288 SOCIAL PROGRESS 



youth in learning Latin and Greek, although it is 

 certain that few of them will pursue in after life 

 the study of languages, which are not more 

 flexible or expressive than French and German, 

 and are of no practical usefulness to men of 

 affairs. So also, in the schooling of the masses, too 

 much stress has been laid upon the memorizing 

 of knowledge and too little upon the training of 

 the mental faculties. It is necessary to memo- 

 rize : an abundance of word-symbols is needed 

 for expression. But man has risen above the 

 brutes by his 1 discernment of properties, by the 

 exercise of his will, and by the possession of useful 

 habits, and if education were directed more fully 

 to the strengthening of these impulses, it might 

 have greater effect in raising the level of character 

 and intelligence. Habits, it should be explained, 

 include habits ot mind that is to say beliefs 

 and ideas : these affect very powerfully the drift 

 of society, and an agnostic philosopher may very 

 well believe that it would be an evil day for 

 England were religious instruction excluded from 

 the influences which shape the minds of the 

 young. 



It is tempting to dilate upon the contrast be- 

 tween riches and poverty as an evil feature of 

 modern times ; it is indeed amazing that members 

 of the same social organism should, some, have 

 more than they can waste in the most extrava- 

 gant luxury, and others, less than they require 

 for the bare necessities of life. But this is as 

 ancient as human aggressiveness, and indeed 

 present day conditions are infinitely to be pre- 

 ferred to those of classical times when half the 

 population was bound in slavery. Speaking 



1 The practising of volition is a leading feature of the Montessori 

 system of education. Children select their own tasks, and accord- 

 ingly guide their studies by choice, not by imitation. 



