THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

III. 5. Education127succeeds, because his lungs are too debilitated to take in a goodlong breath of that atmosphere.The first fundamental mistake has been, therefore, to confineourselves to the training of the storing faculty memory andthe storage of facts and to neglect the training of the three greatusing (manipulating) faculties, viz. the power of reasoning, thepower of comparison and differentiation and the power of expression.These powers are present to a certain extent in allmen above the state of the savage and even in a rudimentarystate in the savage himself; but they exist especially developedin the higher classes of civilised nations, wherever these higherclasses have long centuries of education behind them. But howeverhighly developed by nature these powers demand cultivation,they demand that bringing out of natural abilities which is thereal essence of education. If not brought out in youth, theybecome rusted and stopped with dirt, so that they cease to actexcept in a feeble, narrow and partial manner. Exceptional geniusdoes indeed assert itself in spite of neglect and discouragement,but even genius self-developed does not achieve as happy resultsand as free and large a working as the same genius properlyequipped and trained. Amount of knowledge is in itself notof first importance, but to make the best use of what we know.The easy assumption of our educationists that we have only tosupply the mind with a smattering of facts in each departmentof knowledge and the mind can be trusted to develop itself andtake its own suitable road is contrary to science, contrary tohuman experience and contrary to the universal opinion of civilisedcountries. Indeed, the history of intellectual degenerationin gifted races always begins with the arrest of these three mentalpowers by the excessive cultivation of mere knowledge at theirexpense. Much as we have lost as a nation, we have alwayspreserved our intellectual alertness, quickness and originality;but even this last gift is threatened by our University system,and if it goes, it will be the beginning of irretrievable degradationand final extinction.The very first step in reform must therefore be to revolutionisethe whole aim and method of our education. We mustaccustom teachers to devote nine-tenths of their energy to the