PATRIOTISM 
 AND POPULAR EDUCATION 
 
HOW THE NEW EDUCATION ACT 
 WORKS 
 
 "A widow told the magistrate at Thames Police Court 
 to-day that she had been summoned before the Educa- 
 tion Committee, who told her that her son, aged 
 fourteen, who was at work, would, under the new 
 Education Act, have to go back to school. 'I think 
 this is very hard,' said the woman, 'as I have only 
 another girl earning a little, and I cannot work myself, 
 as my sight is failing/ She added that when she told 
 the Education Committee that she had no means of 
 support, they told her to go to the Guardians." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette, 15 March 1919. 
 
 THE boy will be forced back to school, to learn against 
 his will, things that will probably be useless to him in 
 his daily work; his employers will be inconvenienced, 
 and the widow will be pushed into the workhouse. 
 There must be thousands of cases similar to this, in- 
 volving extra cost to the State for the provision of 
 teachers, extra cost to the ratepayers for education and 
 poor law relief, and extra trouble for the Guardians 
 and Education Committee. And all to keep willing 
 hands from useful work, when so much of it is crying 
 out to be done. The wasteful mischief of it! 
 
 HENEY ABTHUR JONES, 17 March 1919. 
 
PATRIOTISM 
 
 AND 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION 
 
 WITH SOME THOUGHTS UPON 
 
 ENGLISH WORK AND ENGLISH PLAY, OUR EVENING AMUSE- 
 MENTS, SHAKESPEARE AND THE CONDITION OF OUR THE- 
 ATRES, SLANG, CHILDREN ON THE STAGE, THE TRAINING OF 
 ACTORS, ENGLISH POLITICS, BEFORE THE WAR, NATIONAL 
 TRAINING FOR NATIONAL DEFENCE, WAR AND DESIGN IN 
 NATURE, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS, THE FUTURE WORLD 
 POLICY OF AMERICA, CAPITAL AND LABOUR, RELIGION, RE- 
 CONSTRUCTION, THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS, SOCIAL PROPH- 
 ETS AND SOCIAL PROPHECY, COMPETITION AND CO-OPERATION, 
 THE BIOLOGIST AND THE SOCIAL REFORMER, HAND 
 LABOUR AND BRAIN LABOUR, SCHOOL TEACHERS 
 AND RAG-PICKERS, INTERNATIONALISM, AND 
 MANY OTHER INTERESTING MATTERS 
 
 THE WHOLE DISCOURSE BEING IN THE FORM OF A LETTER 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. H. A. L. FISHER 
 
 PBESIDEHT QV THE BRITISH BOABO OF EDUCATIOH 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY ARTHUR JONES 
 
 "Doth not wisdom cry? And understanding put 
 
 forth her Voice?" PBOVEBBS, chap, viii, verse 1. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 681 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1920, 
 BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 All RigJOs Reserved 
 
 Printed In the United State* of America 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST 
 ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 THESE hot discursive thoughts were thrown upon 
 paper during the ten months that followed the 
 British retreat to the outskirts of Amiens. They take 
 their general complexion from the events of that tre- 
 mendous time, and reflect its fluctuating hopes and 
 fears, its anxieties and agitations and suspenses, from 
 the dark hours of April to the magic reversal of our 
 fortunes in July, onwards to the present hour when, 
 having defeated the Germans, we seem to be preparing 
 to defeat ourselves. 
 
 No book has ever grown more strangely. Starting 
 to write a letter to the papers upon the edict that pre- 
 vents children from appearing on our stage, I found it 
 would be too long for their restricted space. On con- 
 sidering the matter, I saw it was involved with our 
 whole system of Popular Education. I therefore ad- 
 dressed myself to the Minister of Education, and the 
 first two chapters of the book were in his hands before 
 he passed the recent Education Act. 
 
 Meantime it had daily become more and more evident 
 that the question of National Education was of small 
 moment in comparison with the question of National 
 Existence. As the vast panorama displayed its suc- 
 cession of bewildering scenes, it caught me into its 
 whirl. I was taken by that irresistible impulse which, 
 when great events are happening, moves us to run out of 
 
 y 
 
 O 
 
vi Preface to the First English Edition 
 
 doors and talk them over with our neighbours. I let 
 my thoughts carry my pen wheresoever they would. 
 Hence the want of unity, and perhaps of consistency, 
 which may be found in these pages. 
 
 Eut I aimed not at unity or consistency, but only at 
 a searching inquiry into the meaning of these stupendous 
 happenings, and a faithful interpretation of them. Such 
 unity and consistency as come from the single desire to 
 speak the exact truth about all the matters I have 
 touched this unity and this consistency, I am sure I 
 have attained. 
 
 I have given considerable space and attention to the 
 affairs of the drama. But in presence of the illimitable 
 tragedy that has been acted on the world's stage during 
 the last few years, the English theatre has shrunk to 
 the size and office of a silly toy; nor at present has it 
 any other meaning, or pretensions, or ambitions. I was 
 therefore glad to escape for a while to a platform whence 
 a man may hail his fellow men with some hope of ob- 
 taining an intelligent hearing for intelligible speech. 
 There can be no revival of English drama except as part 
 of a national revival and a general awakening to our 
 national duties and responsibilities. Of what use is it 
 to nurse a sickly orchid in a hot-house, while all the 
 field and garden of our national life is choked with 
 weeds and rank confused growths ? Conversely, of .what 
 use is it to hope for a national awakening to the realities 
 and responsibilities of life, while the bulk of our popula- 
 tion feed all their leisure with the grossest unrealities 
 and trivialities ? A nation may be sound and vigorous 
 without developing any great school of national drama. 
 But a foolish, degraded form of national drama is a 
 symptom of moral and intellectual debasement. 
 
 Those who regard the great commandments as 
 
Preface to the First English Edition vii 
 
 obsolete conventions will call the book reactionary. Its 
 general tendency is against the present swing of popular 
 thought. Therefore I cannot hope for any wide ac- 
 ceptance of its doctrines. Let them stand or fall as 
 the future shall determine. I hold no brief for my 
 opinions, except as facts shall confirm them. 
 
 However brokenly or mistakenly I have written, no 
 Englishman has ever addressed his countrymen under 
 the weight and shadow of greater events, or upon mat- 
 ters of more supreme importance. Involved as we are 
 in still gathering national perplexities and obscurities, 
 
 I may be excused for lighting up my little lantern, if 
 haply we can discern where we are and whither we may 
 be wandering. 
 
 HENEY AETHUB JONES. 
 
 II February 1919. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
 ENGLISH EDITION 
 
 IT will be remembered, that when the word of the Lord 
 came to Jonah, to cry against the Ninevites, the 
 prophet at first declined the mission, and escaped to 
 sea. Jonah was doubtless well aware that prophets who 
 proclaim unpleasant truths to a nation run some danger 
 of being stoned. However, three days' solitary confine- 
 ment in the belly of a whale served to convince him 
 that Heavenly warnings must be delivered, even at some 
 personal risk. 
 
 When at length he addressed himself to his task, he 
 seems to have fulminated against the Ninevites with 
 undue vehemence and fervour. In definitely announc- 
 ing the overthrow of their city in forty days, he clearly 
 went beyond his instructions. Still, he succeeded in 
 thoroughly alarming the Ninevites, and thus saved them 
 from destruction. 
 
 The question arises, whether, if Jonah had not spread 
 a panic of conviction that their ruin was imminent, 
 overwhelming, irrevocable the question arises, whether 
 anything short of this conviction would have roused the 
 Ninevites to take the urgent and stringent measures 
 which alone averted the impending calamity. 
 
 Jonah was certainly in a dilemma. If he had not 
 magnified the danger to the Ninevites, undoubtedly it 
 would have fallen upon them, and they would have 
 perished. By magnifying the danger, and persuading 
 
 ix 
 
x Preface to the Second English Edition 
 
 them of its reality, lie stirred them to repentance, and 
 saved the city. But at the cost of proving himself a 
 false prophet. 
 
 The issue, although it was most satisfactory to the 
 Ninevites, was a vexatious anti-climax for Jonah. He 
 was naturally angry at being left in the lurch, and went 
 and sulked under a gourd. He would have done better 
 to put a bright face on the matter, and heartily to con- 
 gratulate the Ninevites on their lucky and undeserved 
 escape. To save his credit as a prophet, he might also 
 have impressed upon them a strong reminder, that they 
 were only spared by the intervention of a Special Provi- 
 dence. He might further have added, that it is not 
 prudent for nations who are threatened with wide social 
 disaster to trust that Providence will reverse the econ- 
 omy of the universe in their favour. 
 
 The Ninevites are now past being preached at, and 
 equally past being prophesied about. Let us turn to 
 ourselves. Six months have gone by since the nrst 
 edition of this book appeared. The intervening course 
 of events does not advise me to retract, or revise, what 
 I wrote during the stress and uncertainties of last year. 
 Rather, as the wheel comes to its full circle, I am urged 
 to a more insistent affirmation and repetition of what is 
 set down in these pages. No review of the book that I 
 have seen has made any attempt to controvert the facts 
 and arguments I have brought forward, or to disprove 
 the conclusions I have drawn from them. They remain 
 unsilenced, unrefuted. Till they are discredited and 
 overthrown, they issue a standing challenge to our pres- 
 ent system of Popular Education, to the confusions and 
 fallacies of political thought that it fosters, and to the 
 social disorder that it encourages. Let my arguments 
 and conclusions be examined. If they are unsound and 
 
Preface to the Second English Edition xi 
 
 false, I am the first to wish that they may fall to the 
 ground. 
 
 Eighty-five per cent, of our population have to earn 
 their living by manual labour before the social machine 
 will work. We are educating about eighty-five per 
 cent, of them in such a way that they will hate and 
 avoid manual labour. Inevitably, that million of houses 
 does not get built. Inevitably, it is the workers who 
 will suffer first, and suffer most, and suffer longest. 
 For two generations we have been busily teaching our 
 masses what they are only very remotely concerned to 
 know, and have neglected to teach them, nay, have for- 
 bidden them to learn, what they are imperatively con- 
 cerned to do and make. We have made manual labour 
 ridiculous and repulsive to them. There is not a home 
 or a farm, or a shop, or an office, or a factory in the 
 Kingdom that does not suffer delay and obstruction in 
 consequence. 
 
 However, I need not strain my voice to enforce what 
 is day by day more loudly proclaimed by the clamour 
 of events. The catch words and catch phrases of the 
 war "making the world safe for democracy," "self- 
 determination/' "a brotherhood of nations," and the 
 like are proving themselves to be no sterling coins of 
 thought, valid at the counter of fact, but the worthless 
 forgeries of bankrupt idealists, not negotiable any- 
 where. Even before it is constituted, the League of 
 Nations begins to jeer at its promoters. What else could 
 they expect ? The first ominous result of the attempt 
 to govern the world by a League of Nations, has been 
 to weaken that good understanding between England 
 and America which is the only assurance of the world's 
 peace. Is not this a sufficient warning of the mischief- 
 breeding tendency of a League of Nations ? Surely the 
 
xii Preface to the Second English Edition 
 
 statesmen of the world have contentious matters enough 
 on their hands without multiplying complications and 
 possible causes of quarrel in a future whose con- 
 tingencies and demands not one of them can foresee 
 or guess at. 
 
 America has rejected the League of Nations, rightly 
 judging that no country should pledge itself to deal with 
 successive threatening international situations by in- 
 volved, amiable, abstract rulers; rightly judging that 
 no threatening international situation can be wisely 
 dealt with until it has actually arisen; and until it is 
 so far developed and denned that each country may take 
 that course which its honour and its permanent interests 
 mark out for it at that precise moment. 
 
 America has rejected the League of Nations. Will 
 not the statesmen of England and France and Italy ac- 
 cept that verdict ? Will they not forsake this perilous 
 whimsy, own that they have made a mistake and, ceas- 
 ing to fumble about with international misunderstand- 
 ings that may threaten the world in fifty years' time, 
 turn to the urgent necessities that beset their own coun- 
 tries at the present hour ? 
 
 Above all our confusions, clear cut against the sky, 
 plain for all of us to read, stand the two opposing sign- 
 posts, the one directing all our national aims and hopes 
 and activities towards Internationalism, the other di- 
 recting all our national aims and hopes and activities 
 towards Patriotism. The time shortens. O England, 
 which road will you take ? 
 
 EEfrRY AETHUK JONES. 
 20 November 1919. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACB TO THE FIRST EDITION (February 1919) ... v 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION (November 1919) ... ix 
 OPENING ADDRESS TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION 
 
 (March 1918) xxi 
 
 Cicero and the Omelette xxii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 (March April 1918) 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION AS IT REVEALS ITSELF IN OUR WORK: 
 
 My old Carpenter 1 
 
 "Artistic, sixpence three farthings" 2 
 
 A well-educated working man 3 
 
 Dame Nature a harsher "exploiter" than the Capitalist . 5 
 
 Working men cheat their brother working men .... 6 
 Not a question of Capital and Labour, but of honesty or 
 
 dishonesty 7 
 
 A call for the Parsons 
 
 Proposal to ship some of them to Kikuyu 9 
 
 Robinson Crusoe and Friday's neglected education ... 11 
 Friday's deplorable ignorance of matters that did not con- 
 cern him 11 
 
 Consequent economic stability of the Island 13 
 
 Friday's capacity for abstract thought ....'.. 13 
 
 General education often the enemy of good craftsmanship 17 
 Monstrous and ridiculous proposal to drill our boys for the 
 
 future defence of their country 18 
 
 Equally monstrous and ridiculous proposal to teach our girls 
 
 what will be useful to them as wives and mothers . . 23 
 Enlargement of dictum of the Minister of Education con- 
 cerning general education 24 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 (April May 1918) 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION AS IT REVEALS ITSELF IN OUR PLAT: 
 The Secondary Education of our masses at picture palaces 
 
 and popular theatres 26 
 
 Its effect upon conduct and character 27 
 
 xiii 
 
xiv Table of Contents 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Gradual disappearance of Shakespeare from our stage . . 29 
 Dull imbecility and licentiousness of our popular entertain- 
 ments ..... 33 
 
 The wisdom of good tomfoolery 33 
 
 Hideous exhibition of chorus girls 35 
 
 Popular Education and the quality of our stage dialogue . 36 
 
 "I suppose you mean to infer that I'm hot stuff" ... 38 
 
 Slang and its functions 40 
 
 German and French criticism of the English stage ... 43 
 
 The orgy at the beginning of the war 44 
 
 The bishops get fidgety 45 
 
 Rosy Twaddle, Holy Twaddle, and Revue 47 
 
 Advice to bishops and clergymen about to advertise plays . 47 
 
 Actors, actresses, scullery maids, and dung-cart emptiers . 50 
 
 Children on our stage 53 
 
 Discouragement of Shakespeare by new Education Act . 53 
 
 Virtual prohibition of five of his most popular plays . . 53 
 
 Our greatest actresses educated on and by the Stage . 53 
 
 Early training necessary to make good actors and carpenters 56 
 
 French middle classes sound and acute critics of plays . . 58 
 
 Children with a native talent for the stage 60 
 
 Child supernumeraries 63 
 
 Many of them better in the theatre than at home ... 63 
 Evils and abuses of the stage caused and multiplied by 
 
 zealous, ignorant bigots 64 
 
 Invitation to them to abstain from pecking and kicking at 
 
 the theatre 64 
 
 Connexion between Popular Education and present degrada- 
 tion of our stage 66 
 
 Elizabethan audiences 67 
 
 Their ability to understand and enjoy Shakespeare ... 68 
 
 Shakespeare's true home the English theatre .... 70 
 Appeal to Minister of Education to aid in getting him back 
 
 there 71 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 (May June 1918) 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION AND POLITICS BEFORE THE WAR: 
 
 Political Dogma and Religious Dogma ...... 73 
 
 Impossibility of drawing up indisputable codes for children 74 
 
 General education a very devious compass 74 
 
 National Defence of transcendent importance from 1890 . 75 
 Popular Education opposed to teaching future citizens their 
 
 chief duty 76 
 
Table of Contents xv 
 
 Consequent immeasurable cost to the nation .... 77 
 
 Lack of vision and guidance ......... 78 
 
 The unreturning wheel of fate ......... 79 
 
 Germans teach us what Popular Education failed to teach us 81 
 
 Blindness of our politicians traced to Popular Education . 85 
 
 The housemaid's excuse "It shan't happen again" . . 87 
 
 Where lay the fault? ........... 88 
 
 Intellectual dishonesty the worst of mental ailments . . 90 
 
 Endemic at Westminster .......... 90 
 
 Boy Scouts' movement more beneficial than school teaching 91 
 
 Intractability of "young persons" ........ 92 
 
 Cicero and Euclid the safest companions for them ... 92 
 
 Economic benefit of continuation classes ...... 93 
 
 Rosy estimate of its amount ......... 94 
 
 Not one hundredth of the national loss caused by neglect of 
 
 Popular Education to teach our boys their first duty . 95 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 (July August 1918' 
 
 A LEAGUE OP NATIONS: 
 
 Legislating for the Millennium ......... 97 
 
 The prophet Micah beats swords into ploughshares ... 98 
 The prophet Joel counters the prophet Micah, and beats 
 
 ploughshares into swords ......... 98 
 
 War and Design in Nature .......... 98 
 
 An automatic peace-machine ......... 100 
 
 The philanthropist in Laputa and his safety dustbin . . 101 
 
 Man will never divine the strategy of Nature .... 103 
 
 Possible material profit from war ........ 105 
 
 Greater certainty of spiritual profit ....... 105 
 
 Difficulties of constitution of League ....... 107 
 
 The master fact for our statesmen to remember .... 107 
 
 Germany's future attitude towards Britain ..... 108 
 
 Do we not know this nation? ......... 110 
 
 The League of Nations a fruitful field for German intrigue 113 
 
 The servant girl and the fair young man ...... 115 
 
 League of Nations a futility or a danger ...... 116 
 
 Improbability of all the Nations being wise for all the time 118 
 
 Dark anarchic forces gathering on the horizon .... 118 
 
 Governing the world by a committee ....... 119 
 
 The war after the war ........... 120 
 
 Victories of peace compared with victories of war . . . 120 
 
 English and American commercial practices ..... 122 
 
 A League of Nations, sooner or later, causes war . . . 126 
 
 Approaching ground swell after this tempest ..... 128 
 
xvi Table of Contents 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Balancing alternations of peace and war through all history 129 
 
 This law would be operative under class government . . 129 
 
 A soldier always the final custodian of peace ..... 130 
 
 By recognizing this we avoid or shorten war .... 130 
 
 Immediate and remote dangers of a League of Nations . 131 
 
 Hecate and false security .......... 132 
 
 War and the dark backward and abysm of Time . . . 133 
 
 War and the dark forward and abysm of Time .... 134 
 
 Canute and the framers of a League of Nations .... 135 
 
 American delay in entering the war ....... 136 
 
 American mothers and the war trumpets of Europe . . . 136 
 
 America's unique and fortunate position ..... 137 
 
 Speculation on the future of American civilization and policy 139 
 The Eternal will not consider our suggestions for a new 
 
 world-civilization ........... 141 
 
 Our future civilization the artist will be murdered by the 
 
 mechanic ............. 142 
 
 Four possible states of world civilization ...... 143 
 
 The earth littered with combustible matter ..... 145 
 
 The two signposts ............ 148 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 (September October November 1918) 
 
 PATRIOTISM AND INTERNATIONALISM: 
 
 Apology to Minister of Education for continuing to address 
 
 him ............... 150 
 
 The neglected Hampstead missionary ....... 151 
 
 Aims of Internationalism before the war ...... 154 
 
 No danger of War ...... ...... 155 
 
 The good Scheidemann would prevent it ...... 156 
 
 The great illusionist ............ 157 
 
 The meddling old warrior .......... 157 
 
 Our sagacious Internuncio .......... 159 
 
 Crash! The war comes .......... 159 
 
 What shall we do with our opinions now? ..... 160 
 
 Socialists' forecasts falsified ......... 163 
 
 They forsake their comrades and their whimsies to defend 
 
 their country ............ 163 
 
 atriotism, a compulsive universal instinct ..... 165 
 
 Compared with the sexual, maternal and religious instincts 165 
 Patriotism of constructive value in the evolution of the 
 
 human race ............. 167 
 
 Competition and co-operation ......... 167 
 
 Faults of Patriotism the inverse side of its virtues . . . 168 
 
 Persistence of Irish Patriotism . ..... 170 
 
 -lf-< p 
 
 .XC 
 
 V^ P 
 
Table of Contents xvii 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Consequences of Separation from Great Britain .... 169 
 
 Every form of Home Rule unworkable 170 
 
 Federal Parliaments the only solution 171 
 
 Goethe says the final word on Ireland in 1829 .... 171 
 
 Kathleen, sister Kathleen ! 172 
 
 Incipient Patriotism at East and West Gawkham . . . 175 
 
 Engrafted Patriotism 176 
 
 "Reconstruction," a misleading term 178 
 
 Nations cannot be "reconstructed" 178 
 
 Internationalists ignore this 179 
 
 The Parable of the old township and Mr. Fervent Im- 
 
 possibilist 180 
 
 The general aim and design of Internationalists and Social- 
 ists 188 
 
 Internationalism will not lead to Peace 189 
 
 Who are the real enemies of the working classes of each 
 
 nation? 194 
 
 Internationalism strikes athwart all social structure . . . 194 
 
 Internationalists and Bolshevism 196 
 
 Mr. H. G. Wells gets a grip on Bolshevism and interprets it 
 
 to us 197 
 
 Mr. Wells gets a grip on the situation in Russia .... 197 
 
 Mr. Wells gets a grip on the situation in Africa .... 199 
 
 Mr. Wells, like Sangrado, has a panacea 199 
 
 Mr. Wells allows the British flag to wave, and sometimes 
 
 to flap 201 
 
 Examination of Mr. Wells's African constitution . . . 202 
 
 Mr. Wells threatens the Solomon Islands 204 
 
 Mr. Wells prophesies delightfully about machines . . . 205 
 
 Goes on to prophesy about mankind 205 
 
 Defence of Mr. Wells's reputation against Mr. Archibald 
 
 Spofforth 205 
 
 Mr. Wells and Old Moore 206 
 
 Gorgeous symbolism in prophecy 206 
 
 Scarlet Ladies of Babylon and seven-headed beasts . . . 206 
 
 The sacred jig-saw puzzle 207 
 
 Common defects and fallacies of International schemes . 208 
 
 Alternations of commercial conflict and actual war . . . 209 
 
 Commercial conflict perhaps the more deadly .... 209 
 
 Our interest in sustaining the British Empire .... 210 
 
 Our Foreign Office "bunglers and bluffers" 210 
 
 Where are the perfectly wise statesmen to work these per- 
 fectly wise International schemes? 212 
 
 Tendency of Labour to displace its constructive leaders . 213 
 
 Who are the men that finally come to the top? .... 213 
 Appeal to Labour not to wreck and destroy the Empire that 
 
 it has saved and fortified ... 214 
 
xviii Table of Contents 
 
 PAQB 
 
 New nations will be increasingly patriotic 220 
 
 Will press their own separate aims, interests, and ambitions . 220 
 
 Watered down Internationalism 222 
 
 Dulce et decorum est contra patriam mori 223 
 
 Sympathy with constructive Socialism 224 
 
 Greater proportion of physically unfit in England than in 
 
 Germany or France 224 
 
 Our social incubator for hatching and cherishing wastrels . 225 
 
 Digression to Miss Marie Corelli and Cicero .... 226 
 
 > lr /nR,eturn to argument on Patriotism 228 
 
 Again, the two signposts 229 
 
 Clear thinkers who think wrongly 230 
 
 TK Internationalism always destructive, Patriotism always con- 
 structive 233 
 
 Proposal for amalgamation of our planetary system with 
 
 thatofSirius 234 
 
 The Interstellarists 235 
 
 y Instinct of Patriotism universal 237 
 
 Our Pacifists superabundantly endowed with it .... 237 
 Pacifism and Internationalism perversions of the instinct of 
 
 Patriotism 238 
 
 Patriotism and fire insurance 239 
 
 Renewed fruitless appeal to Minister of Education . . . 240 
 Elementary drilling of our boys the safest and cheapest way 
 
 to reduce our armaments 241 
 
 Also the best physical and moral training for the boys them- 
 selves 242 
 
 A glance at our National Debt and at the little cherub who 
 
 sits up aloft 244 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 (November December 1918 January 1919) 
 
 OlENEWED EXAMINATION OP POPULAR EDUCATION AND ITS 
 EFFECTS: 
 Daring suggestion to educate our carpenters to make tables 
 
 and chairs 247 
 
 Non-readers and non-regarders 248 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures 249 
 
 Useful maxims from them for national guidance .... 249 
 
 These ancient rules of conduct! 251 
 
 Appeal to great permanent rules and principles . . . . 251 
 Have we got hold of sure rules and principles in Popular 
 
 Education? 252 
 
 Look at the facts! 252 
 
 Double your Education rates! Treble them! Ignorance is 
 
 the foe 253 
 
Table of Contents xix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The two most costly and mischievous kinds of ignorance . 253 
 Proposal to levy supplementary Education rate for study of 
 
 the great commandments 254 
 
 A matter for the parsons 255 
 
 England without a living credible religion 255 
 
 Manual labourers in angry revolt against their daily work . 256 
 
 Professor Wallace on mistaken education of manual labourers 258 
 
 These workers of England! 260 
 
 Forbidden to learn the things they will be mainly concerned 
 
 to do 260 
 
 The young blacksmith who was educated to play the flute . 261 
 
 Educational experts and Jane Austen's vicar .... 263 
 
 How Nature establishes a sound and vigorous race . . . 264 
 
 Our care of child life 265 
 
 We shall have to call in the biologist 265 
 
 Breeding the unfit 266 
 
 More important to get ourselves rightly born than rightly 
 
 educated 267 
 
 Appeal to the biologist for guidance towards wise legislation 267 
 
 Better to fit manual labour to its job than to force it to its job 267 
 Popular Education responsible for widely spread vulgarity 
 
 and shoddiness 268 
 
 Our popular songs 270 
 
 The ornament of our common life 271 
 
 Our whole system of Popular education needs to be built 
 
 on a new basis 272 
 
 Questions we now ask ourselves in educating our masses . 272 
 
 Questions we should ask ourselves 273 
 
 Broad division line between manual labour and brain labour 273 
 Necessary to estimate amount of each and educate our 
 
 masses in proportion 275 
 
 Coal and iron district peopled exclusively by artists, scholars, 
 
 and thinkers 278 
 
 The gas workers of Odessa 280 
 
 School-teachers and rag-pickers 281 
 
 Their rates of pay compared 281 
 
 An unsound social structure 283 
 
 Universal superficial mis-education the cause of universal 
 
 revolt 285 
 
 Nature has already sorted out our scholars for us ... 288 
 
 Let us educate them accordingly 288 
 
 A million houses needed for working classes 290 
 
 Why not educate our children towards building them? . . 290 
 
 How to avoid a social and economic deluge 293 
 
 Rate of wages of secondary importance 294 
 
 Social instability again traced to absence of living credible 
 
 religion and active working faith 295 
 
xx Table of Contents 
 
 Motto for a new Education Act 296 
 
 Nature about to bring in a stringent Uneducation Act of 
 
 her own 297 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 (January 1919) 
 
 SUMMING UP ON POPULAR EDUCATION IN OUR THEATRES: 
 
 A matter of national concern 298 
 
 A mis-educated public 300 
 
 Our masses badly trained, alike for useful productive work 
 
 and for wise amusement 301 
 
 Vulgarization of our national life by indiscriminate super- 
 ficial Education 302 
 
 A correct "attitude of mind" towards "the facts of life" . 302 
 
 A correct attitude of body even more desirable .... 303 
 
 "Attitude of mind" of our popular audiences .... 304 
 Pressing invitation to Minister of Education to become a 
 
 playgoer 304 
 
 "Who has been mis-educating these dear good folk?" . . 305 
 
 SUMMING UP ON THE LEAGUE OP NATIONS: 
 
 Millennium again postponed 305 
 
 Aunt Julia 306 
 
 Grand allegorical design to commemorate the founding of 
 
 the League 307 
 
 The arch on which rests the peace of the world .... 307 
 
 THE LAST APPEAL: 
 
 All these questions are one question 309 
 
 The innumerable cloud of witnesses 311 
 
 Our two mightiest voices speak to us 311 
 
 Choose, England! 313 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
 
 To the EIGHT HON. HEEBEET A. L. FISHER, 
 President of the Board of Education. 
 
 (March 1918) 
 
 DEAB ME. FISHEE, 
 
 Now that your Education Bill has taken its main 
 outlines and permanent general form, and is safe from 
 any serious injury or wide amendment, may I, with- 
 out impertinence, sot down some insurgent thoughts 
 upon the subject, which for a long time past have heen 
 collecting themselves in my mind, and which the re- 
 marseless events and emergencies of these last few years 
 drive to seek utterance ? I can scarcely hope that they 
 will he of any present service to the cause of Education, 
 for they run away in many different directions from the 
 main stream of national opinion. This, in itself, offers 
 some presumption that they are more or less ill adapted 
 to prevailing conditions. And it is rather with a forlorn 
 and fugitive desire to help you in moulding your next 
 Education Bill, than with the view of inducing you to 
 change some features of the present one, that I beg leave 
 to lay these thoughts before you. They have the merit, 
 or defect, of being written by one who is wholly removed 
 from party politics, and is therefore free to be con- 
 cerned only for what he conceives to be the welfare of 
 the State. 
 
 May I be allowed then to wander round this most 
 thorny and difficult subject of Popular Education, in 
 searching but discursive, variable, and often perhaps 
 
 xxi 
 
xxii Introductory Letter 
 
 illogical and contradictory thought, and to take you 
 with me so far as you have patience and inclination to 
 go ? It is necessary that our thoughts upon any subject 
 should at first be variable, tentative, and contradictory, 
 before they can clarify and settle into steadfast and 
 assured conviction. 
 
 It is with no wish to hamper or obstruct you in your 
 arduous and immensely complicated task, that I bring 
 before you these unwelcome facts and inconvenient 
 comments and suggestions. But perhaps they may serve 
 to put before you certain aspects of the question which 
 have hitherto lain somewhat outside the views and aims 
 of experts in Education, but which seem to call for 
 serious consideration. In any case I offer you as my 
 justification for addressing this letter to you personally, 
 the comforting reminder that you are not obliged to 
 read it. And this easy way of escape from my im- 
 portunities lies equally open to all who may wish to 
 ignore them. 
 
 When your Education Bill was in its earliest stages 
 in the House of Commons, I was lunching with a lady 
 who, in the dearth of servants, had taken as domestic 
 helps the wife and children of a gardener, absent at the 
 war. A little before lunch, the elder girl of fourteen 
 came in from school, much worried with a paper of ques- 
 tions that had been set her. "Tell me what you know 
 about Cicero," was one of the demands upon her; and 
 the other questions were of a lofty and more or less ab- 
 stract kind, all equally remote from the daily duties 
 which the girl would have to perform for the whole of 
 her life. The child was about the average of her class 
 in physique and intelligence, certainly not in any 
 marked degree below the average. She was genuinely 
 anxious to scrape up as much acquaintance with Cicero 
 
Introductory Letter 
 
 XXlll 
 
 as would tide her over any difficulties at school. To 
 this end she sought assistance from her mother, who 
 was cooking the lunch. How far this sudden call upon 
 her classical acquirements deranged the good gardener's 
 wife, I cannot say, but we certainly had a very tough 
 and leathery omelette. A short conversation that I 
 had with the girl after lunch, was enough to show very 
 clearly that whatever precarious items of information 
 about Cicero she could temporarily pack into her mind, 
 would probably wander out of it into vacuity within a 
 fortnight. 
 
 Further, granting that she could retain them, she 
 could not, I am persuaded, put them into relation with 
 her general conception of Roman history and literature, 
 or with her stock of other knowledge, or with whatever 
 coherent theory she may form of human life. That 
 is to say, whatever scattered facts she may have been 
 able to glean about Cicero, will not be of the least use to 
 her, or to any living being, in the tremendous struggle 
 which we shall be called upon to endure in the coming 
 generation. They will not, I am convinced, lead her to 
 a further knowledge of Cicero, so that she may be able 
 to guide her friendships by Cicero's essay on Friend- 
 ship, or to solace her declining years by his essay on 
 Old Age. I question if at any time during her life 
 she will be able to comprehend three pages of the trans- 
 lations of either of these essays. If any facts about 
 Cicero remain in her memory, which is highly im- 
 probable, they will remain as dead facts, and hindrances 
 to whatever useful mental activities she may possess. 
 Meantime, the omelette was spoilt. 
 
 Sir, this poor flustered child is the type of hundreds 
 of thousands of her class whom we are educating, not 
 in knowledge that will be useful to them, and helpful 
 
xxiv Introductory Letter 
 
 to us all; not in things that are congenial to their nat- 
 ural ability; not in the very fine arts that make for 
 domestic welfare and happiness, but in smatterings of 
 recondite matters that can have no bearings on their ac- 
 tual life, and that, so far as they are remembered at all, 
 tend only to a state of mental bewilderment. 
 
 I gladly acknowledge that here and there among our 
 working classes are to be found girls of fourteen who 
 can appreciate Cicero, and who should be taught all 
 that they can learn about him, so that they can fitly 
 place him in an ordered scheme of general knowledge. 
 And these girls are quite likely to be those who will 
 make the best omelettes. Oppressed as I am with tax- 
 ation, I am still willing to pay for them to be taught 
 all about Cicero, and all about making omelettes. But 
 these girls are one in a thousand, and most likely they 
 will themselves take eager care of nine-tenths of their 
 higher education. I am not willing to pay for the 
 masses of our working classes to be taught a heap of 
 what is to them quite mentally indigestible matter, 
 which in the vast majority of cases will be thrown out 
 of their minds almost before it is learned, and which, 
 so far as any result is obtained from it, wastes and mis- 
 directs their mental energy, and is neither useful nor 
 pleasurable to them, nor profitable to the State. 
 
 I shall be told that I am talking old-fashioned ex- 
 ploded nonsense. Let me try to justify myself. 
 
 First, let me say that I cordially accept, and am ready 
 to subscribe, in both senses, to the general rule that 
 every child in the kingdom shall be educated in such 
 a way that whatever physical and mental powers he 
 possesses shall be developed to the extent, and in the 
 direction, that shall make him most useful to the State. 
 Here I suppose I am in agreement with you. Let me 
 
Introductory Letter xxv 
 
 claim that this general rule quite excludes the immense 
 majority of children from being educated by the State 
 in such a way as will fully develop all their mental pow- 
 ers, or in most cases a third part of their mental pow- 
 ers ; or in such a way as will develop these mental pow j 
 ers to the individual interest and personal advancement 
 of the child himself, either intellectually, or socially, 
 or materially. Some potential Miltons must remain 
 mute and inglorious. Some potential Masters of Trin- 
 ity, who happen to be born in a carboniferous region, 
 must, willy nilly, forgo academic distinction and spend 
 their time and strength in digging coal. There must 
 always be a vast waste of potential mental energy, as 
 of everything else in Nature. 
 
 There is, for instance, an enormous waste of sun- 
 power, but we do not utilize it when we laboriously 
 try to extract sunshine from cucumbers. We do not 
 utilize the waste mental abilities of our masses by in- 
 discriminately forcing all of them to learn facts about 
 Cicero, and other abstract matters which will be quite 
 useless to them in after life, and whose acquirement 
 consumes a certain amount of energy that might be 
 profitably given to the service of the State. In that 
 way we may make one fairly accomplished scholar and 
 perhaps fifty prigs in a thousand, while all the others 
 will go their own way and joyfully forget all about 
 Cicero in the study of the latest sixpenny love story, 
 or the latest tip about a football match. 
 
 I am writing here in the interests of the State, and 
 with the object of turning out citizens useful to the 
 State; and I am concerned to show, what is apparently 
 overlooked by many of our experts, that in Education, 
 as in most other matters, the interests of the individual 
 child are often, and in many ways, opposed to the in- 
 
xxvi Introductory Letter 
 
 terests of the State. We are sending our "boys out to 
 France to be maimed and killed. It is not at all in 
 their individual interest to go, but it is for the welfare 
 of the State. And if we are prepared to bid our chil- 
 dren make this supreme sacrifice for the State, so in 
 the matter of Education we must not give all our chil- 
 dren, or even the majority of our children, that educa- 
 tion which we would desire to give them in their own 
 individual interest, and which would most thoroughly 
 develop all their mental powers, but just that education 
 which will make them most useful servants of the State. 
 It is not, I affirm, in the interests of the State to have 
 every child highly educated except in those matters 
 and aptitudes that will enable him best to fulfil his 
 duties to the State. This perhaps may sound like a 
 truism, but it is practically denied in the working and 
 in the main tendencies of our present system of Pop- 
 ular Education. 
 
 Nobody will deny that Popular Education has con- 
 ferred immense benefits and advantages not only upon 
 the working classes, but indirectly upon all classes of 
 Englishmen. It may be cheerfully acknowledged that 
 in many ways it has transformed our lives for the bet- 
 ter. Popular Education has given us much. Has it 
 given us all, or most of the good things that we reason- 
 ably hoped from it? What has our present system 
 taken away from us? Has it not to a great and in- 
 creasing extent taken away from us some of the most 
 precious things of all? Has it not foisted upon us 
 many undesirable and some pernicious things? Has 
 it not tended to foster some habits and ways of thought 
 that, unless they are checked, may ultimately prove de- 
 structive to us? 
 
 I suppose I shall be thought to be crazy if I question 
 
Introductory Letter xxvii 
 
 that there is an immense balance to the good on account 
 of Popular Education, an overwhelming credit, and a 
 few mere inconsiderable items of debit. 
 
 Who can strike the balance? It all depends upon 
 what qualities of human nature we most highly esteem, 
 what virtues in a people are ultimately found to be most 
 necessary to their welfare and indeed to their existence, 
 what relative values we place on these qualities and 
 virtues. Before the balance can be struck, it will have 
 to be decided what are our present main national aims, 
 and how far we are directing our national energies in 
 their pursuit. Some of us would say that underneath 
 these questions lie the more fundamental questions as 
 to what is the true welfare of the State, and how far 
 our present national aims are directed to attain it. 
 This goes down to bedrock. But the times are such 
 that we must find sure foundations or perish. And 
 until we know what kind of welfare we desire for 
 our State, and until we are substantially united in our 
 national aims to attain it, all our legislation must be 
 tentative, and will probably be blundering and mis- 
 chievous. Now in this great matter of Education, it 
 seems to me that educational experts have not sufficient- 
 ly grasped this cardinal fact, that the immediate in- 
 terests of the individual child are in the majority of 
 cases opposed in many ways to the interests of the 
 State; that as in the other warfare, many children 
 must necessarily be sacrificed so far as their higher 
 education is concerned; that they cannot be edu- 
 cated to their utmost mental capacity, or to anything 
 like their utmost mental capacity, without wasting en- 
 ergies that will be more and more urgently demanded 
 by the State for more pressing and more useful employ- 
 ment. I say this law is neglected by educational ex- 
 
xxviii Introductory Letter 
 
 perts; indeed many of them do not suspect its exis- 
 tence. Yet it is surely operative, as will be seen before 
 many generations have passed. I will not dwell here 
 upon the very evident fact, that the majority of our 
 people are not naturally capable of receiving or assimi- 
 lating an education that requires them to take more 
 than three steps in abstract thought. 
 
 Let us leave the theoretical side of the question and 
 glance at the actual working of Popular Education. 
 
 Your Bill will not essentially change our present sys- 
 tem. It widens and enlarges it. What type of English 
 working man has been evolved and standardized by 
 Popular Education, so far as we can separate its ef- 
 fects from all the other influences and tendencies of 
 our civilization that have also helped to mould him? 
 How far has our system of education really educated 
 him in the things that it most concerns him to know 
 and to live by, and most concerns the nation that he 
 should know and practise ? 
 
 I will take the two tests that seem to me the most 
 trustworthy the test of his work, and the yet surer 
 test of his play. But I am willing that any other tests 
 shall be applied, provided that they ensure that the 
 effects of Popular Education can be traced, without 
 confusing them with the effects of other agencies. First 
 there is the test of work. 
 
PATRIOTISM 
 AND POPULAR EDUCATION 
 
PATRIOTISM AND 
 POPULAR EDUCATION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 (March April 1918) 
 
 My old Carpenter "Artistic, sixpence three farthings" A well 
 educated working man Dame Nature a harsher "exploiter" than 
 the capitalist Working men cheat their brother working men - 
 Not a question of Capital and Labour, but of honesty or dishon- 
 esty A call for the Parsons Proposal to ship some of them to 
 Kikuyu Robinson Crusoe and Friday's neglected education 
 Deplorable ignorance of Friday of matters that did not concern 
 him Consequent economic stability of the island Friday's ca- 
 pacity for abstract thought General education the enemy of 
 good craftsmanship Monstrous and ridiculous proposal to drill 
 our boys for the future defence of their country Equally mon- 
 strous and ridiculous proposal to teach our girls what will be 
 useful to them as wives and mothers Enlargement of dictum 
 of the Minister of Education concerning general education. 
 
 POPULAE Education has now been in force for 
 nearly fifty years. I have in my mind a fairly 
 typical working man of the better class of fifty years 
 ago. He was a carpenter in a small provincial town. 
 He had received a very limited education, I suppose at 
 a National School of those days, which I daresay he 
 left at about the age of twelve. He was probably then 
 apprenticed to his trade. He must have learned it 
 thoroughly in all its branches; for when I knew him 
 
 1 
 
2 Patriotism and 
 
 in hia late middle age, lie could and did make with 
 his own hands, the whole of a large useful cabinet for 
 a middle-class sitting room. That cabinet, by its sound 
 workmanship, its sensible shape, its fitness and utility, 
 would utterly shame and condemn anything that a mid- 
 dle-class family could buy at furnishing shops in 1914, 
 at three or four times its price. You cannot get as good 
 workmanship to-day in its class. He was equally adept 
 and honest and thorough in whatever job he was called 
 in to do. 
 
 After fifty years of Popular Education, it is almost 
 impossible for a lower or middle-class family to get a 
 drawer that will slide, or a window-sash that will work 
 easily, or a door that will close properly. The carpen- 
 try work in our cheap modern houses and apartments 
 is for the most part abominably bad, inconvenient, 
 treacherous, and perishable. The design and shape of 
 most of our modern furniture justifies the current slang 
 epithet, "appalling." In all the decoration of our lower 
 and middle-class homes, the more taste we pretend to, 
 the less taste we have. You may have noticed the un- 
 conscious self-deceit and the unblushing impudence of 
 those many articles of use and decoration which are 
 ticketed in shop windows, "Artistic, sixpence three 
 farthings." They loudly proclaim that the people who 
 design them, the people who make them, the people 
 who sell them, and the people who use them, must have 
 had a general education that has vitiated their taste, 
 and deprived them of their apprehension of beauty. 
 The daily use of the word "artistic" is a terrible con- 
 demnation of our present system of Popular Education. 
 It is one of the many words upon whose use a very 
 heavy tax should be laid for the benefit of our impov- 
 erished exchequer. 
 
Popular Education 3 
 
 I do not say that the state of things I have noted is 
 entirely the effect of Popular Education. I do say that 
 it is very palpably the correlative of Popular Educa- 
 tion; and that its continuance and apparent growth is 
 a grave reproach, if not a severe condemnation of our 
 present system. 
 
 To return to my carpenter. He read very little, 
 scarcely anything, except the local weekly paper on 
 Saturday, and on other days, and chiefly on Sundays, 
 the Bihle and the "Pilgrim's Progress." Thus he had 
 a very close acquaintance with some of the best lit- 
 erature, and was quite ignorant of trash. This was 
 evident in his daily talk, for he often coined a sentence 
 not wholly unworthy to appear in either of those books. 
 He worked very hard, often twelve or fourteen hours 
 a day, and he gave his light evenings to his garden. 
 And being temperate and fully occupied with his work, 
 he lived to a good old age. I cannot remember whether 
 he had any political opinions. 
 
 I will allow that my carpenter was somewhat above 
 the average, but not so much as to make it unfair to 
 present him as a type of his class ; for his match could 
 readily be found in most English towns of that day, and 
 of the previous three hundred years. In all that counts 
 as a sound education, that is, an education which fits a 
 man to serve the interests of the State in his particular 
 calling, while affording him a reasonably happy, con- 
 tented, and healthy life in these essentials my car- 
 penter was a better educated man than the correspond- 
 ing carpenter of to-day. 
 
 Further than this, though his general outlook on life 
 was very narrow and cramped; though he was child- 
 ishly ignorant and prejudiced and superstitious on many 
 important subjects, yet, on the whole, he lived a richer, 
 
4 Patriotism and 
 
 fuller, more admirable, more enviable life than the 
 average carpenter of to-day. But the chief point for 
 the interests of the State, is that he was a thoroughly 
 good carpenter of a numerous, widely-spread class. 
 Such a carpenter can scarcely be found in all England 
 to-day. 
 
 Now carpentry is perhaps of all occupations the 
 most universal and the most necessary in all ages, and 
 all lands. It is the one that is most necessary to the 
 comfort of our homes. I am at present enduring great 
 discomfort from the radical dishonesty of much of the 
 woodwork and fittings in my house, which is quite 
 modern. 
 
 I will beg you, sir, to place these facts in due rela- 
 tion to our system of Popular Education, and to tell 
 me why it is, that while before its advent it was almost 
 impossible to get a piece of bad carpentry in lower and 
 middle-class homes, it is now almost impossible to get a 
 piece of good carpentry ? 
 
 I shall be told that it is due to the capitalist. No- 
 body hates many of the forms and aspects of our 
 present-day commercialism more than I do, or more 
 despises the base truckers who fatten upon it. But all 
 attempts to get rid of the capitalist have ended in far- 
 cical or tragical failure; whether made in quite small 
 communities, or on a large national scale, as lately 
 in Eussia. And if we make the State our sole capi- 
 talist, as some desire, we shall find it a more harsh, 
 cruel, capricious, and grinding "exploiter" than any 
 private master. We shall also find it a most incapable, 
 bungling, and dishonest employer, who, having muddled 
 all our concerns and bewildered and stultified itself, will 
 slip out of the mess by dissolving itself, leaving us in 
 universal poverty and despair, to be "exploited" by 
 
Popular Education 5 
 
 grim old Dame Nature, the harshest and cruellest "ex- 
 ploiter" and employer of all. For she knows no pity 
 and allows no argument. She will enter into no con- 
 ference or arbitration. She makes her own award, 
 and straightway enforces it, "Work or Starve." Some- 
 times it is "Work and starve." Sometimes it is briefly 
 "Starve." And there is no appeal. Compared with 
 her bleak and iron governance, the worst tyranny of 
 our present employers and "exploiters" is as mothers' 
 mercies and as fathers' blessings. Witness what is hap- 
 pening in Russia to-day where famine, black typhus, 
 misery, desolation, madness, murder, and anarchy 
 shriek out to us that the corrupt and abominable despot- 
 ism of the Czar was a mild and beneficent rule com- 
 pared with the despotism of whimsies and fallacies and 
 sophistries. 
 
 ^sTo, sir, it is not the capitalist. The capitalist does 
 not make the rickety chairs, the drawers that will not 
 slide, and all the other trumpery inconveniences that 
 make our working-class homes so miserable and unin- 
 habitable. It is something to his profit to get them 
 made well, though I daresay he cares little for this. I 
 am not seeking to defend the capitalist. I have not 
 much liking for him. And I have a real fondness for 
 working men, and so much sympathy that I would like 
 to be counted one of them. And I think I am so en- 
 titled, for when I was twelve and a half years old, 
 that is,. three months after I had finally left school, I 
 was working sixteen hours a day. I hope this will 
 show that I have no class bias. 
 
 To return. The capitalist does not make all the vil- 
 lainous paraphernalia of our working-class homes. 
 These things are made by the working classes themselves, 
 for themselves. And as by far the greater part of such 
 
6 Patriotism and 
 
 things are manufactured for the use of the working 
 classes, it follows that it is mainly the working classes 
 who are cheated when they are made badly. The work- 
 ing man thinks he is making them for an employer, 
 who is "exploiting" him and whom he has been taught 
 to regard as his deadly enemy. He is really making 
 them mainly for his brother working man, whom he 
 is cheating when he does this necessary home work 
 badly. 
 
 IsTo capitalist could have driven my old carpenter to 
 make his bits of home furniture badly. He could not 
 do his work badly, because in the first place he had so 
 thoroughly and soundly learned his trade, that good 
 solid work was a habit that had become his second na- 
 ture. A sound knowledge of his craft was his "higher" 
 education. And as he regularly worked about twelve 
 hours a day, he had plenty of leisure in those twelve 
 hours to do his work well. He needed not to scamp it. 
 His mind and energies were chiefly employed upon his 
 work. He put his heart and brain into it, and thus 
 unconsciously served the best interests of the State. 
 He was thoroughly educated in what it chiefly con- 
 cerned him to know for his own good, and for the good 
 of the State. He had also been taught, even before 
 his school days, that "The fear of the Lord is the be- 
 ginning of knowledge." 1 His interpretation of this and 
 kindred texts compelled him to do his work well, for 
 it made him afraid to do it badly. He had a deep and 
 abiding sense of his duty to his employers, and he did 
 not look upon them as his natural and mortal enemies. 
 Therefore, when he made something for a working- 
 class home, he made it well, and his brother working 
 man was benefited. 
 
 1 Proverbs, chap, i, verse 7. 
 
Popular Education 7 
 
 What has all this to do with Popular Education ? It 
 is the very warp and essence of it ! 
 
 Working men make for each other all their own ar- 
 ticles of every-day use, all the apparel of their homes. 
 If these things are not made well, the fault must rest 
 either upon themselves in not giving sufficient time, 
 or skill, or thought, or energy to this primary business 
 of life; or upon a system of Popular Education that 
 must be radically vicious or defective because it does 
 not teach them the first great lesson of all education 
 to do their particular work in the world honestly, and 
 with all their might. In other words, in not teaching 
 them that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 knowledge putting a wide and practical interpre- 
 tation on this text. When this first great lesson is left 
 untaught, much of what is curiously called "higher edu- 
 cation" is likely to be useless and mischievous to them- 
 selves, and ultimately dangerous to the State. 
 
 It is not a question of capital and labour. It is a 
 question of honesty or dishonesty of workmanship in 
 each particular calling. When, as in the carpentry 
 of our homes, the general workmanship is slack, un- 
 skilled, and perishable, it is the working classes who 
 suffer first and suffer most, and have to bear the chief 
 brunt of the hardships. For they are by far the most 
 numerous class, and are inevitably the nearest and most 
 accessible to any and every assault of national misfor- 
 tune or error. When the carpentry of our homes is 
 honest, thorough, skilled, and durable, it is the working 
 classes who are mainly and most widely benefited. For 
 the additional comfort and convenience means so much 
 more to them than to the well-to-do, and this additional 
 comfort and convenience is distributed over the largest 
 area. !ftTo encroachments and tyranny of the capitalist 
 
8 Patriotism and 
 
 can destroy what comforts are to be got from good and 
 serviceable home carpentry, if only the carpenters them- 
 selves are doing this work in sufficient quantity for 
 their brother working men. And no dethronement of 
 the capitalist and the middleman, even to the level of 
 compelling them to make bad and rickety furniture 
 with their own hands, will in the least add to the com- 
 fort and convenience of the working-class home, if the 
 carpenters do not study to make the work they do for 
 their comrades as honest and durable as they can. 
 
 Let us take care that in our just anger against the 
 middleman and the "exploiter," we do not forget to 
 kindle to a fiercer heat, a juster anger against ourselves 
 for all the sloppy, perfunctory, dishonest, careless, use- 
 less, harmful work we are doing in the world. Let us 
 take care that while we are mainly busy in making a 
 clean sweep of the capitalist and the exploiter, that iron, 
 grim, implacable old Dame isn't preparing to make a 
 clean sweep of us. A very short taste of her "exploit- 
 ing" will make us cry out for somebody to "exploit" 
 us out of our misery. We may even be sorry that we 
 didn't put up with our present "exploiters," bad and 
 corrupt as many of them are. 
 
 Sir, for many centuries to come, perhaps while time 
 endures, the great majority of mankind will necessarily 
 have to be "exploited" in all the main affairs of life 
 by somebody or the other. In Russia we may notice 
 that it is the Germans who have temporarily taken over 
 this necessary and fundamental business. What a 
 strange denouement if Nature's answer to the whimsies 
 of the Pacifists should be establishment of a line of 
 military exploiters ! She is quite capable of a gigantic 
 hoax of this kind witness the innumerable millions 
 whom she has led to their destruction, dancing after 
 
Popular Education 9 
 
 some painted Jack-o-Lantern of political or spiritual 
 delusion. She is always playing these hideous tricks 
 on people who nurse whimsies; and her darling victim 
 is not the dull, stupid man, but the fervent Impossi- 
 blist, and the cheap-jack purveyor of gorgeous dreams 
 to the multitude. 
 
 The first duty of Popular Education is to teach that 
 all careless, scamped, and dishonest work is a crime 
 against the State. Till working-men learn this hard 
 lesson, no adjustments of capital and labour, no mas- 
 sacre of middle men and exploiters, will better their lot ; 
 and no classical or mathematical attainments will be 
 other than foolish and wasteful furbelows a spangled 
 cloak thrown over a body eaten by cancer. 
 
 Here I think I hear somebody calling out loudly for 
 the parsons. I am sure that many of them have done 
 hard and fruitful and unselfish service in the cause of 
 Popular Education. But have not the majority of 
 them been far more concerned to teach their indi- 
 vidual whimsies, than the plain commandments by 
 which men live ? Have they not insisted that these va- 
 ried, shifting, inconsistent, contradictory, incomprehen- 
 sible whimsies shall be made the foundation of Popular 
 Education, and that unless these whimsies are bound 
 up in assorted sets with the multiplication table, there 
 shall be no multiplication table at all? Have not the 
 parsons been the great hinderers and obstructors of 
 Popular Education ? And might it not be wise in the 
 interests of Popular Education and of religion, as soon 
 as sufficient tonnage is available, to ship all the parsoni 
 who cannot agree amongst themselves to Kikuyu, their 
 happy hunting-ground, their favourite cockpit, their 
 holiday resort, their Mecca, their spiritual home, and 
 their unhonoured grave ? 
 
10 Patriotism and 
 
 Nevertheless, we may be grateful to the many of 
 them who have taught, even with much admixture of 
 whimsy, the first great lesson of Popular Education, 
 that honest, careful, useful, productive work for our 
 fellows, each in our allotted sphere, is the first and 
 main duty of us all to the State. Whatever else is 
 taught is secondary, and comparatively unimportant. 
 For it is clear that if this lesson is thoroughly learned, 
 and if this duty is thoroughly done, a condition of in- 
 ternal general well-being must necessarily follow. It is 
 also clear that the allotted sphere of the vast majority 
 of us, must be one that requires of us constant, hard, 
 dirty labour that will necessarily absorb the greater part 
 of our physical energy, and will not leave us a large 
 surplus of mental energy to acquire facts about Cicero, 
 or an unlimited leisure to play golf and attend football 
 matches. 
 
 I am quite willing to pay for other people's chil- 
 dren to be taught all about Cicero, and therein 
 to excel me; and this with money that I have 
 earned, and badly need to make provision for my 
 own children, in whose favour I am perhaps a little pre- 
 judiced I say I am quite willing that my cash shall 
 be thus disbursed, if only it can be proved that such 
 teaching helps the cooking of the communal omelette, 
 and the easy working of the domestic apparatus, and is 
 on the whole the best way of spending my money for 
 the welfare of the State. But I have my doubts. 
 
 I will go further and own myself willing to try my 
 hand at cooking the omelette myself, while paying for 
 our future servants to be taught all about Cicero if 
 only it can be proved that such a direction of our sev- 
 eral energies, is on the whole the best that can be de- 
 
Popular Education 11 
 
 vised for the welfare of the State. But I have my 
 doubts. 
 
 For myself, Cicero has been something of an edu- 
 cational luxury. I have sparingly indulged in him. 
 Still he had many good qualities, and I remember that 
 on one occasion he declared that he had saved the State. 
 If a knowledge of Cicero's life and writings will, in 
 some occult way, help our domestic servants and our 
 carpenters to save the State, I am enthusiastically in 
 favour of letting them know all about him as quickly 
 as possible. But I have my doubts. 
 
 I am quite sure that it cannot be either to their own 
 advantage, or for the welfare of the State, that our 
 domestic servants and carpenters shall be taught a few 
 facts about Cicero, and smatterings of science, mathe- 
 matics, and literature, while the cookery and carpen- 
 try in working-class homes remain in their present mis- 
 erable state. 
 
 I cordially give a general assent to your dictum that 
 "no country in the long run suffers an economic injury 
 from an improvement in the general education of its 
 population." But this is a vague and abstract propo- 
 sition, whose successful working lies in its correct ap- 
 plication to the pressing necessities of the population, 
 to their varied mental and physical capacities, and to 
 their individual duties to the State. It is governed 
 and qualified in a hundred ways that educational ex- 
 perts never seem to suspect. 
 
 For instance, Friday's education had been deplor- 
 ably neglected. It was certainly prudent of Robinsoi* 
 Crusoe to educate him out of cannibalism and into 
 Christianity. But Friday's general education seems to 
 .have been untimely cut short at this very elementary 
 
12 Patriotism and 
 
 stage. He knew as little about Cicero as my school- 
 girl of fourteen. Any facts about Cicero that Robin- 
 son Crusoe may have been able to impart, would prob- 
 ably have tended in some small measure to quicken 
 Friday's mental powers, and to make him a more in- 
 telligent companion. Yet I question whether Robin- 
 son Crusoe would have been wise to spend much time 
 on Friday's education in matters relating to Cicero. 
 A few scattered facts would certainly have been of no 
 possible use to Friday. While if he had made any 
 approach to scholarship in this and kindred subjects, 
 the cuisine and household carpentry of the island would 
 have suffered most disastrously. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe could have given to Friday a body 
 of collated information about Cicero, only at the cost 
 to himself of much labour and valuable time. Friday 
 could have received such a body of information about 
 Cicero only at the cost of much labour and valuable 
 time. It is evident that if the pair of them had given 
 any considerable amount of labour and time to Cicero, 
 the State would have tottered. On Robinson Crusoe's 
 island, the principle you have laid down would have 
 been terribly limited in its application by the prevail- 
 ing conditions and circumstances. 
 
 Your dictum is that "no country in the long run 
 suffers an economic injury from an improvement in 
 the general education of its population." By general 
 education I understand you to mean, knowledge and 
 learning that are not directly concerned with the daily 
 occupation of the individual, or with his duty to the 
 State ; knowledge and learning which are indeed largely 
 apart from, and have no traceable connection with the 
 occupation of the individual, or with his duty to the 
 State; and which are given to him with a view to raise 
 
Popular Education 13 
 
 his general intellectual status, on the principle that is 
 supposed to regulate the successful aspersion of a man's 
 character by slander, namely, that "if you throw mud 
 enough, some of it is bound to stick." 
 
 The application of your dictum to Robinson Crusoe's 
 island seems to raise a few provoking questions, such as : 
 
 (1) What amount of time and mental energy can 
 Eobinson Crusoe afford to spare for Friday's general 
 education, that could not be better employed for the 
 welfare of the two in some other way? 
 
 (2) What amount of time and energy can Friday 
 afford to spare for the purpose of being generally edu- 
 cated, that could not be better employed for the wel- 
 fare of the two in some other way ? 
 
 (3) Granting unreservedly that it is highly desir- 
 able that Friday's intellectual status should be raised, 
 and that all his mental powers should be fully devel- 
 oped so far as is compatible with the welfare of the 
 State how far is Friday capable of assimilating in- 
 struction beyond that which relates to his daily work, 
 and his duty to the State? What is Friday's natural 
 capacity for abstract thought ? For it is upon the de- 
 gree of natural capacity for abstract thought, that near- 
 ly all the worth and profit of what you call general 
 education depends. 
 
 (4) Might not the island suffer a very grave economic 
 injury, to the infinite discredit of our theory, if Fri- 
 day's general education were carried outside the limits 
 I have indicated if, for instance, Robinson Crusoe 
 in a frenzy of educational zeal were to insist that Fri- 
 day, against his own inclination and natural capacity, 
 should learn a number of irrelevant facts about Cicero, 
 and other remote matters ? 
 
 It may be urged that our conditions in England do 
 
14 Patriotism and 
 
 not offer any parallel to the conditions prevailing on 
 Eobinson Crusoe's island. Sir, for a long age to come, 
 this island of ours, like Robinson Crusoe's, will be be- 
 sieged by many iron and cruel necessities, and it will 
 be of the first importance to us, as to him, so to regu- 
 late and husband and apportion the relative expendi- 
 ture of our physical and mental energies, as to obtain 
 those results that will most certainly be profitable to 
 the State as a whole, and will help to build it upon the 
 surest foundations. And with this end in view, we 
 should give the masses of our people, not that educa- 
 tion which we might desire for them, which might most 
 fully develop all their mental powers, and which might 
 be most profitable to many of them individually, but 
 just that amount, and that kind of very unequal, and 
 very varied education which will best assure the safety 
 of the State. One of our first concerns most intimately 
 connected with Popular Education, indeed, a main part 
 of it, should be to see that all the common work that is 
 done for the common people, shall be done well and 
 honestly, and by people who are not ashamed of doing 
 it, who have not been educated away from it and are not 
 diverted from its necessary accomplishment by other 
 aims and pursuits. 
 
 I gladly recognize that there are clauses in your bill 
 which, if wisely administered, are likely to bring about 
 some improvement in the direction I have indicated. 
 But if it is claimed that, up to the present, Popular 
 Education has tended towards this desirable result, I 
 can only point to my old carpenter; to the condition 
 of our household carpentry; to all the dreadful objects 
 that desecrate our working- and middle-class and even 
 upper-class homes; to the number of girls of fourteen 
 who, to their great mental distraction, are being taught 
 
Popular Education 15 
 
 irrelevant facts about Cicero "before they have been 
 taught plain cookery ; and to many other trades and call- 
 ings necessary to the daily comfort of us all, in which the 
 first great lesson of doing thoroughly and honestly one's 
 own individual work in the world, has been left un- 
 taught, and is constantly flouted; in which a terribly 
 defective education in one's individual work, seems to 
 be the correlative of an abortive attempt at "general" 
 education; in which natural aptitudes and abilities are 
 left undeveloped, and carelessness, neglect, and sloven- 
 liness prevail ; apparently because the physical or men- 
 tal energies which should always first be given to one's 
 immediate work in the world, have been drawn off to 
 ineptitudes and wild digressions. 
 
 I selected domestic carpentry because it is, as I said, 
 a basic universal industry, which affects us all in our 
 homes. I do not say that Popular Education is ac- 
 countable for all the bad carpentry that is done. I do 
 say that concurrently with the spread of Popular Edu- 
 cation, carpenters generally have received an increas- 
 ingly defective education in their own craft. It can- 
 not be for the welfare of the State that carpenters 
 should receive a "general" education that, while ad- 
 mittedly it does not directly fit them for the exercise 
 of their own calling, does yet permit, and perhaps in- 
 directly encourage, a very casual, perfunctory knowl- 
 edge, and a very slovenly practice of that calling. I am 
 not grudging the carpenters their general or higher edu- 
 cation. I am asking that it shall be made quite secon- 
 dary and auxiliary to a thorough mastery of their own 
 craft, and to as much diligent and absorbing practice of 
 that craft as may be found necessary for the welfare 
 of the State. 
 
 Let us hope that the past and present disorder is 
 
16 Patriotism and 
 
 merely transitional and transitory. And let me again 
 cordially acknowledge that your Education Bill allows 
 and encourages many improvements in these matters. 
 
 But legislative enactments have a bad habit of not 
 producing the effects for which they are designed, and 
 of producing a number of indirect consequences, which 
 are often obstructive to their main purpose. Much will 
 depend upon the instruments who work it ; much more 
 will depend upon its discriminate adaptation to the 
 enormous mass of heterogeneous humanity which is to 
 be subjected to its provisions. 
 
 And here again we may have good hope. For the 
 great bulk of the raw material of humanity to be 
 brought under the new Education Act is sound, rough 
 English stock. Every day brings us new proofs of the 
 magnificent quality of its fibre, of its inexhaustible 
 vigour and power of endurance. 
 
 What may not be hoped from a nation that casually 
 throws-off, as a bird moults a feather, heroes in mil- 
 lions, Coeur-de-lions in hordes, and Sidneys in bat- 
 talions ? What may not be hoped from such a nation, 
 if only it is rightly trained, disciplined, and led ; every 
 member being first taught, as the cardinal maxim of 
 Popular Education, to do his own individual work 
 honestly, and with all his might ? 
 
 Whatever Popular Education has taught our multi- 
 tudes, however many and great the benefits it has be- 
 stowed upon them, it surely has not up to the present 
 taught them this first great lesson witness the badly 
 latched door that is intermittently slamming and clat- 
 tering as I write this letter, and that leads me to ask 
 whether some of the time and energy given to the 
 general and higher education of our carpenters, might 
 
Popular Education 17 
 
 not be more profitably spent upon special problems re- 
 lating to the correct adjustment of door fastenings. 
 
 There is no doubt that general education does raise 
 the level of intelligence in the community, and in many 
 ways add to their pleasures if not wholly to their 
 well-being. But are there not good grounds for think- 
 ing that general education is often the enemy of that 
 thorough special education in our individual work and 
 duty which is the first necessity for the ultimate welfare 
 of the State? Is not general education often the un- 
 suspected enemy of good craftsmanship? It is cer- 
 tainly the constant companion of much bad craftsman- 
 ship. Does not "general" education often turn out a 
 very poor scholar in place of an accomplished work- 
 man? 
 
 Our future necessities are such that we shall be far 
 more in need of workmen than scholars. We have at 
 our disposal only a limited amount of time, of physical 
 energy, and of mental capacity. There is pressing need 
 for the most rigorous economy in all of them. How can 
 we so employ and apportion them as to get the best re- 
 sults for the State? 
 
 Good carpenters are one of the primary necessities 
 of any society. My old carpenter was produced by the 
 simple process of thoroughly teaching him his trade 
 and his duty to his neighbour, while he was very young, 
 and then leaving him to get his higher education for 
 himself. At the age of sixteen he was probably doing 
 twelve hours a day useful work for the State. And he 
 lived to a good old age. 
 
 I do not propose to revert to a system of universal 
 education on that basis. Any child with quite excep- 
 tional mental ability should be given an opportunity 
 
18 Patriotism and 
 
 to develop it in any way that may most be useful to the 
 State, and even to develop it quite independently of 
 any services he may be able to render the State. Chil- 
 dren of mental ability considerably above the average 
 should also be selected, as no doubt they already are, 
 for appropriate higher education. For unquestionably 
 we shall be amply repaid for any expenditure we may 
 lavish upon them. 
 
 Of the remaining mass, that is the vast majority of 
 children, the boys should be carefully divided into 
 groups, according to their indicated capacity for dif- 
 ferent kinds of physical employment, or for occupa- 
 tions which do not call for the possession of much gen- 
 eral or special knowledge, or for the exercise of any 
 conspicuous mental powers. They should be given as 
 much general education as would be almost certain to 
 prove useful to them in their probable occupation. 
 They should be given ample opportunities for higher 
 education, if they chose to avail themselves of it. But 
 higher education should not be forced upon any of them. 
 
 All the boys should be thoroughly drilled and taught 
 the first elements of soldiering, just enough to fit them 
 for further training in the defence of their country, if 
 that dread duty should be forced upon them. For by 
 the neglect of this obvious part of Popular Education, 
 England is at this hour pouring out her children's blood 
 in torrents of sacrifice, which may prove to be more low- 
 ering to the future vitality of our race than even the 
 cruel and hideous factory system. 
 
 If it is denied that some measure of such training 
 will be required of us in future, I will only say that 
 as the stern lesson of the Boer War was shouted at Eng- 
 land's deaf ears in vain, so in vain has this latter and 
 more terrible lesson been written for us in fire, and 
 
Popular Education 19 
 
 tears, and blood of our dearest and bravest. In vain will 
 you bring in measures of Popular Education. Educate 
 us how you will. Teach us what you please. It mat- 
 ters not. We cannot learn. 
 
 For granted the monstrous impossibility that Ger- 
 many should win this war, all the forces of civilization 
 will still have to be raised against her in ceaseless in- 
 surrection. And granted that we gain a decisive vic- 
 tory, we and our present Allies shall find ourselves the 
 arbiters and chief supervisors of the destinies of forty- 
 six nations and communities, each with its own separate 
 aims, ambitions, jealousies, and intrigues. Do we real- 
 ize what that means ? 
 
 Doubtless a long peace will ensue. After the Israe- 
 lites had exhausted themselves and their neighbours in 
 a bloody struggle "the land had rest for forty years." 
 And up to the present, this seems to be human nature's 
 limit of endurable abstinence from fighting. After a 
 great war humanity always promises itself the millen- 
 nium. But this time we say the millennium is assured, 
 and is positively within sight. There it lies, smiling 
 with endless peace and universal brotherhood and hap- 
 piness, as soon as this war is ended. 
 
 If a watertight League of Nations can be devised, 
 and got to work, it will tend to promote immediate 
 peace, and may possibly secure it for shall we say 
 forty years? Is Germany to come in? Do we know 
 so little of human nature, as not to foresee that im- 
 mediately there will be currents of separate interest, 
 jealousies, intrigues, disruptions, probably leading to 
 two main divided parties of nations; not necessarily 
 leading to immediate war, but surely emphasizing the 
 necessity of keeping some body of armed force ? Even 
 if Germany were left out, the same conditions of af- 
 
20 Patriotism and 
 
 fairs would be brought about in the course of time. In 
 any case, England proposes to take a leading part in 
 overlooking the destinies of forty-six nations and com- 
 munities, all with their own separate and conflicting 
 interests and ambitions; and, if necessary, to enforce 
 them to keep the peace. How is that to be done with- 
 out holding some considerable national armament al- 
 ways in readiness? 
 
 Doubtless, too, the ascendancy of democracy will, on 
 the whole, tend towards peace in the immediate future. 
 Never again will a blasphemous and murderous cdbotin 
 have it in his power to nod and devastate the wide earth 
 for his glory. But democracies will fight when they 
 press upon each other and their interests clash. And 
 this is likely to happen more and more frequently as 
 the fertile spaces of the world become more and more 
 occcupied. 
 
 Again, democracies are apt to become inflamed 
 against each other for no very wise reasons. It might 
 be well for our working classes to note that a great 
 number of the Russian proletariat seem to be inspired 
 with a greater hatred of England than of Germany. 
 
 Granted that a forty years' peace is probable, who can 
 ensure it ? Almost every wide forecast made before and 
 after the war was proved to be wrong; in most cases 
 wildly, absurdly, and perniciously wrong. Who can 
 foretell the disposition of power, the relations of na- 
 tions towards each other, the shape of large events, the 
 drift of the world's affairs in twenty years' time from 
 to-day? That is, at the time when the boys who are 
 now to be brought under the new Education Act, will 
 be approaching the prime of early manhood, and will 
 be most fit to render active service to the State. If 
 anyone had told us twenty years ago, that of the boys 
 

 Popular Education 21 
 
 then flocking to our Board schools, every one would be 
 conscripted in a last desperate necessity to offer his 
 life for his country, we should have laughed at him 
 and counted him a madman. We did laugh at those 
 who warned us of our peril. 
 
 If one could gain the fulfilment of a single wish, it 
 would surely be that not one of the little urchins, who 
 now and in the years to come, will troop into our schools, 
 in quiet village streets where rooks are cawing, and in 
 black, misty towns where factories and furnaces are 
 roaring that not one of these little urchins should 
 be called upon to shed a drop of his blood, or to spill 
 the blood of his fellow man ; that no occasion may arise 
 for them to take up the stern duty which their elder 
 brothers and fathers are now fulfilling with such match- 
 less valour and fortitude. And indeed we have good 
 reason to hope that the generation which will come un- 
 der your Education Act, will have very small oppor- 
 tunity for the active practice of war. 
 
 But are we sure ? In the vast complexity of human 
 affairs, no matter what victory we may gain, is it 
 certain that the war may not leave large and secret 
 legacies of irreconcilable dissension amongst the na- 
 tions? Who can say what may be the situation and 
 the necessities of England in twenty years that again 
 it may not be one of extreme peril ? It is to meet the 
 exigencies and demands of 1940-1970 that you are 
 educating our children to-day. After the war, all may 
 look fair for a cloudless peace. But the thunder-clap 
 so often bursts upon the nations from a clear sky. In 
 any case, if England continues to hold a high and lead- 
 ing position, she will find herself largely responsible 
 for looking after forty-six nations and communities. 
 And if her voice is to have any authority, there must 
 
22 Patriotism and 
 
 be behind it the power to enforce her decisions. Hav- 
 ing failed to insure our house, wouldn't it be well, now 
 that it is almost burnt down, to insure our new house, 
 even though there may no present prospect of another 
 big fire? 
 
 Therefore, even with the millennium dawning some- 
 where just behind the hills, I advance the quite mon- 
 strous proposal that all our boys should be thoroughly 
 drilled, and taught the rudiments of soldiering just 
 enough to make it a fairly easy matter to fit them, if 
 called upon, to take up arms quickly for the defence 
 of their country. I urge that this be made a part of 
 Popular Education. I am aware that I am asking for 
 something ridiculous, outrageous, impossible. May the 
 future prove it so ! 
 
 I will say but one word as to the good results upon 
 the health of the boys, and as to the value of the dis- 
 cipline, and the habit of prompt obedience which would 
 follow such training. Everyone knows the worth of an 
 old sailor or an old soldier when work has to be done, 
 or trust has to be reposed. Discipline and prompt obe- 
 dience are the saviours of the nation in times of war, 
 as we are finding out. They are of sovereign value 
 in times of peace if we would but learn it. To obtain 
 them, to make them instinctive and operative amongst 
 all our boys, it would be worth while to make some 
 sacrifice of what is called higher education. 
 
 With regard to our girls every one must gratefully 
 acknowledge the splendid response that they have made 
 to the national call upon them to take up new and 
 difficult occupations. And it is probable that much of 
 their alertness and varied ability may be placed to the 
 credit of Popular Education. It is likely that the war 
 will change in many ways the tastes and aims and out- 
 
Popular Education 23 
 
 look of English girls, and will tend to develop new 
 types. But until they can persuade Nature to release 
 them from the primal curse of Eve ; the very large ma- 
 jority of our girls must, for very safety and surety of 
 the continuance of our race, accept the career of wife- 
 hood and motherhood. And with this career inevitahly 
 marked out for them, they should all he thoroughly 
 taught, as early as possihle, the very fine arts of cook- 
 ery, needlework, household management, the care of 
 children, and other domestic accomplishments, together 
 with a rough general knowledge of medicine, and the 
 elements of physiology. All "general" education should 
 be postponed until these are thoroughly learned as the 
 foundation of a girl's education. 
 
 Have not these necessary domestic accomplishments 
 been more and more increasingly neglected during the 
 years that Popular Education has been in force ? Can 
 you find in England to-day one girl who takes a delight 
 in needlework, for fifty that could be found a few 
 generations ago ? Needlework is an art of the greatest 
 use and also of the greatest ornament in the home. 
 Many other indoor activities of kindred usefulness 
 have been neglected, or altogether cast aside. 
 
 I do not say there have not been many compensations. 
 But when, taking only two instances out of a hundred, 
 we find that such primary, necessary, and universal oc- 
 cupations as household carpentry and needlework are 
 in a state of neglect and decay, may we not be sure that 
 there is something vicious in our system of Popular 
 Education? Are we not confirmed in our suspicions 
 that "general" education is often the enemy of that 
 special and more important education which prepares 
 and fits us to do our own individual work with all dili- 
 gence, honesty, care, and thoroughness ? And, with the 
 
24 Patriotism and Education 
 
 greatest respect, may I be allowed to enlarge your dic- 
 tum on the matter, and make it read as follows: 
 
 "No country in the long run suffers an economic in- 
 jury from an improvement in the general education of 
 its population provided that the thorough training of 
 its members in their individual work, and in their 
 duty to the State, is first made secure." 
 
 I leave the matter to your careful and searching 
 judgment. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 (April May 1918) 
 
 POPULAB EDUCATION AS IT BEVEALS ITSELF IN OTJB 
 
 PLAY 
 
 The Higher Education of our masses at picture palaces and 
 popular theatres Its effect upon conduct and character Grad- 
 ual disappearance of Shakespeare from the British stage Dull 
 imbecility and licentiousness of our popular entertainments- 
 Hideous exhibition by chorus girls "Then you think I'm a 
 whore" Popular Education and the quality of our stage dia- 
 logue Slang and its functions The orgy at the beginning of 
 the war The bishops get fidgetty Rosy Twaddle, Holy Twad- 
 dle, and Revue Advice to bishops and clergymen as advertisers 
 of plays The wisdom of good tomfoolery Actors and actresses, 
 scullery maids, and dungcart emptiers Children on our stage 
 Discouragement of Shakespeare by new Education Act Virtual 
 prohibition of five of his most popular plays Our greatest ac- 
 tresses educated on and by the stage Early training in their 
 craft necessary to make good actors and carpenters French mid- 
 dle classes sound and acute critics of plays Children with a 
 native talent for the stage Child supernumeraries Many of 
 them better in the theatre than at home Evils and abuses of 
 the stage caused and multiplied by zealous ignorant bigots Invi- 
 tation to them to abstain from pecking and kicking at the the- 
 atre Connection between Popular Education and present de- 
 gradation of our stage Elizabethan audiences Their lack of 
 Popular Education and consequent ability to understand and en- 
 joy Shakespeare Shakespeare's real home the English theatre- 
 Appeal to Minister of Education to aid in getting him back 
 there. 
 
 HAVING tested our present system of Popular 
 Education by the quality of the workmanship it 
 seems to produce, if not in all occupations, yet in some 
 
 25 
 
26 Patriotism and 
 
 of the most important, we may go on to apply to it 
 another and even surer test. We may ask what kind 
 of play and amusement does it encourage, or allow our 
 multitudes to provide for themselves in their leisure 
 hours ? 
 
 There is no surer guide to the general level of edu- 
 cation in a people, to their mental hahits, tastes, and 
 native capacities, their moral and intellectual fibre, 
 than the form and quality of their popular amusements. 
 Here, even more than in their daily work, they betray 
 themselves. For their work is mainly forced upon 
 them; their play they choose for themselves. You can 
 nearly always sum up a man if you know what amuses 
 him. 
 
 While you are preparing to give our masses increas- 
 ing doses of "general" and "higher" education, they 
 are already giving themselves the main part of their 
 "higher" education at picture palaces, music halls, and 
 theatres, from cheap fiction, and from the daily and 
 weekly papers. I mean that part of their education 
 which does really occupy and exercise their minds, 
 which inflames their emotions, shapes their ideals, il- 
 lumines and colours their views of life, and guides 
 their daily conduct. Every one of us, according to his 
 tastes, inclinations, or natural mental capacity, gives 
 to himself, or wins for himself, nearly all the education 
 that is operative upon his life and conduct. And this 
 secondary education at films and music halls, and in 
 sixpenny novels, which is the education our people 
 give themselves, when they spend their own money in- 
 stead of the nation's this secondary education is far 
 more operative upon conduct, and is of far more im- 
 portance in moulding their characters than the greater 
 
Popular Education 27 
 
 part of what you are teaching them in your schools. 
 It is more operative and more stimulating because it 
 instantly and strongly stirs their emotions, and engages 
 their sympathies. It satisfies their natural tastes, and 
 is therefore digested and assimilated without effort. 
 It is far more vivid and real and alive to the great mass 
 of our population, than the courses that you are giving 
 them in your continuation classes. 
 
 It is obviously and necessarily on the level of their 
 mental capacity. It is indeed the best and surest 
 gauge of the level of their average mental capacity. 
 And while much of the "higher" education that you 
 are giving to our populace wanders out of the minds of 
 most of them, or is tucked away as mere dead fact, 
 this secondary education which they are giving them- 
 selves, and which they do really assimilate, builds up 
 their permanent mental fabric, informs their character, 
 and prompts their habits and conduct. And because 
 this secondary education, which they provide at their 
 own expense, is so potent and absorbing, so possessive 
 of their thoughts f or this reason I am inclined to think 
 that much of your secondary education is likely to be 
 wasted upon the great mass of them. When they have 
 been well prepared for their primary duty of doing 
 thoroughly their own individual work in the world 
 work which in the coming generation must necessarily 
 be strenuous and exhausting to their general powers of 
 body and mind have the overwhelming majority of 
 them a surplus of time and mental energy to indulge 
 very largely in both kinds of secondary education 
 the secondary education which you are forcing upon 
 them, and the secondary education which you may 
 be sure they will amply provide for themselves in the 
 
28 Patriotism and 
 
 form of amusement ? It is this latter kind of secondary 
 education which will have by far the greater influence 
 upon their character and conduct. 
 
 To build up the character of its citizens to a high 
 level, to train them in right conduct, is surely the su- 
 preme aim of Popular Education. 
 
 The point I wish to make is, that with this supreme 
 aim in view, it is far more important for the welfare 
 of the State, and far more beneficent to the masses 
 themselves, to give a wise direction and wise encourage- 
 ment to the secondary education which the people pro- 
 vide for themselves, than to enforce upon them all 
 a secondary education which is largely foreign to their 
 tastes, which in many cases draws off mental energies 
 that could be better employed, which is often outside 
 the possible sphere of their activities, and will be 
 either quickly forgotten, or left to rust in them unused. 
 Lest I should be mistaken, I repeat that I am most will- 
 ing, nay, anxious, that opportunities for the highest 
 education, and for winning the highest honours, should 
 be given to every child so far as this is consistent 
 with the general welfare of the State. But I reaffirm 
 the immense comparative importance of that secondary 
 education which the people provide for themselves in 
 the way of amusement, and as occupation for their 
 leisure hours. 
 
 I will merely glance at the inordinate amount of 
 time which in years past our populace wasted in look- 
 ing upon, and betting upon, games at football. Years 
 before the war this habit was scourged in memorable 
 words by the manliest of English writers and poets, 
 whose stern reproof was denounced at the time. But 
 his whip was badly needed on the slouching shoulders 
 that have since been pulled to "Attention" by the angry 
 
Popular Education 29 
 
 arrest of war, and should never again be allowed to re- 
 lax into sloth and lethargy. 
 
 It is, however, when we survey the evening amuse- 
 ments of the English people during the last ten or 
 fifteen years, that we get a true measure of the appar- 
 ent and transparent value of our present system of Pop- 
 ular Education. 
 
 May I impress upon your most serious attention, the 
 startling fact that concurrently with the wider spread 
 of Popular Education, Shakespeare has become more 
 and more unpopular on the English stage; until now, 
 for some seasons past, only occasional odd, scattered 
 performances of his plays have been given in out-of-the- 
 way places, for the most part by actors quite untrained 
 in the delivery of verse. However laudable in itself 
 it may be to give a few performances of Shakespeare 
 in the Waterloo Road, it is in reality the bitterest 
 comment on the general taste of London playgoers, and 
 a glaring exposure of our national contempt for Shake- 
 speare on the stage. When that is all we can offer, we 
 merely publish and emphasize the poverty and insol^ 
 vency of our Shakespearean drama. Our theatres both 
 in London and the provinces have never been so crowded 
 and so prosperous as since the outbreak of war. Yet 
 since the earlier months, when a few productions of 
 his war plays had short, unsuccessful runs, Shakespeare 
 has been practically absent from our national stage. 
 
 He has been absent from the English stage. But 
 he has not been absent from the German stage. In the 
 year before the war there were sixty-six companies 
 playing Shakespeare in Germany, and in Berlin eight 
 theatres put up twenty-five different Shakespearean 
 productions; while 1,104 representations were given 
 of "The Merchant of Venice" alone. Our English 
 
30 Patriotism and 
 
 record for that year is too contemptible to set down. 
 Our record since the war, compared with Germany's, 
 would prohably prove to be equally contemptible, equal- 
 ly shameful to us, and equally dishonouring to Shake- 
 speare. May not Germany well fling at us the taunt 
 that "if music hall and cinematograph England" had 
 been possessed with the spirit of Shakespeare, we should 
 long ago have won the war ? 
 
 Shakespeare is banished from the English stage. As 
 Popular Education has become universally operative, 
 Shakespeare has gradually disappeared, and is now 
 making an inglorious, unobserved, and possibly final 
 exit. 
 
 Enter Popular Education. Exit Shakespeare from 
 our theatres, unheeded and despised. That is an in- 
 dictment of our present system of Popular Education, 
 so severe in its implications, that no further evidence 
 is necessary. It is conclusive in itself. 
 
 May I dwell, with some insistence, upon the fact that 
 your new Education Bill is introduced at the very mo- 
 ment when the English populace, brought up under 
 our present system, and taught and nourished thereby, 
 has finally dismissed Shakespeare from being their chief 
 popular educator and entertainer in his own legitimate 
 class-room the theatre? Eor three hundred years he 
 has gloriously filled that post, and he is contemptuous- 
 ly dismissed as soon as Popular Education has had time 
 to influence and inform the masses, and very pointedly, 
 just as you bring in your new Education Bill. 
 
 Is this an unlucky coincidence? "Not at all. It is 
 what Goldsmith's bear-leader called a "concatenation ac- 
 cordingly." Fifty years ago, before the advent of 
 Popular Education, our middle-class young men in 
 London and the large towns, saw a great deal of 
 
Popular Education 31 
 
 Shakespeare in the theatre, studied him there, under- 
 stood him, were greatly amused by him, could quote 
 him largely, and could intelligently compare the varied 
 renderings of his great speeches by different actors. 
 In those days, every large town in England could see 
 six or eight, perhaps a dozen, plays of Shakespeare 
 every season, together with Sheridan's comedies and 
 other sterling stuff. Many of the parts were very 
 badly performed, but there was always some good act- 
 ing by actors who could speak blank verse, and knew 
 that it had to be delivered in a. different way from 
 modern slipshod slang. In places like Manchester 
 and Edinburgh quite remarkably good Shakespearean 
 acting was frequently to be seen. The little city of 
 Exeter, in one season of the seventies, saw more Shake- 
 epearean acting than London has seen for the last two 
 years. Sprung from these old traditions, Henry Irving, 
 before Popular Education had begun to guide the taste 
 of the masses in the theatre, started his series of memor- 
 able Shakespearean revivals at the Lyceum, and car- 
 ried them on in spite of the fact that under a regime 
 of universal Popular Education, Shakespeare was grad- 
 ually waning and dying. And now Popular Education 
 has done its perfect work, and Shakespeare is dead 
 in the only place where he will ever exercise a fruitful 
 influence upon the English masses the English the- 
 atre. 
 
 Shakespeare is dead in the English theatre, but he is 
 still alive in the German theatre even during the war, 
 so far as one can learn. 
 
 Shakespeare is dead in the English theatre, and with 
 him are dead our hopes of a living modern intellectual 
 drama. For he was our leader and standard-bearer. 
 He explored for us English character at its sources, 
 
32 Patriotism and 
 
 and held before us its best and truest and most en- 
 during types; he gave us to translate into terms of 
 modern life, stupendous displays of all the permanent 
 passions and moods of humanity in great and full de- 
 ploy; he taught us, not the cheap tricks of the play- 
 wright, but the sovereign art of the dramatist. We 
 have lost our great model, and with him our craft has 
 almost disappeared. We cannot hope for a worthy Eng- 
 lish national drama until Shakespeare is restored to 
 his place, as its perpetual fount of inspiration, and 
 source of intellectual and spiritual energy. 
 
 Shakespeare is dead in the English theatre. The 
 average playgoer to-day has not enough knowledge of 
 human nature to recognize the enduring truth of 
 Shakespeare's characters; not enough humour to enjoy 
 Shakespeare's rich comedy ; not enough serious purpose 
 in life to delight in Shakespeare's tragedy; not enough 
 patience to listen to Shakespeare's speeches ; not enough 
 mental energy to understand them; not enough educa- 
 tion to take pleasure in Shakespeare's poetry, and wit, 
 and the beauty and wisdom of his dialogue. To the 
 average playgoer to-day Shakespeare is largely incom- 
 prehensible a bore, a nuisance, an affliction. And 
 this after fifty years of Popular Education! The 
 average playgoers of fifty years ago did take some 
 pleasure in seeing Shakespeare, did to some extent 
 understand him, had some considerable knowledge of 
 him, and were not bored and baffled by him. 
 
 Shakespeare is dead in the English theatre. Who 
 or what has taken his place? 
 
 If I had a mortal enmity against some man of good 
 sense and sound education, who by good fortune knew 
 nothing of our present English theatres and music halls, 
 I would mercilessly sentence him to visit nightly the 
 
Popular Education 33 
 
 entertainments that are taking place there. I would 
 suppose him to have no knowledge of what he was 
 going to see, and I would set him to watch the audience 
 carefully, and to note what were the things that most 
 interested and amused them, the things that moved 
 them to raptures of applause. And I would then ask 
 him what kind of Popular Education the masses of them 
 must have received, and which had resulted in their 
 setting up for themselves such standards of amusement. 
 
 I wish I could induce you, sir, in the interests of 
 Popular Education, to visit our music halls and jnost 
 popular theatres. Let me again affirm that it is here 
 where our masses are getting the education that is most 
 operative upon their daily life, and conduct, and char- 
 acter. 
 
 In one or two of our better theatres you would find 
 an occasional play or sketch in which we can take 
 pride, as being not merely empty amusement, false sen- 
 timent, crude sensation, or veiled sensuality. Amongst 
 all our thousands of nightly entertainments, it would be 
 strange if we could not show some glimmers of serious 
 wit and wisdom. You would find much harmless fun 
 and nonsense. So far, good; inasmuch as they ease 
 overtaxed minds and bodies, and perhaps in some cases 
 afford a welcome relief from your continuation classes. 
 Provided fine and serious work is being done and seen 
 in the theatre, I am wholly in favour of giving the 
 masses large refreshing draughts of harmless fun and 
 nonsense. 
 
 How wise is good tomfoolery, how healthful, how life- 
 giving! But it must be good tomfoolery, that does 
 really ease the mind, and does not drug and besot, and 
 dull the faculties to the perception of what is of value 
 and meaning in life. 
 
34: Patriotism and 
 
 I think, sir, that if you, in your office as Minister of 
 Education, were to make constant visits to our theatres 
 and music halls, you would find that the bulk, the sta- 
 ple, of the education which, in the absence of any wise 
 government encouragement of this kind of higher edu- 
 cation, the people are there providing for themselves, 
 is mostly of a vulgar and banal sort, tending greatly 
 to their intellectual and spiritual degradation. 
 
 There is very little outward indecency ; though I have 
 heard a blazing popular comedian deliver lines of ill- 
 concealed filthiness, for which his hourly rate of pay 
 was probably ten times as much as you receive for su- 
 perintending the education of the kingdom. But un- 
 veiled indecency is very rare. There is very much less 
 of it than there was fifty years ago. In the lower 
 grades of entertainment there is undoubtedly a good 
 deal of improvement. Our lowest kinds of entertain- 
 ment have become more decorous, less frankly in- 
 decent, but probably more essentially vulgar and mean- 
 ingless: on the whole, perhaps lees amusing. The 
 higher forms of drama, everything that could give 
 mental exhilaration and intellectual enjoyment, every- 
 thing that could tend to encourage a great and serious 
 spirit in the nation, have been almost swept away from 
 our stage. Though under stress, we are splendidly 
 showing that this great and serious spirit is still dwell- 
 ing in us. 
 
 The bulk and staple of our middle-class and lower 
 middle-class entertainments are largely compact of dull 
 mediocrity, banality, tawdry sentiment, rank sensation, 
 horribly vulgar sensual suggestion, and sheer imbecil- 
 ity. Frank riotous indecency would, in many cases, 
 be more tolerable, for it would at least have a savour 
 
Popular Education 35 
 
 of vital human nature, even if a rank, disagreeable 
 savour. 
 
 When the war had been in progress for long over 
 two years, and we were in deadly grapple for our 
 lives, I saw at a West End theatre a large troupe of 
 chorus girls, all uniformed as men, in tightly-fitting 
 coats, cut short with little flaps, so as to display the 
 least attractive part of their bodies, and set off with 
 other items of man's attire in garish colours; the 
 whole costume being a pattern and model of vile, ugly, 
 senseless, bad taste. The 'girls had been drilled to per- 
 form in unison a series of quite meaningless operations 
 and evolutions, waving their arms, lifting their legs, 
 placing their bodies in ridiculous ungraceful attitudes, 
 and sometimes flaunting unconsciously that terribly 
 conspicuous and least attractive part of their bodies 
 which the costume seemed chiefly designed to "exploit." 
 The hideous exhibition was accompanied by music that 
 could only be described as appropriate to it. I had 
 come into the theatre reading of horrible battle carnage 
 in Flanders. My heart sank within me, and I hurried 
 away from this more dreadful scene. 
 
 That sickening masquerade of idiocy and bad tastq 
 had cost some thousands of pounds to "produce." It 
 is a not unfair sample of what has been a staple of 
 English amusement at many of our popular, and at 
 some of our most fashionable, theatres for many years 
 past. Many millions of money have been wasted 
 merely to degrade and hebetate the playgoing public, 
 and to make them unfit to understand Shakespeare, 
 and whatever might give them intellectual delight in 
 drama. A dozen years before the war, I pointed out 
 that the money so spent would have bought us an en- 
 
36 Patriotism and 
 
 tire fleet. It would have gone far towards raising 
 that extra army corps or two, whereby Lord French 
 might have saved Lille. 
 
 The Lord Chamberlain licenses the prodigal display 
 of this and kindred idiocy, and until lately has for- 
 bidden Sophocles, Ibsen, Maeterlinck, and Brieux. The 
 press, many of the leading London daily papers, almost 
 invariably approve this style of entertainment, praise 
 it lavishly in terms of sympathy and affection, rarely 
 condemn even its most vicious excesses, and judge it by 
 a standard that leaves no hope for any serious modern 
 drama to spring up amongst us. 
 
 If I can persuade you, sir, as I hope I may (seeing 
 how intimately this matter is connected with Popular 
 Education) if I can persuade you to visit our popular 
 places of entertainment, I will ask you to take particu- 
 lar note of the style and quality of the dialogue that 
 is spoken on our stage, not only in these pieces, but in 
 those that have a dramatic form. It is to be always 
 remembered that whatever success may be justly due 
 to dresses, scenery, and other legitimate aids to our 
 enjoyment in the theatre it is to be remembered that 
 it is only the actual dialogue that gives permanent 
 worth and value to a play. By his dialogue alone a 
 dramatist lives; by its vigour, precision, simplicity, 
 brilliancy, or fitness to the character and the situation. 
 Though, to obtain success in the theatre, the dramatist 
 must have many other qualities and accomplishments. 
 
 What is the kind and quality of the average dialogue 
 that is spoken on the English stage to-day? Here I 
 hope you will allow that Popular Education is directly 
 and crucially concerned. Eor surely if its effects are 
 visible and measurable anywhere, it will be in our 
 popular theatres, by watching what modes of talk, 
 
Popular Education 37 
 
 what kind of dialogue are most relished by the au- 
 dience; what they tolerate, what they endure, what 
 they reject. 
 
 We have seen that they now utterly reject Shake- 
 speare, though until lately they have allowed him to 
 bore them mildly, when he has been smothered up in 
 irrelevant scenery, gorgeous dresses, music, dances, and 
 processions. To take a much lower level, English play- 
 goers forty years ago delighted in the burlesques of 
 Byron and Burnand, which had many amusing scenes 
 of parody and often contained genuine wit. Their 
 dialogue, if not of any great style or distinction, was 
 far better English than is generally to be heard in our 
 modern musical plays. We have a school of modern 
 light comedy which is incomparably better than any- 
 thing of its kind that was to be seen on the English 
 stage forty years ago. Its dialogue has great charm, 
 ease, naturalness. It generally lacks that underlying 
 seriousness which is the mark of the greatest comedy. 
 It avoids all but drawing-room topics and issues. There- 
 fore it doesn't cut into our national life. Its vogue 
 and influence are almost limited to London. 
 
 If we examine carefully the average dialogue that is 
 spoken in our popular theatres, alike fashionable, mid- 
 dle class, and lower class, we shall find that most of it 
 is slovenly, uncolloquial, and insincere. The vast pro- 
 portion of it is very bad English. While, in the class 
 of popular entertainment that has lately swamped our 
 theatres to the exclusion of all serious work, the aver- 
 age conversation is often fitted to the mouths of a 
 party of rowdy shopboys frolicking with disreputable 
 minxes on a bank holiday. 
 
 I will give a sample. The following sentence was 
 spoken in a fashionable West End theatre, in a piece 
 
38 Patriotism and 
 
 that had no connected story or discoverable plot ; where 
 none of the personages, so far as I could discern, acted 
 from any intelligible motive, or had any reason for be- 
 ing in the places where they found themselves. There 
 was a succession of bright tawdry scenes, a display of 
 gorgeous dresses, a crowd of chorus girls, and several 
 star performers of both sexes, who appeared in dif- 
 ferent disguises throughout this disordered maze and 
 revel of insanity. The leading comedian was making 
 advances to the leading lady. 
 
 "I suppose you mean to infer that I'm hot stuff," 
 she replied. 
 
 I am fastidious in the matter of dialogue, and I claim 
 that this line should have read, "Then you think I'm a 
 whore." 
 
 That is good Shakespearean English, and it says 
 what she meant in exactly half the number of sylla- 
 bles. It has also the merit of implying a reproof 
 instead of a sanction for further impropriety. 
 
 The word I have used is a plain, coarse one, but it is 
 not really so coarse or so filthy as the term actually 
 used. Many plain, coarse things exist in the world, 
 and plain, coarse words are necessary to denote them; 
 unless we would deceive ourselves and corrupt our 
 language. Integrity of speech is the sign of integrity 
 of character. The right use of words means the right 
 perception of facts. The right perception of facts 
 gives a power of control over such of them as are 
 amendable to our control. English people always think 
 they have escaped from an ugly fact when they have 
 merely escaped from an ugly word. Our present ca- 
 lamities and misfortunes can be directly traced to our 
 inveterate habit of supposing ourselves to be in the 
 
Popular Education 39 
 
 region of facts when we are merely in the region of 
 words. 
 
 "I suppose you mean to infer that I'm hot stuff." 
 The words were spoken by a very accomplished and 
 beautiful woman, a born high comedienne of a rare 
 type, who in any healthy condition of our stage would 
 be delighting educated audiences in such parts as Eosa- 
 lind and Lady Teazle. And she was serving out to a 
 thoughtless crowd a nauseous stew compounded of folly, 
 inanity, vulgarity, and such disguised or undisguised 
 impropriety as I have quoted. It is heart-breaking to 
 think of the numbers of trained actors and actresses who 
 are defrauding the drama of their most valuable art, 
 and are being "exploited" to degrade the public taste, 
 and to corrupt the English language. There is a wealth 
 of potential talent which is being constantly drained 
 off to this- debasing service. 
 
 "I suppose you mean to infer that I'm hot stuff." 
 Sir, I claim that this is a fair sample of much of the 
 dialogue that is nightly spoken in the majority of the 
 theatres of our country, and this to the immense ap- 
 proval and enjoyment of crowded audiences. I do not 
 say that there are not better things to be found, which 
 if they do not tend to the purity and vigour of our 
 mother tongue, at least do not corrupt it. But a popu- 
 lar English audience seems to laugh at anything except 
 wit The last time I saw "The School for Scandal" 
 there was scarcely a laugh except at some interpolated 
 gags. Yet one would think that Sheridan's dialogue 
 had a perennial power of amusement, even for the least 
 educated person. But Sheridan has vanished from 
 our stage in company with Shakespeare. 
 
 "I suppose you mean to infer that I'm hot stuff." 
 
40 Patriotism and 
 
 That is a fair sample of the dialogue that most 
 amuses an average popular audience. What kind and 
 what level of Popular or General Education does it im- 
 ply? 
 
 Surely it is one of the first concerns of Popular Edu- 
 cation to teach our children the right use of our native 
 tongue. The quality of the dialogue most approved and 
 enjoyed by the vast audiences in our popular theatres, 
 is a measure of the quality of the training they have re- 
 ceived in English grammar, speech, and literature. It 
 has always been a cherished duty of the French thea- 
 tre to preserve the purity of the French language. And 
 the good effect of this is shown in the diction and man- 
 ners of the French lower and middle classes. The al- 
 most unanimous enjoyment by our vast theatre-going 
 public of such sloppy, pert, and vicious dialogue as I 
 have quoted is, I respectfully submit, sir, a grave re- 
 proach to that part of our system of Popular Education 
 which is responsible for teaching them the English lan- 
 guage. A man's vocabulary is the direct expression of 
 the quality and the value of the education he has re- 
 ceived. My old carpenter had a far stronger, nobler 
 power of speech than the vast majority of the audiences 
 in our popular theatres, brought up under Popular 
 Education. His vocabulary was certainly very limited ; 
 but it was a clear, simple, racy vernacular, dealing ha- 
 bitually with realities. 
 
 I do not propose to banish slang from the drama. It 
 will always be current in daily talk, and the theatre 
 naturally and rightly adopts it in like measure. Slang 
 is necessary to the growth of a language, and is always 
 one of its feeders. A language without slang is a dead 
 language. An abundance of curt, virile slang is a sign 
 of rude, boisterous vitality in a language. That very 
 
Popular Education 41 
 
 small part of the current slang of the day which is 
 found to be serviceable, creeps into the language, as 
 parvenus creep into good society, gains an acknowledged 
 position, and becomes an approved mode of speech. The 
 rest drops speedily into disuse. Slang is also useful 
 for the correction of prigs, and for the annoyance of 
 superior persons. But an abundance of meaningless, 
 vicious slang is the sign of general stupidity, befuddle- 
 ment, and mental depravity. The mere fact that some 
 slang is spoken in our theatres is not in itself a sign 
 of degradation in our drama. The evil is that a pe- 
 culiarly noxious kind of slang has become the staple 
 dialogue of our national form of entertainment, that it 
 is almost universal, that it is spoken to the virtual exclu- 
 sion of good sense and fine feeling, and to the wide 
 corruption of our native tongue. This kind of slang is 
 sometimes used in our fashionable comedies with the 
 implied sympathy and approval of the author and audi- 
 ence. It is part of the business of comedy to correct 
 bad habits of speech, by exposing them to ridicule. 
 When vicious forms of slang are put into the mouths of 
 characters designed to be sympathetic, they are made 
 popular; the value of our ordinary coins of speech is 
 lowered, and a defaced and debased verbal and mental 
 currency is sent into wide circulation. 
 
 A man of sterling character, good sense, and sound 
 mental fibre, even if of limited education, rarely uses 
 and rarely enjoys slang. Slang is habitually used only 
 by young folk, and by ignorant, foolish, empty persons 
 of low intelligence. Therefore, except in the portrayal 
 of quite young people, slang should never be used by the 
 dramatist without some implied censure or ridicula or 
 at least a tolerant contempt of the character speaking ^ 
 
 The tendency in the theatre towards flabby, 
 
42 Patriotism and 
 
 dered speech and mental confusion which I have dwelt 
 upon, had been gathering force for many years before 
 the war, keeping pace with the spread of Popular Edu- 
 cation. The English theatre was and is afflicted by the 
 same disease as the English nation It dare not and it 
 will not face realities. Everything unpleasant or of 
 serious import is to be shunned. Many times in past 
 years, I have gone aside from the immediate subject 
 of a lecture or essay, to point out that the immense 
 vogue of a wholly frivolous, banal, and meaningless 
 form of theatrical entertainment, was a warning and 
 sure forerunner of national calamity. Lecturing at the 
 Koyal Institution in 1904, I said: "The careless dis- 
 organization and confusion of thought that reign in 
 our drama, are all of a piece with the careless disor- 
 ganization and confusion of thought that reign in other 
 and more important matters; in our national religion; 
 in our national defences; in our national industries. 
 It is all due to the same causes: to our want of alert- 
 ness ; our want of drill ; our want of wit ; our resolute 
 national hypocrisy; our national insensibility to ideas; 
 our national hatred of ideals. . . . Will it be any great 
 wonder if we go down in the next European tussle ?" * 
 Often before and since, I have vainly pointed out 
 that while the growing inanity and empty vulgarity of 
 our most popular theatrical entertainments was a dis- 
 grace in itself, it yet had greater significance as a warn- 
 ing of national aberration and disintegration. There 
 was a co-ordination of our inability to think clearly, 
 sincerely, and seriously in the theatre, and our inability 
 to think clearly, sincerely, and seriously about the great 
 concerns of our national existence. The Germans per- 
 
 1 "Foundations of a National Drama." See alao other kin- 
 dred passages in the same volume. 
 
Popular -Education 43 
 
 ceived this, and since the war have jeeringly pointed it 
 out to us. They plainly saw that as we were gradually 
 becoming destitute of common sense and incapable of 
 serious thought in the theatre, so we were gradually 
 becoming destitute of common sense and incapable of 
 serious thought in shaping the destinies of our empire. 
 The French, with their bright, clear intelligence, have 
 also perceived it. When we take our masterpieces to 
 Paris, we merely baffle and bewilder French critics and 
 playgoers. M. Adolphe Brisson in "Le Temps" com- 
 plains of the puerility of the English plays he has seen, 
 and of their lack of relationship to real life. He won- 
 ders how such childish stuff either pantomime or sick- 
 ly sentimental can please the public of London or of 
 ]STew York. With the Germans pressing hard towards 
 Calais as I write, the English nation is at last obliged 
 to face realities. Let us hope that the English theatre 
 will be obliged to follow suit. 
 
 Immediately after the outbreak of war, there was a 
 wide and almost universal expansion of the form of 
 leatrical entertainment that I have described. The 
 folly, frivolity, and dull banality of musical comedy, 
 had for some time been giving place to a still more wit- 
 less and purposeless form of Neo-Tomf oolery ; even 
 more empty of good sense, good taste, and good feeling ; 
 full of foolish muddled thought and pernicious entice- 
 ment; the racketty gambol of a ribaudred nag on a 
 jaunt towards the brotheL 
 
 ~No one who is not led astray by his whimsies, will 
 be so foolish as to suppose that the theatre will ever be 
 entirely cleared of immorality. Let us in these days 
 have the courage to face and to acknowledge realities. 
 Theatres of a certain class will always have subterra- 
 nean passages to the brothel, and the loweat houses 
 
44 Patriotism and 
 
 will Have more or less open access. The Puritans tried 
 to avoid this evil by doing away with theatres alto- 
 gether, thereby calling into existence the festival of un- 
 disguised indecency on the Restoration stage. But the 
 Restoration comedies are purged of much of their bad 
 effect by the brilliancy of their wit, and the force of 
 their portraiture of town life. I confess myself a. great 
 admirer of the wit and characterization of Congreve, 
 Vanbrugh, and Colley Gibber. I do not think their 
 comedies had nearly so much evil influence upon their 
 audiences as many of our present entertainments have 
 upon our modern audiences. When we are intent upon 
 watching a well-drawn character, or listening to witty 
 talk, we are drawn away from sensual suggestion. 
 
 The Puritans tried to close the theatres altogether. 
 That is allowed to be impossible to-day. It is startling, 
 though on second thoughts it is seen to be quite nat- 
 ural, to find that the silly, holy horror of the acted 
 drama, which has always been one of our pet national 
 whimsies, should lead to the establishment amongst us, 
 as our national evening pastime, of the most frivolous, 
 futile, and perhaps most morally degrading form of en- 
 tertainment that has ever wasted and soiled the leisure 
 of a civilized nation. The opposition that would meet 
 any Government proposal to guide and inspire the 
 Popular Education of the people in the theatre, is a 
 chief reason that England, with her native aptitude for 
 great and serious drama, with her record of past proud 
 leadership in this civilizing and humanizing art, has 
 to-day a national theatre so intellectually bankrupt and 
 imbecile that its main productions are laughing-stocks 
 to our enemies, and objects of bewilderment and con- 
 tempt to our Allies. 
 
 The outbreak of the war seemed to provoke an orgy 
 
Popular Education 45 
 
 of extravagant, incoherent, vicious gaiety in our popu- 
 lar theatres. The scenery became more garish and cost- 
 ly ; larger troupes of chorus girls in scantier dresses pa- 
 raded more and more of their physical charms ; blazing 
 popular comedians paraded less and less of their intel- 
 lectual powers. One production was advertised to cost 
 15,000. 
 
 The London variety stage burst into a romp of flam- 
 ing licentiousness. There were mutterings of disap- 
 proval. Somebody called out for the Lord Chamber- 
 lain. One manager defended himself by saying that he 
 had the Lord Chamberlain's licence, without intending 
 thereby to demonstrate the Lord Chamberlain's impo- 
 tent acquiescence and official approval of this class of 
 entertainment. Another manager defended himself by 
 saying that his "show" was "clean," without giving any 
 definition of the word, and without admitting that of 
 two evils, it is much better to be dirty than imbecile. 
 
 The bishops got fidgetty. Clergymen occasionally 
 look in at the theatre, sometimes to reprove its immo- 
 rality; sometimes to beam on a piece of rosy twaddle; 
 sometimes to advertise widely, the soul-saving qualities 
 of some comic travesty of religion, such as "Have you 
 found Jesus ?" by Mr. Godly Slime. 
 
 The bishops got fidgetty. It was pointed out to them 
 that though there might be flaming licentiousness at 
 some theatres, there was a compensating amount of 
 rosy twaddle at other theatres. Upon hearing this, the 
 bishops seemed to be satisfied. They quieted down, and 
 the subject dropped. 
 
 We are used to these periodic eruptions of outraged 
 morality against the theatre. We never learn that flam- 
 ing licentiousness and rosy twaddle are the inevitable 
 counterparts of each other. We never learn that a sane, 
 
46 Patriotism and 
 
 sincere, intellectual drama is the enemy of them both, 
 and the best security for a wholesome, invigorating at- 
 mosphere in the theatre. 
 
 "No !" we cry out "Let all our plays be rosy twad- 
 dle! Let wax doll morality be decreed in all our the- 
 atres! Let our drama avoid all 'unpleasant' subjects! 
 Let it not dare to tell us unwelcome truths about our- 
 selves! Let it make no demand upon our serious 
 thought, and no criticism upon our vices ! Let it spurn 
 the realities of life!" 
 
 Having thus delivered ourselves, we go to sleep until 
 human nature revenges itself upon rosy twaddle, and 
 makes another defiant exhibition of all its ugly naked- 
 ness. 
 
 The bishops may be sure that an enforcement of rosy 
 twaddle will not banish licentiousness from our thea- 
 tres. Rather, by the natural law of reaction, rosy twad- 
 dle is likely to encourage an outbreak of licentiousness. 
 I do not wish to shut out rosy twaddle altogether from 
 our stage. Wholesome rosy twaddle may be necessary 
 for our growing girls, if they will go to theatres; as 
 wholesome adventure and stirring heroism are certainly 
 good for our growing boys. But rosy twaddle is not a 
 good preparation for the realities of life, even for 
 growing girls. And the present generation of them 
 will have to live in a world of cruel and piercing reali- 
 ties, and not in a dreamland of rosy twaddle. It is a 
 very difficult and thorny question. The onus lies upon 
 individual fathers and mothers, and will always lie 
 upon them. 
 
 If the bishops, by an occasional protest, or by their 
 occasional patronage of rosy twaddle, could succeed in 
 driving out immorality from the theatre, they would 
 only drive the moat of it to take shelter elsewhere 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 47 
 
 some of it perhaps in churches. If the bishops really 
 wish to raise our decadent and moribund drama, let 
 them not try to enforce a universal reign of rosy twad- 
 dle, but let them give their help and countenance to 
 establish the vogue of a national school of sincere and 
 serious modern drama and comedy, whose first aim shall 
 be to face the great realities of our national life and 
 character, and to tell us the truth about them in a way 
 that will amuse and interest thoughtful and educated 
 people of all classes. Let clergymen bestow the very 
 precious and welcome pecuniary aid of pious advertise- 
 ment and benediction upon plays of this class, and not 
 upon rosy twaddle stuffed with cheap false sentiment, 
 or upon holy twaddle of the "Have-you-found-Jesus" 
 type. The theatre is not the place to save men's souls. 
 It is the place to give us thoughtful amusement, to instil 
 a large and sane knowledge of life, to educate us in- 
 sensibly in the supreme science of wise living. Surely, 
 sir, this latter is the most necessary and most impor- 
 tant part of "general" education. The theatre at its 
 best is the most potent instrument of "general" educa- 
 tion. And the people will give it to themselves, if only 
 they can be rightly trained and led. 
 
 When Popular Education was introduced fifty years 
 ago, it might have been confidently prophesied, "This 
 will indirectly lead to a wide knowledge and apprecia- 
 tion of Shakespeare in his native home, the theatre. 
 This will train our populace to recognize and demand 
 the best the drama can give them." Alas ! As Popular 
 Education became more popular, Shakespeare became 
 more unpopular, until we have finally kicked him off 
 our stage. When we set out for battle, instead of call- 
 ing upon Shakespeare to fortify us with his patriotism, 
 to inflame us with his passion for England, to counsel 
 
48 Patriotism and 
 
 us from his stores of radiant wisdom, and to amuse 
 us with his rich, hearty humour instead of this, we 
 called for an obscene imp to tickle us with idiot quips, 
 and becks, and leers, and smirks, and to jig with us to 
 immeasurable jeopardy and sorrow and disaster. In- 
 stead of listening to the arousing music and thrilling 
 trumpets of Shakespeare's verse, we listened to a 
 crazy jingle of ragtime ditties and dances. Instead of 
 applauding the noble, vigorous speech of Shakespeare, 
 we applauded the fetid drivel of revue. 
 
 Has this nothing to do with the Popular Education 
 our nation has received, and is receiving ? Does it not 
 point to something wrong in its conception, or in its 
 matter, or in its standards, or in its methods, or in its 
 instruments, or in its recipients? 
 
 I affirm that there is the most intimate connexion 
 between Popular Education and the present intellectual 
 degradation of nine-tenths of our popular amusements. 
 England, as I write, hangs insecurely over a gulf of ir- 
 retrievable ruin, not, indeed, because we have rejected 
 Shakespeare from our theatres, but because in other and 
 greater matters we have also rejected high standards ; 
 because as in the drama, so in matters of national life 
 or death, we have fobbed ourselves with words, and 
 stuffed our heads with trash, and our souls with insin- 
 cerities. Our hope now is in the valour and tenacity 
 of our soldiers. How like a granite fortress they stand ? 
 invulnerable. How splendid they are in battle. That 
 is because in battle they have to be led, and they have to 
 obey. Then the greatness of their strength appears. 
 
 ]STo one would grudge the brave fellows who have 
 been hourly risking their lives for us, whatever merri- 
 ment and frolic may serve to relax them and refit them 
 for their further dreadful struggle. The fierce excite- 
 
Popular Education 49 
 
 ment of the times explains, and perhaps excuses, a good 
 deal of frivolity and licentiousness. Physicians hold 
 the key to that. It is perhaps inevitable. But it is none 
 the less to he discouraged and deplored. 
 
 I have proclaimed myself a great lover of good tom- 
 foolery. But the tomfoolery seen and heard in English 
 theatres of recent years, has been for the most part such 
 bad, dull, witless, and, in some cases, such evil tomfool- 
 ery. There has, of course, been a considerable mixture 
 of clever and amusing stuff, and occasionally a rare 
 gem of parody, or of grotesque buffoonery. When near- 
 ly all the popular theatres in a nation are given up to 
 tomfoolery, we may surely look for an occasional relief 
 from the monotony of tawdry, vulgar, jiggetty non- 
 sense. But how comparatively rare it has been ! Sure- 
 ly any ordinary sensible man, aware of the value of 
 life and the seriousness of the times, who has visited 
 our most popular entertainments of late years, must 
 have agreed with the Preacher of old, "I said of laugh- 
 ter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it? It is bet- 
 ter to hear the rebuke of the wise than the song of fools. 
 As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh- 
 ter of fools. Madness is in their heart while they live, 
 and after that they go to the dead." 
 
 It has been claimed that these entertainments re- 
 fresh and exhilarate our soldiers on leave from the 
 front. I passionately deny that the greater part of the 
 tomfoolery at our popular theatres can refresh or ex- 
 hilarate anybody with a mind much above that of a 
 chimpanzee, or with tastes and habits of thought much 
 above those of a Whitechapel roysterer on Margate pier. 
 Good tomfoolery refreshes and exhilarates only a 
 healthy vigorous mind, and this only after it has tired 
 itself in strenuous exercise. Witless, sniggering, bla- 
 
50 Patriotism and 
 
 tant tomfoolery may give a kind of tipsy refreshment 
 and exhilaration to those whose habit or "general" edu- 
 cation makes them crave for it, as Eccles craved for 
 cool, refreshing gin. But that only shows what in- 
 grained tomfools they are. To pour the latest vulgar 
 slang and nonsense into minds already soaked with it, 
 is an occupation not worthy of our many fine and ac- 
 complished actors and actresses who are nightly engaged 
 in it, but worthy only of a scullery maid pouring greasy 
 dish-water down a sink, or of a farm labourer unloading 
 a dung-cart on to a manure heap. I wrong the scullery 
 maid and the farm labourer. They are doing clean and 
 useful work. 
 
 I passionately deny that stupid and vulgar tomfool- 
 ery can have any other effect than to befuddle and he- 
 betate the mind, to deaden its perception of what is ex- 
 cellent, and to slacken the ardours and resolves of duty 
 and patriotism. 
 
 I think I hear a mocking laugh from our grim enemy, 
 as he squats there with his eyes and guns cocked to- 
 wards Calais, jeering at "music hall" England, and 
 hugging himself to think that "if we had possessed the 
 spirit of Shakespeare we should long ago have won the 
 war." But he shall find that the spirit of Shakespeare 
 is again stirring in us, and in those thrice-armed breasts 
 that are beating back the flood of German savagery in 
 Flanders. 
 
 Let us suppose that on the outbreak of the war, the 
 Government, from some reason of economy, or from 
 some necessity of State, had put in force the Defence 
 of the Realm Act, and had decreed that for a year no 
 English theatre should play anything but Shakespeare, 
 and this with scenery already painted. I do not say 
 that such a measure was possible, or even advisable. But 
 
Popular Education 51 
 
 if, from national necessity, it had been passed and en- 
 forced, does anyone doubt that it would have corrected 
 and enormously raised the tastes of our theatre-goers, 
 that it would have given them a new high standard of 
 drama and comedy, that it would have developed in 
 many of them a love for what is best in our literature, 
 enlarged their views of life, quickened their patriotism, 
 and made them more fit to perform their duties to their 
 country ? Does anyone doubt that it would have given 
 us a higher standard of acting, and discovered actors 
 with a special gift for interpreting our national drama ? 
 Does anyone doubt that such a measure would have 
 promoted a wise sparing of time and money? That it 
 would have saved all those hundreds of thousands, per- 
 haps millions, of pounds that were spent for the most 
 part in wasteful extravagance on scenery and dresses 
 that are now on the dust-heap and in the rag-bag ? That 
 it would have saved many of the millions of pounds 
 that were paid to look at tawdry spectacles? That it 
 would have saved all those yet more precious golden 
 hours that were spent in listening to rag-time jingles 
 and choice bad English ? That it would have filled our 
 leisure hours with wise, fruitful amusement that we 
 need not be ashamed to recall? 
 
 Does anyone say that it would have been a great hard- 
 ship to deprive the mass of theatre-goers of their pleas- 
 ure ? Pleasure to listen to such dialogue as "I suppose 
 you mean to infer that I'm hot stun 7 " ! Hardship to lis- 
 ten to Shakespeare's chanted passion and philosophy 
 and rich, wise humour! O bathos of Popular Educa- 
 tion! bottomless pit! 
 
 Does anyone say that the theatres would have been 
 empty? Probably at first many of them would have 
 been. Fit audiences Shakespeare might have found, 
 
52 Patriotism and 
 
 but very few. But in fault of getting something on the 
 level of their vitiated tastes, theatre-goers would have 
 grown to tolerate Shakespeare, they would have braced 
 their wits to understand him, and in the end a large 
 body of them would have found themselves amused and 
 interested in listening to him, and in watching his vast 
 panorama of human life unfold itself. Many of them 
 would have got into a Shakespeare habit, as for years 
 past they have got into a music-hall and variety theatre 
 habit. For our national worship of music-hall nonsense 
 and vulgarity is largely a habit, a fashion. We follow 
 it for the same reason that we do many other stupid 
 things because other people do them. And we keep 
 on doing it for the same reason. The habit, the fashion 
 came in with the foolish years of heedless luxury before 
 the war; it was one of our many reckless invocations 
 to national calamity. 
 
 But those ignoble years of national slackness and 
 fatty degeneration have passed. We are finding that 
 hardship is our best schoolmaster, and necessity our 
 best counsellor. These it is that prove our mettle, and 
 heighten our courage, and arm our souls. After the 
 war we shall have many hardships to endure. Let*is 
 brace ourselves to endure even the supreme hardship of 
 listening to a little Shakespeare in our theatres. We 
 may not like it at first ; it will be a severe call upon such 
 mental powers as we possess. But when he has schooled 
 us for a time, and as our intelligence in the theatre be- 
 gins to waken, we shall find there is an increasing 
 wealth of wise amusement to be obtained from him, and 
 the noisome folly and inanity of the years that have 
 gone will stink in our memory. 
 
 It has lately been brought to your notice that our 
 present Education Acts, by the clauses that restrict the 
 
Popular Education 53 
 
 employment of children in theatres, really disallow the 
 performance of at least five of Shakespeare's most popu- 
 lar and most enjoyable plays "Macbeth," "King 
 John," "The Winter's Tale," "The Merry Wives of 
 Windsor," and "The Midsummer Night's Dream." 
 "The Tempest" is also practically prohibited. Many 
 modern plays of very high reputation are also excluded 
 from our stage. And many more that might be written 
 are stayed from seeing the light. We may say that our 
 Education Acts forbid the performance, and the writing 
 of all plays that have parts of an age less than four- 
 teen. For these parts require attendance at rehearsal, 
 and though rehearsals are pleasurable rather than fa- 
 tiguing to the child, they take up some considerable 
 time. And if the child has to play in one piece and 
 rehearse in another, it is obvious that the time for school 
 and play must be reduced. 
 
 We are all agreed that our first concern should be the 
 health and welfare of the children. Let that be clearly 
 understood. Now the theatrical life is a very healthy 
 one. The work in itself is not exacting, and is full of 
 pleasant and not injurious excitement. It is done in 
 the company of one's fellows, and before encouraging 
 spectators ; and this in itself is exhilarating, and drives 
 away nervous fancies and morbid thoughts. An actor, 
 if he exercises ordinary self-control, has more than an 
 average expectation of good health and long life. Here 
 we may mention such names as Mrs. Siddons, Helen 
 Faucit, Ellen Terry, Mrs. Kendal, and Lady Bancroft, 
 and, above all, Sarah Bernhardt, who, at an unmen- 
 tionable age, has lately been delighting large audiences 
 in two continents with eight or ten performances a week 
 of the most exhausting leading roles. All the famous 
 English actresses I have named were born on the stage, 
 
54 Patriotism and 
 
 and educated largely by the stage. At the age when 
 our Education Acts begin grudgingly and obstructively 
 to allow our young people to make their first appear- 
 ance, nearly all the most honoured actresses* of the Eng- 
 lish theatre had played more* parts than our present 
 leading ladies will play in their lifetime. It may be 
 claimed that, so far from being detrimental to health 
 and long life, a theatrical career tends to promote 
 them. In the matter of morality, at all the leading 
 popular theatres, neither at rehearsal nor at perform- 
 ance, is there any evident violation of decency or mo- 
 rality that a child would notice. At some of the less 
 reputable houses there may be lax behaviour and occa- 
 sional breaches of decorum, but not more glaring than 
 would be forced on a child's attention at the street cor- 
 ners of the same neighbourhood. The necessarily con- 
 stant work and driving bustle of every stage, and espe- 
 cially the variety stage, tend to shut out the opportunity 
 of any such openly indecent and immoral behaviour as 
 would be likely to contaminate a child. Observant chil- 
 dren would be more likely to see indications of such 
 behaviour in the auditorium, and on the whole would 
 be more protected from it if they were behind the 
 scenes. It may be urged that, according to my own 
 showing, much of the dialogue in popular variety pieces 
 is unfit for children's ears. I agree most cordially. I 
 would certainly protect children from hearing it. I 
 would equally protect the older performers from speak- 
 ing it I would also protect the entire audiences from 
 listening to it, if that were possible. 
 
 If, sir, in place of forbidding children under the age 
 of fourteen to speak Shakespeare on our stage, you 
 could decree that no person under the age of eighty 
 should listen to much of the dialogue that is current 
 
Popular Education 55 
 
 there, you would be rendering a great service to na- 
 tional education, for you would be helping to check the 
 nightly corruption of the English language. You 
 would also be indirectly rendering a great service to 
 our decrepit modern drama, which under our present 
 regime is threatened with extinction. May I again 
 point out that although nonsense and frivolity, tinc- 
 tured with more or less veiled indecency, have always 
 obtained some footing on every stage, it was not until 
 Popular Education asserted its sway and force, that 
 these undesirable elements of entertainment obtained 
 a national vogue; became the national dialect of the 
 English stage; became our national way of expressing 
 ourselves in the theatre ; our national pride and delight ; 
 our national model of popular talk ; for whose delivery 
 at our most popular theatres, we are ready to pay their 
 most successful exponents at the rate of about 50 an 
 hour ? 
 
 Since, then, Popular Education does not correct the 
 present general delight in vulgarity and inanity on what 
 must now be called our national stage; since, on the 
 contrary, it seems to flourish and spread under Popular 
 Education, may we not say that the children of the 
 theatre fifty years ago were receiving behind the 
 scenes an education that, in this important matter, was 
 better and sounder than the education our average chil- 
 dren are receiving to-day ? For they had constantly to 
 listen to a fine rendering of Shakespeare's noblest pas- 
 sages, and often to recite them. At any rate we may 
 claim that there cannot be anything very wrong in per- 
 mitting children to receive a training akin to that which 
 fitted Mrs. Siddons, Helen Faucit, Ellen Terry, Mrs. 
 Kendal, and Lady Bancroft for their honoured careers. 
 
 It has been shown that our Education Acts entirely 
 
56 Patriotism and 
 
 forbid the performance of five or six of Shakespeare's 
 best and most popular plays. In reality they tend to 
 ban the performance of Shakespeare altogether. Shake- 
 speare's leading parts, if they are to be played so as to 
 give anything approaching a full measure of enjoyment 
 to the audience, demand not only great natural powers 
 in the actors, but they demand also an early training of 
 these powers, and a constant exercise of them. We are 
 here again forcibly reminded that the first rule of Popu- 
 lar Education should be to teach our young people, or 
 to give them an opportunity of learning, those things 
 that will fit them for their individual calling, and make 
 them masters of it. All "general" education, except of 
 the most elementary kind, should be deferred until these 
 things are thoroughly learned. It was because their 
 childhood was spent in acting that such actresses as 
 Mrs. Siddons, Helen Eaucit, and Ellen Terry could 
 play Shakespeare's leading parts with such convincing 
 power and passion and charm, and that Mrs. Kendal 
 and Lady Bancroft could play modern parts with such 
 ripeness, ease, and round, rich perfection. What a body 
 and quality there was in the old acting, as of well-sea- 
 soned oak, or old vintage wine ! It was because my old 
 carpenter had thoroughly learned his trade as a boy 
 that he could make the whole of a large, useful, durable 
 cabinet with his own hands. (The door of the next 
 room is interjecting noisy, irritating comments on our 
 modern school of carpentry, by slipping its latch and in- 
 termittently creaking and slamming. It may be alleged 
 that this is due to the wind. I maintain that it is due 
 to the bad education of our carpenters.) There is ex- 
 actly the same difference between our old Shake- 
 spearean actors and our modern amateurs, that there 
 is between my old carpenter and our modern carpen- 
 
Popular Education 57 
 
 ters educated under our recent acts. And the reason 
 for that difference is exactly the same, namely, that 
 our old actors and carpenters had received a sound and 
 thorough education in their respective callings at an 
 age when they were most receptive and most pliable. I 
 could give you instances of the same lapse in dozens 
 of other trades and callings. 
 
 Our modern actors do well enough in modern comedy 
 where nothing much more is required of them than to 
 do and say those things on the stage which they do and 
 say in a drawing-room. But actors trained by modern 
 methods, which leave them practically amateurs, cannot 
 play Shakespeare witness some recent attempts which 
 have ended in comic disaster. Shakespeare needs, even 
 for a moderately successful interpretation, an early, 
 long, strenuous training in acting, in speaking verse, 
 and in appropriate stage bearing and manners. 
 
 I do not say that these cannot be learned after the 
 age of fourteen, but I do not think the ground-work of 
 it is ever quite so well laid as in childhood. At any 
 rate, if our Government is determined to rob the Eng- 
 lish theatre of its means of getting a supply of Shake- 
 spearean actors, and in this way immensely to lower the 
 level of our drama, and thus encourage a vicious form 
 of evening Popular Education throughout the land 
 if Government thus decides, then I think we are justi- 
 fied in asking it to establish a Conservatoire for train- 
 ing our young actors on the French model. This, if 
 wisely ordered, would do something to remedy the pres- 
 ent defects and evils of our theatre. The cost would 
 be comparatively little, the ultimate gain to Popular 
 Education would be immense. Eor I suppose no one, 
 who is competent to judge, will question that the Erench 
 system of training actors has immensely raised the level 
 
58 Patriotism and 
 
 of French acting, and has concurrently raised the intel- 
 lectual level of the French drama. This, in its turn, 
 has quickened the intelligence and the critical judgment 
 of French playgoers. The middle classes in the second 
 circle of the Theatre Frangais are far better judges 
 of a play than are the occupants of our London stalls. 
 You will hear from middle-class French playgoers the 
 most sound and acute dramatic criticism. In England, 
 and especially of late years, there has been practically 
 no critical judgment of the drama amongst our mass of 
 theatre-goers. There has been a mere guzzle of popular 
 amusement. How do you account for it, sir, that under a 
 system of universal Popular Education, its recipients 
 scarcely trouble to judge what they spend their spare 
 cash and best leisure to procure ? They merely swallow 
 it 
 
 Is it too much to ask that Government will recognize 
 how valuable an instrument the drama might be in rais- 
 ing the tone of Popular Education, and give us a Con- 
 servatoire, as an approach to a soundly-organized and 
 well-managed National Theatre, when the time and the 
 circumstances shall be favourable to its establishment? 
 Again I affirm that the clauses in our Education Acts 
 which forbid the employment of children under four- 
 teen, tend both directly and indirectly to shut out 
 Shakespeare and the better forms of modern drama, and 
 thus throw wide open the stage doors of our theatres to 
 mediocrity, scatterbrain frivolity, and romping imbe- 
 cility. 
 
 What I have said applies chiefly to the exclusion of 
 children from our stage so far as this affects a sound 
 training for their future career. This is distinct from 
 the more important question of forbidding them to ap- 
 pear in parts that demand to be played by children of 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 59 
 
 ages from four up to fourteen. This is a most serious 
 
 JT 
 
 handicap for the modern drama, to say nothing of the 
 five or six excluded plays of Shakespeare. There are 
 many stories of the stage that insist that a child or chil- 
 dren shall he actually seen and heard. They would lose 
 their poignancy and meaning, and the play would be 
 pointless or impossible, without the presence of the 
 child, and the drift or force of its spoken words. Many 
 of our best and most deservedly popular modern plays, 
 numbered by dozens, have children's scenes which are 
 of the first importance in the scheme; though they are 
 in most instances quite short, call for no great intelli- 
 gence, and put no strain upon the little actor or actress. 
 Numerous instances will occur to everybody who knows 
 the repertory of the modern English stage. 
 
 In considering this question let us put first the wel- 
 fare of the child. So far as modern drama of the high* 
 er class is concerned, these children's parts are compara- 
 tively few in number that is, when we count them in 
 the entire volume of modern stage characters. The 
 child is pleasantly engaged, is generally petted and 
 feted in the theatre, and is not called upon for any 
 great physical or mental exertion. 2sTo stage child of 
 to-day has to work a quarter so hard as the great ac- 
 tresses whom I have named, worked from their earliest 
 years. I suppose their life, from the time they could 
 take part in a general cast, was one of constant re- 
 hearsals by day and acting till a late hour every night. 
 Judging by results, will anyone tell me how these great 
 actresses have suffered from being allowed to go upon 
 the stage from their earliest days? Certainly they 
 have not suffered in health. I have already touched 
 upon their "general" education. 
 
 Under the former laws that governed this matter, the 
 
60 Patriotism and 
 
 children in our modern serious plays were selected from 
 a crowd of applicants, who were individually tested he- 
 fore heing chosen for the part Anyone who has con- 
 stantly to rehearse children for the stage, occasionally 
 picks up some little imp or gamine who has a horn 
 genius for acting, and is most likely fit for nothing 
 much else. Such a child will probably he the despair 
 of your teachers, and will make mockery of your Educa- 
 tion Acts. His vocation is stamped all over him, though 
 he may not have reached half* the years of your age lim- 
 its. When you find a child in your schools of extraor- 
 dinary or special mental ability, you give that child 
 every opportunity to develop his natural gift to the ut- 
 most. When a child is found with a natural gift for 
 the great art of acting, quite as rare and precious a 
 possession as marked mental ahility, quite as deserv- 
 ing of encouragement and fostering care, often more 
 fruitful in delight for the puhlic why, when such a 
 child is discovered, should his special abilities he 
 thwarted, and his fructifying talent laid up in the nap- 
 kin of "general" education ? If it is said that he will 
 be made a more useful citizen by being kept off the 
 stage, I very much doubt it. The only sure result, so 
 far as I can see, is that the child will be kept out of the 
 only place where his special ability will be allowed a 
 free course to develop. Let us take care that in our zeal 
 to manufacture citizens all of one particular pattern of 
 approved dullness and banality, we do not bar the door 
 to originality, variety, genius, and leadership. 
 
 I may point out here that our present Education laws 
 would probably have robbed the English theatre of Ed- 
 mund Kean, the greatest Shakespearean actor with this 
 kind of* temperament that our stage has known. At an$ 
 rate, it would have deprived him of his early training. 
 
Popular Education 61 
 
 How valuable that early training was, is shown by the 
 fact that even with the advantage of it, he yet spent his 
 early manhood in constant failure in parts like Othello, 
 Bichard, and Shylock, and only obtained his mastery 
 over them by long and continued practice. Here, again, 
 it is made plain that if we are to get good and fine 
 workmanship in any skilled craft, such as acting and 
 carpentry, the first aim of our educational policy must 
 be to see that every workman has a thorough training 
 in it at an early age, even if his "general" education is 
 a little neglected or deferred. How all occasions do con- 
 spire to force this truth upon us ! 
 
 If we are again to have a living Shakespeare upon 
 our stage, as the model and inspirer of a living serious 
 modern English drama, we must see to it that ample 
 opportunities are given for our actors to have a thor- 
 ough training, and to train themselves in the infinitely 
 difficult, exacting, and arduous art of acting. Our 
 school of modern comedy needs comparatively little 
 training. It largely consists in photographing the man- 
 ners and behaviour, and speaking the slipshod English 
 of the drawing-room. It can best be learned in a draw- 
 ing-room. Our modern "national" drama, I mean the 
 variety entertainment, needs comparatively little train- 
 ing. It largely consists in photographing the manners 
 and behaviour, and speaking the latest slang, of the 
 race-course, the football field, and the public-house. It 
 can best be learned in a public-house, or on a race- 
 course. 
 
 But when an actor is given words to deliver that con- 
 vey great human passion or emotion, and that implicit- 
 ly assert the value and meaning of life, another kind of 
 training is needed. The prose of high comedy, as well 
 as the lofty verse of Shakespeare, needs a long cultiva- 
 
62 Patriotism and 
 
 tion and practice of delivery, if it is to reach the in- 
 telligence of the hearer, and not to bore him with words 
 that he cannot understand, or perhaps even hear. 
 
 I respectfully submit to you, sir, that the prohibition 
 of children from the stage tends indirectly, as I have 
 shown, to lower the level of our drama, and to confirm 
 the masses of theatre-goers in their natural taste for 
 what is cheap, frivolous, and debasing. And the gen- 
 eral result of this and other conditions is that for 
 many past years, during all the fateful time before and 
 after the war, the English theatre, in place of being the 
 wise counsellor and amusing companion of the nation, 
 has rather been its empty, witless, and lascivious jes- 
 ter, and is at the present moment the most barren and 
 contemptible theatre that any civilized nation has had 
 for centuries. Yet our theatres were never so popular 
 and prosperous as they have lately been. 
 
 Returning to the matter of these children who show a 
 very marked talent for the stage, I beg you, sir, both in 
 the interests of the children themselves and of the 
 drama, to permit them, with due safeguards, to appear 
 on the stage at any age at which suitable parts require 
 their presence. There will be comparatively very few 
 of them, not one, perhaps, in a hundred thousand of the 
 child population of the nation. 
 
 As a matter of numbers, they are negligible. As a 
 matter of principle, I claim that it is unwise and unjust 
 to forbid them to exercise their natural gifts to their 
 own advantage, to the delight of the public, and to the 
 furthering of the best interests of the drama. But all 
 children admitted to this class, and allowed to perform 
 speaking parts of some importance, should be examined 
 by a small committee of experts, and a certificate of 
 competence given. I daresay the Academy of Dramatic 
 
Popular Education 63 
 
 Art, assisted by Miss Italia Conti, would undertake this 
 necessary function, and thus guard against any abuse 
 of the privilege. 
 
 The rest of the children, who are required in some 
 numbers for the due performance of pantomime and 
 other spectacle or poetic plays, and for certain charm- 
 ing children's plays whose disappearance would be a 
 great loss to the theatre, and would deprive the public 
 of much pure and innocent enjoyment these children 
 should also be allowed to appear on our stage, under 
 careful safeguards and restrictions. !N~o special ability, 
 or aptitude for acting is demanded from the children 
 thus employed. All that most of them are called upon 
 to do, is to dance and skip about the stage. It may 
 be noted that "The Midsummer Night's Dream" and 
 "The Merry Wives of Windsor" are among the plays 
 that require a number of such children for their per- 
 formance. More than the children with a special talent 
 for acting, these children are perhaps likely to be im- 
 mediately benefited by the permission to appear on 
 the stage. For many of them, their surroundings and 
 company in the theatre are better and more wholesome 
 than are their surroundings and company in their 
 homes, or in the alleys where they spend their play time. 
 They mostly come from the poorest classes, and they 
 daily see and hear things much more harmful than they 
 are likely to see and hear behind the scenes. They are 
 generally most in demand about Christmas time, and 
 the winter hours they spend in the theatres are a luxury 
 of warmth and cheerfulness for them compared with 
 the hours they spend in their homes and the streets. I 
 do not think that anyone who has been behind the scenes 
 at Drury Lane in the pantomime season, can doubt that 
 the children there employed are on the whole substan- 
 
64 Patriotism and 
 
 tially benefited by being allowed to appear on the stage. 
 Every arrangement is made for their comfort and well- 
 being, and for their meals and education between 
 whiles. 
 
 Of course, great care needs to be taken in framing 
 the safeguards and the restrictions placed on the chil- 
 dren's appearance. But that they should be utterly de- 
 barred from appearing in public is, I claim, hurtful on. 
 the whole to their interests and welfare, as it is need- 
 lessly vexatious to the public. It is urged that drunken, 
 lazy, and unscrupulous parents often prey upon the 
 earnings of their children. Surely the longer hours 
 children are kept out of the company of such parents, 
 the better for them. The child's earnings can be pro- 
 tected from the parents where this is advisable, or per- 
 haps in all cases, by enacting that where the salary is 
 in excess of daily keep and a little pocket-money, it 
 shall be invested in savings banks or war bonds for the 
 after benefit of the child. This would in most cases be 
 a lesson in thrift to the children, for they would soon 
 take a pride in adding to their store. The business 
 might be managed by a committee composed chiefly of 
 those whose blind hatred of the theatre has led to the 
 present degraded condition of our stage. If, instead 
 of indulging their whimsy of holy hatred of the theatre, 
 they would frankly recognize the main facts, we might 
 move towards a better state of things, both behind and 
 in front of the curtain. The dominant facts of the 
 situation are these : 
 
 (1) The theatre, including music halls and variety 
 houses, is sure to grow in popularity and in influence. 
 
 (2) It is impossible to check and diminish that popu- 
 larity and influence by pecking and kicking at theatres 
 with constant, meddling, vexatious interferences. 
 
Popular Education 65 
 
 (3) There will always be abuses and evils connected 
 with the theatre, especially in those houses that give an 
 entertainment deliberately intended to appeal to foolish, 
 frivolous, and sensual tastes. 
 
 (4) These abuses and evils are aggravated and in- 
 creased by the absence from our theatres of thoughtful 
 people in search of sensible amusement, and by our neg- 
 lect of serious comedy and drama, thus giving free scope 
 for these houses to flourish and multiply in boundless 
 prosperity. 
 
 (5) The abuses and evils inseparably connected with 
 theatres, and more especially with those of a certain 
 class, are to be corrected, or very largely diminished, 
 by the attendance of thoughtful people in search of sen- 
 sible amusement, by their demand for a better, less dis- 
 solute, and less imbecile form 1 of national entertain- 
 ment; and, chiefly, when the time and conditions shall 
 be favourable, by the Government aid and countenance 
 of a serious, national drama in a national theatre. 
 Surely it will some day be apparent that the great mass 
 of our people cannot be allowed to go on educating 
 themselves during all their leisure hours in outrageous 
 tomfoolery bordering on licentiousness and idiocy. 
 
 I commend these facts and considerations to the ear- 
 nest attention of that small, stubborn sect of earnest 
 people who, by their earnest wrong-headedness and zeal- 
 ous ignorance, are helping to multiply those very abuses 
 and evils in the theatre which they are trying to abol- 
 ish. Let them desist from pecking and kicking at the 
 theatre. They cannot abolish it. They cannot shake its 
 growing popularity. They may do something to make 
 it less of a national disgrace and reproach. I suggest 
 that, to begin with, these earnest people should busy 
 themselves with the interests of the children of the 
 
66 Patriotism and 
 
 theatre, with their protection from unscrupulous par- 
 ents, and with the careful audit and investment of their 
 little savings. 
 
 I am assuming, sir, that you will favourably consider 
 the facts and arguments I have brought before you, and 
 that you will modify the clause in your bill that forbids 
 the employment of the children in the theatre, so far as 
 to allow their appearance under careful safeguards. I 
 have dwelt upon this matter at great length, because I 
 wished to place you in possession of all the facts relat- 
 ing to this very complicated question. It cannot be 
 fairly viewed from the outside, or without a knowledge 
 of all its bearings. Moreover, I am afraid that of all 
 the many and far more important matters that I am 
 trying to bring to your reluctant attention in this letter, 
 this question is the only one that stands even a frac- 
 tional chance of gaining your serious consideration, or 
 of changing your policy. I appeal to you, sir, to allow 
 children to take their place in what I hope will even- 
 tually be a worthy and operative English theatre, with 
 a great and real, though silent, unobtrusive, indirect, 
 educational influence for good on the mass of the Eng- 
 lish people. I ask this because it tends on the whole to 
 promote the welfare of the children themselves; while 
 it also, most assuredly, tends to bring about a revival 
 of Shakespeare and of serious modern drama. I leave 
 the matter to your grave and careful judgment. 
 
 Upon the general matter, I think I may claim to 
 have made out a case for further inquiry into the con- 
 nexion between Popular Education and Popular 
 Amusement. How is it that concurrently with the 
 spread of Popular Education our national taste in the 
 theatre has sunk to a level of mere banality, vulgarity, 
 and buffoonery, to the general exclusion of all serious 
 
Popular Education 67 
 
 thought and wise enjoyment? Why is it that even re- 
 fined and cultivated men and women have hecome large- 
 ly infected with the popular taste, and shut off their 
 intelligence when they enter a theatre? Does not the 
 condition of the English theatre for the last fifteen 
 years or more, indicate the same general carelessness of 
 mental habit, and inability to think - clearly and seri- 
 ously about anything, which have brought upon us our 
 present grave, national perils and disasters? May not 
 Government wisely concern itself with the universal 
 prevalence of a symptom which manifestly points either 
 to some radical defect in our present system of Popu- 
 lar Education, or to a growing derangement and deca- 
 dence of national thought and feeling which a sane and 
 healthy Popular Education in the theatre might do 
 something to correct ? 
 
 Again I contend that in no place can you more surely 
 get an authentic revelation of the mental capacity, 
 tastes, and habits of the people than in their popular 
 theatres. You catch them there in mental and spiritual 
 dishabille. The English stage has lately been a hideous 
 exposure of our unsightly mental and spiritual naked- 
 ness. 
 
 I ask you, sir, to dwell for a moment on the compara- 
 tive levels of Popular Education in the time of Eliza- 
 beth and in our present time, as measured by the popu- 
 lar entertainments in their respective theatres. There 
 was plenty of brutal, obscene amusement in the days of 
 Elizabeth. Doubtless there were displays which would 
 have shocked the ears and eyes of many of the frequent- 
 ers of our present popular theatres, though I question 
 if those coarser entertainments of a coarser and more 
 robust age, were so charged with insidious corruption 
 and mental depravity as some of our present-day enter- 
 
68 Patriotism and 
 
 taimnents. But alongside those brutal exhibitions, 
 there flourished the greatest drama of all times. 
 
 One might put up with a large amount of tawdry, 
 extravagant display and witless vulgarity treating it 
 as mere holiday exuberance if alongside it we had a 
 vigorous, sane, modern drama that addressed itself to 
 intelligent audiences. But the music-hall has usurped 
 and devastated nearly all the evening leisure of our 
 masses. It is our national school of taste and manners, 
 and it clearly indicates the level and the drift of our 
 Popular Education. 
 
 Consider, sir, what is implied in the fact that the 
 groundlings in Shakespeare's day, huddled and noisy 
 and uncomfortable, could understand and follow with 
 delight the lofty diction of his noblest passages, with 
 their swelling torrents of passion and emotion ; his rich' 
 native humour; his pride of patriotism; his deep re^ 
 searches into the human heart ; his massive portraiture 
 of permanent types of character ; his bright wisdom and 
 philosophy of life. To the average playgoer in the pii 
 to-day, these things are tiresome and dreary, and for the 
 most part even meaningless and unintelligible. If 
 Shakespeare went out of his way to express his con- 
 tempt for the groundlings of his time, how would he 
 tax and exhaust his vocabulary of scorn to castigate our 
 groundlings of to-day. It may be said that the populace 
 of his time went to Shakespeare's and kindred plays 
 because there was nothing much else to go to. This 
 seems to show the advisability of declaring a close time 
 in English theatres, when none but Shakespeare's plays 
 would be allowed performance, as I have already sug- 
 gested. My old carpenter spoke good English because 
 he habitually read the Bible and the "Pilgrim's Prog- 
 ress/' and very little else came in his way. At any rate, 
 
Popular Education 69 
 
 a rery large number amongst Shakespeare's audiences 
 must have enjoyed, and must have understood his plays, 
 or they would not have been popular. You cannot drag 
 people to see plays that do not amuse and interest them. 
 How is it, sir, that the common people in Shakespeare's 
 day had received an education that fitted them to enjoy 
 and appreciate him as popular entertainment, while 
 Popular Education to-day seems to fit them to enjoy lit- 
 tle but stewed and clotted vulgarity and nonsense, and 
 scarcely anything that demands from them a moment 
 of serious thought or energy of attention? 
 
 It is gratifying to learn that you have lately decreed 
 that there shall be an annual Shakespeare day in all our 
 schools. We may hope that this will lead to such a 
 study and knowledge of his plays as will prepare our 
 children to become frequent visitors to him in his nat- 
 ural home the theatre. We should not allow Shake- 
 speare to become merely the parchment hobby of text 
 correctors, and the convenient peg for scholars to hang 
 a reputation upon. We should not even allow him to 
 remain merely our dearest and most cherished library 
 friend. Shakespeare should be our chief inspirer in the 
 theatre ; our enthralling showman of the deep mysteries 
 of human life; our guide through its dark circles, as 
 Virgil was to Dante ; at one moment snatching us to the 
 brink of shuddering precipes, and holding us breathless 
 over roaring gulfs and torrents of passion and madness 
 and despair; and at another roystering and carousing 
 with us in a jolly tavern; sometimes, with all his ban- 
 ners flying, and all his drums beating, and all his trum- 
 pets blowing, marching with us to immortal fields of 
 glorious battles in France; and again merrymaking 
 with us at a village sheep-shearing, or chatting and jest- 
 ing with us under the shades of Arden. He should be 
 
70 Patriotism and 
 
 our easy, adaptable friend, fitting himself to all our 
 moods; our stern counsellor; our grave adviser; our 
 boon companion; our laughing philosopher all th^se 
 should Shakespeare be to us in his natural home, the 
 English theatre. All these Shakespeare has been to 
 English playgoers in the past, and might again become. 
 But we have kicked him out of his own royal domain, 
 and in his place we have enthroned what ? 
 
 For dost thou know, oh Damon dear, 
 This realm dismantled was 
 Of Jove himself, and now reigns here 
 A very very Pajock. 
 
 Ah, sir, do but see what our popular theatres have 
 become under the ravages of Popular Education ! May 
 I again respectfully urge upon you that the matter, in 
 its serious implications, is one that calls for some 
 searching inquiry from the Minister of Education ? 
 
 If you reply that this matter is one that falls within 
 the province of the Home Office, I am aware that in its 
 larger developments it remains to be dealt with by that 
 department. And when the times are less troubled and 
 anxious, I hope the Home Office may be brought to 
 see the wisdom, nay the national necessity, of consid- 
 ering it. At present, with other weightier concerns, it 
 must be left in abeyance. But meantime, may not the 
 Minister of Education be invited to lend a hand in 
 sweeping away some of the worst abuses of the English 
 Theatre, and in making it less of a national reproach 
 and disgrace? 
 
 I maintain that merely as an instrument of "general" 
 education, Shakespeare is the greatest, wisest, and by 
 far the cheapest schoolmaster you can appoint. Por 
 with some small and constant encouragement and out- 
 lay a mere drop in the bucket of your annual expendi- 
 
Popular Education 71 
 
 ture the people, if rightly led, will themselves pay for 
 his teaching with the money they are now wasting upon 
 the foolish and often noisome trash that they call 
 "amusement" Will you not assist, sir, in making 
 Shakespeare popular in the only sphere where he will 
 ever command a wide and compulsive influence upon 
 the tastes, habits of thought, characters, and daily con- 
 duct of the populace the theatres of his native land? 
 Feeling convinced of the great importance of this 
 matter, and having an inside knowledge of it, I have 
 tried to explore it thoroughly, and to put it before you 
 in all its bearings, so that you may see how intimately 
 it is woven with Popular Education in the web of our 
 national life. Again, I leave it to your careful _and de- 
 liberate judgment. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 (May June 1918) 
 
 POPUXAB EDUCATION AND POLITICS BEFORE THE 
 
 Political Dogma and Religious Dogma Impossibility of Draw- 
 ing up indisputable codes for children General Education a very 
 devious compass The question of transcendent importance from 
 1890 onwards Popular Education opposed to teaching future 
 citizens their chief duty Consequent immeasurable cost to the 
 nation Lack of vision and guidance The unreturning wheel of 
 fate Germans teach us what Popular Education failed to teach 
 us Blindness of our politicians due to Popular Education The 
 housemaid's excuse, "It shan't happen again" Where lay the 
 fault? Intellectual dishonesty the worst of mental ailments 
 Endemic at Westminster Boy scouts movement more beneficial 
 than school teaching Intractibility of "young persons" Cicero 
 and Euclid the safest companions for them Economic benefit 
 of continuation classes Rosy estimate of its amount Not one 
 hundredth of the national loss caused by neglect of Popular 
 Education to teach our boys their first duty. 
 
 F HAVE finished the task that I set before me when 
 * I began this letter. I have examined some of the 
 tendencies and results of our present system of Popular 
 Education as they appear in the quality of much of the 
 daily work that is being done by the people, and in the 
 quality of the vast proportion of our popular evening 
 amusements. But all through my argument, I have 
 been constantly reminded that, important as these mat- 
 ters may be in themselves, they recede into a negligible 
 background in presence of the life-and-death conflict 
 which we are hourly waging before a drawn curtain 
 
 72 
 
Popular Education 78 
 
 that Hides from us unimaginable issues to all our nar 
 tional endeavours and undertakings. 
 
 I am painfully aware, sir, that I am making an 
 altogether inconsiderate use of my privilege of address- 
 ing you. But will you forgive me if I go on to trace 
 the connexions of Popular Education with the main 
 drift of political thought and action that has guided our 
 nation during the past most critical twenty years, when 
 we should have been preparing for this irrevocable de- 
 cision of our fate ? And may I also try to push for a 
 few uncertain steps into the tangles and obscurity that 
 will encompass this country after the war, so far as 
 Popular Education may help us to find our way 
 amongst them, or may only the more darkly involve us I 
 
 Obviously the Board of Education is not able to give 
 our children a course of instruction in practical that 
 is, in party politics. For as you know, sir, there are 
 virtually no practical politics in England outside party 
 politics. It would be as difficult to draw up for our 
 children a code of indisputable political dogma, as it 
 has been found to draw up for them a code of indisputa- 
 ble religious dogma. Yet these two subjects, more than 
 all others, are those upon which it is of sovereign im- 
 portance for our future citizens to be guided towards a 
 sound judgment. For the right conduct of our daily 
 lives depends upon our religious belief and practice, and 
 the right conduct of the nation's affairs depends upon 
 our political belief and practice. And we do not escape 
 from our religious and political difficulties by wrapping 
 them up in generalities and phrases, and making tempo- 
 rary concessions to popular ignorance and passion. All 
 political and religious difficulties that are so evaded, 
 return upon us in a short time with multiplied clamours 
 to be faced and fought out Now, more than ever in 
 
74 Patriotism and 
 
 our history, we are called upon to find a sure reason 
 for our beliefs and practice. And now more than ever 
 we are wandering in confusion and indecision about 
 many of the matters upon which a plain "Yes" or "No" 
 is of necessity for our national existence. 
 
 But upon most of the turbulent questions that are 
 gathering in force to perplex and divide the nation in 
 the coming years, you can give no authoritative instruc- 
 tion to your scholars. ISTow, at this tremendous mo- 
 ment, and at all others, when opposing sign-posts stand 
 at the crossways of our nation's destiny, to point us to 
 safety or to cheat us to destruction, you cannot issue 
 a loud imperative order to your hosts of future citizens, 
 "To the right!" or "To the left!" You may, indeed, 
 give them a very devious jerky compass of "general" 
 education, but you cannot tell them plainly that the 
 main highway of the nation's safety runs to the nortH 
 or to the south, to the east or to the west. For on many 
 of the matters upon which it is, perhaps, life or death 
 to get right leadership, one party of our politicians, as 
 soon as the war is over, will be pressing headlong to the 
 north, and another will be scrambling to the south, and 
 the remainder will be running about the country in bye 
 lanes of their own choosing. 
 
 You will claim that the "general" education you are 
 giving your scholars in history, in economics, and in 
 political science will guide them by and by to form a 
 sound opinion upon each question of national impor- 
 tance as it arises. 
 
 Is that not refuted by our present experience ? What 
 was the question of transcendant importance for every 
 Englishman to consider and reconsider, and to form a, 
 right opinion upon, from the years 1890 onwards the 
 question upon whose solution then, his very daily bread 
 
Popular Education 75 
 
 depends to-day, his whole resources, his life and the 
 lives of those dearest to him, and the future of the Brit- 
 ish Empire? Surely, in comparison with the question 
 of whether he should be ready to defend his native land, 
 there was no other question that was worth a careless 
 toss of his mind. Other questions there were of the 
 utmost importance in our internal economy, but till 
 this was settled they were of mere parochial dimensions. 
 For they were all dependent upon the right solution of 
 this one question. 
 
 I am sure you will be both indignant and amused at 
 what seems like an attempt to saddle the blame for the 
 war upon our system of Popular Education. You will 
 ask what the Board of Education had to do with the 
 war, how it was concerned to foresee it, how it could 
 have helped to prevent it, or sensibly to diminish its 
 duration and the magnitude of its ravages. 
 
 If you will bear with me, sir, I am searching for the 
 foundations of Popular Education. I am trying to find 
 out whether there are not one or two great fundamental 
 rules and principles which must form the basis of any 
 stable and durable system, in the same way that the 
 sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments form the ba-. 
 sis of any stable and durable system of law and civilized 
 society. Dealing with our daily work, I tried to show 
 that the first rule of all Popular Education is to teach 
 every child to do his individual work thoroughly, hon- 
 estly, and with all his might, and to train him betimes 
 for that individual work. This governing rule should 
 underlie all Popular Education. It is strange that 
 after fifty years one should be able to announce it as 
 something of a discovery. It is so obvious that it has 
 been almost forgotten. I daresay educational experts 
 are smiling at me. They will smile again, or perhaps 
 
76 Patriotism and 
 
 be very angry, when I say that another governing rule 
 or principle of Popular Education should be to impress 
 every boy with the idea that it is his duty to defend his 
 country, and to prepare him so far that he may easily 
 be made fit for that duty. 
 
 If this is scouted or contested, let me claim no more 
 than this for the moment, that had this duty been made 
 a part of our system of Popular Education for the last 
 generation, we might possibly have been spared the 
 war altogether ; or, if that is unlikely, we should, with 
 quite a comparatively small outlay of treasure and sac- 
 rifice of men, have gained a decisive and much earlier 
 victory. It is improbable that a general European war 
 could have been avoided, but at a moderate estimate 
 we could have won it at less than a third of our present 
 costs of all kinds. The incalculable expenditure of 
 money and resources, the sorrows and horrors that have 
 no end, the insecurities and perils of the future, would 
 have been vastly diminished and brought into an easily 
 manageable compass, if only the simple rule of giving 
 our elder boys some preparation for the defence of their 
 country had been adopted in past years. There can 
 surely be no doubt of this, for we had the wealth, the 
 command of the seas, the unbounded natural resources 
 of our Empire, and the matchless strength and valour 
 of that English manhood which is hourly showing itself 
 invincible. We had it all in large easy surplus and un- 
 challengeable supremacy. We needed but to hold our 
 right hand ready for its defence, and we could have 
 made it sure for long cycles to come. And this we could 
 easily have done at less than a third of our present woe- 
 ful costs of all kinds. 
 
 However mistaken and pernicious my proposal may 
 be in theory, who can doubt that if it had been put into 
 
Popular Education 77 
 
 practice thirty years ago, it would have spared us more 
 than two-thirds of the miseries and expense of this pres- 
 ent war, with its never-ending roll of dead and wound- 
 ed, and its threatening outlook of prolonged national 
 poverty and semi-bankruptcy. It may be a most vicious 
 and reprehensible principle that I am advocating, but, 
 put into active working a generation ago, its pregnant 
 result would have been that at this hour, instead of 
 waiting in a dreadful hush of expectancy for renewed 
 unknown emergencies, sacrifices, and calamities, we 
 should now be the peaceful citizens of a strengthened 
 and unassailable British Empire, with all its borders 
 secure, with all its impulses quickened, with all its ac- 
 tivities enlarged, with its future prosperity assured, 
 and offering with both hands a rich choice of happy des- 
 tinies to its millions of sons. 
 
 That would have been our position to-day if the 
 defence of our country had been made a part of our 
 "general" education a generation ago. What a roar of 
 fury and anger would have gone up through all the 
 length and breadth of the land, if it had been proposed 
 to teach and enforce this first duty of citizenship ! But, 
 sir, this very obvious duty, and this very opprobrious 
 doctrine are what we have been teaching to every man 
 and boy in the Empire for the last four years, by every 
 mouth and every agency, in every paper, from every 
 pulpit, on every hoarding in every city. And we have 
 had to teach it in all the scuffle of hurry, disorganiza- 
 tion, alarm, and desperation. 
 
 And at what a cost ! Would it not have been better 
 to have made it a part of our scheme of "general" edu- 
 cation twenty or thirty years ago, to have taught it in 
 no spirit of defiance or militarism, but as a necessary 
 insurance against irretrievable national disaster, with a 
 
78 Patriotism and 
 
 wide view of our great responsibilities and our great 
 possessions, with a calm determination to accept our 
 responsibilities, and to defend our possessions? 
 
 While I have been writing this letter to you, Eng- 
 land has been throwing into the furnace of the great 
 battle, like mere stubble and faggots upon a bonfire, 
 hundreds of thousands of her sons, the vigour and prom- 
 ise of her remaining manhood, many of them little more 
 than boys who a few years ago were shouting in their 
 playgrounds. There they have stood, those schoolboys 
 of yesterday, waiting their turns to be sacrificed ; fight- 
 ing, agonizing, dying in cheerful recklessness ; called to 
 their fearful destiny by our political teachers and lead- 
 ers and rulers of past years, who had ears but would 
 not hear, and eyes but would not see. 
 
 Not from lack of bravery and valiancy of manhood, 
 O dear, dear land, not from lack of devotion to thee 
 and high-tuned self-sacrificing spirit, but from lack of 
 vision, from lack of guidance, art thou to-day set about 
 with dangers and uncertainties, staggering and batter- 
 ing a dreadful path towards that still distant goal, 
 drained of thy treasure, drained of thy heart's blood, 
 but stronger than ever in reserves of steadfast endur- 
 ance, and richer than ever in stores of deathless re- 
 solve ! 
 
 And with right vision, with right guidance, we could 
 so easily have forestalled all these frightful commit- 
 ments, and bought our national security at a fraction 
 of our present debts and losses and sufferings. Some- 
 times, on a still night, a quiver of the south-east wind 
 brings to our straining ears a faint, distant thud, more 
 like a pulse of the air than a sound, and we know that 
 two or three minutes ago that muffled pad in the silence 
 was a roaring thunder crash in Flanders, which perhaps 
 
Popular Education 79 
 
 laid desolate English homes, and left them in loneli- 
 ness that will never be comforted, and in sorrow that 
 will never be assuaged. Ceaselessly, ceaselessly, with 
 ever blazing lust and energy of destruction, those thun- 
 der crashes have violated the air, and poisoned the 
 earth, and beaten into the dust our dearest flesh and 
 our fairest hopes. Ceaselessly, ceaselessly, with no re- 
 gard for the hours and the seasons and the years, they 
 have blasted out havoc and death. Their clamour is 
 never quelled ; their hunger is never appeased. And it 
 goes on. The mad, insatiate, remorseless engine goes 
 on. Already the sum of its ruin and devastation is past 
 all count, all picturing. It goes on. Who can dare 
 to guess what infinite, unimaginable toll of sacrifice and 
 suffering it may yet exact from us, and leave us to 
 bear ? It goes on. 
 
 And so easily in the bygone careless years, we might 
 have paid the fractional price of redemption from its 
 worst evils and miseries and losses. 
 
 If by some touch of our finger upon the wheel of fate, 
 some sleight of mind beyond any wonder of magic, we 
 could now instantly arrest the long, blind, labouring 
 march of those millions tramping towards anguish, mu- 
 tilation, and nameless graves ; ransom our kin from all 
 the hazards of wounds and death; convoy them safely 
 home, and set them busy about their cheerful custom- 
 ary tasks of peace If by some divine alchemy of heal- 
 ing, we could make whole every tortured limb; unseal 
 every blinded eye; raze out the written troubles from 
 every distracted brain; build up every broken body in 
 its former glad soundness and strength ; dismantle every 
 hospital of its ghastly array, and give every inmate a 
 full discharge and warranty of health If we could re- 
 lease all our despairing prisoners bowed down with 
 
80 Patriotism and 
 
 misery, starvation, loathsome insult, and grinding toil 
 and torment in that inhuman land; cancel their mar- 
 tyrdoms, and give them again their birthright of native 
 freedom If we could cleanse our hearts of this gnaw- 
 ing, clinging, unsleeping worm of suspense and ache 
 and dread, and he once more at ease in our undarkened 
 homes; if we could untie all the hands that are now 
 slaving in the service of death and destruction, and put 
 them to the uses and ministry of health and life ; if we 
 could write off the heavy mortgages of our children's 
 inheritance that we have given to the extortionate fu- 
 ture ; silence every alarm of war, and set straight all it$ 
 confusions and disorders If we could work this mir- 
 ale of enfranchisement, not only in our own land, but 
 in all our sister lands, in outraged Belgium and Ser- 
 bia, in demented Russia, and in stricken, ravished 
 France ; raise again the stones of her desecrated churches 
 and ruined towns, and dress them in all their mellowed 
 beauty and seductive grace; wipe away the bestial pol- 
 lution of her soil, and plant her stark desolation with 
 gardens and harvests and homesteads If now, when 
 the red May blossoms are falling on our English lawns, 
 and the red blood drops are falling on the slopes of the 
 Aisne, we could staunch every wound of the war, strike 
 back the sharpened pendulum that swings its keen edge 
 towards the entrails of France If we could dissolve 
 all the shuddering spectacle that stretches from the sand 
 dunes of the North Sea to the pools of the Adriatic; 
 avert and frustrate the great doom that hangs over the 
 nations; tear out these foul records from the book of 
 history, and laugh at them as foolish tales of necro- 
 mancy; roll into oblivion all the terrors, wrongs, cruel- 
 ties, despairs, crimes, and abominations of these last 
 years If we could gather from the clods of Flanders 
 
Popular Education 81 
 
 and Picardy the crumbling remains of our lost ones, and 
 bid them leap to life, washed from all charnel taints, 
 clasp them to us again, husband to wife, son to mother, 
 lover to dear affianced bride ; the myriads of our slaugh- 
 tered dead, redeemed from the grave, warm with throb- 
 bing life in our arms, their steps once more upon the 
 stairs, their faces at the daily table, their voices min- 
 gling again with ours in homely talk and jest 
 
 If we could annul it all! If we could awake from 
 this nightmare, and find our fond imagining to be so- 
 ber, happy truth ! If we could issue this fiat and see 
 it accomplished before our eyes! 
 
 But this power was largely in our hands a generation 
 ago, if we had but used it. Not all of this beneficent 
 witchcraft could have been wrought by the wisest na- 
 tional foresight, the alivest and most patient states- 
 manship, the most united discipline of patriotism in a 
 populace educated to know and understand the things 
 that make for its lasting welfare and peace. Not all of 
 it, but surely the vastly greater part. Surely our pres- 
 ent national dangers and perplexities and losses could 
 have been largely avoided, and we could at this moment 
 have been in easy and tranquil possession of our van- 
 ished treasures and sanctities and securities, if those 
 who directed Popular and Political Education twenty 
 years ago had recognized and upheld the principle that 
 I am advocating ; if they had instilled into the mind of 
 every boy that it is his duty to be ready to defend his 
 country, and if they had given him some early rudi- 
 mentary training. 
 
 Why was it not done ? The need for it was plain be- 
 fore our eyes, and crying into our ears. We have done 
 it since with all our might and main. What our Popu- 
 lar Educators would not teach us, the Germans have 
 
82 Patriotism and 
 
 taught us; and with all their characteristic thorough- 
 ness. Our lesson has cost us already some six or eight 
 thousand millions of pounds, which may amount to dou- 
 ble before we have finally dismissed our teachers. And 
 we could have done it for ourselves at a fifth or a tenth 
 of the cost ! Can it be such a very vicious principle 
 that saves us thousands of millions of pounds and the 
 best manhood of our country even if it only does us 
 this service once in fifty years or so; even if its sover- 
 eign importance only becomes apparent when we have 
 recklessly flouted and denied it, or never becomes ap- 
 parent at all to the multitude, because its very opera- 
 tion prevents them from seeing the evils it guards them 
 against ? 
 
 Can it be such a very vicious principle ?' Why did we 
 not set about instructing our boys in their primary duty 
 of defending their country in 1890 instead of 1914? 
 Who laughs at me for making such a preposterous sug- 
 gestion? The carnage and misery and ruin that are 
 spread over Europe laugh at him. In those years we 
 had in our hands the instrument of our deliverance 
 from the worst of our present losses and calamities, if 
 we had but perceived the truth of this first principle of 
 National Education which I am affirming. But that 
 truth had lain so long neglected in the national soul 
 that it had become bedridden. Even to-day many of 
 our politicians are trying to legislate for the years 
 before the war, are still living in a little world of party 
 exigencies and opportunities. 
 
 What is of importance for every one of us to remem- 
 ber to-day, and this with no thought of useless re-crimi- 
 nation, in no spirit of political partizanship, with no 
 motive of political gain, but only with a fervent desire 
 to find a body of men who will faithfully direct the 
 
Popular Education 83 
 
 aims and energies of this nation to large and fruitful 
 issues in a world where all will he changed, and where 
 all our old political watchwords and catchwords will he 
 as idle as the wagging of gossips' tongues round a vil- 
 lage pump a hundred years ago what is of importance 
 for every one of us to remember for our guidance in that 
 unknown future, is the fact that, for a generation he- 
 fore the war, our politicians of all parties ignored the 
 clearly visible portents and the clearly audible mutter- 
 ings of the storm that was gathering to shake the earth ; 
 ignored them, despised them, or mocked at them ; lulled 
 the country into false security; minding only the po- 
 litical accommodations of the hour; taking no heed 
 of the great permanent laws of national welfare; fatu- 
 ous, flaccid, supine; more hlind than Balaam, less wise 
 than Balaam's ass, for the ass saw plainly enough the 
 threatening angel of the Lord, standing hut a few steps 
 onward with a drawn sword in his hand. 
 
 Our politicians went their way, pursuing the path to 
 national disaster ; husily setting vote traps for an elec- 
 torate muddled and dizzied and uproarious with sips 
 and rinsings of "general" education; marketing in 
 spurious prosperity; managing our great Empire as a 
 factory for turning out social reforms at the shortest 
 possible notice ; or as a quack medicine shop with a mi- 
 raculous specific for every disease of the body politic; 
 or as a universal emporium for distributing bagman's 
 bliss and bank holiday liberty to everybody at the low- 
 est possible price. 
 
 Some of the social reforms were necessary, beneficial, 
 urgent; many of them were the mere whimsies and 
 topsy-turvies of fanatical cliques, or grabbings to get 
 hold of the national counterpane which covers us all; 
 pilferings of the stores of the commonwealth for the 
 
84 Patriotism and 
 
 benefit of a class or a private interest. All of the social 
 reform legislation of the years before the war was of 
 small importance or value compared with the necessity 
 for preparing our citizens to defend their country. 
 
 Is that denied? Will anyone name any half-dozen 
 measures passed in those years, that saved or gained the 
 country so much as a twentieth part of what we should 
 have saved or gained by the timely instruction of our 
 boyhood and manhood in the performance of this first 
 duty to the State, and by shaping our national course 
 with a provident foresight of the ever threatening and 
 darkening future? 
 
 But our politicians of both parties disregarded this 
 first great national duty, put it aside; the influential 
 majority of them denounced all suggestion of it as some- 
 thing absurd, superfluous, barbarous, criminal, and 
 so terribly expensive. Expensive! Besides all this, to 
 train our boys in a sober, unoffending, but resolute 
 patriotism, would have shown an unworthy suspicion 
 and distrust of our good neighbour, Germany, not to 
 be harboured in gentle, pacific, British breasts. 
 
 Why did our politicians neglect and despise this first 
 great national duty all through the years when, of all 
 the years of our long history, its obligations were most 
 plain and most imperative, when every movement that 
 Germany made was a manifest declaration of her in- 
 tent; when every consideration of prudent national 
 economy, every admonition of the past, and every au- 
 gury of the future incessantly called upon them to fulfil 
 it ? Were they so destitute of natural sagacity as to be 
 unable to see that our great Empire and all our posses- 
 sions were vulnerable, and were unprotected on every 
 side, and lay at the mercy of any chance outbreak of 
 envy or malice? I will not rate their intelligence so 
 
Popular Education 85 
 
 meanly as to think it. Were they, as the credulous 
 populace now believe, the secret friends, the subsidized 
 agents, or the blackmailed dependents of our enemy, 
 conscious and active traitors to their country? I will 
 not rate my own intelligence so meanly as to think it. 
 
 There may be a few shady and disreputable transac- 
 tions on the part of individuals which up to the pres- 
 ent are unrevealed and unproved. But I am persuaded 
 that the general body of English politicians were and 
 are as irreprochable in matters of personal honour as 
 any other class, and have made, and are ready to make, 
 as great and willing sacrifices for the national safety. 
 
 Why, then, in the generation before the war, were 
 they so blind to our great permanent interests ; why, in 
 this first duty of preparing and providing for our de- 
 fence, were they so lax, so neglectful, so heedless of 
 their high responsibilities ? Why were many influential 
 members of them so loud and busy in leading the na- 
 tion towards our present perils and disasters ? 
 
 It may be urged that the nation itself was responsi- 
 ble, since it put these politicians in power. But what 
 kind of Political Education had the nation received? 
 What were its leading principles and tenets? Whence 
 were they derived? 
 
 What part and influence had Popular Education in 
 shaping the mould of political thought, and cutting the 
 main channels of political action? For though it is 
 plain, sir, that you cannot issue a set of political opin- 
 ions to your scholars, I am sure you would agree that 
 the general policy of your office, its main principles and 
 aims, must largely determine the political bias of the 
 next generation, must prompt certain political im- 
 pulses, and give direction and impetus to much of our 
 forthcoming legislation. Indeed, I suppose you would 
 
86 Patriotism and 
 
 claim that it is one of the chief objects of Popular 
 Education to train a future electorate to demand wise 
 legislation. 
 
 Would you say that up till now, our system of Popu- 
 lar Education has attained that primary object ? Would 
 you say that it was wise legislation that left undefended 
 all the sources of our national prosperity and well-be- 
 ing; all our store of accumulated wealth; all the wide, 
 rich stretches of our scattered dominions ; left to hazard 
 the daily bread and means of livelihood of every one 
 of us; left all the jewels of our Empire displayed in 
 manifest insecurity, and gave a careless general invita- 
 tion to a cunning envious enemy to drop in and plunder 
 us at any time convenient to him ? In view of our pres- 
 ent situation, would you affirm that the greater part of 
 our social, and much of our imperial legislation has 
 not been misguided and chaotic ; heedful only of minor 
 or imaginary necessities; blind to our real and immi- 
 nent emergencies; inspired by no clear national pur- 
 pose, except that of giving a good, easy time to every- 
 body who would only vote hard and persistently for it ? 
 
 Would you say that Popular Education was not 
 therein concerned, was nowise accessory to the passing 
 of that legislation, or accountable for its negligences and 
 blindness ; that these matters lie outside its domain and 
 sphere of action? Why, then, what a naive, impotent, 
 blundering imposture does this same Popular Educa- 
 tion proclaim itself to be, that teaches everybody alge- 
 bra, and teaches nobody the first duty of patriotism that 
 assures him his daily bread and butter ! 
 
 But I am sure you will allow, nay, you will insist, 
 that Popular Education has had, and must have increas- 
 ing influence in guiding political thought and shaping 
 political action; that its ministers, administrators, and 
 
Popular Education 87 
 
 teachers, by the laws they frame, the principles they 
 inculcate, the ideals they set before our children, and 
 the notions they instil into their receptive minds, have 
 a very real, if indirect, influence over the whole body 
 of future legislation. 
 
 May I, without impertinence, ask you whether, if you 
 had been Minister of Education a generation ago, and 
 had foreseen our present dangers and adversities, you 
 would not have made it your first business to permeate 
 every school in England with an enlightened, resolute 
 patriotism, and to impress every boy with the urgent 
 necessity of holding himself ready to defend his coun- 
 try when the dreadful hour should strike?' Am I 
 wrong in supposing that you would have considered 
 this matter of more importance than continuation class- 
 es, that you would have put it into the forefront of the 
 legislation you introduced, and into practice through- 
 out the kingdom? 
 
 It may be urged that all that is past and done with, 
 and not now worth our argument and speculation. The 
 millennium is dawning, and the unfortunate oversight 
 of our politicians is amply atoned for by the same 
 comforting assurance that the housemaid gives when she 
 has broken the priceless china vase that gold cannot 
 replace "It shan't happen again." 
 
 I will deal with that fallacious post-mortem excuse 
 by and by. 
 
 Meantime, may I bring to remembrance the fact that 
 Popular Education, during those blind and nugatory 
 years, was conceived and administered in a spirit of an- 
 tagonism to any preparation of our boys for what is to- 
 day the whole task and business of their lives? The 
 general aims and tendencies of Popular Education, all 
 its associations and affinities were opposed to giving 
 
88 Patriotism and 
 
 them any instruction in what was soon to be their most 
 pressing employment, demanding all their energy and 
 intelligence. There was not merely neglect and indif- 
 ference to any such teaching and preparation; there 
 was not merely passive resistance; there was incessant 
 and active denunciation of it as something wholly su- 
 perfluous, foolish, demoralizing, brutal, evil, and ruin- 
 ous to the finances of the country. It would scarcely be 
 an exaggeration to say that, in the last generation, the 
 great majority of our boys and young men were indus- 
 triously educated not to defend their country. 
 
 Where lay the fault ? I will not be so vain and con- 
 ceited as to imagine that all our ministers and political 
 leaders, deeply read in the lessons of history as most of 
 them were, trained and experienced in statecraft, with 
 full sources of information at their command I will 
 not flatter myself that they were less discerning, less 
 able to form an estimate of the future necessities and 
 obligations of the nation, than a casual observer and 
 Btander-by from politics like myself. How, then, was 
 it that through all those years they remained with 
 sealed eyes and ears; nay, they shut their eyes and 
 plugged their ears; incurably afflicted with FalstafFa 
 disease, a kind of sleeping in the blood, a kind of deaf- 
 ness, the disease of not listening, the malady of not 
 marking ? 
 
 Was it not that Popular Education was leavening and 
 shaping political thought and action, and directing the 
 main course of legislation, not towards the wise, large 
 measures which events have proved were urgent and 
 vital for the safety of the nation, and for its ultimate 
 well-being and prosperity, but towards measures of class 
 and social re-arrangement that promised some immedi- 
 ate benefit to some section of the new electorate, and 
 
Popular Education 89 
 
 secured office and party advantage to the politicians who 
 promoted them? 
 
 In the eighties after the Reform Bill there arose the 
 cry that we must educate our new masters. What really 
 happened was that our new masters educated us. So 
 far as Popular Education had any influence on legis- 
 lation and it cannot be denied that there was in- 
 creasing action and reaction between Popular Educa- 
 tion and politics so far it obscured the vision of our 
 statesmen in foreign affairs, and corrupted their intel- 
 lectual honesty in domestic affairs. 
 
 If a man drugs me with ether, and takes from me 
 my watch, he knows he has robbed me, and, in his heart, 
 he probably calls himself a thief. But if, in some 
 greatly involved matter of politics, a man drugs me with 
 the fumes of his words and his whimsies, and takes 
 from me my power of right judgment, he doesn't know 
 that he has robbed me, and he probably calls himself a 
 Social Reformer. Very likely, before drugging me, he 
 has carefully and systematically drugged himself, and 
 then, if it is to our personal or class interest to be de- 
 ceived, we go on drugging each other, and we form a 
 caucus to drug all our neighbours. 
 
 And by and by a monstrous bill comes in for the 
 State to pay. 
 
 Was there not great and widely-spread intellectual 
 dishonesty amongst our politicians in the years before 
 the war ? And was not much of it due to the pressure 
 from an electorate whom Popular Education, by its de- 
 clared aims and policy, had encouraged to vote, not for 
 the ultimate welfare and safety of the State, but for 
 what any scrap majority conceived to be their own pal- 
 pable immediate personal interests? In the light of 
 our present experience and knowledge, it seems an ill- 
 
90 Patriotism and 
 
 timed jest, a cruel irony to remind the great body of 
 voters that they were blindly and obstinately opposed to 
 any national teaching of the first duty of citizenship; 
 that they made it impossible for our politicians to pro- 
 vide anything approaching the necessary means for the 
 defence of the Empire. 
 
 The politicians kept in office. I do not say that the 
 intellectual dishonesty that allowed them to remain 
 there was conscious and deliberate. We rarely analyse 
 our motives very closely when a searching examination 
 of them would disturb our interests or confound our 
 whimsies. 
 
 Of all the mental ailments that afflict our race, intel- 
 lectual dishonesty is the most prevalent, the most read- 
 ily infectious, the most obscure in its multiple origins, 
 the hardest to diagnose correctly, the most subtle in its 
 workings, the most disastrous in its ravages. We are 
 all of us easily susceptible to it; many of us, like the 
 "carriers" of typhoid, go through life sowing its germs 
 broadcast, without even suspecting that it is in our sys- 
 tem, and that we are spreading the plague. 
 
 Was not this indefinable malady very rife in the 
 House of Commons during the years before the war? 
 Is it not endemic in the precincts of Westminster ? And 
 was it not largely accountable for the blindness that 
 closed the eyes of our politicians to the shadow of the 
 coming doom, and to the necessity of preparing a shel- 
 ter from it. Doubtless this intellectual dishonesty was 
 mainly unconscious. Assuredly, many of our politi- 
 cians were free from it altogether. Some of them, in- 
 deed, if wholly mistaken, were nobly and generously 
 mistaken. And of the others, let us charitably suppose, 
 that in effectively working their party machines to 
 bring all these horrors upon us, to cut off our best 
 
Popular Education 91 
 
 manhood, to saddle the State with an unbearable burden 
 of debt for generations, and to drag the Empire and 
 European civiliation into jeopardy let us charitably 
 suppose that in working their party machines to these 
 ends, they were actuated by the noblest and purest mo- 
 tives, and were genuinely convinced that they were 
 striving their utmost for the welfare of the country. 
 
 However we may allot the blame for our present situ- 
 ation, it is plain that the sum of credit we give to the 
 honesty and faithfulness of the politicians who were in 
 power, we must debit from their foresight, sagacity, 
 and statesmanship. And the sum of credit we give to 
 their foresight, sagacity, and statesmanship, we must 
 debit from their honesty and faithfulness. Had I been 
 a responsible minister in any of the recent govern- 
 ments, I think I could never meet one of those crippled 
 wrecks in blue that make England a vast hospital, with- 
 out the acccusing thought, "Perhaps I might have saved 
 that man." 
 
 I hear you asking, with natural irritation, "What has 
 all this to do with Popular Education? Do I ascribe 
 to it all the evils that have visited this planet since the 
 lapse of Eve?" 
 
 No, sir, I am now charging it with one omission 
 only. But that omission was so fatal in its conse- 
 quences, that it cancels into less than nothingness all 
 the benefactions we have received from it. I mean the 
 omission to teach our boys what every one of them 
 would be called upon to practise at the hourly risk of his 
 life ; what it was most urgent for their own sakes, and 
 most imperative for the welfare of the State for them 
 to learn. I will claim that the Boy Scouts movement 
 has had a higher influence on the boys of England than 
 the teaching they have received in the national schools; 
 
92 Patriotism and 
 
 and that in respect of building up their characters in all 
 essentials of manhood, it has been of far more real 
 value to the country. 
 
 In the matter of national finance, this cardinal omis- 
 sion of Popular Education has been ruinous beyond all 
 power of computation. We are now well within sight 
 of a National Debt of some ten thousand millions of 
 pounds. It is the confessed aim of your new Educa- 
 tion Bill to render an economic service to the State by 
 indiscriminately forcing some items of "general" edu- 
 cation upon everybody under the age of eighteen, how- 
 ever unpalatable it may be to the majority of them, 
 however foreign to their tastes, aptitudes, and life vo- 
 cation. Perhaps those whom your Bill, categorically, 
 but a little ungallantly, describes as "young persons," 
 may be found to have wills of their own in this matter, 
 and to develop unsuspected powers of evasion. The 
 "young person" from sixteen to eighteen is not a very 
 tractable creature, and is fertile in devices of escape 
 from wholesome instruction and salutary restraint. I 
 had only half a dozen of them on my hands; you will 
 have many millions. I hope, sir, your perplexities in 
 dealing with them may not be multiplied in strict pro- 
 portion to my own. 
 
 Setting aside any economic benefit that your Bill 
 may, or may not, confer upon the nation, I readily al- 
 low that "young persons" of sixteen to eighteen would 
 often be far better employed in the study of abstract 
 problems of science, mathematics, or philosophy, even 
 if they do not understand them, than in giving their 
 leisure to the very concrete personal matters that are 
 apt to allure and absorb the thoughts at that impression- 
 able age. Cicero or Euclid is a much safer and more 
 desirable companion for recalcitrant adolescence, than 
 
Popular Education 93 
 
 the average "young person" of the opposite sex who 
 is employed over the way, or picked up in an evening 
 walk. Alas, that to the "young person" they should 
 he less seductive ! This is a subject upon which I will 
 abstain from distressing myself. With some feeling of 
 relief, I leave it unreservedly in your hands to settle 
 with the "young persons" themselves. 
 
 Returning to the economic question, when you say 
 that "no country in the long run suffers an economic 
 injury from an improvement in the general education 
 of its population," I understand you to mean, in this 
 instance, that by forcibly bestowing information about 
 Cicero, and other packets of general knowledge upon 
 all "young persons" up to the age of eighteen, you ex- 
 pect to bring a substantial profit to our empty ex- 
 chequer. You will admit that the process is somewhat 
 roundabout in its method, and somewhat obscure in 
 its working, and that its benefits cannot be exactly es- 
 timated. Some of us are a little inquisitive about the 
 precise amount, and a little sceptical as to which side 
 of the national ledger the balance may finally have to 
 be placed. But whatever our doubts, I am sure there 
 is no taxpayer in the kingdom who does not most fer- 
 vently pray that your most sanguine expectations may 
 be surpassed; and who, if they are merely realized to 
 some small extent, will not overwhelm you with grati- 
 tude and praise. 
 
 Indeed, so universal is the desire for your success, 
 and so confident the belief that it is assured, that already 
 the papers have showered columns of glowing praise 
 upon your scheme. The chorus of their applause was 
 so hearty, and their enthusiasm so spontaneous and 
 jubilant, that I thought at first I must be reading the 
 notices of a new revue at one of our popular variety 
 
94 Patriotism and 
 
 theatres. For I know of no other matter of general 
 civic interest, that in our present circumstances could 
 kindle such warm and lively sympathy and national 
 congratulation. 
 
 Nor, in respect of any pecuniary benefactions that 
 your bill may distribute, shall you find a more eager 
 or grateful recipient than myself. E"o stupid, obstinate 
 preference for my own opinion, shall stand in the way 
 of my changing it, the moment I get some reasonably 
 trustworthy evidence that my income tax has been re- 
 duced a penny in the pound, by the compulsory attend- 
 ance of all "young persons" at your continuation classes. 
 In fact, when that moment comes, I shall be found im- 
 ploring you, with all the zeal of a new convert, to raise 
 the age to forty at the least. I hope this may show you 
 how willing, nay anxious, I am to be convinced of the 
 economic wisdom of this clause in your bill. 
 
 I am aware, sir, that you cannot disentangle from our 
 general revenue, the amount that will flow into the ex- 
 chequer from your detention of all "young persons" 
 in class rooms until they are eighteen. I will not ask 
 you to give us even an approximate estimate of this 
 golden largesse to the people. But you would be able 
 to say roughly whether it will be a mere dribble of a 
 few millions, or a soaking rain of affluence upon a bare 
 and thirsty land. Probably you would assess it in your 
 own mind, very loosely and indefinitely, at something 
 between these two extremes. Let us assess it in our 
 most sanguine, most extravagant mood. As our valua- 
 tion cannot be falsified, let us deal generously with an 
 impoverished nation. Let us nurse the wildest hopes; 
 let us fondle the rosiest credulities. What good round 
 sum shall we say will accrue to the State from forcibly 
 instructing all "young persons" up to eighteen, in mat- 
 
Popular Education 95 
 
 ters that to the great majority of them can have no 
 concern with their daily work and activities? Let us 
 put it at some figure higher than the highest possi- 
 bility. 
 
 Will it then be one fifth, one tenth, one hundredth of 
 the sum that the nation has squandered, or will have 
 to squander, because it did not, in years gone by, in- 
 struct all male "young persons" in the first duty of 
 citizenship, and train them to be ready to defend their 
 country ? 
 
 Forgive me, sir, if I have roused your indignation 
 by calling upon you to make such a calculation. You 
 will say that there is no means of establishing an equa- 
 tion of circumstances, contingencies, and results. And, 
 further, granted that a rigid comparison could be made, 
 and an exact balance struck, it could serve no useful 
 purpose, and would be a mere irritating reminder of 
 our past folly and blindness. Why, then, do I, like a 
 nagging shrew, continue to harp upon yesterday's 
 faults and mistakes in the household? They are past 
 and done with, and the whole family is hard at work, 
 trying to repair them. Those who committed them andf 
 caused the general upset and damage, are now, many 
 of them, toiling night and day to ward off further de- 
 struction, and to make our home tidy and fit to live in 
 once more. 
 
 I gladly acknowledge that. I am sensible of their 
 sleepless work and care, and am deeply grateful to them ; 
 boundlessly grateful and beggared of thanks to the tire- 
 less, indomitable steward and guardian of our despoiled 
 estate, who with every energy of brain and fervent soul 
 and will addressed to his stupendous task, bearing a 
 burden more than mortal shoulders are able to bear, is 
 labouring to bring us out of this chaos and wreckage. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 (July August 1918) 
 
 A LEAGUE OF 
 
 Legislating for the millennium The prophet Micah beats 
 swords into ploughshares The prophet Joel counters him and 
 beats ploughshares into swords War and Design in Nature 
 An automatic peace-machine The philanthropist in Laputa and 
 his safety dustbin Possible material profit from war Greater 
 certainty of spiritual profit Difficulties of constitution of League 
 
 The master fact for our statesmen to remember Germany's 
 future attitude towards Britain Do we not know this nation? - 
 The League of Nations a fruitful field for German intrigue The 
 servant girl and the fair young man League of Nations a fu- 
 tility or a danger Improbability of all the nations being wise 
 for all of the time Dark anarchic forces gathering on the hori- 
 zon Governing the world by a Committee The war after the 
 war Victories of Peace compared with Victories of war Eng- 
 lish and American commercial practices A League of Nations, 
 sooner or later, causes war Approaching ground swell after this 
 tempest Balancing alternations of peace and war through all 
 history A soldier the final custodian of peace By recogniz- 
 ing this we avoid or shorten war Immediate and remote dan- 
 gers of a League of Nations considered Hecate and false se- 
 curity War and the dark backward and abysm of Time War 
 and the dark forward and abysm of time Canute and the fram- 
 ers of a League of Nations American delay in entering the war 
 
 American mothers and the war trumpets of Europe Amer- 
 ica's unique and fortunate position Speculation on future of 
 American civilization Four possible future states of world civi- 
 lization The earth littered with combustile matter The two 
 sign-posts. 
 
 WHY, then, dwell upon the past? And especially 
 upon this unfortunate oversight of our poli- 
 ticians in not preparing for the war ? Surely the con- 
 
 96 
 
Popular Education 97 
 
 templation and discussion of that national error of 
 judgment can offer us no lesson or warning for the fu- 
 ture; for, as soon as peace is signed, the millennium 
 will dawn by the unanimous decree of a League of Na- 
 tions. Let us make haste to legislate for the millen- 
 nium. Let us, victims of miseries and mistakes through 
 all these troublous chapters of our history, take a peep 
 at the end of the book and find it written on the glow- 
 ing last page that we shall live happily ever after- 
 wards. How like we are to the readers of a tale, or 
 the sitters at a play! We insist that the author shall 
 give us a happy ending or we will not buy his book. But 
 the Author of the book of our fate cares nothing for 
 popular approbation and applause. He writes the 
 plainest, sternest truths and makes no concession to 
 the public taste for honied sentiment and luxurious 
 dreams. For every word He writes is assured of final 
 universal circulation. Sooner or later He forces us 
 to buy every volume He issues; and always at a price 
 that leaps upward, the longer we delay. 
 
 Some natural hopes we must needs indulge for very 
 pity of our present state; some fairy pageantry of 
 beatitude we must needs paint upon the unsubstantial 
 cloud fleece of the future, or we should faint and die 
 on this dark, thorny, toilsome road. Who is there that, 
 casting one shuddering look on this perverted world to- 
 day, does not make one with all its despairing, tortured, 
 starving peoples, and throwing himself into the vast, 
 kneeling assembly, cry out with them, "An oath ! An 
 oath! We have an oath in heaven! Witness, ye ever 
 burning lights above ! Never, to the end of time, shall 
 this mad, blundering, accursed murderer, War, again 
 work havoc and ruin upon our earth !" 
 
 That cry has gone up to heaven before. That vow 
 
98 Patriotism and 
 
 has often been registered by acclaiming mankin. 
 their dire agony of body and soul. Men have 
 been convinced of the advantages of peace, an 
 miseries and cruelties of war. The prophet 1 
 with all the zeal of our modern Pacifists, and in cb: 
 diction, announced a time when swords shoul 
 beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-1^ 
 Unfortunately the prophet Micah was countered V 
 prophet Joel, who started a movement for 
 ploughshares into swords, and pruning-hooks into si 
 Our own Pacifists, if history, or facts, or aught the ] 
 tains to reason could teach them, might notic< 
 these opposing movements have continued ever ince, 
 with balancing alternations and constant interi 
 recurrence. Did not Voltaire, with his superb '< 
 expose to his countrymen the miseries and absuii 
 and senseless horrors of war ? Yet in the next puera- 
 tion they were following Napoleon, and laying 
 all Europe, having in the meantime proclaime uni- 
 versal brotherhood, and chopped off each other's eads. 
 Again our Pacifists may note that chopping ofiaeads 
 and cutting throats is the inevitable sequel to prcl 
 ing universal brotherhood. And so on till 1851 
 it was fondly imagined that wars would be case 
 cease by building in Hyde Park, what Ruskin c 
 large cucumber frame between two chimneys, ad 
 playing therein a quantity of Manchester 
 wares. 
 
 If there is any Design in this universal wel >f hu- 
 man things, War has hitherto been a main and i 1 
 able part of that Design. Its crimson thre 
 through all the tapestry of history, though 
 are hidden from us under the smiling panoima of 
 peace that is displayed. The great loom o f 
 
Popular Education 99 
 
 gone on weaving its variegated, -complicated pattern 
 of human affairs for the countless thousands of years 
 since man began to climb upwards from the ape, but 
 the dreadful red figure has never long been absent from 
 the foreground of the scene. Punctually at the ap- 
 pointed hour it may be at the end of ten, or twenty, 
 or forty years punctually the great loom has begun 
 again to weave the figure of the terrible red monster, 
 and he has emerged; in his right hand a sword, and 
 his left hand a cup of unendurable agonies and cruel- 
 ties and sorrows. 
 
 We, drinking from that cup, cry out against its bit- 
 terness. We try to push it from us. The terrible 
 red monster grips us, forces it through our teeth, as 
 deep as to our throats, makes us swallow its very dregs. 
 We register our vehement vow that it shall never again 
 be offered to our lips, or to the lips of our children. 
 We will vote against it at the next election. Does not 
 an undeciphered tablet brought from the ruins of As- 
 syria, record that at the general election which took 
 place when Noah was building his ark, the electorate of 
 that day voted unanimously against the deluge? We 
 will certainly vote against this greater, fouler evil at 
 the next election, and at every election for the next fifty 
 years. 
 
 Unhasting, unresting, the great loom of Time is al- 
 ready beginning to weave the future history of the 
 coming generations of men. The crimson threads that 
 now stretch all across the frame, dyed deep in the blood 
 of the nations, will disappear, and embed themselves 
 in a warp and woof of rejoicing landscapes, peopled 
 with olive gatherers and reapers of corn. Having 
 served His purpose in His unfathomable Design, may 
 not those crimson threads, when they return to the 
 
100 Patriotism and 
 
 hands of the Weaver, be then for ever dipped in soft 
 dove tints and restful hues of peace, never again to 
 he woven into the monstrous lineaments of war ? 
 
 Who does not hope for it ? Who would not further it ? 
 
 It was a pleasing medieval superstition that man- 
 drakes, torn shrieking from the treacherous soil that 
 had engendered them, after they had been propitiated 
 by soothing rites, ceased to be the couriers of evil, and' 
 became the wise, familiar spirits and loving oracles of 
 the household then enshrined them. So may we pro- 
 pitiate the mandrakes that we have torn from this mur- 
 der pit of war, conjuring away their attributes of hell, 
 and transforming them into the guardians and coun- 
 sellors of the nations through long generations of uni- 
 versal peace! 
 
 Who does not hope for it ? Who would not further it ? 
 
 He would be a bold and foolish man who should de- 
 clare that the recurrent dream of the ages will not 
 at last come true after this war; that the weapons of 
 slaughter, when they drop from our hands, will not 
 henceforth be packed away in the museum of history, 
 nevermore to be used for the torture and destruction of 
 mankind, but only to be shown as curiosities and an- 
 tique relics in the holiday times to come. Surely, if 
 ever men will learn to avoid war, now is the accep- 
 table moment ; surely if ever they can devise some cun- 
 ning interlocking machine that will automatically deal 
 out perpetual peace to the nations, now is the time to 
 fashion it. We are being carried towards a new civi- 
 lization. Who shall say what may, or may not, be 
 possible amidst new forces that we cannot estimate, 
 and in new conditions that we cannot realize ? It may 
 be found possible to construct an automatic peace ma- 
 chine, and it may be found possible to get it to work, 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education . ' -. : . . \ 101 
 
 at any -rate for a time. The necessity for it is so ob- 
 vious and so pressing, that we can but watch with all 
 sympathy and hope, the efforts of those who are so 
 industriously beginning to put its parts together; we 
 can but wish them success with all our hearts. 
 
 But how long is it likely to work? That all the 
 statesmen of all the nations will have to stand by, and 
 check and regulate its every movement, nobody doubts. 
 That it will need incessant mending and tinkering, no- 
 body doubts. That all the statesmen of all the na- 
 tions will have to repair it in harmonious co-operation, 
 and adjust its intricate action to meet the varying needs 
 and interests and susceptibilities of all the countries 
 under the sun, nobody doubts. Is it not almost certain 
 that, within the period of a generation or even less, 
 the machine will get out of order and become unman- 
 ageable, and this at some moment when all the states- 
 men are busy oiling and mending it, with their fingers 
 in its complicated cogs? And will not the statesmen 
 be drawn into its furious revolutions, while the un- 
 ruly irresponsible machine clatters itself to destruction, 
 and mangles and wrecks everything around it? 
 
 Something like this has happened to the peace ma- 
 chine which the Russian democracy constructed upon 
 the k fall of the Czar. Why should we think that a 
 larger, more complicated machine, constructed upon 
 what are virtually and fundamentally the same prin- 
 ciples of action, will not, sooner or later, grind out 
 the same results to its inventors and its victims? 
 
 The last time I was in Laputa, I met there a phil- 
 anthropist, who had a most engaging scheme for rid- 
 ding the world of all the inconveniences, nuisances, 
 and diseases attendant upon the universal prevalence of 
 dust. His quite unassailable argument was, that if 
 
102 Patriotism and 
 
 we could once and finally collect all the dust in the 
 world, and put it into a large safe and lock it up, we 
 ahould henceforth have a quite tidy, wholesome, pleas- 
 ant earth to live upon; that we should save half our 
 expenses on housemaids, and all our expenses on dust- 
 men and water-carts; that we should he free from un- 
 pleasant smells, and rid ourselves of flies; and that 
 all the filth and dirt diseases would be eradicated. As 
 he enlarged upon the great and manifest blessings that 
 his scheme would confer upon humanity, I caught his 
 enthusiasm, and heartily wished him all possible suc- 
 cess. He thanked me, and said that he had already 
 built one safe, and had stored in it a large heap of 
 dust, when he found out that he had miscalculated 
 the total quantity of dust that there was in the world ; 
 moreover, some evil-disposed persons had bored a hole 
 in his safe, and caused a leakage. However, he would 
 guard against all such error and malice in the future. 
 When I left Lagado, he was busy planning an uncol- 
 lapsible, impregnable safe, of dimensions and design 
 suitable to the magnificence of his idea, 
 
 Now if we could but sweep up all the poisonous dust 
 and germ-laden filth of greed, hate, intrigue, pride, 
 rivalry, selfishness, discontent, envy, rancour, stupidity, 
 jealousy, and ambition that lie littering amongst the 
 nations, and that in times past have bred and festered 
 into war if we could collect it all into one heap and 
 put it into a large safe, and call it "A League of Na- 
 tions" Ah, if we could ! 
 
 Let us for the time shirk all responsibility for the 
 caprices of future events. Let us cast about, and try 
 to get some anchorage, not amongst the clouds, but on 
 the hard bed rock of reality. Let us get a tight grip 
 of unchallengeable facts, and make them surety for 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 103 
 
 our national aims and efforts. In all the bewilder- 
 ment and confusion of our present hopes and en- 
 deavours, what are the main things we may be sure 
 about and build upon ? 
 
 We may be sure that the fundamental instincts and 
 passions of humanity will not change, until man be- 
 comes a creature of a genus so unlike ourselves, that 
 his affairs and his destiny can be no concern of ours. 
 But that day is very far distant. We have certainly 
 risen from a race of crude lemur-like animals. We 
 are certainly groping and agonizing upwards from the 
 brute. But how slowly and how obliquely ! We may be 
 sure that for centuries to come, the masses of mankind 
 will be swayed and moved and whirled about by the 
 same impulses, instincts, and passions that have moved 
 them for centuries in the past. And as the interests of 
 individual nations are always partly in conflict and 
 partly in collusion, it is improbable to the last degree 
 that any nation will, for any great length of time, 
 be able to pursue any clear policy that it has marked 
 out for itself. The nations and masses of men will, 
 as in the past, be driven along roads they have not 
 chosen, to goals they have not fixed or foreseen. Man 
 will never divine the strategy of Nature. Only rarely 
 and dimly can he follow her tactics, and advance his 
 positions a few yards forward. Even then, though he 
 is not aware of it, he is still fulfilling her strategy. 
 
 (I am sure, sir, that you are asking with increasing 
 irritation, what has all this to do with Popular Educa- 
 tion and your Education Bill. I own that I seem to be 
 wandering away from the high road of my argument 
 in obscure and devious by-lanes. Bear with me, sir, 
 a little longer. I am making for a fixed point. I will 
 meet you at the top of the hill, yonder, where the op- 
 
104 Patriotism and 
 
 posing signposts stand, and where the two ways part.) 
 It will be urged that in this matter of war, the in- 
 terests of the nations do not conflict; that it is very 
 plainly to the advantage of them #11 and severally, to 
 abolish it now and for ever from the planet. 
 
 Can we be sure even of that, self-evident though it 
 appears to be on the surface ? Undoubtedly it is to the 
 immediate economic interest of the nations generally, 
 to abstain from killing each other's citizens and wreck- 
 ing each other's property. But can we say that in- 
 dividual nations have not often profited very largely 
 in a material sense, and also in a spiritual sense, from 
 a successful war? If, during the last four years, the 
 scales which have so often hung tremulously balanced 
 midway between heaven and hell, which at this moment 
 hang in their last perilous vacillating poise, if those 
 scales by the addition of some small makeweight thrown 
 in by malignant circumstance, had once dipped in fa- 
 tal decision against us, can we say that Germany would 
 not have gained an enormous booty of wealth, terri- 
 tory, power, influence, and future prosperity? That 
 the Germans would not henceforth have been the slave- 
 owners of us dispossessed Englishmen, living easily in 
 our heritage, and fattening upon the sweated toil of 
 our outcast children? Nine thousand million pounds 
 is the sum which a German statesman in to-day's paper 
 is calling upon his Government to claim from Eng- 
 land, besides large slices of the continents, and vam- 
 pire economic extortions. A cruel price to pay for 
 the neglect of our Popular Educators in the last genera- 
 tion to teach our boys the first duty of citizenship! A 
 price impossible for the Germans now to exact. 
 
 Is it quite impossible ? How often in the last four 
 years, have there been moments when a feather's weight 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 105 
 
 thrown in the scale against us, would have sent our 
 scale to kick the beam, and MENE, MENE, TEKEL, 
 TJpHAKsm would have been written on the gravestone 
 of England! And if some crooked jolt of mischance 
 should even now turn the scales against us, will not 
 some such ruinous bill be sent in for us to pay ? What- 
 ever economic benefit your system of general education 
 may endow the nation withal, it will be small dust in 
 the balance compared with that staggering, incalculable 
 deficit. And will you not then, sir, be inclined to re- 
 vise your dictum, and make it read thus : "No country 
 in the long run suffers an economic injury by training 
 its boys to be ready to defend it, and by making this 
 training a part of their general education" ? 
 
 But alas, sir, if some blind blow out of the dark should 
 yet descend upon us, and disable us in this ever fluc- 
 tuating conflict, it will not be you, but the Germans 
 who in five years' time will be superintending English 
 education, and drawing up the schedule of our lessons. 
 Bitter and ruthless will be their instruction ; severe and 
 prolonged beyond all our power of endurance will be 
 their continuation classes. Happily there is every 
 reason to hope that we shall remain under your milder, 
 less expensive system of Popular Education. 
 
 But if we cannot deny that individual nations have 
 often profited materially by war, still less can we deny 
 that individual nations have often profited spiritually 
 by war. Does not a righteous war almost certainly 
 bring spiritual enlargement and enlightenment and en- 
 franchisement to the nation that submits to its iron 
 discipline, and offers its purifying sacrifices ? To deny 
 this is to black out from history many of its most in- 
 spiring pages ; it is to sanctify oppression and tyranny, 
 and to defame the heroic peoples who have hazarded 
 
106 Patriotism and 
 
 all and suffered all for the deliverance of their land, 
 and the freedom of their souls. To deny that a righ- 
 teous war brings spiritual gain, is to pour contempt upon 
 all the exaltations and sacrifices whereby we have proved 
 ourselves and saved ourselves during the last four 
 years; upon all that bands us together in our uncon- 
 querable resolve; upon all that encourages us in these 
 fateful hours to affirm with our blood the immutable 
 conviction of our race, that when evil is triumphant 
 men must needs die to overcome it. 
 
 But it is claimed that this is the last time in the 
 history of the world when evil will be triumphant, and 
 when men will be called upon to give their lives in re- 
 sistance to it. The Germans are a race apart, a people 
 apart. When once they are vanquished, it is claimed 
 that no nation will ever arise in the future to tyrannize 
 and devastate the earth. Any little differences of opin- 
 ion, of rivalries, or coverings, or selfish aims that may 
 spring up amongst the peoples in the future, will be 
 easily charmed away by a vote of the League of Na- 
 tions. 
 
 Is each nation to have equal voting power? It is 
 manifestly unfair, and will probably be found to be 
 unworkable. Is each nation to have voting power in 
 proportion to its population? Again, it is manifestly 
 unfair, and will make the small nations of little or no 
 account. Is each nation to have voting power accord- 
 ing to the armament it places at the disposal of the 
 League? Who is to allot the size and functions of 
 each individual armament? To include or to exclude 
 Germany seems to be equally undesirable, and equally 
 obstructive to the safe and honest working of the League. 
 To the nations whom she has pillaged and devastated 
 and murdered, Germany will for a generation be as in- 
 

 Popular Education 107 
 
 tolerable as a friend at the council table, as she has 
 been unscrupulous as an enemy in the field. 
 
 The constitution of the League is beset with diffi- 
 culties and provocations to dissension. Still the long- 
 ing for peace is so urgent and so universal, that it will 
 doubtless be found possible to make the necessary com- 
 promises, and to establish it in some form that will 
 give it a chance of temporary success. Indeed the 
 longing for peace is so strong and insistent that it will 
 probably ensure its own fulfilment for many years to 
 come. 
 
 Setting aside the possibility of a universal class war, 
 which would obliterate national boundaries, destroy 
 national understandings, and plunge the world into 
 endless anarchy and strife setting this aside, is any 
 one childish enough to think that, for the next thirty 
 years, whether Germany is inside or outside the League 
 of Nations, we can escape from being on the alert 
 against her intrigues, so far as we leave her any 
 power to intrigue ? The one master fact for our states- 
 men to remember after victory, is that we have robbed 
 Germany of the domination of the world, thwarted all 
 her national hopes and ambitions, crushed her arma- 
 ments and her commerce, and slaughtered the prime 
 of her manhood. In doing this, we have inflamed the 
 mad murderous instincts of her people to their highest 
 pitch, and roused in her such deep-seated bitter ani- 
 mosity and hungry desperate hate, as no goodwill and 
 conciliation on our part will for a long generation serve 
 to abate. 
 
 We had to do this. It was unavoidable. Germany 
 would have it so. We may not wish to remember it. 
 Germany will. At our peril shall we forget it. 
 
 Let us try to imagine what our feelings towards 
 
108 Patriotism and 
 
 Germany would be for the next thirty or forty years, 
 if she had defeated us, and left us beggared, shamed, 
 and crushed in the ruined corners of our shattered 
 Empire. So far as any spark of national hope, or 
 spunk of national virtue was left in us, could we ever 
 forget it or forgive it? And being disarmed of all 
 weapons of force, should we not cast about for every 
 device to entangle her in the council of nations, on the 
 chance of bringing to a head some combination against 
 her? 
 
 Why should we think that Germany will do other- 
 wise? Granted that we gain a complete and decisive 
 victory, and that we build up impregnable barriers on 
 every side against future German aggression, we shall 
 still be confronted with a virile, industrious, prolific, 
 scheming race of some seventy millions, united in a 
 common national purpose as no people have ever been, 
 and nursing against its conquerors a sullen, unquench- 
 able hate and study of revenge. Does any one claim 
 that this will not be the dominant prepossession of the 
 German mind, the driving force of German thought and 
 action, after defeat ? He claims that the fundamental 
 instincts and passions of mankind will suddenly change 
 upon the signing of peace. He claims that Germans 
 are endowed beyond all other nations with superhuman 
 attributes of forgiveness, benevolence, and loving kind- 
 ness to enemies. 
 
 The more complete our victory, the more stringently 
 we enforce the military and economic conditions that 
 are necessary for our future peace and security, the 
 more surely we may reckon that a deep, fierce fire of 
 anger, hate, and revenge will be hotly kept alive in 
 every German breast. 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 109 
 
 We may be sure of that. We may wish it other- 
 wise. We may, and I hope we speedily shall, do all that 
 can be safely done to extinguish the murderous pas- 
 sions and animosities that the war has kindled. The 
 arch criminals, the anointed stage braggart with his 
 gang of robber conspirators and accessory ruffians who 
 have done plain murders and felonies, must be ar- 
 raigned, brought to trial, and punished before the eyes 
 of all men, and this on a gibbet so high and conspicuous 
 that all the coming generations may see it and say, 
 "This was done to them who kicked over the world's 
 great altar of Justice, and trampled it under their feet." 
 When this is done, let all else be done, and all other 
 
 itences passed, by Mercy herself. 
 
 But when we have shown the utmost clemency and 
 generosity compatible with the security of the vast fu- 
 ture interests committed to our care, we shall still have 
 a running future account with a sullen, humiliated, 
 bankrupt nation whom we have balked of her great 
 prize of world dominion, just as it was within her grasp. 
 It is not credible but that after defeat, Germany's 
 present furious hatred for us will turn to a subterra- 
 nean, resentful malevolence, all the more deadly because 
 it will be largely curbed and stifled. 
 
 To believe otherwise, is to believe that though Ger- 
 many, by her every act and gesture in the last genera- 
 tion, has shown that she is consistently and deliberately 
 cruel, treacherous, utterly, regardless of truth and faith, 
 reckless of all save her own interests, and remorseless 
 in pursuit of them that though she has shown us 
 all this so plainly, yet, as soon as peace is signed, she 
 will suddenly become something quite different. What 
 is this but to fall into the same error, to lull ourselves 
 
110 Patriotism and 
 
 into the same balmy doze of credulous benevolence and 
 fatuous idealism, wherein we were overtaken by the 
 war ? What physiological possibility is there of a wolf 
 being suddenly transformed into a lamb ? What moral 
 possibility is there of as radical a change in Germany's 
 nature? Yet we are daily asked to shape our future 
 policy, to steer our national course, in the certainty that 
 this metempsychosis will take place as soon as the war 
 is ended. Nay, we are implored to end the war at 
 once, in order that the metempsychosis may take place 
 without delay. 
 
 Do we not know this nation ? Or, if there is anything 
 yet to learn, will it not be that she has yet deeper depths 
 of perfidy, cruelty, and blood-guiltiness than any we 
 have yet explored? Who can doubt, that supposing 
 we gain the complete and decisive victory whereto all 
 our resolves and energies are bent who can doubt that, 
 for long years to come, Germany's master feeling will 
 be an intense, stealthy, ever-watchful hatred of the na- 
 tions that have defeated her; and chiefly of England, 
 who most of all barred the path of her ambition ; whose 
 future and permanent interests lie nearest to hers, are 
 most opposed to hers, and are most easily accessible to 
 the creeping wiles of her penetration ? 
 
 We may deplore the continuance of German hatred- 
 after the war. It will be most unwelcome, most un- 
 desirable; and terribly disconcerting to the industrious 
 wire-pullers of the millennium. We may do everything 
 in our power to allay and avoid it. But it will remain. 
 Amidst our surrounding uncertainties, it is one of the 
 things that is fixed and sure. Amidst the quakings of 
 this wild upheaval, it is one of the things upon which 
 we may build. It should be a guide and key to our 
 present and future policy. At our peril shall we deny 
 
Popular Education 111 
 
 it, or shut our eyes to its probable intensity and dura- 
 tion. 
 
 I snail be accused of seeking to perpetuate enmity 
 between England and Germany. Are not the Germans 
 as a nation very much akin to ourselves? Are there 
 not amongst them good husbands, loving fathers, de 
 voted mothers, faithful friends, kind and charitable 
 persons, honest workers, upright traders, and excellent 
 citizens, even as amongst ourselves, and very much in 
 the same proportions? Is not average human nature 
 in Germany very much upon the same level as in Eng- 
 land? Let us therefore make haste to embrace these 
 dear, kind folk. 
 
 The impulses and passions, the aims and ambitions 
 of a people are things apart from the impulses and 
 passions, the aims and ambitions of the individual 
 members of that people. They work in a different re- 
 gion of each man's nature, and their collective action 
 does not accord with the private virtues of the nation, 
 and is often in direct violation of them. Our public 
 conduct may be detestable, while our home life is irre- 
 proachable. Our public life may be exemplary, while 
 our home life is hideous. I will not let my grocer swin- 
 dle me because he is a faithful husband. I will not 
 shake hands with the burglar who has stolen my spoons 
 because he is kind to his mother. I will judge him 
 by his dealings with me. I will judge Germany by her 
 dealings with my country, and with Belgium, France, 
 Serbia, Poland, Kussia, Rumania, Japan, China, and 
 America. 
 
 Let us avoid the entrapping fallacy that, because there 
 are individual Germans who are much like individual 
 Englishmen, therefore after the war the German nation 
 will be like the English nation, and will be disposed to- 
 
112 Patriotism and 
 
 wards friendly relations with England, because Eng- 
 land, after defeating her, may be disposed towards 
 friendly relations with Germany. 
 
 No, I do not seek to perpetuate enmity between the 
 two nations. I do but note that, when the sun of peace 
 shall shine, dark shadows will fall in the foul places of 
 Germany. 
 
 When Germany utterly denies and renounces her 
 present aims and ambitions, and wholly changes her 
 methods and temper when she does this, not by the 
 surface repentance of the lips, the counterfeit contrition 
 of the tongue, but by the surety of deeds and the au- 
 thentic signature of facts, then, as the passing years 
 shall vouch for her sincerity, let her be gradually ad- 
 mitted to the society and friendships of the nations. 
 
 What sign has the German nation as a whole given 
 of any such change of nature, or of any likelihood of 
 it? All the omens point the other way. As I write, 
 the news comes of the wanton sinking of another hos- 
 pital ship and the wanton murder of its crew. Let 
 us not deceive ourselves. Let us be sure that for a gen- 
 eration after the war, the master passion of the Ger- 
 man nation will be a resolute, abiding hatred of Eng- 
 land. It cannot be otherwise. 
 
 How will that hatred express itself? Disarmed by 
 force, and doubly disarmed by poverty, Germany will 
 be incapable of open, active aggression. All the en- 
 ergy of her hatred will be employed in intrigue against 
 us. Do we not know this nation ? Do we not remem- 
 ber with what patient, sleepless, subtle contrivance she 
 wove her net around us before the war, till our trade 
 and all our world interests were fast strangled in its 
 web? That same super-cunning will surely be more 
 actively employed against us after the war, enforced 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 113 
 
 as it will be by all the bitterness of defeat in the field. 
 What is there to prevent our seeing this, except our 
 preference for living a quiet, comfortable life? 
 Whether Germany is admitted to the League of Na- 
 tions or not, we shall have to be always on guard 
 against her intrigues. 
 
 Now where could Germany find a more fruitful and 
 capacious field for intrigue than in a League of Na- 
 tions, whose constitution will be most difficult to frame ; 
 whose terms and conditions will almost certainly offend 
 some national susceptibilities, and arouse some national 
 jealousies from the outset; whose balances will need 
 constant adjustment, according to the increasing or de- 
 clining power of any nation to cog them to its own ad- 
 vantage ; whose every assembly will probably be a mar- 
 ket for the side bargains of secret diplomacy ; and whose 
 actual working may sooner or later bring upon us the 
 very evil it was designed to protect us against. 
 
 Is not this League of Nations the very instrument 
 that Germany would choose for developing her future 
 intrigues? Has she not already signified her accept- 
 tance of it, and generously offered to take the lead in 
 manipulating it ? Will it not give her constant oppor- 
 tunities to undermine whatever unity there may be 
 amongst its members, of playing them off against each 
 other, in the hope that in the clash of jangling and 
 conflicting interests, she may somehow shift the bal- 
 ance in her favour, and gain by manoeuvres in council 
 something of what she has lost by defeat in the field? 
 Will it not be to Germany's obvious interest thus to 
 use a League of Nations for her own ends ? Then who 
 is so simple as to doubt that Germany will pursue her 
 own interests ? 
 
 We have already a League of Nations banded against 
 
114 Patriotism and 
 
 her. After victory, that league will he strong enough 
 to enforce its decisions upon the world without quihble 
 or intrigue. Can anyone douht that when the war is 
 ended, some short, quite simple covenant between the 
 nations composing that league, setting forth their main 
 general aims, and proclaiming their determination to 
 uphold the peace of the world against all disturbers 
 can anyone douht that such a declaration by the Allied 
 Nations will be a much safer and stronger instrument 
 to work with, than a necessarily complicated, unstable, 
 and precarious league of forty-six nations, with all their 
 discordant interests, rivalries, and jealousies? Can any- 
 one doubt that such an instrument will be much simpler 
 to fashion, much easier to handle, much less pervious 
 to the corruptions of secret diplomacy, much less likely 
 to provoke international friction, and much more likely 
 to secure the peace of the world for a lengthened period ? 
 But the advocates of a League of Nations will be 
 satisfied with nothing less than the instant and final 
 abolition of war from the planet, and the peremptory 
 establishment of perpetual universal peace. Their sole 
 argument is that because perpetual universal peace is 
 so obviously desirable, so obviously to the general in- 
 terest of the nations, therefore some means must be 
 invented to secure it. And a League of Nations is 
 the only means that they can imagine. 
 
 That perpetual, universal peace is desirable, nobody 
 questions. But many things are desirable that are far 
 from being possible. 
 
 In all future events whose course cannot be precisely 
 foreseen and demonstrated, in all the large maze of the 
 unknown that stretches before us, the masses of man- 
 kind believe what is most pleasing to them, what makes 
 them most comfortable for the moment. It is enough 
 
Popular Education 115 
 
 for them that something is desirable; if it cannot be 
 definitely proved to be impossible, it becomes a cer- 
 tainty to them. I once knew a man whose custom it 
 was to spend his Sundays in singing verse of an ex- 
 ceeding poor quality to the accompaniment of a har- 
 monium, and in listening to the exposition of a strange 
 system of theology which I could not comprehend. 
 This pleased him so much, that he thought he should 
 like to spend eternity in the same occupations. I could 
 find no evidence that he would be so employed, but his 
 imagination became so inflamed with this engaging 
 prospect, that he was firmly convinced of its future 
 reality. That it would be a delightful way of spend- 
 ing eternity, was enough to satisfy him that it was a 
 certainty. So the mere desirability of perpetual uni- 
 versal peace, is enough to convince its projectors that 
 it will be attained, and already they begin to tune up 
 their harmoniums. 
 
 We are like servant girls who take their little sav- 
 ings to a fortune teller, knowing that for a shilling they 
 can buy a happy future with a fair young man who 
 possesses boundless wealth. Since it cannot be proved 
 that the desirable fair young man is not waiting 
 somewhere about with marriageable intent, why not 
 take him for a certainty, and render the present drud- 
 gery more endurable ? 
 
 What is the likelihood that a League of Nations will 
 fulfil its promise, and marry us to fair young perpetual 
 peace, and make us happy and rich for ever afterwards ? 
 Unless the wild forces now let loose all the world over, 
 should presently clash in a blind mad industrial war, 
 we have a tolerably good security for a lengthened peace 
 in the fact that all the nations have exhausted them- 
 selves in a cruel and bloody war, leaving them neither 
 
116 Patriotism and 
 
 the means nor the energies for further diversions of 
 that kind. Peace is probably assured for a generation 
 whether or not we have a League of Nations. For the 
 present a League of Nations seems to be largely un- 
 necessary, especially if after the war, the nations now 
 allied will enter into an agreement amongst themselves, 
 and publish a clear proclamation of their aims. After 
 victory, the peace of the world will be in their keeping 
 for a generation or two, and it will best be secured by 
 this simple means, and by occasional renewals of an 
 understanding among themselves. 
 
 But the projectors of a League of Nations are de- 
 manding a permanent compact, whose sanctity they 
 allow, must, in the last resort, be assured by the em- 
 ployment of international troops. Is not this almost 
 certain to provoke dissension and general disruption at 
 some future time? For be it remembered that if a 
 League of Nations is to secure its avowed aim, and be 
 a perpetual barrier against war, one breach in its bul- 
 warks may possibly let in the devouring ocean. One 
 single failure will prove it to be a dangerous futility, 
 a bastion built of pasteboard. Is not the widespread 
 misery and devastation of the present war, largely due 
 to the fact that England for half a century, put up 
 pasteboard bastions to defend her empire? 
 
 What are the chances that a League of Nations will 
 be perennially successful in ensuring peace by a mere 
 parade of international troops? For if those interna- 
 tional troops are ever employed in actual warfare 
 against the disturber of the peace, what is that but to 
 use the exact means of securing peace which the allied 
 nations are using at this present moment ? And if in 
 the commotion that will ensue, the conflicting interests 
 of the nations should happen to shift to a fairly even 
 
Popular Education 117 
 
 balance, may it not finally mean the employment of as 
 large a number of troops as are to-day engaged in en- 
 forcing peace by tlie only means that the nations have 
 yet discovered ? 
 
 When we assume the permanent success of a League 
 of Nations, what do we build upon ? Our first postu- 
 late is that the fundamental instincts and passions 
 of mankind will suddenly change upon the signing of 
 the peace; for hitherto all through the past, these in- 
 stincts and passions have at intervals embroiled the 
 nations in war. Our second postulate is that every 
 nation will in the future be endowed with a wise and 
 clear discernment of its own interests, and that it may 
 be trusted always to pursue these interests with a strict 
 regard to all its neighbours' interests. It would be dif- 
 ficult to find in the past, one nation that has, for any 
 length of time, discerned where its true interests lay, 
 still less pursued them with a strict regard to all its 
 neighbours' interests. With forty-six nations and com- 
 munities spreading more rapidly than ever over a planet 
 that daily affords them less and less fertile accommo- 
 dation, we may be sure that their separate individual 
 interests will tend more and more to come into col- 
 lision. If no one nation can long be trusted to pursue 
 its own interests in harmony with all the conceptions 
 and estimates which its neighbours have formed of 
 their interests, how can forty-six nations be trusted al- 
 ways to pursue their individual interests in harmony 
 with all the varying conceptions and estimates which 
 all their neighbours may happen, as time goes by, to 
 form of their own individual interests ? 
 
 If we carefully examine the foundations upon which 
 the projectors of a League of Nations are building, 
 we shall find that their corner stone is the assumption 
 
118 Patriotism and 
 
 that in the future all the nations will be wise for all 
 of the time. That is the ultimate guarantee of the suc- 
 cess of their enterprise. It is rash and dangerous to 
 assume that all the nations will be wise for part of the 
 time. It is even more rash and more dangerous to 
 assume that some of the nations will be wise for all 
 of the time. But to assume that all the nations will 
 be wise for all of the time, is to ascend from the sublime 
 heights of Utopia, to those sublime heights where lunar 
 beams fall full on the naked skulls of fanatics, and 
 moonstruck unreason ranges at its will. 
 
 Let us descend to the habitable haunts of common 
 sense. Let us not go bail for the perpetual reasonable- 
 ness and good behaviour of all the nations of the earth. 
 Let us be sure that in the future, as in the past, there 
 will be many conflicts of interest amongst the peoples, 
 much short sight and carelessness and blundering of 
 politicians in handling them, much muddling blindness 
 in the conduct of every nation's business. Let us hope 
 that mankind will learn many valuable lessons from the 
 war; but let us not, because we have battered down a 
 medieval robber stronghold in Central Europe, assume 
 that therefore all democracies will in the future, guide 
 their relations with all their neighbours from the lofty 
 standpoint of an unselfish regard for all their neigh- 
 bours' interests. 
 
 In the twilight of our present uncertainties, the keen- 
 est foresight would hesitate to number or to name the 
 forces that are stealthily gathering in the ambushes of 
 the future. What are those dark forms moving dimly 
 across the horizon yonder just there, where the mi- 
 rage of the millennium throws up its faint ineffectual 
 haze gesticulating wildly, with confused anarchic 
 cries, and goading themselves into action? Who can 
 
l 
 
 Popular Education 119 
 
 foretell the groupings and cleavages and dispositions of 
 the peoples ? Let us avert our eyes, and make haste to 
 frame a League of Nations. 
 
 Seeing that it is very desirable, and not wholly im- 
 possible, that wars should cease from the moment that 
 this war is ended, let us accept it for a fact. War being 
 an intolerable nuisance and a great hindrance to busi- 
 ness, let us away with it, and manage international 
 affairs by a Committee. 
 
 The prospect is not reassuring. In Committees that 
 deal with complex and thorny matters, it is not justice 
 and good sense that usually prevail, but time-serving 
 compromises, and temporary unstable adjustments of 
 finally irreconcilable interests, jealousies, and whimsies, 
 The distilled essence of all the wisdom there is amongst 
 the separate members of a Committee, often drains out 
 from them as a compound of folly. 
 
 Still, let us grant that when international affairs are 
 managed by a Committee of the League of Nations, 
 justice and good sense will contrive to keep the upper 
 hand perpetually. Let us assume that the Committee 
 will be always wise and always honest, and that they 
 will succeed in persuading the Nations they represent 
 to be always wise and always honest in pursuit of their 
 individual interests. No force will then ever need to 
 be used, and war will be banished from our planet. 
 
 What does that signify ? 
 
 The instinct of self-preservation in every people, the 
 fear of being pushed or stamped out, the hunger for 
 national life and for yet more national life, the desire 
 of mastery, the pride of place all these primary, in- 
 eradicable impulses will still be at work all the world 
 over, and no longer finding their outlet in war, will 
 find it in an incessant, fierce, and bitter economic strug- 
 
120 Patriotism and 
 
 gle. Let us not dream that when we cease from war, 
 we shall cease from fighting. The competition in arma- 
 ments will be metamorphosed into a competition 
 amongst all the impoverished nations for the means of 
 life, and for the sources of nourishment and comfort. 
 Already the smell of that battle is in the air, and tariff 
 constructors in all countries are pawing their hoofs, 
 and champing their bridles to charge at the enemy. 
 
 Will that new war upon which we shall enter as soon 
 as the last cannon shot is fired in this, be so rich with 
 spiritual issues, and bring home to mankind so large 
 a spiritual victory as this present conflict ? With all its 
 unimaginable count of sufferings, horrors, defilements, 
 and slaughters, this war will yet leave to humanity an 
 entailed legacy of supreme accomplishment, of un- 
 flinching fortitudes and heroisms immeasurable; of 
 reckless, stupendous self-sacrifices, and of indomitable 
 resolution in the achievement of the noblest ends. Can 
 we hope that the coming commercial war will bring 
 to its combatants, any such purging and regeneration 
 of their natures, any such kindling inspiration to live 
 and to die at the highmost pitch of unselfish endeavour, 
 and to win the heavenly prize for unrecorded, unre- 
 warded devotion to duty? 
 
 Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war, 
 but their winning does not stir and sting our souls to 
 their finest responses, or nerve great multitudes to en- 
 dure agony and martyrdom in deadly wrestle with the 
 powers of darkness, or leave the hearts of men tingling 
 with exultant remembrance of conquest over enthroned 
 and fortressed evil. Victories of peace bring provender 
 and comfort and happiness to mankind, but victories 
 in righteous war sow rich lattermaths of spiritual sat- 
 isfaction, and harvests of spiritual profit. We justly 
 

 Popular Education 121 
 
 honour the statesmen who negotiate for us a wise com- 
 mercial treaty, or ease our financial burdens by sound 
 national economy; but we never pay them the adoring 
 homage that we render to the three mighty men who 
 brake through the host of the Philistines to bring a 
 cup of water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem; 
 or to the common soldier who crawls out in a hail of 
 fire and willingly offers his life to save a wounded 
 comrade. That broken, bandaged wreck of humanity 
 in blue flannel, who sits and warms himself in the 
 sun on yonder bench, his crutches by his side, his 
 strength and lustihood left in the Flanders trenches, 
 his flaming youth quenched into apathy and listless 
 surrender, his manhood cheated of the bustle of glad 
 vigorous toil, and the joys and caresses of home, his 
 hopes subdued within the narrow compass of a cripple's 
 aims and efforts, a looker-on at life for all his long, help- 
 less years that shattered blue pensioner has in his 
 heart the source of a sacred pride, an enviable boast 
 and solace of supreme service rendered to his fellows, 
 of duty done in defiance of death and hell, that no busy 
 workman, or useful clerk, or prosperous tradesman, or 
 industrial magnate will ever win for himself in the 
 warfare of commerce. For he gave his all for his fel- 
 lows, and his wages are mutilation, and a pittance, and 
 frustrated, lonely helplessness. 
 
 It is a sure and true instinct that marks the man 
 who defends his country, and not merely for admira- 
 tion and honour, but for admiration and honour of a 
 peculiar kind that we give to no other man. The sol- 
 dier fights for others; the hardships are for him and 
 the benefits are for others. But in commercial war- 
 fare, each man fights for himself; the hardships are 
 often for others and the benefits chiefly for himself. 
 
122 Patriotism and 
 
 If, then, in the future, war is banished from the 
 planet, and men's primal ineradicable instincts of riv- 
 alry, aggression, and dominance find their fierce play 
 no longer in the battlefield, but in the factory, the shop, 
 and the counting-house, will it be wholly for the ad- 
 vancement of mankind ? Closing our eyes to the threat- 
 ening signs of an interregnum of widespread social an- 
 archy, which may possibly follow the present war, we 
 are preparing ourselves for a long era of hard, com- 
 mercial strain, and economic conflict. 
 
 How will the graces and virtues of the spirit, the 
 valours and sanctities of the soul, the ornaments and 
 elegancies of the mind, fare in the hustle and juggle 
 and scrimmage of world-wide, universal, commercial 
 war? 
 
 I have known much of English commercial life. I 
 have some knowledge and experience of American com- 
 mercial methods and practices. These nations may 
 justly claim that, as human nature is constituted, they 
 compare very favourably with most other nations. 
 There is certainly a greater proportion of righteous men 
 in London and in New York, than would have saved 
 Sodom from destruction. But commercial life every- 
 where seems to be necessarily leavened with baseness, 
 dishonesty, greed, and cunning selfishness. Can we 
 contemplate, with any satisfaction, the perpetual dedi- 
 cation of the greater part of mankind to industrialism 
 and commercialism, human life everywhere becoming 
 more mechanical, more uniformly prosperous and banal 
 and smug, dwarfed down to standards of material com- 
 fort and competence? The spirit of man loses its fin- 
 est impulses, loses its wings if it stays too long in the 
 warm nest of material prosperity. On both sides of the 
 Atlantic, amongst men of high repute and great com- 
 
Popular Education 123 
 
 mercial standing, I have known trade dealings and 
 daily practices so abhorrently mean and dishonest, that 
 rather than put my son to fight for his livelihood with 
 such weapons, I would thrust him into the deadliest 
 forefront of our battle line, and think I had acted well 
 by him. Those fathers who in future years will send 
 their sons into that fierce economic battle with all its 
 ignoble evils and chicaneries, will show no cause for 
 envy to him, who, having in his heart the consecrated 
 remembrance of a son fallen in Flanders, can say with 
 old Siward: 
 
 God's soldier be he! 
 Had I as many sons as I have hairs! 
 I could not wish them to a fairer death. 
 
 Is there not some reason for the suspicion men have 
 always had, that a prolonged peace inevitably tends to 
 corruption, lethargy, internal mischief, and fatty de- 
 generation of the peoples? Is not that suspicion veri- 
 fied by the condition of England before the war? Let 
 us suppose that the nations now settle into a long amity 
 and fruitful friendship of labour for each other's good ; 
 tfeat natural resources are everywhere developed; that 
 gradually the losses and impoverishments of the war are 
 made good ; that the waste places of the earth are sown 
 with abundant harvests; that large cities spring up in 
 every land, with increasing populations and accumula- 
 tions of wealth; that our now empty exchequers are 
 filled to overflowing; that in the meantime all provoca- 
 tions to war have been successfully parried by the 
 League of Nations; that all national jealousies have 
 been quelled, all national antipathies allayed, all dis- 
 cordant national ambitions renounced, all conflicting na- 
 tional interests sacrificed for the common welfare. 
 Some such ultimate condition of affairs on the surface 
 
124 Patriotism and 
 
 of the planet, is what the projectors of a League of 
 Nations must have in their mind, so far as they are not 
 weltering in confused amiability, and do really know 
 and understand what they are aiming at, and what they 
 propose to achieve. I do not say that such a general 
 condition of affairs will ever be possible. I do say 
 that it is the only general condition of affairs which an 
 advocate of a League of Nations can conceive, or can 
 desire, as the final and successful outcome of his plan. 
 If that is not what he is working for, aiming at, pro- 
 posing to achieve, what general condition of affairs does 
 he set before himself as likely to be ultimately estab-' 
 lished by the operations of a League of Nations? 
 
 Let us place ourselves in the distant future and 
 imagine that this seductive forecast is already fulfilled, 
 that the League of Nations has accomplished all that 
 its founders hoped and proposed. It needs great hardi- 
 hood of faith in lucky chance, and still greater hardi- 
 hood of faith in the constant and universal wisdom 
 of mankind, to suppose that such a general condition 
 of human affairs will be realised without war amongst 
 the nations. It needs much hardihood of faith to sup- 
 pose it will be realized without war between classes. 
 And surely, if it is desirable to prevent bloodshed be- 
 tween nations, it is equally desirable to prevent blood- 
 shed between classes. Since, however, the League of 
 Nations does not concern itself with the possible super- 
 vention of a widespread class war, let us for the time 
 leave it out of our calculations. 
 
 Let us suppose that the League of Nations, through- 
 out a long lapse of years and many generations, has 
 fulfilled the most ardent desires of its promoters. The 
 covetings and passions of the forty-six nations have been 
 ruled out of order bv the decisions of our Committee. 
 
Popular Education 125 
 
 Wars have ceased. Armaments have gradually fallen 
 into disuse. Weapons of destruction are no longer 
 manufactured. The last great war in the early twen- 
 tieth century has become a mere dusty storehouse for 
 historians and romancers. Under the long reign of 
 peace, and aided by science and mechanics, mankind 
 have increased and multiplied at an ever-swiftening 
 rate, until they have occupied all the fertile spaces 
 of the earth, from the sands of the Tropics to the ice 
 fringes of the Poles. Old nations have dwindled and 
 perished ; new nations and races have arisen and multi- 
 plied. And meantime, terrified by the past awful ex- 
 ample of this present war, the turbulent new young 
 races have meekly trodden the paths of peace, obedient 
 to the rulings of our Committee, who have nicely ac- 
 commodated and smoothed away every difficulty, every 
 animosity, every aggression, every threat of disruption 
 as it arose. 
 
 But owing to the continued prosperity and abund- 
 ance brought about by perpetual peace, the earth has 
 become inconveniently and dangerously over-populated. 
 Unfortunately, the various peoples have kept on breed- 
 ing; and the new younger races have been breeding 
 much faster than the older ones. These vigorous up- 
 starts have been growing more and more dissatisfied 
 with the stretches of territory, the privileges, and the 
 opportunities for expansion allotted to them by our 
 Committee. They have long been a gathering threat 
 to the peaceful economy of the world, established by the 
 League of Nations these fast multiplying parvenus 
 with odious practices in morals, and complexions equal- 
 ly objectionable. For in a world once and for all made 
 safe for democracy, Nature, having none of our preju- 
 dices against a shady complexion, has allowed and 
 
126 Patriotism and 
 
 encouraged an altogether disproportionate increase of 
 these swarthy, unscrupulous breeders. Hitherto they 
 have been kept in awe by the sage admonitions and de- 
 cisions of our Committee, and by the tradition, handed 
 down from the early twentieth century, that war is a 
 cruel and horrible process, and that its weapons are 
 so dangerous and destructive that it is inadvisable to 
 meddle with them. Under a system of universal Pop- 
 ular Education, even more generous and illuminating 
 than the one you have so successfully inaugurated, these 
 young races have possessed themselves of all the dis- 
 coveries of science. Their growing ambitions, their 
 pride of adolescent strength, their consciousness of 
 power, their desire of mastery over the older nations, 
 their sense of not being allotted their proper place in 
 the world all these ineradicable human instincts and 
 passions have long been unbearably suppressed and con- 
 tained. And the world is over-populated, and all its 
 desirable and habitable territory is occupied. 
 
 Can anyone imagine a general condition of affairs 
 more ripe and certain to lead to a world-wide devastat- 
 ing war? Yet some such general condition of affairs 
 must be the inevitable result of a League of Nations, 
 if its operations are continuously successful. Nor can 
 its advocates indicate any definite possible alternative, 
 without postulating that the fundamental instincts and 
 passions of humanity will change, and that man will 
 become a creature of so different a nature from our- 
 selves that no prognosis can be made about him. 
 
 Again, I do not assert or believe that humanity will 
 ever arrive a.t such a general condition of affairs. But 
 an onus lies upon the projectors of the League of Na- 
 tions to tell us what other developments are possible, 
 what other goal they expect to reach, and, when they 
 
Popular Education 127 
 
 reach that goal, what agency is to intervene and pre- 
 vent the successful working of their machine from 
 leading to a malignant outburst of the very evil it was 
 designed to abolish. 
 
 I do not suppose that there is any believer in the 
 efficacy of a League of Nations who will not acknowl- 
 edge that long before the world has arrived at that con- 
 dition of affairs I have indicated, the League will be 
 dissolved or superseded. 
 
 By what, but by war ? 
 
 Is it imagined that some even more binding and en- 
 during safeguard will be discovered to secure universal 
 perpetual peace? What league, or compact, or safe- 
 guard can be conceived that does not rest upon the as- 
 sumption that all the nations will be wise for all of the 
 time, and that they will all show a perpetual lofty re- 
 gard for all their neighbours' interests, and a perpetual 
 readiness for self-abnegation? Nothing that we know 
 of the history of mankind in the past, nothing that we 
 can observe of the nature and motives of mankind in 
 the present, nothing that we can reasonably hope of 
 mankind in the future, warrants us in putting trust in 
 any such shaky security. Probably the advocates of 
 a League of Nations, if they can be summoned from 
 the cloudy mountain-tops of amiable generalities and 
 benevolent aspirations, will admit as much. Then they 
 admit that their scheme is merely tentative, experimen- 
 tal, temporary; a paserelle that will not bear the con- 
 tinuous weight of the world's lumbering heavy traffic, 
 but will break down whenever too great a strain is put 
 upon its fragile supports. It may not break down for 
 generations. Is there any assurance that it may not 
 break down within five years ? After our victory, when 
 peace is signed, will the world's forces be in such a 
 
128 Patriotism and 
 
 state of stable equilibrium, that there will be no dan- 
 ger of some fresh outbreak of war ? Everything prom- 
 ises fair for a long reign of peace, if the enormous 
 difficulties of the settlement can be successfully nego- 
 tiated. But, granted that some tolerable general ac- 
 commodation is secured, can we be certain that it will 
 endure for any great length of time, and that all in- 
 ternational concord may not soon be broken and rent 
 by class divisions and warfare? This tempest will 
 not subside without leaving a tremendous ground-swell, 
 and clashing, baffling cross-currents that no man can 
 divine. Will the strongest advocate of a League of 
 Nations guarantee for it any stability, amidst the clash 
 of the world forces that will meet round its cradle ? 
 
 The one thing of sovereign surety for us to note, and 
 to keep in mind as a guide and director of our perma- 
 nent national policy, is that the longer a League of 
 Nations works successfully, the nearer it leads us to 
 the approach of war. For by its very operation, it tends 
 to bring about a state of prosperity amongst the most 
 advanced nations, a period of temporary adjustments 
 and compromises amongst finally irreconcileable inter- 
 ests, and an over-reaching surplus of population, that 
 are of themselves the surest provocations to war. 
 
 This law of balancing alternations of peace and war 
 can be traced through all past history, though its in- 
 cidence has often been obscured by the ambitions and 
 decrees of kings, and the mistakes and follies of states- 
 men. May we not claim that the present war is one of 
 its alternations? For though the German Emperor 
 may be the last monarch who will strut and crow and 
 bluster out blasphemy to inflame his people to their 
 destruction, the German nation will not be the last 
 nation to demand a larger place in the sun than their 
 
Popular Education 129 
 
 neighbours will allow them. We may feel reasonably 
 confident that this law of balancing alternations of 
 peace and war will be operative in the future, as it has 
 been in the past, though its periods may be more within 
 the control of our foresight. But no foresight can 
 finally avert its operation, seeing that it is the necessary 
 result of the permanent fundamental instincts of man- 
 kind in constant struggle with the permanent condi- 
 tions of life. 
 
 This law is in perpetual operation over all the spaces 
 of the earth, and chiefly in those areas that are most 
 thickly populated and congested. By recognizing its 
 necessity and preparing for its incidence, nations may 
 avoid the worst evils of its recurring vicissitudes. By 
 denying it, and seeking to elude its operation, as we 
 did in the generation before the war, nations do but 
 bring themselves all the more surely and terribly under 
 its rigours. For it mocks at such phrases as "making 
 the world safe for democracy," and tosses them into the 
 limbo of futilities, and self-deceptions, and fallacious 
 generalities. 
 
 Nor, supposing that we could split up the peoples 
 and segregate them in classes instead of in nations, 
 should we defeat or long arrest the operation of this 
 law. Indeed, there is every indication that the di- 
 vision of the world into classes, if it could be stabilized, 
 would put supreme power into the hands of men less 
 wise, less regardful of the rights of others, more greedy 
 of authority, more unscrupulous in using it, more short- 
 sighted, and more likely to bring about frequent and 
 bloody intermissions of the world's peace, than the po- 
 tentates and politicians who have hitherto ruled or 
 misruled the nations. In their pursuit of the phantom 
 of equality, men may yet bring upon themselves suffer- 
 
130 Patriotism and 
 
 ings and horrors as great as any they are now endur- 
 ing. While if perfect equality could be attained for 
 one single moment, that moment could be the starting 
 point of the cruelest universal war the world has ever 
 known. Unless, indeed, all the fundamental instincts 
 and passions of mankind had been exterminated in the 
 process of reaching equality. In that event, the pros- 
 pect before dehumanized and sterilized mankind would 
 be a state of incessant mechanical monotonous toil, for 
 a race of beings as stereotyped into uniformity as the 
 inmates of a beehive, and with no higher functions, or 
 ambitions, or hopes, or varieties of interest. 
 
 The combative instincts of our race will always 
 prevent us from reaching anything that approaches to 
 a state of equality. And these combative instincts will 
 always find their exercise alternately in a war of com- 
 merce, and in a war of arms. The longer the nations 
 dance round and round the mulberry bush of perpetual 
 peace, the more likely they are to tumble back head- 
 long into the slough of war that lies just outside their 
 careless circle. The final responsible custodian of peace 
 will never be the international lawyer, the politician, 
 the preacher, the humanitarian, or the policeman, but 
 always the soldiers. 
 
 This need not prevent us from doing all we can to 
 postpone the intervention of the soldier till the latest 
 moment, to dispense with his services whenever it is 
 possible, to make his visits as rare and brief and hu- 
 mane as may be, and to give him his earliest dismissal 
 when his work is done. To recognize that war may be 
 an occasional necessity, is not to acclaim it as a bless- 
 ing, or to sanctify it as an idol. The surest way to 
 avoid the worst evils and horrors of war, is to be aware 
 when they are lurking in our path, and to be vigilantly 
 
Popular Education 131 
 
 prepared to meet them. Let us do everything in our 
 power to promote good will and good understanding 
 amongst the peoples, and to subdue international riv- 
 alries and aggressions. But if we carefully study the 
 profiles and facial angles of the various peoples of the 
 earth, beginning with our daily companions in the 
 motor-buses and tubes, we shall be driven to the sad and 
 humble confession that man has not yet advanced much 
 more than half-way on his progress from the anthropoid 
 to the angel, and that probably much tough miscellan- 
 eous fighting, both bodily and spiritual, lies before 
 him in his ascending path. 
 
 The immediate danger of a League of Nations is 
 that it will give Germany constant opportunities to 
 intrigue and stir up dissensions within it. 
 
 Why this constant distrust and suspicion of Ger- 
 many? Are we not assured that the moment peace is 
 signed, the Ethiopian will change his skin, and the 
 leopard his spots, and that Germany will straightway 
 tear out all the rooted fibres of cunning, aggression, 
 and cruel ambition that are her dear heart-strings, and 
 that are twined round all the nerves and muscles of her 
 national being ? Why, then, when we are about to en- 
 ter upon a long and bitter economic war with her, 
 and when she has already devised new schemes of 
 commercial frightfulness to be employed against us 
 why not seize this new chance of hoodwinking our- 
 selves, as we did at the beginning of the present war, 
 and give her a free hand to pursue her economic policy 
 to our disadvantage and disaster? 
 
 Not by a League of Nations, with its unstable con- 
 stitution offering continual opportunities for any dis- 
 satisfied nation to stir up strife, but by a firm com- 
 pact between the Allies now fighting to redeem civiliza- 
 
 
132 Patriotism and 
 
 tion, and by a simple unequivocal declaration of their 
 aims, will a lengthened world-peace be most likely to 
 ensue. 
 
 The remote, but very real and permanent, danger of 
 a League of Nations is that the longer it works suc- 
 cessfully, the more the peoples will nurse the delusion 
 that they are protected from all danger of war by an 
 automatic machine, and will be lulled again into the 
 same false security from which we have just been so 
 rudely awakened. Will not some distant future time 
 arrive when again the nations will be fat regorged with 
 comfort and prosperity, while in the gathering clouds 
 above them, black Hecate sits singing to her sisters the 
 same song she was singing over us five years ago 
 
 For you all know, security 
 Is mortal's chiefest enemy. 
 
 If we could convey ourselves to A.D. 6920, and, look- 
 ing backward, see spread out before us the map of the 
 world's history for the past ten thousand years, all 
 woven into one continuous whole, should we find that 
 while the first five thousand years up to 1920 were 
 sprinkled red all over with bloodstains of the jarring 
 nations, the last five thousand years were one long 
 white roll of unstained perpetual peace? Should we 
 find that the same breed of human kind, with the same 
 passions and instincts, and living under the same per- 
 manent natural laws that provoke them to constant 
 rivalry and strife that this same breed of men, who 
 had scarcely allowed one of the first five thousand years 
 to pass without some rupture of peace, suddenly on 
 a certain date about 1920 renounced all their ancestral 
 impulses and habits, reversed all the momentum of the 
 past, threw up their weapons, placed themselves under 
 
Popular Education 133 
 
 the guidance of a Committee, and passed the last five 
 thousand years without any embroilment of war? If 
 there is any advocate of a League of Nations who be- 
 lieves that human affairs will take such a course in 
 the next five thousand years, in the next five hundred, 
 I entreat him to read a suggestive pamphlet by an anon- 
 ymous author, called "The Folly of having Opinions 
 a Perennial Caution to Mankind." This thoughtful lit- 
 tle brochure should be in everybody's hands. I am told 
 it is to be read aloud at the opening of the next Church 
 Congress. 
 
 That the years 1914-1920 will be a dividing line be- 
 tween two definitely marked periods of human history, 
 and perhaps between two widely differing kinds of 
 civilization, we have reason to believe. It is even con- 
 ceivable that the events of these years will ultimately 
 work such beneficial changes in human thought and 
 action, and in the conditions of living, that some future 
 philosopher may claim that, on the whole, the war 
 brought a balance of good to mankind. But no sur- 
 veyor of these years in the distant future will find that 
 the continuity of human history was then severed as by 
 scissors, cutting off all the threads of national passions, 
 ambitions, and rivalries that in former times wove 
 themselves into the dreadful pattern of war, and leav- 
 ing them for all tim a , to come hanging loose in the 
 void. 
 
 If we look into the dark backward and abysm of 
 time so far as eyes can reach, we see that war has in- 
 termittently arisen in every habitable tract of the earth, 
 from the Equator to the Arctic snows. It has intermit- 
 tently arisen amongst every nation and race. It has 
 intermittently arisen in every phase of every succeed- 
 ing civilization amongst the lowest savages, and 
 
134 Patriotism and 
 
 amongst the peoples who have reached the highest levels 
 of literature and art and luxury. It has intermittently 
 arisen under all the varying forms of religion. 
 
 Vast regions of the earth have been changed from 
 swamp and desert and forest, into plains of fruitful 
 cultivation and busy streets of commerce and industry, 
 and have passed again into desolate wastes and haunts 
 of lizards and creeping things. War has been the hand- 
 maiden of both changes. Scattered tribes in caves and 
 huts, have grown into powerful nations in populous 
 cities, holding half the world in fee, and have dwindled 
 into poverty and impotence and decay. War welded 
 them into unity and gave them the sceptre of dominion ; 
 war snatched that sceptre from their hands, shattered 
 their pride, and gave their heritage to their foes. Count- 
 less civilizations have sprung up through all the ages in 
 all quarters of the globe, differing strangely in laws and 
 customs and manners, and in their forms of literature 
 and art. War has largely framed their codes, and laid 
 the corner stones of their institutions. War has always 
 been busy inspiring literature, designing fashion in 
 dress, giving laws to architecture. War has jogged 
 the cradle of every civilization, and pushed it into its 
 grave. A thousand forms of religion have in their 
 turn held sway over the spirit of man, from the crudest 
 superstition to the latest refinements of Neo-Christian- 
 ity. War has alternately been the protector and the de- 
 stroyer of each of them, sometimes its imperious mas- 
 ter, more often its ready servant. The priests of every 
 creed have blessed their country's banners, and preached 
 their crusades. 
 
 That is what we see when we look into the dark back- 
 ward and abysm of time. 
 
 If we could look into the dark forward and abysm of 
 
Popular Education 135 
 
 time, should we see a sudden disappearance from all 
 human affairs, of this compulsive giant who has hither- 
 to been active in them all, and has penetrated and in- 
 formed every nation, every social fabric, every civiliza- 
 tion, every creed, through every generation that has 
 lived under the sun? Should we see an abrupt stop- 
 page at A.D. 1920, of all the natural forces that have 
 hitherto swept the peoples of the earth into conflict 
 with each other after the lapse of every few years? 
 Should we see the fountains of the great deep of na- 
 tional rivalries, and enmities, and ambitions securely 
 dammed up by the word of man, their Pontic rush and 
 flow arrested, the flood of their waters standing like 
 a wall, as the waters of the Red Sea stood at the com- 
 mand of Moses? 
 
 Is it probable? Is it credible? Does anyone claim 
 that this is what will happen after 1920 ? He is not in 
 communion with facts. He is in communion with his 
 whimsies. He is living in a world where action does 
 not call forth reaction. 
 
 The f ramers of a League of Nations may stand upon 
 the beach, and bid the main flood bate his usual height 
 Canute issued a command to the same effect, and if he 
 had chosen the moment of an ebbing tide, there is every 
 reason to believe that the sea would have obeyed him. 
 The framers of a League of Nations are likely to be 
 more fortunate. They will be calling upon an ebbing 
 tide to recede, and they will doubtless have the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing the angry waves subside at their bidding. 
 But when the flood tide shall return, will they fare any 
 better than the other children who build their castles on 
 the sands ? 
 
 Nations rarely go to war because they desire to go 
 to war. There is always an almost universal prepos- 
 
136 Patriotism and 
 
 session in favour of peace. War insinuates itself ; it lies 
 in wait for the nations, and ere ever they are aware of 
 it, they are sucked into its whirlpool. The advocates of 
 a League of Nations perceive this, and propose to set 
 a trap for War, as for some outside, visible, tangible 
 enemy; not knowing that he is lurking in their own 
 hearts all the while, and that his instruments are not 
 guns and bombs, but the abiding envies and greeds and 
 selfish instincts of mankind. 
 
 Could any nation be more resolutely pacific than was 
 America at the outbreak of the war? The prevailing 
 opinion was that the peoples of Europe had gone mad. 
 Clearly the only thing that sane America could do was 
 to wonder and shudder at the crazy, bloody spectacle ; to 
 feel thankful to be out of it; and to stand aside till a 
 chance came to mediate. No other role seemed possible 
 to Americans. 
 
 But events they had not willed or foreseen, beckoned 
 them to come and take their part. They protestedr 
 They refused. It shocked all their stock habits of na- 
 tional thought; it violated all their standards of na- 
 tional conduct ; it mocked at all their cherished national 
 ideals. They would have none of it. 
 
 The summoning, clamouring war trumpets of Eu- 
 rope blared out another furious call. They roused 
 American mothers to a counterblast. With abounding 
 maternal emotion, but with grievous poverty of lyrical 
 impulse, they chanted back to the war trumpets: 
 
 I did not raise my darling boy to be a soldier; 
 
 I brought him up to be my pride and joy. 
 I will not let him wear a musket on his shoulder, 
 
 To kill some other mother's darling boy. 
 
 So sang the American mothers two years ago, hugging 
 their darling boys to their bosoms. But He that had 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 137 
 
 the steerage of their course, caught them in His fist, 
 blew His strong breath, and filled their sails, and 
 wafted them to France, there to fulfil the destiny that 
 He, and not their mothers, had chosen for them. Nor 
 will any American mother whose son is gathered 
 amongst the first fruits of her country's valour, in that 
 richest vintage those vineyards have ever known, es- 
 teem him any the less her pride and joy, because he 
 found in the valley of the Marne a safer and more 
 sacred resting-place than in her arms. 
 
 How strangely different is the gigantic part which 
 America is playing in this stupendous drama, from 
 the very modest role which she proposed to herself, of 
 witness to the peace treaty in the last act! Yet there 
 were voices that called upon her to prepare for some 
 such destiny, and warned her that not in vowed se- 
 clusion from the enmities and conflicts of mankind, does 
 a nation find either material security or spiritual ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 For the past century, Americans have had a huge 
 fertile continent with boundless undeveloped resources. 
 And all through this century, science and mechanical 
 inventions have enormously eased and smoothed the 
 conditions of living. Americans have never been crowd- 
 ed into narrow spaces with greedy competitors. They 
 have never needed to covet territory from their neigh- 
 bours, because they have always had more of their 
 own than they could occupy. Never has a nation lived 
 for so long a time in circumstances so favourable to 
 peace, so little provocative to war. Is it any wonder 
 then, that with little actual experience of war, with 
 continued prosperity, and with wide spaces of elbow- 
 room giving all their national energies free scope, 
 Americans confirmed themselves in the notion that 
 
138 Patriotism and 
 
 peace is the natural perennial condition of mankind, 
 and that all that is necessary to abolish war from the 
 planet, is that men should get sensible ideas on the sub- 
 ject. To the same long lack of actual experience of war 
 on our own soil, may be traced the rankest growths 
 of pacifism in England. 
 
 In all the past, no nation has gained any enviable or 
 conspicuous place on the earth's surface, and established 
 itself in some sort of security, except by means of war. 
 JSTo nation has risen to influence and power, or to any 
 high degree of civilization, without conquering some 
 of its neighbours, and absorbing them in its own popu- 
 lation. Nations have not improved their material and 
 spiritual conditions, and advanced in the arts of life, 
 by merely remaining within their own borders and 
 multiplying amongst themselves. It is true that they 
 have grown and progressed in the intervals of peace, 
 but it has been by means of the already accomplished 
 subjection of other races, whom they have compelled 
 to mingle and multiply with them, and make one com- 
 posite people. When a nation has stayed within its 
 own borders and merely multiplied, it has not advanced 
 in civilization. It has settled down to intellectual and 
 spiritual stagnancy and decrepitude, as in China. 
 
 By a lucky accident, that will never happen again 
 to any people, Americans tumbled into the inheritance 
 of a vast, unclaimed continent, where every condition 
 seemed favourable for perpetual peace. But before they 
 could be masters in it, they had to fight England; be- 
 fore they could possess it, they had to subjugate and 
 wellnigh exterminate the Indians; before they could 
 establish themselves as a great power, free to work out 
 their own ideals, they had to wage a long and bitter 
 war amongst themselves. And to-day, America, the 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 139 
 
 home and dedicated sanctuary of peace, is one huge 
 workshop of war, throughout the length and breadth 
 of her continent. Her armies and navies have become 
 the pivots of our defence, and the guardians of Euro- 
 pean civilization. Against her most steadfast purpose 
 declared for generations, against all her power of self- 
 determination, has this change been wrought. 
 
 What more teasing, fascinating employment can 'im- 
 agination find than to guess what new astounding part 
 America may play amongst the nations, when they 
 gather themselves after this war, broken and tattered 
 and beggared, and begin to lay the foundations of a 
 new civilization on this wreckage of the old world? 
 How often in past years have I watched and wondered, 
 and sometimes shuddered a little, at that vast uncouth 
 fabric of mechanical and material prosperity, raising 
 itself towards heaven by means of forty-storied sky- 
 scrapers that dwarf into contempt the less conspicuous 
 and less consecrated spires of one or two churches cow- 
 ering in mean obscurity beneath them ! 
 
 If the war will work surprising changes in Euro- 
 pean civilization, will it not work even more surpris- 
 ing changes in the younger and more plastic civilization 
 of America? Will it not break many of the ordinary 
 moulds of American thought, give the nation new meas- 
 ures of spiritual values, and set its face towards a new 
 spiritual horizon? The impetus of magnanimous en- 
 deavour and generous sacrifice in this conflict, will not 
 cease when that conflict ends, but will carry America 
 into the forefront of all great world movements from 
 this time onwards. She has been finally called to a 
 destiny quite other than that she had chosen for herself. 
 Will not her future destiny be as strangely unlike, as 
 widely away from what her statesmen announce and 
 
140 Patriotism and 
 
 design for Her to-day, as her present destiny is strangely 
 unlike and widely away from the peaceful isolation 
 that her statesmen announced and designed for her a 
 few years ago ? Answer, prophetic soul of the wide 
 world dreaming on things to come! 
 
 When all this litter of fire and death is cleared 
 away, will America again refurnish her home through- 
 out as the sanctuary of perpetual peace, and persuade 
 all the other nations to do likewise ? The nations will 
 need but little persuasion. Amidst their smoking ruins, 
 they will eagerly put faith in any scheme that promises 
 to insure them against a future conflagration. Doubt- 
 less, for a long immediate future, no nation will be 
 foolish enough to carry a lighted torch amongst the 
 ever-smouldering passions and jealousies and ambi- 
 tions of its neighbours. 
 
 But if we examine the arguments in favour of a 
 League of Nations, we find that its advocates for the 
 most part ignore all the difficulties of constituting it, 
 and the yet greater and ever-increasing difficulties of 
 working it. If they admit these difficulties, they offer 
 no solution of them, and are content with some vague 
 hope or assertion that they may or will be overcome. 
 The sole reason that they give for forming their League 
 is that it is eminently desirable. So desirable does it 
 seem to them that, by hook or by crook, it must be 
 made practicable. And the sole security that they can 
 offer for its lengthened success is their opinion that the 
 rivalries, ambitions, and enmities of all the peoples and 
 races those combative instincts and passions of man- 
 kind which, in all times past, have been the catabolic 
 forces in the world's economy, and which are now in 
 a period of great activity will, as soon as this war is 
 over, die down, and be absorbed in an amiable inter- 
 
Popular Education 141 
 
 nationalism. That is to say, that the governing proc- 
 esses of civilization will, in the future, he merely an- 
 aholic. 
 
 We are evidently being swept towards a new form of 
 civilization. What that civilization may he like in its 
 main moral and spiritual aspects, I do not pretend to 
 know. None of the many vanished civilizations that 
 have flourished on this planet, has taken its general 
 form from a design previously worked out hy the hrain 
 of man. Speaking hroadly, they have arisen, as it 
 were, spontaneously, haphazardly. The rushing, clash- 
 ing, many-coloured, many-shaped interests and aims of 
 neighbouring nations have been shaken up in the ka- 
 leidoscope, and a certain pattern of civilization has re- 
 sulted. In all of these transformations, the desire or 
 necessity of conquest by one or several of the nations, 
 has been the leading conspicuous source of movement. 
 The conscious aims and strivings of the nations have 
 helped to form the pattern of civilization, but that pat- 
 tern, as a whole, has been something quite different 
 from what any statesman has planned, or any philoso- 
 pher has prescribed. 
 
 Nor will the civilization of the future be fashioned 
 according to any of the designs which we are now sub- 
 mitting to the Eternal, as being what is obviously most 
 desirable for mankind at the present juncture. Great- 
 ly as we are concerned, we shall not be taken into His 
 counsels on the matter, nor will He give heed to our 
 valuable hints and suggestions. I care not much at any 
 time whether I use the symbols of religion or the terms 
 of science. The symbols of religion are often less la- 
 boriously inaccurate than the strict definitions of sci- 
 ence, and throw larger, bolder shadows of incommen- 
 surable truths. 
 
142 Patriotism and 
 
 Having probably made some slight advance upwards 
 from monkeyhood in the course of the present civiliza- 
 tion, and having assuredly gained an ever-increasing 
 command of natural forces, we shall doubtless be al- 
 lowed a greater apparent liberty of action within the 
 confines of the approaching civilization. Being able 
 to read a little further in Nature's infinite book of se- 
 crecy, we shall develop a larger measure of our old illu- 
 sion that we are part authors of it. But the framework 
 and design of that future civilization will be none of our 
 choosing. They will be imposed upon us, and will be 
 largely unforeseen by us. 
 
 That future civilization will probably be, in many re- 
 spects, a higher civilization than any the world has yet 
 known. But this is by no means certain. At the pres- 
 ent moment it promises to be a harder, drabber, more 
 material, less spiritual civilization ; less rich in beauty ; 
 robbed of many of the graces and charms of the past; 
 robbed of leisure and distinction and ornament; a civi- 
 lization where the artist will be murdered by the me- 
 chanic. This may be only a transitory threat, but un- 
 less we take care, we shall make this world a very dull 
 place to live in. Who would not rather live in the Lon- 
 don of Dickens than in one of the two hundred and 
 fifty thousand model houses which the Government is 
 proposing to build that is, if the new Education Act 
 can release a sufficient number of stout young masons 
 and carpenters from the urgent necessity of learning 
 all about Cicero. 
 
 To return. Whatever form and complexion the ap- 
 proaching civilization may take, we may be quite sure 
 that we shall soon find it to be something quite differ- 
 ent in many of its larger aspects and tendencies, from 
 anything that we may now consciously design, or ami- 
 
Popular Education 143 
 
 ably desire. At present, under the stress of the illimi- 
 table miseries and horrors of this war, we design to 
 mould our future civilization on a basis of perpetual 
 universal concord guaranteed by a League of Nations. 
 It is assumed that by this compact wars can be made to 
 cease, and that this condition of things will be static, 
 and will be unassailable by all the imperious wash and 
 sway and flux of human affairs outside. 
 
 It is clear that if our future civilization is to be 
 founded on this basis, it can have no permanence and 
 can give us no security and prosperity, unless as a mat- 
 ter of fact, wars do cease from this time. 
 
 There are four general states of world civilization, 
 either of which is possible, and one of which must 
 be realized, during that period of the future which we 
 are concerned to anticipate, and to prepare for, by shap- 
 ing our national policy in accordance with it. 
 
 (1) A state of world-civilization in which war is 
 wholly abolished from this time. 
 
 (2) A state of world-civilization in which war 
 arises over small areas, with diminishing frequency, 
 and with diminishing violence, until at no distant date 
 it dies out from sheer inanition, because the passions 
 and instincts of mankind that formerly provoked it, 
 have also died out in the meantime. That is to say, 
 all the nations will not only have resolved to be wise for 
 all of the time, but will have kept their resolution, and 
 will have veritably and demonstrably attained beati- 
 tude in this respect. 
 
 These two states of civilization have some kinship, 
 and the national policy and general legislation that will 
 be suitable to one of them, will in some measure be 
 suitable to the other. 
 
 (3) A state of world-civilization in which war arises, 
 
144 Patriotism and 
 
 with diminishing frequency, but over large areas, and 
 with increasing violence, owing to the long restraint 
 and suppression of those fundamental instincts and 
 passions of mankind which provoke it, and the con- 
 sequent accumulation of inflammable materials, both 
 in the hearts of men, and in their political and eco- 
 nomical surroundings. 
 
 (4) A state of world-civilization, which, however 
 different it may be in its outer garb and manifestations 
 from our present and all preceding civilizations, is yet 
 virtually the same in respect of its fairly constant al- 
 ternations of peace and war, due to the fact that the 
 fundamental instincts and passions of mankind have 
 not changed, but continue to find the same outlet that 
 they have found in all the past experience of our race. 
 These two latter states of civilization are nearly akin, 
 and are scarcely distinguishable from each other. The 
 national policy and general legislation that will be 
 suitable to one of them will be mainly suitable to the 
 other. 
 
 Except these four, no general state of world civili- 
 zation is possible, or even conceivable. One of these 
 four states must issue from our present situation. To 
 meet the demands and exigencies of one of these four 
 general states, the statesmen of each of the nations 
 must begin to shape their foreign policy as soon as 
 this war is ended. Which of these four states is most 
 likely to issue from our existing circumstances ? 
 
 Judging from all past history, and from the instincts 
 and passions of mankind as they are at this moment 
 displaying themselves, does it not seem improbable in 
 the highest degree that the first of these states of world 
 civilization will be realized? Is it not almost as im- 
 
Popular Education 145 
 
 probable that the second of these states will be realized 
 in any period of time that concerns us ? 
 
 But, putting aside all estimates of the future that 
 are founded upon experience of the past, and upon 
 our knowledge of human nature, let us ask what will 
 be the actual condition of the world's affairs after the 
 war. The merest glance shows us that the whole sur- 
 face of the planet will be littered with combustible 
 matter. Apart altogether from the war, all the world's 
 social forces are in disorder. Capital and labour, na- 
 tional and international finance, economic systems and 
 tariffs, the relation of the sexes, the allotment and ex- 
 ercise of political power, the authority of religion, the 
 status of the coloured races every one of these world 
 social forces is in a state of treacherous and perilous 
 inflammability. Every one of them is a possible cause 
 of war, or a possible auxiliary cause of war; one or 
 two of them have provoked wars in the past, and seem 
 likely to cause more or less bloodshed in the future. 
 Before a peaceful path can be assured for world civi- 
 lization, every one of them must be adjusted and con- 
 trolled, and brought to some sort of an agreement. Is 
 it likely that all these vexed questions will be perma- 
 nently settled by referring them to national and inter- 
 national committees ?' All otherwise to me my thoughts 
 portend. 
 
 If we will but forsake our whimsies, and look stead- 
 ily at the facts that are before our eyes, do they offer 
 us any security that from this time, or within any 
 measurable stretch of the future, the first or second 
 states of general world-civilization will be realized, and 
 that war will be finally abolished from the earth ? Does 
 not a survey of the main facts and tendencies, and of 
 
146 Patriotism and 
 
 the social conditions prevailing in every country, press 
 upon us the same conclusion that has been forced upon 
 us by our experience of all the past, and by our knowl- 
 edge of human nature as it has always manifested itself, 
 and as it is manifesting itself to-day? 
 
 If he would be a bold and foolish man who should 
 affirm that it is utterly impossible for wars to cease 
 from this time, unlikely and incredible as that seems, 
 how crazy beyond all dreamers in Bedlam, would that 
 man be who, with all these facts and considerations 
 before him, should affirm that war will never again 
 break out upon this planet ! Is it not enormously prob- 
 able that, however much we may be able to guide the 
 shape of that world civilization which we are approach- 
 ing, it will be some form of either the third or the 
 fourth of those that I have enumerated ; that is to say, 
 it will be one in which war will be liable to break out at 
 any time, and will be sure to break out at some time or 
 the other ? 
 
 A great weight of public opinion is demanding that 
 our national policy shall be shaped upon the assumption 
 that the future world-civilization will be either the first 
 or the second of the states I have enumerated, and that 
 war will be entirely abolished either from this time, or 
 within some easily measurable compass of years. 
 
 And the permanency of this wholly pacific state of 
 world-civilization is to be assured by the contrivances 
 and decrees of a League of Nations. We have no ex- 
 perience of the working of such a tribunal, except such 
 as we may have gained from the disastrous failure of 
 the Hague Conference to prevent this war, and from 
 the ominous fact that it tied our hands and tripped our 
 feet in the early stages of the conflict All the pro- 
 moters of a League of Nations allow that its constitu- 
 
Popular Education 147 
 
 tion is beset with enormous difficulties, and none of 
 them can offer us any better assurance for its success- 
 ful working than what is afforded by the hope of con- 
 stant international amiability and wisdom. Will it be 
 safe, will it be prudent, to hang the whole weight of our 
 great destiny on the slender thread of security that a 
 League of Nations will be able to prevent war in the 
 future ? This is what we are asked to do by a powerful 
 and gathering force of public opinion. 
 
 If we are not again to drift aimlessly on confused and 
 contrary tides of events, making risky accommodations 
 and compromises with inexorable forces; if we are not 
 again to put our trust in chance to pull us through, we 
 are called upon this day to shape and declare a firm, 
 clear, national policy, either in accordance with the 
 belief that war will be extinct or negligible in the future 
 world-civilization, or on the other hand in the belief 
 war will be liable to recur with something of the same 
 frequency and violence in the future as it has done in 
 the past. If we shape our national policy in accord- 
 ance with the former of these alternative beliefs, that 
 policy will tend towards an Internationalism which will 
 gradually break down the highly complicated structure 
 of laws, habits, customs, institutions, and common na- 
 tional interests that now holds us together in unity, as 
 a living social organism amongst other social organisms. 
 If we shape our national policy in accordance with the 
 latter of these alternative beliefs, that policy will tend 
 towards a Patriotism which will harden and confirm 
 and strengthen our highly complicated structure of laws, 
 habits, customs, institutions, and common national in- 
 terests, and will render it capable of further growth 
 and development. E"o clear, resolute, effective national 
 policy can be imagined unless it accepts, and acts upon, 
 
148 Patriotism and Education 
 
 one or the other of these alternative beliefs, and is 
 shaped and pursued towards one or the other of these 
 alternative ends. 
 
 After much groping and wandering in tangled ways, 
 with the hope of finding and beating a plain sure path 
 for coming footsteps to tread, we emerge from our ob- 
 scurities and perplexities, and stand in clear open 
 ground on the top of the hill. There, plain in front of 
 us, are the two signposts, bearing their inscriptions in 
 the largest, boldest letters, so that every wayfarer may 
 read. They point and urge our nation in opposite di- 
 rections. On the one is written, "To Internationalism." 
 On the other is written "To Patriotism." 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 (Sept. Oat. Nov. 1918) 
 PATRIOTISM AND INTERNATIONALISM 
 
 Apology to the Minister of Education for continuing to address 
 him The neglected Hampstead missionary Aims of Interna- 
 tionalism before the war No danger of war The good Scheide- 
 mann would prevent it The Great Illusionist The meddling old 
 warrior Our sagacious internuncio Crash! The war comes 
 What shall we do with our opinions now? Socialists' forecasts 
 falsified They forsake their comrades and their whimsies to de- 
 fend their country Patriotism, a compulsive universal instinct 
 Compared with the maternal and religious instincts Incip- 
 ient Patriotism at East and West Gawkham Engrafted Pa- 
 triotism "Reconstruction" a misleading term Nations cannot 
 be "reconstructed" Internationalists ignore this The parable 
 of the old township and Mr. Fervent Impossiblist The general 
 aim and design of Internationalists and Socialists Who are the 
 real enemies of the working classes of each nation? Interna- 
 tionalism strikes athwart all social structure Internationalists 
 and Bolshevism Mr. H. G. Wells gets a grip on Bolshevism 
 and interprets it to us Mr. Wells gets a grip on the situation 
 in Russia Mr. Wells gets a grip on the situation in Africa 
 Mr. Wells, like Sangrado, has a panacea Mr. Wells allows the 
 British flag to wave and sometimes to flap Examination of Mr. 
 Wells' African constitution Mr. Wells threatens the Solomon. 
 Islands Mr. Wells prophesies delightfully about machines Goes 
 on to prophesy about mankind Defence of Mr. Wells against Mr. 
 Archibald Spofforth Mr. Wells and Old Moore Gorgeous sym- 
 bolism in prophecy Scarlet ladies of Babylon and seven-headed 
 beasts The sacred jigsaw puzzle Common defects and fallacies 
 of Internationalist schemes Alternations of commercial con- 
 flict and actual war Commercial conflict perhaps the more 
 deadly Our interest in sustaining the British Empire Our For- 
 eign Office "bunglers and bluffers" Where are the perfectly wise 
 Statesmen to work these perfectly wise International schemes t 
 
 149 
 
150 Patriotism and 
 
 Tendency of Labour to displace its constructive leaders Who are 
 the men that finally come to the top? Appeal to Labour not 
 to wreck and destroy the Empire that it has saved and forti- 
 fied New nations will be increasingly patriotic Will press their 
 own separate aims, interests, and ambitions Watered-down In- 
 ternationalism Dulce et decorum est contra patriam wort 
 Sympathy with constructive Socialism Greater proportion of 
 physically unfit in England than in Germany or France Our 
 social incubator for hatching and cherishing wastrels Digres- 
 sion to Miss Marie Corelli and Cicero Return to argument on 
 Patriotism Again the two signposts Clear thinkers who think 
 wrongly Internationalism always destructive, Patriotism al- 
 ways constructive Proposal for amalgamation of our planetary 
 system with that of Sirius The Interstellarists Instinct of 
 Patriotism universal Our Pacifists superabundantly endowed 
 with it Pacifism and Internationalism perversions of the in- 
 stinct of Patriotism Patriotism and fire insuranceRenewed 
 fruitless appeal to Minister of Education Elementary drilling of 
 our boys the safest and cheapest way to reduce our armaments 
 Also best physical and moral training for the boys themselves 
 A glance at the National Debt and at the little cherub who sits 
 up aloft. 
 
 HAVE strayed so far from my original intention 
 * in writing this letter to you, and have treated of 
 so many matters that are outside your immediate con- 
 cern and jurisdiction, that I feel some apology is due 
 to you, sir, for continuing to address you. The only 
 excuse I can offer to myself, is that your position is 
 merely an honorary one, and that, as I reminded you 
 at the start, you are not under the least obligation to 
 pay any attention to me. But I have an uneasy sus- 
 picion that, unless I can detain you as an imaginary 
 nearer, I shall he left entirely without an audience. 
 This is what has happened to me in respect of what I 
 have written about the English drama. For thirty-five 
 years I have begged my countrymen to take an intel- 
 ligent interest in their theatre, to make it a place of 
 wise amusement instead of a child's toyshop and the 
 
Popular Education 151 
 
 playground of licentious tomfoolery. I cannot flatter 
 myself that they have paid the least attention to what 
 I have said, for to-day the English theatre and the Eng- 
 lish drama are as I have described them in the earlier 
 part of this letter. Nor can I hope to be more success- 
 ful in reaching their ears, now that I am treating of 
 matters of such supreme importance that the lasting 
 welfare and safety of this empire depend upon our 
 clearly understanding and rightly managing them. 
 
 On Sunday mornings before the war, sauntering 
 throngs were wont to frequent the open space near the 
 pond at the top of Hampstead Heath, there to fill their 
 lungs with fresh air, and their minds with alfresco 
 political convictions. Seven large crowds were usually 
 gathered round seven loud-voiced orators of both sexes, 
 who were bawling out seven varied and conflicting kinds 
 of turbulent social doctrine. Hard by, was a gentle, 
 soft-voiced evangelist, with a modest unassuming mien, 
 in whom I detected a strong resemblance to myself. He 
 was reading quietly and unobtrusively from the Bible, 
 and wisely refraining from making any comment of his 
 own. On many Sunday mornings in those ancient 
 times, I passed by this meek, unpretentious teacher, and 
 never once found him with so much as a single, casual, 
 heedless listener. This discouraged him not a jot. Con- 
 vinced of the value and importance of his message, he 
 persistently read on. With your knowledge and ex- 
 perience of the level to which Popular Education has 
 raised the literary tastes of the masses, you will easily 
 understand, sir, that while the loud crude jargon of the 
 social pulpiteers drew large approving groups of hear- 
 ers, the finest passages of St. Paul and Isaiah could not 
 catch the momentary attention of one passing idler. 
 
 As the Sunday mornings went by without bringing 
 
152 Patriotism and 
 
 him a solitary adherent, I became more and more inter- 
 ested in this sheepless shepherd. I found myself hop- 
 ing, that by a lucky chance, or even by a special inter- 
 vention of Providence in so good a cause, he would one 
 day be rewarded by the notice of some stray lounger or 
 inquisitive urchin, or by gaining the ear of the police- 
 man on parade, whose public duty might well allow him 
 an occasional digression into spiritual affairs on a Sun- 
 day morning. Vainly did I wait for even so small a 
 measure of popular recognition for this neglected dis- 
 penser of weighty truths and heavenly wisdom. The 
 floating, chattering Sunday throngs went heedlessly by 
 him, and he never detached a single hearer from the 
 adjacent expounders of variegated social and political 
 philosophy. Still he read on, impregnably indifferent 
 to the impregnable indifference of the crowd. 
 
 I felt a growing sympathy with this rejected little 
 missionary. The decay of a living credible religion in 
 England had placed him in even more forlorn circum- 
 stances than the decay of a living credible drama had 
 placed myself. And his response to the neglect of the 
 public was the same as my own an unwearied reitera- 
 tion of the truth to unheeding ears. I had the same 
 lively compassion for him that I had for myself. My 
 fellow feeling moved me to lend him some countenance. 
 I would occasionally loiter for a few minutes to become 
 the solitary recipient of his ministrations, thus giving 
 him, I hope, some faint impression of having an audi- 
 ence. 
 
 I must admit that his elocution was deplorably bad, 
 being scarcely above the level of what is usually heard 
 in fashionable West End theatres. But if his manner 
 was deficient, his matter was excellent. He would 
 choose, first perhaps a chapter from Romans, and with- 
 
Popular Education 153 
 
 out any personal exposition of its theology, pass to one 
 of the Psalms, and then to the leaping ecstasies of the 
 second Isaiah, or to the golden and jewelled precepts of 
 Proverbs, or the dark wonder wisdom of Job. The 
 mellow cadences of the dead prophets and dreamers who 
 for centuries have shown mankind the way of life, 
 sounded strangely out of tune with the loud harsh clap- 
 per notes of the noisy new prophets, who were dinning 
 quite other kinds of doctrine into the ears of the crowds 
 across the green. A cannon, with its surrounding piles 
 of shrapnel, has displaced the pulpits of the strident so- 
 cial orators, and spouting forth more convincing mat- 
 ter, has, for the time, dispersed their doctrines. 
 
 I hope, sir, you will be so obliging as to lend me your 
 countenance for a little while longer, and allow me the 
 comforting illusion of having an audience. I cannot 
 pretend that what I am offering you, has the value and 
 authority of the lofty messages which my fellow mis- 
 sionary punctually delivered every Sunday morning to 
 his imaginary hearers. I fear, too, that my words may 
 be as ill adapted to your frame of mind, as the admoni- 
 tions of Solomon were to the tastes of the Sunday 
 crowds ; and that you may show yourself as indifferent 
 to conversion as the Hampstead policeman. But having, 
 like my despised evangelist, succeeded in persuading 
 myself of the importance of my utterances, I trust you 
 will be generous enough to accord me the continued 
 privilege of addressing them to you. 
 
 This need not be any tax upon your time or your pa- 
 tience. I do not expect you to pay any more attention 
 to what I am now saying, than you have paid to what 
 I said in the earlier parts of my letter. For by the 
 passing of your Education Bill, I notice that our young 
 carpenters, from sixteen to eighteen, are still to be oc- 
 
154 Patriotism 
 
 cupied with Cicero and algebra, rather than in making 
 convenient doors and windows for their fellow work- 
 men ; and that our crowds of theatre-goers are not to be 
 diverted from their preference for vulgar nonsense, by 
 any such guidance towards a love and appreciation of 
 Shakespeare as you might have given them, by afford- 
 ing opportunities for suitable education to our young 
 actors and actresses. 
 
 In these circumstances, I may reaffirm the wholly 
 formal and honorary nature of your position at the head 
 of this letter a position which is not less dignified than 
 that of the British Lion in the Royal Arms on a shop- 
 front, and which does not require its occupant to con- 
 cern himself with the transactions taking ]>lace inside 
 the shop, or to be responsible for the quality of the 
 wares displayed. Nothing more is required of him, 
 than to preserve a correct attitude of obvious and lofty 
 detachment from the proceedings. 
 
 With this disclaimer of any intention to waste your 
 time, or capture your approbation, I station myself 
 again at the cross roads where the two opposing sign- 
 posts stand, the one pointing our people to Internation- 
 alism, the other to Patriotism. 
 
 Before the war, there was in all countries an ever- 
 increasing number of men who persuaded themselves 
 that the rivalries and enmities and conflicting interests 
 of the nations, might be smoothed and finally submerged 
 in a general amiable Internationalism, by the declared 
 wills of all the peoples. It was so obvious that the 
 working classes of all countries had more to gain by 
 seizing and dividing the large stock of accumulated cap- 
 ital in the world, than by fighting amongst themselves 
 to destroy it, that nothing more was needed to start 
 them on this track, than to point out to them the gay 
 
Popular Education 155 
 
 garden paradise awaiting their occupation at the end of 
 it. Accordingly, Internationalism flourished exceed- 
 ingly before the war. Large masses of our own people 
 transferred the loyalty and allegiance they had instinc- 
 tively felt for the country of their birth, to that much 
 more admirably-managed International State, where 
 everybody would have his Rights, where equal posses- 
 sions and boundless plenty would be assured to all, and 
 where Justice, Truth, Liberty, and Peace would reign 
 perpetually. What temptation had anyone to remain 
 an Englishman, when, by merely skipping over a few 
 inconvenient obstructive facts, he could become the 
 citizen of such a country ? 
 
 Seeing that it was eminently desirable that this Inter- 
 national State should be established without bloodshed, 
 it was decided that no war should take place. One or 
 two kings might have to be gently, or even somewhat 
 forcibly, pushed off their thrones, if they declined to 
 dwindle into evanescence; some more or less extensive 
 civil disturbances and riots might take place, and a few 
 obstinate people who refused to have sensible ideas, 
 might have to be shot down. All other little difficulties 
 could be successfully negotiated as we went along. The 
 desirability of this International State being so obvious, 
 all that we had to do was to keep on voting for it, and 
 it would gradually come into being. Certainly there 
 was no need to apprehend any outbreak of war amongst 
 the nations, for the sufficient reason that this would 
 upset all our plans. And having arranged for rations 
 of universal happiness on a very liberal scale, accord- 
 ing to indisputable pet formulas of our own, what could 
 be more annoying than to have all our plans upset by 
 an irrelevancy like war ? 
 
 It was true that Germany was throwing millions 
 
156 Patriotism and 
 
 upoii millions of men into her army, and building a for- 
 midable fleet. What of that? That was Germany's 
 own business. Our business was to keep down our army 
 to such negligible numbers as could give no possible 
 provocation to Germany. By this means we should 
 avoid war, and, what was more important, prevent our 
 plans from being upset. 
 
 Besides, was not the good Scheidemann over there, 
 fast locked with us, not in the loose brotherhood of 
 blood, but in that fast brotherhood which binds together 
 men who hold the same opinions upon abstract matters. 
 It is written, there is a friend that sticketh closer than 
 a brother. And who can that friend be, but the man 
 who holds the same sensible ideas about politics, or re- 
 ligion, or vaccination, or the monistic theory, that we 
 ourselves hold ? The good Scheidemann and his nu- 
 merous fellows could never be brought to fight with 
 actual guns and swords, the dear comrades who, side by 
 side with them, were fighting and conquering the rest 
 of the world with words and theories. ~No\ No! If 
 ever the day should come when the good Scheidemann 
 and our comrades over there were commanded to plunge 
 their swords in our breasts, they would throw them 
 down in flat defiance and fall upon our necks, and bru- 
 tal militarism would slink away baffled and defeated. 
 That anything eise could happen was incredible, for it 
 would upset all our plans. Therefore let us take no 
 notice of the fact that Germany is arming to her last 
 man. We may safely leave it all in the hands of the 
 good Scheidemann, for does he not hold the same opin- 
 ions as ourselves ? 
 
 And most opportunely to confirm our opinions and to 
 further our plans, a writer appears, who, by lucid and 
 most irrefragable arguments, proves that war with Ger- 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 157 
 
 many is impossible, prophetically calling his book "The 
 Great Illusion." This is the man after our own hearts. 
 Here is one endowed even more than ourselves with 
 political vision and insight keen enough to pierce 
 through all brick walls of fact. How can we sufficiently 
 honour him? What will be his most appropriate re- 
 ward? We will make him a life member of the Na- 
 tional Liberal Club. What less can we do for the man 
 who incontrovertibly proves that war with Germany is 
 impossible, than to give him the perpetual freedom of 
 those marble halls? lor how can we, busy as we are, 
 shaping the future according to our plans, be expected 
 to know that by some little flaw in his arguments, or by 
 some little failure of facts to adjust themselves to our 
 opinions, a war with Germany will come crashing down 
 upon us in a few months ? And, alas ! one of the direst 
 consequences of that war will be that the Government 
 will seize our marble halls for its prosecution, and will 
 drive us and our great illusionist to find shelter else- 
 where. 
 
 Meantime, what is to be done with the doting old 
 alarmist, who would upset all our plans by telling the 
 country from his certain knowledge and ripe experi- 
 ence, that this war with Germany is imminent, inevita- 
 ble, and is imploring the country to prepare for it ? Let 
 us pay no heed to him. Let us forget that he has spent 
 all the days of his long and blameless life in unselfish, 
 untiring devotion to our defence and security, from that 
 far-off time when he thrice planted our flag upon the 
 mess-house at Lucknow, to those dark months a dozen 
 years ago when he rescued the Empire from the impend- 
 ing disaster which was threatening it through our for- 
 mer folly and negligence. And will he now give the 
 remnant of his strength, and spend his last breath to 
 
158 Patriotism and 
 
 spread this pestilent heresy of mistrust and ill-feeling 
 towards our good neighbour, Germany? Happily our 
 great, sensible public holds the same opinions as our- 
 selves, and is in no mood to listen to his unwelcome 
 warnings. But cannot he be silenced ? For if he awak- 
 ens the country to its danger, it will upset all our plans. 
 Will nobody bid the aged mischief -monger cease his ir- 
 ritating prattle? 
 
 Ah! here comes another man after our own hearts, 
 who speaks with full authority and intimate knowledge 
 of that dear land of enlightenment and benevolence, 
 who finds its atmosphere so congenial that he has chosen 
 it for his spiritual home, and who knows the minds 
 of its rulers. For have they not with keen discernment 
 of his character, made him the envoy of their goodwill 
 towards us, their accredited go-between to soothe away 
 any premature suspicions that may begin to buzz in our 
 drowsy bewildered noddles? It is true, as he shall 
 afterwards tell us in proof of his own discernment, that 
 his own suspicions were aroused, and that he felt some 
 alarm at what he saw and heard amongst his spiritual 
 co-mates. But shall that move him to give even as much 
 as a timely caution to his countrymen, and put them on 
 their guard? Nol he will continue to bring us bland 
 and honeyed messages of conciliation, and treacherous 
 assurances of peace. Nor need we much trouble now 
 to ask whether the indestructible label that Time shall 
 fasten upon him will be "Dupe of Germany" or "De- 
 luder of England." 
 
 But here he comes, fresh from Germany, the authen- 
 tic harbinger of loving communion between the two 
 nations, who, with his superior knowledge of her rulers' 
 benign intentions towards us, shall quickly stop the 
 mouth of this tiresome, garrulous veteran. It might be 
 

 Popular Education 159 
 
 well to pour ridicule on the pertinacious old meddler, 
 and taunt him with knowing nothing of his own busi- 
 ness. Excellent! Our sagacious internuncio has op- 
 portunely turned the tables on the mischievous old war- 
 rior, and has adapted the European situation to the 
 necessities of our political and social plans. We may 
 safely trust his sound judgment in this matter, for 
 does he not hold the same opinions as ourselves? And 
 now we can go on arranging the future to our liking 
 Crash ! The cannons are thundering from one end of 
 Europe to the other. Could anything be more annoy- 
 ing? 
 
 And what shall we do with our opinions now ? 
 
 Some few of us will change them, having belatedly 
 come to the conclusion that it is safer to found opin- 
 ions upon facts, than to trust that facts will adjust 
 themselves to our opinions. 
 
 Some more of us will certainly not change our opin- 
 ions because they happen to be in conflict with facts. 
 Eather shall that be a reason for holding our opinions 
 all the more doggedly. Yes, and we have conscience, 
 too ! And a conscience so nicely tuned, so obedient to 
 our will, that we must needs hold its dictates to be in- 
 fallible. Our conscience shall command us to hold fast 
 to our opinions, and to cherish them all the more stub- 
 bornly, the more they are proved to be wrong. This war 
 has upset all our plans for shaping a desirable future 
 for mankind. We will take our revenge on the war by 
 upsetting it. We will thwart its prosecution by every 
 device we can imagine. We will distort facts ; we will 
 spread delusions ; we will defame our countrymen ; we 
 will invent excuses for the enemy, and condone his hell- 
 ish infamies. We will foment disaffection and strikes; 
 we will protest against conscription, and delay it till 
 
160 Patriotism and 
 
 it may be too late. We will shake the resolution of the 
 people, and we will weaken the hands of the Govern- 
 ment. We will offer our embraces to the good Scheide- 
 mann ; we will intrigue to get into communication with 
 him, for does he not hold the same opinions as our- 
 selves ?' We will greedily seize every chance of bringing 
 about an ignoble peace, or an equally welcome defeat. 
 What do we care though civilization is blazing to ruins, 
 and though every one of us may be sold into grinding 
 slavery ? Shall that be a reason for changing our opin- 
 ions? 
 
 And the rest of us, who had also prepared a busy 
 programme of social and political reforms just suited to 
 the pressing needs of the people what shall we do with 
 our opinions ? For it seems that the pressing needs of 
 the people are for guns and shells, and men trained to 
 slaughter just the mischievous and evil things that we 
 have all along counselled them to do without. Clearly, 
 our opinions, though they were exactly suited to the 
 conditions and circumstances that we desired, are not 
 at all suited to the conditions and circumstances in 
 which we find ourselves. 
 
 Such an admirable, well-considered set of opinions, 
 too ! And enforced by such a wealth of convincing ar- 
 gument, and such a powerfully organized caucus. It 
 would be a pity to waste such a valuable set of opinions, 
 after all the trouble we have taken to form them. Still 
 we must own they are out of accord with very palpable 
 and distressing facts. When our homes are being 
 bombed, and starvation is possible, when the country is 
 threatened with invasion and pillage, Patriotism be- 
 comes a temporary duty. And we will loyally fulfil 
 that duty to our uttermost. This need not prevent us 
 from running our opinions alongside of our Patriot- 
 
Popular Education 161 
 
 ism, trusting that in the present confusion the incon- 
 gruity will not be apparent. Happily, we have suc- 
 ceeded in getting our opinions largely accepted as per- 
 manent political gospel, and we may be sure that when 
 once an opinion gets into a man's head, he is not going 
 to dislodge it, merely because it is out of harmony with 
 facts. We will therefore regard the war as a tiresome 
 interlude, a disagreeable suspension of our political 
 activities. When it is over, we can throw our Patriot- 
 ism overboard. For what need will there be for Patri- 
 otism in a world which will be regulated by our opin- 
 ions? 
 
 Indeed, the more we contemplate the future, the 
 brighter is the outlook for our opinions. For as soon as 
 the war is comfortably past, it will be clear to every- 
 body that were it not for this pernicious vice of Patriot- 
 ism, there would be no wars at all. Away with it, then, 
 and let us work heart and soul for Internationalism, 
 and the millennium that will accompany it. And sure- 
 ly if ever mankind deserved a millennium, it will be 
 after this war. Not only do they deserve it, but they 
 are evidently resolved to get it. And how can they get 
 it, but by the wide diffusion and acceptance of our opin- 
 ions? And how wonderfully our opinions are adapted 
 to a millennium, and precisely to that kind of millen- 
 nium which is most desirable for mankind in their 
 present circumstances! Let us stick to our opinions, 
 then, and furbish them up with a few new phrases, se- 
 cure that when peace is declared, they will meet with 
 almost universal acceptance. 
 
 For many years before the war, a growing body of 
 political opinion had declared itself in favour of So- 
 cialism and Internationalism. The bulk of the Liberal 
 party was in a process of absorption by its extreme elg- 
 
162 Patriotism and 
 
 ments, and was being gradually committed to princi- 
 ples that, if they proved to be sound and workable, 
 would lead to the domination of the world by Interna- 
 tional Societies, and that, if they proved to be unsound 
 and unworkable, would lead to universal anarchy. 
 Boughly, the Liberals formed one party with groups of 
 Labour Socialists and Internationalists, and the odd 
 addition of Irish Nationalists, whose only qualifications 
 for political association with Internationalists were an 
 even larger capacity for discontent, and an even more 
 fatal facility in expressing it. 
 
 The Socialists and Internationalists, though fewer in 
 numbers, were gradually gaining the ascendancy of 
 power in the party, because they were gradually gaining 
 the ascendancy of power with the electors. There were 
 various shades and forms of Socialism and Internation- 
 alism. None of them could agree in any feasible con- 
 structive scheme. But they all agreed that the present 
 social structures of the various nations would have to 
 be broken down, and the present forms of government 
 destroyed, or rendered tributary to the supreme power 
 of some sort of International Congress, which was to 
 rule the civilized world in future. 
 
 This was the avowed aim of the Socialists and Inter- 
 nationalists ; and the Liberal party, from the exigen- 
 cies of its position, was driven to lend them more or less 
 countenance, and more or less to adopt their programme. 
 We may say that the whole of the variegated, composite 
 party was working towards Internationalism, though 
 many of them may not have been aware of their desti- 
 nation. It was not only the Germans who were pre- 
 paring to dominate the world, and to enforce their regi- 
 men upon it. The Socialists and Internationalists were 
 also preparing to dominate the world, and to enforce 
 
Popular Education 163 
 
 their regimen upon it. And the Socialists and Interna- 
 tionalists were almost equally sure of success, whenever 
 the trial should come. For they had clearly instructed 
 their comrades that their true country was not the land 
 of their hirth which had treated them so scurvily, hut 
 that International State which would give them all they 
 could desire, and which would arise as soon as the pres- 
 ent obsolete social structures were demolished. And 
 having ceaselessly drilled their comrades in allegiance 
 to that International State, and sworn them to work for 
 its speedy establishment, what would happen if war 
 were declared between the nations ? The Socialists and 
 Internationalists would proclaim their solidarity, throw 
 down their arms, and refuse to fight each other. Those 
 who expected dear comrades who held the same opin- 
 ions to cut each other's throats, would find themselves 
 
 ievously mistaken, and would be put to the rout. 
 After perhaps a few feeble splutter ings, the projected 
 war would fizzle out for lack of material to nourish it. 
 
 Some such result was confidently expected by Social- 
 ists and Internationalists to follow any attempt to cause 
 fratricidal strife between the enrolled citizens of that 
 new world commonwealth, whose foundations they had 
 so well and truly laid on the ruined and obliterated 
 landmarks of extinct Patriotism. 
 
 What did really happen ? 
 
 As soon as war was declared, the Socialists and Inter- 
 nationalists immediately split into strictly national 
 groups, and rushed to defend their respective flags. And 
 excepting small minorities, they have been amongst the 
 loudest and bravest defenders of the countries of their 
 birth. Jaures, who had opposed the three years' mili- 
 tary service bill for France, recanted when the Ger- 
 mans were swarming towards her frontiers. Even the 
 
Patriotism and 
 
 witty, mischievous, impudent Impossiblist, who had 
 tried to boss the British Empire by proving that every- 
 body in it, except himself, was hopelessly wrong upon 
 every subject even he was obliged to make some show 
 of loyalty to the stupid country that had applauded his 
 antics in times of peace, but was not quite stupid enough 
 to tolerate them, when, to the delight of his German 
 friends, he stabbed her in her hour of darkest need. 
 
 And the good Scheidemann and his followers over 
 there? Instead of throwing down their arms, what do 
 they do but prove themselves to be the sturdiest of 
 patriots, voting constant supplies to their robber gov- 
 ernment to carry on the most brutal war against their 
 French and British comrades, and to murder helpless 
 women and children ? And to-day the recreant Scheide- 
 mann is accusing Us, the Socialists of the Entente 
 Us, who hold the same opinions as himself is accus- 
 ing Us of being the cause of prolonging this devastating 
 war. He fastens the guilt of continued bloodshed upon 
 Us ! A man whom we had embraced in the sacred com- 
 munion of International brotherhood! He brings this 
 damning accusation against Us! We are sadly disap- 
 pointed in Scheidemann. He is not the man we judged 
 him to be. For when it comes to the push, he backs his 
 own beloved country instead of backing his and our 
 opinions. How shall we ever arrange the world to our 
 liking, if men will go on backing their own countries 
 against our opinions? And just as we had got them 
 accepted as permanent political gospel by all the ad- 
 vanced thinkers of all classes in all civilized countries! 
 How is it that facts have played us such an uncivil 
 trick ? How is it that they have so obstinately refused 
 to conform to our opinions? 
 
 In all the affairs of life where the emotions are 
 

 Popular Education 165 
 
 brought into play, men's actions are guided by their in- 
 stincts rather than by their opinions. Patriotism is the 
 most compulsive and most universal of all instincts, 
 excepting those of sex and maternity. As surely as the 
 phagocytes in my bloodstream will rush to defend me 
 when I am wounded, and will sacrifice themselves to 
 make me whole, so surely will the men and women of a 
 country leap to her flag when she is assaulted, and will 
 willingly die that she may live. When an animal body 
 grows old or corrupt, its own phagocytes turn upon it, 
 and prey upon it, and hand it over to dissolution. When 
 a nation grows old or corrupt, its men and women be- 
 come seditious, and sap its strength, and hand it over 
 to dissolution. How like sedition is to cancer! 
 
 Nature gives us all the primal instincts in excess. 
 They are so necessary for our preservation that she en- 
 courages them to exaggeration. What single cause has 
 worked more ravages and evil amongst mankind than 
 the mad impulsions of the sexual instinct? Not war 
 itself has more horribly scarred and maimed humanity, 
 filled more hospitals, violated more homes, strewn the 
 pathway of our race with more wrecks and castaways. 
 Yet I have never heard of anyone who proposed to abol- 
 ish the sexual instinct, except my Aunt Julia, who 
 maintains that Providence has scandalously misman- 
 aged the whole business. The arguments whereby my 
 Aunt Julia seeks to abolish the sexual instinct, run 
 exactly parallel to the arguments whereby* Interna- 
 tionalists seek to abolish the instinct of Patriotism. All 
 who have well-educated minds will hope that my Aunt 
 Julia may be more successful than the Internationalists 
 have been. 
 
 The maternal instinct often turns to blind idolatry. 
 It shows itself absurd, unreasoning, unreasonable, un- 
 
166 Patriotism and 
 
 just, unscrupulous. It is nearly always tainted with 
 these faults. But ugly as they are in themselves, these 
 faults are but the shadows and inversions of the su- 
 preme virtues of motherhood, infinite devotion, tender- 
 ness, patience, forgiveness, exalted self-sacrifice. There 
 are many estimable women without the maternal in- 
 stinct. Nature disdains these superior creatures, pushes 
 them aside, and commands them to perish. The mater- 
 nal instinct is so valuable to our race, that Nature is 
 careless how many faults she binds up with it. 
 
 Again, take the permanent instinct of religion. It 
 is so valuable to our race, that Nature seems to care 
 little what stupidities men believe, so long as they be- 
 lieve in something. Perhaps I should have said that 
 God seems to care little what men believe, so long as 
 they believe in something. But it would be dishonour- 
 ing to God to make Him responsible for the religious 
 beliefs of mankind for instance, amongst other things, 
 for the comic and virulent nonsense of the Athanasian 
 Creed. It is more respectful to God to throw the blame 
 for such things upon Nature, leaving the puzzling 
 question of the distinction between God and Nature 
 to offer us excellent material for future debate. 
 
 Here I am sorely tempted to suggest a parallel be- 
 tween the experts and expounders of religion, and the 
 experts and expounders of other matters shall we say 
 of Education? But I abstain, and repel with suitable 
 indignation any impertinent memory of Horace Wai- 
 pole's rebuke to the expert and expounder of heraldry, 
 "Why, you don't understand your own silly business !" 
 
 Affirming, then, with passionate sincerity of convic- 
 tion, the urgent need of a credible religion, it may be 
 readily admitted that even the two hundred confused 
 and contradictory forms of belief that we now profess 
 
Popular Education 167 
 
 are better than no religion at all. Blank Atheism, blank 
 denial, are condemned to sterility. We must establish 
 relations with the Eternal. There are many honest, 
 clear-thinking, highly-intellectual people who are with- 
 out the religious instinct, but like the superior women 
 who are without the maternal instinct, they pass away 
 and leave no offspring. Mankind goes on believing 
 something. Religion is one of the primal necessary in- 
 stincts. It springs up anew in every child. It is so 
 valuable to our race, as the only surety for conduct, and 
 the only builder of character, that Nature constantly 
 replants it in our hearts, and is careless what stupidi- 
 ties, bigotries, and cruelties she binds up with it. 
 
 It is the same with the permanent universal instinct 
 of Patriotism. It is so valuable to a nation that the 
 peoples who are without it, tend towards servitude and 
 decay, and are soon absorbed in neighbouring nations, 
 who may be much lower in civilization, but have a 
 stronger instinct of Patriotism. As religion tends to 
 bind our private conduct into a consistent and effective 
 unity, so does Patriotism tend to bind our national con- 
 duct into a consistent and effective unity. 
 
 May we not claim that Patriotism is not only valu- 
 able and preservative to a nation in its dealings with 
 other nations, but that it is also valuable and construc- 
 tively energizing to the human race as a whole ? It is 
 by struggle and warfare against our nearest competitors 
 and rivals, who are then subdued into co-operation and 
 combination with us against our next nearest competi- 
 tors and rivals it is by means of these alternations of 
 competition and co-operation, that we have raised our- 
 selves from monkeyhood to a state of savagery, and 
 from a state of savagery to our present level of civili- 
 zation. This law of alternating competition and oo- 
 
168 Patriotism and 
 
 operation may be traced in its constant but very irregu- 
 lar working, in all our affairs, and in all the past his- 
 tory of our race. When competition is once subdued, 
 it leads to co-operation in mutual interests with our late 
 competitors. Co-operation, in its turn, leads to a more 
 enlarged form of competition, which, again, leads to a 
 more enlarged and higher form of co-operation. Pa- 
 triotism has always been an accessory to this alternative 
 process as it works amongst nations. Is not Patriotism 
 an instrument in the evolution of civilization ? And is 
 it not therefore beneficial to the whole human race ? 
 
 When we compare Patriotism with such other primal 
 necessary instincts as maternity and religion, we find 
 that like them, it has the defects of its qualities. Like 
 maternity, it often shows itself absurd, unreasoning, un- 
 reasonable, unjust, unscrupulous. Like religion, it 
 often shows itself stupid, bigoted, cruel, dishonest in 
 thought and in practice. And beyond this, Patriotism 
 often has an offensive blatancy and megalomania which 
 are all its own. Patriotism is nearly always tainted 
 with these faults. But ugly as they are in themselves, 
 these faults are like those of motherhood, only the 
 shadows and inversions, the seamy side of its virtues. 
 And accordingly we find that Patriotism being so valu- 
 able and necessary to the vigorous health and prosperity 
 of a people, Nature seems to be careless how many 
 faults and excesses she binds up with it in the na- 
 tional character. 
 
 But if Patriotism is valuable and necessary to a peo- 
 ple, Justice and Humanity and the keeping of the 
 great commandments are still more valuable and neces- 
 sary. For unless these are reverenced and practised, 
 human society falls to pieces. Only in the measure that 
 these are reverenced and practised, does any unit of hu- 
 
Popular Education 169 
 
 man society hold together. When a nation does away 
 with the great commandments, and sacrifices them to 
 its Patriotism, sooner or later they take their revenge, 
 and bring that nation to ruin. If Germany had suc- 
 ceeded in gaining dominion over the whole world, she 
 would never have been secure; for the whole world 
 would have raised itself in perpetual revolt against her, 
 until finally, perhaps after generations of misery and 
 bloodshed, she would have been brought down. It is 
 Germany's crimes that have lost her the dominion of the 
 world. Her Patriotism and discipline and industry 
 would have won it for her. 
 
 How potent, how compulsive, how possessive of the 
 heart and soul of a people, how indestructible an instinct 
 is Patriotism, is shown by Ireland. 
 
 There is no thoughtful Irishman, who has examined 
 the facts and finances of the British Exchequer, and 
 who does not know that Ireland is the most favoured 
 part of the United Kingdom. There is no thoughtful 
 Irishman who does not know that to the extent that Ire- 
 land is separated from England, to that extent Ireland 
 will be impoverished and weakened, and handed over to 
 the internal dissension. There is no thoughtful Irish- 
 man who does not perceive that the entire separation of 
 Ireland from Britain, would bring untold misery and 
 economic ruin to his country, and would shake the 
 entire structure of ordered government throughout 
 Europe. There is no thoughtful Irishman who under- 
 stands his countrymen, and does not foresee that within 
 three years of separation from England, civil war would 
 be raging over his land, and would have to be quelled 
 by outside intervention. There is no thoughtful Irish- 
 man who does not know that England stands waiting 
 to disengage herself from Irish affairs to the utmost 
 
170 Patriotism and 
 
 limit, and perhaps beyond the utmost limit, that is 
 compatible with the existence of social order, and the 
 security of life and property in both countries. 
 
 There is the map, which shows the two islands se- 
 curely anchored within a few miles of each other. And 
 there are the thousand, thousand ties of social interest, 
 economic interest, trade, custom, language, and every 
 day intercourse and relationship, which through cen- 
 turies have grown round the lives of the two peoples, 
 and which cannot be severed without tearing a mortal 
 wound in the sides of both of them. 
 
 Yet against all reason, all interest, all wisdom, against 
 all argument, and all knowledge, this inextinguishable 
 instinct of Patriotism possesses Ireland, and drives her 
 to clamour unceasingly for fatal disruption. What 
 Englishman is there, who, loving his own country, does 
 not ungrudgingly sympathize with this wild adoring 
 passion of her sons for Ireland ? What Englishman is 
 there, who would not, if it were only possible, satisfy 
 it to the full, give Ireland the cursed gift of a separate 
 destiny, and pityingly, reluctantly, cruelly, loose her 
 to drift or crash to her doom ? 
 
 But there is the map. The two countries cannot 
 be wrenched asunder. And there are hostages on each 
 eide who cannot be stifled, or betrayed to persecution 
 and extinction by the foes of their own household. 
 
 Every Home Kule Bill that has yet been devised, is 
 now clearly seen to have been unworkable an instru- 
 ment of further disagreement and embroilment. And 
 will we now concert some new scheme of lavish con- 
 cessions, and paper obligations, and juggling compro- 
 mises and instalments of progressive dismemberment 
 yet one more unworkable abortion to breed new con- 
 fusions and dissensions between the two countries ? 
 
Popular Education 171 
 
 Will we never face the plain issue, and own to our- 
 selves that there is no middle way between irrevocable 
 separation, and Federal Parliaments, giving full play 
 and encouragement to the local patriotism of each 
 division of the United Kingdom a Kingdom that must 
 be united ; either United in gathering peace and security 
 and prosperity to itself under one compact, sovereign, 
 central authority, or as surely United in rendering 
 itself a common prey to internal disorganization, and 
 external assault, and passing through successions of 
 strife and misery and bloodshed, to the same goal of a 
 common dissolution and destruction. There is the map. 
 A United Kingdom it must remain. 
 
 If Federal Parliaments will not solve the question, 
 then it can only be solved in blood. But Ireland will 
 not be content with a Federal Parliament. Hear a 
 wise word from Goethe. In 1829 the British Parlia- 
 ment had already begun its blind, hopeless, perennial 
 task of curing the woes of Ireland. "Give Ireland 
 Catholic Emancipation," was then the cry, "And she 
 will be pacified." Said Goethe to Ekermann: "This 
 we can see. Ireland suffers from evils that will not be 
 cured by any means, and therefore, of course not by 
 Emancipation. It has hitherto been unfortunate for 
 Ireland to endure her evils alone ; it is now unfortunate 
 England is also drawn into them." [Sage of Weimar, 
 you said then the final word.] 
 
 What welter of seditions, and brawls, and enmities, 
 what gusts and tempests of rebellions, what barren 
 martyrdoms, what harvests of misery and despair, what 
 alternations of assassins' plots and politicians' dodgeries, 
 what wildernesses of talk in Parliament, and what 
 deluge of words in the Press, what multifarious shifts 
 and evasions, and intrigues and treacheries, have we 
 
172 Patriotism and 
 
 since passed through, only to find ourselves thwarted, 
 and baffled, and impotent, with Ireland still nursing 
 against us hatred and revenge; more stubbornly re- 
 solved not to be pacified than when Goethe threw his 
 illuminating beam upon her desolation a hundred years 
 ago! 
 
 Is there, as Goethe said, no cure for the woes of Ire- 
 land? Then England must needs continue to bear 
 them with her ; must take upon her own aching shoulders 
 the greater part of the burden; with constant, forbear- 
 ing, sisterly love, with inexhaustible patience and ever- 
 ready help, must steadfastly, unflinchingly refuse to 
 deal out skimble-skamble, piecemeal separation and 
 sham pacification, with their certain deadly recoil at 
 the hearts of both nations. 
 
 Kathleen, sister Kathleen, most wilful, most per- 
 verse, and yet most dearly loved, and dearly lovable of 
 all this human family, will you never forget our cruel 
 treatment of you in years that have long gone by ? In 
 deep abasement, deeper than your sorrows, in contrition 
 heaped up higher than we heaped your wrongs, we own 
 that we injured and oppressed you beyond forgiveness ; 
 and yet do supplicate your forgiveness, that we may heal 
 your wounds that our hands have made, and wipe away 
 your tears that we caused to flow. 
 
 That sacred fire of never-dying love for your coun- 
 try we would not quench it, Kathleen. We would but 
 contain it on its own hearth, that it may not be fanned 
 by these outside, wild world gusts and spread its fury 
 till it burns down both our homes. 
 
 Old things have passed away. In this new perilous 
 world, we need each other's love and support. Great 
 need we have of you, Kathleen, Far greater need you 
 have of us. 
 
Popular Education 173 
 
 Will you still multiply your miseries, and add to 
 your afflictions, and increase your poverty, by staying 
 apart from us? Will you remain wedded to calamity, 
 and mortgaged to despair ? 
 
 Look back upon your yesterdays, all filled with fruit- 
 less controversies and strifes; with the wreckage of 
 your delusions, and the ruins of your hopes ; with blind 
 hatreds and revenges against us, and treasons against 
 yourself ; with vain bewailings of your fate, and desper- 
 ate wrestlings to escape from it one long, unceasing 
 tale of feckless stratagems, plots, insurrections and re- 
 volts, told over and over again, with hideous repetition 
 and persistent emphasis of defeat. 
 
 And will you now write that history all over again ? 
 Will you make your future a more dreadful copy of your 
 past ? Will you dedicate tomorrow, and tomorrow, and 
 tomorrow to the wild and bloody pursuit of common 
 disaster for us both; and dream your mad dream of 
 vengeance and disunion, and wake to find you have 
 dragged us twain over the verge of irrevocable 
 destruction ? 
 
 Will you dree that weird, Kathleen ? 
 
 Even then we shall be united. Our arms are about 
 each other's necks, either in choking grips of enmity, 
 seeking to strangle each other, or in embraces of friend- 
 ship and sisterly love. Struggle as you will, Kathleen, 
 we cannot be free of each other. No separate destiny 
 can you have, willingly as we would give it to you. 
 Our final partnership is sure, and though we have not 
 been lovely and pleasant in our lives, in our death we 
 shall not be divided. 
 
 Kathleen, sister Kathleen, what fresh bloodstains are 
 these upon your hands ? Ah, cleanse yourself of them, 
 and throw away that secret dagger. For be sure, that 
 
174 Patriotism and 
 
 within three years of self-government, you will be 
 using that same dagger with deadlier effect to stab 
 your own flesh, than ever you used it against us. 
 
 Frustrated and defeated already, are all your schemes 
 of independence even before you have laid them; mil- 
 dewed is every harvest that you shall raise, even before 
 you have sown its seed; your looms shall not weave, 
 and your ships shall not sail; your harbours shall not 
 be built, and your coasts shall have no commerce but 
 with the winds; a lonelier desolation shall creep over 
 your hills, and decay shall be a more ruthless invader of 
 your cities, than ever were your English foes the grass 
 is already growing in their streets; and Penury, 
 Squalor, and Misrule are appointed their chief magis- 
 trates. This is the heritage of Separation that you claim 
 from England. How can we add to the wrongs we have 
 done you in past centuries by giving you Separation 
 Today ? 
 
 Kathleen, sister Kathleen, there is but a narrow 
 stretch of sea between us. Will you for ever persuade 
 yourself that it is an ocean, wider and angrier than the 
 Atlantic, and never to be crossed? Will you not at 
 last, Mavourneen, show us a most noble forgiveness, 
 and let us find our way to you across that narrow sea, 
 with loving kindness, and help and reconciliation, with 
 assuagement and obliteration of the past ? 
 
 Patriotism is not wholly a matter of race and of 
 country, though it draws its richest nourishment from 
 the blood of its fathers, and throws its deepest roots 
 into its native land. We, who were born amongst the 
 meadows and hedgerows of England, may delight more 
 in mountains and heather, but the wildest and sublimest 
 scenery never takes such a hold upon our hearts. There 
 are passages in Shakespeare that only an Englishman 
 
Popular Education 175 
 
 can fully understand, and some that give a relish of 
 homely interpretation only to those who are native in 
 his neighbouring soil and air. Even to-day there are 
 many common folk among the South Midlanders, who 
 have a kinship with Shakespeare, and an intimacy of 
 approach to him, which is denied to scholars and com- 
 mentators. 
 
 An incipient form of Patriotism springs up in every 
 village. The inhabitants of Little Pedlington have an 
 inborn contempt for the inhabitants of Great Pedling- 
 ton; while the dwellers in Great Pedlington are filled 
 with derision for the dwellers in Little Pedlington. 
 East Gawkham lives in simmering feuds with West 
 Gawkham, and prides itself upon its higher level of 
 morality. West Gawkham returns the antagonism of 
 East Gawkham, and brags of the finer achievements of 
 its cricket club. There is little enough to justify these 
 boasts of local superiority, for the morality of East 
 Gawkham is deplorable, and the cricketers of West 
 Gawkham are a team of contemptible amateurs. But in 
 any matter that concerns the interests of their common 
 county, all these four villages will stubbornly unite 
 against the adjoining county. For counties, too, have 
 their local Patriotism. 
 
 These incipient Patriotisms have their excesses and 
 absurdities, which it is to be hoped that Popular Edu- 
 cation and Internationalism will eradicate in the course 
 of ten thousand years or so. Meantime, let us take note 
 that these instincts are not the prejudices of mere yo- 
 kels, but are part of the common heritage of humanity. 
 They begin in the family itself, for though we may fall 
 out at home, we stoutly defend our kinsfolk from any 
 interference or aspersion by our neighbours. If we 
 watch ourselves, we shall find that we are all guilty of 
 
176 Patriotism and 
 
 an unreasonable preference for our own family, our 
 own village, our own tribe, our own trade, our own 
 class, our own country. It is not only thieves who, from 
 the exigencies of their calling, hang together and band 
 themselves against the rest of mankind. All human 
 institutions and organizations are pervaded by clannish- 
 ness, which is a form of Patriotism. It has the same 
 defects and vices, but on the balance it is largely advan- 
 tageous, helpful, constructive. It is inherent in all 
 mankind. What one of us has not in him some smack 
 of the perverse partiality of the old Yorkshireman who, 
 having been taken to see the wonders of London for 
 the first time, surveyed his native town on his return 
 and declared "Eh ! There's nowt to come up to Pudsey 
 after all !" 
 
 But Patriotism often disengages itself from the ties 
 of race and country. When we are torn away from our 
 people and the land of our birth, our hearts soon begin 
 to throw out tendrils towards the folk and the country 
 of our adoption, and we end by clinging to them with 
 entire loyalty and devotion. This engrafted Patriot- 
 ism is always liable to suspicion, both unjust and just. 
 Nevertheless, it has constantly given unquestionable 
 proof of its staunch and incorruptible allegiance to its 
 foster motherland. America may be greatly proud that 
 she has overcome the formidable threat of German ob- 
 struction to her cause, and that the vast majority of her 
 citizens of German descent have enthusiastically de- 
 clared their attachment to her flag. 
 
 Surely if this war has proved anything, it has proved 
 the reality, the vitality, the indestructibility of Patriot- 
 ism. It has everywhere shown itself to be the compul- 
 sive instinct, the governing force that binds a nation 
 into effective unity, that moves and quickens all the re- 
 

 Popular Education 177 
 
 lations of nations with one another. Doubtless it has 
 often shown its characteristic defects and excesses. But, 
 except- for the Patriotism of Belgium, France, England, 
 Italy, America, and our other Allies, the whole civilized 
 world would have heen under the heel of Germany to- 
 day. Internationalism, in all its manifestations, has 
 shown itself to he mischievous, obstructive, ruinous, the 
 engine of social disruption and anarchy. 
 
 This must needs be so. Every nation is a living so- 
 cial organism, whose existence depends upon its obedi- 
 ence to the general laws that govern all living things. 
 None of its many internal functions can be performed 
 except in harmonious working with all its other func- 
 tions. It cannot be healthy, or long continue as a liv- 
 ing corporate entity, unless all its organs work together 
 for the welfare of the whole body. This is a mere 
 commonplace of sociology, but it is constantly ignored in 
 legislation, and is frankly despised by Internationalists. 
 
 The current term "Reconstruction" implies a flat de- 
 nial of the laws that govern national reparation and de- 
 velopment. It is sure to be misleading, and may be 
 most harmful, in the period of social repair and con- 
 valescence that lies before us after the war. For the 
 word "Reconstruction" confirms the ancient and per- 
 sistent delusion that men and institutions can be trans- 
 formed according to the few simple rules that carpen- 
 ters and masons follow in handling their unresisting 
 blocks of wood and stone. The same heap of bricks can 
 be made into a pigsty or into a cathedral, and will un- 
 complainingly yield themselves to the design of the ar- 
 chitect, whatever edifice he may choose to build with 
 them. The statute books of all nations are littered 
 with the abortive enactments of legislators who have 
 treated men as blocks of wood and stone that can be mor- 
 
178 Patriotism and 
 
 tised into a geometrical social structure which they have 
 designed. "Reconstruction" is a mischievously wrong 
 term to apply to those activities of social reparation 
 in which we shall soon be engaged. It encourages us in 
 a wholly false conception of the nature and scope and 
 limitations of those activities. 
 
 Nations cannot be "reconstructed." The social ar- 
 chitect who tries to "reconstruct" a nation, finds, sooner 
 or later, that he is handling live red-hot bricks, that will 
 not lie quiet in their places, but keep on jumping about 
 with wills of their own, when he tries to fit them in his 
 well-arranged scheme. The regeneration of society must 
 be accomplished, not by methods akin to those of the 
 carpenter and the builder, but by methods akin to 
 those of the physician. The physician is successful, 
 only if he tunes his treatment to the present condition 
 of the individual body under his care, and only so far 
 as he can coax a response from the vital forces within 
 that body. It is the vital forces within the body that 
 work its repair. 
 
 So the social reformer is successful only when he un- 
 derstands the infiinitely complex laws that govern the 
 growth and development of the body politic, only when 
 he tunes his treatment to present conditions, and only 
 in the measure that he can draw a response from its 
 living indwelling moral and spiritual forces. It is the 
 moral and spiritual forces within a nation that must 
 work its regeneration. If these are decayed and mori- 
 bund, the social reformer will get no response, even 
 though he may have applied the correct treatment. He 
 is like the doctor in "Tristram Shandy" who gave his 
 patient the right medicine, but the man died. "He 
 ought not," said the doctor. 
 
 All this is well understood by practical legislators. 
 
Popular Education 
 
 179 
 
 Then why do we continue to talk of "Reconstruction^" 
 when already the immense majority of our electorate 
 of all classes are possessed with the delusion that, be- 
 cause some condition of society is desirahle for them- 
 selves, or for their neighbours, or for the nation, or for 
 the planet, it can he brought about by merely passing 
 Acts of Parliament? Are we not likely to encourage 
 much legislative quackery, ending in disappointment 
 and disorder ? Would it not be well to change the title 
 of "Ministry of Reconstruction" to that of "Ministry 
 of Reparation" ? It would be less likely to mislead us 
 as to the nature of the work that lies before us, and of 
 the methods that we must use to make it prosper. 
 
 I do not say that a society or a nation is a compact 
 animal, very like a camel, or very like a whale. Obvi- 
 ously nations do not reproduce themselves after the 
 manner of animals. Nations are renewed and grow into 
 separate organisms, by means of fissure, conquest, in- 
 terpenetration, interbreeding, and absorption. But 
 when these processes have reached a certain stage, a na- 
 tion is a distinct corporate entity, and maintains its in- 
 dividuality till the same processes bring about its dis- 
 solution. While it exists as a nation, it has its own will 
 and impulses, its own purposes and aims, and its own 
 set of highly-involved internal organs, adapted to its 
 own needs and pursuits, just like an animal. All its 
 activities must be carried on by means of this set of in- 
 ternal organs, working in co-operation for its individual 
 welfare. A nation is always an organized mass of liv- 
 ing tissue, subject to the laws that govern the growth 
 and processes of living matter. It can only be repaired 
 by strict obedience to these laws. 
 
 Internationalists look upon these several masses of 
 organized living matter, as so many structures of brick 
 
180 Patriotism and 
 
 and timber which can be pulled down and used to build 
 up one new universal edifice of humanity. Even if we 
 allow, as we readily may, that the laws, institutions, and 
 social fabric of each nation, are, in many respects, like 
 a house that provides a shelter, workshop, nursery, and 
 playground to the people who have built it and live in 
 it granting this, yet the inhabitants of each national 
 home remain as a separate family, with their own man- 
 ners, prejudices, morals, and beliefs, and with interests 
 and aims that are in perpetual conflict with many of 
 the interests and aims of their neighbours. 
 
 There was once a quaint old township of forty-six 
 houses, of odd sizes and shapes; all of them built at 
 different times, in widely varying styles ; some of them 
 large and commodious and imposing; others of middling 
 size and importance ; some of them small and filthy and 
 pestilential; some of them new and crude and jerry- 
 built; many of them old and ramshackle and tumble- 
 down, having been repaired, and divided, and added to, 
 and altered to suit the convenience of the successive 
 owners in the past generations. These houses were sev- 
 erally inhabited by families of different ranks, sizes, 
 and degrees of relationship; rich, poor; small, large; 
 respectable, disreputable ; with divers habits, tastes, pro- 
 pensities, means of livelihood, mental and physical ca- 
 pacities, morals, religions, casts of features, facial an- 
 gles, complexions. 
 
 Owing to these great diversities, there was always 
 more or less strife and disturbance in the town, and 
 occasionally there was brawling and fighting in the 
 streets ; especially as the acreage of the parish was lim- 
 ited, both for agricultural and building purposes. There 
 was perpetual wrangling over the most coveted sites, 
 and most fertile fields, inasmuch as many of the owners 
 
Popular Education 181 
 
 and occupiers of them could not show a good title, and 
 in many cases had indeed no claim beyond that of hav- 
 ing forcibly ejected the former holders, who also had 
 very doubtful rights of possession. Sometimes the 
 fighting was between two neighbouring families, while 
 the rest of the town looked on, some trying to mediate, 
 some encouraging one or the other party. Often be- 
 fore the fight was ended, one or two of the neighbours 
 would join in the fray, according as their interests, or 
 their opinions, or their love of a fight prompted them. 
 
 Occasionally one of these periodic quarrels would 
 spread through the town, and nearly all the families 
 would take part, on one side or the other, in a general 
 riot. Traffic would be stopped, and the market stalls 
 overturned. Paving stones would be torn up, and 
 spades and axes and fire-irons used as weapons, till the 
 gutters ran with blood. Houses would be burnt and 
 plundered, and much valuable property destroyed. 
 After one of these town fights which had been unusually 
 brutal and destructive, and when at length peace had 
 been restored, one or two of the leading citizens pro- 
 posed that they should all agree never to fight again. 
 Everybody was struck with the wisdom of this sensible 
 proposal, especially the members of those families who 
 could count the largest number of bloody noses and 
 broken limbs. So they resolved to put it into practice 
 at once, and entered into a covenant never to fight again, 
 never, never, never. 
 
 Beyond this salutary provision against any future 
 disturbance of the peace, another large remedial meas- 
 ure was brought forward. There arose in the town a 
 certain Mr. Fervent Impossiblist, who had long brood- 
 ed over the sad state of its affairs, and had hatched in 
 his brain a simple plan which would not only prevent 
 
182 Patriotism and 
 
 any further riots, but would remove the economic 
 tress which prevailed in most families, and would en- 
 able the whole town to live in greatly increased wealth 
 and comfort and convenience. He called a meeting of 
 the inhabitants, and laid his scheme before them. 
 
 "The condition of this town is a disgrace to human- 
 ity," he declared. "Instead of living in amity and 
 peace amongst ourselves, and striving to make every- 
 body happy and comfortable and prosperous, here we 
 all are, wasting half our energies and half our time in 
 tricking and hindering and swindling each other, in 
 muddling all our civic concerns, and in fighting and dis- 
 abling each other. We have to employ a large body of 
 police to enforce order, and yet we are in constant dread 
 of burglary and depredations. We have to keep all our 
 houses locked and barred, and to pay a heavy insur- 
 ance on our valuables. Yet we are never safe, but live 
 in ceaseless anxiety and alarm about them. Really this 
 gtate of affairs is intolerable." 
 
 These remarks were received with general approval, 
 for certainly the town was in a very unsatisfactory con- 
 dition, and most of the inhabitants were genuinely anx- 
 ious for a radical improvement, especially in their own 
 lots. 
 
 "You oppress and ill-treat your servants," he con- 
 tinued. "In some houses they are lodged in dirty un- 
 healthy rooms, and half starved." 
 
 This was quite true, and drew frantic applause from 
 the servants themselves, for many of them had good 
 reason to think themselves ill-used. And even those 
 who were very well off, and had all reasonable comforts, 
 were quite ready to be convinced that they were shame- 
 fully underpaid and downtrodden. Indeed it was no- 
 
Popular Education 183 
 
 ticed that the loudest cheers for the speaker came from 
 this latter class. 
 
 "Now," said Mr. Fervent Impossiblist, "this state of 
 things must positively cease. All these evils and abuses 
 must be swept away from this time forward." 
 
 There was a shout of wide and hearty agreement. 
 
 "What is the cause of this inequality, injustice, ill- 
 feeling, oppression, disorder, waste', wrangling, and 
 fighting ? It can all be traced to the fact that we live in 
 our own separate homes. This makes us selfish and cal- 
 lous, greedy for our own comfort and prosperity, and 
 for the welfare of our own children, careless of our 
 neighbours' comfort and prosperity, and neglectful of 
 our duties towards our neighbours' children. For in 
 any well regulated society, we should be as zealous for 
 the welfare of our neighbours' children as for the wel- 
 fare of our own, and should work as hard to secure it. 
 How otherwise can Justice and Equality be meted out 
 to everybody, and how otherwise can we all get our 
 Eights?" 
 
 At the sound of the word "Rights," the servants burst 
 into loud and continued cheering. For, as I have said, 
 many of them had been badly treated. Indeed some of 
 them had not long discovered that they had any 
 "Rights," and the mere pronouncement of the simple 
 word "Rights" had the same effect upon them that a 
 strong dose of neat brandy has upon a strict teetotaler. 
 
 "This baleful habit of living in our own separate 
 homes," the speaker went on, "encourages us to take a 
 pride in them, to keep up a large number of servants, 
 and to furnish them in a better style than our neigh- 
 bours can afford. It leads to rivalry and display, and 
 provokes our neighbours in smaller and shabbier houses 
 
184 Patriotism and 
 
 to discontent and envy, and moves them to stir up a 
 town fight that they may get some plunder. And, 
 again, this evil habit of living in separate homes, pre- 
 vents us from mixing freely with our neighbours, from 
 adopting their habits, sympathizing with their aspira- 
 tions, and overcoming our prejudices against their mor- 
 als and complexions. It keeps us from understanding 
 each other, and from forming one large happy family 
 in one large happy home. But above all, this pernicious 
 habit of living in separate houses, is the cause of the 
 great waste of our energies and resources, and of the 
 consequent economic distress that prevails throughout 
 the town. For it forces us to keep up forty-six different 
 establishments, each with its own set of servants, who 
 have to provide forty-six separate services of meals, and 
 perform a vast amount of drudgery " (There was a 
 buzz of approbation from the servants, which grew into 
 ringing cheers) "Drudgery that would be quite un- 
 necessary if we were all members of one large house- 
 hold." 
 
 The excitement among the servants increased. The 
 plan that Mr. Fervent Impossiblist proposed appeared 
 so desirable to them, that without waiting for him to 
 disclose any further particulars, they began to form 
 groups to discuss how they could put it into immediate 
 execution. 
 
 "Now I propose," continued the orator, "to make a 
 clean sweep of all this prejudice and misunderstand- 
 ing between different families, all this quite unnecessary 
 envy and hatred and greed, all this ill-usage of servants, 
 all this economic waste and misery I propose to abol- 
 ish it all from this time forth. Let us pull down these 
 rotten old tenements, these nests of family pride and 
 selfishness, these breeding places of jealousy and covet- 
 
Popular Education 185 
 
 ousness and strife, these nurseries of intrigue and am- 
 bition, these a,hodes of tyranny, these haunts of domes- 
 tic oppression " 
 
 A frenzied shout of applause rose from the throats 
 of the servants. 
 
 "Let us raze them to the ground !" 
 
 Some of the servants started off to find hammers and 
 other instruments of destruction. 
 
 "Let us build one large brand new home for us all to 
 live in, with every comfort and convenience for each 
 one of us, with one large table for us all to partake of 
 our meals in common, one large kitchen to cook for us 
 all, one large bath-room for those of us who may be 
 disposed to use it, one large fireside for us all to gather 
 round in the evening. And as for servants, let us all 
 wait upon one another " 
 
 This was enough. All the discontented folk of the 
 town, and these formed the great majority, rushed off 
 to ransack and destroy their neighbours' houses. 
 
 While Mr. Fervent Impossiblist was explaining his 
 plan to some of the citizens who were a little doubtful 
 as to its feasibility, and were pressing him for further 
 details, a raging mob had begun to batter down the 
 strongest and most substantial buildings in the main 
 street. The riot lasted for several days and nights, and 
 was the most furious and bloody and destructive that 
 the town had ever known. For as I have said, and must 
 repeat, many of the servants had been badly treated and 
 oppressed, and all of them were determined to get their 
 Rights. And this general sense of being ill-used and 
 kept out of their Rights, had fostered in them a hatred 
 of the very walls and furniture of the houses where they 
 had suffered, and where many of them had been born 
 and had lived all their lives. Indeed most of them 
 
186 Patriotism and 
 
 supposed that the walls and furniture were in some 
 way largely accountable for their sufferings. They 
 therefore derived great satisfaction from wreaking their 
 vengeance upon the scenes and implements of their 
 servitude. And when once they had become inflamed 
 with the lust of destruction, they did not limit their ac- 
 tivities to the walls and furniture that had offended 
 them, but continued to batter and demolish everything 
 that came within their reach, leaving not a post stand- 
 ing upright, or one brick cemented to another. Nor 
 did they cease till the town was half wrecked, and till 
 all the stores of food in it had been consumed. 
 
 There followed many months of the greatest disorder, 
 misery, and privation for all the people in the town, of 
 all classes. And unfortunately it was the servants who 
 suffered the most, and endured the worst ills. For it 
 afterwards came to light, that at an early stage in the 
 meeting, many of the cunning well-to-do people, fore- 
 seeing trouble and disturbance ahead, had sneaked away 
 to their homes, and had stolen thence as much food, 
 and as many of the necessaries of life, as they could lay 
 hands upon, and had hidden them in various places 
 against the time when they might be in want. This was 
 a very unsociable proceeding on their part. Nor could 
 they offer any better defence for it, than the paltry ex- 
 cuse that they did not wish to starve. However it served 
 to tide many of them over the time of cruel want and 
 misery that followed the riot, and that lasted for months 
 after it had been quelled; whereas the servants, being 
 left without any resources, suffered extreme privations, 
 and many of them perished miserably. 
 
 After some months of the greatest general disturb- 
 ance, the town settled down into comparative peace and 
 orderly life. Those families whose houses had not been 
 
Popular Education 187 
 
 demolished or irreparably damaged, returned to occupy 
 them, and to make the repairs necessary to render them 
 once more habitable. Some of the families who found 
 themselves homeless, became the servants of their more 
 fortunate neighbours. A few of the servants, who had 
 seized the houses and goods of their masters during the 
 riot, stoutly defended themselves in their stolen prop- 
 erties; and as they could not be ejected without great 
 further disturbance, they were allowed to remain in 
 possession. It was noticed that these upstarts showed 
 themselves to be more overbearing and tyrannical than 
 the masters whom they had displaced. 
 
 But for a long while, the whole town lived in great 
 discomfort and poverty and misery. Much useful and 
 valuable property had been destroyed, and many beau- 
 tiful pieces of old furniture had been broken to pieces. 
 The various families lived in separate houses, much as 
 they had done before the riot. But as general distrust 
 and ill-feeling had been engendered, there was much 
 less kindness and sociability and forbearance in the 
 general intercourse of the town. On the whole, the 
 condition of things for some years was incomparably 
 much worse than it had ever been. 
 
 Mr. Fervent Impossiblist continued to point out to 
 the misguided community, that thisi atmosphere of 
 quarrreleameness, and the consequent jarrings that 
 arose in all their dealings, were due to the folly and per- 
 versity of the various families who, in spite of his 
 warnings, would still persist in living in separate 
 homes, instead of forming one large united household 
 under one roof. N"or did he cease to urge his fellow 
 citizens to break up their exclusive habits, and adopt, 
 his scheme, as the only cure for the social abuses and 
 economic evils that afflicted the town. 
 
188 Patriotism and 
 
 Does anyone suppose that if Mr. Fervent Impos- 
 siblist had succeeded in building his brand new town 
 home, and had persuaded all of the citizens to inhabit 
 it does anyone suppose that there would not have been 
 far more bitterness, disorder, strife, and brawling 
 amongst them, than when they lived in their own homes, 
 or that in less than twenty-four hours the place would 
 not have been a raging pandemonium ? 
 
 Does anyone suppose that the various nations of the 
 earth, in their present stages of development, with their 
 irreconcilable diversities of all kinds, can live peace- 
 ably under some artificial form of unified central gov- 
 ernment, where supreme power will presumably be 
 lodged in the hands of a mixed Committee? Does 
 anyone suppose that such a state of world civilization 
 can be realized, or even that any approach can be made 
 towards it, until four-fifths of us have changed our 
 rooted habits and propensities, our ways of living and 
 thinking, our social and moral standards, our religious 
 beliefs, our facial angles, and our complexions? 
 
 Internationalists will doubtless say that they do 
 not at present propose to establish a unified central gov- 
 ernment that will arrange and direct the world's affairs. 
 There are many degrees and kinds of Internationalism. 
 The term covers widely differing sets of opinions. If 
 its discordant votaries were pressed to give a strict defi- 
 nition of its meaning, most of them would probably re- 
 ply with the unquestioned authority of Humpty Dump- 
 ty himself, "When I use a word, it means exactly what 
 I choose it to mean no more and no less." 
 
 These varying sects of Internationalists are more 
 or less allied, and are in some cases identical, with 
 varying and discordant sects of revolutionary Social- 
 ists. The general scheme and aim of them all, so far 
 

 Popular Education 189 
 
 as it can be discovered and stated in one compact for- 
 mula, is to gain increasing control and management of 
 International relations and transactions, and gradually 
 to sap and supplant the established governments of the 
 world, by making them subject in all their foreign af- 
 fairs to a supreme central tribunal, elected by the pre- 
 ponderant vote of the working classes of all the peoples.. 
 If that is not their general scheme and aim, will Inter- 
 nationalists tell us what clear, practicable, constructive 
 world plan they have in their minds, and by what prac- 
 ticable means they propose to carry it out? For the 
 moment, and until I can make a further examination, 
 I will use the term "Internationalism" to signify a defi- 
 nite purpose to attain the two objectives I have marked 
 out. And I will assume that the various sects of Inter- 
 nationalists are so far united, as to recognize that they 
 are working to reach these two objectives. 
 
 Probably a great majority of them suppose that this 
 vast unification of human society can be brought about 
 by peaceable methods ; or at worst that it will be attend- 
 ed by a quite inconsiderable amount of actual fighting. 
 Surely of all the delusions that have possessed mankind, 
 this is the grossest and most dangerous. So far as In- 
 ternationalism has been operative, it has everywhere 
 shown itself to be the agent of confusion, disintegration, 
 hatred, strife, anarchy, and bloodshed. 
 
 This must necessarily be so. Every social structure 
 that has proved itself strong enough to shelter a nation, 
 and to preserve it from internal disruption and external 
 assault, has its foundations laid deep down in past his- 
 tory, and each of its successive stories has been built 
 to suit the necessities, habits, industrial activities, men- 
 tal and moral capacities, and religious beliefs of that 
 particular nation. Internationalism strikes athwart all 
 
190 Patriotism and 
 
 these structures, cracks their walls, shakes their stabil- 
 ity, and aims at pulling them down, obliterating all their 
 divisions and boundaries, and reducing them all to one 
 common level. 
 
 I do not say that in some far remote future, Nature 
 may not people this planet with one pure race of wise 
 and perfect men. I do not say that Nature is not busy 
 even now considering the advisability of such a wholly 
 beneficial change, and that She is not even now perhaps 
 preparing the earth for the ultimate occupation of such 
 a race. I do not know what plans Nature has got in her 
 head. Therefore the spirit of prophecy is not upon me. 
 
 I do know full surely, that in no early or approximate 
 period of time, can any effective system of International 
 Government be firmly and lastingly established over 
 mankind, without great and wide confiscation, disorder, 
 misery amongst all classes, especially amongst the poor- 
 est, prolonged destruction and anarchy, and the shedding 
 of torrents of blood, compared with which the stream 
 that is now flowing might be a mere rivulet. They are 
 blind self-deceivers who think that, in the present dis- 
 position of the peoples, or in any near future disposition 
 of the peoples, the efforts of revolutionary International- 
 ism will lead us to Peace. If a long untroubled course 
 of Peace is what we are seeking, let us not pursue it 
 through the mazes of Internationalism, everywhere beset 
 with thorns, and ambushes, and snares, and ignes fatui, 
 and the lurking bandits of civilization. 
 
 There are many Internationalists who openly pro- 
 claim that they seek to destroy the whole fabric of so- 
 ciety, by making ceaseless and violent war upon it. And 
 there are weltering masses of mankind who are ready to 
 listen to them, and to join them in pillage and massa- 
 cre, on the chance of plundering something from the 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 191 
 
 wreck. Anarchy cannot be met by argument. It lias 
 to be shot down, or allowed to shoot itself down. And 
 this primary duty to society, and to itself, it always per- 
 forms, sooner or later. 
 
 But the large body of Internationalists are averse 
 from actual warfare. They imagine that they can attain 
 their ends by a gradual peaceful usurpation of diplo- 
 matic functions and the powers of foreign legislation, 
 leading to the gradual absorption of existing govern- 
 ments. Many Internationalists are Pacifists who con- 
 demn all war as unlawful and unnecessary. Yet some 
 of the most confirmed Pacifists show the warmest sym- 
 pathy with the wildest forms of class warfare and an- 
 archy. It is strange that men who shudder at the mere 
 mention of war between nations, and who have villified 
 the most righteous cause for which men have ever bled 
 it is strange that these turbulent pettifoggers should 
 encourage a blind and furious hatred between classes, 
 which, so far as it is kept alive and inflamed to action, 
 can but break into sporadic recurrent warfare, ending 
 in the establishment of the cruellest forms of universal 
 militarism. For the soldier always has to be called in at 
 the last. And it is difficult to get rid of him. 
 
 No doubt the great majority of Internationalists 
 strongly deprecate any such united action by their as- 
 sociated groups in different countries, as would provoke 
 an outbreak of war. They imagine that the tremendous 
 transition from Patriotic to International Government 
 can be brought about by voting for it that is, by con- 
 vincing the working classes, who form the great body 
 of the electorate in each nation, that their interests are 
 identical with the interests of the working classes in 
 all the other nations, and are opposed to the interests of 
 all the other classes in all the other nations. 
 
192 Patriotism and 
 
 Is this true ? 
 
 Germany affirms that the present war was inevitable, 
 and was brought about because of the constant and in- 
 creasing collision between the economic and commercial 
 interests of England and Germany. How far this may 
 have been a contributory cause of the war, we need not 
 stay to inquire. If the economic and commercial in- 
 terests of England and Germany were opposed, as un- 
 questionably they were, then the main interests of the 
 working classes in each country must have been opposed ; 
 for the welfare of the working classes depends wholly 
 upon economic and commercial conditions in each coun- 
 try. That, before the war, there was a. fundamental and 
 deadly antagonism between the vital interests of the 
 working classes of England and Germany, is abundant- 
 ly proved by the evidence that if Germany had not pro- 
 voked the war, and had been content to pursue her can- 
 cerous system of peaceful penetration, she would in ten 
 or twenty years have gained control of the most profit- 
 able industries, and of the chief markets of the world. 
 English working men would have been pushed into the 
 less desirable and less lucrative occupations, would have 
 multiplied in dwindling numbers compared with Ger- 
 man working men, and would have suffered grievous dis- 
 advantages from these dominant competitors. Undoubt- 
 edly this state of increasing enmity of vital interests and 
 social welfare between English and German working 
 men did really exist before the war. Yet all the time 
 English working men were being urged to make a com- 
 mon cause with the good faithful Scheidemann and his 
 friends against their common enemy, the capitalist. 
 
 But who has proved to be the real enemy ? 
 
 And who will prove to be real enemies of the working 
 men of each country in the still fiercer commercial war- 
 
Popular Education 193 
 
 fare of the next generation ? Will it be the capitalists 
 of their own country, or those working men of other 
 countries who are competing with them for the neces- 
 saries of existence, the most desirable employments, and 
 the easiest conditions of living ? 
 
 There is, indeed, a very real opposition between the 
 interests of the capitalist and the working man in any 
 trade; and in that ceaseless struggle to obtain the high- 
 est reward for his labour, the greatest comfort for him- 
 self and his family, the largest openings for social ad- 
 vancement so far as all these are consistent with the 
 stability and high civilization of the State in this most 
 just and most laudable endeavour to alleviate in every 
 way possible the hardships of his sharp-set life, I am 
 entirely in sympathy with the working man. 
 
 But is it not becoming every day more plain, that 
 while the interests of the working man and the capitaf- 
 ist in any country are opposed when they have to bar- 
 gain with each other, their interests are mutual and 
 identical when they have to bargain together against 
 the competing working men and capitalists of other 
 countries? And the affairs and transactions in which 
 the working men and capitalists of any trade have a 
 fellowship and solidarity of interest, are of much greater 
 magnitude and importance than the domestic affairs 
 and transactions in which their interests are opposed. 
 It is obvious that the first main interest of both work- 
 ing man and capitalist, is to keep alive and flourishing 
 that business upon which they both depend the work- 
 ing man far more than the capitalist, who probably has 
 other resources. The fair division of the profits arising 
 from that business must always be a matter of secondary, 
 importance to them both, compared with the supreme 
 necessity of keeping it going as a prosperous concern. 
 
194 Patriotism and 
 
 For if the business languishes and perishes, they both 
 languish and perish the working man certainly, the 
 capitalist unless he has made other provision. It is the 
 working man who is most accessible to the assaults of 
 misfortune, always and everywhere. No juggling with 
 social and political economy will ever alter this fact. 
 And seeing how easily accessible to misfortune our work- 
 ing classes are, how every national mistake and calam- 
 ity are in the end visited chiefly and most harshly upon 
 them, it is of the first importance that we should dis- 
 cern where their true interests lie, and how they may 
 best be secured. 
 
 It is for the working classes of our own Empire that 
 I am concerned. They are right in looking upon the 
 capitalists of their own country as their enemies, so far 
 as the capitalists are neglectful of them, and bent upon 
 "exploiting" them merely for profit. They are wrong in 
 looking upon the capitalists of their own country, even 
 at the worst, as their chief enemies. The inevitable con- 
 flict of interests between the working men and capital- 
 ists in each industry in each country, is a minor an- 
 tagonism compared with their mutual conflict of inter- 
 ests with the interests of competing working men and 
 capitalists in the same industry in other countries. It 
 is to the perception of this essential permanent com- 
 munity of interest between the capitalists and the work- 
 ing men in each of our industries, that we must look for 
 the liquidation of our enormous national debt, and for 
 the gradual return to our former prosperity and easy 
 means of livelihood. 
 
 Surely if the war has taught us anything, it has 
 taught us that the stability and welfare of the State is 
 the chief interest of us all. Now Internationalism not 
 only strikes athwart and splits asunder the social struc- 
 

 Popular Education 195 
 
 ture of eacli country in its diplomatic and foreign re- 
 lations; it also strikes athwart and splits asunder the 
 social structure of each country in its economic and 
 commercial relations. It works to bring confusion and 
 strife into all our internal activities, and commercial 
 disadvantage into all our dealings with other countries. 
 If the masses of our people are taught that they owe 
 their chief allegiance to a nebulous International State 
 which does not exist; which in no discernible period 
 of time is likely to exist; which, as the world is now 
 constituted, cannot be brought into existence without a 
 long intervening reign of anarchy and bloodshed; and 
 which in the meantime can offer them no better se- 
 curity and protection than is afforded by rhetoric and 
 phrases and false idealisms if the masses of our peo- 
 ples are taught this as the first article of their political 
 creed, how can they be good citizens of their own coun- 
 try, and fulfil their duties to the State which does ac- 
 tually give them security and protection, and this in 
 the measure to which they render it their undivided 
 allegiance and support, and in the measure that it is 
 firmly established, not in the void, but on this actual 
 earth ; standing on its own basis ; compact with its own 
 limits; a social structure, strong and enduring because 
 it is distinct from all other social structures rather, 
 shall we say, a living social organism, capable of carry- 
 ing on its internal and external functions, capable of 
 growth and development, because it is distinct from all 
 other living social organisms? 
 
 Here I feel bound to make a handsome concession 
 to Internationalists, and frankly to own that each of 
 them would be right in a world of his own making, and 
 that in such a world his advice and direction would be 
 of enormous benefit to the entire population. But I 
 
196 -Patriotism and 
 
 am now writing of the actual world in which we live, 
 and not of our vast new inheritance, where large de- 
 licious omelettes will grow on every tree, and where all 
 other desirable things will he provided for us hy similar 
 methods. 
 
 Russia is now offering us an example of practical 
 Internationalism in full working disorder. The avowed 
 aims of Internationalists were proclaimed in Russia on 
 the fall of the Czar to destroy aggressive military pow- 
 er hy talking to it ; to clear the earth of dark upas trees 
 of race hatred, national jealousy and ambition, by plant- 
 ing buttercups and daisies round their roots; to quell 
 the greedy impulses and predatory instincts of the mul- 
 tiplying millions of mankind, by telling them that all 
 is legally theirs that they choose to take; and having 
 by these means brought about a state of universal har- 
 mony and prosperity, to ensure its continuance by deal- 
 ing out equal coupons of happiness to everybody. 
 
 This was what Internationalism set out to do in Rus- 
 sia. What it has really done is to give to everybody 
 an equal right to plunder everybody else, and an equal 
 right to cut anybody's throat. So far have International 
 principles prevailed in securing equality of opportunity 
 in Russia. Is it not evident that the government of 
 the Czar, foul and detestable as it was, did yet offer far 
 greater protection and comfort, and far better cond- 
 tions of living to the Russian people; that it was im- 
 measurably less corrupt, less cruel, less tyrannical, less 
 bereft of political instinct, less madly subversive of all 
 the foundations of human society ? 
 
 But Internationalists hailed the advent of Bolshe- 
 vism with great joy. Mr. H. G. Wells said it was "our 
 duty and an urgent necessity to get a grip upon the 
 situation." He set out to get a grip upon the situa- 
 

 Popular Education 197 
 
 tion. When he had got a grip upon the situation, he 
 came to the conclusion that the Bolshevists were 
 "straight" ; that they were "prohahly honest" (they had 
 just repudiated their national debt) ; that they were 
 "shining clear" ; that they were "profoundly wise," in- 
 deed, "altogether wiser and plainer than our own 
 rulers." He declared that their aims were the same as 
 our own. He was of opinion that their "mental and 
 moral methods against German militarism might prove 
 more powerful than the military method." He claimed 
 that Bolshevist diplomacy was altogether superior to 
 our muddling Foreign Office dilettantism, the Bolshe- 
 vists being "much better educated" than our own diplo- 
 matists, who wore "ignorant and limited" men, "crudely 
 ignorant of the world of modern ideas" ; whereas the 
 Bolshevist leaders were "intimately acquainted with the 
 Labour movement, with social and economic questions, 
 and with almost everything that really mattered in real 
 politics." The Bolshevists were working their end so 
 well, that Mr. Wells urged us to consider the advisa- 
 bility of a systematic co-operation with them in their 
 "profoundly wise" policy. Thus did Mr. Wells get a 
 grip upon the situation in Russia. 
 
 Can human imagination conceive our plight to-day, 
 if our rulers had followed Mr. Wells' s advice, and had 
 incorporated the cause of the Allies with that filthy mass 
 of corruption, fraud, massacre, disease, and anarchy 
 which now festers in the vitals of the Russian people? 
 How thankful we may be that our Foreign Office is 
 filled with limited, ignorant, uneducated men, who, not 
 possessing Mr. Wells' s "clarity," and being "crudely ig- 
 norant" in Mr. Wells's "world of modern ideas," could 
 not get a grip upon the situation. 
 
 But Mr. Wells claims that his Internationalist Bol- 
 
198 Patriotism and 
 
 shevist friends are intimately acquainted with "social 
 and economic questions, and indeed with almost every- 
 thing that really matters in real politics." The Bol- 
 shevists estimated the national expenditure for their 
 first six months at 2,450,000,000 about five thousand 
 millions for the year. This is what comes of being 
 "intimately acquainted with social and economic ques- 
 tions." And nobody knew where the money had gone ! 
 In the "world of modern ideas" it seems that "every- 
 thing that really matters in real politics" is for every- 
 body to fill his pockets with as much public money as 
 he can lay his hands on. 
 
 We notice with some alarm that a knowledge of "so- 
 cial and economic questions" is spreading amongst our 
 own masses, and that they also are rapidly becoming 
 "intimately acquainted with everything that really mat- 
 ters in real politics." With such startling evidence, as 
 is afforded by Russian Internationalists, of the disaster 
 that attends the study of social and economic questions 
 in Mr. Wells' s "world of modern ideas," I implore you 
 sir, to forbid all such study in our English schools, and 
 to substitute a prolonged study of the sixth, eighth, and 
 tenth commandments, and of their effects upon man- 
 kind. There seems to be some reason for suspecting 
 that, in the present state of our affairs, the command- 
 ments would offer a more profitable course of study 
 than social and economic questions. For the command- 
 ments have proved their value in guiding and keeping, 
 in some sort of order, those communities that have prac- 
 tised them during some thousands of years; whereas 
 the study of social and economic questions "in a world 
 of modern ideas" has proved to be ruinous to a great 
 Empire in six months. I am sure you will agree with 
 me, sir, that no country in the long run suffers an eco- 
 
Popular Education 199 
 
 nomic injury from a scrupulous observance of the sixth, 
 eighth, and tenth commandments. At any rate, let us 
 take care to be well grounded in these commandments 
 before we begin to study social economic questions. 
 For here again we are forcibly reminded that it is by 
 the practice of great, simple, ancient rules of conduct, 
 rather than by the diffusion of Mr. Wells 7 s modern 
 ideas, that nations wax great and strong, and show 
 themselves invulnerable to external assault and internal 
 decay. 
 
 Having got a grip upon the situation in Russia, Mr. 
 Wells next proceeded to get a grip upon the situation 
 in Africa. This was not a task of great difficulty ; for 
 fifteen days after he had invited us to back up Inter- 
 nationalism in Russia, Mr. Wells invited us to set up 
 Internationalism all over Africa. What had proved so 
 salutary for benighted Russia, would be also salutary for 
 benighted Africa. 
 
 We remember that the eminent physician, Sangrado, 
 had but one medicine for all diseases hot water. When 
 an epidemic came, and all his patients died, he still 
 stuck to hot water. In vain did Gil Bias suggest to him 
 that, as all the patients were dying, it might be ad- 
 visable to give them a chance of recovery by trying some 
 other remedy. Sangrado replied that he would will- 
 ingly change his treatment, but that he had written a 
 book to prove that hot water was the correct specific 
 for all diseases. He could not be expected to stultify 
 himself, merely because his patients were dying un- 
 der his hot-water treatment. Mr. Wells has written so 
 much to prove that International hot water is the pan- 
 acea for all political diseases, that he can scarcely be 
 expected to change his treatment, merely because it has 
 disastrous effects in all countries where it is tried. At 
 
200 Patriotism and 
 
 any rate, fortified by the spectacle of what Interna- 
 tionalism had accomplished in Russia, Mr. Wells pro- 
 duced a brai.d new International constitution for the 
 whole continent of Africa, 
 
 I do not know much about Africa, except that there 
 are large numbers of black people in the middle of it. 
 I cannot pretend to say what medicine would be best 
 suited to their political diseases. Mr. Wells proposes 
 International hot water. He would put the entire popu- 
 lation of the Continent under an International Com- 
 mission, in which the interested nations, Africander, 
 British, Belgian, Egyptian, French, Italian, Indian, 
 Portuguese, would be represented in proportion to their 
 interests. Whether Germany would come in, is for Ger- 
 many to consider. Given a new spirit in Germany, Mr. 
 Wells would restore the German flag in East Africa. 
 Leaving Germany to consider whether she would like to 
 return to East Africa, and feeling sure that she will 
 readily oblige Mr. Wells and get a new spirit for the 
 ocoasion leaving this question, we may ask who is to 
 say, even roughly, what are the respective proportions 
 of the interests of all the other nations? How is this 
 very thorny question to be decided ? By voting, or by 
 fighting? These are the only two methods by which 
 large conflicting interests can be settled. And though 
 voting is the method which we all greatly prefer, there 
 always comes a time, sooner or later, when voting does 
 not settle vital interests that are in permanent conflict, 
 but only complicates them the more. And then the sol- 
 dier has to be called in which is what we all wish to 
 avoid. Does not Mr. Wells see that the mere attempt 
 to settle what proportion of interests each nation ha8 
 in Africa, and what amount of representation on his 
 Committee should be allotted to each of them, is beset 
 
Popular Education 201 
 
 with provocations to International strife? That is, 
 it tends to cause the very evil that he would set up his 
 Commission to prevent. 
 
 But granting that his Commission could be amicably 
 constituted, what are the chances that it would work 
 successfully, and secure the peaceful development of 
 Africa without constant International friction? Mr. 
 Wells would permit the French flag still to wave over 
 Senegal, and the British flag to wave over Uganda, 
 while, in the sweet by-and-by, the German flag may 
 wave over East Africa. So much deference would Mr. 
 Wells pay to the various flags. He would allow them 
 to wave, and perhaps occasionally to flap. Presumably 
 this would be an honorary and ornamental occupation 
 for the flags. Their business would be to wave and 
 flap. For the supreme authority in Africa would be 
 vested in Mr. Wells's International Commission. 
 
 Now a national flag is itself the symbol of supreme 
 authority. When the Union Jack flies over a district, 
 it is a notice that all the military and naval power, and 
 all the resources of the British Empire will, if neces- 
 sary, be employed to resist any challenge to that su- 
 preme authority. The British flag has not braved the 
 battle and the breeze for a thousand years, has not hung 
 in the smoke of Trafalgar, and soared in the glare of 
 Delhi and signalled beneficent rule and protection and 
 prosperous order to the inhabitants of a quarter of the 
 globe it has not done this in the past to be condemned 
 henceforth to flutter idly in the circumambient air, and 
 flirt with the passing zephyrs. Yet this is the function 
 that Mr. Wells assigns to the British flag in his Afri- 
 can constitution. 
 
 Does he say that he would allow it some measure of 
 authority, and some privileges, in the regions over which 
 
202 Patriotism and 
 
 it waves and flaps? How much authority and what 
 privileges ? Would Mr. Wells allow it a small measure 
 of authority, a few privileges, and very limited powers 
 of jurisdiction ? Then he makes the British flag ridicu- 
 lous in our own colonies. Would he allow it a large 
 measure of authority, many privileges, and large powers 
 of jurisdiction? Then he brings the British flag into 
 constant collision with the supreme authority of his 
 Commission. Who is to define what privileges, what 
 scope of action, what measure of authority, are to be 
 permitted to the British Government in the administra- 
 tion of our African possessions? Mr. Wells would 
 doubtless reply that this must be left to the decision 
 of his Commission. Surely he must see that the mere 
 attempt to arrive at any workable agreement would scat- 
 ter his Commission to the winds. 
 
 But Mr. Wells himself goes on to expose the mis- 
 chievous impracticability of his proposed constitution 
 for Africa, by likening it to the constitution of the 
 United States. The stability of the United States gov- 
 ernment is assured by the national flag which floats over 
 them all, and has equal authority over them all. The 
 Stars and Stripes does not merely wave and flap over 
 America in submission to the rulings of an Interna- 
 tional Commission, and alongside half-a-dozen other 
 languid strips of bunting. The lively, vigorous Stars 
 and Stripes waves to some purpose at Washington. It 
 means business. It binds all the people of the different 
 States in the defence of their country, and gives them 
 all equal protection against external assault, because 
 they are all equally citizens of that country, and have 
 common national interests, which are in many ways op 
 posed to the interests of other nations. 
 
 Mr. Wells' s African constitution would be unstable, 
 
Popular Education 203 
 
 because the inhabitants of its different States would not 
 be united under one supreme centralized government, 
 as are the people of the United States at Washington ; 
 would not live under one common national flag giving 
 them equal protection as citizens of one common coun- 
 try, having national interests in common. They would 
 not be united in the common defence of their posses- 
 sions, or probably about anything at all. Mr. Wells'a 
 analogy is not merely transparently false; it proves, 
 most aptly and absolutely, the radical unsoundness and 
 impracticability of his whole scheme; and incidentally 
 of all kindred schemes for the International govern- 
 ment of diverse races and peoples. I will credit Mr. 
 Wells with the perspicacity to recognize this very ol> 
 vious fact. 
 
 In any case, Mr. Wells would set up a divided au- 
 thority all over Africa, than which no form of govern- 
 ment could be more unstable, more certain to provoke 
 irritation, confusion, and strife. Internationalism 
 would be found again to bring forth its natural fruits, 
 as soon as it attempted to claim supreme authority. And 
 sooner or later, the soldier would have to be called in 
 which is what we all wish to avoid. 
 
 I am far from saying that temporary international 
 commissions, with strictly defined, quite limited, and 
 quite subordinate powers, might not be beneficially ap- 
 pointed to report upon, and perhaps to take action, in 
 certain sanitary, medical, and other matters, wherein 
 all the nations, and all the inhabitants of Africa have a 
 common interest. But this is a very different thing 
 from a permanent surrender of all the main functions 
 of government to a super-potent International Commis- 
 sion, such as Mr. Wells proposes to establish. 
 
 Meantime I beseech Mr. Wells, for the sake of the 
 
204 Patriotism and 
 
 native populations, for the sake of the peaceful devel- 
 opment of the dark continent, and above all, for the 
 sake of his own reputation as a political thinker, to 
 leave the international affairs of Africa in the hands 
 of our diplomatists at the Foreign Office. It is true 
 that, unlike his Bolshevist friends, they have often 
 shown themselves to be not "profoundly wise." Oc- 
 casionally they have made mistakes, as we must all sor- 
 rowfully acknowledge. It is true that they are "lim- 
 ited, uneducated" persons, compared with the present 
 rulers of Russia, who "know all about social and eco- 
 nomic questions," and who in all other matters are ab- 
 solutely "beyond the limit." It is true again, that our 
 diplomatists have not Mr. Wells's "clarity" of judg- 
 ment, and that they have a different standard of "prob- 
 able honesty" from that erected by the Soviets. Our 
 Foreign Office officials are guilty of all these deficien^ 
 cies. But they have the immense advantage of being 
 "crudely ignorant" in Mr. Wells' s "world of modern 
 ideas." And this of itself is a high qualification for 
 handling affairs in any part of the globe. 
 
 I am, however, a little dubious about asking Mr. 
 Wells to relax his grip upon the situation in Africa. 
 For, with his passion for getting grips upon situations, 
 no continent is safe from his superintendence. He may 
 next tighten his grasp upon Europe, and stretch it over 
 Asia, and South America, and the Solomon Islands 
 so named, I believe, because the inhabitants are wise 
 enough to devote themselves exclusively to the study of 
 the Book of Proverbs, and to eschew social and economic 
 questions, and what goes on in "the world of modern 
 ideas." It follows from this, that most of them are even 
 more "limited and uneducated," more "crudely ignor- 
 ant" than our Foreign Office Staff. Indeed the Solo- 
 
Popular Education 205 
 
 mon Islanders know next to nothing of "what really 
 matters in real politics." The Solomon Islands would 
 therefore appear to offer Mr. Wells a situation full of 
 possibilities, and I am apprehensive that he may be 
 tempted to get his next grip upon them. And I feel 
 sure he will again prescribe International hot water as 
 a remedy for their social evils. 
 
 We all remember how delightfully Mr. Wells pro- 
 phesied to us about machines, and how vividly he fore- 
 told the war in the air. Would that he had remained 
 content with prophesying about machines! Unfor- 
 tunately he went on to prophesy about mankind. Now 
 machines offer a relatively safe subject to prophesy 
 about, for, within rather wide limits, they may be 
 trusted to behave in a manner that approaches to the 
 design of their constructor. But mankind are not so 
 docile as machines. I know not what may have been the 
 design of the Constructor of mankind, but I am some- 
 times driven to question whether mankind are behaving 
 in strict accordance with it. The behaviour of machines 
 is tolerably consistent, but the behaviour of mankind is 
 obstinately erratic, and tragically baffling. For this 
 reason, mankind are a very risky and elusive subject 
 for prophecy, and Mr. Wells may well be excused if 
 he sometimes goes astray in his predictions about them. 
 
 I cannot, however, agree with Mr. Archibald Spof- 
 forth, who, in his recently published "Noted English 
 Seers," places Mr. Wells rather below Old Moore in the 
 rank of prophets. It may be true, as Mr. Spofforth 
 argues, that Old Moore has lately been more success- 
 ful in making lucky shots at futurity. But this is due, 
 not so much to his professional skill in prophecy, as to 
 mere chance; and Mr. Wells, who, it must be owned, 
 has been a litttle unfortunate in his recent premonstra- 
 
206 Patriotism and 
 
 tions, may confidently look to the law of averages to 
 put him on a level with Old Moore in this respect. We 
 must also remember that Old Moore has been longer 
 in the business than Mr. Wells, and may well have 
 profited from his many past failures to make events 
 tally with his predictions. Under one of his hiero- 
 glyphics for 1919, the elder prophet cautiously remarks, 
 "Old Moore does not say that what we see in the pic- 
 ture will be brought about." This modest and judi- 
 cious attitude towards his own prognostications, is one 
 that might be imitated by most prophets with great ad* 
 vantage to their reputations. Would that all our social 
 prophets had the wisdom and candour of Old Moore, 
 and an equal courage to avow that what they fondly 
 dream may not be realized ! 
 
 Vagueness and wiliness are, I take it, the chief neces- 
 sary qualities for any one who sets up as a prophet, and 
 Mr. Wells is a little lacking in both these prime requi- 
 sites for successful augury. However this may be, I 
 cannot but think that Mr. Spoiforth, in his lengthy com- 
 parison of these two noted English seers, has done Mr. 
 Wells an injustice when he estimates him as being, on 
 the whole, rather less trustworthy in dealing with 
 world-problems than Old Moore. I am convinced that 
 Time will vindicate Mr. Wells, and that he will finally 
 be adjudged a position amongst the major prophets, no 
 less worthy, dignified, renowned, and unassailable, than 
 that occupied by Old Moore. 
 
 When we come to the matter of style and method, it 
 must be conceded that Mr. Wells cannot compete with 
 Old Moore in the management of majestic imagery, and 
 flamboyant zoology. I have a weakness for gorgeous 
 symbolism in prophecy. I doat upon scarlet ladies of 
 
Popular Education 207 
 
 Babylon who frolic with seven-headed beasts; upon 
 great red dragons with crowns on their heads, who stand 
 waiting to devour newly-born babes ; upon chimeras with 
 four faces, who go upon four sides, with wheels full of 
 eyes; upon bears whose ribs are in their mouths and 
 who joust with four-headed winged leopards while other 
 strange creatures with freakish and superfluous horns 
 butt into the fray the whole menagerie forming a kind 
 of sacred jig-saw puzzle for the edification of devout 
 theological amateurs ; who, after enormous pains in put- 
 ting the pieces together, find that it turns out to mean 
 exactly what they wish it to mean. This is the only 
 kind of prophecy that has met with any great success in 
 foreshadowing large world-movements and events. Ten 
 to one, something or somebody will come along to justify 
 our forecast, if we only make it sufficiently obscure, and 
 wait long enough. 
 
 If Mr. Wells has anything profound to tell us about 
 the future of Bolshevism, or Africa, or the Solomon 
 Islands, cannot we persuade him to adopt this approved 
 method of prophecy? It offers so many chances of 
 hedging, if the prophet finds he has made a mistake. 
 Better still, remembering with gratitude his shrewd and 
 penetrating studies of character in "Tono-Bungay" and 
 "Mr. Polly," and the many other brilliant and delight- 
 ful things that have come from his pen, cannot we per- 
 suade him to doff his tattered mantle of prophetic In- 
 ternationalism, and relate to us some history of the 
 English men and women whom he knows so well? I 
 have every sympathy with his prophetic impulses. In- 
 deed, I have prophetic impulses myself, as I fear is too 
 evident. But future events being so capricious, I try 
 to restrict myself to that less showy kind of prophecy, 
 
208 Patriotism and 
 
 which hazards a conjecture, that astronomical and other 
 conditions being favourable, the sun will rise to-mor- 
 row morning. 
 
 I have examined Mr. Wells's scheme for the Interna- 
 tional government of Africa with some circumspection, 
 not because there is the least danger of its being adopted 
 by our statesmen, but because it exhibits the defects and 
 fallacies of most of these schemes for the International 
 government of mankind. Their common . defect is that 
 they are built in vacuous space, where there are no re- 
 actions, and where many of them hang together well 
 enough. When they are brought down to the solid 
 earth, amongst actual conditions, and are applied to 
 living men and women, they tumble to pieces. 
 
 For instance, when a general settlement is made of 
 African affairs and African territory, surely the South 
 Africans, who have chiefly helped to win for us the Ger- 
 man colonies, will have a large say in the matter. It 
 is they, and not Mr. Wells, who have the right to coun 
 sel British policy in South and Central Africa. Mr. 
 Wells leaves their aims and wishes out of the account. 
 It is convenient for him to ignore them, because they 
 would upset all his plans. Yet, granted even that hia 
 aery scheme were practicable, it could not even be 
 started without the consent and co-operation of our 
 South African empire. Any attempt to internationalize 
 Africa would probably meet with opposition from the 
 South African government, would increase disaffection 
 in that colony, would cause sharp division in the Im- 
 perial councils, and would tend to split to pieces the 
 British Empire. What would it matter if the British 
 Empire were split to pieces, so long as Mr. Wells's 
 plans are not upset? So he brings out his brand-new 
 International constitution and, like most other Inter- 
 
Popular Education 
 
 209 
 
 national projectors, carefully closes his eyes to the ac- 
 tual main facts and conditions. Thus does Mr. Wells 
 get a grip of the situation in Africa. 
 
 The fallacy of most of these International projectors 
 is, that in looking after what they suppose to be the 
 common ultimate interests of all mankind, they forget 
 or ignore that all mankind have separate personal in- 
 terests, and separate national interests. But the ma- 
 jority of mankind will never trouble themselves about 
 the ultimate interests of all mankind, or about anything 
 but their immediate personal interests. Now, these 
 definite, discernible, personal interests are clearly di- 
 vergent from, and are opposed to most of the personal 
 interests of the majority of mankind, and to most of 
 the international interests of mankind. Equally, the 
 main national interests of any people are clearly di- 
 vergent from, and are opposed to, the main national 
 interests of other peoples, and to many international 
 interests. And, as I have already shown, this oppo- 
 sition of interests alternately takes the form of com- 
 mercial conflict, and of actual war. If universal wis- 
 dom and the League of Nations prevail, and war ceases 
 from this time forth, then commercial warfare will be 
 all the more fierce and deadly. And the victims of com- 
 mercial warfare in the past, from tuberculosis and other 
 diseases, and from toil, oppression, and starvation, if 
 they could be counted, would immensely outnumber the 
 victims of war in the field. 
 
 But why not do away with both classes of victims in 
 the future ? Ah, to be sure, why not ? Why not bring 
 in an International Law making criminal all compe- 
 tition and collision of interests, and put the whole mat- 
 ter under the superintendence of Mr. Wells? Mean- 
 time, let us seek to reduce, by every means in our pow- 
 
210 Patriotism and 
 
 er, the number of Loth classes of victims. But let us not 
 think that the coming commercial war will not exact 
 its heavy toll and cruel sacrifice of life. Let us not 
 dare to play thimble-rig with inexorable facts, or to set 
 booby-traps for the Eternal. 
 
 The majority of mankind have only very rare, in- 
 definite, and casual international interests. Undoubt- 
 edly it is to the interests of us all to live in a wise and 
 perfect world, and to hasten the time when we may 
 be all citizens of such a world, under a wise and per- 
 fect International government. Meantime, the inter- 
 est which an Englishman has in sustaining and strength- 
 ening the fabric of the British Empire, is greater and 
 more compulsive than the interest which he has in es- 
 tablishing a world commonwealth. It is also an inter- 
 est which is discernible, immediate, palpable. Eor in 
 the present condition of things, it is certain that a world 
 commonwealth cannot be established without a long in- 
 tervening period of revolution, chaos, and bloodshed? 
 And how can an Englishman be sure that after the gen- 
 eral hurly-burly of a social and political world earth- 
 quake, he may not find himself in much worse circum- 
 stances under a Red flag which waves and flaps over 
 the universe, than under the Union Jack which gave 
 him security to make his way in a prosperous and united 
 British Empire. His present sure half-loaf is better 
 than a very doubtful whole one ; and his chicken stewing 
 in a British pot, is worth many more than two of the 
 elusive Birds of Paradise that flutter in the bushes 
 of the International Garden. 
 
 Further, Internationalists always make the mistake 
 of assuming that their schemes will be worked by per- 
 fectly wise, honest, unselfish statesmen, superintend- 
 ing a perfectly wise, honest, unselfish community. 
 
Popular Education 211 
 
 Again, they are living in a vacuum, where there are 
 no reactions. Mr. Wells perceives that our Foreign Of- 
 fice is filled with incapable, uneducated, crudely igno- 
 rant bunglers, like Mr. Balfour and Lord Robert Cecil. 
 He would hustle them into obscurity, and replace 
 them by statesmen who would quickly "reconstruct" 
 this much mismanaged earth, and turn it into an In- 
 ternational Utopia presumably by a process similar to 
 that by which his Bolshevist friends have "recon- 
 structed" the Russian Empire, and made it such a de- 
 lightful place for all classes to live in. 
 
 We all thankfully recognize that in the past four 
 years, many British Labour members have shown them- 
 selves to be able, constructive statesmen and staunch 
 patriots, who have rendered immense services to the 
 country and the Allied cause. Some of them have ad- 
 ministered Government departments with conspicuous 
 ability and foresight. The present Food Controller is 
 only one of many Labour statesmen, to whom an enor- 
 mous public debt of gratitude is due. Many of these 
 Labour statesmen will assuredly be offered responsible 
 positions in the next government. I see no reason why a 
 Labour member should not be Foreign Minister, given 
 the opportunity to show that he is qualified for the 
 office. But by their general training and experience, 
 Labour members will surely be more profitably em- 
 ployed in departments that deal with internal affairs. 
 From the nature of its operations, the Foreign Office 
 should not be occupied by a statesman who avowedly 
 represents a class, but by one who speaks for the 
 whole nation. 
 
 Mr. Wells would eject that "pretentious bluffer," 
 Lord Robert Cecil, and would have our foreign affairs 
 administered on International principles under instruc- 
 
212 Patriotism and 
 
 tions from Labour. He assumes that in Africa, as in 
 Russia, his International scheme would be worked by 
 "profoundly wise," honest, unselfish statesmen, with 
 no interests to serve but those of the International 
 State. He also assumes that the whole population of 
 Africa, black, white, and colored, would wisely and 
 unselfishly cooperate with their beneficent rulers to the 
 same beneficent ends. No wonder these International 
 States are such charming places to live in, and their 
 projectors so popular! 
 
 And having arranged things so happily for every- 
 body, Mr. Wells, who sternly rebukes "flag-wagging" 
 on behalf of the British Empire, unfurls a brand-new 
 spacious banner of his own device, the Sun of Africa, 
 and wags and waves it lustily over the continent that 
 ho has so suddenly and marvellously regenerated by 
 the simple process of giving it a paper International 
 constitution. 
 
 How easy it is to reform the world and make every- 
 body happy and wise on paper! 
 
 From whence does Mr. Wells propose to obtain that 
 constant supply of wise, unselfish, honest statesmen, 
 who alone could give permanent security in Africa or 
 anywhere else? He would doubtless reply, from the 
 ranks of Labour. Is he sure that even there he might 
 not find "pretentious bluffers," who, though not so 
 "crudely ignorant" as Lord Robert, and much better 
 "acquainted with social and economic questions," and 
 with "everything that really matters in real politics," 
 might not be endowed with more than a very scanty 
 measure of the "probable honesty" and "profound 
 wisdom" which have been so conspicuously displayed bv 
 his friends who are regenerating Russia on Interna- 
 tional principles 2 
 
Popular Education 213 
 
 Has Mr. Wells noticed the disquieting fact, that 
 when Labour has found a leader with powers of con- 
 structive statesmanship, and foresight, and balanced 
 judgment, and who therefore can promise it only 
 moderate and possible rations of happiness and com- 
 fort has Mr. Wells noticed how apt Labour is to 
 throw him aside in favour of successive leaders who 
 promise it larger and larger, and ever more impossible, 
 rations of happiness and comfort? Who are the men 
 who finally come to the top, and are inevitably chosen 
 to carry out such vast and violent revolutionary 
 changes as those which Mr. Wells advocates ? Are they 
 ever responsible statesmen, or even capable politicians? 
 Are they men of balanced judgment and unselfish 
 aims? Are they men of probity in public and private 
 affairs; men who in finance could be trusted with the 
 cash in a shop till, much less with a national ex- 
 chequer; men who in government of their fellows 
 could be trusted to administer the affairs of a village, 
 much less direct the destinies of a great Empire? 
 
 The change to Internationalism that Mr. Wells pro- 
 poses could not be realized without an upheaval which 
 would break up our present constitution; and he must 
 know that in that upheaval it would not be our sane 
 and moderate Labour politicians who would be the 
 chosen directors of the whirlwind, and lords of the 
 mad misrule and destruction that would follow. 
 
 But Mr. Wells puts forth his International scheme as 
 a summary of what Labour proposes and purposes. I 
 know not what authority Mr. Wells has to proclaim 
 himself as the spokesman of Labour in the matter of 
 the future government of Africa, and in other large 
 matters that concern the integrity and safety of the 
 British Empire. I know not how far his wholesale and 
 
214 Patriotism and 
 
 prolific fallacies represent the considered opinions of 
 Labour. Labour has lately shown itself sharply div- 
 ided on many national and international questions. I 
 cannot think that the great body of Labour has so little 
 political sagacity, as to hand over to International mis- 
 direction and confusion, those African possessions in 
 which it has so large and fruitful an interest. 
 
 I will not believe that Labour, which, throughout the 
 last agonizing four years has drained its blood and 
 sweat to cement the British Empire; which has racked 
 its strength and manhood in aching, ceaseless toil ; which 
 has sent forth in hundreds of thousands, its nameless 
 unrewarded heroes and martyrs to endure unendurable 
 hardships and sufferings; which has dedicated itself to 
 loathsome miseries and tortures, to savage butcheries 
 and mutilations, to terror, disease, captivity, and hor- 
 rible forms of death ; which has done all this in a spirit 
 of such great resolve and cheerful self-sacrifice, that 
 never has there been a moment in the long large 
 crescendo of our past, when a man of our race could 
 kindle with such exultant pride to cry out, "I am of this 
 high lineage! I am the dear kinsman of the men who 
 have done these things ! I am of the breed and blood 
 royal of these smiths and miners and shopboys and 
 porters and weavers and ploughmen! I am a fellow 
 citizen with them in that great commonwealth, which 
 they have rescued and re-purchased from destruction, 
 and have established it on all the lands and all the seas, 
 to be a large, rich heritage for their children and their 
 children's children, till the last wave shall beat upon 
 its shores, till the last breath shall be drawn through 
 the nostrils of their seed, till the last echo of their re- 
 sounding deeds shall have died away from the memory 
 of mankind!" I cannot believe that Labour will now 
 
Popular Education 215 
 
 set itself to undo the stupendous work it has accom- 
 plished in the last four years, that having huilt up the 
 British Empire and buttressed and fortified it on all 
 sides, Labour will now pull down the stones its own 
 hands have laid, and give over to domestic treason and 
 internal disruption, the fortress that it has made impreg- 
 nable to foreign malice and assault. 
 
 I will not believe it. It is not possible. 
 
 Forbid it, you its true leaders, who have kept your 
 troth to England, who have not turned aside to traffic 
 with wordsters and palterers, who, through all doubts 
 and perils, have held your fellows resolute and inflexible 
 to our triumphant goal ! Hold them still resolute and 
 inflexible to preserve and possess through long years of 
 peace what they have won by the anguish and sacrifices 
 of war! Protect them still from the crazy sophistries 
 and treacheries of their busy enemies within their own 
 ranks! You, who have rallied them to defeat the 
 German hosts, safeguard them now from defeating 
 themselves ! 
 
 Forbid it, you have nursed our stricken and 
 mended our broken ones, and put new blood into their 
 veins and new muscle into their limbs, and sent them 
 forth, addressed again to the interminable fight, with all 
 the old stubborn race pluck and spunk ! Forbid it, you 
 yeowomen of England, and all you who have trained 
 your fingers to strange new tasks, and stood so man- 
 fully behind your men, and put shells into their guns, 
 and fledged their wings, and fed their wants, and, in 
 countless unaccustomed ways, have shown yourselves 
 their equals in tireless endeavour, unshaken fortitude, 
 and patient endurance to the end. Now that your 
 voices will be heard in the councils of the nation, raise 
 them against this parcelling out of our great rich free- 
 
216 Patriotism and 
 
 hold into disordered plots for these International Jerry- 
 builders to gamble away ! 
 
 Forbid it, you who have torn out pieces of your living 
 flesh, husbands and lovers and sons, and thrown them 
 upon the unblessed carnage heap, and now sit, widowed 
 and desolate, by hearths that will always be cold and 
 cheerless, though the logs burn never so brightly ; and in 
 homes that will always be dark and empty, though you 
 fill them with feasting and laughter ! 
 
 Forbid it, you who have spent haggard days and 
 nights in the stench and mire, in filthy habourage with 
 rats and feculence; sleepless and shelterless under the 
 fire of hell, and breathed upon by choking green poison 
 fumes; you who have blistered and staggered in the 
 white heat and stagnant noon of Asian deserts, or lan- 
 guished in feverous African swamps, and, fainting un- 
 to death, have yet pursued and conquered. You who 
 have dug the graves of your smitten and slaughtered 
 brothers, wherever you have marched and toiled and 
 bled, will you come home to dig the grave of that Em- 
 pire whose bounds you have enlarged and established, 
 and will you cast its remains into dust and dishonour? 
 You who have gashed and ripped out the entrails of the 
 foul German monster, will you come home to stab and 
 dismember the Mother who bore you ? 
 
 Forbid it, you who have kept icy vigils on the deep, 
 peering into the treacherous murk, in jeopardy every 
 moment of blasting annihilation, stark frozen to the 
 marrow, and frozen all without you and all within, save 
 that ever-burning sacrificial flame at your heart's core ! 
 Forbid it, you our stout fishermen, who have fished for 
 lurking terrors, and hauled up iron-coated monsters, 
 stored with murder and destruction ! Forbid it, you our 
 dauntless merchant crews, breastplate of all our defence, 
 
Popular Education 
 
 217 
 
 who Have furrowed your course through crowded death- 
 traps, and kept for us the sovereignty of the seas ! Look 
 that you keep it for us still ! Renew and re-swear and 
 swear again your irrevocable oath, that these pirates and 
 assassins shall be chased from our ships and shores, and 
 that all our ocean ways shall be swept free of them! 
 Forbid that the Ship of our State, which holds all our 
 treasure, should be scuttled by its own crew, and 
 wrecked in wild unlighted gulfs on the uncharted rocks 
 of barren International shores ! 
 
 Forbid it, you legions of our wounded, whose bodies 
 have been mangled and pierced and broken that England 
 might be whole; remnants of humanity, who, in your 
 honoured livery of pensioned service to her, shall go 
 lamed and loitering to the end of your days ; spectators 
 of the cheerful bustle of daily life that you shall never 
 share ! Forbid that your country's body should be torn 
 by internal dissension, and broken and gangrened by 
 mad class strife ! 
 
 Forbid it, you our maltreated banished ones, captives 
 and bondslaves of imbruted taskmasters! You who 
 marched away in the red and tan glow of health, whose 
 cheeks now wear the waxen pallor of mortality; frost- 
 bitten, naked, tortured in the icy hell-blasts of Mitzau; 
 macerated in the burning hell-depths of German salt 
 mines O England, avenge them! Shed no tear for 
 their wrongs beyond all tears! Pity has drained her 
 eyes, and Mercy is dead ! Make thy heart as the nether 
 millstone, sharpen on it thy swift sword, and Strike! 
 Strike! Strike! Spare not one of them that spared 
 not thy martyred exiles ! Let not one of them escape 
 that did these things to thy sons ! O England, avenge 
 them ! You, who were ground down by the pestle of re- 
 morseless savagery in the mortar of unutterable misery, 
 
218 Patriotism and 
 
 and put to abominable uses ; starved, beaten, spat upon, 
 crippled, defiled, defaced out of human likeness; wan 
 shadows of yourselves, poor ghosts and skeletons' of men, 
 if there is speech left between your wasted lips, say 
 now a word to us! You whose strength was sapped 
 and spent for us, urge us to take fresh strength from 
 the memory of all that you endured! Forbid that we 
 should be enslaved and driven about by the tyrannous 
 oppression of false doctrines, that our national will 
 and purpose should be sapped by sedition, and envy, and 
 discord among ourselves! 
 
 Forbid it, most of all, you who have fallen, and are 
 discharged from all warfare; men of all ranks and sta- 
 tions and callings, who were equal in fearless acceptance 
 of death, and are now equal in lavish ascription of 
 deathless renown; you, who, at our summons, gathered 
 yourselves from all parts of the earth, and are now 
 scattered and spilt in the dust of three continents. 
 Gather yourselves again in solemn concourse, and pass 
 before us in troops and troops, and thousands, and tens 
 of thousands Ah, will the sum of you never be told? 
 And so young, the many of you! Lithe striplings, 
 founts of bursting youth, darlings of your homes, and 
 fondlings of your womenfolk ; side by side with fathers 
 and husbands stricken down in their hard-mettled man- 
 hood, and with seasoned veterans whom age had not 
 touched all contemporary now, all dishabited, cut off 
 Great fellowship of our dead, whom neither the years 
 nor the void shall dissever from us, forbid that we 
 should be dissevered from ourselves by factions and 
 rancours; draw us into communion with you, and into 
 closer comradeship with each other, to finish the task 
 you committed to us of welding and soldering together 
 this vast commonwealth ! Spread your healing hands 
 
Popular Education 219 
 
 over our divisions and enmities; move amongst our 
 counsels and sway us to unity of purpose and effort! 1 
 You whose eyes are closed, and yet see all things clearly, 
 show us the path of national safety and felicity, that, 
 with sure unhesitating steps, we may pursue it in the 
 troubled days to come ! Go before us in our way and 
 urge us to steadfast loyalty to ourselves ! Forbid us to 
 stray in vagabond, distracted allegiance to International 
 despotism, and alliance with alien anarchies! Forbid 
 us to throw the title-deeds of our Empire into the 
 flames of insurrection and revolt ! Forbid us to tear 
 up that great bond of national partnership and brother- 
 hood which you signed with your blood! 
 
 I cannot think that Labour, which, throughout the 
 war, has followed its sure instinct of Patriotism to the 
 achievement of such splendid results, will now be coz- 
 ened to abjure its faith and citizenship in the land that 
 it has loved and saved, and made great and powerful. 
 Behold, then, you working men of England, the habi- 
 tation that Internationalism is preparing for you in that 
 Promised Land of the future, where the blind lead the 
 blind, and the deaf bawl crazy misdirections to the 
 deaf, and madmen are the keepers of the mad; where 
 thieves rob thieves, and starvation preys upon hunger, 
 and murder slits the throat of murder. 
 
 But we are deeply pledged to the recognition of 
 Nationality, and to the fostering of Patriotism, as a 
 principle of our future policy and action, wherever our 
 power and influence extend. From the beginning of the 
 war, our statesmen, one after the other, have declared 
 that we have been fighting to restore and preserve the 
 integrity of the small struggling nations; to sort them 
 out in different races and breeds ; to gather them within 
 well-marked borders; to guarantee them the right of 
 
"220 Patriotism and 
 
 self-government ; to give them the means of working out 
 their own destinies as distinct national communities, 
 with their own laws, customs, forms of religion, and 
 lines of future development. Is it not plain that if our 
 war aims are achieved, we are setting free incalculable 
 forces of Patriotism to consolidate each of these nations, 
 and to crystallize their scattered atoms in adherence 
 to their own government ? 
 
 Do we suppose that as each nation settles down in 
 order in its own territory, develops its resources, in- 
 creases in population, and grows in prosperity, that its 
 national aims and interests will not also be enlarged and 
 specialized, and tend to become more pressing, and more 
 encroaching? Do we suppose that, as its government 
 becomes more stable and confirmed and powerful, it will 
 not also become a stronger engine for securing and ad- 
 vancing the separate aims and interests of the nation 
 that it represents ? Do we suppose that these young na- 
 tions, for whom we are now standing sponsors, will not 
 grow up with wills and ambitions and interests of their 
 own; and this in proportion to their racial purity, and 
 to their capacity for self-government; and all the more 
 because they are young and vigorous? Do we suppose 
 that they will not use their newly and dearly bought 
 freedom to further their separate national interests and 
 aims and ambitions ? Why, because some of us have a 
 whimsy for Internationalism, should we think that the 
 prevailing impulses of mankind will be arrested and 
 reversed, and their conflicting movements be regulated 
 and harmonized by the blather of our tongues? 
 
 If the preponderating voice and power of Labour is 
 now to direct our policy towards Internationalism, let 
 us make haste to repudiate all the declarations that we 
 have made of our aims in this war. For it is clear that 
 
Popular Education 221 
 
 Internationalism and the right of a people to self-deter- 
 mination are contradictions in terms. Nor, judging 
 from its present manifestations, is Internationalism 
 likely to make the world a safe place for democracy, 
 or a safe place for anything or anybody that is worthy 
 of preservation. The only kind of International rule 
 that, up to the present, has shown even the smallest 
 promise of enforcing obedience to its decrees, is the In- 
 ternational rule which the Kaiser set out to establish, 
 and which may stand as a warning to the other 
 iconoclasts who are seeking by quite other methods to 
 introduce equal confusion into the world's affairs. "By 
 opposite means," says Montaigne, "we reach the same 
 ends." 
 
 I have defined Internationalism as an attempt to sub- 
 vert and supplant the established governments of the 
 world, and to persuade the working classes of each 
 nation that they owe their chief allegiance, not to their 
 own country and its laws, but to the presidents and 
 decrees of revolutionary tribunals established in the 
 large capitals of the world. If Internationalism does 
 not mean this, what does it mean ? 
 
 It is imagined that these immense and radical changes 
 in the constitution of human society can be brought 
 about by gradual and peaceful means. Granted un- 
 limited time, and a change in the instincts and passions 
 of mankind, subduing them all to universal wisdom, 
 sweet reasonableness, and unselfishness, it is possible 
 that the ideals of Internationalists and Revolutionary 
 Socialists may be realized. But what is there, in our 
 experience of the actual world wherein we live, to lead 
 us to think that the instincts and passions of average 
 mankind will be magically and swiftly changed, that 
 their standards of behaviour towards each other, 
 
222 Patriotism and 
 
 whether as individuals or nations, will be magically 
 and swiftly raised, and their material conditions magic- 
 ally and swiftly improved, so as to render such a con- 
 summation possible? Is it not certain that these con- 
 tinued attempts to substitute International class gov- 
 ernment for separate national government, will lead to 
 endless outbreaks of smouldering internecine war, dis- 
 sipating all our national energies, and ending perhaps in 
 another world-wide conflagration ? 
 
 I may be told by some gentle theorists that Inter- 
 nationalism does not mean what I have defined it to 
 mean, that is merely an effusion of muddled, balmy 
 amiability a tumbler of mild altruism mixed with a 
 teaspoonful of weak patriotism, or a tumbler of weak 
 Patriotism flavoured with tincture of universal benevo- 
 lence. We may leave these Laodoceans to stir their 
 tepid mixture in what proportions they choose, not 
 troubling how much they water it down, or whether 
 the dregs of their Patriotism settle at the bottom, or 
 the scum of their Internationalism floats at the top. 
 
 Doubtless Internationalism means different things to 
 its various professors. If Internationalism means no 
 more than the promotion of friendly relations between 
 all the different peoples, the diffusion of goodwill and 
 brotherliness, the suppression of national prejudices and 
 hatreds, the desire for fair dealing in all foreign tran^ 
 sactions, the settlement of difficulties and disputes by 
 peaceful means if this is Internationalism, then there 
 is no more fervid Internationalist than myself. But 
 surely all these things are much more likely to be fos- 
 tered and accomplished by separate stable governments, 
 each chosen to represent the interests and claims of its 
 own idiomorphic people, than by an International tribu- 
 nal set up to represent the class interests of a fraction 
 
Popular Education 223 
 
 of each of tlie nations. What form of government 
 could in the end be more shifty, despotic, cruel, and im- 
 potent for any constructive work than such a tribunal ? 
 
 At this moment, when the guns and bells and cheers 
 of victory are echoing to each other, and the air is 
 throbbing with our triumph, our one great fear is that 
 our routed enemy will be unable to compose a stable 
 government to treat with us, but will welter in a chaos 
 of Internationalism and Anarchy. And then the sol- 
 dier will have to be called in again which is what we 
 all wish to avoid. 
 
 The world's first urgent need is for strong, ordered, 
 separate national governments, supported by the un- 
 divided allegiance of their respective peoples. My 
 friend, Mr. William Archer, says he knows many men 
 in his own circle of acquaintance who would more wilk 
 ingly die for an International State than for a national 
 one. Surely we have had enough bloodshed for the 
 present. But if these enthusiasts force the Interna- 
 tional movement into action, they will find ample oppor- 
 tunities for securing martyrdom, and Mr. William 
 Archer's circle of acquaintance, though diminished, will 
 not, it is to be hoped, suffer any inconsolable loss by 
 their deletion from it. Dulce et decorum est contra 
 patriam mpri is a strangely perverted maxim to be 
 heard from the lips of Englishmen, when hundreds of 
 thousands of their countrymen have lately died that 
 they may live to utter crazy treason to their memories. 
 
 Whosoever opens the gates of Internationalism to his 
 fellow-citizens, leads them not to the gay garden Para- 
 dise of their dreams, but to a darksome, quaking bog 
 that scarcely yet offers sure ground to a single footfall, 
 and will not for generations to come, bear the tramp- 
 ling legions of humanity. 
 
224 Patriotism and 
 
 For all this, it is possible that we are being swept 
 towards Internationalism. It may be that the Eternal 
 purposes to drive the frenzied peoples before Him, 
 helter-skelter in terror-stricken multitudes, stumbling 
 and treading each ot<her under foot through Hind 
 mazes and barren wastes; till the vessels of modern 
 civilization are broken, and its garments rent to rags; 
 till man's life becomes as cheap as beast's ; till after long 
 years of self-plunder, self-oppression and self-defeat, 
 mankind find a large pleasant place where they may 
 begin to lay the foundations of their goodly new civ- 
 ilization. 
 
 Who that has surveyed the huddling disorder and 
 dirty aimless ugliness that sprawl over parts of the earth 
 which were once as the garden of the Lord, and are now 
 the nesting haunts where fraud, corruption, hog-bellied 
 greed and smug stupidity, ignorance, sloth, misery, and 
 disease bring forth after their kind who that has 
 looked round upon it, has not sometimes wished that one 
 fierce levin flash might strike it and blast it all out of 
 being? Who that has a brain to think and a heart to 
 grieve, does not sympathize with those aims of Social- 
 ism which are constructive and attainable by the pres- 
 ent races of men, and are not plain conspiracies to rob 
 the thrifty, the industrious, and the healthy, thereby to 
 provide national endowment for the improvident, the 
 lazy, the foolish, the diseased, and the vicious, giving 
 all these a chartered right of unlimited breeding ? 
 
 Accordingly, we find that, although much easier con- 
 ditions of life have prevailed for the last two genera- 
 tions amongst the masses in this country, than amongst 
 the masses in France and Germany, yet the recruiting 
 returns show a higher proportion of Englishmen that 
 
Popular Education 225 
 
 are physically unfit than of Frenchmen and Germans. 
 Who would have thought it? Englishmen have been 
 better fed, better clothed, better housed, than French- 
 men and Germans, and yet a larger proportion of them 
 are physically unfit! How unwelcome are facts, when 
 they contradict our whimsies! 
 
 Ponder it, you social reformers who are so vigorously 
 "reconstructing" society. Face the fact, that easier 
 general conditions of national existence have produced 
 a larger proportion of physically unfit Englishmen and 
 Englishwomen! Face it, for it is a fact! Dwell upon 
 it, for it is a fact ! Ask yourselves what it means, for 
 it is a fact! Ponder it, you who are seeking to outwit 
 Nature by legislating that the lazy, the foolish, the 
 vicious, the diseased may be sheltered from the rigours 
 of her stern decrees, that they may a have a good time" 
 and multiply exceedingly, so that their seed may pos- 
 sess the earth for a short, mad season. Have ready 
 your midwives, to bring into the world them that will 
 never be of any use when they are in it; and your 
 schools and teachers to educate them that cannot learn; 
 and your parsons to prepare for heaven them that are 
 not fit for earth; and your grinning comedians to pro- 
 vide unwholesome amusement for them that are not 
 capable of wholesome work ; and your doctors to tinker 
 their phthisicky frames that can only beget offspring 
 of their own kind. Construct and reconstruct your 
 whole cumbersome, complicated social incubator for 
 hatching and cherishing wastrels! Then when it has 
 broken down, let us go humbly to Nature and say, "We 
 have followed our whimsies; we have obeyed them in- 
 stead of obeying your laws. We have tried to impose 
 our conditions upon you, instead of accepting the condi- 
 
226 Patriotism and 
 
 tions that you impose upon us. We will try to cheat 
 you no longer. Tell us over your laws again, that we 
 may obey them and live." 
 
 Can we affirm that even the constructive aims of 
 Socialism, its many noble and beautiful ideals, are 
 likely to be pursued and realized, or even understood, 
 by the population around us, or by the children whom 
 they will raise with tastes, manners, mental habits, and 
 intellectual capacities on their own level ? How can any 
 collective state of society be above the general level of 
 the men and women who form that society ? And the 
 general level of our tastes, our mental habits, the stand- 
 ards of our vocabulary, our capacity for wise thought 
 and rational enjoyment, our favourite views of life all 
 these may, as I have already said, be accurately gauged 
 by anyone who will pay a round of visits to our most 
 popular theatres. There he may learn what our great 
 populace really admires, really enjoys, really under- 
 stands; how it employs its leisure, and in what ways 
 and upon what level it will be likely to employ whatever 
 further leisure it obtains from socialistic legislation. 
 Another accurate measure of all these things may be 
 taken by glancing at the kind of literature in demand 
 at our bookstalls. 
 
 Here I am suddenly reminded that I am addressing 
 the Minister of Education. Lest you should think me 
 disrespectful, sir, if I do not ocasionally offer you a few 
 personal remarks, I will digress from my argument to 
 congratulate you upon the fact that, although the mod- 
 ern English drama has recently met with some discour- 
 agement from you, modern English literature is receiv- 
 ing some attention in your schools. 
 
 "Who is the author of 'The Sorrows of Satan' ?" was 
 one of the questions that was recently put by one of 
 
Popular Education 227 
 
 your teachers to a class of girls, the daughters of cot- 
 tagers and labourers. With shame I confess that I am 
 even more unversed in the writings of Miss Marie 
 Corelli, than in the writings of Cicero. Indeed I have 
 little further knowledge of Miss Corelli, than that in a 
 recent case before the Stratford-on-Avon authorities, 
 she claimed to be a Patriot. Her Patriotism was 
 abundantly proved by the fact that she had been dis- 
 covered hoarding food at the time of our greatest 
 national necessity ; and perhaps even more convincingly 
 by her authorship of "The Sorrows of Satan," and other 
 kindred masterpieces. For my part, I could wish that 
 her Patriotism had taken other forms. Still, Miss Marie 
 Corelli, like Cicero, is a representative both of Patriot- 
 ism and Literature. It is pleasing to find in her, a 
 happy conjunction of the same qualities that we find 
 in Cicero. Doubtless, sir, this is the reason that some 
 knowledge of her works is considered a desirable item 
 in the "general education" of working girls in the sys- 
 tem that you are administering with such confidence in 
 its economic results. The future husbands of these 
 girls may also look with confidence to the domestic re- 
 sults. And we who are willingly paying that these 
 working girls may be taught such things as will tend 
 to make them good wives, mothers and housekeepers, 
 may feel additional confidence that our money is being 
 well spent, when we learn that their teachers are train- 
 ing them to study the works of Miss Marie Corelli. 
 We shall take another look at Mr. Punch's cartoon 
 and rubbing our hands with satisfaction, exclaim with 
 him, "Pass Education Bill! and All's Well!" 
 
 Small wonder it is that our teachers are asking for 
 increased pay. Surely a grateful nation will consider 
 no salary too high for instructors whose literary tastes 
 
228 Patriotism and 
 
 and general intellectual attainments are indicated by 
 such questions as "Who was the author of The Sor- 
 rows of Satan' ?" Would you consider it is an unpar- 
 donable curiosity, sir, if I asked, who teaches your 
 teachers ? 
 
 Miss Corelli's status in English literature being thus 
 confirmed, sir, by your system of Popular Education, 
 and your system of Popular Education being thus justi- 
 fied by the vogue of Miss Corelli amongst its teachers 
 and scholars, we may now leave the matter of her in- 
 dividual Patriotism, and return to the consideration of 
 that other kind of National Patriotism, which every- 
 where finds itself confronted and challenged by the 
 gathering forces of Internationalism and revolutionary 
 Socialism. 
 
 Patriotism, having saved our skins, and secured our 
 daily bread and butter ; having protected every home in 
 England from the danger of foul violation and burning ; 
 having united and established our Empire and given us 
 the hope and power of increasing future well-being and 
 greatness Patriotism having done all this for us, we 
 are now asked to forswear and forsake it in favour of 
 the political creed that has devastated and ruined Eus- 
 sia, and threatens to disintegrate and work havoc in 
 Central Europe. 
 
 Will England, that through these past four years has 
 saved herself by holding true to herself, be mad enough 
 now to destroy herself by being false to herself? 
 
 A telegram, just received from Petrograd, says that 
 "the Bolshevists have passed a law that all single 
 women over twenty are the property of the State, and 
 all children over six weeks are to be handed to the State 
 to be brought up and educated by the authorities. Com- 
 plete disorder reigns, and a large number of women have 
 
Popular Education 229 
 
 not found it possible to trace their babies." These 
 rulers of Russia are they whom Mr. Wells finds "pro- 
 foundly wise," and "shining clear," and "intimately 
 acquainted with social and economic questions, and 
 everything that really matters in real politics." Is not 
 motherhood a social and economic question? Does it 
 not lie at the root of most other social and economic 
 questions ? Is not its sanctity a thing that matters su- 
 premely in "real politics" ? Is it not the well-spring 
 of a nation's life ? You English mothers, now that you 
 have a choice of your rulers, will you choose such rulers 
 as Mr. Wells recommends to you, who will not only 
 rob all of us, even the poorest, of our material goods, 
 but will also strip us bare of our more precious spiritual 
 possessions ? 
 
 I do not say that there is any immediate danger of 
 Bolshevism being put into active working disorder in 
 England. At present we are only dallying with its 
 theories. I gladly own there is much sound common- 
 sense in the heads of our working men, though I cannot 
 allow, as Mr. Wells seems to claim, that all the wisdom 
 and honesty in the community are to be found in the 
 ranks of Labour, the rest of us being fools and idlers 
 and thieves. We have won the war because the majority 
 of our working men had the wisdom to follow and obey 
 those of their leaders who had the instinct of Patriot- 
 ism. We can win an even more glorious peace, if only 
 our working men will have the wisdom to follow leaders 
 who have the same instinct. 
 
 There before us, plain for every one of us to see and 
 read, stand the two signposts, the one guiding us to 
 Patriotism, the other to Internationalism. There is no 
 third road. We must take the one or the other. Look 
 into what abysmal depths and quagmires we are urged 
 
230 Patriotism and 
 
 by that finger which points us to Internationalism. See 
 at the bottom, the hapless, hopeless masses of the Rus- 
 sian people, floundering in a putrid cesspool of blood 
 and misery and disease, every man's hand in his neigh- 
 bour's pocket, or at his neighbour's throat. Midway 
 down the slope are yelling, turbulent, hungry crowds, 
 fighting amongst themselves, and pushing each other 
 head foremost towards the pit of destruction. And here 
 at the top, on a platform under the signpost of Inter- 
 nationalism, are professional anarchists, bawling out 
 their catchwords and phrases, alongside amiable theo- 
 rists and doctrinaires, with rose-colored spectacles glued 
 over their myopic eyes, as they demonstrate to the dis- 
 contented and slothful and ignorant amongst us, that 
 the filthy slough at the bottom is a fairyland of pure 
 delight, and issue detailed instructions for reaching it. 
 There are many clear logical thinkers who are con- 
 vinced Internationalists. But what is the use of con- 
 vincing ourselves that the world is flat, as we easily may. 
 There is much evidence to support the theory. What is 
 the use of thinking clearly, if we think wrongly ? Some 
 of the clearest thinkers I have known, have been the 
 wrongest thinkers. We all know men whose opinions 
 we need not take the trouble to examine. We are sure 
 from what we know of the constitution of their minds, 
 that they must infallibly be wrong upon any subject. 
 Their brains work upon facts with a reversed action. 
 If we find they agree with us on any matter, at once we 
 begin to question our own judgment. Just as there are 
 some amongst us whose physical diathesis is adapted to 
 catch any zymotic disease that may be raging, so there 
 are others whose mental diathesis is adapted to catch 
 any wrong opinion that may be raging. God has made 
 them so, as Dr. Watts remarks with piercing insight, 
 
Popular Education 231 
 
 thus accurately accounting for human, as well as for 
 canine peculiarities. Let us leave these predestined 
 Impossiblists in God's hands, for He alone is capable 
 of dealing with them. 
 
 But there are also many thoughtful, large-hearted 
 men, who advocate Internationalism from high, dis- 
 interested motives and genuine love of their kind. I 
 would beg them to notice that Patriotism is an instinct, 
 an emotion, a passion not a political opinion. It is 
 of little use to argue against it, and to show that it is 
 guilty of follies and excesses, even of crimes. Nothing 
 is more easy to prove than that Patriotism is fundamen- 
 tally absurd and wrong. But it is a fact. It exists. 
 It persists. We cannot destroy it. 
 
 If, by a decree of our will, International government 
 could be firmly established all the world over to-night, 
 Patriotism would spring up to-morrow morning, and 
 begin to choke it. In scattered places, amongst cliques 
 and sects and races, Patriotism would germinate, and 
 spread, and take possession of men's hearts and wills, 
 and bind together in separate communities, such of them 
 as have common interests and aims and beliefs, till in 
 a very short time it would be plain that International 
 government could not command their obedience, or com- 
 pose their differences. And then the soldier would have 
 to be called in which is what we all wish to avoid. 
 When the soldier had done his work, we should find 
 mankind segregated in new national groups, in new 
 confines, under new flags, with new national aspirations 
 and ambitions. And the more we changed this new 
 order, the more it would remain the same thing. 
 
 It is a paradox, most annoying to theorists and doc- 
 trinaires, that Internationalism, which, by their show- 
 ing, ought to reconcile mankind, does, as a matter of 
 
232 Patriotism and 
 
 fact, divide and antagonize mankind. I am speaking 
 now of International government, or attempts at In- 
 ternational government, symbolized by the Interna- 
 tional flag, and claiming allegiance to it, in opposition 
 to Patriotic governments symbolized by national flags. 
 I arn not speaking of international intercourse and 
 friendliness, and of good understandings between all the 
 nations, and of international laws and treaties to at- 
 tain such objects as may be for the general good, or for 
 the good of several nations. Such international ar- 
 rangements as these are obviously for the benefit of 
 mankind, and we may hope to see a large and fruitful 
 development of many of them. 
 
 But they are advantageous because they are avow- 
 edly contracted between separate nations, each under its 
 own flag. They are practicable, and likely to be pros- 
 perous, to the extent that they recognize the principle 
 of nationality. That is to say, they acknowledge the 
 very plain fact, that while all the peoples have a few 
 interests in common, and some of the peoples have 
 many interests in common, yet all the peoples can never 
 have all interests in common, but must necessarily be 
 divided and opposed in their chief permanent inter- 
 ests. 
 
 Uktil Patriotism has welded and moulded a com- 
 munity into a corporate social organism, until it has 
 unified and solidified groups of kindred human beings 
 into separate nations, no effective friendly international 
 transactions can take place. !N"o benefits can come to 
 humanity from Internationalism until Patriotism is al- 
 ready established and operative in each nation, and 
 only in the degree that Patriotism is established and 
 operative. International goodwill and kindliness all 
 the world over are what we all desire. But these can 
 
Popular Education 233 
 
 only flow through the channels that Patriotism has al- 
 ready cut for them. 
 
 Will Internationalists please explain by what precise 
 means concord, fellowship, and brotherhood can be pro- 
 moted amongst the peoples, and their enmities dis- 
 armed, except by forms and measures decreed by sep- 
 arate, secure, national governments? Internationalism 
 can only work for the welfare of mankind by the 
 routes that Patriotism provides. Outside Patriotism, 
 Internationalism does but gather together a rabble that 
 embroils itself in ceaseless confusion, hatred, and anar- 
 chy. One glance at the world's present distractions 
 shows this plainly enough. Let us think out this mat- 
 ter clearly and thoroughly, for the world's peace de- 
 pends upon our rightly understanding it. Therefore 
 let us think it out, once, and twice, and thrice, and yet 
 again. I am not speaking now to them whose eyes 
 cannot see the clearest facts, and whose minds cannot 
 receive the plainest truths. 
 
 Internationalism that claims allegiance to its flag, and 
 works to supplant national government, is always and 
 everywhere a, centrifugal, disintegrating, destructive 
 force, tending to the insecurity of mankind. Patriot- 
 ism is always and everywhere a centripetal, constructive 
 force, which by binding each separate nation in unity 
 of aim and interest, makes its government an effective 
 responsible instrument to deal with neighbouring gov- 
 ernments, and to conduct international affairs with 
 smoothness and decision. Therefore Patriotism, al- 
 ways and everywhere tends to the general security of 
 mankind. An equal diffusion of universal benevolence 
 is a sure cause of disorder and strife. Like every other 
 assertion of equality, it reacts and provokes inequali- 
 ties. God won't have it. 
 
234 Patriotism and 
 
 Why should we try to focus our amiability on every- 
 body and everything, in the delusion that we are guid- 
 ing the earth into milder realms of space, where per- 
 petual sunshine reigns, and where everybody's circum- 
 stances will be easy and pleasant? 
 
 It is indeed painfully true, that we, who are deni- 
 zens of this inferior planet in a quite insignificant solar 
 system, have all too much reason for dissatisfaction 
 with our beggarly circumscribed position in a universe 
 of boundless dimensions and possibilities. Onr condi- 
 tions of life are pitiably hard and uncomfortable, when 
 compared with those of the inhabitants of the planets 
 that circle round Sirius. In each of these worlds every- 
 body has a real "good time." The picture palaces and 
 popular revues are of inconceivable magnificence, and 
 sixpenny novels, by writers possessing imaginations 
 even more gorgeous than Miss Corelli, are sold for a 
 penny. The working day is rigorously restricted to six 
 hours, and the weekly holiday, compulsory in all oc- 
 cupations, begins every Thursday evening at five, and 
 lasts till the following Wednesday morning at ten. Un- 
 broken security, prosperity, and happiness are main- 
 tained by a comprehensive system of State Insurance, 
 which covers every member of the community from all 
 damage, loss, evil, or misfortune arising from every 
 cause whatsoever, including his own follies, extrava- 
 gances, and wicked actions. All other desirable things 
 are showered upon the lucky inhabitants in the same 
 reckless profusion. Many of these advantages are un- 
 questionably due to the inordinate amount of space 
 which Sirius has managed to grab for himself and his 
 satellites. But some credit must also be given to the 
 admirable system of Popular Education (more enlight- 
 

 Popular Education 235 
 
 ened even than your own, sir), which is enforced in all 
 the regions under his sway. 
 
 Seeing how enviable are the conditions of life in the 
 Sirian planets, there is much to be said for throwing in 
 our lot with their inhabitants, and thus abolishing the 
 glaring inequalities which we may well resent when we 
 compare our situation with theirs. The report of the 
 Interstellar Commission, appointed to consider the 
 matter, with a view to the removal of these iniquitous 
 inequalities, is full of pregnant suggestions. It recom- 
 mends that, as soon as Internationalism is securely 
 established on our own planet, steps should be taken to 
 amalgamate our own solar system with the planetary 
 system of Sirius, and to consolidate all the interests of 
 all the inhabitants of both systems. Doubtless this sug- 
 gestion will be carried into effect, when we have at- 
 tended to the few minor matters that are now engag- 
 ing our attention. 
 
 We must not allow ourselves to be daunted by the 
 magnitude of the conception. After all, it is only the 
 legitimate development of our present Internationalist 
 aims. E"or, so far as I can see, will it be any more diffi- 
 cult of achievement. We may take some assurance 
 from the fact that the most prominent members of the 
 Interstellar Commission are men who, for many years 
 past, have been engineering the International movement 
 on this earth. If I am any judge of character, these 
 are not men who would be likely to embark us in any 
 risky enterprise. 
 
 We must proceed with great deliberation and prud- 
 ence. We must eschew all violent methods. We must 
 conduct our operations so as not to cause any undue 
 concussions and disturbances in other planetary systems. 
 
236 Patriotism and 
 
 We must remember that, most probably, their inhabit- 
 ants, like ourselves, have a preference for an easy, quiet 
 life. Our first care must to inquire how this desirable 
 amalgamation of our solar system with that of Sirius, 
 can be brought about by peaceful means. It is consid- 
 ered by the Interstellar Commission, that our object 
 will be most easily and effectively gained by voting for 
 it, in the same way that we are voting for Internation- 
 alism, and in the same way that we voted there should be 
 no war with Germany. 
 
 Of course voting is the method that we all greatly 
 prefer, and generally adopt, in settling such matters. I 
 question, however, whether voting can be relied upon to 
 avert the danger of a terrific celestial catastrophe, 
 when the two systems approach each other. If there 
 were a collision, both systems and all they contain 
 would inevitably be reduced to gas. It would be a 
 thousand pities if a scheme that promises so many 
 blessings to mankind, were reduced to mere gas. How- 
 ever, the more far-seeing Interstellarists are aware of 
 this danger, and are providing a garden hose of un- 
 usual diameter, which will be ready to turn on at the 
 first sign of a conflagration. Still, I have my doubts. 
 
 Then, again, the Sirian populations may have ex- 
 travagant ideas of the terms on which the amalgama- 
 tion can be arranged. They may take a selfish view of 
 their own interests, and refuse to make those necessary 
 concessions which, in justice to ourselves, we must de- 
 mand if our conditions of life are to be levelled up to 
 theirs, and perfect equality secured all round through- 
 out the two systems. The whole matter needs our most 
 careful consideration. 
 
 Is it any more foolish to imagine that an amalgama- 
 tion of our solar system with Sirius can be brought 
 
Popular Education 237 
 
 about without a transcendent celestial catastrophe, than 
 to imagine that an amalgamation of all the nations of 
 the earth can he Drought ahout without a transcendent 
 terrestrial catastrophe? Are the Interstellarists any- 
 more visionary, impracticable, and deluded than the In- 
 ternationalists ? Now that the malignant comet of war 
 has struck the nations, and sent them reeling out of 
 their orbits in wild oscillations, what madness is it to 
 call upon the yet more destructive force of Internation- 
 alism, to throw them into yet more violent collisions 
 with each other, and to break up our whole terrestrial 
 system in anarchy and ruin ? 
 
 What madness is it that urges Englishmen to in- 
 trigue against their own country, to hate and renounce 
 their citizenship, and to clamour for such privileges 
 and liberties and rights as are now enjoyed in Russia, 
 and through all Central and Eastern Europe ? Has this 
 kind, stupid, blundering mother of ours provided for us 
 so badly, left us so small an inheritance, with such beg- 
 garly hopes and honours and possessions, that we must 
 make haste to disown her, and to proclaim ourselves 
 the pauper bastards of promiscuous intercourse between 
 drunken seditions and International whoredoms? 
 
 But, it may be asked, if Patriotism is one of the 
 universal instincts, how is it that so many thoughtful 
 intelligent Englishmen are to be found who do not 
 possess it? 
 
 They do possess it the vast majority of them. Even 
 Mr. Wells had fits of temporary Patriotism, when every- 
 one of us was in danger of being starved and held in 
 slavery to Germany. There are amongst us a few of 
 Nature's freaks who are without the instinct of Patriot- 
 ism, as there are other freaks without the religious 
 instinct, and as there are women freaks without the 
 
238 Patriotism and 
 
 i 
 
 maternal instinct. But these are rare exceptions, and 
 Nature herself disowns and dismisses them. 
 
 There are very few men living who are destitute of 
 the instincts of Patriotism. Our Pacifists are super- 
 abundantly endowed with it. They burn with its pur- 
 est ardours for every country but their own. Behold 
 them all through the war, scheming to bring about the 
 victory of Germany, and the defeat of England. Be- 
 hold them now scheming that justice shall not be done 
 to Germany, and that England shall be baffled, and en- 
 tangled, and condemned to pay the costs of Germany's 
 crimes. 
 
 Pacifism and Internationalism are really perverted 
 and diseased forms of the instinct of Patriotism. They 
 are something akin to those not infrequent perversions 
 of other primal instincts, which may be related to phy- 
 sical malformations, but which none the less we repro- 
 bate and punish. Congenital moral perverts are abom- 
 inable enough ; but the harm they work falls on a small 
 circle, and chiefly upon themselves. But congenital 
 political perverts are far more mischievous; for the 
 harm they work falls on a large circle, and shakes the 
 health and security of the whole social system. 
 
 How do we know that Internationalism is a perverted 
 instinct? By its results. All the primal instincts, 
 when they are normal, bring fruitful and beneficial re- 
 sults. When they are perverted, they bring evil results. 
 Where and when has Internationalism brought any- 
 thing but confusion, revolt, riot and anarchy ? If Inter- 
 nationalism brings harmony and goodwill and pros* 
 perity to the peoples of the earth, if it leads them to 
 any goal but general strife and chaos and bankruptcy, 
 then the Lord hath not spoken by me. 
 
 I bring all these reasons and considerations before 
 
Popular Education 239 
 
 you, sir, as Minister of Education, and as being largely 
 responsible for the general drift and bias of political 
 thought amongst the masses in the next generation. I 
 suppose no man has more influence and power than 
 yourself in directing future public opinion to wise is- 
 sues. At an immeasurable cost of lives and treasure, 
 and at terrible hazard of national disaster and ruin, 
 we neglected, in the last generation, to train our boys 
 in their first duty of being ready to defend their coun- 
 try. I grant it is not likely that an equal danger will 
 threaten us in the future. It is scarcely likely that the 
 same danger will threaten us. But having regard to 
 the present unsettled condition of the world's affairs, 
 who can tell what dangers and emergencies may arise 
 during the next ten, or twenty, or forty years ? 
 
 We insure our houses against fire, though in that 
 minor matter we run not a hundredth part of the risk 
 that we run in leaving ourselves uninsured, or half- 
 insured, against any conflagration that may start 
 amongst the inflamed peoples, and spread through our 
 world-wide dominions. There are, I suppose, thousands 
 of chances to one against a man's house being burnt 
 down ; yet every one of us insures against it. Are the 
 chances so many as twenty to one that, in the course 
 of a generation, a situation may not arise which it will 
 be necessary for us to meet with a show of irresistible 
 power, so that we may prevent another devastating and 
 exhausting war ? Why should we, as a nation, neglect 
 to insure our property, when every private citizen, run- 
 ning not a hundredth part of the risk, does it as a 
 matter of course? 
 
 It may be replied that we have just freed ourselves 
 from all immediate danger, and that this is a very in- 
 opportune moment to raise such a question. On the 
 
240 Patriotism and 
 
 contrary, I affirm that this is the most opportune men 
 ment to decide upon our future policy in this matter. 
 When a man has had two or three lucky reprieves from 
 gaol and the gallows, is it not time for him to hegin 
 to ask himself whether, after all, there may not be 
 some good, sound commonsense in the sixth and eighth 
 commandments ? 
 
 Twice, within twenty years, has the British Empire 
 been saved from irrevocable ruin by the mercy of a 
 toss-up. Twice has British civilization, all that a power- 
 ful and beneficent England means for the peaceable and 
 prosperous development of the world, all that she has 
 accomplished for mankind, all that she might yet ac- 
 complish twice, within a short twenty years, has all 
 this been hazarded and mortgaged to defeat and destruc- 
 tion by our wilful blindness and folly, our resolute 
 refusal to look at the plain facts of our national respon- 
 sibilities and necessities. Twice, did I say ? Will our 
 statesmen and generals tell us how many times in the 
 last four years, England has hung over the precipice of 
 irretrievable disaster, in jeopardy lest a mere finger- 
 push of chance should send her reeling into the abyss? 
 
 Is not this the very moment to decide upon a clear 
 future national policy, to give ourselves good reasons 
 for it, that we may pursue it steadfastly, consistently, 
 and continuously? Is not this the first question that 
 we should consider in our plans of "reconstruction," 
 seeing that it is fundamental, and underlies all other 
 questions ; seeing that all our other national activities 
 educational, economic, industrial, social, must be shaped 
 and directed according as we decide to take the road 
 to Patriotism or to Internationalism? 
 
 Again, sir, as in the earlier part of this letter, I urge 
 you to leaven our whole system of Popular Education 
 

 Popular Education 241 
 
 with a sober, resolute Patriotism, and to give all our 
 boys, as part of their "general" education, some pre- 
 liminary training in the first duty of every citizen, the 
 defence of his country. 
 
 Could any proposal be more unwelcome, more out- 
 rageous, more unpopular? Why, what is this but 
 blatant militarism, undisguised Prussianism, unholy 
 soldier-worship, rank treason to humanity? 
 
 No, sir, my proposal tends to our national peace and 
 security and prosperity. Is it we who would uphold 
 militarism we who have freely offered our dearest 
 ones to crush it ; we who for long past, have never heard 
 a knock at the door without a clutch at our heart 
 strings, lest it tokened that the Dread Visitor had called 
 at our home; we who, going out into the night to stay 
 the fever of our thoughts, have never for months looked 
 up at the moon and stars, without their lighting up our 
 imagination with pictures of our dearest flesh, mangled, 
 scattered, writhing in helpless agony and thirst under 
 that same canopy, under those same beams that fell so 
 gently upon us in the dreaming night landscape ? Is it 
 we who are enamoured of militarism? Is it we who 
 would seek to perpetuate it? 
 
 No, sir, my proposal that you should give all our 
 boys some elementary drill and training in the defence 
 of their country, aims at quite another mark than the 
 establishment of militarism. It is indeed a proposal for 
 that reduction of armaments, which we all see to be 
 so urgent and necessary. 
 
 Everyone, except the demented, will allow that in the 
 unsettled condition of Europe, we shall be obliged to 
 keep a standing army of small, or moderate, or consider- 
 able dimensions, according as future circumstances may 
 advise us. Everyone will allow that this standing army 
 
242 Patriotism and 
 
 must be reduced to the smallest numbers compatible 
 with the security of our Empire. Now what could give 
 us such confidence to reduce that standing army to the 
 very lowest limits of safety, as the knowledge that the 
 instinct of Patriotism had been wisely encouraged in 
 our masses, and that all our able males had received 
 some rudimentary training, so that they might be easily 
 prepared to take up arms in an emergency? What 
 could offer us such security against panic and alarm; 
 and against the tragic and ridiculous necessity of hav- 
 ing to use the methods of enlistment of 1914, of having 
 again to badger, bribe, bully, shame, coax, and kick our 
 recruits into doing their duty by means of advertising 
 dodges worthy of a second-rate circus? 
 
 What so much contributed to bring about this war as 
 our enemy's notion that England could not be roused to 
 fight? What would be more likely to ensure the long 
 future peace of the world than the knowledge that the 
 man-power, the energy and courage of the British 
 Empire were alert and charged to spring into action the 
 moment they were summoned ? Is it a long world-peace 
 that we want? Then this is the way to obtain it. 
 
 I will say but one hasty word about the physical and 
 moral value of such training, of its reinforcement of the 
 national health. What testimony to its efficacy could 
 be more convincing than that of the daily proofs under 
 our eyes, and of the evidence given by the United States 
 recruiting officers as to the marvelous instant restora- 
 tion to health of the American city-bred populations 
 that were brought under its cleansing and invigorating 
 discipline ? 
 
 Again, if such physical training as I am advocating 
 were given to our boys of fourteen and fifteen, it need 
 not take up much, or any of the time that should be 
 
Popular Education 243 
 
 rightly claimed by books and study. All healthy boys 
 of that age need much vigorous muscular exercise, and 
 it would be an economical expenditure of their time if 
 they took that exercise in the form of drill and scouting, 
 and other out-of-door rudimentary military excursions. 
 To most of them, these would soon become pleasant and 
 exhilarating occupations. 
 
 And further, it is possible, and indeed likely, that if 
 these boys are not given this elementary military train- 
 ing in their school days, a great many of them will be 
 called to undergo it in their later years, when it will be 
 more irksome, will interfere to a large extent with their 
 ordinary employment, and will be more expensive to the 
 State. Surely, the most of them can more easily and 
 economically spare an hour or two each day in their 
 school years, than in their early manhood, when their 
 best time and energy should be given to their daily tasks 
 and vocations. 
 
 And yet once more, it is better that they should re- 
 ceive this training at school, than later in barracks, at 
 an age when barrack life has necessarily some objec- 
 tionable features and associations. 
 
 As a measure of prudent national insurance, such as 
 no citizen dare neglect in his private concerns; as a 
 measure that makes for a higher standard of health in 
 our cities; as a measure that offers the easiest, surest, 
 cheapest means of reducing our armaments to their low- 
 est limit of safety; as a measure that tends to the 
 security of the British Empire, and therefore tends to- 
 wards the permanent peace of the world for all these 
 reasons, I urge you, sir, to give full play and fostering 
 to the instinct of Patriotism in all our schools, and to 
 make elementary military training a part of every boy's 
 education. 
 
244 Patriotism and Education 
 
 I urge this, without the least hope that you will adopt, 
 or even consider, my proposal ; indeed, in the full knowl- 
 edge that you will reject it ; that so far as you do con- 
 sider it, you will find it inconvenient and contrary to all 
 your educational views and plans. It is dead against all 
 the fashions and notions of the day in Popular Educa^ 
 tion. It is dead against the rising tide of political 
 opinion. I know that, well enough. I turn to the latest 
 estimate of our National Debt. I ask myself how much 
 of all this monstrous expenditure might have been 
 spared if my proposal had been put into operation in 
 the years of 1890-1900. I catch a malign smile on the 
 face of the little cherub who sits up aloft to keep 
 watch over human delusions and fallacies. I give him 
 a friendly shrug. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 (Nov. Deo. 1918-Von. 1919) 
 
 RENEWED EXAMINATION OF POPULAR EDUCATION, 
 AND ITS EFFECTS 
 
 Daring suggestion to educate our carpenters to make tables and 
 chairs Non-readers and non-regarders The Hebrew Scriptures 
 Useful maxims from them for national guidance These ancient 
 rules of conduct! Appeal to great permanent rules and prin- 
 ciples Have we got hold of sure rules and principles in Popu- 
 lar Education? Look at the facts Double your Education rates! 
 Treble them! Ignorance is the foe The two most costly and mis- 
 chievous kinds of ignorance Proposal to levy supplementary 
 Education rate for study of the great commandments A matter 
 for the parsons England without a living credible religion 
 Manual labourers in angry revolt against their daily work 
 Professor Wallace on mistaken Education of Manual labourers 
 Forbidden to learn the things they will be mainly concerned 
 to do The young blacksmith who was educated to play the flute 
 Educational experts and Jane Austen's vicar How nature es- 
 tablishes a sound and vigorous race Our care of child life We 
 shall have to call in the biologist Breeding the unfit More 
 important to get ourselves rightly born than rightly educated 
 Summons to the biologist for guidance towards wise legislation 
 Better to fit manual labour to its job than to force it to its job 
 Popular Education responsible for widely spread vulgarity and 
 shoddiness Our Popular songs The ornament of our common 
 life Our whole system of Popular Education needs to be built 
 on a new basis Questions we now ask ourselves in educating 
 our masses Questions we should ask ourselves Broad division 
 line between manual labour and brain labour Necessary to esti- 
 mate the amount of each, and educate our masses accordingly 
 Coal and iron district peopled exclusively by artists, scholars, 
 and thinkers The gas workers of Odessa School teachers and 
 rag pickers Their rates of pay compared An unsound social 
 structure Superficial universal mis-education the cause of uni- 
 versal revolt Nature has already sorted out our scholar* for 
 
 245 
 
246 Patriotism and 
 
 us Let us educate them discriminately A million houses need- 
 ed for working classes Why not educate our children towards 
 building them Rate of wages quite unimportant Social insta- 
 bility again traced to absence of living credible religion and 
 active working faith Motto for a new Education Act Nature 
 about to bring in a stringent Uneducation Bill of her own. 
 
 MANY months have passed, sir, since I sat down 
 with the intention of writing you a short letter 
 to point out what seemed to me the eccentric methods of 
 your system of Popular Education such, for instance, 
 as the device for making good future cooks by inviting 
 girls of fourteen to tell you what they know about Cicero 
 and Miss Marie Corelli ; and again, your scheme for pro- 
 viding sound household furniture for working class 
 homes by carefully instructing our future carpenters in 
 abstract matters of "general" education till they are 
 eighteen. 
 
 In my ignorance of the mysterious laws of cause and 
 effect, I will not dare to affirm, against your better 
 judgment, that these are not the best methods of getting 
 good cookery and good household furniture. I do know 
 that relishing palatable food for our indoor workers is 
 one of the first necessities of our national life, and I do 
 know that they are in no likely way of getting it, itnless 
 kindly ravens bring it to them, or unless they are taught 
 to earn it and cook it for themselves. That sound house- 
 hold carpentry is a great convenience of life, I have had 
 constant reminders during the writing of this letter. 
 And if you discover any lapses and flaws in the argu- 
 ments I have brought before you, I hope, sir, you will 
 generously ascribe them, not so much to my natural 
 stupidity, as to my difficulty in collecting my thoughts 
 while the door in the next room was dallying with its 
 latch, and fitfully squeaking and moaning. 
 
Popular Education 
 
 247 
 
 I suppose, sir, it would scarcely fall in with, your 
 system of "general" education, to allow some of us who 
 may be inclined, to pay an additional education rate for 
 the purpose of training some of our quite young urchins 
 to be sound, skilled, general carpenters; meantime not 
 neglecting to give them also such other education as 
 would be surely useful to them and to the State. I sug- 
 gest this simply as an experiment. It is true that it ia 
 an experiment of the kind that throughout all the past 
 history of mankind has been successful. In the case of 
 my old carpenter, it was the means of bringing him 
 competence, and content with his daily work, and, I be- 
 lieve, some pleasure and pride in doing it. It was also 
 the means of providing good household carpentry for 
 his fellow workers. 
 
 However, we live in "a world of modern ideas," 
 where facts are governed and regulated by our opinions, 
 and where the past experience of mankind can offer us 
 no guidance. We must make experiments amongst this 
 new set of natural laws which we have ordained for the 
 governance of the planet. 
 
 Having regard, then, to the woeful condition of the 
 carpentry in our working-class homes, may I respect- 
 fully offer for your consideration, sir, the project I have 
 outlined above; namely, that of training some hun- 
 dreds or thousands of our boys who have a native apti- 
 tude and liking for carpentry, in the early practice of 
 that fine and useful art. And I suggest, sir, that you 
 should begin this training at about the age of ten or 
 eleven, that is to say, at the age when their hands 
 are most pliable, and their minds most plastic and 
 receptive of training. Of course the experiment can be 
 easily dropped, the moment it is proved that the present 
 system of training boys up to the age of eighteen in 
 
248 Patriotism and 
 
 matters of abstract thought, provides a larger number 
 and a better quality of tables and chairs. 
 
 I am aware that I cannot expect my suggestion will 
 receive the least attention from you. Indeed, through- 
 out my letter, I have written in the conviction that you 
 will certainly be amongst my non-regarders, and prob- 
 ably amongst my non-readers. 
 
 IsTow the non-regarder is practically the equivalent of 
 the non-reader, and in this sense most of our popular 
 books may be said to be without readers. Most of our 
 popular plays also are seen by non-regarders; and in 
 this sense, are nightly acted for hundreds of nights to 
 absent audiences. It is true that a vast number of 
 people pay their money, and attend at the theatres, and 
 clap their hands. And in the other case, a vast number 
 of people buy the book, and turn over its pages, and 
 look at its printed matter. Beyond this, nothing hap- 
 pens, except that incidentally much valuable time is 
 wasted, and a great quantity of valuable paper is de- 
 stroyed. I fear, sir, this serious "economic injury" 
 must be placed to the debit of Popular Education ; but 
 doubtless it will be redressed, as you promise us, by 
 giving our masses increased doses of that same "gen- 
 eral education" which seems to have caused it. 
 
 Be this as it may, an author may certainly take more 
 pride in having a large number of non-readers, than in 
 having a large number of readers who are non-regard- 
 ers. For clearly it is more respectful to an author not 
 to read him at all, than to read him and not to give heed 
 to what he says. If you should read this book, sir, and 
 not regard it, I shall feel that I have wasted some hours 
 of your time; while I shall also have an uneasy sense 
 that I have lost an unanswerable case by my unfortunate 
 manner of stating it. I will therefore natter myself by 
 
Popular Education 249 
 
 counting you among my non-readers, whom already I 
 number by hundreds of millions, and who may be 
 trusted to increase beyond fabulous computation as the 
 ages roll on. 
 
 But even Shakespeare and Sir Hall Caine do not 
 command an unlimited circulation, and there are some 
 people who do not read the Bible. These are, of all 
 men, the most to be pitied. For that bundle of strange 
 old Hebrew books, for all their grotesque, misleading 
 theology, their frequent contradictions, their childish 
 science, their doubtful history, their monstrous fables 
 and miracles, their occasional passages of shocking im- 
 morality for all these faults and errors, these strange 
 old Hebrew books do yet show us the way of life, if we 
 will but plant our feet discerningly upon their pre- 
 cepts. Their rules of conduct make the beaten highway 
 of mankind. 
 
 Here is one simple maxim that stirs my memory: 
 "Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwell- 
 eth securely by thee." Consider the universal potency 
 and effect of it. Suppose that short simple precept to 
 have been framed and hung in the German Foreign 
 and War Offices a dozen years ago and obeyed. Ger- 
 many to-day would be a great, rich, prosperous nation, 
 commanding the respect and honour and friendship 
 of the world. Just that short simple precept of twelve 
 words ! 
 
 Invert it, and it has the same universal potency and 
 effect. "Dwell not securely by thy neighbour, when he 
 deviseth evil against thee." Suppose that short simple 
 precept to have been framed and hung in our own 
 Foreign and War Offices a dozen years ago and 
 obeyed. We should have been spared by far the greater 
 part of the miseries and losses of the past four years, 
 
250 Patriotism and 
 
 and our future naval supremacy would not now be 
 jeopardized. Just that short, simple precept! 
 
 What magic "reconstruct ive" power have these old 
 precepts over the character and circumstances of the 
 men and the nations who obey them! The dozens of 
 them that we daily disobey and neglect ! Yet they are 
 our sure guides to individual, social, and national well- 
 being and happiness. Only in the measure that we keep 
 them, will our schemes of "reconstruction 57 prosper, or 
 be anything but whirling eddies of dust and wind and 
 confusion. 
 
 "A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a 
 just weight is his delight.' 7 A housewife in a London 
 suburb tells me that there is not a neighbouring trades- 
 man with whom she deals, who does not try daily cheats 
 of pence and ounces. Petty enough, but what a patch 
 of rottenness does it show in the texture of our every- 
 day national life ! What a comment on our system of 
 Popular Education That concerns itself about Miss 
 Marie Corelli, and apparently neglects the book of 
 Proverbs ! 
 
 "In all labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips 
 tendeth to penury" a verse that came forcibly to my 
 mind a few nights ago, when I heard a dirty, shabby, 
 disreputable, unshaven lounger announce to half-a-dozen 
 of his like, "We're going to have Education! And 
 we're going to have Our Rights !" with a vicious em- 
 phasis on the last two words that boded ill to anybody 
 else on the planet who may happen to have Rights. 
 
 "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
 he is old he will not depart from it," is a maxim of 
 sovereign universal value, as none of us will dispute. It 
 seems, however, to offer to educational experts large 
 opportunities for misapplication. 
 
Popular Education 251 
 
 <r Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he 
 that keepeth the law, happy is he" one might quote the 
 whole book, so full it is of saving wisdom and national 
 instruction. 
 
 These ancient rules of conduct! How oddly they 
 sound in a "world of modern ideas" ! These changeless 
 precepts, that were old and serviceable to mankind when 
 Abraham lived in tents on the plain of Mamre, and will 
 be new and serviceable to mankind when that plain of 
 Mamre shall be alive with airmen's wings ! 
 
 These old, old rules of life ! I know not in what ad- 
 verse circumstances I may find myself in a year's time. 
 I do know that I cannot be in any situation, however 
 perplexed, where obedience to one or two of these rules 
 will not bring me off with self-respect, and with credit 
 among my fellows. I know not in what emergencies 
 and dangers my country may find itself in the course of 
 tiie coming generations. I do know that whatever 
 changes and revolutions may shake and scatter the 
 peoples, it will be only by a schooled and united Pa- 
 triotism that England shall be safely brought through, 
 and shall find her lasting security and prosperity only 
 by the submission of all classes to those great fixed 
 principles of orderly government which alone preserve 
 nations from anarchy, dispersion, and ruin. 
 
 Return, O England, to the commandments that from 
 of old have made nations great, and to the precepts that 
 have made men wise ! Lay fast hold upon them ! Write 
 them on the table of thy heart! Tie them about thy 
 neck ! So shall thy land have peace, and thy barns shall 
 be filled with plenty ! So shall thy children inherit the 
 fatness of the earth, and there shall be no complaining 
 in thy streets ! 
 
 Surely if ever this nation was called upon to shape its 
 
252 Patriotism and 
 
 policy by great proved rules and principles, and not by 
 party cries and expediencies, the tricks of the caucus, 
 the whimsies of doctrinaires, the bellowings of dema- 
 gogues, and the clamours of the mob surely it is called 
 upon this day to choose this plain path of national 
 safety. 
 
 Throughout this letter I have sought to build all my 
 arguments upon great permanent underlying rules, 
 upon principles that are proved and vouched for by 
 facts, and are not at the mercy of shifting currents of 
 popular opinion. 
 
 Would you say, sir, that, in this great matter of Pop- 
 ular Education, we have got hold of sure rules and 
 principles ? 
 
 Look at the facts. Here is a system that was de- 
 signed to give free education to as many children as 
 our working classes choose to bring into the world, no 
 matter how diseased, how mentally and physically unfit 
 they may be. It was designed to give every one of 
 these children a chance of rising to any position for 
 which his natural abilities may qualify him, and to fit 
 all of them to earn their living in circumstances that 
 should ensure them tolerable comfort and content. Yet 
 after fifty years of it, we find the majority of working 
 men in the kingdom in open rebellion against their lot, 
 in open rebellion against the plainest economic laws. 
 And the more education we give them, the louder and 
 angrier grows their discontent. 
 
 Where is the fault? Is it in the human stuff that 
 you are moulding? The soundest part of it has just 
 shown that it can be trained to accomplish the most 
 heroic deeds the world has ever seen when it obeys 
 its leaders, and does not command them, as in politics. 
 
 Is there not something wrong in the system by which 
 
Popular Education 
 
 253 
 
 our working boys are trained for their civic duties, 
 when the result is plainly seen to be a state of universal 
 envy, discontent, and daily revolt against ordinary 
 daily duties ? 
 
 Who does not sympathize with our working men in 
 their struggles for better conditions of life ? Who would 
 not willingly pay for giving them such Education as 
 will tend to bring about these better conditions, so far 
 as they are attainable in a world which certainly was 
 not constructed on the easy plan of giving all its in- 
 habitants a good time, and the right to breed at the 
 expense of the State? 
 
 National money cannot be better spent than upon 
 Education which does really educate, which does really 
 draw out, not indeed all the natural abilities of every 
 child, but chiefly and continuously those natural abili- 
 ties by which each child will have to earn his living, 
 and thus obtain reasonable comfort and content for 
 himself, and be of most service to his fellow citizens and 
 the State. Whatever advanced "general" education he 
 wants, he will get for himself. If he will not do this, 
 you do but multiply labour and expense and confusion 
 by forcing it upon him. However, let advanced "gen- 
 eral" education be easily within the reach of all who are 
 desirous of it, and are likely to profit by it 
 
 Double your Education rates, sir! Treble them, if 
 you can but teach us the things it most concerns us to 
 know, and yet more compulsively, the things it most 
 concerns to do ! 
 
 Ignorance is the foe. But what ignorance can be so 
 mischievous and costly to the State, as ignorance of 
 those plain precepts and rules of conduct which hold all 
 human society together ? And next, what ignorance can 
 be so mischievous and costly to the State as ignorance 
 
254 Patriotism and 
 
 of our own particular work, ignorance of what our job 
 is, and ignorance of the way to use our hands and tools 
 when we have found our job. I think it would be safe 
 to say that, after fifty years of Popular Education, 
 these two kinds of Popular Ignorance are far more 
 prevalent and widely spread in England to-day than 
 they were before we had any National Education at 
 all. 
 
 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowl- 
 edge." That is the true foundation stone of all Popu- 
 lar Education. And tightly morticed to it are those 
 old rules and precepts that I have glanced at very 
 granite wherewith to build up the character of our citi- 
 zens, and the integrity of our public life. 
 
 While I have been writing this letter, I have got into 
 talk with some of your younger scholars of the poorer 
 classes, and have asked them questions about their 
 teachers, and their lessons, and their school work. Per- 
 haps I was unfortunate in the specimens of boyhood 
 whom I happened to meet ; perhaps their shyness tend- 
 ed to obscure and confuse their answers. I will not 
 make any sweeping assertion, but I received a strong 
 impression that amongst your proteges of the ages of 
 ten to fourteen there is a general and alarming igno- 
 rance of the necessity for honesty and truthfulness. 
 Doubtless this kind of ignorance is not confined to our 
 street urchins, but is widely prevalent and "hronic 
 amongst all classes in all nations. But when we find 
 that a considerable body of our tradesmen regularly con- 
 duct their business by a system of petty pilferings, it 
 is permissible to suggest that classes should be held in 
 all our national schools for the special study of the last 
 six commandments and other obsolete rules of conduct, 
 with demonstrations of their effect upon personal and 
 
Popular Education 255 
 
 national character. If, sir, you should institute an in- 
 quiry into the prevalence of this kind of ignorance 
 amongst your scholars, and its effect upon the commun- 
 ity in the next generation, and if, as the result of the 
 inquiry, you should levy a supplementary Education 
 rate for the study and enforcement of these command- 
 ments, you shall find me your most cordial subscriber. 
 
 It may again be urged that this is a matter for the 
 parsons. But surely it is unfair to put this important 
 Educational work upon the shoulders of the parsons, 
 overburdened as they already are with their gigantic 
 task of reconciling their different systems of theology 
 amongst themselves, and of making them credible to our 
 intelligence. When they have accomplished this stu- 
 pendous work, it will be time to ask for their help in 
 rescuing the commandments from disuse and neglect. 
 Meantime, it is clear that the working classes are largely 
 rejecting both the theology, and the commandments. 
 And England is left without a living credible religion. 
 I often think that theology is the great enemy of re- 
 ligion, as the English theatre is the great enemy of the 
 English drama, 
 
 Howbeit, sir, I jwill repeat that ignorance of these 
 great commandments is one of the worst evils that can 
 afflict a State, and that our system of Popular Education 
 seems to be doing little to abolish it. What shall it avail, 
 sir, though your scholars have passed all sorts of stand- 
 ards, and know a little about Cicero, and a great deal 
 about Miss Corelli, if they have not been grounded in 
 the knowledge and practice of the great permanent rules 
 of life and conduct ? Here is surely the first great busi- 
 ness of Popular Education, the task that all its teachers 
 should be set to pursue. I leave the matter to your 
 eareful consideration* 
 
256 Patriotism and 
 
 The second, and next most mischievous and costly 
 kind of ignorance, is ignorance of our own particular 
 work in the world. The dominant staring fact that 
 meets hoth educational experts and politicians, is the 
 fact that nearly every manual worker in the kingdom is 
 in angry revolt against his daily job; does not merely 
 take no pride in doing it well, but hates it, shirks it, 
 performs it only by the stimulus of compulsion, or the 
 lure of bribery; performs it, not as a duty and service 
 to the community, but as a means of taxing the commun- 
 ity, of whom the immense majority are his fellow 
 workers. 
 
 If you will make a careful inquiry, sir, you will find 
 that, not only in carpentry, but also in dozens of other 
 trades and callings, where honest, skilled workmanship 
 is necessary for the daily comfort of us all, there is the 
 same slackness and incapacity, the same ignorance of 
 the craft, the same hatred of the work itself. The mo- 
 tive thought that prompts our manual labourers to-day 
 is not, "How can I do this job thoroughly and well, 
 so that my fellow workers may benefit by my labour, 
 while I shall equally benefit by their careful and honest 
 work for me?" but, "How can I get through this job 
 with the least trouble, and how can I get more pay for 
 my next job ?" 
 
 From this it follows that a great deal of the work that 
 we are doing for others, and that others are doing for 
 us, has to be done over and over again. Three pairs of 
 bad boots have to be made at far greater cost of labour 
 and time than one good pair. Three bad plays have to 
 be written and produced at a greater cost of labour and 
 time than one that demands serious thought from the 
 author in writing it, and serious thought from the 
 
Popular Education 
 
 audience in seeing it, and can therefore be seen many 
 times with delight. And so the daily lives of most of 
 us are pushing and worried and empty and mean, and 
 are stripped of ornament and grace and thoughtful 
 leisure. My friend Emery Walker tells me that a pic- 
 ture map of the road from Hyde Park Corner to Ham- 
 mersmith in the early nineteenth century, shows that 
 there was not a single house that was not beautiful, or 
 pleasing to look at. Consider how thoroughly those 
 builders and carpenters must have been educated in the 
 things that it most concerned them to do and make. 
 
 Sir, the very plain meaning of this general rebellion 
 of manual labour is that the great body of our workers 
 are being educated away from their individual life- 
 work, instead of being educated towards it. The result 
 is that the majority of them find it repulsive and un- 
 bearable, shirk it, scamp it, and do it grudgingly, with 
 ever louder grumblings and threats. Surely this points 
 to some serious defect in the system of education that 
 prepares them for it. How else do you account for 
 the fact, that with higher wages and easier material 
 conditions of living than have ever been known, the 
 great body of manual labour throughout the kingdom is 
 in constant and increasing rebellion ? 
 
 If Popular Education does not prepare our labouring 
 classes for existence in an actual world where there is 
 a tremendous amount of hard, dirty, disagreeable work 
 to be done by somebody, and where none of them can 
 have any comfort and content until that hard, dirty, 
 disagreeable work is done, what impossible fairy land 
 is Popular Education preparing our working classes 
 to live in ? 
 
 My general argument receives powerful confirmation 
 
258 Patriotism and 
 
 from one who speaks from long practical experience of 
 the working of our educational machine. In his "Open 
 Letter to Mr. Lloyd George," 1 Professor Eohert Wal- 
 lace of Edinburgh University brought the most urgent 
 and cogent reasons for the postponement and reconsid- 
 eration of the English and Scotch Education Bills, then 
 before Parliament. He clearly showed how mischievous 
 their operation is likely to be in many ways. In a sec- 
 ond pamphlet, 2 containing his "Opening Lecture" this 
 season, Professor Wallace brings further convincing evi- 
 dence of the economic fallacy, the wasteful futility and 
 the general impracticability of many of the clauses of 
 these misconceived measures. He advises that some ap- 
 proach be made in our education of manual workers 
 to the old Scottish system, which not only trained and 
 developed a sturdy, industrious, educated working and 
 peasant class, but also gave us many able administrators 
 and leading men in all the professions, thus conspicu- 
 ously helping to build up the Empire. If National 
 Education is to be judged by results, surely that old 
 Scotch system offers us many features that might be 
 most usefully and beneficially copied and embodied in 
 our educational legislation. 
 
 Professor Wallace arrives at the conclusion that the 
 education of manual labour throughout the country is 
 being mainly conducted on vicious first principles, and 
 towards consequences that will be increasingly disad- 
 vantageous and disastrous, alike to the working classes 
 themselves and to the State. I have not the practical 
 experience of Professor Wallace, and can only judge by 
 
 1 "Open Letter to Mr. Lloyd George" (Oliver and Boyd, Edin- 
 burgh), 2d. 
 
 '"Opening Lecture," by Robert Wallace (Oliver and Boyd, 
 Edinburgh), 6(2. 
 
Popular Education 
 
 259 
 
 results. Sir, our workers are being largely educated 
 away from realities, and ignorance itself is better than 
 such an education. 
 
 Professor Wallace's unanswerable letter to Mr. Lloyd 
 George was disregarded by the Prime Minister him- 
 self, and by the late Parliament. Will the new Parlia- 
 ment set itself to search thoroughly into this most press- 
 ing matter of "reconstruction" ? Doubtless it will con- 
 tain an increasing number of members who will try a 
 tussle and a juggle with eternal economic laws, like men 
 who should construct a barometer to regulate the 
 weather, and give us as much sunshine as we would 
 like. 
 
 Meantime, sir, there are those million or thereabouts 
 of houses to be built, and an infinite amount of other 
 hard manual labour to be done for the working classes. 
 Again, in my ignorance of the mysterious laws of cause 
 and effect, I will not dare to affirm against your better 
 judgment, that the execution of all this accumulating 
 manual work may not be furthered by your simple ex- 
 pedient of keeping all our vigorous young labourers in 
 continuation classes till they are eighteen, there to be 
 employed in learning things that most of them do not 
 wish to know, that many of them cannot comprehend, 
 and that would be useless to the majority if they could 
 comprehend them. And this at a time when nearly 
 every working man in the kingdom is dissatisfied with 
 his lot, and is likely to be in constant insurrection, 
 striking for higher wages and shorter hours ! 
 
 With this prospect before us, you will permit me, 
 sir, to watch the working of your experiment with a 
 legitimate curiosity, and an earnest hope that for the 
 sake of the working classes themselves it may prove 
 successful ; at the same time holding myself in readiness 
 
260 Patriotism and 
 
 to tender you at any moment the sympathy which Jove 
 feels with a good man struggling with adversity. 
 
 Do I grudge our working classes any good, or com- 
 fort, or knowledge, or luxury that it may be possible 
 for them to obtain, and to keep in their possession, and 
 bequeath to their children ? These workers of England ! 
 What kindness, what lovableness, what native humour 
 and shrewd good sense, what generosity, patience, and 
 stubborn endurance, are to be found amongst them! 
 There is not one of them who can wish any real and 
 lasting good for himself that I do not wish for him, 
 and would not help him to attain so far as it is at- 
 tainable, and is aidant to the general security and civili- 
 zation of the State. Surely the working classes of this 
 country are as capable of great accomplishments and 
 constructive work in peace, as they have shown them- 
 selves capable of great accomplishments and exalted 
 heroism in war. If only they will find the right leaders, 
 and if only they will suffer themselves to be led ! 
 
 It is estimated that 85 per cent. 1 of the children un- 
 der your jurisdiction, sir, belong to the class of manual 
 workers, or of those who will have to earn their living 
 by routine or mechanical operations where the hand is 
 employed rather than the brain. With this 85 per cent, 
 in our minds, I beg most respectfully, sir, to offer for 
 your consideration this general maxim, as a first prin- 
 ciple that should inform our entire system of Popular 
 Education "Euture manual workers shall, so far as 
 possible, be allowed and encouraged to learn those things 
 that they will be mainly concerned to do, and shall not 
 be forced to learn those things that they will be only 
 remotely concerned to know." Our present system of 
 Popular Education is based upon the opposite principle, 
 1 Professor Wallace, "Open Letter to Mr. Lloyd George." 
 
Popular Education 261 
 
 which declares: "Future manual workers shall be for- 
 bidden to learn those things that they will be mainly 
 concerned to do, and shall be forced to learn those things 
 that they will be only remotely concerned to know/' 
 
 That is the principle which has guided experts in 
 education for the last generation, and your new Act 
 asserts it with gathering force. Hence it is that almost 
 universal discontent prevails amongst the working 
 classes, and hence it is that much of the necessary ordi- 
 nary mechanical work of our daily lives is shirked and 
 scamped, and is being done with increasing friction, 
 and at an increasing cost to the nation that is, at an 
 increasing cost to the working classes who form the bulk 
 of the nation. What other results could we expect? 
 What but larger results of the same sort can we expect 
 in the future ? 
 
 The whole matter is governed by the well-known 
 physiological law, which may be summarized thus : "All 
 exercises of our muscles and nerves tend to become less 
 irksome, more agreeable, and more effectual, the earlier 
 they are learned, and the longer they are practised." 
 
 When we remember that 85 per cent, or thereabouts 
 of our population will have to earn their living, and 
 to contribute to the prosperity of the State by the exer- 
 cise of certain muscles trained in various ways, it seems 
 a strange system of education that forbids them to exer- 
 cise these muscles, and forces them all to an unwelcome 
 irritation of irrelevant brain centres. The young black- 
 smith who was prepared for his profession by means 
 of lessons on the flute up to the age of eighteen, never 
 mastered his craft, and was always dissatisfied with it 
 Nor did he become so much as a passable musician, 
 though he had grown to believe that this was his true 
 vocation. The horses in that neighbourhood were very 
 
262 Patriotism and 
 
 badly shod, and he was constantly kicked about the 
 forge. One day he was permanently disabled by th 
 hoof of a recalcitrant animal, who did not like his ama- 
 teur method of shoeing, and whom he had vainly tried 
 to soothe by a solo on the flute. He spent the remainder 
 of his days giving lectures on the faulty structure of 
 society in the taproom of the "Blue Lion." 
 
 I have sometimes wondered whether experts in edu- 
 cation have ever noticed how exquisite an instrument is 
 the human hand, how quickly it responds to instruction, 
 how infinitely more worthy of trust it is than the human 
 brain, how far more certain of success in its operations. 
 !N"ow 85 per cent, of our population have, willy-nilly, to 
 earn their livings by their hands, in tasks that scarcely 
 make any demand upon the brains. Surely, the first 
 question we have to ask ourselves is this: "How can 
 these tasks be made the least irksome, the most tolerable, 
 the most agreeable to the workers, so that they may have 
 the greatest comfort and content, and perform them with 
 goodwill and to the best of their ability, to the end that 
 the whole community, of whom 85 per cent, are the 
 workers themselves, shall receive the greatest benefit?" 
 
 Bearing in mind the physiological law that governs 
 the whole matter, that all bodily activities become more 
 agreeable by repetition, that all conditions of life be> 
 come more bearable the longer we are used to them, we 
 may vary the question, and put it thus : "How shall we 
 educate 85 per cent, of our boys and girls, so that in 
 after life the exercise of their muscles and hands in their 
 daily duties shall not be grievous to them, or appear 
 degrading; so that such work as carpentry shall give 
 them satisfaction and pleasure ; so that even such work 
 as mining and iron puddling shall, by habit and con- 
 firmation, become acceptable or at least endurable, and 
 
Popular Education 263 
 
 ahall not provoke them to incessant discontent and rebel- 
 lion?" 
 
 That, sir, is the first and chief problem of Popular 
 Education. Just that, and not: "How can we force the 
 greatest number of these boys and girls to pass certain 
 standards of secondary education, despite their faculties 
 and their inclinations, despite the obvious fact that most 
 of them have inherited more muscle than brains, de- 
 spite the fact that most of the knowledge so pumped into 
 them will filter out in a month, and that what is re* 
 tained will be very doubtfully and indirectly of any use 
 to them ?" 
 
 This last is the question which educational experts are 
 now busily asking themselves. Being concerned with 
 Education rather than with Life, they have come to 
 think that Life is a preparation for Education instead of 
 seeing that Education is a preparation for Life. They 
 are like Jane Austen's vicar, who, being fond of gruel 
 himself, and finding it agreeable to his digestion, sup- 
 posed it to be equally agreeable and nourishing to every- 
 body else, and set down all his hungry guests to a meal 
 of slops. 
 
 It is primarily a question of getting us all into a habit 
 of proficiency and reasonable content in our individual 
 work and duty, not of getting us all to pass standards in 
 certain accomplishments, though this may be desirable 
 when once our first object is achieved. Would you say, 
 sir, that the majority of the scholars who have passed 
 through our national schools, have been trained into a 
 habit of proficiency and reasonable content in their in- 
 dividual work and duty, when the whole industrial 
 world is constantly in a state of sulky discontent, or of 
 obstructive revolt ? Would you say, sir, that the "eco- 
 nomic injury" done to the country from this cause, does 
 
264 Patriotism and 
 
 not far outweigh whatever economic benefit may result 
 from indiscriminately forcing advanced "general" edu- 
 cation upon everybody ? 
 
 What habit can be more wholesome, more fruitful 
 with good results to the community, and therefore more 
 necessary to be taught, than the habit of getting our 
 own living and this as early as possible, provided only 
 that our health does not suffer too severely? 
 
 This is a vexed and difficult question. It is not to be 
 solved by a blind benevolence that hastens to endow and 
 multiply weakness and misery and disease, heedless of 
 all the reactions it sets up in the average health and 
 strength of the community. In this sharpest battle and 
 scurry of life whereto we are all conscripted, it must 
 needs be that many of us shall be maimed, and that 
 some of us shall fall. It must needs be that the health 
 of many of us shall suffer, and that the lives of some of 
 us shall be shortened and sacrificed by reason of the 
 daily labour that falls to our lot. For this is the way 
 that Nature takes to establish a sound and vigorous race. 
 
 It happened some years ago, that in June I was in 
 the South of France, in July I was in Brittany, in Au- 
 gust I was in the Isle of Arran. On the slopes of the 
 Maritime Alps, the sun makes the conditions of life 
 easy, and does most of the labour in the gardens and 
 vineyards and olive orchards. Yet the peasants gen- 
 erally were decrepit and degraded ; many of them were 
 broken with toil and old at thirty. In Brittany, where 
 the climate is harsher and more bracing, the appearance 
 and bearing of the peasantry plainly declared a higher 
 average of health; there was a good show of robust 
 manhood amongst a general population containing many 
 middling and sickly ones. But in the Isle of Arran, 
 where the sun gives small encouragement to laziness, 
 
Popular Education 265 
 
 where for generations the stern climate has flogged the 
 peasants to constant exertion to gain their daily bread, 
 where each remorseless winter has hurried the phthis- 
 icky and weakly ones to the churchyard, and stayed 
 them from breeding their like under these stern con- 
 ditions, I saw not one man, woman, or child, who did 
 not carry a certificate of vigorous health in his face. 
 
 Clearly we are not living in a world where every 
 child's physical constitution and mental capacity can be 
 developed to the utmost. Let us indeed cherish our 
 child-life as our most valuable and dearest national 
 asset, but let us not cherish it so unwisely as to breed 
 an increasing proportion of children who will be un- 
 able to meet the actual conditions and inevitable hard- 
 ships of life. Let us beware of reactions. If there is 
 some soul of goodness in things evil, so also there is some 
 soul of evil in things that are good in themselves 
 even in our care of child-life. And we may be sure 
 that Mature, with her thoughtful, kindly cruelty, will 
 distil it out. 
 
 The doctors are doubtless looking into this matter, 
 and can give us much good advice. But the doctors are 
 chiefly concerned to show us how to save the weak, 
 rather than how to breed the strong. We shall have to 
 call in the biologist. 
 
 In my ignorance and presumption, I have already 
 offered you so much unpalatable advice, sir, that I pause 
 before I overween myself still further. Yet I will dare 
 to say that the biologist stands behind you and over you 
 in this matter of Popular Education, as he stands be- 
 hind and over so many of our social reformers and poli- 
 ticians, who never suspect his presence. If 85 per cent, 
 of our population have to get their living by manual 
 labour, it is clearly necessary that we should, first of 
 
266 Patriotism and 
 
 all, breed a hardy population, whose physique and po- 
 tential muscular power roughly approximate to our na- 
 tional requirements. If this is not being done, inevit- 
 ably we shall have to face constant and increasing "la- 
 bour unrest," ever threatening us with social disinte- 
 gration. 
 
 This question is more important than Education 
 itself, seeing that it is precedent, and must finally gov- 
 ern the methods, the amount, the variety, and the dis- 
 tribution of the Education that we give to our masses. 
 For before we begin to educate our children at all, it is 
 surely necesssary for us to inquire how we can educate 
 them in such a way as to enable them to get their living 
 by means that are within their capacities, and by activi- 
 ties that are, as far as possible, congenial to them. 
 
 It is disquieting to hear from the Prime Minister that 
 England, under easier conditions, has been breeding a 
 greater proportion of physically unfit than Germany 
 and France. Before we trouble any further about 
 Education, perhaps we had better go to the biologist, 
 and ask him a few questions, such as : "Are we keeping 
 an increasing balance of average physical health amongst 
 our workers? Is their physique declining, or is it not 
 improving at the same rate as that of certain other na- 
 tions ? Which way are we tending ? Are we breeding 
 a race hardy enough to endure the tremendous physical 
 strain and the fierce competition of the coming years, 
 and to thrive under them ?" If the biologist cannot give 
 us satisfactory answers to these questions, it would be 
 wise to put aside most other educational and political 
 matters, and set to work under his direction to fortify 
 the physical health of the nation. Certainly no other 
 matter of internal "reconstruction" can be so pressing 
 as this, or so loudly demand instant inquiry. 
 
Popular Education 267 
 
 I am sure, sir, you will readily admit that the Minis- 
 try of Education is directly concerned to get these 
 questions answered by the biologist. Eor if the biolo- 
 gist cannot reassure us upon this vital matter, you will 
 be in the unwelcome position of giving a more and more 
 bounteous "general" education to a rising generation 
 who will be less and less physically able to hold their 
 own, and who will find it increasingly difficult to earn 
 their daily bread, while you are increasingly giving 
 them all sorts of interesting information about most 
 other subjects. 
 
 Statistics are apt to take strange liberties with facts. 
 When we remember how the common folk of England 
 have proved themselves in the last four years, what grit 
 and valour and endurance they have shown, we refuse to 
 believe that the stock and root of the nation is unsound. 
 But it is evident that we are breeding an increasing 
 number of the physically and mentally unfit, who can- 
 not by any means be educated in the wholesome habit 
 of earning their own living. We are called to a pro- 
 longed consultation with the biologist, for clearly it is 
 more important to get ourselves rightly born, than to 
 get ourselves rightly educated. 
 
 In spite of the Prime Minister's recruiting statistics, 
 we have faith that the biologist will give us a favourable 
 general report on the health of the nation. At any 
 rate, he can tell us whether we are on the right road; 
 and he can show us where and how we may ease and 
 avert the rigour of natural conditions without enfeebling 
 our race; how we can breed an increasing number of 
 citizens who will be delighted to find themselves in so 
 pleasant a land as England, and delighted to do their 
 share of the necessary work that has to be done. Pray 
 tell us, Mr. Biologist, how we can rid ourselves of this 
 
268 Patriotism and 
 
 festering rebellion, not against remedial ills, but 
 against plain economic laws, against the fundamental 
 conditions of human life. Instruct us how we can shajw 
 our legislation so that, while not one waif or broken 
 bit of humanity is left uncared for, we may yet dis- 
 courage and forbid the multiplication of those whom 
 Nature would reject and cast into outer darkness. Show 
 us how we may be found helping her in her merciful 
 work of repression, instead of zealously hindering her 
 and defying her. 
 
 Assuming that the biologist will relieve us of any 
 great anxiety as to the general physique of the nation, 
 we might further ask him to tell us whether we are 
 breeding muscles and brains in something approaching 
 those proportions which the necessary manual and in- 
 tellectual work of the country respectively demand. For 
 there must be distress and insurrection if there is any 
 great disparity and incompatibility between the amount 
 and quality of the various kinds of labour to be per- 
 formed, and the respective numbers and right propor- 
 tions of the labourers who are physically or mentally 
 capable of performing it. Here again we may hope that 
 the biologist will tell us that we are reasonably well sup- 
 plied with raw human material in the right proportions. 
 
 This granted, it is necessary that this vast bulk of 
 human material should be sorted out, and each division 
 of it rightly trained and educated to its own work. And 
 as the social machine will not work unless some 85 per 
 cent, of this human material is employed in manual 
 labour, it is surely wiser to fit it to its job, than to force 
 it to its job, so that the work may be done without put- 
 ting too great a strain on the labourer ; without injuring 
 his self-respect and doing violence to his feelings; so 
 that when he is building a house, he may not feel that 
 
l 
 
 Popular Education 269 
 
 he ought to be riding in his motor-car to his city office, 
 with a fur rug over his knees, and a choice Havana 
 between his lips. Doubtless he is more worthy to ride 
 in his motor-car, and smoke choice Havanas than many 
 men who are doing these things. Who is most worthy 
 to ride in motor cars and smoke choice Havanas, is a 
 terribly vexatious problem which seems to defy solu- 
 tion. While we are trying to solve it to the satisfaction 
 of everybody, the house does not get built, nor does 
 any work get done. And then the working classes are 
 the chief sufferers. I remember reading in the Ameri- 
 can papers, an address delivered by Mr. Carnegie to the 
 boys of the United States. He advised them all to fol- 
 low his example, and they might all become eminent 
 millionaires. 
 
 Suppose, sir, tLat while 85 per cent, of our popula- 
 tion will necessarily have to get their daily bread by 
 manual labour, you are educating 85 per cent, or some 
 large proportion of them, in such a way that instead of 
 preparing themselves for manual labour, their chief 
 hope is to dodge it, and to get their living in some "gen- 
 teel 7 ? occupation in the ranks above it. Then clearly 
 much of the manual work of the country will be badly 
 done ; a vast number of badly trained, disappointed per- 
 sons will be doing it in a half-hearted, discontented way ; 
 and a great number of other badly-trained, disappointed 
 persons will be found in those numerous quasi-genteel 
 occupations which make little demand upon the muscles, 
 and less upon the brains, and many of which are para- 
 sitic, or useless to the community. 
 
 Perhaps you may have noticed, sir, that one of the re- 
 sults, or, at least, one of the accompaniments of Popular 
 Education, is the growth of a large class, just above the 
 actual labouring class, who have assimilated just enough 
 
270 Patriotism and 
 
 "general education" to make hard working obnoxious to 
 them, and who are mentally incapable of being educated 
 so as to compete successfully for any worthy or digni- 
 fied intellectual employment. Hence a certain vulgarity 
 and shoddiness and vicious taste has spread through- 
 out the ranks of this class, and downwards into large 
 sections of the neighbouring labour classes, and upwards 
 into large sections of the neighbouring middle classes. 
 Hence the number of useless and hideous things that 
 are ticketed in the shop windows, "Artistic ! Six pence 
 three farthings." 
 
 As I have said, we get a true measure of the value 
 and tendency of Popular Education in our popular 
 theatres. We also get it in our popular music. Our 
 most popular songs are mainly models of bad taste in 
 language, mated to coarse, empty jingle. They please 
 our popularly educated public, drive true lovers of music 
 crazy for a few months, and are then forgotten. They 
 are, perhaps, not much worse than many of the forgotten 
 popular songs of past generations. But they are cer- 
 tainly more empty and meaningless and vulgar. What 
 it concerns us to note is that, with the increasing spread 
 of Popular Education, we have almost lost the art of 
 writing an English song that the common people can 
 delight to sing, and that will not distress our true mu- 
 sicians. We cannot put simple, sincere words convey- 
 veying true feeling, to simple, sincere music conveying 
 true feeling. Surely this implies that something is 
 wrong with the general education of our people. For in 
 all ages and communities, music has been the chief de> 
 light and recreation and solace of the common folk. 
 The popular songs of a people are windows into the 
 minds and hearts of that people. They are the surest 
 indicators and revealers of its intellectual and spiritual 
 
Popular Education 271 
 
 condition. Judge then, sir, what is the intellectual and 
 spiritual condition of the millions whom you are edu- 
 cating, by their most popular songs. "Would you think 
 me impertinent if I were to send you a bundle of 
 them? 
 
 Again we have to note that this vulgarity and vicious 
 taste so prevalent in our popular music, as in our gen- 
 eral life, has spread downwards and upwards, and haa 
 infected all classes. We do not seem to be educating 
 our great public ; our great public seems to be educating 
 its teachers. There is, however, a large body of our 
 labouring classes who are as yet free from this vul- 
 garity and vicious taste. They are those who have been 
 the least under the influence of Popular Education. A 
 labourer who is doing hard, useful work, may be dirty, 
 ignorant, and brutal; but he is not vulgar. Vulgarity 
 has to be learnt ; it has to be inculcated before it can be 
 practised. 
 
 After instilling the great commandments, the first 
 main object of Popular Education is to train our masses 
 so that they may do their individual daily work thor- 
 oughly, and with reasonable content. The second main 
 object of Popular Education is to train our masses to 
 ornament their lives with simplicity, grace and unpre- 
 tentious beauty. Would you say, sir, that Popular Edu- 
 cation is in a fair way to attain either of these two 
 main objects? Are not the majority of our labourers 
 doing their work badly and half-heartedly? Are they 
 not in a state of constant and growing revolt against it ? 
 Is not the ornament of our common life for the most 
 part trumpery, false, debased, vicious, whether we take 
 the test of music, songs, plays, popular literature, or 
 household furniture and decoration ? And are not these 
 evils traceable to the fact that Popular Education is, 
 
272 Patriotism and 
 
 to a growing extent, teaching our masses the things that 
 they are not greatly concerned to know, and is not teach- 
 ing them the things that they are most concerned to do ? 
 And the very plain, though indirect and unintentional, 
 effect of this teaching is that manual labour is brought 
 into discredit, and becomes abhorrent to the bulk of 
 those who will have to earn their living by it ; while the 
 correlative effect is that we are fostering the growth of 
 a large class of miseducated sixpenny-three-farthing vul- 
 garians, who will not get their living by their hands, 
 and cannot usefully and worthily get it by their brains. 
 
 Many of these have been most helpful during the war, 
 and, by the temptation of high wages, have done well in 
 those numerous temporary occupations where no spe- 
 cial skill was required. But will there not be great dis- 
 content and distress amongst them when we settle down 
 to peace ? 
 
 I have cordially allowed that one or two of the clauses 
 in your new Education Act will afford opportunities for 
 teaching some of the household arts and crafts; and 
 doubtless good use will be made of these opportunities. 
 But if we are to remedy the evils I have dwelt upon 
 or avoid their increase, does not our whole system of 
 Popular Education need to be built on a new basis ? 
 
 We now start by asking ourselves: 
 
 "How can we keep our boys and girls from perform- 
 ing any profitable manual labour in their earlier years ?" 
 
 "How can we render their childhood useless to the 
 community ?" 
 
 "How can we force upon them all the largest amount 
 of 'genera? education, in the hope that some of it may, 
 at some time, be useful to some of them ?" 
 
 "How can we keep all of them at school as long as 
 possible, thus preventing them from giving their best 
 

 Popular Education 273 
 
 energies to their daily work in those impressionable 
 years when they most need to be confirmed in steady 
 habits of daily toil, and thus defrauding the community 
 of a great deal of valuable and necessary labour that, 
 being performed, would benefit the working classes 
 chiefly, and would tend to bring them additional com- 
 fort and content?" 
 
 These are the questions we now ask ourselves in edu- 
 cating our masses. Ought we not rather to ask our- 
 selves : 
 
 "How can we educate these boys and girls so that the 
 manual labour by which most of them will have to get 
 their living, will in after years be agreeable to them, 
 or in the more exhausting occupations, will be as little 
 oppressive and intolerable as the nature of the work 
 permits ?" 
 
 "Seeing that all experience teaches that those things 
 are done best and most easily throughout life, which are 
 most thoroughly learned in our earliest years, how can 
 we, without injury to their health, give as many as pos- 
 sible of these boys and girls some early training in their 
 probable future callings, and allow them to practise 
 these callings with profit to themselves and the commun- 
 ity, at as early an age as possible ?" 
 
 "In the case of those very numerous occupations for 
 which no preparation can be given at school, and which 
 will employ the vast majority of our scholars, how can 
 we avoid the error of educating our future workers 
 away from their future work, away from realities, to- 
 wards other ends and aims, and in such a manner as 
 will make them envious, sulky, discontented, and dil- 
 atory in their work, to the serious 'economic injury' 
 of the country, especially of the working classes ?" 
 
 "How can we give to the bulk and average of these 
 
274 Patriotism and 
 
 boys and girls sufficient 'general education' to meet the 
 ordinary demands of daily life, without forcing upon 
 all of them miscellaneous information and smatterings 
 of accomplishments, which tend to mental sloppiness, 
 to the spread of crude, bad tastes, and to the wide dif- 
 fusion of spurious sixpenny-three-farthing culture?" 
 
 "How can we give the greatest encouragement to any 
 of these boys and girls who show more than average 
 ability, or who possess some special gift or talent ? How 
 can we throw open the gates of opportunity as widely to 
 them as to the richest and highest in the land, so that 
 their gift or ability may not be crushed and lost, but 
 may have the freest course to declare and develop itself, 
 and fructify to the general good ? How can we give to 
 all of these such a suitable and special education, as 
 will help them to rise to any high position for which 
 they may be naturally fitted ?" 
 
 "Seeing that universal, indiscriminate, 'general* edu- 
 cation seems to lead to the general debasement of the 
 public taste, to the extinction of originality and the sup- 
 pression of genius, to the vulgarization of our amuse- 
 ments, to the diffusion of sixpenny-three-farthing cul- 
 ture, and the multiplication of sixpenny-three-farthing 
 objects of art, how can we educate, or uneducate, or re- 
 frain from educating our masses, so that whatever nat- 
 ural sense of beauty they have, may not be deadened 
 and perverted, and their leisure desecrated by senseless 
 delights, but so that all the ornamentation of common 
 lives and homes may be wise and thoughtful and exhil- 
 arating and spread its charm over our whole national 
 life?" 
 
 "In the insecurities of the present, and the uncertain- 
 ties of the future, in view of our great responsibilities 
 all the world over, how can we give all our growing 
 
Popular Education 275 
 
 boys some preliminary training in the defence of our 
 Empire, as a duty that they may be called upon to fulfil, 
 and that should be equally shared by all classes ? How 
 can we make this training a pleasurable exercise, a 
 physical and moral discipline to the boys, while making 
 it also the foundation of our scheme of national de- 
 fence, and a means of reducing our actual standing 
 army to the lowest national requirements ?" 
 
 These questions appear to indicate the general aims 
 and scope of a system of Popular Education best fitted 
 to the present needs of our nation, best fitted to develop 
 the physical and mental capacities of the entire popula- 
 tion to the greatest advantage of all, and therefore most 
 likely to bring the greatest general comfort, prosperity, 
 and content. Such a system of Popular Education 
 would begin by recognizing the plain fact that there is 
 a vast amount of manual labour to be done, and that 
 this manual labour must necessarily occupy the chief 
 hours and the best energies of the great majority of our 
 population. 
 
 Therefore, our first care should be to see that a suf- 
 ficient majority is not educated to escape from manual 
 labour, but so far as is possible, is educated to perform 
 it, and this in the prime and very obvious interest of 
 the working classes themselves. 
 
 Thus, in spite of the private opinions and wishes of 
 any of us, a broad division line is by necessity fixed 
 between those children who will have to get their living 
 by the labour of their hands and muscles, and those who 
 will have to get their living by the exercise of their 
 brains. This line is very loose and ill-defined, and can 
 be easily passed, but it is sufficiently distinct to separate 
 the great body of our scholars into two main classes; 
 and to mark them out for separate educational treat- 
 
276 Patriotism and 
 
 ment, as soon as they have been thoroughly taught the 
 great commandments, and have been given a quite ele- 
 mentary training suitable to them all. 
 
 Within these two main divisions of the work neces- 
 sary to be done, there are several sub-divisions. There 
 is scarcely any manual labour that does not call for 
 some exercise of the brain ; there are many intellectual 
 occupations that call for considerable dexterity of the 
 hands. But, very roughly, the two main divisions of 
 labour remain permanently distinct, and, after a certain 
 age, call for quite separate educational treatment for 
 the two classes of scholars. In a much less degree, the 
 various subdivisions of labour within each of the main 
 classes, call for differential education for the scholars 
 who will have to get their living by occupations that de- 
 mand differing aptitudes and differing physical or men- 
 tal capacities. 
 
 We will now turn from the work to be done to the 
 boys and girls who will have to earn their living by 
 doing it. 
 
 We will assume that the biologist has satisfied us that 
 the root and stock of the nation is sound, that it is not 
 deteriorating in comparison with competing nations, and 
 that the natural physical and mental capacities of our 
 millions of boys and girls vary in the right proportions, 
 that is, in some rough approximation and adaptability 
 to the varied kinds and amounts of labour they will be 
 called upon to perform. 
 
 This adaptability of the quantity and quality of mus- 
 cles and brains respectively to the amount and kinds 
 of manual and brain work to be done, is the first con- 
 dition of any healthy and stable civilization. It is the 
 keystone upon which rests the ultimate security of the 
 State.' A system of Popular Education which neglects 
 
Popular Education 277 
 
 to train the best brains of the country to their best uses, 
 stands obviously condemned. Much more deserving of 
 much sterner condemnation, is a system of Popular 
 Education which trains all the inferior brains of a 
 country to uses for which they are naturally unfitted, 
 and which neglects to train the hands and muscles of 
 the country towards the work for which they are fitted, 
 and which calls for performance before any effective 
 brain work can be done at all. Surely such a system of 
 Popular Education will prove to be more mischievous in 
 the end, than a system of Popular Education which 
 neglects to train its best brains to their best uses. For 
 the best brains have an inveterate habit of educating 
 themselves. They cannot help it, and indeed seem to 
 be encouraged by difficulties, as ten thousands of in- 
 stances prove. 
 
 Therefore, it should be a chief concern of the Ministry 
 of Education, firstly to estimate the amount and kinds 
 of manual labour that must necessarily be done, and to 
 train a sufficient number of children towards doing it, 
 or at least scrupulously to avoid training the majority 
 of children away from doing it ; and, secondly and con- 
 junctively, to estimate the amount of brain work that 
 it is necessary or desirable to get done, and to train a 
 sufficient number of children of the best mental capaci- 
 ties towards doing it. In this way we shall roughly 
 ensure that the manual labour of the country will be 
 mainly done by those who are physically best suited to 
 do it, and also that the far more important brain work 
 of the country will be mainly done by those who are 
 mentally best suited to do it ; we shall preserve a steady 
 balance between the different classes of workers, and get 
 an approximately right apportionment of the various 
 kinds of labour. When this balance and apportionment 
 
278 Patriotism and 
 
 are upset, when eighty-five square physical pegs are 
 struggling to force themselves into fifteen round mental 
 holes, the State is tending towards insecurity, confusion, 
 and anarchy as every day more plainly shows us, if we 
 will open our eyes to facts, and cease to fondle our 
 whimsies. 
 
 Let us suppose a stretch of country where coal and 
 iron abound, and which, by an artificial arrangement 
 of society, has been peopled almost exclusively by a deli- 
 cate refined race of artists, scholars, and thinkers, the 
 vast majority of whom are physically unfitted for rough 
 manual labour. We can readily see that in the course 
 of time, Mature would remove such inhabitants, and 
 would entirely change the breed of men in that district. 
 Meanwhile, muscular labour, being very scarce, would be 
 very highly paid, and would probably spend its money 
 and leisure in coarse amusements suited to its tastes. 
 The artists, and scholars, and thinkers, being largely 
 superfluous, would be very badly paid ; would be more 
 and more impoverished and discontented, and would 
 tend to become ineffective and degenerate. Their con- 
 dition would be only made the worse by educating the 
 manual labourers to be artists and scholars and thinkers ; 
 for, by the hypothesis, we have already too many of 
 them for the natural resources of the country to support. 
 NOT would the manual labourers themselves be much 
 benefited by educating them all to be artists and scholars 
 and thinkers; for it is their special function to sup- 
 plant the superfluous artists and scholars and thinkers, 
 and thus develop the natural resources of the country 
 to the best advantage for the whole community. There 
 would doubtless be many of the manual labourers who 
 would like to be artists and scholars and thinkers, and 
 who would be naturally fitted for such vocations ; but so 
 
Popular Education 279 
 
 far as they were indulged, the difficulties and inconven- 
 iences of the whole population would only be aggravated, 
 and the economic disorder increased. The equilibrium 
 of the situation would only be restored when a sufficient 
 number of the artists and scholars and thinkers had 
 been starved out, or when the greater part of them had, 
 after much suffering and discontent, adapted them- 
 selves to manual labour. 
 
 I have put an extreme case where the great majority 
 of the population were born with natural incapacities 
 for the work that they were called upon to do. But for 
 all practical purposes, it matters not whether men are 
 born with incapacities, or whether they are educated 
 into them. The result is the same; a certain number 
 of workers are disabled, or partially disabled, and do 
 not perform the labour that is necessary to be done 
 for the community, or do it grudgingly and imperfectly. 
 And thus the country suffers a .great "economic injury," 
 which I am afraid we must put to the debit of "gen- 
 eral" education. 
 
 How can we tell whether any considerable number 
 of our population are being educated away from the par- 
 ticular labour, or kind of labour that the general wel- 
 fare of the State calls upon them to perform? Very 
 clearly by the rates of pay which the various classes 
 of labour receive for the work that they do. 
 
 I am wholly of opinion that hard, disagreeable skilled 
 work should be very highly paid ; indeed, I am of opin- 
 ion that all useful work should be very highly paid. 
 But unfortunately the rates of wages are not regulated 
 by my opinion, or by the opinions of the workers them- 
 selves. The rates of wages are regulated by severe eco- 
 nomic laws, which cannot be broken without calling 
 forth reactions very disagreeable to the workers. As 
 
280 Patriotism and 
 
 soon as the Russian revolution was proclaimed, the gas 
 workers of Odessa voted that their wages should be 
 eighty pounds a month. The gas workers are now starv- 
 ing and rioting in misery with the rest of the popula- 
 tion ; Odessa is in darkness, perilously in need of some 
 illumination in its streets and homes, more perilously in 
 need of some illumination on the working of economic 
 laws. 
 
 The comparative rates of pay in various occupations 
 give us a very fair rough measure of how far the popu- 
 lation of a country has, in its different classes and ca- 
 pacities, been wisely and suitably educated towards the 
 performance of those labours and duties in which its 
 members will be severally engaged, and by which they 
 will have to earn their daily bread. Professor Wallace, 
 at the end of his opening lecture 1 this season, gives 
 some examples of the scale of wages received by cer- 
 tain classes of manual and brain workers. 
 
 I am sure you would agree, sir, that no kind of 
 ordinary, everyday brain work is more honourable, im- 
 portant, and responsible than that of a School teacher ; 
 requiring, as it does, not only a rather high and varied 
 education, but also good manners, good habits, good con- 
 duct, good taste, tact, patience, self-control, authority, 
 sympathy, skill in handling children, and a personality 
 that is not repellent to them. What occupation deserves 
 more liberal pay, deserves something more than a living 
 wage ? What would you consider to be a suitable salary 
 for a school teacher in a town like Arbroath, with its 
 22,700 inhabitants? The Arbroath School Board offer 
 80 a year to one who ought to possess all these accom- 
 plishments, if the training of your scholars in that town 
 is not to suffer in some respects. 
 
 1 Opening Lecture, p. 28 (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 6d). 
 
Popular Education 281 
 
 Again, what manual work calls for less skill, or 
 thought, or knowledge of any kind, calls for less care 
 in habits, conduct, manners, dress, or character, than 
 that of a scavenger its one desirable, but not necessary 
 qualification, being a diminished sensibility of the ol- 
 factory nerves. What would you consider, sir, to be a 
 suitable salary for an Arbroath scavenger, comparing 
 his work and responsibilities with the work and respon- 
 sibilities of an Arbroath school teacher ? The town pays 
 its scavengers 101 18s. per annum, that is, over twen- 
 ty-five per cent, more wages than it pays its school 
 teachers. 
 
 What treasure houses of social and economic infor- 
 mation are these advertisement columns of newspapers ! 
 Let us take another sample. 
 
 The Bath City Council and Education Committee 
 require an assistant in the School of Commerce and 
 Languages. This, again, is a post which seems to de- 
 mand that its occupant shall possess rather high and 
 varied qualifications and accomplishments. He is of- 
 fered 90 a year. Meantime the "Daily Chronicle" 
 offers 208 a year (4 a week), with permanent employ- 
 ment and easy hours, to a ragpicker a calling which, 
 like scavenging, demands neither skill of hand or brain, 
 nor any qualification of character or conduct. 
 
 How excellent a thing is Education ! How far more 
 excellent is plenty of good bread and cheese and beer ! 
 
 Is it not, sir, a grave reproach to your department 
 that a debased and servile employment like ragpicking, 
 should be paid more than two and a half times as highly 
 as school teaching ? Doubtless, sir, you will consider it 
 advisable to redress this grievance of your teachers, and 
 to see they have no cause to envy the affluence of the 
 happy ragpickers. 
 
282 Patriotism and 
 
 It is clearly impossible to reduce the pay of the rag- 
 pickers. They wouldn't like it ; and they all have votes. 
 We must raise the pay of the teachers. To what figure 
 shall we raise it ? If knowledge and educational attain- 
 ments, good conduct and character, are not to be de- 
 spised by our masses, and less esteemed than unintelli- 
 gent ignorance and the meanest unskilled labour, we 
 must raise our teachers' pay till at least it equals the pay 
 of the ragpickers. You will not, I am sure, cast so great 
 a slur upon educational accomplishments as to pay for 
 them at a less rate than is paid for ragpicking. And 
 a thousand pities it is that such dignified, important, 
 and skilled brain work as school teaching, does not au- 
 tomatically command a far higher rate of wages than 
 the commonest and vilest slopwork of the streets. How 
 comes this about? We must inquire how it is that our 
 market prices for ragpicking and school teaching are 
 so disproportionately fixed. 
 
 Meantime, sir, very respect for the great cause of 
 Education itself, urges you to raise the financial status 
 of our teaching staff to the financial status of ragpickers. 
 If you would leave them without just and crying reason 
 for complaints and strikes, you can scarcely do less than 
 this. That is, you must artificially pay them two and 
 a half times as much as they are worth in the labour 
 market. 
 
 Will not that be taking a step on a very dangerous 
 road? For it seems that all other classes of manual 
 and brain labourers are also demanding higher wages 
 demanding wages that are regulated, not by the opera- 
 tion of economic laws, but by their own estimate of 
 what they are worth, or what they would like to get. 
 And the same economic laws that, in the present rela- 
 tive abundance of superficial intellectual accomplish- 
 
Popular Education 283 
 
 ments, and the present relative scarcity of willing man- 
 ual labour the same economic laws that have already 
 fixed the pay of ragpickers at more than two and a half 
 times the pay of school teachers, will continue to work 
 towards the same result, and will tend to raise the pay 
 of ragpickers till it reaches a modest competence of 500 
 per annum, while the teachers will be grumbling and 
 languishing on a paltry 200. 
 
 We are daily receiving the plainest evidence that the 
 price of one article, or of one kind of labour, cannot 
 be inflated without causing an inflation in the prices 
 of other articles and other kinds of labour. Thus we 
 continue to blow our roseate bubbles till they burst. 
 
 When the gas workers of Odessa vote themselves 
 eighty pounds a month wages, we plainly perceive that 
 they are building an unsound social structure. And 
 surely enough the social structure cracks, and falls in 
 ruin in a few weeks. When, as in England to-day, we 
 find that an occupation which calls for knowledge, in- 
 telligence, educational attainments, good conduct, and 
 some refinement of manner, dress, and habits when we 
 find that such an occupation is paid considerably less 
 than half what is paid for vagabond, ignorant, unskilled 
 labour which can be performed by anyone without the 
 least education, can we not perceive that we also are 
 building an unsound social structure ? 
 
 How comes it that ragpicking is so inordinately paid, 
 and is in such a state of careless, easy aifluence, com- 
 pared with school teaching? Plainly because we have 
 been producing and training school teachers and rag- 
 pickers in wrong proportions, having regard to the 
 amounts and kinds of work necessary to be done. The 
 wide diffusion of Popular Education has brought about 
 a relative abundance of superficial intellectual accom- 
 
284 Patriotism and 
 
 plishments, and a relative scarcity of manual labour 
 willing to perform the most ordinary everyday tasks. 
 
 A certain irreducible amount of manual labour must 
 be performed for every one of us that comes into the 
 world. We must all be fed, clothed, shod, housed, and 
 provided with many other necessaries of life, before we 
 can be educated, or even be fit to receive education. 
 Therefore I respectfully submit to you, sir, that these 
 are the fundamental questions we have to ask: "How 
 much, and what kinds of manual labour must neces- 
 sarily be done for our forty millions of people ? How 
 can we first and best educate our masses to do this im- 
 perative manual work carefully and thoroughly, and 
 so far as may be, willingly and without incessant dis- 
 turbance of the State, and dislocation of social life?" 
 When we have answered these questions, when we have 
 laid out an Educational scheme that shall first take ac- 
 count of these first and urgent national necessities, and 
 shall first provide for them, we can go on to ask, "How 
 much general and advanced education can we give to 
 all who are likely to profit by it, and to all who care to 
 avail themselves of it ?" And we can then be very lib- 
 eral in giving "general" education, as indeed every one 
 would wish to be. 
 
 For, all these considerations being duly weighed, and 
 all these urgent national necessities being duly provided 
 for, I will still cordially agree with you that "no coun- 
 try in the long run suffers an economic injury from an 
 improvement in the general education of its population." 
 A soundly educated Englishman is wanted all the 
 world over; a half-educated Englishman is wanted in 
 very few countries; a mis-educated Englishman is 
 wanted nowhere certainly not in England. 
 
 Again, we $aay remind ourselves that if this neces- 
 
Popular Education 285 
 
 sary manual work is not done, or is done imperfectly, 
 it is the workers themselves who are the chief sufferers. 
 And they will assuredly suffer far more grievously if 
 they are stinted in the necessaries which manual la- 
 bour provides for them, than if they are stinted in the 
 items of information provided by "general" education. 
 It is harder to go short of food than of a knowledge 
 of Roman history; to nine out of ten of us, a sack 
 of coal is worth more than a cartload of mathematics; 
 and a pair of good stout boots on a working man's feet, 
 are better than a hundred crudely conceived social 
 problems in his head. We are about to receive some 
 very rude enlightenment on the comparative value of 
 all these commodities. 
 
 In view of the present alarming economic situation, 
 would you say, sir, that the vast numbers of our popu- 
 lation who must necessarily be employed in manual 
 labour, are receiving in our schools, a sound and suit- 
 able training for their life's work? Would you not 
 say that a large and increasing number of them are 
 being educated away from it, in the hope of escaping 
 from it, and in the certainty of being dissatisfied with 
 it? How else do you account for the underpayment 
 of school teachers and many other more or less skilled 
 brain workers, in comparison with unskilled labourers ? 
 How else do you account for the abundance of use- 
 less, superficial, intellectual accomplishments, and the 
 relative scarcity of willing manual labour? How else 
 do you account for the tawdry shoddiness and staple 
 ugliness of our urban life? How else do you account 
 for the badness and inefficiency of so much of the work 
 that is done for working men and working class homes ? 
 
 Without Popular Education our carpenters and 
 builders and labourers were concentrated upon their 
 
286 Patriotism and 
 
 work, and knowing it thoroughly, and taking some 
 pleasure and pride in it, they naturally and uncon- 
 sciously spread a robe of beauty over our land. 
 
 What else is it but this crude, superficial, universal 
 mis-education that, absorbing our thoughts and dissi- 
 pating our energies, makes so much of our labour un- 
 profitable to the State ; and so much of our leisure un- 
 profitable to ourselves ? What else is it but this same 
 crude, superficial, universal mis-education that, flatter- 
 ing the ignorance and inflaming the envies of the 
 masses, to-day shakes every social structure in Europe, 
 and threatens everywhere to put the wise under the do- 
 minion of fools, the workers under the dominion of 
 the talkers, the industrious under the dominion of the 
 slothful, and the honest under the dominion of thieves ; 
 gives bounties to disease and weakness and laziness and 
 ignorance, and lays burdens upon health and diligence 
 and thrift and intelligence; discourages discipline and 
 obedience, and exalts revolt and disorder; makes the 
 servant the master, and the master the servant, and 
 engages us all to turn the pyramid of society upside 
 down, in the vain effort to make it stand upon its apex ? 
 
 The effect of giving a disproportionate amount of 
 compulsory superficial intellectual training to every- 
 body, is to make it cheap and useless, alike to the ma- 
 jority of its possessors and to the community, while it 
 draws away a great number of manual workers at a 
 time when we are sorely in need of their vigorous mus- 
 cles and nimble fingers. Superficial intellectual at- 
 tainments are the veriest drug in the market. This 
 is shown by the fact that you can get school teachers 
 at 80 a year. You will not get them with the many 
 qualifications and abilities which I have enumerated 
 as necessary and desirable for this most important 
 
Popular Education 287 
 
 work. Their average mental capacities and acquire- 
 ments are indicated by the salary they will take, which 
 is less than that of a tolerable typist, and of many other 
 competitors in the less skilled kinds of brain work. We 
 have here a means of gauging the general quality of 
 the instruction and training that is being given to our 
 millions of scholars. And when you require teachers 
 with higher mental qualifications for your continuation 
 classes, they are not to be found, and you have to pro- 
 vide fresh educational machinery for training them. 
 That is, you have to call a further conscription of avail- 
 able manual labour, at the same time making it more 
 scarce, inept, and discontented. 
 
 All these consequences and complications are only 
 what we might have expected. For generations past, 
 Nature has been busily fitting out the vast numbers of 
 English children with physical and mental qualifica- 
 tions in rough approximation to the amounts of man- 
 ual and brain work necessary to be done in the country. 
 Her process has been that which I described in the 
 imaginary coal and iron district, peopled exclusively 
 with scholars and artists and thinkers. She has elimi- 
 nated all those who were unfitted to the kinds of la- 
 bour that necessarily had to be performed in that dis- 
 trict, so that its resources might be developed to the 
 general advantage. 
 
 The infinite multiplication of machines does not call 
 for a higher average of mental and intellectual abili- 
 ties. On the contrary, it calls for a diminished exer- 
 cise of the brains, and for a greater number of workers 
 with inferior mental capacities. It demands far less 
 intelligence to tend a machine than to thatch a house, 
 or shepherd a flock, or till a garden, or make a piece 
 of hand lace. 
 
288 Patriotism and 
 
 Now Nature, being always busy at this process of 
 elimination and adaptation, has probably sorted out 
 your scholars for you in something approaching the 
 right proportions. She has probably supplied you with 
 something like fifteen per cent, of boys and girls whose 
 brains are worth cultivating to their utmost capacity, 
 and who will repay the State for all the education you 
 can give them. She has probably supplied you with 
 something like eighty-five per cent, of boys and girls 
 with brains of lower and varying capacities, who should 
 be educated according to these lower and varying ca- 
 pacities, and to do the work most urgently required by 
 the State. Some of them with quite ordinary, or only 
 second-rate, brains will be found to have some special 
 gift, as for the stage, or for music, or for painting. 
 These should be set apart for special training; many 
 of them need not much more than to be left alone, 
 for they will eagerly pursue and cultivate their natural 
 gift. But all such boys and girls should be given the 
 greatest chance to develop their one talent at the earliest 
 age; for it is by removing all difficulties from their 
 paths, and by fostering their special gifts to the best 
 fulfilment- it is by such means, sir, that you will pro- 
 vide our common people with civilizing and satisfying 
 pleasures, and educate them in the wise enjoyment of 
 their leisure. 
 
 I will remind you, sir, that some months ago, you 
 refused permission for children to play in five of 
 Shakespeare's most popular plays. I will say again, 
 very plainly, that you were then not only defeating 
 the best educational training for some of the children 
 in the work for which they were most fitted, but that 
 you were also tending to defeat the best educational 
 

 Popular Education 289 
 
 training and wisest amusement for the masses of the 
 adult population. 
 
 These children I have glanced at are, however, a very 
 small minority of the many millions that come under 
 your jurisdiction. In view, however, of the great 
 value to the community of their special gifts, it is im- 
 portant that these children should be carefully selected 
 and segregated, and that their Education should he 
 specialized, and directed to the main end of cultivating 
 their natural gifts. 
 
 The vast majority of the remaining many millions 
 will necessarily he employed in manual labour, or in 
 those unintellectual occupations where literary and edu- 
 cational accomplishments will be of no possible service 
 to them, but will rather make them indisposed towards 
 their work, and incapable of performing it with care 
 and diligence. Having regard to the immense amount 
 of skilled manual labour which is loudly crying out 
 for muscles and hands in all parts of our Empire, what 
 better service could you render to the State, and to 
 these future workers, than to train as many of them 
 as possible, and as early as possible, towards the prac- 
 tice of their future callings, so far as these can be 
 taught at school ; to abstain from educating the remain- 
 der of them away from their future callings; and, so 
 far as manual labour is concerned, to set them all free 
 to pursue it, in the measure that it will not injure 
 average healthy children. 
 
 I think I see millions of willing little arms stretched 
 out to you from all parts of the kingdom, beseeching 
 you, "Give us something to do I Give us something to 
 make, that we may early begin to take a pride in the 
 work of our hands, and may not be ashamed of it! 
 
290 Patriotism and 
 
 Educate us chiefly in what it most concerns us to do, 
 and cease trying to cram a quart of useless knowledge 
 into our poor bewildered little pint-pot brains !" 
 
 That million, or thereabouts, of working-class homes 
 that have to be built why should not healthy working- 
 class children be allowed to lend a hand in building 
 them in their holiday time, provided only that care is 
 taken that they are not overworked ? And why should 
 they not be paid for such a service to the working 
 classes ? The houses are urgently needed ; the labourers 
 are few; there are thousands of our elder children 
 whose leisure hours would be far better employed in 
 jobs of rough carpentry and masonry than in idling 
 about the streets, and whose physical and moral health 
 would gain rather than suffer by such employment 
 At the same time, these children would be given a 
 direct and practical interest in solving what is, and will 
 remain, one of the most pressing problems of our mod- 
 ern civilization "How shall we house our workers in 
 health and comfort and reasonable content, and add 
 some daily beauty to their lives? How shall we make 
 their dwellings wholesome and convenient to them, 
 and pleasant to look upon, so that the outskirts of our 
 towns may cause us to rejoice, and not to shudder, as 
 we approach them?" 
 
 I suppose, sir, you will allow that to be one of the 
 most pressing problems of our internal economy ? That 
 problem is not to be solved by "general" education; 
 it is only to be solved by work work that is special- 
 ized and trained to that end. "General" education will 
 indeed 7 make the evil more perceptible, but it will not 
 cure it. It will merely tend to cause more discontent. 
 
 You have probably in your elementary schools, an 
 overwhelming amount of healthy young muscular hu- 
 
Popular Education 291 
 
 man material that could be trained to accomplish a 
 great part of this most urgent national work. Why not 
 select a large corps of your little scholars who are physi- 
 cally suited, give them a special training, and set them 
 free at the age of twelve or fourteen to work for some 
 six hours a day at the noble task of building service- 
 able and pleasing future homes for themselves and 
 their brothers ? By some such plan, carefully organized 
 in all details, much of the dreary ugliness and disorder 
 that sprawl over England, might be removed in the 
 course of a generation; our streets of working-class 
 homes, instead of straggling and huddling in long, 
 bleak, .drab, repulsive miles and acres of hideous blocks 
 and alleys, might be transformed into ways and shapes 
 of pleasantness, and throw their homely modest charm 
 over the cleansed and redeemed countryside. 
 
 Again, the work could probably be made more at- 
 tractive to the boys themselves than the "general" edu- 
 cation which you are forcing upon them. Sir, this 
 great national work is crying out to be done, and not 
 one pair of hands, not one ounce of hard young muscle 
 that might be put to it, can be diverted to useless "gen- 
 eral" education, without an "economic injury" to the 
 country. Children love to build houses; it is one of 
 their earliest, strongest instincts. How this instinct 
 has been thwarted and suppressed and perverted by 
 Popular Education, may be seen by taking a walk in 
 almost any town in the kingdom, and by observing the 
 average style and design of the houses that are being 
 built. Why should not this universal instinct and de- 
 light of childhood to build houses, be seized upon and 
 guided towards this great result of national comfort 
 and comeliness ? The instinct is there, in the vast ma- 
 jority of your little scholars, waiting to be educated, 
 
292 Patriotism and 
 
 and inspired to do most fruitful handiwork. For it 
 is useless that these working-class homes shall be well 
 designed, if their actual builders are not inspired by a 
 live faithful interest in what they are doing, if they 
 do it carelessly and perfunctorily, with wandjering 
 brains, and untrained eyes and hands, 
 
 I entreat you, sir, to consider whether some such 
 scheme as I am here advocating, could not be carried 
 out with, great educational advantage to the boys them- 
 selves, and with a certainty of bringing many direct 
 and indirect benefits to the nation. Of what avail is it 
 that you pour your copious showers of "general educa- 
 tion" upon our masses, when every walk they take in 
 the streets of our large towns is in itself, a "general 
 education" in banal mechanical habits of thought and 
 living, and an encouragement to spend their money 
 and leisure in tawdry amusements, empty literature, 
 and foolish delights? 
 
 I am sure you are equally desirous with myself that 
 these million of homes for our workers should be built, 
 with dispatch, and finished within a reasonably early 
 time ; that when they are built, they should not appear 
 as great thick slabs of dull, dead monumental mean- 
 ness and monotony, laid flat upon English landscapes, 
 or as swarms of perky, pretentious, bragging little 
 jerry villa "residences"; but that they should have 
 character, individuality, solidity, restfulness, and a 
 varied simplicity: that they should give evidence that 
 we have some sense of national architecture, and some 
 craving for national beauty; that they should offer 
 cheerfulness and comfort and every household conven- 
 ience to their inmates, and a pleasing spectacle to those 
 who view them from very near or from afar off. 
 
 I am sure all these consummations will seem desir- 
 
Popular Education 293 
 
 able to you. And there are hundreds of thousands of 
 your little scholars whose natural instinct and love of 
 housebuilding, could be played upon and educated to- 
 wards the attainment of these ends. Will you not re- 
 mit something of your stern resolve to fill their heads 
 with information about Cicero and Miss Corelli, and 
 other such lofty recondite matter, and educate a suffi- 
 cient number of them, from a quite early age towards 
 the very fine art of putting bricks and mortar and bits 
 of timber into pleasing shapes, and useful dwelling- 
 places for them to inhabit when they shall become fa- 
 thers and householders? 
 
 I have repeated and re-repeated all these arguments 
 and illustrations ad nauseam; I have dwelt upon them 
 with most irritating and wearisome reiteration, for 
 which I have no excuse, except my conviction that you 
 will not pay the least attention to what I am saying, 
 and that therefore I am not making any demand upon 
 rour time and patience. But indeed I know of no other 
 way of gaining some lodgment for truth in men's 
 minds, but that of affirming it again and again, in the 
 hope of rousing them at last, and delivering them from 
 the stupors and catalepsies of fixed popular opinions 
 and false beliefs. 
 
 It is no idle question I am raising, but one that deep- 
 ly concerns the permanent welfare of the nation. The 
 scattered patches and threats of coming social disaster, 
 that were no larger than a man's hand when I began 
 this letter, have gathered into great storm-clouds, and 
 are spreading upwards all over our sky. Even those 
 of us who have good reason for our strong faith in 
 the sound instincts and commonsense of our working 
 classes, are often constrained to ask ourselves, "How 
 shall we avoid a social and economic deluge, a general 
 
294 Patriotism and 
 
 wreckage of the State ?" Not by continued strikes and 
 agitation, not by raising wages, not by shortening hours 
 of work, but only by setting all our hands and muscles 
 and brains to make those things which are necessary 
 and useful to us all. Only in this way can comfort 
 and plenty and leisure be secured for our working 
 classes. The rate of pay is of quite secondary import- 
 ance. We are daily seeing that the mere raising of 
 wages only makes everything dearer and scarcer for 
 everybody, and tends to shatter the whole social ma- 
 chine, as when the gas workers of Odessa voted them- 
 selves eighty pounds a month. 
 
 If the great body of the working classes in any com- 
 munity are doing and making necessary, useful, and 
 beautiful things in right proportions, that community 
 will be rich and comfortable and contented, whatever 
 the rates of wages may be, whether a shilling a day or 
 a pound. If they are not doing and making necessary 
 and useful and beautiful things, that community will 
 be poor and miserable and discontented, though every 
 man in it was paid fifty pounds a day. 
 
 Again, if the great body of the working classes are 
 doing and making necessary and useful and beautiful 
 things, that community will have a corresponding 
 amount of happy leisure. The amount of available 
 leisure in a community is in direct and exact proportion 
 to the amount of necessary and useful work done in it. 
 Leisure is the payment of work. So much wholesome 
 work done, so much wholesome play gained. My work 
 provides another man with leisure and play; his work 
 provides me with leisure and play. 
 
 I am speaking now of necessary, useful, wholesome, 
 and beautiful work. A great part of the work that 
 many of us are doing is neither necessary, useful, 
 

 Popular Education 295 
 
 wholesome, nor beautiful, and is done for people who 
 also are doing work that is neither necessary, useful, 
 wholesome, nor heautiful. Trace the amount of "eco- 
 nomic injury" of that spectacle of imbecile tomfoolery 
 which in the first year of the war was advertised to cost 
 15,000. Trace its success with the public to the false 
 and superficial education they had received. Trace 
 the growth and flourishing spread of all these fungus 
 parasitic occupations to the same cause, to a system 
 of Popular Education which teaches the people what 
 they are only remotely concerned to know, before it 
 teaches them what they are imperatively concerned to 
 do and make; indeed, in many cases, is guiding them 
 away from what they should make and do, is forbidding 
 them any early practice of it, and is complacently boast- 
 ing of the mischief it is doing its victims and to the 
 community. 
 
 If we probe more deeply still, we can trace the in- 
 stability of our social system to the general absence of 
 any living credible religion amongst us; to the absence 
 of an active working faith that the universe to its most 
 ultimate atom, is mathematically set to force us towards 
 right conduct, towards exact truthfulness and honesty 
 with each other in all our dealings; that towards these 
 issues, we are being relentlessly driven by the Eternal, 
 by warnings, by checks, by disasters, and finally, if 
 we will pay no heed, by world-revolutions and catas- 
 trophes. A social structure is sound in exact proportion 
 to the amount of honesty amongst its inhabitants. 
 
 But any remarks and inquiries on this subject may 
 be more fittingly offered, when occasion shall serve, to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Reverend Dr. 
 Clifford. I am inclined to think that, if a dozen years 
 of Puritanism could be enforced upon this nation, it 
 
296 Patriotism and 
 
 would be a salutary punishment for its general lack 
 of sincere, operative, religious belief, and its contempt 
 for the Power that infects the world. 
 
 I began this letter by saying that I had no hope of 
 persuading you to change the main features and drift 
 of the Education Bill that you were then passing, but 
 that my suggestions were offered for your considera- 
 tion when the time should come for moulding your next 
 measure. I have, therefore, counted you among my 
 non-readers, or, at least, among my non-regarders, so 
 far as what I have written relates to the Act that you 
 are now about to administer. I am loth, however, to 
 think that I have written in vain, and I continue to 
 nurse my illusion that I may be of some service to you 
 when you frame your next Education Bill. I am sure 
 you will agree with me, that what I have said may be 
 more opportunely considerd in connexion with a future 
 Education Act, than with the present one. And if, 
 as a compliment to you as a scholar, I may draw upon 
 my scanty store of classical knowledge for a motto 
 suitable to that future Education Act, I would sug- 
 gest, "Ad vivendum velut ad natandum is melior onere 
 liberior." I think Apuleius must have had your mil- 
 lions of little scholars in his mind, seeing how strong 
 a tide of hard necessity and adverse economic forces 
 they will have to swim against in the next generation; 
 seeing also that, however that tide may turn in their 
 favour, they will assuredly make all the easier head- 
 way and advance, the less they are burdened with use- 
 less superficial knowledge, and the less they are drawn 
 away from the main business of their lives, and their 
 useful service to the community. 
 
 Meantime, sir, you have behind you the full force 
 and backing of popular and political approval. I will 
 
Popular Education 297 
 
 therefore await, and will cheerfully submit to, the 
 final arbitrament of facts, being always ready to change 
 my opinions, at their earliest dictation. This gives 
 me a pleasant feeling of superiority to the majority of 
 my fellows, for I observe that most men are quite un- 
 able to change their opinions till long after their fal- 
 lacy and absurdity has been proved by facts. The lat- 
 est fact, declared in staring headlines in this evening's 
 papers, is that 200,000 miners have struck at a moment 
 when the nation is perilously in need of coal, and that 
 two or three millions of workers are affected. They 
 seem to be holding "continuation classes" of their own 
 in interstellar finance and economics. 
 
 Perhaps Mature is going to bring in a rude, long 
 overdue Uneducation Bill of her own, with all sorts of 
 arbitrary, penal clauses. Perhaps the Old Hussy, hav- 
 ing been busy for some three centuries in showing us 
 the evils and horrors of irresponsible Autocracy, is now 
 preparing to show us the evils and horrors of irre- 
 sponsible Democracy. For it is by means of these 
 balancing alternations and reactions that She gov- 
 erns us; pitchforking us first upon one horn of a di- 
 lemma and then upon the other; correcting our fond 
 notions of self-determination, until at last She gets 
 us to go the way she would have us go, which is often 
 not at all the way we want to go witness the forecasts 
 and declared aims of all the statesmen and political 
 thinkers of all the countries during the last ten years. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 (Jan. 1919) 
 
 SUMMING-TJ? ON POPULAR EDUCATION IN OUE 
 THEATRES. 
 
 A matter of national concern A mis-educated public Vulgari- 
 zation of our national life by indiscriminate Popular Education 
 Our masses badly trained, alike for useful productive work and 
 for wise amusement A correct "attitude of mind" towards "the 
 facts of life" A correct attitude of body even more desirable 
 "Attitude of mind" of our popular audiences Pressing invita- 
 tion to Minister of Education to become a playgoer "Who has 
 been mis-educating these dear, good folk?" 
 
 I COULD have been content to rest my indictment of 
 our present system of Popular Education upon the 
 condition of our theatres alone. This may appear to 
 be a matter of small account in the great sum of our 
 national life. Seemingly it is a matter of utter indif- 
 ference, alike to our men of letters, to the great body 
 of average intelligent Englishmen, and to the millions of 
 unthinking playgoers themselves. It is, however, a 
 matter of some importance to us who are striving, 
 against insurmountable difficulties, to give England 
 a school of modern drama and comedy worthy of a 
 great nation; and alongside it a school of trained, in- 
 telligent, dignified Shakespearean acting in the popu- 
 lar theatres of London and our great cities. 
 
 It is not so small a matter as it appears. It is not 
 a matter to be tossed aside with careless contempt, that 
 
 29* 
 
Popular Education 299 
 
 our masses are wasting the greater part of their evening 
 leisure at entertainments that, with the rarest excep- 
 tions, may be described as rosy twaddle, amiable falsi- 
 ties, crude sensation, and, most popular of all, gaudy 
 exhibitions of undisguised licentiousness and empty 
 imbecile tomfoolery, produced with the Lord Chamber- 
 lain's authority and passport. 
 
 I will not raise any standards of super-morality or 
 super-intellectualism. I will not lay upon average im- 
 perfect human nature, burdens too grevious to be 
 borne. Least of all, will I offensively claim to be better 
 or wiser than my neighbours. I have always humbly 
 endeavoured to follow the sage counsel of Ecclesiastes : 
 "Be not righteous overmuch ; neither make thyself over- 
 wise; why shouldst thou destroy thyself?" I take 
 some satisfaction in remembering that I have scrup- 
 ulously and consistently obeyed these two golden rules 
 of the Preacher. 
 
 Waiving the question of whether the condition of 
 our theatres can be safely neglected by our politicians 
 and social reformers; granted that many of the abuses 
 and futilities that I have glanced at, are unavoidable; 
 granted, with all my heart, that a supply of good tom- 
 foolery, in its subordinate place and reasonable pro- 
 portion, is desirable, and even necessary, to ease and 
 cheer our people putting aside these aspects of the 
 matter for the moment, what would you say, sir, of 
 the staple of our theatrical amusements as a gauge and 
 indicator of the level of Popular Education, and of the 
 shape and direction it is giving to the tastes and pleas- 
 ures of our masses ? 
 
 Perhaps in the months that have passed since I sent 
 you the earlier parts of this letter, you have conquered 
 the natural repugnance which most intelligent English- 
 
300 Patriotism and 
 
 men feel against entering the theatres of their native 
 land, or rather of entering them in an intelligent frame 
 of mind ; perhaps you have tasted of the dainty dishes 
 that the bulk of our theatre-goers most relish in our 
 most popular theatres, and have formed your own 
 judgment upon them. 
 
 Would you call it, sir, a well-educated public, that 
 for the past twenty years has further and further ban- 
 ished Shakespeare from our stage, and driven him to 
 odd holes and corners; that regards him as a bore and 
 an affliction ; that for the most part cannot even un- 
 derstand his lines, or recognize and comprehend his 
 characters, much less enjoy his humour and wisdom 
 and philosophy of life; that for the past twenty years 
 has also increasingly rejected all modern plays that 
 deal thoughtfully and searchingly with our modern life, 
 whether in comedy or drama ; that coughs and fidgets at 
 any scene or character that demands a moment's exer- 
 cise of thought; that rocks with imbecile laughter at 
 senseless topical catchwords and scarcely-veiled obscen- 
 ity; that revels in the gradual corruption of the Eng- 
 lish language; that has exalted the gagging, blatant, 
 empty-pated comedian and pretty doll chorus girl to 
 the empty chairs of Kean, Macready, Irving, and Sid- 
 dons; that takes its chief evening delight in mafficking 
 at gaudy, costly, mindless spectacles, whose very titles 
 stink with witless vulgarity? 
 
 Would you call it in any sense an educated public? 
 Would you say that it is in the way to become an 
 educated public? Would you not call it a badly mis- 
 educated public ? If you were a foreign visitor, benev- 
 olently disposed towards England say from France, 
 where the modern drama is a recognized part of the 
 national literature, where the dramatist is esteemed 
 
Popular Education 301 
 
 according to his rank as a man of letters would you 
 not join me, sir, in urging our Minister of Educa- 
 tion to take cognizance of this national disgrace, and 
 to place it in relation to his whole system of popular 
 instruction ? 
 
 May I again remind you, sir, that this condition of 
 our English stage has developed with the increasing 
 spread of Popular Education, and seems likely to de- 
 velop still further on the same lines, according to the 
 increasing amount of "general" education that our 
 masses receive from your hands ? 
 
 No man could he more desirous than myself that our 
 workers should have shorter hours and more abundant 
 leisure. They do not wish it for themselves more than 
 I wish it for them. But surely increased leisure is a 
 doubtful boon if it is unwisely spent. If our masses are 
 incapable of spending their leisure wisely, it is un- 
 kindness to them and a very palpable "economic in- 
 jury" to the country, to give them further opportuni- 
 ties of wasting their time. 
 
 I will not believe it. I prefer to think that they are 
 being badly educated, alike for the useful productive 
 work that alone can give them shorter hours, and for 
 the wise amusement that alone can justify them in de- 
 manding more time for play. 
 
 I do not decry Popular Education in itself. I have 
 gladly acknowledged that in many ways, it has raised, 
 and enlarged, and cleansed the lives of our lower classes. 
 Every system of Popular Education must necessarily 
 have the defects of its qualities, and a reverse side to 
 its virtues. But our present system by its want of 
 discrimination and specialization; by its blind worship 
 of advanced "general" education for every child, irre- 
 spective of his capacity to receive it, or to profit by it; 
 
302 Patriotism and 
 
 its neglect to train hands and muscles for their proper 
 work, and brains for their proper work; its fatuous 
 discouragement of manual labour for healthy boys and 
 girls, to their own life-long injury, and the injury of 
 the State; its curious conceit that by tying children's 
 hands behind their backs it quickens their mental activi- 
 ties, and that by depositing heaps of miscellaneous 
 knowledge in their brains, it swells their cerebral 
 hemispheres, and deepens the convolutions in the cor- 
 tex; its vulgarization of our whole national life by 
 spreading a dead level of spurious and superficial ac- 
 complishments it is by the operation of these mis- 
 chievous whimsies, that our present system of Popular 
 Education has, after two generations, trained nearly 
 every worker in the kingdom into active and ceaseless 
 discontent with his work, and has stored a powder 
 magazine under the foundations of civilization and 
 order. 
 
 You are reported, sir, to say that the cure for all this 
 unrest "is an attitude of mind, and an increased ca- 
 pacity for coming to a judicial and judicious decision 
 upon the facts of life." Everybody will cordially as- 
 sent that a changed attitude of mind is urgently needed. 
 But how that is to be brought about by increased "gen- 
 eral" education from discontented, half-educated, mis- 
 educated teachers, I see not. However, we shall watch 
 the effect of your prescription with earnest prayers 
 that it may prove remedial, and that we shall witness 
 a sudden and startling adoption of this most desirable 
 "attitude of mind" and a consequent "increased capac- 
 ity for coming to a judicial and judicious decision upon 
 the facts of life." 
 
 The one prominent "fact of life" that everywhere 
 stares us in the face, is that there is a tremendous 
 
Popular Education 303 
 
 amount of Lard, dirty, disagreeable manual work to 
 be done in every house, in every street, in every field 
 in England. Not a single one of us can be at our ease, 
 until that work is tackled and accomplished. On re- 
 newed consideration of the whole problem, would you 
 not say, sir, that what is required is not so much an 
 attitude of mind towards all this necessary manual la- 
 bour, as an attitude of body? 
 
 I do not perceive much likelihood of our masses 
 coming to a judicious and judicial decision upon this 
 all-important and most pressing "fact of life." All 
 the present indications are that they are every day com- 
 ing to more and more injudicious and in judicial de- 
 cisions upon it. Might we not now, with your permis- 
 sion, cease to contemplate all this accumulating mass 
 of necessary work from lofty attitudes and altitudes of 
 mind, and putting our bodies into correct postures, 
 strip off our coats, and tuck up our shirt-sleeves, and do 
 it with all our might ? For assuredly, unless this work 
 is done, and done quickly, we shall presently have to 
 call in the soldier which is what we all wish to avoid. 
 
 Meantime, sir, if you wish to get a trustworthy es- 
 timate of the general disposition of our public to take 
 up a correct attitude of mind towards the facts of life, 
 and to weigh them judiciously and judically, I again 
 beg you to pay a round of visits to our most popular 
 theatres. Most heartily do I sympathize with you in 
 your efforts to get our populace to take up this cor- 
 rect "attitude of mind" towards the facts of life. For 
 thirty-five years, I also, have been fitfully and despair- 
 ingly persuading our public to adopt this "attitude of 
 mind" in the theatre. You will guess, then, with what 
 interest I am watching your experiments on the larger 
 stage of our national life. Like you, I had an ingen- 
 
604: Patriotism and 
 
 nous faith that the spread of Popular Education would 
 automatically train our masses into this salutary rela- 
 tionship to the facts of life. 
 
 Certainly our theory is right. I will admit no 
 doubts of its soundness. After all the time and trouble 
 and money we have spent upon Popular Education, the 
 least it can do is to confirm our theory by results. 
 Clearly, it must be the facts of life that are wrong. We 
 must adjust and dispose them in a proper and respect- 
 ful attitude towards our theories. The root of the 
 mischief is that our present system of Popular Edu- 
 cation tends largely to divert our masses from facts, 
 especially from all unpleasant facts. The primary fact 
 of all facts, discovered at a very early period in the 
 history of our race, is the very plain one: "In the 
 sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." I see it mak- 
 ing disrespectful grimaces at your continuation classes. 
 
 However, I hope that in consideration for one, who 
 in the small and limited sphere of the theatre, is, like 
 yourself, trying to place the public in a correct atti- 
 tude of mind towards facts, and also as affording you 
 valuable evidence of the effect of Popular Education on 
 the masses for these reasons, I hope, you may be in- 
 duced at some personal inconvenience, to visit our huge 
 popular theatres, and judge for yourself. You will 
 find many things that you can approve and enjoy if 
 you divest yourself of every attitude and attribute of 
 mind. You will find a good-natured, decently behaved 
 public, with much broad, kindly, English humour, and 
 a hearty appreciation of such jests as do not contain any 
 approach to wit. But an educated public! Educated?! 
 If you were that benevolent foreigner, and were taken 
 to a round of the popular evening entertainments most 
 frequented by the masses of our large towns, you would 
 
Popular Education 305 
 
 surely exclaim: "Where have these people been to 
 school? Who has been mis-educating these dear good 
 folk down to this shocking level of dull vulgarity, empty 
 folly, and bad taste?" 
 
 If after paying such a round of visits, and after 
 watching those items of the evening's programme which 
 are most relished by those who have been taught in our 
 national schools at the expense of the State if you will 
 then declare that you are satisfied with the results and 
 tendencies of our system of Popular Education, as a 
 preparation for the duties of life, and for the wise en- 
 joyment of leisure, I will wholly submit myself to 
 your judgment, and will confess that I do not under- 
 stand what Education is. It is a word in some foreign 
 language that has no meaning for me. 
 
 SUMMING-UP ON A LEAGUE OF NATIONS 
 
 It is discouraging to find that the millennium is 
 again postponed. However, we are to have a welcome 
 first instalment of it in the League of Nations. The 
 Peace Conference, with a true instinct for essentials, 
 gave it the first consideration, deeming that if we could 
 only frame a League of Nations, the finishing of the 
 war was a quite secondary and negligible matter. 
 
 It is true that a solid world peace seems to be in- 
 definitely postponed. But we have a League of Na- 
 tions. It is true that while we have been talking, Ger- 
 many has been mano3uvring to avoid the consequences 
 of her defeat. But we have put our signatures to a 
 League of Nations. It is true that all Europe is smoul- 
 dering with revolution and the sparks of future wars. 
 But we have framed a League of Nations. It is true 
 that our sea supremacy is threatened and perhaps lost. 
 
306 Patriotism and 
 
 But what need will there be for a British navy now 
 we have a League of Nations? 
 
 It is distressing to find that there have been some 
 quibbling and friction about the constitution and scope 
 of the League of Nations. But the scheme has the 
 warm support of my Aunt Julia, whose husband was 
 eaten by cannibals, and who therefore speaks with in- 
 side knowledge of the subject. Those objectors who 
 have remained deaf to President Wilson's powerful ar- 
 guments would, I feel sure, be convinced by my Aunt 
 Julia. She very pertinently asks, why a League of 
 Nations was not established in the very dawn of his- 
 tory, and then there would have been no wars at all. 
 She is lending the movement all the weight of her moral 
 influence, and all the vigour of her tongue. If any fur- 
 ther doubts or dissensions should arise, I hope the as- 
 sembled statesmen may be persuaded to call my Aunt 
 Julia to their councils. Her voluble optimism ad- 
 mirably qualifies her to deal with the question. 
 
 It will gratify President Wilson to know that what- 
 ever difficulties or disasters the League of Nations may 
 have to encounter, he can always be assured of the 
 active sympathy and co-operation of my Aunt Julia. 
 From the time when the question was first bruited, 
 she has been enthusiastically in its favour. So much 
 so, that she has declared throughout, if we could only 
 get a League of Nations, she did not care what its 
 conditions might be, or what nations came into it, or 
 whether it would work or not. The main thing was 
 to draw up some document, call it a League of Nations, 
 and then defy any nation to go to war. I mention this 
 to show how whole-heartedly she has supported Presi- 
 dent Wilson. 
 
 I have been so much impressed by Aunt Julia's ar- 
 
I 
 
 Popular Education 307 
 
 guments, that I have commissioned one of our leading 
 artists to paint a great allegorical picture, representing 
 President Wilson's triumphant return from the Paris 
 Conference, mounted on equum asinum with blinkers 
 over its eyes and ears, Aunt Julia riding pillion be- 
 hind him, her one arm tightly clasping him to signify 
 universal brotherhood, her other arm waving a white 
 flag. When this noble piece of symbolism is enshrined, 
 as I confidently hope it will be, in the Capitol at Wash- 
 ington or the Boston Museum, it will commemorate, in 
 a vivid and appropriate way, the founding of the 
 League of Nations. It will also remain as a rebuke 
 to those Americans who are telling President Wilson, 
 that it was more important to secure a just and early 
 peace, than to waste the precious weeks in arranging 
 the future of the planet on paper. 
 
 In the meantime we have a League of Nations. The 
 first thing that strikes us, is that it isn't a League of 
 Nations at all. It is a very complicated alliance be- 
 tween the Allied powers, leaving all the real and per- 
 manent difficulties of the main question unsolved, and 
 opening up many new provocative questions for fu- 
 ture settlement. However, the League of Nations is an 
 accomplished fact, or rather an accomplished form of 
 words, which, we hope, may control facts and events, 
 and shape them to its ends. We have marshalled a 
 formidable array of arguments in favour of governing 
 the world by a Committee. All that events and facts 
 have to do, is to marshal themselves to suit our views. 
 The onus lies upon them. 
 
 The future peace of the world rests upon the great 
 solid arch which this war has built across the Atlan- 
 tic, a good understanding between America and Britain. 
 While that arch remains, with beloved France to sup- 
 
308 Patriotism and 
 
 port it, the peace of the world is assured, so far as it 
 exists between nations. The League of Nations will 
 be successful if, and as long as, that arch is unshaken. 
 If that arch should crack, we may have to change our 
 title to "A League for setting the Nations at Logger- 
 heads." 
 
 THE LAST APPEAL 
 
 The vast web of our national life is woven all of 
 one piece. Tattered and torn as it is in places, com- 
 posed of divers ill-assorted warps and wefts, and many 
 coloured threads that hold loosely together, it is yet one 
 indivisible tissue and fabric. We are all members one 
 of another, whether we will it or not. The destiny of 
 each one of us is inseparable from the destiny of the 
 British Empire. The destiny of the British Empire is 
 the destiny of all the citizens within its bounds. We 
 clearly perceived this during the war, and therefore 
 we gained the victory. 
 
 Straggling and unmethodical as these thoughts may 
 seem to be, they are all connected and gathered up in 
 one issue Patriotism or Internationalism? Either 
 by our own considered decison, looking before and 
 after, and choosing our way, or, carried along in help- 
 less, purposeless confusion by the drift and hustle of 
 events, we shall find ourselves obliged to take one road 
 or the other. As our course is steered towards Pa- 
 triotism or towards Internationalism, so will all our in- 
 ternal and external policy be conceived, shaped, and 
 executed; so will all our national aims and activities 
 be clarified, unified, and polarized. 
 
 Education, Reconstruction, Army and Navy Organi- 
 zation, Financial and Economic order and stability, Ag- 
 
Popular Education 309 
 
 ricultural Development, the Government of Ireland, 
 Our future rule in India, Colonial expansion, Com- 
 mercial Tariffs, Mercantile Shipping and Overseas 
 Trade all these and a hundred other national pro- 
 jects cannot be planned on any secure and permanent 
 basis, until we have made up our mind whether we will 
 take the road of Patriotism or of Internationalism. 
 
 Chief of all, this is a question that concerns Capital 
 and Labour. How can any durable relations be estab- 
 lished between them, what can there bo but increasing 
 tumult and strife, till we know whether we are travel- 
 ling towards the one goal, or towards the other? For 
 as we make our way towards Patriotism or towards 
 Internationalism, so will every interest of Capital and 
 Labour in the kingdom be affected, regulated, and dis- 
 posed. The question of Capital and Labour is funda- 
 mentally the question of Patriotism or International- 
 ism. All these questions are one question. They throw 
 their roots into the farthest corners of our empire, and 
 gather themselves up into the one stem and trunk of 
 our national life. 
 
 Not on that August day four years and a half ago, 
 when we took our swift unfaltering choice, flung all we 
 had into the balance, and dared Eternal Justice to tilt 
 the scales against us not then were we more remorse- 
 lessly challenged to make an irrevocable decision upon 
 which all our future will depend. 
 
 If the experience of these great events does not draw 
 us all together in closer brotherhood, in unity of clear, 
 national vision and unity of national effort, then we 
 have fought and suffered in vain. We might almost as 
 well have lost the war. For what shall we have gained 
 by escaping the ordered tyranny and slavery of Ger- 
 
310 Patriotism and 
 
 man militarism, if we are now to be submitted to the 
 disordered tyranny and raving misrule of social anar- 
 chy? 
 
 There stand the two signposts, the one pointing us to 
 Patriotism, the other to Internationalism. Let us make 
 our steadfast deliberate choice, or inevitably it will be 
 made for us by the irresistible rush of events. 
 
 Whose voices are these that hail us from far and 
 near ; from ages long gone by, and from our yesterdays 
 of supernal endurance and valour in France; from 
 every spot on earth's circumference where Englishmen 
 have adventured, and suffered, and fought, and con- 
 quered, and ruled for England ; from every grave in the 
 deep, or in sacred shrines, or in foreign dust where 
 deathless Englishmen are laid, and, being dead, do yet 
 speak to us with most authentic and commanding 
 tongues ? 
 
 These are they, who from the dim horizons of our 
 past, through all our stormy and glorious centuries, on 
 battlefields, on the quarter-deck, in council and senate 
 and on the throne, in cloisters of learning and philoso- 
 phy, in the halls of justice, in the laboratories of science, 
 in the workshops and furnaces of sweated thought, in 
 the chambers of imagination and the galleries of song 
 these are the statesmen and rulers, and warriors, and 
 seamen, and poets, and thinkers, and explorers, and in- 
 ventors, and merchants, who have created this empire, 
 and stone by stone, and story by story, have built up 
 and filled with riches and treasures this home of our 
 race, this clustering citadel, this refuge for humanity, 
 this sanctuary of ordered government. 
 
 These are your true leaders, O people of England, if 
 you will but follow them! These are your faithful 
 teachers, if you will but learn from them! These are 
 
Popular Education 311 
 
 your wise counsellors, if you will but give heed to 
 them! These are your lawful rulyrs who shall lead 
 you back to peace and security and wide prosperity, if 
 you will but obey them ! Never has any nation in the 
 past mustered such a company of her sons to span the 
 world with the greatness and worth of her achieve- 
 ments, and to civilize and enlarge the peoples by the 
 benignity of her sway. Nor will any nation arise in 
 the future to pour from her womb, a kindred breed 
 of famous men to claim for their land so sure and 
 proud a title to enduring admiration and renown, and 
 the praise and honour of mankind. 
 
 This innumerable cloud of witnesses visit and sur- 
 round us, rehearsing their deeds, counting over the sum 
 of their labours and sacrifices for us, and charging our 
 memories with the magnitude of the price they have 
 paid for our ransom from servitude and barbarism. 
 They meet us in council this day, and here assembled 
 with us under these two opposing signposts, do now 
 call upon us to say which road we will take Patriot- 
 ism or Internationalism? 
 
 Name them over, one by one, the long marvellous roll 
 of our imperishable dead. What one is there amongst 
 them whom Englishmen and all men hold in honour 
 that does not, with solemn urgency and clairvoyant 
 vision purged from all mortal obscurities, call upon us 
 to take the road of Patriotism ? 
 
 Listen to the two mightiest voices that have spoken 
 in our language. First, hear a warning from him who 
 in his own name sums up England and Patriotism. 
 In the brag and froth of Jack Cade, he speaks with the 
 very mouths of them that are to-day promising an In- 
 ternational paradise to ignorance and sloth and sedi- 
 tion: 
 
312 Patriotism and 
 
 "Be brave then, for your captain is brave, and vows refor- 
 mation. There shall be in England, seven halfpenny loaves sold 
 for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I 
 will make it felony to drink small beer; all the realm shall be 
 in common; and in Cheapside shall my palfry go to grass; there 
 shall be no more money; all shall eat and drink of my score; 
 and I will apparel them all in one livery that they may agree 
 like brothers and worship me, their lord." 
 
 "As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not; 
 It is to you, good people, that I speak 
 Fellow kings, I tell you that Lord Say hath gelded 
 the commonwealth." 
 
 "Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty. 
 We will not leave one lord, one gentleman, 
 Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon." 
 
 "Then are we in order, when most we are most out of order. 
 Come, march forward! Let's go fight, but first set London 
 Bridge on fire, and if you can, burn down the Tower too. Go 
 some and pull down the Savoy, others to the inns of court. Down 
 with them all. Away! Burn all the records of the realm: my 
 mouth shall be the parliament of England." 
 
 "And henceforth all things shall be in common." 
 
 "The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head on his 
 shoulders unless he pays me tribute; there shall not a maid be 
 married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they have 
 it; men shall hold of me in capite; and we charge and com- 
 mand that their wives be as free as heart can wish." 
 
 "Soldiers, defer the spoil of the city until night! Up Fish 
 Street! Down Saint Magnus Corner! Kill and knock down! 
 Throw them into the Thames!" 
 
 It is the very tune and creed of advancing Inter- 
 nationalism. We are hearing it daily, muttered or 
 blatant, in all the cities of Europe. Internationalists 
 will doubtless think it advisable to burn every copy of 
 Shakespeare; for until he is abolished, his sovereign 
 instinct for what is fundamental and permanent in 
 human nature, pours its fiercest, wisest mockery upon 
 their doctrines. 
 
Popular Education 313 
 
 Next, give heed to the second of our sons of light, 
 whose voice was ever raised for liberty of thought and 
 spiritual enfranchisement. Hear once more the great 
 prophecy that England has so often justified since he 
 spoke it. Do not our hearts burn within us, and our 
 eyes gather with tears, when remembering what En- 
 land has done in these last years, we take it again upon 
 our lips, and declare with one voice that it shall yet re- 
 ceive its supreme fulfilment by this people? 
 
 Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rous- 
 ing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her in- 
 vincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle renewing her 
 mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full mid- 
 day beam; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the 
 fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of 
 timorous and nocking birds, with those also that love the twi- 
 light, flutter about, amazed at what she means and in their en- 
 vious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. 
 
 Choose, England! 
 
 I lay down my pen at an hour when no man can 
 discern what baffling and formidable shape the emerg- 
 ent future may take, or in what new perplexities and 
 perils our country may be involved. At such a time, 
 our notions and opinions are but as dead leaves blown 
 frustrate in a destroying hurricane of events that we 
 can neither escape nor control. We can but lay hold of 
 the great changeless elementary rules of life and con- 
 duct, whereby men and nations have stayed and es- 
 tablished themselves in the past. To those great 
 changeless elementary rules of life and conduct, which 
 we did not fashion, which we cannot annul, upon 
 which all civilization and ordered human society must 
 be founded to these great primary absolute precepts 
 and laws, I have tried to appeal throughout this letter, 
 
314 Patriotism and Education 
 
 and have rested my arguments upon their eternal valid- 
 ity. 
 
 If, sir, in those parts of my letter which treat of 
 Popular Education and its ultimate effects upon the 
 national welfare, I have shown some want of respect 
 and urhanity, I ask your pardon. I am sure you will 
 count this a small matter in comparison with the im- 
 portance of the issues I have raised. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 HEKRY ARTHUR JONES. 
 
 To THE RIGHT HONBLE. H. A. L. FISHEB, 
 President of the Board of Education. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
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