Let us give them a chance! Sometimes here and there one and another bursts his bonds, and, rejoicing in his freedom, does brilliant things.

But in spite of Samuel Smiles and his self-help they are but few, though, if the centuries are searched, the catalogue will be impressive enough.
Of course there must be self-help.

But there must be opportunity also.
There is a great deal of talk about the children of the poor being "over-educated," and the delinquencies of the youthful poor are attributed to this bogy.

It is because they are under-educated, not over-educated, that the children of the very poor so often go wrong.
But the attempt to cast them all in the same mould is disastrous; there is an over-education going on in this direction.

Not all the children of the poor can be great scholars, but some of them can! Let us give them a chance.