{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_66369/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_66369","id":"gutenberg_66369","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66369","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Teaching & Education","Education","Education -- Great Britain","Education -- Philosophy","Parents National Educational Union (London, England)"],"text":"TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.\n\n Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been\n placed at the end of the book.\n\n Basic fractions are displayed as \u00bd \u2153 \u00bc etc; other fractions are shown\n in the form a-b/c, for example 3/11 or 15-8/12.\n\n The acronym P.N.E.U. stands for \u201cParents\u2019 National Educational Union\u201d.\n\n Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.\n\n\n\n\n AN ESSAY TOWARDS\n A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION\n\n\n\n +------------------------------------------------------+\n | |\n | _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ |\n | |\n +------------------------------------------------------+\n | |\n | HOME EDUCATION. |\n | |\n | PARENTS AND CHILDREN. |\n | |\n | SCHOOL EDUCATION. |\n | |\n | OURSELVES. |\n | |\n | SOME STUDIES IN THE FORMATION OF |\n | CHARACTER. |\n | |\n | THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD: OR, THE |\n | GOSPELS IN VERSE. |\n | Each Volume profusely illustrated. |\n | |\n | VOL. I: THE HOLY INFANCY. |\n | VOL. II: HIS DOMINION. |\n | VOL. III: KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. |\n | VOL. IV: BREAD OF LIFE. |\n | VOL. V: THE GREAT CONTROVERSY. |\n | VOL. VI: THE TRAINING OF THE DISCIPLES. |\n | |\n | THE AMBLESIDE GEOGRAPHY READERS. |\n | |\n | BOOK 1.--ELEMENTARY. Maps, Plans, etc. |\n | |\n | BOOK 2.--CHIEF DIVISIONS OF THE WORLD, |\n | with special reference to the British |\n | Empire. |\n | |\n | BOOK 3.--COUNTIES OF ENGLAND. |\n | |\n | BOOK 4.--EUROPE. |\n | |\n | BOOK 5.--ASIA, AFRICA, N. AND S. AMERICA, |\n | AUSTRALIA. |\n | |\n +------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\n An Essay Towards\n A Philosophy of Education\n\n A LIBERAL EDUCATION FOR ALL\n\n\n BY\n CHARLOTTE M. MASON\n\n\n LONDON\n KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., LTD.\n BROADWAY HOUSE: 68-74, CARTER LANE, E.C. 4\n 1925\n\n\n\n\n _Printed in Great Britain by\n The Bowering Press, Plymouth._\n\n\n\n\n \u201cALL KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL MEN.\u201d\n _Comenius._\n\n\n \u201cBooks, we know,\n Are a substantial world, both pure and good,\n Round which, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,\n Our pastime and our happiness will grow.\u201d\n _Wordsworth._\n\n\n\n\n Contents\n\n\n PAGE\n\n FOREWORD xxiii\n\n PREFACE xxv\n\n SYNOPSIS xxix\n\n INTRODUCTION 1\n\n\n BOOK I\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n SELF-EDUCATION 23\n\n Not self-expression--A person, built up from within--Life,\n sustained on food--Plant analogy misleading--Mental and\n physical gymnastics--Mental food--The life of the mind--Proper\n sustenance--Knowledge, not sensation or information--Education,\n of the spirit--Cannot be applied from without--Modern educators\n belittle children--Education will profit by divorce from\n sociology--Danger of an alliance with pathology--A comprehensive\n theory--Fits all ages--Self-education--All children have\n intellectual capacity--Should learn to \u2018read\u2019 before mechanical\n art of reading--Are much occupied with things and books--A\n knowledge of principles, necessary--Education chaotic for want of\n unifying theory--The motive that counts.\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n CHILDREN ARE BORN PERSONS 33\n\n 1.--_The Mind of a Child_: The baby, more than a huge\n oyster--Poets on infancy--Accomplishments of a child of\n two--Education does not produce mind--The range of a child\u2019s\n thoughts--Reason and imagination present in the infant--Will and\n wilfulness.\n\n 2.--_The Mind of a School-Child_: Amazing potentialities--Brain,\n the organ of mind--The \u201cunconscious mind,\u201d a region of\n symptoms--Mind, being spiritual, knows no fatigue--Brain, duly\n fed, should not know fatigue--A \u201cplay-way\u201d does not lead to\n mind--Nor does environment--Mind must come into contact with\n mind--What is mind?--Material things have little effect upon\n mind--Education, the evidence of things not seen--Ideas, only fit\n sustenance for mind--Children must have great ideas--Children\n _experience_ what they hear and read of--Our want of confidence\n in children--Children see, in their minds--Mind, one and works\n altogether--Children must _see_ the world--Dangers of technical,\n commercial, historical geography--Every man\u2019s mind, his means\n of living--All classes must be educated--The \u00e6sthetic sense--A\n child\u2019s intellect and heart already furnished--He learns to order\n his life.\n\n 3.--_Motives for Learning_: Diluted teaching--_Every_ child has\n infinite possibilities--The Parents\u2019 Union School--The House of\n Education--Teachers must know capabilities and requirements of\n children.\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n THE GOOD AND EVIL NATURE OF A CHILD 46\n\n 1.--_Well-Being of Body_: \u201cChildren of wrath\u201d--\u201cLittle\n angel\u201d theory--Good and evil tendencies--Education, handmaid\n of Religion--Religion becoming more magnanimous--New-born\n children start fair--Children, more of persons in their\n homes--Appetites--Senses--Undue nervous tension--Overpowering\n personality--Parasitic habits.\n\n 2.--_Well-Being of Mind_: Mind, not a chartered\n libertine--Has good and evil tendencies--Intellectual\n evil--Intellect enthroned in every child--A child\u2019s vivifying\n imagination--Explanations unnecessary--Children sense the\n meaning of a passage--_Incuria_--Going over same ground--Dangers\n of specialisation--Of the _questionnaire_--Capacity _v._\n aptness--Imagination, good and evil--Reason deified by\n the unlearned--Fallacious reasoning--A liberal education\n necessary--The beauty sense.\n\n 3.--_Intellectual Appetite_: The desires--Wrong use of--Love of\n knowledge sufficient stimulus.\n\n 4.--_Misdirected Affections_: The feelings--Love and\n justice--Moral education--Children must not be fed morally--They\n want food whose issue is conduct--Moral lessons worse than\n useless--Every child endowed with love--And justice--Rights and\n duties--Fine art of self-adjustment--To think fairly requires\n knowledge--Our thoughts are not our own--Truth, justice in\n word--Opinions show integrity of thought--Sound principles--All\n children intellectually hungry--Starve on the three R\u2019s.\n\n 5.--_The Well-Being of the Soul_: Education and the Soul of\n a child--Ignorance of the child--Approaches towards God--How\n knowledge grows--Narration--Great thoughts of great thinkers\n illuminate children--Education drowned by talk--Formative\n influence of knowledge--Self-expression--Education, a going forth\n of the mind--The \u201cunconscious mind\u201d--Mind always conscious--But\n thinks in ways of which we are unconscious--Dangers of\n introspection--\u201cComplexes\u201d--Necessity for a Philosophy of\n Education.\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n AUTHORITY AND DOCILITY 68\n\n Deputed authority, lodged in everyone--No such thing as\n anarchy--A mere transference of authority--Authority makes\n for Liberty--Order, the outcome of authority--Docility,\n universal--The principles of authority and docility inherent\n in everyone--_Crux_, to find the mean--Freedom, offered as\n solution--\u201cProud subjection and dignified obedience\u201d--Secured\n by feeding the mind--Subservience _v._ docility--Docility\n implies equality--Physical activities do not sustain mind--Many\n relationships must be established--No undue emphasis--Sense of\n _must_ in teacher and child--Freedom comes with knowledge--The\n office makes the man--Children must have responsibility of\n learning--The potency of their minds--All children have quick\n apprehension--And the power of attention--Humane letters make for\n efficiency--Delightful to use any power--Common interests--Powers\n of attention and recollection a national asset--But want of\n intellectual interests a serious handicap.\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n THE SACREDNESS OF PERSONALITY 80\n\n An adequate conception of children necessary--All\n action comes from the ideas held--The child\u2019s estate\n higher than ours--Methods of undermining personality--\n Fear--Love--\u201cSuggestion\u201d--Influence--Methods of stultifying\n intellectual and moral growth--The desires--Of approbation--Of\n emulation--Of ambition--Of society--The natural desire of\n knowledge--Definite progress, a condition of education--Doctrine\n of equal opportunities for all, dangerous--But a liberal\n education the possibility for all.\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n THREE INSTRUMENTS OF EDUCATION 94\n\n 1.--_Education is an Atmosphere_: Only three means of\n education--Not an artificial environment--But a natural\n atmosphere--Children must face life as it is--But must not be\n overburdened by the effort of decision--Dangers of intellectual\n feebleness and moral softness--Bracing atmosphere of truth and\n sincerity--Not a too stimulating atmosphere--Dangers of \u201crunning\n wild\u201d--Serenity comes with the food of knowledge--Two courses\n open to us.\n\n 2.--_Education is a Discipline_: We must all make efforts--But\n a new point of view, necessary--Children must work for\n themselves--Must perform the _act of knowing_--Attention, the\n hall-mark of an educated person--Other good habits attending upon\n due self-education--Spirit, acts upon matter--Habit is to life\n what rails are to transport cars--Habit is inevitable--Genesis\n of habit--Habits of the ordered life--Habits of the religious\n life--De Quincey on going to church--Danger of thinking in a\n groove--Fads.\n\n 3.--_Education is a Life_: Life is not self-existing--Body pines\n upon food substitutes--Mind cannot live upon information--What\n is an idea?--A live thing of the mind--Potency of an\n idea--Coleridge on ideas--Platonic doctrine of ideas--Functions\n of education not chiefly gymnastic--Dangers attendant upon\n \u201coriginal composition\u201d--Ideas, of spiritual origin--The child,\n an eclectic--Resists forcible feeding--We must take the risk of\n the indirect literary form--Ideas must be presented with much\n literary padding--No one capable of making extracts--Opinions\n _v._ ideas--Given an idea, mind performs acts of selection and\n inception--Must have humane reading as well as human thought.\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n HOW WE MAKE USE OF MIND 112\n\n Herbartian Psychology--\u201cApperception masses\u201d--Dangers of\n correlation--\u201cConcentration series\u201d--Children reduced to\n inanities--Mind, a spiritual organism--Cannot live upon\n \u201csweetmeats\u201d--Burden of education thrown on teacher--Danger of\n exalting personality of teacher--\u201cDelightful lessons\u201d--_Across\n the Bridges_, by A. Paterson--Blind alleys--Unemployment--Best\n boys run to seed--Continuation Classes--Education Act of\n 1918--An eight hours\u2019 University course--Academic ideal of\n Education--Continuation school, a People\u2019s University--Dangers\n of utilitarian education--The \u201chumanities\u201d in English--Narration\n prepares for public speaking--Father of the People\u2019s High\n Schools--Munich schools--Worship of efficiency--A well-grounded\n humanistic training produces capacity--Mr. Fisher on Continuation\n Schools--A more excellent way--Education from six to seventeen--A\n liberal education for all.\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n THE WAY OF THE WILL 128\n\n Will, \u201cthe sole practical faculty\u201d--\u201cThe will is the man\u201d--Its\n function, to choose, to decide--Opinions provided for us--We take\n second-hand principles--One possible achievement, character--Aim\n in education, less conduct than character--Assaults upon the\n will--\u201cSuggestion\u201d--Voluntary and involuntary action--We\n must choose between suggestions--Danger of suggestion given\n by another with intent--Vicarious choosing--Weakens power\n of choice--Parasitic creatures may become criminal--Gordon\n Riots--His will, the safeguard of a man--Indecent to probe\n thoughts of the \u201cunconscious mind\u201d--Right thinking, _not_\n self-expression--It flows upon the stimulus of an idea--Will must\n be fortified--Knowledge of the \u201ccity of Mansoul\u201d necessary--Also\n instruction concerning the will--Dangers of drifting--A child\n must distinguish between will and wilfulness--A strong will\n and \u201cbeing good\u201d--Will must have object outside of self--Is\n of slow growth--Will _v._ impulse--A constant will, compasses\n evil or good--The \u201csingle eye\u201d--_Bushido_--Will, subject to\n solicitation--Does not act alone--Takes the whole man--He must\n _understand_ in order to will--Will, a free agent--Choice, a\n heavy labour--Obedience, the sustainer of personality--Obedience\n of choice--Persons of constant will--Dangers of weak\n allowance--Two services open to all--Self and God--Will is\n supreme--Will wearies of opposition--Diversion--The \u201cway of the\n will\u201d--Freewill--We may not think what we please--Will supported\n by instructed conscience and trained reason--Education must\n prepare for immediate choice--Adequate education must be outward\n bound.\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n THE WAY OF THE REASON 139\n\n Reason brings forward infallible proofs--May be furtherer of\n counsels, good _or_ bad--Inventions--How did you think of\n it?--Children should follow steps of reasoning--Psychology\n of crime--Reasonable and right, not synonymous--Reason works\n involuntarily--Reason never begins it--Reason will affirm any\n theory--Logic, the formula of reason--But not necessarily\n right--Beauty and wonder of act of reasoning--But there\n are limitations--We must be able to expose fallacies--Karl\n Marx--Socialistic thought of to-day--Reason requires material\n to work upon--Reason subject to habit--Children must have\n principles--Be able to detect fallacies--Must know what Religion\n is--Miracles--Quasi-religious offers--Great things of life\n cannot be proved--Reason is fallible--Children, intensely\n reasonable--Reasoning power of a child does not wait upon\n training--But children do not generalise--Must not be hurried to\n formulate--Mathematics should not monopolise undue time--Cannot\n alone produce a reasonable soul.\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n THE CURRICULUM 154\n\n Standard in Secondary Schools set by public\n examinations--Elementary Schools less limited with regard\n to subjects--A complete curriculum in the nature of\n things--Education still at sea--Children have inherent\n claims--Law of supply and demand--Human nature a composite\n whole--The educational rights of man--We may not pick and\n choose--Shelley offers a key--Mistakes _v._ howlers--Knowledge\n should be consecutive, intelligent, complete--Hours of work, not\n number of subjects, bring fatigue--Short hours--No preparation.\n\n SECTION I: THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 158\n\n Knowledge of God indispensable--Mothers communicate it\n best--Relation to God a first-born affinity--\u201cKiddies\u201d not\n expected to understand--School education begins at six--_No\n conscious mental effort_ should be required earlier--Dr.\n Johnson on \u201ctelling again\u201d--Two aspects of Religion--Attitude\n of Will towards God--Gradual perception of God--Goethe\n on repose of soul--Children must have passive as well as\n active principle--New Testament teaching must be grounded\n on Old--Sceptical children--Must not be evaded or answered\n finally--A thoughtful commentator necessary--Method of lessons,\n six to twelve, twelve to fifteen, fifteen to eighteen--Aids of\n modern scholarship--Dogmatic teaching comes by inference--Very\n little hortatory teaching desirable--Synthetic study of life and\n teaching of Christ, a necessity--\u201cAuthentic comment\u201d essayed in\n verse--Catechism--Prayer Book--Church History.\n\n SECTION II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 169\n\n (_a_) _History_: Montaigne on history--The League of Nations\n and its parallels--_Henry VIII_ on precedent--Dangers of\n indifference to history--Rational patriotism depends upon\n knowledge of history--History must give more than impressions\n and opinions--P.U.S. method multiplies time--Concentrated\n attention given to the right books--Condition, a _single_\n reading--Attention a natural function--Teacher\u2019s interest\n an incentive--Teacher who \u201cmakes allowance\u201d for wandering,\n hinders--Narration in the history lesson--Distinction between\n word memory and mind memory--English history for children of six\n to nine--Of nine to twelve--French history--Ancient history--For\n children of twelve to fifteen--Indian history--European\n history--History for pupils of fifteen to eighteen--Literature--A\n mental pageant of history--Gives weight to decisions,\n consideration to action, stability to conduct--Labour\n unrest--Infinite educability of all classes--Equal opportunity\n should be afforded--But uneasiness apt to follow--Knowledge\n brings its own satisfaction--Education merely a means of getting\n on, or, of progress towards high thinking and plain living.\n\n II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 180\n\n (_b_) _Literature_: Literature in Form I--Classics, not\n written down--In Form II--Children show originality in \u201cmere\n narration\u201d--Just as Scott, Shakespeare, Homer--Children all\n sit down to the same feast--Each gets according to his needs\n and powers--Reading for Forms III and IV--Abridged editions\n undesirable--Children take pleasure in the \u201cdry\u201d parts--Must have\n a sense of wide spaces for the imagination to wander in--Judgment\n turns over the folios of the mind--Statesmanship, formed upon\n wide reading--Reading for Forms V and VI (fifteen to eighteen).\n\n II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 185\n\n (_c_) _Morals and Economics_: _Citizenship_: Form\n I--Tales--Fables--Hears of great citizens--Form II--The\n inspiration of citizenship--Plutarch--Present day\n citizenship--Problems of good and evil--Plutarch does not\n label actions--Children weary of the doctored tale--The\n human story always interesting--Jacob--The good, which is\n all virtuous, palls--Children must see life whole--Must be\n protected from grossness by literary medium--Learn the science\n of proportion--Difficulty of choosing books--Chastely taught\n children watch their thoughts--Expurgated editions--Processes\n of nature must not be associated with impurity--Games--Offences\n bred in the mind--Mind must be continually and wholesomely\n occupied--A sound body and a sound mind--_Ourselves, our Souls\n and Bodies_--An ordered presentation of the possibilities and\n powers of human nature.\n\n II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 190\n\n (_d_) _Composition_: Oral, from six to seven--Dangers of\n teaching composition--The art of \u201ctelling\u201d--Power of composition\n innate--Oral and written from nine to twelve--Integral\n part of education in every subject--From twelve to\n fifteen--An inevitable consequence of free and exact use of\n books--Verse--Scansion--Rhythm--Accent--Subject must be one\n of keen interest--From fifteen to eighteen, some definite\n teaching--Suggestions or corrections--Education bears on the\n issues and interests of everyday life.\n\n II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 209\n\n (_e_) _Languages_: English--Grammar--Begin with\n sentence--Difficulty of abstract knowledge--French--Narration\n from the beginning--Italian--German--Latin.\n\n II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 213\n\n (_f_) _Art_: Art is of the spirit--Reverent knowledge of\n pictures themselves--Method--No talk of schools of painting\n or style--Picture tells its own tale--Drawing--Original\n illustrations--Figures--Objects--Colour--Field\n studies--Architecture--Clay-modelling--Artistic\n handicrafts--Musical Appreciation.\n\n SECTION III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 218\n\n (_a_) _Science_: Huxley--\u201cCommon information\u201d--Books should be\n literary in character--French approach to science--Principles\n underlying science meet for literary treatment--Details of\n application too technical for school work--Universal principles\n must be linked with common incidents--Verbiage that darkens\n counsel--Out-of-door work--Natural history, botany, astronomy,\n physiology, hygiene, general science--A due combination of field\n work with literary comments--Fatal divorce between science and\n the \u201chumanities\u201d--Nature Note Books--Science not a utilitarian\n subject.\n\n _Geography_: Suffers from utilitarian spirit--Mystery and\n beauty gone--Modern geography, concerned with man\u2019s profit--A\n map should unfold a panorama of delight--Map work--Children\n read and picture descriptions--Knowledge of England, a key\n to the world--Naval history--Empire geography--Current\n geography--Countries of Europe--Romance of natural features,\n peoples, history, industries--Generalisations, not\n geography--Children must see with the mind\u2019s eye--Two ways of\n teaching geography--Inferential method--But general principles\n open to modification--No local colour and personal interests--No\n imaginative conception--Panoramic method--Gives colour, detail,\n proportion, principles--Pictures not of much use--Except those\n constructed by the imagination from written descriptions--Survey\n of Asia--Africa--America--Physical geography--Geography in\n connection with history--Practical geography.\n\n III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 230\n\n (_b_) _Mathematics_: Reasoning powers do not wait upon our\n training--Beauty and truth of Mathematics--A sense of limitation\n wholesome--We should hear _sursum corda_ in natural law--Mind\n invigorated by hard exercise--Mathematics easy to examine\n upon--Dangers of education directed not to awaken awe but to\n secure exactness--Which does not serve in other departments\n of life--Work upon special lines qualifies for work on those\n only--Mathematics to be studied for their own sake--Not as\n they make for general intelligence and grasp of mind--Genius\n has her rights--Tendency to sacrifice the \u201chumanities\u201d to\n Mathematics--Mathematics depend upon the teacher--Few subjects\n worse taught--A necessary part of education.\n\n III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 233\n\n (_c_) _Physical Development, Handicrafts._ No special methods for\n these.\n\n\n BOOK II\n\n THEORY APPLIED\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n A LIBERAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 235\n\n A liberal education, birthright of every child--Good life implies\n cultivated intelligence--Difficulty of offering Humanism to\n everyone--Problem solved at last--by the Drighlington School\n (Yorks)--Teachers, not satisfied--Potency, not property,\n characteristic of mind--We try to give potency rather than\n knowledge--Result, devitalisation--Mind receives knowledge _in\n order to grow, not to know_--Office of teacher depreciated--He\n has prophetic power of appeal and inspiration--Delightful\n commerce of equal minds--And friction of wills ceases--Children\n not products of education and environment--Carlyle on \u201ca\n person\u201d--Children not incomplete and undeveloped, but\n ignorant and weak--Potentialities of a child as he is--_David\n Copperfield_--Knowledge, conceived in mind--Ignorance, a chief\n cause of our difficulties--Matthew Arnold--Three divisions\n of knowledge--All classed under Humanism--Mind acts upon\n it--Vitality results--Mind and knowledge like ball and socket\n joint--Results of P.N.E.U. method made good by thousands of\n children--Work done by self-effort--Single reading tested\n by narration--No revision--For children _know_--Use proper\n names with ease--Write fully--Rarely make howlers--Get at\n gist of book or subject--Children of six to eight dictate\n answers at examination time--Teacher reads with intention--Is\n careful to produce author--Children listen with attention--No\n selection of subjects--Book read through--Older children read\n for themselves--Work done in less time--No preparation--No\n working-up--Time for vocational work--Such education, a social\n lever--A venture of faith--In knowledge and in children--A\n new product appears--Peculiar experience, misleading--General\n experience testifies to laws--Usual educational equipment\n based on false assumption--Which intervenes between child and\n knowledge--Method specially suitable for large classes--Labour\n of correction minimised--Choice of books--Character of P.U.S.\n examination--Children reject wrong book--Great cause of Education\n _v_. Civilisation--Grand elementary principle of pleasure--Only\n one education common to all.\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n A LIBERAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 250\n\n Pelmanism, an indictment--Monotonous drudgery the stumbling-block\n to education--A \u201cplay way\u201d--Handicrafts--Eurhythmics--Enthusiasm\n of teachers amazing--Education, a passion--_Joan and Peter_\n types--Public School men do the work of the world--But schools\n do not teach what a boy wants to know--Mulish resistance--Ways\n of mind subtle and evasive--The error of \u201cnot what you know\n that matters but how you learn it\u201d--Every school must educate\n every scholar--What is knowledge?--Intellectual requirements\n satisfied by bridge and golf--Attention acts without marks,\n praise or blame--But training, not education--No faculties,\n only mind--Text-books make no appeal to mind--Way of Natural\n Science through field work illuminated by literature--Mind,\n a crucible, but no power to distil ideas from sawdust--Dr.\n Arnold--\u201cVery various reading\u201d--Mind, a deceiver ever--Class\n will occupy itself and accomplish nothing--Outer court of\n mind--Inner place where personality dwells--We \u201cgo over it in our\n minds\u201d--Attention must not be allowed a crutch--Should be tested\n by the reader--Knowledge, received with attention, fixed by\n narration--We have ceased to believe in mind--Physical brain and\n spiritual mind--Education must go as a bolt to the mind--Teacher\n not a bridge--A key to humanistic teaching in English--A\n liberal education, measured by the number of substantives used\n with fitness and simplicity--The school not merely a nursery\n for the formation of character--Knowledge in common for the\n \u201cmasses\u201d and the \u201cclasses\u201d--All hearts rise to a familiar\n allusion--Speech with those who know--Opposition, natural\n resource of ignorance--A democratic education--We shall cease\n to present motives of self-interest and personal advantage--The\n classics in English--Old exclusive education must broaden its\n base and narrow its bounds--Avoid overlapping--Academic success\n and knowledge not the same thing--Brilliant, average and dull\n children delight in knowledge--It unites the household--Makes\n children delightful companions--A fine sense of things\n worth knowing and living for--Magnanimity, proper outcome\n of education--The schoolboy\u2019s sterile syllabus--In spite of\n culture common among teachers--A method which brings promise of\n relief from _aphasia_--Barrenness in the written essay--Oral\n composition, a habit from six to eighteen--Method cannot be\n worked without a firm adherence to principle--Otherwise the books\n a failure--Parents must provide necessary books--Which must take\n root in the homes--Spelling comes with the use of books--Books\n _and_ text-books--The choice of books, a question of division of\n labour--Terminal examinations, records of permanent value--Bible\n teaching must further the knowledge of God--The law and the\n prophets still interpreters--History, the rich pasture of the\n mind--Amyot on history--Plutarch--Poets--Every age has its\n poetic aspect--Gathered up by a Shakespeare--A Dante--A world\n possession--An essence of history which is poetry--An essence of\n science to be expressed in exquisite prose--Art--Drawing, not\n a means of self-expression--Languages--Possibility of becoming\n linguists--Finally, another basis for education--Which must be\n in touch with life--We aim at securing the vitality of many\n minds--Which shall make England great in art and in life--Great\n character comes from great thoughts--Great thoughts from great\n thinkers--Thinking, not doing, the source of character.\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n THE SCOPE OF CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 279\n\n Napoleonic Wars outcome of the wrong thinking of\n ignorance--Intellectual renaissance followed--To be superseded by\n the utilitarian motive--Continuation School movement--Technical\n education--The Munich Schools--\u201cThe utilitarian theory profoundly\n immoral\u201d--\u201cService and self-direction\u201d--But food and work not\n synonymous terms--The wide reading of great statesmen--Duly\n ordered education means self-sustaining minds and bodies--Moral\n bankruptcy--Co-existent with utilitarian education--Moral\n madness--National insanity--The better man does better\n work--German efficiency--We depreciate ourselves--People\u2019s High\n Schools of Denmark--\u201cA well of healing in the land\u201d--\u201cTo blend\n all classes into one\u201d--A profoundly Christian movement--Widely\n liberal as that of the \u201cAngelic Doctor\u201d--Agricultural\n schools--Humanistic training for business capacity--A village\n should offer happy community life--Intellectual well-being\n makes for stability--An empty mind seizes on any notion--A\n hungry mind, responsible for labour unrest--Continuation\n Schools should not exist for technical instruction--Evening\n hours still free for recreation--Eight hours a week for things\n of the mind--Not for opinions--Lest leisure bore and strikes\n attract--But for knowledge--Not for due exercise but for food--No\n education but self-education--A great discovery has been\n vouchsafed--Not a \u201cgood idea\u201d or a \u201cgood plan\u201d--But a natural\n law in action--Grundtvig saw impassible barrier of no literary\n background--But hope of Comenius \u201call knowledge for all men\u201d\n is taking shape--In the case of thousands of children--Even\n dull and backward ones--Under the right conditions--Knowledge\n meet for the people--The Parents\u2019 Union School--A common\n curriculum for _all_ children of _all_ classes--Test of a\n liberal education--Only one education common to all--Nothing\n can act but where it is--National work done by men brought up\n on the \u201chumanities\u201d--Fetish of progress--The still progress\n of growth--The \u201chumanities\u201d in English alone, bring forth\n stability and efficiency--A common ground of thought has cohesive\n value--Kindles light in the eyes--Peace, signalised by a new bond\n of intellectual life--Danger of ignorance in action--A hopeful\n sign--Demos perceives the lack.\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n THE BASIS OF NATIONAL STRENGTH\n\n A LIBERAL EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT 300\n\n 1. _Knowledge_: Failure of attempt to educate average\n boy--Industrial unrest often reveals virtue but want\n of knowledge--Dangerous tendency--The spirit of the\n horde--Individual, less important--\u201cCountenance,\u201d a\n manifestation of thought, dropped out of use--Never were more\n devoted teachers--Substitutes for knowledge--A mischievous\n fallacy--A child brought up for uses of society--Joy in\n living a chief object of education--Knowledge is the\n source of Pleasure--Children get knowledge for their own\n sakes--Assets within power of all--Intellectual resources--No\n dull hours--Knowledge passed like light of torch from\n mind to mind--Kindled at original minds--A school judged\n by books used--Indirect method of teaching--Parables of\n Christ--Not enough even of the right books--Children, beings\n \u201cof large discourse\u201d--Alertness comes of handling various\n subjects--Scholarship _v._ knowledge--Napoleon a great\n reader--Nations grow great upon books--Queen Louisa of\n Prussia--Kant--Fichte--The Danes--The Japanese.\n\n 2. _Letters, Knowledge and Virtue_: Classics take so much\n time--But University men, our educational achievement--Letters,\n the content of Knowledge--Knowledge, not a store but a\n state--Culture begins with the knowledge that everything has\n been said and known--We have a loss to make good--Rich and\n poor used to be familiar with the Bible--A well of English\n undefiled--And no longer rule as those who serve--Recklessness\n due to ignorance--Scholarship, an exquisite distinction--But not\n the best thing--Erudition, out of count--The average boy--Ladies\n of the Italian and French Renaissance--Tudor women--\u201cInfinitely\n informed\u201d--A leakage somewhere--Democracy coming in like a\n flood--Examination tests should safeguard Letters--Which open\n life-long resources--We need a practical philosophy--Not to be\n arrived at by Economics, Eugenics--But gathered harvests of\n Letters.\n\n 3. _Knowledge, Reason and Rebellion_: Irresponsibility\n characterises our generation--Lettered ignorance follows specious\n arguments to logical conclusions--Reason apt to be accompanied\n by Rebellion--Reason cannot take place of Knowledge--Shakespeare\n on reason--The art of living is long--Bodies of men act with\n momentum which may be paralysing or propelling--Glorious thing\n to perceive action of mind, reasoning power--Greek training\n in use and power of words--Great thoughts anticipate great\n works--People, conversant with great thoughts--Knowledge\n of The Way, the Truth, the Life--A region of sterility\n in intellectual life--Science the preoccupation of our\n age--Principle of life goes with flesh stripped away--History\n expires--Poetry, not brought forth--Religion faints--Science,\n without wonder, not spiritual--Eighteenth Century Science\n was alive--Lister--Pasteur--Science, as taught, leaves us\n cold--Coleridge has revealed the secret--Science waits its\n literature--We are all to blame--Man does not live by bread\n alone--We are losing our sense of spiritual values--An industrial\n revolution--\u201cHumbler franchises\u201d won by the loss of \u201cspiritual\n things\u201d--Wordsworth--Trade Unionism a tyranny, centuries\n ago--Predicts no triumph for Syndicalism now--Irresponsible\n thought and speech--Question must be raised to plane of spiritual\n things--Working man demands too little--And things that do not\n matter--For knowledge, the basis of a nation\u2019s strength.\n\n 4. _New and Old Conceptions of Knowledge_: Knowledge,\n undefined and undefinable--Knowledge _v._ facts--England\n suffering from intellectual inanition--Medi\u00e6val conception\n of knowledge--_Filosofica della Religione Cattolica_--_The\n Adoration of the Lamb_--Promethean Fable--Knowledge does\n not arrive casually--Is not self-generated in man--\u201cThe\n teaching power of the Spirit of God\u201d--Unity of purpose in\n the education of the race--Knowledge comes to the man who\n is ready--\u201cAbt Vogler\u201d--All knowledge is sacred--A great\n whole--Mind lives by knowledge--Which must not be limited\n by choice--or time--Knowledge and \u201clearning\u201d--Country needs\n persons of character--\u201cNew\u201d educational systems present\n a grain of knowledge in a gallon of diluent--Rousseau\u2019s\n theory--Joy in \u201csport\u201d--Knowledge plays no part in\n these--\u201cGet understanding,\u201d our need--Fallacious\n arguments--Prejudice--Platitudes--Insincerity, outcome of\n ignorance--Most teachers doing excellent work--New universities\n full of promise--But need for the \u201cScience of Relations\u201d--And the\n Science of the proportion of things.\n\n 5. _Education and the Fulness of Life_: \u201cI must live\n my life\u201d--What should the life be?--We are doing\n something--The book of nature--Relations with Mother\n Earth--Sports--Handicrafts--Art--We all thrive in the well-being\n of each--The contribution of our generation to the science\n of education--Person to be brought up for his own uses--But\n what of mind?--Mechanical art of reading, _not_ reading--An\n unsuspected unwritten law concerning \u201cmaterial\u201d converted into\n knowledge--The Logos--\u201cThe words of eternal life\u201d--Words,\n more things than events--Rhetoric a power--Motives conveyed\n by words--American negroes fell upon books--Mechanical labour\n performed in solitude--Labour goes better because \u201cmy mind to\n me a kingdom is\u201d--Browning on mind--\u201cHave mynde\u201d--Faith has\n grown feeble, Hope faints, Charity waxes strong--But social\n amelioration not enough--The pleasant places of the mind--Books,\n \u201cwatered down\u201d--Christ exposed profoundest philosophy to\n the multitude--Working men value knowledge--Can deal with\n it--Emotional disturbances come from mind hunger.\n\n 6. _Knowledge in Literary Form_: Mind demands method--No one can\n live without a philosophy which points out the end of effort--A\n patchwork of principles betrays us--Human nature has not\n failed--But education has failed us--A new scale of values--We\n want more life--Engrossing interests--We want hope--Pleasure\n comes in effort, not attainment--We want to be governed--A new\n start--Other ways of looking at things--We are uneasy--And yet\n almost anyone will risk his life--Splendid magnanimity in the\n War--We are not decadent--Are ready for a life of passionate\n devotion--Our demands met by Words--And by the manifestation of\n a Person--\u201cThe shout of a King\u201d among us--But _understanding_,\n prior to good works--A consummate philosophy which meets every\n occasion--The teaching of Christ--Other knowledge \u201cdumb\u201d without\n the fundamental knowledge--Our latest educational authority on\n imagination--Rousseau--Our chief business the education of\n the succeeding generation--The slough of materialism--Children\n must have freedom of city of mind even in order to handle\n things--Imagination does not work upon a visual presentation--Dr.\n Arnold and mental pictures--\u201cSelections\u201d to be avoided--Dangers\n of the flood-gates of knowledge--Erasmus--Rossetti--Friedrich\n Perthes--Publishers and their educational mission--Dr. Arnold\n on reading--A crucial moment--John Bull on the results of forty\n years\u2019 education--England can be saved--Knowledge exalteth a\n nation--Matthew Arnold\u2019s monition.\n\n\n SUPPLEMENTARY\n\n TOO WIDE A MESH 343\n\n A luminous figure of Education--But only \u2018universal\n opportunity\u2019--No new thing--No universal boon like air--Only\n for the few who choose--No reflection on Public Schools but\n on the system of the Big Mesh--The letters of two Public\n School boys pathetic but reassuring--Desire of knowledge,\n inextinguishable--But limitations of the absence of education--No\n cultivated sense of humour--No sense of the supreme\n delightfulness of knowledge--_Coningsby_--Teaching how to learn,\n a farce--No avenue to knowledge but knowledge itself.\n\n\n INDEX 349\n\n\n_The Trustees have, at the request of the Publishers, been obliged\nto reduce the original volume. Two important sections on the\npractical work have been omitted,--(A)--Children\u2019s examination\nanswers and, (B)--Some discussions of the method by Educational\nAuthorities and teachers. A pamphlet will be issued from the\nP.N.E.U. Office, 26, Victoria Street, S.W., covering section B.\nSets of children\u2019s answers (A) can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office,\n26, Victoria Street, S.W._\n\n\n\n\n Foreword\n\n\nOur forefathers trusted of yore to the rod and to coercion for\nthe evoking in children of a love of learning. For the last fifty\nyears we have rested our hopes on the enthusiasm of the teachers.\nBut that enthusiasm, when not fictitious, often acts prejudicially\nby diverting the child\u2019s love of knowledge and new ideas into\nadmiration for his teacher: and when that fails, as it frequently\ndoes, nothing is left, except extraneous and baneful appeals to\nself-interest.\n\nMiss Mason saw and in this volume has explained that the natural\nand only quite wholesome way of teaching is to let the child\u2019s\ndesire for knowledge operate in the schoolboy and guide the\nteacher. This means that without foregoing discipline, nor cutting\nourselves off from tradition, we must continue experiments already\nbeing started in our elementary schools. These are based on the\nchastening fact that children learn best before we adults begin\nto teach them at all: and hence that however uncongenial the task\nmay be, we must conform our teaching methods to those of Nature.\nThe attempt has often been made before. But in this volume there\nis a rare combination of intuitive insight and practical sagacity.\nThe author refused to believe that the collapse of the desire for\nknowledge between seven and seventeen years of age is inevitable.\nSo must we.\n\n EDWARD LYTTELTON, D.D.\n\n\n\n\n Preface\n\n\nIt would seem a far cry from _Undine_ to a \u2018liberal education\u2019\nbut there is a point of contact between the two; a soul awoke\nwithin a water-sprite at the touch of love; so, I have to tell\nof the awakening of a \u2018general soul\u2019 at the touch of knowledge.\nEight[1] years ago the \u2018soul\u2019 of a class of children in a mining\nvillage school awoke simultaneously at this magic touch and has\nremained awake. We know that religion can awaken souls, that love\nmakes a new man, that the call of a vocation may do it, and in\nthe age of the Renaissance, men\u2019s souls, the general soul, awoke\nto knowledge: but this appeal rarely reaches the modern soul;\nand, notwithstanding the pleasantness attending lessons and marks\nin all our schools, I believe the ardour for knowledge in the\nchildren of this mining village is a phenomenon that indicates new\npossibilities. Already many thousands of the children of the Empire\nhad experienced this intellectual conversion, but they were the\nchildren of educated persons. To find that the children of a mining\npopulation were equally responsive seemed to open a new hope for\nthe world. It may be that the souls of all children are waiting for\nthe call of knowledge to awaken them to delightful living.\n\nThis is how the late Mrs. Francis Steinthal, who was the happy\ninstigator of the movement in Council Schools, wrote,--\u201cThink of\nthe meaning of this in the lives of the children,--disciplined\nlives, and no lawless strikes, justice, an end to class warfare,\ndeveloped intellects, and no market for trashy and corrupt\nliterature! We shall, or rather they will, live in a redeemed\nworld.\u201d This was written in a moment of enthusiasm on hearing\nthat a certain County Council had accepted a scheme of work for\nthis pioneer school; enthusiasm sees in advance the fields white\nto the harvest, but indeed the event is likely to justify high\nexpectations. Though less than nine years have passed since that\npioneer school made the bold attempt, already many thousands of\nchildren working under numerous County Councils are finding that\n\u201cStudies serve for delight.\u201d\n\nNo doubt children are well taught and happy in their lessons as\nthings are, and this was specially true of the school in question;\nyet both teachers and children find an immeasurable difference\nbetween the casual interest roused by marks, pleasing oral lessons\nand other school devices, and the sort of steady avidity for\nknowledge that comes with the awakened soul. The children have\nconverted the school inspectors: \u201cAnd the English!\u201d said one of\nthese in astonishment as he listened to their long, graphic,\ndramatic narrations of what they had heard. During the last thirty\nyears we (including many fellow workers) have had thousands of\nchildren, in our schoolrooms, home and other, working on the lines\nof Dean Colet\u2019s prayer for St. Paul\u2019s School,--\u201cPray for the\nchildren to prosper in good life and good literature;\u201d probably all\nchildren so taught grow up with such principles and pursuits as\nmake for happy and useful citizenship.\n\nI should like to add that we have no axe to grind. The public good\nis our aim; and the methods proposed are applicable in any school.\nMy object in offering this volume to the public is to urge upon all\nwho are concerned with education a few salient principles which are\ngenerally either unknown or disregarded; and a few methods which,\nlike that bathing in Jordan, are too simple to commend themselves\nto the \u2018general.\u2019 Yet these principles and methods make education\nentirely effectual.\n\nI should like to add that no statement that I have advanced in the\nfollowing volume rests upon opinion only. Every point has been\nproved in thousands of instances, and the method may be seen at\nwork in many schools, large and small, Elementary and Secondary.\n\nI have to beg the patience of the reader who is asked to approach\nthe one terminus by various avenues, and I cannot do so better than\nin the words of old Fuller:--\u201cGood Reader. I suspect I may have\nwritten some things twice; if not in the same words yet in sense,\nwhich I desire you to pass by favourably, forasmuch as you may\nwell think, it was difficult and a dull thing for me in so great\na number of independent sentences to find out the repetitions....\nBesides the pains, such a search would cost me more time than I\ncan afford it; for my glass of life running now low, I must not\nsuffer one sand to fall in waste nor suffer one minute in picking\nof straws.... But to conclude this, since in matters of advice,\nPrecept must be upon Precept, Line upon Line, I apologise in the\nwords of St. Paul, \u2018To write the same things to you to me indeed is\nnot grievous, but for you it is safe.\u2019\u201d\n\nI am unwilling to close what is probably the last preface I shall\nbe called upon to write without a very grateful recognition of the\nco-operation of those friends who are working with me in what seems\nto us a great cause. The Parents\u2019 National Educational Union has\nfulfilled its mission, as declared in its first prospectus, nobly\nand generously. \u201cThe Union exists for the benefit of parents and\nteachers of _all classes_;\u201d and, for the last eight[2] years it\nhas undertaken the labour and expense of an energetic propaganda\non behalf of Elementary Schools, of which about 150[3] are now\nworking on the programmes of the Parents\u2019 Union School. During the\nlast year a pleasing and hopeful development has taken place under\nthe auspices of the Hon. Mrs. Franklin. It was suggested to the\nHead of a London County Council School to form an association of\nthe parents of the children in that school, offering them certain\nadvantages and requiring a small payment to cover expenses. At the\nfirst meeting one of the fathers present got up and said that he\nwas greatly disappointed. He had expected to see some three hundred\nparents and there were only about sixty present! The promoters of\nthe meeting were, however, well pleased to see the sixty, most of\nwhom became members of the Parents\u2019 Association, and the work goes\non with spirit.\n\nWe are deeply indebted to many fellow-workers, but not even that\nvery courteous gentleman who once wrote a letter to the Romans\ncould make suitable acknowledgments to all of those to whom we owe\nthe success of a movement the _rationale_ of which I attempt to\nmake clear in the following pages.\n\n CHARLOTTE M. MASON.\n\n HOUSE OF EDUCATION,\n AMBLESIDE.\n 1922.\n\n\n\n\nA Short Synopsis\n\nOF THE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY ADVANCED IN THIS VOLUME\n\n \u201c_No sooner doth the truth ... come into the soul\u2019s sight, but\n the soul knows her to be her first and old acquaintance._\u201d\n\n \u201c_The consequence of truth is great; therefore the judgment of it\n must not be negligent._\u201d (WHICHCOTE).\n\n\n1. Children are born _persons_.\n\n2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for\ngood and for evil.\n\n3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on\nthe other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but--\n\n4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the\npersonality of children, which must not be encroached upon, whether\nby the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by\nundue play upon any one natural desire.\n\n5. Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments--the\natmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the\npresentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: \u201cEducation is\nan atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.\u201d\n\n6. When we say that \u201c_education is an atmosphere_,\u201d we do not\nmean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a\n\u2018child-environment\u2019 especially adapted and prepared, but that we\nshould take into account the educational value of his natural home\natmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him\nlive freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to\nbring down his world to the \u2018child\u2019s\u2019 level.\n\n7. By \u201c_education is a discipline_,\u201d we mean the discipline of\nhabits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of\nmind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain\nstructures to habitual lines of thought, _i.e._, to our habits.\n\n8. In saying that \u201c_education is a life_,\u201d the need of intellectual\nand moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind\nfeeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous\ncurriculum.\n\n9. We hold that the child\u2019s mind is no mere _sac_ to hold\nideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual\n_organism_, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper\ndiet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest\nand assimilate as the body does food-stuffs.\n\n10. Such a doctrine as _e.g._ the Herbartian, that the mind is\na receptacle, lays the stress of Education (the preparation of\nknowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher.\nChildren taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much\nteaching with little knowledge; and the teacher\u2019s axiom is \u201cwhat a\nchild learns matters less than how he learns it.\u201d\n\n11. But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind\nwhich fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a\nfull and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge\noffered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without\ntheir informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle\nthat,--\n\n12. \u201c_Education is the Science of Relations_\u201d; that is, that a\nchild has natural relations with a vast number of things and\nthoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore,\nhandicrafts, science and art, and upon _many living_ books, for we\nknow that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but\nto help him to make valid as many as may be of--\n\n \u201cThose first-born affinities\n That fit our new existence to existing things.\u201d\n\n13. In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social\nclass, three points must be considered:--\n\n (_a_) He requires _much_ knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient\n food as much as does the body.\n\n (_b_) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental\n diet does not create appetite (_i.e._, curiosity).\n\n (_c_) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language,\n because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in\n literary form.\n\n14. As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced,\nchildren should \u2018tell back\u2019 after a single reading or hearing: or\nshould write on some part of what they have read.\n\n15. A _single reading_ is insisted on, because children have\nnaturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by\nthe re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising,\nand the like.\n\nActing upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind,\nwe find that _the educability of children is enormously greater\nthan has hitherto been supposed_, and is but little dependent on\nsuch circumstances as heredity and environment.\n\nNor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children\nor to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in\nElementary Schools respond freely to this method, which is based on\nthe _behaviour of mind_.\n\n16. There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management\nto offer to children, which we may call \u2018the way of the will\u2019 and\n\u2018the way of the reason.\u2019\n\n17. _The way of the will_: Children should be taught, (_a_) to\ndistinguish between \u2018I want\u2019 and \u2018I will.\u2019 (_b_) That the way to\nwill effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire\nbut do not will. (_c_) That the best way to turn our thoughts is\nto think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or\ninteresting. (_d_) That after a little rest in this way, the will\nreturns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will\nis familiar to us as _diversion_, whose office it is to ease us\nfor a time from will effort, that we may \u2018will\u2019 again with added\npower. The use of _suggestion_ as an aid to the will _is to be\ndeprecated_, as tending to stultify and stereotype character. It\nwould seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that\nhuman nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)\n\n18. _The way of reason_: We teach children, too, not to \u2018lean (too\nconfidently) to their own understanding\u2019; because the function\nof reason is to give logical demonstration (_a_) of mathematical\ntruth, (_b_) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the\nformer case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in\nthe latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be\nright or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.\n\n19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature\nenough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility\nwhich rests on them as _persons_ is the acceptance or rejection\nof ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of\nconduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These\nprinciples should save children from some of the loose thinking and\nheedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level\nthan we need.\n\n20. We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and\n\u2018spiritual\u2019 life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit\nhas constant access to their spirits, and is their continual Helper\nin all the interests, duties and joys of life.\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction\n\n\nThese are anxious days for all who are engaged in education.\nWe rejoiced in the fortitude, valour and devotion shown by our\nmen in the War and recognize that these things are due to the\nSchools as well as to the fact that England still breeds \u201cvery\nvaliant creatures.\u201d It is good to know that \u201cthe whole army was\nillustrious.\u201d The heroism of our officers derives an added impulse\nfrom that tincture of \u2018letters\u2019 that every Public schoolboy gets,\nand those \u201cplaying fields\u201d where boys acquire habits of obedience\nand command. But what about the abysmal ignorance shown in the\nwrong thinking of many of the men who stayed at home? Are we to\nblame? I suppose most of us feel that we are: for these men are\neducated as we choose to understand education, that is, they can\nread and write, think perversely, and follow an argument, though\nthey are unable to detect a fallacy. If we ask in perplexity,\nwhy do so many men and women seem incapable of generous impulse,\nof reasoned patriotism, of seeing beyond the circle of their own\ninterests, is not the answer, that men are enabled for such things\nby education? These are the marks of educated persons; and when\nmillions of men who should be the backbone of the country seem to\nbe dead to public claims, we have to ask,--Why then are not these\npersons educated, and what have we given them in lieu of education?\n\nOur errors in education, so far as we have erred, turn upon the\nconception we form of \u2018mind,\u2019 and the theory which has filtered\nthrough to most teachers implies the out-of-date notion of the\ndevelopment of \u2018faculties,\u2019 a notion which itself rests on the\naxiom that thought is no more than a function of the brain. Here\nwe find the sole justification of the scanty curricula provided in\nmost of our schools, for the tortuous processes of our teaching,\nfor the mischievous assertion that \u201cit does not matter what a\nchild learns but only how he learns it.\u201d If we teach much and\nchildren learn little we comfort ourselves with the idea that we\nare \u2018developing\u2019 this or the other \u2018faculty.\u2019 A great future lies\nbefore the nation which shall perceive that knowledge is the sole\nconcern of education proper, as distinguished from training, and\nthat knowledge is the necessary daily food of the mind.\n\nTeachers are looking out for the support of a sound theory, and\nsuch a theory must recognize with conviction the part mind plays\nin education and the conditions under which this prime agent acts.\nWe want a philosophy of education which, admitting that thought\nalone appeals to mind, that thought begets thought, shall relegate\nto their proper subsidiary places all those sensory and muscular\nactivities which are supposed to afford intellectual as well as\nphysical training. The latter is so important in and for itself\nthat it needs not to be bolstered up by the notion that it includes\nthe whole, or the practically important part, of education. The\nsame remark holds good of vocational training. Our journals ask\nwith scorn,--\u201cIs there no education but what is got out of books at\nschool? Is not the lad who works in the fields getting education?\u201d\nand the public lacks the courage to say definitely, \u201cNo, he is\nnot,\u201d because there is no clear notion current as to what education\nmeans, and how it is to be distinguished from vocational training.\nBut the people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for\nan education which shall qualify their children for life rather\nthan for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the man who\nhas read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary\ntraining, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing\nplans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making\na child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve\nsociety.\n\nMuch thoughtful care has been spent in ascertaining the causes of\nthe German breakdown in character and conduct; the war scourge\nwas symptomatic and the symptoms have been duly traced to their\ncause in the thoughts the people have been taught to think during\nthree or four generations. We have heard much about Nietzsche,\nTreitschke, Bernhardi and the rest; but Professor Muirhead did us\ngood service in carrying the investigation further back. Darwin\u2019s\ntheories of natural selection, the survival of the fittest, the\nstruggle for existence, struck root in Germany in fitting soil; and\nthe ideas of the superman, the super state, the right of might--to\nrepudiate treaties, to eliminate feebler powers, to recognize no\nlaw but expediency--all this appears to come as naturally out of\nDarwinism as a chicken comes out of an egg. No doubt the same\n_dicta_ have struck us in the _Commentaries_ of Frederick the\nGreat; \u201cthey shall take who have the power, and they shall keep\nwho can,\u201d is ages older than Darwin, but possibly this is what our\nEnglish philosopher did for Germany:--There is a tendency in human\nnature to elect the obligations of natural law in preference to\nthose of spiritual law; to take its code of ethics from science,\nand, following this tendency, the Germans found in their reading of\nDarwin sanction for manifestations of brutality.\n\nHere are a few examples of how German philosophers amplify the\nDarwinian text:--\u201cIn matter dwell all natural and spiritual\npotencies. Matter is the foundation of all being.\u201d \u201cWhat we call\nspirit, thought, the faculty of knowledge, consists of natural\nthough peculiarly combined forces.\u201d Darwin himself protests against\nthe struggle for existence being the most potent agency where the\nhigher part of man\u2019s nature is concerned, and he no more thought\nof giving a materialistic tendency to modern education than Locke\nthought of teaching principles which should bring about the\nFrench Revolution; but men\u2019s thoughts are more potent than they\nknow, and these two Englishmen may be credited with influencing\npowerfully two world-wide movements. In Germany, \u201cprepared by a\nquarter of a century of materialistic thought,\u201d the teaching of\nDarwin was accepted as offering emancipation from various moral\nrestraints. Ernst Haeckel, his distinguished follower, finds\nin the law of natural selection sanction for Germany\u2019s lawless\naction, and also, that pregnant doctrine of the superman. \u201cThis\nprinciple of selection is nothing less than democratic; on the\ncontrary it is aristocratic in the strictest sense of the word.\u201d\nWe know how B\u00fcchner, again, simplified and popularised these new\ntheories,--\u201cAll the faculties which we include under the name of\npsychical activities are only functions of the brain substance.\nThought stands in the same relation to the brain as the gall to the\nliver.\u201d\n\nWhat use, or misuse, Germany has made of the teaching of Darwin\nwould not (save for the War) be of immediate concern to us, were\nit not that she has given us back our own in the form of that\n\u201cmythology of faculty psychology\u201d which is all we possess in the\nway of educational thought. English psychology proper has advanced\nif not to firm ground, at any rate to the point of repudiating the\n\u2018faculty\u2019 basis. \u201cHowever much assailed, the concept of a \u2018mind\u2019\nis,\u201d we are told, \u201cto be found in all psychological writers.\u201d[4]\nBut there are but mind and matter, and when we are told again that\n\u201cpsychology rests on feeling,\u201d where are we? Is there a middle\nregion?\n\n\nII\n\nWe fail to recognize that as the body requires wholesome food and\ncannot nourish itself upon _any_ substance so the mind too requires\nmeat after its kind. If the War taught nothing else it taught us\nthat men are spirits, that the spirit, mind, of a man is more than\nhis flesh, that his spirit _is_ the man, that for the thoughts\nof his heart he gives the breath of his body. As a consequence\nof this recognition of our spiritual nature, the lesson for us\nat the moment is that the great thoughts, great events, great\nconsiderations, which form the background of our national thought,\nshall be the content of the education we pass on.\n\nThe educational thought we hear most about is, as I have said,\nbased on sundry Darwinian axioms out of which we get the notion\nthat nothing matters but physical fitness and vocational training.\nHowever important these are, they are not the chief thing. A\ncentury ago when Prussia was shipwrecked in the Napoleonic\nwars it was discovered that not Napoleon but Ignorance was the\nformidable national enemy; a few philosophers took the matter in\nhand, and history, poetry, philosophy, proved the salvation of a\nruined nation, because such studies make for the development of\npersonality, public spirit, initiative, the qualities of which the\nState was in need, and which most advance individual happiness\nand success. On the other hand, the period when Germany made her\nschool curriculum utilitarian marks the beginning of her moral\ndownfall. History repeats itself. There are interesting rumours\nafloat of how the students at Bonn, for example, went in solemn\nprocession to make a bonfire of French novels, certain prints,\narticles of luxury and the like; things like these had brought\nabout the ruin of Germany and it was the part of the youth to save\nher now as before. Are they to have another Tugendbund?\n\nWe want an education which shall nourish the mind while not\nneglecting either physical or vocational training; in short,\nwe want a working philosophy of education. I think that we of\nthe P.N.E.U. have arrived at such a body of theory, tested and\ncorrected by some thirty years of successful practice with\nthousands of children. This theory has already been set forth in\nvolumes[5] published at intervals during the last thirty-five\nyears; so I shall indicate here only a few salient points which\nseem to me to differ from general theory and practice,--\n\n (_a_) The children, not the teachers, are the responsible\n persons; they do the work by self-effort.\n\n (_b_) The teachers give sympathy and occasionally elucidate, sum\n up or enlarge, but the actual work is done by the scholars.\n\n (_c_) These read in a term one, or two, or three thousand pages,\n according to their age, school and Form, in a large number of set\n books. The quantity set for each lesson allows of only a single\n reading; but the reading is tested by narration, or by writing on\n a test passage. When the terminal examination is at hand so much\n ground has been covered that revision is out of the question;\n what the children have read they know, and write on any part of\n it with ease and fluency, in vigorous English; they usually spell\n well.\n\n Much is said from time to time to show that \u2018mere book-learning\u2019\n is rather contemptible, and that \u201cThings are in the saddle and\n ride mankind.\u201d May I point out that whatever discredit is due to\n the use of books does not apply to this method, which so far as I\n can discover has not hitherto been employed. Has an attempt been\n made before on a wide scale to secure that scholars should know\n their books, many pages in many books, at a single reading, in\n such a way that months later they can write freely and accurately\n on any part of the term\u2019s reading?\n\n (_d_) There is no selection of studies, or of passages or of\n episodes, on the ground of interest. The best available book is\n chosen and is read through perhaps in the course of two or three\n years.\n\n (_e_) The children study many books on many subjects, but exhibit\n no confusion of thought, and \u2018howlers\u2019 are almost unknown.\n\n (_f_) They find that, in Bacon\u2019s phrase, \u201cStudies serve\n for delight\u201d; this delight being not in the lessons or the\n personality of the teacher, but purely in their \u2018lovely books,\u2019\n \u2018glorious books.\u2019\n\n (_g_) The books used are, whenever possible, literary in style.\n\n (_h_) Marks, prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame,\n or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which\n is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect.\n\n (_i_) The success of the scholars in what may be called\n disciplinary subjects, such as Mathematics and Grammar, depends\n largely on the power of the teacher, though the pupils\u2019 habit of\n attention is of use in these too.\n\n (_j_) No stray lessons are given on interesting subjects; the\n knowledge the children get is consecutive.\n\nThe unusual interest children show in their work, their power\nof concentration, their wide, and as far as it goes, accurate\nknowledge of historical, literary and some scientific subjects, has\nchallenged attention and the general conclusion is that these are\nthe children of educated and cultivated parents. It was vain to\nurge that the home schoolroom does not usually produce remarkable\neducational results; but the way is opening to prove that the power\nthese children show is common to _all_ children; at last there is\nhope that the offspring of working-class parents may be led into\nthe wide pastures of a liberal education.\n\nAre we not justified in concluding that singular effects must have\ncommensurate causes, and that we have chanced to light on unknown\ntracts in the region of educational thought. At any rate that\nGOLDEN RULE of which Comenius was in search has discovered itself,\nthe Rule,--\u201cWHEREBY TEACHERS SHALL TEACH LESS AND SCHOLARS SHALL\nLEARN MORE.\u201d\n\nLet me now outline a few of the educational principles which\naccount for unusual results.\n\n\nIII\n\nPRINCIPLES HITHERTO UNRECOGNIZED OR DISREGARDED\n\nI have enumerated some of the points in which our work is\nexceptional in the hope of convincing the reader that unusual\nwork carried on successfully in hundreds of schoolrooms--home\nand other--is based on principles hitherto unrecognized. The\nrecognition of these principles should put our national education\non an intelligent basis and should make for general stability, joy\nin living, and personal initiative.\n\nMay I add one or two more arguments in support of my plea,--\n\nThe appeal is not to the clever child only, but to the average and\neven to the \u2018backward\u2019 child.\n\nThis scheme is carried out in less time than ordinary school work\non the same subjects.\n\nThere are no revisions, no evening lessons, no cramming or\n\u2018getting up\u2019 of subjects; therefore there is much time whether for\nvocational work or interests or hobbies.\n\nAll intellectual work is done in the hours of morning school,\nand the afternoons are given to field nature studies, drawing,\nhandicrafts, etc. Notwithstanding these limitations the children\nproduce a surprising amount of good intellectual work.\n\nNo home-work is required.\n\nIt is not that \u2018we\u2019 (of the P.N.E.U.) are persons of peculiar\ngenius; it is that, like Paley\u2019s man who found the watch, \u201cwe have\nchanced on a good thing.\u201d\n\n \u201cNo gain\n That I experience must remain unshared.\u201d\n\nWe feel that the country and indeed the world should have the\nbenefit of educational discoveries which act powerfully as a moral\nlever, for we are experiencing anew the joy of the Renaissance, but\nwithout its pagan lawlessness.\n\nLet me trace as far as I can recall them the steps by which I\narrived at some of the conclusions upon which we are acting. While\nstill a young woman I saw a great deal of a family of Anglo-Indian\nchildren who had come \u2018home\u2019 to their grandfather\u2019s house and\nwere being brought up by an aunt who was my intimate friend. The\nchildren were astonishing to me; they were persons of generous\nimpulses and sound judgment, of great intellectual aptitude, of\nimagination and moral insight. These last two points were, I\nrecollect, illustrated one day by a little maiden of five who came\nhome from her walk silent and sad; some letting alone, and some\nwise openings brought out at last between sobs,--\u201ca poor man--no\nhome--nothing to eat--no bed to lie upon,\u201d--and then the child was\nrelieved by tears. Such incidents are common enough in families,\nbut they were new to me. I was reading a good deal of philosophy\nand \u2018Education\u2019 at the time for I thought with the enthusiasm of\na young teacher that Education should regenerate the world. I had\nan Elementary School and a pioneer Church High School at this same\ntime so that I was enabled to study children in large groups; but\nat school children are not so self-revealing as at home. I began\nunder the guidance of these Anglo-Indian children to take the\nmeasure of a _person_ and soon to suspect that children are _more_\nthan we, their elders, except that their ignorance is illimitable.\n\nOne limitation I did discover in the minds of these little people;\nmy friend insisted that they could not understand English Grammar;\nI maintained that they could and wrote a little Grammar (still\nwaiting to be prepared for publication!) for the two of seven and\neight; but she was right; I was allowed to give the lessons myself\nwith what lucidity and freshness I could command; in vain; the\nNominative \u2018Case\u2019 baffled them; their minds rejected the abstract\nconception just as children reject the notion of writing an \u201cEssay\non Happiness.\u201d But I was beginning to make discoveries; the second\nbeing, that the mind of a child takes or rejects according to its\nneeds.\n\nFrom this point it was not difficult to go on to the perception\nthat, whether in taking or rejecting, the mind was functioning for\nits own nourishment; that the mind, in fact, requires sustenance\nas does the body, in order that it increase and be strong; but\nbecause the mind is not to be measured or weighed but is spiritual,\nso its sustenance must be spiritual too, must, in fact, be ideas\n(in the Platonic sense of images). I soon perceived that children\nwere well equipped to deal with ideas, and that explanations,\nquestionings, amplifications, are unnecessary and wearisome.\nChildren have a natural appetite for knowledge which is informed\nwith thought. They bring imagination, judgment, and the various\nso-called \u2018faculties,\u2019 to bear upon a new idea pretty much as the\ngastric juices act upon a food ration. This was illuminating but\nrather startling; the whole intellectual apparatus of the teacher,\nhis power of vivid presentation, apt illustration, able summing\nup, subtle questioning, all these were hindrances and intervened\nbetween children and the right nutriment duly served; this, on the\nother hand, they received with the sort of avidity and simplicity\nwith which a healthy child eats his dinner.\n\nThe Scottish school of philosophers came to my aid here with\nwhat may be called their doctrine of the desires, which, I\nperceived, stimulate the action of mind and so cater for spiritual\n(not necessarily religious) sustenance as the appetites do for\nthat of the body and for the continuance of the race. This was\nhelpful; I inferred that one of these, the Desire of Knowledge\n(Curiosity) was the chief instrument of education; that this\ndesire might be paralysed or made powerless like an unused limb\nby encouraging other desires to intervene between a child and the\nknowledge proper for him; the desire for place,--emulation; for\nprizes,--avarice; for power,--ambition; for praise,--vanity, might\neach be a stumbling block to him. It seemed to me that we teachers\nhad unconsciously elaborated a system which should secure the\ndiscipline of the schools and the eagerness of the scholars,--by\nmeans of marks, prizes, and the like,--and yet eliminate that\nknowledge-hunger, itself the quite sufficient incentive to\neducation.\n\nThen arose the question,--Cannot people get on with little\nknowledge? Is it really necessary after all? My child-friends\nsupplied the answer: their insatiable curiosity shewed me that the\nwide world and its history was barely enough to satisfy a child who\nhad not been made apathetic by spiritual malnutrition. What, then,\nis knowledge?--was the next question that occurred; a question\nwhich the intellectual labour of ages has not settled; but perhaps\nthis is enough to go on with;--that only becomes knowledge to a\nperson which he has assimilated, which his mind has acted upon.\n\nChildren\u2019s aptitude for knowledge and their eagerness for it made\nfor the conclusion that the field of a child\u2019s knowledge may not be\nartificially restricted, that he has a right to and necessity for\nas much and as varied knowledge as he is able to receive; and that\nthe limitations in his curriculum should depend only upon the age\nat which he must leave school; in a word, a _common_ curriculum (up\nto the age of say, fourteen or fifteen) appears to be due to all\nchildren.\n\nWe have left behind the feudal notion that intellect is a class\nprerogative, that intelligence is a matter of inheritance and\nenvironment; inheritance, no doubt, means much but everyone has\na very mixed inheritance; environment makes for satisfaction or\nuneasiness, but education is of the spirit and is not to be taken\nin by the eye or effected by the hand; mind appeals to mind and\nthought begets thought and that is how we become educated. For this\nreason we owe it to every child to put him in communication with\ngreat minds that he may get at great thoughts; with the minds,\nthat is, of those who have left us great works; and the only vital\nmethod of education appears to be that children should read worthy\nbooks, many worthy books.\n\nIt will be said on the one hand that many schools have their own\nlibraries or the scholars have the free use of a public library and\nthat children do read; and on the other that the literary language\nof first-rate books offers an impassable barrier to working-men\u2019s\nchildren. In the first place we all know that desultory reading is\ndelightful and incidentally profitable but is not _education_ whose\nconcern is _knowledge_. That is, the mind of the desultory reader\nonly rarely makes the act of appropriation which is necessary\nbefore the matter we read becomes personal knowledge. We must read\nin order to know or we do not know by reading.\n\nAs for the question of literary form, many circumstances and\nconsiderations which it would take too long to describe brought me\nto perceive that delight in literary form is native to us all until\nwe are \u2018educated\u2019 out of it.\n\nIt is difficult to explain how I came to a solution of a puzzling\nproblem,--how to secure attention. Much observation of children,\nvarious incidents from one\u2019s general reading, the recollection of\nmy own childhood and the consideration of my present habits of\nmind brought me to the recognition of certain laws of the mind, by\nworking in accordance with which the steady attention of children\nof any age and any class in society is insured, week in, week\nout,--attention, not affected by distracting circumstances. It is\nnot a matter of \u2018personal magnetism,\u2019 for hundreds of teachers of\nvery varying quality, working in home schoolrooms and in Elementary\nand Secondary Schools on this method,[6] secure it without effort;\nneither does it rest upon the \u2018doctrine of interest\u2019; no doubt\nthe scholars are interested, sometimes delighted; but they are\ninterested in a great variety of matters and their attention does\nnot flag in the \u2018dull parts.\u2019\n\nIt is not easy to sum up in a few short sentences those principles\nupon which the mind naturally acts and which I have tried to\nbring to bear upon a school curriculum. The fundamental idea is,\nthat children are _persons_ and are therefore moved by the same\nsprings of conduct as their elders. Among these is the Desire of\nKnowledge, knowledge-hunger being natural to everybody. History,\nGeography, the thoughts of other people, roughly, the humanities,\nare proper for us all, and are the objects of the natural desire\nof knowledge. So too, are Science, for we all live in the world;\nand Art, for we all require beauty, and are eager to know how to\ndiscriminate; social science, Ethics, for we are aware of the need\nto learn about the conduct of life; and Religion, for, like those\nmen we heard of at the Front, we all \u2018want God.\u2019\n\nIn the nature of things then the unspoken demand of children is\nfor a wide and very varied curriculum; it is necessary that they\nshould have some knowledge of the wide range of interests proper\nto them as human beings, and for no reasons of convenience or time\nlimitations may we curtail their proper curriculum.\n\nPerceiving the range of knowledge to which children as persons are\nentitled the questions are, how shall they be induced to take that\nknowledge, and what can the children of the people learn in the\nshort time they are at school? We have discovered a working answer\nto these two conundrums. I say discovered, and not invented, for\nthere is only one way of learning, and the intelligent persons\nwho can talk well on many subjects and the expert in one learn in\nthe one way, that is, _they read to know_. What I have found out\nis, that this method is available for every child, whether in the\ndilatory and desultory home schoolroom or in the large classes of\nElementary Schools.\n\nChildren no more come into the world without provision for dealing\nwith knowledge than without provision for dealing with food. They\nbring with them not only that intellectual appetite, the desire of\nknowledge, but also an enormous, an unlimited power of attention to\nwhich the power of retention (memory) seems to be attached, as one\ndigestive process succeeds another, until the final assimilation.\n\u201cYes,\u201d it will be said, \u201cthey are capable of much curiosity and\nconsequent attention but they can only occasionally be beguiled\ninto attending to their lessons.\u201d Is not that the fault of the\nlessons, and must not these be regulated as carefully with regard\nto the behaviour of mind as the children\u2019s meals are with regard to\nphysical considerations?\n\nLet us consider this behaviour in a few aspects. The mind concerns\nitself only with thoughts, imaginations, reasoned arguments;\nit declines to assimilate the facts unless in combination with\nits proper pabulum; it, being active, is wearied in the passive\nattitude of a listener, it is as much bored in the case of a child\nby the discursive twaddle of the talking teacher as in that of a\ngrown-up by conversational twaddle; it has a natural preference\nfor literary form; given a more or less literary presentation, the\ncuriosity of the mind is enormous and embraces a vast variety of\nsubjects.\n\nI predicate these things of \u2018the mind\u2019 because they seem true of\nall persons\u2019 minds. Having observed these, and some other points\nin the behaviour of mind, it remained to apply the conclusions to\nwhich I had come to a test curriculum for schools and families.\nOral teaching was to a great extent ruled out; a large number\nof books on many subjects were set for reading in morning\nschool-hours; so much work was set that there was only time for\na single reading; all reading was tested by a narration of the\nwhole or a given passage, whether orally or in writing. Children\nworking on these lines know months after that which they have read\nand are remarkable for their power of concentration (attention);\nthey have little trouble with spelling or composition and become\nwell-informed, intelligent persons.[7]\n\nBut, it will be said, reading or hearing various books read,\nchapter by chapter, and then narrating or writing what has been\nread or some part of it,--all this is mere memory work. The value\nof this criticism may be readily tested; will the critic read\nbefore turning off his light a leading article from a newspaper,\nsay, or a chapter from Boswell or Jane Austen, or one of Lamb\u2019s\nEssays; then, will he put himself to sleep by narrating silently\nwhat he has read. He will not be satisfied with the result but he\nwill find that in the act of narrating every power of his mind\ncomes into play, that points and bearings which he had not observed\nare brought out; that the whole is visualized and brought into\nrelief in an extraordinary way; in fact, that scene or argument\nhas become a part of his personal experience; he _knows_, he has\nassimilated what he has read. _This is not memory work._ In order\nto memorise, we repeat over and over a passage or a series of\npoints or names with the aid of such clues as we can invent; we\ndo memorise a string of facts or words, and the new possession\nserves its purpose for a time, but it is not assimilated; its\npurpose being served, we know it no more. This is memory work by\nmeans of which examinations are passed with credit. I will not try\nto explain (or understand!) this power to memorise; it has its\nsubsidiary use in education, no doubt, but it must not be put in\nthe place of the prime agent which is _attention_.\n\nLong ago, I was in the habit of hearing this axiom quoted by a\nphilosophical old friend:--\u201cThe mind can know nothing save what\nit can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to\nthe mind by itself.\u201d I have failed to trace the saying to its\nsource, but a conviction of its importance has been growing upon\nme during the last forty years. It tacitly prohibits questioning\nfrom without; (this does not, of course, affect the Socratic use\nof questioning for purposes of _moral_ conviction); and it is\nnecessary to intellectual certainty, to the act of knowing. For\nexample, to secure a conversation or an incident, we \u2018go over it\nin our minds\u2019; that is, the mind puts itself through the process\nof self-questioning which I have indicated. This is what happens\nin the narrating of a passage read: each new consecutive incident\nor statement arrives because the mind asks itself,--\u201cWhat next?\u201d\nFor this reason it is important that only one reading should be\nallowed; efforts to memorise weaken the power of attention, the\nproper activity of the mind; if it is desirable to ask questions in\norder to emphasize certain points, these should be asked after and\nnot before, or during, the act of narration.\n\nOur more advanced psychologists come to our support here; they,\ntoo, predicate \u201cinstead of a coterie of faculties, a single\nsubjective activity, attention;\u201d and again, there is \u201cone common\nfactor in all psychical activity, that is attention.\u201d[8] My\npersonal addition is that attention is unfailing, prompt and\nsteady when matter is presented suitable to a child\u2019s intellectual\nrequirements, _if_ the presentation be made with the conciseness,\ndirectness, and simplicity proper to literature.\n\nAnother point should be borne in mind; the intellect requires a\nmoral impulse, and we all stir our minds into action the better if\nthere is an implied \u2018must\u2019 in the background; for children in class\nthe \u2018must\u2019 acts through the _certainty_ that they will be required\nto narrate or write from what they have read with no opportunity of\n\u2018looking up,\u2019 or other devices of the idle. Children find the act\nof narrating so pleasurable in itself that urgency on the part of\nthe teacher is seldom necessary.\n\nHere is a complete chain of the educational philosophy I have\nendeavoured to work out, which has, at least, the merit that it\nis successful in practice. Some few hints I have, as I have said,\nadopted and applied, but I hope I have succeeded in methodising the\nwhole and making education what it should be, a system of applied\nphilosophy; I have, however, carefully abstained from the use of\nphilosophical terms.\n\nThis is, briefly, how it works:--\n\n A child is a _person_ with the spiritual requirements and\n capabilities of a person.\n\n Knowledge \u2018nourishes\u2019 the mind as food nourishes the body.\n\n A child requires knowledge as much as he requires food.\n\n He is furnished with the desire for Knowledge, i.e., Curiosity;\n\n with the power to apprehend Knowledge, that is, attention;\n\n with powers of mind to deal with Knowledge without aid from\n without--such as imagination, reflection, judgment;\n\n with innate interest in all Knowledge that he needs as a\n human being;\n\n with power to retain and communicate such Knowledge; and to\n assimilate all that is necessary to him.\n\n He requires that in most cases Knowledge be communicated to him\n in literary form;\n\n and reproduces such Knowledge touched by his own personality;\n thus his reproduction becomes original.\n\n The natural provision for the appropriation and assimilation of\n Knowledge is adequate and no stimulus is required; but some moral\n control is necessary to secure the act of attention;\n\n a child receives this in the certainty that he will be\n required to recount what he has read.\n\n Children have a right to the best we possess; therefore their\n lesson books should be, as far as possible, our best books.\n\n They weary of talk, and questions bore them, so that they should\n be allowed to use their books for themselves; they will ask for\n such help as they wish for.\n\n They require a great variety of knowledge,--about religion, the\n humanities, science, art;\n\n therefore, they should have a wide curriculum, with a definite\n amount of reading set for each short period of study.\n\n The teacher affords direction, sympathy in studies, a vivifying\n word here and there, help in the making of experiments, etc., as\n well as the usual teaching in languages, experimental science and\n mathematics.\n\n Pursued under these conditions, \u201cStudies serve for delight,\u201d\n and the consciousness of daily progress is exhilarating to both\n teacher and children.\n\nThe reader will say with truth,--\u201cI knew all this before and have\nalways acted more or less on these principles\u201d; and I can only\npoint to the unusual results we obtain through adhering not \u2018more\nor less,\u2019 but strictly to the principles and practices I have\nindicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister\nhad to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and\nappurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions\nof lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon\u2019s\nantiseptic treatment; that is from the substitution of exact\nprinciples scrupulously applied for the rather casual \u2018more or\nless\u2019 methods of earlier days.\n\nWhether the way I have sketched out is the right and the only way\nremains to be tested still more widely than in the thousands of\ncases in which it has been successful; but assuredly education is\nslack and uncertain for the lack of sound principles _exactly_\napplied. The moment has come for a decision; we have placed our\nfaith in \u2018civilisation,\u2019 have been proud of our progress; and,\nof the pangs that the War has brought us, perhaps none is keener\nthan that caused by the utter breakdown of the civilisation which\nwe have held to be synonymous with education. We know better now,\nand are thrown back on our healthy human instincts and the Divine\nsanctions. The educable part of a person is his mind. The training\nof the senses and muscles is, strictly speaking, training and not\neducation. The mind, like the body, requires quantity, variety and\nregularity in the sustenance offered to it. Like the body, the\nmind has its appetite, the desire for knowledge. Again, like the\nbody, the mind is able to receive and assimilate by its powers of\nattention and reflection. Like the body, again, the mind rejects\ninsipid, dry, and unsavoury food, that is to say, its pabulum\nshould be presented in a literary form. The mind is restricted to\npabulum of one kind: it is nourished upon ideas and absorbs facts\nonly as these are connected with the living ideas upon which they\nhang. Children educated upon some such lines as these respond in\na surprising way, developing capacity, character, countenance,\ninitiative and a sense of responsibility. They are, in fact, even\nas children, good and thoughtful citizens.\n\nI have in this volume attempted to show the principles and methods\nupon which education of this sort is being successfully carried\nout, and have added chapters which illustrate the history of a\nmovement the aim of which is, in the phrase of Comenius,--\u201cAll\nknowledge for all men.\u201d As well as these I have been permitted\nto use the criticisms[9] of various teachers and Directors of\neducation and others upon the practical working of the scheme.\n\nIt is a matter of rejoicing that the way is open to give to all\nclasses a basis of common thought and common knowledge, including a\ncommon store of literary and historic allusions, a possession which\nhas a curious power of cementing bodies of men, and, in the next\nplace, it is an enormous gain that we are within sight of giving to\nthe working-classes, notwithstanding their limited opportunities,\nthat stability of mind and magnanimity of character which are the\nproper outcome and the unfailing test of A LIBERAL EDUCATION.\n\nI shall confine myself in this volume to the amplification and\nillustration of some of the points I have endeavoured to make in\nthis introductory statement.\n\n\n\n\nBook I\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nSELF-EDUCATION\n\n\nThe title of this chapter may awaken some undeserved sympathy;\ngratifying visions of rhythmic movements, independent action,\nself-expression in various interesting ways, occur to the mind--for\nsurely these things constitute \u2018self-education\u2019? Most of these\nmodern panacea are desirable and by no means to be neglected;\nlimbs trained to grace and agility, a hand, to dexterity and\nprecision, an eye made to see and an ear to hear, a voice taught to\ninterpret,--we know to-day that all these possibilities of joy in\nliving should be open to every child, and we look forward even too\nhopefully to the manner of citizen who shall be the outcome of our\neducational zeal.\n\nNow, although we, of the Parents\u2019 Union, have initiated some of\nthese educational outworks and have gladly and gratefully adopted\nothers, yet is our point of view different; we are profoundly\nsceptical as to the effect of all or any of these activities upon\ncharacter and conduct. A person is not built up from without but\nfrom within, that is, he is _living_, and all external educational\nappliances and activities which are intended to mould his character\nare decorative and not vital.\n\nThis sounds like a stale truism; but, let us consider a few\ncorollaries of the notion that \u2018a child is a person,\u2019 and that\na person is, primarily, living. Now no external application is\ncapable of nourishing life or promoting growth; baths of wine,\nwrappings of velvet have no effect upon physical life except as\nthey may hinder it; life is sustained on that which is taken in by\nthe organism, not by that which is applied from without.\n\nPerhaps the only allowable analogy with the human mind is the\nanimal body, especially the human body, for it is that which\nwe know most about; the well-worn plant and garden analogy is\nmisleading, especially as regards that tiresome busybody, the\ngardener, who _will_ direct the inclination of every twig, the\nposition of every leaf; but, even then apart from the gardener, the\nchild-garden is an intolerable idea as failing to recognize the\nessential property of a child, his personality, a property all but\nabsent in a plant. Now, let us consider for a moment the parallel\nbehaviour of body and mind. The body lives by air, grows on food,\ndemands rest, flourishes on a diet wisely various. So, of the\nmind,--(by which I mean the entire spiritual nature, all that which\nis not body),--it breathes in air, calls for both activity and rest\nand flourishes on a wisely varied dietary.\n\nWe go round the house and round the house, but rarely go into the\nHouse of Mind; we offer mental gymnastics, but these do not take\nthe place of food, and of that we serve the most meagre rations,\nno more than that bean a day! Diet for the body is abundantly\nconsidered, but no one pauses to say, \u201cI wonder does the mind need\nfood, too, and regular meals, and what is its proper diet?\u201d\n\nI have asked myself this question and have laboured for fifty years\nto find the answer, and am anxious to impart what I think I know,\nbut the answer cannot be given in the form of \u2018Do\u2019 this and that,\nbut rather as an invitation to \u2018Consider\u2019 this and that; action\nfollows when we have thought duly.\n\nThe life of the mind is sustained upon ideas; there is no\nintellectual vitality in the mind to which ideas are not presented\nseveral times, say, every day. But \u2018surely, surely,\u2019 as \u2018Mrs.\nProudie\u2019 would say, scientific experiments, natural beauty, nature\nstudy, rhythmic movements, sensory exercises, are all fertile in\nideas? Quite commonly, they are so, as regards ideas of invention\nand discovery; and even in ideas of art; but for the moment it\nmay be well to consider the ideas that influence life, that is,\ncharacter and conduct; these, it would seem, pass directly from\nmind to mind, and are neither helped nor hindered by educational\noutworks. Every child gets many of these ideas by word of mouth,\nby way of family traditions, proverbial philosophy,--in fact, by\nwhat we might call a kind of oral literature. But, when we compare\nthe mind with the body, we perceive that three \u2018square\u2019 meals a\nday are generally necessary to health, and that a casual diet of\nideas is poor and meagre. Our schools turn out a good many clever\nyoung persons, wanting in nothing but initiative, the power of\nreflection and the sort of moral imagination which enables you to\n\u2018put yourself in his place.\u2019 These qualities flourish upon a proper\ndiet; and this is not afforded by the ordinary school book, or,\nin sufficient quantity by the ordinary lesson. I should like to\nemphasize _quantity_, which is as important for the mind as for the\nbody; both require their \u2018square meals.\u2019\n\nIt is no easy matter to give its proper sustenance to the mind;\nhard things are said of children, that they have \u2018no brains,\u2019 \u2018a\nlow order of intellect,\u2019 and so on; but many of us are able to\nvouch for the fine intelligence shewn by children who are fed\nwith the proper mind-stuff; but teachers do not usually take the\ntrouble to find out what this is. We come dangerously near to what\nPlato condemns as \u201cthat lie of the soul,\u201d that corruption of the\nhighest truth, of which Protagoras is guilty in the saying that,\n\u201cKnowledge is sensation.\u201d What else are we saying when we run\nafter educational methods which are purely sensory? Knowledge is\nnot sensation, nor is it to be derived through sensation; we feed\nupon the thoughts of other minds; and thought applied to thought\ngenerates thought and we become more thoughtful. No one need invite\nus to reason, compare, imagine; the mind, like the body, digests\nits proper food, and it must have the labour of digestion or it\nceases to function.\n\nBut the children ask for bread and we give them a stone; we give\ninformation about objects and events which mind does not attempt\nto digest but casts out bodily (upon an examination paper?). But\nlet information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea,\nand it is taken with avidity and used in making whatsoever in the\nspiritual nature stands for tissue in the physical.\n\n\u201cEducation,\u201d said Lord Haldane, some time ago, \u201cis a matter of the\nspirit,\u201d--no wiser word has been said on the subject, and yet we\npersist in applying education from without as a bodily activity\nor emollient. We begin to see light. No one knoweth the things of\na man but the spirit of a man which is in him; therefore, there\nis no education but self-education, and as soon as a young child\nbegins his education he does so as a student. Our business is to\ngive him mind-stuff, and both quality and quantity are essential.\nNaturally, each of us possesses this mind-stuff only in limited\nmeasure, but we know where to procure it; for the best thought the\nworld possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children,\nthe best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly\nserving.\n\nI am jealous for the children; every modern educational movement\ntends to belittle them intellectually; and none more so than a\nlate ingenious attempt to feed normal children with the pap-meat\nwhich may (?) be good for the mentally sick: but, \u201cTo all wildly\npopular things comes suddenly and inexorably death, without\nhope of resurrection.\u201d If Mr. Bernard Shaw is right, I need not\ndiscuss a certain popular form of \u2018New Education.\u2019 It has been\nably said that education should profit by the divorce which is now\nin progress from psychology on the one hand and sociology on the\nother; but what if education should use her recovered liberty to\nmake a monstrous alliance with pathology?\n\nVarious considerations urge upon me a rather distasteful task.\nIt is time I showed my hand and gave some account of work, the\nprinciples and practices of which should, I think, be of general\nuse. Like those lepers who feasted at the gates of a famished city,\nI begin to take shame to myself! I have attempted to unfold (in\nvarious volumes[10]) a system of educational theory which seems to\nme able to meet any rational demand, even that severest criterion\nset up by Plato; it is able to \u201crun the gauntlet of objections,\nand is ready to disprove them, not by appeals to opinion, but\nto absolute truth.\u201d Some of it is new, much of it is old. Like\nthe quality of mercy, it is not strained; certainly it is twice\nblessed, it blesses him that gives and him that takes, and a sort\nof radiancy of look distinguishes both scholar and teacher engaged\nin this manner of education; but there are no startling results to\nchallenge attention.\n\nProfessor Bompas Smith remarked in an inaugural address at the\nUniversity of Manchester that,--\u201cIf we can guide our practice by\nthe light of a comprehensive theory we shall widen our experience\nby attempting tasks which would not otherwise have occurred to us.\u201d\nIt is possible to offer the light of such a comprehensive theory,\nand the result is precisely what the Professor indicates,--a large\nnumber of teachers attempt tasks which would not otherwise have\noccurred to them. One discovers a thing because it is there, and\nno sane person takes credit to himself for such discovery. On the\ncontrary, he recognizes with King Arthur,--\u201cThese jewels, whereupon\nI chanced Divinely, are for public use.\u201d For many years we have had\naccess to a sort of Aladdin\u2019s cave which I long to throw open \u2018for\npublic use.\u2019\n\nLet me try to indicate some of the advantages of the theory I am\nurging:--It fits all ages, even the seven ages of man! It satisfies\nbrilliant children and discovers intelligence in the dull. It\nsecures attention, interest, concentration, without effort on the\npart of teacher or taught.\n\nChildren, I think, all children, so taught express themselves\nin forcible and fluent English and use a copious vocabulary. An\nunusual degree of nervous stability is attained; also, intellectual\noccupation seems to make for chastity in thought and life. Parents\nbecome interested in the schoolroom work, and find their children\n\u2018delightful companions.\u2019 Children shew delight in books (other than\nstory books) and manifest a genuine love of knowledge. Teachers are\nrelieved from much of the labour of corrections. Children taught\naccording to this method do exceptionally well at any school. It is\nunnecessary to stimulate these young scholars by marks, prizes, etc.\n\nAfter all, it is not a quack medicine I am writing about, though\nthe reader might think so, and there is no 1_s._ 1\u00bd_d._ a bottle in\nquestion!\n\nOver thirty years ago I published a volume about the home\neducation of children and people wrote asking how those counsels\nof perfection could be carried out with the aid of the private\ngoverness as she then existed; it occurred to me that a series of\ncurricula might be devised embodying sound principles and securing\nthat children should be in a position of less dependence on their\nteacher than they then were; in other words, that their education\nshould be largely self-education. A sort of correspondence school\nwas set up, the motto of which,--\u201cI am, I can, I ought, I will,\u201d\nhas had much effect in throwing children upon the possibilities,\ncapabilities, duties and determining power belonging to them as\npersons.\n\n\u201cChildren are born persons,\u201d is the first article of the\neducational _credo_ in question. The response made by children\n(ranging in age from six to eighteen) astonished me; though they\nonly shewed the power of attention, the avidity for knowledge, the\nclearness of thought, the nice discrimination in books, and the\nability to deal with many subjects, for which I had given them\ncredit in advance. I need not repeat what I have urged elsewhere\non the subject of \u2018Knowledge\u2019 and will only add that anyone may\napply a test; let him read to a child of any age from six to ten an\naccount of an incident, graphically and tersely told, and the child\nwill relate what he has heard point by point, though not word for\nword, and will add delightful original touches; what is more, he\nwill relate the passage months later because he has visualised the\nscene and appropriated that bit of knowledge. A rhetorical passage,\nwritten in \u2018journalese,\u2019 makes no impression on him; if a passage\nbe read more than once, he may become letter-perfect, but the\nspirit, the individuality has gone out of the exercise. An older\nboy or girl will read one of Bacon\u2019s Essays, say, or a passage from\nDe Quincey, and will write or tell it forcibly and with some style,\neither at the moment or months later. We know how Fox recited\na whole pamphlet of Burke\u2019s at a College supper though he had\nprobably read it no more than once. Here on the very surface is the\nkey to that attention, interest, literary style, wide vocabulary,\nlove of books and readiness in speaking, which we all feel should\nbelong to an education that is only begun at school and continued\nthroughout life; these are the things that we all desire, and how\nto obtain them is some part of the open secret I am labouring to\ndisclose \u2018for public use.\u2019\n\nI am anxious to bring a quite successful educational experiment\nbefore the public at a moment when we are told on authority that\n\u201cEducation must be ... an appeal to the spirit if it is to be\nmade interesting.\u201d Here is Education which is as interesting and\nfascinating as a fine art to parents, children and teachers.\n\nDuring the last thirty years thousands of children educated on\nthese lines have grown up in love with Knowledge and manifesting a\n\u2018right judgment in all things\u2019 so far as a pretty wide curriculum\ngives them data.\n\nI would have children taught _to read_ before they learn\nthe mechanical arts of reading and writing; and they learn\ndelightfully; they give perfect attention to paragraph or page read\nto them and are able to relate the matter point by point, _in their\nown words_; but they demand classical English and cannot learn to\nread in this sense upon anything less. They begin their \u2018schooling\u2019\nin \u2018letters\u2019 at six, and begin at the same time to learn mechanical\nreading and writing. A child does not lose by spending a couple\nof years in acquiring these because he is meanwhile \u2018reading\u2019\nthe Bible, history, geography, tales, with close attention and a\nremarkable power of reproduction, or rather, of translation into\nhis own language; he is acquiring a copious vocabulary and the\nhabit of consecutive speech. In a word, he is an educated child\nfrom the first, and his power of dealing with books, with several\nbooks in the course of a morning\u2019s \u2018school,\u2019 increases with his age.\n\nBut children are not all alike; there is as much difference between\nthem as between men or women; two or three months ago, a small\nboy, not quite six, came to school (by post); and his record\nwas that he could read anything in five languages, and was now\nteaching himself the Greek characters, could find his way about\nthe Continental Bradshaw, and was a chubby, vigorous little person.\nAll this the boy brings with him when he comes to school; he is\nexceptional, of course, just as a man with such accomplishments\nis exceptional; but I believe that all children bring with them\nmuch capacity which is not recognized by their teachers, chiefly\nintellectual capacity, (always in advance of motor power), which we\nare apt to drown in deluges of explanation, or dissipate in futile\nlabours in which there is no advance.\n\nPeople are naturally divided into those who read and think and\nthose who do not read or think; and the business of schools is to\nsee that all their scholars shall belong to the former class; it is\nworth while to remember that thinking is inseparable from reading\nwhich is concerned with the content of a passage and not merely\nwith the printed matter.\n\nThe children I am speaking of are much occupied with things as well\nas with books, because \u2018Education is the Science of Relations,\u2019 is\nthe principle which regulates their curriculum; that is, a child\ngoes to school with many aptitudes which he should put into effect.\nSo, he learns a good deal of science, because children have no\ndifficulty in understanding principles, though technical details\nbaffle them. He practises various handicrafts that he may know\nthe feel of wood, clay, leather, and the joy of handling tools,\nthat is, that he may establish a due relation with materials.\nBut, always, it is the book, the knowledge, the clay, the bird or\nblossom, he thinks of, not his own place or his own progress.\n\nI am afraid that some knowledge of the theory we advance is\nnecessary to the open-minded teacher who would give our practices\na trial, because every detail of schoolroom work is the outcome\nof certain principles. For instance it would be quite easy\nwithout much thought to experiment with our use of books; but in\neducation, as in religion, it is the motive that counts, and the\nboy who reads his lesson for a \u2018good mark\u2019 becomes word-perfect,\nbut does not _know_. But these principles are obvious and simple\nenough, and, when we consider that at present education is chaotic\nfor want of a unifying theory, and that there happens to be no\nother comprehensive theory in the field which is in line with\nmodern thought and fits every occasion, might it not be well to try\none which is immediately practicable and always pleasant and has\nproved itself by producing many capable, serviceable, dutiful men\nand women of sound judgment and willing mind?\n\nIn urging a method of self-education for children in lieu of the\nvicarious education which prevails, I should like to dwell on\nthe enormous relief to teachers, a self-sacrificing and greatly\noverburdened class; the difference is just that between driving a\nhorse that is light and a horse that is heavy in hand; the former\ncovers the ground of his own gay will and the driver goes merrily.\nThe teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of\nbooks is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and\nis no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nCHILDREN ARE BORN PERSONS\n\n\n1.--THE MIND OF A CHILD\n\n \u201c_No sooner doth the truth ... come into the soul\u2019s sight, but\n the soul knows her to be her first and old acquaintance._\u201d\n\n \u201c_The consequence of truth is great, therefore the judgment of it\n must not be negligent._\u201d\n\nIt should not surprise the reader that a chapter, designed to set\nforth a startling truth, should open with the weighty words of an\nold Divine (Whichcote). But truths get flat and wonders stale upon\nus. We do not care much about the starry firmament, the budding\ntrees, the cunning architecture of the birds; and to all except\nyoung parents and young brothers and sisters a baby is no longer a\nmarvel. The completeness of the new baby brother is what children\nadmire most, his toes and his fingers, his ears and all the small\nperfections of him. His guardians have some understanding of the\nbaby; they know that his chief business is to grow and they feed\nhim with food convenient for him. If they are wise they give free\nplay to all the wrigglings and stretchings which give power to\nhis feeble muscles. His parents know what he will come to, and\nfeel that here is a new chance for the world. In the meantime, he\nneeds food, sleep and shelter and a great deal of love. So much we\nall know. But is the baby more than a \u2018huge oyster\u2019? That is the\nproblem before us and hitherto educators have been inclined to\nanswer it in the negative. Their notion is that by means of a pull\nhere, a push there, a compression elsewhere a person is at last\nturned out according to the pattern the educator has in his mind.\n\nThe other view is that the beautiful infant frame is but the\nsetting of a jewel of such astonishing worth that, put the whole\nworld in one scale and this jewel in the other, and the scale which\nholds the world flies up outbalanced. A poet looks back on the\nglimmering haze of his own infancy and this is the sort of thing he\nsees,--\n\n \u201cI was entertained like an angel with the works of God in their\n splendour and glory.... Is it not strange that an infant should\n be heir of the whole world and see those mysteries which the\n books of the learned never unfold?... The corn was orient and\n immortal wheat which never should be reaped nor was ever sown. I\n thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust\n and stones of the street were as precious gold.... The green\n trees transported and ravished me. Their sweetness and unusual\n beauty made my heart to leap.... Boys and girls tumbling in the\n streets were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or\n should die.... The streets were mine, the people were mine, their\n clothes and gold and silver were mine as much as their sparkling\n eyes, fair skins and ruddy faces. The skies were mine and so were\n the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine and I the\n only spectator and enjoyer of it.\u201d\n\nIt takes a poet like Traherne to retain and produce such vivid\nmemories, though perhaps we can all recall the sense that we were\nspectators at the show of life, and we can recollect a sunny\ntime before we were able to speak or tell what we knew. _Punch_\namused us at one time with a baby\u2019s views of his nurse and his\nsurroundings and especially of the unwarranted pulls and pushes\nto which he was subject; but probably an infant is no critic. His\nbusiness is to perceive and receive and these he does day in and\nday out.\n\nWe have an idea that poets say more than they know, express more\nthan they see, and that their version of life must be taken _cum\ngrano_, but perhaps the fact is that no labour of the mind enables\nthem to catch and put into words the full realities of which they\nare cognisant, and therefore we may take Wordsworth, Coleridge,\nVaughan and the rest as witnesses who only hint at the glory which\nmight be revealed. We are not poets and are disposed to discount\nthe sayings of the poets, but the most prosaic of us comes across\nevidence of mind in children, and of mind astonishingly alert. Let\nus consider, in the first two years of life they manage to get\nthrough more intellectual effort than any following two years can\nshow. Supposing that much-discussed Martian were at last able to\nmake his way to our planet, think of how much he must learn before\nhe could accommodate himself to our conditions! Our notions of hard\nand soft, wet and dry, hot and cold, stable and unstable, far and\nnear, would be as foreign to him as they are to an infant who holds\nout his pinafore for the moon. We do not know what the Martian\nmeans of locomotion are but we can realise that to run and jump and\nclimb stairs, even to sit and stand at will must require fully as\nmuch reasoned endeavour as it takes in after years to accomplish\nskating, dancing, ski-ing, fencing, whatever athletic exercises\npeople spend years in perfecting; and all these the infant\naccomplishes in his first two years. He learns the properties\nof matter, knows colours and has first notions of size, solid,\nliquid; has learned in his third year to articulate with surprising\nclearness. What is more, he has learned a language, two languages,\nif he has had the opportunity, and the writer has known of three\nlanguages being mastered by a child of three, and one of them was\nArabic; mastered, that is, so far that a child can say all that\nhe needs to say in any one of the three--the sort of mastery most\nof us wish for when we are travelling in foreign countries. Lady\nMary Wortley Montagu tells us that in her time the little children\nof Constantinople prattled in five tongues with a good knowledge\nof each. If we have not proved that a child is born a person with\na mind as complete and as beautiful as his beautiful little body,\nwe can at least show that he always has all the mind he requires\nfor his occasions; that is, that his mind is the instrument of his\neducation and that _his education does not produce his mind_.\n\nWho shall measure the range of a child\u2019s thoughts? His continual\nquestions about God, his speculations about \u2018Jesus,\u2019 are they no\nmore than idle curiosity, or are they symptoms of a God-hunger\nwith which we are all born, and is a child able to comprehend as\nmuch of the infinite and the unseen as are his self-complacent\nelders? Is he \u2018cabined, cribbed, confined,\u2019 in our ways and does\nthe fairy tale afford a joyful escape to regions where all things\nare possible? We are told that children have no imagination, that\nthey must needs see and touch, taste and handle, in order to know.\nWhile a child\u2019s age is still counted by months, he devotes himself\nto learning the properties of things by touching, pulling, tearing,\nthrowing, tasting, but as months pass into years a _coup d\u2019\u0153il_\nsuffices for all but new things of complicated structure. Life is\na continual progress to a child. He does not go over old things in\nold ways; his joy is to go on. The immensity of his powers brings\nits own terrors. Let me again quote Traherne,--\n\n \u201cAnother time in a lowering and sad evening being alone in the\n field when all things were dead and quiet a certain wanton horror\n fell upon me beyond imagination. The unprofitableness and silence\n of the place dissatisfied me: its wildness terrified me. From\n the utmost ends of the earth fear surrounded me.... I was a weak\n and little child and had forgotten there was a man alive on the\n earth. Yet also something of hope and expectation comforted me\n from every border.\u201d\n\nTraherne never loses the lessons that come to him and he goes on,--\n\n \u201cThis taught me that I was concerned in all the world ... that\n the beauties of the earth were made to entertain me ... that the\n presence of cities, temples and kingdoms, ought to sustain me and\n that to be alone in the world was to be desolate and miserable.\u201d\n\nReason is present in the infant as truly as imagination. As soon\nas he can speak he lets us know that he has pondered the \u2018cause\nwhy\u2019 of things and perplexes us with a thousand questions. His\n\u2018why?\u2019 is ceaseless. Nor are his reasonings always disinterested.\nHow soon the little urchin learns to manage his nurse or mother,\nto calculate her moods and play upon her feelings! It is in him to\nbe a little tyrant; \u201che has a will of his own,\u201d says his nurse,\nbut she is mistaken in supposing that his stormy manifestations of\ngreed, wilfulness, temper, are signs of will. It is when the little\nboy is able to stop all these and restrain himself with quivering\nlip that his will comes into play; for he has a conscience too.\nBefore he begins to toddle he knows the difference between right\nand wrong; even a baby in arms will blush at the \u2018naughty baby!\u2019\nof his nurse; and that strong will of his acts in proportion as he\nlearns the difficult art of obedience; for no one can make a child\nobey unless he wills to do so, and we all know how small a rebel\nmay make confusion in house or schoolroom.\n\n\n2.--THE MIND OF A SCHOOL-CHILD\n\nBut we must leave the quite young child, fascinating as he is, and\ntake him up again when he is ready for lessons. I have made some\nattempt elsewhere[11] to show what his parents and teachers owe to\nhim in those years in which he is engaged in self-education, taking\nhis lessons from everything he sees and hears, and strengthening\nhis powers by everything he does. Here, in a volume which is\nchiefly concerned with education in the sense of schooling, I am\nanxious to bring before teachers the fact that a child comes into\ntheir hands with a mind of amazing potentialities: he has a brain\ntoo, no doubt, the organ and instrument of that same mind, as a\npiano is not music but the instrument of music. Probably we need\nnot concern ourselves about the brain which is subject to the same\nconditions as the rest of the material body, is fed with the body\u2019s\nfood, rests, as the body rests, requires fresh air and wholesome\nexercise to keep it in health, but depends upon the mind for its\nproper activities.\n\nThe world has concerned itself of late so much with psychology,\nwhose province is what has been called \u2018the unconscious mind,\u2019\na region under the sway of nerves and blood (which it is best\nperhaps to let alone) that in our educational efforts we tend to\nignore the _mind_ and address ourselves to this region of symptoms.\nNow mind, being spiritual, knows no fatigue; brain, too, duly\nnourished with the food proper for the body, allowed due conditions\nof fresh air and rest, should not know fatigue; given these two\nconditions, we have a glorious field of educational possibilities;\nbut it rests with us to evolve a theory and practice which afford\ndue recognition to mind. An authoritative saying which we are apt\nto associate with the religious life only is equally applicable\nto education. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, we are\ntold; but we have forgotten this great principle in our efforts\nat schooling children. We give them a \u2018play way\u2019 and play is\naltogether necessary and desirable but is not the avenue which\nleads to mind. We give them a fitting environment, which is again\naltogether desirable and, again, is not the way to mind. We teach\nthem beautiful motion and we do well, for the body too must have\nits education; but we are not safe if we take these by-paths as\napproaches to mind. It is still true that that which is born of\nthe spirit, is spirit. The way to mind is a quite direct way. Mind\nmust come into contact with mind through the medium of ideas.\n\u201cWhat is mind?\u201d says the old conundrum, and the answer still is\n\u201cNo matter.\u201d It is necessary for us who teach to realize that\nthings material have little effect upon mind, because there are\nstill among us schools in which the work is altogether material and\ntechnical, whether the teaching is given by means of bars of wood\nor more scientific apparatus. The mistress of an Elementary School\nwrites,--\u201cThe father of one of my girls said to me yesterday, \u2018You\nhave given me some work to do. E. has let me have no rest until I\npromised to set up my microscope and get pond water to look for\nmonads and other wonders.\u2019\u201d Here we have the right order. That\nwhich was born of the spirit, the idea, came first and demanded to\nconfirm and illustrate. \u201cHow can these things be?\u201d we ask, and the\nanswer is not _evident_.\n\nEducation, like faith, is the evidence of things not seen. We must\nbegin with the notion that the business of the body is to grow;\nand it grows upon food, which food is composed of living cells,\neach a perfect life in itself. In like manner, though all analogies\nare misleading and inadequate, the only fit sustenance for the\nmind is ideas, and an idea too, like the single cell of cellular\ntissue, appears to go through the stages and functions of a life.\nWe receive it with appetite and some stir of interest. It appears\nto feed in a curious way. We hear of a new patent cure for the\nmind or the body, of the new thought of some poet, the new notion\nof a school of painters; we take in, accept, the idea and for days\nafter every book we read, every person we talk with brings food to\nthe newly entertained notion. \u2018Not proven,\u2019 will be the verdict of\nthe casual reader; but if he watch the behaviour of his own mind\ntowards any of the ideas \u2018in the air,\u2019 he will find that some such\nprocess as I have described takes place; and this process must be\nconsidered carefully in the education of children. We may not take\nthings casually as we have done. Our business is to give children\nthe great ideas of life, of religion, history, science; but it is\nthe _ideas_ we must give, clothed upon with facts as they occur,\nand must leave the child to deal with these as he chooses.\n\nThis is how he deals with Geography, for example:--\n\n \u201cWhen I heard of any new kingdom beyond the seas the light and\n glory of it entered into me. It rose up within me and I was\n enlarged by the whole. I entered into it, I saw its commodities,\n springs, meadows, inhabitants and became possessor of that new\n room as if it had been prepared for me so much was I magnified\n and delighted in it. When the Bible was read my spirit was\n present in other ages. I saw the light and splendour of them,\n the land of Canaan, the Israelites entering into it, the ancient\n glory of the Amorites, their peace and riches, their cities,\n houses, vines and fig-trees.... I saw and felt all in such a\n lively manner as if there had been no other way to those places\n but in spirit only.... Without changing place in myself I could\n behold and enjoy all those. Anything when it was proposed though\n it was a thousand years ago being always present before me.\u201d\n\nI venture again to quote Traherne because I know of no writer who\nretains so clear a memory of his infancy; but Goethe gives as full\nand convincing an account of his experience of the Bible,[12] I say\n\u2018experience\u2019 advisedly, for the word denotes the process by which\nchildren get to know. They _experience_ all the things they hear\nand read of; these enter into them and are their life; and thus it\nis that ideas feed the mind in the most literal sense of the word\n\u2018feed.\u2019\n\nDo our Geography lessons take the children _there_? Do they\nexperience, live in, our story of the call of Abraham?--or of the\nhealing of the blind man on the way to Jericho? If they do not,\nit is not for lack of earnestness and intention on the part of\nthe teacher; his error is rather want of confidence in children.\nHe has not formed a just measure of a child\u2019s mind and bores\nhis scholars with much talk about matters which they are able\nto understand for themselves much better than he does. How many\nteachers know that children require no pictures excepting the\npictures of great artists, which have quite another function than\nthat of illustration? They see for themselves in their own minds\na far more glorious, and indeed more accurate, presentation than\nwe can afford in our miserable daubs. They read between the lines\nand put in all the author has left out. A child of nine, who had\nbeen reading Lang\u2019s _Tales of Troy and Greece_, drew Ulysses on\nthe Isle of Calypso cutting down trees to make a raft; a child of\nten, revelling in _A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream_, drew that Indian\nPrincess bringing her lovely boy to Titania. We others are content\nto know that Ulysses built a raft, that the boy was the child of\nan Indian Princess. This is how any child\u2019s mind works, and our\nconcern is not to starve these fertile intelligences. They must\nhave food in great abundance and variety. They know what to do with\nit well enough and we need not disturb ourselves to provide for\nthe separate exercise of each so-called \u2018faculty\u2019; for the mind\nis one and works all together; reason, imagination, reflection,\njudgment, what you please, are like \u2018all hands\u2019 summoned by the\n\u2018heave-ho!\u2019 of the boatswain. All swarm on deck for the lading of\ncargo, that rich and odorous cargo of ideas which the fair vessel\nof a child\u2019s mind is waiting to receive. Do we wish every child in\na class to say,--or, if he does not say, to feel,--\u201cI was enlarged\nwonderfully\u201d by a Geography lesson? Let him see the place with\nthe eyes of those who have seen or conceived it; your barographs,\nthermographs, contour lines, relief models, sections, profiles and\nthe like, will not do it. A map of the world must be a panorama\nto a child of pictures so entrancing that he would rather ponder\nthem than go out to play; and nothing is more easy than to give him\nthis _joie de vivre_. Let him see the world as we ourselves choose\nto see it when we travel; its cities and peoples, its mountains\nand rivers, and he will go away from his lesson with the piece\nof the world he has read about, be it county or country, sea or\nshore, as that of \u201ca new room prepared for him, so much will he\nbe magnified and delighted in it.\u201d All the world is in truth the\nchild\u2019s possession, prepared for him, and if we keep him out of his\nrights by our technical, commercial, even historical, geography,\nany sort of geography, in fact, made to illustrate our theories,\nwe are guilty of fraudulent practices. What he wants is the world\nand every bit, piece by piece, each bit a key to the rest. He reads\nof the Bore of the Severn and is on speaking terms with a \u2018Bore\u2019\nwherever it occurs. He need not see a mountain to know a mountain.\nHe sees all that is described to him with a vividness of which\nwe know nothing just as if there had been \u201cno other way to those\nplaces but in spirit only.\u201d Who can take the measure of a child?\nThe Genie of the Arabian tale is nothing to him. He, too, may be\nlet out of his bottle and fill the world. But woe to us if we keep\nhim corked up.\n\nEnough, that the children have minds, and every man\u2019s mind is his\nmeans of living; but it is a great deal more. Working men will have\nleisure in the future and how this leisure is to be employed is a\nquestion much discussed. Now, no one can employ leisure fitly whose\nmind is not brought into active play every day; the small affairs\nof a man\u2019s own life supply no intellectual food and but small and\nmonotonous intellectual exercise. Science, history, philosophy,\nliterature, must no longer be the luxuries of the \u2018educated\u2019\nclasses; all classes must be educated and sit down to these things\nof the mind as they do to their daily bread. History must afford\nits pageants, science its wonders, literature its intimacies,\nphilosophy its speculations, religion its assurances to every man,\nand his education must have prepared him for wanderings in these\nrealms of gold.\n\nHow do we prepare a child, again, to use the \u00e6sthetic sense with\nwhich he appears to come provided? His education should furnish him\nwith whole galleries of mental pictures, pictures by great artists\nold and new;--Israels\u2019 _Pancake Woman_, his _Children by the Sea_;\nMillet\u2019s _Feeding the Birds_, _First Steps_, _Angelus_; Rembrandt\u2019s\n_Night Watch_, _The Supper at Emmaus_; Velasquez\u2019s _Surrender of\nBreda_,--in fact, every child should leave school with at least a\ncouple of hundred pictures by great masters hanging permanently in\nthe halls of his imagination, to say nothing of great buildings,\nsculpture, beauty of form and colour in things he sees. Perhaps we\nmight secure at least a hundred lovely landscapes too,--sunsets,\ncloudscapes, star-light nights. At any rate he should go forth\nwell furnished because imagination has the property of magical\nexpansion, the more it holds the more it will hold.\n\nIt is not only a child\u2019s intellect but his heart that comes to\nus thoroughly furnished. Can any of us love like a little child?\nFather and mother, sisters and brothers, neighbours and friends,\n\u201cour\u201d cat and \u201cour\u201d dog, the wretchedest old stump of a broken toy,\nall come in for his lavish tenderness. How generous and grateful he\nis, how kind and simple, how pitiful and how full of benevolence\nin the strict sense of goodwill, how loyal and humble, how fair\nand just! His conscience is on the alert. Is a tale true? Is a\nperson good?--these are the important questions. His _conscience_\nchides him when he is naughty, and by degrees as he is trained,\nhis _will_ comes to his aid and he learns to order his life. He is\ntaught to say his prayers, and we elders hardly realize how real\nhis prayers are to a child.\n\n\n3.--MOTIVES FOR LEARNING\n\nNow place a teacher before a class of persons the beauty and\nimmensity of each one of whom I have tried to indicate and he will\nsay, \u201cWhat have I to offer them?\u201d His dull routine lessons crumble\ninto the dust they are when he faces children as they are. He\ncannot go on offering them his stale commonplaces; he feels that he\nmay not bore them; that he may not prick the minds he has dulled\nby unworthy motives of greed or emulation; he would not invite a\nparcel of children to a Timon feast of smoke and lukewarm water.\nHe knows that children\u2019s minds hunger at regular intervals as do\ntheir bodies; that they hunger for knowledge, not for information,\nand that his own poor stock of knowledge is not enough, his own\ndesultory talk has not substance enough; that his irrelevant\nremarks interrupt a child\u2019s train of thought; that, in a word, he\nis not sufficient for these things.\n\nOn the other hand, the children, the children of the slums\nespecially, have no vocabulary to speak of, no background of\nthought derived from a cultured environment. They are like goodly\npitchers, capable of holding much but with necks so narrow that\nonly the thinnest stream can trickle in. So we have thought\nhitherto, and our teaching has been diluted to dishwater and the\npitchers have gone empty away.\n\nBut we have changed all that. Just as in the War the magnanimous,\npatriotic citizen was manifested in every man so in our schools\nevery child has been discovered to be a person of infinite\npossibilities. I say every child, for so-called \u2018backward\u2019 children\nare no exception. I shall venture to bring before the reader\nsome experiences of the _Parents\u2019 Union School_ as being ground\nwith which I am familiar. Examination papers representing tens of\nthousands of children working in Elementary Schools, Secondary\nSchools and home schoolrooms have just passed under my eye. How the\nchildren have revelled in knowledge! and how good and interesting\nall their answers are! How well they spell on the whole and how\nwell they write! We do not need the testimony of their teachers\nthat the work of the term has been joyous; the verve with which the\nchildren tell what they know proves the fact. Every one of these\nchildren knows that there are hundreds of pleasant places for the\nmind to roam in. They are good and happy because some little care\nhas been taken to know what they are and what they require; a care\nvery amply rewarded by results which alter the whole outlook on\neducation. In our Training College, the students are not taught how\nto stimulate attention, how to keep order, how to give marks, how\nto punish or even how to reward, how to manage a large class or a\nsmall school with children in different classes. All these things\ncome by nature in a school where the teachers know something of the\ncapacities and requirements of children. To hear children of the\nslums \u2018telling\u2019 _King Lear_ or _Woodstock_, by the hour if you will\nlet them, or describing with minutest details Van Eyck\u2019s _Adoration\nof the Lamb_ or Botticelli\u2019s _Spring_, is a surprise, a revelation.\nWe take off our shoes from off our feet; we \u2018did not know it was\nin them,\u2019 whether we be their parents, their teachers or mere\nlookers-on. And with some feeling of awe upon us we shall be the\nbetter prepared to consider how and upon what children should be\neducated. I will only add that I make no claims for them which\ncannot be justified by hundreds, thousands, of instances within our\nexperience.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE GOOD AND EVIL NATURE OF A CHILD\n\n_Children are not born bad but with possibilities for good and for\nevil._\n\n\n1.--WELL-BEING OF BODY\n\nA well-known educationalist has brought heavy charges against us\nall on the score that we bring up children as \u2018children of wrath.\u2019\nHe probably exaggerates the effect of any such teaching, and the\n\u2018little angel\u2019 theory is fully as mischievous. The fact seems\nto be that children are like ourselves, not because they have\nbecome so, but because they are born so; that is, with tendencies,\ndispositions, towards good and towards evil, and also with a\ncurious intuitive knowledge as to which is good and which is evil.\nHere we have the work of education indicated. There are good and\nevil tendencies in body and mind, heart and soul; and the hope set\nbefore us is that we can foster the good so as to attenuate the\nevil; that is, on condition that we put Education in her true place\nas the handmaid of Religion. The community, the nation, the race,\nare now taking their due place in our religious thought. We are no\nlonger solely occupied in what an Irish woman called \u2018saving yer\ndirty sowl.\u2019 Our religion is becoming more magnanimous and more\nresponsible and it is time that a like change should take place\nin our educational thought. We find ourselves in open places\nbreathing fresher air when we consider, not the education of an\nindividual child or of a social class or even of a given country,\nbut of the race, of the human nature common to every class and\ncountry, every individual child. The prospect is exhilarating and\nthe recognition of the potentialities in any child should bring\nabout such an educational renaissance as may send our weary old\nworld rejoicing on its way.\n\nPhysicians and physiologists tell us that new-born children start\nfair. A child is not born with tuberculosis, for example, if with\na tendency which it is our business to counteract. In the same\nway all possibilities for good are contained in his moral and\nintellectual outfit, hindered it may be by a corresponding tendency\nto evil for every such potentiality. We begin to see our way. It\nis our business to know of what parts and passions a child is made\nup, to discern the dangers that present themselves, and still\nmore the possibilities of free-going in delightful paths. However\ndisappointing, even forbidding, the failings of a child, we may be\nquite sure that in every case the opposite tendency is there and we\nmust bring the wit to give it play.\n\nParents have this sort of mother-wit more commonly than we\noutsiders, teachers and the like. Of course, we know of the\nmothers and fathers who can\u2019t do anything with Tom and hope the\nschoolmaster will lick him into shape. But how often on the other\nhand are we surprised to see how much more of persons Bob and Polly\nare in their own homes than at school! Perhaps this is because\nparents know their children better than do others and for that\nreason believe in them more; for our faith in the divine and the\nhuman keeps pace with our knowledge. For this reason it behoves\nus teachers to get a bird\u2019s eye view of the human nature which is\npresent in every child. Everybody knows that hunger, thirst, rest,\nchastity are those natural endowments of the body by means of which\nit grows and functions; but in every child there are tendencies\nto greediness, restlessness, sloth, impurity, any one of which by\nallowance may ruin the child and the man that he will be.\n\nAgain, our old friends, the five senses, require direction and\npractice. Smell, especially, might be made a source of delicate\npleasure by the habit of discriminating the good smells of\nfield and garden, flower and fruit, for their own sakes, not as\nministering to taste, which, unduly pampered, becomes a man\u2019s\nmaster. But there is little that is new to be learned about the\nbody and those various body-servants with which it is equipped.\nEducation already does her part in training the muscles,\ncultivating the senses, ordering the nerves, of all children, rich\nand poor; for in these days we perceive that the development which\nis due to one child is due to all. If we make a mistake in regard\nto physical education it is perhaps in the matter of ordering the\nnerves of a child. We do not consider enough that the nourishment,\nrest, fresh air and natural exercise, proper for the body as a\nwhole, meet the requirements of the nervous system and that the\nundue nervous tension which a small child suffers in carrying a cup\nof tea, an older boy or girl in cramming for an examination, may be\nthe cause later of a distressing nervous breakdown. We are becoming\na nervous, overstrained nation and though golf and cricket may\ndo something for us, a watchful education, alert to arrest every\nsymptom of nervous over-pressure, would do much to secure for every\nchild a fine physique and a high degree of staying power.\n\nA snare which attends the really brilliant teacher is the\nexhausting effect upon children of an overpowering personality.\nThey are such ardent and responsive little souls that the teacher\nwho gives them nods and becks and wreath\u00e9d smiles may play the Pied\nPiper with them. But he or she should beware. The undue play of\nthe personality of the teacher is likely to suppress and subdue\nthat of his scholars; and, not only so, children are so eager to\nlive up to the demands made upon them that they may be brought to a\nstate of continual nervous over-pressure under the influence of a\n\u2018charming personality.\u2019 This sort of subjection, the _Schw\u00e4rmerei_\nof the Germans, was powerfully set forth in a recent novel in which\nan unprincipled and fascinating mistress \u2018ran\u2019 her personality with\ndisastrous results. But the danger does not lie in extreme cases.\nThe girl who kisses the chamber door of her class mistress will\nforget this lady by and by; but the parasitic habit has been formed\nand she must always have some person or some cause on which to hang\nher body and soul. I speak of \u2018she\u2019 and \u2018her\u2019 perhaps unfairly,\nbecause ever since the Greek youth hung about their masters in the\nwalks of the Academy there have been teachers who have undermined\nthe stability of the boys to whom they devoted themselves. Were his\ncountrymen entirely wrong about Socrates? A tendency to this manner\nof betrayal is the infirmity of noble minds, of those who have the\nmost to give; and for this reason, again, it is important that we\nshould have before us a bird\u2019s eye view, let us call it, of human\nnature.\n\n\n2.--WELL-BEING OF MIND\n\nThere is a common notion that it is our inalienable right not\nonly to say what we please but to think as we please, that is, we\nbelieve that while body is subject to physical laws, while the\naffections, love and justice, are subject to moral laws, the mind\nis a chartered libertine. Probably this notion has much to do with\nour neglect of intellect. We do not perceive that the mind, too,\nhas its tendencies both good and evil and that every inclination\ntowards good is hindered and may be thwarted by a corresponding\ninclination towards evil; I am not speaking of moral evil but\nof those intellectual evils which we are slow to define and are\ncareless in dealing with. Does the teacher of a large class always\nperceive that intellect is enthroned before him in every child,\nhowever dull and inattentive may be his outer show? Every child\nin such a class is open to the wonders that science reveals, is\ninterested in the wheeling worlds of the winter firmament. \u201cChild\nafter child,\u201d said a schoolmistress, \u201cwrites to say how much they\nhave enjoyed reading about the stars.\u201d \u201cAs we are walking sometimes\nand the stars are shining,\u201d says a girl of eleven in an Elementary\nSchool, \u201cI tell mother about the stars and planets and comets. She\nsaid she should think astronomy very interesting.\u201d\n\nBut we teach astronomy, no, we teach \u2018light and heat\u2019 by means of\ndessicated text-books, diagrams and experiments, which last are no\nmore to children than the tricks of white magic. The infinitely\nlittle is as attractive to them as the infinitely great and the\nbehaviour of an atom, an ion, is a fairy tale they delight in,\nthat is, if no semblance to a fairy tale be suggested. The pageant\nof history with its interplay of characters is as delightful as\nany tale because every child uses his own film to show the scenes\nand exhibit the persons. We fuss a good deal about the dress,\nimplements and other small details of each historic period but\nwe forget that, give the child a few fit and exact words on the\nsubject and he has the picture in his mind\u2019s eye, nay, a series,\nmiles long of really glorious films; for a child\u2019s amazing,\nvivifying imagination is part and parcel of his intellect.\n\nThe way children make their own the examples offered to them is\namazing. No child would forget the characterisation of Charles\nIX as \u2018feeble and violent,\u2019 nor fail to take to himself a lesson\nin self-control. We may not point the moral; that is the work\nproper for children themselves and they do it without fail. The\ncomparative difficulty of the subject does not affect them. A\nteacher writes (of children of eleven),--\u201cThey cannot have enough\nof Publicola and there are always groans when the lesson comes to\nan end.\u201d\n\nI have said much of history and science, but mathematics, a\nmountainous land which pays the climber, makes its appeal to mind,\nand good teachers know that they may not drown their teaching in\nverbiage. As for literature--to introduce children to literature\nis to instal them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring\na continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast\nexquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being\nfamiliar with it from the very first. A child\u2019s intercourse must\nalways be with good books, the best that we can find. Of course,\nwe have always known that this is the right thing for children in\ncultivated homes, but what about those in whose dwellings books are\nlittle known? One of the wise teachers in Gloucestershire[13] notes\nthat a recognition of two things is necessary in dealing with this\nproblem. First, that,--\n\n \u201cTo explain the meaning of words destroys interest in the story\n and annoys the child. Second, that in many instances it is\n unnecessary. Although a child\u2019s dictionary knowledge of words\n is lacking it does not follow that the meaning of a sentence or\n paragraph is unknown to him ... neither is the correct employment\n of the words beyond him in writing or narrating. Two examples\n of this power to sense the meaning were observed last term.\n There is a particular boy in Form IIB who has not hitherto been\n looked upon as possessing high intelligence. Classified by age he\n ought to be two Forms higher. Last term in taking the story of\n Romulus and Remus, I found that in power of narrating and degree\n of understanding (that is, of \u2018sensing\u2019 a paragraph and either\n translating it into his vocabulary or in using the words read to\n him) he stood above the others and also above the majority in the\n next higher Form.\u201d\n\n \u201cWhat has surprised us most,\u201d said the Headmaster of A., \u201cis\n the ready way in which boys absorb information and become\n interested in literature, literature which we have hitherto\n considered outside the scope of primary school teaching. A year\n ago I could not have believed that boys would have read Lytton\u2019s\n _Harold_, Kingsley\u2019s _Hereward_, and Scott\u2019s _Talisman_ with\n real pleasure and zest or would study with understanding and\n delight Shakespeare\u2019s _Macbeth_, _King John_ and _Richard II_;\n but experience has shown us we have underrated the abilities and\n tastes of the lads we should have known better.\u201d\n\nThat is the capital charge against most schools. The teachers\nunderrate the tastes and abilities of their pupils. In things\nintellectual, children, even backward children, have extraordinary\n\u2018possibilities for good\u2019--possibilities so great that if we had the\nwit to give them their head they would carry us along like a stream\nin spate.\n\nBut what about intellectual tendencies, or \u2018possibilities for\nevil\u2019? One such tendency dominates many schools notwithstanding\nprodigious efforts on the part of the teachers to rouse slumbering\nminds. Indeed, the more the teacher works, the greater the\n_incuria_ of the children, so the class is prodded with marks,\nthe boys take places, the bogie of an oncoming examination is\nheld before them. Some spasmodic effort is the result but no\nvital response and, though boys and girls love school, like\ntheir teachers and even their lessons, they care not at all for\nknowledge, for which the school should create enthusiasm. I can\ntouch here on no more than two potent means of creating _incuria_\nin a class. One is the talky-talky of the teacher. We all know\nhow we are bored by the person in private life who explains and\nexpounds. What reason have we to suppose that children are not\nequally bored? They try to tell us that they are by wandering eyes,\ninanimate features, fidgetting hands and feet, by every means at\ntheir disposal; and the kindly souls among us think that they want\nto play or to be out of doors. But they have no use for play\nexcept at proper intervals. What they want is knowledge conveyed in\nliterary form and the talk of the facile teacher leaves them cold.\n\nAnother soothing potion is little suspected of producing mental\nlethargy. We pride ourselves upon going over and over the same\nground \u2018until the children know it\u2019; the monotony is deadly. A\nchild writes,--\u201cBefore we had these (books) we had to read the same\nold lot again and again.\u201d Is it not true? In the home schoolroom\nbooks used by the grandmother are fit for the grandchildren, books\nused in boys\u2019 schools may be picked up at second-hand stalls with\nthe obliterated names of half-a-dozen successive owners. And what\nof the compilations, neither books nor text-books, which do duty in\nElementary Schools? No wonder Mr. Fisher said, in opening a public\nlibrary, that he had been \u201csurprised and pained when visiting\nElementary Schools to find that there was nothing in them which\ncould be called a book, nothing that would charm and enlighten and\nexpand the imagination.\u201d And yet, as he went on to say, the country\nis \u201cfull of artistic and literary ability and always has been so.\u201d\nIf this ability is to be brought into play we must recognise that\nchildren are not ruminants intellectually any more than physically.\nThey cannot go over the same ground repeatedly without deadening,\neven paralysing results, for progress, continual progress is the\nlaw of intellectual life.\n\nIn matters of the mind again _Habit_ is a good servant but a bad\nmaster. Specialisation, the fetish of the end of the last century,\nis to be deprecated because it is at our peril that we remain too\nlong in any one field of thought. We may not, for example, allow\nthe affairs and interests of daily life to deprive the mind of its\nproper range of interests and occupations. It is even possible for\na person to go into any one of the great fields of thought and to\nwork therein with delight until he become incapable of finding his\nway into any other such field. We know how Darwin lost himself in\nscience until he could not read poetry, find pleasure in pictures,\nthink upon things divine; he was unable to turn his mind out of\nthe course in which it had run for most of his life. In the great\n(and ungoverned) age of the Renaissance, the time when great things\nwere done, great pictures painted, great buildings raised, great\ndiscoveries made, the same man was a painter, an architect, a\ngoldsmith and a master of much knowledge besides; and all that he\ndid he did well, all that he knew was part of his daily thought and\nenjoyment. Let us hear Vasari on Leonardo,--\n\n \u201cPossessed of a divine and marvellous intellect and being an\n excellent geometrician, he not only worked at sculpture ... but\n also prepared many architectural plans and buildings ... he made\n designs for mills and other engines to go by water; and, as\n painting was to be his profession, he studied drawing from life.\u201d\n\nLeonardo knew nothing about Art for Art\u2019s sake, that shibboleth\nof yesterday, nor did our own Christopher Wren, also a great\nmathematician and master of much and various knowledge, to whom\narchitecture was rather a by-the-way interest, and yet he built St.\nPaul\u2019s. What an irreparable loss we had when that plan of his for\na beautiful and spacious London was flung aside because it would\ncost too much to carry it out! Just so of our parsimony do we fling\naside the minds of the children of our country, also capable of\nbeing wrought into pleasaunces of delight, structures of utility\nand beauty, at a pitifully trifling cost. It is well we should\nrecognise that the business of education is with us all our lives,\nthat we must always go on increasing our knowledge.\n\nOf the means we employ to hinder the growth of mind perhaps none\nis more subtle than the _questionnaire_. It is as though one\nrequired a child to produce for inspection at its various stages\nof assimilation the food he consumed for his dinner; we see at once\nhow the digestive processes would be hindered, how, in a word,\nthe child would cease to be fed. But the mind also requires its\nfood and leave to carry on those quiet processes of digestion and\nassimilation which it must accomplish for itself. The child with\ncapacity, which implies depth, is stupified by a long rigmarole on\nthe lines of,--\u201cIf John\u2019s father is Tom\u2019s son, what relation is Tom\nto John?\u201d The shallow child guesses the riddle and scores; and it\nis by the use of tests of this kind that we turn out young people\nsharp as needles but with no power of reflection, no intelligent\ninterests, nothing but the aptness of the city _gamin_.\n\n_Imagination_ may become like that cave Ezekiel tells of wherein\nwere all manner of unseemly and evil things; it may be a temple\nwherein self is glorified; it may be a chamber of horrors and\ndangers; but it may also be a House Beautiful. It is enough for us\nto remember that imagination is stored with those images supplied\nday by day whether by the cinema, the penny dreadful, by Homer or\nShakespeare, by the great picture or the flaming \u2018shocker.\u2019 We have\nheard of the imaginative man who conceived a passion for the Sphinx!\n\nIn these days when _Reason_ is deified by the unlearned and plays\nthe part of the Lord of Misrule it is necessary that every child\nshould be trained to recognize fallacious reasoning and above all\nto know that a man\u2019s reason is his servant and not his master; that\nthere is no notion a man chooses to receive which his reason will\nnot justify, whether it be mistrust of his neighbour, jealousy of\nhis wife, doubts about his religion, or contempt for his country.\n\nRealising this, we \u2018see reason\u2019 in the fact that thousands of men\ngo on strike because two of their body have been denied permission\nto attend a certain meeting. We see reason in this but the men\nthemselves confound reason with right and consider that such a\nstrike is a righteous protest. The only safeguard against fallacies\nwhich undermine the strength of the nation morally and economically\nis a liberal education which affords a wide field for reflection\nand comparison and abundant data upon which to found sound\njudgments.\n\nAs for that _\u00e6sthetic_ \u2018appetency\u2019 (to use Coleridge\u2019s word) upon\nwhich so many of the gentle pleasures of life depend, it is open\nto many disasters: it dies of inanition when beauty is not duly\npresented to it, beauty in words, in pictures and music, in tree\nand flower and sky. The function of the sense of beauty is to open\na paradise of pleasure for us; but what if we grow up admiring the\nwrong things, or, what is morally worse, arrogant in the belief\nthat it is only we and our kind who are able to appreciate and\ndistinguish beauty? It is no small part of education to have seen\nmuch beauty, to recognize it when we see it, and to keep ourselves\nhumble in its presence.\n\n\n3.--INTELLECTUAL APPETITE\n\nAs the body is provided with its appetites, by undue indulgence\nof any one of which a man may make shipwreck, but which duly\nordered should result in a robust and vigorous frame; so, too,\nthe spiritual part of us is provided with certain caterers whose\nbusiness it is to secure that kind of nourishment which promotes\nspiritual or intellectual growth in one or another direction.\nPerhaps in no part of our educational service do we make more\nserious blunders than in our use of those _desires_ which act as\ndo the appetites for the body\u2019s service. Every child wants to be\napproved, even baby in his new red shoes; to be first in what is\ngoing on; to get what is going; to be admired; to lead and manage\nthe rest; to have the companionship of children and grown people;\nand last, but not least, every child wants _to know_. There they\nare, those desires, ready to act on occasion and our business is to\nmake due use of this natural provision for the work of education.\nWe do make use of the desires, not wisely, but too well. We run our\nschools upon _emulation_, the desire of every child to be first;\nand not the ablest, but the most pushing, comes to the front. We\nquicken emulation by the common desire to get and to have, that\nis, by the impulse of avarice. So we offer prizes, exhibitions,\nscholarships, every incentive that can be proposed. We cause him\nto work for our _approbation_, we play upon his vanity, and the\nboy does more than he can. What is the harm, we say, when all\nthose springs of action are in the child already? The athlete is\nbeginning to discover that he suffers elsewhere from the undue\ndevelopment of any set of muscles; and the boy whose ambition, or\nemulation, has been unduly stimulated becomes a flaccid person. But\nthere is a worse evil. We all want knowledge just as much as we\nwant bread. We know it is possible to cure the latter appetite by\ngiving more stimulating food; and the worst of using other spurs\nto learning is that a natural love of knowledge which should carry\nus through eager school-days, and give a spice of adventure to the\nduller days of mature life, is effectually choked; and boys and\ngirls \u2018Cram to pass but not to know; they do pass but they don\u2019t\nknow.\u2019 The divine curiosity which should have been an equipment for\nlife hardly survives early schooldays.\n\nNow it has been demonstrated very fully indeed that the\ndelightfulness of knowledge is sufficient to carry a pupil joyfully\nand eagerly through his school life and that prizes and places,\npraise, blame and punishment, are unnecessary in so far as they\nare used to secure ardent interest and eager work. The love of\nknowledge is sufficient. Each of those other stimuli should no\ndoubt have its natural action, but one or two springs of action\nseem to be played upon excessively in our schools. Conduct gives\nopportunity for \u2018virtue emulously rapid in the race\u2019 and especially\nthat part of conduct known as \u2018play\u2019 in which most of the natural\ndesires come into action; but even in play we must beware of\nthe excess of zeal which risks the elimination of the primary\nfeelings of love and justice. In the schoolroom, without doubt,\nthe titillation of knowledge itself affords sufficient stimulus to\nclose attention and steady labour; and the desire of acquisition\nhas due play in a boy who is constantly increasing his acquirements.\n\n\n4.--MISDIRECTED AFFECTIONS\n\nWe are aware of more than mind and body in our dealings with\nchildren. We appeal to their \u2018feelings\u2019; whether \u2018mind\u2019 or\n\u2018feelings\u2019 be more than names we choose to give to manifestations\nof that spiritual entity which _is_ each one of us. Probably we\nhave not even taken the trouble to analyse and name the feelings\nand to discover that they all fall under the names of love and\njustice, that it is the glory of the human being to be endowed with\nsuch a wealth of these two as is sufficient for every occasion of\nlife. More, the occasions come and he is ready to meet them with\nthe ease and triumph of the solvent debtor.\n\nBut this rich endowment of the moral nature is also a matter with\nwhich the educator should concern himself. Alas, he does so. He\npoints the moral with a thousand tedious platitudes, directs,\ninstructs, illustrates and bores exceedingly the nimble and\nsubtle minds of his scholars. This, of the feelings and their\nmanifestations, is certainly the field for the spare and guarded\npraise and blame of parent and teacher; but this praise or blame is\napt to be either scrapped by children, or, taken as the sole motive\nfor conduct, they go forth unused to do a thing \u2018for it is right\u2019\nbut only because somebody\u2019s approbation is to be won.\n\nThis education of the feelings, moral education, is too delicate\nand personal a matter for a teacher to undertake trusting to\nhis own resources. Children are not to be fed morally like\nyoung pigeons with predigested food. They must pick and eat for\nthemselves and they do so from the conduct of others which they\nhear of or perceive. But they want a great quantity of the sort\nof food whose issue is conduct, and that is why poetry, history,\nromance, geography, travel, biography, science and sums must all\nbe pressed into service. No one can tell what particular morsel a\nchild will select for his sustenance. One small boy of eight may\ncome down late because--\u201cI was meditating upon Plato and couldn\u2019t\nfasten my buttons,\u201d and another may find his meat in \u2018Peter Pan\u2019!\nBut all children must read widely, and know what they have read,\nfor the nourishment of their complex nature.\n\nAs for moral lessons, they are worse than useless; children want\na great deal of fine and various moral feeding, from which they\ndraw the \u2018lessons\u2019 they require. It is a wonderful thing that every\nchild, even the rudest, is endowed with _Love_ and is able for all\nits manifestations,--kindness, benevolence, generosity, gratitude,\npity, sympathy, loyalty, humility, gladness; we older persons are\namazed at the lavish display of any one of these to which the most\nignorant child may treat us. But these aptitudes are so much coin\nof the realm with which a child is provided that he may be able to\npay his way through life; and, alas, we are aware of certain vulgar\ncommonplace tendencies in ourselves which make us walk delicately\nand trust, not to our own teaching, but to the best that we have in\nart and literature and above all to that storehouse of example and\nprecept, the Bible, to enable us to touch these delicate spirits to\nfine issues. St. Francis, Collingwood, Father Damien, one of the\nV.C.\u2019s among us, will do more for children than years of talk.\n\nThen there is that other wonderful provision for right living\nwithout which no neglected or savage man-soul exists. Everyone has\n_Justice_ in his heart; a cry for \u2018fair play\u2019 reaches the most\nlawless mob, and we all know how children torment us with their\n\u2018It\u2019s not fair.\u2019 It is much to know that as regards justice as\nwell as love there exists in everyone an adequate provision for\nthe conduct of life: general unrest, which has its rise in wrong\nthinking and wrong judging far more than in faulty conditions, is\nthe misguided outcome of that sense of justice with which, thank\nGod, we are all endued.\n\nHere, on the face of it, we get one office of education. This, of\njustice, is another spiritual provision which we fail to employ\nduly in our schools; and so wonderful is this principle that we\ncannot kill, paralyse, or even benumb it, but, choked in its\nnatural course, it spreads havoc and devastation where it should\nhave made the soil fertile for the fruits of good living.\n\nFew of the offices of education are more important than that\nof preparing men to distinguish between their rights and their\nduties. We each have our rights and other persons have their duties\ntowards us as we towards them; but it is not easy to learn that\nwe have precisely the same rights as other people and no more;\nthat other people owe to us just such duties as we owe to them.\nThis fine art of self-adjustment is possible to everyone because\nof the ineradicable principle which abides in us. But our eyes\nmust be taught to see, and hence the need for all the processes of\neducation, futile in proportion as they do not serve this end. To\nthink fairly requires, we know, knowledge as well as consideration.\n\nYoung people should leave school knowing that their thoughts are\nnot their own;[14] that what we think of other people is a matter\nof justice or injustice; that a certain manner of words is due from\nthem to all manner of persons with whom they have to deal; and that\nnot to speak those words is to be unjust to their neighbours. They\nshould know that truth, that is, justice in word, is their due and\nthat of all other persons; there are few better equipments for a\ncitizen than a mind capable of discerning the truth, and this just\nmind can be preserved only by those who take heed what they think.\n\u201cYet truth,\u201d says Bacon, \u201cwhich only doth judge itself, teacheth\nthat the enquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of\nit, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the\nbelief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good\nof human nature.\u201d\n\nIf justice in word is to be duly learned by all scholars still more\nis integrity, justice in action; integrity in work, which disallows\nca\u2019canny methods, whether those of the artisan who does as little\nas he can in the time, or of the schoolboy who receives payment\nin kind--in his support, the cost of his education and the trust\nimposed in him by parents and teachers. Therefore he may not scamp,\ndawdle over, postpone, crib, or otherwise shirk his work. He learns\nthat \u201cmy duty towards my neighbour\u201d is \u201cto keep my hands from\npicking and stealing,\u201d and, whether a man be a workman, a servant,\nor a prosperous citizen, he must know that justice requires from\nhim the integrity in material which we call honesty; not the common\nhonesty which hates to be found out, but that refined and delicate\nsense of values which George Eliot exhibits for us in \u2018Caleb Garth.\u2019\n\nThere is another form in which the magnanimous citizen of the\nfuture must be taught the sense of justice. Our opinions show\nour integrity of thought. Every person has many opinions whether\nhis own honestly thought out, or notions picked up from his pet\nnewspaper or his companions. The person who thinks out his\nopinions modestly and carefully is doing his duty as truly as if he\nsaved a life because there is no more or less about duty.\n\nIf a schoolboy is to be guided into the justice of thought\nfrom which sound opinions emanate, how much more does he need\nguidance in arriving at that justice in motive which we call sound\nprinciples. For what, after all, are principles but those motives\nof first importance which govern us, move us in thought and action?\nWe appear to pick up these in a casual way and are seldom able to\nrender an account of them and yet our lives are ordered by our\nprinciples, good or bad. Here, again, we have a reason for wide and\nwisely ordered reading; for there are always catch-words floating\nin the air, as,--\u2018What\u2019s the good?\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s all rot,\u2019 and the like,\nwhich the vacant mind catches up for use as the basis of thought\nand conduct, as, in fact, paltry principles for the guidance of a\nlife.\n\nHere we have one more reason why there is nothing in all those\nspiritual stores in the world\u2019s treasury too good for the\neducation of _all_ children. Every lovely tale, illuminating poem,\ninstructive history, every unfolding of travel and revelation of\nscience exists for children. \u201c_La terre appartient \u00e0 l\u2019enfant,\ntoujours \u00e0 l\u2019enfant_,\u201d was well said by Maxim Gorky, and we should\ndo well to remember the fact.\n\nThe service that some of us (of the P.N.E.U.) believe we have\ndone in the cause of education is to discover that all children,\neven backward children, are aware of their needs and pathetically\neager for the food they require; that no preparation whatever is\nnecessary for this sort of diet; that a limited vocabulary, sordid\nsurroundings, the absence of a literary background to thought\nare not hindrances; indeed they may turn out to be incentives to\nlearning, just as the more hungry the child, the readier he is for\nhis dinner. This statement is no mere pious opinion; it has been\namply proved in thousands of instances. Children of a poor school\nin the slums are eager to tell the whole story of _Waverley_,\nfalling continually into the beautiful language and style of the\nauthor. They talk about the Rosetta Stone and about treasures in\ntheir local museum; they discuss Coriolanus and conclude that \u2018his\nmother must have spoiled him.\u2019 They know by heart every detail of\na picture by La Hooch, Rembrandt, Botticelli, and not only is no\nevolution of history or drama, no subtle sweetness, no inspiration\nof a poet, beyond them, but they decline to know that which does\nnot reach them in literary form.\n\nWhat they receive under this condition they absorb immediately and\nshow that they _know_ by that test of knowledge which applies to\nus all, that is, they can tell it with power, clearness, vivacity\nand charm. These are the children to whom we have been doling out\nthe \u2018three R\u2019s\u2019 for generations! Small wonder that juvenile crime\nincreases; the intellectually starved boy must needs find food for\nhis imagination, scope for his intellectual power; and crime, like\nthe cinema, offers it must be admitted, brave adventures.\n\n\n5.--THE WELL-BEING OF THE SOUL\n\nIf we leave the outer courts of mind and body, the holy places of\nthe affections and the will (we shall consider this last later)\nand enter that holy of holies where man performs his priestly\nfunctions, we may well ask with diffidence and humility what may\neducation do for the Soul of a child? \u201cWhat is there that outwits\nthe understanding of a man or that is out of the range of his\nthoughts, the reach of his aspirations? He is, it is true, baffled\non all hands by his ignorance, the illimitable ignorance of even\nthe wisest, but ignorance is not incapacity and the wings of a\nman\u2019s soul beat with impatience against the bars of his ignorance.\nHe would out, out into the universe of infinite thought and\ninfinite possibilities. How is the soul of a man to be satisfied?\nCrowned kings have thrown up dominion because they want that which\nis greater than kingdoms; profound scholars fret under limitations\nwhich keep them playing upon the margin of the unsounded ocean of\nknowledge; no great love can satisfy itself with loving; there\nis no satisfaction save one for the soul of a man, because the\nthings about him are finite, measurable, incomplete and his reach\nis beyond his grasp. He has an urgent, incessant, irrepressible\nneed of the infinite.\u201d[15] \u201cI want, am made for, and must have a\nGod;\u201d--not a mere serviceable religion,--because we have in us an\ninfinite capacity for love, loyalty and service which we cannot\nexpend upon any other.\n\nBut what sort of approaches do we prepare for children towards\nthe God whom they need, the Saviour in Whom is all help, the King\nWho affords all delight, commands all adoration and loyalty? Any\nwords or thoughts of ours are poor and insufficient, but we have a\ntreasury of divine words which they read and know with satisfying\npleasure and tell with singular beauty and fitness. \u201cThe Bible\nis the most interesting book I know,\u201d said a young person of ten\nwho had read a good many books and knew her Bible. By degrees\nchildren get that knowledge of God which is the object of the\nfinal daily prayer in our beautiful liturgy--the prayer of St.\nChrysostom--\u201cGrant us in this world knowledge of Thy truth,\u201d and\nall other knowledge which they obtain gathers round and illuminates\nthis.\n\nHere is an example of how such knowledge grows. I heard a class of\ngirls aged about thirteen read an essay on George Herbert. Three\nor four of his poems were included, and none of the girls had read\neither essay or poems before. They \u2018narrated\u2019 what they had read\nand in the course of their narration gave a full paraphrase of _The\nElixir_, _The Pulley_, and one or two other poems. No point made by\nthe poet was omitted and his exact words were used pretty freely.\nThe teacher made comments upon one or two unusual words and that\nwas all; to explain or enforce (otherwise than by a reverently\nsympathetic manner, the glance and words that showed that she too,\ncared), would have been impertinent. It is an interesting thing\nthat hundreds of children of this age in Secondary and Elementary\nSchools and in families scattered over the world read and narrated\nthe same essay and no doubt paraphrased the verses with equal ease.\nI felt humbled before the children knowing myself incapable of such\nimmediate and rapid apprehension of several pages of new matter\nincluding poems whose intention is by no means obvious. In such\nways the great thoughts of great thinkers illuminate children and\nthey grow in knowledge, chiefly the knowledge of God.\n\nAnd yet this, the chief part of education, is drowned in torrents\nof talk, in tedious repetition, in objurgation and recrimination,\nin every sort of way in which the mind may be bored and the\naffections deadened.\n\nI have endeavoured to sketch some of the possibilities for good\nand the corresponding possibilities for evil present in all\nchildren; they are waiting for direction and control, certainly,\nbut still more for the formative influence of knowledge. I have\navoided philosophical terms, using only names in common use,--body\nand soul, body and mind, body, soul and spirit,--because these\nrepresent ideas that we cannot elude and that convey certain\ndefinite notions; and these ideas must needs form the basis of our\neducational thought.\n\nWe must know something about the material we are to work upon if\nthe education we offer is not to be scrappy and superficial. We\nmust have some measure of a child\u2019s requirements, not based upon\nhis uses to society, nor upon the standard of the world he lives\nin, but upon his own capacity and needs. We would not willingly\neducate him towards what is called \u2018self-expression\u2019; he has little\nto express except what he has received as knowledge, whether by\nway of record or impression; what he can do is to assimilate and\ngive this forth in a form which is original because it is modified,\nre-created, by the action of his own mind; and this originality is\nproduced by the common bread and milk which is food for everyone,\nacting upon the mind which is peculiar to each individual child.\n\nEducation implies a continuous going forth of the mind; but\nwhatever induces introspection or any form of self-consciousness\nholds up as it were the intellectual powers and brings progress to\na standstill. The reader may have noticed with some disappointment\nthat I have not invited him to the study of psychology as it is\nunderstood to-day. No doubt there exists a certain dim region\ndescribed as the unconscious mind, a sort of half-way house between\nmind and matter, a place where the intellect is subdued to the\naction of nerves and blood. Mind is of its nature infinitely\nand always conscious and to speak of the unconscious mind is a\ncontradiction in terms; but what is meant is that the mind thinks\nin ways of which we are unconscious; and that our business is to\nmake ourselves aware by much introspection, much self-occupation,\nof the nature and tendencies of this \u2018unconscious\u2019 region. The\nresults of this study, so far as they have been arrived at, are\nnot encouraging. The best that is in us would appear to find its\norigin in \u2018complexes,\u2019 sensual, erotic, greedy. Granting that such\npossibilities are in us safety, lies in so nourishing the mind\nthat seed of baseness may bear fruit of beauty. Researches in this\nregion are deeply interesting no doubt, to the psychologist, and\nmay eventually bear fruit if only as contributing a quota to the\nclassification of knowledge; but no authority on the subject is\nwilling to offer at present his researches as a contribution to\neducational lore. It may be that the mind as well as the body has\nits regions where _noli me tangere_ is a counsel of expedience;\nand, by the time we have dealt with those functions of the mind\nwhich we know, we may find ourselves in a position to formulate\nthat which we certainly do not possess, a Science, should it not be\na Philosophy, of Education?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nAUTHORITY AND DOCILITY\n\n_The principles of Authority on the one hand and Docility on the\nother are natural, necessary and fundamental_\n\n\nThe War has made surprises stale but in those remote pre-war\ndays we were enormously startled by the discovery of wireless\ntelegraphy. That communications should pass through almost infinite\nspace without sign or sound or obvious channel and arrive instantly\nat their destination took away our breath. We had the grace to\nvalue the discovery for something more than its utility; we were\nawed in the presence of a law which had always been there but\nwas only now perceived. In something the same way we have been\nelectrified by the discovery in the fields of France of heroism\nin the breast of every common soldier. Now, just such discoveries\nwait us in the field of education and any miner in this field may\nstrike a vein of ore which shall enrich the world. The citizens\nof an ancient city on the shores of Gennesaret made one of those\nstartling discoveries and knew how to give it a name; they found\nout that Christ \u2018spake with authority\u2019 and not as their scribes.\n\nIt is not ours to speak with authority; the \u2018verily, verily I\nsay unto you\u2019 is a divine word not for us. Nevertheless deputed\nauthority is among us and in us. \u2018He is an authority\u2019 on such and\nsuch a subject, is a correct expression because by much study\nhe has made it his own and has a right to speak. This deputed\nauthority appears to be lodged in everyone, ready for occasion.\nMr. Benjamin Kidd has told us how the London policeman is the very\nembodiment of authority, implicitly obeyed in a way surprising to\nstrangers. Every king and commander, every mother, elder sister,\nschool prefect, every foreman of works and captain of games,\nfinds that within himself which secures faithful obedience, not\nfor the sake of his merits but because authority is proper to his\noffice. Without this principle, society would cease to cohere.\nPractically there is no such thing as anarchy; what is so-called is\na mere transference of authority, even if in the last resort the\nanarchist find authority in himself alone. There is an idea abroad\nthat authority makes for tyranny, and that obedience, voluntary or\ninvoluntary, is of the nature of slavishness; but authority is, on\nthe contrary, the condition without which liberty does not exist\nand, except it be abused, is entirely congenial to those on whom it\nis exercised: we are so made that we like to be ordered even if the\nordering be only that of circumstances. Servants take pride in the\norders they receive; that our badge of honour is an \u2018Order\u2019 is a\nsignificant use of words. It is still true that \u2018Order is heaven\u2019s\nfirst law\u2019 and order is the outcome of authority.\n\nThat principle in us which brings us into subjection to authority\nis docility, teachableness, and that also is universal. If a man\nin the pride of his heart decline other authority, he will submit\nhimself slavishly to his \u2018star\u2019 or his \u2018destiny.\u2019 It would seem\nthat the exercise of docility is as natural and necessary as that\nof reason or imagination; and the two principles of authority and\ndocility act in every life precisely as do those two elemental\nprinciples which enable the earth to maintain its orbit, the one\ndrawing it towards the sun, the other as constantly driving it into\nspace; between the two, the earth maintains a more or less middle\ncourse and the days go on.\n\nThe same two principles work in every child, the one producing\nordered life, the other making for rebellion, and the _crux_ in\nbringing up children is to find the mean which shall keep a child\ntrue to his elliptical orbit. The solution offered to-day is\nfreedom in our schools; children may be governed but they must\nnot be aware that they are governed, and, \u2018Go as you please,\u2019\nmust be the apparent rule of their lives, while, \u2018Do as you\u2019re\nbid,\u2019 is the moving force. The result of an ordered freedom is\nobtained, that ordered freedom which rules the lives of 999 in\n1000 of the citizens of the world; but the drawback to an indirect\nmethod of securing this result is that when, \u2018Do as you please,\u2019\nis substituted for, \u2018Do as you\u2019re bid,\u2019 there is dissimulation\nin the air and children fail to learn that habit of \u2018proud\nsubjection and dignified obedience\u2019 which distinguishes great men\nand noble citizens. No doubt it is pleasing that children should\nbehave naturally, should get up and wander about, should sit\nstill or frolic as they have a mind to, but they too, must \u2018learn\nobedience\u2019; and it is no small element in their happiness and ours\nthat obedience is both delightful and reposeful.\n\nIt is the part of the teacher to secure willing obedience, not\nso much to himself as to the laws of the school and the claims\nof the matter in hand. If a boy have a passage to read, he obeys\nthe call of that immediate duty, reads the passage with attention\nand is happy in doing so. We all know with what a sense of added\nimportance we say,--\u201cI must be at Mrs. Jones\u2019s by eleven.\u201d \u201cIt\nis necessary that I should see Brown.\u201d The life that does not\nobey such conditions has got out of its orbit and is not of use\nto society. It is necessary that we should all follow an ordered\ncourse, and children, even infant children, must begin in the way\nin which they will have to go on. Happily they come to us with the\ntwo inherent forces, centripetal and centrifugal, which secure to\nthem freedom, _i.e._, self-authority, on the one hand, and \u2018proud\nsubjection\u2019 on the other.\n\nBut parents and those who stand _in loco parentis_ have a delicate\ntask. There must be subjection, but it must be proud, worn as a\ndistinction, an order of merit. Probably the way to secure this\nis to avoid standing between children and those laws of life and\nconduct by which we are all ultimately ruled. The higher the\nauthority, the greater distinction in obedience, and children are\nquick to discriminate between the mere will and pleasure of the\narbitrary teacher or parent and the chastened authority of him who\nis himself under rule. That subservience should take the place\nof docility is the last calamity for nation, family or school.\nDocility implies equality; there is no great gulf fixed between\nteacher and taught; both are pursuing the same ends, engaged on the\nsame theme, enriched by mutual interests; and probably the quite\ndelightful pursuit of knowledge affords the only intrinsic liberty\nfor both teacher and taught. \u201cHe is the freeman whom the truth\nmakes free,\u201d and this freedom the steady pursuit and delightful\nacquirement of knowledge afford to us day by day. \u201cThe mind is\nits own place,\u201d we are told, \u201cand in itself can make a heaven of\nhell, a hell of heaven\u201d; and that heaven of the mind, is it not\ncontinual expansion in ordered freedom? And that restless, burning,\ninflammatory hell, does it not come of continual chafing against\nnatural and righteous order?\n\nAs for the superficial freedom of sitting or standing, going or\ncoming, that is a matter which settles itself, as do all the\nrelations between teacher and taught, once children are allowed a\ndue share in their own education, not a benefit for us to confer\nbut rather a provision for them to take. Our chief concern for\nthe mind or for the body is to supply a well-ordered table with\nabundant, appetising, nourishing and very varied food, which\nchildren deal with in their own way and for themselves. This\nfood must be served _au naturel_, without the predigestion which\ndeprives it of stimulating and nourishing properties and no sort\nof forcible feeding or spoon feeding may be practised. Hungry\nminds sit down to such a diet with the charming greediness of\nlittle children; they absorb it, assimilate it and grow thereby in\na manner astonishing to those accustomed to the dull profitless\nruminating so often practised in schools. When the teacher avoids\nhortatory methods, his scholars change position when they have a\nmind to; but their mind is commonly to sit still during a lesson\ntime because they are so intent on their work that they have no\ndesire for small divagations; while, on the other hand, the teacher\nmakes it his business to see that the body gets its share, and an\nabundant share, of gymnastics whether by way of games or drill.\nBut this is a subject well understood in modern schools and it is\nonly necessary to say that though mental activity promotes bodily\nfunctions in a surprising way--has not an American physiologist\ndiscovered that people may live to 160 or 1000 years (!) if they\ncontinue to use their minds?--athleticism, on the other hand, if\nunduly pursued, by no means promotes mental activity.\n\nIn days when the concern of educators seems to be to provide\nan easy option for that mental activity, the sole condition of\neducation, it must be _urged_ that manual dexterity, gardening,\nfolk-dancing, and the like, while they fulfil their proper\nfunction in training nerve and muscle to ready responsiveness,\n_do not sustain mind_. Nor, again, can we educate children upon\nthe drama, even the Shakespearean drama, nor upon poetry, even\nthe most musical and emotional. These things children must have;\nbut they come into the world with many relations waiting to be\nestablished; relations with places far and near, with the wide\nuniverse, with the past of history, with the social economics of\nthe present, with the earth they live on and all its delightful\nprogeny of beast and bird, plant and tree; with the sweet human\naffinities they entered into at birth; with their own country and\nother countries, and, above all, with that most sublime of human\nrelationships--their relation to God. With such a programme before\nhis pupils only the uninstructed teacher will put undue emphasis\nupon and give undue time to arithmetic and handicrafts, singing or\nacting, or any of the hundred specifics which are passed off as\neducation in its entirety.\n\nThe sense of _must_ should be present with children; our mistake\nis to act in such a way that they, only, seem to be law-compelled\nwhile their elders do as they please. The parent or teacher who is\npestered for \u2018leave\u2019 to do this or that, contrary to the discipline\nof the house or school, has only himself to thank; he has posed as\na person _in_ authority, not _under_ authority, and therefore free\nto allow the breach of rules whose only _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ is that\nthey minister to the well-being of the children. Two conditions are\nnecessary to secure all proper docility and obedience and, given\nthese two, there is seldom a conflict of wills between teacher and\npupils. The conditions are,--the teacher, or other head, may not\nbe arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority[16]\nthat the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the\nthings he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for\nhis convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the\nbringing up of children recognises the supreme Authority to Whom\nwe are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is\npossible to establish the nice relation which should exist between\nteacher and taught.) The other condition is that children should\nhave a fine sense of the freedom which comes of knowledge which\nthey are allowed to appropriate as they choose, freely given with\nlittle intervention from the teacher. They do choose and are happy\nin their work, so there is little opportunity for coercion or for\ndeadening, hortatory talk.\n\nBut the principle of authority, as well as that of docility, is\ninherent in children and it is only as the tact and judgment of the\nteacher make opportunity for its free play that they are prepared\nfor the duties of life as citizens and members of a family.\nThe movement in favour of prefects, as in Public Schools, is a\nrecognition of this fact and it is well that children should become\nfamiliar with the idea of representative authority, that is, that\nthey are governed by chosen members of their own body, a form of\nself-government. To give effect to the idea, the prefect should be\nelected and children shew extraordinary insight in choosing the\nright officers. But that is not enough because only a few are set\nin authority; certain small offices should be held in rotation\nby every member of a class. The office makes the man as much as\nthe man makes the office and it is surprising how well rather\nincompetent children will perform duties laid on them.\n\nAll school work should be conducted in such a manner that children\nare aware of the responsibility of learning; it is _their business_\nto know that which has been taught. To this end the subject\nmatter should not be repeated. We ourselves do not attend to the\nmatters in our daily paper which we know we shall meet with again\nin a weekly review, nor to that if there is a monthly review in\nprospect; these repeated aids result in our being persons of\nwandering attention and feeble memory. To allow repetition of a\nlesson is to shift the responsibility for it from the shoulders of\nthe pupil to those of the teacher who says, in effect,--\u201cI\u2019ll see\nthat you know it,\u201d so his pupils make no effort of attention. Thus\nthe same stale stuff is repeated again and again and the children\nget bored and restive, ready for pranks by way of a change.\n\nTeachers are apt to slight their high office and hinder the\nprocesses of education because they cherish two or three fallacies.\nThey regard children as inferior, themselves as superior,\nbeings;--why else their office? But if they recognized that the\npotency of children\u2019s minds is as great or greater than that of\ntheir own, they would not conceive that spoon-feeding was their\nmission, or that they must masticate a morsel of knowledge to make\nit proper for the feeble digestion of the scholar.\n\nWe depreciate children in another way. We are convinced that\nthey cannot understand a literary vocabulary so we explain and\nparaphrase to our own heart\u2019s content but not to theirs. Educated\nmothers know that their children can read anything and do not offer\nexplanations unless they are asked for them; and we have taken it\nfor granted that this quickness of apprehension comes only to the\nchildren of educated parents.\n\nAnother misapprehension which makes for disorder is our way of\nregarding attention. We believe that it is to be cultivated,\nnursed, coddled, wooed by persuasion, by dramatic presentation,\nby pictures and illustrative objects: in fact, the teacher,\nthe success of whose work depends upon his \u2018personality,\u2019 is\nan actor of no mean power whose performance would adorn any\nstage. Attention, we know, is not a \u2018faculty\u2019 nor a definable\npower of mind but is the ability to turn on every such power,\nto concentrate, as we say. We throw away labour in attempting\nto produce or to train this necessary function. There it is in\nevery child in full measure, a very Niagara of force, ready to be\nturned on in obedience to the child\u2019s own authority and capable of\ninfinite resistance to authority imposed from without. Our part is\nto regard attention, too, as an appetite and to feed it with the\nbest we have in books and in all knowledge. But children do it \u2018on\ntheir own\u2019; we may not play Sir Oracle any more; our knowledge is\ntoo circumscribed, our diction too poor, vague, desultory, to cope\nwith the ability of young creatures who thirst for knowledge. We\nmust put into their hands the sources which we must needs use for\nourselves, the best books of the best writers.\n\nI will mention only one more disability which hinders us in our\nwork as teachers; I mean that depreciation of knowledge which is\njust now characteristic of Englishmen. A well-known educationalist\nlately nailed up the thesis that what children want in the way\nof knowledge is just two things,--How to do the work by which\nthey must earn their living and how to behave as citizens. This\nwriter does not see that work is done and duties performed in the\nratio of the person who works: the more the man is as a person,\nthe more valuable will be his work and the more dependable his\nconduct: yet we omit from popular education that tincture of humane\nletters which makes for efficiency! One hears, for instance, of\nan adolescent school with some nine thousand pupils who come in\nbatches of a few hundreds, each batch to learn one or other of a\nscore or so of admirable crafts and accomplishments; but not one\nhour is spent in a three or four years\u2019 course in this people\u2019s\nuniversity on any sort of humane knowledge, in any reading or\nthinking which should make the pupils better men and women and\nbetter citizens.\n\nTo return to our method of employing attention; it is not a casual\nmatter, a convenient, almost miraculous way of covering the ground,\nof getting children to know certainly and lastingly a surprising\namount; all this is to the good, but it is something more, a root\nprinciple vital to education. In this way of learning the child\ncomes to his own; he makes use of the authority which is in him in\nits highest function as a self-commanding, self-compelling, power.\nIt is delightful to use any power that is in us if only that of\nkeeping up in cup and ball a hundred times as (to the delight of\nsmall nephews and nieces), Jane Austen did. But to make yourself\nattend, make yourself know, this indeed is to come into a kingdom,\nall the more satisfying to children because they are so made that\nthey revel in knowledge.\n\nHere is some notice of a day or two spent in London by a child of\neleven which reaches me as I write:--\n\n \u201cMother took her to Westminster Abbey one afternoon and while I\n was seeing her to bed she told me all the things she had noticed\n there which they had been hearing about in \u2018architecture\u2019 this\n term. She loves \u2018architecture.\u2019 She also expressed her anxiety\n to make acquaintance with the British Museum and see the things\n there that they had been \u2018having\u2019 in their term\u2019s work. So the\n next morning we went there and studied the Parthenon Room in\n great detail. She was a most interesting companion and taught me\n ever so much! We also went to St. Paul\u2019s and Madame Tussaud\u2019s\n where she was delighted to see so many people out of \u2018history.\u2019\n The modern people did not interest her so much except Jack\n Cornwell and Nurse Cavell.\u201d\n\nIt will be noticed that the child is educating herself; her friends\nmerely take her to see the things she knows about and she tells\nwhat she has read, a quite different matter from the act of pouring\ninformation down the throats of the unhappy children who are taken\nto visit our national treasure houses.\n\nA short time ago when the King and Queen paid a private visit to\nthe British Museum, in the next hall, also, no doubt, examining\nthe Parthenon Room, were a group of children from a London County\nCouncil School, as full of information and interest as the child\nabove mentioned because they had been doing the same work. It was\nnot a small thing for those children to know that their interests\nand delights were common to them and their Sovereigns. Of such\nstrands are formed the cord which binds society; and one of the\nmain purposes of a \u2018liberal education for all\u2019 is to form links\nbetween high and low, rich and poor, the classes and the masses, in\nthe strong sympathy of common knowledge. The Public Schools have\narrived at this through the medium of the classics; an occasional\n\u2018tag\u2019 from Horace moves and unites the House of Commons, not only\nthrough the urbane thought of the poet but because it is a key to a\nhundred associations. If this has been effected through the medium\nof a dead language, what may we not hope for in the way of common\nthought, universal springs of action, conveyed through our own rich\nand inspiring literature?\n\nConsider what this power of perfect attention and absolute\nrecollection should be to every employer and chief, what an asset\nto the nation! I heard this week of a Colonel who said that his\nbest subaltern was an old \u201cP.U.S.\u201d (Parents\u2019 Union School) boy; and\nthis sort of evidence reaches us continually. There are few who do\nnot know the mischievous and baffling effects of inattention and\nforgetfulness on the part of subordinates; and we visualize a world\nof surprising achievement when children shall have been trained to\nquick apprehension and retention of instructions.\n\nWe may not pose before children, nor pride ourselves on dutiful\ngetting up of knowledge in order to deliver it as emanating from\nourselves. There are those who have a right to lecture, those who\nhave devoted a life-time to some one subject about which they\nhave perhaps written their book. Lectures from such persons are,\nno doubt, as full of insight, imagination and power as are their\nwritten works; but we cannot have a score of such lecturers in\nevery school, each to elucidate his own subject, nor, if we could,\nwould it be good for the children. The personality of the teacher\nwould influence them to distraction from the delight in knowledge\nwhich is itself a sufficient and compelling force to secure perfect\nattention, and seemly discipline.\n\nI am not figuring an \u2018Erewhon,\u2019 some Utopia of our dreams; we of\nthe P.N.E.U. seem to have let loose a force capable of sending\nforth young people firm with the resolve--\n\n \u201cI will not cease from mental strife\n Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand\n Till we have built Jerusalem\n In England\u2019s green and pleasant land.\u201d\n\nPractically all schools are doing wonders. The schoolmaster is\nabroad in the land and we are educating \u2018our masters\u2019 with immense\nzeal and self-devotion. What we have reason to deplore is that\nafter some eight or twelve years\u2019 brilliant teaching in school,\nthe cinema show and the football field, polo or golf, satisfy the\nneeds of our former pupils to whatever class they belong. We are\nfilled with compassion when we detect the lifeless hand or leg,\nthe artificial nose or jaw, that many a man has brought home as\na consequence of the War. But many of our young men and women\ngo about more seriously maimed than these. They are devoid of\nintellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for\nthem, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting,\ntheir \u2018job\u2019 and the social amenities they can secure are all that\ntheir life has for them.\n\nThe maimed existence in which a man goes on from day to day without\neither nourishing or using his intellect, is causing anxiety to\nthose interested in education, who know that after religion it is\nour chief concern, is, indeed, the necessary handmaid of religion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE SACREDNESS OF PERSONALITY\n\n _These principles (i.e., authority and docility) are limited by\n the respect due to the personality of children which may not\n be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love,\n suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural\n desire._\n\n\nPeople are too apt to use children as counters in a game, to be\nmoved hither and thither according to the whim of the moment.\nOur crying need to-day is less for a better method of education\nthan for an adequate conception of children,--children, merely as\nhuman beings, whether brilliant or dull, precocious or backward.\nExceptional qualities take care of themselves and so does the\n\u2018wanting\u2019 intelligence, and both of these share with the rest in\nall that is claimed for them in the previous chapters. Our business\nis to find out how great a mystery a person is _qu\u00e2_ person. All\naction comes out of the ideas we hold and if we ponder duly upon\npersonality we shall come to perceive that we cannot commit a\ngreater offence than to maim or crush, or subvert any part of a\nperson.\n\nWe have many ingenious, not to say affectionate, ways of doing\nthis, all of them more or less based upon that egoism which\npersuades us that in proportion to a child\u2019s dependence is our\nsuperiority, that all we do for him is of our grace and favour,\nand that we have a right, whether as parents or teachers, to do\nwhat we will with our own. Have we considered that in the Divine\nestimate the child\u2019s estate is higher than ours; that it is ours\nto \u201cbecome as little children,\u201d rather than theirs to become as\ngrown men and women; that the rules we receive for the bringing\nup of children are for the most part negative? We may not despise\nthem, or hinder them, (\u201csuffer little children\u201d), or offend them by\nour brutish clumsiness of action and want of serious thought; while\nthe one positive precept afforded to us is \u201cfeed\u201d (which should be\nrendered \u2018pasture\u2019) \u201cmy lambs,\u201d place them in the midst of abundant\nfood. A teacher in a Yorkshire Council School renders this precept\nas,--\u201cI had left them in the pasture and came back and found\nthem feeding,\u201d that is, she had left a big class reading a given\nlesson and found them on her return still reading with eagerness\nand satisfaction. _Maxima reverentia debetur pueris_ has a wider\nmeaning than it generally receives. We take it as meaning that we\nshould not do or say anything unseemly before the young, but does\nit not also include a profound and reverent study of the properties\nand possibilities present in a child?\n\nNor need we be alarmed at so wide a programme. The vice which\nhinders us in the bringing up of children is that so heavily\ncensured in the Gospel. We are not simple; we act our parts and\nplay in an unlawful way upon motives. Perhaps after all the least\nreprehensible pedagogic motive is that which is most condemned\nand the terrorism of \u2018Mr. Creakle\u2019 may produce a grey record in\ncomparison with the blackness of more subtle methods of undermining\npersonality. We can only touch upon a few of these, but a part may\nstand for the whole. For the action of fear as a governing motive\nwe cannot do better than read again our _David Copperfield_ (a\ngreat educational treatise) and study \u2018Mr. Creakle\u2019 in detail for\nterrorism in the schoolroom and \u2018Mr. Murdstone\u2019 for the same vice\nin the home. But,--is it through the influence of Dickens?--fear\nis no longer the acknowledged basis of school discipline; we have\nmethods more subtle than the mere terrors of the law. Love is one\nof these. The person of winning personality attracts his pupils\n(or hers) who will do anything for his sake and are fond and\neager in all their ways, docile to that point where personality\nis submerged, and they live on the smiles, perish on the averted\nlooks, of the adored teacher. Parents look on with a smile and\nthink that all is well; but Bob or Mary is losing that growing time\nwhich should make a self-dependent, self-ordered person, and is\nday by day becoming a parasite who can go only as he is carried,\nthe easy prey of fanatic or demagogue. This sort of encroachment\nupon the love of children offers as a motive, \u2018do this for my\nsake\u2019; wrong is to be avoided lest it grieve the teacher, good is\nto be done to pleasure him; for this end a boy learns his lessons,\nbehaves properly, shows good will, produces a whole catalogue of\nschoolboy virtues and yet his character is being undermined.\n\n\u2018Suggestion\u2019 goes to work more subtly. The teacher has mastered the\ngamut of motives which play upon human nature and every suggestion\nis aimed at one or other of these. He may not use the nursery\nsuggestions of lollipops or bogies but he does in reality employ\nthese if expressed in more spiritual values, suggestions subtly\napplied to the idiosyncrasies of a given child. \u2018Suggestion\u2019 is too\nsubtle to be illustrated with advantage: Dr. Stephen Paget holds\nthat it should be used only as a surgeon uses an an\u00e6sthetic; but\nit is an instrument easy to handle, and unconsidered suggestion\nplays on a child\u2019s mind as the winds on a weathercock. \u201cUnstable\nas water, thou shalt not excel\u201d is the unfortunate child\u2019s doom;\nfor how is it possible for stability of mind and character to\nevolve under a continual play of changing suggestions? But this\nit will be said is true of the unconsidered suggestion. What of\na carefully laid train, all leading in the same direction, to\nproduce perseverance, frankness, courage, any other excellent\nvirtue? The child is even worse off in such a case. That particular\nvirtue becomes detestable; no other virtue is inviting; and he is\nacquiring no strength to stand alone but waits in all his doings\nfor promptings from without. Perhaps the gravest danger attending\nthis practice is that every suggestion received lays the person\nopen to the next and the next. A due respect for the personality of\nchildren and a dread of making them incompetent to conduct their\nown lives will make us chary of employing a means so dangerous, no\nmatter how good the immediate end.\n\nAkin to suggestion is influence, which acts not so much by\nwell-directed word or inciting action as by a sort of atmosphere\nproceeding from the teacher and enveloping the taught. Late in\nthe last century goody-goody books were written about the beauty\nof influence, the duty of influence, the study of the means of\ninfluence, and children were brought up with the notion that to\ninfluence other persons consciously was a moral duty. No doubt\nsuch influence is inevitable; we must needs affect one another,\nnot so much by what we do or say as by that which we are, and so\nfar influence is natural and wholesome. We imbibe it from persons\nreal and imaginary and we are kept strong and upright by currents\nand counter-currents of unstudied influence. Supineness before a\nsingle, steady, persistent influence is a different matter, and\nthe schoolgirl who idolises her mistress, the boy who worships his\nmaster, is deprived of the chance of free and independent living.\nHis personality fails to develop and he goes into the world as a\nparasitic plant, clinging ever to the support of some stronger\ncharacter.\n\nSo far we have considered incidental ways of trespassing upon\nthose rights of personality proper to children, but we have more\npervasive, if less injurious, ways of stultifying intellectual and\nmoral growth. Our school ethic rests upon, our school discipline is\nsupported by, undue play upon certain natural desires. It is worth\nwhile to reflect that the mind also has its appetites, better known\nas desires. It is as necessary that Mind should be fed, should grow\nand should produce, as that these things should happen to Body,\nand just as Body would not take the trouble to feed itself if it\nnever became hungry, so Mind also would not take in that which it\nneeds if it were not that certain Desires require to be satisfied.\nTherefore schoolmasters do not amiss in basing their practice upon\nthe Desires whose very function appears to be to bring nourishment\nto Mind. Where we teachers err is in stimulating the wrong Desires\nto accomplish our end. There is the desire of approbation which\neven an infant shows, he is not happy unless mother or nurse\napprove of him. Later this same desire helps him to conquer a sum,\nclimb a hill, bring home a good report from school, and all this\nis grist to the mill, knowledge to the mind; because the persons\nwhose approbation is worth having care that he should learn and\nknow, conquer idleness, and get habits of steady work, so that his\nmind may be as duly nourished every day as is his body. Alas for\nthe vanity that attends this desire of approbation, that makes the\nboy more solicitous for the grin of the stable-boy than for the\napproval of his master! Nay, this desire for approval may get such\npossession of him that he thinks of nothing else; he must have\napproval whether from the worthless or the virtuous. It is supposed\nthat outbreaks of violence, robbery, assassinations, occur at times\nfor the mere sake of infamy, just as deeds of heroism are done for\nthe sake of fame. Both infamy and fame mean being thought about\nand talked about by a large number of people; and we know how this\nnatural desire is worked by the daily press; how we get, now a film\nactress, now a burglar, a spy, a hero, or a scientist set before\nus to be our admiration and our praise.\n\nEmulation, the desire of excelling, works wonders in the hands of\nthe schoolmaster; and, indeed, this natural desire is an amazing\nspur to effort, both intellectual and moral. When in pursuit of\nvirtue two or a score are \u2018emulously rapid in the race,\u2019 a school\nacquires a \u2018good tone\u2019 and parents are justified in thinking\nit the right place for their boy. In the intellectual field,\nhowever, there is danger; and nothing worse could have happened\nto our schools than the system of marks, prizes, place-taking, by\nwhich many of them are practically governed. A boy is so taken up\nwith the desire to forge ahead that there is no time to think of\nanything else. What he learns is not interesting to him; he works\nto get his remove.\n\nBut emulation does not stand alone as Vicegerent in our schools;\nanother natural desire whose unvarnished name is avarice labours\nfor good government and so-called progress cheek by jowl with\nemulation. \u201cHe must get a scholarship,\u201d--is the duty of a small boy\neven before he goes to school, and indeed for good and sufficient\nreasons. Sometimes the sons of rich parents carry off these prizes\nbut as a rule they fall to those for whom they are intended, the\nsons of educated parents in rather straitened circumstances, sons\nof the clergy, for example. The scholarship system is no more\nthan a means of distributing the vast wealth left by benefactors\nin the past for this particular purpose. Every Grammar School has\nits own scholarships; the Universities have open scholarships and\nbursaries often of considerable value; and a free, or partially\nfree, education is open to the majority of the youth of the upper\nmiddle class on one condition, that of brains. It is small wonder\nthat every Grammar and Public School bases its curriculum upon\nthese conditions, knows exactly what standard of merit will secure\nthe \u2018Hastings,\u2019 knows the boys who have a chance, and orders their\nvery strenuous work towards the end in view. It is hard to say what\nbetter could be done and yet this deliberate cult of cupidity is\ndisastrous; for there is no doubt that here and there we come upon\nimpoverishment of personality due to enfeebled intellectual life;\nthe boy did not learn to delight in knowledge in his schooldays and\nthe man is shallow in mind and whimsical in judgment.\n\nIt is hopeless to make war from without on a system which affords\nvery effectual help in the education of boys who are likely later\nto become of service to the country; but Britain must make the\nmost of her sons and many of these men are capable of being more\nthan they are. It is from within the schools that help must come\nand the way is fairly obvious. Most schools give from eleven in\nthe lowest to eight hours in the highest Forms to \u2018English\u2019 that\nis, from twenty to sixteen consecutive readings a week might be\nafforded in a wide selection of books,--literature, history,\neconomics, etc.,--books read with the concentrated attention which\nmakes a single reading suffice. The act of narrating what has\nbeen read might well be useful to boys who should be prepared for\npublic speaking. By a slight alteration of this kind, in procedure\nrather than in curriculum or time-table, it is probable that our\nschools would turn out many more well-read, well-informed men and\nconvincing speakers than they do at present. Such a method, even\nif applied to \u2018English\u2019 only, would tend to correct any tendency\nin schools to become mere cramming places for examinations, would\ninfect boys with a love of knowledge and should divert the natural\ndesire for acquisition into a new channel, for few things are more\ndelightful than the acquisition of knowledge.\n\nWe need not delay over that desire of power, ambition, which plays\nits part in every life; but the educator must see that it plays\nno more than its part. Power is good in proportion as it gives\nopportunities for serving; but it is mischievous in boy or man\nwhen the pleasure of ruling, managing, becomes a definite spring\nof action. Like each of the other natural desires, that for power\nmay ruin a life that it is allowed to master; ambition is the cause\nof half the disasters under which mankind suffers. The ambitious\nboy or man would as soon lead his fellows in riot and disorder\nas in noble effort in a good cause; and who can say how far the\nlabour unrest under which we suffer is inspired and inflamed\nby ambitious men who want to rule if only for the immediate\nintoxication of rousing and leading men? It is a fine thing to say\nof a multitude of men,--\u201cI can wind them round my little finger\u201d;\nand the much-burdened Head of a school must needs beware! If the\nable, ambitious fellow be allowed to manage the rest, he cheats\nthem out of their fair share of managing their own lives; no boy\nshould be allowed to wax feeble to make another great; the harm to\nthe ambitious boy himself must be considered too, lest he become an\nignoble, man\u0153uvring person. It is within a teacher\u2019s scope to offer\nwholesome ambitions to a boy, to make him keen to master knowledge\nrather than manage men; and here he has a wide field without\nencroaching on another\u2019s preserve.\n\nAnother desire which may well be made to play into the\nschoolmaster\u2019s hands is that of society, a desire which has much\nto do with the making of the naughty boys, idle youths and silly\nwomen of our acquaintance. It is sheer delight to mix with our\nfellows, but much depends on whom we take for our fellows and why;\nand here young people may be helped by finger-posts. If they are so\ntaught that knowledge delights them, they will choose companions\nwho share that pleasure. In this way princes are trained; they\nmust know something of botany to talk with botanists, of history\nto meet with historians; they cannot afford to be in the company\nof scientists, adventurers, poets, painters, philanthropists or\neconomists, and themselves be able to do no more than \u2018change the\nweather and pass the time of day\u2019; they must know modern languages\nto be at home with men of other countries, and ancient tongues to\nbe familiar with classical allusions. Such considerations rule the\neducation of princes, and every boy has a princely right to be\nbrought up so that he may hold his own in good society, that is,\nthe society of those who \u2018know.\u2019\n\nWe hear complaints of the cast-iron system of British society; but\nhow much of it is due to the ignorance which makes it only possible\nto men and women to talk to those of their own clique, soldiers\nwith soldiers, schoolmasters and schoolboys with their kind? The\nboy who wants to be able to talk to people who \u2018know\u2019 has no\nunworthy motive for working.\n\nWe have considered the several desires whose function is to\nstimulate the mind and save us from that _vis inerti\u00e6_ which is our\nbesetting danger. Each such desire has its place but the results\nare disastrous if any one should dominate. It so happens that\nthe last desire we have to consider, the desire of knowledge, is\ncommonly deprived of its proper function in our schools by the\npredominance of other springs of action, especially of emulation,\nthe desire of place, and avarice, the desire of wealth, tangible\nprofit. This divine curiosity is recognised in ordinary life\nchiefly as a desire to know trivial things. What did it cost? What\ndid she say? Who was with him? Where are they going? How many\npostage stamps in a line would go round the world? And curiosity\nis satisfied by incoherent, scrappy information which serves no\npurpose, assuredly not the purpose of knowledge whose function is\nto nourish the mind as food nourishes the body. But so besotted is\nour educational thought that we believe children regard knowledge\nrather as repulsive medicine than as inviting food. Hence our\ndependence on marks and prizes, athletics, alluring presentation,\nany jam we can devise to disguise the powder. The man who wilfully\ngoes on crutches has feeble incompetent legs; he who chooses to\ngo blindfold has eyes that cannot bear the sun; he who lives on\npap-meat has weak digestive powers, and he whose mind is sustained\nby the crutches of emulation and avarice loses that one stimulating\npower which is sufficient for his intellectual needs. This atrophy\nof the desire of knowledge is the penalty our scholars pay because\nwe have chosen to make them work for inferior ends. Our young men\nand maidens do not read unless with the stimulus of a forthcoming\nexamination. They are good-natured and pleasant but have no wide\nrange of thought, lofty purpose, little of the magnanimity which is\nproper for a citizen. Great thoughts and great actions are strange\nto them, though the possibility is still there and they may yet\nshew in peace such action as we have seen and wondered at during\nthe War. But we cannot always educate by means of a great war;\nthe penalties are too heavy for human nature to endure for long.\nTherefore the _stimuli_ to greatness, magnanimity, which the war\nafforded we must produce in the ordinary course of education.\n\nBut knowledge is delectable. We have all the \u2018satiable curiosity\u2019\nof Mr. Kipling\u2019s Elephant even when we content ourselves with\nthe broken meats flung by the daily press. Knowledge is to us as\nour mother\u2019s milk, we grow thereby and in the act of sucking are\nadmirably content.\n\nThe work of education is greatly simplified when we realize\nthat children, apparently all children, want to know all human\nknowledge; they have an appetite for what is put before them, and,\nknowing this, our teaching becomes buoyant with the courage of\nour convictions. We know how Richelieu shut up colleges throughout\nFrance, both Jesuit and secular, \u201cin order to prevent the mania\nof the poor for educating their children which distracts them\nfrom the pursuits of trade and war.\u201d This mania exists with us,\nnot only in the parents but in the children, the mania of hungry\nsouls clamouring for meat, and we choke them off, not by shutting\nup schools and colleges, but by offering matter which no living\nsoul can digest. The complaints made by teachers and children of\nthe monotony of the work in our schools is full of pathos and all\ncredit to those teachers who cheer the weary path by entertaining\ndevices. But mind does not live and grow upon entertainment; it\nrequires its solid meals.\n\nThe Gloucestershire teachers, under Mr. Household\u2019s direction,\nhave entered so fully into the principles implied in the method,\nthat I am tempted to illustrate largely from their experience.[17]\nBut they by no means stand alone. Hundreds of other teachers have\nthe same experiences and describe them as opportunity offers. The\nfinding of this power which is described as \u2018sensing a passage,\u2019\nis as the striking of a vein of gold in that fabulously rich\ncountry, human nature. Our \u2018find\u2019 is that children have a natural\naptitude for literary expression which they enjoy in hearing or\nreading and employ in telling or writing. We might have guessed\nthis long ago. All those speeches and sayings of untamed warriors\nand savage potentates which the historians have preserved for us,\ncritics have declined as showing too much cultivated rhetoric to\nhave been possible for any but highly educated persons. But the\ntime is coming when we shall perceive that only minds like those of\nchildren are capable of producing thoughts so fresh and so finely\nexpressed. This natural aptitude for literature, or, shall we say,\nrhetoric, which overcomes the disabilities of a poor vocabulary\nwithout effort, should direct the manner of instruction we give,\nruling out the talky-talky of the oral lesson and the lecture;\nruling out, equally, compilations and text-books; and placing\nbooks in the hands of children and only those which are more or\nless literary in character that is, which have the terseness and\nvividness proper to literary work. The natural desire for knowledge\ndoes the rest and the children feed and grow.\n\nIt must be borne in mind that in proportion as other desires\nare stimulated that of knowledge is suppressed. The teacher who\nproposes marks and places as worthy aims will get work certainly\nbut he will get no healthy love of knowledge for its own sake and\nno provision against the _ennui_ of later days. The monotony I\nhave spoken of attends all work prompted by the _stimuli_ of marks\nand places; such work becomes mechanical, and there is hardly\nenough of it prepared to last through the course of a boy\u2019s school\nlife. The master of a Preparatory School remarks,--\u201cIt must be a\nwell-known fact (I am not speaking of the exceptional but of the\naverage boy) that new boys are placed too low. We find--it is a\ncommon experience--that if we send up a boy whether he be a good\nmathematician, a good classic, a good English scholar or a good\nlinguist, a couple of years will pass by before he is doing at the\nPublic School the work he was doing when he left us.\u201d The Public\nSchoolmaster makes the same sort of complaint; he says, that \u201cAt\ntwenty the boy is climbing the same pear-tree that he climbed at\ntwelve,\u201d that is to say, work which is done in view of examinations\nmust be of the rather narrow mechanical kind upon which it is\npossible to set questions and mark answers with absolute fairness.\nNow, definite progress, continual advance from day to day with no\ntreading of old ground, is a condition of education.\n\nThere is an uneasy dread in some minds lest a liberal education\nfor all, the possibility which is now before us, should cause a\nsocial _bouleversement_, such an upheaval as obtained in the French\nRevolution. But this fear arises from an erroneous conception. The\ndoctrine of equal opportunities for all is no doubt dangerous. It\nis the intellectual rendering of the \u2018survival of the fittest\u2019 and\nwe have had a terrible object lesson as to how that doctrine works.\nThe uneasy, ambitious spirit comes to the front, gets all the\nchances, dominates his fellows, and thinks no upheaval too great a\nprice for the advancement of himself and his notions. Men of this\ntype come to the top through the avenue of examinations. Ambition\nand possibly greed are seconded by dogged perseverance. As was said\nof Louis XIV, such men elevate their practice into a theory and\narrogate to their habits the character of principles of government.\nAnd these pseudo-principles inflame the populace because they\npromise place and power to every man in the state, with no sense of\nthe proportion he bears to the rest. Probably the \u2018labour unrest\u2019\nof to-day is not without connexion with the habit of working in\nour schools for prizes and places. The boy who works to be first\nand to get something out of it does not always become the quiet,\nwell-ordered citizen who helps to cement society and carries on the\nwork of the State.\n\nKnowledge pursued for its own sake is sedative in so far as it\nis satisfying; and the splendid consciousness that every boy in\nyour Form has your own delight in knowing, your own pleasure in\nexpressing that which he knows, shares your intimacy with this and\nthe other sage and hero, makes for good fellowship and magnanimity\nand should deliver the citizen from a restless desire to come to\nthe front. It is possible that a conscientious and intelligent\nteacher may be a little overwhelmed when he considers all that goes\nto a man, all that goes to each of the boys under his care. It is\ntrue that,--\n\n \u201cThere lives\n No faculty within us which the Soul\n Can spare: and humblest earthly weal demands\n For dignity not placed beyond her reach\n Zealous co-operation of all means\n Given or required to raise us from the mire\n And liberate our hearts from low pursuits\n By gross utilities enslaved; we need\n More of ennobling impulse from the past\n If for the future aught of good must come.\u201d\n\nWordsworth is no doubt right. There is no faculty within the soul\nwhich can be spared in the great work of education; but then every\nfaculty, or rather power, works to the one end if we make the\npursuit of knowledge for its own sake the object of our educational\nefforts. We find children ready and eager for this labour and their\naccomplishment is surprising.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHREE INSTRUMENTS OF EDUCATION\n\n\nI.--EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE\n\n _Seeing that we are limited by the respect due to the personality\n of children we can allow ourselves but three educational\n instruments--the atmosphere of environment, the discipline\n of habit and the presentation of living ideas. Our motto\n is,--\u2018Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.\u2019 When we\n say that education is an atmosphere we do not mean that a child\n should be isolated in what may be called a \u2018child environment\u2019\n specially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into\n account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere both\n as regards persons and things and should let him live freely\n among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down\n his world to the \u2018child\u2019s\u2019 level._\n\nHaving cut out the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or\ninfluence, undue play upon any one natural desire, emulation, for\nexample, we are no longer free to use all means in the education\nof children. There are but three left for our use and to each of\nthese we must give careful study or we shall not realise how great\na scope is left to us. To consider the first of these educational\ninstruments; for a decade or two we have pinned our faith on\nenvironment as a great part of education; as, say, nine-tenths\nrather than a third part of the whole. The theory has been,--put\na child in the right environment and so subtle is its influence,\nso permanent its effects that he is to all intents and purposes\neducated thereby. Schools may add Latin and sums and whatever\nelse their curriculum contains, but the actual education is, as\nit were, performed upon a child by means of colour schemes,\nharmonious sounds, beautiful forms, gracious persons. He grows up\n\u00e6sthetically educated into sweet reasonableness and harmony with\nhis surroundings.\n\n \u201cPeter\u2019s nursery was a perfect dream in which to hatch the soul\n of a little boy. Its walls were done in warm, cream-coloured\n paint and upon them Peter\u2019s father had put the most lovely\n patterns of trotting and jumping horses and dancing cats and dogs\n and leaping lambs, a carnival of beasts ... there was a big brass\n fire-guard in Peter\u2019s nursery ... and all the tables had smoothly\n rounded corners against the days when Peter would run about. The\n floor was of cork carpet on which Peter would put his toys and\n there was a crimson hearthrug on which Peter was destined to\n crawl ... there were scales in Peter\u2019s nursery to weigh Peter\n every week and tables to show how much he ought to weigh and when\n one should begin to feel anxious. There was nothing casual about\n the early years of Peter.\u201d\n\nSo, Mr. Wells, in that inconclusive educational treatise of his,\n_Joan and Peter_. It is an accurate picture of the preparation\nfor \u2018high-souled\u2019 little persons all over the world. Parents make\ntremendous sacrifices to that goddess who presides over Education.\nWe hear of a pair investing more than their capital in a statue\nto adorn the staircase in order that \u2018Tommy\u2019 should make his\nsoul by the contemplation of beauty. This sort of thing has been\ngoing on since the \u2018eighties at any rate and, as usual, Germany\nerected a high altar for the cult which she passed on to the rest\nof us. Perhaps it is safe to say that the young Intelligenzia\nof Europe have been reared after this manner. And is the result\nthat Neo-Georgian youth _Punch_ presents to us with his air\nof weariness, condescension and self-complacency? Let us hear\nProfessor Sir Jagadis Chandra Bose, the Indian scientist, on one of\nhis conclusions concerning the nervous impulse in plants,--\n\n \u201cA plant carefully protected under glass from outside shocks\n looks sleek and flourishing but its higher nervous function is\n then found to be atrophied. But when a succession of blows\u201d\n (electric shocks) \u201cis rained on this effete and bloated specimen,\n the shocks themselves create nervous channels and arouse anew the\n deteriorated nature. Is it not the shocks of adversity and not\n cotton wool protection that evolve true manhood?\u201d\n\nWe had thought that the terrible succession of blows inflicted\nby the War had changed all that; but, no; the errors of\neducation still hold sway and we still have amongst us the\nbetter-than-my-neighbour folk, whose function, let us hope, is to\nadminister the benefits of adversity to most of us. What if parents\nand teachers in their zeal misread the schedule of their duties,\nmagnified their office unduly and encroached upon the personality\nof children? It is not an environment that these want, a set of\nartificial relations carefully constructed, but an _atmosphere_\nwhich nobody has been at pains to constitute. It is there, about\nthe child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of\nthe earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons\nand things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated,\nkept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense. We all\nknow the natural conditions under which a child should live; how\nhe shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father,\nis teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught\nby his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby\u2019s needs, the\ndelightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with\nsofa and table; learns veneration for the old by the visits of his\ngreat-grandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he\ngathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and\ncat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater\ndelight in the blackberry hedges. And, what tempered \u2018fusion of\nclasses\u2019 is so effective as a child\u2019s intimacy with his betters,\nand also with cook and housemaid, blacksmith and joiner, with\neverybody who comes in his way? Children have a genius for this\nsort of general intimacy, a valuable part of their education; care\nand guidance are needed, of course, lest admiring friends should\nmake fools of them, but no compounded \u2018environment\u2019 could make up\nfor this fresh air, this wholesome wind blowing now from one point,\nnow from another.\n\nWe certainly may use atmosphere as an instrument of education, but\nthere are prohibitions, for ourselves rather than for children.\nPerhaps the chief of these is, that no artificial element be\nintroduced, no sprinkling with rose-water, softening with cushions.\nChildren must face life as it is; if their parents are anxious and\nperturbed children feel it in the air. \u201cMummie, Mummie, you aren\u2019t\ngoing to cry this time, are you?\u201d and a child\u2019s hug tries to take\naway the trouble. By these things children live and we may not\nkeep them in glass cases; if we do, they develop in succulence and\nsoftness and will not become plants of renown. But due relations\nmust be maintained; the parents are in authority, the children in\nobedience; and again, the strong may not lay their burdens on the\nweak; nor must we expect from children that effort of decision, the\nmost fatiguing in our lives, of which the young should generally be\nrelieved.\n\nSchool, perhaps, offers fewer opportunities for vitiating the\natmosphere than does home life. But teaching may be so watered\ndown and sweetened, teachers may be so suave and condescending,\nas to bring about a condition of intellectual feebleness and\nmoral softness which it is not easy for a child to overcome. The\nbracing atmosphere of truth and sincerity should be perceived in\nevery school; and here again the common pursuit of knowledge by\nteacher and class comes to our aid and creates a current of fresh\nair perceptible even to the chance visitor, who sees the glow of\nintellectual life and moral health on the faces of teachers and\nchildren alike.\n\nBut a school may be working hard, not for love of knowledge, but\nfor love of marks, our old enemy; and then young faces are not\nserene and joyous but eager, restless, apt to look anxious and\nworried. The children do not sleep well and are cross; are sullen\nor in tears if anything goes wrong, and are, generally, difficult\nto manage. When this is the case there is too much oxygen in the\nair; they are breathing a too stimulating atmosphere, and the\nnervous strain to which they are subjected must needs be followed\nby reaction. Then teachers think that lessons have been too hard,\nthat children should be relieved of this and that study; the\ndoctors probably advise that so-and-so should \u2018run wild\u2019 for a\nyear. Poor little soul, at the very moment when he is most in need\nof knowledge for his sustenance he is left to prey upon himself!\nNo wonder the nervous symptoms become worse, and the boy or girl\nsuffers under the stigma of \u2018nervous strain.\u2019 The fault has been in\nthe atmosphere and not in the work; the teacher, perhaps, is over\nanxious that her children should do well and her nervous excitation\nis catching. \u201cI am afraid X---- cannot do his examination; he loves\nhis work but he bursts into tears when he is asked an examination\nquestion. Perhaps it is that I have insisted too much that he\nmust never be satisfied with anything but his best.\u201d Poor little\nchap (of seven) pricked into over exertion by the spur of moral\nstimulus! We foresee happy days for children when all teachers know\nthat no other exciting motive whatever is necessary to produce\ngood work in each individual of however big a class than that love\nof knowledge which is natural to every child. The serenity and\nsweetness of schools conducted on this principle is surprising to\nthe outsider who has not reflected upon the contentment of a baby\nwith his bottle!\n\nThere are two courses open to us in this matter. One, to create by\nall manner of modified conditions a hot-house atmosphere, fragrant\nbut emasculating, in which children grow apace but are feeble\nand dependent; the other to leave them open to all the \u201cairts\nthat blow,\u201d but with care lest they be unduly battered; lest,\nfor example, a miasma come their way in the shape of a vicious\ncompanion.\n\n\n2.--EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE\n\n _By this formula we mean the discipline of habits formed\n definitely and thoughtfully whether habits of mind or of body.\n Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to\n habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits._\n\nEducation is not after all to either teacher or child the fine\ncareless rapture we appear to have figured it. We who teach and\nthey who learn are alike constrained; there is always effort to\nbe made in certain directions; yet we face our tasks from a new\npoint of view. We need not labour to get children to learn their\nlessons; that, if we would believe it, is a matter which nature\ntakes care of. Let the lessons be of the right sort and children\nwill learn them with delight. The call for strenuousness comes with\nthe necessity of forming habits; but here again we are relieved.\nThe intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the\nfollowing out of the due curriculum in the right way. As we have\nalready urged, there is but one right way, that is, children\nmust do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages\nand tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what\nwe may call the _act of knowing_. We are all aware, alas, what a\nmonstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of\nour memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural\nand spontaneous \u2018act of knowing,\u2019 as easy to a child as breathing\nand, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves. The\nreward is two-fold: no intellectual habit is so valuable as that\nof attention; it is a mere habit but it is also the hall-mark\nof an educated person. Use is second nature, we are told; it is\nnot too much to say that \u2018habit is ten natures,\u2019 and we can all\nimagine how our work would be eased if our subordinates listened to\ninstructions with the full attention which implies recollection.\nAttention is not the only habit that follows due self-education.\nThe habits of fitting and ready expression, of obedience,\nof good-will, and of an impersonal outlook are spontaneous\nbye-products of education in this sort. So, too, are the habits of\nright thinking and right judging; while physical habits of neatness\nand order attend upon the self-respect which follows an education\nwhich respects the personality of children.\n\nPhysiologists tell us that thoughts which have become habitual\nmake somehow a mark upon the brain substance, but we are bold in\ncalling it a mark for there is no discernible effect to be quoted.\nWhether or no the mind be served by the brain in this matter, we\nare empirically certain that a chief function of education is the\nestablishment of such ways of thinking in children as shall issue\nin good and useful living, clear thinking, \u00e6sthetic enjoyment, and,\nabove all, in the religious life. How it is possible that spirit\nshould act upon matter is a mystery to us, but that such act takes\nplace we perceive every time we note a scowling brow, or, on the\nother hand,--\n\n \u201cA sweet attractive kind of grace,\n A full assurance given by looks;\n Continual comfort in a face,\n The lineaments of gospel books.\u201d\n\nWe all know how the physical effort of smiling affects ourselves in\nour sour moods,--\n\n \u201cNor soul helps flesh more now, than flesh helps soul.\u201d\n\nBoth are at our service in laying down the rails, so to speak, upon\nwhich the good life must needs run.\n\nIn the past we have, no doubt, gone through an age of infant\nslavery, an age of good habits enforced by vigorous penalties,\nconscientiously by the over scrupulous eighteenth century parent,\nand infamously by the schoolmasters, the \u2018Creakles\u2019 and the\n\u2018Squeers\u2019 who laboured only for their own ease and profit. Now,\nthe pendulum swings the other way. We have lost sight of the fact\nthat habit is to life what rails are to transport cars. It follows\nthat lines of habit must be laid down towards given ends and\nafter careful survey, or the joltings and delays of life become\ninsupportable. More, habit is inevitable. If we fail to ease life\nby laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of\nwrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord.\nWe avoid decision and indecision brings its own delays, \u201cand days\nare lost lamenting o\u2019er lost days.\u201d Almost every child is brought\nup by his parents in certain habits of decency and order without\nwhich he would be a social outcast. Think from another point of\nview how the labour of life would be increased if every act of the\nbath, toilet, table, every lifting of the fork and use of spoon\nwere a matter of consideration and required an effort of decision!\nNo; habit is like fire, a bad master but an indispensable servant;\nand probably one reason for the nervous scrupulosity, hesitation,\nindecision of our day, is that life was not duly eased for us in\nthe first place by those whose business it was to lay down lines of\nhabit upon which our behaviour might run easily.\n\nIt is unnecessary to enumerate those habits which we should aim at\nforming, for everyone knows more about these than anyone practises.\nWe admire the easy carriage of the soldier but shrink from the\ndiscipline which is able to produce it. We admire the lady who can\nsit upright through a long dinner, who in her old age prefers a\nstraight chair because she has arrived at due muscular balance and\nhas done so by a course of discipline. There is no other way of\nforming any good habit, though the discipline is usually that of\nthe internal government which the person exercises upon himself;\nbut a certain strenuousness in the formation of good habits is\nnecessary because every such habit is the result of conflict. The\nbad habit of the easy life is always pleasant and persuasive and\nto be resisted with pain and effort, but with hope and certainty\nof success, because in our very structure is the preparation for\nforming such habits of muscle and mind as we deliberately propose\nto ourselves. We entertain the idea which gives birth to the act\nand the act repeated again and again becomes the habit; \u2018Sow an\nact,\u2019 we are told, \u2018reap a habit.\u2019 \u2018Sow a habit, reap a character.\u2019\nBut we must go a step further back, we must sow the idea or notion\nwhich makes the act worth while. The lazy boy who hears of the\nGreat Duke\u2019s narrow camp bed, preferred by him because when he\nwanted to turn over it was time to get up, receives the idea of\nprompt rising. But his nurse or his mother knows how often and\nhow ingeniously the tale must be brought to his mind before the\nhabit of prompt rising is formed; she knows too how the idea of\nself-conquest must be made at home in the boy\u2019s mind until it\nbecome a chivalric impulse which he cannot resist. It is possible\nto sow a great idea lightly and casually and perhaps this sort\nof sowing should be rare and casual because if a child detect a\ndefinite purpose in his mentor he is apt to stiffen himself against\nit. When parent or teacher supposes that a good habit is a matter\nof obedience to his authority, he relaxes a little. A boy is late\nwho has been making evident efforts to be punctual; the teacher\ngood-naturedly foregoes rebuke or penalty, and the boy says to\nhimself,--\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d and begins to form the unpunctual\nhabit. The mistake the teacher makes is to suppose that to be\npunctual is troublesome to the boy, so he will let him off; whereas\nthe office of the habits of an ordered life is to make such life\neasy and spontaneous; the effort is confined to the first half\ndozen or score of occasions for doing the thing.\n\nConsider how laborious life would be were its wheels not greased by\nhabits of cleanliness, neatness, order, courtesy; had we to make\nthe effort of decision about every detail of dressing and eating,\ncoming and going, life would not be worth living. Every cottage\nmother knows that she must train her child in habits of decency,\nand a whole code of habits of propriety get themselves formed\njust because a breach in any such habit causes a shock to others\nwhich few children have courage to face. Physical fitness, morals\nand manners, are very largely the outcome of habit; and not only\nso, but the habits of the religious life also become fixed and\ndelightful and give us due support in the effort to live a godly,\nrighteous and sober life. We need not be deterred by the fear that\nreligious habits in a child are mechanical, uninformed by the ideas\nwhich should give them value. Let us hear what the young De Quincey\nfelt about going to church:--\n\n \u201cOn Sunday mornings I went with the rest of my family to church:\n it was a church on the ancient model of England having aisles,\n galleries, organ, all things ancient and venerable, and the\n proportions were majestic. Here, whilst the congregation knelt\n through the long litany, as often as we came to that passage so\n beautiful amongst many that are so where God is supplicated on\n behalf of \u2018all sick persons and young children\u2019 and \u2018that He\n would show His pity upon all prisoners and captives,\u2019 I wept in\n secret, and raising my streaming eyes to the upper windows saw,\n on days when the sun was shining, a spectacle as affecting as\n ever prophet can have beheld ... _there_ were the Apostles that\n had trampled upon earth and the glories upon earth, _there_ were\n the martyrs who had borne witness to the truth through flames\n ... and all the time I saw through the wide central field of the\n window where the glass was uncoloured white fleecy clouds sailing\n over the azure depths of the sky.\u201d\n\nAnd then the little boy had visions of sick children upon whom God\nwould have pity.--\n\n \u201cThese visions were self-sustained, the hint from the Litany,\n the fragment from the clouds, those and the storied windows\n were sufficient.... God speaks to children also in dreams and by\n the oracles that lurk in darkness; but in solitude, above all\n things when made vocal to the meditative heart by the truths and\n services of a national church, God holds with children \u2018communion\n undisturbed.\u2019\u201d\n\nWith such a testimony before us, supported by gleams of\nrecollection on our own part, we may take courage to believe that\nwhat we rightly call Divine Service is particularly appropriate\nto children; and will become more so as the habit of reading\nbeautifully written books quickens their sense of style and their\nunconscious appreciation of the surpassingly beautiful diction of\nour liturgy.\n\nWe have seen the value of habit in mind and morals, religion\nand physical development. It is as we have seen disastrous when\nchild or man learns to think in a groove, and shivers like an\nunaccustomed bather on the steps of a new notion. This danger is\nperhaps averted by giving children as their daily diet the wise\nthoughts of great minds, and of many great minds; so that they may\ngradually and unconsciously get the courage of their opinions.\nIf we fail in this duty, so soon as the young people get their\n\u2018liberty\u2019 they will run after the first fad that presents itself;\ntry it for a while and then take up another to be discarded in its\nturn, and remain uncertain and ill-guided for the rest of their\ndays.\n\n\n3.--EDUCATION IS A LIFE\n\nWe have left until the last that instrument of education implied in\nthe phrase \u2018Education is a life\u2019; \u2018implied\u2019 because life is no more\nself-existing than it is self-supporting; it requires sustenance,\nregular, ordered and fitting. This is fully recognised as regards\nbodily life and, possibly, the great discovery of the twentieth\ncentury will be that mind too requires its ordered rations and\nperishes when these fail. We know that food is to the body what\nfuel is to the steam-engine, the sole source of energy; once we\nrealise that the mind too works only as it is fed education will\nappear to us in a new light. The body pines and develops humours\nupon tabloids and other food substitutes; and a glance at a \u2018gate\u2019\ncrowd watching a football match makes us wonder what sort of\nmind-food those men and boys are sustained on, whether they are\nnot suffering from depletion, inanition, notwithstanding big and\nburly bodies. For the mind is capable of dealing with only one kind\nof food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere\ninformation is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no\norgans for the assimilation of the one more than of the other.\n\nWhat is an idea? we ask, and find ourselves plunged beyond our\ndepth. A live thing of the mind, seems to be the conclusion of our\ngreatest thinkers from Plato to Bacon, from Bacon to Coleridge. We\nall know how an idea \u2018_strikes_,\u2019 \u2018_seizes_,\u2019 \u2018_catches hold of_,\u2019\n\u2018_impresses_\u2019 us and at last, if it be big enough, \u2018_possesses_\u2019\nus; in a word, behaves like an entity.\n\nIf we enquire into any person\u2019s habits of life, mental\npreoccupation, devotion to a cause or pursuit, he will usually\ntell us that such and such _an idea struck him_. This potency of\nan idea is matter of common recognition. No phrase is more common\nand more promising than, \u2018I have an idea\u2019; we rise to such an\nopening as trout to a well-chosen fly. There is but one sphere\nin which the word idea never occurs, in which the conception of\nan idea is curiously absent, and that sphere is education! Look\nat any publisher\u2019s list of school books and you shall find that\nthe books recommended are carefully dessicated, drained of the\nleast suspicion of an idea, reduced to the driest statements of\nfact. Here perhaps the Public Schools have a little pull over the\nrest of us; the diet they afford may be meagre, meagre almost to\nstarvation point for the average boy, but it is not destitute\nof ideas; for, however sparsely, boys are nourished on the best\nthoughts of the best minds.\n\nColeridge has done more than other thinkers to bring the conception\nof an idea within the sphere of the scientific thought of to-day;\nnot as that thought is expressed in _psychology_, a term which he\nhimself launched upon the world with an apology for it as _insolens\nverbum_ (\u201cwe beg pardon for the use of this _insolens verbum_ but\nit is one of which our language stands in great need.\u201d _Method_, S.\nT. Coleridge) but as shewing the reaction of mind to an idea. This\nis how in his _Method_ Coleridge illustrates the rise and progress\nof such an idea:--\n\n \u201cWe can recall no incident of human history that impresses the\n imagination more deeply than the moment when Columbus on an\n unknown ocean first perceived that baffling fact, the change of\n the magnetic needle. How many instances occur in history when\n the ideas of nature (presented to chosen minds by a Higher Power\n than Nature herself) suddenly unfold as it were in prophetic\n succession systematic views destined to produce the most\n important revolutions in the state of man! The clear spirit of\n Columbus was doubtless eminently methodical. He saw distinctly\n that great leading idea which authorised the poor pilot to become\n a \u2018promiser of kingdoms.\u2019\u201d\n\nHere we get such a genesis of an idea as fits in curiously with\nwhat we know of the history of great inventions and discoveries\n\u201cpresented to chosen minds by a higher Power than Nature herself.\u201d\nIt corresponds too, not only with the ideas that rule our own\nlives, but with the origin of practical ideas which is unfolded to\nus by the prophet Isaiah:--\n\n \u201cDoth the ploughman plough continually to ... open and break the\n clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof,\n doth he not cast abroad the fitches and scatter the cummin and\n put the wheat in rows ... for his God doth instruct him aright\n and doth teach him.... Bread corn is ground for he will not ever\n be threshing it.... This also cometh from the Lord of Hosts\n which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.\u201d[18]\n\nLet us hear Coleridge further on the subject of those ideas which\nmay invest us as an atmosphere rather than strike as a weapon:--\n\n \u201cThe idea may exist in a clear and definite form as that of a\n circle in that of the mind of a geometrician or it may be a\n mere instinct, a vague appetency towards something ... like the\n impulse which fills a young poet\u2019s eyes with tears.\u201d\n\nThese indefinite ideas which express themselves in an \u2018appetency\u2019\ntowards something and which should draw a child towards things\nhonest, lovely and of good report, are not to be offered of set\npurpose or at set times: they are held in that thought-atmosphere\nwhich surrounds him, breathed as his breath of life.\n\nIt is distressing to think that our poor words and ways should be\nthus _inspired_ by children; but to recognise the fact will make us\ncareful not to admit sordid or unworthy thoughts and motives into\nour dealings with them.\n\nColeridge treats in more detail those definite ideas which are not\ninhaled as air but are conveyed as meat to the mind:--\n\n \u201cFrom the first or initiative idea, as from a seed, successive\n ideas germinate.\u201d \u201cEvents and images, the lively and\n spirit-stirring machinery of the external world, are like light\n and air and moisture to the seed of the mind which would else\n rot and perish.\u201d \u201cThe paths in which we may pursue a methodical\n course are manifold and at the head of each stands its peculiar\n and guiding idea. Those ideas are as regularly subordinate\n in dignity as the paths to which they point are various and\n eccentric in direction. The world has suffered much in modern\n times from a subversive and necessary natural order of science\n ... from summoning reason and faith to the bar of that limited\n physical experience to which by the true laws of method they owe\n no obedience. Progress follows the path of the idea from which\n it sets out requiring however a constant wakefulness of mind to\n keep it within the due limits of its course. Hence the orbits of\n thought, so to speak, must differ from among themselves as the\n initiative ideas differ.\u201d (_Method_, S. T. C.).\n\nIs it not a fact that the new light which biology is throwing upon\nthe laws of mind is bringing us back to the Platonic doctrine that\n\u201cAn idea is a distinguishable power, self-affirmed and seen in\nunity with the Eternal Essence\u201d?\n\nI have ventured to repeat from an earlier volume[19] this\nslight exposition of Coleridge\u2019s teaching, because his doctrine\ncorresponds with common experience and should reverse our ordinary\neducational practice. The whole subject is profound, but as\npractical as it is profound. We must disabuse our minds of the\ntheory that the functions of education are in the main gymnastic,\na continual drawing out without a corresponding act of putting in.\nThe modern emphasis upon \u2018self-expression\u2019 has given new currency\nto this idea; we who know how little there is in us that we have\nnot received, that the most we can do is to give an original twist,\na new application, to an idea that has been passed on to us; who\nrecognise, humbly enough, that we are but torch-bearers, passing on\nour light to the next as we have received it from the last, even\nwe invite children to \u2018express themselves\u2019 about a tank, a Norman\ncastle, the Man in the Moon, not recognising that the quaint things\nchildren say on unfamiliar subjects are no more than a patchwork of\nnotions picked up here and there. One is not sure that so-called\noriginal composition is wholesome for children, because their\nconsciences are alert and they are quite aware of their borrowings;\nit may be better that they should read on a theme before they write\nupon it, using then as much latitude as they like.\n\nIn the early days of a child\u2019s life it makes little apparent\ndifference whether we educate with a notion of filling a\nreceptacle, inscribing a tablet, moulding plastic matter, or\nnourishing a life, but as a child grows we shall perceive that only\nthose _ideas_ which have fed his life are taken into his being;\nall the rest is cast away or is, like sawdust in the system, an\nimpediment and an injury.\n\nEducation is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of\nspiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly\nas we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written\npage, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a\nchild\u2019s inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food.\nProbably he will reject nine-tenths of the ideas we offer, as he\nmakes use of only a small proportion of his bodily food, rejecting\nthe rest. He is an eclectic; he may choose this or that; our\nbusiness is to supply him with due abundance and variety and his\nto take what he needs. Urgency on our part annoys him. He resists\nforcible feeding and loathes predigested food. What suits him best\nis pabulum presented in the indirect literary form which Our Lord\nadopts in those wonderful parables whose quality is that they\ncannot be forgotten though, while every detail of the story is\nremembered, its application may pass and leave no trace. We, too,\nmust take this risk. We may offer children as their sustenance the\nLysander of Plutarch, an object lesson, we think, shewing what a\nstatesman or a citizen should avoid: but, who knows, the child\nmay take to Lysander and think his \u2018cute\u2019 ways estimable! Again,\nwe take the risk, as did our Lord in that puzzling parable of the\nUnjust Steward. One other caution; it seems to be necessary to\npresent ideas with a great deal of padding, as they reach us in a\nnovel or poem or history book written with literary power. A child\ncannot in mind or body live upon tabloids however scientifically\nprepared; out of a whole big book he may not get more than half\na dozen of those ideas upon which his spirit thrives; and they\ncome in unexpected places and unrecognised forms, so that no grown\nperson is capable of making such extracts from Scott or Dickens\nor Milton, as will certainly give him nourishment. It is a case\nof,--\u201cIn the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not\nthine hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this\nor that.\u201d\n\nOne of our presumptuous sins in this connection is that we\nventure to offer opinions to children (and to older persons)\ninstead of ideas. We believe that an opinion expresses thought\nand therefore embodies an idea. Even if it did so once the very\nact of crystallization into opinion destroys any vitality it may\nhave had; _pace_ Ruskin, a crystal is not a living body and does\nnot feed men. We think to feed children on the dogmas of a church,\nthe theorems of Euclid, mere abstracts of history, and we wonder\nthat their education does not seem to take hold of them. Let us\nhear M. Fouill\u00e9e[20] on this subject, for to him the _idea_ is all\nin all both in philosophy and education. But there is a function\nof education upon which M. Fouill\u00e9e hardly touches, that of the\nformation of habits, physical, intellectual, moral.\n\n \u201c\u2018Scientific truths,\u2019 said Descartes, \u2018are battles won.\u2019 Describe\n to the young the principal and most heroic of these battles; you\n will thus interest them in the results of science and you will\n develop in them a scientific spirit by means of the enthusiasm\n for the conquest of truth.... How interesting Arithmetic and\n Geometry might be if we gave a short history of their principal\n theorems, if the child were meant to be present at the labours\n of a Pythagoras, a Plato, a Euclid, or in modern times, of a\n Descartes, a Pascal, or a Leibnitz. Great theories instead of\n being lifeless and anonymous abstractions would become living\n human truths each with its own history like a statue by Michael\n Angelo or like a painting by Raphael.\u201d\n\nHere we have an application of Coleridge\u2019s \u2018captain-idea\u2019 of every\ntrain of thought; that is, not a naked generalisation, (neither\nchildren nor grown persons find aliment in these), but an idea\nclothed upon with fact, history and story, so that the mind\nmay perform the acts of selection and inception from a mass of\nillustrative details. Thus Dickens makes \u2018David Copperfield\u2019 tell\nus that,--\u201cI was a very observant child,\u201d and that \u201call children\nare very observant,\u201d not as a dry abstraction, but as an inference\nfrom a number of charming natural incidents.\n\nAll roads lead to Rome, and all I have said is meant to enforce the\nfact that much and varied humane reading, as well as human thought\nexpressed in the forms of art, is, not a luxury, a tit-bit, to be\ngiven to children now and then, but their very bread of life, which\nthey must have in abundant portions and at regular periods. This\nand more is implied in the phrase, \u201cThe mind feeds on ideas and\ntherefore children should have a generous curriculum.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nHOW WE MAKE USE OF MIND\n\n \u201c_We hold that the child\u2019s mind is no mere sac to hold ideas but\n is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a \u2018spiritual organism\u2019\n with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet with\n which it is prepared to deal and what it is able to digest and\n assimilate as the body does food-stuffs._\n\n \u201c_Such a doctrine as the Herbartian, that the mind is a\n receptacle, lays the stress of education, the preparation of food\n in enticing morsels, duly ordered, upon the teacher. Children\n taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching\n but little knowledge; the teacher\u2019s axiom being \u2018what a child\n learns matters less than how he learns it.\u2019_\u201d\n\n\nI cannot resist presenting the Herbartian Psychology in the dry\nlight of Scottish humour.[21]\n\n \u201cWe have failed to explain ideas by the mind, how about\n explaining the mind by ideas? You are not to suppose that this is\n exactly how Herbart puts it, Herbart is a philosopher, a German\n philosopher. It is true that he starts with the mind or, as he\n prefers to call it, a soul: but do not fear that the sport of\n the hunt is to be spoiled for that ... the \u2018given\u2019 soul is no\n more a real soul than it is a real crater of a volcano. It has\n absolutely no content: it is not even an idea trap. Ideas can\n slip in and out of it as they please, or, rather, as other ideas\n please but the soul has no power either to call, make, keep,\n or recall, an idea. The ideas arrange all these matters among\n themselves. The mind can make no objection.\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018The soul has no capacity nor faculty whatever either to\n receive or produce anything: it is therefore no _tabula rasa_\n in the sense that impressions, foreign to its nature, may be\n made on it. Also it is no substance in Leibnitz\u2019s sense, which\n includes original self-activity. It has originally neither ideas,\n nor feelings, nor desires. Further, within it lie no forms of\n intuition and thought, no laws of willing and acting, nor any\n sort of predisposition however remote towards these. The simple\n nature of the soul is totally unknown and for ever remains so.\n It is as little a subject for speculative as for empirical\n psychology.\u2019 (_Lehrbuch zur Psychologie_, by Herbart: Part III:\n pp. 152, 153.) Thus, a vigorous _vis inerti\u00e6_ is the only power\n of the mind. Still it is subject to the action of certain forces.\n Nothing but ideas (_Vorstellung_) can attack the soul so that the\n ideas really make up the mind.\u201d\n\nWe are familiar with the struggle of ideas on the threshold, with\nthe good luck of those that get in and especially of those that\nget in first and mount to high places; with the behaviour of\nideas, very much like that of persons who fall into groups in an\nanarchical state. This behaviour is described as the formation of\n\u2018apperception masses\u2019 and the mass that is sufficiently strong has\nit all its own way and dominates the mind. Our business is not to\nexamine the psychology of Herbart, a very serious and suggestive\ncontribution to our knowledge of educational principles, but\nrather to consider how it works out practically in education. But\nbefore we examine how Herbartian psychology bears this test of\nexperiment, let us consider what Professor William James has to say\nof psychology in general.\n\n \u201cWhen we talk of psychology as a natural science,\u201d he tells us,\n \u201cwe must not assume that that means a sort of psychology that\n stands at last on solid ground. It means just the reverse. It\n means a psychology particularly fragile and into which the waters\n of metaphysical criticism leak at every joint, a psychology all\n of whose elementary assumptions and data must be reconsidered\n in wider connections and translated into other terms. It is,\n in short, a phrase of diffidence and not of arrogance; and it\n is indeed strange to hear people talk triumphantly of the \u2018New\n Psychology\u2019 and write Histories of Psychology when into the\n real elements and forces which the word covers not the first\n glimpse of clear insight exists. A string of raw facts, a little\n gossip and wrangle about opinions, a little classification and\n generalisation on the mere descriptive level ... but not a single\n law ... not a single proposition from which any consequence can\n casually be deduced.\u201d\n\nBut Professor James went on and wrote his extraordinarily\ninteresting book on psychology, and we must do the same though our\nbasis is no more than the common experience of mankind so far as\none mind can express the experience common to us all.\n\nHerbart\u2019s psychology is extraordinarily gratifying and attractive\nto teachers who are, like other people, eager to magnify their\noffice; and here is a scheme which shows how every child is a new\ncreation as he comes forth from the hands of his teacher. The\nteacher learns how to do it; he has but to draw together a mass\nof those ideas which themselves will combine in the mind into\nwhich they effect an entrance, and, behold, the thing is done:\nthe teacher has done it; he has selected the ideas, shewn the\ncorrelation of each with the other and the work is complete! The\nideas establish themselves, the most potent rule and gather force,\nand if these be good, the man is made.\n\nHere, for example, is a single week\u2019s \u2018Correlation of Subjects\u2019\nworked out by a highly qualified teacher. \u201c_Arithmetic_ (_Decimal\nFractions_), _Mathematics_ (_Simple Equations_, _Parallelograms_),\n_Science_ (_Latent Heat_), _Housecraft_ (_Nerves_, _Thought_,\n_Habits_), _Geography_ (_Scotland_, _General Industries_); or,\nagain, for another week,--under the same headings,--_Metric\nproblems_, _Symbols_ (_four rules_), _Triangles_ (_sum angles_),\n_Machinery_, _Circulation_, _Sculpture of the British Isles_.\u201d\nThe ideas, no doubt, have an agility and ability which we do not\npossess and know how to jump at each other and form the desired\n\u2018apperception masses.\u2019\n\nA successful and able modern educationalist gives us a valuable\nintroduction to Herbartian Principles, and, by way of example, \u201c_A\nRobinson Crusoe Concentration Scheme_,\u201d a series of lessons given\nto children in Standard I in an Elementary School. First we have\nnine lessons in literature and language, the subjects being such\nas \u2018_Robinson climbs a hill and finds he is on an island_.\u2019 Then,\nten object lessons of which the first is,--_The Sea_, the second,\n_A Ship from Foreign Parts_, the sixth, _A Life-Boat_, the seventh,\n_Shell-Fish_, the tenth, _A Cave_. How these \u2018objects\u2019 are to be\nproduced one does not see. The third series are drawing lessons,\nprobably as many, a boat, a ship, an oar, an anchor and so on. Then\nfollows a series on manual training, still built upon \u2018Robinson\u2019;\nthe first, a model of the sea-shore; then, models of Robinson\u2019s\nisland, of Robinson\u2019s house and Robinson\u2019s pottery. The next course\nconsists of reading, an indefinite number of lessons,--\u2018passages\nfrom _The Child\u2019s Robinson Crusoe_ and from a general Reader on\nthe matters discussed in object lessons.\u2019 Then follows a series\nof writing lessons, \u201csimple composition on the subject of the\nlessons ... the children framed the sentences which the teacher\nwrote on the blackboard and the class copied afterwards.\u201d Here is\none composition,--\u201cRobinson spent his first night in a tree. In\nthe morning he was hungry but he saw nothing round him but grass\nand trees without fruit. On the sea-shore he found some shell-fish\nwhich he ate.\u201d Compare this with the voluminous output of children\nof six or seven working on the P.U.S. scheme upon any subject\nthat they know; with, indeed, the pages they will dictate after a\nsingle reading of a chapter of _Robinson Crusoe_, _not_ a \u2018child\u2019s\nedition.\u2019\n\nArithmetic follows with, no doubt, as many lessons, \u201cmany mental\nexamples and simple problems dealt with Robinson\u201d; the eighth and\nlast course was in singing and recitation,--\u2018I am monarch of all I\nsurvey,\u2019 etc. \u201cThe lessons lasted about forty-five minutes each....\nUnder ordinary conditions the story of \u2018Robinson Crusoe\u2019 would be\nthe leading feature in the work of a whole year ... in comparing\nthe English classes with the German classes I have seen studying\n\u2018Robinson Crusoe\u2019 I was convinced that the eagerness and interest\nwas as keen among the children here as in the German schools....\nOne easily sees what a wealth of material there is in the further\ndevelopment of the story.\u201d One does indeed! The whole thing must\nbe highly amusing to the teacher, as ingenious amplifications\nself-produced always are: that the children too were entertained,\none does not doubt. The teacher was probably at her best in getting\nby sheer force much out of little: she was, in fact, acting a part\nand the children were entertained as at a show, cinema or other;\nbut of one thing we may be sure, an utter distaste, a loathing,\non the part of the children ever after, not only for \u2018Robinson\nCrusoe\u2019 but for every one of the subjects lugged in to illustrate\nhis adventures. We read elsewhere of an apple affording a text for\na hundred lessons, including the making of a ladder, (in paper),\nto gather the apples; but, alas, the eating of the worn-out apple\nis not suggested! The author whom we quote for \u2018Robinson Crusoe\u2019\nand whom we refrain from naming because, as a Greek Chorus might\nsay, \u2018we cannot praise,\u2019 follows the \u2018Robinson\u2019 series with another\ninterminable series on the Armada.\n\nThe conscientious, ingenious and laborious teachers who produce\nthese \u2018concentration series\u2019 are little aware that each such lesson\nis an act of _l\u00e8se majest\u00e9_. The children who are capable of and\neager for a wide range of knowledge and literary expression are\nreduced to inanities; a life-long _ennui_ is set up; every approach\nto knowledge suggests avenues for boredom, and the children\u2019s\nminds sicken and perish long before their school-days come to\nan end. I have pursued this subject at some length because we,\ntoo, believe in ideas as the proper and only diet upon which\nchildren\u2019s minds grow. We are more in the dark about Mind than\nabout Mars! We can but judge by effects, and these appear to point\nto the conclusion that mind is a \u2018spiritual organism.\u2019 (I need\nnot apologise for speaking of that which has no substance as an\n\u2018organism,\u2019--no greater a contradiction in terms than Herbart\u2019s\n\u2018apperception masses.\u2019) By an analogy with Body we conclude that\nMind requires regular and sufficient sustenance; and that this\nsustenance is afforded by ideas we may gather from the insatiable\neagerness with which these are appropriated, and the evident growth\nand development manifested under such pabulum. That children like\nfeeble and tedious oral lessons, feeble and tedious story books,\ndoes not at all prove that these are wholesome food; they like\nlollipops but cannot live upon them; yet there is a serious attempt\nin certain schools to supply the intellectual, moral, and religious\nneeds of children by appropriate \u2018sweetmeats.\u2019\n\nAs I have said elsewhere, the ideas required for the sustenance of\nchildren are to be found mainly in books of literary quality; given\nthese the mind does for itself the sorting, arranging, selecting,\nrejecting, classifying, which Herbart leaves to the struggle of\nthe promiscuous ideas which manage to cross the threshold. Nor\nis this merely a nominal distinction; Herbart was a philosopher\nand therefore his thought embraced the universal. Probably few\nschools of the day are consciously following the theories of\nthis philosopher; but in most schools, in England and elsewhere,\nso far as any intelligent _rationale_ is followed it is that of\nHerbart. There are many reasons for this fact. A scheme which\nthrows the whole burden of education on the teacher, which exalts\nthe personality of the teacher as the chief agent in education,\nwhich affords ingenious, interesting, and more or less creative\nwork to a vast number of highly intelligent and devoted persons,\nwhose passionate hope is to leave the world a little better than\nthey found it by means of those children whom they have raised\nto a higher level, must needs make a wide and successful appeal.\nIt appeals equally to Education Committees and school managers.\nConsider the saving involved in the notion that teachers are\ncompendiums of all knowledge, that they have but, as it were,\nto turn on the tap and the necessary knowledge flows forth. All\nresponsibility is shifted, and the relief is very great. Not only\nso but lessons are delightful to watch and to hear; the success\nof jig-saw puzzles illustrates a tendency in human nature to\ndelight in the ingenious putting together of unlikely things, as,\nfor example, a lifebuoy and Robinson Crusoe. There is a series of\nsmall triumphs to be observed any day of the week, and these same\ntriumphs are brought about by dramatic display,--so ingenious,\npleasing, fascinating, are the ways in which the teacher chooses\nto arrive at her point. I say \u2018her\u2019 point because women excel in\nthis kind of teaching, but men do not come far short. What of the\nchildren themselves? They, too, are amused and entertained, they\nenjoy the puzzle-element and greatly enjoy the teacher who lays\nherself out to attract them. There is no flaw in the practical\nworking of the method while it is being carried out. Later, it\ngives rise to dismay and anxiety among thoughtful people.\n\nMuch water has run under the bridge since several years ago Mr. A.\nPaterson startled us out of self-complacency with his _Across the\nBridges_. We as a nation were well pleased at the time with the\nresult of our efforts; nothing could be more intelligent, alert,\nbrighter, than the seventh standard boy about to leave school\nand take up his life work. Conditions were unpropitious. We know\nthe old story of inviting blind alleys, present success and then\nunemployment, with resulting depreciation in character. What is to\nbe done? The question of after conditions is now being taken up\nseriously. We have Continuation Classes which even if a boy be\nout of work will help him to the Chinese art of \u2018saving his face.\u2019\nBut Mr. Paterson condemns the schools for the rapidity with which\ntheir best boys run to seed. He does not quote the case of the boy\nwho gets work, earns fair wages, conducts himself respectably,\ngoes to a \u2018Polytechnic,\u2019 the sort of boy with whom Mr. Pett Ridge\nmakes us familiar, who is so much less than he might be, so crude\nin his notions, so unmoral in his principles, so poor in interests,\nso meagre if not coarse in his choice of pleasures and after all\nsuch a good fellow at bottom. He might have been taught in school\nto utilise his powers, to come into the enjoyment of the fine mind\nthat is in him; but in schools,--\n\n \u201cThere is too much learning and too little work. The teacher\n ready to use the powers that his training and experience have\n given him works too hard while the boy\u2019s share in the struggle\n is too light. It is possible to make education too easy for\n children and to rob learning of the mental discipline which often\n wearies but in the end produces concentration and the capacity\n to work alone.... He is rarely left to himself with the book in\n his hands, forced to concentrate all his mind on the dull words\n before him with no one at hand to explain or make the memory work\n easier by little tricks of repetition and association.... The boy\n who reaches the seventh standard with every promise and enters\n the service of a railway company is first required to sit down by\n himself and master the symbols of the telegraphic code. This he\n finds extremely irksome for the only work he has ever done alone\n before is the learning of racy poetry which is the very mildest\n form of mental discipline.\u201d \u201c\u2018Silent reading\u2019 is occasionally\n allowed in odd half-hours ... it might well be a regular subject\n for reading aloud is but a poor gift compared with the practice\n of reading in private.\u201d[22]\n\nWhat does his curriculum do for the boy? Let us again hear Mr.\nPaterson:--[23]\n\n \u201cWhat is the educational ideal set before the average boy\n whose school-days are to end at fourteen? What type is it that\n the authorities seek to produce? A glance at the syllabus\n will reassure the ordinary cynic who still labours under the\n quaint delusion that French and Algebra and violin-playing\n are taught in every London Elementary School at the expense\n of the ratepayer.... The syllabus was designed to leave a boy\n at fourteen with a thoroughly sound and practical knowledge\n of reading, writing and arithmetic and with such grounding in\n English, geography and history, as may enable him to read a\n newspaper or give a vote with some idea of what he is doing....\n But these are all subsidiary to teaching the three \u2018R\u2019s\u2019 which\n between them occupy more than half the twenty-four hours of\n teaching in the week.... It is certain that the present object in\n view is dispiriting to master and boy alike for a knowledge of\n reading, writing and arithmetic is no education and no training\n but merely the elementary condition of further knowledge. In many\n schools the boy is labouring on with these mere rudiments for\n two or more years after all reasonable requirements have been\n satisfied. The intelligent visitor looking at the note-books\n of an average class will be amazed at the high standard of the\n neatness and accuracy but he will find the excellence of a very\n visible order. The handwriting is admirable, sixteen boys out\n of thirty can write compositions without a flaw in grammar or\n spelling. Yet it will occur to him that the powers of voluntary\n thought and reason, of spontaneous enquiry and imagination,\n have not been stirred. This very perfection of form makes\n him suspicious as to the fundamental principles of our State\n curriculum. In Public Schools boys are not trained to be lawyers,\n or parsons, or doctors, but to be men. If they have learned to\n work systematically and think independently they are then fit to\n be trained for such life and profession as taste or necessity\n may dictate. But at our Elementary Schools we seem to aim at\n producing a nation of clerks for it is only to a clerk that this\n perfection of writing and spelling is a necessary training.\u201d\n\nThe very faults of his qualities nullify the work of the teacher.\nHis failing is that he does too much. Once more we quote our\nauthority:--\n\n \u201cWith the average boy there is a marked waste of mental capital\n between the ages of ten and thirteen and the aggregate of this\n loss to the country is heavy indeed. Ten years at school conquer\n many of the drawbacks of home and discover a quick, receptive\n mind in the normal child.... Many opportunities have been lost\n in these years of school but after fourteen there is a more\n disastrous relapse. The brain is not taxed again and shrivels\n into a mere centre of limited formul\u00e6 acting automatically in\n response to appetite or sensation. The boy\u2019s general education\n fails utterly. Asia is but a name that it is difficult to\n spell though at school he spoke of its rivers and ports.... It\n is probable that the vocabulary of a working man at forty is\n actually smaller than it was at fourteen so shrunk is the power\n of the mind to feed upon the growing experience of life.... Of\n the majority of boys it is true to say that only half their\n ability is ever used in the work they find to do on leaving\n school, the other half curls up and sleeps for ever.\u201d\n\nHere we have a depressing prospect of grievous waste in the future.\nWe all applaud the Education Act of 1918, are convinced that every\nboy and girl will receive education until the end of his sixteenth,\npossibly eighteenth, year. A wave of generous feeling passed over\nthe nation and employers were willing to support the law; and\nif the eight hours conceded be spent in making the young people\nmore reliable, intelligent and responsible persons no doubt the\nemployers will be rewarded for their generosity.\n\nBut there are rocks ahead. The only way to take advantage of this\nprovision is to make this an eight hours\u2019 University course. Now\nas Mr. Paterson happily remarks the Universities do not undertake\nto prepare barristers, parsons, stockbrokers, bankers, or even\nsoldiers and sailors, with a specialised knowledge proper for each\nprofession. Their implicit contention is, given a well-educated\nman with cultivated imagination, trained judgment, wide interests,\nand he is prepared to master the intricacies of any profession;\nwhile he knows at the same time how to make use of himself, of\nthe powers with which nature and education have endowed him for\nhis own happiness; the delightful employment of his leisure; for\nthe increased happiness of his neighbours and the well-being of\nthe community; that is, such a man is able, not only to earn his\nliving, but to _live_.\n\nThe Universities fulfil this claim; the various professions\nabound with men who, in newspaper phrase, are \u2018ornaments to\ntheir professions,\u2019 and who gave up leisure and means to serve\ntheir fellow-citizens as magistrates, churchwardens, members of\ncommittees, special constables when needed, until lately, members\nof Parliament, holding service as an honour, and as proud as was\n\u2018Godfrey Bertram,\u2019 that unhappy laird in _Guy Mannering_, to write\n\u2018J.P.\u2019 after their names. The enormous amount of voluntary service\nrendered in such ways throughout the Empire as well as that of\ninsufficiently, or duly, paid service justifies the Universities in\ntheir reading of their peculiar function. But not only so, generous\ndisinterested work can never be paid for, and our great statesmen,\nchurchmen, soldiers and civil servants, as well as the members of\nCounty, Municipal, and Urban District Councils, have done their\n_devoir_ over and above the bond.\n\nTo secure this same splendidly devoted voluntary service from all\nclasses is the task set before us as a nation, a task the more\neasy because we have all seen it fulfilled in the War when every\nman was a potential hero. Now is it not the fact that the Army\nproved itself an unequalled University for our men, offering them\nincreased knowledge, broad views, lofty aims, duty and discipline,\nalong with the finest physical culture? So much so, that instead of\ngoing on from where the War left off, we have to be on the watch\nagainst retrograde movements, physical, moral, intellectual. The\ndownward grade is always at hand and we know how easy it is. We\ncannot afford another great war for the education of our people\nbut we must in some way supply the \u2018University\u2019 element and Mr.\nFisher\u2019s great Act points out such a way. The young people are for\nfour years (a proper academic period) to be under influences that\nmake for \u2018sweetness and light.\u2019 But we must keep to the academic\nideal: all preparation for specialised industries should be taboo.\nSpecial teaching towards engineering, cotton-spinning, and the\nrest, is quite unnecessary for every manufacturer knows that given\na \u2018likely\u2019 lad he will soon be turned into a good workman in the\nworks themselves. The splendid record of women workers in the war\nsupports our contention. The efforts of Technical Schools and the\nlike are not greatly prized by the heads of firms so far as the\ntechnical knowledge they afford goes. Boys from them are employed\nrather on the off chance that they may turn out intelligent and apt\nthan for what they know beforehand of the business. Here is one\nmore reason for treating the Continuation School as the People\u2019s\nUniversity and absolutely eschewing all money-making arts and\ncrafts. Denmark and Scandinavia have tried this generous policy of\neducating young people, not according to the requirements of their\ntrade but according to their natural capacity to know and their\nnatural desire for knowledge, that desire to know history, poetry,\nscience, art, which is natural to every man; and the success of the\nexperiment now a century old is an object lesson for the rest of\nthe world.\n\nGermany has pursued a different ideal. Her efforts, too, have\nbeen great, unified by the idea of utility; and, if we will\nonly remember the lesson, the war has shown us how futile is an\neducation which affords no moral or intellectual uplift, no motive\nhigher than the learner\u2019s peculiar advantage and that of the State.\nGermany became morally bankrupt (for a season only, let us hope)\nnot solely because of the war but as the result of an education\nwhich ignored the things of the spirit or gave these a nominal\nplace and a poor rendering in a utilitarian syllabus. We are\nencouraged to face the fact boldly that it is a People\u2019s University\nwe should aim at, a University with its thousands of Colleges up\nand down the land, each of them the Continuation School (the name\nis not inviting) for some one neighbourhood.\n\nBut, it will be argued, the subject matter of a University\neducation is conveyed for the most part through the channel of\ndead languages, Latin and Greek. Our contention is that, however\nennobling the literature in these tongues, we cannot honestly\nallow our English literature to take a second place to any other,\nand that therefore whatever Sophocles, Thucydides, Virgil, have\nit in them to do towards a higher education, may be effected more\nreadily by Milton, Gibbon, Shakespeare, Bacon, and a multitude of\ngreat thinkers who are therefore great writers. Learning conveyed\nin our common speech is easier come by than that secreted in a dead\nlanguage and this fact will help us to deal with the inadequacy of\nthe period allowed. Given absolute attention, and we can do much\nwith four hundred hours a year (1,600 hours in our four years\u2019\ncourse) but only if we go to work with a certainty that the young\nstudents crave knowledge of what we call the \u2018humanities,\u2019 that\nthey read with absolute attention and that, having read, they\n_know_. They will welcome the preparation for public speaking, an\neffort for which everyone must qualify in these days, which the act\nof narration offers.\n\nThe alternative is some such concentration scheme as that indicated\nin _Robinson Crusoe_,--a year\u2019s work on soap, its manufacture,\ningredients, the Soap Trade, Soap Transport, the Uses of Soap,\nhow to make out a Soap invoice, the Sorts of Soap, and so on _ad\ninfinitum_. Each process in the iron, cotton, nail, pin, engine,\nbutton,--each process in our thousand and one manufactures--will\noffer its own ingenious Concentration Scheme. The advocates of\nutilitarian education will be delighted, the young students will be\nkept busy and will to some extent use their wits all the time. With\nwhat result? Some two centuries ago when a movement for adolescent\neducation agitated Europe, devastated by the Napoleonic wars, we\nEnglish took our part. The current early divided into two streams,\nthe material and the spiritual, the useful and the educative, and\nEngland, already great in manufactures, was carried along by the\nfirst of these streams, followed by Germany, France, Switzerland;\nwhile the Scandinavian group of countries learned at the lips of\nthat \u2018Father of the People\u2019s High Schools\u2019 that \u201cspirit is might,\nspirit reveals itself in spirit, spirit works only in freedom.\u201d We\nsee the apotheosis of utilitarian education in the Munich schools\non the one hand and in the _morale_ of the German army on the\nother. But we are slow to learn because we have set up a little tin\ngod of efficiency in that niche within our private pantheon which\nshould be occupied by personality. We trouble ourselves about the\nuses of the young person to society. As for his own use, what he\nshould be in and for himself, why, what matter? Because, say we,\nif we fit him to earn his living we fit him also to be of service\nto the world and what better can we do for him personally? We\nforget that it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but\nby every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man\nlive,--whether it be spoken in the way of some truth of religion,\npoem, picture, scientific discovery, or literary expression; by\nthese things men live and in all such is the life of the spirit.\nThe spiritual life requires the food of ideas for its daily bread.\nWe shall find, in the words of a well-known Swedish professor,\nthat, \u201cjust as enrichment of the soil gives the best conditions for\nthe seed sown in it so a well-grounded humanistic training provides\nthe surest basis for a business capacity, and not the least so in\nthe case of the coming farmer.\u201d But we need not go so far afield,\nwe have a prophet of our own, and I will close this part of my\nsubject by quoting certain of Mr. Fisher\u2019s words of wisdom:--\n\n \u201cNow let me say something about the content of education, about\n the things which should be actually taught in the schools, and\n I am only going to talk in the very broadest possible way. In my\n afternoon\u2019s reading I came upon another very apposite remark in\n the letters of John Stuart Mill. Let me read it to you:--\n\n \u2018What the poor, as well as the rich, require is not to be\n taught other people\u2019s opinions, but to be induced and enabled\n to think for themselves. It is not physical science that will\n do this, even if they could learn it much more thoroughly than\n they are able to do.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe young people of this country are not to be regenerated by\n economic doctrine or economic history or physical science; they\n can only be elevated by ideas which act upon the imagination and\n act upon the character and influence the soul, and it is the\n function of all good teachers to bring those ideas before them.\n\n \u201cI have sometimes heard it said that you should not teach\n patriotism in the school. I dissent from that doctrine. I think\n that patriotism should be taught in the schools. I will tell you\n what I mean by patriotism. By patriotism I do not mean Jingoism,\n but what I mean by patriotism is an intelligent appreciation of\n all things noble in the romances, in the literature and in the\n history of one\u2019s own country. Young people should be taught to\n admire what is great while they are at school. And remember that\n for the poor of this country the school is a far more important\n factor than it is for the rich people of this country....\n\n \u201cI say that I want patriotism in the larger sense of the term\n taught in the schools. Of course there is a great deal to\n criticise in any country, and I should be the last person to\n suggest that the critical faculty should not be exercised and\n trained at school. But before we teach children to criticise\n the institutions of their country, before we teach them to be\n critical of what is bad, let us teach them to recognize and\n admire what is good. After all life is very short; we all of us\n have only one life to live, and during that life let us get into\n ourselves as much love, as much admiration, as much elevating\n pleasure as we can, and if we view education merely as discipline\n in critical bitterness, then we shall lose all the sweets of life\n and we shall make ourselves unnecessarily miserable. There is\n quite enough sorrow and hardship in this world as it is without\n introducing it prematurely to young people.\u201d ...\n\n N.B.--Probably some educational authorities may decide to give\n one hour or two weekly to physical training and handicrafts,\n in which case the time-table must allow for so much the less\n reading. But I should like to urge that, with the long evening\n leisure of which there is promise, Club life will become an\n important feature in every village and district. Classes will\n certainly be arranged for military and other drills, gymnastics,\n dancing, singing, swimming, carpentry, cooking, nursing,\n dress-making, weaving, pottery, acting,--in fact, whatever the\n quickened intelligence of the community demands. No compulsion\n would be necessary to enforce attendance at classes, for which\n the machinery is already in existence in most places, and which,\n associated with Club life, would have certain social attractions\n in the way of public displays, prize givings and so on. The\n intellectual life of the Continuation School should give zest to\n these evening occupations as well as to the Saturday Field Club\n which no neighbourhood should be without.\n\nI have put the case for Continuation Schools as strongly as may be,\nbut there is a more excellent way. In these days of high wages it\nmay well happen that parents will be willing to let their children\nremain at school until the end of their seventeenth year, in which\ncase they will be able to go on with the \u2018secondary education\u2019\nwhich they have begun at the age of six and we shall see a new\nthing in the world. Every man and woman will have received a\nliberal education; life will no longer discount the ideas and\naims of the schoolroom, and, if according to the Platonic saying,\n\u201cKnowledge is virtue,\u201d knowledge informed by religion, we shall see\neven in our own day how righteousness exalteth a nation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nI.--THE WAY OF THE WILL\n\n _We may offer to children two guides to moral and intellectual\n self-management which we may call \u2018the Way of the Will\u2019 and \u2018the\n Way of the Reason.\u2019_\n\n _The Way of the Will: Children should be taught (a) to\n distinguish between \u2018I want\u2019 and \u2018I will.\u2019 (b) That the way\n to will effectively is to turn our thoughts away from that\n which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn\n our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing,\n entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this\n way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct\n of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to\n ease us for a time from will effort that we may \u2018will\u2019 again with\n added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be\n deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character. It\n would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and\n that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of\n success.)_\n\n\nThe great things of life, life itself, are not easy of definition.\nThe Will, we are told, is \u2018the sole practical faculty of man.\u2019\nBut who is to define the Will? We are told again that \u2018the Will\nis the man\u2019; and yet most men go through life without a single\ndefinite act of willing. Habit, convention, the customs of the\nworld have done so much for us that we get up, dress, breakfast,\nfollow our morning\u2019s occupations, our later relaxations, without an\nact of choice. For this much at any rate we know about the will.\nIts function is to _choose_, to decide, and there seems to be no\ndoubt that the greater becomes the effort of decision the weaker\ngrows the general will. Opinions are provided for us, we take our\nprinciples at second or third hand, our habits are suitable and\nconvenient, and what more is necessary for a decent and orderly\nlife? But the one achievement possible and necessary for every man\nis character; and character is as finely wrought metal beaten into\nshape and beauty by the repeated and accustomed action of will.\nWe who teach should make it clear to ourselves that our aim in\neducation is less conduct than character; conduct may be arrived\nat, as we have seen, by indirect routes, but it is of value to the\nworld only as it has its source in character.\n\nEvery assault upon the flesh and spirit of man is an attack however\ninsidious upon his personality, his will; but a new Armageddon is\nupon us in so far as that the attack is no longer indirect but is\naimed consciously and directly at the will, which is the man; and\nwe shall escape becoming a nation of imbeciles only because there\nwill always be persons of good will amongst us who will resist the\ngeneral trend. The office of parents and teachers is to turn out\nsuch persons of good will; that they should deliberately weaken\nthe moral fibre of their children by suggestion is a very grave\noffence and a thoughtful examination of the subject should act as\na sufficient deterrent. For, let us consider. What we do _with the\nwill_ we describe as voluntary. What we do _without the_ conscious\naction of _will_ is involuntary. The will has only one mode of\naction, its function is to \u2018choose,\u2019 and with every choice we make\nwe grow in force of character.\n\nFrom the cradle to the grave suggestions crowd upon us, and such\nsuggestions become part of our education because we must choose\nbetween them. But a suggestion given by intent and supported by an\noutside personality has an added strength which few are able to\nresist, just because the choice has been made by another and not\nby ourselves, and our tendency is to accept this vicarious choice\nand follow the path of least resistance. No doubt much of this\nvicarious choosing is done for our good, whether for our health of\nbody or amenableness of mind; but those who propose suggestion as\na means of education do not consider that with every such attempt\nupon a child they weaken that which should make a man of him,\nhis own power of choice. The parasitic creatures who live upon\nthe habits, principles and opinions of others may easily become\ncriminal. They only wait the occasion of some popular outburst to\nbe carried into such a fury of crime as the Gordon Riots presented:\na mad fury of which we have had terrible examples in our own day,\nthough we have failed to ascribe them to their proper cause, the\nundermining of the will of the people, who have not been instructed\nin that ordering of the will which is their chief function as men\nand women. His will is the safeguard of a man against the unlawful\nintrusion of other persons. We are taught that there are offences\nagainst the bodies of others which may not be committed, but who\nteaches us that we may not intrude upon the minds and overrule\nthe wills of others; that it is indecent to let another probe the\nthoughts of the \u2018unconscious mind\u2019 whether of child or man? Now\nthe thought that we choose is commonly the thought that we ought\nto think and the part of the teacher is to afford to each child\na full reservoir of the right thought of the world to draw from.\nFor right thinking is by no means a matter of _self_-expression.\nRight thought flows upon the stimulus of an idea, and ideas are\nstored as we have seen in books and pictures and the lives of men\nand nations; these instruct the conscience and stimulate the will,\nand man or child \u2018chooses.\u2019 An accomplished statesman[24] exhibited\nto us lately how the disintegration of a great empire was brought\nabout by the weakness of its rulers who allowed their will-power to\nbe tampered with, their judgment suggested, their actions directed,\nby those who gained access to them.\n\nThere is no occasion for panic, but it is time that we realised\nthat _to fortify the will_ is one of the great purposes of\neducation, and probably some study of the map of the City of\nMansoul would afford us guidance: at least, a bird\u2019s eye view of\nthe riches of the City should be spread before children. They\nshould themselves know of the wonderful capacities to enter upon\nthe world as a great inheritance which exist in every human being.\nAll its beauty and all its thought are open to everyone. Everyone\nmay take service for the world\u2019s use, everyone may climb those\ndelectable mountains from whence he gets the vision of the City of\nGod. He must know something of his body with its senses and its\nappetites: of his intellect, imagination and \u00e6sthetic sense: of his\nmoral nature, ordered by love and justice. Realising how much is\npossible to Mansoul and the perils that assail it, he should know\nthat the duty of self-direction belongs to him; and that powers for\nthis direction are lodged in him, as are intellect and imagination,\nhunger and thirst. These governing powers are the conscience and\nthe will. The whole ordering of education with its history, poetry,\narithmetic, pictures, is based on the assumption that conscience\nis incapable of ordering life without regular and progressive\ninstruction. We need instruction also concerning the will. Persons\ncommonly suppose that the action of the will is automatic, but no\npower of Mansoul acts by itself and of itself, and some little\nstudy of the \u2018way of the will\u2019--which has the ordering of every\nother power--may help us to understand the functions of this\nPremier in the kingdom of Mansoul.\n\nEarly in his teens we should at least put clearly before a child\nthe possibility of a drifting, easy life led by appetite or desire\nin which will plays no part; and the other possibility of using the\npower and responsibility proper to him as a person and _willing_ as\nhe goes. He must be safeguarded from some fallacies. No doubt he\nhas heard at home that Baby has a strong will because he cries for\na knife and insists on pulling down the table-cloth. In his history\nlessons and his readings of tale and poem, he comes across persons\neach of whom carries his point by strong wilfulness. He laughs\nat that rash boy Pha\u00ebton, measures Esau with a considering eye,\nfinds him more attractive than Jacob who yet wins higher approval;\nperceives that Esau is wilful but that Jacob has a strong will,\nand through this and many other examples, recognises that a strong\nwill is not synonymous with \u2018being good,\u2019 nor with a determination\nto have your own way. He learns to distribute the characters he\ncomes across in his reading on either side of a line, those who\nare wilful and those who are governed by will; and this line by no\nmeans separates between the bad and the good.\n\nIt does divide, however, between the impulsive, self-pleasing,\nself-seeking, and the persons who have an aim beyond and outside\nof themselves, even though it be an aim appalling as that of\nMilton\u2019s Satan. It follows for him that he must not only _will_,\nbut will with a view to an object outside himself. He will learn\nto recognise in Louis XI a mean man and a great king, because\nFrance and not himself was the object of his crooked policy. The\nwill, too, is of slow growth, nourished upon the ideas proposed to\nit, and so all things work together for good to the child who is\nduly educated. It is well that children should know that while the\nturbulent person is not ruled by will at all but by impulse, the\nmovement of his passions or desires, yet it is possible to have\na constant will with unworthy or evil ends, or, even to have a\nsteady will towards a good end and to compass that end by unworthy\nmeans. The simple rectified will, what our Lord calls \u2018the single\neye,\u2019 would appear to be the one thing needful for straight living\nand serviceableness. But always the first condition of will, good\nor ill, is an object outside of self. The boy or girl who sees\nthis will understand that self-culture is not to be accepted as\nan ideal, will not wonder why _Bushido_ is mighty in Japan, will\nenter into the problem which Browning raises in _The Statue and the\nBust_. By degrees the scholar will perceive that just as to _reign_\nis the distinctive function of a king, so to _will_ is the function\nof a man. A king is not a king unless he reigns and a man is less\nthan a man unless he wills. Another thing to be observed is that\neven the constant will has its times of rise and fall, and one of\nthe secrets of living is how to tide over the times of fall in will\npower.\n\nThe boy must learn too that the will is subject to solicitations\nall round, from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and\nthe pride of life; that will does not act alone; it takes the\nwhole man to will and a man wills wisely, justly and strongly, in\nproportion as all his powers are in training and under instruction.\nWe must understand in order to will. \u201cHow is that ye _will_ not\nunderstand?\u201d said our Lord to the Jews; and that is the way with\nmost of us, we _will_ not understand. We look out for great\noccasions which do not come and do not see that the sphere for the\naction of our wills is in ourselves. Our concern with life is to be\nfit, and according to our fitness come our occasions and the uses\nwe shall be put to.\n\nUnlike every other power in the kingdom of Mansoul, the will is\nable to do what it likes, is a free agent, and the one thing the\nwill has to do is to prefer. \u201c_Choose_ ye this day,\u201d is the command\nthat comes to each of us in every affair and on every day of our\nlives, and the business of the will is to choose. But, choice,\nthe effort of decision, is a heavy labour, whether it be between\ntwo lovers or two gowns. So, many people minimise this labour by\nfollowing the fashion in their clothes, rooms, reading, amusements,\nthe pictures they admire and the friends they select. We are\nzealous in choosing for others but shirk the responsibility of\ndecisions for ourselves.\n\nWhat is to be said about obedience, to the heads of the house\nfirst, to the State, to the Church, and always to the laws of God?\nObedience is the test, the sustainer of personality, but it must\nbe the obedience of choice; because choice is laborious, little\nchildren must be trained in the obedience of habit; but every\ngallant boy and girl has learned to _choose_ to obey all who are\nset in authority.\n\nSuch obedience is of the essence of chivalry and chivalry is that\ntemper of mind opposed to self-seeking. The chivalrous person is\na person of constant will for, as we have seen, will cannot be\nexercised steadily for ends of personal gain.\n\nIt is well to know what it is we choose between. Things are only\nsigns which represent ideas and several times a day we shall find\ntwo ideas presented to our minds and must make our choice upon\nright and reasonable grounds. We shall thus be on our guard against\nthe weak allowance which we cause to do duty for choice and against\nsuch dishonest fallacies as, that it is our business to get the\nbest that is to be had at the lowest price; and it is not only in\nmatters of dress and ornament, household use and decoration, that\nwe run after the cheapest and newest. We chase opinions and ideas\nwith the same restlessness and uncertainty; any fad, any notion in\nthe newspapers, we pick up with eagerness. Once again, the will\nis the man. The business of the will is to choose. There are many\nways to get out of the task of choosing but it is always,--\u201cChoose\nyou this day whom ye will serve.\u201d There are two services open\nto us all, the service of God, (including that of man) and the\nservice of self. If our aim is just to get on, \u2018to do ourselves\nwell,\u2019 to get all possible ease, luxury and pleasure out of our\nlives, we are serving self and for the service of self no act of\nwill is required. Our appetites and desires are always at hand to\nspur us into the necessary exertions. But if we serve God and our\nneighbour, we have to be always on the watch to choose between the\nideas that present themselves. What the spring is to the year,\nschool days are to our life. You meet a man whose business in the\nworld appears to be to eat and drink, play golf and motor; he may\nhave another and deeper life that we know nothing about, but, so\nfar as we can see, he has enlisted in the service of self. You meet\nanother, a man of position, doing important work, and his ideas\nare those he received from the great men who taught him at school\nand College. The Greek Plays are his hobby. He is open to great\nthoughts and ready for service, because that which we get in our\nyouth we keep through our lives.\n\nThough the will affects all our actions and all our thoughts, its\ndirect action is confined to a very little place, to that postern\nat either side of which stand conscience and reason, and at which\nideas must needs present themselves. Shall we take an idea in\nor reject it? Conscience and reason have their say, but _will_\nis supreme and the behaviour of will is determined by all the\nprinciples we have gathered, all the opinions we have formed. We\naccept the notion, ponder it. At first we vaguely intend to act\nupon it; then we form a definite purpose, then a resolution and\nthen comes an act or general temper of mind. We are told of Rudyard\nKipling that his great ambition and desire at one time was to keep\na tobacconist\u2019s shop. Why? Because in this way he could get into\nhuman touch with the men who came to buy their weekly allowance of\ntobacco. Happily for the world he did not become a tobacconist but\nthe idea which moved him in the first place has acted throughout\nhis life. Always he has men, young men, about him and who knows how\nmany he has moved to become \u2018Captains Courageous\u2019 by his talk as\nwell as by his books!\n\nBut suppose an unworthy idea present itself at the postern,\nsupported by public opinion, by reason, for which even conscience\nfinds pleas? The will soon wearies of opposition, and what is to be\ndone? Fight it out? That is what the medi\u00e6val Church did with those\nideas which it rightly regarded as temptations; the lash, the hair\nshirt, the stone couch, the emaciated frame told of these not too\nsuccessful Armageddons.\n\nWhen the overstrained will asks for repose, it may not relax to\nyielding point but may and must seek recreation, diversion,--Latin\nthought has afforded us beautiful and appropriate names for that\nwhich we require. A change of physical or mental occupation is\nvery good, but if no other change is convenient, let us _think_ of\nsomething else, no matter how trifling. A new tie, or our next new\nhat, a story book we are reading, a friend we hope to see, anything\ndoes so long as we do not suggest to ourselves the thoughts we\n_ought_ to think on the subject in question. The will does not\nwant the support of arguments but the recreation of rest, change,\ndiversion. In a surprisingly short time it is able to return to\nthe charge and to choose this day the path of duty, however dull\nor tiresome, difficult or dangerous. This \u2018way of the will\u2019 is a\nsecret of power, the secret of self-government, with which people\nshould be furnished, not only for ease in practical right doing, or\nfor advance in the religious life, but also for their intellectual\nwell-being. Our claim to free will is a righteous claim; will\ncan only be free, whether its object be right or wrong; it is a\nmatter of choice and there is no choice but free choice. But we are\napt to translate free will into free thought. We allow ourselves\nto sanction intellectual anarchism and forget that it rests with\nthe will to order the thoughts of the mind fully as much as the\nfeelings of the heart or the lusts of the flesh. Our thoughts\nare not our own and we are not free to think as we choose. The\ninjunction,--\u201cChoose ye this day,\u201d applies to the thoughts which we\nallow ourselves to receive. Will is the one free agent of Mansoul,\nwill alone may accept or reject; and will is therefore responsible\nfor every intellectual problem which has proved too much for a\nman\u2019s sanity or for his moral probity. We may not think what we\nplease on shallow matters or profound. The instructed conscience\nand trained reason support the will in those things, little and\ngreat, by which men live.\n\nThe ordering of the will is not an affair of sudden resolve; it is\nthe outcome of a slow and ordered education in which precept and\nexample flow in from the lives and thoughts of other men, men of\nantiquity and men of the hour, as unconsciously and spontaneously\nas the air we breathe. But the moment of choice is immediate and\nthe act of the will voluntary; and the object of education is to\nprepare us for this immediate choice and voluntary action which\nevery day presents.\n\nWhile affording some secrets of \u2018the way of the will\u2019 to young\npeople, we should perhaps beware of presenting the ideas of\n\u2018self-knowledge, self-reverence, and self-control.\u2019 All adequate\neducation must be outward bound, and the mind which is concentrated\nupon self-emolument, even though it be the emolument of all the\nvirtues, misses the higher and the simpler secrets of life. Duty\nand service are the sufficient motives for the arduous training of\nthe will that a child goes through with little consciousness. The\ngradual fortifying of the will which many a schoolboy undergoes is\nhardly perceptible to himself however tremendous the results may be\nfor his city or his nation. Will, free will, must have an object\noutside of self; and the poet has said the last word so far as we\nyet know,----\n\n \u201cOur wills are ours we know not how;\n Our wills are ours to make them Thine.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n2.--THE WAY OF THE REASON\n\n _We should teach children, also, not to lean (too confidently)\n unto their own understanding because the function of reason is\n to give logical demonstration of (a) mathematical truth and (b)\n of initial ideas accepted by the will. In the former case reason\n is, perhaps, an infallible guide but in the latter is not always\n a safe one, for whether the initial idea be right or wrong reason\n will confirm it by irrefragable proofs._\n\n _Therefore children should be taught as they become mature enough\n to understand such teaching that the chief responsibility which\n rests upon them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of\n ideas presented to them. To help them in this choice we should\n afford them principles of conduct and a wide range of fitting\n knowledge._\n\n\nEvery child, every man, who comes to a sudden halt watching the\naction of his own reason, is another Columbus, the discoverer of\na new world. Commonly we let reason do its work without attention\non our part, but there come moments when we stand in startled\nadmiration and watch the unfolding before us point by point of a\nscore of arguments in favour of this carpet as against that, this\nroute in preference to the other, our chosen chum as against Bob\nBrown; because every _pro_ suggested by our reason is opposed\nto some _con_ in the background. How else should it happen that\nthere is no single point upon which two persons may reason,--food,\ndress, games, education, politics, religion,--but the two may take\nopposite sides, and each will bring forward infallible proofs\nwhich must convince the other were it not that he too is already\nconvinced by stronger proofs to strengthen his own argument. Every\ncharacter in history or fiction supports this thesis; and probably\nwe cannot give a better training in right reasoning than by\nletting children work out the arguments in favour of this or that\nconclusion.\n\nThus, Macbeth, a great general, returns after a brilliant victory,\nhead and heart are inflated, what can he not achieve? Could he not\ngovern a country as well as rule an army? Reason unfolds the steps\nby which he might do great things; great things, ay, but are they\nlawful, these possible exploits? And then in the nick of time he\ncomes across the \u2018weird Sisters,\u2019 as we are all apt to take refuge\nin fatalism when conscience no longer supports us. He shall be\nThane of Cawdor, and, behold, confirmation arrives on the spot. He\nshall also be king. Well, if this is decreed, what can he do? He\nis no longer a free agent. And a score of valid arguments unfold\nthemselves showing how Scotland, the world, his wife, himself,\nwould be enhanced, would flourish and be blessed if he had the\nopportunity to do what was in him. Opportunity? The thing was\ndecreed! It rested with him to find the means, the tools. He was\nnot without imagination, had a poetic mind and shrank before the\nhorrors he vaguely foresaw. But reason came to his aid and step by\nstep the whole bloody tragedy was wrought out before his prescient\nmind. When we first meet with Macbeth he is rich in honours, troops\nof friends, the generous confidence of his king. The change is\nsudden and complete, and, we may believe, reason justified him at\nevery point. But reason did not begin it. The will played upon by\nambition had already admitted the notion of towering greatness or\never the \u2018weird Sisters\u2019 gave shape to his desire. Had it not been\nfor this countenance afforded by the will, the forecasts of fate\nwould have influenced his conduct no more than they did that of\nBanquo.\n\nBut it must not be supposed that reason is malign, the furtherer\nof ill counsels only. Nurse Cavell, Jack Cornwell, Lord Roberts,\nGeneral Gordon, Madame Curie, leave hints enough to enable us\nto follow the trains of thought which issued in glorious deeds.\nWe know how Florence Nightingale received, welcomed, reasoned\nout the notion of pity which obsessed her, and how through many\ndifficulties her great project for the saving of the sick and\nsuffering of her country\u2019s army worked itself out; how she was able\nto convey to those in power the same convincing arguments which\nmoved herself. That was a happy thought of the medi\u00e6val Church\nwhich represented the leading idea of each of the seven Liberal\nArts by a chosen exponent able to convince others by the arguments\nwhich his own reason brought forward. So Priscian taught the world\nGrammar; Pythagoras, Arithmetic; and the name of Euclid still\nstands for the science which appealed to his reason. But it is not\nonly great intellectual advances and discoveries or world-shaping\nevents for good or evil, that exhibit the persuasive power of\nreason. There is no object in use, great or small, upon which\nsome man\u2019s reason has not worked exhaustively. A sofa, a chest of\ndrawers, a ship, a box of toy soldiers, have all been thought out\nstep by step, and the inventor has not only considered the _pros_\nbut has so far overcome the _cons_ that his invention is there,\nready for use; and only here and there does anyone take the trouble\nto consider how the useful, or, perhaps, beautiful article came\ninto existence. It is worth while to ask a child, How did you think\nof it? when he comes to tell you of a new game he has invented, a\nnew country of the imagination he has named, peopled and governed.\nHe will probably tell you what first \u2018put it into his head\u2019 and\nthen how the reasons one after another came to him. After,--How\ndid _you_ think of it?--the next question that will occur to a\nchild is,--How did _he_ think of it?--and he will distinguish\nbetween the first notion that has \u2018put it into his head\u2019 and the\nreasoned steps which have gone to the completion of an object,\nthe discovery of a planet, the making of a law. Sometimes a child\nshould be taken into the psychology of crime, and he will see that\nreason brings infallible proofs of the rightness of the criminal\nact. From Cain to the latest great offender every criminal act has\nbeen justified by reasoned arguments which come of their own accord\nto the criminal. We know the arguments before which Eve fell when\nthe Serpent played the part of the \u2018weird Sisters.\u2019 It is pleasant\nto the eye; it is good for food; it shall make you wise in the\nknowledge of good and evil--good and convincing arguments, specious\nenough to overbear the counter-pleadings of Obedience. Children\nshould know that such things are before them also; that whenever\nthey want to do wrong capital reasons for doing the wrong thing\nwill occur to them. But, happily, when they want to do right no\nless cogent reasons for right doing will appear.\n\nAfter abundant practice in reasoning and tracing out the reasons of\nothers, whether in fact or fiction, children may readily be brought\nto the conclusions that reasonable and right are not synonymous\nterms; that reason is their servant, not their ruler,--one of those\nservants which help Mansoul in the governance of his kingdom. But\nno more than appetite, ambition, or the love of ease, is reason to\nbe trusted with the government of a man, much less that of a state;\nbecause well-reasoned arguments are brought into play for a wrong\ncourse as for a right. He will see that reason works involuntarily;\nthat all the beautiful steps follow one another in his mind without\nany activity or intention on his own part; but he need never\nsuppose that he was hurried along into evil by thoughts which he\ncould not help, because reason never begins it. It is only when he\nchooses to think about some course or plan, as Eve standing before\nthe apples, that reason comes into play; so, if he chooses to think\nabout a purpose that is good, many excellent reasons will hurry\nup to support him; but, alas, if he choose to entertain a wrong\nnotion, he, as it were, rings the bell for reason, which enforces\nhis wrong intention with a score of arguments proving that wrong is\nright.\n\nA due recognition of the function of reason should be an enormous\nhelp to us all in days when the air is full of fallacies, and\nwhen our personal modesty, that becoming respect for other people\nwhich is proper to well-ordered natures whether young or old,\nmakes us willing to accept conclusions duly supported by public\nopinion or by those whose opinions we value. Nevertheless, it is\nsomething to recognise that probably no wrong thing has ever been\ndone or said, no crime committed, but has been justified to the\nperpetrator by arguments coming to him involuntarily and produced\nwith cumulative force by his own reason. Is Shakespeare ever wrong?\nAnd, if so, may we think that a Richard III who gloats over his\nown villainy as villainy, who is in fact no hypocrite, in the\nsense of acting, to himself--is hardly true to human nature? Great\nis Shakespeare! So perhaps Richard was the exception to the rule\nwhich makes a man go out and hang himself when at last he sees his\nincomparable villainy, and does not Richard say in the end,--\u201cI\nmyself find in myself no pity for myself\u201d? For ourselves and our\nchildren it is enough to know that reason will put a good face on\nany matter we propose; and, that we can prove ourselves to be in\nthe right is no justification for there is absolutely no theory\nwe may receive, no action we may contemplate, which our reason\nwill not affirm. Of course we know by many infallible proofs that\nBacon wrote Shakespeare, and an ingenious person has worked out\na chain of arguments proving that Dr. Johnson wrote the Bible!\nWhy not? For a nation of logical thinkers, the French made an\nextraordinary _faux-pas_ when they elected the Goddess of Reason to\ndivine honours. But, indeed, perhaps they did it because they are a\nlogical nation; for logic gives us the very formula of reason, and\nthat which is logically proved is not necessarily right. We need\nno longer wonder that two men equally upright, equally virtuous,\nselected out of any company, will hold opposite views on almost any\nquestion; and each will support his views by logical argument. So\nwe are at the mercy of the _doctrinaire_ in religion, the demagogue\nin politics, and, dare we say, of the dreamer in science; and we\nthink to save our souls by being in the front rank of opinion\nin one or the other. But not if we have grown up cognisant of\nthe beauty and wonder of the act of reasoning, and also, of the\nlimitations which attend it.\n\nWe must be able to answer the arguments in the air, not so much by\ncounter reasons as by exposing the fallacies in such arguments and\nproving on our own part the opposite position. For example, \u201cthat\nvery lovable, very exasperating but essentially real, though often\nwrong-headed enthusiast,\u201d Karl Marx, dominates the socialistic\nthought of to-day. Point by point, for good or for evil, the\nMarxian Manifesto of 1848 is coming into force. \u201cFor the most\nadvanced countries,\u201d we are told, \u201cthe following measures might\ncome into very general application.\u201d\n\n(1) \u201cExpropriation of landed property and application of rent\nto State Expenditure.\u201d We have not space to examine the Marxian\nproposition in detail but let us consider a single fallacy. It\nis assumed that the rent of landed property is for the sole use,\nenrichment and enjoyment of the owner. Now the schedule of the Duke\nof Bedford, for example, published recently, shows that the income\nderived from park property is inadequate to its upkeep and to the\ntaxes imposed upon the owner. Again, landowners are not only large\nemployers of labour, generally under favourable conditions, but\nthey keep up a very important benefaction; most of the extensive\nlandowners make of their places _public_ parks kept in beautiful\norder at their _private_ expense.\n\n(2) \u201cHeavy progressive taxation.\u201d The fallacy lies in the fact\nthat the proletariat in whose interest the Manifesto was issued\nmust necessarily on account of their numbers be large taxpayers.\nTherefore it is upon them that heavy progressive taxation will\npress--as we have all seen in Russia--to the point of their\nextinction.\n\n(3) \u201cAbolition of inheritance.\u201d A measure designed to reduce all\npersons to the same level. As we know, the abolition of class is\nthe main object of socialism. But the underlying fallacy is the\nassumption that class is stable and is not in a state of continual\nflux, the continual upward and downward movement as of watery\nparticles in the ocean. The man at the bottom to-day may be at the\ntop to-morrow, as we see, not only in Soviet Russia, but in most\ncivilised countries. Attempts to control this natural movement are\nas vain as King Canute\u2019s command to the ocean.\n\n(4) \u201cConfiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.\u201d\nAssumed authority must be supported by tyranny, that worst tyranny\nwhich requires all men to think to order, as they must in a Soviet\nState, or be penalised to make them powerless. The fallacy lies in\na misconception of human nature. There is nothing that men will\nnot sacrifice for an idea, for such an idea as that of freedom of\nthought and of movement.\n\n(5), (6), (7), deal with centralisation, credit, of transport,\nof factories, of instruments of production in the hands of the\nState,--the State, that is, Everyman,--the Proletariat, in\nfact,--in whose hands all wealth and means of obtaining wealth\nshall be lodged.\n\nHere we have a logically thought-out preparation for the\ngovernment of the people, by the people, for the people; but the\nunderlying fallacy is that it makes for revolution which effects no\nchange but a mere change of rulers, better or worse as may be. In\nthe Soviet Republic, according to the law of perpetual social flux,\nnew rulers would come to the top, arbitrary and tyrannical, because\nnot hemmed in by precedent and custom; and children will be at no\nloss to show how the last state of a nation so governed is worse\nthan the first.\n\n(8) \u201cCompulsory obligation of labour upon all.\u201d The initial idea\nof a Soviet State is that it shall afford due liberty and equal\nconditions for all. But even in the contemplation of such a State\nit was necessary to postulate for everybody conscription and the\ndiscipline of an army.\n\n(9) \u201cJoint prosecution for Agriculture and Manufacture.\u201d The aim\nbeing the gradual removal of the distinction of town and country.\nHere is a point in the Manifesto which we should all like to see in\npractice but--is it possible?\n\n(10) \u201cPublic and gratuitous education for all children.\u201d This\nhappily we have seen carried out with the proviso, \u2018for whom\nit may be necessary or desirable.\u2019 The difficulty lies in the\nconception of education formed by a Soviet community; and the\nplea for free education is a specious blind, the intention being\nsuch an education as shall train the coming generation in rabid\nrevolutionary principles.\n\nTo continue our examination of the Tenth Maxim; the next clause\n(_b_) requires \u201cabolition of children\u2019s labour in factories in its\npresent form.\u201d So far so good. Happily we have lived to see this\nabolition; there may be a sinister reading of the clause but on the\nsurface it carries the assent of all good citizens.\n\n(_c_) \u201cUnion of education with material production.\u201d Here from\nmotives of economy we are going the way of the Communists in our\nContinuation Schools; but a fallacy underlies the maxim which may\nwell frustrate our efforts towards the better education of the\npeople. The assumption is that the boy who learns, say, certain\nmanufacturing processes, _pari passu_ with his intellectual\neducation does better in the future than he who gives the full\nperiod to education. There is no consensus of the opinion of\nemployers to prove that this is the case. On the contrary, given a\nlikely boy, and a manufacturer will be satisfied that he will soon\nlearn his business in the \u2018works.\u2019 But the function of education is\nnot to give technical skill but to develop a person; the more of a\nperson, the better the work of whatever kind; and as I have said\nbefore, the idea of the Continuation School is, or should be, a\nUniversity course in the \u2018humanities\u2019; not in what have been called\nthe \u2018best humanities,\u2019 _i.e._, the Classics, though whether these\nare in any sense \u2018best\u2019 is a moot question, but in the singularly\nrich \u2018humanities\u2019 which the English tongue affords.\n\nThese Ten Marxian Maxims give us ample ground for discussion not\nfor lectures or for oral lessons, but for following for a few\nminutes any opening suggested by \u2018current events,\u2019 a feature in\nthe children\u2019s programme of work. But they must follow arguments\nand detect fallacies for themselves. Reason like the other powers\nof the mind, requires material to work upon whether embalmed in\nhistory and literature, or afloat with the news of a strike or\nuprising. It is madness to let children face a debatable world with\nonly, say, a mathematical preparation. If our business were to\ntrain their power of reasoning, such a training would no doubt be\nof service; but the power is there already, and only wants material\nto work upon.\n\nThis caution must be borne in mind. Reason, like all other\nproperties of a person, is subject to habit and works upon the\nmaterial it is accustomed to handle. Plato formed a just judgment\non this matter, too,[25] and perceived that mathematics afford no\nclue to the labyrinth of affairs whether public or private.\n\nWe have seen that their reading and the affairs of the day should\nafford scope and opportunity for the delight in ratiocination\nproper to children. The fallacies they themselves perpetrate when\nexposed make them the readier to detect fallacies elsewhere.\n\nWhat are we to do? Are we to waste time in discussing with children\nevery idle and blasphemous proposition that comes their way? Surely\nnot. But we may help them to principles which should enable them to\ndiscern these two characters for themselves. A proposition is idle\nwhen it rests on nothing and leads to nothing. Again, blasphemy is\na sin, the sin of being impudent towards Almighty God, Whom we all\nknow, without any telling, and know Him to be fearful, wonderful,\nloving, just and good, as certainly as we know that the sun\nshines or the wind blows. Children should be brought up, too, to\nperceive that a miracle is not less a miracle because it occurs so\nconstantly and regularly that we call it a law; that sap rises in a\ntree, that a boy is born with his uncle\u2019s eyes, that an answer that\nwe can perceive comes to our serious prayers; these things are not\nthe less miracles because they happen frequently or invariably, and\nbecause we have ceased to wonder about them. No doubt so did the\npeople of Jerusalem when our Lord performed many miracles in their\nstreets.\n\nWhen children perceive that,--\u201cMy Father worketh hitherto and I\nwork\u201d--is the law which orders nations and individuals: that \u201cMy\nspirit shall not always strive with man,\u201d is an awful warning\nto every people and every person; that to hinder the mis-doing,\nencourage the well-doing of men and nations is incessant labour,\nthe work of the Father and the Son:--to a child who perceives\nthese things miracles will not be matters of supreme moment because\nall life will be for him matter for wonder and adoration.\n\nAgain, if we wish children to keep clear of all the religious\nclamours in the air, we must help them to understand what religion\nis.--[26]\n\n \u201cWill religion guarantee me my private and personal happiness? To\n this on the whole I think we must answer, No; and if we approach\n it with a view to such happiness, then most certainly and\n absolutely No.\u201d\n\nHere is a final and emphatic answer to the quasi religious offers\nwhich are being clamourously pressed upon hesitating souls. Ease\nof body is offered to these, relief of mind, reparation of loss,\neven of the final loss when those they love pass away. We may\ncall upon mediums, converse through table-rappings, be healed by\nfaith,--faith, that is, in the power of a Healer who manipulates\nus. Sin is not for us, nor sorrow for sin. We may live in continual\nodious self-complacency, remote from the anxious struggling souls\nabout us, because, forsooth, there is no sin, sorrow, anxiety or\npain, if we _will_ that these things shall not be. That is to say,\nreligion will \u201cguarantee me my private and personal happiness,\u201d\nwill make me immune from every distress and misery of life; and\nthis happy immunity is all a matter within the power of my own\nwill; the person that matters in my religion is myself only.\nThe office of religion for me in such a case is to remove all\nuneasiness, bodily and spiritual, and to float me into a Nirvana\nof undisturbed self-complacency. But we must answer with Professor\nBosanquet, \u201cabsolutely NO.\u201d True religion will not do this for me\nbecause the final form of the religion that will do these things is\nidolatry, self-worship, with no intention beyond self.\n\nTo go on with our quotation,--\n\n \u201cWell, but if not that then what? We esteem the thing as good\n and great, but if it simply does nothing for us, how is it to be\n anything to us? But the answer was the answer to the question and\n it might be that to a question sounding but slightly different,\n a very different answer would be returned. We might ask, for\n instance,--\u2018does it make my life more worth living?\u2019 And the\n answer to this might be,--\u2018It is the only thing that makes life\n worth living at all.\u2019\u201d\n\nIn a word, \u201cI want, am made for and must have a God.\u201d\n\nNo doubt through the sweetness of their faith and love children\nhave immediate access to God, and what more would we have? \u2018Gentle\nJesus\u2019 is about their path and about their bed; angels minister\nto them; they enjoy all the immunities of the Kingdom. But we may\nnot forget that reason is as active in them as the affections.\nTowards the end of the last century people had a straight and easy\nway of giving a reasonable foundation to a child\u2019s belief. All the\narticles of the Christian Faith were supported by a sort of little\ncatechism of \u2018Scripture Proofs\u2019; and this method was not without\nits uses. But, to-day, we have to prove the Scriptures if we rely\nupon Scripture proofs and we must change our point of attack.\nChildren must know that we cannot prove any of the great things of\nlife, not even that we ourselves live; but we must rely upon that\nwhich we know without demonstration. We know, too, and this other\ncertainty must be pressed home to them, that reason, so far from\nbeing infallible, is most exceedingly fallible, persuadable, open\nto influence on this side and that; but is all the same a faithful\nservant, able to prove whatsoever notion is received by the will.\nOnce we are convinced of the fallibility of our own reason we are\nable to detect the fallacies in the reasoning of our opponents and\nare not liable to be carried away by every wind of doctrine. Every\nmother knows how intensely reasonable a child is and how difficult\nit is to answer his quite logical and foolishly wrong conclusions.\nSo we need not be deterred from dealing with serious matters with\nthese young neophytes, but only as the occasion occurs; we may not\nrun the risk of boring them with the great questions of life while\nit is our business to send them forth assured.\n\nWe find that, while children are tiresome in arguing about trifling\nthings, often for the mere pleasure of employing their reasoning\npower, a great many of them are averse to those studies which\nshould, we suppose, give free play to a power that is in them, even\nif they do not strengthen and develop this power. Yet few children\ntake pleasure in Grammar, especially in English Grammar, which\ndepends so little on inflexion. Arithmetic, again, Mathematics,\nappeal only to a small percentage of a class or school, and, for\nthe rest, however intelligent, its problems are baffling to the\nend, though they may take delight in reasoning out problems of\nlife in literature or history. Perhaps we should accept this tacit\nvote of the majority and cease to put undue pressure upon studies\nwhich would be invaluable did the reasoning power of a child wait\nupon our training, but are on a different footing when we perceive\nthat children come endowed to the full as much with reason as with\nlove; that our business is to provide abundant material upon which\nthis supreme power should work; and that whatever development\noccurs comes with practice in _congenial fields of thought_. At\nthe same time we may not let children neglect either of these\ndelightful studies. The time will come when they will delight in\nwords, the beauty and propriety of words; when they will see that\nwords are consecrated as the vehicle of truth and are not to be\ncarelessly tampered with in statement or mutilated in form; and\nwe must prepare them for these later studies. Perhaps we should\npostpone parsing, for instance, until a child is accustomed to\nweigh sentences for their sense, should let them dally with figures\nof speech before we attempt minute analysis of sentences, and\nshould reduce our grammatical nomenclature to a minimum. The fact\nis that children do not generalise, they gather particulars with\namazing industry, but hold their impressions fluid, as it were;\nand we may not hurry them to formulate. If the use of words be\na law unto itself, how much more so the language of figures and\nlines! We remember how instructive and impressive Ruskin is on the\nthesis that \u2018two and two make four\u2019 and cannot by any possibility\nthat the universe affords be made to make five or three. From\nthis point of view, of immutable law, children should approach\nMathematics; they should see how impressive is Euclid\u2019s \u2018Which is\nabsurd,\u2019 just as absurd as would be the statements of a man who\nsaid that his apples always fell upwards, and for the same reason.\nThe behaviour of figures and lines is like the fall of an apple,\nfixed by immutable laws, and it is a great thing to begin to see\nthese laws even in their lowliest application. The child whose\napproaches to Arithmetic are so many discoveries of the laws which\nregulate number will not divide fifteen pence among five people\nand give them each sixpence or ninepence; \u2018which is absurd\u2019 will\nconvict him, and in time he will perceive that \u2018answers\u2019 are not\npurely arbitrary but are to be come at by a little boy\u2019s reason.\nMathematics are delightful to the mind of man which revels in the\nperception of law, which may even go forth guessing at a new law\nuntil it discover that law; but not every boy can be a champion\nprize-fighter, nor can every boy \u2018stand up\u2019 to Mathematics.\nTherefore perhaps the business of teachers is to open as many doors\nas possible in the belief that Mathematics is one out of many\nstudies which make for education, a study by no means accessible\nto everyone. Therefore it should not monopolise undue time, nor\nshould persons be hindered from useful careers by the fact that\nthey show no great proficiency in studies which are in favour with\nexaminers, no doubt, because solutions are final, and work can be\nadjudged without the tiresome hesitancy and fear of being unjust\nwhich beset the examiners\u2019 path in other studies.\n\nWe would send forth children informed by \u201cthe reason firm, the\ntemperate will, endurance, foresight, strength and skill,\u201d but we\nmust add resolution to our good intentions and may not expect to\nproduce a reasonable soul of fine polish from the steady friction,\nsay, of mathematical studies only.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE CURRICULUM[27]\n\n _We, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit\n him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and\n generous curriculum, taking care only that all knowledge offered\n to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without\n their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle\n that:--_\n\n \u201cEducation is the Science of Relations\u201d; _that is, a child has\n natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so\n we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts,\n science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our\n business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him\n to make valid as many as may be of_--\n\n \u201c_Those first-born affinities\n That fit our new existence to existing things._\u201d\n\n _In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social\n class, three points must be considered_:--\n\n (_a_) _He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs\n sufficient food as much as does the body._\n\n (_b_) _The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental\n diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity)._\n\n (_c_) _Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen\n language, because his attention responds naturally to what is\n conveyed in literary form._\n\n _As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children\n should \u201ctell back\u201d after a single reading or hearing: or should\n write on some part of what they have read._\n\n _A_ single reading _is insisted on, because children have\n naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated\n by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning,\n summarising, and the like._\n\n _Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of\n mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously\n greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little\n dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment._\n\n _Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children\n or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in\n elementary schools respond freely to this method, which is based\n on the_ behaviour of mind.\n\n\nFew things are more remiss in our schools than the curriculum which\nis supposed to be entirely at the option of the Head: but is it?\nMost Secondary schools work towards examinations which more or less\nafford the privilege of entry to the Universities. The standard to\nbe reached is set by these and the Heads of schools hold themselves\npowerless.\n\nThough Elementary schools no longer work with a view to examination\nresults yet as their best pupils try for scholarships admitting\nthem to secondary schools, they do come indirectly under the same\nlimitations. There is, however, much less liberty in Secondary than\nin Primary schools with regard to the subjects taught and the time\ndevoted to each. The result is startling. A boy of eight in an\nElementary school may shew more intelligence and wider knowledge\nthan a boy of fourteen in a Preparatory school, that is, if he have\nbeen taught on the principles I have in view, while the other boy\nhas been instructed with a view to a given standard of scholarship.\nThe Preparatory school boy does, however, reach that standard in\nLatin, if not in Greek also, and in Mathematics.\n\nIf we succeed in establishing a similar standard which every\nboy and girl of a given age should reach in a liberal range of\nsubjects, a fair chance will be afforded to the average boy and\ngirl while brilliant or especially industrious young people will go\nahead.\n\nWe labour under the mistake of supposing that there is no natural\nlaw or inherent principle according to which a child\u2019s course of\nstudies should be regulated; so we teach him those things which,\naccording to Locke, it is becoming for a \u2018gentleman\u2019 to know on\nthe one hand, and, on the other, the arts of reading, writing and\nsumming, that he may not grow up an illiterate citizen. In both\ncases the education we offer is too utilitarian,--an indirect\ntraining for the professions or for a craftsman\u2019s calling with\nefforts in the latter case to make a boy\u2019s education bear directly\non his future work.\n\nBut what if in the very nature of things we find a complete\ncurriculum suggested? \u201cThe human race has lost its title deeds,\u201d\nsaid Voltaire, and mankind has been going about ever since seeking\nto recover them; education is still at sea and Voltaire\u2019s epigram\nholds good. We have not found our title deeds and so we yield to\nthe children no inherent claims. Our highest aim is to educate\nyoung people for their uses to society, while every faddist is\nfree to teach what he pleases because we have no title deeds to\nconfront him with. Education, no doubt, falls under the economic\nlaw of supply and demand; but the demand should come from the\nchildren rather than from teachers and parents; how are their\ndemands to become articulate? We must give consideration to this\nquestion because the answer depends on a survey of the composite\nwhole we sum up as \u2018human nature,\u2019 a whole whose possibilities are\ninfinite and various, not only in a budding genius, the child of a\ndistinguished family, but in every child of the streets.\n\nA small English boy of nine living in Japan, remarked,--\u201cIsn\u2019t it\nfun, Mother, learning all these things? Everything seems to fit\ninto something else.\u201d The boy had not found out the whole secret;\neverything fitted into something within himself.\n\nThe days have gone by when the education befitting either a\ngentleman or an artisan was our aim. Now we must deal with a child\nof man, who has a natural desire to know the history of his race\nand of his nation, what men thought in the past and are thinking\nnow; the best thoughts of the best minds taking form as literature,\nand at its highest as poetry, or, as poetry rendered in the\nplastic forms of art: as a child of God, whose supreme desire and\nglory it is to know about and to know his almighty Father: as a\nperson of many parts and passions who must know how to use, care\nfor, and discipline himself, body, mind and soul: as a person of\nmany relationships,--to family, city, church, state, neighbouring\nstates, the world at large: as the inhabitant of a world full of\nbeauty and interest, the features of which he must recognise and\nknow how to name, and a world too, and a universe, whose every\nfunction of every part is ordered by laws which he must begin to\nknow.\n\nIt is a wide programme founded on the educational rights of man;\nwide, but we may not say it is impossible nor may we pick and\nchoose and educate him in this direction but not in that. We may\nnot even make choice between science and the \u2018humanities.\u2019 Our part\nit seems to me is to give a child a vital hold upon as many as\npossible of those wide relationships proper to him. Shelley offers\nus the key to education when he speaks of \u201cunderstanding that grows\nbright gazing on many truths.\u201d\n\nBecause the relationships a child is born to are very various, the\nknowledge we offer him must be various too. A lady teaching in Cape\nColony writes,--\u201cThe papers incorporated in the pamphlet _A Liberal\nEducation: Practice_ (by A. C. Drury) testify to--to me--an almost\nincredible standard of proficiency. The mistakes are just the kind\nof mistakes that children should make and no more of them than just\nenough to keep them from being priggish. There are none of those\nhowlers of fact or expression that make one view one\u2019s efforts with\na feeling of utter despondency.\u201d\n\nThe knowledge of children so taught is consecutive, intelligent\nand complete as far as it goes, in however many directions. For it\nis a mistake to suppose that the greater the number of \u2018subjects\u2019\nthe greater the scholar\u2019s labour; the contrary is the case as\nthe variety in itself affords refreshment, and the child who has\nwritten thirty or forty sheets during an examination week comes out\nunfagged. Not the number of subjects but the hours of work bring\nfatigue to the scholar; and bearing this in mind we have short\nhours and no evening preparation.\n\n\nSECTION I\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD\n\nOf the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child,--the knowledge\nof God, of man, and of the universe,--the knowledge of God ranks\nfirst in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making.\nMothers are on the whole more successful in communicating this\nknowledge than are teachers who know the children less well and\nhave a narrower, poorer standard of measurement for their minds.\nParents do not talk down to children, but we might gather from\neducational publications that the art of education as regards young\nchildren is to bring conceptions down to their \u2018little\u2019 minds. If\nwe give up this foolish prejudice in favour of the grown-up we\nshall be astonished at the range and depth of children\u2019s minds;\nand shall perceive that their relation to God is one of those\n\u2018first-born affinities\u2019 which it is our part to help them to make\ngood. A mother knows how to speak of God as she would of an absent\nfather with all the evidences of his care and love about her and\nhis children. She knows how to make a child\u2019s heart beat high in\njoy and thankfulness as she thrills him with the thought, \u2018my\nFather made them all,\u2019 while his eye delights in flowery meadow,\ngreat tree, flowing river. \u201cHis are the mountains and the valleys\nhis and the resplendent rivers, whose eyes they fill with tears\nof holy joy,\u201d and this is not beyond children. We recollect how\n\u2018Arthur Pendennis\u2019 walked in the evening light with his mother\nand recited great passages from Milton and the eyes of the two\nwere filled \u2018with tears of holy joy,\u2019 when the boy was eight.\nThe teacher of a class has not the same tender opportunities but\nif he take pains to get a just measure of children\u2019s minds it is\nsurprising how much may be done.\n\nThe supercilious point of view adopted by some teachers is the\ncause of the small achievements of their scholars. The \u2018kiddies\u2019\nin a big girls\u2019 school are not expected to understand and know\nand they live down to the expectations formed of them. We (of the\nP.N.E.U.) begin the definite \u2018school\u2019 education of children when\nthey are six; they are no doubt capable of beginning a year or two\nearlier but the fact is that nature and circumstances have provided\nsuch a wide field of education for young children that it seems\nbetter to abstain from requiring _direct_ intellectual efforts\nuntil they have arrived at that age.\n\nAs for all the teaching in the nature of \u2018told to the children,\u2019\nmost children get their share of that whether in the infant school\nor at home, but this is practically outside the sphere of that\npart of education which demands a _conscious mental effort_, from\nthe scholar, the mental effort of telling again that which has\nbeen read or heard. That is how we all learn, we tell again, to\nourselves if need be, the matter we wish to retain, the sermon, the\nlecture, the conversation. The method is as old as the mind of man,\nthe distressful fact is that it has been made so little use of in\ngeneral education. Let us hear Dr. Johnson on the subject:--\n\n \u201c\u2018Little people should be encouraged always to tell whatever they\n hear particularly striking to some brother, sister, or servant,\n immediately, before the impression is erased by the intervention\n of newer occurrences.\u2019 He perfectly remembered the first time\n he heard of heaven and hell because when his mother had made\n out such a description of both places as she thought likely to\n seize the attention of her infant auditor who was then in bed\n with her, she got up and dressing him before the usual time, sent\n him directly to call the favourite workman in the house to whom\n she knew he would communicate the conversation while it was yet\n impressed upon his mind. The event was what she wished and it\n was to that method chiefly that he owed the uncommon felicity of\n remembering distant occurrences and long past conversations.\u201d\n (Mrs. Piozzi).\n\nNow our objective in this most important part of education is\nto give the children the knowledge of God. We need not go into\nthe question of intuitive knowledge, but the expressed knowledge\nattainable by us has its source in the Bible, and perhaps we cannot\ndo a greater indignity to children than to substitute our own or\nsome other benevolent person\u2019s rendering for the fine English,\npoetic diction and lucid statement of the Bible.\n\nLiterature at its best is always direct and simple and a normal\nchild of six listens with delight to the tales both of Old and New\nTestament read to him passage by passage, and by him narrated in\nturn, with delightful touches of native eloquence. Religion has two\naspects, the attitude of the will towards God which we understand\nby Christianity, and that perception of God which comes from a\ngradual slow-growing comprehension of the divine dealings with\nmen. In the first of these senses, Goethe was never religious, but\nthe second forms the green reposeful background to a restless and\nuneasy life and it is worth while to consider how he arrived at so\ninfinitely desirable a possession. He gives us the whole history\nfully in _Aus Meinem Leben_, a treatise on education very well\nworth our study. There he says,--\n\n \u201cMan may turn where he will, he may undertake what he will but\n he will yet return to that road which Dante has laid down for\n him. So it happened to me in the present case: my efforts with\n the language\u201d (Hebrew, when he was ten) \u201cwith the contents of the\n Holy Scriptures, resulted in a most lively presentation to my\n imagination of that beautiful much-sung land and of the countries\n which bordered it as well as of the people and events which\n have glorified that spot of earth for thousands of years....\n Perhaps someone may ask why I set forth here in such detail this\n universally known history so often repeated and expounded. This\n answer may serve, that in no other way could I show how with the\n distractions of my life and my irregular education I concentrated\n my mind and my emotion on one point because I can in no other\n way account for the peace which enveloped me however disturbed\n and unusual the circumstances of my life. If an ever active\n imagination of which the story of my life may bear witness led\n me here and there, if the medley of fable, history, mythology,\n threatened to drive me to distraction, I betook myself again to\n those morning lands, I buried myself in the five books of Moses\n and there amongst the wide-spreading, shepherd people I found the\n greatest solitude and the greatest comfort.\u201d\n\nIt is well to know how Goethe obtained this repose of soul, this\nfresh background for his thoughts, and in all the errors of a\nwilful life this innermost repose appears never to have left\nhim. His eyes, we are told, were tranquil as those of a god, and\nhere is revealed the secret of that large tranquility. Here,\ntoo, Goethe unfolds for us a principle of education which those\nwho desire their children to possess the passive as well as the\nactive principle of religion would do well to consider; for it is\nprobably true that the teaching of the New Testament, not duly\ngrounded upon or accompanied by that of the Old, fails to result\nin such thought of God, wide, all-embracing, all-permeating, as\nDavid, for example, gives constant expression to in the Psalms.\nLet us have faith and courage to give children such a full and\ngradual picture of Old Testament history that they unconsciously\nperceive for themselves a panoramic view of the history of\nmankind typified by that of the Jewish nation as it is unfolded\nin the Bible. Are our children little sceptics, as was the young\nGoethe, who take a laughing joy in puzzling their teachers with\na hundred difficulties? Like that wise old Dr. Albrecht, let us\nbe in no haste to explain. Let us not try to put down or evade\ntheir questions, or to give them final answers, but introduce them\nas did he to some thoughtful commentator who weighs difficult\nquestions with modesty and scrupulous care. If we act in this way,\ndifficulties will assume their due measure of importance, that\nis to say, they will be lost sight of in the gradual unfolding\nof the great scheme whereby the world was educated. I know of no\ncommentator for children, say, from six to twelve, better than\nCanon Paterson Smyth (_The Bible for the Young_). He is one of the\nfew writers able to take the measure of children\u2019s minds, to help\nthem over real difficulties, give impulse to their thoughts and\ndirection to their conduct.\n\nBetween the ages of six and twelve children cover the whole of\nthe Old Testament story, the Prophets, major and minor, being\nintroduced as they come into connection with the Kings. The teacher\nopens the lesson by reading the passage from _The Bible for the\nYoung_, in which the subject is pictorially treated; for example,--\n\n \u201cIt is the battle field of the valley of Elah. The camp of Israel\n is on one slope, the big tents of the Philistines on the other.\n The Israelites are rather small men, lithe and clever, the\n Philistines are big men, big, stupid, thick-headed giants, the\n same as when Samson used to fool them and laugh at them long ago.\n There is great excitement on both sides,\u201d etc.\n\nThere will be probably some talk and discussion after this\nreading. Then the teacher will read the Bible passage in question\nwhich the children will narrate, the commentary serving merely as a\nbackground for their thoughts. The narration is usually exceedingly\ninteresting; the children do not miss a point and often add\npicturesque touches of their own. Before the close of the lesson,\nthe teacher brings out such new thoughts of God or new points of\nbehaviour as the reading has afforded, emphasising the moral or\nreligious lesson to be learnt rather by a reverent and sympathetic\nmanner than by any attempt at personal application.\n\nForms III and IV (twelve to fifteen) read for themselves the whole\nof the Old Testament as produced by the Rev. H. Costley-White in\nhis _Old Testament History_. Wise and necessary omissions in this\nwork make it more possible to deal with Old Testament History, in\nthe words of the Authorised Version, than if the Bible were used as\na single volume. Then, \u201ceach period is illustrated by reference to\ncontemporary literature (e.g., Prophets and Psalms and monuments).\u201d\nAgain, \u201cBrief historical explanations and general commentary are\ninserted in their proper places.\u201d For example, after Genesis iii,\nwe read, as an introduction to the story of Cain and Abel,--\n\n \u201cThe original object of this story was to explain the development\n of sin amongst mankind and the origin of homicide which in this\n first instance was actual murder. There are difficulties in the\n story which do not admit of satisfactory explanation. It may be\n asked,--\u2018Why did God not accept Cain\u2019s offering?\u2019 \u2018How was His\n displeasure shewn?\u2019 \u2018What was the sign appointed for Cain?\u2019 \u2018Whom\n did he marry?\u2019 The best way to answer such questions is to admit\n that we do not know, but we may add that these early stories are\n only a selection which do not necessarily form a consistent and\n complete whole, and that in this very case there are signs that\n the original story has been cut down and edited.\n\n \u201cAmong the lessons taught are the following,--(1) God judges\n man\u2019s motives rather than his acts. The service of the heart is\n worth more than any ceremonial. (2) It is not the sin of murder\n that is condemned so much as the sin of jealousy and malice: cf.\n the Sermon on the Mount, Matt, xxi, 6. (3) The great doctrine of\n the Brotherhood of Man, that each man is his brother\u2019s keeper and\n has his share of responsibility for the conditions of the lives\n of others. (4) Sin always brings its own punishment. (5) God\n remonstrates with man before the climax of sin is reached.\u201d\n\nThe footnotes which form the only commentary upon the text are\ncommendably short and to the point.\n\nHaving received a considerable knowledge of the Old Testament in\ndetail from the words of the Bible itself and having been trained\nto accept difficulties freely without giving place to the notion\nthat such difficulties invalidate the Bible as the oracle of God\nand our sole original source of knowledge concerning the nature\nof Almighty God and the manner of His government of the world,\nchildren are prepared for a further study of divinity, still\nfollowing the Bible text.\n\nWhen pupils are of an age to be in Forms V and VI (from 15 to 18)\nwe find that Dummelow\u2019s _One Volume Bible Commentary_ is of great\nservice. It is designed to provide in convenient form,--\n\n \u201cA brief explanation of the meaning of the Scriptures.\n Introductions have been supplied to the various books and Notes\n which will help to explain the principal difficulties, textual,\n moral or doctrinal, which may arise in connection with them.\n A series of articles has also been prefixed dealing with the\n larger questions suggested by the Bible as a whole. It is hoped\n that the Commentary may lead to a perusal of many of the books\n of Holy Scripture which are often left unread in spite of their\n rare literary charm and abundant usefulness for the furtherance\n of the spiritual life.... In recent years much light has been\n thrown upon questions of authorship and interpretation and the\n contributors to this volume have endeavoured to incorporate in it\n the most assured results of modern scholarship whilst avoiding\n opinions of an extreme or precarious kind. Sometimes these\n results differ from traditional views but in such cases it is not\n only hoped but believed that the student will find the spiritual\n value and authority of the Bible have been enhanced rather than\n diminished by the change.\u201d\n\nThe Editor has in these words set forth so justly the aims of the\nCommentary that I need only say we find it of very great practical\nvalue. The pupils read the general articles and the introductions\nto the separate Books; they read too the Prophets and the poetical\nbooks with the notes supplied. Thus they leave school with a fairly\nenlightened knowledge of the books of the Old Testament and of the\naids modern scholarship has brought towards their interpretation;\nwe hope also with increased reverence for and delight in the ways\nof God with men.\n\nThe New Testament comes under another category. The same\ncommentaries are used and the same methods followed, that is, the\nreverent reading of the text, with the following narration which\nis often curiously word perfect after a single reading; this is\nthe more surprising because we all know how difficult it is to\nrepeat a passage which we have heard a thousand times; the single\nattentive reading does away with this difficulty and we are able\nto assure ourselves that children\u2019s minds are stored with perfect\nword pictures of every tender and beautiful scene described in the\nGospels; and are able to reproduce the austere if equally tender\nteaching which enforces the object lessons of the miracles. By\ndegrees the Person of Our Lord as revealed in His words and His\nworks becomes real and dear to them, not through emotional appeals\nbut through the impression left by accurate and detailed knowledge\nconcerning the Saviour of the World, Who went about doing good.\nDogmatic teaching finds its way to them by inference through a\nquiet realisation of the Bible records; and loyalty to a Divine\nMaster is likely to become the guiding principle of their lives.\n\nI should like to urge the importance of what may be called a poetic\npresentation of the life and teaching of Our Lord. The young reader\nshould experience in this study a curious and delightful sense of\nharmonious development, of the rounding out of each incident, of\nthe progressive unfolding which characterises Our Lord\u2019s teaching;\nand, let me say here, the custom of narration lends itself\nsurprisingly to this sort of poetic insight. Every related incident\nstands out in a sort of bas-relief; every teaching so rendered\nunfolds its meaning; every argument convinces; and the personages\nreveal themselves to us more intimately than almost any persons\nwe know in real life. Probably very little hortatory teaching is\ndesirable. The danger of boring young listeners by such teaching\nis great, and there is also the further danger of provoking\ncounter-opinions, even counter-convictions, in the innocent-looking\naudience. On the whole we shall perhaps do well to allow the\nScripture reading itself to point the moral.\n\n\u201cWe are at present in a phase of religious thought, Christian and\npseudo-Christian, when a synthetic study of the life and teaching\nof Christ may well be of use. We have analysed until the mind\nturns in weariness from the broken fragments; we have criticised\nuntil there remains no new standpoint for the critic; but if we\ncould only get a whole conception of Christ\u2019s life among men and\nof the philosophic method of His teaching, His own words should be\nfulfilled and the Son of Man lifted up, would draw all men unto\nHimself. It seems to me that _verse_ offers a comparatively new\nmedium in which to present the great theme. It is more impersonal,\nmore condensed, is capable of more reverent handling than is prose;\nand what Wordsworth calls the \u2018authentic comment\u2019 may be essayed\nin verse with more becoming diffidence. Again, the supreme moment\nof a very great number of lives, that in which a person is brought\nface to face with Christ, comes before us with great vividness in\nthe Gospel narratives, and it is possible to treat what we may call\ndramatic situations with more force, and at the same time with more\nreticence, in verse than in prose.\n\n\u201cWe have a single fragment of the great epic which the future may\nbring forth,--\n\n \u2018Those holy fields\n Over whose acres walked those blessed feet\n Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed\n For our advantage to the bitter cross.\u2019\n\n\u201cIf Shakespeare had given us the whole how rich should we be! Every\nline of verse dealing directly with Our Lord from the standpoint of\nHis personality is greatly treasured. We love the lines in which\nTrench tells us,--\n\n \u2018Of Jesus sitting by Samarian well\n Or teaching some poor fishers on the shore.\u2019\n\nand Keble\u2019s,--\n\n \u2018Meanwhile He paces through the adoring crowd\n Calm as the march of some majestic cloud.\u2019\n\nor his,--\n\n \u2018In His meek power He climbs the mountain\u2019s brow.\u2019\n\nEvery line of such verse is precious but the lines are few, no\ndoubt because the subject is supremely august. Meantime we are\nwaiting for the great epic: because the need seems to be urgent\nthe writer has ventured to offer a temporary stop-gap in the six\nvolumes of _The Saviour of the World_.\u201d (_From the Preface to the\nfirst volume_).\n\nA girl of thirteen and a half (Form IV) in her Easter examination\ntackled the question: \u201c_The people sat in darkness_\u201d.... \u201c_I am\nthe Light of the World._\u201d _Shew as far as you can the meaning of\nthese statements._ She was not asked to write in verse, and was she\nnot taught by a beautiful instinct to recognise that the phrases\nshe had to deal with were essential poetry and that she could best\nexpress herself in verse?\n\n \u201cThe people sat in darkness--all was dim,\n No light had yet come unto them from Him,\n No hope as yet of Heaven after life,\n A peaceful haven far from war and strife.\n Some warriors to Valhalla\u2019s halls might go\n And fight all day, and die. At evening, lo!\n They\u2019d wake again, and drink in the great hall.\n Some men would sleep for ever at their fall;\n Or with their fickle Gods for ever be:\n So all was dark and dim. Poor heathens, see!\n _The Light ahead_, the clouds that roll away,\n The golden, glorious, dawning of the Day;\n And in the birds, the flowers, the sunshine, see\n The might of Him who calls, \u2018Come unto Me.\u2019\u201d\n\nA girl of seventeen (Form V) answered the question: _Write an essay\nor a poem on the Bread of Life_, by the following lines,--\n\n \u201c\u2018How came He here,\u2019 ev\u2019n so the people cried,\n Who found Him in the Temple: He had wrought\n A miracle, and fed the multitude,\n On five small loaves and fish: so now they\u2019d have\n Him king; should not they then have ev\u2019ry good,\n Food that they toiled not for and clothes and care,\n And all the comfort that they could require?--\n So thinking sought the king....\n Our Saviour cried:\n \u2018Labour ye not for meat that perisheth,\n But rather for the everlasting bread,\n Which I will give\u2019--Where is this bread, they cry,\n They know not \u2019tis a heavenly bread He gives\n But seek for earthly food--\u2018I am the Bread of Life\n And all who come to Me I feed with Bread.\n Receive ye then the Bread. Your fathers eat\n Of manna in the wilderness--and died--\n But whoso eats this Bread shall have his part\n In everlasting life: I am the Bread,\n That cometh down from Heaven; unless ye eat\n Of me ye die, but otherwise ye live.\u2019\n So Jesus taught, in Galilee, long since.\n\n \u201cThe people murmured when they heard His Word,\n How can it be? How can He be our Bread?\n They hardened then their hearts against His Word,\n They would not hear, and could not understand,\n And so they turn\u00e9d back to easier ways,\n And many of them walked with Him no more.\n May He grant now that we may hear the Word\n And harden not our hearts against the Truth\n That Jesus came to teach: so that in vain\n He may not cry to hearts that will not hear,\n \u2018I am the Bread of Life, for all that come,\n I have this gift, an everlasting life,\n And room within my Heavenly Father\u2019s House.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe higher forms in the P.U.S. read _The Saviour of the World_\nvolume by volume together with the text arranged in chronological\norder. The lower forms read in turns each of the Synoptic Gospels;\nForm IV adds the Gospel of St. John and The Acts, assisted by the\ncapital Commentaries on the several Gospels by Bishop Walsham How,\npublished by the S.P.C.K. The study of the Epistles and the Book\nof Revelation is confined for the most part to Forms V and VI.\nThe Catechism, Prayer-book, and Church History are treated with\nsuitable text-books much in the same manner and give opportunities\nfor such summing-up of Christian teaching as is included in the\nso-called dogmas of the Church. We find that Sundays together with\nthe time given to preparation for Confirmation afford sufficient\nopportunities for this teaching.[28]\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_a_) HISTORY\n\nI have already spoken of history as a vital part of education and\nhave cited the counsel of Montaigne that the teacher \u2018shall by the\nhelp of histories inform himself of the worthiest minds that were\nin the best ages.\u2019 To us in particular who are living in one of\nthe great epochs of history it is necessary to know something of\nwhat has gone before in order to think justly of what is occurring\nto-day. The League of Nations, for example, has reminded us not\nonly of the Congress of Vienna but of the several Treaties of\nPerpetual Peace which have marked the history of Europe. It is\nstill true that,--\n\n \u201cThings done without example, in their issue\n Are to be feared. Have you a precedent\n Of this commission?\u201d\n (_Henry VIII._)\n\nWe applaud the bluff King\u2019s wisdom and look uneasily for precedents\nfor the war and the peace and the depressing anxieties that have\ncome in their train. We are conscious of a lack of sound judgment\nin ourselves to decide upon the questions that have come before\nus and are aware that nothing would give us more confidence than\na pretty wide acquaintance with history. The more educated among\nour \u2018Dominion\u2019 cousins complain that their young people have no\nbackground of history and as a consequence \u2018we are the people\u2019 is\ntheir master thought; they would face even the loss of Westminster\nAbbey without a qualm. What is it to them where great events\nhave happened, great persons lived and moved? And, alas, this\nindifference to history is not confined to the Dominions; young\npeople at home are equally indifferent, nor have their elders such\nstores of interest and information as should quicken children with\nthe knowledge that always and everywhere there have been great\nparts to play and almost always great men to play those parts: that\nany day it may come to anyone to do some service of historical\nmoment to the country. It is not too much to say that a rational\nwell-considered patriotism depends on a pretty copious reading of\nhistory, and with this rational patriotism we desire our young\npeople shall be informed rather than with the jingoism of the\nemotional patriot.\n\nIf there is but little knowledge of history amongst us, no doubt\nour schools are in fault. Teachers will plead that there is no\ntime save for a sketchy knowledge of English history given in a\ncourse of lectures of which the pupils take notes and work up\nreports. Most of us know how unsatisfying is such a course however\nentertaining. Not even Thackeray could introduce the stuff of\nknowledge into his lectures on _The Four Georges_. Our knowledge\nof history should give us something more than impressions and\nopinions, but, alas, the lack of time is a real difficulty.\n\nNow the method I am advocating has this advantage; it multiplies\ntime. Each school period is quadrupled in time value and we find\nthat we get through a surprising amount of history in a thorough\nway, in about the same time that in most schools affords no more\nthan a skeleton of English History only. We know that young people\nare enormously interested in the subject and give concentrated\nattention if we give them the right books. We are aware that our\nown discursive talk is usually a waste of time and a strain on the\nscholars\u2019 attention, so we (of the P.N.E.U.) confine ourselves\nto affording two things,--knowledge, and a keen sympathy in the\ninterest roused by that knowledge. It is our part to see that every\nchild _knows_ and _can tell_, whether by way of oral narrative\nor written essay. In this way an unusual amount of ground is\ncovered with such certainty that no revision is required for\nthe examination at the end of the term. A _single reading_ is a\ncondition insisted upon because a naturally desultory habit of mind\nleads us all to put off the effort of attention as long as a second\nor third chance of coping with our subject is to be hoped for.\nIt is, however, a mistake to speak of the \u2018effort of attention.\u2019\nComplete and entire attention is a natural function which requires\nno effort and causes no fatigue; the anxious labour of mind of\nwhich we are at times aware comes when attention wanders and has\nagain to be brought to the point; but the concentration at which\nmost teachers aim is an innate provision for education and is not\nthe result of training or effort. Our concern is to afford matter\nof a sufficiently literary character, together with the certainty\nthat no second or third opportunity for knowing a given lesson will\nbe allowed.\n\nThe personality of the teacher is no doubt of much value but\nperhaps this value is intellectual rather than emotional. The\nperception of the teacher is keenly interested, that his mind and\ntheir minds are working in harmony is a wonderful incentive to\nyoung scholars; but the sympathetic teacher who believes that to\nattend is a strain, who makes allowance for the hundred wandering\nfancies that beset a child--whom he has at last to pull up with\neffort, tiring to teacher and pupil--hinders in his good-natured\nefforts to help.\n\nThe child of six in IB has, not stories from English History, but\na definite quantity of consecutive reading, say, forty pages in\na term, from a well-written, well-considered, large volume which\nis also well-illustrated. Children cannot of course themselves\nread a book which is by no means written down to the \u2018child\u2019s\nlevel\u2019 so the teacher reads and the children \u2018tell\u2019 paragraph by\nparagraph, passage by passage. The teacher does not talk much and\nis careful never to interrupt a child who is called upon to \u2018tell.\u2019\nThe first efforts may be stumbling but presently the children get\ninto their \u2018stride\u2019 and \u2018tell\u2019 a passage at length with surprising\nfluency. The teacher probably allows other children to correct any\nfaults in the telling when it is over. The teacher\u2019s own really\ndifficult part is to keep up sympathetic interest by look and\noccasional word, by remarks upon a passage that has been narrated,\nby occasionally shewing pictures, and so on. But she will bear in\nmind that the child of six has begun the serious business of his\neducation, that it does not matter much whether he understands this\nword or that, but that it matters a great deal that he should learn\nto deal directly with books. Whatever a child or grown-up person\ncan tell, that we may be sure he knows, and what he cannot tell,\nhe does not know. Possibly this practice of \u2018telling\u2019 was more\nused in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than it is now. We\nremember how three gentlemen meet in _Henry VIII_ and one who has\njust come out of the Abbey from witnessing the coronation of Anne\nBoleyn is asked to tell the others about it, which he does with\nthe vividness and accuracy we obtain from children. In this case\nno doubt the \u2018telling\u2019 was a stage device, but would it have been\nadopted if such narration were not commonly practised? Even in our\nown day a good _raconteur_ is a welcome guest; and a generation or\ntwo ago the art was studied as a part of gentlemanly equipment. The\nobjection occurs that such a social accomplishment is unnecessary\nfor children and is a mere exercise of memory. Now a passage to be\nmemorised requires much conning, much repetition, and meanwhile the\nlearners are \u2018thinking\u2019 about other matters, that is, the _mind_\nis not at work in the act of memorising. To read a passage with\nfull attention and to tell it afterwards has a curiously different\neffect. M. Bergson makes the happy distinction between _word_\nmemory and _mind_ memory, which, once the force of it is realised,\nshould bring about sweeping changes in our methods of education.\n\nTrusting to mind memory we visualise the scene, are convinced by\nthe arguments, take pleasure in the turn of the sentences and frame\nour own upon them; in fact that particular passage or chapter has\nbeen received into us and become a part of us just as literally as\nwas yesterday\u2019s dinner; nay, more so, for yesterday\u2019s dinner is of\nlittle account to-morrow; but several months, perhaps years hence,\nwe shall be able to narrate the passage we had, so to say, consumed\nand grown upon with all the vividness, detail and accuracy of the\nfirst telling. All those powers of the mind which we call faculties\nhave been brought into play in dealing with the intellectual\nmatter thus afforded; so we may not ask questions to help the child\nto reason, paint fancy pictures to help him to imagine, draw out\nmoral lessons to quicken his conscience. These things take place as\ninvoluntarily as processes of digestion.\n\nChildren of seven are promoted to Form IA in which they remain\nfor a couple of years. They read from the same capital book, Mrs.\nMarshall\u2019s _Our Island Story_, and about the same number of pages\nin a term; but while the readings in IB are confined to the first\nthird of the book embodying the simpler and more direct histories,\nthose in IA go on to the end of the volume and children learn at\nany rate to love English history. \u201cI\u2019d a lot sooner have history\nthan my dinner,\u201d said a sturdy boy of seven by no means inclined to\nneglect his dinner.\n\nIn IA the history is amplified and illustrated by short biographies\nof persons connected with the period studied, Lord Clive, Nelson,\netc.; and Mrs. Frewen Lord\u2019s delightful _Tales from Westminster\nAbbey_ and _from St. Paul\u2019s_ help the children immensely in\nindividualising their heroes. It is good to hear them \u2018tell\u2019\nof Franklin, Nelson, Howard, Shaftesbury, and their delight in\nvisiting the monuments is very great. One would not think that\nDonne would greatly interest children but the excitement of a small\nparty in noticing the marks of the Great Fire still to be seen on\nhis monument was illuminating to lookers-on.\n\nPossibly there is no sounder method of inculcating a sane and\nserviceable patriotism than this of making children familiar with\nthe monuments of the great even if they have not the opportunity\nto see them. Form II (ages 9 to 12) have a more considerable\nhistorical programme which they cover with ease and enjoyment.\nThey use a more difficult book than in IA, an interesting\nand well-written history of England of which they read some\nfifty pages or so in a term. IIA read in addition and by way\nof illustration the chapters dealing with the social life of\nthe period in a volume, treating of social life in England. We\nintroduce children as early as possible to the contemporary history\nof other countries as the study of English history alone is apt to\nlead to a certain insular and arrogant habit of mind.\n\nNaturally we begin with French history and both divisions read from\nthe _First History of France_, very well written, the chapters\ncontemporary with the English history they are reading. The\nreadiness with which children write or tell of Richelieu, Colbert,\nBayard, justifies us in this early introduction of foreign history;\nand the lucidity and clearness with which the story is told in\nthe book they use results on the part of the children in such a\nknowledge of the history of France as throws light on that of their\nown country and certainly gives them the sense that history was\nprogressing everywhere much as it was at home during the period\nthey are reading about.\n\nThe study of ancient history which cannot be contemporaneous we\napproach through a chronologically-arranged book about the British\nMuseum (written for the scholars of the P.U.S. by the late Mrs.\nW. Epps who had the delightful gift of realising the progress of\nthe ages as represented in our great national storehouse). I have\nalready instanced a child\u2019s visit to the Parthenon Room and her\neager identification of what she saw with what she had read, and\nthat will serve to indicate the sort of key to ancient history\nafforded by this valuable book. Miss G. M. Bernau has added to the\nvalue of these studies by producing a \u2018Book of Centuries\u2019 in which\nchildren draw such illustrations as they come across of objects of\ndomestic use, of art, etc., connected with the century they are\nreading about. This slight study of the British Museum we find very\nvaluable; whether the children have or have not the opportunity of\nvisiting the Museum itself, they have the hope of doing so, and,\nbesides, their minds are awakened to the treasures of local museums.\n\nIn Form III children continue the same history of England as in II,\nthe same French history and the same British Museum Book, going on\nwith their \u2018Book of Centuries.\u2019 To this they add about twenty to\nthirty pages a term from a little book on Indian History, a subject\nwhich interests them greatly.\n\nSlight studies of the history of other parts of the British Empire\nare included under \u2018Geography.\u2019\n\nIn Form IV the children are promoted to Gardiner\u2019s _Student\u2019s\nHistory of England_, clear and able, but somewhat stiffer than that\nthey have hitherto been engaged upon, together with Mr. and Mrs.\nQuennell\u2019s _History of Everyday Things in England_ (which is used\nin Form III also). Form IV is introduced to outlines of European\nhistory. _The British Museum for Children_ and \u2018Book of Centuries\u2019\nare continued.\n\nIt is as teachers know a matter of extreme difficulty to find the\nexactly right book for children\u2019s reading in each subject and\nfor some years we have been regretting the fact that Lord\u2019s very\ndelightful _Modern Europe_[29] has been out of print.\n\nThe history studies of Forms V and VI (ages 15 to 18) are more\nadvanced and more copious and depend for illustration upon readings\nin the literature of the period. Green\u2019s _Shorter History of the\nEnglish People_ is the text-book in English history, amplified,\nfor example, by Macaulay\u2019s _Essays on Frederick the Great_ and the\n_Austrian Succession_, on _Pitt_ and _Clive_. For the same period\nwe use an American history of Western Europe and a very admirable\nhistory of France, well-translated from the original of M. Duruy.\nPossibly Madame de Sta\u00ebl\u2019s _L\u2019Allemagne_ or some other historical\nwork of equal calibre may occur in their reading of French. It is\nnot possible to continue the study of Greek and Roman history in\ndetail but an admirably written survey informed with enthusiasm is\nafforded by Professor de Burgh\u2019s _The Legacy of the Ancient World_.\nThe pupils make history charts for every hundred years on the plan\neither adapted or invented by the late Miss Beale of Cheltenham,\na square ruled into a hundred spaces ten in each direction with\nthe symbol in each square showing an event which lends itself to\nillustration during that particular ten years. Thus crossed battle\naxes represent a war.\n\nThe geographical aspects of history fall under \u2018Geography\u2019 as a\nsubject. This course of historical reading is valued exceedingly\nby young people as affording a knowledge of the past that bears\nupon and illuminates the present. The writer recollects meeting\na brilliant group of Oxford undergraduates, keen and full of\ninterest, but lamentably ignorant, who said, \u201cWe want to know\nsomething about history. What do you advise us to read? We know\nnothing.\u201d Perhaps no youth should go to College without some such\nrudimentary course of English, European, and, especially, French\nhistory, as is afforded by the programmes.[30] Such a general\nsurvey should precede any special course and should be required\nbefore the more academic studies designed to prepare students for\n\u2018research work.\u2019\n\nIt will be observed that the work throughout the Forms is always\nchronologically progressive. The young student rarely goes over\nold ground; but should it happen that the whole school has arrived\nat the end of 1920, say, and there is nothing for it but to begin\nagain, the books studied throw new light and bring the young\nstudents into line with modern research.\n\nBut any sketch of the history teaching in Forms V and VI in a given\nperiod depends upon a notice of the \u2018literature\u2019 set; for plays,\nnovels, essays, \u2018lives,\u2019 poems, are all pressed into service and\nwhere it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the\nperiod produced. Thus questions such as the following on a term\u2019s\nwork both test and record the reading of the term,--\u201cDescribe the\ncondition of (_a_) the clergy, (_b_) the army, (_c_) the navy,\n(_d_) the general public in and about 1685.\u201d \u201cTrace the rise of\nPrussia before Frederick the Great.\u201d \u201cWhat theories of government\nwere held by Louis XIV? Give some account of his great ministers.\u201d\n\u201cDescribe the rise of Russia and its condition at the opening of\nthe eighteenth century.\u201d \u201cSuppose Evelyn (Form VI) or Pepys (Form\nV) in counsel at the League of Nations, write his diary for three\ndays.\u201d \u201cSketch the character and manners of Addison. How does he\nappear in _Esmond_?\u201d\n\nIt is a great thing to possess a pageant of history in the\nbackground of one\u2019s thoughts. We may not be able to recall this or\nthat circumstance, but, \u2018the imagination is warmed\u2019; we know that\nthere is a great deal to be said on both sides of every question\nand are saved from crudities in opinion and rashness in action. The\npresent becomes enriched for us with the wealth of all that has\ngone before.\n\nPerhaps the gravest defect in school curricula is that they fail to\ngive a comprehensive, intelligent and interesting introduction to\nhistory. To leave off or even to begin with the history of our own\ncountry is fatal. We cannot live sanely unless we know that other\npeoples are as we are with a difference, that their history is as\nours, with a difference, that they too have been represented by\ntheir poets and their artists, that they too have their literature\nand their national life. We have been asleep and our awaking is\nrather terrible. The people whom we have not taught, rise upon us\nin their ignorance and \u2018the rabble,\u2019--\n\n \u201cAs the world were now but to begin\n Antiquity forgot, custom not known,\n They cry,--\u2018Choose we!\u2019\u201d\n (_Hamlet._)\n\nHeaven help their choice for choosing is indeed with them, and\nlittle do they know of those two ratifiers and props of every\npresent word and action, Antiquity and Custom! It is never too late\nto mend but we may not delay to offer such a liberal and generous\ndiet of History to every child in the country as shall give weight\nto his decisions, consideration to his actions and stability to his\nconduct; that stability, the lack of which has plunged us into many\na stormy sea of unrest.\n\nIt is to be noted that \u2018stability\u2019 is the mark of the educated\nclasses. When we reflect upon the disturbance of the national\nlife by labour unrest and, again, upon the fact that political\nand social power is passing into the hands of the majority, that\nis of the labouring classes, we cannot but feel that there is a\ndivine fitness, a providential adaptation in the circumstance\nthat the infinite educability of persons of all classes should\nbe disclosed to us as a nation at a time when an emotional and\nignorant labouring class is a peculiar danger. I am not sure that\nthe education implied in the old symbol of the ladder does make\nfor national tranquility. It is right that equal opportunity of\nbeing first should be afforded to all but that is no new thing. Our\nhistory is punctuated by men who have risen, and the Roman Church\nhas largely founded herself as has the Chinese Empire upon this\ndoctrine of equal opportunity. But let us remember that the men\nwho climb are apt to be uneasy members of society; the desire for\nknowledge for its own sake, on the other hand, finds satisfaction\nin knowledge itself.\n\nThe young men see visions; the hardships of daily life are\nameliorated, and while an alert and informed mind leads to decency\nand propriety of living it does not lead to the restless desire to\nsubvert society for the sake of the chances offered by a general\nupheaval. Wordsworth is right:--\n\n \u201cIf rightly trained and bred Humanity is humble.\u201d\n\nWe live in times critical for everybody but eminently critical for\nteachers because it rests with them to decide whether personal\nor general good should be aimed at, whether education shall be\nmerely a means of getting on or a means of general progress towards\nhigh thinking and plain living and therefore an instrument of the\ngreatest national good.[31]\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_b_) LITERATURE\n\nExcept in Form I the study of Literature goes _pari passu_ with\nthat of History. Fairy tales, (Andersen or Grimm, for example),\ndelight Form IB, and the little people re-tell these tales\ncopiously, vividly, and with the astonishing exactness we may\nexpect when we remember how seriously annoyed they are with\nthe story-teller who alters a phrase or a circumstance. \u00c6sop\u2019s\n_Fables_, too, are used with great success, and are rendered, after\nbeing once heard, with brevity and point, and children readily\nappropriate the moral. Mrs. Gatty\u2019s _Parables from Nature_, again,\nserve another purpose. They feed a child\u2019s sense of wonder and are\nvery good to tell. There is no attempt to reduce the work of this\nform, or any other, to a supposed \u2018child level.\u2019 Form IA (7 to 9)\nhears and tells chapter by chapter _The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress_ and the\nchildren\u2019s narrations are delightful. No beautiful thought or bold\nfigure escapes them. Andrew Lang\u2019s _Tales of Troy and Greece_, a\nbig volume, is a _pi\u00e8ce de resistance_ going on from term to term.\n\nThe great tales of the heroic age find their way to children\u2019s\nhearts. They conceive vividly and tell eagerly, and the difficult\nclassical names instead of being a stumbling-block are a delight,\nbecause, as a Master of a Council school says,--\n\n \u201cChildren have an instinctive power by which they are able to\n sense the meaning of a whole passage and even some difficult\n words.\u201d\n\nThat the sonorous beauty of these classical names appeals to them\nis illustrated by a further quotation from the same Master,--\n\n \u201cA boy of about seven in my school the other day asked his mother\n why she had not given him one of those pretty names they heard in\n the stories at school. He thought Ulysses a prettier name than\n his own, Kenneth, and that the mother of his playmate might have\n called him Achilles instead of Alan.\u201d\n\nThere is profound need to cultivate delight in beautiful names\nin days when we are threatened with the fear that London itself\nshould lose that rich halo of historic associations which glorifies\nits every street and alley, that it may be made like New York,\nand should name a street X500,--like a workhouse child without\ndesignation; an age when we express the glory and beauty of the\nnext highest peak of the Himalayas by naming it K2! In such an age,\nthis, of their inherent aptitude for beautiful names, is a lode of\nmuch promise in children\u2019s minds. The Kaffir who announced that\nhis name was \u2018Telephone\u2019 had an ear for sound. Kingsley\u2019s _Water\nBabies_, _Alice in Wonderland_, Kipling\u2019s _Just So Stories_, scores\nof exquisite classics written for children, but not written down to\nthem, are suitable at this stage.\n\nForm IIB has a considerable programme of reading, that is, not the\nmere mechanical exercise of reading but the reading of certain\nbooks. Therefore it is necessary that two years should be spent\nin Form IA and that in the second of these two years the children\nshould read a good deal of the set work for themselves. In IIB\nthey read their own geography, history, poetry, but perhaps\nShakespeare\u2019s _Twelfth Night_, say, Scott\u2019s _Rob Roy_, _Gulliver\u2019s\nTravels_, should be read to them and narrated by them until they\nare well in their tenth year. Their power to understand, visualise,\nand \u2018tell\u2019 a play of Shakespeare from nine years old and onwards is\nvery surprising. They put in nothing which is not there, but they\nmiss nothing and display a passage or a scene in a sort of curious\nrelief. One or two books of the calibre of _The Heroes of Asgard_\nare also included in the programme for the term.\n\nThe transition to Form IIA is marked by more individual reading\nas well as by a few additional books. The children read their\n\u2018Shakespeare play\u2019 in character. Certain Council School boys, we\nare told, insist on dramatising Scott as they read it. Bulfinch\u2019s\n_Age of Fable_ admits them to the rich imaginings of peoples who\ndid not yet know. Goldsmith\u2019s poems and Stevenson\u2019s _Kidnapped_,\netc., may form part of a term\u2019s work, and in each and all children\nshew the same surprising power of knowing, evinced by the one sure\ntest,--they are able to \u2018tell\u2019 each work they have read not only\nwith accuracy but with spirit and originality. How is it possible,\nit may be asked, to show originality in \u2018mere narration\u2019? Let us\nask Scott, Shakespeare, Homer, who told what they knew, that is\nnarrated, but with continual scintillations from their own genius\nplaying upon the written word. Just so in their small degree do the\nchildren narrate; they see it all so vividly that when you read or\nhear their versions the theme is illuminated for you too.\n\nChildren remain in Form II until they are twelve, and here I would\nremark on the evenness with which the power of children in dealing\nwith books is developed. We spread an abundant and delicate feast\nin the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can.\nThe child of genius and imagination gets greatly more than his\nduller comrade but all sit down to the same feast and each one gets\naccording to his needs and powers.\n\nThe surprises afforded by the dull and even the \u2018backward\u2019 children\nare encouraging and illuminating. We think we know that man is an\neducable being, but when we afford to children all that they want\nwe discover how straitened were our views, how poor and narrow\nthe education we offered. Even in so-called deficient children we\nperceive,--\n\n \u201cWhat a piece of work is man.... In apprehension, how like a god!\u201d\n\nIn Forms III and IV we introduce a _History of English Literature_\ncarefully chosen to afford sympathetic interest and delight while\navoiding stereotyped opinions and stale information. The portion\nread each term (say fifty pages) corresponds with the period\ncovered in history studies and the book is a great favourite with\nchildren. They have of course a great _flair_ for Shakespeare,\nwhether _King Lear_, _Twelfth Night_, _Henry V_, or some other\nplay, and _The Waverleys_ usually afford a contemporary tale.\nThere has been discussion in Elementary Schools as to whether\nan abridged edition would not give a better chance of getting\nthrough the novel set for a term, but strong arguments were brought\nforward at a conference of teachers in Gloucester in favour of\na complete edition. Children take pleasure in the \u2018dry\u2019 parts,\ndescriptions and the like, rendering these quite beautifully\nin their narrations. Form IV may have quite a wide course of\nreading. For instance if the historical period for a term include\nthe Commonwealth, they may read _L\u2019Allegro_, and _Il Penseroso_,\n_Lycidas_, and contemporary poets as represented in a good\nanthology, or, for a later period, Pope\u2019s _Rape of the Lock_, or\nGray\u2019s poems, while Form III read poems of Goldsmith and Burns. The\nobject of children\u2019s literary studies is not to give them precise\ninformation as to who wrote what in the reign of whom?--but to give\nthem a sense of the spaciousness of the days, not only of great\nElizabeth, but of all those times of which poets, historians and\nthe makers of tales, have left us living pictures. In such ways the\nchildren secure, not the sort of information which is of little\ncultural value, but wide spaces wherein imagination may take those\nholiday excursions deprived of which life is dreary; judgment, too,\nwill turn over these folios of the mind and arrive at fairly just\ndecisions about a given strike, the question of Poland, Indian\nUnrest. Every man is called upon to be a statesman seeing that\nevery man and woman, too, has a share in the government of the\ncountry; but statesmanship requires imaginative conceptions, formed\nupon pretty wide reading and some familiarity with historical\nprecedents.\n\nThe reading for Forms V and VI (ages 15 to 18) is more\ncomprehensive and more difficult. Like that in the earlier Forms,\nit follows the lines of the history they are reading, touching\ncurrent literature in the occasional use of modern books; but young\npeople who have been brought up on this sort of work may, we find,\nbe trusted to keep themselves _au fait_ with the best that is being\nproduced in their own days. Given the proper period, Form V would\ncover in a term Pope\u2019s _Essay on Man_, Carlyle\u2019s _Essay on Burns_,\nFrankfort Moore\u2019s _Jessamy Bride_, Goldsmith\u2019s _Citizen of the\nWorld_ (edited), Thackeray\u2019s _The Virginians_, the contemporary\npoets from an anthology. Form VI would read Boswell, _The Battle of\nthe Books_, Macaulay\u2019s _Essays_ on Goldsmith, Johnson, Pitt; the\ncontemporary poets from _The Oxford Book of Verse_, and both Forms\nread _She Stoops to Conquer_. This course of reading, it will be\nseen, is suggestive and will lead to much reading round and about\nit in later days. As for the amount covered in each Form, it is\nprobably about the amount most of us cover in the period of time\nincluded in a school term, but while we grown-up persons read and\nforget because we do not take the pains to _know_ as we read, these\nyoung students have the powers of perfect recollection and just\napplication because they have read with attention and concentration\nand have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration,\nor, the gist of some portion of it, in writing.\n\nThe children\u2019s answers[32] in their examination papers, show that\nliterature has become a living power in the minds of these young\npeople.\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_c_) MORALS AND ECONOMICS: CITIZENSHIP\n\nLike Literature this subject, too, is ancillary to History. In Form\nI, children begin to gather conclusions as to the general life of\nthe community from tales, fables and the story of one or another\ngreat citizen. In Form II, Citizenship becomes a definite subject\nrather from the point of view of what may be called the inspiration\nof citizenship than from that of the knowledge proper to a citizen,\nthough the latter is by no means neglected. We find Plutarch\u2019s\n_Lives_ exceedingly inspiring. These are read aloud by the teacher\n(with suitable omissions) and narrated with great spirit by the\nchildren. They learn to answer such questions as,--\u201cIn what ways\ndid Pericles make Athens beautiful? How did he persuade the people\nto help him?\u201d And we may hope that the idea is engendered of\npreserving and increasing the beauty of their own neighbourhood\nwithout the staleness which comes of much exhortation. Again, they\nwill answer,--\u201cHow did Pericles manage the people in time of war\nlest they should force him to act against his own judgment?\u201d And\nfrom such knowledge as this we may suppose that the children begin\nto get a sympathetic view of the problems of statesmanship. Then,\nto come to our own time, they are enabled to answer,--\u201cWhat do\nyou know of (_a_) County Councils, (_b_) District Councils, (_c_)\nParish Councils?\u201d--knowledge which should make children perceive\nthat they too are being prepared to become worthy citizens, each\nwith his several duties. Our old friend Mrs. Beesley\u2019s _Stories\nfrom the History of Rome_ helps us here in Form IIB instead of\nPlutarch, illumined by Macaulay\u2019s _Lays of Ancient Rome_. In giving\nchildren the knowledge of men and affairs which we class under\n\u2018Citizenship\u2019 we have to face the problem of good and evil. Many\nearnest-minded teachers will sympathise with one of their number\nwho said,--\n\n \u201cWhy give children the tale of Circe, in which there is such\n an offensive display of greediness, why not bring them up\n exclusively on heroic tales which offer them something to live up\n to? Time is short. Why not use it all in giving examples of good\n life and instruction in good manners?\u201d\n\nAgain,--\n\n \u201cWhy should they read any part of _Childe Harold_, and so become\n familiar with a poet whose works do not make for edification?\u201d\n\nNow Plutarch is like the Bible in this, that he does not label the\nactions of his people as good or bad but leaves the conscience\nand judgment of his readers to make that classification. What to\navoid and how to avoid it, is knowledge as important to the citizen\nwhether of the City of God or of his own immediate city, as to know\nwhat is good and how to perform the same. Children recognise with\nincipient weariness the doctored tale as soon as it is begun to be\ntold, but the human story with its evil and its good never flags in\ninterest. Jacob does not pall upon us though he was the elect of\nGod. We recognise the justice of his own verdict on himself, \u201cfew\nand evil have been the days of my life.\u201d We recognise the finer\nintegrity of the foreign kings and rulers that he is brought in\ncontact with, just as in the New Testament the Roman Centurion is\nin every case a finer person than the religious Jew. Perhaps we\nare so made that the heroic which is all heroic, the good which\nis all virtuous, palls upon us, whereas we preach little sermons\nto ourselves on the text of the failings and weaknesses of those\ngreat ones with whom we become acquainted in our reading. Children\nlike ourselves must see life whole if they are to profit. At the\nsame time they must be protected from grossness and rudeness by\nmeans of the literary medium through which they are taught. A daily\nnewspaper is not on a level with Plutarch\u2019s _Lives_, nor with\nAndrew Lang\u2019s _Tales of Troy and Greece_, though possibly the same\nclass of incidents may appear in both. The boy, or girl, aged from\nten to twelve, who is intimate with a dozen or so of Plutarch\u2019s\n_Lives_, so intimate that they influence his thought and conduct,\nhas learned to put his country first and to see individuals only as\nthey serve or dis-serve the State. Thus he gets his first lesson in\nthe science of proportion. Children familiar with the great idea\nof a State in the sense, not of a government but of the people,\nlearn readily enough about the laws, customs and government of\ntheir country; learn, too, with great interest something about\nthemselves, mind and body, heart and soul, because they feel it is\nwell to know what they have it in them to give to their country.\n\nWe labour under a difficulty in choosing books which has exercised\nall great thinkers from Plato to Erasmus, from Erasmus to the\nanxious Heads of schools to-day. I mean the coarseness and\ngrossness which crop up in scores of books desirable otherwise for\ntheir sound learning and judgment. Milton assures us with strong\nasseveration that to the pure all things are pure; but we are\nuneasy. When pupils in the higher forms read the _Areopagitica_\nthey are safeguarded in some measure because they perceive that to\nsee impurity is to be impure. The younger children are helped by\nthe knowledge we offer them in _Ourselves_, and chastely taught\nchildren learn to watch over their thoughts \u2018because of the\nangels.\u2019 So far as we can get them we use expurgated editions; in\nother cases the book is read aloud by the teacher with necessary\nomissions. We are careful not to associate the processes of nature\nwhether in the plant or animal world with possible thoughts of\nimpurity in the mind of a child. One point I should like to touch\nupon in this connection. The excessive countenance sometimes\nafforded to games by the Heads of schools is not altogether for the\nsake of distinction in the games. \u201cI keep under my body,\u201d says St.\nPaul, and games which exhaust the physical powers have as their\nunspoken _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ the desire to keep boys and girls decent.\nNo doubt they do so to some extent though painful occurrences\ncome to light in even the best schools. Now a fact not generally\nrecognised is that offences of the kind which most distress parents\nand teachers are _bred in the mind_ and in an empty mind at that.\nThat is why parents, who endeavour to save their sons from the\ncorruption of the Public School by having them taught at home,\nare apt to miss their mark. The abundant leisure afforded by home\nteaching offers that empty chamber swept and garnished which\ninvites sins that can be committed in thought and in solitude. Our\nschools err, too, in not giving anything like enough work of the\nkind that from its absorbing interest compels reflection and tends\nto secure a mind continually and wholesomely occupied. Supply a\nboy with abundant mental pabulum, not in the way of desultory\nreading, (that is a sort of idleness which leads to mischief), but\nin the way of matter to be definitely known, give him much and\nsound food for his imagination, speculation, aspiration, and you\nhave a wholesome-minded youth to whom work is a joy and games not a\nstrain but a healthy relaxation and pleasure. I make no apology for\nwhat may appear like a divergence from the subject of citizenship,\nbecause all boys and girls should know that they owe a sound mind\nand a sound body as their personal contribution alike to their city\nand their State.\n\n_Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies_ (by the Writer) is much used\nin the P.U.S., as I know of no other attempt to present such a\nground plan of human nature as should enable the young student to\nknow where he is in his efforts to \u2018be good\u2019 as the children say.\nThe point of view taken in this volume is, that all beautiful and\nnoble possibilities are present in every one; but that each person\nis subject to assaults and hindrances in various ways of which he\nshould be aware in order that he may watch and pray. Hortatory\nteaching is apt to bore both young people and their elders; but an\nordered presentation of the possibilities and powers that lie in\nhuman nature, and of the risks that attend these, can hardly fail\nto have an enlightening and stimulating effect.\n\nBut the objects we have in view in teaching \u2018Everyday Morals\u2019 and\n\u2018Citizenship\u2019 cannot be better illustrated than by a few papers[33]\nwritten by children of various ages, dealing with self management,\nand exemplifying the virtues that help and serve city and country.\n\u201cOh dear,\u201d said a little girl coming out of a swimming bath, \u201cI\u2019m\njust like Julius C\u00e6sar, I don\u2019t care to do a thing at all if I\u2019m\nnot best at it.\u201d So, in unlikely ways, and from unlikely sources,\ndo children gather that little code of principles which shall guide\ntheir lives.\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_d_) COMPOSITION\n\nComposition in Form I (A and B) is almost entirely oral and is so\nmuch associated with Bible history, English history, geography,\nnatural history, that it hardly calls for a special place on the\nprogramme, where however it does appear as \u2018Tales.\u2019 In few things\ndo certain teachers labour in vain more than in the careful and\nmethodical way in which they teach composition to young children.\nThe drill that these undergo in forming sentences is unnecessary\nand stultifying, as much so perhaps as such drill would be in the\nacts of mastication and deglutination. Teachers err out of their\nexceeding goodwill and generous zeal. They feel that they cannot\ndo too much for children and attempt to do for them those things\nwhich they are richly endowed to do for themselves. Among these\nis the art of composition, that art of \u2018telling\u2019 which culminates\nin a Scott or a Homer and begins with the toddling persons of\ntwo and three who talk a great deal to each other and are surely\nengaged in \u2018telling\u2019 though no grown-up, not even a mother, can\nunderstand. But children of six can tell to amazing purpose. The\ngrown-up who writes the tale to their \u2018telling\u2019 will cover many\npages before getting to the end of \u201cHans and Gretel\u201d or \u201cThe Little\nMatch Girl\u201d or a Bible story. The facts are sure to be accurate and\nthe expression surprisingly vigorous, striking and unhesitating.\nProbably few grown-ups could \u2018tell\u2019 one of \u00c6sop\u2019s _Fables_ with\nthe terse directness which children reproduce. Neither are the\nchildren\u2019s narrations incoherent; they go on with their book,\nweek by week, whatever comes at a given time,--whether it be\nMrs. Gatty\u2019s _Parables from Nature_, Andersen or Grimm or _The\nPilgrim\u2019s Progress_, from the point where they left off,--and there\nnever is a time when their knowledge is scrappy. They answer such\nquestions as,--\u201cTell about the meeting of Ulysses and Telemachus,\u201d\nor, \u201cabout Jason and Hera.\u201d \u201cTell how Christian and Hopeful met\nwith Giant Despair,\u201d or, \u201cabout the Shining Ones.\u201d\n\nChildren are in Form IA from 7 to 9 and their reading is wider\nand their composition more copious. They will \u2018tell\u2019 in their\nexaminations about the Feeding of the Four Thousand, about the\nBuilding of the Tabernacle, How Doubting Castle was demolished,\nabout the burning of Old St. Paul\u2019s, How we know that the world is\nround and a great deal besides; for all their work lends itself to\noral composition and the power of such composition is innate in\nchildren and is not the result of instruction. Two or three points\nare important. Children in IB require a quantity of matter to be\nread to them, graduated, not according to their powers which are\nalways present, but they require a little time to employ their\npower of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of\nfluent narration. So probably young children should be allowed to\nnarrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of seven or eight\nwill \u2018tell\u2019 chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during\nthe act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed.\n\nChildren must not be teased or instructed about the use of stops\nor capital letters. These things too come by nature to the child\nwho reads, and the teacher\u2019s instructions are apt to issue in the\nuse of a pepper box for commas. We do not say that children should\nnever read well-intentioned second-rate books, but certainly they\nshould not read these in school hours by way of lessons. From their\nearliest days they should get the habit of reading literature which\nthey should take hold of for themselves, much or little, in their\nown way. As the object of every writer is to explain himself in\nhis own book, the child and the author must be trusted together,\nwithout the intervention of the middle-man. What his author does\nnot tell him he must go without knowing for the present. No\nexplanation will really help him, and explanations of words and\nphrases spoil the text and should not be attempted unless children\nask, What does so and so mean? when other children in the class\nwill probably tell.\n\nForm II (A and B), (ages 9 to 12). Children in this Form have\na wider range of reading, a more fertile field of thought, and\nmore delightful subjects for composition. They write their little\nessays themselves, and as for the accuracy of their knowledge\nand justice of their expression, why, \u2018still the wonder grows.\u2019\nThey will describe their favourite scene from _The Tempest_ or\n_Woodstock_. They write or \u2018tell\u2019 stories from work set in Plutarch\nor Shakespeare or tell of the events of the day. They narrate from\nEnglish, French and General History, from the Old and the New\nTestament, from _Stories from the History of Rome_, from Bulfinch\u2019s\n_Age of Fable_, from, for example, Goldsmith\u2019s or Wordsworth\u2019s\npoems, from _The Heroes of Asgard_: in fact, Composition is not\nan adjunct but an integral part of their education in every\nsubject. The exercise affords very great pleasure to children,\nperhaps we all like to tell what we know, and in proportion as\ntheir composition is entirely artless, it is in the same degree\nartistic and any child is apt to produce a style to be envied for\nits vigour and grace. But let me again say there must be no attempt\nto teach composition. Our failure as teachers is that we place too\nlittle dependence on the intellectual power of our scholars, and\nas they are modest little souls what the teacher kindly volunteers\nto do for them, they feel that they cannot do for themselves. But\ngive them a fair field and no favour and they will describe their\nfavourite scene from the play they have read, and much besides.\n\nForms III and IV. In these Forms as in I and II what is called\n\u2018composition\u2019 is an inevitable consequence of a free yet exact use\nof books and requires no special attention until the pupil is old\nenough to take of his own accord a critical interest in the use of\nwords. The measured cadences of verse are as pleasing to children\nas to their elders. Many children write verse as readily as prose,\nand the conciseness and power of bringing their subject matter to\na point which this form of composition requires affords valuable\nmental training. One thing must be borne in mind. Exercises in\nscansion are as necessary in English as in Latin verse. Rhythm and\naccent on the other hand take care of themselves in proportion as a\nchild is accustomed to read poetry. In III and IV as in the earlier\nForms, the matter of their reading during the term, topics of the\nday, and the passing of the Seasons, afford innumerable subjects\nfor short essays or short sets of verses of a more abstract nature\nin IV than in III: the point to be considered is that the subject\nbe one on which, to quote again Jane Austen\u2019s expression, the\nimagination of the children has been \u2018warmed,\u2019 They should be asked\nto write upon subjects which have interested them keenly. Then when\nthe terminal examination comes they will respond to such a question\nas,--\u201cWrite twelve lines (which must scan) on \u2018Sir Henry Lee,\u2019 or\n\u2018Cordelia,\u2019 or Pericles, or Livingstone,\u201d or, to take a question\nfrom the early day\u2019s of the War, \u201cDiscuss Lord Derby\u2019s Scheme. How\nis it working?\u201d; or, (IV) an essay on \u201cThe new army in the making,\nshewing what some of the difficulties have been and what has been\nachieved.\u201d\n\nForms V and VI. In these Forms some definite teaching in the art\nof composition is advisable, but not too much, lest the young\nscholars be saddled with a stilted style which may encumber them\nfor life. Perhaps the method of a University tutor is the best that\ncan be adopted; that is, a point or two might be taken up in a\ngiven composition and suggestions or corrections made with little\ntalk. Having been brought up so far upon stylists the pupils are\nalmost certain to have formed a good style; because they have been\nthrown into the society of _many_ great minds, they will not make a\nservile copy of any one but will shape an individual style out of\nthe wealth of material they possess; and because they have matter\nin abundance and of the best they will not write mere verbiage.\nHere is an example of a programme set for a term\u2019s work in these\ntwo Forms,--\u201cA good pr\u00e9cis; letters to _The Times_ on topics of the\nday; subjects taken from the term\u2019s work in history and literature;\nor notes on a picture study; dialogues between characters occurring\nin your literature and history studies; ballads on current events;\n(VI) essays on events and questions of the day; a patriotic play in\nverse or prose.\u201d Here are questions set for another term,--\u201cWrite\na p\u00e6an, rhymed or in blank verse, on the Prince of Wales\u2019s tour\nin the Dominions.\u201d \u201cAn essay, dated 1930, on the imagined work of\nthe League of Nations.\u201d Form V, \u201cWrite a woeful ballad touching\nthe condition of Ireland, or, a poem on the King\u2019s garden party to\nthe V.C.\u2019s.\u201d \u201cAn essay on the present condition of England, or, on\nPresident Wilson.\u201d\n\nThe response of the young students to such a scheme of study is\nvery delightful. What they write has literary and sometimes poetic\nvalue, and the fact that they can write well is the least of the\ngains acquired. They can read, appreciating every turn of their\nauthor\u2019s thought; and they can bring cultivated minds to bear on\nthe problems of the hour and the guiding of the State; that is\nto say, their education bears at every point on the issues and\ninterests of every day life, and they shew good progress in the art\nof becoming the magnanimous citizens of the future. Here are a few\nexamples[34] of the compositions of the several Forms.\n\n\n(F. B. IIA. Council School.)\n\nARMISTICE DAY\n\n Soldiers dying, soldiers dead,\n Bullets whizzing overhead.\n Tommies standing cheerily by.\n Waiting for their time to die;\n Soon the lull of firing comes,\n And naught is heard but the roll of drums.\n\n And now the last shell crashes down,\n A soldier reels in pain\n Too late the glad news comes to him.\n He never moves again,\n He is the Unknown Warrior,\n A man without a name.\n\n Two years have passed and home he comes,\n To the hearts that loved him well,\n Who is the Unknown Warrior,?\n No lips the tale can tell,\n His tomb is in the Abbey,\n Where the souls of Heroes dwell.\n\n A nations sorrow and a nations tears,\n Have gone with the nameless man,\n Who knows, who can tell, the Warriors name,\n We think that no man can,\n So let our sorrow turn to joy\n On the grave of the Unknown man.\n\n\n(A. B. 13\u00be. III.)\n\n_Write some lines, in blank verse, that must scan on one of the\nfollowing: (a), Scylla and Charybdis; (b), The White Lady of\nAvenel; (c), The Prince of Wales in India._\n\nTHE WHITE LADY OF AVENEL\n\n The sun had set and night was drawing on,\n The hills stood black against the twilight sky.\n A faint young crescent moon shone dimly forth\n Casting a pale and ghostly radiance\n Upon the group of pine trees on the hill,\n And silvering the rivers eddying swirl.\n Now all was silent, not a sound disturbed\n The summer night, and not a breath of wind\n Stirred in the pines. All nature slept in peace.\n But what was that, standing up in the shade?\n A woman, straight, and slim, all clad in white,\n Upon her long soft hair a misty crown,\n And ever and anon she deeply sighed,\n Leaning against the rugged mountain rock,\n Like to a moon beam, or a wisp of smoke.\n And on her shimmering, moonlit, robe she wore\n A golden girdle, in whose links was woven\n The fortunes of the house of Avenel.\n A cloud past o\u2019er the moon, and the slim ghost\n Faded and disapeared into the air.\n A breeze sprang up among the pine trees tall;\n And then the river murmuring on its way\n Whispered a sad lament unto the night.\n\n\n(K. L. 13\u00bd. III.)\n\n_Write in Ballad Metre some lines on \u201cArmistice Day\u201d or \u201cEcho.\u201d_\n\nARMISTICE DAY, or THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR\n\n Within the ancient Abbey\u2019s sacred pyle,\n Which proudly guards the noblest of our dead.\n Where kings and statesmen lie in every aisle,\n And honoured poets, soldiers, priests are laid;\n\n Behold a stranger comes. From whence is he?\n Is he of noble birth; of rank or fame?\n Was he as great as any whom we see\n Around, who worked to make themselves a name?\n\n Surely he is a prince, nay, e\u2019en a king?\n For see the waiting thousands gathered here;\n And hear the streets of ancient London ring\n To the slow tramp of men who guard his bier!\n\n And, surely, \u2019tis the King himself who comes\n As chiefest mourner on this solemn day,\n And these who walk behind him are his sons--\n All here to mourn this man. Who is he? Say!\n\n How long the ranks of men who follow him\n To his last resting-place--the House of God.\n Our bishops, soldiers, statesmen all are here,\n Gathered to lay him in his native sod.\n\n You ask \u201cIs he a prince?\u201d I answer \u201cNo!\n Though none could be interred with greater state!\n This man went forth to guard us from a foe,\n Which threatened this our land--He did his work!\u201d\n\n He raised the flag of Liberty on high\n And challenging the powers of Wrong and Might\n He gave up all he had without a sigh\n And died for the good cause of God and Right.\n\n\nNor is a sense of humour wanting,--\n\n(M. O. 13. III.)\n\n_Write in Ballad Metre some lines on \u201cEcho.\u201d_\n\nECHO\n\n Jupiter once went away from his wife\n To flirt with some nymphs in a wood\n But Juno, suspecting that he was with them\n Came after as fast as she could.\n\n Now Echo, a nymph, knew that Juno was there\n That the nymphs they would soon be found out,\n And so she kept Juno away from the wood\n For if they had gone she did doubt.\n\n But Juno knew all; and her anger was great\n And Echo this dreadful thing heard\n \u201cSince you are so fond of talking, from now\n You only shall have the last word!\u201d\n\n Now Echo went far from the dwellings of men\n And spent her sad life all alone\n And often she\u2019d weep and think of the past\n And over her fate make her moan.\n\n Echo loved a Greek youth, but he could not love her.\n And she watched him all day from her bower\n Till she pined away, all but her voice, which lives still,\n And the youth was turned into a flower.\n\n\n(R. C. 15. III. Elementary, Convent School.)\n\n_Write some verses on (a) \u2018Dandie Dinmont,\u2019 or, (b) \u2018Atalanta,\u2019 or,\n(c) Allenby._\n\n Atlanta was a huntress,\n Who dearly loved the chase.\n She out-ran the deer in fleetness,\n And possessed a lovely face.\n\n Many eager suiters sought her,\n But they sought her all in vain,\n For she vowed she\u2019d never marry\n And her suiters all were slain.\n\n She had heeded well the warning,\n From a witch well skilled in lore,\n Who had told her if she married,\n Happiness was hers no more.\n\n Then a youth whom Venus favoured,\n Came one day to run the race,\n And by throwing golden apples,\n He out-ran her in the chase.\n\n In their hour of joy and triumph\n Venus they forget to thank,\n And the goddess sore offended,\n Lowered them to the wild beast\u2019s rank.\n\n\n(J. T. III.)\n\n Pha\u00ebton was a wilful youth who always got his way.\n He asked to drive his father\u2019s charge upon a certain day.\n But Ph\u0153bus knowing well what danger lurk\u00e9th in the sky,\n Implored of him to wish again and not that task to try.\n But Pha\u00ebton determined was to best this dangerous way,\n And leaped into the chariot to spite his father\u2019s sway.\n The horses started forward at a dashing headlong pace,\n Pha\u00ebton tried to hold them back and modify the race.\n With dreadful swiftness on he flew, losing his proper road,\n The earth and sky began to smoke in an alarming mode.\n At length when all had burst in flames, Jupiter cried aloud,\n Pha\u00ebton who had lost his head was killed beneath a cloud.\n\n\n(H. E. M. 15-8/12 IV.)\n\n_Write thirty lines of blank verse on (a), \u201cA Spring Morning\u201d\n(following \u201cA Winter Morning Walk\u201d), or, (b), Pegasus, or, (c),\nAllenby._\n\nA SPRING MORNING.\n\n \u2019Tis Spring; and now the birds with merry song\n Sing with full-throated voice to the blue sky\n On which small clouds float, soft as a dove\u2019s wing.\n Against the blue the pale-green leaflet gleams.\n The darker green of elder, further down,\n Sets off the brilliance of the hawthorn-hedge.\n Close to the ground, the purple violet peeps\n From out its nest of overhanging leaves.\n On yonder bank the daffodils toss their heads\n Under the shady lichen trees so tall.\n Close by a chesnut, bursting into leaf,\n Drops down it\u2019s sticky calyx on the ground;\n An early bumble-bee dives headlong in\n To a half-opened flower of early pear.\n O\u2019erhead, in the tall beech trees, busy rooks,\n With great caw-caws and many angry squawks\n Build their great clumsy nests with bits of twig\n And little sticks just laid upon a bough.\n And by the long, straight, path tall fir trees wave\n Their graceful heads in the soft whisp\u2019ring breeze\n And pressed against one ruddy trunk, an owl\n In vain tries to avoid the light of day,\n But blinks his wise old eyes, and shakes himself,\n And nestles close amid the sheltering leaves.\n Now on the rhubarb-bed we see, glad sight,\n Large red buttons, which promise fruit quite soon\n And further down the lettuce shoots up pale\n Next to a row of parsley, getting old.\n But see the peas, their curly tendrils green\n Clinging to their stout pea-sticks for support.\n\n\n(B. B. 15. IV.)\n\nA SPRING MORNING\n\n Soft on the brown woods\n A pale light gleams,\n And slowly spreading seems\n To change the brown wood to a land of dreams,\n Where beneath the trees\n The great god Pan,\n Doth pipe, half goat, half man,\n To satyrs dancing in the dawning wan.\n And then comes Ph\u0153bus,\n The visions fade\n And down the dewy glade\n The rabbits scuttle o\u2019er the rings they made.\n In the fields near-by\n The cattle rise\n And where the river lies\n A white mist rises to the welcoming skies.\n Where the downs arise\n And blue sky crowns\n Their heads, fast o\u2019er the mounds\n The mist is driv\u2019n to where the ocean sounds.\n White wings against blue sky,\n Gulls from the cliffs rise,\n Watching, with eyes\n That see from shore to where the sky line lies,\n Where blue sea fades in bluer skies\n Soft, doth the tide creep\n O\u2019er the golden sands\n With sea-weed strands\n Which, mayhap, knew the dawn of other lands.\n\n\n(R. B. IV.)\n\n_Write thirty lines of blank verse on \u201cPegasus.\u201d_\n\n The sky was blue and flecked with tiny clouds\n Like sheep they ran before the driving wind\n The sun was setting like a big red rose\n The clouds that flew by him like rose-buds were\n And as I gaz\u2019d I saw a little cloud\n White as the flower that rises in the spring\n Come nearer, nearer, nearer as I looked\n And as it came it took a diff\u2019rent shape\n It seemed to turn into a fairy steed.\n White as the foam that rides the roaring waves\n Still it flew on until it reached the earth\n And galloping full lightly came to me\n And then I saw it was a wondrous thing\n It leapt about the grass and gently neighed\n I heard its voice sound like a crystal flute\n \u201cOh come\u201d he said \u201cwith me ascend the sky\n Above the trees, above the hills we\u2019ll soar\n Until we reach the home of all the gods\n There will we stay and feast awhile with them\n And dance with Juno and her maidens fair\n And hear dear Orpheus and the pipes of Pan\n And wander, wander, wander up above\u201d\n \u201cOh fairy steed, oh angel steed\u201d I said\n \u201cHorse fit for Jupiter himself to ride\n What is thy name I pray thee tell me this\u201d\n Then came the magic voice of him again\n \u201cIf thou wilt know my name then come with me.\u201d\n Yet tell me first I hesitating said\n He told me and when I had heard the name\n I leapt upon his back and flew with him.\n\n\n(A. B. 16. V.)\n\n_Some verses, in the metre of Pope\u2019s \u201cEssay on Man,\u201d on the meeting\nof the League of Nations._\n\n From each proud kingdom and each petty state\n The statesmen meet together to debate\n Upon the happy time when wars shall cease\n And joy shall reign, and universal peace.\n No more shall day with radience cruelly bright\n Glare down upon the carnage of the fight.\n No more shall night\u2019s dark cloak be rent aside\n By flashing shells and searchlight\u2019s stealthy glide\n No more shall weary watchers wait at home\n With straining eyes for those that cannot come\n The nations shall forget their strife and greed\n The strong shall help the weak in time of need\n May they succeed in every peaceful plan\n If war can cease as long as man is man.\n\n\n(E. H. 16-11/12. V.)\n\n_Gather up in blank verse the impressions you have received from\nyour reading of Tennyson\u2019s poems._\n\n Take up a volume of the poet\u2019s works,\n Read on, lay it aside, and take thy pen,\n Endeavour in a few, poor, worthless lines\n To give expression of thy sentiments....\n Surely this man loved all the joys of life,\n Saw beauty in the smallest and the least,\n Put plainer things that hitherto were dim,\n And lit a candle in the darkest room.\n His thoughts, now sad, now gay, may surely be\n The solace sweet for many a weary hour,\n His words, drunk deeply, seem to live and burn\n Clear, radiant, gleaming from the printed page.\n Nature to him was dear and so has made\n Her wiles for other men a treasure vast.\n Old Books, his master mind could comprehend\n Are shown to us as pictures to a child.\n Read on--and when the volume\u2019s put away,\n Muse on the learnings thou hast found therein;\n The time thus spent thou never will repent,\n For love of good things all should seek and find.\n\n\n(E. P. H. 16-11/12 V.)\n\nA LULLABY SONG\n\n The little waves are sighing on the shore,\n And the little breezes sobbing in the trees;\n But the little stars are shining,\n In the sky\u2019s blue velvet lining,\n And Lady Sleep is tapping at the door.\n\n The little gulls are flying home to shore,\n And the little lights are flashing from the ships,\n But close your eyes, my sweet,\n And be ready then to greet\n Dear Lady Sleep who\u2019s tapping at the door.\n\n The wind is rising all around the shore,\n And the fishing boats speed home before the gale;\n But hark not to the rain\n That is lashing on the pane,\n For Lady Sleep has entered by the door.\n\n The storm has sunk the ships and swept the shore,\n But there\u2019s weeping in the town and on the quay,\n But, sweet, you\u2019re dreaming fast\n Even though the dawn be past,\n And Lady Sleep has gone, and closed the door.\n\n\n(M. H. 17\u2153. VI.)\n\n_Write a letter in the manner of Gray on any Modern Topic._\n\n Mr. Gray to Mr. ---- At Torquay.\n\n My dear ----\n\n \u201cSavez vous que je vous hais, que je vous deteste--voici des\n termes un peu forts,\u201d still, I think that they are justified,\n imagine leaving a friend for two months in this place without\n once taking up the pen upon his behalf. If this neglect be due\n only to your low spirits, I will for once pardon you but only\n upon condition that you should come down here to visit me and at\n the same time strengthen your constitution. I can promise you but\n little diversion, but I think that the scenery will repay the\n journey--not to speak of myself. You will also be able to study\n many \u201cvenerable vegetables\u201d which are not usually to be found in\n England. But, I waste your time and my paper with these \u201cb\u00eatises\u201d\n and I know well upon what subject your mind is at present\n dwelling--which of us indeed is not thinking of Ireland. I would\n give much to hear your views upon the subject. For my part it\n seems to me that there can be but one true view, and it surprises\n me mightily to hear so much discussion upon the subject. Are we\n not truly a peculiar nation who pass bills of Home Rule etc.,\n with much discussion and debate, when neither of the two parties\n concerned will accept the conditions that we offer them? The one\n considering they give too little freedom, and the other too much.\n Accursed be the man who invented a bill which was and will be the\n cause of so much trouble \u201cin s\u00e6cula s\u00e6culorum.\u201d Surely we need\n not have any doubt as to what line of action we should adopt,\n surely it has not been the habit of England to let her subjects\n revolt without an attempt to quell them, surely the government\n will not stand by and see its servants murdered, and the one\n loyal province oppressed. But alas many things are possible with\n such a government. Here it is said by people who have been driven\n from that country by incendiaries that the Government will let\n things take their course till everything is in such a condition\n that the Premier will rise in the house and say \u201cYou see how\n things stand--it is no use trying to control Ireland, let us\n leave it to the Seinn Feiners, and live happily ever afterwards,\n free from such unprofitable cares.\u201d\n\n Such is the talk, but I believe it not. We have as a nation\n always muddled things but we have muddled through triumphant\n in the end. It is so obvious that our interests and those of\n Ireland co-incide, that even to contemplate separation is to me\n incredible.\n\n Thus I remain your harassed friend, etc.\n\n\n(N. S. 15-10/12. VI.)\n\n_Gather up in blank verse the impressions you have received from\nyour reading of Tennyson\u2019s poems._\n\nON READING TENNYSON\u2019S POEMS.\n\n Oh! Prophet of an era yet to come,\n When men shall sing where men were wont to speak\n In words which even Englishmen knew not.\n And when I read thy songs, at once I felt\n The breath of Nature that was lurking there.\n And then I knew that all thy life thou dwelt\n Amid the changing scenes of Nature\u2019s play,\n And knew the very language of the birds,\n And drank the essence of the honeysuckle.\n And when thou wast but young, I knew thy thoughts,\n Thy Doubts and struggles, for thou gave them me;\n And yet, had I been thee, my thoughts would still\n Have rested deep within my heart; but still\n T\u2019would be relief to pour out all my woes\n In the sweet flow of sympathetic verse.\n Thy epithets produce a vivid scene\n Of knights in armour or of maiden fair,\n And yet, methinks, the fairness of her face\n Doth sometimes cover many a fault below.\n But to thy genius and thy work for ever\n Be owed a debt of thankfulness that we\n No longer tread the paths of level Pope\n Or read those words that are not English-born.\n\n\n(K. B. 16. V.)\n\nTHE CLOUDS\n\n Among the spirits of the nearer air\n There are three children of the sun and sea--\n The Genii of the clouds; it is their care\n To give the ocean\u2019s bounty to the earth:\n Oft they retain it in a time of dearth,\n But they give all, however much it be.\n\n The youngest of the three is very fair;\n She is a maiden beautiful and sweet,\n Of ever varying mood, changeful as air.\n Now, plunged in merriment, she takes delight\n In all she sees, now tears obscure her sight;\n A breeze-swept lake shows not a change more fleet.\n\n The fleecy clouds of April own her sway--\n They, golden, lie against the golden sun,\n Or sport across the blue when she is gay;\n But when, anon, her girlish passions rise,\n She marshalls them across the sunny skies\n To flood the earth, then stops ere half begun.\n\n Her elder brother is of different mien,\n The clouds he governs are of different mould;\n When the earth pants for moisture he is seen\n To spread his clouds across the filmy blue.\n When his rain falls, it steady is and true;\n Persistent, gentle, ceaseless, yet not cold.\n\n From the grey bowl with which he caps the earth,\n It sweetly falls with earth-renewing force.\n Not April\u2019s rapid change from grief to mirth\n Excites its fall, but calm, determined thought\n Of middle age, of deeds from judgment wrought;\n He recks not blame, but still pursues his course.\n\n Aged, yet of awesome beauty is the third,\n Of flashing eye and sullen, scornful brow--\n With an imperious hand she guides her herd\n Of wild, tempestuous mood; quick roused to ire\n Is she, slow to forgive, of vengeance dire;\n Before her awful glance the tree-tops bow.\n\n And when enraged, she stretches forth a hand--\n A long, thin hand--to North, South, East and West,\n And draws from thence clouds num\u2019rous as the sand;\n They crowd on the horizon, and blot out\n The sun\u2019s fair light; then, like a giant\u2019s shout,\n The thunder booms at her dread spear\u2019s behest.\n\n\n(A. P. V.)\n\n_Sketch a scene between a \u201cMr. Woodhouse\u201d of to-day and a neighbour\nof his._\n\n SCENE:--Mr. Woodhouse\u2019s private study.\n\n _Persons present_:--Owner of study, and Miss Syms, a very modern\n young lady.\n\n _Mr. Woodhouse._--\u201cOh, good afternoon Miss Syms, I am charmed to\n see you. Dear, dear, how dark it is. One might almost think it\n were evening, if the clock opposite did not directly oppose the\n fact.\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--\u201cOh, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s not so bad out. I\u2019m awfully\n sorry to blow in like this, but I came to enquire after Miss\n Woodhouse\u2019s cold. Is she better?\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--\u201cHow very thoughtful of you! No, I am afraid dear\n Emma is very indisposed. It is so trying having an invalid in\n the house, it makes me quite miserable when I think of my poor\n daughter having to stay all alone, in bed. But really, that is\n almost the best place in this dreadful weather. Do you really\n mean to say that you have been taking a walk.\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--\u201cYes, why on earth shouldn\u2019t I? It\u2019s about the only\n way to get really warm.\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--\u201cIf the liberty might be allowed me, (dryly) I should\n say, that it was the one way in which to get a feverish cold,\n besides making oneself thoroughly miserable; and the ground is so\n damp under foot!\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--\u201cOh, it hasn\u2019t been raining much lately. I only got\n caught in a little shower, (visible start from Mr. W.). (coyly,)\n Excuse me, but is that a box of cigarettes up there on the\n mantlepiece?\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--\u201cCigarettes? Oh, no! I couldn\u2019t think of keeping them\n near the house. I _never_ smoke. It irritates my throat, which is\n naturally weak.\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--\u201cBut don\u2019t your visiters ever take the liberty\n of enjoying something of the sort? Besides, what about Miss\n Woodhouse?\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--(horrified,) \u201cDear Emma smoke a cigarette!! Why, I\n never heard of such a thing. What would she say if I told her.\n Dear Emma smoke, no, no, certainly not.\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--(Laughing,) \u201cOh, I am sure I\u2019m very sorry. I didn\u2019t\n mean to offend.\n\n How do you think the old Johnnies in Ireland are behaving\n themselves?\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--(coldly,) \u201cI _beg_ your pardon.\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--(sweetly,) \u201cI said, how do you think matters are\n looking, in Ireland.\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--\u201cI am sorry, I think I could not have heard aright\n before.--Matters in Ireland, yes, oh I think the Irish rebels are\n positively awful. To think of breaking into houses, and turning\n the poor inhabitants out into the cold streets, (where they\n probably nearly die of cold), it is too dreadful!\u201d\n\n _Miss S._--\u201cOh, I s\u2019pose they are rather brutes sometimes. But\n in a way I almost sympathise with them. I wouldn\u2019t like to have\n to knuckle under to the English (catching sight of Mr. W.\u2019s\n expression of horror and pained surprise,) I really think I\u2019d\n better get a move on. Please don\u2019t look at me like that! I really\n don\u2019t mean half I say. Cheerio!!\u201d\n\n _Mr. W._--\u201cGood afternoon Miss Syms, it was so kind of you to\n come. (aside) Oh, how unfeeling of dear Emma to have a cold, if\n it means visiters like this every hour. (aloud,) Good afternoon,\n can you find your way out. I really shall catch cold if I move\n out of this room!!\u201d\n\n\n(E. G. 17. V.)\n\n_Write some lines on \u201cSpring\u201d in the metre of \u201cAllegro.\u201d_\n\nSPRING\n\n Begone! for a short space\n Ye whistling winds, and fogs, and snowy clouds,\n And frosts that with fair lace\n Each window-pane in dainty pattern shrouds,\n Offsprings of Winter, ye!\n Begone! find out some icy arctic land.\n Upon that cheerless strand\n \u2019Mongst piercing ice, and chilling glaciers dwell\n Such regions suit ye well,\n Go, cold Winter, well are we rid of thee!\n Come Spring, thou fairest season come!\n With the bee\u2019s enchanting hum,\n And the dainty blossoms swinging\n On the tree, while birds are singing,\n See how they clothe the branches gray\n In dress of freshest pink, all day,\n Then when the dewy evening falls\n They close their flowers till Morning calls.\n Sweet Morn! Spring leads thee by the hand\n And bids thee shine o\u2019er all the land;\n Thou send\u2019st forth beams of purest gold,\n To bid the daffodils unfold,\n While Spring bends down with her fresh lips\n To kiss the daisie\u2019s petal tips.\n And as she walks o\u2019er the green sward\n A cheerful mavis, perfect bard\n Breaks into song; his thrilling notes\n Are echoed from a hundred throats\n Of eager birds, who love to sing\n To their sweet mistress, fairest Spring.\n Then as she sits on mossy throne\n A scarlet lady-bird, alone,\n Bids her good welcome; and above\n Is heard the cooing of the dove.\n Two butterflies in russet clad\n Fly round her head with flutt\u2019rings glad;\n While at her side a giddy fly\n Buzzes his joy that she is nigh,\n Oh! Spring my heart\u2019s desire shall be\n That thou wilt ever dwell with me!\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_e_) LANGUAGES\n\n_English_ is rather a logical study dealing with sentences and\nthe positions that words occupy in them than with words and what\nthey are in their own right. Therefore it is better that a child\nshould begin with a sentence and not with the parts of speech, that\nis, he should learn a little of what is called analysis before he\nlearns to parse. It requires some effort of abstraction for a child\nto perceive that when we speak, we speak about something and say\nsomething about it; and he has learned nearly all the grammar that\nis necessary when he knows that when we speak we use sentences\nand that a sentence makes sense; that we can put words together\nso as to make utter nonsense, as,--\u201cTom immediately candlestick\nuproarious nevertheless\u201d--a string of words making perfect nonsense\nand therefore not a sentence. If we use words in such a way as to\nmake sense we get a sentence; \u201cJohn goes to school\u201d is a sentence.\nEvery sentence has two parts, (1), the thing we speak of, and (2),\nwhat we say about it. We speak of John, we say about him that he\ngoes to school. At this stage the children require many exercises\nin finding out the first and second parts of simple sentences.\nWhen they are quite familiar with the fact that the first part of\na sentence is what we speak about, they may get a name for it,\nsubject, which will be made simpler to them if they know the word\nsubject means that which we talk about. For instance, we may say,\nthe subject of conversation was parsley, which is another way of\nsaying the thing we were speaking about was parsley. To sum up such\na lesson, the class should learn,--Words put together so as to make\nsense form a sentence. A sentence has two parts, that which we\nspeak of and what we say about it. That which we speak of is the\nsubject.\n\nChildren will probably be slow to receive this first lesson in\nabstract knowledge, and we must remember that knowledge in this\nsort is difficult and uncongenial. Their minds deal with the\nconcrete and they have the singular faculty of being able to make\nconcrete images out of the merest gossamer of a fairy tale. A seven\nyear old child sings,--\n\n \u201cI cannot see fairies,\n I dream them.\n There is no fairy that can hide from me;\n I keep on dreaming till I find him.\n There you are, Primrose! I see you, Blackwing!\u201d\n\nBut a child cannot dream parts of speech, and any grown-up twaddle\nattempting to personify such abstractions offends a small person\nwho with all his love of play and nonsense has a serious mind. Most\nchildren can be got to take in the notion of a sentence as, words\nmaking sense, especially if they are allowed a few excursions into\nnon-sense, the gibberish of strings of words which do not make\nsense. Again, by dint of many interesting exercises in which they\nnever lose sight of the _subject_, they get hold of that idea also.\n\nOne more initial idea is necessary if children are not to wander\nblindfold through the mazes of grammar \u2018as she is\u2019 not \u2018spoke,\u2019\nbut writ in books. They must be familiar with verbs and perhaps\nthe simplest way to approach this idea is to cause them to make\nsentences with two words, the thing they speak of and what they say\nabout it,--Mary sings, Auntie knits, Henry runs. In each of these\nexamples, the child will see the thing we speak of and what we say\nabout it.\n\nBut these are matters familiar to all teachers and we have nothing\nnew in the teaching of grammar to suggest; but we probably gain in\nthe fact that our scholars pay full attention to grammar, as to all\nother lessons. We look forward hopefully to the result of efforts\nso to unify grammar that it will no longer perplex the student, as\nEnglish, Latin, French grammar, each with its own nomenclature.\n\nChildren in Form IIB have easy French Lessons with pictures which\nthey describe, but in IIA while still engaged on the _Primary\nFrench Course_ children begin to use the method which is as full of\npromise in the teaching of languages as in English, that is, they\nare expected to narrate the sentence or paragraph which has been\nread to them. Young children find little difficulty in using French\nvocables, but at this stage the teacher should with the children\u2019s\nhelp translate the little passage which is to be narrated, then\nre-read it in French and require the children to narrate it. This\nthey do after a time surprisingly well, and the act of narrating\ngives them some command of French phrases as far as they go, much\nmore so than if they learnt the little passage off by heart. They\nlearn French songs in both divisions and act _French Fables_ (by\nViolet Partington) in Form IIA. This method of closely attentive\nreading of the text followed by narration is continued in each\nof the Forms. Thus Form II is required to \u201cDescribe in French,\npicture 20.\u201d \u201cNarrate the story _Esope et le Voyageur_.\u201d Part of\nthe term\u2019s work in Form III is to \u201cRead and narrate _Nouveaux\nContes Fran\u00e7ais_, by Marc Ceppi.\u201d Form IV is required amongst other\nthings to \u201cRead and narrate Moli\u00e8re\u2019s _Les Femmes Savantes_.\u201d\nForms V and VI are required to \u201cWrite a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of _Le Misanthrope_\nor _L\u2019Avare_,\u201d \u201cTranslate into French, _Modern Verse_, page 50,\n\u2018Leisure.\u2019\u201d\n\nWe have not space to follow in detail the work of the P.U.S. in\nFrench, which of course includes the usual attention to French\nGrammar but it may interest the reader to see the sort of thing\nthat students of the House of Education are able to accomplish in\nthe way of narration. The French mistress gives, let us suppose, a\nlecture in history or literature lasting, say, for half an hour. At\nthe end the students will narrate the substance of the lecture with\nfew omissions and few errors. Here is an example of the sort of\nthing Mr. Household heard, on the occasion of a short visit to the\nHouse of Education, Ambleside,--\n\n \u201cA French lesson was given to the second-year students by the\n French mistress, a native of Tournai, who came to Ambleside in\n 1915. She had been teaching in England for some years, but had\n not previously come into contact with Miss Mason\u2019s methods.\n Those methods were exactly followed during the lesson. There\n was the book of recognised literary merit, the single reading,\n and the immediate narration--of course in French. The book was\n Alphonse Daudet\u2019s _Lettres de Mon Moulin_, and the story read\n was \u2018La Ch\u00e8vre de M. Seguin.\u2019 Before the reading began, a few--a\n very few--words of explanation were given--of course, in French.\n Then nine pages of the story were read straight through by the\n mistress, without pause or interruption of any kind, at the same\n pace that one would read an English story. The students followed\n by ear only: they had no books. As soon as the reading ended,\n on the instant, without hesitation of any kind, narration began\n in French, different members of the class taking up the story\n in turn till it was finished. All were good; some astonishingly\n good. To all French was a tongue in which they could think and\n speak with considerable facility. Yet the time given to French\n is two hours and three-quarters a week only. Such results compel\n attention. It may be added that last year the writer heard a\n history lecture on the reign of Louis XI given in French by\n the same mistress to the then senior students, and the content\n of the lecture was narrated in a similar manner, with the same\n astonishing success.\u201d\n\nThis hitherto unused power of concentrated attention in the study\nof languages whether ancient or modern appears to hold promise of\nmaking us at last a nation of linguists. We have attained very good\nresults in Italian and German by this same method, both in the\nHouse of Education and the Practising School belonging to it, and\nwe are in a fair way to produce noticeable results in Latin. The\nClassical mistress writes,--\n\n \u201cLatin is taught at the House of Education by means of narration\n after each section has been thoroughly studied in grammar, syntax\n and style. The literature studied increases in difficulty as\n the pupil advances in grammar, etc. Nothing but good Latin is\n ever narrated, so the pupil acquires style as well as structure.\n The substance of the passage is usually reproduced with the\n phraseology and style of the original and both students and\n children learn what is really Latin and realise that it is a\n language and not a mere grammar.\u201d\n\nHere we get Grammar, that is, construction, learned as we learn it\nin English, at the lips of those who know, and the extraordinary\nreadiness in acquiring new words shewn by the scholars promises\nEnglish folk the copious vocabulary in one or another foreign\nlanguage, the lack of which is a national distress.\n\n\nII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN\n\n(_f_) ART\n\nThere are few subjects regarded with more respect and less\nconfidence in our schools than this of \u2018Art.\u2019 Of course, we say,\nchildren should have their artistic powers cultivated, especially\nthose who have such powers, but _how_ is the question. The neat\nsolution offered by South Kensington in the sixties,--freehand\ndrawing, perspective, drawing from the round, has long been\nrejected; but nothing definite has taken its place and we still\nsee models of cones, cubes and so on, disposed so that the eye may\ntake them in freely and that the hand may perhaps produce what the\neye has seen. But we begin now to understand that art is not to be\napproached by such a macadamised road. It is of the spirit, and\nin ways of the spirit must we make our attempt. We recognise that\nthe power of appreciating art and of producing to some extent an\ninterpretation of what one sees is as universal as intelligence,\nimagination, nay, speech, the power of producing words. But there\nmust be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical\nknowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what\nhas been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line\nby line, group by group, by reading, not books, but pictures\nthemselves. A friendly picture-dealer supplies us with half a dozen\nbeautiful little reproductions of the work of some single artist,\nterm by term. After a short story of the artist\u2019s life and a few\nsympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or\nhis figures, the little pictures are studied one at a time; that\nis, children learn, not merely to see a picture but _to look at\nit_, taking in every detail. Then the picture is turned over and\nthe children tell what they have seen,--a dog driving a flock of\nsheep along a road but nobody with the dog. Ah, there is a boy\nlying down by the stream drinking. It is morning as you can see\nby the light so the sheep are being driven to pasture, and so on;\nnothing is left out, the discarded plough, the crooked birch, the\nclouds beautiful in form and threatening rain, there is enough for\nhalf an hour\u2019s talk and memory in this little reproduction of a\ngreat picture and the children will know it wherever they see it,\nwhether a signed proof, a copy in oils, or the original itself in\none of our galleries. We hear of a small boy with his parents in\nthe National Gallery; the boy, who had wandered off on his own\naccount, came running back with the news,--\u201cOh, Mummy, there\u2019s\none of our Constables on that wall.\u201d In this way children become\nacquainted with a hundred, or hundreds, of great artists during\ntheir school-life and it is an intimacy which never forsakes them.\nA group of children are going up to London for a treat. \u201cWhere\nwould you like to go?\u201d \u201cOh, Mummy, to the National Gallery to see\nthe Rembrandts.\u201d Young people go to tea in a room strange to them\nand are delighted to recognise two or three reproductions of De\nHooch\u2019s pictures. In the course of school-life children get an Open\nSesame to many art galleries, and to many a cultivated home; and\nlife itself is illustrated for them at many points. For it is true\nas Browning told us,--\n\n \u201cFor, don\u2019t you mark, we\u2019re made so that we love\n First when we see them painted, things we have passed\n Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see.\u201d\n\nHere is an example of how beautiful and familiar things give quite\nnew delight when they are pictured. A lady writes,--\n\n \u201cI was invited to a small village to talk about the P.U. School.\n Twelve really interested women came in spite of heavy rain.... I\n suggested introducing them to some of the friends their children\n had made and we had a delightful picture talk with Jean B.\n Corot, delightful to me because of the way one woman especially\n narrated. She did it as if she had been set free for the first\n time for months. It was the \u2018Evening\u2019 picture with a canal on the\n right and that splendid mass of quiet trees in the centre. The\n others gave bits of the picture but she gave the whole thing. It\n was a green pasture to her.\u201d\n\nThe noteworthy thing is that these women were familiar with all\nsuch details as Corot offers in their own beautiful neighbourhood,\nbut Browning is right; we learn to see things when we see them\npainted.\n\nIt will be noticed that the work[35] done on these pictures is\ndone by the children themselves. There is no talk about schools of\npainting, little about style; consideration of these matters comes\nin later life, but the first and most important thing is to know\nthe pictures themselves. As in a worthy book we leave the author\nto tell his own tale, so do we trust a picture to tell its tale\nthrough the medium the artist gave it. In the region of art as\nelsewhere we shut out the middleman.\n\nForms V and VI are asked to,--\u201cDescribe, with study in sepia,\nCorot\u2019s \u2018Evening.\u2019\u201d Beyond this of a rough study from memory of\na given picture or of any section of it, these picture studies\ndo not afford much material for actual drawing; they are never\ncopied lest an attempt to copy should lessen a child\u2019s reverence\nfor great work. We are shy in speaking of what we do in actual\ndrawing since Herr Cizek came among us and shewed what great\nthings children could do with scarcely any obvious teaching and\nbut little suggestion. But probably such work is only to be done\nunder the inspiration of an artist of unusual powers and I am\nwriting for teachers who depend upon their children rather than\nupon themselves. They illustrate favourite scenes and passages\nin the books read during the term and the spirit with which the\nillustrations are drawn and the fitting details introduced make\nthe teacher aware of how much more the children have seen in the\npassage than he has himself. Their courage in grappling with\npoints of technique is very instructive. They tackle a crowd with\nwonderful ingenuity, a crowd listening to Mark Antony\u2019s oration,\ncheering the Prince of Wales in India, in fact wherever a crowd is\nwanted it is suggested pretty much as an artist would give it by\na show of heads. Like those Viennese children they use all their\npaper, whether for a landscape or the details in a room. They\ngive you horses leaping brooks, dogs running after cats, sheep\non the road, always with a sense of motion. It is evident that\nchildren study the figures they see with due attention and will\ngive you a gardener sharpening his scythe, their mother sewing,\na man rowing, or driving, or mowing. Their chairs stand on four\nlegs and their figures on two feet in a surprising way, and they\nare always on the watch to correct their errors by what they see.\nThey have a delightful and courageous sense of colour, and any\nchild will convince you that he has it in him to be an artist.\nTheir field studies give them great scope. The first buttercup in\na child\u2019s nature note book is shockingly crude, the sort of thing\nto scandalise a teacher of brush-drawing, but by and by another\nbuttercup will appear with the delicate poise, uplift and radiance\nof the growing flower.\n\nDrawing is generally so well taught now that we need do no more\nthan emphasize one or two special points in our work, such as the\ndefinite study of pictures and the illustrations of Nature Note\nBooks.\n\nWe do what is possible to introduce children to Architecture; and\nwe practise clay-modelling and the various artistic handicrafts,\nbut there is nothing unusual in our work in these directions.[36]\n\nWith Musical Appreciation the case is different; and we cannot do\nbetter than quote from an address made by Mrs. Howard Glover at the\nAmbleside Conference of the Parents\u2019 Union, 1922:--\n\n \u201cMusical Appreciation--which is so much before the eye at the\n present moment--originated in the P.N.E.U. about twenty-five\n years ago. At that time I was playing to my little child much of\n the best music in which I was interested, and Miss Mason happened\n to hear of what I was doing. She realised that music might give\n great joy and interest to the life of all, and she felt that just\n as children in the P.U.S. were given the greatest literature\n and art, so they should have the greatest music as well. She\n asked me to write an article in the _Review_ on the result of my\n observations, and to make a programme of music each term which\n might be played _to_ the children. From that day to this, at the\n beginning of every term a programme has appeared; thus began a\n movement which was to spread far and wide.\n\n \u201cMusical Appreciation, of course, has nothing to do with playing\n the piano. It used to be thought that \u2018learning music\u2019 must mean\n this, and it was supposed that children who had no talent for\n playing were unmusical and would not like concerts. But Musical\n Appreciation had no more to do with playing an instrument than\n acting had to do with an appreciation of Shakespeare, or painting\n with enjoyment of pictures. I think that all children should take\n Musical Appreciation and not only the musical ones, for it has\n been proved that only three per cent. of children are what is\n called \u2018tone-deaf\u2019; and if they are taken at an early age it is\n astonishing how children who appear to be without ear, develop it\n and are able to enjoy listening to music with understanding.\u201d\n\n\nSECTION III\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE\n\n(_a_) SCIENCE[37]\n\nHuxley\u2019s axiom that science teaching in the schools should be\nof the nature of \u2018common information\u2019 is of use in defining our\nlimitations in regard to the teaching of science. We find another\nlimitation in the fact that children\u2019s minds are not in need of the\nmental gymnastics that such teaching is supposed to afford. They\nare entirely alert and eager to know. Books dealing with science\nas with history, say, should be of a literary character, and we\nshould probably be more scientific as a people if we scrapped all\nthe text-books which swell publishers\u2019 lists and nearly all the\nchalk expended so freely on our blackboards. The French mind has\nappreciated the fact that the approach to science as to other\nsubjects should be more or less literary, that the principles which\nunderlie science are at the same time so simple, so profound and\nso far-reaching that the due setting forth of these provokes what\nis almost an emotional response; these principles are therefore\nmeet subjects for literary treatment, while the details of their\napplication are so technical and so minute as,--except by way of\nillustration,--to be unnecessary for school work or for general\nknowledge. We have not a copious scientific literature in English\nbut we have quite enough to go on with in our schools. We find an\nAmerican publication called _The Sciences_ (whose author would seem\nto be an able man of literary power) of very great value in linking\nuniversal principles with common incidents of every day life in\nsuch a way that interest never palls and any child may learn on\nwhat principles an electric bell works, what sound means, how a\nsteam engine works, and many other matters, explained here with\ngreat lucidity. Capital diagrams and descriptions make experiments\neasy and children arrive at their first notions of science without\nthe verbiage that darkens counsel. Form IIA read _Life and Her\nChildren_ by Arabella Buckley and get a surprising knowledge of the\nearlier and lower forms of life. IIB take pleasure in Kingsley\u2019s\n_Madam How and Lady Why_. They are expected to do a great deal\nof out-of-door work in which they are assisted by _The Changing\nYear_, admirable month by month studies of what is to be seen\nout-of-doors. They keep records and drawings in a Nature Note Book\nand make special studies of their own for the particular season\nwith drawings and notes.\n\nThe studies of Form III for one term enable children to--\u201cMake\na rough sketch of a section of ditch or hedge or sea-shore and\nput in the names of the plants you would expect to find.\u201d \u201cWrite\nnotes with drawings of the special study you have made this term.\u201d\n\u201cWhat do you understand by calyx, corolla, stamen, pistil? In\nwhat ways are flowers fertilised?\u201d \u201cHow would you find the Pole\nStar? Mention six other stars and say in what constellations they\noccur.\u201d \u201cHow would you distinguish between Early, Decorated and\nPerpendicular Gothic? Give drawings.\u201d Questions like these, it will\nbe seen, cover a good deal of field work, and the study of some\nhalf dozen carefully selected books on natural history, botany,\narchitecture and astronomy, the principle being that children\nshall observe and chronicle, but shall not depend upon their own\nunassisted observation.\n\nThe study of natural history and botany with bird lists and plant\nlists continues throughout school life, while other branches of\nscience are taken term by term.\n\nThe questions for Form IV for one term illustrate the various\nstudies of the scholars in natural history, general science,\nhygiene and physiology; in fact, their studies are so various that\nit is difficult to give each a separate title in the programme:--\n\n\n GEOGRAPHY.\n\n 1. Write a short sketch of Central Asia, with map.\n\n 2. Compare Palestine with the Yorkshire moors. Describe the\n valley of the Jordan.\n\n 3. \u201cThere is but one Nelson.\u201d Illustrate by half-a-dozen\n instances.\n\n 4. What is said in _E\u00f6then_ of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?\n\n\n NATURAL HISTORY.\n\n 1. What do you know of (_a_), the manatee, (_b_), the whalebone\n whale (sketch of skeleton), (_c_), porpoises and dolphins?\n\n _or_, 1. Describe (_a_), quartz crystals, (_b_), felspar, (_c_),\n mica, (_d_), hornblende. In what rock do these occur?\n\n 2. What do you know of insectivorous plants? Name those you know.\n\n 3. What circumstances strike you in a walk in summer?\n\n\n GENERAL SCIENCE.\n\n 1. What do you understand by,--(_a_), electrical attraction,\n (_b_), repulsion, (_c_), conductors, (_d_), insulators, (_e_),\n methods of obtaining electricity?\n\n 2. Prove that \u201cyou never see matter itself,\u201d and show how sight\n gives us knowledge.\n\n\n PHYSIOLOGY.\n\n 1. Describe the structure of the human ear.\n\nPerhaps _Some Wonders of Matter_ by Bishop Mercer is the most\ninspiring of the half-dozen volumes in current use in Form IV for\nthis section of their work. The questions indicate the varied\nnature of the work and the answers shew that in every case the\nknowledge is fairly wide and thorough. All the children in the\nschool are usually ready to answer each question on the work of the\nterm.\n\nForms V and VI again cover a wide field as the following questions\non a term\u2019s work sufficiently indicate,--\n\n\n GEOGRAPHY.\n\n VI.\n\n 1. Show how the discovery of the New World affected England in\n commerce and war.\n\n 2. According to what general law is life distributed on the earth?\n\n 3. Describe the Siege of Mexico by Cortes, and its surrender.\n\n VI. & V.\n\n 4. How has the war affected (_a_), Luxembourg, (_b_), the Eastern\n frontier of Belgium, (_c_), Antwerp and the Scheldt?\n\n V.\n\n 1. Show how the Restoration affected our American possessions.\n\n 2. Show accurately how longitude is determined.\n\n 3. Sketch the history and character of Montezuma.\n\n\n GEOLOGY AND GENERAL SCIENCE.\n\n VI.\n\n 1. Discuss fully (_a_), the cause of radio-activity, (_b_),\n gravitation.\n\n 2. What have you to say of the scenic aspects of the English\n Trias? Name a dozen of the fossils. Sketch half-a-dozen.\n\n V.\n\n 1. Give as full an explanation as you can of colour.\n\n 2. Describe the composition of the igneous rocks. Where do they\n appear?\n\n\n BIOLOGY, BOTANY, ETC.\n\n VI.\n\n 1. What are the characters of the backboneless animals? Describe\n half-a-dozen examples.\n\n 2. Describe and account for the vegetation of (_a_), woodlands,\n (_b_), heath, (_c_), moorland, (_d_), meadow.\n\n V.\n\n 1. How would you classify the industries of animals? Give\n examples.\n\n 2. Describe the flora of the seashore.\n\n VI. & V.\n\n 3. Describe, with drawings, the special study you have made this\n term.\n\n\n ASTRONOMY.\n\n VI.\n\n 1. What do you understand by precession? Describe the precession\n and mutation of the earth\u2019s axis.\n\n V.\n\n 1. Write an essay on the planet Mercury.\n\nIf we wanted an excuse for affording children a wide syllabus\nintroducing them at any rate to those branches of science of which\nevery normal person should have some knowledge, we find it in\nthe deprecatory words of Sir Richard Gregory in his Presidential\nAddress in the Education Science Section of the British\nAssociation. He said that,--\n\n \u201cEducation might be defined as a deliberate adjustment of a\n growing human being to its environment, and the scope and\n character of the subjects of instruction should be determined\n by this biological principle. What was best for one race or\n epoch need not be best for another. The essential mission of\n school science was to prepare pupils for civilised citizenship\n by revealing to them something of the beauty and the power of\n the world in which they lived, as well as introducing them to\n the methods by which the boundaries of natural knowledge had\n been extended. School science, therefore, was not intended to\n prepare for vocations, but to equip pupils for life. It should\n be part of a general education, unspecialised, but in no direct\n connexion with possible university courses to follow. Less than\n three per cent. of the pupils from State-aided secondary schools\n proceeded to universities, and yet most of the science courses in\n these schools were based on syllabuses of the type of university\n entrance examinations. The needs of the many were sacrificed to\n the few.\n\n \u201cToo much importance was attached to what could be covered by\n personal experiment and observation. Every science examination\n qualifying for the first school certificate, which now\n represented subjects normally studied up to about sixteen years\n of age, was mainly a test of practical acquaintance with facts\n and principles encountered in particular limited fields, but not\n a single one afforded recognition of a broad and ample course\n of instruction in science such as was a necessary complement to\n laboratory work.\n\n \u201cThe numbers [of examination candidates] suggested that general\n scientific teaching was almost non-existent. The range of\n instruction in the portions of subjects taken, moreover, was\n almost confined to what could be taught in a laboratory. Reading\n or teaching for interest or to learn how physical science was\n daily extending the power of man received little attention\n because no credit for knowledge thus gained was given in\n examinations. There was very special need for the reminder that\n science was not all measurement, nor all measurement science.\u201d\n\nIt is reassuring to see methods that we have pursued for\nover thirty years with admirable results recommended thus\nauthoritatively. The only sound method of teaching science is to\nafford a due combination of field or laboratory work, with such\nliterary comments and amplifications as the subject affords. For\nexample, from _Ethics of the Dust_ children derive a certain\nenthusiasm for crystals as such that their own unaided observation\nwould be slow to afford. As a matter of fact the teaching of\nscience in our schools has lost much of its educative value through\na fatal and quite unnecessary divorce between science and the\n\u2018humanities.\u2019\n\nThe nature note books which originated in the P.U.S. have\nrecommended themselves pretty widely as travelling companions and\nlife records wherein the \u2018finds\u2019 of every season, bird or flower,\nfungus or moss, is sketched, and described _somewhat_ in the\nmanner of Gilbert White. The nature note book is very catholic and\nfinds room for the stars in their courses and for, say, the fossil\nanemone found on the beach at Whitby. Certainly these note books\ndo a good deal to bring science within the range of common thought\nand experience; we are anxious not to make science a utilitarian\nsubject.\n\n\nGEOGRAPHY\n\nThe teaching of Geography suffers especially from the utilitarian\nspirit. The whole tendency of modern Geography, as taught in\nour schools, is to strip the unfortunate planet which has been\nassigned to us as our abode and environment of every trace of\nmystery and beauty. There is no longer anything to admire or to\nwonder at in this sweet world of ours. We can no longer say with\nJasper Petulengro,--\u201cSun, moon and stars are sweet things, brother;\nthere is likewise the wind on the heath.\u201d No, the questions\nwhich Geography has to solve henceforth are confined to how and\nunder what conditions is the earth\u2019s surface profitable to man\nand desirable for his habitation. No more may children conceive\nthemselves climbing Mont Blanc or Mount Everest, skating on the\nFiords of Norway or swimming in a gondola at Venice. These are not\nthe things that matter, but only how and where and why is money\nto be made under local conditions on the earth\u2019s surface. It is\ndoubtful whether this kind of teaching is even lucrative because\nthe mind works on great ideas, and, upon these, works to great\nends. Where science does not teach a child to wonder and admire it\nhas perhaps no educative value.\n\nPerhaps no knowledge is more delightful than such an intimacy\nwith the earth\u2019s surface, region by region, as should enable the\nmap of any region to unfold a panorama of delight, disclosing not\nonly mountains, rivers, frontiers, the great features we know as\n\u2018Geography,\u2019 but associations, occupations, some parts of the past\nand much of the present, of every part of this beautiful earth.\nGreat attention is paid to map work; that is, before reading a\nlesson children have found the places mentioned in that lesson\non a map and know where they are, relatively to other places, to\ngiven parallels, meridians. Then, bearing in mind that children\ndo not generalise but must learn by particulars, they read and\npicture to themselves the Yorkshire Dales, the Sussex Downs, the\nmysteries of a coal-mine; they see \u2018pigs\u2019 of iron flowing forth\nfrom the furnace, the slow accretions which have made up the\nchalk, the stirring life of the great towns and the occupations\nof the villages. Form II (A and B) are engaged with the counties\nof England, county by county, for so diverse are the counties in\naspect, history and occupations, that only so can children acquire\nsuch a knowledge of England as will prove a key to the geography\nof every part of the world, whether in the way of comparison or\ncontrast. For instance, while I write, the children in IIA are\nstudying the counties which contain the Thames basin and \u201cWrite\nverses on \u2018The Thames\u2019\u201d is part of their term\u2019s work. _Our Sea\nPower_, by H. W. Household, is of extraordinary value in linking\nEngland with the world by means of a spirited account of the\nglorious history of our navy, while the late Sir George Parkin,\nthan whom there is no better qualified authority, carries children\nround the Empire. They are thrown on their own resources or those\nof their teachers for what may be called current Geography. For\ninstance, \u201cLearn what you can about _The Political Map of Europe\nafter the Great War_. (Evans, 4_d._).\u201d\n\nIn Form III the Geography is still regional, that is, children are\nled to form an intimate acquaintance with the countries of Europe\nso that the map of any country calls up in a child\u2019s imagination\na wonderful panorama of the diversities of the country, of the\npeople, their history and occupations. It is evident that this\nkind of geographical image cannot be secured in any other way\nthan by considering Europe country by country. They begin with a\ngeneral survey of the seas and shores of the continent, of the\ncountries and peoples, of the diversities of tongues and their\nhistorical origin, of the plains and mountains, of the rivers\nand their basins; a survey after which they should be able to\nanswer such questions as,--\u201cName three rivers which flow into the\nBaltic.\u201d \u201cWhat lands form the southern and eastern shores of the\nMediterranean?\u201d \u201cWhat countries are washed by the Baltic?\u201d \u201cBetween\nwhat parallels does Europe extend? What other continents lie partly\nwithin the same parallels?\u201d The young scholars are at home with the\nmap of Europe before they consider the countries separately.\n\nThe picture we present of the several countries is meant to be\nbefore all things interesting and at the same time to provide an\nintelligent and fairly exhaustive account of the given country.\nWhatever further knowledge a child acquires will fit in to this\noriginal scheme. For example, \u201cThe Rh\u00f4ne Valley and the Border\nlands.\u201d[38]\n\n \u201cThe warm and fertile Rh\u00f4ne valley belongs in climate to the\n southern region, where, although the vine is grown, large\n plantations of olive and mulberry occupy much of the land. We\n are apt to think of the South of France as the sunny south, the\n sweet south, \u2018but,\u2019 says a writer whom we have already quoted,\n \u2018it is austere, grim, sombre\u2019 ... but the mulberry feeds the\n silkworm and so furnishes material for the great manufacture of\n France. Lyons, the second city of France, is the seat of the silk\n manufacture including those of velvets and satins. It is seated\n upon a tongue of land at the confluence of the rapid Rh\u00f4ne and\n the sluggish Sa\u00f4ne, and along the banks of both rivers are fine\n quays.\u201d\n\nThis extract indicates how geographical facts are introduced\nincidentally, pretty much as a traveller comes across them. The\nwork for one term includes Belgium, Holland, Spain and Portugal,\nand the interests connected with each of these countries are\nmanifold. For example,--\n\n \u201cOn the seashore near Leyden is Katwyck where the expiring Rhine\n is helped to discharge itself into the sea by means of a wide\n artificial channel provided with no less than thirteen pairs of\n enormous floodgates. These are shut to keep out the sea when the\n tide is coming in, and open to let the streams pass out during\n ebb tide. Notwithstanding these great works the once glorious\n Rhine makes but an ignoble exit. The delta of this river may be\n said to include the whole breadth of Holland.\u201d[39]\n\nIt will be noticed that an attempt is made to shew the romance\nof the natural features, the history, the industries, so that a\ncountry is no more a mere matter of names on a map, or of sections\nshewn by contour lines. Such generalisations are not Geography\nbut are slow conclusions which the mind should come to of itself\nwhen it acquires intimacy with a region. Something of a literary\ncharacter is preserved in the Geography lessons. The new feature in\nthese is the study of maps which should be very thorough. For the\nrest the single reading and narration as described in connection\nwith other work is sufficient in this subject also. Children cannot\ntell what they have not seen with the mind\u2019s eye, which we know as\nimagination, and they cannot see what is not told in their books\nwith some vividness and some grasp of the subject. The thoroughness\nof the map study is shewn by such a question to be answered from\nmemory as,--\u201cWhat part of Belgium does the Scheldt drain? Name any\nof its feeders. Name ten famous places in its basin. What port\nstands at the head of its estuary?\u201d We find great light thrown upon\nthe geography of the Empire in a little book of literary quality,\n_Fighting for Sea Power in the Days of Sail_.\n\nThere are two rational ways of teaching Geography. The first is\nthe inferential method, a good deal in vogue at the present time;\nby it the pupil learns certain geographical principles which he is\nexpected to apply universally. This method seems to me defective\nfor two reasons. It is apt to be misleading as in every particular\ncase the general principle is open to modifications; also, local\ncolour and personal and historical interests are wanting and the\nscholar does not form an intellectual and imaginative conception\nof the region he is learning about. The second which might be\ncalled the panoramic method unrolls the landscape of the world,\nregion by region, before the eyes of the scholar with in every\nregion its own conditions of climate, its productions, its people,\ntheir industries and their history. This way of teaching the most\ndelightful of all subjects has the effect of giving to a map of a\ncountry or region the brilliancy of colour and the wealth of detail\nwhich a panorama might afford, together with a sense of proportion\nand a knowledge of general principles. I believe that pictures are\nnot of very great use in this study. We all know that the pictures\nwhich abide with us are those which the imagination constructs from\nwritten descriptions.\n\nThe Geography for Form IV[40] includes Asia, Africa, America\nand Australasia. But the same principle is followed: vivid\ndescriptions, geographical principles, historical associations and\nindustrial details, are afforded which should make, as we say, an\nimpression, should secure that the region traversed becomes an\nimaginative possession as well as affording data for reasonable\njudgments. The pupil begins with a survey of Asia followed by a\nseparate treatment of the great countries and divisions and of the\ngreat physical features. Thus of Siberia we read,--\n\n \u201cAll travellers unite in praise of the free Siberian peasant. As\n soon as one crosses the Urals one is surprised by the extreme\n friendliness and good nature of the inhabitants as much as by the\n rich vegetation of the well-cultivated fields and the excellent\n state of the roads in the southern part of the government of\n Tobolsk.\u201d\n\nor,--\n\n \u201cThe glossy jet black soft thick fur of the sea-otter is the most\n valuable of all the Russian skins. Next ranks the skin of the\n black fox. But though a thousand of its skins are worth no more\n than one skin of the sea-otter, the little grey squirrel whose\n skins are imported by the million really plays the most important\n part in the Siberian fur trade.\u201d\n\nOf Further India,--\n\n \u201cPigou, the middle division, is really the vast delta of the\n Irrawaddy, a low-lying country which yields enormous quantities\n of rice while on the higher grounds which wall in the great river\n are the finest teak forests in the world.\u201d\n\nAfrica follows Asia with the discoveries of Livingstone, Speke,\nBurton, Grant, etc. We get an account of African village life and\namong the chapter headings are Abyssinia, Egypt, Up the Nile, The\nSoudan, The Sahara, The Barbary States, South Africa, Cape Colony,\nThe Islands. America follows with an account of the progress of\ndiscovery, a geographical sketch of South America, the Andes\nand the Mountain States, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, etc., the Great\nPlains of South America, Central America, North America, Canada, a\nhistorical sketch of the United States, the Eastern States, States\nof the Mississippi valley, the prairies, the Western States and\nterritories, California. In the section on the Eastern States we\nread,--\n\n \u201cStretching from this chain (the Alleghanies) is the great\n Appalachian coalfield which extends through Pennsylvania,\n Virginia and Ohio, with a length of 720 miles containing, it is\n said, coal enough to supply the world for four thousand years!\n Iron occurs with the coal in great abundance. Most of this\n coal is of the kind called Anthracite. It is extremely slow in\n burning, emits no smoke, but has a painfully drying effect upon\n the air of a room. Sir Charles Lyall speaking of Pottsville on\n this coalfield says,--\u2018Here I was agreeably surprised to see\n a flourishing manufacturing town with the tall chimneys of a\n hundred furnaces burning night and day, yet quite free from\n smoke. Leaving this clear atmosphere and going down into one of\n the mines it was a no less pleasing novelty to find that we could\n handle the coal without soiling our fingers.\u2019\u201d\n\nBut enough has been said to indicate the sort of intimacy that\nscholars in Form IV get with all quarters of the world, their\ngeography, landscape, histories and industries, together with the\nstudy of the causes which affect climate and industries. Geikie\u2019s\n_Physical Geography_ affords an admirable introduction to the\nprinciples of physical geography.\n\nForms V and VI are expected to keep up with the newspapers and\nknow something about places and regions coming most into note in\nthe current term. Also, in connection with the history studied,\nSeeley\u2019s _Expansion of England, The Peoples and Problems of\nIndia_, Geikie\u2019s _Elementary Lessons in Physical Geography_,\nMort\u2019s _Practical Geography_, and Kipling\u2019s _Letters of Travel_\nare included in the reading of one term. In these Forms the young\nstudents are expected to apply their knowledge to Geography, both\npractical and theoretical, and to make much use of a good Atlas\nwithout the map questions which have guided the map work of the\nlower Forms.\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE\n\n(_b_) MATHEMATICS\n\nThe question of Arithmetic and of Mathematics generally is one of\ngreat import to us as educators. So long as the idea of \u2018faculties\u2019\nobtained no doubt we were right to put all possible weight on a\nsubject so well adapted to train the reasoning powers, but now\nwe are assured that these powers do not wait upon our training.\nThey are there in any case; and if we keep a chief place in our\ncurriculum for Arithmetic we must justify ourselves upon other\ngrounds. We take strong ground when we appeal to the beauty and\ntruth of Mathematics; that, as Ruskin points out, two and two make\nfour and cannot conceivably make five, is an inevitable law. It\nis a great thing to be brought into the presence of a law, of a\nwhole system of laws, that exist without our concurrence,--that\ntwo straight lines cannot enclose a space is a fact which we can\nperceive, state, and act upon but cannot in any wise alter, should\ngive to children the sense of limitation which is wholesome for all\nof us, and inspire that _sursum corda_ which we should hear in all\nnatural law.\n\nAgain, integrity in our dealings depends largely upon \u2018Mr.\nMicawber\u2019s\u2019 golden rule, while \u2018Harold Skimpole\u2019s\u2019 disregard of\nthese things is a moral offence against society. Once again,\nthough we do not live on gymnastics, the mind like the body, is\ninvigorated by regular spells of hard exercise.\n\nBut education should be a science of proportion, and any one\nsubject that assumes undue importance does so at the expense of\nother subjects which a child\u2019s mind should deal with. Arithmetic,\nMathematics, are exceedingly easy to examine upon and so long\nas education is regulated by examinations so long shall we have\nteaching, directed not to awaken a sense of awe in contemplating a\nself-existing science, but rather to secure exactness and ingenuity\nin the treatment of problems.\n\nWhat is better, it will be said, than a training in exactness and\ningenuity? But in saying so we assume that this exactness and\ningenuity brought out in Arithmetic serve us in every department\nof life. Were this the case we should indeed have a royal road to\nlearning; but it would seem that no such road is open to us. The\nhabits and powers brought to bear upon any one educational subject\nare exercised upon that subject simply. The familiar story of how\nSir Isaac Newton teased by his cat\u2019s cries to be let in caused a\nlarge hole in the door to be made for the cat and a small one for\nthe kitten, illustrates not a mere amusing lapse in a great mind\nbut the fact that work upon special lines qualifies for work upon\nthose lines only. One hears of more or less deficient boys to whom\nthe study of _Bradshaw_ is a delight, of an admirable accountant\nwho was otherwise a little \u2018deficient.\u2019\n\nThe boy who gets \u2018full marks\u2019 in Arithmetic makes a poor show in\nhistory because the accuracy and ingenuity brought out by his sums\napply to his sums only: and as for the value of Arithmetic in\npractical life, most of us have private reasons for agreeing with\nthe eminent staff officer who tells us that,--\n\n \u201cI have never found any Mathematics except simple addition of\n the slightest use in a work-a-day life except in the Staff\n College examinations and as for mental gymnastics and accuracy\n of statement, I dispute the contention that Mathematics supply\n either any better than any other study.\u201d\n\nWe have most of us believed that a knowledge of the theory and\npractice of war depended a good deal upon Mathematics, so this\nstatement by a distinguished soldier is worth considering. In a\nword our point is that Mathematics are to be studied for their own\nsake and not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of\nmind. But then how profoundly worthy are these subjects of study\nfor their own sake, to say nothing of other great branches of\nknowledge to which they are ancillary! Lack of proportion should be\nour _b\u00eate noire_ in drawing up a curriculum, remembering that the\nmathematician who knows little of the history of his own country or\nthat of any other, is sparsely educated at the best.\n\nAt the same time Genius has her own rights. The born mathematician\nmust be allowed full scope even to the omission of much else that\nhe should know. He soon asserts himself, sees into the intricacies\nof a problem with half an eye, and should have scope. He would\nprefer not to have much teaching. But why should the tortoise keep\npace with the hare and why should a boy\u2019s success in life depend\nupon drudgery in Mathematics? That is the tendency at the present\nmoment--to close the Universities and consequently the Professions\nto boys and girls who, because they have little natural aptitude\nfor mathematics, must acquire a mechanical knowledge by such heavy\nall-engrossing labour as must needs shut out such knowledge of the\n\u2018humanities\u2019 say, as is implied in the phrase \u2018a liberal education.\u2019\n\nThe claims of the London Matriculation examination, for example,\nare acknowledged by many teachers to be incompatible with the wide\nknowledge proper to an educated person.\n\nMathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book\nand few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have\nseldom time to give the inspiring ideas, what Coleridge calls, the\n\u2018Captain\u2019 ideas, which should quicken imagination.\n\nHow living would Geometry become in the light of the discoveries of\nEuclid as he made them!\n\nTo sum up, Mathematics are a necessary part of every man\u2019s\neducation; they must be taught by those who know; but they may not\nengross the time and attention of the scholar in such wise as to\nshut out any of the score of \u2018subjects,\u2019 a knowledge of which is\nhis natural right.\n\nIt is unnecessary to exhibit mathematical work done in the P.U.S.\nas it is on the same lines and reaches the same standard as in\nother schools. No doubt his habit of entire attention favours the\nP.U.S. scholar.\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE\n\n(_c_) PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, HANDICRAFTS\n\nIt is unnecessary, too, to say anything about games, dancing,\nphysical exercises, needlework and other handicrafts as the methods\nemployed in these are not exceptional.[41]\n\n\n\n\nBook II\n\nTheory Applied\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nA LIBERAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS\n\n\nI need not waste time in attempting to convince the reader of what\nwe all know, that a liberal education is, like justice, religion,\nliberty, fresh air, the natural birthright of every child. Neither\nneed we discuss the scope of such an education. We are aware that\ngood life implies cultivated intelligence, that, according to the\nPlatonic axiom, \u2018Knowledge is virtue,\u2019 even though there be many\nexceptions to the rule. Educated teachers are not slow to perceive\nthe part the Humanities play in a worthy scheme of education, but\nthey are faced by enormous difficulties which are admirably summed\nup in a recent work,--[42]\n\n \u201cThe tragedy of modern education has been the prolonged failure\n of Humanism to secure conditions under which its purpose might be\n realised for the people at large.\u201d\n\nIt is because we (of the Parents\u2019 Union School) have succeeded in\noffering Humanism under such conditions that we believe the great\nproblem of education is at last solved. We are able to offer the\nHumanities (in the mother tongue) to large classes of children from\nilliterate homes in such a way that the teaching is received with\ndelight and freely assimilated. One swallow does not make a summer,\nwe all know, but the experience of one school shows that it is\npossible to carry out a pretty full literary programme joyously and\nwithout effort while including all the usual school activities.\nWireless telegraphy was, so to speak, in the air before the first\nMarconi message was sent, but that first wireless message made\nit possible for any passenger on board a Channel steamer to send\nsuch a message. Just so, the experiment in the Drighlington School\n(Yorkshire) placed the conditions for a humanistic education at the\nservice of any teacher. I am much impressed by the amount of work\nof this kind which is already being done in our schools. I heard\nthe other day of a man whose whole life had been elevated by a\nsingle inspiring (poetic) sentence which he heard as a schoolboy;\nwe have been told that the \u2018man in the street\u2019 cannot resist a row\nof books; we are told, too, that the War has made us a nation of\nreaders, both at home and in the trenches, readers largely of the\nbest books in poetry and history; is there no credit due to the\nschools for these things? But teachers are not satisfied; their\nreach is greater than their grasp and they are more aware of the\nsordid lives about them, of the \u201cdull, unfeeling, barren ignorance\u201d\nwhich prevails, than of any success they have yet attained.\nTherefore they fret under the time limitations which seem to make\nit impossible to do anything worth while in such vast subjects as\nHistory and Literature, for example.\n\nI wonder does this uneasiness point to a fact which we are slow\nto realise,--that the requirements of the mind are very much like\nthose of the body? Both require as conditions of health,--activity,\nvariety, rest and, above all, food. There has been some tendency\namong us to offer gymnastics, whether intellectual or physical,\nby way of a square meal of knowledge, which is as if one were\nto invite a boy to Swedish Drill by way of his dinner; and that\nwretched misnomer \u2018education\u2019 is partly to blame. Now, potency,\nnot property, is the characteristic of mind. A child is able to\ndeal with much knowledge, but he possesses none worth speaking\nof; yet we set to work to give him that potency which he already\npossesses rather than the knowledge which he lacks; we train\nhis reason, cultivate his judgment, exercise this and the other\nfaculty, which we have no more to do with than with the digestive\nprocesses of a healthy child; we know that the more we meddle with\nthese the worse for the child; but what if the devitalisation\nwe notice in so many of our young people, keen about games but\ndead to things of the mind, is due to the processes carried on\nin our schools, to our plausible and pleasant ways of picturing,\neliciting, demonstrating, illustrating, summarising, doing all\nthose things for children which they are born with the potency to\ndo for themselves? No doubt we do give intellectual food, but too\nlittle of it; let us have courage and we shall be surprised, as we\nare now and then, at the amount of intellectual strong meat almost\nany child will take at a meal and digest at his leisure.\n\nPerhaps the first thing for us to do is to get a just perception\nof what I may call the relativity of knowledge and the mind. The\nmind receives knowledge, not in order that it may know, but in\norder that it may grow, in breadth and depth, in sound judgment and\nmagnanimity; but in order to grow, it _must know_.\n\nThe fact is that we are handicapped, not so much by the three or\nfour difficulties I have already indicated, as by certain errors of\njudgment, forms of depreciation, which none of us escape because\nthey are universal. We as teachers depreciate ourselves and our\noffice; we do not realise that in the nature of things the teacher\nhas a prophetic power of appeal and inspiration, that his part\nis not the weariful task of spoon-feeding with pap-meat, but the\ndelightful commerce of equal minds where his is the part of guide,\nphilosopher and friend. The friction of wills which makes school\nwork harassing ceases to a surprising degree when we deal with the\nchildren, mind to mind, through the medium of knowledge.\n\nNext, we depreciate children, even though most teachers lay down\ntheir lives for their charges with amazing devotion. We have been\nso long taught to regard children as products of education and\nenvironment, that we fail to realise that from the first they are\npersons; and, as Carlyle has well said,--\n\n \u201cThe mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine, to him that has\n a sense for the godlike.\u201d\n\nWe must either reverence or despise children; and while we regard\nthem as incomplete and undeveloped beings who will one day arrive\nat the completeness of man, rather than as weak and ignorant\npersons, whose ignorance we must inform and whose weakness we must\nsupport, but whose potentialities are as great as our own, we\ncannot do otherwise than despise children, however kindly and even\ntenderly we commit the offence.\n\nAs soon as he gets words with which to communicate with us, a\nchild lets us know that he thinks with surprising clearness and\ndirectness, that he sees with a closeness of observation that\nwe have long lost, that he enjoys and that he sorrows with an\nintensity we have ceased to experience, that he loves with an\nabandon and a confidence which, alas, we do not share, that he\nimagines with a fecundity no artist among us can approach that he\nacquires intellectual knowledge and mechanical skill at a rate so\namazing, that, could the infant\u2019s rate of progress be kept up to\nmanhood, he would surely appropriate the whole field of knowledge\nin a single lifetime! (It is worth while in this connection to\nre-read the early chapters of _David Copperfield_.)\n\nI am considering a child as he is, and am not tracing him, either\nwith Wordsworth, to the heights above, or, with the evolutionist,\nto the depths below; because a person is a mystery, that is,\nwe cannot explain him or account for him, but must accept him\nas he is. This wonder of personality does not cease, does not\ndisappear, when a child goes to school; he is still \u2018all there\u2019\nin quite another sense from that of the vulgar catch-word. But we\nbegin to lose the way to his mind from the day that he enters the\nschoolroom; the reason for this is, we have embraced the belief\nthat \u2018knowledge is sensation,\u2019 that a child knows what he sees and\nhandles rather than what he conceives in his mind and figures in\nhis thoughts. I labour this point because our faith in a child\u2019s\nspiritual, _i.e._, intellectual educability is one of our chief\nassets. Having brought ourselves face to face with the wonder of\nmind in children, we begin to see that knowledge is the aliment\nof the mind as food is that of the body. In the days before the\nWar, a lifetime ago it seems, our insular contempt for knowledge\nwas a by-word; except for a schoolmaster or other thinker here and\nthere, nobody took knowledge seriously; we announced boldly that\nit did not matter what a child learned but only how he learned\nit. As for mere \u2018book-learning,\u2019 for that we had a fine contempt!\nBut we have changed all that. We are beginning to suspect that\nignorance is our national stumbling-block, a chief cause of those\ndifficulties at home which hinder our efforts abroad. For ignorance\nthere is only one cure, and that is, knowledge; his school is the\nseat of knowledge for a child, and whatever else his teachers do\nfor him, first of all they must sustain him with knowledge, not in\nhom\u0153opathic doses, but in regular, generous servings. If we ask,\nwhat is knowledge?--there is no neat and ready answer at hand.\nMatthew Arnold, we know, classifies all knowledge under three\nheads,--the knowledge of God, divinity, the knowledge of man,\nknown as the \u2018humanities\u2019 and the knowledge of the physical world,\nscience, and that is enough to go on with. But I should like to\nquestion this division and to class all three parts of knowledge\nunder the head of Humanism, which should include all knowledge\nthat makes a direct appeal to the mind through the channel of\nliterary form; now, the substance of Divinity is contained in\none of the three great literatures of the world, and Science, in\nFrance if not usually in England, is embodied in a beautiful and\npoetic literature of great clarity, precision and grace. Is it\nnot then allowable to include all knowledge of which literature\nis a proper medium under the head of \u2018Humanism\u2019? One thing at any\nrate we know with certainty, that no teaching, no information\nbecomes knowledge to any of us until the individual mind has acted\nupon it, translated it, transformed, absorbed it, to reappear,\nlike our bodily food, in forms of vitality. Therefore, teaching,\ntalk and tale, however lucid or fascinating, effect nothing until\nself-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only\npossible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of\na child\u2019s nature.\n\nI have endeavoured to call your attention to a certain undervaluing\nof children and undervaluing of knowledge which seem to me to mar\nour twentieth century ideal of education, fine as that is. If we\nrealise that the mind and knowledge are like two members of a ball\nand socket joint, two limbs of a pair of scissors, fitted to each\nother, necessary to each other and acting only in concert, we shall\nunderstand that our function as teachers is to supply children with\nthe rations of knowledge which they require; and that the rest,\ncharacter and conduct, efficiency and ability, and, that finest\nquality of the citizen, magnanimity, take care of themselves. \u201cBut\nhow?\u201d cries the teacher, whose life is spent in the labour of\nSisyphus. I think we have chanced on a way that, at any rate, works\nto admiration, the principles and practice of which I am anxious to\nbring before you.\n\nLet me first repeat[43] a few of the results that have been made\ngood by thousands of children, and within the last few years by\nmany Council Schools throughout the country:--\n\nThe children, not the teachers, are the responsible persons; they\ndo the work by self-effort.\n\nThe teachers give the uplift of their sympathy in the work and\nwhere necessary elucidate, sum up or enlarge, but the actual work\nis done by the scholars.\n\nThese read in a term from one thousand to between two and three\nthousand pages, according to age and class, in a large number of\nset books; the quantity set for each lesson allows of only a single\nreading.\n\nThe reading is tested by narration, or by writing on a test passage.\n\nNo revision is attempted when the terminal examination is at hand;\nbecause too much ground has been covered to allow of any \u2018looking\nup.\u2019\n\nWhat the children have read they know, and write on any part of it\nwith ease and fluency, in vigorous English. They usually spell well.\n\nDuring the examinations, which last a week, the children cover say\nfrom twenty to sixty sheets of Cambridge paper, according to age\nand class; but if ten times as many questions were set on the work\nstudied most likely they would cover ten times as much paper.\n\nIt rarely happens that all the children in a class are not able\nto answer all the questions set in such subjects as history,\nliterature, citizenship, geography, science. But here differences\nmanifest themselves; some children do better in history, some in\nscience, some in arithmetic, others in literature; some, again,\nwrite copious answers and a few write sparsely; but practically all\nknow the answers to the set questions.\n\nIn the course of an examination they deal freely with a great\nnumber of substantives, including many proper names; I once had the\nnames used by a child of ten in an examination paper counted; there\nwere well over a hundred, of which these are the \u2018A\u2019s\u2019--\n\n Africa, Alsace-Lorraine, Abdomen, Antigonons, Antenn\u00e6, Aphis,\n Antwerp, Alder, America, Amsterdam, Austria-Hungary, Ann Boleyn,\n Antarctic, Atlantic;\n\nand these are the \u2018M\u2019s,\u2019--\n\n Megalopolis, Maximilian, Milan, Martin Luther, Mary of the\n Netherlands, Messina, Macedonia, Magna Charta, Magnet, Malta,\n Metz, Mediterranean, Mary Queen of Scots, Treaty of Madrid;\n\nand upon all these subjects the children wrote as freely and fully\nas if they were writing to an absent sister about a new family of\nkittens!\n\nThe children write with perfect understanding as far as they go\nand there is rarely a \u2018howler\u2019 in hundreds of sets of papers.\nThey have an enviable power of getting at the gist of a book or\nsubject. Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage\nor an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but\nsums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way; for\nexample,--the reading of _King Lear_ is gathered in twelve lines on\n\u2018Cordelia,\u2019--\n\nCORDELIA\n\n Nobliest lady, doomed to slaughter,\n An unlov\u2019d, unpitied daughter,\n Though Cordelia thou may\u2019st be,\n \u201cLove\u2019s\u201d the fittest name for thee;\n If love doth not, maid, bestow\n Scorn for scorn, and \u201cno\u201d for \u201cno,\u201d\n If love loves through scorn and spite,\n If love clings to truth and right,\n If love\u2019s pure, maid, as thou art,\n If love has a faithful heart,\n Thou art then the same as love;\n Come from God\u2019s own realms above!\n\n M. K. C. 10-10/12 Form II.\n\nA life of Livingstone (read in connection with the Geography of\nAfrica) is thus epitomised,--\n\nLIVINGSTONE\n\n \u201cThe whole of Africa is desert bare,\n Except around the coast.\u201d So people said,\n And thought of that great continent no more.\n \u201cThe smoke of thousand villages I\u2019ve seen!\u201d\n So cried a man. He knew no more. His words\n Sank down into one heart there to remain.\n The man who heard rose up and gave his all:\n Into the dark unknown he went alone.\n What terrors did he face? The native\u2019s hate,\n The fever, tetse-fly and loneliness.\n But to the people there he brought great Light.\n Who was this man, the son of some great lord?\n Not so. He was a simple Scottish lad\n Who learnt to follow duty\u2019s path. His name\n Was Livingstone, he will not be forgot.\n\n E. P. (15.) Form IV.\n\nAnd here is a rendering of Plutarch\u2019s _Life of Pericles_ by a girl\nof fourteen in Form IV,--\n\n Oh! land, whose beauty and unrivalled fame;\n Lies dead, obscure in Time\u2019s great dusty vault.\n Not so in memory, for truly here,\n Each and alike look up and do revear\n Those heroes of the hidden past. Plato,\n Who\u2019s understanding reached the wide world\u2019s end;\n Aristides, that just and noble man.\n And last, not least, the great wise Pericles\n Who\u2019s socialistic views and clever ways\n For governing the rich and poor alike\n Were to be envied. In his eyes must Greece\n Live for ever as the home of beauty.\n So to the Gods great marble shrines he made,\n Temples and theatres did he erect;\n So that the beauty of his beloved Greece\n Might live for ever. And now when seeing\n What is left of all those wondrous sights\n We think not of the works _themselves_\n But rather of the man who had them built.\n\n J. F.\n\nOne wonders is \u2018socialistic\u2019 used for democratic; any way, the\nnotion is original. There is little to be said for the technique of\nthe verses but I think the reader will agree that each set shows\nthoughtful appreciation of some part of the term\u2019s reading. The\nverses are uncorrected.\n\nMuch use is made according to this method of the years from 6 to\n8, during which children must learn to read and write; they get at\nthe same time, however, a good deal of consecutive knowledge of\nhistory and geography, tale and fable, some of which at the end of\nthe term they dictate in answer to questions and their answers form\nwell-expressed little essays on the subjects they deal with.\n\nThe time appropriated in the time-table at this stage to the\nteaching of some half-dozen more or less literary subjects such as\nScripture, and the subjects I have indicated, is largely spent by\nthe teachers in reading, say, two or three paragraphs at a time\nfrom some one of the set books, which children, here and there\nin the class, narrate. The teacher reads with the intention that\nthe children shall know, and therefore, with distinctness, force,\nand careful enunciation; it is a mere matter of sympathy, though\nof course it is the author and not himself, whom the teacher is\ncareful to produce. This practice, of the teacher reading aloud\nand the class narrating, is necessarily continued through all the\nclasses of an elementary school, because some of the books used\nare rather costly and only one copy is furnished. I wonder does\nthis habit of listening with close attention to what is read aloud\ntend to equalise the children of the \u2018uneducated\u2019 with those of the\neducated classes? Certainly, the work of the two is surprisingly\nequal. By the way, there is no selection of subjects, passages or\nepisodes on the ground of interest. The best available book is\nchosen and read through in the course, it may be, of two or three\nyears.\n\nLet me add that the appeal of these principles and this method\nis not to the clever child only but to the average and even to\nthe \u2018backward\u2019 child; indeed we have had several marked successes\nwith backward children. Just as we all partake of that banquet\nwhich is \u2018Shakespeare\u2019 according to our needs and desires, so do\nthe children behave at the ample board set before them; there\nis enough to satisfy the keenest intelligence while the dullest\nchild is sustained through his own willing effort. This scheme\nof fairly wide and successful intellectual work is carried out\nin the same or less time than is occupied in the usual efforts\nin the same directions; there are no revisions, no evening\npreparations (because far more work is done by the children in\nordinary school-time than under ordinary school methods, when the\nchild is too often a listener only): no note-taking, because none\nare necessary, the children having the matter in their books and\nknowing where to find it; and as there is no cramming or working up\nof subjects there is much time to spare for vocational and other\nwork of the kind.\n\nSuch an education as I am urging should act as a social lever also;\neveryone is much occupied with problems concerning amelioration of\nlife for our \u2018poorer classes\u2019 but do we sufficiently consider that,\ngiven a better education, the problems of decent living will for\nthe most part be solved by the people themselves?\n\nLike all great ventures of life this that I propose is a venture\nof faith, faith in the saving power of knowledge and in the\nassimilative power of children. Its efficacy depends upon the fact\nthat it is in the nature of things, that is, in the nature of\nknowledge and in the nature of children. Bring the two together in\nways that are sanctioned by the laws of mind and, to use a figure,\na chemical combination takes place and a new product appears, a\nperson of character and intelligence, an admirable citizen whose\nown life is too full and rich for him to be an uneasy member of\nsociety.\n\nEducation is part and parcel of religion and every enthusiastic\nteacher knows that he is obeying the precept,--\u2018feed my\nlambs\u2019--feed with all those things which are good and wholesome for\nthe spirit of a man; and, before all and including all, with the\nknowledge of God.\n\nI have ventured to speak of the laws of mind, or spirit, but indeed\nwe can only make guesses here and there and follow with diffidence\nsuch light as we get from the teachings of the wise and from\ngeneral experience; general experience, because peculiar experience\nis apt to be misleading; therefore, when I learned that long tried\nprinciples and methods were capable of application to the whole of\na class of forty children in the school of a mining village, I felt\nassured that we were following laws whose observance results in\neducation of a satisfying kind.\n\nThe mind requires sustenance as does the body, that it may increase\nand be strong; so much everybody knows. A long time ago it was\nperceived that the pabulum given in schools was of the wrong\nsort; Grammar rules, lists of names and dates and places,--the\nwhole stock in trade of the earlier schoolmaster--was found to\nbe matter which the minds of children reject: and, because we\nwere wise enough to see that the mind functions for its own\nnourishment whether in rejecting or receiving, we changed our\ntactics, following, so we thought, the lead of the children. We\ndid well, and therefore are prepared, if necessary, to do better.\nWhat, then, if our whole educational equipment, our illustrations,\nelucidations, questionings, our illimitable patience in getting a\npoint into the children, were all based on the false assumption of\nthe immature, which we take to connote the imperfect, incomplete\nminds of children? \u201cI think I could understand, Mummy, if you did\nnot explain quite so much,\u201d--is this the inarticulate cry of the\nschool child to-day? He really is capable of much more than he\ngets credit for, but we go the wrong way about getting his capable\nmind into action.\n\nWe err when we allow our admirable teaching to intervene between\nchildren and the knowledge their minds demand. The desire for\nknowledge (curiosity) is the chief agent in education: but this\ndesire may be made powerless like an unused limb by encouraging\nother desires to intervene, such as the desire for place\n(emulation), for prizes (avarice), for power (ambition), for praise\n(vanity). But I am told that marks, places and prizes (except for\nattendance) do not figure largely in Elementary Schools, therefore\nthe love of knowledge for its own sake is likely to have a freer\ncourse in these schools than in others.\n\nThat children are born persons,--is the first article of the\neducational _credo_ which I am concerned to advance; this implies\nthat they come to us with power of attention, avidity for\nknowledge, clearness of thought, nice discrimination in books even\nbefore they can read, and the power of dealing with many subjects.\n\nPractical teachers will say, guarantee to us the attention of our\nscholars and we will guarantee their progress in what Colet calls\n\u2018good literature,\u2019 I have already explained[44] how I came to a\nsolution of this puzzling problem,--how to secure attention.\n\nLet me add again that the principles and methods I have indicated\nare especially suitable for large classes; what is called the\n\u2018sympathy of numbers\u2019 stimulates the class, and the work goes with\nadded impetus: each child is eager to take part in narration or\nto do written work well. By the way, only short test answers are\nrequired in writing, so that the labour of correction is minimised.\n\nTo two further points I must invite attention; the choice of books\nand the character of the terminal examinations. I do not know\nbetter how to describe the sort of books that children\u2019s minds will\nconsent to deal with than by saying that they must be literary\nin character. A child of seven or eight will narrate a difficult\npassage from _The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress_, say, with extraordinary\nzest and insight; but I doubt if he or his elders would retain\nanything from that excellent work, Dr. Smiles\u2019s _Self-Help_! The\ncompleteness with which hundreds of children reject the wrong book\nis a curious and instructive experience, not less so than the\navidity and joy with which they drain the right book to the dregs;\nchildren\u2019s requirements in the matter seem to be quantity, quality\nand variety: but the question of books is one of much delicacy and\ndifficulty. After the experience of over a quarter of a century[45]\nin selecting the lesson books proper to children of all ages, we\nstill make mistakes, and the next examination paper discovers the\nerror! Children cannot answer questions set on the wrong book; and\nthe difficulty of selection is increased by the fact that what they\nlike in books is no more a guide than what they like in food.\n\nThe moment has come to try the great cause of _Education v.\nCivilisation_, with the result, let us hope, that the latter will\nretire to her proper sphere of service in the amelioration of\nlife and will not intrude on the higher functions of inspiration\nand direction which belong to Education. Both Civilisation and\nEducation are the handmaids of Religion, but, each in its place,\nand the one may not thrust herself into the office of the other.\nIt is a gain, any way, that we are within sight of giving to all\nmembers of the working classes notwithstanding their limited\nopportunities that stability of mind and magnanimity of character\nwhich are the proper outcome and the unfailing test of a LIBERAL\nEDUCATION; also it is to the good that \u201cthe grand elementary\nprinciple of pleasure\u201d should be discovered in unexpected places,\nin what is too often the drudgery of the schoolroom.\n\nMilton\u2019s ideal of a \u201ccomplete and generous education\u201d meets our\noccasions;--\u201cthat which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully\nand magnanimously all the offices both private and public of peace\nand war\u201d; and perhaps it remains for our generation to prove that\nthis ideal is open to and necessary for persons of all sorts and\nconditions. It has been well said that,--\n\n \u201cJust as there is only one kind of truth common to us all, so\n there is only one education common to us all. In the case of the\n education of the people the only question is: How is this common\n education to be developed under the circumstances of simple\n conditions of life and large masses of people? That this should\n be accomplished is the decisive mark of all real education.\u201d\n\nThe writer (Eucken) offers no solution of this problem: and it\nremains with the reader to determine each with himself whether that\nsolution which I here propose is or is not worth a trial.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nA LIBERAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS\n\n\nMighty is the power of persistent advertisement. The author of _The\nPagan_ may or may not be bringing an indictment against Pelmanism,\nbut without any doubt \u2018Pelmanism\u2019 is bringing an indictment against\nsecondary education. Half a million souls, Judges and Generals,\nAdmirals and Barristers, are protesting that they have not been\neducated. No doubt the spirit that informs advertisements is often\na lying spirit but claims so well attested as these may have\nsomething in them, and we who are engaged in secondary education\nare uneasy. Again, we have the Board of Education desiring that\nreturns should be made promptly of all schools not already in\ncommunication with the State, which, by the way, is taking paternal\naction in several directions to secure a liberal education for\n_all_ His Majesty\u2019s lieges. \u201cPay the schoolmaster well and you\nwill get education\u201d is the panacea of the moment, and so we get\nin one neighbourhood a village schoolmaster with a salary of \u00a3350\nand a house, and a singularly able curate, an Oxford man, with a\nwife and family and no house who flourishes on \u00a3150 a year! Work,\nhowever, is more than wages, and this exclusive stress on high\nsalaries is a tacit undervaluing of teachers. Most of us know of\nfine educational work being done with little inducement in the way\nof either pay or praise. The real drawback to a teacher\u2019s work\nand the stumbling-block in the way of a liberal education is the\nmonotonous drudgery of teaching continually what no one wants to\nlearn. Before the War, the President of the British Association\ncomplained that education was uninteresting alike to pupils,\nteachers and parents. That is why we are always learning and never\nknowing, and why teachers exert themselves to invent a \u2018Play Way,\u2019\nwhy handicrafts, \u2018Eurhythmics\u2019 and the like are offered, not as\nadjuncts to, but as substitutes for, education, why our Public\nSchools are exhorted to change their ways and our lesser private\nschools are threatened with extinction.\n\nAnd with all this the intelligence and devotion, the enthusiasm\nand self-sacrificing zeal of teachers generally is amazing. They\nrealise that education is, not merely an interest, but a passion;\nand this is true not only of the heads and the staffs of great\nschools but of those hundreds of little private schools scattered\nover the country.\n\nWe have all heard of \u201cthe two Miss Prettymans, who kept a girls\u2019\nschool at Silverbridge. Two more benignant ladies than the Miss\nPrettymans never presided over such an establishment.\u201d As for\nMiss Annabella Prettyman, the elder, \u201cit was considered ... that\nshe did all the thinking, that she knew more than any other\nwoman in Barsetshire, and that all the Prettyman schemes for\neducation emanated from her mind. It was said, too, by those who\nknew them best, that her sister\u2019s good-nature was as nothing to\nhers, that she was the most charitable, the most loving, the most\nconscientious of schoolmistresses.\u201d To be sure Miss Ann, the\nyounger sister, knew more about Roman History and Roman Law than\nabout current history and English Law, but what would you have?\n\nHere was a type of school with which Trollope was familiar\ngenerations ago, and perhaps it would not be hard to find such\nanother school in every \u2018Silverbridge\u2019 of to-day. To-day, however,\nwe are uneasy, and in our unrest produce \u201cJoan and Peter\u201d types\nof education; that is, small schools indulge in freaks and great\nschools with much reason to believe in themselves are aware of\na hitch somewhere, for they fail to turn out many boys or girls\nwho have intellectual interests, or have that flexibility of mind\nwhich Matthew Arnold tells us their Academy gives to our neighbours\nacross the Channel. There is that bugbear of \u2018Pelmanism\u2019 urging a\ncharge of inadequacy against our methods; there is always some new\nbook by a man who brings railing accusations against his particular\nschool; and here is a tempered protest from Colonel Repington which\nis telling:--\n\n \u201cWhen I look back upon Eton schooling I regard it with mixed\n feelings, for I loved my five years at Eton, gloried in its\n beauties and traditions, and was in upper division when I left.\n But all the same I was conscious that Eton was not teaching me\n the things that I wanted to know, and was trying to teach me\n things that revolted me, particularly mathematics and classics. I\n wanted to learn history, geography, modern languages, literature,\n science, and political economy, and I had a very poor chance at\n Eton of obtaining anything but a smattering of any one of them. I\n do not agree that we learnt nothing or were lazy. We worked very\n hard, but at what, to my mind, were useless things, and, with my\n feet planted firmly in the ground, I resisted in a mulish way all\n attempts to teach me dead languages and higher mathematics. I\n believe that I was right. Classics have left nothing with me but\n some ideas that I could have learnt better from a crib.\u201d\n\nProbably the writer is mistaken as to what he owes to Eton. Without\nthose five years he might not have become the authority on the\ntheory and practice of war he is admitted to be. Who knows how much\n\u2018C\u00e6sar\u2019 may have influenced him as a small boy! No doubt Public\nSchools have many defects but they also have the knack of turning\nout men who do the work of the world. We know about the \u2018playing\nfields,\u2019 but perhaps when all is said it is the tincture of the\nclassics that every public schoolboy gets which makes him \u2018to\ndiffer.\u2019 Nevertheless such protests as \u2018Eton was not teaching me\nthe things I wanted to know\u2019 deserve consideration.\n\nIt is easy to condemn the schools, but the fact is, a human being\nis born with a desire to know much about an enormous number of\nsubjects. How is the school time table to get them all in or an\nadequate treatment of any one of them? Then, boys (and girls too)\noffer a resisting medium of extraordinary density. Every boy\n\u2018resists in a mulish way\u2019 attempts to teach him, not only dead\nlanguages and higher mathematics, but literature and science and\nevery subject the master labours at; with the average boy a gallon\nof teaching produces scarce a gill of learning, and what is the\nmaster to do? It is something to know, however, that behind all\nthis \u2018mulishness\u2019 there is avidity for knowledge, not so much for\nthe right sort (every sort is the right sort), but put in the right\nway, and we cannot say that every way is the right way.\n\nI put before the reader what we (of the P.N.E.U.) have done towards\nthe solution of this educational problem with sincere diffidence,\nbut also with courage, because I know that no persons are more open\nto conviction on reasonable grounds than are many distinguished\nHeadmasters and Mistresses; may they, if convinced, have the\ncourage of their convictions!\n\nSo little is known about the behaviour of mind that it is open to\nanyone to make discoveries in this _terra incognita_. I speak, not\nof psychology, of which we hear a great deal and know very little,\nbut of mind itself, whose ways are subtle and evasive; nevertheless\nthat education only is valid which has mind for its objective. The\ninitial difficulty is the enormous field of knowledge to which a\nchild ought to be introduced in right of his human nature and of\nthose \u201cfirst born affinities\u201d which he lives to make good. First\nand chiefest is the knowledge of God, to be got at most directly\nthrough the Bible; then comes the knowledge of man, to be got\nthrough history, literature, art, civics, ethics, biography, the\ndrama, and languages; and lastly, so much knowledge of the universe\nas shall explain to some extent the phenomena we are familiar with\nand give a naming acquaintance at any rate with birds and flowers,\nstars and stones; nor can this knowledge of the universe be carried\nfar in any direction without the ordering of mathematics. The\nprogramme is immense and school life is limited. What we may call\nthe \u2018Academic\u2019 solution of the problem is,--teach a boy to know one\nthing thoroughly, say, Greek or Chemistry or Mathematics, and you\ngive him the key to all knowledge. Therefore, we are told, it is\nnot what you know that matters, but how you learn it; and a grammar\ngrind, a mathematics grind or a laboratory \u2018stunt,\u2019 with a few\nodd matters thrown in, is supposed to answer all the purposes of\neducation. The plan answers fairly well with the dozen best boys or\ngirls in any school, because these are so keen and intelligent that\nthey forage for themselves in various directions; but it does not\nanswer with the average pupil, and he is coming in for his share of\npublic attention. Shortly we shall have a new rule,--every school\nmust educate _every_ scholar in the three sorts of knowledge proper\nto him as a human being. What is knowledge? some one will say, and\nthere is no pat, neatly-framed answer to be given; only this we can\nassert,--Knowledge is that which we know; and the learner knows\nonly by a definite act of knowing which he performs for himself.\nBut appalling _incuria_ blocks the way. Boys and girls do not want\nto know; therefore they do not know; and their future intellectual\nrequirements will be satisfied by bridge at night and golf by day.\n\nIt has come to us of the Parents\u2019 Union School to discover great\navidity for knowledge in children of all ages and of every class,\ntogether with an equally remarkable power of attention, retention,\nand intellectual reaction upon the pabulum consumed. The power\nwhich comes into play in the first place is, of course, attention,\nand every child of any age, even the so-called \u2018backward\u2019 child\nseems to have unlimited power of attention which acts without mark,\nprize, place, praise or blame. This fact clearly recognised opens\ngreat possibilities to the teacher; though his first impulse be\nto deny statements which seem to him sweeping and absurd. But the\neducation of the future will probably offer us intellectual assets\nin human nature as surprising as the ethical values exhibited by\nthe War.\n\nWe have not attained but I think we are on the way to attainment.\nAfter over a quarter of a century of experiment on a wide scale and\nconsequent research, we have discovered what children are able to\nknow and desire to know; what their minds will act upon in the ways\nof judgment and imagination; what they are incapable of knowing;\nand under what conditions knowledge must be offered to them. We do\nnot want a \u2018play-way,\u2019 nor need we substitute arts and crafts or\neurhythmics or even \u2018rugger\u2019 and the swimming bath, as things that\nboys take to, whereas learning goes against the grain. Physical\nand mechanical training are necessary for the up-bringing of the\nyoung, but let us regard them for the moment as training rather\nthan education,--which ought to concern itself with things of the\nmind. Education as we know it is admirably designed to \u2018develop\nthe faculties\u2019; but if \u201cAll that\u2019s an exploded idee,\u201d if there\nbe no faculties to develop, but only mind,--alert, self-active,\ndiscriminating, logical, capable alike of great flights and of\nminute processes--we must necessarily alter our educational\ntactics. Mind is benefitted by occasional gymnastics just as is\n\u2018Brother Body,\u2019 but cannot subsist on these any more than \u2018Body\u2019\ncan live on Swedish drill.\n\nAs I have said, knowledge, that is, roughly, ideas clothed upon\nwith facts, is the proper pabulum for mind. This food a child\nrequires in large quantities and in great variety. The wide\nsyllabus I have in view is intended in every point to meet some\nparticular demand of the mind, and the curious thing is that in a\nsyllabus embracing a score of subjects the young learner is quite\nunconfused, makes no howlers, and never mixes, say, a fact of\nEnglish with a fact of French history.\n\nAgain, we have made a rather strange discovery,--that the mind\nrefuses to know anything except what reaches it in more or less\nliterary form. It is not surprising that this should be true of\nchildren and persons accustomed to a literary atmosphere but\nthat it should be so of ignorant children of the slums points to\na curious fact in the behaviour of mind. Persons can \u2018get up\u2019\nthe driest of pulverised text-books and enough mathematics for\nsome public examination; but these attainments do not appear to\ntouch the region of mind. When we get a young Pascal who enters\nvoluntarily and eagerly into the study of mathematics he finds\nhimself in a region of high thinking and self-existent law of the\nvery nature of poetry; minds of this calibre assert themselves; but\nthis is a gift and does not come of plodding. For the general run\nof scholars probably the \u201cAssociation of Head Mistresses\u201d are right\nand a less exacting standard should be set for public examinations.\n\nOf Natural Science, too, we have to learn that the way into the\nsecrets of nature is not through the barbed wire entanglements of\nscience as she is taught but through field work or other immediate\nchannel, illustrated and illuminated by books of literary value.\n\nThe French Academy was founded to advance _Science_ and Art, a\nfact which may account for the charming lucidity and the exquisite\nprose of many French books on scientific subjects. The mind is a\ncrucible which brings enormous power to act on what is put into it\nbut has no power to distil from sand and sawdust the pure essence\nof ideas. So much for the manner of food which that organism (if I\nmay be allowed the figure) called the mind requires for its daily\nsubsistence. How various this sustenance must be I have already\nindicated and we remember how urgently Dr. Arnold insisted on \u2018very\nvarious reading\u2019 in the three parts of knowledge, knowledge of God,\nof man, and of the universe.\n\nBut the mind was a deceiver ever. Every teacher knows how a class\nwill occupy itself diligently by the hour and accomplish nothing,\neven though the boys think they have been reading. We all know how\nill we could stand an examination on the daily papers over which\nwe pore. Details fail us, we can say,--\u201cDid you see such and such\nan article?\u201d but are not able to outline its contents. We try to\nremedy this vagueness in children by making them take down, and get\nup, notes of a given lesson: but we accomplish little. The mind\nappears to have an outer court into which matter can be taken and\nagain expelled without ever having entered the inner place where\npersonality dwells. Here we have the secret of learning by rote,\na purely mechanical exercise of which no satisfactory account has\nbeen given, but which leaves the patient, or pupil, unaffected.\nMost teachers know the dreariness of piles of exercises into\nwhich no stray note of personality has escaped. Now there is a\nnatural provision against this mere skimming of the ground by the\neducational plough. Give children the sort of knowledge that they\nare fitted to assimilate, served in a literary medium, and they\nwill pay great attention. What next? A clever _questionnaire?_\nQuestions, as Dr. Johnson told us, are an intrusion and a bore;\nbut here we have a word of ancient wisdom for our guidance; \u201cThe\nmind can know nothing except what it can express in the form of\nan answer to a question put by the mind to itself.\u201d Observe, not\na question put by an outsider, but, put by the mind to itself. We\nall know the trick of it. If we want to tell the substance of a\nconversation, a sermon, a lecture, we \u2018go over it in our minds\u2019\nfirst and the mind puts its question to itself, the same question\nover and over again, no more than,--What next?--and lo, we have it,\nthe whole thing complete! We remember how one of Burke\u2019s pamphlets,\nby no means light affairs, was told almost verbatim at a College\nsupper. We admire such a feat and think it quite out of our reach\nbut it is the sort of thing that any boy or girl of fifteen could\ndo if allowed to read the pamphlet only once; a second reading\nwould be fatal because no one can give full attention to that\nwhich he has heard before and expects to hear again. Attention\nwill go halt all its days if we accustom it to the crutch. We as\nteachers offend deeply in this matter. We think that we shall be\nheard for our much speaking and we repeat and enforce, explain\nand illustrate, not altogether because we love the sound of our\nown voices, but because we depreciate knowledge, we depreciate\nchildren, and we do not understand that the mind and knowledge\nare as the two members of a ball and socket joint, each of them\nirrelevant without the other. \u2018Education\u2019 will have turned over a\nnew leaf once we realise that knowledge is to the mind as food is\nto the body, without which the one faints and flags and eventually\nperishes as surely as does the other.\n\nThe way to bring this panac\u00e6a into use is exceedingly simple. Let\nthe child (up to any age while he is an infant in the eye of the\nlaw) tell what he has read in whole or in part on the instant, and\nagain, in an examination paper months later. \u2018Mere verbal memory,\u2019\nsome reader will say, and there is no answer to be given but that\nwhich one must give to oneself. Let the objector read an essay of\nLamb\u2019s, say, or of Matthew Arnold\u2019s, _Lycidas_ or the \u2018raven\u2019\nscene in _Barnaby Rudge_ and then put himself to sleep or wile\naway an anxious or a dull hour by telling to himself what he has\nread. The result will be disappointing; he will have forgotten this\nand that turn of thought, link in the chain of argument, but he\nwill know the whole thing in a surprising way; the incidents, the\nfigures, the delicate play of thought in the author will be brought\nout in his mind like the figures in the low relief which the\nsculptor produces from his block. He finds he has taken in \u2018mind\nstuff\u2019 which will come into use in a thousand ways perhaps as long\nas he lives.\n\nHere we get the mind forces which must act continuously in\neducation,--attention, assimilation, narration, retention,\nreproduction. But what of reason, judgment, imagination,\ndiscrimination, all the corps of \u2018faculties\u2019 in whose behoof the\nteacher has hitherto laboured? These take care of themselves and\nplay as naturally and involuntarily upon the knowledge we receive\nwith attention and fix by narration as do the digestive organs\nupon duly masticated food-stuff for the body. We must feed the\nmind as the body fitly and freely; and the less we meddle with the\ndigestive processes in the one as in the other the more healthy the\nlife we shall sustain. It is an infinitely great thing, that mind\nof man, present in completeness and power in even the dullest of\nour pupils; even of him it may be said,--\n\n \u201cDarkness may bound his Eyes, not his Imagination. In his Bed he\n may lie, like Pompey and his Sons, in all quarters of the Earth,\n may speculate the Universe, and enjoy the whole World in the\n Hermitage of Himself.\u201d\n\nWe are paying in our education of to-day for the wave of\nmaterialism that spread over the country a hundred years ago.\nPeople do not take the trouble to be definitely materialistic now,\nbut our educational thought has received a trend which carries us\nwhither we would not. Any apostle of a new method is welcome to\nus. We have ceased to believe in mind, and though we would not\nsay in so many words that \u201cthe brain secretes thought as the liver\nsecretes bile,\u201d yet the physical brain rather than the spiritual\nmind is our objective in education; therefore, \u201cthings are in the\nsaddle and ride mankind,\u201d and we have come to believe that children\nare inaccessible to ideas or any knowledge.\n\nThe message for our age is, Believe in mind, and let education go\nstraight as a bolt to the mind of the pupil. The use of books is a\nnecessary corollary, because no one is arrogant enough to believe\nhe can teach every subject in a full curriculum with the original\nthought and exact knowledge shown by the man who has written a\nbook on perhaps his life-study. But the teacher is not moved by\narrogance but by a desire to be serviceable. He believes that\nchildren cannot understand well-written books and that he must make\nof himself a bridge between the pupil and the real teacher, the man\nwho has written the book.\n\nNow we have proved that children, even children of the slums,\nare able to understand any book suitable for their age: that is,\nchildren of eight or nine will grasp a chapter in _Pilgrim\u2019s\nProgress_ at a single reading; children of fourteen, one of Lamb\u2019s\nEssays or a chapter in _E\u00f6then_, boys and girls of seventeen\nwill \u2018tell\u2019 _Lycidas_. Given a book of literary quality suitable\nto their age and children will know how to deal with it without\nelucidation. Of course they will not be able to answer questions\nbecause questions are an impertinence which we all resent, but they\nwill tell you the whole thing with little touches of individual\npersonality in the narrative. Perhaps this is the key to the\nenormous difficulty of humanistic teaching in English. We are no\nlonger overpowered by the mass of the \u2018humanities\u2019 confronted with\nthe slow process of getting a child to take in anything at all of\nthe author he is reading. The slow process is an invention of our\nown. Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again\nwhat he has read.\n\nThis, of telling again, sounds very simple but it is really a\nmagical creative process by means of which the narrator sees what\nhe has conceived, so definite and so impressive is the act of\nnarrating that which has been read only once. I dwell on the single\nreading because, let me repeat, it is impossible to fix attention\non that which we have heard before and know we shall hear again.\n\nTreat children in this reasonable way, mind to mind; not so much\nthe mind of the teacher to that of the child,--that would be to\nexercise undue influence--but the minds of a score of thinkers\nwho meet the children, mind to mind, in their several books, the\nteacher performing the graceful office of presenting the one\nenthusiastic mind to the other. In this way children cover an\nincredible amount of ground in the time at their disposal.\n\nPerhaps there is no better way of measuring a person of liberal\neducation than by the number of substantives he is able to use\nwith familiarity and discrimination. We remember how Scott tried\na score of openings with the man on the coach and got no further\nuntil he hit upon \u2018bent leather\u2019; then the talk went merrily for\nthe man was a saddler. We have all had such experiences and know to\nour shame that we ourselves have victimised interlocutors who have\nnot been able to find our particular \u2018bent leather.\u2019 Now, this is\na matter for teachers to consider. There are a thousand subjects\non which we should have definite knowledge and be able to speak\nwith intelligence; and, indeed, do we not set \u2018general knowledge\u2019\npapers, with the result that boys and girls are \u2018out\u2019 for scrappy\ninformation and provide material for comic paragraphs? There is no\nremedy for this state of things but a great deal of _consecutive_\nreading from very various books, all of some literary value; and\nthis we find can be accomplished readily in school hours because\none reading is sufficient; nor should there be any revision for\nthe distant examination. Here is an uncorrected list of 200 names,\nused with ease and fitness in an examination on one term\u2019s work by\na child of eleven in Form II.\n\n Abinadab, Athenian, Anne Boleyn, Act of Uniformity, Act of\n Supremacy, America, Austria, Alcibiades, Athens, Auckland,\n Australia, Alexandria, Alhambra.\n\n Bible, Bishop of Rochester, Baron, Bean-shoots, Bluff, Bowen\n Falls, Bishoprics, Blind Bay, Burano.\n\n Currants, Cupid, Catholic, Court of High Commission, Cranmer,\n Charles V, Colonies, Convent, Claude, Calais, Cook Strait,\n Canterbury Plain, Christchurch, Cathedral, Canals, Caliph of\n Egypt, Court of the Myrtles, Columbus, Cordova.\n\n David, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Guise, Dunedin, Doge\u2019s\n Palace.\n\n England, Emperor, Empire, Egmont (Count), English Settlement.\n\n Flour, Fruits, French, Francis I, Francis of Guise, Ferdinand,\n Foveau Strait, Fuchsias, Fiords, Ferns.\n\n Greek, Germany, Gondolas, \u201cGates of the Damsels,\u201d Gondoliers,\n Granada, Gate of Justice, Gypsies.\n\n Henry VIII, History, Hooper, Henry II, Hungary, Haeckel.\n\n Israel, Italian (language), Italy, Infusoria.\n\n Jesse, Jonathan, Joseph, John, Jerusalem, James, Jane Seymour.\n\n King of Denmark, King of Scotland, Kiwi.\n\n \u201cLove-in-idleness,\u201d Lord Chancellor, Lord Burleigh, Lord Robert\n Dudley, Lime, Lyttleton, N.Z., Lake Tango.\n\n Mary (The Virgin), More (Sir Thomas), Music, Martyr\u2019s Memorial,\n Milan, Metz, Monastery, Mary, Queen of Scots, Mediterranean,\n Microscope, Messina, Middle Island, Mount Egmont, Mount Cook,\n Milford Sound, Museum, Moa, Maoris, Mussulman, Moorish King.\n\n Naomi, Netherlands, Nice, New Zealand, North Island, Napier,\n Nelson.\n\n Oberon, Oxford, Orion.\n\n Pharisees, Plants, Parliament, Puck, Pope, Protestant, Poetry,\n Philosophy, \u201c_Paix des Dames_,\u201d Philip II, Paris, Planets, \u201cPink\n Terraces,\u201d Piazetta, Philip of Burgundy.\n\n Queen Catherine, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Queen Isabella,\n Queen Juana.\n\n Ruth, Robin Goodfellow, Ridley, Reformation, Radiolaria,\n Rotomaliana (Lake), Rea.\n\n Saul, Samuel, Simeon, Simon Peter, Sunshine, Sugar-cane, Spices,\n Sultan, Spain, St. Quentin, Socrates, Stars, Sycamore, Seed-ball,\n Stewart Island, Seaports, Southern Alps, Scotch Settlement, St.\n Mark, St. Theodore, St. Maria Formosa (Church), Sierra Navada.\n\n Temple, Titania, Testament, Treaty, Turks, Toul, Thread Slime,\n Tree Ferns, Timber Trees, Trieste, Toledo.\n\n Verdure, Venus (Planet), Volcano, Volcanic Action, Venice.\n\n Wheat, Wiltshire, William Cecil, Walsingham, Winged Seed,\n Wellington, Waikato.\n\n Zaccharias, Zebedee.\n\nThe fitness and simplicity with which these substantives are\nemployed is evidenced in the complete sets of papers that\nfollow.[46]\n\nSupposing we have succeeded in shifting a conscientious and\nintelligent teacher from one mental position to another, suppose\nthat he give up the notion of developing \u2018faculties\u2019 because he\nperceives that mind is complete and sufficient and wants nothing\nbut its proper pabulum; that, again, he yield his place as the\nmedium of all knowledge because his boys are qualified to deal with\nknowledge at first hand from the right books; suppose he scrap all\nthe text-books and compendiums he has in use, perceiving that only\nthat curious outsider, the verbal memory, and not the mind, will\nconsent to deal with these dry-as-dust compilations; suppose he\nconcede that much knowledge of various sorts and therefore a wide\ncurriculum is necessary for the production of an intelligent and\nmagnanimous citizen; supposing he has proved that any boy can face\nsuch a curriculum because all boys have immense power of attention\nand are able to know their work after a single reading,--surely\nhe has still one or two strongholds that have not been attacked!\nWhat he aims at, he will tell you, is, not to open avenues of\napproach to the subjects about which intelligent citizens should\nknow something, but to give pretty thorough knowledge in two or\nthree directions and to turn out straight Englishmen; that is,\nhe looks upon school as a nursery for the formation of character\nrather than for the acquisition of knowledge. As for the one or two\nsubjects, practically, classics and mathematics, I have nothing\nto say; those subjects are of real value and also under existing\nregulations pretty high attainments in them are necessary as a\npreliminary to professional advancement. It is possible that when\na boy has the habit of covering the ground rapidly he may get more\ninto the given \u2018period\u2019 and leave a margin for the wider range\nof subjects proper to a liberal education. Experiments in this\ndirection are being tried in one of our great Grammar Schools,\nand how important such experiments are to us as a democracy, I\nneed not be at pains to show. There is every promise that the\n\u2018masses\u2019 will learn to read in their schools in such wise as to\nproduce in a terminal examination as considerable a list of names\nas those on the preceding page. If the masses know \u2018Sancho Panza,\u2019\nElsinore, \u2018Excalibur,\u2019 \u2018Rosinante,\u2019 \u2018Mrs. Jellaby,\u2019 redstart,\n\u2018Bevis,\u2019 bogbean,--the classes must know these things too with\neasy intimacy. If the one class is familiar with the pictures of\nthe Van Eycks, with \u2018Comus,\u2019 \u2018Duessa,\u2019 \u2018Baron of Bradwardine,\u2019 the\nother class must know them too, and be able to use the knowledge\nwith such effect as does the \u2018Honourable Member\u2019 when he quotes a\nfamiliar tag from Horace. He touches a spring to which all hearts\nrise, because allusions to what we know are like the light on \u2018old\nfamiliar faces.\u2019 What we want is a common basis of thought, such\na ground work as we get from having read the same books, grown\nfamiliar with the same pictures, the same musical compositions, the\nsame interests; when we have such a fundamental basis, we shall be\nable to speak to each other whether in public speaking or common\ntalk; we shall \u201call hear ... in our own tongue the wonderful works\nof God\u201d because we have learned a common speech through those who\nin their books have lived to educate the race. And how persuasively\nshall we speak to those who know, and therefore do not present the\ndead front of opposition--the natural resource of ignorance!\n\nA democratic education must have new features. We must all be able\nto \u2018take the front\u2019 of men and women by speaking of that which\nthey have known and felt and already found joy in. So shall we\ncease to present motives of self interest and personal advantage as\nincentives to public action; we shall touch springs of poetry, of\nheroism, to which all natures have the habit of rising; and thus\nshall we build \u201cJerusalem in England\u2019s green and pleasant land.\u201d\nTowards this, we must have read the same books, only in English\nrather than in Latin or Greek, because the people will probably\nnever have time to attain proficiency in these; neither, as a\nmatter of fact, has the average boy at our great schools. If we\nmust still have an exclusive education to which only the few best\nin a school can attain,--and it seems to me that we must, that this\nis, in fact, the one thing we have achieved, an education that has\naccomplished great results in character and conduct;--but if we\nwould keep this possession, we must at the same time broaden its\nbase and narrow its bounds. We must give wide reading in the lower\nforms, reading that everybody has read, and we must so compress\nour classical and mathematical work in the higher Forms that much\nhistory and \u2018English\u2019 may be included. I speak without authority\nbut is it not true that there is overlapping in the passage from\nPreparatory to Public School, from one Form to a higher, from the\nSixth to the University? Probably it will be found possible to give\nthe old training which has produced such notable results, but to\nmake it an inclusive not an exclusive education, to take in the\nbooks which everyone should know, the pictures everyone should be\nfamiliar with, the history, the travel, in which we should all be\nat home, some understanding of the phenomena which come before us\nall. Once we give up the notion that education is a development\nof the \u2018faculties\u2019 to be accomplished by the teacher, and realize\nthat it is on the contrary an appropriation of wide knowledge\nwhich the pupil must get for himself, there is some fear that the\nold exclusive education must go by the board; but this would be a\nnational calamity. We must keep that to which we have attained and\nadd to it the wide reading of a liberal education. The careers of\n\u2018Joan\u2019 and \u2018Peter,\u2019 as depicted by Mr. Wells are instructive. Peter\nis not entered for a recognised Public School for his guardian\nhad many things against such schools, but games are his chief\nconcern. Later we find the two at College, and of Joan it is said,\n\u201cNo religion has convinced her of a purpose in her life, neither\nHighmorton nor Cambridge has suggested any mundane devotion to\nher nor pointed her ambitions to a career. The only career these\nfeminine schools and Colleges recognized was a career of academic\nsuccess and teaching.\u201d The implicit charge against the schools is\nthat they try each in its own way to find a substitute for the\nsaving grace of knowledge. Academic success and knowledge are not\nthe same thing and many excellent schools fail to give their pupils\ndelight in the latter for its own sake or to bring them in touch\nwith the sort of knowledge that influences character and conduct.\nThe slow, imperceptible, sinking-in of high ideals is the gain that\na good school should yield its pupils.\n\nWe have, if not a higher, yet another standard which it may be\ninteresting to consider. We offer children knowledge for its own\nsake and our pupils discover that \u2018studies serve for delight.\u2019 We\ndo not give our best attention to brilliant children, it is not\nnecessary; these work well on their own account and so do the\naverage and even the dull pupils. Historical characters become\nreal to them and a fairly wide historical field comes under their\npurview; they do not grow up in crass ignorance of the history\nof foreign countries; they understand, for example, the India of\nto-day the better because they have some slight intimacy with Akbar\nas a contemporary of Elizabeth. They take to themselves a lesson\nfrom the youthful presumption of \u2018Pha\u00ebton\u2019; \u2018Midas\u2019 and \u2018Circe,\u2019\nXerxes and Pericles enrich the background of their thoughts. The\nseveral Forms get through a great deal of reading because we\nhave discovered that a single reading suffices to secure a clear\nknowledge (as far as it goes) of a subject, given the right book.\nTherefore, many books are necessary, and each is read consecutively\nso that the knowledge acquired is not scrappy and insecure. I know\nthat teachers enjoy the work set term by term fully as much as\ndo the children and that a schoolroom life in which there is no\nmonotony, no dulness, little or no idleness or inattention, does\naway with the necessity to make games the paramount interest of the\nschool--to make them indeed a stem necessity rather than a joyous\nrelaxation.\n\nThe introduction of the methods I advocate has a curious effect\non a whole family. The old nurse and the gardener are told of the\nadventures of \u2018Waverley.\u2019 \u201cA. B. has named a moss her father picked\non the tip-top of Ben Lawers. It is very rare and only grows on\nBen Lawers and one other mountain. She is so pleased,\u201d and so, no\ndoubt, is her father! The whole household thinks of and figures to\nitself great things, for nothing is so catching as knowledge and\nthat fine temper of mind that knowledge brings with it. Children so\ntaught are delightful companions because they have large interests\nand worthy thoughts; they have much to talk about and such casual\ntalk benefits society. The fine sense, like an atmosphere, of\nthings worth knowing and worth living for, this it is which\nproduces magnanimous citizens, and we feel that Milton was right in\nclaiming magnanimity as the proper outcome of education.\n\nWhen we compare the large number of books, of historical and\nliterary personages, the range of natural phenomena, with which\nchildren brought up on these lines are acquainted, with the sterile\nsyllabus, not very well mastered, which is the schoolboy\u2019s normal\nfare, we find matter for reflection. Yet I suppose that in few\nthings is the general moral and intellectual progress evidenced\nmore than in the culture common among the teachers of secondary\nschools. Every Head knows how to draw up the best possible syllabus\nand to secure good work, if upon narrow lines, but we (of the\nP.N.E.U.) work at an advantage when, as I have said, we recognise\none or two natural laws.\n\nI have no doubt that some of my readers are interested in the work\nwe are doing in Elementary schools,--a work the more astonishing\nbecause children who have little vocabulary to begin with, no trace\nof literary background, show themselves able to hear or read a\nwork of literary value and after a single reading to narrate pages\nwith spirit and accuracy, not hedging at the longest names nor\nmuddling complicated statements. This was a revelation to us, and\nit signifies that a literary education is open to all, not after\ntedious and laborious preparation, but immediately. The people wait\nonly for the right books to be put into their hands and the right\nmethod to be employed.\n\nLet me repeat that we live in times critical for everybody, but\neminently critical for teachers, because it rests with them whether\npersonal or general good shall be aimed at, whether education\nshall be merely a means of getting on, or a means of general\nprogress towards high thinking and plain living, and therefore an\ninstrument of the greatest national good.\n\nLet me beg that Heads of schools, so far in sympathy with me that\nthey perceive we are at the parting of the ways, will consider a\nmethod which brings promise of relief.\n\nWe are in a condition, for example, to answer the questions to be\nconsidered by the Departmental Committee on English:--\n\n \u201cCan history and literature be brought into closer relations\n with the school curriculum than is the case at present? How much\n grammar is necessary? Could not oral composition and drama and\n debate, do something to cure our national _aphasia_? How can the\n preparatory schools improve their English teaching? How can the\n school essay be redeemed from barrenness? How can examinations be\n made a test of English without destroying the love of literature?\u201d\n\nThese questions might have been framed with a view to bring out\nthe attainments of the Parents\u2019 Union School. History, European\nas well as English, runs in harness with literature. Some Syntax\nis necessary and a good deal of what may be called historical\nGrammar, but, not in order to teach the art of correct writing and\nspeaking; this is a native art, and the beautiful consecutive and\neloquent speech of young scholars in narrating what they have read\nis a thing to be listened to not without envy. As to _aphasia_, to\nquote a Director of Education on this subject,--\u201cConversational\nreadiness becomes a characteristic. A quarter of a century of these\nmethods with all the children of England and the strong silent\nEnglishman should be a rare bird!\u201d A schoolmaster remarks that his\nbig boys are now eager to speak at some length--a thing new in his\nexperience. Consider what an asset this should be to a country\nwhose safety will depend more and more upon the power in the middle\nclasses of clear and conclusive speech. Oral composition is the\nhabit of the school from the age of six to eighteen. \u201cChildren of\nten who read Shakespeare\u201d is the heading of an article in a local\nnewspaper which sent a reporter to investigate the P.N.E.U. method\nat work in a school as the result of an article in the _Nineteenth\nCentury and After_ written by the Headmaster. As for preparatory\nschools, we can do no more than offer them a method the results of\nwhich in teaching English are rather surprising. The final question\nas to how examinations may be made a source of intellectual\nprofit is I think sufficiently answered in the P.U.S. children\u2019s\nexamination papers.\n\nWe do not invite Heads of schools to take up work lightly, which\nimplies a sound knowledge of certain principles and as faithful a\npractice. The easy tolerance which holds smilingly that everything\nis as good as everything else, that one educational doctrine\nis as good as another, that, in fact, a mixture of all such\ndoctrines gives pretty safe results,--this sort of complacent\nattitude produces lukewarm effort and disappointing progress. I\nfeel strongly that to attempt to work this method without a firm\nadherence to the few principles laid down would be not only idle\nbut disastrous. \u201cOh, we could do anything with books like those,\u201d\nsaid a master; he tried the books and failed conspicuously because\nhe ignored the principles. We teachers are really modest and\ndiffident and are not prepared to say that we are more capable of\nhandling a subject than is a carefully chosen author who writes\nespecially upon that subject. \u201cYes, but,\u201d says a young and able\nteacher, \u201cwe know better how to reach the minds of children than\ndoes the most eloquent author speaking through the dull pages of a\nbook.\u201d This is a contention of which we have finally disposed. We\nhave shown that the mass of knowledge, evoking vivid imagination\nand sound judgment, acquired in a term from the proper books, is\nmany times as great, many times more thoroughly visualised by the\nscholars, than had they waited upon the words of the most able and\neffective teacher. This is why we insist upon the use of books.\nIt is not that teachers are not eminently capable but because\ninformation does not become knowledge unless a child perform the\n\u2018act of knowing\u2019 without the intervention of another personality.\n\nHeads of schools are a generous folk and perhaps they have some\nreason to think parents are niggardly, but the provision of the\nnecessary books by the parents is a _sine qu\u00e2 non_. It is our part\nto see to it that books take root in the homes of our scholars\nand we must make parents understand that it is impossible to give\na liberal education to children who have not a due provision of\nvery various books. Moreover, it is impossible to teach children\nto spell when they do not read for themselves; we hear complaints\nof the difficulties of spelling, of the necessity to do violence\nto the language which is dear to us all in order to make \u2018spelling\nmade easy\u2019; but in thousands of cases that come before us we\nfind that children who use their books for themselves spell well\nbecause they visualise the words they read. Those who merely\nlisten to their teacher have no guide (in English at any rate)\nto the spelling of the words they hear. We are, perhaps, opposed\nto oral lessons or lectures except by way of occasional review\nor introduction. For actual education children must do their own\nwork out of their own books under the sympathetic guidance of\nan intelligent teacher. We find, I may add, that once parents\nrecognise how necessary a considerable supply of books is, they\nmake no difficulty about getting those set in our programmes. Mr.\nFisher says,--\u201cthere are books and text-books,\u201d and the day is at\nhand when we shall all see that the latter are of no educational\nvalue. We rarely use text-books in the Parents\u2019 Union School but\nconfine ourselves as far as possible to works with the imaginative\ngrasp, the touch of originality, which distinguish a book from a\ntext-book. Perhaps we should apologise for ourselves as purveyors\nnot precisely of books but of lists of books. Every headmaster or\nmistress is able to draw up such lists, but think of the labour\nof keeping some 170 books in circulation with a number of changes\nevery term! Here is our excuse for offering our services to\nmuch-occupied teachers. There has been talk from time to time about\ninterfering with the liberty of teachers to choose their own books,\nbut one might as well contend for everyman\u2019s liberty to make his\nown boots! It is one of those questions of the division of labour\nwhich belong to our civilisation; and if the question of liberty be\nraised at all, why should we not go further and let the children\nchoose their books? But we know very well that the liberty we\nworship is an elusive goddess and that we do not find it convenient\nto do all those things we are at liberty to do.\n\nThe terminal examinations are of great importance. They are not\nmerely and chiefly tests of knowledge but records which are\nlikely to be permanent. There are things which every child must\nknow, every child, for the days have gone by when \u2018the education\nbefitting a gentleman\u2019 was our aim.\n\nThe knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and no teaching\nof the Bible which does not further that knowledge is of religious\nvalue. Therefore the children read, or if they are too young to\nread for themselves the teacher reads to them, a passage of varying\nlength covering an incident or some definite teaching. If there\nare remarks to be made about local geography or local custom, the\nteacher makes them before the passage has been read, emphasizing\nbriefly but reverently any spiritual or moral truth; the children\nnarrate what has been read after the reading; they do this with\ncurious accuracy and yet with some originality, conveying the\nspiritual teaching which the teacher has indicated. Now this is\nno parrot-exercise, but is the result of such an assimilation of\nthe passage that it has become a part of the young scholar. It is\nonly by trying the method oneself on such an incident, for example,\nas the visit of Nicodemus or the talk with the woman of Samaria,\nthat we realise the wonderful clearness with which each incident\nis brought out, the fullness of meaning with which every phrase\nis invested by such personal effort. This method of teaching is\nespecially valuable in dealing with the Gospel history, but none\nof us who read during the War the daily lessons appointed by the\nChurch could fail to be struck by the fact that the law and the\nprophets still interpret the ways of God, and we shall not do well\nif we tacitly treat the Old Testament as out-of-date as a guide to\nlife.\n\nNext in order to religious knowledge, history is the pivot upon\nwhich our curriculum turns. History is the rich pasture of the\nmind--which increases upon the knowledge of men and events and,\nmore than all, upon the sense of nationhood, the proper corrective\nof the intolerable individualism of modern education. Let Amyot\ntell us,--\n\n \u201cHow greatly is the reading of histories to be esteemed, which\n is able to furnish us with more examples in one day, than the\n whole course of the longest life of any man is able to do.\n Insomuch that they which exercise themselves in reading as they\n ought to do, although they be but young, become such in respect\n of understanding of the affairs of this world, as if they were\n old and grayheaded and of long experience. Yea, though they\n never have removed out of their houses, yet are they advertised,\n informed and satisfied of all things in the world.\u201d\n\nHence, the great value of the Old Testament,--history and poetry,\nthe law and the prophets; and perhaps no one was more sensible of\nthis educative value of the Scriptures than Goethe, though he was\nlittle sensible of their more spiritual worth. We endeavour to\nbring records contemporary with the Bible before children, using\nthe contents of certain Rooms of the British Museum as a basis.\nEpisodes of Greek and Roman history come in, partly for their\nhistorical, partly for their distinctly ethical value. Plutarch is,\nof course, our great authority.\n\n \u201c(Plutarch) hath written the profitable story of all authors.\n For all other were fain to take their matter, as the fortune of\n the countries whereof they wrote fell out: But this man being\n excellent in wit, learning, and experience, hath chosen the\n special acts of the best persons, of the famousest nations of the\n world.\u201d (_North_).\n\nEnglish History is always with us, but only in the earliest years\nis it studied alone. It is not, as we know, possible always to\nget the ideal book, so we use the best we can find and supplement\nwith historical essays of literary value. Literature is hardly\na distinct subject, so closely is it associated with history,\nwhether general or English; and whether it be contemporary or\nmerely illustrative; and it is astonishing how much sound learning\nchildren acquire when the thought of an age is made to synchronise\nwith its political and social developments. A point which I\nshould like to bring before the reader is the peculiar part which\npoetry plays in making us aware of this thought of the ages,\nincluding our own. Every age, every epoch, has its poetic aspect,\nits quintessence, as it were, and happy the people who have a\nShakespeare, a Dante, a Milton, a Burns, to gather up and preserve\nits meaning as a world possession.\n\nLet me repeat that what is called \u2018composition\u2019 is an inevitable\nconsequence of this free yet exact use of books and requires no\nspecial attention until the pupil is old enough to take naturally\na critical interest in the use of words. Civics takes place as a\nseparate subject, but it is so closely bound up with literature and\nhistory on the one hand and with ethics, or, what we call everyday\nmorals, on the other, that the division of subjects is only\nnominal.\n\nWe have considered in a previous chapter[47] what we do for\nchildren as inhabitants of a world ordered by natural law. Here we\nhave a contention with some teachers of science who maintain that a\nchild can only learn what he discovers for himself _de novo_. The\ntheory is plausible, but the practice is disappointingly narrow and\ninexpansive. The teacher has got his knowledge through books; why\nthen are they taboo for the children? Probably the reason is that\ntext-books of science are dessicated to the last degree, so the\nteacher hopes to make up for their dryness by familiar talk about\nthe Hydra, for example, as a creature capable of close friendships,\nabout the sea-anemone as a \u2018Granny\u2019 of enormous longevity; that is,\nthe interest of the subject is made to depend upon side issues.\nThe French scientists know better; they perceive that as there\nis an essence of history which is poetry so there is an essence\nof science to be expressed in exquisite prose. We have a few\nbooks of this character in English and we use them in the P.U.S.\nin conjunction with field work and drawing--a great promoter of\nenthusiasm for nature.\n\nI have already shown[47] what we do, for example, in the way of\naffording children familiar acquaintance with great music and\ngreat pictures. An eminent art-dealer in London paid us a pretty\ncompliment when he said,--\u201cLord help the children!\u201d were our work\nto come to an end; and he had reason for he had just sold to P.U.S.\nchildren thousands of little exquisite reproductions of certain\npictures by Velasquez which were the study of the term; no wonder\nthat a man who loves art and believes in it should feel that\nsomething worth while was being done. In drawing, the scholars work\nvery freely in colour from natural figures and objects and draw\nscenes visualised in the term\u2019s reading. We do not teach drawing as\na means of self-expression; the scholars express, not themselves,\nbut what they can see and what they conceive.\n\nI have already gone into the teaching of languages; the habit of\nfixed attention and ready narration which the P.U.S. pupils acquire\nshould be of value in this branch of work, and I believe a new era\nis opening for us and we English will at last become linguists. At\nthe House of Education the students narrate in French,[48]--more\nreadily and copiously than they do in English,--the courses of\nlectures in French history and literature which form part of\ntheir work. In German and Italian they are able to read a scene\nin a play and \u2018tell\u2019 the scene in character, or a short passage\nfrom a narrative. We rather emphasise Italian, the language is so\nbeautiful and the literature so rich, and I should like to suggest\nthat schools should do the same. Latin and Greek we learn in the\nusual ways, but we apply the method of narration to the former.\n\nI must commend any further study of the _rationale_ of our syllabus\nto the reader\u2019s own kind consideration; he will perceive that\nwe have a principle of correlation in things essential, but no\nfatiguing practice of it in detail. But to one more statement, a\nvery daring one, I beg for favourable attention. The common theory\nand practice of education are on trial. It is idle to \u2018develop\nthe faculties\u2019 if there be no faculties, but only _mind_, which,\nlike Wordsworth\u2019s cloud, moves altogether when it moves at all.\nTherefore, those subjects whose _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ is to develop this\nand the other faculty are practically out of court and we must seek\nanother basis for education. Subjects of instruction which would be\nvaluable if reason, judgment, imagination, had to be \u2018developed\u2019\nbecome as meretricious, as much \u2018accomplishments,\u2019 as those early\nVictorian accomplishments over which we make merry. Education must\nbe in touch with life. We must learn what we _desire to know_.\nNobody talks to his friend about \u2018stinks,\u2019 about the niceties of\nGreek accents, nor, unless the two be mathematicians, about surds.\nBut, when Jupiter is regnant, how good to tell and to learn! What\na welcome companion is he who can distinguish between songs that\ndiffer in the vespers of the birds! How grateful the company of the\nreader of history who brings forward parallels to episodes in the\ngreat War! We are apt to work for one thing in the hope that we\nshall get another and a very different thing; we don\u2019t. If we work\nfor public examinations, the questions in which must be of a narrow\nacademic cast, we get a narrow, accurate, somewhat sterile type of\nmind. We reap as we have sown.\n\nThe future of England depends largely upon Secondary schools;\nlet the Heads of these lay out a liberal field of study and\nastonishingly fair things will grow in that garden of mind in which\nwe are invited to sow the seeds of all knowledge. My bold proposal\nis that the Heads of Secondary Schools from the least to the\ngreatest should adopt a scheme of work following the lines I have\nindicated, _faute de mieux_, that of the Parents\u2019 Union School, and\nthat they should do this for the nation\u2019s sake.\n\nMr. Masefield remarks,--\n\n \u201cThere can be no great art without great fable. Great art can\n only exist where great men brood intensely on something upon\n which all men brood a little. Without a popular body of fable\n there can be no unselfish art in any country. Shakespeare\u2019s art\n was selfish till he turned to the great tales in the four most\n popular books of his time, Holinshed, North\u2019s Plutarch, Cinthio\n and De Belleforest. Since the newspaper became powerful, topic\n has supplanted fable and subject comes to the artist untrimmed\n and unlit by the vitality of many minds.\u201d\n\nIt is this vitality of many minds that we aim at securing and\nentreat educational workers and thinkers to join in forming a\ncommon body of thought which shall make England great in art no\ndoubt, and also great in life.\n\nThis is the way to make great men and not by petty efforts to form\ncharacter in this direction or in that. Let us take it to ourselves\nthat great character comes out of great thoughts, and that great\nthought must be initiated by great thinkers; then we shall have a\ndefinite aim in education. Thinking and not doing is the source of\ncharacter.\n\n (Here followed a set of examination answers in each form. Space\n forbids their inclusion but specimen sets can be seen at the\n P.N.E.U. Office.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE SCOPE OF CONTINUATION SCHOOLS\n\n\nA hundred years ago, about the close of the Napoleonic wars, there\nwas such another stirring among the dry bones as we are aware of\nto-day. All the world knew then, as now, that war was the outcome\nof the wrong thinking of ignorance, and that education was the\nnostrum for minds diseased.\n\nPrussia led the way; not the children but the young people were\nthe immediate concern of Statesmen, and, guided by the philosophy\nof Fichte, and organised under the statesmanship of Stein, that\nnoble league of youth, the Tugendbund, came into being. Prussia\nwas miserably impoverished, but her concern was not with the arts\nwhich should make her rich; her young people looked to philosophic\nprinciples for precept and to history for example, and, it was well\nwith the land.\n\nNot only in Prussia but throughout western Europe there was a more\nor less active intellectual renaissance, but, whether because the\ntimes were not ripe or the peoples were not worthy, the high ideals\nof the early days of the century were superseded by the utilitarian\nmotive.\n\nWhen the \u2018Continuation School\u2019 movement revived, envy of the\ncommercial and manufacturing successes of England actuated the new\neffort; and already in 1829 a Bavarian statesman had announced\nthat if you would have the fruit you must sow the seed, that is,\nmanufacturing success is to be had only at the cost of technical\neducation.\n\nWe all know the result in the great Munich schools where first-rate\norganisation and admirable teaching have produced an appreciable\neffect upon German industries. But the best German minds have long\nbeen aware that \u201can education which has powerful economic interests\nbehind it is apt to become too narrowly utilitarian in motive and\nto lose that ideal element which gives all education its chief\npower over character.\u201d As Mr. Lecky has said concerning morals,\n\u201cthe Utilitarian theory is profoundly immoral.\u201d\n\nThe occasion brought forth the man; we know how in 1900 Dr.\nKirschensteiner chanced to see the announcement of a prize offered\nfor an essay on the best way of training youth. He wrote the essay,\nwas crowned by the Academy of his country, and that essay in\npamphlet form has influenced opinion and directed action throughout\nthe west: Professors Dewey and Stanley Hall in the United States,\nDr. Armstrong and Sir Philip Magnus at home, are among its leading\nexponents.\n\nAnd what was the note of this new gospel of education? Practically\nthat same note which had proceeded from England, France,\nSwitzerland, a century earlier: a utilitarian education should be\nuniversal and compulsory; child and adolescent should be \u201csaturated\nwith the spirit of service, provided with the instruments of\neffective self-direction.\u201d Behold, Utopia at hand! every young\nperson fitted, body and soul, for the uses of society; as for his\nown uses, what he should be in and for himself--why, what matter?\n\nIt is not that the eminent educationalists I have referred to\nwould willingly sacrifice the individual youth to society; on the\ncontrary they would raise him, give him place and power, give him\nopportunity; place his feet on the rungs of that ladder we used to\nhear about; but we have all been misled by mistaken views as to\nthe function of education. We have believed that knowledge may be\nderived from sensation, that what we have seen with our eyes and\nour hands have handled affords us the nutriment our souls demand.\nNo doubt a boy uses his mind to some purpose when he makes, for\nexample, an ingenious model; and, seeing mind at work, we run away\nwith the notion that food and work are synonymous terms; for the\nbody they may be so in a certain sense, for work brings pay and pay\nbuys food, but no such indirect transaction is possible to mind;\na mind perpetually at heavy work is a sort of intellectual navvy,\nwhose food must be proportioned to his labour. Our great statesmen,\nGladstone, Lord Salisbury and others, knew this, and their wide and\ndeep reading in other matters than politics should not occasion\nsurprise.\n\nThe War has forced new ideas upon us; we begin, for instance, to\nrealise the avidity of the _adult_ mind for instruction; it was\nstartling to read of 1,500 soldier candidates for twenty vacant\nplaces in a certain class. We begin to see that mind, the mind of\nall sorts and conditions of men, requires its rations, wholesome\nand regularly served. As things are we shall have to see to it\nthat everybody gets fed; but our hope is that henceforth we shall\nbring up our young people with self-sustaining minds, as well\nas self-sustaining bodies, by a due ordering of the process of\neducation. We hope so to awaken and direct mind hunger that every\nman\u2019s mind will look after itself.\n\nWhat is the proper food of mind, has already been discussed but\nwe may assume that education should make our boys and girls rich\ntowards God (we remember the fool of the parable who failed because\nhe was _not_ \u201crich towards God\u201d), rich towards society and rich\ntowards themselves. I will not press my point by urging the moral\nbankruptcy which has been exposed to us during recent years as\nco-existent with, if not caused by, utilitarian education; for\nthe catastrophe has been accelerated by the sort of moral madness\nof which we too have had our seasons in the past,--witness our\n_Barnaby Rudge_ and _Peveril of the Peak_ episodes; we have indeed\nbeen carried off our feet by a fallacious notion once and again,\nbut our national insanity has on each occasion been short-lived\nbecause our education hitherto has not taught us to believe a lie.\n\nWe are not worse than others, and if we think well of ourselves\nas a nation, why, national pride and personal modesty do not go\nill together; in peace-time we have bitter things to say of our\nBritish working-man, but all the same he compares favourably with\nthe somewhat sardonic Latin, the sullen Teuton, whom we all know.\nAnd the better man does the better work. We have heard much of\nGerman efficiency, and perhaps the German excels in little matters\nlike doors that shut, blinds that draw, springs that act, things of\ndomestic utility important in a country with a more extreme climate\nthan ours; but these are little matters and perhaps our failing is,\nnot to do our best except on big occasions; give us a big job or a\nbig war and we show our mettle.\n\nBut probably in all our considerable industries we excel. German\nwomen will purr over the material of our dresses with \u201cAch,\nenglisches Tuch!\u201d Well dressed men are English tailored in English\ncloths. We buy, or bought, things \u201cmade in Germany\u201d because they\nwere cheap, but the most costly and most desired goods in German\nshops are advertised as \u201cenglisch.\u201d\n\nThis is a point to be borne in mind in considering the education of\nadolescents. We are given to depreciating ourselves and each other,\nbut in fact we have no lee-way to make up; as both a manufacturing\nand commercial nation we are well in the van and are without\ninducement to sell the people\u2019s birthright for a mess of pottage.\n\nBefore I come to the point I desire to make, let us consider\nwhether the problem of Continuation Schools has been attacked\nanywhere more successfully than in those countries of Middle\nEurope. Some of them, Germany especially, have done all that\nis to be done in response to the cry for efficiency with its\nresultant big returns and high wages; but from the beginning of the\nContinuation School movement in, say, 1806, the four north-western\ncountries have worked towards different ends. In Denmark they have,\nnot Continuation Schools, but People\u2019s High Schools, a pleasanter\nname for possibly a pleasanter thing.\n\nDenmark, like Germany, was, as we know, devastated by the\nNapoleonic wars, but had been vitalised by the liberation of its\nserfs in 1788, and this prepared the ground for Grundtvig, that\npoet, historian and enthusiast, who became the \u201cFather of the\nPeople\u2019s High Schools.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere there is most life, there is the victory,\u201d said he, and\nthe immediate way to an access of life he saw in \u201cA Danish High\nSchool accessible to young people all over the land,\u201d a school\nwhich should inspire \u201cadmiration for what is great, love for what\nis beautiful, faithfulness and affection, peace and unity, innocent\ncheerfulness, pleasure and mirth.\u201d Observe, there is no word of\n\u2018efficiency\u2019 in this poet\u2019s dream, but he did assure Charles VIII\nthat with such a school, \u201ca well of healing in the land,\u201d he might\nafford to smile at the newspapers, whether they chose to praise or\nblame. The King gave heed, begged for a further development of his\nplans than was afforded in the original pamphlet, and by 1845 the\nschools he had dreamed of began to be.\n\nWe cannot follow the development of these Danish People\u2019s Schools,\nbut in 1903-4 their pupils numbered over three thousand men and\nrather more women, and wise men cherished the hope that \u201cthe new\nDanish school for youth is to have the good fortune to blend all\nclasses of the people into one.\u201d\n\nAll of these High Schools bear the mark of the genius of their\n\u201cFather\u201d--whose pupils have known how to sum up his teaching in\nthree sayings,--\u201cSpirit is might; Spirit reveals itself in spirit;\nSpirit works only in freedom.\u201d We are able to trace the source of\nthese sayings, and indeed this movement seems to have been from\nthe first profoundly Christian--Christian in no narrow sense,\nbut sharing the wide liberality of that _Allegoria filosofica\ndella Religione Cattolica_ conceived by the \u2018Angelic Doctor\u2019 and\npictured by Simone Memmi on the walls of the Spanish chapel in\nSanta Maria Novella (Florence): the several teachers commemorated\nwere themselves illustrious pagans but not therefore the less under\nDivine teaching. Here, it seems to me, is an educational _credo_\nworth reviving in these utilitarian days, and some such creed seems\nto have been Grundtvig\u2019s, though probably independently conceived.\nHis great hope is that \u201cabove all, some acquaintance with popular\nliterature, especially with the poetry and history of one\u2019s own\ncountry, will create a brand new world of readers all over the\nland.\u201d\n\nI cannot go into the question of the Agricultural Schools of which\nit is said that \u201cthe Danish Agricultural School is the child of the\nDanish Folksh\u00f6jskole, and must, like this, have Christian faith and\nnational life for its basis.\u201d In the careless days before the War\nwe could all testify to the excellence of Danish butter, but did we\nconsider the \u201cresolution and capacity\u201d with which Danish peasants\npassed over from the making of poor butter in their various small\nholdings to the \u201cmanufacture in co-operative dairies of butter of\nan almost uniform fineness\u201d? This, too, says an eminent Swedish\nProfessor, is due to the High Schools, for, said he, \u201cJust as the\nenrichment of the soil gives the best conditions for the seeds\nsown in it, so a well-grounded humanistic training provides the\nsurest basis for business capacity, and not the least so in the\ncase of the coming farmers.\u201d[49] These are weighty words deserving\nour consideration at a moment when we, too, are on the eve of a new\ndeparture.\n\nThe three neighbouring countries watched the experiments in Denmark\nwith keen interest, and almost simultaneously People\u2019s High Schools\nsprang up in all four.\n\nThese northern High Schools, necessarily winter schools, were not\nopen at the time of my visit, but two or three things casually\nobserved might, I think, be traced to their influence. For\ninstance, Copenhagen itself, as compared with Munich, strikes one\nas a city with a soul. At the Hague, again, I saw an artisan in\nhis working clothes shewing pictures in one of the galleries to\nhis boy of seven who looked earnestly and listened eagerly. The\nyoung people in the great Delft porcelain works shewed traces of\nculture and gentleness in countenance and manner. But nothing\nstruck me more than what I saw in the general shop of an out of\nthe way village in Sweden; the villagers were peasants and the one\nshop sold cabbages and herrings, cheese and calico; but across the\nsmall-paned window was a shelf closely packed with volumes in paper\ncovers which had not had time to get dusty; of course I could not\nread all the titles, but among them were translations from French,\nGerman and English. I noticed slim volumes of Scott, Dickens,\nThackeray, Ruskin, Carlyle and the last thing out. One felt assured\nthat the village was in \u2018kingdom come,\u2019 that of a long winter\u2019s\nevening, in any home, one read aloud whilst the rest worked, that\nthere was much to talk about when friends met and lovers walked.\n(How sad, by the way, to read that \u2018Tommy,\u2019 whom we all love and\nrevere, is quick to form friendships but that these do not progress\nfor the friends have nothing to talk about.) Think of little plays\ngot up, of public readings given by the villagers themselves; might\nsuch things be with us, the lure of the town would cease to draw\nour village men and maids, for the village that can offer a happy\ncommunity life, sustained by the people themselves, is able to hold\nits people.\n\nOur upper and middle classes, professional and other, are\nsingularly stable folk, and they are so, not because of their\nmaterial but of their intellectual well-being; in this sense only\nthey are most of them the \u2018Haves\u2019 as compared with the \u2018Have-nots.\u2019\nThe reason is not far to seek. Are there not agitators abroad whose\nbusiness it is to sow seeds of discontent in the gaping minds of\nthe multitude? The full mind passes on, but that which is empty\nseizes on _any_ new notion with avidity, and is hardly to be blamed\nfor doing so; a hungry mind takes what it can get, and the baker is\napt to be lenient about prosecuting the starving man who steals a\nloaf. I do not hesitate to say that the constantly recurring misery\nof our age, \u2018Labour Unrest,\u2019 is to be laid at the door, not of the\nworking man, but of the nation which has not troubled itself to\nconsider the natural hunger of mind and the manner of meat such\nhunger demands.\n\nI have tried to establish that the Kultur offered by the Munich\ntype of Continuation School has had no good effect upon morals or\nmanners and no conspicuously good effect upon manufactures.\n\nThat England is under no necessity to follow Germany\u2019s lead in this\nmatter for Germany allows our superiority by paying a high price\nfor our goods.\n\nThat Denmark and the neighbouring states, on the contrary, excel in\nthose things in which we fall short.\n\nThat the People\u2019s High Schools of Denmark are worthier of our\nimitation than the Continuation Schools of Germany.\n\nThat they are so because character and conduct, intelligence and\ninitiative, are the outcome of a humanistic education in which the\nknowledge of God is put first.\n\nBut we cannot take educational prescriptions designed for another\npatient; the Grundtvig Schools are for students ranging from\neighteen to twenty-five, not for the more difficult ages from\nfourteen to eighteen. Again, these People\u2019s High Schools are\nresidential. In countries so largely agricultural it is possible\nfor a great part of the young adult population to spend the five\nwinter months year by year at one of these People\u2019s High Schools.\nTheir case and ours do not go on all fours. Our problem is the\nyoung adolescent in a country largely manufacturing.\n\nNow, we have received our cloth, and not in ungenerous measure.\nHow shall we cut our coat, that is, how shall we spend those seven\nor eight hours a week in which \u201cEducation\u201d is to do her part\nfor the young citizen? If we take the easiest way, we shall let\nthe boy do what he is doing for the rest of the week,--work for\nhis employer, whether directly, by way of increased output, or\nindirectly, by way of increased skill. This would be a betrayal. No\nemployer wishes to take with one hand what he gives with the other;\nbesides, what employer doubts the ability of his staff to train his\nyoung employees? Again, the technique of any employment takes but\nlittle time to understand. It is the practice that is of value,\nand such practice is--work. Continuation Schools should not exist\nfor technical instruction; they are established definitely for the\nsort of education of which such instruction forms no part; and will\nnot the evening hours be free as they are at present for technical\nclasses, gymnastic clubs, and various forms of recreative exercise?\n\nThis particular gift of _time_ must be dedicated to things of the\nmind if we believe that mind too requires its rations and that to\nuse the mind is by no means the same thing as to feed it.\n\nWith the best will in the world to give boys and girls something\non which to chew the cud, real mind-stuff for digestion and\nassimilation, we find that the flood-gates are opened; an ocean of\nthings good to know overwhelms us and we have--eight hours a week!\nWe seize on that blessed word compromise and see two possibilities:\nwe are in a hurry to make good citizens. Now, good citizens must\nhave sound opinions about law, duty, work, wages, what not; so we\npour opinions into the young people from the lips of lecturer or\nteacher, his opinions, which they are intended to take as theirs.\nIn the next place there is so much to be learned that a selection\nmust needs be made; the teacher makes this selection and the young\npeople are \u201cpoured into like a bucket,\u201d which, says Carlyle, \u201cis\nnot exhilarating to any soul.\u201d Some ground is covered; teachers and\nEducation Authorities are satisfied; and if, when the time comes,\nthe young people leave school discontented and uneasy, if their\nwork bore them and their leisure bore them, if their pleasures are\nmean and meagre, and if they become men and women rather eager\nthan otherwise for the excitement of a strike, that is because the\nContinuation, as the Elementary, School will have failed to find\nthem.\n\nThis is the real educational difficulty in schools for all classes,\nfor pupils of all ages,--the enormous field of knowledge which it\nis necessary to cover in order to live with intelligence and moral\ninsight. Know one thing well and you have the power to apprehend\nmany things is the academic solution, which has not worked\naltogether badly, but it cannot be stretched to fit our present\noccasion,--the \u201cEnlightenment of the Masses.\u201d What we may call\nthe \u2018academic\u2019 doctrine assumes that mind like body is capable\nof development in various directions by means of due exercise.\nProfounder educational thought, however, reveals mind to us as of\nenormous capacity, self-active, present in everyone and making but\none demand--its proper pabulum. Feed mind duly and its activities\ntake care of themselves. As the well-fed workman is fit for all his\nlabours, so the duly nourished mind knows, thinks, feels, judges\nwith general righteousness. The good man and magnanimous citizen is\nhe who has been fed with food convenient for him.\n\nSuch a view of education naturally includes religion, not only \u201cfor\nhis God doth instruct him and doth teach him,\u201d but because we may\ntake knowledge roughly as of three sorts,--knowledge of God, to be\ngot first-hand through the sacred writings, knowledge of man, to be\narrived at through history, poetry, tale; through the customs of\ncities and nations, civics; through the laws of self-government,\nmorals. One other great branch of knowledge remains. Every youth\nshould know something of the flowers of the field, the birds of the\nair, the stars in their courses, the innumerable phenomena that\ncome under general observation; he should have some knowledge of\nphysics, though chemistry perhaps should be reserved for those who\nhave a vocation that way.\n\nHere are we on the verge of that new life for our country which we\nall purpose, faced with infinite possibilities on either hand,--the\nvast range of knowledge and the vast educability of mind. Another\ncertainty presents itself, that we have not time for short cuts:\nthe training of muscle and sense, however necessary, does not\nnourish mind; and, on the other hand, the verbiage of a lecturer is\nnot assimilated. There is no education but self-education and only\nas the young student works with his own mind is anything effected.\n\nBut we are not without hope. An astounding field has been\nopened to us; thousands of children in Council Schools are doing\nincredible things with freedom and joy. They have taken in hand\ntheir own education and are greedy of knowledge for its own sake,\nknowledge in the three great fields that I have indicated.\n\nThe fact is that a great discovery has been vouchsafed to\nus, greater, I think, as concerns education, than any since\nthe invention of the first alphabet. Let us again refer to\nColeridge[50] on the origin of great discoveries. Coleridge gives\nno qualification to the minds which receive these great ideas,\nthey are not described as great minds, but, he says, they are\n\u201cpreviously prepared to receive them,\u201d that is, the great ideas.\nIf the reader will forgive me for saying so I think my mind has\nbeen so prepared--by extraordinary incapacity in one direction, the\ndirection, roughly, of academic attainments, and by some degree of\ncapacity in other directions, and it has been gradually borne in\nupon me that this incapacity and this capacity are pretty general,\nand perhaps afford a key to the problem of education. A further\npreparation came to me in unusual opportunities for testing and\nunderstanding the minds of children and young people. I am anxious\nto bring this idea of a discovery before the reader because our\nmethods are so simple and obvious that people are inclined to take\nthem up at random and say that extensive reading is a \u201cgood idea\nwhich we have all tried more or less\u201d and that free narration\n\u201cis a good plan in which there is nothing new.\u201d It is true that\nwe all read and that narration is as natural as breathing, its\nvalue depending solely upon what is narrated. What we have perhaps\nfailed to discover hitherto is the immense hunger for knowledge\n(curiosity) existing in everyone and the immeasurable power of\nattention with which everyone is endowed; that everyone likes\nknowledge best in a literary form: that the knowledge should be\nexceedingly various concerning many things on which the mind of\nman reflects; but that knowledge is acquired only by what we may\ncall \u201cthe _act of knowing_,\u201d which is both encouraged and tested\nby narration, and which further requires the later test and record\nafforded by examinations. This is nothing new, you will say, and\npossibly no natural law in action appears extraordinarily new; we\ntake flying already as a matter of course; but though there is\nnothing surprising in the action of natural laws, the results are\nexceedingly surprising, and to that test we willingly submit these\nmethods.\n\n\u201cAll is not for all\u201d was the sad conclusion of that Danish patriot\nand prophet. No doubt Grundtvig thought of the impassable barriers\npresented by a poor and mean vocabulary and a field of thought\nwithout literary background. So \u201call is not for all\u201d he said, even\nas a prophet of our own proclaims that a worthy education is only\nfor the _\u00e9lite_. Books are not for the people, was Grundtvig\u2019s\nconclusion; wherefore those young Danes were lectured to by men\nof enthusiasm who had their country\u2019s literature and history at\ntheir fingers\u2019 ends and could convey the temper of their own minds.\nA great deal was effected, but minds nourished at the lips of a\nteacher have not the stability of those which seek their own meat.\n\nBut what if all _were_ for all, if the great hope of Comenius--\u201cAll\nknowledge for all men\u201d--were in process of taking shape? This is\nwhat we have established in many thousands of cases, even in those\nof dull and backward children, that any person can understand any\nbook of the right calibre (a question to be determined mainly by\nthe age of the young reader); that the book must be in literary\nform; that children and young persons require no elucidation\nof what they read; that their attention does not flag while so\nengaged; that they master a few pages at a single reading so\nthoroughly that they can \u2018tell it back\u2019 at the time or months\nlater whether it be the _Pilgrim\u2019s Progress_ or one of Bacon\u2019s\nEssays or Shakespeare\u2019s plays; that they throw individuality\ninto this telling back so that no two tell quite the same tale;\nthat they learn incidentally to write and speak with vigour and\nstyle and usually to spell well. Now this art of telling back is\n_Education_ and is very enriching. We all practise it, we go over\nin our minds the points of a conversation, a lecture, a sermon, an\narticle, and we are so made that only those ideas and arguments\nwhich we go over are we able to retain. Desultory reading or\nhearing is entertaining and refreshing, but is only educative here\nand there as our attention is strongly arrested. Further, we not\nonly retain but realise, understand, what we thus go over. Each\nincident stands out, every phrase acquires new force, each link\nin the argument is riveted, in fact we have performed THE ACT OF\nKNOWING, and that which we have read, or heard, becomes a part\nof ourselves, it is assimilated after the due rejection of waste\nmatter. Like those famous men of old we have found out \u201cknowledge\nmeet for the people\u201d and to our surprise it is the best knowledge\nconveyed in the best form that they demand. Is it possible that\nhitherto we have all been like those other teachers of the past who\nwere chidden because they had taken away the key of knowledge, not\nentering in themselves and hindering those who would enter in?\n\nTo-day we are in this position. We realise that there is an act of\nknowing to be performed; that no one can know without this act,\nthat it must be self-performed, that it is as agreeable and natural\nto the average child or man as singing is to the song thrush,\nthat \u201cto know\u201d is indeed a natural function. Yet we hear of the\n_incuria_ which prevails in most schools, while there before us are\nthe young consumed with the desire to know, can we but find out\nwhat they want to know and how they require to be taught.\n\nHumanistic education, whether in English or Latin, affects conduct\npowerfully; knowledge of this sort is very welcome to children\nand young persons; a good deal of ground may be covered because a\nsingle reading of a passage suffices; this sort of humanistic work\nhas been tried with good effect; and if our Continuation Schools\nare to be of value they must afford an education on some such lines.\n\nThe Parents\u2019 Union School, originally organised[51] for the benefit\nof children educated at home, is worked by means of programmes\nfollowed by examination papers sent out term by term. When the same\nwork, if not the whole of it, was taken up by Council Schools,[52]\nthe advantage of such an organisation was apparent, especially in\nthat it afforded a common curriculum for children of all classes.\nBy using this curriculum we were enabled to see that the slum child\nin a poor school compares quite favourably with the child of clever\nor opulent parents who had given heed to his education.\n\nNow one of our national difficulties is the fact that we have\nno common basis of thought or ground for reflection. No doubt,\nby pretty copious reading, links of common interests might be\nestablished, and the schoolroom might do at least as much for\nthe general life as does the cricket-pitch. The scheme works\npractically without a hitch in Council Schools; this is the sort of\nwork that the highest class in these Schools, (in Standard VII),\nare doing with great success and very great delight. They read\nEnglish, French and General History (three or four volumes), two or\nthree books dealing with citizenship and morals from various points\nof view; Literature, contemporary with the history read (several\nworks); natural history, physical geography and science (three or\nfour books); Scripture (chiefly the Bible). Every term brings a new\nprogramme of work, the continuation usually of books already in\nreading. Children in Secondary Schools and in families remain for\none year in Form IV and that work seems adapted to the status of\nContinuation Schools for the first year or two. After that the more\nadvanced programme (Forms V and VI) might be used in the same way.\nThis work would appeal to young people as being unlike the ordinary\nschool grind, and as giving them opportunity for consecutive\nspeaking and essay writing.\n\nThere is probably no better test of a liberal education than the\nnumber of names a person is able to use accurately and familiarly\nas occasion requires. We all recollect a character of Miss Austen\u2019s\nwho had no opinion to offer as to whether the Bermudas should be\ndescribed as the West Indies or not, because she had never called\nthem anything in her life!\n\nNow, here is an alphabetical (uncorrected) list taken from the\nexamination papers of a girl of thirteen, containing 213 proper\nnames, all of them used accurately, easily and with interest.\n\n Amaziah, Ariel, Ayrshire, Arcot, America, Austrian Army,\n Artemidorus, Antium, Aufidius, Auditors, Apotheosis, Altai\n Mts., Assouan, Africa, Atbara, Annulosa, Arachnoida, Armadillo,\n Albumen, Abdomen, Auricles, Angle, Arc.\n\n Burns (Robert), Bastille, Bombay, Bengal, Burke, Black Hole\n of Calcutta, British Museum, Benevolence, Basalt, Butterfly,\n Beetles, Blood-vessels, Berber, Blue Nile Baghdad, Burne Jones.\n\n Cowper, Calcutta, Clive, Canada, Colonel Luttrel, Cleopatra,\n Candace, Coriolanus, Cassowary, Cormorants, Curlews, Cranes,\n Calyptra, Cotton grass, Chalk, Conglomerate, Crustacea,\n Cheiroptera, Carnivora, Chyle, Centre of Circle, China Proper,\n Canton, Cairo, Cheops, Circe.\n\n \u2018Dick Primrose,\u2019 \u201cDeserted Village,\u201d Dupleix, Demotic characters,\n Ducks, Despotic Government, Doctor Livingstone, Deposits, Delta,\n Diaphragm, Duodenum.\n\n England, East India Company, Economical Reform, Europe, Emperor\n of Austria, Empress of Russia, Emu, Eastern Turkestan, Egypt.\n\n France, Frederick the Great, Frederick William of Prussia,\n Flightless birds, First Cataract, Foraminifera.\n\n Gadarenes, Gizeh, Great Commoner, George III, General Warrants,\n Governor General, Grace and Free-will, Greek language,\n Generosity, Gulls, Granite, Grubs, Gastric juice, Globules.\n\n Huldah, Highlands of Scotland, Herodotus, Hieroglyphics, Herons,\n Hoang-ho, Hedgehog, Hydrochloric Acid, Hydrocarbons, Heart.\n\n Isaiah, India, Influence of light.\n\n Josiah, Judah, Jehosaphat, Jerusalem, Jonas, Jonah, Jesuits,\n Jansenists, Japan.\n\n K\u00fcnersdorf, Kuen Lun Mts., Kioto, Karnac, Khartum, Kolcheng,\n Kalabari.\n\n Lord North, \u201cLords in Waiting\u201d of Love, Land birds, Lamell\u00e6,\n Luxor, Lake Ngami, Loanda, Lake Nyassa.\n\n Manasseh, Mongolia, Manchuria, Madras, Mahrattas, Member of\n Parliament, Middlesex, Methodists, Mississippi Company, Maria\n Theresa, Mummies, Microscopic Shells, Membrane.\n\n Nagasaki, Nile, Nitrogenous food.\n\n \u2018Olivia Primrose,\u2019 Ostriches.\n\n Pharisees, \u2018Primrose (Mrs.),\u2019 Philosophers Plassey, Pitt, Prime\n Minister, Pragmatic Sanction, Prague, Peace of Hubertusburg,\n Pity, Puffins, Penguins, Plovers, Pelicans, Plants, Polytrichum\n formosum, Peristom, Porphyric, Puddingstone, Pepsin, Peptone,\n Pancreas, Pulmonary artery, Pamir Plateau, Prairies, Pyramid,\n Portuguese West Africa.\n\n Quilemane.\n\n Rome, Rossbach, Rosetta Stone, Rhea, Rodentia.\n\n Sea of Galilee, \u2018Sophia Primrose,\u2019 Surajah Dowlah, Seven Years\u2019\n War, Silesia, Saxony, Secretary, Storks, Sandpipers, Seedlings.\n\n \u201cThe Task,\u201d Treaty of Dresden, Tullus, Trade Unions, Trustees,\n Treasurer, Tropical countries.\n\n Ulysses, Ungulata.\n\n Volcanic eruptions, Vermes, Vertebrate, Villi, Ventricles, Vern\u00e6\n Cav\u00e6, Vicar of Wakefield, Volscians, Vice President.\n\n Wallace, Walpole, War of Independence, Wilkes, Whitfield, Wesley,\n War of the Austrian Succession, Water birds, Wady Halfa.\n\n Yang-tse-kiang.\n\n Zonga, Zambesi, Zorndorff.\n\nThis is \u2018Secondary\u2019 work, but supposing the young people of a\nContinuation School, who could not read all the books on the\nprogrammes, got some degree of intimacy, some association, with,\nsay, one hundred such names in a term, we might believe that they\nwere receiving a liberal education. This is the sort of work we\nhope to see done in Continuation Schools by pupils from fourteen\nto sixteen. The young people of the future between sixteen and\neighteen should be prepared to work in Forms V and VI.\n\nIt is not the best children that answer the examination questions;\nthe general rule is that everybody takes every question. I have\ntouched only on the more humanistic subjects as whatever is done\nin Mathematics, for instance, the Head of the Continuation School\nwill no doubt arrange; and indeed so much has been done in the\nElementary School already that probably the keeping of fictitious\naccount books would be a sufficient exercise for young people who\nshow some mathematical talent.\n\nNo cost whatever is attached to the adoption and continued working\nof this method[53] except the cost of books and of these, young\nwage-earners would no doubt buy their own, so that by degrees\neach would form his little library of books that he has read,\nunderstands and knows his way about. I should like to quote a few\nsentences from Professor Eucken on the education of the people:--\n\n \u201cBy education of the people it must not for a moment be supposed\n that we mean a special kind of education. We do not refer to\n a condensed preparation of our spiritual and intellectual\n possessions, suitable for the needs and interests of the great\n masses; we are not thinking of a diluted concoction of the real\n draught of education which we are so kind and condescending as\n to dispense to the majority. No!... There is only one education\n common to us all.\u201d \u201cWe can all unite in the construction of a\n spiritual world over against that of petty human routine. Thus\n there is, in truth, a possibility of a truly human education, and\n therefore of a true education of the people.\u201d\n\nThe Jena Professor sees clearly enough the task before us all; but\nhe sees, or sets forth, no possible way of accomplishing it, nor\nis there any other way than that which we have set forth that can\nafford this sort of liberal education; the electric telegraph was\nnot discovered twice over.\n\nAfter all our protests we are in our way utilitarian for no other\nstudy is so remunerative as that of the \u2018humanities.\u2019 Let me draw\nthe reader\u2019s attention to one point. Instability, unrest, among our\nwage-earners is the serious danger threatening our social life.\nNow it is said that nothing can act but where it is and the class\nwhich acts steadily where it is, at some outpost of empire, on a\nhome estate, in Parliament, where you will, is the class educated\nat Public Schools, that is, men brought up on the \u2018humanities.\u2019\nStrong language will be used about the deadness and decadence of\nthese men although they do much of our national work. Their defects\nare obvious and manifold, but still, as I say, the public work\nthat is done is, for the most part, done by men whom no one could\ndescribe as progressive. Is there not some confusion of ideas about\nthis fetish of progress? Do we not confound progress with movement,\naction, assuming that where these are there is necessarily advance?\nWhereas much of our activity is like the waves of the sea, going\nalways and arriving never. What we desire is the still progress\nof growth that comes of root striking downwards and fruit urging\nupwards. And this progress in character and conduct is not attained\nthrough conditions of environment or influence but only through the\ngrowth of ideas, received with conscious intellectual effort.\n\nIt will be possible to have only a little of this strong meat in\nContinuation Schools, but a little goes a long way, how far, our\nPublic School men illustrate; for a careful analysis will bring us\nto the conclusion that not Latin and Greek, Games, Athletics, or\nenvironment, but the \u2018humanities\u2019 in English alone will bring forth\nthe stability and efficiency which we desire to see in all classes\nof society.\n\nI have said that we have after all a generous allowance of cloth\nfrom which to cut our garment, seven or eight hours a week. In\nthat time we may get in, page for page, book for book, as full a\ncomplement of the \u2018humanities,\u2019 poetry, history, essay, tragedy,\ncomedy, philosophy, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, as\nour public men have imbibed at their schools. To be sure these\ndo it in the classic tongues while for those there is only plain\nEnglish; but however duly we magnify Greek literature we cannot\nhonestly say that that of England is second to any the world\nhas yet seen. We can give to the people the thought of the best\nminds and we can secure on their part the conscious intellectual\neffort, the act of knowing, which bears fruit in capability,\ncharacter and conduct. We cannot offer to the people the grace of\nscholarship in the allotted time, but no doubt earnest souls will\nfind a way to get this surpassing excellence also; if there be\nprofit in \u2018grinding at Grammar\u2019 that they must forego, too, but\nthe inspiration and delight of entering into an intellectual world\nfull of associations, this they should have, a well of healing and\nfountain of delight.\n\nNow a common ground of thought is inestimable in what may be\ncalled its cohesive value; and what we desire to afford to the\nnation at large is such another background of thought, sketched in\nlike that of the Public School man from the books men and women\nhave read at school, books which made them intimate with Pitt and\nFox, \u2018Dick Swiveller,\u2019 \u2018Mrs. Quickly,\u2019 with daffodils and clouds\nand nightingales as the poets have seen them, with a thousand\npromiscuous and seemingly purposeless scenes and sayings which\nsomehow combine to serve the purpose of a background throwing the\nthoughts and incidents of to-day into clear relief. For this reason\nwe, like the Public Schools, all read the same books, with such an\nintensive single reading that for the rest of the lives of these\nyoung people phrases or allusions they come across will kindle in\ntheir eyes that \u2018light which never was on sea or land.\u2019 We may hope\nthat Public Schools will presently add this modicum of English to\ntheir classical studies; then the candidate for election will have\nsomething to appeal to other than the desire to better himself,\nwhich is supposed to dominate every man. By the way, is the paucity\nof literary or historical allusions, not in Latin, to be heard\nin the House due to the fact that the audience cannot be counted\nupon to rise to a reference not included in the well-known school\nbooks? If so, we shall change all that; once the _masses_ read, the\n_classes_ must read, too, and the Peace will be signalised by a new\nbond of intellectual life in common.\n\n\u201cThere is no more dreadful sight,\u201d says Goethe, \u201cthan ignorance\nin action,\u201d and is not this the sight that is at the present\ntime dismaying us all? Demos is king to-day, and who may dispute\nhis right? But let us all give him the chance to become that\nphilosopher-king who according to an ancient dream was to be the\nfit ruler, or rulers, of the people. The hopeful sign is that\nDemos himself perceives his lack, and clamours for the humanistic\neducation in which he sees his salvation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE BASIS OF NATIONAL STRENGTH[54]\n\nA LIBERAL EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT\n\n\nI\n\nKNOWLEDGE\n\nWe have from time to time given some attention to the failure of\nour attempts to educate \u201cThe Average Boy,\u201d and it may be useful\nto look into one or two fundamental principles upon which this\nquestion and others seem to me to depend. For if our conceptions\nof education are heterogeneous and incoherent, naturally, we\nshall have a tangle of examination schemes evolved to test our\nill-conceived work.\n\nEducationally, we are in a bad way. We were told some time ago,\nin _Across the Bridges_, of the rapid deterioration of the bright\nintelligent responsive schoolboy who has passed through the sixth\nand seventh standards. Why? we ask. Industrial unrest often\nreveals virtue, even heroism of a sort, in the working man, but a\nlamentable want of knowledge--lack of education; he appears to have\nlittle insight, imagination, or power of reflection. The tendency\nin his class is that \u201cdangerous tendency which we must all do our\nbest to resist\u201d indicated by Mr. Burns at a public meeting some few\nyears ago; \u201cthe spirit of the horde,\u201d he said, \u201cis being developed;\nand whether it is in exhibitions, sports, or legislation, the\nindividual is becoming less and less important and the mob more\nand more so.\u201d And again, \u201cthe tendency of the present day in all\nmodern movements is for great crowds to be brought together to see\nother people play; and that is extending not only to play, but to\nother fields of life.\u201d Could the industrial movement of to-day be\nbetter diagnosed? Again we ask, Why? As for those young men from\nPublic Schools who fail in the Dominions, enough has been said\nabout them; but those other Public School men who succeed in a\nmeasure at outposts of the Empire because of the virtue that is in\nthem, do they not fail sometimes in an equal measure for lack of\nthe insight, imagination, intelligence, which come of knowledge? As\nfor the people who stay at home, \u201ceducated\u201d men and women, I write\nas an old woman who remembers how in the sixties and seventies\n\u201ccountenance\u201d was much talked of; \u201can intelligent countenance,\u201d\n\u201ca fine countenance,\u201d \u201ca noble countenance,\u201d were matters of\ndaily comment. The word has dropped out of use; is it because the\nthing signified has dropped out of existence? Countenance is a\nmanifestation of thought, feeling, intelligence; and it is none of\nthese, but stolid indifference combined with physical well-being,\nthat we read in many faces to-day.\n\nIf we have these grounds for discontent, education is no doubt\nthe culprit at the bar, though there never was, I suppose, a\nmore heroic and devoted body of teachers at work. They get for\nthemselves the greater blessing of those who give; but the children\nsuffer, poor little souls; \u201cpoured into like a bucket,\u201d they\nreceive without stint, and little comes of it. There is no lack\nof zeal on the part of the teaching profession, but there is a\ntendency amongst us to depreciate knowledge and to depreciate our\nscholars. Now, knowledge is the material of education, as flour is\nthe material of bread; there are substitutes for knowledge, no\ndoubt, as there are for flour. Before the era of free meals I heard\nof a little girl in East London whose mother gave her a penny, to\nbuy dinner for herself and her little sister, when the two set out\nfor school. The child confided to her teacher that a ha\u2019porth of\naniseed drops \u201cstays your stomach\u201d more than a halfpenny bun. Now,\nour schools are worked more or less upon aniseed drops--marks,\nprizes, scholarships, blue ribbons, all of which \u201cstay the stomach\u201d\nof the boy who does not get the knowledge that he needs. That is\nthe point. He needs knowledge as much as he needs bread and milk;\nhis appetite for knowledge is as healthy as his appetite for his\ndinner; and an abundant regular supply at short intervals of\nvarious knowledge is a constitutional necessity for the growing\nyouth as well as for the curious child; and yet we stay his hunger\npangs upon \u201caniseed drops.\u201d\n\nWe do worse. We say, \u201cWhat is the good of knowledge? Give a boy\nprofessional instruction, whether he is to be a barrister or a\nbricklayer, and strike out from his curriculum Greek or geography,\nor whatever is not of utilitarian value. Teach him to play the game\nand handle the ropes of his calling, and you have done the best for\nhim.\u201d Now, here is a most mischievous fallacy, an assertion that\na child is to be brought up for the uses of society only and not\nfor his own uses. Here we get the answer to the repeated question\nthat suggested itself in a survey of our educational condition. We\nlaunch children upon too arid and confined a life. Now personal\ndelight, joy in living, is a chief object of education; Socrates\nconceived that knowledge is for pleasure, in the sense, not that\nknowledge is one source, but is the source of pleasure.\n\nIt is for their own sakes that children should get knowledge.\nThe power to take a generous view of men and their motives, to\nsee where the greatness of a given character lies, to have one\u2019s\njudgment of present events illustrated and corrected by historic\nand literary parallels, to have, indeed, the power of comprehensive\njudgment--these are admirable assets within the power of every\none according to the measure of his mind; and these are not the\nonly gains which knowledge affords. The person who can live upon\nhis own intellectual resources and never know a dull hour (though\nanxious and sad hours will come) is indeed enviable in these\ndays of intellectual inanition, when we depend upon spectacular\nentertainments _pour passer le temps_.\n\nIf knowledge means so much to us, \u201cWhat is knowledge?\u201d the reader\nasks. We can give only a negative answer. Knowledge is not\ninstruction, information, scholarship, a well-stored memory. It is\npassed, like the light of a torch, from mind to mind, and the flame\ncan be kindled at original minds only. Thought, we know, breeds\nthought; it is as vital thought touches our minds that our ideas\nare vitalized, and out of our ideas comes our conduct of life. The\ncase for reform hardly needs demonstration, but now we begin to see\nthe way of reform. The direct and immediate impact of great minds\nupon his own mind is necessary to the education of a child. Most of\nus can get into touch with original minds chiefly through books;\nand if we want to know how far a school provides intellectual\nsustenance for its scholars, we may ask to see the list of books in\nreading during the current term. If the list be short, the scholar\nwill not get enough mind-stuff; if the books are not various, his\nwill not be an all-round development; if they are not original, but\ncompiled at second hand, he will find no material in them for his\nintellectual growth. Again, if they are too easy and too direct,\nif they tell him straight away what he is to think, he will read,\nbut he will not appropriate. Just as a man has to eat a good dinner\nin order that his physical energies may be stimulated to select\nand secrete that small portion which is vital to him, so must the\nintellectual energies be stimulated to extract what the individual\nneeds by a generous supply, and also by a way of presentation that\nis not obvious. We have the highest authority for the indirect\nmethod of teaching proper to literature, and especially to poetry.\nThe parables of Christ remain dark sayings; but what is there more\nprecious in the world\u2019s store of knowledge?\n\nHow injurious then is our habit of depreciating children; we water\ntheir books down and drain them of literary flavour, because we\nwrongly suppose that children cannot understand what we understand\nourselves; what is worse, we explain and we question. A few\npedagogic maxims should help us, such as, \u201cDo not explain\u201d \u201cDo not\nquestion,\u201d \u201cLet one reading of a passage suffice,\u201d \u201cRequire the\npupil to relate the passage he has read.\u201d The child must read to\nknow; his teacher\u2019s business is to see that he knows. All the acts\nof generalization, analysis, comparison, judgment, and so on, the\nmind performs for itself in the act of knowing. If we doubt this,\nwe have only to try the effect of putting ourselves to sleep by\nrelating silently and carefully, say, a chapter of Jane Austen or\na chapter of the Bible, read once before going to bed. The degree\nof insight, the visualization, that comes with this sort of mental\nexercise is surprising.\n\nAs I have said, a child in his seventh year will relate _The\nPilgrim\u2019s Progress_, chapter by chapter, though he cannot read it,\nand some half-dozen other books of the best we can find for him. In\nhis eighth or ninth year he works happily with a dozen books at a\ntime, books of history, adventures, travels, poems. From his tenth\nto his twelfth year he reads considerable books of English and\nFrench history, seriously written, Shakespeare\u2019s historical plays,\nNorth\u2019s _Plutarch\u2019s Lives_, and a dozen other worthy books. As he\ngoes up the school, his reading becomes wider and more difficult,\nbut every one knows the reading proper at the ages of fifteen,\nseventeen, eighteen. The right books are given, but not enough\nof them. The reading dietary is too meagre for the making of a\nfull man. A score of first-rate books should appear in the school\ncurriculum term by term. The point that I insist upon, however, is\nthat from his sixth year the child should be an \u201ceducated child\u201d\nfor his age, should love his lesson books, and enjoy a terminal\nexamination on the books he has read. Children brought up largely\non books compare favourably with those educated on a few books and\nmany lectures; they have generous enthusiasms, keen sympathies, a\nwide outlook and sound judgment, because they are treated from the\nfirst as beings of \u201clarge discourse looking before and after.\u201d They\nare persons of leisure too, with time for hobbies, because their\nwork is easily done in the hours of morning school.\n\nIt is not necessary to speak of modern languages and mathematics,\nfield work in natural history, handiwork, etc. Schools are pretty\nmuch agreed about the treatment of these subjects. As for Latin and\nGreek, the teaching of these and the possibility of getting in any\nwork beyond these is a crucial question; but I think it is open to\nPublic Schoolmasters to discover that, given boys who have read\nand thought, and who have maintained the habit of almost perfect\nattention that a child begins with, the necessary amount of work in\nthe Classics may be done in a much shorter time, and that the mind\nof the pupil is the more alert because it is engaged in handling\nvarious subjects.\n\nPerhaps, too, some enlightened Headmaster may come to distinguish\nbetween scholarship and knowledge--a distinction which practical\nmen, like Napoleon, for example, have known how to draw. Probably\nthere never was a life on which the \u2018humanities\u2019 exercised a more\npowerful influence; rarely has there been such an example of the\npower of the informed mind to conquer the world. Napoleon is the\nfinal answer to the contention that a knowledge of books has no\npractical value, for there was, perhaps, no incident in his career\nthat was not suggested, inspired, illustrated by some historical\nprecedent, some literary apophthegm. He was, as we know, no\nscholar, but he read diligently, even in the midst of absorbing\naffairs, Homer, the Bible, the Koran, poetry, history, Plutarch.\n\nNations grow great upon books as truly as do individuals. We know\nhow that heroic young Queen, Louisa of Prussia, perceived that the\ndownfall of her country was not due to Napoleon alone, but also\nto national ignorance, and that if Prussia were to rise it must\nbe through the study of history. So she set herself to work at\nthe history of modern Europe during that sojourn at Memel, when\nshe knew poverty as a peasant woman knows it. The disciples of\nKant founded a league of virtue to arouse Prussian students to the\nduty of patriotism; Fichte knew how to issue a trumpet call; the\nnation became a nation of students, and the son of Queen Louisa\nestablished the German Empire! Alas, that an age should have\ncome when the \u2018humanities\u2019 were proscribed on German soil--and\nhumanity followed them into exile! A noble view of education was\nas righteousness exalting a nation; but, alas, we all know what\nuniversal havoc and disaster have proceeded from the debased and\nmaterialised theory of education promulgated at Munich.\n\nThe Danes, again, as we all know, owe their rise out of illiteracy\nto the Napoleonic impulse. After we had seized their battleships,\nby way of clipping the claws of Bonaparte, they set to work to make\nthemselves the first farmers in Europe; this they have done in and\nthrough their schools and their continuation schools, where they\nget, not technical instruction, but a pretty wide course in history\nand literature. As for the Japanese revolution of some fifty years\nago, history has little to show of a finer quality; and this,\nagain, was the work of a literary people.\n\nIf we would not be left behind by the East and the West we must,\nas other nations have done, \u201cadd to our virtue, knowledge\u201d; and we\nare still competent, as some of these are not, to mount from the\nbottom rung of the Apostolic educational ladder. It rests with us\nto add to our faith, virtue, and to our virtue, knowledge. It is\nan unheard of thing that the youth of a great nation should grow\nup without those ideals, slow enough in maturing, which are to be\ngathered for the most part from wide and wisely directed reading.\n\n\nII\n\nLETTERS, KNOWLEDGE AND VIRTUE\n\nThe following fragments of a valuable letter illustrate the\ncontention of the foregoing chapter:--\n\n \u201cThere is one thing, however, one note of regret, and that is\n that one paragraph, that on classical education, was not more\n expanded. I am satisfied that your central view covers the whole\n truth; and I am going to give you a small individual experience\n illustrating this fact--viz., that an early education in the\n great books of our own language, read, with enjoyment, by\n children and appropriately given to them from year to year, is\n the true groundwork of later expansion. Here is the story:--My\n three daughters were suckled on Walter Scott and Shakespeare.\n Later, about the ages of from ten to twelve, off their own, they\n took up Plutarch\u2019s Lives, Bunyan, Defoe, and in the same period\n they refused to learn arithmetic and geography, the former on\n the ground of its monotony, and the latter, because, although\n they loved it, they held that the existing system of teaching\n geography was \u2018rotten,\u2019 and that geography ought to be learnt by\n going to the places. I knew better than to remonstrate. I meekly\n suggested that perhaps they would substitute something else in\n their curriculum, and they said at once, in an obviously prepared\n sentence, \u2018That\u2019s just it, we want to learn Latin and harmony.\u2019\n Now here comes _your_ point (in that lamentably abbreviated\n paragraph):--\n\n \u2018Given boys (or girls) who have read and thought, and who have\n maintained the habit of almost perfect attention that a child\n begins with, the necessary amount of work in the classics may be\n done in a much shorter time, and the mind of the pupil is the\n more alert because it is engaged in handling various subjects.\u2019\n\n Six months later these girls knew more Latin than I learnt in\n six years under distinguished scholars with very eminent names.\n They could sling passages from Horace appropriately; they knew\n the first two Eclogues and half the \u00c6neid by heart; they regarded\n Cicero\u2019s Letters to Atticus as a \u2018penny post\u2019 affair, and were\n quite unduly familiar with the private life of Seneca. But all\n this did not interfere with their painting or their horsemanship,\n and better authorities on cricket and the Turf I don\u2019t happen to\n know. That is the illustrative episode. The point, in my mind, is\n that an early education from great books with the large ideas and\n the large virtues is the only true foundation of knowledge--the\n knowledge worth having.\u201d\n\nThis interesting letter brings us straight to a question which I\nthought had been pretty fully threshed out; and I tackle it with\ndiffidence, only because an outsider may see aspects overlooked by\nexperts. The gist of the charges brought against Public Schools\nis,--Classics take up so much time that there is no opportunity for\n_Litter\u00e6 Humaniores_ in any other form. It is easy to say,--Gain\ntime by giving up Greek; but, in the first place, Public Schools,\nwith our old Universities in sequence, are our educational\nachievement. Other efforts are experimental, but this one thing we\nknow--that men are turned out from this course who are practically\nunmatched for quality, culture, and power; even the average B.A.\nshows up better than his compeers, and a degree in Arts signifies\nmore than one in any other faculty.\n\nWe return thus to my original contention--that letters, primarily,\nare the content of knowledge; that if Wellington ever said how\nWaterloo was won, it was not on the playing-fields only, but in the\nclass-rooms of Eton; that C\u00e6sar, Thucydides, _Prometheus Bound_,\nhave won more battles than we know on fields civil and military.\nA little strong meat goes a long way, and even the average Public\nSchool boy turns out a capable man. But, alas, if capable, he is\nalso ignorant; he does not know the history and literature of\nhis own country or any other. He has not realised that knowledge\nis, not a store, but rather a state that a person remains within\nor drops out of. His degree taken, he shuts his books, reads the\nnewspapers a little, perhaps a magazine or two, but otherwise\noccupies himself with the interests of sports, games, shows, or\nhis employment. What is to be done, we wonder vaguely, to secure\nto this average boy some tincture of knowledge and some taste for\nknowledge? The expedient of dropping Greek to make room for other\nthings recurs; but on reflection we say, \u201cNo\u201d; for culture begins\nwith the knowledge that everything has been known and everything\nhas been perfectly said these two thousand years ago and more.\nThis knowledge, slowly drummed into a youth, should keep him from\nswelled head, from joining in the \u201cWe are the people\u201d cry of the\nblatant patriot; and there is no better way of knowing a people\nthan to know something of their own words in their own speech.\n\nIt is well, by the way, that we should remember that we have as a\nnation an enormous loss to make good; time was, and not so long\nago, when rich and poor were intimately familiar with one of the\nthree great classical literatures. Men\u2019s thoughts were coloured,\ntheir speech moulded, their conduct more or less governed, by\nthe pastoral idylls called \u201cGenesis,\u201d the impassioned poetry of\nIsaiah, the divine philosophy of John, the rhetoric of Paul--all,\nwritings, like the rest of the Bible, in what Matthew Arnold calls\n\u201cthe grand manner.\u201d Here is the well of English undefiled from\nwhich men have drawn the best that our literature holds, as well as\ntheir philosophy of life, their philosophy of history, and that\nprincipal knowledge we are practising to do without--the knowledge\nof God. And we wonder that the governing classes should forget how\nto rule as those who serve; and that the working man, brought up\non \u201cReaders\u201d in lieu of a great literature, should act with the\nobstinate recklessness proper to ignorance.\n\nBut to return to the main issue. How shall we instruct the\nignorance and yet retain the classical culture of the average\nPublic School boy? I should like to suggest, again, with\ndiffidence, that he, like his more brilliant compeer, is driven\nthrough a mill the outpour of which should be scholarship. Now,\nscholarship is an exquisite distinction which it would be ill\nfor us as a nation to miss; but if all the men in an assemblage\nwere decorated, who would care to wear an order? Some things are\nprecious for their rarity, and to put a school in the running\nfor this goal is as absurd as the ambition of the little boy who\nmeant to be a Knight of the Garter when he grew up. The thing is\nnot to be done; some men are born to be scholars, as the shape\nof their heads testifies. The rest of us take pleasure in their\ndecoration, but are not envious, for scholarship is not the best\nthing, and does not necessarily imply that vital touch of mind\nupon mind out of which is got knowledge. As for erudition, we may\nleave that out of count, it is hardly even an aim at the present\ntime. The geniuses, as one to some thousands, say, of our best, do\nnot trouble themselves much about the regimen we offer--classics\nor modern languages, or what not; an idle tale, a puppet show, the\nmeanest flower that blows, is enough for them. Anyway, they take\ncare of themselves, and we come back to the average boy.\n\nHe must learn his Greek and Latin, but there is an easier way;\nthe girls mentioned in the letter I cite had hit upon it. That\nfavourite girl pupil of Vittorino\u2019s who spoke and wrote Greek\nwith \u201cremarkable purity\u201d at twelve, having, so to speak, done\nwith Latin at an earlier age--she, we may be sure, had not been\nthrough the grammar school grind. Nor had any of the learned ladies\nof the Italian and the French Renaissance, the list of whose\naccomplishments leaves us breathless. While still children, we know\nhow early they married, their knowledge of the classics was copious\n(and not too wholesome), they knew two or three modern languages,\ncould treat the wounded, nurse the sick, prepare simples, govern\ngreat households, ride to chase, yes, and kill too! and do\nexquisite embroidery. Our own women of the Tudor times appear\nlikewise to have been \u201cinfinitely informed\u201d and to have carried\ntheir learning gaily; Maria Theresa, by no means a learned lady,\ncould make speeches and converse with her Magyar nobles in Latin,\nand they could respond, neither knowing the native speech of the\nother. If these things were true of girls and women, how much more\nwas expected of boys and men!\n\nAre we persons of less intelligence, or how did they do it all?\n_Every preparatory school knows how._ Perhaps few boys enter Public\nSchools who could not pass \u201cResponsions,\u201d that is, who are not,\nas far as Greek goes, ready for Oxford. I once heard a Headmaster\nsay:--\n\n \u201cA boy does as much Latin now by the age of twelve as he will\n ever need for examination purposes, and he spends the next eight\n years in doing over again and again the same work! A clever boy\n of twelve could easily pass Responsions.\u201d\n\nA headmaster in Newfoundland mentions in his school report for 1905\na boy who \u201cbegan Greek in October and passed the Oxford Responsions\nin January.\u201d\n\nThere is a leakage somewhere, and there is overlapping, and both\nare due to the examinations upon which scholarships are awarded.\nSomething must be done, because Public Schools, with all their\nsplendid records, are not effective in the sense that they turn\nout the average boy a good all-round man. For better or for worse,\nwho knows? the Democracy is coming in like a flood, and our old\nfoundations will be tossed about in the welter unless we make haste\nto strengthen our weak places. Might not a commission--consisting\nof two or three headmasters, as many preparatory school masters,\nUniversity \u201cDons,\u201d and public men (once public school boys and\nnow the fathers of such boys) look into the question and devise\nexamination tests which shall safeguard Letters, ancient and\nmodern, without putting too high a premium upon scholarship?\n\nOnce the hands of schoolmasters were united, they would no doubt\ndevise means by which our friend, the average boy, would get such\na knowledge of the classics as should open life-long resources\nto him. Like the \u2018Baron of Bradwardine\u2019 he would go about with a\npocket Livy (as he would say, \u201cTitus Livius,\u201d) to be read, not\nlaboured at a few lines at a time: _The Seven against Thebes_,\n_Iphigenia in Aulis_, the few tragedies left to us by the great\ndramatists would form part of the familiar background of his\nthoughts. He would know somewhat of the best that has been written\nin Greek and Latin, whether through printed translations or through\nthe text itself rendered in the sort of running translation which\nsome masters know how to give. _Pari passu_, he would do his share\nof gerund-grind, and construe the two or three books of his present\nlimited acquaintance. But his limitations would be recognised, and\nhe would not be required to turn out Greek and Latin verse.\n\nMeantime his master will require him to know pretty intimately a\nhundred worthy books in addition to the great novels--to be read\nin class periods, in vacation, and in leisure time--his knowledge\nof each to be tested by a single bit of oral description or\nwritten work in verse or prose. \u201cGround he at Grammar,\u201d sums up\nevery successful school boy\u2019s record as it did that of the dead\n\u201cGrammarian\u201d; but the ten or twelve years of school life should\nyield more than this.\n\nI say nothing now about the teaching of science, for which most\nschools provide, except that for our generation, science seems\nto me to be the way of intellectual advance. All the same, the\nnecessity incumbent upon us at the moment is to inculcate a\nknowledge of _Letters_. Men and their motives, the historical\nsequence of events, principles for the conduct of life, in fact,\npractical philosophy, is what the emergencies of the times require\nus to possess, and to be able to communicate. These things are not\nto be arrived at by any short cut of economics, eugenics, and the\nlike, but are the gathered harvests of many seasons\u2019 sowing of\npoetry, literature, history. The nation is in sore need of wise\nmen, and these must be made out of educated boys.\n\n\nIII\n\nKNOWLEDGE, REASON, AND REBELLION\n\nWe have been very busy about education these sixty years or\nmore--diligently digging, pruning, watering; but there is something\namiss with our tree of knowledge; its fruits, both good and evil,\nare of a mean, crabbed sort, with so little to choose between them\nthat superior persons find it hard to determine which is which.\nTo examine the individual apples would be a long process, but let\nme take one at a venture: is it not true that a conviction of\nirresponsibility characterises our generation?\n\nIf this be true, seeing that we all think as we have been brought\nup to think, our education is at fault. Faulty education is to\nblame if private property be recklessly injured in broad day, if\nworking men do vital injury to their country thinking to serve\ntheir caste, if there be people who love to have it so, as long\nas their own interests are immune. The melancholy fact is that\nthe people who do damage to private property, to public interests,\nand to that more delicate asset of a nation, public opinion, are\nall by way of being educated in their several degrees. All of them\ncan write and speak clearly, think logically if not sincerely,\nand exhibit a certain practical ability. It is true that the War\nhas changed much and has brought us a temporary salvation, but\neducation must secure to us our gains or the last state of the\nnation may be worse than the first.\n\nNo doubt we are better and not worse than our forefathers; and,\nwhere we err, it is through ignorance. \u201cThrough ignorance ye did\nit,\u201d was said of the worst crime that men have done; and that\nappalling offence was wrought for no worse reason than because it\nis the habit of more or less lettered ignorance to follow specious\narguments to logical conclusions. The sapient East knows all\nabout it. Lady Lugard tells us how \u201cthe Copts have a saying that\n\u2018in the beginning when God created things He added to everything\nits second.\u2019 \u2018I go to Syria,\u2019 said Reason; \u2018I go with you,\u2019 said\nRebellion.\u201d We need not follow the other pairs that went forth, but\nstill Reason is apt to be accompanied by Rebellion when it sets out\nin search of a logical issue.\n\nFor it is a fatal error to think that reason can take the place of\nknowledge, that reason is infallible, that reasonable conclusions\nare of necessity right conclusions. Reason is a man\u2019s servant,\nnot his master; and behaves like a good and faithful servant--a\nsort of \u2018Caleb Balderstone,\u2019 ready to lie royally in his master\u2019s\nbehoof--and bring logical demonstration of any premiss which the\nwill chooses to entertain. But the will is the man, the will\nchooses; and the man must _know_, if the will is to make just\nand discriminating decisions. This is what Shakespeare, as great\na philosopher as a poet, set himself to teach us, line upon\nline, precept upon precept. His \u2018Leontes,\u2019 \u2018Othello,\u2019 \u2018Lear,\u2019\n\u2018Prospero,\u2019 \u2018Brutus,\u2019 preach on the one text--that a man\u2019s reason\nbrings certain infallible proofs of any notions he has wilfully\nchosen to take up. There is no escape for us, no short cut; art is\nlong, especially the art of living.\n\nIn the days when the working man represented only the unit of\nhis family he picked up enough knowledge to go on with at church\nand chapel, by scrutinizing his neighbour\u2019s doings, in the\nvillage parliament, held at pump or \u201cpublic,\u201d from the weekly\nnews-sheet. But we have changed all that: bodies of working men\nhave learned by means of union to act with a momentum which may\nbe paralysing or propelling _according to whether the men have\nor have not knowledge_. Without knowledge, Reason carries a man\ninto the wilderness and Rebellion joins company. The man is not\nto be blamed: it is a glorious thing to perceive your mind, your\nreasoning power, acting of its own accord as it were and producing\nargument after argument in support of any initial notion; how is\na man to be persuaded, when he wakes up to this tremendous power\nhe has of involuntary reasoning, that his conclusions are not\nnecessarily right, but rather that he who reasons without knowledge\nis like a child playing with edged tools? Following his reason,\nhe acquires this and the other sort of freedom; but is it not\nwritten:--\n\n \u201cNor yet\n (Grave this upon thy heart!) if spiritual things\n Be lost through apathy, or scorn, or fear,\n Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,\n However hardly won or justly dear.\u201d\n\nIf, then, the manners and the destinies of men are shaped by\nknowledge, it may be well to inquire further into the nature\nof that evasive entity. Matthew Arnold helps us by offering a\nthreefold classification which appeals to common sense--knowledge\nof God, knowledge of men, and knowledge of the natural world;\nor, as we should say, Divinity, the Humanities, and Science.\nBut I think we may go further and say that Letters, if not (as\nI said before) the main content of knowledge, constitute anyway\nthe container--the wrought salver, the exquisite vase, even the\nalabaster box to hold the ointment.\n\nIf a man cannot think without words, if he who thinks with words\nwill certainly express his thoughts, what of the monosyllabic habit\nthat is falling upon men of all classes? The chatter of many women\nand some men does not count, for thought is the last thing it is\nmeant to express. The Greeks believed that a training in the use\nand power of words was the chief part of education, recognising\nthat if the thought fathers the word, so does the word in turn\nfather the thought. They concerned themselves with no language,\nancient or modern, save their own, but of that they acquired a\nconsummate appreciation. With the words came the great thoughts,\nexpressed in whatever way the emergencies of the State called\nfor--in wise laws, victorious battles, glorious temples, sculpture,\ndrama. For great thoughts anticipate great works; and these come\nonly to a people conversant with the great thoughts that have been\nwritten and said. In what strength did the youngest and greatest\nof our Premiers bring about the \u201crevival of England\u201d? He was\nfortified by illimitable reading, by a present sense of a thousand\nimpossibilities that had been brought to pass--of a thousand\nthings so wisely said that wise action was a necessary outcome.\nTo say that we as a nation are suffering from our contemptuous\ndepreciation of knowledge is to say that we scorn Letters, the\nproper vehicle of _all_ knowledge.\n\nLet us glance at the three departments of knowledge to see in\nregard to which of the three we are most in error. Some of us are\ncontent with such knowledge of Divinity as is to be picked up from\nthe weekly sermon heard in church, but even with the qualification\nof a degree in Arts I wonder do our divines lift us as much as\nthey might into that serener region where words fitly spoken beget\nthoughts of peace and holy purpose? That worship is the main end\nof our Church services is a sublime ideal, but, \u201cThe Way, without\nwhich there is no going, the Truth, without which there is no\nknowing, the Life, without which there is no living,\u201d must needs\nbe set before us in \u201cwords that burn,\u201d and we wait for preachers\nlike those of a bygone day, \u201cWhose pulpit thunders shook a nation\u2019s\nsoul.\u201d\n\nIt is possible that the Church may err in keeping us underfed upon\nthat knowledge which is life, but she does not send us away empty.\nWe get some little share, too, of literature, poetry, history: a\nphrase, a line, lights up a day for us; to read of Charles Fox\u2019s\nhaving said, \u201cPoetry\u2019s everything,\u201d of that black conqueror of the\nSoudan who said, \u201cWithout learning life would have neither pleasure\nnor savour\u201d--these things do us good, we cannot tell why.\n\nBut there is a region of apparent sterility in our intellectual\nlife. Science says of literature, \u201cI\u2019ll none of it,\u201d and science is\nthe preoccupation of our age. Whatever we study must be divested to\nthe bone, and the principle of life goes with the flesh we strip\naway: history expires in the process, poetry cannot come to birth,\nreligion faints; we sit down to the dry bones of science and say,\nHere is knowledge, all the knowledge there is to know. \u201cI think\nthat is very wonderful,\u201d a little girl wrote in an examination\npaper after trying to explain why a leaf is green. That little girl\nhad found the principle--admiration, wonder--which makes science\nvital, and without wonder her highest value is, not spiritual, but\nutilitarian. A man might as well collect matchboxes, like those\ncharming people in one of Anatole France\u2019s novels, as search for\ndiatoma, unless the wonder of the world be ever fresh before his\neyes. In the eighteenth century science was alive, quick with\nemotion, and therefore it found expression in literature. Still, a\nLister, a Pasteur, moves us, and we feel that in one department of\nscience, anyway, men stirred by the passion of humanity (\u201cletters\u201d\nat the fountain head?) are doing monumental work.\n\nBut for the most part science as she is taught leaves us cold;\nthe utility of scientific discoveries does not appeal to the best\nthat is in us, though it makes a pretty urgent and general appeal\nto our lower avidities. But the fault is not in science--that\nmode of revelation which is granted to our generation, may we\nreverently say?--but in our presentation of it by means of facts\nand figures and demonstrations that mean no more to the general\naudience than the point demonstrated, never showing the wonder and\nmagnificent reach of the law unfolded. The Hebrew poet who taught\nus that \u201cBreadcorn is bruised ... because his God doth instruct him\nand doth teach him,\u201d glorified life. Coleridge has revealed the\ninnermost secret, whether of science or literature: speaking on the\ngenesis of an idea, he says, \u201cWhen the idea of Nature (presented\nto chosen minds by a Higher Power than Nature herself),\u201d etc. The\nman who would write for us about the true inwardness of wireless\ntelegraphy, say, how truly it was a discovery, a revealing of that\nwhich was there and had been there all along, might make our hearts\nburn within us. No doubt there are many scientific men who are also\nmen of letters, and some scientific books as inspiring as great\npoems--but science is waiting for its literature; and, though we\ncannot live in shameful ignorance and must get what we can out of\nthe sources open to us, science as it is too commonly taught tends\nto leave us crude in thought and hard and narrow in judgment.\n\nWe are told that in times of great upheaval it profits not to cast\nblame on this or that section of the community; that we are all to\nblame even for the offences of individuals; and we partly believe\nit because our fathers have told us; thus did the prophets humble\nthemselves before God, and bemoaned each his exceeding great sin in\nthe sin of his people. We, too, are meek under chastisements, but\nwe are vague and, to that extent, insincere. Perhaps our duty is\nto give serious thought to the problems of our national life; then\nwe may come to realise that man does not live by bread alone; we\nmay perceive that \u201cbread\u201d (or cake!) is our sole and final offer\nto all persons of all classes; that we are losing our sense of any\nvalues excepting money values; that our young men no longer see\nvisions, and are attracted to a career in proportion as \u201cthere\u2019s\nmoney in it.\u201d Nothing can come out of nothing, and, if we bring up\nthe children of the nation on sordid hopes and low ambitions, need\nwe be surprised that every man plays for his own hand?\n\nWe recognise now and then, when the shoe pinches, that the nation\nis in the threes of a revolution, but do we take trouble to find\nout the cause of \u201cindustrial unrest\u201d and the correct attitude\nof the public towards that unrest? The revolution which is in\nprogress may, it seems to me, develop on either of two lines: the\nmen may get those \u201chumbler franchises\u201d they covet, but at the\nloss of \u201cspiritual things\u201d--such as the character for fair play,\nstraight dealing, and loyalty to contract, which we like to think\nof as distinctively English. But what about the warning that these\n\u201chumbler franchises\u201d will be likewise lost? Trade unionism is no\nnew thing; centuries ago and for centuries, as we know, England\nand Europe were under the dominion of those states within the\nState--the Trades Guilds. At this distance of time we can afford\nto admire these for the spiritual things to which they held fast;\ntheir religious organisation, the thorough training they afforded\nto their apprentices, and the obligation every member of a guild\nwas under to use just weights and measures and to turn out first\nrate work of whatever kind. But, notwithstanding these moral\nsafeguards, the tyranny of the guilds became insupportable, and\nthey disappeared into the limbo of things no longer serviceable.\nCould any dream of Socialism, again, offer more perfect conditions\nthan did the Russian village communes? But these too established a\ntyranny which was felt to be more oppressive than serfdom itself:\nthe _Mir_ disappeared, lost in that Gehenna which engulfed the\nguilds.\n\nWordsworth\u2019s prophetic lines should instruct us. \u201cHowever hardly\nwon or justly dear\u201d those humbler franchises for which men are\nstanding out in their tens of thousands with unanimity, courage,\ndevotion to a cause justified by their REASON, they will not be\nable to support those same franchises if spiritual things, the real\nthings of life, be lost in gaining them. Therefore we may predict\nthat the present movement may well issue in worse things but will\nnot issue in the triumph of either trade unionism or syndicalism.\n\nHere is our opportunity. We blame the workmen for their\nirresponsible action, for what seems to us the reckless way in\nwhich the poorest are impoverished and multitudes of workers are\ncompelled to unwilling idleness. But those of us who are neither\nminers nor owners may not allow ourselves irresponsible thought or\nspeech, and we may contribute our quota towards appeasement. It is\nwithin everybody\u2019s province to influence public opinion, if it be\nonly the opinion of two or three; we may raise the whole question\nto a higher plane, the plane of those spiritual things--duty,\nresponsibility, brotherly love (towards all men)--which make the\nfinal appeal. We could not, and we need not try to, obstruct the\nrevolution of which we are vaguely conscious, but we may help\nto make it a turn of the wheel which shall bring us out of the\ndarkness of a Simplon Tunnel into the light and glory of a Lombard\nplain. We may, respecting the claims of working men, perceive that\nthey demand too little, and that the things they demand are not\nthose which matter. Even the shock of a revolution is not too high\na price for an experience which should convince us that knowledge\nis the basis of a nation\u2019s strength.\n\n\nIV\n\nNEW AND OLD CONCEPTIONS OF KNOWLEDGE\n\nI have so far advanced that \u201cknowledge\u201d is undefined and probably\nindefinable; that it is a state out of which persons may pass and\ninto which they may return, but never a store upon which they\nmay draw; that knowledge-hunger is as universal as bread-hunger;\nthat our best provision for conveying knowledge is marvellously\nsuccessful with the best men, but rather futile with the second\nbest; that persons whose education has not enriched them with\nknowledge store up information (statistics and other facts),\nupon which they use their reasoning powers; that the attempt to\nreason without knowledge is disastrous; and that, during the\npresent distress, England is, for various economical reasons, in\na condition of intellectual inanition consequent upon a failure\nin her food supply, in this case the supply of food proper for\nthe mind. I have glanced at Knowledge under the three headings\nsuggested by one who speaks with authority, and have contended\nthat, even if the knowledge be divisible, the vehicle by which\nit is carried is one and indivisible, and that it is generally\nimpossible for the mind to receive knowledge except through the\nchannel of letters.\n\nBut the medi\u00e6val mind had, as we know, a more satisfactory\nconception of knowledge than we have arrived at. Knowledge is for\nus a thing of shreds and patches, knowledge of this and of that,\nwith yawning gaps between.\n\nThe scholastic medi\u00e6val mind, probably working on the scattered\nhints which the Scriptures offer, worked out a sublime _Filosofica\ndella Religione Cattolica_, pictured, for example, in the great\nfresco painted by Simone Memmi and Taddeo Gaddi (which Ruskin\nhas taught us to know), and implied in \u201cThe Adoration of the\nLamb\u201d painted by the two Van Eycks. In the first picture we get\na Pentecostal Descent, first, upon the cardinal virtues and the\nChristian graces, then, upon prophets and apostles, and below these\nupon the seven Liberal Arts represented each by its captain figure,\nCicero, Aristotle, Zoroaster, etc., none of them Christian, not\none of them a Hebrew. Here we get the magnificent idea that all\nknowledge (undebased) comes from above and is conveyed to minds\nwhich are, as Coleridge says, previously prepared to receive it;\nand, further, that it comes to a mind so prepared, without question\nas to whether it be the mind of pagan or Christian; a truly liberal\ncatholic idea, it seems to me, corresponding marvellously with the\nfacts of life. As sublime and even more explicit is the Promethean\nfable which informed the Greek mind. With the sense of a sudden\nplunge we come down to our own random and ineffectual notions, and\nare tempted to cry with Wordsworth,--\n\n \u201cGreat God! I\u2019d rather be\n A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,\u201d\n\nand know that a God had brought gifts of knowledge to men at awful\ncost, than to sit serene in the vague belief that knowledge arrives\nin incoherent particles, no one knows how and no one knows whence;\nor that it is self-generated in a man here and there who gets out\nof himself new insight into the motions of mind and heart, a new\nperception of the laws of life, the hint of a new amelioration in\nthe condition of men.\n\nBecause the notion that we entertain of knowledge as being\nheterogeneous lies at the root of our heterogeneous theories of\neducation, it may be as well to quote a passage from Ruskin\u2019s\ndescription of that picture in the chapel of the Church of Santa\nMaria Novella to which I have referred:--\n\n \u201c ... On this side and the opposite side of the Chapel are\n represented by Simon Memmi\u2019s hand, the teaching power of the\n Spirit of God and the saving power of the Christ of God in the\n world according to the understanding of Florence in his time.\n\n \u201cWe will take the side of intellect first. Beneath the pouring\n forth of the Holy Spirit in the point of the arch beneath are the\n three Evangelical Virtues. Without these, says Florence, you can\n have no science. Without Love, Faith and Hope--no intelligence.\n Under these are the four Cardinal Virtues ... Temperance,\n Prudence, Justice, Fortitude. Under these are the great Prophets\n and Apostles.... Under the line of Prophets, as powers summoned\n by their voices are the mythic figures of the seven theological\n or spiritual and the seven geological or natural sciences; and\n under the feet of each of them the figure of its Captain-teacher\n to the world.\u201d (_Mornings in Florence._)\n\nThat is, the Florentines of the Middle Ages believed in \u201cthe\nteaching power of the Spirit of God,\u201d believed not only that\nthe seven Liberal Arts were fully under the direct outpouring\nof the Holy Ghost, but that every fruitful idea, every original\nconception, be it in geometry, or grammar, or music, was directly\nderived from a Divine source.\n\nWhether we receive it or not, and the Scriptures abundantly support\nsuch a theory regarding the occurrence of knowledge, we cannot fail\nto perceive that here we have a harmonious and ennobling scheme\nof education and philosophy. It is a pity that the exigencies of\nhis immediate work prevented Ruskin from inquiring further into\nthe origin, the final source, of knowledge, but we may continue\nthe inquiry for ourselves. In \u201cthe teaching power of the Spirit\nof God\u201d we have a pregnant and inspiring phrase. Supposing that we\naccept this medi\u00e6val philosophy tentatively for present relief,\nwhat would be our gains?\n\nFirst, the enormous relief afforded by a sense of unity of purpose,\nof progressive evolution, in the education of the race. It induces\ngreat ease of mind to think that knowledge is dealt out to us\naccording to our preparedness and according to our needs; that God\nwhispers in the ear of the man who is ready in order that he may be\nthe vehicle to carry the new knowledge to the rest of us. \u201cGod has\na few of us whom He whispers in the ear,\u201d \u2018Abt Vogler\u2019 is made to\nsay; and another poet causes his Explorer to cry:--\n\n \u201cGod chose me for His whisper, and I\u2019ve found it, and it\u2019s yours!\u201d\n\nNext, that knowledge, in this light, is no longer sacred and\nsecular, great and trivial, practical and theoretical. All\nknowledge, dealt out to us in such portions as we are ready for, is\nsacred; knowledge is, perhaps, a beautiful whole, a great unity,\nembracing God and man and the universe, but having many parts\nwhich are not comparable with one another in the sense of less or\nmore, because all are necessary and each has its functions. Next,\nwe perceive that knowledge and the mind of man are to each other\nas are air and the lungs. The mind lives by means of knowledge;\nstagnates, faints, perishes, deprived of this necessary atmosphere.\n\nThat, it is not for a man to choose, \u201cI will learn this or that,\nthe rest is not my concern\u201d; still less is it for parent or\nschoolmaster to limit a child to less than he can get at of the\nwhole field of knowledge; for, in the domain of mind at least\nas much as in that of morals or religion, man is under a Divine\nMaster; he has to know as he has to eat.\n\nThat, there is not one period of life, our school days, in which\nwe sit down to regular meals of intellectual diet, but that we must\neat every day in order to live every day.\n\nThat, knowledge and what is known as \u201clearning\u201d are not to be\nconfounded; learning may still be an available store when it is\nnot knowledge; but by knowledge one grows, becomes more of a\nperson, and that is all that there is to show for it. We sometimes\nwonder at the simplicity and modesty of persons whose knowledge\nis matter of repute; but they are not hiding their light; they\nare not aware of any unusual possessions; they have nothing to\nshow but themselves, but we feel the force of their personalities.\nNow, forceful personalities, persons of weight and integrity, of\ndecision and sound judgment, are what the country is most in need\nof; and, if we propose to bring such persons up for the public\nservice, the gradual inception of knowledge is one condition\namongst others.\n\nThere are various delightfully \u201cnew\u201d educational systems in favour,\nin all of which a grain of knowledge is presented in a gallon of\nwarm diluent. We have the theory that it does not matter what a\nchild learns, but only how he learns it; which is as sound as,\nIt does not matter what a child eats, but only how he eats it,\ntherefore feed him on sawdust! Then, we have Rousseau\u2019s primitive\nman theory, that a child must get all his knowledge through his own\nsenses and by his own wits, as if there were no knowledge waiting\nto be passed on by the small torch-bearer; and there is the theory\nwhich obtained in Catholic England, exemplified in more than one\nof the Waverley Novels, in the sports purveyed for her tenantry\nby \u2018Lady Margaret Bellenden,\u2019 for example. Those men and maidens\nhad been trained as children to be \u201csupple, active, healthy, with\nsenses alert, ready for dance and song, with an eye and ear ready\nfor the beautiful, intelligent, happy, capable.\u201d (I quote from a\nvaluable letter in _The Times_). What with our morris-dances,\npageants, living pictures, miracle plays, and so on, we are\nreviving the Stuart educational ideals, and no doubt we do well to\naim at increasing the general joy. But our age requires more of us;\nin the sort of self-activity and self-expression implied in these\nand in half a dozen other educational theories, knowledge plays no\npart, and the city _gamin_ exhibits in perfection every quality\nof gaiety, alert intelligence, delight in shows, which we set\nourselves to cultivate.\n\n\u201cWith all thy getting, get understanding,\u201d is the message for our\nneeds, and understanding is, in one sense, the conscious act of the\nmind in apprehending knowledge, which is in fact relative, and does\nnot exist for any person until that person\u2019s mind acts upon the\nintellectual matter presented to it. \u201cWhy will ye not understand?\u201d\nis the repeated and poignant question of the Gospels.\n\nThat is what ails us as a nation, we do not understand; not\nignorant persons only, but educated men and women, employ\nfallacious arguments, offer prejudices for principles, and\nplatitudes for ideas. If it be argued that these failures are\ndue less to ignorance than to insincerity, I should reply that\ninsincerity is an outcome of ignorance; the darkened intelligence\ncannot see clearly. \u201cThe day is unto them that know,\u201d but knowledge\nis by no means the facile acquirement of those who, according to\nRuskin, \u201ccram to pass and not to know.\u201d\n\nI would not be understood as passing strictures upon the vast\nand excellent educational work nearly all teachers are doing;\nit is impossible to go into an Elementary School without being\nimpressed by the competence of the teachers and the intelligence\nof the children; I have already paid a worthless tribute to Public\nSchools, and should like here to add a word of affectionate\nand hearty appreciation of the High School girl as I know her,\nthoughtful and well educated--a person quite undeserving of the\nslings and arrows of outrageous criticism too freely aimed at\nher. As for our new Universities, they remove the stigma under\nwhich many of us have suffered in presence of the numerous centres\nof intellectual life which add dignity and grace to continental\ncities. The new Universities are full of promise for the land.\n\nWe have, no doubt, arrived at a good starting place, but we may\nnot consider that the journey is accomplished. I need not repeat\nthe charges to which we have laid ourselves open because of our\nignorance, but I shall endeavour to take a closer survey of the\nfield of education as regarded from the standpoint of knowledge\nand the innate affinities existing in the mind with that knowledge\nwhich is proper for it. For the present the need is that \u201cabstract\nknowledge\u201d should present itself to practical persons as the crying\ndemand of the nation; the \u201cmandate,\u201d let us say, pronounced by\ncertain general failures to understand the science of relations,\nand that other neglected form of knowledge, \u201cthe science of the\nproportion of things.\u201d\n\n\nV\n\nEDUCATION AND THE FULLNESS OF LIFE\n\n\u201cI must live my life!\u201d said the notorious bandit who before the War\nterrorized Paris; and we have heard the sort of cant often, even\nbefore _The Doll\u2019s House_ gave to \u201cself-expression\u201d the dignity of\na cult; nevertheless, the brigand Bonnot has done an ill turn to\nsociety, for a misguiding theory neatly put is more dangerous than\nan ill-example.\n\nWe are tired of the man who claims to live his life at the general\nexpense, of the girl who will live hers to her family\u2019s annoyance\nor distress; but there really is a great opportunity open to the\nnation which will set itself to consider what the life of a man\nshould be and will give each individual a chance to live his life.\n\nWe are doing something; we are trying to open the book of nature\nto children by the proper key--knowledge, acquaintance by look and\nname, if not more, with bird and flower and tree; we see, too,\nthat the magic of poetry makes knowledge vital, and children and\ngrown-ups quote a verse which shall add blackness to the ashbud,\ntender wonder to that \u201cflower in the crannied wall,\u201d a thrill\nto the song of the lark. As for the numerous field clubs of the\nnorthern towns, the members of which, weavers, miners, artisans,\nreveal themselves as accomplished botanists, birdmen, geologists,\ntheir Saturday rambles mean not only \u201clife,\u201d but splendid joy. It\nis to be hoped that the opportunities afforded in the schools will\nprepare women to take more part in these excursions; at present the\nwork done is too thorough for their endurance and for their slight\nattainments.\n\nIn another direction we are doing well; we are so made that\nevery dynamic relation, be it leap-frog or high-flying, which we\nestablish with Mother Earth, is a cause of joy; we begin to see\nthis and are encouraging swimming, dancing, hockey, and so on, all\ninstruments of present joy and permanent health. Again, we know\nthat the human hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be\nused in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force;\nevery such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure\nof execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand\nthis and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling\nof tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day, perhaps, we\nshall see apprenticeship to trades revived, and good and beautiful\nwork enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure\nthat each shall \u201clive his life\u201d; and that, not at his neighbour\u2019s\nexpense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that\nwhen a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbour as\nwell as himself; we all thrive in the well-being of each. We are\nperceiving, too, that a human being is endowed with an ear attuned\nto harmony and melody, with a voice from which music may issue,\nhands whose delicate action may draw forth sounds in enthralling\nsequence. With the ancient Greeks, we begin to realise that music\nis a necessary part of education. So, too, of pictorial art; at\nlast we understand that every one can draw, and that, because to\ndraw is delightful, every one should be taught how; that every one\ndelights in pictures, and that education is concerned to teach him\nwhat pictures to delight in.\n\nA person may sing and dance, enjoy music and natural beauty, sketch\nwhat he sees, have satisfaction in his own good craftsmanship,\nlabour with his hands at honest work, perceiving that work is\nbetter than wages; may live his life in various directions, the\nmore the merrier. A certain pleasant play of the intellect attends\nthe doing of all these things; his mind is agreeably exercised;\nhe thinks upon what he is doing, often with excitement, sometimes\nwith enthusiasm. He says, \u201cI must live my life,\u201d and he lives it\nin as many of these ways as are open to him; no other life is\nimpoverished to supply his fullness, but, on the contrary, the sum\nof general joy in well-being is increased both through sympathy and\nby imitation.\n\nThis is the sort of ideal that is obtaining in our schools and\nin the public mind, so that the next generation bid fair to be\nprovided with many ways of living their lives, ways which do not\nencroach upon the lives of others. Here is the contribution of our\ngeneration to the science of education, and it is not an unworthy\none; we perceive that a person is to be brought up in the first\nplace for his own uses, and after that for the uses of society;\nbut, as a matter of fact, the person who \u201clives his life\u201d most\ncompletely is also of most service to others because he contains\nwithin him provision for many serviceable activities which are\nemployed in living his life; and, besides, there is a negative\nadvantage to the community in the fact that the man is able to live\non his own resources.\n\nBut a man is not made up only of eyes to see, a heart to enjoy,\nlimbs delightful in the using, hands satisfied with perfect\nexecution: life in all these kinds is open more or less to all\nbut the idly depraved. But what of man\u2019s eager, hungry, restless,\ninsatiable mind? True, we teach him the mechanical art of reading\nwhile he is at school, but we do not teach him to read; he has\nlittle power of attention, a poor vocabulary, little habit of\nconceiving any life but his own; to add to the gate-money at a\nfootball match is his notion of adventure and diversion.\n\nWe are, in fact, only taking count of the purlieus of that vast\ndomain which pertains to every man in right of his human nature.\nWe neglect mind. We need not consider brain; a duly nourished and\nduly exercised mind takes care of its physical organ provided that\norgan also receives its proper material nourishment. But our fault,\nour exceeding great fault, is that we keep our own minds and the\nminds of our children shamefully underfed. The mind is a spiritual\noctopus, reaching out limbs in every direction to draw in enormous\nrations of that which under the action of the mind itself becomes\nknowledge. Nothing can stale its infinite variety; the heavens and\nthe earth, the past, the present, and future, things great and\nthings minute, nations and men, the universe, all are within the\nscope of the human intelligence. But there would appear to be, as\nwe have seen, an unsuspected unwritten law concerning the nature of\nthe \u201cmaterial\u201d which is converted into knowledge during the act of\napprehension. The idea of the _Logos_ did not come by chance to the\nlater Greeks; \u201cThe Word\u201d is not a meaningless title applied to the\nsecond Person of the Trinity; it is not without significance that\nevery utterance which fell from Him is marked by exquisite literary\nfitness; (a child\u2019s comment on a hymn that was read to her was,\n\u201cthat is not poetry; Jesus would have said it _much_ better\u201d);\nin rendering an account of His august commission Christ said:--\u201cI\nhave given unto them _the words_ which Thou gavest me\u201d; and one\ndisciple voiced the rest when he said, \u201cThou hast _the words_ of\neternal life.\u201d The Greeks knew better than we that words are more\nthan things, more than events; with all primitive peoples rhetoric\nappears to have been a power; the grand old sayings which we have\nscorned as inventions are coming to their own again, because, what\nmodern is capable of such inventions? Men move the world, but the\nmotives which move men are conveyed by words. Now, a person is\nlimited by the number of things he is able to call by their names,\nqualify by appropriate epithets; this is no mere pedantic ruling,\nit belongs to that unfathomable mystery we call human nature; and\nthe modern notion of education, with its shibboleth of \u201cthings\nnot words,\u201d is intrinsically demoralizing. The human intelligence\ndemands letters, literature, with a more than bread-hunger. It is\nalmost within living memory how the newly emancipated American\nnegroes fell upon books as the famished Israelites fell upon food\nin the deserted camp of Sennacherib.\n\nOnly as he has been and is nourished upon books is a man able to\n\u201clive his life.\u201d A great deal of mechanical labour is necessarily\nperformed in solitude; the miner, the farm-labourer, cannot think\nall the time of the block he is hewing, the furrow he is ploughing;\nhow good that he should be figuring to himself the trial scene in\nthe _Heart of Midlothian_, the \u201chigh-jinks\u201d in _Guy Mannering_,\nthat his imagination should be playing with \u2018Ann Page\u2019 or \u2018Mrs.\nQuickly,\u2019 or that his labour goes the better \u201cbecause his secret\nsoul a holy strain repeats.\u201d People, working people, do these\nthings. Many a one can say out of a rich experience, \u201cMy mind to me\na kingdom is\u201d; many a one cries with Browning\u2019s \u2018Paracelsus,\u2019 \u201cGod!\nThou art mind! Unto the master-mind, Mind should be precious.\nSpare my mind alone!\u201d We know how \u201c_Have mynde_\u201d appears on the\ntiles paving the choir of St. Cross; but \u201c_mynde_\u201d like body, must\nhave its meat.\n\nFaith has grown feeble in these days, hope faints in our heavy\nways, but charity waxes strong; we would make all men millionaires\nif we could, or, at any rate, take from the millionaires to give\nto the multitude. No doubt some beneficent and venturous Robin\nHood of a minister will arise (has arisen?) to take steps in\nthat direction; but when all has been done in the way of social\namelioration we shall not have enabled men to \u201clive their lives\u201d\nunless we have given them a literary education of such sort that\nthey choose to continue in the pleasant places of the mind. \u201cThat\nis all very well in theory,\u201d some one objects, \u201cbut look at the\nMasses, are they able to receive Letters? When they talk it is in\njournalese, and anything in the nature of a book must be watered\ndown and padded to suit their comprehension.\u201d But is it not true\nthat working men talk in \u201cjournalese\u201d because it is only the\nnewspapers that do them the grace to meet them frankly on their\nown level? Neither school education nor life has put books in\ntheir way, and their adoption of the only literary speech that\noffers but proves a natural aptitude for Letters. One cannot always\navoid appeal to the authority one knows to be final, and I will\nnot apologise for citing the fact at which no doubt we have all\nwondered that Christ should expose the profoundest philosophy to\nthe multitude, the \u201cMany,\u201d whom even Socrates contemns.\n\nMay I quote, with apologies to the writer, a letter signed \u201cA\nWorking Man,\u201d written in answer to one of mine which was honoured\nby being reprinted in _The Times Weekly Edition_? (It is good, by\nthe way, that such a journal should be in the hands of working\nmen). My correspondent \u201cthanks Heaven that there are still a few\npersons left in this country who regard education as somewhat\ndifferent from a means of _keeping a shop_.\u201d We may all thank\nHeaven that there are working men who value knowledge for its own\nsake and hate to have it presented to them as a means of getting on.\n\nThe fact is, Letters make a universal appeal because they respond\nto certain innate affinities: young Tennysons, De Quinceys, and\nthe like, are, as we all know, inordinate readers, but these are\ncapable of foraging on their own account; it is for the average,\nthe dull, and the backward boy I would lay urgent claim to a\nliterary education; the minds of such as these respond to this\nand to no other appeal, and they turn out perfectly intelligent\npersons, open to knowledge by many avenues. For working men whose\nintelligence is in excess of their education, Letters are the\naccessible vehicle of knowledge; having learned the elements of\nreading, writing, and summing, it is unnecessary to trouble them\nwith any other \u201cbeggarly elements\u201d; their natural intelligence and\nmature minds make them capable of dealing with difficulties as they\noccur; and for further elucidation every working men\u2019s club should\nhave an encyclop\u00e6dia. Some men naturally take to learning, and\nwill struggle manfully with their Latin grammar, and Cicero, their\nEuclid and trigonometry. Happy they! But the general conclusion\nremains, that for men and women of all ages, all classes, and\nall complexions of mind, Letters are an imperative and daily\nrequirement to satisfy that universal mind-hunger, the neglect of\nwhich gives rise to emotional disturbances, and, as a consequence,\nto evils that dismay us.\n\n\nVI\n\nKNOWLEDGE IN LITERARY FORM\n\nI have so far urged that knowledge is necessary to men, and that,\nin the initial stages, it must be conveyed through a literary\nmedium, whether it be knowledge of physics or of Letters, because\nthere would seem to be some inherent quality in mind which prepares\nit to respond to this form of appeal and no other. I say in the\ninitial stages, because possibly, when the mind becomes conversant\nwith knowledge of a given type, it unconsciously translates the\ndriest formul\u00e6 into living speech; perhaps it is for some such\nreason that mathematics seem to fall outside this rule of literary\npresentation; mathematics, like music, is a speech in itself, a\nspeech irrefragably logical, of exquisite clarity, meeting the\nrequirements of mind.\n\nTo consider Letters as the staple of education is no new thing; nor\nis the suggestion new that to turn a young person into a library\nis to educate him. But here we are brought to a stand; the mind\ndemands method, orderly presentation, as inevitably as it demands\nknowledge; and it may be that our educational misadventures are due\nto the fact that we have allowed ourselves to take up any haphazard\nordering that is recommended with sufficient pertinacity.\n\nBut no one can live without a philosophy which points out the\norder, means and end of effort, intellectual or other; to fail\nin discovering this is to fall into melancholia, or more active\nmadness: so we go about picking up a maxim here, a motto there,\nan idea elsewhere, and make a patchwork of the whole which we\ncall our principles; beggarly fragments enough we piece together\nto cover our nakedness and a hundred phrases which one may hear\nany day betray lives founded upon an ignoble philosophy. No doubt\npeople are better than their words, better than their own thoughts;\nwe speak of ourselves as \u201cfinite beings,\u201d but is there any limit\nto the generosity and nobility of almost any person? The hastily\nspoken \u201cIt is the rule at sea,\u201d that distressed us a while ago,\nwhat a vista does it disclose of chivalric tenderness, entire\nself-sacrifice! Human nature has not failed; what has failed us is\nphilosophy, and that applied philosophy which is called education.\nPhilosophy, all the philosophies, old and new, land us on the horns\nof a dilemma; either we do well by ourselves and seek our own\nperfection of nature or condition, or we do well by others to our\nown loss or deterioration. If there is a mean, philosophy does not\ndeclare it.\n\nThere are things of which we have desperate need: we want a\nnew scale of values: I suppose we all felt when, in those days\nbefore the War, we read how several millionaires went down in\nthe \u201cTitanic\u201d disaster, not only that their millions did not\nmatter, but that they did not matter to them; that possibly they\nfelt themselves well quit of an incessant fatigue. We want more\nlife: there is not life enough for our living; we have no great\nengrossing interests; we hasten from one engagement to another and\nglance furtively at the clock to see how time, life, is getting\non; we triumph if a week seems to have passed quickly; who knows\nbut that the approach of an inevitable end might find us glad to\nget it all over? We want hope: we busy ourselves excitedly about\nsome object of desire, but the pleasure we get is in effort,\nnot in attainment; and we read, before the War, of the number\nof suicides among Continental schoolboys, for instance, with\nsecret understanding; what is there to live for? We want to be\ngoverned: servants like to receive their \u201corders\u201d; soldiers and\nschoolboys enjoy discipline; there is satisfaction in stringent\nCourt etiquette; the fact of being \u201cunder orders\u201d adds dignity\nto character. When we revolt it is only that we may transfer our\nallegiance. We want a new start: we are sick of ourselves and of\nknowing in advance how we shall behave and how we shall feel on\nall occasions; the change we half-unconsciously desire is to other\naims, other ways of looking at things. We feel that we are more\nthan there is room for; other conditions might give us room; we\ndon\u2019t know; any way, we are uneasy. These are two or three of the\nsecret matters that oppress us, and we are in need of a philosophy\nwhich shall deal with such things of the spirit. We believe we\nshould be able to rise to its demands, however exigeant, for the\nfailure is not in us or in human nature so much as in our limited\nknowledge of conditions.\n\nThe cry of decadence is dispiriting, but is it well-founded? The\nbeautiful little gowns that have come down as heirlooms would\nnot fit the \u201cdivinely tall\u201d daughters of many a house where\nthey are treasured. We have become frank, truthful, kind; our\nconscientiousness and our charity are morbid; we cannot rest in\nour beds for a disproportionate anxiety for the well-being of\neverybody; we even exceed the generous hazard, that, peradventure\nfor a good man one might be found to die; almost any man will risk\nhis life for the perishing without question of good or bad; and we\nexpect no less from firemen, doctors, life-boatmen, parsons, the\ngeneral public. And what a comment on the splendid magnanimity of\nmen does the War afford!\n\nAn annoying inquiry concerning risks at sea almost resulted in a\nruling that no one should let himself be saved so long as others\nwere in danger; it is preposterous, but is what human nature\nexpects of itself. No, we are not decadent on the whole, and our\nuneasiness is perhaps caused by growing pains. We may be poor\nthings, but we are ready to break forth into singing should the\nchance open to us of a full life of passionate devotion. Now, all\nour exigeant demands are met by words written in a Book, and by the\nmanifestations of a Person; and we are waiting for a Christianity\nsuch as the world has not yet known. Hitherto, Christ has existed\nfor our uses; but what if a time were coming when we, also,\nshould taste the \u201corientall fragrancie\u201d of, \u201cMy Master!\u201d So it\nshall be when the shout of a King is among us, and are there not\npremonitions? But these things come not by prayer and fasting, by\ngood works and self-denial, alone; there is something prior to all\nthese upon which our Master insists with distressful urgency, \u201cWhy\nwill ye not know? Why will ye not understand?\u201d\n\nMy excuse for touching upon our most intimate concerns is that this\nmatter, too, belongs to the domain of Letters; if we propose to\nseek knowledge we must proceed in an orderly way, recognising that\nthe principal knowledge is of most importance; the present writer\nwrites and the reader reads, because we are all moved by the spirit\nof our time; these things are our secret preoccupation, for we have\ncome out of a long alienation as persons \u201cwearied with trifles,\u201d\nand are ready and anxious for a new age. We know the way, and we\nknow where to find our rule of the road; but we must bring a new\nzeal and a new method to our studies; we may no longer dip here\nand there or read a perfunctory chapter with a view to find some\nword of counsel or comfort for our use. We are engaged in the study\nof, in noting the development of, that consummate philosophy which\nmeets every occasion of our lives, all demands of the intellect,\nevery uneasiness of the soul.\n\nThe arrogance which pronounces judgment upon the written \u201cWord\u201d\nupon so slight an acquaintance as would hardly enable us to\ncover a sheet or two of paper with sayings of the Master, which\nconfines the Divine teaching to the great Sermon, of which we are\nable to rehearse some half-dozen sentences, is as absurd as it is\nblameworthy. Let us give at least as profound attention to the\nteaching of Christ as the disciples of Plato, say, gave to his\nwords of wisdom. Let us observe, note-book in hand, the orderly and\nprogressive sequence, the penetrating quality, the irresistible\nappeal, the unique content of the Divine teaching; (for this\npurpose it might be well to use some one of the approximately\nchronological arrangements of the Gospel History in the words of\nthe text). Let us read, not for our profiting, though that will\ncome, but for love of that knowledge which is better than thousands\nof gold and silver. By and by we perceive that this knowledge is\nthe chief thing in life; the meaning of Christ\u2019s saying, \u201cBehold,\nI make all things new,\u201d dawns upon us; we get new ideas as to the\nrelative worth of things; new vigour, new joy, new hope are ours.\n\nIf we believe that knowledge is the principal thing, that knowledge\nis tri-partite, and that the fundamental knowledge is the knowledge\nof God, we shall bring up our children as students of Divinity and\nshall pursue our own life-long studies in the same school. Then we\nshall find that the weekly sermons for which we are prepared are as\nbread to the hungry; and we shall perhaps understand how enormous\nis the demand we make upon the clergy for living, original thought.\nIt is only as we are initiated that science and \u201cNature\u201d come to\nour aid in this chief pursuit; then, they \u201ctheir great Original\nproclaim\u201d; but while we are ignorant of the principal knowledge\nthey remain dumb. Literature and history have always great matters\nto speak of or suggest, because they deal with states or phases of\nmoral government and moral anarchy, and tacitly indicate to us the\nsole key to all this unintelligible world; and literature not only\nreveals to us the deepest things of the human spirit, but it is\nprofitable also \u201cfor example of life and instruction in manners.\u201d\n\nWe are at the parting of the ways; our latest educational\nauthority, one who knows and loves little children, would away\nwith all tales and histories that appeal to the imagination;\nlet children learn by means of things, is her mandate; and the\ncharm and tenderness with which it is delivered may well blind us\nto its desolating character. We recognise Rousseau, of course,\nand his _Emile_, that self-sufficient person who should know\nnothing of the past, should see no visions, allow no authority.\nBut human nature in children is stronger than the eighteenth\ncentury philosopher and the theories which he continues to inform.\nWhoever has told a fairy tale to a child has been made aware of\nthat natural appetency for letters to which it is our business\nto minister. Are we not able to believe that words are more than\nmeat, and, so believing, shall we not rise up and insist that\nchildren shall have a liberal diet of the spirit? Rousseau, in\nspite of false analogies, fallacious arguments, was able to summon\nfashionable mothers and men of the world throughout Europe to the\ngreat task of education, because his eloquence convinced them that\nthis was their assigned work and a work capable of achievement;\nand we who perhaps see with clearer eyes should do well to cherish\nthis legacy--the conviction that the education of the succeeding\ngeneration is the chief business of every age.\n\nNevertheless, though we are ourselves emerging from the slough\nof materialism, we are willing to plunge children into its heavy\nways through the agency of a \u201cpractical\u201d and \u201cuseful\u201d education;\nbut children have their rights, and among these is the freedom\nof the city of mind. Let them use things, know things, learn\nthrough things, by all means; but the more they know Letters the\nbetter they will be able, with due instruction, to handle things.\nI do not hesitate to say that the whole of a child\u2019s instruction\nshould be conveyed through the best literary medium available. His\nhistory books should be written with the lucidity, concentration,\npersonal conviction, directness, and admirable simplicity which\ncharacterizes a work of literary calibre. So should his geography\nbooks; the so-called scientific method of teaching geography now\nin vogue is calculated to place a child in a somewhat priggish\nrelation to Mother Earth; it is impossible, too, that the human\nintelligence should assimilate the sentences one meets with in\nmany books for children, but the memory retains them and the child\nis put in the false attitude of one who offers pseudo-knowledge.\nMost of the geography books, for example, require to be translated\ninto terms of literature before they can be apprehended. Great\nconfidence is placed in diagrammatic and pictorial representation,\nand it is true that children enjoy diagrams and understand them\nas they enjoy and understand puzzles; but there is apt to be\nin their minds a great gulf between the diagram and the fact\nit illustrates. We trust much to pictures, lantern slides,\ncinematograph displays; but without labour there is no profit, and\nprobably the pictures which remain with us are those which we have\nfirst conceived through the medium of words; pictures may help us\nto correct our notions, but the imagination does not work upon a\nvisual presentation; we lay the phrases of a description on our\npalette and make our own pictures; (works of art belong to another\ncategory). We recollect how Dr. Arnold was uneasy until he got\ndetails enough to form a mental picture of a place new to him. So\nit is with children and all persons of original mind: a map to put\nthe place in position, and then, all about it, is what we want.\n\nReadings in literature, whether of prose or poetry, should\ngenerally illustrate the historical period studied; but selections\nshould be avoided; children should read the whole book or the whole\npoem to which they are introduced. Here we are confronted by a\nserious difficulty. Plato, we know, determined that the poets in\nhis \u201cRepublic\u201d should be well looked after lest they should write\nmatter to corrupt the morals of youth; aware of what happened in\nEurope when the flood-gates of knowledge were opened, Erasmus was\nanxiously solicitous on this score, and it is a little surprising\nto find that here, Rossetti was on the side of the angels. Will\nthe publishers, who, since Friedrich Perthes discovered their\neducational mission, have done so much for the world, help us\nin this matter also? They must excise with a most sparing hand,\nalways under the guidance of a jealous scholar; but what an ease\nof conscience it would be to teachers if they could throw open the\nworld of books to their scholars without fear of the mental and\nmoral smudge left by a single prurient passage! Many, too, who have\ntaken out their freedom in the republic of letters would be well\ncontent to keep complete library editions in costly bindings in\ntheir proper place, while handy volumes in daily use might be left\nabout without uneasiness.\n\nThe Old Testament itself after such a (very guarded) process would\nbe more available for the reading of children; and few persons\nwould feel that Shakespeare\u2019s plays suffered from the removal\nof obscenities here and there. In this regard we cherish a too\nsuperstitious piety. In another matter, let that great \u201cremedial\nthinker,\u201d Dr. Arnold, advise us:--\u201cAdjust your proposed amount of\nreading to your time and inclination; but whether that amount be\nlarge or small let it be varied in its kind and widely varied. If\nI have a confident opinion on any one point connected with the\nimprovement of the human mind it is on this.\u201d Here we get support\nfor a varied and liberal curriculum; and, as a matter of fact, we\nfind that the pupil who studies a number of subjects knows them as\nwell as he who studies a few knows those few.\n\nChildren should read books, not about books and about authors;\nthis sort of reading may be left for the spare hours of the\ndilettante. Their reading should be carefully ordered, for the\nmost part in historical sequence; they should read to _know_,\nwhether it be _Robinson Crusoe_ or Huxley\u2019s _Physiography_; their\nknowledge should be tested, not by questions, but by the oral (and\noccasionally the written) reproduction of a passage after one\nreading; all further processes that we concern ourselves about in\nteaching, the mind performs for itself; and, lastly, this sort of\nreading should be the chief business in the class room.\n\nWe are at a crucial moment in the history of English education.\nJohn Bull is ruminating. He says, \u201cI have laboured at the higher\neducation of women; let them back to the cooking-pot and distaff\nand learn the science (!) of domestic economy. I have tried for\nthese forty years to educate the children of the people. What is\nthe result? Strikes and swelled head! Let them have \u2019prentice\nschools and learn what will be their business in life!\u201d John Bull\nis wrong. In so far as we have failed it is that we have offered\nthe pedantry, the mere verbiage, of knowledge in lieu of knowledge\nitself; and it is time for all who do not hold knowledge in\ncontempt to be up and doing; there is time yet to save England and\nto make of her a greater nation, more worthy of her opportunities.\nBut the country of our love will not stand still; if we let the\npeople sink into the mire of a material education our doom is\nsealed; eyes now living will see us take even a third-rate place\namong the nations, for it is knowledge that exalteth a nation,\nbecause out of duly-ordered knowledge proceedeth righteousness and\nprosperity ensueth.\n\n\u201cThink clear, feel deep, bear fruit well,\u201d says our once familiar\nmentor, Matthew Arnold, and his monition exactly meets our needs.\n\n\n\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY\n\nTOO WIDE A MESH\n\n\n\u201cThe wide world dreaming on things to come\u201d is concentrating on a\nluminous figure of education which it beholds, dimly, emerging from\na cloudy horizon. This gracious presence is to change the world,\nto give to all men wider possibilities, other thoughts, aims: but,\nalas, this Education which is to be open to all promises no more\non a nearer view than to make Opportunity universal--that is, in\nspiritual things, he may take who has the power and he may keep who\ncan.\n\nThe net is cast wide no doubt and brings in a mighty haul but the\nmeshes are so wide that it will only retain big fishes. Now this is\nthe history of education since the world was and is no new thing.\nThe medi\u00e6val schools of castle or abbey, the Renaissance schools,\nthe very schools of China, have all been conducted upon this\nplan. Education is for him who wants it and can take it but is no\nuniversal boon like the air we breathe or the sunshine we revel in.\n\nWe are a little sorry for the effect of this limitation upon the\n\u2018working classes\u2019: only a small percentage of the children of these\nare \u2018big\u2019 enough to be retained in the examination net which, to\ndo it justice, explores all waters. A few of the pass men may do\nbig things and fill big posts, but for the rest, a large percentage\nis, in practice, illiterate except for the spelling out of a local\n\u2018rag\u2019 for football and parish news.\n\nBut is the mischief confined to what we call the \u2018working\nclasses\u2019? Is it not a fact that in most schools the full force\nof instruction is turned on upon a few boys who are likely to\ndistinguish themselves? While for the rest of the school teaching\nis duly given no doubt but the boys find they may take it or leave\nit as the humour takes them.\n\nWe were all fascinated a while ago by the story of a pair of\ncharming \u2018Twins\u2019; these went through the usual preparatory school\neducation and then passed on to a great Public School where they\nremained until they were nineteen; that is, they had ten or twelve\ngood years among most excellent opportunities. As they were\nattractive boys we may take it that their masters were not at any\nrate unwilling to teach them. Their record should have been quite\na good one, and, though it is the fashion to sneer a little at\nPublic Schools, we know that these have turned out and do turn\nout the best and most intellectual men the country has occasion\nfor. Therefore what happened in the case of these \u2018Twins\u2019 does\nnot cast any reflection upon Public Schools but solely upon the\nsystem of the Big Mesh. Here are some of the things we read in that\ndelightful biography:--\n\n \u201cWhile in hospital after a smash at polo R---- wrote to\n F----:--\u2018I enjoyed it immensely. What lucky people we are taking\n an interest in so many things!\u2019\u201d\n\nSurely here was material for a schoolmaster to work upon! Again, we\nread:--\n\n \u201cThey never ceased to wonder at the magnificence of the world and\n they carried a divine innocence into soldiering and travel and\n sport and business and, not least,--into the shadows of the Great\n War.\u201d\n\nAnd this \u2018wonder\u2019 of theirs was the note that marked them at\nschool. Again, what material for their instructors!\n\n \u201cBut,\u201d we read, \u201cat X---- they showed little interest in books\n and, later, were wont to lament to each other that \u2018_They had\n left school wholly uneducated._\u2019\u201d (The italics are ours.)\n\nTheir kindly biographer and dear friend goes on to say:--\n\n \u201cBut they learnt other things,--the gift of leadership, for\n instance, and the power of getting alongside all varieties of\n human nature.\u201d\n\nBut was not this nature rather than nurture, school nurture at any\nrate, for these gifts seem to have been a family inheritance? Born\nin 1880, they left school in 1899, when there follows a delightful\nrecord for the one brother of successful and adventurous sport\nwhile--\n\n \u201cR---- was soon absorbed in the city ... and beginning to lament\n his want of education.\u201d \u201cF----, while in Egypt was greatly\n impressed by Lord Cromer and writes to R----, \u2018he is quite the\n biggest man we have!... to hear him talk is worth hearing.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe two brothers correspond constantly and R---- takes the part\nof mentor to his brother. He advises him to learn _The Times_\nleaders by heart to improve his style,--\u201cbecause they are very good\nEnglish.\u201d Again,--\n\n \u201cI will send you out next mail a very good book, _Science and\n Education_, by Professor Huxley which I have marked in several\n places, the sort of book you can read over again.\u201d R---- \u201chad\n discovered that he was very badly educated and was determined to\n remedy this defect:--\u2018It don\u2019t matter ... I do believe not having\n learned at X---- so long as one does so now.\u2019\u201d\n\nSee the fine loyalty of the young man; his failures were not to be\nput down to his school!\n\nIf the schools take credit for any one thing it is that they show\ntheir pupils \u2018how to learn\u2019; but do they? We are told that R----\nset to work at a queer assortment of books and writes to F----:--\n\n \u201cAnyone can improve his memory: the best way is by learning by\n heart--no matter what--and then when you think you know it,\n say it or write it.... After two or three days you are sure to\n forget it again and then instead of looking at the book \u2018strain\n your mind\u2019 and try to remember it. Above all things always keep\n your mind employed. One great man (I forget which) used to see\n a number on a door, say 69, and tried to remember all that had\n happened in the years ending in 69. Or, see a horse and remember\n how many you have seen that day.... Asquith always learns things\n by heart, he never wastes a minute; as soon as he has nothing to\n do he picks up some book. He reads till 1-30 every night. When\n driving to the Temple next morning he thinks over what he has\n read. Result: he has a marvellous memory and knows everything.\u201d\n\nThink of the Herculean labours the poor fellow set for both himself\nand his brother! They ran an intellectual race across a ploughed\nfield after heavy rain and the marvel is that they made way at\nall. Yet these two brothers had sufficient intellectual zeal to\nhave made them great men as Ambassadors, Governors of Dominions,\nStatesmen, what not; whereas so far as things of the mind go, they\nspent their days in a hopeless struggle, alert for any indication\nwhich might help them to make up lee-way, and all because,\naccording to their own confession, they \u2018had learned nothing at\nschool.\u2019 Here are further indications of R----\u2019s labours in the\nfield of knowledge:--\n\n \u201cI am reading Rosebery\u2019s _Napoleon_ and will send it to you.\n What a wonder he was! Never spent a moment of his life without\n learning something.... I enclose an essay from Bacon\u2019s book.\n Learn it by heart if you can. I have and think it a clinker....\n I have also finished _Life of Macaulay_. I have always wondered\n how our great politicians and literary chaps live.... I also\n send you a Shakespeare. I learnt Antony\u2019s harangue to the Romans\n after C\u00e6sar\u2019s death; I am also trying to learn a little about\n electricity and railroad organization, so have my time filled\n up. _Pickwick Papers_ I also send to you. I have always avoided\n this sort of books but Dickens\u2019 works are miles funnier than the\n rotten novels one sees.... I have learnt one thing by my reading\n and my conversation with Professors,--_you and I go at a subject\n all wrong_.\u201d (Italics ours.)\n\nThese letters are pathetic documents and, that they are reassuring\nalso, let us be thankful. They do go to prove that the desire of\nknowledge is inextinguishable whatever schools do or leave undone;\nbut have these nothing to answer for when a pursuit which should\nyield ever recurring refreshment becomes dogged labour over heavy\nroads with little pleasure in progress?\n\nHere, again, is another evidence of the limitations attending an\nutter absence of education. A cultivated sense of humour is a\ngreat factor in a joyous life, but these young men are without it.\nPerhaps the youth addicted to sports usually fails to appreciate\ndelicate nonsense; sports are too strenuous to admit of a subtler,\nmore airy kind of play and we read:--\n\n \u201cR---- heard Mr. Balfour and Lord Reay praising _Alice in\n Wonderland_. Deeply impressed he bought the book as soon as he\n returned to London and read it earnestly. To his horror he saw\n no sense in it. Then it struck him that it might be meant as\n nonsense and he had another try, when he concluded that it was\n rather funny but he remained disappointed.\u201d\n\nWe need not follow the career of these interesting men further.\nBoth fell early before they were forty. Their fine qualities\nand their personal fascination remained with them to the end,\nas did also, alas, their invincible ignorance. They laboured\nindefatigably, but, as R---- remarked,--\u201cYou and I go at a subject\nall wrong!\u201d\n\nThe schools must tell us why men who attained mediocre successes\nand the personal favour due to charming manners and sweet natures\nwere yet somewhat depressed and disappointed on account of the\nignorance which they made blind and futile efforts to correct; but\nthey never got so far as to learn that knowledge is delightful\n_because one likes it_; and that no effort at self-education can\ndo anything until one has found out this supreme delightfulness of\nknowledge.\n\nIt must be noted that this failure of a great school to fulfil its\npurpose occurred twenty years ago, and that no educational body has\nmade more well-considered and enlightened advances than have the\nHeadmasters of the great Public Schools. Probably that delightful\ngroup of Eton boys in _Coningsby_ has always been and is to-day\ntypical; there is a certain knightly character in the fine bearing\nand intelligent countenances of the Head Boys one comes across\nthere which speaks well for their intellectual activity. The\nquestion is whether more might not be done with the average boy.\n\nThe function of the schools is no doubt to feed their scholars on\nknowledge until they have created in them a healthy appetite which\nthey will go on satisfying for themselves day by day throughout\nlife. We must give up the farce of teaching young people how to\nlearn, which is just as felicitous a labour and just as necessary\nas to teach a child the motions of eating without offering him\nfood; and studies which are pursued with a view to improve the mind\nmust in future take a back seat.\n\nThe multitudinous things that every person wants to know must\nbe made accessible in the schoolroom, not by diagrams, digests,\nand abstract principles; but boys and girls, like \u2018Kit\u2019s little\nbrother,\u2019 must learn \u2018what oysters is\u2019 by supping on oysters. There\nis absolutely no avenue to knowledge but knowledge itself, and\nthe schools must begin, not by qualifying the mind to deal with\nknowledge, but by affording all the best books containing all the\nsorts of knowledge which these \u2018Twins,\u2019 like everyone else, wanted\nto know. We have to face two difficulties. We do not believe in\nchildren as intellectual persons nor in knowledge as requisite and\nnecessary for intellectual life. It is a pity that education is\nconducted _in camera_ save for the examination lists which shew\nhow the best pupils in a school have acquitted themselves, the\nhalf-dozen or dozen best in a big school. Finely conscientious as\nteachers are they can hardly fail to give undue importance to their\ngroup of candidates for examination and a school of four or five\nhundred stands or falls by a dozen head boys.\n\n [See note under Table of Contents for (_a_) the large number of\n children\u2019s answers, and (_b_) Book IV of which only Chapter 1\n appears in this volume].\n\n\n\n\nIndex\n\n\n abridged editions, 183\n\n _Abt Vogler_, 324\n\n academic solution of educational problems, the, 254, 288\n\n Academy (French), 252, 256\n\n _Across the Bridges_, by A. Paterson, 118, 119, 300\n\n act of knowing, 99, 254, 271, 292, 298;\n knowledge acquired by, 291\n\n Adams, Professor John, 112\n\n \u00e6sthetic sense, 43;\n open to disaster, 56\n\n affections, mis-directed, 58\n\n Albrecht, Dr., 162\n\n allusions, literary, 264\n\n Ambleside, 212, 217\n\n _Ambleside Geography, The_, 226-229\n\n Amyot, on history, 273\n\n anarchy, 69\n\n \u2018Angelic Doctor,\u2019 The, 284\n\n \u2018aniseed drops,\u2019 educational, 302\n\n _aphasia_, our national, 269\n\n \u2018appetency,\u2019 56, 107\n\n apprenticeship, 328\n\n architecture, 77, 217, 220\n\n arithmetic, 59, 73, 141, 151, 152, 230-233\n\n Armstrong, Dr., 280\n\n Arnold, Dr., 257, 340, 341\n\n Arnold, Matthew, 239, 252, 258, 309, 315, 342\n\n art, xxx, 14, 43, 45, 63, 154, 157, 254;\n teaching of, 213-217, 275;\n is of the spirit, 214;\n power of appreciating, 214;\n reverent knowledge of, 214\n\n Arthur, King, 28\n\n assimilation, 259\n\n astronomy, 50, 220, 222\n\n Astrophel, 100\n\n athleticism and mental activity, 72\n\n atmosphere, education is an, xxix, 94-99\n\n attention, 259;\n a habit, 100;\n a natural function, 171;\n how secured, 13-15, 17, 28, 45, 76, 255;\n must not have crutches, 258;\n power of, present in children, xxxi, 7, 14, 18, 76, 154, 171, 255,\n 263, 290;\n the hall-mark of an educated person, 99;\n the prime agent in education, 16, 76, 247;\n weakened by efforts to memorise, 17;\n unfailing, 17, 171, 291\n\n _Aus Meinem Leben_ (Goethe), 161\n\n Austen, Jane, 16, 77, 193, 294\n\n authority, natural, necessary and fundamental, xxix, 68-78, 97, 134;\n deputed, 68;\n the condition of liberty, 69;\n order, outcome of, 69;\n chastened, 71;\n _vide_ self-authority\n\n average boy, the, 300, 310, 312\n\n\n Bacon, 7, 29, 61, 105, 124, 143\n\n _Barnaby Rudge_, 259, 282\n\n \u2018Baron of Bradwardine,\u2019 the, 312\n\n Bergson, Henri, 173\n\n Bernhardi, F. von, 3\n\n Bible, The, 143, 186, 272, 273;\n in curriculum, 30, 40, 61-65, 160-165, 254;\n fine English of, 160, 309;\n method of, lesson, 159-169;\n and critical teaching, 163\n\n Big Mesh, The system of the, 344\n\n biology, 221\n\n Blake, William, 79\n\n Board of Education, 250\n\n body, well-being of, 46;\n a sound, 189\n\n Bompas Smith, Professor, 27\n\n Bonnot, 327\n\n books, many, xxx, 7, 12, 15, 30, 59, 76, 267, 271, 303;\n living, xxx, 303;\n worthy, 12, 18, 26, 52, 75, 104, 191, 260, 268;\n delight in, 28;\n text-books, 50, 53, 105, 256, 263, 271, 275;\n difficulty of choosing, 187, 248;\n choice of, 248, 272;\n P.U.S., tested by examinations, 248;\n \u2018classes\u2019 and \u2018masses\u2019 must read the same, 264;\n about books, 341\n\n Bosanquet, Bernard, 149\n\n Bose, Professor Sir Jagadis Chandra, 95\n\n botany, 220, 221\n\n brain, adaptation of, to habits, xxx, 101;\n thought not a function of, 2, 4, 260;\n subject to same conditions as body, 38;\n should not know fatigue, 38;\n mind takes care of, 330\n\n British Association, The, 222, 251\n\n British Museum, The, 77, 175, 176, 274\n\n Browning, Robert, 100, 133, 215, 331\n\n B\u00fcchner, 4\n\n Burns, John, 300\n\n _Bushido_, 133\n\n\n \u2018Caleb Garth,\u2019 61\n\n \u2018Caleb Balderstone,\u2019 314\n\n Carlyle, Thomas, 238, 288\n\n Catechism, The, 169\n\n Cavell, Nurse, 77, 141\n\n Character, the one achievement possible, 129;\n more important than conduct, 129;\n formation of, 264, 278;\n magnanimity of, 248\n\n Charles IX, 50\n\n chemistry, 254\n\n _Childe Harold_ (Byron), 186\n\n child-garden, 24\n\n children, waiting for call of knowledge, xxv;\n are born persons, xxix, 13, 18, 29, 36, 80, 238;\n have good and evil tendencies, xxix, 47-49, 52, 61, 66, 85, 86,\n 88, 89;\n must live under natural conditions, xxix, 96-99;\n have appetite for knowledge, xxx, 10, 11-13, 14, 18, 29, 44, 53,\n 58, 62, 77, 89, 91, 124;\n can deal with knowledge, xxx, 10, 14, 18, 40, 72, 109, 117, 154,\n 237, 263;\n require much and various knowledge, xxx, 11, 12, 14, 19, 25, 72,\n 109, 111, 116, 125, 154, 157, 253, 256, 263, 288-290;\n and in literary form, xxxi, 13, 17, 18, 29, 30, 51, 92, 109, 154,\n 160, 172, 218, 248, 256, 260, 291;\n have power of attention, xxxi, 7, 14, 18, 29, 75, 154, 171, 255,\n 263, 291;\n enormous educability of, xxxi;\n must have principles of conduct, xxxi, 62;\n must have responsibility of learning, 6, 74, 99;\n have powers common to _all_, 8;\n backward, 9, 62, 183, 245, 255, 291;\n are ignorant, 10;\n have imagination, 10, 18, 36, 41, 50;\n and judgment, 10, 18;\n hindered by apparatus of teacher, 11, 54;\n made apathetic by spiritual malnutrition, 11, 54;\n must have great thoughts, 12, 40;\n must read many books, xxx, 7, 12, 15, 30, 59, 76, 267, 271, 303;\n must read to know, 13, 99;\n are bored by talk, 15, 19, 41, 44, 52, 58;\n intellectual capacity of, belittled, 26, 31, 75, 81, 158, 192,\n 238, 246;\n are not all alike, 30, 241;\n first notions of, 35;\n and language, 35;\n early thoughts of, 36, 238;\n experience what they hear and read, 40;\n hearts of, thoroughly furnished, 43, 60;\n of the slums, 44, 63, 256, 260, 293;\n all, persons of infinite possibilities, 44, 156;\n start fair, 47;\n muscles and nerves of, 48;\n have power to sense meaning, 51, 181;\n not intellectual ruminants, 53;\n dangers of feeding, morally, 59;\n must think fairly, 61;\n capacity and needs of, 66, 157;\n and the sense of \u2018must,\u2019 73;\n offences against, 81;\n must be relieved of decisions, 97;\n need bracing, not too stimulating, atmosphere, 98;\n should not \u2018run wild,\u2019 98;\n must form good habits, 100;\n grow upon ideas, 109;\n should know something of their own capacities, 131, 187, 189;\n must follow arguments and detect fallacies, 147;\n must know what religion is, 149;\n educational rights of, 157, 339;\n howlers of _v._ mistakes, 158, 256;\n have affinity for God, 158;\n able for school education at five, but no conscious mental effort\n desirable until six, 159;\n examination answers of, 167, 168, 185, 191, 193, 194, 195-209,\n 244;\n enjoy classical names, 181;\n must see life whole, 187;\n must learn science of proportion, 187;\n chastely taught, watch their thoughts, 188;\n do not generalise, 224;\n devitalised, 237;\n not products of education or environment, 238;\n not incomplete beings, but ignorant, 238;\n powers of, 9, 238, 255;\n shown in verses, 242-243;\n offer a resisting medium, 253;\n need physical and mechanical training, 255;\n beings \u2018of large discourse,\u2019 305;\n should be persons of leisure, 305\n\n China, schools of, 343\n\n Chinese Empire, 179\n\n Christ, parables of, 304;\n gave profoundest philosophy to the multitude, 332;\n does not exist for our uses only, 336;\n teaching of, must receive profound attention, 337\n\n Christianity, 336\n\n Chrysostom, St., Prayer of, 64\n\n cinematograph displays, 340\n\n Circe, 186, 267\n\n _Citizens to Be_, by Miss M. L. V. Hughes, 235\n\n citizenship, 185-189, 254, 274;\n the inspiration of, 185;\n ancillary to history, 185;\n problem of good and evil in, 186\n\n Cizek, Herr, 216\n\n Coleridge, S. T., 35, 56, 105-108, 110, 233, 290, 318, 322\n\n Colet, Dean, xxvi, 247\n\n Collingwood, Lord, 60\n\n Comenius, 8, 20, 291\n\n composition, 190-209;\n oral, 190, 269;\n art of, should not be taught, 190, 192, 269;\n not an adjunct of education, 192;\n in verse, 193, 242;\n definite teaching of, in Forms V and VI, 193, 194;\n power of, innate in children, 191;\n written, 192;\n comes of free and exact use of books, 193;\n children\u2019s, 195-209\n\n concentration, 8, 15;\n innate, 171\n\n _Coningsby_, 348\n\n conscience, present in infant, 37;\n governing power of man, 131\n\n _Continuation Schools_, edited by Sir Michael Sadler, 285\n\n Continuation Schools, a Liberal Education in, 119, 124, 127, 147;\n the scope of, 279-299;\n movement and technical education, 279;\n not for technical instruction, but for things of the mind, 287\n\n Copenhagen, 285\n\n Copts, 314\n\n Cornwell, Jack, 141\n\n correlation, principle of, 276\n\n correlation lessons, 114, ff.\n\n Council Schools, P.U.S. work in, xxv, 77, 81, 181, 182, 195, 241,\n 290, 293\n\n \u2018countenance,\u2019 a manifestation of thought, 301\n\n \u2018Creakle, Mr.\u2019 81, 101\n\n Curie, Madame, 141\n\n curriculum, a full, xxx, 14, 19, 30, 154, 263;\n a common, 12, 293;\n principles bearing upon the, 13, 31, 156-158;\n in P.U.S., 15, 28, 154-234;\n in Grammar and Public Schools, 85;\n and the formation of habits, 99;\n in Elementary Schools, 155;\n standard set by examinations, 233;\n a complete, suggested by the nature of things, 156\n\n\n Damien, Father, 60\n\n dancing, 234\n\n Darwin, 3, 4, 5, 54\n\n _David Copperfield_, 81, 111, 238\n\n democracy, 312\n\n Demos clamours for humanistic education, 299\n\n Denmark, education in, 123, 283-287, 291, 306\n\n De Quincey, 29, 103, 333\n\n Departmental Committee on English, 269\n\n desires, which stimulate mind, 11, 88;\n cater for spiritual sustenance, 11;\n atrophy of, 89;\n _v._ other desires, 247;\n must be used wisely, 56;\n right and wrong, 84\n\n Dewey, Professor, 280\n\n Dickens, 81, 111\n\n discipline, xxix, xxx;\n secured by knowledge-hunger, 11;\n education a, 99-104\n\n discrimination, 259\n\n diversion, xxxi\n\n Divine Spirit, xxxi;\n Divine sanctions, 20\n\n docility, 68;\n universal, 69;\n _v._ subservience, 71;\n implies equality, 71\n\n _Doll\u2019s House, The_ (Ibsen), 327\n\n drawing, 217, 329\n\n Drighlington Girls\u2019 School, xxv, 236\n\n\n economics, 73, 313\n\n education;\n a liberal, xxv, 8, 21, 78, 92, 127, 235, 250, 261, 264, 266, 271,\n 294, 296;\n gives stability of mind, 248;\n makes for sound judgment, 56;\n three instruments of, xxix, 94;\n and atmosphere, xxix, 94-99;\n and discipline of habit, xxix, xxx, 99-104;\n is a life, xxix, 104-111;\n is the Science of Relations, xxx, 31, 154;\n little dependent on heredity and environment, xxxi;\n errors in, 2, 5, 24, 26, 38, 41, 44, 53, 58, 59, 75-77, 82-89, 91,\n 94-96, 98, 105, 110, 114-122, 129, 155, 178, 190, 237, 246,\n 254, 304;\n a philosophy of, 2, 18, 67;\n and training, 3, 5, 6, 20, 39, 48, 147, 287;\n must nourish mind, 6, 72, 105, 111, 253, 255, 260;\n discoveries in, 9, 62, 68, 104, 255, 256, 290;\n and the Desires, 11, 58, 84-90;\n Knowledge the concern of, 2, 93, 266;\n is of the spirit, 12, 26, 30, 38, 39, 125;\n attention, the prime agent of, 16, 76, 247;\n lacks exact application of principles, 19;\n \u201cnew,\u201d 27;\n distinguished from psychology, sociology, pathology, 27;\n in want of a unifying theory, 32;\n does not produce mind, 36;\n and use of leisure, 42, 79, 121;\n the work of, 46, 60, 248, 281, 287;\n the handmaid of Religion, 46, 79, 248;\n business of, always with us, 54;\n of the feelings, 59;\n of the soul, 63;\n drowned by talk, 65;\n and capacity of child, 66;\n a going forth of the mind, 66, 137;\n popular, 76;\n a free, 85, 146;\n definite progress a condition of, 91;\n not mainly gymnastic in function, 108, 236;\n in Denmark and Scandinavia, 123, 125, 283-287, 291, 306;\n in Germany, 123, 125, 279, 280, 306;\n utilitarian, 125, 156, 180, 224, 279-283, 302;\n co-existent with moral bankruptcy, 281;\n in France, 125;\n in Switzerland, 125;\n Secondary, 127, 250-278;\n less liberty than in Primary, 155;\n character, the aim of, 129, 287;\n must fortify will, 131;\n title deeds of, 156;\n beginning of definite, 159;\n a science of proportion, 231-233;\n a social lever, 245;\n solves problems of decent living, 245;\n a venture of faith, 245;\n part and parcel of Religion, 246;\n _v._ Civilisation, 248;\n a common, 249, 264, 296;\n a democratic, 265;\n not for the best children only, 254;\n hindered by materialism, 259;\n an exclusive, our great achievement, 265;\n overlapping in, 265;\n a literary, open to all, 268;\n humanistic, affects conduct, 293;\n an early, from great books, the true foundation of knowledge, 308;\n of the race, 324;\n new systems of, 325;\n result of forty years\u2019, 342;\n should be universal boon like air, 343;\n as exemplified by two Public School boys, 343-348\n\n Education Act, 121, 122\n\n Eliot, George, 61\n\n efficiency, 125\n\n Elementary Schools, 326;\n P.N.E.U. propaganda on behalf of, xxvii;\n P.U.S. methods in, xxxi, 13, 14, 39, 44, 50, 268;\n books in, 53;\n concentration schemes in, 115;\n A Liberal Education in, 235-249;\n gain by no marks, no places, 247\n\n _Emile_, by J. J. Rousseau, 338\n\n _Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica_, 5, 17\n\n \u2018English,\u2019 86, 147, 209-211\n\n English Literature, 124, 298\n\n environment, xxix, 94-99;\n educability of children little dependent on, xxxi, 155;\n not way to mind, 38;\n _v._ atmosphere, 96;\n children not products of, 238\n\n Erasmus, 187, 340\n\n erudition, 310\n\n ethics, 14, 254, 274\n\n _Ethics of the Dust_, by John Ruskin, 223\n\n Eton, 252, 308, 348\n\n Eucken, Professor, 249, 296\n\n Euclid, 152, 233\n\n eugenics, 313\n\n eurhythmics, 251, 255\n\n examinations, 231, 256, 277, 291;\n University entrance, 155, 233;\n and scholarships, 155;\n P.U.S., 158, 167, 168, 171, 178, 220, 221, 241-243, 262, 270, 272,\n 293-296;\n should set less exacting standard, 256;\n tests which shall safeguard Letters, 312;\n papers and children\u2019s answers, 195-209\n\n Ezekiel, 55\n\n\n faculties, 11, 17, 259, 263, 266;\n out-of-date, 2, 230, 255;\n B\u00fcchner on, 4;\n none to develop, 255, 276\n\n fallacious arguments, 326\n\n Fichte, 279, 306\n\n Fisher, Mr. H. A. L., 53, 122, 126\n\n Fouill\u00e9e, M., 110\n\n Fox, Charles, 29;\n on poetry, 317\n\n _Four Georges, The_, by Thackeray, 171\n\n France, Anatole, 317\n\n France, education in, 125\n\n Francis, St., 60\n\n Franklin, the Hon. Mrs., xxviii\n\n Frederick the Great, 3\n\n French, the teaching of, 211-213\n\n French Revolution, The, 4, 92\n\n Fuller, Thomas, xxvii\n\n\n Gaddi, Taddeo, 322\n\n games, 188;\n should be joyous relaxation rather than stern necessity, 267\n\n Genesis, 309\n\n geography, teaching of, 14, 30, 40, 59, 177, 220, 221, 224-230;\n dangers of \u2018scientific,\u2019 41;\n suffers from utilitarian spirit, 224;\n and travel, 226;\n the romance of, 227;\n not generalisations, 227;\n inferential method of teaching, 227-228;\n panoramic method, 227-228;\n literary character of, 228\n\n geology, teaching of, 221\n\n geometry, the teaching of, 233\n\n German, the teaching of, 213\n\n Germany, moral breakdown of, 3, 123;\n influence of Darwin on, 3, 4;\n utilitarianism in, 6, 123, 125, 280, 286, 306;\n cult of \u00e6stheticism in, 95;\n philosophers of, 3, 4;\n school curriculum in, 6;\n efficiency in, 282, 283\n\n Gibbon, 124\n\n Gladstone, W. E., 281\n\n Gloucester teachers\u2019 P.U.S. conference, 183\n\n Gloucestershire, 51, 90\n\n God, knowledge of, 64, 65, 158-169, 239, 246, 254, 287, 289, 310,\n 315;\n the principal knowledge, 272, 338\n\n \u2018Godfrey Bertram,\u2019 122\n\n Goethe, 40, 160-162, 273, 299\n\n Gordon, General, 141\n\n Gordon Riots, 130\n\n Gorky, Maxim, 62\n\n Gospels, The, 165, 166, 169\n\n grammar, the teaching of, 7, 10, 141, 151, 152, 209-211, 269\n\n Greek, 124, 155, 254, 308\n\n Greeks and the power of words, 316\n\n Gregory, Sir Richard, on science teaching, 222\n\n Grundtvig, 125, 283, 284, 291\n\n _Guy Mannering_, 122, 331\n\n gymnastics, intellectual and physical _v._ knowledge, 236\n\n\n Habit, xxix, 53, 99-104, 128, 147;\n is inevitable, 101;\n a bad master, 101;\n act repeated becomes, 102;\n religious, 103\n\n Haeckel, Ernst, 4\n\n Hague, The, 285\n\n Haldane, Lord, 26\n\n Hall, Professor Stanley, 280\n\n _Hamlet_, 179, 183\n\n handicrafts, xxx, 31, 73, 154, 217, 234, 251, 255, 328\n\n _Heart of Midlothian_, The, 331\n\n _Henry VIII_, 170, 173\n\n Herbart, 112, 113, 114, 117\n\n Herbartian doctrine, xxx, 113, 117\n\n Herbert, George, 64\n\n heredity, educability of children little dependent on, xxxi, 155\n\n High School girl, the, 326\n\n history, 14, 30, 42, 50, 59, 62, 73, 77, 151, 157, 169-180, 254,\n 267;\n a vital part of education, 169, 273;\n church, 169;\n English, 170-175, 176, 177;\n French, 175, 176, 177;\n ancient, 175, 176, 177, 274;\n Indian, 176, 267;\n European, 176, 177;\n British Empire, 176;\n and literature, 176, 177, 180, 184, 269, 274;\n and citizenship, 185, 274;\n geographical aspects of, 177;\n as a background for thought, 178;\n time given to, 170;\n necessary for a sane life, 178;\n gives weight to decision, consideration to action, stability to\n conduct, 179;\n charts, by Miss Beale, 177\n\n _Home Education Series_, 6, 27\n\n Homer, 182, 190\n\n home work, 9\n\n hope, we want, 335\n\n Horace, 78, 264\n\n horde, spirit of, a dangerous tendency, 300\n\n Household, Mr. H. W., 90, 212\n\n House of Education, The, 15, 212, 213, 276\n\n \u201chowlers,\u201d 158, 256\n\n Humanism, 240;\n for the people at large, 235\n\n humanistic training surest basis for business capacity, 285\n\n \u2018Humanities,\u2019 The, 14, 157, 235, 239, 260, 297, 305;\n in English, 298\n\n human nature, prefers natural to spiritual law, 3;\n a composite whole, 156;\n possibilities of, infinite and various, 156;\n an ordered presentation of the powers of, 189;\n has not failed, 335\n\n Huxley on the teaching of science, 218\n\n hygiene, 220\n\n\n Ideas, xxix, xxx, 290;\n mind feeds on, xxx, 10, 20, 25, 39, 40, 105, 109, 110, 117, 256;\n informing, xxx, 26, 154;\n initial, xxxi;\n Platonic, 10, 108;\n that influence life, 25;\n give birth to acts, 80, 102, 303;\n potency of, 105;\n rise and progress of, 106, 107;\n Coleridge\u2019s \u2018captain,\u2019 110;\n behaviour of, 113;\n correlation of, 114;\n instruct conscience and stimulate will, 130;\n choice between, 134;\n growth of, 297\n\n Ignorance, dangers of, 1, 5, 279, 299, 310, 314;\n is not incapacity, 63;\n our national stumbling-block, 239;\n only one cure for, 239\n\n Imagination, 25, 259;\n present in children, 11, 18, 36, 41, 50;\n present in infant, 37;\n may be stored with evil images, 55\n\n _Incuria_ of children, 52, 254, 292\n\n India, 267\n\n influence, 83\n\n information _v._ knowledge, 26, 184, 303, 321\n\n initiative, 25\n\n insincerity an outcome of ignorance, 326\n\n integrity, 61\n\n intellect not a class prerogative, 12;\n enthroned in every child, 50\n\n intellectual conversion, xxv, xxvi\n\n intellectual appetite, 56\n\n intelligence not a matter of inheritance and environment, 12\n\n introspection, 66\n\n irresponsibility characterises our generation, 313\n\n Isaiah, 106, 309, 318\n\n Italian, teaching of, 213\n\n\n James, Professor William, 113, 114\n\n Japan, 133;\n revolution in, 306\n\n Jewish nation, history of, 162\n\n _Joan and Peter_, by H. G. Wells, 95, 252, 266\n\n Johnson, Dr., 143, 160;\n on questions, 257\n\n Jordan, xxvi\n\n judgment, power of, 259;\n present in children, 9, 18\n\n justice, 60-62\n\n\n Kant, 306\n\n Keble, 167\n\n Kidd, Benjamin, 69\n\n _King Lear_, 45, 242\n\n Kipling, Rudyard, 89, 135, 181\n\n Kirschensteiner, Dr. and Munich Schools, 280\n\n knowledge, call of, xxv;\n appetite for, xxx, 10, 11, 14, 18, 20, 29, 44, 53, 57, 77, 89, 90,\n 92, 117, 124, 253, 255, 290, 302;\n must be vital, xxx, 39, 44, 105, 154;\n quantity and variety of, xxx, 11, 14, 19, 116, 123, 154, 157, 253,\n 256, 257, 263, 288, 289, 290;\n must be literary in form, xxx, 13, 15, 18, 29, 30, 51, 91, 109,\n 111, 154, 160, 172, 218, 248, 256, 260, 290;\n assimilation of, xxx, 12, 14, 16, 18, 155, 240, 292;\n the sole concern of education, 2, 12, 93;\n the necessary food of mind, 2, 18, 75, 88, 239, 256, 258;\n consecutive, 7, 158, 172, 244, 261, 267;\n accurate, 8;\n what is? 12, 239, 254, 303;\n a basis of common, for all classes, 20, 78, 264, 293, 298, 299;\n not sensation, 26;\n of good and evil, 46;\n love of, sufficient stimulus for work, 58, 79, 98;\n of God, 64, 65, 158-169, 239, 246, 254, 272, 287, 289, 310, 315,\n 338;\n formative influence of, 65;\n brings freedom, 71, 73;\n depreciation of, 76, 301, 316;\n is delectable, 89;\n creates bracing atmosphere, 97;\n _v._ teaching, 118;\n is virtue, 127, 235;\n of man, 169-218, 239, 254, 289, 315;\n of the Universe, 218-234, 239, 254, 289, 316;\n relativity of, and mind, 237, 240, 324;\n stops friction, 238;\n substitutes for, 302;\n \u2018The source of pleasure,\u2019 302;\n Matthew Arnold on, 239;\n received with attention, and fixed by narration, 259;\n not same as academic success, 266;\n unifying effect of, 267;\n \u2018Meet for the people,\u2019 292;\n a distinction between, and scholarship, 305;\n \u2018Letters,\u2019 the content of, 308;\n not a store but a state, 309;\n of the Life, the Truth, the Way, 317;\n the basis of a nation\u2019s strength, 321;\n _v._ information, 303, 321;\n medi\u00e6val conception of, 321;\n all, is sacred, 324;\n a great unity, 324;\n and \u2018learning,\u2019 325;\n exalteth a nation, 342\n\n _Kultur_, 286\n\n\n Lamb, Charles, 16, 258, 260\n\n languages, the teaching of, 209-213, 254, 276\n\n Latin, the teaching of, 94, 124, 155, 213\n\n League of Nations, 169\n\n learning, by rote, 257;\n and knowledge, 325;\n labour of, not decreased by narrowing curriculum, 158\n\n Lecky, Mr., on utilitarian theory, 280\n\n _Lehrbuch zur Psychologie_, 113\n\n Leibnitz, 110, 113\n\n Leonardo da Vinci, 54\n\n lessons, dull routine, 44\n\n \u2018Letters,\u2019 knowledge and virtue, 307;\n the vehicle of knowledge, 308;\n a knowledge of, necessary, 313;\n make a universal appeal, 333;\n the staple of education, 334\n\n _Liberal Education, A: Practice_, by A. C. Drury, 157\n\n life, not enough for our living, 335\n\n listening, habit of, 244\n\n Lister, 19, 318\n\n literary form, children must have, xxx, 15, 18, 29, 30, 51, 91, 109,\n 111, 154, 160, 172, 218, 248, 256, 260, 290;\n children educated out of, 13\n\n Literature, the teaching of, 42, 43, 52, 62, 151, 157, 180-185, 254;\n natural aptitude for, 91;\n illustrates history, 176, 177, 180, 184, 269, 274;\n a living power, 185;\n and history, sole key to unintelligible world, 338;\n reveals deepest things, 338\n\n Locke, 4, 156\n\n _Logos_, 330\n\n Louis XI, 132\n\n Louis XIV, 92\n\n Louisa, Queen of Prussia, 306\n\n Lugard, Lady, 314\n\n Lysander, 109\n\n\n _Macbeth_, 140\n\n magnanimity, 89, 248, 268\n\n magnetism, personal, 13, 48, 49\n\n Magnus, Sir Philip, 280\n\n maps, 224\n\n Marconi, 236\n\n Maria Theresa, 311\n\n marks, 7, 11, 28, 52, 247, 302;\n unnecessary, 45\n\n Marx, Karl, 144\n\n Masefield, John, on vitality of mind, 277\n\n mathematics, the teaching of, 7, 59, 148, 151, 152, 153, 155,\n 230-233, 254, 256, 264, 296;\n appeal to mind, 51;\n beauty and truth of, 230, 334;\n undue importance of, 231;\n not a royal road to learning, 231;\n to be studied for their own sake, 232;\n success should not depend on, 232;\n depend upon the teacher, 233;\n badly taught, 233\n\n matter, not the foundation of all being, 4;\n and mind, 5\n\n Memmi, Simone, 284, 322, 323\n\n Memory, 14, 16;\n mind _v._ word, 173, 263;\n knowledge, mental not verbal, 258, 303\n\n mental food and work not synonymous terms, 281\n\n _Method_, Coleridge\u2019s, 106, 107\n\n method, special points of P.N.E.U.;\n children do the work, 6, 19, 192, 216, 241;\n teachers help, 6, 19, 241;\n single reading, 6, 15, 171, 241, 258, 261, 263, 267, 291, 293,\n 304;\n narration, 6, 15, 18, 30, 45, 65, 155, 163, 165, 172, 180, 182,\n 190, 191, 211, 241, 261, 272, 276, 291;\n no revision, 6, 9, 15, 171, 241, 245, 262;\n no special selections, 7, 244;\n many books, 7, 12, 15, 30, 59, 76, 241, 267, 268, 271, 303;\n children\u2019s delight in books, 7, 19, 30, 45;\n attention secured by books, 7, 13, 30, 45, 276;\n consecutive knowledge, 7, 158, 172, 244, 261, 267;\n takes less time, 9, 245;\n no preparation, 9, 158, 245;\n children occupied with things as well as books, 31;\n short hours, 158;\n examinations, 158, 167, 168, 171, 178, 195-209, 241-243, 262, 263,\n 270, 272;\n children form a good style, 194;\n power of dealing with names, 181, 262, 264, 294-296;\n suitable for large numbers, 247;\n success depends on principles, 270\n\n \u2018Micawber, Mr.,\u2019 231\n\n \u2018Midas,\u2019 267\n\n Milton, 110, 124, 132, 159, 188, 274;\n on ideal of education, 249, 268;\n _Areopagitica_, 188\n\n Mind, habits of, xxix, 53, 100;\n feeds on ideas, xxix, 2, 10, 15, 18, 20, 25, 39, 40, 105, 111,\n 117, 256, 257;\n not a receptacle, xxx, 112;\n a spiritual organism, xxx, 24, 38, 117;\n has appetite, xxx, 10, 20, 39, 57, 89, 281;\n must be fed, xxx, 5, 10, 18, 20, 24, 25, 41, 71, 105, 111, 117,\n 154, 236, 239, 246, 259, 263, 281, 288;\n can deal with knowledge, xxx, 10, 18, 41, 72, 117;\n not made up of faculties, 2, 17;\n in education, 2, 6, 253;\n thought alone appeals to, 2, 12, 15;\n is one, 5, 41;\n is spiritual, 5, 38;\n action of, stimulated by desires, 11, 13, 88;\n nature of, 20;\n house of, 24;\n must have labour of digestion, 26, 237;\n the instrument of education, 36;\n spiritual, _v._ physical brain, 38, 100, 260, 330;\n amazing potentialities of, 38;\n \u2018the unconscious,\u2019 38, 66, 130;\n tendency to ignore, 38;\n the means of living, 42;\n good and evil tendencies of, 46, 49, 52;\n not a chartered libertine, 49;\n use of term, 66;\n always conscious, 66;\n heaven of, 71;\n not sustained by physical or emotional activity, 72, 289;\n must not be intruded upon, 130;\n deals with intellectual matter without aids, 172;\n potency not property characteristic of, 237;\n laws of, 245, 246, 290;\n behaviour of, 253;\n duly fed, its activities take care of themselves, 289;\n vast educability of, 289;\n receives knowledge to grow, 237;\n must know, 237;\n wonder of, 239;\n and knowledge, 240, 324;\n functions for its own nourishment, 246;\n of children not immature, 246;\n stability of, 248;\n benefits by occasional gymnastics, 255;\n a crucible, cannot distil from sawdust, 257;\n a deceiver ever, 257;\n outer court of, 257;\n how, works, 257;\n -stuff, 259;\n forces which act in education, 259;\n we must believe in, 260;\n moves altogether when it moves at all, 276;\n demands method, 334\n\n miracles, 148\n\n Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 36\n\n Montaigne, on history, 169\n\n Moral, impulse, 17;\n offences bred in the mind, 188;\n training, 58, 59\n\n morality, school, 188\n\n morals, everyday and economics: citizenship, 185-189\n\n _Mornings in Florence_, by John Ruskin, 323\n\n Muirhead, Professor, 3\n\n Munich, 285, 306;\n Schools, 125, 280, 286\n\n \u2018Murdstone, Mr.,\u2019 81\n\n Music, 329\n\n Musical Appreciation, by Mrs. Howard Glover, 217, 218\n\n\n Napoleon, 5;\n a great reader, 305, 306\n\n Napoleonic wars, 125, 279, 283\n\n Narration, 99, 115, 165, 166, 180, 182, 190, 258-261, 291, 292;\n method of, xxx, 6, 15-17, 29, 30, 51, 64-65, 155, 163, 172-173,\n 191, 241, 244, 304;\n _v._ reproduction, 18, 30, 272;\n of slum children, 45, 63;\n depends on single reading, 6, 15, 171, 241, 258, 261, 263, 267,\n 291, 293, 304;\n a preparation for public speaking, 86, 124;\n literary expression in, 90;\n Dr. Johnson on, 160;\n must not be interrupted, 172, 191;\n in the teaching of languages, 211-213, 276;\n a natural power, 191\n\n National Gallery, The, 215\n\n natural history, the teaching of, 220\n\n natural selection, 4\n\n Nature Note Books, 217, 219, 223\n\n Nature Study, xxx, 73, 154, 219, 328\n\n needlework, 234\n\n New Testament, 165, 187;\n teaching of, must be grounded on Old, 161\n\n Newton, Sir Isaac, 231\n\n Nietzsche, 3\n\n Nightingale, Florence, 141\n\n _Nineteenth Century and After_, 270\n\n note-taking, 245, 257\n\n\n Obedience, natural, necessary and fundamental, xxix, 68-79, 97, 134;\n dignified, 70;\n willing, 70;\n the test of personality, 134\n\n obligation, 17\n\n obscene passages, 341\n\n Old Testament, 160-165, 341;\n as a guide to life, 273\n\n opinions, _v._ ideas, 110;\n of teacher, 288\n\n opportunity, doctrine of equal, 92, 179;\n universal, a fallacy, 343\n\n oral lessons, xxvi, 15, 271\n\n order, how to keep, 45\n\n _Ourselves, Our Souls and Bodies_, 188, 189\n\n\n _Pagan, The_, 250\n\n \u2018Page, Ann,\u2019 331\n\n Paget, Dr. Stephen, on suggestion, 82\n\n Paley, 9\n\n \u2018Paracelsus,\u2019 331\n\n _Parents and Children_, 108\n\n Parents\u2019 Associations, xxviii\n\n Parents\u2019 National Educational Union, xxix, 6, 9, 23, 62, 79, 159,\n 171, 217, 253, 268, 270;\n mission of, to all classes, xxvii\n\n P.N.E.U. Philosophy, xxix;\n fits all ages, satisfies brilliant children, helps the dull,\n secures attention, interest, concentration, 28\n\n Parents\u2019 Union School, xxviii, 13, 45, 78, 212, 217, 223, 233, 235,\n 254, 269, 275-277, 293;\n books in, 271;\n education free to Elementary Schools, 296\n\n Parthenon Room, 175\n\n Pascal, 256\n\n Pasteur, 318\n\n Paterson, Mr. A., 118, 119, 121\n\n patriotism, a sane, 174\n\n Paul, St., xxvii, 188, 309\n\n Pelmanism, the indictment of, 250, 252\n\n \u2018Pendennis, Arthur,\u2019 159\n\n People\u2019s High Schools in Denmark, 283-286\n\n Person, a child is a, xxix, 13, 18, 29, 36, 44, 238;\n chief responsibility of a, to accept ideas, xxxi;\n marks of an educated, 1, 100;\n the more of a, the better citizen, 3, 76, 147;\n the measure of a, 10, 80;\n a, built up from within, 23;\n a, is a mystery, 238;\n a, measured by the wide and familiar use of substantives, 261;\n a, brought up first for his own uses, then for society, 329;\n a, who \u2018lives his life,\u2019 329;\n nobility of a, 334\n\n personality, respect due to, xxix, 24, 81-84, 97, 100, 125, 129;\n development of, 5, 147;\n of teacher, 7, 172;\n undue play of, 78, 82, 129;\n in narration, 18, 260\n\n Perthes, Friedrich, 341\n\n \u2018Peter Pan,\u2019 59\n\n Pett Ridge, Mr., 119\n\n \u2018Petulengro, Jasper,\u2019 224\n\n _Peveril of the Peak_, 282\n\n philosophy, 43;\n a, necessary to life, 334;\n a consummate, 337\n\n physical training, xxx, 48, 72, 154, 233, 255\n\n pictures _v._ descriptions, 340\n\n picture study, 214-217, 275\n\n Pied Piper, The, 48\n\n Piozzi, Mrs., 160\n\n platitudes, 326\n\n Plato, 25, 27, 59, 148, 187, 337, 340;\n on ideas, 10, 105, 108;\n on knowledge, 127, 235\n\n \u2018play way,\u2019 a, 251, 255;\n not avenue to mind, 38\n\n pleasure, grand elementary principle of, 248\n\n Plutarch, 109, 185-187;\n on history, 274\n\n poetry, 59, 72, 157\n\n Poland, 184\n\n Prayer Book, The, 169\n\n prejudices, 326\n\n \u2018Prettymans, the Miss,\u2019 251\n\n progress, fetish of, 297\n\n Promethean fable, 322\n\n Protagoras, 25\n\n Prussia, 5, 279, 306\n\n pseudo-knowledge, 340\n\n psychology, English, 4;\n mythology of \u2018faculty,\u2019 4;\n said to rest on feeling, 5;\n _v._ sociology, allied to pathology, 27;\n modern, 66;\n little known of, 253\n\n Public Schools, 1, 74, 78, 85, 91, 105, 120, 188, 251, 252, 265,\n 266, 297, 301, 308-313, 326, 344;\n our educational achievement, 308;\n ignorance of boys, 309, 310\n\n public opinion, 314, 320\n\n _Punch_, 34, 95\n\n\n _questionnaire_, dangers of, 54, 257\n\n \u2018Quickly, Mrs.,\u2019 331\n\n\n R\u2019s, the three, 63\n\n _raconteur_, a good, 173\n\n reading, a _single_, 6, 15, 171, 241, 258, 261, 263, 267, 291, 293,\n 304;\n desultory, not education, 13, 189;\n in order to know, 14;\n and writing, 30, 244;\n must be consecutive, 261, 267\n\n Reason, 259; the way of the, xxxi;\n present in the infant, 37;\n must not be deified, 55;\n justifies any notion, 55, 143;\n confounded with right, 56;\n does not begin it, 140;\n brings infallible proofs of any idea, 139, 315;\n works involuntarily, 142;\n is subject to habit, 147;\n is fallible, 150, 314;\n and rebellion, 314;\n cannot take the place of knowledge, 314\n\n reflection, 25\n\n religion, 14, 40, 43, 46, 64, 73, 79, 239, 289;\n teaching of, 159-169;\n two aspects of, 160-161;\n difficulties in, 162, 164\n\n Rembrandt, 63, 215\n\n Renaissance, The, xxv, 9, 54;\n Italian and French, 311;\n Schools, 343\n\n Repington, Colonel, 232, 252\n\n reproduction, 259\n\n \u2018Responsions,\u2019 311\n\n retention, 259\n\n revision of lessons, 6, 9, 15, 171, 241, 245, 262\n\n rewards, 7\n\n _Richard III_, 143\n\n Richelieu, 90\n\n Roberts, Lord, 141\n\n Rosetta Stone, 63\n\n Rossetti, 340\n\n Rousseau, J. J., 325, 338, 339\n\n Ruskin, John, 110, 152, 230, 322, 323, 326\n\n Russia, 320;\n Soviet, 145\n\n\n St. Cross, 332\n\n Salisbury, Lord, 281\n\n _Saviour of the World, The_, 167\n\n Scandinavia, education in, 123, 125\n\n scholarship, an exquisite distinction, 310;\n _v._ knowledge, 305\n\n schools, not merely a nursery for the formation of character, 264;\n find substitutes for knowledge, 266\n\n _Schw\u00e4rmerei_, 49\n\n Science, xxx, 14, 31, 40, 42, 51, 59, 154, 157, 239, 256;\n teaching of, 218-230, 275;\n approached by field-work, with literary comments, 223, 256;\n fatal divorce between, and the \u2018humanities,\u2019 223, 318;\n must rouse wonder, 224, 317;\n the mode of revelation granted to our generation, 318;\n waiting for its literature, 318;\n of relations, 327;\n of the proportion of things, 327\n\n Science, Social, 14\n\n Scott, Sir Walter, 110, 182, 190, 261\n\n Scottish philosophers, 11\n\n scrupulosity of to-day, 101\n\n Secondary Schools, 127;\n a liberal education in, 250-278\n\n self-authority, 17, 71, 74, 75, 76\n\n self-culture, not an ideal, 133\n\n self-direction necessary, 131\n\n self-education comes from within, 23;\n education must be, 26, 28-32, 38, 77, 99, 240, 241, 289\n\n self-expression, 66, 108, 276, 326, 327\n\n _Self-Help_, by Dr. Smiles, 248\n\n self-knowledge, 131, 137\n\n sensory activities, 2, 48\n\n Shakespeare, 55, 124, 143, 167, 170, 182, 183, 245, 270, 274, 314,\n 341\n\n Shaw, Mr. Bernard, 27\n\n Sisyphus, 240\n\n \u2018Skimpole, Harold,\u2019 231\n\n Socialism, 320\n\n Socrates, 49, 302, 332;\n use of questioning, 17\n\n Sophocles, 124\n\n soul, well-being of the, 63;\n the Holy of Holies, 63;\n satisfaction for, 64\n\n specialisation, dangers of, 53, 254\n\n spelling, 271\n\n Spirit, Divine, xxxi;\n is the man, 5;\n education is of the, 12, 26, 30;\n born of spirit, 39;\n use of term, 65;\n acts upon matter, 100;\n is might, reveals itself in spirit, works only in freedom, 125,\n 284\n\n spontaneity, condition of development, xxxi\n\n \u2018Squeers, Mr.,\u2019 101\n\n stability, mark of educated classes, 179\n\n _Statue and the Bust, The_, 133\n\n Stein, 279\n\n Steinthal, Mrs. Francis, xxv\n\n stops, use of, 191\n\n Stuart educational ideals, 326\n\n \u201cStudies serve for delight,\u201d xxvi, 7, 19, 266;\n make for personality, 5\n\n Suggestion, xxxi, 82, 83;\n a grave offence, 129;\n weakens moral fibre, 129;\n causes involuntary action, 129;\n weakens power of choice, 130\n\n superman, 3, 4\n\n Sweden, 285\n\n Switzerland, education in, 125\n\n syllabus, points to be considered in a, xxx, 154, 268;\n a wide, 256;\n the best, 268;\n a, must meet demands of mind, 256;\n sterile, of schoolboy, 268\n\n sympathy of numbers, 247\n\n\n \u2018tales,\u2019 30, 132, 190\n\n teacher, part of, in education, 6, 19, 118, 130, 237, 240, 241, 246,\n 260, 261, 304;\n personality of, 7, 48, 78, 82, 129, 172;\n intellectual apparatus of, 11;\n not a mere instrument, 32;\n must understand human nature of child, 47;\n underrates tastes and abilities of children, 52, 238;\n must read aloud with intention, 244;\n comes between children and knowledge, 247;\n finds education a passion, 251\n\n teaching how to learn, a farce, 348\n\n Tennyson, 138, 333\n\n things, \u201care in the saddle,\u201d 7, 260;\n children occupied with, 31\n\n thinking, not doing, a source of character, 278\n\n thought, not simply a function of brain, 2, 4, 260;\n great, necessary for children, 5, 12, 130;\n alone appeals to mind, 12;\n begets thought, 12, 303;\n action follows on due, 24;\n our, not our own, 60, 137;\n right, not self-expression, follows upon an idea, 130;\n socialistic, fallacies in, 144-147;\n sins committed in, 188;\n common basis of, 264, 298\n\n Thucydides, 124\n\n _Timon of Athens_, 44\n\n \u2018Titanic,\u2019 335\n\n Trades\u2019 Unions, 315;\n Guilds, 319\n\n Traherne, 34, 36, 37, 40\n\n Training, intellectual, 2, 24, 147, 255;\n physical, 2, 6, 20, 48, 255;\n vocational, 2, 3, 5, 6, 287, 302;\n not education, 255\n\n Treitschke, 3\n\n Trench, 167\n\n Trollope, A., 251\n\n truth, justice in word, 61\n\n Tudor women, 311\n\n Tugendbund, 6, 279\n\n\n Ulysses, 41\n\n _Undine_, xxv\n\n Universities, People\u2019s, 123\n\n unrest comes from wrong thinking, 60;\n Labour, 92, 179, 286, 297, 300, 319;\n Indian, 184\n\n\n Van Eyck\u2019s, \u2018Adoration of the Lamb,\u2019 322\n\n Vasari, 54\n\n Vaughan, 35\n\n verbal understanding _v._ dealing with books, 172\n\n Vienna, Congress of, 170\n\n village community life, 286\n\n Vittorino, 310\n\n Voltaire, 156\n\n\n _Waverley Novels, The_, 63, 325\n\n Wellington, The Duke of, 102, 308\n\n Whichcote, xxix, 33\n\n Whitby, 223\n\n White, Gilbert, 223\n\n wilfulness, signs of, 37\n\n Will, the way of the, xxxi, 128, 131;\n function of, to choose, 128, 129, 133;\n action of, is character, 129;\n the safeguard of a man, 130;\n and danger of suggestion, 130;\n education must fortify, 131;\n the governing power of man, 131;\n fallacies concerning, 132;\n nourished upon ideas, 132;\n must have objects outside self, 133;\n the function of man, 133;\n implies understanding, 133;\n a free agent, 133;\n is supreme, 135;\n needs diversion, 136;\n free, not free thought, 136, 137;\n ordering of, 137;\n is the man, 314\n\n Witte, Count, 130\n\n words, beauty of, 151;\n vehicle of truth, 151;\n use of, 316\n\n Wordsworth, William, 35, 93, 166, 180, 238, 276, 320, 322\n\n work, the better man does the better, 282\n\n working men and their leisure, 42\n\n worship, a sublime ideal, 317\n\n Wren, Sir Christopher, 54\n\n writing, 30\n\n\n Yorkshire, Drighlington School, xxv, 236\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] Now ten.\n\n[2] Now ten.\n\n[3] Now over 300 in 1924.\n\n[4] I quote from the article on Psychology in the _Encyclop\u00e6dia\nBritannica_ as being the most likely to exhibit the authoritative\nposition.\n\n[5] _The Home Education Series._\n\n[6] In connection with the _Parents\u2019 Union School_.\n\n[7] The small Practising School attached to the House of Education\n(ages of scholars from six to eighteen) affords opportunities for\ntesting the programmes of work sent out term by term, and the\nexaminations set at the end of each term. The work in each Form is\neasily done in the hours of morning-school.\n\n[8] I again quote from the article on Psychology in the\n_Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica_.\n\n[9] See _Some Discussions of the Method_. (P.N.E.U. Office, 1/-).\n\n[10] _The Home Education Series._\n\n[11] _Home Education_, by the Writer.\n\n[12] See _Some Studies in the Formation of Character_, by the\nWriter.\n\n[13] See _Some Impressions of the Ambleside Method_. (P.N.E.U.\nOffice, price 9d.)\n\n[14] See _Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies_. By the Writer.\n(P.N.E.U. Office.)\n\n[15] _Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies._ By the Writer.\n\n[16] _Parents and Children._ By the Writer.\n\n[17] See _Some Impressions of the Ambleside Method_. (P.N.E.U.\nOffice, price 9d.)\n\n[18] Isaiah xxviii.\n\n[19] _Parents and Children_, by the Writer.\n\n[20] _Education from a National Standpoint._\n\n[21] _The Herbartian Psychology applied to Education_, by John\nAdams.\n\n[22] _Across the Bridges_, by A. Paterson.\n\n[23] _Across the Bridges_, by A. Paterson.\n\n[24] _Memoirs of Count Witte._\n\n[25] _Education of the Young._\n\n[26] _What Religion Is_, by Bernard Bosanquet, D.C.L.\n\n[27] All particulars may be had from The Director, Parents\u2019 Union\nSchool, Ambleside. The illustrations in the way of children\u2019s\nanswers for the various sections of this chapter have been omitted\nfor want of space, except in the case of a few answers under\nComposition.\n\n[28] Examples of the work of scholars of various ages illustrating\nwhat has been said may be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[29] This book is now in print again.\n\n[30] Of the Parents\u2019 Union School.\n\n[31] Examination papers giving some idea of the scope of the\nhistory studies in the P.U.S. may be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[32] Examination Papers can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[33] Examination Papers can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[34] These answers are uncorrected and are taken from Examination\npapers not sent back. Most parents and teachers have their papers\nreturned.\n\n[35] Examination answers can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[36] For details see the Parents\u2019 Union School programmes.\n\n[37] Specimens of the children\u2019s Examination work can be seen at\nthe P.N.E.U. Office.\n\n[38] _The Ambleside Geography_; Book IV, by the Writer.\n\n[39] _Ambleside Geography_: Book IV.\n\n[40] _The Ambleside Geography_: Book V, by the Writer.\n\n[41] For details see the Parents\u2019 Union School programmes.\n\n[42] _Citizens to Be_, by Miss M. L. V. Hughes.\n\n[43] cf. \u201cIntroduction.\u201d\n\n[44] pp. 13 to 15.\n\n[45] The P.U.S. was started in 1890.\n\n[46] These are omitted for want of space but other sets can be seen\nat the Office of the P.N.E.U.\n\n[47] Chapter X.\n\n[48] See Chapter X.\n\n[49] cf. _Continuation Schools_, ed. by Sir Michael Sadler, and\npublished by the Manchester University, 1908, to which the writer\nis greatly indebted.\n\n[50] Page 106.\n\n[51] 1890.\n\n[52] 1913.\n\n[53] In Elementary and Continuation Schools.\n\n[54] The Author owes to the Editor of _The Times_ permission to\nreprint the chapters under this heading written in 1912; as also\nthe happy titles of the several chapters and the general title.\n\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTE\n\n Footnote [47] is referenced twice from page 275.\n\n Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been\n corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within\n the text and consultation of external sources.\n\n Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,\n and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.\n\n Pg xxii: an entry for \u2018INDEX 349\u2019 has been added at the end of\n the Table of Contents.\n Pg 3: \u2018about Nietszche\u2019 replaced by \u2018about Nietzsche\u2019.\n Pg 17: \u2018a congerie of\u2019 replaced by \u2018a coterie of\u2019.\n Pg 72: \u2018Not, again, can we\u2019 replaced by \u2018Nor, again, can we\u2019.\n Pg 82: \u2018the idiosyncracies\u2019 replaced by \u2018the idiosyncrasies\u2019.\n Pg 89: \u2018satiable curtiosity\u2019 replaced by \u2018satiable curiosity\u2019.\n Pg 139: \u2018irrefragible proofs\u2019 replaced by \u2018irrefragable proofs\u2019.\n Pg 140: \u2018no more then they\u2019 replaced by \u2018no more than they\u2019.\n Pg 168: \u2018clothes and ca e\u2019 replaced by \u2018clothes and care\u2019.\n Pg 181: \u2018by naming it D2\u2019 replaced by \u2018by naming it K2\u2019.\n Pg 197: \u2018statemen all\u2019 replaced by \u2018statesmen all\u2019.\n Pg 200: \u2018And ne tles close\u2019 replaced by \u2018And nestles close\u2019.\n Pg 202: \u2018eyes for thoes\u2019 replaced by \u2018eyes for those\u2019.\n Pg 232: \u2018perfer not to have\u2019 replaced by \u2018prefer not to have\u2019.\n Pg 275: \u2018by Velasqeuz which\u2019 replaced by \u2018by Velasquez which\u2019.\n Pg 334: \u2018irrefragibly logical\u2019 replaced \u2018irrefragably logical\u2019.\n Pg 357: \u2018Nietszche, 3\u2019 replaced by \u2018Nietzsche, 3\u2019.","title":"An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education: A Liberal Education for All","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":125354}