CHAP. V - READING MEN

Summary

I have endeavoured to point out one or two leading peculiarities of our educational system. To put it shortly, we do not attempt to educate directly, but we hold out tempting baits which can only be won by a process involving education. The best intellectual wrestler wins the prize, and he must practise diligently and train steadily to have a chance. The effect upon the competitors is twofold. Those who enter for the highest prizes are subjected to a sharp mental stimulant for three or four years; they generally learn at least the art of close and patient thought. With those who seek not to win honour, but to avoid disgrace, the case is very different. With them the horse-race, to which I have compared our Triposes, becomes a donkey-race. Their wisest ambition is to be last amongst those not actually disqualified. Their own motive is to avoid the disgrace which traditionally attaches to being plucked. The negro-slave does, as little work as is compatible with not being flogged; when freed, he does as little as is compatible with not being starved.

The “poll” man shuns the condemnation of the examiner as the slave does the whip of his driver, and thinks all arts fair by which the attention of his enemy can be eluded. It is to be feared that when freed from this terror, he finds a very moderate amount of sustenance sufficient to preserve him from intellectual starvation.