240 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
offal. When a large fish is hooked the fishermen 
leap into the water, in the very midst of the jacares, 
who merely sheer out of the way until their turn 
comes ; and such a thing as a jacare attacking a 
man is very rarely known. That it does, however, 
occur, now and then, we saw fearful evidence. 
I wish you Englishmen would agree about some 
general comprehensive system of Education. It is 
painful to read the accounts of the squabbles, and 
to see what narrow-mindedness exists, about a sub- 
ject of such vital importance ; and all this time 
your prisons are filling with young delinquents for 
whom the State has never provided any intellectual 
or moral training. Cannot this last be given apart 
from any doctrinal teaching ? For really, at this 
distance from the scene of controversy, how in- 
significant to me do most doctrinal differences 
seem — more than half of them mere matters of 
opinion ! Were it true, as Dogberry says, that 
to be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune ; 
but to write and read comes by nature," then 
indeed we might leave nature to take its course. 
I remember some time ago a capital dialogue in 
Pttnch, between a father and son on the Educational 
question. The little boy asks how it is that the 
Queen does not educate the poor little boys and 
girls so that they may know better than commit 
the crimes which lead them to the penitentiaries 
and treadmills. The father answers that the 
Queen would only be too glad to do so if the 
people would let her ; and this leads to some talk 
about the different religious opinions of various 
sects. The little boy asks for an illustration, and 
