"You will require a life of scientific research. I see; and after all, as we all begin with ignorance and helplessness, we must suffer some pain during our apprenticeship. For instance, you cannot teach an infant to cut its teeth painlessly."
"But because we cannot do everything, shall we do nothing?"
"That were a sweeping conclusion; it is not necessary to go so far as that. But might it not be wise to examine the principle of actions when we attempt to regulate for others on a new system? Your exterior arrangements our splendid; your laws rigidly moral; but will you ensure their being kept? What motive do you propose?"
"I have expelled those who, after suitable remonstrance, would not conform," said Hester.
"A very effective proceeding, my kind hostess, but it is just possible that eventually such a practice might create a desert. The motive power of perseverance comes from within. The desire must be in the heart, the understanding must approve, the will must accept, the deed must co-operate, and until you have secured this motive power, your arrangements rest on an insecure basis. You cannot force men to choose good; you cannot make them studious by providing a library, or moral by denouncing the penalties of immorality. You must subdue passions, excite tastes. Can mere knowledge of physics do this?"
"There is other knowledge besides mere physics—classical knowledge."
"And will classical knowledge do it? Will reading Virgil and Horace tend to evolve moral power?"
"Why not? Knowledge is power!"
"Then why are so many of the educated sickly, unhappy and immoral?"
"Because they do not act upon their knowledge; they are idle and dissipated and worthless. The frivolities of the young men 'de bon ton' were always disgusting to me. But then they are not really educated; they may have been to school, but they have learned nothing useful, nothing of the material world."