vage parents of savage children,
have been Mill and his friends, the apostles of liberty and
individualism.(11) I remember the time when pseudo-Liberals were not
ashamed to say that, whatever other nations, such as the Germans, might
do, England would never submit to compulsory education; but that
faint-hearted and mischievous cry has at last been silenced. A new era may
be said to date in the history of every nation from the day on which
"compulsory education" becomes part of its statute-book; and I may
congratulate the most Liberal town in England on having proved itself the
most inexorable tyrant in carrying it into effect.

But do not let us imagine that compulsory education is without its
dangers. Like a powerful engine, it must be carefully watched, if it is
not to produce, what all compulsion will produce, a slavish receptivity,
and, what all machines do produce, monotonous uniformity.

We know that all education must in the beginning be purely dogmatic.
Children are taught language, religion, morality, patriotism, and
afterwards, at school, history, literature, mathematics, and all the rest,
long before they are able to question, to judge, or choose for themselves,
and there is hardly anything that a child will not believe, if it comes
from those in whom the child believes.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic, no doubt, must be taught dogmatically,
and they take up an enormous amount of time, particularly in English
schools. English spelling is a national misfortune, and in the keen
international race among all the countries of Europe, it handicaps the
English child to a degree that seems incredible till we look at
statistics. I know the difficulties of a Spelling Reform, I know what
people mean when they call it impossible; but I also know that personal
and national virtue consists in doing so-called impossible things, and
that no nation has done, and has still to do, so many impossible things as
the English.

But, granted that reading, writing, and arithmetic occupy nearly the whole
school time and absorb the best powers of the pupils, cannot something be
done in play-hours? Is there not some work that can be turned into play,
and some play that can be turned into work? Cannot the powers of
observation be called out in a child while collecting flowers, or stones,
or butterflies? Cannot his judgment be strengthened either in gymnastic
exercises, or in measuring the area of a field or the height of a tower?
Mi