a lazy
man whatever race he may belong to, and civilisation, which has often
been helped on by direct slavery, is indeed itself a system of slavery,
under which the toilers are driven to their tasks by the goad of
necessity. The fact that many Native youths frequently leave their
studies before completing the prescribed course, with the entry "Left
school tired" against their names, is often cited as showing that the
capacity of the Native for sustained mental effort is not as great as
that of the average European, but here, again, it must be remembered
that the general conditions and home influences under which the bulk of
European boys grow up tend to keep them at their studies whereas the
Native school boy is not fortified by similar support. The dread of
becoming an "unemployable" through lack of education, which is a
forcible spur to effort in both parents and children among the whites,
is not felt by the Natives who can always find work to do at wages that
will satisfy their ordinary wants, and, moreover, the Native's chance of
gaining profit and preferment through being well educated are still few
in South Africa, so that where there is neither penalty for failure nor
reward for success we cannot expect more effort than we find. When
education becomes as general in South Africa as it is among the people
of Europe then it will be possible to institute fair comparisons.
Education is the discoverer of ability and without the opportunity it
gives genius will languish and die unknown, as said that acute observer
of human nature, Machiavelli, in speaking about the leaders of
antiquity, "Without opportunity their powers of mind would have been
extinguished and without those powers the opportunity would have come in
vain."[20]

Assuming that the capacity for acquiring Western education and
civilisation is no greater in the American Negroes than in the Bantu we
may note the opinion of a recent student of the race question in
America, as being in point here. In his book "Children of the Slaves,"
Mr. Stephen Graham says "The fact is, Negrodom has to a great extent
qualified to vote. Half the population is sunk in economic bondage and
illiteracy, but the other half has more than average capacity for
citizenship."[21]

The opinion so often expressed in South Africa that "Education is a kind
of thing that doesn't agree with the Nigger" is born of the same feeling
that animated the power-holding minorities against the illite