itely greater need of
encouragement, solace, and external stimuli to excite him to activity
than the normal child.

And what happens to the normal child, the clever boy, who serves as an
example to his inferiors? Whom does he emulate? Who carries him along
that he may ascend? If all need to be drawn upwards in order to climb,
who is to draw him who stands above all? This time the question is out
of place. In his case, the impulse will be retrograde. Here we have
the thrice happy type of him who competes with his inferiors! This
makes me think of a description given by Voisin of a competition
arranged by one of the idiots in his asylum. This boy, who was very
tall, selected all the shortest and youngest of the idiots, and
challenged them to a race; he always came in first and was delighted.
Such an example is not, however, peculiar to Voisin's asylum; it is
the _moral attitude_ of all who are ambitious, but idle, and are
anxious to outshine others without too much fatigue, without
perfecting themselves, counting much on the phenomena of contrast.
Thus we find a fluent orator seeking to be preceded by an unskilful
speaker; and pretty girls who have not the means to adorn themselves
and thus set off their beauty, are fond of going about with their
plainer friends.

I have read an amusing fable, which was evidently a parody of this
phenomenon. There was once a king who had such a long nose that it was
positively ridiculous. When a neighboring king proposed to visit him,
he was much perturbed, being ashamed to exhibit his defect to a
neighboring people. Then the prime minister thought of an expedient,
and propounded this practical plan to the king: "Your Majesty, on this
occasion let your noble court retire; I will search throughout the
kingdom for the men with the most prominent noses, and for the time
they shall constitute your court." This was done; and such noses
appeared on the scene that that of the king seemed quite normal in
comparison. Thus the august colleague noticed that the court was
remarkable for its noses, but did not perceive that the king had a
nose of abnormal length.

These stories of the competition between idiots and the court of noses
make us smile; but the normal competitions between our children are
not matters for mirth. The healthy children who, when side by side
with the deaf, the sickly, and the deficient are only conscious of
their superiority; the fortunate children who have the help of
ed