has checked him instead of encouraging him." And so on
till the boys were all in school.

"You see, my dear sir," he said to my father, "we are in an impossible
position. We have to obey instructions from the Grand Council of
Education at Bridgeford, and they have established these institutions in
consequence of the Sunchild's having said that we should aim at promoting
the greatest happiness of the greatest number. This, no doubt, is a
sound principle, and the greatest number are by nature somewhat dull,
conceited, and unscrupulous. They do not like those who are quick,
unassuming, and sincere; how, then, consistently with the first
principles either of morality or political economy as revealed to us by
the Sunchild, can we encourage such people if we can bring sincerity and
modesty fairly home to them? We cannot do so. And we must correct the
young as far as possible from forming habits which, unless indulged in
with the greatest moderation, are sure to ruin them.

"I cannot pretend to consider myself very successful. I do my best, but
I can only aim at making my school a reflection of the outside world. In
the outside world we have to tolerate much that is prejudicial to the
greatest happiness of the greatest number, partly because we cannot
always discover in time who may be let alone as being genuinely
insincere, and who are in reality masking sincerity under a garb of
flippancy, and partly also because we wish to err on the side of letting
the guilty escape, rather than of punishing the innocent. Thus many
people who are perfectly well known to belong to the straightforward
classes are allowed to remain at large, and may be even seen hobnobbing
with the guardians of public immorality. Indeed it is not in the public
interest that straightforwardness should be extirpated root and branch,
for the presence of a small modicum of sincerity acts as a wholesome
irritant to the academicism of the greatest number, stimulating it to
consciousness of its own happy state, and giving it something to look
down upon. Moreover, we hold it useful to have a certain number of
melancholy examples, whose notorious failure shall serve as a warning to
those who neglect cultivating that power of immoral self-control which
shall prevent them from saying, or even thinking, anything that shall not
immediately and palpably minister to the happiness, and hence meet the
approval, of the greatest number."

By this time the boys were