that the essential virtue of a small reform--the
quality which makes it not an evil, but a good--is that it should
be made "on the lines and in the direction" of the greater reform
which is desiderated.

Now, this condition Mr. Fisher's Bill exactly fulfils. I suppose
that the "greater reform" of education which we all wish to see--the
ideal of national instruction--is that the State should provide
for every boy and girl the opportunity of cultivating his or her
natural gifts to the highest perfection which they are capable
of attaining. When I speak of "natural gifts" I refer not only
to the intellect, but also to the other parts of our nature, the
body and the moral sense. This ideal involves a system which, by a
natural and orderly development, should conduct the capable child
from the Elementary School, through all the intermediate stages,
to the highest honours of the Universities.

The word "capable" occurs in Mr. Fisher's Bill, and rightly, because
our mental and physical capacities are infinitely varied. A good
many children may be unable to profit by any instruction higher
than that provided by the Elementary School. A good many more will
be able to profit by intermediate education. Comparatively few--the
best--will make their way to really high attainment, and will become,
at and through the Universities, great philosophers, or scholars,
or scientists, or historians, or mathematicians.

At that point--and it ought to be reached at a much earlier age
than is now usual--the State's, concern in the matter ends. The
child has become, a man, and henceforth must work out his own
intellectual salvation; but in the earlier stages the State can
and must exercise a potent influence. The earliest stage must be
compulsory--that was secured by the Act of 1870. In the succeeding
stages, the State, while it does not compel, must stimulate and
encourage; and above all must ensure that no supposed exigencies
of money-making, no selfish tyranny of the employing classes, shall
be allowed to interfere with mental or physical development, or to
divert the boy or the girl from any course of instruction by which
he or she is capable of profiting. This ideal Mr. Fisher's Bill, with
its plain enactment that education shall be free; with its precaution
against "half-time"; with its ample provision for Continuation
Schools, goes far to realize. Even if it is a "small" reform--and
I should dispute the epithet--it is certainly "on th