A Treatise on Parents and Children - Sandroid.org
A Treatise on Parents and Children - Sandroid.org
A Treatise on Parents and Children - Sandroid.org
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C<strong>on</strong>tentsTrailing Clouds of Glory 1The Child is Father to the Man 5What is a Child? 9The Sin of Nadab <strong>and</strong> Abihu 13The Manufacture of M<strong>on</strong>sters 17Small <strong>and</strong> Large Families 21<strong>Children</strong> as Nuisances 23Child Fanciers 29Childhood as a State of Sin 33School 35My Scholastic Acquirements 41Schoolmasters of Genius 43What We Do Not Teach, <strong>and</strong> Why 49Taboo in Schools 53Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools 57i
ii<strong>Children</strong>’s Rights <strong>and</strong> Duties 61<strong>Children</strong>’s Happiness 65The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday 67University Schoolboyishness 71The New Laziness 73The Infinite School Task 75The Rewards <strong>and</strong> Risks of Knowledge 79English Physical Hardihood <strong>and</strong> SpiritualCowardice 83The Risks of Ignorance <strong>and</strong> Weakness 85The Comm<strong>on</strong> Sense of Tolerati<strong>on</strong> 89The Sin of Athanasius 93The Experiment Experimenting 99Why We Loathe Learning <strong>and</strong> Love Sport 103Antichrist 107Under the Whip 111Technical Instructi<strong>on</strong> 117Docility <strong>and</strong> Dependence 119The Abuse of Docility 123The Schoolboy <strong>and</strong> the Homeboy 127The Comings of Age of <strong>Children</strong> 131The C<strong>on</strong>flict of Wills 133
iiiThe Demagogue’s Opportunity 137Our Quarrelsomeness 139The Pursuit of Manners 145Not too much Wind <strong>on</strong> the Heath 149Wanted: a Child’s Magna Charta 153The Pursuit of Learning 155<strong>Children</strong> <strong>and</strong> Game: a Proposal 157The <strong>Parents</strong>’ Intolerable Burden 159Mobilizati<strong>on</strong> 163<strong>Children</strong>’s Rights <strong>and</strong> <strong>Parents</strong>’ Wr<strong>on</strong>gs 167How Little We Know About Our <strong>Parents</strong> 171Our Ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ed Mothers 175Family Affecti<strong>on</strong> 177The Fate of the Family 183Family Mourning 187Art Teaching 189The Impossibility of Secular Educati<strong>on</strong> 199Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong> as a Religi<strong>on</strong> 203Moral Instructi<strong>on</strong> Leagues 205The Bible 211Artist Idolatry 215
ivThe Provocati<strong>on</strong> to Anarchism 221Imaginati<strong>on</strong> 225Government by Bullies 229
PrefatoryMaterialsThis public-domain text was scanned <strong>and</strong>proofed by R<strong>on</strong>ald Burkey <strong>and</strong> Amy Thomte.It was subsequently c<strong>on</strong>verted to LaTex byGutenMark software, <strong>and</strong> then re-editedwith lyx software. If you find any errorsplease report them to info@birdsproject.<strong>org</strong>.Punctuati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> spelling retained as inthe printed text. Shaw intenti<strong>on</strong>ally spelledmany words according to a n<strong>on</strong>-st<strong>and</strong>ardsystem. For example, “d<strong>on</strong>t” is given as“d<strong>on</strong>t” (without apostrophe), “Dr.” is givenas “Dr” (without a period at the end), <strong>and</strong>“Shakespeare” is given as “Shakespear” (no“e” at the end).v
viA <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Trailing Clouds ofGloryChildhood is a stage in the process of thatc<strong>on</strong>tinual remanufacture of the Life Stuff bywhich the human race is perpetuated. TheLife Force either will not or cannot achieveimmortality except in very low <strong>org</strong>anisms:indeed it is by no means ascertained thateven the amoeba is immortal. Human beingsvisibly wear out, though they last l<strong>on</strong>gerthan their friends the dogs. Turtles, parrots,<strong>and</strong> elephants are believed to be capable ofoutliving the memory of the oldest humaninhabitant. But the fact that new <strong>on</strong>es areborn c<strong>on</strong>clusively proves that they are notimmortal. Do away with death <strong>and</strong> you doaway with the need for birth: in fact if youwent <strong>on</strong> breeding, you would finally have tokill old people to make room for young <strong>on</strong>es.Now death is not necessarily a failureof energy <strong>on</strong> the part of the Life Force.People with no imaginati<strong>on</strong> try to makethings which will last for ever, <strong>and</strong> even1
2 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>want to live for ever themselves. But theintelligently imaginative man knows verywell that it is waste of labor to make amachine that will last ten years, becauseit will probably be superseded in half thattime by an improved machine answering thesame purpose. He also knows that if somedevil were to c<strong>on</strong>vince us that our dream ofpers<strong>on</strong>al immortality is no dream but a hardfact, such a shriek of despair would go upfrom the human race as no other c<strong>on</strong>ceivablehorror could provoke. With all our perversen<strong>on</strong>sense as to John Smith living for athous<strong>and</strong> milli<strong>on</strong> e<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> for ever after, wedie voluntarily, knowing that it is time forus to be scrapped, to be remanufactured, tocome back, as Wordsworth divined, trailingever brightening clouds of glory. We mustall be born again, <strong>and</strong> yet again <strong>and</strong> again.We should like to live a little l<strong>on</strong>ger justas we should like 50 pounds: that is, weshould take it if we could get it for nothing;but that sort of idle liking is not will. It isamazing—c<strong>on</strong>sidering the way we talk—howlittle a man will do to get 50 pounds: all the50-pound notes I have ever known of havebeen more easily earned than a laborioussixpence; but the difficulty of inducing aman to make any serious effort to obtain 50pounds is nothing to the difficulty of inducinghim to make a serious effort to keep alive.The moment he sees death approach, he gets
Trailing Clouds of Glory 3into bed <strong>and</strong> sends for a doctor. He knowsvery well at the back of his c<strong>on</strong>science thathe is rather a poor job <strong>and</strong> had better beremanufactured. He knows that his deathwill make room for a birth; <strong>and</strong> he hopesthat it will be a birth of something that heaspired to be <strong>and</strong> fell short of. He knowsthat it is through death <strong>and</strong> rebirth that thiscorruptible shall become incorruptible, <strong>and</strong>this mortal put <strong>on</strong> immortality. Practise asyou will <strong>on</strong> his ignorance, his fears, <strong>and</strong> hisimaginati<strong>on</strong>, with bribes of paradises <strong>and</strong>threats of hells, there is <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>e belief thatcan rob death of its sting <strong>and</strong> the grave ofits victory; <strong>and</strong> that is the belief that we canlay down the burden of our wretched littlemakeshift individualities for ever at each lifttowards the goal of evoluti<strong>on</strong>, which can <strong>on</strong>lybe a being that cannot be improved up<strong>on</strong>.After all, what man is capable of the insaneself-c<strong>on</strong>ceit of believing that an eternity ofhimself would be tolerable even to himself?Those who try to believe it postulate thatthey shall be made perfect first. But if youmake me perfect I shall no l<strong>on</strong>ger be myself,nor will it be possible for me to c<strong>on</strong>ceive mypresent imperfecti<strong>on</strong>s (<strong>and</strong> what I cannotc<strong>on</strong>ceive I cannot remember); so that youmay just as well give me a new name <strong>and</strong>face the fact that I am a new pers<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> thatthe old Bernard Shaw is as dead as mutt<strong>on</strong>.Thus, oddly enough, the c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>al belief
4 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>in the matter comes to this: that if you wishto live for ever you must be wicked enoughto be irretrievably damned, since the savedare no l<strong>on</strong>ger what they were, <strong>and</strong> in hellal<strong>on</strong>e do people retain their sinful nature:that is to say, their individuality. And thissort of hell, however c<strong>on</strong>venient as a meansof intimidating pers<strong>on</strong>s who have practicallyno h<strong>on</strong>or <strong>and</strong> no c<strong>on</strong>science, is not a fact.Death is for many of us the gate of hell; butwe are inside <strong>on</strong> the way out, not outside <strong>on</strong>the way in. Therefore let us give up telling<strong>on</strong>e another idle stories, <strong>and</strong> rejoice in deathas we rejoice in birth; for without death wecannot be born again; <strong>and</strong> the man who doesnot wish to be born again <strong>and</strong> born betteris fit <strong>on</strong>ly to represent the City of L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>in Parliament, or perhaps the university ofOxford.
The Child is Fatherto the ManIs he? Then in the name of comm<strong>on</strong> sense whydo we always treat children <strong>on</strong> the assumpti<strong>on</strong>that the man is father to the child? Oh,these fathers! And we are not c<strong>on</strong>tent withfathers: we must have godfathers, f<strong>org</strong>ettingthat the child is godfather to the man. Hasit ever struck you as curious that in a countrywhere the first article of belief is that everychild is born with a godfather whom weall call “our father which art in heaven,” twovery limited individual mortals should be allowedto appear at its baptism <strong>and</strong> explainthat they are its godparents, <strong>and</strong> that theywill look after its salvati<strong>on</strong> until it is no l<strong>on</strong>gera child. I had a godmother who made herselfresp<strong>on</strong>sible in this way for me. She presentedme with a Bible with a gilt clasp <strong>and</strong> edges,larger than the Bibles similarly presented tomy sisters, because my sex entitled me to aheavier article. I must have seen that lady atleast four times in the twenty years following.5
6 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>She never alluded to my salvati<strong>on</strong> in any way.People occasi<strong>on</strong>ally ask me to act as godfatherto their children with a levity which c<strong>on</strong>vincesme that they have not the faintest noti<strong>on</strong>that it involves anything more than callingthe helpless child Ge<strong>org</strong>e Bernard withoutregard to the possibility that it may grow upin the liveliest abhorrence of my noti<strong>on</strong>s.A pers<strong>on</strong> with a turn for logic might arguethat if God is the Father of all men, <strong>and</strong>if the child is father to the man, it followsthat the true representative of God at thechristening is the child itself. But suchposers are unpopular, because they implythat our little customs, or, as we often callthem, our religi<strong>on</strong>, mean something, or mustoriginally have meant something, <strong>and</strong> thatwe underst<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> believe that something.However, my business is not to makec<strong>on</strong>fusi<strong>on</strong> worse c<strong>on</strong>founded, but to clear itup. Only, it is as well to begin by a sample ofcurrent thought <strong>and</strong> practice which shewsthat <strong>on</strong> the subject of children we are verydeeply c<strong>on</strong>fused. On the whole, whateverour theory or no theory may be, our practiceis to treat the child as the property of itsimmediate physical parents, <strong>and</strong> to allowthem to do what they like with it as far asit will let them. It has no rights <strong>and</strong> noliberties: in short, its c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> is that whichadults recognize as the most miserable <strong>and</strong>dangerous politically possible for themselves:
The Child is Father to the Man 7namely, the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of slavery. For itsalleviati<strong>on</strong> we trust to the natural affecti<strong>on</strong>of the parties, <strong>and</strong> to public opini<strong>on</strong>. Afather cannot for his own credit let his s<strong>on</strong>go in rags. Also, in a very large secti<strong>on</strong>of the populati<strong>on</strong>, parents finally becomedependent <strong>on</strong> their children. Thus thereare checks <strong>on</strong> child slavery which do notexist, or are less powerful, in the case ofmanual <strong>and</strong> industrial slavery. Sensati<strong>on</strong>allybad cases fall into two classes, which arereally the same class: namely, the childrenwhose parents are excessively addicted tothe sensual luxury of petting children, <strong>and</strong>the children whose parents are excessivelyaddicted to the sensual luxury of physicallytorturing them. There is a Society for thePreventi<strong>on</strong> of Cruelty to <strong>Children</strong> which haseffectually made an end of our belief thatmothers are any more to be trusted thanstepmothers, or fathers than slave-drivers.And there is a growing body of law designedto prevent parents from using their childrenruthlessly to make m<strong>on</strong>ey for the household.Such legislati<strong>on</strong> has always been furiouslyresisted by the parents, even when thehorrors of factory slavery were at theirworst; <strong>and</strong> the extensi<strong>on</strong> of such legislati<strong>on</strong>at present would be impossible if it werenot that the parents affected by it cannotc<strong>on</strong>trol a majority of votes in Parliament. Indomestic life a great deal of service is d<strong>on</strong>e
8 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>by children, the girls acting as nursemaids<strong>and</strong> general servants, <strong>and</strong> the lads as err<strong>and</strong>boys. In the country both boys <strong>and</strong> girls doa substantial share of farm labor. This iswhy it is necessary to coerce poor parents tosend their children to school, though in therelatively small class which keeps plenty ofservants it is impossible to induce parents tokeep their children at home instead of payingschoolmasters to take them off their h<strong>and</strong>s.It appears then that the b<strong>on</strong>d of affecti<strong>on</strong>between parents <strong>and</strong> children does not savechildren from the slavery that denial ofrights involves in adult political relati<strong>on</strong>s. Itsometimes intensifies it, sometimes mitigatesit; but <strong>on</strong> the whole children <strong>and</strong> parentsc<strong>on</strong>fr<strong>on</strong>t <strong>on</strong>e another as two classes in whichall the political power is <strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>e side; <strong>and</strong> theresults are not at all unlike what they wouldbe if there were no immediate c<strong>on</strong>sanguinitybetween them, <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong>e were white <strong>and</strong> theother black, or <strong>on</strong>e enfranchised <strong>and</strong> theother disenfranchised, or <strong>on</strong>e ranked asgentle <strong>and</strong> the other simple. Not that Naturecounts for nothing in the case <strong>and</strong> politicalrights for everything. But a denial of politicalrights, <strong>and</strong> the resultant delivery of <strong>on</strong>e classinto the mastery of another, affects theirrelati<strong>on</strong>s so extensively <strong>and</strong> profoundly thatit is impossible to ascertain what the realnatural relati<strong>on</strong>s of the two classes are untilthis political relati<strong>on</strong> is abolished.
What is a Child?An experiment. A fresh attempt to producethe just man made perfect: that is, to makehumanity divine. And you will vitiate theexperiment if you make the slightest attemptto abort it into some fancy figure of yourown: for example, your noti<strong>on</strong> of a good manor a womanly woman. If you treat it as alittle wild beast to be tamed, or as a petto be played with, or even as a means tosave you trouble <strong>and</strong> to make m<strong>on</strong>ey foryou (<strong>and</strong> these are our comm<strong>on</strong>est ways),it may fight its way through in spite of you<strong>and</strong> save its soul alive; for all its instinctswill resist you, <strong>and</strong> possibly be strengthenedin the resistance; but if you begin with itsown holiest aspirati<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> suborn them foryour own purposes, then there is hardly anylimit to the mischief you may do. Swear at achild, throw your boots at it, send it flyingfrom the room with a cuff or a kick; <strong>and</strong> theexperience will be as instructive to the childas a difficulty with a short-tempered dog ora bull. Francis Place tells us that his father9
10 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>always struck his children when he found <strong>on</strong>ewithin his reach. The effect <strong>on</strong> the youngPlaces seems to have been simply to makethem keep out of their father’s way, whichwas no doubt what he desired, as far as hedesired anything at all. Francis records thehabit without bitterness, having reas<strong>on</strong> tothank his stars that his father respected theinside of his head whilst cuffing the outsideof it; <strong>and</strong> this made it easy for Francis todo yeoman’s service to his country as thatrare <strong>and</strong> admirable thing, a Freethinker: the<strong>on</strong>ly sort of thinker, I may remark, whosethoughts, <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sequently whose religiousc<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong>s, comm<strong>and</strong> any respect.Now Mr Place, senior, would be describedby many as a bad father; <strong>and</strong> I do not c<strong>on</strong>tendthat he was a c<strong>on</strong>spicuously good <strong>on</strong>e. But ascompared with the c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>al good fatherwho deliberately imposes himself <strong>on</strong> his s<strong>on</strong>as a god; who takes advantage of childishcredulity <strong>and</strong> parent worship to persuadehis s<strong>on</strong> that what he approves of is right<strong>and</strong> what he disapproves of is wr<strong>on</strong>g; whoimposes a corresp<strong>on</strong>ding c<strong>on</strong>duct <strong>on</strong> the childby a system of prohibiti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> penalties,rewards <strong>and</strong> eulogies, for which he claimsdivine sancti<strong>on</strong>: compared to this sort ofaborti<strong>on</strong>ist <strong>and</strong> m<strong>on</strong>ster maker, I say, Placeappears almost as a Providence. Not that it ispossible to live with children any more thanwith grown-up people without imposing rules
What is a Child? 11of c<strong>on</strong>duct <strong>on</strong> them. There is a point at whichevery pers<strong>on</strong> with human nerves has to sayto a child “Stop that noise.” But suppose thechild asks why! There are various answersin use. The simplest: “Because it irritatesme,” may fail; for it may strike the child asbeing rather amusing to irritate you; alsothe child, having comparatively no nerves,may be unable to c<strong>on</strong>ceive your meaningvividly enough. In any case it may wantto make a noise more than to spare yourfeelings. You may therefore have to explainthat the effect of the irritati<strong>on</strong> will be thatyou will do something unpleasant if thenoise c<strong>on</strong>tinues. The something unpleasantmay be <strong>on</strong>ly a look of suffering to rouse thechild’s affecti<strong>on</strong>ate sympathy (if it has any),or it may run to forcible expulsi<strong>on</strong> from theroom with plenty of unnecessary violence;but the principle is the same: there are nofalse pretences involved: the child learns in astraightforward way that it does not pay to beinc<strong>on</strong>siderate. Also, perhaps, that Mamma,who made the child learn the Serm<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> theMount, is not really a Christian.
12 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The Sin of Nadab<strong>and</strong> AbihuBut there is another sort of answer inwide use which is neither straightforward,instructive, nor harmless. In its simplestform it substitutes for “Stop that noise,”“D<strong>on</strong>t be naughty,” which means that thechild, instead of annoying you by a perfectlyhealthy <strong>and</strong> natural infantile procedure,is offending God. This is a blasphemouslie; <strong>and</strong> the fact that it is <strong>on</strong> the lips ofevery nurserymaid does not excuse it in theleast. Dickens tells us of a nurserymaid whoelaborated it into “If you do that, angels w<strong>on</strong>tnever love you.” I remember a servant whoused to tell me that if I were not good, bywhich she meant if I did not behave with asingle eye to her pers<strong>on</strong>al c<strong>on</strong>venience, thecock would come down the chimney. Lessimaginative but equally dish<strong>on</strong>est people toldme I should go to hell if I did not make myselfagreeable to them. Bodily violence, providedit be the hasty expressi<strong>on</strong> of normal provoked13
14 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>resentment <strong>and</strong> not vicious cruelty, cannotharm a child as this sort of pious fraudharms it. There is a legal limit to physicalcruelty; <strong>and</strong> there are also human limits toit. There is an active Society which brings tobook a good many parents who starve <strong>and</strong>torture <strong>and</strong> overwork their children, <strong>and</strong>intimidates a good many more. When parentsof this type are caught, they are treated ascriminals; <strong>and</strong> not infrequently the policehave some trouble to save them from beinglynched. The people against whom childrenare wholly unprotected are those who devotethemselves to the very mischievous <strong>and</strong> cruelsort of aborti<strong>on</strong> which is called bringing up achild in the way it should go. Now nobodyknows the way a child should go. All theways discovered so far lead to the horrorsof our existing civilizati<strong>on</strong>s, described quitejustifiably by Ruskin as heaps of ag<strong>on</strong>izinghuman maggots, struggling with <strong>on</strong>e anotherfor scraps of food. Pious fraud is an attemptto pervert that precious <strong>and</strong> sacred thing thechild’s c<strong>on</strong>science into an instrument of ourown c<strong>on</strong>venience, <strong>and</strong> to use that w<strong>on</strong>derful<strong>and</strong> terrible power called Shame to grind ourown axe. It is the sin of stealing fire fromthe altar: a sin so impudently practised bypopes, parents, <strong>and</strong> pédagogues, that <strong>on</strong>e canhardly expect the nurserymaids to see anyharm in stealing a few cinders when they areworrited.
The Sin of Nadab <strong>and</strong> Abihu 15Into the blackest depths of this violati<strong>on</strong> ofchildren’s souls <strong>on</strong>e can hardly bear to look;for here we find pious fraud masking the violati<strong>on</strong>of the body by obscene cruelty. Any parentor school teacher who takes a secret <strong>and</strong>abominable delight in torture is allowed to laytraps into which every child must fall, <strong>and</strong>then beat it to his or her heart’s c<strong>on</strong>tent. Agentleman <strong>on</strong>ce wrote to me <strong>and</strong> said, with anobvious c<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong> that he was being most reas<strong>on</strong>able<strong>and</strong> high minded, that the <strong>on</strong>ly thinghe beat his children for was failure in perfectobedience <strong>and</strong> perfect truthfulness. On theseattributes, he said, he must insist. As <strong>on</strong>e ofthem is not a virtue at all, <strong>and</strong> the other isthe attribute of a god, <strong>on</strong>e can imagine whatthe lives of this gentleman’s children wouldhave been if it had been possible for him tolive down to his m<strong>on</strong>strous <strong>and</strong> foolish pretensi<strong>on</strong>s.And yet he might have written hisletter to The Times (he very nearly did, bythe way) without incurring any danger of beingremoved to an asylum, or even losing hisreputati<strong>on</strong> for taking a very proper view ofhis parental duties. And at least it was nota trivial view, nor an ill meant <strong>on</strong>e. It wasmuch more respectable than the general c<strong>on</strong>sensusof opini<strong>on</strong> that if a school teacher c<strong>and</strong>evise a questi<strong>on</strong> a child cannot answer, oroverhear it calling omega omeega, he or shemay beat the child viciously. Only, the crueltymust be whitewashed by a moral excuse,
16 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> a pretence of reluctance. It must be forthe child’s good. The assailant must say “Thishurts me more than it hurts you.” There mustbe hypocrisy as well as cruelty. The injury tothe child would be far less if the voluptuarysaid frankly “I beat you because I like beatingyou; <strong>and</strong> I shall do it whenever I can c<strong>on</strong>trivean excuse for it.” But to represent thisdetestable lust to the child as Divine wrath,<strong>and</strong> the cruelty as the beneficent act of God,which is exactly what all our floggers do, is toadd to the torture of the body, out of which theflogger at least gets some pleasure, the maiming<strong>and</strong> blinding of the child’s soul, which canbring nothing but horror to any<strong>on</strong>e.
The Manufactureof M<strong>on</strong>stersThis industry is by no means peculiarto China. The Chinese (they say) makephysical m<strong>on</strong>sters. We revile them for it<strong>and</strong> proceed to make moral m<strong>on</strong>sters of ourown children. The most excusable parentsare those who try to correct their own faultsin their offspring. The parent who says tohis child: “I am <strong>on</strong>e of the successes of theAlmighty: therefore imitate me in everyparticular or I will have the skin off yourback” (a quite comm<strong>on</strong> attitude) is a muchmore absurd figure than the man who, witha pipe in his mouth, thrashes his boy forsmoking. If you must hold yourself up to yourchildren as an object less<strong>on</strong> (which is not atall necessary), hold yourself up as a warning<strong>and</strong> not as an example. But you had muchbetter let the child’s character al<strong>on</strong>e. If you<strong>on</strong>ce allow yourself to regard a child as somuch material for you to manufacture intoany shape that happens to suit your fancy17
18 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>you are defeating the experiment of the LifeForce. You are assuming that the child doesnot know its own business, <strong>and</strong> that you do.In this you are sure to be wr<strong>on</strong>g: the childfeels the drive of the Life Force (often calledthe Will of God); <strong>and</strong> you cannot feel it forhim. H<strong>and</strong>el’s parents no doubt thought theyknew better than their child when they triedto prevent his becoming a musician. Theywould have been equally wr<strong>on</strong>g <strong>and</strong> equallyunsuccessful if they had tried to prevent thechild becoming a great rascal had its geniuslain in that directi<strong>on</strong>. H<strong>and</strong>el would havebeen H<strong>and</strong>el, <strong>and</strong> Napole<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> Peter ofRussia themselves in spite of all the parentsin creati<strong>on</strong>, because, as often happens, theywere str<strong>on</strong>ger than their parents. But thisdoes not happen always. Most children canbe, <strong>and</strong> many are, hopelessly warped <strong>and</strong>wasted by parents who are ignorant <strong>and</strong> sillyenough to suppose that they know what ahuman being ought to be, <strong>and</strong> who stick atnothing in their determinati<strong>on</strong> to force theirchildren into their moulds. Every child hasa right to its own bent. It has a right to bea Plymouth Brother though its parents bec<strong>on</strong>vinced atheists. It has a right to dislike itsmother or father or sister or brother or uncleor aunt if they are antipathetic to it. It has aright to find its own way <strong>and</strong> go its own way,whether that way seems wise or foolish toothers, exactly as an adult has. It has a right
The Manufacture of M<strong>on</strong>sters 19to privacy as to its own doings <strong>and</strong> its ownaffairs as much as if it were its own father.
20 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Small <strong>and</strong> LargeFamiliesThese rights have now become moreimportant than they used to be, becausethe modern practice of limiting familiesenables them to be more effectually violated.In a family of ten, eight, six, or even fourchildren, the rights of the younger <strong>on</strong>esto a great extent take care of themselves<strong>and</strong> of the rights of the elder <strong>on</strong>es too. Twoadult parents, in spite of a house to keep<strong>and</strong> an income to earn, can still interfereto a disastrous extent with the rights <strong>and</strong>liberties of <strong>on</strong>e child. But by the time afourth child has arrived, they are not <strong>on</strong>lyoutnumbered two to <strong>on</strong>e, but are gettingtired of the thankless <strong>and</strong> mischievous job ofbringing up their children in the way theythink they should go. The old observati<strong>on</strong>that members of large families get <strong>on</strong> in theworld holds good because in large families itis impossible for each child to receive whatschoolmasters call “individual attenti<strong>on</strong>.” The21
22 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>children may receive a good deal of individualattenti<strong>on</strong> from <strong>on</strong>e another in the shapeof outspoken reproach, ruthless ridicule,<strong>and</strong> violent resistance to their attempts ataggressi<strong>on</strong>; but the parental despots arecompelled by the multitude of their subjectsto resort to political rather than pers<strong>on</strong>alrule, <strong>and</strong> to spread their attempts at moralm<strong>on</strong>ster-making over so many children, thateach child has enough freedom, <strong>and</strong> enoughsport in the prophylactic process of laughingat its elders behind their backs, to escapewith much less damage than the single child.In a large school the system may be bad; butthe pers<strong>on</strong>al influence of the head masterhas to be exerted, when it is exerted at all,in a public way, because he has little morepower of working <strong>on</strong> the affecti<strong>on</strong>s of theindividual scholar in the intimate way that,for example, the mother of a single child can,than the prime minister has of working <strong>on</strong>the affecti<strong>on</strong>s of any individual voter.
<strong>Children</strong> asNuisancesExperienced parents, when children’s rightsare preached to them, very naturally askwhether children are to be allowed to do whatthey like. The best reply is to ask whetheradults are to be allowed to do what theylike. The two cases are the same. The adultwho is nasty is not allowed to do what helikes: neither can the child who likes to benasty. There is no difference in principlebetween the rights of a child <strong>and</strong> those of anadult: the difference in their cases is <strong>on</strong>e ofcircumstance. An adult is not supposed to bepunished except by process of law; nor, whenhe is so punished, is the pers<strong>on</strong> whom hehas injured allowed to act as judge, jury, <strong>and</strong>executi<strong>on</strong>er. It is true that employers do actin this way every day to their workpeople; butthis is not a justified <strong>and</strong> intended part of thesituati<strong>on</strong>: it is an abuse of Capitalism whichnobody defends in principle. As between child<strong>and</strong> parent or nurse it is not argued about23
24 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>because it is inevitable. You cannot holdan impartial judicial inquiry every time achild misbehaves itself. To allow the childto misbehave without instantly making itunpleasantly c<strong>on</strong>scious of the fact would beto spoil it. The adult has therefore to takeacti<strong>on</strong> of some sort with nothing but hisc<strong>on</strong>science to shield the child from injusticeor unkindness. The acti<strong>on</strong> may be a torrentof scolding culminating in a furious smackcausing terror <strong>and</strong> pain, or it may be arem<strong>on</strong>strance causing remorse, or it may be asarcasm causing shame <strong>and</strong> humiliati<strong>on</strong>, or itmay be a serm<strong>on</strong> causing the child to believethat it is a little reprobate <strong>on</strong> the road to hell.The child has no defence in any case exceptthe kindness <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>science of the adult; <strong>and</strong>the adult had better not f<strong>org</strong>et this; for itinvolves a heavy resp<strong>on</strong>sibility.And now comes our difficulty. The resp<strong>on</strong>sibility,being so heavy, cannot be dischargedby pers<strong>on</strong>s of feeble character or intelligence.And yet people of high character <strong>and</strong> intelligencecannot be plagued with the care of children.A child is a restless, noisy little animal,with an insatiable appetite for knowledge,<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sequently a maddening persistencein asking questi<strong>on</strong>s. If the child is to remainin the room with a highly intelligent <strong>and</strong>sensitive adult, it must be told, <strong>and</strong> if necessaryforced, to sit still <strong>and</strong> not speak, whichis injurious to its health, unnatural, unjust,
<strong>Children</strong> as Nuisances 25<strong>and</strong> therefore cruel <strong>and</strong> selfish bey<strong>on</strong>d tolerati<strong>on</strong>.C<strong>on</strong>sequently the highly intelligent <strong>and</strong>sensitive adult h<strong>and</strong>s the child over to a nurserymaidwho has no nerves <strong>and</strong> can thereforest<strong>and</strong> more noise, but who has also no scruples,<strong>and</strong> may therefore be very bad companyfor the child.Here we have come to the central fact ofthe questi<strong>on</strong>: a fact nobody avows, which isyet the true explanati<strong>on</strong> of the m<strong>on</strong>stroussystem of child impris<strong>on</strong>ment <strong>and</strong> torturewhich we disguise under such hypocrisies aseducati<strong>on</strong>, training, formati<strong>on</strong> of character<strong>and</strong> the rest of it. This fact is simply thata child is a nuisance to a grown-up pers<strong>on</strong>.What is more, the nuisance becomes more<strong>and</strong> more intolerable as the grown-up pers<strong>on</strong>becomes more cultivated, more sensitive, <strong>and</strong>more deeply engaged in the highest methodsof adult work. The child at play is noisy<strong>and</strong> ought to be noisy: Sir Isaac Newt<strong>on</strong> atwork is quiet <strong>and</strong> ought to be quiet. Andthe child should spend most of its time atplay, whilst the adult should spend most ofhis time at work. I am not now writing <strong>on</strong>behalf of pers<strong>on</strong>s who coddle themselves intoa ridiculous c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of nervous feebleness,<strong>and</strong> at last imagine themselves unable towork under c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s of bustle which tohealthy people are cheerful <strong>and</strong> stimulating.I am sure that if people had to choosebetween living where the noise of children
26 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>never stopped <strong>and</strong> where it was never heard,all the goodnatured <strong>and</strong> sound people wouldprefer the incessant noise to the incessantsilence. But that choice is not thrust up<strong>on</strong> usby the nature of things. There is no reas<strong>on</strong>why children <strong>and</strong> adults should not seejust as much of <strong>on</strong>e another as is good forthem, no more <strong>and</strong> no less. Even at presentyou are not compelled to choose betweensending your child to a boarding school(which means getting rid of it altogether<strong>on</strong> more or less hypocritical pretences) <strong>and</strong>keeping it c<strong>on</strong>tinually at home. Most workingfolk today either send their children to dayschools or turn them out of doors. This solvesthe problem for the parents. It does notsolve it for the children, any more than thetethering of a goat in a field or the chasing ofan unlicensed dog into the streets solves it forthe goat or the dog; but it shews that in noclass are people willing to endure the societyof their children, <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sequently that it isan error to believe that the family provideschildren with edifying adult society, or thatthe family is a social unit. The family is inthat, as in so many other respects, a humbug.Old people <strong>and</strong> young people cannot walk atthe same pace without distress <strong>and</strong> final lossof health to <strong>on</strong>e of the parties. When theyare sitting indoors they cannot endure thesame degrees of temperature <strong>and</strong> the samesupplies of fresh air. Even if the main factors
<strong>Children</strong> as Nuisances 27of noise, restlessness, <strong>and</strong> inquisitivenessare left out of account, children can st<strong>and</strong>with indifference sights, sounds, smells,<strong>and</strong> disorders that would make an adult offifty utterly miserable; whilst <strong>on</strong> the otherh<strong>and</strong> such adults find a tranquil happinessin c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s which to children meanunspeakable boredom. And since our systemis nevertheless to pack them all into thesame house <strong>and</strong> pretend that they are happy,<strong>and</strong> that this particular sort of happinessis the foundati<strong>on</strong> of virtue, it is found thatin discussing family life we never speak ofactual adults or actual children, or of realitiesof any sort, but always of ideals such as TheHome, a Mother’s Influence, a Father’s Care,Filial Piety, Duty, Affecti<strong>on</strong>, Family Life,etc. etc., which are no doubt very comfortingphrases, but which beg the questi<strong>on</strong> ofwhat a home <strong>and</strong> a mother’s influence <strong>and</strong>a father’s care <strong>and</strong> so forth really come toin practice. How many hours a week of thetime when his children are out of bed doesthe ordinary bread-winning father spend inthe company of his children or even in thesame building with them? The home may bea thieves’ kitchen, the mother a procuress,the father a violent drunkard; or the mother<strong>and</strong> father may be fashi<strong>on</strong>able people whosee their children three or four times a yearduring the holidays, <strong>and</strong> then not oftenerthan they can help, living meanwhile in daily
28 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> intimate c<strong>on</strong>tact with their valets <strong>and</strong>lady’s-maids, whose influence <strong>and</strong> care areoften dominant in the household. Affecti<strong>on</strong>,as distinguished from simple kindliness,may or may not exist: when it does it eitherdepends <strong>on</strong> qualities in the parties thatwould produce it equally if they were of nokin to <strong>on</strong>e another, or it is a more or lessmorbid survival of the nursing passi<strong>on</strong>; foraffecti<strong>on</strong> between adults (if they are reallyadult in mind <strong>and</strong> not merely grown-upchildren) <strong>and</strong> creatures so relatively selfish<strong>and</strong> cruel as children necessarily are withoutknowing it or meaning it, cannot be callednatural: in fact the evidence shews that it iseasier to love the company of a dog than of acomm<strong>on</strong>place child between the ages of six<strong>and</strong> the beginnings of c<strong>on</strong>trolled maturity; forwomen who cannot bear to be separated fromtheir pet dogs send their children to boardingschools cheerfully. They may say <strong>and</strong> evenbelieve that in allowing their children toleave home they are sacrificing themselvesfor their children’s good; but there are veryfew pet dogs who would not be the betterfor a m<strong>on</strong>th or two spent elsewhere than ina lady’s lap or roasting <strong>on</strong> a drawingroomhearthrug. Besides, to allege that childrenare better c<strong>on</strong>tinually away from home is togive up the whole popular sentimental theoryof the family; yet the dogs are kept <strong>and</strong> thechildren are banished.
Child FanciersThere is, however, a good deal of spuriousfamily affecti<strong>on</strong>. There is the clannishnessthat will make a dozen brothers <strong>and</strong> sisterswho quarrel furiously am<strong>on</strong>g themselvesclose up their ranks <strong>and</strong> make comm<strong>on</strong> causeagainst a brother-in-law or a sister-in-law.And there is a str<strong>on</strong>g sense of property inchildren, which often makes mothers <strong>and</strong>fathers bitterly jealous of allowing any<strong>on</strong>eelse to interfere with their children, whomthey may n<strong>on</strong>e the less treat very badly.And there is an extremely dangerous crazefor children which leads certain peopleto establish orphanages <strong>and</strong> baby farms<strong>and</strong> schools, seizing any pretext for fillingtheir houses with children exactly as someeccentric old ladies <strong>and</strong> gentlemen fill theirswith cats. In such places the children are thevictims of all the caprices of doting affecti<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> all the excesses of lascivious cruelty. Yetthe people who have this morbid craze seldomhave any difficulty in finding victims. <strong>Parents</strong><strong>and</strong> guardians are so worried by children <strong>and</strong>29
30 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>so anxious to get rid of them that any<strong>on</strong>ewho is willing to take them off their h<strong>and</strong>s iswelcomed <strong>and</strong> whitewashed. The very peoplewho read with indignati<strong>on</strong> of Squeers <strong>and</strong>Creakle in the novels of Dickens are quiteready to h<strong>and</strong> over their own children toSqueers <strong>and</strong> Creakle, <strong>and</strong> to pretend thatSqueers <strong>and</strong> Creakle are m<strong>on</strong>sters of thepast. But read the autobiography of Stanleythe traveller, or sit in the company of mentalking about their school-days, <strong>and</strong> youwill so<strong>on</strong> find that ficti<strong>on</strong>, which must, if itis to be sold <strong>and</strong> read, stop short of beingpositively sickening, dare not tell the wholetruth about the people to whom children areh<strong>and</strong>ed over <strong>on</strong> educati<strong>on</strong>al pretexts. Notvery l<strong>on</strong>g ago a schoolmaster in Irel<strong>and</strong> wasmurdered by his boys; <strong>and</strong> for reas<strong>on</strong>s whichwere never made public it was at first decidednot to prosecute the murderers. Yet all theseflogging schoolmasters <strong>and</strong> orphanage fiends<strong>and</strong> baby farmers are “lovers of children.”They are really child fanciers (like birdfanciers or dog fanciers) by irresistiblenatural predilecti<strong>on</strong>, never happy unless theyare surrounded by their victims, <strong>and</strong> alwayscertain to make their living by accepting thecustody of children, no matter how manyalternative occupati<strong>on</strong>s may be available.And bear in mind that they are <strong>on</strong>ly theextreme instances of what is comm<strong>on</strong>ly callednatural affecti<strong>on</strong>, apparently because it is
Child Fanciers 31obviously unnatural.The really natural feeling of adults for childrenin the l<strong>on</strong>g prosaic intervals between themoments of affecti<strong>on</strong>ate impulse is just thatfeeling that leads them to avoid their care <strong>and</strong>c<strong>on</strong>stant company as a burden bey<strong>on</strong>d bearing,<strong>and</strong> to pretend that the places they sendthem to are well c<strong>on</strong>ducted, beneficial, <strong>and</strong> indispensableto the success of the children inafter life. The true cry of the kind motherafter her little rosary of kisses is “Run away,darling.” It is nicer than “Hold your noise, youyoung devil; or it will be the worse for you”;but fundamentally it means the same thing:that if you compel an adult <strong>and</strong> a child to livein <strong>on</strong>e another’s company either the adult orthe child will be miserable. There is nothingwhatever unnatural or wr<strong>on</strong>g or shocking inthis fact; <strong>and</strong> there is no harm in it if <strong>on</strong>ly it besensibly faced <strong>and</strong> provided for. The mischiefthat it does at present is produced by our effortsto ignore it, or to smother it under a heapof sentimental lies <strong>and</strong> false pretences.
32 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Childhood as aState of SinUnfortunately all this n<strong>on</strong>sense tends toaccumulate as we become more sympathetic.In many families it is still the custom totreat childhood frankly as a state of sin, <strong>and</strong>impudently proclaim the m<strong>on</strong>strous principlethat little children should be seen <strong>and</strong> notheard, <strong>and</strong> to enforce a set of pris<strong>on</strong> rulesdesigned solely to make cohabitati<strong>on</strong> withchildren as c<strong>on</strong>venient as possible for adultswithout the smallest regard for the interests,either remote or immediate, of the children.This system tends to produce a tough, ratherbrutal, stupid, unscrupulous class, with afixed idea that all enjoyment c<strong>on</strong>sists inundetected sinning; <strong>and</strong> in certain phasesof civilizati<strong>on</strong> people of this kind are apt toget the upper h<strong>and</strong> of more amiable <strong>and</strong>c<strong>on</strong>scientious races <strong>and</strong> classes. They havethe ferocity of a chained dog, <strong>and</strong> are proud ofit. But the end of it is that they are alwaysin chains, even at the height of their military33
34 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>or political success: they win everything <strong>on</strong>c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> that they are afraid to enjoy it.Their civilizati<strong>on</strong>s rest <strong>on</strong> intimidati<strong>on</strong>, whichis so necessary to them that when they cannotfind anybody brave enough to intimidatethem they intimidate themselves <strong>and</strong> live ina c<strong>on</strong>tinual moral <strong>and</strong> political panic. In theend they get found out <strong>and</strong> bullied. But thatis not the point that c<strong>on</strong>cerns us here, whichis, that they are in some respects betterbrought up than the children of sentimentalpeople who are always anxious <strong>and</strong> miserableabout their duty to their children, <strong>and</strong> whoend by neither making their children happynor having a tolerable life for themselves.A selfish tyrant you know where to have,<strong>and</strong> he (or she) at least does not c<strong>on</strong>fuseyour affecti<strong>on</strong>s; but a c<strong>on</strong>scientious <strong>and</strong>kindly meddler may literally worry you outof your senses. It is fortunate that <strong>on</strong>ly veryfew parents are capable of doing what theyc<strong>on</strong>ceive their duty c<strong>on</strong>tinuously or even atall, <strong>and</strong> that still fewer are tough enough toride roughshod over their children at home.
SchoolBut please observe the limitati<strong>on</strong> “at home.”What private amateur parental enterprisecannot do may be d<strong>on</strong>e very effectively by<strong>org</strong>anized professi<strong>on</strong>al enterprise in largeinstituti<strong>on</strong>s established for the purpose. Andit is to such professi<strong>on</strong>al enterprise thatparents h<strong>and</strong> over their children when theycan afford it. They send their children toschool; <strong>and</strong> there is, <strong>on</strong> the whole, nothing <strong>on</strong>earth intended for innocent people so horribleas a school. To begin with, it is a pris<strong>on</strong>.But it is in some respects more cruel than apris<strong>on</strong>. In a pris<strong>on</strong>, for instance, you are notforced to read books written by the warders<strong>and</strong> the governor (who of course would notbe warders <strong>and</strong> governors if they could writereadable books), <strong>and</strong> beaten or otherwisetormented if you cannot remember theirutterly unmemorable c<strong>on</strong>tents. In the pris<strong>on</strong>you are not forced to sit listening to turnkeysdiscoursing without charm or interest <strong>on</strong>subjects that they d<strong>on</strong>t underst<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> d<strong>on</strong>tcare about, <strong>and</strong> are therefore incapable of35
School 37your childish hatred of your gaoler <strong>and</strong>flogger is nothing to his adult hatred ofyou; for he is a slave forced to endure yoursociety for his daily bread. You have noteven the satisfacti<strong>on</strong> of knowing how youare torturing him <strong>and</strong> how he loathes you;<strong>and</strong> you give yourself unnecessary pains toannoy him with furtive tricks <strong>and</strong> spitefuldoing of forbidden things. No w<strong>on</strong>der he issometimes provoked to fiendish outburstsof wrath. No w<strong>on</strong>der men of downrightsense, like Dr Johns<strong>on</strong>, admit that undersuch circumstances children will not learnanything unless they are so cruelly beatenthat they make desperate efforts to memorizewords <strong>and</strong> phrases to escape flagellati<strong>on</strong>. It isa ghastly business, quite bey<strong>on</strong>d words, thisschooling.And now I hear cries of protest arisingall round. First my own schoolmasters, ortheir ghosts, asking whether I was cruellybeaten at school? No; but then I did notlearn anything at school. Dr Johns<strong>on</strong>’sschoolmaster presumably did care enoughwhether Sam learned anything to beathim savagely enough to force him to lamehis mind—for Johns<strong>on</strong>’s great mind waslamed—by learning his less<strong>on</strong>s. N<strong>on</strong>e ofmy schoolmasters really cared a rap (orperhaps it would be fairer to them to saythat their employers did not care a rap <strong>and</strong>therefore did not give them the necessary
38 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>caning powers) whether I learnt my less<strong>on</strong>sor not, provided my father paid my schoolingbill, the collecti<strong>on</strong> of which was the realobject of the school. C<strong>on</strong>sequently I did notlearn my school less<strong>on</strong>s, having much moreimportant <strong>on</strong>es in h<strong>and</strong>, with the resultthat I have not wasted my life trifling withliterary fools in taverns as Johns<strong>on</strong> didwhen he should have been shaking Engl<strong>and</strong>with the thunder of his spirit. My schoolingdid me a great deal of harm <strong>and</strong> no goodwhatever: it was simply dragging a child’ssoul through the dirt; but I escaped Squeers<strong>and</strong> Creakle just as I escaped Johns<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>Carlyle. And this is what happens to mostof us. We are not effectively coerced tolearn: we stave off punishment as far aswe can by lying <strong>and</strong> trickery <strong>and</strong> guessing<strong>and</strong> using our wits; <strong>and</strong> when this does notsuffice we scribble impositi<strong>on</strong>s, or suffer extraimpris<strong>on</strong>ments—“keeping in” was the phrasein my time—or let a master strike us with acane <strong>and</strong> fall back <strong>on</strong> our pride at being ableto hear it physically (he not being allowed tohit us too hard) to outface the dish<strong>on</strong>or weshould have been taught to die rather thanendure. And so idleness <strong>and</strong> worthlessness<strong>on</strong> the <strong>on</strong>e h<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> a pretence of coerci<strong>on</strong><strong>on</strong> the other became a despicable routine. Ifmy schoolmasters had been really engaged ineducating me instead of painfully earningtheir bread by keeping me from annoying
School 39my elders they would have turned me out ofthe school, telling me that I was thoroughlydisloyal to it; that I had no intenti<strong>on</strong> oflearning; that I was mocking <strong>and</strong> distractingthe boys who did wish to learn; that I wasa liar <strong>and</strong> a shirker <strong>and</strong> a seditious littlenuisance; <strong>and</strong> that nothing could injure me incharacter <strong>and</strong> degrade their occupati<strong>on</strong> morethan allowing me (much less forcing me) toremain in the school under such c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s.But in order to get expelled, it was necessarycommit a crime of such atrocity that theparents of other boys would have threatenedto remove their s<strong>on</strong>s so<strong>on</strong>er than allow themto be schoolfellows with the delinquent. Ican remember <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>e case in which such apenalty was threatened; <strong>and</strong> in that case theculprit, a boarder, had kissed a housemaid,or possibly, being a h<strong>and</strong>some youth, beenkissed by her. She did not kiss me; <strong>and</strong>nobody ever dreamt of expelling me. Thetruth was, a boy meant just so much a yearto the instituti<strong>on</strong>. That was why he was keptthere against his will. That was why he waskept there when his expulsi<strong>on</strong> would havebeen an unspeakable relief <strong>and</strong> benefit bothto his teachers <strong>and</strong> himself.It may be argued that if the uncommercialattitude had been taken, <strong>and</strong> all the disloyalwasters <strong>and</strong> idlers shewn sternly to thedoor, the school would not have been emptied,but filled. But so h<strong>on</strong>est an attitude was im-
40 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>possible. The masters must have hated theschool much more than the boys did. Just asyou cannot impris<strong>on</strong> a man without impris<strong>on</strong>inga warder to see that he does not escape,the warder being tied to the pris<strong>on</strong> as effectuallyby the fear of unemployment <strong>and</strong> starvati<strong>on</strong>as the pris<strong>on</strong>er is by the bolts <strong>and</strong> bars,so these poor schoolmasters, with their smallsalaries <strong>and</strong> large classes, were as much pris<strong>on</strong>ersas we were, <strong>and</strong> much more resp<strong>on</strong>sible<strong>and</strong> anxious <strong>on</strong>es. They could not impose theheroic attitude <strong>on</strong> their employers; nor wouldthey have been able to obtain places as schoolmastersif their habits had been heroic. Forthe best of them their employment was provisi<strong>on</strong>al:they looked forward to escaping from itinto the pulpit. The ablest <strong>and</strong> most impatientof them were often so irritated by the awkward,slow-witted, slovenly boys: that is, the<strong>on</strong>es that required special c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>patient treatment, that they vented their irritati<strong>on</strong><strong>on</strong> them ruthlessly, nothing being easierthan to entrap or bewilder such a boy intogiving a pretext for punishing him.
My ScholasticAcquirementsThe results, as far as I was c<strong>on</strong>cerned, werewhat might have been expected. My schoolmade <strong>on</strong>ly the thinnest pretence of teachinganything but Latin <strong>and</strong> Greek. When I wentthere as a very small boy I knew a good dealof Latin grammar which I had been taught ina few weeks privately by my uncle. When Ihad been several years at school this sameuncle examined me <strong>and</strong> discovered that thenet result of my schooling was that I hadf<strong>org</strong>otten what he had taught me, <strong>and</strong> hadlearnt nothing else. To this day, though I canstill decline a Latin noun <strong>and</strong> repeat someof the old paradigms in the old meaninglessway, because their rhythm sticks to me, Ihave never yet seen a Latin inscripti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> atomb that I could translate throughout. OfGreek I can decipher perhaps the greaterpart of the Greek alphabet. In short, I am, asto classical educati<strong>on</strong>, another Shakespear.I can read French as easily as English;41
42 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> under pressure of necessity I can turnto account some scraps of German <strong>and</strong> alittle operatic Italian; but these I was nevertaught at school. Instead, I was taught lying,dish<strong>on</strong>orable submissi<strong>on</strong> to tyranny, dirtystories, a blasphemous habit of treating love<strong>and</strong> maternity as obscene jokes, hopelessness,evasi<strong>on</strong>, derisi<strong>on</strong>, cowardice, <strong>and</strong> all theblackguard’s shifts by which the cowardintimidates other cowards. And if I had beena boarder at an English public school insteadof a day boy at an Irish <strong>on</strong>e, I might have hadto add to these, deeper shames still.
Schoolmasters ofGeniusAnd now, if I have reduced the ghosts of myschoolmasters to melancholy acquiescence inall this (which everybody who has been at anordinary school will recognize as true), I havestill to meet the much more sincere protestsof the h<strong>and</strong>ful of people who have a naturalgenius for “bringing up” children. I shall beasked with kindly scorn whether I have heardof Froebel <strong>and</strong> Pestalozzi, whether I knowthe work that is being d<strong>on</strong>e by Miss Mas<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> the Dottoressa M<strong>on</strong>tessori or, best of allas I think, the Eurythmics School of JacquesDalcroze at Hellerau near Dresden. JacquesDalcroze, like Plato, believes in saturatinghis pupils with music. They walk to music,play to music, work to music, obey drillcomm<strong>and</strong>s that would bewilder a guardsmanto music, think to music, live to music, getso clearheaded about music that they canmove their several limbs each in a differentmetre until they become complicated living43
44 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>magazines of cross rhythms, <strong>and</strong>, what ismore, make music for others to do all thesethings to. Stranger still, though JacquesDalcroze, like all these great teachers, is thecompletest of tyrants, knowing what is right<strong>and</strong> that he must <strong>and</strong> will have the less<strong>on</strong>just so or else break his heart (not somebodyelse’s, observe), yet his school is so fascinatingthat every woman who sees it exclaims “Oh,why was I not taught like this!” <strong>and</strong> elderlygentlemen excitedly enrol themselves asstudents <strong>and</strong> distract classes of infants bytheir desperate endeavors to beat two in abar with <strong>on</strong>e h<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> three with the other,<strong>and</strong> start off <strong>on</strong> earnest walks round theroom, taking two steps backward wheneverM<strong>on</strong>sieur Daleroze calls out “Hop!” Oh yes: Iknow all about these w<strong>on</strong>derful schools thatyou cannot keep children or even adults outof, <strong>and</strong> these teachers whom their pupils not<strong>on</strong>ly obey without coerci<strong>on</strong>, but adore. And ifyou will tell me roughly how many Mas<strong>on</strong>s<strong>and</strong> M<strong>on</strong>tessoris <strong>and</strong> Dalcrozes you think youcan pick up in Europe for salaries of fromthirty shillings to five pounds a week, I willestimate your chances of c<strong>on</strong>verting yourmilli<strong>on</strong>s of little scholastic hells into littlescholastic heavens. If you are a distressedgentlewoman starting to make a living, youcan still open a little school; <strong>and</strong> you caneasily buy a sec<strong>on</strong>dh<strong>and</strong> brass plate inscribedPESTALOZZIAN INSTITUTE <strong>and</strong> nail it to
Schoolmasters of Genius 45your door, though you have no more idea ofwho Pestalozzi was <strong>and</strong> what he advocated orhow he did it than the manager of a hotelwhich began as a Hydropathic has of thewater cure. Or you can buy a cheaper plateinscribed KINDERGARTEN, <strong>and</strong> imagine,or leave others to imagine, that Froebel isthe governing genius of your little creche.No doubt the new brass plates are beinginscribed M<strong>on</strong>tessori Institute, <strong>and</strong> will beused when the Dotteressa is no l<strong>on</strong>ger withus by all the Mrs Pipchins <strong>and</strong> Mrs Wilfersthroughout this unhappy l<strong>and</strong>.I will go further, <strong>and</strong> admit that thebrass plates may not all be frauds. I willtell you that <strong>on</strong>e of my friends was led togenuine love <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>siderable knowledge ofclassical literature by an Irish schoolmasterwhom you would call a hedge schoolmaster(he would not be allowed to teach anythingnow) <strong>and</strong> that it took four years of Harrowto obliterate that knowledge <strong>and</strong> changethe love into loathing. Another friend ofmine who keeps a school in the suburbs, <strong>and</strong>who deeply deplores my “prejudice againstschoolmasters,” has offered to accept mychallenge to tell his pupils that they areas free to get up <strong>and</strong> go out of the schoolat any moment as their parents are to getup <strong>and</strong> go out of a theatre where my playsare being performed. Even am<strong>on</strong>g my ownschoolmasters I can recollect a few whose
46 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>classes interested me, <strong>and</strong> whom I shouldcertainly have pestered for informati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>instructi<strong>on</strong> if I could have got into any decenthuman relati<strong>on</strong>ship with them, <strong>and</strong> if theyhad not been compelled by their positi<strong>on</strong>to defend themselves as carefully againstsuch advances as against furtive attempts tohurt them accidentally in the football fieldor smash their hats with a clod from behinda wall. But these rare cases actually domore harm than good; for they encourage usto pretend that all schoolmasters are likethat. Of what use is it to us that there arealways somewhere two or three teachersof children whose specific genius for theiroccupati<strong>on</strong> triumphs over our tyrannoussystem <strong>and</strong> even finds in it its opportunity?For that matter, it is possible, if difficult,to find a solicitor, or even a judge, who hassome noti<strong>on</strong> of what law means, a doctorwith a glimmering of science, an officerwho underst<strong>and</strong>s duty <strong>and</strong> discipline, <strong>and</strong> aclergyman with an inkling of religi<strong>on</strong>, thoughthere are nothing like enough of them to goround. But even the few who, like Ibsen’sMrs Solness, have “a genius for nursing thesouls of little children” are like angels forcedto work in pris<strong>on</strong>s instead of in heaven; <strong>and</strong>even at that they are mostly underpaid <strong>and</strong>despised. That friend of mine who went fromthe hedge schoolmaster to Harrow <strong>on</strong>ce sawa schoolmaster rush from an elementary
Schoolmasters of Genius 47school in pursuit of a boy <strong>and</strong> strike him. Myfriend, not c<strong>on</strong>sidering that the unfortunateman was probably goaded bey<strong>on</strong>d endurance,smote the schoolmaster <strong>and</strong> blackened hiseye. The schoolmaster appealed to thelaw; <strong>and</strong> my friend found himself waitingnervously in the Hammersmith Police Courtto answer for his breach of the peace. In hisanxiety he asked a police officer what wouldhappen to him. “What did you do?” said theofficer. “I gave a man a black eye” said myfriend. “Six pounds if he was a gentleman:two pounds if he wasnt,” said the c<strong>on</strong>stable.“He was a schoolmaster” said my friend. “Twopounds” said the officer; <strong>and</strong> two pounds itwas. The blood m<strong>on</strong>ey was paid cheerfully;<strong>and</strong> I have ever since advised elementaryschoolmasters to qualify themselves in theart of self-defence, as the British C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>expresses our nati<strong>on</strong>al estimate of them byallowing us to blacken three of their eyesfor the same price as <strong>on</strong>e of an ordinaryprofessi<strong>on</strong>al man. How many Froebels <strong>and</strong>Pestalozzis <strong>and</strong> Miss Mas<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> DoctoressM<strong>on</strong>tessoris would you be likely to get <strong>on</strong>these terms even if they occurred much morefrequently in nature than they actually do?No: I cannot be put off by the news thatour system would be perfect if it were workedby angels. I do not admit it even at that, justas I do not admit that if the sky fell we shouldall catch larks. But I do not propose to bother
48 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>about a supply of specific genius which doesnot exist, <strong>and</strong> which, if it did exist, could operate<strong>on</strong>ly by at <strong>on</strong>ce recognizing <strong>and</strong> establishingthe rights of children.
What We Do NotTeach, <strong>and</strong> WhyTo my mind, a glance at the subjects nowtaught in schools ought to c<strong>on</strong>vince anyreas<strong>on</strong>able pers<strong>on</strong> that the object of theless<strong>on</strong>s is to keep children out of mischief,<strong>and</strong> not to qualify them for their part in lifeas resp<strong>on</strong>sible citizens of a free State. Itis not possible to maintain freedom in anyState, no matter how perfect its originalc<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>, unless its publicly activecitizens know a good deal of c<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>alhistory, law, <strong>and</strong> political science, with itsbasis of ec<strong>on</strong>omics. If as much pains hadbeen taken a century ago to make us allunderst<strong>and</strong> Ricardo’s law of rent as to learnour catechisms, the face of the world wouldhave been changed for the better. But for thatvery reas<strong>on</strong> the greatest care is taken to keepsuch beneficially subversive knowledge fromus, with the result that in public life we areeither place-hunters, anarchists, or sheepshepherded by wolves.49
50 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>But it will be observed that theseare highly c<strong>on</strong>troversial subjects. Nowno c<strong>on</strong>troversial subject can be taughtdogmatically. He who knows <strong>on</strong>ly the officialside of a c<strong>on</strong>troversy knows less than nothingof its nature. The abler a schoolmaster is,the more dangerous he is to his pupils unlessthey have the fullest opportunity of hearinganother equally able pers<strong>on</strong> do his utmost toshake his authority <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>vict him of error.At present such teaching is very unpopular.It does not exist in schools; but everyadult who derives his knowledge of public affairsfrom the newspapers can take in, at thecost of an extra halfpenny, two papers of oppositepolitics. Yet the ordinary man so dislikeshaving his mind unsettled, as he calls it,that he angrily refuses to allow a paper whichdissents from his views to be brought into hishouse. Even at his club he resents seeing it,<strong>and</strong> excludes it if it happens to run counterto the opini<strong>on</strong>s of all the members. The resultis that his opini<strong>on</strong>s are not worth c<strong>on</strong>sidering.A churchman who never reads TheFreethinker very so<strong>on</strong> has no more real religi<strong>on</strong>than the atheist who never reads TheChurch Times. The attitude is the same inboth cases: they want to hear nothing goodof their enemies; c<strong>on</strong>sequently they remainenemies <strong>and</strong> suffer from bad blood all theirlives; whereas men who know their opp<strong>on</strong>ents<strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong> their case, quite comm<strong>on</strong>ly
What We Do Not Teach, <strong>and</strong> Why 51respect <strong>and</strong> like them, <strong>and</strong> always learn somethingfrom them.Here, again, as at so many points, we comeup against the abuse of schools to keep peoplein ignorance <strong>and</strong> error, so that they maybe incapable of successful revolt against theirindustrial slavery. The most important simplefundamental ec<strong>on</strong>omic truth to impress <strong>on</strong>a child in complicated civilizati<strong>on</strong>s like ours isthe truth that whoever c<strong>on</strong>sumes goods or serviceswithout producing by pers<strong>on</strong>al effort theequivalent of what he or she c<strong>on</strong>sumes, inflicts<strong>on</strong> the community precisely the same injurythat a thief produces, <strong>and</strong> would, in any h<strong>on</strong>estState, be treated as a thief, however fullhis or her pockets might be of m<strong>on</strong>ey made byother people. The nati<strong>on</strong> that first teaches itschildren that truth, instead of flogging themif they discover it for themselves, may have tofight all the slaves of all the other nati<strong>on</strong>s tobegin with; but it will beat them as easily asan unburdened man with his h<strong>and</strong>s free <strong>and</strong>with all his energies in full play can beat aninvalid who has to carry another invalid <strong>on</strong>his back.This, however, is not an evil produced bythe denial of children’s rights, nor is it inherentin the nature of schools. I menti<strong>on</strong> it <strong>on</strong>lybecause it would be folly to call for a reformof our schools without taking account of thecorrupt resistance which awaits the reformer.A word must also be said about the oppo-
52 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>siti<strong>on</strong> to reform of the vested interest of theclassical <strong>and</strong> coercive schoolmaster. He, poorwretch, has no other means of livelihood; <strong>and</strong>reform would leave him as a workman is nowleft when he is superseded by a machine. Hehad therefore better do what he can to getthe workman compensated, so as to make thepublic familiar with the idea of compensati<strong>on</strong>before his own turn comes.
Taboo in SchoolsThe suppressi<strong>on</strong> of ec<strong>on</strong>omic knowledge, disastrousas it is, is quite intelligible, its corruptmotive being as clear as the motive of a burglarfor c<strong>on</strong>cealing his jemmy from a policeman.But the other great suppressi<strong>on</strong> in ourschools, the suppressi<strong>on</strong> of the subject of sex,is a case of taboo. In mankind, the lower thetype, <strong>and</strong> the less cultivated the mind, the lesscourage there is to face important subjects objectively.The ablest <strong>and</strong> most highly cultivatedpeople c<strong>on</strong>tinually discuss religi<strong>on</strong>, politics,<strong>and</strong> sex: it is hardly an exaggerati<strong>on</strong> tosay that they discuss nothing else with fullyawakenedinterest. Comm<strong>on</strong>er <strong>and</strong> less cultivatedpeople, even when they form societiesfor discussi<strong>on</strong>, make a rule that politics <strong>and</strong>religi<strong>on</strong> are not to be menti<strong>on</strong>ed, <strong>and</strong> take itfor granted that no decent pers<strong>on</strong> would attemptto discuss sex. The three subjects arefeared because they rouse the crude passi<strong>on</strong>swhich call for furious gratificati<strong>on</strong> in murder<strong>and</strong> rapine at worst, <strong>and</strong>, at best, lead to quarrels<strong>and</strong> undesirable states of c<strong>on</strong>sciousness.53
54 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>Even when this excuse of bad manners,ill temper, <strong>and</strong> brutishness (for that is whatit comes to) compels us to accept it fromthose adults am<strong>on</strong>g whom political <strong>and</strong>theological discussi<strong>on</strong> does as a matter of factlead to the drawing of knives <strong>and</strong> pistols,<strong>and</strong> sex discussi<strong>on</strong> leads to obscenity, ithas no applicati<strong>on</strong> to children except asan imperative reas<strong>on</strong> for training themto respect other people’s opini<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> toinsist <strong>on</strong> respect for their own in these as inother important matters which are equallydangerous: for example, m<strong>on</strong>ey. And in anycase there are decisive reas<strong>on</strong>s; superior,like the reas<strong>on</strong>s for suspending c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>alreticences between doctor <strong>and</strong> patient, to allc<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>s of mere decorum, for givingproper instructi<strong>on</strong> in the facts of sex. Thosewho object to it (not counting coarse peoplewho thoughtlessly seize every opportunity ofaffecting <strong>and</strong> parading a fictitious delicacy)are, in effect, advocating ignorance as asafeguard against precocity. If ignorancewere practicable there would be something tobe said for it up to the age at which ignoranceis a danger instead of a safeguard. Even asit is, it seems undesirable that any specialemphasis should be given to the subject,whether by way of delicacy <strong>and</strong> poetry ortoo impressive warning. But the plain factis that in refusing to allow the child to betaught by qualified unrelated elders (the
Taboo in Schools 55parents shrink from the less<strong>on</strong>, even whenthey are otherwise qualified, because theirown relati<strong>on</strong> to the child makes the subjectimpossible between them) we are virtuallyarranging to have our children taught byother children in guilty secrets <strong>and</strong> uncleanjests. And that settles the questi<strong>on</strong> for allsensible people.The dogmatic objecti<strong>on</strong>, the sheer instinctivetaboo which rules the subject out altogetheras indecent, has no age limit. It meansthat at no matter what age a woman c<strong>on</strong>sentsto a proposal of marriage, she should do so inignorance of the relati<strong>on</strong> she is undertaking.When this actually happens (<strong>and</strong> apparentlyit does happen oftener than would seem possible)a horrible fraud is being practiced <strong>on</strong>both the man <strong>and</strong> the woman. He is led to believethat she knows what she is promising,<strong>and</strong> that he is in no danger of finding himselfbound to a woman to whom he is eugenicallyantipathetic. She c<strong>on</strong>templates nothingbut such affecti<strong>on</strong>ate relati<strong>on</strong>s as may existbetween her <strong>and</strong> her nearest kinsmen, <strong>and</strong>has no knowledge of the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> which, ifnot foreseen, must come as an amazing revelati<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> a dangerous shock, ending possiblyin the discovery that the marriage has beenan irreparable mistake. Nothing can justifysuch a risk. There may be people incapableof underst<strong>and</strong>ing that the right to know allthere is to know about <strong>on</strong>eself is a natural hu-
56 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>man right that sweeps away all the pretencesof others to tamper with <strong>on</strong>es c<strong>on</strong>sciousnessin order to produce what they choose to c<strong>on</strong>sidera good character. But they must herebow to the plain mischievousness of entrappingpeople into c<strong>on</strong>tracts <strong>on</strong> which the happinessof their whole lives depends without lettingthem know what they are undertaking.
Alleged Noveltiesin Modern SchoolsThere is just <strong>on</strong>e more nuisance to bedisposed of before I come to the positive sideof my case. I mean the pers<strong>on</strong> who tells methat my schooldays bel<strong>on</strong>g to a byg<strong>on</strong>e orderof educati<strong>on</strong>al ideas <strong>and</strong> instituti<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong>that schools are not now a bit like my oldschool. I reply, with Sir Walter Raleigh, bycalling <strong>on</strong> my soul to give this statement thelie. Some years ago I lectured in Oxford <strong>on</strong>the subject of Educati<strong>on</strong>. A friend to whomI menti<strong>on</strong>ed my intenti<strong>on</strong> said, “You knownothing of modern educati<strong>on</strong>: schools are notnow what they were when you were a boy.”I immediately procured the time sheets ofhalf a dozen modern schools, <strong>and</strong> found, asI expected, that they might all have beenmy old school: there was no real difference.I may menti<strong>on</strong>, too, that I have visitedmodern schools, <strong>and</strong> observed that there isa tendency to hang printed pictures in anuntidy <strong>and</strong> soulless manner <strong>on</strong> the walls, <strong>and</strong>57
58 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>occasi<strong>on</strong>ally to display <strong>on</strong> the mantel-shelfa deplorable glass case c<strong>on</strong>taining certainobjects which might possibly, if placed inthe h<strong>and</strong>s of the pupils, give them somepractical experience of the weight of a pound<strong>and</strong> the length of an inch. And sometimesa scoundrel who has rifled a bird’s nest orkilled a harmless snake encourages thechildren to go <strong>and</strong> do likewise by putting hisvictims into an imitati<strong>on</strong> nest <strong>and</strong> bottle <strong>and</strong>exhibiting them as aids to “Nature study.” Asuggesti<strong>on</strong> that Nature is worth study wouldcertainly have staggered my schoolmasters;so perhaps I may admit a gleam of progresshere. But as any child who attempted toh<strong>and</strong>le these dusty objects would probably becaned, I do not attach any importance to suchmodernities in school furniture. The schoolremains what it was in my boyhood, becauseits real object remains what it was. And thatobject, I repeat, is to keep the children out ofmischief: mischief meaning for the most partworrying the grown-ups.What is to be D<strong>on</strong>e?The practical questi<strong>on</strong>, then, is what to dowith the children. Tolerate them at home wewill not. Let them run loose in the streets wedare not until our streets become safe placesfor children, which, to our utter shame, theyare not at present, though they can hardly beworse than some homes <strong>and</strong> some schools.The grotesque difficulty of making even
Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools 59a beginning was brought home to me in thelittle village in Hertfordshire where I writethese lines by the lady of the manor, whoasked me very properly what I was goingto do for the village school. I did not knowwhat to reply. As the school kept the childrenquiet during my working hours, I did not forthe sake of my own pers<strong>on</strong>al c<strong>on</strong>venmencewant to blow it up with dynamite as Ishould like to blow up most schools. So Iasked for guidance. “You ought to give aprize,” said the lady. I asked if there wasa prize for good c<strong>on</strong>duct. As I expected,there was: <strong>on</strong>e for the best-behaved boy<strong>and</strong> another for the best-behaved girl. Onreflecti<strong>on</strong> I offered a h<strong>and</strong>some prize for theworst-behaved boy <strong>and</strong> girl <strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> thata record should be kept of their subsequentcareers <strong>and</strong> compared with the records of thebest-behaved, in order to ascertain whetherthe school criteri<strong>on</strong> of good c<strong>on</strong>duct was validout of school. My offer was refused because itwould not have had the effect of encouragingthe children to give as little trouble aspossible, which is of course the real object ofall c<strong>on</strong>duct prizes in schools.I must not pretend, then, that I havea system ready to replace all the othersystems. Obstructing the way of the proper<strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> of childhood, as of everythingelse, lies our ridiculous misdistributi<strong>on</strong> ofthe nati<strong>on</strong>al income, with its accompanying
60 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>class distincti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> impositi<strong>on</strong> of snobbery<strong>on</strong> children as a necessary part of theirsocial training. The result of our ec<strong>on</strong>omicfolly is that we are a nati<strong>on</strong> of undesirableacquaintances; <strong>and</strong> the first object of all ourinstituti<strong>on</strong>s for children is segregati<strong>on</strong>. If, forexample, our children were set free to roam<strong>and</strong> play about as they pleased, they wouldhave to be policed; <strong>and</strong> the first duty of thepolice in a State like ours would be to see thatevery child wore a badge indicating its classin society, <strong>and</strong> that every child seen speakingto another child with a lower-class badge, orany child wearing a higher badge than thatallotted to it by, say, the College of Heralds,should immediately be skinned alive with abirch rod. It might even be insisted that girlswith high-class badges should be attended byfootmen, grooms, or even military escorts. Inshort, there is hardly any limit to the follieswith which our Commercialism would infectany system that it would tolerate at all.But something like a change of heart is stillpossible; <strong>and</strong> since all the evils of snobbery<strong>and</strong> segregati<strong>on</strong> are rampant in our schoolsat present we may as well make the best asthe worst of them.
<strong>Children</strong>’s Rights<strong>and</strong> DutiesNow let us ask what are a child’s rights, <strong>and</strong>what are the rights of society over the child.Its rights, being clearly those of any otherhuman being, are summed up in the rightto live: that is, to have all the c<strong>on</strong>clusivearguments that prove that it would be betterdead, that it is a child of wrath, that thepopulati<strong>on</strong> is already excessive, that thepains of life are greater than its pleasures,that its sacrifice in a hospital or laboratoryexperiment might save milli<strong>on</strong>s of lives,etc. etc. etc., put out of the questi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> itsexistence accepted as necessary <strong>and</strong> sacred,all theories to the c<strong>on</strong>trary notwithst<strong>and</strong>ing,whether by Calvin or Schopenhauer orPasteur or the nearest pers<strong>on</strong> with a taste forinfanticide. And this right to live includes,<strong>and</strong> in fact is, the right to be what the childlikes <strong>and</strong> can, to do what it likes <strong>and</strong> can, tomake what it likes <strong>and</strong> can, to think what itlikes <strong>and</strong> can, to smash what it dislikes <strong>and</strong>61
62 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>can, <strong>and</strong> generally to behave in an altogetherunaccountable manner within the limitsimposed by the similar rights of its neighbors.And the rights of society over it clearly extendto requiring it to qualify itself to live insociety without wasting other peoples time:that is, it must know the rules of the road,be able to read placards <strong>and</strong> proclamati<strong>on</strong>s,fill voting papers, compose <strong>and</strong> send letters<strong>and</strong> telegrams, purchase food <strong>and</strong> clothing<strong>and</strong> railway tickets for itself, count m<strong>on</strong>ey<strong>and</strong> give <strong>and</strong> take change, <strong>and</strong>, generally,know how many beans made five. It mustknow some law, were it <strong>on</strong>ly a simple setof comm<strong>and</strong>ments, some political ec<strong>on</strong>omy,agriculture enough to shut the gates of fieldswith cattle in them <strong>and</strong> not to trample <strong>on</strong>growing crops, sanitati<strong>on</strong> enough not to defileits haunts, <strong>and</strong> religi<strong>on</strong> enough to have someidea of why it is allowed its rights <strong>and</strong> whyit must respect the rights of others. And therest of its educati<strong>on</strong> must c<strong>on</strong>sist of anythingelse it can pick up; for bey<strong>on</strong>d this societycannot go with any certainty, <strong>and</strong> indeed can<strong>on</strong>ly go this far rather apologetically <strong>and</strong>provisi<strong>on</strong>ally, as doing the best it can <strong>on</strong> veryuncertain ground.Should <strong>Children</strong> Earn their Living?Now comes the questi<strong>on</strong> how far childrenshould be asked to c<strong>on</strong>tribute to the supportof the community. In approaching it we mustput aside the c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>s that now induce
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<strong>Children</strong>’sHappinessAlso it is important to put the happiness ofthe children rather carefully in its place,which is really not a fr<strong>on</strong>t place. Theunsympathetic, selfish, hard people whoregard happiness as a very excepti<strong>on</strong>alindulgence to which children are by nomeans entitled, though they may be alloweda very little of it <strong>on</strong> their birthdays or atChristmas, are sometimes better parents ineffect than those who imagine that childrenare as capable of happiness as adults. Adultshabitually exaggerate their own capacity inthat directi<strong>on</strong> grossly; yet most adults canst<strong>and</strong> an allowance of happiness that wouldbe quite thrown away <strong>on</strong> children. The secretof being miserable is to have leisure to botherabout whether you are happy or not. Thecure for it is occupati<strong>on</strong>, because occupati<strong>on</strong>means pre-occupati<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> the pre-occupiedpers<strong>on</strong> is neither happy nor unhappy, butsimply alive <strong>and</strong> active, which is pleasanter65
66 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>than any happiness until you are tired ofit. That is why it is necessary to happinessthat <strong>on</strong>e should be tired. Music after dinneris pleasant: music before breakfast is sounpleasant as to be clearly unnatural. Topeople who are not overworked holidays area nuisance. To people who are, <strong>and</strong> whocan afford them, they are a troublesomenecessity. A perpetual holiday is a goodworking definiti<strong>on</strong> of hell.
The Horror of thePerpetual HolidayIt will be said here that, <strong>on</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>trary,heaven is always c<strong>on</strong>ceived as a perpetualholiday, <strong>and</strong> that whoever is not born to anindependent income is striving for <strong>on</strong>e orl<strong>on</strong>ging for <strong>on</strong>e because it gives holidaysfor life. To which I reply, first, that heaven,as c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>ally c<strong>on</strong>ceived, is a place soinane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, thatnobody has ever ventured to describe a wholeday in heaven, though plenty of people havedescribed a day at the seaside; <strong>and</strong> that thegenuine popular verdict <strong>on</strong> it is expressedin the proverb “Heaven for holiness <strong>and</strong>Hell for company.” Sec<strong>on</strong>d, I point out thatthe wretched people who have independentincomes <strong>and</strong> no useful occupati<strong>on</strong>, do themost amazingly disagreeable <strong>and</strong> dangerousthings to make themselves tired <strong>and</strong> hungryin the evening. When they are not involvedin what they call sport, they are doingaimlessly what other people have to be paid67
68 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>to do: driving horses <strong>and</strong> motor cars; trying<strong>on</strong> dresses <strong>and</strong> walking up <strong>and</strong> down toshew them off; <strong>and</strong> acting as footmen <strong>and</strong>housemaids to royal pers<strong>on</strong>ages. The sole <strong>and</strong>obvious cause of the noti<strong>on</strong> that idleness isdelightful <strong>and</strong> that heaven is a place wherethere is nothing to be d<strong>on</strong>e, is our schoolsystem <strong>and</strong> our industrial system. The schoolis a pris<strong>on</strong> in which work is a punishment <strong>and</strong>a curse. In avowed pris<strong>on</strong>s, hard labor, the<strong>on</strong>ly alleviati<strong>on</strong> of a pris<strong>on</strong>er’s lot, is treatedas an aggravati<strong>on</strong> of his punishment; <strong>and</strong>everything possible is d<strong>on</strong>e to intensify thepris<strong>on</strong>er’s inculcated <strong>and</strong> unnatural noti<strong>on</strong>that work is an evil. In industry we areoverworked <strong>and</strong> underfed pris<strong>on</strong>ers. Undersuch absurd circumstances our judgment ofthings becomes as perverted as our habits.If we were habitually underworked <strong>and</strong>overfed, our noti<strong>on</strong> of heaven would be aplace where everybody worked strenuouslyfor twenty-four hours a day <strong>and</strong> never gotanything to eat.Once realize that a perpetual holiday is bey<strong>on</strong>dhuman endurance, <strong>and</strong> that “Satan findssome mischief still for idle h<strong>and</strong>s to do” <strong>and</strong>it will be seen that we have no right to imposea perpetual holiday <strong>on</strong> children. If wedid, they would so<strong>on</strong> outdo the Labor Party intheir claim for a Right to Work Bill.In any case no child should be broughtup to suppose that its food <strong>and</strong> clothes
The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday 69come down from heaven or are miraculouslyc<strong>on</strong>jured from empty space by papa.Loathsome as we have made the idea of duty(like the idea of work) we must habituatechildren to a sense of repayable obligati<strong>on</strong> tothe community for what they c<strong>on</strong>sume <strong>and</strong>enjoy, <strong>and</strong> inculcate the repayment as a pointof h<strong>on</strong>or. If we did that today—<strong>and</strong> nothingbut flat dish<strong>on</strong>esty prevents us from doingit—we should have no idle rich <strong>and</strong> indeedprobably no rich, since there is no distincti<strong>on</strong>in being rich if you have to pay scot <strong>and</strong>lot in pers<strong>on</strong>al effort like the working folk.Therefore, if for <strong>on</strong>ly half an hour a day, achild should do something serviceable to thecommunity.Productive work for children has the advantagethat its discipline is the discipline ofimpers<strong>on</strong>al necessity, not that of want<strong>on</strong> pers<strong>on</strong>alcoerci<strong>on</strong>. The eagerness of children inour industrial districts to escape from schoolto the factory is not caused by lighter tasksor shorter hours in the factory, nor altogetherby the temptati<strong>on</strong> of wages, nor even by thedesire for novelty, but by the dignity of adultwork, the exchange of the factitious pers<strong>on</strong>altyranny of the schoolmaster, from which thegrown-ups are free, for the stern but entirelydignified Laws of Life to which all flesh is subject.
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UniversitySchoolboyishnessOlder children might do a good deal beforebeginning their collegiate educati<strong>on</strong>. What isthe matter with our universities is that all thestudents are schoolboys, whereas it is of thevery essence of university educati<strong>on</strong> that theyshould be men. The functi<strong>on</strong> of a universityis not to teach things that can now be taughtas well or better by University Extensi<strong>on</strong>lectures or by private tutors or moderncorresp<strong>on</strong>dence classes with gramoph<strong>on</strong>es.We go to them to be socialized; to acquirethe hall mark of communal training; tobecome citizens of the world instead ofinmates of the enlarged rabbit hutches wecall homes; to learn manners <strong>and</strong> becomeunchallengeable ladies <strong>and</strong> gentlemen. Thesocial pressure which effects these changesshould be that of pers<strong>on</strong>s who have facedthe full resp<strong>on</strong>sibilities of adults as workingmembers of the general community, not thatof a barbarous rabble of half emancipated71
72 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>schoolboys <strong>and</strong> unemancipable pedants. Itis true that in a reas<strong>on</strong>able state of societythis outside experience would do for usvery completely what the university doesnow so corruptly that we tolerate its badmanners <strong>on</strong>ly because they are better thanno manners at all. But the university willalways exist in some form as a communityof pers<strong>on</strong>s desirous of pushing their cultureto the highest pitch they are capable of, notas solitary students reading in seclusi<strong>on</strong>,but as members of a body of individuals allpursuing culture, talking culture, thinkingculture, above all, criticizing culture. If suchpers<strong>on</strong>s are to read <strong>and</strong> talk <strong>and</strong> criticizeto any purpose, they must know the worldoutside the university at least as well as theshopkeeper in the High Street does. And thisis just what they do not know at present. Youmay say of them, paraphrasing Mr. Kipling,“What do they know of Plato that <strong>on</strong>ly Platoknow?” If our universities would excludeeverybody who had not earned a living by hisor her own exerti<strong>on</strong>s for at least a couple ofyears, their effect would be vastly improved.
The New LazinessThe child of the future, then, if there is to beany future but <strong>on</strong>e of decay, will work moreor less for its living from an early age; <strong>and</strong>in doing so it will not shock any<strong>on</strong>e, providedthere be no l<strong>on</strong>ger any reas<strong>on</strong> to associate thec<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong> of children working for their livingwith infants toiling in a factory for tenhours a day or boys drudging from nine to sixunder gas lamps in underground city offices.Lads <strong>and</strong> lasses in their teens will probablybe able to produce as much as the most expensivepers<strong>on</strong> now costs in his own pers<strong>on</strong> (itis retinue that eats up the big income) withoutworking too hard or too l<strong>on</strong>g for quite asmuch happiness as they can enjoy. The questi<strong>on</strong>to be balanced then will be, not how so<strong>on</strong>people should be put to work, but how so<strong>on</strong>they should be released from any obligati<strong>on</strong> ofthe kind. A life’s work is like a day’s work:it can begin early <strong>and</strong> leave off early or beginlate <strong>and</strong> leave off late, or, as with us, begintoo early <strong>and</strong> never leave off at all, obviouslythe worst of all possible plans. In any73
74 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>event we must finally reck<strong>on</strong> work, not as thecurse our schools <strong>and</strong> pris<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> capitalistprofit factories make it seem today, but as aprime necessity of a tolerable existence. Andif we cannot devise fresh wants as fast as wedevelop the means of supplying them, therewill come a scarcity of the needed, cut-<strong>and</strong>dried,appointed work that is always ready toeverybody’s h<strong>and</strong>. It may have to be sharedout am<strong>on</strong>g people all of whom want more ofit. And then a new sort of laziness will becomethe bugbear of society: the laziness thatrefuses to face the mental toil <strong>and</strong> adventureof making work by inventing new ideas or extendingthe domain of knowledge, <strong>and</strong> insists<strong>on</strong> a ready-made routine. It may come to forcingpeople to retire before they are willing tomake way for younger <strong>on</strong>es: that is, to drivingall pers<strong>on</strong>s of a certain age out of industry,leaving them to find something experimentalto occupy them <strong>on</strong> pain of perpetual holiday.Men will then try to spend twenty thous<strong>and</strong> ayear for the sake of having to earn it. Insteadof being what we are now, the cheapest <strong>and</strong>nastiest of the animals, we shall be the costliest,most fastidious, <strong>and</strong> best bred. In short,there is no end to the ast<strong>on</strong>ishing things thatmay happen when the curse of Adam becomesfirst a blessing <strong>and</strong> then an incurable habit.And in that day we must not grudge childrentheir share of it.
The Infinite SchoolTaskThe questi<strong>on</strong> of children’s work, however, is<strong>on</strong>ly a questi<strong>on</strong> of what the child ought to dofor the community. How highly it should qualifyitself is another matter. But most of thedifficulty of inducing children to learn woulddisappear if our dem<strong>and</strong>s became not <strong>on</strong>ly definitebut finite. When learning is <strong>on</strong>ly an excusefor impris<strong>on</strong>ment, it is an instrument oftorture which becomes more painful the moreprogress is made. Thus when you have forceda child to learn the Church Catechism, a documentprofound bey<strong>on</strong>d the comprehensi<strong>on</strong> ofmost adults, you are sometimes at a st<strong>and</strong>stillfor something else to teach; <strong>and</strong> you thereforekeep the wretched child repeating its catechismagain <strong>and</strong> again until you hit <strong>on</strong> theplan of making it learn instalments of Bibleverses, preferably from the book of Numbers.But as it is less trouble to set a less<strong>on</strong> that youknow yourself, there is a tendency to keep repeatingthe already learnt less<strong>on</strong> rather than75
76 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>break new ground. At school I began with afairly complete knowledge of Latin grammarin the childish sense of being able to repeatall the paradigms; <strong>and</strong> I was kept at this, orrather kept in a class where the master neverasked me to do it because he knew I could,<strong>and</strong> therefore devoted himself to trapping theboys who could not, until I finally f<strong>org</strong>ot mostof it. But when progress took place, what didit mean? First it meant Caesar, with the foreknowledgethat to master Caesar meant <strong>on</strong>lybeing set at Virgil, with the culminating horrorof Greek <strong>and</strong> Homer in reserve at the endof that. I preferred Caesar, because his statementthat Gaul is divided into three parts,though neither interesting nor true, was the<strong>on</strong>ly Latin sentence I could translate at sight:therefore the l<strong>on</strong>ger we stuck at Caesar thebetter I was pleased. Just so do less classicallyeducated children see nothing in the masteryof additi<strong>on</strong> but the beginning of subtracti<strong>on</strong>,<strong>and</strong> so <strong>on</strong> through multiplicati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> divisi<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> fracti<strong>on</strong>s, with the black cloud of algebra<strong>on</strong> the horiz<strong>on</strong>. And if a boy rushes through allthat, there is always the calculus to fall back<strong>on</strong>, unless indeed you insist <strong>on</strong> his learningmusic, <strong>and</strong> proceed to hit him if he cannot tellyou the year Beethoven was born.A child has a right to finality as regardsits compulsory less<strong>on</strong>s. Also as regardsphysical training. At present it is assumedthat the schoolmaster has a right to force
The Infinite School Task 77every child into an attempt to become Pors<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> Bentley, Leibnitz <strong>and</strong> Newt<strong>on</strong>, all rolledinto <strong>on</strong>e. This is the traditi<strong>on</strong> of the oldestgrammar schools. In our times an evenmore horrible <strong>and</strong> cynical claim has beenmade for the right to drive boys throughcompulsory games in the playing fields untilthey are too much exhausted physically todo anything but drop off to sleep. This issupposed to protect them from vice; but as italso protects them from poetry, literature,music, meditati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> prayer, it may bedismissed with the obvious remark that ifboarding schools are places whose keepersare driven to such m<strong>on</strong>strous measures lestmore abominable things should happen, thenthe so<strong>on</strong>er boarding schools are violentlyabolished the better. It is true that societymay make physical claims <strong>on</strong> the child aswell as mental <strong>on</strong>es: the child must learnto walk, to use a knife <strong>and</strong> fork, to swim,to ride a bicycle, to acquire sufficient powerof self-defence to make an attack <strong>on</strong> it anarduous <strong>and</strong> uncertain enterprise, perhapsto fly. What as a matter of comm<strong>on</strong>-sense itclearly has not a right to do is to make thisan excuse for keeping the child slaving forten hours at physical exercises <strong>on</strong> the groundthat it is not yet as dexterous as Cinquevalli<strong>and</strong> as str<strong>on</strong>g as S<strong>and</strong>ow.
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The Rewards <strong>and</strong>Risks of KnowledgeIn a word, we have no right to insist <strong>on</strong>educating a child; for its educati<strong>on</strong> can end<strong>on</strong>ly with its life <strong>and</strong> will not even thenbe complete. Compulsory completi<strong>on</strong> ofeducati<strong>on</strong> is the last folly of a rotten <strong>and</strong>desperate civilizati<strong>on</strong>. It is the rattle in itsthroat before dissoluti<strong>on</strong>. All we can fairly dois to prescribe certain definite acquirements<strong>and</strong> accomplishments as qualificati<strong>on</strong>s forcertain employments; <strong>and</strong> to secure them, notby the ridiculous method of inflicting injuries<strong>on</strong> the pers<strong>on</strong>s who have not yet masteredthem, but by attaching certain privileges (notpecuniary) to the employments.Most acquirements carry their ownprivileges with them. Thus a baby has tobe pretty closely guarded <strong>and</strong> impris<strong>on</strong>edbecause it cannot take care of itself. It haseven to be carried about (the most completec<strong>on</strong>ceivable infringement of its liberty) untilit can walk. But nobody goes <strong>on</strong> carrying79
80 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>children after they can walk lest they shouldwalk into mischief, though Arab boys maketheir sisters carry them, as our own spoiledchildren sometimes make their nurses, out ofmere laziness, because sisters in the East <strong>and</strong>nurses in the West are kept in servitude. Butin a society of equals (the <strong>on</strong>ly reas<strong>on</strong>able <strong>and</strong>permanently possible sort of society) childrenare in much greater danger of acquiringb<strong>and</strong>y legs through being left to walk beforethey are str<strong>on</strong>g enough than of being carriedwhen they are well able to walk. Anyhow,freedom of movement in a nursery is thereward of learning to walk; <strong>and</strong> in preciselythe same way freedom of movement in a cityis the reward of learning how to read publicnotices, <strong>and</strong> to count <strong>and</strong> use m<strong>on</strong>ey. Thec<strong>on</strong>sequences are of course much larger thanthe mere ability to read the name of a streetor the number of a railway platform <strong>and</strong> thedestinati<strong>on</strong> of a train. When you enable achild to read these, you also enable it to readthis preface, to the utter destructi<strong>on</strong>, youmay quite possibly think, of its morals <strong>and</strong>docility. You also expose it to the danger ofbeing run over by taxicabs <strong>and</strong> trains. Themoral <strong>and</strong> physical risks of educati<strong>on</strong> areenormous: every new power a child acquires,from speaking, walking, <strong>and</strong> co-ordinating itsvisi<strong>on</strong>, to c<strong>on</strong>quering c<strong>on</strong>tinents <strong>and</strong> foundingreligi<strong>on</strong>s, opens up immense new possibilitiesof mischief. Teach a child to write <strong>and</strong> you
The Rewards <strong>and</strong> Risks of Knowledge 81teach it how to f<strong>org</strong>e: teach it to speak <strong>and</strong>you teach it how to lie: teach it to walk <strong>and</strong>you teach it how to kick its mother to death.The great problem of slavery for thosewhose aim is to maintain it is the problem ofrec<strong>on</strong>ciling the efficiency of the slave with thehelplessness that keeps him in servitude; <strong>and</strong>this problem is fortunately not completelysoluble; for it is not in fact found possiblefor a duke to treat his solicitor or his doctoras he treats his laborers, though they areall equally his slaves: the laborer being infact less dependent <strong>on</strong> his favor than theprofessi<strong>on</strong>al man. Hence it is that men cometo resent, of all things, protecti<strong>on</strong>, because itso often means restricti<strong>on</strong> of their liberty lestthey should make a bad use of it. If there aredangerous précipices about, it is much easier<strong>and</strong> cheaper to forbid people to walk near theedge than to put up an effective fence: thatis why both legislators <strong>and</strong> parents <strong>and</strong> thepaid deputies of parents are always inhibiting<strong>and</strong> prohibiting <strong>and</strong> punishing <strong>and</strong> scolding<strong>and</strong> laming <strong>and</strong> cramping <strong>and</strong> delayingprogress <strong>and</strong> growth instead of making thedangerous places as safe as possible <strong>and</strong> thenboldly taking <strong>and</strong> allowing others to take theirreducible minimum of risk.
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English PhysicalHardihood <strong>and</strong>SpiritualCowardiceIt is easier to c<strong>on</strong>vert most people to the needfor allowing their children to run physicalrisks than moral <strong>on</strong>es. I can remember arelative of mine who, when I was a smallchild, unused to horses <strong>and</strong> very muchafraid of them, insisted <strong>on</strong> putting me <strong>on</strong>a rather rumbustious p<strong>on</strong>y with little spurs<strong>on</strong> my heels (knowing that in my agitati<strong>on</strong> Iwould use them unc<strong>on</strong>sciously), <strong>and</strong> beingenormously amused at my terrors. Yetwhen that same lady discovered that I hadfound a copy of The Arabian Nights <strong>and</strong> wasdevouring it with avidity, she was horrified,<strong>and</strong> hid it away from me lest it should breakmy soul as the p<strong>on</strong>y might have broken myneck. This way of producing hardy bodies <strong>and</strong>timid souls is so comm<strong>on</strong> in country houses83
84 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>that you may spend hours in them listeningto stories of broken collar b<strong>on</strong>es, brokenbacks, <strong>and</strong> broken necks without comingup<strong>on</strong> a single spiritual adventure or daringthought.But whether the risks to which liberty exposesus are moral or physical our right to libertyinvolves the right to run them. A manwho is not free to risk his neck as an aviatoror his soul as a heretic is not free at all; <strong>and</strong>the right to liberty begins, not at the age of 21years but of 21 sec<strong>on</strong>ds.
The Risks ofIgnorance <strong>and</strong>WeaknessThe difficulty with children is that they needprotecti<strong>on</strong> from risks they are too young tounderst<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> attacks they can neitheravoid nor resist. You may <strong>on</strong> academicgrounds allow a child to snatch glowingcoals from the fire <strong>on</strong>ce. You will not doit twice. The risks of liberty we must letevery<strong>on</strong>e take; but the risks of ignorance<strong>and</strong> self-helplessness are another matter.Not <strong>on</strong>ly children but adults need protecti<strong>on</strong>from them. At present adults are oftenexposed to risks outside their knowledgeor bey<strong>on</strong>d their comprehensi<strong>on</strong> or powersof resistance or foresight: for example, wehave to look <strong>on</strong> every day at marriages orfinancial speculati<strong>on</strong>s that may involve farworse c<strong>on</strong>sequences than burnt fingers. Andjust as it is part of the business of adultsto protect children, to feed them, clothe85
86 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>them, shelter them, <strong>and</strong> shift for them in allsorts of ways until they are able to shift forthemselves, it is coming more <strong>and</strong> more to beseen that this is true not <strong>on</strong>ly of the relati<strong>on</strong>between adults <strong>and</strong> children, but betweenadults <strong>and</strong> adults. We shall not always look<strong>on</strong> indifferently at foolish marriages <strong>and</strong>financial speculati<strong>on</strong>s, nor allow dead mento c<strong>on</strong>trol live communities by ridiculouswills <strong>and</strong> living heirs to squ<strong>and</strong>er <strong>and</strong> ruingreat estates, nor tolerate a hundred otherabsurd liberties that we allow today becausewe are too lazy to find out the proper wayto interfere. But the interference must beregulated by some theory of the individual’srights. Though the right to live is absolute, itis not unc<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>al. If a man is unbearablymischievous, he must be killed. This is amere matter of necessity, like the killing of aman-eating tiger in a nursery, a venomoussnake in the garden, or a fox in the poultryyard. No society could be c<strong>on</strong>structed <strong>on</strong>the assumpti<strong>on</strong> that such exterminati<strong>on</strong> is aviolati<strong>on</strong> of the creature’s right to live, <strong>and</strong>therefore must not be allowed. And then at<strong>on</strong>ce arises the danger into which moralityhas led us: the danger of persecuti<strong>on</strong>.One Christian spreading his doctrinesmay seem more mischievous than a dozenthieves: throw him therefore to the li<strong>on</strong>s.A lying or disobedient child may corrupt awhole generati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> make human Society
The Risks of Ignorance <strong>and</strong> Weakness 87impossible: therefore thrash the vice out ofhim. And so <strong>on</strong> until our whole system ofaborti<strong>on</strong>, intimidati<strong>on</strong>, tyranny, cruelty <strong>and</strong>the rest is in full swing again.
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The Comm<strong>on</strong> Senseof Tolerati<strong>on</strong>The real safeguard against this is the dogmaof Tolerati<strong>on</strong>. I need not here repeat thecompact treatise <strong>on</strong> it which I prepared forthe Joint Committee <strong>on</strong> the Censorship ofStage Plays, <strong>and</strong> prefixed to The ShewingUp of Blanco Posnet. It must suffice now tosay that the present must not attempt toschoolmaster the future by pretending toknow good from evil in tendency, or protectcitizens against shocks to their opini<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong>c<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong>s, moral, political or religious: inother words it must not persecute doctrinesof any kind, or what is called bad taste, <strong>and</strong>must insist <strong>on</strong> all pers<strong>on</strong>s facing such shocksas they face frosty weather or any of the otherdisagreeable, dangerous, or bracing incidentsof freedom. The expediency of Tolerati<strong>on</strong> hasbeen forced <strong>on</strong> us by the fact that progressiveenlightenment depends <strong>on</strong> a fair hearing fordoctrines which at first appear seditious,blasphemous, <strong>and</strong> immoral, <strong>and</strong> which deeply89
90 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>shock people who never think originally,thought being with them merely a habit <strong>and</strong>an echo. The deeper ground for Tolerati<strong>on</strong>is the nature of creati<strong>on</strong>, which, as we nowknow, proceeds by evoluti<strong>on</strong>. Evoluti<strong>on</strong> findsits way by experiment; <strong>and</strong> this finding ofthe way varies according to the stage ofdevelopment reached, from the blindestgroping al<strong>on</strong>g the line of least resistance tointellectual speculati<strong>on</strong>, with its practicalsequel of hypothesis <strong>and</strong> experimentalverificati<strong>on</strong>; or to observati<strong>on</strong>, inducti<strong>on</strong>,<strong>and</strong> deducti<strong>on</strong>; or even into so rapid <strong>and</strong>intuitive an integrati<strong>on</strong> of all these processesin a single brain that we get the inspiredguess of the man of genius <strong>and</strong> the desperateresoluti<strong>on</strong> of the teacher of new truths whois first slain as a blasphemous apostate <strong>and</strong>then worshipped as a prophet.Here the law for the child is the same asfor the adult. The high priest must not rendhis garments <strong>and</strong> cry “Crucify him” when heis shocked: the atheist must not clamor forthe suppressi<strong>on</strong> of Law’s Serious Call becauseit has for two centuries destroyed the naturalhappiness of innumerable unfortunatechildren by persuading their parents that itis their religious duty to be miserable. It, <strong>and</strong>the Serm<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> the Mount, <strong>and</strong> Machiavelli’sPrince, <strong>and</strong> La Rochefoucauld’s maxims,<strong>and</strong> Hymns Ancient <strong>and</strong> Modern, <strong>and</strong> DeGlanville’s apologue, <strong>and</strong> Dr. Watts’s rhymes,
The Comm<strong>on</strong> Sense of Tolerati<strong>on</strong> 91<strong>and</strong> Nietzsche’s Gay Science, <strong>and</strong> Ingersoll’sMistakes of Moses, <strong>and</strong> the speeches <strong>and</strong>pamphlets of the people who want us to makewar <strong>on</strong> Germany, <strong>and</strong> the Noodle’s Orati<strong>on</strong>s<strong>and</strong> articles of our politicians <strong>and</strong> journalists,must all be tolerated not <strong>on</strong>ly because anyof them may for all we know be <strong>on</strong> the righttrack but because it is in the c<strong>on</strong>flict ofopini<strong>on</strong> that we win knowledge <strong>and</strong> wisdom.However terrible the wounds suffered in thatc<strong>on</strong>flict, they are better than the barren peaceof death that follows when all the combatantsare slaughtered or bound h<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> foot.The difficulty at present is that thoughthis necessity for Tolerati<strong>on</strong> is a law ofpolitical science as well established as thelaw of gravitati<strong>on</strong>, our rulers are nevertaught political science: <strong>on</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>trary,they are taught in school that the mastertolerates nothing that is disagreeable tohim; that ruling is simply being master;<strong>and</strong> that the master’s method is the methodof violent punishment. And our citizens,all school taught, are walking in the samedarkness. As I write these lines the HomeSecretary is explaining that a man who hasbeen impris<strong>on</strong>ed for blasphemy must not bereleased because his remarks were painfulto the feelings of his pious fellow townsmen.Now it happens that this very HomeSecretary has driven many thous<strong>and</strong>s of hisfellow citizens almost beside themselves by
92 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>the crudity of his noti<strong>on</strong>s of government, <strong>and</strong>his simple inability to underst<strong>and</strong> why heshould not use <strong>and</strong> make laws to torment <strong>and</strong>subdue people who do not happen to agreewith him. In a word, he is not a politician,but a grown-up schoolboy who has at lastgot a cane in his h<strong>and</strong>. And as all the restof us are in the same c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> (except asto comm<strong>and</strong> of the cane) the <strong>on</strong>ly objecti<strong>on</strong>made to his proceedings takes the shape ofclamorous dem<strong>and</strong>s that he should be canedinstead of being allowed to cane other people.
The Sin ofAthanasiusIt seems hopeless. Anarchists are tempted topreach a violent <strong>and</strong> implacable resistance toall law as the <strong>on</strong>ly remedy; <strong>and</strong> the resultof that speedily is that people welcome anytyranny that will rescue them from chaos.But there is really no need to choose betweenanarchy <strong>and</strong> tyranny. A quite reas<strong>on</strong>ablestate of things is practicable if we proceed<strong>on</strong> human assumpti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> not <strong>on</strong> academic<strong>on</strong>es. If adults will frankly give up theirclaim to know better than children what thepurposes of the Life Force are, <strong>and</strong> treatthe child as an experiment like themselves,<strong>and</strong> possibly a more successful <strong>on</strong>e, <strong>and</strong> atthe same time relinquish their m<strong>on</strong>strousparental claims to pers<strong>on</strong>al private propertyin children, the rest must be left to comm<strong>on</strong>sense. It is our attitude, our religi<strong>on</strong>, that iswr<strong>on</strong>g. A good beginning might be made byenacting that any pers<strong>on</strong> dictating a piece ofc<strong>on</strong>duct to a child or to any<strong>on</strong>e else as the93
94 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>will of God, or as absolutely right, should bedealt with as a blasphemer: as, indeed, guiltyof the unpard<strong>on</strong>able sin against the HolyGhost. If the penalty were death, it wouldrid us at <strong>on</strong>ce of that scourge of humanity,the amateur Pope. As an Irish Protestant, Iraise the cry of No Popery with hereditaryzest. We are overrun with Popes. Fromcurates <strong>and</strong> governesses, who may claim asort of professi<strong>on</strong>al st<strong>and</strong>ing, to parents <strong>and</strong>uncles <strong>and</strong> nurserymaids <strong>and</strong> school teachers<strong>and</strong> wiseacres generally, there are scores ofthous<strong>and</strong>s of human insects groping throughour darkness by the feeble phosphorescenceof their own tails, yet ready at a moment’snotice to reveal the will of God <strong>on</strong> everypossible subject; to explain how <strong>and</strong> whythe universe was made (in my youth theyadded the exact date) <strong>and</strong> the circumstancesunder which it will cease to exist; to lay downprecise rules of right <strong>and</strong> wr<strong>on</strong>g c<strong>on</strong>duct;to discriminate infallibly between virtuous<strong>and</strong> vicious character; <strong>and</strong> all this with suchcertainty that they are prepared to visit allthe rigors of the law, <strong>and</strong> all the ruinouspenalties of social ostracism <strong>on</strong> people,however harmless their acti<strong>on</strong>s maybe whoventure to laugh at their m<strong>on</strong>strous c<strong>on</strong>ceitor to pay their assumpti<strong>on</strong>s the extravagantcompliment of criticizing them. As tochildren, who shall say what canings <strong>and</strong>birchings <strong>and</strong> terrifyings <strong>and</strong> threats of hell
The Sin of Athanasius 95fire <strong>and</strong> impositi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> humiliati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong>petty impris<strong>on</strong>ings <strong>and</strong> sendings to bed <strong>and</strong>st<strong>and</strong>ing in corners <strong>and</strong> the like they havesuffered because their parents <strong>and</strong> guardians<strong>and</strong> teachers knew everything so much betterthan Socrates or Sol<strong>on</strong>?It is this ignorant uppishness that doesthe mischief. A stranger <strong>on</strong> the planet mightexpect that its grotesque absurdity wouldprovoke enough ridicule to cure it; butunfortunately quite the c<strong>on</strong>trary happens.Just as our ill health delivers us into theh<strong>and</strong>s of medical quacks <strong>and</strong> creates apassi<strong>on</strong>ate dem<strong>and</strong> for impudent pretencesthat doctors can cure the diseases theythemselves die of daily, so our ignorance <strong>and</strong>helplessness set us clamoring for spiritual<strong>and</strong> moral quacks who pretend that they cansave our souls from their own damnati<strong>on</strong>. Ifa doctor were to say to his patients, “I amfamiliar with your symptoms, because I haveseen other people in your c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> Iwill bring the very little knowledge we haveto your treatment; but except in that veryshallow sense I d<strong>on</strong>t know what is the matterwith you; <strong>and</strong> I cant undertake to cure you,”he would be a lost man professi<strong>on</strong>ally; <strong>and</strong> ifa clergyman, <strong>on</strong> being called <strong>on</strong> to award aprize for good c<strong>on</strong>duct in the village school,were to say, “I am afraid I cannot say whois the best-behaved child, because I reallydo not know what good c<strong>on</strong>duct is; but I
96 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>will gladly take the teacher’s word as towhich child has caused least inc<strong>on</strong>venience,”he would probably be unfrocked, if notexcommunicated. And yet no h<strong>on</strong>est <strong>and</strong>intellectually capable doctor or pars<strong>on</strong> cansay more. Clearly it would not be wise ofthe doctor to say it, because optimistic lieshave such immense therapeutic value that adoctor who cannot tell them c<strong>on</strong>vincingly hasmistaken his professi<strong>on</strong>. And a clergymanwho is not prepared to lay down the lawdogmatically will not be of much use in avillage school, though it behoves him all themore to be very careful what law he laysdown. But unless both the clergyman <strong>and</strong> thedoctor are in the attitude expressed by thesespeeches they are not fit for their work. Theman who believes that he has more than aprovisi<strong>on</strong>al hypothesis to go up<strong>on</strong> is a bornfool. He may have to act vigorously <strong>on</strong> it. Theworld has no use for the Agnostic who w<strong>on</strong>tbelieve anything because anything mightbe false, <strong>and</strong> w<strong>on</strong>t deny anything becauseanything might be true. But there is a widedifference between saying, “I believe this; <strong>and</strong>I am going to act <strong>on</strong> it,” or, “I d<strong>on</strong>t believe it;<strong>and</strong> I w<strong>on</strong>t act <strong>on</strong> it,” <strong>and</strong> saying, “It is true;<strong>and</strong> it is my duty <strong>and</strong> yours to act <strong>on</strong> it,” or,“It is false; <strong>and</strong> it is my duty <strong>and</strong> yours torefuse to act <strong>on</strong> it.” The difference is as greatas that between the Apostles’ Creed <strong>and</strong> theAthanasian Creed. When you repeat the
The Sin of Athanasius 97Apostles’ Creed you affirm that you believecertain things. There you are clearly withinyour rights. When you repeat the AthanasianCreed, you affirm that certain things are so,<strong>and</strong> that anybody who doubts that they are socannot be saved. And this is simply a piece ofimpudence <strong>on</strong> your part, as you know nothingabout it except that as good men as you havenever heard of your creed. The apostolicattitude is a desire to c<strong>on</strong>vert others to ourbeliefs for the sake of sympathy <strong>and</strong> light:the Athanasian attitude is a desire to murderpeople who d<strong>on</strong>t agree with us. I am sufficientof an Athanasian to advocate a law for thespeedy executi<strong>on</strong> of all Athanasians, becausethey violate the fundamental propositi<strong>on</strong> ofmy creed, which is, I repeat, that all livingcreatures are experiments. The preciseformula for the Superman, ci-devant TheJust Man Made Perfect, has not yet beendiscovered. Until it is, every birth is anexperiment in the Great Research which isbeing c<strong>on</strong>ducted by the Life Force to discoverthat formula.
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The ExperimentExperimentingAnd now all the modern schoolmasteraborti<strong>on</strong>ists will rise up beaming, <strong>and</strong> say,“We quite agree. We regard every child inour school as a subject for experiment. Weare always experimenting with them. Wechallenge the experimental test for oursystem. We are c<strong>on</strong>tinually guided by ourexperience in our great work of mouldingthe character of our future citizens, etc. etc.etc.” I am sorry to seem irrec<strong>on</strong>cilable; butit is the Life Force that has to make theexperiment <strong>and</strong> not the schoolmaster; <strong>and</strong>the Life Force for the child’s purpose is inthe child <strong>and</strong> not in the schoolmaster. Theschoolmaster is another experiment; <strong>and</strong>a laboratory in which all the experimentsbegan experimenting <strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>e another wouldnot produce intelligible results. I admit,however, that if my schoolmasters hadtreated me as an experiment of the LifeForce: that is, if they had set me free to do99
100 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>as I liked subject <strong>on</strong>ly to my political rights<strong>and</strong> theirs, they could not have watched theexperiment very l<strong>on</strong>g, because the first resultwould have been a rapid movement <strong>on</strong> mypart in the directi<strong>on</strong> of the door, <strong>and</strong> mydisappearance there-through.It may be worth inquiring where I shouldhave g<strong>on</strong>e to. I should say that practicallyevery time I should have g<strong>on</strong>e to a much moreeducati<strong>on</strong>al place. I should have g<strong>on</strong>e into thecountry, or into the sea, or into the Nati<strong>on</strong>alGallery, or to hear a b<strong>and</strong> if there was<strong>on</strong>e, or to any library where there were noschoolbooks. I should have read very dry <strong>and</strong>difficult books: for example, though nothingwould have induced me to read the budget ofstupid party lies that served as a text-bookof history in school, I remember readingRoberts<strong>on</strong>’s Charles V. <strong>and</strong> his history ofScotl<strong>and</strong> from end to end most laboriously.Once, stung by the airs of a schoolfellowwho alleged that he had read Locke On TheHuman Underst<strong>and</strong>ing, I attempted to readthe Bible straight through, <strong>and</strong> actuallygot to the Pauline Epistles before I brokedown in disgust at what seemed to me theirinveterate crookedness of mind. If there hadbeen a school where children were really free,I should have had to be driven out of it forthe sake of my health by the teachers; for thechildren to whom a literary educati<strong>on</strong> canbe of any use are insatiable: they will read
The Experiment Experimenting 101<strong>and</strong> study far more than is good for them.In fact the real difficulty is to prevent themfrom wasting their time by reading for thesake of reading <strong>and</strong> studying for the sake ofstudying, instead of taking some trouble tofind out what they really like <strong>and</strong> are capableof doing some good at. Some silly pers<strong>on</strong> willprobably interrupt me here with the remarkthat many children have no appetite for aliterary educati<strong>on</strong> at all, <strong>and</strong> would neveropen a book if they were not forced to. I haveknown many such pers<strong>on</strong>s who have beenforced to the point of obtaining Universitydegrees. And for all the effect their literaryexercises has left <strong>on</strong> them they might justas well have been put <strong>on</strong> the treadmill. Infact they are actually less literate than thetreadmill would have left them; for theymight by chance have picked up <strong>and</strong> dippedinto a volume of Shakespear or a translati<strong>on</strong>of Homer if they had not been driven to loatheevery famous name in literature. I shouldprobably know as much Latin as French, ifLatin had not been made the excuse for myschool impris<strong>on</strong>ment <strong>and</strong> degradati<strong>on</strong>.
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Why We LoatheLearning <strong>and</strong> LoveSportIf we are to discuss the importance of art,learning, <strong>and</strong> intellectual culture, the firstthing we have to recognize is that we havevery little of them at present; <strong>and</strong> that thislittle has not been produced by compulsoryeducati<strong>on</strong>: nay, that the scarcity is unnatural<strong>and</strong> has been produced by the violentexclusi<strong>on</strong> of art <strong>and</strong> artists from schools. Onthe other h<strong>and</strong> we have quite a c<strong>on</strong>siderabledegree of bodily culture: indeed there isa c<strong>on</strong>tinual outcry against the sacrifice ofmental accomplishments to athletics. Inother words a sacrifice of the professed objectof compulsory educati<strong>on</strong> to the real object ofvoluntary educati<strong>on</strong>. It is assumed that thismeans that people prefer bodily to mentalculture; but may it not mean that theyprefer liberty <strong>and</strong> satisfacti<strong>on</strong> to coerci<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>privati<strong>on</strong>. Why is it that people who have103
104 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>been taught Shakespear as a school subjectloathe his plays <strong>and</strong> cannot by any means bepersuaded ever to open his works after theyescape from school, whereas there is still, 300years after his death, a wide <strong>and</strong> steady salefor his works to people who read his plays asplays, <strong>and</strong> not as task work? If Shakespear,or for that matter, Newt<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> Leibnitz, areallowed to find their readers <strong>and</strong> studentsthey will find them. If their works areannotated <strong>and</strong> paraphrased by dullards, <strong>and</strong>the annotati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> paraphrases forced <strong>on</strong> allyoung people by impris<strong>on</strong>ment <strong>and</strong> flogging<strong>and</strong> scolding, there will not be a single manof letters or higher mathematician the morein the country: <strong>on</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>trary there will beless, as so many potential lovers of literature<strong>and</strong> mathematics will have been incurablyprejudiced against them. Every<strong>on</strong>e who isc<strong>on</strong>versant with the class in which childimpris<strong>on</strong>ment <strong>and</strong> compulsory schoolingis carried out to the final extremity of theuniversity degree knows that its scholasticculture is a sham; that it knows littleabout literature or art <strong>and</strong> a great dealabout point-to-point races; <strong>and</strong> that thevillage cobbler, who has never read a pageof Plato, <strong>and</strong> is admittedly a dangerouslyignorant man politically, is nevertheless aSocrates compared to the classically educatedgentlemen who discuss politics in countryhouses at electi<strong>on</strong> time (<strong>and</strong> at no other time)
Why We Loathe Learning <strong>and</strong> Love Sport 105after their day’s earnest <strong>and</strong> skilful shooting.Think of the years <strong>and</strong> years of wearytorment the women of the piano-possessingclass have been forced to spend over thekeyboard, fingering scales. How many ofthem could be bribed to attend a pianoforterecital by a great player, though they willrise from sick beds rather than miss Ascot orGoodwood?Another familiar fact that teaches thesame less<strong>on</strong> is that many women who havevoluntarily attained a high degree of culturecannot add up their own housekeepingbooks, though their educati<strong>on</strong> in simplearithmetic was compulsory, whereas theirhigher educati<strong>on</strong> has been wholly voluntary.Everywhere we find the same result. Theimpris<strong>on</strong>ment, the beating, the taming <strong>and</strong>laming, the breaking of young spirits, thearrest of development, the atrophy of allinhibitive power except the power of fear, arereal: the educati<strong>on</strong> is sham. Those who havebeen taught most know least.
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AntichristAm<strong>on</strong>g the worst effects of the unnaturalsegregati<strong>on</strong> of children in schools <strong>and</strong> theequally unnatural c<strong>on</strong>stant associati<strong>on</strong> ofthem with adults in the family is the utterdefeat of the vital element in Christianity.Christ st<strong>and</strong>s in the world for that intuiti<strong>on</strong>of the highest humanity that we, beingmembers <strong>on</strong>e of another, must not complain,must not scold, must not strike, nor revilenor persecute nor revenge nor punish. Nowfamily life <strong>and</strong> school life are, as far as themoral training of children is c<strong>on</strong>cerned,nothing but the deliberate inculcati<strong>on</strong> of aroutine of complaint, scolding, punishment,persecuti<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> revenge as the natural <strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ly possible way of dealing with evil orinc<strong>on</strong>venience. “Aint nobody to be whoppedfor this here?” exclaimed Sam Weller whenhe saw his employer’s name written up <strong>on</strong> astage coach, <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>ceived the phenomen<strong>on</strong>as an insult which reflected <strong>on</strong> himself. Thisexclamati<strong>on</strong> of Sam Weller is at <strong>on</strong>ce thenegati<strong>on</strong> of Christianity <strong>and</strong> the beginning107
108 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> the end of current morality; <strong>and</strong> so itwill remain as l<strong>on</strong>g as the family <strong>and</strong> theschool persist as we know them: that is, asl<strong>on</strong>g as the rights of children are so utterlydenied that nobody will even take the troubleto ascertain what they are, <strong>and</strong> coming ofage is like the turning of a c<strong>on</strong>vict into thestreet after twenty-<strong>on</strong>e years penal servitude.Indeed it is worse; for the c<strong>on</strong>vict may havelearnt before his c<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong> how to live infreedom <strong>and</strong> may remember how to set aboutit, however lamed his powers of freedom mayhave become through disuse; but the childknows no other way of life but the slave’s way.Born free, as Rousseau says, he has beenlaid h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>on</strong> by slaves from the moment ofhis birth <strong>and</strong> brought up as a slave. How ishe, when he is at last set free, to be anythingelse than the slave he actually is, clamoringfor war, for the lash, for police, pris<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong>scaffolds in a wild panic of delusi<strong>on</strong> thatwithout these things he is lost. The grown-upEnglishman is to the end of his days a badlybrought-up child, bey<strong>on</strong>d belief quarrelsome,petulant, selfish, destructive, <strong>and</strong> cowardly:afraid that the Germans will come <strong>and</strong>enslave him; that the burglar will come <strong>and</strong>rob him; that the bicycle or motor car will runover him; that the smallpox will attack him;<strong>and</strong> that the devil will run away with him<strong>and</strong> empty him out like a sack of coals <strong>on</strong> ablazing fire unless his nurse or his parents or
Antichrist 109his schoolmaster or his bishop or his judgeor his army or his navy will do somethingto frighten these bad things away. And thisEnglishman, without the moral courage of alouse, will risk his neck for fun fifty timesevery winter in the hunting field, <strong>and</strong> atBadajos sieges <strong>and</strong> the like will ram hishead into a hole bristling with sword bladesrather than be beaten in the <strong>on</strong>e departmentin which he has been brought up to c<strong>on</strong>sulthis own h<strong>on</strong>or. As a Sportsman (<strong>and</strong> waris fundamentally the sport of hunting <strong>and</strong>fighting the most dangerous of the beasts ofprey) he feels free. He will tell you himselfthat the true sportsman is never a snob, acoward, a duffer, a cheat, a thief, or a liar.Curious, is it not, that he has not the samec<strong>on</strong>fidence in other sorts of man?And even sport is losing its freedom. So<strong>on</strong>everybody will be schooled, mentally <strong>and</strong>physically, from the cradle to the end of theterm of adult compulsory military service,<strong>and</strong> finally of compulsory civil service lastinguntil the age of superannuati<strong>on</strong>. Alwaysmore schooling, more compulsi<strong>on</strong>. We are tobe cured by an excess of the dose that haspois<strong>on</strong>ed us. Satan is to cast out Satan.
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Under the WhipClearly this will not do. We must rec<strong>on</strong>cileeducati<strong>on</strong> with liberty. We must find out somemeans of making men workers <strong>and</strong>, if needbe, warriors, without making them slaves.We must cultivate the noble virtues that havetheir root in pride. Now no schoolmasterwill teach these any more than a pris<strong>on</strong>governor will teach his pris<strong>on</strong>ers how tomutiny <strong>and</strong> escape. Self-preservati<strong>on</strong> forceshim to break the spirit that revolts againsthim, <strong>and</strong> to inculcate submissi<strong>on</strong>, even toobscene assault, as a duty. A bishop <strong>on</strong>ce hadthe hardihood to say that he would rather seeEngl<strong>and</strong> free than Engl<strong>and</strong> sober. Nobodyhas yet dared to say that he would rather seean Engl<strong>and</strong> of ignoramuses than an Engl<strong>and</strong>of cowards <strong>and</strong> slaves. And if any<strong>on</strong>e did,it would be necessary to point out that theantithesis is not a practical <strong>on</strong>e, as we havegot at present an Engl<strong>and</strong> of ignoramuseswho are also cowards <strong>and</strong> slaves, <strong>and</strong>extremely proud of it at that, because inschool they are taught to submit, with what111
112 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>they ridiculously call Oriental fatalism (asif any Oriental has ever submitted morehelplessly <strong>and</strong> sheepishly to robbery <strong>and</strong>oppressi<strong>on</strong> than we Occidentals do), to bedriven day after day into compounds <strong>and</strong> setto the tasks they loathe by the men they hate<strong>and</strong> fear, as if this were the inevitable destinyof mankind. And naturally, when they growup, they helplessly exchange the pris<strong>on</strong> ofthe school for the pris<strong>on</strong> of the mine or theworkshop or the office, <strong>and</strong> drudge al<strong>on</strong>gstupidly <strong>and</strong> miserably, with just enoughgregarious instinct to turn furiously <strong>on</strong> anyintelligent pers<strong>on</strong> who proposes a change.It would be quite easy to make Engl<strong>and</strong> aparadise, according to our present ideas, ina few years. There is no mystery about it:the way has been pointed out over <strong>and</strong> overagain. The difficulty is not the way but thewill. And we have no will because the firstthing d<strong>on</strong>e with us in childhood was to breakour will. Can anything be more disgustingthan the spectacle of a nati<strong>on</strong> reading thebiography of Gladst<strong>on</strong>e <strong>and</strong> gloating over theaccount of how he was flogged at Et<strong>on</strong>, twoof his schoolfellows being compelled to holdhim down whilst he was flogged. Not l<strong>on</strong>g agoa public body in Engl<strong>and</strong> had to deal withthe case of a schoolmaster who, c<strong>on</strong>ceivinghimself insulted by the smoking of a cigaretagainst his orders by a pupil eighteenyears old, proposed to flog him publicly as
Under the Whip 113a satisfacti<strong>on</strong> to what he called his h<strong>on</strong>or<strong>and</strong> authority. I had intended to give theparticulars of this ease, but find the drudgeryof repeating such stuff too sickening, <strong>and</strong> theeffect unjust to a man who was doing <strong>on</strong>lywhat others all over the country were doingas part of the established routine of what iscalled educati<strong>on</strong>. The astounding part of itwas the manner in which the pers<strong>on</strong> to whomthis outrage <strong>on</strong> decency seemed quite proper<strong>and</strong> natural claimed to be a functi<strong>on</strong>ary ofhigh character, <strong>and</strong> had his claim allowed. InJapan he would hardly have been allowed theprivilege of committing suicide. What is to besaid of a professi<strong>on</strong> in which such obscenitiesare made points of h<strong>on</strong>or, or of instituti<strong>on</strong>sin which they are an accepted part of thedaily routine? Wholesome people would notargue about the taste of such nastinesses:they would spit them out; but we are taintedwith flagellomania from our childhood. Whenwill we realize that the fact that we canbecome accustomed to anything, howeverdisgusting at first, makes it necessary forus to examine carefully everything we havebecome accustomed to? Before motor carsbecame comm<strong>on</strong>, necessity had accustomedus to a foulness in our streets which wouldhave horrified us had the street been ourdrawing-room carpet. Before l<strong>on</strong>g we shallbe as particular about our streets as we noware about our carpets; <strong>and</strong> their c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>
114 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>in the nineteenth century will become asf<strong>org</strong>otten <strong>and</strong> incredible as the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> ofthe corridors of palaces <strong>and</strong> the courts ofcastles was as late as the eighteenth century.This foulness, we can plead, was imposed<strong>on</strong> us as a necessity by the use of horses<strong>and</strong> of huge retinues; but flogging has neverbeen so imposed: it has always been a vice,craved for <strong>on</strong> any pretext by those depravedby it. Boys were flogged when criminalswere hanged, to impress the awful warning<strong>on</strong> them. Boys were flogged at boundaries,to impress the boundaries <strong>on</strong> their memory.Other methods <strong>and</strong> other punishmentswere always available: the choice of this<strong>on</strong>e betrayed the sensual impulse whichmakes the practice an abominati<strong>on</strong>. Butwhen its viciousness made it customary, itwas practised <strong>and</strong> tolerated <strong>on</strong> all h<strong>and</strong>sby people who were innocent of anythingworse than stupidity, ill temper, <strong>and</strong> inabilityto discover other methods of maintainingorder than those they had always seenpractised <strong>and</strong> approved of. From children <strong>and</strong>animals it extended to slaves <strong>and</strong> criminals.In the days of Moses it was limited to 39lashes. In the early nineteenth century ithad become an open madness: soldiers weresentenced to a thous<strong>and</strong> lashes for triflingoffences, with the result (am<strong>on</strong>g othersless menti<strong>on</strong>able) that the Ir<strong>on</strong> Duke ofWellingt<strong>on</strong> complained that it was impossible
Under the Whip 115to get an order obeyed in the British armyexcept in two or three crack regiments. Suchfrantic excesses of this disgusting neurosisprovoked a reacti<strong>on</strong> against it; but the clamorfor it by depraved pers<strong>on</strong>s never ceased,<strong>and</strong> was tolerated by a nati<strong>on</strong> trained to itfrom childhood in the schools until last year(1913), when in what must be described asa paroxysm of sexual excitement provokedby the agitati<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>cerning the White SlaveTraffic (the purely commercial nature ofwhich I was prevented from exposing <strong>on</strong>the stage by the Censorship twenty yearsago) the Government yielded to an outcryfor flagellati<strong>on</strong> led by the Archbishop ofCanterbury, <strong>and</strong> passed an Act under which ajudge can sentence a man to be flogged to theutmost extremity with any instrument usablefor such a purpose that he cares to prescribe.Such an Act is not a legislative phenomen<strong>on</strong>but a psychopathic <strong>on</strong>e. Its effect <strong>on</strong> theWhite Slave Traffic was, of course, to distractpublic attenti<strong>on</strong> from its real cause <strong>and</strong>from the people who really profit by it toimaginary “foreign scoundrels,” <strong>and</strong> to securea m<strong>on</strong>opoly of its <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> for women.And all this evil is made possible by theschoolmaster with his cane <strong>and</strong> birch, by theparents getting rid as best they can of the nuisanceof children making noise <strong>and</strong> mischiefin the house, <strong>and</strong> by the denial to children ofthe elementary rights of human beings.
116 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>The first man who enslaved <strong>and</strong> “broke in”an animal with a whip would have inventedthe explosi<strong>on</strong> engine instead could he haveforeseen the curse he was laying <strong>on</strong> hisrace. For men <strong>and</strong> women learnt therebyto enslave <strong>and</strong> break in their children bythe same means. These children, grown up,knew no other methods of training. Finallythe evil that was d<strong>on</strong>e for gain by the greedywas refined <strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> d<strong>on</strong>e for pleasure by thelustful. Flogging has become a pleasurepurchasable in our streets, <strong>and</strong> inhibiti<strong>on</strong> agrown-up habit that children play at. “Go<strong>and</strong> see what baby is doing; <strong>and</strong> tell him hemustnt” is the last word of the nursery; <strong>and</strong>the grimmest aspect of it is that it was firstformulated by a comic paper as a capital joke.
TechnicalInstructi<strong>on</strong>Technical instructi<strong>on</strong> tempts to violence (asa short cut) more than liberal educati<strong>on</strong>.The sailor in Mr Rudyard Kipling’s CaptainsCourageous, teaching the boy the namesof the ship’s tackle with a rope’s end, doesnot disgust us as our schoolmasters do,especially as the boy was a spoiled boy. Butan unspoiled boy would not have needed thatdrastic medicine. Technical training may beas tedious as learning to skate or to playthe piano or violin; but it is the price <strong>on</strong>emust pay to achieve certain desirable resultsor necessary ends. It is a m<strong>on</strong>strous thingto force a child to learn Latin or Greek ormathematics <strong>on</strong> the ground that they arean indispensable gymnastic for the mentalpowers. It would be m<strong>on</strong>strous even if itwere true; for there is no labor that mightnot be imposed <strong>on</strong> a child or an adult <strong>on</strong> thesame pretext; but as a glance at the averageproducts of our public school <strong>and</strong> university117
118 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>educati<strong>on</strong> shews that it is not true, it neednot trouble us. But it is a fact that ignoranceof Latin <strong>and</strong> Greek <strong>and</strong> mathematics closescertain careers to men (I do not meanartificial, unnecessary, noxious careers likethose of the commercial schoolmaster).Languages, even dead <strong>on</strong>es, have their uses;<strong>and</strong>, as it seems to many of us, mathematicshave their uses. They will always be learnedby people who want to learn them; <strong>and</strong> peoplewill always want to learn them as l<strong>on</strong>g asthey are of any importance in life: indeedthe want will survive their importance:superstiti<strong>on</strong> is nowhere str<strong>on</strong>ger than in thefield of obsolete acquirements. And they willnever be learnt fruitfully by people who d<strong>on</strong>ot want to learn them either for their ownsake or for use in necessary work. There isno harder schoolmaster than experience; <strong>and</strong>yet experience fails to teach where there is nodesire to learn.Still, <strong>on</strong>e must not begin to apply this generalizati<strong>on</strong>too early. And this brings me toan important factor in the case: the factor ofevoluti<strong>on</strong>.
Docility <strong>and</strong>DependenceIf any<strong>on</strong>e, impressed by my view that therights of a child are precisely those of anadult, proceeds to treat a child as if it werean adult, he (or she) will find that though theplan will work much better at some pointsthan the usual plan, at others it will notwork at all; <strong>and</strong> this discovery may provokehim to turn back from the whole c<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong>of children’s rights with a jest at the expenseof bachelors’ <strong>and</strong> old maids’ children. Indealing with children what is needed is notlogic but sense. There is no logical reas<strong>on</strong>why young pers<strong>on</strong>s should be allowed greaterc<strong>on</strong>trol of their property the day after theyare twenty-<strong>on</strong>e than the day before it. Thereis no logical reas<strong>on</strong> why I, who str<strong>on</strong>gly objectto an adult st<strong>and</strong>ing over a boy of ten with aLatin grammar, <strong>and</strong> saying, “you must learnthis, whether you want to or not,” shouldnevertheless be quite prepared to st<strong>and</strong> overa boy of five with the multiplicati<strong>on</strong> table119
120 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>or a copy book or a code of elementary goodmanners, <strong>and</strong> practice <strong>on</strong> his docility to makehim learn them. And there is no logicalreas<strong>on</strong> why I should do for a child a greatmany little offices, some of them troublesome<strong>and</strong> disagreeable, which I should not dofor a boy twice its age, or support a boy <strong>org</strong>irl when I would unhesitatingly throw anadult <strong>on</strong> his own resources. But there arepractical reas<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> sensible reas<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong>affecti<strong>on</strong>ate reas<strong>on</strong>s for all these illogicalities.<strong>Children</strong> do not want to be treated altogetheras adults: such treatment terrifies them <strong>and</strong>over-burdens them with resp<strong>on</strong>sibility. Intruth, very few adults care to be called <strong>on</strong>for independence <strong>and</strong> originality: they alsoare bewildered <strong>and</strong> terrified in the absence ofprecedents <strong>and</strong> precepts <strong>and</strong> comm<strong>and</strong>ments;but modern Democracy allows them asancti<strong>on</strong>ing <strong>and</strong> cancelling power if they arecapable of using it, which children are not.To treat a child wholly as an adult wouldbe to mock <strong>and</strong> destroy it. Infantile docility<strong>and</strong> juvenile dependence are, like death, aproduct of Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> thoughthere is no viler crime than to abuse them,yet there is no greater cruelty than to ignorethem. I have complained sufficiently of whatI suffered through the process of assault,impris<strong>on</strong>ment, <strong>and</strong> compulsory less<strong>on</strong>s thattaught me nothing, which are called myschooling. But I could say a good deal also
Docility <strong>and</strong> Dependence 121about the things I was not taught <strong>and</strong> shouldhave been taught, not to menti<strong>on</strong> the thingsI was allowed to do which I should not havebeen allowed to do. I have no recollecti<strong>on</strong> ofbeing taught to read or write; so I presumeI was born with both faculties; but manypeople seem to have bitter recollecti<strong>on</strong>s ofbeing forced reluctantly to acquire them. Andthough I have the uttermost c<strong>on</strong>tempt for ateacher so ill mannered <strong>and</strong> incompetent asto be unable to make a child learn to read<strong>and</strong> write without also making it cry, stillI am prepared to admit that I had ratherhave been compelled to learn to read <strong>and</strong>write with tears by an incompetent <strong>and</strong> illmannered pers<strong>on</strong> than left in ignorance.Reading, writing, <strong>and</strong> enough arithmetic touse m<strong>on</strong>ey h<strong>on</strong>estly <strong>and</strong> accurately, togetherwith the rudiments of law <strong>and</strong> order, becomenecessary c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s of a child’s liberty beforeit can appreciate the importance of its liberty,or foresee that these accomplishments areworth acquiring. Nature has provided for thisby evolving the instinct of docility. <strong>Children</strong>are very docile: they have a sound intuiti<strong>on</strong>that they must do what they are told orperish. And adults have an intuiti<strong>on</strong>, equallysound, that they must take advantage of thisdocility to teach children how to live properlyor the children will not survive. The difficultyis to know where to stop. To illustrate this,let us c<strong>on</strong>sider the main danger of childish
122 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>docility <strong>and</strong> parental officiousness.
The Abuse ofDocilityDocility may survive as a lazy habit l<strong>on</strong>gafter it has ceased to be a beneficial instinct.If you catch a child when it is young enoughto be instinctively docile, <strong>and</strong> keep it in ac<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of unremitted tutelage under thenurserymaid, the governess, the preparatoryschool, the sec<strong>on</strong>dary school, <strong>and</strong> theuniversity, until it is an adult, you willproduce, not a self-reliant, free, fully maturedhuman being, but a grown-up schoolboy orschoolgirl, capable of nothing in the wayof original or independent acti<strong>on</strong> exceptoutbursts of naughtiness in the women<strong>and</strong> blackguardism in the men. That isexactly what we get at present in our rich<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sequently governing classes: theypass from juvenility to senility withoutever touching maturity except in body. Theclasses which cannot afford this sustainedtutelage are notably more self-reliant <strong>and</strong>grown-up: an office boy of fifteen is often123
124 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>more of a man than a university studentof twenty. Unfortunately this precocity isdisabled by poverty, ignorance, narrowness,<strong>and</strong> a hideous power of living without artor love or beauty <strong>and</strong> being rather proud ofit. The poor never escape from servitude:their docility is preserved by their slavery.And so all become the prey of the greedy, theselfish, the domineering, the unscrupulous,the predatory. If here <strong>and</strong> there an individualrefuses to be docile, ten docile pers<strong>on</strong>s willbeat him or lock him up or shoot him or hanghim at the bidding of his oppressors <strong>and</strong> theirown. The crux of the whole difficulty aboutparents, schoolmasters, priests, absolutem<strong>on</strong>archs, <strong>and</strong> despots of every sort, is thetendency to abuse natural docility. A nati<strong>on</strong>should always be healthily rebellious; but theking or prime minister has yet to be foundwho will make trouble by cultivating thatside of the nati<strong>on</strong>al spirit. A child shouldbegin to assert itself early, <strong>and</strong> shift for itselfmore <strong>and</strong> more not <strong>on</strong>ly in washing <strong>and</strong>dressing itself, but in opini<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>duct;yet as nothing is so exasperating <strong>and</strong> sounlovable as an uppish child, it is useless toexpect parents <strong>and</strong> schoolmasters to inculcatethis uppishness. Such unamiable preceptsas Always c<strong>on</strong>tradict an authoritativestatement, Always return a blow, Never lose achance of a good fight, When you are scoldedfor a mistake ask the pers<strong>on</strong> who scolds you
The Abuse of Docility 125whether he or she supposes you did it <strong>on</strong>purpose, <strong>and</strong> follow the questi<strong>on</strong> with a blowor an insult or some other unmistakableexpressi<strong>on</strong> of resentment, Remember thatthe progress of the world depends <strong>on</strong> yourknowing better than your elders, are justas important as those of The Serm<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>the Mount; but no <strong>on</strong>e has yet seen themwritten up in letters of gold in a schoolroomor nursery. The child is taught to be kind, tobe respectful, to be quiet, not to answer back,to be truthful when its elders want to findout anything from it, to lie when the truthwould shock or hurt its elders, to be aboveall things obedient, <strong>and</strong> to be seen <strong>and</strong> notheard. Here we have two sets of precepts,each warranted to spoil a child hopelesslyif the other be omitted. Unfortunately wedo not allow fair play between them. Therebellious, intractable, aggressive, selfish setprovoke a corrective resistance, <strong>and</strong> do notpretend to high moral or religious sancti<strong>on</strong>s;<strong>and</strong> they are never urged by grown-up people<strong>on</strong> young people. They are therefore morein danger of neglect or suppressi<strong>on</strong> than theother set, which have all the adults, all thelaws, all the religi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>on</strong> their side. How isthe child to be secured its due share of bothbodies of doctrine?
126 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The Schoolboy <strong>and</strong>the HomeboyIn practice what happens is that parentsnotice that boys brought up at home becomemollycoddles, or prigs, or duffers, unableto take care of themselves. They see thatboys should learn to rough it a little <strong>and</strong> tomix with children of their own age. This isnatural enough. When you have preachedat <strong>and</strong> punished a boy until he is a moralcripple, you are as much hampered by himas by a physical cripple; <strong>and</strong> as you do notintend to have him <strong>on</strong> your h<strong>and</strong>s all yourlife, <strong>and</strong> are generally rather impatient forthe day when he will earn his own living <strong>and</strong>leave you to attend to yourself, you so<strong>on</strong>er orlater begin to talk to him about the need forself-reliance, learning to think, <strong>and</strong> so forth,with the result that your victim, bewilderedby your inc<strong>on</strong>sistency, c<strong>on</strong>cludes that thereis no use trying to please you, <strong>and</strong> falls intoan attitude of sulky resentment. Which isan additi<strong>on</strong>al inducement to pack him off to127
128 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>school.In school, he finds himself in a dualworld, under two dispensati<strong>on</strong>s. There isthe world of the boys, where the point ofh<strong>on</strong>or is to be untameable, always ready tofight, ruthless in taking the c<strong>on</strong>ceit out ofany<strong>on</strong>e who ventures to give himself airs ofsuperior knowledge or taste, <strong>and</strong> generallyto take Lucifer for <strong>on</strong>e’s model. And thereis the world of the masters, the world ofdiscipline, submissi<strong>on</strong>, diligence, obedience,<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tinual <strong>and</strong> shameless assumpti<strong>on</strong>of moral <strong>and</strong> intellectual authority. Thusthe schoolboy hears both sides, <strong>and</strong> is sofar better off than the homebred boy whohears <strong>on</strong>ly <strong>on</strong>e. But the two sides are notfairly presented. They are presented as good<strong>and</strong> evil, as vice <strong>and</strong> virtue, as villainy <strong>and</strong>heroism. The boy feels mean <strong>and</strong> cowardlywhen he obeys, <strong>and</strong> selfish <strong>and</strong> rascally whenhe disobeys. He looses his moral courage justas he comes to hate books <strong>and</strong> languages.In the end, John Ruskin, tied so close tohis mother’s apr<strong>on</strong>-string that he did notescape even when he went to Oxford, <strong>and</strong>John Stuart Mill, whose father ought to havebeen prosecuted for laying his s<strong>on</strong>’s childhoodwaste with less<strong>on</strong>s, were superior, as productsof training, to our schoolboys. They were veryc<strong>on</strong>spicuously superior in moral courage; <strong>and</strong>though they did not distinguish themselvesat cricket <strong>and</strong> football, they had quite as
The Schoolboy <strong>and</strong> the Homeboy 129much physical hardihood as any civilizedman needs. But it is to be observed thatRuskin’s parents were wise people who gaveJohn a full share in their own life, <strong>and</strong> put upwith his presence both at home <strong>and</strong> abroadwhen they must sometimes have been veryweary of him; <strong>and</strong> Mill, as it happens, wasdeliberately educated to challenge all themost sacred instituti<strong>on</strong>s of his country. Thehouseholds they were brought up in were nomore average households than a M<strong>on</strong>tessorischool is an average school.
130 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The Comings ofAge of <strong>Children</strong>All this inculcated adult docility, whichwrecks every civilizati<strong>on</strong> as it is wreckingours, is inhuman <strong>and</strong> unnatural. We mustrec<strong>on</strong>sider our instituti<strong>on</strong> of the Coming ofAge, which is too late for some purposes, <strong>and</strong>too early for others. There should be a seriesof Coming of Ages for every individual. Themammals have their first coming of age whenthey are weaned; <strong>and</strong> it is noteworthy thatthis rather cruel <strong>and</strong> selfish operati<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>the part of the parent has to be performedresolutely, with claws <strong>and</strong> teeth; for yourlittle mammal does not want to be weaned,<strong>and</strong> yields <strong>on</strong>ly to a pretty rough asserti<strong>on</strong> ofthe right of the parent to be relieved of thechild as so<strong>on</strong> as the child is old enough tobear the separati<strong>on</strong>. The same thing occurswith children: they hang <strong>on</strong> to the mother’sapr<strong>on</strong>-string <strong>and</strong> the father’s coat tails asl<strong>on</strong>g as they can, often baffling those sensitiveparents who know that children should think131
132 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>for themselves <strong>and</strong> fend for themselves, butare too kind to throw them <strong>on</strong> their ownresources with the ferocity of the domesticcat. The child should have its first comingof age when it is weaned, another when itcan talk, another when it can walk, anotherwhen it can dress itself without assistance;<strong>and</strong> when it can read, write, count m<strong>on</strong>ey,<strong>and</strong> pass an examinati<strong>on</strong> in going a simpleerr<strong>and</strong> involving a purchase <strong>and</strong> a journeyby rail or other public method of locomoti<strong>on</strong>,it should have quite a majority. At presentthe children of laborers are so<strong>on</strong> mobile <strong>and</strong>able to shift for themselves, whereas it ispossible to find grown-up women in the richclasses who are actually afraid to take a walkin the streets unattended <strong>and</strong> unprotected. Itis true that this is a superstiti<strong>on</strong> from thetime when a retinue was part of the stateof pers<strong>on</strong>s of quality, <strong>and</strong> the unattendedpers<strong>on</strong> was supposed to be a comm<strong>on</strong> pers<strong>on</strong>of no quality, earning a living; but this hasnow become so absurd that children <strong>and</strong>young women are no l<strong>on</strong>ger told why theyare forbidden to go about al<strong>on</strong>e, <strong>and</strong> have tobe persuaded that the streets are dangerousplaces, which of course they are; but peoplewho are not educated to live dangerouslyhave <strong>on</strong>ly half a life, <strong>and</strong> are more likely todie miserably after all than those who havetaken all the comm<strong>on</strong> risks of freedom fromtheir childhood <strong>on</strong>ward as matters of course.
The C<strong>on</strong>flict ofWillsThe world wags in spite of its schools <strong>and</strong> itsfamilies because both schools <strong>and</strong> familiesare mostly very largely anarchic: parents<strong>and</strong> schoolmasters are good-natured orweak or lazy; <strong>and</strong> children are docile <strong>and</strong>affecti<strong>on</strong>ate <strong>and</strong> very shortwinded in theirfits of naughtiness; <strong>and</strong> so most familiesslummock al<strong>on</strong>g <strong>and</strong> muddle through untilthe children cease to be children. In thefew cases when the parties are energetic<strong>and</strong> determined, the child is crushed or theparent is reduced to a cipher, as the case maybe. When the opposed forces are neither ofthem str<strong>on</strong>g enough to annihilate the other,there is serious trouble: that is how we getthose feuds between parent <strong>and</strong> child whichrecur to our memory so ir<strong>on</strong>ically when wehear people sentimentalizing about naturalaffecti<strong>on</strong>. We even get tragedies; for thereis nothing so tragic to c<strong>on</strong>template or sodevastating to suffer as the oppressi<strong>on</strong> of will133
134 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>without c<strong>on</strong>science; <strong>and</strong> the whole tendencyof our family <strong>and</strong> school system is to setthe will of the parent <strong>and</strong> the school despotabove c<strong>on</strong>science as something that must bedeferred to abjectly <strong>and</strong> absolutely for its ownsake.The str<strong>on</strong>gest, fiercest force in nature ishuman will. It is the highest <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong>we know of the will that has created thewhole universe. Now all h<strong>on</strong>est civilizati<strong>on</strong>,religi<strong>on</strong>, law, <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong> is an attemptto keep this force within beneficent bounds.What corrupts civilizati<strong>on</strong>, religi<strong>on</strong>, law,<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong> (<strong>and</strong> they are at presentpretty nearly as corrupt as they dare) isthe c<strong>on</strong>stant attempts made by the wills ofindividuals <strong>and</strong> classes to thwart the wills<strong>and</strong> enslave the powers of other individuals<strong>and</strong> classes. The powers of the parent<strong>and</strong> the schoolmaster, <strong>and</strong> of their publicanalogues the lawgiver <strong>and</strong> the judge, becomeinstruments of tyranny in the h<strong>and</strong>s of thosewho are too narrow-minded to underst<strong>and</strong>law <strong>and</strong> exercise judgment; <strong>and</strong> in theirh<strong>and</strong>s (with us they mostly fall into suchh<strong>and</strong>s) law becomes tyranny. And what isa tyrant? Quite simply a pers<strong>on</strong> who saysto another pers<strong>on</strong>, young or old, “You shalldo as I tell you; you shall make what Iwant; you shall profess my creed; you shallhave no will of your own; <strong>and</strong> your powersshall be at the disposal of my will.” It has
The C<strong>on</strong>flict of Wills 135come to this at last: that the phrase “shehas a will of her own,” or “he has a will ofhis own” has come to denote a pers<strong>on</strong> ofexcepti<strong>on</strong>al obstinacy <strong>and</strong> self-asserti<strong>on</strong>. Andeven pers<strong>on</strong>s of good natural dispositi<strong>on</strong>,if brought up to expect such deference, areroused to unreas<strong>on</strong>ing fury, <strong>and</strong> sometimesto the commissi<strong>on</strong> of atrocious crimes, bythe slightest challenge to their authority.Thus a laborer may be dirty, drunken,untruthful, slothful, untrustworthy in everyway without exhausting the indulgence ofthe country house. But let him dare to be“disrespectful” <strong>and</strong> he is a lost man, thoughhe be the cleanest, soberest, most diligent,most veracious, most trustworthy man in thecounty. Dickens’s instinct for detecting socialcankers never served him better than whenhe shewed us Mrs Heep teaching her s<strong>on</strong> to“be umble,” knowing that if he carried outthat precept he might be pretty well anythingelse he liked. The maintenance of deferenceto our wills becomes a mania which will carrythe best of us to any extremity. We will allowa village of Egyptian fellaheen or Indiantribesmen to live the lowest life they pleaseam<strong>on</strong>g themselves without molestati<strong>on</strong>; butlet <strong>on</strong>e of them slay an Englishman or evenstrike him <strong>on</strong> the str<strong>on</strong>gest provocati<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong>straightway we go stark mad, burning <strong>and</strong>destroying, shooting <strong>and</strong> shelling, flogging<strong>and</strong> hanging, if <strong>on</strong>ly such survivors as we may
136 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>leave are thoroughly cowed in the presenceof a man with a white face. In the committeeroom of a local council or city corporati<strong>on</strong>,the humblest employees of the committeefind defenders if they complain of harshtreatment. Gratuities are voted, indulgences<strong>and</strong> holidays are pleaded for, delinquenciesare excused in the most sentimental mannerprovided <strong>on</strong>ly the employee, however patenta hypocrite or incorrigible a slacker, is hatin h<strong>and</strong>. But let the most obvious measureof justice be dem<strong>and</strong>ed by the secretaryof a Trade Uni<strong>on</strong> in terms which omit allexpressi<strong>on</strong>s of subservience, <strong>and</strong> it is withthe greatest difficulty that the cooler-headedcan defeat angry moti<strong>on</strong>s that the letter bethrown into the waste paper basket <strong>and</strong> thecommittee proceed to the next business.
The Demagogue’sOpportunityAnd the employee has in him the same fierceimpulse to impose his will without respect forthe will of others. Democracy is in practicenothing but a device for cajoling from himthe vote he refuses to arbitrary authority.He will not vote for Coriolanus; but whenan experienced demagogue comes al<strong>on</strong>g <strong>and</strong>says, “Sir: you are the dictator: the voice ofthe people is the voice of God; <strong>and</strong> I am <strong>on</strong>lyyour very humble servant,” he says at <strong>on</strong>ce,“All right: tell me what to dictate,” <strong>and</strong> ispresently enslaved more effectually with hisown silly c<strong>on</strong>sent than Coriolanus wouldever have enslaved him without asking hisleave. And the trick by which the demagoguedefeats Coriolanus is played <strong>on</strong> him in histurn by his inferiors. Everywhere we see thecunning succeeding in the world by seekinga rich or powerful master <strong>and</strong> practising<strong>on</strong> his lust for subservience. The politicaladventurer who gets into parliament by137
138 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>offering himself to the poor voter, not as hisrepresentative but as his will-less soulless“delegate,” is himself the dupe of a clever wifewho repudiates Votes for Women, knowingwell that whilst the man is master, the man’smistress will rule. Uriah Heep may be acrawling creature; but his crawling takes himupstairs.Thus does the selfishness of the will turn<strong>on</strong> itself, <strong>and</strong> obtain by flattery what it cannotseize by open force. Democracy becomesthe latest trick of tyranny: “womanliness” becomesthe latest wile of prostituti<strong>on</strong>.Between parent <strong>and</strong> child the samec<strong>on</strong>flict wages <strong>and</strong> the same destructi<strong>on</strong> ofcharacter ensues. <strong>Parents</strong> set themselvesto bend the will of their children to theirown—to break their stubborn spirit, asthey call it—with the ruthlessness ofGr<strong>and</strong> Inquisitors. Cunning, unscrupulouschildren learn all the arts of the sneak incircumventing tyranny: children of bettercharacter are cruelly distressed <strong>and</strong> more orless lamed for life by it.
OurQuarrelsomenessAs between adults, we find a generalquarrelsomeness which makes politicalreform as impossible to most Englishmenas to hogs. Certain secti<strong>on</strong>s of the nati<strong>on</strong>get cured of this disability. University men,sailors, <strong>and</strong> politicians are comparativelyfree from it, because the communal life ofthe University, the fact that in a ship a manmust either learn to c<strong>on</strong>sider others or elsego overboard or into ir<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> the habit ofworking <strong>on</strong> committees <strong>and</strong> ceasing to expectmore of <strong>on</strong>e’s own way than is included in thegreatest comm<strong>on</strong> measure of the committee,educate the will socially. But no <strong>on</strong>e who hasever had to guide a committee of ordinaryprivate Englishmen through their firstattempts at collective acti<strong>on</strong>, in committee orotherwise, can retain any illusi<strong>on</strong>s as to theappalling effects <strong>on</strong> our nati<strong>on</strong>al manners<strong>and</strong> character of the <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> of thehome <strong>and</strong> the school as petty tyrannies, <strong>and</strong>139
140 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>the absence of all teaching of self-respect<strong>and</strong> training in self-asserti<strong>on</strong>. Bullied <strong>and</strong>ordered about, the Englishman obeys likea sheep, evades like a knave, or tries tomurder his oppressor. Merely criticizedor opposed in committee, or invited toc<strong>on</strong>sider anybody’s views but his own, hefeels pers<strong>on</strong>ally insulted <strong>and</strong> wants to resignor leave the room unless he is apologized to.And his panic <strong>and</strong> bewilderment when hesees that the older h<strong>and</strong>s at the work haveno patience with him <strong>and</strong> do not intend totreat him as infallible, are pitiable as far asthey are anything but ludicrous. That is whatcomes of not being taught to c<strong>on</strong>sider otherpeople’s wills, <strong>and</strong> left to submit to them orto over-ride them as if they were the winds<strong>and</strong> the weather. Such a state of mind isincompatible not <strong>on</strong>ly with the democraticintroducti<strong>on</strong> of high civilizati<strong>on</strong>, but withthe comprehensi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> maintenance of suchcivilized instituti<strong>on</strong>s as have been introducedby benevolent <strong>and</strong> intelligent despots <strong>and</strong>aristocrats.
We Must ReformSociety before wecan ReformOurselvesWhen we come to the positive problem ofwhat to do with children if we are to give upthe established plan, we find the difficultiesso great that we begin to underst<strong>and</strong> why somany people who detest the system <strong>and</strong> lookback with loathing <strong>on</strong> their own schooldays,must helplessly send their children to thevery schools they themselves were sentto, because there is no alternative exceptab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ing the children to undisciplinedvagab<strong>on</strong>dism. Man in society must do aseverybody else does in his class: <strong>on</strong>ly fools<strong>and</strong> romantic novices imagine that freedomis a mere matter of the readiness of theindividual to snap his fingers at c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>.It is true that most of us live in a c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>of quite unnecessary inhibiti<strong>on</strong>, wearing ugly141
142 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> uncomfortable clothes, making ourselves<strong>and</strong> other people miserable by the heathenhorrors of mourning, staying away from thetheatre because we cannot afford the stalls<strong>and</strong> are ashamed to go to the pit, <strong>and</strong> indozens of other ways enslaving ourselveswhen there are comfortable alternativesopen to us without any real drawbacks. Thec<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong> of these petty slaveries, <strong>and</strong>of the triumphant ease with which sensiblepeople throw them off, creates an impressi<strong>on</strong>that if we <strong>on</strong>ly take Johns<strong>on</strong>’s advice tofree our minds from cant, we can achievefreedom. But if we all freed our minds fromcant we should find that for the most partwe should have to go <strong>on</strong> doing the necessarywork of the world exactly as we did it beforeuntil we <strong>org</strong>anized new <strong>and</strong> free methods ofdoing it. Many people believed in sec<strong>on</strong>daryco-educati<strong>on</strong> (boys <strong>and</strong> girls taught together)before schools like Bedales were founded:indeed the practice was comm<strong>on</strong> enough inelementary schools <strong>and</strong> in Scotl<strong>and</strong>; but theirbelief did not help them until Bedales <strong>and</strong> StGe<strong>org</strong>e’s were <strong>org</strong>anized; <strong>and</strong> there are stillnot nearly enough co-educati<strong>on</strong>al schools inexistence to accommodate all the children ofthe parents who believe in co-educati<strong>on</strong> upto university age, even if they could alwaysafford the fees of these excepti<strong>on</strong>al schools. Itmay be edifying to tell a duke that our publicschools are all wr<strong>on</strong>g in their c<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>
We Must Reform Society 143<strong>and</strong> methods, or a costerm<strong>on</strong>ger that childrenshould be treated as in Goethe’s WilhelmMeister instead of as they are treated at theelementary school at the corner of his street;but what are the duke <strong>and</strong> the coster to do?Neither of them has any effective choice inthe matter: their children must either go tothe schools that are, or to no school at all.And as the duke thinks with reas<strong>on</strong> that hiss<strong>on</strong> will be a lout or a milksop or a prig if hedoes not go to school, <strong>and</strong> the coster knowsthat his s<strong>on</strong> will become an illiterate hooliganif he is left to the streets, there is no realalternative for either of them. Child life mustbe socially <strong>org</strong>anized: no parent, rich or poor,can choose instituti<strong>on</strong>s that do not exist; <strong>and</strong>the private enterprise of individual schoolmasters appealing to a group of well-to-doparents, though it may shew what can bed<strong>on</strong>e by enthusiasts with new methods,cannot touch the mass of our children. Forthe average parent or child nothing is reallyavailable except the established practice;<strong>and</strong> this is what makes it so important thatthe established practice should be a sound<strong>on</strong>e, <strong>and</strong> so useless for clever individualsto disparage it unless they can <strong>org</strong>anize analternative practice <strong>and</strong> make it, too, general.
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The Pursuit ofMannersIf you cross-examine the duke <strong>and</strong> the coster,you will find that they are not c<strong>on</strong>cerned forthe scholastic attainments of their children.Ask the duke whether he could pass thest<strong>and</strong>ard examinati<strong>on</strong> of twelve-year-oldchildren in elementary schools, <strong>and</strong> he willadmit, with an entirely placid smile, thathe would almost certainly be ignominiouslyplucked. And he is so little ashamed of ordisadvantaged by his c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> that he is notprepared to spend an hour in remedying it.The coster may resent the inquiry insteadof being amused by it; but his answer, iftrue, will be the same. What they both wantfor their children is the communal training,the apprenticeship to society, the less<strong>on</strong>s inholding <strong>on</strong>e’s own am<strong>on</strong>g people of all sortswith whom <strong>on</strong>e is not, as in the home, <strong>on</strong>privileged terms. These can be acquired<strong>on</strong>ly by “mixing with the world,” no matterhow wicked the world is. No parent cares145
146 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>twopence whether his children can writeLatin hexameters or repeat the dates ofthe accessi<strong>on</strong> of all the English m<strong>on</strong>archssince the C<strong>on</strong>queror; but all parents areearnestly anxious about the manners of theirchildren. Better Claude Duval than KasparHauser. Laborers who are c<strong>on</strong>temptuouslyanti-clerical in their opini<strong>on</strong>s will send theirdaughters to the c<strong>on</strong>vent school because thenuns teach them some sort of gentleness ofspeech <strong>and</strong> behavior. And peers who tell youthat our public schools are rotten through<strong>and</strong> through, <strong>and</strong> that our Universities oughtto be razed to the foundati<strong>on</strong>s, send their s<strong>on</strong>sto Et<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> Oxford, Harrow <strong>and</strong> Cambridge,not <strong>on</strong>ly because there is nothing else to bed<strong>on</strong>e, but because these places, though theyturn out blackguards <strong>and</strong> ignoramuses <strong>and</strong>boobies galore, turn them out with the habits<strong>and</strong> manners of the society they bel<strong>on</strong>g to.Bad as those manners are in many respects,they are better than no manners at all. Andno individual or family can possibly teachthem. They can be acquired <strong>on</strong>ly by living inan <strong>org</strong>anized community in which they aretraditi<strong>on</strong>al.Thus we see that there are reas<strong>on</strong>s forthe segregati<strong>on</strong> of children even in familieswhere the great reas<strong>on</strong>: namely, that childrenare nuisances to adults, does not press veryhardly, as, for instance, in the houses of thevery poor, who can send their children to
The Pursuit of Manners 147play in the streets, or the houses of the veryrich, which are so large that the children’squarters can be kept out of the parents’ waylike the servants’ quarters.
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Not too much Wind<strong>on</strong> the Heath,BrotherWhat, then, is to be d<strong>on</strong>e? For the present,unfortunately, little except propagating thec<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong> of <strong>Children</strong>’s Rights. Only theachievement of ec<strong>on</strong>omic equality throughSocialism can make it possible to dealthoroughly with the questi<strong>on</strong> from the pointof view of the total interest of the community,which must always c<strong>on</strong>sist of grown-upchildren. Yet ec<strong>on</strong>omic equality, like allsimple <strong>and</strong> obvious arrangements, seemsimpossible to people brought up as childrenare now. Still, something can be d<strong>on</strong>e evenwithin class limits. Large communities ofchildren of the same class are possible today;<strong>and</strong> voluntary <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> of outdoor life forchildren has already begun in Boy Scouting<strong>and</strong> excursi<strong>on</strong>s of <strong>on</strong>e kind or another.The discovery that anything, even schoollife, is better for the child than home life,149
150 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>will become an over-ridden hobby; <strong>and</strong> weshall presently be told by our faddists thatanything, even camp life, is better than schoollife. Some blundering beginnings of this arealready perceptible. There is a movement formaking our British children into priggishlittle barefooted vagab<strong>on</strong>ds, all talking likethat born fool Ge<strong>org</strong>e Borrow, <strong>and</strong> supposedto be splendidly healthy because they woulddie if they slept in rooms with the windowsshut, or perhaps even with a roof over theirheads. Still, this is a fairly healthy folly; <strong>and</strong>it may do something to establish Mr HaroldCox’s claim of a Right to Roam as the basisof a much needed law compelling proprietorsof l<strong>and</strong> to provide plenty of gates in theirfences, <strong>and</strong> to leave them unlocked whenthere are no growing crops to be damagednor bulls to be encountered, instead of, asat present, impris<strong>on</strong>ing the human race industy or muddy thoroughfares between wallsof barbed wire.The reacti<strong>on</strong> against vagab<strong>on</strong>dage willcome from the children themselves. Forthem freedom will not mean the expensivekind of savagery now called “the simple life.”Their natural disgust with the visi<strong>on</strong>s ofcockney book fanciers blowing themselvesout with “the wind <strong>on</strong> the heath, brother,”<strong>and</strong> of anarchists who are either too weakto underst<strong>and</strong> that men are str<strong>on</strong>g <strong>and</strong> freein proporti<strong>on</strong> to the social pressure they can
Not too much Wind <strong>on</strong> the Heath, Brother151st<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> the complexity of the obligati<strong>on</strong>sthey are prepared to undertake, or too str<strong>on</strong>gto realize that what is freedom to them maybe terror <strong>and</strong> bewilderment to others, willdrive them back to the home <strong>and</strong> the schoolif these have meanwhile learned the less<strong>on</strong>that children are independent human beings<strong>and</strong> have rights.
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Wanted: a Child’sMagna ChartaWhether we shall presently be discussinga Juvenile Magna Charta or Declarati<strong>on</strong>of Rights by way of including children inthe C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong> is a questi<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> which Ileave others to speculate. But if it could<strong>on</strong>ce be established that a child has anadult’s Right of Egress from uncomfortableplaces <strong>and</strong> unpleasant company, <strong>and</strong> therewere children’s lawyers to sue pedagogues<strong>and</strong> others for assault <strong>and</strong> impris<strong>on</strong>ment,there would be an amazing change in thebehavior of schoolmasters, the quality ofschool books, <strong>and</strong> the amenities of school life.That C<strong>on</strong>sciousness of C<strong>on</strong>sent which, evenin its present delusive form, has enabledDemocracy to oust tyrannical systems inspite of all its vulgarities <strong>and</strong> stupidities<strong>and</strong> rancors <strong>and</strong> ineptitudes <strong>and</strong> ignorances,would operate as powerfully am<strong>on</strong>g childrenas it does now am<strong>on</strong>g grown-ups. Nodoubt the pedagogue would promptly turn153
154 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>demagogue, <strong>and</strong> woo his scholars by all thearts of demagogy; but n<strong>on</strong>e of these arts caneasily be so dish<strong>on</strong>orable or mischievous asthe art of caning. And, after all, if largerliberties are attached to the acquisiti<strong>on</strong> ofknowledge, <strong>and</strong> the child finds that it can nomore go to the seaside without a knowledgeof the multiplicati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> pence tables than itcan be an astr<strong>on</strong>omer without mathematics,it will learn the multiplicati<strong>on</strong> table, which ismore than it always does at present, in spiteof all the canings <strong>and</strong> keepings in.
The Pursuit ofLearningWhen the Pursuit of Learning comes to meanthe pursuit of learning by the child instead ofthe pursuit of the child by Learning, cane inh<strong>and</strong>, the danger will be precocity of the intellect,which is just as undesirable as precocityof the emoti<strong>on</strong>s. We still have a silly habitof talking <strong>and</strong> thinking as if intellect were amechanical process <strong>and</strong> not a passi<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> inspite of the German tutors who c<strong>on</strong>fess openlythat three out of every five of the young menthey coach for examinati<strong>on</strong>s are lamed for lifethereby; in spite of Dickens <strong>and</strong> his picture oflittle Paul Dombey dying of less<strong>on</strong>s, we persistin heaping <strong>on</strong> growing children <strong>and</strong> adolescentyouths <strong>and</strong> maidens tasks Pythagoraswould have declined out of comm<strong>on</strong> regard forhis own health <strong>and</strong> comm<strong>on</strong> modesty as to hisown capacity. And this overwork is not all theeffect of compulsi<strong>on</strong>; for the average schoolmasterdoes not compel his scholars to learn:he <strong>on</strong>ly scolds <strong>and</strong> punishes them if they do155
156 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>not, which is quite a different thing, the neteffect being that the school pris<strong>on</strong>ers need notlearn unless they like. Nay, it is sometimes remarkedthat the school dunce—meaning the<strong>on</strong>e who does not like—often turns out wellafterwards, as if idleness were a sign of ability<strong>and</strong> character. A much more sensible explanati<strong>on</strong>is that the so-called dunces are notexhausted before they begin the serious businessof life. It is said that boys will be boys;<strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong>e can <strong>on</strong>ly add <strong>on</strong>e wishes they would.Boys really want to be manly, <strong>and</strong> are unfortunatelyencouraged thoughtlessly in this verydangerous <strong>and</strong> overstraining aspirati<strong>on</strong>. Allthe people who have really worked (HerbertSpencer for instance) warn us against workas earnestly as some people warn us againstdrink. When learning is placed <strong>on</strong> the voluntaryfooting of sport, the teacher will findhimself saying every day “Run away <strong>and</strong> play:you have worked as much as is good for you.”Trying to make children leave school will belike trying to make them go to bed; <strong>and</strong> it willbe necessary to surprise them with the ideathat teaching is work, <strong>and</strong> that the teacher istired <strong>and</strong> must go play or rest or eat: possibilitiesalways c<strong>on</strong>cealed by that infamous humbugthe current schoolmaster, who achieves aspurious divinity <strong>and</strong> a witch doctor’s authorityby persuading children that he is not human,just as ladies persuade them that theyhave no legs.
<strong>Children</strong> <strong>and</strong>Game: a ProposalOf the many wild absurdities of our existingsocial order perhaps the most grotesque isthe costly <strong>and</strong> strictly enforced reservati<strong>on</strong> oflarge tracts of country as deer forests <strong>and</strong>breeding grounds for pheasants whilst thereis so little provisi<strong>on</strong> of the kind made forchildren. I have more than <strong>on</strong>ce thought oftrying to introduce the shooting of childrenas a sport, as the children would then bepreserved very carefully for ten m<strong>on</strong>ths inthe year, thereby reducing their death ratefar more than the fusillades of the sportsmenduring the other two would raise it. Atpresent the killing of a fox except by a pack offoxhounds is regarded with horror; but youmay <strong>and</strong> do kill children in a hundred <strong>and</strong>fifty ways provided you do not shoot themor set a pack of dogs <strong>on</strong> them. It must beadmitted that the foxes have the best of it;<strong>and</strong> indeed a glance at our pheasants, ourdeer, <strong>and</strong> our children will c<strong>on</strong>vince the most157
158 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>sceptical that the children have decidedly theworst of it.This much hope, however, can beextracted from the present state of things.It is so fantastic, so mad, so apparentlyimpossible, that no scheme of reform needever henceforth be discredited <strong>on</strong> the groundthat it is fantastic or mad or apparentlyimpossible. It is the sensible schemes,unfortunately, that are hopeless in Engl<strong>and</strong>.Therefore I have great hopes that my ownviews, though fundamentally sensible, can bemade to appear fantastic enough to have achance.First, then, I lay it down as a primec<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of sane society, obvious as suchto any<strong>on</strong>e but an idiot, that in any decentcommunity, children should find in every partof their native country, food, clothing, lodging,instructi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> parental kindness for theasking. For the matter of that, so shouldadults; but the two cases differ in that asthese commodities do not grow <strong>on</strong> the bushes,the adults cannot have them unless theythemselves <strong>org</strong>anize <strong>and</strong> provide the supply,whereas the children must have them as if bymagic, with nothing to do but rub the lamp,like Aladdin, <strong>and</strong> have their needs satisfied.
The <strong>Parents</strong>’Intolerable BurdenThere is nothing new in this: it is howchildren have always had <strong>and</strong> must alwayshave their needs satisfied. The parent has toplay the part of Aladdin’s djinn; <strong>and</strong> many aparent has sunk beneath the burden of thisservice. All the novelty we need is to <strong>org</strong>anizeit so that instead of the individual childfastening like a parasite <strong>on</strong> its own particularparents, the whole body of children shouldbe thrown not <strong>on</strong>ly up<strong>on</strong> the whole body ofparents, but up<strong>on</strong> the celibates <strong>and</strong> childlessas well, whose present exempti<strong>on</strong> from afull share in the social burden of children isobviously unjust <strong>and</strong> unwholesome. Today itis easy to find a widow who has at great costto herself in pain, danger, <strong>and</strong> disablement,borne six or eight children. In the sametown you will find rich bachelors <strong>and</strong> oldmaids, <strong>and</strong> married couples with no childrenor with families voluntarily limited to twoor three. The eight children do not bel<strong>on</strong>g159
160 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>to the woman in any real or legal sense.When she has reared them they pass awayfrom her into the community as independentpers<strong>on</strong>s, marrying strangers, working forstrangers, spending <strong>on</strong> the community thelife that has been built up at her expense. Nomore m<strong>on</strong>strous injustice could be imaginedthan that the burden of rearing the childrenshould fall <strong>on</strong> her al<strong>on</strong>e <strong>and</strong> not <strong>on</strong> thecelibates <strong>and</strong> the selfish as well.This is so far recognized that alreadythe child finds, wherever it goes, a schoolfor it, <strong>and</strong> somebody to force it into theschool; <strong>and</strong> more <strong>and</strong> more these schoolsare being driven by the mere logic of factsto provide the children with meals, withboots, with spectacles, with dentists <strong>and</strong>doctors. In fact, when the child’s parentsare destitute or not to be found, bread,lodging, <strong>and</strong> clothing are provided. It is truethat they are provided grudgingly <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong>c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s infamous enough to draw downabundant fire from Heaven up<strong>on</strong> us everyday in the shape of crime <strong>and</strong> disease <strong>and</strong>vice; but still the practice of keeping childrenbarely alive at the charge of the communityis established; <strong>and</strong> there is no need for me toargue about it. I propose <strong>on</strong>ly two extensi<strong>on</strong>sof the practice. One is to provide for all thechild’s reas<strong>on</strong>able human wants, <strong>on</strong> whichpoint, if you differ from me, I shall takeleave to say that you are socially a fool <strong>and</strong>
The <strong>Parents</strong> Intolerable Burden 161pers<strong>on</strong>ally an inhuman wretch. The otheris that these wants should be supplied incomplete freedom from compulsory schoolingor compulsory anything except restraint fromcrime, though, as they can be supplied <strong>on</strong>lyby social <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong>, the child must bec<strong>on</strong>scious of <strong>and</strong> subject to the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s ofthat <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong>, which may involve suchporti<strong>on</strong>s of adult resp<strong>on</strong>sibility <strong>and</strong> duty as achild may be able to bear according to its age,<strong>and</strong> which will in any case prevent it fromforming the vagab<strong>on</strong>d <strong>and</strong> anarchist habit ofmind.One more excepti<strong>on</strong> might be necessary:compulsory freedom. I am sure that a childshould not be impris<strong>on</strong>ed in a school. I amnot so sure that it should not sometimes bedriven out into the open—impris<strong>on</strong>ed in thewoods <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong> the mountains, as it were. Forthere are frowsty children, just as there arefrowsty adults, who d<strong>on</strong>t want freedom. Thismorbid result of over-domesticati<strong>on</strong> would, letus hope, so<strong>on</strong> disappear with its cause.
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Mobilizati<strong>on</strong>Those who see no prospect held out to themby this except a country in which all thechildren shall be roaming savages, shouldc<strong>on</strong>sider, first, whether their c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> wouldbe any worse than that of the little cagedsavages of today, <strong>and</strong> sec<strong>on</strong>d, whether eitherchildren or adults are so apt to run wild thatit is necessary to tether them fast to <strong>on</strong>eneighborhood to prevent a general dissoluti<strong>on</strong>of society. My own observati<strong>on</strong> leads meto believe that we are not half mobilizedenough. True, I cannot deny that we aremore mobile than we were. You will stillfind in the home counties old men who havenever been to L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> who tell you thatthey <strong>on</strong>ce went to Winchester or St Albansmuch as if they had been to the South Pole;but they are not so comm<strong>on</strong> as the clerk whohas been to Paris or to Lovely Lucerne, <strong>and</strong>who “goes away somewhere” when he has aholiday. His gr<strong>and</strong>father never had a holiday,<strong>and</strong>, if he had, would no more have dreamedof crossing the Channel than of taking a box163
164 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>at the Opera. But with all allowance forthe Polytechnic excursi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> the touristagency, our inertia is still appalling. I c<strong>on</strong>fessto having <strong>on</strong>ce spent nine years in L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong>without putting my nose outside it; <strong>and</strong>though this was better, perhaps, than therestless globe-trotting vagab<strong>on</strong>dage of theidle rich, w<strong>and</strong>ering from hotel to hotel <strong>and</strong>never really living anywhere, yet I shouldno more have d<strong>on</strong>e it if I had been properlymobilized in my childhood than I should haveworn the same suit of clothes all that time(which, by the way, I very nearly did, myprofessi<strong>on</strong>al income not having as yet begunto sprout). There are masses of people whocould afford at least a trip to Margate, <strong>and</strong>a good many who could afford a trip roundthe world, who are more immovable thanAldgate pump. To others, who would moveif they knew how, travelling is surroundedwith imaginary difficulties <strong>and</strong> terrors. Inshort, the difficulty is not to fix people, butto root them up. We keep repeating thesilly proverb that a rolling st<strong>on</strong>e gathers nomoss, as if moss were a desirable parasite.What we mean is that a vagab<strong>on</strong>d does notprosper. Even this is not true, if prosperitymeans enjoyment as well as resp<strong>on</strong>sibility<strong>and</strong> m<strong>on</strong>ey. The real misery of vagab<strong>on</strong>dageis the misery of having nothing to do <strong>and</strong>nowhere to go, the misery of being derelict ofGod <strong>and</strong> Man, the misery of the idle, poor
Mobilizati<strong>on</strong> 165or rich. And this is <strong>on</strong>e of the miseries ofunoccupied childhood. The unoccupied adult,thus afflicted, tries many distracti<strong>on</strong>s whichare, to say the least, unsuited to children.But <strong>on</strong>e of them, the distracti<strong>on</strong> of seeingthe world, is innocent <strong>and</strong> beneficial. Alsoit is childish, being a c<strong>on</strong>tinuati<strong>on</strong> of whatnurses call “taking notice,” by which a childbecomes experienced. It is pitiable nowadaysto see men <strong>and</strong> women doing after the ageof 45 all the travelling <strong>and</strong> sightseeingthey should have d<strong>on</strong>e before they were 15.Mere w<strong>on</strong>dering <strong>and</strong> staring at things is animportant part of a child’s educati<strong>on</strong>: thatis why children can be thoroughly mobilizedwithout making vagab<strong>on</strong>ds of them. Avagab<strong>on</strong>d is at home nowhere because hew<strong>and</strong>ers: a child should w<strong>and</strong>er becauseit ought to be at home everywhere. Andif it has its papers <strong>and</strong> its passports, <strong>and</strong>gets what it requires not by begging <strong>and</strong>pilfering, but from resp<strong>on</strong>sible agents ofthe community as of right, <strong>and</strong> with someformal acknowledgment of the obligati<strong>on</strong>sit is incurring <strong>and</strong> a knowledge of the factthat these obligati<strong>on</strong>s are being recorded: if,further, certain qualificati<strong>on</strong>s are exactedbefore it is promoted from permissi<strong>on</strong> togo as far as its legs will carry it to usingmechanical aids to locomoti<strong>on</strong>, it can roamwithout much danger of gypsificati<strong>on</strong>.Under such circumstances the boy or girl
166 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>could always run away, <strong>and</strong> never be lost; <strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong> no other c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s can a child be free withoutbeing also a homeless outcast.<strong>Parents</strong> could also run away from disagreeablechildren or drive them out of doors oreven drop their acquaintance, temporarily orpermanently, without inhumanity. Thus bothparties would be <strong>on</strong> their good behavior, <strong>and</strong>not, as at present, <strong>on</strong> their filial or parentalbehavior, which, like all unfree behavior, ismostly bad behavior.As to what other results might follow, wehad better wait <strong>and</strong> see; for nobody now alivecan imagine what customs <strong>and</strong> instituti<strong>on</strong>swould grow up in societies of free children.Child laws <strong>and</strong> child fashi<strong>on</strong>s, child manners<strong>and</strong> child morals are now not tolerated; butam<strong>on</strong>g free children there would certainly besurprising developments in this directi<strong>on</strong>. Ido not think there would be any danger offree children behaving as badly as grown-uppeople do now because they have neverbeen free. They could hardly behave worse,anyhow.
<strong>Children</strong>’s Rights<strong>and</strong> <strong>Parents</strong>’Wr<strong>on</strong>gsA very distinguished man <strong>on</strong>ce assured amother of my acquaintance that she wouldnever know what it meant to be hurt untilshe was hurt through her children. <strong>Children</strong>are extremely cruel without intending it;<strong>and</strong> in ninety-nine cases out of a hundredthe reas<strong>on</strong> is that they do not c<strong>on</strong>ceive theirelders as having any human feelings. Servethe elders right, perhaps, for posing assuperhuman! The penalty of the impostor isnot that he is found out (he very seldom is)but that he is taken for what he pretends tobe, <strong>and</strong> treated as such. And to be treatedas anything but what you really are mayseem pleasant to the imaginati<strong>on</strong> whenthe treatment is above your merits; but inactual experience it is often quite the reverse.When I was a very small boy, my romanticimaginati<strong>on</strong>, stimulated by early doses of167
168 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>ficti<strong>on</strong>, led me to brag to a still smaller boy sooutrageously that he, being a simple soul,really believed me to be an invincible hero.I cannot remember whether this pleasedme much; but I do remember very distinctlythat <strong>on</strong>e day this admirer of mine, who hada pet goat, found the animal in the h<strong>and</strong>s ofa larger boy than either of us, who mockedhim <strong>and</strong> refused to restore the animal to hisrightful owner. Whereup<strong>on</strong>, naturally, hecame weeping to me, <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>ed that Ishould rescue the goat <strong>and</strong> annihilate theaggressor. My terror was bey<strong>on</strong>d descripti<strong>on</strong>:fortunately for me, it imparted such aghastliness to my voice <strong>and</strong> aspect as I underthe eye of my poor little dupe, advanced<strong>on</strong> the enemy with that hideous extremityof cowardice which is called the courageof despair, <strong>and</strong> said “You let go that goat,”that he ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ed his prey <strong>and</strong> fled, to myunf<strong>org</strong>ettable, unspeakable relief. I havenever since exaggerated my prowess in bodilycombat.Now what happened to me in theadventure of the goat happens very often toparents, <strong>and</strong> would happen to schoolmastersif the pris<strong>on</strong> door of the school did not shutout the trials of life. I remember <strong>on</strong>ce, atschool, the resident head master was broughtdown to earth by the sudden illness of hiswife. In the c<strong>on</strong>fusi<strong>on</strong> that ensued it becamenecessary to leave <strong>on</strong>e of the schoolrooms
<strong>Children</strong>s Rights <strong>and</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> Wr<strong>on</strong>gs 169without a master. I was in the class thatoccupied that schoolroom. To have sentus home would have been to break thefundamental bargain with our parents bywhich the school was bound to keep us outof their way for half the day at all hazards.Therefore an appeal had to be made toour better feelings: that is, to our comm<strong>on</strong>humanity, not to make a noise. But the headmaster had never admitted any comm<strong>on</strong>humanity with us. We had been carefullybroken in to regard him as a being quite alooffrom <strong>and</strong> above us: <strong>on</strong>e not subject to erroror suffering or death or illness or mortality.C<strong>on</strong>sequently sympathy was impossible; <strong>and</strong>if the unfortunate lady did not perish, itwas because, as I now comfort myself withguessing, she was too much pre-occupiedwith her own pains, <strong>and</strong> possibly making toomuch noise herself, to be c<strong>on</strong>scious of thep<strong>and</strong>em<strong>on</strong>ium downstairs.A great deal of the fiendishness of schoolboys<strong>and</strong> the cruelty of children to their eldersis produced just in this way. Elders cannotbe superhuman beings <strong>and</strong> suffering fellowcreaturesat the same time. If you pose as alittle god, you must pose for better for worse.
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How Little WeKnow About Our<strong>Parents</strong>The relati<strong>on</strong> between parent <strong>and</strong> child hascruel moments for the parent even whenm<strong>on</strong>ey is no object, <strong>and</strong> the material worriesare delegated to servants <strong>and</strong> school teachers.The child <strong>and</strong> the parent are strangers to <strong>on</strong>eanother necessarily, because their ages mustdiffer widely. Read Goethe’s autobiography;<strong>and</strong> note that though he was happy in hisparents <strong>and</strong> had excepti<strong>on</strong>al powers ofobservati<strong>on</strong>, divinati<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> story-telling,he knew less about his father <strong>and</strong> motherthan about most of the other people hementi<strong>on</strong>s. I myself was never <strong>on</strong> bad termswith my mother: we lived together until I wasforty-two years old, absolutely without thesmallest fricti<strong>on</strong> of any kind; yet when herdeath set me thinking curiously about ourrelati<strong>on</strong>s, I realized that I knew very littleabout her. Introduce me to a strange woman171
172 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>who was a child when I was a child, a girlwhen I was a boy, an adolescent when I wasan adolescent; <strong>and</strong> if we take naturally to <strong>on</strong>eanother I will know more of her <strong>and</strong> she ofme at the end of forty days (I had almost saidof forty minutes) than I knew of my motherat the end of forty years. A c<strong>on</strong>temporarystranger is a novelty <strong>and</strong> an enigma, also apossibility; but a mother is like a broomstickor like the sun in the heavens, it does notmatter which as far as <strong>on</strong>e’s knowledge ofher is c<strong>on</strong>cerned: the broomstick is there <strong>and</strong>the sun is there; <strong>and</strong> whether the child isbeaten by it or warmed <strong>and</strong> enlightened byit, it accepts it as a fact in nature, <strong>and</strong> doesnot c<strong>on</strong>ceive it as having had youth, passi<strong>on</strong>s,<strong>and</strong> weaknesses, or as still growing, yearning,suffering, <strong>and</strong> learning. If I meet a widow Imay ask her all about her marriage; but whats<strong>on</strong> ever dreams of asking his mother abouther marriage, or could endure to hear of itwithout violently breaking off the old sacredrelati<strong>on</strong>ship between them, <strong>and</strong> ceasing to beher child or anything more to her than thefirst man in the street might be?Yet though in this sense the child cannotrealize its parent’s humanity, the parent canrealize the child’s; for the parents with theirexperience of life have n<strong>on</strong>e of the illusi<strong>on</strong>sabout the child that the child has about theparents; <strong>and</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>sequence is that the childcan hurt its parents’ feelings much more than
How Little We Know About Our <strong>Parents</strong> 173its parents can hurt the child’s, because thechild, even when there has been n<strong>on</strong>e of thedeliberate hypocrisy by which children aretaken advantage of by their elders, cannotc<strong>on</strong>ceive the parent as a fellow-creature,whilst the parents know very well that thechildren are <strong>on</strong>ly themselves over again.The child cannot c<strong>on</strong>ceive that its blame orc<strong>on</strong>tempt or want of interest could possiblyhurt its parent, <strong>and</strong> therefore expresses themall with an indifference which has given riseto the term enfant terrible (a tragic term inspite of the jests c<strong>on</strong>nected with it); whilstthe parent can suffer from such slights <strong>and</strong>reproaches more from a child than fromany<strong>on</strong>e else, even when the child is notbeloved, because the child is so unmistakablysincere in them.
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Our Ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>edMothersTake a very comm<strong>on</strong> instance of thisag<strong>on</strong>izing incompatibility. A widow bringsup her s<strong>on</strong> to manhood. He meets a strangewoman, <strong>and</strong> goes off with <strong>and</strong> marries her,leaving his mother desolate. It does not occurto him that this is at all hard <strong>on</strong> her: hedoes it as a matter of course, <strong>and</strong> actuallyexpects his mother to receive, <strong>on</strong> terms ofspecial affecti<strong>on</strong>, the woman for whom shehas been ab<strong>and</strong><strong>on</strong>ed. If he shewed any senseof what he was doing, any remorse; if hemingled his tears with hers <strong>and</strong> asked hernot to think too hardly of him because hehad obeyed the inevitable destiny of a manto leave his father <strong>and</strong> mother <strong>and</strong> cleaveto his wife, she could give him her blessing<strong>and</strong> accept her bereavement with dignity <strong>and</strong>without reproach. But the man never dreamsof such c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>s. To him his mother’sfeeling in the matter, when she betrays it, isunreas<strong>on</strong>able, ridiculous, <strong>and</strong> even odious,175
176 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>as shewing a prejudice against his adorablebride.I have taken the widow as an extreme <strong>and</strong>obvious case; but there are many husb<strong>and</strong>s<strong>and</strong> wives who are tired of their c<strong>on</strong>sorts, ordisappointed in them, or estranged from themby infidelities; <strong>and</strong> these parents, in losing as<strong>on</strong> or a daughter through marriage, may belosing everything they care for. No parent’slove is as innocent as the love of a child: theexclusi<strong>on</strong> of all c<strong>on</strong>scious sexual feeling fromit does not exclude the bitterness, jealousy,<strong>and</strong> despair at loss which characterize sexualpassi<strong>on</strong>: in fact, what is called a pure lovemay easily be more selfish <strong>and</strong> jealous thana carnal <strong>on</strong>e. Anyhow, it is plain matter offact that naively selfish people sometimes trywith fierce jealousy to prevent their childrenmarrying.
Family Affecti<strong>on</strong>Until the family as we know it ceases toexist, nobody will dare to analyze parentalaffecti<strong>on</strong> as distinguished from that generalhuman sympathy which has secured to manyan orphan f<strong>on</strong>der care in a stranger’s housethan it would have received from its actualparents. Not even Tolstoy, in The KreutzerS<strong>on</strong>ata, has said all that we suspect aboutit. When it persists bey<strong>on</strong>d the period atwhich it ceases to be necessary to the child’swelfare, it is apt to be morbid; <strong>and</strong> we areprobably wr<strong>on</strong>g to inculcate its deliberatecultivati<strong>on</strong>. The natural course is for theparents <strong>and</strong> children to cast off the specificparental <strong>and</strong> filial relati<strong>on</strong> when they are nol<strong>on</strong>ger necessary to <strong>on</strong>e another. The childdoes this readily enough to form fresh ties,closer <strong>and</strong> more fascinating. <strong>Parents</strong> are notalways excluded from such compensati<strong>on</strong>s: ithappens sometimes that when the childrengo out at the door the lover comes in at thewindow. Indeed it happens now oftener thanit used to, because people remain much177
178 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>l<strong>on</strong>ger in the sexual arena. The cultivatedJewess no l<strong>on</strong>ger cuts off her hair at hermarriage. The British matr<strong>on</strong> has discardedher cap <strong>and</strong> her c<strong>on</strong>scientious ugliness; <strong>and</strong>a bishop’s wife at fifty has more of the airof a femme galante than an actress had atthirty-five in her gr<strong>and</strong>mother’s time. Butas people marry later, the facts of age <strong>and</strong>time still inexorably c<strong>on</strong>demn most parentsto comparative solitude when their childrenmarry. This may be a privati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> may bea relief: probably in healthy circumstancesit is no worse than a salutary change ofhabit; but even at that it is, for the momentat least, a wrench. For though parents <strong>and</strong>children sometimes dislike <strong>on</strong>e another,there is an experience of succor <strong>and</strong> a habitof dependence <strong>and</strong> expectati<strong>on</strong> formed ininfancy which naturally attaches a child toits parent or to its nurse (a foster parent) ina quite peculiar way. A benefit to the childmay be a burden to the parent; but peoplebecome attached to their burdens sometimesmore than the burdens are attached to them;<strong>and</strong> to “suffer little children” has become anaffecti<strong>on</strong>ate impulse deep in our nature.Now there is no such impulse to suffer oursisters <strong>and</strong> brothers, our aunts <strong>and</strong> uncles,much less our cousins. If we could choose ourrelatives, we might, by selecting c<strong>on</strong>genial<strong>on</strong>es, mitigate the repulsive effect of theobligati<strong>on</strong> to like them <strong>and</strong> to admit them to
Family Affecti<strong>on</strong> 179our intimacy. But to have a pers<strong>on</strong> imposed<strong>on</strong> us as a brother merely because he happensto have the same parents is unbearable when,as may easily happen, he is the sort of pers<strong>on</strong>we should carefully avoid if he were any<strong>on</strong>eelse’s brother. All Europe (except Scotl<strong>and</strong>,which has clans instead of families) drawsthe line at sec<strong>on</strong>d cousins. Protestantismdraws it still closer by making the first cousina marriageable stranger; <strong>and</strong> the <strong>on</strong>ly reas<strong>on</strong>for not drawing it at sisters <strong>and</strong> brothers isthat the instituti<strong>on</strong> of the family compels usto spend our childhood with them, <strong>and</strong> thusimposes <strong>on</strong> us a curious relati<strong>on</strong> in whichfamiliarity destroys romantic charm, <strong>and</strong>is yet expected to create a specially warmaffecti<strong>on</strong>. Such a relati<strong>on</strong> is dangerouslyfactitious <strong>and</strong> unnatural; <strong>and</strong> the practicalmoral is that the less said at home aboutspecific family affecti<strong>on</strong> the better. <strong>Children</strong>,like grown-up people, get <strong>on</strong> well enoughtogether if they are not pushed down <strong>on</strong>eanother’s throats; <strong>and</strong> grown-up relativeswill get <strong>on</strong> together in proporti<strong>on</strong> to theirseparati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> their care not to presume<strong>on</strong> their blood relati<strong>on</strong>ship. We shouldlet children’s feelings take their naturalcourse without prompting. I have seen achild scolded <strong>and</strong> called unfeeling becauseit did not occur to it to make a theatricaldem<strong>on</strong>strati<strong>on</strong> of affecti<strong>on</strong>ate delight whenits mother returned after an absence: a
180 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>typical example of the way in which spuriousfamily sentiment is stoked up. We are, afterall, sociable animals; <strong>and</strong> if we are let al<strong>on</strong>ein the matter of our affecti<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> wellbrought up otherwise, we shall not get <strong>on</strong>any the worse with particular people becausethey happen to be our brothers <strong>and</strong> sisters<strong>and</strong> cousins. The danger lies in assumingthat we shall get <strong>on</strong> any better.The main point to grasp here is that familiesare not kept together at present by familyfeeling but by human feeling. The family cultivatessympathy <strong>and</strong> mutual help <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>solati<strong>on</strong>as any other form of kindly associati<strong>on</strong>cultivates them; but the additi<strong>on</strong> of a dictatedcompulsory affecti<strong>on</strong> as an attribute ofnear kinship is not <strong>on</strong>ly unnecessary, but positivelydetrimental; <strong>and</strong> the alleged tendencyof modern social development to break up thefamily need alarm nobody. We cannot breakup the facts of kinship nor eradicate its naturalemoti<strong>on</strong>al c<strong>on</strong>sequences. What we c<strong>and</strong>o <strong>and</strong> ought to do is to set people free to behavenaturally <strong>and</strong> to change their behavioras circumstances change. To impose <strong>on</strong> a citizenof L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> the family duties of a Highl<strong>and</strong>cateran in the eighteenth century is asabsurd as to compel him to carry a claymore<strong>and</strong> target instead of an umbrella. The civilizedman has no special use for cousins; <strong>and</strong>he may presently find that he has no specialuse for brothers <strong>and</strong> sisters. The parent seems
Family Affecti<strong>on</strong> 181likely to remain indispensable; but there is noreas<strong>on</strong> why that natural tie should be madethe excuse for unnatural aggravati<strong>on</strong>s of it, ascrushing to the parent as they are oppressiveto the child. The mother <strong>and</strong> father will notalways have to shoulder the burthen of maintenancewhich should fall <strong>on</strong> the Atlas shouldersof the fatherl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> motherl<strong>and</strong>. Pendingsuch reforms <strong>and</strong> emancipati<strong>on</strong>s, a shatteringbreak-up of the parental home must remain<strong>on</strong>e of the normal incidents of marriage.The parent is left l<strong>on</strong>ely <strong>and</strong> the child is not.Woe to the old if they have no impers<strong>on</strong>al interests,no c<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong>s, no public causes to advance,no tastes or hobbies! It is well to bea mother but not to be a mother-in-law; <strong>and</strong>if men were cut off artificially from intellectual<strong>and</strong> public interests as women are, thefather-in-law would be as deplorable a figurein popular traditi<strong>on</strong> as the mother-in-law.It is not to be w<strong>on</strong>dered at that somepeople hold that blood relati<strong>on</strong>ship should bekept a secret from the pers<strong>on</strong>s related, <strong>and</strong>that the happiest c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> in this respect isthat of the foundling who, if he ever meets hisparents or brothers or sisters, passes themby without knowing them. And for such aview there is this to be said: that our familysystem does unquesti<strong>on</strong>ably take the naturalb<strong>on</strong>d between members of the same family,which, like all natural b<strong>on</strong>ds, is not too tightto be borne, <strong>and</strong> superimposes <strong>on</strong> it a painful
182 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>burden of forced, inculcated, suggested,<strong>and</strong> altogether unnecessary affecti<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>resp<strong>on</strong>sibility which we should do well to getrid of by making relatives as independent of<strong>on</strong>e another as possible.
The Fate of theFamilyThe difficulty of inducing people to talksensibly about the family is the same as thatwhich I pointed out in a previous volume asc<strong>on</strong>fusing discussi<strong>on</strong>s of marriage. Marriageis not a single invariable instituti<strong>on</strong>: itchanges from civilizati<strong>on</strong> to civilizati<strong>on</strong>, fromreligi<strong>on</strong> to religi<strong>on</strong>, from civil code to civilcode, from fr<strong>on</strong>tier to fr<strong>on</strong>tier. The familyis still more variable, because the numberof pers<strong>on</strong>s c<strong>on</strong>stituting a family, unlike thenumber of pers<strong>on</strong>s c<strong>on</strong>stituting a marriage,varies from <strong>on</strong>e to twenty: indeed, whena widower with a family marries a widowwith a family, <strong>and</strong> the two produce a thirdfamily, even that very high number may besurpassed. And the c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s may varybetween opposite extremes: for example, ina L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> or Paris slum every child adds tothe burden of poverty <strong>and</strong> helps to starve theparents <strong>and</strong> all the other children, whereasin a settlement of pi<strong>on</strong>eer col<strong>on</strong>ists every183
184 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>child, from the moment it is big enoughto lend a h<strong>and</strong> to the family industry, isan investment in which the <strong>on</strong>ly danger isthat of temporary over-capitalizati<strong>on</strong>. Thenthere are the variati<strong>on</strong>s in family sentiment.Sometimes the family <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> is asfrankly political as the <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> of anarmy or an industry: fathers being no moreexpected to be sentimental about theirchildren than col<strong>on</strong>els about soldiers, orfactory owners about their employees, thoughthe mother may be allowed a little tendernessif her character is weak. The Roman fatherwas a despot: the Chinese father is anobject of worship: the sentimental modernwestern father is often a play-fellow lookedto for toys <strong>and</strong> pocket-m<strong>on</strong>ey. The farmersees his children c<strong>on</strong>stantly: the squire seesthem <strong>on</strong>ly during the holidays, <strong>and</strong> not thenoftener than he can help: the tram c<strong>on</strong>ductor,when employed by a joint stock company,sometimes never sees them at all.Under such circumstances phrases likeThe Influence of Home Life, The Family, TheDomestic Hearth, <strong>and</strong> so <strong>on</strong>, are no morespecific than The Mammals, or The Man InThe Street; <strong>and</strong> the pious generalizati<strong>on</strong>sfounded so glibly <strong>on</strong> them by our sentimentalmoralists are unworkable. When householdsaverage twelve pers<strong>on</strong>s with the sexes aboutequally represented, the results may be fairlygood. When they average three the results
The Fate of the Family 185may be very bad indeed; <strong>and</strong> to lump thetwo together under the general term TheFamily is to c<strong>on</strong>fuse the questi<strong>on</strong> hopelessly.The modern small family is much too stuffy:children “brought up at home” in it are unfitfor society. But here again circumstancesdiffer. If the parents live in what is called agarden suburb, where there is a good dealof social intercourse, <strong>and</strong> the family, insteadof keeping itself to itself, as the evil oldsaying is, <strong>and</strong> glowering at the neighborsover the blinds of the l<strong>on</strong>g street in whichnobody knows his neighbor <strong>and</strong> every<strong>on</strong>ewishes to deceive him as to his income <strong>and</strong>social importance, is in effect broken up byschool life, by out-of-door habits, <strong>and</strong> by frankneighborly intercourse through dances <strong>and</strong>c<strong>on</strong>certs <strong>and</strong> theatricals <strong>and</strong> excursi<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong>the like, families of four may turn out muchless barbarous citizens than families of tenwhich attain the Boer ideal of being out ofsight of <strong>on</strong>e another’s chimney smoke.All <strong>on</strong>e can say is, roughly, that thehomelier the home, <strong>and</strong> the more familiar thefamily, the worse for everybody c<strong>on</strong>cerned.The family ideal is a humbug <strong>and</strong> a nuisance:<strong>on</strong>e might as reas<strong>on</strong>ably talk of the barrackideal, or the forecastle ideal, or any othersubstituti<strong>on</strong> of the machinery of social<strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong> for the end of it, which mustalways be the fullest <strong>and</strong> most capable life: inshort, the most godly life. And this significant
186 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>word reminds us that though the popularc<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong> of heaven includes a Holy Family,it does not attach to that family the noti<strong>on</strong>of a separate home, or a private nursery orkitchen or mother-in-law, or anything thatc<strong>on</strong>stitutes the family as we know it. Evenblood relati<strong>on</strong>ship is miraculously abstractedfrom it; <strong>and</strong> the Father is the father ofall children, the mother the mother of allmothers <strong>and</strong> babies, <strong>and</strong> the S<strong>on</strong> the S<strong>on</strong>of Man <strong>and</strong> the Savior of his brothers: <strong>on</strong>ewhose chief utterance <strong>on</strong> the subject of thec<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>al family was an invitati<strong>on</strong> to allof us to leave our families <strong>and</strong> follow him,<strong>and</strong> to leave the dead to bury the dead, <strong>and</strong>not debauch ourselves at that gloomy festivalthe family funeral, with its sequel of hideousmourning <strong>and</strong> grief which is either affectedor morbid.
Family MourningI do not know how far this detestable customof mourning is carried in France; but judgingfrom the appearance of the French people Ishould say that a Frenchwoman goes intomourning for her cousins to the seventeenthdegree. The result is that when I cross theChannel I seem to have reached a countrydevastated by war or pestilence. It is reallysuffering <strong>on</strong>ly from the family. Will any<strong>on</strong>epretend that Engl<strong>and</strong> has not the best of thisstriking difference? Yet it is such senseless<strong>and</strong> unnatural c<strong>on</strong>venti<strong>on</strong>s as this that makeus so impatient of what we call family feeling.Even apart from its insufferable pretensi<strong>on</strong>s,the family needs hearty discrediting; forthere is hardly any vulnerable part of it thatcould not be amputated with advantage.187
188 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Art TeachingBy art teaching I hasten to say that I do notmean giving children less<strong>on</strong>s in freeh<strong>and</strong>drawing <strong>and</strong> perspective. I am simplycalling attenti<strong>on</strong> to the fact that fine artis the <strong>on</strong>ly teacher except torture. I havealready pointed out that nobody, except underthreat of torture, can read a school book.The reas<strong>on</strong> is that a school book is not awork of art. Similarly, you cannot listen toa less<strong>on</strong> or a serm<strong>on</strong> unless the teacher orthe preacher is an artist. You cannot readthe Bible if you have no sense of literary art.The reas<strong>on</strong> why the c<strong>on</strong>tinental Europeanis, to the Englishman or American, sosurprisingly ignorant of the Bible, is that theauthorized English versi<strong>on</strong> is a great work ofliterary art, <strong>and</strong> the c<strong>on</strong>tinental versi<strong>on</strong>s arecomparatively artless. To read a dull book;to listen to a tedious play or prosy serm<strong>on</strong>or lecture; to stare at uninteresting picturesor ugly buildings: nothing, short of disease,is more dreadful than this. The violenced<strong>on</strong>e to our souls by it leaves injuries <strong>and</strong>189
190 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>produces subtle maladies which have neverbeen properly studied by psycho-pathologists.Yet we are so inured to it in school, wherepractically all the teachers are bores tryingto do the work of artists, <strong>and</strong> all the booksartless, that we acquire a truly frightfulpower of enduring boredom. We even acquirethe noti<strong>on</strong> that fine art is lascivious <strong>and</strong>destructive to the character. In church, in theHouse of Comm<strong>on</strong>s, at public meetings, wesit solemnly listening to bores <strong>and</strong> twaddlersbecause from the time we could walk orspeak we have been snubbed, scolded,bullied, beaten <strong>and</strong> impris<strong>on</strong>ed wheneverwe dared to resent being bored or twaddledat, or to express our natural impatience<strong>and</strong> derisi<strong>on</strong> of bores <strong>and</strong> twaddlers. Andwhen a man arises with a soul of sufficientnative strength to break the b<strong>on</strong>ds of thisinculcated reverence <strong>and</strong> to expose <strong>and</strong>deride <strong>and</strong> tweak the noses of our humbugs<strong>and</strong> panj<strong>and</strong>rums, like Voltaire or Dickens,we are shocked <strong>and</strong> sc<strong>and</strong>alized, even whenwe cannot help laughing. Worse, we dread<strong>and</strong> persecute those who can see <strong>and</strong> declarethe truth, because their sincerity <strong>and</strong> insightreflects <strong>on</strong> our delusi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> blindness. Weare all like Nell Gwynne’s footman, whodefended Nell’s reputati<strong>on</strong> with his fists, notbecause he believed her to be what he calledan h<strong>on</strong>est woman, but because he objected tobe scorned as the footman of <strong>on</strong>e who was no
Art Teaching 191better than she should be.This wretched power of allowing ourselvesto be bored may seem to give the fine arts achance sometimes. People will sit through aperformance of Beethoven’s ninth symph<strong>on</strong>yor of Wagner’s Ring just as they will sitthrough a dull serm<strong>on</strong> or a fr<strong>on</strong>t benchpolitician saying nothing for two hours whilsthis unfortunate country is perishing throughthe delay of its business in Parliament. Buttheir endurance is very bad for the ninthsymph<strong>on</strong>y, because they never hiss when it ismurdered. I have heard an Italian c<strong>on</strong>ductor(no l<strong>on</strong>ger living) take the adagio of thatsymph<strong>on</strong>y at a lively allegretto, slowing downfor the warmer major secti<strong>on</strong>s into the speed<strong>and</strong> manner of the heroine’s death s<strong>on</strong>g ina Verdi opera; <strong>and</strong> the listeners, far fromrelieving my excruciati<strong>on</strong> by rising with yellsof fury <strong>and</strong> hurling their programs <strong>and</strong> operaglasses at the miscreant, behaved just asthey do when Richter c<strong>on</strong>ducts it. The massof imposture that thrives <strong>on</strong> this combinati<strong>on</strong>of ignorance with despairing endurance isincalculable. Given a public trained fromchildhood to st<strong>and</strong> anything tedious, <strong>and</strong> sosaturated with school discipline that evenwith the doors open <strong>and</strong> no schoolmastersto stop them they will sit there helplesslyuntil the end of the c<strong>on</strong>cert or opera givesthem leave to go home; <strong>and</strong> you will havein great capitals hundreds of thous<strong>and</strong>s of
192 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>pounds spent every night in the seas<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>professedly artistic entertainments whichhave no other effect <strong>on</strong> fine art than toexacerbate the hatred in which it is alreadysecretly held in Engl<strong>and</strong>.Fortunately, there are arts that cannot becut off from the people by bad performances.We can read books for ourselves; <strong>and</strong> we canplay a good deal of fine music for ourselveswith the help of a pianola. Nothing st<strong>and</strong>sbetween us <strong>and</strong> the actual h<strong>and</strong>work of thegreat masters of painting except distance;<strong>and</strong> modern photographic methods ofreproducti<strong>on</strong> are in some cases quite <strong>and</strong>in many nearly as effective in c<strong>on</strong>veyingthe artist’s message as a modern editi<strong>on</strong>of Shakespear’s plays is in c<strong>on</strong>veying themessage that first existed in his h<strong>and</strong>writing.The reproducti<strong>on</strong> of great feats of musicalexecuti<strong>on</strong> is already <strong>on</strong> the way: theph<strong>on</strong>ograph, for all its wheezing <strong>and</strong> snarling<strong>and</strong> braying, is steadily improving in itsmanners; <strong>and</strong> what with this improvement<strong>on</strong> the <strong>on</strong>e h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong> the other thatblessed selective faculty which enables us toignore a good deal of disagreeable noise ifthere is a thread of music in the middle ofit (few critics of the ph<strong>on</strong>ograph seem to bec<strong>on</strong>scious of the very c<strong>on</strong>siderable mechanicalnoise set up by choirs <strong>and</strong> orchestras) wehave at last reached a point at which, forexample, a pers<strong>on</strong> living in an English
Art Teaching 193village where the church music is the <strong>on</strong>lymusic, <strong>and</strong> that music is made by a fewwell-intenti<strong>on</strong>ed ladies with the help of aharm<strong>on</strong>ium, can hear masses by Palestrinavery passably executed, <strong>and</strong> can thereby beled to the discovery that Jacks<strong>on</strong> in F <strong>and</strong>Hymns Ancient <strong>and</strong> Modern are not perhapsthe last word of beauty <strong>and</strong> propriety in thepraise of God.In short, there is a vast body of art nowwithin the reach of everybody. The difficultyis that this art, which al<strong>on</strong>e can educate usin grace of body <strong>and</strong> soul, <strong>and</strong> which al<strong>on</strong>ecan make the history of the past live for usor the hope of the future shine for us, whichal<strong>on</strong>e can give delicacy <strong>and</strong> nobility to ourcrude lusts, which is the appointed vehicle ofinspirati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> the method of the communi<strong>on</strong>of saints, is actually br<strong>and</strong>ed as sinful am<strong>on</strong>gus because, wherever it arises, there isresistance to tyranny, breaking of fetters,<strong>and</strong> the breath of freedom. The attempt tosuppress art is not wholly successful: wemight as well try to suppress oxygen. Butit is carried far enough to inflict <strong>on</strong> hugenumbers of people a most injurious artstarvati<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> to corrupt a great deal of theart that is tolerated. You will find in Engl<strong>and</strong>plenty of rich families with little more culturethan their dogs <strong>and</strong> horses. And you will findpoor families, cut off by poverty <strong>and</strong> town lifefrom the c<strong>on</strong>templati<strong>on</strong> of the beauty of the
194 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>earth, with its dresses of leaves, its scarves ofcloud, <strong>and</strong> its c<strong>on</strong>tours of hill <strong>and</strong> valley, whowould positively be happier as hogs, so littlehave they cultivated their humanity by the<strong>on</strong>ly effective instrument of culture: art. Thedearth is artificially maintained even whenthere are the means of satisfying it. Storybooks are forbidden, picture post cards areforbidden, theatres are forbidden, operas areforbidden, circuses are forbidden, sweetmeatsare forbidden, pretty colors are forbidden, allexactly as vice is forbidden. The Creator isexplicitly prayed to, <strong>and</strong> implicitly c<strong>on</strong>victedof indecency every day. An associati<strong>on</strong> of vice<strong>and</strong> sin with everything that is delightful<strong>and</strong> of goodness with everything that iswretched <strong>and</strong> detestable is set up. Allthe most perilous (<strong>and</strong> glorious) appetites<strong>and</strong> propensities are at <strong>on</strong>ce inflamed bystarvati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> uneducated by art. All thewholesome c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s which art imposes <strong>on</strong>appetite are waived: instead of cultivatedmen <strong>and</strong> women restrained by a thous<strong>and</strong>delicacies, repelled by ugliness, chilled byvulgarity, horrified by coarseness, deeply<strong>and</strong> sweetly moved by the graces that arthas revealed to them <strong>and</strong> nursed in them,we get indiscrimmate rapacity in pursuitof pleasure <strong>and</strong> a parade of the grosseststimulati<strong>on</strong>s in catering for it. We have ac<strong>on</strong>tinual clamor for goodness, beauty, virtue,<strong>and</strong> sanctity, with such an appalling inability
Art Teaching 195to recognize it or love it when it arrives thatit is more dangerous to be a great prophet orpoet than to promote twenty companies forswindling simple folk out of their savings. D<strong>on</strong>ot for a moment suppose that uncultivatedpeople are merely indifferent to high <strong>and</strong>noble qualities. They hate them malignantly.At best, such qualities are like rare <strong>and</strong>beautiful birds: when they appear the wholecountry takes down its guns; but the birdsreceive the statuary tribute of having theircorpses stuffed.And it really all comes from the habit ofpreventing children from being troublesome.You are so careful of your boy’s morals,knowing how troublesome they may be, thatyou keep him away from the Venus of Milo<strong>on</strong>ly to find him in the arms of the scullerymaid or some<strong>on</strong>e much worse. You decidethat the Hermes of Praxiteles <strong>and</strong> Wagner’sTristan are not suited for young girls; <strong>and</strong>your daughter marries somebody appallinglyunlike either Hermes or Tristan solely toescape from your parental protecti<strong>on</strong>. Youhave not stifled a single passi<strong>on</strong> nor averteda single danger: you have depraved thepassi<strong>on</strong>s by starving them, <strong>and</strong> brokendown all the defences which so effectivelyprotect children brought up in freedom. Youhave men who imagine themselves to beministers of religi<strong>on</strong> openly declaring thatwhen they pass through the streets they
196 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>have to keep out in the wheeled traffic toavoid the temptati<strong>on</strong>s of the pavement. Youhave them <strong>org</strong>anizing hunts of the womenwho tempt them—poor creatures whom noartist would touch without a shudder—<strong>and</strong>wildly clamoring for more clothes to disguise<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>ceal the body, <strong>and</strong> for the aboliti<strong>on</strong> ofpictures, statues, theatres, <strong>and</strong> pretty colors.And incredible as it seems, these unhappylunatics are left at large, unrebuked, evenadmired <strong>and</strong> revered, whilst artists have tostruggle for tolerati<strong>on</strong>. To them an undrapedhuman body is the most m<strong>on</strong>strous, themost blighting, the most obscene, the mostunbearable spectacle in the universe. To anartist it is, at its best, the most admirablespectacle in nature, <strong>and</strong>, at its average,an object of indifference. If every rag ofclothing miraculously dropped from theinhabitants of L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> at no<strong>on</strong> tomorrow (sayas a preliminary to the Great Judgment), theartistic people would not turn a hair; butthe artless people would go mad <strong>and</strong> call <strong>on</strong>the mountains to hide them. I submit thatthis indicates a thoroughly healthy state<strong>on</strong> the part of the artists, <strong>and</strong> a thoroughlymorbid <strong>on</strong>e <strong>on</strong> the part of the artless. Andthe healthy state is attainable in a coldcountry like ours <strong>on</strong>ly by familiarity with theundraped figure acquired through pictures,statues, <strong>and</strong> theatrical representati<strong>on</strong>s inwhich an illusi<strong>on</strong> of natural clotheslessness is
Art Teaching 197produced <strong>and</strong> made poetic.In short, we all grow up stupid <strong>and</strong> mad tojust the extent to which we have not been artisticallyeducated; <strong>and</strong> the fact that this taintof stupidity <strong>and</strong> madness has to be toleratedbecause it is general, <strong>and</strong> is even boasted ofas characteristically English, makes the situati<strong>on</strong>all the worse. It is becoming exceedinglygrave at present, because the last ray of art isbeing cut off from our schools by the disc<strong>on</strong>tinuanceof religious educati<strong>on</strong>.
198 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The Impossibilityof SecularEducati<strong>on</strong>Now children must be taught some sortof religi<strong>on</strong>. Secular educati<strong>on</strong> is animpossibility. Secular educati<strong>on</strong> comes tothis: that the <strong>on</strong>ly reas<strong>on</strong> for ceasing to doevil <strong>and</strong> learning to do well is that if you d<strong>on</strong>ot you will be caned. This is worse thanbeing taught in a church school that if youbecome a dissenter you will go to hell; for hellis presented as the instrument of somethingeternal, divine, <strong>and</strong> inevitable: you cannotevade it the moment the schoolmaster’s backis turned. What c<strong>on</strong>fuses this issue <strong>and</strong> leadseven highly intelligent religious pers<strong>on</strong>s toadvocate secular educati<strong>on</strong> as a means ofrescuing children from the strife of rivalproselytizers is the failure to distinguishbetween the child’s pers<strong>on</strong>al subjective needfor a religi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> its right to an impartiallycommunicated historical objective knowledge199
200 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>of all the creeds <strong>and</strong> Churches. Just as achild, no matter what its race <strong>and</strong> color maybe, should know that there are black men <strong>and</strong>brown men <strong>and</strong> yellow men, <strong>and</strong>, no matterwhat its political c<strong>on</strong>victi<strong>on</strong>s may be, thatthere are M<strong>on</strong>archists <strong>and</strong> Republicans <strong>and</strong>Positivists, Socialists <strong>and</strong> Unsocialists, so itshould know that there are Christians <strong>and</strong>Mahometans <strong>and</strong> Buddhists <strong>and</strong> Shintoists<strong>and</strong> so forth, <strong>and</strong> that they are <strong>on</strong> the averagejust as h<strong>on</strong>est <strong>and</strong> well-behaved as its ownfather. For example, it should not be toldthat Allah is a false god set up by the Turks<strong>and</strong> Arabs, who will all be damned for takingthat liberty; but it should be told that manyEnglish people think so, <strong>and</strong> that manyTurks <strong>and</strong> Arabs think the c<strong>on</strong>verse aboutEnglish people. It should be taught thatAllah is simply the name by which God isknown to Turks <strong>and</strong> Arabs, who are justas eligible for salvati<strong>on</strong> as any Christian.Further, that the practical reas<strong>on</strong> why aTurkish child should pray in a mosque <strong>and</strong> anEnglish child in a church is that as worship is<strong>org</strong>anized in Turkey in mosques in the nameof Mahomet <strong>and</strong> in Engl<strong>and</strong> in churches inthe name of Christ, a Turkish child joiningthe Church of Engl<strong>and</strong> or an English childfollowing Mahomet will find that it has noplace for its worship <strong>and</strong> no <strong>org</strong>anizati<strong>on</strong>of its religi<strong>on</strong> within its reach. Any otherteaching of the history <strong>and</strong> present facts of
The Impossibility of Secular Educati<strong>on</strong> 201religi<strong>on</strong> is false teaching, <strong>and</strong> is politicallyextremely dangerous in an empire in whicha huge majority of the fellow subjects of thegoverning isl<strong>and</strong> do not profess the religi<strong>on</strong> ofthat isl<strong>and</strong>.But this objectivity, though intellectuallyh<strong>on</strong>est, tells the child <strong>on</strong>ly what other peoplebelieve. What it should itself believe is quiteanother matter. The sort of Rati<strong>on</strong>alismwhich says to a child “You must suspend yourjudgment until you are old enough to chooseyour religi<strong>on</strong>” is Rati<strong>on</strong>alism g<strong>on</strong>e mad. Thechild must have a c<strong>on</strong>science <strong>and</strong> a code ofh<strong>on</strong>or (which is the essence of religi<strong>on</strong>) evenif it be <strong>on</strong>ly a provisi<strong>on</strong>al <strong>on</strong>e, to be revised atits c<strong>on</strong>firmati<strong>on</strong>. For c<strong>on</strong>firmati<strong>on</strong> is meant tosignalize a spiritual coming of age, <strong>and</strong> maybe a repudiati<strong>on</strong>. Really active souls havemany c<strong>on</strong>firmati<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> repudiati<strong>on</strong>s as theirlife deepens <strong>and</strong> their knowledge widens.But what is to guide the child before its firstc<strong>on</strong>firmati<strong>on</strong>? Not mere orders, becauseorders must have a sancti<strong>on</strong> of some sort orwhy should the child obey them? If, as aSecularist, you refuse to teach any sancti<strong>on</strong>,you must say “You will be punished if youdisobey.” “Yes,” says the child to itself, “if I amfound out; but wait until your back is turned<strong>and</strong> I will do as I like, <strong>and</strong> lie about it.” Therecan be no objective punishment for successfulfraud; <strong>and</strong> as no espi<strong>on</strong>age can cover thewhole range of a child’s c<strong>on</strong>duct, the upshot
202 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>is that the child becomes a liar <strong>and</strong> schemerwith an atrophied c<strong>on</strong>science. And a goodmany of the orders given to it are not obeyedafter all. Thus the Secularist who is not a foolis forced to appeal to the child’s vital impulsetowards perfecti<strong>on</strong>, to the divine spark; <strong>and</strong>no resoluti<strong>on</strong> not to call this impulse animpulse of loyalty to the Fellowship of theHoly Ghost, or obedience to the Will of God,or any other st<strong>and</strong>ard theological term, canalter the fact that the Secularist has steppedoutside Secularism <strong>and</strong> is educating the childreligiously, even if he insists <strong>on</strong> repudiatingthat pious adverb <strong>and</strong> substituting the wordmetaphysically.
Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong>as a Religi<strong>on</strong>We must make up our minds to it thereforethat whatever measures we may be forced totake to prevent the recruiting sergeants of theChurches, free or established, from obtainingan exclusive right of entry to schools, weshall not be able to exclude religi<strong>on</strong> fromthem. The most horrible of all religi<strong>on</strong>s: thatwhich teaches us to regard ourselves as thehelpless prey of a series of senseless accidentscalled Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong>, is allowed <strong>and</strong>even welcomed in so-called secular schoolsbecause it is, in a sense, the negati<strong>on</strong> of allreligi<strong>on</strong>; but for school purposes a religi<strong>on</strong> isa belief which affects c<strong>on</strong>duct; <strong>and</strong> no beliefaffects c<strong>on</strong>duct more radically <strong>and</strong> often sodisastrously as the belief that the universeis a product of Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong>. What ismore, the theory of Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong> cannotbe kept out of schools, because many of thenatural facts that present the most plausibleappearance of design can be accounted for203
204 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>by Natural Selecti<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> it would be soabsurd to keep a child in delusive ignoranceof so potent a factor in evoluti<strong>on</strong> as to keepit in ignorance of radiati<strong>on</strong> or capillaryattracti<strong>on</strong>. Even if you make a religi<strong>on</strong> ofNatural Selecti<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> teach the child toregard itself as the irresp<strong>on</strong>sible prey of itscircumstances <strong>and</strong> appetites (or its heredityas you will perhaps call them), you will n<strong>on</strong>ethe less find that its appetites are stimulatedby your encouragement <strong>and</strong> daunted by yourdiscouragement; that <strong>on</strong>e of its appetites is anappetite for perfecti<strong>on</strong>; that if you discouragethis appetite <strong>and</strong> encourage the cruderacquisitive appetites the child will steal <strong>and</strong>lie <strong>and</strong> be a nuisance to you; <strong>and</strong> that if youencourage its appetite for perfecti<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>teach it to attach a peculiar sacredness toit <strong>and</strong> place it before the other appetites, itwill be a much nicer child <strong>and</strong> you will havea much easier job, at which point you will,in spite of your pseudoscientific jarg<strong>on</strong>, findyourself back in the old-fashi<strong>on</strong>ed religiousteaching as deep as Dr. Watts <strong>and</strong> in factfathoms deeper.
Moral Instructi<strong>on</strong>LeaguesAnd now the voices of our Moral Instructi<strong>on</strong>Leagues will be lifted, asking whether thereis any reas<strong>on</strong> why the appetite for perfecti<strong>on</strong>should not be cultivated in rati<strong>on</strong>ally scientificterms instead of being associated with thestory of J<strong>on</strong>ah <strong>and</strong> the great fish <strong>and</strong> the thous<strong>and</strong>other tales that grow up round religi<strong>on</strong>s.Yes: there are many reas<strong>on</strong>s; <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong>e of themis that children all like the story of J<strong>on</strong>ah <strong>and</strong>the whale (they insist <strong>on</strong> its being a whalein spite of dem<strong>on</strong>strati<strong>on</strong>s by Bible smasherswithout any sense of humor that J<strong>on</strong>ah wouldnot have fitted into a whale’s gullet—as if thestory would be credible of a whale with an enlargedthroat) <strong>and</strong> that no child <strong>on</strong> earth canst<strong>and</strong> moral instructi<strong>on</strong> books or catechismsor any other statement of the case for religi<strong>on</strong>in abstract terms. The object of a moralinstructi<strong>on</strong> book is not to be rati<strong>on</strong>al, scientific,exact, proof against c<strong>on</strong>troversy, nor evencredible: its object is to make children good;205
206 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> if it makes them sick instead its place isthe waste-paper basket.Take for an illustrati<strong>on</strong> the story of Elisha<strong>and</strong> the bears. To the authors of the moralinstructi<strong>on</strong> books it is in the last degree reprehensible.It is obviously not true as a recordof fact; <strong>and</strong> the picture it gives us of the temperof God (which is what interests an adultreader) is shocking <strong>and</strong> blasphemous. But it isa capital story for a child. It interests a childbecause it is about bears; <strong>and</strong> it leaves thechild with an impressi<strong>on</strong> that children whopoke fun at old gentlemen <strong>and</strong> make rude remarksabout bald heads are not nice children,which is a highly desirable impressi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong>just as much as a child is capable of receivingfrom the story. When a story is about God<strong>and</strong> a child, children take God for granted <strong>and</strong>criticize the child. Adults do the opposite, <strong>and</strong>are thereby led to talk great n<strong>on</strong>sense aboutthe bad effect of Bible stories <strong>on</strong> infants.But let no <strong>on</strong>e think that a child or any<strong>on</strong>eelse can learn religi<strong>on</strong> from a teacher ora book or by any academic process whatever.It is <strong>on</strong>ly by an unfettered access to the wholebody of Fine Art: that is, to the whole body ofinspired revelati<strong>on</strong>, that we can build up thatc<strong>on</strong>cepti<strong>on</strong> of divinity to which all virtue is anaspirati<strong>on</strong>. And to hope to find this body of artpurified from all that is obsolete or dangerousor fierce or lusty, or to pick <strong>and</strong> choose whatwill be good for any particular child, much less
Moral Instructi<strong>on</strong> Leagues 207for all children, is the shallowest of vanities.Such schoolmasterly selecti<strong>on</strong> is neither possiblenor desirable. Ignorance of evil is notvirtue but imbecility: admiring it is like givinga prize for h<strong>on</strong>esty to a man who has notstolen your watch because he did not knowyou had <strong>on</strong>e. Virtue chooses good from evil;<strong>and</strong> without knowledge there can be no choice.And even this is a dangerous simplificati<strong>on</strong> ofwhat actually occurs. We are not choosing: weare growing. Were you to cut all of what youcall the evil out of a child, it would drop dead.If you try to stretch it to full human staturewhen it is ten years old, you will simply pullit into two pieces <strong>and</strong> be hanged. And whenyou try to do this morally, which is what parents<strong>and</strong> schoolmasters are doing every day,you ought to be hanged; <strong>and</strong> some day, whenwe take a sensible view of the matter, you willbe; <strong>and</strong> serve you right. The child does notst<strong>and</strong> between a good <strong>and</strong> a bad angel: whatit has to deal with is a middling angel who, innormal healthy cases, wants to be a good angelas fast as it can without killing itself in theprocess, which is a dangerous <strong>on</strong>e.Therefore there is no questi<strong>on</strong> of providingthe child with a carefully regulated accessto good art. There is no good art, any morethan there is good anything else in the absolutesense. Art that is too good for the childwill either teach it nothing or drive it mad,as the Bible has driven many people mad who
208 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>might have kept their sanity had they beenallowed to read much lower forms of literature.The practical moral is that we must readwhatever stories, see whatever pictures, hearwhatever s<strong>on</strong>gs <strong>and</strong> symph<strong>on</strong>ies, go to whateverplays we like. We shall not like thosewhich have nothing to say to us; <strong>and</strong> thoughevery<strong>on</strong>e has a right to bias our choice, no <strong>on</strong>ehas a right to deprive us of it by keeping usfrom any work of art or any work of art fromus.I may now say without danger of beingmisunderstood that the popular Englishcompromise called Cowper Templeism(unsectarian Bible educati<strong>on</strong>) is not so sillyas it looks. It is true that the Bible inculcateshalf a dozen religi<strong>on</strong>s: some of thembarbarous; some cynical <strong>and</strong> pessimistic;some amoristic <strong>and</strong> romantic; some sceptical<strong>and</strong> challenging; some kindly, simple, <strong>and</strong>intuiti<strong>on</strong>al; some sophistical <strong>and</strong> intellectual;n<strong>on</strong>e suited to the character <strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>sof western civilizati<strong>on</strong> unless it be theChristianity which was finally suppressed bythe Crucifixi<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> has never been put intopractice by any State before or since. But theBible c<strong>on</strong>tains the ancient literature of a veryremarkable Oriental race; <strong>and</strong> the impositi<strong>on</strong>of this literature, <strong>on</strong> whatever false pretences,<strong>on</strong> our children left them more literate than ifthey knew no literature at all, which was thepractical alternative. And as our Authorized
Moral Instructi<strong>on</strong> Leagues 209Versi<strong>on</strong> is a great work of art as well, to knowit was better than knowing no art, which alsowas the practical alternative. It is at leastnot a school book; <strong>and</strong> it is not a bad storybook, horrible as some of the stories are.Therefore as between the Bible <strong>and</strong> the blankrepresented by secular educati<strong>on</strong>, the choiceis with the Bible.
210 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The BibleBut the Bible is not sufficient. The realBible of modern Europe is the whole bodyof great literature in which the inspirati<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> revelati<strong>on</strong> of Hebrew Scripture has beenc<strong>on</strong>tinued to the present day. Nietzsche’sThus Spake Zoroaster is less comforting tothe ill <strong>and</strong> unhappy than the Psalms; but it ismuch truer, subtler, <strong>and</strong> more edifying. Thepleasure we get from the rhetoric of the bookof Job <strong>and</strong> its tragic picture of a bewilderedsoul cannot disguise the ignoble irrelevanceof the retort of God with which it closes, orsupply the need of such modern revelati<strong>on</strong>sas Shelley’s Prometheus or The Niblung’sRing of Richard Wagner. There is nothingin the Bible greater in inspirati<strong>on</strong> thanBeethoven’s ninth symph<strong>on</strong>y; <strong>and</strong> the powerof modern music to c<strong>on</strong>vey that inspirati<strong>on</strong>to a modern man is far greater than that ofElizabethan English, which is, except forpeople steeped in the Bible from childhoodlike Sir Walter Scott <strong>and</strong> Ruskin, a deadlanguage.211
212 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>Besides, many who have no ear forliterature or for music are accessible toarchitecture, to pictures, to statues, todresses, <strong>and</strong> to the arts of the stage. Everydevice of art should be brought to bear <strong>on</strong> theyoung; so that they may discover some formof it that delights them naturally; for therewill come to all of them that period betweendawning adolescence <strong>and</strong> full maturity whenthe pleasures <strong>and</strong> emoti<strong>on</strong>s of art will have tosatisfy cravings which, if starved or insulted,may become morbid <strong>and</strong> seek disgracefulsatisfacti<strong>on</strong>s, <strong>and</strong>, if prematurely gratifiedotherwise than poetically, may destroy thestamina of the race. And it must be borne inmind that the most dangerous art for thisnecessary purpose is the art that presentsitself as religious ecstasy. Young peopleare ripe for love l<strong>on</strong>g before they are ripefor religi<strong>on</strong>. Only a very foolish pers<strong>on</strong>would substitute the Imitati<strong>on</strong> of Christ forTreasure Isl<strong>and</strong> as a present for a boy or girl,or for Byr<strong>on</strong>’s D<strong>on</strong> Juan as a present for aswain or lass. Pickwick is the safest saintfor us in our n<strong>on</strong>age. Flaubert’s Temptati<strong>on</strong>of St Anth<strong>on</strong>y is an excellent book for a manof fifty, perhaps the best within reach as ahealthy study of visi<strong>on</strong>ary ecstasy; but forthe purposes of a boy of fifteen Ivanhoe <strong>and</strong>the Templar make a much better saint <strong>and</strong>devil. And the boy of fifteen will find this outfor himself if he is allowed to w<strong>and</strong>er in a
The Bible 213well-stocked literary garden, <strong>and</strong> hear b<strong>and</strong>s<strong>and</strong> see pictures <strong>and</strong> spend his pennies <strong>on</strong>cinematograph shows. His choice may oftenbe rather disgusting to his elders when theywant him to choose the best before he is readyfor it. The greatest Protestant Manifestoever written, as far as I know, is Houst<strong>on</strong>Chamberlain’s Foundati<strong>on</strong>s of the NineteenthCentury: everybody capable of it should readit. Probably the History of Maria M<strong>on</strong>k isat the opposite extreme of merit (this is aguess: I have never read it); but it is certainthat a boy let loose in a library would go forMaria M<strong>on</strong>k <strong>and</strong> have no use whatever forMr Chamberlain. I should probably haveread Maria M<strong>on</strong>k myself if I had not had theArabian Nights <strong>and</strong> their like to occupy mebetter. In art, children, like adults, will findtheir level if they are left free to find it, <strong>and</strong>not restricted to what adults think good forthem. Just at present our young people aregoing mad over ragtimes, apparently becausesyncopated rhythms are new to them. If theyhad learnt what can be d<strong>on</strong>e with syncopati<strong>on</strong>from Beethoven’s third Le<strong>on</strong>ora overture,they would enjoy the ragtimes all the more;but they would put them in their proper placeas amusing vulgarities.
214 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Artist IdolatryBut there are more dangerous influences thanragtimes waiting for people brought up inignorance of fine art. Nothing is more pitiablyridiculous than the wild worship of artists bythose who have never been seas<strong>on</strong>ed in youthto the enchantments of art. Tenors <strong>and</strong> primad<strong>on</strong>nas, pianists <strong>and</strong> violinists, actors <strong>and</strong>actresses enjoy powers of seducti<strong>on</strong> which inthe middle ages would have exposed themto the risk of being burnt for sorcery. But asthey exercise this power by singing, playing,<strong>and</strong> acting, no great harm is d<strong>on</strong>e exceptperhaps to themselves. Far graver are thepowers enjoyed by brilliant pers<strong>on</strong>s who arealso c<strong>on</strong>noisseurs in art. The influence theycan exercise <strong>on</strong> young people who have beenbrought up in the darkness <strong>and</strong> wretchednessof a home without art, <strong>and</strong> in whom a naturalbent towards art has always been baffled <strong>and</strong>snubbed, is incredible to those who have notwitnessed <strong>and</strong> understood it. He (or she)who reveals the world of art to them opensheaven to them. They become satellites,215
216 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>disciples, worshippers of the apostle. Nowthe apostle may be a voluptuary withoutmuch c<strong>on</strong>science. Nature may have givenhim enough virtue to suffice in a reas<strong>on</strong>ableenvir<strong>on</strong>ment. But this allowance may not beenough to defend him against the temptati<strong>on</strong><strong>and</strong> demoralizati<strong>on</strong> of finding himself alittle god <strong>on</strong> the strength of what ought tobe a quite ordinary culture. He may findadorers in all directi<strong>on</strong>s in our uncultivatedsociety am<strong>on</strong>g people of str<strong>on</strong>ger characterthan himself, not <strong>on</strong>e of whom, if they hadbeen artistically educated, would have hadanything to learn from him or regarded himas in any way extraordinary apart from hisactual achievements as an artist. Tartuffe isnot always a priest. Indeed he is not alwaysa rascal: he is often a weak man absurdlycredited with omniscience <strong>and</strong> perfecti<strong>on</strong>,<strong>and</strong> taking unfair advantages <strong>on</strong>ly becausethey are offered to him <strong>and</strong> he is too weak torefuse. Give every<strong>on</strong>e his culture, <strong>and</strong> no <strong>on</strong>ewill offer him more than his due.In thus delivering our children from theidolatry of the artist, we shall not destroyfor them the enchantment of art: <strong>on</strong> thec<strong>on</strong>trary, we shall teach them to dem<strong>and</strong>art everywhere as a c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> attainable bycultivating the body, mind, <strong>and</strong> heart. Art,said Morris, is the expressi<strong>on</strong> of pleasure inwork. And certainly, when work is madedetestable by slavery, there is no art. It
Artist Idolatry 217is <strong>on</strong>ly when learning is made a slaveryby tyrannical teachers that art becomesloathsome to the pupil.“The Machine”When we set to work at a C<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong> tosecure freedom for children, we had betterbear in mind that the children may not beat all obliged to us for our pains. Rousseausaid that men are born free; <strong>and</strong> this saying,in its proper bearings, was <strong>and</strong> is a great<strong>and</strong> true saying; yet let it not lead us intothe error of supposing that all men l<strong>on</strong>g forfreedom <strong>and</strong> embrace it when it is offered tothem. On the c<strong>on</strong>trary, it has to be forced <strong>on</strong>them; <strong>and</strong> even then they will give it the slipif it is not religiously inculcated <strong>and</strong> str<strong>on</strong>glysafeguarded.Besides, men are born docile, <strong>and</strong> must inthe nature of things remain so with regardto everything they do not underst<strong>and</strong>. Nowpolitical science <strong>and</strong> the art of govemmentare am<strong>on</strong>g the things they do not underst<strong>and</strong>,<strong>and</strong> indeed are not at present allowed tounderst<strong>and</strong>. They can be enslaved by asystem, as we are at present, because ithappens to be there, <strong>and</strong> nobody underst<strong>and</strong>sit. An intelligently worked Capitalist system,as Comte saw, would give us all that mostof us are intelligent enough to want. Whatmakes it produce such unspeakably vileresults is that it is an automatic systemwhich is as little understood by those who
218 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>profit by it in m<strong>on</strong>ey as by those who arestarved <strong>and</strong> degraded by it: our milli<strong>on</strong>aires<strong>and</strong> statesmen are manifestly no more“captains of industry” or scientific politiciansthan our bookmakers are mathematicians.For some time past a significant word hasbeen coming into use as a substitute forDestiny, Fate, <strong>and</strong> Providence. It is “TheMachine”: the machine that has no god in it.Why do governments do nothing in spite ofreports of Royal Commissi<strong>on</strong>s that establishthe most frightful urgency? Why do ourphilanthropic milli<strong>on</strong>aires do nothing, thoughthey are ready to throw bucketfuls of goldinto the streets? The Machine will not letthem. Always the Machine. In short, theyd<strong>on</strong>t know how.They try to reform Society as an old ladymight try to restore a broken down locomotiveby prodding it with a knitting needle. Andthis is not at all because they are born fools,but because they have been educated, not intomanhood <strong>and</strong> freedom, but into blindness <strong>and</strong>slavery by their parents <strong>and</strong> schoolmasters,themselves the victims of a similar misdirecti<strong>on</strong>,<strong>and</strong> c<strong>on</strong>sequently of The Machine. Theydo not want liberty. They have not been educatedto want it. They choose slavery <strong>and</strong> inequality;<strong>and</strong> all the other evils are automaticallyadded to them.And yet we must have The Machine. It is<strong>on</strong>ly in unskilled h<strong>and</strong>s under ignorant direc-
Artist Idolatry 219ti<strong>on</strong> that machinery is dangerous. We can nomore govern modern communities without politicalmachinery than we can feed <strong>and</strong> clothethem without industrial machinery. ShatterThe Machine, <strong>and</strong> you get Anarchy. And yetThe Machine works so detestably at presentthat we have people who advocate Anarchy<strong>and</strong> call themselves Anarchists.
220 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
The Provocati<strong>on</strong> toAnarchismWhat is valid in Anarchism is that allGovernments try to simplify their task bydestroying liberty <strong>and</strong> glorifying authority ingeneral <strong>and</strong> their own deeds in particular.But the difficulty in combining law <strong>and</strong> orderwith free instituti<strong>on</strong>s is not a natural <strong>on</strong>e.It is a matter of inculcati<strong>on</strong>. If people arebrought up to be slaves, it is useless <strong>and</strong>dangerous to let them loose at the age oftwenty-<strong>on</strong>e <strong>and</strong> say “Now you are free.” No<strong>on</strong>e with the tamed soul <strong>and</strong> broken spirit of aslave can be free. It is like saying to a laborerbrought up <strong>on</strong> a family income of thirteenshillings a week, “Here is <strong>on</strong>e hundredthous<strong>and</strong> pounds: now you are wealthy.”Nothing can make such a man really wealthy.Freedom <strong>and</strong> wealth are difficult <strong>and</strong>resp<strong>on</strong>sible c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s to which men must beaccustomed <strong>and</strong> socially trained from birth.A nati<strong>on</strong> that is free at twenty-<strong>on</strong>e is not freeat all; just as a man first enriched at fifty221
222 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>remains poor all his life, even if he does notcurtail it by drinking himself to death in thefirst wild ecstasy of being able to swallow asmuch as he likes for the first time. You cannotgovern men brought up as slaves otherwisethan as slaves are governed. You may pileBills of Right <strong>and</strong> Habeas Corpus Acts<strong>on</strong> Great Charters; promulgate AmericanC<strong>on</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s; burn the chateaux <strong>and</strong>guillotine the seigneurs; chop off the heads ofkings <strong>and</strong> queens <strong>and</strong> set up Democracy <strong>on</strong>the ruins of feudalism: the end of it all forus is that already in the twentieth centurythere has been as much brute coerci<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong>savage intolerance, as much flogging <strong>and</strong>hanging, as much impudent injustice <strong>on</strong> thebench <strong>and</strong> lustful rancor in the pulpit, asmuch naïve resort to torture, persecuti<strong>on</strong>,<strong>and</strong> suppressi<strong>on</strong> of free speech <strong>and</strong> freedomof the press, as much war, as much of thevilest excess of mutilati<strong>on</strong>, rapine, <strong>and</strong>delirious indiscriminate slaughter of helplessn<strong>on</strong>-combatants, old <strong>and</strong> young, as muchprostituti<strong>on</strong> of professi<strong>on</strong>al talent, literary<strong>and</strong> political, in defence of manifest wr<strong>on</strong>g, asmuch cowardly sycophancy giving fine namesto all this villainy or pretending that it is“greatly exaggerated,” as we can find anyrecord of from the days when the advocacy ofliberty was a capital offence <strong>and</strong> Democracywas hardly thinkable. Democracy exhibitsthe vanity of Louis XIV, the savagery of Peter
The Provocati<strong>on</strong> to Anarchism 223of Russia, the nepotism <strong>and</strong> provinciality ofNapole<strong>on</strong>, the fickleness of Catherine II: inshort, all the childishnesses of all the despotswithout any of the qualities that enabled thegreatest of them to fascinate <strong>and</strong> dominatetheir c<strong>on</strong>temporaries.And the flatterers of Democracy are as impudentlyservile to the successful, <strong>and</strong> insolentto comm<strong>on</strong> h<strong>on</strong>est folk, as the flatterersof the m<strong>on</strong>archs. Democracy in America hasled to the withdrawal of ordinary refined pers<strong>on</strong>sfrom politics; <strong>and</strong> the same result is comingin Engl<strong>and</strong> as fast as we make Democracyas democratic as it is in America. Thisis true also of popular religi<strong>on</strong>: it is so horriblyirreligious that nobody with the smallestpretence to culture, or the least inkling ofwhat the great prophets vainly tried to makethe world underst<strong>and</strong>, will have anything todo with it except for purely secular reas<strong>on</strong>s.
224 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>
Imaginati<strong>on</strong>Before we can clearly underst<strong>and</strong> how balefulis this c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong> of intimidati<strong>on</strong> in which welive, it is necessary to clear up the c<strong>on</strong>fusi<strong>on</strong>made by our use of the word imaginati<strong>on</strong> todenote two very different powers of mind.One is the power to imagine things as theyare not: this I call the romantic imaginati<strong>on</strong>.The other is the power to imagine thingsas they are without actually sensing them;<strong>and</strong> this I will call the realistic imaginati<strong>on</strong>.Take for example marriage <strong>and</strong> war. Oneman has a visi<strong>on</strong> of perpetual bliss witha domestic angel at home, <strong>and</strong> of flashingsabres, thundering guns, victorious cavalrycharges, <strong>and</strong> routed enemies in the field. Thatis romantic imaginati<strong>on</strong>; <strong>and</strong> the mischiefit does is incalculable. It begins in silly<strong>and</strong> selfish expectati<strong>on</strong>s of the impossible,<strong>and</strong> ends in spiteful disappointment, sourgrievance, cynicism, <strong>and</strong> misanthropicresistance to any attempt to better a hopelessworld. The wise man knows that imaginati<strong>on</strong>is not <strong>on</strong>ly a means of pleasing himself225
226 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong><strong>and</strong> beguiling tedious hours with romances<strong>and</strong> fairy tales <strong>and</strong> fools’ paradises (a quitedefensible <strong>and</strong> delightful amusement whenyou know exactly what you are doing <strong>and</strong>where fancy ends <strong>and</strong> facts begin), but alsoa means of foreseeing <strong>and</strong> being preparedfor realities as yet unexperienced, <strong>and</strong> oftesting the possibility <strong>and</strong> desirability ofserious Utopias. He does not expect his wifeto be an angel; nor does he overlook thefacts that war depends <strong>on</strong> the rousing of allthe murderous blackguardism still latent inmankind; that every victory means a defeat;that fatigue, hunger, terror, <strong>and</strong> disease arethe raw material which romancers work upinto military glory; <strong>and</strong> that soldiers for themost part go to war as children go to school,because they are afraid not to. They areafraid even to say they are afraid, as suchc<strong>and</strong>or is punishable by death in the militarycode.A very little realistic imaginati<strong>on</strong> givesan ambitious pers<strong>on</strong> enormous power overthe multitudinous victims of the romanticimaginati<strong>on</strong>. For the romancer not <strong>on</strong>lypleases himself with fictitious glories: he alsoterrifies himself with imaginary dangers. Hedoes not even picture what these dangersare: he c<strong>on</strong>ceives the unknown as alwaysdangerous. When you say to a realist “Youmust do this” or “You must not do that,” heinstantly asks what will happen to him if
Imaginati<strong>on</strong> 227he does (or does not, as the case may be).Failing an unromantic c<strong>on</strong>vincing answer,he does just as he pleases unless he canfind for himself a real reas<strong>on</strong> for refraining.In short, though you can intimidate him,you cannot bluff him. But you can alwaysbluff the romantic pers<strong>on</strong>: indeed his graspof real c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>s is so feeble that youfind it necessary to bluff him even whenyou have solid c<strong>on</strong>siderati<strong>on</strong>s to offer himinstead. The campaigns of Napole<strong>on</strong>, withtheir atmosphere of glory, illustrate this. Inthe Russian campaign Napole<strong>on</strong>’s marshalsachieved miracles of bluff, especially Ney,who, with a h<strong>and</strong>ful of men, m<strong>on</strong>strouslyoutnumbered, repeatedly kept the Russiantroops paralyzed with terror by pure bounce.Napole<strong>on</strong> himself, much more a realist thanNey (that was why he dominated him), wouldprobably have surrendered; for sometimesthe bravest of the brave will achievesuccesses never attempted by the cleverestof the clever. Wellingt<strong>on</strong> was a completerrealist than Napole<strong>on</strong>. It was impossible topersuade Wellingt<strong>on</strong> that he was beaten untilhe actually was beaten. He was unbluffable;<strong>and</strong> if Napole<strong>on</strong> had understood the natureof Wellingt<strong>on</strong>’s strength instead of returningWellingt<strong>on</strong>’s snobbish c<strong>on</strong>tempt for him by anacademic c<strong>on</strong>tempt for Wellingt<strong>on</strong>, he wouldnot have left the attack at Waterloo to Ney<strong>and</strong> D’Erl<strong>on</strong>, who, <strong>on</strong> that field, did not know
228 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>when they were beaten, whereas Wellingt<strong>on</strong>knew precisely when he was not beaten. Theunbluffable would have triumphed anyhow,probably, because Napole<strong>on</strong> was an academicsoldier, doing the academic thing (the attackin columns <strong>and</strong> so forth) with superlativeability <strong>and</strong> energy; whilst Wellingt<strong>on</strong> was anoriginal soldier who, instead of outdoing theterrible academic columns with still moreterrible <strong>and</strong> academic columns, outwittedthem with the thin red line, not of heroes,but, as this uncompromising realist neverhesitated to testify, of the scum of the earth.
Government byBulliesThese picturesque martial incidents arebeing reproduced every day in our ordinarylife. We are bluffed by hardy simplet<strong>on</strong>s<strong>and</strong> headstr<strong>on</strong>g bounders as the Russianswere bluffed by Ney; <strong>and</strong> our Wellingt<strong>on</strong>s arethreadbound by slave-democracy as Gulliverwas threadbound by the Lilliputians. Weare a mass of people living in a submissiveroutine to which we have been drilled fromour childhood. When you ask us to takethe simplest step outside that routine, wesay shyly, “Oh, I really couldnt,” or “Oh, Ishouldnt like to,” without being able to pointout the smallest harm that could possiblyensue: victims, not of a rati<strong>on</strong>al fear ofreal dangers, but of pure abstract fear, thequintessence of cowardice, the very negati<strong>on</strong>of “the fear of God.” Dotted about am<strong>on</strong>g usare a few spirits relatively free from thisinculcated paralysis, sometimes becausethey are half-witted, sometimes because229
230 A <str<strong>on</strong>g>Treatise</str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Parents</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Children</strong>they are unscrupulously selfish, sometimesbecause they are realists as to m<strong>on</strong>ey <strong>and</strong>unimaginative as to other things, sometimeseven because they are excepti<strong>on</strong>ally able,but always because they are not afraid ofshadows nor oppressed with nightmares. Andwe see these few rising as if by magic intopower <strong>and</strong> affluence, <strong>and</strong> forming, with themilli<strong>on</strong>aires who have accidentally gainedhuge riches by the occasi<strong>on</strong>al windfalls ofour commerce, the governing class. Nownothing is more disastrous than a governingclass that does not know how to govern. Andhow can this rabble of the casual productsof luck, cunning, <strong>and</strong> folly, be expected toknow how to govern? The merely lucky <strong>on</strong>es<strong>and</strong> the hereditary <strong>on</strong>es do not owe theirpositi<strong>on</strong> to their qualificati<strong>on</strong>s at all. Asto the rest, the realism which seems theiressential qualificati<strong>on</strong> often c<strong>on</strong>sists not <strong>on</strong>lyin a lack of romantic imaginati<strong>on</strong>, which lackis a merit, but of the realistic, c<strong>on</strong>structive,Utopian imaginati<strong>on</strong>, which lack is a ghastlydefect. Freedom from imaginative illusi<strong>on</strong>is therefore no guarantee whatever ofnobility of character: that is why inculcatedsubmissiveness makes us slaves to peoplemuch worse than ourselves, <strong>and</strong> why it is soimportant that submissiveness should nol<strong>on</strong>ger be inculcated.And yet as l<strong>on</strong>g as you have thecompulsory school as we know it, we shall
Government by Bullies 231have submissiveness inculcated. What ismore, until the active hours of child life are<strong>org</strong>anized separately from the active hoursof adult life, so that adults can enjoy thesociety of children in reas<strong>on</strong> without beingtormented, disturbed, harried, burdened,<strong>and</strong> hindered in their work by them as theywould be now if there were no compulsoryschools <strong>and</strong> no children hypnotized into thebelief that they must tamely go to them <strong>and</strong>be impris<strong>on</strong>ed <strong>and</strong> beaten <strong>and</strong> over-taskedin them, we shall have schools under <strong>on</strong>epretext or another; <strong>and</strong> we shall have allthe evil c<strong>on</strong>sequences <strong>and</strong> all the socialhopelessness that result from turning anati<strong>on</strong> of potential freemen <strong>and</strong> freewomeninto a nati<strong>on</strong> of two-legged spoilt spanielswith everything crushed out of their natureexcept dread of the whip. Liberty is thebreath of life to nati<strong>on</strong>s; <strong>and</strong> liberty is the <strong>on</strong>ething that parents, schoolmasters, <strong>and</strong> rulersspend their lives in extirpating for the sake ofan immediately quiet <strong>and</strong> finally disastrouslife.