ical ones in
the development of Gordon's character. Sooner or later everyone must
pass through the middle stage Keats speaks of, where "the way of life is
uncertain, and the soul is in a ferment." Most boys have at their
preparatory schools been so carefully looked after that they have never
learnt to think for themselves. They take everything as a matter of
course. They believe implicitly what their masters tell them about what
is right and wrong. Life is divided up into so many rules. But when the
boy reaches his Public School he finds himself in a world where actions
are regulated not by conscience, but by caprice. Boys do what they know
is wrong; then invent a theory to prove it is right; and finally
persuade themselves that black is white. It is pure chance what the
Public School system will make of a boy. During the years of his
apprenticeship, so to speak, he merely sits quiet, listening and
learning; then comes the middle period, the period in which he is
gradually changing into manhood. In it all his former experiences are
jumbled hopelessly together, his life is in itself a paradox. He does
things without thinking. There is no consistency in his actions. Then
finally the threads are unravelled, and out of the disorder of
conflicting ideas and emotions the tapestry is woven on the wonderful
loom of youth.

The average person comes through all right. He is selfish, easy-going,
pleasure-loving, absolutely without a conscience, for the simple reason
that he never thinks. But he is a jolly good companion; and the
Freemasonry of a Public School is amazing. No man who has been through a
good school can be an outsider. He may hang round the Empire bar, he may
cheat at business; but you can be certain of one thing, he will never
let you down. Very few Public School men ever do a mean thing to their
friends. And for a system that produces such a spirit there is something
to be said after all.

But for the boy with a personality school is very dangerous. Being
powerful, he can do nothing by halves; his actions influence not only
himself, but many others. On his surroundings during the time of
transition from boyhood to manhood depend to a great extent the
influence that man will work in the world. He will do whatever he does
on a large scale, and people are bound to look at him. He may stand at
the head of the procession of progress; he may dash himself to pieces
fighting for a worthless cause; and by the splendour of