310 L. F. WAED'S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. say the fifth, but the first proposition of the first book of Euclid. Of the remaining twelve, some six might be taught it so far by rote that they could repeat it correctly even if the letters in the figure were transposed : three could probably learn it by heart, but without being able to repeat it with variations in the letters : and three more would be incapable of repeating it at all in any way. When this is the case even in congenitally intelligent classes (relatively speaking) what can we expect that education will do with the less developed intellects of the ignorant masses ? How many generations must pass by before we have begun appreciably to affect their " coefficient of intelligence," their brain and nervous system ? The error is a strictly psychological one : it consists in vastly underrating the primordial difference be- tween brains a difference so immense that the majority of men are probably born incapable of ever receiving in the most passive manner those facts and truths which alone would lead toward "dynamic action". What percentage of Aryan children, even, for example, does Mr. Ward suppose to possess minds into which the simplest correct ideas about the solar system could ever by any method be instilled ? The second point is a still more fundamental one. Mr. Ward's "means to the ultimate end of conation" do not go quite far enough. He stops short at education, which he calls " the last proximate end and initial means " to the final attainment of happiness. But how are we to ensure such an education as Mr. Ward sketches, even for that very small minority which might perhaps be congenitally capable of assimilating it? We must confess that we read his last chapter with a bitter feeling of disappointment. After so much flourish of trumpets, we had hoped that Mr. Ward had really got hold of some practical suggestions for bringing about the excellent education he desires. Unfortu- nately, he has none, and his book thereby stands self-condemned. It is not Dynamical at all. The mainspring is entirely wanting. The final means to the great end is never even alluded to. The real education which Mr. Ward would like to see made general, we know to be utterly repugnant to the feelings of the vast majority of men. It can be realised in the end solely by the slow action of that wasteful genetic process of which Mr. Ward speaks throughout with so marked contempt. Only by gradual increase of the knowing few at the expense of the ignorant or wrong- headed many can a public opinion arise which would even tolerate a national system of scientific education. There do exist plenty of national educational systems at present, and they are almost all impartially condemned by Mr. Ward as bad in method and useless in content. How, then, can any other system be introduced so long as men at large think as they do think ? In the last resort, Mr. Ward himself must fall back upon the genetic method, and must be content to aim at influencing the solitary opinions of a few already intelligent and mainly sympathetic individuals.
