of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small
houses rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses."

It is then of great importance to consider whether our present system of
education is the one best calculated to fulfil these great objects. Does
it really give that love of learning which is better than learning itself?
Does all the study of the classics to which our sons devote so many years
give any just appreciation of them; or do they not on leaving college too
often feel with Byron--

"Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so!"

Too much concentration on any one subject is a great mistake, especially
in early life. Nature herself indicates the true system, if we would but
listen to her. Our instincts are good guides, though not infallible, and
children will profit little by lessons which do not interest them. In
cheerfulness, says Pliny, is the success of our studies--"studia
hilaritate proveniunt"--and we may with advantage take a lesson from
Theognis, who, in his Ode on the Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, makes
the Muses sing:

"What is good and fair,
Shall ever be our care;
Thus the burden of it rang,
That shall never be our care,
Which is neither good nor fair.
Such were the words your lips immortal sang."

There are some who seem to think that our educational system is as good as
possible, and that the only remaining points of importance are the number