ll be bad, because, as we have shown, it is
fatal to that vigour of _physique_ needful to make intellectual training
available in the struggle of life. Those who, in eagerness to cultivate
their pupils' minds, are reckless of their bodies, do not remember that
success in the world depends more on energy than on information; and
that a policy which in cramming with information undermines energy, is
self-defeating. The strong will and untiring activity due to abundant
animal vigour, go far to compensate even great defects of education; and
when joined with that quite adequate education which may be obtained
without sacrificing health, they ensure an easy victory over competitors
enfeebled by excessive study: prodigies of learning though they may be.
A comparatively small and ill-made engine, worked at high pressure, will
do more than a large and well-finished one worked at low-pressure. What
folly is it, then, while finishing the engine, so to damage the boiler
that it will not generate steam! Once more, the system is a mistake, as
involving a false estimate of welfare in life. Even supposing it were a
means to worldly success, instead of a means to worldly failure, yet, in
the entailed ill-health, it would inflict a more than equivalent curse.
What boots it to have attained wealth, if the wealth is accompanied by
ceaseless ailments? What is the worth of distinction, if it has brought
hypochondria with it? Surely no one needs telling that a good digestion,
a bounding pulse, and high spirits, are elements of happiness which no
external advantages can out-balance. Chronic bodily disorder casts a
gloom over the brightest prospects; while the vivacity of strong health
gilds even misfortune. We contend, then, that this over-education is
vicious in every way--vicious, as giving knowledge that will soon be
forgotten; vicious, as producing a disgust for knowledge; vicious, as
neglecting that organisation of knowledge which is more important than
its acquisition; vicious, as weakening or destroying that energy without
which a trained intellect is useless; vicious, as entailing that
ill-health for which even success would not compensate, and which makes
failure doubly bitter. On women the effects of this forcing system are,
if possible, even more injurious than on men. Being in great measure
debarred from those vigorous and enjoyable exercises of body by which
boys mitigate the evils of excessive study, girls feel these evils in
thei