He was probably not altogether uneducated; but he could not have
had many chances in that direction, otherwise the facility with which he
educated himself in life's practical work after he had reached manhood
would have told for him as a schoolboy as well. In business, in public
speaking and debating, and in public life in general, he took
successfully a first part; but when he had to condescend to such
schooling products as writing and spelling, he made confessedly only a
bad second. But, again, a defect of this kind is much less of an
obstacle in new colonies than in old societies, because for generations
in the former the hand is relatively more important to progress than the
head, and the man of work than the man of thought. In colonies men of
great natural parts, if ambitious, can usually take good positions even
if but little educated. At Home this is hardly possible, and the
consequent social distemper is there a danger to the State--a danger,
however, which our Education Acts since 1870 must be steadily removing.
I happened, on one occasion, to meet Nicholson's home employer in
Liverpool. He had been foreman, if indeed so high as that, in a
warehouse. When he told his employer that he had made up his mind to go
to Port Phillip with his family, there was regret to part with so quiet
and trustworthy a servant, but, as he said to me, not the least idea
that the unpretending individual before him would, within a few years,
take a position considerably in advance of his own.
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