Page:Authority and Knowledge.djvu/19

 rules or orders, and compels us to obey, and forces and punishes us till we do; what follows? Is this good for the one who is under rule? Possibly it may be answered that obedience and discipline are such good things, that if he is wise, he will submit and be the better for it. But then I am not asking whether authority is good for the wise, but whether it is good for all. And I think you know how easily a man or a child either (for their childish sense of what is fair and just is very keen and quick) may easily gain much harm rather than good by being under the rule of an authority which he does not see to have any right over him but what power gives. He chafes under it, and grows sullen: he escapes it by lying, and grows deceitful; or he breaks out against it and his temper gets spoilt and soured. This is the way in which bad schools and harsh schoolmasters, bad homes and cruel parents have ruined children, and bad kings or tyrannical governments have ruined nations. This Authority of might without right was the curse of that slavery which England in this century did away with, by the grace of God, throughout the dominions of the Queen.

No: rule is not in itself a certain good. No more is knowledge. A sharp man is not necessarily a good man. Villains may use skill and science for villainy. And without being a