One of his faculties, his memory, has indeed been hypertrophied by being unduly exercised, and his capacity for receiving information is in consequence unhealthily great; but because he lacks, in this case or in that, the _sense_ which might enable him to digest the information received and convert it into knowledge, the food with which he has been crammed speedily passes through him, undigested and unassimilated, and the hours which he has spent in acquiring information will have done as little for his progress in the given subject as for the general growth of his mind.
The difference between the two schemes of education--that which exacts mechanical obedience, and that which seeks to foster growth--may be looked at from another point of view.

Under the former, interference with what I may call the subconscious processes of Nature is at its maximum.

Under the latter, at its minimum.

In order to realise what this means let us suppose that such interference were possible where fortunately it is and must ever be impossible,--in the first and second years of the child's life.
Fortunately for the child, it is impossible for us to educate him, in any formal sense of the word, until he has mastered his mother tongue.

Were it otherwise, his mother tongue would never be mastered.
Before he reaches the age of two the child accomplishes the marvellous feat of acquiring an entirely new language.