EDUCATION 255 



possible. The infant prodigy, and the youth who quickly finds out 

 one thing that interests him and plods successfully at it, represent 

 lower and older types, grades in the evolution of man which are 

 being discarded. Youth should be spent in blunting every instinct, 

 in awakening and stimulating every curiosity, in the gayest roving, 

 in the wildest experiment. Education should be a parade of all 

 handicrafts, of aU mental and emotional stimulations, of the arts 

 and sciences, and the last thing to be considered is what is practically 

 useful. The supreme duty of youth is to try all things, to experi- 

 ment with everything, to be scatter-brained rather than con- 

 centrated. In due time the world will certainly close round and 

 press each beginner of life in one direction, but he will meet the 

 pressure most successfully who has remained young longest and 

 who has stored up the most varied experience. 



