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"Much of what needs saying today is already implicit in William Morris' well-known dissent from the establishment of a chair of English Literature at Oxford. It dates to the eighteen-eighties when Morris spoke, and to the late eighteen-sixties when Farrar edited the Essays on a Liberal Education and Matthew Arnold produced his Culture and Anarchy. We must look there for the assumptions on which faculties of English Literature were founded. " --"To Civilize Our Gentlemen" (1965) by George Steiner

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Essays on a Liberal Education (1867) is a collection of texts by Frederic William Farrar.

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PREFACE.

The principles and methods of Liberal Education are at the present time undergoing considerable dis- cussion, and it cannot be otherwise than useful to direct general attention to the changes already in pro- gress, and to other reforms which have become either imperative or desirable. Liberal Education in England is not controlled by the Government, nor is it entirely in the hands of tutors and schoolmasters ; it is an I institution of national growth, and it will expand and improve only with the expansion and imi)rove- ment of our national ideas of what education ought to be. We have endeavoured, so far as lies in our power, to hasten this expansion and improvement by showing in what liglit some of the most iiit^resting

vi PREFACE,

questions of Educational Reform are viewed by men who have had opportunities for forming a judgment respecting them, and several of whom have been for some time engaged in the work of education at our Universities and Schoola

LIST OF ^T BJi:n;S AND Al lilOUS.

ESSAY I.

ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

Bt CiiARi£8 Stuart Parker, M.A. Fdlmv of University ColUge^ Oxford.

Page 1

ESSAY II.

THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

Bt Henry Sidgwick, M.A. Fellow of Trinity Colkge, Cambridge.

Page 81

ESSAY IIL LIBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. Bt Jovls Seeley, M.A. Fellow of CJirisfs College, Cambridge, aiid Professor

of Latin in University CoUege, London. Page 145

ESSAY IF.

ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR.

Bt E. B. Bowen, M.A. Late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and

Assistant Master at Harrow. Page 179

ESSAY F.

ON GREEK AND LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITION AS A GENERAL

BRANCH OF EDUCATION.

Bt the Rev. F. W. Farrar, M.A. F.R.S. Page 205

viii LIST OF SUBJECTS AND AUTHORS,

ESSAY VL

ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. By J. M. Wilson; M.A. F.G.S. F.KA.S. ^«mton< MaAefr in Eu^ School, and Fellow of St, John*8 College, Cambridge, Page 241

ESSAY FII,

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. Br J. W. Hales, M.A. Late Fellow and Assistant Tutor of ChrisVs College^

ambridge. Page 2d3

ESSAY VIIL ON THE EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES.

Br W. Johnson, M.A. Fellow of King's College^ Cambridge^ and Assistant

Master at Eton, Page 313

ESSAY IX,

ON THE PRESENT SOCLAX RESULTS OF CLASSICAL

EDUCATION.

Bt Lord Houghton, M.A. Trin, CoU, Cambridge^ and Hon, D.C.L. Oxford,

Page 365

/

ESSAYS

ON

A LIBEKAL EDUCATION.

I.

ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION/

BY CHARLES STUABT PARKER.

I. Greek as a Common Language.— II. The Early (Greek) Church and the Classics. — III. Latin as a Common Language. — IV. The Medi^sval (Latin) Churdi and the Classics.— V. The Revival of Letters in Italy.— VI. The Revival of Letters in Germany. — VII. The Reformation and Classical Education. — ^VIII. Classical Education in England. —IX. English Theories of a larger Education. — X. Experience of Germany.— XI. Experience of France. — XII. Present State of Liberal Education in England.

Although there are many theories of classical educa- tion as it now exists, history can give but one account of its origin. It arose from the relations in which the Greek and Latin languages have stood, in the past, to the whole higher life, intellectual and moral, literary and scientific, civil and religious, of Western Europe. Greeks and Romans, as well as Jews, are our spiritual ancestors. They left treasures of recorded thought, word, and deed, by the timely and judicious use of

' For parts of this paper, materials have been taken from Von Raumer's and from Schmidt's ** Geschichte der Padagogik."

B

2 ESSAYS ON J LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay 1.

which their heirs have become the leaders of mankind. But they left them in custody of their native tongues.

I. After Alexander, the Greek tongue spread widely through the East, and became the means of blending Oriental with Western modes of thought. Commerce prepared the way for liberal intercourse. Ideas were exchanged freely with reciprocal advantage. But the Greek, oflfering new philosophy for old religion, obtained for Europe the more precious gift —

XpviTta xaXxeua)^, tKorofilioC iyyeaPolufv.

No faith attracted more attention than that of the Jews. Their sacred books were carefully translated into the Greek language, and afterwards, by fanciful adaptation, and by real insight, expressed in terms of Greek thought Greek philosophy meanwhile, embracing with reverence the long-sought wisdom of the East, went beyond the measure of Pythagoras, Socrates, or Plato, and often beyond the guidance of sober reason, in ascetic abstraction from the things of sense, and ardent longing after spiritual truth.

Christianity itself had Greek for its mother-tongue. St. Paul, a Roman citizen, writes in Greek to the Christians of Rome. The Epistle to the Hebrews is Greek, and so is that of St. James " to the twelve tribes scattered abroad." Indeed, it is now maintained that Greek had become the ordinary language of Palestine, and was spoken by our Lord himself.^

Nor did Western Christendom lay aside this tongue, provided by God to publish and preserve the Gospel, untU the Greek mind had left its lasting impress on the doctrines of the Universal Church.

' Roberts' Discussions on the Gospels.

ul] aV TBB niSTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 3

For great part of three centuries, the Churches of the West were mostly "Greek religious colonies/ Their kcgnage, their organization, their liturgj-,^ their Scrip- tures, were Greek. The A|K)Stolic Fathers, the apo- liigista and historians of the early Church, the great ihi.'ologians, orthodox and heretic, wrote and spoke Greek. The proceedings of the first seven Councila vera carried on, and the speculative form of the Christian faith defined, in that language. It was Wdly possible to handle the profounder questions in any other. Augustine is at a loss for words to speak of them in Latin. Seven centuries later Anselm undeiv tAkea the task with diffidence ; nor is it clear whether m Ms own judgment he succeeds or fails,^

Thus, when Cliristianity became the State religion, ftnd the emperor, in such broken language as he could command, took a modest part in the discussions of Nicjea, it was a last and signal spiritual triumph of captive Greece over Rome.

II. The ancient Church encouraged the study of iieatlien literature, but with a paramount regard to mwidity and Christian truth. Plato, Cicero, and Quin- tiiian had pointed out the danger of using the poets uidiscriminat*rly as school-books ; and the Father who

' Mibnan'* Latin Cbmtianjtj, i. S7.

' It U •if^iilicnnt that the word litur^j is Greek, aa are hymn, jMoIm, ^•""Qf, ud eatrrhitm, bajrtitm and eitcharist, prietl, buihop luid pope.

' Hi« ohief diffienlty is to translitte wrrfimnn! — " trsB neacio qnid , , , "w pxnum proferre nno nomine . . , congruo nomine dici non potest . . . 'ion Don »nnt tres aubstontifl?. itft non sunt treN jwraona.'." Yet he nsea '"^iiiki, npologisijig T " Giiecos secutna Bnm. qui coiifit«ntur tres Hnbatantias Ul unk utenlia, eadcm tide, qua una Ires peraonus, in una substantia." There

• " Ut, and llWTe are " tns subBlAntia; : " there are not, and there are,

"'* JwraoQff'." Such are the rerbal eonlmdictioiis which ivroso from the "nfllnnB of the lAtin tongue to render Oreek thought.

4 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay I.

slept with Aristophanes under his pillow would not have placed him in the hands of boys. But even Tertullian allowed Christian boys to attend the public schools under pagan masters.

Origen made the study of heathen poets and moralists preparatory to that of higher Christian truth. His master, Clement, taught that philosophy^ was the testa- 9 \ment or dispensation given to the Greeks, the school- master to bring them, as the Mosaic law brought the Jews, to Christ. And his teaching was generally ac- cepted. To this day "along the porticoes of Eastern churches, both in Greece and Russia, are to be seen portrayed on the walls the figures of Homer, Thucy- dides, Pythagoras, and Plato, as pioneers preparing the way for Christianity."* When Julian forbade the Christians to institute public schools of rhetoric and literature, in which pagan authors might be read, the bishops protested

In short the liberality of these early Fathers, their eagerness to recognise a high moral and intellectual standard, wherever it could be found in heathen writers, as ** the testimony of a soul by nature Christian," and their faith that such excellent gifts are from God, fur- nish an admirable example of the spirit in which the Church may deal with questions of education, whether they relate to Greek philosophy and the classics, or to modern inductive science and free thought

During this first Christian age, Greek was the common

/

^ A faith afraid of philosophy, in his view, is a weak £uth. Faith is a summary mode of knowledge {avvrofios yvSais) ; knowledge is the scientific and reasoned form of faith (iTrumjfioviKrj niims, dir6d€i^is). Faith oomes fij»t, but let us add to our faith knowledge.

' Stanley's Eastern Church, p. 35.

-uJ

Piiira.J OiY TUB HISTORY OF CLASSICAL ELUCATI02f. 5

laugoage of literature, while Latin, after Tacitus and Pliny, rapidly declined. The " Meditations " of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius are composed in the vema- ciikr of the freedman Epictetus. No Latin names can be placed beside those of Lucian and Plutarch, Arrian and Dion Cassius, Ptolemy and Galen. At Athens and Alexandiia, the great conservative and liberal rmiver- ailies,' studies in grammar and criticism were conducted si>ie by side with philosophy and science. In both iliie the Greek tongue was employed. Of all the con- iiiurahle intellectual production which went on through- out the Roman world, jurisprudence alone was Latin.

in. But if Greek was the chosen language which ' carried literatxire, science, and wisdom. Christian, as wl'U as heathen, to the highest pitch in the ancient World, Latin also was an appointed means of ti-ans- ferring them to Western Europe.

Tlie imperial art of Rome laid the solid foundations oil which, when the flood of barbarism began to subside, iiucli of the old fabric was laboriou.sIy reconstructed, liiifore the thoughts of man took a wider range. In Sp;iin and Gaul Latin became the mother tengue. But iii uneducated mouths it resumed that process of decay wid regeneration, the natural life of a language spoken "^ not written, which only literature can arrest. Eenco ■^ time, Italians, as well as Spaniards and French, had ^ Icam book-Latin as a foreign language,' It was

UcriTKle'a Roman Empire, toL vii.

' DniU (De viilgui Elotiuenlia) dUtingiiiBhes the literary from the "%» tongne aa being acquired bj long and patient attention t<D rule.

^tUDnutica locutio eat secuudorio. Ad hiLbltiim hiijun pauci pervcniunt, 'I'" BOB niat per ipiitiiiin tempons et studii aBaiduitiitem rtgularnvT ti '"finawnr in ilia," His own Latin wm uncouth.

6 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bssat I.

to them what the writmgs of our forefathers would be to us, if " Englisc '* literature excelled English as Eoman did " Romance." But other than literary in- terests maintained the old Latin as a common language beside the provincial dialects of the new.

The laws of the Western Empire, the last and greatest product of the ancient Eoman mind, were adopted by the Gothic, Lombard, and Carlovingian dynasties, and in the twelfth century the first great European school at Bologna was thronged by students of Eoman law.* At one time there were twenty thousand, fix)m different countries, dividing their atten- tion between civil and canon law, the Pandects and the Decretals. Both were studied with a view to ad- vancement in life, but especially to Church preferment

Indeed itmay be said, with as much truth as is re- quired in metaphor, that the ark which carried through the darkest age, together with its own sacred treasures, the living use of ancient Latin, and some tradition of ancient learning, was the Christian Church.

What at first had been everywhere a Greek became in Western Europe a Latin religion. The discipline of Eome maintained the body of doctrine which the thought of Greece had defined. A new Latin version, super- seding alike the venerable Greek translation of the Old Testament and the original words of Evangelists and Apostles, became the received text of Holy Scripture. The Latin Fathers acquired an authority scarcely less binding. The ritual, lessons, and hynms of the Church were Latin. Ecclesiastics transacted the business of

"ogBT Bacon and Dante both complain that no one would study any- al jnrispradence. (Dr. DoUinger's Universities Past and Present.)

Pajuml] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 7

cml departments requiring education. Libraries were armouries of the Church: grammar was part of her drill The humblest scholar was enlisted in her service : ahe recruited her ranks by founding Latin schools. "" Education in the rudiments of Latin," says Hallam, "was imparted to a greater number of individuals than at present;" and, as they had more use for it than at present, it was longer retained. If a boy of humble birth had a taste for letters, or if a boy of high birth had a distaste for arms, the first step was to learn Latin. His foot was then on the ladder. He might rise by the good offices of his family to a bishopric, or to the papacy itself by merit and the grace of God, Latm enabled a Greek from Tarsus (Theodore) to become the founder of learning in the English Church; and a Yorkshireman (Alcuin) to organize the schools of Charlemagne. Without Latin, our English Winfrid (St. Boniface) could not have been apostle of Germany ^d reformer of the Prankish Church ; or the German Albert master at Paris of Thomas Aquinas ; or Nicholas Breakspeare Pope of Rome. With it. Western Christen- dom was one vast field of labour : calls for self-sacrifice, or oflfers of promotion, might come from north or south, from east or west

Thus in the Middle Ages Latin was made the ground- work of education ; not for the beauty of its classical literature, nor because the study of a dead language was the best mental gymnastic, or the only means of acquiring a masterly freedom in the use of living tongues, but because it was the language of educated men throughout Western Europe, employed for public business, literature, philosophy, and science, above all,

8 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BaaAT I.

in God's providence, essential to the unity, and therefore enforced by the authority, of the Western Church.

IV. But the Latin of the Middle Ages was not classical, and in the West Greek became an unknown tongue. Cicero did less to form style than Jerome; Plato was forgotten in favour of Augustine ; Aristotle alone, translated out of Greek into Syriac, out of Syriac into Arabic, out of Arabic into Latin, and in Latin purged of everything oflFensive to tie medieval mind, had become in the folios of Thomas Aquinas a buttress, if not a pillar, of the Christian Church.

The neglect of heathen writers began in an age when a>e W we« ooBtending agaTpag^u^ai: well as barbarism. lu quieter times the best Latin classics reappear, and instead of hymns such as Dies IrcB or Veni Creator Spiritus, there are crops of tolerable verse in classical metres. Still, the aim of mediaeval differs from the aim of classical education. It may be well therefore to know what, at the worst, the former was, before seeing it in conflict with the latter.

Among Churchmen, Gregory the Great has been se- lected as an example of ^ prepossession against secidar learning carried to the most extravagant degrea*' His conception of its use and value may be gathered from his commentary on the First Book of Bangs. The Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. So Christians must go down into the region of secular learning to sharpen their spiritual weapons. Moses was trained in the learning of the Egjrptians: Isaiah had a better education than Amos: St. Paul was a pupil of the great Gamaliel. There arc depths of

Paribl] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 9

meaning in Holy Scripture which no unlearned person can explore. The liberal arts, therefore, are to be studied so far, as by their aid revealed truth is pro- foundly understood.

Secular learning, not as complementary but as subor- dinate to Holy Scripture; such was the professed aim, in barbarous times, of " one who has been reckoned as inveterate an enemy of learning as ever lived/' But the practical meaning of such an aim depends on the zeal and judgment with which it is pursued. [And in practice, Gregory did not show much regard even for the first of Uberal arts. Witness his account of his own habits as a writer : — *' I am at no pains to avoid barbarous confusions. I do not condescend, to observe the place or force of prepositions and inflections. My indignation is stirred at the notion of binding the words of the heavenly oracle under the rules of Donatus."^ Such language from a Pope was not likely to promote the right understanding of Scripture.

Charlemagne reproves his bishops for bad grammar in their letters to him. He too desired to promote secular learning in subordination to Holy Scripture. It was for this that he founded his cathedral and conventual schools.*

Neither churchmen as such, nor statesmen, were the enemies of grammar. Nor were the lawyers greatly to

• From the first Christiamty spoke the language of the people ; many of

^e Fathers affect rudeness of speech. " I am a disciple of fishermen.^ ^BasU. " Once for all, I know cubitum is neuter ; but the people makes n masculine, and therefore so do 1.^^ Jerome. " We are not afraid of the gninmarian's rod." — Augustine.

' "Psalraos, notoB, cantus, com pu turn, grammaticam, per singula episcopia ft monMteria discant."

10 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay I.

blame. One of them, indeed, is accused of having said, " De verbibus non curat jurisconsultus/' But this is doubtless a foolish sneer at men whose learning, while directly useful to society, was not less important for moral and political science, studies of high rank in liberal education.

The true and tough antagonist that must be van- quished before Cicero and Virgil could prevail, was neither the old Church Latin, with its ornate rhetoric, nor Law Latin, which neglected style. It was the more recent Latin of the schools that provoked, fought, and lost the battle against Latin of the Augustan age. The scholastic philosophy, like German metaphysics, had a style and dialect of its own. It had constructed an apparatus of abstract terms, which were supposed to correspond, like those of modem science, with the most essential dktinctiona of things. With this key it en- deavoured to unlock even the mysteries of theology, and penetrating the secret of existence, to command the whole realm of knowledge. It thus combined moral and religious speculation with the promise of natural science. It was accepted by thousands of active minds as a comprehensive system of thought, exalted above the shafts of ignorant ridicule or literary censure. It was for this that eager students, in the thirteenth century, crowded the Universities of Paris and of Ox- ford. Engrossed with the sublime objects and powerful method of the new philosophy, they neglected rhetoric for logic.

" A party ,*' says Hallam, " hostile to polite letters, as well as ignorant of them — ^that of the theologians and dialecticians — :carried with it the popular voice in the

)

^Xuist.] ox THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL BDaCATWX \ \

Qrarch and imiversitiea The time allotted by these to phiiologieal literature was cm-tailed, that the professors of logic and philosopliy might detain their pupUs longer." Their Latin did not aspire to be the Latin of Cicero, hot a Latin for expressing truths to which Cicero had ■Bot attained. With the Latin of Cicero in the domain of higher education, School Latin could make no terms. If it did not conquer it must die.

This indifference to Hteraty form was carried bo far •s to provoke reaction. The lesser Schoolmen and their jnpils became ridiculous by theii* slovenliness and Wfmdera in the I-atin of every-day life. The earlier names stand above this reproach. Lanfxane and Aiiselm iave the good word of Hallam : he praises the letters of Abelard, while preferring those of Heloisa. But the ctecadence was rapid : the tongue habitually spoken in the universities became to cultivated ears a jargon. The OwniVfwis loqttendi tuos^ was proverbial, and only less iMolfrable than that of Paris. In a satirical poem of the thirteenth century, entitled " The Battle of the Seven Arte," Grammar lb encamped in Orleans, Logic in Paris. Grammar, in whose ranks are the ancient poets, is wsten out of the field. In the gi'eat libmry of Paris, SHien the fourteenth century began, there was not a copy

Cicero, nor any poet but Ovid and Lucan. The study

civil law was also forbidden. School theology and il philosophy reigned supreme.

V. Driven out of France, the poets rallied in Italy, nree great Florentines embraced their cause — the first, 'j^imaeK an adept in the wisdom of the schools.

' A Ttgitor, in 1276, officLolly condemned the phrase Cvrreni ttt rgo, OitDrd logic CAD «tiH mutch it, in English, if not in Liitizi.

12 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. . [Essat I.

The homage of Dante to Virgil, in the great work in which (rejecting Latin) he laid the foundation-stone of the Italian language, did much to kindle in his fellow- countrjrmen that aflFectionate^ veneration for their ancient poet which has never perhaps been so deeply felt else- where as in his native land. Well for Italy, if all the objects of her literary worship had been as noble, or the worshippers as pure in heart.

Boccaccio, half a century later, devoted himself at Virgil's tomb to literature and art, read Homer in Greek, and acquired reputation by his Latin eclogues. He also wrote, and repented having written, the tales which are regarded as the first-fruits of Italian prose.

But the chief leader of the revolution which over- threw the Schoolmen was Petrarch, whose whole soul was in the enterprise of reinstating the ancient masters of languaga He, while Schoolmen despised him as an unlearned poet, set the first example of that enthusiastic collection and preservation of classical manuscripts, for which Italy has earned unceasing thanks. la childhood his fine ear had been taken captive by the music of a Ciceronian sentence. He lamented bitterly that through ignorance of Greek he was deaf to the melodies of Homer. Virgil he studied with such zeal, that he was suspected of learning the black art, and employing the

^ The feeling finds touching expression in a hymn sung at Mantua on the Feast of St. PauL The Apostle, on landing in Italy, is taken to see the poet's grave : —

'* Ad Maronis mausoleiun Ductus, fudit super eum Piae rorem laciymee : Quern te, inquit, reddidissem, Si te vivuni invenissem, Poetanim maxime."

PiBKDL] ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. \ 3

great magician's charms in the composition of his own yerse. His Latin epic " Africa/' enchanted even the University of Paris. But, though invited to receive the poet's wreath at the hands of philosophers, he pre- ferred honour in his own country; where he was con- ducted with extraordinary pomp and popular enthusiasm, attended by dancing satyrs, fauns, and nymphs, and escorted by all the gods of Olympus, to the capitol, and crowned by the Senator of Rome. Thence pro- ceeding to the ancient Christian Basilica, and kneeling before the altar, he oflFered his garland of ivy, laurel, and myrtle to St Peter.

Later in life, he felt that the Latin epic was not a masterpiece, and that his Italian sonnets better de- served the crown. But his countrymen of that age did not think so. The artist could best judge of his own execution ; Italy knew what had been her ideal. Her imagination was fixed on the revival of the past. Scipio, not Laura, had shared the poet's triumph. More than a century had yet to pass before the mother-tongue came into literary favour; more than two centuries before the Academy, passing by Dante, made Petrarch Ae standard for verse, Boccaccio for prose. For the present Italian scholars laboured heart and hand to establish the classical form of culture.

They received invaluable aid from the Greeks who settled in Italy during the half century before and im-^ Mediately after the capture of Constantinople. Although the vulgar tongue of Greece was now Romaic, educated society had retained the ancient language. Its re- suscitation in Western Europe created a new epoch. "For seven hundred years," says Arctino, speaking of

1 4 ESSATS ON A LIBERAL, EDUCATION. [Ebsat I.

Chrysoloraa, the first Greek professor at Florence (1396), " no Italian has been acquainted with Greek literature, and yet we know that all learning comes fix)m the Greeks." The poets more than doubled their ranks, and made common cause with the mighty philosophers of Greece. Cosmo founded a Platonic Academy : the Pro- fessor of Greek literature at Florence lectured on " tiie great master of the wise." The Latin Aristotelians asked with indignation how a philosopher could be expounded by one who was none. Politian replied, that a king's interpreter need not be a king.

With the general literature and philosophy of the Greeks, their natural history, physics, mathematics, medicine, and other sciences,* were revived. Everything contributed to restore the past. Greek was learnt as a living lan- guage. Latin was spoken in polite society. There was no modem history, philosophy, or science which could compete with the treasures daily discovered in the virgin soil of ancient manuscripts. Both form and sub- stance had the charm of novelty for all men, so that the same thoughts were active in the minds of old and young. The revival of antiquity flattered the political instincts of the people. And it was highly for the honour of Italy to lead the other nations of Europe to tiie ad- miring study of her greatest writers.

On the other hand, a passion for attaining to the new standard of literary excellence led many scholars to neglect the more solid parts of a liberal education. Zeal for the ancient languages did more at first to repress and cramp than to foster and direct the growth of the

^ The founder of modem astronomy, and the first President of the College of Physicians (Linacre), were eager students in Italy.

Paior.] on the m^ORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 15

mother-tongue. And the good sense of the many was perverted in straining after an ideal attained at most only by the few. Their art does not conceal the want of nature : their works bear the fatal stamp of second hand.

In all endeavours to revive the past it is easy un- awares to overstep the line which divides imitation from caricature. The revival of a pagan ideal in a Christian country caused constant embarrassment in the choice between the unclassical and the incongruous. When Dante wrote

" Oh somino Giove, Che fosti 'n terra per noi crocifisso/'

he did not violate good taste or Christian feeling more than Pope, when in his " Universal Prayer" he unites the names

"Jehovah, Jore, or Lord.**

But Boccaccio's phrase for the Eesurrection, " il glorioso partimento del figliuolo di Giove dagli spogliati regni di Plutone," is scarcely more irreverent than it is absurd. And Boccaccio is outdone by Bembo, who not only speaks of Leo X. as vicegerent of " the immortal gods," Wt even when writing in the Pope's name presumes to call the Holy Spirit ** Zephyrus eaelestis," and the Virgin Mary " dea Lauretana."

And, worse than bad taste, with the return to pagan Models in literature and art, there was a return, not iiideed to pagan belief, but to pagan unbelief and pagan vice. The sixth Caesar, as Pontiff, did not wear a thinner veil of religion than the sixth Alexander. The most profligate heathen had written nothing so bad that an Italian scholar of the worst sort did not think it

16 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay L

worthy of transcription, comment, and imitation. The state of morals deterred many in this country from ^ding their ^ to M, for laical i^ctioT The Itahans themselves had a motto, ^* Inglese italianato h un diavolo incamato.'^

Some of the dangers attending the revival of classical Uterat™ were plaifly »een .t2 time. Petrarch wit«  — "Above all, let us be Christians. Let us so read philosophy, poetry, and history, that our hearts may be ever open to the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel is the one sure foundation on which human industry may securely build all true knowledge." Vittorino, the most renowned Italian of those times for his educational labours, made his pupils read Christian as well as heathen books. He also instructed them in logic and metaphysics (not of the scholastic type), mathematics, and the fine arts, and watched carefully over their moral character. B^t his zeal for the classics was such that he had little regard for the mother-tongue. Lorenzo endeavoured by precept and example to enforce cultivation of the mother-tongue, but found fashion too strong for him except among his personal friends. In Florence the first and most peremptory command of fathers to sons and masters to pupils was, on no account to read anything vulgar.^

Pico di Mirandola wrote a defence of the Schoolmen in excellent classical Latin, and disputed at Rome in the Latin of the schools. To perform such an exercise

^ '* Che eglino, n^ per bene, n^ per male, non leggessero cose volgarL" —

Fo^colo (quoted by Raumer). This proscription would include the "Legends

• the Fourteenth Century/' lately republished. Written for the people,

^ admirable for vigour and directness of style, and would have been

XNrrective of literary pedantry, as well as heathen vice.

Paiibl] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 1 7

■n Ciceronian Latin would have been as impossible as >o conduct the Nicene debates in the Latin of the later .»mpire.

But Italian scholarship generally seemed rather to bathe itself with ever new delight in the refreshing waters of the past, than to evolve the intense spiritual fire which was needed to sever the gold from the dross, and unite the classical with the Christian ideal, old things with new.

Nor can it fail to be observed how slight and super- ficial was the part played by the Italian people at large in the movement Classical education in Italy seems to he the education of princesses and of princes, of noble ladies and yoimg men of rank and fortune. Such was the work of Guarino, who had distinguished English- men among his pupils; such in the main was the work of Vittorino, whose establishment, beautifully deco- rated by art, and surrounded by gardens and woods, was laio\ni as the Casa Giojosa. Vittorino, however, spent all his own means and interested his high-bom pupils in assisting poor scholars, some forty of whom he con- trived to feed, clothe, and instruct, as well as to visit hospitals and prisons. It may be that there was more such instruction of the people than appears. At least the general fact cannot be mistaken. Although in the revival of Letters Italian cnthusia3m and Italian scholar- ship, aided by the Greeks, supplied at first all the Working power, it was not until the pursuit of the ^ew ideal had been canied beyond the Alps that it changed the whole course of school education.

VI. Looking from Italy to Germany, we see a com- plete contrast of race, of mother tongues, of history,

c

1 8 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EeaAT I.

of religious temper, and generally of national character. It was only natural that Italian scholars should doubt, and leave it for Germans themselves to try, whether the noble and graceful literature of the ancient world, which, when once revived, seemed hardly more exotic than indigenous in Rome or Florence, could flourish in the Northern soil. Yet, in truth, Germany presented the conditions necessary for its successful cultivation, though with underlying spiritual diversity, which must profoundly modify the type.

Christian Rome had subdued the barbarians, and had laid upon them, for all higher purposes of life, the yoke of a foreign language. Long did the . luckless Germans toil to frame their lips aright: marvellous were their failures,^ and marvellous their success. By frequenting foreign universities,* and by that infinite capacity for taking pains which is the national genius of the German,' their educated men had attained to a Latin which passed muster among the dialects of the schools.

In the fifteenth century, the Brethren of the Com- mon Life, or Hieronymites, had perhaps a hundred

1 The chief difficulties were inflections and pronunciation. In planting the Church, St. Boniface found one of his Grermans baptizing *' In nomine Patria, et Filia, et Spiritui Sancta.** Beuchlin was recommended for an Italian mission as having a tolerable accent, ^' sonum pronuntiatioms minus horridum." Wiirtembeig regulations of the 16th century enact that children whose German mouths by nature cannot pronounce all the letters, are not to be dragged by the hair, or immoderately flogged. Necessity had not yet given birth to the invention of pronouncing Latin by the rules of the mother tongue.

' Their own universilios did what they could. Ingolstadt, for example, enacted Quod nullum suppositum in communitatibus bursarum aut in aliis locis bursas Theutonicum loqui audcaf But they got no better Latin than they gave.

• " Bas Genie ist der Fleiss.— /SfAt7/cr.

PiMCEB.] ON THE HISTORr OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 19

establishments in the Low Countries and parts of Germany and France, where they gave instruction in reading, writing, speaking, and singing Latin. At their chief college, Deventer, a scholar was punished for letting fall a single word of Dutch. Their best Latin probably resembled that of the " Imitatio Christi," a book of which Europe has been content to read two thousand editions in the original, while it has but once been translated " from Latin into Latin." The same book may give some notion of their educational ideal, which was sublime, but on a narrow foundation. Eveiything was subordinate, not so much to Scripture, as to the spiritual life. But their conception of spiritual life wanted breadth. Their founder, Grerard Groot, a mighty preacher in the mother tongue, had experienced a strong reaction from magic, necromancy, and scho- lastic philosophy, which he had studied at Paris. " Spend no time," he charges them, ** on geometry, arithmetic, rhetoric, dialectic, grammar, poetry, horo- scopes, or astrology. Such pursuits are renounced by Seneca, much more by a Christian of spiritual mind«  They avail not for the spiritual life. Of heathen sciences, the moral are least to be shunned. The wiser heathens, such as Socrates and Plato, applied themselves to these." This injunction against aQ the liberal arts but Diusic, left the brethren ample time for spiritual exer- cises, and for a work which they had much at heart, the elementary instruction of the people.

Experience so far corrected their narrowness, that from their schools chiefly went forth the men who sowed the seeds in Germany of the classical revival, ^ well as of the religious reformation. Thomas h.

c 2

20 ESSAYS OX A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay L

Kempis (it is said) exercised much influence at their school at Zwoll over Wessel, who, though but a moderate Greek and Hebrew scholar, was the greatest theologian of his time.* Wessel, in his turn, if not Thomas k Kempis himself, was in intimate relations with Hegius, Agricola, Lange, and Dringenberg, who were all educated by the brethren. Of these, Hegius presided over the College of Deventer for thirty years (1438-1468), and trained many good scholars both in Latin and in Greek. He speaks with enthusiasm of the importance of Greek. ** If any one wishes to under- stand grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, history, or Holy Scripture, let him learn Greek. We owe everything to the Greeks." Writing to Wessel to borrow the Greek Gospels, he thus ends his letter — " You wish to be informed more precisely about my teaching. I have followed your advice. All learning is hurtful, when acquired with spiritual loss'^

This was still the noble Shibboleth of the school But it was found compatible now with classical educa- tion. Of all the scholars sent out from Deventer one only of any maik,^ Adrian VI., had the reputation of being unfriendly to classical culture, such as he found at Rome after Leo X.

Agricola proved that it was possible for a German to attain to the highest standard of pure Latin and of classical erudition. He valued his liberty too highly

• Such was Reuchlin*s estimate. Luther's confidence in his own convic-

tions was greatly increased by their agreeing with WesseVs, so closely, that if he hud known Wessels writings sooner, he might have been accused (he himself says) of plagiarism.

" Another, Ortuinus Gratius, has an unenviable notoriety as the master at Cologne to whom the ** £pistol(e obscurorum Virorum" are addressed.

Pabhr.] on the SISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 21

to become a schoolmaster^ but was much consulted in all questions of classical education.

Lange rooted out the old schoolbooks, and set up a flourishing classical school at Mtinster. ^'I have great confidence,*' writes Agricola, **in the success of your labours. I believe our own Germany will attain to such learning and culture, that Latium itself shall not be more Latin." The new ideal stands before his mind. Lange lived to see its advent Reading in his old age the theses of Luther, "Now is the time at hand," lie exclaimed, " when darkness shall be driven from the land : soimd doctrine shall return to our churches, and pure Latin be taught in our schools."

Dringenberg was rector (1450-1490) of a school at ScUestadt, which sent out many brilliant scholars. Of younger Daventrians, Busch made himself an itinerant apostle of classical education, lecturing in England and France, as well as in Germany. He accom- plished the public abolition of the mediaeval schoolbooks at Erfurt, but was expelled from Leipsic and thrice from Cologne, strongholds of the old grammars, where he attempted similar reforms.

The most distinguished of Daventrian scholars, Eras- iJaus, praises the character, learning, and ability of his master, Hegius, but attacks the brethren as ex- ercising an illiberal influence over education. His ideal differs from theirs. Indeed, the one factor in the educational movement of his time which Erasmus most imperfectly represents, is the deep spiritual earnestness of the men, to whom, in common with many forerunners of the Reformation, he owed his early training. His merciless satires did much to stimulate that contempt for

22 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. \JBna L

monks which was preparing at once what he intended and what he did not intend, a revolution in education, and the violent disruption of the ChurclL Even his Collo- quies, for boys from eight years of age, which came into general use as a schoolbook, are full of open or covert attacks on monks, relics, pilgrims, and generally on all forms of religion which he regarded as superstitious: so much so, that the book was condenmed by the Sor- bonne, forbidden in France, burnt in Spain, and placed on the Index at Rome. Melanchthon allowed selections only to be used in schools.

As an educational reformer, Erasmus was not likely to be misled into the extreme of Italian fashion. He had greater work on hand than the greatest of Latin epics, or the purest of Latin styles. His extensive acquaint- ance with ancient literature made him dispise pros- trate adoration of individual writers. His sense of the superior importance of scriptural and theological studies xaised him above enthusiasm for mere literary culture.

So far as the true interests of classical education were concerned, his sarcastic pen was seldom better employed than in writing his " Ciceronianus," an onslaught on the superstition of using none but Cicero's Latin* Of all modems, Erasmus was in the best position to understand the necessities of Latin as a living tongue. For, while he wrote and spoke with singular fluency and spirit on almost every topic of the day, he vaunted his ignorance of Italian, and was equally ignorant of French, English, and German. In his Ratio Studiorum," he strongly recommends translation from Greek into Latin, as giving insight into the comparative powers and idioms of each lADgoage, and showing what ire have in common with

Puna.] ON THE BISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 23

the Greek. This casual expression indicates how com- pletely Latin was regarded as the language of all edu- cation. The corresponding exercise in the present day iroald be careful written translation from the classics into the mother tongue.

His Greek grammar contributed to facilitate the study of the language in Germany. But his great work was his Greek Testament, which, though printed later than the Complutensian, was the first edition actually published, in 1516.

Reuchlin shares with Erasmus and Agricola the credit of introducing the study of Greek from Italy into Ger- many. The foundation of Hebrew learning was laid by Reuchlin alone, in his " Rudiments of the Hebrew Tongue, published in 1506.

These two great works, Reuchlin's " Rudiments " and the New Testament of Erasmus, stimulated to the utmost in Germany the study of Hebrew and Greek, which now resnmed their dignity as the sacred tongues, dethron- ing the language which had long been their vice- gerent in the Western Church. The same two books enabled Luther to complete his German Bible. But long before it was published the great struggle had begun, and the further fortunes of classical culture became involved in the progress and results of the fieformation.

VII. How closely the interests of classical as well as popular education were bound up with those of religious reform appears nowhere more plainly than in Luther's

• • Letter to the Burgomasters and Town-councillors of

all the Towns of Germany, moving them to found and maintain Christian Schools. Anno 1524."

24 ESSATS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Esbat I.

Extracts can give but a feeble impression of its drift and power. It is the stirring appeal of a leader of men, rousing the dull and rallying the noble to a war against Ignorance in her strongholds. But it is also the pro- phetic warning of a great seer, the burden of Grermany. The argument comes on like an advancing tide : the movement of history is in it. Behold, all things are ready 1 The voice is the voice of Luther, but the call is the call of God,

" Of a truth Almighty God hath graciously visited us Germans in our own land, and brought us a right golden year. See what learned young fellows we have now, and grown men, fine scholars in the languages and all the arts. Ay, and useful too, if you would use them to teach the young folk. Do not your own eyes see that a boy can be taught now in three years, so that at fifteen or eighteen he knows more than all high schools and cloisters ever knew till now.

" My good friends, buy while the market is at your door. Make hay while the sun shines. Grod's grace is like the passing shower, which does not return where it has been. Therefore lay hold, and hold fast, whoever can : slack hands gather scanty harvests.

" The people that we want will not grow of them- selves. We cannot carve them out of wood, nor hew them out of stone. God will not work a wonder to help us, when He has given us wherewith to help ourselvea

"But if we must have schools, say you, what is the use of teaching Latin, and Greek, and Hebrew, and other liberal arts ? Cannot we teach the Bible and God s Word in German ? Is not that sufl&cient for salvation ?

• • Why, if there were no other use of the tongues,

Pauxr.] on the mSTOEY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 25

it ought to gladden our hearts and kindle our souls, that they are such a noble, beautiful gift of God, which He is bestowing now so richly on us Grermans, more almost than on any other land.

"But true though it be that the Gospel came and comes only by the Holy Spirit, yet it came by means of the tongues, and thereby grew, and thereby must be preserved. For when first God sent the Gospel by the Apostles throughout the world He gave the tongues also. Ay, and beforehand, by the Roman rule. He had spread the Greek and Latin tongues in all lands, that His Gospel might bear fruit far and wide. So hath He done now. No one knew to what end God was bringing forth the tongues again, till now it is seen that it was for the Gospel's sake. To that end He gave Greece to the Turks, that the Greeks, driven out and scattered abroad, might carry forth the Greek tongue, and so a beginning might be made of learning other tongues also.

" As we hold the Gospel dear then, so let us hold the languages fast If we do not keep the tongues, we shall not keep the Gospel. As the sun to the shadow, so is the tongue itself to all the glosses of the Fathers. Ah, how glad the dear Fathers would have been if they could have so learned Holy Scripture."

In the foreground of all Luther s thoughts on education, stands the knowledge of Holy Scripture, rightly understood by diligent use of human learning,^ under guidance of the Holy Spirit, an attainment de- manding, as he knew by experience in translation, a

• Nihil aliud est Theologia, niBi Grammatica in Spiritus Sancti yerbis

occapata." — Luther,

28 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EbsatL

good histories, which are of more worth than all philosophy for the guidance of life.

For the schoolmaster's office, Luther had unbounded respect " If I were not a preacher of the Grospel," he declares, more than once, '^I know no station on earth that I would rather fill than that of a school- master or teacher of boys.'*

His just sense of the importance of education, and his broad views of its relations to the whole framework of society, give his opinions an intrinsic value, which goes far tx) make good the want of practical experience.

But if Luther, with all his zeal for the tongues, never taught them, he had a colleague who never preached, but devoted his whole life to the work of education, " the Preceptor of Germany," Melanchthon.

At twelve years of age Melanchthon went to Heidel- berg, and was Bachelor of Arts at fourteen, having been taught wordy Logic and a smattering of Physics. At seventeen he took his Master's degree at Tubingen, and lectured on Virgil and Terence. Four years later he became Professor of Greek at Wittenberg, where he spent the remainder of his days (1518-1560).

Wittenberg, though the youngest, was the leading University of Protestant Germany ; and Melanchthon was both the leading spirit of Wittenberg, and chief adviser in the organization of Protestant schools. His writings are a rich mine of facts concerning German classical education.

His report on churches and schools (1528) became the basis in Saxony of a reformed scholastic, as well as ecclesiastical establishment, independent of Rome. The example was followed in other German states.

fiBiBL] ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 29

The report recommends the following regulations for schools:* —

1. The children to be taught Latin only, not German, Greek, or Hebrew. Plurality of tongues does them more hann than good.

2. They are to be kept to a few books.

3. They are to be divided into three classes. The first to read Donatus and Cato, and learn a Ust of Latin words daily. The second class to read -^op's Fables, and select colloquies of Erasmus, and learn Latin pro- verbs. Also, grammar is to be well worked into them, and learnt by heart. When they know the rules of constiTiction, they are to ** construe," as it is called, which is very useful, and yet little used. As they grow older, they are to learn by heart Terence, and after Terence, Plautus : the pure plays only, as the Aulularia and Trinummus. One day in the week to be set apart for Christian instruction : St. Matthew to be expounded grammatically. Older boys may read easy Epistles or the Proverbs, but not Isaiah, Paul to the Romans, St. John 8 Gospel, or the like. The third class, the picked intellects of the school, to read Cicero s Offices and Letters, and Virgil, and say Virgil by heart. When VirgU is done, they may read Ovid's Metamorphoses.

When they thoroughly know their etymology and syntax, they are to learn metre and compose verses. This exercise is a great help to understanding the writings of others, makes the boys rich in words, and gives dexterity in many things. Speaking Latin is also enforced. The master, as far as may be, to speak only Latin.

^ What does not bear on classical education Is omitted.

30 ESSAYS ON A LIBEBjiL EDUCATION. [EeaAT L

Melanchthon insists on the importance of gram- matical knowledge, especially for the right interpre- tation of Scripture. How many controversies turn on the meaning of a word! Neglected Grammar has avenged herself on the monks,^ by letting them take spurious things for genuine. He rejects the notion that scholarship may be attained by reading, without gram- matical study. Such scholarship is never safe, nor thorough.

His Latin grammar, which went through fifty edi- tions, waa in general use in German schools of the sixteenth century. The rules were few, lest boys should be alarmed. His Greek Grammar was written at four- teen, and recast in maturer years. In the preface to a Hebrew Grammar, which had his sanction, he lays it down as certain, by consent of the learned, that no one can undertake anything considerable in sound scholar- ship without Hebrew.

His Manuals of Logic, Physic, and Ethics were for the most part^ introductions to the Greek text of Aristotle, whose tenure of exclusive rights in liberal education was renewed in Germany for another century by Melanchthon's influence. His Rhetoric was a similar introduction to Cicero and Quintilian, following whom he regarded the orator's art as requiring profound learn- ing, great gifts, long practice, and acute judgment He felt the importance of Christian rhetoric in the age of the Reformation.

^ One of their masters, expounding the text '* Melchisedec Rex Salem panem ct vinum obtulit/' enlarged on the spiritual significance of salt.

' He added to the Physic what he knew of modem discoveries, introducing Physiology, for instance, to illustrate the " De Anima."

PiUBL] ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 31

These schoolbooks, intended to lead the young student to the great classical masters of thought and language, were, in fact, much used to save the trouble of going to the fountain-heads. The use of Melanchthon's philo- sophical manuals became known as "the Philippic Method," and the imitation of his manner* as "the PhiKppic Style."

But, though the building never rose to its intended height, the ground-plan shows that the great educator of Germany was far from adopting the dimensions of a merely literary training. He laid under contribu- tion all departments of knowledge ^ and set forth the conception of a truly liberal and many-sided education, not without practical regard to the requirements of Church and State. It remained for experience to show how much of this was beyond the ambition or the reach of an ordinary student

Melanchthon s own experience must have taught him much. In an inaugural lecture he contrasts the old course with the new. It is charged against the new studies by the adherents of the old, that " after much toil there is little fruit. Greek is taken up lightly for display ; modern Hebrew is of small account ; mean- while, sound learning is falling into disuse, philosophy is forsaken."

On the contrary, the truth is that these philosophers We entirely missed the meaning of Aristotle, to under- stand whom in Greek is difficult, in the Latin transla- tions of the Schoolmen is impossible. He himself (the

^ He far excelled Erasmus in purity of diction and correctness of classical taste."-iJa//am.

• He prepared a Latin Manual of History, and enforced arithmetic and

^theinuti(». Morhof calls him " verura no\vfia$tias parentem."

32 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Esaat I

professor, aged twenty-one) for six years of his life almost ruined his mind in the school of these pseudo- Aristotelian Sophists, who are the very reverse of Socrates. For whereas the one thing which Socrates knew was that he knew nothing, the one thing which they do not know is that they know nothing.

Instead of their philosophy the University of Witten- berg teaches the genuine Aristotle in the Greek, mathe- matics, the classical poets, orators, and historians, and true philosophy.

Melanchthon himself lectured with success on Ethics, Logic, and Natural Science, using for each subject the Greek text of Aristotle, as the statutes required.^ Luther speaks of the crowds that thronged his lecture-rooms from all countries, including England, Italy, and Greece. But, alas for Mathematics I Erasmus Eeinhold, a dis- tinguished friend of Copernicus, could not obtain a decent attendance at his lectures. Melanchthon's lec- tures on Ptolemy^ met with the same fate. And, alas for the Greek classics 1 Homer begged for readers as in his lifetime he begged for bread. Wittenberg was deaf to Demosthenes, and would none of Sophocles. "I see," said Melanchthon at last, " that this generation has no ear for such authors. Scarce a few of my audience remain, to spare my feelings. I owe them thanks." At the Universities, as at the schools, much more atten- tion was directed to Latin than to Greek. Terence, for whom there was a special professorship at Witten- berg, owes more even than Aristotle to Melanchthon, who

• " Enarrabit Ethicus Grseca Aristotelis Ethica ad verbum . . . PhyBicoa

enarrabit Aristotelis Physica. ' De Apotelesmatibus et Judiciis Astrorum.

Pakub.] on the HISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 33

used all his great authority to introduce the plays into schools.^

Of Melanchthon's pupils it must suifice briefly to mention those who did most to carry on the work of classical education. Camerarius, Rector at Numberg, is better known as a philologist, and as Melanchthon's biographer, than as a schoolmaster.

Trotzendorf, at Groldberg, laid a narrow classical foun- dation for professional studies. Latin verses and Latin letters were written every week. No phrase was to be used unless the author from whom it came could be pointed out No language but Latin was spoken, even by the servants. Some of the scholars read St. Paul in Greek, and the Old Testament in Hebrew.

llilichael Neander presided at Ilfeld over a school which Melanchthon considered to be the best in the country. His pupils (Neandrici) were noted at the Universities for taking the lead^ from their first arrival. They began Latin at nine, Greek at thirteen, Hebrew at sixteen. He wrote many school-books, and took con- siderable pains with History, Geography, and Natural Science.

Hieronymus Wolf was Rector of a Gymnasium at

• " Hardly any book," he says, '* is more worthy to be in the hands of all

mankind. In exact adjustment of the expression to the thought, he has tarpassed them all. If St. Chrysostom delighted in Aristophanes (doubtless as a model of eloquence), how much more is Terence to be prized, whose pieces are free from the disgustijig grossness of the Greek poet, and whose style is ereu more perfect. Therefore, I exhort all schoolmasters to recommend this author in the most pressing way to young students. For he seems to me to form the judgment on affairs of the world better than most of the books of philosopbers. And no other author will teach the boys to speak Latin with equal parity, or train them to a style which will stand them in better stead."

> He Mcribed his success in teaching to simplicity : ^ Plerique fere abhor* icmns a tiinplioe simpUcitate qmo tamen disccntibus est utilissima."

34 ESSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Basil L

Augsburg, which undertook " to cany scholars so far in religion, the ancient languages, and philosophy, that they might be able to study at the University without the help of a tutor/' He pronounced against making the younger boys^ speak Latin, and against . requiring verses invita Minerva.

Like Melanchthon, he remembered that the languages ai-e but means to higher ends, solid learning, philosophy, and sound religion, " Happy were the Latins,** he says,

• ' who needed only to learn Greek, and that not by

school-teaching, but by intercourse with living Greeks, Happier still were the Greeks, who, so soon as they could read and write their mother tongue, might pass at once to the liberal arts and the pursuit of wisdom. For us, who must spend many years in learning foreign languages, the entrance into the gates of Philosophy is made much more difficult For, to understand Latin and Greek is not learning itself, but the entrance-hall and ante-chamber of learning."

But the school most characteristic of the century was that of Strasburg, under Sturm, who was Rector forty- five years (1538-1583). He was brought up by the Uieronymites at Lidge, and mentions having played there in the Phormio of Terence. Never did the brethren send forth one more zealous in imparting classical culture, or who more definitely conceived his work. His theory of education may serve as a standard for discrimination of later and more hybrid forms.

The end of all study, according to Sturm, is to combine piety with learning.* But piety being the

^ '* Nee minima paeri yirtus eet tacere, cum recte loqui nescijit"

• FkUu litcrata became a watchword of Pioieetaat schools.

PiUBL] ON TEB EISTOBT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 35

common duty of all men, the distinctive aim of the student is to attain wisdom and eloquence, the know^ ledge of things, and the power to set them forth in pure and graceful words. In the order of nature words come before wisdom.^ A student should be trained six years at home, ten at school, and five at an academy. Of the ten years, eight are required for gaining purity and perspicuity, two for adding the graces of style. Beadmess and skill in adapting words to things are the business of the five acadeniical years.

Sturm conceives the means as clearly as the end. Of ten forms, each one has its special work. The youngest toys are taught the Latin name of everything they eat, drink, see, or handle in playgroimd, school, or church.

As they rise in the school, the quantity of Latin text i^ad is much increased. The practice of composition is incessant The elder boys write exercises daily. Verses are begun in the fifth ; the upper forms transpose odes of Horace and Pindar into other metres, and produce poems of their own. In prose, the fifth form retranslate from German into Latin, and compare with the original. The upper forms turn Greek orators into Latin, and Latin orators into Greek, with special attention to Aythm, accent, and effect, the master of the form always showing his own version. They write themes, descrip- tions, and letters, and declaim with or without verbal preparation. They also make careful written transla- tions firom Thucydides and Sallust. On Sundays, they turn German catechism into Latin. The elder boys

• " Ad loquendmn homines quam ad cogitandum judicandumque pronip-

tiorem natnram habent.

D 2

36 ESSJFS OX A LIBERAL KDUCdTIOy. [Ebsjlt

read St Paul in Gieek,^ and leam by heart his Epistl to the Romans. Thev leam no Hebrew, for the Bect( is of deliberate opinion that a fair command of t^ languages is as much as can be expected from boys < sixteen.*

Materials, as well as models, for the composition a furnished by constantly reading and learning by hea the best authors, and by systematic excerption of phras and ^^ flowers. The rules of Logic are exemplified firo Demosthenes and Cicero; those of Ehetoric also firo Homer' and VirgiL Latin poetiy is traced to its Gr© sources ; and parallel passages learnt by heart, in vei and in prose. Cicero and Terence* are the models f Latin prose. Imitation is reduced to rule. Like the in Sparta, it is honourable if it is not found out.* Tl jackdaw's mistake was careless arrangement of his be rowed plumea Stolen apparel should be disguise by addition, diminution, or alteration.* But Sturm do not admit, that to take from Cicero is to steal " Conve the wise it calL"

" Whose is the work of memory ? Whose the skill selection? Whose the craft in concealment? I con upon the words in Cicero's writings. I mark their valt

^ The exposition was to be practicaL ^Non oonsiderabis quid in fs faciant commentariis theologi, sed quid Bomani feceriut cum ad illos Pan Bcripsisset."

' '^Multum ilium profecissearbitror, qui ante sextumdecimumsetatisaDni iacultatem duarum linguarum mediocrem assecutus est"

• ** Credo ego, omnium oratorum omamenta et instituta in Homero demi

Btrari posse, ita ut, si ars dicendi nulla extaret, ex hoc tamen fonte deriv et constitui possit."

^ ^^Terentio post Ciceronem nihil utilius est Pnrus est senno et t< Latinus."

^ '^ Primus conatus sit ut similitudo non appareat**

^ '^Occultandi vcro modus in thbus consistit : additione,ablatione, mutation

Pamml] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 37

note the place. I find an use to which they may be put : I TO back to the place, transfer them, disguise ^. .ppTpriate them. WW the,», if you ^ Whose are they now ? They have cost me more pains than they cost Cicero. Besides, Cicero does not grudge me them : did he not write for others, for all man- kind?" Such, in spirit, is the German Cicero's defence of a practice which Erasmus condemned.

To gain colloquial readiness, all the boys speak Latin, even the obscure little Teutons in the dim regions^ of the lowest forms. The masters are forbidden to address them in Grerman. The boys are severely chastised^ if they use their mother tongue. On the way to and firom school, and in games, they are to speak only Latin, or Greek. A first fault may be pardoned, but contu- macious use of the mother tongue is far too grave an offence.*

But the chief feature of the school is the theatre, in which the elder boys weekly tread the stage, and the younger boys* fill the benches. Had Melanchthon fore- seen to what length a system of pressing Terence upon the attention of boys might be carried, his recommenda- tion of the poet to schoolmasters would perhaps have heen less urgent or more guarded. Though Sturm is careful with Horace and CatuUus, his boys play all the pieces of Terence and of Plautus indiscriminately. By dividing the work, the whole repertory can be got

^ '^ Qui in extremis latent classibus."

' " H»c consuetudo custodienda severitate et castigatione*' (cv dta hvolv),

' " NoUuB yenise locus, si quis hie peccet petulauter."

^ This is not expressly stated ; but as Sturm was jealous of the advantage ^Mch ancient Roman boys had in attending the theatre, it b not likely that he Would allow his own boys to lose opportunities.

38 ESSJrS ON A LIBER JL EDUCATION. [BmitL

through in six months.^ Day after day the acton are busy conning their parts^ and week ajEter week they throw themselves, with as much histrionic effect as by imagination or drill they can attain, into the stage characters and theatrical situations which pleased and edified pagan Eome. If Plato's Republic had been among the school-books of Strasburg, the boys would have understood his remarks on the drama. Sturm was aware of the objections made, and arranged aLso a law court, with quaestor, jury, and public complete, in which all the forensic orations of Cicero were to be delivered once a year, the best wits of Strasburg arguing on the other side. It must be added that the two highest forms ieamt a little arithmetic and Euclid and use of the globes ; and the whole school was trained in music and gymnastics.

Was this a satisfactory education in the sixteenth century ? If not, wherein lay the mistake %

It will not do to answer the first question off-hand in the negative, and to set down Sturm as a pedant' In the first place parents were not of that opinion; and (as a great modem journal argues) if parents are con* tent to send their boys to a school as it is, why propose reforms ? The school kept up its numbers : in Sturm's time there were several thousand pupils. It kept up its aristocratic connexion : there were two hundred

> The two upper fonnB* also repreeented pUyi of AriBtophanee, Enripidet, and Sophocles.

' Bacon speaks slightingly of him : '^ Tunc Sturmiiis in Cicerone ormtore et Hermogene rhetore infinitam et anziam operam consumpsit." In Hallamis opinion, *' Scarce any one more contributed to the cause of letters in Germany.

. . . We could, as I conoeiTe, trace no such edooation in Fxaooe, certainly not in Eng^d."— I. 8d6.

PiRDE.] ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 39

boys of noble birth, twenty-four counts and barons, and three princes. It did not neglect the children of the poor; they were maintained at the public expense, or by private charity/ It had an European reputation : there were Poles and Portuguese, Spaniards, Danes, Italians, French, and English. But besides this, it was the model and mother school of a numerous progeny. Sturai himself organized schools for several towns which applied to him. His disciples became organizers, rectors, and professors. In short, if Melanchthon was the in- structor, Sturm was the schoolmaster of Germany.^ To- gether with his method, his school-books were spread broadcast over the land. Both were adopted by Ascham' in England, and by Buchanan in Scotland. Sturm himself was a great man at the imperial court. No diplomatist passed through Strasburg without stop- ping to converse with him. He drew a pension from the King of Denmark, another from the King of France, a third firom the Queen of England, collected political infonnation for Cardinal Granvelle, and was ennobled hy Charles V. He helped to negotiate peace between France and England, and was appointed to confer with a commission of cardinals on reunion of the Church. In short, Sturm knew what he was about as well as most men of his time.* Yet few will be disposed to

^ ^ De quonim indole constat, certus numenis constitnator quibus respub- ^ca Tictam suppeditet : cseteri privatim a civibus conqnirant necessaria.^'

' **Sao tempore communis fere schokimm per Germaniam moderator. Ejus eonsilia non Germanise tantimi urbes sed peregrinse secuta: sunt. A cujus iDethodo utinam non abiissent scboke Germanics." — Morhof, vi. 1, 13 ; ii. 2, 19.

' See his *' Schoolmaster/' lately reprinted ; in Johnson's opinion *' the best adrice ever given for learning languages."

• His Life has been written in French by C. Schmidt.

40 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT I.

accept his theory of education, even for the sixteenth century, as the best.

Wherein then lay the mistake ? In what he asserte, 6r in what he assumes ?

Sturm asserts that the proper end of school education is eloquence, or, in modem phrase, a masterly command of language, and that the knowledge of things mainly belongs to a later stage. Although the " fair command of two languages" is to be turned to other account elsewhere, it is clear that at school Greek is made secondary to Latin, and Latin to the formation of style.^ To become acquainted with the thoughts and things which are to be found in such rich variety in classical authors, is not the final end in view. Homer, Demosthenes, Thucydides, Aristophanes, Euripides, are read chiefly for their rhetoric, and as material for translation into Latin.^ Latin is not learnt to read Cicero and Terence, but Cicero and Terence are read to learn Latin.

Sturm assumes that Latin is the language in which eloquence is to be acquired. Yet he plainly declares that eloquence is not tied down to the ancient tongue. " What can be more pure and graceful than the Ttalian prose of Boccaccio, or what more musical than Petrarch's verse ? The French have their Comines, and the Germans their Luther ; a man who, if there had been no Reformation, if he had never preached, never written anything but the pure and rich German of his Bible

^ '* Multa Herodotus, plura Thucydides, Xenophon nihil non habet quod Bequaris/'

• There was nothing then in German to translate, unless it were the

Catechism, or Luther's Bible, or Tauler^s sermons, which open (German aa Boccaccio^s novels open Italian prose literature.

3 ON THE BISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 41

tranalatroii, for this alone would have been immortal/' Why then were Grennan boys to neglect their mother tongue, and spend ten years in laying the foundations of eloquence in Latin ?

It is easy to divine the answer. The attainment of eloquence in one language was arduous, in more than one (at least for the majority, to whose interests a schoolmaster ought to look) impossible. A choice must be made between Latin and German. Sturm chose the common language^ of educated Europe, and sacrificed the mother tongue.

While classical schools were thus organized throughout Protestant Germany, Catholics on their part were not idle. Perceiving what strength Eeformers derived from alliance with the ancients, and discerning the true value of classical studies, if kept subordinate to the faith and interests of the Church, the Jesuits resolved to fight against heresy with the nobler weapons of education and learning, leaving to the Dominicans fire and sword. They forthwith drew up a scheme, obtained the Pope's consent, and used their utmost endeavours to secure that throughout Europe as many as possible of the rising generation might for the future be committed to their charge.

The Jesuits had special motives for making Latin the language of their schools, and judged it expedient to push the practice so far as forcibly to suppress the mother- tongues. They knew but one end, the interests of the Church ; one sacred text, the Vulgate ; one Breviary,

1 << Qtiod in tribuB divini spiritos maneribus Deus voluit ubiqne esse, et esse perpetaum. . . . Haec jam in medio proposita est industrial hominum, ut qnse velit earn suis civibus respublica recuperare possit."

42 ESSJTS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. PEmat I.

the Roman; one will, their Greneral's. So, in their schools, they would have but one spoken language, Latin ; one style, that of Cicero ; one theology, that of Aquinas ; one philosophy, that of Aristotle, interpreted, when possible,^ in accordance with Aquinas. All this was matter of obedience. " Read, write, speak Latin,'* was one rule. "Imitate Cicero," was another. An independent style might foster independent thought, which might ripen into independent action.

Every class spoke Latin, and every class read Cicero. Cicero supplied the form and often the matter of exer- cises in prose. Virgil stood in the same relation to verse. Christiads were written in the style of the iEneid. The classics were read in expurgated edition& Instead of setting Christian youth to act heathen plays, the Jesuits wrote dramas, in which naughty boys, ghosts, drunkards, and devils supplied the excitement necessary to please. The boys were forbidden to attend any public spectacle, unless it were to see heretics burnt.*

Three classes learnt grammar, the fourth humanity, and the fifth rhetoric. The study of the classics was thus directed to the formation of an eloquent style, to be used in the service of the Church. Some attention was also given to the subject-matter and to miscellaneous knowledge, under the name of ** polymathy," or " erudi- tion.'* Much less Greek than Latin, and no Hebrew was read in the school work {studia inferiora). In the higher studies, Aristotle's Logic, Physic, Metaphysic, and Ethics, with Euclid and the use of the globes,

^ The Dominicans were furious at this qualification.

• *^ Neque ad publica spectacula, nee ad supplicia reoram, nisi forte hftieti-

corum, eant — Ratio d IntUitUio Studiorum, 170.

PabkulJ ok THB bistort OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 43

formed the staple of liberal education. In the theo- logical course, the exegetical lectures were on the Vulgate, with occasional reference to the Greek and HelMrew. The Hebrew lecturer chose some one of the easier books.

This well-devised system was worked by able writers of school-books and by skilful teachers. The education was gratuitous. DiflFerent measures of it were given ac- cording to the capacity of the pupils. The rapid progress made by Catholic scholars presented a striking contrast to the backward state in which they had often been kept by the medisevalism of the other religious orders. Protestants sent their sons to profit, without charge, by the zeal of the Jesuit teachers. Their reputation and their numbers grew apace. The first school was opened in 1546, six years after the foimdation of the order. Before the century closed, there were two hundred. They overran Germany at once, making their head- quarters at Vienna, Cologne, Prague, Ingolstadt, and MunicL In France they encountered more opposition. Yet they were soon known as the best classical scholars in the country. The Port Royalists, a century later, were in this respect their only rivals.

Sturm regards the method of the Jesuits as bearing a close resemblance to his own. He commends them for having undertaken what neither Hegius, nor Agricola, nor Reuchlin, nor Erasmus could persuade the old religious orders even to allow, the cultivation of true eloquence and sound learning. He rejoices in their zeal, both as provoking Protestants to vigilant rivalry, and as directly carrying on the good work.

But the chief testimony in their favour is that of

44 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat L

BacoD, who declares that he could sum up his thoughts on education by naming the Jesuit schools as the best.^ He praises them especially for accustoming \oj^ to act a part, which, though disreputable as a profession, is useful in life, and lauds their energy and skill in the formation of moral character, no less than in the culti- vation of leamiug. This estimate stands in marked contrast with that of Leibnitz, who rates the Jesuits of hi8 own time (a century later) as below mediocrity, and treats Bacon's admiration as a mistaka

yill. In England, Greek literature had neither died out so soon, nor was so slow to revive, as in other countries.* The question between Latin aud the mother-tongue was complicated for a time by the rival claims of Norman and SaxoD, Latin being construed in grammar-schools into French till about 1350.* The Norman conquest also tended to mark strongly the contrast between the gentleman and the scholar. Hallam supposes that in 1400, or a generation later, an English gentleman of the first class would usually have "a slight tincture of Latin." But about the earlier date Piers Plowman bitterly complains that every cobbler's son and beggar's brat gets book-learning, and such wretches become bishops, and lords' sons and knights crouch to them. He thinks that lords should make bishops of their own brothers' children.* Probably nowhere did the Christian

^ " Gonsule scholas Jesuitarum : nihil enim quod in nsum venit his melios.*'

' See Sir Greorge Young's Essay on the '^ EUstoiy of Greek Literature in England."

' The change had its bad as well as good side. The boys learn their grammar in leas time than they were wont to do, but know no more French than knows their left heel, and that is harm to them if they shall travel in strange lands. So writes John of Trevisa, in 1387.

' See " Education in Early England," by F. J. FumivalL

Paikb.] on the HISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 45

ieligion do more than in England to exalt them of low degree ; and nowhere were gentlemen less disposed to humble themselves to be scholars, that they might be exalted to be bishops. The universities were much frequented by the sons of yeomen ; and in the monastery and cathedral schools, and large parish schools, any peasant boy of good capacity might learn Latin free of expense.

In the reign of Eichard II. indeed, a petition was presented to Parliament by certain lords, praying that children of serfs and the lower sort might not be sent to 8cbool, and particularly to the schools of monasteries, ^herein many were trained as ecclesiastics, and thence rose to dignities in the State.^ But the clergy were strong enough to defend the cause of the poor. One of the most disgraceful acts for making agricultural labour compulsory, ends with the proviso that " every man and woman of what estate or condition that he be, shall be free to set their son or daughter to take learning at any nianner of school that pleaseth them within the realm." *

Gentlemen took care that their sons should learn

• courtesy," to ride, sing, play upon the lute and vir-

ginals, perform feats of arms, dance, carve, and wait at table,^ where they might hear the conversation (some- times French or Latin), and study the manners of great Dien. In some of the great houses there were masters of gKunmar to teach Latin to the " young gentlemen of the

^ Christian Schools and Scholars, it 234. ' 7 Hen. IV. c. 17, quoted in " Education in Early England." ' Cardinal Morton used to say of Sir Thoiuas More, ** This child here Waiting at table, whosoever shall live to see it, wiU prove a marvellous

ni«i."

46 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EssitL

household." Ako many gentlemen studied at the inns of court, and some at foreign universities.

A letter from Pace to Colet, about the year 1500, shows the tone of another class of gentlemen. One is represented as breaking out at table into abuse of letters. " I swear," he says, " rather than my son should be bred a scholar, he should hang. To blow a neat blast on the horn, to imderstand hunting, to carry a hawk handsomely, and train it, that is what becomes the son of a gentleman : but aa for book-learning, he should leave that to louts."

It is stated by a recent historian, that, as late as the reign of Edward VL there were peers of Parliament unable to read. Well might Roger Ascham exclaim, " The fault is in yourselves, ye noblemen's sons, and therefore ye deserve the greater blame, that commonly the meaner men's children come to be the wisest coun- cillors, and greatest doers, in the weighty affairs of this realm."

The history of the classical revival at the English universities is well known, and has lately been brought before the public.^ It may suffice to remark that almost all the Oxford leaders. Selling, Linacre, Grocyn (a Wyke- hamist), Colet, and Lilly, had visited Italy, and were in close relations with Italian scholars ; while, of the Cam- bridge leaders, Crokc (an Etonian) had taught Greek at Leipsic aud at Louvain, and Smith and Cheke were men of the world, and of some European reputation.* The lustre of these names, and the enthusiastic flatteries of

^ In Seebohm's Oxford Reformen, and in Sir O. Yonng'B Essay.

• Linacre was tutor to Prinoe Arthur at Oxford (lOOlX Gbek^ to gmg

Edward VI. (1644). Smith was Secretary of State to Queen EliabeOu

FAwmu] ON TEE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 47

Erasmus, who found himself at home with a distm-

giushed circle in each university, tend to conceal the fact

that, for a long time, the number of classical scholars was

bat small Indeed, it could not weU be otherwise until

some change should take place in the schools.

The two great schools founded before the revival, Winchester (1386) and Eton (1440), were on one Biodel, being intended to lay a grammatical foundation for the studies of New College, and of King's. No record of the course of training in those days has been preserved.* In Wolsey's Statutes (drafted before 1477) for the Ipswich Grammar School, which was to prepare students for his coUege at Oxford, there is no mention of verses or of Greek.

An account of Eton in 1560 (?) shows what the school had become quarter of a century after the appointment of Udall as head-master. The sixth form alone learn Greek grammar. The younger boys read Terence, Cicero (Sturm's selection), Vives, and Lucian in Latin. Among the books of the upper forms, besides the Ovid, Virgil, Horace, Catullus, and Martial of modem days, ^ Caesar, Lucan, and the epigrams of More.

Verses are written on subjects such as might still be 8et in the lower forms. There is some attempt to go to iiature for poetic inspiration. Before writing on *'the flowery pleasantness of spring," the boys are sent out at l^reak of day to gather branches of maythom, taking care not to wet their feet. In " fruitbearing autumn tie plentiful crops must be imagined and described l^ofore nutting is allowed. The verse was Latin, with an exception in favour of the gaiety of spring, which was

^ In the Pabton Letters, there are two Eton Latin verses of 1468.

48 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EflBAT L

allowed to vent itself in simple English ; as still, when his heart is most full, an Eton boy may bid his school farewell in the unpractised accents of his mother-tongue. The other exercises wei-e declamations, themes, versions, and variations. Excerption of flowers and phrases was also taught in school

Epigrammatic contests were encouraged, and the writer describes with glee how at Montem new fellows were salted with salt, with Latin gibes, and with their own tears. On the long winter nights the boys acted Latin or English plays written by Udall, " the fEither of English comedy/' In July a competitive examination was held, that the fittest in all Britain might be elected to the college.

From this account it is plain that classical education did not leap at once into full growth. If " English boys disporting themselves in Greek epigrams" existed any- where save in the imagination of Erasmus, it can hardly have been at Eton. But before the end of the century a contemporary writer^ states that at Eton, Winchester, and Westminster a great number of poor scholars were " well entered in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek tongues and rules of versifying." As regards other schools, the information extant relates to what was intended rather than to what was achieved.

What was intended in cathedral schools has been set forth in Mr. Whiston's book on Cathedral Trusts. If the preambles of Acts were history, it would appear that at all the cathedrals founded or reformed by Henry VIII. good stipends were provided for "readers of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin." When an endeavour was made at

1 Harriaon. See " Education in Early England," p. 68.

PiBot.) ON TBE mSTOnr of classical SDUCJTION. 49

(lantcrbury to exclude the children of the poor firom profiting by these eudowmenta, Cranmer made a spirited tirotest, concluding as follows: "The poor man wdl for tlie most part be learned when the gentleman's son will Dot take the pains to get it . . . Wherefore, if the gentleman's son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor man's child that ia apt enter in liifl room." But before long cathedral truat-moneys for tlie most part took another direction.

During the last thirty years before the Reformation there were more grammar schools erected and endowed in England than had been established in three hundred y^ars preceding. These were results of the recovery friiiu the Wars of the Roses, and of the classical revival, ^liich had nowhere more influence than at court. The iiing himself was learned in the tongues, and took caro 'liat his family should be so. Erasmus praises the Ifiming of Queen Catherine and the Latin letters of M,uy. Ascham read Aristotle's Ethics in Greek with iilward, and made hitn translate fi'om Cicero into Greek, t-'f Elizabeth's Greek he writes to Sturm in the highest twins. Lady Jane Grey, Lady Cecil, Lady Russell, and Flore's daughter Margaret, are examples of the classical ^liiolarship attained, so far as hawking and hunting per- 'fiilted, in families connected with the court.

The Refonnarion greatly diminished the amount of tiiucation by the destruction of religious schools. It Wme necessary " to take diverse orders for the mainte- nance and continuance of scholars, priests, and curates," "hidi led to the foundation of more grammar schools, But the rapacity of Edward's council left scanty funds to endow them. The reign of Mary was disastrous to

50 ESSJFS ON A IIBERJL EDUCJTIOK ^Bbsat I

education. The general want of schools, decay of the Universities, and decay of learning were represented to Elizabeth* in the strongest terms. But, except by private liberality, little was done to meet the want.

The statutes of the grammar schools or free schools founded by the Crown and by private benefactors are nearly all on one model, combining classical with reh- gious instruction. The archetype may be foimd in Dean Colet's Statutes (1509) for St Paul's. Scholastic Latin was to be strictly excluded, but not so Christian writers in good Latin. The head master was to be " learned in good and clean Latin Uterature, and aJso in Greek, if such may be gotten. Such was gotten in the person of Lilly, the author of Propria quce marihus and As in prcBsenti. Erasmus, who had been much consulted in the whole matter, and helped to draw up the grammar, considered this school to be the best in England.

The statutes of the school founded at Manchester (1525) by Bishop Oldham may serve further to set forth the conception of a grammar school He had observed that "the children in the same country having preg- nant wits had been most part brought up rudely and idly," and determined to give them an opportunity of learning grammar, as being 'Hhe ground and fountain of all the other arts and sciences . . • the gate by the which all other been learned and known in diversity of tongues and speeches." There is no special mention of Greek.

The Shrewsbury Grammar School, foimded by Ed-

^ Stiype's Annals, L 437. At the be^nning of her reign but few of the dergj had the least tincture of Greek learning, and the nugority did not ondentond Latin."— jBo^^cmi.

-Paun.] ON THE HISTOET OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 51

Ward VI. (1551), is described by Camden as '^tHe best filled in all England^ being indebted for its flourishing state to provision made by the excellent and worthy Thomas Ashton. Ten years later, Laurence Sheriff made similar provision for Rugby. Harrow was founded (1571) as "the Free Grammar School of John Lyon." He names for use many of the best Latin and Greek Wks, but only one Greek poet, Hesiod. The boys are "to be initiated in the elements of Latin versification very eiirly." And "no girls shall be received to be taught in the same school" The head master "may take of the foreigners such stipends and wages as he can get, so that he take pains with all indifferently, as well of poor as of rich.

The statutes of the later free schools generaUy pre- scribe verses, and Greek. Archbishop Grindal, for example, requires for St. Bees (1583) "a meet and learned person that can make Greek and Latin verses, and interpret the Greek Grammar and other Greek authors. The only other Greek author named is " the Kttle Greek Catechism set forth by public authority." Archbishop Sandys expects from the Hawkshead School, in Lancashire (1588), that "the chiefest scholars shall make orations, epistles, and verses in Latin and Greek for their exercises," and aU the scholars "shall con- tinually use the Latin tongue or the Greek tongue as they shall be able." Archbishop Harsnet wishes for Chigwell (1629) " a man skilful in the Greek and Latin tongues, a good poet. For phrase and style he is to iiiiuse no other save TuUy and Terence ; and to read the ancient and Latin poets, no novelties or conceited modern writers."

E 2

52 ESSAFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bbsat

Latin plays are not mucli mentioned in the statute but were frequently acted ; at Shrewsbuiy weekly. I a few cases Hebrew is required of the head-master, i at Bristol, Southwark (1614) and Lewisham (1652 But in by fieur the larger number of schools Greek an Latin alone are specified, and in some it is express! said that "Greek and Latin only, or "the classic only,*' are to be taught

Charterhouse (founded 1611) is an exception. Fo although the statutes (dated 1627) prescribe "none bi approved authors Greek and Latin, such as are read i the best esteemed free schools, and Latin and Gre€ verses every Sunday upon some part of the Secou Lesson, it is added that the scholars shall be taught '^ t cypher and cast an account, especially those that ai less capable of learning and fittest to be sent I trades."

When grammar schools have received new statut by Act of Parliament, there has seldom been an essentii change. At Leeds an attempt was made to introduce more modem education. But it was decided in Chancei (1805) that " the Free School in Leeds is a free gramm; school for teaching, grammatically, the learned language according to Dr. Johnson's definition." In general, litt has been done to meet the requirements of a later ag Endowments have been wasted by the cessation i demand for free classical instruction.

It is remarked by Locke, that writing a good hai and casting accounts are seldom or never taught \ grammar schools, and yet gentlemen send their yoimg sons there who are intended for trades, and tradesm( and farmers send their children, though they have neith

ON TBS mSTORT OF CLASSICAL BDUOATION.

53

eadoD nor ability to make them scholara. To ask fhy, he says, is thought as strange as to ask why they p) to church ; " Custom serves for reason."

Iq this way, schools which have almost ceased to supply the universities, have still kept together a cer- uin number of scholars. But in some placea even ciBtom has at last died out : the schoolmaster draws his Hilary, and the school stands almost empty.

To give any other than a liberal education in these &i* schools, would be a departure from the purpose of tlic founders. They did not design to save the pockets (if gentlemen by educating their younger sons for trad^ or to enable the sons of fanners to become masters of the arts of writing and casting accounts. Their intention WM to recruit the ranks of the universities and of the learned professions from among rich or poor. And to a great extent this was accomplished.

It should not be forgotten what the classical free schools scattered through England have done in times past to furnish her great men. Take only the names which meet the eye in turning over the pages of Carlisle,' omitting all the best-known public schools, that is, the most successful free schools, formed on the same type. From- Abingdon and Norwich came Chief-Justices Holt and Coke ; from Huntingdon, Cromwell ; from Grantham, Newton ; from Kingston, Gibbon'; ixom. Giggleswick, Paley ; from Newcastle, Ridley, Akenside, Hdon, and Stowell. From other schools, now not more distinguished than these, came WaUis, and Harvey, and Jenner, and Davy ; Jewel and Laud ; StilJingfleet, Waterland, Barrow, and Clarke ; Kennicott, Lightfoot, ' " Endowed tiiammar Schools." Published, 1818.

54' ESSAYS ON A LIBJSBdL EDUCATION. [BaaAT I- :i

and Prideaux; Huskisson, Clarkson, and Wilberforce ;^ Heber, and Martyn. It would be easy to lengthe the list from other and more recent sources. One name cannot be omitted. It was at a free school that Shak- i^eare received a liberal education. y IX. Thus Grammar and the Classics were established and for three centuries have been accepted in practice constituting, with religion, the whole cause of liberal school education in England But in theory the system has not passed unquestioned.

' It deserves remark that Bacon did not urge reform in school education. He contents himself with praising the Jesuits, and gleaning a few neglected truths. The friends of rhetoric^ as against science at schools, are so far entitled to count him on their side. Yet his advice to bring the mind into closer contact with facts, and to work from the concrete to the abstract, led other school- reformers to insist upon the knowledge of things as well as words, and to protest against teaching abstract rule before a child knows the concrete facts of language. The truth is that intellectual revolutions begin among grown men, and are afterwards imported into schools. Classical studies were pursued for some time before they were organized for school education. So it has been with inductive science for a much longer time: because the classics were (corruptions excepted) at the firat as perfect as they are now, whereas the inductive sciences came slowly into existence. Bacon anticipated, but could not create them. Had he attempted it, boys might have been taught to disbelieve Copernicus, and to despise Gilbert. Bacon might, indeed, have recommended mathematics, the very name of which tells what the

Pawool] on THB EISTORT OF CLASSICAL ST)VCATI0N. 55

Greeks thought of their importance in education. But his own training was unfortunately defective on that side. Moreover, Bacon (though before his age in this as in other respects) was not without a certain con- tempt for boys.

A generation later, Milton raised his eloquent voice to proclaini the reforming of education as ** one of the greatest and noblest designs that can be thought on, and for the want whereof this nation perishes. An idea had long since in silence presented itself to him of a better and larger education. As regards learning, his first principle is that " language is but the instrument con- veying to us things useful to be known. He therefore condemns as the chief mistake at schools " a prepos- terous exaction, forcing the empty wits of children to compose themes, verses, and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment." In his opinion the most rational way of learning a language is first to commit to memory the most necessary parts of grammar; next, to apply the grammar in reading the most delightful book that can be found, such as Plutarch's Lives ; then to proceed forthwith to the solid things which the language con- tains, beginning with the easiest arts, that is, with those which are most obvious to the sense. His list of authors will seem absurd if the principle (of reading a lan- gtiage for its solid contents) be rejected, and out of date at the present day if it be accepted. Agriculture, phy- siology, architecture, astronomy, and tactics are among the subjects to be studied in Greek and Latin. Among poets he first names Hcsiod and Aratus, Lucretius, " the Wal part of Virgil," choice comedies, Greek, Latin, or Italian, and " tragedies that treat of household matters."^

56 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. IBbaat L

Use of the globes, '^ any compendious method^ of natuial philosophy/' mathematics, fortification, engineering, or navigation, anatomy, and the like are to be leamt from modem authors ; geometry, " even playing, as the old manner was. Next follow ethics, economics, politics^ the highest matters of theology. Church history, ancient and modem, and the Hebrew Scriptures. Then " choice histories, heroic poems, and Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument, with all the £Emious political orations." Lastly, a course of logic, rhetoric, and poetics introduces the right season of forming the pupils to be able writers^ '^ when they shall be thus fraught with an universal insight into things."

Although the scheme is impracticable, or, in Milton's words, '^ not a bow for every man to shoot in that counts himself a teacher," it shows that a great poet may be less disposed than a great philosopher to think that trae command of language can be attained apart from knowledge of things.

A reformer more on a level with the pubUc mind was Locke. In his view schools were teaching ^'things a great part whereof belongs not to a gentleman's calling, which is to have the knowledge* of a man of business^ a carriage suitable to his rank, and to be eminent and useful in his country according to his station."

He dissuades from sending a boy to school, which is

• • to hazard your son's innocence and virtue for a little

Greek and Latin;" and advises that a tutor be procured who thinks learning and language the least part of education.

^ One of Bacon's few iwnarki on Ednoalion if a waniDg against oompeo. dioua methods.

FauL] ON THE HISTOST OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 67

Latin, however, of a certain sort being absolutely neces- 8U7 for a gentleman, he is to '* have it talked into him/' bj conversations with the tutor on geography, astronomy, cluonology, anatomy, parts of history, and the like. If lach a tutor cannot be found, the boy must learn by literal translationa Or his mother, without any pre- vious knowledge,^ may read with him a Latin gospel Indeed, such Latin as Locke desires '^ might be learned almost in playing/' Those who wish to be critically exact must study grammar. But ladies speak correctly without it The only grammar which a gentleman needs is that of his own tongue, which alone he means to write. ^^ And let him read those things that are well writ in English, to perfect his style in the purity of our language."

If the boy is sent to school, the master will want to teach him grammar. Locke advises the parent to ex- plain that you have no design to make him either a Latin orator or a poet, but barely would have him un- derstand perfectly a Latin author.'*

As for verses, a boy has not, or he has, a natural turn for them. K he has not, you cannot give it him ; if he has, the sooner it is suppressed the better. Such a taste will lead him into bad company and bad habits.

Kg man can pass for a scholar who is ignorant of Greek. But the question in hand is the education of ^ gentleman ; to whom Latin and French, as the world goes, are by every one acknowledged to be necessary. ^Vhen he comes to be a man, he can easily get Greek for himself.

The fMlikodt maUmelU w in common use in French commercial schools. But a mother is supposed to know the language which she teaches.

98 SSSJrS ON A UBEELAL EDUCATION. [Ebbat L

As soon as a boy can talk, French should be ^' talked into him. Mathematics may also be useful. Locke himself knew a young gentleman who could demonstrate several propositions in Euclid be£Dre he was thirteen.

• • Natural philosophy as a speculative science" (says

Locke) ** I imagine we have none. . . . Yet the in- comparable Mr. Newton has shown bow far mathematics applied to nature may carry us in some particular branches of this incomprehensible imiverse. If others could give us so good and clear an account of other parts of nature, as he has of this our planetary world, the subject might become a proper part of a gentleman's education.

Locke's views resemble those of Montaigne, who wrote in the previous century. Montaigne's father had actually brought him up as a child to speak Latin only. But in Locke's time it was no easy matter for English gentlemen to do the like, Latin being then, in his own words, " a language foreign in their country, and long since dead everywhere." Montaigne had also learnt Greek (not much) from his father " almost in playing." He thought children's wits were none the sharper for dry rules of logic or grammar. " Magis magnos dericos non sunt magis magnos sapientes."

X. Theories, however, are of little weight as compared with experience. And for experience of any but the one-sided classical course of liberal education it is neces- sary to look beyond England

In Germany, the first reformer of classical education was Ratich, who professed to have a system by which Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and other languages^ might be learnt in a veiy short time. Dissatisfaction with ezistiiig

PiiOB.] OK THE HISTOBJ OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 59

education led several towns to employ him to organize ^ tieir schools. The chief points of his method .were to b^ with the mother-tongue, to teach a language first and the grammar afterwards, to let nothing be learned by heart, but impress a lesson by frequent repetition, and the like. He saw the weak points of existing schools, but was not competent to reform them. He ended by being thrown into prison, and was only let out on signing a paper to the effect that he had promised more than he could perform.

A more successful reformer was Comenius (1592- 1669), whose Janua Linguarum and Orhis Pieties obtained great celebrity and circulation. The latter was intended to combine a large and not exclusively classical Latin vocabulary with knowledge of things. He was led by reading Bacon to insist upon the latter. He hdd that all ranks should receive the same education, and that only two languages, the mother-tongue and Latin, should be carried to all possible perfection. He expected to see Latin become an universal language^ not only for Europe, but for the world.

In the seventeenth century the Germans were learned rather than elegant scholars. But the Thirty Years' War brought down the standard so low that, after a short

• ^toiggle to restore it, early in the eighteenth century

Latin began to be laid aside as a spoken language at German universities and schools. Germans of rank would often desire that their sons should give up Greek to devote more time to French, which seemed about to become the common tongue of Europe. And little as tbe German language had then done in literature, there "^ere rectors who held that it had its classical authors.

60 XSSJYS ON A UBBBAL EDUCATION. [Bbbat I.

and ought to be studied as carefully as the other tongues.

The cry of "Things, not words," gathered strength, and useful was opposed to liberal education. It was thought that boys intended for trade were out of place in the classical schools (YerbaLschulen). The first Beal- schule was opened by Semler, at Halle, in 1739. At Berlin (1747) a Realschule, with a classical depart* ment, was founded, in which a liberal education might be combined with the study of any special subject, such as "breeding silkworms, or "ninety kinds of leather/'

Rousseau's "EmUe" (1762) stLoiulated the reaction in (rermany against classical education, and led to the foundation of schools, of which a chief feature was Latin without the rod;^ such as Basedow's " Philanthropin," at Dessau (1774), and later, the schools of PestalozzL Kant recommended and collected money for the former, and Fichte supported the latter. In Kant's opinion, " not slow reform, but swift revolution " was needed in schools. At the Philanthropin Greek was not taught at all, and Latin badly. Kant afterwards acknowledged it to be a failure, but thought the experience worth what it had cost. The Prussian minister, Zedlitz, at first believed in Basedow.

But Frederick II., being disposed to favour the classics/ Zcdlitz appointed F. A. Wolf to be Professor of Philo- sophy and Education at Halle, in place of a disciple of

^ Generally, Latin and lod were nail and hammer. For this reason Latin could only be taught to boys.

' *^ Lateinisch miiasen die jungen Leute absolut lenen ; daron gehe ich nicht ab.

Paiebl] ok the EISTOBT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 61

Basedow, for wliom the chair had been founded. Wolf hddihe post twenty-three years (1783-1806), and edu- cated some of the most distinguished Grerman scholars, among others, Bockh, Bekker, and Heindorf; Halle baying tiU then been under the reproach of producing no philologian. He accomplished this by founding a seminary for training professed scholars, many of whom became teachers at the classical schools. Insisting on thoroughness in everything, he opposed the introduction of miflcellaneous knowledge. An ideal floated before bim of making Greek, not Latin, the first language taught to boys. He believed that this was the right means to promote the highest culture of the German niind. But the whole current of the time was against bim, and he gave it up as a beautiful dream. Prac* tically, he advised that Greek and Hebrew should be taught only to those who showed special aptitude for language.

The experience of Austria^ in liberal education is instructive. For more than two centuries (1550-1773) the Jesuits, Benedictines, and Piarists had almost a nionopoly, the last-named order inclining to "things, liot words.'* The Jesuits also taught natural science and mathematics, but felled to give efl&cient instruction, ^nend dissatisfection arose, and complaints were made tbat they loaded the memory without training the niind, taught poor Latin and no German, adhered to a ^^nrse of study long since out of date, and objected to State control Maria Theresa (1 760) took vigorously in l^d the general re-organization of schools. Cardinal

Migazzi declared that the once glorious educational

1 ** FortBchritte det Untenichtswesens, by Beer and Hochegger, 1867.

62 SSSJTS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION: [Esbat n

exertions and successes of the Order of Jesus had had their time, and like all things human, their schools had fallen into decay. Clement XIV. simplified things by abolishing the Order. A brilliant period foUowed, in which Austria took the lead in German popular educa- tion. Funds and buildings of classical schools were appropriated for normal and primary schools for both sexes : Maria Theresa's son, the future Emperor Joseph II., being of opinion that when all her subjects could read, write, and cypher, then would be the time to attend to learned education. The Empress, the aristo- cracy, and the great ecclesiastics assisted liberally from their private means. No more Latin was to be learned in these schools than was necessary for apothecaries, surgeons, and scribes, and to prepare for classical schools. But liberal education was not neglected. A scheme was drawn up by Professor Hess (1774), rejecting medieval books, encouraging Greek and classical Latin, but re- quiring also the systematic study of Grerman and the other mother-tongues, and insisting on mathematics and natural science. In favour of this reform, he appealed to the satisfactory experience of Saxony, Hanover, and WUrtemberg.

. The first difficulty was to find efficient teachers. The Piarists had their own ways of teaching "things, not words." And rather than employ Protestants, Austria fell back on the ex-Jesuita Between the two, physical science had no fair trial The new liberal education began to look like a failure ; which distressed Joseph more than it distressed the Jesuits.

The death of Joseph (1790), the terror spread by the French Revolution, and the accession of Francis IL

tanL] ON\THB HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 63

\m^t about reaction. The professed principles of lefonn were not ill-sounding. Superficial studies were to be banished, physical science relegated to the philo- Bophica] course, and it was laid down that in liberal school education the proper study of mankind is man. Instruction in the German language and literature was to be retained. The clergy were to see that all this iras done.

The year of another French Revolution (1848) brought mother crisis. Plans of reform had long been under diBcussion : but in that year Austria first reached the stage of having a Minister of Public Instruction. Pro- fessor Bonitz, who was employed to reorganize the Gymnasia, defined it as the aim of liberal school educa- tion to impart a higher general culture, making such substantial use of classical literature, as to lay the foundation for University studies.

This conception of a "higher general culture," deve- loped by the course of history, and recognised by all tbe educated nations of Europe, must determine the relation between the discipline of language and history, and the discipline of mathematics and natural science. . Keither of these, considered as an independent force, <^n give the right movement to liberal education, the | direction of which should not be determined by the ^iteaical languages alone, nor by these combined with tbe mother-tongue, but should result from the reciprocal ^d common action of all the liigher studies. Bonitz regarded the application of this culture in its complete- ness by a single set of class teachers as ** a didactic •

^possibility." On the other hand, he saw the danger ^ hreaking up education into too many departments.

64 ESSAYS ON A LIBBRAL EDUCATION: [EteAT I.

His practical solution was to group kindred subjects. He insisted on previous examination of the teacher as essential to success ; and a training college was founded at Vienna.

But this promising system of education was loudly denounced by the bureaucracy and aristocracy, the Catholic and some Protestant clergy, and the extreme national party. It was revolutionary, irreligious, out- landish, Prussian. It gave to Greek, the favourite tongue of Reformers, and German, a language in which Pro- testants were strong, an advantage over Latin, the language of the Catholic Church. The natural sciences would introduce the leaven of materialism ; the severe examinations would fill the pulpits and tribunals with hard-working children of the poor. No person of rank or fortune would subject his son to such danger and such annoyance. With these complaints were mingled outcries from the non-German populations against an attempt to Germanize their children through the schools. The system had not elasticity enough for the diversity of language and civilization in a polyglot empire.

For five years, however (1850-1855), it flourished, and proved itself to be no mere ideal. Then a Concordat threw education back into the hands of the clergy. The aid of Jesuit teachers was accepted again on their own terms, without the indispensable check of examination. The other religious orders claimed the same exemption. Except for laymen, tests of efficient teaching were at an end. In this state the liberal education of Austria remains, a comprehensive scheme administered under narrow clerical influence.-

In Grermany generally, no one who has not studied

Pabkeb.] on tee bistort OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 65

at an university can enter the higher civil service.

There are 58 universities, with 18,971 students. No

one can matriculate without a certificate of fitness from

his school. The number of Gymnasia, including those

of German Austria, is 520, with 114,545 pupils ;^ besides

preparatory schools (Progymnasia) in the smaller towns.

The classical masters teach also the German language

and literature, and sometimes French and English.

For mathematics and natural science there are special

masters. In some schools an hour a week is given

to speaking Latin. Oral translations into Latin and

Greek are practised, as well as written themes and

versions, and Latin and Greek verse. Hebrew is optional,

except for theological students, for whom the course

includes composition in Hebrew prose.

The final examination (Maturitats-priifung) in Prussia occupies a week. The papers are a German essay, a Latin essay, and Mathematics (five hours for each), a Latin, a French, and a simple Greek scriptum^ or ver- sion from dictation. An oral examination follows, in Greek and Latin poetry previously but not lately read, and in unseen prose, with Latin questions and answers ; also in Religion, in Mathematics, and in History. The essays are on subjects suited for boys, and means are taken to discourage " cram."*

XI. The University of Paris did not lose its mediaeval character till the Revolution. Francis L "the father

^ The number of boys in the PnuuBian Gymnasia was doubled in twenty y««B (1840-1860).

' See Dr. Minssen's Report (1866) to the French Minister of Instruction ; ^r. Bernard's Appendix to the Report on Public Schools ; Wicse, " Das «iiiere Schulwesen in Preussen ;" and, for specimens of work done, " English BA.'i and Prussian Freshmen," by Rer. O. D. Mathias.

6t^ £X?^r5 ox A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat L

of Fivnch litenitm^, had founded (1531) a Eoyal l\>llog<\ xrith professors of " the three principal tongues." And among the restorers of ancient, especially of Greek Uv^uminsr. the givat names of Budseus, Turnebus, Stepha- irais S^\HligiT, and Casaubon belong to France. But in l^AtJ^ iho now studios were opposed by the old reli- gious onloKv Tho Jesuits^ to the best of their power, luaiumiuovl tho cause of classical education and learning, ainl w^^Tv l<mg supported by the Bourbon court Yet tho ^'^holastio theologians and the Gallican party finally jMx^aiKxi. After sunno vicissitudes, in 1762 the order WHv^ aK^Hshovt^ and thoir colleges handed over to the rnivorsitw

l^xt thnnighv>ut tho provinces, fix)m first to last,

0\\uoaU\ui tknirislu\l in their hands. They established

thom^^^YxNiSi own in t<^wns of less than 5,000 souls:

aiu) tho ti^di'^iHvplo, givat and small, finding good free

8*^*h\HvU at thoir d\K>i^ sent their children to learn what-

ovor wa:^ taxight there. The knowledge of Latin thus

Uh^uuo for thnH> oonturies in France the mark of social

Hiandiug as a townsman*^ Together with Latin, the

%K\^uitKH tKH>k oare to inculcate Church principles and

I'athoHo dootrino. Yet it was in their schools that

hu*gt> nun\Wrs ivf tho ixH>ple acquired intelligence to take

|H\rt in tho rt^igious reforms of the sixteenth and seven-

toonth, and tho philosophical and social movement of

tho oightotuUh oontur}\ One of their most brilliant

disi^plos wiui Voltaire,

In tho Revolution, eilucation, like all other things, was wildly tossoil upon the waves of change. Each auccessive government, every party, clerical or secular.

IVkRKER.I on the HISTOHV QF CLASSIC.IL EDI'CATIOS. (',7

reactionary or progressive, saw and acted on the prin- I ciple that in education lies the making of the future.^ v Notwithstanding undue predominance of political aims, much may be learned from the experience of France, for nowhere have more distinguished men taken in hand the organization of^ schools.

The C!onstituent Assembly entrusted the task to TaDeyrand, who declared against exclusive classical | education, as failing to train the whole mind. He con- sidered that the best example of logical thought, and the best exercise for the reasoning powers, were to be found in mathematics, especially when studied in com- bination with the first principles of natural science. He proposed to strengthen the memory by history, and to stimulate the imagination by oratory, poetry, music, and drawing. Morality wa» to be placed on grounds of reason, virtue being taught as a science, and recom- mended as an advantageous calculation. His measures f never took effect

The Legislative Assembly employed Condorcet, who advised that mathematics and natural science should altogether supersede the classics ; of which a superficial study was worthless, and a long and profound study pernicious rather than useful. His plan also came to Gibing. The Convention accomplished little ; and the ' Dinctoiy less.

Napoleon, as first Consul, laid the foundations of the present system. The Lyc6es, corresponding to the German Gymnasia, were organized on the principle 'hat Uberal education has two factors, literary culture

• Se6 *• Fortechritte des Unterrichtswesens ; " and About, " Le Progrts."

F 2

'/;

68 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat L

and the discipline of exact science.^ The one was re- presented by Latin, the other by mathematics ;* further subjects of instruction, such as Greek and history, and logic and natural science, being regarded as supple- mentary to these. Inspectors were appointed, and the preparation of school-books entrusted to able hands. To secure an efficient staflF of teachers, Napoleon re- organized the Normal School of the Convention, in two departments, of Literature and of Science, and instituted competitive examinations for the appointments. He also (1806) established the University as an independent corporation charged with the supervision of education throughout the country, meaning thus to create a bul- wark against destructive theories and incessant change.

The Kestoration abolished the Normal School, and was laying the axe to the root of University inde- pendence, when Napoleon returned from Elba, Some years later the state obtained control by making the Minister of Public Instruction Grand Master of the University.

The government of Louis PhDippe, under Guizot, on Cousin's recommendation, reformed primary education after the Prussian model, introducing the elements of natural science. But when it came to re-organizing secondary education, warm debates arose in the Cham- ber of Deputies (1835-6) on the comparative claims of literature and of science, of dead and of living tongues. It was argued against the classics, not only

^ J'aime les sciences math^matiqaes et physiques ; chacane d'elles est une beUe application partieUe de I'esprit humain ; mais les lettres, c*est esprit humain lui-m§me ; c'est T^ducation de VkakeP—NapoUon,

• ^ On enseignera essentiellement dans les )yc^ le Latin et les math^-

matiquea." (Decree of 10 Dec. 1802).

P^BXi3i.] ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 69

tliat they are practically useless for purposes of agri- culture, trade, and the like, but also that some of the most distinguished literary men of France had known little Latin, and less Greek.^ The interests of the classics were eloquently defended by Guizot and Saint-Marc Girardin, But perhaps the most remarkable speech was the reply called forth from Arago by the shallow assertion that there is no humanizing principle in exact science.

The practical question was complicated by the fact that the Chamber was dealing at once with the interests of liberal and of commercial education, there being no proper organization for the latter.

Secondary education in France was mainly directed to the attainment of the baccalaureat is lettres,^ which / confers the privileges of a first degree in that faculty, whereas the German certificate only entitles to matri- culation. By new regulations in 1840, the test was made f more severe, the candidate being shut up for two hours vith a dictionary, to translate from Latin, and then examined orally for three quarters of an hour in explana- tion of Latin, Greek, and French authors, and in philo- sophy, literature, history, mathematics, and physics. The questions were drawn from bags containing fifty on each subject, and, to render the work of preparation more definite, were published beforehand by the examiners, aud (with answers) by private enterprise.

A longer and more searching examination was insti- ^ted for the title of licentiate in letters or in the sciences,

Kacine and Boileau jwere jGreek scholars ; ComeQle, Voltaire, Montes- ^^«u, and Buffon, were not.

'Hie baeccUaureai h$ iciences was not established till 1852.

70 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION [Essat L

at the Normal School, which was also re-organized by the government of Louis Philippe.

In lay schools for liberal education licentiates only could be teachers. Whether this should be enforced on religious schools also, at least if they were to educate laymen, was one of the most difficult questions with which Guizot had to deaL The clergy were indignant at the notion that the soundness and efficiency of their teaching, and especially of their scientific teachings should be submitted to the judgment of laymen. Lay- men, on the other hand^ insisted on the rights of the University and of the State, and on the interests of solid learning and scientific truth. In the midst of the debate came the Kevolution, which has left the clergy free.

In the later educational experience of France, perhaps nothing is more likely to be instructive to England than the episode of Bifurcation (1854-1864).

The system was a compromise between two conflicting tendencies. On the one hand, there was a great and grow- ing demand for useful, and especially for mathematical and scientific education, not only among the industrial and mercantile classes, but among candidates for admis- sion to the civil and military technical schools. On the other hand, Latin having always been deemed essential in middle-class education, there was great unwilling- ness that a considerable section of society should be withdrawn from the humanizing influence of classical literature.

Under the pressure of these opposite forces, Fortoul, then Minister of Public Instruction, departed from the fundamental principle of liberal education laid down by

Piuml ON THE HISTORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 7 1

Napoleon, the intimate union of literature and science. The students were divided into Humanists and Kealists. / During the first five years they were to be educated together ; during the last four they were to be in separate sections ; working together, however, in French classics and composition, Latin translation, rhetoric, his- tory, modern languages, and part of their philosophy. The Humanists were to be excused from higher mathe- matics and higher physics ; the Kealists in part firom philosophy and Latin, and entirely from Greek. Latin and Greek were also to begin no longer in the first and second, but in the second and third years, and French giammar to be learnt before Latin.

After three years' experience, it was thought better to begin Latin and Greek grammar as early as before, and to put Latin composition later in the course. After another two years, it was found necessary to separate as far as possible all the literary work of the two sec- tions, the Eealists being a drag upon the Humanists. In the ninth year, a new minister (Duruy) condemned severely the loose mathematics of the Humanists, and decreed that the two sections should work together in both mathematics and literature for six instead of five years; and separately in both during their last three years, though learning under the same roof. Four f ^nonths later he made an end of Bifurcation.

How then does he meet the practical demands which ^ve his predecessor to the adoption of this system ? The answer, as regards liberal education, may be found in his instructions and circular dated in March, 1865. The general course has been arranged with more regard to science than hitherto, so that while the mind is

72 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat I.

enlarged by literary studies, the judgment may be strengthened by severer method. And mathematical courses have been added, in which a student, after completing the general course, may be prepared in one year for the ordinary Military School of St. Cyr, or in two years for the Polytechnic School, which qualifies for staff appointments. Non-liberal secondary education, {enseigiiemeiit secoiidaire professionnel) has been sepa- rately organized.

M. Cournot, formerly inspector general of studies, writing in 1864, thought a greater sacrifice necessary to save classical education. He observes that Professors of Greek literature in their French lectures dare not quote Greek, and recommends throwing overboard not only Greek composition (which would not lighten the vessel much), but Greek altogether, except the " dose " prescribed by the ancient University of Paris, which was such that a few Greek words should not arrest a French reader. He proposes to substitute German (which has grammar as well as literature) rather than English. He abandons also Latin verse, and even unwillingly parts with Latin essays, except for the grand prize at the "concours g^n^ral des lyc^es," at Paris, and perhaps as a ** sp^cialit6 humaniste " in great provincial schools. It remains to be seen whether Government can maintain classical education at a higher level in France.

XII. While in Germany and in France three centu- ries have wrought these reforms, in England there has been less change. The method of classical education has been improved, and the standard raised. Better dictionaries and editions have smoothed the learner's

Paubl] , ON THE BISTORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 73

path. Nine head-masters have agreed upon the simplest form in which the abstract rules of the Latin tongue can be taught to children. The study of great poets, and orators, and historians, is not made a mere exercise of rhetoric or of grammar. Less regard is paid to figures, flowers, and phrases; and more to feelings, thoughts, and things. But Milton might still find themes and verses " wrung from poor striplings, like blood out of the nose, or the plucking of untimely fruit." And we have still to ask these questions : — Are the classics read to learn Greek and Latin, or are Greek and Latin learnt to read the classics 1 Is the end to write Greek and Latin, or to read them, and write the mother-tongue ? Are learning Greek and Latin giammar and no English grammar, reading Greek and Latin authors and no English authors, and writing Greek and Latin exercises and no English exercises, the best means to form an English style ? Are the French and Germans wrong in teaching French and German otherwise ? Or is our language or literature less t Worthy to receive attention than theirs ?

Although the great English schools do not yet teach English, something has been added to the old purely classical course. Mathematics, a little history and geography, and in some schools modern languages,^ We recently become part of the school-work.

Besides this, the Keport of the Public Schools Com- ^asion, while decidedly supporting classical education, Commended that two hours in the week of school-

The study of modern languages was much encouraged at Eton by the J'ldicious liberality of the late Prince Consort, and the support of the head- ^ter. At Rugby, Dr. Arnold made the change.

76 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaiT L

A large and thorough knowledge of the masterpieces of ancient poetry, and eloquence, and history, and thought, — ^the language being held in due subordination to the subject-matter, — earns the highest distinctions and the richest endowments. And a comparison of the class- lists with any list of leading statesmen in or out of Parliament, will show that this training, especially when combined with mathematics, is not unserviceable in public life. But even in classics very little is required from the many. The chief aim of recent legislation in Oxford has been, not to improve passmen, but to convert them into classmen.

This has been in part eflfected by a bargain, releasing them after two years firom general education, if they will obtain honours in any special subject But their last general examination in the second year, instead of being carefully revised, is, for the present, huddled into the hands of persons appointed for another purpose* It cannot long remain unchanged.

Meanwhile the time has arrived for taking a broader view of the whole question. The country possesses already the Keports of Commissions on the Universities^ on the Public Schools, and on Primary Education in England and in Scotland. The series is now about to be closed by the publication of the Report on Middle- class Schools. The data will then be complete for the great problem of organizing English National Education ; that is, so far as it depends on old endowments or state aid. If the Universities are equal to their duties, it is upon them that the nobler part of the task must devolve.

The free schools, which will occupy a chief place in

^auxl] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATIOK 77

the forthcoming Eeport, were founded expressly to give a. liberal, then conceived as a classical, education. It 'Will be the duty and interest of the Universities to see that the endowments be not without good reason alienated from this purpose.

With other schools in which modem subjects are as fully recognised as the classics, the Universities have now for ten years spontaneously maintained a friendly con- nexion, by the Local Examinations. The title " Associate \ in Arts" implies that Oxford accepts education given in these schools as liberal The published order of merit directly tends to create claims on University endow- luenta. Indeed Balliol College has lately set, and Wor- cester CSoUege has followed, the example of oflFering assistance and special facilities for the University educa- tion of the most successful candidates.

It may seem that with primary schools at least the Universities can have no relations. But at Edin- hurgh, in the session 1865-66, of the students in the humanity classes, twenty-nine per cent came direct from primary schools. And at Aberdeen, in the bursary competition of 1865, forty-three per cent of the can- didates mentioned in the Order of Merit had been first educated in parochial schools. A difficult question arises between liberal education in parish schools, and the requirements of the Revised Code. The Scottish Universities will take care that it be not solved by extinction of the liberal education in Scotland. But let the English Universities consider whether, with improved primary education, a similar question may not arise in England ; whether there ought not to be, as of old, a ladder, by which a boy of rare intellectual powers

« 

MSSJ7J ZyA lUMMJL MMTCJEnOX. [Bhat I.

BExj »rTiV f^^sBL i5^ laSsk d^^K^el lo an Unirereily

A >*r:ijr.gp. ^ -±^ ^^vA azad nn^naaty comae also tGC&<!fes ti**^ c«sckii of iibiaal edncatioii £»* women. Tbe 5ap?r»^i preea5«5 •J?" ihe dasacs baTe beai tabooed ag3ii>?t 5Sfrb mrriii'Ss 2s« Lady Jane dey. Bat they are admittai to izyoiezn snidiesL Sometimes in natural seiec^e, aod ofien in modem langnages> history, and fiteratme, tber now know moie than their brothers. For them, then, as wdl as for their brothers, instraction most be made move thwoogh. The most narrow mind cannot deny that what diey -learn at all they should learn welL

Again, the cry is raised that material interests of England are in danger, from national n^lect of science in education. At j^esent wealthy manufacturers and merchants are much disposed to send their sons to the best liberal schools, though not to the UniTersities, if they are intended for trade. But if liberal schools will not teach modem subjects, and if the Universities will not fully recognise their importance, there is a risk in quarters such as these of losing liberal education altogether. Nor is England so short of material wealth and so over-stocked with education that she can afford to run this risk.

Thus on many sides the question of widening the

• ' course " of liberal education is hardly separable from a

larger question, which, if the Universities do not boldly face it, may be settled for them by a Reformed Par- liament. It is urged in no respectful tone, and seldom without exaggeration, that the public services they render are not in proportion to the revenues they enjoy ;

Pabkdu] on the history OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 79

that their idlers are many, and their students few ; that they have few relations with any but the upper class, with any but the established clergy, with any but the highest branches of the law, with medicine, the civil service, manufacture, commerce, science. In short, that if the Universities mean to remain national, they must do as Parliament has done. They must perceive the true dimensions of the nation ; and use the means at their disposal to bind its interests into one.

How this may best be done should be considered dehberately and calmly, it is true, but promptly. For the Eeport on Middle-Class Schools will require im- mediate legislation.

And the present issues between learned criticism and religion, and between science and religion, call loudly for the extension of liberal education. They are such as neither laity nor clergy should consent to leave to a few scholars and still fewer men of science.

The time has come again (if it ever passed away) when the knowledge of tongues is important for the maintenance of sound religion. Much of our embar- rassment in Biblical criticism is for want of Hebrew, Greek, or German learning. For German, not Latin, is now the tongue in which all questions of the ancient world are discussed with most research.

The time has come also to deal with the misunder- standing between science and education, and between science and religion. The professors must look through the telescope of GaL'leo. For what Erasmus said of the scholars of his time is in eflfect what scientific men^

1 See especially a paper " Od the Education of the Judgment," by Mr. Faraday.

80 ESSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat I.

now say of our classical scholars : Incredibile quam nihil intelligat litteratorum vulgus.

The time has come, and it need not be doubted that our ancient Universities will prove themselves equal to their modem duty. If only -their attention is fuUy directed to the question, if they view it in its broader aspect, if they look perhaps a little to what has been done in other countries, and then resolve what they will do themselves, it may be hoped that their decisions will be wise, and will be wise in time. But they have before them no less a task than to organize National Liberal Education.

II.

THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION.

BY HEKRY SIDGWICK.

It is my wish to examine, as closely and completely as I am able to do within the limits of an essay, the theory of classical education :/meaning thereby the body of ^^a^ns which, taken together, may be supposed to F^^ade the intelligence of the country, that the present course of instruction in the Greek and Latin languages and literature is the best thing that can '^ applied in the minds of English boys, in the )ear 1867, A.D., — or at least better than anything that it has been proposed to substitute for it. Such y i^^heory is somewhat difficult to extricate and expound iQ the case of this as of other institutions established long ago, in obedience to an impulse that has ceased to operate, under intellectual and social eonditions which tave since been profoundly modified. It is always, I Aink, a shallow view of history which represents such citations as existing by vis inertice alone ; vis inerticB ^ a blind and irrational force, which we have to calcu- '^te and allow for in explaining to ourselves why insti- tutions exist ; but it is powerless (especially in an age like our own), unless combined with a respectable array of niore rational forces. These forces are found in the j

o

82 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION, [Essay IL

convictions of intelligent and open-minded men who work the system, that it is supplying actual needs of the present age, is doing good work which the existing society wants done. But since it has never been incum- bent upon any set of men, as a distinct and inevitable duty, to set forth* what these needs and this work are ; since it is evident to the most superficial inquirer that the system was originally established — or gi'ew up — to meet very different needs, and to do very different work, its real raison d'etre as an existing institution has to be elicited in the irregular, and, to a speculative mind, unsatisfactory way of volunteer conservative advocacy. The reasoning of advocates is generally apt to be vague, sweeping, rhetorical : but the alignments constructed to support what exists are perhaps the worst, as they arc constructed under less pressure, with less felt need of intellectual exertion, and are inevitably addressed to the more docile and less critical portion of the public. A W)od reason, no doubt, is none the worse for being made "^ order ; still it is natural to regard such reasons with suspicion, and the suspicion is often justified by closer examination* /For. whatever be the cause, the arguments for classical education are often stated, even by able men, in a manner hardly worthy of their ability. They seem often so trivial and shallow, so partial and fragmentary, so vague and sweeping ; thejr seem to suggest such narrow views of culture, suclx imperfect acquaintance with the intellectual develop- ment of mankind, so slight an effort to comprehend all the conditions of the infinitely important problem with which they deal. At the same time, the advant^e that experience gives can hardly be too highly esti-

SiMwici.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 83

mated. The result of handing over education to tho most comprehensive theorist, with whatever gifts of lucid expression, would be, I doubt not, disastrous. T£e~ history of education is the battle-ground and burial- ground of impracticable theories : and one who studies it is soon taught to abate his constructive self-confi- dence, and to endeavour humbly to learn the lessons and harmonize the results of experience. But a teacher's experience must be measured, not by the length of time that he has been engaged in his work, but by the amount of analytical faculty and intellectual labour that he has applied to the materials with which it has fornished him ; by the way in which he has availed himself of the opportunities of observation and experi- ment which he, beyond all other men, has possessed. It uot unfrequently happens — and perhaps it is not sur- prising — that even successful schoolmasters, immersed in the husiness of their profession, are found to have learnt the theory of what they are doing casually and^ng ago from other men, and to have let it remain m theii' minds in undigested fragments, not really brought to 4e test of, and therefore not modified by, experience, »^lien such men become advocates, wc soon detect their ^capacity to give us any real instruction. Of couree, many of a very diflerent stamp have written in defence of classical education, and probably in the works and pamphlets that now exist on the sul^ject, amounting to ^ considerable literature, all possible arguments have o^n brought forward. Still the wish that foims itself ^ the mind on the perusal of these works is, that the period of advocacy should if possible now close, and that not one or two, but a number of intelligent

r •■>

84 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. PEssat U.

educators should take the arguments provided for them, turn them, and revolve them carefully, and by close, sober, accurate observation, obtain their exact value ; and then express this in carefully guarded and limited statements. The very mistakes and contradictions of such observers would elicit truth, and we should soon feel a legitimate confidence, which we can hardly feel now, that our systematic treatment of youthful intellect, if not absolutely the best conceivable, was at least approximately the best attainable.

In beginning to treat of classical education, it is perhaps desirable to make a protest against the notion which seems to prevail in some quarters, that the course of instruction which now bears that name is an organic whole, from which it is impossible to cut oflf any part, without converting the rest into something of veiy inferior value, A boy is considered to have been made a complete classical scholar when he has been taught to translate elegantly and correctly from Latin and Greek into English prose ; to compose correct and elegant Latin and Greek prose, and Latin and Greek verse. Classical study, the result of which does not include all these accomplishments, is supposed to be deficient in thoroughness.

Now there seems no adequate reason why Latin and Greek should be regarded as a sort of linguistic Siamese twins, which nature has joined together, and which would wither if separated. No doubt, the study of one is a good preparation for the study of the other ; but it has no special need of it for its own completeness. The qualities of the two languages, and the reasons for which it is desirable to study them, are in many

SiDowKt] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 85

lespecte very diflfeient: and it is only by a palpable looseness of thought that they can be joined together in discussion as frequently as they are. When, for instance. Dr. WooUey^ says that these two languages are the "master-keys that unlock the noblest tongues of modem Europe, he forgets how little Greek has to do with any of these tongues, except in forming their scientific termi- nology. When again the "severe regularity" of both languages is eulogized, it is forgotten how strong the tendency is in Greek to deviate from the normal type of the sentence, and to frame constructions which are not difficult to understand, but which can be brought nnder no grammatical rules. Moreover, the assumption ^ often made that, because there are strong arguments to prove that the thorough learning of one dead language

•

^ a valuable element of education, and that this lan- guage ought to be either Greek or Latin, therefore there is justification for teaching both Greek and Latin — I will not say thoroughly, but so as to engross the lion's fiiare of time and trouble.

Again, it seems undeniable, that a person may kam to read even a dead and difficult language with correct- ness and ease combined, without ever attempting to compose elegantly or even idiomatically in it ; without, in fact, writing more than a sufficient number of exer- cijses to fix thoroughly in his mind the more importtmt part of the grammar. Many students of Sanskrit, Hebrew, and other languages, do not do as much as this, and yet obtain a sufficiently firm grasp, for their purposes, of the languages they study. The fact seems to be, that if the sole end in learning a language be to

^ Late Principal of the UDiveisity of Sydney.

S6 ESSJf'S OS J UBERJL EOCCJTIOX, [EaaAT II.

read it easily, with correct apprehensioii of its meaning, the only means absolutely necessary is to read a great deal, and take care that the meaning is correctly appre- hended. But perhaps the most singular assumption is, that it is an essential part of the study of Greek and Latin to cultivate the faculty of writing what ought to Ije poetry in these tongues. No one of the large and in- creasing body of students, who concentrate their energies upon other ancient languages : no one of the professors, who elucidate with the most subtle and delicate appre- hension the most obscure and dij£cult poems in these lan- guages ; ever dreams of trying to develop such a faculty, except as the merest pastime. The composition of verses, and of elegant prose, may, or may not, be a desirable element of education ; but these exercises must be de- fended independently on their own merits, not as form- ing an essential part of instruction in Greek and Latin.

In the discussions on classical education, we find <1 abated, and decided generally, though not always, in tlu* same way, a preliminary question of great import- ance — namely, whether education ought to be natural or artificial. I use these as the most convenient words, but they require some explanation. By a "natural*' education is meant, that which teaches a boy things in which, for any reason whatever, he Avill be likely to take an interest in after life. It may be, that for commercial or professional reasons only, he will be forced to take au- interest in certiiin subjects ; in that case his educatioim must at some time, and to some extent, begin to be commercial or professional, and not liberal. One can ! hardly be content that any human being should be ained entirely for his niStier, and have no share of

SiDewicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 87

what may be called liberal education, — for every human being will have at least so much leisure, as to make it important for himself and for others, that he should be taught to use it rightly. But taking the term in its ordinary sense, and applying it to those who are able to defer the period of professional study till at least the close of boyhood, a liberal education has for its object to impart the highest culture, to lead youths to the most foil, vigorous, and harmonious exercise, according to the best ideal attainable, of their active, cognitive, and SBsthetic faculties. What this ideal, this culture may be, is not easy to determine ; but when we have determined it, and analysed it into its component parts, a natural education is evidently that which gives the rudiments of these parts in whatever order is found the best ; which familiarises a boy with the same facts that it will be afterwards important for him to know ; makes him imbibe the same ideas that are afterwards to form the furniture of his mind ; imparts to him the same accomplishments and dexterities that he will afterwards desire to possess. An artificial education is one which, in order that man may ultimately know one thing, teaches him another, which gives the rudiments of some learning or accom- plishment, that the man in the maturity of his culture will be content to forget. This is the extreme case, but in proportion as a system of education approximates to this, in proportion as the subjects in which the boy ^ mstructed occupy a small share of the thoughts of the ^^tivated man ; so far that system may be called arti- ficial, rather than natural. Now I think it must be allowed that, however much, historically and actUcolly,

• he onus probandi may rest on those who oppose an

90 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EflSAT 11.

less with the Attic, and a little more with the Hellenistic dialect ; but still Greek is, after all, Greek.^ When, however, this point is strongly pressed, we cannot avoid contrasting the great anxiety shown that a clergyman should know Greek, with the complacent indifference with which his total ignorance of Hebrew is usually contemplated.

We may admit, again, that a lawyer — even an English lawyer — ought to be able to read Roman law in the original. It is not clear that he is likely to advance himself in his profession by the study, but it is for the benefit of society that he should engage in it He ought, therefore, to be acquainted with Latin gram- mar, and a certain portion of the Latin vocabulary. As to doctors, can we gravely urge that they ought to understand the language in which their prescriptions are written, and that they find it instructive to read Galen and Hippocrates in Greek V To men of science, it is pointed out that their ever increasing technical terminology is systematically formed from Greek and Latin words. This is true ; and it is also true that a man of science might obtain a perfect grasp of this terminology by means of a list of words that he would learn in a day, and the use of a dictionary that he might acquire in a week It may be further remarked,

• Some writers seem to extend the necessity of learning Greek, for the

purposes of religion, much more indefinitely. " No religious nation,*' says Mr. Thring, *' can give up Greek." I do not suppose that Mr. Thring means more than that it is desirable that there should be, besides the cleigy, a body of learned persons studying Greek (and Hebrew), so as to keep the study safe firom any professional narrowness. In this I should heartily agree. But it is a vexy aristocratic view of religion that makes it depend in any degree on a nowledge of Greek.

' See Cambridge Essays, 1855.

SID3W1CK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 9 1

that though a clergyman might conceivably dispense with Latin, a learned clergyman, one from whom original research in the field of ecclesiastical tradition is expected, cannot dispense with it; and generally every antiquarian student, every one who inquires into the early history of any European nation, or of any de- partment of modem science, will require to read Latin with ease. Science has at length broken its connexion with what was so long the learned language of Europe ; but it is still the key to what, in contradistinction to science, is usually called erudition. To sum up : Greek is of use (we may say indispensable) to clergymen : to lawyers and learned men. The other infioi-

tesimal fragments of utility may be disregarded for our present purpose ; and, finally, in all these cases, it is only the power of reading that is of use, and not that of writing the language.

Much more importance is claimed for the knowledge

of the classical languages as an element of a truly liberal

culture : as the best introduction to the study of

Philology, as including the best instruction in the

universal principles of Grammar, and as indispensable

to a real knowledge of English and of other modem "E

language s. It seems rather important to attach as clear

and precise ideas as we can to the words "Philology

and " Grammar " : as the looseness with which they

are sometimes used creates an inevitable confusion

of thought Grammar is sometimes regarded as either

an introduction to, or an extension of. Logic. It is

called "the logic of common speech."^ Now it would

appear that Grammar, in this sense, includes only a

• Report of the Public School's Commission.

2-

92 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bssat II.

small portion of what is taught as the grammar of any particular languages. It teaches some of the facts and laws of thought and expression which Logic also teaches (both studies being united by a common root) and also cert^ain other facts and laws, which the theory of syllogistic reasoning is not obliged to notice, but which are equally universal, and — if I may use the term without provoking a controversy — equally necessary. Such are the distinctions of substantives and adjectives, of transitive and intransitive verbs^ the existence and classification of the relations expressed by the other parts of speech, the distinctions of tenses jmd voices, of principal and subordinate, declarative and conditional sentences, &c. It is clearly impracticable to separate this part of any particular grammar from the rest : because it is difficult to say what is, and what is not, universal : since each man is biassed in favour of the distinctions which his mother tongue brings into prominence; and since there are many distinctions, which, when they are once pointed out we not only see to be true, but cannot conceive how we could ever have overlooked. The most philosophical branch of Philology is that which busies itself with such real but not indispensable (what we may call potentially uni- versal) distinctions of thought : collecting them when they lie scattered in the grammar of particular languages, and clearly defining, arranging, and comparing them. This seems a study both extremely interesting in itself, and intimately connected with — we may even say a branch of — mental philosophy. And, no doubt, in learning Latin or Greek many such distinctions are taught to an English boy, of which the closest obser-

Sidowiol] tee theory OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 93

vation of liis mother tongue would leave him ignorant

But it cannot be denied that nine-tenths of his time

is occupied in storing up facts which in no sense

belong to universal grammar : in learning, not new

shades and distinctions of thought^ but simply special

ways of expressing old shades and distinctions, facts

which are so patent in his own language, that Latin

instruction is an extremely tedious and circuitous process

of teaching him to observe them. In learning the usage

of a new language we always find some things which

seem to us convenient and rational, and which we should

like if possible to incorporate into our own : but the

greater part of what we learn appears accidental and

arbitrary, while a good deal we regard as provokingly

useless and troublesome. There is probably always a

scientific explanation of this last, as the result of ages

of growth, but there is often no philosophical explanation

of it as belonging to a present instrument of thought-

^en, therefore, we are told that "the principles of

universal grammar which are necessary as the foundation

of all philosophical acquaintance with every language,

carry the young scholar forward till his mind is deeply

imbued with the literature, &c.^ we see what large

deductions must be made from this statement. A boy

does no doubt learn principles of imiversal grammar

which he will always desire to retain : but he learns

them along with a large assortment of formulae which,

when he has once ceased to study Latin, he will be

willing as soon as possible to forget.

By Philology is generally understood the study of language historically, of its changes, its laws of growth

' Dr. Moberly.

\

94 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT IT.

and development. It deals chiefly with the vocabulary and accidence of languages, as distinguished from the philosophical study of Grammar, of which I have spoken, that deals chiefly with the syntax. It is a study to which the thorough learning of either Latin or Greek forms an excellent introduction ; but Latin from its relation to English possesses peculiar advantages in this respect ; and these advantages would be much increased if French were learnt along with Latin, and every opportunity taken of pointing out the mutual relations of the three languages, Latin, French, and English. No cultivated man can fiiil to feel the interest and charm of Philology, or would wish to say a word in its dis- paragement. Its materials are abundant, its processes productive, the aid it affords to History and Anthropology most valuable. Still it must be classed among the sciences that are studied from "pure curiosity'"^ alone ; and, however noble an impulse we feel this to be, however true it is that any great increase of its force marks a step in human progress, yet such studies must be ranked, in importance to society, below sciences like Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, animal and vegetable Physiology, which (besides the gratification they afford to curiosity) have had, and promise still to have, the greatest influence on the material welfare of the human race. And if we cannot (as we certainly cannot) include all the sciences in the curriculum of general education, it seems (from this point of view) that those studied from pure curiosity are precisely those that ought to be left to students of special bias and faculty, every care

^ I use the word in the more elevated signification wliich the corresponding tenn in French bears.

SiDOWici.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 95

being taken to yield to this bias and foster this faculty. If then it appear desirable on other grounds that boys should learn Latin (or Greek), the fact that they will be thereby initiated into the study of Philology is a real additional advantage ; but taken by itself it does not constitute a very strong reason for learning either language.

We are told, however, in the strongest and most unquaUfied terms, that we cannot understand our own language without a knowledge of Latin and Greek : and this in two ways — ^both in respect of its grammar, and in respect of its vocabulary. This -claims to be so cogent a proof of the direct utility of these ancient languages, that it deserves our most serious consideration. We shall find, I think, that it has been urged by the advocates of classics with more than usual exaggeration. The limit of extravagance seems to be reached in the following utterance of Professor Pillans (which is quoted ^th approbation in the Report of the Public Schools Commission) : "It (English) is, besides, so uncompounded in its structure, so patchwork-like in its composition, so broken down into particles, so scanty in its inflections, and 80 simple in its fundamental rules of construction, that it is next to impossible to have a true grammatical notion of it, or to form any correct ideas of grammar and j^hilology at all, without being able to compare and contrast it with another language, and that other of a character essentially different." Why the rules of a language should be hard to teach because they are simple, because the character of the language is analy- tical and not synthetical, because in it the relations of words and sentences are expressed almost entirely l>y

96 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION, [Essay IL

particles, without the aid of inflection : why in such a language it should be ** impossible " to convey " correct ideas," not only of the facts and principals of universal grammar (which are ex m tei^mini^ common to all languages), but also of the formulae in which its special usage is summed up, is not attempted to be shown. That a person who had learnt English grammar only would have a very limited idea of grammar is unde- niable, but it is obvious that his idea might be correct as far as it went. The learning of the rules of Latin usage would, no doubt, sharpen our perception of the rules of English usage ; and this indirect utility (which belongs rather to the second part of our subject) I do not wish to undervalue. And it may be advantageous to excite a boy's interest in the laws of language first, by making him feel that, without the observation of these laws, he cannot obtain the results that are demanded from hinL But to assert that Grammar could not be taught analyti- cally instead of synthetically, seems contrary to common sense and experience alike.^

When we take the vocabulary, as well as the grammar,

^ As the word universal is generaUy used, I have indicated another impli- cation of it, in the signification, as I have expressed it, of "potentially universal/*

9 Some persons have a vague idea that it is not worth while trying to teach English and some other modem languages systematically, because they are " hybrid ; as if a language could be " hybrid " in its grammar, however mixed in its vocabulary, and as if Latin was not hybrid, in the same sense, though not to the same extent, as English. Others cannot divest themselves of the notion that familiar phenomena must be simple, and seem almost irritated when shown how varied and complex are the rules of using their vernacular. For instance, a French writer complains " Ton raffine la gram- maire fran^aise : on questionne un enfant . . . sur des distinctions subtiles auxquelles Pascal et Bossuet n'ont jamais song^ : *' as if Viigil ever thought of a tertiaiy predicate or Thucydides of the peculiar usage of l^mt imJi,

SiDOwicK.1 THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 97

of English into our view, we find still more startling statements as to the difficulty of mastering our mother tongue. Mr. Thring tells us that **it is scarcely pos- sible to speak the English language with accuracy or precision, without a knowledge of Latin and Greek." " It is not possible to have a masterly freedom in the use of words, or a critical judgment capable of supporting its decisions by proof without such knowledge." These are the words of a vigorous writer, and there substance I find stated, though less extravagantly, by several others. They seem to me well to illustrate the igno- rance of the real nature of language, and the laws of its apprehension, in which our long tutelage to Latin and Greek has left us.

The fact is, that the study of Latin (for Greek, except in respect of scientific tenninology, has much J^ss to do with the question, and would hardly have ^n placed on a par with Latin here, but for the hasty and random way in which the stock arguments on this subject are continually repeated,) camiot tell us what the EDglish language is, it can only help us to under- stand how it has come to be what it is. In order to learn to speak English with accuracy and precision, we have but one rule to follow, — to pay strict attention to usage. The authority of usage, the usage of cultivated persons, is in all disputed points paramount. The history of language is the history of continual change, and just as in learning Latin and Greek (or any other language), the tyro finds a knowledge of derivation frequently puzzling and misleading, the usage of words having often strayed from their original signification by long routes that can be only conjecturally traced : so

H

98 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay IL

jn the case of words that we have derived from the Jjatin, the meaning of the Latin tenn has often been so modified, that it would be the merest pedantry to pay attention to it. No doubt we are all liable to make mistakes in our own language, especially in the case of tenns which we meet with so rarely, that the natural process by which we learn the rest of our mother tongue cannot completely operate. And as these words are often derived from the Latin, a Latin scholar has a certain additional protection against such mistakes : he will naturally fall into them rather less than another man, who pays no particular attention to the subject. But he is liable to fall into a different set of errors, if he ever attempts, as pedants have attempted, to make his knowledge of Latin override English usage. Mr. Thring regrets the loss of the original meaning in the case of words like " edify" and ^' tribulation ;" and no doubt the historic interest in the derivation of these words is veiy great, and the non-classical reader has every reason to be grateful to books like those of Arch- bishop Trench, that open this new field of interest to him. But for a man in sciirch of accui-acy and precision, seriously to try and shackle himself by attention to these lost significations — to refuse, for instance, to use the woni

• ' tribulation," except when the idea of " threshing"

seemed suitable, would be pedantic frivolity. To the masters of English style, natural instinct and unconscious tact as to the living force of language, is the chief and primary guide ; while English dictionaries and English classics are the only corrective and court of appeal in case this tact breaks down. In short, the application of Latin to the historical interpretation of English, is a branch of

A

/, /^ ^'*

SmowicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 99

Philology — ^a most entertaining and instructive branch — which I should be glad to place within the reach of every- one, but which must be regarded, like the rest of Philo- logy, as an intellectual luxury. When we are threatened* that, without a knowledge of Latin and Greek, our language would be to us ** a strange collection of inex- pressive symbols/'^ we are at first alarmed; but on reflection, we perceive that our verbal signs would ' j'/.V -/^ become "inexpressive," in the sense that they would only express the things signified ; and the menace does-V not seem so terrible. We reflect also, that the historical study of language is of very modem growth, and that Greek and Latin must have been " strange collections of inexpressive symbols to the writers of the master-pieces and models which we are invited to cherish.^ Some exception to what I have said ought to be I Diade in the case of scientific nomenclature ; because, as this is the one part of our language of which the giowth is deliberate, and determined by the learned — not natural, and determined by the mass of the nation —

' Edinburgh Review, cxx.

' Mr. Joseph Payne, in a pamphlet remarkable for sobriety of statement,

bmdth of view, and close observation of the educational process, brings

forward a somewhat different argument to show the advantage a Latin

scholar has in reading English. He quotes several uses of EngUsh words

derived from the Latin, in our older authors (such as civil, '^ resentment,"

prevent,'^ which a classical scholar understands at a glance, but which

puzzle or mislead a man uneducated in classics. But these uses ought to

be found in dictionaries, and noticed by commentators. Every man reading

older authors in his vernacular, ought to know that a part of their vocabulary

is archaic, and ought to be on the watch for the archaic terms. I caimot

think that the trouble is very considerable of acquiring as complete an

acquaintance with these archaisms, as is necessary for literary purposes. A

knowledge of Latin would only save a part of this trouble ; much more

would be done by the direct teaching of English literature which I advocate

in this essay.

H 2

100 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EaaAT IL

it has a living and progressive connexion with Latin and Greek which no other part of the language has. But even here it is necessary to make distinctions. It seems too sweeping to say that " no man can expound any subject matter with scientific precision, unless he is acquainted with tiie etymologies of the terms he employs/'^ The newer terms of scientific phraseology have been formed generally in a systematic way, upon fixed principles, and we may assume that, for the future, all additional technical terms will be so formed. Therefore, though it is not absolutely indis- pensable to the scientific student to possess the key to this phraseology (as he can learn the meaning of each word from its usage and place in the system to which it belongs), it will save him a great deal of useless trouble if he does possess it But in the case of many of the older terms of science, formed irregularly or on false principles, a knowledge of the derivation will be useless or misleading. They have often great interest for the historical student : to the scientific man, the sooner they become mere counters the better. I have already indicated with what ease men of science might learn all the Greek and Latin words necessary to give them the required key. Instruction in such words ought to form a distinct part of the direct teaching of English, to which all these arguments for learning Latin and Greek seem to point, as an educational desideratum. I have said that Latin was important chiefly with a view to the historical study of our own language, and not in order to obtain a complete grasp of it, as a living instrument of thought. It ought to be added,

^ Cambridge Euays, 1855.

SnwwiOL] THE TREORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 101

that though Latin forms one element in this historical study, it forms only one element, and that the other dements — and, indeed, we may say the study itself — have been surprizingly neglected in our educational system. Hardly in our Universities does any one dream of learning Early English, and though we teach some French and German in our schools, we teach them merely colloquially and practically, without any reference to their historical development or their linguistic rela- tions. This neglect (which some efforts have been made to repair during late years) will be commented upon more in detail elsewhere in this volume. I have referred to the point here chiefly because it affords an example how the arguments for learning classics, being " made to order," are found, as far as they are worth anything, to prove more than they were intended to prove, and to support, not the existing course of instruction, but some- thing of which that would form only one part.

In the eyes of many persons, however, the most

important of the direct utilities supposed to be conveyed

bv a classical education is still that for which a classical

education was originally instituted, acquaintance with

the Greek and Latin literatures. In the first place, just

as the ancient languages were called a master-key \o

unlock all modem European tongues, so the ancient

writings are said to be indispensable to the understanding

of all the best modern books. " If," says Dr. Donaldson,

"the old classical literature were swept away, the

modems would in many eases become unintelligible,

and in all lose most of their characteristic charms."

A moments reflection will show this to be a most

strange and palpable exaggeration. For instance, Milton

102 LSUrS ox J LIBERAL EDCCJTIOK. [Essat IL

13 the meet 1^-amed of our poets : nay, as a poet, lie is generally sad 1 to be obtmsiTely learned, learned to a fault. Yet how gp>te5qne an ab^ordity it seems to a^^^rrt that "Parailiae Lost" would "lose most of its characteristic charm to a reader who did not under- stand the cl3Sc?i*:-al allusions and similes. The real state of the case seems analogous to that which we have just discusse^L A knowle^lge of classics is indispensable, not to the general reader, but to the historical student of modem authors : without it he can enter into their ideas and feelings, but not the antecedents which deter- mined those ideas and feelings. He cannot reproduce the intellectual milieu in which they lived; he can understand what they said, but not how they came to say it. But for the general reader, who has no wish to go so deep, classical knowledge does not do much more than save some trouble of referring to dictionaries and histories, and some ignorance of quotations which is rather conventionally than really inconvenient Many allusions to the classics explain themselves ; many others are explained by the context ; and the number of those that remain incomprehensible to a person who has read histories of Greece and Rome, and knows as much about the classics as he must inevitably pick up from a good course of English literature, is not very consider- able. We may grant that *' literature can only be studied thoroughly by going to its source."* But the conception conveyed in this word thoroughly assumes an exalted standard of reading, which, if carried out consistently, would involve an overwhelming ency- clopedic study of literature. For the modem authors

1 Dr. Temple.

SiDGWicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 103

whom the stream of fame has floated down to us^ and whom we do read» contain numerous allusions to preceding and contemporaiy authors whom we do not think of reading, and require, in order to be thoroughly under- stood, numerous illustrations from precediog and con- temporary history which we have no leisure to procure. We content ourselves with the fragmentary lights of a casual commentator. 1 do not see that it would be so dreadful if classical alluSiiLons were apprehended by the general reader in the same twilight manner. It may be very desirable that we should read everything more accurately and thoroughly ; but let us have one weight and one balance. The historical study of literature, for the completeness of which I allow classics to be indis- pensable, is a most interesting and improving pursuit, and one which I hope will gain votaries yearly. But, after all, the branch of this study which seems to have ^he greatest utility, if the space we can allot to it is limited, is surely that which explains to us (as far as is possible) the intellectual life of our own age ; which teaches us the antecedents of the ideas and feelings among which, and in which, we shall live and move. Such a course, at this moment of history, would natu- raUy contain a much larger modem than ancient element : it would be felt in framing it more impera- tively necessary to represent French, German, and English thought of recent centuries, than to introduce us to any of the older influences that combined to determine our immediate intellectual antecedents.

But the intrinsic value of Latin and Greek literatures seems to many to outweigh all other considerations. It Ls true that these lit-eratures are no longer supposed to

-4 JS&AlJ ex A iTmrmsT EDUCJTIOy. [Essat IL

"-T"

"s>r»ir? : ev^i tfaeir daim to give the itrfc -r^-^ — r n. urciLrAl. eihical, and political philosophy,

1«T li.^T Trlir iz iLTiT old pTCstige, is rapidly pissing

L-s-ij : ^cZ tiry :ii>iei:iat4y cooTey, with great vivid- iri^e. i k^: -rlT^i^r •>: whar the Greeks and Romans w^-rr, 1:^ il-y frli. thoizght, spoke, and acted; and <*i:i»f Tt-_r>:c^ ci creai eminence consider it of the li^i-it?: 1Z1Z-. r:jkZ.07 :Lar Greek and Roman life in all its- >1j^^ jc.-:-:ili l«e kept continually before the mind vv* il-t ii>Ir:JTi w.>rld.^ Persons of very opposite views i^r;'^ ii. iz?.ul:-jiriiij this. Clerical advocates tell us

^^: :-: :V.l :lrr rtai force of Christianity, we must

is;-:ji--:-: Cw^l^e? with the vices of the ancient world, 3ki:.l l-iTti -:'=• iinjv-tenr, ethically speaking, the un- i2^i>:<:^ l,ir-aiL inicllcvi is ; while enthusiasts of a dif-.ri'-i: stAcip p-int to the narrow rigidity, the wi:ivrl:.g ;v::i!ivss. the complacent humdrum of our ii.:vv:m life. :i::vi urge that ancient literature teaches

>

il..-

iw.xvi-.uate love of country, love of freedom,

love o: k'jv>.v:c^lL:e, love of beauty, for which they pant. I vio r.vt wi>h to undervalue either kind of instruction, bur 1 cauiio: >viy that I see the al»solute want of either: 1 oauuv^t bur ihink that if we were debarred from Latin iiud Gtxvk. a careful teaching of modern historj^ and a Oiuxiul solootion of modern literature would supply our youth with all the stimulus, example, and warning, that thoy ro4uiu\ Further, even if it be granted that we cannot disjvuso with the Kssons of the ancient world, it is easv to cxagiTorate the disadvautages of learninor them throuf^h

J^** hna Vo^'n iirj^Hl l>y Mr. Mill with his usual impressiveneiis, ami is. y*^^l in a beautiful essay of Villemain's, called ** Demosthenes et Ifr

Sidswiol] the theory OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 105

the medium of modem languages. We must remember how many excellent translations we have of ancient authors, some of which take rank as English classics ; and how much of our very highest historical ability has been devoted to this period of history. Of course, every student who takes up the period as a speciality, will desire to know the languages thoroughly well, in order to have an opinion of value upon disputed points ; and even the general reader always feels the additional vividness, and, therefore, the additional pleasure and stimulus and improvement, that a knowledge of the original gives. But it would be absurd to say that an Englishman (particularly if he can read French and German) has any difficulty in accurately and thoroughly urforming himself what sort of people the Greeks and Bomans were. And it might, I think, be truly asserted, however paradoxically, that even under our classical system, the greater part of the ^dvid impressions that niost boys receive of the ancient world are derived from Eiiglish works; from Pope's Homer, Macaulay's Lays, the English Plutarch (if they have the good fortune to get hold of that delightful book), and afterwards from ^old, Grote, and Merivale.

But the aesthetic importance of ancient literature is even more insisted on than the value of its moral teaching. If we do not teach a boy Latin and Greek, ^t IS said, we cut him off from the highest literary en-

•

joyment, and we prevent him from developing his taste ^y studying the best models. It would avail little to ^ in question (had I space and inclination to do so) the surpassing excellence of ancient literature. For my present puipose, I must regard this point as decided by

106 ESSJTS OS A UMEKIL EBCCJLnOS, \Es&at II

an OTCTvLelming ma;«:4ity of peiBoiis ai culture. Bat it will not \k denied that in the English, French, and Gennan langina^ies,* theite is a sufficiency of good litera* tnre to fill the l^risoie ci a petson engaged in any active calling, a sufficiency of w<»'ks calculated to give a high kind of enjovment, and to cultivate, very adequately, the literary taste. And if such a person was ever visited by a painful hankering after the tune-honoured volumes that were sealed to him, he might console himself by taking note how often his contemporaries who had enjoyed a ccmplete classical education, were in the habit of taking down these master-pieces from their shelves. For I cannot help thinking that classical , literature, in spite of its enormous prestige, has very V little attraction for the mass even of cultivated persons / at the present day. I wish statistics could be obtained of the amount of Latin and Greek read in any year (except for professional purposes), even l)y those who have gone through a complete classical curriculum. From the information that I have been able privately to obtain, I incline to think that such statistics, when compared with the fervent admiration with which we all still speak of the classics, upon every opportimity, would l3e found rather startling. I am wiUing to admit that those who have a genuine preference for the classics, are persons of the purest, severest, and most elevated literary taste ; and I cannot conceive that these relics will ever cease to be reverently studied by those who aspire to be artists in language. But this by no means proves that they ought to occupy the place they do

• I only omit Italian because it is rarely taught at schools, and I am not

prepared to recommend that it should be more generally taught.

SiDovicK.1 THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 107

in the traming of our youth. ^* It is admitted/' saya a Quarterly reviewer (summing up very fairly the Report qI the Public Schools Commission), " that edu- cation must be literary, and that of literary education, classical learning must be the backbone." Whether I should agree with this or not depends upon the sense in which " backbone " is interpreted : at present clas- sical learning forms, so to say, the whole skeleton ; and the result is, that, to a very large number of boys, what is supposed to be a purely literary educa* tion, what is attacked as l^eing exclusively a literary education, is, paradoxical as it may sound, hardly a training in literature at alL For surely it is essential to the idea of such training that it should have some stimulating power ; that it should inspire a fondness for reading, educe the capacity for enjoying eloquence and poetry, communicate an interest in ideas ; and not merely guide and chasten such taste and interest if they already exist. The instruments of literary training ought to be not only absolutely admirable, but relatively attractive. If we wish to educate persons to enjoy any kind of art, I do not say that we are not to put before them things hard to appreciate, but we must certainly put before them also things that they will find easy to appreciate. I feel sure that if the schoolmaster is ever to be, as I think he ought to be, a missionary of culture ; if he is to develop, to any extent, the aesthetic ( faculties of other boys than those who have been brought 1 up in literary homes, and have acquired, before they come into his hands, a taste for English classics, he must make the study of modern literature a substantive and important part of his training. It may be said that

1 y 5 ISSLiJ? OT A UBEMLiL MDCCJUOy, [Essat II.

sixne put of an^iezir Iitennne, especially Greek,, is ever y.xing an-i fr^^ : and no doabt, in most good schools, aome loys are ma«ie to feel this, and their path becomes ftjw^rr in e»Mise»jaenceL Bat the majority want, to sdmoLirc their lirerary interest, something that can be i^ead with m^i-r? ease, in larger portions : something, I mopcOTer, that has a visiUe connexion with the life of their age, whi«Ji exercises so powerfdl a control over their imaginationav. I do not know that, if difficulties of language were pat aside, some ancient historians, such as Herodotus^ might not be more attractive to boys from their freshness and ndivetiy than any modem ones. But jost when the difficulties of language are begining to be got over, boys cease to relish this naivete. They want something that speaks to their opening minds and hearts, and gives them ideas. And this they are seldom able to find to a great extent, in the ancient works they read. This is true, I know, of some at least among the minority who study classics at school and colle«re with all the stimulus of uniform success ; much more is it true of the majority who fail or are but indifferently successful. K such boys ^ t imbued with literary culture at all, it is not owing to the classical system ; it js^due to home influ^ ce, to fortunate school friendships, to the extra-professional care of some zealous schoolmaster. In this way they are taught to enjoy reading that instructs and refines, and escape the fate of the mass, who temper small compulsory sips of Virgil, Sophocles, Tacitus, and Thucydides, with large voluntaiy draughts of James, Ainsworth, Lever, and the translated Dumas.^

1 I must be pardoned for using the names familiar to my generation. I re no doubt there are other favourites now.

SiDewnx.] TEB TEEORT OF CUBICAL EDUCATION. 109

I wiah this occasional and irregular trainiBg to be

made as general and systematic as possible ; and I feel

sure that whatever classical teaching was retained^ would

become more efficacious by the introduction of the new

element ; and this not merely because every new mental

stimulus that can be applied to a boy is immediately

felt over the whole range of his work, but because the

boy would gain a special motive for learning Latin and

Greek, which he had hitherto been without, and the

want of which had made his studies (to use the words of

a Quarterly reviewer) " a prolonged nightmare/' He

might not at once begin to enjoy the classics : his

progress might be still so slow, and his attention so

much concentrated on the form of his authors, as to

allow him but a feeble interest in their substance. But

be would be cheered by the hope of this interest becom-

mg daily stronger: he might distinctly look forward

to the time when Sophocles would be as dear to him as

Shakespeare, when Cicero and Tacitus would stir him

like Burke and Macaulay. Again, some modern literature

has a direct power of revealing to us the charm of ancient

hterature, of enabling us to see and feel in the older

masterpieces what the elite of each generation could see

and feel for themselves when the language was once

understood, but what for the mass requires an interpreter.

Some, for instance, would perhaps be ashamed to confess

how shallow an appreciation they had of Greek art till

they read Groethe and Schiller, Lessing and Schlegel.

No doubt there are boys who find out the beauties for

themselves, just as there are some to whom it would be

a feast to be turned into a room full of fragments of

antique sculptm-e. But our system is framed for the

110 ESSArS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EasAT II.

mass, and I feel convinced that the mass require to appreciate both the one and the other a careful prepara- tion, the most important part of which would be supplied by a proper introduction into education of the element I am advocating.^

Further, I am disposed to think that the literary education of even the best boys ie liable to »:ffer ftom the n^rowneee of ti-e e^sti^ eyetem. In the &Bt place, there is a great danger in the predominance that classics are made to gain over their minds, by the indiscriminate eulogy and unreserved exaltation of the ancient authors en masse,^ which they frequently hear. They are told, dogmatically, that these authors "are perfect standards of criticism in everything that belongs to mere perfect form," that "the laws that regulate external beauty can only be thoroughly known through them/' that " they utterly condemn all false ornament, all tinsel, all ungraceful and unshapely work ;" and the more docile of them are apt to believe these dogmas to a degree that warps and oppresses the natural develop- ment of their critical faculties. The truth is, that the best classical models only exemplify certain kinds of

^ The Quarterly Review, a journal that does not often damoor for lash and premature reforms, says (vol. cxviL p. 418) : —

" Much more is it a thing to wonder at and be ashamed of, that, with such a literature as ours, the English lesson is still a desideratum in nearly all our great places of education, and that the future gentry of the country are left to pick up their mother-tongue from the periodical works of fiction which are the bane of our youth, and the dread of every conscientious schoolmaster."

We may add that the question, whether native literature is to be syste- matically taught, has long been decided in the affirmative both in France and in Germany.

' I allow that there are some exceptions to this statement ; for instanoe, one of the most exquisite artists in language, Euripides, has been periiaps unduly depreciated. Still I think I have fairly described the general tendency,

8ID6W1CK.] THE THBOEY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 1 1 1

perfection of form, that several writers that boys read J exemplify no particular perfection at all, and that some / illustrate excellently well the precise imperfections that I tiie enthusiast I have quoted enumerates.* How can it j be said, for instance, that there is no " false ornament " / in .fehylus, no " tinsel " in Ovid, no " ungracefulness " in Thucydides, no ** unshapely work " in Lucretius ? In what sense can we speak of finding " perfect form " and ** perfect standards of criticism " in such inartificial writers as Herodotus (charming as he is) or Xenophon ! There is perhaps no modem thinker, with equal sensi- \ tiveness to beauty of expression, who (in those works of Ms which have been preserved to us) has so neglected and despised form as Aristotle. Any artist in words / may learn much fix>m Cicero, and much from Tacitus ; j but the profuse verbosity of the one, and the perpetual | mannerism of the other, have left the marks of their misdirection on English literature. I am simply repeat- ing what are now the commonplaces of cultivated : criticism, which can no longer be charged, on the whole, . ^th being servile towards antiquity ; but education i is less emancipated, and as long as these sweeping ^ statements of the perfectness of ancient literature are reiterated, a demand for careful limitation seems necessary.

But secondly, it can hardly be said that the artistic training which might be given by means of ancient literature (which I should be sorry to seem to imder- value) is given under our present educational system. A few attain to it self-taught : and even these are liable to all the errors and extravagances of such self-education*

^ Mr. Thrinjr.

112 ESSAFS OX A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay

But what eflfort is made to teach literary criticism t:o the great majority in our schools (or even in our univer- sities) ? Are they encouraged to judge as wholes the works that they so minutely analyse ? to attain to any synthetical apprehension of their excellence ? The poLot on which the wisest admirers of ancient art lay moBt stress is the completely organic structure of its products, and the instinct for complex and finely articulated har- mony that is felt to have guided the production. But in so far as schoolboys (with a few exceptions) are taught to feel the beauty of these products at aU, it is the beauty of parts, and even of minute parts that they are taught to feel. And, from the mode in which these beauties arc studied for purposes of composition, it is not only a partial, but generally a per\Trted appreciation that is attained. In the effort to prepare his mind for com- position, a boy is led to contemplate his authors under conditions as unfavourable to the development of pure taste and sound criticism as can possibly be conceived. He is led to break the diction of great masters into fragments for the purpose of mechanical ornamentation^ generally clumsy and often grotestjue. His memory (as an advocate exultingly phrases it) is "stored with precious things : " that is, it is stored with long words, sounding epithets, imposing circumlocutions, salient extravagances and mannerisms : so that his admiration is directed to a great extent to what is hizarrCy fantastic, involved, over-decorated in the admirable models he studies : and even of what is really good he is apt to spoil his delicacy of apprehension, by the habit of imitating and introducing it unseasonably. I am aware how much careful training may do to correct these

• n»owicK.] THE TnEORT OF CLASSIC JL EDUCJTION. 113

vicious tendencies : but they arc likely to exist in over- whelming force as long as the imitative instinct is so prematurely developed as it is now, and applied to a material over which so imperfect a command has Ix^cn gained.

This forms a convenient transition to another part of my subject: the examination in detail of the existing instruction in Latin and Greek, regarded primarily as a species of mental gymnastics, a method of developing the intellectual faculties : without reference to the per- manent utility of the knowledge conveyed. When, ' however, the methods of classical instruction are spoken of as a " fine training/' the word " tmining " may l)e used in two senses, which it is necessary carefully to distinguish. Sometimes, merely a rhetorical training is intended ; the boy, it is said, is faiught not only a special dexterity in the use of particular languages (his own included), but a complete grasp of language in general ; he leanis to dominate the instrument of thought instead of being dominated by it : " his mind is enabled to conceive form as an object of thought distinct from the subject-matter, and vice versd, and hence generally to judge of the application of the one to the other in litemture, with a degree of accuracy which is never attained except by those thus trained."^ Sometimes, ; again, it is claimed that classics supply a complete ' general training to the mind : that, in the words of M. Coumot:* "Rien ne se prete mieux que Tdtudc grammaticale et littdraire d'une langue au developpe- ment graduel et mdthodique de toutes les facultes iu- tellcctuellcs de Tenfance et de Tadolescence. Cette

' R^v. W. O. Clark. • De nnutnictidn publiqiic.

1

114 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsBAta

6tude exerce la mdmoire, la sagacity, le go^tt, le jnge- ment sous toutes les formes^ logiques ou nou logiqaes, c'est-k-dire, soumises ou hon ^ des classifications, k des deductions et ^ des regies precises. Elle forme rhomme tout entier/' It will be convenient to take the narrower of these pretensions first : and examine whether compo- sition in the ancient languages, and translation from them into our own, appear to form a complete course of instruction in the art of speech.

I think that few who have considered the subject can deny, that translation from a Latin or Greek author into English prose, under the guidance of a competent teacher, is a very vigorous and efficacious training in the use of our language, and gives very considerable insight into the nature of speech, and its relation to thought and fact Our only doubt will be, whether the training and insight is not> by itself, one-sided ; whether we do not require something else as a supplement, to give us a complete view and a complete grasp of language. " The art," says Dr. Moberly, " of throwing English with facility into sentence-moulds made in another language . . . what is this but to learn to have the choicest, most varied, words and sentence-frames of our own language constantly at command, so that, whatever varieties of thought and meaning present themselves to a man's mind, he will never be at a loss for expressions to convey them with an accuracy at once forcible and subtle to the mind of his hearers." This is no over-statement: but it leaves out of sight the dilemma in which even the matured scholar, and therefore infinitely more the tiro, is perpetually placed between exact English and elegant English, between

SiDGWicE.] TUB THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 1 1 j

the set of woids that represents the precise meaning of the original (and is endurable in the vernacular), and the nearest Elnglish phrase that can be called tastefoL A schoolmaster must inevitably sacrifice accu- rac)' or style, and he, as a rule, wisely determines to sacrifice style for the time. But if style is sacrificed here, it becomes desirable to cultivate it carefully in another part of the education. The result of labo- riously forcing our language into "moulds" unnatural to it, wiU not be to give us an easy flow of it in natural moulds. Even when the process is carried further, as in the case of the more advanced students, and style is gradually more and more regarded, still the translator's dexterity remains a special dexterity, and does not amount to the whole art of composition. I Translation is continually straining and stretching our ' feculty of language in many ways, and necessarily imparts to it a high degree of a certain kind of vigour ; but the precise power that wiU be of most use to us for the purposes of life it does not, by itself, give, and it even causes us to form habits adverse to the ultimate acquire- ment of that power. Teaching the art of Rhetoric by means of translation only, is like teaching a man to climb trees in order that he may be an elegant dancer.*

I The (xmclusioiis of a thorough-going advocate of classical education in

Germany, are as follows : " Das Uebersetzen der antiken Meisterwerke ist

eine Schole fiir die Gewandtheit und Gediegenheit des Ausdrucks wie es keine

xweite gibt. Die Verirmng aber, zu der diese Uebungen verkehrt betrieben

fdhren konnten, die steife Nachbildung des griechischen und romischen

Sprachgeistes, mit Verletzung des Deutschen, diese Verirnmg wird verhiitet

dorch das Lesen unserer deutschen Klassiker .... um den Schuler zur

fiditigen Ordnung der Gedanken anzuleiten, werden zu den Uebersetzungen

am den alten Versuche in eignen deutschen Ausarbeitungen hinzutreten

miiasen.^ — Raiinier, Geschichte der Padagogik." And tliis seems to me a

well-balanced view of the question.

I 2

116 ESSAYS ON A LIBEMAL EDUCATION. [toitlL

I have allowed the efficacy of translation in teaching English expression ; it must also be said that it developB very sufficiently the sense of one kind of excellence of form in all the more intelligent and appreciative minds : I mean of minute excellence, the beauty of single words and phrases. It does this simply because it enforces a close and reverent examination of masterpieces. We are apt to neglect many excellences in writings that we read with ease, simply because we read them with ease ; and as we are forced in these times to read much hastily, we find some trouble in forming a habit of reading worthy things as they deserve. The l>est training for such a habit is to read fine compositions in some foreign language. But it must be remarked, that it is only at a certain stage in a )'^outh's progress that Latin and Greek begins to give this training. In many cases the boy (and even the undergraduate) never becomes able to extract and feed on the beauties of his authors. A mind exhausted with linguistic struggles is not in a state to receive delicate literary impressions : instead of being penetrated with the subtle and simple graces of form, it is filled to the brim wdth thoughts of gender, quantity, tertiaiy predicates, uses of the subjunctive mood.

The training in eesthetic percqption is thus by no means general, and it is, as I have before pointed out, very incomplete. But such as it is, it seems to me to be conveyed much more satisfactorily in the process of translation, than in that which is generally supposed to teach it, composition in Greek and Latin. We are told that a boy " cannot have appreciated the delicacy, taste, or the feeling of his models in literature, if he have not in some degree learned, from his own clumsy efforts and

SiDflwioL] THE THEORF OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 117

occasional better successes, at how almost immeasurable distance they stand from the rude rough things which otherwise he might be led to compare with them/' I have spoken of the false and distorted view of literary excellence that this gives. A thoughtful boy feels the ' hardship of being made to imitate persons who have so unfair an advantage over him as the writers in a language now dead. An ambitious boy often loses all delicacy and truth of taste in the effort to assimilate all " useful '^words and phrases which, however bad in taste they may be, will at least decorate and set oflF his own "rude rough things." The assertion that masterpieces cannot be appreciated without an eflFort to imifcite them, seems to me contrary to common sense, to our experience in our own language, to our universal practice in studying foreign literatures, and to the analogy of other btXa} And the imitation that is encouraged at schools in the process of verse-writing is the very worst sort of ioutation ; it is something which, if it were proposed in respect of any other models than these, we should at once reject as intolerably absurd.

There is much more to be said for the exercise of writing elegant Latin prose, though I am not sure that it is not prematurely attempted in our present system of etiucation. I do not think, as I have before said, that even this accomplishment is at all essential to the most accurate and complete knowledge of the Latin language. It cannot be too much insisted, that the faculty of

There is some reaiion for uiging that, a connoisseur in painting should baTe handled the pencil and the brush. But this is surely not in onler to impioTe his taite, but to teach him closeness and correctness of ol)servation, vitlioot which, in so direcUj imitative an art, a sense of beautiful eifect nmy bemklcttdiug.

1 1 S ESSjrS Oy J UBEEJL BDUCATION. [Essat il

reading a language and that of composing in it are almotst entirely distinct, and have to be acquired sepa* rarely. A development of the latter faculty tends, no doubt, to improve the former to a certain degree ; but it is a very roundabout way of improving it ; if our object is to learn to read and translate, the time would be much better spent in reading and translating. I quite admit that by simply reading, without much sustained effort to translate, a language so remote from our own in its idiom as the Latin, a habit of loose apprehension is formeiL and not only the refinements of expression are lost, but many mistakes are made in the substantial sig- nifieatiou of sentences. But I should urge that written translation carefully looked over is, as a remedy for lax habits of reading, xoxy far superior to any amount of com}X)sition.^ Perhaps also too much has been made of the rhetorical utility of writing Latin prose : and too little of the logical training given to maturer students by the process of translation from English into Latin. The close and prolonged meditation over familiar words and expressions, which the effort to reproduce their full substance in an alien and difficult tongue entails, imparts a very delicate discrimination of the exact import of these current phrases. Moreover the effort to write so extremely s}Tithetical a language as the Latin is very beneficial to an Englishman, as teaching him much about the real connexions of thought, the

^ I have previously noticed the only function for which composition seems to ^ble to any other exercise — that of fixing finuly in the mind the

the commoner niles of usage, which we require to have firmly re can read with ease and security. It does not seem to nie lyen for this ftinction ; but it is probably a distinct abridgment

SuwwicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 119

logical inteidependence of seDtences, which the ana* Ijtical tendencies of his own language prevent his noticing. With reference to the rhetorical utility of this exercise, I will quote some remaaks of Dr. Moberly, with which I partly agree, but which seem to me much too unqualified. " It is a very great part of the benefit to be derived fix)m writing Latin prose, that a boy learns thence to write prose in any language. ... He is taught what constitutes a sentence ; how much meaning he may] put into a sentence ; how many clauses a sentence will bear. . . . One of the most common faults in composing/ English is that of stringing clauses upon clauses, ^vvdthout heeding the necessary rules of periodic structure. ... I do not wish to recommend the building up of elaborate sen- tences after the manner of the writers of the seventeenth century, but I wish to observe that the slipshod style of modem English, with its loose clauses and involved parentheses, would be greatly corrected by a careful course of original composition in Latin. . . . Loose un- govemed clauses, dissimilar nominatives, and verbs hung together by unmeaning ands, no less than mixed meta- phors and impossible figures, will not go into Latin. ' Try it in Latin,' might often suggest to a young writer the absurdity of what may seem to be rather fine in English. . . . The boy (who can ^^-rite Latin) has obtained a master-secret which he can apply to many a difficult lock besides." There runs through all this the erroneous) idea, which is pointed in the last sentence, that Lcitin^A.^ style forms a kind of skeleton-key, or universal touch-/ stone, for all other styles. No doubt by teaching any style thoroughly, we also teach, to a certain extent, how to penetrate the mysteries of any new style. But each

120 ESSJTS Oy A UBKRJL EDUCATION. [EniiLT IL

bngiia?? requires its own art of ibetoric ; the *' rules of periodic stmetiiie^ ue flpeetal for each : the questions "What ciMi«dnites a sentence?" kc are answered as differently as possible in different languages. In some imfii>rtant points (mentioned hy Dr. Mobeily) practice in Latin f«>nns a specially useful Gonective to feults in English — it i? like showing blemishes by a magnifjring- glass : some things that are bad in English are clearly seen to be inadmissiUe in Latin. But precisely the same is true of FiencL Either hmguage, ]m>per]y used, may be made to improve our style in our own ; any language (and not least these two), if carelessly used, may spoil it It is indispensable that practice in writing the vernacular should proceed pari passu with the practice in an alien tonsrue, and receive as careful attention.

Again, Latin is a language in which the rhythmical effects ai>? brood, palpable, easy to apprehend. This is also true of English, and (however hopeless it is in our broken utterance to emulate the continuous music of tlie more synthetical language), we might educate the ear very thoroughly by a careful study of our own masters of eloquence. Still, writing Latin, at a stage when elegance can be made a prominent object, seems well adapted to assist this education; and of course we attain a larger Wew of melody in general, by the study of literar)' models so widely different from our own.

Hanllv anv of the reasons that I have enumerated can be ui-gt^d in favour of writing Greek prose. Useful / / as the Ixn^ek language is to teach subtlety and delicacy / of tliought^ it is so much more lax in its laws of ex- pression and structure than the Latin, that it has very little of the corrective effect of tliis latter upon English

SiMwicE.] TUB THEORY OF CLASSICAL ELV CATION. 121

eompositioiL Besides^ one or two most charming and impressive Greek writers are exceedingly bad models. It will sound a paradox to mention Plato. Still, a style which is an intentional imitation (often an exaggeration) of the flexible and irregular movement of conversational utterances, can hardly be a good pattern for ordinary pioee. Thucydides, again, with all the wonderful weight and pregnancy of his words, is the product of what few will deny to have been a thoroughly vicious school of rhetoric ; and I think the unqualified admiration with which docile boys are, by many educators, led to regard his writing, frequently tends to injure or perplex the natural development of their taste. Besides, we are naturally very little sensible to the rhythm of Greek prose (which may perhaps be accounted for by our manner of reading it). It is hard for a boy even to pretend to himself that he appreciates the melody of <?ven Demosthenes.

But, if it were granted that Greek compositioD sup- plied as valuable a training as Latin, there would be very little to be said for adding the one accomplishment to the other. We thereby burden the memory with much addi- tional material, while we give the logical and rhetorical faculties but little additional training. It is becoming more and more evidently important in classical edu- cation to save time, without loweriug the standard of excellence in the work required. One easy method of doing this, is to reduce the number of the kinds of com- position cultivated.

On the whole, we are led to the conclusion that all these processes form a one-sided and incomplete training in the use of English, and requiie to be supplemented by

122 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. lEaaATlL

/ some careful and independent teaching of English com- ( position. It seems equally true, that in order to insure j that complete view of the relation of language to ( thought, which, if we spend so much time in linguistic I studies, we may fairly expect to insure, we can hardly dispense with some direct teaching of English. The immediate task set before a boy in all the pro- cesses of classical education, is to ascertain exactly the equivalence of two languages, not the relation of either to thought and fact It is impossible that he should not indirectly gain much insight into this relation ; but it is not impossible that in the case of many scattered words and phrases, he may learn to fit one language to another, without expressing a really cleaa* idea in either. More- over he reads at a time such small portions of the ancient authors, that there is very little opportunity for teaching him to grasp a long and elaborate argument as a whole ; for training him quickly to apprehend the bearing not only of sentence on sentence, but of paragraph on para- graph. Again, just as it was urged that the appreciation of English literature, though it might perhaps be left to nature in the case of boys brought up by intellectual parents in a literary atmosphere, requires to be directly taught to bo)rs without these advantages : so it may be said that the same boys are in danger of never learning a considerable portion of the English vocabuhiry. I do not exactly mean technical terms, but the half-technical, the philosophical, language which thoughtful men habi- tually use in dealing with abstract subjects. Of some of these terms such a boy may pick up a loose and vague comprehension from ordinary conversation, novels and newspapers ; Imt he will generally retain sufficient igno-

31DOWICK.1 THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 123

ranee of them to make the perusal of all difficult and profound works more weary and distasteful than their subject-matter alone would make them. K English I ^ authors were read in schools so carefiilly, that a boy was kept continually ready to explain words, paraphrase sen- tences, and summarize arguments ; if the prose authors chosen gradually became, as the boy's mind opened, more difficult and more philosophical in their diction ; if, at the same time, in the teaching of natural science, a great part of the technical phraseology (from which the main stream of the language is being continually enriched), was thoroughly explained to him ; then we might feel that, by direct and indirect teaching together, we had im- 1 parted a complete grasp of what is probably the com-p^C^ pletest instrument of thought in the world.^ I have\ admitt^ that, in the first stage in the analysis of language (assuming that we are right to begin it as early as we do now) the intervention of a foreign language may be valuable, in order that each step in knowledge may be felt as an increase of power. But I think that the last and crowning stage of this analysis, where the learners view of the relation of language to thought is to be made as complete and profound as possible, being abstract and difficult, and involving a considerable strain on the reflective faculty, is generally best taught in the most familiar language, and therefore in the vernacular.

^ Mr. Johnson, of Eton, in his interesting evidence before the Pnblic Schools Commission (see Report, vol. iii. p. 159), expresses the opinion that, in the process of more careful cultivation of French, the English language might be (as he phrases it) '* used up," and all its terms explained ; whereas it is impossible to use it up in transLvtion from Greek and Latin. This suggestion seems to me valuable and important, but I should still relj more on the direct teaching I speak of, though there is no reason why the two should not be combined.

124 ESSAYS Oyj LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsbatIL

I hope that I have shown my anxiety not to underrate the power over language developed by learning a foreign tongue, and especially one very alien in its laws and structure to our own. But I do not think it has been ever shown that this mode of development of our faculty of speech is absolutely necessary, or even, with reference to the place which language occupies in our life, obviously desirable. The normal function of language is not to \X^ represent another language, but to express and com- municate facts. Scientific men are justly told by the classicists that all their discoveries would be useless without language ; and the answer that the most inarti- culate discoverers have generally found means to com- municate their message to mankind, though a natural rejoinder, is not complete for our present purpose, for this inarticulateness is precisely the sort of evil which education ought to remedy. To describe a fact or series of facts methodically, accurately, perspicuously, comes by nature to some people, just as eloquence does ; but it requires to be taught carefully to others. Only it is hard to see why the study of language, in this sense, should be separated at all from the study of subjects ; why, as " things " cannot be taught without " words," the use of words should not be learnt pari passu with the knowledge of things. Indeed, it must be so learnt to some extent. The only question is, whether care and attention shall be bestowed on the process ; whether the scientific teacher shall be content that his pupil should make it evident to him that his mind has grasped ideas, or whether he shall insist on those ideas being adequately expressed. If he does this latter, he will give gradually a training in language sufficient, not

SiDOWicK.] TMB THBOEY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 125

only for the ordinary uses in life, but even for the purposes of most professional students. The delicate perception of subtle distinctions which a good classical education superadds, is an intellectual luxury that ought not to be despised, but may easily be overvalued.

We have now to consider whether, in the acquisition of linguistic and literary knowledge, and linguistic and literary dexterity, by the various processes that we have been considering, there is really given to all the mental faculties a most complete and harmonious training; — and, if not, where the training appeals defective and one- sided, and what the natural supplement is. There can be no doubt, I think, that the training, as far as it goes, is strong and effective, and there is no doubt too, that it is much more varied than its depreciators are willing to allow. Indeed, it is curious, that so many men of' science fail to perceive that the study of language np to 1 1 >- a certain point is very analogous in its effect on the mind to the study of any of the natural history sciences. In either case, the memory has to be loaded with a mass of facts, which must remain to the student arbitrary and accidental facts, affording no scope to the faculties of judgment and generalization. This is the wea k point of either study, regar ded as an exerojaij o f the reasou , and makes it desirable that the initiation into either should take place early in life. But, as in natural science, so in language, there is a large amount of material, that not only exercises the memory, but enforces constant attention and perpetual close com- parison : rules and generalizations have to be borne in mind, as well as isolated facts ; habits of accuracy and quickness in applying them are rapidly developed, and

126 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BeaAT IL

the important faculty of judgment is perpetually educed, trained, and stimulated. And the remark I quoted from a French writer is most just, that the judgment is exercised "in all its forms, both logical and non- logical." In applying each newly learnt rule, it acts at first deliberately, by an express process of reasoning, afterwards instinctively, by an implicit process. I think, however, the common statement, that in learning a language the mind is exercised in induction, requires much qualification. The mind of the matured, the professional scholar, is so exercised, because he stands on a level with the authors of his grammars and diction- aries, and from time to time observes new rules of usage which they have not noted. But the boy, or youth, learning his lesson with ample grammar and dictionaries, is not, or is very rarely, called upon to perform any such process. For each doubtful case that comes before him his books and memory combined soon furnish him with an abundance, a plethora of formulaB:^ he has only to choose the right one. In making this choice, besides close attention and delicate discrimination, an unconscious tact, a trained instinct, combines to guide him, and, by applying a mental magnifying glass to this tact or instinct, we may discover in it rudimen- tary inductive processes: but we might find the same in the mental operations of every skilled artisan, and it is perhaps misleading to dignify them by the name. Besides this training of the cognitive faculties, the

^ If a boy could be more debarred from grammars and dictionaries, there would naturally be more induction in the process of learning the language. But the efforts that have been made in this direction (though deserving of all attention) do not seem as yet to have been conspicuously suocessfuL -

fiiDQWicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 127

creative ar e also, as we have seen, developed. I n com- position, the boy applies the same rules, by the aid of Vrhich he has analysed complex products of speech, to form similar products for himself; and as in the former case he acted under the guidance of a gradually develop- ing scientific tact, so in this he works under the influence of a slowly educed aesthetic instinct. He is taught to make an eflFort to be an artist in a material hard to manipulate, and the benefit of this training will, it is presumed, abide with him in whatever material he has afterwards to work.

If, then, say the advocates of classics, we qfier a study

of literature which at the same time combines scientific

and arti stic training , why is not the completeness of our

system admitted, and why are we asked to introduce

any new element except for the vulgar reason that it

would be more useful? Simply because each element

^f the training is not (at any rate taken alone) the best

thing of its kind or the thing we most want. We may

^Uow that the education is many-sided : still, if it is

defective on each side, this many-sidedness will not

count much in its favour. And the very fact that the

same instrument is made to serve various educational

purposes, which seems at first sight a very plausible

aigument in its favour, is really, for the majority of

boys, a serious disadvantage. In the actual process of

education one or other of the purposes is continually

sacrificed. Some boys with strong taste for literature

and natural power of expression, pass with moderate'

success through their classical work by means of their

literary tact alone, and get, after the first rudiments'

of grammar are acquired, very little training in close

k

i

128 ESSdTS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay II.

observation or accurate reasoning. But with the greater number (especially of boys who do not go to the University) the case is reversed The mindy exhausted with the labours of language, imbibes miserably little of the lessons of literature. And here I may observe that some educational reformers have committed a most disastrous error — an error that might have been fatal, if anything could be fatal, to their cause, in allowing the notion to become current, that there is a sort of antagonism between science and literature, that they are presented as alternative instruments of education, between which a choice has to be made. It is so evident that if one or other must be abandoned, if we must inevitably remain either comparatively ignorant of the external world, or comparatively ignorant of the products of the human 'mind, all but a few exceptional natures must choose that study which best fits them for communion with their fellow-men. But I absolutely deny this incompatibility : nor do I think it would ever have occurred to any one except for the strange illusion that in the age in which we live classics must necessarily be the " substratum," "basis," "backbone," (or whatever analogous metaphor is used) of a literary education : and that therefore we must leave on one side every other form of literature with the view of imparting as much classics as possible. The consequence is that half the undergraduates at our Universities, and a larger pro- portion of the boys at all (except perhaps one or two) of our public schools, if _^e:yi^have received a^ literar y education at all, have got it for themselves : the frag- ments of Greek and Latin that they have struggled through have not given it them. If so many of our

Sracwfct] THE THEORY Of CLASSICAL SBUCATION. 129

moat expensively educated youth regard athletic sports as the one conceivable mode of enjoying leisure : if so naany professional persons confine their extra-professional wading to the newspapers and novels: if the middle- dasB Englishman (as he is continually told) is narrow, unrefined, conventional, ignorant of what is really good and really evil in human life ; if (as an uncompromising writer^ says) **he is the tool of bigotry, the echo of rtereotyped opinions, the victim of class prejudices, the great stumbling-block in the way of a general diffusion of higher cultivation in this country " — it is not because these persons have had a literary education, which their "invincible brutality" has rendered inefficacious: it is bg ^se the education ^^ p nt \\^px\ (to them) literary: their minds have been simply put through various un- meaning linguistic exercises. It is not surprising that simple-minded peopk have thought that since a complete study of Latin and Greek was felt by some^ of those who had successfully pursued it to have been (along with the other reading that they had spontaneously absorbed) a fine literary education, therefore half as much Latin and Greek ought to produce about half as much of the same kind of effect ; and that when they see the education on the whole to be a failure, instead of demanding more literature as well as more science, they cry for less literature. But the time seems to have come for us to discern and repair this natural mistake. Let us demand instead that all boys, whatever be their special bent and destination, be really taught

' Dr. Donal<Uon.

• I gay advisedly " some." Many sucoeaefuUy trained scholars feel very differently with regard to their training.

K

130 ESSAYS OX A IIBEBAL EDUCATIOy. [Essay II.

literature : so that as far as is possible, they may learn to enjoy intelligently poetry and eloquence ; that their interest in history may be awakened, stimulated, guided ; that their views and sympathies may be enlarged and expanded by apprehending noble, subtle, and pro- found thoughts, refined and lofty feelings : that some comprehension of the varied development of human nature may ever after abide with them, the source and essence of a truly humanizing culture. Thus in the prosecution of their special study or function, while their energy will be even stimulated, their views and aims will be more intelligent, more central ; and therefore their work, if less absorbing, not less effective.

If this be done, it is a subordinate question what particular languages we learn. We must allow all weight to the advantages which a dead and difficult language has, as an instrument of training, over a modem and easy one.^ But we must remember that it is a point of capital importance that instruction in any language should be carried to the point at which it really throws open a literature : while it is not a point of capital importance that any particular literature should be so thrown open.

^ I think there would be a great adTantage in combining a difficult with an easy language. The more fsicile conquest a boy would make over one, might encourage him in his harder struggle. Of course, for this, or any other valuable result to be attained, the easy language must be studied with as much attention and respect as the hard one. This is one of the numerous reasons for selecting French and Latin as the languages to be taught in early education. Another reason for teaching them together, is their relation to each other, and to English. (See Professor M. MiiUer'a Evi- dence before the Public Schools Commission, vol. iv. p. 39(5.) This eminent scholar there illustrates the way in which the rudiments of Comparative Philology might be taught by comparing words in the three languages, and ventures to assert, that " an hour a week so spent, would save ton hours in teachins: French and Latin."

SnwwicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 131

The defects of the usual exercises in Greek and Latin composition^ as an artistic training, have been inci- dentally noticed ; and the disadvantages of verse com- position in particular, are pointed out elsewhere in this volume. We must not forget, however, that the place which these exercises fill in education must be filled in some way or other ; the boy must be taught to exercise his productive faculty, and to exercise it in a regulated, methodical manner. In the later stage of education, when discursive thought on general and abstract themes may properly be demanded, essays and careful answers to comprehensive questions seem to constitute the best mode of developing this faculty, as attention may thus he paid to style and substance at the same time. In the earlier stages we require easier exercises in English prose, fiuch as narratives and descriptions, drawn from expe- rience or imagination, or freely compiled from authors J^; the teaching of physical science would give occasion to descriptions of a diflFerent kind ; the history lesson would suggest orations and declamations at appropriate points, so that rhjrthm and melody might be naturally taught It is a doubtful point whether all boys should be exercised in producing poetry;. -it is hardly doubtful that they should be exercised, if at all, in a material less difiicult than Latin or Greek is, up to a very advanced stage of its acquisition. Perhaps translations into Enghsh poetry of fine passages in foreign authors might be occasionally requii'ed from all ; and original poetry, encouraged only by prizes. If, too, it is once admitted that production of the kind that develops the aesthetic faculty is to be encouraged, if the lx>y is to be stimulated to produce beautiful things, there

K 2

132 SSSJYS ON J LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EoaiH

seems no adequate reason why the brain alone should lie exercised in such production ; the training of the hand and eye which drawing affords is probably desirable for all boys up to a certain point ; while after this point, boys who are absolutely unproductive in language may develop their sense of beauty in pictorial art

There remains the training of the cognitive faculties which the process of mastering the classical languages supplies. We have seen that this training is in many respects very eflBcacious, and that it (unlike many sup- posed utilities of classics) is really given, to some extent, to most boys.^ As I have said, it appears to me very similar to that which would be supplied by one or more of the physical sciences, carefully selected, limited, and arranged for educational purposes. It is clear that this latter study develops memory (both in extent and accuracy), close attention, delicate discrimination, judg- ment, both instinctive and deliberate, the faculty of rapidly applying the right general formula to the solution of any particular problem. I am not in a position to institute a close comparison of the eflBcacy of the two kinds of study in educating those faculties of the mind which both in common call into exercise.^ But the study of language seems to have certain distinct ad-

^ If the pernicious influence of Bohn's Library could be entirely exdnded, this might be stated more strongly. But it must never be foi]gotten in dis- cussing this question, that the training afforded by classics read with timnsla- tions is very different from that afforded by classics read without them.

' It is much to be wished, that some competent person, eqnaUy aoqoainted with languages and science, and with equal experience in teaching the nidi- ments of both, would carefully make such a comparison. At present, the best exponents of the effect of either study generaUy speak of the other with comparative ignorance. It is, perhaps, an indirect testimony to the advan- Ugcs of scientific education, that this ignorance is more frequently oombined with oontemptaous dogmatism in the case of the classical advocate.

SiDOWiOL] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. \Zii

vantages. In the first place, the materials here sup- plied to the student are ready to hand in inexhaustible abundance and diversity. Any page of any ancient author forms for the young student a string of problems sufficiently complex and diverse to exercise his memory and judgment in a great variety of ways. Again, from the exclusion of the distractions of the external senses, from the simplicity and definiteness of the classification which the student has to apply, from the distinctness and obviousness of the points that he is called on to observe, it seems probable that this study calls forth (especially in young boys) a more concentrated exercise of the faculties it does develop than any other could easily do. If both the classical languages were to cease to be taught in early education, valuable machinery would, I think, be lost, for which it would be some- what difficult to provide a perfect substitute.

But the very exclusions and limitations that make the study of language a better gymnastic than physical science, make it, on the other hand, so obviously inferior as a preparation for the business of Ufe, that its present position in education seems, on this ground alone, abso- lutely untenable. The proof of this I cannot attempt adequately to develop ; but it seems appropriate to in- dicate the more obvious reasons, as they are still ignored by many intelligent persons. One point the advocates of the classical system sometimes admit by saying "that it does not develop the faculties of external observation /' and the more open-minded of them would desire that these faculties should be somehow or other exercised, without interfering with the ** more important part of education." But this is a most

134 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EbwltU.

inadequate view of the question. It is not enougli that the intelligence should be trained at one time and in one way, and the senses exercised separately; we require that the intelligence should be taught to exenaae the important functions of which we have spoken in combination with the senses ; and we require this, because this is the normal mode of the action of the intelligence in human life. It is not enough that we should learn to see things as they are, important as this is : we must also train the memory to record accurately, and the imagination to represent faithfully, the facts observed : we must learn to exercise the judgment and apply general formulsB to particular phenomena, not only when^ these phenomena are broadly and clearly marked out (as they are when we come armed with complete grammars and dictionaries to the interpretation of foreign speech), but also when they are obscurCi hard to detect,

• ' embedded in matter," mixed up with a mass of other

phenomena, unimportant for our purpose, which we have to learn to neglect. The materials on which our intelli- gence has ordinarily to act, even when we are thinking, and not observing, are ideas of the external world, mixed prodi^cts of our mind and senses : and it must never be forgotten that the training of the eye and hand given by the various branches of phjnsical science, the development of our sense of form, colour, weight, kc is not merely a training of these external organs, but of our imaginative and conceptive faculties also, and will inevitably make our thinking more clear and effective. Similarly, the training in classification which most im- mediately fits us for life, is that which the natural history sciences afford. In learning them the student

SiDowiOL] THS THSORT OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 135

is taught not only how to apply a classification ready made, but also, to some extent, how to make a classifi* cation. He is taught to deal with a system where the classes merge by fine gradations into one another, and where the boundaries are often hard to mark ; a system that is progressive, and therefore in some points rudi- mentary, shifting, liable to continual modification ; along with the immense value of a carefully framed technical phraseology he is also taught the inevitable inadequacy of such a phraseology to represent the variety of nature ; and these are just the lessons that he requires to bear in mind in applying method and arrangement to any part of the business of life.' And finally, above all, the study of language does not in the least tend to impart the most valuable and important of all the habits that we combine under the conception of scientific training : the habit, as is generally said, " of reasoning from effects to <^use8, and from causes to effects ; ^ it might be more distinctly defined as the habit of correctly combining ill imagination absent phenomena (whether antecedent or consequent) with phenomena present in perception. Physics and Chemistry are the most natural and efficacious way of teaching boys from some part of any of the invariable series of nature to infer and supply the rest ; their place could not be adequately occupied by History and Literature, if ever so philosophically

» CuTier, speaking of his own study, says : — " Every discussion which supposes a classification of facts, every research which requires a distribution oi matters, is performed after the same manner ; and he who has cultivated this science merely for amusement, is surprised at the facilities it affords for disentangling all kinds of affairs."

I do not think a student of kiDguages could honestly claim an analogous advantage for his own puisuit.

136 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat U.

taught ; as History and Literature are taught at present, this training is simply absent from the classical curri- culum.

Again, the advantage that the minds of the educated might obtain from a sufficient variety of exercise, is lost under the present exclusive system. This absence of variety is indeed sometimes claimed as a gain ; we are solemnly warned of the paramount necessity of studying one thing welL And certainly the encyclopaedic courses of study which some theorists have sketched out have given practical men an easy victory over them : it is so easy to show that this encyclopaedic instruction would impart a great deal of verbal, but very little real, know- ledge. But ^'est quadam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra. No doubt the studies of boyhood must be care- fully limited and selected; but they may be represen- tative of the diversity of the intellectual world in which men live. A boy must not be overwhelmed in a mass of details : he ought to be forced by all possible edu- cational artifices to apprehend facts and not to repeat words ; but in order that he may attain a thoroughly cultivated judgment according to the standard of our age, his education must be many-sided, he must be initiated into a variety of methods.^ And it may be

• When people talk of " training the memory, judgment,* &c, they often

ignore the difference between a general and special development of these faculties. There is great danger lest, if trained to a pitch in one material only, they will not work very well in any other material "The mind requires," as Mr. Faraday says, ^' a certain bent and tendency, a deaire and willingness to accept ideas of a certain kind, while it becomes slow and languid in dealing with ideas of a different kind. Mr. Faraday's evidence of the inferiority of educated men to children in apprehending scientific ideas, is very interesting and impressive. (See Report of Public Schools Commission, vol. iv. p. 377.)

SiDowioL] TEE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 137

observed that under the present system, neither the

advantages of concentration^ nor the advantages of

variety, are gained A boy in passing from Greek

and Latin, has not sufficient change to give any relief

to his faculties, but he has sufficient to prevent him

from making as rapid progress in either language as he

would make if he studied either alone. The transition

from the study of language to the study of external

nature would give so much relief, that it would be

poflsible for a boy to spend more time in his studies on

the whole, without danger of injurious fatigue. A still

more important advantage of variety of studies is its

certain eflfect in diminishing the number of boys who

take no interest in their school- work : a net is spread

that catches more ; and it is generally found that, if a

boy becomes interested, and therefore successful, in one

part of his work, a stimulus is felt throughout the whole

range of his intellectual eflforts.

In general the advocates of classical education, while they rightly insist that educational studies should be capable of disciplining the mind, forget that it is equally desirable that they should be capable of stimulating it The extreme ascetics among them even deny this. Thus Mr. Clark ^ says, " It is a strong recommendation to any subject to aflSrm that it is dry and distasteful." I cannot help thinking that there is some confusion here between "dry" and "hard." No doubt the faculties both of mind and body must be kept a suf- ficient time in strong tension in order to grow to their full strength : but we find in the development of the body that this tension can be longest and most healthily

1 Cambridge Essays, 1855.

138 £SSJrS ON A UBERJL EDUCATION, [EbbitII

maintaiuedy by means of exercises that are sought with avidity.' Those who have argued that the pursuit of knowledge might be made agreeable to boys, have been somewhat misunderstood by the apologists of existing institutions. They never meant that it could be made pleasant to him as gingerbread is pleasant, but as a football match in the rain, or any other form of violent exercise under difficulties. The " gaudia " of the pursuit of knowledge are necessarily **severa:*' but there seems to be no reason why the relish for them should not be imparted as early as possibla The universality and intensity of the charms of science for boys have been sometimes stated, I admit, with almost comical exagge- ration. But it will not be denied that the study of the external world does, on the whole, excite youthful curiosity much more than the study of language. The intellectual advantage of this ought to be set against whatever disciplinary superiority we may attribute to the latter instrument. On the moral advantage of sub- stituting, as far as possible, the love of knowledge, as a nobler and purer motive, for emulation and the fear of punishment, I have not space to dilate : but it seems difficult to exaggerate the importance, though we may easily over-estimate the possibility, of developing this sentiment.

And the superior efficacy of natural science in evoking curiosity is not due entirely, though it is due partly, to the exercise it gives to the external senses as well as the brain. It is due also to the fact that educa-

^ It is curiouB, Id contemplating English school life as a whole, to reflect how thoTong^ly we believe in natural exercises for the bodj, and aitifieial exercises for the mind.

SiDowicK.] THE TESORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 139

tion iu physical science is (in the sense in which

I have previously used the word) a natural education

in the present age. The book which it opens to the

student is not one which he will ever shut up and

put by : it is not one that he could easily have ignored.

•

In the age in which we live the external world forces itself in every way, directly and indirectly, upon our observation ; we cannot fail to pick up scraps of what is known about it : sciolism is inevitable to us, unless we avoid it by becoming more than sciolists. The boy's instinct feels this; so that, besides the obvious and primary advantages that a natural system of edu- cation has over an artificial one, there is this in addi- tion : it not only teaches what the pupil will afterwards be more glad to know, but what he is at present more willing to learn. We may admit that a knowledge of the processes and results of physical science does not by itself constitute culture : we may admit that an appreciative acquaintance with literature, a grasp of the method as well as the facts of history, is a more ^portant element, and should be more prominent in thoughts of educators ; and yet feel that culture, without the former element, is now shallow and incomplete. Physical science is now so bound up with all the in- terests of mankind, from the lowest and most material to the loftiest and most profound ; it is so engrossing ^ its infinite detail, so exciting in its progress and promise, so fascinating in the varied beauty of its revelations, that it draws to itself an ever increasing amount of intellectual energy ; so that the intellectual man who has been trained without it must feel at every turn his inability to comprehend thoroughly the

140 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat II.

present phase of the progress of humanity, and his limited sympathy with the thoughts and feelings, labours and aspirations, of his fellow-men. And if there be any who believe that the summit of a liberal education, the crown of the highest culture, is Philosophy — meaning by Philosophy the sustained eflfort, if it be no more than an effort, to frame a complete and reasoned syn- thesis of the facts of the universe, — on them it may be especially urged how poorly equipped a man comes to such a study, however competent he may be to interpret the thoughts of ancient thinkers, if he has not qualified himself to examine, comprehensively and closely, the wonderful scale of methods by which the human mind has achieved its various • degrees of con- quest over the world of sense. When the most fascinat- ing of ancient philosophers taught, but the first step of this conquest had been attained. We are told that Plato wrote over the door of his school, ** Let no one who is without geometry enter here." In all seriousness we may ask the thoughtful men, who believe that Philo- sophy can still be best learnt by the study of the Greek masters, to consider what the inscription over the door should be in the nineteenth century of the Christian era. In conclusion, it seems desirable to sum up briefly the practical changes (whether of omission or supplement) which have been suggested from time to time by a de- tailed examination of the arguments for the existing system ; and at the same time to add one suggestion which, if I do not over-estimate its practical value, will very much facilitate the introduction of such other changes as I desire. I think that a course of instruction in our own language and literature, and a course of

SiDowicK.] THE THEORY OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, 141

instruction in natural science^ ought to form recognised

and substantive parts of our school system. T do not

venture to estimate the amount of time that ought to

be apportioned to these subjects, but I think that they

ought to be taught to all, and taught with as much

serious effort as anything else. I think also that^ partly

for reasons which I have indicated and partly with a

view to practical advantages, more stress ought to be

laid on the study of French. While advocating these

new elements, I feel most strongly the great peril of

overburdening the minds of youth, to their intellectual

or physical detriment, or both. From (Jennany, where

the system is now more comprehensive than ours, we

hear complaints which show that this evil has arisen.

I do not know which is its worst form, that the brains

of boys should be perpetually overstrained, or that a

number of things should be taught, all inadequately and

superficially, so that verbal memory is substituted for

real apprehension. A certain amount of time will be

gained by the omission of verses as a general branch

^f education (so that only the few who have a special

capacity for such exercises be encouraged to pursue

them). But I do not think the time thus gained wiU

suffice ; especially as it is desirable that the study of

every language that is studied should be made more

complete than it is now. I have before hinted at what

appears to me the obvious remedy for the evil I dread —

tamely, to exclude Greek from the regular curriculum,

at least in its earlier stage. The one thing to be set

against the many reasons that exist for choosing Latin

(if a choice between the two languages is, as I think,

•

^evitable) is the greater intrinsic interest of Greek

I

142 SSSJTS OX J UMKMJL EDUCAnOX. [Esbat n

IHenlure. But I do not tlimk dial; if this change were made, Greek liteiamre ironld be thrown really open to £swer boy& I think that if Latin (along with French and English) was carefblly tanght np to the age oi sixteen (speaking ronghly), a grasp of Greek, sufficient for literary purposes, might be attained afterwards much more easily than is supposed ; particularly if at that period (when in the case of all schoolboys the stringency of the general curriculum ought to be considerably re- laxed) a proper concentration of energy were insured in die first assault on the rudiments of the language. It is supposed that there is a saving of time in beginning the elements of Greek early. I am inclined to think that very much the reverse is the case, and that if several languages have to be learnt, much time is gained by untying the fagot and breaking them separately. There are two classes for whom the present system of education is more or less natural, — the clergy, and persons with a literary bias, and the prospect of suffi- cient leisure to indulge it amply. The former ought to read Greek literature as a part of their professional training, the latter as a part of a comprehensive study of literary history. Boys with such prospects, and a careful previous training of the kind I advocate, would on the average feel, as they approached the last stage of their school life, an interest in Greek strong enough to make them take it in very rapidly. I believe there are one or two living instances of eminent Greek scholars who have begun to learn the language even later than the time I mention. The experience of students for the Indian Civil Service shows how quickly under a stimulus strong enough to produce the requisite

SiDowicK.] THB TBEOBJ OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION, \ 43

concentration, languages may be acquired more remote from Greek and Latin than Greek is from Latin. The advantage that young children have over even young men in catching a spoken language, has led some to infer that they have an equal superiority in learning to read a language that they do not hear spoken : an inference which, I think, is contrary to experience.

Of the benefit of such a change to all other boys now taught in our public and grammar schools, I need say no more than I have said already. Without such a change, their interests (even if the recommendations of the Public School Commissioners be carried into effect generally) will still be sacrificed to the supposed in- terests of the future clergy and literary men — a great clear loss for a very illusory gain.

III.

LIBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES.

BY PKOFESSOR SEELEY, M.A.

• ^In Wiirtembeig wiid locht bis in's Mannes alter hinein. Ansser China

^ in keinem Lfunde so Tiel examinirt und locirt, als in diesem. Die I'Oc&tionen werden gedrackt ; sie sind der Maasstab bei den spateren Anstel- loflgen. Nach seinem Locos misst man den Mann." — lAft of Hegel" by

• • In Wiirtemberg tbey arrange in order of merit even grown men. In no

coontiy but China is there so much examining and placing as in this. The lists ^ printed ; they regulate the subsequent appointments. A man is estimated according to his place. '

tt

The state of the English Universities is a subject suffi- ciently important in itself, but it is discussed here mainly ^^ account of its intimate connexion with the state of English schools. In the leading schools it does not rest ^ply with the Head-master to decide what the higher forms shall study. The College authorities at Oxford and Cambridge take this question very much out of his hands ^y their examinations for entrance exhibitions, and the University authorities by their degree examinations. In tlie second place, the Universities are practically our Normal Schools, the places where our schoolmasters are ^ined. It is not^ to be sure, a methodical training, "^t it is the only training they receive. The opinions ^^ut education which they imbibe there are the opinions

L

146 ESSJrS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Bbbat m.

upon which they act, so far as they act freely, in the work of education. The subjects they will consider most important in education will be, as a rule, the subjects which were most in repute at College when they were there; and they will commonly teach by the same methods by which they themselves were taught The experience of teaching may afterwards modify their views, but it is less likely to do so in respect of the subjects than of the methoda A school- master may discover by trial a better way of teaching a subject than the way he began with, but it will not so readily occur to him to doubt the expediency of teaching a particular subject at alL A masters faith in the Eton Grammar breaks down long before his faith in Latin itself is even shaken, and this profound faith in Latin depends ultimately upon the value which is attached to it at the Universities. In the third place, it is to be noticed that the Universities have lately, with much spirit, taken upon themselves the function of directing education even in those schools which do not send their boys to them. By the Middle Class Examinations a number of schools were brought under the control of a common system, which before had had neither control nor system. This was a great step ; but at the same time it greatly increased the influence of Universities over Schools, and made the nature of that influence a more serious question.

Education, in fact, in England is what the Univer- sities choose to make it. This seems to me too great a power to be possessed by two corporations, however venerable and illustrious, especially since we know them to have grown up under very peculiar circumstances.

Skelkt.] UBERAL education IN UNHTERSITIES. 147

and to be fortified by endowments against all modem influences, good or bad. I wish we had several more Universities; I mean teaching as well as examining Universities. I hope that the scheme which was an- nounced some time ago, of creating a University for Manchester, will not be allowed to sleep. I should like to see similar schemes started in three* or four more centres of population and industry. Could any investment of money in philanthropy be less question- able at this time ? Is there anything more undeniable than that our material progress has outrun our intel- lectual, — that we want more cultivation, more of the higher education, more ideas ?

But in the meanwhile, since Education in England is, in the main, what Oxford and Cambridge make it, how important is it that Oxford and Cambridge should disseminate just and profound views on education. There is no greater or deeper subject : there is no subject which demands more comprehensive knowledge or more fresh observation. There are general principles to be grasped, and there are particular circumstances of age and coimtry to be noted, by the men who would legislate for the education of a nation. Oxford and Cambridge legislate for us, and we may be sure that if those Universities labour at present under any serious defect of system, the whole education of the country will suffer for it: our schoolmasters will want just views of their duty, and they will also be fettered in the performance of it

The remarks which follow refer principally to Cam- bridge, the University I know best. They endeavour t/> point out a serious defect, which has the effect of

l2

148 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat IH.

lowering the whole intellectual tone of the University. If I can make my case good, I may expect to be pardoned, even though I venture to criticize an insti- tution to which personally I owe much : if I do not succeed in convincing the reader, then he is likely to think my language ungracious, and I can only defend myself by assuring him that I echo the thoughts of very many who have had experience of the system, and also that, serious as we think the evil, we none of us doubt that both Universities are doing much faithful and valuable work

Oxford and Cambridge, then, are just now in low repute upon the Continent, and it is common with foreigners to remark that they have made few con- tributions of late to science and scholarship. Whatever it may be possible to urge on the other side, it is at least undeniable that original research is not prosecuted so methodically, so habitually, nor by so many people at Oxford or Cambridge as at Berlin or Leipzig. We may have isolated celebrities equal to the greatest of Germany, but we have not anything like the number of students engaged, each in his own department, upon original and fundamental inquiry. This will hardly be disputed ; and, taken by itself, it is a fact which every one would deplore. But some regard it as inevitable, and as arising from an inherent inferiority of the English character to the German in intellectual industry ; while others consider that the energy withdrawn firom original study at our Universities is given to the in- struction of the undergraduates, and that this is a better application of it. The theory of radical inferiority will certainly not bear examination. There is plenty of

SxBLsr.J UBBRAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 149

industry at Cambridge ; amoBg the undergraduates a ^ deal of over-work ; and among the graduates a con- siderable class whose intellectual industry is incessant and would not bear much increase. The other explanation is obvioudy to a certain extent true. The industry, for e^mple, of tie class just mentioned, is absorbed in tuition. They are the private tutors whose services are in so much request at Cambridge. Though they are gencT- rally the most distinguished men of their respective years, tliey are unable to pursue their studies further because they are engaged for eight or ten hours of every day with their pupils. The College lecturers, if they formed a distinct class, would have the necessary leisure, but they are commonly private tutors at the same time. There remain the professors. These, as they are in the position most favourable to production, do actually pro- duce the most. But how small is their number com- pared with that of the men equally well circumstanced in a Grerman university t

There are, however, other impediments besides want of leisure. As the habit and fashion of original production has long gone out ; as no one beyond the handful of pro- fessors regards it as lying within his functions to extend the bounds of knowledge, all the arrangements which might facilitate production are neglected. This is seen particularly in the case of the College lecturers. Why are not these more productive? They form a con- siderable band. When they can resist the temptation to waste their leisure in private tuition, they have the first condition of production — leisure, and also the second condition — a prescribed task. What more do they need ? In the first place they need a subject care-

150 BBS AYS ON A LIBSBAL BDV CATION. [Sbbat IIL

fully limited, so that they may hope to master it thoroughly. For example, if you make a man lecturer on classics, you spoil him for the purposes of original production. The subject is too wide. K he is required to lecture one term on a Dialogue of Plato, the next on an Oration of Cicero, and the next on Theocritus, he will lecture at best in a second-rate manner upon each. And if he hold such a lectureship for ten years, he will not, at the end of it, be necessarily much more learned than when he began. On the other hand, if an able man lecture on Aristotle for ten years, his lectures will soon become first-rate instead of second-rate, and he himself will hardly fail to become an accomplished Aristotelian. Now, this condition of production is neglected at Cam- bridge, and the consequence is that a College lecturer who was promising at twenty-two is often no nearer to performance at thirty.

Again, in this great band of College lecturers, there is scarcely any division of labour. As each College thinks it necessary to furnish all the needful instruction to its students, and admits to its lecture-rooms only its own students, the same subjects are lectured upon at the same time in all the Colleges. In the German Univer- sities the whole field of knowledge is elaborately divided, and assigned in lots to different lecturers. In a pro- apectus of Heidelberg University, I count about sixty, each lecturing on his own peculiar subject ; at Cam- bridge scarcely anything but classics and mathematics is lectured on in the Colleges at all, and at every College the lectures are substantially the same.

In Germany, every lecture-room being open to the whole University, the size of a lecturer^s class bears

SnLST.] LIBERAL BDUCATION IN UNIFBESITIES. 151

some proportion to his merits. At Cambridge the best lecturer is no better attended than the worst, and not only his salary, but also Ids reputation, is hardly at all a£fected by the merit of his lectures.

Again, not only do good lectures attract no more attention than bad ones, but neither good nor bad lectures attract any attention worth speaking of. The attendance in most cases is compulsory, and purely formaL

Once more, the College lecturers being commonly chosen firom the Fellows, and the Fellows not from the University at large but from the students of each College, though they can never be incompetent or fall below a certain level of ability, yet they are not by any means invariably the most competent men.

In fact^ if the conditions of original research are leisure and ability, a limited field, a sense of duty, and rewards in reputation and money proportionate to exertion, there is no class at Cambridge, except the pro- fessors, that possess them in any moderate degree. And, these conditions fedling, another condition, also important, fails with them — the stimulus of the success of others in such research J and of a public opinion demanding it. There is no occasion, therefore, to suppose any natural inaptitude for original study in the Englishman; the present insignificance of our Universities in the world of science and scholarship explains itself very naturally by the system pursued in them. I am not at this moment considering whether that system is good or bad ; I am only remarking that it has quite a different object from the advance of knowledge, and therefore, naturally enough, does not favour the advance of knowledge.

152 ESSAFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebbat III.

There are persons who, acknowledging all this^ main- tain that it is not to be regretted. Their position is, that a university may exist for one of two objects — either for the cultivation of science, as the German Universities, or for the education of youth, as the English ones ; but that it is impossible to attain both these objects at once ; that a choice must be made between them ; and that if we have definitely chosen the former, and therefore to a considerable extent sacrificed the latter, it is equally tame that the Germans have purchased the learning of their professors at the expense of the education of their young men. This is a perfectly logical position, and if we were really driven to make such a choice I should admit that something might be said for education as against learning. Only if Oxford and Cambridge devote themselves to education, we ought to have other Universities that will devote themselves to learning. Or is the country already so impregnated with ideas that we can aflford to sacri- fice, without equivalent, our two principal nurseries o\ thought? Perhaps philosophy will grow of itself in England; perhaps every Englishman's head is such a hotbed of generalizations that it is imnecessary here, as in every other country in Europe, to encourage thought and study by special arrangements !

But I will endeavour to show that we are not driven to make such a choice, I will maintain that the twc things help each other ; that where the spirit of original inquiry is most active among the teachers, there the teaching is best ; and on the other hand, that where it is languid or dormant, the teaching, however assiduous oi conscientious, is degraded in character, and that such a univei-sity tends to become a mere school.

Sblit.] UBSRAL education IN UNIFERSITISS. 153

It Will be admitted that teaching boys is very different

fix)m teaching men. If we inquire in what the difference

consists^ we find that the boy requires to be constantly

supplied with motives for working, while the man brings

these with hinL On the other hand, the man needs

above all things learned and profound instruction, which

is less necessary for the half-formed mind of the boy.

It is by no means necessary that the masters of a school

should be deeply learned. K they have tact, firmness,

and a lively way of teaching, with competent knowledge,

they will do all that can be done in a school. Moderate

learning will be sufficient to command the respect and

stimulate the minds of boys. The qualifications most

important to a lecturer are quite different The liveli-

neas and attractiveness which interest boys are not

required in teaching young men. Manner is here much

less important, and matter much more. The lecturer

deals with a riper stage of intellect. In order to be a

^ful guide to the cleverest young men at their most

impressionable age, he must be before all things a man

of power and learning. In short, the success of a

schoolmaster depends mainly upon his force of character,

the success of a College lecturer mainly upon his force

and ripeness of intellect

For this reason I maintain that in a university education and learning can only flourish together, or, in other words, that even if University teachers devote themselves absolutely to the work of education, they will find that the way to influence the students most powerfully is by becoming as learned as possible. I beg the reader to observe that this position is not the same as that which is often maintained by the

JSSL^J? HT^ irgjg f y, MSfccjnos. [Bh^t m.

■ I ' m

XII5ZI2. I d» ssc HBOt duit the i«ofeaBorial f^i&aL :ii2£33i ^ V^ mrr^ jwl mide to supersede laftf^ txi^icuai^ T^iri- ppsdeaBuBil srstem, as commonly TzxiSssMft:*^ : "fHfv fr^sa laie uzxaial in two points^ and

21 :^ jilj ix Jilt ii^fi^ I ibink it sapeiior. Greatei armyf; TTLiit jl x:»aE iii sszLTAdcf:. aiid witliin the limits ^ in pvjj^^r Var^ 'Tjg i^ui tzke Colk^ tator commonly isksk I •lir^c iZ-izir*:e^uii : bat I do not advocate the 23it&j:^^ 3Zid:zi:*i cc f^ssvcnxi vhich belongs to the prrdeasLC a^ i^i^Scr i2taa tike cMtfyhetical method of

Tbr eEgiTTfg STsaa <^ modefatehr learned College kZii over-woKked pcirate tutors — ^in short, of f*:- &z^ &c<c ^ the same time students — defends r^seif ZKu ^:* zn:>£^ oq abscnct grounds as on the ground es liie r-resenT rji^ucaes of the UniTersity. The aigu- iDc£i mas as fcrlk-ws : The undeigraduates are reading i^JS :zi>.>ses : ::p:«i iheir suocess in these triposes depend ibrir eiiiK^es M* s frjjowahip, their chanc@ of success in the scLcIisde prccesaon. and to a considerable extent their chsoices of 5U«es5 in life generally. The teachers' business is lo o:>nfoiin himself to these triposes, and to give such insiraciion as will give his student success in them. Now it is not practically found that this is best done bv the man of great learning and original research. On the oonrran*, it is found that such men generally fiiil, and that the most successful teacher is the man who devotes himself most exclusively to his pupils, who con- siders most carefully their wants and what is likely to be set ; in short, who trains them most diligently for the race. It follows that the interests of education and learning, whatever they may theoretically be, are not practically

SmiT.] UBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 155

the same, but conflicting. To this we might reply,

" But perhaps it is not the teacher's business to conform

liimself to the triposes. Perhaps the influence of the

triposes is not beneficial, or only partially beneficial, or

only beneficial to some students. In these cases would

it not be the teacher's business to dissuade his pupils, or

some of them, from reading for the triposes, or to warn

them that success in a tripos is not the ultimate end of

education, nor an infallible test ? " What answer would

be given to this ? Some would answer very simply,

" We do not think so. We are convinced that the best

thing a student can do is to devote himself to a tripos,

and to measure himself by his success in it. The simple

contrivance of a tripos cures all freakishness of mind,

absolutely identifies interest and duty both for teacher

and taught, and renders moral considerations in education

once for all superfluous." fortuiiatos nimiumy those

who have found out how to do their duty by machinery !

But a larger class would urge very plausibly, " Whether

they will or not, the teachers micst conform themselves

to the triposes. If they do not, if they teach what they

themselves hold to be important, without considering

whether it will pay, their pupils will simply refuse to

listen to them, and nothing will be leamt at all." There

•

IS no doubt that this is in a great degree true, and it brings to light another great impediment to learning which exists at the English Universities. We have seen that there exists no class there which has at the same time leisure and a strong motive for profound study. We now see that the triposes act powerfully upon the teaching class, and draw them by motives of interest, and what almost seems duty, into a method of instruc-

156 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat ID.

tion wUch makes profound study uimecessaiy and scarcely possible.

The question then rises, is the machinery of triposes actually so admirable for purposes of education ? Is it the best way of educating a young man to place before him the prospect of a great race, for which he is to train him- self through a series of years ? If so, his teachers wiU do their work best by becoming trainers ; for this purpose they will have to sacrifice original study, and it will be necessary to admit that the interesti^ of education are irreconcilable in a imiversity witii the interests of learn- ing. I fully recognise the use of a system of rigorous examination, and the advantage of sifting the men to some extent, and arranging them with some reference to merit. But I do earnestly maintain that when this examining and placing are made the principal thin^ and when the tripos is made the heart of the whole s}^stem, the great central pump which propels the life-blood through all the arteries of the University, it becomes mischievous, and lowers the whole tone of education.

Let me point out the mischievous consequences of the system.

The object of a tripos is to discriminate accurately the merit of the students. Now it is found that the diflSculty of doing this varies very much with the sub- ject of the examination. There are some subjects upon which it is hardly possible to gauge a man's real know- ledge by any set of questions that can be devised. There are other subjects upon which it is much more easy to do so. And unfortunately the suitableness of a subject for the purposes of examination is not at all in proportion to the importance of the subject in cduca-

Sbblxt.] UBERAL education IN UNIVERSITIES, 157

tion. Whatever theory of University education you may adopt ; whether you hold that it should aim at a com* plete training of the faculties, or that it should prepare the student for the pursuits of later life, it is evident that the curriculum ought to be determined by other considerations than the convenience of examination* To be able accurately to measure the amount of knowledge a student has acquired may be important ; but it is infinitely more important that the knowledge be valu- able. Yet, when a tripos is made the principal thing, this very obvious fact is apt to be forgotten. The im- parting of knowledge begins to be regarded as less important than the testing or gauging of knowledge. Then subjects in which attainments can be accurately tested come to take precedence of subjects in which they cannot These latter, however important they may be, gradually cease to be valued or taught or learned, while the former come into repute and acquire an artificial ^alue. This cannot take place without an extraordinary perversion of views both in the taught and the teachers. They learn to weigh the sciences in a perfectly new scale, ^d one which gives perfectly new results. They reject, ^ worthless for educational purposes, the greatest ques- tions which can occupy the human mind and attach linbonnded importance to some of the least. Philosophy, for example, is in little repute at Cambridge. The Subjects it deals with may be of vast importance, the %tudy of them may be most improving and stimulating. ^ut the fatal objection to philosophy is that you cannot satisfactorily examine in it ; you cannot say confidently, as the result of an examination in it, A is better than B, or B is better than A. The consequence is that a student

158 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT III.

may run a most distinguislied career and finish liis educa- tion in utter ignorance of philosophy. Meanwhile the whole mind of . a large section of the University is occu- pied by the grammar of the classical languages, simply because it is found possible to examine in this ; and lads are taught to be ashamed of falling short of perfect knowledge in the genders of Latin nouns, which involve no principle at all, and in which a minute accuracy can hardly be attained without a certain frivolity or eccen- tricity of memory I

No one will deny the importance of rigorously testing knowledge. A student will often suppose himself to understand a proof or a principle ; but, if he is required to write the proof out, or to do some exercise involving the principle, he shows by his failure that his knowledge was superficial, incomplete, or even imaginary. And it is true that the student who studies for a long time without ever undergoing strict examination, fills his mind with these vague and imperfect conceptions, and, if he have at the same time a gift of ready expression, is in danger of becoming a rank impostor. It is also a useful thing that the men should be arranged in groups, so that a man may know of himself, and others may know of him, whether he is to pass in a particular department as a first-rate, or second-rate, or third-rate man. All this is very valuable ; but there is much to be said on the other side. In the first place this testing is much more necessary to bad men than to good. It should, in fact, be comparatively little needed at a university. With a rigorous examination-system at schools the better men might form the habit of exact thought before going up to College, they might learn to criticize themselves,

Sebxjbt.] LIBMRAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 159

and might be fit, as indeed many are fit, to leave prizes and examinations behind them at school with the other toys and trammels of boyhood. And though it be useful to classify men, yet as soon as the classification pretends to be exact it becomes delusive. A difierence of twenty places commonly has meaning ; but a differ- ence of four or five places has not necessarily any meaning. And if it had, what is gained by such accurate discrimination ? Who is the better for learning that of two good men one is slightly better than the other? I can imagine no useful result that is gained by all the conscientious care that is bestowed by ex- aminers upon these nice determinations. In this case, at least, the result seems to me none the better for being qtiantitative. To act upon it, — ^to give, for example, an appointment to the man who was fourth rather than to the man who was eighth, — is, I am sure, a folly. And to many such follies and injustices does this system of placing men practically lead.

Meanwhile the state of mind which is produced in the student by his perpetual preparation for the tripos is far from wholesome. In saying this I am confident I speak the sentiments of many who have had oppor- tunities of observing it. I do not now speak of cramming. It is true that at Cambridge, by great care in the conduct of the examination, but still Diore by the summary process of eliminating out of education aU subjects, important or unimportant, that can be crammed, cramming, in the ordinary sense, is ^ndered almost impossible. What I complain of is the ^garizing of the student's mind. Surely nothing is luore important at a university than to keep up the

160 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bb8AtUI

dignity of learning. Nothing surely is more indispen- sable than an intellectual tone, a sense of the value o( knowledge, a respect for ideas and for culture, a scholarly and scientific enthusiasm, or what Wordsworth calls a strong book-mindedness. Now the spirit of competition, when too far indulged, is distinctly antagonistic to all this. In the case of boys I suppose it must be called in, because boys have not yet felt the higher motive to study. But it vulgarizes a mind capable of this higher motive to apply to it the lower motive in overwhelming force. Students at the University are no longer boys. They differ from boys principally in this, that they are old enough to form an opinion of the value of their studies. And that they should form such an opinion is most desirable ; it is, in fact, one of the principal things they have to do. The student should be always con- sidering what subjects it is most important for him to study, what knowledges and acquirements his after-life is likely to demand, what his own intellectual powers and defects are, and in what way he may best develop the one and correct the other. His mind should be in- tent upon his future life, his ambitions should anticipate his mature manhood. Now in this matter the business of the University is by a quiet guidance to give these ambitions a liberal and elevated turn. All the influences of the place and of the teachers should lead the student to form a high conception of success in life. They should accustom him to despise mere getting on and surpassing rivals in comparison with internal progress in enlightenment, and they should teach him to look further forward than he might of himself be disposed to do, and to desire slow and permanent results rather

SuLET.] UBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 161

than immediate and glittering ones. Now 1 say that intense competition vulgarizes, because, instead of having this tendency, it has a tendency precisely contrary. In- stead of enlarging the range of the student's anticipa- tions it narrows them. It makes him careless of his future life, regardless of his higher interests, and concen- trates all his thoughts upon the paltry examination upon which perhaps a fellowship depends, or success in some profession is supposed to depend. It is well understood that the examination demands this concentration. It is well known that the man who hesitates is lost ; that any one who asks himself the question, " Is this course of study good for me ? does it favour my real progress, my ultimate success ? " is not fit for the tripos. Think- ing of any kind is regarded as dangerous : it is the well- known saying of a Cambridge private tutor, " If So-and- so did not think so much he might do very well." The tutor in question probably defended what sounds so startling by arguing that it is really wise not to indulge the power of discursive thinking too soon, or with too little restraint. I am not now concerned with this, and may content myself with remarking that the particular student who did think too much, and who, perhaps as a consequence, was beaten in the tripos, now stands in scientific reputation above aU his contemporaries. But whether or no such self-restraint be wholesome in itself, it is vulgarizing to those who practise it as a means of success in the examination. It is a violence done to all the better nature of the student. He does not inquire whether it is wholesome or not ; the process of reason- ing which goes on in his mind, and which you may hear avowed in his conversation, is this, " I know what I

M

162 ESSJTS ON J LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EssiiUl.

ii^hould like to be doing ; 1 know what seems to do my luind good ; I know what I shall study as soon as I am at liberty, if my tast« for study lives as long ; but at the s;ime time I know what will procure me marks, what will proi'uiv me a fellowship ; and it is my business now to nanxnv my mind, and for three years " — three of the most progivssive years of a man's life — " to consider not what is true, but what will be set ; not Ne\^i:on or Aristotle, but papers in Newton or papers in Aristotle, and to prepire, not for life, but solely and simply for the Senate House/' It is only persons ignorant of the facts who will consider this description exaggerated. And the worst is that this \'ulgiuity in study mfects not, as might 1)0 supposed, only an inferior class of men, but the men of the greatest ability and promise — so dDi- gi^ntly have the glories of the tripos been trumpeted- I know a man who had an almost unprecedented career of sui'iess at Cambridge, who hjul so completely made success of this sort his end, that when he had exliausteil the prizes of the Univei-sity he confessed that he did not know what next to do, or how to employ himself AnothiT Alexander !

Yet is even this quite the worst ? I think it is worse still that the teaching should be viJgarized as weU as the learning. It is bad enough that our youth should resort to the shades of Academe simply to seek marks, but it is woi'se still that the Platos of Academe should teach and earnestly preach that marks are the suinmum honuTiu I can only won<ler at the blindness of those teachers who do so under the belief that marks are the symbol of sound and siccurate knowledge. Can they not see every year high places Ixjcoming the rewanl of schoolboy

SiKLET.] UBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 163

abiKties and schoolboy knowledge ? I can quite under- stand that others may be carried away by the torrent, and may think that it is useless to struggle against an influence which is overwhelming, and which at the same time is not purely bad. But, whatever may be the cause, I think it the greatest misfortune in a university that success in an examination should be held up by the teaching class in general as the principal object of study. There are some who think that the principle of com- petition should not be introduced into education at all, and that there are better ways of teaching industry even to children. This may be an extreme view ; but I am sure that competition is a dangerous principle, and one the working of which ought to be most jealously Watched. It becomes more dangerous the older the pupil is, and therefore it is most dangerous in Univer- sities. It becomes more dangerous the more energeti- cally and skilfully it is applied. At Cambridge it is wonderful to see the power with which it works, and the ^inHmited dominion which is given to it. And therefore tere it produces most visibly its natural eflfects, — discon- tent in study, feverish and abortive industry, mechanical and spiritless teaching, general bewilderment both of teacher and taught as to the object at which they are aiming. The all- worshipped Tripos produces, in fact, what may be called a universal suspension of the work of education. Cambridge is like a country invaded by the Sphinx. To answer the monster's conundrums has Income the one absorbing occupation. All other pur- suits are suspended, everything less urgent seems unim- portant and fantastic ; the learner ridicules the love of knowledge, and the teacher with more or less misgiving

M 2

164 ESSJFS OS J UBEMAL SDVvJTWN. [Essat IU.

gradually acquiesces; theie is Bomething more neces- sary, more indispensable, something that cannot so well wait, —

I hold, then, that the influence of competition at Cambridge has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished ; that the teaching class should set their faces against it, and study to use every means by which it may be moderated. If, therefore, it appears that one main reason why learning does not flourish is that edu- cation, depending mainly on the examination system^ does not require learning, I consider that education itself suffers jfrom this system. I would deliver education from its dependence, and, without renouncing the un- deniable advantages of strict and well-conducted exami- nations, I would use them as little as possible for the motive or incentive to study. I would appeal directly to the student's love of knowledge, I would endeavour in all ways to kindle it, but especially by improving the quality of the teaching, and, even if the result were some diminution of industry, I should find full consolation in the improvement of tone.

But those who maintain that the interests of learning and education in a university are conflicting have still another argument. They say that the Grerman system, whi(;h favours learning, leaves the student entirely with- out personal care or moral discipline ; that it simply provides him with food for the understanding, but takes no pains to preserve him from vice or bad habits. The English system, they say, provides moral and religious instniction, and attaches greater importance to this than

Sekubt.] liberal education IN UNIVERSITIES, 165

to the imparting of mere knowledge. It is thus driven to make certain arrangements which, a« it happens, are not favourable to learning. No doubt the college system makes the great difference between an English and foreign university. Instead of leaving our students to live as they please in the town, we have established large boarding-houses, in which the students live under a certain discipline, and with a certain family life. It is very plausibly maintained that here the English system is superior to the German, and that for this superiority we may be content to sacrifice something in learning. It is certainly true that the college system keeps down the character of the teaching-class. I have already pointed out that, the lecturers being chosen from the fellows, and the fellows as a general rule from the students of the particular college, it may easily happen that a man may rise to be a lecturer, without any par- ticular merit, through happening to be the best man at a small college. I have also remarked that, as each college undertakes to give its students a complete train- ing, the lectiu-ers are required to lecture on too many subjects, and so prevented from that concentration which is a condition of profound learning. But are these evils inseparable from the college system ? Is it not possible to give the students family life and dis- cipline in a boarding-house without at the same time undertaking their whole education? And, again, is it necessary that having lived in a particular boarding- house should confer a claim to the greatest reward of merit that is known to the University, a fellowship ?

But what are the definite changes for which I plead ? I plead for much more than an alteration in machinery ;

166 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essai HI.

still there are two or tliree changes^ which I regard as essential. These are as follows : —

1. Let the fellowships at every college be thrown open to the wliole University. In other words, let the greatest rewards of learning, and the position of teachers, be given to the ablest men and best teachers. This requires, I believe, no change in the statutes of any college. It requires simply a change of practice. Kow why do the colleges make a general practice of giving their fellowships to their own men ? Without denying that they may be partly influenced by the consideration that they know their own men best, and have had better opportunities of testing their worth, we may safely affirm that their principal motive is differejut Their object undeniably is to attract students. A college is considered attractive where the fellowships are good and the competition is not excessive ; in other words, where* a little merit gets a great reward. It is surely uimecessaiy to use arguments in order to show that it is not for the interests of the public that there should exist this protection for mediocrity. The colleges might come to coDsider it not less opposed to their own in- terests, if they would cease to pride themselves upon the number of wranglei>>hips, Poraon prizes, &c. carried off by their uudc^rgraduates, and begin to place their pride in tlu* number of learned and distinguished men they could assemble in their Combination-Room.

' I confino myself here to such changes ns the colleges may make for thciuselv(>8. It seems to me poHsi))le in the wtiy here indicated to bring the UiiiviTHity }»ack to a liealtliy state without any new legisLition. If Ptuiia- mont were called in, another way of attaining the same end woald more natumlly be ado])te<l, fionie such way as that sketched out in the evideiioe given by Professor Jowctt and Mr. Fowler bef<»rc Mr. Ewart's Committee.

Sk.klky.] liberal KDUCATIOX 1\ UXlVERSll IES. 10 7

2. Let the instruction given in the University be made altogether independent of the college system. That is to say, let the lectures at every college be open to the whole University ; let it no longer be considered necessary for each college to furnish a complete course of mstruction ; and let each lecturer be directly interested in increasing the numbers of his class. In other words, I remove the protection which is now given to second- I rate lecturing by the college system. The existing j abuse is obvious. It is not possible that the staflF of- a small college should, as a rule, furnish lectures equal to those given, for example, in Trinity. Even a small collie man must allow the rule, though he may remember distinguished exceptions. Yet Trinity re- fuses to let the men of other colleges attend its good lectures, and the small college refuses to excuse its own students fix)m attending its own inferior lectures. The system of private tuition is applied as a rough remedy, but it is a remedy which is scarcely better than the disease. If, on the other hand, all the lecture-rooms were open, and each lecturer received a capitation fee for each attendant in his lecture-room, there would spring tip a competition among lecturers which would at once inspire life into a dying organization, and the private tutor would almost disappear. Nor is it to be supposed that the effect of such a change would be to crowd the lecture-rooms of Trinity and St. John s, and to empty tiose of the small colleges. The small colleges are not 80 completely inferior, and their inferiority would be removed by the throwing open of their fellowships. Their character would perhaps be changed. Instead of being copies of each other, they might find it advisable

1«;^ MSLlTS OS A UBFM il EDClATIOX, [&»at IIL

lo £t^t: iztrzsserres a iik<^ indhidiud character, and to

di^T:cc iLrzitfelves lo sficcial smdies. One might make

iri^l: 1 =*:L>:C •:•: iaw. another oi theology, another of

liiTzrsl 5*ii:ij:^. BoT ibe pio|!«er character of the college,

a^ riernii^ e:«i:irc»I azkd enf^«cing discipline, would re-

Ekiizi vi^: :i iiL Tbr mror would, just as much as now,

r£^:uz^ iw-eiiiitcTe ar a given nomber of lectures, only

xbrT wc.iji i»T ikxvsfesarily lie lectures within the college.

Yirt c^:Gfi^r i-rjaiiizaiiizin might also be very service-

aK-r i::: icc-viiiiur for the wants of the poll-men. There

ATt i: 1^ Ainrodg^ a vast number of students who want

• irr ;.^:l:::i:> i.c inciiiiaiion for serious study, or both,

vc Ai-.c?< tV.Ji-Aii-.-Ei has ihn>ugh special circumstances

K-.L n-.-i:!-.-- :c\L TLviv are also a certain number of

i\^i.>:i:ri:lr ii^TtHig-tox: anl cultivation who come to

iht lYivir^iiv KiiLrr for the sake of the society than

wi:h :ht ::.:tii:ioii of going through any regular course

of siuvly, Tiit-^c two classes of men are very diflPerent ;

bui ihtv ;irt alikr in tins, that it is not for them that

tho TuiN^rsiiy vxi>:sw and that they are there by a kind

of siidVraiio:. Ii has even been questioned whether

sui h sunV nu:ix? should be extended to the former class,

mid i: is ccriaiu that their preponderance in lecture-

nH>ms is a jHTjKtual discouragement to lecturers ; and

their }^i\ ivndoraui-o in siK-iety, if it adds a certain

vivaiiiv to univt-rsitv lilo, lowers the intellectual tone

and makes it uiorv dilHirtdt to maintain discipline. In

this F^>s;iy 1 have left them entirely out of consideration,

and have thnnighout rog:inled the undergnuluate as

advanrinl iniolKvtually a stage before the sLxth-form

8chiK>llK>v, thout;h I well know that he is often several

tagos l>ohinii I have done so because it seems to me

8«wjnr.] LIBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 169

clear that this intellectual element, whether or no it be tolerated at Cambridge, ought never to be allowed to interfere with the proper work of the place, and must be entirely neglected when we are considering how the studies of the University should be arrauged. But we may make it welcome to any surplus power and any accidental conveniences we may find at our disposal. Now as every college must have a staff of officers who are much occupied in the mere management of the insti- tution, and are thus unable to concentrate themselves, as I wish to see university teachers doing, upon a special department of learning, but who are learned men and not without leisure time, it would seem that we have here the surplus power required. Besides affording to genuine students accommodation and discipline, which they do not much need, and the society of mature and enlightened men, which they need above all things, the colleges may undertake to supply an inferior kind of

•

instruction in separate classes, conducted by a different 8«t of teachers vto those various descriptions of the in- tellectually indigent that make up a large proportion of the poll.

3. But these changes would not by themselves give the teaching a high quality, though they would make it effective for its purpose. So long as the tripos domi- nates, the teachers will always be trainers, though they naay be good trainers. This evil is chiefly felt at Cam- oridge, and the way to remove, or at least diminish, it, without losing the advantages of the examination system, is pointed out by Oxford. Let the names in ^ch class of every tripos be arranged alpliabetically. This simple change would, I think, at once clear away

-/

1 70 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EeaAY IIL

all that vulgarity of competition of which I have Bpoken. The abler men would feel just so much restraint in the necessity of securing their first as would keep them sober in their studies ; but within these limits they would be free. They would have leisure to look around them and before them, without fancying an examiner in every bush. They would begin to use their minds naturally, instead of warping and straining them to suit an artificial model They would sometimes indulge, instead of habitually stifling, intellectual curiosity, and they would not accustom themselves to dismiss every thing new or original in thought as being certain not to be set. By the same change the teacher also would be set free. He' would no longer feel it almost a duty to be common-place. He would no longer be a£raid of making the pupil think lest thought should damage his chance in the examination. The frigida curarum /omenta would be left behind, and the intercourse of teacher and pupil would become intellectual, elevating, firuitful to both.

It is to be hoped, at the same time, that the triposes may become smaller. Competition will be less stimu- lated l)y the chance of being high in a list of twenty or thiity men than in a list of ninety or a himdred. And this result may be obtained by means which will at the same time benefit the University by encouraging variety of study. By fostering as much as possible the smaller triposes, and by constantly recommending students to take up some branch of moral or natural science, we should at last obtain a number of triposes all held in nearly equal respect, and all of moderate size. Besides the allaying of the competitive fever, which

SouT.] UMMMM, MSClJtTlKy IX TJITIiSrrZIX 171

would fcJIow. I t&mk dL2$ Atr-ji- vc-cLi oc^rz^e Hrxi<e- ficiaDv iipL4i the tone ot ;zj»i=rcnii:sirc 3*.c>:-nr. TSiie inteUectuAl part of tfc?? ««iTcrsid-?c -x u::^:<rr^:raki;aircs must be mainly fomiabc^iy b^r^Tcver n-r-rridiv xaiwiliiiig they may be to talk ^.'/>. by ta^ir sndic^ and if tlw:^* studies were made mxfK Tannins liiei^? would b^ moiv

intellectual unlikeness, m»>i\: ideas to be ivmmanivated^

and conTersation would bHE«Xiiae richer. It mav be urged thai a new diffieultv will bo oieated

by introducing the alphabetical order into the triposes

at the same time that the fellowships are thrv>wn open

to the Cuiversitv. In this svstem it mav be said, how

• • •

are the fellowships to be awarded ? It will not then be possible, as it is now, to determine the comi>arative merit of two candidates by simple n^fon^nce to the Calendar. It will be necessary to introduce fellowship examinations held by the colleges, which will pnxluce

•

just as much competition as the present trijK>s, and ^liich will not Ixi regarded with so much resiH\*t or deference. The university examination, it is said, is entirely above all suspicion of corruption, and is idso Diost searching. A college examination would of neces- sity be less searching and less free from suspicion. You ^ould abolish a perfectly satisfactory method of awarding fellowships and intro^luce a very unsatisfactory one. 1 grant that the tripos does, on the whole, vciy satis- fiictorily test the merit of the students in special dcpart- inents. Mischievous as I believe it to be in its indirect influence through attempting too much, I do not deny that its decisions on the whole and roughly are correct. It would be very unreasonable for the coll(.'geH to w't them aside and supersede them by private dccisituis of

1 72 tSUT3 or A laiEJL MMrcmOX, [EmATin.

o^wn, wikidi wooM ii!^dia' leceiTe nor desenre lialf fio maeh nsfect^ Bar to aJmit tiik k not to admit that felloirsbipe oaght to be awarded hy a amj^e lefierence to the ealeikfiar. The calendar can wihr piove that a candidate u go«jd and soond in scane special l»anch of fltndv. Even'one will aiimit that a fellow shoold be ftoch a person, bat it b qoite another thing to affirm that flforrh a jjerson ha.4 a right to be a fellow. A fellow of a college Ls a member of a learned society, (^ a society that exL^ for the porpose of promoting science and scholarship, and that is occupied in education. Now, it may easily happen that a high wrangler or a high first- class man has very little pretensions to be a member of such a society. The wrangler may chance to be totally without what we have learnt lately to call " cultivation." He may, in fact, be for all the ordinary purposes of life an entirely uneducated and ignorant man. He must, indee^l, possess a considerable power of consecutive thought and considerable industry. But there is no necessity whatever that he should be in any sense of the word intellectual, or that he should take any pleasure even in his own special pursuit- It is not to l)e imagined that he is always a man with a natural taste for science. He is often merely a shrewd man of business, who has seen his way through mathe- matical study to a pension of t\^'o or three hundred a year. The 8«ame shrewdness which procured him the pension is likely to reveal to him the inutility of pur- suing his studies after it is won. If the high wrangler may easily be uncultivated, the high classic may just as easily l)e a dilettante. A little natural taste for urc, a good menaory, and a good school, suffice

Sblet.] liberal education IN UNIVERSITIES. 1 73

to place many in the first class of the classical tripos, though their reasoning powers are very slightly trained, their range of information very narrow, and though they have not even formed, what the mathematical man has formed, the habit of industry.

In short, the merit of the tripos as a standard for fellowships is merely negative. It is a serviceable means of preventing thoroughly bad elections. But for this purpose it is not necessary that the man should be placed. It might be an understanding in the colleges that no one could sit for a fellowship who had not taken a first in some tripos. If this rule were adopted, no gross corruption would be possible. The only question is, how would you compare two men who had both taken a first ? Now, for this purpose the placing is assuredly of no great use. The two men often belong to different years or went out in different triposes, ^ which cases they cannot be compared at all. Even when their names appeared in the same list the com- parison between them is perfectly nugatory. For it is only their acquirements in one department that are compared, whereas the fellowship should be a reward of general intellectual merit. On this system a tenth wrangler, grossly ignorant of all ancient and modem Mterature, may be preferred to a twentieth wrangler ^ho reads Goethe. It seems to me that the difficulty ^ould be best solved by requiring all the candidates turned to be first-class men to write an English essay ^pon one of several subjects put before them. In this ^y you might discover whether the classical man had ^y power of thought and the mathematician any power of language. The mere classic would be detected by his

I

1 74 £S£xr5 i-jr J. UXa §L MMrCJTIOX. [Ehat HI.

reasccins;. and due E»err BadbaBstiettn by his speUing ; and in this wmj yv>K ^ooid nadily disringai^ the truly iniieneictiiil can fr^r-fn die h^hly-tnincd schoolboy.

The leafier viH see thu my otigect is not merely to alter the ma^fhii^^y rf the Univeraty, though I think saome aIterati«:*€Ls in the maehineiy most important, but to petcommen^i quite a diff^roit conception of what a nniremty €duoad-]«i should be. He will see my drift ckarlr bv conaderini? education under three heads : the motive to study, the instructi<Hi, the examination or test- Of these thiee pans^ Cambridge regards the last, that is the test, as all-important, and it finds that it is passible to combine with a very accurate system rf examination an exceedingly powerful motive, viz. competition. In this plan the second part<, that is the instruction, becomes dependent on examination and competition. Nothing is taught with any care, but what is likely to be set in the examination, and nothing is learnt except with a view to succe^ in it In place of this I recommend a plan which has the instruction as its focus. I would have the instruction made at all costs the best possible, and every means taken, first to procure the ablest teachers, and next to enable them to cultivate their powers to the utmost. For the motive I would trust mainly to the stimulating power of good instruction. I allow that this motive woidd be less powerful than competition over the average man, but I maintain that it would be a purer and wholesomer motive ; and that it would exercise a ripening instead of a retarding influence upon the character. It would produce moderate industry continued through life and producing great results, whereas the present system pro-

Smlky.] UBERAL education IN UNIVERSITIES. \ 73

duces overwork, followed by listlessness and achieving

nothing. Moreover it woidd be reinforced by a rational

and manly ambition — an ambition for the great prizes

of life, honour or fortune or station, an ambition for

success according as each man conceives success ;

whereas the present system drops a curtain over the

coining life, consigns the student blindfold to his private

tutor, and expects him to take for granted that these

same marks, the currency of the University, if a man can

hoard up a sufficient fund of them, are legal tender for

ever3rthing that human beings covet

I will conclude by briefly enumerating the advantages of what I may call the teaching system over the ex- amining system.

First, it is incomparably better for the teachers. The present system does not consider the interest of the teacher at aU. It is wonderful how much interest is taken in the student until he takes his degree, and how little afterwards. It is of course quite right that control and supervision should cease, but it seems to me most iniportant that in assigning the duties of the younger lecturers, pains should be taken to give them as much opportunity and as much inducement as possible to prosecute their studies further. I have no doubt that this 18 often done as far as the system permits ; it is not the men that are in fault ; it is the examination- system, which makes learning in the teacher superfluous, and the college system, which puts the good and bad lecturer upon the same footing. The result is, that there is a perpetual difficulty in prevailing upon the abler men to stay at Cambridge ; and various methods have been proposed for bribing them to remain and devote

1 76 ESSAYS OX A LIBERAL EDUCATION. fEeaAT III.

themselves to teaching. You could bribe them if you oflfered them a career. Many men who are driven to the bar would be contented with a moderate income that they might increase by their own exertions, leisure to follow their tastes, a position of real influence, and an opportunity of rising to distinction.

The influence of the teaching system upon the reading- man I have already discussed. His studies would be made more manly and free : he would pass rapidly out of the school-boy stage, instead of being artificially detained in it. But there is a further advantage of which I have not spoken. It is often said, in arguing against the professorial system, that> after all, the student only gets from a professor what he might get as well from a book. This is true of a professor who merely delivers formal harangues and then disappears. But it is one of the greatest advantages of the system of learned lecturers which I have advocated, that it gives the reading-man the society, and to some extent friendship, of a man who is an authority on his subject. It is deceptive to compare him to a book. In the first place he is a great number of books ; next, he is a book that can be questioned ; and a book that can put questions ; and a book that can recommend other books ; and, last not least, he is a book in English. As a rule, good books are in German, and it may happen that the student does not read German.

Next, the teaching system would be most beneficial to that class of students who, without being in the strict sense reading-men, are intelligent, and can take an interest in literature, science, and scholarship. Upon this class the general cultivation of a countrj' depends,

SiEiBT.] UBERAL EDUCATION IN UNIVERSITIES. 177

ad its emineDce in the commonwealth of learning depends upon the reading-men. The present system, with its monotonous drill, its sedulous elaboration of minute details, is not calculated for them. What they want, and what is really best for them, is general views, and these the reading-men also cannot dispense with. A good course of lectures would offer such general views, and the class I speak of, the dilettanti of the lecture- room, would be infinitely the better for them.

Lastly, the teaching system would be beneficial to the whole country. Those who propose to sacrifice learning for what they consider the good of the students, do not seem to me distinctly to conceive the magnitude of the sacrifice they propose. They propose to sacrifice the intellectual rank and character of the country, which is left to chance when the Universities renounce learning. Private thinkers and amateur writers may by accident rise to support our credit, just as, if we should disband our army, volunteers might succeed in defending the coasts. But how much we all lose, nay, how much we have already lost, by our strange system, may be judged '^y any one who will consider what has been done by university professor in the countries where the pro- fessorial system is adopted. If we take the single department of philosophy, is it not evident that, if the English system had been followed in the Scotch Uni- versities, there would have l)een no Scotch school of philosophy? And has not the Geniian school sprung entirely from the Universities ? Were not Kant, Fichte, Sehelling, and Hegel, without exception, university pro- fessors? That barrenness in ideas, that contempt for principles, that Philistinism which we hardly deny to be

N

178 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat lH

an English characteristic now, was not always so. In the seventeenth century, the author of " Argenis " considered the principal fault of English people to be their reckless hardihood in speculation, their love of everything new and untried. In the eighteenth century, Montesquieu called us the philosophic nation ; and at the same date, Holberg, the Dane — to mention one more among many instances — describes England as the land of heroes and philosophers. It is not then the English character which is averse to thought; we are not naturally the plain practical people that we sometimes boast, and some- times blush, to be. If in the present century we have fallen somewhat behind, and instead of overronnmg the continent with our ideas, as in the days of Locke, Newton, and Bentley, have suflfered in our own island \h& invasion of French and German philosophies, it is assuredly from no inherent weakness. We must seek for other causes, and among them we shall find this, that in the warfare of thought we have hoped to resist regular troops with volunteers.

IV.

ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR.

BY E. £. BOWEN, M.A.

It may be useful to all persons who are disposed to take a conservative view of any disputed question, to point out that one of two charges may on all occasions be brought against an argument for reform. All topics, except metaphysical ones, have a theoretical and a practical side; and a writer cannot easily discuss both at one and the same time. Nothing then can be simpler than to urge in favour of an existing system, that the theoretical objections to it are not practical, and that the practical objections are not profound. But it is some- times forgotten that a system may be bad both in theory and in practice at once ; or, which is another way of stating the case, the way in which it is worked may be ^ng, and the reasons for establishing it at all may be Wrong also. Those who desire in great measure to re- model English educatioii have, for the most part, views ^ot only as to the substance but as to the manner of teaching; and these views are fairly separable. The present Essay will relate almost entirely to method. It ^ assume that other things have at least as much right as the classical languages to form the basis of modem training, and that it is desirable nevertheless that at

n2

180 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay IV.

some age and to some persons classics should still be taught. The question which it will discuss is whether the mode of teaching classics by a laborious preliminary instruction in Grammar is the best mode possible.

Pedantry is not only the commonest vice, and the worst vice, of schoolmasters, but it is one towards which every one who has engaged in the work of teaching must; have repeatedly been conscious of a tendency. The work of every profession no doubt takes an undue importance in the eyes of men who devote themselves to it laboriously : but that of a teacher is peculiarly favourable to the development of crotchets. Let a clever man study assiduously the properties of a Greek particle or the ramifications of a theorem in mathematics, and he will be sure to find out some things which have not been found out before, to trace connexions which no one has yet thought of tracing, to illuminate his subject by the relation which he will fiind it bear to other branches of knowledge. There may be much good in what he does : but he will be more than human if he can help regarding his work as exceptionally interesting and valuable. He will find it fill much of his mind, and thrust itself in front of other branches of study which in reality have equal value : he will give to it a natural emphasis in his own thoughts, and an artificial prominence in the culture which he urges upon others, A kind of paternal solicitude will at any rate add weight to his favourite topic, and personal vanity will not impossibly help it. Now in most other professions a man deals with his equals, sees things in constant varying lights, rubs ofi* his intellectual as well as his social angles. But a teacher is without this advantage. He is not under

BowEN.] ON TEJCHINO BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR. 181

immediate control ; public opinion acts upon hiin only indirectly and at a long interval of time ; he is not at the mercy of those with whom he is brought into contact, and his results are seldom so patent that the connexion of cause and eflfect can be traced with much precision. There arises as the consequence of this a fixed impression that his own work is the best possible, simply because it has been the most fruitful to himself ; an impression not so much irrational as unreasoning. The behef is not necessarily untrue, but the chances are greatly against it. At any rate it can hardly fail to bo narrow and illiberal Ask a disciple of Porson whether it is really the case that the chief object of examining the language of the classical writers is that one may know what the writers have got to say, and he will admit the proposition with so many limitations and modifications as to make it obvious that he hardly admits it at all.

It is quite certain, indeed, that the object which is now intended in the teaching of Latin and Greek must be difierent from what it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth. At that time, schools and universities made hoys lexim those languages in order that they might have some acquaintance with the authors who wrote in them. No sane man can assert that the same object is pursued at present, unless he is prepared to allow that it is sought at the avowed cost of sacrificing the many to the few. It is the evident failure to carry out the original intention of classical studies, which has made it necessary to bring more prominently forward the sup- posed advantages of grammar. If boys, it is felt, cannot in general be brought to get any good from the thoughts

182 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL BBVCATION. [Ebbat IY.

of Plato and Homer by their study of the tongue in which they wrote, at all events they will have the advantage of studying the words and constructions which they used. Without altogether denying the truth of this assertion, it is well to remember the position which it takes in the argument. No pleas are more open to suspicion than those which are urged in support of a falling cause. When we have to invent some new doctrine to prop up an institution which originaUy existed in virtue of a doctrine wholly different, we feel that we are treading at once on treacherous ground. The view that is pro- mulgated may have its merits, but they are not generally found to be the precise merits which suffice to bear up the fabric. When paganism was seen to be untrue, it was said that at all events it was useful When rotten boroughs were found to interfere with the representation of the country, it was pleaded that at any rate they produced Lord Macaulay. As regards the teaching of Grammar, it sometimes seems as if it would be a good thing to attempt to express distinctly, after the manner of Mr. Charles Buxton in his " Ideas of the Day,'" the grounds upon which it is based in the minds of those who assert its importance. They seem to fall under three heads: there is the idea that Grammar is useful for the sake of teaching the language ; the idea that its difficulties are useful as a moral training ; and the idea that it is a desirable object of study for its own sake. We may consider these as being the only ideas generally entertained ; for the view, which was expressed last year in a pamphlet by an eminent composer of a School Grammar, to the effect that Grammar and Eeligion are so closely connected that imiformity in the one is

Bown.] ON TSACBJNO ST MEANS OF GRAMMAR. 183

the first step to uniformity in the other, has not been accepted so widely that we need stop to discuss it here. The ideas just mentioned we may proceed to consider in detail

I. The first of them we will meet with a direct nega- tive. By Grammar is^ of course, meant a formal analysis of usage, in respect of inflexion and syntax. Can it be said that this system of teaching by means of Grammar is the most successful now? It will be re- membered that the only question for the moment is how a language may be most quickly learnt The problem is solved every day by grown up men and women. There is not an Englishman in the country who, if he wanted to learn French, would begin by committing to memory a whole volume of rules and formulae. By doing so, he would certainly succeed in the end; but he would know that it would be a waste of time and labour. What does the captain of a boat-club at the Universities do, if he wants to teach a man to row 1 Does be keep him practising, on dry land, the motions which he will have to perform, and fixing in his memory the laws which are to guide him when he enters upon work at last? Nothing of the kind. If you wish to make a man row, you will give him an oar and show him how. You will make him feel what it is like ; you will make him sit behind a good pattern of the art ; you will give him the advice, just as you see that he needs it. There is nothing in the whole world which is not learnt best by trying. " Per parlare bene/' says the old Italian proverb, **hisogne parlare male" No doubt, there is necessary for aU practice some rudimentary conception of what the work is likely to be. A man must know

w3ieL enii oc zsa 'Jkz se k to hold in his band, a^^

—J 1

. ^tr wiz^r^ A child cannot do much ^ thtir *!^^^5f?r't:? Til A 5rw sctple dedenaons have be^^^ ^j.:i;ziT '• — - Eci tLt =«»i>:t he can begin to " ipiC^

jLT^a^TT- tr-r t^rtro-. Let him get faimMt^

witL 'iLr: M-nzL-ror^ ^'jfds. and know what they me^^ ^ •ST- LrC hrn translate and retranslate t}^-

^•e<c T«:r5ei:Le ?eiitfrr*!«s with no grammatical analyst' in ri? ie^i : Ir: c^rrrain wopIs in Latin correspond i>^^ •■^r:;iii: .:lrr? in Fngli^h, He will see, as a matte? ^ ot o -:ir^. zz^t a n»>!!iinative comes syntactically before a Ter : and t^e wi3 see it fer more clearly and truly than if he knew the Dact from having learnt it in the form of a nle. If we have once made sure that a bi>v ^ronsMrrs the expression "us are going out, as aWnrd anJ giotess^ue. he not only knows, with regard to the suljevt of a simple sentence, enough to enable him to learn Latin and Greek without any further teaching on this head ; but it may be a question whether he does not know aU that there is to be said on the subject. The study of language is, at the present day, the only kind of study which deliberately professes to advance in a direction exactly the reverse of every other branch of human progress. In every other fruitful inquiry, we ascend from phenomena to principles. In classical study alone, we profess to learn principles first, and then advance to facts.

It will be remembered that we are not undervaluing the benefit that the ^mind may receive fix>m nnder- standing grammatical principlea The question is tem- T)orarily narrowed ; we are asking only how a language

ay be most quickly Icamt : and we arc insisting in

BowKT.] ON TEACHING BT MEANS OF GRAMMAR, 185

ply that it is by ciiltivating, as soon as possible, a

miliarity with its words and sentences, rather than

ith the principles upon which these are framed and

jomed. It is a truly painful sight to see a boy sit

clown to master a set of clumsy rules, of which he will

never use the half, and never understand the quarter.

He is, as almost all boys are, willing to be taught.

Be is, as very many are, prepared to submit to a

reasonable amount of drudgery. He is, we will say,

of average ability and endurance. Of such a boy, we

will confidently assert that, for the purpose of learning

the language to the extent to which he will probably be

able to carry it at school and college, the greater part of

what he has to learn in most grammars is wholly useless.

His time, his temper, his docUity, his confidence in his

teachers, his desire to improve — all these are sacrificed

in order that some analyst, for whose peculiar powers of

niind the compilation of his grammar may have been

a charming exercise, may not have written in vain.

Pedantry gains, and English education sufiera

How then ought a set of boys to be trained, sup- posing that our immediate object is to make them ^derstand a Latin writer? Pluuge them, we answer, at once into the delectus. Let them begin the ti-ans- lation of easy sentences even before they know tho ^declensions by heart. Never give a rule of any kind ^Jiless it is one which is clearly and obviously founded ^Pon a collection of instances. Get the meaning accu- rately, and the grammar may follow as its handmaid. Never let time be wasted at a diflSculty : if, when fairly coped with, it is insuperable, give quick and willing help. Be ready to tell liberally, aim at quantity as

186 BSSATS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat TV.

well as quality ; treat inflexions invariably in connexion with their meanings. Make your accidence and syntax a result instead of a basis. So far from believing that " nil desperandum," be ready to despair very often — give up, that is, an attempt to force intelligence beyond its natural limits. The construction of relatives, for ex- ample, is a difficult subject to very young boys. If so, let it wait till they have read more, and added some hxmdred or so of examples] to their store. In short, working always by means of reference to English, advancing regularly from known to unknown, never once allowing a statement to be taken on trust, or an abstract principle to precede its concrete illustration, tram boys to know many things which they cannot hope to understand, but never to hope to understand a thing which they have not learnt to know.

In a Greek text-book, which is learnt by most English schoolboys, there occurs, as the introduction to an elabo- rate system of tense-forming, the following statement, — " Praesens medium et passivum formatur a praesente^ activo mutando o) in ofun, ut nJ^rra), TvirrofULi.^ Thif^ rule is supposed to be learnt by young boys in order that they may the better understand the Greek language- Now, in the first place, the statement is, as so many^ other rules of the same kind, absolutely false. The present passive was never yet formed from a verb in i». The comparatively simple form in oiiat was in existence long before the contracted termination of the active; But, a grammarian may say, the pupil who has the active before him will now be able to form the passive for himself. Did any pupil ever do so since the world began ? Why, he has just been learning the inflexion of

Bowxv.] ON TEACHING BT MS4NS OF GRAMMAR. 187

tvhto/mm in his veiy last lesson. As a matter of fact, school-boys know very well that, when they want to think of a rule for the formation of a tense, they have to think first what the word is, and then what is the best way to get it Their instinct reverses the illogical order which the grammar has tried to force upon them. Monstrous as these arbitrary rules are, they are but a sample of the substance of which grammars are geuerally fuU ; and they are expressed in a language which the bojB, however much they may translate it, can never at this period understand and make their own. It has sometimes occurred to us to fancy — ^but that the thing can hardly be fancied — a teacher of some other depart- ment of study attempting to succeed by the same means as those which we have described. We will suppose that a professor of Chemistry is beginning work with his class. Proceeding upon the classical principles, he will first commit the whole of his knowledge to a volume, which he will draw up in a dry and technical style, and if possible, in a dead language. Of this, he will ask his class to learn a certara portion every day, and to believe the time may come when they may want it He wiU perform a few experiments, every detail of which he will refer to their position in the book. He will urge as carefully as he can that the phosphorus takes fire, not because chemical force is set at liberty, but because the book says that it shall He will intro- duce into lus book-lessons the rarest metals and the most elaborate combinations, not because the pupils will com- monly use them in the laboratory, but because his system is not complete without them. And when he finds that his disciples hate their work, and, in practice, hardly

188 USSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat IV.

know an acid from a base, he will believe that the fault lies not in his mode of teaching, but in the unfortunate incompleteness of his book.

Waste of time and waste of energy generally go together. The perpetual routine of text-books wearies, distresses, dissipates. That one method of study is more pleasant than another is no small argument in its favour, if this pleasure mainly consists in a rapid process of the intellect Lexicons, by what we have said, are to begin- ners almost as noxious as grammars. Every one who knows Greek in the end, must remember well how dreary have been the hours which he has spent upon the simply mechanical exercise of turning over leaves, with his eye fixed upon the heading of the page. It is monotonous, it is unintellectual, it is distasteful in the highest degree ; and there is not a public schoolmaster in the kingdom who has the courage and the benevolence to dispense with it Lexicons must no doubt exist, for they are needed in many ways ; but there is no worse way of discovering the English equivalent of a simple word than looking it out in a dictionary. It is bettor to have a glossary ; it is better to ask a teacher ; it is better even to have a literal translation : better, simply because these methods do not waste the time of the learner, and do not spoil his temper. In his first book of Homer, an average boy wdll look out somewhere l)etween frsvo and three thousand words in his lexicon, and spend, on a moderate computation, from forty to fifty hours in the search. Grievous, however, as his waste of time in this direction is, it is work of the fingers alone ; the lessons of Grammar that he learns will torture his brains as much, and will not even give him

BowEK.] Oy TEACHIXQ BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR, 189

the satisfaction of feeling in the end that he has gained his grain of knowledge. He will have done something, it is true ; he will not have been idle ; he will have done as hard work as people do who turn a treadmill. The use of Grammar has been defended on the score that it, after all, does give something for dull boys to do. The argument is perfectly clear. It is upheld as being, after all, an excellent substitute for education.

Hitherto we have considered Grammar as a help to the knowledge of Greek and Latin ; and from the idea of Grammar we exclude a few simple paradigms, and all kind of oral explanation. We assert that systematic Grammar, complete, technical, printed in a book, for the purpose of learning the dead languages, is more an encumbrance than a help. The value of Grammar itself, wc have not for a moment denied.

III. But it is as an end, not as a means, that it is valuable. When once a language has been mastered, there are few uses to which the knowledge can be more appropriately turned, than that of obtaining some insight into its organism. One student may care chiefly to investigate the history of its inflexions and the architec- ture of its words; another may find more interest in analysing their mutual connexion. Both paths of study are worth pursuing for their own sake, and some steps may be made towards both, even while the language itself is l)eing learnt. Only let it be accepted as a cardinal law of education, that before it can do any profitable work, the mind must have material to work uj)on. The study of Logic presents a close parallel to the study of Grammar. It would be possible to conceive a boy taught to argue firom first principlea If, by enor-

I» MSUTJ OJT A UMMEja MDCCdnOW. [Bhat IV.

■bi'ixs Lir:«jar. lie <oaki insdl inlo his mind the Tarioas nJiis of A.tlTTi^fc, afld icgud tkem ms a code of laws wid!n. he wns booui to obey wboiever a sequence of pro|!csii*»5 ^xiEaoaai icaelf to his mind, it is ccmceiTable tbas hi m'^-: pn>iaee the reqmaifce eondnsion firom the premises t«£xe him, dioog^ he had never conducted an azgusKiLt hef^x^ in his lilies Soppoong that a system of mis kizi-i existed at our Kngiish schools, it is more than likely that a great deal would be urged in its £i¥oar. It is necessary, it would be said, to imbue the mind wiih true and jwoper rules^ in order that it may be pre|ttr^ to use them when the time comes. To argue, we should be tc4d, is nothing; unless one argues 6om a ci»npiehension of the rules of argument. The defenders of this svstem would be no more driven firom their position by the &ct that many people are logical without having been to Oxford, than the Grammar writers of the present day are confounded by the circumstance that Euripides wrote excellent Greek with- out having ever heard of an optative mood.

Puttincr aside that part of Grammar which depends on memorv, the rest is simply a logical training. It would be hard to find a better practising-ground than Grammar for the logical studies of manhood or even of adolesoonco, simply because it is so copious and ready to hand. Once given that the subject can be fairly grasped, and it is one which repays a liberal expenditure of time. But it is curious that it should be regarded at si'ihools as the only vehicle through which logical ideas should be instilled Not tiU after many years of Latin oiul Greek does a boy really come face to fSeu^ with the 'loughts which the grammars put before him ; while

Bownr.l ON TRACSflNQ BT MEANS OF OBJMJfJJL 191

consideratioiis about aU men being animals, but all animals not being men, are so simple that boys of fifteen might well sit down to attack them. ^'The dative," say the grammars, " is the case of the remoter object" Nothing could be simpler to the understanding of any of us who write or who read this volume. We have a clear, an educated comprehension of the remoter object ; the notion is something more to us than a mere form of worda But an average boy does not, will not, cannot actually get at it. He can be taught to know a remoter object when he sees it in print ; he will say to himself that it is a kind of thing which won't do for an accusative, and yet comes in and seems to make sense. He knows it as it were on the outside ; he knows it as he knows a word that is put in italics. Give him time, make him familiar with dative constructions, let his Qiind get strength and flexibility, and these grammatical conceptions will come to have a meaning to him ; but tell him at the outset of his studies (as the grammars do) that the Latin dative means the case of the remoter object, and you will merely add another grain to that heap of evidence which is slowly accumulating in his mind that learning is a thing unsuited for a young person of sense and spirit Yet easy logical exercises would be a pleasant task for the same intellect which rejected the definition of the dative. The grammar- book — ^the scientific part of it — is simply too hard. High Grammar is fit to range with high astronomy or meta- physics. One actual teacher of boys, at all events, will hereby venture to question whether the meaning of an aorist is really ever grasped by any one below the age of twenty. He has found boys interested and intelligent

>i JSS^iU ::•- A ZZKIS^L EZtrCjnoy. [Ess at IV.

Tri.Tii rLt !ia.mr« it a f7fl«>,zsai or the ^llacy of a pro- r-.r: jL:*f ixziaiiied lo tiii^n : he doabcs whether he has rTrr il.:r:ii:ril7 •.•lETrjj^i ro the mmd of any one pupil ti*r izTTreH'i^ leCTr-ftai ii azL*i ^.

Lift ir V :cs*3rrTii iow ninirally our view agrees with

ihyi: zcjj^zi*^jl lenLinfis Kfi eduoacioiL It is confessed

riii: !:i«:sc "lo j^ ^izji T^ry little firom the knowledge of

Gr^k ind Lioz. zhiz rLfy p&i up at school ; and even if

iwl:.:i is .-^viuiIt ro be wished^ those only pursued the

5^1' iy :l \i7r^ikz^ wao wert likely to make some progress

iz. ::. srlll i: :i.e 'c-ejc. ft wi.miI.1 be but a few who would

tr in ar tli-r iriri wh^n iz eame to the dissection of the

Tisxdvle?. Iz i wonL verv manv learners can never

niA^CcF GrizinuLT :..> any rt:il purpose. The order of

ir^m.ci-Z iriiich we oLum as natural would then be

ul?*:' liir n:s: i^.^iLveiiicnt. The mass will be able, when

th-.y ciiASt :h- ir e^iucarion, to know something of what

ihr Gr>:vk an i Laan writers said : the select few will

h.iVc rVun.l thrir way on to the secondary goal, which

bu: few of :hv wrirors themselves ever reached, that of

undvrstan -ling the exact physiology of their language.

Tnu\ the srii-iy which we speak of as second in point of

time \rM prtiorloally follow along with the mere parhmce

in the case of a clever boy. One group of phenomena

in laUiTnage well perceived, the s}Tithesis and comparison

and arrangement of these and other groups will not

be an affair of difficulty. It is not to be supposed that

the acquaintance with the speech itself must be perfect

Ik4oix^ the other study commences. This is not the way

which anv branch of knowledge subordinates itself to

>tlier ; but the first may be, and ought to be, the

tsurc of the second. Let things be known in the

BowM.] ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR. 193

rough, before they axe polished into shape. A grain of showing is worth a bushel of telling, whether the topic be a handicraft or a virtue, the performance of a trick of cards or the construction of an infinitive mood.

We are by no means inclined, indeed, to make immoderate concessions, or regard the final attainment of grammatical principles as among the loftiest achieve- ments of the mind. What, after all, is this " scholarship, upon the possession of which so many of us, with more or less reason, are in the habit of priding ourselves ? A man is a fine scholar, a beautiful scholar, a finished scholar. What does this mean ? It is simply that he remembers accurately the words and phrases that each particular Greek or Latin author was most in the habit of using — or, it may happen, of abusing. He knows

• ixactly how often this trick of language occurs in

Pindar, and within what limits that turn of a sentence

•

^ capable of being employed by Ovid. How fai* in intellectual growth has such an accomplishment brought tim ? Why, it is a knowledge which we should almost Wush to possess in regard of Addison and Macaulay. Exactly so far as it makes us understaud Greek thought letter, it is worth having ; but how miserably incom- mensurate are the means with the end. In Greek tragedy, a woman, when she speaks of herself iu the plural, ^s the masculine gender ; and when she speaks of herself in the masculine, uses the plural. Here is a piece of knowledge, perfectly true, laboriously proved, i^ecessary for writing Greek iambics ; and most of us ^^'ho profess to know the classical languages, would be shamed of being without it. Well, how fiir does it go ? l*fobably — though nut cerUiinly, for there is the widely

194 £SSJrS ox A UBERAL EDUCATION. [BBaAT IV.

reaching element of chance, seldom sufficiently recognised in philology — probably this practice corresponds^ if we could only see it, to some sentiment lurking in the Athenian mind. The person who knows thoroughly half a himdred of such canons^ will have a better equipment for ransacking and mastering Greek ideas than another who does not. That is to say, a minute iicquaintance with words and phrases does in the end, and through much patience, help the clever man to place himself more fully at the point of view of an Athenian.

Let this be granted ; and now let us glance at the result. Is it generally the case, that the "beautiful scholar" is the man who. brings out most treasures from the chambers the dim light of which is clearer to him than to others? Is it not more often found that his long toil has made him confound the means with the end, and value his scholarship in regard of itself alone ? The main object of seeing distinctly what Plato and Cicero thought, is that one may be able to look on all questions not only on the side which they now present, but on that also which they turned to observers long ago ; to gain, as it were, a kind of intellectual parallax in contemplating the problems of life. Can it be fairly claimed, that high scholarship, the higher it reaches, attains more completely this object ? The reverse jiotoriously is the case. We know well enough what becomes of the man who gives up his time to particles. He is not the man to whom, in nine cases out of ten, his generation turns for help. There grows upon a society of "beautiful scholars" a distaste for things in which taste and refinement have little room for

BowKf.] Oy TRdCfflSO BY MEJXS OF GBJMMJR, 195

display, and in which breadth is more important than accuracy ; and the result is a lack of sympathy with human struggles and care& Let some social or poli- tical movement arise, in which a man of real intellectual power, real eloquence, and evident sincerity aspir^ in spite of ignorance of the classics, to take a leading part. He will find favour with but a minority of the writers of dictionaries and grammars. One will see narrowness of mind, another will insist on discovering vulgarity of tone. With some he will be too base in thought, with others coarse in manner. But all will be down upon his language. A man of classical education, we shall hear, would never have spoken of the " works " of Thucydides; a man of real culture could never value the penny press as a means of popular instruction. He mispronounced an English word last session ; he did not understand when an allusion was made to Patroelus; to save his life he could not cap a line in the second book of the ^Eneid.

Et les moindres d^fauts de ce gross ier g^nie Sent ou le pl^onasme, ou la cacophonie."

How much better to be able to set a common room right upon some mystic conceit of iEschylus, or correct ii class of boys (out of their Primer) on the gender of clunis and splen.

It is not, however, the object of this Essay to dis- parage the knowledge of Latin and Greek. They may l>e purchased, and often are, at too high a price ; but those who have gained them most easily will be least Jikely to hold them too dear. Montaigne was not a man ili.sposed to shut his eyes to th<* world around him,

() 2

1^ MS&ITS C'XJ UMMMAL KDUCJTIOX [Essay IV.

bccsoae be had kmit to qieak latin befoie he was able to write Fra^^ Hie advocates of a natural and easy method of cLiaacal teaehing are sometimes challenged to give ii!5tazi*^?$ oi the success oi their system. It is eertainly n*x €a^ to do so, for of late years the grammar wmers have had it all their own way, and the one German aposde of a natual mode of teaching finished his career in prison : bat the results of the teaching of Jacotot in France and Belgium are such as have never l^en surpassed, and it will be time enough to prDooonce a system impoaahk, when in learning any modem language we cease to practise it ourselves. At any rate, there is gcwd enough authority for learning Latin in this way. Milton distinctly urges it, and Liocke in substance : but it is older than either. Our most noble Queen Elizabeth,'^ says Soger Ascham, " never yet nx^k Greek nor Latin grammar in her hand after the first declining of a noun and a verb. In a year or two, by ivpious tninsLirion and retranslation, she learnt both languages woll. It was with Lilly s Grammar that the more jx\laniio system came in; and that grammar, as its pn^fjuv shows, was never originally intended to l)e loaniT i^i^UMVUtivelv or bv rote.

It has Kvn said, with some degree of truth, that loaniiug by heart is the great intellectual vice of bojrs, IVrhajvii it would Iv foirer to say that the tendency is so strtnig that it is almost certain to be misapplied. With Ixn's of gooil or average memory — and none others ought to loam classics — the tendency will be directed rightly if thoy are made to learn examples of construc- tion by heart, and carefully prevented from embodyin ^ho doctrines taught them in any set form of words. Iir^

BowBN.] ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR, 197

the Primer which has lately been put into the hands of

the boys at most of the public schools, the first two

pages of syntax consist of words of an average length of

about three syllables each. Now there is no doubt that

a boy of good memory will learn these, in time, to

whatever degree of perfection his masters care to enforce ;

and if they were written backwards he would learn them

almost as easily. But the idea that a young boy will

ever think in polysyllables is almost humorous. The

better he knows the words, indeed, the less will be, in

many cases, his attempt to attach a meaning to them.

The parrot does not only not think, but it even prevents ' ^

itself from thinking. The pupil who is reading his

EucUd will know it less well, for purposes of culture,

^f he attempts to commit it to memory. What is the

^ason that we have given up the notion of enforcing the

^'uties of morality upon the rising generation by means

^f memorial precepts in English or Latin prose ? It is

"^>t that the ideas of duty which they would convey are

1^-"^ likely than in former times to meet with illustrations

^^ conmion life. It is simply because the duty is in

^ost cases not a matter of formula ; and even when it

•

^ 80, the words of a formula have a tendency to remain

•

^ the comer of the memory where they have been placed. The same is true of Latin composition. A very few memorial rules are useful in cases where usage alone ^ a guide to what is correct ; but even these have no ^^lucational value whatever, and any other than these ^l>8olutely interfere with the right understanding of ^ principle.

There has been some discussion during the past year ^ith regard to the introduction into the chief public

198 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BsaiTlV.

schools of Dr. Kennedy's Public School Primer. Into the merits of the book itseK it is not necessary now to enter, because, in the first place, it is irrevocably accepted at the nine public schools ; and, in the second place, the general opinion of persons interested in education has already condemned the work But, independently of itB merits or demerits, the introduction of a universal text- book is distinctly a retrograde step in education. It was clearly felt to be so not long ago in Germany ; and the idea, which had been mooted a few years back, was dropped by general consent. It is with us much as if the study of Aristotle were imposed once more by the authority of the Chur(*h, or an adherence to the unities by that of the managers of the London theatres. It implies the belief, which will at once be recognised as an heresy, that there are such things as eternal and immutable rules of language ; that a Latin grammar is to be considered not as an interpreter of Latin, but as it were its authorized legislator. What is meant by a declension ? Is it a division which the language con- sciously employed? Is it one which is certain, and beyond the domain of controversy 1 Has it any claim to be regarded as the embodiment of a law in the sense in which the word is used in science? Not at all. Distributing words into declensions is simply the best means that we can contrive for organizing them in a way which shall appear to the memory as synmietricaL The analysis of words was pushed very fax among the Romans, and yet Quintilian wrote a chapter on grammar without ever mentioning the classes of declen- sions at alL What is to be inferred is, not that declen- sions are not useful, but that the division is an arbitrar}*

^^WKN.] ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR. 199

lie ; and that any plan of education can have but little ^^^nfidence in its teaching which will bind itself for the ^^ext twenty or thirty years to believe in five declensions ather than in eight or ten. No reason can be given for he compulsory uniformity of English Schools in their ^•Tiethod of teaching the analysis of the Latin language, ^'hich would not equally tend to show that the Univer- sities of Oxford and Cambridge are bound to adopt the s=uime text-book of algebra for continuous use. This might easily be done, and an inferior book be stereo- typed for a long time to come. As it is, fresh books supersede one another as the methods of algebraical T?orking improve, and the reign of a single author at Cambridge lasts sometimes two years, sometimes twenty. In the teaching of languages, as a matter of fact, one good teacher will have one way of instructing, and another another. Common sense points out that if a boy only learns a thing well, it matters little in what way he has reached his knowledge. As for bad teachers, they will simply save their credit and their labour by teaching the Primer straight through by heart.

One is driven, sometimes, in thinking of these and similar mistakes, to the verge of asserting that books are the great obstacle to education. Whether this be too audacious a paradox or not, our teaching wants sadly to be humanized. There will be some gain, no doubt, when it is once clearly understood that there is no absolute connexion between riches and the dead languages, and that a boy need not in every case be set down to a course of study for which he may be wholly unfit, just because his parents or guardians

200 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [E«at IV.

happen to be able to pay for it. But is it too much to hope that the classical teaching itself may some day cease to be the dull routine which it now so often is? It may have been remarked that, in considering the reasons for which grammar may be taught, we have omitted tlie second of our three ideas — ^the one which considers that the difficulties in a course of study ought to be left there as introducing a moral education in the struggle which is necessary for overcoming them. A person who will assert this is beyond the pale of argu- ment. It is not worth while to discuss whether a method ought to be easy or hard. But we should even go on to say that it is the duty of a teacher not to rest as long as any difficulty exists which by any change of method can be removed. Involuntary learning is of as little use to the mind as involuntary exercise to the body.

Now it is certain that a large proportion of boys dislike the work which they have to do. Some like it ; some are indifferent ; a great many simply hate it We maintain that an educator of boys has no business to be satisfied as long as this is the case. A very few may dislike all intellectual labour, just as a very few men dislike it ; but these cases are as rare with boys as with men. The great mass of human beings, whether young or old, have appetites for mental food of some kind, and the reason that so many turn away from it is, that what is given them is not what they can digest. There is a sort of incongruity, which falls little short of injustice, in punishing a boy for being idle, when we know that the work which the sjBtem

BoiTKH.] ON TEACHINO BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR. 201

of Ilia school exacts is as cramping and distorting to his ^ud as 'an ill-fitting boot to the foot No one would daim indeed that every pupil shall have his tastes suited with minute accuracy ; and the energy of a boy, ^ he is in good health, and otherwise happy, will carry ^im through minor difl&culties. But no young boy since ^^e world began has liked a Latin syntax, or a " forma- ^*^u of tenses," or felt anything in them for his mind ^^ fasten upon and care for. Consider the case of a ^tupid boy, or an unclassical boy, at school, and the ^Oad of repulsive labour which we lay upon him. For ^any hours every day we expect him to devote himself, Avithout hope of distinction or reward, to a subject which he dislikes and fears. He has no interest in it ; he has no expectation of being the better for it ; he never does well ; he rarely escapes doing ill. He is sometimes treated with strictness for faults to which the successful among his neighbours have no temptation ; and, when he is not \dsited with punishment, he at least is often regarded with contempt. He may be full of lively sympathies, eager after things that interest him, willing even to sacrifice something for the sake of becoming wiser ; but all that he gets in the way of intellectual education is a closer familiarity with a jargon the existence of which in the world seems to him to controvert the Argument from Design, and the chance scraps of historical and literary knowledge which fall from the lips of his routine-bound master. If only it could be regarded as an established truth that the ofl&ce of a teacher is, more than anything eke, to educate his pupils ; to cause their minds to grow and work, rather than simply to induce them to receive ;

202 ESSJFS Oy A UBERJl EDUCATION. [Esbat IV.

to look to labour rather than to weigh specific results ; to make sore at the end of a school-half that each one of thos« entrasted to him has had something to interest him. quicken him, cause him to believe in knowledge, mther than simply to repeat certain pages of a book without a mistake, — ^then we might begin to fancy the golden time was near at hand, when boys will come up to their lessons, as they surely ought^ with as little hesi- tation and repugnance as that with which a man sits down to his work.

This is indeed something worth being enthusiastic for. To convince bojrs that intellectual growth is noble, and intellectual labour happy, that they are travelling on no purposeless errand, mounting higher every step of the way, ;md may as truly enjoy the toil that lifts them above their former selves, as they enjoy a race or a climb ; to help the culture of their minds by every faculty of monU force, of physical vigour, of memory, of fancy, of humour, of pathos, of banter, that we have ourselves, and lead them to trust in knowledge, to hope for it, to cherish it: this, succeed cOS it may here and fail there, quickened as it may be by health and sym- pathy, or deadened by fatigue or disappointment, is a work which has iu it most of the elements which life needs to give it zest. It is not to be done by putting books before boys, and hearing them so much at a time ; or by offering prizes and punishments ; or by assuring them that every English gentleman knows Horace. It is by making it certain to the imderstanding of every one that we think the knowledge worth having our- selves, and mean in every possible way, by versatile oral

BowEar.J ON TEACHING BY MEANS OF GRAMMAR, 203

teaching, by patient guidance, by tone and manner and look, by anger and pity, by determination even to amuse, by frank allowance for dulness and even for indolence, to help them to attain a little of what gives us such pleasure. A man, or an older pupil, can find this help in books; a young boy needs it from the words and gestures of a teacher. There is no fear of loss of dignity. The work of teaching will be respected when the things that are taught begin to deserve respect.

Above all, the work must be easy. Few boys are ever losers from finding their task too simple, for they can always aspire to learning what is harder; many have had their school career ruined from being set to attack what was too hard. It may be said, perhaps, that what was easy enough for past generations, ought to be easy enough for the present. Those who urge this view, may simply be asked whether they are satisfied with the working of the classical education that exists. AVe are not bound to depend upon Dr. Liddell's testi- mony that public schoolmen are generally ignorant of Greek and Latin, for there are obvious reasons which would prevent the Dean of Christchurch from forming a satisfactory opinion on the subject ; but, taking those who go to the University with those who do not, can the education that is given be said to be the best which modem ingenuity can contrive ? Allowing that the very best scholars can assimilate anything whatever, and that with the very worst it is next to useless to try at all, is it true to say that the average boys have a fair chance of making the most of their powers? If not, there are two resources before the teacher. He can,

201 eSSJTS ox J UBERAL EDUCATiOS. [EsaAi

as is rldewliere pcnntcd out. Yuy and enlaige the b of e^lncarion; he can ako, as we have ventured in Eesa y to ni^gi^. teach classics so as to include more 1 is of rational interest, and leas that \& of peda rr»utine.

\

V GREEK AND LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITIOH AS A GENERAL BRANCH OF EDUCATION.

■ THE REV, F. W. FAKRAR, M.A. F.R.9.

. 1p triste rfile d'imital^im, «t celai noD inoina triate do crM«iin de chows purfftitement inutiles." — Nisard, Foitu dt la Dicadaicf.

The lielief va. a sj-etem of education exclusively classit-al is an " idol of the theatre," which will uot easily be jliterated from the enchanted glass of tlie public judg- Ita defeuders have Ix'eu numerous and energetic ; r have they been slow to retaliate upon their opponents

language of criticism. For many years, they have

lokeD of educational reformers as " mechanical" and f'utUitarian ;" — in fact, as mere "Philistines," incapable \ forming any high conception of the ends and aim of tt'Uectual culture. ^Ul such complimcntB may be ac- j»ted at present with that good-humoured indifference iiich naturally results fioni tkv consciousness of a vic- tioua cauwj. The roots of the fabled mandrake were I to Bhrick when it was pulled up from the ground, \ tbe inveterate pi-ejudires of many chiBsical teachers dv ihc saillc. There ure, however, some stock

2*.»C iS<JlS OA Jl UMERAL EDUCJTlOy. [Bbbat V

oljtj'rctk'DS asrain^ ^ cnticism of our exUting system . which will n*>i l«e applkafale to the preaent Essay. It has Ijneu aseieit^ that the critics of '* classical education"' have generallT lie^-n men without that experience which iif deem^i es^ntial to a true insight into the nature oP teaching ; that they have been cantions enough to refrain from any anempt at reconstructing the edifice which the^r tried to destroy ; and that their complaints have been of so vague and general a nature as to deprive them of all practical importance. Now, although it will not be my present business to attempt any redistribution of those hours which I consider to be wasted — and often worse than wasted — in the ordinary course of a Public School education, the other objections, at any rate, must be laid aside in any attempt to refute what is here advanced. Although I cannot, indeed, pretend to re-echo the exultant cry of the mystae,* yet I have been duly initiated into the mysteries. In other words, I speak of things which I know ; I come forward with a precise object and a definite proposition : that proposition is one of an eminently practical character; and it is one to which, in spite of powerful tradition and natural preju- ilice, I have ])een gradually driven by long years of lalx)riou8 experience. I am so desirous to speak on this subject ^v^th perfect candour and unreserve that, at the risk of startling on the threshold those readers whom it is my earnest desire to convince, I will say at once that the Hiform which will here be advocated is the immediate and total abandonment of Greek and Latin verse- writing as a necessary or general element in liberal <»ducation, and the large diminution of the extravagant

Farrar.1 on GREEK AND LATIN VERSE^COMPOSITION 207

estimatiou in which this accomplishment has hitherto been held.

It is, of course, an obvious corollary to my proposition that the hours now devoted to " composition" should be assigned to other studies of the highest value, which have hitherto been very partially recognised or very openly ignored. Among these studies are Comparative Philology, History, Modem languages, the Hebrew lan- guage, and the language and literatuie of our own country ; but foremost in the weight of its claims is the study of Science —a study so invaluable as a means of intellectual training, and so infinitely important in the results at which it arrives, that the long neglect and strange suspicion with which it has hitherto been treated can only be regarded as a fatal error and a national misfortune.

It is not, however, my present purpose to add any- thing to the arguments which have been urged elsewhere, respecting the irrefragable claims of some of these studies to demand a place in our curriculum. The question of what ought to be introduced as an essential element in every liberal education is indeed closely connected with the question of what ought to be abandoned. But the labours and reasonings of the last few years have not been fruitless, and it may now be definitely assimied that our course mu8t henceforth be a broader one, and indeed so much broader that many teachers will assert that it must also, as a necessary consequence, be discursive and superficial I do not here mean to it^fute this assertion, but I should be sorry even for a moment to seem to give it my assent. For if, without entering on argument, 1 may venture to assume that some value, however slight.

208 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. IBssat V.

will be attached to an opinion founded upon experience, I will beg leave to declare my profound and earnest conviction that, by the frank adoption of wiser and better methods than those which we now employ, we shall be able to teach much more in other subjects with- out teaching one whit less in those with which we have hitherto been exclusively occupied. At present we send forth a few fine scholars and a multitude of ignorant men : I am convinced we might send forth the same number of scholars, and a large number of men who, while they would know as much or more Latin and Greek than the paltry minimum to which they now attain, should not at the same time startle and shock the world by the unnatural profundity of their ignorance respecting all other subjects in heaven and earth. Such a result is neither " Utopian " nor " Quixotic," although, indeed, the first lesson which every reformer should learn is to feel perfectly invulnerable to the censure of those miserable words. But to produce such a result does not rest with schoolmasters alone : it demands the cordial co- operation of parents, and it demands a modification of our present methods and traditions, more sweeping and more unselfish than is immediately probable or perhaps even attainable. Assuming, however, that the hour is ripe for some economy of time and method in learning the two ancient languages, it is obvious that one very facile and important means of economy presents itself by the curtailment in some cases, — the total abandon- ment in a vastly greater number, — of the hours at present squandered over Greek arid Latin verse.

The desirability then, nay the imperative necessity, of such a changti, is the narrow limit of the question

Farrar.] on greek and LATIN FERSE-COMPOSITION. 209

immediately before us; and it is a change which the most enthusiastic advocates of classical education may well dispassionately consider. For composition is a branch of " classics" in which many scholars, otherwise eminent, have but very partially succeeded; to which of all civilized nations England alone attaches any extraordinary importance ; which, if it be a very showy, ' is also a very fallacious test of solid scholarship ; which ' is capable of co-existing with a complete al)sence of all that makes classical ti-aining most valuable ; and, lastly, which has tended more than any single cause, perhaps more than all other causes put together, to create that profound public dissatisfaction which has brought our entire system into discredit and contempt. It is certain that classical education will soon wither away under the ^lislike, or be torn up root and branch by the zeal of Its opponents, unless our Public School authorities are content to lop away with their own hands these diseased hranches which only injure and disfigure a noble tree.

If prejudice were less tenacious, and habit less in- vincible, — if it were not a common experience that the oiembers of a profession are always the last to welcome necessary innovations, — one would feel amazed that there are learned and able men who still cling to a .S}*stem of verse-teaching which bears to so many minds the stamp of demonstrable absurdity. Verse-making has been adopted as the best method of teaching Greek and Latin, and has never been systematically applied to the teaching of any other language under the sun. Regarded as an end it is confessedly insignificant ; re- orarded as a means it is notoriously unsuccessful.^ It has

• Vuh the Report of the Public School OomniLssion, passim.

y.

210 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay V.

been condemned alike by the learned and by the igno- rant, by men of letters and by men of science, by poets and by duUards, by the grave decision of philosophers and by the general voice of the public. Names of the most splendid eminence over a space of two centuries can be quoted in its condemnation ; barely one single poor authority can be adduced in its favour. CJowley, Milton, Bacon, Locke, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Macaulay, Thirl- wall, Ruskin, Mill, — some of our most learned poets, some of our deepest metaphysicians, some of our most clas- sical historians, some of our most brilliant scholars, — are unanimous in speaking of it with indiflference or with contempt. Few even of second-rate or mere professional eminence have ventured to uphold it To this day many bewail the time they frittered away over it, while scarcely any one is found to express the faintest gratitude for any supposed benefit which he has acquired from its compul- sory practice.

It is not, however, by the overwhelming force of d priori considerations, or external testimonies, that I have long been led to desire the annihilation of verse compo- sition as a general or necessary element in the teaching of our schools. The force of habit, the natural reluctance to be convinced of the futility of an accomplishment, to the acquisition of which so large a part of my own time had been sacrificed, long enabled me to fight against the weight of condemnatory evidence. It was simple experience, it was constant observation of the system in its actual working, backed by the astounding revelations of the Public School Commissioners, which first revolutionised my own feelings respecting it, and forced me, three years ago, to denounce it before the

Farrar] on greek and LATIN FERSE-COMPOSITION. 211

British Associatioii as a huge gilt wooden idol for whose overthrow I longed. This fact will prove, I trast, that there is nothing rash or unreasonable in my present opposition, and will exonerate me fix)m all appearance of wishing to throw blame or ridicule on those who still liold an opinion which for many years I held myself. If in any part of this Essay I appear to use strong lan- guage, let me frankly ask pardon for it beforehand, as having sprung fix)m the pent-up bitterness of twelve years' experience. Those who know what leisure is, and who can aflford to wile it away in writing Latin Verse, are apt in the beauty of the exotic to forget its cost- liness. They forget that they are admiring the flowers —and after all they are but fruitless flowers I — of the one productive seed which has here and there survived its countless abortive brethren. The aspect of Latin Verse to the classical scholar who recurs to it as the light amusement of his manhood, is very different from that which it wears to the weary teacher, who has wasted so many of his own and his pupUs' precious hours in the hopeless task of attempting to make poets of the many.

Let me premise that I have in view the case, not of the brilliant few, but of the mediocre multitude; and then I will proceed to describe the system as I have seen it actually worked by eminent masters, and as I know it to be still worked in a very large majority of English Public and Private Schools. The system which I choose for description is the one most commonly in use, but by far the larger part of what I have to say will apply equally well to any system whatever.

A parent, applying to c^ter his son at a Public School, is informed, with much empressement, that one of the.

p 2

212 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat V.

chief and most important subjects of the entrance ex- amination is Latin Verse, both Elegiacs and Lyrics, and til at some knowledge of at least the former w essential to the boy's attaining any but the very lowest position. The same information is duly reverberated on all the teachers of preparatory schools ; and tlu-y, knowing the difficulty of the accomplishment — an ac- complishment which in many cases they themselves have wholly failed to acquire — are driven by nece^isity to initiate their young recruits as early as possible into the mysteries of the dreadful drill. About the dreary iteration of those preliminary years, I only know by dim report, — by the groans of "grinders" during the perioil of their labour, and their exclamations of unfeigned delimit when the era of their emjmcipation appeared to be ap- proaching. But at the age of thirteen or fourteen the little victims, duly instruct<3d in Latin Verse, make their appearance. The large majority of them — and with them at present it is my sole object to deal — know as well as we know, that they have not succeeded, and never, by any possibility, can succeed in acquiring the mysterious ai*t. Without a conception of rhythm, without a gleam of imagination, without a touch of fancy, they have been set down to write verses ; and these veises are to be in an unknown tongue, in which they scarcely possess a germ of the scantiest vocabu- lary, or a mastery of the most simple construction ; • and, further, it is to be in strict imitation of poets, of whom at the best they have only read a few bcovq of lines. English passages of varying difficulty, but to them for the most part hopeless, are then placed in their unresisting hands, accoin{>«*inied by dictionaries

Fabrae.] on greek and LATIN VERSECOM POSITION. 213.

mainly intended for use in prose composition, and by those extraordinary herbaria of cut and dried " poetical " phrases, known by the ironical title of Gradus ad Parnassum. The bricks are to be made, and such is the straw of which to make them. And since the construction of the verse often depends on the know- ledge of phrases or constructions which a boy either never knew, or is uucible to apply, what wonder that in the "Latin," which he endeavours to torture into rhythm, "changes of seasons," takes the form of "con- dtmentoi'um mutationes,'* and " the sunbeams " are metamorphosed into " Phahi trabesf Over such mate- rials the unfortimate lad will sit glowering in dim per- plexity, if he be diligent, or vaguely trifliug, if he be idle, ready with the indisputable defence of " I can't do the verse," when the Deus ex macJiind appears in the shape of some weary and worried tutor.

In the natural course of things, a boy, long before he has mastered these elementary difficulties, will be promoted into a higher form, and presented with a more difficult phase of work. This is very frequently embodied in verse books consisting of old prize-exer- cises, badly re-translated into English, of which some portion is withheld in every line, until, towards the end of the book a word or two stands for an entire period. In these narrow grooves the boy's imagination is forced to run. He is required, under all the inexorable exigencies of metre, to reproduce in artificial and phraseo- logical Latin the highly elaborate thoughts of grown men, to piece their mutilated fancies, and reproduce their fragmentary conceits. In most cases the very possibility of doing so depends on his hitting upon a

il4 issaitff rjr ^ limn EDLXJTlOy, [Esbat v.

^flzmiTxiiaEr ^^csiel ^nd:^ inaents the requisite coin-

Trran g :!: -»:ii«r? cifi =ffi>Grt3L or cb his evolving some

ujI x:<rfL r^i!tnifir5c tam of thought or expressioD. >:i5Z:r- 5:c fzjsaze* «io take a very easy line,

£ iLLLij i2f:QBa£>is kI finest, he has to i^rite as

irf ^— i^l T"iLT ii tctfre :.i5i is to write

nus wrrtui# wmters/

E5^ :of •'>*:^ i r^^ g^i in the "something" which sCikZ :«e :: zin rirl: ispe to screw into the line. The ^riiiri: niT \^ \^lL:T^yz^ it may be grotesque ; but j^jvi-Iel br -Jtir: Eiike his l«ick, he does not trouble Liz^f^elf i:<cr rh«e cTiilirv of the straw, and it matters rrj-ciizj: r.:- Lfn £: :r :e a brick such as could not by

^v r«>!^r:£I:rr be used in anv human buildino^. It is a

!:TrriI :'v:t. th^r a >?v vorv rarelv reads through the F- y V" ir is coiri:. or knows when it has been turned iiiTo Ladr, wh:\r it is all about: hence, for the next vear or two. his life resolves itself into a boundless hunt after epirhers of the right shape to be screwed into the gnrates: number of places ; a practice exactly analogous to the purring rogerher of Chinese puzzles,* only pro- ducing a much less homogeneous and congruous i*esult,

Ar the next stage of promotion, or often earlier, a K^y is forced to l»egin a far more desolate and hunger- bitten search, for something, sarcastically denominated

^ ^' The same instinct which guides the infiint in patting his wooden bricks nether, or a little girl in clothLng her doll, lies at the bottom of verse- ing.** I take this sentence from a deliberate defence of the practice by i the ablest of our modern classical scholars.

Farrab.] on GREEK and LATIN VERSECOMFOSITION. 215

• • ideas of his own/' to clothe the skeleton, or the

"vulgus," presented to him for his "copy of verses." Now, long and laborious as this course is, dreadful and unremittiug as is the miserable drudgery which it entails upon the tutor, yet it is so universally unsuc- cessful, that by the time such a boy is required to do originals," or to turn English poetry into Latin, he either succumbs in hopeless desperation, or only with cruel sweat of the brain succeeds in achieving a result which both he and his tutor equally despise. What wonder that many bright and promising boys, whose abilities do not lie in this direction, are either crushed under this worse than Egyptian bondage, or require the entire fortitude of their best principles of honour to abstain from using such means of deliverance as lie most easily within their reach. Many do not do so. I have known some who left school in sheer weariness and disgust, or deliberately chose one of the unlearned professions : some, who losing all ambition, and all regard for intellectual culture, contented themselves with the baldest and meanest minimum which would save them from positive disgrace ; and many, who with few or no twinges of conscience, availed themselves of old vul- guses, borrowed lines, rough copies, corrected copies, and every form of illicit aid, direct or indirect, which could get them, without detection and punishment, through a labour which they believed to be useless, and knew to be impossible.

It may, however, be hinted that I have been unlucky in my experience; and, therefore, as I take no sort of credit to myself for the result, let me be allowed to say that I have, on the contrary, been very far from

216 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay V.

unfortunate in the number of brilliant composers whom I have had the good fortune to call my pupils ; and yet, out of reams and reams of verses which it has been my lot during the last twelve years to correct, I do not believe that there have been half a dozen which I should think worth preserving for their intrinsic merit. I have heard teachers of long standing express the most perfect contentment while admitting that they have never pro- duced a single good composer ; but if any one thinks that a tutor may fairly plume himself on the develop- ment, here and there, of a Porson prizeman or Camden medallist, he little knows the mysteries of our system! In it alone are things taught with no hope of their being learnt, and with no expectation of their being subse- quently practised. In it alone no tutor is held respon- sible for the vast multitude who fail — the failure is due to innate incapacity; in it alone no tutor gets any credit for the few who succeed— the success is the result of heaven-born talents which would have been developed equally well by any teacher under any system ! In a word, everybody seems to be content, though the thing nominally taught is but very rarely learnt, and though the tutor s ftiilure on the one hand involves no discredit, and his success on the other earns no praise.

And what is the daily spectacle presented by the system ? — hours upon hours spent by many boys in the moiling evolution of one or two wintry and wooden elegiacs, consisting of halting hexameters and hyper- metric pentameters; boys whose utter inability might have been predicted at thirteen, kept at the same galley- work up to eighteen and nineteen, as unprogressive as the seauicn who plied the oar on land; and a luwltitude of

Farear.] on greek and latin rERSE-COMPOSlTION, 217

Englishmen bitterly regretful, or good-humouredly con- temptuous, at the unpractical and fantastic character of their youthful instruction. When we consider how little, at the end, our schoolboys know, and how vast are the regions of science with which they are wholly unac- quainted ; how valueless is much of theii- little knowledge, how dangerous is the nature of their ignorance ; and, above all, how rich in fruit might have been those many barren hours which have been lavished on the impotent effort to acquire a merely elegant accomplishment, — then I confess that my regret dee];)ens into sorrow, indignation, and ^Jiame. Is it pleasant to know that the first thing of ^iiich an old pupil may think, when he meets us in after ^^fe, is the little intellectual cause he has for gratitude

• ^ Wards men who occupied his boyhood by teaching him

tt^at which he has not only long forgotten, but to reach ^^hich he would not now take the trouble to raise his ^t-tle finger ? ^ Knowing this, I cannot but disregard the ^l^arges of injustice and exaggeration which have been '^i^ought against my exposure of such a system, and I ^^joice that a serious effort is now being made to ^^^lancipate English boys from a yoke whose "cruel

• •- ^surdity " ^ neither they nor their fathers have been

^ole to bear. I feel sure that the whole nugatory system '^^"ill soon totter to its fall. Our sons will know nothing ^f compulsoiy verse-making ; they will smile at our dis- Px>)portionate admiration of a petty knack ; they will ^^tirize a cm-riculum of education which proudly vaunted ^t^ stigma of inutility, and which frequently produced ^ profound self-confidence in combination with a very

^ See Inaugural Address at St. Autlicws, l)y M. E. (JiMut-DufF, Esq. M.P.

'^ ni.sh(»p Tlurlwiill.

218 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat V.

empty mind. In the next generation, at any rate, tutors will not be degraded fix>m powerful intellectual guides into the mechanical encouragers of mere imitation ; forced to pay far more attention to words, and phrases, and turns of expression, and tricks of rhetoric, than to soUd information and manly thought. Nor will a deadly discouragement be dealt to our faith in boys, and (which is worse) to their own confidence in themselves, by a study in which the powers requisite for success are neither the noblest nor the best powers, so that those who succeed are, in not a few instances, incomparably inferior in all true ability to those who fail.

And even now the English nation has surely a right to demand, that in sending its sons to Public Schools it shall not necessarily be dooming them to seven or eight years of this weary mill-wheel. At least, let them ask those headmasters who stUl believe that this is a ffood way to learn Greek and Latin, to demonstrate its useful- ness by themselves acquiring some other language — siiy Persian or Sanskrit — in the same way. When they know a dozen or two Persian and Sanskrit words, and have laboriously toiled through, say a hundred lines of Firdausi or the Hitopadesa, let them be set down for five or six hours every week for some yeai-s to produce epic lines in the style of the Shdh-ndmah, or love poems, in the Sloka or India- vajrd metres. Probal^ly, before their demonstration is complete, this astonishing theory of education will have perished in the un- speakable weariness which will be caused by its practica application.

But as there are men who find something to urge on behalf of everything which exists, let us now prcM-oeil

FarrajlJ on GREEK AND LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITION 219

to consider the arguments put forward in defence of these " habits of composition " into which we have supinely drifted. Let people judge of the system from the caUbre of the only arguments adduced in its favour. For myself I can only say that, after years of familiarity with the subject, I have been unable to get straight- forward answers even to questions so simple as these : — Are Greek and Latin verses taught in order that they may be learnt, or that something else may be learnt by their means ? Is the end in view in any way homo- logous to the process adopted ? And if so, is that end produced in the many who, being taught verses, never learn them, or in the very few who do ?

I. First, it is argued, that the Schools must follow the direction of the Universities, and that they must continue to teach Latin verse so long as the Universi- ties reward, with their most splendid and considerable prizes, the accomplishment of producing them.

This may be regarded as the strongest temporary argu- ment in favour of retaining verses, — and astonishingly weak it is. In the first place, the rapid changes which are going on have rendered it but partially true. In the second place, it simply amounts to a reciprocal abnega- tion of responsibility, since the University professes to reward because the Schools teach, and the Schools to teach because the University rewards. And, thirdly, three-fifths of our boys no longer proceed to the Univer- sity at all ; of the remaining two-fifths not one-half ever think of touching verses again ; of the small remainder but few gain any University distinction by their means ; and even out of the last insignificant residuum, some, as I shall prove hereafter, are rather injured than aided

220 ESSAYS ON A LiBERAL EDUCATIOX. [Es^^ay V.

by the entire process. Our plan, therefore, has been justly compared to that of the ostrich, which is said to assist the incubation of the few eggs which it intends to hatch, by heaping up around them a larger number which it intends to addle. How long are we to suffer nine- tenths of our boys to be addled, because it is thought necessary to put them all through a process which shall hatch out of their entire number a few Senior Classics or Craven scholars ?

XL But next it is asserted, and I suppose in all serious- ness, that verse-writing is a good way of learning Greek and Latin !

If so, why is it that no one, either in or out of his senses, ever thinks of learning any other language by a similar process ? Even to Greek the practice is applied with a timidity which shows the incipient triumph of common sense ; for Greek verses, though begun far too early, are still postponed to a much later j>eriod thaii Latin, and yet our Greek scholarship is beyond all com- parison superior to anything which we have attiiineil iu the sister tongue. And a method so entii'cly unique ought at least to produce the evidence of magical success : yet, it is admitted on all hands to end, as regards the ma.ss, in signal failure. Certain it is that in Continental schools, where verses are either very slightly practised, or not at all, I have not only heard boys converse in Latin with perfect fluency — an accomplishment in which even our best scholars are needlessly deficient — but even turn into goo<l classical Latin long German sentences, which would have sur])assL*d the powers of English boys far older than themselves. I shall not readily forget the cpiickness an<l acrurary with which the boys at the

Farrar.] on OREEK and LATIN FERSE-COMPOSITION. 221

Schulpforta — the Eton of Prussia — rendered into Latin, vivA voce, involved periods with which I should never have dreamt of testing the attainments of English boys in a corresponding division of the school. In short, that Latin verse-writing is a valuable or expeditious method of teaching Latin to miscellaneous groups of boys, is a fallacy which ought long to have been exploded from the minds of all observant and unprejudiced men.

III. But composition teaches the quantity of words, and furnishes the best means of acquiring taste and style.

Of quantity I need hardly speak. It can be amply taught by reading aloud. That years of drill in verses should be deemed necessary to teach it, only proves the extent to which an unreasoning pedantry — a pedantry of the worst and most objectionable kind — has affected our entire conception of the relative proportion of things. I cannot pretend to share in the traditional horror of a fake quantity. 1 have long sincerely repented for having despised a dissenting minister who talked to me as a boy about the *' gravSmen of an offence. It is de- plorable to hear a petty scholar triumphing with all the airs of conscious superiority over some great man who has substituted a long for a short, or a short for a long. I cannot affect to think one atom the worse of Burke's inaperial genius, because he said " vectlgal " in the House of Commons ; or of the Duke of Wellington's intellect because he turned round, when reading his Chancellor's address at Oxford, to whisper, " I say, is it Jacobus or Jacobus? I was taught as a schoolboy that a false quantity makes a man ridiculous, and sticks to him for life ; and the dictum reminds me of St. Augustine's dis- dainful remark that the Sophists of his time thought it

222 ESSJVS OX A LIBERAL EnUCATIOX. [EmatV.

as disgraceful to drop the aspirate in homo as to hate a man. Considering that our entire method of pro- nouncing Greek and Latin is radically wrong, I cannot pretend to regard a false quantity in some rare word as otherwise than an entirely venial error, and one of infinitely less consequence than a mis-translation in the rendering of a passage. Those people may hold the reverse who think it worth while to learn Classics in order to understand "graceful quotations from Virgil and Horace" in a House where it would be considered " ver}^ had taste " to quote St. Paul I The death-knell of all such fastidious littleness will be the birth-peal of a nobler and manlier tone of thought.

But into the subject of taste and style it is necessar}' to enter more at length, because I believe that the fallacy of supposing that they are cultivated by " composition " lies at the root of half the countenance which that prac- tice still receives. Even if the assumption were true, I should say that *' taste" is a kind of sensibility which is purchased at a fearful cost if long time and labour be spent in its acquisition. If by *' taste" be meant a fine sc^nse of beauty and propriety, thai is only attainable by moral culture, and by a constant familiarity with what is great in conduct and pure in thought. It is a gift partly due to a certain natural and inborn nobility, and ])artly to be evolved and fostered by familiarising the mind with all that is lofty and of good report. This kind of taste, these fine harmonies in the music of the mind and soul, are certainly not to be won — although I believe that they may be irretrievably lost — by grinding boys into a laborious imitation of Propertian prettinesses an<l Ovidian cimceits. But by " tiiste " something widely

FA.RRAR.] O.V GREEK AND LATIN FERS£-C03f POSITION. 223

different from this is generally implied; viz., a certain delicate fastidiousness, a finical fine-ladyism of the intellect, which I hold to be essentially pernicious. It is an exotic which flourishes most luxuriantly in the thin artificial soil of vain and second-rate minds. It can- not co-exist with robust manliness of conviction or of utterance. It is the disproportionate intellectualism which rejoices in paltry accuracies, while it can condone mighty wrongs. It prizes rhetoric above eloquence ; it values manner more than matter. It can pore over an intaglio, but has no eye for a Gothic cathedral. It is the shrinking enemy of all untutored force and irresistible enthusiasm. It is the enthronement of conventionality, the apotheosis of self-satisfaction. " I want you to see," says Felix Holt, " that the creature who has the sensi- bilities which you call taste, and not the sensibilities which you call opinions, is simply a lower, pettier, sort of being — ^an insect that notices the shaking of the table, but never notices the thunder." Perhaps Greek and Latin verse writing does tend to foster — and that too in a wholly disproportionate degree — this petty kind of taste and finish, and it is one of the reasons why I for one wish to see the practice abolished and condemned.

And as for style — to whom does it teach style ? Is it to that vast majority who can show no tangible result fi*om years of teaching beyond the ability, after infinite labour, to torture good English into an execrably bad semblance of Latin and Greek ? Or does it teach style to a handful who become good scholars ? I cannot admit even the latter assertion. Certainly no argument in its f-AVour can be drawn from induction. Some of our very worst writers have been splendid scholars ; some

224 ESSJVS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EbsatV.

of our very best writers have been no scholars at all The Latin of even a Dante is bad and unidiomatie/ and Milton's magnificent prose constantly disgusts the

• • nice " taste of a Ciceronian Pharisee. Is there anv

•

luiman being who prefers the turgid tautologies of Dr. Johnson and the windy pedantic bombast of Dr. Parr, to the despatches of the "ignorant" Wellington, or the homeliness of the " unclassical " Cobbett ? Is style— which should be the intensest expression of an authors individuality — to be best learnt by conscious imitation of foreign writers ? and is originality of expression likely to result from ingenious centos of borrowed phrases, which, although I have known them to gain the highest prizes and the warmest applause of both Universities, recal the very meanest remains of late Roman poets in their most degraded compositions 1^ The greatest mastx>rs of all style were the Greeks, who knew no word of any language but their own. The Roman writers, in exact proportion to their study of Greek, paralysed si>me of tlie finest powers of their own language, and produced a literature which, in its uninterrupted decadence, became more and more deficient in originality and in worth. It is a remark as old as Cicero that women, from being accustomed sok^ly to their native tongue, usually speak it with a grace and purity surpassing that of men. Our own poets and philosophers — who have certainly a pre-eminent right to speak on matters of style — unite

• Sponmc, in his l>i;ilo;;uos on Latin and Italian, said, "It was the general opinion that no one could write Tt4ilian who couhl writ« liiitin.** SeeH«lIain, Lit. of Earopf^ i. 44.").

- I am not aw.ire of any cento earlier than Aiisonins. Yet havo seen university prize-versos handed round for admiration, in which line for line aiiid word for word wi>re nothing in the worhl hut Vir)^liHU tn^

o . ) -;

Farrau.J ox cREKK AXD LJTI\ f J':RSI:-C()M P(ksIT1( l\. ::::.)

in denouncing or depreciating the practice of composing in foreign idioms. Keats, the most thoroughly classical of all our writers — Keats, of whom Byron said that '* he was a Greek himself," — could not read a line of the Greek language. Milton, the greatest scholar among poets, and one of the few poets whose originality has survived their scholarship, discarded the practice from his own ideal system, and speaks of it, as we all know, with intense and undisguised contempt.^

And indeed the study of Greek and Latin compo- sition has distinctly injured our own English lan- guage, and done mischief to some of our great writers. Milton himself did not escape the taint.^ To it are due such sentences as "The summer following, Titus then Emperor, Agricola continually with inroads disquieted the enemy f and such lines as —

• ^ with keen despatch

Of real hunger and concoctiye haste To transubstantiate ; what redounds transpires Through spirits with ease ;"

which go far to justify Dryden's complaint that " Milton Bomanised our language without compl3dng with its idioms." To it we owe a multitude of " inkhom terms," which are now fortunately as dead as the rootless flowers stuck in a child^s garden. To it we owe that

" Babylonish dialect Which learned pedants most affect ; Twas English cut on Greek and Latin, like fustian heretofore on satin.*'

> Maoanlay considers that Milton's success in Latin verse adds greatly to our aatonishment that he should have been able to write the Paradise Lost.

• See " Studies in English," by Dr. C. Scheie de Vere. But in referring

to Dr. de Vere I must add my regret that he should so frequently borrow from oihen without the least acknowledgment.

Q

226 ESSJrS ON A UBBBAL EDUCATION, [BmatV.

It had its share in producing the feeble voice of the Elizabethan euphuism, with its falsetto tones and vaporous inanities. In fact, from this cause, our lan- guage once ran no little risk of being fairly buried under the Greek and Latin scoriae flung up by the volcanic enthusiasm of the Revival of Letters. "And indeed," complacently observes Sir Thomas Browne, whose stately and sesquipedalian rhetoric is nearly ruined by his unpardonable pedantry, " if elegancy still proceedeth, and English pens maintain that stream which we have of late observed to flow £rom many, we shall within few years be compelled to learn Latin to understand English, and a work will prove of equal facility in cither." Happily the masculine good sense of the nation saved it from so miserable an atrophy; but the dangerous influences long remained at work. It was especially to the patronage of Latin verse that we owe the " poetic phraseology" — that is, the gaudy and artificial inaccuracy — of such passages as Dryden's once famous, now justly ridiculed, description of night To this, more than to any other cause, no less an authority than Wordsworth attributed the monotonous conventionality of the school inaugurated by Pope* To it we owe the meaningless ornamentation which spoils the poetry of Gray, and which produced such lines as —

<* And reddening Phoebus lifts his goldm fires,"

a line which has in it a fine flavour of compulsory Latin verse writing. Coleridge well illustrates the ^'po^sie ^pith^tique," which is fostered by the practice, in his story about the line —

• • LscUa purpureos int«ntrepit undu lapfllos.

rAn::AK.| OX GREEK AXD lATlX /'ER.SECOMJ'OS IT/OX. iZ'^7

The first half of this line is a ludicrous and tasteless variation, and the last hal^ an open plagiarism of the line—

Pura coloratos intentrepit unda lapillos ; "

and such lines, half-tinsel half-mosaic, abound, with many lines which are whole-plagiarism, in University exercises and similar compositions. All idiomatic fresh- ness, all simple beauty, all nervous originality are, I feel convinced, obliterated rather than developed by reward- ing an ingenuity so misplaced ; while insincerity and incongruity in verse, and a "turbid and tumultuary style of sentence" in prose, are directly fostered. " Certain it is, says one of the great masters qf our English lan- guage, ** that our popular style has laboured with two faults that might have been thought incompatible : it has been artificial by artifices peculiarly adapted to the powers of the Latin language, and also, at the same time, careless and disordinate (inconditus).'* Among our best and finest writers are those who have drunk simply and solely at ** the pure wells of English undefiled." Is it conceivable that Shakspeare or Burns woidd have written as they have written, if they had been drilled for years in Latin verse ? The best of all styles, and the best of all poems, have belonged generally to

The days when mankind were but callans At grammar, logic, and sic talen's. They took nae pains their speech to balance,

Nor roles to gie ; Bat spak their thoughts in plain braid lallans,

Like you or me ; — "

and some of the best in modem days have been written by men whose individual condition most resembled the age whicH Bums describes.

Q 2

228 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BsbatT.

If then it be desirable to educate boys — not indeed in style, but in a power of expressing themselves in their own language — then, instead of encouraging verbal imi- tations, and cramming their memory with classic tags, let us adopt the incomparably truer and better method of requiring a careful description of natural phenomena and scientific experiments, — a process which, while it teaches them a terse and lucid use of their own language, wUl, at the same time, fire their imagination with some of the grandest and noblest objects of human thought. If taste and style be a fine appreciation, and a masterly power of producing beauty of form in the expression of thought, will it best be created by making boys write in languages which they do not know, about things for which they do not care,, or by making them express carefully in their own language their natural observations and their genuine experience ? With the examples before our eyes of scientific men who wrote as Sir Humphry Davy and Dr. Whewell wrote, or as Mr. Darwin and Professor Owen are writing now ; and with men who speak with the power and eloquence of Professor Tyndall and Professor Huxley, we need have little fear that our boys will lose in '* taste" or "style," by substituting a more solid and scientific training for the time which they are now wasting, or worse than wasting, over Greek and Latin verse.

IV. '* But boys must be made to prodtice something original."

Argaly they must write Latin verses ! Will not a moment's consideration show to any one that such reasoning involves an immense non sequitur ? By " pro- rliK'in^ something" is meant, I suppose, that boys must

Farrar.] on GREEK AND LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITION 229

give evidence of having thought for themselves. Now, without stopping to prove that few things have less claim to be called original than the crambe repetita of ordinary Latin verse, or that few exercises involve less thought as distinguished from mere memory and skill, I will ask whether it ia seriously asserted that we can get no better evidence of a boy's having thought for himself than the limping and pitiable feebleness of an average copy of Latin verses ? Such an assertion would only provoke from most thinkers an exclamation of " Spec^ tatum admissi ...? and would go far to prove that all which has been discovered and all that has been written on education since the days of Ascham and of Milton has been discovered and written quite in vain.

V, ** But verse-making has a disciplinary value : it gives boys some occupation, and it enables a master to look over very quickly what boys have done very slowly ; and it can be taught successfully" (for, strange to say, this, too, is an argument which I have heard deUberately and repeatedly advanced), " taught even by stupid men, who can teach nothing else."

Since these arguments seem to me to be abandonments of the question at issue, and mere confessions of defeat and weakness, I may be allowed to deal with them very summarily. Their truth is the worst condemnation of the whole system. They show how mechanical our teach- ing has become, and how completely it subordinates the interests of the pupil to the convenience of the tutor. And this low conception of what early education should be, involves its own Nemesis ; for though little boys may be cheaply and easUy kept out of mischief while they are thus being amused with a miserable

230 SSSAFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT V.

semblance of production, they demand heavy arrears of labour from every conscientious tutor, when they have reached the higher forms.

And, as for the disciplinary value of verses, is it necessary that discipline should be so purely infructuous ? Can we teach nothing in heaven and earth which shall be valuable as an endy no less than as a means f Is it not a sheer blasphemy against the majesty of knowledge to assert that there is nothing worth teaching which shall be also worth knowing? To walk on a treadmill, to dance on a tight-rope, to spin round and round like an Oriental dervish, may be practices which require skill, and involve healthy exercise ; but are they preferable to good honest walking ? We are told of a certain philanthropist that, when work was slack, he employed his labourers one day in dragging stones from one place to another, and the next day in dragging them back again. Well, he certainly kept them at work, and even such work is, I suppose, preferable to idleness. But would labourers, so occupied, be likely to conceive a high opinion either of the good sense of their employer, or of the high dignity of labour, and its infinite import- ance in the evolution of human progress ? And was not such work a mere waste of organized frivolity ? Now we have been exactly imitating this philanthropist by degrading education into a mere discipline, and thus teaching our boys to disbelieve that anything was worth knowing, since the immediate end set before them was, to the majority, alike unattainable and valueless. What wonder is it that so many of them have grown up to despise culture, and to disbelieve in the necessity for any kind of int-ellectual effort ?

F*RRAR.l ON GREEK JXli LATIN F^nSE-OOM POSITION. 231

^H On the very day on which I am writing these words, ^Bvt has been my fortune to meet in succession three old ^r Public School Ixiys, two of whom had been pupils of my ^ own. Nothing could be more widely diverse than the general character of their lives ; yet each of tbem possessed diflFerent ability, and each of them had worked with special diligence. One of them, formerly a lieu- tenant in the anny, had emigrated to South America, and had just returned from his home on one of the eenti-al

I pampas of the Argentine Confederation. The second was ft young Oxonian of private fortune, and distinguished lillents,* who, after \^'inning the highest honours of his University, was devoting himself to the careful culti- vation of his intellectual gifts. The third was a writer of rank and reputation, a poet, a critic, and a man of many accompUsbmeuts, familiar with every phase of English md continental thought. One and all they lamented the liours fruitlessly squandered over Latin verse. The young heep-farmer of the Pampas groaned with good-humoured despair over the continuous misery they had caused him. lie Oxford First Class man, though he had culti- vated composition with taste and success, declared, after leliberatc thought, that he could not attribute to the me spent over it, a single intellectual advantage. The nan of letters expressed himself in language so forcible nd decided, that I thought it worth whUe to quote his jBtimony verbatim : — " 1 was," he says, " at three

rivatc schools before going to , where I had the

advantage of the private tuition of an able, accom-

jdisbed, and most assiduous teacher, besides all the

iher appliances and means, to boot, of the school, at a

■ne when it was generally regarded as a model PiiMir

232 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay V.

School. And yet, through all those years, I learnt nothing whatever hut a general disinclination to learn anything^ and a special loathing for Latin verse. Nothing of the simplest elements of a single science^ — nothing of my own language — nothing even which tended to facilitate the subsequent learning of what was not learnt then, — nothing which has been of the slightest use to me in after life — no accomplishment which added to the enjoyment, and no knowledge which has enlarged the utility or diminished the dif- ficulties of life by so much as one inch. But the new comers will be better oflF than their predecessors. I hear that something of music, something of botany, and of

other sciences, is now taught at .... I am

sincerely thankful for this for my boy's sake. It is all too late for me."

Familiar with such testimonies from constant ex- perience, is it surprising that I have used my best eflForts (and mean to use them still) to shake to the ground the whole system of universal and compulsory verse manufacture ; or that I regard the results which it produces with a sorrow which is not unmingled vnXh disgust ? One school at least^ has had the courage to be the first in rejecting for ever this pernicious absurdity ; and I believe that thereby it has earned the gratitude of the present generation, and will deserve the yet warmer admiration of the future. But let me entreat the power- ful aid of the Universities to help us in thus infusing fresh truth and vigour and reality into the education of England. Much they have already done ; but they are lial)le to be misled by seeing the ships which reach the

^ Harrow School.

Farrar.] on QBSSK and LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITION. 233

port^ and forgettdng the numberless and melancholy wrecks which strew the shore. They, cannot, however any longer plead ignorance of the eflFect produced by their extravagant patronage of verse composition on thousands of youths who are never destined to enter their walls. Let them by all means retain prizes to reward the ingenuity of a few advanced scholars; but, until they have ceased to render verses an essential requisite, either for entrance-scholarships or for their classical examinations, — until they at least counter- balance, by alternative papers^ the immense preponder- ance which they have hitherto given to what has often been mere correct nullity, or imitative knack, — they are doing much to injure, in the opinion of many (and those not the least entitled to be heard), that proud and legitimate position to which they should ever aspire of leading and moulding with a far-sighted wisdom the higher education of that country to which they owe their splendid revenues and their elevated rank.

liCt the Colleges, then, boldly loosen these gilded and fantastic chains which were forged in an age of logo- machy, and tightened in an age of artificiality and retro- gression. Let them determine more decidedly, and avow more distinctly, that verses are not essential for scholar- ships or for honours. When they have done so, we shall no longer hear of classical teaching degraded into recom- mendations to treasure up particular words and phrases " with a view to using them in your composition." Youths of robust minds will no longer be alienated from classical study, or diverted from good reading to bad writing ; nor will they be forced to waste over Tibullus and 0^^d the time which might have been devoted to

234 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bssat V.

Plato and Thucydides. I have even heard of Cambridge scholars who toiled through Ausonius^ Silius Italicus, et tons ces gargons-ldy in the hope of picking up here and there some gaudy epithet, some sonorous combina- tion, some rhetorical frap/fxnau which might "pay" in a set of verses for the Tripos or for a Prize. I have known even boys who thought it necessary to bathe themselves, by daily repetition, with the soft atmosphere of the "Amores" in order to improve their Latin verse, even if it were at the expense of all simplicity and ingenuousness of mind. Some of them reaped their reward in University applause, and afterwards in the wanderings of an enervated imagination and in the over- refinement of an intellect at once fastidious and weak.

Could it be otherwise? I have been censured for saying that, in this elegant trifling, success was often more deplorable than failure ; but what was derided as an epigram I most deliberately and determinately repeat as a truth of experience. I have known cases in which a fair intellect was visibly weakened and demoralised, — rendered visibly smaller and shallower, — by an excessive admiration for classical composition. But, as one may not quote individual cases, let us take instanticB ostensivoB of the fact as illustrated by the tendency of three distinct periods of human history. For there have been periods ere now, in which verse- writing and style-polishing have formed the main part of youthful education, and by glancing at these periods we can see in large the natural effects which such an education is calculated to produce.

Take for instance the age of Nero, during which, in the countless schools of rhetoricians. Grammar and Philo- logy were everything, Philosophy nothing. What was

Farrail] on GREEK and latin FEBSE-COMFOSITION. 235

the result ? Never smce the world began was there less invention or more men who taught the art of inventing. Never was the style of even those writers who had the gift of genius more pedantic or more obscure. Never was the degradation of the literary character more pitiable or more complete. Occupied from childhood in the art of writing verses, in which they were forced to express emotions which they did not feel, and sentiments which they could not understand, what wonder that the poets ended by going oflF into emulous raptures at the beauty of lapdogs, and invocations of all the gods and goddesses to take charge of a minion's hair? What wonder that they hid the sterility of their ideas under the exuberance of their words, and mistook literary con- tortions for original achievements ? When merely secon- dary and external facts of form and metre were thought to constitute the essence of verse, no wonder that " receipts for making poetry were given like receipts for making Eau de Cologne.'*^ It was the age of riirot and rpoiro^y and loci communes ; the universal triumph of barren platitude tricked out with affectation and grimace. The thoughts of the rising generation re- solved themselves into a flux of words ; and who shall tell us what single benefit the world has gained from whole ages of such empty talk, — from the " calamistri" of Maecenas and the "tinnitus" of Gallio, down to the florid and tasteless declamations of a Libanius and a Julian ?

But there was again another age which deliberately, and without any sense of absurdity, regarded the acqui-

^ This whole subject has been admirably treated by M. Nisard, in his PoiU:$ de la D^ca(Unc€j from whom I have here borrowed a phrase.

236 ESSAFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT V.

sition of a Latin style as the main end of life. And, again I ask, what was the result ? " It was," as Bacon says, " that men began to hunt more after words than after matter," falling into a vanity of which Pygmalion's frenzy is a good emblem. " But the excess of this," continues Bacon, in words to which I ask the earnest attention of our University authorities, " is so justly contemptible, that as Hercules, when he saw the image of Adonis, Venus's minion, in a temple, said in dis- dain, * Nil sdcri es ;' so there is none of Hercules's followers in learning, that is the more severe and labo- rious sort of inquirers into truth, but will despise those delicacies and affectations as indeed capable of no divinenessJ^ The result, as regards style, was that " then grew the fluent and watery vein of Osorius, the Portuguese bishop, to be in price ;" but what was the result on men's minds ? I can only say that never was there a more pitiable group of pedants and sophisters than flourished in the "professor-ridden" world during the period of the Renaissance. Such were the brilliant Filelfo, gorged with conceit and bursting with petty spite; the erudite Poggio, author of the treatise "on the elegancies of the Latin tongue," whose books were a sink of abominations, abounding in vanity, arrogance, and invective ; Angelo Politian, whose manners, if fame says true, "were even uglier than his countenance;" Zacchario Ferrari, who tried to paganise even the Hymnarium and Litm-gy; Sannazar, who surrounds the very cradle of Bethlehem with the prurient pagan- ism of hamadryads and satyrs ; the worldly and frivo- lous Bibbiena, the cardinal author of a questionable comedy ; Pomponatus, the Paduan professor, who wrote

Fabrar.] on QREBK and LATIN VERSE-COMPOSITION 237

t:o show that the " unreasonable" doctrine of the im- xnortality of the soul did not rest on the authority of Aristotle, but "only** of the Scriptures; Bembo and SSadoletus, the first Latinists of their age, who turned "with fine contempt from the " screams" of Isaiah, and

• he "barbarism" of St. Paul, and who could not even

speak of the blessed influences of the Holy Spirit of dod without introducing such sickening inanities as

• • the whisper of the Celestial Zephyr ! " Such was the

<x)rrupt paganism, the self-sufficient half-learning, the oneretricious eloquence, the inflated arrogant littleness, of minds trained from the cradle on the husk of words ^nd metres — of minds which, turning from the divine T)rightness of truth and of nature, thrilled only to Ciceronianisms and tropes and idioms and locutions, -And such minds were the legitimate outcome of an ^ge which rewarded with its highest honours the empty- leaded pedants and conceited rhetoricians who had eaten ^ut all that was valuable in their lives in the successful attempt to acquire a Latin style !

Once more, and lastly — to what country does the

reader suppose that we must look for the greatest out-

burst of fecundity and facility in the production of Xatin Verse 1 Few, I suspect, would be likely to guess that the palm must undoubtedly be given to backward -and superstitious Portugal. Yet so it is. Not even the

• • Musde Etonenses/' supplemented by all the other nugcB

<anor(B oi the British Muse, can pretend to equal in bulk -and magnificence the seven quarto volumes, published in Xisbon in 1745, which contain the mouldering remains of no less than fifty-nine illustrious Lusitanian poets ! Alas that so many of these *' illustrious " should be con-

238 ESSATS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAT V.

signed to oblivion in the obscure limbo of a " corpus ;*' alas that the world of "taste" and "style** should be unconscious of what it owes to Mendez Vasconcellos, or to Diego Fayra de Andrada ; alas that in its Philistine ingratitude it should have forgotten Figueira Duram, who was an epic poet at sixteen, and who improvised before his examiners "The Temple of Eternity;'* or F. dc Macedo, who poured forth vivd voce 1,000 verses on the history of the Popes, and who tells us in his "Myrothecium Morale*' that he had written 2,600 epic poems, 110 odes, 3,000 epigrams, 4 Latin comedies, and 150,000 impromptu Latin verses! How much was the world better for these Goliaths among modem Latin poets ? And what benefit accrued to Portugal from its not very noble army of imitative versifiers? Why, a gain the very reverse to that which the arguments of our classical composers would have led us to expect, viz. a literature the poorest and the most jejime of any country in Europe ! Their Latin Verse-writing was, it appears, as useless and deceptive as the iridescence on the surface of a very shallow and a very stagnant pool. It was (if I may borrow an expression from Guibert, the good and eminent abbot of Nogent sous Coucy, who in his autobiography has bewailed the manner in which he was led astray in his youth by the temptations incident to the study of Latin Verse) " a ridiculous vanity."

I do not for a moment mean to say that our age has run to the same ridiculous excess. Thank God, our modern education has involved many better and richer ^ elements than this. But I do say that our extensive ^ Latin Verse system is a useless and unfortunate relic ^ of training of this sort. And training of this

Farrar.] on QEEEK and latin verse-composition, 239

is, let us hope, irrevocably doomed. Those who now

cling to it will sooner or later be forced to give it

up. And if those of us who hxive given it up make

some mistakes in our early attempts to substitute a

better training in its place, we may at least console

ourselves with the thought that, unless we are guilty of

deliberate treachery, it is impossible for us to reproduce

a system equally pernicious and equally infructuous.

The social forces are all arrayed on our side. In this

age, more perhaps than in any other, we have a

right to demand as an essential element in the education

of our youth something broader, deeper, more human,

more useful, less selfish, less exclusive. We require

the knowledge of things and not of words ; of the

truths which great men have to tell us, and not of the

tricks or individualities of their style ; of that which

shall add to the treasures of human knowledge, not of

that which shall flatter its fastidiousness by frivolous

attempts at reproducing its past elegancies of speech ;

of that which is best for human souls, and which shall

make them greater, wiser, better; not of that which

is idly supposed to make them more tasteful, and

refined. — Very soon we shall have seen and heard the

last of this card-castle built upon the sands; let us

strive in all earnest and thoughtful faith to rebuild, not

on such weak foundations, but with broad bases on

the Uving rock, some great and soUd structure of endur-

ing masonry, which shall be hereafter among those

thmgs which cannot be shaken and shall remain.

i

I

r

VI.

ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN

SCHOOLS.

BY J. M. WILSON, M.A. F.G.S. F.R.A.S.

\Vhat ought to be the relations of Science and Literature in liberal education, is one of the most im- I^rtant questions which come before those who reflect ^^ the theory of education. It is only lately that the question has been distinctly stated. No complete answer ^u yet be given. It needs no proof that the present state of education into which we have drifted is not satisfactory, and among its most marked defects is the Neglect of science. This is equally the opinion of the ^^Jt^any and of the few ; and lately some valuable contri- butions have been made to public opinion on this point ^y Mill and Thirlwall, and others, to whom this neglect

•

^ a matter of astonishment and regret. I shall not ^tt^mpt an essay on the relations of science and litera- ture in human culture in general ; nor discuss the pro- tases by which truth is arrived at in the different ^tural sciences ; nor the effect of scientific method on the minds of scientific men ; nor can I touch on the Pi'oper position of these studies at the universities. It ^^ with school education alone that I am concerned at

R

242 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat VI.

present. I intend in the following pages to put forward some reflections on teaching natural science in schools that occur to me after having been occupied for eight years as a mathematical and natural science master at Rugby School. What I may have to say will not indeed come with the weight that attends the words of some previous writers on this subject, but it comes from an entirely different point of view, and itom one who has at least honestly endeavoured to form his theories by experience and reflection, and to put his theories into practice.

I shall endeavour, therefore, to state distinctly some of the reasons why it is believed that the introduction of some teaching of science into schools is so very desirable as its advocates hold it to be ; to meet some of the objections that are urged against it; to make some suggestions as to the spirit and method of the teaching of science at schools, a subject on which there is much misconception ; and to add some reflections on the obstiicles that retard improvement in school education, and the probable results of a more general cultivation of science.

Few will deny that the present results in our classical schools are not very satisfactory. The astonishing igno- rance of Latin and Greek, or at least of all the finer part of this knowledge on which so much stress is laid ; and the ignorance — which is less surprising, if not loss lamentable — of everything else, with which so many boys leave most schools, has been dwelt on again and again. Is it remediable or is it not ? Is it due to the carelessness and inability of masters ; to the inherent uiisuitability of the subjects taught ; to neglected early

Wilson.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 243

education and bad preparatory schools ; or to the illiterate tone of the society in which boys are brought up ; to excessive novel reading and devotion to games; or to the great fact that the majority of the species are in- capable of learning much? Partly perhaps to them all ; certainly to an ill-advised course of study. For at present, literature, or the studies which are subordinate to it, has almost a monopoly : and on language the great majority of boys fail in getting much hold. The exclu- sive study of language at schools weakens the fibre of those who have genius for it, fails to educate to the best advantage the mass who have fairly good sense but no genius for anything, and obscures and depresses the few who have special abilities in other lines; and it pre- cludes the possibility of learning much besides. So that even at a school \^re classics are well taught, where the masters are able and skilful, and the boys indus- trious, not very much is learnt. It was said of a Scotch- man who enjoyed a cheap reputation for hospitality, "that he kept an excellent table, but put verra leetle upon it" This epitomizes the report of the Public Schools Commission : the schools are excellent, but they teach "verra leetle." And this is the less excusable because the experience of the best foreign schools is showing the advantage of introducing greater variety into the course of study. A wider net is cast ; fewer minds repose in unstirred apathy ; more varied abilities are recognised ; there is less over-estimation of special branches of knowledge ; and, what is of more import- ance, the variety seems itself to be a stimulus.

And if the extension of the school curriculum is not absolutely forbidden by an appeal to reason or to

244 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsbatVI.

experience, the claims of science to become recognised as a branch of liberal education are exceedingly strong. For, in the first place, most boys show a degree of interest in their scientific work which is unmistakably greater than in any other study. I am no advocate of a theory of education in which boys should learn nothing but what they show a taste for. I hold this to be a pestilent heresy. It would be worse than allowing children to eat whatever they pleased, because the mischief is more irreparable and the detection of it longer delayed. The thing that is valuable in all education is effort ; and it is an advantage which science possesses that the interest that boys take in it induces them to make efforts in its study. If it were less interesting it would be right to teach it I utterly repudiate the notion that a lecture ought to be made interesting, and merely observe that it happens to be so, and that it therefore secures an amount of attention and active thought which is very difScult to get in other subjects. The excitement, and interest, and

competition in games make boys endure and enjoy an

amount of fatigue and pain that they would naturally

shrink from ; and this fatigue and pain are the mean by which they win the corpus sanum. The men^ sati must be sought by similar efforts and pain ; and if interesting subject induces efforts, then, and then only — j is its interest a merit. The temple of knowledge in th -^ apologue had twelve gates, and the student had but oik- <5 key given him to open them aU. This master-key is tlm- <5 power of active thought. And it is perhaps wortl remarking, that since the introduction, three years a^o> of a little natural science into our school course at Rugb»y, there has already been noticed an increase generally of

Wilson.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 245

what is described by diflferent and acute observers as docility, love of work, aptitude for attention, grasp, power of seeing the point, in the average material of which our classical forms are composed. It is in fact an increase of mental activity and logical power. This 18 due to three causes which simultaneously began to operate, — to our system of superannuation, which pre- vents the existence of aged ringleaders of idleness in the forms; to the entrance examinations, by which a few very idle boys are rejected who would in former times have been admitted ; but it is also commonly and reasonably attributed in a still greater degree to the study of natural science, a new and positive influence which has begun to operate.

And again, there are mental instincts just as there are bodily instincts. The bodily instincts anticipate the experience of physicians and experiments of physio- logists, and are their guide to the treatment of the body; but the mental instincts, which are even more important, are nevertheless almost ignored in the art of education. One of these instmcts is curiosity. It is a mental phenomenon which the skilful master studies, a power which he turns to account in the education of the boy. It is the one principle that makes self-education possible. It is a form of the love of knowledge ; and when it concerns natural objects we call it curiosity, and half despise it. That it is often weak and unaccom- panied with effort, I admit. But it is often altogether repressed — " little boys should not be curious : " whereas it ought to be guided, stimulated, and strengthened. The guidance of curiosity is to lead a boy to observe more, to combine, to reason. The stimulation of it is to

246 ESSAYS ON A UBBRAL EDUCATION. [Esfl^T VL

show how much more there is still to be learnt. The strengthening of it is to make it deep and lasting; to check the mere love of novelty, the idle discnrsiveneas that asks disconnected questions, and forgets^ even if it waits for, the answers; and to refuse information till the foundation is laid on which it can securely rest Guidance often takes the form of repression. Curiosity is the ordinary form of activity in a young mind, and it is unnatural and foolish to ignore it as we do. There is a fine passage on this subject in Groethe's " Hermann and Dorothea," which I shall make no apology for quot- . ing at lengtL If any one despise this power in a child s mind, I ask him to weigh these words. The village apothecary had been blaming the curiosity which led aU the people out to see the sad procession of exiles pass near the town —

" Unyeizeihlich find ich den Leichtsinn : doch liegt er im Menschen ; *

and to him, the wise and intelligent pastor, experienced in life and well versed in learning, repUed—

'^ . . . Ich tadle nicht geme was immer dem Menschen Fiir unschadliche Triebe die gute Mutter Nator gab ; Den was Veretand und Vemimft nicht immer yennogen, rennag oft Solch ein gliicklicher Hang, der unwiden(tehlich uns leitet. Lockte die Neugier nicht den Menschen mit heftigen Reizen, Sagt ! erfiihr er wohl je, wie schon sich die weltlichen Dinge G^gen einander verhalten ? Denn erst yerhmgt er das Neue, Suchet das Niitzliche dann mit unermiidetem Fieisse ; Endlich begehrt er das Gute, das ihn erhebet und werth niachf

And where this curiosity exists in boys it is almos^^^ exclusively directed towards external objects, and may^^^ be best cherished and ennobled into a genuine love o9^ "'^ knowledge by guiding it to find some food in natural history and science. How much better and more in-

WiL-sos.] 01" TEAClllXO NATURAL SCIENCE I.V SCHOOLS. 247 1

telligent wouU early training be if curiosity were looked ' on as the store of force, the possible love of knowledge in embrj'o in the boy's mind, which in its later trans- formations is so highly valued. " For our incitement, — I say not our reward, for knowledge is its own reward, — herbs have their healing, stones their preciousness, stars their times."

And even if scientific knowledge were not selected by

a boy's natural interest and curiosity, yet let us reflect

for a moment on its dignity and grandeur. This is

, DO mean, and peddling, and quibbling knowledge, as the

\ ignorant believe ; it is the key to the possession of the

loftiest ideas. We count a man educated in proportion

I to the exactness, width, and nobleness of his ideas.

Wliat is needed to elevate a man's intt^llectual nature

is not that he should be an encyeiopsedia, but that he

should have great ideas. And these must be based on

knowledge. They do not, indeed, always accompany

knowledge. Great ideas may be got by vai-ious studies,

and all studies may be pursued by men who fail to gain

1 great ideas. I know men with a wide and microscopic

1 knowledge of history who know nothing of the love

luf freedom, of national justice, of the progress of the

Iworld, of the power of genius and will ; — men who are

\hcologiaus by profession, whose thoughts still revolve in

pe narrowest circle of earthly prejudices ; — scholiu-s indif-

fcrent alike to literature and learning. And so there are

kentific men who combine poverty and int<?llect with

dth of knowledge. A botanist may be as fooliah as

lirest collector ; a geologist, and even an astronomer,

[T, perhaps, be a pedant not more ennobled by the

kre of his thoughts than a cathedral spider is affected

248 ESSJrS ON J LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EssatVL

by the majesty of his abode; but I will venture to assert, that the great thoughts and principles which are to be gained only by scientific knowledge are not only of a quality that increases the dignity of a man's mind, are not only intrinsically glorious and elevating, but are not inferior, whether we regard their effect on the intellect or on the imagination, to those which may be reached by other studies. And I am not speaking only of the discoveiies in science. There is a special charm, indeed, and stimulating power in original research, in exploring new regions; but there are splendid ideas, magnificent points of view, which, though others have reached them before, yet to attain is a lifelong pleasure. The ordinaiy tourist may climb to some well-worn spot in the Alps, he may ascend by the beaten track, he may even be carried there, and yet he will be richly rewarded by the view that unfolds itself before his eyes. He may not feel the glow of health, the buoyant soul of the first mountaineer that stood there ; but he will see what he will remember for ever ; he will get more than a now sensation, he will have enlarged his souL So to be the first to climb, as Newton did, with solitary steps to the untrodden heights from which he gazed on the solar system spread out at his feet, can never again be given to mortal man ; but to attain the knowledge, to see the magnificent orderliness and progress, to be pro- foundly impressed with the infinities of spiicc and time which it silently suggests, is to have gained a treasure that lasts as long as life will last So also geology has a sublimity of its own, slowly reached by many 8tej)s and much toil. And, above all, the great ideas of natural law and harmonious adjustment can only be

Wilson.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 249

obtamed by patient study in the fields of science ; and are they not priceless to those who have in any degree won themi Who can contemplate our globe in this orderly system of the miiverse, with all the delicate adjustments that astronomy reveals, and all the splendid mechanism of the heavens — contemplate onr atmosphere, with all its mechanical, chemical, and physical properties —the distant sun darting its Ught and heat and power on the globe, and fostering all the varied and beautiful animal and vegetable life, giving rise to winds and showers and fruitful seasons, and beauties of form and richness of colour, filling our hearts with food and glad- ness; who can know something of the inexorable se- quences, see something of the felicitous combination of all the varied forces of nature that are employed, — and not feel impressed and awed by the view ; not feel that he is in the presence of a Power and Wisdom that as far transcends the power and wisdom of man as the imiverse surpasses a watch in magnitude ?

" To see in part That all, as in some piece of art, Is toil, cobperant to an end

is to see that which he who sees it not is as incapable of estimating as the deaf man is of judging of music, or the blind of enjoying the glories of a sunset. Such are some of the ideas which crown science, and it is not granted to us to attain them except by slow degrees. Step by step must the growing mind approach them ; and to exclude from our schools the preliminary steps is to debar from the attainment of such ideas all whose leisure in after-life is so curtailed that they can never break ground in any fresh subject for thought or labour.

250 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EaaATVL

And, moreover, the kind of knowledge that science offers is not only wide, and interesting, and elevating, but it is also exact : and this exactness is a very great merit. It U . knowledge of things «.d not rf%S. In the education of the upper classes there is too little of positive and exact knowledge, and too much of mere training and drill : we have too much distrusted the virtue of knowlecige. In a purely classical education there is almost something of the helU et prohabiliter opinari as opposed to the certd et ostensivi scire of Bacon. For the ultimate conceptions of grammar are by their nature only to be attained by self-analysis and metaphysical introspection ; and though boys sometimes attain great knowledge of usage, yet it is empirical and not demonstrative. And natural science supplies this want of clearness and certitude better than arithmetic or geometry : its exactness amid its diversity serves as a kind of standard in the miad of what knowledge is. Arithmetic, geometry, and natural science represent positive knowledge in a boy's education ; they have the * know how ' and the * know why,' and this gives confidence and certainty.

But there is another and even a stronger groimd fo advocating the introduction of science as an element in all liberal education, and that is, its peculiar merit as means of educating the mind. Science is not only know ledge, but it is also power. The mind is not only instrument for advancing science, but, what is more our present point, science is an instrument for advancing^ the mind. All that can be said on this point has been said over and over again, and I can contribute nothing except my daily experience that what is said is true.

it.l ON TSACniNQ NATURAL SCIESVS IN SCIIOOI^. 251

ill speaks of " the indispeusable necessity of at-ientific Btrucriou, for it is recommeDtled by every consideration lucb pleads for any high oi-dtr of intellectual education all." Science is the best teacher of accurate, acute, id exhaustive observation of what is ; it encourages ic habit of mind which will rest on nothing but what true ; truth is the ultimate and only object, and there the ever-recurring appeal to facte as the test of tnitk nd it is an excellent exercise of memory ; not the rerhal, formal memory, but the orderly, intelligent, coii- liected. accurate storing up of knowlwlge. And of all pnoesses of reasoning it stands alone as the exhaustive latration. It is pre-eminently the study that illus- fBtes the art of thinking. "The processes by which uth is attained," to quote again from Mill, " reason- Dg and observation, have been carried to their greatest DOwn perfection in the physical sciences." In fact, investigations and reasoning of science, advancing 1 it does from the study of simple phenomena to the nalysis of complicated actions, form a] model of pre- liscly the kind of mental work which is the business if every man, from his cradle to bis grave : and reason- Dg, like other arta, is best learnt by practice and fami- iaritj* with the highest models. Science teaches what lio power and wliat the weakness of the senses is ; what Ttdence is, and what proof is. There is no charac- srifitic of an educated man so marked as his power of udging of evidence and proof. The precautions tliat I taken against misinterpretation of what is called the nridcncc of the scnBea, and agmnst wrong reasoning, and [ the thoughts backward down t*» the ground of BJief; tlie coiuitant verification of theories; the uuiflid

252 ESSAYS ON A HBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat VI.

suspension of judgment where evidence is still wanting ; that wedding of induction and deduction into a happy unity and completeness of proof, the mixture of obser- vation and ratiocination — are precisely the mental processes which all men have to go through somehow or other in their daily business, and which every himian being who is capable of forming an intelligent opinion on the subject sees would be better done if men had familiarised themselves with the models of these pro- cesses which are furnished by science. I do not mean that a boy knows he is doing all these things ; but he is doing them visibly. And when he applies the analysis of logic to the processes of his mind, he will find that he has been thinking logically, though uncon- sciously so.

Thinking is learnt by thinking ; and it is my strongest conviction, as it is my daily experience, that boys can and do learn to think, — ^leam all the varied operations of the mind we sum up in that word, — by the study of science. A more vigorous school of thought, and a habit of mind less inclined to the faults of dogmatism on the one side, and deference to authority on tho other, with more reverence for truth, and more confi- dence in knowledge, is the natural product of scientific- instruction.

And again, how perfectly does science illustrate what the attitude of the mind ought to be towards the unknown and unrevealed. It shows the methodical advance and conquest of knowledge over ignorance, and marks where there is uncertainty on the border ground between them ; it exercises its judgment on the degree of uncertainty, and casts longing looks into the darkness

WiLsoif.] ON TRdCEINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 253

l)eyond. But it never mistakes the penumbra of uncer- tainty for the full light of demonstration.

Moreover, taking education in its broad sense as the training of all the powers that go to make up the man, I would point out how much science contributes towards increasing the powers of the senses. All science is based, some one has said, on the fact that we have great curiosity, and very weak eyes ; and science gives men a marvellous extension of the power and range of the acuteness of those eyes. "Eyes and no eyes" is the title of an old story ; and it scarcely seems too strong a way of marking the difference between the powers of perception of a cultivated naturalist, and those of the ordinary gentleman ignorant of everything in nature. To the one the stars of heaven, and the stones on earth, the forms of the hills, and the flowers in the hedges, are a constant source of that great and peculiar pleasure derived from intelligence. And day by day do I see how boys increase their range of sight, and that not only of the things we teach them to see, but they outrun us, and discover for themselves. And the power, once gained, can never be lost. I know many instances of boys whose eyes were opened at school by the ordinary natural science lectures, who have since found great pleasure and constant occupation in some branch of scientific study.

And I would add that whatever may be the defects of a purely literary education, which I obviously do not intend to discuss, they cannot be remedied by mathe- matics alone. Mathematics are so often thought, by those who are ignorant of them, to be the key to all reasoning, and to be the perfection of training, and so

254 ESSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Bbbat VL

often spoken of by proficients in them as mysteries that it is worth the labour of half a lifetime to understand^ that it is worth while to remember that after all they are only compendious and very limited methods of apply- ing deductive reasoning, assisted by symbols, to ques- tions of which the data are, or are supposed to be, extremely precise. They no more teach reasoning in the ordinary sense of the word than travelling by rail- way fits a man for exploring in Central Africa. And hence, while I set a very high value on arithmetic and geometry in all education, it is not because they supply the place of science in any sense, but on entirely different grounds. They form the language of science, however, and are indispensable to its study.^

It will be observed that in this sketch of the grounds on which I urge the claims of natural science to be admitted into the ordinary course of a school education, I have omitted some points which are obvious enough. There is for example the very great practical utility of the knowledge ; and if bojrs cannot gain enough know- ledge at school to enable them to solve the scientific problems that may meet them in their later life, yet it is something to know that they are scientific problems. It is something, to know enough to know that others, know more ; to be able to say that this must be referred to a chemist, and this to a geologist.

And again, there is the very great increase of interest

1 It is sipgular that the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge is so unscieii' tific, and the Natural Science Tripos at Oxford so unmathematicaL At Cambridge a man may get the highest honours in mathematics and natural philosophy, and have never seen a crystal, a lens, an air pump, or a thermometer ; and at Oxford a man may get his first in natunl science without knowing the Binomial Theorem or the solution of a triangle. Sorely these arc mistakes.

VX TSAcmyQ njtvral .'sciBycE ry scnooijs. 255

Bwjaamtance with the elements of science gives educated man. An age of progrew is an »ge of ling interest to those who can follow it intelligently. And it seems only reaflonaUe that st^hoola should at ist have the powi-r of discovering special abilitiea. And the ptesence of science side by side with literature a protest agiiinst the narrowiiess which overvalues one onch of learning and despises others. Co-operation is Bcossary to secure a happy co-existence of these studies, ich alone becomes conceited ; and conceit is the most ital enemy to progress.

The advance also of science depends to some extent I tJie number as well as the genius of its students, [ow many rare and precious fossUs, bow many singular

momena have been lost to the world, seen by blind

at Ht»w many gaa-kmps might have tremblt>d at >unds before a Lecomte observed under what con- itiona the Kail-room lights responded to the tones of violoncello I

And the extent to which the methods of science have Qeot^'d all other studies, the existence of social and eonotiiical scietwe, and the relation of science to reli- jous thought, muhe it absolutely necessary that it shall

no longer excluded from Ubcral education.

Tho narrow range (to rc-capitulate) of our existing loniculnm invites extension, and natural and physical icienco chums admissiou on all grounds that render in- ellectual education in iti>elf desiralile. The natural btiinwt boya take in it, and the effort it cousttjuently Dchiccs them to make, the dignity of the idea» it unfolds, and the exactness of the kuowli-dge that it is milt Dpon ; its value in practice and iu [thilos^tphy ; the

256 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EbsatVI.

extension it gives to the range of intellectual perception and consequent intellectual pleasure ; the truth-seeking habit of mind, and the training of an intelligent con- templation of the world that it imparts ; and above all the completeness of the illustrations and models of the art of thinking that it affords in a form that attracts and retains the attention, and almost unconsciously trains the student in habits of Logical thought, — form a body of arguments that seem unanswerable for intro- ducing science into our schools as a branch of liberal education.

There are several objections brought forward by those who think more or less on this matter, and they reduce themselves to three : which urge respectively the worth- lessness, the inhumanity, and the discursiveness of the study of science.

All that may be said on the worthlessness of science as a means of education, in schools is before the world in the evidence given by Dr. Moberly, of Winchester before the Public Schools Commission ; to which I refer the reader.

The inhumanity of science is urged by some who feel that in order to train men, education must deal mainly with the feelings, the history, the language of men ; that our relation to men, past and present, is more intimate, more important, and more elevating than our relation to the objects and forces of nature. Granted ; and it proves that an education in science alone would be not the highest ; but it is really no argument against a proper and moderate use of science as a moans of educating certain faculties, such as the logical, which are very important for a true study of men, and yet are not best trained

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Tjy a study of language, and literature, and history. This, however, does not go to the bottom of the matter. 3Iany men have a kind of instinctive fear, not so much of the inhumanity, as of the inhumanising influence of science. And this instinct has, I believe, a real foun- <]ation. It is not simply false, that there is an in- liumanity about science. The vague impression that xeverence, faith, belief in the unseen and the spiritual, snd in truths derived from individual consciousness, are diminished, as superstitions are diminished, by the school of science, must not be met by an ofl-hand denial that there is any foundation for it ; for constant dealing with nature and exercise of the intellect alone, ss contrasted with humanity and the exercise of the moral feelings, unquestionably tends to exclude men from t:he highest thoughts. All that may be said about the dignity of the study of created things — and this is a truth that often needs to be enforced — must not make its advocates lose sight of the relation of this study to others. The wish of many men of science that it should form the staple of liberal education, if gratified, would probably lead to a loss of gracefulness and unconscious art in style, which characterises nations which study the classics, and moreover would produce a peculiar and dangerous one-sidedness, which may be distinctly seen in many individual cases. In such cases, their constant study of one kind of evidence raises a secret disin- clination and real inaptitude, for the time being, to accept evidence of a different kind, and induces them ' openly, or tacitly, to depreciate and distrust it. They are constantly tempted to consider the finer mental and religious sensibilities as useless, and as if they proved

s

258 ESSJrSOX J UBKRAL EDUCATION. [BaeATVI. -

nothing. They are facts, of course, but facts which m. verge on fancies ; and they have acquired a distaste for this kind of reflection, and something of contempt for its value in others. They seem to have raised a wall between themselves and certain truths ; to have dazzled their eyes by a study of the glaring truths of external nature, and to be for the time incapable of discerning the dimmer but nobler truths of the soul and its rela- tions. They distrust what may not be referred to the mechanism of organization, and disbelieve that the alone can be the source of real truths. Yet all this not tend to prove that science should be excluded fro i f,,J L schools, but that it should not form the staple of o education.

Discursiveness is a real danger. To do one thin well does undeniably give the power of going o acquiring more knowledge, making it exact, and usin it. And schools and universities must still aim at con centration and excellence if they are to turn out mei^^ of power. But this is not attained by an exclusive ^^^ curriculum, but by a reasonably comprehensive an<^-^<^ elastic one \ by making it possible for more varied en^^' cellence to be attained. I hold that a boy is best edu^n-"- cated by learning something of many things and mucIT ^^^ of something : and that a man of the highest educatior ought to know something of everything, and everythin^. of something. And to avoid the distraction and dissc: pation of mind which is the result if too many are being learnt at once, will require some care on tl*^^^ part of those who arrange work at schools. Leisura^^'^ must not be cut away. Nothing refined and artistic i^^^^ c-lassios, nothing sound and progressive in mathematic^^^^

>

Wilson.] ON TEACEIhQ NATUBAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 259

nothing masterly and philosophical in science is attained

in a system where there is much hurry and little leisure.

Hence the curriculum must be made to some extent

elastic : it is perfectly easy to make it so in any school ;

to make some studies compulsory and some optional,

throughout the whole course ; to make others compulsory

at one period and alternative at another. And where

this is done with judgment, no fear of disorganising the

school and causing idleness need be entertained. This

will readily be granted; but when it is urged that

science ought to be one of the compulsory subjects, for

at least a part of the period spent at school, then the

claim is disputed. We cannot look on science as a

irapefyyov which may serve for the amusement of those

who fail to be scholars, but as a frivolous pursuit for men

of ability— the doctrine very generally held by classical

scholars ; on the contrary, we claim for it a position in

the education of all on the ground of the advantages

it possesses for this purpose. In a dialogue it is im-

possible to discuss this question ; for sooner or later the

classicist argues thus in fact : " Whatever the faults of

an exclusively classical system may be, it turned me out

ns one of its results. Whatever the value of science, it

is not indispensable, for I am wholly ignorant of if

• • My dear sir,'* one longs to say, " you are the very man

in whose interests I am arguing. It is you who would

\)e so much wiser, so very much less conceited, so much

more conscious of the limitations of your knowledge,

if you had been scientifically educated. You are far

fix>m stupid, and not uncultivated ; but you lack what

I consider of great value. When I speak of philology

a science^ and of comparative philology as a science^

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^A TfiMf^ «niri5t!» i3t!' ^ni.^ mtosm ii f |iiTi ijfpB them) rwih* fr^cL T:*ir vii::: nf ?KC<r tiiKaiioB. Yco would L«T»: zi»'jp: y/w^ z^ j'jiat \fwm s&.3!^¥«t& and an infinitely iTiity rtLS^ -:? iSrAi trri isT«a»5C?* if tcqt elasacal edu- ektkA Liiri «tieE: jft<e -^.Tn^asgd dku it seems to hare }/e«u*^ I: i* i»T rurjogtit iLiereiote onhr to proride at whfifAfi m^^ai£i^ c^ l^tTiTig scTmediinz of seience, as one mifiii d^^mand f-'^ tbe date : bot it most be made one 4/f the comi>aL!*>ry subj-e^eta.

It L^ time now to make some remarks on the intro- dturtion of science into j«aetical school work. Every mhfMAmsiKter, and every one who looks at the subject of tbiii E«say on its practical side, will wish to know exactly what the a^lvocates of instruction in science want. Is it dmrd that science should be taught as a necessaiy subject to all boys through their whole education ? or as an optional subject ? How many hours a week ought t/> 1x5 given up to it ? How can we spare them ? What Hubj^j/^ts ought to be taught ? and how ?

I will take these questions in order, and answer them to the lK»st of my judgment ; disclaiming of course, entin^ly the position of spokesman for others. I will at oucAt Hiiy that I do not think that science should be taught through the whole of a boy's education : we do not, I think make our teaching in schools suflSciently |)rogrrHHiv(; as it is ; there is no difference between the Hnl)jc('t>* of the lower and higher teaching : in the Lower Ki liool and in the Sixth form, precisely the same things mv done, if we except Greek composition. This is ronlrnry to the judgment of many who have thought on the working of the system, and is contrary also

WiLSOH.] ON TEACHINQ NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 261

to the system of the French and German schools. And science is one of those subjects which I would, on many grounds, not introduce into the lower part of the school at all, or at least only in a modified form, which will be explained hereafter. There, more arith- metic, more French, and some geometrical drawing might be taught with great advantage. Science should be introduced into a school beginning at the top, and going downwards gradually, to a point which will be indicated by experience. At this point it should become compulsory, and be necessarily learnt by a boy until he reaches the higher part of the school Here Science may be made alternative with something else, and here also some small portion of classical work may be allowed to be commuted for further scientific work, such as chemical analysis, or higher physics and mathematics ; and vice versd : any of these being remitted on the imderstanding that the time so given is really devoted to some other study.

Then as to the time to be devoted to science. Two

hours a week, with the same time for preparation out

of school, is the time given at Eugby, and is as much

as I would wish to see the subject started with. I do

not doubt however that ultimately it will be thought

tetter to increase this, in the upper part of the school,

tx) three or four hours a week. This seems too little

"to ask, and the advocates of science outside schools

^^vtU disallow so petty a claim. But there is very little

^^xperience of the working of scientific teaching in great

^^chools ; there is at present so slight a recognition of

^i<5ience in schools on the part of the Universities, that

^^Jiy public school which gave up much time to science.

262 MSSJTS ON A JJBEEJL EDUCATION. [EsaAT Vl.

would be hopelessly out of the race at the Universities. And this would be suicidaL If the reform is on sound principles, let science gain a footing only, and a Mendly struggle for existence will point out whether the foreigner can be naturalised, and flourisL

Next as to the parts of science to be taught, and the methods of teaching ; and the discussion of these must be given at some lengtL

It is important to distinguish at once, and clearly, between scientific information and training in science^ "In other words," to quote from the Report of the Committee appointed by the Council of the British Association to consider the best means for promoting Scientific Education in Schools, " between general lite- rary acquaintance with scientific facts, and the more minute and accurate knowledge that may be gained by studpng the facts and methods at first hand, under the guidance of a competent teacher. Both of these are valuable ; it is very desirable, for example, that boys should have some general information about the ordinary phenomena of nature, such as the simple facts of .Vstronomy, of Geology, of Physical Geography, and of Elementaiy Physiology. On the other hand, the scientific habit of miud, which is the principal benefit resulting from the scientific training, and which is of in- calculable value, whatever be the pursuits of after life, can l)ctter be attained by a thorough knowledge of the facts and principles of one science, than by a general acquaintance with what has been said or written about many. Both of these should co-exist, we think, at any school which professes to ofier the highest liberal education."

WiLsoH.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 263

With these remarks I need hardly say that I most heartily concur.

There may be used in the lower part of the school, some work on Physical Geography, embracing the elements of the subjects above-named ; and it will be found extremely convenient to introduce short courses of lectures on such subjects as these, even in the higher parts of the school. For since new boys are perpetually coming, and it is impossible that a new course of lectures on Botany, or on Mechanics, should be started in every division of the school at the beginning of every term, without requiring the numl)er of natural science masters to be almost indefinitely increased, there must be some collecting place, a class in which the new boys shall accumulate \mtil they are numerous enough to form a body to enter on the regular course. This must be a class in which Physical Geography, including if the master likes, the elements of Geology and Astro- nomy, is taught In such classes as these the ideas of boys are expanded ; fresh books are opened to them ; and some will avail themselves of the opening, and learn a good deal about the subjects spoken of: but the value is more literary than scientific ; and even after the most careful teaching will be found disap- pointing. In lecturing on such subjects as Geology, Astronomy, or Physical Geography, the master never can be sure that the ideas he has so clearly in his own mind are seized by all his boys, There seems to be a deficiency in powers of conception on the part of very many boys. Theorists may say what they please, but it is true that the act of the mind in forming a conception is difficult to excite. There is

264 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATiON. [Essay VI.

a marvellous, truly marvelloiis, want of imaginatiou iii many minds, a want of power to form and keep in view a distinct image of the thing reasoned or spoken about. It is not only want of attention, but there seems to be a total separation in some minds between words and things, perhaps the result, in part, of early teaching ; so that the knowledge apparently gained is scwnetimes wholly unsound. I will instance what I mean« I once gave three lectures on coal, in such a course of Greology. During those three lectures, every individual in the class handled and examined some scores of specimens, to illus- trate the vegetable origin of coal ; and no part of the subject was left unillustrated. One, however, in an examination paper, in reply to a question about coal, answered exactly as follows : "Coal is supposed by some persons to be a kind of inflammable substance, and must therefore be classed among the igneous rocks/' And another once told me that nummulitic limestone (after handling it and examining it), was made by little fishes who lived in the limestone and carried limestone to the mountains from the sea ; and answers that show the same total want of conception are common. So it will be seen that something else is meant when men of science and writers on education urge, that instruction in science should form part of all liberal education.

The mental training to be got from the study of science is the main reason for its introduction into schools. It is with reference to this that the subjects of instruction, and the methods of instruction, must be chosen. It is important, therefore, that what is meant by mental training should be distinctly understood. Training is the cultivation bestowed on any set of facul-

WiLSOH.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 265

ties with the object of developing them. It is possible to train the body, and to train the mind, for a great variety of purposes, some very foolish ones. But in all cases the training consists in doing. If you wish to swim, you must go into the water and swim as best you can : if you wish to box, there is no way of learning but by boxing : if you wish to study music or drawing, you must play and sing or draw : and thus in educating others you must make them do whatever you intend them to learn to do, and select subjects and circumstances in which doing is most facilitated. Now, laying aside out of consideration the mere accumulation of statistical informa- tion, and all kinds of education except intellectual, it is clear that this ultimately divides itself into the training of the artistic and logical faculties. And the logical faculties are of two kinds. It is by a logical faculty that we are able to understand other men's thoughts and apprehend new ideas. The cultivated, intelligent, imaginative mind is one in which this receptive faculty is strong. Nothing so marks the uneducated man as his dulness, his incapacity, in understanding what you say to him, if you depart in the slightest degree from the range of his daily thoughts. For the ordinary inter- course of men of education, for the spread and fertility of active thought, this faculty of intelligence is invalu- able. Again, it is by a logical faculty that the mind deals with things and the relations of things. The mind which is thoughtful rather than receptive or imaginative, which studies phenomena, be they in mental philosophy, in politics, or in natural science, with a view to elicit and establish the true relations that exist among these phenomena, is the type of the mind in which the logical

266 ESSJyS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Kssat VI.

j^;t faculty of investigation is well trained. Nothing so

T,, T, ' , , marks the imperfectly educated man as his helplessness when dealing with facts instead of men, and his in- security both in arriving at truth from them, and in

, judging of the validity of the conclusions of others.

For the advance of thought, on all subjects which re- quire thought, this faculty of investigation is indispen- sable. Probably no study wiU cultivate one of these facilities and wholly neglect the others, but all studies aim principally at one or other of these. A study of the classical languages, for example, is an artistic exercise, and moreover it educates the receptive faculties in a manner in which no other study educates them. The study of a language and literature not our own is the best preparation for entering into the thoughts of others ; but even when best taught and best learned it can only be a very imperfect exercise in logic, for it omits nearly the whole of the logic of induction. The study of science, on the other hand, while not without its influence on even the artistic powers, and exercising in a remarkable degree the powers of intelligence of a certain kind, deals mainly with the faculty of inves- tigation, and trains the mind to ponder and reflect on the significance of facts. And the methods of these studies are in many respects precisely the same. Models and exercises are given by the one; models and exer- cises by the other. Thucydides must be read, and Latin prose must be written, by the student of form and style ; and the man who would cultivate his powers of thought must read his Newton, and study Experi- mental Physics. And as the student of Thucydides and Plato is likely to gain in clearness and brilliance of

WiLSOK.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 267

expression, and an insight into history and humanity, in intelligent and ready apprehension of the thoughts of others, in versatility, and in polish ; so the student of natural science is likely to bring with him to the study of philosophy, or politics, or business, or his profession, whatever it may be, a more active and original mind, a sounder judgment and a clearer head, in consequence of his study. A good style perhaps may be got by read- ing and writing ; thinking is learnt by thinking. And therefore that method of giving scientific instruction is best which most stimulates thought ; and those subjects which afford the best illustrations of the best method ought to be selected for instruction in schools.

Now there are two different methods of teaching science : one, the method of investigation ; the other, the method of authority. The first starts with the con- crete and works up to the abstract ; starts with facts and ends with laws : begins with the known, and pro- ceeds to the unknown ; the second starts with what we call the principles of the science; announces laws and includes the facts under them : declares the un- known and applies it to the known. The first demands faith, the second criticism. Of the two, the latter is the easier, and the former by far the better. But the latter is seen in most text-books, and is the method on which many unscientific people ground their dis- approval of science. What this former method is, and why it is the better, will be seen by the following remarks-

In the first place, then, knowledge must precede science : for science is nothing else but systematized experience and knowledge. In its extreme applications

268 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. IEbsat VL

this principle is obvious enough : it would be absurd to teach boys classification from minerals, or the power of experimental science by an investigation into the organic bases. A certain broad array of facts must pre-exist before scientific methods can be applied.^ This order cannot be reversed. And this is illustrated by the profound analogy that exists between the growth of scientific knowledge in an individual and in the world. Generation after generation of men passed away, and the world patiently accumulated experience and obser- vation of facts ; and then there sprang up in the world the uncontrollable desire to ascertain the sequences in nature, and to penetrate to the deep-lying principles of natural philosophy. And the same desire is based in the individual on the same kind of experience. Where there is wide knowledge of facts, science of some kind is sure to spring up. After centuries of experience the PhilosophicB naturalis principia were published.

And, secondly, this knowledge must be homogeneous with pre-existing knowledge. It is of no use to supply purely foreign facts ; they must be such as the learner already knows something of, or be so similar in kind that his knowledge of them is equally secure : such that he can piece them in with his own fragmentary but widening experience. It is to his existing knowledge,

^ This tnith has been entirely lost sight of in teaching elementary geo- metry. The extreme repnlsiveness of Euclid to almost every boy is a com- plete proof, if indeed other proofs were wanting, that the ordinary methods of studying geometry in use at preparatory and public schools are wholly erroneous. To this I can do no more than allude here, as being my conviction after considerable experience, — a conviction which has overcome every pos- sible prejudice to the contrary. It is much to be hoped that before long the teaching of practical geometry will precede the teaching of the science of geometry.

Wilson.] ON TEACHINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 269

and to that alone, that you must dig down to get a sure foundation. And the facts of your science must reach continuously down, and rest securely thereon. Otherwise you wOl be building a castle in the air. Hence the master's business is to take up the knowledge that abeady exists ; to systematize and arrange it ; to give it extension here, and accuracy there ; to connect scraps of knowledge that seemed isolated ; to point out where pro- gress is stopped by ignorance of facts ; and to show how to remedy the ignorance. Rapidly knowledge crystallizes round a solid nucleus : and anything the master gives that is suited to the existing knowledge is absorbed and assimilated into the growing mass : and if he is unwise and impatient enough (as I have been scores of times) to say something which is to him perhaps a truth most vivid and suggestive, but for which his boys are imripe, he will see them, if they are really well trained, reject it as the cock despised the diamond among the barley (and the cock was quite right), or stiU worse, less wise than the cock, swallow it whole as a dead and choking formula.

On these gromids then, in addition to other obvious ones, Botany and Experimental Physics claim to be the standard subjects for the scientific teaching at schools. In both there pre-exists some solid and familiar know- ledge. Both can so be taught as to make the learner advance fix)m the known to the unknown — from his observations and experiments to his generalizations and laws, and ascend by continuous steps from induction to induction, and never once feel that he is carried away by a stream of words, and is reasoning about words rather than things. The logical processes they involve are

270 ESSJl'S ON J LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay VI.

admirable and complete illustrations of universal logic, and yet are not too difficult These considerations mark the inferiority, in this respect, of Greology and Phyfeio- log}% in which the doctrines must far outrun the facts at a Iwy's command, and which require so much know- ledge before the doctrines can be seen to be well founded. And these considerations exclude Chemistry, as an elementiir}' subject at least, since there is so little pre- existincr knowledore in the learner's mind on which the foundation can be laid. On all grounds the teaching of Chemistry should follow that of Experimental Physics. To this point, however, I shall have again occasion to refer.

Unless this method of investigation is followed, the teaching of science may degenerate, with an amazing rapidity into cramming. To be crammed is to have words and formulae given before the ideas and laws are realized. Geology and Chemistry are frightfully cram- mable. But Botany and Experimental Physics are by no means so easy to cram. What they might become with bad text-books and a bad teacher I cannot, indeed, say ; Ijut it is a very important consideration. For it is possible to teach even Botany and Experimental Physics with exquisite perverseness, so as to deprive them of all their singular advantages as subjects for elementary training in science. It is possible to compel the learning the names of the parts of a flower before the condition of existence of a name, viz. that it is seen to be wanted, is fulfilled : to cumber the learner with a terminology that is unspeakably repulsive when given too soon ; given before the induction which justifies the name has been gone through ; to give the principles of classification

Wilson.] ON TEAGHINQ NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 271

before a suj£cient acquaintance with species has called out the ideas of resemblance and diflference, and has shown the necessity of classification ; to give theories of typical forms when it seems a wild and grotesque romance ; to teach, in fact, by the method of authority. And this may be done by truly scientific men, fully believing that this is the true and only method. Witness Adrien de Jussieu's " Botanique. "

The true method is assuredly to begin by widening for your boys the basis of facts, and instantly to note uniformities of a low order, and let them hazard a few generalizations. The boys will far outrun their master. Their tendency to make generalizations of the most astounding kind is both amusing and instructive ; it constantly reminds me of the ancient Greek Philosophy ; it is the proof that there is both the power to be trained, and a need of the training. A theory is necessary to observation. Make them verify, and expurgate, and prune, and, if need be, reject their theories by a con- stant appeal to facts ; sympathise with them in their search for truth, and so search for more facts and more accurate observations ; and thus the crystal pyramid of their science grows, its base ever widening, its summit ever rising.

The art of the schoolmaster is a maieutic art now as it was in the days of Socrates ; it is still his business^ to make his boys bring their notions to the light of day, to the test of facts ; constantly to require verification ; but as often as possible to give them the pleasure of dis- covery. He may guide them to the treasure, but let him

^ fiatraviCfW ircofTt Tp6w

s fr\>m thirteen to sixteen, as they sit at their first Knauioal lesson : some curious to know what is o>^:!:5r to V,avivn, Sinno resisrned to anvthing ; some ivuviuvwi t:iu: it is ;U1 a foil v. You hand round to each m K\Y s<^vcnU s^vvimons. say of the Herb Robert ; and takii\c ouo of t ho riowors, vou ask one of them to describe The iv\r:s o: ;:. '* Sv^uo pink loaves" is the reply. " How in;r,.Y ;" ** Five." '* Any other ivins?" " Some little things iusiilo/ ••.Vuvthlr.C outsivle:" *'Some green leaves." "How t\uv.y ; ' ** F.No, ' " Vi ry px^-l. XowpuU oflf the five green Um^nv^s ou:s<;vU\ AV.d lay ihom side by side; next pull otV;;,o t;vo piuk loavos. and lay them side by side: and wx^Nv < \am:no the liuio things inside. What do you tu,.\ V * \ lo: of li::-e stalks or things. " Pull them off

\\\y\ x\nu\t thorn 

" tV.cv find ten. Then show them the

WiiMir.] O.V TEACHINO NATUBAL SCIENCE IK SCHOOLS. 273 little dnst-bags at the top, and finally the curiously constructed central column, and the carefully concealed seeds. By this time all are on tlie alert. Then we resume : the parts in that flower are, outer green envelope, inner coloured envelope, the little stalks with dust bags, and the central column with the seeds. Then you give them all wall-flowers : and they are to write down what they find : and you go round and see what they write down. Probably some one has found six

• • storks" inside his wall-flower, and you make him write

on the black-board for the benefit of the class the curious discovery, charging them all to note any such acciflental varieties in future ; and you make them very minutely notice all the structure of the central column. Then you give them all the common pelargonium and treat it similarly ; and by the end of the hour th(y have learnt one great lesson, the existence of the four floral whorls, though they have yet not heaifl the name. Next lesson-time they come in looking more in earnest, and you give them single stocks niid white alyssum, which tliey discover to be wonderfully like the wall- flower ; and you have a lot of flowers of vegetable marrow, some of which are being pas?ed round while you draw two of them on the l)oard. The difterence is soon discovered ; and you kt them guess about the ust^s of the parts of the flower. The green outer leaves ]»n)tect it in the Imd ; the central organ is for the seeds ; liut what is the use of the others. Then you relate stories of how it was found out what the use of the ilust-l)ags is : how patient Germans lay in the sun all •lay to wait for the insects coming : and how the T 274 SSSJTS ON A UBEKAL EDUCATION. [BflSAT YL existence of a second rare specimen of some foreign tree was found out in Paris^ by its long-widowed spouse in the Jardin des Plantes at last producing perfect seeds. A little talk about bees, and moths, and midges, and such ert?atures» finding out what they have seen, and your second lecture is over. In the tliird lecture you take the garden geranium, ai)d beg them to examine it very closely to see if it is sjTimietrieal. Several will discover the imsymmetrical outer gnvu heaves ; one or two will discover the hollow back of the stem : then the pelai^onium, and its more visible uusjnnmetr}' : then the common tropseolum : in each of which they find also the same parts, and coimt, imd descril>e them : and lastly the tropseolum Canariensc, with its grotesque irregularity : and they are startled to find that the curious-looking flower they know so well is constructed on the same type, and is called by the siime name ; and by the end of the lesson they have loarned sometliing of irregular flowers, as ivferred ti> regular types, — something of continuity in nature. So in succession, for I cannot give more detail, you lead them through flowers where the parts cohere, as in the camjxiuuhi, through plants deficient or odd, through ix)ses, and mignonette, and honeysuckle, and all the simple flowei-s you can find ; till they thoroughly know the scheme on which a simple flower is made. Then you challenge them to a dandelion or daisy: and each has to write down his ideas. Your one or two geniuses will hit it: some will be all wrong, without a shadow of doubt; the majority fairly puzzleci You give them no hint of the solution, tell them to lay it aside ; WiLsoK.] ON TSACHINO NJTURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 275 and you give them the little thrift, and challenge them to find its seeds, and how they are attached. This many will do, and pick out the little seed with its long thread of attachment, and then they will go back to their dan- delions with the key to the structure ; and find its seeds too, and be charmed to discover the remains of its poor outer green envelope, and even its little dust-bags. How proud they are of the discovery ! they think they have the key of knowledge now. And then you begin a little terminology, — calyx and sepals, corolla and petals, stamens and pollen, pistil and stigma, and so on ; and test their recollection of the forms of all the flowers they have examined. Then you notice the spiral arrangement of leaves on a twig of oak, or thorn, or willow, and the intemodes ; and the over-lapping of the sepals of the rose and Herb Robert ; the altemance of the parts ; and finally they work out the idea, that the floral whorls grow on the stem, and are a sort of depressed spiral of leaves with the intemodes suppressed. A few monstrosities and pictures are shown, and the grand generalization is made ; the pistils are re-examined with fi'esh interest to test the theory ; and all their old knowledge is raked up once more. Then, too, the value of the theory is criticised ; and a lesson of caution is learnt. Then a step forward is made towards classification, by cohesion and adhesion of parts ; and the floral schedule is worked; and so step by step to fruits, and leaves, and stems, and roots, and the wondrous modifications of parts for special uses, as in climbing plants ; and the orchids, which are a grand puzzle till a series of pictures from Darwin step in to explain the use of the parts and plan of the flower. Then some T 2 276 SSSJrS ON A LIBBRAL EDUCATION. [Sbsat chemistry of the plant is introduced with some ezpei ments, and the functions of aU the organs are discusser And lastly, strict descriptive terms are given, and th rest of the course is occupied by the history and the systems of classification, with constant reference however to the other conceptions that the class has gained. Such a method as this has many advantages. It is thoroughly scientific, however irregular it may seem, and a professor of Botany may smile or shed tears over it for anything I care; and the knowledge is gained on a sound basis of original observation. Whatever flower a boy sees after a few lessons, he looks at with interest, as modifying the view of flowers he has attained to. He is tempted by his discoveries : he is on the verge of the unknown, and perpetually transferring to the known : all that he sees finds a place in his theories, and in turn reacts upon them, for lus theories are growing. He ia fairly committed to the struggle in the vast field of observation, and he learns that the test of a theory is its power of including facts. He leams that he must use his eyes, and his reason, and that then he is equipped with all that is necessary for discovering truth. He learns that he is capable of judging of other people's views, and of forming an opinion of his own. He learns that nothing in the plant, however minute, ia unimportant; that he must observe truthfully and carefully ; that he owes only temponuy allegiance to the doctrines of his master, and not a perpetual faith. No wonder that Botany, so taught, is interesting: no wonder that M. Demogeot, who visited some English schools last year at the request of the French Emi)eror, expressed himself to W1L80H.] ON TSACEIN6 NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 277 me as charmed with the vivacity and intelligence of the botanical class of one of my colleagues.^ Very possibly a master might make his boys get up a book on Botany, and learn it in the order in which it stands in the book, — cellules and parenchyme, proto- plasm and chlorophyll, stems and medullary rays, petioles and phyllodes, rhizomes and bulbs, hairs and glands, endosmose and exosmose, secretions and excretions^ and so on, and so on ; and ultimately come to the flower and fiiiit ; and possibly a boy of good digestion might survive it and pass a respectable examination in a year's time. But this is not the aim. And even if in this way a greater number of facts could be learned, it would be far inferior to the method of investigation. A master must never forget that his power of teaching facts and principles is far inferior to a willing pupil's power of learning and mastering them. He must inspire his boys, and rely on them : nor wUl he be disappointed. Those who have in them anything of the naturalist will collect and become acquainted with a large number of species, and follow out the study with care and accuracy ; and the mass, to whom an extensive know- ledge of species is a very unimportant matter, but who can appreciate a sound method of investigation and proof, will have gained all that they can gain from botanical teaching. And it must be remembered by those who speak of teaching science, and yet have never tried it, that a method which would succeed with a few naturalists, might utterly fail with the mass. There is a time in the growth of mind in which there

• The spirit of this method is admirably illustrated in Le Maoiit's " Lemons

^I^meotaires de Botanique, fond^s sur T Analyse de 50 Plantes vulgaires." 278 ESSJYS ON A LfBERJL EDUCATION. [Essay VI. is considerable activity and considerable power of accu- mulation, but little power of method. And to insist at this stage on rigorous definitions, on sternest formality, is to forget the indications given by nature alike in the growth of the individual and of the world. In a boy's mind is only the dawning twilight of science, which brightens out slowly, if at all, into the perfect day. A boy leaves the botanical class as a rustic leaves the militia after three months' drill. He has gained some- thing : he is more awake, can listen and learn bettor, knows what he is about ; in fact he has been drilleil. Year after year I liave had new boys and old in my classes, and always have l)ecn able to notice that at first the new boys seemed to be at a positive disadvantage in competing with the old, altliough the subject I wis t<}aching had no reference to Botany. The next training subject is unquestionably Experi- mental Physics. This term is used commonly to denote the sciences which can be studied experimentally, with- out an extensive knowledge of mathematics, and ex- cludes Chemistr}\ Mechanics and Mechanism, Heat and liight. Electricity and Magnetism, Hydrostatics, Hydro- dynamics, Pneumatics, and Acoustics are the principal branches of the subject. In selecting from them the subjects most fit for use at schools, and in choosing the order in which they should be taught, we must be guided l)y the principles already enunciated. We must proceed from the concrete to the abstract, from the familiar to the strange, from the science of masses to the science of molecules. Hence Mechanics and Mechanism must come first. In a year most boys are able to leani the great principles of Statics and Dynamics, and the AViLSoN.] ON TEACHING NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 271) olements of Mechanism, such as the ordinary methods of converting one kind of motion into another. They become tolerably familiar with the ideas of motion and space, and time, and form, in their exact numerical rela- tions. Ignorance of arithmetic and the want of ideas in practical geometry are the main hindrances in their way ; but even they are improved by the many illus- trations of arithmetic and geometry that are afforded by Mechanics, and by the growth of exactness in all ideas of quantity and form as expressed by numbers. Arithmetic is too often the science of pounds, shillings, and pence alone 1 and by being so limited it loses in dignity and in interest, and in clearness. In Mechanics, also, the notion of force is constantly present in its com- monest and simplest forms ; and in this respect also this branch of science serves as the l)est introduction to the later branches. Hydrostatics and Pneimiatics, I do not doubt, are the best subjects to take next : the range of these subjects that could be taught at school is not great ; and they may be learnt very thoroughly and exactly, and provide very good illustrations of the principles of the subjects that precede them. Hydrodynamics, Acoustics, and Geome- trical Optics will be only studied profitably beyond the bare elements by those who have special talent for mathematical or experimental investigation, and should, I think, be in general reserved for University teaching. Physical Optics unquestionably should be excluded from school teaching. The next year's course should be Heat and the elements of Electricity. By the time boys have reached this stage they are far more able to acquire new subjects than in 280 ESSJFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat VI. the previous stages, and are fit to enter on tliese branches of physics, if they have studied the earlier subjects in- telligently. And of all subjects of experimental inves- tigation, Heat^ seems to me the best for work at schools. Three times I have taken classes in Heat^ and with more satisfactory results than in any other subject The phenomena of Heat ai-e so universal and so familiar; it has so ceutnU a position among the physical sciences ; its experimental methods are so perfect ; it affords such a variety of illustrations of logical processes, that it si'cms unrivalled as a subject for training in science. And allowing for seventy lectures in the year, it is clear that this year's course will allow of some time being given to Electricity. This may be made an enormous subject, but I apprehend that it will not be worth while to attempt its moi-e difficult branches, but to reserve them for the University and for private study. I will rei)eat, that a boy can learn, when he knows how to learn, far more than a master can teach ; and it is at increasing the boy s power that the master must aim unwearingly. And by combining a voluntary and a compulsory system, giving opportunities for learning something of the higher branches, and insisting on a sound knowledge of the more elementary parts of Physics in which the teaching can be most stimulative and suggestive, all requirements will be met. The methods of teachuig Physics will be different in different hands ; they will vary with the knowledge, the enthusiasm, the good sense, the good temper, the practical skill, and the object, of the teacher. If the thing to be 1 On this subject there is a very good text-book for advanced classes by liiilfoiir Stewart. » ■ ■> I ^>1 l^iLBOH.] ON TEACHINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 281 Aimed at is to make them pass a good examination as soon as the subject is read, the best means will be to put a text-book into the hands of everyone, and require certain parts of it to be learnt, and to illustrate them in an experi- mental lecture with explanations. The lecture may be made very clear and good ; and this will be an attractive and not difficult method of teaching, and will meet most of the requirements. It fails, however, in one. The lK>y is helped over all the difficulties; he is never brought face to face with nature and her problems; what cost the world centuries of thought is told him in a minute ; his attention, clearness of understanding, and memory are all exercised ; but the one power which the study of physical science ought pre-eminently to exercise, and almost to create, the power of bringing the mind into contact with facts, of seizing their relations, of eliminating the irrelevant by experiment and compari- son, of groping after ideas and testing them by their adequacy — ^in a word, of exercising all the active facul- ties whi(;h are required for an investigation in any matter — ^these may lie dormant in the class while the xnost learned lecturer experiments with facility and explains with clearness. Theory and experience alike convince me that the master who is teaching a chiss quite unfamiliar with scientific method, ought to make his class teach them- selves by thinking out the subject of the lecture with them, taking up their suggestions and illustrations, criticizing them, hunting them down, and proving a suggestion barren or an illustration inapt ; stiixting them on a fresh scent when they are at fault, reminding them of some fiimiliar fact they had overlooked, and so eliciting 2 52 CS^ JS OJr jf UMMMJL EDUCATION. [EaaAT YI. o« of i^ «iiJKis^ of Tsgne notions that are afloat on the Bun<cr in rarhL be ii tiie laws of motion, the evaporation of w;ir<fff« or ibe digin of the drift, something of order, and t^>Qv;IIcna:x«l. and intoest^ before the key to the mv5:orv is c^vtn* tvt^n if after all it has to be ffiven. TtuiaiDi: :o ;2iink. noi to be a mechanic or surveyor, ma$: W drs: a^^d fv^i^most as his object. So valuable are iho 2Hib:<vr5 i:i:ruisica!lv, and such excellent models do thoy j^nivle. :a»: ihe most stupid and didactic teaching will noi K^ uscloiss^ : but it will not be the same source of jvwcr rhi: " the methcJ of investigation" will be in the hands of a £^x>d master. Some few will work out a laj!:ie of prvv^t. and a logic of discovery, when the facts and law^ that an> lUsoovered and proved have had time to lie and orv^tallize in their minds. But imbued with scientific motho^l thov scarcely will be, unless it springs up sp^^ntanoously in thom. For all cla^jjses, except those which are beginning, the union of the two metho^ls is best If they have once thorouixhlv learnt that the truths of science are to be got from what they see, and not from the assertions of a master or a toxt-book, they can never quite forget it, and allow their soioueo to exist in a cloud-world apart from the eartL And undoubtedly the rigid and exact teach- ing from a book, insuring a complete and formularized and pro<lacible knowledge, is very valuable, especially with older classes. The work out of school for a natural science lecture consists cliiefly at first in writing notes on the previous lecture. When the lecture has been discursive, and tlic method hard to follow, some help may be given by a recapitulation ; but in general it may be left to the ITiieoir.] ON TEACHIKO NATORAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 283 l)0]rs. It is an admirable exercise in composition. To Teduce to order the preliminary facts, to bring out the imity in them, to illustrate, to describe, to argue, and that about things in which they are interested, and for which they feel a match, are the veiy best exercises that can be put before boys. They begin with a helplessness and inanity almost incredible, improve constantly, and end generally by writing these notes very welL And in the higher classes the working of examples and problems may well be thrown in part on the out-of-school hours. There are three other subjects on which a few words should be said. These are Chemistry, and Geology, and Physiology. Chemistry is valueless, or most valuable, as a means of education, according to the method in which it is taught. I am fully convinced, and could support my conviction by that of others, that Chemistry is not a good subject for lecture instruction to beginners in science. Labor- atory work must precede, in order that a certain degree of familiarity with facts may be acquired before they are analyzed and methodized scientifically. It can be taught, even to young boys, and so can anything else ; and it has the advantage of being rather amusing; but as an exercise in reasoning it is very deficient. The notions of force, cause, composition of causes, are too abstruse in this subject for boys to get any hold of. Hence it is, as a matter of fact, accepted as a mass of authoritative dogmas. It is not the conclusiveness but the ingenuity of the proofs that is appreciated. It is of all subjects the most liable to cram, and the most useless, as a branch of training, when crammed. Most of it requires memory, and memory alone. The manufacture of alum. SS4 SSSUTS OX J UnERML EDUCATION. [Bssat YI. the souit'es of Kvax and the properdes of the oxides of iiiti»g«L ar? the kind of knowledge that is got by cheini<.:al leemres. and demanded in most examinations in ChemistTT. Nov this is a part of the necessary know- leilge of a chemist : and to one who has, by laboratory work and It- isiirely thought, arranged his knowledge, and digested it into seieuee, it is valuable ; but the acquisition of it is not a valuable process when it is got by lectures alone. And as laboratory work is not likely to form an integral part of school education, Chenustry ought not, I think, to take an early place in the scientific course. It is most desirable however that schools should possess laboratories, into which boys of some talent may be drafted, and there prepared for the profitable attendance on good chemical lectures in the higher part of the school. There is probably no education in science so valuable as that obtained by work in a laboratory. It is not chemis- try that I am arguing against, but the belief that the attendance on chemical lectures will educate boys in science.^ Geology is a popular and attractive subject with boys, but it lies outside the subjects which best illustrate scicntfic method The largeness of the ideas in it ; the great inferences from little facts, as they seem to boys ; the wide experience of scenery, and rocks, and fossils, and natural histoiy, which it seems to require ; the very unfinished condition of it, are all reasons which make its advocates enthusiastic, but unfit it for the 8taplc of school teaching. Nevertheless, the value of it on other grounds, such as its interest, its bearing on

• There is a newly-published text-book of chemistry by Elliot and Storer

which has ;rrcjit merits as a school-book. WxiiWH.l ON TSACHINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 285 all kinds of thought^ its position as typical of Palsetio^ logical sciences^ and the opportunities it offers for original investigations in most places, seems to me so high, that I think it ought to be introduced paren- thetically into the course of instruction in whatever way or place may seem most convenient. Physiology cannot be taught as a training subject to classes at school. Nor ought it be learnt before Physics and Chemistry. A most enthusiastic advocate of Physiology at school talked over the subject with me at Kugby. Practical work, he admitted, was necessary ; and that it was impossible. I could not give my class forty rats on Tuesday, at 9.15, to dissect for an hour, and then put them away till Saturday at the same hour. And the other subjects, if well taught will have given boys a method and a knowledge which will fit them for ac- quiring, by reading alone, even if they cannot have practical work, some intelligent acquaintance with the doctrines and facts of Physiology. Is education in natural science a panacea for stupid boys ? Will it herald in the golden age to schoolmasters when all boys are to be industrious and intelligent ? It will be found that first-rate ability is as rare in this as in iinything else. All the different subjects have their stars iit school, as in the great world. And great inability is vju'c also. The great majority display intelligent interest ^nd power of learning which does not amount to original genius, of course, but is genuine intellectual work. The ^ictive thought of the master is contagious, for he is Aisibly thinking as lie teaches. And science admits ^f having excellent questions asked about it. The Germans have a proverb, **Mit fragen wird man weise." 286 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (EesAT VI. And it is true in a double sense. To put a question well is no mean attainment Many will be asked simply from muddleheadedness, and will answer themselves when a distinct statement is insisted on. I am sure that more is gained by insisting on good questions than by giving good answers. So therefore the eflFect on the whole is to make boys more intelligent, to widen their range of ideas, to make them more active-minded, more logical, less one-sided. But while it succeeds with the great majority in accomplishing this at least, still it is not a panacea. There are some whom science, like every- thing else, fails to educate. The author of "Day- dreams of a Schoolmaster" has indeed, said, that a physically healthy booby is as rare as a live Dodo. I do not agree with him. Boobies are not extinct: in the interests of science — say for preservation in the British Museum, or for dissection at the College of Surgeons — two or three very fine specimens might be procured in a certain great school. In young specimens, however, the species is almost as difficult to determine as it is in young ammonites ; and the old ones have a singular imiUitivc instinct (apparently with a view to concealment from their naturiJ foes), and externally resemble persons of intelligence. The truth is, that there is no place like school for having notions of equality driven, by dire experience, out of one's head. There are scores and scores of boys whom you may educate how you will, and they will know very little when you have done, and know that little ill. There are boys of slipshod, unretentive, inactive minds, whom neither Greek grammar nor natural science, neither schoolmasters nor angels, could convert into active Wii^MN.l nx TEAClJlSr, XJITRAL S( ll-XCK IX SriJ(H}l.s. '2>7 aiul cultivated men. They are, as one of our own poets has described them — o/icActc ffo^aci dfuXets ^ apenJQy o/icXftc Sc Xoyovy wdvTtay 3* dfiaBeiQ^ wepi r oifiavitav KaTriyQovtMVj it€pi re ffidoyyQy ir€poy\ua(rwVf PapPaf}6<f>woi, j3op/3opo0v/ioi, ypdfifiatny c^Opoc, 0i;p^eTO9 aXX(i>c

• AKahjfiiaQf &\0oq apo-upa%

oKyripoi /icf iraiSeC) a)^cu>t Sc ^roMrac. and in most respects this description is true ; happily not in all. Those who are dfieXeU ao^ia9 are not neces- sarily dfteXelf dpcrijfy and among the wdpTaov afiaOeis are those who, as experience teaches us, may become useful citizens. There is no great mass of opinion unfavourable to making natiural science a regular part of school instruc- tion ; and there is a large, and not very inactive mass of opinion favourable to it. But progress in this direc- tion is not likely to be very rapid, as both the men and the machinery that are to work the subject have to be created. At present a Natural Science master is very hard to get. When the demand begins, doubtless more will qualify themselves. And most schools are unpro- vided with buildings and apparatus necessary for teach- ing science properly. These essentials cannot be sup- plied without considerable expense ; that is, in general, without increasing the cost-price of education. And schools naturaUy hesitate before raising their terms with this object. They wait till they are sure that the opinion of the clientela will sanction both their object and their method of attaining it. 288 KSSJrS ON A LIBERAL BDUCATION. [EaaATVI. Rut more than all, the influence of the tmiversitieB auil oollogos id on the whole un&vourable. The univer- sitios, by their Triposes and prizes, affect generally the studios in the colleges. But the colleges, by their si*holarshij^, exhibitions, entrance examinations, prizes, and leetuivs, dinu^t the studies of the schools through- i>ut the kingdom. They do this to an extent of which they ari\ in general, unconscious. If the colleges, for exampK\ eeiisiHl to demand Latin verses for their scholar- ships, I*;itin verse would almost die before the breath i^f their disfavour. If the colleges oflFered scholarships and exhibitions, to acknowledge and encourage the study of seienee at schools, then the teaching of science wouUl at once be natundized in most of the schools which et>ntribute many men to the Universities. Up to the pivsont time Oxfortl has taken the lead in this ; (liristehureh, Balliol, MtTton, Magdalen, and New (\>llew all eneouraw natural science more or less. And their recognition of it, though very small, has been most useful. r>ut at Cambridge very little is done by the eoUegos : and the two great colleges. Trinity and St. John's, have hitherto out of their large revenues liberally (\\ponded for the \ ncouragcment of some other branehos of learning, devoted literally nothing to re- ward the suciHvssful prosecution of natural science. Ibnee all the abler boys at school arc in fact heavily bribed to studv either classics or mathematics, even tliou^li their wnius is for natural science. And from tliis want of rec<^gnition of science by the colleges generally, and from a belief that it is founded on a well- grounded disapproval of science as a part of early liberal educati<.)n, and from some distrust of it as a possible WiLWN.] ON tEACHINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 289 disturber of classical traditioD, schools naturally hang back firom taking the step of incorporating natural science into their course of study. ^ Cambridge, moreover, must undergo a gi'cat change of disposition, and therefore of its institutions, before science will flourish there. For science requires above all things the ardent and devoted love of knowledge : it requires enthasiasm for study : it cannot live where teaching has taken the place of learning ; and where a nearly sta- tionary unprogressive condition of learning is tolerated, and is supposed to be even favourable to the education of students. Whatever change is made for the revival of learning at Cambridge will be favourable to the culti- vation of science there. Nothing, I believe, is of greater importance as affecting the progress of education in Eng- land than the refonns, now whispered, which must soon be made at Cambridge. Besides the immediate results of the recognition of science as a part of the higher liberal education in improving the working of schools, there are other remoter effects of much greater importance. To them, in the concluding paragraphs of an essay aheady too

• This was written in April. Since that time Trinity College has appointed

a Lectnrer in Science, and offers a Scholarship for distinguished attainments, and St. John's College has made it known that an exhibition will in future be offered in the spring for competition in natural and physical science. This is a first step, and will doubtless soon be followed by further move- ment in the same direction. When some attainments in physicjd science are looked on as a necessary part of higher culture, as a means of forming a superior mind, the great colleges will not fail to encourage these attainments by a much more extensive recognition. The great colleges will remember that they have not only to train common minds for common professions, but to keep alive and advance all kinds of human culture, and knowledge, and pliil<»sophy. And in the present century physical science is perhaps the

rcatcst school of philosophy.

U 290 JESSJYS ON J LIBER J L EDUCATION. [Essay VL long, it is not possible to do more than briefly alluda It is impossible not to feel that with the spread of scientific modes of thought are bound up all the highest interests of philosophy and religion. Much of modem logic, and philosophy, and thought is incomprehen- sible except to men trained in science. To any one tolerably conversant with the distressful state of mind of thoughtful men on some religious questions, most welcome will be any progress which may help to free our successors from the same partition of soul, the same divided allegiance, from which the present generation sufiers. It cannot long be possible for us to consent to turn out men into the world totaUy unpre- pared to meet the problems which will necessarily force themselves on their notice ; to turn out men, professedly of the highest education, totally unfurnished with true scientific method and knowledge, totally unable to meet the shallowest arguments from a false philosophy of nature brought on the side of materialism or atheism ; who will talk glibly of the supernatural, and yet be ignorant of the natural. Does it seem strange to hail as a friend to religion that scientific spirit so often denounced as hostile ? Yet how can it be otherwise ? '* Are God and nature then at strife" indeed ? At pre- sent there is secret, if not avowed, hostility between religion and science, or at any rate a distrustful tolera- tion ; nothing but active co-operation will permanently reconcile them. To endeavour not to see the results and tendencies of modem science is folly in the highest degree. The study and knowledge of the seen is sure to react on the study of the unseen ; and he will en- tertain these studies in perfect harmony, and he only, WiLSOH.] ON TEACEINO NATURAL SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS, 291 in whom the scientific and religious ideas are allowed to grow up, not in antagonism, but fearlessly and freely, side by side, co-operating in the formation of a reverent, active, and independent mind, and well-balanced judg- ment. To think otherwise is to think that half the world is God's and the other half the devU s. We inherit a noble inheritance, the achievements of the inteUectual giants of past ages carried forward by the intelligent sympathy of thousands of their fellows. It confers on its inheritors a calmness, and dignity, and confidence which will ever increase. For them no fear of to-morrow's discoveries breaks the night's rest : they utter no little shrieking cries of alarm ; they are con- fident in the power and in the ultimate unity of truth. Not to any generation is it given to outstep its place in the history of philosophy ; and the work of our genera- tion is clear : it is to ascertain what is and what is not true, by patient and trustful investigation, and to have unbounded faith in trutL To later generations it is reserved to bridge the chasm that may now seem to separate truths from truths; and to find a higher and profounder unity thim we can yet imagine. ^ This fine old world of ours is but a child Yet in the go-cart. Patience I Give it time To learn its limbs. There is a hand that guides. u 2 ^ VII. THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. BY J. W. HALES, M.A.

• • Antiquam exquiritc mat rem."

" Hiiil, native language, that by sinews weak Didst move my first endeavouring tongnc to spo.ik, And inadest imperfect words with childish trips, Half-unpronounced, slide through my infant lips, Driving dumb silence from the iiortal-dcwr Where he had mutely stU two years before : Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask Tliat now I use thee in my latter task." It may seem strange that there should exist any neces- rtity for advocating the claims of the English language to a place among the subjects of English education. liut this is not more strange than true. None of our better schools, with certain notal)le exceptions, dream of giving any attention to it. There is a gross want of adequate treatises dealing with it. No encourage- ment is given to the studying such treatises as these are : T'onsequently, the Englishman grows up in mere igno- rance of his native tongue. He can speak it, because lie has heard it sjwken around him from his earliest vears. If he has been born and l)red in what is called well-educated society, he speaks it "witli propriety." He shudders duly when he hears it spoken with ini- 294 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat VII. propriety. But his accuracy is of a purely empirical kind. If society were suddenly to countenance and adopt some outrageous solecism, there would be nothing for him but to submit. The language might be changed just as manners are. Propriety in the one case is pretty much what it is in the other. In a word, the ordinary knowledge of English is altogether one of facts, not of principles; is thoroughly superficial, not fundamental. English is an unknown tongue in England. Something is known of French, of German, of Latin, of Greek — of most languages, with this remarkable exception. But I propose now confining myself to a considera- tion of its absence, -not from the country at large, but from our schools. To begin with, how comes it to be conspicuous by its absence from our schools ? While in French schools, French is taught ; in German schools, Grerman ; why is English excluded from English schools? The principal answers to such a question are : 1. That a deep-rooted prejudice in fiivour of Latin, as the basis of what lin- guistic education there is, has been handed down from generation to generation, ever since the Dark Ages. 2. That another triumphant judgment has pronounced that the English language is too irregular to be capable of being systematically taught Such has been, and is, the power of these two prejudices, that the English lan- guage never has had, and has not that attention paid it which, as the medium of communication between so many myriads of people, as the obvious and natural basis of their education, to say nothing of the great literature belonging to it, it might naturally, expect and demand. With regard to the predominant influence of Latin, I Hales.] TEE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. 295 shall here say the less, because that subject is discussed at length in another essay contained in this volume. But I must point out how detrimental to the study of our mother-tongue that monopoly has proved. It has thrown it completely into the shade, has dwarfed and stunted it It has driven English away from the doors of our better schools, " to seek a shelter in some humbler shed/' The heir has met with no favour; a stranger has occupied his place. No doubt much of this fatal estrangement has been due to the narrow spirit in which the so-called classical studies have been pursued, which cannot live on in the light of a broader scholarship. In that linguistic dispensation which seems dawning, no language is called common or unclean. Latin can no longer stand aloof from the languages of modern literatures as if they were some inferior things, of sus- picious contact. That old exclusive regime is gone by for ever ; a truer, more catholic philology recognises the interest and importance of subjects that have for many centuries been regarded with the most languid indifference, or the supremest contempt. Thus, what- ever conclusion may be arrived at respecting the time and attention that may be still given to the old mono- polies, there can be no doubt that the manner of the study of these should be thoroughly revised ; that that Pharisaic element which still lingers tenaciously, should be most carefully expelled from it; that modern lan- guages, instead of being industriously ignored, should be perpetually recognised, both to illustrate, and to be illustrated. But till this current century, the influence of Latin has not only not been helpful : it has been deleterious. The classical languages have been the only 296 ESSjil'S Oy J UBERJL EDUCJTIOX. [Essat VII. wear: and so satisfied and delighted with them have nit-n bei-n, that not a native thread, not a home-dyed colour, nox a domestic i>attem could be tolerated. When in course of time ihe growth of a class that could never affect to W l^arnol. but yet needed some instruction, made iminrrativc the paj'ing some slight attention to the language of the peojJe, then most severely did the in- fluence of Latin damage the rising study. ITie vulgar grammar-maker, dazzled by the glory of the ruling lan- guage, knew no l>etter than to transfer to English the schemes which belonged to Latin. - Jungebat moTtoa vivia. He never dreamt that the language for which he was pnictising his ruile grammatical midwifery might have a character of its own, might require a scheme of its o\^TL He knew, or thought he knew, what the grammar of any language ought to be, and he went about his work accordingly. WTiat chance had our poor mother-tongue in the clutch of this Procrustes ? The Theseus of lin- guistic science, the deliverer, was not born yet So the poor language got miserably tortured, and dislocated, and mano-led. Who can wonder if it failed to thrive under such treatment \ if it grew haggard and deformed ? All the passers by were on the side of Procrustes ; and, when the victim shrieked at some particularly cruel strcteh of its limbs, they called it disorderly, reprobate, vicious. In these two ways then, the dominance of Latin proved baneful to the study of EngUsh ; it for many a day made that study seem despicable and unworthy— in elVect, suppressed it ; and, when at last it could no longer be suppressed, then still it overshadowed and withered it. Halm.] TBB TEACHING OF ENGLISH. 297 ' Hence, then, arose that second prejudice mentioned above as obstructing the study. The language, coerced into subjection to laws foreign to its spirit and found rebellious, got a bad name, and the usual consequences followed. It became a proverb of refractoriness. It was anathematized as utterly lawless and hopeless. Its guardians did not understand its character ; they judged it by their own narrow standard ; they could not con- ceive that there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in their philosophy; they con- signed this hapless nonconformist to profound neglect It was mad, and there was no method in its madness, they said. They took no pains to investigate its halluci-r nations ; these did not deserve so much consideration. No wonder, then, the study of English did not prosper. Men were content with Latin; they were discontented with English. This discontent tended to perpetuate itself, as it restrained those investigations which, if pursued, would have put an end to it for ever. The language was in fact condemned without a hearing. And there was no appeal from the sentence of that ill- informed court which condemned it. The mere fact that the chissics were in possession of the field, told with fearful power against the timid claimant for a place in it. Possession gives a vast advantage in all matters. In matters of education it gives an almost insuperable advantage. Parents are, for the most part, well content that their children should be educated much as they were. They are not likely to quarrel with the j^^ojrria qucB muribics of their youth. Distance lends its enchantment to that and such like horrors. Moreover, as to what changes may be necessary, they put tlieir 298 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essat YIT. trust in the schoolmaster to whom they confide their oflFspring. Schoolmasters as a race — ^whatever glorious exceptions there may be-^annot be expected to embrace readily alteration and change: they have learnt their part once and for all, and will not usually be anxious to unlearn or relcam it. They have mastered more or less adequately one particular system of training, and do not care to modify or abandon it Then if we consider how extensive the machinery of any established system- how endless its handbooks, how enormous the literature belonging to it — we shall see yet more fully what a supreme advantage possession is, and what powerful in- centives there always are to conservatism in educational subjects. The educational literature of English is yet iu its very infancy. These three considerations — the general unreadiness in schools to change their routine, the particular unreadi- ness to change it in the present case, the distinct reluc- faince to change it in favour of English, if any change at all were made — do, I think, sufficiently account for the forlorn condition in which the study of English now is, and distinctly show that no inference can fairly be drawn from that condition to the disparagement of its capabilities as an educational subject. They demonstrate emphatically that that condition is the misfortune of English, not its fault. The language has been weighed in the balances certainly, and found wanting ; but this result has been due to the incompetence of the weighers. On this point I wish especially to insist, that English has never yet received a fair trial. Till very late years indeed it has l>een left in the hands of empirics and sciolists. Better men have occasionally wondered Hales.] THB TEACHING OF ENOLISH. 299 • whether it was not worthy of more honourable treat- ment, whether it was in truth so bad as it was painted. " Ex nostratibus aliqui," writes Wallis in the seventeenth century, *'quod tamen mirandum est nescio quam per- plexam somniant et intricationem linguaa nostras ratio* nem, ut segre possit grammaticae leges subire." But our countrymen went on dreaming so. In a word, our language has been, ever since the Norman Conquest, the victim of prejudices. For more than a century it was thrown altogether in the background ; not till the close of the fourteenth century did boys in schools translate their Latin lessons into it ; not till the latter half of the niueteenth have boys begun to study it. Now is it desirable that English boys should be taught English ? And is the language teachable ? or does that prejudice against it rest on some solid founda- tion? As to the desirability that Englishmen should know something of their own language there can be little con- troversy. The most ardent disbelievers in the advisa- bility or possibility of making English a school-subject do not doubt this. If we are to understand at all what we read, and not rest content with feeble glimmerings of its sense, then some knowledge of our language must be acquired. The question then is, how this knowledge is to be acquired. The favourite answer is by learning Latin. What a singular method ! When it is remem- bered what the prime origin of English is, and of what kind the connexion of English with Latin has been, one can only marvel at this answer, and shrewdly suspect that it is but meant to allay the distress of an imeasy conscience — a conscience murmuring at the utter neglect 3*>i> ESSirS '>.%• J UBERJL EDrrjTiOy. [Emsat VII. •>f the vemaeular language, at the total devotion to an alien one. It may \)e urged that an acquaintance with Latin literature Ls invaluaMe for an understanding of English literaturvf. ThU may be tru?*. But it is surely most obvious that jur aojuaintance with Englisli is simply in*ii<[^ii5able for an understanding of English literature. But, whatever *i priori verdict one might give on this meth'xi, how does it woit ? Does the smattering of Latin which the vast majority of school- boys get, or the superior knowleiige of it which is gained by the few exceptions, really perform this alleged ser- vice 1 I think it rather obstructs it. It lights up many Eucrlish words no doubt ; but on the whole, it leaves the language in its pre\'ious darkness, or even in a deeper gloom by thro^idng films of misconstruction between it and the eyes of the student Practically, what know- ledge of English the onlinary Englishman has, is " picked up." It is of a desultory, irregular, incoherent kind. But is English teachable ? One might imagine the language showing the same indignation at such a ques- tion as the Jew showed when seemingly suspected of incapabiUty of revenge. ** Hath not a Jew eyes ? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions, &c. ?' I have already explained how it comes to Ije passible that such a question can be asked. The iiiflectiomd virtues of Latin and Greek have blinded the world to all other virtues. English, mostly lacking them, has been stigmatised as wholly grammarless.^ ' (Ja-scoviie ill hL> *' Steele GLiss " (157G) bids hia readen prajr —

• ^TIiat (iraiuniar }j;ru(lge not ut our Eugliak tODg

TkrcJiUAC it .Ntancl> by muuo^^yllubo, Aud cannot be declined as others are." UxLEB.] THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. 301 But inflections are not the soul of grammar. A lan- guage does not become ungrammatical when it passes out of that stage. The main function of grammar is concerned with more perpetual and imperishable matters. That function ceases only when a Language loses its articulateness — ceases to serve for the expression of thought — ceases to be a language. However deficient the English language may be in case-endings and such grammatical landmarks, — in power of expression, in deli- cacy, in elasticity, in versatility, it is not deficient. So that it presents endless varieties of that grammatical culminating subject of inquiry and interest — the sdn- tence. What an inestimable, inexhaustible mine of study is here ! Then the very compositeness of the language adapts it singularly well for the teacher s use. It fur- nishes him at once with abundant material. He must be duU indeed who can be at a loss for subjects for lessons in English. No doubt, should English once tiike its place as a vulgar school-subject, innumerable text-books would quickly spring into existence. CoU' sider of what a long growth our existing Latin and Greek school-book literature is ; and consider how unsatisfac- tory it still is ! What I should wish to propose is, that the linguistic studies of all our schools should begin witli English, should then proceed with the dead languages in the case of boys who are likely to have leisure to study them to any profit, and in other eases should proceed with English and living languages. The study of language in English schools should begin with English — should begin at home. The way of learning is, and must l>e, rough and thorny ; and I (lo n^if> ^x^^. wh^t I Xiffw proprjfie wiE makt k i—AJch and an roei^^ Bat if the rood <azi be iM^fvigJ at aD, if \t(\r X ftur tlr^virf:r^ r^i be g^vt r*> gp>'ar ak»^ it, and tlie t6m feet ^^n finfi a mrjtiieiir's resfjcte^ tbis b wdl worth th^ Aoiuf/. Obvion*lT, ^riiat t» mrji§t eajnesdr to be imh^l f^/T arid aimfnl at in the formal c»ami<aKeiii€iit of a f:hihY?i fAn^c^tiozi. L* to excite his interest in his studies — to give them ^ome meaning to him, let him have some inkling of their n^e. Their foil meaning will not be rrfV^raWl to him for manv a rear : that will ctow moie and more el^:ar to him all his life long, if he develops into a thoughtful man. Bat some meaning, some practical significance his studies must have for him from the l^eginning, if he is to pursue them with pleasure — that is, with the highest degree of profit. He cannot stn;tch a hand through time to catch the far-off intf5rr58t of years. If, then, he is to learn in- t<;lligibly, he mast see that there is some sense in his Htjulies, that these are not mere arbitrary burdens laid on his youthful shoulders. Otherwise, things will go but drearily with him. He will repeat with the mouth, not with the urir](;rstanding. His memory will be well stocked ; but, what is vastly more important, his mind will remain liHtlcss. Now, if we introduce a boy to the Hturly of language by putting into his hands a Latin grammar and bidding him master the declensions, how will tli(; case stand with him ? How does the case stand with liim ? What wretched drudgery those early school- flnyn luvA Is it one of the "penalties of Adam" that tliry Hliould be so ? Is it altogether boys' fault that llicir clcnicnlary tutors find them so recalcitrant ? Is it " ^ through the dulness of their nature that they do Halm.] THE TEJCHINO OF ENGLISH. 303 not love the Conjugations at first sight, or conceive a passionate attachment for the Irregular Verbs ? What a queer thing their nature would be if it did kindle in them either flame ! At all events, it does not And the ordinary boy's early life is spent in a war of indepen- dence against his Primer. What is the genitive case of the Third Declension to him, or he to it ? Then, for the teacher, is the work more inspiriting for him ? Can his enthusiasm relieve and dissipate the direful tedium ? Can he brighten these lack-lustre exercises ? " Pater ipse colendi Hand facilem esse viam voluit."

• • Through me you pass into the city of woe," might

well be inscribed over the doorway of the lower depart- ments of our classical schools. " All hope abandon, ye who enter here. " I venture to believe that if the commencement of the classics were postponed for a while, and the time so saved devoted to some attention to English, great ad- vantage would accrue. Consider how expedient and profitable it is to turn to account the boy's powers of observation, to enlist them in the service of his educa- tion. Why not, then, if you wish to provoke him to the study of language, bring them to bear on the language he hears spoken around him ? Here is a world full of interest all round him. Why not en- courage him to gaze well at it and air his nascent faculties there, instead of rudely dragging him forth into a terra incognita^ where to him prevails outer darkness? Can such a wild, precipitate relegation profit ? You divorce peremptorily his studies and his daily life, so that he cannot discern any sign of any ^'•"jiTi^ '•^'^T^^eL "iiHaL. Ym '^acs tim into a £ir - imn-^ ;zij^?i:r?: "r-iis ^aa:: ir? 5cns^ and luursh to his 7 ^Tn^r iiiTT:. "^7 ^-^ ^"iTTrtr Ti. i:^ to Ikten to the Tij--i 1:^1 Tr»:.:k LriiPTr: izzi: Ar? tie words thev inr-r i.r Tr ct-i t;- 5:r i:tr:ziZir * E^^ ihev eontain no Jt^==« L- -jiii ltt t r±. fi^r Ire&r-Ti-r* Are ihev. too, not ■• "Tl l^T i_- fT^ij c j-z:r:i^«r 'c«rgin wirh his native r^T ji»:c;s in that 5*nence be based ■rli .1 i ilrra-iT to s*jme extent T -^T — -Zrzszr^Zr^L inieqiireted, made - -Ji*Li SvIt^It. tlfs is the rational course.

• • "J—

I ■■ HxT-n^: r" -!?•:■ 1 f»: frnri :i-? 5r'e?iinen that lies ready r: 2.L2L r- t: - :~:c : vlit a Lmjuacre is, let him, i: T:r: t. '>--. Tir»:-re: r> anorher langnage, dead or Ii-T^z^:. ^^H z* z 'Cliz ZrTryy.': listlessness be now alio- Til:-:-- ■ 'aTH -. r i l:j-^t -^r.-s- fall on the pages of ■iii^ A'-::'-ij!> ' ^^^^ HOC what seemed so utterly per- rlrxrzj n '^^icIt^s. irr^Ii^vanr, now wear some sioTii- -p* .^— - - - 9-^^-^ \ ► !i m-f^taphor I have used above, o all levellc-d and smoothed ; awk'.v..7 ; f: --<. ^Liirp th^^ms, sudden ruts mav still rn.':: ". :'^r v,\:\-:V.!\r : lur it will no lonircr be a road \v:.: 1: ' :.. :s r.- whor^. He who plods along it will 10' i ill :!:•::■ knowl^dire that it will lead him to a w:»r:';v i.lcsriiiAriou. and he will sometimes catch a L.li::i: <<.\ in the fiir distance, of its fair lofty towers. r>ii: it is neioss;in* to explain more fully of what kind rl.i^ early initiation in the study of language is to be. Tau En^^lish so take the place of Latin? In what way it to 1h» taught ? H^LBs.] THB TEACHING OF ENOLISH. 305 The pupil comes to the teacher with the power of expressing his ordinary wants and ideas already acquired. ^ He is abeady a master of language, to a certain extent. This power, this masterhood, such as it is, he has ac- quired by imitation. Along with it he has gained what power of thinking he has ; for what the body is to the soul, that are words to thought. The pupil, then, is already able to wield in some sort the great instrument of language. But he does not know his own power. Is it not time that his attention should be called to it ? — that he should be made aware of the crown that has descended upon his head, of the sceptre that has been placed in his hand ? Why treat this young prince, with his regal endowments, like some beggar with never a rood of land or a single subject ? The supreme necessity now is, to awaken in him a sense of his power, — to tell him of his kingly gifts, of the nature and extent of his dominion, that he may without delay do his endeavour to order it aright and secure its future prosperity. It is no time just now to augment his empire ; that is large enough in all conscience. It is time to attract his eyes to this great instrument of language that he wields, in the form in which he wields it. Other forms he may hereafter grasp and handle all the more iQteUigently if he is taught now to manage this one. It is time now that he should look at and explore this one. All philo- logical questions may be, for the present, deferred. Ety- mology, history, and the like investigations, shall come in their time. He should now study language purely and simply as the medium for expressing his thoughts. He should be taught to observe how faithful a mirror it may be of his ideas, if rightly adjusted, — how flexible SM«i wmjsn i^ ^ TTfamn MmrcMmx, nbur til ail ikag^ haw kw- dr^^^u^ SBL jBnF*iOifnriu£- Hi- TJtw'M be snde to feel n^aed ao fiiSr when w If ■ ■! i:iK gigrr.Tff-gTiiTi if * lA'jks^oL/ Ix nsaiar vod^ be sboold miL iriiiisr^ jl 1:3 gsBuy^nfyn^ \mi xAa%^ tbe opeia- iiois ix iitr umiL Ix iB!!i. lit fiknjd be made tbiHoaglily iawiiha* "m "dii m^ir-^ruin — -wt^l 'jht aeniciice in all its "nckSTkr^ STTiTjtih uhl ^.imgiHCsi : sboold acquaint himself -nuimmnijy -wift 'nait Ti^adnL ^« eacii ccber of the various "& of Ji irrzL 1^ TwiH^^siaas cf the general sense di:!L mtf iirftrnaa. toix iiie agxjficaiice erf* the order 7L iriu:!! iiit^ f-roxtf:. usii i2at resohs diat woold ensue "inuL LIT isbsCt^isiiiia. s* zttssoei of them, — ^in short, -isftf sDiot^ re~i-ay t^ucvas ex{aessiTenes8 of the I JiiiK ':3I2^ fCQXjpssHC K^zsc dcKS Dot look visionary.

• %nT^ jLTt vszu,\iit :c itr Tiigv-r inicQdenial effort than the

TcestfLT TDrini-rr-txsriiKir aTssem evokesL They can use xbfc: TY -^'^T.r T»:vfir^ if iciy they are permitted and tai^:az:iirf£. ziiQ ^^niz^fijtd zo le jarrots and stifle their >^iC ii.rilh^iii.'fe. Tiis Sojcy of the sentence seems .ujrrkrc-i t: irr&i^iLllT" a^r&kcii, develop, order these TC-vfrs; — t: 5ib:ire:i liii •"period of darkness" (as the VT-^g: :-ilI.-i ibe aire? liai preceded Mohammed) that 5ccvi;.^ rev oTcJ- ao miJiy precious years — ^to call into , .-^:c ii:»i Sfawaiy vbat is at present for so long a while 11 .:>•;'::: r\*r=L ai>d void. Boys act like rational beings V Sc - il'rT Tt :>rJ against tasks that can scarcely be said ro rt\:^:ire f^- ejtervise any intelligence. No wonder so iujix;v i\f tbe ablest n^en were the most tzoublesome and Halm.] THE TBACEINQ OF ENGLISH. 307 insorrectionarir when at school Nor let anyone think that this suggestion aims too high. K a child can ask questions such as would puzzle the greatest philosopher, let us rememher that the greatest philosopher can say things such as the simplest child could understand. In very truth the philosopher is sadly wanted in our school- rooms. The better arrangement, the enlightenment of facts is wanted. To be sure, the pupil will not com- prehend at once the full force and excellence of any principles given him ; but the bare facts with which he is now fed, does he realize them at once ? At all events, whatever prominence you may concede to principles, the instruction ought always to be based on principles which will, in process of time, unveil themselves to him. Like the loveless old hag, in the old story, who when the knight in obedience to his promise has, amid the mingled scorn and pity of his fellows, married her, turns out of a sudden an exquisite beauty, so the lessons of one's boyhood, however dull and dreary at the time, ought at last to be found the containers of what is true and beautiful. They ought at last to be recognised as the harmonious limbs of a well-formed, soul-inspired body. Are they so recognised ? Or are they found a sorry col- lection of odd members, many a one of them mis-shapen and distorted, that could never have beeja compacted harmoniously together, with a spirit to rule and glorify them? Such are facts when they are not connected with principles. Yet is what is called classical instruc- tion at our schools anything better than a more or less copious superfusion of facts ? The logical study of the sentence would, at leaat, in one respect, help to repair this distressing dullness. " A beam in darkness — let it X2 yir^ MS£.£I3 OS ^ UMMRiL MUCCATIOy. [Emat Vn. T^an \*:^ ws3i£A be fcmiid eq[iijl to die stady— '± :5hirT JT'jsId. <«o£eETe an interest in it — can l)e sbiwo. frinL f2aCJLZl^ts. Tbe "^eompoond sentence" in Lizin. ::b^ 2CDii>t^i s serienl of our higher schools with TTP'ri i=i!V!*=ae^ Ti'icT^zzi ali-i* teadbing of a high intel- 'b^em 2*:-r: i^ ir:ti^i to bear npon it, and the fruit 1^ ^ >>^ '•viLiii "v^^ -iuk. is illmnined. But in schools rf & irijii j: "^-tt 5«:»!XJkI txder, the ** analysis of sen- leniiri*'^ Iifc^ :»iiac icT^ed to be a perfectly possible ]esEciL-5;L:;»t*ni fr-c rcpG? of no conaderable age. Before Til* jfcSJcoic. :l ib» SeTisied Code, it was very com- ThialrT ZA:::rLZ bL S^Msioml and British Schools, and ir^cui I.:- 'i^r wiiii^ ii>? reach of pupils who enjoyed so itw :w:-:c-5ci>:£ adTaniages as do the children who aiii^caii ^-n^ I T»atTc* » r^Srve dien, that by beginning our study cc Ji2;r:ifc^ wiii Tj- g;i-gh . and b^inning it in the above- sCiRc^i wiv. rival sain misht be secured both in rsoftrc :: ilf ^niy of language, and also in respect vC CtC'tril iLTclLec-niil awakening and activity, " We >^^ 'v-jT '^^ "^ 5ays Ben Jonson, advocating the ■12. :: :lr ni^n-o^jJ to«igue to some formal attention iiui n^^Tzii-nt. "from the opinion of rudeness and whfrewirh it is mistaken to be diseased ; i-v>w i^T? ^^py ^i^f it and matchableness with other ivvr^iT-i-*^ : «>* ••-^•e^s th^ mU of our own children and y,v^*.^ *W *L\wi< r ^y it. athd adixmce their knawledge" \iw. yc: Jv^son knew no truer mode of dealing with ¥!ii4:-i>h ihiin binding it to the framework of the Latin oTAUiiiiai^ of his time, and constraining it into the same ^'Hx\ He saw clearly oiough what facilities of educa- \>u wejR> being wasted, what pearls were being trodden Hales.] THE TEACHING OF ENOLISH. 309 under foot. But he, and many another thinker^ before and fidnce, saw and deplored this wilful waste (what woeful want comes of it !) in vain. In schools where, rightly or wrongly, Latin and Greek form the staple of the studies, I am convinced those languages would thrive the better, if the medium through which they are taught were better understood At present we teach ignotum per ignotius. Our grand- fathers avowedly followed the same method with regard to Greek. The grammars of that tongue over which they groaned and detested life, were written in Latin. The old lexicons rendered in Latin the meanings of the words which that bewildered young ancestry "looked out.*' That remarkable arrangement has been repealed. But has the young student of to-day a much superior knowledge of the now current^ the obvious, medium of instruction? May not his posterity wonder how he could make satisfactory progress, when he understood so meagrely the language in which his learning was tendered to him ? We teach our children to walk, before we send them to the dancing-master. How obscure, how incomprehensible, must be, and is, a great part of the school-books in vogue, because the users of them have not been taught something of their mother-tongue I How can a boy be expected to know what a case is — what is meant by the subject, by the predicate of a sentence, by a dialect, by illative, causal, and other innumerable like terms which abound in his grammar, if he is not taught? An intelligent boy, we are told, ^ See quotations from Molcaster's " Elementarie '^ (1582), and BrinBley's " Grammar School," in " Education in Early England," by F. J. Furnivall, Esq. (1867). 310 MSSATM OJ A laOUL MKCJmar. [ItauTTIL MiSi**yifkxBp' ^^Km\wBEpxtMM\^ But what of the Ws tkatt aie im* iBtcffifatl Aad k their Bame mut or legion ? And in tiie CMe cf die jBieStipfnt boT, is tkis ^ pieki]^ iq»* melhod qinle afe and mxisdsLtiory \ Will his ideas be wifl i iipiiJi deir and lucid, or will they not rather be somewhat ofaacme and tnitAd ? Tet in these mattira definitcness and acenracv are esrsentiaL A confosed notion is woiae dian none ; and the clerer boy, as will haj^ien nnder some systemis of education, is worse off than the dollaid. In schooLi whose pupils are not destined to prt)ceed from them to a UniTendtr, or to a life of studious leisure and opportunity, En^ish should, I think, be made the prominent linguistic and literary study. Their time is too limited for any pretence at mastering Latin and Greek, and should not be squandered operose nihil ngendo. What hope could they hare of ever enjoying Virgil in the original ? That poet will but become to their imagination the sort of magician — the sayer of dark rtcntences — that he was to the Middle Ages. They will «lig but little gold from that profound mine : they canuot give to this work the necessary labor tmprobus. A(wcc« xoZg woraror oprcr, woXu wpoarpififA a^epror IvBtk, for is not the public detriment grievous, when the energies of young scholars are misdirected and wasted? But it may be naid that though the youth cannot reach the goal, yet the running is good for him. This is quite true ; but thr;rc are goals and goals, and each one with its own ^ Wlint iwU}T ban not perpetually to notice and deplore his pnjHl's ignor- anc<! of Erif^lLih 1 I have again and again found enon in the oompoaitioDs of piipiU, at the (Jnivenity and elsewhere, that sprang solely from inability U) iindcrHUnd the Kiij^liMh original. Halm.] TEX TEACH INO OF ENOUSH. 311 course, its own difficulties, its own advantages. Which one is the best for this youth? I may presume to suggest that that study has many recommendations which seems most possible to pursue in what moments of leisure the student may have in after life. Would there be much hope of his returning to his Virgil, and pushing on his studies in that direction ? (Of course I speak of the ordinary mortal, and not of aDy exceptional luminary.) I think not His imperfect knowledge of the language, coupled with its excessive difficulty, his ignorance of the ideas which permeate and inspire it, his consequent incompetence to appreciate and sympathize with its sentiment and tone, seem to render any such hope preposterous* For him in all truth it is << not better done, as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade. Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair." He does not know how to conduct himself before such presences. He knows nothing of their classical ways and arta To him they seem uninteresting and frigid. In fact, he is not at all at his case in their society, he cannot converse naturally with them, justly estimate and admire their calm placid beauty, their noble, dignified grace. He must find society more accordant with his tastes and abilities. For such an one, surely his native language and literature should be miide the foundations of his linguistic and literary education. On these he will be able to build subsequently, to continue the structure commenced at school : — and consider how broad these foundations are. It is not unfrequently said that these subjects do not present sufficient difficulties to the Iciimer. This is an ancient traditional objection, which si: ESB^ATE GF ^ ZaSSLdL MBDC£OaK^ [bur TIL fiURshr esmiitir smriirf mndi longec. Il is liie Toiee of ixiii^ ibfli knew nadnng iduappor abont liie KngfiBh topgne. tiiiit did ussi paroem: it }uid idicomB and chazac- teristict' oT ixB ovx : in w^Hee mxDd fgnrilmri:^ bad bred WBsyfsnrpL I fnQY^^oBe ix» a Ca^eok, liie use cf tiioae fine, mlitkr jianick^ wiioae predae infinBDoe is to ns so diffi- enh v.* delermmc^ aeemcid pecfecchr c^Tfions and nataiaL Wtts Vii^ eoDBciaQB bow w^D-sd^ insiipenlde tlie lan- guage be irrote was. wit&t a wadd of trouUe bisaUatiTes W€S^ ereadiig for bk future readeESy wbat a forest of trwoeis '^ Sbould FiTigrlmh erer Iteoome a dead language (a wiK>l]T imppobablT SEuppostkn) would it be thougbt deroid of difficulties ? Would tbe scholiasts and o(»u- mentators find no place for tiidr aenm^i ? Indeed, axe tliejr now widiout woric, tbe editois %A oar Ekiglish claaeics^ tbe autbois of treatises <m our English lan- guage \ Is Shakespeare's diction always so transparent ? Can the reader nerer help understanding what Milton means ? To go back to earlier English writings, any one who opens Air. Morris's Specimens of Earhj English^ (qt instance, may soon encounter difficulties in abun- flance, difficulties not only of a verbal kind. But I have already, alx>ve, glanced at this accusation that English is ill-adapted for the teacher's purposes. I do not think it lias much weight. Much more might be said on this subject But I sliall not now attempt to say it 1 shall be now content if in any way I have excited or fostered a doubt in any r<*a(l(»r H mind as to the wisdom of the educational course III j>r(»H(nit followed in this country, — ^as to whether we avail ourHclvcs satiflfactorily of the means at our service, or rnthor, Htrangc^ly ignore and neglect them. VIIL ON THE EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. BY W. JOHNSON, M.A. According to the custom of certain public schools, a classical teacher enters upon his duties as soon as he has taken his degree as a Bachelor of Arts, without undergoing any professional training, without attending any course of lectures on education, without having read any book on the subject. He is supposed to conform to the traditions of the establishment to which he attaches himself, and in case of doubt or obstruction to apply for advice or support to senior teachers and tx, the head-master. HiB outfit for this enterprise may consist, and certainly did, twenty years ago, often con- sist of a few score classical volumes read and pencilled more or less carefully, a few drawers full of manuscripts of his own composition, or copied from the stock of a private tutor, and a few commonplace books containing the notes taken at college or university lectures. It is the same stock with which he would have entered on the business of a private tutor at the university. He is fortunate if he has been kept waiting for a vacancy long enough to have spent a few months at Dresden, Rome, or Tours ; for it is in the first few months after 314 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat VIII. the degree that the academical mind parses through its fermentation, nor is there any time of life in which knowledge is acquired more rapidly or assimilated more thoroughly. If one could afford to remain un- employed, and the school could dispense with one's services, it would be in the highest degree desirable to assure oneself a considerable interval between the undergraduate's excitement and the schoolmaster's ser- vitude. It is not that one is put into the grooves of professional duty blindly or even hastily, since it generally happens that one has been able, as a lad of eighteen at school, to observe the processes of the master ; and to the college student not many topics of conversation are more familiar than the defects and absurdities of his school, few convictions stronger than that of his being himself intended by Providence to supply and amend them. The incepting Bachelor is likely to be at once fervent in admiration of an idealized institution, and of one or two living persons belonging to it, and bitter in contempt for the actual practice of most of the men who are making a livelihood out of the business. Having earned his appointment by success in the dead languages, he is instigated on the one hand by the wish to communicate what he has himself learnt from honoured academical instructors, and on the other hand by a generous impatience yearning for a very different kind of knowledge. The very skill in classical composition which he has gained in ten or twelve years of training seems to him, on his first professional attempts, incommunicable ; for the young boys who are thrown upon him are surprisingly remote from him, and he cannot remember what he was at their age. JoHHSOirO SDUCATION OF THS REASONINO FACULTIES. 315 The more he tries to bring his pupils up to the standard of erudition fixed for him at college^ the more does he marvel and shudder at their feebleness. He has lived for four years with robust intellects; he has now to live amongst incomprehensibly small and shallow minds. Enthusiasm forbids him to believe that boyhood is stupid and frivolous ; surely it must be the parents, the gover- nesseSy the preparatory schools, the selfish and narrow- minded people who rule the public school itself, that are answerable for the failure. Could one but bring to bear on these obscurantists the spirit of the university, Burely the face of things would soon alter. What is it 'that is needed? one asks. Conscientious accuracy, syntax treated deductively, rigid Atticism, unbending orthodoxy in Latin idiom, constant reference to the latest German authorities, unflinching surrender of old- fashioned formularies, a sort of Protestantism in scholar- ship, — this is what the young schoolmaster, so far as human frailty allows, professes and practises. This he does strictly in the spirit of duty, denying himself all the while ; for in his heart he has always liked some- thing else, let us call it history, or philosophy, far more than Porsonine. In fact, he thinks philology, or the critical study of Greek and Latin literature, rather dry and rather shallow : he teaches what he knows of it, which is indeed far less than he at the time imagines, because he has been told by his Alma Mater to count it a jewel, and experience convinces him that it is con- vertible into very substantial British gold. If he had his own way, he would be preaching the superiority of Bossuet to Luther, the importance of Celtic aflSnities, the craniology of the South Seas ; or, if drawn back by 316 ESSJFS Oy J LIBERAL EDUCATION, [Essay VUL the old Muses, he would at least rather descant on Bopp than on Jel£ But to a certain extent^ with certain modifications, he must serve the world ; and, inasmuch as scholarships and fellowships are manifestly won by prosody and the oblique oration, he must give his fifty or sixty hours a week without an audible murmur to parsing, and scanning, and saying by heart : only he does all this, he flatters himself, with more integrity than his elders. To this ascetic missionary spirit come the first holidays as an emancipation of the mind. From the images in the mirror one turns to the live things moving on the bank beyond the river. At a leap one plunges into that which one believes to be the philosophy of the present^ or at least of the esoteric present which is to leaven the coming age. Then, if human affairs were but conducted at all methodically, then would l)e the time for initiation into society, for the give and take of London life, for contact with cheerful and enlightened men. But circumstances push the young schoolmaster into moping, varied only by desultory reading. He has lost the precious sympathy and the wholesome mirth of undergraduate friends. His intellootUiU appetites must be fed without social cookery. He is to fill up, as best he may, by uncritical and uncritieized reading, the lamentable gaps which a so-called lil>eral education has left in his mind. A strong will, no doubt, would take him to the persevering study of law or physics, or of a modem, or of an Oriental language. But men of strong will do not so verv often become schoolmasters: the work of schools must be done by men who have for the most part not enough energy for sustained inquiry: the classical JoHKsoii.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 317 teacher is generally a possible clergyman in his strength and in his weakness, not a lawyer, nor a man of science, nor an archaeologist. Let it be supposed then, that into the hands of such a young man as we have imagined, a successful versifier with a leaning towards modern culture, but with no genius, no fixed resolution, no encyclopaedic training, in fact, a very imperfectly educated man, falls a book of force and breadth, opening up like "a great instauration" noble vistas of knowledge, convincing him of his miBerable ignorance, and making him believe in some occult force of reason that works below and across the currents of * pubUc habit and of rhetorical influences. Is it necessary to tell any reader of this volume, that there are such books ? Does any one read to the end of these pages, who has not, some time or other, felt the trumpet-sound of passionless reason, putting to shame his hereditary scruples ? No need to name an author ; no one can safely do so: utter a name, and you are henceforth to walk with a label round your neck. It is enough to say that, if Cleombrotus by reading one book was lifted into the belief of his immortality, a young Englishman also may ' have been by one book of a fellow-countryman impelled, in spite of tangled and conflicting sentiments, to fall into the interminable procession of those who find no rest till the secrets of the imiverse are disclosed. There is a great gulf between those who are satisfied with examining and renovating the mental products of past times, whether they be ecclesiastical antiquaries, or editors of old books, or imitators of old word-melodies, and those others who study the past chiefly out of gratitude, partly for ZlH asjrs oif a uberal mducatmos. [EflMTTm- wammgii againut error, but are aD the wUe atiaining heyfmd the duration of sin^ Ih^ea tovaidi tihe en- largement of fruitful knowledge and the prograa of 1 lelove^l mankind* Once having tasted of this great river^ how could one turn bock to the cisterns of dead literature t A tea^;her once for all inoculated with a taste for inductive reasoning, however incapacitated himself by nature and by habit for really partaking in discovery, r^an hardly fail to have his mind, such as it is, set upon undertakings different from the collation of parallel passagrss in the ancient authors. Mi^t he not even then, when leisure and freedom from woildly cares were lost, gather together some scientific infor- mation, and fertilize therewith the ingenuous youth subjected to his influence 1 There can be no study of science without constant reference to number, weighty and linear measurement Jfe, therefore, who has been cruelly lefk for twenty years of adolescence to drift about without these anchors and compasses, must renounce the notion of l)eing a man of science. Granted : yet he may create an inquisitivencss ; he may open for others the doors of chambers which he may not himself explore. In such a case it may seem possible, and, if this be an illusion, it is at least an honourable illusion, to attend lectures and give out some of the teaching in a form availalJo for younger minds, to collect books, to pick tlio ])rains of better educated friends, to skim the history of science and put the biography of inductive ])hilosophers in as fair a light as the lives of orators and poots, to encourage any gleam of a talent for JoHKflOM.] EDUCATION OF THB REASONINO FACULTIES. 319 obfiervation^ to encourage in particular the instinct of the collector, and as far as possible to turn collection into classification^ to propound little puzzles in pneu- matics or the like, to get together and display a little apparatus of scientific instruments and toys. K such attempts have been made, and have produced but little effect, set down the failure to weakness of purpose ; but conclude not that they were in themselves erroneous attempts. Fifty years ago it would have been thought rather paradoxical to deny that parents and grown up people generally ought to open the eyes of the young at table, and in walks, to the curiosities of nature. The very Romans, whom the philological educators profess to honour, learnt and taught all that they could of the properties of matter. When the phi- lologists stooped so low in accommodation to the spirit of the age as to ingraft on linguistic teaching a year's course of comparative geography, and preluded this geography with a chapter on the solar system aud a diagram to explain the seasons, they were unconsciously eSing a principle, they were inttoducmg scie J If horror-stricken at their own act, let them take com- fort ; they were doing what Virgil wished to do, and Cicero thought he had done. It is not pretended that one who gives his spare hours and his spare cash to a smattering of scientific informa- tion, which is to be beaten out into a mere film on the memories of boys, has any right to be reckoned even as a camp follower in the army of searching adventurers. Nothing short of an incorporation into the school-work in which boys are systematically examined, with all the dark background of penal necessity, can be held to do 320 ESSJrS ON A LTBERAL MNTCJnOS. [bur TIIL jxmtice to the daims of aci^iee. Widwat m pofiect obligation a study has no root in a achooL And jet it maj seem strange and sad that m man actually living with boys, and having no other object than their good, should not be able effectually to do what an intelligent man can do for his children ; elicit their curiosity by directing their attention to natural phenomena, and, without consideration of reward or punishment, open their minds to contemplate the forms of life^ and explore the sequences and uniformities of the inorganic world. It is painful to enumerate all that we leave unnoticed ; the '* natural questions" which a Seneca would have asked, which we, the distant heirs of Seneca, either slight or dread. We force our pupils to say in Latin verse, that sounds to me almost as tike voice of the Fairy Queen sunmioning the rhymer, '^ Happy is he who hath been able to learn the causes of things, why the earth trembles, and the deep seas gape ;* and yet we are not to tell them« Virgil humbly grieved, but we grieve not, that we cannot reach these realms of wonder. A full-grown educated Englishman climbs a few steps to a telescope standing by Napoleon's trophy, gazes for a minute, comes down awed with a new sense of the earth's motion : so quickly has the splendid sphere we call Jupiter passed from the field of vision. It is then a new thing to him to feel and know that the earth ia moving. The bright nymph, who brings messages from the gods, is well called the daughter of Wonder, Iris Thaumantias. The English Thesetctus is condemned, for fear of being desultory and superficial, to keep aloof from those who can make liim wonder and inquire. On the first of July, every J0HK805.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 321 year (says a naturalist), whether it has been a cold or a warm June, the spiky purple loosestrife rises into her place on the banks of the Thames. It is no hindrance to the growth of a literary taste to be taught something of the earth's relations to the sun ; of the insignificance of atmospheric changes compared with that solar power which lies beyond the shallow rain-clouds. It is of the very essence of poetry to look at the flower and think that, by reason of the sun's steUar course carrying the planet with it, the flower does not blow twice in the same point of heavenly space. What would Lucretius have thought of men who knew, or might know such things, and were afraid to tell the young of them for fear of spoiling their perception of his peculiarities? How would Ovid flout at us if he heard that we could unfold the boundless mysteries contained in his germinal saying, "All things change, nothing perishes,'* and passed them by to potter over his little ingenuities. If our minds were well stored and active, we might incidentally throw out many hints about plants and animals, and stars, we might rid boys of many illusions about sound, light, and heat, without making any de- duction from the hours given to the study of language and literature. As it is, our laborious games absorb much of the time which, in the days of Miss Edgeworth and Mr. Joyce, would have been spent in training the eye to observe things passing in field and hedge-row. Games are so absorbing that they prevent boys, even when not playing, but sauntering, from thinking or talking of any other topic ; and in the holidays there is hardly a father who tries to divert his son's mind from dogs and horses ; nor can I bring to mind more Y 322 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat VIII. than one or two that have sent their children, when obliged to stay in London, to the museums and lectures, which might, to a great extent, supply the deficiencies of school. With all the worship of the horse, no boy knows, by way of home-taught knowledge, what is the true name for a horse's knee. With all their love of boats, they think that a heavy boat, other things being equal, goes faster than a light one down stream. Several boys have a decided taste for machinery, and in particular for locomotive steam-engines ; but even these boys cannot state the principle of the engine. Ignorance and indifference such as this cannot, I am sorrowfully convinced, be cured by the occasional pro- pounding of scientific puzzles, by the display of scientific toys, by reproducing in talk what has been carried away from lectm'es. I have tried aU this, not indeed with perseverance, but with genuine eagerness. The attempts were made mainly in conformity with the teaching of that very remarkable man, who ought not to be forgotten, the late Dean of Hereford, Dawes, of King's Somborne, whose village school was, about 1849, the hope and delight of all who wished to make peasants think. His pamphlet, suggesting many charming household expe- riments, was obeyed faithfully in my pupil-room ; the only easy day of the seven was made a day of labour, week after week, in preparing experiments. What a man of no genius and of no sort of scientific or mathe- matical training could do by hunting amongst friends for information, was done strenuously. Physical geo- graphy, in those days a rather popular subject, was engrafted, as far as possible, on the school exercises in JOHSSOW.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 323 compaxative or historical geography. Visitors were pressed into the service to give lectures on the me- chanical powers, on astronomy, on geology. Tables of specific gravities and heat-conductivities hung on the walls, with zoological charts, and hydrographical and geological maps. Once a week a paper containing four or five questions, got up by reading scores of volumes of scientific voyages and travels, was hung up for volun- teers, questions such as these : — (1) " A navigator keeps dipping his thermometer into the sea to take the tem- perature of the surface water : he finds a sudden change, and infers that he has come to a shoal. Why ? " (2) " A bridge built partly of cast, partly of wrought iron, is insecure. Why?" (3) "In surveying at sea they take a base line by sound, by observing how many seconds intervene between the flash and the report of a gun fired in a boat some way off. They multiply the number of seconds by 1090, and so get the number of feet between ship and boat. But they have to add a foot for every two degrees of thermometer above freezing-point Why? — In setting these questions, which were always intermingled with zoology, much use was made of the Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry. The questions were in a great measure the fruit of undisguised "cramming," so much so that he who set them cannot himself at this distance of time answer some of those which remain amongst his papers : but to read for this purpose such books as Erraann's Siberia, Wrangel's Siberia, Darwin's Voyage round the World, Forbes on Glaciers, Carpenter's Zoology, Reid on Storms, Herschel's Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, and the like, seems, on calm reflection, a Y 2 324 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat Till. more satisfactory emplojrment than the reading of Cople- ston's Prselectiones, or Muller's Doriana Of what arc called results obtained, no boast shall be made. It I was at least better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. On reviewing these early attempts at the enlargement of boyish minds, it now seems that, over and above the insurmountable obstacles presented to an untrained teacher struggling alone against his own misconceptions as well as the littleness of others, there must have been one fatal defect, the mention of which would supersede the need of reference to any other hindrance. There was hardly any subject-matter for criticism. The boys did no exercises: nothing but a few papers of answers to a few questions, and perhaps a map or two differing firon> common maps in the notice taken of economic geology^ It is a superficial and disappointing work to communicate^ knowledge to young boys without frequent reiteratioiP- and close examination. In evidence given before the? Public Schools Commission certain eminent philosophers decliired their belief that the elements of science could be with ca^c made known to young boys ; and on the high authority of Mr. Faraday^ the Commissioners seem to have at once formed an opinion to the same effect But Mr. Faraday has probably never examined those children whom he used so charmingly and brilliimtly to keep listening and watching for an hour, and whom at the end of the hour he would invite so winningly to his magic semicircle. No one who witnessed that tnily beautiful spectacle of a sage 8uiix)unded by happy spark- ling faces of children could think any teaching of school-

• This was written before Mr. Famdav 8 death.

JoHVSov.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 325 masters worth mentioning. There never can be in any school such a teacher. The remembrance of him as he appeared in those hours is delightful and unique. Yet there is no sacrilege in doubting whether he would have found on the morrow of one of his lectures anything like an accurate reproduction of a tenth of the lesson given on paper by a tenth of the learners. No child would ever forget that he had seen a diamond burnt; but few would have been able at the end of a week to prove the hoUowness of flame, or the heaviness of carbonic acid gas. Up to a certain age boys are generally eager and attentive listeners, and when their attention is kept up not only by a sweet and noble manner, but by marvellous demonstrations, their eyes and souls seem to vie with the carbon burning in oxygen. But we cannot, as Mr. Faraday told the children, bum a diamond every day. The man of genius cannot do the school's drudgery. Without demonstrations, a lesson in natural history or in natural philosophy would not be very different in method from a lesson in grammar. With demonstrations, it would closely resemble a lesson in geography. The terminology of a science can no doubt be learnt by boys ; but it would be learnt through a long course of forgettings and remindings ; and it is the regular school- master, not the lecturer, much less the man of originality and research, who will stand the wear and tear of this Sisyphean labour. Nor indeed would the reasoning faculties, beyond the rudimentary powers of attention and memory, be expanded by this study of terminology. A show of mental activity is easily made by recourse to a vulgar heart and a cheap force. The emulation of young boys will keep up a phosphorescence without the 326 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay Vlll combustion of a solid. You may think boys are im- proving their minds when they are merely playing a game. Classwork with the young hoys is very much like a game in which the master is the principal player. In the earlier years of public school life the liveliest boys are making scores in school as in the playground. One in a hundred has a real desire of knowledge for its own sake — knowledge apart from imaginative excitement. The tutor may teach the individual pupil just as the father can teach his son, and half an hour of this is worth some hours of competition in class. But we are to find some method which will at once nourish the love of truth and subject whole classes to disci- pline, some task wliich the schoolmaster can accomplish a thousand times without special preparation, and yet with a certainty of bringing his mind to bear autho- ritatively on subject minds. There are two processes in wliat may be called the classical method of instruc- tion ; construing with parsing, which may be called the oral analysis of sentences, and composition with the altering of exercises. In certain schools a long and unbroken tradition, sustained by much genuine faith and honest energy, has established these habits of literary work on a footing which seems to be secure from scepticism or egotism. It seems, after long practice and much consideration, that there is a solid and suf- ficiently Ijroad theory for these empirically established habits. Giving up the old distinction between demon- strative and catechetical teaching, one would say that oral analysis and the correction of exercises are two forms of criticism ; and the theory is, that efiectual instruction is e ' uction. Using the terms Johnson.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 327 rhetoric and logic in the medisBval sense, I will venture to say that I was taught by men who applied criticism to rhetoric, and I have taught myself to apply criticism to logic as well as to rhetoric. With many oscillations, and much infirmity of purpose, I have for twenty-two years, with classes of sixty, of forty, of thirty, with sets of pupils varying from twenty to three, and ako with single pupils, cultivated what is called taste, or the art of expression, in conformity with an excellent tradition, and in obedience to academical authorities of the highest order. Nor is it in this paper asserted or implied that propriety of language is not a more attainable result of classical training than correctness of thought. But it has of late years become manifest, that what^ was taken for classical taste by those who did battle against useful knowledge was, to a great extent irrational imitation and phrase-mongery. Taste after all is not a mere cultivated instinct or perception, like an car for music. It is discrimination, a kind of reasoning. A logician need not be ashamed to study those curious artifices by which Virgil heightens the eflfect of his statements ; in

• • hypalkge" and " hendiadys" there is scope for rational

choice. It is one thing to put together dissimilar words, as Tacitus does, for poetical effect ; another thing to use two similar words where one will do, as Cicero does, for mere copiousness of sound. The monstrous fatuities which disfigure iEschylus are condemned by the clear head of an Aristophanes, and can be proved to be bad. Amongst the worthies whose names are used as bludgeons to beat us with, there was at least one whose taste was inextricably combined with his reason- ing powers, — Mr. Fox. He would not have abetted the 328 E8SATS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (Smat YUL defenders of tihe classical faith in teaching boys to wrap their truisms in the drapery of Cicero; but he would have encouraged them to state a case or tell a story like Herodotus, Euripides, and Ovid. Think and write like Mr. Fox, and you will use Latin unaffectedly and straightforwardly to do justice to your subject : you will not choose a subject which will enable you to bring in your stored phrases. The desire of doing at schools what is done at our universities has led to very absurd results with ordinary schoolmasters, who have made it their object to get Greek verses written, like the Forson prize exercises, by tesselating bits of Attic idiom, and have broken their hearts in hopeless attempts to get Latin prose written as it is written by Oxford professors. It is only after an incalculable amount of trouble be- stowed upon these desperately hard falsettoes that it has become a fixed resolve to insist upon boys' exercises being intelligible by themselves, and their phraseology strictly subordinate to the subject-matter, and also to make corrections or additions which explain themselves, and fit exactly to the text that has to be amended. Require of a boy an exercise which will make sense, however humble, without a commentary fix)m its author. Strike out every couplet that is not needed, every clause that returns upon a preceding clause, every preamble which is not sufficiently backed up, every inferential expression that is not warranted. This is a more salutary operation than the attack upon idle adjectives with which some critics of the last generation were inclined to be contented ; it is the ploughing of the subsoil And then to alter an exercise, so as to do justice to the young authors intention, treating him with just so much JohnbonO education OF THE JREJSONING FACULTIES. 329 respect as he deserves, filling his slender wandering rivulets with a suflficient flow of words, but carefully following the main direction of the stream, imless he be wholly in error, breaking up a long period for clear- ness, if needs be, varying the cadences to please the ear, making eflfective contrast by mere arrangement of words without particles, not to speak of all the pretty little artifices that are taken from Ovid and Li vy— surely this is almost a fine art, the gardening of the mind, and a rational method withal. The objection will be raised that poetic diction is just as much as rhetorical vapouring a kind of falsetto, and that the study of poetic diction is as unfavourable to the pursuit of truth as any other system of artifices. Now there are certain arrangements made in versification which need no defence : for instance, to say " they run, the enemy pursuing," instead of " they run pursued by the enemy," is an artifice suggested by the exigencies of metre, though adopted by prose writers merely for the sake of variety. The exigencies of metre in Latin verse, whatever mischief they may do in the way of exaggera- tion or suppression, do not, like the demands of rhyme in English verse, induce one to enter upon a thought or an image that nothing else would have engendered; and it will appear on comparison that the Latin verse of young people, even their lyric verse with its sem- blance of emotion, is more honest, more sincere, than their English rhymed verse. The artifices of which a specimen has just been given are as innocent as algebraical substitutions, to which they are analogous. But beyond these metrical contrivances lie the figures of Virgilian rhetoric, which are the weapons of more 330 ESSdFS ON A UMBRAL BDUCJTION. [JBaux VIIL advanced versifiers: to use them rightly is a proof of keen discrimination, and in using them no one can deceive himself or his reader^ since they are felt to be departures from literal truth : they are not more deceptive than the red chalk or the sepia of a drawing. There are, it is readily admitted, only a few who can arrive at the rational use of poetic diction, nor is it my wish to recommend the expenditure of so much labour as it requires. Granted tliat we have not time to spare for this, I maintain that we shall not do well to substitute Ciceronian prose. Whatever may be said of our attempts at writing like Virgil, it is not good to imitate the copiousness and subarticulation of Cicero's periods, because they never have been imitated successfully even by the best scholaret, and because the habit of writing that kind of Latin is likely to hinder the formation of a direct, lucid, and solidly impressive method of making statements. The Oxford Professor of Latin gave a bit of evidence to the Public Schools Commissioners which hits the nail on the head ; it was to the effect that, whereas a verse is within the grasp of a boy's understanding, a Latin sentence is to him an impenetrable mystery. Another Oxford man, in a light and pleasant defence of classical instruction, has amused himself by playing with an English sentence and exhibiting many ways of turning it into Latin prose advancing from the boldest and clumsiest to the most elegant and idiomatic rendering. When such a man of genius as Mr. John Henry Newman deigns to lecture on the art of writing Latin he is something more than an authority ; but an experienced schoolmaster knows and feels sorely that this mastery of Latin idiom, attained JoHifsoK.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 331 by Oxford men after some years of College tuition, is quite out of reach at school, and that the labour bestowed upon trying to make boys write elegant Latin prose is even more fruitless than the study of Latin versification. Few things can be more difficult than to get a boy to appreciate the best Ciceronian prose ; and as it is after aU one of the curiosities of literature it seems strange that it should be so very highly valued at Oxford. What then is the province of Latin prose in a school ? There are two ways of dealing with it for the cultivation of the reasoning powers, both subjected to much more limitation than might be wished. It is expedient to practise translation into Latin prose from those English writers before Addison, whose grooves of thought are parallel to the simplest Latin style ; and here we should avoid the mistake of those who set passages out of histories of Greece and Rome on the illogical assumption that English written about the ancients goes easily into ancient languages ; the truth being that it is much easier to translate Johnes' Froissart into Latin than Gibbon, or Arnold, or Merivale. This kind of translation is so easy as to be no substitute for verse-making as a test of mental vigour, and it does not do much for the reason ; but prepares you for a higher kind of work. Having attained some sort of skill in rendering simj)le statements from one language to another, one should go on to select passages from the rational authors of the eighteenth centmy who write on solid subjects, such as Robertson, Adam Smith, and Paley, and from translations (if need be) of such French writers as Montesquieu, and Dumont, the friend of Bentham. Here one would be studying something valuable for its own sake : translating is 332 ESSAFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATIOK. [EeBAT Till. perhaps the most effectual way of secuniig attention to the meaning of a philosophical passage. But better still is an abstract or reduction, like the engraving of a pic- ture on a smaller scale. Whichever is attempted, one must not be shocked at a certain amoimt of barbarism in the Latin ; for the old language will not bear the full modem thought. It would be better to write Latin like Bacon or the translator of Bacon, and at the same time bring out the whole meaning of a modern philosopher, than to skirt the fences, to evade the difficulty, for the sake of a certain elegance. In any case, the Latin lan- guage must be a hindrance to the full culture of the reason. With all its merits it is not a proper vehicle for philosophy. If we are debarred from the use of any other, we must make the best of it ; nor is it too great a tax on patience to search up and down for something that will go into Latin without being frivolous. It has been ascertained experimentally that such a subject as the influence of a solar eclipse on vegetables and animals (recorded in the journals of 1851), or Sir Humphry Davy s theory of the decay of buildings contained in his Consolations of Travel, can be treated by boys in Latin hexameters, and that the theory of Springs, of the Barometer, of Coral Islands, of Money, of Usury, of Parliamentary Representation, of Government Inter- ference with Trade, can be handled tolerably well in plain but sound Latin prose. To enlarge the list of subjects both in verse and prose has been an imder- taking carried on in spite of much discouragement and failure for seventeen years ; and one of the conclusions is this, that literature, rightly understood, includes the cream of all philosophy, so that the literary teacher in JoHHSOH.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 333 a classical school, having at his command the perfect obligation of the weekly rent paid by the boy for the enjoyment of his public school life in the form of " com- position," is able, not indeed to teach any branch of science, but to make boys understand where the sciences he, how they were put together, how they bear upon one another, what is the vice of the spurious forms of science, from what errors mankind has been delivered, and how much remains under the seal. It is conceded that " history is in the province of the classical master. Let this word, used by many in a feeble way to mean all that is not philology or divinity, be interpreted broadly, as Mr. Hallam, for instance, understood it. Let us be allowed the three volumes of the Middle Ages, a book which has now some right to be called a classic. Look at its table of contents, and you will find the historian taking stock of human knowledge for the end of the Middle Ages. It appears that by history he does not mean merely a record of alliances, expeditions, battles, sieges, treaties, conspiracies, assassinations, and caprices. He embraces, besides all this, law, church, school, and all that belongs to them. If we follow him into his greater work, the Introduction to the Literature of Europe, we shall find a record of critical changes, not in the for- tunes of monarchies, but in the psychology of mankind. It is not pretended that aU which Mr. HaUam sets forth is to be taught at school : but it is most decidedly asserted that nearly all this history of human progress and panorama of things cognizable, expanded to include the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ought to be so far known to the literary teacher as to be thrown open by him to his classes, in tlie hope that some few at least 334 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay VUL will explore some chambers of the treasure house. It is a shameful thing to set exercises from week to week for a score or two of years, and never bid boys lift their eyes above some few periods of carnage and crime, such as the first few years of the second Punic War, the cam- paigns of Sertorius, and " the three battles" of Alexander ; to let people grow up in the belief that luxury ruined Rome in the days of Augustus, and that the Groths came directly after Juvenal, to leave English Churchmen in ignorance of Augustine, and Benedict, and Anselm, to let English tourists walk the galleries with no recognition of what they are told by their guides and catalogues, to send men into Parliament as having taken first classes in history and law who could not answer ten questions in the Indian Civil Service papers on those very subjects. If there is a clear proof to be found of the frivolity of our classical education it is the habitual misconception of the term -history, its miserable limitation to a tissue of homicide and perfidy stitched together with dates. The champions of the philological routine are known to speak with great force on *' cramming." Every thing that is not syntax or idiom is with them " cram." And yet they had themselves encouraged a considerable amount of hasty reading of commentaries and manuals, and even dictionaries. Any one, they say, can get up au English book just for an examination; it is no test of power or of taste. There is much truth in this, and it must be admitted, that, if the examiner frames his questions by doggedly following the headings of chapters, he is likely to bring upon himself a heavy and undi- gested mass of statement, which will almost overwhelm him when he has to read and give marks for the answers. JoHKflON.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 335 Nor can any occupation be at once more wearisome to the man^ and more uninstructive to the boy^ than such an examination. But let the questions be in some measure of the nature of "problems'* as opposed to "book-work let them vary from minute particulars to broad generalities, let there be a physical limit set to the answers by serving out papers which allow so much space for each question, let the manuscripts be to some extent treated critically, and returned with marks of praise or blame to their authors, and let the examiner take notes of the more remarkable answers, whether good or bad, so as to lecture upon the paper after it is all over; and then an examination in a book will be an intellectual process.^ Granted, however, that there must 1^ much crudity and looseness in the temporary knowledge taken into a history examination, and that it is at the best a less severe and stringent method than the correction of exercises, we are thus brought back to the consideration, that "history" is to be taught through composition, or, in other words, taught critically. But we are not to narrow it and emasculate it merely because pure Latinity requires the sacrifice. We are not to linger mthin the beaten track of Hannibal and luxury for fear of losing sight of our models. The Romans whom we profess to imitate in their method of educating, wrote and declaimed on all available subjects. Our 1 It is to be regretted that the University local examinations allow no opportunity to the examiners of explaining to the candidates what answer ought to have been given. Scattered as they are over the country, nothing can be done except by circulating a printed paper giving the right answers, and commenting on some of the prevalent and dangerous mistakes. This would cost but little money or trouble, and it would greatly enhance the usefulness of the examinations. 336 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATIOK [Essay VIII. idol, Cicero, has a good deal more in him than his reiterated praises of eloquence and political virtue. He must have traversed the whole of LucuUus' library ; he must have been "desultory;" he must have written on many matters with only a smattering of knowledge. The variety of his books rebukes his professed imitators ; his example is followed more by those who try to enlarge the scope of composition than by those who seem to hold that, for boys, nothing can be too trivial. As a matter of fact, it has been found possible to treat, even in Latin, and with a considerable regard for correctness and purity, a very considerable number of subjects more complicated and requiring more reasoning than the maxims of Horace and the allusions of Juvenal. The schoolboy's theme is now-a-days a far less contemptible affair than it was. The improvement of style is, not perhaps in the Latin, but in the greater attention to form. It has been found possible to get themes regularly laid out in little chapters or paragraphs, whether of the writer's, or of the teacher's, design. The exercise may be set with a plan clearly sketched out, and displayed on paper, or with only a few heads, or with a mere state- ment of the sul)ject. It is tedious to do exactly the same always and to allow no departure from a fixed t}^e. The old scholastic plan of theme-writing, which many men now alive must have practised, ending like a sermon with a pActical application, is not by any means to be despised ; however meagre and stiff it may have seemed, it was far better than shapelessness. But it is applicable, perhaps, only to simple ethical subjects, such as envy, or forgiveness, or the fear of death, subjects by no means neglected by those who try to improve ratio- JoBiraoR.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONINO FACULTIES. 337 cinatioD, but not thought sufficient for the mental dietary. Even with ethical subjects it is desirable to analyse like Bentham, to examine, for instance, the difference between envy and jealousy, to consider forgiveness with reference to Butler's " resentment,'* to take remedies against the fear of death from the rich storehouse of Jeremy Taylor, and that not without weighing in the balance his multifarious arguments, so as to distinguish between what is and what is not, fanciful or rhetorical It should not be forgotten that boys of promise are apt to prefer fantastical and paradoxical to judicious and truthful writers. If we wish them to be eventually cool-headed, we shall do well to introduce them to Sir Thomas Browne, and Sterne, and Charles Lamb, alter- nately, with Blackstone, and Mackintosh, and Mrs. Marcet, giving them their heads if they like, to write out, in a new form, the whimsies and conceits, provided only they interpret some other time the sobrieties and simplicities. Suppose we have to teach boys who have, as a majority, perhaps, of hopeful boys have, a strong feeling about the divine right of kings, particularly Stuarts, with which feelings are associated many well- known longings and indignations ; it is expedient to treat this mental affection homoeopathically. In verses, if not in themes, ample verge can be given for the utterance of these transitory sentiments. The correc- tive can be applied, not directly, but by diverting the young mind to widely different objects, such as the character of Turgot or of Roger Williams, and at another time by abstracting for translation the calm and plain arguments of a just writer like Professor Smyth. A teacher may be a Whig, and zealous for the faith z ^3^ iSSAFS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EaaAT VIII. haildeid do\*ii through the followers of Locke^ and yet bear with these transeendentalists whom the beirt boys undeniably prefer to genuine philosophei*8. He may forego the right of critically condemning \¥hat he knows to be erroneous. But he can insist on a show of argu- ment, on a reason given for the teiiets. Make the young enthusiast show cause for his judgments ; if not at the time, yet hereafter, he will discover the weakness of the pleading. Give him plenty of truths or what you honestly believe to be truth, and he will know that other things are false by mere juxtaposition; and he will not cling to misconceptions which have been treated indulgently. Nor is there anything more to be avoided than undue pressure in attacking opinions held, or pretended to be held, by the young. It is needless to say how unfair it would be from the vantage ground held by the teacher; besides this, which is obvious, there is the mischief done by boring. In a very short time, anything like ri parade of ratiocination becomes to people of our race nothing more or less th^in a bore. A very little pedantly, a slight infusion of Aldrich, a little jangling of the bells of the Positive Church, is enough to set against you the taste and sentiment of the pupil, if you are controverting anything which he is pleased to think he believes. Hereafter there will be logical terms of some sort used as a matter of business in common teaching, and endured as a matter of course, just as the terms of grammar are endured. The authority which is already making "prolative verbs" familiar in the households of many country gentlemen, will no doubt, some day or other, bring into general use some of the compendious expressions with which a JohksonJ education OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 339 Whatdy would demolish a fabric of illusion ; and then it will be a plain matter of business to speak to a boy of denchus and middle term, just as we now speak of oblique oration. There is no more pedantry in tlie one than in the other. But at present we are not familiar with many logical phrases. Whately's "Easy Lessons in Beasoning" may perhaps be used in a school as a text- book, or some other manual might be written, more elementary than Mr. Fowler s, on purpose for schools, and if not wholly intelligible to boys, it would be to a con- siderable extent assimilated by the minds of the abler teachers^ and through them would pass into customary scholastic language. It is even conceivable that an advanced class might have bound up in its grammar sequels to the syntax, resembling an appendix wliieh treats of figures of speech, and containing explanations and examples of reasonings, as well as the elements of rhetoric. Meanwhile, it is here suggested that a clas- sical teacher should, if trained at Oxford, tiy to keep up his recollection of logic, and look out for occasions in teaching, and particularly in criticising themes for applying some of the rules of logic. If the art is new to him, as it is probably to most Cambridge men, he should make an effort to master it up to a certain point, examining himself by help of Oxford question papers. No attempt, however, is made in this paper to put on a semblance of attainments, which the writer has no right to claim as his own. Such success as has been obtained, and it is but enough to encourage further endeavours, is due to no systematic grounding in logic any more than in physical science, nor have the suggestions just given been actually carried out thoroughly by the advisor. The z 2 . 340 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION, [Essat VIIL reasoning and criticism found applicable to a boy's school in the enlargement of the old classical course are in some measure founded on books very imperfectly remembered, and on a few chance sayings of well-educated men, but are for the most part hammered out in practice like rules for making verses and other pedagogue odds and ends. Such as they are, they have interested one or two Oxford men who have been thoroughly trained in logic, and they are thought to have leavened the instraction of some elder boys with something that may protect them elsewhere from delusions. Philological teaching must be admitted to include etymology. The most old-fashioned classical teacher makes it his business to extort the " derivation '* of a word. He would ridicule such an expression as "a cachectic state of health," because he would know that cachectic is derived from a word meaning " bad " and a word meaning " habit " or " state ; " so that it is an absurd substitute for " l)ad." In the same way he would point out that " Toxophilite " ought to be " Philotoxite," and " Telegram " " Telegi-apheme ;" he would tell you the original meaning of " Pagan," " Bishop," and " Villain," perhaps he would note with sufficient truthfulness, though not from a right legal point of view, the diflference between " Prerogative " or " Privilege," and the Latin words of the same substance. So far, then, we have his authority in our favour, and if we look at the origin and history of a word we are but doing what we were ourselves taught in class to do. But the etymology of thirty years ago was insufficient. It did not guard one against error of more tlian one kind. Sometimes we err in making deductions, for we all reason in some sort of way, from the etymo- JoH»80K.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 341 logy, without regarding the deflection of the word in actual use from its etymological meaning : as if we were to argue that an university ought to be open to all persons or to teach all sciences, because it is derived from a word meaning all. Or we may be tempted to work from one " synonym to another, forgetting that a word in connexion with other words alters its character as if it were compounded. In writing against trade, an amiable person once argued thus: "Profit" is interpreted in the dictionary "advantage:" to take profit, then, is to take advantage — it is wrong to take advantage of one's neighbour : therefore, it is wrong to take profit Or again, we infer that a man is a schemer because he has broached a- scheme, or a projector (to use a well-known example) because he has started a project. These sources of error may be usefully pointed out to young persons. It is easy and expedient to teach them also that words are for the most part used relatively, and often have more than one correlative, " Realism" is opposed to "Nominalism;" but it is also used in art as opposed to " Idealism," and in books of education as the opposite of the study of language. "Faith" is sometimes opposed to " Sight," sometimes to " Reason," sometimes to " Works." It is more important to distinguish between words used in their proper sense and otherwise. "Law" is properly a general command accompanied by sanction; it is used by men of science to denote uniform recur- rence without their intending to imply a sovereign will issuing a general command ; and it is well known to students how this change of meaning is disguised in Hooker's fii'st book. There need be no scruple about 342 ESSAYS ON J LIBERJL EDUCATION, [Essay YIIL using words, as we say, improprie ; only we ought to know tliat we are doing so, and it is not very difficult to point out this to the readers of ancient books^ for the ancients do it openly, and Plato makes us vigilant

• • Capital " used to mean in books of political economy

the hoard produced by previous labour, applicable to the payment of wages in anticipation of profits, so that it was a positive term; we now find railway directors paying for repairs, not out of their receipts^ but by a new loan, which is said to be added to the capital, so that an increase of capital merely means an increase of debt; in this there is no intentional juggling, and the transition is natural enough, but the word is changing its meaning, and it is the business of philologists to watch the change. Nor ought we to be less careful in noticing the use made in argument of common words. " Who rules o'er fi'eemen should himself be free " is a good line and a sound maxim, sur\4ving the attack made on it by the parodist ; yet it will not pass muster as an argument " Freemen "* is used in the political sense, and political freedom is different fi:om natural fi-eedom or moral freedom. In plain prose, the ruler of freemen should be restrained by law, or else their freedom is at the mercy of his caprice ; but if restmined by law, he docs not seem at first sight to be free. Yet the line is a gi>od one in spirit ; for the second " free " may be taken to mean free-hearted or fi'ce from passion — morally free, in fact. Such a play upon words is ornamental, and need not be illusory ; but it ought not to pass unchallenged. Two clerg}^men of great influence have lately preached on Liberty, or Freedom, and have practised, in their use of the word, an elaborate shuffle. The man who holds a JoHwsoN.] EDUCATION OF THE RE4S0NIN0 F4CULTIES. 343 creed is /above all men free, they say ; he is free from doubt, fixie from feoF, free from all sorts of vices. Thiq is simply turning the word " free " ipto a negp.tive pign ; and any one w^o likes may b^ as eloquent on the word "not as theaQ preachers were on " Uberty." Their text had originally a plain meaning: St. Paul said that where the men were ftiU of the Holy Spirit, they enjoyed deliverance from the bondage of the Mosaic law. If th^ pi-eachers choose this plain text for a motto, they may innocently engraft upon it any otlu3r doctrine besides that which St. Paul lays down in the context ; but this 18 not exposition of Scripture, and they are as far as ever from having made good their paradox, that absolute submission to a dogmatic system ensures intellectual freedom. Sermons supply an inexhaustible stock of spurious arguments, and are a fine hunting-ground for logical critics. Newspapers also furnish them with ser- viceable materials. There Wiis a good example given lately by a bishop, of the legitimate fruits of Oxford philosophy. He was ai-guing about the admission of Dissenters to Universities; it had been urged on the ground that the Universities were national institutions : in what sense natioijial ? founded by the nation ? founded for the nation ? and so on with a truly Spcratio investi- gation which furnished a good illustrntion of the maxim which the bishop quoted: "Beware of the trickery con- cealed in general terms," a maxim easily enforced by a classical teacher on hearers of a certain age. Without generalizing, how can we get on at all? it may be asked. Let us by all means generalize, and that roughly, or else we are imprisoned. JBut let it be constantly Ijome in mLud that from the imperfection of our minds 344 ISSSJyS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BsaAT VUI. and of our language we can hardly, even by great caution, avoid overstating the generality. He who said that an university was national, was in a great measure right ; yet the bishop did well to weigh and probe the tern. If we wi^h for anything like truth, we should generalize provisionally, and oflfer our theorem to others for trimming and pruning. In no way do young people show their teachableness more than in bearing this re- trenchment of sweeping assertions. The candid and patient lads of the Platonic dialogues are with us still ; we are not to worry them like Socrates, but we are fre- quently to remind them of the inadequacy of the grounds on which, in practical talk, we are obliged for a time to rest It may here be observed that the Socratic process of questioning, besides being excessively tedious, would seem to be too much like playing a game ; and it has been pointed out already that a lesson which is of the nature of a game is good only for young boys, not for those who are on tlie verge of manhood. One may, no doubt, with advantage, talk Socratically for a minute or two; for instance, "You do not believe in witches? Why not? Because none of your neighbours do? Then, if you had lived in the Middle Ages, you would have believed in witchcraft?" and so on, but only a little way. It is better to be content with the simple answer, " I do not believe that God gives such power to any one to hurt those who pray to Him." It is better to do like the good man who, having examined a village school, allowed himself to be questioned, and broke down utterly when asked how many legs a caterpillar had, than to lead your Lysis up and down in quest of a solution, and reserve your own belief or your own doubt. Rough and liarl JoBNSOK.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 345 exposure of error will do no harm if accompanied by- open avowals of one's own knowledge and ignorance ; ironical subtlety and evasive scepticism will make philosophy odious. Without aping the Athenian dialectics, it is possible almost to form in a boy's mind the habit of weighing and scrutinizing general statements and abstract terms. No knowledge of mathematics is needed to know what is meant by defining a term, and a real definition being kept in view as a standard, spurious definitions or inexhaus- tive descriptions may be tested. A boy knowing nothing of logic, and probably unable to understand Mr. Fowler's Manual, can, nevertheless, perceive what is and what is not a definition, what things can and what cannot be de- fined. It seems a very important thing that boys should be led thus to apply this primary geometrical habit to other branches of knowledge. There are a few definitions in political economy, — though it is, I venture to think, a sham science, — which are useful, if not in practical life, at least in education : since they are specimens of the scientific treatment of things in common life ; and it is desirable always to keep the scientific method in view, even when we are dealing with matters which are not reducible to sciences. We must use many terms which we cannot define imiversally, but they are to be, for the particular occasion at least, held to single meanings, and he that is accustomed to defining is likely to keep closely to his chosen meaning. Besides political economy, every one is aware that in law-books and in legal arguments terms are used with precision and consistency. These terms can be learnt by young people and used correctly ; if they do this, they will 346 ESSAYS ON A UBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaAY VIII. probably be careful in using political words; and if vigilant in political argument, they will in due time be tolerably self-denjdng in their use of ethical expre^siona For instance, one who has a fairly accurate conception of money, so as not to confuse it with wealth, has gained a step in philosophy : an examination of several scores of l)oys and girls scattered over England proved to the Cambridge local examiner that this was not at all an easy acquirement, and yet it has been reached by many students of the classics, whilst engaged in Latin theme- writing. That the right conception is acquired can be proved best by questions elsewhere called problems, such as this : " When a ship is wrecked and the cargo is insured, is it correct to say that there is no loss sustained ? " If they answer that the underwriter sus- tains loss and no one else^ they have not learnt to think correctly of money and wealth. Accustomed to such topics as these, a boy of superior mind might be asked to compare two apparently conflicting dogmas : " Virtue consists in conforming to nature," and " good- ness is not of nature, but of grace." The difficulty of tracing the senses of the word " nature " is here counter- balanced hy the special interest which our pupils take in theology ; and a rational answer, on paper, may be expected from many students who have not been trained on any philosophy ; but a more neat and precise solution will be given by one who has had some practice ia the scrutiny of phrases, and the disentangling of ambiguities. Even if not answered at all, the question can hardly fiiil to stir the mind a little ; and, aftei: it ha9 l)een set, there will be more listeners ready than there w oukl have been for imy explanation. JoHHsoK.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 347 It has been held by a gentleman of high official authority, that a boy should write nothing that is not to be criticized in his presence ; and this excellent principle, if turned into a rule and obeyed, would get rid of a great bulk of papers done in examinations. But it is easy to satisfy oneself that examinations are valuable as stimulants of exertion ; and a young person well trained by literary censure wUl, in doing a paper for marks, act to a certain extent as his own censor. Let it, how- ever, be kept in mind that we use the word examination somewhat incorrectly if we merely read what is written, and assign to it a sort of pecuniary value without censure or comment ; and this process should be, as indeed it is, only a rare interruption to the course of training. Some classical teachers are familiar with a way of studying the Greek Testament which is proved by the results of many years to be effectual, not merely in making a few boys do remaikably well, but in bringing a very considerable number up to a very creditable level in ecclesiastical lore. Twice a week, once in a small set of pupils, once in a class of thirty, a chapter, or perhaps less than a chapter, is construed just like a paragi-aph of Thucydides, but with more discursive lecturing on the substance, with a strict requirement of accuracy in words, and yet with a resolute endeavour to compass the whole meaning of the whole passage. These may fairly be called catechetical lectures, and they certainly differ from ordinary classical lessons, in so far as the teacher gives out more of his own mind and is more anxious to make his hearers think. In 8uch a lesson it would be felt that the desire of reaehinji 348 SSSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [BsaAT VOL, the tnitli was too strong to tolerate any appeal to the vulgar motiye of emulation. Of these two weekly lessons^ one is accompanied with a special exercise, con- sisting of short answers, though not alwajrs equally short, to some seven or eight questions ; this exercise differs from most others in passing through only one inspection, but it is inspected and commented on in the presence of the writer and of others, the oral cor^ rections being often repeated for a succession of boys, so that one is likely to have it really inciQcated or thrust upon the consciousness. Now, though the greater part of what is written for these exercises is copied straight out of books, if not worse, and it is on the whole a more mechanical or less intellectual task than composition or translation, nevertheless a considerable number of boys have a certain impression made on them, and show, when examined at the end of a schooltime, that there is a certain deposit of know- ledge not merely verbal in their minda Moreover, there have been many cases, within recent experience, of habitual and unobtrusive industry bestowed upon these exercises, which are not in any public manner rewarded or praised, and do not obviously tend to distinction at school or college. Besides genuine industry of a remarkable kind, there has been a curious and interesting originality, sometimes happily insepa- rable from the disclosure of a peculiar thoughtfulness and a strong character. But setting aside as irrelevant the moral charm of these singularly modest exercises, I wish to ask gentlemen of my profession to consider whether they do right in neglecting this method of instruction; I mean the combination of a catechcti'***! JoHNsos.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 349 lecture with a written paper of questions followed by- oral criticism of the answers. Firstly, is not this the right way of teaching Christian literature or divinity? Secondly, is there any reason why this process, which can be proved on the testimony of unprofessional ex- aminers to be successful, should not be applied to other branches of knowledge ? And, in particulai-, let those who insist on the substitution of English essays for other forms of composition, ask themselves whether boys are really capable of writing essays of any length ; whether they would not be better employed on short swallow-flights of thought; whether they can safely be trusted to go far by themselves without the check of the leading-string ; whether there is anything more suited to their age than questions varying in colour and size to be answered neatly and modestly on paper. Candour requires the admission that to the second of the queries just propounded this reply may be given, that there is no subject but theology in which boys take a sufficient interest for this kind of exertion. Over and alx)ve the fact that in Scriptural and ecclesiastical lessons a teacher is greatly supported by the general, if not universal, concurrence of his fellow teachers, and is conscious that he cannot even be accused of indulging a taste of his own, it is evident, on experience, that the boys whose minds are most worthy of culture, are more interested in these than in any other studies, except those in which they are consciously making progress, such as mathematics. It is rare to find one who cares for political philosophy, and even a select class soon tires of a first-rate book of the Burke or Guizot type ; it is not rare to meet with one who enters into contro- 3§0 SSSATS ON A LIBERAL EDUCAflOlT. [Htt^TYIIL. versial divinitjr, who reads week after week withoat wearmeas Dr. Wordsworth's ^'Patristio Commentaiies on St Paul's Epistles, who will listen with animation to fine passages of Hooker, or Edward Irving, who will take Church history and hagiology in any form and to any extent This is in truth a literary teacher's widest and most fertile field ; and for that every*day kind of reasoning, which consists of testing assertions, cutting down exaggerations, dissolving rhetorical com- pounds, appealing firom text to context, and establishing the inestimable habit of considering two things at once, one needs no other materials than those supplied by Churchmen. It is indeed melancholy to observe how ignorant clergymen are of ecclesiastical biography, an ignorance which can be justly traced to colleges, and so back to schools ; nor is there any branch of literature which he, who has in these pages undertaken to speak in favour of early philosophizing, would more zealously encourage. But it seems to be the duty of a master in a public school to serve his country by keeping up the stock of Englishmen who may sustain that beautiful fabric of English justice and beneficence, which is to our modem world the pillar and the doud ; and an Englishm^in is not merely a member of the English Church. Our justice and beneficence are plainly based upon jurisprudence, and ethics, and politics ; and if their principles are to be held firmly, and secured from passion and caprice throughout a manhood immersed in world- liness, there is no time to lose even at school in studying the philosophy of government^ the duties of citizens, the grounds of the ethical creed held by society. " Those arc not topics for boys." Nay, but you cannot JoHHsoH.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 351 help their being handled by boyg*. For they read news- papers habitually. And if, as it follows, they are familiar with questions of morality and polity, who will deny that they need critical, I do not say dogmatic, instruction in morality and polity ? It is perhaps necessary to remind some readers that the schoolboys of whom we are speaking are the select leaders of great schools, and are equal in capacity to the first-year men of second-rate, if not of first-rate colleges. They are, it should be remembered, of the same age as the freshmen or even the junior Sophisters of the last generation ; and I believe they are not younger than the ordinary students of Scottish universities. A few yeara ago, a lad taken from an English public school be- fore he had finished his course found himself at Edin- burgh writing, instead of verses and themes, English essayS) which were read and criticized by Sir William Hamilton. It appears that the essays were too numerous to be all treated respectfully ; they were not read in the presence of the writers ; but some time after they were shown up, the professor addressed the whole class on what he had noticed in some of their papers. It would seem that these were but hasty and boyish writings ; but the evidence goes to prove that one who would have been a sixth-form boy at a school, was. as an university student, brought loosely into contact with the mind of a philosopher. In Professor Browne's well-known Lectures on Moral Philosophy there is hardly anything that would not be intelligible, and there is much that would be in- teresting, to elder schoolboys. There is a great deal of Adam Smith's '* Wealth of Nations " of which the same may l>e said ; and the siimc experiment has been tried 352 ESSJrS ox A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay VIIL m Mr. J. S. Mill's " Political Economy/' omitting about two-fifths of it. Many other books might be mentioned, and indeed some have been named already as suppljring materials for Latin writing. But it is enough to refer to one book in particular, which, if I remember its con- tents rightly, shows what might be the sort of philo- sophical preparation made by a very young man for legal ind parliamentary labours, " The Life of Francis Homer/* The name of this really well educated member of par- liament is, it may be feared, not familiar to men engaged in teaching, perhaps not to politicians. But it will be found historically true that he was, though short-lived, singularly useful to his country, and that the influence he had in the times of Canning was due entirely to his philosophical temperament and philosophical power. His memoirs show with considerable fulness who were the authors, domestic and foreign, whose researches and dis- coveries he studied. Some, perhaps, of these books are now almost obsolete ; others are still worthy of respectful perusal : but it is in the habits, aims, and methods of Homer, not in the very books he read, that we are to find an instructive pattern. When the Cannings were attending merely to " belles lettres," and probably never employing their understanding on anything at all diffi- cult, the pupil of Dugald Stewart was reading, as a law student reads, that is to say, digesting and mastering, the best treatises on jurisprudence, politics, and the cognate theories. And it is to the Edinburgh men, more than to any public school or Oxford or Cambridge men (unless Oxford and Westminster take credit for Ben- tliam), that we owe the enlightened legislators and the righteous government of the last forty years. I do not JOHKSON.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 353 say that we owe all this to the Edinburgh men only : there is a confluence of causes. But, if we can trace good statesmanship to good education, this is the line of descent ; and if we ever had an educator, it was Dugald Stewart It must be readily admitted that what may be called, in compliance with the customs of the enlightened Scots- men, "moral philosophy," belongs on the whole to a university rather than to a public school course of in- struction ; and it is in a great measure with a view to preliminary training for Oxford that a few hasty inroads have been made by schoolboys across the border into the land of fatness. There was a time, now far withdi-awn into the archaBological period, when at Cambridge also encouragement was given to ethical and metaphysical pursuits, and there are traces still to be found of the system. But it must be remembered that no mere de- monstrative teaching, or popular lecturing, nor this combined with a few prize essays, nor these two com- bined with the addition of a book or two id the course of three years to the subjects of coUege examinations, can be expected to secure accuracy, precision, and all that we pique ourselves upon in the classical method. Either the classical method itself, or something analogous to it, should be applied to the study of " moral philo- sophy" with its adjuncts : nothing less critical or less stringent will be satisfactory. To repeat what has been aheady indicated, the tradi- tional method of teaching classical literature, which we call, for brevity, the " classical method," consists of *' com- position," or written exercises minutely inspected and altered, and of " construing," with " parsing," and with A A 354 ESSAYS ON A LIBEBAL EDUCATION. .[Essay VIII. etymological analysis beyond what is known under the name of parsing. This is known to constitute a real discipline, and it is for this reason that men honestly adhere to the old grooves of Greek and Latin. It is from a wholesome horror of sciolism that they cling to what they know to be narrow and meagre. Further- more, it is because they know that students are not generally likely to be diligent unless there is a coercive obligation behind the attractive teaching, that they shake their heads at the missionaries of modem philosophy. There is yet another most important consideration. It has been found in the forty years that have passed since

• • useful knowledge" was broached and mechanics* insti-

tutes founded, that amongst those who are compelled at an early age to enter into lucrative business, and have but little spare time for mental cultivation, those studies thrive most, if indeed they are not the only studies that thrive at all, in which one is able to feel that one is

• ' getting on." In other words, those branches of in-

struction wither in which young people are but hearers and not practitioners. The students at mechanics' in- stitutes prefer something that is of the nature of an art or craft, in which they can measure from time to time their ovm proficiency. So it is with the leisurely class which supplies the upper forms of a public school. They also have their business, though it is far from being lucrative ; they are for the most part working at athletics and school with them, hardly less than with young artisans, is restored to its old Greek meaning of the time that they can sparp for mental improvement. And if you ask them to add to this time by taking something from the cares of the world, — that is to say, tomrsoir.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONiyO FACULTIES. 355 H^'from what we are wont to call their amusements, — H ttiey wiU make the sacrifice more readily for the sake of H « progressive study, especially for entering on a new ■ department of mathematics, than for the purpose of merely reading a book or taking notes of a lecture. This desire of perceptible progress in the acquirement of skill is satisfied to a certain extent in the practice of composition. Probably it accounts also for the zeal which for some generations the young Romsins displayed in practising declamation, — an art which, if they were consistent, the admirers of antiquity would revive. But oral disputation is too muc'h like playing a game, and "we have long ago distinguished between the puerile play of the mind and the calmer pursuit of truth, which is r. 'becoming to early manhood. The classical method characterised by accuracy, by [ '^constraining and chastening discipline, and by some fc consciousness of progress in the acquirement of crafts- r man's skill, we would, if possible, apply to what we ■>3iave called, for the sake of convenience, moral philo- f Bophy. And this we would attempt in the last years f Jof school life, relegating to the universities the tech- K'^ftically logical method, or at the utmost combining with ■Ftlie classical method only so much technical logic as can ! either attached to syntax or thrown into a popular manual like "Whately's " Easy Lessons." Now, can any one help us to a practical plan for adapting this dis- cipline to English books ? It is easy to say that we are to write English essays, but how are you to prevent the schoolboy's essay from lieing either a mere transcript wm a book, if done in the absence of his teacher, or \ rambling and shallow tirade, if done without books in AA 2 356 ESSAYS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION, [BesAYVIir. a schoolroom ? I must personally avow aii impatient weariness when my friendly advisers plead for English essays. As an occasional effort, the essay is good enough ; for instance, if a class has been reading the Annals of Tacitus, you may at the end of the school-time shut them up for an hour or so to write an essay on the character of Germanicus, or on the growth of imperial absolutism. That is to say, the essay serves fairly to try a boy's intellect in a rather longer flight than usual, and over historical ground it will fly tolerably straight. But, by the supposition, we are looking for something that cannot be treated merely aa history. We need something that will bring out in shape and form some- thing like a view of a philosophical topic. We need an exercise which cannot be written quickly, which is sure to give the censor plenty to do, which will bring two minds, the older and the younger, into stimulative contact, which forces us to distinguish between the thought to be expressed and the manner of expression. The use of the English language by itself hiis been, if I am not misinfonned, tried and found wanting in Scot- land and in New England ; the fruit of essay writing has been shallow and tasteless fluency. Men of genius, with an academy to formalize for them, might have made the English language a classical language, and it might have been brought to pass that, as a Frenchman studies French and learns how to write French as an art, so an Englishman might have found a discipline in his mother tongue. But at the best this would, for scholastic practice, fall very far short of the use of a second language. That part of the paper work which we call translation, whether in the form of epitome or Johnson.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 357 at full length, must be foregone by the English essayist ; and we should be left to the cyclic monotonies and platitudes of that "original composition which school reformers dislike. Paltry as original composition in Latin verse may be, it would be a relief after the amorphous garrulities of the young essayist. And, though no doubt we can do a great deal in the etymological analysis of English words, which has been already touched upon as an unfathomable mine of knowledge fit for schools, yet we should miss the parsing ; for no ordinary schoolmaster can find a nourishing diet in English syntax; and it is obvious at first sight that, unless we read Mr. Carlyle's works, there could be no ** construing." I have challenged the friends of modem philosophy to devise for schoolmasters an adaptation of the classical method, plainly averring that we cannot be content with an ofi'hand exhortation to English essay writing. In default of any hopeful proposal from gentlemen who are not themselves teachers, I would ask the reader's attention to a suggestion which was .made several years ago before the Public Schools Commissioners, and which subsequent experience enables me to repeat with more confidence. It is briefly a proposal to substitute the French for the Latin language as a vehicle of youthful thought, and to resort to French instead of English books for the study of the rudiments of science and philosophy, with a preference of historical dissertations to formal treatises. It seems certain that the oral part of the classical method is easily transplanted in its integrity to the French language, which is, moreover, taught more solidly and effi^ctually by .simply doing just what we do with a 358 JSSSJrS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Essay VIII. Latin book than in the more elocutional or phraseological way of those who now teach French in England. It seems probable, but my own experiments are not yet quite sufficient to warrant a positive assertion, that the paper work, setting aside verses, can be done as completely and precisely in French as in Latin, with the enormous advantage of overstepping the limits set by the poverty and forced purity of Latin. Dividing paper work into translation, epitomizing or abstracting, written answers to questions, and original composition or essay writing, I speak positively as to the first only, which has been tried for many years, though not as a matter of universal habit. I have sufficient reason for believing that epitomes or abstracts of French chapters or treatises can be made in English, and I should have no doubt that the converse could be done. Answering questions in French on paper is an experiment hitherto untried, except in matters of light literary history ; but there seems no reason why it should not be done with science, history of all kinds, and philosophy. French essay \sTiting has been occasionally tried with success, and if reduced to formal themes would be quite feasible, as soon as the classical teacher had acquired enough knowledge of the idiom to alter freely, an amount of attainment not beyond the horizon of younger men. For a few years there would be a lack of competent instructors, well grounded in mathematics, skilled in Latin and in French. But there is a natural j)rogressiou up to a certain point which may be reckoned on. The pupils of those who with an imperfect know- ledge teach and learn simultaneously will be, when grown up, in advance of their preceptors ; a second generation will Ikj neai-ly competent ; a third or a fourth .Ions<.>N.j r.DI'CATlOX OF TUh IU:jS()M\<} f.Krj/riKS. ;3:)<j will be as familiar with French as with English idiom. It must have been so with the Latinists of the Renais- .sance. When Ciceronian elegance was substituted for barbarous Schoolmen's Latin, the first literary teachers were pioneers, themselves struggling with the thorns fi'om which they would extricate their disciples ; but a lifetime was long enough to see the complete deliverance of the taste of Europe. Once agree to put French on the footing of the classics, and you will soon get a fair supply of Englishmen able to handle it properly. A year or two spent in Paris, after taking the Bachelor's degree at home, would enable a first-class man to gain a diploma or certificate of fitness to teach French ; and it would be far from disadvantageous to schools if this delay were secured, and this addition made to the young teacher's stock of wisdom. It might be required of some men that they should have become " Bachelors of Lite- rature" in Paris, which cannot be done without passing a strict examination in French. Paris, instead of Rome and Dresden, would be the finishing school for the Eng- lish graduate who means to be a teacher, and the time now bestowed on art would be almost enough for the rudiments of science. Art is strong enough now-a-days to take care of itself ; and it may be doubted whether it has not, in the form of superficial connoisseurship, made some encroachments. At least, one is tempted to wish that more attention was paid by our young graduates to industrial processes and the applied sciences, and one would recommend the occasional preference of a manufactory to a moimtain, of Jermyn Street to South Kensington, of handicraft to " bric-a-brac." We deceive ourselves if we think that we become enlightened and 360 ESSAYS ON A UBMRAL BUUGATION. [EoajiT Vm. accomplished by looking at and talking about the con- tents of galleries and studios. We are not less mistaken if we imagine that we have acquired a modem language without having read much or composed at alL If sincere in our wish to be more thoroughly furnished with know- ledge than were our classically trained predecessors, let us submit to being drilled and examined by foreigners, and by foreigners of authority and independence ; we hardly get the truth from those whom we engage as language masters, for they flatter ua The leading schools are in a position to demand these increased qualifications of those who wish to be on their establishments as teachers. It would not be uiureason- able to go so far as to put off the final appointment of an assistant-master till he had reached the ordinary standing of a man called to the bar, and had gone through as laborious a preparation as the law student Hitherto our authorities have affirmed, and not without some grounds, that a young man called from college to take a form, or even a house, in a school, will, after the commencement of his professional labours, take care to improve himself and supply all deficiencies. But, in fact, little is added beyond a smattering of modern languages and dilettante culture, which it woxild not become him to despise who confesses his own sciolism, but which he may, as a patriot, wish to see replaced by solid and well-proved acquirements. Others have la- mented the slenderness of the outfit with which young English gentlemen leave school ; a schoolmaster may in his turn lament that society, which is above and around him, is itself content to fetch so little from European capitals, and, in particular, that it is satisfied JoHWsoN.] EDUCATION OF THE REASONING FACULTIES, 361 with SO partial a survey of the magnificent literature of France. In this paper there has been indicated a certain respect for the lucid and sober philosophy of the Locke-Bentham period, and a belief that the " middle axioms " of poli- tics are wholesome food for students on the edge of manhood. The " advanced liberals " of the present day are, I believe, dieted upon intuitions which make them think Whig and Scotsman insipid ; and fashion is against what is called the eighteenth century. But it is generally held that a certain economy must be practised in teaching the young, and that we may safely stop short of the latest modernism. It is argued in favour of the classics that they are sphered on high out of the range of party storms and prejudices ; and if there is any force in this argument it applies to some of the writers who have a European reputation, and are not arrayed in our controversies. I find amongst the writers of France since the Restora- tion, including the Belgians and the Swiss who write in French, men who combine the sanity of Robertson with the moral loftiness of Burke, and who, because they are Frenchmen, have none of our badges fastened upon them. T would read these as I read Cicero and Tacitus, mainly because they teach political virtue, and teach it intelligibly as well as loftily. But this is not the reason on which my thesis allows me to dwell. I recommend modern French books because they are rational, and indirectly scientific : if not on science, they conform to the scientific mould. They present to the students models of stiitement, of limited generalization, of deli- cately shaded language free from ambiguity, of sentences perfectly articulated, and yet not too obviously logical 362 ESSJFS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [EsaiiT YUI. to cause annoyance. It seems to be true that France, the hotbed of revolutions, has in mental government undergone no violent change; that it has preserved, not without abundant activity and contention, a con- siderable uniformity; that there is an unbroken suc- cession from Malherbe to Victor Hugo, from Bossuet to Montalembert ; that the French have escaped the dislocating agencies of anti-scholastic thinkers: that they .re in Ute-ature the legitimate heix. rf the RoLs. and are sffll displa^g fl.e cognizance .f Cicero apd of QuiatUian. Whatever may be their inferiority to the veiy best English writers, they are wiser than the ancients, and we are looking for wisdom ; and the wisdom of the English cannot be by a classical or a critical method of instruction made to filter slowly into the understanding of a young stiident, whilst the wisdom of the ancients is not enough to guide a man through the complex duties of our life. As the world grows older there is an increase in the number, as well as an expansion in the range, of what a Latinist would call " doctrines ^^ or "arts," — that is to say, of bodies of cognate truths with their applications; and if we are to be enlightened men, we must take these, or most of them, synoptically : we cannot aflford time in early youth to dwell long upon the curiosities of one particular body of truths, such as grammar, still less on a body of doubts and minute controversies such as what is called "critical scholarship." There is enough grammar in French for coercive discipline and for the shampooing of a dull mind; there is in it etjnnology, enough to be the foundation of that healthy nominalism which above all things charms us against delusions; JohhsohJ education OF THE REASONING FACULTIES. 363 there is no textual criticism or conjectural emendation, no worship of aberrant phrases, no love of difficulty for its own sake ; there is no film of imperfect sympathy to come between the writer and the reader and intercept the thought or throw it in several shapes on several understandings. Whether the subject be geology, or commerce, or the English Revolution, or the metaphysics of grace and freewill, the French writer teaches the English reader with no oracular haze between them, and what he states can be reflected without distortion by the interpreter. Seasoned with this rationality, one can go safely to another atmosphere. From the modern books we may go, provided with touchstones, to Plato and Livy, to Thucydides and Virgil; and, whilst revering the intellectual fi:eedom of our heathen forefathers, we may honestly investigate their many errors; using them at once as patterns and as warnings; exposing the shallowness of their inductions, their employment of metaphor instead of argument, their subservience to abstract terms, the frequent breaking down of their rhetoric, their countless fallacies of ol^servation, and the barrenness to which they were condemned by the estrangement of their literature from science. IX. ON THE PKESENT SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. BY LORD HOUGHTON. That the whole of the boyhood and the greater part of the youth of the higher classes of our countrymen should be occupied with the study of the language, literature, history, and customs of two nations which have long ago disappeared from the surface of our globe, and which, but for the common conditions of all humanity, have no more relation to us than the inhabi- tants of another planet, would assuredly, if presented to our observation for the first time, appear a strange abuse of the privilege which the wealthy enjoy in the long sedulous, and uninterrupted education of their sons. And yet the problem has its solution, and the anomaly its excuse, in the story of the intellectual progress of mankind. The empire of the Roman language plays a scarce less important pai-t in the records of mankind than the dominion of the Roman arms. When the central power had collapsed, when the legions had retired from province after province and left the outer world to what they deemed an irreclaimable barbarism, a new and unthought-of influence was yet to come from the same region, and to spread itself over portions of the world, 366 SSSJTS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (BssatIX. not only inaccesdible to the force of Bome, but whose very existence was then unknown. The old tongae became the instrument and auxiliary of the new spiritual authority that rose on the ruins of the material power ; and though the Empire was for centuries Greek, Latin was becoming the expression of the thoughts and highest interests of the future civilization. And soon, while the modem languages of Europe by the side of it, and in all cases affected by it, were struggling upwards into indi- vidual life, it stood amid the inchoate and changing forms of speech in a distinct supremacy and perfection which gave it the character of the catholic and perma- nent utterance of the Roman race. So many of the vulgar tongues were but dialects or corruptions of the Latin, and others so interwoven with it in the process of their formation, that the conception of the Latin as the foundation of universal grammar was natural and just ; and when, in course of time, it became the means of intercommxmieation among men fix>m Sicily to the Hebrides, and made Augustine of Hippo intelligible to Pelagius of Wales, what other or better education was possible, than that Youth, wherever bom, should be introduced into this great citizenship and commimity of mind and heart ? And therefore if in this latter time we have to set before us the question, whether it is wise and right that purely classical studies should retain the monopoly which they still possess in the instraction of the present and future generations of those classes of our countrymen who are free from the necessities and obligations of mj^T^^^l labour, and who can exercise and develop their intellec- tual and moral faculties to the utmost for their own Houghton.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 367 pleasure and advantage and for the profit and guidance of their fellow-men, let it not be thought that there is any desire to derogate from the immense claims that the Latin language, even apart from its literature, legitimately maintains, as an agent in the advance and cultivation of the human race. But this main utility, this intellectual convenience, greater than ever has been the dissemination of the French, or even than will be that of the English language, among the inhabitants of the earth, has lite- rally ceased to exist. Latin is no longer a spoken \ tongue; even among scholars in the departments of theology and physical science, — where the advantage of addressing ad clerum arguments and facts, that the ignorant may easily misapprehend or misapply, might well be appreciated, — its use is rare and has an air of pedantry: and it is discontinued in our academic disputations and discussions, though retained in the proceedings of some foreign universities. The eccle- siastical allocutions, which are the most living forms of Latin speech, though addressed urhi et orhi^ affect a small portion of our people, and even in Catholic countries require interpretation and comment. Occa- sional works of classical investigation and verbal criticism appear in the ancient scholarly costume, but they have a prententious and exclusive bearing that repels even the capable reader. The complicated torture and linguistic anomaly of making Latin the vehicle for instruction in Greek is rapidly passing away from our schools, as well as the practice of illustrating the classic writers by annotations and dissertations of doubtful classi- cality ; and in the study and processes of law, which had 36 8 ESSAYS ON A UBEEAL EDUCATION. [EmMX IX. appropriated to itself, in the lapse of time, a special and corrupt, but in its application throughout Europe a general and recognised, Latin diction, nothing remains, as {ia.r as British jurisprudence is concerned, beyond a few isolated and mispronounced expressions. It has been reserved for an enthusiastic French Phil- Hellene (M. Gustave d'Eichthal) to propose that Greek should now become the Universal Language ; but even this is not more hopeless than the rehabilitation of the Latin, and there is no more teason in the teaching of the one than of the other, as far as relates to any intercourse or commimication with the actual world and living men. It will answer no purpose of argument to depreciate the effect and worth of classical scholarship. Let us have as much of it as possible. There is no danger in this time and country of the existence of a class of Oelehrten, who should distract the energies of the nation from the broad highways of civic life and lead them into the by-paths of abstract study, so that, while thought and speculation might be busy and fi'ee, political action might be inert and shackled. The critic and the searcher, the man to whom the records and productions of these two wondrous peoples is an inexhaustible mine of intellectual treasure, — before whom these languages, in the unalterable passiveness of their structure, lie like the dead subject under the knife of the anatomist,— who combines the curiosity of the antiquary with the induc- tion of the philosopher, — ^he can owe little, if anything to the present formal routine of classical 'discipline. It is doubtful, indeed, whether, if he had first come to that study at the age of sixteen, with fEusulties ^Smw^tme: ^^Uready 8trcngtheiiGd and i-egulatcd by auy sound system of education, without any ungrateful associatioDS of the daily recurrent taak and the natural resistance of boyish distraction to lessons that have no connexion with its instincts or its observation, some four or five years of conacientious and williDg labour, with all the stimulus of enjoyment in progress, would not effect at least all that ia required within the modest range of an University cuiTieulum, and leave him well armed and equipped for the campaigns and efforts of a fiurthcr erudition. At any rate, it must be supremely indifferent to a man thus engaged, whether an infinite number of boys are learning one gi'ammar or another, or construing one or other book, which it ia clearly understood that they are to lay by and forget, aa soon as they confront the businesses or even the pleasures of mature life. For to the social phenomenon of all this elaborate study, which cannot be applied to any practical purpose, must be added this other fecidiarity of the system, that, when once the ordinary British youth has bidden farewell to school or college, any attempt to prosecute, or even keep up, his claaaical attainments and interests would make him an oljject of curiosity, if not of censure and alarm, to all who might be solicitous for his future welfare. It is accepted that, whatever other advantages he may have derived from his public education — and they may be many — the knowledge of the ancient lan- guages, which formed so large and indispensable a portion of it, may be at once abandoned without com- punction or reproach. He has repeatedly learnt the Odes of Horace by art, but at the age of tliirty he will not be able t« repeat one of them ; he could once 370 BSSATS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebbat DL write a sort of Latin verse or prose, but that accomplish- ment soon utterly disappears^ perhaps at no great loss to himself or others. There must be, however, some posi- tive gain in even such a limited command of ancient literature as has been drilled into him, and if we were not case-hardened by custom, it would seem to us a scandal that it should be thus altogether thrown aside. The exceptions to this rule, of course, are numerous, and examples of men of too much mental vigour, and memories too well exercised, to abandon easily what they have acquired with much intelligent labour, will suggest themselves to all of ua Yet follow that young lawyer who has won high honours at his University, and whose talents and industry are undeniable : he throws himself with zeal into his new profession ; he sets himself to master the knowledge that may, when properly used, gain him wealth and position ; he would willingly pursue his former classical duties, but he finds no time for them, even in his hours of intellectual re- laxation. For these he has his French or German — which perhaps he once leamt from his sister's governess, but lost at school — or the elements of physical science, of which he now feels himself shamefully ignorant — or it may be some art — music or drawing — ^for which he is conscious that he possesses a true natural gift, and to which he sometimes regretfully thinks that the supple fingers or eager eyes of his boyhood might have been profitably directed. So that he must content himself with the superior enjoyment which his classical remem- brances and associations may give him, if he chances to visit the scenes of ancient history ; or, if he becomes the father of a family, with the means of imparting to HtlB aonsHTOS.] SOCIAL MSUITS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 371 children the rudimenta of the same education which absorbed all his early life, but to which he has so rarely reverted in his later years. With the clergy, whose occupations are for the most part sedentary and unambitious, the results might be expected to be different, but it is not so. Outside the Universities it is rare to find a clergyman, not engaged in tuition, whose intimacy with his previous studies goes much beyond his Greek Testament, and indeed it would hardly tend to his professional credit if it was known that he spent any considerable portion of his time in com- pany with a literature not akin in tliought and principle to his present duties. The old-fashioned conventional standard, which not only permitted, but encouraged, among ecclesiastics the familiar intercourse with heathen writers, and by which subjects indecorous or even sacri- legious when expressed In the vulgar tongue, became harmless and becoming when conveyed in Greek or Latin diction, is now obsolete ; and the spiritual condition of the semi-pagan prelates of the court of Leo X. or that of the Catullus-editing divines of the seventeenth century is not very comprehensible to the modern religious mind. If, then, the exclusive classical education, so prolonged, \ 80 elaborate, so costly, Is acknowledged to be inoperative, as regards the ri_'tention of the languages and the interest in their literature, among all classes of society, except those, whose business it is to continue and propagate the study, and a few scholastic amateurs,— can it be main- tained that the mental discipline which it enforces is of so peculiar and unique a character as, in itself, to justify this sacrifice of human inteUigeuce and parental expenditure ? I 372 BSSJFS ON A UBBBAL SDUCATIOF. [E«iLT IX. Admit all that can be adduced as to the Baperiorily of these tongues in the regularity of their stractore^ the logical accuracy of their expression^ the ease with which their etymology \a traced and reduced to general laws, and the precision of their canons of taste and style/ can it be affirmed that these peculiar excellences are appreciable by the mass of schoolboys, and that these processes of thought cannot be evoked by any other instrumentality? Is the dijSerence between these and other forms of speech such, that grammar cannot be taught efficiently in any living tongue, or that so refined a perception of style and taste in composition can be conveyed to the generality of young minds by these and by no other means ? Now no decisive answer can be given to these questions till the test of experience has been fairly applied, and this can only be done when all the other separate and collateral circumstances that affect and distinguish the education of our public schools can be combined with other than exclusive classical teaching. When boys, in all other respects under the same intellectual and moral training, are submitted to different courses of instruction, when the grammar of living tongues is taught as accurately and scientifically as that of the dead, when the sense of beauty and fitness in diction is excited and directed by judicious exercise in the masterpieces of native and foreign literature, when diligence and aptitude in the one study or the other are equally considered and rewarded, then, and not till then, can it be positively predicated that the imagined attri- butes of a classical education are not referable to cir- cumstances and treatment with which classics, as such, ^ See Dr. Templets evidence before the Royal ^«OTianTON.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 379' have nothing whatever to do, and whether the most enlightened advocates of the retention of the system are not unconsciously affected by a powerful literary BUperstition, L Powerful indeed, — 30 powerful, that its permanence ^■nd resistance to all attacks must rest on other grounds than even the intellectual approval of ages or the mental advantage of generations of mankind. It is no douht in the social conditions and political habits of the inhabitants of modem Europe that such a belief must have been rooted, to maintain its literary supremacy through all mutations of thought and above all storms of public opinion. It is as the proper and recognised education of the governing classes, the honourable accomplishment of all aristocracy, that the classical teaching endures so firmly, even now that it has ceased to be the mysterious speech of the Church and when it is no longer the authoritative exposition of Law. For as soon as it became the qualification of a Gentleman to read and write at all, it was Latin that he read and wrote. From Charle- magne, learning his Latin accidence at the age of forty, to the royal pedant, King James I. of England, the best classical culture of the age was ever appropriate to the highest social station. For centuries the young fancy and fresh wits of the civilized laity were nurtured with the images and incidents of old classic life, and all gentle literature was mimetic of the ancient standards. All else, tongue and word, the vehicle and the substance f native speech, were common, of the people — vulgar. And as the community of the modes of diction and Kiting extended itself from the learned to the powerful , wealthy portions of society, and distantly affected 874 BSSArS ON A UBSRAL EDUCATION. \Uut EL the fonnatioii of the maimers, as well as tibe mind, of Europe, Unus sonus est totius aratianis et idem stylus,^ might be applied, without exaggeration, to all the societies that co-operated in the revival of letters, and a oertain identity has come down among them even to this moment, in which we are discussing the question whether or not classical instruction must remain the staple of the gentleman's education. These effects ex- tended to the transactions of daily life, the euphuism of speech, the formation of all that can be compre- hended in the notion of Taste. There can, indeed, be no better illustration of these indirect influences than a certain condition of high society that existed in this country in the latter port of the last century. At that time the education of our public schools was no doubt very inferior in accuracy and extent to that now offered or enforced; yet among the patrician ckss there was a considerable body of men whose tastes and habits were coloured by classical associations and interests to an extent which at this day we can hardly comprehend* Few of them had any pretensions to large or precise scholarship, and their scope and purpose were well ex- pressed by a word which some of them brought back firom Italy, dilettanti, to which, however, no light or disparaging sense was at that time attached " Vir- tuoso the Italians call a man," says Dryden, "who loves the noble arts, and is a critic in them ; '^ and it was these men who introduced Virti into the luxuries of British life. They touched the rough manners of their age with a jovial grace and a genial delicacy, and they applied tlieir wealth to the acquisition of > Cic Brat 26. p HoooHTos.] SOCIJL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 375 IboBe £ne specimens of Greek and Koman sculpture which adorn our public and private galleries, and to the production of those sumptuous works of antique topography which enrich our libraries and have so few I successors. To them we owe the foundation of the \ British Museum, the introduction of the Italian Opera, and the establishment of the Academy of British Artists. They covered the country with Pallaclian edifices, that only too often rose on the ruins of the pleasant, com- I'modious, old English mansions ; and they decorated the ■ city with palaces of an arcliitecture which Mr. Ruakin tells us has found its final form in Gower Street. The range of classical writers with which they professed an acquaintance was of the most limited, but, within it, allusions were frequent and well understood, so that Pariiamentary quotations were not exhibitions of crudi- ton, but familiar forms of rhetorical expression. The mteel multitude affected the habits of the more in- "■'structfid ; if the public t-aste was bigoted and confined, at any rate it knew what it wanted, and, if monotonous, _ it was never confused : the notion of a Gothic House of Parliament would have convulsed the clubs, but Mr. winbume's " Atalanta " would have taken the town by torm. Now it may be said that this was a poor lit of what was contentedly regarded as the highest ducation, but it was, as far as it went, a positive gain ; t was a Culture,— and, if the exclusive distinction of a '"Special class, it was at the same time a bond of intel- lectual sympathy that went beyond it. To men of this temper, no scholarship seemed pedantic or supei-fluous : "they valued all they retained of the old tuition, and ^K^ey respected all that could make clear to them their 376 tBJTS OJ J UMEMdL MKCMtHim, OfauvIX. own mcnioiie B and iirtiiitirmR. Tke aeqakbiont cf llie Fremii and Italian toDgoes wi fcriKtatpA and en- comagnEd, instead of being dmot out of edncataon, \fj Hanrifal teaching, and aomediing of tfae cwmmnn apeech of ifmsxHT times was at least desired and attempted faj this modem society. Tbere ai^ indeed, still to be found among our eldem some few» moadj of those who ha^e been actively engaged in pohlic li£e» who ding with affection to this liteiatuie, often the only one to which they have Mt inclined during their existence — a remaining savour of the old dilettanti fruit, which we must not look to see repeated in an after-generation. Among future statesmen we may have serious schdars like Mr* Gladstone or Sir Comewall Lewis^ but we shall not again have Sir Eobert Peel discussing with Lord John Russell what was Mr. Fox's favourite among the Odes of Horace, or sprightly men-of-the-wodd exchanging their Virgil and translating Homer. Yet, however imperceptible may be the effects of classical training in after-life, either in mamners or in mind, as long as the fashion of the education endures, our higher classes will continue to subject their children to it, and the large portion of society which desires, at any cost, to give their progeny what seems to them the best start in life, will follow the example. Whilst a boy is placed, on his arrival at school, according to his classical attainments, the preliminary classical teaching becomes necessary, whatever be the sacrifice of other natural, opportune, or more available instruction, because no superiority of childly knowledge, either of words or things, would compensate for the disadvantage of Hii inferior position to othera of his own age and ability I BouonToN.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 377 in the new world of which he ia to form a part. Our great historical schools derive such a distinct moral benefit fix)m their association with the tone of fecHng and habits of demeanour that prevail in our best British homes, that, apart from the less worthy con- Bideration of the prestige or possible profit that their Bons may derive from daily contact with the sons of the titled and the opulent, it will require some very strong impulse to decide what may be called the upper ,tum of the middle class to accept for their families ly education which almost appears a descent in the locial scale. And yet it is precisely this cinss which is the most palpable sufferer under the present system, If indeed these chief laboratories of national instruction CMnbined with their social prominence a lai^e and ■ystematic instruction in the requirements of active and mdustrial life, theii- tut^^Iage would be the most effective apprenticeahip to which a sensible father in that rank of life could entrust his son. Now, however, when the young manufaeturer or banker begins what is to be the real Vuainesa of his existence, he leaves irrevocably behind him every object to which his ten (or more) early years have been devoted, retaining little beyond some tastes in which only the idle or the independent can indulge with impunity, and a certain dim conceit of his own superiority over his fellows, who have only received a "commercial" training. There are too many flagrant examples in the histoiy of the human mind of the persistent adherence, not only of public opinion and private judgment, but of the religious conscience and the mond sense, to forms and ceremonies, after the beliefs on which they were founded 378 SSSJTS ON A LIBERAL EDUCATION. [Ebsat IX. have faded into Bliadows^ to permit the hope that any amount of negative experience will bring about a reformation in the matter we are now considering. It is solely to a growing conviction of the necessity of larger and wiser instruction of our governing classes, if they are to remain our governors, that we must look as the source of any beneficial change. The first, and indeed the chief impediment to this result, is the extreme self-satisfaction with which not only our national pride, but the authority of our public institutions, regards the character of the present English gentleman. He is exhibited to us as an ideal of humanity which it is almost sinful to desire to improve or transcend ; and it is, if not asserted, continually implied that if he in his youth were taught more or otherwise than he learns at present, some mysterious degradation would inevi- tably ensue. Now, without detracting fi"om any single merit which is attributed to this high personality, never was there a greater confusion of post hoc with propter hoc than the 'theory that his actual excellent character- istics have anything whatever to do with the method of instruction which has been imparted to him. It is not pretended that he pursues, or ever resumes, the study that has occupied a fourth of his probable existence : it is not claimed that he has acquired a general taste in literature or arts, which will either serve as the basis of professional knowledge or dignify his hours of re- laxation ; it is admitted that he may become a landed proprietor without a notion of agriculture — b, coal-owner witliout an inkling of geology — a sportsman without curiosity in natural history — a legislator without the elements of law : it is assumed that he may frequent I pODonTOH.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 379 ^Blbreign countries, without having acquired even a con- ^B^venient intimacy with their language, and continually incur that ridicule which is especially disagreeable to his nature ; and yet, in the face of all these admission.^, I every attempt to supply these deficiencies ia regarded as little less than revolutionary. When a distinguished foreigner comes to London, it is almost impossible to collect a dinner-party in the highest circles who can ijieak with comfort and precision what he has a right to consider the present vernacular tongue of good Bociety throughout Europe, and yet the study and exercise of the French language in our public schools are still little more than a caprice and superfluity, instead I of being, as they ought, the substitute for that spoken Latin, which was the bond of intercommunication among civilized nations and the common dialect of gentility. But if an equality with the rest of the world in this respect is not required of the English gentleman, it might, at least, be expected that he should be furnished with all that constitutes the elemeutiuy education of the people, in the most perfect form that pedagogic skill and science can supply ; that his reading ahould be that of a clear and intelligent utterance ; that his writing should be neither " clerkly " nor illegible ; and that hia mechanical command of arithmetic should »be secured by some comprehension of its mathematical principles ; so that if, as far as he is concerned, the classical learning has been a fiction, he shall at any rate not be in a worse condition than if he had been born in on inferior station, and with only the ordinary oppor- tunities of instruction. But unfortunately it is this humble staudai-d which the gentlemanlike education 3«f/ 1S9J7J OJA laiRJL MKXJnOJi [bBirnL "pr^frisaL nc faEm»»r ^i<9 i»c MndeBmid to obcam, and x^jk f-hijir'i^ isi vut viiiffmaMt gnm op, in mil tliese v^'*rtrzsf. oTAz. zi£rsry.z zo ziry&t of die baclo' wlio ataiids Ii *i2iS ':«^s. & ^'^^' •!a2aainy to atnibote to the pto- flbXrr> •:•% ftti-rmiS': £=:>'B^kiri?>^ in ocr schook the dcsiic lo £11 Tbe iLiLfii ^t h*>Ts viih a <piantity of uncoonected fKts. or zo zi^-z ti-T ':Lara.tXrr of seTioQs mental exerdcm to ^ia:: is ii >«y?c rhfr cierc-ise of paerile observatioiL Tio: h is in iis^lf an imm-rnse profit for a yonth to kam b'l'V' :•> '>':«^rr'r. an»i toac this habit may mould and direct all Lis niture liiV. Ls undeniable ; but it is pie- cicely E/>c the c»i;2lom*rrarion of the fiurts, but the seirnnfic n^rrh^^i whSeh is ab>ve measure valuable as m training of the a«i<^^scent mind. To lay early the foan«ian*:-iL5 of certainty is to build up the man of prin- ciple and conviction, and has a moral purpose beyond anv intellc*:tual sain to be derived from the distinctions and fiincrl».»L5 of Linsniage. But there is no reason why the rwo should not go on together, and why grammar should n«>: be considere«i in connexion with its sister- sciences. " But there is not time for all these various subjects of instruction, and in tn^ing to teach all you will teach none," say the opponents. Not time ? Not time in thirteen or fourteen vears of life — of that life when the faculties are most active, the memory most retentive, the will most ductile ? Not time for the wealthy and the leisurely, for those who are destined to advise, direct, and lead the affairs of their country and the destinies of other men, to be taught aptly and completely the use of those instruments of intelligence which their less HocoHTOK.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 381 fortunate fellows have to acquire, as best they may, in some five or six years of boyhood, before they enter on the earnest strife of social existence ? And this is probably the form in which the decision of the question of the continuance of the classical educa- tion in this country will take place. If our public schools and imiversities can, as seems practicable, combine the ancient and honoured mode of instruction with the peremptory requirements of the present age, the presump- tion of classical superiority may not only be sustained but may become an admitted fact. Let a youth come forth from his academic career familiar with the phe- nomena of the world about him, apprehensive of scientific principles^ comprehending the facts and deductions of the history of mankind, sufficiently at home in the great societies of Europe to enjoy their intercourse and profit by observation, and, in addition to these qualifications, a good classical scholar, he will not only himself be too conscious of the value of the accomplishment to permit it to be disused and forgotten, but his possession of it will elevate him in general esteem and assist him in many special objects of life. For it is as the complement of European culture that these literatures can alone retain their hold over the minds of men. The East has now revealed the higher reservoirs of the stream of human speech, and the eye of the historian reaches to far more distant ranges of the civilization of mankind. But, though ceasing to be the only scholarly learning, they may well retain their parental relation to the ethical and political life, to the taste and intelligeuce of the modern world, if they are only raised from the degradation to which they are now talmiited in die pnfitleK Jiuilggiy of dcimwlij instmc- tion. They mxy httane ^be eseep6aas and ennoUiiig stndr of mnnaoiB persons wlio wfll find Aem intetesting and nsefbl icaHdea^ instead of hang, as tiie j noiw are, leeeptacles of dead names and phantasms^ and impedi- ments to piaetioal knoid^tlge and scientific tratiL Theie is a negative effect of tlie assamed nniversafitj of cl assi c al colnxre wluch it is woctii while to oonsider^ and^ if passible, to remedT. No one is averse to showing his familiarity with Don Quixote, thongh he is ignorant of Spanish, nor does an absence of the knowledge of Italian or German prevent the enjoyment of Gaiy^s ""Dante or Anste/s "Faust"* Still less is an acquaint- ance with Oriental languages thought necessaiy for an interest in, and appreciation o^ the history, literature, manncTB, and thought of Eastern peoples, firom the •"Arabian Nights" of our childhood, to Professor Wil- son's Sanskrit Philosophy. Indeed, it is notorious that works of the value of Baron de Bunsen s " Bibelwerke,* and Barthelemy St. Hilaire's researches on Boodha and Mohammed, have been produced without any assumption of Oriental scholarship. But there has come to seem something incongruous and offensive in any man's assum- ing to know or care about classic objects or classic letters^ without having been taught to construe Greek and Latin. Thus a large field of converse and discussion is practi- cally closed to numbers of educated persons perfectly capable of comprehending and criticising its meaning and spirit, and a serious intellectual barrier is raised, not only between man and man, but, almost universally, between man and woman, both in general society and In domestic intercourse. ouratOH.] SOCIAL RESULTS OF CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 883 Some relief to this defect would no doubt be afforded \yj the more frank recognition of the worth and use of translations into modem languages, which represent, as txaly as may be, the graces of form and the essential merits of the original writers; versions, not merely accurate, but sympathetic with the matter and the style they are handling — of poetry by poets, of oratory by orators, of history and philosophy by affectionate stu- dents of the emotions and reflections of mankind. These should, by right, be the most effective material of school training, instead of being prohibited and regarded as substitutes for severe study and inducements to juvenile indolence. But the true encouragement to a more general and unpedantic cultivation of what is universal and enduing in classic literature and life, beyond the mechanism of language, would result from such an alteration of the habitual methods of instruction as would strive, first and foremost, to fiU the mind of each pupil with the realities of the past, and to make the thoughts and deeds of those old existences as intelligible to him as the events of his own time or the workings of his own observation. Then, as he grew to manhood, they would be no longer a fairy or rather demon-world, which the activities or pleasures of the present and the aspira- tions or interests of the future equally authorize him to quit for ever, but an order of things in which he would feel a life-long concern, and which would mingle with all the conclusions of his increasing knowledge and the in- tellectual relations of his advancing years. To conclude, it can be no abstract advantage, with the present political prospects of this country, and indeed of Europe, that any education should retain an exclusive 384 ESSAYS ON A LIBBRAL EDUCATION. [EssatDL or class character. The free and intimate association of men of di£ferent birth in professional occupations is accepted by our aristocracy with that good sense which enables them to maintain a social influence almost ex- tinguished in European communities, and which is one of our best safeguards in the perplexities of the future. Any training which tends to keep up distinctions, whether real or fictitious, must injure that community of views and objects, which is so essential not only to personal comfort, but to advancement in any special avocation. We already hear the young ambitious Engineer or adventurous Colonist lamenting over his lost time and unemployed abilities, and speaking in no measured terms of reproach of what has been to him an inappropriate discipline, of which he so little appreciates the indirect and secondary advantages, that he regards the toils of his boyhood with unmitigated disgust. Is it impossible to make a satisfactory compromise between the just exigencies of our age and the honourable tradi- tions of past generations — one more compromise in a country and among a people who wisely have made so many ? THE END.

See also

• Liberal education