we most require 



