conduct I think it was only a piece of bravado.”  Then every one agreed that it was a piece of bravado.  I was getting angry, and would have replied, when a lady sitting beside me, who had not hitherto spoken, bent towards me and whispered in my ear.  “Jean Jacques,” said she, “say no more, they will never understand you.”  I looked at her, I recognised the wisdom of her advice, and I held my tongue.

Several things made me suspect that our young professor had not in the least understood the story he told so prettily.  After dinner I took his hand in mine and we went for a walk in the park.  When I had questioned him quietly, I discovered that he admired the vaunted courage of Alexander more than any one.  But in what do you suppose he thought this courage consisted?  Merely in swallowing a disagreeable drink at a single draught without hesitation and without any signs of dislike.  Not a fortnight before the poor child had been made to take some medicine which he could hardly swallow, and the taste of it was still in his mouth.  Death, and death by poisoning, were for him only disagreeable sensations, and senna was his only idea of poison.  I must admit, however, that Alexander’s resolution had made a great impression on his young mind, and he was determined that next time he had to take medicine he would be an Alexander.  Without entering upon explanations which were clearly beyond his grasp, I confirmed him in his praiseworthy intention, and returned home smiling to myself over the great wisdom of parents and teachers who expect to teach history to children.

Such words as king, emperor, war, conquest, law, and revolution are easily put into their mouths; but when it is a question of attaching clear ideas to these words the explanations are very different from our talk with Robert the gardener.

I feel sure some readers dissatisfied with that “Say no more, Jean Jacques,” will ask what I really saw to admire in the conduct of Alexander.  Poor things! if you need telling, how can you comprehend it?  Alexander believed in virtue, he staked his head, he staked his own life on that faith, his great soul was fitted to hold such a faith.  To swallow that draught was to make a noble profession of the faith that was in him.  Never did mortal man recite a finer creed.  If there is an Alexander in our own days, show me such deeds.

If children have no knowledge of words, there is no study that is suitable for them.  If they have no real ideas they have no real memory, for I do not call that a memory which only recalls sensations.  What is the use of inscribing on their brains a list of symbols which mean nothing to them?  They will learn the symbols when they learn the things signified; why give them the useless trouble of learning them twice over?  And yet what dangerous prejudices are you implanting when you teach them to accept as knowledge words which have no meaning for them.  The first meaningless phrase, the first thing taken