EDUCATION : A SURVEY OF RECENT EDUCATIONAL THEORY. 165 



tion. With the notion of peace we associate that of plenty, 

 which means the discontinuance of rationing, and therewith the 

 resumption by wealth of some of its lost value. The use of 

 wealth which the authorities cited above wish to abolish is that 

 to which parents put it when they endeavour to secure their 

 children's careers, or qualify them better than others for the 

 service of the community. 



The necessity of this in the interests of democracy is urged 

 with great emphasis by some American writers.* It is fatal for 

 a democracy to 'permit the formation of fixed classes. Dijferences 

 of wealth, the existence of large masses of unskilled labourers, con- 

 tempt for tvork with the hands, inability to secure the training 

 which enables one to forge ahead in life, all operate to produce 

 classes, and to widen the gulf between them. Statesmen and 

 legislation can do something to combat these evil forces. Wise 

 philanthropy can do something. But the only fundamental agency 

 for good is the public school system.^ The reasons here suggested 

 for the continuance of class distinctions provoke criticism ; and 

 if differences of wealth are to continue and form a basis for class 

 distinctions, such as the phrase " forge ahead in life implies, 

 one may wonder whether it is desirable that they should form the 

 sole basis for such distinctions ; whether that democracy is most 

 stable wherein respect and admiration are concentrated on 

 wealth, or that wherein they are diffused over a variety of 

 matters, of which wealth, though perhaps the most important, 

 is only one. To quote again from these writersf : There was 

 once assumed a permanent division between a leisure class and a 

 labouring class. Education — beyond, at least, the mere rudiments 

 — was intended o^^ly for the former. Its subject-matter and its 

 methods were designed for those who were sufficiently well off so 

 that they did not have to work for a living. The writers do not 

 state where and when this system existed, and my own historical 

 knowledge is insufficient to supply the gap. It is, however, 

 obvious that the leisure class owed its existence to the possession 

 of wealth ; and so long as individuals are in possession of accu- 

 mulated wealth there will be a leisure class, though emergencies 

 may occur wherein the efficiency of wealth may be greatly 

 reduced. In order, then, that there may be no leisure class, 



* Schools of To-morrow, p. 313. Cp. J. E. Stout, The High School, p. 43. 

 t Of course, in the American sense of the phrase. 

 X Schools of To-morrow, p. 231. 



