characters than those who are more gifted, and do not easily forget what they have once learned. At school, therefore, they should be given every opportunity.
23. The fifth type are those who are weak-minded and at the same time lazy and idle. With these also a great improvement can be made, provided they are not obstinate. But great skill and patience are necessary.
24. Finally, we have those whose intellects are weak, and whose dispositions are perverse and wicked as well. These seldom come to any good. But, as it is certain that nature always provides some antidote for pernicious things, and that barren trees can be rendered fruitful if properly transplanted, we ought not to give up all hope, but should see if the perverseness, at least, cannot be combated and got rid of. It is only when this proves impossible that the twisted and knotted piece of wood may be cast aside, since it is useless to attempt to carve a Mercury out of it. “Barren land,” says Cato, “should not be cultivated; nor even once ploughed.” But an intellect of this kind, amenable to no treatment, can scarcely be found in a thousand, and this is a great proof of God’s goodness.
25. The substance of these remarks is in harmony with the following saying of Plutarch: “For the characters of young children, no man is responsible; but it is in our power to make them virtuous by a proper training.” Mark this well; he says “in our power.” For the gardener can unfailingly train a struggling shoot into a tree, by using his skill in transplanting.
26. The four following reasons show that all the young, though of such different dispositions, may be instructed and educated by the same method.
27. Firstly: For all men the goal is the same, namely, knowledge, virtue, and piety.
28. Secondly: All men, though their dispositions may differ, possess the same human nature, and are endowed with the same organs of sense and of reason.
29. Thirdly: The differences of character are caused by nothing more than a superfluity or a lack of some of
