Surely it is more sensible to check this peculiarly
English tendency to mental laziness quite early in life, as Mr.
Chittenden did with his boys. To my mind another striking
characteristic of the average English man and woman is their want
of observation. They don't notice: it is far too much trouble;
besides, they are probably thinking of something else. All
Chittenden's boys were taught to observe; otherwise they got into
trouble. He insisted, too, on his pupils expressing themselves in
correct English, with the result that Chittenden's boys were more
intellectually advanced at twelve than the average Public School
boy is at sixteen or seventeen. It is unusual to place such books
as Paley's Christian Evidences, or Archbishop Whately's Historic
Doubts as to Napoleon Bonaparte, in the hands of little boys of
twelve, with any expectation of a satisfactory result; yet we read
them on Sundays, understood the point of them, and could explain
the why and wherefore of them. Chittenden's one fault was his
tendency to "force" a receptive boy, and to develop his intellect
too quickly.
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