Page:Authority and Knowledge.djvu/20

 villain, it is easy to be spoilt by knowledge if knowledge is treated merely as a means of getting on; if a superiority in knowledge is valued as a ground for boasting over others, or for "cutting them out"; if great and glorious subjects are learnt and studied not for their greatness or glory, but for gain or show, or pride

Authority then and knowledge may be an evil and not a good. Yet we send our children to school to be under authority and learn knowledge. What is it then which is needed to make authority and knowledge good?

Here again I must speak first of one and then of the other.

Authority then, to make it good and wholesome for those under it, needs to be rightful: It needs to be such as they can respect and acknowledge: such as may be kicked against by what is evil in them, but not by what is good, not by their conscience, and their best selves. It must rule not by force alone, but by right too.

And knowledge, if it is to be a good, must be seen to be precious, to be worth something for its own sake: this is what it wants to prevent it from seeming a mere task set for no reason by a master's caprice, or from being degraded into a kind of cash, to be paid in buying reputation or success. Is any master a good teacher who does not give the pupil an interest in his