Nowadays, of course, when the highest education is deemed necessary to fit a man merely to live, without any reference to the sort of work he may do, its possession conveys no such implication." "After all," I remarked, "no amount of education can cure natural dullness or make up for original mental deficiencies.

Unless the average natural mental capacity of men is much above its level in my day, a high education must be pretty nearly thrown away on a large element of the population.

We used to hold that a certain amount of susceptibility to educational influences is required to make a mind worth cultivating, just as a certain natural fertility in soil is required if it is to repay tilling." "Ah," said Dr.Leete, "I am glad you used that illustration, for it is just the one I would have chosen to set forth the modern view of education.

You say that land so poor that the product will not repay the labor of tilling is not cultivated.

Nevertheless, much land that does not begin to repay tilling by its product was cultivated in your day and is in ours.