{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_77188/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_77188","id":"gutenberg_77188","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77188","summary":null,"tags":["Education -- Curricula","Education -- Philosophy"],"text":"School Education\n\n\n\n\n_\u2018Home Education\u2019 Series_\n\nBy CHARLOTTE M. MASON\n\n\n_Each Volume 3s. 6d. net_\n\n I. HOME EDUCATION.\n II. PARENTS AND CHILDREN.\n III. SCHOOL EDUCATION.\n IV. ESSAYS IN PRACTICAL EDUCATION.\n V. OURSELVES, OUR SOULS AND BODIES.\n\n KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TR\u00dcBNER, & CO., LTD.\n DRYDEN HOUSE\n 43 GERRARD STREET, LONDON, W.\n\n\n\n\n _\u2018Home Education\u2019 Series_\n\n VOLUME III.\n\n School Education\n\n By\n Charlotte M. Mason\n\n _SECOND EDITION_\n\n LONDON\n KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TR\u00dcBNER, & CO., LTD.\n DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.\n 1907\n\n _The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved_\n\n\n\n\n _TO_\n\n Henrietta Franklin\n\n THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY\n INSCRIBED, IN VERY GRATEFUL\n RECOGNITION, NOT ONLY OF HER GENEROUS\n LIFE\u2019S LABOUR GIVEN TO THE SPREAD\n OF CERTAIN EDUCATIONAL IDEAS,\n BUT ALSO OF HER SINGULAR\n APPREHENSION OF\n THOSE IDEAS\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: FOR THE CHILDRENS SAKE]\n\n \u201cO maraviglia! che come altrui piacque\n l\u2019umile pianta, cotal si rinacque\n Subitamente l\u00e0 onde la svelse.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nWe read in the _Purgatorio_, Canto I., how Virgil was directed to prepare\nDante for his difficult ascent:\n\n \u201cVa dunque, e fa che tu costui ricinghe\n d\u2019un giunco schietto, e che gli lavi il viso\n si che ogni sucidume quindi stinghe:\n ...\n Questa isoletta intorno ad imo ad imo,\n laggiu, cola dove la batte l\u2019onda,\n porta de\u2019 giunchi sopra il molle limo.\n Null\u2019 altra pianta, che facesse fronda\n o indurasse, vi puote aver vita,\n pero che alle percosse non seconda.\n ...\n Venimmo poi in sul litro diserto,\n ...\n Quivi mi cinse si come altrui piacque:\n o maraviglia! che qual egli scelse\n l\u2019umile pianta, cotal si rinacque\n Subitamente l\u00e0 onde la svelse.\u201d\n\n \u201cGo, then, and see thou gird this one about\n With a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face,\n So that thou cleanse away all stain therefrom.\n ...\n This little island round about its base,\n Below there, yonder where the billow beats it,\n Doth rushes bear upon its washy ooze;\n No other plant that putteth forth the leaf,\n Or that doth indurate, can there have life,\n Because it yieldeth not unto the shocks.\n ...\n Then came we down upon the desert shore.\n ...\n There he begirt me as the other pleased;\n O marvellous! for even as he culled\n The humble plant, such it sprang up again\n Suddenly there where he uprooted it.\u201d\n\n (LONGFELLOW\u2019S TRANSLATION.)\n\n\n\n\nPreface to the \u2018Home Education\u2019 Series\n\n\nThe educational outlook is rather misty and depressing both at home\nand abroad. That science should be a staple of education, that the\nteaching of Latin, of modern languages, of mathematics, must be reformed,\nthat nature and handicrafts should be pressed into service for the\ntraining of the eye and hand, that boys and girls must learn to write\nEnglish and therefore must know something of history and literature;\nand, on the other hand, that education must be made more technical and\nutilitarian\u2014these, and such as these, are the cries of expedience with\nwhich we take the field. But we have no unifying principle, no definite\naim; in fact, no philosophy of education. As a stream can rise no higher\nthan its source, so it is probable that no educational effort can rise\nabove the whole scheme of thought which gives it birth; and perhaps this\nis the reason of all the \u2018fallings from us, vanishings,\u2019 failures, and\ndisappointments which mark our educational records.\n\nThose of us, who have spent many years in pursuing the benign and\nelusive vision of Education, perceive that her approaches are regulated\nby a law, and that this law has yet to be evoked. We can discern its\noutlines, but no more. We know that it is pervasive; there is no part of\na child\u2019s home-life or school-work which the law does not penetrate. It\nis illuminating, too, showing the value, or lack of value, of a thousand\nsystems and expedients. It is not only a light, but a measure, providing\na standard whereby all things, small and great, belonging to educational\nwork must be tested. The law is liberal, taking in whatsoever things are\ntrue, honest, and of good report, and offering no limitation or hindrance\nsave where excess should injure. And the path indicated by the law is\ncontinuous and progressive, with no transition stage from the cradle\nto the grave, except that maturity takes up the regular self-direction\nto which immaturity has been trained. We shall doubtless find, when we\napprehend the law, that certain German thinkers\u2014Kant, Herbart, Lotze,\nFroebel\u2014are justified; that, as they say, it is \u2018necessary\u2019 to believe in\nGod; that, therefore, the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge,\nand the chief end of education. By one more character shall we be able\nto recognise this perfect law of educational liberty when it shall be\nmade evident. It has been said that \u2018The best idea which we can form of\nabsolute truth is that it is able to meet every condition by which it can\nbe tested.\u2019 This we shall expect of our law\u2014that it shall meet every test\nof experiment and every test of rational investigation.\n\nNot having received the tables of our law, we fall back upon Froebel or\nupon Herbart; or, if we belong to another School, upon Locke or Spencer;\nbut we are not satisfied. A discontent is it a divine discontent? is\nupon us; and assuredly we should hail a workable, effectual philosophy\nof education as a deliverance from much perplexity. Before this great\ndeliverance comes to us it is probable that many tentative efforts will\nbe put forth, having more or less of the characters of a philosophy;\nnotably, having a central idea, a body of thought with various members\nworking in vital harmony.\n\nSuch a theory of education, which need not be careful to call itself a\nsystem of psychology, must be in harmony with the thought movements of\nthe age; must regard education, not as a shut-off compartment, but as\nbeing as much a part of life as birth or growth, marriage or work; and it\nmust leave the pupil attached to the world at many points of contact. It\nis true that educationalists are already eager to establish such contact\nin several directions, but their efforts rest upon an axiom here and an\nidea there, and there is no broad unifying basis of thought to support\nthe whole.\n\nFools rush in where angels fear to tread; and the hope that there may be\nmany tentative efforts towards a philosophy of education, and that all of\nthem will bring us nearer to the _magnum opus_, encourages me to launch\none such attempt. The central thought, or rather body of thought, upon\nwhich I found, is the somewhat obvious fact that the child is a _person_\nwith all the possibilities and powers included in personality. Some of\nthe members which develop from this nucleus have been exploited from time\nto time by educational thinkers, and exist vaguely in the general common\nsense, a notion here, another there. One thesis, which is, perhaps, new,\nthat _Education is the Science of Relations_, appears to me to solve the\nquestion of curricul\u00e6, as showing that the object of education is to put\na child in living touch with as much as may be of the life of Nature\nand of thought. Add to this one or two keys to self-knowledge, and the\neducated youth goes forth with some idea of self-management, with some\npursuits, and many vital interests. My excuse for venturing to offer a\nsolution, however tentative and passing, to the problem of education\nis twofold. For between thirty and forty years I have laboured without\npause to establish a working and philosophic theory of education; and\nin the next place, each article of the educational faith I offer has\nbeen arrived at by inductive processes; and has, I think, been verified\nby a long and wide series of experiments. It is, however, with sincere\ndiffidence that I venture to offer the results of this long labour;\nbecause I know that in this field there are many labourers far more able\nand expert than I\u2014the \u2018angels\u2019 who fear to tread, so precarious is the\nfooting!\n\nBut, if only _pour encourager les autres_, I append a short synopsis of\nthe educational theory advanced in the volumes of the \u2018Home Education\nSeries.\u2019 The treatment is not methodic, but incidental; here a little,\nthere a little, as seemed to me most likely to meet the occasions of\nparents and teachers. I should add that in the course of a number of\nyears the various essays have been prepared for the use of the Parents\u2019\nEducational Union in the hope that that Society might witness for a more\nor less coherent body of educational thought.\n\n \u201cThe consequence of truth is great; therefore the judgment of\n it must not be negligent.\u201d\n\n1. Children are born _persons_.\n\n2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good\nand evil.\n\n3. The principles of authority on the one hand and obedience on the\nother, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but\u2014\n\n4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of\nchildren, which must not be encroached upon, whether by fear or love,\nsuggestion or influence, or undue play upon any one natural desire.\n\n5. Therefore we are limited to three educational instruments\u2014the\natmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation\nof living ideas.\n\n6. By the saying, EDUCATION IS AN ATMOSPHERE, it is not meant that a\nchild should be isolated in what may be called a \u2018child environment,\u2019\nespecially adapted and prepared; but that we should take into account\nthe educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards\npersons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper\nconditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the\n\u2018child\u2019s\u2019 level.\n\n7. By EDUCATION IS A DISCIPLINE, is meant the discipline of habits\nformed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body.\nPhysiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structure to habitual\nlines of thought\u2014_i.e._, to our habits.\n\n8. In the saying that EDUCATION IS A LIFE, the need of intellectual and\nmoral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on\nideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.\n\n9. But the mind is not a receptacle into which ideas must be dropped,\neach idea adding to an \u2018apperception mass\u2019 of its like, the theory upon\nwhich the Herbartian doctrine of interest rests.\n\n10. On the contrary, a child\u2019s mind is no mere _sac_ to hold ideas; but\nis rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual _organism_, with an\nappetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is\nprepared to deal, and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does\nfood-stuffs.\n\n11. This difference is not a verbal quibble. The Herbartian doctrine lays\nthe stress of education\u2014the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels,\npresented in due order\u2014upon the teacher. Children taught upon this\nprinciple are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge;\nand the teacher\u2019s axiom is, \u2018What a child learns matters less than how he\nlearns it.\u2019\n\n12. But, believing that the normal child has powers of mind that fit him\nto deal with all knowledge proper to him, we must give him a full and\ngenerous curriculum; taking care, only, that the knowledge offered to him\nis vital\u2014that is, that facts are not presented without their informing\nideas. Out of this conception comes the principle that,\u2014\n\n13. EDUCATION IS THE SCIENCE OF RELATIONS; that is, that a child has\nnatural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we must\ntrain him upon physical exercises, nature, handicrafts, science and art,\nand upon _many living_ books; for we know that our business is, not to\nteach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as\nmay be of\u2014\n\n \u2018Those first-born affinities\n That fit our new existence to existing things.\u2019\n\n14. There are also two secrets of moral and intellectual self-management\nwhich should be offered to children; these we may call the Way of the\nWill and the Way of the Reason.\n\n15. _The Way of the Will._\u2014Children should be taught\u2014\n\n (_a_) To distinguish between \u2018I want\u2019 and \u2018I will.\u2019\n\n (_b_) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts\n from that which we desire but do not will.\n\n (_c_) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or\n do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting.\n\n (_d_) That, after a little rest in this way, the will returns\n to its work with new vigour.\n\n (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as _diversion_,\n whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort,\n that we may \u2018will\u2019 again with added power. The use of\n suggestion\u2014even self-suggestion\u2014as 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\n16. _The Way of the Reason._\u2014We should teach children, too, not to \u2018lean\u2019\n(too confidently) \u2018unto their own understanding,\u2019 because the function of\nreason is, to give logical demonstration (_a_) of mathematical truth; and\n(_b_) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case reason\nis, perhaps, an infallible guide, but in the second it is not always a\nsafe one; for whether that initial idea be right or wrong, reason will\nconfirm it by irrefragable proofs.\n\n17. Therefore children should be taught, as they become mature enough to\nunderstand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on\nthem as persons is the acceptance or rejection of initial ideas. To help\nthem in this choice we should give them principles of conduct and a wide\nrange of the knowledge fitted for them.\n\nThese three principles (15, 16 and 17) should save children from some of\nthe loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at\na lower level than we need.\n\n18. We should allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual\nand \u2018spiritual\u2019 life of children; but should teach them that the divine\nSpirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual\nhelper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.\n\n _The \u2018Home Education\u2019 Series is so called from the title of the\n first volume, and not as dealing, wholly or principally, with\n \u2018Home\u2019 as opposed to \u2018School\u2019 education._\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\n\nThe intention of the following volume is to offer some suggestions\ntowards a curriculum for boys and girls under twelve. A curriculum,\nhowever, is not an independent product, but is linked to much else by\nchains of cause and consequence; and the manner of curriculum I am\nanxious to indicate is the outcome of a scheme of educational thought,\nthe adoption of which might, I believe, place educational work generally\nupon a sounder footing.\n\nThe fundamental principles of docility and authority have been considered\nin the first place because they _are_ fundamental; but, for that very\nreason, they should be present but not in evidence: we do not expose\nthe foundations of our house. Not only so, but these principles must be\nconditioned by respect for the personality of children; and, in order\nto give the children room for free development on the lines proper to\nthem, it is well that parents and teachers should adopt an attitude of\n\u2018masterly inactivity.\u2019\n\nHaving considered the relations of teachers and taught, I have touched\nupon those between education and current thought. Education should be\nin the flow, as it were, and not shut up in a watertight compartment.\nPerhaps, reverence for personality as such, a sense of the solidarity\nof the race, and a profound consciousness of evolutionary progress, are\namong the elements of current thought which should help us towards an\neducational ideal.\n\nIn considering the training of children under the convenient divisions of\nphysical, mental, moral, and religious, I have not thought it necessary\nto enlarge upon matters of common knowledge and general acceptance, but\nhave dwelt upon aspects of training under each heading which are likely\nto be overlooked. Under the phrase, \u2018Education is a life,\u2019 I have tried\nto show how necessary it is to sustain the intellectual life upon ideas,\nand, as a corollary, that a school-book should be a medium for ideas,\nand not merely a receptacle for facts. That normal children have a\nnatural desire for, and a right of admission to, all fitting knowledge,\nappears to me to be suggested by the phrase, \u2018Education is the science of\nrelations.\u2019\n\nThese considerations clear the ground towards that of a curriculum.\n\nThe sort of curriculum I have in view should educate children upon\n_Things_ and _Books_. Current thought upon the subject of education\nby _Things_ is so sound and practical, and so thoroughly carried into\neffect, that I have not thought it necessary to dwell much here upon\nthis part of education. Our great failure seems to me to be caused by\nthe fact that we do not form the _habit of reading books that are worth\nwhile_ in children while they are at school and are under twelve years of\nage. The free use of books implies correct spelling and easy and vigorous\ncomposition without direct teaching of these subjects.\n\nThe Appendices show, I think, that such use of books in education works\nout well in practice, and is a great saving of time and labour to both\nteacher and pupils, especially relieving both of the deadly dull labour\nwasted on \u2018_corrections_.\u2019\n\nThe much-diluted, or over-condensed, teaching of the oral lesson, or\nthe lecture, gives place to the well thought out, consecutive treatment\nof the right book, a _living_ book in which facts are presented as the\noutcome of ideas.\n\nChildren taught in this way are remarkable for their keenness after\nknowledge, and do well afterwards in any examination for which they may\nhave to prepare; and, what is of much more consequence, are prepared\nto take their full share of all that life offers of intellectual and\npractical interests.\n\n AMBLESIDE, _November 1904_.\n\n_Will the reader kindly substitute \u2018teachers\u2019 for \u2018parents\u2019 when the\nformer title suits the case?_\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n PAGE\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n DOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND SCHOOL\n\n Better relations between children and their elders\u2014The\n elder generation of parents, autocratic\u2014Arbitrary rule not\n always a failure\u2014But truer educational thought results in\n worthier character\u2014Doctrine of the infallible reason\u2014Leads\n to the dethronement of authority\u2014Authority not inherent,\n but deputed\u2014\u2018Quick as thought\u2019\u2014The notion of the finality\n of human reason intolerable\u2014Authority and docility,\n fundamental principles\u2014Work of rationalistic philosophers,\n inevitable\u2014Authority, vested in the office, 1\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n DOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL\n\n _Part II.\u2014How Authority Behaves_\n\n Mistakes made on principle\u2014Authority distinguished\n from autocracy\u2014Behaviour of \u2018autocracy\u2019\u2014Behaviour of\n \u2018authority\u2019\u2014Qualities proper to a ruler\u2014Mechanical and\n reasonable obedience\u2014Response of docility to authority, a\n natural function\u2014The habit of prompt obedience\u2014The effort\n of decision\u2014Authority avoids cause of offence\u2014Authority is\n alert\u2014Who gave thee this authority? 13\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n \u2018MASTERLY INACTIVITY\u2019\n\n Increased sense of responsibility\u2014A sign of moral\n progress\u2014Parental responsibility\u2014Anxiety the note of a\n transition stage\u2014A fussy and restless habit\u2014\u2018Masterly\n inactivity\u2019\u2014The element of good humour\u2014Self-confidence\u2014The\n fine, easy way of fathers\u2014Confidence in the\n children\u2014Omniscience of parents and teachers\u2014\u2018Fate\u2019 and\n \u2018free-will\u2019\u2014The component parts of masterly inactivity\u2014Serenity\n of a Madonna\u2014Leisure\u2014Faith, 25\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n SOME OF THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AS PERSONS\n\n Children should be free in their play\u2014Organised games are not\n play\u2014Personal initiative in work\u2014Children must stand or fall by\n their own efforts\u2014Boys and girls are generally dutiful\u2014Children\n should choose their own friends\u2014Should be free to spend their\n own pocket-money\u2014Should form their own opinions\u2014Spontaneity, 36\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n PSYCHOLOGY IN RELATION TO CURRENT THOUGHT\n\n Educational thought in the eighteenth century\u2014General\n dissatisfaction with education\u2014Psychologies are many\u2014Conditions\n of an adequate system\u2014Sacredness of the person\u2014The evolution\n of the individual\u2014The solidarity of the race\u2014The best thought\n is common thought\u2014Locke\u2019s \u2018states of consciousness\u2019\u2014Does not\n provide for the evolution of the person\u2014Modern physiological\n psychology\u2014\u2018Unjustifiable materialism\u2019\u2014Psychology \u2018a\n phrase of diffidence\u2019\u2014We become devitalised\u2014This system\n inadequate\u2014Unnecessary\u2014Inharmonious\u2014Evolution is checked, 44\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n SOME EDUCATIONAL THEORIES EXAMINED\n\n Theories of Pestalozzi and Froebel\u2014Lack the element\n of personality\u2014The struggle for existence a part of\n life\u2014Herbartian psychology\u2014The person an effect and not a\n cause\u2014A tempting vista\u2014Eliminates personality\u2014Turns out\n duplicates\u2014Each system fails to meet our tests\u2014A psychology\n that meets the demands upon it\u2014Educational truth a common\n possession\u2014We take children as persons\u2014The person wills and\n thinks and feels\u2014An adequate doctrine\u2014Education the science of\n relations\u2014Teaching must not be obtrusive\u2014The art of standing\n aside, 56\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n AN ADEQUATE THEORY OF EDUCATION\n\n A human being\u2014_His capacities_\u2014_His limitations_\u2014_His\n education_\u2014The behaviour of ideas\u2014No one can beget an idea by\n himself\u2014Certain persons attract certain ideas\u2014The idea that\n \u2018strikes\u2019 us\u2014Expansion and activity of the person\u2014Story of\n Kaspar Hauser\u2014What Nature does for a child\u2014The child has every\n power that will serve him\u2014Fulness of living depends on the\n establishment of relations\u2014The power of recognition\u2014\u00c6sthetic\n appreciation\u2014First-hand knowledge\u2014Appreciative knowledge and\n exact knowledge\u2014How a child sets up a new relation, 68\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n CERTAIN RELATIONS PROPER TO A CHILD\n\n Dynamic relations\u2014Power over material\u2014Intimacy with animals\u2014The\n great human relationships\u2014The awakening idea\u2014Human intelligence\n limited by human interests\u2014The full human life\u2014Duty not within\n the scope of present-day psychology\u2014Casual ethical teaching\u2014The\n moral relation of person to person\u2014The sense of what is due\n from us does not come by Nature\u2014Relations of oneself with\n oneself\u2014Intimacy with persons of all classes\u2014Fitness as\n citizens\u2014Relations with each other as human beings\u2014Relation to\n Almighty God\u2014Sentiment is not duty, 79\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n A GREAT EDUCATIONALIST\n\n _A Review_\n\n We look to Germany for educational reform\u2014Herbartian thought\n the most advanced on the Continent\u2014Comparison with P.N.E.U.\n thought\u2014The development of the \u2018faculties\u2019\u2014We, like Herbart,\n discard the \u2018faculties\u2019\u2014Pervasiveness of dominant ideas\u2014The\n Zeitgeist\u2014The child\u2019s schoolmasters\u2014A noble piety\u2014A medi\u00e6val\n conception of education\u2014The family principle\u2014Uncertainty as to\n the purpose of education\u2014Some attempts to fix\u2014Herbart\u2019s theory,\n ethical\u2014Obscurity of psychology\u2014Two luminous principles, 91\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n SOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL TRAINING\n\n Does our physical culture make heroes?\u2014A\n serviceable body the end of physical culture\u2014\u2018Ye\n are not your own\u2019\u2014Use of habit in physical\n training\u2014Self-restraint\u2014Self-control\u2014Self-discipline\u2014Local\n habits\u2014Alertness\u2014Quick perception\u2014Stimulating\n ideas\u2014Fortitude\u2014Service\u2014Courage\u2014Prudence\u2014Chastity, 101\n\n CHAPTER XI\n\n SOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL TRAINING\n\n We are law-abiding in matters physical and moral\u2014Not so\n in matters intellectual\u2014Three ultimate facts, not open to\n question\u2014Limitations of reason\u2014Reason brings logical proof\n of any idea we entertain\u2014Another fallacy\u2014intellect man\u2019s\n peculiar sphere, knowledge his proper discovery\u2014Great\n eras come from time to time\u2014Nothing so practical as great\n ideas\u2014The formation of intellectual habits\u2014We trust blindly to\n disciplinary subjects\u2014Some intellectual habits\u2014Meditation\u2014The\n sustenance of living ideas\u2014Children\u2019s literature\u2014Independent\n intellectual development of children\u2014Self-selection and\n self-appropriation\u2014Inherited parsimony in lesson-books\u2014Plato\u2019s\n educational aim, 113\n\n CHAPTER XII\n\n SOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF MORAL TRAINING\n\n Three foundation principles\u2014Authority the basis of moral\n teaching\u2014Principles not rules\u2014Limitations of authority\u2014Duty\n can exist only as that which we _owe_\u2014Morals do not come\n by nature\u2014Children born neither moral nor immoral\u2014Moral\n teaching\u2014Of the poets\u2014Ethical teaching of the Middle\n Ages\u2014We have no authoritative teaching\u2014High ideals\u2014Value\n of biography\u2014Of patriotic poems\u2014Mottoes\u2014The habit of sweet\n thoughts\u2014Virtues in which children should be trained, 126\n\n CHAPTER XIII\n\n SOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION\n\n Authority in religious education\u2014Questions in the air\u2014How\n authority works\u2014The habits of the religious life\u2014Habit of the\n thought of God\u2014Reverent attitudes\u2014Regularity in devotions\u2014The\n habit of reading the Bible\u2014Children formalists by nature\u2014The\n habit of praise\u2014The habit of Sunday-keeping\u2014Inspiring ideas\n of the religious life\u2014The fatherhood of God\u2014The kingship of\n Christ\u2014Our Saviour\u2014The indwelling of the Holy Ghost, 137\n\n CHAPTER XIV\n\n A MASTER-THOUGHT\n\n A motto\u2014Nineteenth-century formula, Education is an\n atmosphere\u2014Results in inanition\u2014And _ennui_\u2014Eighteenth-century\n formula, Education is a life, results in intellectual\n exhaustion\u2014Education is the cultivation of faculties,\n leads to abnormal developments\u2014Education has three\n faces\u2014Education is a life, one of these\u2014A creed which\n unifies life\u2014The diet of great ideas\u2014Science, _the_ teaching\n vouchsafed to men to-day\u2014Evolution, the master-thought of\n our age\u2014The ages have sought for a unifying principle\u2014But\n personality remains\u2014Attitude of parents and teachers towards\n evolution\u2014Education is a world business\u2014A captain idea for us,\n Education is the science of relations\u2014A wide curriculum\u2014We may\n not choose or reject subjects arbitrarily, 148\n\n CHAPTER XV\n\n SCHOOL-BOOKS AND HOW THEY MAKE FOR EDUCATION\n\n Line upon line\u2014An incident of schoolgirl life\u2014How did the girls\n get their enthusiasm?\u2014What manner of book sustains the life of\n thought\u2014The \u2018school-books\u2019 of the publishers\u2014Reason for oral\n teaching\u2014Limitations of teachers\u2014Our aim in education is to\n give a full life\u2014We undervalue children\u2014Children of the last\n generation\u2014Children as they are\u2014Our work, to give vitalising\n ideas, 164\n\n CHAPTER XVI\n\n HOW TO USE SCHOOL-BOOKS\n\n Disciplinary subjects of instruction\u2014\u2018Open sesame\u2019\u2014The Bible,\n the great storehouse of moral impressions\u2014Effect of our liturgy\n on a child\u2014Principles on which to select school-books\u2014Marks\n of a fit book\u2014How to use the right books\u2014Children must\n labour\u2014Value of narration\u2014A single careful reading\u2014Other ways\n of using books\u2014The teacher\u2019s part\u2014Disciplinary devices must not\n come between children and the soul of the book, 174\n\n CHAPTER XVII\n\n EDUCATION THE SCIENCE OF RELATIONS: WE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR\n INTIMACIES: _THE PRELUDE_ AND _PR\u00c6TERITA_\n\n Only three educational instruments\u2014Our limitations\u2014We temper\n life too much for the children\u2014Fairy lore, a screen and\n shelter\u2014Spontaneous living\u2014On what does fulness of living\n depend?\u2014The child, a person\u2014An infant\u2019s self-education\u2014Our\n part, to remove obstructions and to give stimulus\u2014Our\n error\u2014\u2018Business and desire\u2019\u2014The setting up of dynamic\n relations\u2014Ruskin\u2019s indictment of the limitations of his\n condition\u2014Wordsworth\u2019s recognition of his opportunities, 182\n\n CHAPTER XVIII\n\n WE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\n _Part II.\u2014Further Affinities_\n\n Affinity for material: Ruskin\u2019s opportunities\u2014Intimacy with\n natural objects\u2014Ruskin\u2019s flower-studies\u2014His pebble studies\u2014A\n life-shaping intimacy\u2014Insatiate delight in books, Ruskin\u2019s,\n Wordsworth\u2019s\u2014\u2018_They must_ have their food\u2019 of romance\u2014Children\n must range at will among books\u2014Words, \u2018a passion and a\n power\u2019\u2014Ruskin\u2019s _local_ historic sense\u2014Living touch with\n the past necessary\u2014Wordsworth and Ruskin aloof from the\n past\u2014Knowledge learned in schools\u2014Comradeship, 194\n\n CHAPTER XIX\n\n WE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\n _Part III.\u2014Vocation_\n\n Turner\u2019s \u2018call\u2019 to Ruskin\u2014Sincere work\u2014Initiation\u2014Nature,\n a passion\u2014The calling of a poet\u2014The education of the\n little prig\u2014Children have affinities and should have\n relations\u2014Education not desultory\u2014Strenuous effort and\n reverence\u2014Comradeship has duties\u2014The angel troubles the still\n pool\u2014The highest relationship, 204\n\n AN EDUCATIONAL MANIFESTO, 216\n\n CHAPTER XX\n\n SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n (_For Children under Twelve_)\n\n _Part I._\n\n Summary of preceding chapters\u2014Some preliminary\n considerations\u2014We take too much upon us\u2014A definite\n aim\u2014Education objective, not subjective\u2014Interests\u2014Educational\n unrest\u2014A unifying principle\u2014Education should give knowledge\n touched with emotion\u2014Education is the science of relations\u2014Is\n there such a thing as the \u2018child-mind\u2019?\u2014Knowledge\n _versus_ information\u2014Children have a natural craving for\n knowledge\u2014Children must be educated on books, 215\n\n CHAPTER XXI\n\n SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n (_For Children under Twelve_)\n\n _Part II.\u2014School-books_\n\n Books that supply the sustenance of ideas\u2014Books and\n oral teaching\u2014The use of appliances\u2014The co-ordination\n of studies\u2014Our aim in education\u2014Education by\n things\u2014Education by books\u2014The question of a\n curriculum\u2014Religion\u2014History\u2014Language\u2014Mathematics\u2014\u2018Practical\n instruction\u2019\u2014Science\u2014Drawing\u2014Picture talks, 228\n\n CHAPTER XXII\n\n SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n _Part III.\u2014The Love of Knowledge_\n\n The use of books makes for short hours\u2014\u2018Utilitarian\u2019\n education\u2014Relations and interests\u2014Causes of failure\u2014Intelligent\n education\u2014Blind alleys\u2014An educated child\u2014Children delight\n in school, but not for love of knowledge\u2014An educational\n revolution\u2014The children\u2019s Magna Carta, 240\n\n APPENDICES\n\n I. QUESTIONS FOR THE USE OF READERS, 248\n\n II. SOME SPECIMENS OF EXAMINATION WORK DONE IN A SCHOOL IN\n WHICH THE PUPILS ARE EDUCATED UPON BOOKS AND THINGS, 271\n\n III. WHAT A CHILD SHOULD KNOW AT TWELVE, 300\n\n IV. EXAMINATION OF A CHILD OF TWELVE ON THE WORK OF A TERM, 302\n\n V. HOW ORAL LESSONS ARE USED, 329\n\n INDEX, 360\n\n\n\n\nSchool Education\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nDOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL\n\n\n=Better Relations between Children and their Elders.=\u2014All of us who have\naccepted education as our _m\u00e9tier_ are keenly alive to the signs of the\ntimes as they are to be read in the conduct and manners of children.\nUpon one thing, anyway, we may congratulate ourselves with unmixed\nsatisfaction: the relations between children and parents, and indeed\nbetween children and their grown-up friends generally, are far more\nintimate, frank and friendly than such relations used to be. There does\nnot seem to be any longer that great gulf fixed between child thought\nand grown-up thought, which the older among us once tried to cross with\nfrantic but vain efforts. The heads of the house, when we were little,\nwere autocratic as the Czars of all the Russias. We received everything\nat their hands, from bread and milk to mother\u2019s love, with more or\nless gratitude, but with invariable docility. If they had stubborn\nquestionings as to whether was better for us, this or that, they kept\nthem to themselves. For us, everything was decreed, and all decrees were\nfinal. There were rebellious children, perhaps, as one in a score, or\none in a hundred, but then these were rebellious with the fine courage\nof Milton\u2019s Satan: they dared everything and set themselves up in bold\nopposition. These were the open rebels who would, sooner or later, come\nto a bad end; so we were told and so we secretly believed. For the\nothers, there was no middle course. They were brought under rule, and\nthat rule was arbitrary and without appeal.\n\n=The Elder Generation of Parents, Autocratic.=\u2014This is how children were\nbrought up some forty or fifty years ago, and even young parents of\nto-day have, in many cases, grown up under a _r\u00e9gime_, happy, loving and\nwise very likely, but, before all things, arbitrary. There were what the\nScotch would call \u2018ill-guided\u2019 homes, where the children did what was\nright in their own eyes. These will always exist so long as there are\nweak and indolent parents, unconcerned about their responsibilities. But\nthe exceptions went to prove the rule; and the rule and tradition, in\nmost middle-class homes, was that of well-ordered and governed childhood.\nEvery biography, that issues from the press, of the men and women who\nmade their mark during the first half of the century, is a case in point.\nJohn Stuart Mill, Ruskin, the Lawrences, Tennyson, almost everyone who\nhas made for himself a distinguished name, grew up under a martinet rule.\nOnly the other day we heard of an instance, the recollection of which\nhad survived for seventy years. A boy of twelve or thirteen had been out\nshooting rabbits. He came home in the early darkness of a bitterly cold\nwinter evening. His father asked him by which gate he had entered the\npark. \u2018By (such a) gate.\u2019 \u2018Did you shut it?\u2019 \u2018I don\u2019t recollect.\u2019 \u2018Go and\nsee\u2019; and the boy went, though he was already tired out, and the gate\nin question was more than a mile from the house. Such an incident would\nscarcely happen to-day; the boy would protest, plead his own benumbed\nfatigue, and suggest that a man should be sent to shut the gate, if,\nas did not appear from the story, it was important that it should be\nshut at all. Yet this was a kind father, whom his children both loved\nand honoured; but arbitrary rule and unquestioning obedience were the\nhabits of the household. Nor is this notion of domestic government quite\nobsolete yet. I heard the other day of a Scotch father who confined\nhis daughter of eighteen to her room for a week on account of some, by\nno means serious, breach of discipline. The difference is, that where\nyou find an arbitrary parent now, he is a little out of touch with the\nthought and culture of the day; while, a few decades ago, parents were\narbitrary of set principle and in proportion as they were cultivated and\nintelligent.\n\n=Arbitrary Rule not always a Failure.=\u2014It cannot be said that this\narbitrary rule was entirely a failure. It turned out steadfast, capable,\nable, self-governed, gentle-mannered men and women. In our less hopeful\nmoments, we wonder as we watch the children of our day whether they will\nprove as good stuff as their grandfathers and their fathers. But we need\nnot fear. The evolution of educational thought is like the incoming of\nthe tide. The wave comes and the wave goes and you hardly know whether\nyou are watching ebb or flow; but let an hour elapse and then judge.\n\n=But truer Educational Thought results in Worthier Character.=\u2014After\nall allowances for ebb and flow, for failure here and mistake there,\ntruer educational thought must of necessity result in an output of more\nworthy character. For one thing, this very arbitrariness arose from\nlimitations. Parents knew that they must govern. Righteous Abraham, who\nruled his house, was their ensample; and it is far easier to govern from\na height, as it were, than from the intimacy of close personal contact.\nBut you cannot be quite frank and easy with beings who are obviously of\na higher and of another order than yourself; at least, you cannot when\nyou are a little boy. And here we have one cause of the inscrutable\nreticence of children. At the best of times they carry on the busy\ntraffic of their own thoughts all to themselves. We can all recollect\nthe pathetic misgivings of our childish days which a word would have\nremoved, but which yet formed the secret history of years of our lives.\nMrs Charles, in her autobiography, tells us how her childhood was haunted\nby a distressing dream. She dreamed that she had lost her mother and\nhunted for her in vain for hours in the rooms and endless corridors of\na building unknown to her. Her distress was put down to fear of \u2018the\ndark\u2019 and she never told her tender mother of this trouble of the night.\nProbably no degree of loving intimacy will throw the closed doors of the\nchild\u2019s nature permanently ajar, because, we may believe, the burden\nof the mystery of all this unintelligible world falls early upon the\nconscious soul, and each of us must beat out his conception of life for\nhimself. But it is much to a child to know that he may question, may talk\nof the thing that perplexes him, and that there is comprehension for his\nperplexities. Effusive sympathy is a mistake, and bores a child when it\ndoes not make him silly. But just to know that you can ask and tell is a\ngreat outlet, and means, to the parent, the power of direction, and to\nthe child, free and natural development.\n\n=Doctrine of the Infallible Reason.=\u2014With the advance of one line of\neducational insight, we have, alas, to note the receding of another and a\nmost important principle. Early in the century, authority was everything\nin the government of the home, and the docility of the children went\nwithout saying, that is, always excepting the few rebellious spirits.\nHowever little we may be aware of the fact, the direction of philosophic\nthought in England has had a great deal to do with the relations of\nparents and children in every home. Two centuries ago Locke promulgated\nthe doctrine of the infallible reason. That doctrine accepted, individual\nreason becomes the ultimate authority, and every man is free to do that\nwhich is right in his own eyes. Provided, Locke would have added, that\nthe reason be fully trained, and the mind instructed as to the merits\nof the particular case; but such proviso was readily lost sight of, and\nthe broad principle remained. The old Puritanic faith and the elder\ntraditions for the bringing up of children, as well as Locke\u2019s own\nreligious feelings and dutiful instincts, were too strong for the new\nphilosophy in England; but in France there was a soil prepared for the\nseed. Locke was eagerly read because his opinions jumped with the thought\nof the hour. His principles were put into practice, his conclusions\nworked out to the bitter end, and thoughtful writers consider that this\nreligious and cultivated English gentleman cannot be exonerated from a\nshare of the guilt of the atrocities of the French Revolution.\n\n=Leads to the Dethronement of Authority.=\u2014We in the twentieth century\nhave lost some of the safeguards that held good in the seventeenth, and\nwe have our own, perhaps greater, philosopher, who carries the teaching\nof Locke to the inevitable conclusions which the earlier thinker shirked.\nMr Herbert Spencer proclaims, as they did in France, the apotheosis\nof Reason. He sees, as they saw in France, that the principle of the\ninfallible reason is directly antagonistic to the idea of authority. He\ntraces this last idea to its final source and justification. So long as\nmen acknowledge a God, they of necessity acknowledge authority, supreme\nand deputed. But, says Mr Spencer, in effect, every man finds his own\nfinal authority in his own reason. This philosopher has the courage\nof his convictions; he perceives, as they did in France, that the\nenthronement of the human reason is the dethronement of Almighty God. He\nteaches, by processes of exhaustive reasoning, that\u2014\n\n \u201cWe sit unowned upon our burial sod,\n And know not whence we come nor whose we be.\u201d\n\nFrom the dethronement of the divine, follows the dethronement of all\nhuman authority, whether it be of kings and their deputies over nations,\nor of parents over families. Every act of authority is, we are taught, an\ninfringement of the rights of man or of child. Children are to be brought\nup from the first self-directed, doing that which is right in their own\neyes, governed by the reason which is to be trained, by experience\nof right and wrong, in the choosing of the right course. Life has its\npenalties for those who transgress the laws of reason, and the child\nshould be permitted to learn these laws through the intervention of these\npenalties. But \u2018thou shalt\u2019 and \u2018thou shalt not\u2019 are to be eliminated\nfrom the vocabulary of parents. So complete and detailed is Mr Spencer\u2019s\nscheme for the emancipation of children from rule, that he objects to\nthe study of languages on the ground that the rules of grammar are a\ntransgression of the principle of liberty.\n\n=Authority not Inherent, but Deputed.=\u2014Mr Spencer\u2019s work on education is\nso valuable a contribution to educational thought that many parents read\nit and embrace it, as a whole, without perceiving that it is a part, and\na carefully worked out part, of a scheme of philosophy with which perhaps\nthey are little in sympathy. They accept the philosopher\u2019s teaching when\nhe bids them bring up children without authority in order to give them\nfree room for self-development; without perceiving, or perhaps knowing,\nthat it is the labour of the author\u2019s life to eliminate the idea of\nauthority from the universe, that he repudiates the authority of parents\nbecause it is a link in the chain which binds the universe to God. For\nit is indeed true that none of us has a right to exercise authority, in\nthings great or small, except as we are, and acknowledge ourselves to\nbe, deputed by the one supreme and ultimate Authority. When we take up\nthis volume on education, small as it is, easy reading as it is, we must\nbear in mind that we have put ourselves under the lead of a philosopher\nwho overlooks nothing, who regards the least important things from the\nstandpoint of their final issue, and who would not have the little child\ndo as he is bid lest he should learn, as a man, to obey that authority,\nother than himself, which we believe to be Divine.\n\n\u2018=Quick as Thought.=\u2019\u2014The influence of his rationalistic philosophy is by\nno means confined to those who read this author\u2019s great works, or even to\nthose who read his manual on education. \u2018Quick as thought\u2019 is a common\nphrase, but it would be interesting to know how quick thought is, to have\nany measure for the intensity, vitality, and velocity of an idea, for the\nrate of its progress in the world. One would like to know how soon an\nidea, conceived in the study, becomes the common property of the man in\nthe street, who regards it as his own possession, and knows nothing of\nits source. We have no such measures; but there is hardly a home, of even\nthe lowest stage of culture, where this theory of education has not been\neither consciously adopted or rejected, though the particular parents in\nquestion may never have heard of the philosopher. An idea, once launched,\nis \u2018in the air,\u2019 so we say. As is said of the Holy Spirit, we know not\nwhence it comes, nor whither it goes.\n\n=The Notion of the Finality of Human Reason Intolerable.=\u2014But, because\nphilosophic thought is so subtle and permeating an influence, it is our\npart to scrutinise every principle that presents itself. Once we are able\nto safeguard ourselves in this way, we are able to profit by the wisdom\nof works which yet rest upon what we regard as radical errors. It seems\nnot improbable that the early years of this very century may thus see the\nadvent of England\u2019s truly great philosopher, who shall not be confined by\nthe limitations of rationalistic or of materialistic thought. Men have\nbecome weary of themselves. The notion of the finality of human reason\nhas grown an intolerable limitation. Nothing less than the Infinite will\nsatisfy the spirit of a man. We again recognise that we are made for God,\nand have no rest until we find Him; and philosophic thought, at home and\nabroad, has, to some degree, left these channels high and dry, and is\nrunning in other courses, towards the Infinite and the Divine.\n\n=Authority and Docility, Fundamental Principles.=\u2014One of the first\nefforts of this reconstructive thought, which is building us once more\na temple for our spirits, a house not made with hands, is to restore\nAuthority to its ancient place as an ultimate fact, no more to be\naccounted for than is the principle of gravitation, and as binding and\nuniversal in the moral world as is that other principle in the natural.\nFitting in to that of authority, as the ball fits the socket to make\na working joint, is the other universal and elemental principle of\nDocility, and upon these two hang all possibilities of law and order,\ngovernment and progress, among men. Mr Benjamin Kidd, in his _Social\nEvolution_, has done much for the recognition of these two fundamental\nprinciples. Why a football team should obey its captain, an army its\ncommanding officer; why a street crowd should stand in awe of two or\nthree policemen; why property should be respected, when it is the many\nwho want and the few who have; why, in a word, there should be rule and\nnot anarchy in the world\u2014these are the sorts of questions Mr Kidd sets\nhimself to answer. He turns to Reason for her reply, and she has none\nto give. Her favourite argument is that the appeal to self-interest is\nfinal; that we do, individually and collectively, whatever is shown to be\nfor our advantage. But when that company went down in the \u2018Royal George,\u2019\nstanding at \u2018Attention!\u2019 because that was the word of command; when the\nSix Hundred rode \u2018into the valley of death\u2019 because\u2014\n\n \u201cTheirs not to make reply,\n Theirs not to reason why,\n Theirs but to do and die,\u201d\n\n\u2014the subtlest reasoning can find no other motive than the single and\nsimple one of authority acting upon docility. These men had been told to\ndo these things, and, therefore, they did them. That is all. And that\nthey did well, we know; our own heart is the witness. We speak of such\ndeeds as acts of heroism, but it is well to notice that these splendid\ndisplays of human nature at its best resolve themselves for the most part\ninto acts of obedience to the word of authority. The abuse of authority\ngives us the slave and the despot, but slavery and despotism could not\nexist except that they are founded upon elemental principles in human\nnature. We all have it in us to serve or to rule as occasion demands. To\ndream of liberty, in the sense of every man his own sole governor, is as\nfutile as to dream of a world in which apples do not necessarily drop\nfrom the tree, but may fly off at a tangent in any direction.\n\n=Work of Rationalistic Philosophers, Inevitable.=\u2014What is Authority? The\nquestion shows us how inevitable in the evolution of thought has been\nthe work of the rationalistic philosophers. It is to them we owe our\ndeliverance from the autocrat, whether on the throne or in the family.\nTheir work has been to assert and prove that every human soul is born\nfree, that liberty is his inalienable right, and that an offence against\nthe liberty of a human being is a capital offence. This also is true.\nParents and teachers, because their subjects are so docile and so feeble,\nare tempted more than others to the arbitrary temper, to say\u2014Do thus and\nthus because I bid you. Therefore they, more than others, owe a debt of\ngratitude to the rationalistic school for holding, as they do, a brief\nfor human freedom, including the freedom of children in a family. It\nwould seem to be thus that God educates the world. It is not only one\ngood custom, but one infallible principle, which may \u2018corrupt a world.\u2019\nSome such principle stands out luminous in the vision of a philosopher;\nhe sees it is truth; it takes possession of him and he believes it to be\nthe whole truth, and urges it to the point of _reductio ad absurdum_.\nThen the principle at the opposite pole of thought is similarly\nilluminated and glorified by a succeeding school of thought; and, later,\nit is discerned that it is not by either principle, but by both, that men\nlive.\n\n=Authority, vested in the Office.=\u2014It is by these countercurrents, so to\nspeak, of mind forces that we have been taught to rectify our notion of\nauthority. Easily within living memory we were upon dangerous ground.\nWe believed that authority was vested in persons, that arbitrary action\nbecame such persons, that slavish obedience was good for the others. This\ntheory of government we derived from our religion; we believed in the\n\u2018divine right\u2019 of kings and of parents because we believed that the very\nwill of God was an arbitrary will. But we have been taught better; we\nknow now that authority is vested in the office and not in the person;\nthat the moment it is treated as a personal attribute it is forfeited.\nWe know that a person in authority is a person authorised; and that he\nwho is authorised is _under_ authority. The person under authority holds\nand fulfils a trust; in so far as he asserts himself, governs upon the\nimpulse of his own will, he ceases to be authoritative and authorised,\nand becomes arbitrary and autocratic. It is autocracy and arbitrary\nrule which must be enforced, at all points, by a penal code; hence the\nconfusion of thought which exists as to the connection between authority\nand punishment. The despot rules by terror; he punishes right and left to\nuphold his unauthorised sway. The person who is vested with authority, on\nthe contrary, requires no rigours of the law to bolster him up, because\nauthority is behind him; and, before him, the corresponding principle of\ndocility.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nDOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND THE SCHOOL\n\nPART II.\u2014_HOW AUTHORITY BEHAVES_\n\n\n=Mistakes made on Principle.=\u2014Mr Augustus Hare has, apparently, what\nsomebody calls a _bad_ memory, _i.e._ one which keeps a faithful record\nof every slight and offence that had been done to him since the day\nhe was born! For this reason _The Story of My Life_[1] is not quite\npleasant reading, though it is full of interesting details. But all is\nfish that comes to our net. We have seldom had a more instructive record\nof childhood, even if we must allow that the instruction comes to us on\nthe lines of what not to do. The fine character and beautiful nature\nof Mrs Augustus Hare have been known to the world since the _Memorials\nof a Quiet Life_ were published by this very son; and when we find how\nthis lady misinterpreted the part of mother to her adopted and dearly\nbeloved son, we know that we are not reading of the mistakes of an\nunworthy or even of a commonplace woman. Mrs Hare always acted upon\nprinciple, and when she erred, the principle was in fault. She confounded\nthe two principles of authority and autocracy. She believed that there\nwas some occult virtue in arbitrary action on the part of a parent,\nand that a child must be the better in proportion as he does as he is\nbidden\u2014the more outrageous the bidding the better the training. Here is\nan example of what a loving mother may force herself to do:\u2014\u201cHitherto,\nI had never been allowed anything but roast mutton and rice pudding for\ndinner. Now all was changed. The most delicious puddings were talked\nof\u2014_dilated_ on\u2014until I became, not greedy, but exceedingly curious\nabout them. At length _le grand moment_ arrived. They were put on the\ntable just before me, and then, just as I was going to eat some of them,\nthey were snatched away, and I was told to get up and carry them off\nto some poor person in the village. I remember that, though I did not\nreally in the least care about the dainties, I cared excessively about\nLea\u2019s wrath at the fate of her nice puddings, of which, after all, I was\nmost innocent.\u201d Here is another arbitrary ruling:\u2014\u201cEven the pleasures\nof this home-Sunday, however, were marred in the summer, when my mother\ngave in to a suggestion of Aunt Esther that I should be locked in the\nvestry of the church between the services. Miserable, indeed, were the\nthree hours which\u2014provided with a sandwich for dinner\u2014I had weekly to\nspend there; and, though I did not expect to see ghosts, the utter\nisolation of Hurstmonceaux church, far away from all haunts of men, gave\nmy imprisonment an unusual eeriness. Sometimes I used to clamber over\nthe tomb of the Lords Dacre, which rises like a screen against one side\nof the vestry, and be stricken with vague terrors by the two grim white\nfigures lying upon it in the silent desolation, in which the scamper of\na rat across the floor seemed to make a noise like a whirlwind.... It was\na sort of comfort to me, in the real church-time, to repeat vigorously\nall the worst curses in the Psalms, those in which David showed his most\nappalling degree of malice, and apply them to Aunt Esther & Co. As all\nthe Psalms were extolled as beatific, and the Church of England used them\nconstantly for edification, their sentiments were all right, I supposed.\u201d\n\nAnd yet how wise this good mother is when she trusts to her own instinct\nand insight rather than to a fallacious principle:\u2014\u201cI find in giving\nany order to a child, it is always better not to _look_ to see if he\nobeys, but to take it for granted that it will be done. If one appears to\ndoubt the obedience, there is occasion given for the child to hesitate,\n\u2018Shall I do it or no?\u2019 If you seem not to question the possibility of\nnon-compliance, he feels a trust committed to him to keep and fulfils\nit. It is best never to repeat a command, never to answer the oft-asked\nquestion \u2018Why?\u2019\u201d\n\n=Authority distinguished from Autocracy.=\u2014Mrs Hare, like many another\nruler, would appear to have erred, not from indolence, and certainly not\nfrom harshness, but because she failed to define to herself the nature\nof the authority she was bound to exercise. Autocracy is defined as\nindependent or self-derived power. Authority, on the other hand, we may\nqualify as not being self-derived and not independent. The centurion in\nthe Gospels says: \u201cI also am a man set under authority, having under me\nsoldiers, and I say unto one, \u2018Go,\u2019 and he goeth; to another, \u2018Come,\u2019 and\nhe cometh; and to my servant, \u2018Do this,\u2019 and he doeth it.\u201d\n\nHere we have the powers and the limitations of authority. The centurion\nis set under authority, or, as we say, authorised, and, for that reason,\nhe is able to say to one, \u2018go,\u2019 to another, \u2018come,\u2019 and to a third, \u2018do\nthis,\u2019 in the calm certainty that all will be done as he says, because\nhe holds his position for this very purpose\u2014to secure that such and such\nthings shall be accomplished. He himself is a servant with definite\ntasks, though they are the tasks of authority. This, too, is the position\nthat our Lord assumes; He says: \u201cI came not to do mine own will, but\nthe will of Him that sent me.\u201d That is His commission and the standing\norder of His life, and for this reason He spake as one having authority,\nknowing Himself to be commissioned and supported.\n\n=Behaviour of Autocracy.=\u2014Authority is not uneasy; captious, harsh\nand indulgent by turns. This is the action of autocracy, which is\nself-sustained as it is self-derived, and is impatient and resentful,\non the watch for transgressions, and swift to take offence. Autocracy\nhas ever a drastic penal code, whether in the kingdom, the school, or\nthe family. It has, too, many commandments. \u2018Thou shalt\u2019 and \u2018thou shalt\nnot,\u2019 are _chevaux de frise_ about the would-be awful majesty of the\nautocrat. The tendency to assume self-derived power is common to us all,\neven the meekest of us, and calls for special watchfulness; the more\nso, because it shows itself fully as often in remitting duties and in\ngranting indulgences as in inflicting punishments. It is flattering when\na child comes up in the winning, coaxing way the monkeys know how to\nassume, and says, \u2018_Please_ let me stay at home this morning, only this\nonce!\u2019 The next stage is, \u2018I don\u2019t want to go out,\u2019 and the next, \u2018I\nwon\u2019t!\u2019 and the home or school ruler, who has no principle behind his\nown will, soon learns that a child can be autocratic too\u2014autocratic and\nbelligerent to an alarming extent.\n\n=Behaviour of Authority.=\u2014Authority is neither harsh nor indulgent.\nShe is gentle and easy to be entreated in all matters immaterial, just\nbecause she is immovable in matters of real importance; for these, there\nis always a fixed principle. It does not, for example, rest with parents\nand teachers to dally with questions affecting either the health or\nthe duty of their children. They have no authority to allow children\nin indulgences\u2014in too many sweetmeats, for example\u2014or in habits which\nare prejudicial to health; nor to let them off from any plain duty\nof obedience, courtesy, reverence, or work. Authority is alert; she\nknows all that is going on and is aware of tendencies. She fulfils the\napostolic precept\u2014\u201cHe that ruleth (let him do it), with diligence.\u201d But\nshe is strong enough to fulfil that other precept also, \u201cHe that showeth\nmercy (let him do it), with cheerfulness\u201d; timely clemency, timely\nyielding, is a great secret of strong government. It sometimes happens\nthat children, and not their parents, have right on their side: a claim\nmay be made or an injunction resisted, and the children are in opposition\nto parent or teacher. It is well for the latter to get the habit of\nswiftly and imperceptibly reviewing the situation; possibly, the children\nmay be in the right, and the parent may gather up his wits in time to\nyield the point graciously and send the little rebels away in a glow of\nlove and loyalty.\n\n=Qualities proper to a Ruler.=\u2014Nobody understood this better than Queen\nElizabeth, who contrived to make a curious division of her personality\nand be, at the same time, a model ruler and, as a woman, full of the\nweaknesses of her sex. It has been well said that she knew when to yield\nand how to yield. Her adroitness in getting over many a dangerous crisis\nhas been much praised by historians; but, possibly, this saving grace was\nnot adroitness so much as the tact born of qualities proper to all who\nare set in authority\u2014the meekness of one who has been given an appointed\nwork, the readiness to take counsel with herself and with others, the\nperception that she herself was not the be-all and the end-all of her\nfunctions as a queen, but that she existed for her people, and the quick\nand tender open-minded sympathy which enabled her to see their side of\nevery question as well as her own\u2014indeed, in preference to her own. These\nare the qualities proper to every ruler of a household, a school, or a\nkingdom. With these, parents will be able to order and control a fiery\nyoung brood full of energy and vitality, as Elizabeth was, to manage the\nkingdom when the minds of men were in a ferment of new thought, and life\nwas intoxicating in the delightfulness of the possibilities it offered.\n\n=Mechanical and Reasonable Obedience.=\u2014It is a little difficult to\ndraw the line between mechanical and reasonable obedience. \u2018I teach\nmy children obedience by the time they are one year old,\u2019 the writer\nheard a very successful mother remark; and, indeed, that is the age\nat which to begin to give children the ease and comfort of the habit\nof obeying lawful authority. We know Mr Huxley\u2019s story of the retired\nprivate who was carrying home his Sunday\u2019s dinner from the bakehouse.\nA sergeant passed by who recognised the man\u2019s soldierly gait, and was\nbent on a practical joke. \u2018Attention!\u2019 he cried, and the man stood at\nattention while his mutton and potatoes rolled in the gutter. Now, this\nkind of obedience is a mere question of nerves and muscles, a habit of\nthe brain tissue with which the moral consciousness has nothing to do.\nIt is a little the fashion to undervalue any but reasonable obedience,\nas if we were creatures altogether of mind and spirit, or creatures\nwhose bodies answer as readily to the ruling of the spirit as does the\nship to the helm. But, alas for our weakness! this description fits us\nonly in proportion as our bodies have been trained to the discipline\nof unthinking mechanical obedience. We all know the child who is fully\nwilling to do the right thing so far as mind is concerned, but with whom\nbodily _vis inerti\u00e6_ is strong enough to resist a very torrent of good\nintentions and good resolutions; and if we wish children to be able, when\nthey grow up, to keep under their bodies and bring them into subjection,\nwe must do this _for_ them in their earlier years.\n\n=Response of Docility to Authority, a Natural Function.=\u2014So far as the\ndaily routine of small obediences goes, we help them thus to fulfil a\nnatural function\u2014the response of docility to authority. It may be said\nthat a child who has acquired the habit of involuntary obedience has\nproportionately lost power as a free moral agent; but, as the acts of\nobedience in question are very commonly connected with some physical\neffort, as, \u2018Make haste back,\u2019 \u2018Sit straight,\u2019 \u2018Button your boots\nquickly,\u2019\u2014they belong to the same educational province as gymnastic\nexercises, the object of which is the masterly use of the body as a\nmachine capable of many operations. Now, to work a machine such as a\ntypewriter or a bicycle, one must, before all things, have practice;\none must have got into the way of working it involuntarily, without\ngiving any thought to the matter: and to give a child this power over\nhimself\u2014first in response to the will of another, later, in response to\nhis own, is to make a man of him.\n\n=The Habit of Prompt Obedience.=\u2014It is an old story that the failures in\nlife are not the people who lack good intentions; they are those whose\nphysical nature has not acquired the habit of prompt and involuntary\nobedience. The man who can make himself do what he wills has the world\nbefore him, and it rests with parents to give their children this\nself-compelling power as a mere matter of habit. But is it not better\nand higher, it may be asked, to train children to act always in response\nto the divine mandate as it makes itself heard through the voice of\nconscience? The answer is, that in doing this we must not leave the other\nundone. There are few earnest parents who do not bring the power of\nconscience to bear on their children, and there are emergencies enough in\nthe lives of young and old when we have to make a spiritual decision upon\nspiritual grounds\u2014when it rests with us to choose the good and refuse\nthe evil, consciously and voluntarily, because it is God\u2019s will that we\nshould.\n\n=The Effort of Decision.=\u2014But it has been well said by a celebrated\npreacher that the effort of decision is the greatest effort of life. We\nfind it so ourselves; shall we take this line of action or the other,\nshall we choose this or the other quality of carpet, send our boy to\nthis or the other school? We all know that such questions are difficult\nto settle, and the wear and tear of nervous tissue the decision costs\nis evidenced often enough by the nervous headache it leaves behind. For\nthis reason it is, we may reverently believe, that we are so marvellously\nand mercifully made that most of our decisions arrive, so to speak, of\nthemselves: that is, ninety-nine out of a hundred things we do, are done,\nwell or ill, as mere matters of habit. With this wonderful provision in\nour tissues for recording repeated actions and reproducing them upon\ngiven stimuli\u2014a means provided for easing the burden of life, and for\nhelping us to realise the gay happiness which appears to be the divine\nintention for us so far as we become like little children\u2014it is startling\nand shocking that there are many children of thoughtful parents whose\nlives are spent in day-long efforts of decision upon matters which it is\ntheir parents\u2019 business to settle for them. Maud is nervous, excitable,\nhas an over-active brain, is too highly organised, grows pale, acquires\nnervous tricks. The doctor is consulted, and, not knowing much about the\neconomy of the home, decides that it is a case of over-pressure. Maud\nmust do no lessons for six months; change of air is advised, and milk\ndiet. Somehow the prescription does not answer, the child\u2019s condition\ndoes not improve; but the parents are slow to perceive that it is not the\nsoothing routine of lessons which is exhausting the little girl, but the\nfact that she goes through the labour of decision twenty times a day, and\nnot only that, but the added fatigue of a contest to get her own way.\nEvery point in the day\u2019s routine is discussed, nothing comes with the\ncomforting ease of a matter of course; the child always prefers to do\nsomething else, and commonly does it. No wonder the poor little girl is\nworn out.\n\n=Authority avoids Cause of Offence.=\u2014On the other hand, children are\nbefore all things reasonable beings, and to some children of acute\nand powerful intelligence, an arbitrary and apparently unreasonable\ncommand is cruelly irritating. It is not advisable to answer children\ncategorically when they want to know the why for every command, but wise\nparents steer a middle course. They are careful to form habits upon which\nthe routine of life runs easily, and, when the exceptional event requires\na new regulation, they may make casual mention of their reasons for\nhaving so and so done; or, if this is not convenient and the case is a\ntrying one, they give the children the reason for all obedience\u2014\u201cfor this\nis right.\u201d In a word, authority avoids, so far as may be, giving cause of\noffence.\n\n=Authority is Alert.=\u2014Another hint as to the fit use of authority may\nbe gleaned from the methods employed in a well-governed state. The\nimportance of _prevention_ is fully recognised: police, army, navy, are\nlargely preventive forces; and the home authority, too, does well to\nplace its forces on the Alert Service. It is well to prepare for trying\nefforts: \u2018We shall have time to finish this chapter before the clock\nstrikes seven\u2019; or, \u2018we shall be able to get in one more round before\nbedtime.\u2019 Nobody knows better than the wise mother the importance of\ngiving a child time to collect himself for a decisive moment. This time\nshould be spent in finishing some delightful occupation; every minute of\nidleness at these critical junctures goes to the setting up of the _vis\ninerti\u00e6_, most difficult to overcome because the child\u2019s will power is in\nabeyance. A little forethought is necessary to arrange that occupations\ndo come to an end at the right moment; that bedtime does not arrive in\nthe middle of a chapter, or at the most exciting moment of a game. In\nsuch an event authority, which looks before and after, _might_ see its\nway to allow five minutes\u2019 grace, but would not feel itself empowered to\nallow a child to dawdle about indefinitely before saying good-night.\n\n=Who gave thee this Authority?=\u2014We need not add that authority is just\nand faithful in all matters of promise-keeping; it is also considerate,\nand that is why a good mother is the best home-ruler; she is in touch\nwith the children, knows their unspoken schemes and half-formed desires,\nand where she cannot yield, she diverts; she does not crush with a\nsledge-hammer, an instrument of rule with which a child is somehow never\nvery sympathetic.\n\nWe all know how important this, of changing children\u2019s thoughts,\ndiverting, is in the formation of habit. Let us not despise the day\nof small things nor grow weary in well-doing; if we have trained our\nchildren from their earliest years to prompt mechanical obedience, well\nand good; we reap our reward. If we have not, we must be content to lead\nby slow degrees, by ever-watchful efforts, by authority never in abeyance\nand never aggressive, to \u2018the joy of self-control,\u2019 the delight of proud\nchivalric obedience which will hail a command as an opportunity for\nservice. It is a happy thing that the \u2018difficult\u2019 children who are the\nreadiest to resist a direct command are often the quickest to respond to\nthe stimulus of an idea. The presentation of quickening ideas is itself a\ndelicate art, which I have, however, considered elsewhere.\n\nI am not proposing a one-sided arrangement, all the authority on the one\npart and all the docility on the other; for never was there a child who\ndid not wield authority, if only over dolls or tin soldiers. And we of\nthe ruling class, so far as the nursery and schoolroom go, are we not\nfatally docile in yielding obedience to anyone who will take the trouble\nto tell us we had better do this or that? We need not be jealous for the\nindependence of children: that will take care of itself.\n\nTo conclude: authority is not only a gift, but a grace; and,\n\n \u201cAs every rainbow hue is light,\n So every grace is love.\u201d\n\nAuthority is that aspect of love which parents present to their children;\nparents know it is love, because to them it means continual self-denial,\nself-repression, self-sacrifice: children recognise it as love, because\nto them it means quiet rest and gaiety of heart. Perhaps the best aid to\nthe maintenance of authority in the home is for those in authority to\nask themselves daily that question which was presumptuously put to our\nLord\u2014\u201cWho gave Thee this authority?\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\u2018MASTERLY INACTIVITY\u2019\n\n\n=Increased Sense of Responsibility.=\u2014It would be an interesting task for\na literary expert to trace the stages of ethical thought marked by the\nuses, within living memory, of the word _responsibility_. People, and\neven children, were highly responsible in the fifties and sixties, but\nthen it was for their own character, conduct, and demeanour. It is not at\nall certain that we hold ourselves responsible in this matter to the same\ndegree. We are inclined to accept ourselves as inevitable, to make kindly\nallowance for our own little ways and peccadilloes, and are, perhaps,\nwanting in that wholesome sense of humour, \u2018the giftie\u2019 which should \u201cgie\nus\n\n \u201cTo see oursels as ithers see us.\u201d\n\n=A Sign of Moral Progress.=\u2014If we take ourselves more easily, however,\nwe take other people more seriously. The sense of responsibility still\nrests upon us with a weight \u2018heavy as frost\u2019; we have only shifted it to\nthe other shoulder. The more serious of us are quite worn with the sense\nof what we owe to those about us, near and far off. Men carry the weight\nmore easily than women, because, for most of them, each day brings work\nthat must be done, and they have less time than women to think anxiously\nabout their relations with, and duties to, others. By the way, it is\nrather a note of the time that the translators of the Revised Version\nhave given us\u2014\u2018Be not _anxious_ for your life,\u2019 instead of the older\nrendering. But, if women feel the wear of responsibility for others\nmore constantly, let but a burning question arise\u2014the condition of East\nLondon, Home Rule, massacres in Armenia\u2014and men feel it more intensely\nand passionately. This sharpened sense is not a malady of the age, but a\nsign of the times.\n\nTo those of us who believe we are all at school and have our lessons set\nas we are fit to take them in, this general sense of responsibility for\nothers is an encouraging sign that we are being taught from above, and\nare, on the whole, getting on.\n\n=Parental Responsibility.=\u2014If we all feel ourselves responsible for the\ndistressed, the suffering, the sick, the feeble in body or mind, the\ndeficient, the ignorant, and\u2014would that we all felt this particular\nburden more\u2014for the heathen, there is one kind of responsibility which\nis felt by thoughtful people with almost undue acuteness. Parental\nresponsibility is, no doubt, the educational note of the day. People\nfeel that they _can_ bring up their children to be something more than\nthemselves, that they _ought_ to do so, and that they _must_; and it is\nto this keen sense of higher parental duty that the Parents\u2019 Union owes\nits successful activity.\n\n=Anxiety the Note of a Transition Stage.=\u2014Every new power, whether\nmechanical or spiritual, requires adjustment before it can be used to\nthe full. In the scientific world there is always a long pause between\nthe first dawn of a great discovery\u2014as the R\u00f6ntgen rays, for example\u2014and\nthe moment when it is applied to the affairs of everyday life with full\neffect and without the displacement of other powers whose functions are\njust as important and as necessary. We should regard with suspicion\nany attempt to make the R\u00f6ntgen rays supply the place of stethoscope,\nthermometer, and all other clinical apparatus. Just so is it in the moral\nsphere. Our keener sense of responsibility arises from a new development\nof altruistic feeling\u2014we have greater power of loving and wider scope for\nour love; we are more leavened by the Spirit of Christ, even when we do\nnot recognise the source of our fuller life. But to perceive that there\nis much which we ought to do and not to know exactly what it is, nor how\nto do it, does not add to the pleasure of life or to ease in living. We\nbecome worried, restless, anxious; and in the transition stage between\nthe development of this new power and the adjustment which comes with\ntime and experience, the fuller life, which is certainly ours, fails to\nmake us either happier or more useful.\n\n=A Fussy and Restless Habit.=\u2014It is by way of an effort towards this\nadjustment of power that I wish to bring before parents and teachers\nthe subject of \u2018masterly inactivity.\u2019 We ought to do so much for our\nchildren, and are able to do so much for them, that we begin to think\neverything rests with us and that we should never intermit for a moment\nour conscious action on the young minds and hearts about us. Our\nendeavours become fussy and restless. We are too much with our children,\n\u2018late and soon.\u2019 We try to dominate them too much, even when we fail to\ngovern, and we are unable to perceive that wise and purposeful letting\nalone is the best part of education. But this form of error arises from\na defect of our qualities. We may take heart. We _have_ the qualities,\nand all that is wanted is adjustment; to this we must give our time and\nattention.\n\n\u2018=Masterly Inactivity.=\u2019\u2014A blessed thing in our mental constitution is,\nthat once we receive an idea, it will work itself out, in thought and\nact, without much after-effort on our part; and, if we admit the idea of\n\u2018masterly inactivity\u2019 as a factor in education, we shall find ourselves\nframing our dealings with children from this standpoint, without much\nconscious effort. But we must get clearly into our heads what we mean by\nmasterly inactivity. Carlyle\u2019s happy phrase has nothing in common with\nthe _laisser allez_ attitude that comes of thinking \u2018what\u2019s the good?\u2019\nand still further is it removed from the sheer indolence of mind that\nlets things go their way rather than take the trouble to lead them to any\nissue. It indicates a fine healthy moral pose which it is worth while for\nus to analyse. Perhaps the idea is nearly that conveyed in Wordsworth\u2019s\neven more happy phrase, \u2018wise passiveness.\u2019 It indicates the power to\nact, the desire to act, and the insight and self-restraint which forbid\naction. But there is, from our point of view at any rate, a further idea\nconveyed in \u2018masterly inactivity.\u2019 The mastery is not over ourselves\nonly; there is also a sense of authority, which our children should be as\nmuch aware of when it is inactive as when they are doing our bidding. The\nsense of authority is the _sine qu\u00e2 non_ of the parental relationship,\nand I am not sure that without that our activities or our inactivity will\nproduce any great results. This element of strength is the backbone of\nour position. \u2018We could an\u2019 if we would,\u2019 and the children know it. They\nare free under authority, which is liberty; to be free without authority\nis license.\n\n=The Element of Good Humour.=\u2014The next element in the attitude of\nmasterly inactivity is good humour\u2014frank, cordial, natural, good humour.\nThis is quite a different thing from overmuch complacency, and a general\ngiving-in to all the children\u2019s whims. The one is the outcome of\nstrength, the other of weakness, and children are very quick to see the\ndifference. \u2018Oh, mother, may we go blackberrying this afternoon, instead\nof lessons?\u2019 The masterly \u2018yes\u2019 and the abject \u2018yes\u2019 are quite different\nnotes. The first makes the holiday doubly a delight; the second produces\na restless desire to gain some other easy victory.\n\n=Self-confidence.=\u2014The next element is confidence. Parents should trust\nthemselves more. Everything is not done by restless endeavour. The mere\nblessed fact of the parental relationship and of that authority which\nbelongs to it, by right and by nature, acts upon the children as do\nsunshine and shower on a seed in good soil. But the fussy parent, the\nanxious parent, the parent who explains overmuch, who commands overmuch,\nwho excuses overmuch, who restrains overmuch, who interferes overmuch,\neven the parent who is with the children overmuch, does away with the\ndignity and simplicity of that relationship which, like all the best and\nmost delicate things in life, suffer by being asserted or defended.\n\n=The fine, easy way of Fathers.=\u2014Fathers are, sometimes, more happy than\nmothers in assuming that fine easy way with their children which belongs\nof right to their relationship, but this is only because the father is\noccupied with many things, and the mother is apt to be too much engrossed\nwith her children. It is a little humiliating to the best of us to see a\ncareless, rather a selfish mother, whose children are her born slaves and\nrun to do her bidding with delight. The moral is, not that all mothers\nshould be careless and selfish, but that they should give their children\nthe ease of a good deal of letting alone, and should not oppress the\nyoung people with their own anxious care. The small person of ten who\nwishes to know if her attainments are up to the average for her age,\nor he who discusses his bad habits with you and the best way of curing\nthem, is displeasing, because one feels instinctively that the child is\noccupied with cares which belong to the parent only. The burden of their\nchildren\u2019s training must be borne by the parents alone. But let them bear\nit with easy grace and an erect carriage, as the Spanish peasant bears\nher water-jar.\n\n=Confidence in the Children.=\u2014Not only confidence in themselves, but\nconfidence in their children, is an element of the masterly inactivity,\nwhich I venture to propose to parents as a \u2018blue teapot\u2019 for them \u2018to\nlive up to.\u2019 Believe in the relation of parent and child, and trust the\nchildren to believe in it and fulfil it on their part. They will do so if\nthey are not worried.\n\n=Omniscience of Parents and Teachers.=\u2014Parents and teachers must, of\ncourse, be omniscient; their children expect this of them, and a mother\nor father who can be hoodwinked is a person easy to reckon with in the\nmind of even the best child. For children are always playing a game\u2014half\nof chance, half of skill; they are trying how far they can go, how much\nof the management of their own lives they can get for the taking, and how\nmuch they must leave in the hands of the stronger powers. Therefore the\nmother who is not _up to_ children is at their mercy, and need expect\nno quarter. But she must see without watching, know without telling, be\non the alert always, yet never obviously, fussily, so. This open-eyed\nattitude must be sphinx-like in its repose. The children must know\nthemselves to be let alone, whether to do their own duty or to seek their\nown pleasure. The constraining power should be present, but passive,\nso that the child may not feel himself hemmed in without choice. That\nfree-will of man, which has for ages exercised faithful souls who would\nprefer to be compelled into all righteousness and obedience, is after all\na pattern for parents. The child who is good because he must be so, loses\nin power of initiative more than he gains in seemly behaviour. Every\ntime a child feels that he chooses to obey of his own accord, his power\nof initiative is strengthened. The bearing-rein may not be used. When it\noccurs to a child to reflect on his behaviour, he should have that sense\nof liberty which makes his good behaviour appear to him a matter of his\nown preference and choice.\n\n=\u2018Fate\u2019 and \u2018Free-will.\u2019=\u2014This is the freedom which a child enjoys who\nhas the confidence of his parents as to his comings and goings and\nchildish doings, and who is all the time aware of their authority. He is\nbrought up in the school proper for a being whose life is conditioned by\n\u2018fate\u2019 and \u2018free-will.\u2019 He has liberty, that is, with a sense of _must_\nbehind it to relieve him of that unrest which comes with the constant\neffort of decision. He is free to do as he ought, but knows quite well in\nhis secret heart that he is not free to do that which he ought not. The\nchild who, on the contrary, grows up with no strong sense of authority\nbehind all his actions, but who receives many exhortations to be good and\nobedient and what not, is aware that he may choose either good or evil,\nhe may obey or not obey, he may tell the truth or tell a lie; and, even\nwhen he chooses aright, he does so at the cost of a great deal of nervous\nwear and tear. His parents have removed from him the support of their\nauthority in the difficult choice of right-doing, and he is left alone\nto make that most trying of all efforts, the effort of decision. Is the\ndistinction between being free to choose the right at one\u2019s own option,\nand not free to do the wrong, too subtle to be grasped, too elusive to be\npractical? It may be so, but it is precisely the distinction which we are\naware of in our own lives so far as we keep ourselves consciously under\nthe divine governance. We are free to go in the ways of right living, and\nhave the happy sense of liberty of choice, but the ways of transgressors\nare hard. We are aware of a restraining hand in the present, and of sure\nand certain retribution in the future. Just this delicate poise is to be\naimed at for the child. He must be treated with full confidence, and must\nfeel that right-doing is his own free choice, which his parents trust him\nto make; but he must also be very well aware of the deterrent force in\nthe background, watchful to hinder him when he would do wrong.\n\n=The Component Parts of Masterly Inactivity.=\u2014We have seen that\nauthority, good humour, confidence, both self-confidence and confidence\nin the children, are all contained in masterly inactivity, but these are\nnot all the parts of that whole. A sound mind in a sound body is another\nfactor. If the sound body is unattainable, anyway, get the sound mind.\nLet not the nervous, anxious, worried mother think that this easy, happy\nrelation with her children is for her. She may be the best mother in the\nworld, but the thing that her children will get from her in these vexed\nmoods is a touch of her nervousness\u2014most catching of complaints. She\nwill find them fractious, rebellious, unmanageable, and will be slow to\nrealise that it is her fault; not the fault of her act but of her state.\n\n=Serenity of a Madonna.=\u2014It is not for nothing that the old painters,\nhowever diverse their ideas in other matters, all fixed upon one quality\nas proper to the pattern Mother. The Madonna, no matter out of whose\ncanvas she looks at you, is always serene. This is a great truth, and\nwe should do well to hang our walls with the Madonnas of all the early\nMasters if the lesson, taught through the eye, would reach with calming\ninfluence to the heart. Is this a hard saying for mothers in these\nanxious and troubled days? It may be hard, but it is not unsympathetic.\nIf mothers could learn to do for themselves what they do for their\nchildren when these are overdone, we should have happier households.\nLet the mother go out to play! If she would only have courage to let\neverything go when life becomes too tense, and just take a day, or half a\nday, out in the fields, or with a favourite book, or in a picture gallery\nlooking long and well at just two or three pictures, or in bed, _without\nthe children_, life would go on far more happily for both children and\nparents. The mother would be able to hold herself in \u2018wise passiveness\u2019\nand would not fret her children by continual interference, even of hand\nor eye\u2014she would let them be.\n\n=Leisure.=\u2014Another element is leisure. Sometimes events hurry us, and\nsometimes\u2014is it not true?\u2014we like the little excitement of a rush. The\nchildren like it, too, at first. Father\u2019s birthday is coming, and Nellie\nmust recite a poem for him; the little _f\u00eate_ has only been thought of a\nweek in advance, and Nellie is seized at all sorts of odd moments to have\nsome lines of the recitation crammed into her. At first she is pleased\nand important, and goes joyously to the task; but by-and-by it irks her;\nshe is cross and naughty, is reproached for want of love for father,\nsheds tears over her verses, and, though finally the little performance\nmay be got through very well, Nellie has suffered physically and morally\nin doing what, if it had been thought of a month beforehand, would have\nbeen altogether wholesome and delightful. Still worse for the children is\nit when mother or teacher has a \u2018busy\u2019 day. Friends are coming, or the\nfamily wardrobe for the summer must be seen to, or drawers and cupboards\nmust be turned out, or an examination is at hand. Anyway, it is one of\nthose fussy, busy days which we women rather delight in. We do more than\nwe can ourselves, our nerves are \u2018on end,\u2019 what with the fatigue and what\nwith the little excitement, and everybody in the house or the school is\nuncomfortable. Again, the children take advantage, so we say; the real\nfact being that they have caught their mother\u2019s mood and are fretful and\ntiresome. Nerve storms in the nursery are the probable result of the\nmother\u2019s little ebullition of nervous energy. Leisure for themselves and\na sense of leisure in those about them is as necessary to children\u2019s well\nbeing, as it is to the strong and benign parental attitude of which I am\nspeaking.\n\n=Faith.=\u2014Other ingredients go to the making of the delectable compound we\ncall \u2018masterly inactivity,\u2019 but space will allow me to speak of only one\nmore. That highest form of confidence, known to us as faith, is necessary\nto full repose of mind and manner. When we recognise that God does not\nmake over the bringing up of children absolutely even to their parents,\nbut that He works Himself, in ways which it must be our care not to\nhinder, in the training of every child, then we shall learn passiveness,\nhumble and wise. We shall give children space to develop on the lines of\ntheir own characters in all right ways, and shall know how to intervene\neffectually to prevent those errors which, also, are proper to their\nindividual characters.\n\nLet us next consider a few of the various phases of children\u2019s lives\nin which parents and teachers would do well to preserve an attitude of\n\u2018masterly inactivity.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nSOME OF THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AS PERSONS\n\n\n=Children should be Free in their Play.=\u2014We have considered the wisdom\nand duty of \u2018a wise passiveness,\u2019 \u2018a masterly inactivity,\u2019 in the\nbringing up of children. It remains to glance in detail at the various\npoints in a child\u2019s life, where this principle should govern us. And,\nfirst, as regards children\u2019s _play_. There is a little danger in these\ndays of much educational effort that children\u2019s play should be crowded\nout, or, what is from our present point of view the same thing, should\nbe prescribed for and arranged until there is no more freedom of choice\nabout play than that about work. We do not say a word against the\neducational value of games. We know that many things are learned in the\nplaying-fields; that the qualities which we associate with the name of\nEnglishman are largely the product of the laws of the games; and there\nis a pretty steady effort being made to bring these same forces to bear\nupon girls, that they, too, may grow up with the law-abiding principle,\nthe moral stamina, and the resourcefulness, which are more or less the\noutcome of the education carried on in the playing-fields.\n\n=Organised Games are not Play.=\u2014But organised games are not _play_\nin the sense we have in view. Boys and girls must have time to invent\nepisodes, carry on adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and carry\nforts, even if the fortress be an old armchair; and in these affairs the\nelders must neither meddle nor make. They must be content to know that\nthey do not understand, and, what is more, that they carry with them a\nchill breath of reality which sweeps away illusions. Think what it must\nmean to a general in command of his forces to be told by some intruder\ninto the play-world to tie his shoe-strings! There is an idea afloat that\nchildren require to be taught to play\u2014to play at being little fishes and\nlambs and butterflies. No doubt they enjoy these games which are made for\nthem, but there is a serious danger. In this matter the child who goes\ntoo much on crutches never learns to walk; he who is most played with by\nhis elders has little power of inventing plays for himself; and so he\nmisses that education which comes to him when allowed to go his own way\nand act,\n\n \u201cAs if his whole vocation\n Were endless imitation.\u201d\n\n=Personal Initiative in Work.=\u2014In their _work_, too, we are too apt to\ninterfere with children. We all know the delight with which any scope\nfor personal initiative is hailed, the pleasure children take in doing\nanything which they may do their own way; anything, in fact, which allows\nroom for skill of hand, play of fancy, or development of thought. With\nour present theories of education it seems that we cannot give much scope\nfor personal initiative. There is so much task-work to be done, so many\nthings that must be, not learned, but learned _about_, that it is only\nnow and then a child gets the chance to produce himself in his work. But\nlet us use such opportunities as come in our way. A very interesting and\ninstructive educational experiment on these lines has lately been tried\nat the School Field, Hackney, where Mr Sargent got together some eighty\nboys and girls under the conditions of an ordinary elementary school,\nexcept that the school was supported, not by the Education Department nor\nby the rates, but by the founder. The results seem to have been purely\ndelightful; the children developed an amazing capacity for drawing,\nperhaps because so soon as they were familiar with the outlines of the\nflower and foliage of a given plant, for example, they were encouraged\nto form designs with these elements. The really beautiful floral designs\nproduced by these girls and boys, after quite a short art training, would\nsurprise parents whose children have been taught drawing for years with\nno evident result. These School Field children developed themselves a\ngreat deal on their school magazine also, for which they wrote tales and\npoems, and essays, not prescribed work, but self-chosen. The children\u2019s\nthought was stimulated, and they felt they had it in them to say much\nabout a doll\u2019s ball, Peter, the school cat, or whatever other subject\nstruck their fancy. \u2018They felt their feet,\u2019 as the nurses say of children\nwhen they begin to walk; and our non-success in education is a good deal\ndue to the fact that we carry children through their school work and do\nnot let them feel their feet.\n\n=Children must Stand or Fall by their own Efforts.=\u2014In another way,\nmore within our present control, we do not let children alone enough in\ntheir work. We prod them continually and do not let them stand or fall\nby their own efforts. One of the features, and one of the disastrous\nfeatures, of modern society, is that, in our laziness, we depend upon\nprodders and encourage a vast system of prodding. We are prodded to our\nsocial duties, to our charitable duties, and to our religious duties. If\nwe pay a subscription to a charity, we expect the secretary to prod us\nwhen it becomes due. If we attend a meeting, do we often do so of our\nown spontaneous will, or because somebody asks us to go and reminds us\nhalf a dozen times of the day and the hour? Perhaps it is a result of the\nhurry of the age that there is a curious division of labour, and society\nfalls into those who prod and those who are prodded. Not that anybody\nprods in all directions, nor that anybody else offers himself entirely\nas a pincushion. It is more true, perhaps, to say that we all prod, and\nthat we are all prodded. Now, an occasional prick is stimulating and\nwholesome, but the _vis inerti\u00e6_ of human nature is such that we would\nrather lean up against a wall of spikes than not lean at all. What we\nmust guard against in the training of children is the danger of their\ngetting into the habit of being prodded to every duty and every effort.\nOur whole system of school policy is largely a system of prods. Marks,\nprizes, exhibitions, are all prods; and a system of prodding is apt to\nobscure the meaning of _must_ and _ought_ for the boy or girl who gets\ninto the habit of mental and moral lolling up against his prods.\n\n=Boys and Girls are generally Dutiful.=\u2014It would be better for boys\nand girls to suffer the consequences of not doing their work, now and\nthen, than to do it because they are so urged and prodded on all hands\nthat they have no volition in the matter. The more we are prodded the\nlazier we get, and the less capable of the effort of will which should\ncarry us to, and nearly carry us through, our tasks. Boys and girls\nare, on the whole, good, and desirous to do their duty. If we expect\nthe tale of bricks to be delivered at the due moment without urging or\nentreating, rewarding or punishing, in nine cases out of ten we shall\nget what we look for. Where many of us err is in leaning too much to our\nown understanding and our own efforts, and not trusting sufficiently to\nthe dutiful impulse which will carry children through the work they are\nexpected to do.\n\n=Children should Choose their own Friends.=\u2014With regard to the choice\nof friends and companions, again, we should train children so that we\nshould be able to honour them with a generous confidence; and if we give\nthem such confidence we shall find that they justify it. If Fred has\nmade a companion of Harry Jones, and Harry is not a nice boy, Fred will\nfind the fact out as soon as his mother if he is let alone, and will\nprobably come for advice and help as to the best way of getting out of\nan intimacy which does not really please him. But if Harry is boycotted\nby the home authorities and made the object of various prohibitions and\nexclusions, why Fred, if he be a generous boy, will feel in honour bound\nto take his comrade\u2019s part, and an intimacy which might have been easily\ndropped becomes cemented. Ethel will not see the reason why she, as the\ndaughter of a professional man, may not make a friend of Maud, who sits\nbeside her at school and is the daughter of a tradesman. But these minor\nmatters must be left to circumstances, and the mother who brings forward\nquestions of class, appearance, etc., as affecting her children\u2019s choice\nof friends, does her best to create that obtuseness as to vital points of\ncharacter which is the cause of most shipwrecked lives. In this matter,\nas in all others, the parent\u2019s inactivity must be masterly; that is, the\nyoung people should read approval or disapproval very easily, and should\nbe able to trace one or the other to general principles of character and\nconduct, though nothing be said or done or even looked in disparagement\nof the ally of the hour.\n\n=Should be free to Spend their own Pocket-Money.=\u2014In the spending of\npocket-money is another opportunity for initiative on the children\u2019s part\nand for self-restraint on that of the parents. No doubt the father who\ndoles out the weekly pocket-money and has never given his children any\nlarge thoughts about money\u2014as to how the smallest income is divisible\ninto the share that we give, and the share that we keep, and the share\nthat we save for some object worth possessing, to be had, perhaps, after\nweeks or months of saving; as to the futility of buying that we may eat,\nan indulgence that we should rarely allow ourselves, and never except\nfor the pleasure of sharing with others; as to how it is worth while\nto think twice before making a purchase, with the lesson before us of\n_Rosamund and the Purple Jar_\u2014such a father cannot expect his children\nto think of money in any light but as a means to self-indulgence. But\ntalks like these should have no obvious and immediate bearing on the\nweekly pocket-money; that should be spent as the children like, they\nhaving been instructed as to how they should like to spend it. By degrees\npocket-money should include the cost of gloves, handkerchiefs, etc.,\nuntil, finally, the girl who is well on in her teens should be fit to\nbe trusted with her own allowance for dress and personal expenses. The\nparents who do not trust their young people in this matter, after having\ntrained them, are hardly qualifying them to take their place in a world\nin which the wise, just, and generous spending of money is a great test\nof character.\n\n=Should form their own Opinions.=\u2014We have only room to mention one more\npoint in which all of us, who have the care of young people, would do\nwell to practise a wise \u2018letting alone.\u2019 There are burning questions in\nthe air, seething opinions in men\u2019s minds: as to religion, politics,\nscience, literature, art, as regards every kind of social effort, we\nare all disposed to hold strenuous opinions. The person who has not\nkept himself in touch with the movement of the thought of the world in\nall these matters has little cause to pride himself. It is our duty to\nform opinions carefully, and to hold them tenaciously in so far as the\noriginal grounds of our conclusions remain unshaken. But what we have no\nright to do, is to pass these opinions on to our children. We all know\nthat nothing is easier than to make vehement partisans of young people,\nin any cause heartily adopted by their elders. But a reaction comes, and\nthe swinging of the pendulum is apt to carry them to a point of thought\npainfully remote from our own. The mother of the Newmans was a devoted\nEvangelical, and in their early years passed her opinions over to her\nsons, ready-made; believing, perhaps, that the line of thought they\nreceived from her was what they had come to by their own thinking. But\nwhen they are released from the domination of their mother\u2019s opinions,\none seeks anchorage in the Church of Rome, and another will have no\nrestriction as to his freedom of thought and will, and chooses to shape\nfor himself his own creed or negation of a creed. Perhaps this pious\nmother would have been saved some anguish if she had given her children\nthe living principles of the Christian faith, which are not matters of\nopinion, and allowed them to accept her particular practice in their\nyouth without requiring them to take their stand on Evangelical opinions\nas offering practically the one way of salvation.\n\nIn politics, again, let children be fired with patriotism and instructed\nin the duties of citizenship, but, if they can be kept out of the party\nstrife of an election, well for them. Children are far more likely to\nembrace the views of their parents, when they are ripe to form opinions,\nif these have not been forced upon them in early youth when their lack of\nknowledge and experience makes it impossible for them to form opinions\nat first hand. Only by \u2018masterly inactivity,\u2019 \u2018wise passiveness,\u2019 able\n\u2018letting alone,\u2019 can a child be trained\u2014\n\n \u201cTo reverence his conscience as his king.\u201d\n\n=Spontaneity.=\u2014We all admire spontaneity, but this grace, even in\nchildren, is not an indigenous wild-flower. In so far as it is a grace,\nit is the result of training,\u2014of pleasant talks upon the general\nprinciples of conduct, and wise \u2018letting alone\u2019 as to the practice of\nthese principles. To parents, who have in their hands the making of\nfamily customs, it belongs especially to beware\u2014\n\n \u201cLest one good custom should corrupt the world.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nPSYCHOLOGY IN RELATION TO CURRENT THOUGHT\n\n\n=Educational Thought in the Eighteenth Century.=\u2014If the end of the\neighteenth and the end of the nineteenth centuries have one feature in\ncommon more than another, it is, that in both education comes to the\nfront as among the chief ends of man. The eighteenth-century people\nhad the best of it. They had clear oracles in their Locke and their\nRousseau. They knew what they wanted to do, and they did it with charming\nenthusiasm. The period teems with memoirs; and it is very pleasant to\nread about the philosophically and consistently brought up children of\nthe more thoughtful families. They had convictions, and they had the\ncourage of their convictions. We are less happy. A few decades ago we\ntoo were in a furore of joyous excitement about education. Educational\n\u2018movements,\u2019 schools, colleges, lectures, higher education for women,\n\u2018public\u2019 day schools for girls, examination tests which should give\nassurance on every point, were multiplied all over the country and\nall over the world. It was a forward movement which has brought us\nincalculable gains; and not the least of these gains is the fact that\nto-day we are dissatisfied and depressed, and inclined to wonder whether\nwe are not on the wrong tack. If educational work of the best kind had\nnot been going on amongst us for the last two or three decades, we\nshould not have arrived at this \u2018divine discontent.\u2019 All the same, it\nis pretty evident that the time has come when we must change our front.\nNow, elementary schools, now, girls\u2019 high schools, now, public schools,\nnow, women\u2019s colleges, are pronounced to be, on the whole, \u2018a failure.\u2019\nThey do a great deal, it is said, but is what they do worth doing? Is\nit, in fact, education? The bolder sceptics go so far as to attack our\ntwo ancient universities; but they, very likely, will weather the storm\nbecause of the very inertness, the \u2018masterly inactivity,\u2019 let us call\nit, which their opponents abuse; the universities do a great deal of\n\u2018letting-alone.\u2019\n\n=General Dissatisfaction with Education.=\u2014Our pretty general\ndissatisfaction with education, as it is, is a wholesome symptom, and\nprobably means that sounder theory and happier practice are on their way\nto us. One thing we begin to see clearly, that the stream can rise no\nhigher than its source, that sound theory must underlie successful work.\nWe begin to suspect that we took up schemes and methods of education\na little hastily, without considering what philosophy or, let us say,\npsychology, underlies those schemes and methods; now, we see that our\nresults cannot be in advance of our principles. To-day the _psychologist_\nis abroad, as, twenty or thirty years ago, the _schoolmaster_ was abroad.\n\n=Psychologies are many.=\u2014But, alas, psychologies are many, and\neducational denominations are bitterly opposed to one another. We must\nfeel our way to some test by which we can discern a working psychology\nfor our own age; for, like all science, psychology is progressive. What\nworked even fifty years ago will not work to-day, and what fulfils our\nneeds to-day will not serve fifty years hence; there is no last word to\nbe said upon education; it evolves with the evolution of the race. At\nthe same time, that there should be at least half a dozen systems in the\nfield, no one of them entirely satisfactory even to the persons who adopt\nit, shows that we, who practise education, should at any rate attempt to\nknow what are the requirements of a sound system of psychology.\n\n=Conditions of an Adequate System.=\u2014That system which shall be of use to\npractical people in giving purpose, unity and continuity to education,\nmust satisfy the following demands:\u2014_It must be adequate_, covering\nthe whole nature of man and his relations with all that is other than\nhimself. _It must be necessary_, that is, no other equally adequate\npsychology should present itself; and _it must touch at all points the\nliving thought of the age_; that is, it must not be a by-issue to be\ndiscussed by specialists at their leisure, but the intelligent man in the\nstreet should feel its movement to be in step with the two or three great\nideas by which the world is just now being educated.\n\n=Sacredness of the Person.=\u2014Among the thoughts which the mysterious\nZeitgeist is employing to bring us up, I think we may put first _the\nsacredness of the person_. Every person is interesting to us to-day.\nThe interviewer does more than satisfy vulgar curiosity; what he has\nto tell is equally welcome to us all, whether he interviews the London\n\u2018step-girl,\u2019 the costermonger, the man of the book-barrow, \u2019Arry and\n\u2019Arriet out for a holiday, an ambassador, an author, an artist, a royal\npersonage; every detail that will help us to realise the personality\nof one or other is more than welcome. So, too, of what is called the\n\u2018Kailyard\u2019 literature; it rests on a sound basis. Literary merit it may\nor may not have, but it tells us what we want to know\u2014everyday details\nabout the people, any people, of any county, or of any country. Slang\ndictionaries, collections of folk-lore, big biographies which tell us\nminutely how a man dines and breakfasts, walks and sleeps, all is grist\nto our mill. We set an enormous and, I think, an increasing value upon\n_persons_, simply, _per se_; and any system of psychology which is to\nappeal to us must bring the _person_ to the fore. He may be influenced\nby this and that; but he, himself, the indefinable person, of whom we\nare sensible while he is yet in arms, and of whom we never finally lose\nsight, however he be marred by vice and misery, must play for himself\nthe game of life, and shape for himself those influences of environment,\neducation, and what not, that do their part to make him what he is. A\nsystem of psychology which gives us man in this sort of relation to\neducational forces should become common property at once, because this\nis what every mother of a family and teacher of a school, every sort of\ndirector of men and women, knows about.\n\n=The Evolution of the Individual.=\u2014Next we demand of education that it\nshould _make for the evolution of the individual_; should not only put\nthe person in the first place, but should have for its sole aim the\nmaking the very most of that person, intellectually, morally, physically.\nWe do not desire any dead accretions of mere knowledge, or externals of\nmere accomplishment. We desire an education that shall be assimilated;\nshall become part and parcel of the person; and the psychology which\nshall show us how to educate our children in this vital way will meet\nour demands. The doctrine of evolution has brought about a greater\n_bouleversement_ in philosophy than perhaps we are aware of, and we shall\nfind by-and-by that \u2018education\u2019 means nothing less than the evolution of\nthe human being at all points; and that the acquisition of mere learning\nis not necessarily education at all.\n\n=The Solidarity of the Race.=\u2014One other idea that appears to be at work\nin the world for the elevation of mankind is that of _the solidarity\nof the race_. The American poet, Walt Whitman, expresses one side of\nthis intuition when he tells us how _he_ conquers with every triumphant\ngeneral, bleeds with every wounded soldier, shares the spring morning and\nthe open road and the pride of the horses with every jolly waggoner\u2014in\nfact, lives in all other lives that touch him anywhere, even in\nimagination. This is something more than the brotherhood of man; that\nbelongs to the present; but our sense of the oneness of humanity reaches\ninto the remotest past, making us regard with tender reverence every\nrelic of the antiquity of our own people or of any other; and, with a\nsort of jubilant hope, every prognostic of science or philanthropy which\nappears to us to be the promise of the centuries to come. Is it too much\nto expect that psychology shall take cognisance of this great educational\nforce as well as of the two others I have indicated? I do not say that\nthese three are the only, so to speak, _motor_ ideas of our age; but I\nthink they are the three of which we are all most aware, and I think,\ntoo, that any system of psychology which takes no cognisance of either,\nor of all of them, does not afford that basis for our educational theory\nand practice of which we are in search.\n\n=The Best Thought is Common Thought.=\u2014Let us consider now some three or\nfour of the psychologies which have the most widespread influence to-day.\nBut we do not presume to do this as critics, rather as inheritors of\nother men\u2019s labour, who take stock of our possessions in order that we\nmay use them to the most advantage. For the best thought of any age is\ncommon thought; the men who write it down do but give expression to what\nis working in the minds of the rest. But we must bear in mind that truth\nbehaves like a country gate allowed to \u2018swing to\u2019 after a push. Now it\nswings a long way to this side and now a long way to that, and at last\nafter shorter and shorter oscillations the latch settles. The reformer,\nthe investigator, works towards one aspect of truth, which is the whole\ntruth to him, and which he advances out of line with the rest. The next\nreformer works at a tangent, apparently in opposition, but he is bringing\nup another front of truth. Then there is work for us, the people of\naverage mind. We consider all sides, balance what has been done, and find\ntruth, perhaps in the mean, perhaps as a side issue which did not make\nitself plain to original thinkers of either school. But we do not scorn\nthe bridge that has borne us.\n\n=Locke\u2019s \u2018States of Consciousness.\u2019=\u2014We need not go further back than\nLocke, who represents the traditional educational notions in the homes\nof the upper middle classes. People who bring up their children by\n\u2018common sense,\u2019 according to \u2018the way of our family,\u2019 do so more often\nthan they know because their great-great-grandfathers read Locke. He\ndid not concern himself with the _mind_, or _soul_, of man, but with\n\u2018_states of consciousness_.\u2019 Ideas, images, were for him to be got only\nthrough the senses; and a man could know nothing but what he got hold\nof through his own senses and assimilated by his own understanding.\nAs for choice and selection in these ideas and images, Locke gives a\ncomprehensive counsel\u2014\u2018What it becomes a gentleman to know\u2019 is the proper\nsubject-matter for education. The mind (_i.e._ the man?) appears to\nhave little colour or character of its own, but has certain powers and\nactivities for the employment of the ideas it receives; and to account\nfor these, Locke invented the pestilent fallacy which has, perhaps, been\nmore injurious than any other to the cause of education\u2014the fallacy of\nthe \u2018faculties of the mind.\u2019\n\n=Does not provide for the Evolution of the Person.=\u2014Now let us bring\nLocke up to the standard which we have erected, remembering always that\nour power to raise a higher standard is due to him and such as he. There\nis no unity of an inspiring idea, no natural progress and continuity, no\nennobling aim, in an education which stops at the knowledge a gentleman\nshould acquire and the accomplishments a gentleman should possess.\nThe _person_ hardly appears except in the way of the semi-mechanical\nactivities of his so-called faculties; he is practically the resultant of\nthe images conveyed through his senses. The _evolution_, the expansion of\nthe individual in the directions proper to him, has no place here; every\nman is shut tight, as it were, in his own skin, but is taught to behave\nhimself becomingly within that limit. That intellectual commerce of\nideas whereby the dead yet speak their living thoughts in the work they\nhave left us, and by which as by links of an endless chain all men are\nbound to each and all men influence each, has no place in a philosophy\nwhich teaches that a man can know only through his own understanding\nworking upon the images he receives through his senses. In so far as we\nwish to attain to the possibilities of the hour we must take farewell of\nLocke, though we do so with gratitude, and even with affection.\n\n=Modern Physiological-Psychology.=\u2014The modern school, which regards\npsychology strictly as a \u2018natural science,\u2019 works more or less on the\nbasis of Locke, plus an illuminating knowledge of biology. Here, as with\nLocke, the \u2018mind\u2019 is apprehended only as \u2018states of consciousness\u2019; the\nsenses are the sole avenues of knowledge, which reaches the brain in the\nform of ideas or images. But I shall represent this \u2018rational psychology\u2019\nbest by citing a few sentences from Professor James (Harvard University),\nwhose wise and temperate treatment of the subject commands the respect\nand attention of even those who differ from him. He opens with a limiting\ndefinition of psychology as the \u2018_description and explanation of states\nof consciousness as such_.\u2019 He treats psychology as a \u2018natural science.\u2019\nAfter bringing forward facts familiar to most of us, showing the intimate\nconnection between acts of thought and the cerebral hemisphere, he says:\n\u201cTaking all such facts together, the simple and radical conception\ndawns upon the mind that mental action may be uniformly and absolutely\na function of brain action varying as the latter varies, and being to\nthe brain action as effect to cause. This conception is the working\nhypothesis which underlies all the physiological-psychology of recent\nyears.\u201d This is not far removed from the announcement of the Frenchman\nthat the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile, both\nprocesses being purely material and mechanical, and doing away with any\nrequirement for the profoundest thinking beyond that of a well-nourished\nbrain.\n\n=Unjustifiable Materialism.=\u2014No wonder the author finds himself compelled\nto admit that to some readers \u201csuch an assumption will seem like the\nmost unjustifiable _\u00e0 priori_ materialism.\u201d The discussion of \u2018the\nself\u2019 might be supposed to present insuperable difficulties, but they\nare disposed of, and, says our author, \u201cThe logical conclusion seems to\nbe that the _states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to\ndo her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the soul to exist,\nbut for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of\nunity is superfluous._\u201d That is to say, the important personage which\nI call _I_, _myself_, need be no more than perpetually shifting states\nof consciousness effected by the brain; and the sameness or identity\nof person, which seems at first sight the one bit of solid ground in a\nshifting morass, rests upon no more than the fact that the brain may be\nconscious of the same objects to-day that it was conscious of years ago.\n\n=Psychology, \u2018A Phrase of Diffidence.\u2019=\u2014But, after proving with great\nclearness and power through a considerable volume[2] that all the\nphenomena of intelligent life _may_ have their sole source in the\nphysical brain, Professor James concludes\u2014\u201cWhen, then, we talk of\npsychology as a natural science we must not assume that that means a\nsort of psychology that stands at last on solid ground. It means just\nthe reverse; it means a psychology particularly fragile and into which\nthe waters of metaphysical criticism leak at every joint, a psychology\nall of whose elementary assumptions and data must be reconsidered in\nwider connections and translated into other terms. It is, in short, a\nphrase of diffidence and not of arrogance, and it is indeed strange\nto hear people talk triumphantly of the \u2018New Psychology\u2019 and write\n\u2018Histories of Psychology\u2019 when into the real elements and forces, which\nthe word covers, not the first glimpse of clear insight exists. A string\nof raw facts, a little gossip and wrangle about opinions, a little\nclassification and generalisation on the mere descriptive level ... but\nnot a single law ... not a single proposition from which any consequence\ncan causally be deduced.\u201d This is soothing, and we close Professor\nJames\u2019s book with satisfaction; but the pity of it is that all the \u2018new\u2019\npsychologists are not so modest as the Professor,\u2014some of them are, may\nwe venture to say so, not a little arrogant: what is more, the student\nwho goes carefully through this text-book of psychology is only too\nlikely to consider that the author has proved his case\u2014that psychology is\na \u2018natural science,\u2019 \u2018and it is,\u2019 like Peter Bell\u2019s primrose, \u2018nothing\nmore\u2019\u2014up to the hilt, and he is not likely to go through a process of\nreconversion at the last page.\n\n=We become Devitalised.=\u2014It is dreary to suppose that one may not be\nanybody after all, but only a momentary state of consciousness. Hope\ngoes out of life, for there is nothing pleasant to look forward to. If\nsomething agreeable should happen next year, there is no _I_, _myself_,\nto enjoy it; only the \u2018state of consciousness\u2019 of some moment to come.\nFaith goes where all is fortuitous; when other people and ourselves are,\nso to speak, the circumstances of the moment. Where there are no persons,\nthere is no possibility of that divine afflatus which we call enthusiasm;\nfor that recognition of another on a higher plane which we mean when we\nsay \u2018I believe in so and so,\u2019 for that recognition of the divine Being\nwhich we call Faith. We become devitalised; life is flat and grey; we\nthrow desperate, if dull, energy into the task of the hour because we\nshall so, any way, get rid of that hour; we are glad to be amused, but\nstill more glad of the stimulus of feverish work; but the work, like\nourselves, is devitalised, without living idea, without consecrating aim.\nOur manner becomes impassive, our speech caustic, our countenance dreary\nand impenetrable. This is the change that is passing over large numbers\nof the teaching profession, men and women of keen intelligence, who might\nwell have been inspired by high ideals, quickened by noble enthusiasms,\nhad they not imbibed an educational faith which meets all aspirations\nwith a _Cui bono?_ We give what we have, and only what we have. What have\nthese to pass on to the children under their care?\n\n=This System Inadequate, Unnecessary, Inharmonious.=\u2014But we need not sit\ndown under this blighting system of thought. It is _inadequate_, as the\nbest of their own prophets\u2014Mr James, for example\u2014freely allow; there is\nmore in man than this philosophy has ever dreamt of. It is _unnecessary_,\nfor, as we shall presently see, more than one other psychology accounts\nwith greater, though never with complete, success for the phenomena\nwhich a human being presents. It is _inharmonious_ with the _movement\nof the age_. It effaces that personality which the age tends to exalt\nand magnify, and to regard with tender interest, under even sordid\nconditions. The principle of _solidarity_ is lost, and those of social\nand family life loosened; for what binding tie can there be between\nbeings whose entity _may_ be no more than a state of consciousness?\n\n=Evolution is Checked.=\u2014Again, the _evolution_ of the individual is\nchecked at the point of mechanical perfection. Good mathematicians,\nclear-headed scientists, may be turned out; but what place is there for\nthe higher forces of humanity, aspiration, speculation, devotion? We have\nreason to keep watch at the place of the letting out of waters, that is,\nthe psychology upon which our educational thought and action rest. There\nis delightful certitude in the results of anthropometrical research. You\nmay predicate with certainty given facts about a child from the way in\nwhich he stretches out his arm. Good _pathological_ work is being done,\nand many a child\u2019s hidden weakness is revealed and consequently brought\nunder curative treatment by the tests which it is now possible to apply.\nThe danger is that we should take a part for the whole and allow this\n\u2018new psychology\u2019 to usurp the whole field of education.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSOME EDUCATIONAL THEORIES EXAMINED\n\n\n=Theories of Pestalozzi and Froebel.=\u2014It is refreshing to turn to that\nschool of German educational thought which has produced the two great\napostles, Pestalozzi and Froebel. What we may call the enthusiasm of\nchildhood, joyous teaching, loving and lovable teachers and happy school\nhours for the little people, are among the general gains from this\nsource. To look a gift horse in the mouth is unworthy, and it would\nseem pure captiousness to detect any source of weakness in a system of\npsychology to which our indebtedness is so great. But no stream can rise\nhigher than its source, and it is questionable whether the conception\nof children as cherished plants in a cultured garden has not in it an\nelement of weakness. Are the children too carefully tended? Is Nature\ntoo sedulously assisted? Is the environment too perfectly tempered?\nIs it conceivable that the rough-and-tumble of a nursery should lend\nitself more to the dignity and self-dependence of the _person_ and to\nthe evolution of individual character, than that delightful place, a\nchild-garden? I suppose we have all noticed that children show more keen\nintelligence and more independent thought in home-play and home-talk\nthan one expects of the angelic little beings one sees at school.\nI daresay the reader will know Fra Angelico\u2019s picture of \u2018The Last\nJudgment,\u2019 one of the scenes in which gives us a circle of little monks\n(become as little children) dancing round, hand-in-hand, with gracious\nangels on their way to Paradise. The little monks are obviously very\nhappy and very good; but somehow one misses the force of personality;\nthey do not look as if they were capable of striking out a line for\nthemselves; and this may be a danger in the Kindergarten.\n\n=Lack the Element of Personality.=\u2014\u2018Make children happy and they will be\ngood,\u2019 is absolutely true, but does it develop that strenuousness, the\nfirst condition of virtue, which comes of the contrary axiom\u2014\u2018Be good\nand you will be happy\u2019? Kindergarten teachers are doing beautiful work;\nbut many of them are hampered by the original metaphor of the _plant_,\nwhich is exactly lacking in that element of personality, the cherishing\nand developing of which is a sacred and important part of education. The\nphilosophic German mind beheld in man a part of the _Cosmos_, which, like\nthe rest, needed only to be placed in fit conditions to develop according\nto its nature.\n\n=The Struggle for Existence, a Part of Life.=\u2014The weak point in the\nargument is that man would appear to fall under the laws of two\nuniverses, the material and the spiritual; and that to energise and\nresist and repel is the law of his being. It will be said that this\nneed not apply to the child; that the struggle for existence may well\nbegin after a happy childhood has been secured; but probably any sort of\ntransition violates the principles of unity and continuity which should\nrule education. No doubt all thoughtful Kindergarten teachers recognise\nin what direction the limitations\u2014all men have their limitations\u2014of their\nFounder lay, and their practices are levelled up to modern thought. The\ngeneral substitution of free brush-drawing, in which the children have\nsome initiative, for the cramped pencil drawing in chequers of the old\nKindergarten, is an illustration of the modern spirit; but it is well for\nus all to remember our origins and our tendencies, that we may recognise\nand avoid our dangers.\n\n=Herbartian Psychology.=\u2014I have only space to glance at one more\n\u2018psychology,\u2019 that which is, curiously enough, dividing the American mind\nwith the school which regards psychology as a \u2018natural science,\u2019 and at\nwhich English teachers are beginning to snatch as a drowning man snatches\nat a straw. This is the psychology of Herbart, another German philosopher\nof the beginning of the last century, contemporary with both Pestalozzi\nand Froebel during the best years of his life. His theory of man is wide\nas the poles apart from either of those we have already considered;\nand there is no denying that it affords a tempting working basis for\neducation. It is only when we come to examine the Herbartian psychology\nin connection with the two or three great thoughts upon which, as we have\nseen, the world is being educated, that it is found wanting. Herbart\nbegins to account for man minus what I have called the _person_.[3]\nHe allows a soul, but he says, \u201cThe soul has no capacity nor faculty\nwhatever either to receive or to produce anything. It has originally\nneither ideas nor feelings nor desires. It knows nothing of itself and\nnothing of other things. Further, within it lie no forms of intuition or\nthought, no laws of willing and acting, nor any sort of predisposition,\nhowever remote, to all this.\u201d[4] There remain two possibilities for the\nsoul: an effective _vis inerti\u00e6_, and what Herbart describes as the power\nof reacting on an idea; that is to say, the soul itself is no longer\nquite as it was after it has thus reacted.\n\n=The Person, an Effect and not a Cause.=\u2014The problem is simplified\nanyway. All our complex notions of intellect, will, feeling and so on,\ndisappear. The soul is thrown open to ideas\u2014a fair field and no favour;\nand ideas, each of them a living entity, according to the familiar\nPlatonic notion, crowd and jostle one another for admission, and for the\nbest places, and for the most important and valuable coalitions, once\nthey have entered. They lie below the \u2018threshold\u2019 watching a chance to\nslip in. They hurry to join their friends and allies upon admission,\nthey \u2018vault\u2019 and they \u2018taper,\u2019 they form themselves into powerful\n\u2018apperception masses\u2019 which occupy a more or less permanent place in the\nsoul; and the soul\u2014what does it do? It is not evident otherwise than as\nit affords a stage for this drama of ideas; and the self, the soul or the\n_person_, however we choose to call him, is an effect and not a cause, a\nresult, and not an original fact.\n\nA philosopher who emphasises the potency of ideas does good work in the\ncause of education. We get glimpses of a perfect theory\u2014how our function\nshall be, to supply the child always with fit ideas, and with the best\nideas; how we shall take care so to select and arrange these ideas that\nthey shall naturally fly to one another and make strong \u2018apperception\nmasses\u2019 once they have got beyond the \u2018threshold\u2019 in the child\u2019s soul.\n\n=A Tempting Vista.=\u2014A fascinating vista is open before us; education\nhas all things made plain and easy for her use; she has nothing to\ndo but to select her ideas and turn out a man to her mind. Here is a\ntempting scheme of unity and continuity! One might occupy all the classes\nin a school for a whole month upon all the ideas that combine in one\n\u2018apperception mass\u2019 with the idea \u2018book.\u2019 We might have object-lessons\non the colours, shapes, and sizes of books; more advanced object-lessons\non paper-making and book-binding; practical lessons in book-sewing and\nbook-binding; lessons, according to the class, on the contents of books,\nfrom A B C and little Bo-Peep to philosophy and poetry. A month! why, a\nwhole school education might be arranged in groups of ideas which should\ncombine into one vast \u2018apperception mass,\u2019 all clustering about \u2018book.\u2019\nThe sort of thing was done publicly some time ago, in London, _apple_\nbeing the idea round which the \u2018apperception mass\u2019 gathered.\n\n=Eliminates Personality.=\u2014If one is to find the principles of unity and\ncontinuity in the _ideas_ presented to the soul, this is all good and\nwell. But if, as we believe, these principles must emanate from the soul,\nor person, himself, this tempting unity may result in the collection of a\nmass of heterogeneous and unassimilated information.\n\n=Turns out Duplicates.=\u2014Again, given two souls supplied with precisely\nthe same ideas, in precisely the same order, and with no other ideas\nwhatsoever, and we get duplicates of the same person, a possibility which\nwould demolish once and for ever that great conception, the _solidarity\nof the race_. Once more, what does the Herbartian theory of man minister\nto our interest in personality, our sense of the _sacredness of the\nperson_? The person is _non est_, or is the mere sport of the ideas which\ntake possession of him. He has not so much as a special fitness for one\nclass of ideas rather than for another; all is casual; and, as for the\n_evolution of the individual_, it is not he, but this or that mass of\nideas which possesses him, that expands. The man appears to be no more\nthan a sort of vessel of transport to carry ideas into their proper\nsphere of action. Herbartian psychology is rich in suggestion, but we\ncannot take it up as it stands without losing the educational value of\nthe two or three leading principles which are, as we say, \u2018in the air\u2019\nfor the teaching of mankind.\n\n=Each System fails to meet our Tests.=\u2014I have now examined briefly\nthe three or four psychologies which hold, more or less, the field of\neducational thought. We see that each _advances_ truth, but that neither\nexpresses the whole truth even so far as to afford a working basis for\neducators. So people either work on by rule of thumb, or they borrow\na fragment here and a fragment there as the case appears to demand;\nlike children with a hard sum whose answer they know, and who try now\ndivision, now multiplication, now subtraction, to make it come right. No\ndoubt there are also many able psychologists who may not have written\nbooks, but who work out the problems of education, not with a view to the\nanswer, but according to a code of inherent principles which they have\ndiscerned for themselves.\n\n=A Psychology that meets the Demands upon it.=\u2014What have we to bring\nforward in the way of a working psychology which shall meet the demands\nI have indicated? We do not claim to be philosophers; we are modest and\npractical people looking out for a secure basis for education. It is\njust possible that bringing unbiassed minds and a few guiding principles\nto the task, we have, not joined the parts of the puzzle, but perceived\ndimly how an outline here and an outline there indicate, not so many\nseparate psychologies, but shadowings forth of a coherent, living,\neducational principle destined to assume more and more clearness and\nfulness until it is revealed to us at last as the _educational gospel_,\nthe discovery of which may be the destined reward and triumph of our\nage. Let me try to set forth, though with diffidence, what we have done,\nknowing that no man and no society can say of educational truth, \u2018This is\nmine and that is thine,\u2019 for all is common, and none of us can know how\nmuch he gives and how much he takes.\n\n=Educational Truth a Common Possession.=\u2014For years we have worked\ndefinitely and consistently upon a psychology which appears to me fairly\nadequate, necessary, and in touch with the thought of our age.[5]\nChildren brought up on this theory of education, wherever we come across\nthem, have certain qualities in common. They are curiously vitalised;\nnot bored, not all alive in the playing-field and dull and inert in the\nschoolroom\u2014even when it is that place, proverbial for dulness, a home\nschoolroom taught by a governess. There is unity in their lives; they\nare not two persons, one with their play-fellows and quite other with\ntheir teachers and elders; but frank, fresh, showing keen interest in\nwhatever comes in their way. Then, too, there is continuity in their\neducation. Little children are always eager to know; but the desire for\nknowledge seldom survives two or three years of school-life. But these\nchildren begin on lines that go on from the first baby lessons, through\nboyhood, girlhood, womanhood, motherhood; there is no transition stage,\nbut simple, natural, living progress. The claims I venture to make for\nthese children must rest, not only on the evidence of the few, but on the\nprinciples upon which we work.\n\n=We take Children as Persons.=\u2014In the first place, we take children\nseriously as _persons_ like ourselves, only more so; the first question\nthat comes before us is\u2014What do we understand by a person? We believe\nthe thinking, invisible soul and acting, visible body to be one in so\nintimate a union that\u2014\n\n \u201cNor soul helps flesh more now than flesh helps soul.\u201d\n\nIf the doctrine of the Resurrection had not been revealed to us, it\nwould be a necessity, in however unimagined a form, to our conception\nof a person. The countenance of our friend with the thousand delicate\nchanges which express every _nuance_ of feeling; the refinement,\npurpose, perception, power, revealed in his hand, the dear familiar\ncarriage, these are all inseparable from our conception of the person.\nWhatever is advanced by the physiologist and the rational psychologist\nas to the functions of that most marvellous brain cortex, the seat of\nconsciousness, as furnishing us with images and impulses, of the motor\nnerves as originating action, of the brain as the seat of habit; of\nthe possibility of educating a child in all becoming habits of act, in\nall sweet habits of thought, by taking measures to secure that these\nhabits become, as it were, a memory of the brain to be awakened by\ndue stimuli,\u2014all these things we believe and receive; and we believe\nfurther that the possibility of a rational education rests upon this\nphysiological basis, only fully discovered to us within the present\ngeneration.\n\n=The Person Wills, and Thinks, and Feels.=\u2014But then, we believe the\nassumption that all this delicate mechanism is automatic to be gratuitous\nand inadequate; it is to be assumed that the _person_ should possess\nsuch vehicle of expression and medium of relation to the outer world.\nFor the rest, we believe that the _person_ wills and thinks and feels;\nis always present, though not always aware of himself; is without parts\nor faculties; whatever he does, _he_ does, all of him, whether he take\na walk or write a book. It is so much the habit to think of the person\nas a dual being, flesh and spirit, when he is, in truth, one, that it is\nnecessary to clear our minds on this subject. The person is one and not\nseveral, and he is no more compact of ideas on the one hand than he is\nof nervous and muscular tissues on the other. That he requires nutriment\nof two kinds is no proof that he is two individuals. Pleasant and\nwell-cooked food makes man of a cheerful countenance, and wine gladdens\nthe heart of man, and we all know the spiritual refreshment of a needed\nmeal. On the other hand, we all know the lack-lustre eye and pallid\ncountenance of the well-fed who receive none of that other nutriment\nwhich we call ideas; quick and living thought is as necessary for the\nfull and happy development of the body as it is for that of the soul.\n\n=An Adequate Doctrine.=\u2014Holding this view, we believe that our\neducational doctrine is _adequate_, because, while following the progress\nof biological psychology with avidity, and making use of every gain that\npresents itself, and while following with equal care the advance of\nphilosophic thought, we recognise that each of these sees the chameleon\nin a different light, that the person includes both and is more than\nboth; and, if our educational creed is by no means conclusive, we think\nit is not narrow, because we have come across no problem of life or mind\nthe solution of which is shut out from us by any dogma of ours. We cannot\nsay that our doctrine is _necessary_, but we do say that some educational\ntheory which shall include the whole nature of man and the results of\nscientific research, in the same or a greater degree, is necessary. We\nfind ourselves, too, in touch with those three great ideas which seem\nto me to be the schoolmasters of the world at the present moment. The\n_person_ of the child is sacred to us; we do not swamp his individuality\nin his intelligence, in his conscience, or even in his soul; perhaps one\nshould add to-day, or even in his physical development. The person is all\nthese and more. We safeguard the initiative of the child and we realise\nthat, in educational work, we must take a back seat; the teacher, even\nwhen the teacher is the parent, is not to be too much to the front. There\nis no more facile way of swamping character and individuality than by\nthat idol of the \u2018fifties\u2019\u2014_personal influence_.\n\n=Education the Science of Relations.=\u2014We consider that _education is the\nscience of relations_, or, more fully, that education considers what\nrelations are proper to a human being, and in what ways these several\nrelations can best be established; that a human being comes into the\nworld with capacity for many relations; and that we, for our part,\nhave two chief concerns\u2014first, to put him in the way of forming these\nrelations by presenting the right idea at the right time, and by forming\nthe right habit upon the right idea; and, secondly, by not getting in the\nway and so preventing the establishment of the very relations we seek to\nform.\n\n=Teaching must not be Obtrusive.=\u2014Half the teaching one hears and sees\nis more or less obtrusive. The oral lesson and the lecture, with their\naccompanying notes, give very little scope for the establishment of\nrelations with great minds and various minds. The child who learns his\nscience from a text-book, though he go to Nature for illustrations,\nand he who gets his information from object-lessons, has no chance of\nforming relations with things as they are, because his kindly obtrusive\nteacher makes him believe that to know _about_ things is the same thing\nas knowing them personally; though every child knows that to know about\nPrince Edward is by no means the same thing as knowing the boy-prince.\nWe study in many ways the art of standing aside. People sometimes write\nthat the books set in our school constitute much of its usefulness; they\ndo not always see that the choice of books, which implies the play of\nvarious able minds directly on the mind of the child, is a great part of\nthat education which consists in the establishment of relations.\n\n=The Art of Standing Aside.=\u2014I have even known of teachers who have\nthought well to compose the songs and poems which their children use.\nThink of it! not even our poets are allowed to interpose between the poor\nchild and the probably mediocre mind of the teacher. The art of standing\naside to let a child develop the relations proper to him is the fine art\nof education, when the educator perceives the two things he _must_ do and\nhow to do these two things. The evolution of the individual is a natural\nsequence of the opening up of relations.\n\nHow we labour towards _the solidarity of the race_ I hope to show more\nfully, later. But, for example, we do not endeavour to give children\noutlines of ancient history, but to put them in living touch with a\nthinker who lived in those ancient days. We are not content that they\nshould learn the history of their own country alone; some living idea\nof contemporaneous European history, anyway, we try to get in; that the\nhistory we teach may be the more living, we work in, _pari passu_, some\nof the literature of the period and some of the best historical novels\nand poems that treat of the period; and so on with other subjects.\n\nThere is nothing new in all this; what we venture to claim is that our\nwork is unified and vitalised by a comprehensive theory of education and\na sound basis of psychology.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nAN ADEQUATE THEORY OF EDUCATION\n\n\n=A Human Being.=\u2014I have laid before the reader, as a working\nhypothesis,\u2014that man is homogeneous, a spiritual being invested with a\nbody\u2014capable of responding to spiritual impulses, the organ by which he\nexpresses himself, the vehicle by which he receives impressions, and the\nmedium by which he establishes relations with what we call the material\nworld;\u2014that will, conscience, affection, reason, are not the various\nparts of a composite whole, but are different modes of action of the\nperson.\n\n_His Capacities._\u2014That he is capable of many relations and consequently\nof many modes of action; that, given the due relations, his power of\nexpansion in these relations appears to be, not illimitable, but, so far\nas we know, as yet unlimited.\n\n_His Limitations._\u2014But that, deprived of any or all of the relations\nproper to him, a human being has no power of self-development in these\ndirections; though he would appear not to lose any of his capacity for\nthese relations.\n\n_His Education._\u2014Again, that any relation once initiated leaves, so to\nspeak, an organic memory of itself in the nervous tissue of the brain;\nthat in this physical registration of an experience or a thought, or\nof the memory of an experience or a thought, lies the possibility of\nhabit; that some nine-tenths of our life run upon lines of habit; and\nthat, therefore, in order to educate, we must know something of both the\npsychological and physiological history of a habit, how to initiate it\nand how to develop it; and, finally, that a human being under education\nhas two functions\u2014the formation of habits and the assimilation of ideas.\n\n=The Behaviour of Ideas.=\u2014Physiologists and \u2018rational psychologists\u2019 have\nmade the basis of habit pretty plain to us. All who run may read. The\nnature, functions, and behaviour of ideas, and how ideas have power in\ntheir impact upon the cerebral hemisphere to make some sort of sensible\nimpression\u2014all this is matter as to which we are able only to make\n\u2018guesses at truth.\u2019 But this need not dismay us, for such other ultimate\nfacts as sleep and life and death are equally unexplained. In every\ndepartment of science we are brought up before facts which we have to\nassume as the bases of our so-called science. Where a working hypothesis\nis necessary, all we can do is to assume those bases that seem to us the\nmost adequate and the most fruitful. Let us say with Plato that an idea\nis an entity, a live thing of the mind.\n\n=No one can Beget an Idea by Himself.=\u2014Apparently no one has power to\nbeget an idea by himself; it appears to be the progeny of two minds.\nSo-and-so \u2018put it in my head,\u2019 we say, and that is the history of all\nideas\u2014the most simple and the most profound. But, once begotten, the\nidea seems to survive indefinitely. It is painted in a picture, written\nin a book, carved into a chair, or only spoken to someone who speaks\nit again, who speaks it again, who speaks it again, so that it goes on\nbeing spoken, for how long? Who knows! Nothing so strikes the student of\nhistory as the persistent way in which ideas recur, except the way in\nwhich they elude observation until occasion calls them forth. Our natural\nprogeny may indeed die and be buried; but of this spiritual progeny of\nideas, who may forecast the history or foretell the end?\n\n=Certain Persons attract Certain Ideas.=\u2014Perhaps we may be allowed\nthis further hypothesis\u2014that, as an idea comes of the contact of two\nminds, the idea of another is no more than a _notion_ to us until it\nhas undergone a process of generation within us; and for that reason\ndifferent ideas appeal to different minds\u2014not at all because the ideas\nthemselves have an independent desire to club into \u2018apperception masses,\u2019\nbut because certain persons have in themselves, by inheritance, may we\nassume, that which is proper to attract certain ideas. To illustrate\ninvisible things by visible, let us suppose that the relation is\nsomething like that between the pollen and the ovule it is to fertilise.\nThe ways of carrying the pollen are various, not to say promiscuous, but\nthere is nothing haphazard in the result. The right pollen goes to the\nright ovule and the plant bears seed after its kind; even so, the person\nbrings forth ideas after his kind.\n\n=The Idea that \u2018Strikes\u2019 us.=\u2014The _crux_ of the situation is: how can\nan emanation so purely spiritual as an idea make an impression upon\neven the most delicate material substance? We do not know. We have some\nlittle demonstration that it is so in the fact of the score of reflex\nactions by which we visibly respond to an idea that \u2018strikes\u2019 us. The eye\nbrightens, the pulse quickens, the colour rises, the whole person becomes\nvitalised, capable, strenuous, no longer weighed down by this clog of\nflesh. Every habit we have formed has had its initial idea, and every\nidea we receive is able to initiate a habit of thought and of action.\nEvery human being has the power of communicating notions to other human\nbeings; and, after he is dead, this power survives him in the work he has\ndone and the words he has said. How illimitable is life! That the divine\nSpirit has like intimate power of corresponding with the human spirit,\nneeds not to be urged, once we recognise ourselves as spiritual beings at\nall.\n\n=Expansion and Activity of the Person.=\u2014Nor does this teeming population\nof ideas arise to us without order and without purpose beyond the scope\nof our busy efforts and intentions. It would seem as if a new human being\ncame into the world with unlimited capacity for manifold relations,\nwith a tendency to certain relations in preference to certain others,\nbut with no degree of adaptation to these relations. To secure that\nadaptation and the expansion and activity of the person, along the lines\nof the relations most proper to him, is the work of education; to be\naccomplished by the two factors of ideas and habits. Every relation must\nbe initiated by its own \u2018captain\u2019[6] idea, sustained upon fitting ideas;\nand wrought into the material substance of the _person_ by its proper\nhabits. This is the field before us.\n\n=Story of Kaspar Hauser.=\u2014To make my meaning plainer, let me run over the\nstory of Kaspar Hauser, that \u2018child of Nuremberg\u2019 upon whom an unique\nexperiment was said to have been tried, criminal in its character, and\ntherefore not to be repeated. The story is as well accredited as most of\nour data, but we will assume its truth in so far only as the experience\nof this boy tallies with what we know of the experience of an infant;\nor, as regards the use of his senses, with the experience of an adult\nperson who has for the first time attained to, sight, let us say. On\n28th May 1828, the attention of a cobbler in Nuremberg was excited by a\nstrange figure leaning, as if unable to support itself, against a wall\nand uttering a moaning sound. The figure was that of a young man of about\nseventeen, who, when the cobbler approached, moaned some incoherent\nsounds. He had fair hair and blue eyes, and the lower part of his face\nprojected a little like a monkey\u2019s. Everyone who watched him came to the\nsame conclusion, that his mind was that of a child of two or three, while\nhis body was nearly grown up; and yet he was not half-witted, because he\nimmediately began to pick up words and phrases, had a wonderful memory,\nand never forgot a face he had once seen or the name which belonged\nto it. At first, he was placed in the guard-house for safety, and the\nchildren of the gaoler taught him to walk and to talk as they did their\nown baby-sister. He was not afraid of anything. After six or seven weeks\nthe townspeople decided to adopt him as the \u2018child of Nuremberg.\u2019 He was\nplaced under the charge of Professor Daumer, whose interest led him to\nundertake the difficult task of developing his mind so that it might fit\nhis body. Later, Dr Daumer gleaned a short account of his previous life\nfrom Hauser by careful questioning. It was to this effect. \u2018He neither\nknows who he is nor where he came from. He always lived in a hole where\nhe sat on straw on the ground. He never heard a sound nor saw any vivid\nlight. He awoke and he slept and awoke again. When he awoke he found a\nloaf of bread and a pitcher of water beside him. Sometimes the water\ntasted nasty, and then he fell asleep again. He never saw the face of the\nman who came to him. At last the man taught him to stand and to walk, and\nfinally carried him out of his hole.\u2019 For several months after he came\nto Nuremberg he refused to eat anything but bread and water, and was, in\nfact, made quite ill by the smell of meat, beer, wine or milk. For the\nfirst four months of his stay with Daumer, his senses of sight, taste,\nhearing and smell were very acute. He could see much further than most\npeople by day, without, however, losing his power of seeing in the dark.\nAt the same time he could not distinguish between a thing and a picture\nof that thing, and could not for a long time judge distances at all,\nfor he saw everything flat. He thought a ball rolled because it wished\nto do so, and could not see why animals should not behave, at table for\ninstance, like human beings. His sense of smell was very keen, painfully\nso, in fact, for he was made quite ill by the smell of the dye in his\nclothes, the smell of paper, etc. On the other hand, he could distinguish\nthe leaves of trees by their smell. In about three months Dr Daumer was\nable to teach him other things besides the use of his senses. He was\nencouraged to write letters and essays, to use his hands in every way,\nto dig in the garden, etc. For the next eleven months he lived a happy,\nsimple life with his friend and tutor, who mentions, however, that the\nintense acuteness of his senses was gradually passing away, but that he\nhad still the charming, obedient, child-like nature which had won all\nhearts.\n\n=What Nature does for a Child.=\u2014Here we have an instance (more or less\ncredible), and the only instance on record, of what Nature, absolutely\nunaided and unhindered, has done for a child. Kaspar Hauser came out of\nhis long retirement, unusually intelligent, with his senses intensely\nacute, and sweet and docile in disposition. This is an object-lesson\nwhich cannot lawfully be repeated, and we may not take a single instance\nas proving any position. But certainly this illuminating story\u2014coupled\nwith the fact that Kaspar Hauser, on his emergence, was in some respects\nin the condition of an infant in arms\u2014that is, he knew nothing of\nround, or flat, or far, or near, or hot, or cold, he had no experience;\nand in some respects in that of a child of two years old with quick\nintelligence, keen perceptive powers, capital memory, and child-like\nsweetness\u2014Kaspar Hauser\u2019s story and our common experience go to prove\nthat the labour we spend on developing the \u2018faculties,\u2019 or in cultivating\nthe senses, is largely thrown away. Nature has no need of our endeavours\nin these directions. Under the most adverse conceivable conditions\nshe can work wonders if let alone. What she cannot away with is our\nmisdirected efforts, which hinder and impede her beneficent work. Nature\nleft to herself hands over every child to its parents and other educators\nin this condition of acute perceptive powers, keen intelligence, and\nmoral teachableness and sweetness. This solitary instance goes to show\nthat she is even capable of maintaining a human being in this child-like\ncondition until he reaches the verge of manhood.\n\n=The Child has every Power that will serve Him.=\u2014What, then, have we\nto do for the child? Plainly we have not to develop the _person_; he\nis there already, with, possibly, every power that will serve him in\nhis passage through life. Some day we shall be told that the very word\neducation is a misnomer belonging to the stage of thought when the\ndrawing forth of \u2018faculties\u2019 was supposed to be a teacher\u2019s business.\nWe shall have some fit new word meaning, perhaps, \u2018applied wisdom,\u2019 for\nwisdom is _the science of relations_, and the thing we have to do for a\nyoung human being is to put him in touch, so far as we can, with all the\nrelations proper to him.\n\n=Fulness of Living depends on the Establishment of Relations.=\u2014We begin\nto see light, both as to the lines upon which we should form habits and\nas to that much-vexed question\u2014the subjects of instruction proper for\nchildren. We are no longer divided between the claims of the classical\nand the modern side. We no longer ask ourselves whether it is better to\nlearn a few subjects \u2018thoroughly,\u2019 so we say, or to get a \u2018smattering\u2019\nof many. These questions are beside the mark. In considering the\nrelationships which we may initiate for a child, I will begin with what\nwe shall probably be inclined to call the lowest rung of the ladder. We\nmay believe that a person\u2014I have a \u2018baby person\u2019 in view\u2014is put into\nthis most delightful world for the express purpose of forming ties of\nintimacy, joy, association, and knowledge with the living and moving\nthings that are therein, with what St Francis would have called his\nbrother the mountain and his brother the ant and his brothers in the\nstarry heavens. Fulness of living, joy in life, depend, far more than\nwe know, upon the establishment of these relations. What do we do? We\nconsider the matter carefully; we say the boy will make a jumble of it\nif he is taught more than one or two sciences. We ask our friends\u2014\u2018What\nsciences will tell best in examinations?\u2019 and, \u2018Which are most easily\nlearned?\u2019 We discover which are the best text-books in the smallest\ncompass. The boy learns up his text, listens to lectures, makes diagrams,\nwatches demonstrations. Behold! he has learned a science and is able\nto produce facts and figures, for a time any way, in connection with\nsome one class of natural phenomena; but of tender intimacy with Nature\nherself he has acquired none. Let me sketch what seems to me the better\nway for the child.\n\n=The Power of Recognition.=\u2014His parents know that the first step in\nintimacy is recognition; and they will measure his education, not\nsolely by his progress in the \u2018three R\u2019s,\u2019 but by the number of living\nand growing things he knows by look, name, and habitat. A child of six\nwill note with eager interest the order of time in which the trees put\non their leaves; will tell you whether to look in hedge, or meadow,\nor copse, for eyebright, wood-sorrel, ground-ivy; will not think that\nflowers were made to be plucked, for\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2019Tis (his) faith that every flower\n Enjoys the air it breathes\u201d\u2014\n\nbut will take his friends to see where the milk-wort grows, or the\nbog-bean, or the sweet-gale. The birds of the air are no longer casual;\nhe soon knows when and where to expect the redstart and the meadow\npipit. The water-skater and the dragon-fly are interesting and admired\nacquaintances. His eyes have sparkled at the beauty of crystals, and,\nthough he may not have been able to find them _in situ_, he knows the\nlook of the crystals of lime and quartz, and the lovely pink of felspar,\nand many more.\n\n=\u00c6sthetic Appreciation.=\u2014\u00c6sthetic appreciation follows close upon\nrecognition, for does he not try from very early days to catch the flower\nin its beauty of colour and grace of gesture with his own paintbrush?\nThe wise mother is careful to open her child\u2019s eyes to another kind of\nappreciation. She makes him look from a distance at a wild cherry-tree,\nor at a willow with its soft catkins, and she shows him that the picture\non a Japanese screen has caught the very look of the thing, though when\nhe comes to compare a single catkin or a single cherry blossom with those\non the screen, there is no portraiture; and so he begins to learn at a\nvery early age that to paint that which we see and that which we know to\nbe there, are two different things, and that the former art is the more\ngratifying.\n\n=First-hand Knowledge.=\u2014By-and-by he passes from acquaintance, the\npleasant recognition of friendly faces, to knowledge, the sort\nof knowledge we call science. He begins to notice that there are\nresemblances between wild-rose and apple blossom, between buttercup\nand wood-anemone, between the large rhododendron blossom and the tiny\nheath floret. A suggestion will make him find out accurately what these\nresemblances are, and he gets the new and delightful idea of families of\nplants. His little bit of knowledge is real science, because he gets it\nat first-hand; in his small way he is another Linn\u00e6us.\n\n=Appreciative Knowledge and Exact Knowledge.=\u2014All the time he is storing\nup associations of delight which will come back for his refreshment when\nhe is an old man. With this sort of appreciative knowledge of things to\nbegin with, the superstructure of exact knowledge, living science, no\nmere affair of text-books and examinations, is easily raised, because a\nnatural desire is implanted. We might say the same of art, so far, any\nway, as the appreciation of art goes. The child who has been taught to\nsee, appreciates pictures with discrimination.\n\n=How a Child sets up a New Relation.=\u2014This is how a child goes to work\nto set up a new relation: a little girl of seven was handling an oar for\nthe first time and remarked\u2014\u2018What a lot of crab-water there is to-day!\u2019\nThen the next day\u2014\u2018There\u2019s not near so much crab-water to-day.\u2019 She was\nasked\u2014\u2018How do you know when it\u2019s crab-water?\u2019 \u2018Oh! it\u2019s so tough and you\ncan\u2019t get your oar through, and it knocks you off your seat!\u2019 The child\nwas all wrong, of course, but she was getting a scrap of real science and\nwould soon get on the right track. How much better this than to learn out\nof a text-book, \u2018the particles which constitute water have no cohesion,\nand may be readily separated by a solid substance.\u2019\n\nWhen we consider that the setting up of relations, moral and\nintellectual, is our chief concern in life, and that the function of\neducation is to put the child in the way of relations proper to him,\nand to offer the inspiring idea which commonly initiates a relation, we\nperceive that a little incident like the above may be of more importance\nthan the passing of an examination.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nCERTAIN RELATIONS PROPER TO A CHILD\n\n\nGeology, mineralogy, physical geography, botany, natural history,\nbiology, astronomy\u2014the whole circle of the sciences is, as it were, set\nwith gates ajar in order that a child may go forth furnished, not with\nscientific knowledge, but with, what Huxley calls, common information, so\nthat he may feel for objects on the earth and in the heavens the sort of\nproprietary interest which the son of an old house has in its heirlooms.\n\nWe are more exacting than the Jesuits. They are content to have a child\ntill he is seven; but we want him till he is twelve or fourteen, if we\nmay not have him longer. You may do what you like with him afterwards.\nGiven this period for the establishing of relations, we may undertake\nto prepare for the world a man, vital and vigorous, full of living\ninterests, available and serviceable. I think we may warrant him even to\npass examinations, because he will know how to put living interest into\nthe dullest tasks.\n\n=Dynamic Relations.=\u2014But we have not yet done with his relations with\nmother earth. There are, what I may call, _dynamic_ relations to be\nestablished. He must stand and walk and run and jump with ease and\ngrace. He must skate and swim and ride and drive, dance and row and sail\na boat. He should be able to make free with his mother earth and to do\nwhatever the principle of gravitation will allow. This is an elemental\nrelationship for the lack of which nothing compensates.\n\n=Power over Material.=\u2014Another elemental relationship, which every\nchild should be taught and encouraged to set up, is that of power over\nmaterial. Every child makes sand castles, mud-pies, paper boats, and\nhe or she should go on to work in clay, wood, brass, iron, leather,\ndress-stuffs, food-stuffs, furnishing-stuffs. He should be able to _make_\nwith his hands and should take delight in making.\n\n=Intimacy with Animals.=\u2014A fourth relation is to the dumb creation; a\nrelation of intelligent comprehension as well as of kindness. Why should\nnot each of us be on friendly terms with the \u2018inmates of his house and\ngarden\u2019? Every child longs for intimacy with the creatures about him; and\u2014\n\n \u201cHe prayeth best, who loveth best\n All things both great and small;\n For the dear God who loveth us,\n He made and loveth all.\u201d\n\n=The Great Human Relationships.=\u2014Perhaps the main part of a child\u2019s\neducation should be concerned with the great human relationships,\nrelationships of love and service, of authority and obedience, of\nreverence and pity and neighbourly kindness; relationships to kin and\nfriend and neighbour, to \u2018cause\u2019 and country and kind, to the past and\nthe present. History, literature, arch\u00e6ology, art, languages, whether\nancient or modern, travel and tales of travel; all of these are in one\nway or other the record or the expression of persons; and we who are\npersons are interested in all persons, for we are all one flesh, and\nwe are all of one spirit, and whatever any of us does or suffers is\ninteresting to the rest. If we will approach them with living thought,\nliving books, if we will only awaken in them the sense of personal\nrelation, there are thousands of boys and girls to-day capable of\nbecoming apostles, saviours, great orientalists who will draw the East\nand the West together, great arch\u00e6ologists who will make the past alive\nfor us and make us aware in our souls of men who lived thousands of years\nago.\n\n=The Awakening Idea.=\u2014It rests with us to give the awakening idea and\nthen to form the habit of thought and of life. Here is an example of what\na youth could do. \u201cYoung Rawlinson had\u201d (I quote from the _Academy_)\n\u201cfrom the outset of his career, a taste for the history and antiquities\nof Persia, a leaning which he himself attributed to his conversations\nwith Sir John Malcolm on his first passage to India; and when with\nthe Shah\u2019s army he chanced to be quartered at Kirmanshah, in Persian\nKurdistan. Close to this stands the Rock of Behistun, bearing on its\nface a trilingual inscription which we now know to be due to Darius\nHystaspes, the restorer of Cyrus\u2019 Empire. The cuneiform or wedge-shaped\nletters in which it is written had long baffled all attempts to decipher\nthem. Rawlinson contrived, at the risk of life and limb, to climb the\nalmost inaccessible face of the rock and to copy the easiest of the\nthree versions of the inscription. A prolonged study of it enabled him\nto pronounce it to be in the Persian language, and, two years later,\nhe succeeded in discovering the system by which the Persian words were\nreproduced in cuneiform characters.\u201d What is the result? \u201cWe can now\nproduce the chronicles of empires, more highly-organised than was\never any Greek state, going back to dates millennia before that which\nour fathers used to assign to the earliest appearance of man upon the\nearth. The changes of thought consequent upon these discoveries are\nincalculable;\u201d and all are more or less due to Rawlinson\u2019s climb up the\nface of the Behistun Rock, which again was due to the awakening of an\nidea by his conversation with Sir John Malcolm.\n\n=Human Intelligence limited to Human Interests.=\u2014We are not all Henry\nRawlinsons, but there seems good reason to believe that _the limit to\nhuman intelligence arises largely from the limit to human interests_,\nthat is, from the failure to establish personal relations on a wide\nscale with the persons who make up humanity,\u2014relations of love, duty,\nresponsibility, and, above all, of interest, _living_ interest, with the\nnear and the far-off, in time and in place. We hammer away for a dozen\nyears at one or two languages, ancient or modern, and rarely know them\nvery well at the end of that time, but directly they become to us the\nlanguages of persons whom we are aching to get at and can only do so\nthrough the medium of their own tongues, there seems no reason why many\nof us should not be like the late Sir Richard Burton, able to talk in\nalmost any known tongue.\n\n=The Full Human Life.=\u2014I think we should have a great educational\nrevolution once we ceased to regard ourselves as assortments of so-called\nfaculties and realised ourselves as persons whose great business it is\nto get in touch with other persons of all sorts and conditions, of all\ncountries and climes, of all times, past and present. History would\nbecome entrancing, literature, a magic mirror for the discovery of other\nminds, the study of sociology, a duty and a delight. We should tend to\nbecome responsive and wise, humble and reverent, recognising the duties\nand the joys of the full human life. We cannot, of course, overtake such\na programme of work, but we can keep it in view; and, I suppose, every\nlife is moulded upon its ideal. We talk of lost ideals, but perhaps they\nare not lost, only changed; when our ideal for ourselves and for our\nchildren becomes limited to prosperity and comfort, we get these, very\nlikely, for ourselves and for them, but we get no more.\n\n=Duty not within the Scope of Present-day Psychology.=\u2014The psychology of\nthe hour has had a curious effect upon the sense of duty. Persons who\nare no more than a \u2018state of consciousness\u2019 cannot be expected to take\nup moral responsibilities, except such as appeal to them at the moment.\nDuty, in the sense of relations imposed by authority and _due_ to our\nfellows, does not fall within the scope of present-day psychology. It\nwould be interesting to know how many children of about ten years of\nage can say the Ten Commandments, and those most clear interpretations\nof them which children are taught to call \u2018my duty towards God and my\nduty towards my neighbour\u2019; or, if they are not members of the Church\nof England, whatever explanation their own Church offers of the law\ncontaining the whole duty of man. With the Ten Commandments as a basis,\nchildren used to get a fairly thorough ethical teaching from the Bible.\nThey knew St Paul\u2019s mandates:\u2014\u2018Love the brethren,\u2019 \u2018Fear God,\u2019 \u2018Honour\nthe King,\u2019 \u2018Honour all men,\u2019 \u2018Study to be quiet.\u2019 They knew that\nthoughts of hatred and contempt were of the nature of murder. They knew\nwhat King Solomon said of the virtuous woman, of the sluggard, of the\nfool. Their knowledge was not confined to precepts; from history, sacred\nand profane, they were able to illustrate every text. We in England have\nnot the wealth of moral teaching carved in wood and stone\u2014so that the\nunlettered may read and learn\u2014which some neighbouring countries rejoice\nin, but our teaching, until the present generation, has been systematic\nand thorough.\n\n=Casual Ethical Teaching.=\u2014I appeal to common experience as to whether\nthis is now the case. We eschew for our children (and we often eschew\nwisely) all stories with a moral; their books must be amusing, and we ask\nlittle more; next after that, they must be literary, and then, perhaps, a\nlittle instructive. But we do not look for a moral impulse fitly given.\nIt is not that we give no ethical teaching, but our teaching is casual.\nIf we happen on a story of heroism or self-denial, we are glad to point\nthe moral. But children rarely get now a distinct ethical system resting\non the broad basis of the brotherhood of man. It is something for a child\nonly to recite\u2014\u2018My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself,\u2019\nand \u2018to do unto all men as I would that they should do unto me.\u2019 A great\nmany fine things are said to-day about the brotherhood of man and the\nsolidarity of the race, but I think we shall look in vain in modern\nwritings for a sentence which goes to the root of the matter as does this\nauthoritative code of duty.\n\n=The Moral Relation of Person to Person.=\u2014If we receive it, that the\nwhole of education consists in the establishment of relations, then, the\nrelations with our fellow-beings must be of the first importance; and all\nassociations formed upon any basis except that of \u2018my duty towards my\nneighbour,\u2019\u2014as upon sympathy in art or literature, for example,\u2014are apt\nto degenerate into sentimental bonds; and the power of original thought\nappears curiously to depart with that of moral insight. If you ask, \u2018But\nhow are we to get a scheme of ethical teaching for our children?\u2019 I\nreally do not know, if we choose to forego the Ten Commandments and the\nold-fashioned teaching of exposition and example founded upon them. There\nare a thousand supplementary ways of giving such teaching; but these are\napt to be casual and little binding if they do not rest upon the solid\nfoundation of _duty_ imposed upon us by God, and _due_ to each other,\nwhether we will or no. This moral relation of person to person underlies\nall other relations. We owe it to the past to use its gains worthily and\nto advance from the point at which it left off. We owe it to the future\nto prepare a generation better than ourselves. We owe it to the present\nto _live_, to live with all expansion of heart and soul, all reaching out\nof our personality towards those relations appointed for us.\n\n=The sense of what is due from us does not come by Nature.=\u2014We owe\nknowledge to the ignorant, comfort to the distressed, healing to the\nsick, reverence, courtesy and kindness to all men, especially to those\nwith whom we are connected by ties of family or neighbourhood; and the\nsense of these dues does not come by nature. We all know the vapid young\nman and the vapid young woman who care for none of these things; but do\nwe always ask ourselves\u2014why? and whether there are not many children\nto-day growing up in good homes as untrained in their moral relations as\nare these young people whom we despise and blame, perhaps more than they\ndeserve, for have they not been neglected children?\n\n=Relations of Oneself with Oneself.=\u2014Another preparation for his\nrelations in life which we owe to a young person is, that he should be\nmade familiar with such a working system of psychology or philosophy,\nwhichever one likes to call it, as shall help him to conduct his\nrelations with himself and with other people. The world is not ripe,\nperhaps, for a _bon\u00e2 fide_ science of life, but we are unhappily more\nmodest than the ancients, who made good use of what they had, and\nturned out a Marcus Aurelius, an Epictetus, a Socrates. Neither did\nthey think that their youth were furnished for life without instruction\nin philosophy. Modern scientists have added a great deal to the sum of\navailable knowledge which should bear on the conduct of those relations\nof oneself with oneself which are implied in the terms, self-management,\nself-control, self-respect, self-love, self-help, self-abnegation, and\nso on. This knowledge is the more important because our power to conduct\nour relations with other people depends upon our power of conducting our\nrelations with ourselves. Every man carries in his own person the key\nto human nature, and, in proportion as we are able to use this key, we\nshall be tolerant, gentle, helpful, wise and reverent. The person who has\n\u2018given up expecting anything\u2019 of servants or of dependents, of employ\u00e9s,\nor of working people, proclaims his ignorance of those springs of conduct\ncommon to us all.\n\nI think we may really take a little credit to ourselves as a Society[7]\nfor an advance in this direction. Most people associated with us know\nsomething of the treatment of sensations, the direction of the will,\nthe treatment of temper, the psychology of attention, the desires and\naffections which are the springs of conduct, and other practical matters\nconcerned with the management of one\u2019s life. We hear of people who use\nthat fine old nursery plan expressed in \u2018change your thoughts\u2019 with\nmethod and success in the case of cross, or even delirious, or morbid\npatients. We (of the Parents\u2019 Union) feel as if we had a tool in our\nhands and knew how to set to work. The principle, anyhow, we perceive to\nbe right, and, if we blunder in its application, we try again, whether\nfor ourselves or for our children. We know that \u2018one custom overcometh\nanother,\u2019 and that one idea supplants another. We do not give up a child\nto be selfish, or greedy, or lazy. These are cases for treatment; and a\nchild who has been cured by his mother of some such blemish will not be\nslow to believe when he grows up in the possibility of reform for others,\nand in the use of simple, practical means.\n\n=Intimacy with Persons of all Classes.=\u2014Sociology is a long word, but\nit implies a practical relation with other people which children should\nbegin to get, and it is a kind of knowledge they are very ready for.\nThe carpenter, the gardener, the baker, the candlestick maker, are all\ndelightful persons; and it is surprising how much a child at the seaside\nwill get to know about boats and sails and fishermen\u2019s lives that will\npass by his unobservant elders. Most working men are on their honour\nwith children, and every craftsman is a valuable acquaintance to a\nchild. Later, when his working neighbours come before him in the shape\nof \u2018causes\u2019 and \u2018questions,\u2019 he will see the men and their crafts behind\nthe veil of words; and in his \u2018Book of Trades,\u2019 a _Who\u2019s Who_ for the\nmillion, he will look out for the heading _Recreation_, for shoemaker,\ntailor, factory-hand, as well as for the distinguished author and the\nmember of Parliament. There is nothing like early intimacy for helping\none to know people. That is why what the tub-orator calls \u2018the bloated\naristocrat\u2019 knows how to get on with everybody; he has been intimate with\nall sorts and conditions of men since his babyhood.\n\n=Fitness as Citizens.=\u2014The value of self-managed clubs and committees,\ndebating societies, etc., for young people, is becoming more and more\nfully recognised. Organising capacity, business habits, and some power of\npublic speaking, should be a part of our fitness as citizens. To secure\nthe power of speaking, I think it would be well if the habit of narration\nwere more encouraged, in place of written composition. On the whole, it\nis more useful to be able to speak than to write, and the man or woman\nwho is able to do the former can generally do the latter.\n\n=Relations with each other as Human Beings.=\u2014But the subject of our\nrelations with each other as human beings is inexhaustible, and I can\ndo no more than indicate a point here and there, and state again my\nconviction that a system of education should have for its aim, not the\nmastery of certain \u2018subjects,\u2019 but the establishment of these relations\nin as many directions as circumstances will allow.\n\n=Relation to Almighty God.=\u2014I have set before the reader the proposition\nthat a human being comes into the world, not to develop his faculties\nnor to acquire knowledge, nor even to earn his living, but to establish\ncertain relations; which relations are to him the means of immeasurable\nexpansion and fulness of living. We have touched upon two groups of these\nrelations\u2014his relations to the universe of matter and to the world of\nmen. To complete his education, I think there is but one more relation to\nbe considered\u2014his relation to Almighty God. How many children are to-day\ntaught to say at their mother\u2019s knee, to learn from day to day and from\nhour to hour, in all its fulness of meaning\u2014\u2018My duty towards God is to\nbelieve in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him with all my heart, with all\nmy mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship Him,\nto give Him thanks, to put my whole trust in Him, to call upon Him, to\nhonour His holy name and His word, and to serve Him truly all the days\nof my life\u2019? Whether children are taught their duty towards God in these\nor other words matters little; but few of us will venture to say that,\nin this short summary, more is demanded than it is our bounden duty and\nservice to yield. But I fear that many children grow up untaught in these\nmatters. The idea of _duty_ is not wrought into the very texture of their\nsouls; and _duty_ to Him who is invisible, which should be the very\nfoundation of life, is least taught of all. I do not say that children\nare allowed to grow up without religious sentiments and religious\nemotions, and that they do not say quaint and surprising things, showing\nthat they have an insight of their own into the higher life.\n\n=Sentiment is not Duty.=\u2014But duty and sentiment are two things. Sentiment\nis optional; and young people grow up to think that they _may_ believe in\nGod, _may_ fear God, _may_ love God in a measure\u2014but that they _must_ do\nthese things, that there is no choice at all about the love and service\nof God, that it is their duty, that which they _owe_, to love Him \u2018with\nall their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, with all their\nstrength,\u2019 these things are seldom taught and understood as they should\nbe. Even where our sentiment is warm, our religious notions are lax;\nand children, the children of good, religious parents, grow up without\nthat intimate, ever-open, ever-cordial, ever-corresponding relation with\nAlmighty God, which is the very fulfilment of life; which, whoso hath,\nhath eternal life; which, whoso hath not, is, like Coleridge\u2019s \u2018lovely\nLady Geraldine,\u2019 ice-cold and dead at heart, however much he may labour\nfor the free course of all other relations.\n\n \u201cI want,\u2014am made for,\u2014and must have a God,\n Ere I can be aught, do aught;\u2014no mere Name\n Want,\u2014but the True Thing, with what proves its truth,\u2014\n To wit, a relation from that Thing to me,\n Touching from head to foot:\u2014which Touch I feel,\n And with it take the rest, this Life of ours!\u201d\n\n \u2014_Browning._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nA GREAT EDUCATIONALIST\n\n(_A REVIEW_)\n\n\n=We look to Germany for Educational Reform.=\u2014We in England require, every\nnow and then, to pull ourselves together, and to ask what they are doing\non the Continent in the way of education. We still hark back to the older\nGerman educational reformers. We may not know much of Comenius, Basedow,\nRatich; we do know something of Pestalozzi and Froebel; but how much do\nwe know of the thought of Johann Friedrich Herbart, the lineal successor\nof these, who has largely displaced his predecessors in the field of\nPedagogics?\n\n=Herbartian Thought the most advanced on the Continent.=\u2014How entirely\nGerman educators work upon Herbart, and Herbart only, is proved by the\nexistence of a Herbartian educational literature greatly more extensive\nthan the whole of our English educational literature put together.\n\nA little volume on the _Outlines of Pedagogics_,[8] by Professor W. Rein,\nof the University of Jena, is offered to us by the translators, C. C. and\nIda J. Van Liew, as a brief introduction to the study of Herbart and his\nschool, the author making due allowance for the advances that have been\nmade in the decades that have elapsed since Herbart\u2019s death.\n\nAs Herbart and his interpreters represent the most advanced school of\neducational thought on the Continent, it will, perhaps, be interesting to\nthe reader to make a slight comparison between the educational philosophy\nI am trying to set forth, and the school of thought which exercises such\nimmense influence in Germany.\n\n=Comparison with P.N.E.U. Thought.=\u2014One of the most characteristic\nfeatures of Herbart\u2019s thinking, and that feature of it which constitutes\na new school of educational thought, is, that he rejects the notion of\nseparate mental faculties. The earlier reformers, notably Pestalozzi and\nFroebel, divide the faculties up with something of the precision of a\nphrenologist, and a chief business of education is, according to them,\n\u2018to develop the faculties.\u2019\n\n=The Development of the Faculties.=\u2014There is a certain pleasing neatness\nin this idea which is very attractive. We want to know, definitely, what\nwe have to do. Why, develop the perceptive faculties here, with the\nconceptive there, the judgment in this lesson, the affections in the\nother, until you have covered the whole ground, giving each so-called\nfaculty its due share of developmental exercise! But, say the followers\nof Herbart, we have changed all that. The mind, like Wordsworth\u2019s cloud,\nmoves altogether when it moves at all.\n\n=We, like Herbart, discard the \u2018Faculties.\u2019=\u2014Now this appears to be but\na slight fundamental difference, but it is one upon the recognition of\nwhich education changes front. The whole system of beautifully organised\nlessons, whose object is to develop this or that faculty, is called in\nquestion; for the _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of specialised intellectual gymnastics\nis gone when we no longer recognise particular \u2018muscles\u2019 of the mind to\nbe developed. The aim of education must be something quite other, and, if\nthe aim is other, the methods must be altered, for what is method but _a\nway to an end_? So far we are entirely with Herbart; we do not believe in\nthe \u2018faculties\u2019; therefore we do not believe in the \u2018development of the\nfaculties\u2019; therefore we do not regard lessons as instruments for this\n\u2018development\u2019: in fact, our whole method of procedure is altered.\n\n=Pervasiveness of Dominant Ideas.=\u2014Again, we are with the philosopher in\nhis recognition of the force of an idea, and especially of those ideas\nwhich are, as we phrase it, in the air at any given moment. \u201cBoth the\ncircle of the family and that of social intercourse are subjected to\nforces that are active in the entire social body, and that penetrate\nthe entire atmosphere of human life in invisible channels. No one knows\nwhence these currents, these ideas arise; but they are there. They\ninfluence the moods, the aspirations, and the inclinations of humanity,\nand no one, however powerful, can withdraw himself from their effects;\nno sovereign\u2019s command makes its way into their depths. They are often\nborn of a genius to be seized upon by the multitude that soon forgets\ntheir author; then the power of the thought that has thus become active\nin the masses again impels the individual to energetic resolutions: in\nthis manner it is constantly describing a remarkable circle. Originating\nwith those that are highly gifted, these thoughts permeate all society,\nreaching, in fact, not only its adult members, but also through these\nits youth, and appearing again in other highly gifted individuals in whom\nthey will perhaps have been elevated to a definite form.\n\n\u201cWhether the power of these dominant ideas is greater in the individual,\nor in the body of individuals as a whole, is a matter of indifference\nhere. Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that their effect upon the\none is manifested in a reciprocal action upon the other, and that their\ninfluence upon the younger generation is indisputable.\u201d\n\n=The Zeitgeist.=\u2014We entirely agree that no one can escape the influence\nof this Zeitgeist, and that the Zeitgeist is, in fact, one of the most\npowerful of the occult educational influences, and one which parents and\nall who have the training of children will do well to reckon with in the\nadjustment of their work.\n\n=The Child\u2019s Schoolmasters.=\u2014Nature, family, social intercourse, this\nZeitgeist, the Church and the State, thus Professor Rein, as interpreting\nHerbart, sums up the schoolmasters under whose influences every child\ngrows up; a suggestive enumeration we should do well to consider.\n\u2018_Erziehung ist Sache der Familien; von da geht sie aus und dahin kehrt\nsie gr\u00f6ssenteils zur\u00fcck_,\u2019 says Herbart. He considers, as do we, that\nby far the most valuable part of education is carried on in the family,\nbecause of the union of all the members under a common parentage, of the\nfeeling of dependence upon a head, of the very intimate knowledge to be\ngained of the younger members.\n\n=A Noble Piety.=\u2014\u201cThe members of the family look confidently to the\nhead; and this sense of dependence favours, at the same time, the proper\nreception of that which is dearest to mankind, namely, the religious\nfeeling. If the life of the family is permeated by a noble piety, a\nsincere religious faith will take root in the hearts of the children.\nFaithful devotion to the guide of the youth also calls forth faithful\ndevotion to Him who controls human destinies\u2014a thought which Herbart\nexpresses so beautifully in the words\u2014\u2018To the child, the family should be\nthe symbol of the order in the world; from the parents one should derive\nby idealisation the characteristics of the deity.\u2019\u201d\n\n=A Medi\u00e6val Conception of Education.=\u2014This idea of all education\nspringing from and resting upon our relation to Almighty God is one\nwhich we have ever laboured to enforce. We take a very distinct stand\nupon this point. We do not merely give a _religious_ education, because\nthat would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a\nsecular education, for example. But we hold that all education is\ndivine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above,\nthat the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and\nthat the culmination of all education (which may, at the same time, be\nreached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy\nwith God in which our being finds its fullest perfection. We hold, in\nfact, that great conception of education held by the medi\u00e6val Church, as\npictured upon the walls of the Spanish chapel in Florence. Here we have\nrepresented the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Twelve, and directly\nunder them, fully under the illuminating rays, are the noble figures\nof the seven liberal arts, Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Music, Astronomy,\nGeometry, Arithmetic, and under these again the men who received and\nexpressed, so far as the artist knew, the initial idea in each of these\nsubjects; such men as Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Euclid, whom _we_ might call\npagans, but whom the earlier Church recognised as divinely taught and\nilluminated.\n\n=The Family Principle.=\u2014Here follows a passage which we do more than\nendorse, for it contains the very _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of our society. \u201cThe\neducation of the children will always remain the holiest and highest\nof all family duties. The welfare, civilisation, and culture of a\npeople depend essentially upon the degree of success that attends the\neducation in the homes. The family principle is the point at which both\nthe religious and educational life of a people centres, and about which\nit revolves. It is a force in comparison with which every sovereign\u2019s\ncommand appears powerless.\u201d\n\nBy the way, we are inclined to think that Dr Rein\u2019s mention of\nRousseau is a little misleading. It is true that in _Emil_ the parents\nare supplanted, but, notwithstanding that fact, perhaps no other\neducationalist has done so much to awaken parents to their great work\nas educators. After investigating the conditions of home training, Dr\nRein proceeds to a discussion of schools (_a_) as they exist in Germany;\n(_b_) as they exist in his own ideal, a discussion which should be most\ninteresting to parents.\n\n=Uncertainty as to the Purpose of Education.=\u2014Teleology, _i.e._ the\ntheory of the purpose of education, falls next under discussion in\nan extremely instructive chapter. It is well we should know the vast\nuncertainty which exists on this fundamental point. As a matter of fact,\nfew of us know definitely what we propose to ourselves in the education\nof our children. We do not know what it is possible to effect, and, as\na man does not usually compass more than he aims at, the results of our\neducation are very inadequate and unsatisfactory.\n\n=Some Attempts to fix the Purpose of Education.=\u2014\u201cShall the educator\nfollow Rousseau and educate a man of nature in the midst of civilised\nmen? In so doing, as Herbart has shown, we should simply repeat from the\nbeginning the entire series of evils that have already been surmounted.\nOr shall we turn to Locke and prepare the pupil for the world which is\ncustomarily in league with worldlings? We should then arrive at the\nstandpoint of Basedow, and aim to educate the pupil so that he would\nbecome a truly useful member of human society. Of course we should always\nbe harassed with the secret doubt as to whether this is the ideal purpose\nafter all, and whether we are not at times directly enjoined to place the\npupil at variance with the usage and customary dealings of the world. If\nwe reflect that an endless career is open to man for his improvement, we\nrealise that only that education, whose aims are always the highest, can\nhope to reach the lofty goals that mark this career.\n\n\u201cTherefore an ideal aim must be present in the mind of the educator.\nPossibly he can obtain information and help from Pestalozzi, whose nature\nevinced such ideal tendencies. Pestalozzi wished the welfare of mankind\nto be sought in the harmonious cultivation of _all_ powers. If one only\nknew what is to be understood by a multiplicity of mental powers, and\nwhat is meant by the _harmony_ of various powers. These phrases sound\nvery attractive, but give little satisfaction. The purely _formal_ aims\nof education will appeal just as little to the educator: \u2018Educate the\npupil to independence\u2019; or, \u2018Educate the pupil to be his own educator\u2019;\nor, \u2018Educate the pupil so that \u201cit\u201d will become better than \u201cits\u201d\neducator.\u2019 (_Hermann and Dorothea_, Hector and Astyanax in the _Iliad_.)\nSuch and similar attempts to fix the purpose of education are abundant\nin the history of pedagogy; but they do not bring us nearer the goal. In\ntheir formal character they do not say, for example, of what kind the\nindependence shall be, what content it shall have, what aims it shall\nhave in view, or in what directions its course shall lie. For the pupil\nthat has become independent can use his freedom rightly for good just as\nwell as misuse it for evil.\u201d\n\n=Herbart\u2019s Theory, Ethical.=\u2014Herbart\u2019s own theory of education, so far\nas we may venture to formulate it, is strictly ethical as opposed to\nintellectual, that is, the development and sustenance of the intellect\nis of secondary importance to the educator for two reasons: character\nbuilding is the matter of first importance to human beings; and this\nbecause, (_a_) train character and intellectual \u2018development\u2019 largely\ntakes care of itself, and (_b_) the lessons designed for intellectual\nculture have high ethical value, whether stimulating or disciplinary.\nThis is familiar ground to us: we too have taught, in season and out of\nseason, that the formation of character is the aim of the educator. So\nfar, we are at one with the philosopher; but, may we venture to say it?\nwe have arrived, through the study of Physiology, at the definiteness of\naim which he desires but does not reach.\n\n=Obscurity of Psychology.=\u2014We must appeal, he says, to Psychology, but\nthen, he adds, \u201cof course we cannot expect a concordant answer from all\npsychologists; and in view of the obscurity which still prevails in this\nsphere, the different views as to the nature of the human soul and the\nextraordinary difficulty with which the empirical method of investigation\nmeets, an absolutely indubitable explanation can hardly be expected.\u201d\n\n=Two Luminous Principles.=\u2014This is doubtless true of Psychology alone,\nbut of Psychology illuminated by Physiology we have another tale to tell.\nIt is the study of that border-land betwixt mind and matter, the brain,\nwhich yields the richest results to the educator. For the brain is the\nseat of habit: the culture of habit is, to a certain extent, physical\nculture: the discipline of habit is at least a third part of the great\nwhole which we call education, and here we feel that the physical science\nof to-day has placed us far in advance of the philosopher of fifty years\nago. We hold with him entirely as to the importance of great formative\nideas in the education of children, but we add to our ideas, habits, and\nwe labour to form habits upon a physical basis. Character is the result\nnot merely of the great ideas which are given to us, but of the habits\nwhich we labour to form _upon those ideas_. We recognise both principles,\nand the result is a wide range of possibilities in education, practical\nmethods, and a definite aim. We labour to produce a human being at his\nbest physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, with the enthusiasms\nof religion, of the good life, of nature, knowledge, art, and manual\nwork; and we do _not_ labour in the dark.\n\nI have ventured to indicate in a former chapter what appears to me the\nroot-defect of the educational philosophy of this great thinker\u2014that\nit tends to eliminate personality, and therefore leads to curious\nfutilities in teaching. It is therefore the more gratifying to observe\nthat certain fundamental ideas, long the property of the world, which we\nhave embraced in our scheme of thought, appealed with equal force to so\ngreat and original a thinker as Herbart.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL TRAINING\n\n\nPerhaps never since the days of the Olympian games has more attention\nbeen paid to physical culture than it receives in England to-day.\nBut possibly this physical cult suffers from the want of unity and\nsanctity of purpose which nullifies to a considerable extent most of our\neducational efforts.\n\n=Does our Physical Culture make Heroes?=\u2014We want to turn out \u2018a fine\nanimal,\u2019 a man or woman with a fine physique and in good condition,\nand we get what we lay ourselves out for. The development, in women\nespecially, within the last twenty years, is amazing. I heard it\nremarked the other day that the stiff little brocaded dresses of our\ngreat-grandmothers, which are kept here and there, appear to have\nbelonged to little women, while the grandmothers we are rearing to-day\npromise to be daughters of Anak. So far, so good. All the same, it is\nquestionable whether we are making heroes; and this was the object of\nphysical culture among the early Greeks, anyway. Men must be heroes, or\nhow could they fulfil the heavy tasks laid upon them by the gods? Heroes\nare not made in a day; therefore, the boy was trained from his infancy\nin heroic exercises, and the girl brought up to be the mother of heroes.\nFlashes of the heroic temper seem to remain to this day in that little\ncountry with a great history. \u2018Your son has behaved like a hero,\u2019 was\nsaid to the mother of a soldier who fell some years ago. \u2018That\u2019s what I\nbore him for,\u2019 was the reply. Englishmen, too, can die, but it is not so\ncertain that they can live, like heroes. The object of the fine physical\nculture that English youths and maidens receive is, too often, the\npoor and narrow one that they may get the most, especially the most of\nphysical enjoyment, out of life; and so young people train their bodies\nto hardships, and pamper them with ease and self-indulgence, by turns,\nthe one and the other being for their own pleasure; the pampering being\nthe more delightful after the period of training, the training itself\nrather a pleasant change from the softness of pampering.\n\n=A Serviceable Body, the End of Physical Culture.=\u2014Some of our young\npeople prefer to endure hardness all the time, and go off in the\nBerserker spirit to find adventures; but even this is not the best that\nmight be done. The object of athletics and gymnastics should be kept\nsteadily to the front; enjoyment is good by the way, but is not the end;\nthe end is the preparation of a body, available from crown to toe, for\nwhatever behest \u2018the gods\u2019 may lay upon us. It is a curious thing that\nwe, in the full light of Revelation, have a less idea of vocation and\nof preparation for that vocation than had nations of the Old World with\ntheir \u2018few, faint and feeble\u2019 rays of illumination as to the meaning and\npurpose of life. \u2018Ye _are_ your own,\u2019 is perhaps the unspoken thought of\nmost young persons\u2014your own, and free to do what you like with your own.\nTherefore, excess in sports, excess in easy-going pleasure, excess in\nstudy, excess in desultory reading, excess of carelessness in regard to\nhealth, any excess that we have a mind to, is lawful to us if only it is\nexpedient. This loose morality with regard to our physical debts, without\ntouching actual vice, which is probably on the decline, is the reason why\nthe world does not get all that it should out of splendid material.\n\n=Ye are not Your Own.=\u2014But if children are brought up from the first with\nthis magnet\u2014\u2018Ye are _not_ your own\u2019; the divine Author of your being has\ngiven you life, and a body finely adapted for His service; He gives you\nthe work of preserving this body in health, nourishing it in strength,\nand training it in fitness for whatever special work He may give you to\ndo in His world,\u2014why, young people themselves would readily embrace a\nmore Spartan regimen; they would desire to be available, and physical\ntransgressions and excesses, however innocent they seem, would be\nself-condemned by the person who felt that he was trifling with a trust.\n\nIt would be good work to keep to the front this idea of living under\nauthority, training under authority, serving under authority, a\ndiscipline of life readily self-embraced by children, in whom the heroic\nimpulse is always strong. We would not reduce the pleasures of childhood\nand youth by an iota; rather we would increase them, for the disciplined\nlife has more power of fresh enjoyment than is given to the unrestrained.\nNeither is it lawful for parents to impose any unnecessary rigours upon\ntheir children; this was the error of the eighteenth century and of the\nearly decades of our own age, when hunger, cold, and denial, which was\nby no means self-denial, were supposed wholesome for children. All we\nclaim is that every young person shall be brought up under the sense of\n_authority_ in the government, management, and training of his body. The\nsense that health is a duty, and that any trifling with health, whether\nvicious or careless, is really of the nature of suicide, springs from\nthis view\u2014that life is held in trust from a supreme Authority.\n\nDirect teaching or reading on such subjects as the following might be\nprofitable to parents and teachers on the one hand and to boys and girls\non the other:\u2014\n\nGreek games and Greek heroes.\n\nHow a child may be trained to his physical responsibilities.\n\nThe vocation of the body.\n\n\u2018Innocent\u2019 excesses.\n\nUnlawful and lawful home discipline.\n\nThe heroic impulse.\n\nThe training afforded by games.\n\nAthletics, their use and abuse.\n\nParental authority in physical matters.\n\nThe right uses of self-denial.\n\nThe government, management, and training of the body.\n\nThe duty of health.\n\n=Use of Habit in Physical Training.=\u2014It is well that a child should be\ntaught to keep under his body and bring it into subjection, first, to the\nauthority of his parents and, later, to the authority of his own will;\nand always, because no less than this is due, to the divine Authority\nin whom he has his being. But to bring ourselves under authority at all\ntimes would require a constantly repeated effort of thought and will\nwhich would make life too laborious. Authority must be sustained by\nhabit. We all know something of the genesis of a habit, and most of us\nrecognise its physical basis, _i.e._ that frequently-repeated thoughts or\nacts leave some sort of register in the brain tissue which tends to make\nthe repetition of such thoughts, at first easy, and at last automatic.\nIn all matters of physical exercise it is obvious to us that\u2014do a thing\na hundred times and it becomes easy, do a thing a thousand times and it\nbecomes mechanical, as easy to do as not. This principle is abundantly\napplied in cricket, boating, golf, cycling, all the labours we delight\nin. But there is an outfit of half-physical, half-moral habits of life\nwhich the playing-field tends to form, but which are apt to be put on and\noff with the flannels if they are not steadily and regularly practised\nin the home life also. These are the habitudes which it is the part of\nparents to give their children, and, indeed, they do form part of the\ntraining of all well brought-up young people; but it is well not to lose\nsight of this part of our work.\n\n=Self-restraint.=\u2014Self-restraint in indulgences is a habit which most\neducated mothers form with care. Children are well and agreeably fed, and\nthey do not hanker after a bit of this and a taste of the other. Whether\none or two sweetmeats a day are allowed, or whether they go without\nany, well brought-up children do not seem to mind. It is the children\nof cottage homes who, even when they are comfortably fed and clothed,\nkeep the animal instinct of basking in the heat of the fire. But there\nis perhaps danger lest the habits of the nursery and schoolroom should\nlapse in the case of older boys and girls. It is easy to get into the\nway of lounging in an armchair with a novel in the intervals between\nengagements which are, in fact, amusements. This sort of thing was a\nmatter of conscience with an older generation; lethargic, self-indulgent\nintervals were not allowed. When people were not amusing themselves\nhealthfully, they were occupying themselves profitably; and, little as we\nmay think of the crewel-work our grandmothers have left behind, it was\nbetter for them morally and physically than the relaxed muscles and mind\nof the novel and the lounge. No doubt the bodily fatigue which follows\nour more active exercises has something to say in the matter, but it is a\ngrave question whether bodily exercises of any kind should be so frequent\nand so excessive as to leave us without mental and moral vigour in the\nintervals.\n\n=Self-control.=\u2014Self-control in emergencies is another habit of the\ndisciplined life in which a child should be trained from the first; it\nis the outcome of a general habit of self-control. We all see how ice\naccidents, boat accidents, disasters by fire (like a late melancholy\nevent in Paris), might be minimised in their effects if only one person\npresent were under perfect self-control, which implies the power of\norganising and controlling others. But the habit of holding oneself well\nin hand, the being impervious to small annoyances, cheerful under small\ninconveniences, ready for action with what is called \u2018presence of mind\u2019\nin all the little casualties of the hour\u2014this is a habit which should be\ntrained in the nursery. If children were sent into the world with this\npart of their panoply complete, we should no longer have the spectacle of\nthe choleric Briton and of the nervous and fussy British lady at every\nforeign _do\u00fbane_; people would not jostle for the best places at a\npublic function; the mistresses of houses would not be fretted and worn\nout by the misdoings of their maids; the thousand little sorenesses of\nsocial life would be soothed, if children were trained to bear little\nhurts to body and mind without sign. \u2018If you are vexed, don\u2019t show it,\u2019\nis usually quite safe teaching, because every kind of fretfulness,\nimpatience, resentfulness, and nervous irritability generally, grows\nwith expression and passes away under self-control. It is worth while to\nremember that the physical signs promote the mental state just as much as\nthe mental state causes the physical signs.\n\n=Self-discipline.=\u2014The discipline of habit is never complete until it\nbecomes self-discipline in habits. It is not a trifle that even the\nnursery child messes his feeder, spills his milk, breaks his playthings,\ndawdles about his small efforts. The well-trained child delights to bring\nhimself into good habits in these respects. He knows that to be cleanly,\nneat, prompt, orderly, is so much towards making a man of him, and man\nand hero are in his thought synonymous terms. Supposing that good habits\nhave not been set up at home, parents look to school life to supply the\nomission; but the habits practised in school and relaxed at home, because\n\u2018it\u2019s holidays now, you know,\u2019 do not really become habits of the life.\n\n=Local Habits.=\u2014The fact that habits have a tendency to become local,\nthat in one house a child will be neat, prompt, diligent; in another\nuntidy, dawdling, and idle, points to the necessity for self-discipline\non the part of even a young child.\n\n \u201cSelf-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,\n These three alone lead life to sovereign power.\u201d\n\nThis subject of training in becoming habits is so well understood amongst\nus that I need only add that such habits are not fully formed so long as\nsupervision is necessary. At first, a child wants the support of constant\nsupervision, but, by degrees, he is left to do the thing he ought of his\nown accord. Habits of behaviour, habits of deportment, habits of address,\ntones of voice, etc., all the habits of a gentleman-like bearing and a\nkind and courteous manner, fall under this head of self-discipline in\nbodily habits.\n\n \u201cWhen first thou camest\u2014such a courtesy\n Spake through the limbs and in the voice\u2014I knew\n For one of those who eat in Arthur\u2019s hall.\u201d\n\n=Alertness.=\u2014Many a good man and woman thinks regretfully of the\nopportunities in life they have let slip through a certain physical\ninertness. They missed the chance of doing some little service, or some\npiece of courtesy, because they did not see in time. It is well to bring\nup children to think it is rather a sad failure if they miss a chance\nof going a message, opening a door, carrying a parcel, any small act\nof service that presents itself. They should be taught to be equally\nalert to seize opportunities of getting knowledge; it is the nature of\nchildren to regard each grown-up person they meet as a fount of knowledge\non some particular subject; let their training keep up the habit of\neager inquiry. Success in life depends largely upon the cultivation of\nalertness to seize opportunities, and this is largely a physical habit.\nWe all know how opportunity is imaged\u2014a figure flying past so rapidly\nthat there is no means of catching him but, in advance, by the forelock\nwhich overhangs his brow.\n\n=Quick Perception.=\u2014Closely connected with that of alertness is the\nhabit of quick perception as to all that is to be seen, heard, felt,\ntasted, smelt in a world which gives illimitable information through our\nfive gateways of knowledge. Mr Grant, in his most interesting studies\nof Neapolitan character, describes the training of a young Camorrist\n(the Camorra is a dangerous political faction; and, ill as we may think\nof the ends of such training, the means are well worth recording).\n\u201cThe great object of this part of his training was to teach him to\nobserve habitually with minuteness and accuracy, and it was conducted in\nsomething like the following manner. When walking through the city the\nCamorrist would suddenly pause and ask, \u2018How was the woman dressed who\nsat at the door of the fourth house in the last street?\u2019 or, \u2018What were\nthe two men talking about whom we met at the corner of the last street\nbut three?\u2019 or, \u2018Where was cab 234 ordered to drive to?\u2019 or perhaps it\nwould be, \u2018What is the height of that house and the breadth of its upper\nwindow?\u2019 or, \u2018Where does that man live?\u2019\u201d This habit, again largely a\nphysical habit, of quick perception has been dwelt upon in other aspects.\nAll that now need be urged is that the quickness of observation natural\nto a child should not be relied upon; in time, and especially as school\nstudies press upon him, his early quickness deserts the boy, but the\ntrained habit of seeing all that is to be seen, hearing all that is to be\nheard, remains through life. I have not space to go further into these\nhabitudes of body, which become also, mental and moral habitudes, but\nperhaps reading and reflection and direct teaching on such subjects as\nthe following would be useful:\u2014\n\nSelf-control in emergencies.\n\nSelf-restraint in indulgences.\n\nSelf-discipline in habits.\n\nAlertness to seize opportunities.\n\nPromptness and vigour in bodily exercises.\n\nQuick perception as to that which is to be seen, heard, felt, tasted,\nsmelt.\n\n=Stimulating Ideas.=\u2014A habit becomes morally binding in proportion to\nthe inspiring power of the _idea_ which underlies it. When I was a child\nI used to have a book full of moral aphorisms from the Greek and Latin\nclassics, translated. These fine rolling sentences, full of matter, made,\nI recollect, a great impression on me; and one can understand that the\nGreek or Roman boy, brought up on this strong meat, developed virtues in\nregard to which we are a little slack. In like manner the early Church\npersonified and typified in a thousand ways the three evangelical and\nfour cardinal virtues and the opposing seven deadly sins. We shall have\nto revive this kind of teaching if we would have children undertake the\nlabour of the discipline of habit, a discipline that we can do no more\nthan initiate.\n\n=Fortitude.=\u2014Touch the right spring and children are capable of an\namazing amount of steady effort. I know a little boy of ten who set\nhimself the task of a solitary race of three miles every day in the\nhot summer holidays because he was to compete in a race when he went\nback to school; and this, not because he cared much about sports, but\nbecause his eldest brother had always distinguished himself in them,\nand he must do the same. When we think how little power we have to do\nthe tiresome things we set ourselves to do every day, we appreciate the\nself-compelling power a child can use, given a strong enough impulse.\nThe long name, Fortitude, would have its effect on the little boy in\nthe dentist\u2019s hands. It is good to know that it is a manly and knightly\nvirtue to be strong to bear pain and inconvenience without making any\nsign. The story of the Spartan boy and the fox will still wake an echo;\nand the girl who finds it a fine thing to endure hardness will not make\na fuss about her physical sensations. She will be pained for the want of\nfortitude which called forth the reproof, \u2018Could ye not watch with me one\nhour?\u2019 and will brace herself to bear, that she may be able to serve.\nPortia, the wife of Brutus, gave a fair test of her quality when she\nwounded her tender flesh to prove that she was fit to share her husband\u2019s\ncounsels.\n\n=Service.=\u2014Service is another knightly quality which a child should be\nnerved for by heroic examples until he grudges to let slip an opportunity.\n\n=Courage.=\u2014Courage, too, should be something more than the impulse of\nthe moment; it is a natural fire to be fed by heroic example and by the\nteaching that the thing to be done is always of more consequence than the\ndoer.\n\n=Prudence.=\u2014Prudence, too, is a condition of knightly service, whether\nto our kind or to our kin, and courage without prudence is recklessness;\nbut, in this connection of bodily service, prudence is largely concerned\nwith the duty of health. I have heard of a boy at a school where a\ngood deal of hygienic teaching was given, getting quite anxious and\novercharged with the care of his own health. This meaner kind of caution\nis not worthy to be called prudence, which should regard every physical\npower as a means of service and of conflict, and should think it a shame\nby any foolhardiness to make any part of the body unable for its due\nservice.\n\n=Chastity.=\u2014For Chastity we can have no impulse higher than \u2018Your bodies\nare the temples of the Holy Ghost\u2019; but how inadequately do we present\nthe thought! The inspiring ideas which should sustain all physical\nculture and training are very numerous, and teaching on such subjects as\nChastity, Fortitude, Courage, Constancy, Prudence, Temperance, with the\nconsideration of heroic examples, should strengthen the hands of parents\nand teachers for the better physical culture of their charges. Parents\nwould do well to see to it that they turn out their children fit for\nservice, not only by observing the necessary hygienic conditions, but by\nbringing their bodies under rule, training them in habits and inspiring\nthem with the ideas of knightly service.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL TRAINING\n\n\n=We are Law-abiding in Matters Physical and Moral.=\u2014We all recognise that\nwe are under the reign of law so far as our bodies go. We know that \u2018put\nyour finger in the fire and it will be burnt,\u2019 \u2018sit in a draught and you\nwill catch cold,\u2019 \u2018live a vigorous and temperate life and health will be\nyour reward.\u2019 That law attends our steps with its penalties and rewards\nin all matters physical we know very well. Some of us go further and have\na personal sense of the Lawgiver in matters of sickness and health. In\nsickness especially we feel that God is dealing with us, and we endeavour\nto lay ourselves open to the lesson of the hour. In moral matters, too,\nwe live under the law. We may forget ourselves, but we have compunctions\nand are aware of penalties.\n\n=Not so in Matters Intellectual.=\u2014But in matters intellectual we are\ndisposed to stand upon our rights. Here we recognise no authority, abide\nby no law. Every man is free to his own opinion, however casually formed.\nEvery man kindles his own \u2018lights,\u2019 and thinks that no more is expected\nof him than to live up to those lights. In fact our attitude with regard\nto our own intellectual processes leads to that disturbing sense of\nduality which causes the shipwreck of many lives, the distressing unrest\nof others, and the easy drifting of many more. Our thinking is not a\nseparate thing from our conduct and our prayers, or even from our bodily\nwell-being. Man is not several entities. He is one spirit (visibly\nexpressed in bodily form), with many powers. He can work and love and\npray and live righteously, but all these are the outcome of the manner of\nthoughts he thinks.\n\n=Three Ultimate Facts\u2014Not open to Question.=\u2014There are two directions\nin which we commit intellectual offences against the law, and oppose\nourselves to authority. In the first place we are disposed to regard\neverything by turns as an open question. We forget that there are three\nultimate postulates which the thought of man can neither prove nor\ndisprove, though in every age it has played uneasily about one or the\nother. God, Self, and the World, are the three fixed points of thought.\nThe active Western mind, with each new evolution of scientific thought,\nfinds again and again that there is no place for God in the world; nay,\nso active and pleasant is the conception of self that an important school\nof philosophy has demonstrated that the real world is no more than a\nsimulacrum, a mirage, as it were, projected from the conscious self.\nThe more passive Eastern mind, is, on the contrary, inclined to regard\nselfhood as a passing phase in a state of absorption or reabsorption by\ndeity. But when we learn to realise that\u2014God is, Self is, the World is,\nwith all that these existences imply, quite untouched by any thinking of\nours, unprovable, and self-proven,\u2014why, we are at once put into a more\nhumble attitude of mind. We recognise that above us, about us, within\nus, there are \u2018more things ... than are dreamt of in our philosophy.\u2019 _We\nrealise ourselves as persons, we have a local habitation, and we live\nand move and have our being in and under a supreme authority._ It is not\nwell we should take it for granted that everybody knows these things.\nPerhaps we all have a hearsay acquaintance with, but very few of us have\na realising knowledge of, these ultimate facts.\n\n=Limitations of Reason.=\u2014A second direction in which it is well that\nwe should recognise our limitations is with regard to the nature and\nfunction of what we call our reason, and should, perhaps, describe more\naccurately as our power of reasoning. We all know how often we go to bed\nwith a difficult question to settle. We say we will sleep upon it, and,\nin the morning, behold, the whole question has worked itself into shape:\nwe see all its bearings and know just how to act. We are so accustomed\nto take wonders as matters of course, mere everyday events, that it does\nnot occur to us to be surprised. We even say, the mind is clearer after\nsleep, regardless of the fact that we have no labour of thinking at all\nin the morning; all comes straight of itself. When we come to think of\nit, most of our decisions arrive in this unlaborious way. We really\ncannot say that we have thought such and such a matter out: the decision\ncomes to us in a flash, by an intuition, what you will. The subject is a\nlarge one, but all I care to stipulate for here is that children should\nbe taught to know that much of our reasoning and so-called thinking is\ninvoluntary,\u2014is as much a natural function as is the circulation of our\nblood, and that this very fact points to the limitations of reason.\n\n=Reason brings Logical Proof of any Idea we Entertain.=\u2014We, personally,\nmight or might not be trusted to come to a morally right conclusion from\nany premise we entertain. But the reasoning power, acting in a more or\nless mechanical and involuntary manner, does not necessarily work towards\nthe morally right conclusion. All that reason does for us is to prove,\nlogically, any idea we choose to entertain. For example, as we have said,\nimportant schools (Eastern and Western) of philosophy entertain the\nidea that there is no actual real world independent of man\u2019s conception\nthereof. The logical proofs of this premise pour in upon their minds\nin such volume that a considerable literature exists to prove an idea\nwhich on the face of it appears absurd. We all know that, entertain a\nnotion that a servant is dishonest, that a friend is false, that a dress\nis unbecoming, and some power within us, unconsciously to us, sets to\nwork to collect evidence and bring irrefragable proof of the position we\nhave chosen to take up. This is the history of wars and persecutions and\nfamily feuds all over the world. How necessary then that a child should\nbe instructed to understand the limitations of his own reason, so that\nhe will not confound logical demonstration with eternal truth, and will\nknow that the important thing to him is the ideas he permits himself\nto entertain, and not by any means the conclusions he draws from these\nideas, because these latter are self-evolved.\n\n=A Third Fallacy\u2014Intellect Man\u2019s Peculiar Sphere, Knowledge his Proper\nDiscovery.=\u2014A third fallacy which lies at the root of our thinking, and\ntherefore, of our education, is, that while nature, morals, and theology\nmay be more or less divine in their origin and relations, not only is\nintellect man\u2019s proper and peculiar sphere, but knowledge,\u2014the knowledge\nof witty inventions, of man and nature, of art and literature, of the\nheavens above and the earth beneath,\u2014all this knowledge is man\u2019s proper\ndiscovery. He has found it out himself, thought it out for himself,\nobserved, reasoned, collected, laboured, gathered his forces, altogether\nof his own will and for his own ends and as an independent agent. Now,\nthis pride of intellect also comes of the arrogance of man; not only\nin our age, which, I venture to think, is the very best age the world\nhas ever seen, but in all time, it is our nature to lift up our heads\nand say, \u2018We are the people; before us there were none like unto us,\nneither shall there be any more after us.\u2019 But when we come to ourselves\nwe realise that our Author and Father has not in this way made over any\nsingle vast realm of our lives into our own hands.\n\n=Great Eras come from Time to Time.=\u2014The knowledge that comes to us is\ngiven us in repasts, so to speak. Great eras of scientific discovery or\nliterary activity or poetic insight or artistic interpretation come to\nthe world from time to time; and then there is a long interval for the\nassimilation of the new knowledge or the new thought. After that, the\nworld is taken by storm by the rise of another constellation of its great\nintellects; and yet we do not discern the signs of the times nor realise\nthat thus our God is bringing us up in knowledge, which is also divine,\njust as much as in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The medi\u00e6val\nChurch recognised this great truth\u2014as Mr Ruskin has eloquently pointed\nout, showing how the \u2018Captain Figures,\u2019 the inventors, as it were, of\ngrammar and music, astronomy and geometry, arithmetic and logic, all\nspake that which was in them under the direct outpouring of the Holy\nSpirit, even though none of them had any such revelation of the true\nGod as we recognise. What a revolution should we have in our methods\nof education if we could once conceive that dry-as-dust subjects like\ngrammar and arithmetic should come to children, living with the life of\nthe Holy Spirit, who, we are told, \u2018shall teach you all things.\u2019\n\n=Nothing so Practical as Great Ideas.=\u2014It may occur to some readers to\nconsider that such lines of thought as I have suggested are perhaps\ninteresting but not practical. Believe me, nothing is so practical as\na great idea, because nothing produces such an abundant outcome of\npractical effort. We must not turn the cold shoulder to philosophy.\nEducation is no more than applied philosophy\u2014our effort to train children\naccording to the wisdom that is in us; and not according to the last\nnovelty in educational ideas.\n\n\u2018Man, know thyself,\u2019 is a counsel which we might render, \u2018Child, know\nthyself, and thy relations to God and man and nature\u2019; and to give their\nchildren this sort of preparation for life it is necessary that parents\nshould know something of the laws of mind and of the source of knowledge.\n\n=The Formation of Intellectual Habits.=\u2014The second part of our\nsubject\u2014the formation of intellectual habits\u2014need not occupy us long. We\nknow that the possession of some half-dozen such habits makes up what is\nwell called ability. They make a man able to do that which he desires to\ndo with his mental powers, and to labour at the cost of not a tenth part\nof the waste of tissue which the same work would exact of a person of\nundisciplined mental habits. We know, too, that the habits in question\nare acquired through training and are not bestowed as a gift. Genius\nitself, we have been told, is an infinite capacity for taking pains; we\nwould rather say, is the habit of taking infinite pains, for every child\nis born with the capacity.\n\n=We trust blindly to Disciplinary Subjects.=\u2014We trust perhaps a little\nblindly to the training which certain subjects give in certain mental\nhabits. The classics, we consider, cultivate in one direction, the\nmathematics, in another, science, in a third. So they do, undoubtedly, so\nfar as each of these subjects is concerned; but possibly not in forming\nthe general habits of intellectual life which we expect to result. Remove\nthe mathematician from his own field and he is not more exact or more on\nthe spot than other men; indeed he is rather given to make a big hole for\nthe cat and a little hole for the kitten! The humanities do not always\nmake a man humane, that is, liberal, tolerant, gentle, and candid, as\nregards the opinions and status of other men. The fault does not lie in\nany one of these or in any other of the disciplinary subjects, but in our\nindolent habit of using each of these as a sort of mechanical contrivance\nfor turning up the soil and sowing the seed. There is no reprieve for\nparents. It rests with them, even more than with the schoolmaster and his\ncurriculum, to form those mental habits which shall give intellectual\ndistinction to their children throughout their lives.\n\n=Some Intellectual Habits.=\u2014I need not refer again to the genesis of\na habit; but perhaps most of us set ourselves more definitely to form\nphysical and moral than we do to form intellectual habits. I will only\nmention a few such, which should be matters of careful training during\nthe period of childhood:\u2014_Attention_, the power of turning the whole\nforce of the mind upon the subject brought before it: _Concentration_,\nwhich differs from attention in that the mind is actively engaged on\nsome given problem rather than passively receptive: _Thoroughness_,\nthe habit of dissatisfaction with a slipshod, imperfect grasp of\na subject, and of mental uneasiness until a satisfying measure of\nknowledge is obtained;\u2014this habit is greatly encouraged by a reference\nto an encyclop\u00e6dia, to clear up any doubtful point, when it turns up:\n_Intellectual Volition_, the power, that is, of making ourselves think\nof a given subject at a given time;\u2014most of us know how trying our\nrefractory minds are in this matter, but, if the child is accustomed to\ntake pleasure in the effort as effort, the man will find it easy to make\nhimself think of what he will: _Accuracy_, which is to be taught, not\nonly through arithmetic, but through all the small statements, messages,\nand affairs of daily life: _Reflection_, the ruminating power which is so\nstrongly developed in children and is somehow lost with much besides of\nthe precious cargo they bring with them into the world. There is nothing\nsadder than the way we allow intellectual impressions to pass over the\nsurface of our minds, without any effort to retain or assimilate.\n\n=Meditation.=\u2014I can mention only one more invaluable habit. Mr Romanes\nconsulted Darwin about the conduct of his intellectual life. \u2018Meditate,\u2019\nwas the answer, and we are told that the younger scientist set great\nstore on this advice. Meditation is also a habit to be acquired, or\nrather preserved, for we believe that children are born to meditate, as\nthey are to reflect; indeed, the two are closely allied. In reflecting\nwe ruminate on what we have received. In meditating we are not content\nto go over the past, we allow our minds to follow out our subject to\nall its issues. It has long been known that progress in the Christian\nlife depends much upon meditation; intellectual progress, too, depends,\nnot on mere reading or the laborious getting up of a subject which we\ncall study, but on that active surrender of all the powers of the mind\nto the occupation of the subject in hand, which is intended by the word\nmeditation. It would be easy for any of us to suggest to himself a dozen\nmore important intellectual habits, the consideration of which should be\nprofitable and stimulating.\n\n=The Sustenance of Living Ideas.=\u2014The intellectual life, like every\nmanner of spiritual life, has but one food whereby it lives and grows\u2014the\nsustenance of living ideas. It is not possible to repeat this too often\nor too emphatically, for perhaps we err more in this respect than\nany other in bringing up children. We feed them upon the white ashes\nout of which the last spark of the fire of original thought has long\nsince died. We give them second-rate story books, with stale phrases,\nstale situations, shreds of other people\u2019s thoughts, stalest of stale\nsentiments. They complain that they know how the story will end! But\nthat is not all; they know how every dreary page will unwind itself. I\nsaw it stated the other day that children do not care for poetry, that\na stirring narrative in verse is much more to their taste. They do like\nthe tale, no doubt, but poetry appeals to them on other grounds, and\nShelley\u2019s _Skylark_ will hold a child entranced sooner than any moving\nanecdote. As for children\u2019s art, we hang the nursery with \u2018Christmas\nNumber\u2019 pictures, and their books are illustrated on a lower level\nstill. In regard to book illustrations, we are improving a little, but\nstill there is room.\n\n=Children\u2019s Literature.=\u2014The subject of \u2018Children\u2019s Literature\u2019 has been\nwell threshed out, and only one thing remains to be said,\u2014children have\nno natural appetite for twaddle, and a special literature for children is\nprobably far less necessary than the book-sellers would have us suppose.\nOut of any list of \u2018the hundred best books,\u2019 I believe that seventy-five\nwould be well within the range of children of eight or nine. They would\ndelight in _Rasselas_, _E\u00f6then_ would fascinate them as much as _Robinson\nCrusoe_, the _Fa\u00ebry Queen_, with its allegory and knightly adventures\nand sense of free moving in woodland scenery, would exactly fall in with\ntheir humour. What they want is to be brought into touch with living\nthought of the best, and their intellectual life feeds upon it with\nlittle meddling on our part.\n\n=Independent Intellectual Development of Children.=\u2014We do not\nsufficiently recognise the independent intellectual development of\nchildren which it is our business to initiate and direct, but not to\ncontrol or dominate. I know a little girl of nine who pined every day\nbecause the poems of Tennyson which she loved best were not to be found\nin the volumes of the larger works, which were all the house she was\nvisiting at afforded. She literally missed her favourite poems as a\nchild would miss a meal; and why not? The intellectual appetite is just\nas actual and just as exigeant as bodily hunger; more so, alas, in\nsome cases. Miss Martineau has a charming story[9] of the intellectual\nawakening of \u201ca schoolboy of _ten_ who laid himself down, back uppermost,\nwith Southey\u2019s _Thalaba_ before him, on the first day of the Easter\nholidays, and turned over the leaves, notwithstanding his inconvenient\nposition, as fast as if he were looking for something, till in a few\nhours it was done, and he was off with it to the public library, bringing\nback the _Curse of Kehama_. Thus he went on with all Southey\u2019s poems\nand some others through his short holidays, scarcely moving voluntarily\nall those days except to run to the library. He came out of the process\nso changed that none of his family could help being struck by it. The\nexpression of his eye, the cast of his countenance, his use of words,\nand his very gait were changed. In ten days he had advanced years in\nintelligence; and I have always thought that this was the turning-point\nof his life. His parents wisely and kindly let him alone, aware that\nschool would presently put an end to all excess in the new indulgence.\u201d\n\nAs there is no religious conversion for the child who has always been\nbrought up in the conscious presence of God, so parents who have always\nsatisfied the intellectual craving of their children must needs forego\nthe delight of watching a literary awakening. A little girl brought up\non temperance principles, who said, \u2018I am so sorry my father isn\u2019t a\ndrunkard,\u2019 that she might rejoice in his reformation, put the case for us\nvery plainly.\n\n=Self-selection and Self-appropriation.=\u2014Given a bountiful repast of\nideas, the process of natural selection soon begins. Tennyson with his\u2014\n\n \u201cOur elm tree\u2019s ruddy-hearted blossom-flake is fluttering down,\u201d\n\n \u201cRuby-budded lime,\u201d\n\n \u201cBlack as ash-buds in the front of March,\u201d\n\nhas done more to make field botanists than ever the Science and Art\nDepartment was able to undo with its whole apparatus of lectures and\nexaminations.\n\nHere, again, Browning gives us a poet\u2019s impulse to a nature student:\u2014\n\n \u201cBy boulder stones where lichens mock\n The marks on a moth, and small ferns fit\n Their teeth to the polished block.\u201d\n\nIdeas of nature, of life, love, duty, heroism,\u2014these children find and\nchoose for themselves from the authors they read, who do more for their\neducation than any deliberate teaching; just for this reason, that these\nvital ideas are self-selected and self-appropriated.\n\nI shall touch later upon the burning question of a curriculum which shall\nfurnish children, not with dry bones of fact, but with fact clothed upon\nwith the living flesh, breathed into by the vital spirit of quickening\nideas. A teacher objected the other day that it was difficult to teach\nfrom Freeman\u2019s _Old English History_, because there were so many stories;\nnot perceiving that the stories were the living history, while all the\nrest was dead.\n\n=Inherited Parsimony in Lesson-Books.=\u2014I should like to say here that a\nsort of unconscious, inherited parsimony, coming down to us from the days\nwhen incomes were smaller and books were fewer, sometimes causes parents\nto restrict their children unduly in the matter of lesson-books\u2014living\nbooks, varied from time to time, and not thumbed over from one schoolroom\ngeneration to another until the very sight of them is a weariness to the\nflesh. But the subject of the intellectual sustenance of children upon\nideas is so large and important that I must content myself with bald\nsuggestions. Further considered, such subjects as the following might be\nuseful:\u2014\n\n(1) Children\u2019s tastes in Fiction, in Poetry, in books of Travel and\nAdventure, in History, in Biography (most stimulating subject).\n\n(2) Ideas of life and conduct that children assimilate from their reading.\n\n(3) Ideas of duty assimilated in the same way.\n\n(4) Ideas of nature that children seize.\n\n(5) The leading, vitalising ideas in subjects of school study, as\ngeography, grammar, history, astronomy, C\u00e6sar\u2019s Commentaries, etc., etc.\n\nLet me again refer the reader to Mr Ruskin\u2019s description of the \u2018Captain\nFigures\u2019 at the head of each of the Liberal Arts, in his account of\nthe Spanish Chapel; and conclude with a wise sentence of Coleridge\u2019s\nconcerning the method of Plato, which should be always present to the\nminds of persons engaged in the training of children:\u2014\n\n=Plato\u2019s Educational Aim.=\u2014\u201cHe desired not to assist in storing the\npassive mind with the various sorts of knowledge most in request, as if\nthe human soul were a mere repository or banqueting room, but to place\nit in such relations of circumstance as should gradually excite its\nvegetating and germinating powers to produce new fruits of thought, new\nconceptions and imaginations and ideas.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF MORAL TRAINING\n\n\n=Three Foundation Principles.=\u2014Three principles which underlie the\neducational thought of the Union,[10] and the furtherance of which some\nof us have deeply at heart, are:\u2014(_a_) The recognition of authority as a\nfundamental principle, as universal and as inevitable in the moral world\nas is that of gravitation in the physical; (_b_) the recognition of the\nphysical basis of habits and of the important part which the formation of\nhabits plays in education; (_c_) the recognition of the vital character\nand inspiring power of ideas.\n\n=Authority, the Basis of Moral Teaching.=\u2014First let us consider the\nprinciple of authority, which is the basis of moral as it is of religious\nteaching. \u2018Ought\u2019 is part of the verb \u2018to owe,\u2019 and that which we owe\nis a personal debt to a Lawgiver and Ruler, however men name the final\nauthority. If they choose to speak of Buddha or Humanity, they do not\nescape from the sense of a moral authority. They know that that which\nthey _ought_ is that which they _owe_ to do, a debt to some power or\npersonality external to themselves. God has made us so that, however much\nwe may be in the dark as to the divine Name, we can never for a minute\nescape from the sense of \u2018Ought,\u2019 the law, which becomes flesh-torturing\nand spirit-quelling in proportion as we are removed from the light of\nRevelation. To us, who know the name of God and have the revelation\nof the Scriptures, authority carries no vague terror. We know what is\nrequired of us, and that the requirements are never arbitrary, but\nnecessary in the nature of things, both for the moral government of the\nworld and to gratify the unquenchable desire of every human soul to rise\ninto a higher state of being. Perhaps parents, great as they are and\nshould be in the eyes of their children, should always keep well to the\nfront the fact that their authority is derived.\n\n=Principles, not Rules.=\u2014\u2018God does not allow\u2019 us to do thus and thus\nshould be a rarely expressed but often present thought to parents\nwho study the nature of the divine authority where it is most fully\nrevealed, that is, in the Gospels. They see there that authority works\nby principles and not by rules, and as they themselves are the deputy\nauthorities set over every household, it becomes them to consider the\ndivine method of government. They should discern the signs of the times\ntoo; the tendency is to think that a man can only act according to his\n\u2018lights,\u2019 and, therefore, that it is right for him to do that which is\nright in his own eyes; in other words, that every man is his own final\nauthority in questions of right and wrong. It is extremely important that\nparents should keep in view, and counteract if need be, this tendency of\nthe day.\n\n=Limitations of Authority.=\u2014On the other hand, it is well that they\nshould understand the limitations of authority. Even the divine authority\ndoes not compel. It indicates the way and protects the way-farer, and\nstrengthens and directs self-compelling power. It permits a man to make\nfree choice of obedience rather than compels him to obey. In the moral\ntraining of children arbitrary action almost always produces revolt.\nParents believe that they are doing well to _rule_ their households,\nwithout considering the pattern, the principles, and the limitations of\nparental authority.\n\n=Duty can exist only as that which we owe.=\u2014An American writer on\nthe moral instruction of children states that \u2018it is the business\nof the moral instructor in the school to deliver to his pupils the\nsubject-matter of morality, but not to deal with the sanctions of it.\u2019\nHere we have a contention at least two thousand years old. Socrates\ncombated it as expressed in the formul\u00e6:\u2014\u2018Man is the measure of all\nthings\u2019; \u2018Just as each thing appears to each man, so it is to him\u2019; \u2018All\ntruth is relative.\u2019 We say to-day that a man can but live up to his\n\u2018lights\u2019; in other words, there is no authority, no truth, and no law\nbeyond what every man carries in his own bosom. The necessary issue of\nthis teaching is the doctrine of the unknowable God\u2014the God who, if He\nexists, does not exist for us, because we have no relations with Him.\nIt is in their early years at home that children should be taught to\nrealise that duty can exist only as that which we _owe_ to God; that\nthe law of God is exceeding broad and encompasses us as the air we\nbreathe, only more so, for it reaches to our secret thoughts; and this\nis not a hardship but a delight. That mothers should love their little\nchildren and make them happy all day long\u2014this is part of the law of\nGod: that children are glad when they are good, and sad when they are\nnaughty\u2014this, too, is the law of God: that, if Tommy drops his spoon, it\nfalls to the ground, is a law of God too, of a different kind. Mother or\nteacher cannot give children a better inheritance than the constant sense\nof being ruled and encompassed by law, and that law is another name for\nthe will of God.\n\n=Morals do not come by Nature.=\u2014No doubt every child is born with a\nconscience, that is, with a sense that he ought to choose the right\nand refuse the wrong; but he is not born with the power to discern\ngood and evil. An educated conscience is a far rarer possession than\nwe imagine; we are all startled now and then by the laxities of\nright-minded neighbours in matters the right and wrong of which is patent\nto ourselves; but probably our own moral eccentricities are equally\nstartling to our friends. The blame rests on our faulty moral education,\nwhich has hardly made us aware of fallacious thought and insincere\nspeech; we believe that Latin and Greek must be taught, but that morals\ncome by nature. A certain rough-and-ready kind of morality, varying with\nour conditions, does come by heredity and environment; but that most\ndelicate and beautiful of human possessions, an educated conscience,\ncomes only by teaching with authority and adorning by example.\n\n=Children born neither Moral nor Immoral.=\u2014It is curious how educated\npeople are still at sea as regards the moral status of children. Some\ntime ago I was present at an interesting discussion, among the members\nof an educational society, on the subject of children\u2019s lies. It was\ninteresting to notice that the meeting, consisting of able, educated\npeople, divided itself into those who held that children were born\ntrue and those who held that they were born false; it did not occur\nto anybody to recall his own childhood, or even to reflect on his own\ncondition at the present moment. The question lay between children being\nborn moral and born immoral. Nobody reflected that every human being\ncomes into the world with infinite possibilities for good; and, alas!\ninfinite possibilities for evil; possibly with evil hereditary tendencies\nwhich may be rectified by education, or with good tendencies which his\nbringing-up may nullify.\n\n=Moral Teaching.=\u2014We need go no further than the Ten Commandments and\nour Lord\u2019s exposition of the moral law to find corrective teaching for\nthe spasmodic, impulsive moral efforts which tend to make up our notion\nof what the children call \u2018being good,\u2019 and nowhere shall we find a\nmore lucid and practical commentary on the moral law than is set forth\nin the Church Catechism. It was the practice of a venerable Father of\nthe Church, Bishop Ken, to recite the \u2018duty towards God,\u2019 and the \u2018duty\ntowards my neighbour\u2019 every day. It is a practice worth imitating, and it\nwould not be amiss to let all children of whatever communion learn these\nshort abstracts of the whole duty of man.\n\n=Of the Poets.=\u2014The poets give us the best help in this kind of teaching;\nas, for example, Wordsworth\u2019s _Ode to Duty_:\u2014\n\n \u201cStern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear\n The Godhead\u2019s most benignant grace;\n Nor know we anything so fair\n As is the smile upon thy face;\n Flowers laugh before thee on their beds;\n And fragrance in thy footing treads;\n Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;\n And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.\u201d\n\nOr Matthew Arnold\u2019s lines on _Rugby Chapel_\u2014\n\n \u201cServants of God!\u2014or sons\n Shall I not call you? because\n Not as servants ye knew\n Your Father\u2019s innermost mind,\n His, who unwillingly sees\n One of His little ones lost\u2014\n Yours is the praise, if mankind\n Hath not as yet in its march\n Fainted, and fallen, and died!\u201d\n\nOr this, again, of Tennyson\u2014\n\n \u201cNot once or twice in our fair island story\n The path of duty was the way to glory:\n He, that ever following her commands,\n On with toil of heart and knees and hands,\n Thro\u2019 the long gorge to the far light, has won\n His path upward and prevail\u2019d,\u2014\n Shall find the toppling crags of duty, scaled,\n Are close upon the shining table-lands\n To which our God Himself is moon and sun.\u201d\n\nOr Matthew Arnold\u2019s _Morality_\u2014\n\n How, \u201cTasks in hours of insight willed\n Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.\u201d\n\nPossibly we could hardly do better than lead children to reflect on some\nhigh poetic teaching, adding love to law and devotion to duty, so that\nchildren shall know themselves, by duty as by prayer,\n\n \u201cBound by gold chains about the feet of God.\u201d\n\nIn the matter of the ideas that inspire the virtuous life, we miss much\nby our way of taking things for granted.\n\n=Ethical Teaching of the Middle Ages.=\u2014The medi\u00e6val Church preserved\nclassical traditions. It endeavoured to answer the Socratic inquiry:\n\u201cWhat ought we to do and what do we mean by the words \u2018ought\u2019 and\n\u2018doing\u2019 or \u2018acting\u2019?\u201d and it answered, as far as might be by way of\nobject-lessons, visible signs of spiritual things signified.\n\nIn the Arena Chapel at Padua, we have Giotto\u2019s Faith and Infidelity, Love\nand Envy, Charity and Avarice, Justice and Injustice, Temperance and\nGluttony, Hope and Despair, pictured forth in unmistakable characters\nfor the reading of the unlearned and ignorant. We have the same theme,\ntreated with a difference, in what Mr Ruskin calls the \u2018Bible of\nAmiens,\u2019 where we may study Humility and Pride, Temperance and Gluttony,\nChastity and Lust, Charity and Avarice, Hope and Despair, Faith and\nIdolatry, Perseverance and Atheism, Love and Discord, Obedience and\nRebellion, Courage and Cowardice, Patience and Anger, Gentleness and\nChurlishness,\u2014in pairs of quatrefoils, an upper and a lower, each under\nthe feet of an Apostle, who was held to personify the special virtue. But\n_we_ know nothing about cardinal virtues and deadly sins.\n\n=We have no Authoritative Teaching.=\u2014We have no teaching by authoritative\nutterance strong in the majesty of virtue. We work out no schemes of\nethical teaching in marble; we paint no scale of virtues on our walls,\nand no repellent vices. Our poets speak for us, it is true; but the moral\naphorisms, set like jewels though they be on the fore-finger of time,\nare scattered here and there, and we leave it serenely to happy chance\nwhether our children shall or shall not light upon the couple of lines\nwhich should fire them with the impulse to virtuous living. It may be\nsaid that we neglect all additional ethical teaching because we have the\nBible; but how far and _how_ do we use it? Here we have indeed the most\nperfect ethical system, the most inspiring and heart-enthralling, that\nthe world has ever possessed; but it is questionable whether we attempt\nto set a noble child\u2019s heart beating with the thought that he is required\nto be perfect as his Father which is in Heaven is perfect.\n\n=High Ideals.=\u2014It is time we set ourselves seriously to this work of\nmoral education which is to be done, most of all, by presenting the\nchildren with high ideals. \u2018Lives of great men all remind us we can\nmake our lives sublime,\u2019 and the study of the lives of great men and\nof the great moments in the lives of smaller men is most wonderfully\ninspiring to children, especially when they perceive the strenuousness\nof the childhood out of which a noble manhood has evolved itself. As one\ngrows older no truth strikes one more than that \u2018the child is father to\nthe man.\u2019 It is amazing how many people of one\u2019s own acquaintance have\nfulfilled the dreams of their childhood and early youth, and have had\ntheir days indeed \u2018bound each to each in natural piety.\u2019\n\n=Value of Biography.=\u2014The Bible is, of course, a storehouse of most\ninspiring biographies; but it would be well if we could manage our\nteaching so as to bring out in each character the master-thought of\nall his thinking. The late Queen has done this with singular tact and\npower in the Albert Memorial Chapel, where, as we know, Prophets and\nPatriarchs are presented, each showing in action that special virtue or\nform of endeavour which seemed to her the keynote of his character. This\nis a happy effort to revive the medi\u00e6val object teaching of which I have\nalready spoken. The same thing occurs again in the School of Song of\nthe Edinburgh Cathedral, where Mrs Traquair has frescoed the walls to\nillustrate the _Benedicite_, where \u2018holy and humble men of heart,\u2019 for\nexample, is illustrated by three men of our own day of different schools\nof thought\u2014Cardinal Newman is the only one I recollect. The force of this\nkind of master-idea, and the unity it gives to life, cannot be better\nillustrated than by the perhaps apocryphal \u2018I will be good\u2019 of our late\nbeloved Queen. There are few children in the kingdom whose hearts have\nnot thrilled to the phrase. Perhaps she will one day know how much was\ndone to give moral impulse to this great Empire by that simple child-like\npromise so abundantly fulfilled.\n\n=Of Patriotic Poems.=\u2014Next in value to biographies from the point of view\nof inspiration are the burning words of the poets,\u2014Tennyson\u2019s _Ode to\nthe Iron Duke_, for example. Perhaps no poet has done more to stir the\nfire of patriotism amongst us than Mr Rudyard Kipling: \u201cWe learn from our\nwistful mothers to call Old England \u2018home,\u2019\u201d opens the door to a flood of\npatriotic feeling; as indeed do the whole of the poems, _The Native-born_\nand _The Flag of England_:\u2014\n\n \u201cNever was isle so little,\n Never were seas so lone,\n But over the scud and the palm trees\n The English flag has flown.\u201d\n\nFrom another point of view, how this (of Browning\u2019s) makes the heart\nquick with patriotic emotions!\u2014\n\n \u201cBuy my English posies,\n Kent and Surrey may,\n Violets of the undercliff\n Wet with Channel spray,\n Cowslips of the Devon combe,\n Midland furze afire;\n Buy my English posies\n And I\u2019ll sell you heart\u2019s desire.\u201d\n\n=Mottoes.=\u2014In the reading of the Bible, of poetry, of the best prose,\nthe culling of mottoes is a delightful and most stimulating occupation,\nespecially if a motto book be kept, perhaps under headings, perhaps not.\nIt would not be a bad idea for children to make their own year-book,\nwith a motto for every day in the year culled from their own reading.\nWhat an incentive to a good day it would be to read in the morning as\na motto of our very own choice and selection, and not the voice of an\noutside mentor: \u2018Keep ye the law; be swift in all obedience\u2019! The theme\nsuggests endless subjects for consideration and direct teaching: for\nexample, lives with a keynote; Bible heroes; Greek heroes; poems of moral\ninspiration; poems of patriotism, duty, or any single moral quality;\nmoral object-lessons; mottoes and where to find them, etc.\n\n=The Habit of Sweet Thoughts.=\u2014Moral habits, the way to form them and\nthe bounden duty of every parent to send children into the world with\na good outfit of moral habits, is a subject so much to the front in\nour thoughts, that I need not dwell further upon it here. The moral\nimpulse having been given by means of some such inspiring idea as we\nhave considered, the parent\u2019s or teacher\u2019s next business is to keep the\nidea well to the front, with tact and delicacy, and without insistence,\nand to afford apparently casual opportunities for moral effort on the\nlines of the first impulse. Again, let us keep before the children that\nit is the manner of thoughts we think which matters; and, in the early\ndays, when a child\u2019s face is an open book to his parents, the habit of\nsweet thoughts must be kept up, and every selfish, resentful, unamiable\nmovement of children\u2019s minds observed in the countenance must be changed\nbefore consciousness sets in.\n\n=Virtues in which Children should be Trained.=\u2014One more point: parents\nshould take pains to have their own thoughts clear as to the manner\nof virtues they want their children to develop. Candour, fortitude,\ntemperance, patience, meekness, courage, generosity, indeed the whole\nr\u00f4le of the virtues, would be stimulating subjects for thought and\nteaching, offering ample illustrations. One caution I should like to\noffer. A child\u2019s whole notion of religion is \u2018being good.\u2019 It is well\nthat he should know that being good is not his whole duty to God,\nalthough it is so much of it; that the relationship of love and personal\nservice, which he owes as a child to his Father, as a subject to his\nKing, is even more than the \u2018being good\u2019 which gives our Almighty Father\nsuch pleasure in His children.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION\n\n\n=Authority in Religious Education.=\u2014I should like to preface my remarks\non Religious Education by saying that there is not the slightest pretence\nthat they are exhaustive. My treatment has for its object the indication\nof practical lines for religious education, and I very earnestly hope\nthat the reader will find I have left out things I ought to have said, or\nsaid things I ought not to have said.\n\nLet us first consider how the principle of authority bears on religious\nteaching. The sense of duty, more or less illuminated, or more or less\nbenighted, is always relative to a ruler with whom it rests to say \u2018Thou\nshalt\u2019 or \u2018Thou shalt not.\u2019 It is brought home, too, to most of us who\nare set in authority, that we ourselves are acting under a higher, and\nfinally, under the highest rule. A child cannot have a lasting sense\nof duty until he is brought into contact with a supreme Authority,\nwho is the source of law, and the pleasing of whom converts duty into\njoy. In these rather latitudinarian days, there is perhaps no part of\nreligious teaching more important than to train children in the sense\nof the immediate presence and continual going forth of the supreme\nAuthority. \u2018Thou art about my path and about my bed and spiest out all\nmy ways,\u2019 should be a thought, not of fear, but of very great comfort to\nevery child. This constant recognition of authority excites the twofold\nresponse of docility and of reverence. It is said that the children\nof our day are marked by wilfulness and a certain flippancy and want\nof reverence; if this is so, and in so far as it is so, it is because\nchildren are brought up without the consciousness of their relation to\nGod, whom we are taught to call \u2018Our Father.\u2019 This divine name reminds\nus that authority is lodged in the Author of our being, and is tender,\npitiful, preventive, strong to care for and wise to govern; as we see it\nfeebly shown forth even in the best of human fathers.\n\n=Questions in the Air.=\u2014But there are questions in the air about the\nauthenticity of the Scriptures, and what not, and we are all more or less\nat the mercy of words; and, because the so-called higher criticism finds\nmuch to question as to the verbal accuracy of passages of the Scriptures,\nwe get a dim idea that the divine authority itself is in question. One\npart of the work of this Union[11] is, no doubt, to strengthen the hands\nof parents by comforting them with the sense of the higher Power behind\ntheirs and always supporting them in the exercise of the deputed powers\nthey hold as heads of families. There is another notion in the air which\ntells against the recognition of authority, and that is, the greatly\nincreased respect for individual personality and for the right of each\nindividual to develop on the lines of his own character. But it is a\nmistake to suppose that the exercise of authority runs counter to any\nindividual development that is not on morally wrong lines.\n\n=How Authority Works.=\u2014The supreme authority (and all deputed authority)\nworks precisely as does a good and just national government, whose\nbusiness it is to defend the liberties of the subject at all points,\neven by checking, repressing, and punishing the licence which interferes\nwith the rights of others and with the true liberty of the transgressor.\nThe law (that is, the utterance of authority) is for the punishment of\nevil-doers, but for the praise of them that do well; and the association\nof harshness, punishment, force, arbitrary dealings, with the idea\nof authority, human and divine, is an example of the confusion of\nthought to which most of our errors in conduct are traceable. It is not\nauthority which punishes: the penalties which follow us through life,\nof which those in the family are a faint foretaste, are the inevitable\nconsequences of broken law, whether moral or physical, and from which\nauthority, strong and benign, exists to save us by prevention, and, if\nneeds be, by lesser and corrective penalties.\n\nIt seems to me that reading and teaching on the following subjects,\nfor example, might help to focus thought on a subject of vital\nimportance:\u2014our relation to the supreme authority, not a relation of\nchoice, but as inevitable as the family relationships into which we\nare born; the duty of loyalty and the shame of infidelity; the duty\nof reverence; the duty of docility to indications of the divine will;\nscriptural revelations of God, as the ruler of men, as saying to Abraham,\n\u2018Go, and he goeth\u2019; to Cyrus, \u2018Do this, and he doeth it\u2019; revelations\nwhich history affords of God as the ruler of nations, and as the benign\nruler of men who prospers the ways of His servants; how the sense of\nthe divine authority may be imparted in the home; how reverence for holy\nthings may be taught; definite Bible teaching on this head.\u2014Indeed, the\nsubject is capable of great amplification, and suggests trains of thought\nvery important in these days.\n\n=The Habits of the Religious Life.=\u2014The next point we must set ourselves\nto consider is the laying down of lines of _habit_ in the religious life.\nWe need not enter again into the physiological reasons for the compelling\npower of habit. My present purpose is to consider how far this power can\nbe employed in the religious development of a child. Let us consider the\nsubject as it bears upon habits of thought and of attitude, of life and\nof speech; though indeed all these are one, for every act and attitude is\nbegotten of a thought, however unaware we be of thinking.\n\n=Habit of the Thought of God.=\u2014It is said of the wicked that \u2018God is\nnot in all their thoughts.\u2019 Of the child it should be said that God is\nin all his thoughts; happy-making, joyous thoughts, restful and dutiful\nthoughts, thoughts of loving and giving and serving, the wealth of\nbeautiful thoughts with which every child\u2019s heart overflows. We are\ninclined to think that a child is a little morbid and precocious when he\nasks questions and has imaginings about things divine, and we do our best\nto divert him. What he needs is to be guided into true, happy thinking;\nevery day should bring him \u2018new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.\u2019 He\nunderstands things divine better than we do, because his ideas have not\nbeen shaped to a conventional standard; and thoughts of God are to him an\nescape into the infinite from the worrying limitations, the perception\nof the prison bars, which are among the bitter pangs of childhood. To\nkeep a child in this habit of the thought of God\u2014so that to lose it, for\neven a little while, is like coming home after an absence and finding his\nmother out\u2014is a very delicate part of a parent\u2019s work.\n\n=Reverent Attitudes.=\u2014The importance of reverent attitudes is a little\napt to be overlooked in these days. We are, before all things, sincere,\nand are afraid to insist upon \u2018mere forms,\u2019 feeling it best to leave\nthe child to the natural expression of his own emotions. Here perhaps\nwe are wrong, as it is just as true to say that the form gives birth to\nthe feeling as that the feeling should give birth to the form. Children\nshould be taught to take time, to be reverent at grace before meals,\nat family prayers, at their own prayers, in church, when they are old\nenough to attend. Perhaps some of us may remember standing daily by our\nmother\u2019s knee in reverent attitude to recite the Apostles\u2019 Creed, and\nthe recollection of the reverence expressed in that early act remains\nwith one through a lifetime. \u2018Because of the angels\u2019 should be a thought\nto repress unbecoming behaviour in children. It is a mistake to suppose\nthat the forms of reverence need be tiresome to them. They love little\nceremonies, and to be taught to kneel nicely while saying their short\nprayers would help them to a feeling of reverence in after life. In\nconnection with children\u2019s behaviour in church, the sentiment and forms\nof reverence cannot be expected if they are taken to church too young,\nor to too long services, or are expected to maintain their attention\nthroughout. If children must be taken to long services, they should be\nallowed the resource of a Sunday picture-book, and told that the hymns\nand the \u2018Our Father,\u2019 for example, are the parts of the service for\nthem. But in these days of bright short services especially adapted for\nchildren the difficulty need not arise.\n\n=Regularity in Devotions.=\u2014The habit of regularity in children\u2019s\ndevotions is very important. The mother cannot always be present, but\nI have known children far more punctual in their devotions when away\nfrom their mother, because they know it to be her wish, than if she were\nthere to remind them. They may say, like a little friend of mine, aged\nfour, \u2018Mother, I always worship idols.\u2019 \u2018Do you indeed, Margaret? when?\u2019\n\u2018Why, when I say my prayers to the chair.\u2019 But it is a great thing for\nall of us to get the habit of \u2018saying our prayers\u2019 at a given time and\nin a given place, which comes to be to us as a holy place. The chair, or\nthe bedside, or the little prayer-table, or, best of all, the mother\u2019s\nknee, plays no small part in framing the soul to a habit of devotion.\nIn this connection it is worth while to remark that the evening prayers\nof children and of school girls and boys should not be left until the\nchildren are tired and drop asleep over their evening exercises. After\ntea is a very good set time for prayers when it can be managed.\n\n=The Habit of Reading the Bible.=\u2014The habit of hearing, and later, of\nreading the Bible, is one to establish at an early age. We are met with a\ndifficulty\u2014that the Bible is, in fact, a library containing passages and,\nindeed, whole books which are not for the edification of children; and\nmany parents fall back upon little collections of texts for morning and\nevening use. But I doubt the wisdom of this plan. We may believe that the\nnarrative teaching of the Scriptures is far more helpful to children,\nanyway, than the stimulating moral and spiritual texts picked out for\nthem in little devotional books. The twopenny single books of the Bible,\npublished by the Bible Society, should be a resource for parents. A child\nold enough to take pleasure in reading for himself would greatly enjoy\nreading through the Gospel of St Mark, bit by bit, for example, in a nice\nlittle book, as part of his morning\u2019s devotions.\n\n=Children Formalists by Nature.=\u2014But while pressing the importance of\nhabits of prayer and devotional reading, it should be remembered that\nchildren are little formalists by nature, and that they should not be\nencouraged in long readings or long prayers with a notion of any merit in\nsuch exercises.\n\n=The Habit of Praise.=\u2014Perhaps we do not attach enough importance to the\nhabit of praise in our children\u2019s devotions. Praise and thanksgiving come\nfreely from the young heart; gladness is natural and holy, and music is a\ndelight. The singing of hymns at home and of the hymns and canticles in\nchurch should be a special delight; and the habit of soft and reverent\nsinging, of offering our very best in praise, should be carefully formed.\nHymns with a story, such as: \u2018A little ship was on the sea,\u2019 \u2018I think\nwhen I read that sweet story of old,\u2019 \u2018Hushed was the evening hymn,\u2019 are\nperhaps the best for little children.\n\nChildren should be trained in the habits of attention and real devotion\nduring short services or parts of services. The habit of finding their\nplaces in the prayer-book and following the service is interesting and\naids attention, but perhaps it would be well to tell children, of even\nten or eleven, that during the litany, for example, they might occupy\nthemselves by saying over silently hymns that they know.\n\n=The Habit of Sunday-keeping.=\u2014The habit of Sunday observances, not\nrigid, not dull, and yet peculiar to the day, is especially important.\nSunday stories, Sunday hymns, Sunday walks, Sunday talks, Sunday\npainting, Sunday knitting even, Sunday card-games, should all be special\nto the day,\u2014quiet, glad, serene. The people who clamour for a Sunday\nthat shall be as other days little know how healing to the jaded brain\nis the change of thought and occupation the seventh day brings with it.\nThere is hardly a more precious inheritance to be handed on than that of\nthe traditional English Sunday, stripped of its austerities, we hope,\nbut keeping its character of quiet gladness and communion with Nature as\nwell as with God. But I cannot pursue the subject further. The field of\nthe habits of the religious life should afford many valuable matters for\nreflection and teaching; as, for example, the habitual thought of God in\na family; the habit of reverence in thought, attitude, act, and speech;\nthe habit of prayer as regards time, place, manner, matter; the habit\nof praise and thanksgiving; the habits of attention and devotion during\na service (or part of a service); aids to devout habits; the habit of\ndevotional reading.\n\n=Inspiring Ideas of the Religious Life.=\u2014The most important part of our\nsubject remains to be considered\u2014the inspiring ideas we propose to give\nchildren in the things of the divine life. This is a matter we are a\nlittle apt to leave to chance; but when we consider the vitalising power\nof an idea, and how a single great idea changes the current of a life, it\nbecomes us to consider very carefully what ideas of the things of God\nwe may most fitly offer children, and how these may be most invitingly\npresented. It is a very sad fact that many children get their first ideas\nof God in the nursery, and that these are of a Being on the watch for\ntheir transgressions and always ready to chastise. It is hard to estimate\nthe alienation which these first ideas of the divine Father set up in\nthe hearts of His little children. Another danger is, lest the things of\nthe divine life should be made too familiar and hackneyed, that the name\nof our blessed Lord should be used without reverence; and that children\nshould get the notion that the Lord God exists for their uses, and not\nthey, for His service.\n\n=The Fatherhood of God.=\u2014Perhaps the first vitalising idea to give\nchildren is that of the tender Fatherhood of God; that they live and move\nand have their being within the divine embrace. Let children grow up\nin this joyful assurance, and, in the days to come, infidelity to this\nclosest of all relationships will be as shameful a thing in their eyes as\nit was in the eyes of the Christian Church during the age of faith.\n\n=The Kingship of Christ.=\u2014Next, perhaps, the idea of Christ their King\nis fitted to touch springs of conduct and to rouse the enthusiasm of\nloyalty in children, who have it in them, as we all know, to bestow\nheroic devotion on that which they find heroic. Perhaps we do not make\nenough of this principle of hero-worship in human nature in our teaching\nof religion. We are inclined to make our religious aims subjective rather\nthan objective. We are tempted to look upon Christianity as a \u2018scheme of\nsalvation\u2019 designed and carried out for our benefit; whereas the very\nessence of Christianity is passionate devotion to an altogether adorable\nPerson.\n\n=Our Saviour.=\u2014But, recognising this, there is still a danger in these\ndays of adopting a rose-water treatment in our dealings with children.\nFew grown-up people, alas! have so keen and vivid a sense of sin as a\nlittle transgressor say of six or seven. Many a naughty, passionate, or\nsulky and generally hardened little offender is so, simply because he\ndoes not know, with any personal knowledge, that there is a Saviour of\nthe world, who has for him instant forgiveness and waiting love. But\nhere again, the thoughts of a child should be turned outwards to Jesus,\nour Saviour, and not inward to his own thoughts and feelings towards our\nblessed Saviour.\n\n=The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost.=\u2014One more salient truth of the\nChristian verity I have space to touch upon. Most Christian parents\nteach their children to recognise the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the\nComforter; they expand the ideas expressed in\u2014\n\n \u201cEnable with perpetual light\n The dulness of our blinded sight.\u201d\n\n \u201cAnoint and cheer our soiled face\n With the abundance of Thy grace.\u201d\n\nBut it would be well if we could hinder in our children\u2019s minds the\nrise of a wall of separation between things sacred and things so-called\nsecular, by making them feel that all \u2018sound learning,\u2019 as well as all\n\u2018religious instruction,\u2019 falls within the office of God, the Holy Spirit,\nthe supreme educator of mankind.\n\nMany other inspiring ideas concerning the religious life will occur to\nevery parent and teacher, ideas of more value than any I can suggest.\nTeaching, reading, and meditation, for example, on any one of the several\nclauses of the Lord\u2019s Prayer and of the Apostles\u2019 Creed, or, again, on\nthe clauses of that Duty towards God in the Church Catechism which all\nwho receive the Old and the New Testament Scriptures must accept, should\nbe profitable.\n\nI have touched very inadequately, not upon all that is necessary to bring\nup children in \u2018the nurture and admonition of the Lord,\u2019 but on a few of\nthe principles which seem to me essential.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nA MASTER-THOUGHT\n\n\n=A Motto.=\u2014Some of my readers will know the Parents\u2019 Union motto,\n\u2018Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life,\u2019 especially well in\nthe neat diagrammatic form in which it appears on the covers of our\nLibrary books. I am told that we, as a society, are destined to live by\nour motto. A notable educationalist writes to me, in connection with\npublic education: \u2018There is more need than ever for such a view of\neducation as that embodied in the memorable words which are the motto of\nthe _Parents\u2019 Review_.\u2019 An inspiring motto must always be a power, but\nto live _upon_ the good repute of our motto, and to live _up_ to it and\n_in_ it, are two different things, and I am afraid the Parents\u2019 Union\nhas much and continual thinking and strenuous living to face, if it\nproposes to stand before the world as interpreting and illustrating these\n\u2018memorable words.\u2019 But we are not a faint-hearted body; we _mean_, and\nmean intensely; and to those who purpose the best, and endeavour after\nthe best, the best arrives.\n\n=Nineteenth-Century Formula, Education is an Atmosphere.=\u2014Meantime,\nwe sometimes err, I think, in taking a part for the whole, and a part\nof a part for the whole of that part. Of the three clauses of our\ndefinition, that which declares that \u2018education is an atmosphere\u2019 pleases\nus most, perhaps, because it is the most inviting to the _laissez aller_\nprinciple of human nature. By the way, we lose something by substituting\n\u2018environment\u2019 (that blessed word, Mesopotamia!) for atmosphere. The\nlatter word is symbolic, it is true, but a symbol means more to us all\nthan the name of the thing signified. We think of fresh air, pure,\nbracing, tonic,\u2014of the definite act of breathing which must be fully\naccomplished; and we are incited to do more and mean more in the matter\nof our children\u2019s surroundings if we regard the whole as an atmosphere,\nthan if we accept the more literal \u2018environment.\u2019\n\n=Results in Inanition.=\u2014But, supposing that \u2018Education is an atmosphere\u2019\nbrings a fresh and vigorous thought to our minds, suppose that it means\nto us, for our children, sunshine and green fields, pleasant rooms and\ngood pictures, schools where learning is taken in by the gentle act of\ninspiration, followed by the expiration of all that which is not wanted,\nwhere charming teachers compose the children by a half-mesmeric effluence\nwhich inclines them to do as others do, be as others are,\u2014suppose that\nall this is included in our notion of \u2018Education is an atmosphere,\u2019 may\nwe not sit at our ease and believe that all is well, and that the whole\nof education has been accomplished? No; because though we cannot live\n_without_ air, neither can we live _upon_ air, and children brought up\nupon \u2018environment\u2019 soon begin to show signs of inanition; they have\nlittle or no healthy curiosity, power of attention, or of effort; what is\nworse, they lose spontaneity and initiative; they expect life to drop\ninto them like drops into a rain-tub, without effort or intention on\ntheir part.\n\n=And Ennui.=\u2014This notion, that education is included in environment,\nor, at the best, in atmosphere, has held the ground for a generation\nor two, and it seems to me that it has left its mark upon our public\nand our private lives. We are more ready to be done unto than to do; we\ndo not care for the labour of ordering our own lives in this direction\nor in that; they must be conducted for us; a press of engagements must\ncompel us into what next, and what next after. We crave for spectacular\nentertainment, whether in the way of pageants in the streets, or\nspectacles on the boards. Even Shakespeare has come to be so much\nthe occasion for gorgeous spectacles that what the poet says is of\nlittle moment compared with the show a play affords. There is nothing\nintentionally vicious in all this; it is simply our effort to escape\nfrom the _ennui_ that results from a one-sided view of education,\u2014that\neducation is an atmosphere _only_.\n\n=Eighteenth-Century Formula, Education is a Life, results in Intellectual\nExhaustion.=\u2014A still more consuming _ennui_ set in at the end of the\neighteenth century, and that also was the result of a partial view of\neducation. \u2018Education is a life\u2019 was the (unconscious) formula then; and\na feverish chase after ideas was the outcome. It is pathetic to read\nhow Madame de Sta\u00ebl and her coterie, or that \u2018blue-stocking\u2019 coterie\nwhich met at the H\u00f4tel Rambouillet, for example, went little to bed,\nbecause they could not sleep; and spent long nights in making character\nsketches of each other, enigmas, anagrams, and other futilities of the\nintellect, and met again (some of them) at early breakfast to compose and\nsing little airs, upon little themes. We may be as much inclined to yawn\nin each other\u2019s faces as they were, but, anyway, if we sin as they did\nby excess in one direction, there is less wear and tear in a succession\nof shows than in their restless pursuit of inviting notions. Still, the\nbeginning of the nineteenth century has its lessons for the beginning of\nthe twentieth. They erred, as we do, because they did not understand the\nscience of the proportion of things. We are inclined to say, \u2018Education\nis environment\u2019; they would say, \u2018Education is ideas.\u2019 The truth includes\nboth of these, and a third definition introducing another side, a third\naspect, of education.\n\n=Education is the Cultivation of Faculties, leads to Abnormal\nDevelopments.=\u2014The third conceivable view, \u2018Education is a discipline,\u2019\nhas always had its votaries, and has them still. That the discipline of\nthe habits of the good life, both intellectual and moral, forms a good\nthird of education, we all believe. The excess occurs when we imagine\nthat certain qualities of character and conduct run out, a prepared\nproduct like carded wool, from this or that educational machine,\nmathematics or classics, science or athletics; that is, when the notion\nof the development of the so-called faculties takes the place of the more\nphysiologically true notion of the formation of intellectual habits. The\ndifference does not seem to be great; but two streams that rise within a\nfoot of one another may water different countries and fall into different\nseas, and a broad divergence in practice often arises from what appears\nto be a small difference in conception, in matters educational. The\nfather of Plutarch had him learn his Homer that he might get heroic\nideas of life. Had the boy been put through his Homer as a classical\ngrind, as a machine for the development of faculty, a pedant would have\ncome out, and not a man of the world in touch with life at many points,\ncapable of bringing men and affairs to the touchstone of a sane and\ngenerous mind. It seems to me that this notion of the discipline which\nshould develop \u2018faculty\u2019 has tended to produce rather one-sided men, with\nthe limitations which belong to abnormal development. An artist told\nme the other day that the condition of successful art is absorption in\nart, that the painter must think pictures, paint pictures, nothing but\npictures. But when art was great, men were not mere artists. Quentin\nMatsys wrought in iron and painted pictures and did many things besides.\nMichael Angelo wrote sonnets, designed buildings, painted pictures;\nmarble was by no means his only vehicle of expression. Leonardo wrote\ntreatises, planned canals, played instruments of music, did a hundred\nthings, and all exquisitely. But then, the idea of the development of\nfaculty, and the consequent discipline, had not occurred to these great\nmen or their guardians.\n\n=Education has Three Faces.=\u2014Having safe-guarded ourselves from the\nnotion that education has only one face, we may go on to consider how\n\u2018education is a life,\u2019 without the risk of thinking that we are viewing\nmore than one side of the subject.\n\n=Education is a Life, one of these.=\u2014It has been said that \u2018man doth not\nlive by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth\nof God\u2019; and the augustness of the occasion on which the words were\nspoken has caused us to confine their meaning to what we call the life\nof the soul; when, indeed, they include a great educational principle\nwhich was better understood by the medi\u00e6val Church than by ourselves. May\nI be allowed once again to describe a painting in which the educational\ncreed of many of us is visibly expressed? The reader is, probably,\nfamiliar with the frescoes on the walls of the so-called Spanish Chapel\nof the church of S. Maria Novella. The philosophy of the Middle Ages\ndealt, as we know, with theology as its subject-matter; and, while there\nis much ecclesiastical polity with which we have little sympathy pictured\non the remaining walls, on one compartment of wall and roof we have a\nsingularly satisfying scheme of educational thought. At the highest point\nof the picture we see the Holy Ghost descending in the likeness of a\ndove; immediately below, in the upper chamber are the disciples who first\nreceived His inspiration; below, again, is the promiscuous crowd of all\nnationalities who are brought indirectly under the influence of that\nfirst outpouring; and in the foreground are two or three dogs, showing\nthat the dumb creation was not excluded from benefiting by the new grace.\nIn the lower compartment of the great design are angelic figures of the\ncardinal virtues, which we all trace more or less to divine inspiration,\nfloating above the seated figures of apostles and prophets, of whom we\nknow that they \u2018spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.\u2019 So far,\nthis medi\u00e6val scheme of philosophy reveals no new thought to persons\ninstructed in the elements of Christian truth. But below the prophets\nand apostles are a series of pictured niches, those to the right being\noccupied by the captain figures, the ideal representations, of the\nseven Liberal Arts, figures of singular grace and beauty, representing\nsuch familiar matters as grammar, rhetoric, logic, music, astronomy,\ngeometry, and arithmetic, all of them under the outpouring of the Spirit\nof God. Still more liberal is the philosophy which places at the foot\nof each of these figures him who was then accepted as the leader and\nrepresentative of each several science,\u2014Priscian, Cicero, Aristotle,\nTubal Cain, Zoroaster, Euclid, Pythagoras; men whom a narrower and later\ntheology would have placed beyond the pale of the Christian religion,\nand therefore of the teaching of the Spirit of God. But here all are\nrepresented as under the same divine outpouring which illuminated the\ndisciples in the upper chamber.\n\n=A Creed which unifies Life.=\u2014Our nature craves after unity. The travail\nof thought, which is going on to-day and has gone on as long as we have\nany record of men\u2019s thoughts, has been with a view to establishing some\nprinciple for the unification of life. Here we have the scheme of a\nmagnificent unity. We are apt to think that piety is one thing, that our\nintellectual and artistic yearnings are quite another matter, and that\nour moral virtues are pretty much matters of inheritance and environment,\nand have not much to do with our conscious religion. Hence, there come\ndiscords into our lives, discords especially trying to young and ardent\nsouls who want to be good and religious, but who cannot escape from the\noverpowering drawings of art and intellect and mere physical enjoyment;\nthey have been taught to consider that these things are, for the most\npart, alien to the religious life, and that they must choose one or the\nother; they do choose, and the choice does not always fall upon those\nthings which, in our unscriptural and unphilosophical narrowness, we\ncall the things of God. Let us bless Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Memmi for\nplacing before our eyes a creed (copies[12] of which we might all hang\nupon our walls), which shows that our piety, our virtue, our intellectual\nactivities, and, let us add, our physical perfections, are all fed from\nthe same source, God Himself; are all inspired by the same Spirit,\nthe Spirit of God. The ages which held this creed were ages of mighty\nproduction in every kind; the princely commerce of Venice was dignified\nand sobered by this thought of the divine inspiration of ideas\u2014ideas of\ntrade, ideas of justice and fair balance and of utility; Columbus went\nout to discover a new world, informed by the divine idea, as our own\nphilosopher, Coleridge, points out, adding that \u2018great inventions and\nIdeas of Nature presented to chosen minds by a higher power than nature\nherself, suddenly unfold as it were in prophetic succession systematic\nviews destined to produce the most important revolutions in the state\nof man.\u2019 When Columbus came back, his new world discovered, people and\nprinces took it as from God and sang _Te Deum_.\n\n=The Diet of Great Ideas.=\u2014Michael Angelo writes to his friend Vittoria\nColonna, that \u2018good Christians always make good and beautiful figures. In\norder to represent the adored image of our Lord, it is not enough that a\nmaster should be great and able. I maintain that he must also be a man\nof good morals and conduct, if possible a saint, in order that the Holy\nGhost may give him inspiration.\u2019 In truth, a nation or a man becomes\ngreat upon one diet only, the diet of great ideas communicated to those\nalready prepared to receive them by a higher Power than Nature herself.\n\n=Science, the Teaching vouchsafed to Men to-day.=\u2014I think we[13] hold\namongst us the little leaven which is able to leaven the whole lump.\nLet us set ourselves to labour with purpose and passion to restore to\nthe world, enriched by the additions of later knowledge, that great\nscheme of unity of life which produced great men and great work in the\npast. Nor need we fear that in endeavouring after some such doctrine of\nideas as may help us in the work of education, we are running counter\nto science. Many of us feel, and, I think, rightly, that the teaching\nof science is _the_ new teaching which is being vouchsafed to mankind\nin our age. Some of us are triumphant, and believe that the elements of\nmoral and religious struggle are about to be eliminated from life, which\nshall run henceforth, whether happy or disastrous, on the easy plane\nof the inevitable; others are bewildered and look in vain for a middle\nway, a place of reconciliation for science and religion; while others of\nus, again, take refuge in repudiating \u2018evolution\u2019 and all its works and\nnailing our colours to religion, interpreted on our own narrow lines.\nWhichever of these lines we take, we probably err through want of faith.\n\nLet us first of all settle it with ourselves that science and religion\ncannot, to the believer in God, by any possibility be antagonistic.\nHaving assured ourselves of this, we shall probably go on to perceive\nthat the evolution of science is in fact a process of revelation, being\nbrought about in every case, so far as I am aware, by the process which\nColeridge has so justly described; that is, \u201cthat the _Ideas_ of Nature,\npresented to chosen minds by a higher power than Nature herself, suddenly\nunfold as it were in prophetic succession systematic views destined to\nproduce the must important revolutions in the state of man.\u201d Huxley\ndefines the utility of Biology \u201cas helping to give right ideas in this\nworld, which is, after all,\u201d he goes on to say, \u201cabsolutely governed\nby ideas, and very often by the wildest and most hypothetical ideas.\u201d\nAgain, he writes, \u201cthose who refuse to go beyond the fact rarely get as\nfar as the fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows\nthat almost every great step therein has been made by the \u2018anticipation\nof nature,\u2019 that is, by the invention of hypotheses.\u201d One cannot help\nthinking that scientific men would find the unifying principle they are\nin search of in the fine saying of Coleridge\u2019s which I have quoted more\nthan once or twice; so would they stand revealed to themselves as the\nmouthpieces, not merely of _the truth_, for which they are so ready to\ncombat and suffer, but also as the chosen and prepared servants of Him\nwho is the Truth.\n\n=Evolution, the Master-thought of the Age.=\u2014Few of us can forget\nCarlyle\u2019s incomparable picture of the _Tiers \u00c9tat_ waiting for\norganisation: \u201cWise as serpents; harmless as doves: what a spectacle for\nFrance! Six hundred inorganic individuals, essential for its regeneration\nand salvation, sit there, on their elliptic benches, longing passionately\ntowards life.\u201d Less picturesque, but otherwise very much on a par with\nthis, is Coleridge\u2019s description of Botany, as that science existed\nin his own day, waiting for the unifying idea which should give it\norganisation. \u201cWhat,\u201d he says, \u201cis Botany at this present hour? Little\nmore than an enormous nomenclature; a huge catalogue, _bien arrang\u00e9_,\nyearly and monthly augmented, in various editions, each with its own\nscheme of technical memory and its own conveniences of reference!\nThe innocent amusement, the healthful occupation, the ornamental\naccomplishment of _amateurs_; it has yet to expect the devotion and\nenergies of the philosopher.\u201d The key-word for the interpretation of\nlife, both animal and vegetable, has been presented to our generation,\nand we cannot make too much of it.\n\n=The Ages have sought for a Unifying Principle.=\u2014We cannot overrate the\nenormous repose and satisfaction to the human mind contained in the\nidea of evolution. But it is well to remember that for three thousand\nyears thinkers have been occupied with attempts to explain the world by\nmeans of a single principle, which should also furnish an explanation of\nreason and the human soul. Herakleitos and his age thought they had laid\nhold of the informing idea in the phrase, \u2018The true Being is an eternal\nBecoming\u2019: the \u2018universal flux of things\u2019 explained all. Demokritos and\nhis age cried\u2014Eureka! solved the riddle of the universe, with the saying\nthat \u2018nothing exists except atoms moving in vacancy.\u2019 Many times since,\nwith each epoch-making discovery, has science cried\u2014Eureka! over the one\nprinciple which should explain all things and eliminate Personality.\n\n=But Personality Remains.=\u2014But some little knowledge of history and\nphilosophy will give us pause. We shall see that each great discovery,\neach luminous idea of nature that the world has received hitherto, is\nlike a bend in a tortuous lake which appears final until your boat\napproaches it, and then\u2014behold an opening into further and still further\nreaches beyond! And the knowledge of God will give us something more than\nthe wider outlook which comes of a knowledge of history\u2014the knowledge\nthat there _is_ what Wordsworth calls the \u2018stream of tendency,\u2019 a stream\nof immeasurable force in shaping character and events; but there is also\nPersonality, a power able to turn the \u2018stream of tendency\u2019 to its uses,\nif also liable to be carried away in its current.\n\n=Attitude of Parents and Teachers towards Evolution.=\u2014If I appear to\ndwell on a subject which at first sight appears to have little to\ndo with the bringing up of children, it is because I think that his\nattitude towards the great idea, great lesson, set for his age to grasp,\nis a vital part of a parent\u2019s preparation. If parents take no heed of\nthe great thoughts which move their age, they cannot expect to retain\ninfluence over the minds of their children. If they fear and distrust the\nrevelations of science, they introduce an element of distrust and discord\ninto their children\u2019s lives. If, with the mere neophyte of science, they\nrush to the conclusion that the last revelation is final, accounts for\nall that is in man, and, to say the least, makes God unnecessary and\nunknowable, or negligible, they may lower the level of their children\u2019s\nliving to that struggle for existence\u2014without aspiration, consecration,\nand sacrifice\u2014of which we hear so much. If, lastly, parents recognise\nevery great idea of nature as a new page in the progressive revelation\nmade by God to men already prepared to receive such idea; if they realise\nthat the new idea, however comprehensive, is not final nor all-inclusive,\nnor to be set in opposition with that personal knowledge of God which\nis the greatest knowledge, why, then, their children will grow up in\nthat attitude of reverence for science, reverence for God, and openness\nof mind, which befits us for whom life is a probation and a continual\neducation. So much for the nutriment of ideas laid on the table of the\nworld during this particular course of its history.\n\n=Education is a World Business.=\u2014Next, we may have poetry, or art, or\nphilosophy; we cannot tell; but two things are incumbent upon us,\u2014to keep\nourselves and our children in touch with the great thoughts by which\nthe world has been educated in the past, and to keep ourselves and them\nin the right attitude towards the great ideas of the present. It is our\ntemptation to make too personal a matter of education, to lose sight of\nthe fact that education is a world business, that the lessons of the ages\nhave been duly set, and that each age is concerned, not only with its own\nparticular page, but with every preceding page. For who feels that he has\nmastered a book if he is familiar with only the last page of it? This\nbrings me to a point I am anxious to bring forward.\n\nWe do not sufficiently realise the need for unity of principle in\neducation. We have no Captain Idea which shall marshal for us the\nfighting host of educational ideas which throng the air; so, in default\nof a guiding principle, a leading idea, we feel ourselves at liberty to\npick and choose. This man thinks he is free to make science the sum of\nhis son\u2019s education, the other chooses the classics, a third prefers a\nmechanical, a fourth, a commercial programme, a fifth makes bodily health\nhis cult, and chooses a school which makes the care of health a special\nfeature of its programme (not that we must allow health to be neglected,\nbut that, given good general conditions, the less obvious attention their\nhealth receives the better for the boys and girls); and everyone feels\nhimself at liberty to do that which is right in his own eyes with regard\nto the education of his children.\n\nLet it be our negative purpose to discourage in every way we can the\neducational faddist, that is, the person who accepts a one-sided notion\nin place of a universal idea as his educational guide. Our positive\npurpose is to present, in season and out of season, one such universal\nidea; that is, that education is the science of relations.\n\n=A Captain Idea for us,\u2014Education is the Science of Relations.=\u2014A\nchild should be brought up to have relations of force with earth and\nwater, should run and ride, swim and skate, lift and carry; should know\ntexture, and work in material; should know by name, and where and how\nthey live at any rate, the things of the earth about him, its birds and\nbeasts and creeping things, its herbs and trees; should be in touch with\nthe literature, art and thought of the past and the present. I do not\nmean that he should _know_ all these things; but he should feel, when\nhe reads of it in the newspapers, the thrill which stirred the Cretan\npeasants when the frescoes in the palace of King Minos were disclosed\nto the labour of their spades. He should feel the thrill, not from mere\ncontiguity, but because he has with the past the relationship of living\npulsing thought; and, if blood be thicker than water, thought is more\nquickening than blood. He must have a living relationship with the\npresent, its historic movement, its science, literature, art, social\nneeds and aspirations. In fact, he must have a wide outlook, intimate\nrelations all round; and force, _virtue_, must pass out of him, whether\nof hand, will, or sympathy, wherever he touches. This is no impossible\nprogramme. Indeed it can be pretty well filled in by the time an\nintelligent boy or girl has reached the age of thirteen or fourteen; for\nit depends, not upon _how much_ is learned, but upon _how_ things are\nlearned.\n\n=A Wider Curriculum.=\u2014Give children a wide range of subjects, with\nthe end in view of establishing in each case some one or more of the\nrelations I have indicated. Let them learn from first-hand sources of\ninformation\u2014really good books, the best going, on the subject they are\nengaged upon. Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let\nthem be flooded with a warm diluent at the lips of their teacher. The\nteacher\u2019s business is to indicate, stimulate, direct and constrain to the\nacquirement of knowledge, but by no means to be the fountain-head and\nsource of all knowledge in his or her own person. The less parents and\nteachers talk-in and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to\nthe children they are educating, the better for the children. Peptonised\nfood for a healthy stomach does not tend to a vigorous digestion.\nChildren must be allowed to ruminate, must be left alone with their own\nthoughts. They will ask for help if they want it.\n\n=We may not Choose or Reject Subjects.=\u2014You will see at a glance,\nwith this Captain Idea of establishing relationships as a guide, the\nunwisdom of choosing or rejecting this or that subject, as being more\nor less useful or necessary in view of a child\u2019s future. We decide, for\nexample, that Tommy, who is eight, need not waste his time over the Latin\nGrammar. We intend him for commercial or scientific pursuits,\u2014what good\nwill it be to him? But we do not know how much we are shutting out from\nTommy\u2019s range of thought besides the Latin Grammar. He has to translate,\nfor example,\u2014\u2018_Pueri formosos equos vident._\u2019 He is a ruminant animal,\nand has been told something about that strong Roman people whose speech\nis now brought before him. How their boys catch hold of him! How he\ngloats over their horses! The Latin Grammar is not mere words to Tommy,\nor rather Tommy knows, as we have forgotten, that the epithet \u2018mere\u2019 is\nthe very last to apply to words. Of course it is only now and then that a\nnotion catches the small boy, but when it does catch, it works wonders,\nand does more for his education than years of grind.\n\nLet us try, however imperfectly, to make education a science of\nrelationships\u2014in other words, try in one subject or another to let the\nchildren work upon living ideas. In this field small efforts are honoured\nwith great rewards, and we perceive that the education we are giving\nexceeds all that we intended or imagined.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSCHOOL-BOOKS AND HOW THEY MAKE FOR EDUCATION\n\n\n=Line upon Line.=\u2014The theme of \u2018School-Books\u2019 is not a new one, and I\ndaresay the reader will find that I have said before what I shall say\nnow. But we are not like those men of Athens who met to hear and to\ntell some new thing; and he will, I know, bear with me because he will\nrecognise how necessary it is to repeat again and again counsels which\nare like waves beating against the rock of an accepted system of things.\nBut, in time, the waves prevail and the rock wears away; so we go to work\nwith good hope. Let me introduce what I have to say about school-books by\na little story from an antiquated source.\n\n=An Incident of Schoolgirl Life.=\u2014Frederika Bremer, in her novel of\n_The Neighbours_ (published 1837), tells an incident of schoolgirl life\n(possibly a bit of autobiography), with great spirit. Though it is rather\nlong, I think the reader will thank me for it\u2014the little episode advances\nwhat I have to say better than could any duller arguments of my own.\n\nThe heroine says:\u2014\u201cI was then sixteen, and, fortunately for my restless\ncharacter, my right shoulder began to project at the time. Gymnastics\nwere then in fashion as remedies against all manner of defects, and\nmy parents determined to let me try gymnastics. Arrayed in trimmed\npantaloons, a _Bonjour_ coat of green cloth and a little morning cap with\npink ribbon, I made my appearance one day in an assemblage of from thirty\nto forty figures dressed almost the same as myself, who were merrily\nswarming about a large saloon, over ropes, ladders, and poles. It was\na strange and novel scene. I kept myself in the background the first\nday, and learned from my governess the \u2018bending of the back\u2019 and the\n\u2018exercises of the arms and legs.\u2019 The second day I began to be intimate\nwith some of the girls, the third I vied with them on ropes and ladders,\nand ere the close of the second week I was the leader of the second\nclass, and began to encourage them to all manner of tricks.\n\n\u201cAt that time I was studying Greek history; their heroes and their heroic\ndeeds filled my imagination even in the gymnastic school. I proposed to\nmy band to assume masculine and antique names and, in this place, to\nanswer to no other than such as Agamemnon, Epaminondas, etc. For myself\nI chose the name of Orestes, and called my best friend in the class,\nPylades. There was a tall thin girl, with a Finlandish accent, whom I\ngreatly disliked, chiefly on account of the disrespect for me and my\nideas which she manifested without reserve; ... from this arose fresh\ncause for quarrels.\n\n\u201cAlthough in love with the Greek history, I was no less taken with the\nSwedish. Charles XII. was my idol, and I often entertained my friends\nin my class with narration of his deeds till my own soul was on fire\nwith the most glowing enthusiasm. Like a shower of cold water, Darius\n(the tall girl, whose name was Britsa) one day came into the midst of\nus, and opposed me with the assertion that the Czar Peter I. was a much\ngreater man than Charles XII. I accepted the challenge with blind zeal\nand suppressed rage. My opponent brought forward a number of facts with\ncoolness and skill, in support of her opinion, and when I, confuting all\nher positions, thought to exalt my victorious hero to the clouds, she was\nperpetually throwing Bender and Pultawa in my way. O Pultawa! Pultawa!\nmany tears have fallen over thy bloody battlefield, but none more bitter\nthan those which I shed in secret when I, like Charles himself, suffered\na defeat there. Fuel was added to the flame until\u2014\u2018I challenge you, I\ndemand satisfaction,\u2019 cried I to Darius, who only laughed and said,\n\u2018Bravo, bravo!\u2019 ... I exclaimed, \u2018You have insulted me shamefully, and I\nrequest that you ask my pardon in the presence of the whole class, and\nacknowledge that Charles XII. was a greater man than Czar Peter, or else\nyou shall fight with me, if you have any honour in your breast and are\nnot a coward.\u2019 Britsa Kaijsa blushed, but said with detestable coolness:\n\u2018Ask pardon indeed? I should never dream of such a thing. Fight? O, yes,\nI have no objection! but where and with what? With pins, think you,\nor\u2019\u2014\u2018With the sword if you are not afraid, and on this very spot. We\ncan meet here half an hour before the rest; arms I shall bring with me;\nPylades is my second and you shall appoint your own!\u2019 ... Next morning\nwhen I had entered the spacious saloon, I found my enemy already there\nwith her second. Darius and I saluted each other proudly and distantly.\nI gave her the first choice of the swords. She took one and flourished\nit about quite dexterously, as if she had been accustomed to the use of\nit. I saw myself (in imagination) already stabbed to the heart.... \u2018Czar\nPeter _was_ a great man,\u2019 cried Darius. \u2018Down with him! long life to\nCharles XII.!\u2019 I cried, bursting into a furious rage. I placed myself in\nan attitude of defence. Darius did the same.... Our swords clashed one\nagainst the other, and in the next moment I was disarmed and thrown on\nthe ground. Darius stood over me and I believed my last hour had arrived.\nHow astonished was I, however, when my enemy threw her sword away from\nher, took me by the hand and lifted me up, whilst she cheerfully cried:\n\u2018Well, now you have satisfaction; let us be good friends again; you are\na brave little body!\u2019 At this moment a tremendous noise was heard at the\ndoor and in rushed the fencing master and three teachers. My senses now\nforsook me.\u201d\n\nI hope the reader is not among the naughty children who read the fable\nand skip the moral; for, whatever is to follow, is, in fact, the moral of\nthis pretty incident.\n\n=How did the Girls get their Enthusiasm?=\u2014What was it, we wonder, in\ntheir school-books that these Swedish maidens found so exciting? There\nis no hint of other than _school_ reading. In the first place we may\nconclude it was _books_. The oral lesson for young children, the lecture\nfor older, had not been invented in the earlier years of the last\ncentury. We use books in our schoolrooms; but one does not hear of wild\nenthusiasm, ungovernable excitement, over the tabulated events of the\nhistory books, the tabulated facts of the science primers. Those Swedish\ngirls must have used books of another sort; and it is to our interest to\nfind out of what sort. As records would be hard to come by, we must look\nfor information to the girls themselves; not that we can summon them to\ngive a direct answer, but if we can get at what _they_ were, we shall be\nable to make a good guess at what should fire their souls.\n\n=What manner of Book sustains the Life of Thought?=\u2014The story discloses\nno more than that they were intelligent girls, probably the children of\nintelligent parents. But that is enough for our purpose. The question\nresolves itself into\u2014What manner of book will find its way with upheaving\neffect into the mind of an intelligent boy or girl? We need not ask what\nthe girl or boy likes. _She_ very often likes the twaddle of goody-goody\nstory books, _he_ likes condiments, highly-spiced tales of adventure. We\nare all capable of liking mental food of a poor quality and a titillating\nnature; and possibly such food is good for us when our minds are in need\nof an elbow-chair; but our spiritual life is sustained on other stuff,\nwhether we be boys or girls, men or women. By spiritual I mean that which\nis not corporeal; and which, for convenience\u2019 sake, we call by various\nnames\u2014the life of thought, the life of feeling, the life of the soul.\n\nIt is curious how every inquiry, superficial as it may seem to\nbegin with, leads us to fundamental principles. This simple-seeming\nquestion\u2014what manner of school-books should our boys and girls use?\u2014leads\nus straight to one of the two great principles which bottom educational\nthought.\n\n=The School-Books of the Publishers.=\u2014I believe that spiritual life,\nusing spiritual in the sense I have indicated, is sustained upon only one\nmanner of diet\u2014the diet of ideas\u2014the living progeny of living minds. Now,\nif we send to any publisher for his catalogue of school books, we find\nthat it is accepted as the nature of a school-book that it be drained dry\nof living thought. It may bear the name of a thinker, but then it is the\nabridgment of an abridgment, and all that is left for the unhappy scholar\nis the dry bones of his subject denuded of soft flesh and living colour,\nof the stir of life and power of moving. Nothing is left but what Oliver\nWendell Holmes calls the \u2018mere brute fact.\u2019\n\nIt cannot be too often said that information is not education. You may\nanswer an examination question about the position of the Seychelles and\nthe Comoro Islands without having been anywise nourished by the fact of\nthese island groups existing in such and such latitudes and longitudes;\nbut if you follow Bullen in _The Cruise of the Cachelot_, the names\nexcite that little mental stir which indicates the reception of real\nknowledge.\n\n=Reason for Oral Teaching.=\u2014Intelligent teachers are well aware of the\ndry-as-dust character of school books, so they fall back upon the \u2018oral\u2019\nlesson, one of whose qualities must be that it is not _bookish_. Living\nideas can be derived only from living minds, and so it occasionally\nhappens that a vital spark is flashed from teacher to pupil. But\nthis occurs only when the subject is one to which the teacher has\ngiven _original_ thought. In most cases the oral lesson, or the more\nadvanced lecture, consists of information got up by the teacher from\nvarious books, and imparted in language, a little pedantic, or a little\ncommonplace, or a little reading-made-easy in style. At the best, the\nteacher is not likely to have vital interest in, and, consequently,\noriginal thought upon, a wide range of subjects.\n\n=Limitations of Teachers.=\u2014We wish to place before the child open doors\nto many avenues of instruction and delight, in each one of which he\nshould find quickening thoughts. We cannot expect a school to be manned\nby a dozen master-minds, and even if it were, and the scholar were taught\nby each in turn, it would be much to his disadvantage. What he wants of\nhis teacher is moral and mental discipline, sympathy and direction; and\nit is better, on the whole, that the training of the pupil should be\nundertaken by one wise teacher than that he should be passed from hand to\nhand for this subject and that.\n\n=Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life.=\u2014We begin to see what we\nwant. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to initiate\nan immense number of interests. \u2018Thou hast set my feet in a large room,\u2019\nshould be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all\n_living_, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or\nall feeling or all thinking\u2014the strain would be too great\u2014but, all\nliving; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever\nwe hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot\n_give_ the children these interests; we prefer that they should never\nsay they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. The\nquestion is not,\u2014how much does the youth _know_? when he has finished\nhis education\u2014but how much does he _care_? and about how many orders of\nthings does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his\nfeet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?\n\nI know you may bring a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink.\nWhat I complain of is that we do _not_ bring our horse to the water. We\ngive him miserable little text-books, mere compendiums of facts, which\nhe is to learn off and say and produce at an examination; or we give him\nvarious knowledge in the form of warm diluents, prepared by his teacher\nwith perhaps some grains of living thought to the gallon. And all the\ntime we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of\nthinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children.\n\n=We undervalue Children.=\u2014The fact is, we undervalue children. The\nnotion that an infant is a huge oyster, who by slow degrees, and more\nand more, develops into that splendid intellectual and moral being, a\nfull-grown man or woman, has been impressed upon us so much of late years\nthat we believe intellectual spoon-meat to be the only food for what we\nare pleased to call \u2018little minds.\u2019 It is nothing to us that William\nMorris read his first Waverley Novel when he was four and had read the\nwhole series by the time he was seven. He did not die of it, but lived\nand prospered; unlike that little Richard, son of John Evelyn, who died\nwhen he was five years and three days old, a thing not to be wondered at\nwhen we read that he had \u2018a strong passion for Greek, could turn English\ninto Latin and _vice vers\u00e2_ with the greatest ease,\u2019 had \u2018a wonderful\ndisposition to Mathematics, having by heart divers propositions of\nEuclid\u2019; but I quote little Richard (nobody could ever have called him\nDick) by way of warning and not of example.\n\nMacaulay seems to have begun life as a great reader. We know the\ndelightful story of how, when Hannah More called on his parents, he, a\nlittle boy of four, came forward with pretty hospitality to say that if\nshe \u2018would be good enough to come in\u2019 he would bring her \u2018a glass of old\nspirits.\u2019 He explained afterwards that \u2018Robinson Crusoe often had some.\u2019\n\n=Children of the Last Generation.=\u2014But we may dismiss these precocious\nor exceptional children. All we ask of them is to remind us that our\ngrandfathers and grandmothers recognised children as reasonable beings,\npersons of mind and conscience like themselves; but, needing their\nguidance and control, as having neither knowledge nor experience.\nWitness the queer old children\u2019s books which have come down to us; these\naddressed children as, before all things, reasonable, intelligent,\nand responsible persons. This is the note of home-life in the last\ngeneration. So soon as the baby realised his surroundings, he found\nhimself morally and intellectually responsible.\n\n=Children as they are.=\u2014And children have not altered. This is how we\nfind them\u2014with intelligence more acute, logic more keen, observing powers\nmore alert, moral sensibilities more quick, love and faith and hope more\nabounding; in fact, in all points like as we are, only more so; but\nabsolutely ignorant of the world and its belongings, of us and our ways,\nand, above all, of how to control and direct and manifest the infinite\npossibilities with which they are born.\n\n=Our Work, to give vitalising Ideas.=\u2014Knowing that the brain is the\nphysical seat of habit and that conduct and character, alike, are the\noutcome of the habits we allow; knowing, too, that an inspiring idea\ninitiates a new habit of thought, and hence, a new habit of life; we\nperceive that the great work of education is to inspire children with\nvitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of\nknowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care to\nthe formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome\nof vitalising ideas. In this great work we seek and assuredly find the\nco-operation of the Divine Spirit, whom we recognise, in a sense rather\nnew to modern thought, as the supreme Educator of mankind in things that\nhave been called secular, fully as much as in those that have been called\nsacred.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nHOW TO USE SCHOOL-BOOKS\n\n\n=Disciplinary Subjects of Instruction.=\u2014Having cleared our minds as to\nthe end we have in view, we ask ourselves\u2014\u2018Is there any fruitful _idea_\nunderlying this or that study that the children are engaged in?\u2019 We\ndivest ourselves of the notion that to develop the faculties is the chief\nthing, and a \u2018subject\u2019 which does not rise out of some great thought\nof life we usually reject as not nourishing, not fruitful; while we\nretain those studies which give exercise in habits of clear and orderly\nthinking. Mathematics, grammar, logic, etc., are not purely disciplinary,\nthey do develop (if a bull may be allowed) intellectual muscle. We by no\nmeans reject the familiar staples of education in the school sense, but\nwe prize them even more for the record of intellectual habits they leave\nin the brain tissue, than for their distinct value in developing certain\n\u2018faculties.\u2019\n\n=\u2018Open, Sesame.\u2019=\u2014I think we should have a great educational revolution\nonce we ceased to regard ourselves as assortments of so-called faculties,\nand realised ourselves as persons whose great business it is to get in\ntouch with other persons of all sorts and conditions, of all countries\nand climes, of all times, past and present. History would become\nentrancing, literature a magic mirror for the discovery of other minds,\nthe study of sociology a duty and a delight. We should tend to become\nresponsive and wise, humble and reverent, recognising the duties and\nthe joys of the full human life. We cannot of course overtake such a\nprogramme of work, but we can keep it in view; and I suppose every life\nis moulded upon its ideal.\n\n=The Bible, the great Storehouse of Moral Impressions.=\u2014Valuable as are\nsome compendiums of its moral teaching, it is to the Bible itself we\nmust go as to the great storehouse of moral impressions. Let us hear De\nQuincey on this subject:\u2014\n\n\u201cIt had happened, that among our vast nursery collection of books was\nthe Bible, illustrated with many pictures. And in long dark evenings,\nas my three sisters with myself sat by the firelight round the guard of\nour nursery, no book was so much in request amongst us. It ruled us and\nswayed us as mysteriously as music. Our younger nurse, whom we all loved,\nwould sometimes, according to her simple powers, endeavour to explain\nwhat we found obscure. We, the children, were all constitutionally\ntouched with pensiveness; the fitful gloom and sudden lambencies of the\nroom by firelight suited our evening state of feelings; and they suited\nalso, the divine revelations of power and mysterious beauty which awed\nus. Above all, the story of a just man\u2014man and yet _not_ man, real\nabove all things, and yet shadowy above all things\u2014who had suffered the\npassion of death in Palestine, slept upon our minds like early dawn upon\nthe waters. The nurse knew and explained to us the chief differences in\noriental climates; and all these differences (as it happens) express\nthemselves, more or less, in varying relation to the great accidents and\npowers of summer. The cloudless sunlights of Syria\u2014these seemed to argue\neverlasting summer; the disciples plucking the ears of corn\u2014that _must_\nbe summer; but, above all, the very name of Palm Sunday (a festival in\nthe English Church) troubled me like an anthem.\u201d\n\n=Effect of our Liturgy on a Child.=\u2014I cannot refrain from adding De\nQuincey\u2019s beautiful words describing the effect of our liturgy upon him\nas a child. \u201cOn Sunday mornings I went with the rest of my family to\nchurch: it was a church on the ancient model of England, having aisles,\ngalleries, organ, all things ancient and venerable, and the proportions\nmajestic. Here, whilst the congregation knelt through the long litany,\nas often as we came to that passage, so beautiful amongst many that\nare so, where God is supplicated on behalf of \u2018all sick persons and\nyoung children,\u2019 and that He would \u2018show His pity upon all prisoners\nand captives,\u2019 I wept in secret; and raising my streaming eyes to the\nupper windows of the galleries, saw, on days when the sun was shining, a\nspectacle as affecting as ever prophet can have beheld. The _sides_ of\nthe windows were rich with stained glass; through the deep purples and\ncrimsons streamed the golden light; emblazonries of heavenly illumination\n(from the sun) mingling with the earthly emblazonries (from art and\nits gorgeous colouring) of what is grandest in man. _There_ were the\napostles that had trampled upon earth, and the glories of earth, out of\ncelestial love to man. _There_ were the martyrs that had borne witness\nto the truth through flames, through torments, and through armies of\nfierce, insulting faces. _There_ were the saints who, under intolerable\npangs, had glorified God by meek submission to His will.\u201d \u201cGod speaks to\nchildren, also, in dreams and by the oracles that lurk in darkness. But\nin _solitude_, above all things, when made vocal to the meditative heart\nby the truths and services of a national church, God holds with children\n\u2018communion undisturbed.\u2019 _Solitude_, though it may be silent as light,\nis, like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to\nman. All men come into this world _alone_; all leave it _alone_.\u201d\n\n=Principles on which to select School-Books.=\u2014In their power of giving\nimpulse and stirring emotion is another use of books, the right books;\nbut that is just the question\u2014which _are_ the right books?\u2014a point upon\nwhich I should not wish to play Sir Oracle. The \u2018hundred best books for\nthe schoolroom\u2019 may be put down on a list, but not by me. I venture to\npropose one or two principles in the matter of school-books, and shall\nleave the far more difficult part, the application of those principles,\nto the reader. For example, I think we owe it to children to let them dig\ntheir knowledge, of whatever subject, for themselves out of the fit book;\nand this for two reasons: What a child _digs for_ is his own possession;\nwhat is poured into his ear, like the idle song of a pleasant singer,\nfloats out as lightly as it came in, and is rarely assimilated. I do not\nmean to say that the lecture and the oral lesson are without their uses;\nbut these uses are, to give impulse and to _order_ knowledge; and not to\nconvey knowledge, or to afford us that part of our education which comes\nof fit knowledge, fitly given.\n\nAgain, as I have already said, ideas must reach us directly from the mind\nof the thinker, and it is chiefly by means of the books they have written\nthat we get into touch with the best minds.\n\n=Marks of a Fit Book.=\u2014As to the distinguishing marks of a book for the\nschoolroom, a word or two may be said. A fit book is not necessarily\na big book. John Quincy Adams, aged nine, wrote to his father for the\nfourth volume of Smollett for his private reading, though, as he owned\nup, his thoughts were running on birds\u2019 eggs; and perhaps some of us\nremember going religiously through the many volumes of Alison\u2019s _History\nof Europe_ with a private feeling that the bigness of the book swelled\nthe virtue of the reader. But, now, big men write little books, to be\nused with discretion; because sometimes the little books are no more than\nabstracts, the dry bones of the subjects; and sometimes the little books\nare fresh and living. Again, we need not always insist that a book should\nbe written by the original thinker. It sometimes happens that second-rate\nminds have assimilated the matter in hand, and are able to give out what\nis their own thought (only because they have _made_ it their own) in a\nform more suitable for our purpose than that of the first-hand thinkers.\nWe cannot make any hard and fast rule\u2014a big book or a little book, a book\nat first-hand or at second-hand; either may be right provided we have\nit in us to discern a _living_ book, quick, and informed with the ideas\nproper to the subject of which it treats.\n\n=How to use the Right Books.=\u2014So much for the right books; the right use\nof them is another matter. The children must enjoy the book. The ideas\nit holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds,\nmust cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea.\nThe teacher\u2019s part in this regard is to see and feel for himself, and\nthen to rouse his pupils by an appreciative look or word; but to beware\nhow he deadens the impression by a flood of talk. Intellectual sympathy\nis very stimulating; but we have all been in the case of the little girl\nwho said, \u201cMother, I think I could understand if you did not explain\n_quite_ so much.\u201d A teacher said of her pupil, \u201cI find it so hard to tell\nwhether she has really grasped a thing or whether she has only got the\nmechanical hang of it.\u201d Children are imitative monkeys, and it is the\n\u2018mechanical hang\u2019 that is apt to arrive after a douche of explanation.\n\n=Children must Labour.=\u2014This, of getting ideas out of them, is by no\nmeans all we must do with books. \u2018In all labour there is profit,\u2019 at\nany rate in some labour; and the labour of thought is what his book\nmust induce in the child. He must generalise, classify, infer, judge,\nvisualise, discriminate, labour in one way or another, with that capable\nmind of his, until the substance of his book is assimilated or rejected,\naccording as he shall determine; for the determination rests with him and\nnot with his teacher.\n\n=Value of Narration.=\u2014The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph\nor a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a\nsingle attentive reading,\u2014_one_ reading, however slow, should be made\na condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another\nopportunity of finding out \u2018what \u2019tis all about.\u2019 There is the weekly\nreview if we fail to get a clear grasp of the news of the day; and, if we\nfail a second time, there is a monthly or a quarterly review or an annual\nsumming up: in fact, many of us let present-day history pass by us with\neasy minds, feeling sure that, in the end, we shall be _compelled_ to see\nthe bearings of events. This is a bad habit to get into; and we should\ndo well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation\nof second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have\nbeen done at first.\n\n=A Single Careful Reading.=\u2014There is much difference between intelligent\nreading, which the pupil should do in silence, and a mere parrot-like\ncramming up of contents; and it is not a bad test of education to be\nable to give the points of a description, the sequence of a series of\nincidents, the links in a chain of argument, correctly, after a single\ncareful reading. This is a power which a barrister, a publisher, a\nscholar, labours to acquire; and it is a power which children can acquire\nwith great ease, and once acquired, the gulf is bridged which divides the\nreading from the non-reading community.\n\n=Other Ways of using Books.=\u2014But this is only _one_ way to use books:\nothers are to enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter;\nto analyse a chapter, to divide it into paragraphs under proper headings,\nto tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and\nconsequence to cause; to discern character and perceive how character and\ncircumstance interact; to get lessons of life and conduct, or the living\nknowledge which makes for science, out of books; all this is possible\nfor school boys and girls, and _until_ they have begun to use books for\nthemselves in such ways, they can hardly be said to have begun their\neducation.\n\n=The Teacher\u2019s Part.=\u2014The teacher\u2019s part is, in the first place, to see\nwhat is to be done, to look over the work of the day in advance and see\nwhat mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that\nlesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall\ngive full scope to his pupils\u2019 mental activity. Let marginal notes be\nfreely made, as neatly and beautifully as may be, for books should be\nhandled with reverence. Let numbers, letters, underlining be used to help\nthe eye and to save the needless fag of writing abstracts. Let the pupil\nwrite for himself half a dozen questions which cover the passage studied;\nhe need not write the answers if he be taught that the mind can know\nnothing but what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question\nput by the mind to itself.\n\n=Disciplinary Devices must not come between Children and the Soul of the\nBook.=\u2014These few hints by no means cover the disciplinary uses of a good\nschool-book; but let us be careful that our disciplinary devices, and our\nmechanical devices to secure and tabulate the substance of knowledge,\ndo not come between the children and that which is the _soul_ of the\nbook, the living thought it contains. Science is doing so much for us in\nthese days, nature is drawing so close to us, art is unfolding so much\nmeaning to us, the world is becoming so rich for us, that we are a little\nin danger of neglecting the art of deriving sustenance from books. Let\nus not in such wise impoverish our lives and the lives of our children;\nfor, to quote the golden words of Milton: \u201cBooks are not absolutely dead\nthings, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that\nsoul was, whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve, as in a vial,\nthe purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred\nthem. As good almost kill a man, as kill a good book; who kills a man\nkills a good reasonable creature, God\u2019s image; but he who destroys a good\nbook, kills reason itself\u2014kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nEDUCATION, THE SCIENCE OF RELATIONS: WE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES:\nTHE _PRELUDE_ AND _PR\u00c6TERITA_\n\n\n \u201cBut who shall parcel out\n His intellect by geometric rules,\n Split like a province into round and square?\n Who knows the individual hour in which\n His habits were first sown, even as a seed?\n Who that shall point as with a wand and say,\n \u2018This portion of the river of my mind\n Came from yon fountain\u2019?\u201d\u2014_Prelude._\n\nI need not again insist upon the nature of our educational tools. We\nknow well that \u201cEducation is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life.\u201d In\nother words, we know that parents and teachers should know how to make\nsensible use of a child\u2019s _circumstances_ (atmosphere) to forward his\nsound education; should train him in the discipline of the _habits_ of\nthe good life; and should nourish his life with _ideas_, the food upon\nwhich personality waxes strong.\n\n=Only Three Educational Instruments.=\u2014These three we believe to be the\nonly instruments of which we may make lawful use in the upbringing of\nchildren; and any short cut we take by trading on their sensibilities,\nemotions, desires, passions, will bring us and our children to grief.\nThe reason is plain; habits, ideas, and circumstances are external, and\nwe may all help each other to get the best that is to be had of these;\nbut we may not meddle directly with the personality of child or man. We\nmay not work upon his vanity, his fears, his love, his emulation, or\nanything that is his by very right, anything that goes to make him a\nperson.\n\n=Our Limitations.=\u2014Most thinking people are in earnest about the\nbringing-up of children; but we are in danger of taking too much upon us,\nand of not recognising the limitations which confine us to the outworks\nof personality. Children and grown-up persons are the same, with a\ndifference; and a thoughtful writer has done us good service by carefully\ntracing the method of our Lord\u2019s education of the Twelve.\n\n\u201cOur Lord,\u201d says this author, \u201creverenced whatever the learner had in\nhim of his own, and was tender in fostering this native growth.... Men,\nin His eyes, were not mere clay in the hands of the potter, matter to be\nmoulded to shape. They were organic beings, each growing from within,\nwith a life of his own\u2014a personal life which was exceedingly precious\nin His and His Father\u2019s eyes\u2014and He would foster this growth so that it\nmight take after the highest type.\u201d[14]\n\n=We temper Life too much for Children.=\u2014I am not sure that we let life\nand its circumstances have free play about children. We temper the wind\ntoo much to the lambs; pain and sin, want and suffering, disease and\ndeath\u2014we shield them from the knowledge of these at all hazards. I do\nnot say that we should wantonly expose the tender souls to distress,\nbut that we should recognise that life has a ministry for them also;\nand that Nature provides them with a subtle screen, like that of its\nodour to a violet, from damaging shocks. Some of us will not even let\nchildren read fairy tales because these bring the ugly facts of life\ntoo suddenly before them. It is worth while to consider Wordsworth\u2019s\nexperience on this point. Indeed I do not think we make enough use of\ntwo such priceless boons to parents and teachers as the educational\nautobiographies we possess of the two great philosophers, Wordsworth and\nRuskin.\n\n=Fairy Lore a Screen and Shelter.=\u2014The former tells us how, no sooner had\nhe gone to school at Hawkshead, than the body of a suicide was recovered\nfrom Esthwaite Lake; a ghastly tale, but full of comfort as showing how\nchildren are protected from shock. The little boy was there and saw it\nall;\u2014\n\n \u201cYet no soul-debasing fear,\n Young as I was, a child not nine years old,\n Possessed me, for my inner eye had seen\n Such sights before, among the shining streams\n Of fairyland, the forests of romance:\n Their spirit hallowed the sad spectacle\n With decoration of ideal grace;\n A dignity, a smoothness, like the works\n Of Grecian art, and purest poesy.\u201d\n\nIt is delightful to know, on the evidence of a child who went through it,\nthat a terrible scene was separated from him by an atmosphere of poetry\u2014a\ncurtain woven of fairy lore by his etherealising imagination.\n\nBut we may run no needless risks, and must keep a quiet, matter-of-fact\ntone in speaking of fire, shipwreck, or any terror. There are children\nto whom the thought of Joseph in the pit is a nightmare; and many of us\nelders are unable to endure a ghastly tale in newspaper or novel. All I\nwould urge is a natural treatment of children, and that they be allowed\ntheir fair share of life, such as it is; prudence and not panic should\nrule our conduct towards them.\n\n=Spontaneous Living.=\u2014The laws of habit are, we know, laws of God, and\nthe forming of good and the hindering of evil habits are among the\nprimary duties of a parent. But it is just as well to be reminded that\nhabits, whether helpful or hindering, only come into play occasionally,\nwhile a great deal of spontaneous living is always going on towards which\nwe can do no more than drop in vital ideas as opportunity occurs. All\nthis is old matter, and I must beg the reader to forgive me for reminding\nhim again that our educational instruments remain the same. We may not\nleave off the attempt to form good habits with tact and care, to suggest\nfruitful ideas, without too much insistence, and to make wise use of\ncircumstances.\n\n=On what does Fulness of Living depend?=\u2014What is education after all? An\nanswer lies in the phrase\u2014_Education is the Science of Relations_. I do\nnot use this phrase, let me say once more, in the Herbartian sense\u2014that\nthings are related to each other, and we must be careful to pack the\nright things in together, so that, having got into the brain of a boy,\neach thing may fasten on its cousins, and together they may make a strong\nclique or \u2018apperception mass.\u2019 What we are concerned with is the fact\nthat we personally have relations with all that there is in the present,\nall that there has been in the past, and all that there will be in the\nfuture\u2014with all above us and all about us\u2014and that fulness of living,\nexpansion, expression, and serviceableness, for each of us, depend upon\nhow far we apprehend these relationships and how many of them we lay hold\nof.\n\nGeorge Herbert says something of what I mean:\u2014\n\n \u201cMan is all symmetry,\n Full of proportions, one limb to another,\n And _all to all the world besides_;\n Each part may call the farthest brother,\n For head with foot hath private amity,\n And _both with moons and tides_.\u201d[15]\n\nEvery child is heir to an enormous patrimony, heir to all the ages,\ninheritor of all the present. The question is, what are the formalities\n(educational, not legal) necessary to put him in possession of that which\nis his? You perceive the point of view is shifted, and is no longer\nsubjective, but objective, as regards the child.\n\n=The Child a Person.=\u2014We do not talk about developing his faculties,\ntraining his moral nature, guiding his religious feelings, educating him\nwith a view to his social standing or his future calling. The joys of\n\u2018child-study\u2019 are not for us. We take the child for granted, or rather,\nwe take him as we find him\u2014a person with an enormous number of healthy\naffinities, embryo attachments; and we think it is our chief business\nto give him a chance to make the largest possible number of these\nattachments valid.\n\n=An Infant\u2019s Self-Education.=\u2014An infant comes into the world with a\nthousand such embryonic feelers, which he sets to work to fix with\namazing energy:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe Babe,\n Nursed in his Mother\u2019s arms, who sinks to sleep\n Rocked on his Mother\u2019s breast; who with his soul\n Drinks in the feelings of his Mother\u2019s eye!\n For him, in one dear Presence, there exists\n A virtue which irradiates and exalts\n Objects through widest intercourse of sense.\n No outcast he, bewildered and depressed:\n Along his infant veins are interfused\n The gravitation and the filial bond\n Of nature that connects him with the world.\u201d[16]\n\nHe attaches his being to mother, father, sister, brother, \u2018nanna,\u2019 the\nman in the street whom he calls \u2018dada,\u2019 cat and dog, spider and fly;\nearth, air, fire, and water attract him perilously; his eyes covet light\nand colour, his ears sound, his limbs movement; everything concerns him,\nand out of everything he gets\u2014\n\n \u201cThat calm delight\n Which, if I err not, surely must belong\n To those first-born affinities that fit\n Our new existence to existing things,\n And, in our dawn of being, constitute\n The bond of union between life and joy.\u201d[16]\n\nHe gets also, when left to himself, the real knowledge about each thing\nwhich establishes his relation with that particular thing.\n\n=Our Part, to remove Obstructions and to give Stimulus.=\u2014Later, we step\nin to educate him. In proportion to the range of living relationships we\nput in his way, will he have wide and vital interests, fulness of joy in\nliving. In proportion as he is made aware of the laws which rule every\nrelationship, will his life be dutiful and serviceable: as he learns\nthat no relation with persons or with things, animate or inanimate, can\nbe maintained without strenuous effort, will he learn the laws of work\nand the joys of work. Our part is to remove obstructions and to give\nstimulus and guidance to the child who is trying to get into touch with\nthe universe of things and thoughts which belongs to him.\n\n=Our Error.=\u2014Our deadly error is to suppose that we are his showman to\nthe universe; and, not only so, but that there is no community at all\nbetween child and universe unless such as we choose to set up. We are\nthe people! and if we choose that a village child\u2019s education should be\nconfined to the \u2018three R\u2019s,\u2019 why, what right has he to ask for more? If\n_life_ means for him his Saturday night in the ale-house, surely that is\nnot our fault! If our own boys go through school and college and come out\nwithout quickening interests, without links to the things that are worth\nwhile, we are not sure that it is our fault either. We resent that they\nshould be called \u2018muddied oafs\u2019 because we know them to be fine fellows.\nSo they are, splendid stuff which has not yet arrived at the making!\n\n=Business and Desire.=\u2014Quoth Hamlet,\u2014\n\n \u201cEvery man hath business and desire.\u201d\n\nDoubtless that was true in the spacious days of great Elizabeth; for\nus, we have business, but have we desire? Are there many keen interests\nsoliciting us outside of our necessary work? Perhaps not, or we should be\nless enslaved by the vapid joys of Ping-Pong, Patience, Bridge, and their\nlike. The fact is that \u2018interests\u2019 are not to be taken up on the spur of\nthe moment; they spring out of affinities we have found and laid hold of.\nOr, in the words of an old writer: \u201cIn worldly and material things, what\nis Used is spent; in intellectual and spiritual things, what is not Used\nis not Had.\u201d\n\nSupposing we have realised that we must make provision for the future of\nour children otherwise than by safe investments, the question remains,\nhow to set about it.\n\n=The Setting-up of Dynamic Relations.=\u2014We say a child should have what we\nwill call _Dynamic Relations_ with earth and water, must run and leap and\ndance, must ride and swim. This is how _not_ to do it, as set forth in\n_Pr\u00e6terita_:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd so on to Llanberis and up Snowdon.... And if only then my\n father and mother had seen the real strengths and weaknesses of\n their little John; if they had given me but a shaggy scrap of\n a Welsh pony, and left me in charge of a good Welsh guide, and\n of his wife, if I needed any coddling, they would have made a\n man of me there and then.... If only! But they could no more\n have done it than thrown me like my cousin Charles into Croydon\n Canal, trusting me to find my way out by the laws of nature.\n Instead, they took me back to London; my father spared time\n from his business hours, once or twice a week, to take me to a\n four-square, sky-lighted, sawdust-floored prison of a riding\n school in Moorfields, the smell of which, as we turned in at\n the gate of it, was a terror and horror and abomination to me:\n and there I was put on big horses that jumped and reared, and\n circled, and sidled, and fell off them regularly whenever they\n did any of these things; and was a disgrace to my family, and\n a burning shame and misery to myself, till at last the riding\n school was given up on my spraining my right hand fore-finger\n (it has never come straight again since); and a well-broken\n Shetland pony bought for me, and the two of us led about the\n Norwood roads by a riding master with a leading string.\n\n \u201cI used to do pretty well as long as we went straight, and then\n get thinking of something and fall off as we turned a corner.\n I might have got some inkling of a seat in heaven\u2019s good time,\n if no fuss had been made about me, nor inquiries instituted\n whether I had been off or on; but as my mother the moment I\n got home made searching scrutiny into the day\u2019s disgraces, I\n merely got more nervous and helpless after every tumble; and\n this branch of my education was at last abandoned, my parents\n consoling themselves as best they might, in the conclusion that\n my not being able to learn to ride was the sign of my being a\n singular genius.\u201d\n\n=Ruskin\u2019s Indictment of the Limitations of his Condition.=\u2014Ruskin\nsuffered from the malady of his condition. He was of the suburban\ndwellers of the rich middle class who think, not wisely but too much,\nabout the bringing up of their children, who choke a good deal of life\nwith care and coddling, and are apt to be persuaded that their children\nwant no outlets but such as it occurs to them to provide. Suburban life\nis a necessity, but it is also a misfortune, because, in a rich suburb,\npeople live too much with their own sort. They are cut off from the small\nand the great, from labour, adventure, and privation. Let me recommend\nall rich educated parents who live in suburbs to read _Pr\u00e6terita_.\nWith all his chivalrous loyalty to his parents, Ruskin has left here a\ngrave indictment, not of them, but of the limitations of his condition.\nOne hears the cry of the child, like that of Laurence Sterne\u2019s caged\nstarling\u2014\u2018I can\u2019t get out, I can\u2019t get out\u2019\u2014repeated from page to page.\n\nYou will say, whatever were the faults of his education, _Ruskin_ emerged\nfrom it, such as it was; and _we_ look for no more. But it is not for\nus to say how much greater an apostle among men even Ruskin would have\nbecome had he been allowed his right of free living as a child. And it\nmay be, on the other hand, safe to admit that not every child, born and\nbred in a villa, will certainly be another Ruskin!\n\nWe cannot follow Mr Ruskin further in the setting up of the dynamic\nrelations proper to him, because his parents forbade, and nothing\nhappened. His mother, he says, \u2018never allowed me to go to the edge\nof a pond or be in the same field with a pony.\u2019 But he notes \u2018with\nthankfulness the good I got out of the tadpole-haunted ditch in Croxted\nLane.\u2019 Camberwell Green had a pond, and, he says, \u2018it was one of the\nmost valued privileges of my early life to be permitted by my nurse to\ncontemplate this judicial pond with awe from the other side of the way.\u2019\n\n=Wordsworth\u2019s Recognition of his Opportunities.=\u2014Wordsworth tells us of\na much more rough-and-tumble bringing up. When he was nine, he was sent\nto the Grammar School in the little village of Hawkshead and lodged with\nDame Tyson in the cottage many of us know; and found most things, at\nhome and abroad, congenial to his soul. He had no lessons in riding and\nskating, hockey and tennis; but no doubt the other boys made it plain to\nthe little chap that he must do as they did or be thought a fool. But\nthen he went to school a hardy youngster; his mother had let her little\nboy _live_:\u2014\n\n \u201cOh, many a time have I, a five years\u2019 child,\n In a small mill-race severed from his stream,\n Made one long bathing of a summer\u2019s day;\n Basked in the sun, and plunged, and basked again.\u201d\n\nOf his childhood, he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cFair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up\n Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.\u201d\n\nEre he had told ten birthdays, he was transplanted to that \u2018belov\u00e8d Vale\u2019\nof which he says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThere were we let loose\n For sports of wider range.\u201d\n\nWhat was there those Hawkshead boys did not do! He tells us of times,\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen I have hung\n Above the raven\u2019s nest, by knots of grass\n And half-inch fissures in the slippery rock\n But ill-sustained, and almost (so it seemed)\n Suspended by the blast that blew amain,\n Shouldering the naked crag.\u201d\n\nThe boys skated:\u2014\n\n \u201cAll shod with steel,\n We hissed along the polished ice in games\n Confederate, imitative of the chase\n And woodland pleasures,\u2014the resounding horn,\n The pack loud chiming, and the hunted hare.\u201d\n\nThey played:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom week to week, from month to month, we lived\n A round of tumult. Duly were our games\n Prolonged in summer till the daylight failed.\u201d\n\nThey boated:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen summer came,\n Our pastime was, on bright half-holidays,\n To sweep along the plain of Windermere\n With rival oars....\n In such a race\n So ended disappointment could be none,\n Uneasiness, or pain, or jealousy:\n We rested in the shade, all pleased alike,\n Conquered and conqueror.\u201d\n\nThe young Wordsworth, too, had his essays on horseback when he and his\nschoolmates came back rich from the half-yearly holidays and hired\nhorses from \u2018the courteous innkeeper,\u2019 and off they went, \u2018proud to curb,\nand eager to spur on, the galloping steed\u2019; and then, the home-coming:\u2014\n\n \u201cThrough the walls we flew\n And down the valley, and, a circuit made\n In wantonness of heart, through rough and smooth\n We scampered homewards.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nWE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\nPART II.\u2014_FURTHER AFFINITIES_\n\n\n=Affinity for Material: Ruskin\u2019s Opportunities.=\u2014Of the _Affinity for\nMaterial_, the joy of handling and making, Wordsworth says little, but\nRuskin sent out feelers in this direction which began with \u2018two boxes of\nwell-cut wooden bricks\u2019 and culminated, perhaps, in the road-making of\nthe Oxford days:\u2014\n\n \u201cI was afterwards,\u201d he says, \u201cgifted with a two-arched bridge,\n admirable in fittings of voussoir and keystone, and adjustment\n of the level courses of masonry with bevelled edges, into which\n they dovetailed in the style of Waterloo Bridge. Well-made\n centrings, and a course of inlaid steps down to the water,\n made this model largely, as accurately, instructive: and I was\n never weary of building, _un_-building\u2014(it was too strong to be\n thrown down, but had always to be _taken_ down)\u2014and re-building\n it.\u201d\n\nWe know how he busied himself with making a small dam and reservoir at\nboth the Herne Hill and Denmark Hill homes; and how, while still a boy,\nhe scrubbed down, with pail of water and broom, the dirty steps of an\nAlpine hotel, because they offended his mother. We feel that in this\ndirection, again, his nature cried aloud for opportunities.\n\n=Intimacy with Natural Objects.=\u2014We do not hear much of the intimacy\nof either boy with _Natural Objects_, such as birds and flowers; but\nhere, again, we feel that Ruskin was deprived of opportunity. His flower\nfriends were garden dwellers; and could anything be more pathetic than\nthis: \u201cMy chief prayer for the kindness of heaven, in its flowerful\nseasons, was that the frost might not touch the almond blossom.\u201d[17]\n\nWordsworth appears to have waited for his intimacy with wild-flowers\nuntil he could say of his sister Dorothy, \u201cShe gave me eyes, she gave\nme ears.\u201d Birds, as we have seen, he knew through the wicked joy of\nbirdsnesting; but not only so, that day when the wild cavalcade rode to\nFurness Abbey, he marked\u2014\n\n \u201cThat simple wren\n Which one day sang so sweetly in the nave\n Of the old church, that....\n I could have made\n My dwelling-place, and lived for ever there\n To hear such music.\u201d\n\n=Ruskin\u2019s Flower Studies.=\u2014If Ruskin had not, as a child, a wide\nacquaintance with the flowers of the field, he made up, perhaps, by the\nenormous attention he gave to such as came in his way; and, just as his\ntoy bricks and his bridge gave him his initiation in the principles of\narchitecture, so, perhaps, his early flower studies resulted in his\npower of seeing and expressing detail. He says of flowers: \u201cMy whole\ntime passed in staring at them or into them. In no morbid curiosity,\nbut in admiring wonder, I pulled every flower to pieces till I knew all\nthat could be seen of it with a child\u2019s eyes; and used to lay up little\ntreasures of seeds, by way of pearls and beads,\u2014never with any thought\nof sowing them.\u201d He complains that books on Botany were harder than the\nLatin Grammar.\n\n=His Pebble Studies.=\u2014\u201cHad there been anybody then to teach me anything\nabout plants or pebbles,\u201d he says, \u201cit had been good for me.\u201d He loved\nthe pebbles of the Tay, and followed up his acquaintance with pebbles at\nMatlock. \u201cIn the glittering white broken spar, speckled with galena, by\nwhich the walks of the hotel garden were made bright, and in the slopes\nof the pretty village, and in many a happy walk along its cliffs, I\npursued my mineralogical studies on fluor, calcite, and the ores of lead,\nand with indescribable rapture when I was allowed to go into a cave.\u201d\n\n=A Life-shaping Intimacy.=\u2014Later we find him going up Snowdon, \u201cof which\nascent I remember, as the most exciting event, the finding for the\nfirst time in my life a real \u2018mineral\u2019 for myself, a piece of copper\npyrites!\u201d This eagerly sought acquaintance with pebbles resulted in the\nlife-shaping intimacy with minerals to which we owe _The Ethics of the\nDust_.\n\n=Insatiate Delight in a Book\u2014Ruskin\u2019s.=\u2014As for _Books_, we are told how\nRuskin grew up upon the Waverley Novels, on Pope\u2019s Homer\u2019s _Iliad_, many\nof Shakespeare\u2019s plays, and much else that is delightful; but he does\nnot give us an instance of the sort of thing we are looking for\u2014the\nsudden keen, insatiate delight in a book which means kinship\u2014until he is\nintroduced to Byron. His first acquaintance with Byron he puts \u201cabout the\nbeginning of the teen period\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut very certainly, by the end of this year 1834, I knew\n my Byron pretty well all through, all but Cain, Werner, the\n Deformed Transformed, and Vision of Judgment, none of which\n I could understand, nor did papa and mamma think it would be\n well I should try to.... So far as I could understand it, I\n rejoiced in all the sarcasm of Don Juan. But my firm decision,\n as soon as I got well into the later cantos of it, that Byron\n was to be my master in verse, as Turner in colour, was made\n of course in that gosling (or say cygnet) epoch of existence,\n without consciousness of the deeper instincts that prompted\n it: only two things I consciously recognised, that his truth\n of observation was the most exact, and his chosen expression\n the most concentrated, that I had yet found in literature....\n But the thing wholly new and precious to me in Byron was his\n measured and living _truth_\u2014measured, as compared with Homer;\n and living, as compared with everybody else.... He taught me\n the meaning of Chillon and of Meillerie, and bade me seek first\n in Venice\u2014the ruined homes of Foscari and Falieri.... Byron\n told me of, and reanimated for me, the real people whose feet\n had worn the marble I trod on.\u201d\n\n=Wordsworth\u2019s.=\u2014This is how Wordsworth took to his books:\u2014\n\n \u201cA precious treasure had I long possessed,\n A little yellow canvas-covered book,\n A slender abstract of the Arabian tales;\n And, from companions in a new abode,\n When first I learnt, that this dear prize of mine\n Was but a block hewn from a mighty quarry\u2014\n That there were four large volumes, laden all\n With kindred matter, \u2019twas to me, in truth,\n A promise scarcely earthly....\n And when thereafter to my father\u2019s house\n The holidays returned me, there to find\n That golden store of books which I had left,\n What joy was mine! How often ...\n have I lain\n Down by thy side, O Derwent! murmuring stream,\n On the hot stones, and in the glaring sun,\n And there have read, devouring as I read,\n Defrauding the day\u2019s glory, desperate!\u201d\n\n=\u201cThey must have their Food\u201d of Romance.=\u2014Nor can I omit the counsel that\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cA gracious spirit o\u2019er this earth presides,\n And o\u2019er the heart of man: invisibly\n It comes, to works of unreproved delight,\n And tendency benign, directing those\n Who care not, know not, think not what they do.\n The tales that charm away the wakeful night\n In Araby romances; legends penned\n For solace by dim light of monkish lamps;\n Fictions, for ladies of their love, devised\n By youthful squires; adventures endless, spun\n By the dismantled warrior in old age,\n Out of the bowels of those very schemes\n In which his youth did first extravagate;\n These spread like day, and something in the shape\n Of these will live till man shall be no more.\n Dumb yearnings, hidden appetites, are ours,\n And _they must_ have their food. Our childhood sits,\n Our simple childhood, sits upon a throne\n That hath more power than all the elements.\u201d\n\n=Children must range at will among Books.=\u2014And this other counsel:\u2014\n\n \u201cRarely and with reluctance would I stoop\n To transitory themes; yet I rejoice,\n And, by these thoughts admonished, will pour out\n Thanks with uplifted heart, that I was reared\n Safe from an evil which these days have laid\n Upon the children of the land, a pest\n That might have dried me up, body and soul....\n Where had we been, we two, belov\u00e8d Friend!\n If in the season of unperilous choice,\n In lieu of wandering, as we did, though vales\n Rich with indigenous produce, open ground\n Of fancy, happy pastures ranged at will,\n We had been followed, hourly watched, and noosed.\n Each in his several melancholy walk.\u201d\n\n=Words, \u2018a Passion and a Power.\u2019=\u2014Later, follows the story of his first\nenthralment by poetry:\u2014\n\n \u201cTwice five years\n Or less I might have seen, when first my mind\n With conscious pleasure opened to the charm\n Of words in timeful order, found them sweet\n For their own _sakes_, a passion and a power;\n And phrases pleased me chosen for delight,\n For pomp, or love. Oft, in the public roads\n Yet unfrequented, while the morning light\n Was yellowing the hill tops, I went abroad\n With a dear friend, and for the better part\n Of two delightful hours we strolled along\n By the still borders of the misty lake,\n Repeating favourite verses with one voice,\n Or conning more, as happy as the birds\n That round us chaunted.\u201d\n\n=Ruskin\u2019s Local Historic Sense.=\u2014The awakening of the _Historic Sense_ in\nRuskin appears to be always, and here is a great lesson for us, connected\nwith places: that historic interest and \u00e6sthetic delight are one with\nhim, is another thing to take note of. We have seen how Byron served\nhim in this way. Again, he tells us of the \u201cthree centres of my life\u2019s\nthought, Rouen, Geneva, and Pisa, which have been tutoresses of all I\nknow and were mistresses of all I did from the first moments I entered\ntheir gates.\u201d These came later, but Abbeville \u201cwas entrance for me into\nimmediately healthy labour and joy.... My most intense happinesses have\nof course been among mountains. But for cheerful, unalloyed, unwearying\npleasure, the getting sight of Abbeville on a fine summer afternoon,\njumping out in the courtyard of the H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Europe and rushing down\nthe street to see St Wulfran again before the sun was off the towers,\nare things to cherish the past for\u2014to the end.\u201d\n\n=Living Touch with the Past necessary.=\u2014But Ruskin\u2019s want of living\ntouch with the past, except as such touch was given by the newly\ndiscovered history of a place he happened to be in, is shown in his first\nimpressions of Rome:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy stock of Latin learning, with which to begin my studies\n of the city, consisted of the two first books of Livy, never\n well known, and the names of places remembered without ever\n looking where they were on a map; Juvenal, a page or two of\n Tacitus, and in Virgil the burning of Troy, the story of Dido,\n the episode of Euryalus, and the last battle. Of course, I\n had nominally read the whole \u00c6neid, but thought most of it\n nonsense. Of later Roman history, I had read English abstracts\n of the imperial vices, and supposed the malaria in the Campagna\n to be the consequence of the Papacy. I had never heard of a\n good Roman Emperor, or a good Pope; was not quite sure whether\n Trajan lived before Christ or after, and would have thanked,\n with a sense of relieved satisfaction, anybody who might\n have told me that Marcus Antoninus was a Roman philosopher\n contemporary with Socrates.... We of course drove about the\n town, and saw the Forum, Coliseum, and so on. I had no distinct\n idea what the Forum was or ever had been, or how the three\n pillars, or the seven, were connected with it, or the Arch of\n Severus.... What the Forum or Capitol had been, I did not in\n the least care; the pillars of the Forum I saw were on a small\n scale, and their capitals rudely carved, and the houses above\n them nothing like so interesting as the side of any close in\n the \u2018auld toun\u2019 of Edinburgh.\u201d\n\n=Wordsworth and Ruskin, aloof from the Past.=\u2014Wordsworth, too, stood\naloof. He was aware of\n\n \u201cOld, unhappy, far-off things\n And battles long ago;\u201d\n\nbut the past of nations did not enthral him; even the throes of the\nFrench Revolution, to judge by what he tells us in the _Prelude_,\nhardly shook him to his foundation, though he took a walking tour on the\nContinent at the moment when, as he himself says\u2014\n\n \u201cAs if awaked from sleep, the nations hailed\n Their great expectancy.\u201d\n\nBut for him\u2014\n\n \u201cI looked upon these things\n As from a distance; heard and saw and felt,\n Was touched, but with no intimate concern.\u201d\n\n=Knowledge learned in Schools.=\u2014As for the _Knowledge learned in\nSchools_, Ruskin gives us rather dry details of his experiences in\nEuclid, the Latin grammar, and the like, but neither boy appears to have\nbeen \u2018stung with the rapture of a sudden thought\u2019 in the course of his\nlessons, unless Hawkshead Grammar School can take this to itself:\u2014\n\n \u201cMany are our joys\n In youth, but oh! what happiness to live\n When every hour brings palpable access\n Of knowledge, when all knowledge is delight,\n And sorrow is not there!\u201d\n\nBut the praise of the unfolding of the seasons follows, and I am afraid\nit is the lore they brought with them that the poet had in his mind\u2019s eye.\n\n=Comradeship.=\u2014We have all been interested in the late Mr Rhodes\u2019s\nilluminating will, and I suppose most mothers and most masters have\npondered the four groups of qualifications for scholarships. In (3) we\nhave \u2018fellowship,\u2019 in (4) \u2018instincts to lead and take an interest in\nhis schoolmates.\u2019 It is well that a talent for _Comradeship_ should\nbe brought before us in this prominent way as a _sine qu\u00e2 non_. Here\nis the rock upon which Ruskin\u2019s education split, as he was sadly\naware; he never knew the joys of comradeship. Having spoken of \u2018peace,\nobedience, faith; these three for chief good; next to these the habit of\nfixed attention with both eyes and mind,\u2019 as the main blessings of his\nchildhood, he goes on to enumerate \u2018the equally dominant calamities\u2019:\u2014\n\n \u201cFirst, that I had nothing to love. My parents were\u2014in a\n sort\u2014visible powers of nature to me, no more loved than the\n sun and the moon: only I should have been annoyed and puzzled\n if either of them had gone out; (how much, now, when both\n are darkened!)\u2014still less did I love God; not that I had any\n quarrel with Him, or fear of Him; but simply found what people\n told me was His service, disagreeable; and what people told me\n was His book, not entertaining. I had no companions to quarrel\n with neither; nobody to assist, and nobody to thank. Not a\n servant was ever allowed to do anything for me, but what it was\n their duty to do; and why should I have been grateful to the\n cook for cooking, or the gardener for gardening?... My present\n verdict, therefore, on the general tenor of my education at\n that time, must be, that it was at once too formal and too\n luxurious; leaving my character at the most important moment\n for its construction, cramped indeed, but not disciplined; and\n only by protection innocent, instead of by practice virtuous.\u201d\n\nWordsworth, on the contrary, as we have seen, lived the life of his\nschoolfellows with entire _abandon_. He was with a crowd of his mates\nor he was with a friend, and was only alone in those moments of deeper\nintimacy which we shall speak of presently. The simple life of his\n\u2018belov\u00e8d Vale\u2019 took such hold on his tenacious northern nature that\nnot Cambridge, nor London, nor (as we have seen) Europe in its time of\nconvulsion, could displace the earlier images or give new direction to\nhis profoundest thought.\n\nScott laid claim to \u2018intimacy with all ranks of my countrymen from the\nScottish peer to the Scottish ploughman,\u2019 and\u2014we get the Waverley\nNovels. Wordsworth was satisfied to know the fine-natured peasant folk\nof his own dales, and poet-souls like his own. Perhaps such limitations\nwent to the making of the poet of plain living and high thinking; but\nlimitations are hazardous.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nWE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\nPART III.\u2014_VOCATION_\n\n\nI might trace the consummation of various other affinities in these two\nillustrious subjects, but space fails; I can only indicate the joy of\npursuing the acquaintanceship, followed by the endless occupation for\nmind and heart, in that high intimacy which we call the _Vocation_ of\neach of these men of genius.\n\n=Turner\u2019s Call to Ruskin.=\u2014Ruskin\u2019s \u2018career,\u2019 to use our own common and\nexpressive figure, began when,\u2014\n\n \u201cOn my thirteenth (?) birthday, 8th February 1832, my father\u2019s\n partner, Mr Henry Telford, gave me Rogers\u2019s Italy, and\n determined the main tenor of my life.... I had no sooner cast\n my eyes on the Turner vignettes than I took them for my only\n masters, and set myself to imitate them as far as I possibly\n could by fine pen shading....\n\n \u201cMy father at last gave me, not for a beginning of a Turner\n collection, but for a specimen of Turner\u2019s work, which was\n all\u2014as it was supposed\u2014I should ever need or aspire to possess,\n the \u2018Richmond Bridge, Surrey.\u2019\u201d\n\nAgain, anent his purchase of Turner\u2019s \u2018Harlech\u2019:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhatever germs of better things remained in me, were then all\n centred in this love of Turner. It was not a piece of painted\n paper, but a Welsh castle and village, and Snowdon in blue\n cloud, that I bought for my seventy pounds.\u201d\n\n=Sincere Work.=\u2014Not until he is twenty-two does he produce what he\nconsiders his first sincere drawing:\u2014\n\n \u201cOne day on the road to Norwood, I noticed a bit of ivy round\n a thorn stem, which seemed, even to my critical judgment, not\n \u2018ill-composed,\u2019 and proceeded to make a light and shade pencil\n study of it in my grey paper pocket-book, carefully, as if it\n had been a bit of sculpture, liking it more and more as I drew.\n When it was done, I saw that I had virtually lost all my time\n since I was twelve years old, because no one had ever told me\n to draw what was really there!\u201d\n\n=Initiation.=\u2014Later, follows the story of his true initiation:\u2014\n\n \u201cI took out my book and began to draw a little aspen tree, on\n the other side of the cart-road, carefully.... Languidly, but\n not idly, I began to draw it; and as I drew, the langour passed\n away, the beautiful lines insisted on being traced, without\n weariness. More and more beautiful they became as each rose\n out of the rest and took its place in the air. With wonder\n increasing every instant, I saw that they composed themselves\n by finer laws than any known of men. At last the tree was\n there, and everything that I had thought before about trees\n nowhere.... \u2018He hath made everything beautiful in His time\u2019\n became for me thenceforward the interpretation of the bond\n between the human mind and all visible things.\u201d\n\n=Nature a Passion.=\u2014Let us intrude into the consummation of one more\nintimacy. Already the boy has made acquaintance with mountains; he is\nnow to have his first sight of the Alps. He, his father, his mother, and\nhis cousin Mary, went out to walk the first Sunday evening after their\narrival on the garden terrace of Schaffhausen, and\u2014\n\n \u201cSuddenly\u2014behold\u2014beyond! There was no thought in any of us for\n a moment of their being clouds. They were clear as crystal,\n sharp on the pure horizon sky, and already tinged with rose\n by the setting sun. Infinitely beyond all that we had ever\n thought or dreamed\u2014the seen walls of lost Eden could not have\n been more beautiful to us; not more awful, round heaven, the\n walls of sacred death. It is not possible to imagine, in any\n time of the world, a more blessed entrance into life, for a\n child of such temperament as mine.\u201d\n\nHow shall we venture to trace the growth of that austere, most gracious\nand enthralling intimacy with Nature which was to Wordsworth the\nmaster-light of all his seeing? He unfolds to us\u2014\n\n \u201cThe simple ways in which my childhood walked;\n Those chiefly that first led me to the love\n Of rivers, woods, and fields. The passion yet\n Was in its birth, sustained as might befall\n By nourishment that came unsought.\u201d\n\nWe cannot trace every step of the growth of this ethereal passion,\nbut only take a phase of it here and there. The boy and some of his\nschoolfellows were boating on Windermere in the late evening, and they\nleft one of their number, \u2018the Minstrel of the Troop,\u2019 on a small island:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd rowed off gently, while he blew his flute\n Alone upon the rock\u2014oh, then, the calm\n And dead still water lay upon my mind\n Even with a weight of pleasure, and the sky,\n Never before so beautiful, sank down\n Into my heart, and held me like a dream!\n Thus were my sympathies enlarged, and thus\n Daily the common range of visible things\n Grew dear to me: already I began\n To love the sun; a boy, I loved the sun,\n Not as I since have loved him, as a pledge\n And surety of our earthly life, a light\n Which we behold and feel we are alive;\n Not for his bounty to so many worlds\u2014\n But for this cause, that I had seen him lay\n His beauty on the morning hills, had seen\n The western mountain touch his setting orb.\u201d\n\n=The Calling of a Poet.=\u2014We may take one more look at this marvellous\nboy, who, become a man, held that every child, as he, is born a poet:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy seventeenth year was come,\n ... I, at this time,\n Saw blessings spread around me like a sea.\n Thus while the days flew by, and years passed on,\n From nature and her overflowing soul\n I had received so much, that all my thoughts\n Were steeped in feeling; I was only then\n Contented, when with bliss ineffable\n I felt the sentiment of Being spread\n O\u2019er all that moves and all that seemeth still;\n O\u2019er all that, lost beyond the reach of thought\n And human knowledge, to the human eye\n Invisible, yet liveth to the heart;\n O\u2019er all that leaps and runs, and shouts and sings,\n Or beats the gladsome air; o\u2019er all that glides\n Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself,\n And mighty depth of waters.\n ... If I should fail with grateful voice\n To speak of you, ye mountains, and ye lakes\n And sounding cataracts, ye mists and winds\n That dwell among the hills where I was born.\n If in my youth I have been pure in heart,\n If, mingling with the world, I am content\n With my own modest pleasures, and have lived\n With God and nature communing, removed\n From little enmities and low desires,\n The gift is yours.\u201d\n\n=The Education of the Little Prig.=\u2014Before taking leave of the _Prelude_,\nmay I introduce Wordsworth\u2019s sketch of the \u2018child-studied\u2019 little prig\nof his days\u2014days of much searching of heart and of many theories on the\nsubject of education?\u2014\n\n \u201cThat common sense\n May try this common system by its fruits,\n Leave let me take to place before her sight\n A specimen pourtrayed with faithful hand.\n Full early trained to worship seemliness,\n This model of a child is never known\n To mix in quarrels; that were far beneath\n Its dignity; with gifts he bubbles o\u2019er\n As generous as a fountain; selfishness\n May not come near him, nor the little throng\n Of flitting pleasures tempt him from his path;\n The wandering beggars propagate his name,\n Dumb creatures find him tender as a nun,\n And natural or supernatural fear,\n Unless it leaps upon him in a dream,\n Touches him not. To enhance the wonder, see\n How arch his notices, how nice his sense\n Of the ridiculous; ... he can read\n The inside of the earth, and spell the stars;\n He knows the policies of foreign lands;\n Can string you names of districts, cities, towns,\n The whole world over, tight as beads of dew\n Upon a gossamer thread; he sifts, he weighs;\n All things are put to question; he must live\n Knowing that he grows wiser every day,\n Or else not live at all, and seeing too\n Each little drop of wisdom as it falls\n Into the dimpling cistern of his heart:\n For this unnatural growth the trainer blame,\n Pity the tree....\n Meanwhile old grandame earth is grieved to find\n The playthings, which her love designed for him,\n Unthought of: in their woodland beds the flowers\n Weep, and the river sides are all forlorn.\n Oh! give us once again the wishing-cap\n Of Fortunatus, and the invisible coat\n Of Jack the Giant-killer, Robin Hood,\n And Sabra in the forest with St George!\n The child, whose love is here, at least, doth reap\n One precious gain, that he forgets himself.\u201d\n\n=Children have Affinities and should have Relations.=\u2014I cannot stop here\nto gather any more of the instruction and edification contained in those\ntwo great educational books, _The Prelude_ and _Pr\u00e6terita_. It is enough\nfor the present if they have shown us in what manner children attach\nthemselves to their proper affinities, given opportunity and liberty.\nOur part is to drop occasion freely in the way, whether in school or at\nhome. Children should have relations with earth and water, should run and\nleap, ride and swim, should establish the relation of maker to material\nin as many kinds as may be; should have dear and intimate relations with\npersons, through present intercourse, through tale or poem, picture or\nstatue; through flint arrow-head or modern motor-car: beast and bird,\nherb and tree, they must have familiar acquaintance with. Other peoples\nand their languages must not be strange to them. Above all they should\nfind that most intimate and highest of all Relationships,\u2014the fulfilment\nof their being.\n\nThis is not a bewildering programme, because, in all these and more\ndirections, children have affinities; and a human being does not fill his\nplace in the universe without putting out tendrils of attachment in the\ndirections proper to him. We must get rid of the notion that to learn the\n\u2018three R\u2019s\u2019 or the Latin grammar well, a child should learn these and\nnothing else. It is as true for children as for ourselves that, the wider\nthe range of interests, the more intelligent is the apprehension of each.\n\n=Education not Desultory.=\u2014But I am not preaching a gospel for the\nindolent and proclaiming that education is a casual and desultory matter.\nMany great authors have written at least one book devoted to education;\nand _Waverley_ seems to me to be Scott\u2019s special contribution to our\nscience. Edward Waverley, we are told, \u2018was permitted in a great measure\nto learn as he pleased, when he pleased, and what he pleased.\u2019 That he\ndid please to learn and that his powers of apprehension were uncommonly\nquick, would appear to justify this sort of education. But wavering he\nwas allowed to grow up, and \u2018Waverley\u2019 he remained; instability and\nineffectiveness marked his course. The manner of his education and its\nresults are thus shortly set forth:\u2014\n\n \u201cEdward would throw himself with spirit upon any classical\n author of which his preceptor proposed the perusal, make\n himself master of the style so far as to understand the story,\n and, if that pleased or interested him, he finished the\n volume. But it was in vain to attempt fixing his attention on\n critical distinctions of philology, upon the difference of\n idiom, the beauty of felicitous expression, or the artificial\n combinations of syntax. \u2018I can read and understand a Latin\n author,\u2019 said young Edward, with the self-confidence and rash\n reasoning of fifteen, \u2018and Scaliger or Bentley could not do\n much more.\u2019 Alas! while he was thus permitted to read only for\n the gratification of his amusement, he foresaw not that he was\n losing for ever the opportunity of acquiring habits of firm\n and assiduous application, of gaining the art of controlling,\n directing, and concentrating the powers of his mind for earnest\n investigation\u2014an art far more essential than even that intimate\n acquaintance with classical learning which is the primary\n object of study.\u201d\n\n_Waverley_ but illustrates, what Mr Ruskin says in plain words; that our\nyouth\u2014whatever we make of it\u2014abides with us to the end:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut so stubborn and chemically inalterable the laws of the\n prescription were, that now, looking back from 1886 to that\n brook shore of 1837, whence I could see the whole of my youth,\n I find myself in nothing whatsoever _changed_. Some of me is\n dead, more of me is stronger. I have learned a few things,\n forgotten many. In the total of me, I am but the same youth,\n disappointed and rheumatic.\u201d\n\n=Strenuous Effort and Reverence.=\u2014We have seen in Ruskin and Wordsworth\nthe strenuous attention\u2014condition of receptiveness\u2014which made each\nof them a producer after his kind; and whosoever will play the game,\nwhether it be cricket or portrait painting, must learn the rules with\nall diligence and get skill by his labour. It is true, \u2018the labour we\ndelight in physics pain,\u2019 but it is also true that we cannot catch hold\nof any one of the affinities that are in waiting for us without strenuous\neffort and without reverence. A bird-lover, one would say, has chosen\nfor himself an easy joy; but no: your true bird-lover is out of doors by\nfour in the morning to assist at the lev\u00e9e of the birds; nay, is he not\nin Hyde Park by 2.30 a.m. to see\u2014the kingfisher, no less! He lies in wait\nin secret places to watch the goings on of the feathered peoples, travels\nfar afield to make a new acquaintance in the bird-world; in fact, gives\nto the study of birds attention, labour, love, and reverence. He gets joy\nin return, so is perhaps little conscious of effort; but the effort is\nmade all the same.\n\n=Comradeship has Duties.=\u2014To take one more instance of an\naffinity\u2014comradeship. Most of us have serious thoughts about friendship;\nbut we are apt to take comradeship, fellowship, very casually, and to\nthink it is sufficiently maintained if we meet for parties, games,\npicnics, or what not. Public school boys generally learn better; they\nknow that comradeship means much cheerful give-and-take, chaff, help,\nunsparing criticism; if need be, the taking or giving of serious reproof;\nloyalty each to each, plucky and faithful leading, staunch following,\ntruth-speaking; the power to see others put first without chagrin, and to\nbear advancement without conceit. Here, too, are calls for attention,\nlabour, love, and reverence; but, again, labour is swallowed up in\ndelight.\n\n=The Angel troubles the Still Pool.=\u2014One more point. We are steadfast to\nthe affinities we take hold of, till death do us part, or longer. And\nhere let me say a word as to the \u2018advantages\u2019 (?) which London offers\nin the way of masters and special classes. I think it is most often the\nstill pool which the angel comes down to trouble: a steady unruffled\ncourse of work without so-called advantages lends itself best to that\n\u2018troubling\u2019 of the angel\u2014the striking upon us of what Coleridge calls\n\u2018the Captain Idea,\u2019 which initiates a tie of affinity.\n\n=The Highest Relationship.=\u2014Neither _The Prelude_ nor _Pr\u00e6terita_\nlends itself to the study of the highest Relationship, the profoundest\nIntimacy, which awaits the soul of man. I think I cannot do better than\nclose with an extract from a little book[18] which tells the spiritual\nhistory of _Brother Lawrence_, a lay Brother among the barefooted\nCarmelites, at Paris, in the seventeenth century.\n\n \u201cThe first time I saw _Brother Lawrence_ was upon the 3rd of\n August, 1666. He told me that God had done him a singular\n favour in his conversion at the age of eighteen. That in the\n winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering\n that within a little time the leaves would be renewed, and\n after that the flower and fruit appear, he received a high view\n of the Providence and Power of God, which has never since been\n effaced from his soul. That this view had perfectly set him\n loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for God,\n that he could not tell whether it had increased in about forty\n years that he had lived since. That he had been footman to M.\n Fieubert, the treasurer, and that he was a great awkward fellow\n who broke everything. That he had desired to be received into\n a monastery, thinking he would there be made to smart for his\n awkwardness and the faults he should commit, and so he should\n sacrifice to God his life, with its pleasures: but that God had\n disappointed him, he having met with nothing but satisfaction\n in that state.... That with him the set times of prayer were\n not different from other times; that he retired to pray,\n according to the directions of his Superior, but that he did\n not want such retirement, nor ask for it, because his greatest\n business did not divert him from God.... That the greatest\n pains or pleasures of this world were not to be compared\n with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual\n state; so that he was careful for nothing and feared nothing,\n desiring but one only thing of God, viz., that he might not\n offend Him.... That he had so often experienced the ready\n succours of Divine Grace upon all occasions, that from the same\n experience, when he had business to do, he did not think of it\n beforehand; but when it was time to do it he found in God, as\n in a clear mirror, all that was fit for him to do. That of late\n he had acted thus, without anticipating care; but before the\n experience above mentioned he had used it in his affairs. When\n outward business diverted him a little from the thought of God,\n a fresh remembrance coming from God invested his soul, and so\n inflamed and transported him that it was difficult for him to\n contain himself, that he was more united to God in his outward\n employments than when he left them for devotion in retirement.\u201d\n\n \u201cI want,\u2014am made for,\u2014and must have a God,\n Ere I can be aught, do aught;\u2014no mere Name\n Want, but the True Thing, with what proves its truth,\u2014\n To wit, a relation from that Thing to me\n Touching from head to foot:\u2014which Touch I feel,\n And with it take the rest, this Life of Ours!\u201d\n\n \u2014_Browning._\n\n\nAN EDUCATIONAL MANIFESTO\n\n\u201c_Studies serve for Delight, for Ornament, and for Ability._\u201d\n\nEvery child has a right of entry to several fields of knowledge.\n\nEvery normal child has an appetite for such knowledge.\n\nThis appetite or desire for knowledge is a sufficient stimulus for all\nschool work, if the knowledge be fitly given.\n\nThere are four means of destroying the desire for knowledge:\u2014\n\n (_a_) Too many oral lessons, which offer knowledge in a diluted\n form, and do not leave the child free to deal with it.\n\n (_b_) Lectures, for which the teacher collects, arranges, and\n illustrates matter from various sources; these often offer\n knowledge in too condensed and ready prepared a form.\n\n (_c_) Text-books compressed and re-compressed from the big book\n of the big man.\n\n (_d_) The use of emulation and ambition as incentives to\n learning in place of the adequate desire for, and delight in,\n knowledge.\n\nChildren can be most fitly educated on _Things_ and _Books_. Things,\n_e.g._:\u2014\n\n i. Natural obstacles for physical contention, climbing,\n swimming, walking, etc.\n\n ii. Material to work in\u2014wood, leather, clay, etc.\n\n iii. Natural objects _in situ_\u2014birds, plants, streams, stones,\n etc.\n\n iv. Objects of art.\n\n v. Scientific apparatus, etc.\n\nThe value of this education by _Things_ is receiving wide recognition,\nbut intellectual education to be derived from _Books_ is still for the\nmost part to seek.\n\nEvery scholar of six years old and upwards should study with \u2018delight\u2019\n_his own, living_, books on every subject in a pretty wide curriculum.\nChildren between six and eight must for the most part have their books\nread to them.\n\nThis plan has been tried with happy results for the last twelve years in\nmany home schoolrooms, and some other schools.\n\nBy means of the free use of books the mechanical difficulties of\neducation\u2014reading, spelling, composition, etc.\u2014disappear, and studies\nprove themselves to be \u2018for delight, for ornament, and for ability.\u2019\n\nThere is reason to believe that these principles are workable in all\nschools, Elementary and Secondary; that they tend in the working to\nsimplification, economy, and discipline.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n(_For Children under Fourteen_)\n\nPART I\n\n\n=Summary of Preceding Chapters.=\u2014I have left the consideration of a\ncurriculum, which is, practically, the subject of this volume, till the\nfinal chapters; because a curriculum is not an independent product,\nbut is linked to much else by chains of cause and consequence. The\nfundamental principles of docility and authority have been considered\nin the first place because they _are_ fundamental; but, for that very\nreason, they should be present but not in evidence; we do not expose\nthe foundations of our house. Not only so, but these principles must be\nconditioned by respect for the personality of children; and, in order to\ngive children room for free development on the lines proper to them, it\nis well that parents and teachers should adopt an attitude of masterly\ninactivity.\n\nHaving considered the relations of teachers and taught, I have touched\nupon those between education and current thought. Education should be\nin the flow, as it were, and not shut up in a watertight compartment.\nPerhaps, reverence for personality as such, a sense of the solidarity\nof the race, and a profound consciousness of evolutionary progress, are\namong the elements of current thought which should help us towards an\neducational ideal.\n\nIn considering the training of children under the convenient divisions of\nphysical, mental, moral, and religious, I have not thought it necessary\nto give counsels upon matters of common knowledge and general acceptance,\nbut have dwelt upon aspects of training under each heading which are\nrather likely to be overlooked. Under the phrase \u2018Education is a life,\u2019 I\nhave tried to show how necessary it is to sustain the intellectual life\nupon ideas, and, as a corollary, that a school-book should be a medium\nfor ideas and not merely a receptacle for facts. That normal children\nhave a natural desire for, and a right of admission to, all knowledge,\nappears to me to be covered by the phrase, \u2018Education is the science of\nrelations.\u2019\n\nThese considerations clear the ground for the consideration of a\ncurriculum, which occupies the remaining chapters; these are, in fact,\na summary of what has gone before; and therefore I beg the reader\u2019s\npatience with such repetitions as seem to me necessary in bringing the\nargument to a point.\n\n=Some Preliminary Considerations.=\u2014As the following suggestions have\nbeen worked out in connection with the Parents\u2019 National Educational\nUnion, it may perhaps be desirable to repeat here that the first effort\nof this society, continued through ten years of its existence, was to\nimpress upon its members the definition of Education contained in our\nmotto, \u2018_Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life._\u2019 By this we\nmean that parents and teachers should know how to make sensible use of\na child\u2019s circumstances (_atmosphere_), should train him in habits of\ngood living (_discipline_), and should nourish his mind with ideas, the\nfood of the intellectual _life_. These three we believe to be the only\ninstruments of which we may make lawful use in bringing up children. An\neasier way may be found by trading on their sensibilities, emotions,\ndesires, passions; but the result must be disastrous. And for this\nreason, that habits, ideas, and circumstances are external, and we may\nhelp each other to get the best that is to be had of them; we may not,\nhowever, meddle directly with the personality of child or man; we may not\nwork upon his vanity, his fears, his love, his emulation, or anything\nthat goes to make him a person. Most thinking people are in earnest about\nthe bringing up of children; but we are in danger of taking too much\nupon us, and of not recognising the limitations which confine us to the\noutworks of personality.\n\n=A Definite Aim.=\u2014The Parents\u2019 Union, having devoted, as I have said, ten\nyears of its existence to learning how to use the three instruments of\neducation (circumstances, habits, and ideas), took a new departure some\nfew years ago, and asked what should be the end in view as the result of\na wise use of due means. What is education? The answer we accept is that\n_Education is the Science of Relations_.\n\nWe do not use this phrase in the Herbartian sense, that things or\nthoughts are related to each other and that teachers must be careful to\npack the right things, in together, so that, having got into the pupil\u2019s\nbrain, each may fasten on its kind, and, together, make a strong clique\nor apperception mass.\n\nWhat concerns us personally is the fact that we have relations with\nwhat there is in the present and with what there has been in the past,\nwith what is above us, and about us; and that fulness of living and\nserviceableness depend for each of us upon how far we apprehend these\nrelationships and how many of them we lay hold of. Every child is heir\nto an enormous patrimony. The question is, what are the formalities\nnecessary to put him in possession of that which is his?\n\n=Education Objective, not Subjective.=\u2014The point of view is shifted;\nit is no longer _subjective_ as regards the child, but _objective_. We\ndo not talk about developing his faculties, training his moral nature,\nguiding his religious feelings, educating him with a view to his social\nstanding or his future calling. We take the child as we find him, a\nperson with many healthy affinities and embryonic attachments, and we\ntry to give him a chance to make the largest possible number of these\nattachments valid.\n\nAn infant comes into the world with a thousand feelers which he at once\nbegins to fix with great energy; and out of everything about him he gets\u2014\n\n \u201cThat calm delight which, if I err not, surely must belong,\n To those first-born affinities that fit\n Our new existence to existing things,\n And in our dawn of being, constitute\n The bond of union between life and joy.\u201d[19]\n\nHe gets also when left to himself that real knowledge about each thing\nhe comes across which establishes his relations with that thing.\nLater, we step in to educate him. In proportion to the range of living\nrelationships we put in his way will he have wide and vital interests and\njoy in living. His life will be dutiful and serviceable if he is made\naware of the laws which rule each relationship; he will learn the laws of\nwork and the joys of work as he perceives that no relation with persons\nor with things can be kept up without effort.\n\nOur part is to remove obstructions, to give stimulus and guidance to the\nchild who is trying to get into touch with the universe of things and\nthoughts. Our error is to suppose that we must act as his showman to\nthe universe, and that there is no community between child and universe\nexcept such as we choose to set up.\n\n=Interests.=\u2014Have we many keen interests soliciting us outside of our\nnecessary work? If we have, we shall not be enslaved by vapid joys.\n\nInterests are not to be taken up on the spur of the moment; they spring\nout of the affinities which we have found and laid hold of. And the\nobject of education is, I take it, to give children the _use_ of as much\nof the world as may be.\n\nInfluenced by such considerations as these, the phrase, \u2018_Education is\nthe Science of Relations_,\u2019 gives us the advantage of a definite aim in\nour work.\n\n=Educational Unrest.=\u2014We have been made familiar with the phrase\n\u2018educational unrest,\u2019 and we all feel its fitness. Never were there\nmore able and devoted teachers, whether as the heads or on the staffs\nof schools of all classes. Money, labour, and research are freely spent\non education, theory is widely studied, and pains are taken to learn\nwhat is done elsewhere; yet there is something amiss beyond that \u2018divine\ndiscontent\u2019 which leads to effort. We know that a change of front is\nnecessary; and we are ready, provided that the change be something more\nthan an experiment. Headmasters and mistresses are, I believe, amongst\nthe persons most ready to fall in with a sound reform; but, because these\nare persons with wide experience and highly-trained intellects, they are\nunwilling to launch changes which have not a philosophic basis as well as\na utilitarian end.\n\n=A Unifying Principle.=\u2014Hitherto we, of the Parents\u2019 Union, have\npressed on the public rather our views on home-training than those on\nschool-teaching, but this is because we have been unwilling to disturb\nthe existing order. We have, however, during the last twelve years worked\nout in our training college and school _a unifying principle and adequate\nmethods_ with happy results. We exist because we have a definite aim, and\nto carry out that aim. I need not now speak of the few principles which\nform a guide to us in the upbringing of children; but that principle\nwhich guides us in what is commonly called education\u2014the teaching of\nknowledge\u2014may be found to indicate the cause of many educational failures\nand may point the way to reform.\n\n=Education should give Knowledge touched with Emotion.=\u2014To adapt a phrase\nof Matthew Arnold\u2019s concerning religion,\u2014education should aim at giving\nknowledge \u2018_touched with emotion_.\u2019 I have already quoted the charming\nepisode in Frederika Bremer\u2019s _Neighbours_, where two schoolgirls fight\na duel on behalf of their heroes\u2014Charles XII. and Peter the Great.\nParents may be glad that we have no girl-duels to-day! The schoolgirl\ndoes not care for heroes, she cares for marks. Knowledge for her is not\n\u2018touched with emotion,\u2019 unless it be those of personal acquisitiveness\nand emulation. The boys and girls have it in them to be generous and\nenthusiastic; that they leave school without interests, beyond that of\npreparing for further examinations or the absorbing interest of games,\nis no doubt the fault of the schools. Perhaps the \u2018unrest\u2019 of the public\nmind at home and abroad about secondary education is due to the fact\nthat young people are turned out from excellent schools _devitalised_ so\nfar as their minds go. No \u2018large draughts of intellectual day\u2019 have been\noffered to their thirst; and yet the thirst was there to begin with.\n\nMr Benson[20] speaks very frankly. He says: \u201cI honestly believe that the\nmasters of public schools have two strong ambitions\u2014to make boys good\nand to make them healthy; but I do not think they care about making them\nintellectual: intellectual life is left to take care of itself. My belief\nis that a great many masters look upon the boys\u2019 work as a question of\nduty\u2014that is, they consider it from the moral standpoint and not from\nthe intellectual.... It must be frankly admitted that the intellectual\nstandard maintained at the English public schools is low; and, what is\nmore serious, I do not see any evidence that it is tending to become\nhigher.\u201d\n\nProfessor Sadler, with a perhaps wider outlook, says, practically, the\nsame thing\u2014our secondary schools have capital points, but intellectually\nthey are behind-hand, compared even with those of some continental\nnations. Mr Benson speaks no doubt from personal knowledge; but is it a\nfact that so intellectual a body as our headmasters deliberately forego\nintellectual distinction in their schools? Or is it not rather that\nexaminations throw them back on the pseudo-intellectual work known as\n\u2018cram\u2019? It is because cram is deadening that some of us deprecate the\nregistration of teachers as a backward movement. Hundreds of mediocre\nyoung women set themselves to cram for a course of examinations, often a\nlong course, to end at last in registration; and already headmistresses\nfeel the evil and inquire diligently for assistants who are \u2018not the\nusual sort.\u2019 Women are apt to be over-strenuous and over-conscientious,\nand the strain of moral effort carried on through years of preparation\nfor successive examinations often leaves a certain dulness of\napprehension. There are brilliant exceptions, but the average young woman\nwho has undergone such an experience has little initiative, is slow of\nperception, not readily adaptable, not quick in the uptake; is, in fact,\na little devitalised. I speak of moral effort, because the labour of\npreparing for examinations, of going through steady long-sustained grind,\nis apt to be rather a moral than an intellectual effort. With young men\nit is otherwise; they are commonly less strenuous, less absorbed, and\ntherefore, perhaps, more receptive to the ideas that beset the way of\ntheir studies.\n\n=Education is the Science of Relations.=\u2014The idea that vivifies teaching\nin the Parents\u2019 Union is that _Education is the Science of Relations_;\nby which phrase we mean that children come into the world with a natural\n\u2018appetency,\u2019 to use Coleridge\u2019s word, for, and affinity with, all the\nmaterial of knowledge; for interest in the heroic past and in the age\nof myths; for a desire to know about everything that moves and lives,\nabout strange places and strange peoples; for a wish to handle material\nand to make; a desire to run and ride and row and do whatever the law of\ngravitation permits. Therefore we do not feel it is lawful in the early\ndays of a child\u2019s life to select certain subjects for his education to\nthe exclusion of others; to say he shall not learn Latin, for example, or\nshall not learn Science; but we endeavour that he shall have relations\nof pleasure and intimacy established with as many as possible of the\ninterests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering\nabout this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a\ngreat field before him which in all his life he will not be able to\nexplore. In this conception we get that \u2018touch of emotion\u2019 which vivifies\nknowledge, for it is probable that we _feel_ only as we are brought into\nour proper vital relations.\n\n=Is there such a thing as the \u2018Child-Mind\u2019?=\u2014We get courage to attack\nso wide a programme through a few working ideas or principles: one of\nthese is, there is no such thing as the \u2018child-mind\u2019; we believe that\nthe ignorance of children is illimitable, but that, on the other hand,\ntheir intelligence is hardly to be reckoned with by our slower wits.\nIn practical working we find this idea a great power; the teachers do\nnot talk down to the children; they are careful _not_ to explain every\nword that is used, or to ascertain if children understand every detail.\nAs a girl of twelve or so the writer browsed a good deal on Cowper\u2019s\npoems and somehow took an interest in _Mrs Montague\u2019s Feather Hangings_.\nOnly the other day did the ball to fit that socket arrive in the shape\nof an article in _The Quarterly_ on \u2018The Queen of the Bluestockings.\u2019\nBehold, there was Mrs Montague with her feather hangings! The pleasure\nof meeting with her after all these years was extraordinary; for in no\nway is knowledge more enriching than in this of leaving behind it a,\nso to speak, dormant appetite for more of the kind. The recent finds at\nKnossos are only to be appreciated by those who recollect how Ulysses\ntold Penelope about Crete with its ninety cities, and Knossos, and King\nMinos. Not what we have learned, but what we are waiting to know, is\nthe delectable part of knowledge. Nor should knowledge be peptonised or\ndiluted, but offered to the children with some substance in it and some\nvitality. We find that children can cover a large and various field with\ndelight and intelligence in the time that is usually wasted over \u2018the\nthree R\u2019s,\u2019 object-lessons, and other much-diluted matter in which the\nteaching is more than the knowledge.\n\n=Knowledge _versus_ Information.=\u2014The distinction between _knowledge_\nand _information_ is, I think, fundamental. Information is the record of\nfacts, experiences, appearances, etc., whether in books or in the verbal\nmemory of the individual; knowledge, it seems to me, implies the result\nof the voluntary and delightful action of the mind upon the material\npresented to it. Great minds, a Darwin or a Plato, are able to deal at\nfirst hand with appearances or experiences; the ordinary mind gets a\nlittle of its knowledge by such direct dealing, but for the most part it\nis set in action by the vivifying knowledge of others, which is at the\nsame time a stimulus and a point of departure. The information acquired\nin the course of education is only by chance, and here and there, of\npractical value. Knowledge, on the other hand, that is, the product of\nthe vital action of the mind on the material presented to it, is power;\nas it implies an increase of intellectual aptitude in new directions, and\nan always new point of departure.\n\nPerhaps the chief function of a teacher is to distinguish information\nfrom knowledge in the acquisitions of his pupils. Because knowledge is\npower, the child who has got knowledge will certainly show power in\ndealing with it. He will recast, condense, illustrate, or narrate with\nvividness and with freedom in the arrangement of his words. The child who\nhas got only information will write and speak in the stereotyped phrases\nof his text-book, or will mangle in his notes the words of his teacher.\n\n=Children have a Natural Craving for Knowledge.=\u2014It is the easier for\nus to deal in this direct fashion with knowledge because we are not\nembarrassed by the necessity of cultivating faculties; for working\npurposes the so-called faculties are sufficiently described as _mind_;\nand the normal mind is, we find, as able to deal with knowledge as are\nthe normal digestive organs with food. Our concern is to give a child\nsuch knowledge as shall open up for him as large a share as may be of the\nworld he lives in for his use and enjoyment. As there are gymnastics for\nthe body, so for the mind there are certain subjects whose use is chiefly\ndisciplinary, and of these we avail ourselves. Again, as our various\norgans labour without our consciousness in the assimilation of food,\nso judgment, imagination, and what not, deal of their own accord with\nknowledge, that it may be _incorporated_, which is not the same thing as\n\u2018remembered.\u2019 A further analogy\u2014as the digestive organs are incited by\nappetite, so children come into the world with a few inherent desires,\nsome with more, some less, to incite them to their proper activities.\nThese are, roughly speaking, the desire for power, for praise, for\nwealth, for distinction, for society, and for _knowledge_. It seems to\nme that education, which appeals to the desire for wealth (marks, prizes,\nscholarships, or the like), or to the desire of excelling (as in the\ntaking of places, etc.), or to any other of the natural desires, _except\nthat for knowledge_, destroys the balance of character; and, what is\neven more fatal, destroys by inanition that desire for and delight in\nknowledge which is meant for our joy and enrichment through the whole of\nlife. \u201cA desire for knowledge,\u201d says Dr Johnson, \u201cis the natural feeling\nof mankind, and every human being whose mind is not debauched will be\nwilling to give all that he has to get knowledge.\u201d Is it possible that\nwhat has been called \u2018mark-hunger\u2019 is a debauchery of the mind? The\nundebauched mind takes knowledge with avidity; and we find their studies\nare so interesting to children that they need no other stimulus.\n\n=Children must be Educated on Books.=\u2014A corollary of the principle that\neducation is the science of relations, is, that no education seems to\nbe worth the name which has not made children at home in the world of\nbooks, and so related them, mind to mind, with thinkers who have dealt\nwith knowledge. We reject epitomes, compilations, and their like, and put\ninto children\u2019s hands books which, long or short, are _living_. Thus it\nbecomes a large part of the teacher\u2019s work to help children to deal with\ntheir books; so that the oral lesson and lecture are but small matters in\neducation, and are used chiefly to summarise or to expand or illustrate.\n\nToo much faith is commonly placed in oral lessons and lectures; \u201cto be\npoured into like a bucket,\u201d as says Carlyle, \u201cis not exhilarating to any\nsoul\u201d; neither is it exhilarating to have every difficulty explained to\nweariness, or to have the explanation teased out of one by questions. \u201cI\nwill not be put to the _question_. Don\u2019t you consider, sir, that these\nare not the manners of a gentleman? I will not be baited with _what_ and\n_why_; what is this? what is that? why is a cow\u2019s tail long? why is a\nfox\u2019s tail bushy?\u201d said Dr Johnson. This is what children think, though\nthey say nothing. Oral lessons have their occasional use, and when they\nare fitly given it is the children who ask the questions. Perhaps it is\nnot wholesome or quite honest for a teacher to pose as a source of all\nknowledge and to give \u2018lovely\u2019 lessons. Such lessons are titillating for\nthe moment, but they give children the minimum of mental labour, and the\nresult is much the same as that left on older persons by the reading\nof a magazine. We find, on the other hand, that in working through a\nconsiderable book, which may take two or three years to master, the\ninterest of boys and girls is well sustained to the end; they develop\nan intelligent curiosity as to causes and consequences, and are in fact\neducating themselves.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n(_For Children under Twelve_)\n\nPART II.\u2014_SCHOOL-BOOKS_\n\n\n=Books that supply the Sustenance of Ideas.=\u2014Mr H. G. Wells has put\nhis finger on the place when he says that the selection of the right\nschool-books is a great function of the educator. I am not at all sure\nthat his remedy is the right one\u2014or that a body of experts and a hundred\nthousand pounds would, in truth, provide the manner of school-books that\nreach children. They are kittle cattle, and, though they will plod on\nobediently over any of the hundreds of dry-as-dust volumes issued by the\npublishers under the heading of \u2018School Books,\u2019 or of \u2018Education,\u2019 they\nkeep all such books in the outer court, and allow them no access to their\nminds. A book may be long or short, old or new, easy or hard, written by\na great man or a lesser man, and yet be the _living_ book which finds\nits way to the mind of a young reader. The expert is not the person to\nchoose; the children themselves are the experts in this case. A single\npage will elicit a verdict; but the unhappy thing is, this verdict is\nnot betrayed; it is acted upon in the opening or closing of the door\nof the mind. Many excellent and admirable school-books appreciated by\nmasters are on the Index Expurgatorius of the schoolboy; and that is why\nhe takes nothing in and gives nothing out. The master must have it in him\nto distinguish between twaddle and simplicity, and between vivacity and\nlife. For the rest, he must experiment or test the experiments of others,\nbeing assured of one thing\u2014that a book serves the ends of education only\nas it is vital. But this subject has been treated at some length in an\nearlier chapter.\n\n=Books and Oral Teaching.=\u2014Having found the right book, let the master\ngive the book the lead and be content himself with a second place. The\nlecture _must be subordinated to the book_. The business of the teacher\nis to put his class in the right attitude towards their book by a word\nor two of his own interest in the matter contained, of his own delight\nin the manner of the author. But boys get knowledge only as they dig for\nit. Labour prepares the way for assimilation, that mental process which\nconverts information into knowledge; and the effort of taking in the\nsequence of thought of his author is worth to the boy a great deal of\noral teaching.\n\nDo teachers always realise the paralysing and stupefying effect that a\nflood of talk has upon the mind? The inspired talk of an orator no doubt\nwakens a response and is listened to with tense attention; but few of us\nclaim to be inspired, and we are sometimes aware of the difficulty of\nholding the attention of a class. We blame ourselves, whereas the blame\nlies in the instrument we employ\u2014the more or less diluted oral lesson\nor lecture, in place of the living and arresting book. We cannot do\nwithout the oral lesson\u2014to introduce, to illustrate, to amplify, to sum\nup. My stipulation is that oral lessons should be few and far between,\nand that the child who has to _walk_ through life,\u2014and has to find his\nintellectual life in books or go without,\u2014shall not be first taught to go\nupon _crutches_.\n\n=The Use of Appliances.=\u2014For the same reason, that is, that we may not\nparalyse the mental vigour of children, we are very chary in the use of\nappliances (except such as the microscope, telescope, magic lantern,\netc.). I once heard a schoolmaster, who had a school in a shipbuilding\ntown, say that he had demanded and got from his committee a complete\nsectional model of a man-of-war. Such a model would be of use to his boys\nwhen they begin to work in the Yards, but during their school years I\nbelieve the effect would be stultifying, because the mind is not able to\nconceive with an elaborate model as basis. I recently visited M. Bloch\u2019s\nadmirable \u2018Peace and War\u2019 show at Lucerne. Torpedoes were very fully\nillustrated by models, sectional diagrams, and what not, but I was not\nenlightened. I asked my neighbour at dinner to explain the principle; he\ntook up his spectacle case as an illustration, and after a few sentences\nmy intelligence had grasped what was distinctive in a torpedo. This\ngentleman turned out to have been in the War Office and to have had\nmuch concern with torpedoes. The power in the teacher of illustrating\nby inkpot and ruler or any object at hand, or by a few lines on the\nblackboard, appears to me to be of more use than the most elaborate\nequipment of models and diagrams; these things stale on the senses and\nproduce a torpor of thought the moment they are presented.\n\n=The Co-ordination of Studies.=\u2014Another point, the co-ordination of\nstudies is carefully regulated without any reference to the clash of\nideas on the threshold or their combination into apperception masses;\nbut solely with reference to the natural and inevitable co-ordination\nof certain subjects. Thus, in readings on the period of the Armada, we\nshould not devote the contemporary arithmetic lessons to calculations as\nto the amount of food necessary to sustain the Spanish fleet, because\nthis is an arbitrary and not an inherent connection; but we should read\nsuch history, travels, and literature as would make the Spanish Armada\nlive in the mind.\n\n=Our Aim in Education.=\u2014Our aim in education is to give children vital\ninterests in as many directions as possible\u2014to set their feet in a large\nroom\u2014because the crying evil of the day is, it seems to me, intellectual\ninanition.\n\nBelieving that he is in the world to lay hold of all that he can of those\npossessions which endure; that full, happy living, expansion, expression,\nresourcefulness, power of initiative, serviceableness\u2014in a word,\ncharacter, for him, depends upon how far he apprehends the relationships\nproper to him and how many of them he seizes, we should be gravely uneasy\nwhen his education leaves a young person with prejudices and caring for\n\u2018events\u2019 (in the sporting sense) rather than with interests and pursuits.\nPrinciples, we believe, the best of our young people have and bring away\nfrom their schools fully as much as from their homes. Our educational\nshortcomings seem to be intellectual rather than moral.\n\n=Education by Things.=\u2014Education should be by _Things_ and by _Books_.\nTen years ago education by _Things_ was little thought of except in the\ngames of public schools. To-day, a great reform has taken place, and the\nworth of education by _Things_ is recognised everywhere. Disciplinary\nexercises, artistic handicrafts, are seen to make for education as truly\nas do geography and Latin. \u2018Nature study\u2019 has come in later, but has come\nwith a rush. If that Sikh quoted by Cornelia Sorabji[21] should visit us\nagain ten years hence, it is to be hoped he would not then say of us,\n\u201cThe very thoughts of the people are merchandise; they have not learned\nthe common language of Nature.\u201d The teaching of Science is receiving\nenormous attention; and the importance of education in this kind need\nnot be enforced here. Works of art are, here and there, allowed their\nchance with boys and girls, and we shall look more and more to this means\nof education. What everyone knows it is unnecessary to repeat; and such\ngeneral attention is given to education by Things, and this is carried\non so far on right lines, that I have nothing to add to the general\nknowledge of this subject.\n\n=Education by Books.=\u2014The great educational failure we have still to\ndeal with is in the matter of _Books_. We know that _Books_ store the\nknowledge and thought of the world; but the mass of knowledge, the\nmultitude of books, overpower us, and we think we may select here and\nthere, from this book and that, fragments and facts of knowledge, to be\ndealt out, whether in the little cram book or the oral lesson.\n\nSir Philip Magnus, in a recent address on Headwork and Handwork in\nElementary Schools, says some things worth pondering. Perhaps he gives\nhis workshop too big a place in the school of the future, but certainly\nhe puts his finger on the weak point in the work of both elementary and\nsecondary schools\u2014the \u2018getting by heart scraps of knowledge, fragments\nof so-called science.\u2019 And we are with him in the emphasis he lays upon\n_reading and writing_; it is through these that even school \u2018studies\u2019\nshall become \u2018for delight.\u2019 Writing, of course, comes of reading,\nand nobody can write well who does not read much. Sir Philip Magnus\nsays,[22] speaking of the schools of the future:\u2014\u201cWe shall no longer\nrequire children to learn by constant repetition, scraps of history,\ngeography, and grammar, nor try to teach them fragments of so-called\nscience. The daily hours devoted to these tasks will be applicable to\nthe creation of mental aptitudes, and will be utilised in showing the\nchildren how to obtain knowledge for themselves.... In future the main\nfunction of education will be to train our hands and our sense organs\nand intellectual faculties, so that we may be placed in a position of\nadvantage for seeking knowledge.... The scope of the lessons will be\nenlarged. Children will be taught to read in order that they may desire\nto read, and to write that they may be able to write.... It will be\nthe teacher\u2019s aim to create in his pupils a desire for knowledge, and\nconsequently a love of reading, and to cultivate in them, by a proper\nselection of lessons, the pleasure which reading may be made to yield.\nThe main feature of the reading lesson will be to show the use of books,\nhow they may be consulted to ascertain what other people have said or\ndone, and how they may be read for the pleasure they afford. The storing\nof the memory with facts is no part of elementary school work.... It is\nnot enough that a child should learn how to write, he must know _what_\nto write. He must learn to describe clearly what he has heard or seen,\nto transfer to written language his sense-impressions, and to express\nconcisely his own thoughts.\u201d\n\nWe should like to add a word to Sir Philip Magnus\u2019s conception,\nemphasising the _habit_ of reading as a chief acquirement of school life.\nIt is only those who have read who do read.\n\n=The Question of a Curriculum.=\u2014In regard to a curriculum, may I\nenforce what I have said in an earlier chapter? Perhaps the main\npart of a child\u2019s education should be concerned with the great human\nrelationships. History, literature, art, languages (whether ancient or\nmodern), travel\u2014all of these are the record or expression of persons;\nso is science, so far as it is the history of discoveries, the record\nof observations, that is, so far as it is to be got out of books.\nEssentially, however, science falls under the head of _Education by\nThings_, and is too large a subject to be dealt with, by the way.\nBefore all these ranks _Religion_, including our relations of worship,\nloyalty, love and service to God; and next in order, perhaps, the\nintimate interpersonal relations implied in such terms as self-knowledge,\nself-control. Knowledge in these several kinds is due to children; for\nthere seems reason to believe that the limit to human intelligence\ncoincides with the limit to human interests; that is, that a normal\nperson of poor and narrow intelligence is so because the interests proper\nto him have not been called into play. The curriculum which should\ngive children their due falls into some six or eight groups\u2014Religion,\nPhilosophy (?), History, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Art, Physical\nExercises, and Manual Crafts.\n\n=Religion.=\u2014For _Religion_ it is, no doubt, to the Bible itself we must\ngo, as the great storehouse of spiritual truth and moral impressions. A\nchild might, in fact, receive a liberal education from the Bible alone,\nfor _The Book_ contains within itself a great literature.\n\nThere was a time when \u2018National Schools\u2019 brought up their scholars on\none of the three great bodies of ancient classical literature which\nthe Western world possesses, and which we include under the one name,\nBible; and, perhaps, there has been some falling off both in national\nintelligence and character since the Bible has been practically deposed\nfor the miscellaneous \u2018Reader.\u2019 It is not possible or desirable to revert\nto old ways in this matter; but we should see to it that children derive\nas much intellectual, as well as moral and religious, nutriment from\nbooks as they did when their studies ranged from the story of Joseph to\nthe Epistles of St Paul.\n\n=History.=\u2014In History, boys and girls of twelve to fourteen should\nhave a fairly intimate knowledge of English history, of contemporary\nFrench history, and of Greek and Roman history\u2014the last, by way of\nbiography;\u2014perhaps nothing outside of the Bible has the educational\nvalue of Plutarch\u2019s _Lives_. The wasteful mistake often made in teaching\nEnglish history is to carry children of, say, between nine and fourteen\nthrough several small compendiums, beginning with _Little Arthur_;\nwhereas their intelligence between those ages is equal to steady work on\none considerable book.\n\n=Language.=\u2014In Language, by twelve, they should have a fair knowledge\nof English grammar, and should have read some literature. They should\nhave more or less power in speaking and understanding French, and\nshould be able to read a fairly easy French book; the same with German,\nbut considerably less progress; and in Latin, they should be reading\n\u2018Fables,\u2019 if not \u2018C\u00e6sar,\u2019 and perhaps \u2018Virgil.\u2019\n\n=Mathematics.=\u2014I need not touch upon the subject of Mathematics. It is\nreceiving ample attention, and is rapidly becoming an instrument for\nliving teaching in our schools.\n\n\u2018=Practical Instruction.=\u2019\u2014To turn to the question of practical\ninstruction, under the heads of \u2018Science, Drawing, Manual and Physical\nTraining,\u2019 etc., I can do no more here than repeat our convictions. We\nbelieve that education under these four heads is due to every child of\nwhatever class; and, for boys and girls under twelve, probably the same\ngeneral curriculum would be suitable for all. I have nothing to add to\nthe sound ideas as to the teaching of each of these subjects which are\nnow common property.\n\n=Science.=\u2014In _Science_, or rather, nature study, we attach great\nimportance to _recognition_, believing that the power to recognise and\nname a plant or stone or constellation involves classification and\nincludes a good deal of knowledge. To know a plant by its gesture and\nhabitat, its time and its way of flowering and fruiting; a bird by its\nflight and song and its times of coming and going; to know when, year\nafter year, you may come upon the redstart and the pied fly-catcher,\nmeans a good deal of interested observation, and of, at any rate, the\nmaterial for science. The children keep a dated record of what they\nsee in their nature note-books, which are left to their own management\nand are not corrected. These note-books are a source of pride and joy,\nand are freely illustrated by drawings (brushwork) of twig, flower,\ninsect, etc. The knowledge necessary for these records is not given\nin the way of teaching. On one afternoon in the week, the children (of\nthe Practising School) go for a \u2018nature walk\u2019 with their teachers. They\nnotice for themselves, and the teacher gives a name or other information\nas it is asked for, and it is surprising what a range of knowledge a\nchild of nine or ten acquires. The teachers are careful _not_ to make\nthese nature walks an opportunity for scientific instruction, as we wish\nthe children\u2019s attention to be given to observation with very little\ndirection. In this way they lay up that store of \u2018common information\u2019\nwhich Huxley considered should precede science teaching; and, what is\nmuch more important, they learn to know and delight in natural objects\nas in the familiar faces of friends. The nature-walk should not be made\nthe occasion to impart a sort of _Tit-Bits_ miscellany of scientific\ninformation. The study of science should be pursued in an ordered\nsequence, which is not possible or desirable in a walk. It seems to me a\n_sine qu\u00e2 non_ of a living education that all school children of whatever\ngrade should have one half-day in the week, _throughout the year_, in the\nfields. There are few towns where country of some sort is not accessible,\nand every child should have the opportunity of watching, from week to\nweek, the procession of the seasons.\n\nGeography, geology, the course of the sun, the behaviour of the clouds,\nweather signs, all that the \u2018open\u2019 has to offer, are made use of in\nthese walks; but all is incidental, easy, and things are noticed as they\noccur. It is probable that in most neighbourhoods there are naturalists\nwho would be willing to give their help in the \u2018nature walks\u2019 of a given\nschool.\n\nWe supplement this direct \u2018nature walk\u2019 by occasional object-lessons,\nas, on the hairs of plants, on diversity of wings, on the sorts of\nmatters taken up in Professor Miall\u2019s capital books; but our main\ndependence is on _books_ as an adjunct to out-of-door work\u2014Mrs Fisher\u2019s,\nMrs Brightwen\u2019s, Professor Lloyd Morgan\u2019s, Professor Geikie\u2019s, Professors\nGeddes\u2019 and Thomson\u2019s (the two last for children over fourteen), etc.,\netc. In the books of these and some other authors the children are put in\nthe position of the original observer of biological and other phenomena.\nThey learn what to observe, and make discoveries for themselves, original\nso far as they are concerned. They are put in the right attitude of mind\nfor scientific observations and deductions, and their keen interest is\nawakened. We are extremely careful not to burden the verbal memory with\nscientific nomenclature. Children learn of pollen, antenn\u00e6, and what not,\nincidentally, when the thing is present and they require a name for it.\nThe children who are curious about it, and they only, should have the\nopportunity of seeing with the microscope any minute wonder of structure\nthat has come up in their reading or their walks; but a good lens is a\ncapital and almost an indispensable companion in field work. I think\nthere is danger in giving _too_ prominent a place to education by Things,\nenormous as is its value; a certain want of atmosphere is apt to result,\nand a deplorable absence of a standard of comparison and of the principle\nof veneration. \u2018We are the people!\u2019 seems to be the note of an education\nwhich is not largely sustained on _books_ as well as on _things_.\n\n=Drawing.=\u2014In pictorial art we eschew mechanical aids such as chequers,\nlines of direction, etc., nor do we use the blacklead pencil, which\nlends itself rather to the copying of linear work than to the free\nrendering of objects. The children work always from the round, whether\nin charcoal or brushwork. They produce, also, illustrations of tales or\npoems, which leave much to seek in the matter of drawing, and are of\nlittle value as art instruction, but are useful imaginative exercises.\n\n=Picture Talks.=\u2014We attach a good deal of value to what we call picture\ntalks, that is:\u2014a reproduction of a suitable picture, by Millet,\nfor example, is put into the children\u2019s hands, and they study it by\nthemselves. Then, children of from six to nine describe the picture,\ngiving all the details and showing by a few lines on the blackboard where\nis such a tree or such a house; judging if they can the time of day;\ndiscovering the story if there be one. The older children add to this\nsome study of the lines of composition, light and shade, the particular\nstyle of the master; and reproduce from memory certain details. The\nobject of these lessons is that the pupils should learn how to appreciate\nrather than how to produce.\n\nBut there is no space for further details of a curriculum which is more\nfully illustrated in an appendix.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\nPART III.\u2014_THE LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE_\n\n\n=The Use of Books makes for Short Hours.=\u2014Considering that under the\nhead of \u2018Education by Books\u2019 some half-dozen groups of subjects are\nincluded, with several subjects in each group, the practical teacher\nwill be inclined to laugh at what will seem to him Education in Utopia.\nIn practice, however, we find that the use of books makes for short\nhours. No book-work or writing, no preparation or report, is done in the\n_Parents\u2019 Review_ School, except between the hours of 9 and 11.30 for the\nlowest class, to 9 and 1 for the highest, with half an hour\u2019s interval\nfor drill, etc.\n\nFrom one to two hours, according to age and class, are given in the\nafternoons to handicrafts, field-work, drawing, etc.; and the evenings\nare absolutely free, so that the children have leisure for hobbies,\nfamily reading, and the like. We are able to get through a greater\nvariety of subjects, and through more work in each subject, in a shorter\ntime than is usually allowed, because children taught in this way get the\nhabit of close attention and are carried on by steady interest.\n\n=\u2018Utilitarian\u2019 Education.=\u2014I should be inclined to say of education, as\nMr Lecky says of morals, that \u201cthe Utilitarian theory is profoundly\nimmoral.\u201d To educate children for any immediate end\u2014towards commercial\nor manufacturing aptitude, for example\u2014is to put a premium upon general\nignorance with a view to such special aptitude. The greater includes\nthe less, but the less does not include the greater. Excellent work of\nwhatever kind is produced by a person of character and intelligence, and\nwe who teach cannot do better for the nation than to prepare such persons\nfor its uses. He who has intelligent relations with life will produce\ngood work.\n\n=Relations and Interests.=\u2014I have throughout spoken of \u2018_Relations_,\u2019\nand not of \u2018_Interests_,\u2019 because interests may be casual, unworthy,\nand passing. Everyone, even the most ignorant, has interests of a sort;\nwhile to make valid any one relation, implies that knowledge has begun\nin, at any rate, that one direction. But the defect in our educational\nthought is that we have ceased to realise that knowledge is vital; and,\nas children and adults, we suffer from underfed minds. This intellectual\ninanition is, no doubt, partly due to the fact that educational theorists\nsystematically depreciate knowledge. Such theorists are, I think,\ninclined to attach more importance to the working of the intellectual\nmachinery than to the output of the product; that is, they feel it to be\nmore important that a child should _think_ than that he should _know_.\nMy contention is rather that he cannot _know_ without having _thought_;\nand also that he cannot think without an abundant, varied, and regular\nsupply of the material of knowledge. We all know how the reading of a\npassage may stimulate in us thought, inquiry, inference, and thus get\nfor us in the end some added knowledge. The depreciation of which I\nspeak is by no means of set purpose, nor is it even realised; but the\nmore education presents itself as a series of psychological problems, the\ngreater will be the tendency to doctor, modify, and practically eliminate\n_knowledge_;\u2014that knowledge, which is as the air, and the food, and\nthe exercise, the whole life of the mind of man. In giving \u2018education\u2019\nwithout abundant knowledge, we are as persons who should aim at physical\ndevelopment by giving the maximum of exercise with the minimum of food.\nThe getting of knowledge and the getting of delight in knowledge are the\nends of a child\u2019s education; and well has said one of our prophets, \u201cthat\nthere should one man die ignorant who had capacity for knowledge, this I\ncall a tragedy.\u201d\n\nTo sum up, I believe that our efforts at intellectual education commonly\nfail from six causes:\u2014\n\n=Causes of Failure.=\u2014(_a_) The oral lesson, which at its worst is very\npoor twaddle, and at its best is far below the ordered treatment of\nthe same subject by an original mind in the right book. (The right\nbooks exist, old and new, in countless numbers, but very great care\nis necessary in the choice, as well as much experience of the rather\nwhimsical tastes and distastes of children.)\n\n(_b_) The lecture, commonly gathered from various books in rapid notes\nby the teacher; and issuing in hasty notes, afterwards written out, and\nfinally crammed up by the pupils. The lecture is often careful, thorough,\nand well-illustrated; but is it ever equal in educational value to direct\ncontact with the original mind of one able thinker who has written his\nbook on the subject? Arnold, Thring, Bowen, we know, lectured with great\neffect, but then each of them lectured on only a few subjects, and each\nlecture was as the breaking out of a spring of slowly gathered knowledge.\nWe are not all Arnolds or even Bowens.\n\n(_c_) The text-book, compressed and re-compressed from one or many\nbig books. These handbooks are of two kinds\u2014the frankly dry and\nuninteresting, which enumerate facts and details; and the easy and\nbeguiling. I think we are safe in saying that there is _no educational\nvalue_ in either sort of text-book.\n\n(_d_) The debauchery of the mind which comes of exciting other desires to\ndo the work of the inherent and fully adequate desire of knowledge.\n\n(_e_) In elementary schools, the dependence upon apparatus and\nillustrative appliances which have a paralysing effect on the mind.\n\n(_f_) Again in elementary schools, the use of \u2018Readers,\u2019 which, however\nwell selected, cannot have the value of consecutive works.\n\n=Education by Books.=\u2014For the last twelve years we have tried the plan\nof bringing children up on _Books_ and _Things_, and, on the whole, the\nresults are pleasing. The _average_ child studies with \u2018delight.\u2019 We\ndo not say he will remember all he knows, but, to use a phrase of Jane\nAusten\u2019s, he will have had his \u2018imagination warmed\u2019 in many regions of\nknowledge.\n\n=Blind Alleys.=\u2014May I digress for a moment to raise a warning note\nagainst the following of blind alleys, whether in our educational\nthought or our methods. We do not, in the sphere of education, find\nhidden treasure by casual digging in the common roadways. Believing\nin evolution, we perceive that ideas also have their pedigree and\ntheir progeny and follow their own laws of generation. A learned and\nthoughtful Chinese will abstract himself from the outer world, separate\nhimself from the ideas of others, and, when he has arrived at a due\nstate of vacuity, take his writing-brushes and produce out of his inner\nconsciousness\u2014not anything that he has ever seen or heard of, or even\nimagined\u2014but some hieroglyph of curves, rather pleasing and presentable\nif he happen to be an artist. This disconnected production he arbitrarily\ninvests with the character of a symbol, and his fellows are willing to\nreceive it as such, and it is duly hung in his Hall of Tablets.[23] Some\nof us perhaps know the flowing curves which stand for \u2018happiness\u2019 in this\nlanguage of symbols.\n\nNow, all this is very engaging, and the Western mind is ready enough to\nsuccumb to the charm of such fancies. But does it not offer a key to that\nbaffling problem we call China? Here we have a vast people with some\nhigh moral qualities, of astute and sometimes profound intelligence,\nwhose civilisation has for thousands of years remained to all appearance\n_stationary_. Is the cause, perhaps, a tendency to follow intellectual\nfutilities, blind alleys, in every direction? These people do not realise\nthat method implies an end perceived, a way to that end, and step by\nstep progress in the way; nor do they perceive that a notion becomes\na fruitful idea only upon the impact of an idea from without. A fine\nCelestial arrogance assures them of their right to casual finds; hence,\nthey do not progress, but remain in all things as they were.\n\nNow, here is the danger that besets us in education. We seize upon\nambidexterity, upon figures drawn with the compasses without intention,\nupon \u2018child study\u2019 as applied to mind, upon terrible agglutinations\nwhich we call \u2018apperception masses,\u2019 upon intellectual futilities in\na hundred directions, each of which will, we hope, give us the key to\neducation. We may perceive the futility of such notions by applying\nthe test of progress. Are they the way to anything, and, if so, to\nwhat? Let us, out of reverence for the children, be modest; let us not\nstake their interests on the hope that this or that new way would lead\nto great results if people had only the courage to follow it. It is\nexciting to become a pioneer; but, for the children\u2019s sake, it may be\nwell to constrain ourselves to follow those roads only by which we know\nthat persons have arrived, or those newer roads which offer evident and\nassured means of _progress towards a desired end_. Self-will is not\npermitted to the educationalist; and he may not take up fads.\n\n=An Educated Child.=\u2014Knowledge is, no doubt, a comparative term, and the\nknowledge of a subject possessed by a child would be the ignorance of a\nstudent. All the same, there is such a thing as an educated child\u2014a child\nwho possesses a sound and fairly wide knowledge of a number of subjects,\nall of which serve to interest him; such a child studies with \u2018delight.\u2019\n\n=Children delight in School, but not for Love of Knowledge.=\u2014It will be\nsaid with truth that most children delight in school; they delight in\nthe stimulus of school life, in the social stir of companionship; they\nare emulous, eager for reward and praise; they enjoy the thousand lawful\ninterests of school life, including the attractive personality of such\nand such a teacher; but it seems doubtful whether the love of knowledge,\nin itself and for itself, is usually a powerful motive with the young\nscholar. The matter is important, because, of all the joyous motives\nof school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only\none which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will\nhereafter live. My contention is, to repeat what has been said, that all\nchildren have a capacity for and a latent love of knowledge; and, that\nknowledge concerning persons and States can best be derived from books,\nand should be got by the children out of their own books.\n\nIn a hundred biographies there are hints of boys and girls who have grown\nup on books; and there is no doubt that in many schools the study of\nbooks is the staple of the work. This probably is the principle which\nkeeps our great public schools perennially alive; they live, so far as\nthey do live, upon books. The best public schoolboy is a fine product;\nand perhaps the worst has had his imagination touched by ideas; yet most\nof us recognise that the public school often fails, in that it launches\nthe average and dull boy ignorant upon the world because the curriculum\nhas been too narrow to make any appeal to him. And we must remember, that\nif a young person leave school at seventeen or eighteen without having\nbecome a diligent and delighted reader, it is tolerably certain that\nhe will never become a reader. It may be, however, that the essential\nstep in any reform of public schools should come in the shape of due\n_preparation_ upon a wide curriculum, dealt with intelligently, between\nthe ages of six and twelve.\n\n=An Educational Revolution.=\u2014I add appendices to show, (_a_) how a wide\ncurriculum and the use of many books work in the _Parents\u2019 Review_\nSchool; (_b_) what progress a pupil of twelve should have made under\nsuch conditions; and (_c_) what use is made of oral lessons. Should the\nreader consider that the children in question prove their right of entry\nto several fields of knowledge, that they show a distinct appetite for\nsuch knowledge, that thought and power of mind develop upon the books\nwe read, as they do not and cannot upon the lectures we hear; should he\nindeed be convinced of the truth of what I have advanced, I think he will\nsee that, not an educational reform here and there, but an EDUCATIONAL\nREVOLUTION is before us to which every one of us is bound to put his hand.\n\n=The Children\u2019s Magna Carta.=\u2014My plea is, and I think I have justified\nit by experience, that many doors shall be opened to boys and girls\nuntil they are at least twelve or fourteen, and always the doors of good\nhouses, (\u2018Education,\u2019 says Taine, \u2018is but a card of invitation to noble\nand privileged salons\u2019); that they shall be introduced to no subject\nwhatever through compendiums, abstracts, or selections; that the young\npeople shall learn what history is, what literature is, what life is,\nfrom the living books of those who know. I know it can be done, because\nit is being done on a considerable scale.\n\nIf conviction has indeed reached us, the Magna Carta of children\u2019s\nintellectual liberty is before us. The need is immediate, the means are\nevident. This, at least, I think we ought to claim, that, up to the age\nof twelve, all boys and girls shall be educated on some such curriculum,\nwith some such _habit_ of _Books_ as we have been considering.[24]\n\n\n\n\nAppendices\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX I\n\n_Questions for the Use of Readers_[25]\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nDOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND SCHOOL\n\n1. In what points are there better relations between children and their\nelders than there were a generation or two ago?\n\n2. Characterise the elder generation of parents.\n\n3. What of \u2018ill-guided\u2019 homes?\n\n4. Give an example of martinet rule. Name some notable men who grew up\nunder such rule.\n\n5. Compare the arbitrary parent now with the arbitrary parent of the past.\n\n6. Was arbitrary rule a failure?\n\n7. What thought should encourage our own efforts?\n\n8. Show that arbitrariness arose from limitations.\n\n9. That it is one cause of the reticence of children.\n\n10. In what way has the direction of philosophic thought altered the\nrelations of parents and children?\n\n11. What effect has the doctrine of the \u2018Infallible Reason\u2019 upon\nauthority?\n\n12. Show that English thought again proclaims the apotheosis of Reason.\n\n13. What is the final justification of the idea of authority?\n\n14. Why is the enthronement of the human reason the dethronement of the\nhighest authority?\n\n15. Show that the spread of an idea is \u2018quick as thought.\u2019\n\n16. Why has the notion of the finality of human reason become intolerable?\n\n17. On what grounds would you say that authority and docility are\nfundamental principles?\n\n18. Show that self-interest does not account for the response of docility\nto authority.\n\n19. Show that the work of the rationalistic philosophers was necessary.\n\n20. Show that they hold a brief for human freedom.\n\n21. Describe the way in which the education of the world seems to be\ncarried on.\n\n22. Show the danger of the notion that authority is vested in persons.\n\n23. Show that a person in authority is under authority.\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nDOCILITY AND AUTHORITY IN THE HOME AND SCHOOL\n\n_Part II.\u2014How Authority Behaves_\n\n1. Show, by example, that it is easy to go wrong on principle.\n\n2. Distinguish between authority and autocracy.\n\n3. How does autocracy behave?\n\n4. Show that it is the autocrat who remits duties and grants indulgences.\n\n5. How does authority behave?\n\n6. Give half-a-dozen features by which we may distinguish the rule of\nauthority.\n\n7. What are the qualities proper to a ruler?\n\n8. Distinguish between mechanical and reasonable obedience.\n\n9. Show the use of the former.\n\n10. Show how acts of mechanical obedience help a child to the masterly\nuse of his body.\n\n11. How is the man, who can make himself do what he wills, trained?\n\n12. Why is the effort of decision the greatest effort of life?\n\n13. Show how habit spares us much of this labour.\n\n14. Show how the habit of obedience eases the lives of children.\n\n15. How does authority avoid cause of offence?\n\n16. Show that alert authority in the home is a preventive force.\n\n17. Show how important the changing of the thoughts, diverting, is in the\nformation of habit.\n\n18. Show that children, too, exercise authority.\n\n19. What question might parents put to themselves daily as an aid to the\nmaintenance of authority?\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\u2018MASTERLY INACTIVITY\u2019\n\n1. Contrast our sense of responsibility with that held in the fifties and\nsixties.\n\n2. Show that the change in our point of view indicates moral progress.\n\n3. What kind of responsibility presses heavily at present upon thoughtful\npeople?\n\n4. Show that anxiety is the note of a transition stage.\n\n5. Why does a sense of responsibility produce a fussy and restless habit?\n\n6. Why should we do well to admit the idea of \u2018masterly inactivity\u2019 as a\nfactor in education?\n\n7. What four or five ideas are contained in this of \u2018masterly inactivity\u2019?\n\n8. What is Wordsworth\u2019s phrase?\n\n9. What is the first element in this attitude of mind?\n\n10. Show that good-humour is the second element.\n\n11. That self-confidence also is necessary.\n\n12. What may mothers learn from the fine, easy, way of some fathers?\n\n13. Show that confidence in children, also, is an element of \u2018masterly\ninactivity.\u2019\n\n14. Why must parents and teachers be omniscient?\n\n15. Show why \u2018masterly inactivity\u2019 is necessary to the bringing up of a\nchild whose life is conditioned by \u2018fate and free-will.\u2019\n\n16. What delicate poise between fate and free-will is to be aimed at for\nthe child?\n\n17. Show the importance of a sound mind in a sound body to the parent.\n\n18. What may we learn from the quality which all the early painters have\nbestowed upon the pattern Mother?\n\n19. Give one or two practical hints for tired mothers.\n\n20. Why is leisure necessary to children\u2019s well-being?\n\n21. What is the foundation of the \u2018masterly inactivity\u2019 we have in view?\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nSOME OF THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AS PERSONS\n\n1. Why should children be free in their play?\n\n2. In what respect are organised games not play?\n\n3. Why should we beware of interfering with children\u2019s work?\n\n4. Show that children must stand or fall by their own efforts.\n\n5. Show the danger of a system of prodding.\n\n6. How far may we count upon the dutifulness of boys and girls?\n\n7. How far should children be free to choose their friends?\n\n8. To spend their pocket-money?\n\n9. To form their opinions?\n\n10. Show that spontaneity is not an indigenous wild-flower.\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nPSYCHOLOGY IN RELATION TO CURRENT THOUGHT\n\n1. Characterise the educational thought of the eighteenth century.\n\n2. Show that we, too, have had a period of certainty.\n\n3. Account for the general dissatisfaction we labour under now.\n\n4. By what tests may we discern a working psychology for our own age?\n\n5. Illustrate the fact that the sacredness of the person is among the\nliving thoughts of the age upon which we are being brought up.\n\n6. On what grounds do we demand of education that it should make the most\nof the person?\n\n7. How is \u2018the solidarity of the race\u2019 to be reckoned with in education?\n\n8. Show that the best thought of any age is common thought.\n\n9. Discuss Locke\u2019s _States of Consciousness_.\n\n10. Show that this theory does not provide for the evolution of the\nperson.\n\n11. How does modern physiological-psychology compare with Locke\u2019s theory?\n\n12. How does Professor James define this psychology?\n\n13. Show that this definition makes the production of thought, etc.,\npurely mechanical.\n\n14. How far is this assumption \u2018unjustifiable materialism\u2019?\n\n15. What is Professor James\u2019 pronouncement about what is called the \u2018new\npsychology\u2019?\n\n16. Illustrate the fact that a psychology which eliminates personality is\ndreary and devitalising.\n\n17. By what signs may we recognise the fact when the \u2018new psychology\u2019\nbecomes part of our faith?\n\n18. Show that this system is inadequate, unnecessary, and inharmonious.\n\n19. At what point does it check the evolution of the individual?\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSOME EDUCATIONAL THEORIES EXAMINED\n\n1. What do we owe to the Schools of Pestalozzi and Froebel?\n\n2. What is the source of weakness in their conceptions?\n\n3. Compare \u2018make children happy and they will be good\u2019 with \u2018be good and\nyou will be happy.\u2019\n\n4. Show the fundamental error of regarding man merely as part of the\n_Cosmos_.\n\n5. Show that the struggle for existence is a part of life even to a child.\n\n6. That any sort of transition violates the principles of unity and\ncontinuity.\n\n7. Why is the Herbartian theory tempting?\n\n8. Show that this theory treats the person as an effect and not a cause.\n\n9. Show that the functions of education are overrated by it.\n\n10. Show that this system of psychology is not in harmony with current\nthought in three particulars.\n\n11. Show that educational truth is a common possession.\n\n12. What are the characteristics of a child who is being adequately\neducated?\n\n13. What, roughly speaking, is expressed in the word _person_?\n\n14. Show how a person is like Wordsworth\u2019s \u2018cloud.\u2019\n\n15. Describe an adequate doctrine of education.\n\n16. Show how it is in touch with the three great ideas which are now\nmoving in men\u2019s minds.\n\n17. What would you say of personal influence in education?\n\n18. What is implied in saying, _Education is the science of relations_?\n\n19. Why must teaching not be obtrusive?\n\n20. What attitude on the teacher\u2019s part arises from the recognition of a\nchild as a person?\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nAN ADEQUATE THEORY OF EDUCATION\n\n1. Give, roughly, a definition of a human being.\n\n2. What would you say of his capacities?\n\n3. What of his limitations?\n\n4. What are the two functions of a human being under education?\n\n5. Upon what physical process does education depend?\n\n6. What do we know, or guess, of the behaviour of ideas?\n\n7. What appears to be the law of the generation of ideas?\n\n8. Why do different ideas appeal to different minds? Illustrate by a\nfigure.\n\n9. Have we any reason for believing that an idea is able to make an\nimpression upon matter?\n\n10. Mention some of the reflex actions by which we respond to an idea\nwhich strikes us.\n\n11. How does spirit correspond with spirit, human or divine?\n\n12. Is a child born equipped with ideas?\n\n13. What is the field open to the educationalist?\n\n14. What may we learn from the fairly well accredited story of the \u2018Child\nof Nuremberg\u2019?\n\n15. What does nature, unassisted, do for a child?\n\n16. Show that the normal child has every power that will serve him.\n\n17. In how far does fulness of living depend on the establishment of\nrelations?\n\n18. Show that in our common way of treating science, for instance, we\nmaim a natural affinity.\n\n19. Why should a child be taught to recognise the natural things about\nhim?\n\n20. How may he be helped to appreciate beauty?\n\n21. Why should he begin with a first-hand knowledge of science?\n\n22. Show that appreciation and exact knowledge each has its season.\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nCERTAIN RELATIONS PROPER TO A CHILD\n\n1. How long would you give a child to initiate the range of relationships\nproper to him?\n\n2. What dynamic relations should he have?\n\n3. What power over material?\n\n4. Show that he should have intimacy with animals.\n\n5. What range of studies belong to the human relationships?\n\n6. Give example of the awakening idea and its outcome.\n\n7. Show that intelligence is limited by interests.\n\n8. What should be the effect if children were fully realised as persons?\n\n9. What effect has the psychology of the hour had upon the sense of duty?\n\n10. Show that children used to get a fairly sound ethical training.\n\n11. What is the case now?\n\n12. Show that \u2018my duty towards my neighbour\u2019 is the only sound basis for\nmoral relations.\n\n13. Does the sense of what is due from us come by nature?\n\n14. Why should a child be taught something of self-management?\n\n15. Why should children have intimacy with persons of all classes?\n\n16. How may their fitness as citizens be promoted?\n\n17. What are the three great groups of relations a child has to establish?\n\n18. Which is the most important of these?\n\n19. Show that religious sentiments or emotions do not fulfil \u2018_duty_\ntowards God.\u2019\n\n20. Distinguish between sentiment and duty.\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nA GREAT EDUCATIONALIST\n\n1. Illustrate the fact that Herbartian thought has more influence than\nany other on the Continent.\n\n2. Show that we, like Herbart, discard the \u2018faculties.\u2019\n\n3. What does Herbart say of the pervasiveness of dominant ideas?\n\n4. In what ways do we, too, recognise the influence of the _Zeitgeist_?\n\n5. How does Herbart enumerate the child\u2019s schoolmasters?\n\n6. Show that we are one with him in realising the place of the family.\n\n7. What does Herbart say of the child in the family?\n\n8. Show that we, too, hold that all education springs from and rests upon\nour relation to Almighty God.\n\n9. Why should we not divide education into religious and secular?\n\n10. What doctrine of the medi\u00e6val Church do we hold with regard to\n\u2018secular subjects\u2019?\n\n11. Upon what, according to Herbart, does the welfare, civilisation, and\nculture of a people depend?\n\n12. Discuss the vast uncertainty that exists as to the purpose of\neducation.\n\n13. Shall we follow Rousseau, Basedow, Locke, Pestalozzi, Froebel, in our\nattempts to fix the purpose of education?\n\n14. Show, according to Dr Rein, why not, in each case?\n\n15. Show that Herbart\u2019s theory is ethical, as is ours.\n\n16. Quote this author on the obscurity of psychology.\n\n17. But we have two luminous principles. What are they?\n\n18. What is probably the root defect of the educational philosophy of\nthis great thinker?\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF PHYSICAL TRAINING\n\n1. Why does not our physical culture tend to make heroes?\n\n2. What is the end of physical culture?\n\n3. Show that this implies the idea of vocation.\n\n4. What principle should check excess, whether in labour or pleasure?\n\n5. Should parents bring up their children with rigour? Why not?\n\n6. Write a short theme on each of the points suggested for consideration.\n\n7. Show how large a part habit plays in physical training.\n\n8. Prove that self-restraint is a habit.\n\n9. Show the evil of the excessive exercises that lead to after-indulgence.\n\n10. How may self-control in emergencies become a trained habit?\n\n11. What have you to say of the physical signs of mental states?\n\n12. Show that discipline must become self-discipline.\n\n13. What is the part of parents in the holidays as regards school\ndiscipline?\n\n14. How do \u2018local habits\u2019 point to the necessity for self-discipline in\neven a young child?\n\n15. Show how alertness must be trained as a physical habit.\n\n16. That \u2018quick perception\u2019 is less a gift than a habit.\n\n17. Write short themes on each of the subjects here suggested for\nconsideration.\n\n18. Show the value of inspiring ideas in initiating habits.\n\n19. How could you use the idea of \u2018fortitude\u2019 in education?\n\n20. Of \u2018service\u2019?\n\n21. Of \u2018courage\u2019?\n\n22. Of \u2018prudence\u2019 as concerned with the _duty_ of health?\n\n23. What is the highest impulse towards chastity we can have?\n\n24. Write short themes on the subjects suggested.\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL TRAINING\n\n1. Show that we are somewhat law-abiding in matters physical and moral.\n\n2. That we are not so in matters intellectual.\n\n3. What are the three ultimate facts which are not open to question?\n\n4. Show that one or other of the three is always matter of debate.\n\n5. What three fixed points of thought do we attain when we realise that\nGod is, self is, and the world is?\n\n6. Why is it necessary to recognise the limitations of reason?\n\n7. Describe the involuntary action of reason.\n\n8. Show, by examples, (_a_) what the function of reason is, and (_b_)\nwhat the function of reason is not.\n\n9. Show, by examples, that wars, persecutions, and family feuds are due\nto the notion that, what reason demonstrates is right and true.\n\n10. Why should a child be taught the limitations of his own reason?\n\n11. What mistake is commonly made regarding intellect and knowledge?\n\n12. Show that the world is educated by knowledge given \u2018in repasts.\u2019\n\n13. How would you characterise our own era as regards the knowledge given\nto us?\n\n14. How did the medi\u00e6val Church recognise the divine origin of knowledge?\n\n15. Why is nothing so practical as a great idea?\n\n16. Show the importance of forming intellectual habits.\n\n17. Show that we trust blindly to disciplinary studies for the formation\nof such habits.\n\n18. Name and describe half-a-dozen intellectual habits in which a child\nshould be trained.\n\n19. Show that progress in the intellectual as in the Christian life\ndepends upon meditation.\n\n20. Show that a child must have daily sustenance of living ideas. How do\nwe err in this respect?\n\n21. Make some remarks upon the literature proper for children.\n\n22. Illustrate the fact that the intellectual development of children is\nindependent.\n\n23. By what law do children appropriate nourishing ideas?\n\n24. What, then, is the part of parents and teachers?\n\n25. What failing on the part of parents is often fatal to intellectual\ngrowth?\n\n26. Write a few remarks on each of the subjects suggested in connection\nwith the intellectual life of children.\n\n27. What was the educational aim of Plato?\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF MORAL TRAINING\n\n1. What are the three principles which underlie the educational thought\nproposed in these volumes?\n\n2. What principle is universally acknowledged as the basis of moral\nteaching?\n\n3. How does authority work?\n\n4. \u2018A man can but act up to his lights\u2019\u2014discuss this fallacy.\n\n5. Define the limits of authority.\n\n6. What is the consequence of arbitrary action?\n\n7. What old contention as to the sanctions of morality is exercising men\nnow?\n\n8. Show that Socrates had to contend with the popular doctrine of to-day\nin other forms.\n\n9. What is the necessary issue of this teaching?\n\n10. How should children be taught that duty can exist only as that which\nwe owe to God?\n\n11. Show that morals do not come by nature.\n\n12. That a certain rough and ready morality does come by heredity and\nenvironment.\n\n13. How do we get an educated conscience?\n\n14. Show that children are born neither moral nor immoral.\n\n15. Show the danger of spasmodic moral efforts.\n\n16. Where shall we look for the basis of our moral teaching?\n\n17. What do we owe to the poets in this regard?\n\n18. How did the medi\u00e6val Church provide moral object lessons?\n\n19. Illustrate our failure in this respect.\n\n20. Why should children have the inspiration of high ideals?\n\n21. Show the value of biography in this connection.\n\n22. Name any virtues with which the poets inspire us.\n\n23. Make a suggestion with regard to the culling of mottoes.\n\n24. How may parents and teachers help children to the habit of sweet\nthoughts?\n\n25. Enumerate and discuss some of the virtues which children should be\ntrained to develop.\n\n26. Distinguish between \u2018being good\u2019 and loving God.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nSOME UNCONSIDERED ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION\n\n1. Show how the principle of authority bears on religious teaching.\n\n2. In what ideas do the children of our day need especially to be brought\nup?\n\n3. How do certain questions \u2018in the air\u2019 militate against the sense of\nauthority?\n\n4. In what respects does authority work like a good and just national\ngovernment?\n\n5. Discuss authority in connection with punishment.\n\n6. Discuss each of the various themes suggested in connection with the\nsubject of authority in the religious life.\n\n7. Show that lines of habit are as important for the religious as for the\nphysical, moral, and intellectual life.\n\n8. How would you endeavour to keep a child in the habit of the thought of\nGod?\n\n9. Discuss the question of reverent attitudes.\n\n10. How would you use \u2018because of the angels\u2019 in this connection?\n\n11. Show the importance of regularity in time and place in children\u2019s\nprayers.\n\n12. Why should not their evening prayers be left till bedtime?\n\n13. What is to be said of little text-books?\n\n14. Show the danger of losing the narrative teaching of the Scriptures.\n\n15. Why should not children be encouraged in long readings or long\nprayers?\n\n16. How should the habit of praise be fostered?\n\n17. Show the value of the habit of Sunday-keeping, and describe a child\u2019s\nSunday.\n\n18. Write your reflections on each of the themes suggested in connection\nwith the habits of the religious life.\n\n19. Show the importance of selecting the inspiring ideas we propose to\ngive children in the things of the Divine life.\n\n20. What other point demands our care?\n\n21. What vitalising idea is of first importance in the teaching of\nchildren?\n\n22. How should children be taught that the essence of Christianity is\ndevotion to a Person?\n\n23. Why is it necessary to teach children that there is a Saviour of the\nworld?\n\n24. What teaching would you give them about the work of the Holy Spirit?\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nA MASTER-THOUGHT\n\n1. What is the motto of the Parents\u2019 Union?\n\n2. Show that this motto is a master-thought.\n\n3. Why is \u2018education is an atmosphere\u2019 the clause of the motto that\npleases us most?\n\n4. What is the result if this _part_ be taken for the _whole_?\n\n5. What defect in education leads to _ennui_ and the desire to be amused\nby shows.\n\n6. What was the unconscious formula of the eighteenth century?\n\n7. What was the result of this one-sided view of education?\n\n8. Show that the idea of the development of the faculties also rests upon\na one-sided notion.\n\n9. What is the tendency of an education grounded upon the development of\nfaculties?\n\n10. Should it be our aim to produce specialists? Why not?\n\n11. Show what manner of education results in a sound and well-balanced\nmind.\n\n12. Show that the medi\u00e6val Church understood, better than we, that\n\u2018education is a life.\u2019\n\n13. Sketch the scheme of educational philosophy to be found on the walls\nof the \u2018Spanish Chapel\u2019 of S. Maria Novella.\n\n14. Show how this educational creed unifies life.\n\n15. What does Coleridge say of the origin of great ideas of nature?\n\n16. What does Michael Angelo write to his friend of the need for a diet\nof great ideas?\n\n17. What is the special teaching vouchsafed to men to-day?\n\n18. What views are people apt to take with regard to this teaching?\n\n19. What does Huxley say about ideas in science?\n\n20. How does the teaching of Simone Memmi and Coleridge relieve us from\nanxiety and make clear our perplexities?\n\n21. How does Coleridge describe Botany, as that science existed in his\nday?\n\n22. What has evolution, the key-word of our age, done for this and other\nperplexities?\n\n23. But what has been the object of pursuit among philosophers for three\nthousand years?\n\n24. How did Heraklitos attempt to solve the problem?\n\n25. How did Demokritos?\n\n26. Show that some knowledge of history and philosophy should give us\npause in using the key of evolution.\n\n27. Show that personality remains, and is not resolvable by this key.\n\n28. Why is it necessary for parents and teachers to consider their\nattitude towards this question?\n\n29. What are the four attitudes which it is possible to take up?\n\n30. What gains will the children derive if their teachers adopt the\nlast-mentioned of these?\n\n31. What two things are incumbent upon us with regard to the great ideas\nby which the world is being taught?\n\n32. Show the danger of making too personal a matter of education.\n\n33. If education is a world-business, show that we must have a guiding\nidea about it.\n\n34. What ideas should regulate the curriculum of a boy or girl under\nfourteen?\n\n35. Show the importance of good books and many books for the use of\nchildren.\n\n36. Why may we not choose or reject certain \u2018subjects\u2019 arbitrarily?\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSCHOOL-BOOKS, AND HOW THEY MAKE FOR EDUCATION\n\n1. What ideas do we get from the incident quoted from _The Neighbours_?\n\n2. What manner of books sustains the life of thought?\n\n3. What have you to say of the \u2018school-books\u2019 of the publishers?\n\n4. Why do intelligent teachers fall back upon oral lessons?\n\n5. Mention some of the disadvantages of these.\n\n6. What questions should we ask about a youth who has finished his\neducation?\n\n7. Wherein lies the error of our educational system?\n\n8. Show that we undervalue children, and therefore educate them amiss.\n\n9. What was the note of home-life in the last generation?\n\n10. How would you describe children as they are?\n\n11. Show that our great work is to give them vitalising ideas.\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nHOW TO USE SCHOOL-BOOKS\n\n1. What question must we ask concerning a subject of instruction?\n\n2. What do you understand by disciplinary subjects?\n\n3. What danger attends the blind use of these?\n\n4. What idea should prove an \u2018open sesame\u2019 to many vitalising studies?\n\n5. Illustrate the fact that the Bible is the great source of moral\nimpressions.\n\n6. What impressions were made on De Quincey by his nursery Bible readings?\n\n7. In what ways did the liturgy appeal to him?\n\n8. Why should a child _dig_ for his own knowledge?\n\n9. What are the uses of the oral lesson and the lecture?\n\n10. Why should children use living books for themselves?\n\n11. What is the mark of a fit book?\n\n12. How shall we know if children enjoy a book?\n\n13. What should the teacher do towards the teaching given by the book?\n\n14. In what ways must children labour over their books?\n\n15. What is the simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or chapter?\n\n16. Why should preparation consist of a single careful reading?\n\n17. Mention some other ways of using books.\n\n18. What mechanical devices might children use in their studies?\n\n19. What does the teacher do towards the preparation of a lesson?\n\n20. What is the danger of too many disciplinary devices?\n\n21. Why are we in some danger of neglecting books?\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nEDUCATION IS THE SCIENCE OF RELATIONS: WE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\n1. What are our three educational instruments, and why are we confined to\nthese?\n\n2. Why may we not encroach upon the personality of children?\n\n3. In what ways may we temper life too much for children?\n\n4. What example of fairy-lore serving as a screen and shelter does\nWordsworth give us in _The Prelude_?\n\n5. What have you to say of the spontaneous living of children?\n\n6. On what does fulness of living depend?\n\n7. Distinguish between the relation of ideas to ideas and the relation of\npersons to the ideas proper for them.\n\n8. Show that the object of education is not to make something of the\nchild, but to put the child in touch with all that concerns him.\n\n9. Describe the self-education of an infant. What does Wordsworth tell us\non this point?\n\n10. What is our part in his education?\n\n11. What is our common error; what are its results?\n\n12. Distinguish between business and desire.\n\n13. What attempts were made to teach Ruskin to ride, and what does he\nthink of those attempts?\n\n14. What indictment does he bring against the limitations of his\ncondition?\n\n15. Why should those parents especially who are villa-dwellers learn much\nfrom _Pr\u00e6terita_?\n\n16. Enumerate Wordsworth\u2019s opportunities for forming dynamic relations.\n\n17. Show that these came naturally in the course of things.\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nWE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\n_Part II.\u2014Further Affinities_\n\n1. What chances had Ruskin to learn the use of material?\n\n2. What do we hear of the intimacy of either boy with natural objects?\n\n3. Describe Ruskin\u2019s flower studies.\n\n4. His pebble studies.\n\n5. Show that these became a life-shaping intimacy.\n\n6. Upon what books did Ruskin grow up?\n\n7. What is the first mention we get of his insatiate delight in a book?\n\n8. What qualities in Byron delighted him?\n\n9. Describe Wordsworth\u2019s delight in the _Arabian Nights_.\n\n10. What is Wordsworth\u2019s plea for \u2018romance\u2019 in education?\n\n11. What does he say in favour of liberty to range among books?\n\n12. Describe his first enthralment by poetry.\n\n13. Show that Ruskin\u2019s historic sense appears to be always connected with\nplaces.\n\n14. How does he betray some want of living touch with the past?\n\n15. Show that Wordsworth, too, was aloof.\n\n16. Show that the knowledge \u2018learned in schools\u2019 laid little hold of\neither boy.\n\n17. Compare the experiences of the two boys with regard to chances of\ncomradeship.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nWE ARE EDUCATED BY OUR INTIMACIES\n\n_Part III.\u2014Vocation_\n\n1. Describe Turner\u2019s \u2018call\u2019 to Ruskin.\n\n2. What does Ruskin consider his first sincere drawing?\n\n3. What account does he give of his true initiation?\n\n4. What is the first hint we get of nature as a passion?\n\n5. How does Wordsworth trace the beginnings of this passion?\n\n6. Describe the \u2018calling\u2019 of the poet.\n\n7. How does Wordsworth describe the education of the little prig of his\nday?\n\n8. Show that the child prig is the child who is the end and aim of his\nown education.\n\n9. Mention a few of the directions in which children have affinities.\n\n10. Show from the example of _Waverley_ the danger of a desultory\neducation.\n\n11. How does Mr Ruskin express that \u2018the child is father to the man\u2019?\n\n12. Show that strenuous effort and reverence are conditions of education.\n\n13. Show that comradeship has its duties.\n\n14. Why should children have a steady, unruffled course of work?\n\n15. Describe from _Brother Lawrence_ one way in which the highest\nrelationship may be initiated.\n\n16. What does Browning say about this relation?\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n1. Give a short summary of the preceding chapters.\n\n2. Comment upon the educational methods of the day.\n\n3. What two conditions are necessary to any sound reform?\n\n4. Why do many boys and girls leave school intellectually devitalised?\n\n5. How does Mr Benson characterise the aims of Masters of public schools?\n\n6. How may we characterise the minds of children?\n\n7. Show the practical working of this view.\n\n8. Distinguish between knowledge and information.\n\n9. In what ways will the child show power in dealing with knowledge?\n\n10. To what do stereotyped phrases and mangled notes in children\u2019s work\npoint?\n\n11. Work out an analogy between knowledge and food.\n\n12. Why may we call \u2018mark-hunger\u2019 a debauchery of the mind?\n\n13. Why should not epitomes and compilations be allowed for children\u2019s\nuse?\n\n14. What are the advantages of working through a considerable book?\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n_Part II.\u2014School-Books_\n\n1. Who must, in the end, decide upon the right school-books?\n\n2. What are the relative places of lecture and book?\n\n3. Show the danger of elaborate appliances.\n\n4. Upon what principle should studies be co-ordinated?\n\n5. What results of education should we look for in a young person leaving\nschool?\n\n6. Show that the worth of education by _things_ is now fully recognised.\n\n7. What habit should we look for as a chief acquirement of school-life?\n\n8. Give a rough classification of the subjects in which knowledge is due\nto children.\n\n9. Show the importance of the Bible as a means of education.\n\n10. What knowledge of history should boys and girls of twelve to fourteen\nhave?\n\n11. What mistake is commonly made in teaching this subject?\n\n12. What knowledge of languages should they have?\n\n13. What should we aim at in the early teaching of science?\n\n14. What least amount of time in the open is a _sine qu\u00e2 non_ of a living\neducation?\n\n15. What is the use of books in nature-teaching?\n\n16. Name a few useful books.\n\n17. What do you understand by \u2018picture-talks\u2019?\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nSUGGESTIONS TOWARDS A CURRICULUM\n\n_Part III.\u2014The Love of Knowledge_\n\n1. Why does the use of books make for short hours?\n\n2. What is the evil of a utilitarian education?\n\n3. Distinguish between relations and interests.\n\n4. Show that the tendency of present-day education is to depreciate\nknowledge.\n\n5. Enumerate some causes of the failure of our efforts at intellectual\neducation.\n\n6. Show the danger, which besets teachers, of pursuing intellectual\nfutilities.\n\n7. By what test may we distinguish a fad from an educational method?\n\n8. Our end is to produce an educated child. How is he to be recognised?\n\n9. Children delight in school for many reasons. Which of these is the\nonly abiding motive?\n\n10. What change in our educational methods should secure the children\u2019s\neducational Magna Carta?\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX II\n\nSOME SPECIMENS OF EXAMINATION WORK DONE IN THE \u2018PARENTS\u2019 REVIEW\u2019 SCHOOL,\nIN WHICH THE PUPILS ARE EDUCATED UPON BOOKS AND THINGS\n\n\nThe _Parents\u2019 Review_ School, an output of the Parents Union, was, in the\nfirst place, designed to bring home schools, taught by governesses, up to\nthe standard of other schools. A Training College for governesses, with\nPractising School, etc., was established later. Children may not enter\nthe School under six; because we think the first six years of life are\nwanted for physical growth and the self-education which children carry\non with little ordered aid. The _Parents\u2019 Review_ School is conducted by\nmeans of programmes of work, in five classes, sent out, term by term,\nto each of the home schools (and to some other schools); and the same\nprogrammes are used in the Practising School. Examination papers are set\nat the end of each term.\n\nThe work is arranged on the principles which have been set forth in this\nvolume; a wide curriculum, a considerable number of books for each child\nin the several classes, and, besides, a couple of hours\u2019 work daily, not\nwith _Books_ but with _Things_. Many of the pupils in the school have\nabsorbed, in a way, the culture of their parents; but the children of\nuncultured parents take with equal readiness and comparable results to\nthis sort of work, which is, I think, fitted, not only for the clever,\nbut for the average and even the dull child.\n\n=Class Ia.=\u2014The child of six goes into Class Ia.; he works for 2\u00bd hours a\nday, but half an hour of this time is spent in drill and games. Including\ndrill, he has thirteen \u2018subjects\u2019 of study, for which about sixteen\nbooks are used. He recites hymns, poems, and Bible verses; works from\nMessrs Sonnenschein and Nesbitt\u2019s _A B C Arithmetic_; sings French and\nEnglish songs; begins Mrs Curwen\u2019s _Child Pianist_, learns to write and\nto print, learns to read, learns French orally, does brush-drawing and\nvarious handicrafts. All these things are done with joy, but cannot be\nillustrated here. Bible lessons, read from the Bible; tales, natural\nhistory, and geography are taught from appointed books, helped by the\nchild\u2019s own observation.\n\nOur plan in each of these subjects is to read him the passage for the\nlesson (a good long passage), talk about it a little, avoiding much\nexplanation, and then let him narrate what has been read. This he does\nvery well and with pleasure, and is often happy in catching the style as\nwell as the words of the author.\n\nCertain pages, say 40 or 50, from each of the children\u2019s books are\nappointed for a term\u2019s reading. At the end of the term an examination\npaper is sent out containing one or two questions on each book. Here are\na few of the answers. The children in the first two classes narrate their\nanswers, which someone writes from their dictation.\n\n_Q._ Tell the story of Naaman.\n\nA. (aged 6\u00be):\u2014\n\n \u201cNaaman had something the matter with him, and his master sent\n a letter to the King of Israel, and the king was very unhappy\n and did not know what to do because he thought that he wanted\n to come and fight against him, and he rent his clothes. And\n he said, \u2018I can\u2019t cure him,\u2019 so he sent him to Elisha, and he\n told him to take a lot of presents and a lot of things with\n him. And when Naaman came to Elisha\u2019s door, Elisha sent Gehazi\n to tell him to dip himself seven times in the waters of Jordan,\n and he said to himself, \u2018I surely thought he would have come\n out, and I thought a lot of people would come out and make a\n fuss\u2019; and he went back in a rage. And his servant said to\n him, \u2018Why didn\u2019t you go?\u2019 And he said, \u2018My rivers are much the\n best.\u2019 So his servants said, \u2018If he had asked you to do some\n great thing, wouldst thou have done it?\u2019 So he went and dipped\n himself seven times in the water, and when he came out he was\n quite all right again. And when he was coming home they saw\n Gehazi coming, so Naaman told them to stop the horses, and so\n they stopped, and Gehazi said, \u2018There are some people come to\n see me, please give me some money and some cloaks,\u2019 and they\n were very heavy, so Naaman sent some of his men to carry them,\n and when he came near the house he said to his servants, \u2018You\n can go now.\u2019 Elisha said, \u2018Because you have done this you shall\n have the leprosy that Naaman had.\u2019\u201d\n\n_Q._ Tell a fairy story.\n\nB. (aged 6\u00be):\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen Ulysses was coming back from Troy he passed the Sirens.\n He could hear them, but he couldn\u2019t get to them, because he was\n bound. He wanted to get to them so as he could listen to them\n a long time, because a lot of people had come and listened to\n them, and they found it so beautiful that they wanted to stay\n there, and they stayed till they died. His companions couldn\u2019t\n hear them because they stopped up their ears with wax and\n cotton-wool. And this was the song they sang:\u2014\n\n \u2018Hither, come hither and hearken awhile,\n Odysseus far-famed king,\n No sailor has ever passed this way\n But has paused to hear us sing.\n Our song is sweeter than honey,\n And he that hears it knows\n What he never learnt from another,\n And his joy before he goes.\n We know what the heroes bore at Troy\n In the ten long years of strife,\n We know what happened in all the world,\n And the secret things of life.\u2019\n\n And then they rowed on till at last the song faded away, and\n they rowed on and on for a long time, and then when they could\n not hear them nor see them, the wax was taken out of their\n ears, and then they unbound Ulysses.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What have you noticed (yourself) about a spider?\n\nC. (aged 7\u00be):\u2014\n\n \u201cWe have found out the name of one spider, and often have\n seen spiders under the microscope\u2014they were all very hairy.\n We have often noticed a lot of spiders running about the\n ground\u2014quantities. Last term we saw a spider\u2019s web up in the\n corner of the window with a spider sucking out the juice of a\n fly; and we have often touched a web to try and make the spider\n come out, and we never could, because she saw it wasn\u2019t a fly,\n before she came out.\n\n \u201cI saw the claw of a spider under the microscope, with its\n little teeth; we saw her spinnerets and her great eyes. There\n were the two big eyes in one row, four little ones in the next\n row, and two little ones in the next row. We have often found\n eggs of the spiders; we have some now that we have got in a\n little box, and we want to hatch them out, so we have put them\n on the mantelpiece to force them.\n\n \u201cOnce we saw a spider on a leaf, and we tried to catch it, but\n we couldn\u2019t; he immediately let himself down on to the ground\n with a thread.\n\n \u201cWe saw the circulation in the leg of another spider under the\n microscope; it looked like a little line going up and down.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Gather three sorts of tree leaf-buds and two sorts of catkin, and\ntell all you can about them.\n\nD. (aged 6):\u2014\n\n (1) \u201cThe chestnut bud is brown and sticky, it is a sort of\n cotton-woolly with the leaves inside. It splits open and sends\n out two leaves, and the leaves split open.\n\n (2) \u201cThe oak twig has always a lot of buds on the top, and one\n bud always dies. Where the bud starts there is a little bit of\n knot-wood. The oak-bud is very tiny.\n\n (3) \u201cThe lime bud has a green side and a red side, and then\n it bursts open and several little leaves come out and all the\n little things that shut up the leaves die away.\n\n (4) \u201cGolden catkins and silver pussy palms of a willow tree.\n The golden catkins have stamens with all the pollen on them.\n They grow upwards, and two never grow opposite to each other.\n The silver pussy palms have seed boxes, with a little tube\n growing out, and a little sticky knob on the top. The bees rub\n the pollen off their backs on to the sticky knob.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Tell about the North-West Passage. (Book studied, _The World at\nHome_.)\n\nE. (aged 7):\u2014\n\n \u201cPeople in England are very fond of finding things out, and\n they wanted to find out the North-West Passage. If people\n wanted to go to the Pacific Ocean, they had to go round Africa\n by the Cape of Good Hope, or else round South America by Cape\n Horn. This was a very long way. They thought they might find\n out a shorter way by going along the North Coast by America,\n and they would come out in the Pacific Ocean. They would call\n this way the North-West Passage. First one man and then another\n tried to find a way. They found a lot of straits and bays which\n they called after themselves. The enemy they met which made\n them turn back was the cold. It was in the frozen zone, and the\n sea was all ice, and the ice lumps were as big as mountains,\n and when they came against a ship they crashed it to pieces.\n Once a man named Captain Franklin tried over and over again to\n find the North-West Passage, and once he went and never came\n back again, for he got stuck fast in the ice, and the ice did\n not break, and he had not much food with him, and what he had\n was soon eaten up, and he could not get any more, for all the\n animals in that country had gone away, for it was winter, and\n he could not wait for the summer, when they would return. A\n ship went out from England called the _Fox_ to look for him,\n but all they found was a boat, a Bible, a watch, and a pair of\n slippers near each other. After looking a lot they found the\n North-West Passage, but because there is so much ice there the\n ships can\u2019t use it.\u201d\n\n=Class Ib.=\u2014In Class Ib., the children are usually between seven\nand eight, but may be nine. They have fifteen \u2018subjects\u2019 (perhaps\ntwenty-three books). The subjects which do not lend themselves to\nillustration are a continuation of the work in Class Ia. But by this\ntime the children can usually read, and read for themselves some, at any\nrate, of their books for _History, Geography, and Tales_. In Class Ib.\nthe children narrate their lessons as in Ia., and, also, their answers\nto the examination questions. They appear to enjoy doing this; indeed,\nthe examinations which come at the end of each term are a pleasure; the\nonly difficulty is that small children want to go on \u2018telling.\u2019 Their\nwords are taken down literally. One is struck by the correctness and\ncopiousness of the language used; but young children delight in words,\nand often surprise their elders by their free and correct use of\n\u2018dictionary words.\u2019 One notices the verve with which the children tell\nthe tale, the orderly sequence of events, the correctness and fulness of\ndetail, the accuracy of names. These things are natural to children until\nthey are schooled out of them.\n\n_Q._ Tell all you know about St Patrick. (Book studied, _Old Tales from\nBritish History_.)\n\nA. (aged 7):\u2014\n\n \u201cSt Patrick was the son of a Scotch farming clergyman, and one\n day some Irish pirates came and took Patrick with them to make\n him a slave; and they sold him to an Irish nobleman. And the\n Irish nobleman made him a shepherd to take care of his flocks,\n and shepherds have a lot of time to think when they are out\n guarding their flocks by night. And Patrick was very sorry that\n the poor Irish were heathens. One day he slipped off and got\n into a boat with some sailors, and after a great adventure,\n for their food ran short, they arrived safely in Scotland. And\n Patrick was still thinking about the Irish, so he went off in a\n boat of his own, with a few followers, to Ireland. A shepherd\n saw them coming, and told his master the pirates were coming.\n So he armed his servants and went down to meet the pirates,\n but when he heard the errand they were on, he offered them\n to come into his house. Now Patrick settled in Ireland, but\n some heathen priests rose up against him, and a wise man said,\n \u2018What is the good of killing him? Other Irish people are now\n Christians, and they will teach too.\u2019 So he saved his life. And\n Patrick gave him the book of Psalms written by his own hand.\n One day Patrick asked a rich man if he might have a little plot\n of land on the top of a hill, but the rich man refused him,\n but gave him a little plot of land at the bottom of the hill.\n And there Patrick built a church, and a house for himself and\n servants to live in. Then the rich man got ill, and was just\n about to die, but got better, but as he thought Patrick was\n like a wizard, who could foretell his fortune, he thought he\u2019d\n better try to please him. So he sent him a brass cauldron,\n enough to hold one whole sheep, and Patrick said \u2018I thank you,\n master.\u2019 The rich man was angry, and sent for the cauldron back\n again, and Patrick said, \u2018I thank you, master.\u2019 So the rich\n man was ashamed, and brought back the cauldron, and said he\n could have the little plot of land on the top of the hill. So\n they went up to measure it. Then a roe-deer dashed out of the\n thicket, but left her fawn behind her, and the men were going\n to kill the fawn, but Patrick took it up and carried it down\n the hill; the mother followed, for she saw he was doing no harm\n to it. On that place he built a fine church, which is still\n standing. And Patrick died on a journey, and was buried at a\n place called Downpatrick after him.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Tell what you know about Alfred Tennyson. (Book studied, Mrs Frewen\nLord\u2019s _Tales from Westminster Abbey_.)\n\nB. (aged 7\u00bd):\u2014\n\n \u201cAlfred Tennyson was born in 1809, and he loved the country\n very much. One Sunday when they were going out to chapel,\n except Lord Tennyson as he was very young, his brother Charles\n gave him his slate to write about birds and flowers, and when\n they came back he had filled his slate with his first poem. He\n and his brother used to make up stories that sometimes lasted\n a month. He was very shortsighted, and when he was looking\n at anything it looked as if he were smelling it. He had good\n ears, for he could hear the shriek of a bat. Alfred Tennyson\n wrote _The Revenge_ and _The Siege of Lucknow_, and Sir John\n Franklin\u2019s poem:\u2014\n\n \u2018Not here; the white North hath thy bones,\n And thou, heroic sailor soul,\n Art passing on thy happier voyage now,\n Toward no earthly pole.\u2019\n\n And he also wrote the _May Queen_ and _Cradle Song_. Because\n his poetry was so good the Queen gave him a name and knighted\n him. He says that if you tread on a daisy it will turn up and\n get red. He was 83 years old when he died\u2014the year he died in\n was 1892. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets\u2019 Corner.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What is a hero? What heroes have you heard of? Tell about one.\n\nC. (aged 7):\u2014\n\n \u201c(1) A hero is a brave man. (2) Count Roland, Huon of Bordeaux,\n the Horatii and Curatii. (3) Once there was a brave Emperor\n called Charlemagne, and he was fighting with the heathen King\n of Saragossa. Just a wee bit of land was left to the heathen\n king, so he sent a messenger to speak about peace. They\n pretended that they would have peace, so they went back to\n Charlemagne and asked him to leave Roland behind to take charge\n of the mountain passes. So Charlemagne said that he would leave\n Roland behind because there was none so brave as him, so that\n when Charlemagne had turned his army they should come in great\n numbers to fight against Roland. And Roland stayed behind with\n twenty thousand men, and Oliver heard a great noise by the side\n of Spain, and then Oliver climbed on a pine tree, and he saw\n the arms glimmering and the spears shining, and then he said to\n Roland that there were a full hundred thousand, and that they\n just had so few, and that it was much better to sound his horn\n and Charlemagne will turn his army. Roland said he would be mad\n if he did that. Oliver said again to sound his horn, and Roland\n said he would lose his fame in France if he did it. Then Oliver\n said again, \u2018Friend Roland, sound thy horn and Charles will\n hear it, and turn his army.\u2019 Then all the mountain passes were\n full of the enemies, and when they came nearer they fought, and\n they fought, and they fought, and at last the Christians were\n falling too, and when there were only sixty left he blew his\n horn. Charlemagne heard it and said he must go, and Ganelon\n said he was just pretending, but then Charlemagne heard it\n fainter, and knew that it was true that he must go, and then\n fainter again, but Charlemagne was nearer and so heard it\n better. And Roland said, \u2018Ride as fast as you can for many men\n have been killed, and there are few left.\u2019 Then Charlemagne\n bade his men sound their horns, so that they knew that help\n was near and then the heathen fled away. There were just the\n two left, Roland and the Archbishop, and Roland said to the\n Archbishop that he would try to fetch the dead bodies of the\n braver soldiers. Then the Archbishop said to Roland, \u2018Quick,\n before I die.\u2019 Then Roland went and brought them before the\n Archbishop and laid them down there. Then he went and searched\n the field again, and under a pine tree he found Oliver\u2019s body,\n then he brought it too and laid it in front of the Archbishop.\n Then Roland fainted to the ground, then the Archbishop tried to\n bring some water for Roland, and he fell down and died. Then\n Roland put the hands over the chest of the Archbishop, then he\n prayed to God to give him a place in Paradise, and then he said\n that the field was his. Before he died he put his sword and\n his ivory horn under him, and laid himself down on the ground,\n so that Charlemagne, when he came, would know that he was the\n conqueror. And God sent St Michael and another saint to fetch\n his soul up to heaven.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Gather three sorts of tree leaf-bud and two sorts of catkin and tell\nall you can about them.\n\nE. (a cottage child aged 9):\u2014\n\n \u201c_Beech Twig._\u2014It has rather a woody stalk, and it is a very\n light grey-browny stalk, and it is very thin, and the little\n branches that grow out are light brown and it is thicker where\n the buds are and it is a lighter brown up at the top than it is\n at the bottom, and the buds are a light reddy-brown and very\n pointed, and they are scaly. The bark is rather rough and there\n is a lot of little kind of brown spots on it.\n\n \u201c_Lime Twig._\u2014It is called Ruby-budded Lime because the buds\n are red, and they are fat rather, and they have got some green\n in as well, and they come rather to a point at the top, they\n grow alternately and the little stalk that they grow out of is\n reddy-green, and the top part of the stalk is green, and it is\n woody, and it is rough, and it is a reddy-green at the bottom.\n Where the buds come out it is swelled out, the bark has come\n off and it has left it white and woody. At the top of one of\n the stalks the bud has come off.\n\n \u201c_Sycamore Twig._\u2014Well, the back is _very_ woody, and it is a\n brown stalk and it is rough and there is a little weeny bud\n growing out of the side, and the buds grow out two and two, and\n there are a lot of little buds.\n\n \u201c_Willow._\u2014Well, the stalk is a dark brown, and is very smooth\n and it will bend very easily, and the buds when they first come\n on the stalk are little brown ones, and then a silvery-green\n comes out and there is a scale at the bottom, and then they get\n greyer and bigger with little green leaves at the bottom, and\n then it comes yellow, and there is a lot of pollen on it. If\n you touch it the pollen comes on your finger.\n\n \u201c_Hazel._\u2014Well, the stalk is a dark brown, something the colour\n of the willow, and it bends easily, and the buds are green and\n there is little scales, and then the catkins come and they\n grow very long, and there is a lot of little flowers in one,\n and there is pollen in that, and the stalk is rather rough,\n and there are some big buds at the top just bursting, and the\n leaves are coming out, and the buds are very soft and glossy,\n and the scales are at the bottom.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What have you noticed about a thrush? Tell all you know about it.\n\nF. (aged 8):\u2014\n\n \u201cThrushes are browny birds. They eat snails, and they take the\n snail in their mouths and knock it against a stone to break\n the shell and eat the snail. I found a stone with a lot of\n bits of shell round it, so knew that a thrush had been there.\n Where we used to live a thrush used to sing every morning on\n the same tree. The song of the thrush is like a nightingale.\n We often see a lot of thrushes on the lawn before breakfast or\n after a shower. They have yellow beaks and their breasts are\n specked with lovely yellow and brown. Once we found a thrush\n asleep on a sponge in a bedroom and we carried it out and put\n it on a tree. Thrushes eat worms as well as snails, and on the\n lawn they listen with their heads on one side and go along as\n the worm gets under the ground, and presently, perhaps, the\n worm comes up and they gobble it up, or they put their beaks\n in and get it. Thrushes build their nests with sticks at the\n bottom and line them with little bits of wool they pick up, or\n feathers, and they like to get down very much.\u201d\n\n=Class II.=\u2014In Class II. the children are between nine and twelve,\noccasionally over twelve. They have twenty-one \u2018subjects,\u2019 and about\ntwenty-five books are used. They work from 9 to 12 each day, with half\nan hour\u2019s interval for games and drill. Some Latin and German (optional)\nare added to the curriculum. In music we continue Mrs Curwen\u2019s (_Child\nPianist_) method and Tonic Sol-fa, and learn French, German (optional),\nand English songs. But I cannot here give details of our work, and\nmust confine myself to illustrations from seven of the subjects on the\nprogramme. Children in Class II. write or dictate, or write a part and\ndictate a part of their examination answers according to their age. The\nexamination lasts a week, and to write the whole of their work would be\nfatiguing at this stage. The plan followed is, that the examination in\neach subject shall be done in the time for that subject on the time-table.\n\nI should like to say a word about the Greek and Roman History. Plutarch\u2019s\n_Lives_ are read in Classes II. and III., and as children are usually\nfive years in these two classes, they may read some fifteen of these\n_Lives_, which I think stand alone in literature as teaching that a man\nis part of the State, that his business is to be of service to the State,\nbut that the value of his service depends upon his personal character.\nThe _Lives_ are read to the children almost without comment, but _with\nnecessary omissions_. Proper names are written on the blackboard; and,\nat the end, children narrate the substance of the lesson. The English\nHistory book used in Classes II. and III. is extremely popular; it is Mr\nArnold-Forster\u2019s (of about 800 pages), and is well known as a serious,\nmanly, and statesmanlike treatment of English History; in no case is\nthere any writing down to the children. Mrs Creighton\u2019s _First History\nof France_ is also a favourite, though I should have thought there was\nhardly enough detail to make it so. Contemporary periods of English\nand French History are studied term by term. For Natural History, Miss\nArabella Buckley\u2019s _Fairyland of Science_ and _Life and Her Children_,\nMrs Brightwen\u2019s books, etc., give scientific information and excite\nintelligent curiosity, while out-of-door nature-study lays the foundation\nfor science. The handiworks of Class II. are such as cardboard Sloyd,\nclay modelling, needlework, gardening, etc. These, field-work, piano\npractice, etc., are done in the afternoons or after tea.\n\n_Q._ \u201cAh! Pericles, those that have need of a lamp, take care to supply\nit with oil.\u201d Who said this? Tell the story. (Book studied, Plutarch\u2019s\n_Lives: Pericles_.)\n\nD. (aged 11\u00bd), answer dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnaxagoras, the philosopher, said these words to Pericles.\n\n \u201cPericles was the ruler of Athens, and Anaxagoras had taught\n him when a boy. Being ruler of Athens, he led a very busy\n life, attending to the affairs of State, and so was not able\n to give much time to his household affairs. Once a year he\n collected his money, and could only manage his income by giving\n out an allowance to each member of his family and household\n every day: this was done by Evangelus, his steward. Anaxagoras\n thought this a very wrong way of arranging matters, and said\n that Pericles paid too much heed to bodily affairs, because he\n thought you ought to mind only about philosophy and spiritual\n doings, and not about the affairs of the world. To give an\n example to Pericles he gave up all his household and tried to\n live entirely on philosophy. But he soon found his mistake when\n he found himself starving and penniless, with no house. So he\n covered his head up and prepared to die. Pericles, hearing of\n this, went immediately to his rescue and begged him to live;\n not because he thought death a misfortune, but that he said,\n \u2018What shall I do without your help in the affairs of State?\u2019\n And then Anaxagoras uttered the words which are above, meaning,\n of course (though putting it in a clever way), that Pericles\n was to keep him. On the other hand, he might have meant that he\n had been mistaken in his philosophy.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Tell the history of \u2018F.D.\u2019 on a penny. (Book studied,\nArnold-Forster\u2019s _History of England_.)\n\nC. (aged 10), answer written by child:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe letters \u2018F.D.\u2019 stand for the Latin words _Fidei Defensor_,\n meaning \u2018The Defender of the Faith.\u2019 Henry VIII. had a little\n while ago written a book on the Pope (who was Clement VII.)\n saying that the Pope was the true head of the Church, and\n everyone ought to obey him. The Pope was so pleased that he\n made Henry _Fidei Defensor_. It must be remembered that the\n king had married his brother Arthur\u2019s[26] widow, a Spanish\n princess, namely, Catherine of Aragon (_sic_), and as they\n had no son Henry wished to divorce her, but the Pope would\n not allow him to, as he had given Henry special leaf (_sic_)\n to marry her. At this Henry was furious, and began to think\n about the Pope\u2019s words, \u2018Defender of the Faith.\u2019 He would\n not act as he thought till someone suggested it. So two men,\n called Cromwell and Cranmer, came forward, telling the king\n to take the Pope\u2019s words, not as he meant them, but as they\n really were, as they stood. The king was delighted, and made\n Cranmer a bishop and Cromwell his wisest counsellor.[26] In\n 1534 Parliament[26] was called upon to declare Henry head of\n the Church. All said he was, except two men, Sir Thomas More\n and Fisher, bishop of Rochester; these would not agree, and\n were executed in 1535. If we look on a penny we see the letters\n \u2018F.D.,\u2019 which shows from the reign of Henry VIII. till now the\n Pope has not been allowed to interfere with England. In order\n to spite the Pope, Henry allowed the Lutherans and learned men\n to come into England.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What did you see in the _Seagull_ sailing up the Firth of Forth?\n(Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book II.)\n\nG. (aged 9), answer dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn sailing up the Forth we first of all see Leith, which is\n the seaport town of Edinburgh. Then we come to Edinburgh. The\n old and new Edinburghs are built on opposite hills, the valley\n in between is laid out in lovely gardens. One thing very odd\n about Edinburgh is that the streets look as if they are built\n one on top of the other. At one end of the town there is a\n castle which looks so like the rocks and mountains it is built\n on, one can hardly distinguish it. At the other end of the town\n there is Holyrood, where the ancient kings used to live. We do\n not see many merchantmen because there are no good harbours,\n there are a good many fishing smacks and pleasure boats. As\n we go along we see women with big baskets with a strap across\n their foreheads, and they are calling out \u2018caller herrings.\u2019\u201d\n\n_Q._ \u201cAnd Jonathan loved him as his own soul.\u201d Of whom was this said?\nTell a story of Jonathan\u2019s love.\n\nE. (aged 9), answer dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis was said of David. Saul\u2019s anger was kindled against\n David; and Jonathan and David were talking together, and\n Jonathan had been telling David that he would do anything for\n him, and David said, \u2018To-morrow is the feast of a new moon, and\n Saul will expect me to sit with him at the table; therefore\n say, \u2018David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem,\n his city, where there is a sacrifice of his family.\u2019 If Saul\n is angry, then I shall know that he would kill me, but if he\n is not angry, it will be all right.\u2019 Jonathan said, \u2018So shall\n it be, but it will not be safe for anybody to know anything\n about it; come into the field, and I will tell you what to do.\n Thou shalt remain hidden by the stone, and I will bring a lad\n and my arrows and bow, and I will shoot an arrow as if firing\n at a target; and if I say \u2018Run,\u2019 to the lad, \u2018is not the arrow\n beyond thee? go fetch it,\u2019 then thou shalt know that thou must\n flee from Saul.\u2019 David\u2019s seat was empty at the feast that\n night, but Saul said nothing. But the next day his seat was\n empty, and when Saul asked why, Jonathan told him what David\n had asked him to say. And Saul\u2019s anger was kindled, so much so\n that Jonathan feasted not that day, for he was grieved; and\n next morning he went out with his bow and arrows, and the lad,\n and shot an arrow as if at a mark. Then Jonathan said to the\n lad, \u2018Run, is not the arrow beyond thee? haste.\u2019 Then Jonathan\n gave his artillery unto the lad and sent him back to the\n city; and David came out of his hiding-place, and they made a\n covenant together, for Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Then\n David had to flee to Naioth in Ramah and Jonathan went back to\n the city.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What do you know of Richelieu? (Book studied, Mrs Creighton\u2019s _First\nHistory of France_.)\n\nE. (aged 10), answer partly written, partly dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cCardinal Richeleu (_sic_) was brought to the French Court by\n the Queen mother, who thought he would do as she wished, but\n she was mistaken, for he no sooner was there than he turned\n against her, for Louse (_sic_) took him into his favour and\n made him Prime Minister after he had been there a few weeks.\n Richeleu (_sic_) was a devoted Catholic, and was determined to\n put down the Hugenots (_sic_), or Protestants as we call them,\n so he laid siege to La Rochelle, the chief town of the Hugenots\n (_sic_), who applied to the English for help. Charles sent a\n fleet to La Rochelle under pretence of helping the Hugenots\n (_sic_)[27] but Admiral Pennington, who was in command of\n the ships, received orders when half way down the channel to\n take in French soldiers and sailors at Calais and to go to\n the French side. When Admiral Pennington ordered the ships to\n take in the soldiers, his men mutinied and he had to go back.\n Richelieu had thrown up earthworks across the harbour so that\n it was impossible to get in. Now Rochelle held out bravely, but\n at last it had to surrender, and out of 40,000, 140 crawled\n out, too weak to bury the dead in the streets. La Rochelle was\n razed to the ground, and never recovered its prosperity. One\n by one the Huguenot towns surrendered, and thus the Huguenots\n were destroyed. When Richelieu was made Prime Minister, the\n nobles did not like him, because they thought he had too much\n power, and now when Louis was ill, the Queen mother came to\n him, and in a stormy passion of tears begged Louis to send away\n his ungrateful servant. Louis promised he would do so, and\n Richelieu\u2019s fall seemed certain. Now all the nobles crowded to\n the Queen mother to pay their respects to her, as they thought\n she would now be the most important person in the Government.\n But one noble, who was wiser than the rest, went to Richelieu\n and begged to plead his cause before the King. The King\n promised he would keep him if he would serve him as he had done\n before. The Queen mother was foiled, and returned to Brussels,\n where she died.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What towns, rivers, and castles would you see in travelling about\nWarwickshire? (Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book III.)\n\nB. (aged 9\u00bd), answer dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cWarwick, Kenilworth, Coventry, Stratford, Leamington, and\n Birmingham are all towns which you would see if you travelled\n through Warwick.\n\n \u201cThe Avon stretches from north to south of Warwickshire. It has\n its tributary the Leam, upon which Leamington is situated.\n\n \u201cThere is a castle of Warwick and Coventry and Kenilworth.\n\n \u201cWarwick is the capital of the county. It has a famous castle,\n whose high and lofty towers stand upon the bank of the river\n Avon.\n\n \u201cCoventry is a very old town. It also has a beautiful castle,\n where the fair Lady Godiva and her father used to live, about\n whom I suppose you have read.\n\n \u201cStratford is called \u2018The Swan on the Avon,\u2019 because that is\n where Shakespeare, the great poet, was born and died, and this\n is a little piece of poetry about him:\u2014\n\n \u2018Where his first infant lays, sweet Shakespeare sung,\n Where the last accents faltered on his tongue.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe river Avon takes its rise in the vale of Evesham, then\n winds through pleasant fields and meadows till it comes to the\n south of Warwickshire, and then it becomes broad and stately\n and flows on up to Coventry, where the Leam branches off from\n it (!), and then it becomes narrower and narrower until it gets\n out of Warwickshire and stops altogether at Naseby (!)\u201d\n\n_Q._ How many kinds of bees are there in a hive? What work does each do?\nTell how they build the comb. (Book studied, _Fairyland of Science_.)\n\nF. (aged 10), answer dictated:\u2014\n\n \u201cThree kinds. The _drones_ or males, the _workers_ or females,\n and the _queen_ bee. The drone is fat, the queen is long and\n thin, the workers are small and slim. The queen bee lays the\n eggs, the worker bee brings the honey in and makes the cell,\n and the drones wait to be fed. On a summer\u2019s day you see\n something hanging on a tree like a plum pudding, this is a\n swarm of bees. You will soon see someone come up with a hive,\n turn it upside down, shake the bough gently, and they will fall\n in. They will put some clean calico quickly over the bottom\n of the hive, and turn it back over on a bench. The bees first\n close up every little hole in the hive with wax, then they hang\n on to the roof, clinging on to one another by their legs. Then\n one comes away and scrapes some wax from under its body, and\n bites it in its mouth until it is pulled out like ribbon, this\n she plasters on the roof of the hive, then she flies out to get\n honey, and comes home to digest it, hanging from the roof, and\n in 24 hours this digested honey turns to wax, then she goes\n through the same process again. Next, the nursing bees come\n and poke their heads into this wax, bite the wax away (20 bees\n do this before one hole is ready to make a cell). Other bees\n are working on the other side at the same time. Each cell is\n made six-sided, so as to take up the least wax and the smallest\n space. When the cells are made the bees come in with honey in\n their honey-bag or first stomach; they can easily pass the\n honey back though their mouths into the cells. It takes many\n bees to fill one cell, so they are hard at work.\u201d\n\nG. (aged 9), written by child:\u2014\n\nComposition on \u2018_The Opening of Parliament_.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe opening of Parliament by King Edward VII and Queen\n Alexander (_sic_) was rather grand. First, they drove to the\n Houses of Parliament in a grand state carriage which had\n been used by George III, and then when they got there they\n had to robe in a certain room in great big robes, all edged\n with ermine fur, and with huge trains. Queen Alexandra had\n an evening dress on, and King Edward a very nice kingly sort\n of suit (which was nearly covered up by his robes), and then\n they walked along to the real Houses of Parliament, where\n the members really sit. Then the king made a speech to open\n Parliment (_sic_), and other people made speeches too, and\n everything was done with grandeur and stateliness such as would\n befit a king. May Parliament long be his!\u201d\n\n=Class III.=\u2014In Class III. the range of age is from eleven or twelve\nto fifteen. The \u2018subjects\u2019: Bible Lessons and Recitations (Poetry and\nBible passages); English Grammar, French, German, and Latin; Italian\n(optional); English, French, and Ancient History (Plutarch\u2019s _Lives_),\nSinging (French, English, and German Songs); Writing, Dictation, Drill;\nDrawing in Brush and Charcoal; Natural History, Botany, Physiology,\nGeography; Arithmetic; Geometry, and Reading. About thirty-five books are\nused. Time, 3\u00bd hours a day; half an hour out of this time, as before,\nfor drill and games. There is no preparation or home work in any of the\nclasses. The reader will notice from the subjoined specimens that the\npapers are still written _con amore_, and show an intelligent grasp of\nthe several subjects. Though there are errors in many of the papers,\nthey are not often the mistakes of ignorance or stupidity, nor are they\nthose of a person who has never understood what he is writing about.\n\u2018Composition\u2019 is never taught as a subject; well-taught children compose\nas well-bred children behave\u2014by the light of nature. It is probable\nthat no considerable writer was ever taught the art of \u2018composition.\u2019\nThe same remark may be made about spelling: excepting for an occasional\n\u2018inveterate\u2019 case, the habit of reading teaches spelling. All the pupils\nof the _Parents\u2019 Review_ School do not take all the subjects set in the\nprogrammes of the several classes. Sometimes, parents have the mistaken\nnotion that the greater the number of subjects the heavier the work;\nthough, in reality, the contrary is the case, unless the hours of study\nare increased. Sometimes, outside lessons in languages, music, etc.,\ninterfere; sometimes, health will not allow of more than an hour or two\nof work in the day. The children in the practising school do all the work\nset, and their work compares satisfactorily with the rest, though the\nclasses have the disadvantage of changing teachers every week. Children\nin Class III. write the whole of their examination work.\n\n_Q._ Describe the founding of Christ\u2019s Kingdom. What are the laws of His\nKingdom?\n\nA. (aged 13):\u2014\n\n \u201cChrist came to found His kingdom. He preached the laws to His\n people. He taught them to pray for it: \u2018Thy kingdom come.\u2019\n And He told His chosen few to \u2018go and preach the Gospel of\n the kingdom.\u2019 He founded His kingdom in their hearts, and He\n reigned there. He will still found His kingdom in our hearts.\n He will come and reign as King. The kingdom was first founded\n by the sea of Galilee. \u2018Follow Me,\u2019 said our Lord to Andrew,\n and from that moment the kingdom was founded in Andrew\u2019s heart.\n Then there were Peter, James, John, Phillip (_sic_), Nathaniel\n (_sic_), and the kingdom grew. From that moment Christ never\n stopped His work for the kingdom\u2014preaching and teaching,\n healing and comforting, proclaiming the laws of the kingdom.\n \u2018Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I\n am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.\u2019 \u2018One jot or one tittle\n shall in no wise pass from the law.\u2019 \u2018Whosoever shall break one\n of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, the same\n shall be called the least in the kingdom.\u2019 No commandment was\n to pass from the law, but there was a new commandment, a new\n law, and that was \u2018love.\u2019 \u2018Love your enemies.\u2019 The Pharisees\n could not understand it. \u2018Love your friends, and hate your\n enemies,\u2019 was their law. But Jesus said, \u2018Bless them that curse\n you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.\u2019 \u2018Give,\n hoping for nothing in return\u2019; and, \u2018Whosoever shall smite thee\n on one cheek turn to him the other also.\u2019 Christ\u2019s law is the\n love which \u2018suffereth long and is kind ... seeketh not her own\n ... never faileth ... hopeth all things, endureth all things\u2019;\n and \u2018now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the\n greatest of these is\u2014love.\u2019\u201d\n\n_Q._ Explain \u2018English Funds, Consols 2\u00be per cent., 113.\u2019 And give an\naccount of the South Sea Bubble. (Book studied, Arnold-Forster\u2019s _History\nof England_.)\n\nB. (aged 14\u00bd):\u2014\n\n \u201cThis means that when the South Sea Company first appeared, the\n Government gave them \u00a3113 on condition that the Company should\n give 2\u00be per cent., which means \u00a32 15s. on every \u00a3100 lent, for\n a certain number of years. In the reign of George I. the money\n matters of the country were in a very bad state. The Government\n was very much in debt, especially to those people who had\n purchased annuities, and had a right to receive a certain sum\n of money from the Government every year as long as they lived.\n Sir Robert Walpole, who was then Prime Minister, was most\n anxious to pay off part of this debt. He heard of a Company\n which had just been started, called the South Sea Company,\n whose object was to trade in the South Seas. This was what\n Walpole wished for. He suggested to them that they should pay\n off the debt due to the people who had bought annuities, and in\n return the Government would give them some priveleges (_sic_)\n and charts which would be useful to them. This the Company\n agreed to do, but instead of paying the people in money they\n gave them what were called \u2018shares\u2019 in the South Sea Company.\n These shares were supposed to be very valuable, and it was\n thought that the South Sea Company was really prosperous, and\n that those who had shares in it would have most enormous profit\n in the end. Thousands of people came to buy shares, and some of\n them were so anxious to get them that they spent enormous sums\n of money on these worthless pieces of paper. All was well for\n a time, but at last the people began to wish for their money\n instead of the shares, and claimed it loudly from the Company.\n It was then that the bubble burst. It was discovered then that\n the Company was quite unable to pay what was due, and that all\n this time they had been deluding the nation by promises and\n giving them shares, and that they had never been the rich and\n prosperous Company they made themselves out to be. Naturally,\n the most dreadful distress prevailed everywhere, and many were\n absolutely ruined, so that the Government had to help those who\n were most distressed. At this point Sir Robert Walpole came to\n the rescue. He made the Bank of England pay some of the debts,\n and behaved with such cleverness that he saved the country\n almost from ruin.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What do you know of the States General? (Book studied, Mrs\nCreighton\u2019s _First History of France_.)\n\nC. (aged 12):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe States General met in May, 1789. The people had long\n wanted reforms, and been talking about them, and now on the\n 5th of May, 1789, the States General met again for the first\n time since 1614. If the nobles sat in one house, and the people\n in another, as was the custom, they could never get the changes\n made. So the people with their leader, the Marquis of Mirabeau,\n declared that they would not leave the tennis court on which\n they were standing till it was agreed that they could sit\n together with the nobles. When Louis XVI. came down in State,\n and told them they were to sit apart, they said they would not\n leave their place except at the bayonets (_sic_) point. When he\n heard this he said, \u2018Very well, leave them alone.\u2019 So they sat\n together.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Show fully how Aristides acquired the title of \u2018The Just.\u2019 Why was\nit a strange title for a man in those days? (Book studied, Plutarch\u2019s\n_Lives: Aristides_.)\n\nD. (aged 13\u00bc):\u2014\n\n \u201cAristides acquired the title of \u2018The Just\u2019 by his justice, and\n because he never did anything unjust in order to become rich\n or powerful. While many of the judges and chief men in Athens\n took bribes, he alone always refused to do so, and he also\n never spent the public money on himself. When, after having\n defeated the Persians, at Platae, the Greek States decided to\n have a standing army, it was Aristides who was sent round to\n settle how much each town should contribute. And he did this so\n fairly and well, that all the Greek States blessed and praised\n his arrangement. It is said that Aristides could not only\n resiste (_sic_) the unjust claims of those whom he loved, but\n also those of his enemies. Once when he was judging a quarrel\n between two men, one of them remarked that the other had\n often injured Aristides. \u2018Tell me not that,\u2019 was the reply of\n Aristides, \u2018but what he has done to thee, for it is thy cause I\n am judging, not my own.\u2019 Another time when he had gone to law\n himself, and when, after having heard what he had to say, his\n judges were going to pass sentence on his adversary without\n having heard him, Aristides rose and entreated his judges to\n hear what his enemy could say in his own defence. In all that\n he did Aristides was inflexibly just, and many stories were\n told of his justice. Though he loved his country well, he would\n never do anything wrong to gain for Athens some advantage, and\n in all he did his one aim was justice, and his only ambition\n to be called \u2018The Just.\u2019 He was so just and good, that he was\n called the \u2018most just man in Greece.\u2019 In the times in which\n Aristides lived, men used to care more to be called great,\n rich, or powerful than just. Themistocles, the great rival of\n Aristides, used to do all he could to become the first man in\n Athens, and rich as well as powerful. He did not hesitate to\n take bribes, and all he did for the Athenians was done with a\n view to making himself the head of the people, and the first\n man in the State. He used often to do unjust as well as cruel\n things in order to get his own ends. It was the same with most\n other men who lived at this time, they prefered (_sic_) being\n rich, powerful, or great, to being distinguished by the title\n of \u2018The Just.\u2019\u201d\n\n_Q._ Describe a journey in Northern Italy. (Book studied, _Geographical\nReader_, Book IV.).\n\nE. (aged 12):\u2014\n\n \u201cI am about to go for a tour round the northern part of Italy,\n and after I have taken a train to Savoy, which is about the\n south-east of France, I enter into Italy by the Cenis pass,\n which is very lofty, about 7,000 feet above sea level.\n\n \u201cOn arriving in Italy, I come into the province of Piedmont,\n which has three mountain torrents or streams running through\n it. These streams join at Turin, the capital of Piedmont, and\n form the Po river, which flows out on the east coast of France\n into the Gulf of Venice. On the banks of the three mountain\n streams are some Protestants by the name of Waldenses, who\n say they are followers of the disciples, but if you ask any\n outsider, they will say, \u2018Oh! the Waldenses are followers of a\n good man, by the name of Waldo, who fled out of France in the\n 12th century.\u2019\n\n \u201cWe will now go and see Turin, and the first thing we say is,\n \u2018What a clean town,\u2019 and so it certainly is, for it is quite\n the cleanest town in Italy, as the people have only to turn on\n the fountain taps to clean their paved streets. And after we\n have looked at Alessandria, where Napoleon gained his great\n victory, we leave Piedmont and follow up the river Po, until\n we come to its next tributary, the river Ticino, which runs\n up north into the Lake Maggiore, which is five to six miles\n wide and about sixty miles in length. This lake has four\n islands, which are named after Count Borromeo and so called\n the Borromean Islands, which are cultivated like gardens with\n terrases (_sic_) for resting places.\n\n \u201cNow let us go to Milan, which is so well known by its\n beautiful cathedral of white and black marble which have\n (_sic_) no less than 4000 sculptures of white marble, with\n pillars of Egyptian granite. Milan is famous for silks and lace\n to provide for the numerous palaces.\n\n \u201cWe will now go back to the next lake, Lake Como, which is\n surrounded by mountains, and supposed to be the most beautiful\n of all lakes. At the south it goes out in a fork, and between\n the fork is a beautiful piece of land called Bellagia (_sic_).\n\n \u201cThe next lake we come to is the Garda, the largest of all the\n lakes, and then we go on to the smallest of lakes called Lugano.\n\n \u201cWe now having visited all the lakes, take a look at Lodi, the\n famous cheese market in Italy; after which we visit Verona,\n where Pliny the naturalist was born, also Paul Veronese.\n Shakespeare lays the scene of his play \u2018Romeo and Juliet\u2019 in\n Verona. The short time we have we spend at Venice, the queen\n of the Italian citys (_sic_) with its wonderful canals and the\n marvellous cathedral of St Mark\u2019s, also the dark, gloomy palace\n of the Doge.\u201d\n\n_Q._ How are the following seeds dispersed:\u2014Birch, Pine, Dandelion,\nBalsam, Broom? Give diagrams and observations. (Book studied, Mrs\nBrightwen\u2019s _Glimpses into Plant Life_.)\n\nF. (aged 13):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe seeds of the Birch are very small, with two wings, one on\n each side, so that in a high wind numbers of them are blown on\n to high places, such as crevises (_sic_) on the face of a rock,\n or crevises (_sic_) on a church tower, or the tower of an old\n ruin. They are so light that they are carried a long way.\n\n \u201cThe seeds of the Pine are very small, and the veins in the\n seed are wriggly, so that the seed is curly, which makes it\n whirl rapidly in the air, and the whirling motion carries it\n along a little way before it rests on the ground. It has two\n small wings.\n\n \u201cThe seeds of the Dandilion (_sic_) are large, with a kind\n of silky parashute (_sic_) attached, so that when they fall\n off they do not fall to the ground, but are carried a little\n way because the wind catches the under part of the parashute\n (_sic_). The seed has a little hook at the top of it which\n prevents it from being pulled out of the ground by the\n parashute (_sic_) after it is once in.\n\n \u201cThe Balsam seed case splits when the seeds are ripe and\n sends them flying in all directions, so they are far enough\n dispersed, and need no wings or parashutes (_sic_) to help them.\n\n \u201cThe Broom seed case is a carpel, more like that of the sweet\n pea. When the seeds are ripe the two sides of the carpel split\n open and curl up like springs and send the seeds flying out, so\n they are dispersed without needing wings or parachutes.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Describe the tissue of a potato and of a piece of rhubarb. (Book\nstudied, Oliver\u2019s _Elementary Botany_.)\n\nG. (aged 13):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe tissue of _Rhubarb_ is _very_ fibrous indeed. In fact, it\n is almost entirely made up of vessels. These are cells which\n have become tubes by the dividing cell-wall being absorbed.\n These vessels are very beautiful when seen under a microscope,\n for their walls are all thickened in some way, in order to make\n them strong enough to bear the weight of the leaf. Some are\n thickened by a spiral cord, which goes round and round the wall\n of the vessel. In some vessels this is quite tightly twisted\n round the wall, that is to say, the rings do not come far\n apart; in others it is quite loose and far apart. Another kind\n of thickening is by rings, which just go round the tube and are\n not joined to each other. Other vessels, again, have little\n knots in them like what there are in birch bark.\n\n \u201cThe _Potato_ tissue is mainly made up of starch, as it is one\n of the plant\u2019s storehouses, and starch is one of the plant\u2019s\n principal foods.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Give a diagram of the eye, and explain how we see everything. (Book\nstudied, Dr Schofield\u2019s _Physiology for Schools_.)\n\nH. (aged 13):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe eye can be likened to a camera, and the brain to the man\n behind the camera. The image enters at the hole, passes through\n the lens, is reflected on the plate, but the camera does not\n see, it is the man behind the camera who sees. In the same way,\n the image passes in at the pupil and through the lens, both\n sides of which are curved, and can be tightened or slackened\n according to the distance of the image. Then the image passes\n along the nerve of sight to the two bulbs in the brain which\n see. If you hold a rounded glass between a sheet of paper and\n the image at the right distance (for the glass cannot tighten\n or slacken like our lens), you will see the image reflected\n upside-down on the paper. This is the way the lens acts. There\n is a small yellow spot a little below the middle of the back of\n the eye; here the sight is more acute, and so, though we can\n see lots of things at one time, we can only look at one thing\n at a time. There is a blind spot where the nerve enters the eye\n (which shows that the nerve of sight itself is blind) so that\n some part of every image is lost, like a black dot punched in\n it. But we are so used to it that we cannot see it.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Describe your favourite scene in _Waverley_.\n\nI. (aged 12\u00bd):\u2014\n\n \u201c_A Highland Stag Hunt._\u2014The Highland Cheifs (_sic_) were\n in various postures: some reclining lazily on their plaids,\n others stalking up and down conversing with one another, and\n a few were already seated in position for the sport. MacIvor\n was talking with another Cheif (_sic_) as to what the sport\n would be; but as they talked in Gaelic, Edward had no part in\n the conversation, but sat looking at the scene before him.\n They were seated on a low hill at the head of a broad valley\n which narrowed into a small opening or cleft in the hills at\n the extreme end. It was hemmed in on all sides by hills of\n various heights. It was through this opening that the beaters\n were to drive the deer. Already Waverly (_sic_) could hear\n the distant shouts of the men calling to each other coming\n nearer and nearer. Soon he could distinguish the antlers of the\n deer moving towards the opening like a forest of trees stiped\n (_sic_) of their leaves. The sportsmen prepared themselves to\n give them a warm reception, and all were ready as the deer\n entered the valley.\n\n \u201cThey looked very ferocious, as they advanced towards where\n Edward and the cheifs (_sic_) were standing and seemed as if\n they were determined to fight; the roes and weaker ones in the\n centre, and the bulls standing as if on defence. As soon as\n they came within range, some of the cheifs (_sic_) fired, and\n two or three deer came down. Waverly (_sic_) also had the good\n fortune (and also the skill) to bring down a couple and gain\n the aplause (_sic_) of the other sportsmen. But the herd was\n now charging furiously up the valley towards them. The order\n was given to lie down, as it was impossible to stem the coming\n wave of deer; but as it was given in Gaelic it conveyed no\n meaning to Edward\u2019s mind, and he remained standing.\n\n \u201cThe heard (_sic_) was now not fifty yards from him; and in\n another minute he would have been trampled to death; but\n MacIvor at his own risk, jumped up and literaly (_sic_) dragged\n him to the ground just as the deer reached them. Edward had a\n sensation as if he was out in a severe hail storm, but this did\n not last long.\n\n \u201cWhen they had passed, and Edward attempted to rise, he found\n that besides a number of bruises he had also severely sprained\n his ancle (_sic_), and was unable to walk, or even stand. A\n shelter was soon made for him out of a plaid in which he was\n laid; and then MacIvor called the Highland doctor or herbalist,\n to attend him. The doctor approached Edward with every sign\n of humiliation, but before attending to his ancle (_sic_), he\n insisted upon walking slowly round him several times, in the\n direction in which the sun goes, muttering at the same time a\n spell over him as he went, and though Waverly (_sic_) was in\n great pain he had to submit to his foolery. Waverly (_sic_)\n saw to his great astonishment that MacIvor believed or seemed\n to believe in the old man\u2019s cantations (_sic_). At last, when\n he had finished his spells, which he seemed to think more\n necessary than the dressing, he drew from his pocket a little\n packet of herbs, some of which he applied to the sprained\n ancle (_sic_) and after it had been bound up, Edward felt much\n relieved. He rewarded the doctor with some money, the value\n of which seemed to exceed his wildest imaginations, for he\n heaped so many blessings upon the head of Waverly (_sic_) that\n MacIvor said, \u2018A hundred thousand curses on you,\u2019 whereupon he\n stopped.\u201d\n\n=Class IV.=\u2014Girls are usually in Class IV. for two or three years,\nfrom fourteen or fifteen to seventeen, after which they are ready to\nspecialise and usually do well. The programme for Class IV. is especially\ninteresting; it adds Geology and Astronomy to the sciences studied, more\nadvanced Algebra to the Mathematics, and sets the history of Modern\nEurope instead of French history. The literature, to illustrate the\nhistory, includes the reading of a good many books, and the German and\nFrench books when possible illustrate the history studied. All the books\n(about forty) are of a different calibre from those used in the lower\nclasses; they are books for intelligent students.\n\nI think the reader will observe that due growth has taken place in the\nminds of the girls, both as regards judgment and power of appreciation.\nNot, I think, in intelligence,\u2014\n\n \u201cLove has no nonage, nor the mind.\u201d\n\nBut as our concern is with boys and girls under twelve, it will be enough\nto show by two or three papers that this sort of education by books\nresults in intelligence.\n\n_Q._ For what purpose were priests instituted? (Book studied, Dr Abbot\u2019s\n_Bible Lessons_.)\n\nA. (aged 15\u00bd):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe system of the Jewish priesthood was almost entirely\n symbolical. God ordained it, we believe, to lead the primitive\n mind of his chosen people onwards and upwards, to the true\n belief and earthly comprehension of that great sacrifice, by\n the grace of which we are all now honoured to become \u2018kings and\n priests unto God.\u2019 In the earliest times of the patriarchs,\n there was in every holy and honourable Jewish family some\n voluntary priest to offer up the burnt offerings and yearly\n sacrifices. We have an example of this in Job the patriarch,\n who, we read, ministered to his family in the capacity of\n priest of their offerings. In the wilderness, however, God\n commanded through Moses the foundation of a separate and\n holy priesthood to minister in His Tabernacle and offer His\n appointed sacrifices. The tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron\n were set apart for this purpose, and in the building of the\n tabernacle, and the annointing (_sic_) of Aaron and his four\n sons, the cornerstone was laid to that great building which\n became a fit dwelling for the presence of God and the heart of\n Israel, until Christ came to change and lighten the world; and\n the symbol and the shadow became the truth.\u201d\n\n_Q._ \u201cHis power was to assert itself in deeds, not words.\u201d Write a short\nsketch of the character of Cromwell, discussing the above statement.\n(Book studied, Green\u2019s _Shorter History of the English People_.)\n\nB. (aged 15):\u2014\n\n \u201cCromwell was no orator. It has been said that if all his\n speeches were taken and made into a book, it would seem simply\n a pack of nonsense. In Parliament though, the earnestness with\n which he spoke attracted attention. His deeds proved his innate\n power, which could not express itself in words. He may be\n called the inarticulate man. In his mind, everything was clear,\n and his various actions proved his purposes and determinations,\n but in speaking, he simply brought out a hurried volume of\n words, in the mazes of which one entirely lost the point meant\n to be implied. Cromwell also was more of an administrator than\n a statesman, unspeculative and conservative. He was subject to\n fits of hypocondria (_sic_), which naturally had some effect\n on his character. He considered himself a servant of God, and\n acted accordingly. Undoubtedly he was under the conviction that\n he was carrying out the Lord\u2019s will in all he did. He was not\n in calm moods a bloody man, but when his anger was kindled he\n would spare no one. At times he would be filled with remorse\n for the part he had taken in the martyrdom of the king; then,\n again he would say it was the just punishment of heaven on\n Charles. In giving orders his words were curt and to the\n point, but in making speeches he adopted the phraseology of\n the Bible, which added to their ambiguity. One would think he\n was ambitious, for at one time he asked Whitelock: \u2018What if a\n man should take upon himself to be king?\u2019 evidently having in\n view the regal power, and yet according to his own assertion he\n would rather have returned to his occupation as a farmer, than\n have undertaken the government of Britain. But in this, as in\n other acts, he recognised the call of God, (as he thought) and\n obeyed it.\u201d\n\n_Q._ What do you know of the Girondins? (Book studied, Lord\u2019s _Modern\nEurope_.)\n\nC. (aged 17):\u2014\n\n \u201cThe Girondins were the perhaps most tolerant and reasonable of\n the revolutionary parties. They were a body of men who found\n the government of France under the king more than they could\n stand, and who were the first to welcome any changes, but were\n shocked and horrified at the dreadful riots and massacres which\n followed the fall of the throne. Such a party, representing\n justice and reform, could not be popular with the more violent\n Jacobins and like clubs. The day came when these latter were in\n power, and all the Girondins were thrown into prison.\n\n \u201cThey were all taken from prison before the Court of Justice\n for trial, and placed before the judge, where they sat quite\n silently; they were one by one condemned to execution,\n receiving the sentence of death with perfect calmness. Only\n their leader was seen to fall down; one of his companions leant\n over him and said: \u2018What, are _you_ afraid?\u2019 \u2018Non,\u2019 was the\n answer, \u2018Je mours,\u2019 he had stabbed himself with his dagger.\n\n \u201cAs the Girondins marched back to their cells, condemned to die\n the next morning, they all sang the \u2018Marseillaise,\u2019 as they had\n arranged, to tell their fellow-prisoners what the sentence had\n been. When they reached the prison a splendid supper was placed\n for them, and they all sat down with great cheerfulness to eat\n it, none of them showing the least signs of breaking down.\n Towards morning priests were sent to them, and very early in\n the day they all marched to the foot of the guillotine, singing\n as they went. They kept on singing a solemn chant when the\n executions commenced, which became fainter and fainter as one\n by one they were beheaded, until all were gone.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Distinguish between _arrogant_ and _presumptuous_, _interference_\nand _interposition_, _genuine_ and _authentic_, _hate_ and _detest_,\n_loathe_ and _abhor_, _education_ and _instruction_, _apprehend_ and\n_comprehend_, using each word in a sentence. (Book studied, Trench\u2019s\n_Study of Words_.)\n\nE. (aged 15):\u2014\n\n \u201cA man who is \u2018arrogant\u2019 is a man who has right to what\n he wants, but who is harsh and exacting in taking it. A\n \u2018presumptuous\u2019 man is a man who expects more than is due and\n takes it. \u2018Judge Jeffries was an _arrogant_ old man.\u2019 \u2018Charles\n II. was a _presumptuous_ king, he thought he could have\n absolute power.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Interference,\u2019 is not minding your own business, and meddling\n with other people\u2019s when we are not wanted. \u2018Interposition\u2019 is\n more the \u2018doing good by interfering\u2019 as protecting a little boy\n from a bully. \u2018But for the _interference_ of James all would\n have gone well.\u2019 \u2018Thanks to the _interposition_ of Mary a\n quarrel was averted.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Genuine\u2019 means real, true, what it seems to be as\u2014\u2018a real\n _genuine_ ruby.\u2019 \u2018Authentic,\u2019 in speaking of a book, means\n really written by the author to which it is ascribed. \u2018Dickens\u2019\n _Oliver Twist_ is certainly _authentic_.\u2019\n\n \u201cYou would \u2018hate\u2019 a man who killed your father. \u2018Charles II.\n hated Cromwell.\u2019 You would \u2018detest\u2019 a man who had not done you\n any personal injury, but who (_sic_) you knew to be a murderer.\n \u2018Yeo _detested_ the Spaniards.\u2019\n\n \u201cYou would \u2018loathe\u2019 a poisonous snake or a hypocrite. \u2018David\n Copperfield _loathed_ Uriah Heep.\u2019 You would abhor a man\n inferior to you in intellect or principles, as a great king\n would \u2018abhor\u2019 a cringing coward, leave him behind, go on\n without him, refuse to listen to him. \u2018Napoleon _abhorred_ the\n traitor.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Education\u2019 is the lessons you receive as a matter of course,\n as French, writing, grammar. \u2018Instruction\u2019 is this, but more\n also, it includes moral teaching, the teaching of honesty, and\n the teaching of gentleness. \u2018Henry had a good _education_.\u2019 \u2018No\n well-_instructed_ Britain (_sic_) is a coward.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Apprehend\u2019 is to see, or hear, and notice. \u2018Comprehend\u2019 is\n to understand, without seeing or hearing perhaps. \u2018Phillip\n _apprehended_ that danger was near, but he did not _comprehend_\n it.\u2019\u201d\n\n_Q._ Give shortly Carlyle\u2019s estimate of Burns, showing what he did for\nScotland, and what was the cause of his personal failure in life. (Book\nstudied, Carlyle\u2019s _Essay on Burns_.)\n\nF. (aged 17):\u2014\n\n \u201cCarlyle looked upon Burns as one of the nicest of men and\n greatest of poets; rather a weak man, perhaps, but covering\n all his faults with his genius and kindness of heart,\n clever and persevering, and basely neglected and shunned by\n his contemporaries. It is quite extraordinary to read the\n world-famous poems of this poet, and to remember that he\n was a ploughman, and surrounded only by the most uneducated\n peasants and fellow-labourers, though, of course, the life of\n a ploughman in the hills of Scotland is far more likely to\n encourage poetry and reflection than the life of many a London\n dentist or hair-dresser far higher in rank; but it is easy to\n believe in fact, that Burns would have found inspirations for\n his genius in a flat sandy waste or a grocer\u2019s shop, and, as\n Carlyle says, a man or woman is not a genius unless they are\n extraordinary, not really inspired if such a person could have\n been imagined before. Robert Burns has provided Scotland for\n centuries at least, with plenty of national poetry, his poems\n are such as can be enjoyed, like flowers and trees and all\n things really beautiful, by old and young, stupid and clever,\n fishermen and prime ministers\u2014surely that is a work of which\n any man would be proud!\n\n \u201cBurns (_sic_) chief fault, if fault it can be called, and the\n cause of his failure in life, seems to have been a sort of\n bitterness against people more fortunate than himself without\n the art of hiding it. This, real or affected, seems very common\n in poets, and such an inspired man, a man with a mind greater\n than kings, must have felt very deeply, almost without knowing\n it, the \u2018unrefinedness\u2019 of the people he loved best, and his\n own distance from the admirers who clustered round him later in\n life.\n\n \u201cAll his life, it seems, he was in a place by himself, now\n spending his time with his own family, acting a part all day,\n trying to make his relations feel him an equal, pretending to\n take a great interest in what he did not care for\u2014the pigs, and\n cows, and porridge, seeing his own dearest friends looking at\n him with awe, and feeling him something above them, thinking of\n his \u2018great\u2019 friends, and feeling embarrassed when he came, and\n more at ease without his presence.\n\n \u201cNow, on the other hand, associating with people, high in\n rank and education, enjoying their friendship and praise, but\n feeling, be they ever so kind and familiar, that he was not\n their equal by birth, and that they could not treat him quite\n as such, however hard they might try, turning familiarity in\n his mind into slights, and kindness into condescension. This\n to a proud man must have been misery, and Burns must have been\n very lonely in a crowd of companions, thronged with admirers,\n but without a friend.\n\n \u201cNobody understood Burns; he shared his opinions with no one\n he knew. When, at the beginning of the French Revolution he\n expressed his delight and approval, the people who admired him\n were shocked, refused to speak to him, and regarded him either\n as mad or terribly wicked. His poems were not admired as much\n as they deserved to be, he had hardly any money, was never\n likely to get on in the world, was shunned and disgraced, and\n began, as a last resource,[28] to drink too much. Ill-health\n was one of his misfortunes, and this intemperance killed him.\n\n \u201cThus died at the age of thirty-seven, poor, friendless,\n despised, the man who has given pleasure to thousands, and an\n undying collection of poems and songs to his country.\u201d\n\n_Q._ Give some account, as far as you can in the _style_ of Carlyle, of\nthe Procession of May 4th. (Book studied, Carlyle\u2019s _French Revolution_.)\n\nG. (aged 14\u00bd):\u2014\n\n \u201cSee the doors of Notre Dame open wide, the Procession\n issuing[29] forth, a sea of human faces that are to reform\n France. First come the nobles in their gayly (_sic_) tinted\n robes, next the clergy, and then the commons, the Tiers Etats\n in their slouched hats firm and resolute, and lastly the king,\n and the \u0152uil-de-b\u0153uf, these are greeted by a tremendous storm\n of vivats. Vive le roi! Vive la nation! Let us suppose we can\n take up some coigne (_sic_) of vantage from which we can watch\n the procession, but with eyes different from other eyes, namely\n with prophetic eyes. See a man coming, striding at the head of\n the Tiers Etats, tall and with thick lips and black hair, whose\n father and brother walk among the nobles. Close beside walks\n Doctor Guillotin,[29] learned Doctor Guillotin,[29] who said,\n \u2018My friends (_mes amis_), I have a machine that will whisk off\n your heads in a second, and cause you no pain,\u2019 now doomed\n for two years to see and hear nothing but guillotin, and for\n more than two centuries after yonder a desolate ghost on this\n (_sic_) of the Styx. Mark, too, a small mean man, a sea-green\n man with sea-green eyes, Robespierre by name, a small underhand\n secretary walking beside one Dantun (_sic_) tall and massive,\n cruelty and vengeance on their faces. We may not linger longer,\n but one other we must note, one tall and active with a cunning\n air, namely, Camille Desmouellins (_sic_), one day to rise to\n fame and the next to be forgotten.\n\n \u201cMany more walk in that procession one day to become famous,\n Bailli, future president of a New Republick (_sic_), and Marat,\n with Broglie the War-God and others.\n\n \u201cThe Tiers Etats with Mayor Bailli march to the rooms where\n they are to sit, but the doors are shut: there is sound of\n hammering within.\n\n \u201cMayor Bailli knocks, and wants to know why they are shut out?\n It is the king\u2019s orders. He wants his papers. He may come in\n and get them, and with this they must be content.\n\n \u201cThey swarm to Versailles, the king steps out on the balconny\n (_sic_) and speaks. He says the room is being prepared for his\n own august presence; a platform is being erected, he says he\n is sorry to inconvience (_sic_) them; but he is afraid they\n must wait, and with that he retires. Meanwhile patriotism\n consults as to what had best be done. Shall they meet on the\n palace steps? or even in the streets? At length they adjourn\n to the tennis court, and there patriotism swears one by one\n to be faithful to the New National Assembly, as they now name\n themselves This is known as the Oath of the Tennis Court.\u201d\n\nI have placed before the reader examples of a portion of some thirty\npupils\u2019 work to illustrate their education by books. It is not necessary\nto speak of their education by Things: that is thorough and systematic;\nbut may I point out that what has been cited is average work. I do not\nknow if the reader considers that I have proved my point, that is, that\n\u2018studies\u2019\u2014schoolroom studies\u2014\u2018are for delight, for ornament, and for\nability.\u2019\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX III\n\nWHAT A CHILD SHOULD KNOW AT TWELVE\n\n\nIn order to induce the heads of schools (private schools, preparatory\nschools, girls\u2019 schools, and \u2018Lower\u2019 schools) to consider seriously\nwhether it is not possible to introduce some such method of _Education by\nBooks_, let me put forward a few considerations:\u2014\n\n 1. The cost of the books per pupil for the six years\u2014from six\n to twelve\u2014does not average more than \u00a31 a year. A scheme of\n work for elementary schools might be arranged at a much less\n annual cost for books.\n\n 2. Two and a half, for Class I., to three and a half hours a\n day, for Class III., is ample time for this book education.\n\n 3. Much writing is unnecessary, because the pupils have the\n matter in their books and know where to find it.\n\n 4. Classes II. and III. are able to occupy themselves in study\n with pleasure and profit.\n\n 5. Teachers are relieved of the exhausting drudgery of many\n corrections.\n\n 6. The pupils have the afternoons for handicrafts, nature-work,\n walks, games, etc.\n\n 7. The evenings are free, whether at school or at home, for\n reading aloud, choral singing, hobbies, etc.\n\n 8. The pupils get many intelligent interests, beget hobbies,\n and have leisure for them.\n\n 9. There is no distressing cramming for the term\u2019s examination.\n The pupils know their work, and find it easy to answer\n questions set to find out what they know, rather than what they\n do not know.\n\n 10. Children of any age, however taught hitherto, take up this\n sort of work with avidity.\n\n 11. Boys and girls taught in this way take up ordinary school\n work, preparation for examinations, etc., with intelligence,\n zeal, and success.\n\nThe six years\u2019 work\u2014from six to twelve\u2014which I suggest, should and does\nresult in the power of the pupils\u2014\n\n (_a_) To grasp the sense of a passage of some length at a\n single reading: and to narrate the substance of what they have\n read or heard.\n\n (_b_) To spell, and express themselves in writing with ease and\n fair correctness.\n\n (_c_) To give an orderly and detailed account of any subject\n they have studied.\n\n (_d_) To describe in writing what they have seen, or heard from\n the newspapers.\n\n (_e_) They should have a familiar acquaintance with the common\n objects of the country, with power to reproduce some of these\n in brushwork.\n\n (_f_) Should have skill in various handicrafts, as cardboard\n Sloyd, basket-making, clay-modelling, etc.\n\n (_g_) In Arithmetic, they should have some knowledge of vulgar\n and decimal fractions, percentage, household accounts, etc.\n\n (_h_) Should have a knowledge of Elementary Algebra, and should\n have done practical exercises in Geometry.\n\n (_i_) Of Elementary Latin Grammar; should read fables and easy\n tales, and, say, one or two books of \u2018C\u00e6sar.\u2019\n\n (_j_) They should have some power of understanding spoken\n French, and be able to speak a little; and to read an easy\n French book without a dictionary.\n\n (_k_) In German, much the same as in French, but less progress.\n\n (_l_) In History, they will have gone through a rather detailed\n study of English, French, and Classical (Plutarch) History.\n\n (_m_) In Geography they will have studied in detail the map\n of the world, and have been at one time able to fill in the\n landscape, industries, etc., from their studies, of each\n division of the map.\n\n (_n_) They will have learned the elements of Physical\n Geography, Botany, Human Physiology, and Natural History, and\n will have read interesting books on some of these subjects.\n\n (_o_) They should have some knowledge of English Grammar.\n\n (_p_) They should have a considerable knowledge of Scripture\n History and the Bible text.\n\n (_q_) They should have learned a good deal of Scripture and of\n Poetry, and should have read some Literature.\n\n (_r_) They should have learned to sing on the Tonic Sol-fa\n method, and should know a number of English, French, and German\n Songs.\n\n (_s_) They should have learned Swedish Drill and various drills\n and calisthenic exercises.\n\n (_t_) In Drawing they should be able to represent common\n objects of the house and field with brush or charcoal; should\n be able to give rudimentary expression to ideas; and should be\n acquainted with the works of some artists through reproductions.\n\n (_u_) In Music their knowledge of theory and their ear-training\n should keep pace with their powers of execution.\n\nThis is the degree of progress an average pupil of twelve should\nhave made under a teacher of knowledge and ability. Progress in the\n_disciplinary_ subjects, languages and mathematics, for example, must\ndepend entirely on the knowledge and ability of the teacher.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX IV\n\nEXAMINATION OF A CHILD OF TWELVE, IN THE \u2018PARENTS\u2019 REVIEW\u2019 SCHOOL, ON THE\nWORK OF A TERM\n\n\nPossibly a complete set of answers to an examination paper may be of use\nas showing the all-round standing of a scholar educated on the principles\nI have advanced. This paper is not exceptional,[30] and some weakness\nwill be noticed in what I have called the disciplinary subjects.\n\n\n_Programme of the Term\u2019s Work on which the Examination Questions are set._\n\n\n_Bible Lessons._\n\n_The Bible for the Young_, by the Rev. J. Paterson Smyth (Sampson, Low,\n2s.), _Genesis_, Lessons xvii.-xxiv., _S. Matthew_, Lessons xvi.-xxiv.,\nand the Lesson on Christmas. Teacher to prepare lesson beforehand,\nand to use the Bible passages in teaching. Answers to Catechism with\nexplanations from the beginning to the _Lord\u2019s Prayer_ (optional).\n\n\n_Recitations._\n\nLearn two passages of 20 verses each from chapters in Bible Lessons.\nLearn _The Death of the Duke of Wellington_; _The Charge of the Light\nBrigade_; _You ask me Why_.\n\n\n_French._[31]\n\nThe Gouin _Series_; _A Study of French_, by Eug\u00e8ne & Duriaux (Edition\n1898, Macmillan & Co., 3s. 6d.), pages 184, 194, 196, 198; teacher study\npreface. _Premi\u00e8re Ann\u00e9e Grammaire_, par P. Larousse, Rules 61, 63, 64,\n66, 70, 74, Exercises 55, 58, 61, 63. Read the first half of _Le G\u00e9n\u00e9ral\nDourakine_, par Mdme. de S\u00e9gur (Hachette, 1s.), parse two pages. Learn a\npoem from _Recueil de Po\u00e9sies_, par Mdme. de Witt (Hachette, 2s.).\n\n\n_German._[31]\n\nEight sections of the Gouin _Series_; (or, translate into English and\nretranslate into German pages 1-8 from Niebuhr\u2019s _Heroengeschichten_\n(Clarendon Press, 1s. 6d.). _Book of Ballads on German History_\n(University Press, 2s.); two ballads to be learnt by heart. _First German\nBook_, by A. L. Becker (Hachette, 1s.), Lessons xxvii-xxxv. Use the\nwords, from the lists of useful words, in sentences. Beginners read from\nPart II., reading lessons, \u00a7\u00a7 16-23. Practise letters on pages xiii.-xvi.\n\n\n_Italian._\n\nEx-Students of House of Education, six of the Gouin _Series_. Twelve\ngrammar rules exemplified in _Series_. Teachers use Perini\u2019s _Italian\nConversation Grammar_ (Hachette, 4s.).\n\n\n_Latin._\n\n_Young Beginners\u2019 Third Latin Book_ (Murray, 2s.), pages 9-15. Revise\nback work by means of exercises. _Young Beginners\u2019 Second Latin Book_\n(Murray, 2s.), pages 60-71.\n\nBEGINNERS.\u2014Hall\u2019s _Child\u2019s First Latin Book_ (Murray, 2s.), 15-32; or,\nbetter, _A First Latin Book_, by E. H. Scott and F. Jones (Blackie, 1s.\n6d.), pages 1-32.\n\n\n_English History._\n\n_A History of England_, by H. O. Arnold-Forster (Cassell, 5s.), pages\n719-758 (1820-1897). Read Scott\u2019s _Lady of the Lake_, and, if possible,\nHenry Kingsley\u2019s _Valentin_ (Ward, Lock & Co.).\n\n\n_French History._\n\nCreighton\u2019s _First History of France_ (Longmans, 3s. 6d.), pages 279-293,\nto be contemporary with English history.\n\n\n_Roman History._\n\nPlutarch\u2019s _Romulus_, teacher omitting unsuitable parts (Cassell\u2019s\nNational Library, 3d.).\n\n\n_Geography._\n\nGeikie\u2019s _Physical Geography_ (Macmillan, 1s.), pages 108-131, \u00a7\u00a7\n224-270. _London Geographical Readers_ (Stanford), Book V. (2s. 6d.),\npages 238-267, with special reference to recent events; map questions to\nbe answered from map and then from memory, and then in filling up blank\nmap from memory before each lesson. Know something about foreign places\ncoming into notice in the current newspapers. Ten minutes\u2019 exercise on\nthe map of the world every week. _The School Atlas_, edited by H. O.\nArnold-Forster (37 Bedford Street, London, 1s. 6d. or 3s.). Read also\nArnold-Forster\u2019s _History of England_, chapters lxxv. and lxxvi.\n\n\n_English Grammar._\n\nMorris\u2019s _English Grammar_ (Macmillan, 1s.), pages 100-108, 98-99\n(inclusive). Parse and analyse, using pages 109-125. Work from Morris\u2019s\n_English Grammar Exercises_ (Macmillan, 1s.).\n\n\n_Singing._\n\nThree French songs, _La Lyre des \u00c9coles_ (Curwen & Son). Three German\nsongs, Erk\u2019s _Deutscher Liederschatz_ (Peters, Leipsic). Three English\nsongs, Novello\u2019s _School Songs_, Vol. XX. (8d.). Stainer\u2019s _Primer of\nTonic Sol-fa_ (Curwen & Son).\n\n\n_Writing._\n\nChoose and transcribe ten poems or passages from Wordsworth. German\nCopybook, No. I. (Nutt, 4d.). _A New Handwriting for Teachers_, by M.\nM. Bridges (Mrs Bridges, Yattenden, Newbury, 2s. 9d.); work to page 6,\nfollowing instructions.\n\n\n_Drill._\n\nGrecian Exercises and Marching Drills from _Musical Drills for the\nStandards_ (Philip & Son, 2s. 6d.). Ex-Students, House of Education\nDrills.\n\n\n_Dictation._\n\n_Growth and Greatness of our World-wide Empire_, pages 32-77 (four or\nfive pages a week) to be prepared, a passage dictated, or, occasionally,\nwritten from memory.\n\n\n_Drawing._\n\n_Pour Dessiner Simplement_, par V. Jacquot et P. Ravoux (3s. 6d.), cahier\nii., iii., for occasional use. Twelve wild fruits on their branches, with\nbackground, in brushwork; illustrations in brush-drawing from _The Lady\nof the Lake_. Study and be able to describe the pictures in _The Holy\nGospels_, Part II. (S.P.C.K., 1s. 8d.) (optional);\n\nor, Join the Portfolio of Paintings (see _The Children\u2019s Quarterly_);\n\nor, Follow the _F\u00e9sole Club Papers_.\n\n\n_Natural History._\n\nKeep a Nature Note-Book. Geikie\u2019s _Geology_ (Macmillan, 1s.), pages\n125-144 (mountains), with questions. Refer to in holidays, and study in\nterm, _Lowly Water Animals_, Lessons 1-21, inclusive.\n\n\n_Botany._\n\nOliver\u2019s _Elementary Botany_ (Macmillan, 4s. 6d.), chapter vii., pages\n63-87. _Glimpses into Plant Life_, Brightwen (Fisher Unwin, 2s.),\nchapters v. and ix. Record the finding of and describe twenty wild fruits\n(see Oliver). Specimens must be used in all botanical work. Observe all\nyou can about the structure of various fruits (not edible), and about the\ndispersion of seeds. _Plant Life in Field and Garden_, by A. Buckley,\npages 40-80.\n\n\n_Physiology._\n\nSchofield\u2019s _Physiology for Schools_ (Cassell, 1s. 9d.), pages 43-64.\n\n\n_Arithmetic._\n\nMair\u2019s _Mental Arithmetic_ (Sonnenschein, 9d.). Longman\u2019s _Junior School\nArithmetic_ (1s.), chapters xxi. and xxii., _Practice_ and _Bills_.\nMiscellaneous examples from pages 192 and 193.\n\nBEGINNERS, chapters xvii., xviii., and xix., \u00a7\u00a7 74-81.\n\n\n_Euclid._\n\n_A First Step in Euclid_, by J. G. Bradshaw (Macmillan, 1s. 6d.), pages\n63-81.\n\nBEGINNERS.\u2014_Inductive Geometry_, by H. A. Nesbitt, M.A. (Sonnenschein,\n1s. 6d.), chapters iv., v., vi.\n\nMembers who have Hamblin Smith\u2019s Euclid may continue to use it. The books\nnow set are more modern and lead to more intelligent work.\n\n\n_Reading._\n\nGeography, English history, French history, and tales should afford\nexercise in careful reading. Poetry should be read daily.\n\n\n_Composition._\n\nRead on Thursdays and write from memory on Tuesdays (_a_) a passage from\n_Ecce Homo, Ecce Rex_, Part II., chapters ii. and iii., by Mrs R. Charles\n(S.P.C.K., 3s. 6d.); (_b_) Arnold-Forster\u2019s _History of England_, chapter\nlxxvii.\n\n\n_Work._\n\nAttend to garden. _Bent Iron Work_, by F. J. Erskine (Upcott Gill, 1s.).\nMake six models. _Self-Teaching Needlework Manual_, edited by S. Loch\n(Longmans, 1s.), pages 25-54. Make a baby\u2019s crochet petticoat with body\npart. Make a linen book cover, with design drawn and worked by yourself.\n\n _N.B._\u2014For illustrations for History, Geography, etc., see the\n catalogue of the Perry Pictures (Art for Schools Association,\n 46 Great Ormond Street, London, 3d.).\n\n Children who are beginners or who have just been moved up from\n Class II., or who find the work difficult, may omit three\n subjects.\n\n\n_Questions on Preceding Programme._\n\n\n_Bible Lessons._\n\nI. 1. Show how God trained Joseph for his work. What lessons may we learn\nfrom Joseph (_a_) in prison, (_b_) in a palace?\n\n2. (_a_) \u201cI am Joseph,\u201d (_b_) \u201cBless the lads,\u201d (_c_) \u201cUntil Shiloh\ncome.\u201d Give the context in each case, and describe the occasions on which\nthese words were used.\n\nII. 1. Tell the parable (_a_) of the Fig-tree, (_b_) of the Two Sons.\nWhat lessons may we learn from each?\n\n2. (_a_) \u201cShall I crucify your King?\u201d (_b_) \u201cHe ... wept bitterly,\u201d (_c_)\n\u201cHe is risen.\u201d Give the context (in the Bible words if possible) of each\nof these quotations.\n\n\n_Recitations._\n\nFather to choose two passages, of ten verses each, from the Bible\nLessons, and a poem.\n\n\n_French._\n\n1. Write down in French the names of things that a huntsman uses for the\nchase.\n\n2. Recite the poem learned.\n\n3. Write in French a short _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_ of the chapters read in _Le G\u00e9n\u00e9ral\nDourakine_.\n\n4. Make sentences to show the use of _cette_, _ces_, _ce_, _cet_,\n_leurs_, _ses_, _tel_, _chaque_, _m\u00eame_, _nul_.\n\n\n_German._\n\n1. Say three sections of a Gouin _Series_, and translate into English and\nretranslate into German page 6, lines 14-24, from _Heroengeschichten_.\n\n2. Translate into German:\u2014(_a_) Which of these flowers is the finest?\n(_b_) I have been once in Berlin and three times in Paris.\n\n3. Make sentences with other adjectives, using the German for 6, 15, 17,\n9, 4, 18.\n\n\n_Italian._\n\nRecite two _Series_, and give two rules exemplified.\n\n\n_Latin._\n\n1. Translate into English and retranslate into Latin Fable V., page 61,\nand parse each word in the first sentence.\n\n2. Translate into Latin:\u2014(_a_) We dream whole nights; (_b_) I will teach\nyou music; (_c_) The Roman people elected Numa king; (_d_) The Gauls\ndwell on this side the Rhine; (_e_) The master sees that many boys play.\nWhat rule is illustrated in each sentence?\n\nBEGINNERS\u2014\n\n1. Translate into Latin:\u2014(_a_) Where is the shield? (_b_) A narrow shield\nis bad; (_c_) The hen is small.\n\n2. Make sentences using the words _hic_, _porta_, _augusta_, _duo_,\n_capita_, _dux_, _quattuor_, _qui_, _sumus_, _murum_, _vident_.\n\n\n_English History._\n\n1. What do you know of the Anti-Corn Law League, and what have you heard\nor read about a similar agitation in this country to-day?\n\n2. What reasons induced each of the five countries engaged to enter on\nthe Crimean War? Give some account of the war.\n\n3. \u201cIt was felt by all ... that the government of India ... could not be\nleft in the hands of the East India Company.\u201d Why? Give some account of\nthe events which led up to this.\n\n\n_French History._\n\n1. Write shortly the history of the war with Prussia.\n\n2. Describe the new constitution of 1875.\n\n\n_Roman History._\n\n1. \u201cSardians to be sold.\u201d Who said this? Tell the story.\n\n2. How did Romulus unite the Romans and the Sabines?\n\n\n_Geography._\n\n1. Describe, with a map, a visit to the West Indies. What recent event in\nthese islands do you know of?\n\n2. Write a short description of (_a_) Mexico, and (_b_) a Brazilian\nforest.\n\n3. What is meant by saying, \u201cThe gates of the pathways of the sea are in\nthe hands of the British race\u201d? Illustrate with a map.\n\n4. How are coral reefs formed? Give a diagram of one. Describe, with\ndiagrams, a volcano.\n\n\n_English Grammar._\n\n1. Analyse, parsing the words in italics:\u2014\n\n _One by_ one the flowers _close_,\n Lily and dewy rose\n _Shutting their_ tender petals _from_ the moon.\n The grasshoppers are _still_; but not _so soon_\n Are still the _noisy_ crows.\n\n2. Make sentences, showing the different ways in which the following may\nbe used:\u2014_dying_, _making_, _to tell_, _but_.\n\n3. Give some words with each of the following prefixes:\u2014_epi_, _hypo_,\n_cata_, _di_, _syn_.\n\n\n_Singing._[32]\n\nFather to choose an English, a French, and a German song, and three Tonic\nSol-fa exercises.\n\n\n_Writing._\n\nWrite ten lines of Tennyson\u2019s from memory.\n\n\n_Drill._[32]\n\nDrill, before parents.\n\n\n_Dictation._\n\n_Growth and Greatness of our World-Wide Empire_, page 43, \u201cNot ... home.\u201d\n\n\n_Reading._[32]\n\nFather to choose unseen poem.\n\n\n_Drawing._\n\n(_a_) Paint a carrot, an onion, and a potato grouped together, (_b_) an\nillustration in brush-drawing of a scene from _The Lady of the Lake_,\n(_c_) a glove, a trowel, and a rake in charcoal.\n\n\n_Natural History._\n\n1. Describe (_a_) six sea (or pond) creatures you found this last summer,\n(_b_) the _Foraminifer\u00e6_. How do sponges grow? Give a diagram.\n\n2. What do we know of the origin of mountains? Describe any formation you\nhave examined this term\u2014in cliff, river basin, or quarry.\n\n\n_Botany._\n\n1. Give rough diagrams showing the manner of growth, with leaf buds,\nof the twigs of the following trees:\u2014oak, ash, horse-chestnut, beech,\nsycamore.\n\n2. Compare the fruits of the raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry, with\ndiagrams.\n\n3. What are some of the ways in which plants store food? Give examples.\n\n\n_Physiology._\n\n1. What are the functions of the skin? Give a diagram of the skin cells.\n\n\n_Arithmetic._\n\n1. Find, by Practice, the cost of 1 ton 2 cwt. 2 qrs. and 20 lbs. at \u00a31,\n13s. 10d. per cwt.\n\n2. Find the cost of 4959 balls at 11\u00bed. each.\n\n3. How much property tax should I pay on \u00a35238, 10s. 0d. at 8\u00bdd. in the \u00a3?\n\n4. Make out an invoice for 5 pairs of stockings at 1s. 3\u00bdd. per pair; 40\nneedles at 13\u00bdd. per score; 96 buttons at 6\u00bdd. a dozen; 6\u00be yds. silk at\n5s. 1d. a yard.\n\nBEGINNERS\u2014\n\n1. Find the G.C.M. of 12321 and 54345, and the L.C.M. of 12, 18, 30, 48,\nand 60.\n\n2. Reduce: 11385/16335, 96679/119427.\n\n3. Find the sum of the quotient and remainder when 36789241 is divided by\n365.\n\n\n_Euclid._\n\n1. To bisect a given finite straight line.\n\n2. To draw a straight line perpendicular to a given straight line of\nunlimited length from a given point without it.\n\n3. Divide a given angle into four equal parts.\n\nor, 1. Prove that the two angles of a triangle are always less than two\nright angles.\n\n2. Draw a kite consisting of an equilateral triangle and an isosceles\ntriangle twice the height.\n\n3. The latitude of London is 51\u00bd\u00b0 N. How far is it from the South Pole?\n\n\n_Composition._\n\nWrite some account of\u2014\n\n(_a_) Recent events with regard to Korea and Macedonia; or, (_b_) (_a_)\nScott, or (_b_) Burns, and his work.\n\n(_c_) Write twenty lines on \u201cAn Autumn Evening\u201d in the metre of _The Lady\nof the Lake_.\n\n\n_Work._[32]\n\nOutside friend to examine.\n\n\nP. Q., aged 12. CLASS III.\n\n\n_List of Subjects taken._\n\n Bible Lessons.\n French.\n German.\n Latin.\n English History.\n French do.\n Roman do.\n Geography.\n English Grammar.\n Writing.\n Dictation.\n Natural History.\n Botany.\n Physiology.\n Arithmetic.\n Euclid.\n Composition.\n\nAll the answers, in the subjects taken, have been attempted; a few of\nthese are omitted here for reasons of space. The maps and diagrams are\nrather well done, but cannot be reproduced. The writer\u2019s spelling,\npointing, etc. have been carefully preserved.\n\n\n_Bible Lessons._\n\nI. 2. (_a_) \u201cI am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.\u201d\nThese words were spoken by Joseph when he was revealing himself to his\nbrethren. His brothers had come down into Egypt a second time to buy\nfood, and had persuaded their father Jacob to let them take Benjamin\ndown with them, because Joseph had told them that they must. So Jacob\nreluctantly let Benjamin go. And now they had bought their corn, and\nactually been asked to dine with Joseph, and were on their homeward way,\nwhen some officers of Joseph\u2019s household come galloping after them, and\nangrily ask whether the way to return hospitality is to steal Joseph\u2019s\ncup, his favourite silver cup. Then when the cup is found in Benjamin\u2019s\nsack, Judah, who has promised to be surety for him, begs that he may be\na slave to Joseph instead of Benjamin, as he promised Jacob his father\nto bring him back safe. Then they are all taken in to see Joseph, and he\ncannot stand it any longer, and bursts into tears, and says \u201cI am Joseph;\ndoth my father yet live?\u201d \u2018And his brethren could not answer him for they\nwere troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren \u201cCome\nnear to me, I pray you.\u201d And they came near. And he said \u201cI am Joseph\nyour brother whom ye sold into Egypt.\u201d\u2019 So then of course they believed\nhim, and everything was made all right.\n\n(_c_) Jacob lay on his deathbed with his sons around him, listening\nto his words which seemed to come straight from God. But instead of\nReuben, as the first-born getting the best or most wonderful blessing,\nhe seems to have been put below Judah, who is told that he shall be \u201ca\nfruitful bough,\u201d and shall remain \u201cUntil Shiloh come.\u201d This seems to\nbe a wonderful inspiration in Jacob that someone should come from the\ndescendants of his son Judah who \u201cshould save His people from their\nsins.\u201d Of course, _now_, we see in it a prophecy of the coming of our\nLord Jesus Christ, though then it was most likely an undefined thought.\n\nII. 1. (_b_) \u201cThere was a man that had two sons; and he went to one, and\nsaid \u201cSon, go to work to-day in my vineyard.\u201d And he answered and said \u201cI\nwill not\u201d; but afterwards he repented, and went. And the father went to\nthe other son and said \u201cSon, go to work to-day in my vineyard.\u201d And he\nanswered and said \u201cI go, sir,\u201d but went not at all to the work. Whether\nof the twain did the will of their father?\u201d They (the priests) say unto\nhim \u201cthe first.\u201d \u201cFrom this we see that the parable was aimed at the\nchief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, who had been trying to trap him\nin his talk. The man was God, the two sons, those that did his will,\nand those that did not, and the vineyard was the world. The scribes and\nPharisees were those who made a lot of show, and were very particular\nabout all the little outside observances of religion, but did not really\nwork, like the son in the parable who said \u201cI go, sir\u201d and did not go at\nall. Thus they were made to condemn themselves by saying that the first\ndid the will of God, and not the second.\n\n2. (_a_) Pilate had been cross-examining Jesus, and had \u201cfound no fault\nin him.\u201d When he asked the people what he should do with him, they\ncried out, saying \u201cCrucify him, crucify him.\u201d But Pilate answered and\nsaid \u201cShall I crucify your King?\u201d But they cried out yet the more,\nsaying \u201cCrucify him, crucify him.\u201d Then Pilate took a bason, and washed\nhis hands before the multitude saying \u201cI have nothing to do with this\nrighteous man; see ye to it.\u201d And the people cried out, saying \u201cHis blood\nbe upon us and upon our children.\u201d Then Jesus was led away.\n\n\n_French._\n\n1. Un fusil, une bandouli\u00e8re, des cartouches, une gibeci\u00e8re, un permis de\nchasse, et une meute de chiens.\n\n2 (_recited_).\n\n \u201cSavez-vous son nom?\u201d\u2014La nature\n R\u00e9unit en vain ces cent voix.\n L\u2019\u00e9toile \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9toile murmure\n \u201cQuel Dieu nous imposa nos lois?\u201d\n La vague \u00e0 la vague demande\n \u201cQuel est celui qui nous gourmande?\u201d\n La foudre dit \u00e0 l\u2019aquilon\n \u201cSais-tu comment ton Dieu se nomme?\u201d\n Et les astres, la terre, et l\u2019homme\n Ne peuvent achever son nom.\n Que tes temples, Seigneur, sont \u00e9troits pour mon \u00e2me!\n Tombez, murs impuissants, tombez!\n Laissez-moi voir ce ciel que vous me d\u00e9robez!\n Architecte divin, tes domes sont de flammes!\n Que tes temples, Seigneur, sont \u00e9troits pour mon \u00e2me!\n Tombez, murs impuissants, tombez!\n\n4. Cette aiguille est tr\u00e8s aigue. Ces animaux sont de trois familles. Ce\nmouvement est tr\u00e8s facile; un pas avec ce pied, et il faut qu\u2019un bras\nfaire ce tour. Cet homme \u00e9tait bien fait de sa personne. Ils \u00e9taient tr\u00e8s\nsages; ils mettaient leurs livres dans l\u2019armoire, pas sur la table. Ses\nfilles \u00e9taient tr\u00e8s m\u00e9chantes. Il fit un tel pas, que je pensais qu\u2019il\ntomberait. Chaque personne fit une grande rev\u00e9rence, quand le roi venait.\n\n\n_German._\n\n1. (_Heroengeschichten_ has not been taken, so \u201cKaiser Karl am Luther\u2019s\nGrab\u201d is recited, from page 24 of _A Book of German Ballads_, Cambridge\nUniversity Press.)\n\n In Wittenberg, der starken Luther\u2019s Feste\n Ist Kaiser Karl, der Sieger, eingedrungen;\n Wohl ist den Stamm, zu f\u00e4llen, ihm gelungen\n Doch neue Wurzeln schlagen rings die Aeste.\n In Luther\u2019s Feste hausen fremde Geste\n Doch Luthers Geist der bleibet unbezwungen\n Da, wo des Geistes Schwert er hat geschwungen\n Da ruhen billig auch des Leibes Reste.\n Am Grabe steht der Kaiser, tief ger\u00fchret.\n \u201cAuf denn, und r\u00e4che dich an dem Gebeinen\n Den Flammen gib sie preis, wie sich\u2019s geb\u00fchret.\u201d\n So h\u00f6rt man aus der Diener Tross den Einen.\n Der Kaiser spricht \u201cDen Krieg hab\u2019 ich gef\u00fchret\n Mit Lebenden; um Todte lasst uns weinen.\u201d\n\n2. Welche dieses Bl\u00fcmen ist den sch\u00f6nsten? Ich war einmal in Berlin und\ndreimal in Paris.\n\n3. Ich habe sechs g\u00fcte B\u00fccher. Er ist f\u00fcnfzehnmal gestraft worden. Wir\nsind siebzehn edele Knaben. Neun Knaben sind in dieses Spiel. Vier B\u00fccher\nw\u00e4ren gross-Achtzehn-hundert schlecht Knaben.\n\n\n_Arithmetic._\n\n1.\n\n \u00a3 _s._ _d._ tons. cwts. qrs. lbs.\n\n 2 qrs. = \u00bd of 1 cwt. \u00bd of 1 13 10 value of 0 1 0 0\n 11\n -------------\n 18 12 2 \u201d 0 11 0 0\n 2\n -------------\n 37 4 4 \u201d 1 2 0 0\n -------------\n 8 lbs. = \u2150 of 2 qrs. \u2150 of 0 16 11 \u201d 0 0 2 0\n 8 lbs. = \u201d \u201d 0 2 5 \u201d 0 0 0 8\n 4 lbs. = \u00bd of 8 lbs. \u00bd of 0 2 5 \u201d 0 0 0 8\n 0 1 2\u00bd \u201d 0 0 0 4\n -------------- ------------------\n Answer:\u2014 \u00a3 38 5 3\u00bd \u201d 1 2 2 20\n ============== ==================\n\n2.\n\n4959 balls @ 11\u00bed. each = 4959 balls @ 1s. ea. - 4959 farthings.\n\n4959 farthings = 1239\u00bed. = 103s. 3\u00bed. = \u00a35 3 3\u00be.\n\n4959 shillings = \u00a3247 19 0.\n\n \u00a3 _s._ _d._\n 247 19 0\n - 5 3 3\u00be\n --------------\n = 242 15 8\u00bc the cost of 4959 balls @ 11\u00bed. ea.\n ==============\n\n3.\n\n \u00a3 _s._ _d._\n 8d. = 1/30 of \u00a31. 1/30 of 5238 10 0\n ---------------\n\n \u00bd = 1/16 of 8d. 1/16 of 171 5 7\u00be (nearest \u00bcd.)\n 10 14 1\u00bc\n ---------------\n Ans.:\u2014 \u00a3 181 19 9\n ===============\n\n4.\n\n LONDON,\n _May 21st 1906_.\n\n JONES, BROWN & CO.\n Bought of D. H. EVANS & CO.,\n Oxford St., W.\n --------------------------------------+-------------\n | \u00a3 _s._ _d._\n 5 pairs stockings @ 1s. 3\u00bdd. per pair | 0 6 5\u00bd\n 40 needles @ 1s. 1\u00bdd. per score | 0 2 3\n 96 buttons @ 6\u00bdd. per doz. | 0 4 4\n 6\u00be yds. of silk @ 5s. 1d. per yd. | 1 13 3\u00be\n +-------------\n Total |\u00a3 2 6 4\u00bc\n +=============\n\n\n_Composition._\n\n(_a_) Sir Walter Scott was a well-known writer in the early part of\nthe 19th century. His novels are read by almost everyone; and though,\nperhaps, his poetry is not quite so well-known, still, at most places\none finds people who have read or heard of the \u201cLady of the Lake\u201d or\n\u201cMarmion.\u201d The first of his novels was \u201cWaverly\u201d (_sic_), and so they are\noften called the \u201cWaverley Novels.\u201d The historical tales are very good,\ngiving the reader a splendid idea of life in the 12th or 13th centuries;\n\u201cIvanhoe,\u201d \u201cBetrothed,\u201d \u201cThe Talisman\u201d and \u201cKenilworth\u201d (this latter\nis about the 16th century, in Queen Elizabeth\u2019s reign). \u201cThe Heart of\nMidlothian\u201d is also very interesting, and \u201cPeveril of the Peak\u201d tells\nabout the fighting between the Cavaliers and Roundheads in the time of\nCharles I., and Oliver Cromwell. The \u201cLady of the Lake\u201d is about the\nlongest poem Sir Walter Scott ever wrote; it is very beautiful, and many\npieces in it are most interesting. \u201cMarmion\u201d tell (_sic_) of a battle,\nand how a Lord Marmion was killed there.\n\n\n_Latin._\n\n1. Alexander once upon a time asked a pirate whom he had taken by what\nright he infested the seas? At that, \u201cThe same,\u201d said he \u201cby which you\ndo (infest) the world. But because I do it with a small ship, I am called\na robber; you, because you do it with a great fleet and army are called a\ngeneral.\u201d Alexander dismissed the man unhurt. Did he do rightly?\n\nAlexander olim comprehensum pir\u0101tam interrogavit, quo jure maria\ninfestaret? Ille \u201cEodem,\u201d inquit \u201cquo tu orbem terrarum. Sed quia ego\nparvo navigio facio, latro vocor; tu, quia magna classe et exercitu,\nimperator.\u201d Alexander inviolatum hominem dimisit. Num juste fecit?\n\n _Alexander_, noun proper, masc., sing., nominative case.\n\n _Olim_, adv. modifies verb \u201cinterrogavit.\u201d\n\n _Comprehensum_, participle used as adj., modifying \u201cpiratam.\u201d\n\n _Piratam_, n. common, masc., sing., objective case, governed by\n \u201cinterrogavit.\u201d\n\n _Interrogavit_, verb, transitive, 3rd pers. sing. Past Tense.\n\n _Quo_, relative pron., ablative case, antecedent \u201cjure.\u201d\n\n _Jure_, n. common, neuter, sing., ablative case.\n\n _Maria_, n. common, neuter singular, objective case to\n \u201cinfestaret.\u201d\n\n _Infestaret_, intransitive verb, 3rd person singular Present\n Subjunctive Tense.\n\n2. (_a_) Somnimus totus noctes. (_b_) Docebo te musicam. (_c_) Romani\nNumam regem elexerunt. (_d_) Galli cis Rhenum habitaverunt. (_e_)\nMagister videt multos pueros ludere.\n\n (_a_) illustrates that the object is in the accusative in Latin.\n\n (_b_) illustrates that the double object is in the accusative.\n\n (_c_) illustrates that the double object is in the accusative.\n\n (_d_) illustrates that all prepositions as \u201ccis\u201d take the acc.\n case.\n\n (_e_) illustrates that with a sentence like \u201cThe master sees\n that many boys play\u201d you prefix with \u201cMaster sees\u201d leave out\n \u201cthat\u201d turn \u201cmany boys\u201d into accusative, and turn \u201cplay\u201d into\n the infinitive.\n\n\n_English History._\n\n1. The Anti-Corn-law League was formed early in the reign of Queen\nVictoria. Its name shews that its object was to get the Corn Laws\nrepealed or rather to have the taxes on corn taken off, as they were\ncausing distress in the country. Eloquent men went about the country,\nspeaking to the people, and telling them how much better it would be not\nto have them, until they were convinced that it was so, and made rather\na fuss over it, so that one Prime Minister, Lord Russell, resigned, and\nLord Melbourne came in, and took off some of the taxes. People now seem\nto be thinking that it would be a good thing to put on some of these\ncorn taxes again, and the country is again rather agitated about it, and\nMr Chamberlain, Mr Balfour, and many other gentlemen go about making\nspeeches either for, or against it, according to their different views,\njust as people did then, when Sir Robert Peel did take them off.\n\n2. England joined in the Crimean war, because they were afraid that\nif Russia got hold of Turkey, they might prevent the English going\nto and from India, and that thus the command we had over India might\nbe loosened and India might once more become an independent country.\nFrance entered because Napoleon III. wished to show that he had some\npower, and was not afraid of war. Sardinia entered in because the King\nof Sardinia\u2019s minister, Count Cavour, wished to shew that Sardinia had\nsome power, and he also thought that by making powerful friends such as\nEngland and France, his master, King Victor Emmanuel might one day become\nking of Italy. Russia wanted to put down Turkey, and Turkey of course\nwent against Russia. It was a very sad war, mostly because of the bad\nmanagement. The charges of the Light and Heavy Brigades, the battles of\nInkerman, Balaclava, and last of all, the long siege of Sebastopol, which\nmight have been prevented, had we charged the day before at the Russians,\nso as to prevent them get (_sic_) hold of, and fortifying the chief\ntower, all tells (_sic_) of suffering from the intense cold, and death of\nthe soldiers by scores.\n\n\n_French History._\n\n1. The Prussians advanced into France, meeting with resistance\neverywhere, but still they went steadily on, till at last they reached\nParis, which they besieged for a long time, so that the people were\nobliged to eats cats, dogs, horses and even rats and mice, so that they\nhad to give in. Then there was a treaty made, and Prussia made France\ngive up the two provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, and also made them\npay an immense sum of money, which was only paid off about 10 years\nago. France cannot rest with Alsace and Lorraine in the hands of the\nEmperor of Germany, and keeps up large armies in the hopes of winning\nthem back some day. Germany also keeps up large armies, in readiness for\nresistance, and these two countries make Europe like an armed camp.\n\n2. In 1875 people thought that they would like a king again, but after\nall a new Constitution was made and passed by the Assembly. This\ngovernment still lasts. There is a Chamber of Deputies, something like\nour English Parliament. There is also another Chamber called the Senate,\nlike the House of Lords in England. A President is chosen, and after\nseven years, gives up his post, and someone else is chosen. Ministers\ncarry on the government so as to please the National Assembly. New people\nmust be chosen if they are not liked by the Assembly.\n\n\n_Roman History._\n\n1. The Veintes, one of the Tuscan nations, declared that Romulus\nill-treated the Fiden\u00e6, who belonged to them. This was absurd, as the\nVeintes had not tried to help the Fiden\u00e6 when Romulus took them, and\ntherefore they had a war, in which Romulus was victorious and on the\nanniversary for some years after the Romans celebrated their victory by\nhaving a herald who called through the town \u201cSardians to be sold\u201d (the\nVeientes were called Sardians, because the Tuscans were descended from\nthe Sardians) and several young boys in ropes represent (_sic_) the\nVeientes.\n\n2. The Romans imagined that there were not enough women for them all to\nhave a wife, so they attacked the Sabines and carried off several women.\nThese were treated with courtesy and respect, but the Sabine men did not\nlike it, and declared war. But while they were fighting the women ran\nin between, and beseeching, on one side their fathers, and on the other\ntheir husbands, to stop, they did stop, and made up the quarrel.\n\n\n_Geography._\n\n1. The West Indies are a set of islands enclosing the Gulf of Mexico\nand the Caribbean Sea. They form two large groups, the Greater Antilles\nand the Lesser Antilles. The largest island in the Greater Antilles is\nCuba, which belongs to Spain. It is a lovely place, with palm-trees cocoa\nand coffee plantations, and sugar and tobacco are largely exported. The\ncapital is Havana, where the best cigars in the world are made; and it\nalso has a good harbour from whence is exported the sugar, coffee, cocoa\nand rum made in the island. The island next in size in our first group\nis Hayti, or St Domingo. Part of this island belongs to Spain, and the\nother part once belonged to France, but is now a little negro kingdom.\nIts capital is Port au Prince. Jamaica is the next island; this belongs\nto Britain, and is the chief place from which we get our sugar, cocoa\nand coffee. The capital is Kingston, a nice bright town, with churches\nand a Town Hall, and a governor\u2019s residence. Porto Rico is a Spanish\nisland of not very much importance. Its capital is Don Juan, named after\nthe Spanish sailor who first discovered it. Then comes a little group\nof islands called the Virgin Islands, of which the most important is\nSanta Cruz, which belongs to Denmark. They are between the Greater and\nLesser Antilles. The largest island in the Lesser Antilles is Guadeloupe,\nwhich belongs to France. It is a pleasant island, with a lovely bay on\nwhich stands the capital, Grande Terre. Dominica (British), Barbuda,\nAnguilla, Antigua, and St John\u2019s (also British) are some of the most\nimportant British islands. The other French islands are Martinique, and\nMarie Galante. St Vincent, and Barbadoes (capital Bridgetown) are also\nimportant British islands. After passing the Lesser Antilles, we come to\nthe beautiful island of Trinidad, with its capital, Port of Spain, on the\nlovely blue Gulf of Paria, which separates it from Venezuela.\n\n [_Map._]\n\n4. Coral reefs are formed by tiny animals called \u201ccoral polypes\u201d which,\nalmost as soon as they are born, begin to separate part of their food\nto build up their houses. They often stick to one another and build\nin companies. We will imagine 10 of these little animals have started\nbuilding at the bottom of the sea. Two or three of them may have stuck\nto each other, and soon a little pillar appears of red, white or (very\nrarely) black coral. New little polypes are born, and they build on and\nround their parents\u2019 work. So it get (_sic_) broader and higher, and more\nand more little ones come to enlarge the work, till one day a point of\nred or white coral appears above the surface of the sea. More and more\nof it appears, till there is quite a little island. Then the wind often\nblows seeds, and the birds bring them, and the sea washes up sand into\nthe nooks and crannies, till palm-trees grow, and other plants, and birds\nbuild their nests there, and maybe have tiny birds themselves, and so\nthere is an island fit for man\u2019s use, and it all started from two or\nthree little coral polypes about \u215b of an inch long.\n\nVolcanoes are apparently openings in the earth\u2019s crust down to (_sic_)\nvery centre of the earth, where many people believe that there is a great\nfire, the remains of the days when the earth was a seething mass of fiery\nvapour. When eruptions break forth, flames and smoke reaching to an\nenormous height come out of the crater, and fiery lava runs in streams\ndown the sides of the mountain, burning everything in its course, and\nstones and ashes are thrown out ever so far. In the sad eruption of Mont\nP\u00e9l\u00e9e in 1901 ashes fell on steamers more than 100 miles away, and the\nnoise of the eruption was heard for miles, and the city of St Pierre (the\ncapital of Martinique) was entirely buried in ashes and lava; only a few\nchurch walls or street corners are remaining now to show that St Pierre\nwas once a flourishing city. This shews that volcanoes are evidently\nopenings through which the inside of the earth seems sometimes to \u201clet\noff steam.\u201d\n\n [_Diagrams._]\n\n\n_English Grammar._\n\n Subject. |Attrib. of Subj.|Predicate.|Dir. Obj.|Adverbial Adjuncts.\n | | | |\n 1. Flowers | The, lily and | close | |one by one\n | dewy rose | | their |\n Shutting | | | tender |from the moon\n | | | petals |\n Grasshoppers| The | are still| |\n | | | |\n Crows | The noisy | are still| |but not so soon\n\n_One_, numeral adj., modifying \u201cflowers.\u201d _By_, preposition, joining\n\u201cone\u201d to \u201cone.\u201d _Close_, transitive verb, 3rd pers. plur., Present Tense.\n_Shutting_, present participle, governing \u201cpetals.\u201d _Their_, pers. poss.\npron., 3rd pers. plur. _From_, preposition, governing \u201cmoon.\u201d _Still_,\nadj., modifying \u201cgrasshoppers.\u201d _So_, adv., modifying \u201csoon.\u201d _Soon_,\nadv. of time, modifying \u201care still.\u201d _Noisy_, adj., qualifying \u201ccrows.\u201d\n\n2. Go quickly; he is dying. A dying man lies there. Making a dress is\ndifficult. I am making a box. To tell tales is mean. I was to tell you\nthat. But for him, I should not be here. Had you but a knife, we should\nbe safe. Yes, but he is stupid, so I cannot make him hear.\n\n3. Episode, epi-tome. Hypo-crite, hypo-thesis. Cata-ract, cat-astrophe,\ncat-hedral. Di-phong (_sic_). Syn-tax, syl-lable, sym-pathy.\n\n\n_Natural History._\n\n1. (_b_) Foraminifer\u00e6 are in the Rhizopoda, or root-footed family. They\nhave a little opening in their shells, through which they send out hairs\nto catch very tiny water creatures and suck them in. Their shells are\nmade from something they swallow. They are all sorts of shapes, and can\nbe seen without a microscope, though their lovely coloured shells and\ntiny bodies can be seen better with it. They increase by self-division,\nbut they generally grow from tiny buds on the bodies of their mothers.\n\n [_Diagrams._]\n\nSponges are cousins to the Foraminifer\u00e6, but are slightly higher up\nin the Rhizopoda family. They are full of tiny holes, with sometimes\na bigger opening. These little holes lead into little passages, which\nare continually leading into one another, and the bigger holes lead\ninto bigger passages. They are made of some sort of fine tissue, which\nthe sponge animal makes out of some part of its food after it has been\ndigested. In these passages tiny, soft slimy creatures live, which\nare able to throw out hairs from themselves, with which they sweep\nwater in and out of their house. Their children are born from buds, by\nself-division, and also from eggs. Some sponges increase in all these\ndifferent ways at once, so that one sponge often becomes the father of\nseveral families. Little hard things called Sponge spicules grow round\nthe eggs to protect them. They are made from the lime the Sponge finds\nin the water, and often have beautiful shapes.\n\n [_Diagram._]\n\n2. It has been found, that though people speak of the \u201ceverlasting hills\u201d\nyet they cannot have been always where they are now. Mountains that\nare formed of rocks of any kind, either sedimentary, or organic, must\nhave been laid down at the sea-bottom and something must have pushed\nthem up; either earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. If, for example,\nseveral different kinds of Sedimentary Rocks were laid down flat at the\nsea-bottom (fig. 1) till they were\n\n [_Diagram._]\n\nhundreds, perhaps thousands of feet thick, and they also happened to\nlie on some weak part of the earth\u2019s crust, where earthquakes sometimes\nhappen, they may be squeezed or pushed up above the surface of the sea,\nand round them may be deposited more rocks, and they may be pushed up,\nand so land may be formed, with some parts higher than the rest, and\nthese parts are called mountains.\n\n\n_Botany._\n\n [_Diagrams._]\n\n2. The raspberry, strawberry and blackberry are all of the Rose family.\nBut there are little differences between them; they are not all alike.\nThe raspberry is like the strawberry in that its seedboxes grow on\na mound. But when you look at the ripe fruit, you will see that the\nseedboxes themselves grow bigger, softer and rounder, and also they\nshrink away from the white mound, so that a ripe raspberry comes off\nwithout a little stalk, etc., hanging on. The Blackberry is just the\nsame as the raspberry, only it is black, and the round juicy seed boxes\ndo not shrink away from the mound quite so much. The construction of\nthe strawberry fruit, however, is slightly different. Here it is the\nlittle mound that swells, and becomes a bright red, and the seed boxes\n(generally wrongly called \u201cseeds\u201d) remain hard and small, looking\nsomething like little yellow apple pips.\n\n\n_Euclid_ (first set).\n\n[Illustration]\n\n 1. Let AB be a given st. line.\n\n It is reqd. to bisect AB.\n\n On AB describe an equilateral \u25b3 ACB. I. 1.\n\n Bisect \u2220 ACB by the st. line CD, meeting AB in D; then shall\n AB be bisected in D. I. 9.\n\n In \u25b3s ACD, DCB the side AC = side CB, and CD is common and\n \u2220 ACD = \u2220 DCB. Hyp.\n\n \u2234 \u25b3s are equal in all respects I. 4.\n\n and side AD = side DB. Q.E.F.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n 2. Let AB be the given st. line of unlimited length and C the\n given pt. outside it.\n\n It is reqd. to draw from C a st. line perpendicular to AB.\n\n Take a pt. D on the other side of AB; and with centre C and\n radius CD describe a \u2609 FE cutting AB in E and F.\n\n Bisect EF in G, and join CE, CG, CF. I. 10.\n\n Then shall CG be at right angles to AB.\n\n In the \u25b3 s ECG, CGF, EC = CF, and EG = GF (Const.) and CG is\n common.\n\n \u25b3s are equal in all respects. I. 7.\n\n and \u2220 EGC = \u2220 CGF.\n\n and \u2234 CG is perpendicular to AB. Def.\n\n Q.E.F.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n 3. Let ABC be the given \u2220.\n\n It is reqd. to divide \u2220 ABC into four equal parts.\n\n Bisect \u2220 ABC by the st. line BD. I. 9.\n\n Bisect the \u2220 ABD by the st. line BF. I. 9.\n\n Bisect the \u2220 DBC by the st. line BE. I. 9.\n\n Then \u2220 ABF, FBD, DBE, EBC are all equal. Ax. 7.\n\n \u2234 \u2220 ABD has been divided into four equal parts. Q.E.F.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX V\n\nHOW ORAL LESSONS ARE USED\n\n\nThough the part of the teacher should, in a general way, be that of\nthe University tutor who \u201creads with\u201d his men, the oral lesson, also,\nis indispensable, whether in introducing a course of reading or as\nbringing certain readings to a point. Oral lessons, too, give the teacher\nopportunities for the reading of passages from various books bearing on\nthe subject in hand, a sure way to increase the desire of the children\nfor extended knowledge. Some subjects, again, as Languages, Mathematics,\nScience, depend very largely upon oral teaching and demonstrations. It\nmight be well if the lecture, with its accompaniments of note-taking and\nreports, were cut out of the ordinary curriculum, and the oral lesson\nmade a channel for free intellectual sympathy between teacher and taught,\nand a means of widening the intellectual horizon of children. I add a\nfew sets of notes of criticism lessons which have been given by various\nstudents of the House of Education to the children in the Practising\nSchool. These lessons are always expansions or illustrations or summaries\nof some part of the scholars\u2019 current book-work.\n\n\nORAL LESSONS\n\n\nSOME NOTES OF BIBLE LESSONS\n\n\n_Subject: Old Testament History._\n\nGroup: History. Class Ib. Average age: 8.\n\nTime: 20 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To so interest the children in the story of Jacob\u2019s death, that they\nmay not forget it.\n\n2. To give a new idea of God as drawn from the story of Jacob\u2019s\ndeathbed:\u2014God\u2019s abiding presence.\n\n3. To give them an admiration for Joseph as one who honoured his father\nand mother.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Recapitulate the former lesson, and follow Jacob\u2019s journeying\nwith his family from Canaan to Egypt, on a map.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Show the children how Joseph was the first of Jacob\u2019s sons to\nvisit him when he was ill. Draw their attention to the particular trait\nof Joseph\u2019s character shown in this story.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Describe in a few words the surroundings in which the events of\nthe story take place.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Read carefully to the children suitable parts of Genesis\nxlviii., reminding them to pay special attention to the words of the\nBible, as they so beautifully express the scene.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014While the children are narrating in the words of the Bible,\nhelp them by questions to bring out the important points of the story.\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Help the children to realise how Joseph\u2019s love of his father\naffected his life, and how they should let their parents feel their love.\n\n_Step 7._\u2014Let the children see that this family realised God\u2019s abiding\npresence, and show them how any family can realise it in the same way, if\nit will.\n\n\n_Subject: New Testament Story\u2014The Stilling of the Tempest._\n\nGroup: History. Class II. Average age of children: 10.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To try to give to the children some new spiritual thought and a\npractical idea of faith.\n\n2. To bring the story of the Stilling of the Tempest vividly before their\nminds.\n\n3. To interest them in the geography of the Holy Land.\n\n4. By means of careful, graphic reading, to help them to feel the\nwonderful directness, beauty, and simplicity of the Bible language: in\nshort, to make them feel the poetry of the Bible.\n\n\nAPPARATUS REQUIRED.\n\n1. Bibles for the children.\n\n2. A map of Palestine.\n\n3. Thomson\u2019s _Land and Book_.\n\n4. Pictures of (1) A storm on a lake; (2) Galilean boats; (3) The Sea of\nGalilee.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Ask the children to find St Matt. viii. 23 in their Bibles.\nTell the story of the Stilling of the Tempest, keeping as closely as\npossible to the language of the Bible.\n\n(_a_) Let the children find the Sea of Galilee on the map, gathering\n_from the map_ some notion of the surrounding country; compare with Lake\nWindermere.\n\nShow course of journey by reference to verses 5 and 28 in the same\nchapter.\n\nShow pictures of ships used in the East and on the Sea of Galilee.\n\n(_b_) Describe the tempest graphically, drawing from the children the\nreason for the sudden storms (caused by the ravines, down which the winds\nrush); get from them their idea of a storm at sea or on a lake.\n\nShow photograph of a storm on Lake Windermere.\n\n(_c_) Try to make the children understand the twofold nature of our Lord:\u2014\n\n (1) His Humanity\u2014He was evidently weary.\n\n (2) His Divinity\u2014His power over Nature.\n\n(_d_) Try to make the children feel the simplicity of the Bible language\nand the forceful way in which it brings pictures before the mind.\n\nThere arose a great tempest\u2014His disciples came to Him\u2014He arose\u2014there was\na great calm\u2014Refer to Psalm cvii.\n\n(_e_) \u201cThe men marvelled.\u201d Try to show the children that faith is just\nanother word for understanding, knowing: how, the better we know a\nperson, the more we can trust him. Draw from the children how faith is\nshown in nearly every verse of this story, but, as far as the disciples\nwere concerned, it did not go far enough.\n\nDraw from them that it is not necessary to be with a person _always_ in\norder to have faith in him. Ask them how people show faith in all the\nactions of their daily lives.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Read the story from the Bible; read it carefully, so that the\nchildren will appreciate its literary value and see the vivid pictures\nwhich it brings before the mind.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Let the children narrate the story, keeping as much as possible\nto the Bible words.\n\n\n_Subject: Reading._\n\nGroup: English. Class III. Average age: 13.\n\nTime: 25 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To try to improve the children\u2019s reading by drilling them in clear and\npure pronunciation.\n\n2. To show them that by their reading a series of mental pictures should\nbe presented to the listener.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Breathing exercises. Ask reason for the same.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Practise the children in consonant and vowel sounds, by giving\nthem sentences in which difficulties in pronunciation occur.\n\n_m, en, n._ A stricken maiden musing on a mountain was given from heaven\nman in mortal form.\n\n_final t._ A just knight felt a weight on his heart, and yet a sweet\nquiet rest was present when he went to meet the light.\n\n_p, b._ A path of prickly brambles, bordered by pure pale poppies,\nbreathed peace between the broken beams.\n\n_d._ Touched by the hand that appeared from the cloud under which nodded\nthe dead leaves. (Notice final _d_ is sometimes pronounced like _t_.)\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Read the passage chosen, from Tennyson\u2019s \u2018Sir Galahad,\u2019 asking\nthe girls afterwards to describe the mental pictures they have drawn.\n\n \u201cA maiden knight\u2014to me is given\n Such hope, I know not fear;\n I yearn to breathe the airs of heaven\n That often meet me here.\n I muse on joy that will not cease,\n Pure spaces clothed in living beams,\n Pure lilies of eternal peace,\n Whose odours haunt my dreams;\n And, stricken by an angel\u2019s hand,\n This mortal armour that I wear,\n This weight and size, this heart and eyes\n Are touched, are turned to finest air.\n The clouds are broken in the sky,\n And through the mountain walls\n A rolling organ-harmony\n Swells up, and shakes and falls.\n Then move the trees, the copses nod,\n Wings flutter, voices hover clear:\n \u2018O just and faithful knight of God!\n Ride on! the prize is near.\u2019\n So pass I hostel, hall and grange;\n By bridge and ford, by park and pale,\n All-armed I ride, whate\u2019er betide,\n Until I find the Holy Grail.\u201d\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Show the girls a reproduction of Watts\u2019 conception of the idea,\nasking them in what points the poet\u2019s and artist\u2019s ideas coincide.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Let the children read the passage.\n\n\n_Subject: Narration_ (Plutarch\u2019s life of Alexander\u2014part of the term\u2019s\nwork).\n\nGroup: Language. Class II. Average age: 10.\n\nTime: 20 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To improve the children\u2019s power of narration by impressing on them\nPlutarch\u2019s style (as translated by North), and making them narrate as\nmuch as possible in his words.\n\n2. To rouse in the children admiration of Alexander\u2019s love of simplicity,\ngenerosity, and kindness to his men.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Connect with the last lesson by questioning the children. They\nread last time stories illustrating Alexander\u2019s graciousness and tact.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Tell the children shortly the substance of what I am going to\nread to them, letting them find any places mentioned, in their maps.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Read to the children about three pages, dealing with the luxury\nof the Macedonians, Alexander\u2019s march to Bactria, and the death of\nDarius. Read this slowly and distinctly, and _into_ the children as much\nas possible.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Ask the children in turn to narrate, each narrating a part of\nwhat was read.\n\n\n_Subject: From Plutarch\u2019s \u2018Greek Lives.\u2019_\n\nALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n\n(_An Introductory Lesson._)\n\nGroup: History. Class II. Age: 8 and 9.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To establish relations with the past.\n\n2. To introduce the boys to a fresh hero.\n\n3. To stir them to admiration of the wisdom, valour, and self-reliance of\nAlexander the Great.\n\n4. To increase the boys\u2019 power of narration.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Begin by connecting Alexander the Great with the time of\nDemosthenes, of whom the boys have been learning recently.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Draw from them some account of the times in which Alexander\nlived and of Philip of Macedon.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Arouse the boys\u2019 interest in Alexander by the story of the\ntaming of Bucephalus, which must be read, discussed, and then narrated by\nthe boys.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Ask the boys what they mean by a hero. The old meaning was\ndemi-god, the Anglo-Saxon meaning, a man. Both really meant a man who was\nbrave and true in every circumstance.\n\nAsk them, \u2018What are the qualities which go to make a hero?\u2019 Draw from\nthem how far we can trace these qualities in Alexander. We notice:\u2014\n\n_Wisdom._\u2014\u2018What a horse are they losing for want of skill to manage him!\u2019\n\n_Perseverance._\u2014He kept repeating the same expression.\n\n_Self-reliance._\u2014\u2018And I certainly could.\u2019 This was justified by the fact\nthat he _could_.\n\n_Observation._\u2014He noticed that the horse was afraid of its shadow.\n\n_Courage._\u2014Seeing his opportunity, he leaped upon its back.\n\n_Prudence._\u2014He went very gently till he could feel that he had perfect\ncontrol of the animal.\n\nThese are not all the qualities one looks for in a hero, but as the boys\nwill be learning all about Alexander next term, they will be able to find\nout for themselves what others he had. They will see, for instance, how\nhe never imagined a defeat, but went on, conquering as he went (_Hope_).\n\nThe name of Alexander has never been forgotten, because he was so great a\nhero. Owing to him, the language and civilisation of Greece were carried\nover a great part of Asia.\n\nShow map illustrating his campaigns. He tried to improve the land\nwherever he went. Owing to his travels, people began to know more than\nthey had ever known of geography and natural history.\n\nHimself a hero, Alexander reverenced heroes, keeping \u2018the casket copy\u2019 of\n_The Iliad_.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Recapitulate Step 4 by means of questions.\n\n\n_Subject: The Godwins._\n\nGroup: History. Class III. Average age: 13.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To recapitulate and enlarge on the period of history taken during the\nterm (A.D. 871-1066).\n\n2. To increase the children\u2019s interest in it by giving as much as\npossible in detail the history of one of the prominent families of the\nperiod.\n\n3. To exemplify patriotism in the character of the Godwins.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Recapitulate what the girls know of the period briefly by\nquestioning about the Saxon and the Danish kings and leading men, making\na chart on the blackboard.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Begin with the reign of Canute. Enlarge upon their present\nknowledge as to his character and deeds whilst king of England, and let a\ngirl read the account of his pilgrimage to Rome (Freeman\u2019s _Old English\nHistory_, p. 242).\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Give an account of the early history of Earl Godwin\u2014his\napparently humble origin\u2014his love of his country\u2014his character. He rose\nby his valour and wisdom\u2014was loved by both Saxons and Danes\u2014was merciful\nto his foes. He married Gytha, sister of Earl Ulf\u2014was made Earl by King\nCanute\u2014and had Wessex given him as his kingdom. Put on the blackboard the\nnames of the three divisions of England, with their earls or rulers.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014The period between the death of Canute and Edward the\nConfessor\u2019s coming to the throne. Under Harold and Hartha-Canute Danish\nrule became distasteful, and the English longed for an English king. Let\na girl read the account of Hartha-Canute\u2019s treatment of the people of\nWorcester and the conduct of Godwin and the other earls on that occasion\n(p. 250).\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Edward the Confessor. Ask them questions about his early life\nand education, and how these affected his character and ideas. Was he a\nsuitable man for a king? Not powerful enough to rule\u2014Godwin became his\nsupporter and adviser. Marriage of Godwin\u2019s daughter, Edith, to the king.\nGodwin\u2019s eloquence and influence over the people. (Read from Knight\u2019s\n_History_, p. 162.)\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Godwin\u2019s patriotism is put to the test. Speak of his banishment\nwith his wife and six sons, and its consequences. William of Normandy\ninvited over to England\u2014great dissatisfaction at misrule in England\u2014the\npeople resent the Normans being put in office. Let G\u2014\u2014 read (p. 262).\n\n_Step 7._\u2014Godwin\u2019s return\u2014he and his family again received into\nfavour\u2014his death\u2014the crime which had been laid to his charge\u2014Harold a\nworthy successor. Show from a map the divisions of England at the death\nof the \u2018Confessor.\u2019 Read from Lord Lytton\u2019s _Harold_ (p. 63).\n\n\n_Subject: History._\n\nGroup: History. Class IV. Age: 16.\n\nTime: 40 minutes.\n\nTHE STATE OF FRANCE IN 1789.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To establish relations with the past.\n\n2. To show how closely literature and history are linked together and how\nthe one influences the other.\n\n3. To try to give yet a clearer idea of the social and political state of\nFrance before the Revolution than the girls have now, and to draw from\nthem the causes which brought about the Revolution in _France_ and at\n_this time_ (1789).\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Begin by noticing the state of France generally. _Feudalism_\nwas still in existence, without its usefulness and with most of its\nabuses, and it led to the great _division of Classes_\u2014the Privileged\nand the Unprivileged. In both Army and Church it was impossible for the\nunprivileged to rise by merit; all offices were filled by the privileged\nclasses. These were exempt from many taxes. Draw from G\u2014\u2014 and S\u2014\u2014 the\nchief taxes\u2014_Taille_, levied on property, and the _Gabelle_, which forced\neveryone to buy a certain amount of salt from the Government at an\nenormous rate.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Speak of the state of France in the country, showing what was\nthe relation of the peasant to his lord. The land he lived on generally\nbelonged to him; in return for which he had to grind his corn at his\nlord\u2019s mill, etc., had to give his work free on certain days in the year,\nand help to make the roads in his lord\u2019s land (_corv\u00e9e_). Tell them\nsomething of the Game Laws and the \u2018Intendants.\u2019\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Notice the state of France in the towns, showing how impossible\nit was for a poor man to set up in a trade, owing to the guilds and\nmonopolies. The merchants, together with men who held certain offices\nunder Government, formed a separate class, far removed from both the\npeasants and the nobles.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014The state of the Church. For the most part the higher\necclesiastics were hated and despised. This was not the case with the\n\u2018cur\u00e9s,\u2019 for they were of the peasantry, and shared their troubles. But\nthe higher ecclesiastics were generally younger sons of nobles, who drew\nthe salaries of their offices and lived a gay life at Court. The Church\nalso imposed heavy dues.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Show that these evils might have been remedied gradually (as\nin England) had there been a representative assembly regularly called,\nor any true justice. But as justice could be bought and sold, the poor\nman always lost his cause, and the pleadings of the peasants could in\nno way make themselves heard. They had risen just before this time, but\nunsuccessfully.\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Draw from G\u2014\u2014 and S\u2014\u2014 the reason why the Revolution broke\nout in France rather than in any other Continental country. Because,\nthough the evils in France were no worse than those borne by the German\npeasants, the French people had been awakened to the knowledge of their\nmisery and of their right to liberty by many great writers. Such were\nVoltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, d\u2019Alembert, and Montesquieu. Get from G\u2014\u2014\nand S\u2014\u2014 all I can about these men and their influence on history.\n\n_Step 7._\u2014Draw from G\u2014\u2014 and S\u2014\u2014 why the Revolution broke out just in\n1789. Rousseau had written his works since about 1730, and Voltaire since\n1718.\n\nThe French had borne their lot under Louis XIV.\u2019s strong government.\nLouis XV. was very different. The evils of a despotic government were\nclearly shown by him. He it was who said, \u2018Apr\u00e8s nous le d\u00e9luge!\u2019 Then\ncame Louis XVI., conscientious and full of good intentions. Get from the\ngirls something of Louis\u2019 character. But the great opportunity of the\npeople came in the calling of the States General, in order to raise money.\n\n_Step 8._\u2014A short recapitulation of the principal points.\n\n\n_Subject: Literature._\n\nGroup: English. Class IV. Age: 16. Time: 45 minutes.\n\nCHARLES LAMB.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To give some main principles to guide the choice of reading.\n\n2. To give a short sketch of the life of Charles Lamb.\n\n3. To show how the writer\u2019s character is reflected in _The Essays of\nElia_.\n\n4. To emphasise the fact that very thoughtful reading is necessary in\norder to get full pleasure and benefit from a book.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Decide with the pupils as to some principles which should guide\nus in the choice of books, such as the following:\u2014\n\n Never waste time on valueless books.\n\n Have respect for the books themselves.\n\n Try to cultivate taste by noticing the best passages in any\n book that is being read.\n\n Time is too short to read much; there is a necessity,\n therefore, for judicious selection.\n\n The best literature can only be appreciated by those who have\n fitted themselves for it.\n\n It is more important to read well than to read much.\n\n The gain of reading some of the most beautiful literature while\n we are young is that we shall then have beautiful thoughts and\n images to carry with us through life.\n\n To get at the full significance of a book it is necessary to\n dig for it.\n\nThus _The Essays of Elia_ are not only pleasant reading, but they are the\nreflection of the writer\u2019s character. All that Lamb was can be gathered\nfrom his works, and to rightly understand these one must know something\nof the grand though obscure life of Charles Lamb.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Try to draw from the girls, who are already familiar with some\nof the essays, what they tell us of Charles Lamb.\n\nCharles Lamb was born 1775. His father was in the service of Mr Salt,\nwhose portrait is found in _The Old Bencher of the Inner Temple_. 1782,\nCharles received a presentation from Mr Salt to Christ\u2019s Hospital (see\n_Essay_). The result of his education is summed up in _The Schoolmaster_.\nFrom fifteen to twenty he was a clerk in the South Sea House (_Essay_).\n\nIn 1795 he was transferred to the India House. He lived near Holborn with\nhis parents and his sister Mary. Here took place the calamity occasioned\nby Mary\u2019s insanity.\n\nCharles\u2019 heroic resolution. One learns something of the dream he\nrenounced in _Dream Children_. His work at the India House was\nuninteresting, but such as left him leisure for intellectual pursuits.\nThis distribution of occupation was a means of conserving his mental\nbalance. His literary work was all done in the evening: \u2018Candle Light\u2019 in\n_Popular Fallacies_.\n\nThe girls will then read Talfourd\u2019s estimate of Lamb.\n\nLetters to Robert Lloyd show Lamb\u2019s persistent cheerfulness. This\ncheerful tone is also noticeable in many of his essays: _Mrs Battle_,\n_All Fools\u2019 Day_, _My Relations_ (portrait of John Lamb), _Mackery End_\n(portrait of Mary Lamb), _Poor Relations_, and _Captain Jackson_. C. Lamb\ndied 1834.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Summarise by questions.\n\n\n_Subject: English Grammar._\n\nGroup: Language. Class II. Average age: 10.\n\nTime: 20 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To increase the children\u2019s power of reasoning and attention.\n\n2. To increase their knowledge of English Grammar.\n\n3. To introduce a new part of speech\u2014preposition.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Draw from the children the names of the two kinds of verbs and\nthe difference between them, by putting up sentences on the board. Thus\nin the sentence \u2018Father slept,\u2019 \u2018slept,\u2019 as they know, is intransitive;\ntherefore he could not \u2018slept\u2019 anything, as \u2018slept\u2019 cannot have an object.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Put on the board the sentence \u2018Mary went,\u2019 and ask the children\nto try and make it more complete by adding an object. \u2018Mary went school\u2019\nwould not be sense, but \u2018Mary went _to_ school\u2019 would. Ask for other\nphrases saying where Mary went, as, _for_ a walk, _into_ the town, _with_\nmother, _on_ her bicycle, _by_ train, etc.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Tell the children that these little words, on, in, by, for,\nwith, etc., belong to a class of words which are very much used with\nintransitive verbs; they have not much meaning when used alone, yet in a\nsentence they cannot stand without an object. You cannot say \u2018Mary went\nin,\u2019 without saying what she went in.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Introduce the word \u2018preposition,\u2019 giving its derivation.\nBecause these little words always take objects after them, and because\ntheir place is before the object, they are called prepositions, \u2018pre\u2019\nbeing the Latin word for \u2018before,\u2019 and \u2018position\u2019 another word for\n\u2018place.\u2019\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Write on the board the definition:\u2014\u2018A preposition always has an\nobject after it.\u2019\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Let the children work through the following exercises:\u2014\n\n(1) Put three objects after each of the following prepositions:\u2014in, on,\nover, by, with, and from.\n\n(2) Put three prepositions and their objects after the following:\u2014Mary\nplays, Mother sits, John runs.\n\n(3) Supply three prepositions in each of the following sentences:\u2014The\nbook is \u2014\u2014 the table. The chair is \u2014\u2014 the door. I stood \u2014\u2014 the window.\n\n(4) Supply three subjects and verbs to each of the following prepositions\nand objects:\u2014 \u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014 in the garden, \u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014 on the floor, \u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014 by the fire.\n\n(5) Make three sentences about each of the following, each sentence to\ncontain an intransitive verb, a preposition and its object:\u2014The white\npony, My little brother, That pretty flower.\n\n\n_Subject: German Grammar._\n\nGroup: Languages. Class III. Average age: 13.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To show the pupil that although the German construction of sentences\nmay seem very much complicated, yet with the help of a few simple rules\nit can be made much clearer.\n\n2. To draw these rules from the pupil by means of examples.\n\n3. To teach two or three of these elementary rules.\n\n4. To strengthen the relationship with the foreign language.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Begin by finding out what the pupils know of compound sentences\nin English, _i.e._ that they consist of two or more clauses depending\non each other, etc., and let them give one or two examples. Connect this\nlesson with a former one on the arrangement of words in German sentences\nby letting the pupils put one or two compound clauses on the board in\nGerman, and then giving the rule they illustrate.\n\n_Rule._\u2014Dependent clauses take the verb at the end of the clause.\n\nThese sentences the pupils can probably give themselves.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Get the old rule that the past participle comes at the end of\nthe sentence, with a few examples, one or two of which the pupils may\nwrite upon the board to compare with those illustrating the new rule.\n\nLet the pupils put several sentences on the board illustrating the new\nrule.\n\n_Rule._\u2014In dependent clauses the auxiliary follows the past participle.\n\n_Sentences._\u2014\u2018Ich kehre zur\u00fcck, wenn sie angekommen ist.\u2019\n\n\u2018Das Kind, welches verloren war, ist gefunden.\u2019\n\nLet the pupils translate these literally into English, and with the\nsimple German clauses already on the board and the translation let them\nfind the rule. Let them translate a few sentences into German to show\nthat they thoroughly understand the rule.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Treat the next rule almost in the same way, but have each\nsentence put on the board twice in different order, and find the rule by\ncomparing these.\n\n_Rule._\u2014If the subordinate clause comes first the principal clause takes\nits verb at the beginning.\n\n_Sentences._\u2014(1) \u2018Sie gab den Armen viel, weil sie gut war.\u2019\n\n(2) \u2018Weil sie gut war, gab sie den Armen viel.\u2019\n\n(1) \u2018Er ging immer fort, obwohl er m\u00fcde war.\u2019\n\n(2) \u2018Obwohl er m\u00fcde war, ging er immer fort.\u2019\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Recapitulate.\n\n\n_Subject: French Narration._\n\nGroup: Languages. Class III. Average age: 13.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To give the children more facility in understanding French when they\nhear it spoken, and also in expressing themselves in it.\n\n2. To teach them some new words and expressions.\n\n3. To improve their pronunciation.\n\n4. To strengthen the habit of attention.\n\n5. To introduce a new branch of the study of French and thus increase\ntheir interest in it.\n\n6. To have the following passage narrated by the children.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Passage chosen_: LE CORBEAU.\n\n\u201cAuguste \u00e9tant de retour \u00e0 Rome, apr\u00e8s la bataille d\u2019Actium, un artisan\nlui pr\u00e9senta un corbeau auquel il avait appris \u00e0 dire ces mots: Je te\nsalue, C\u00e9sar vainquer! Auguste charm\u00e9, acheta cet oiseau pour six mille\n\u00e9cus. Un perroquet fit \u00e0 Auguste le m\u00eame compliment et fut achet\u00e9 fort\ncher. Une pie vint ensuite; Auguste l\u2019acheta encore. Enfin un pauvre\ncordonnier voulut aussi apprendre \u00e0 un corbeau cette salutation; il eut\nbien de la peine \u00e0 y parvenir, il se d\u00e9sesp\u00e9rait souvent et disait en\nenrageant: Je perds mon temps et ma peine. Enfin il y r\u00e9ussit. Il alla\naussit\u00f4t attendre Auguste sur son passage, et lui pr\u00e9senta le corbeau,\nqui r\u00e9p\u00e9ta fort bien sa le\u00e7on: mais Auguste se contenta de dire: J\u2019ai\nassez de ces complimenteurs l\u00e0 dans mon palais. Alors le corbeau, se\nressouvenant de ce qu\u2019il avait souvent entendu dire \u00e0 son ma\u00eetre, r\u00e9p\u00e9ta:\nJ\u2019ai perdu mon temps et ma peine. Auguste se mit \u00e0 rire et acheta cet\noiseau plus cher que tous les autres.\u201d\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Read the passage slowly and distinctly, stopping frequently\nto make sure that the children understand. Write the new words and\nexpressions on the board and give their meanings.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Let the children repeat the story in English.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Read the passage straight through.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Let the children read the passage, paying special attention to\nthe pronunciation.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Have the passage narrated in French, helping the children when\nnecessary with questions.\n\nSpeak as much French as possible throughout, but always make sure that\nthe pupils understand.\n\n\n_Subject: Italian Gouin._\n\nGroup: Language. Class IV. Average age: 16.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To increase the girls\u2019 interest in foreign languages.\n\n2. To enlarge their Italian vocabulary.\n\n3. To give the girls more facility in understanding Italian when they\nhear it spoken, and also power to express themselves in it.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Tell the children in a few words what the series is about.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Explain the verbs in the infinitive, by doing the actions when\npossible.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Let the children say the verbs in the infinitive.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Let them write the verbs on the board.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Explain, by actions, when possible, the rest of the series.\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Repeat each sentence several times slowly and carefully.\n\n_Step 7._\u2014Let the children repeat the sentences.\n\n_Step 8._\u2014Let them write the series on the board.\n\n _Verbs._ | _Italian._ | _English._\n | |\n Volere esercitarsi| Luigia _vuol esercitarsi_ | Louise _wishes to\n | sul piano. | practise_.\n | |\n Aprire | _Apre_ il piano. | She _opens_ the piano.\n | |\n Suonare | _Suona_ una scala e | She _plays_ a scale\n | degli arpeggi. | and some arpeggi.\n | |\n Studiare | Poi _studia_ una Sonata | Then she _studies_ a\n | di Beethoven. | Sonata by Beethoven,\n | |\n Volere imparare | Che _vuol imparare_ | Which she _wants to\n | a mente. | learn_ by heart.\n\n\n_Subject: Geography._\n\nGroup: Science. Class III. Average Age: 13.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\nSCANDINAVIA\u2014NORWAY IN PARTICULAR.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To introduce the children to Scandinavia.\n\n2. To foster interest in foreign countries.\n\n3. To teach the children how to learn the map of a country by means of\nmap questions.\n\n4. To implant mental pictures of the characteristic scenery of Norway in\nthe children\u2019s minds.\n\n5. To show, by means of comparison, the great difference in the physical\nfeatures of the two countries which are included in Scandinavia, although\nthey form only one peninsula.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Let the children learn the map of Scandinavia, Norway in\nparticular, by means of the map questions previously written on the\nblackboard, writing down their answers.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Ask for a general description of Scandinavia.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Let the children fill in the blank map on the blackboard.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Require the children to give the answers to the questions,\nand, as they answer, give information, in order that they may become\nacquainted with each place as it is mentioned, and be able to picture it\nin their minds.\n\n\nMAP QUESTIONS.\n\nFrom the _Geographical Readers_, Book IV.\n\n1. What waters bound the Scandinavian peninsula? To what land is it\nattached? What countries does it include?\n\n NOTE.\n\n Describe the government of Scandinavia briefly, showing that,\n although Sweden and Norway have a common sovereign, each\n country has an independent parliament, elected in very much the\n same way as our English Parliament.\n\n2. Through how many degrees of latitude does this peninsula stretch? What\nother countries of the world lie partly in the same latitude?\n\n3. Describe the coast of Norway. Compare it with that of Sweden. Name the\nfour largest fiords or openings, beginning at the extreme north.\n\n NOTE.\n\n Give the idea of the extraordinary way in which the coast is\n cut up, and the immense number of islands which fringe it.\n Girls to notice how these islands form an effective break-water\n to the force of the Atlantic breakers, so that within their\n boundary the water is as calm and still as a lake. Describe\n the rocky, almost perpendicular sides of the fiords, over which\n the rivers fall in roaring torrents. Mention the fact that\n many ships of the Spanish Armada were driven as far north as\n Stadtland, and wrecked around this dangerous headland.\n\n The Sogne is the largest and most important fiord. It is like\n a long sea channel running into the country for a distance of\n 100 miles, with branches right and left, over which wonderful\n torrents fall. The sides are very steep, and the water is very\n deep at the entrance. At the Sulen Islands, at the mouth of the\n fiord, Harold Hardrada collected his force for his expedition\n against England.\n\n4. Name a group of islands north of the Arctic Circle. The most northerly\nisland. The cape on this island. The most northerly cape on the mainland.\nThe most southerly cape.\n\n NOTE.\n\n The Lofoden Islands are granite rocks, rising from the water\n in hundreds of peaks, with jagged and fantastic outlines. The\n cod fisheries of these islands are very important, and employ a\n great number of people.\n\n Nordkin, which means \u2018north chin,\u2019 is the most northerly point\n on the mainland of Europe. Incessant storms rage round the\n island of Mager\u00f6e, so that it is extremely difficult for anyone\n to land there.\n\n Lindesnaes means \u2018Lime nose.\u2019\n\n5. Name five towns on the west, and three on the south-east coast of\nNorway.\n\n NOTE.\n\n Stavanger is the fourth largest city in Norway. Its chief trade\n is in herrings. It has a very ancient Cathedral.\n\n At Bergen the houses are built on the slopes of the hills which\n run out into the deep sea. It was formerly the capital, and is\n now a great fish port.\n\n Trondhjem is the oldest capital. The name means \u2018home of the\n throne,\u2019 and in the Cathedral the kings of Norway are crowned.\n\n Hammerfest is the most northerly town in Europe. Tourists\n go there to see the midnight sun. Read Charles H. Wood\u2019s\n description of the midnight sun, from the _Geographical Reader_.\n\n Christiania, the capital of Norway, is not a big town, but\n has a most beautiful situation. It is at the head of the\n Christiania Fiord, which is studded with countless grassy\n and wooded islands. Most of the houses are of wood, painted\n white, with green blinds. The fiord, which used to be very\n much frequented by the old Vikings, is blocked by ice for four\n months of the year.\n\n6. The Scandinavian mountains nearly fill Norway\u2014by what name is the\nrange known in the north, south, and centre? Name three or four of the\nhighest peaks.\n\n NOTE.\n\n There is no continuous range in the Scandinavian mountains; the\n whole is a high table-land, which increases in height as we go\n south, with here and there groups of peaks which appear like\n huge rocks dotted over the surface. These plateaux are topped\n with moors or snowfields from which glaciers descend right down\n into the sea.\n\n7. How does the position of the mountains affect the rivers? Compare the\nrivers of Norway with those of Sweden.\n\n NOTE.\n\n Describe how, in Norway, the rivers rush in torrents over\n their rocky beds, while those in Sweden flow more gently\n down the gradual slope of the land. Give the threefold\n reason\u2014great rainfall, small evaporation owing to the coldness\n of the climate, and small waste owing to the hardness of\n the rocks\u2014for the great volume of water in the short, quick,\n Norwegian rivers.\n\n8. Recapitulate with blank map, the girls adding descriptive notes as\nthey answer the map questions.\n\n\n_Subject: Astronomy._\n\nGroup: Science. Class IV. Age: 16.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To interest the pupils in studying the heavens for themselves.\n\n2. To show where the planets may be looked for and how they may be\nrecognised.\n\n3. To help the pupils to apply their theoretical knowledge of the planets\nto explain the movements they can observe with the naked eye.\n\n4. To exercise the reasoning powers.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Get the pupils to describe the changes to be seen in the sky at\nnight, and, excluding the apparent motion caused by the earth\u2019s rotation,\nfind out whether they have noticed and contrasted the constellations of\nfixed stars and the planets (wanderers).\n\nLet the pupils tell which of the planets are visible to the naked eye,\nand ask whether they have noticed when and where are to be seen, at\nthe present date, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, which are in Capricornus,\nSagittarius, and Leo, respectively.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Draw from the pupils, if possible, the marks by which planets\ncan be distinguished from stars.\u2014\n\n (_a_) Their steady light.\n (_b_) Size (in the case of Venus and Jupiter).\n (_c_) Colour (in the case of Mars).\n (_d_) Position (relatively to known constellations).\n (_e_) Motion (noticeable after successive observations).\n\n_Step 3._\u2014To enlarge on Point (_d_), let the pupils name the planets\nwhose orbits are within that of the earth and those whose orbits are\noutside ours. By the help of a diagram (blackboard) of the solar system,\nget them to infer, from the nearness to the sun of Venus and Mercury,\nthat these planets are never visible at midnight, but only just before\nsunrise and after sunset.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014To appreciate Points (_d_) and (_e_), get the pupils to\nrecognise the advantage of knowing the constellations by sight. Show\nPhilip\u2019s Planisphere, and refer to the Zodiac, showing that, besides\nbeing the sun\u2019s apparent path, this is the region in which to seek the\nplanets.\n\nLet the pupils find the portion of the heavens visible at 6 p.m. to-day,\nand indicate, both in the heavens and with respect to our landscape, the\npositions of Jupiter and Saturn. Also show how Mars may be looked for in\nthe south, too, about 6 o\u2019clock in the morning.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014To enlarge on Point (_e_), show a diagram of the path of Venus\namong the constellations in 1868 (Lockyer\u2019s _Elementary Lessons in\nAstronomy_, p. 183), and get the pupils to notice how large a distance\nshe travelled in one month, in order to induce them to make personal\nobservations. Prepare them to see the planets sometimes move backwards\nand sometimes remain stationary. Explain this by letting one of the\ngirls move round the table, while the other watches how, with respect to\nher background, she appears to move first from left to right, then to\nremain stationary, then to move from right to left, and again to remain\nstationary. The moving girl, observing the other with respect to her\nbackground, notices the same phenomena.\n\nThen show the diagram in Lockyer, which illustrates these facts, p. 178,\nand also another in Reid\u2019s _Elements of Astronomy_, p. 137, which shows\nthe apparent motion of one planet viewed from another in motion.\n\n\nA PICTURE TALK.\n\nGroup: Art. Class III. Age: 13. Time: 25 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To give the girls some idea of composition, based on the work of the\nartist Jean Fran\u00e7ois Millet.\n\n2. To inspire them with a desire to study the works of other artists,\nwith a similar object in view.\n\n3. To help them with their original illustrations, by giving them ideas,\ncarried out in Millet\u2019s work, as to simplicity of treatment, breadth of\ntone, and use of lines.\n\n\nMATERIALS NEEDED.\n\nSee that the girls are provided with paint-boxes, brushes, water,\npencils, rulers, india-rubber, and paper.\n\nPhotographs of some of Millet\u2019s pictures.\n\nA picture-book by R. Caldecott.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Introduce the subject by talking with the children about their\noriginal illustrations. Tell them how our great artists have drawn ideas\nand inspiration from the work of other artists; have studied their\npictures, copied them, and tried to get at the spirit of them.\n\nTell them that to-day we are going to study some of the pictures of the\ngreat French artist, Millet, some of whose works Mr Yates has drawn for\nus on the walls of our Millet Room, considering them to be models of true\nart.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Tell the children a little about the life of Millet (giving\nthem one or two pictures to look at meanwhile); give only a brief sketch,\nso that they will feel that he is not a stranger to them.\n\nJust talk to them a little about his early childhood, how he worked in\nthe fields; how he had two great books\u2014the Book of Nature and the Bible,\nfrom which he drew much inspiration; how later on he went to Paris and\nstudied the pictures of great artists, Michael Angelo among them.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Show the pictures to the girls, let them look well at them, and\nthen draw from them their ideas as to the beauty and simplicity of the\ncomposition; call attention to the breadth of tone, and the dignity of\nthe lines. Help them, sketching when necessary, to reduce a picture to\nits most simple form; half-closing their eyes to shut out detail, help\nthem to get an idea of the masses of tone, etc.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Let the children reproduce a detail of one of the pictures,\nworking in water-colour with monochrome and making their washes simple\nand flat, reducing the tones to two or three.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Suggest to them to study the works of other artists in a\nsimilar way, and show them how the books of R. Caldecott will help them\nin making their figures look as if they were moving.\n\n\n_Subject: Fra Angelico._\n\nGroup: Art. Class IV. Average age: 16\u00bd.\n\nTime: 30 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To show reproductions of some of Fra Angelico\u2019s pictures.\n\n2. By means of them, to point out such distinguishing features as will\nenable my pupils to recognise Fra Angelico\u2019s work wherever they may see\nit.\n\n3. To show in what degree his work holds a place in high art.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Give a short sketch of the life of Fra Angelico.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Allow time for my pupils to look at the pictures provided,\nnamely, various reproductions of \u2018Christ in Glory,\u2019 \u2018Saints in Paradise,\u2019\n\u2018Angels,\u2019 \u2018Christ as Pilgrim,\u2019 \u2018Annunciation,\u2019 \u2018Crucifixion,\u2019 \u2018Noli me\ntangere,\u2019 \u2018Descent from the Cross,\u2019 \u2018Transfiguration.\u2019\n\n_Step 3._\u2014To notice what strikes us most in Fra Angelico\u2019s work\u2014the\nexquisite jewel-like finish; the pure open skies and unpretending clouds;\nthe winding and abundant landscapes; the angels; the touches of white\nlight; the delicacy and grace of form; the colouring; the peace.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014If high art is to be seen \u2018in the selection of a subject\nand its treatment, and the expression of the thoughts of the persons\nrepresented,\u2019 how far does Fra Angelico come up to this standard?\n\nHe unites perfect unison of expression with full exertion of pictorial\npower. This will be illustrated by further reference to the pictures, and\nby reading some passages from _Modern Painters_.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Allow my pupils time to look again at the pictures, summarising\nmeanwhile by a few questions.\n\n\n_Subject: Design._\n\nDivision: Art. Class IV. Average age: 16\u00bd.\n\nTime: 40 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To give the girls an idea of how to fill a space decoratively, basing\nthe design on a given plant.\n\n2. To show them that good ornament is taken from nature, but a mere copy\nof nature to decorate an object is not necessarily ornamental.\n\n3. To give them an appreciation of good ornament and help them to see\nwhat is bad.\n\n4. To draw out their originality by letting them make designs for\nthemselves.\n\n5. If possible, to give them a taste for designing by giving them some\nideas as to its use.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Ask the girls what is meant by a design.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014After getting from them as much as possible, explain to them\nthat a design is not a mere copy from nature, although it should be true\nto nature; make them see this by simply copying a plant in a required\nspace to be designed (let this space be for a book cover). It will look\nmeaningless and uninteresting, and does not fill the space, therefore\nit will not be ornamental. Then show the girls that a design requires\nthought and invention in arranging it to ornament the object. In the case\nof the book cover the flower must be designed to fill the space in some\norderly pattern, and should be massed in good proportion. Give a few\nexamples of this by illustrations on the board, and show them a book with\na design upon it.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Point out to them that the most beautiful designs and those\nthat have had the most thought spent upon them are the most simple.\nShow examples of this in Greek Ornament\u2014Greek Honeysuckle, Egg and Dart\nMoulding.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Tell the pupils that you wish them to make a design for a linen\nbook cover, 7 in. by 5 in., and if they have not time to finish to go on\nwith it at home; if they like to carry the design out practically, to\ntransfer it to linen and work it.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014Show the girls the flower from which they are to take their\ndesign, and point out its characteristics\u2014the general growth of the\nplant, the curves which it makes, the form of the flower and leaves, and\nthe way the leaves are joined to the central stem; these characteristics\nshould not be lost sight of, but be made use of in giving character to\nthe design, and treated as simply as possible.\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Let them begin their designs first of all by construction\nlines, and then clothe them with flowers and leaves, seeing that the\nmasses are in good proportion. If time permits the design could be tinted\nin two colours, one for the background representing the linen, and the\nother for the pattern upon it.\n\n_Step 7._\u2014Suggest to them different ways in which they can make use\nof design in making simple patterns for their handicrafts, such as\nleather-work, wood-carving, and brass-work.\n\n\n_Subject: Leather-work (Embossed)._\n\nGroup: Handicrafts. Class IV. Age: 16\u00bd.\n\nTime: 40 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To cultivate the artistic feeling in the pupils.\n\n2. To train them in neatness and in manual dexterity.\n\n3. To give training to the eye.\n\n4. To introduce them to a new handicraft.\n\n5. To work, as far as possible in the time, the top of a penwiper.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Show the pupils a shaded drawing of the design, also a partly\nfinished penwiper top, with the same design on it. When they have\ncompared the two, they will see that the effect of light and shade is\nobtained in the leather by raising the light parts and pressing back the\ndark ones.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Let the pupils trace the design on the leather with a pointer.\nRemove the tracing-paper and accentuate the lines with a pointer. (This\nis best done with a wheel in a large design.)\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Damp the leather and with a moulder press the background away\nfrom the outline of the design, also the dark parts under the folds at\nthe top of the petals and round the centre. From behind, raise up the\nlight parts with a moulder, and fill the holes thus made with a mixture\nof sawdust and meal, wet enough to make a kind of rough thick paste.\nPress away the dark parts again, and make any ornamental lines, etc.,\nwhile the stuffing is wet, as it soon dries very hard. For this reason a\nvery little must be stuffed at once; in this design, about one petal at a\ntime.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Let the pupils punch their background or not as they prefer.\n\nWork on my own half-finished piece of leather to avoid touching the\npupils\u2019 work.\n\n\n_Subject: Cooking._\n\nDivision: Handicrafts. Class IV. Age: 16\u00bd.\n\nTime: 45 minutes.\n\n\nOBJECTS.\n\n1. To teach the children to make little cakes.\n\n2. To show them that cooking must have method in it.\n\n3. To give them opportunity of thinking for themselves why certain things\nshould be done.\n\n4. To show them how they can alter a recipe to make it richer or plainer.\n\n5. To interest them in cooking.\n\n\nLESSON.\n\n_Step 1._\u2014Show the girls how to manage the stove for cooking.\n\n_Step 2._\u2014Show them all the utensils to be used, and let them arrange\nthem on the table.\n\n_Step 3._\u2014Let them write out the recipe from dictation.\n\n_Step 4._\u2014Let them grease the tins first of all with melted butter. Then\nlet them each weigh out the ingredients on pieces of kitchen paper, and\nlet them work independently of each other, the teacher also doing the\nsame thing, so that the pupils may be able to see how to set to work\nwithout having their own work interfered with. During the process ask\nthem _why_ certain things should be done\u2014for instance, why baking powder\nshould be used, why the patty-pans should be greased. Tell them that if\nthey wished to make the cakes plainer they could use milk instead of\neggs, or if richer, they could add raisins and currants and spice. When\nthe mixture is sufficiently beaten and put into the patty-pans, let the\ngirls put them into the oven.\n\n_Step 5._\u2014While the buns are cooking (they take about ten minutes), let\nthe children and teacher wash up the things they have been using and put\nthem away.\n\n_Step 6._\u2014Let the children see for themselves if the cakes are done; they\nshould be a light brown. Then let them place them on a sieve to cool, and\nthen arrange them on plates for the table.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1] _The Story of My Life_, by Augustus Hare (George Allen).\n\n[2] _Outlines of Psychology._\n\n[3] \u2018Person\u2019 is used in the common-sense, everyday acceptance of the word.\n\n[4] _Lehrbuch zur Psychologie_, Part III., sects. 152, 153 (see\n_Herbartian Psychology_, by J. Adams).\n\n[5] The references here and after are to the distinctive thought and work\nof the Parents\u2019 National Educational Union.\n\n[6] Cf. Coleridge\u2019s _Method_.\n\n[7] The Parents\u2019 National Educational Union.\n\n[8] Sonnenschein & Co.; 3s.\n\n[9] Quoted by Mr Lewis in _The Child and its Spiritual Nature_.\n\n[10] The Parents\u2019 National Educational Union.\n\n[11] The Parents\u2019 Union.\n\n[12] \u2018La Discessa dello Spirito Santo\u2019 and \u2018Allegoria filosofica della\nReligione Cattolica,\u2019 to be had from Mr G. Cole, 1 Via Torna Buoni,\nFlorence (shilling size, Nos. 4077 and 4093).\n\n[13] Of \u2018The Parents\u2019 Union.\u2019\n\n[14] _Pastor Pastorum_, by H. Latham, M.A., page 6.\n\n[15] The italics are mine.\n\n[16] _The Prelude._\n\n[17] Students of _Love\u2019s Meinie_ and _Proserpine_ will know what rich\ncompensations later life brought for the child\u2019s disadvantages.\n\n[18] _The Secret of the Presence of God._ Masters.\n\n[19] _The Prelude._\n\n[20] \u201cThe Schoolmaster,\u201d by H. C. Benson, of Eton College.\u2014_Nineteenth\nCentury_, December 1902.\n\n[21] _Spectator_, 2nd August 1902.\n\n[22] _Education_, 16th April 1903.\n\n[23] See _Through Hidden Shensi_, by F. Nichols.\n\n[24] It is highly encouraging that the new regulations of the Board of\nEducation both for primary and secondary schools lend themselves to the\nlines of work advocated in these pages.\n\n[25] See note at the end of the volume.\n\n[26] The writers have been in two minds about the spelling of words\nmarked [26].\n\n[27] After this the answer was dictated.\n\n[28] The writers have been in two minds about the spelling of words\nmarked [28].\n\n[29] The writers have been in two minds about the spelling of words\nmarked [29].\n\n[30] A large number of complete sets of examination answers may be seen\nat the office, and further information can be had from the Secretary,\nP.N.E.U., 26 Victoria Street, London, S.W.\n\n[31] Where the Gouin _Series_ are not taken, French, German, and Italian\nshould be taught _orally_, teacher repeating aloud, pupil reciting after\nher.\n\n[32] Subjects thus indicated to be marked by the parents according to\n_Regulations_.\n\n\n\n\nIndex\n\n\n Abraham, 4, 139.\n\n _Academy, The_, 81.\n\n Accuracy, 120.\n\n Adams, John Quincy, 178.\n\n Adams, Professor J., 59.\n\n Affinities, further, 194-203;\n for material, 194;\n children have, 208.\n\n Albert Memorial Chapel, 133.\n\n Alertness, 108.\n\n Alison\u2019s _History of Europe_, 178.\n\n \u2018Allegoria filosofica della Religione Cattolica,\u2019 155.\n\n Alleys, blind, 243.\n\n Ambidexterity, 244.\n\n Amiens, the Bible of, 132.\n\n Animals, intimacy with, 80.\n\n Angelico, Fra, 57.\n\n Angelo, Michael, 152, 155.\n\n Anxiety, note of transition stage, 26.\n\n Apostles\u2019 Creed, The, 146.\n\n Appendices, 248-359.\n\n \u2018Apperception masses,\u2019 245.\n\n Appliances, 230.\n\n Appreciation, \u00c6sthetic, 77.\n\n Arena Chapel, Padua, 132.\n\n Aristotle, 154.\n\n Armada, Spanish, 231.\n\n Armenia, 26.\n\n Arnold, Dr, 242.\n\n Arnold, Matthew, 131, 220.\n\n Art, 234, 238.\n\n Attention, 120.\n\n Aurelius, Marcus, 86.\n\n Austen, Jane, 243.\n\n Authority, and docility in home and school, 1-24;\n dethronement of, 6;\n not inherent but deputed, 7;\n and docility fundamental principles, 9;\n what is,? 10;\n vested in the office, 11;\n distinguished from autocracy, 15;\n behaviour of, 17;\n response of docility to, 19;\n avoids cause of offence, 22;\n is alert, 22;\n who gave thee this,? 23;\n basis of moral teaching, 126;\n limitations of, 127;\n in religious education, 137;\n how, works, 139.\n\n Autocracy, of elder generation of parents, 2;\n distinguished from authority, 15;\n behaviour of, 16.\n\n\n Basedow, 91, 97.\n\n Behistun Rock, 82.\n\n _Benedicite_, 134.\n\n Benson, H. C., 221.\n\n Bible, the, of Amiens, 132;\n habit of reading the, 142;\n the great storehouse of moral impressions, 175, 235.\n\n Biography, the value of, 133.\n\n Biology, utility of, 157.\n\n Bloch, M., 230.\n\n Board of Education, 247.\n\n Books, first-hand, 162;\n school, how they make for education, 164;\n that sustain life of thought, 168;\n school, of publishers, 168;\n how to select school, 177;\n marks of fit school, 178;\n how to use school, 178;\n intelligent reading of school, 180;\n other ways of using school, 180;\n Ruskin\u2019s delight in, 196;\n Wordsworth\u2019s delight in, 197;\n every child should have _own living_ books, 214;\n children must be educated on, 226;\n that supply sustenance of ideas, 228;\n and oral teaching, 229;\n education by, 232, 243;\n for use in nature study, 238;\n use of, makes for short hours, 240;\n and \u2018utilitarian\u2019 education, 240;\n _habit_ of, 247.\n\n Botany, Coleridge\u2019s description of, 157.\n\n Bowen, Edward, 242.\n\n Bremer, Frederika, 164, 220.\n\n Brightwen, Mrs, 238.\n\n Browning, Robert, 63, 90, 124, 134, 213.\n\n Brutus, 111.\n\n Bullen, Frank, 169.\n\n Burton, Sir Richard, 82.\n\n Byron\u2019s influence on Ruskin, 196, 199.\n\n\n _C\u00e6sar_, 125, 236.\n\n Camorra, the, 109.\n\n Capacities of a human being, the, 68.\n\n Carlyle, \u2018masterly inactivity,\u2019 28, 157;\n on lectures, 226.\n\n Charles, Mrs Rundle, 4.\n\n Chastity, 112.\n\n Child-mind, is there such a thing as the? 223.\n\n Child-study, 244.\n\n Children, better relation with elders, 1;\n confidence in the, 30;\n should be free in play, 36;\n must have personal initiative in work, 37;\n are not enough let alone, 38;\n should choose own friends, 40;\n should spend own pocket-money, 41;\n should form own opinions, 42;\n are persons, 63, 186;\n capacities of, 68;\n limitations of, 68;\n education of, 68;\n what nature does for, 74;\n have every power, 74;\n set up new relations, 78;\n must have dynamic relations, 79, 189;\n power over material, 80;\n intimacy with animals, 80;\n must have human relationships, 80;\n must establish relations with themselves, 86;\n with all classes, 87;\n with Almighty God, 89;\n the schoolmasters of, 94;\n need training in self-restraint, self-control, self-discipline,\n alertness, quick perception, fortitude, courage, prudence and\n service, by means of stimulating ideas, 105-112;\n intellectual habits necessary for, 120;\n living ideas for, 121;\n books for, 122;\n independent intellectual development of, 122;\n born neither moral nor immoral, 129;\n need training in the virtues, 136;\n religious life of, 137-147;\n formalists by nature, 143;\n religious habits for, 143, 144;\n ideas of religious life for, 144-147;\n must have a wider curriculum, 162;\n make large demands upon us, 170;\n are undervalued, 171;\n of the last generation, 172;\n as they are, 172;\n must have vitalising ideas, 172;\n must labour at books, 179;\n life tempered too much for, 183;\n are heirs to an enormous patrimony, 186;\n must have food of romance, 198;\n must range at will among books, 198;\n have affinities and must have relations, 208;\n have right of entry to several fields of knowledge, 214;\n have appetite for such knowledge, 214;\n are to be educated on books and things, 214;\n should study their _own living_ books, 214;\n have a natural craving for knowledge, 225;\n must be educated on books, 226;\n delight in school, but not for love of knowledge, 245;\n educated, 245;\n the Magna Carta of the, 247.\n\n Chinese intellectual futilities, 244.\n\n Christ, on authority, 16;\n kingship of, 145;\n our Saviour, 146.\n\n Church catechism, the, 130, 147.\n\n Cicero, 154.\n\n Citizens, fitness as, 88.\n\n Coleridge, on _Method_, 71;\n Lady Geraldine, 90;\n concerning Plato, 125;\n on ideas, 155, 157, 212.\n\n Colonna, Vittoria, 155.\n\n Columbus, 155.\n\n Comenius, 91.\n\n Commandments, the ten, 83, 85, 130.\n\n Comradeship, 201; has duties, 211.\n\n Confidence, self, 29;\n in children, 30.\n\n Consciousness, Locke\u2019s \u2018states of,\u2019 49.\n\n Co-ordination of studies, 230.\n\n Courage, 111.\n\n Cowper, 223.\n\n Crafts, manual, 234, 236.\n\n Crete, peasants of, 161, 224.\n\n Culture, physical, 101-112.\n\n Curriculum, a wider, necessary, 162;\n suggestions towards a, 215-227;\n question of a, 234.\n\n _Curse of Kehama_, the, 123.\n\n\n Darwin, 224.\n\n Daumer, Dr, 72.\n\n Decision, the effort of, 20.\n\n Demokritos, 158.\n\n Development, of faculties, 92;\n intellectual, of children, 122;\n abnormal, 151.\n\n Devotions, regularity in, 142.\n\n Disciplinary, subjects, 119, 174;\n devices, 181.\n\n Dissatisfaction with education, general, 45.\n\n Docility, and authority, 1-24;\n a fundamental principle, 9;\n response of, to authority, 19.\n\n Dominant ideas, 93.\n\n Drawing, 238.\n\n Duty, not within scope of present-day psychology, 83;\n does not come by nature, 85;\n is not sentiment, 90;\n that which we owe, 128;\n Wordsworth on, 130.\n\n Dynamic relations, 79, 189.\n\n\n Edinburgh Cathedral, 134.\n\n Education, general dissatisfaction with, 45;\n the science of relations, 65, 161, 182-213, 222;\n an adequate theory of, 68-78;\n of a human being, 68;\n medi\u00e6val conception of, 95;\n uncertainty as to purpose of, 96;\n religious, 137-147;\n is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life, 148, 182, 216;\n is not cultivation of faculties, 151;\n has three faces, 152;\n is a world business, 160;\n how school-books make for, 164-173;\n an infant\u2019s self, 186;\n of the little prig, 207;\n not desultory, 209;\n objective not subjective, 218;\n should give knowledge touched with emotion, 220;\n our aim in, 170, 231;\n by books, 226, 232, 243;\n by things, 231.\n\n _Education_, 233.\n\n Educational, thought, 4;\n thought in the eighteenth century, 44;\n some, theories examined, 56;\n truth a common possession, 62;\n German, reform, 91;\n only three, instruments, 182;\n unrest, 219;\n aim of Plato, 125;\n an, manifesto, 214.\n\n Educationalist, a great, 91.\n\n Element of personality, 57.\n\n Elizabeth, Queen, 17, 188.\n\n _Emil_, 96.\n\n Ennui, 150.\n\n _E\u00f6then_, 122.\n\n Epictetus, 86.\n\n Establishment of relations, 75, 84.\n\n Ethical, casual, teaching, 84;\n teaching of the Middle Ages, 131.\n\n Euclid, 96, 154.\n\n Evelyn, Richard, son of John, 171.\n\n Evolution, of the individual, 47, 50;\n is checked, 55;\n master-thought of the age, 157;\n attitude of parents and teachers towards, 159.\n\n Examination of a child of twelve, 302-329.\n\n Existence, struggle for, 57.\n\n\n Facts, three ultimate, 114.\n\n Faculties, development of, 92;\n we discard, 92.\n\n _Fa\u00ebry Queen, The_, 122.\n\n Failure, causes of, 242.\n\n Fairy lore, a screen and a shelter, 184.\n\n Faith, 35.\n\n Family principle, the, 96.\n\n Fate and free-will, 31.\n\n Fatherhood of God, the, 145.\n\n Finality of human reason, 8.\n\n First-hand knowledge, 77.\n\n Fisher, Mrs, 238.\n\n Flower studies, Ruskin\u2019s, 195.\n\n Fortitude, 110.\n\n Francis, St, 75.\n\n Freeman, Professor, 124.\n\n French Revolution, the, 6.\n\n Froebel, the theories of, 56, 58, 91, 92.\n\n\n Gaddi, Taddeo, 155.\n\n Games, organised, are not play, 36.\n\n Geddes, Professor P., 238.\n\n Geikie, Professor, 238.\n\n Geography, 79, 237.\n\n Geology, 79, 237.\n\n \u2018George, The Royal,\u2019 10.\n\n Geraldine, Lady, 90.\n\n German, educational thought, 56;\n educational reform, 91.\n\n Ghost, the Holy, 95, 112, 146, 155.\n\n Giotto, 132.\n\n God, we are made for, 90;\n the will of, 20, 129;\n relationship to, 89, 212;\n an ultimate fact, 114;\n duty to, 136;\n fatherhood of, 145;\n authority of, 127, 138;\n the thought of, 140;\n the Holy Spirit, 146;\n a revelation of, 159.\n\n\n Habit, of prompt obedience, 20;\n in physical training, 104-110;\n local, 107;\n intellectual, 118, 119;\n of sweet thought, 135;\n of religious life, 140;\n of thought of God, 140;\n of praise, 143;\n of Sunday-keeping, 144.\n\n _Hamlet_, 188.\n\n Hare, Augustus, 13-15.\n\n \u2018Harlech,\u2019 Turner\u2019s, 204.\n\n Hauser, Kaspar, 71-74.\n\n Hawkshead, 191, 202.\n\n Hector, 98.\n\n Heraklitos, 158.\n\n Herbart, psychology of, 58-100;\n eliminates personality, 58;\n German educators work upon, 91;\n discards faculties, 92;\n on education in the family, 94;\n theory of, ethical, 98;\n on \u2018apperception mass,\u2019 185.\n\n Historic sense, Ruskin\u2019s local, 199.\n\n History, 235.\n\n Holmes, O. Wendell, 169.\n\n Homer, 152.\n\n Home rule, 26.\n\n Human, a, being, 68;\n relationships, 80, 88;\n intelligence, 82;\n full, life, 82.\n\n Human reason, finality of, 8.\n\n Humour, good, 29.\n\n Huxley, 18, 157, 237.\n\n\n Idea, a captain, 161.\n\n Ideas, behaviour of, 69;\n cannot be begotten unaided, 69;\n certain, attracted by certain persons, 70;\n that strike us, 70;\n awakening, 81;\n dominant, 93;\n stimulating, 110;\n nothing so practical as great, 118;\n living, 121;\n of the religious life, 144.\n\n _Iliad, The_, 98.\n\n Impressions, moral, 175.\n\n Inactivity, masterly, 25-35;\n component parts of, 32.\n\n Inanition, intellectual, 149.\n\n Individual, the evolution of the, 47.\n\n Indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the, 146.\n\n Infant\u2019s self-education, an, 186.\n\n Information, knowledge _versus_, 224.\n\n Initiation, Ruskin\u2019s, 205.\n\n Initiative in work, personal, 37.\n\n Instruction, subjects of, 174.\n\n Intellect, man\u2019s peculiar sphere, 116.\n\n Intellectual, training, 113-125;\n we recognise no, authority, 113;\n three ultimate facts, 114;\n habits, 118-121;\n living ideas in, life, 121;\n literature, 122;\n independent, development, 122.\n\n Intelligence, human, limited by human interests, 82.\n\n Interests, 219;\n and relations, 241.\n\n Intimacies, with animals, 80;\n with persons of all classes, 87;\n we are educated by our, 182-213;\n with natural objects, 194;\n life-shaping, 196.\n\n\n James, Professor, on psychology, 51, 53, 54.\n\n Johnson, Dr, 226, 227.\n\n Joseph, 185, 235.\n\n\n \u2018Kailyard\u2019 literature, 47.\n\n Keble, 24.\n\n Ken, Bishop, 130.\n\n Kidd, Benjamin, 9.\n\n Kindergarten, 57, 58.\n\n Kingship of Christ, the, 145.\n\n Kipling, Rudyard, 134.\n\n Knowledge, first-hand, appreciative, exact, 77;\n man\u2019s proper discovery, 116;\n learned in schools, 201;\n _versus_ information, 224;\n the love of, 240-247.\n\n Knossos, 224.\n\n\n \u2018La Discessa dello Spirito Santo,\u2019 155.\n\n Latham, the Rev. H., 183.\n\n Lawrence, Brother, 212, 213.\n\n Lawrences, the, 2.\n\n Lecky, Professor, 240.\n\n _Lehrbuch zur Psychologie_, 59.\n\n Leisure, 34.\n\n Lesson-books, parsimony in, 124.\n\n Lewis, H. King, 122.\n\n Life, full human, 82;\n too much tempered, 183;\n religious, 144;\n education is a, 148, 152, 182, 216;\n a creed which unifies, 154.\n\n Limitations, of a human being, 68;\n of teachers, 170;\n of the educator, 183.\n\n Linn\u00e6us, 77.\n\n _Little Arthur\u2019s History_, 235.\n\n Liturgy, the, 176.\n\n Living, fulness of, 75;\n spontaneous, 185.\n\n Locke, on infallible reason, 5, 6, 44;\n on \u2018states of consciousness,\u2019 49, 50, 51.\n\n _Love\u2019s Meinie_, 195.\n\n Lucerne, \u2018Peace and War\u2019 museum, 230.\n\n\n Macaulay, 72.\n\n Magna Carta of the children, the, 247.\n\n Magnus, Sir Philip, 232, 233.\n\n Malcolm, Sir John, 81, 82.\n\n Manifesto, an educational, 214.\n\n Martineau, Miss, 122.\n\n \u2018Masterly inactivity,\u2019 25-35;\n component parts of, 32, 45.\n\n Material, power over, 80;\n affinity for, 194.\n\n Materialism, \u2018unjustifiable,\u2019 52.\n\n Mathematics, 174, 234, 236.\n\n Matsys, Quentin, 152\n\n Meditation, habit of, 120.\n\n Memmi, Simone, 155.\n\n _Memorials of a Quiet Life_, 13.\n\n _Method_, Coleridge\u2019s, 71.\n\n Miall, Professor, 238.\n\n Mill, J. S., 2.\n\n Millet, J. F., 239.\n\n Milton, 2, 181.\n\n Mind, the Child-, 223.\n\n Minos, King, 161, 224.\n\n Mistakes made on principle, 13.\n\n Montague\u2019s _Feather-Hangings_, Mrs, 223.\n\n Moral, impressions, the Bible the source of, 175, 235;\n progress, 25;\n training, 126-136;\n basis of, teaching, 126;\n principles, 127;\n children neither, nor immoral, 129;\n teaching, 130-132;\n high ideals in, education, 133;\n value of biography, 133;\n value of poems, 134;\n value of mottoes, 135;\n habits of thought, 135.\n\n _Morality_, Matthew Arnold\u2019s, 131.\n\n Morals do not come by nature, 129.\n\n More, Hannah, 172.\n\n Morgan, Professor Lloyd, 238.\n\n Morris, William, 171.\n\n\n Narration, the value of, 179.\n\n Nature, what, does for a child, 74;\n does not teach us duty, 129;\n intimacy with, 194;\n ideas of, 157;\n a passion, 205;\n study, 236, 237.\n\n Newman, Cardinal, 42, 134.\n\n Nichols, F., 244.\n\n Nineteenth-century formula, a, 148.\n\n _Nineteenth-Century, The_, 221.\n\n Novella, Santa Maria, 153.\n\n\n Obedience, mechanical and reasonable, 18;\n prompt, 20.\n\n Obscurity of psychology, the, 98.\n\n _Ode to Duty_, Wordsworth\u2019s, 130.\n\n _Ode to the Iron Duke_, 134.\n\n _Old English History_, 124.\n\n Omniscience of parents and teachers, 30.\n\n \u2018Open, sesame,\u2019 174.\n\n Opinions, children should form their own, 42.\n\n Opportunities, Wordsworth\u2019s recognition of, 191;\n Ruskin\u2019s, 194.\n\n Oral teaching, 169, 214, 229, 329-359.\n\n _Outlines of Pedagogics_, 91.\n\n _Outlines of Psychology_, 52.\n\n\n Padua, the Arena Chapel, 132.\n\n Parents, the elder generation autocratic, 2;\n responsibility of, 26;\n need more confidence, 29;\n omniscience of, 30;\n National Educational Union, 26, 62, 87, 92, 138, 148, 216, 217,\n 220, 222;\n _The_, _Review_, 148;\n the _Review_ School, 240, 246.\n\n Parsimony in lesson-books, 124.\n\n Passiveness, wise, 28, 34.\n\n Past, living touch with the, 200.\n\n _Pastor Pastorum_, 183.\n\n Paul, St, 83, 235.\n\n Pebble studies, Ruskin\u2019s, 196.\n\n Penelope, 224.\n\n Personality, 37, 60, 158.\n\n Persons, rights of children as, 36-43;\n sacredness of, 46;\n evolution of, 47, 50;\n effects not causes, 59;\n children are, 63;\n will think and feel, 64;\n certain ideas attract certain, 70;\n expansion and activity of, 71;\n intimacy with, of all classes, 87.\n\n Philosophers, rationalistic, 10.\n\n Physical training, 101-112;\n does our, make heroes? 101;\n end of, 102;\n habit in, 104;\n stimulating ideas in, 110.\n\n Physiological psychology, 51.\n\n Picture-talks, 239.\n\n Plato, on ideas, 69;\n educational aim of, 125, 224.\n\n Play, games not organised, 36.\n\n Plutarch, 152.\n\n Pocket-money, children\u2019s, 41.\n\n Poet, the calling of a, 207.\n\n Pope, 196.\n\n Portia, 111.\n\n Power, a normal child has every, 74;\n of recognition, 76;\n over material, 80.\n\n _Pr\u00e6terita_, 182-213.\n\n Praise, the habit of, 143.\n\n Prig, the education of the, 207.\n\n Principle, a unifying, 220.\n\n Principles, fundamental, 9;\n luminous, 99;\n foundation, 126.\n\n Progress, moral, 25.\n\n _Proserpine_, Ruskin\u2019s, 195.\n\n Prudence, 111.\n\n Psychology, in relation to current thought, 44-55;\n many systems of, 45;\n an adequate system of, 46;\n a \u2018phrase of diffidence,\u2019 52;\n the new, 53;\n must meet demands on it, 62;\n present-day, 83;\n obscurity of, 98.\n\n\n _Quarterly, The_, 223.\n\n Queen, the late, 133, 134.\n\n Questions \u2018in the air,\u2019 138.\n\n Questions for the use of readers, 248.\n\n \u2018Quick as thought,\u2019 8.\n\n Quincey, De, 175-177.\n\n\n Race, solidarity of the, 48.\n\n Rambouillet, H\u00f4tel, 150.\n\n _Rasselas_, 122.\n\n Ratich, 91.\n\n Rationalistic philosophers, 10.\n\n Rawlinson, Sir Henry, 81, 82.\n\n Reason, infallible, 5;\n apotheosis of, 6;\n finality of human, 8;\n limitations of, 115;\n brings logical proof of any idea, 116.\n\n Recognition, the power of, 76.\n\n Reflection, 120.\n\n Rein, Professor W., 91, 94, 96.\n\n Relations, between children and parents, 1;\n education is the science of, 65, 161, 185, 217, 219, 222;\n establishment of, 75, 84;\n new, 78;\n proper to a child, 79-90;\n dynamic, 79, 189;\n human, 80, 86, 88;\n to Almighty God, 89, 212;\n and interests, 241.\n\n Religious education, 137-147;\n habits in, 140;\n thought of God in, 140;\n inspiring ideas in, 144;\n a curriculum in, 235.\n\n Responsibility, increased sense of, 25;\n parental, 26, 27.\n\n Restless habits, 27.\n\n Rhodes, Cecil, 201.\n\n _Robinson Crusoe_, 122, 172.\n\n Romance, children must have food of, 198.\n\n Romanes, G. J., 120.\n\n R\u00f6ntgen rays, 27.\n\n _Rosamund and the Purple Jar_, 41.\n\n Rousseau, 44, 96, 97.\n\n _Rugby Chapel_, 131.\n\n Rule, arbitrary, 3.\n\n Ruler, qualities proper to a, 17.\n\n Ruskin, 2, 117, 125, 132, 182-213.\n\n Ruskin\u2019s, dynamic relations, 189;\n limitations of condition, 190;\n opportunities, 194;\n flower studies, 195;\n pebble studies, 196;\n delight in books, 196;\n local historic sense, 199;\n aloofness from the past, 200;\n vocation, 204;\n sincere work, 205.\n\n\n Sadler, Professor, 221.\n\n Saviour, our, 145.\n\n School-books, 164-173;\n of the publishers, 168;\n how to select, 177;\n mark of fit, 178;\n how to use, 178, 179;\n children must labour at, 179;\n teacher\u2019s part as to, 180, 228-239.\n\n School Field, Hackney, 38.\n\n Schoolmasters of the child, the, 94.\n\n School of Song, Edinburgh Cathedral, 134.\n\n Science, 156, 236.\n\n Scott, Sir Walter, 202, 209.\n\n Self, confidence, 29;\n restraint, 105;\n control, 106;\n discipline, 107;\n an ultimate fact, 114;\n appropriation of ideas, 123.\n\n Sentiment is not duty, 90.\n\n Serenity, 33.\n\n Service, 111.\n\n Shakespeare, 43, 150.\n\n Shelley\u2019s _Skylark_, 121.\n\n Smollett, 178.\n\n _Social Evolution_, 9.\n\n Sociology, 87.\n\n Socrates, 128, 131.\n\n Solidarity of the race, the, 48.\n\n Solomon, King, 84.\n\n Sorabji, Cornelia, 232.\n\n Southey, 122.\n\n Spanish chapel, the, 95, 125, 153.\n\n _Spectator, The_, 232.\n\n Spencer, Herbert, 6, 7.\n\n Spirit, the Holy, 8, 118, 153, 155, 173.\n\n Spontaneity, 43.\n\n Sta\u00ebl, Madame de, 150.\n\n Standing aside, the art of, 66.\n\n \u2018States of consciousness,\u2019 Locke\u2019s, 49.\n\n Sterne, Laurence, 190.\n\n Stimulus, 187.\n\n Struggle for existence, the, 57.\n\n Studies, serve for delight, ornament, ability, 214;\n co-ordination of, 230.\n\n Subjects, disciplinary, 119;\n of instruction, 174.\n\n Suggestions towards a curriculum, 215-239.\n\n Sunday-keeping, 141, 144.\n\n System of psychology, an adequate, 46.\n\n\n Taine, 247.\n\n Teachers, limitations of, 170;\n must remove obstructions and give stimulus, 187;\n errors of, 188.\n\n Teaching must not be obtrusive, 66.\n\n _Te Deum_, 155.\n\n Tennyson, 2, 10, 107, 122, 123, 131, 134.\n\n _Thalaba_, 123.\n\n _The Child and its Spiritual Nature_, 122.\n\n _The Cruise of the Cachelot_, 169.\n\n _The Flag of England_, 134.\n\n _The Native-born_, 134.\n\n _The Neighbours_, 164.\n\n Theories examined, some educational, 56-67.\n\n _The Prelude_, 182-213.\n\n _The Secret of the Presence of God_, 212.\n\n _The Story of my Life_, 13-15.\n\n Things, education by, 214, 231.\n\n Thomson, Professor, 238.\n\n Thoroughness, 120.\n\n Thought, psychology in relation to current, 44-55;\n educational, in the eighteenth century, 44;\n best, is common, 49;\n P.N.E.U., 92;\n habit of sweet, 135.\n\n Three ultimate facts, 114.\n\n Thring, 242.\n\n _Through Hidden Shensi_, 244.\n\n _Tiers \u00c9tat_, 157.\n\n Training, physical, 101-112.\n\n Traquair, Mrs, 134.\n\n Truth, educational, 62.\n\n Turner, 204.\n\n Tyson, Dame, 191.\n\n\n Ulysses, 224.\n\n \u2018Utilitarian\u2019 education, 240.\n\n\n Vinci, Leonardo da, 152.\n\n Virgil, 236.\n\n Virtues in which children should be trained, 136.\n\n _Vis inerti\u00e6_, 59.\n\n Vocation, 204-213.\n\n Volition, intellectual, 120.\n\n\n Walt Whitman, 48.\n\n _Waverley_, 209.\n\n Wells, H. G., 228.\n\n What a child should know at twelve, 300-302.\n\n Words, \u2018a passion and a power,\u2019 199.\n\n Wordsworth\u2019s \u2018wise passiveness,\u2019 28;\n cloud, 92;\n recognition of opportunities, 191;\n intimacy with nature, 195;\n delight in books, 197;\n delight in words, 199;\n aloofness from past, 200;\n calling as poet, 207.\n\n Work, personal initiative in, 37.\n\n World an ultimate fact, the, 114.\n\n\n Zeitgeist, the, 46.\n\n Zoroaster, 96, 154.\n\n\u2042 As frequent mention has been made of the _Parents\u2019 National Educational\nUnion_ and its various agencies, it may be well to add that information\nabout these may be had from the Secretary. The \u201c_Questions for the\nUse of Readers_\u201d are inserted with a view to the P.N.E.U. READING\nCOURSE. Persons who wish to become \u201cQualified Members\u201d of the Union\nby undertaking this course should communicate with the Secretary, 26\nVictoria Street, London, S.W.\n\n PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.","title":"School education","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":110102}