ji n_tsc._ 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 . ,a. 
 
TEACHERS' GUILD ADDRESSES 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REGISTRATION OF TEACHERS 
 
TEACHERS' GUILD ADDRESSES 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REGISTRATION OF TEACHERS 
 
 BY 
 
 S. S. LAURIE, LL.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THE THEORY, HISTORY, AND ART OF EDUCATION 
 IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 
 
 U o n & o 
 
 PERCIVAL & CO. 
 1892 
 
LB775" 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IT was suggested to me that the printing of my 
 evidence before the Parliamentary Select Com- 
 mittee last year in support of the Teachers' Guild 
 Registration Bill might be of service in the 
 present state of opinion. I took advantage of 
 the opportunity of printing the evidence to 
 publish a few addresses delivered for the most 
 part to the Teachers' Guild, some of which bore, 
 more or less directly, on the question of the train- 
 ing and registration of secondary schoolmasters. 
 The essay on Montaigne appeared in a former 
 book, but it has been for many years out of print. 
 It is reprinted in this volume to accompany the 
 papers on Ascham and Comenius. These three 
 men are representatives of the three leading 
 theories of Education. 
 
 S. S. L. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 
 April, 1892. 
 
 'UNIVERSITY 
 
 .- - -'. - - 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AND THE TRAINING 
 
 OF TEACHERS i 
 
 II. THEORY AND THE CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY 
 SCHOOLS UNIVERSITIES REGISTRATION OF 
 TEACHERS AND DECENTRALIZATION .... 35 
 
 III. METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER . 69 
 
 IV. MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST 95 
 
 V. ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST 130 
 
 VI. COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST AND FOUNDER 
 
 OF METHOD 169 
 
 VII. THE SCHOOLMASTER AND UNIVERSITY (DAY) 
 
 TRAINING COLLEGES 202 
 
 VIII. SELECTION FROM EVIDENCE GIVEN BEFORE A 
 SELECT PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE ON A 
 TEACHERS' REGISTRATION AND ORGANIZATION 
 
 BILL 233 
 
 IX. REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE 
 
 OF COMMONS 291 
 
I. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 1 
 
 SOUND practice is sound theory unconscious of 
 itself: sound theory is merely sound practice 
 conscious of itself. My thesis is simply this 
 that a teacher should be conscious of the art he 
 practises, conscious of its rational basis, its process 
 and its end : and that for his own sake, for the 
 sake of his pupils, and for the sake of the dignity, 
 usefulness, and influence of the profession to which 
 he belongs. 
 
 There is not time in one lecture to discuss the 
 question fully, and what I have now to say is, in 
 truth, more of the nature of an apologia preparing 
 the way for an argument, than itself an argument. 
 
 There is a conviction abroad which, though it 
 does not obtrude itself so often as it used to do, 
 
 // * Annual Address to the Teachers' Guild, London, 1890. 
 
 B 
 
2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 still influences opinion that a teacher, like a poet, 
 is born, not made. This opinion is due, I suppose, 
 to the fact that they both practise arts : but it is 
 scarcely necessary to point out that the arts are 
 of different kinds ; nay, that in some essential 
 respects they are to be contrasted rather than 
 compared^ 
 
 Like most opinions which have a trick of per- 
 sistently turning up when one thinks them dead, 
 the dictum as to the divine origin of the teacher, 
 as of the poet, has an element of truth in it : for 
 it is certainly possible for a man to be born a 
 teacher ; and the greatest teachers of the world 
 have been born teachers. But this is simply to 
 say that there is such a thing as educational 
 genius, just as there is genius in other departments 
 of human activity. If we could command the 
 fountains of Nature and Providence, we should 
 certainly take care to have none but born teachers. 
 As we cannot do this, and as not more than one 
 teacher in a thousand is a born teacher, and of the 
 remainder, not probably more than twenty per 
 cent, even half-born, we must have some way of 
 making teachers out of men who desire to practise 
 the art, and of making them in the image of him 
 who is born to it. 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 3 
 
 We cannot define genius in any department of 
 human activity. After we have given such account 
 of it as we can, there remains a " something " 
 which escapes us. In art we recognize the fact that 
 while genius accepts tradition, it is yet essentially 
 outside rule/: it makes rule. It is a subtle, com- 
 plex, and wholly mysterious combination of faculty, 
 which by a native impulse gives a new form of 
 beauty to the products of the mind. We may 
 call it feeling or inspiration. For this inspiration 
 a man has to wait, and to wait in vain if he has 
 not been born to receive it. By the grace of God, 
 Raphael and Shakespeare were artists. So, by the 
 grace of God, the builder of Westminster Abbey 
 was an artist, and the builders of many a simple 
 church-tower that gives charm to the rural parishes 
 of England, making a poem of even the most 
 prosaic landscape, were also in their degree artists. 
 
 The difficulty of definition, however, is not so 
 great in the field of education as it is in the 
 aesthetic arts. Were we asked to explain more 
 closely wherein educational genius consists, I 
 doubt if we could find any word more suitable 
 than the old familiar word, Sympathy. All that 
 a teacher needs, it has been held, is knowledge of 
 the subject he teaches, and sympathy ; and I am 
 
4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 quite willing to accept this word as a fair enough 
 approximation to what we mean when we speak 
 of the genius of the teacher. But I would ask 
 you to consider with me what Sympathy itself 
 means, because I think that by starting from 
 what is an educational commonplace, I shall more 
 effectively convince you that all teachers should 
 study the Philosophy of Mind, as containing the 
 theory of their art. 
 
 Now, we shall find three senses in which this 
 word "sympathy " is used in its scholastic reference : 
 in the first, it is the essential qualification of every 
 teacher ; in the second, it borders on a vice ; in 
 the third, it may be accepted as a fair enough 
 equivalent for educational genius. 
 
 In its first sense, it means little more in a young 
 teacher than a genuine interest in the young, and 
 a strong desire to help them on their way. This 
 is not only a good thing, but the first and indis- 
 pensable qualification of every man who teaches 
 with a view to educate. If he has it not, he ought 
 to find some other occupation ; for, without it, he 
 will not only do no good, but much harm, and be 
 himself of all men most miserable as he hope- 
 lessly fulfils the drudgery of a daily routine. But 
 
AND THE TRAINING ~OJ^TSACffERS. 
 
 sympathy in this sense is nothing more than the 
 ordinary impulse of good will towards our fellow- 
 men, taking a specific line in the direction of those 
 who are as yet young and weak. It is a manly 
 quality, and is bred generally of a deep sense of 
 the spiritual responsibility of the elder for the 
 younger brother. But this simple virtue is not 
 what many, in these days, mean by " sympathy " 
 in the teacher. 
 
 The second sense in which the word is used, is 
 to mark a quality of mind which many admire and 
 cultivate viz. a sentimental affection for boys 
 which shows itself in a constant effort to gain their 
 regard by stooping to their level, and involves a 
 good deal of attitudinizing on the part of the man. 
 The object is to influence children for good and 
 to make them (I presume) like one's self. This 
 kind of sympathy is, I think, the excess, and there- 
 fore the vice of what, in moderation, is a virtue. 
 Aristotle, the apostle of the " mean," would not 
 have approved of it. Does it not too often charac- 
 terize minds which combine with a certain essential 
 vanity a feeble fumbling after power ? They are 
 not strong enough, or virile enough, in themselves 
 to exercise power without scheming to do it, and 
 taking advantage 7 often undue advantage of 
 
6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 their superior age and position ; always, of course, 
 with the best intentions. But good intentions are 
 a bad plea in a court of Ethics. A teacher must 
 question his good intentions and the moral sym- 
 pathy with boys out of which they are supposed 
 to spring. The kind of sympathy of which we 
 now speak impresses me as unwholesome, and much 
 in need of guidance and correction. Is it not a 
 kind of Protestant Jesuitry in education ? The 
 sympathetic sentimentalist among teachers ought, 
 above all men, to be put through a stiff course of 
 educational methods and science. There are many 
 good instincts in him running to seed. He requires 
 bracing up. Genuine power never needs to assert 
 itself. The sympathy which some cherish as a 
 special virtue of their own, leads to a constant 
 manipulating of the mind of a pupil a constant 
 lying in wait in order to guide, shape, and influ- 
 ence. Such devotedness on the part of an adult 
 to a boy necessarily conveys to the immature 
 subject of the process a silent conviction that he 
 is an interesting object, and so tends to engender 
 in him a weak and narrow conceit rather than to 
 foster a strong personality. The result is a prig. 
 Common rumour and certain " Boys' books " tell 
 us that there has been, since Arnold's time, a good 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 7 
 
 deal of this sort of coddling a kind of pawing 
 of the tender mind, by well-meaning pedagogic 
 moralists. Now, neither plants nor kittens will 
 grow if you are constantly handling them, and 
 even water takes an unconscionable time to boil 
 if you keep looking at the kettle. Indeed, it is 
 a matter of common observation that if our much- 
 tended plant in our aesthetic flower-pot sprouts 
 at all, it always takes advantage of our absence 
 to do so. 
 
 Far be it from me to say that a teacher is not 
 consciously to endeavour to exercise " influence ; " 
 but he must respect individuality, and be on his 
 guard against sympathy of the spurious kind I 
 have been describing : otherwise he will overdo 
 his part as educator. Even a father must respect 
 the individuality of his son. If he does not, he 
 will most certainly be beaten in the end. Let 
 boys alone ; but take care that they live under 
 law, that they have good moral and spiritual food, 
 that they do their work from a sense of duty as 
 well as pleasure, and above all that they have in 
 you, their master, a good strong example. To the 
 schoolroom we may apply the words of Bacon : 
 "Adest quoque ipse vultus, et aspectus virorum 
 gravium qui facit ad verecundiam, et teneros 
 
8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 animos etiam a principiis conformat ad exemplar." 1 
 Let there be no moral analysis, no unmanly and 
 unmanning sentimentalism, no shedding of sym- 
 pathetic tears over interesting boy-penitents. 
 
 I fear I shall be thought to be very much (to 
 use a colloquial expression) out of the swim ; for I 
 look with aversion even on masters " sympatheti- 
 cally " taking a part in boys' games. By all means 
 see that the boys have all necessary facilities and 
 time for games, but then leave them to themselves, 
 with only such paying of visits to the field as may 
 seem natural and friendly ; for boys are boys, and 
 men are men. It is a false etymology which 
 interprets education as a drawing-out : it is a 
 drawing-^/. A boy grows in intelligence by lean- 
 ing on the strongej; intelligence of his master ; in 
 moral perception by imbibing his master's deeper 
 moral convictions ; in conduct by forming him- 
 self on his master's formed and disciplined will. 
 If, then, he is to be truly educated, he must be 
 always looking up. To require masters men in 
 so exalted a position of intellectual and moral 
 authority to run at " hare and hounds " with 
 little boys, is, to my mind, ridiculous, and is one 
 of the results of a false "sympathy." It is no 
 
 1 This I quote from some other writer. It has not been verified. 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 9 
 
 mark of manhood, this kind of thing this affecta- 
 tion of simple-mindedness, this condescension of 
 unbending. Remember that, as Britons, we have 
 to deal with boys who have a great history behind 
 them, and a great imperial task before them boys 
 whose "blood is fet from fathers of war-proof." 
 We have to " stiffen the sinews " of their minds 
 if they are to bear their part nobly before God and 
 man. The kind of sympathetic condescension 
 against which I would protest weakens, and then 
 flatters the weakness it has created. 
 
 But let us come now to the third sense in which 
 the word "sympathy," as applied to the school- 
 master, may be used the true sense the sense 
 in which " sympathy " is another word for " edu- 
 cational genius." What does it mean now? It 
 denotes that subtle and complex combination 
 of faculty which makes a teacher, at one bound, 
 master of his art, just as an analogous combination 
 marks the true artist in the sphere of the beautiful. 
 Let us look at this more closely. We cannot 
 analyse the art of the artist ; but we can analyse 
 the art of the educator, and the analysis shows 
 the fallacy that underlies the confounding of the 
 two arts. I should say that sympathy is an 
 intuitive perception of the mental condition and 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 **.. OF 
 
io THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 processes of others, so vivid as to enable a man, 
 without effort, to live in and with other minds, 
 and to help them on their way to knowledge and 
 to character, by moving with them step by step. 
 In every lesson which a man so endowed gives 
 to the young, in every conversation he holds with 
 them, this sympathetic intuition is unobtrusively 
 active without any one being specially conscious 
 of it. Now, this is a rare gift. I don't know how 
 many teachers there are in Great Britain ; let us 
 say, fifty thousand. How many of these, do you 
 think, are so endowed by the grace of God ? 
 Shall we say fifty ? Partially so endowed, there 
 are thousands. 
 
 Observe, now, what this sympathy is the 
 sympathy which characterizes the teacher of whom 
 we may say nascitur non fit. It is simply a pro- 
 found psychological knowledge, which yet is not 
 knowledge at all, in any strict sense, because it 
 is unconscious : it is rather to be called feeling 
 or intuition. Were such a man suddenly gifted 
 with the power and love of analytic and abstract 
 thinking, he would, by his revelations, put our 
 psychologists to shame. They would all go to 
 school to him. 
 
 Since such men are few and teachers are man)-, 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. n 
 
 the question is, How are the many to rise to the 
 level of the few ? I answer, In no way can they 
 rise to it ; but, by the conscious study of those 
 very mental processes which the born teacher 
 intuitively feels and instinctively practises, the 
 vast majority may approach it. It is possible, in 
 short, to become conscious of the art of education ; 
 in other words, to know and apply to the work 
 of education the philosophy or science of the mind 
 of man : it is not possible to become a poet or a 
 painter by studying the principles and philosophy 
 of the arts of poetry or painting. 
 
 Were I to ask you to analyse with me the inner 
 processes of mind as it grows from childhood to 
 manhood those processes in and with which the 
 educational genius instinctively lives and then to 
 formulate these, by what name would you call 
 these formulated results ? The " Philosophy or 
 Science of Mind," of course. Now, inasmuch as 
 this science of mind can be taught and learned, 
 the secret of the sympathy of the educational 
 genius can so far be unveiled and learnt. Such 
 study cannot make a man a genius, but it can 
 put him on the next level to it, especially when 
 supported by that strong desire to educate others 
 which we assume to exist in all who choose the 
 
12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 profession of schoolmaster. In this sense it is that, 
 while I say of the rare schoolmaster-genius, nascitur, 
 I say of all others, provided they have the humane 
 prerequisite, they can be made made in the like- 
 ness, and after the image, of him who is " born." 
 
 What we desire, then, is that all young teachers 
 should be helped to stand on the vantage-ground 
 of wise and manly sympathy, by the study of the 
 Philosophy of Mind. By this study, sympathetic 
 teachers, in the strong virile sense, can be " made." 
 And, once they are set on the right scientific road, 
 every year will add to their knowledge, their skill, 
 their wisdom ; in brief, their " sympathy," in the 
 virile sense of the word. 
 
 Now, let no young schoolmaster, freshly crowned 
 with tripos laurels, think that, by posing as an 
 opponent of philosophy in education and its con- 
 sequent methods, he thereby makes good his own 
 claim to the rare gift of genius. The world 
 will not accept him at his own estimate, and 
 will shrewdly conclude that, as the pretension to 
 genius in a youth is often a claim to shirk hard 
 work and do whatever the said youth pleases to do, 
 the youthful schoolmaster who makes such preten- 
 sions must be watched. But if it should so happen 
 that you, the young teacher, really have genius, 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 13 
 
 depend on it, your genius will be strengthened 
 and virilized by philosophy. In truth, it will be 
 found that the man who is endowed with educa- 
 tional genius is always the last to oppose philo- 
 sophy as part of the teacher's preparatory training. 
 His very genius tells him that he has much to 
 learn. Though conscious of his own strength, he 
 yet cannot look behind him on the past abuse 
 of young minds and bodies, around him on pre- 
 valent errors, and before him on the vast national 
 interests involved, without feeling the necessity 
 there is for that class of professional men and 
 women who are set apart to work at the very 
 foundations of the social fabric, studying their 
 work in its principles, aims, and methods. The 
 oa and individualism of pretentious minds must, 
 he feels, be made to give way to the 7rt<rrr/^rj of 
 rational and reasoned system. 
 
 Why should a young teacher not study philo- 
 sophy as ground of his art ? What are we afraid 
 of ? In other professions men study science and 
 dwell with principles. It is possible in chemistry to 
 be a very facile practical analyst with little know- 
 ledge of science, and yet you say to every young 
 chemist^ " Study the science of your art ; " and you 
 know that the genius-analysts have studied, and 
 
14 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 constantly do study, the science of the analytic art. 
 So with engineers especially genius-engineers. So 
 with physicians, especially genius-physicians. The 
 preacher, too, studies the science and history of 
 theology ; why should he not be left to his mother- 
 wit and the spasmodic visitations of spiritual in- 
 flation ? It would appear that the onus of show- 
 ing that a teacher should not, like other people, 
 study the science of his special art lies with 
 those who deny the necessity. Nowadays the 
 cry is Give technical instruction to our plumbers, 
 and dyers, and weavers, and telegraphists, and 
 mechanics of all sorts : and what does technical 
 instruction mean ? It does not mean methods only, 
 but the principles and history i.e. the science of 
 the methods. Are teachers the practisers of the 
 art of forming the mind of the young to be left 
 out in the cold ? Are they not to aspire even to 
 the education of a plumber ? In the case of school- 
 masters alone, are we to reverse the thought of the 
 poet, spoil the scanning, and say 
 
 Magister 
 Infelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas ? 
 
 Let us look, for a little, at some of the current 
 objections : 
 
 "Will the student of philosophy be a better 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 15 
 
 teacher," some say, "by virtue of his study?" I 
 answer, more Scotico, by asking another question : 
 " Will a plumber be a better plumber, a chemical 
 analyst a better analyst, by studying the science 
 of their respective arts ? " This, at least, all must 
 allow to be absolutely certain : the teacher himself 
 will be placed: on a higher plane of professional 
 life by the study of philosophy. By being more, 
 and thinking more, as a man, he will be more and 
 think more in his daily work. It is a truism, " As 
 is the teacher, so is the school : " I would add, " As 
 is the man, so is the teacher." 
 
 But, again, some say : " By making him study 
 the science of mind as it bears on the educating of 
 mind, you will destroy a teacher's originality ! " 
 Now, if there be a philosophy or science underlying 
 all educational procedure, that youth must indeed 
 have a weakling and rickety originality who can- 
 not bear to look at this philosophy without being 
 turned to stone, as if he gazed on a Medusa's head. 
 Had such originality not better die at once and 
 have done with it ? 
 
 Again, I have found that some fear that the 
 study of the philosophy of education, and the con- 
 sequent art, may make young men pedants before 
 their time. Now, I can easily understand how the 
 
1 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 study of methods alone dogmatic rules of pro- 
 cedure may make a man a pedant who is by 
 nature already pedantically disposed ; but, even 
 then, his pedantry, like Hamlet's madness, will 
 have method in it, which will be something gained. 
 But the philosophy of mind, which determines all 
 methods, and gives them truth, meaning, vitality, 
 is the enemy and destroyer of pedantry. For 
 what is it, after all, save thinking ? Can a teacher 
 be converted into a pedant by thinking about the 
 foundations and ultimate significance of what he 
 holds to be an Art his Art ? Those headmasters 
 who are, by the grace of God, themselves the whole 
 art of education incarnate, need not surely fear 
 a young assistant because he thinks. It is only 
 despots to whom " such men are dangerous : " it 
 is only they that love the " sleek smooth head." 
 
 "Well, but after all, in a schoolmaster, if you 
 have not genius, then experience is everything," 
 we are further told. On the contrary, experience 
 is nothing often less than nothing : it is a mere 
 opportunity for further confirming bad habits of 
 mind. Experience is the great indurator, the 
 crust-former, of the human soul. I wish some 
 clever fellow would write a paper "On the Futility 
 of Experience, especially among Schoolmasters." 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 17 
 
 " Days sJiould speak, and multitude of years sJwuld 
 teach wisdom," we are told in Job. You notice 
 the " should " a wisely chosen mood ; for expe- 
 rience no more gives wisdom than facts make 
 history. There is no department of life in which 
 experience is of value, except to him whose prior 
 philosophic or scientific discipline enables him to 
 put the right questions to experience and interpret 
 the answers. 
 
 It was only the other day I hope we may regard 
 the day as past that secondary schoolmasters 
 looked with suspicion, even contempt, on the study 
 of methods, and regarded every man who talked 
 of methods as a " mere theorist" There may be 
 survivals ; but it must be difficult now, I hope, 
 to find the headmaster who would think it a 
 disqualification in a young teacher of language to 
 have studied Quintilian and Ascham. The battle 
 of methods is now won in the whole field of 
 primary education, and in every department of 
 science-teaching ; and it is only among secondary 
 schoolmasters, literary, linguistic, and classical, 
 that the heresy still prevails, that every graduate, 
 when he puts on his hood, puts on with it the 
 whole art of education ; that when we endue a 
 raw youth with an academic gown, we endow him 
 
 C 
 
1 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 with method. But even with this class of teacher 
 great progress has been made. He recognizes at 
 least that there is such a thing as method. The 
 primary school has taught this to the secondary 
 school. Comenius and Pestalozzi have also taken 
 possession of the science chairs of our Universities. 
 It is otherwise, however, with the philosophy of 
 mind as the basis of all methods and as alone 
 vindicating the truth of methods, and furnishing 
 aim and inspiration as well as plan, This is still 
 fighting its way up. Surely, if there be methods 
 rules, ways of procedure in teaching and training 
 there must be a science of them, and that science 
 must be the science of mind. Not psychology alone 
 in its narrower and more empirical sense ; but the 
 philosophy of mind, and, therefore, the philosophy 
 of man. As with methods, so with philosophic 
 principles ; the movement to give the latter a place 
 has begun in primary schools. The Government 
 of the country already examines in principles (in 
 a fashion) a great victory for the once abused 
 " theorist." Mr. Kekewich and Mr. Craik now 
 write instructions to inspectors with all the unction 
 of a Professor of the Theory and Art of Education. 
 Are secondary schoolmasters alone supra philoso- 
 phiam ? Are they all born philosophers as well as 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 19 
 
 born artists ? What elixir of educational genius 
 do Greek iambics or the mathematics of the fourth 
 dimension distil ? 
 
 In speaking of method, I have said that I 
 presume no headmaster would nowadays object 
 to a young graduate who had been sufficiently in 
 earnest about his profession to study Quintilian 
 and Ascham. So now, may I be so daring as to 
 say, that no headmaster (under forty) would think 
 the worse of a young graduate if he had studied 
 such a book in the philosophy of education as, 
 for example, Mr. R. L. Nettleship's "Exposition 
 of the Republic of Plato " ? That most admirable 
 of all modern treatises on the philosophy of educa- 
 tion modern, but resting deep on ancient founda- 
 tions is buried in the volume called " Hellenica." 
 But I would warn the rule-of-thumb empiricists 
 the would-be born educators the artists by the 
 grace of God to put it on an Index Expurgatorius ; 
 for it will make a youth think, it will make him 
 " theorize." But in a classical school, at least, a 
 young master who engages himself with Plato can 
 hardly be treated as a suspect. I say with confi- 
 dence, that if a clever young graduate who has been 
 teaching for a year or two without thinking much 
 about the great question of education, will shut 
 
2/5 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 himself up for a week with Nettleship's essay, he 
 will come out into his school afterwards (to use 
 the phraseology in which our Scottish Calvinistic 
 fathers brought us up) convicted, converted, re- 
 generate, sanctified. A new sun will be shining 
 by day, and a new moon by night. As a teacher, 
 he will live henceforth in the atmosphere breathed 
 by the minor gods. 
 
 But a more serious objection has to be en- 
 countered. There is an art : there is method : 
 there are methods, all now admit ; but some would 
 foreclose all further discussion by saying there is 
 no science of the art, no accepted philosophy of 
 mind in its relation to education as a whole ; 
 and, accordingly, we must adjourn till we have 
 settled this. 
 
 Let me admit that there is no one philosophy 
 of education which is above suspicion no recog- 
 nized philosophic educational system or theory : 
 what then ? Is there any philosophy of which it 
 can be said that it is recognized and final ? and 
 yet we pursue .philosophy as a part of general 
 academic education. It is not necessary to have 
 a philosophy of education as unquestionable as 
 Euclid before we can, as teachers, be asked to 
 study it Sir Frederick Pollock, in his " Introduc- 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 21 
 
 tion to Political Science " (by-the-by, I might 
 ask students of Politics, and of Political Economy 
 too, who doubt the science of education, where 
 their " science " is to be found), says : " It is better 
 to have a theory of education not exactly in the 
 right place, than to have none at all ; which last 
 is about the condition in which we moderns have 
 been since the tradition of the Renaissance sank 
 into an unintelligent routine." To discuss actual 
 or possible educational philosophies here would 
 be impossible, and I will content myself with 
 saying that Aristotle's " Ethics," though wanting 
 in direct guidance for the trainer of youth, is a 
 science of the art of moral education from the 
 Hellenic standpoint ; Plato's " Republic," again, is 
 a philosophy or science of education in a much 
 larger and wider and profounder sense. Does any 
 one who has studied these books doubt this ? I 
 avoid modern instances, lest I should arouse the 
 jealousies of the " Schools." The philosophy of 
 education is simply the groundwork of the art, as 
 that groundwork is to be found in the nature of 
 the mind of man, the ends of man's existence, and 
 his relations to other men. It is, in short, what 
 we mean by philosophy philosophy in its grand 
 historical sense, " musical as is Apollo's lute ; " but 
 
22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 it is, also and chiefly, this philosophy in its special 
 relation to the growth of the man-child to man- 
 hood. The philosophy or science of education is 
 the philosophy of mind and of man as a growing 
 mind and a growing man : it is dynamical, not a 
 barren analysis and formulation of the statical 
 facts of the human mind abstracted from life and 
 the conditions of life. And yet, though this way 
 of looking at mind does not appear in the " Ethics " 
 of Aristotle, and only partially in the " Republic " of 
 Plato, I confidently ask any young teacher who 
 has studied these books, especially Nettleship's 
 exposition of the latter, " Have they anything to 
 do with you and the social function to which you 
 have devoted your life ? " I know the answer will 
 be : " They have everything to do with me ; just 
 as much as Greek accidence and syntax have to 
 do with the teaching of Greek." Taste, then, and 
 eat ; it is not the fruit of the forbidden tree, though 
 it does teach the knowledge of good and evil. 
 
 Now, those who allow me to name the two books 
 which I have called to witness as philosophies of the 
 art of education, and make no protest, are in my net 
 of argument. This is all I want. I suppose they 
 will scarcely say philosophy ended with Plato and 
 Aristotle ; that thought on the supreme subjects 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 23 
 
 of human concern man's life, man's destiny, and 
 man's education for his life and destiny was 
 arrested about 400 years B.C. The philosophy of 
 education, then, exists, and by your own admission 
 should be studied as a preparation for your pro- 
 fessional work. 
 
 So much for philosophy in general, and its 
 bearing on the great art of education ; but, it may 
 be urged (for there is no end to the objections to 
 the existence of colour which a man born blind 
 may urge), " such philosophy, though always 
 instructive and stimulating, cannot give birth, by 
 necessary, or even probable, deduction, to methods 
 of instruction and methods of moral training to 
 the rules of the teacher's art, in short ; and so it 
 becomes part of a man's liberal culture merely, 
 as opposed to his professional preparation for the 
 work of life." This depends very much on what 
 is meant by the objector : such philosophies give 
 you end and aim ; the principles which you have 
 imbibed from them are translated into practice by 
 you, spite of yourself; and they cannot be trans- 
 lated into practice without going through the 
 intermediate stage of rules or methods the axio- 
 mata media which govern practical life. These 
 rules and methods you may (it is true) be only 
 
24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 vaguely conscious of, because of your idle habit 
 of not thinking things out ; but they are always 
 there in your mind, always operative, always potent. 
 To the extent to which a man might formulate 
 them, to that extent would he at once see that the 
 rules and methods were deductions from principles. 
 As Wordsworth says in the " Prelude " 
 
 " General truths which are themselves a sort 
 Of elements and agents, under-powers, 
 Subordinate helpers of the living mind." 
 
 But I would meet the objection more in the face. 
 I have been speaking of philosophy in its larger 
 sense as a philosophy of life, and, as such, 
 supremely practical. The claim of philosophy on 
 the teacher becomes irresistible when we see that, 
 within the philosophy of life and mind, there falls 
 not only the analysis of the processes of Intelligence, 
 but the successive movements involved in building 
 up Conscience and disciplining to Duty. This is 
 psychology a section of the larger philosophy. 
 Omitting the moral aspects of psychology, and 
 confining myself to the intelligence alone, whereby 
 it is mainly that a man differs from the beasts of the 
 field, I would sum up, in a brief paragraph, much 
 that might be said more convincingly perhaps 
 if dealt with at greater length, hoping that, in 
 
i U JCil VJGRSITY 
 
 \^^ ^ OF 
 
 AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 25 
 
 being concise, I do not become obscure : The 
 process whereby intelligence intelligizes is the 
 process by which a man knows and can alone 
 know. He cannot know anything through his 
 fingers or toes, or in any other way than by a 
 movement within him which is as definite and 
 determined in its character as are the laws of the 
 physical world. Knowing is only another word 
 for learning ; and does it not follow, by necessary 
 consequence, that the way of learning must be the 
 way of teaching ? This question answers itself. 
 Now, what is the meaning of the word " method " ? 
 It simply means Way neither more nor less. 
 The way of learning, then, is the method of teach- 
 ing. Let any man escape from that brief argument 
 if he can. 
 
 The general method (or methodick) yielded by 
 psychology applies to all subjects equally to 
 English, Science, Greek, Music, etc., to the extent 
 to which the subject permits. An analysis of it 
 breaks it up into many sub-processes which we call 
 methods in the plural number in other words, rules 
 of the art of instruction and of moral education. 
 
 Now, you cannot, by any device, escape method. 
 Admit that method is a way and that methods are 
 ways, and I defy any man to teach without them. 
 
26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 As Aristotle says, there is no question as to philo- 
 sophizing or not ; a man, simply because he is a 
 man, must philosophize. So we educationalists 
 say, it is not at all a question whether a teacher is 
 to teach by method or not : he must teach, by the 
 very nature of things, according to some way or 
 method. The questions are : Do we philosophize 
 wisely ? Do we instruct according to a wise 
 method ? Do not imagine that you can ever 
 escape method of some sort. When you teach 
 amo, amavi, or chemical processes, or Sophocles, 
 or the pons asinorum, you are always following 
 a way ; you must follow a way. You are devotees 
 of method without knowing it. But what method ? 
 What way ? 
 
 Let me assume here, however, that you have 
 deliberately studied methods. My point is that 
 the student of methods should carry his studies 
 a step further back, and see method growing out 
 of psychology as part of the larger and presiding 
 philosophy. Still, I can imagine a young teacher 
 of ingenuous mind hesitating. Methods he may 
 frankly recognize ; and he may admit also that 
 as part of general culture, quite apart from 
 scholastic duty, a man should study philosophy 
 in the large Platonic sense, because philosophy, 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 27 
 
 so understood, is after all only an explanation of 
 the meaning of man, and an inquiry into the ends 
 of human existence. An educator, above all men, 
 he may admit, should think of these things. But 
 when it comes to the connecting together of 
 philosophy, psychology, and methods by a rational 
 link, he shrinks back lest he should become a 
 bond-slave of law and rule. "I fear I should no 
 longer be a free man," he may say ; " I should be 
 a mere instrument of science, a walking formula.'' 
 Well, it is so far true. You would not be free to 
 do many things you now do ; your will which 
 is not will at all, as philosophy would teach you, 
 but arbitrary caprice would be under the restraint 
 of law. To the extent to which any of us is 
 educated we part with our freedom in the banale 
 sense of the word. As sons of God we are under 
 law, which alone is the true freedom of the human 
 spirit. The law against which you, as an indi- 
 vidual, rebel, has been called " the glorious liberty 
 of the children of God." Does any man quarrel 
 with this ? Does he desire to throw off the 
 restraint of the law which alone is true freedom ? 
 So with the educator when he studies the science 
 of his art, there to find law. 
 
 Let me assure you, however, that it is a com- 
 
28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 plete misconception to suppose that, when you 
 have studied either methods or their science, viz. 
 psychology and the larger philosophy, you are 
 constantly thinking of these things and squaring 
 your mode of instruction with them. A practical 
 engineer, when he is doing his daily task, is not 
 revolving in his mind the whole theory of 
 mechanics ; a chemist who is engaged on a par- 
 ticular investigation is not reproducing in imagi- 
 nation the whole theory of chemistry from hour 
 to hour ; a clergyman, when he is addressing an 
 audience hungry for spiritual food, is not conning 
 in his inner consciousness a whole scheme of 
 scientific theology. So with the teacher : methods 
 and philosophy he has studied and is always 
 thinking about, more or less, with the larger 
 thought of cultivated men everywhere ; but, in 
 his converse with his pupils, these things do not 
 obtrude themselves. They have already shaped 
 his mind to his work at the first ; they have given 
 the primary impulse, and from day to day are 
 giving body and substance to an enthusiasm which 
 would be otherwise thin and effervescent ; they 
 have deepened his professional mind and enriched 
 it : the fruits of his study are alone in evidence 
 The higher aim, the deepened conviction, the 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 29 
 
 richer professional endowment, are all there. A 
 large and virile conception of his work ennobles 
 both the work and himself. Philosophy is not a 
 stagnant pool, but a well of living water. Even 
 of methods we say with confidence that a teacher 
 who has wisely studied them is the master of 
 methods ; methods are not his master. But if 
 there be a real danger here in the sphere of 
 method or rule, I provide the remedy when I 
 say, " Study philosophy, which gives rational 
 freedom." As to the teacher who trusts to the 
 externalities of tradition or to the wilful indi- 
 vidualism which he flatters himself is originality 
 and genius, is not he a slave the slave of past 
 dead forms and of his own unreasoned opinions ? 
 The student of method, going farther, and seeing 
 his instruction-methods in the light of psychology, 
 and his whole educational function in the light 
 of philosophy, becomes objective and universal, 
 thus entering into the whole kingdom of liberty. 
 He is a servant, not a slave. He is an academic 
 gentleman. He moves with an easy confidence 
 in the discharge of his daily duties a confidence 
 which thought on the fundamental principles of 
 an art always gives to the practical worker. He, 
 last and least of all men, is a mere walking 
 
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 formula. It is among the unthinking and opinion- 
 ative that you must look for the formulated man 
 the scholastic pedant, the prig, and the dominie. 
 
 Before I conclude, I should like, by way of illus- 
 tration, to take an example of one or two philoso- 
 phic utterances in the sphere of moral education of 
 a very simple and obvious kind : " What we have 
 to aim at is the happiness of each citizen, and 
 happiness consists in a complete activity and 
 practice of virtue." Again : " The soul consists 
 of two parts Reason in itself, and the lower nature 
 which is capable of receiving the rule of Reason." 
 From these pregnant words of Aristotle one could 
 deduce a good deal of the moral philosophy of 
 education. Does it not become the young teacher 
 to read such utterances and to study what may 
 help him to solve the problem which Aristotle 
 little more than states ? 
 
 " Again," says Aristotle, " education should be 
 regulated by the State for the ends of the State, 
 and each citizen should understand that he is not 
 his own master, but a part of the State." Large 
 and complex educational questions, ethical and 
 practical, are suggested here. Are they not ques- 
 tions for the educational profession ? To what 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 31 
 
 extent now do you consciously educate your boys 
 to be " part of the State " ? What, I ask you, is 
 the modern meaning, the social significance, of this 
 phrase ? Does it not concern educators, above all 
 other men, to think about these things ? Let me 
 assure you that, without the habit of thinking on 
 the philosophy of education, your thought on this 
 particular question will be worthless utterly 
 worthless. 
 
 Now, does it not become the secondary teachers 
 of the country to put themselves in evidence on 
 this subject, and to claim for the philosophy of 
 education a place in the academic system, so that 
 all young teachers should have in the universities 
 an opportunity (at least) of studying the science 
 of their future life-work? So long ago as 1865 
 Mark Pattison wrote, " The first condition of a 
 good teacher is that he shall be a teacher and 
 nothing else, that he shall be trained as a teacher 
 and not brought up to serve other professions." 
 Is the teacher's profession the only one that has 
 no principles, no history in brief, no scientific 
 basis, no method resting on science? If this be 
 truly so, why do teachers talk, and sometimes 
 grumble, about status and social position ? They 
 have no claim to either one or the other. What 
 
32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND 
 
 value has the teaching of a little Latin and less 
 Greek in the estimate of sensible men ? These 
 subjects ought to be regarded as merely the raw 
 material whereby the teacher discharges his educa- 
 tional and ethical functions ; and for these functions 
 he has to be trained. A teacher is a practical 
 philosopher, or he is of little account. 
 
 Why is it, then, that the great body of secondary 
 schoolmasters are yet unconvinced that a part of 
 their necessary preparation for their work should 
 be the study of philosophy at least in so far as 
 it bears on education ? I have already indicated 
 why, and I will say it more explicitly now. It is 
 because they have not yet risen to the level of 
 their work ; they have not yet discovered their 
 true function in the community. They insist, in 
 accordance with a bad tradition, on regarding 
 themselves simply as teachers of this or that 
 subject English or Mathematics or Latin, as 
 the case may be. For this a totally different 
 idea of their function has to be substituted and 
 firmly grasped, and that idea is that they are not 
 teachers of subjects primarily at all, but teachers 
 of minds by means of subjects. When they fully 
 realize that they teach minds, they will at once 
 see that they are bound to study Mind. 
 
AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 33 
 
 I end as I began Sound theory is sound 
 practice become conscious of itself; and every 
 schoolmaster who would also be an educator 
 should be conscious of the art he practises, so 
 that he who is not born or only, it may be, half- 
 born, may, through that scientific consciousness, 
 be made, and that he who is born may have his 
 consciousness enlightened and fortified. 
 
 In conclusion, it is scarcely necessary to remind 
 an audience such as this, that the art of the teacher, 
 properly understood as the art of the educator, is 
 a great art, the greatest and most difficult of all 
 arts mind fashioning mind. Is there any art like 
 it any which can so attract the finer spirits among 
 men, any which can so engage in its service that 
 enthusiasm which fills the moral atmosphere to- 
 day ? Is there any, the wise practice of which 
 brings such personal reward, strengthening from 
 day to day the spirit of him who gives and him 
 who takes, laying up for a man a store of peaceful 
 days when, the struggle of life being past, he comes 
 to cast the inevitable retrospect not wholly satis- 
 factory, I imagine, for even the best of us ? Surely 
 an art so great, so full of great issues for the 
 individual and for society, is worth thinking about 
 
 D 
 
34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND. 
 
 is worth thinking about in its principles, its 
 rules, its history, its aims in brief, its philosophy. 
 After all, what is it I demand ? Merely that the 
 young teacher, before he has hardened down, should 
 read, observe, and think about his vocation, and 
 that all universities should provide the necessary 
 aid in this as in other matters merely this and no 
 more. Plato thought the subject worth thinking 
 about. So did Aristotle, and Cato, and Quin- 
 tilian, and Comenius, and Kant, and Locke, and 
 Rousseau, and Herbart. Do not leave education 
 as a philosophy to the philosophers alone. Claim 
 it as, in a special sense, your subject, at once the 
 inspirer of your lives and the science of your art. 
 
II. 
 
 THEORY AND THE CURRICULUM OF 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS UNIVERSI- 
 TIES REGISTRATION OF TEACH- 
 ERS AND DECENTRALIZATION. 1 
 
 THERE are many aspects of education which 
 might fitly enough form the subject of a presi- 
 dential address on an occasion such as this. I 
 have been guided in my selection of the topics 
 of this brief discourse by the prominence or the 
 urgency of questions now before the educational 
 world, and still sub judice. 
 
 The curriculum of the secondary schools of the 
 future is one of these questions. A multitude of 
 subjects pressing for recognition in the school, and 
 a multitude of deadening and oppressive examina- 
 tions following close upon the teaching, these are 
 
 1 Presidential Address to the Annual Conference of the Teachers' 
 Guild, held in Manchester, 1891. 
 
 e 
 CF THE 
 tVERSITT 
 i 
 
36 THEORY AND THE 
 
 the evils (as we all know) under which secondary 
 education groans in these days. It becomes us 
 to consider whether, under modern conditions, we 
 can secure for teachers and scholars some of the 
 concentration which was the chief merit of the 
 schools of former times. 
 
 No sound educationalist is an encyclopaedist. 
 On the other hand, the educationalist who holds 
 that we can prepare the youth of the country for 
 the work of the twentieth century by means of a 
 little of one dead tongue and less of another, must 
 be accounted an anachronism. We cannot allow 
 boys and girls of eighteen years of age to pass 
 out of our hands as educated, who are ignorant 
 of the national and world life which they inherit, 
 or of the living nature in the midst of which 
 they are placed, and which they have to bend to 
 their purposes, And yet we cannot teach every- 
 thing, and we are perplexed in presence of the 
 numerous subjects each with a certain complete- 
 ness in itself that now claim admission to the 
 school curriculum. Which, and how many, of 
 the branches into which human knowledge has 
 ramified shall we select for the secondary school, 
 and how far shall we carry the study of each, are 
 questions which not only Great Britain, but the 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 37 
 
 whole civilized world, may be said to be now 
 considering. 
 
 It is a fair question, Has the science, or theory 
 of education, any light to throw on our darkness, 
 or are we to grope on empirically, hastily taking 
 up, and as hastily dropping, first one subject and 
 then another, in obedience to the demands of an 
 uninstructed and exacting public, and fitting those 
 we select into the time-table as if it were a piece 
 of mosaic ? I think that theory may help us at 
 least to a solution of our difficulties, if it cannot 
 wholly solve them. For, 
 
 First of all, the theory of education requires us 
 to transfer our attention entirely from subjects of 
 instruction to the minds we are instructing. This 
 alone is a great point gained. When we take up 
 this attitude to education, we at once see, for 
 example, wherein lies the truth and falsity of 
 encyclopaedist!!. Encyclopaedist!! is unquestion- 
 ably a characteristic of a completely educated 
 mind, but not encyclopaedists in respect of the 
 material of acquired knowledge, but what I would 
 call encyclopaedism of faculty. That is to say, a 
 complete education should bring the mind into 
 intelligent contact with representative studies, 
 and representative methods of investigating truth. 
 
38 THEORY AND THE 
 
 Encyclopsedism, in the sense of universality of 
 interest, and an universality of f acuity > would seem 
 to be within our reach. 
 
 Thus far there is guidance ; but just at this 
 point theory again interposes, and asks the ques- 
 tion, " To what, and for what, ultimate end all this 
 stimulating to wide intellectual interests and this 
 laboured training of faculty ? " The question will 
 be answered by theory thus : In order that each 
 man may do efficiently his special work as a 
 member of society ; but even this, only in subor- 
 dination to a supreme end the fulfilment of the 
 ethical purpose of human life in him. The ethical 
 end governs all (and by ethical I mean the moral 
 and religious). 
 
 It comes to this, then, that it is general power 
 or faculty we have to give, and with this, the sub- 
 stance and motive forces of ethical living. A 
 leaving-examination, looked at from this point of 
 view, consists of two questions, which have to be 
 addressed to every pupil : 
 
 I. The first is one question, but it has a two- 
 fold aspect. I ask a youth, on this or that point, 
 which may be suggested by the occasions of life, 
 What is your own thought, and what is your own 
 utterance? The thought may be confused, and 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 39 
 
 will certainly be inadequate, but we are content 
 to find that he thinks ; the utterance may be halt- 
 ing and unformed, but we are content to find 
 that he strives, with fair success, to utter the 
 thought in his own language to express him- 
 self. But a satisfactory pass, even in this two- 
 fold examination, is a subordinate matter, for it 
 guarantees intellect only ; for the final aim has 
 yet to be considered that for which all know.- 
 ledge and all faculty exists life, living, doing. 
 There is still, therefore, a second, and, as I have 
 already indicated, a supreme and governing ques- 
 tion. 
 
 2. And that question is, What are the motive 
 forces of all your activity ; what ideas inspire 
 you ; what ideal of life do you strive after, so 
 that the best and highest in you may be made 
 manifest in all your manifold relations to your 
 fellow-men? In short, what are you, and what 
 can you do ? 
 
 The answer which the youth of eighteen, whose 
 secondary course is completed, can give to these 
 two questions, is the measure of his education. 
 From this " leaving-examination " no one can ulti- 
 mately escape, and if we teachers dwelt more than 
 we do on this final testing of our work, we might, 
 
40 THEORY AND THE 
 
 perhaps, be guided to the solution of many minor 
 difficulties, and regard with careless equanimity 
 much that now assumes unduly large proportions 
 in our thoughts. 
 
 Now, it is clear to me that if the " supreme 
 end " be that which alone gives significance and 
 vitality to all our daily work as schoolmasters, we 
 must find, as our central subject of instruction, one 
 which, while giving general discipline to the mental 
 powers, with a view to mental power, will, at every 
 step, help forward the growth of the ethical in our 
 pupils. What is this subject ? At this point, it 
 may appear that theory deserts us, and idiosyn- 
 crasies, prejudices, custom, take its place. I have 
 discussed the question elsewhere, and I shall 
 accordingly be excused for merely dogmatically 
 asserting here that the answer which theory gives 
 is that the central subject we are in search of is 
 Language language as a discipline, and language 
 as a liberal course of reading in literature, history, 
 and what else you please. By language, too, I 
 mean the vernacular ; but, inasmuch as we require 
 to study a foreign tongue to give meaning to our 
 own, I add Latin, as being at once our own 
 tongue, and in contrast with it. Whatever else 
 we may teach, all, it seems to me, must grow 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 41 
 
 round this central and magistral subject lan- 
 guage, that is to say, English and Latin. 
 
 I would remark that it is as a Will that man 
 differs from animals ; will is the root of his dis- 
 tinctive being ; and the essence of educational 
 discipline lies in the energizing of this will ; and 
 though it is true that there is a certain discipline 
 in all purposed activity, even writing and carpen- 
 tering, the discipline is not equally good in all. 
 In these manual occupations, the successive efforts 
 are a repetition of acts loosely connected, calling 
 into activity a minimum of mental effort and only 
 a very restricted range of intelligence ; but in the 
 thorough understanding of language there is a 
 purposed act of reason, which in its series of efforts 
 is an organic process and demands a sustained 
 continuity of mind. In translating and retrans- 
 lating from a foreign tongue, for example, the 
 difficulties are not to be overcome unless percep- 
 tion, discrimination, judgment, association, imagi- 
 nation, reasoning, inductive and deductive, are all 
 brought into conscious (if not self-conscious) 
 activity ; all these, through their organic connec- 
 tion, creating a synthetic result, viz. the translation 
 we are given to do. It will be said that on similar 
 psychological grounds mathematics is a most 
 
42 THEORY AND THE 
 
 effective mental discipline. This is true so far ; 
 and because it is true so far, mathematics (within 
 certain limits, at least) must always be assured a 
 place in our curriculum second to the leading 
 subject of all. I say second, because the mental 
 operation involved in understanding the proof of 
 a theorem, or in working a rider, is confined within 
 narrow grooves, and is concerned with necessary 
 matter. The imagination which enters into the 
 solution of a geometrical problem is confined 
 within strict limits. Its wings are clipped. In 
 language, on the contrary, we have to deal with the 
 subtle, variable, and uncertain relations that exist 
 among words and between words and thoughts. 
 
 If to these disciplinary claims of language we 
 add the moral and aesthetic elements in language- 
 instruction, and the wide range, literary and 
 historical, which an adequate course of such instruc- 
 tion must take, we shall find it to be fruitful above 
 all other studies, singly or in the aggregate, in 
 building up the fabric of mind, and giving, at the 
 same time, that general power over all the materials 
 of experience, which it is one object of the educa- 
 tion of the human mind to give. I assume, how- 
 ever, that at least one foreign tongue is taught, 
 as it is only through a foreign medium that we 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 43 
 
 become self-conscious of our own tongue as an 
 instrument of thought, and thus take a great step 
 towards thought becoming conscious of itself 
 the highest of all disciplines : and I name Latin 
 as the most effective and fruitful for an English- 
 speaking boy. 
 
 Theory, as I understand it, thus largely confirms 
 the practice of the past as regards subjects of 
 instruction, though interpreting them in a different 
 way and extending their significance and range. 
 Through language so interpreted, the boy comes 
 face to face with the great realities of human life, 
 which explain his own experience and furnish 
 ideals of conduct. This may be said without de- 
 preciating the claims of physical science. While 
 sensible of the many advantages conferred by 
 school science, I doubt if it can give true mental 
 discipline before the age of sixteen or seventeen. 
 Prior to that age, by supremely good teaching, 
 concrete and experimental, a certain discipline, 
 and a certain amount of knowledge, can be given 
 with fair success. This, experience has placed 
 beyond question. But the true discipline of 
 intellect begins only when science is taught as a 
 reinvestigation and verification of the scientific 
 results already ascertained ; and I am disposed to 
 
44 THEORY AND THE 
 
 think, from all I have yet observed, that only in 
 the department of botany is this possible before 
 the age which I have mentioned. All before this 
 age is of the nature of object-lessons as such 
 extremely valuable, and indeed necessary, but 
 restricted in their educative effect. In any case, 
 physical science, at best, has to do with inductions 
 and deductions from sense alone, and accordingly 
 it can never, by any possibility, have, within the 
 secondary school period, the educative effect of 
 language ;* nor can it, even in its higher form, as 
 an exercise in investigation, give that general 
 power over all possible material that may be pre- 
 sented to the mind to deal with in the complexities 
 of human life. The student of science is always 
 exercising his intelligence on a limited part of 
 human experience, while the student of language, 
 in the extended sense, which is the true sense (any 
 other sense being the invention of pedants), may 
 be said to be always in contact with the whole. 
 The humanities alone truly educate a human 
 being. " Train and perfect," says Professor Seeley, 1 
 " the gift of speech, unfold all that is in it, and you 
 train at the same time the power of thought and 
 the power of intellectual sympathy." On the real 
 
 1 Page 222 of " Lectures and Essays." 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 45 
 
 as distinguished from the formal ^side, literature, 
 as Mark Pattison says, "is the moral contempla- 
 tion of the universe;" "the criticism of life," 
 according to Matthew Arnold. 
 
 The large results of science are, no doubt, 
 educative in a high degree. The biological and 
 physical conceptions which present the universe as 
 a great system of law, exalt the intelligence and 
 stir the emotions. At this stage science is, in fact, 
 humanized ; man himself becomes greater as he 
 rises to the apprehension of the ratio mundi which 
 is revealed to him, and is thereby stimulated to 
 live as in the constant presence of the Divine order. 
 But the educative influence of science in this large 
 sense is not operative at the school stage ; and in 
 so far as preparation may be made for it during 
 the school period, it will not be made in the 
 chemical laboratory, but rather in that larger and 
 more comprehensive semi-scientific explanation of 
 things which is known in scholastic phrase as 
 nature-knowledge. 
 
 This, then, is the answer which theory, I think 
 gives to the question, " What shall I teach ? " 
 First of all, and always, language (the vernacular, 
 Latin, and what else there may be time for) but 
 this in a large and liberal sense ; secondly, a 
 
46 THEORY AND THE 
 
 certain amount of pure mathematics, and, in sub- 
 ordination to both, the elements of physical science 
 in so far as it is contributory to intelligent nature- 
 knowledge, giving prominence always, for reasons 
 intellectual and practical which I have not time 
 to enter into now, to physical and industrial 
 geography. Such a course of instruction, well 
 organized, would suffice to foster in our boys both 
 moral and intellectual interests, an,d to secure a 
 1 certain encyclopaedism of faculty. iThe introduc- 
 tion of any other subjects is to be determined 
 by predisposition and natural aptitude, or, it may 
 be, by considerations of utility alone whether 
 the subject be Greek, French, German, advanced 
 mathematics, or physical science in its more exact 
 and laboratory sense. I do not think it matters 
 much which of these are selected, if our curriculum 
 has already assured the education of the minds of 
 our pupils. I would beseech masters to recognize 
 the fact that the results of all our secondary in- 
 struction are lamentable, and that education in 
 English in the broad sense in which I have used 
 that term and in realistic subjects, may throw a 
 ray of light on the dreary path of many a school- 
 boy, and form him for the work of the world. 
 Theory certainly proclaims, with no uncertain 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 47 
 
 voice, that from fourteen to eighteen the rational 
 faculties can be exercised without difficulty on 
 the concrete, but, except in the case of bright 
 boys, positively declines to have anything to do 
 with the abstract, whether in language, mathe- 
 matics, or science. Fair-seeming progress may be 
 made in the abstract, but it is not genuine, but 
 only rote progress. Schoolmasters are, neverthe- 
 less, right in calling on boys in secondary schools 
 to study the formal and abstract, but they are 
 wrong when they fail to provide for the growth 
 of the average intellect which can never leave the 
 sphere of the concrete. 
 
 I take it for granted that music and drawingV,- 
 enter into the curriculum of every secondary school. 
 These subjects, properly organized from the lowest 
 to the highest class, are not only easy, but refresh- 
 ing. The tired brain is not further weaned by 
 them if properly taught All art in education 
 stands in the same relation to mental labour as 
 play does to bodily labour. Both alike weary, 
 but the fatigue is pleasing and recreative. 
 
 I have been speaking of secondary education 
 within its own limits, and without reference to the 
 primary instruction on which it rests, or the higher 
 
48 THEORY AND THE 
 
 education of the universities to which it leads. 
 The great mass of our middle-class youth have, 
 about the age of eighteen at latest, to think of the 
 business of life, and secondary education must not 
 be sacrificed to the demands of the few who pro- 
 pose to continue their studies at universities. In 
 like manner, primary education has its own limits, 
 and must have a certain completeness in itself, 
 without too much regard to the secondary instruc- 
 tion which only a select few can ever aspire to. 
 In the theory of education, the harmonizing of the 
 claims of each of the three stages of education in 
 their relation to the other stages ought not to be 
 a very difficult problem. The question which still 
 agitates the minds of headmasters that of com- 
 pulsory " little-go " Greek on entering the univer- 
 sity has, it seems to me, been discussed too much 
 from the university point of view, and too little 
 regard has been had to the chief question at issue, 
 viz. what is our scheme of secondary education to 
 include, as within itself rounded and complete ? 
 The dropping of Greek from the previous examina- 
 tions in our universities will certainly drive Greek 
 out of a great many secondary schools. No good 
 end can be served by affecting to ignore or to 
 minimize this certain consequence. And it is in 
 
Aft^ 
 
 ' -HF 
 
 CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 49 
 
 full recognition of the effect of the proposed change 
 on the teaching of the schools that I hold that it 
 ought to disappear from the " Previous " as a com- 
 pulsory subject. The result will certainly be that 
 the number learning Greek throughout the country 
 will be lessened, but it does not at all follow that 
 the quantity of Greek as measured by quality will 
 be diminished. There can be no doubt that the 
 contrary will be the result. The total wealth will 
 be not less than now, but it will be in fewer 
 pockets. We shall have honest Greek when we 
 do have it, not the pretence of it. The moral 
 effect of this will be good no small gain. 
 When I spoke a few minutes ago of the ethical 
 end of all education, I did not mean to suggest 
 that by sentiment and moralizing we should en- 
 deavour after this end. Ethical substance we must 
 give, and to feeling and sentiment, accordingly, we 
 must appeal, though this more sparingly than 
 during the primary period ; but the schoolmaster 
 will best discharge his ethical function, during 
 the secondary period of instruction, by securing 
 a willing and loyal obedience to the law of the 
 school, and by demanding exactness and thorough- 
 ness in all the work done. Now, there is a laxity 
 and superficiality in the Greek of our secondary 
 
 E 
 
50 THEORY AND THE 
 
 schools (and not in the Greek alone) which is 
 demoralizing. If we are to teach Greek, let it be 
 Greek. A mere pass in "little-go" Greek is 
 evidence neither of discipline nor of knowledge, 
 but rather of inexact teaching and wasted years. 
 Indeed, if we confine our attention to the amount 
 of Greek necessary for a " pass " in the " Previous," 
 it would be a mere superstition to advocate its 
 retention. But, even assuming that the university 
 requirement were practically what in theory it 
 is intended to be, the increased stringency of the 
 university demand would now, and for the future, 
 go far to empty our universities. The discipline 
 involved in such an amount of knowledge would 
 doubtless be valuable ; but should we be justified 
 in holding that an equally valuable discipline indi- 
 cative of " ripeness " for university study could not 
 be obtained through other instruments than Greek ? 
 I think not. For, remember, Greek is, within the 
 narrow restrictions of any possible " Previous " ex- 
 amination, a question solely of linguistic discipline. 
 Did it include acquaintance with Greek literature, 
 Greek aesthetic forms, and Greek life, the time could 
 not be better employed in the interests of the edu- 
 cation of the human mind. But within the narrow 
 restrictions we assume, this is not in any substantial 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 51 
 
 sense practicable. We must look facts in the face, 
 and not make a pretence of doing what is beyond 
 the powers of all save here and there a singularly 
 apt pupil under a singularly able master. If 
 Greek were to be compulsory in every graduation 
 course and enter into every final examination, the 
 question would be an altogether different one, viz. 
 " Is a competent knowledge of the Greek language, 
 literature, and history, to be the sine qua non of an 
 university degree for all? Are the acquirements 
 demanded, for example, in the excellent literae 
 humaniores school at Oxford alone to qualify for 
 graduation ? " I can well imagine many men 
 maintaining the affirmative answer to this ques- 
 tion, and finding a great deal to say for themselves. 
 Btit if, as a matter of fact, such a three years' 
 university training in Greek has already been given 
 up as a qualification for a degree, the citadel of the 
 position has, it seems to me, been surrendered. 
 It is too late to discuss the question : the logic 
 of events has settled it. From the point of view 
 of secondary education regarded as in itself 
 rounded and complete, this is the answer we 
 would give to the question, " Should ' little-go ' 
 Greek be retained ? " 1 
 
 1 Some of the defenders of "little-go" Greek have recently 
 
52 THEORY AND 7 HE 
 
 What shall we say from the university point of 
 view ? Is not the answer to this question involved 
 in another, "What do our universities exist for?" 
 The period of recipience which characterizes the 
 primary period of education has been passed, suc- 
 ceeded by the period of activity, of the ripening 
 intelligence, and the educated youth at eighteen or 
 nineteen now goes to an university. Why ? Not, 
 surely, to repeat the work of the school, which, to 
 matured powers, can be merely a vexation and 
 harassment, and in connection with which no true 
 growth is now possible for any mind worth edu- 
 cating. For the mind at this stage demands not 
 facts, not judgments, not even reasonings ; it 
 demands realities, not forms, and a rationalizing 
 of knowledge in its principles. Judgments and 
 reasonings about things, accompanied by much 
 premature self-assertion, have characterized the 
 secondary period ; but now things are to be re- 
 studied in their historical and scientific founda- 
 tions : and in the course of that study, and as the 
 result of it^ manly humility and conscious ignorance 
 are to take the place, we hope, of the dogmatic 
 assumptions and self-confidence of adolescence. 
 
 taken to posing as superior persons, and expressing contempt for 
 their opponents in strong language. This is a sure indication that 
 their cause is lost. 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 53 
 
 This is the true conception of an university, so 
 far as the education of the human mind is con- 
 cerned. It does not exist to teach young men to 
 read Greek and Latin with more or less difficulty, 
 which is the work of the school. We cannot draw 
 a hard-and-fast line, but, speaking generally, 
 secondary instruction is engaged with the instru- 
 ments of knowledge, university instruction with 
 knowledge and science. 
 
 If the university function is essentially a scientific 
 function, it surely follows that a youth of eighteen 
 or nineteen has, strictly speaking, no business 
 there at all if he does not come equipped with 
 those instruments which secondary instruction is 
 supposed to give language and mathematics. If 
 he does not possess what may be called a working 
 knowledge of these instruments, his terms should 
 not qualify for graduation until he has remedied 
 his defects. 
 
 While it is necessary to emphasize the function 
 of the university as an organized body of scientific 
 investigators and teachers in every important 
 department of learning, it must be admitted that 
 this is an entirely modern conception. I am not 
 aware of its having been propounded by any one 
 before Bacon. Comenius tried to popularize the 
 
54 THEORY AND THE 
 
 idea in his "Pansophy." The universities arose 
 in the twelfth century for professional purposes. 
 They were essentially advanced schools for the 
 training of aspirants to the professions ; and this 
 relation of the universities to society and its needs 
 can never be allowed to fall out of sight. The 
 Arts instruction was secondary instruction crowned 
 with a Bachelorship. We have had this early 
 conception of an university bequeathed to us, and 
 have had to effect a compromise between it and 
 the modern idea. The compromise takes this 
 form, that we endeavour to train each aspirant in 
 the rational foundations and fundamental concep- 
 tions of his own future profession, and not merely 
 in its practice. Thus, the purely scientific pur- 
 pose of an university and its practical aims are, 
 as far as possible, reconciled. Each graduate then 
 goes forth from the university to disseminate among 
 the people, and the whole people, not any favoured 
 portion, what he has acquired. He does this as 
 a teacher of the young a schoolmaster ; as a 
 teacher of the adult a minister of the Church ; as 
 a lawyer, to settle the differences which arise in 
 the transaction of business, and to regulate on 
 principles of law and liberty the penal arm of 
 society, so that where it strikes, it may strike the 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 55 
 
 guilty only ; as a medicus, to heal the diseases 
 of the body of society ; as an engineer or as 
 a journalist. Thus, however we look at it, it is 
 impossible too highly to estimate the functions of 
 our universities in the life of the nation, and to be 
 too jealous of their academic honour ; on the other 
 hand, it is equally impossible to maintain, with any 
 show of reason, that no man shall be allowed to 
 study in any of these higher departments, unless 
 he first passes an examination in Greek which the 
 examiner himself despises. 
 
 The continued study of the instruments of 
 knowledge languages and mathematics is to be 
 prosecuted at the universities, doubtless ; but only 
 as science, by those who aim at being experts in 
 them, or in so far as they necessarily enter into 
 departmental study, e.g. Greek, in theology. 
 
 But it may be said, "If we make departmental 
 and professional study, scientifically and histori- 
 cally pursued, the chief characteristic of univer- 
 sities, what, it may be said, will become of the 
 liberal culture of which they have been supposed 
 to be the homes ? " This is too large a question 
 to be discussed in this address ; but it is manifest 
 that those who seek the universities for liberal 
 culture only and the greater the number of these 
 
56 THEORY AND THE 
 
 the better for the country will find it there in 
 ampler quantity than ever. They will, after 
 passing a preliminary examination, select the 
 subjects which interest them, and, under certain 
 general restrictions, graduate in these. They 
 have passed the age at which they can be forced 
 into grooves without serious detriment to their 
 mental growth. Free learning and free teaching 
 must now govern. Men seem to forget that the 
 universities are no longer entered by boys of 
 fifteen or sixteen. And yet we have a vast 
 amount of university energy expended in doing 
 work for the degree which is school-work, and 
 ought not to be recognized within an university 
 at all, but provided for in some preparatory 
 paedagogium. 
 
 When we try to estimate the true value of this 
 contemporary question by the educational records 
 of the past, as well as by educational theory, we 
 are prepared, on historical as well as theoretical 
 grounds, to assist at the death of "littlefgo" 
 Greek without a tear, and to smile at the 
 passionate advocacy of it by those who see in its 
 abolition the destruction of the only barrier that 
 stands between us and the inrush of a new tide 
 of Gothic barbarism. The mediaeval universities, 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 57 
 
 during three or four centuries, concentrated in 
 themselves all learning, and were characterized by 
 a brilliant activity, with no Greek and very bad 
 Latin. The supreme questions which directly 
 concern human life and destiny had, after a 
 thousand years of discussion, to all seeming been 
 finally settled by the authority of the Church. 
 The philosophic speculation of Aristotle (but this 
 not for a time accessible in the original tongue) 
 then asserted itself, and dogmatism had to be 
 reconstructed on a philosophical basis. The flash 
 of thought produced by the contact of Greek 
 speculation, imperfectly known, with the Christian 
 dogmatic system, lighted up afresh the mind of 
 Europe. Thus it was that all speculation as to 
 the nature of mind and of things gathered round 
 the theological schools. Theology had to make 
 terms with Greek thought, and the effort to do so 
 found its most brilliant exponent in the daring 
 Abelard, and finally its consummation in the 
 organizing mind of St. Thomas. In other parts of 
 Europe, the old Roman law did for thought on 
 the practical and civil side what Greek tradition 
 accomplished on the theoretical. So in medicine, 
 it was undoubtedly the Greek tradition which was 
 seized on by the active naturalistic minds of the 
 
53 THEORY AND THE 
 
 wonderful twelfth century. But, during all this 
 period, and indeed till about three hundred and 
 fifty years ago, Greek did not enter into the 
 educational system, and literature, save as repre- 
 sented by a few Latin classics, was practically 
 non-existent, spite of the literary advocacy of men 
 like John of Salisbury. The characteristic of 
 the Renaissance of the fifteenth century was 
 undoubtedly the revival of Greek, but it was Greek 
 as literature, aided by the new birth of poetry in 
 Italy, South France, and England. In our own 
 country, it is worthy of notice, our greatest 
 literature owed little to Greece, except through a 
 Latin and Italian medium and English trans- 
 lations, though doubtless largely influenced by the 
 growing interest in Greek. 
 
 When we pass from materials of education in 
 secondary schools to methods, there is happily no 
 essential difference of opinion among those who 
 have given serious thought to the subject. So 
 important is method, that we may almost say that 
 the " what " in instruction is, up to the university 
 period at least, of less importance than the 
 "how." It is the possession of method directed 
 to a certain understood end which makes the 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 59 
 
 difference between a mere scholar and a teacher, 
 and gives to the latter, accordingly, his claim to 
 be a member of a profession. It is the recogni- 
 tion of this fact that gives us all an interest 
 in the Teachers' Registration Bill, promoted by 
 the guild, and this last session referred to a select 
 Committee of the House of Commons. Teachers 
 should have no interest in any Bill which fails to 
 make this professional qualification vital, nor 
 could such a Bill be of much practical value. 
 Indeed, I do not use too strong language when I 
 say that such a Bill would merely block the way. 
 Better to wait than to accept a Bill which does 
 not contain as its central principle that the pro- 
 fession of schoolmaster is a profession at all only 
 in so far as teachers are professionally trained.. 
 
 And let it be understood that by training for the 
 work of a schoolmaster we do not mean merely 
 seeing and imitating the work done by others in 
 practising schools not even if this is supple- 
 mented by the study of manuals of method. This, 
 in the medical profession, would find its parallel in 
 a system of education which confined the student 
 to the wards of a hospital, and supplied him with 
 a copy of a manual of medical treatment. We 
 mean all this ; but, concurrently with it, we 
 
60 THEORY AND THE 
 
 demand a course of instruction in the philosophy 
 of education, that is to say, its aim and processes, 
 and a study of the history of education as part of 
 the history of the world. Without the inspiration 
 of philosophy and the liberalizing influence of 
 history, we may have technical method and 
 methods erected into a kind of superstition, 
 adopted in their external forms when emptied 
 of the living spirit, and so producing a new type 
 of pedant. Already we may see in some German 
 and American books a disposition to exaggerate 
 the details of method under the influence of the 
 pedantic formalism of the Herbartian school, 
 and to forget that they are at best only an 
 attempt to interpret the process by which a 
 mind that does not know, gradually comes to 
 know ; and, further, to interpret the relation sub- 
 sisting between the teaching and the learning 
 mind during that process. This interpretation has, 
 no doubt, to be formulated, but the formulas are 
 themselves mere externalities indicating where the 
 living and inner truth is to be found. Method 
 may be so used as to obstruct the free intercourse 
 of mind with mind, which is the highest kind of 
 teaching. A living teacher cannot always be 
 thinking of the rules of method. 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 61 
 
 Now, a specialist training college will not accom- 
 plish the kind of training we desiderate. Education, 
 as a subject of thought, has come within the 
 scope of the scientific spirit of this century, and 
 has to be scientifically and historically handled. 
 Accordingly, it demands for itself a place in our 
 universities, whose specific scientific function in 
 the domain of universal knowledge I have already 
 pointed out. It is at Oxford and Cambridge and 
 Victoria Universities, as well as in the universities 
 of Scotland, that we desire to see this fact 
 recognized. In Germany, at a large number of 
 the university seats, the subject is expounded in 
 this philosophic and historical spirit, and during 
 the last twelve years some seven or eight Chairs 
 of Education have been instituted in America. 
 An Education Council, such as the Select Com- 
 mittee on Registration proposes, would give a 
 powerful impulse to the whole university move- 
 ment for the professional training of teachers a 
 movement which probably concerns the life of the 
 nation as much as any now within the sphere of 
 practical politics. Machinery is all very well, but 
 the central motor force is always the man who 
 teaches. 
 
 It is just possible that to demand for the 
 
 SE LIBR4fl7>^ 
 CP THE \ 
 
 IVERSITYJ 
 OF ^^^ 
 
62 THEORY AND THE 
 
 present, less might be the quickest way to our end. 
 Were it enacted, for example, that none save pro- 
 fessionally trained teachers were eligible to State- 
 aided and endowed schools, members of Parliament 
 might see some sort of principle in this. For en- 
 dowed schools have their endowments guaranteed, 
 and supervised, if not regulated, by the State, and, 
 so far, are subject to it in a sense similar to that 
 in which schools receiving annual aid are subject. 
 As every young man preparing to be a teacher in 
 the universities would have in view one or other of 
 these classes of schools, he would take care that he 
 was qualified, and the object of the guild might 
 thus be indirectly attained. I see that Mr. Roby, 
 who is entitled to speak with authority, gives 
 attention to this point. At the same time, we 
 must not forget that the virtual institution of a 
 system of compulsory free elementary education 
 will probably give rise in this country, as it has 
 done in the United States and Canada, to a great 
 increase in the number of private adventure schools 
 the class of school from which the Education 
 Act of 1870 was to deliver the nation and that 
 such a restricted Act as I suggest would not in that 
 event be adequate. Leaving out for a time tutors 
 and governesses (as Mr. Roby, I understand, also 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 63 
 
 proposes), it would surely not be beyond the wit of a 
 parliamentary draughtsman to define a school and 
 a schoolmaster, and to make registration com- 
 pulsory on all. I see that the Select Committee 
 include elementary teachers, but I would include 
 only those who have been trained. 
 
 It is not generally understood how far we lag 
 behind other countries in the recognition of the 
 need for professional training. In Germany, for 
 example, the State examination for many years 
 required that every young man desirous to be a 
 secondary teacher should spend a year of proba- 
 tion in some recognized school, and pass a State 
 examination in the principles and methods of 
 his art. The law has recently been made even more 
 stringent. In a letter from an old friend, Dr. Wiese, 
 formerly the working head of the German secondary 
 system, he says: "No one can open a school in 
 Germany without having satisfied the authorities of 
 his fitness." And as to secondary and gymnasium 
 schools, he writes that the qualification for these 
 has frequently of late been under the consideration 
 of the Prussian Administration, and it is now 
 ordered that the candidates for the office of teacher 
 shall spend two years in certain gymnasia selected 
 for this special purpose, under the guidance of the 
 
64 THEORY AND THE 
 
 director there, to learn their art from those who 
 know it, and to observe what is done. This during 
 the first year: the second year, called the Probejahr, 
 they have themselves to teach, and show what they 
 have learned. The State examination follows. 
 We should be content with much less than this in 
 Great Britain, and thankful for it. Our colonies, 
 too, are going ahead of us. In the Departmental 
 Regulations of Ontario I find that the course of 
 training for high-school masters is laid down in 
 detail. It includes a course of instruction in the 
 " History, Psychology, and Methods of Education," 
 and a further course of practical training at any 
 specially recognized training institute. The cur- 
 riculum generally is good, but as much too brief 
 as I think the Prussian is too long. 
 
 Had there been time, I should have liked to ask 
 your attention to what appears to me to demand 
 much more consideration than it has yet received 
 I mean the decentralization of educational 
 administration. There is a period in the historical 
 development of every nation, and we may say this, 
 too, of every department of the State activity, when 
 progress can be made only by the action of a strong 
 centralized authority. But there also comes a 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 65 
 
 time when the vigour of mind and consciousness 
 of freedom which local administration fosters, has 
 itself to be an object of concern to the central 
 power. Decentralization of educational adminis- 
 tration is now happily made possible by the institu- 
 tion of County Councils. The apportionment of a 
 share of Customs taxation to each county, and the 
 destination of it for technical instruction, is itself 
 a beginning of a much more wholesome state of 
 things than that which has hitherto prevailed. The 
 fear is that the Science and Art Department may 
 try to get its dead hand in, and succeed in virtually 
 controlling the action of Councils. The result 
 would be an extension of the capitation-grant 
 principle of paying for education, and the increase 
 of the evil of book-cram. With the grants now in 
 the hands of Councils, it seems to me that much 
 of the South Kensington work is superseded, and 
 that the authorities should devote themselves to 
 the training of science teachers, and the institution 
 of central technical colleges. 
 
 Decentralization seems to me to be more impor- 
 tant in school-work than in any other State depart- 
 ment. A Minister of Education, aided by councils 
 of experts in England, Scotland, and Wales, 
 would doubtless be required, but his main duty 
 
 F 
 
66 THEORY AND THE 
 
 would be (like that of the Chanties Commission in 
 so far as I understand its constitutional powers) to 
 correlate the educational activity of the country, 
 collect information, and see to the carrying out of 
 certain general rules, without interfering with local 
 details and so weakening local responsibility. By a 
 decentralization of education, remember, we educate 
 the adult. Man is a political animal, as was said 
 of old ; and it is only in so far as he feels himself 
 to be a self-conscious force in the life of his 
 country that he is free, and receives for himself 
 the full benefit of being the member of a State. 
 In administering education for the benefit of the 
 young generation, he is himself receiving education. 
 Only by decentralization, moreover, can the State 
 utilize the undiscovered genius of localities for 
 civic work, and give it a career. Mistakes will 
 doubtless be made, but their effects will be restricted 
 in their area and soon corrected ; whereas the 
 mistake of a supreme central authority hurts the 
 whole nation. Witness the Revised Code, which 
 yielded only to a twenty-seven years' siege. So 
 long did it take the Greeks, because of the difficulty 
 of convincing an individual Trojan bureaucrat. 
 
 And not only so : the very purpose of the educa- 
 tion movement, in the large sense, will be defeated 
 
CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 67 
 
 unless we have decentralization. It is a very 
 narrow view of any social movement which measures 
 it by its direct effects. Take the Christian 
 Church, by which I mean all who profess Christ. 
 What an enormous organization it is ! How many 
 genuine Christians are there that is to say, how 
 many are reached by the actual teachings of the 
 Churches in such a way as to form their convictions 
 and govern their daily lives ? Not a large propor- 
 tion ; and yet the influence of the idea of Christianity 
 and the Church is immeasurable an influence 
 effective even among the ignorant and the hostile. 
 So with other ideas, social and political. The idea 
 of national education is a modern idea a great 
 and a potent one, which is as yet only on its way 
 to fulfilment. It does not find its realization in 
 the beggarly result attained in our schools the 
 power to read a cheap reading-book and to work 
 decimal fractions. The national conscience and 
 the national ideal of life are stimulated by the 
 mere idea, the general interest in the intellectual 
 and moral well-being of our fellow-citizens receives 
 an impulse from it, and in a thousand ways it is 
 operative in the city and the rural village ; so 
 complex is the life of an organized society. A 
 highly centralized system, always necessary to 
 
68 THEORY AND THE CURRICULUM. 
 
 start with, blocks the way after a time. It is by 
 devolving educational duties on citizens themselves 
 that the idea of education is fostered, and that it 
 can alone enter thoroughly into the life of the 
 nation and fulfil its work as a new element in 
 civilization. 
 
&SE 
 OP THE 
 [VERSITT 
 
 III. 
 
 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL 
 TEACHER. 
 
 You have asked for a short address on the 
 preparation of the Sunday school teacher for his 
 work. To handle such a subject adequately would 
 involve me in a treatise in which the principles 
 and methods of education were applied to the 
 special work of Sunday school teaching. As it is 
 impossible to enter on this larger task in a single 
 lecture, I will content myself with a few obvious 
 remarks on the qualification and preparation of 
 the teacher and the method of instruction which 
 he should follow. This I shall do without ob- 
 truding the principles which in my own mind 
 govern the criticisms and suggestions that I venture 
 to offer. 
 
 The qualification and preparation of a Sunday 
 school teacher can differ only in certain details 
 from the preparation and qualification of teachers 
 
70 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 generally. What, then, are the primary qualifica- 
 tions to be demanded of all teachers ? They are 
 these : 
 
 1. That they must know thoroughly what they 
 propose to teach. 
 
 2. That they shall have a strong desire a 
 desire of the heart to teach what they know. 
 
 3. That they shall have a living, kindly, and 
 sympathetic interest in the minds which they 
 teach. 
 
 4. That in teaching they shall think of those 
 minds first, of their subject second, and of them- 
 selves and their own cleverness not at all. 
 
 How can a Sunday school teacher achieve 
 the last three of these qualifications for himself? 
 Not, I think, by any external machinery, or at 
 second hand. They are the unconsciously deve- 
 loped fruit of nature and general education. They 
 come from the vital growth of the educational 
 spirit in himself, and an instinctive humane interest 
 in young minds. Men in whom these charac- 
 teristics are active may doubtless be so trained 
 as to grow into all these qualifications ; but, un- 
 happily, Sunday school teachers have neither time 
 nor opportunity for such training. Accordingly, 
 we must just hope that none take to the work of 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 71 
 
 Sunday school teaching except those who feel that 
 they already have the essential prerequisites ; in 
 short, as we say of the clergy, that none follow 
 the vocation save those who are " called " to it by 
 the Spirit of God. This is their prime qualifica- 
 tion. " Soul is kindled only by soul," says Carlyle. 
 When Christ tells St. Peter to feed His sheep, He 
 prefaces it by the question, " Lovest thou Me ? " 
 
 Having secured these " called " men and women, 
 the next question is as to their preparation ; and 
 this means their preparation to teach, to convey 
 skilfully and effectively what they know, and, above 
 all, what they feel, with a view to evoke in the 
 young and unformed the spiritual life which they 
 feel animating themselves. This is the question 
 of all method in teaching or educating. It is 
 really a difficult question, By what method or way 
 shall the teacher best attain the end he proposes 
 to himself? A teacher who has not a "way" is 
 like a man who should undertake to pilot a ship 
 to the mythical Islands of the Blessed, knowing 
 only this, that the islands actually existed away 
 out there somewhere in the West, but having no 
 chart of the ocean and no knowledge of navigation. 
 He is under the necessity of steering on the 
 impulse of the moment. Such a man might 
 
72 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 have all the personal qualifications for his post, 
 but he has none of ^.^professional preparation and 
 fitness. He would stand in need of instruction in 
 the method or way of finding his course. By 
 some happy inspiration he might be going straight 
 for his haven in the morning, and again undoing 
 all his work in the evening, by retracing his course 
 over the pathless ocean, and perhaps finding him- 
 self even further from his destination than when 
 he started. So with the teacher. His impulse in 
 educating may keep him all right, for example, 
 during the first part of a lesson, and in the second 
 part he may undo everything nay, like the mariner 
 in search of the Islands of the Blessed, he may 
 more than undo his work ; he may be further off 
 than ever from his goal. 
 
 If this be true of all teaching, it is specially 
 true of religious teaching. The goal of the teacher 
 is the religious restilt in the mind of the pupil ; and 
 this result is life, not knowledge. Without this 
 religious result the true spiritual gain for the 
 pupil the facts of doctrine, which may be acquired 
 after a rote fashion, are of little value. 
 
 In truth, the most difficult and delicate of all 
 subjects of instruction is religion, if what we aim 
 at is the spiritual life of faith, hope, and love 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 73 
 
 sustained by ethical ideals. A man who can give 
 a really good religious lesson can give a successful 
 lesson on any subject which he knows. And this 
 because the subtleties and delicacies of spiritual 
 life demand more subtle and delicate handling 
 than any ordinary school subject. As trainers in 
 religion, we are dealing with the sentiments and 
 emotions of childhood, and the smallest untoward 
 incident may rouse in our pupils sentiments and 
 emotions the very opposite of those we desire to 
 call into activity. 
 
 To come, then, more closely to the practical 
 question, How is a Sunday school teacher, already 
 " qualified " in all personal respects, to be prepared 
 in the matter of method to be taught to take the 
 right way ? There can be only one answer : In 
 the same way as teachers of public schools are 
 prepared ; that is to say, by the study of method 
 and by means of a normal school. A normal 
 school has a twofold signification. It is a school 
 conducted according to a certain norm or type, 
 and it is a school which is, or ought to be, a norm 
 or type for others of a like kind. In these normal 
 schools the most important practical part of the 
 training consists of criticism lessons ; that is to 
 
74 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 say, lessons given to a class by a teacher in train- 
 ing, criticized by his fellow-students and supervised 
 by a master of method, who sums up, pointing out 
 merits and defects. 
 
 Now, it is vain to hope that the thousands of 
 Sunday school teachers throughout the country 
 should go through such a course ; but the head 
 (and this, perhaps, should be a woman) ought 
 certainly, in my opinion, to go through it, and be 
 competent to guide the efforts of the teachers 
 under her. Why, indeed, should not all clergymen 
 study the principles and methods of education as 
 part of a course of pastoral theology ? Is not the 
 command to them, " Feed My lambs," as well as 
 " Feed My sheep " ? Will the lambs ever grow 
 into sheep worth feeding, if they themselves are 
 not first well fed and nurtured ? So trained, they 
 could guide and train their assistants. This may 
 be regarded as a novel suggestion ; but its novelty 
 will wear off. 
 
 With this brief and somewhat perfunctory 
 answer to the questions of qualification and pre- 
 paration, I will now pass on to method, confining 
 myself to such suggestions as would naturally 
 enter into a course of instruction addressed to 
 Sunday school teachers. These I will not present 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 75 
 
 to you didactically, as they flow from the general 
 principles governing all education, but rather in 
 a familiar way, as they might occur to any one 
 thinking of the characteristics and peculiarities of 
 the Sunday school as compared with other schools, 
 and of the kind of teaching supposed to be given 
 in it. 
 
 I. The characteristics and peculiarities of the 
 Sunday school. 
 
 (i) The Sunday school is a voluntary school. 
 The use of the word "school" as applied to the 
 Sunday school is unfortunate. Children have 
 been in the habit of associating what is disagree- 
 able with the word "school," viz. lessons, restraint, 
 and often punishment. Fortunately, schools are 
 now much more attractive than they used to be ; 
 the children are happier in them, and it is to be 
 hoped that gradually the associations with the 
 word will in time become modified, if not wholly 
 reversed. 
 
 The great majority of parents, not to speak of 
 the law, force children to the week-day school, but 
 the Sunday school is essentially of a voluntary 
 character. Children, then, must be induced to 
 come especially that class of children who most 
 need it. The school is voluntary, the teachers 
 
76 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 are voluntary, and the attendance is virtually 
 voluntary. 
 
 Accordingly, the Sunday school should be as 
 little like an ordinary school as possible. It must 
 be a very pleasant place a place to which children 
 will like to go. It must attract. 
 
 There must be no preparation of lessons, no 
 pressure of any kind, no imposed tasks at all in 
 the strict sense. 
 
 There must be no place-taking, no competition, 
 no prizes. Can you imagine Christ trying to get 
 children to listen to the truths of God by pitting 
 one child against another and offering gaudy book- 
 premiums? There is no natural indisposition in 
 child or man to hear of religious things. To say 
 so would be a blasphemy. It is the times and 
 ways of putting them that are in fault. 
 
 There must be no irritability on the part of the 
 teacher, and we are not to ascribe to wickedness 
 what has often a very trivial cause. Children are 
 not wicked wholly ; they are restless, inattentive, 
 frivolous. If you exaggerate the evil of their 
 conduct, and exhibit irritability or anger, you 
 fail. 
 
 Lessons should be short and easy and pleasant. 
 There should be no punishment of any kind what- 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 77 
 
 soever, save the natural disapprobation of the 
 teacher mildly expressed. 
 
 (2) Sunday school teaching is a substitute 
 for parental teaching. It is an unhappy neces- 
 sity. Religious teaching is best given at home ; 
 and it can be better given at the school where 
 all other teaching is given than at a school set 
 apart for the purpose. Happily there is as yet no 
 exclusion of religious instruction from the day- 
 school, but it has been found to be inadequate. 
 Hence Sunday schools to supplement or supersede 
 the work of the parents. That parents do not do 
 their duty is deeply to be lamented. It was to 
 fathers and mothers that the words in the sixth 
 chapter of Deuteronomy were addressed : " Hear, 
 O Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord : and 
 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 
 And these words, which I command thee this day, 
 shall be in thine heart : and thou shalt teach them 
 diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them 
 when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
 walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and 
 when thou risest up." On parents, then, was laid 
 the religious upbringing of the young. But, I 
 repeat, they do not do their duty^ It will be a 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
78 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 happy day for this country, and the world, when 
 parents accept and discharge this responsibility. 
 Sunday schools will then be superfluous, and we 
 shall not regret their disappearance. 
 
 If this be truly said, then the relation of the 
 Sunday school teacher to the young should be 
 parental. Kindness and affection must be con- 
 spicuous in all his personal relations to the children 
 whom he wishes to impress. The method of instruc- 
 tion should be not by hard question and answer, 
 but conversational, like the method which a wise 
 and kindly parent instinctively adopts. The 
 teaching must be persuasive, not dogmatic and 
 dictatorial. In fact, I am disposed to think that 
 the Sunday school should take largely the form 
 of a children's service ; that is to say, reading a 
 passage of the New Testament, conversing about 
 it, singing, short prayers specially made for children 
 and so often repeated that they learn them by heart 
 all wound up by a very brief and simple address 
 from the chief teacher on the lesson of the day. 
 As much music as possible should be introduced. 
 
 II. Let us consider now whether we can get 
 any hints for the Sunday school from the nature 
 of the instruction to be given. 
 
 It is religious instruction. 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 79 
 
 It is also moral instruction, for moral instruction 
 is religion in life religion used. 
 
 And yet the Sunday school does not contem- 
 plate moral instruction as either its starting-point 
 or its final aim. It is religion with which it starts 
 and religion with which it ends. It is religious 
 instruction, I say ; but this does not mean that it 
 is religious knowledge. This comes, in due time, 
 of course ; but your aim is to call forth and build 
 up religious sentiment the religious frame of 
 mind. Some people talk of "teaching religion," 
 as if it were an isolated subject. This is fatal. 
 Your business is to lead into the religious life ; and 
 for this the minimum of acquired knowledge in 
 the child is best. The introduction to the religious 
 life should not be too closely associated with 
 clergymen and catechisms and creeds ; for this 
 helps to make the whole subject appear as 
 somehow alien to ordinary life something to be 
 added on to life and not in life. Formularies 
 come back to the memory in after-days, it is said. 
 True in some cases, but in how many cases have 
 they driven the young away from the religious life 
 by misrepresenting it, or by associating it with 
 what was hard to understand and painful to learn ! 
 Educational method regards dogmas as weeds which 
 
8o METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 grow up and choke the fine grain of God as it begins 
 to grow naturally in every simple child-heart. 
 
 Next, it is the Christian religion we have to 
 teach ; that is to say, it is the religion of Christ 
 His life, His teaching. This you have to explain 
 and to instil. You have to explain, I say. Here 
 is another qualification of the teacher suggested, 
 for you come to the child as yourself a pupil of 
 Christ, in order to make plain the teaching of 
 the common Master, with the humility of a pupil 
 who knows well that he has much to learn. You 
 are, at best, a poor substitute for Christ the Teacher. 
 Your attitude, accordingly, is that of one learning 
 with the children, not dominating over them with 
 a sheaf of dogma inside which lies concealed 
 the whip of coercion whether that whip be the 
 whip of a stern voice, a clouded brow, or scorn of 
 the wicked weakness or weak wickedness of the 
 child-mind. You bring an evangel, good news. 
 How should you present good news ? Again, you 
 are the instiller. This word means putting in drop 
 by drop. You are content to-day to drop into the 
 open and receptive minds of the young one living 
 drop of the water of life, and another day, another. 
 
 I repeat, it is the religion of Christ that you 
 have to explain and instil not religion about 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 81 
 
 Christ It is Christ you teach, and not St. Augus- 
 tine ; no, not even St. Paul. Dogma upon dogma 
 you may pile up and pile in, but yet not one ray 
 of light may touch the spirit of the child, no 
 soft constraining voice be found which will evoke 
 a response in his heart. Christian dogma in all 
 its detail is a philosophic scheme of the world, 
 of human life and destiny, of death, and of God. 
 All this belongs to a more advanced period of 
 intellectual development, and may form the sub- 
 ject of exposition in Bible classes when the pupils 
 are old enough to understand it, and either to 
 receive it or reject it, as untrue to Christ or as 
 true to Him. If they are Christians, what matters 
 the more or less of dogma here or hereafter ? 
 
 Where, now, do you find this religion of Christ ? 
 In the Gospels. There you have Christ Himself 
 speaking and acting. It is a story, it is history, 
 and that the young must be taught. 
 
 I would then say let the children read some 
 short Life of Christ, written as much as possible 
 in Scripture language, so that they may get a 
 whole view of His career on earth. Let this be 
 read several times, and form the subject of friendly 
 conversation. Then select a Gospel and go steadily 
 through it, dwelling on its meaning and its teach- 
 
82 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 ing. The children read and the teacher reads in 
 his turn, and then they begin and converse the 
 children being asked for the expression of their 
 opinions. You pause at a particularly fine saying 
 (ask the children also which verse they like best), 
 and dwell on it till it has been learned by heart. 
 Never mind though the lesson stops there. It is 
 the impression or truth of the day the drop you 
 wish to drop in. When the passage has been read 
 and talked about, finish by reading it yourself 
 quietly and gravely, while the children, with shut 
 books, listen. After a sacred song or hymn, the 
 chief teacher, as I have already suggested, should 
 speak of the lesson of the day in simple language ; 
 and then, with a blessing, the school (if we may 
 call it so) ends. 
 
 The teacher must always prepare himself for 
 this his chief and central act of teaching. He 
 must study privately the Gospel, with the help of 
 such books as the " Cambridge " or " Oxford Bible 
 for Schools," for he must be able to explain. He 
 must never give a lesson without studying it first. 
 He must himself dwell on the spiritual significance 
 of the passage till he sees the truth vividly, and till 
 it touches his emotions. It is only then that he 
 can possibly convey the teaching, the truth, and 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 83 
 
 the emotion to others ; and if he cannot do this, 
 he had better give up the work. 
 
 As to the substance of religion to be taught, 
 that must be restricted in quantity, but fine in 
 quality. Some things are more important than 
 others. Religion, too, is more important than 
 theology. You wish to make children religious 
 above everything else. The rest can wait. Through 
 the story you will be able to teach all that is 
 needed. Strange it would be if you could not. 
 
 I think it is too apt to be forgotten, especially 
 by the half-educated, that we can separate religion 
 from theology. Religion renders theology pos- 
 sible. Whatever form religion takes, it already 
 implies, doubtless, a certain amount of theology, 
 but not a scheme of theology. By theology I 
 mean the dogmatic and formulated statement of 
 the nature of God, of human relations to God and 
 the unseen world, and of God's relations to the 
 life and destiny of man. As dogmatic theology in 
 this large sense must consist of high and abstract 
 generalizations, it follows that if there be any 
 significance at all in educational method, we who 
 are regarding the question of religious education 
 only within certain limits of age, must hold that 
 abstract dogma is not only useless, but hurtful, if 
 
84 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 prematurely presented to the growing intelligence. 
 This we may hold in the ultimate interest of 
 theological dogma itself. What we are mainly 
 concerned with is religion and those views and 
 ideals of life which are essential to, or constitute, 
 the only religion worthy of the name the Chris- 
 tian. Now analyze your own religious conscious- 
 ness, as disencumbered of a dogmatic theological 
 scheme of things, and see what it is. 
 
 1. I should say it is the recognition of a causal 
 Spirit, eternal and infinite, by Whom all things 
 exist, the unity which lives in all and on Whom all 
 things, including the spirit of man, are dependent. 
 This is the purely intellectual or rational basis of 
 religion ; and if of religion, then also of theology. 
 This recognition of a causal Spirit, and the feeling 
 of our dependence on it, lies at the foundation of 
 the religious consciousness. 
 
 2. The second characteristic of living religion 
 in the mind of man is an infinite aspiration after 
 union with the spiritual ideas of goodness and 
 truth. The idea is the perfection of a thing. The 
 aspiration for union with spiritual perfection is the 
 ideal element in religion ; it is that which raises 
 ordinary morality into the light of God. For in 
 God all ideas centre, and our ever unsatisfied 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 85 
 
 longing after union with ideas, is thus an aspira- 
 tion towards the infinite and eternal Being, and 
 union with Him. 
 
 3. The third element in the religious conscious- 
 ness is a distinctively Christian element : for it is 
 the feeling or emotion of sonship as given through 
 Christ, of God as Father of our spirits calling forth 
 our love, and as an infinite Father calling forth our 
 reverence and worship. 
 
 These ideas, these religious conceptions, fill our 
 minds. They give consolation and rest to the 
 weary, and at the same time they govern action 
 by giving it both ground and aim. These are the 
 characteristics of the matured religious conscious- 
 ness. The teacher's business is not formally to 
 teach even these primary truths in their fulness to 
 the young, but rather to lay a foundation for them, 
 and, meanwhile, quietly to assume them. If he is 
 to do this part of his task well, he has to find those 
 simple elements in the larger conceptions which 
 minds as yet immature can absorb, and which will 
 yield the fruit of a complete religious life some day. 
 
 The child, then, must learn first that God is a 
 Spirit Who made and sustains all things, and is 
 everywhere. Secondly, that God is perfect in 
 goodness and wisdom, and that we are to grow 
 
86 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 like Him. Third, that God is a Father Who 
 loves and reveals Himself to man in Christ. 
 Thus the feelings of reverence, love, and sonship 
 may be evoked. 
 
 These things are best taught by simply assuming 
 them, and by constant reference to them. They 
 are as plain as that two and two make four. It 
 is natural to the human mind to accept such uni- 
 versal truths, in their simple concrete form, even in 
 childhood ; and as the boy grows older he cannot 
 help holding by them if they have been properly 
 presented. Bishop Butler (of the "Analogy") 
 points out* that " training up children is a very 
 different thing from merely teaching them some 
 truths necessary to be known or believed." This 
 is true of dogma generally ; but the universal 
 truths which lie at the basis of the spiritual life so 
 work in the mind of childhood that they them- 
 selves silently train. At the same time, we are 
 not exempt from the rules of method in teaching 
 even these primary truths, and especially in evoking 
 the feelings of reverence, worship, and love. 
 
 Reverence : Words uttered by you and learned 
 by the children will accomplish little ; the children 
 must be led to do what is reverent, and what is 
 loving and true, if they are to grow up reverent, 
 
METHOD A.VD THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 87 
 
 loving, and truthful. Children are creatures of 
 feeling mainly. Reverence with a certain awe can 
 be taught, not by the bare statement of facts, but 
 only by stirring the feelings of reverence and 
 worship. Not only in children, but in men, this 
 feeling or emotion is, probably, the most vital 
 part of religion: It brings a great deal else in its 
 train. Reverence and worship of an infinite God- 
 Father humbles, and at the same time exalts, 
 man to the highest of which he is capable ; and 
 this elevated state of being cannot but influence 
 character and conduct. Reverence is, in truth, 
 the key of the whole position, especially in the 
 case of the young. When this is wanting, the 
 child may know his Gospels and catechisms, yet 
 remain irreligious. You may make an eminent 
 Pharisee in this way, but not a living Christian. 
 By presenting God as a Father, and not as a Judge, 
 you call forth the finer emotions ; and by means of 
 habitual prayer you give that expression to the 
 emotions you have evoked which makes them 
 permanent. But the prayers should be simple, 
 intelligible, and above all, in their manner, 
 reverential. To this simple attitude of reverence 
 and worship you can easily bring children, for it is 
 a natural and needful expression of their inner life. 
 
88 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 Christ Himself tells us this, for He says, " Unless 
 ye become as little children," etc. This is what 
 He meant. Simplicity and reverence are of the 
 essence of the religious spirit, and these are charac- 
 teristic of childhood. 
 
 Love : As with reverence so with love. The 
 method of procedure throughout is not by precep- 
 tive inculcation, for children can grasp nothing save 
 as concrete. They must love each other ; that is to 
 say, they must do kindnesses if they are to know 
 what love means, and they must see it operating in 
 you the teacher and others. Hence the beauty of 
 the Christian religion as compared with all others. 
 It is already, by its original mode of presentation, 
 adapted to the best methods of instruction as these 
 are recognized by theoretical writers, if only you 
 will let it alone, and let it do its own work. By 
 means of the story of the life of Christ, naively 
 given, you evoke love. The fundamental religious 
 feelings grow round a person who loves, and the 
 ideal of a loving life. 
 
 Read the Gospels, then, converse in a friendly 
 way about them, encourage the children to talk. 
 Utter with them short childlike prayers, and sing 
 simple hymns. Let the whole atmosphere be 
 pervaded by worship ; let everything be pleasing, 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 89 
 
 consoling, and appealing to the natural ethical and 
 aesthetic instincts, so that as the children leave the 
 room they may feel that they have been enjoying 
 something, enjoying, in some small degree, the 
 " sabbath of the spirit." It is an impression you 
 desire to make, a feeling you desire to arouse, a 
 human need you wish to supply. You are thereby 
 indirectly building up, strong, firm, and stable, the 
 universal primary truths ; and this is the main 
 thing. Do not harshly break into the pleasant half- 
 hour with hard dogmas. At a more advanced 
 stage only, can you safely do this. 
 
 But I would go further and say, Do not ask 
 children even of fourteen years of age to learn 
 a catechism by heart. Go over it, if you think 
 this necessary, or the best part of it, and see that 
 they understand it. Get the substance of it from 
 them in their own words. The learning "by 
 heart " of the very words is a curious superstition, 
 and most certainly despiritualizes. 
 
 In fine, take Christ's way, not the theologian's 
 way ; and Christ's way is the way of story and 
 parable in short, of life. Christ, the great 
 Teacher, is the Model you are to follow in teach- 
 ing the young, and the adult too, for that matter. 
 If He had wished it to be otherwise, I presume 
 
90 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 He would have put it otherwise. His life contains 
 the whole Christian creed. 
 
 Need I say in conclusion, in these days of a 
 milder and more humane Christianity, that if you 
 are to evoke love as well as reverence, do not let the 
 introduction to the temple of religion be a gateway 
 to the terrors of hell, but rather a triumphal arch 
 leading to the joys of heaven ; not a path to a God 
 Who watches and condemns, but rather to a God 
 Who loves, forgives, and helps ; nor to God as an 
 eavesdropper, but as our Friend all through ? If 
 it be presented as anything else than this, what an 
 insult it is to the Founder of our faith ! what a 
 travesty of His teaching ! 
 
 If you have brought up a child in such a way 
 that the feeling of dependence and the sentiments 
 of reverence and love centre in the idea of God and 
 the person of Christ, if he has been so accustomed 
 to receive your teachings as the natural and 
 needful food of his spiritual nature that they are 
 to him truly good news an evangel what more 
 do you want ? This, so far as we can see, would 
 have satisfied Christ ; why, then, should bishop, 
 priest, or presbyter seek for more? Assuredly, 
 if there be anything in educational method at 
 all, this is all that is possible to the teacher. 
 
METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER, gt 
 
 The school must restrict itself to broad and 
 universal truths, and the sentiments which underlie 
 them, if it is to accomplish anything for the 
 spiritual life ; and it may be that, owing to this 
 necessity, the school is destined one day to teach 
 the-Church those things that are "generally neces- 
 sary to salvation." 
 
 It would be ignorant and foolish to underrate 
 the importance of bringing up the young to be 
 sharers in a religious scheme of thought which 
 embodies a system of life, and to be members of 
 a Christian communion which professes it ; but 
 these things are outside the religious life in so far 
 as it is vital. These externalities it is always easy 
 to enforce, and hence the temptation to dwell on 
 them to the extinction of the spiritual life in the 
 young altogether. They will come in due time as 
 the external habit of the inner life, that external 
 form with which man naturally seeks to endue all 
 his social activities. 
 
 What, now, shall we say of morality in its rela- 
 tion to religion? It is a fact a strange one, but yet 
 true that a man may be religious without being 
 moral. That is to say, he may live on the elevated 
 plane of a being who contemplates God as the 
 
92 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 living Power of the universe, as Object of worship 
 and as the completion in his own Infinite Being 
 of all ideals, and yet he may act immorally. It is 
 only when he becomes alive to the fact that God 
 truly exists only in so far as He makes Himself 
 manifest in the moral order and is Source of all 
 moral law, that he finds that immorality is a 
 breach with God Himself and that life in God 
 is a mere dream a poetic imagination except 
 in so far as he himself also makes manifest God 
 in his own aims and conduct. Morality is 
 religion in use, religion in truth, religion alive. 
 Of vast importance, then, in purely moral teaching 
 it is, that you should constantly present morality 
 and virtue and all the graces as from God and 
 to God. Thus the moral teaching is deepened 
 and strengthened by its alliance with the Infinite, 
 and a child no less than a man hesitates before he, 
 by his acts, separates himself from the living God. 
 Thus the whole power of the loftiest spiritual 
 conceptions of the human mind are brought to 
 the sanction and support of virtue and duty ; and 
 these in their turn give substance to the spiritual. 
 To do the will of God to each other, this is alone 
 to make manifest God, to glorify Him. Except 
 in so far as this is so, God is nothing to us and we 
 
is 
 
 
 
 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 93 
 
 are nothing to God. Christ Himself is the eternal 
 Example of this life, and if we would follow this 
 Example, we have to be continually going about 
 doing good. The moral and religious are inter- 
 woven. Morality without religion can never sus- 
 tain a nation, because it can never sustain itself. 
 
 In moral teaching, do not impose on the child 
 by telling him that duty is easy. Let him under- 
 stand, on the contrary, that it is difficult : that it 
 is not in this sense that Christ's yoke is easy and 
 His burden light. It is a striving; and it is the 
 effort of to-day that secures pardon for the failure 
 f yesterday. By granting the difficulty and the 
 need of effort you engage the will and personality 
 of the child in his own moral discipline, and make 
 him feel that a fault, if repented of, does not break 
 the bond with God, but may, on the contrary, 
 strengthen it. 
 
 The method of moral instruction generally is 
 here, again, the method of the Gospels, indirect, 
 historical and parabolical, beginning with the 
 simple and advancing to the more abstract. It 
 should, as much as possible, arise naturally out of 
 the incidents of human life and the ordinary rela- 
 tions of children, and not be imposed as precepts 
 with the austere frown of authority. What an 
 

 94 METHOD AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER. 
 
 educational Nemesis on the extrusion of religion 
 from schools in France is the Moral Text-book ! 
 
 Generally, I should not like it to be supposed 
 that some formulation of a religious system and of 
 duty should not be taught. All I mean is, that 
 premature instruction in formula is forbidden by 
 sound method. Sound method commands that we 
 train to the general and abstract by means of the 
 concrete and particular. The broad and universal 
 truths of religion are not formulas ; they meet a 
 want in every human soul, and, if simply assumed, 
 they are accepted as a matter of course by the 
 young and grow with their growth. Preoccupation 
 of the young mind with dogma has failed to make 
 Christendom Christian. Let us try another and a 
 better way. 
 
IV. 
 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 1 
 
 MONTAIGNE, the essayist and sceptic, continues, 
 after a lapse of three hundred years, to speak to us 
 with all the freshness of a contemporary. "We 
 converse with Montaigne," says Hallam, " or rather 
 hear him talk : it is almost impossible to read his 
 essays without thinking that he speaks to us : 
 we see his cheerful brow, his sparkling eye, 
 his negligent but gentlemanly demeanour : we 
 picture him in his armchair, with his few books 
 round the room, and Plutarch on the table. As 
 a man of letters, who is also in the best sense 
 a man of the world, he stands alone. He is 
 original and unique as a thinker, and at the same 
 time a type of a class which he had done much 
 to create. Though the class he represents may 
 not be a large one, he yet gives expression to 
 a way of estimating life which is a passing mood 
 
 1 The first edition of the Essays appeared in Bordeaux in 1580. 
 
96 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 of all thoughtful minds. He thus leads a large 
 constituency all the larger that he makes no 
 tyrannical demands, and warns the reader not to 
 labour after even him. Few writers say so many 
 wise things as Montaigne does, and no one appears 
 so little solicitous about convincing others that his 
 sayings are wise. His intellectual philosophy is 
 essentially sophistical and sceptical, his morality 
 conventional, and his moral philosophy epicurean." 
 We are not disposed, however, to allow to Mon- 
 taigne, and such easy-going sceptics as he, the 
 superiority to limitations that they claim. It is all 
 very well to proclaim the impossibility of rinding 
 absolute truth, and to luxuriate in a cultured in- 
 difference, but at the foundation of such talk there 
 in truth lies a philosophical conviction as positive 
 as that of the most ardent zealot. The conviction 
 is that, doomed as man is to nescience, the happi- 
 ness of each individual is for himself the only solid 
 pursuit, and is to be at all hazards cherished. The 
 standard of happiness will doubtless vary with the 
 idiosyncrasies and circumstances of each man, but 
 must always, with cultivated men, embrace equa- 
 bility of mind, balance of judgment, a kindly 
 disposition to all with whom they are brought in 
 contact, an indisposition to exertion for any pur- 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 97 
 
 pose whatsoever as leading to certain disturbance 
 and almost as certain disappointment, a horror of 
 a " Cause," and a strict regard to the comforts of 
 the animal economy generally. Intellectual scepti- 
 cism is itself, in truth, an implicit dogmatism, and 
 in the field of moral action it is epicurean dog- 
 matism. No man, in truth, holds more tightly 
 to a positive philosophy of life than Montaigne. 
 Doubtless the attitude of inquiry, the qtie sgais-je ? 
 gives a breadth and elasticity of mind and promotes 
 a geniality of nature that have their charms, and 
 are genuine objects of desire to most men. They 
 are, however, the true possession only of those who 
 are not " too sure " of anything. A steady sus- 
 tained conviction that there is nothing admitting 
 of conviction runs through Montaigne's life and 
 writings, and he is in respect of this as positive as 
 his neighbours. No man can build his house on 
 shifting sand. Montaigne may in words defy us 
 to find him desperately in earnest, but he fails : 
 for he never doubts his doubts, and he never loses 
 his grip of his ethical standard such .as it is. So 
 far at least he is in sober earnest. 
 
 We should like sometimes to find this arch- 
 philosopher of practical life-wisdom in earnest 
 about other things than indifference, and we 
 
 H 
 
98 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 
 naturally seek for this quality of earnestness in his 
 views of religion and politics subjects which call 
 forth the passions of men more than any other. 
 But notwithstanding all that has been said and 
 written on these points, I think we shall find that 
 his whole mental attitude was such as .to forbid 
 definite conclusions even on those vital subjects. 
 His Apology for Sebonde does not throw so much 
 light on his religious beliefs as we should desire. 
 If readers are disappointed in their expectations 
 here, they have themselves to blame, for they 
 search for something which his philosophy has 
 beforehand told them not to expect. The fact 
 seems to be that in religion he was strictly conven- 
 tional, and in politics he was equally conventional. 
 "For Heaven's sake," he would say, "don't disturb 
 the status quo ; things are bad enough, I grant, 
 but in seeking to make them better you will pro- 
 bably make them worse. Let us go on from day 
 to day, quietly meeting little difficulties as they 
 arise, and making the best both of the good and 
 of the bad. The practical guidance of life, in the 
 interests of a universal bonhommie that is our 
 business." 
 
 If we prosecute our inquiry after the "earnest" 
 side of Montaigne's character, we shall find it 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 99 
 
 perhaps most conspicuous in his genuine desire to 
 amend the condition of the poor, and in his views 
 on education. It is the latter with which we have 
 to do here ; but of both characteristics I would say 
 that they were the fruit of his positive philosophy 
 of negation. A happy, useful (provided usefulness 
 did not call for too much exertion), practically 
 wise life was his summum bonum, and it was this 
 aim that unconsciously determined the substance 
 of his educational theory. In considering, then, 
 his teaching, we must keep Montaigne's theory of 
 life before our minds. For education, as distinct 
 from instruction, is a subject on which no man can 
 possibly write without being more or less con- 
 sciously controlled in all his utterances by his 
 philosophy of man and of the meaning of human 
 life. 
 
 So much is necessary for the proper under- 
 standing of Montaigne on education. But more 
 than this is needed for the proper placing of him 
 in the series of educational writers. We have to 
 understand his historical relations and the cir- 
 cumstances of his life and time, of which receptive 
 men like Montaigne are in a special sense the 
 product and reflection. 
 
 Luther died when Montaigne was thirteen years 
 
ioo MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 old. It was during the latter period of Luther's 
 life that the Humanistic movement among the 
 leaders of the thought of Europe began to tell, 
 as all great philosophic and political movements 
 inevitably do, sooner or later, tell, upon the edu- 
 cation of youth. The reformation of religion was 
 itself only part of the larger Humanistic move- 
 ment. For Humanism was essentially a rebellion 
 against words and logical forms in the interest of 
 the realities of life and thought. An intellectual 
 movement of this kind could not fail to make 
 itself felt in education as well as in the domain of 
 religious rites and formularies, for it was truly a 
 philosophical movement, and philosophy ultimately 
 determines all such things. Up to the period of 
 university life, and even beyond it, education con- 
 sisted in the acquisition of Latin words and rules 
 about Latin, and this, as the boy grew, received 
 the addition of logic with all its scholastic subtle- 
 ties, and such physics as abridgments of Aristotle 
 could supply. Prior to Montaigne's school-days, 
 the intellectual life of the schoolboy was, as may 
 be supposed, very wretched ; but those who survived 
 it, and continued to devote themselves to grammar, 
 rhetoric, and logic, certainly acquired an amount 
 of discipline which could not fail to sharpen their 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 101 
 
 wits. Intensity and subtlety of thought were the 
 natural outcome of the educational system, but 
 accompanied with a restricted range of view and 
 a belief in arid terms and phrases. Luther's 
 educational activity was directed to aid the 
 Humanists in reviving in the school a regard 
 for substance as opposed to form. Pure Latinity, 
 the study of the substance of the great Roman 
 writers, and of rhetoric and logic by the perusal 
 of those great products of literary genius out of 
 which the rules of rhetoric and logic were them- 
 selves generalized, began to take the place of mere 
 words and of barbarous Latinity. The typical 
 schoolmaster of this period was John Sturm, the 
 rector of the High School of Strasbourg, whose 
 course of instruction, severe and mainly linguistic, 
 was yet such as to give genuine culture to all those 
 who were capable of culture. Sturm died in 1589. 
 Already the Humanistic movement in schools had 
 been represented in England by Dean Colet, who 
 died in 1519, and by Roger Ascham, who died in 
 1 568, and was a correspondent of Sturm. Erasmus, 
 the friend of Colet, died in 1536. Montaigne's 
 position is thus clearly defined. Born in 1533, and 
 dying in 1592, he was in the midst of the full tide 
 of the reaction against, what Milton calls, "the 
 
102 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 scholastic grossness of barbarous ages," "ragged 
 notions and babblements ; " and also, curiously 
 enough, in the full tide of the Catholic reaction 
 against Protestantism. Bacon's influence had not 
 yet begun. 
 
 Montaigne's father, a gentleman of private estate 
 in the province of Guienne, had notions of his 
 own as to the education of the young Michel, and 
 whatever we may think of them, the son thought 
 highly of his father's method, and all through life 
 retained the profoundest affection and respect for 
 " the best father that ever was." He used to ride in 
 his father's old military cloak, " because," he said, 
 " when I have that on, I seem to wrap myself up 
 in my father." His education, under the paternal 
 roof, was directed morally to the cultivation in 
 him of an intense love of truthfulness and of 
 kindliness of feeling and manners towards the 
 poor and dependent. So solicitous was the father 
 to surround his child with every beneficent influ- 
 ence, that he had him roused every morning by 
 the sound of music, that there might be no violent 
 disturbance of his nervous system. As regards 
 intellectual education, the main object even with 
 Humanists was Latin (and a little Greek), because 
 Latin represented humane letters. Montaigne 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 103 
 
 himself tells us the novel arrangements his 
 father made for initiating him in this language 
 without straining his powers. He gave him a 
 Latin-speaking tutor, and surrounded him with 
 Latin conversation, so that when he was six 
 years old he spoke Latin fluently much better, 
 indeed, than he could speak his own tongue. 
 The whole household, indeed, became so Latin- 
 ized that the domestics, and even the peasants 
 on his father's property, began to use Latin 
 words. 
 
 Greek was taught by the invention of a game, 
 but it would appear without much success, for 
 Montaigne's knowledge of Greek literature was 
 never much more than he could obtain through a 
 Latin medium. 
 
 He was only six years old when he was sent to 
 the College of Guienne at Bordeaux, an institution 
 of mark, in which the Humanistic culture must 
 have reigned supreme, if we may judge from the 
 names of the teachers William Guerente the 
 Aristotelian, Muretus the classical Latinist and 
 rhetorician, and our own George Buchanan the 
 historian and Latin poet. 1 At college he lost his 
 familiar acquaintance with colloquial Latin, but 
 
 1 Here also the father of Casaubon received his instruction. 
 
io 4 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 largely extended his private reading in classical 
 authors ; this, however, only by a breach of school 
 rules in which he was wisely encouraged by his 
 masters. George Buchanan seems to have been 
 his private tutor as well as his schoolmaster, and 
 it says much for Buchanan that he connived at 
 young Montaigne's wide reading. At the early 
 age of thirteen he had accomplished his college 
 course, and although he afterwards affected to 
 study law, it cannot be said that he had any 
 special instruction outside this professional read- 
 ing after he was a boy. Had it not been for 
 the wise connivance of his masters, which enabled 
 him to make acquaintance with the literature of 
 Rome, he would have "brought away from college 
 nothing but a hatred of books, as almost all our 
 young gentlemen do." His father was satisfied 
 with the result of his school-life, "for the chief 
 things he expected from the endeavour of those 
 to whom he had delivered me for education was 
 affability of manners and good humour." Mon- 
 taigne was, to speak the truth, idle and desultory, 
 and he would be the first to admit it. He also 
 complains that he had " a slothful wit that would 
 go no faster than it was led, a languishing inven- 
 tion and an incredible defect of memory, so that 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 105 
 
 it is no wonder," he adds, " if from these nothing 
 considerable could be extracted." He was incap- 
 able of sustained effort and of taking much trouble 
 about anything. Nor could it be said that, with 
 all the leisure at his command, he was ever master 
 of any subject : he had " only nibbled," he him- 
 self says, "on the outward crust of sciences, and 
 had a little snatch of everything and nothing of 
 the whole." Even of Latin he was not a master, 
 and Scaliger speaks with contempt of his scholar- 
 ship ; to which, however, Montaigne never made 
 any claim. His innumerable classical allusions 
 and quotations were, however, the genuine fruit of 
 his own reading ; but he read not as a grammarian 
 or philosopher, but as a man of letters. " I make 
 no doubt," he says, with his usual na'fvete, " that 
 I oft happen to speak of things that are much 
 better and more truly handled by those who are 
 masters of the trade. . . . Whoever will take me 
 tripping in my ignorance will not in any way 
 displease me ; for I should be very unwilling to 
 become responsible to another for my writings, 
 who am not so to myself nor satisfied with them. 
 Whoever goes in quest of knowledge, let him fish 
 for it where it is to be found : there is nothing I 
 so little profess." Again, " I could wish to have 
 
io6 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 a more perfect knowledge of things, but I will not 
 buy it so dear as it will cost. My design is to 
 pass over easily, and not laboriously, the remainder 
 of my life. There is nothing that I will cudgel 
 my brains about ; no, not knowledge of what price 
 soever. ... I do not bite my nails about the 
 difficulties I meet with in my reading, and after 
 a charge or two I give them over. . . . Con- 
 tinuation and a too obstinate endeavour darken, 
 stupefy, and tire my judgment." 
 
 The moral result was more satisfactory. Mon- 
 taigne's disposition was naturally kindly, and its 
 kindliness was further fostered by his father's 
 affectionate upbringing. If ever there was a man 
 distinguished for that "sweet reasonableness" of 
 which we have heard not a little of late, that man 
 was Montaigne. He had the light of culture and 
 also its sweetness. 
 
 I have dwelt a little on Montaigne's own educa- 
 tion and character, because they have to be taken 
 into consideration along with the circumstances of 
 his time, to which I have already alluded, in form- 
 ing a true estimate of his educational opinions. 
 The character of the man, also, is itself to be 
 regarded as, to some extent at least, the fruit of 
 his education, and retrospectively his father's 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 107 
 
 method comes up for judgment according to the 
 saying, " By their fruits ye shall know them." It 
 is sufficiently clear that of discipline, intellectual 
 or moral, Montaigne had received none, and that 
 his nature was one that stood in some need of it. 
 On the other hand, the love that his father bore him 
 and the gentleness of his treatment unquestionably 
 nurtured the ingenuous spirit of the son and gave 
 him a freedom of judgment and a fearlessness of 
 intelligence which are among Montaigne's principal 
 charms. His mind was not at any time oppressed 
 with too strong a burden of duty or warped by 
 fear. He grew up into an open-eyed, gentle, 
 bright-souled, and sweet-blooded man, with a 
 sound practical judgment a wise man, if not a 
 learned one capable of looking at every side of 
 a question by turns and dallying with each. 
 
 But to follow the example of Montaigne's father 
 would not always succeed. He had a man of 
 jnius as his child and pupil, and all he did was 
 jlicitously adapted to develop the boy's natural 
 endowments. But the system pursued did not cure 
 the pupil's manifest defects of character. Even his 
 natural weakness of memory, so far from being 
 remedied, was probably increased by the father's 
 lax treatment. Perhaps all the better for the 
 
io3 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 
 world, it may be said. In this particular case it 
 was so ; but we have not young Montaignes to 
 deal with. We have to discipline the intellectual 
 and moral nature of the average boy if we would 
 give energy of will, earnestness of purpose, power 
 of application, and love of truth. 
 
 When Montaigne gives us his own views on the 
 education of the young we find them to be very 
 much a reflex of his own experience and character. 
 Let us look at them for a little as they bear on 
 the end of education, on the materials of instruc- 
 tion,' on method, on intellectual and moral dis- 
 cipline, and on the penalties whereby the work of 
 the school is usually enforced. 
 
 If we were to put in the shortest form Mon- 
 taigne's idea of the end of education, we should 
 say that it is this : that a man be trained up to 
 the use of his own reason and to virtue. " The 
 trouble and expense of our fathers are directed 
 only to furnish our heads with knowledge ; not a 
 word of judgment and virtue." "A man," he says, 
 "can never be wise save by his own wisdom." 
 Might we not add, " A man can never be virtuous 
 save by his own virtue " ? Again, " If the mind be 
 not better disposed, by education, if the judgment 
 be not better settled, I had much rather my 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 109 
 
 scholar had spent his time at tennis, for at least 
 his body would by that means be in better exercise 
 and breath. Do but observe him when he comes 
 back from school, after fifteen or sixteen years 
 that he has been there : there is nothing so 
 awkward and maladroit, so unfit for company and 
 employment ; and all that you shall find he has 
 got is, that his Latin and Greek have only made 
 him a greater and more conceited coxcomb than 
 when he went from home. He should bring back 
 his soul replete with good literature, and he brings 
 it only swelled and puffed up with vain and empty 
 shreds and snatches of learning, and has really 
 nothing more in him than he had before." The 
 author of " Hudibras," when he wrote the following 
 lines, gave expression to the impatience of both 
 Montaigne and Milton : 
 
 " No sooner are the organs of the brain 
 Quick to receive and steadfast to retain 
 Best knowledges, but all's laid out upon 
 Retrieving of the curse of Babylon. 
 ***** 
 And he that is but able to express 
 No sense in several languages, 
 Will pass for learneder than he that's known 
 To speak the strongest reason in his own. " 
 
 It is true that great men and vigorous natures 
 overcome all this and are little the worse ; but 
 
I io MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 " it is not enough that our education does not 
 spoil us, it must alter us for the better." It is not 
 enough to tie learning to the soul, but to work and 
 incorporate them together; not to tincture the soul 
 merely, but to give it a thorough and perfect dye ; 
 and if it will not take colour and meliorate its 
 imperfect state, it were, without question, better to 
 let it alone." Knowledge will not "find a man 
 eyes ; its business is to guide, govern, and direct 
 his steps, provided he have sound feet and straight 
 legs to go upon'' Neither Persia nor Sparta, I may 
 interpose, made much account of mere knowledge, 
 and Rome was at its greatest in virtue and vigour 
 before schools were much thought of. To train to 
 valour, honesty, prudence, wisdom, justice these 
 were the aims of the greatest nations. As Agesilaus 
 said when asked " what boys should learn : " 
 "Those things" (he said) "that they ought to do 
 when they become men." 
 
 Montaigne, then, would keep in view the end of 
 education from the very first ; and that end is to 
 train to right reason and independent judgment, 
 to moderation of mind, and to virtue. The culti- 
 vated and capable man of affairs, fit to manage 
 his own business well and discharge public duties 
 wisely, is his educated man. This is the antique 
 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. in 
 
 idea of education, and is very much what Quintilian 
 has in view in the training of the " Good Orator." 
 Philosophy is the highest fruit of education not 
 the philosophy which has logical formulae for its 
 subject-matter, but philosophy which has virtue 
 for its end. Virtue and philosophy are not 
 "harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose," but 
 the " enemies of melancholy and the friends of 
 wisdom : they teach us how to know and make 
 use of all good things, and how to part with them 
 without concern." " Philosophy instructs us to 
 live, and ^infancy has there its lessons as well as 
 other ages." We are not, however, to force to 
 virtue and to philosophy, but to attract by showing 
 that they alone yield happiness, and by leading 
 the pupil to recognize their essential beauty and 
 charm. It may be that there are youths who are 
 inaccessible to all that is noble and beautiful and 
 ingenuous in thought and action, and turn aside 
 by preference to common pleasures. What is to 
 be done with these ? " Bind them 'prentice," says 
 Montaigne, " in some good town to learn to make 
 mince-pies, though they were the sons of dukes ; " 
 and in a manuscript emendation he recommends 
 that the masters should "strangle such youths if 
 they can do it without witnesses ! " 
 
H2 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 What now has Montaigne to say as to the 
 materials of instruction whereby his end is to be 
 attained ? " The most difficult and most important 
 of all human arts is education," he says. The 
 differences among children increase the difficulty ; 
 but the promise of the future is with young children 
 so uncertain that it is better, so far as the matter 
 of instruction goes, to give to all the elements of 
 knowledge alike. In any case, let us begin when 
 they are young, when the clay is moist and soft. 
 From the very first, the lessons of philosophy in 
 their simple and practical form can be inculcated. 
 In philosophy Montaigne includes all that we now 
 understand by the religious and moral, and he 
 maintains, and rightly maintains, that a child's 
 mind is more open to all such lessons than to 
 reading and writing. In selecting other materials 
 of instruction, we must bear in mind that a child 
 " owes but the first fifteen or sixteen years of his 
 life to discipline, and the rest to action. Let us, 
 therefore, employ that time in necessary instruc- 
 tion." At every stage that which constitutes the 
 ultimate aim of education is to appear in some 
 form or other philosophy, namely, which forms 
 the judgment and conduct. This has a hand in 
 everything. " She is always in place, and is to 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 113 
 
 be admitted to all sports and entertainments 
 because of the sweetness of her conversation. 
 By guiding conduct, as well as by discourse in 
 season, this instruction is to be given and habits 
 thus formed." 
 
 Montaigne is generally classed by educational 
 writers as a realist as the very founder of realism. 
 Those who so write, write without understanding. 
 Educational realism in our modern sense means 
 the substitution of a knowledge of nature and of 
 the practical work of after-life for the study of 
 language and literature and all that we include in 
 the Humanities. Those who advocate the latter 
 are Humanists, and are the true descendants of 
 the Humanists of the Renaissance. All educa- 
 tionalists, however (except, perhaps, the majority 
 of schoolmasters), are realists in this sense 
 Montaigne's sense that they desire to see reality, 
 tat is, to see the substance of fact and thought 
 lominant in the education of youth. Montaigne's 
 jalism opposed itself merely to verbalism, and he 
 fought a good fight in this. But all this belongs 
 the past, in the region of educational theory 
 at least, whatever may be said of practice. We 
 all now seek reality ; we are all opposed to 
 erbalism. The difference now consists in this, 
 
 1 
 
H4 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 that one school of philosophy holds by language 
 and literature as introducing youth to the highest 
 and best realities the realities of feeling and 
 thought ; the other school holds by facts, the facts 
 of nature and of man's relation to nature as 
 yielding the highest and best realities for educa- 
 tional purposes. If we may make a distinction 
 between the real-Humanistic and the verbal- 
 Humanistic, there can be no doubt that Montaigne 
 belonged, like Quintilian, to the former class, and 
 not to the utilitarian realists of whom Mr. Spencer 
 and Professor Bain are the best contemporary types. 
 Ethical training, then, in the broadest sense, is 
 the main purpose of education according to Mon- 
 taigne. Virtue and wisdom sum him up. The 
 ordinary subjects of reading, writing, and casting 
 accounts are, of course, to be taught. After this, 
 whatever you teach, avoid words simply as words. 
 So far Montaigne and Bacon agree. Most modern 
 Humanists, however, would not go so far as 
 Montaigne in their opposition to words. They see 
 more in them. But we must bear in mind the 
 state of things at the time Montaigne wrote. The 
 Humanistic revival, which was a revival in the 
 interest of realities, was also a revival of style ; 
 and the tendency was to give prominence to art 
 
<K 
 
 UNIVERSITY) 
 
 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 115 
 
 in language, and consequently to what may be 
 called the formulas of style. This must always 
 be the case : teachers in their daily work cannot 
 consistently maintain from hour to hour the reality 
 of any subject, be it language, literature, or science. 
 The tendency inevitably is to fall back upon 
 mechanical expedients, on the learning of rules, 
 and on symbolism generally. It is so even with 
 religion and morality. To the end of time, the 
 task of the true teacher, who desires truly to 
 educate, will be a struggle against the dominion 
 of words and forms, and this quite irrespectively 
 of the subjects he may choose to make the basis of 
 his school-work. The virtues of the educational 
 profession are all summed up in the words life, 
 reality ; but, like other virtues, they are not always 
 easily practised. 
 
 " The world," says Montaigne, " is nothing but 
 babble. . . . We are kept four or five years to 
 learn nothing but words and to tack them together 
 into clauses ; as many more to make exercises, 
 and to divide a continued discourse into so many 
 parts ; and other five years, at least, to learn suc- 
 cinctly to mix and interweave them after a subtle 
 and intricate manner. Let us leave this to the 
 learned professors ! " Words, grammar, style, and 
 
i.i6 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 rhetoric constituted the main end of school and 
 college instruction in those days, and this was 
 supplemented by logic. Montaigne held that if a 
 man had really anything to say he could manage 
 to say it without all this training. " Let the pupil 
 be well furnished with things " (i.e. thoughts), he 
 says, "words will follow but too fast." People 
 who pretend to have great thoughts which they 
 cannot express are deceiving themselves ; they are 
 not labouring to bring forth, but merely " licking 
 the formless embryo " of their minds. If a man 
 has any clear conceptions, he will express them 
 well enough, though ignorant of "ablative, con- 
 junctive, substantive, and grammar." " When 
 things are once formed in the fancy, words offer 
 themselves in muster." " Ipstz res verba rapiunt" 
 says Cicero. " The fine flourishes of rhetoric serve 
 only to amuse the vulgar, who are incapable of 
 more solid and nutritive diet." The attack on 
 mere rhetoric in the sense of style is keen and 
 incisive, and has not a little truth in it. " Words 
 are to serve and to follow a man's purpose." He 
 quotes Plato as approving of fecundity of con- 
 ception rather than of fertility of speech, and 
 Zeno as dividing his pupils into two classes, the 
 philologi, who loved things and reasonings, and 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 117 
 
 logophili, who cared for nothing but words. " I 
 am scandalized," he says, "that our whole life 
 should be spent in nothing else." 
 
 What would he have, then, in addition to the 
 usual elements of education, and the teaching of 
 philosophy and of virtue ? He would have a man 
 learn thoroughly his own language first, and then 
 that of his neighbour, regarding Greek and Latin 
 as ornamental merely. Little, however, did Mon- 
 taigne think that instruction, even in our own 
 language, could degenerate into what it has become 
 in these latter days verbalism of a kind much 
 more offensive than any to be found in classical 
 teaching. He could not foresee detailed analysis 
 of sentences, and the dreary pedantry of the school 
 grammars of our native tongue ! Pedagogic in- 
 genuity had not yet invented such arid substitutes 
 for the substance and living form of our mother- 
 speech arch-enemies of true Humanistic culture 
 the logical babblement of the primary school. 
 Truly teachers have an "infinite capacity for 
 sinking." 
 
 Vernacular and modern languages once secured, 
 Montaigne would thereafter limit the course of 
 study " to those things only where a true and real 
 utility and advantage are to be expected and 
 
Ii8 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 found. To teach a boy astronomy, for example, 
 instead of what will make him wise and good, is 
 absurd. After you have done this last, the pupil 
 may be admitted to the elements of geometry, 
 rhetoric, logic, and physics ; and then the science 
 which his judgment most affects he will generally 
 make his own." But we must above all teach 
 him "what it is to know and what to be ignorant, 
 what valour is, and temperance and justice ; the 
 difference between ambition and avarice, servitude 
 and subjection, licence and liberty ; in brief, season 
 his understanding with that which regulates his 
 manners and his sense, that which teaches him to 
 know himself, and how both well to die and well 
 to live. Over and above this, let us make a 
 selection of those subjects which directly and 
 professedly serve for the instruction and use of 
 life." But the direct instruction of the master is 
 not all. " Human understanding is marvellously 
 enlightened by daily conversation with men, for 
 we are otherwise of ourselves so stupid as to have 
 our sight limited to the end of our own noses. 
 One asking Socrates of what country he was, he 
 did not make answer, 'of Athens/ but 'of the 
 world.'" We must learn to measure ourselves 
 aright : " whosoever shall represent to his fancy, 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 119 
 
 as in a picture, that great image of our mother 
 Nature portrayed in her full majesty and lustre, 
 whoever in her face shall read her so universal and 
 constant variety, whoever shall observe himself, 
 and not only himself but a whole kingdom, no 
 bigger than the least touch or prick of a pencil 
 in comparison with the whole, that man alone 
 is able to value things according to their true 
 estimate and grandeur." The great world is the 
 mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves, to be 
 able to know ourselves as we ought to do. History 
 naturally suggests itself in this connection as a 
 leading subject of study, for "thereby we converse 
 with those great and heroic souls of former and 
 better ages" an empty and an idle study as 
 commonly conducted, but of "inestimable fruit and 
 value " when prosecuted with care and observation. 
 Meanwhile the body is not to be forgotten, for, 
 not to speak of the moral instruction which may 
 be conveyed in connection with leaping and riding 
 and wrestling, etc., we have to form the youth's 
 outward fashion and mien at the same time as his 
 mind : for " 'tis not a soul, 'tis not a body we are 
 training only, but a man, and we ought not to 
 divide him." And, as Plato says, " we are not to 
 fashion one without the other, but make them 
 
120 MCNTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 draw together like two horses harnessed to a 
 coach." " It is not enough to fortify the soul : 
 you are also to make the sinews strong, for the 
 soul will be oppressed if not assisted by the bodily 
 members, and would have too hard a task to dis- 
 charge two offices at once." Effeminacy in food 
 or clothes or habits is also to be eschewed. 
 
 So much for the end of education according 
 to Montaigne, and the materials of instruction 
 whereby that end is to be attained. Montaigne's 
 public school, if he had to construct one in these 
 days, would certainly be somewhat after the 
 fashion of a German Real school, as regards its 
 external organization, and, so far, he is rightly 
 named a realist. But the leading purpose of all 
 his instruction would essentially be ethical and 
 humanistic. The only respect in which his curri- 
 culum would be realistic in the utilitarian meaning 
 would be in the subordinate place assigned to 
 Latin and Greek. So far is he from being a Realist 
 in the modern sense, that he may be rather set 
 down as an enemy of mere knowledge or informa- 
 tion. " The cares and expense our parents are at 
 in our education, point at nothing save to fill our 
 heads with knowledge," he says, " but not a word 
 of judgment or virtue. We toil and labour to 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 121 
 
 stuff the memory, and in the mean time leave the 
 conscience and the understanding unfurnished 
 void." 
 
 It has to be noted that Montaigne, and after him 
 Milton and Locke, think only of the education of 
 the few and not of the many of the sons of gentle- 
 men only : but we may remark that, while the 
 extent to which school instruction goes depends 
 for the most part on the social position of the 
 parent, the principles which regulate a prolonged 
 education are equally operative in the briefest, if 
 they are worth anything at all as principles. 
 
 Of equal importance with end and means is 
 method. On this Montaigne has less to say, but 
 what he says contains probably the germs of the 
 most important principles of all method. 
 
 " 'Tis the custom of schoolmasters to be eternally 
 thundering in their pupils' ears as if they were 
 pouring into a funnel, whilst the business of the 
 pupil is simply to repeat what the teacher has 
 before said. I would have a tutor correct this 
 error, and at the very first he should, according to 
 the capacity he has to deal with, put it to the test, 
 permitting his pupil himself to taste and relish 
 things and of himself to choose and discern them, 
 sometimes opening the way to him and sometimes 
 
122 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 making him break the ice himself; that is to say, 
 I would not have him alone to invent and speak, 
 but also hear his pupil invent and speak in his 
 turn. Socrates, and since him Arcesilaus, made 
 first their scholars speak and then they spoke to 
 them. The authority of those who teach is very 
 often an impediment to those who desire to learn. 
 It is good to make the pupil, like a young horse, 
 trot before the master, that he may judge of his 
 going and how much he, the master, is to abate of 
 his own speed to accommodate himself to the 
 vigour and capacity of his pupil. For want of 
 this due proportion we spoil all : to know how to 
 adjust this and to keep within an exact and due 
 measure is one of the hardest things I know ; and 
 it is an effect of a judicious and well-tempered soul 
 to know how to condescend to the boy's puerile 
 movements and to govern and direct them. Those 
 who, according to our common way of teaching, 
 undertake with one and the same lesson and the 
 same measure of direction to instruct several boys 
 of differing and unequal capacities, are infinitely 
 mistaken in their method ; and at this rate it is no 
 wonder if, in a multitude of scholars, there are not 
 found above two or three who bring away any 
 good account of their time and discipline." Here 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 123 
 
 we have the foreshadowing of the organization of 
 instruction and the classification of pupils. The 
 importance of examination as a part of good 
 method is also insisted on. " Let the master," he 
 says, "not only examine him about the gram- 
 matical construction of the bare words of the 
 lesson, but about the sense and meaning of them, 
 and let him judge of the profit he has made, not 
 by the testimony of his memory, but of his under- 
 standing. Let him make the pupil put what he 
 hath learned into a hundred several forms, and 
 accommodate it to many subjects to see if he yet 
 rightly comprehend it and have made it his own, 
 taking instruction in his progress from the ' Insti- 
 tutions of Plato.' " " Tis a sign of crudity and 
 indigestion," he says, " to vomit up what we eat 
 in the same condition it was swallowed down, and 
 the stomach has not performed its office unless it 
 have altered the form, and condition of what was 
 committed to it to concoct." " What is the good 
 of having the stomach full of meat if it do not 
 nourish us ? " Here we have what used to be 
 called the " Intellectual method " anticipated, the 
 importance of assimilation enforced, and the dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic of cram well exposed. 
 Montaigne, further, in opposition to theories of 
 
124 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 education still current, advises that the pupil be 
 made to sift and examine for himself, and to 
 accept nothing on mere authority. " We can say, 
 Cicero says thus : that these were the manners of 
 Plato : that these, again, are the very words of 
 Aristotle : but what do we say ourselves that is 
 our own ? What do we do ? What do we judge ? 
 A parrot would say as much." 
 
 So much for the method of intellectual instruc- 
 tion. The method of moral teaching is summed 
 up in the words that it should "insensibly in- 
 sinuate " itself in so far as it is direct, as lessons 
 do which are not set and formal, but suggested by 
 time and place. 
 
 Of intellectual and moral discipline, in the true 
 sense of that term, we find in Montaigne nothing. 
 Nor does religion, in any true sense, enter into his 
 scheme of education. And when we have said this 
 we convict him of having left unwritten the two 
 chief chapters in educational theory. These grave 
 omissions the character and upbringing of the man 
 would lead us to expect ; and we must not quarrel 
 with what we have, because it falls short of all our 
 demands. 
 
 With respect to discipline, in the vulgar school 
 sense that is to say, the means taken to force 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 125 
 
 boys to do what their masters want them to do 
 Montaigne takes up a position substantially the 
 same as that of the greater number of eminent 
 writers on education. He is persuaded that, by 
 following a good method, instruction will become 
 pleasant, and that it will not be difficult to allure 
 the pupil to both wisdom and virtue. " If you do 
 not allure the appetite and affection," he says, 
 "you make nothing but asses laden with books, 
 and, by virtue of the lash, give them their pocket 
 full of learning to keep ; whereas, to do well, you 
 should not merely lodge it with them, but make 
 them to espouse it." Physical punishment fails of 
 its aim, and must fail by the nature of the case. 
 If it be necessary at any time to punish a child, 
 it should be done when we are calm. " No one," 
 he says, "would hesitate to punish a judge with 
 death who should have condemned a prisoner in 
 a fit of passion. Why is it allowed any more to 
 parents and masters to beat and strike children 
 in their anger ? That is not correction : it is 
 revenge. Chastisement stands to children in the 
 place of medicine ; and should we endure a 
 physician who was angry and violent with his 
 patient ?" " Education," he says elsewhere, " should 
 be carried on with a severe sweetness, quite con- 
 
126 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 trary to the practice of our pedants, who, instead 
 of tempting and alluring children to letters by 
 apt and gentle ways, do, in truth, present nothing 
 before them but rods and ferules, horror and 
 cruelty. Away with this violence ! away with 
 this compulsion ! than which nothing, I certainly 
 believe, more dulls and degenerates a well-de- 
 scended nature. If you would have the pupil 
 alive to shame and chastisement, do not harden 
 him to them. . . . The strict government of most 
 of our colleges has even more displeased me ; and 
 peradventure they might have erred less perni- 
 ciously on the indulgent side. The school is the 
 true house of correction of imprisoned youth. . . . 
 Do but come in, when they are about their lesson, 
 and you shall hear nothing but the outcries of 
 boys under execution, with the thundering noise 
 of their pedagogues, drunk with fury, to make up 
 the concert. A very pretty way this to tempt 
 these tender and timorous souls to love their book 
 with a furious countenance and a rod in hand ! 
 A cursed and pernicious way of proceeding ! 
 . . . How much more decent would it be to see 
 their classes strewn with green leaves and fine 
 flowers, than with the bloody stumps of birch and 
 willows ! Were it left to my ordering, I would 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 127 
 
 paint the school with the pictures of Joy and 
 Gladness, Flora and the Graces, that where the 
 profit of the pupils is, there might their pleasure 
 also be." 
 
 We are all of Montaigne's opinion nowadays ; 
 for he did not forbid punishment or coercion, in 
 some form or other, when all other means failed. 
 Extrema in extremis. He merely protested against 
 the scholastic tyranny of his time a tyranny still 
 existing, and till lately prevalent. Slave-driver 
 and schoolmaster were almost convertible terms. 
 The school and the rod were ideas of inseparable 
 association. Samuel Butler calls " whipping " 
 
 " Virtue's governess, 
 Tutoress of arts and sciences." 
 
 "Oh ! ye " (says Byron) "who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, 
 
 Holland, France, England, Germany, and Spain, 
 I pray ye flog them upon all occasions : 
 
 It mends the morals ; never mind the pain." 
 
 Thomas Hood, again, in looking back on his 
 school-days, recalls chiefly his floggings ; and yet 
 his pleasant humour can call up some regret : 
 
 "Ay, though the very birch's smart 
 Should mark those hours again, 
 I'd kiss the rod, and be resigned 
 Beneath the stroke, and even find 
 Some sugar in the cane" 
 
128 MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 
 
 The subject, however, is too serious for a jest. 
 Before Montaigne's day, and long after it, the 
 brutality of schoolmasters was such as to leave 
 an almost indelible stain on the profession for all 
 time. The whole body should make an annual 
 pilgrimage of penitence for the sins of their pre- 
 decessors. Schoolmasters are now beginning to 
 understand that it is only by balanced temper and 
 by sound method that they can dispense with 
 physical motives, and out of the more or less 
 contemptible " dominie " of the past, evolve the 
 educator of the future. In no other way certainly 
 can they make good their claim to that social posi- 
 tion which they, often too morbidly, claim. A mere 
 castigator pueroru m has no claim to anything save 
 his wages, which should be the minimum for which 
 he can be hired. 
 
 Montaigne's educational views were defective, 
 certainly, though in substance and in their main 
 purpose sound. The defects, as before observed, 
 may be traced to his own upbringing and cha- 
 racter. Everything with him is too easy. Wisdom's 
 ways, alas ! are not always ways of pleasantness, 
 nor are her paths always those of peace. The 
 charming way of life of Montaigne is for a few 
 fortunate souls only. We have to train our boys 
 
MONTAIGNE, THE RATIONALIST. 129 
 
 to work hard, to will vigorously, to be much in 
 earnest, to have a high sense of duty. Such 
 qualities do not come by wishing. By intellectual 
 and moral discipline, by inducing him to do what 
 may be disagreeable, by requiring obedience, by 
 enforcement of law, we have to mould our British 
 boy. For all this kind of work Montaigne has 
 little to teach us; but we can learn much from 
 him, and we part from the wise and kindly 
 Frenchman with gratitude, and even affection. 
 
 K 
 
V. 
 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 1 
 
 "ROGER ASCHAM," says Thomas Fuller, "was born 
 at Kirkby-weik in this County (Yorkshire) ; and 
 bred in Saint John's Colledge in Cambridge, under 
 Doctor Medcalfe, that good Governour, who, whet- 
 stone-like, though dull in himself, by his encourage- 
 ment, set an edge on most excellent wits in that 
 foundation. Indeed Ascham came to Cambridge 
 just at the dawning of Learning, and staid therein 
 till the bright-day thereof, his own endeavours 
 contributing much light thereunto. He was 
 Oratour and Greek Professour in the University 
 (places of some sympathy, which have often met 
 in the same person) ; and in the beginning of the 
 Raign of Queen Mary, within three days, wrote 
 letters to fourty-seven severall Princes, whereof 
 the meanest was a Cardinal He travailed into 
 Germany, and there contracted familiarity with 
 
 1 The quotations which follow are from Beimel's quarto edition, 
 1761. 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 131 
 
 John Sturmius and other learned men ; and, after 
 his return, was a kind of teacher to the Lady 
 Elizabeth, to whom (after she was Queen] he 
 became her Secretary for her Latine letters. 
 
 " In a word, he was an honest man and a good 
 shooter ; Archery (whereof he wrote a Book called 
 ' Too0iAoe ') being his onely exercise in his youth, 
 which in his old age he exchanged for a worse 
 pastime, neither so healthfull for his body, nor 
 profitable for his purse, I mean Cock-fighting, and 
 thereby (being neither greedy to get, nor carefull 
 to keep money) he much impaired his estate. 
 
 " He had a facile and fluent Latine-style (not 
 like those who, counting obscurity to be elegancy, 
 weed out all the hard words they meet in 
 Authors) : witness his ' Epistles,' which some say 
 are the only Latine-ones extant of any English- 
 man, and if so, the more the pity. What loads 
 have we of Letters from Forraign Pens, as if no 
 Author were compleat without those necessary 
 appurtenances ! whilst surely our English-men 
 write (though not so many) as good as any other 
 Nation. In a word, his 'To^d^tXoc' is accounted 
 a good Book for young men, his ' School-master ' 
 for old men, his ' Epistles ' for all men, set out after 
 his death, which happened Anno Domini 1568, 
 
 OFTHE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
132 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 December 30, in the 53rd year of his age ; and he 
 was buried in Saint Sepulcher's in London." 
 
 The men who in England were not only most 
 conspicuous, but also most eminent, as represen- 
 tatives of the revival in all strictly educational 
 matters, were Dean Colet, Cheke, and Roger 
 Ascham, of whom Fuller thus quaintly writes. 
 The first-named founded St. Paul's school, and, 
 with the help of Lilly, made it a kind of normal 
 school, as it were, for all England. They both 
 shared the Humanism of their/riend Erasmus, but 
 they possessed more Christian conviction and 
 religious purpose than were possible to him. 
 On the other hand, they were not dominated by 
 the theological (as distinct from the Christian) 
 spirit so prevalent among many of the Reformers 
 on the continent of Europe, especially those who 
 lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century. 
 They exhibited, in truth, that example of modera- 
 tion in opinion and action which, until very recent 
 times at least, has always characterized the re- 
 formed Church of England. Ascham lays very 
 little stress on theology ; indeed, he seems -to me 
 rather to evade the subject. I regard him as a 
 pure Humanist. Colet and his friends belong to 
 the school of Melancthon ; Ascham more to the 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 133 
 
 school of Erasmus, but with a genuine, clear, sound 
 and specifically English vein in him. 
 
 What is Humanism in education ? It is, when 
 largely interpreted, the formation of the mind of 
 youth, omnibus artibits quae ad httmanitatem perti- 
 nent. In its more restricted meaning, as under- 
 stood in the first revival of letters, it is the 
 formation of the human mind by literature, as 
 opposed to the study of barren words, abstract 
 rules, grammar, rhetorical technicalities, logical 
 sophisticalities, and bald epitomes, all expressed by 
 master and pupil alike in barbarous Latinity. It is 
 also the study of style or the beautiful in expres- 
 sion, and this by the perusal of the great writers 
 who express themselves beautifully. At the time 
 of the revival there were (with the single excep- 
 tion of Italian) only two languages known to 
 Europe which, to any large extent at least, 
 embodied art in expression, perfection of style, 
 whether in prose or poetry, Greek and Latin. 
 But Latin being the indispensable and universal 
 language of the time, it was Latin literature that 
 had to be chiefly cultivated. Terence, Ovid, 
 Caesar, Virgil, Cicero, constituted the substance of 
 education in the eyes of the Humanists, because 
 they were the best available models of the artistic 
 
134 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 expression of human thought on human things. 
 Observe that I say human thought; for the 
 Humanists, though apparently aiming mainly at 
 education in style, considered that they were thus 
 giving education in "humane" things. Humane 
 letters, the humanities, did not really mean merely 
 style or rhetoric, but the free unencumbered 
 thought of reason on nature and man. It is true 
 that the Humanists emphasized mere style as such, 
 but this arose from the fact that their movement 
 was a reaction against bald and hard grammati- 
 cism, barbarous uncouth language, and monkish 
 stupidity. They truly hated mere words quite as 
 much as the modern Realists. They were them- 
 selves Realists, but their realism was the realism 
 which sought for the things of reason and imagina- 
 tion, the product of mind which underlies words. 
 That thought in its truest, and beauty, or at 
 least fitness, of expression, went together, was in 
 those days simply a fact ; and if we do not limit 
 our definition of beauty too narrowly, it is pro- 
 bably still the fact. Away, then, they said, with 
 grammatical abstractions, with barbarous Latin 
 and logical futilities that mere " agitation of wit," 
 as Bacon calls it, by which the schoolmen lived, 
 and give us literary form, and with literary form 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 135 
 
 true literary substance. This is the proper milk 
 for the growing mind, this the proper strong meat 
 for the matured ! 
 
 In sum, the Humanists went back to Quin- 
 tilian ; and the " good orator " was the aim of 
 the new scholastic method. The correctness of 
 this explanation of the humanistic attitude to 
 the school might be established by citing many 
 writers, were this the place to do so ; but, as I 
 am here speaking of Ascham, I shall confine 
 myself to quoting a passage from his chapter on 
 " Imitation," as illustrating and confirming what I 
 have said a passage all the more worthy of 
 quotation that it exhibits well the trenchancy 
 and amusing vigour of his style. Speaking of the 
 connection between language and thought, he 
 says 
 
 " We find always wisdom and eloquence, good 
 matter and good utterance, never, or seldom, 
 asunder. For all such authors as be fullest of 
 good matter and right judgment in doctrine be 
 likewise always most proper in words, most apt in 
 sentence, most plain and pure in uttering the same. 
 
 "And contrariwise in those two tongues, all 
 writers, either in religion or any sect of philo- 
 sophy, whosoever be found fond in judgment of 
 
136 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 matter be commonly found as rude in uttering 
 their minds. For stoics, anabaptists, and friars, 
 with epicures, libertines, and monks, being most 
 like in learning and life, are no fonder and 
 more pernicious in their opinions than they be 
 rude and barbarous in their writings. They be 
 not wise, therefore, that say, ' What care I for a 
 man's words and utterance, if his matter and 
 reasons be good ? ' Such men say so, not so 
 much of ignorance as either in some singular 
 pride in themselves, or some special malice of 
 others, or some private and partial matter, either 
 in religion, or other kind of learning. For good 
 and choice meats be no more requisite for healthy 
 bodies than proper and apt words be for good 
 matters ; and also plain and sensible utterance 
 for the best and deepest reasonings ; in which two 
 points standeth perfect eloquence, one of the 
 fairest and rarest gifts that God doth give to 
 man. 
 
 "Ye know not what hurt ye do to learning 
 that care not for words, but for matter, and so 
 make a divorce between the tongue and the 
 heart. For mark all ages, look upon the whole 
 course of both the Greek and Latin tongues, and 
 ye shall surely find that, when apt and good 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 137 
 
 words began to be neglected, and properties of 
 those two tongues to be confounded, then also 
 began ill deeds to spring ; strange matters to 
 oppress good orders ; new and fond opinions to 
 strive with old and true doctrine, first in philo- 
 sophy and after in religion ; right judgment of 
 all things to be perverted, and so virtue with 
 learning is contemned, and study left off. Of ill 
 thoughts cometh perverse judgment, of ill deeds 
 springeth lewd talk ; which four mis-orders, as 
 they mar man's life, so destroy they good learning 
 withal. But behold the goodness of God's pro- 
 vidence for learning ; all old authors and sects of 
 philosophy which were fondest in opinion and 
 rudest in utterance, as stoics and epicures, first 
 contemned of wise men, and then forgotten of all 
 men, be so consumed by time, as they be now 
 not only out of use, but also out of memory of 
 man. Which thing, I surely think, will shortly 
 chance to the whole doctrine, and all the books 
 of phantastical anabaptists and friars, and of the 
 beastly libertines and monks." 
 
 Literary art, or the beautiful in expression, 
 then, was the humanistic aim ; and with it, as, 
 according to them, an inevitable concomitant, the 
 highest and best thotight on things human. Even 
 
138 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 in the teaching of formal rhetoric and logic, which 
 still constituted the higher part of the curriculum 
 of youth, the realism of the Humanists led them 
 to prefer the analysis of rhetorical pieces, and the 
 exhibition of the logical sequence of great lite- 
 rary efforts, to abstract rules of logic or rhetoric. 
 When " Master Cheke " read Greek with Ascham 
 and others in Cambridge, he read author after 
 author. He did not stop to dwell on particles, or 
 to write Greek iambics. He, and men like him, 
 preferred the reality to the mere naming of things, 
 the material to the formal, in the abstract sense 
 of the term, though ardent students themselves of 
 perfect form in the aesthetic sense. 
 
 Hence, too, the importance they assigned to 
 the study of the characteristics of the various 
 writers of antiquity. Criticism was revived. 
 Most know the admirable summary of literary 
 history in Quintilian's tenth book. We find in 
 Ascham, in his chapter on " Imitation," to which 
 I have already referred, an equally admirable 
 review, and the student is directed to observe in 
 what respects great writers differed in handling 
 the same subject. A most admirable discipline 
 of mind this. I can imagine nothing better. 
 Language is so bound up with thought, - that 
 
ROGER ASCBAM, THE HUMANIST. 139 
 
 in teaching language in this critical way, we 
 teach thought. Note, too, how, in criticism, it 
 is not rules of criticism, opinions about authors, 
 to which the student is directed, but to the 
 authors themselves. Here, again, the Realism 
 shows itself. 
 
 Ere long the substance of literature disappeared 
 from the humanistic education ; mere style or form, 
 and Ciceronian imitation, became its aim, and then, 
 finally, grammar, although in a less offensive form 
 than in previous generations, reasserted itself. This 
 degeneracy characterized all higher education till 
 quite recently, and still indeed survives. 
 
 Ascham wishes it to be distinctly understood 
 that he is not dealing with the question of educa- 
 tion in general, but of school education. He takes 
 the subject up from the day on which a boy enters 
 the grammar school seven years of age ; and the 
 title of his book, "The Schoolmaster," indicates 
 his self-imposed limitation. And yet, as we shall 
 see, he cannot escape the larger questions. 
 
 Ascham's object is to show what a literary or 
 humanistic training is, and how it should be set 
 about. It was of course inevitable that he should 
 first deal with the acquisition of the language 
 
140 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 which was to be the vehicle of the training, viz. 
 Latin ; what applied to Latin applied, mutatis 
 mutandis, to Greek. While giving his conclusions 
 as to language-teaching, he always, however, has 
 in his thought the great humanistic aim of all 
 school instruction. His almost exclusive attention 
 to Latin is explained by the fact that Greek was 
 only beginning to claim attention in the secondary 
 schools, and seems to have been first taught in 
 Colet's school at St. Paul's. Few, even in the 
 universities, yet studied Greek, and these were 
 looked upon with suspicion as innovators and 
 heretics ; 1 few but ardent. 
 
 I. METHOD OF TEACHING AND LEARNING 
 LATIN. After learning the parts of speech that 
 is to say, what we now call the accidence and being 
 exercised in the joining together of adjectives and 
 nouns, nouns and verbs, and the relative with its 
 antecedent, the pupil should not be introduced at 
 once, as was the then custom, to Latin compo- 
 sition, because he has not yet the materials, and 
 the result is that wrong words, wrong turns and 
 order in the sentences swarm, and the boy acquires 
 bad habits in Latinity which are never afterwards 
 
 1 Even elegant Latinity was suspected at Rome. (Pattison's " Life 
 of Casaubon.") 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 141 
 
 uprooted. Besides, nothing more discourages 
 children, " dulls their wits, and takes away their 
 will from learning, than the care they have to 
 satisfy their masters in making of Latines." 
 
 The proper way to proceed is this : Let the 
 " master read to his pupils the ' Epistles of Cicero, 
 gathered together and chosen out by Sturmius for 
 the capacity of children. 
 
 " First, let him teach the child cheerfully and 
 plainly, the cause and matter of the letter ; then 
 let him construe it into English so oft as the child 
 may easily carry away the understanding of it ; 1 
 lastly, parse it over perfectly. This done thus, let 
 the child, by-and-by, both construe and parse it 
 over again ; so that it may appear the child doubteth 
 in nothing that his master taught him before. 
 After this, the child must take a paper book, and 
 sitting in some place where no man shall prompt 
 him, by himself, let him translate into English his 
 former lesson. Then, showing it to his master, 
 let the master take from him his Latin book, and 
 pausing an hour at the least, then let the child 
 translate his own English into Latin again in 
 another paper book. When the child bringeth it, 
 turned into Latin, the master must compare it 
 
 1 Ratiot also advocated this plan. 
 
142 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 with Tullie's book, and lay them both together ; 
 and when the child doth well, either in choosing 
 or true placing of Tullie's words, let the master 
 praise him and say, ' Here do ye well.' For I 
 assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen 
 a good wit, and encourage a will to learning, as is 
 praise " (p. 200). 
 
 * * * . * * 
 
 " In these few lines I have wrapped up the most 
 tedious part of grammar, and also the ground of 
 almost all the rules that are so busily taught by 
 the master, and so hardly learned by the scholar 
 in all common schools ; which after this sort the 
 master shall teach without all error, and the scholar 
 shall learn without great pain, the master being 
 led by so sure a guide, and the scholar being 
 brought in so plain and easy a way. And there- 
 fore we do not contemn rules, but we gladly teach 
 rules ; and teach them more plainly, sensibly, and 
 orderly than they be commonly taught in common 
 schools. For when the master shall compare 
 Tullie's book with his scholar's translation, let the 
 master at the first lead and teach his scholar to 
 join the rules of his grammar-book with the 
 examples of his present lesson, until the scholar, 
 by himself, be able to fetch out of his grammar 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 143 
 
 every rule for every example ; so as the grammar- 
 book be ever in the scholar's hand, and also used 
 of him as a dictionary for every present use. This 
 is a lively and perfect way of teaching of rules ; 
 where the common way, used in common schools, 
 to read the grammar alone by itself is tedious 
 for the master, hard for the scholar, cold and 
 uncomfortable for them both" (p. 201). 
 
 ***** 
 
 " All this while, by mine advice, the child shall 
 use to speak no Latin ; for, as Cicero saith in like 
 matter, with like words, ' Loquendo, male loqui 
 discunt.' And that excellent learned man, G. 
 Budaeus, in his Greek commentaries, sore com- 
 plaineth that, when he began to learn the Latin 
 tongue, use of speaking Latin at the table and 
 elsewhere, unadvisedly, did bring him to such an 
 evil choice of words, to such a crooked framing 
 of sentences, that no one thing did hurt or hinder 
 him more, all the days of his life afterwards, both 
 for readiness in speaking, and also good judgment 
 in writing " 1 (p. 202). 
 
 As you will see, the pupil is to have two paper 
 books, the one for translation from Latin into 
 
 1 Muretus, the celebrated humanistic Latinist, always declined to 
 speak Latin. 
 
144 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 English, the other for retranslation from English 
 into Latin. 
 
 When he begins to show some facility in these 
 two exercises, the master will begin to call his 
 attention to those words which, though like, have 
 diverse shades of meaning, to words which are 
 synonymous, to phrases, to idioms, and require 
 him to open a third paper book for the recording 
 of these, the pupil classifying what he records under 
 the proper heads. This should be done first with 
 the Ciceronian Epistles, and then he should be 
 introduced to the simpler orations, such as "Pro 
 Archia Poeta," and " Pro Lege Manilia," etc. ; and 
 the continuance of exercises in Cicero " shall work 
 such a right choice of words, so straight a framing 
 of sentences, such a true judgment, both to write 
 skilfully and speak wittily as wise men shall both 
 praise and marvel at." 
 
 When the pupil has been for some time exercised 
 as above, then read daily with him the third book 
 of Epistles as selected by Sturmius, the "De 
 Amicitia," and " De Senectute," and also some 
 comedy of Terence or Plautus. Caesar's Commen- 
 taries also should be read, "wherein is seen the 
 unspotted propriety of the Latin tongue ; " and the 
 speeches of Livy. 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 145 
 
 It is not necessary at this stage that the pupil 
 should write translations daily. It is sufficient if 
 he construe orally and be examined in the parsing. 
 But the teacher himself, every second or third day, 
 " should choose some epistle ad Atticum, some 
 notable commonplace out of his orations or some 
 other part of Tully, by his discretion, which the 
 scholar may not know where to find, and translate 
 it himself into plain, natural English ; and then 
 give it to the scholar to translate into Latin again, 
 allowing him good space and time to do it both 
 with diligent heed and good advisement." When 
 the scholar brings up his exercise, bring out the 
 Tully, and compare the work of the pupil with the 
 original, sentence by sentence, word by word, 
 "commend his good choice and right placing of 
 words ; show his faults gently but blame them 
 not over sharply ; for of such missings gently 
 admonished oft proceed glad and good heed- 
 taking ; of good heed-taking springeth chiefly 
 knowledge, which after groweth to perfectness, if 
 this order be diligently used by the scholar and 
 gently handled by the master. For here shall all 
 the hard points of grammar both easily and surely 
 be learned up ; which scholars in common schools 
 by making of Latines be groping at with care and 
 
146 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 fear, and yet in many years they scarce can reach 
 unto them " (p. 264). 
 
 " I remember," he says, " when I was young, in 
 the north they went to the grammar school little 
 children ; they came from thence great lubbers 
 always learning and little profiting ; learning with- 
 out book everything, understanding within the 
 book little or nothing." By his suggested method 
 the pupils will truly know what is in the book. 
 To construe orally, to write translation, then to 
 retranslate, to parse, and to analyze the passage 
 with a view to mark out all the peculiarities, 
 involves the perusal of the passage a dozen times 
 at the least. Thus we follow Pliny's advice to his 
 friend Fuscus " Multum, non multa." x 
 
 When the scholar has attained considerable skill 
 in retranslating into Latin, then the teacher should 
 proceed as follows. Let him write some letter as 
 if from him to his father or some friend, " naturally 
 according to the disposition of the child," or some 
 fable or narrative, and let him translate this into 
 Latin, "abiding in some place where no other 
 scholar can prompt him." The teacher will use 
 his discretion in such a way as to choose matter 
 
 1 Ratke, Milton, and Jacotot, all advocated the thorough 
 " lessoning " of one book in acquiring a language. 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 147 
 
 within the compass of the boy's previous reading, 
 and " now," says Ascham, " take heed lest the 
 scholar do not better in some point than yourself, 
 except ye have been diligently exercised in these 
 kinds of translating before." 
 
 II. CRITICISM OF CONTEMPORARY METHODS. 
 Ascham now proceeds to consider the ways 
 " appointed by the best learned men for the learn- 
 ing of tongues and increase of eloquence," and to 
 give his judgment on the value of these. And 
 first of these is Translation. 
 
 Regarding translation and its importance, all 
 agree, he says, but it brings forth little compara- 
 tively, (i) because it is single and not double 
 translation ; and (2) because of the lack of the 
 daily use of writing, " which is the only thing 
 that breedeth deep root both in the wit for good 
 understanding, and in the memory for sure keeping 
 of all that is learned." Tully, "De Oratore," 
 commends this way. Plinius Secundus also, in 
 an epistle to his friend Fuscus, recommends this 
 mode of procedure with a view not merely to 
 the acquisition of a language, but of rhetorical 
 knowledge and of a sound judgment in the selection 
 of arguments and expressions. Ascham maintains 
 that any scholar who will translate in this way 
 
I 4 8 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 Tully, "De Senectute," and the " Epistle ad 
 Quintum Fratrem," and the other " Ad Lentulum," 
 the last save one in the first book, " will come to a 
 better knowledge of the Latin tongue than the most 
 part do who spend four or five years in tossing all 
 the rules of grammar in common schools." He 
 tells us that Queen Elizabeth, his pupil, never 
 took grammar in her hand after the first declining 
 of the noun and verb, "but only by this double 
 translating of Demosthenes and Isocrates daily 
 without missing every forenoon, and likewise some 
 part of Tully every afternoon, for the space of a 
 year or two, had attained to such a perfect un- 
 derstanding in both the tongues and to such a 
 ready utterance of the Latin, and that with such a 
 judgment as there be few in number, in both the 
 universities or elsewhere in England, that be in 
 both tongues comparable with her majesty." 
 
 Another argument used by Ascham is that in 
 this exercise the master as well as the pupil is 
 guided to correct expression. 
 
 At this stage, instruction in the mere structure 
 of the language may be held to end. What follows 
 really belongs to the best means of forming style 
 as distinct from merely grammatical writing in 
 its plainest form. Paraphrasing, metaphrasing, 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 149 
 
 epitome, imitation, declamation, are all considered 
 in their order. 
 
 Of Paraphrasing, he says : This was first tried 
 by C. Carbo, and tried for a while by Lucius 
 Crassus, but condemned by him and Cicero. 
 Quintilian, it is true, commends the practice. 
 Pliny, Quintilian's pupil, also condemned it. He 
 calls it audax contentio. Ascham calls the practice 
 "the turning, chopping and changing the best to 
 worse." The scholar, if he has, as he is presumed 
 to have, a good model, is in fact trying to express 
 in a worse and inferior way what is already ex- 
 pressed beautifully. 
 
 "The scholar," says Ascham, "shall win nothing 
 by paraphrasis, but only (if we may believe Tully) 
 to choose worse words, to place them out of order, 
 to fear overmuch the judgment of the master, 
 to mislike overmuch the hardness of learning ; 
 and by use to gather up faults which will be 
 hardly left off again." Ascham here enters into 
 the question of the rhetorical benefit, as well as 
 the grammatical, of such exercises. He quotes 
 Sturmius, who counsels all to avoid paraphrasis, 
 unless it be from worse to better. 
 
 The only case in which paraphrasis is valuable is, 
 Ascham thinks, in turning Ionic or Doric into the 
 
150 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 Attic form or style. A good example of this is 
 the translation of Herodotus' story of Caudaules 
 and Gyges out of the Ionic into the Attic by 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his book Iltjoi 
 SwOtaewQ 'Ovo/mrwv. Ascham believes that such 
 exercises would give great power over the Greek 
 tongue, but it is evident that they are beyond the 
 scope of grammar-school teaching, and belong 
 rather to the university. 
 
 Metaphrasis is the turning of prose into verse, 
 or vice-versa. Socrates amused himself in prison 
 by turning ^Esop's fables into verse. Quintilian 
 lauds the exercise, but Ascham thinks it of 
 doubtful value save at the university stage (boys 
 went to the university at fifteen or even younger), 
 and then only in very competent hands. He 
 gives examples ; but, in truth, they are not truly 
 examples, it seems to me, of deliberate meta- 
 phrasis, but rather of imitation, which is unques- 
 tionably a good exercise. We have an illustration 
 in the comparison of parallel passages in eminent 
 writers, the study of which is, in capable hands, I 
 think, full of the elements of literary and rhetorical 
 culture. 
 
 Under the head of Epitome, he remarks that 
 Epitomes are of great utility if made by a 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 151 
 
 student himself for his own use ; but they are 
 hurtful to teach from. 
 
 The rest of the chapter is, in reality, a short 
 treatise on vices of style, and has reference rather 
 to rhetoric than to the work of the schoolroom. 
 There occur in the course of it many wise ob- 
 servations and not a little keen criticism and 
 sarcasm, and it is as a whole most interesting 1 and 
 instructive. 
 
 Imitation. " Imitation is a faculty to express 
 lively and perfectly that example which. we go 
 about to follow." 
 
 " All languages both learned and mother-tongues 
 be gotten and gotten only by imitation." 
 
 " If ye would speak and write as the best and 
 wisest, ye must be conversant where the best and 
 wisest are." 
 
 This chapter is, in truth, a continuance of the 
 treatise on rhetoric begun in the previous chapter. 
 He dwells, too earnestly for our time, on the 
 necessity of comparing the great classical authors 
 one with another, so as to ascertain and mark 
 carefully in what respects they differed in their 
 mode of handling the same subjects. In Ascham's 
 generation, pure style was the mark of true learn- 
 ing, as opposed to the barbarous Latinity and 
 
1 52 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 vain disputations of the schoolmen, which were 
 identified with ignorance. There is consequently 
 an exaggeration of the necessity of imitation^ which 
 was due to the circumstances of the time, and the 
 state of learning. The object of the Humanists 
 was to form style through the study and imitation 
 of the best models. Every classical student should 
 read this book, as it contains many just criticisms 
 on classical authors. A portion of it may be 
 compared with Quintilian's remarks on great 
 writers in his tenth book. I do not think that 
 more sound criticism on the literature of Greece 
 and Rome is to be had, than may be found in the 
 brief analysis contained in the writings of these 
 two men taken together. 
 
 Ascham, in his commendation of imitation, has 
 evidently in view the literary translation of a 
 passage in a famous author from the language in 
 which he writes into another, and is influenced by 
 the opinion of Pliny in Epist. vii. 9, where he says, 
 writing to his friend Fuscus, " You ask me what 
 I think should be your method of study in the 
 retirement which you have been for some time 
 enjoying. As useful as anything, as it is frequently 
 recommended, is the practice of translating either 
 your Greek into Latin, or your Latin into Greek. 
 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 153 
 
 By practising this, you acquire propriety and 
 dignity of expression, an abundant choice of the 
 beauties of style, power in description and in the 
 imitation of the best models, a facility of creating 
 such models for yourself. Besides, what may 
 escape you when you read, cannot escape you 
 when you translate. From this follows a quick 
 appreciation of beauty and sound taste. There is 
 no reason why you should not write about the 
 subjects which you have been already reading, 
 keeping to the same matter and line of argument, 
 as if you were a rival ; should then compare it 
 with what you have read, and carefully consider 
 whether the author has been the happier of the 
 two, and wherefore. You may congratulate your- 
 self much if sometimes you have done better, but 
 should be much ashamed if he is always superior. 
 Sometimes you may select even very famous 
 passages, and compete with what you select. The 
 competition is daring enough, but, as it is private, 
 cannot be called impudent." 1 Such exercises are 
 only, it is clear, for advanced scholars. 
 
 III. THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING MORE 
 THAN ONE LANGUAGE. Speaking ' again of the 
 
 1 Translated by Messrs. Church and Brodribb in "Ancient 
 Classics for English Readers." 
 
154 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 importance of knowing more languages than one, 
 with a view to style, he says (p. 308) 
 
 " Therefore thou, that shootest at perfection in 
 the Latin tongue, think not thyself wiser than 
 Tullie was, in choice of the way that leadeth 
 rightly to the same : think not thy wit better than 
 Tullie's was, as though that may serve thee that 
 was not sufficient for him. For, even as a hawk 
 flieth not high with one wing, even so a man 
 reacheth not to excellency with one tongue. 
 
 " I have been a looker-on in the cock-pit of 
 learning these many years ; and one cock only 
 have I known, which with one wing, even at this 
 day, doth pass all other, in mine opinion, that 
 ever I saw in any pit in England though they had 
 two wings. Yet nevertheless, to fly well with one 
 wing, 1 to run fast with one leg, be rather rare 
 masteries much to be marvelled at, than sure 
 examples safely to be followed. A bishop, that 
 now liveth, a good man, whose judgment in religion 
 I better like than his opinion in perfectness in 
 other learning, said once unto me, 'We have no 
 need now of the Greek tongue, when all things be 
 translated into Latin.' But the good man under- 
 
 1 " Habeas licebit alterum pedem Ladae, Inepte, frustra crure 
 ligneo curres " (Martial, x. 82). 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 155 
 
 stood not, that even the best translation is for 
 mere necessity but an evil imped wing to fly 
 withal, or a heavy stump leg of wood to go withal. 
 Such the higher they fly, the sooner they falter 
 and fail : the faster they run, the ofter they stumble 
 and sorer they fall." 
 
 IV. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. In handling this part 
 of method, Ascham speaks with justice, though 
 sometimes with acerbity, of teachers. His remarks 
 being quite fresh, and applicable, to a large extent 
 at least, to the circumstances of our present time, 
 I shall ask your attention to them. Apart from 
 their intrinsic value, the raciness and verve of the 
 language in which they are expressed justify my 
 quoting them. 
 
 Discipline was, in Ascham's own view, a very 
 important part of his treatise. In the preface 
 narrating the circumstances which led to his 
 undertaking the book, we see that it was the 
 question of school discipline which led him to 
 take up his pen. Some boys had run away from 
 Eton because of the seventies there practised, and 
 this led to a conversation among some men of 
 the time, in the course of which Ascham main- 
 tained that " children were sooner allured by love 
 than driven by beating to attain good learning." 
 
156 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 Others concurred, Sir Robert Sackville citing his 
 own sad experience, which, however, seems to have 
 been a very common one. Ascham's school- 
 method, accordingly, had for its motive a moral 
 purpose. In the course of his remarks he is 
 naturally led, like Quintilian, to make various wise 
 and discriminating remarks on the different cha- 
 racters of boys. 
 
 " If the child miss," he says, " either in forgetting 
 a word, or in changing a good with a worse, or 
 mis-ordering a sentence, I would not have the 
 master either frown or chide with him, if the child 
 have done his diligence and used no trowandship 
 therein. For I know by good experience that a 
 child shall take more profit of two faults gently 
 warned of, than of four things rightly hit "(p. 201). 
 
 As to the relation between teacher and scholar, 
 Ascham wishes that the scholar should never have 
 any hesitation in asking the master questions. 
 The relation should be of so free a kind, that he 
 will not be driven to seek for prompting or to 
 resort to unlawful means of obtaining help. 
 
 Another great Humanist, Cardinal Wolsey, in 
 his directions to the master of Ipswich School 
 (1528), says, "Imprimis hoc unum admonendum 
 censuerimus ut neque plagis severioribus neque 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 157 
 
 vultuosis minis aut ulla tyrannidis specie tenera 
 pubes afficiatur ; hac, enim, injuria ingenii alacritas 
 aut extingui aut magna ex parte obtundi solet" 1 
 
 As to discipline generally, Ascham is an advocate 
 for love rather than fear. " I do gladly agree," he 
 says, "with all good schoolmasters to have children 
 brought to good perfectness in learning, to all 
 honesty in manners, to have all faults rightly 
 amended, to have every vice severely corrected ; 
 but for the order and way that lead rightly to these 
 points we somewhat differ" (p. 206). School- 
 masters, he says, rather mar than mend their pupils 
 by their severity. When angry with some other 
 matter altogether, they make their pupils suffer for 
 it. These be foolish schoolmasters, you will say, 
 and there be few of them : foolish they be, but " over 
 many such be found everywhere." "In punishing, too, 
 they quite as often punish nature, as correct faults. 
 Yet some men, wise indeed, but, in this matter, more 
 by severity of nature than any wisdom at all, do 
 laugh at us when we thus wish and reason that 
 young children should rather be allured to learning 
 by gentleness and love, than compelled to learning 
 by beating and fear." " They say our reasons serve 
 only to breed forth talk and pass away time ; but 
 we never saw good schoolmasters do_so, nor never 
 
 XJNIVERS1TT 
 
158 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 read of wise men that thought so." He then brings 
 against them the judgment of Plato, who says : 
 " No learning ought to be learned with bondage ; 
 for bodily labours wrought by compulsion hurt not 
 the body, but any learning learned by compulsion 
 tarrieth not long in the mind." He also points 
 out that young men trained by compulsion when 
 by time they come to their own rule carry commonly 
 from school with them a perpetual hatred of their 
 master, and a continual contempt for learning. He 
 then contravenes the opinion that children have a 
 natural distaste for learning, and throws the blame 
 on the schoolmaster. He also advises doubters 
 to read John Sturmius, " De Institutione Principis." 
 At the same time, he countenances beating for 
 moral faults. But, in learning and generally, " the 
 schoolhouse should be counted a sanctuary against 
 fear." "Yea, many times the better nature is 
 sore punished : for if one by quickness of wit 
 take his lesson readily, another by hardness of 
 wit taketh it not so speedily, the first is always 
 commended, the other is commonly punished ; 
 when a wise schoolmaster should rather discreetly 
 consider the right disposition of both their natures, 
 and not so much weigh what either of them is 
 able to do now, as what either of them is likely to 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 159 
 
 do hereafter. For this I know, not only by reading 
 of books in my study, but also by experience of 
 life abroad in the world, that those which be 
 commonly the wisest, the best learned, and best 
 men also, when they be old, were never commonly 
 the quickest of wit when they were young. The 
 causes why, amongst other, which be many, that 
 move me thus to think, be these few which I will 
 reckon. Quick wits be commonly apt to take, 
 unapt to keep ; soon hot, and desirous of this and 
 that, as cold, and soon weary of the same again ; 
 more quick to enter speedily than able to pierce 
 far ; even like over sharp tools, whose edges be 
 very soon turned. Such wits delight themselves 
 in easy and pleasant studies, and never pass for- 
 ward in high and hard sciences. And therefore 
 the quickest wits commonly may prove the best 
 poets, but not the wisest orators : ready of tongue 
 to speak boldly, not deep of judgment, either for 
 good counsel, or wise writing. Also for manners 
 and life, quick wits commonly be, in desire new- 
 fangled, in purpose unconstant, light to promise 
 anything, ready to forget everything, both benefit 
 and injury : and thereby neither fast to friend, nor 
 fearful to foe : inquisitive of every trifle, not secret 
 in greatest affairs ; bold with any person busy in 
 
160 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 every matter ; soothing such as be present, nipping 
 any that is* absent ; of nature also always flattering 
 their betters, envying their equals, despising their 
 inferiors ; and, by quickness of wit, very quick and 
 ready to like none so well as themselves." 
 
 Ascham afterwards gives the notes of the best 
 wits for learning, following Plato, viz. 
 
 A mind well disposed generally, 
 
 Of a good memory, 
 
 Loving learning, 
 
 Loving labour, 
 
 Loving to learn of others, 
 
 Disposed to ask questions, 
 
 Loving praise. 
 
 We may compare with this a parallel passage 
 in Quintilian's first book ; but Ascham works the 
 whole question out much more fully than Quintilian. 
 
 V. VIRTUE. We now see Roger Ascham's aim 
 in education: it was a humanistic aim. I have 
 shown you briefly his method of teaching language 
 and forming style, and given you his views of 
 scholastic discipline. In all you see a man of 
 simple and direct outlook, of strong and manly 
 sense, of moral purpose and vigour. It may be 
 asked, Had he no higher purpose than culture in the 
 humanistic sense? Of course he had. All men who 
 have written about education, and who are worth 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 161 
 
 reading, have placed before themselves the moral 
 outcome of school and its studies as the highest. 
 In the latter part of his treatise (and, indeed, all 
 through) Ascham shows how sensible he was of 
 the prime importance of this aspect of education, 
 and in the whole of the first book of " The 
 Schoolmaster," the moral result of the discipline 
 which he advocates is constantly present to his 
 mind. " Virtue and learning," these go together 
 as inseparable. He desires that children be 
 brought up in " God's fear " to " honesty of life and 
 perfectness of learning." This training to virtue is, 
 after all, his main interest. In his " Toxophilus " he 
 says, " If a young tree grow crooked, when it is old 
 a man shall rather break it than straight it." He 
 was too much of a Greek not to have constantly 
 before him a/oerrj, o-aj^ooo-vvrj, ro KaXov as the final 
 aims of all school and humanistic work. " To come 
 down," he says, " from higher matters to my little 
 children, and poor schoolhouse again, I will, God 
 willing, go forward orderly to instruct children and 
 young men both for learning and manners." " I 
 wish," he says, " to have love of learning bred up 
 in children. I wish as much to have young men 
 brought up in good order of living, and in some 
 more severe discipline than commonly they be." 
 
 M 
 
162 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 The schoolmaster has to see to this, but " always 
 using such discreet moderation as that the school- 
 house should be counted a sanctuary against 
 fear." 
 
 But he felt that the most pressing matter was in- 
 struction, and above all method, if milder discipline 
 is to be secured, and he accordingly devotes him- 
 self formally to the consideration of these; but the 
 higher aim runs like a thread through the whole 
 treatise. To the attainment of this higher aim, a 
 better method and a milder discipline were pre- 
 conditions, and accordingly he throws his force on 
 them. But learning, he well knew, will not suffice 
 alone, though if a youth's mind be brought into 
 contact with the highest literary forms, and with 
 the substance of morality, learning will do much. 
 
 " Learning," says Ascham, " teacheth more in 
 one year than experience in twenty ; and learning 
 teacheth safely when experience maketh more 
 miserable than wise. He hazardeth sore that 
 waxeth wise by experience. An unhappy master 
 he is that is made cunning by many shipwrecks." l 
 
 And again, " Learning, ye wise fathers, and 
 
 1 The saying of Erasmus may be applied to schoolmasters who 
 do not study philosophy and method as well as to young men : 
 " Experience is the common schoolhouse of fools and ill men." 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 163 
 
 good bringing up, and not blind and dangerous 
 experience, is the next and readiest way, that 
 must lead your children, first to wisdom, and then 
 to worthiness, if ever ye purpose they shall come 
 there. And to say all in short, though I lack 
 authority to give counsel, yet I lack not good 
 will to wish, that the youth in England, specially 
 gentlemen, and namely nobility, should be by 
 good bringing up so grounded in judgement of 
 learning, so founded in love of honesty, as, when 
 they should be called forth to the execution of 
 great affairs in service of their prince and country, 
 they might be able to use and to order all experi- 
 ences, were they good, were they bad, and that 
 according to the square, rule, and line of wisdom, 
 learning, and virtue " (p. 238). " Italy and Rome," 
 he elsewhere says, " have been, to the great good 
 of us that now live, the best breeders and bringers- 
 up of the worthiest men, not only for wise speak- 
 ing but also for well-doing in all civil affairs, 
 that ever was in the world." "Virtue once made 
 that country mistress over all the world ; vice now 
 maketh that country slave to them that before 
 were glad to serve it." If we would avoid such 
 a fate, we must train and discipline the young, 
 so that they may " find pain in doing ill ; " and 
 
i6* ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 if " to the goodness of nature be joined the wisdom 
 of the teacher, in leading young wits into a right 
 and plain way of learning, surely children kept up 
 in God's fear, and governed by His grace, may the 
 most easily be brought well to serve God and their 
 country both by virtue and wisdom" (p. 221). 
 " The foundation of youth well set (as Plato doth 
 say), the whole body of the commonwealth shall 
 flourish thereafter." 
 
 VI. GYMNASTIC AND Music. A man of As- 
 cham's antique habit of thought was not likely to 
 omit the Greek gymnastic out of his consideration. 
 He urged that young gentlemen should "use and 
 delight in all courtly exercises and gentleman- 
 like pastimes." The Athenians, by making Apollo 
 and Pallas "patrons of learning to their youth," 
 meant that learning should always be mingled 
 with honest mirth and comely exercises. " All 
 pastimes joined with labour, used in open 
 place and in daylight, containing either some fit 
 exercise for war or some pleasant pastime for 
 peace, be not only comely and decent, but also 
 very necessary for a courtly gentleman to use." 
 But it is in the " Toxophilus " that we find gym- 
 nastic as an element in education most strongly 
 urged. He says there, " I heard a good husband 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 165 
 
 at his book once say, that to omit study some 
 time of the day and some time of the year, 
 made as much for the increase of learning as to 
 let the land lie sometime fallow maketh for the 
 better increase of corn." And he quotes Aristotle 
 as saying, " that as rest is for labour and medicines 
 for health, so is pastime at times for sad and 
 weighty study." For keen and able minds physical 
 exercise was more necessary than for dull and 
 plodding intelligences : " The best wits to learn- 
 ing" (he says in his " Toxophilus ") "must needs 
 have much recreation and ceasing from their 
 books, or else they mar themselves, when base 
 and dumpish wits can never be hurt by con- 
 tinual study." 
 
 It was as pastime only that he advocated gym- 
 nastic. The Hellenic idea that gymnastic had 
 itself a moral aim, did not occur to Ascham. At 
 the same time, he points out that some pastimes 
 not only contribute more to the health of the 
 body than others do, but are more conducive to 
 morality, by being public and demanding labour 
 of body. For Ascham, and indeed the Humanists 
 generally, were practical believers in the old 
 saying of Epicharmus, that God has sold virtue 
 and many other good things to man in return for 
 
166 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 labour, and that amusement, accordingly, where 
 there was no labour was hurtful to youth. 
 
 In his "Toxophilus" Ascham regrets that not 
 more than one youth in six entering Cambridge 
 can sing. He also deplores the decline of the 
 practice of teaching the children of England 
 "plain-song and prick-song." 1 He evidently at- 
 taches a moral value to music-teaching, and on 
 this point quotes Plato and Aristotle with approval. 
 
 Ascham's aim, as we have seen, was the same 
 as that of all the Humanists the promotion 
 of virtue and wisdom. The means whereby the 
 end was to be obtained was literature, and the 
 " criticism of life " which is embodied in literature. 
 Literature furnished the materials with which the 
 human mind was to be fed, as well as the vehicle 
 of discipline. In the acquisition of literature, and 
 in coming into personal contact with great and 
 heroic examples, the true discipline for youth con- 
 sisted. The study of language, which specially 
 belongs to boyhood, is the study of literature in 
 its elements, and trains at every step the powers 
 of perception, discrimination, and judgment. 
 
 Do not suppose that I have exhausted Ascham : 
 
 1 Music in parts. 
 
ROGER ASCHAM, 
 
 this is a mere introduction to the study of him. 
 Of his method, generally, we may say that it was 
 a sound and sensible one. If followed, it would 
 certainly give the intellectual and moral discipline 
 at which he aimed, and remove those obstacles to 
 learning which make it hateful to boys. He did 
 not deal with the art of education on psychological 
 principles. In his time there was no psychology. 
 But a keen, vigorous, and sane mind like Ascham's 
 could hit very near the mark without the formal 
 machinery of philosophy : 
 
 " He knew what's what, and that's as high 
 As metaphysic wit can fly." 
 
 And what came of it all, so far as the practice 
 of schools is concerned ? Nothing. And yet that 
 staunch old Tory, Samuel Johnson (and not alone 
 weak-headed " theorists " who have always been 
 suspected of revolutionary proclivities), says that 
 "it contains, perhaps, the best advice that was 
 ever given for the study of languages." And Mr. 
 Quick tells us that Professor J. E. B. Mayor 
 declares that " this book sets forth the only sound 
 method of acquiring a dead language." Had 
 Ascham's own college (St. John's, Cambridge) 
 founded a lectureship on education, three hundred 
 years ago, restricted to Quintilian and Ascham, the 
 
1 68 ROGER ASCHAM, THE HUMANIST. 
 
 whole course of English education would have 
 been powerfully influenced. 
 
 To return to Ascham himself: his charac- 
 teristics, as revealed in his writings, appeared 
 in his life. He was a pleasant-mannered and a 
 brave man, and called forth the affection as well 
 as esteem of his contemporaries. We find no 
 exaggeration in the epigraphic lines of George 
 Buchanan 
 
 "Aschamum extinctum patriae, Graiaeque Camenae 
 
 Et Latiae, vera cum pietate, dolent ; 
 Principibus vixit carus, jucundus amicis, 
 Re modica, in mores dicere fama nequit." 
 
VI. 
 
 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST 
 AND FOUNDER OF METHOD. 1 
 
 IN March, 1892, three hundred years will have 
 elapsed since Comenius was born. The whole 
 educational world is alive to the fact, and in 
 Germany and America the day is being widely 
 celebrated, although forty years ago the name of 
 Comenius was known only to an historical student 
 here and there ; and that, chiefly as associated 
 with an illustrated school-book, the "Orbis 
 Pictus." 
 
 It is not universally true that writers of genuine 
 original vein suffer neglect during their lifetime. 
 Much depends on the position of authority which 
 they may hold, or on their power of fitting their 
 fresh thought to the forms of expression current 
 
 1 A memorial address for the three-hundredth anniversary of 
 his birth. 
 
1 70 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 
 
 in their time. It cannot be said that Comenius, 
 though an unsuccessful man, as all men of ideas 
 are, failed to interest and attract his contempo- 
 raries : on the contrary, his two chief school-books 
 were enormously popular ; but he was scarcely 
 dead when his name and reputation died also. 
 That in him which was specially original was 
 precisely that which most of all fell into oblivion. 
 Bayle, in his "Dictionary" (1695), speaks of him 
 in a depreciating way, though allowing that the 
 " Janua " is an immortal (!) school-book ; and, 
 nearly a hundred years afterward, Adelung, in 
 his " History of Human Folly," describes him as 
 a man of weak and limited mind, and regards him 
 as little more than a charlatan. Hallam passes 
 him by, with a brief reference only to the " Janua " 
 and the " Orbis," characterizing him as a man of 
 "some ingenuity but little judgment." No doubt 
 much of this neglect of the old bishop was due 
 to the fact that his ecclesiastical and pansophic 
 writings were of only passing interest, and that 
 his chief claim to permanent regard as an intel- 
 lectual force lay in his contributions to the educa- 
 tion of the young. Even in our own day, a man 
 who writes on education is regarded as, to some 
 extent, a trifler, if not a fanatic, by historians and 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 17* 
 
 men of letters. The mere fact that he occupies 
 himself with the education of the child-mind, 
 seems to stamp him as something of a child him- 
 selfin any case, as not worthy of notice, except 
 by schoolmasters : and they avoid him. If Milton, 
 the contemporary of Comenius, had written 
 nothing but his "Tractate on Education," he 
 would have been long since forgotten, or, at most, 
 known only to a few antiquaries, notwithstanding 
 the literary excellence of portions of the famous 
 essay. Roger Ascham has seldom been assigned 
 his fit place as a stylist and former of English 
 prose; and this, because he wrote on education. 
 Even many men of letters, whose business is the 
 history of English literature, have not, I find, read 
 his " Scholemaster," save in extracts, and, in like 
 manner, classical experts know wonderfully little 
 of Quintilian. Mulcaster's " Positions " has met 
 with a like fate. And yet it is beyond all question 
 that, had the subject on which these men wrote 
 been the political backstairs gossip of " Memoires 
 pour servir," or tracings on monumental stones, 
 or even the ways of bees or beetles, their impor- 
 tance as mere men of letters and as contributors 
 to the enrichment of the substance, and refiners 
 of the form, of the English tongue, would have 
 
172 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 been kept constantly in the eye of the literary 
 public. 
 
 As a partial explanation of this neglect, it has 
 to be noted that to write anything, having the 
 aspect of novelty, on education and schools, is by 
 implication to attack a large and powerful class, 
 and to insure their hostility. This doubtless helps 
 to consign the writers to forgetfulness. Even the 
 venerable Comenius, when his life-work was 
 approaching its close, was assailed at Amsterdam 
 as an arch-enemy of schools and schoolmasters, 
 and had to make a pathetic defence. "! can 
 affirm," he says, "from the bottom of my heart, 
 that these forty years my aim has been simple 
 and unpretending; indifferent whether I teach or 
 be taught, admonish or be admonished ; willing to 
 act the part of a teacher of teachers, if in anything 
 it may be permitted to me to do so, and a disciple 
 of disciples where progress may be possible. They 
 say that I write against schools ; nay, it is for 
 schools that I speak and have spoken. . . . Why, 
 then, should any delight to molest me ? Let me live 
 in tranquillity as long as God wills me to be here." 
 
 To resent criticism of an institution, or a mode 
 of administration, as if it were a personal attack 
 on its administrators, is not confined to the 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 173 
 
 teaching profession, but it certainly has been a 
 more active characteristic of schoolmasters than 
 of clergymen, lawyers, or physicians. Teachers, 
 as a rule, do not wish to be disturbed by new 
 ideas. Even Milton, between whom and Come- 
 nius there was a fundamental sympathy of aim 
 and a common hatred of the traditionary methods, 
 yet, just because he was himself a schoolmaster, 
 suffers from this narrow pedagogic spirit, and 
 declines, in his letter to Hartlib, to have anything 
 to do with new-fangled notions. " To search what 
 many modern ' Januas ' and ' Didactics/ more than 
 ever I shall read, have projected, my inclination 
 leads me not." It is true that he also says, " What 
 I have benefited herein among old renowned 
 authors I shall spare." Who the " renowned 
 authors" may have been, however, he does not 
 say ; nor does his treatise give any indication that 
 he ever read any of them, although we may, 
 perhaps, not err in presuming that Quintilian, at 
 least, was not unknown to him. Doubtless this 
 peculiar attitude of the scholastic mind is largely 
 due to the position of authority in which teachers 
 are placed when yet young and unformed. They 
 succeed to a certain traditionary way of doing 
 things ; a few years' practice habituates them to 
 
174 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 it, and this habit combines with the almost despotic 
 position in which they are placed to produce a 
 self-conviction of finality. They repeat themselves 
 from day to day and call it experience. It is 
 unreasonable, accordingly, to blame teachers for 
 their attitude to the science, history, and criticism 
 of their art. The causes are obvious : to under- 
 stand is to sympathize. And it is vain, I think, 
 to expect this attitude to be altered until all 
 intending schoolmasters are required, before they 
 begin their work, to study the theory and history 
 of education. The academic study of their science 
 and art, such as is now found at many universities 
 in America, Germany, and elsewhere, will convey 
 to the young aspirant the best tradition, while 
 stimulating to thought on his own account. If he 
 begins to think about the principles and aims of 
 his profession when still young, he will, in the great 
 majority of cases, continue to think when engrossed 
 with the practical work of the school. 
 
 Comenius did not flash on the world unheralded. 
 Perhaps no man ever stood forth as the repre- 
 sentative of an intellectual or moral movement 
 by organizing its essential characteristics in a 
 coherent statement, without owing much to his 
 predecessors. Aristotle had his Plato, and Newton 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 175 
 
 his Kepler, and Bacon had many men working 
 for the inductive gospel before he formulated the 
 " Novum Organum." So with Comenius. To 
 begin with, the Reformation movement had stirred 
 questions which went far beyond the limits which 
 it had originally prescribed for itself, and in no 
 department did it more directly assail old con- 
 ceptions than in that of education. It would be 
 out of place here to show how this was a neces- 
 sary consequence of the Reformation principle, 
 and it would only irritate a reader to have the 
 words of Luther and others quoted for the hun- 
 dredth time. The questions, however, of whom to 
 teach and what to teach, naturally first occupied 
 the field of vision, to the exclusion of the more 
 fundamental question, how to teach. Ascham, 
 Mulcaster, and Sturm certainly wrote on the "how," 
 but their " how " was limited to the teaching of the 
 Latin language and literature. It is surprising to 
 find how many books treated of the work of schools 
 before Comenius came on the field. Comenius, 
 accordingly, had many forerunners ; but this does 
 not justify us in exaggerating what he owed to 
 them, by way of detracting from his greatness and 
 originality. No one is more open and candid on 
 the subject than is Comenius himself. He names 
 
176 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 the books he had read, always in the sincere hope 
 of finding what he wanted. He had no desire to 
 originate. I doubt if there ever was a man who 
 devoted himself to labour for his fellow-men so 
 ardently as Comenius did, in the field of religion, 
 intellectual progress, and education, who was less 
 of an egotist. He worked and wrote in the most 
 single-hearted spirit. Much, very much, of the 
 work he did for education was, in truth, done un- 
 willingly and from a pure sense of duty. His 
 main intellectual interest was his pansophy, the 
 co-ordination of all knowledge with a view to the 
 advance of humanity and the conciliation of re- 
 ligious parties. All that he conceived and did was 
 conceived and done for the "glory of God," and 
 to advance Christian unity and a rational Christian 
 civilization on a Protestant basis. An irenicon 
 was the necessity of the times, and it was the 
 dream of Comenius as it was of Vives, Casaubon, 
 and Grotius. Thus, in many essential respects he 
 was the European popularizer of Bacon, and he 
 was also the first evangelical Broad Churchman. 
 He was constantly, however, setting aside his 
 more ambitious schemes to do the educational 
 work that lay to his hand ; and this he called 
 following the leadings of Providence. 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 177 
 
 The three most important of the precursors of 
 Comenius were Ludovicus Vives the Spaniard, 
 Bacon the Englishman, and Ratke the Holsteiner. 
 
 Vives was born in 1492, at Valencia, exactly 
 one hundred years before Comenius ; Bacon was 
 born in 1561 ; and Ratke in 1571, twenty-one 
 years before Comenius. Rabelais and Montaigne 
 seem to have been unknown to him. Of Vives, 
 Comenius himself says that he knew better where 
 the fault in schools lay than the nature of the 
 remedy ; and yet he, like Bacon, owed more to 
 Vives than he imagined if not in the sphere of 
 education, at least in his whole cast of thought, 
 including his pansophic ideal. For Vives was an 
 encyclopaedist in his range of intellectual activity, 
 an enemy of mere authority, directing attention 
 away from the barren dialectic of the schools to 
 the silent study of nature. Like Comenius, too, he 
 was one of those who were always hoping to find 
 some basis of ecclesiastical and civil unity which 
 might conciliate the distractions of the time. He 
 is sometimes called a Humanist, sometimes a 
 Realist. The truth is, that after giving promise of 
 future distinction as a schoolman, he grew out of 
 the scholastic philosophy, and became, in relation 
 to the general current of thought, a Humanist, but 
 
 N 
 
i?8 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 without falling into the idolatry of style which 
 characterized the leaders of that movement. In 
 relation to education and the school, he was a 
 Realist only in so far as he included in his course 
 of education realistic subjects. In his book, " De 
 Tradendis Disciplinis," he treats of the education 
 of the child from infancy, keeping in view always 
 the moral aim of all instruction. What he says 
 is always characterized by good sense ; but to 
 us nowadays his rules and recommendations are 
 commonplaces. In his book on the education of 
 women, for which he has been extolled as a 
 reformer, it is the morals, manners, and domestic 
 training of women, along with instruction in read- 
 ing and writing, that he speaks of; beyond this 
 nothing. The instruction of boys meant, with 
 Vives, as with everybody in those days, Latin 
 chiefly ; and he gives eight or nine years to the 
 acquisition of this language. Into the school 
 curriculum, however, he would introduce Greek, 
 history, geography, and nature-knowledge. But 
 he does not seem to have had any idea of a cur- 
 riculum through which, with a view to mind- 
 culture generally, all boys should be carried. His 
 remarks are generally pertinent and sagacious, 
 and it is believed that the Jesuit teachers learned 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 179 
 
 much from him ; but to the specific subject of 
 method, in our modern sense, he does not seem 
 to have made any contribution of value. There 
 is, I suspect, little in Vives that may not be found 
 in Quintilian and Plutarch. The severe discipline 
 of the time, and the want of lightness and variety 
 in school-work, are condemned by him, but in 
 this and in other respects he only shares his 
 opinion with many writers. This slight sketch 
 of the teaching of Vives will suffice to show that 
 Comenius owed to him suggestion and stimulus, 
 but nothing more. 
 
 The educational activity of men like Vives 
 suggests the remark that it is impossible clearly 
 to apprehend the history of education from the 
 close of the Middle Ages down to this century, 
 unless we distinctly recognize two lines of thought 
 which run side by side in their beginning, but 
 soon cross each other the theological and the 
 literary. The Renaissance had many aspects ; 
 in its purely educational aims it was an attempt 
 to rouse men from dogmatic slumber, and to 
 bring them face to face once more with nature 
 and life as that was interpreted in the great 
 literatures of Greece and Rome. The Reforma- 
 tion of religion was only a part of the move- 
 
i8o COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 
 
 ment, and, till Luther's time, a subordinate part. 
 When the Lutheran movement fairly took hold 
 of men's minds, literature and pure Human- 
 ism found a potent rival in theology and the 
 new ideal of justification, saving grace, and per- 
 sonal piety. " By faith are ye saved " not by 
 literature. Unquestionably, the more enlightened 
 reformers, and notably Luther and Melancthon, 
 accepted literature and a genial view of human 
 life. But the literary and artistic interest was 
 not dominant with them, as with Erasmus. Faith, 
 justification in the sight of God, and morality as 
 fruit of faith, constituted the chief end of man, and 
 consequently of the education of the young. But 
 the reformed faith did not, as yet, wholly break 
 with Humanism, as Christianity had done before 
 the fifth century. 
 
 After Luther and Sturm and Ascham, however, 
 the paramount interest began to obscure the less 
 important. The career of Casaubon illustrates 
 this. Though much had been done to improve 
 the curriculum of schools, the literary enthusiasm 
 had exhausted itself, and there was unquestionably 
 a relapse into the old formalism. The Catholic 
 reaction, also, called many minds away to the main 
 issue of modern civilization personality versus 
 
CO ME NWS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 181 
 
 organized spiritual despotism. Then came on the 
 scene a new educational force the potent ideas of 
 Realism as represented by Bacon. Nature was to 
 be studied at first hand, and studied by silent and 
 faithful observation. This study had more than 
 a mere theoretical interest. The observation of 
 nature and of its teachings was to accomplish 
 great things for the improvement of the social and 
 industrial conditions of human life. In a letter 
 addressed by Bacon to Casaubon, these words 
 are used : " The contemplations I have in view, 
 are those which may bring about the better order- 
 ing of man's life, with all its turmoil." l Nature, 
 in short, was to be used as a gift of God to man. 
 There was nothing in this nearly so dangerous to 
 the Protestant theological conception of life as 
 pure Humanism was, which in some of its mani- 
 festations had little to distinguish it from a 
 cultured paganism ; and this the Christian Church 
 had always feared as its chief enemy, until in the 
 middle of the sixteenth century the Jesuits 
 suborned it. There was nothing, in truth, to 
 prevent the whole-hearted union of Realism and a 
 liberal reformed theology ; but in their relations to 
 
 1 Footnote in Pattison's "Life of Casaubon," p. 335. The 
 letter was never sent. 
 
182 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 it the Jesuits, who had already captured Humanism 
 and subordinated it to the Church, had to recon- 
 sider their ways; and are still reconsidering them. 
 Science and the scientific spirit gave them their 
 death-blow, though it is true they are long of dying. 
 Now, Ratke and Comenius were the apostolic 
 missionaries of the specific Baconian realistic move- 
 ment in the field of education. They adopted the 
 saying that " there was nothing in the understand- 
 ing which had not first been in sense;" but neither 
 they nor any of their contemporaries saw the far- 
 reaching and fatal philosophical and theological 
 effects of such a doctrine. The maxim was used 
 only to establish the necessity of founding all in- 
 struction on sense, and on all the senses, and the 
 importance of cultivating the powers of observation. 
 " Live we not in the garden of Nature, as well as 
 those who have gone before us ? ... Why, then, 
 learn the works of Nature otherwise than through 
 our senses? Why not substitute for dead books 
 the living book of Nature ? " The philosophical 
 consequences, I say, of the celebrated dictum as to 
 intellect and sense could not occur to such men 
 as Comenius ; for, in his crude psychology, there 
 was, quite apart from the mere understanding, the 
 " soul," and the spiritual life of the soul in God. 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 183 
 
 Bacon's interest lay in the sphere of the higher 
 education. He was a pansophist, and his ambition 
 was to see a visible organization of science, in 
 the form of a great State-supported academy of 
 investigation and teaching. In this respect Come- 
 nius directly affiliates himself to Bacon. All that 
 ~^Qomenius did in this department of his activity 
 derives itself from the Englishman. " The Advance- 
 ment of Learning " and the " New Atlantis " were 
 the teachers of Comenius. The same magnificent 
 conception lay at the foundation of the " Institut 
 National," projected by the French revolutionaries 
 in 1795. "Finally, we propose to you to create 
 a National Institute," they said to the Government, 
 " able in its several parts to give every branch of 
 public instruction and collectively human know- 
 ledge carried to its highest point : everything 
 which men know must be taught there to its 
 highest perfection : every man must be able to 
 learn there how to do what any man of any 
 country, aglow with the fire of genius, has done, 
 and is able still to do. This establishment must 
 honour, not France only, but the whole human 
 race, astonishing it by the spectacle of its power 
 and the development of its strength." l The names 
 
 1 Quoted from a paper by Mr. Jamson Smith, Birmingham. 
 
1 84 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 of the first members of the Institute were those of 
 men capable of doing the work expected of them 
 Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, Cuvier, Volney, 
 Sainte Pierre, Lakanal, Chenier, Lebrun, and 
 Fontanes. It is a curious fact that the Long 
 Parliament (also a revolutionary Parliament) con- 
 templated, in 1641, handing over Chelsea College 
 to carry out the pansophic views of Comenius, thus 
 anticipating the action of the FrencE Republic 
 by one hundred and fifty years. The Baconian, 
 Comenian, and revolutionary ideas have now been, 
 in some places, almost realized ; and, in so far as 
 they are not realized, they still enter into the 
 dreams of university reformers. It is of importance 
 to insist on this, because it has been customary to 
 look on the fervent old bishop as a visionary, 
 whereas he was the most practical of men only 
 living a few centuries too soon. 
 
 The advocacy of pansophy and realism did not 
 exhaust the powers of Comenius. He was an 
 ardent worker, as I have indicated above, in the 
 cause of a Protestant union, based on the vital and 
 essential interests of Christianity. His " Unum 
 Necessarium " had this for its aim. The fanatical 
 divisions of Protestantism had been the Jesuits' 
 opportunity. Being an unorganized mass, they 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 185 
 
 had been swept back by the serried ranks of 
 Loyola. Protestantism was in a critical position. 
 
 It has been sometimes said that Comenius owed 
 much to Valentine Andrea, his senior by four 
 years. This remarkable man, born at Herrenburg 
 in 1586, was distinguished for his learning, energy, 
 and originality, and stood eminent among his 
 contemporaries. Of him Herder said that he 
 " blossomed as a rose among thorns." He was 
 a man of poetic and ideal character, and yet, like 
 Comenius, in the highest degree practical. Like 
 other educational reformers, he attacked the 
 mechanical character of grammar-school instruc- 
 tion, and the equally mechanical character of the 
 people's schools, and of the instruction of children 
 in the Catechism. He desiderated a better method 
 in both the primary and secondary schools, and 
 the substitution of an evangelical spirit for the 
 heathenism and arid curriculum of the latter. His 
 disgust of the narrow range of school instruction 
 made him lean to realistic studies and hail with 
 enthusiasm Comenius' " Didactica." Realist as he 
 was, however, education by means of language, 
 and education by means of things, was sub- 
 ordinated to the religious aim " omnis spiritus 
 cedat Christo" His educational ideas are contained 
 
1 86 COMEN2US, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 
 
 in his " Reipublicae Christianopolitanae Descriptio," 
 1619. A book published in his youth, called "Idea 
 Bonae Institutionis," is lost. The dates of these 
 books show that^re4iad anticipated Comenius as 
 an educational writer ; trcrf^here is no evidence 
 that Comenius owed anything to him which he did 
 not himself already ascribe to the general influence 
 of Vives. Impulse, sympathy, and encouragement 
 he found, doubtless, in Andrea's strongly expressed 
 views, as he did in the personal recognition and 
 encouragement which Andrea generously extended 
 to him by letter ; but this was all. 
 
 Within a few years after the publication of the 
 "Advancement of Learning" (1805), we find 
 Ratke, the Holsteiner, formulating the new ideas 
 in the interest of education and attracting the 
 attention of the princes and universities of Northern 
 Europe. Although it is true that Ratke failed to 
 answer Comenius' letter of inquiry, there can be 
 no doubt that Ratke anticipated him in all his 
 general principles of method. To him, and not to 
 Vives or Andrea, Comenius was directly indebted. 
 There was, perhaps, more of the light of originality 
 in Ratke than in Comenius. 
 
 To Bateus, the Irish Jesuit, who died at Madrid 
 in 1614, Comenius was, in an indirect way, also 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 187 
 
 indebted, in so far as the Jesuit's " Janua" showed 
 the possibility of bringing together a vast number 
 of vocables in a school-book, and also in so far as 
 it showed him what to avoid. He called it a "Noah's 
 Ark for Words." To Professor Lubinus of Rostock, 
 again, who died in 1621, Comenius certainly owed 
 the first idea of the " Orbis Pictus." 
 
 I think I have now exhausted the external 
 sources of Comenius' inspiration, and the result 
 is this: In respect of his philosophy, and of the 
 materials which should enter into the education 
 of man, Comenius was a disciple of Bacon, of whom 
 he speaks as " the noble Verulam, who has given 
 us the true key of nature;" in respect of the funda- 
 mental conception of method as determined by the 
 inductive process of mind, and many of the rules 
 of method, he was indebted directly to Ratke and 
 only indirectly to Bacon ; and to Lubinus he owed 
 the suggestion of the " Orbis Pictus." But in the 
 wide reach of his educational conceptions, in the 
 development of the whole subject of method, and s 
 in his mode of procedure in discovering and ex- j 
 pounding it, Comenius was wholly original. 
 
 Let us now briefly consider the leading charac- 
 teristics of Comenius as an educationalist, bearing 
 
188 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 in mind, the while, that the education of his age 
 consisted of reading, writing^ and the Catechism 
 badly taught, and Latin^nothing but Latin, with 
 here and theTe^_Jbut chiefly in the universities, 
 Greek and scholastic logic even reading and 
 writing being for the few, and further education 
 only for the select among those few. 
 
 1. Comenius held that every human being 
 should be educated, simply because he was a 
 human being. This is nothing new to us, but it was 
 an immense step in advance of previous thinkers. 
 Luther and his friends desired to educate the 
 young because they had souls to be saved ; Come- 
 nius, simply because they were human beings. 
 
 2. In perfect consistency with this fundamental 
 view, Comenius advocated pansophy in the school, 
 for only by an encyclopaedic training could we 
 build up the whole fabric of the human mind. We 
 must begin by instructing in the elements of all 
 things, for our final aim has need of them all, that 
 aim being threefold : First, knowledge universal, 
 including knowledge of oneself; second, virtue; 
 and third, religion. There is involved in the first 
 portion of the threefold end a thorough-going 
 encyclopaedism. The work to be done in the 
 school has for its aim pansophy, and is entirely 
 
COMEN1US, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 189 
 
 governed and suggested by the pansophic ideal of 
 man and society. Universal knowledge is to be 
 organized, and all must share in it. 
 
 3. Knowledge must be expressed in the ver- 
 nacular of each nation, for it is a human possession, 
 and not the possession of any one individual or 
 class. This also was logically involved in his 
 fundamental conception. " We desire and pro- 
 test," he says in the " Prodromus," " that studies 
 of wisdom be no longer committed to Latin 
 alone, and kept shut up in the schools, as has 
 hitherto been done, to the greatest contempt and 
 injury of the people at large and of the popular 
 tongues. Let all things be delivered to each nation 
 in its own speech." This was clearly a necessary 
 deduction from his principle that every human 
 being had, as such, a right to education. All 
 knowledge existed for the bettering of man's con- 
 dition and elevating him as a rational being. 
 Nature is God's work, and is an enemy of man 
 only in so far as he does not know it. He must, 
 then, be taught to know nature and to know 
 himself. Why? That he may rule nature and 
 rule himself: which is virtue. The more compre- 
 hensive the knowledge, the wiser is the ordinary 
 life of man, and the more assured, consequently, is 
 
190 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 his virtue. Nay, religion, as well as virtue, rests 
 on a knowledge of nature. Man's nature and 
 external nature presented themselves to the mind 
 of Comenius as a fundamental harmony. In this 
 harmony was visible the goodness of God : man's 
 business was to find it and then to refer all things 
 to God, and lead a life in nature and society as 
 with Him. So Milton held that we could not 
 arrive at a "knowledge of God and things invisible, 
 save by conning over the visible inferior creature;" 
 and Picus of Mirandola identified the law of 
 nature with the utterance of "our Lord Himself." 
 
 4. If encyclopaedic knowledge is to be acquired, 
 even in its elements, we must take care that every 
 one begins early, i.e. in the infant school. Comenius 
 was the originator of the idea of the infant school 
 the " school of the mother's lap," as he calls it ; and 
 there is little in Pestalozzi and Frobel which is not 
 in Comenius, though not in him fully developed, 
 Very simple instruction is to be given, only such 
 as infant minds can assimilate ; but, however 
 simple it may be, it must be wide-reaching as 
 nature itself. It must be a foundation broad 
 enough to sustain the weight of the pansophic 
 temple. 
 
 5. How this broad foundation was to be laid, 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 191 
 
 and a building erected on it, was the question of 
 questions, for it was the question of method, and 
 is the problem solved in the " Great Didactic " 
 Comenius' central work. Ratke's leading positions 
 were that all procedure in education was to be 
 from particulars to generals, and all, consequently, 
 by observation and experiment. The Baconian 
 philosophy showed that thus we acquired know- 
 ledge, and accordingly thus must we impart 
 knowledge. For with Ratke, as with Comenius, it 
 was always giving and imparting, but now no longer 
 a mere storing of memory, but all according to a 
 method such that the teaching of one thing should 
 be the teaching to reason on all things. Comenius 
 seized on the same conception, and wrote, as I 
 have said above, to Ratke for fuller information ; 
 but his letter remained unanswered, and he had to 
 think out the problem for himself. 1 And just at that 
 critical point, his philosophy of the world and of 
 man's life, and the harmonious relation of the two, 
 came to his aid. The world was not a mechanical 
 construction, but dynamical. It was the wisdom of 
 God making itself manifest ; and, as regarded man, 
 God's purpose was to bring him back to himself 
 through nature and life. Let nature and man, then, 
 
 1 Except in so far as he may have read some of Ratke's writings. 
 
192 COME NWS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 
 
 be conceived as order and law, with a purpose. But 
 if this were so, there must be some way of building 
 up knowledge, virtue, and religion in the mind of 
 man, so as to make him what he is intended to be 
 an image of his Creator. There must be order 
 and law here as well as elsewhere. The larger 
 cosmical conception suggested the way, for what 
 was true of the whole must be true of the parts. 
 Each individual thing, no less than the cosmic 
 whole, was dynamical'; each thing was an organism 
 growing from seed to flower and fruit. In fact, 
 the biological process was the mind-process. In 
 his " Prodromus," p. 40, he says, " After many 
 workings and tossings of my th6ught, by reducing 
 everything to the immovable laws of nature, I 
 lighted upon my ' Didaetica Magna,' which shows 
 the art of easily and solidly teaching all men all 
 things." 
 
 6. Having already determined the end of educa- 
 tion and the materials to be used, it was now clear 
 to Comenius that the building up of the mind by 
 means of these materials must be an organic 
 process. In nature, then, he must find the clue to 
 the method of education in the chick, and in the 
 seed of the plant, and in their gradual development. 
 The mode of procedure in finding principles and 
 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 193 
 
 rules was analogical, or, as he calls it, syncretic. 
 The science of nature was then in its infancy, and 
 Comenius could work only on such knowledge as 
 he had sometimes mistaken, always inadequate. 
 His firm conviction, however, in the harmony of 
 things sustained him. The result was that many 
 of his illustrations were fanciful, and some of his 
 rules of method strained. Yet in the main he was 
 right. In spite of many defects, we have from him 
 the only thorough-going treatise on educational 
 method that has yet appeared in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 7. Comenius reformed language-teaching, and 
 began a new era in text-books. He had been 
 met at once by a great difficulty in the practical 
 working out of his theory. The curriculum of the 
 schools was substantially Latin, and in Latin. 
 His theory of the building up of the human mind 
 demanded realia. Hence he advocated teaching 
 of and in the vernacular : the vernacular first, and 
 then Latin. When Latin had to be faced, his 
 principles led to the "Janua" and the "Orbis 
 Pictus," which latter is an illustrated real-encyclo- 
 paedia for the young. All the words necessary 
 for Latin intercourse must be acquired as soon 
 and as easily as possible. But things had also 
 
 O 
 
194 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 
 
 to be taught, of which words are but the symbols. 
 Words, then, must be taught with and through 
 things. Language and reality must go hand in 
 hand. The building up of a knowledge of things 
 was the true building up of minds. Words being 
 but the symbols of things were best acquired along 
 with the things of which they are the symbols. 
 Thus we kill two birds with one stone. Then, the 
 true process of mind was the inductive. Accord- 
 ingly, the universal was to be reached through the 
 particular. Hence the multitude of facts in his 
 school-books, which were to be the basis of future 
 generalization and reasoning. As with things, so 
 with language ; the elaborate abstractions of Latin 
 grammar are obstructive. Reading and grammar 
 must go together, and grammar itself must be 
 simplified, and dictionaries too. Hence his graded 
 grammars and dictionaries, that the time spent 
 over Latin might be shorter, and progress more 
 pleasant for the pupil. " If so much time is to 
 be spent on language alone," he says, " when is 
 the boy to know about things ? when will he learn 
 philosophy, when religion, and so forth ? He will 
 continue his life in preparing for life." Again, 
 all was to be graduated, and adapted to the 
 boy's age. 
 
CO MEN! US, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 195 
 
 8. As to school discipline, Comenius was far 
 ahead of his own time, and even of ours. The 
 seeds of knowledge, of virtue, and of piety were, 
 to begin with, already in the child. Only wise 
 culture was needed to make them spring into life 
 and grow to maturity, just as with plants. Coercion 
 was thus entirely out of place ; method superseded 
 it, although he admitted that corporal chastise- 
 ment was sometimes necessary for moral offences. 
 
 9. As to the education of girls, Comenius was 
 not only more thorough-going than Vives, but two 
 hundred and fifty years in advance of other men. 
 I take Professor Masson's translation of Comenius' 
 utterance on this subject 1 : 
 
 "Nor, to say something particularly on this 
 subject, can any sufficient reason be given why 
 the weaker sex should be wholly shut out from 
 liberal studies, whether in the native tongue or in 
 Latin. For equally are they God's image ; equally 
 are they partakers of grace, and of the kingdom 
 to come ; equally are they furnished with minds 
 agile and capable of wisdom, yea, often beyond 
 our sex ; equally to them is there a possibility of 
 attaining high distinction, inasmuch as they have 
 often been employed by God Himself for the 
 
 1 Life of Milton. 
 
196 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 government of peoples, the bestowing of wholesome 
 counsels on kings and princes, the science of 
 medicine, and other things useful to the human 
 race, nay, even the prophetical office, and the 
 rattling reprimand of priests and bishops. Why, 
 then, should we admit them to the alphabet, but 
 afterwards debar them from books ? Do we fear 
 their rashness ? The more we occupy their 
 thoughts, the less room will there be in them for 
 waywardness, which springs generally from vacuity 
 of mind." 
 
 Now, it is an easy matter to pick holes in 
 Comenius, whether we regard him as a mystic 
 theologian, a pansophic philosopher, an enthusiastic 
 humanitarian, or an educational reformer. I leave 
 this task to those who care to do it. Assuredly 
 no schoolboy in Europe or America, who under- 
 stands the nature of the old bishop's work, would 
 do it, even if he had the intellectual power ; and 
 this, perhaps, is the highest tribute to the services 
 which Comenius rendered. I confine myself to 
 pointing out the defects which lapse of time and 
 the accumulation of experience have taught us to 
 be defects ; for it is the logic of events that 
 teaches us the wisdom we call our own. 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 197 
 
 The Baconian dictum, " Knowledge is power," 
 is false, or, at least, fallacious. Power lies in ideas 
 and ideals, and a vigorous intelligence behind 
 them. This, Comenius, and with him modern 
 sensationalists, did not see. The mind is not 
 built up by universal knowledge, but by its own 
 native energy and activity in using a little well. 
 Discipline of mind is of more importance than 
 the stocking of mind with multifarious know- 
 ledges. " Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." 
 We can now scarcely understand that men should 
 seriously maintain that we could form men by 
 knowledge ; but it was an earnest conviction. 
 "The mind is the man and the knowledge of 
 the mind. A man is but what he knoweth," says 
 Bacon. This being so, the conception of the 
 school as an officina humanitatis is a logical enough 
 consequence. 
 
 Again, literature, which, as artistic expression, 
 includes art, is the most potent of all instruments 
 in the hands of the educator, whether we have 
 regard to intellectual growth, or to the moral and 
 religious life. Comenius, however, had not the 
 remotest conception of the aesthetic and literary, 
 and in this respect is like Locke. His own Latin 
 prose is hard and poor and negligent. So far, 
 
198 COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 he is certainly an anti-humanist. But he is not 
 an anti-humanist in his conception of the ends 
 of education as moral and religious ends, but 
 only in the narrower meaning of Humanism that 
 characterized the first period of the Renaissance, 
 when art and literary form were all in all. He 
 lived in the latter half of the second humanistic 
 period, when textual criticism and erudition pre- 
 vailed, and when men's minds were too much 
 agitated by the success of the Catholic reaction 
 to find time to pick phrases and polish lines. The 
 second epoch, even that of Scaliger, Casaubon, 
 and Buchanan was already passing away. 
 
 Further, his " Janua," as a book for learning 
 Latin, is, it must be confessed, a failure. 
 
 Finally, Comenius had no psychology to speak 
 of, and thus he was compelled to rely on the 
 frail support of analogy for the grounding of his 
 principles. 
 
 Neither in his philosophy nor his erudition was 
 Comenius profound. Joseph Scaliger and Casau- 
 bon, of the immediately preceding generation, 
 would have had none of him : Spinoza, writing his 
 " Ethica " round the street-corner while Comenius 
 was carrying his cumbrous works through the press, 
 would have smiled at his too energetic faith. The 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 199 
 
 theologians, so much in evidence in the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century, would have deplored 
 his vagueness and want of dogmatic system. But, 
 in truth, he was a better theologian than any of 
 them Swiss Calvinist, Roman Jesuit, or Dutch 
 Arminian ; while his moral enthusiasm and educa- 
 tional insight almost raised him to the rank of 
 genius. The present and the future so engrossed 
 him that he had no time to overweight his mind 
 by accumulating the written records of the past. 
 He lived at a time when men of intellect were 
 divided into two classes, those who looked back 
 and those who looked forward ; he was essentially 
 a modern, and at once put his hand to the 
 work that was most urgent in the interests of 
 Europe, viz. an irenicon, scientific organization, 
 and education. 
 
 And yet, whatever his shortcomings, Comenius 
 remains for us the most earnest and simple-hearted 
 worker for the education of the people, and the 
 most penetrating writer on method whom the 
 world has ever seen in fact, the founder of method. 
 The more we study the subject of education in 
 connection with the various influences at work in 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century, whether 
 we take its large national, or narrower scholastic, 
 
 S& C, THE 
 
 rCTNIVERSITY 
 
 Va 
 
200 COMEN1US, THE ENCYCLOPEDIST. 
 
 aspects, the more clearly do we see that the simple- 
 minded, much-enduring, and self-denying Moravian 
 bishop, so long forgotten, stands out as a prominent 
 figure even in general European history, and as 
 quite the most eminent in the history of European 
 education. He is still a living influence, and a 
 power that will remain. When we read the record 
 of his days, we are amazed at the persistency of 
 his self-imposed labours in the midst of uncertain 
 fortunes : of him it may be truly said that he 
 " linked month with month in long-drawn chain 
 of knitted purport." 
 
 " I thank God," he said, after a toilsome and 
 disappointing pilgrimage of fourscore years, " that 
 I have been a man of aspirations." But it is not 
 as a man of aspirations alone that we honour him 
 to-day, but as a man who laboured for us as few 
 men have laboured ; who, in all the chances and 
 changes of his troubled life, was a unique and 
 touching example of the Christian graces of faith, 
 hope, and love, and who has bequeathed to us, 
 as the solid fruit of his aspirations, the "Great 
 Didactic" a possession which the educational 
 world, at least, " will not willingly let die." 
 
COMENIUS, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIST. 201 
 
 NOTE. There can be no doubt that Mulcaster (died 1611?) 
 anticipated much of both Ratke and Comenius, but there is no 
 evidence that he was known to them. Mr. Quick says in his 
 "Educational Biographies," " The latest advances in pedagogy have 
 established : (i) That the end and aim of education is to develop 
 the faculties of mind and body. (2) That all teaching processes 
 should be carefully adapted to the mental constitution of the learner. 
 (3) That the first stage of learning is of universal importance, and 
 requires a very high degree of skill in the teacher. (4) That the 
 brain of children, especially clever children, should not be subjected 
 to pressure. (5) That childhood should not be spent in learning 
 foreign languages, but that its language should be the mother- 
 tongue, and its exercises should include handiwork, especially 
 drawing. (6) That girls' education should be cared for no less than 
 boys'. (7) That the only hope of improving our schools lies in the 
 training of teachers." These were all advocated by Mulcaster. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER AND UNIVER- 
 SITY (DAY) TRAINING COLLEGES. 1 
 
 WHEN, owing to very numerous occupations, I 
 was about to decline the honour of your invitation 
 to address you on this occasion, Professor MacCunn 
 recalled to my mind the fact that I had a good 
 deal to do with originating the idea of Day 
 Training Colleges in connection with universities 
 that I had been, as we say in Scotland, "at 
 the biggin o't." Accordingly, I put aside other 
 engagements, and resolved to put on paper a few 
 observations which might pass, in the lenient 
 judgment of friends, as an inauguration address. 
 
 First, let me say that it was from no feeling 
 of hostility to residential training colleges that 
 university day training colleges were advocated. 
 That, I think, is now distinctly understood. The 
 
 1 Inaugural address delivered at the Liverpool University College. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 203 
 
 simple fact was that a large percentage of teachers 
 in England were untrained, and more facilities for 
 training were wanted. 
 
 We have now a great organization of the 
 resources of the country in the interests of the 
 education of the people. Money and time are 
 given to the work to an extent which would have 
 been considered, forty years ago, an impossibility. 
 The very conception of such a system as we now 
 have would have been ridiculed as the dream of a 
 "theorist." Many of us here can remember the 
 day when two millions of children of school age 
 in England, out of a total population of about 
 twenty millions, were " neither at school nor 
 at work." Add those at work who had received 
 no schooling, and you can then imagine the 
 educational destitution of the country. Now all 
 is changed ; and, with the change, the education 
 question, always with us, and always to be with 
 us, alters its form. Two questions are now, I 
 think, to the front local autonomy, and the higher 
 training of the teacher. Centralization has done 
 its work, and decentralization (subject, of course, 
 to central control of a general kind) is now 
 necessary, if we are to engage the intellect and 
 moral energy of the country more fully in the 
 
204 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 work of education. This point, however, I shall 
 for the present pass by, for there is a more vital 
 question than decentralization that demands our 
 attention here and now ; and this question con- 
 cerns the inner agencies by which we are to work 
 the organization we at last, after a long contest, 
 happily possess. 
 
 The central motive power of the whole scholastic 
 machine is, by general consent, the teacher ; on 
 him, his ideals, his character, his method, his living 
 activity, all depends. Where he is weak the 
 organization is worthless, and precisely as he is 
 effective, so is the organization effective. Hence 
 the necessity for more, and more highly trained, 
 men and women. It was quite natural that 
 attention should be directed to the university 
 colleges springing up over England as the best 
 available agency for adding to the number and the 
 quality of the trained, especially as Board schools 
 were as undenominational in their character as 
 these colleges themselves. It was essential, more- 
 over, in their own interests, that these young 
 colleges should educate for the professions if they 
 were to succeed in attracting pupils. The medical 
 profession was open to them, and it was also open 
 to them so to organize their scheme of studies as 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 205 
 
 to give business men a more liberal education 
 than was common in commercial circles. It still, 
 however, remained for them to constitute them- 
 selves professional schools for teachers ; and, 
 doubtless, we shall one day find them attracting 
 apprentice solicitors by organizing a law faculty, 
 and apprentice clergymen by organizing a faculty 
 of theology embracing those subjects which the 
 Churches can leave to independent teaching. The 
 immediate and pressing work ready to their hand 
 was, however, unquestionably training for the 
 teaching profession ; and this, thanks to the liberal 
 views of Sir W. Hart Dyke and Mr. Kekewich, 
 they are now trying to do. 
 
 It would be ungracious on this occasion not 
 to name the vice-president and the permanent 
 secretary. I have had a long experience of 
 Government officials, and I know that much 
 depends on the mental attitude of the central 
 authority as represented by them. If they have 
 in view merely the working of "articles" in a 
 legal and bureaucratic spirit instead of using the 
 code as an instrument to promote the local 
 efforts being made by earnest men in every part 
 of the kingdom to advance education, they may 
 obstruct all progress and stamp out the most 
 
206 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 fruitful ideas. Codes may be so constructed and 
 administered as to help forward education, and 
 they may also be so constructed and administered 
 that every article is a trap for the unwary and an 
 obstacle to the zealous. The institutions, whether 
 university colleges like this or residential colleges, 
 which are doing the work of the State in training 
 schoolmasters, specially merit, I think, not only 
 the recognition which they have already secured 
 from the Department, but the most generous con- 
 sideration and the most liberal treatment. Every 
 article in the code should be strained in their 
 favour, not against them. The question for the 
 Department should not be how little can we 
 give, but rather how much can we give to promote 
 the better preparation of the men and women who 
 are to work the national system. Its chief duty is 
 to see that the training given is liberal and generous 
 in the spiritual sense, as justification for their being 
 liberal and generous in the material sense. 
 
 The two reasons we have assigned for the 
 university training college are the reasons we 
 give to the politician, and they are true and 
 sufficient reasons ; but there is a large idea in the 
 movement which, though not purposely concealed, 
 it is not always expedient to blazon on its front. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 207 
 
 It is difficult to get even academic men to take 
 action in service of an idea. Ideas are suspects. 
 The practical politician and the routine adminis- 
 trator would gladly arrest them as vagrants having 
 no visible means of subsistence, and put them in 
 gaol to be reduced by spare diet till wanted. 
 And there is, after all, some justification for 
 their conduct. An idea must be shown to be 
 practicable before it can be allowed to enter into 
 an administrative system ; and we are well con- 
 tent, accordingly, to have the official mind open 
 to accept ideas when their practicability can be 
 shown. In England, however, it is always wise to 
 put some purely practical purpose in the front, and 
 keep the idea and larger meaning of a movement 
 in the background. The most important move- 
 ment in our time, for example, next to the training 
 of the teacher, is the more advanced instruction 
 of members of trade unions the aristocracy of 
 the wage-earning class. What the educationalist 
 chiefly aims at is elevating the plane of the mental 
 life of the operative class, giving occupation for 
 their leisure, and a higher aim to their politics. 
 If we wish to succeed, we must demand the 
 " technical instruction " of the working-man. That 
 is the phrase to conjure with ; and there is enough 
 
208 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 
 of reality and substance in the demand to justify 
 us in joining in it. If the desire be to educate the 
 lower middle class, and provide good secondary 
 commercial schools, the educationalist, while to 
 save his honesty not committing himself, will yet 
 not exert himself to check the panic about the 
 German invasion of clerks, although he knows very 
 well that the German can afford to take a salary 
 which an Englishman, who has been trained to 
 write foreign languages, would certainly despise. 
 The German is here to be trained in English 
 commerce. He is, in truth, attending the great 
 mercantile university of England, and, like other 
 students of universities, he takes his reward out, 
 not in salary but in knowledge, and in growing 
 familiarity with the world-language the Volapuk 
 of trade. 
 
 In like manner, while there are solid practical 
 reasons, such as I have given above, for the 
 institution of university training colleges solid 
 and practical enough to justify the action taken 
 by the Education Department it is a purely 
 educational purpose which can alone engage pro- 
 fessional interest in the new movement. Let me 
 put before you briefly what I conceive this purpose 
 to be. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 209 
 
 I. The university colleges are at present con- 
 fessedly training for primary schools. This is a 
 work which, with slight adaptations of their 
 academic machinery, they are well fitted to do ; 
 but, ere many years have elapsed, their principal 
 work will be, I believe, the preparation of teachers 
 for the higher-grade elementary schools and for 
 secondary schools. We prefer university institu- 
 tions for the training of every grade of teacher to 
 specialized training colleges, simply because they 
 are not specialized. It is only in exceptional 
 circumstances, and under men of exceptional 
 ability, that a seminary restricted to one profes- 
 sion can do the best work for that profession. 
 There is, in truth, a radical error in the concep- 
 tion of an exclusive seminary for the edu- 
 cation of members of a profession. Teachers, 
 least of all men, should be set apart from their 
 fellow-citizens prematurely. They should breathe 
 the invigorating air of an institution where all 
 manner of men meet. There they come in daily 
 contact with a larger life and with more varied 
 intellectual interests than can possibly exist in 
 a specialist school, that limits its scope by the 
 horizon of examination papers imposed by out- 
 side authority, and subordinates everything to a 
 
 P 
 
210 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 practical aim which prescribes " thus far and 
 no farther." Contact with other men pursuing 
 diverse studies, even when unaided by any other 
 influence, counteracts the tendency to narrowness 
 and pedantry, by giving breadth to the student's 
 mind ; this is itself an education. The scholastic 
 pedant will not, I am aware, concur, for he can 
 see no gain to the human mind except in precise 
 and exact knowledge of this or that subject : he 
 ignores the educational influence of the indefinite. 
 2. Again, in universities young teachers are 
 brought into relation with experts in all depart- 
 ments of knowledge, and this raises their standard 
 of what it is to know any subject. They leave 
 with their testamur in their pockets, but well 
 aware that it is a testamur of ignorance and not 
 of learning. They have learned the lesson of 
 humility. In the ordinary seminarist students we 
 too commonly find that they cease studying after 
 they leave college ; their knowledge is rounded 
 off, their ignorance is their bliss. In the university- 
 trained man his ignorance is his misery, and 
 stimulates to further effort. He has a want which 
 can never be satisfied. Thus, living and pro- 
 gressive minds are sent into our schools, to the 
 great gain of the community ; for the teacher who 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 211 
 
 is not always learning is a bad teacher, however 
 skilfully he may produce certain " results." He 
 fails to give stimulus, and the intellectual outlook 
 and imagination of the pupil lie dead under him. 
 
 3. Further, the university-trained schoolmaster 
 imbibes some of the scientific spirit of the uni- 
 versity, and goes forth as a scientific worker, and 
 not as a mere craftsman. He has presumably 
 studied the philosophy of his art, and works 
 always with a dignified consciousness of his scien- 
 tific function. He goes out to teach, that by 
 teaching he may, in the largest sense, educate. 
 
 4. Finally, if he stays long enough to graduate, 
 the young teacher goes forth as a member of 
 an academic brotherhood. This gives him his 
 standard of life and his code of manners and 
 intercourse, by making him a conscious sharer 
 in a corporate self-respect. He thus, by his 
 academic standing, strengthens the body of 
 teachers as a guild having rights against the 
 community as well as owing duties to it. 
 
 These characteristics of the university man are, 
 it is to be confessed, not always present in the 
 youths whom universities turn out, but it is only 
 universities that produce them. When they are 
 present in a schoolmaster, he cannot keep them 
 
212 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 out of the influence he exercises, for they con- 
 stitute him ; and as is the man so is the teacher. 
 It is the influence of the universities and the 
 Church on the culture and status of the school- 
 master which have kept our great public schools 
 up to their present level as educational institutions; 
 and if only the scholarly men who work in these 
 schools were also professionally trained, we should 
 see great things. 
 
 There are many initial difficulties, financial and 
 other, which beset a new departure such as the 
 University Training College, and it is precisely 
 to those most closely connected with it that the 
 results will often seem most disappointing. But, in 
 truth, the new idea is itself accomplishing much 
 more than appears on the surface. In all uni- 
 versity work the teachers have a tendency to feel 
 despondent because of the small apparent result in 
 the new-fledged graduates who leave their hands. 
 This is as if a gardener were to feel hopeless about 
 the crop the day after he had sown the seed. The 
 flower and fruit will come in due time. In contact 
 with the duties of life the raw graduate develops 
 with amazing rapidity. 
 
 While trusting thus largely to the general 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 213 
 
 influences of a liberal education and of academic 
 life, the university training colleges have, generously 
 and of set purpose, to do their part ; they have to 
 remember that they are training to a profession. 
 The broad and various university interests are 
 necessary to the growth of the student ; but there 
 must also be the definite aim. So far from weaken- 
 ing, unity of aim strengthens and deepens the 
 impression which studies make, because unity of 
 aim gives moral purpose. It is a vulgar error to 
 suppose that only knowledge which is pursued for 
 its own sake is alone liberalizing. Is it not rather 
 the case that what is studied with a view to its 
 being turned to use among our fellow-men exalts 
 pursuits otherwise abstract and unattractive, and 
 throws over them a certain emotional glow ? Use, 
 and the purpose of use, alone give life and meaning 
 to the abstract. It is the ultimate use to which 
 they are to be applied that gives unity as well as 
 life to the diverse studies and influences of the 
 university. Nay, may we not say that, of all 
 knowledge, use is at once the consecration and 
 the criticism ? 
 
 In the case of the schoolmaster, then, all the 
 knowledge acquired in college must contemplate 
 one issue the qualification to teach and to educate. 
 
214 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 For this, as all admit, a practising school and a 
 master of method are essential; but, over and above, 
 there is needed the scientific study of education 
 under a master in the philosophy of the human 
 mind. If there be not this, then assuredly the 
 specific tmiversity training of the teacher is non- 
 existent. It is scientific or philosophic preparation 
 for a profession that can alone liberalize it. It is 
 an historical blunder to suppose that " liberal " edu- 
 cation ever meant the pursuit of subjects divorced 
 from the needs of practical life. A rtes liberates were 
 first so called by way of contrast to the mechanical 
 and industrial arts. The study of philosophy and 
 history in their educational relations should, 
 accordingly, take its place as one of the subjects 
 qualifying for an Arts degree. 
 
 It is only by calling to mind a few great indi- 
 viduals that we can be proud of our profession. 
 Isocrates, Quintilian, Sturm, Comenius, Pestalozzi, 
 Arnold, and so forth, soon exhaust our list. On 
 the whole, we can look back on a past mainly 
 ignoble, and on generations of boys who have 
 learned what they have learned spite of their 
 masters. The Orbilius plagosus, the pedant, the 
 dominie, the brutal despot, fill the eye. The 
 classical epithets are saevus, acerbus, sceleratus ; 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 215 
 
 and Martial speaks of the schoolmaster as invisum 
 pueris virginibusque caput. If we are now to recon- 
 stitute the profession by giving to each member all 
 that is best in the past, as illuminated and organized 
 by modern thought, we must lay our foundations 
 in history and philosophy. A Chair of Educa- 
 tion, then, is to my mind an essential part of the 
 university training college. The arts faculty must 
 be augmented by the addition of a teacher 
 whose subjects shall be mind as a growth and 
 the history of attempts to educate mind. Educa- 
 tion as a science or philosophy must be taught. 
 Without philosophy, the best teacher is merely a 
 clever craftsman. If the universities are unable 
 to appoint a Professor of Education for want of 
 money, why should not the Education Depart- 
 ment be more liberal ? Failing the Depart- 
 ment, why should not the County Councils of 
 Liverpool and Lancashire step in and pay the 
 salaries both of masters of method and professors 
 of education, as I suggested at Manchester last 
 September? The work in which these men are 
 to be engaged is the highest kind of technical 
 work, and seems to be covered by the English 
 Technical School Acts ; or, at least, not prohibited 
 by them. If the County Council of Cambridge- 
 
216 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 shire can offer money to the university to teach 
 agriculture and teachers of agriculture, why not to 
 teach teaching and teachers generally ? 
 
 Again, to attain the results which we hope for 
 from our university training colleges, the authori- 
 ties must be careful in selecting the material which 
 they undertake to train. I think that you may 
 (as, indeed, some colleges are now doing) supervise 
 and direct the training of those who are fit to 
 benefit only partially by an academic course, and 
 be content to carry them forward to the " inter- 
 mediate " examination ; but work of this kind 
 must always, to a large extent, lie outside an 
 academic organization. Your main object should 
 be to attract those among pupil teachers and 
 the rest of the community who can be carried 
 forward to their full degree, the philosophy, history, 
 and art of education being included (as I have 
 already indicated) as one of the subjects qualifying 
 for that degree. These graduate-teachers would 
 naturally aim at higher-grade elementary institu- 
 tions ; and the day would soon arrive when none 
 save a graduate would be considered eligible to a 
 head-mastership in all the more important State- 
 aided schools. This surely would be to render 
 a great public service to England ; and it is this 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 217 
 
 which university colleges are alone qualified to 
 render. 
 
 Whatever may be the difficulties, financial and 
 other, that attend the new movement, a good time 
 is at hand. Secondary schoolmasters, as well as 
 primary, will have to be trained. A Teachers' 
 Registration Act ought to fill your halls. When I 
 was examined on this subject last spring by the 
 Parliamentary Committee, it was evident that the 
 vice-president of the Council and others were 
 concerned about the means of getting professional 
 training for the large numbers of young men and 
 women who would have to seek it after the passing 
 of an Act. I pointed to the universities and their 
 colleges. These institutions now provide all our 
 legitimate secondary school teachers. If they can 
 do this, they can also give them their professional 
 training, drawing into their net, besides, those who 
 now open schools at their own venture, often with 
 small qualification. It would be a great mistake 
 to have separate training colleges for secondary 
 schoolmasters. It would be hurtful in itself and 
 a waste of existing resources. There are now 
 already in England and Wales some thirteen or 
 fourteen institutions ready to do the work which 
 the State, by passing a Registration Act, would 
 
218 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 demand to have done somehow. The State, by 
 thus utilizing the higher educational institutions 
 which it already recognizes, would get its secondary 
 schoolmasters at a very cheap rate, while con- 
 tributing by the increased number of students to 
 the financial prosperity and the national impor- 
 tance of all the provincial colleges. The passing 
 of a Registration Act, then, is your opportunity. 
 
 As there are some vague ideas abroad as to the 
 course of instruction for secondary schoolmasters, 
 I should like to take this opportunity of giving 
 some indication of the lines on which it would 
 naturally proceed. During their graduation course 
 they should, if possible, take a term of logic 
 and psychology, and then attend for two terms 
 (followed by examination) the lectures of the 
 professor of education, whose instruction would 
 cover the field of applied psychology, history, and 
 methodology. After graduating in the department 
 of knowledge which they intended to profess as 
 teachers (the psychological and educational studies 
 being included in these degree qualifications), they 
 would then spend one term under the general 
 superintendence of the professor and the special 
 direction of the master of method in a practising 
 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 219 
 
 school some good higher-grade elementary school 
 in the university town. In that school they would 
 see teaching and themselves teach. Demonstra- 
 tion lessons would be given in their presence, and 
 they would also be carried through a course of 
 criticism lessons. A second term would be spent 
 in some good secondary school the criticism 
 lessons still continuing. If distributed, these 
 student-teachers would not injure the work of the 
 schools in which they taught, but, on the contrary, 
 stimulate it. Having already passed an examina- 
 tion in principles, history, and; methods when 
 taking their degree, they would conclude their 
 course by teaching a class before the professor 
 and some other examiner, and so finally qualify 
 for a license or diploma which the Registration 
 Council and the State would, of course, recognize. 
 All this could be carried on under a university 
 syndicate for the training of teachers such as 
 already exists at Cambridge and here. The 
 licensed graduates would then and only then 
 be entitled to say that they were members not 
 only of an academic body (as at present), but also 
 of a great profession. Certain public schools in 
 various parts of the country should be thrown 
 open for visitation by these licentiates, who would 
 
220 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 do well to spend a couple of months in thus 
 laying a broad basis of experience for their future. 
 The most important agency in training the 
 teacher, whether primary or secondary, in the 
 practice of his art as distinct from the theory and 
 history of education, is the criticism lesson to 
 which I have adverted above. As the criticism 
 lesson is not fully understood outside training 
 colleges, I may say a word or two about it : The 
 student is required to prepare a lesson to be taught 
 by him to a certain class at a certain stage of 
 progress. This he does in the presence of his 
 fellow-students, who take notes, and after he has 
 finished, criticize. But it is not desirable to give 
 them license in criticism, and, with a view to point 
 and relevancy, they should have guidance. A very 
 good specimen of the rules which ought to regulate 
 the remarks of the critic are those in use at the 
 Seminarium Prcsceptorium^ at Halle : 
 
 I. Choice and arrangement of material by the 
 student giving the lesson, i. Was the amount 
 of material in fair proportion to the allotted 
 time ? 2. Was the material duly sifted, 
 properly divided, and appropriately brought 
 to a unity? 3. Was the plan of the lesson 
 clear ? 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 221' 
 
 II. Manner of treatment, i. Did the teach- 
 ing follow a systematic and appropriate order? 
 2. Was the lesson clearly presented, logically 
 developed, and firmly impressed on the minds 
 of the pupils, and so forth ? 3. How was the 
 questioning managed, and were the questions 
 fairly divided among the pupils ? 
 
 III. The personality of the teacher. What 
 was the teacher's bearing? Was he fresh, 
 stimulating, and alive ? Did he master the 
 class by look and voice ? Was his language 
 correct, concentrated, clear, concise ? Was 
 his reading worthy of being taken as a model ? 
 Was his personal manner commendable ? 
 
 IV. Discipline. Did the teacher keep the 
 whole class busy all the time ? Did he secure 
 the attention of the pupils and make them all 
 share in the work in equal degree ? Did he 
 give them recreation by pauses, opportunity 
 to stand, recitation in concert, and the like ? 
 Did he have his eyes and ears open for mis- 
 demeanours, or did many things happen which 
 he did not notice or did not consider ? 
 
 V. The general importance and success of the 
 lesson. 
 
 The " practical master of method " would, of 
 
222 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 course, preside at these lessons ; but the professor 
 should be generally present and take part in the 
 criticism, summing up, and sometimes even testing 
 the success of the lesson given by an extem- 
 pore examination of the class, when the subject 
 admitted of it. 
 
 Let me repeat, because I think it a vital point, 
 that I do not consider that the universities are 
 equipped for the work of training teachers either 
 elementary or secondary until they have, in addi- 
 tion to a master of method and a practising school, 
 a professor of education, who will be the head or 
 dean of the education faculty, so to speak. They 
 should also have an education library containing 
 some dozen copies of each of all the more im- 
 portant books, besides two or three copies of many 
 others. There should also be an educational 
 museum, fostered and managed by the local guild, 
 and in connection with it a hall, in which educa- 
 tional questions might be discussed, and of which 
 every student of education should be a member. 
 
 I have presumed that the State would recog- 
 nize the university license or diploma, music and 
 drawing being separately attested the latter by 
 the local School of Art. The State would thus, it 
 may be said, be delegating its work to universities. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 223 
 
 But why not ? The universities are themselves 
 privileged State institutions for the professions. 
 The Education Department need never part with 
 the right of inquiry from time to time a right 
 which I suppose the Medical Council exercises as 
 regards the medical faculties. If closer supervision 
 were needed, with a view to prevent one university 
 underselling another by lowering its standard, a 
 Senior Inspector of schools might be attached as 
 an assessor to the examining bodies in the uni- 
 versities. By granting this independence to the 
 universities, excessive centralization of educational 
 administration would be got rid of in a very vital 
 matter. Different types of higher - grade and 
 secondary schoolmasters would be sent out. All 
 government, of course, is centralization more or 
 less. In some things it is indispensable ; in war- 
 like defence, for example, and in certain public 
 services which have to do with the mechanical 
 and industrial parts of the social organism ; but 
 State centralization of the moral forces of society 
 is always questionable too often fatal. 
 
 Professional qualification, theoretical and prac- 
 tical (such as I have sketched), can alone make the 
 teaching body truly a profession. Without this, it 
 
224 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 is not even a guild. From time immemorial, guilds 
 have demanded specific qualifications for " master- 
 ship," as, indeed, our university guilds do at this day. 
 The qualification of a master in the teaching guild 
 can, it is evident, alone rest on the study of the mind 
 of man as a growing mind/for so only can be ascer- 
 tained the ends, ways, and means of growth. We 
 aim at constituting such a guild an incorporated 
 body of educated men with a great educational 
 tradition, which it would be their business to pass 
 on to their successors. How else can the fires, 
 from time to time lighted by an educational genius 
 here and there, be kept burning ? They go out, 
 and have to be lighted again and again. We are 
 thus, from age to age, too much at the mercy of 
 individuals. 
 
 The academic professional training of teachers 
 would, I am certain, infuse a new spirit into all 
 our schools, and raise the character and aim of 
 every subject of instruction. The study of the 
 philosophy of mind, for example, would, itself 
 alone, compel the recognition of the ethical pur- 
 pose of all school-work. It would thus tend to 
 animate the teacher with a religious zeal, now 
 sadly lacking in our schools. The philosophy 
 of mind in its educational bearing necessarily 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 225 
 
 includes the study of the moral and religious in- 
 stincts of man. It reveals the religious idea as the 
 highest expression of the life of mind, intellectual 
 and ethical, and as the intimate support and sanction 
 of right conduct. Religion is thus seen to be a 
 necessary, and not an arbitrary, element in the 
 education of the young. Without it all education 
 is barren. The whole method of education con- 
 templates the end and aim as dominant and first ; 
 and that end is the spiritual life. When religion, 
 in its broader aspects and essential meaning, is 
 thus recognized by the student-teacher on scientific 
 grounds, as something interwoven with every act 
 of the school and as the summit and crown of the 
 school-work, it will occupy a very different place 
 in his estimate of his daily function to that which 
 it now does, when regarded, as it too often is, as 
 a system of doctrine and belief which is to be 
 somehow added on to other attainments as some- 
 thing to be learned, and not as something to be 
 lived. The tendency among teachers and taught 
 alike is to look on religion as a " subject " to be 
 " got up " alongside of other things, and not as 
 the unum necessarium which is to give purpose 
 and stimulus to the teacher, and daily sustenance 
 to the pupil. When I said above that the philo- 
 
 Q 
 
226 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 
 sophy of mind gives inspiration to the school- 
 master, I meant chiefly this, that it gives him an 
 ideal of the education of the human spirit, and 
 enlists him in the spiritual army as a conscious 
 and willing militant. It is this that exalts, and 
 this which, under the difficulties and vexations of 
 school-work, can alone sustain. Whatever system 
 of belief a teacher may accept and inculcate, he 
 is compelled by his philosophy ever to subordinate 
 all to the one thing needful the spiritual ideal 
 of life. The teaching and bearing of such a master 
 convey their influence into every department of 
 his work and give it dignity. This is what is 
 meant by the old Catholic dictum that religion 
 should permeate the school. 
 
 There is such a thing, I freely grant, as teaching 
 genius, which is independent of tradition and 
 training, whether university or any other. There 
 are teachers also who, though destitute of anything 
 which can be called genius, are yet thoughtful 
 and earnest men, endowed with a fair share of 
 imagination and humour, in whom the routine 
 methods of the school are vivified into living 
 principles ; but, in the great majority of cases, 
 the inherited and unrationalized methods of the 
 school workshop govern successive generations 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 227 
 
 of teachers. The consequence is that the school- 
 master stands, in relation to his profession, pre- 
 cisely where the unscientific mechanic stands in 
 relation to his particular trade. Save in a few 
 exceptional cases of great native endowment, I 
 am persuaded that it is only insight into philo- 
 sophical principles that can give continuous 
 ethical stimulus to the teacher : it is the ap- 
 prehension of educational ideals that can alone 
 sustain and inspire him ; it is contact with the 
 history of past efforts to educate the race that can 
 alone give to him breadth and humanity. With- 
 out the sustaining energy and ideal impulse which 
 flow from these studies, the teacher's vocation is, it 
 seems to me, dreary enough. With them, there is 
 a renewal of moral purpose and educational faith 
 every morning. 
 
 It is a beneficent arrangement of nature, doubt- 
 less, that enables so many men to work by rule 
 and routine, " circling like a gin-horse," as Carlyle 
 says, "for whom partial or total blindness is no 
 evil, round and round, still fancying that it is 
 forward and forward, and realize much for himself 
 victuals, for the world an additional horse's power 
 in the grand corn-mill or hemp-mill of economic 
 society." But it is not such men we want for the 
 
228 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 spiritual work of a community the building up 
 of the intellectual and moral fabric of mind. We 
 cannot command the services of genius, but we 
 can at least, through a spiritual philosophy, give 
 to all, save those whom nature has destined to be 
 hodmen, a certain inspiration and a certain method ; 
 and inspiration is the fount of enthusiasm, while 
 method regulates it. We want ethical fervour in 
 the teacher ; but not at all that kind of enthusiasm 
 which is the mere effervescence of aerated water. 
 " How," to quote Carlyle again, " can an inanimate, 
 mechanical gerund-grinder, the like of whom will, 
 in a subsequent century, be manufactured at 
 Niirnberg out of wood and leather, foster the 
 growth of anything ; much more of Mind, which 
 grows, not like a vegetable (by having its roots 
 littered with etymological compost), but like a 
 Spirit, by mysterious contact of Spirit ; Thought 
 kindling itself at the fire of Living Thought ? 
 How should he give kindling, in whose inward 
 man there is no live coal, but all is burnt out to 
 a dead grammatical cinder ? The Hinterschlag 
 professors knew syntax enough, and of the human 
 soul thus much : that it had a faculty called 
 Memory, and could be acted on through the 
 muscular integument by appliance of birch-rods. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 229 
 
 Alas ! so it is everywhere ; so will it ever ; till 
 the hodman is discharged, or reduced to hod-bear- 
 ing ; and an architect is hired, and on all hands 
 fitly encouraged ; till communities and individuals 
 discover, not without surprise, that fashioning the 
 souls of a generation by knowledge can rank on 
 a level with blowing their bodies to pieces by 
 gunpowder." Things are not so bad now as when 
 Carlyle wrote these words ; but, in so far as they 
 are better, it is due to the gradual and insensible 
 recognition of philosophy and method, even by 
 those who affect to despise both. Give us the 
 university training of teachers, and Carlyle's 
 graphic words will ere long have only the anti- 
 quarian interest of an inscription on an Egyptian 
 mummy-case. 
 
 NOTE. Richard Mulcaster, the author of "The Positions," 
 born in 1530, and Head Master of Merchant Taylors' School, 
 London, was the first man in England to advocate the training of 
 teachers. Mr. Quick, in his " Educational Biographies," gives 
 the following extract from Mulcaster's book, which is of so great 
 interest as to merit reproduction here along with Mr. Quick's 
 introductory remarks. 
 
 ' ' Of all the educational reforms of the nineteenth century, by far 
 the most fruitful and most expansive is, in my opinion, the training 
 of teachers. In this, as in most educational matters, the English, 
 though advancing, are in the rear. Far more is made of ' training ' 
 on the Continent and in the United States than in England. And 
 yet we made a good start. Our early writers on education saw 
 that the teacher has immense influence, and that to turn this 
 
230 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 influence to good account he must have made a study of his pro- 
 fession and have learnt ' the best that has been thought and done ' 
 in it. Every occupation in life has a traditional capital of know- 
 ledge and experience, and those who intend to follow the business, 
 whatever it may be, are required to go through some kind of 
 training or apprenticeship before they earn wages. To this rule 
 there is but one exception. In English elementary schools children 
 are paid to ' teach ' children, and in the higher schools the beginner 
 is allowed to blunder at the expense of his first pupils into what- 
 ever skill he may in the end manage to pick up. But our English 
 practice received no encouragement from the early English writers, 
 Mulcaster, Brinsley, 1 and Hoole. 
 
 " As far as I am aware, the first suggestion of a training college 
 for teachers came from Mulcaster. He schemed seven special 
 
 1 John Brinsley (the elder), who married a sister of Bishop Hall's, 
 and kept school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch (was it the Grammar School?), 
 was one of the best English writers on education. In his Consola- 
 tion for our Grammar Schooles, published early in the sixteen 
 hundreds, he says : "Amongst others myself having first had long 
 experience of the manifold evils which grow from the ignorance of 
 a right order of teaching, and afterwards some gracious taste of the 
 sweetness that is to be found in the better courses truly known and 
 practised, I have betaken me almost wholly, for many years, unto 
 this weighty work, and that not without much comfort, through 
 the goodness of our blessed God " (p. i). " And for the most part 
 wherein any good is done, it is ordinarily effected by the endless 
 vexation of the painful master, the extreme labour and terror of the 
 poor children with enduring far overmuch and long severity. Now, 
 whence proceedeth all this but because so few of those who under- 
 take this function are acquainted with any good method or right 
 order of instruction fit for a grammar school ? " (p. 2). It is sad 
 to think how many generations have since suffered from teachers 
 " unacquainted with any good method or right order of instruction." 
 And it seems to justify Goethe's dictum, " Der Engldnder ist 
 eigentlich ohne Intelligenz" that for several generations to come 
 this evil will be but partially abated. 
 
UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 231 
 
 colleges at the University ; and of these one is for teachers. Some 
 of his suggestions, e.g., about ' University Readers ' have lately 
 
 en adopted, though without acknowledgment ; and as the 
 University of Cambridge has since 1879 acknowledged the existence 
 of teachers, and appointed a ' Teachers' Training Syndicate,* we 
 may perhaps in a few centuries more carry out his scheme, and 
 have training colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. 1 Some of the 
 reasons he gives us have not gone out of date with his English. 
 They are as follows : 
 
 " 'And why should not these men (the teachers) have both this 
 sufficiency in learning, and such room to rest in, thence to be 
 chosen and set forth for the common service ? Be either children 
 or schools so small a portion of our multitude ? or is the framing of 
 young minds and the training of their bodies so mean a point 
 of cunning? Be schoolmasters in this Realm such a paucity, as 
 they are not even in good sadness to be soundly thought on ? If 
 the chancel have a minister, the belfry hath a master : and where 
 youth is, as it is eachwhere, there must be trainers, or there will 
 be worse. He that will not allow of this careful provision for such 
 a seminary of masters, is most unworthy either to have had a good 
 master himself, or hereafter to have a good one for his. Why 
 should not teachers be well provided for, to continue their whole 
 life in the school, as Divines, Lawyers, Physicians do in their 
 several professions ? Thereby judgment, cunning, and discretion 
 will grow in them : and masters would prove old men, and such as 
 Xenophon setteth over children in the schooling of Cyrus. Whereas 
 now, the school being used but for a shift, afterward to pass thence 
 to the other professions, though it send out very sufficient men to 
 them, itself remaineth too too naked, considering the necessity 
 of the thing. I conclude, therefore, that this trade requireth a 
 particular college, for these four causes. I. First, for the subject 
 being the mean to make or mar the whole fry of our State. 2. 
 Secondly, for the number, whether of them that are to learn, or of 
 
 1 At Cambridge (as also in London and Edinburgh) there is 
 already a Training College for Women Teachers in Secondary 
 Schools. 
 
232 UNIVERSITY TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 them that are to teach. 3. Thirdly, for the necessity of the pro- 
 fession, which may not be spared. 4. Fourthly, for the matter of 
 their study, which is comparable to the greatest professions, for 
 language, for judgment, for skill how to train, for variety in all 
 points of learning, wherein the framing of the mind and the exer- 
 cising of the body craveth exquisite consideration, beside the 
 staidness of the person.'" 
 
VIII. 
 
 EVIDENCE GIVEN APRIL 17, 1891, 
 BEFORE A SELECT PARLIAMENT- 
 ARY COMMITTEE ON A TEACHERS' 
 REGISTRATION AND ORGANIZA- 
 TION BILL. 1 
 
 MR. ARTHUR ACLAND. 
 
 Witness. In reply to a question : A departmental 
 committee of the Scotch Education Department, 
 after taking evidence, thought a graduate class 
 [university graduates in preparation for the teach- 
 ing profession] ought to have six months' course 
 at a training college, in which they would be put 
 through, not only the ordinary practice of teaching, 
 but also (and this is of far more importance than 
 the practice of teaching), what are called by train- 
 
 1 Parts of the evidence which do not bear directly on registration 
 have been omitted. As the evidence stands as it was spoken, the 
 reader will excuse defects of language. 
 
23* EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 ing college authorities all over Great Britain, 
 criticism lessons. In these, students are asked to 
 teach a class in the presence of the master of 
 method and their fellow-students, and then, after 
 having taught the class, are subjected to the 
 criticism both of their fellow-students and the 
 master of method. The departmental committee 
 recommended that they should have a six months' 
 course of this kind. 
 
 1634. The report of that departmental com- 
 mittee was a Parliamentary paper, I suppose ? 
 Yes; [C 5336.] 1888. 
 
 1635. Is there any other special point in connec- 
 tion with the actual work you have been conducting 
 which you would like to refer to before we go to 
 more general matters ? I should like to say that, 
 as regards the professional training of teachers, 
 there is a pretty strong opinion entertained in 
 Scotland that the other Scotch universities should 
 undertake work similar to that which has been 
 undertaken by the University of Edinburgh, 
 where a schoolmaster's diploma is now given ; and 
 it is generally understood that the Universities 
 Executive Commission now sitting in Scotland 
 will either make direct provision for chairs of 
 education or lectureships of education in the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 235 
 
 universities, or take such measures as will lead to 
 such chairs or lectureships being founded. 
 
 1636. The hope is generally entertained in 
 Scotland that that will be one of their recom- 
 mendations ? Yes ; that is the general feeling 
 among the teaching class. 
 
 1637. I may say this, I suppose, while Scotland 
 is forward in so many educational matters, in the 
 actual matter of a fuller development of secondary 
 education and its organization there is still a good 
 deal to be done in Scotland ? As regards organi- 
 zation, everything to be done. 
 
 1638. When you get that which you are hoping 
 for, I suppose the demand for secondary teachers 
 will be greater than now ? No doubt. 
 
 1639. And that would at once increase the work 
 of your chair or other chairs of a similar kind ? 
 Yes ; and make them necessary. 
 
 1640. As to professional training for teachers, 
 will you tell us your general opinion upon that 
 subject? I think the teacher should be carried 
 through a course of what is called the science or 
 principles of education, and the methods of instruc- 
 tion and education as based on those principles, 
 and following from them ; also a course on the 
 history of education, so as to liberalize his mind 
 
236 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 on all questions of education, and to enable him to 
 form a sound judgment regarding questions that 
 come up. 
 
 1641. Would you illustrate the methods at the 
 same time by practising schools ? There should 
 be' a means of connecting the Chair with some 
 practising school or schools, especially schools 
 organized for the purpose of training teachers, so that 
 the student might see illustrations and methods of 
 instruction, see good teachers teach, and receive 
 criticism lessons with a view to his learning to do 
 the work himself. 
 
 1642. Would you desire that facilities in that 
 direction should be given in secondary schools 
 beyond those that now exist in practising schools ? 
 It would be desirable that those intending to 
 become teachers in secondary schools should spend 
 a portion of their time in a high school, such as the 
 high school of Edinburgh or Glasgow. 
 
 1643. Do you suppose that the authorities of 
 the high school would be willing to permit such 
 an arrangement ? I have not the slightest doubt 
 that they would, especially if suggested by the 
 Department. 
 
 1644. If I understand you rightly, you think 
 that the necessary training cannot be got by 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 237 
 
 merely taking an assistant's post and going at 
 work at once in a school? No, I think such a 
 plan may make a very bad teacher : a man takes 
 an assistant's post, he begins to practice teaching 
 children before he has had any instruction, and of 
 course may thus form very bad habits. The school 
 in which he is an assistant may be a school that is 
 called " efficient," but it may not be a school calcu- 
 lated to teach a teacher to teach. 
 
 1645. If he went to a specially selected school 
 under a skilled head-master, would that meet the 
 requirements of the case ? If certain schools were 
 selected under a good head-master, no doubt some 
 of the objections I take to the place of training 
 would be obviated ; but the student in such a case 
 would after all be simply in the position of a 
 medical apprentice in a good surgery. It would 
 be like training a medical man by sending him 
 to be apprenticed in a surgery, and then after a 
 certain amount of apprenticeship practice, in which 
 he would learn all sorts of bad habits and get his 
 mind habituated to certain ways of doing things, 
 sending him to walk the hospitals, and study 
 medical science. He would walk the hospitals 
 and study science too late ; and it was because of 
 the total failure of such an apprenticeship system 
 
238 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 to give a proper training to medical men that the 
 modern system has been adopted, whereby a man 
 studies the principles and methods in physic first, 
 and then takes his practice in the latter part of his 
 course. 
 
 1646. You would like to see a graduate, and I 
 suppose they would be mostly graduates, who was 
 going to undertake the work of teaching in a 
 secondary school at once, as soon as he took his 
 degree, or before he took his degree, go through a 
 course in the method and science of education ? 
 Yes, either in the last year of his graduation [course] 
 or immediately after it, and also take practice under 
 supervision in a school specially designed for 
 training him. That would occupy a certain length 
 of time ; I think six months would be sufficient, 
 because a graduate is a man of some education 
 and mental discipline, and he could much more 
 quickly acquire the methods and art of education 
 than a raw youth who comes up to a training college 
 for the first time, after having acquired bad habits 
 as a pupil teacher. 
 
 1647. Have you observed that in Scotland there 
 is a great deal of waste due to want of training ? 
 Yes. I have been in the habit of visiting schools 
 in Scotland for the last thirty-five years, more 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 239 
 
 especially in the north-east of Scotland, where, 
 following the tradition of the country, every 
 teacher in a country school, with perhaps not 
 more than four per cent, of exceptions, is a 
 graduate of Aberdeen. The masters in the 
 country parochial schools are all highly competent 
 men ; no country in the world possesses men, 
 occupying elementary schools, so highly com- 
 petent as regards knowledge and attainments as 
 the masters of the parochial schools in the north- 
 east of Aberdeen ; and yet among them there is 
 great waste of power. 
 
 1648. You lay stress on the words "knowledge 
 and attainment " ? Yes ; when they first enter the 
 schools they have to feel their way towards methods, 
 and it takes some years before they feel themselves 
 masters of the subject notwithstanding their intelli- 
 gence and attainments, and only a few of them ever 
 acquire complete command over their material. 
 
 1649. If I understand you right, you have in 
 Scotland a large number of teachers who have 
 been assistant teachers in elementary or public 
 schools, and who have been to a training college 
 in the same way as in England ? Yes ; a very 
 large proportion of the teachers have passed 
 through that kind of preparation. 
 
2 4 o EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 1650. You have a considerable number of what 
 we call elementary teachers, but, unlike England, 
 you have a considerable number who are gra- 
 duates, and who have not been at a training college 
 at all ? Yes ; one-seventh of the total number are 
 graduates. 
 
 1651. Though their attainments are higher, they 
 are very much crippled by not having gone 
 through a training course? Yes, though a con- 
 siderable number have also gone through a training 
 college course. The attainments of a graduate 
 are higher, his aims are higher, and he is a better 
 man all round, perhaps, than one who is not a 
 graduate ; but he is so defective in the matter of 
 skill as a teacher, that you will find that the 
 governing bodies of secondary schools are even 
 beginning to appoint training college students with 
 very much less attainment as assistant masters, 
 simply because they can teach. 
 
 1652. Are you speaking of academies and high 
 schools ? Yes. 
 
 MR. ROBY. 
 
 1653. Do you use the word "academies" as 
 indicating any special class ? No ; I use it as a 
 general term for secondary schools. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 241 
 
 MR. ARTHUR ACLAND. 
 
 1654. The point you are bringing before us is 
 that in such secondary schools the value of train- 
 ing is set such store on by the governing body or 
 the head-master that they will take a man of 
 lower attainments, if trained, in preference to one 
 of higher attainments without that training ? 
 Yes. 
 
 1655. Then when we come to the question of 
 registration, a register without an indication of a 
 man's professional training would not be of much 
 service ? I think in Scotland the omission of what 
 might be called the professional qualification from 
 the register would make the Registration Act very 
 much a dead letter, because, the number of our 
 universities being so great in proportion to the 
 population, the tradition of the country is to take 
 graduates as teachers in secondary and other 
 schools. These would have the qualification as 
 regards knowledge. There would, of course, be 
 no objection to such a Registration Act in Scot- 
 land, because it would not alter the existing 
 practice ; but it would do little good. 
 
 1656. That is to say, if the degree alone was suf- 
 ficient qualification for registration I -Yes, it would 
 
 or 2 
 
242 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 not affect us, because we have that ; the tradition 
 of the country has secured that already. 
 
 1657. It would not bring about the improvement 
 you desire? No; the main object in Scotland of 
 having registration is to ensure that every man 
 who goes into a secondary or any school from 
 the universities shall have had professional train- 
 ing in the principles, methods, and practice of 
 education. 
 
 1658. You are giving illustrations from Scotland, 
 but you would say exactly the same in regard to 
 England, as far as the broad principle is con- 
 cerned ? Yes ; and my views are not merely 
 theoretical views, because for thirty-five years I 
 have been going into schools constantly, and 
 reporting on schools in connection with various 
 endowments in Scotland. 
 
 1659. Have you done that for the Education 
 Department ? No ; I had to do that before the 
 Act of 1872, in connection with the Church of 
 Scotland ; I had to do it also for thirty-five years 
 in connection with the Dick Bequest Trust, which 
 is a bequest for higher instruction in parochial 
 schools, and I gained considerable experience also 
 as secretary to the Endowed Schools Commission 
 of 1872. [Colebrook Commission.] 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 243 
 
 SIR HENRY ROSCOE. 
 
 1660. The Dick Bequest applies only to a small 
 area? Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray; what may 
 be called the Aberdeen University district. I 
 speak from a practical point of view, and not from 
 a theoretical only, when I say that a Registration 
 Act which left out the teaching qualification, cer- 
 tainly would have no interest for me as an educa- 
 tionalist. 
 
 1 66 1. Then what diplomas would you recognize? 
 That would be a matter for any council that 
 was constituted to settle afterwards : I would 
 begin by recognizing any education diploma which 
 was instituted by any university, provided the 
 conditions of taking that diploma were satisfactory 
 to the council ; and then I should recognize also 
 all certificates granted by training college authori- 
 ties in England and Scotland, because whatever 
 the attainments of a normal training college 
 student might be, he would at least be trained 
 professionally, and therefore we ought to recognize 
 his training ; then I would also require training 
 colleges in England and Scotland (though denomi- 
 national institutions, they are in a sense national 
 institutions) to throw open their training not their 
 
244 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 teaching of subjects, but their training to all men 
 who had a certain qualification as regards attain- 
 ments [e.g. graduates], and give them a six months' 
 course. I would say, for example, that any young 
 man who could show that he had a certain amount 
 of attainment should be allowed to go to the 
 Battersea Training College, or to the British and 
 Foreign Training College, and say, " Here is my 
 fee ; I want six months' training." I think it would 
 do a good deal to nationalize such institutions. 
 
 1662. Those young men that you speak of 
 would be day pupils, or whatever we may call 
 them, at the residential training colleges ? Yes, 
 they would go to the training college as they 
 would go to any university ; it would increase the 
 influence of the training colleges enormously if 
 they were known to provide such a course as this 
 for men and women who wished to be teachers. 
 
 1663. The course ending with a certificate, 
 which would be of real value ? Yes, the certificate 
 would be a qualification for registration. It may 
 be said there would be a difficulty in finding a 
 sufficient number of places of professional training 
 in the event of a compulsory Registration Act 
 being passed ; but I think there would not be any 
 [serious] difficulty in that respect, because the uni- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 245 
 
 versities would at once adapt themselves to it ; in 
 fact, Cambridge is doing so. Cambridge has for 
 some time granted schoolmasters' certificates, so 
 has the London University, and so has the Edin- 
 burgh University. All colleges under the " day 
 training college" system would adapt themselves 
 to granting such diplomas. Then all the [resi- 
 dential] training colleges of the country, if thrown 
 open to the extent I have indicated, would be utilized 
 for general purposes in the same way. Voluntary 
 institutions would also grow up. One voluntary 
 institution for women has been established and 
 has existed for some time in Edinburgh. There 
 is one also in London and in Cheltenham and 
 Cambridge. 
 
 1664. This is all, assuming that there is com- 
 pulsion at the back of the Bill ? Certainly. 
 
 1665. You think that is possible, do you ? I 
 hold the opinion that a teacher who advertises 
 himself to take all and sundry, or who is appointed 
 to any public school, ought to have the professional 
 qualification for his work just like a member of 
 any other profession. 
 
 1666. Suppose there were difficulties in the way 
 of passing a Bill with such a provision through 
 Parliament, would you think it desirable to say 
 
246 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 that schools in the receipt of public money from 
 whatever source should at least be required to 
 take teachers with such qualifications? There 
 could be no objection to that, because already 
 endowed schools require that teachers, under 
 certain circumstances, should be graduates of some 
 university. It would be a great advantage if you 
 could also add [to the existing requirements] that 
 they shall have been professionally trained for 
 their work. 
 
 1667. That after a certain time that should be an 
 additional requirement ? Yes, time must be given. 
 
 1668. You think that, at any rate, would be a 
 fair requirement to make ? Yes. 
 
 1669. And you would like to go beyond that 
 afterwards ? I should, if sufficient time was given 
 before the Act became compulsory, certainly go 
 much further. I should say that after a certain 
 date every one who proposed to become a teacher 
 should show that he had a professional qualifi- 
 cation for his work, and knew the theory and art 
 of it. That, indeed, is only what the Government 
 has required for the last forty years in the case 
 of elementary education. It would be simply ex- 
 tending to secondary schools what has been done 
 for primary schools. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 247 
 
 1670. Is it the fact that in Scotland there are 
 not nearly as many private schools in proportion 
 to the population as in England ? That is so. 
 
 1671. From that point of view the problem 
 becomes rather easier ? Yes. 
 
 1672. Do you think there would be some diffi- 
 culty in the working of a clause to prevent teachers 
 from recovering their fees at law, unless they were 
 registered, especially in the case of teachers in 
 private establishments ? There might be ; these 
 things are always attended with difficulty, especially 
 after their first institution ; there would be some 
 difficulty, but the country would soon adapt itself 
 to it. 
 
 1673. Do you think, if a Bill were passed with 
 a demand of the kind that we have been speaking 
 of on schools in receipt of public money, such a 
 Bill, though it would not be all that you would 
 wish, would help the whole movement forward ? 
 Immensely. I think such a Bill, if you applied it, 
 e.g., to all endowed schools, would so operate that 
 any young man (and I am thinking chiefly of the 
 graduate class), any young man leaving Oxford 
 or Cambridge, or any other university, intending 
 to be a teacher in an endowed school, would feel 
 that the way to promotion was blocked to him 
 
248 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 unless he had this qualification. The result would 
 be that all would take the qualification whether or 
 not they hoped to be appointed to such schools. 
 
 1674. That would be a possible way of bringing 
 about the object in view, without this rather 
 difficult provision about not allowing fees to be 
 recovered ? Yes ; an Act of that sort would be 
 of immense influence in the country ; so far as 
 Scotland is concerned, it would virtually settle the 
 whole question there. 
 
 1675. The great bulk of your schools are in 
 receipt of public money ? Yes, or they are endowed 
 schools. 
 
 MR. CHARLES ACLAND. 
 
 1676. You said "would take the qualification ;" 
 you mean would come on the register ? Yes, as 
 having a professional qualification ; as having been 
 trained as a teacher. I do not attach much im- 
 portance to registration, unless it include pro- 
 fessional training training in the principles, 
 methods, and art of education. 
 
 MR. ARTHUR ACLAND. 
 
 1677. Is there any other main point in your 
 examination-in-chief that I have passed over? 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 249 
 
 I should just like to direct attention, in connection 
 with the qualification, to the examinations, which 
 lead to a diploma, or certificate, in the universities. 
 As I dare say honourable members are aware, the 
 University of Cambridge grants a certificate, or 
 diploma, in education, and it seems to me that 
 that is very well organized. They require all 
 coming up for that diploma to pass an examina- 
 tion. They require that they shall have spent 
 three terms; that is, practically, a year, in some 
 recognized college for training; and voluntary 
 colleges have arisen, as I before mentioned, in 
 order to meet the demand of the University of 
 Cambridge. The diploma is chiefly taken advan- 
 tage of by women at the present time. Then, in 
 the Edinburgh University itself, where we have 
 a regular organized department for instruction in 
 the theory, history, and art of education, we have 
 for some years granted a diploma the regulations 
 with regard to which I will put in (handing in the 
 same). These regulations simply require that the 
 candidate before examination shall have attended 
 a course of practical instruction, that is to say, 
 that he shall give evidence either of having gone 
 through a training college course under the 
 Government, or that he possesses the Government 
 
250 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 qualification in the practice of teaching required 
 of graduates imposed in the Scottish code ; or, if 
 he possesses neither of those qualifications, that 
 he has taught publicly at least one year in a 
 school, and holds a certificate of practical fitness 
 from the head-master of the school. Having 
 these practical qualifications [which, however, I 
 consider to be inadequate], he must also have 
 attended a course of lectures and examinations 
 in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 1678. That is your lectures ? Yes. 
 
 1679. What is the fee? Three guineas. 
 
 1680. For the whole course? Yes. 
 
 1 68 1. For a six months' course? Yes. 
 
 1682. That is really for the year? Yes, our 
 college sessions are simply two terms ; he must 
 have attended the class of the theory, art, and 
 history of education in the university, and he must 
 pass an examination in the theory, art, and history 
 of education ; then he is examined in some 
 practical subject or subjects to ^how his practical 
 aptitude as a teacher, and before myself and an 
 examiner appointed by the Court of the university, 
 he must teach a class in some school in Edinburgh. 
 We have a day appointed on which all those who 
 have fulfilled the required qualifications perform 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 251 
 
 this last act with the view of obtaining a diploma ; 
 that is to say, actually teaching classes in the 
 presence of the examiners. 
 
 1683. If a young man is rejected on that 
 practical examination, may he come up again ? 
 Yes, the other qualifications would hold ; he would 
 simply study a little more of practical teaching. 
 
 MR. ROBY. 
 
 1684. In teaching these classes can he choose 
 his own subject ? To a certain extent ; he is 
 allowed to choose two subjects, one an abstract 
 subject and the other what may be called a real 
 subject ; he must give a lesson say in elementary 
 science, and another lesson say on an abstract 
 subject arithmetic, grammar, or geometry ; he is 
 allowed to prepare these lessons. 
 
 MR. ARTHUR ACLAND. 
 
 1685. Supposing a young' man to be at the 
 university already, what would be the additional 
 expense to him of procuring the schoolmasters' 
 diploma which you grant ? At the present moment 
 the whole expense is four guineas, three guineas 
 
252 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 fee to the professor, 1 one guinea to the master of 
 method in the practising school, and two guineas 
 to be paid for the diploma itself, so that the 
 whole expense would be six guineas. 
 
 1686. He can get all you require for six guineas ? 
 Yes; and what applies to Edinburgh would apply 
 to Oxford or Cambridge. 
 
 MR. POWELL. 
 
 1687. How long a time would this course 
 occupy ? The course practically occupies what 
 is called in England two terms, five and a half 
 months. 
 
 1688. So if he goes through this course he 
 postpones his entrance on his career by five and a 
 half months? In practice he does not, because 
 he generally takes the course during the last year 
 of his graduation in addition to his other subjects. 2 
 
 1689. You do not consider that having to go 
 through such a course would impose any unfair 
 
 1 The University Commissioners having recently included the 
 subject of Education as one of the subjects that may be taken by a 
 candidate for a Degree in Arts the total additional expense to a 
 student will now be only three guineas. 
 
 2 This will now always be done. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 253 
 
 burthen on a young man entering on his profes- 
 sion ? No, no unfair burthen ; if he had not 
 completed the practical side of his work, he might 
 have to stay three or four months at the university 
 seat after he had taken his degree, but not more. 
 
 1690. You do not see any objection arising from 
 what I am putting to you ? No, none. I think 
 I may say that the opinion of the teaching class in 
 Scotland is, that if it were required that they should 
 spend that additional time, the requirement would 
 be universally accepted, though our students are 
 poor and the question of additional time of 
 residence is a serious one for them. It would be 
 accepted generally as part of their university train- 
 ing for a specific profession. 
 
 1695. I gather from your answers that your 
 idea is that the register should be a test as 
 regards the power to teach, but that the governing 
 body should make other inquiries as to knowledge ? 
 Yes, certainly. 
 
 1696. Have you formed in your own mind any 
 idea of what the register would be ; would it be 
 one divided into different classes, or would *it be 
 an alphabetical list of persons with a statement of 
 their qualification against their names ? I have 
 not gone into the matter so much in detail as to be 
 
254 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 able to give a definite answer to that question, but 
 my general opinion at present is that it should 
 just be an alphabetical list of teachers, showing 
 their qualification professionally, and then, follow- 
 ing that, would be the subjects which they professed 
 to teach, and knew how to teach. There might 
 be, of course, in connection with such a register, a 
 further classification of teachers for purposes of 
 easy reference. That would simply be to simplify 
 reference. The real qualification of a man would 
 consist in his professional knowledge, and the 
 statement of the subject or subjects in which the 
 council recognized him as qualified. 
 
 1705. Do you think it is as easy to organize 
 teaching and practising in teaching for secondary 
 schools as it is for primary schools ? Quite. 
 
 1706. You do not think that the greater diver- 
 sity and the higher range of subjects does not 
 make it more difficult in the one case than the 
 other ? No ; I think it makes it easier. Take 
 the case of a teacher of one of the higher-class 
 schools, say Rugby or Eton : the best possible 
 preparation he can get for his profession, as a 
 teacher of classics in the higher form, is to go to 
 a training college and be trained in the ordinary 
 subjects of teaching, because methods of teaching 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 255 
 
 do not vary with the subject. The method of 
 teaching elementary science [or English] is essen- 
 tially the same as the method of teaching Latin or 
 Greek. 
 
 1707. Could you give any further illustration as 
 to what you mean by method ; do you mean the 
 use of the blackboard ? The whole course of 
 instruction that is given by the professor of educa- 
 tion or the lecturer on education has reference to 
 method. He proceeds scientifically ; he proceeds 
 to take the students into a consideration of philo- 
 sophy of the human mind, the philosophy of 
 intelligence as basis of method and guide in the 
 art of teaching. 
 
 1708. Do you mean a complete course of 
 psychology? Not a complete course of psycho- 
 logy ; it is a rather peculiar kind of psychology ; 
 you have a sort of parallel to it in the kind of 
 course given in technical colleges. If we wish to 
 prepare a man for some department of industry, 
 to make him an intelligent foreman, we carry him 
 through an elementary course of chemistry, or 
 physics, or electricity, or all three, but those 
 courses are partly purely scientific and partly 
 practical in their character. They are mixed ; if 
 they are properly given, the scientific element in 
 
256 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 them has always a practical aim in view. So, 
 in taking the student of the art of education into 
 [ethics and] the philosophy of intelligence, we 
 have a practical aim in view. It is not a com- 
 plete course of psychology that you go through. 
 A complete course of psychology would lead the 
 student's mind away so far from his subject that 
 he would have no time to get at practical methods. 
 Having laid this scientific basis, we then, aided by 
 the experience of teaching all over the world, and 
 the history of teaching, deduce certain methods 
 and rules of procedure in all teaching [and 
 training]. 
 
 1709. So as to excite the interest and retain the 
 attention ? Yes, and show the connection between 
 the scientific and the practical. A teacher who 
 has passed an examination on theory, art, and 
 history may be said to have got his theoretical 
 knowledge ; the rest must be done in a practising 
 school under the master of method, where he 
 applies the methods of teaching which he has 
 learned under the actual supervision of a man 
 competent to supervise him. 
 
 1726. You used the expression that you would 
 require the training colleges to throw open their 
 training, not their teaching, to those young men 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 257 
 
 who were intending to be teachers. Would you 
 kindly tell us the exact distinction that you draw 
 between the one and the other ? Training consists 
 simply in admitting a person already qualified, as 
 regards knowledge (say a graduate), to the lectures 
 on the principles and method of education which 
 are given to the senior students in training colleges 
 and also to practice. 
 
 1727. By the master of method ? Yes, or by 
 the principal of the college ; and it would com- 
 prise practice also under the head-master of the 
 school. 
 
 1728. I understood you to say that you laid 
 great stress on the criticism lesson? Yes, I 
 consider that [and Demonstration lessons] more 
 important than any amount of practice. 
 
 1729. Would you just explain what the criticism 
 lesson is ? The master of method calls a class 
 into a room by itself, and one or, it may be, two 
 students, having received, directions to give lessons 
 to that class in certain subjects, proceed one after 
 the other to give those lessons. They know the 
 stage which the class has reached and what the 
 next lesson ought to be on the subjects selected. 
 The students thus told off to give a lesson one 
 after the other prepare notes of the lesson which 
 
 S 
 
258 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 they mean to give, and they hand those notes in 
 to the master of method, who sits with those notes 
 of the lesson before him ; one of the students then 
 begins to teach, trying to follow that course of 
 instruction which he, applying the methods of 
 teaching, considers to be the best. He teaches 
 perhaps twenty minutes, and, the class having been 
 dismissed, he sits down. All the students in the 
 class are sitting round, and the master of method 
 calls upon one of the students and says, " What do 
 you think of this lesson ? " The young man gets 
 up and may say, " I think he began the wrong 
 way ; the children were supposed to have only so 
 much knowledge of the subject he was teaching, 
 but by the way he began he assumed a greater 
 measure of knowledge than they had, and the 
 result was that he was hampered all through in 
 teaching his lesson, and the class never got a 
 proper hold of what he was driving at." Then 
 another student may get up and say, " I think in 
 presenting such and such an illustration he chose 
 one which was not relevant to the subject in hand." 
 Another student may criticize his language ; he 
 may say his language was incorrect, and he ought 
 to be careful in teaching to use correct language in 
 order that he may insensibly train the children to 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 259 
 
 speak good English. Another may say he con- 
 siders the method of his teaching to be good, but 
 he did not succeed in commanding the attention 
 of the whole class, but only a portion, and the 
 reason was so-and-so. The students are not 
 allowed to say anything without giving a reason. 
 The master of method sits and hears all the 
 criticisms that can be made, making notes, and 
 when all is done, he himself sums up and points 
 out where he thinks the critics were wrong or right 
 in their observations, and then he himself goes 
 over the lesson as a whole, and points out where 
 he considers were its excellences and where its 
 defects. 
 
 1730. How long does all that take? The 
 criticism lesson, as a rule, is never allowed to 
 last more than an hour ; sometimes one teacher 
 teaches, and sometimes two teach in that time. 
 
 1371. What would you say would be the normal 
 number of student teachers present at a criticism 
 lesson in a training college ? It depends on the 
 size of the training college. I have seen as many 
 as fifty or sixty present at a criticism lesson ; it 
 is better that there should not be more than 
 thirty or forty, I think. 
 
 1732. What would be the number of the class, 
 
260 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 the subject of experiment ? So far as I have seen, 
 the class never exceeds twenty. 
 
 1733. In carrying out that system, it makes no 
 difference whether you have boys or girls as pupils 
 of the class, the subject of the experiment ? No, 
 in Scotland they are mixed. 
 
 1747. Do you think, if such a register were 
 established, it should be connected more or less 
 closely with the Education Department, or do you 
 think it might be established independently of 
 the Government ? I attach very little importance 
 to the way in which that question may be settled. 
 One thing only I think is of importance, that if 
 there is to be any control of such a system, the 
 teachers should be represented on any body con- 
 trolling it, just as medical men are represented on 
 the medical council; and I think it exceedingly 
 important that the State also should have con- 
 siderable power in any such council. Whether 
 that should be done directly by the Government 
 of the country, or whether through the Education 
 Department, is a matter, I think, of very little 
 moment. I think, if we have an Education Depart- 
 ment, that Department should be the authority to 
 select men to sit upon the council along with 
 the representatives of the teachers and the various 
 educational bodies. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 261 
 
 1748. One witness gave it as his opinion that 
 the large schools in England would view with 
 considerable fear and apprehension any close con- 
 nection with the Education Department ; he did 
 not mean merely the right of the Education 
 Department to nominate representatives to the 
 council, but any closer connection than that? I 
 think he is quite right [I heartily sympathize with 
 him]. The great public schools, and many other 
 schools of less importance, would hesitate very 
 much to put themselves in the hands of the Edu- 
 cation Department, either English or Scotch. 
 
 1749. You think there would be a considerable 
 fear, and a legitimate fear, of the State exercising 
 too close and direct a control ? I have not the 
 slightest doubt that it would do so. We can only 
 speak from experience of the past. The closeness 
 of the control of the department in England over 
 elementary education has been notorious. 
 
 1750. Then it is connected with a grant of 
 money ? Yes. 
 
 1751. I take a case where the State does not 
 provide any money ? I think they should not be 
 allowed to have any control in that case. An 
 education bureau gets into certain habits ; it has 
 got a certain work to do, and it does it in an 
 
262 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 official way by means of officials. It must 
 necessarily have rules, and must apply them in a 
 somewhat rigid manner ; and even where no money 
 is given, its direct influence in the way of inspec- 
 tion of such schools as, say, Eton or Rugby would 
 be hurtful. 
 
 1752. You think there would be the danger of 
 a manifestation of that bureaucratic spirit and 
 temper if such a system of registration were too 
 closely connected with the Education Depart- 
 ment? Yes ; at the same time the State ought 
 to be represented on any Council that might 
 be constituted ; the Education Department would 
 naturally demand to put representatives on the 
 council. 
 
 1753. Are you in favour of the State granting 
 money for intermediate or secondary education? 
 I think that is a difficult question ; in England 
 more difficult, perhaps, than in Scotland ; but I 
 certainly think the State should grant money to 
 secondary schools, just as they grant money to 
 elementary schools. 
 
 1754. If they grant money they can more easily 
 insist upon the teacher possessing certain attain- 
 ments, and on his possessing teaching qualifica- 
 tions? Yes, it gives them power on every side 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 263 
 
 the moment they give money ; at the same 
 time, the money need not necessarily be given on 
 terms which would make the supervision of the 
 Education Department too close ; it could be 
 given on such general conditions as would leave 
 the schools free. 
 
 MR. CHARLES ACLAND. 
 
 1759. The line between different grades of 
 schools is not nearly so sharply drawn in Scotland 
 as in England ? No. 
 
 1760. Perhaps that may be partly the reason 
 why you express the opinion, as I understand, 
 that practising schools of the primary grade are 
 almost as good an area for practice for secondary 
 teachers as they are for teachers of primary 
 schools ? It is partly the reason only : the reason 
 why I consider that the ordinary primary school 
 or practising school of a training college is a 
 perfectly good field for training a secondary 
 teacher, even of the highest classes, is that 
 methods of instruction are best seen in operation 
 in connection with elementary subjects, and can 
 be applied afterwards to more advanced subjects. 
 
 1761. In point of fact, would you advocate the 
 
264 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 institution of practising classes in secondary 
 schools ? Yes, I should like to see secondary 
 schools used for this purpose as well as primary. 
 You see many of the secondary schools begin with 
 very young pupils ; they take pupils as young 
 as nine or ten years old, and in certain districts, 
 and in university towns, I should have some one 
 or more of these schools recognized as practising 
 schools to which graduates might be sent, and 
 where they would be under a master of method. 
 
 1762. You would like to see secondary schools 
 chosen for such a purpose ? Yes ; and more than 
 one might be chosen in a town. 
 
 1763. As I understand, you do not attach much 
 importance to having different grades of practising 
 schools or different grades of teachers ? I do not 
 attach very much importance to that, although it 
 is desirable. 
 
 1764. With regard to the criticism lesson to 
 which you have referred, I suppose it is more for 
 training the critic than the teacher who is criticized ? 
 No, it is for training both. Of course a man 
 in the position of the criticized teacher is a little 
 nervous in giving his lesson ; he is learning his 
 art, and he sits there and listens to the criticisms 
 that are made, and is benefited by them, and all 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 265 
 
 the students who are present, whether they say 
 anything or not, are also benefited by hearing 
 what is said. 
 
 1765. That is a system which you would like 
 to see us practise in England ? Yes. 
 
 1766. We have no such system here, have 
 we ? You have it at the training colleges in 
 England. 
 
 1767. I understand that although you have this 
 excellent system which you have described in 
 Scotland, you are still of opinion that this Bill 
 is worth having, but that registration under the 
 Bill would be of very little value unless it specified 
 the qualification of the teacher on the register ? 
 I think it is of very little value unless it 
 require a professional qualification ; that is to 
 say, evidence that the teacher had been trained 
 to teach and had studied principles and methods. 
 
 1768. You wish every one who proposes to 
 become a teacher to prove to the council a pro- 
 fessional qualification ? That is essential. 
 
 1769. As I understand, you do not apply that 
 to private tuition ? I do not exactly see the way 
 to apply it in the mean time to private tuition ; 
 but what I hold is that no man should be allowed 
 to teach publicly for payment (and here, of course, 
 
266 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 the question of the recovery of fees comes in) 
 unless he has some recognized qualification. 
 
 1770. On the whole, then, may I take it you 
 would like to see private tuition included in the 
 Bill ? I should, if it were possible. 1 
 
 1771. But you think it would be difficult to 
 include it ? I see a great many difficulties in the 
 way. 
 
 1772. You do not regard it, at any rate, as 
 unadvisable to include it ? On the contrary, I 
 think it would be advisable. I hold that the same 
 principle applies to teachers as to medical men. 
 There is a certain minimum qualification for a 
 medical man, and I hold that there should be a 
 minimum qualification for a teacher, whether 
 private or public. 
 
 1773. Some witnesses have expressed the opinion 
 that the relation between the private teacher and 
 the parent is so close that it is, on the whole, 
 unadvisable for us to enter into the question of 
 private teachers in this Bill ? I think, on the con- 
 trary, that one may say very generally there is no 
 class of people in the world who are so incompetent 
 to determine whether a teacher is fit to teach 
 their children as the parents are. 
 
 1 In Prussia it is so. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 267 
 
 1774. Therefore you would like this council to 
 give them their assistance in that respect ? Yes. 
 
 1775. I dare say you know there is a provision 
 in one of the Bills to include on the register all 
 existing teachers ; do you think that is advisable ? 
 I do not see how you can avoid it without doing 
 
 injustice in many quarters where you did not mean 
 to do injustice. 
 
 1776. Do you think it advisable to include on 
 the registers elementary teachers ? Unquestion- 
 ably so, down even to kindergarten teachers. 
 
 1777. You would wish the Bill to include the 
 whole of the teaching profession in Great Britain ? 
 Yes. 
 
 1778. You have described to some extent the 
 elaborate and complete system which prevails in 
 Scotland. This Bill does not provide for anything 
 so definite as that ; it does not go so far ; but do 
 you regard the Bill as efficient and to some extent 
 final for England, or only as a step in the right 
 direction, having regard to the fact that conditions 
 in training teachers in England are so different 
 from what they are in Scotland, as I understand 
 you to say? Lest I should be misunderstood on 
 that point, I should like to say that the condition 
 of training in the case of elementary teachers in 
 
268 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 Scotland and England are precisely the same ; 
 but as regards teachers who aim at secondary 
 instruction, there is no compulsory training for 
 them at all in Scotland. The description that I 
 gave of the training was what was actually done 
 for those who chose to come to get diplomas at the 
 Edinburgh University ; and what I think ought to 
 be universal at all university seats. 
 
 1779. You regard this Bill as likely to promote 
 the teachers' own interests ? Certainly ; and as 
 likely to give rise to voluntary training institu- 
 tions [under corporate bodies, e.g. the College of 
 Preceptors], which would be recognized by this 
 council, as providing the necessary qualification. 
 
 1780. On the whole, you would prefer that such 
 voluntary institutions should be set up than that 
 the Government should have any part in estab- 
 lishing such a system ? Very much ; the Govern- 
 ment only stimulating them. 
 
 1781. You think that this Bill will stimulate 
 the springing up of such institutions ? Yes. 
 They will be self-supporting, and require no 
 money from the State, I think. [Presuming that 
 the universities take the matter up, the State, 
 I rather think, would have to endow Education 
 Chairs, but this is about all.] 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 269 
 
 1785. With regard to the question of com- 
 pulsion, I understand that you do not think it 
 indispensable ? I do not think the question of 
 compulsion in the mean time is indispensable. In 
 answering a question just now, I said that any 
 arrangement that makes the professional qualifi- 
 cation necessary for certain classes or types of 
 schools would be an immense step ahead, and 
 would probably end ere long in attaining the very 
 object which one of these Bills has in view without 
 compulsion. 
 
 1786. In point of fact, if there appeared to be 
 any reaction among the teachers about this Bill, 
 you think the advantage conferred upon the whole 
 profession by giving it a kind of status better than 
 it has at present would be sufficient to enable us 
 to drop the provisions for compulsion, and still to 
 be sanguine about the Bill doing a great deal of 
 good ? Yes, we might be perfectly confident about 
 that. You could drop compulsion, and yet do an 
 immense amount of good. 
 
 1787. Supposing we put in compulsion, have 
 you any fear ? As regards Scotland, none ; but as 
 regards England I am not so sure whether there 
 might not be a considerable amount of opposition. 
 I am not well informed on this point. 
 
270 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 1788. Am I to understand that, on the whole, 
 your opinion is rather against including it than in 
 favour of it ? I am in favour of compulsion if it 
 can be managed at all. I merely mean that if you 
 specified certain classes of schools which could 
 be held only by men professionally qualified, you 
 would give a tone to the whole teaching profession 
 in the country, and raise the status of all the men 
 who hoped to get those schools. In that way you 
 would get perhaps twenty men preparing them- 
 selves for the professional qualification for one 
 who would ultimately get any such school. So 
 that the effect of the Bill, even without compul- 
 sion, would be very much wider than appears at 
 first sight. 
 
 1789. I rather gather that you would prefer that 
 we should adopt, if possible, some kind of indirect 
 and partial compulsion, such as you have described, 
 than provide distinctly that any person who was 
 not on the register should be unable to recover the 
 fees ? No ; I would prefer a general compulsion. 
 
 1790. You would prefer this provision with 
 regard to the recovery of fees if we could get it ? 
 Yes. All I wish to say is that the amount of good 
 to be accomplished without compulsion is much 
 greater than many people think. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 271 
 
 1791. Therefore you think it would be quite 
 worth righting for if we cannot get the other ? 
 Undoubtedly. 
 
 1792. At the same time, you would be glad to 
 see us fighting for the other ? Yes. 
 
 MR. LAWRENCE. 
 
 1793. Do I understand you to say that the cer- 
 tificates will not vary according to the class of 
 school which a man is to teach ? The professional 
 certificate will not. The training to teach one 
 subject is, speaking generally, a training to teach 
 all. 
 
 1 80 1. What course would you be prepared to 
 take with regard to the teaching of foreign lan- 
 guages ? I think no one should be allowed to 
 teach a foreign language unless he brings a quali- 
 fication from Germany, or Italy, or France that he 
 is qualified to do so ; and if he has not such a 
 qualification, he would have to submit here to an 
 examination which the council would regard as 
 giving a satisfactory qualification. I think there 
 would be no hardship in that. As matter of fact, 
 in Germany they issue diplomas, and in France 
 too, and a man who is really qualified for the work 
 
272 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 has no difficulty in getting that evidence of his 
 qualification. If he had it not, I say let him 
 submit to an examination here. 
 
 1802. I think you have told the Committee that 
 you have not fully considered the difficulty of 
 differentiating private schools from those schools 
 which are the subject of these Bills ? That is part 
 of the question of definition of a school which I 
 am at a loss to give. 
 
 SIR HENRY ROSCOE. 
 
 1803. I suppose that a private school would be 
 one carried on for private profit, would it not? 
 That would be one explanation of it ; but the 
 question was raised here, When can you call it a 
 " school " ? 
 
 1804. No doubt it is a difficult question. Seeing 
 the difficulty, and yet, as I understand from your 
 evidence, being anxious to obtain if possible com- 
 pulsion within a certain range, do you think it 
 would be possible to exclude on the one hand 
 schools carried on for private profit, and on the 
 other hand certain of the larger and more impor- 
 tant English public schools, and yet to include the 
 great mass of secondary schools, proprietary and 
 otherwise, as to which compulsion might stand 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 273 
 
 while allowing the others to remain for the present 
 without ? One can do that by simply specifying. 
 You would exclude everything that you do not 
 specify. 
 
 1805. Exclusion is more simple than inclusion, 
 probably ? Yes ; by specifying certain schools the 
 others fall out as a matter of course. 
 
 1806. What would be your view as to that sort 
 of middle course ? As I have already said, I think 
 it would be an immense step in the right direction, 
 but it would not be wholly satisfactory. 
 
 1807. Do you think by degrees private school- 
 masters would come in to obtain registration for 
 their own advantage and get themselves registered ? 
 Not only private schoolmasters, but I believe 
 
 you would find that the whole class of school- 
 mistresses, governesses, and private tutors, would 
 very soon come and be registered ; they would find 
 it necessary for success. 
 
 1808. With regard to the more important public 
 schools, such as Eton and Harrow, which are 
 excluded in one of the Bills but not in the other, 
 have you any opinion upon that subject ? I do 
 not think that any school of that kind should be 
 excluded. I do not see why Eton should be worse 
 taught than any middle-class school in the country. 
 
 T 
 
274 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 I mean taught by men less qualified professionally 
 in principles and methods. 
 
 1809. For all teachers, whether, for example, for 
 Eton or for a primary school, would you insist 
 upon the same methods of obtaining knowledge 
 and training, such as you described to one honour- 
 able Member is the case in Scotland ; would you 
 put them all through the same mill ? I would put 
 them all through the same mill as regards the 
 purely professional part of their work, because 
 there are no two mills to go through ; it is the 
 same principle, the same methods, and the same 
 art, whatever you are teaching. So far as secon- 
 dary schools are concerned, training is at present 
 voluntary. 
 
 1810. Take the case of a man anxious to become 
 a master at Eton, what course would you propose 
 he should take ; must he obtain his professional 
 training in an elementary school, or where must he 
 get it ? Supposing the case of a young graduate, 
 and no doubt, if he is intending to teach at Eton, 
 he is a distinguished graduate, and has just taken 
 his First Class at Cambridge or Oxford : well, if 
 he aims at getting a good appointment at one of 
 the public schools, he simply goes to a professor 
 or lecturer at Oxford or Cambridge, if he has not 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 275 
 
 been to him already, and goes through a course 
 of instruction in theory and methods, and along 
 with that instruction takes practice in the art 
 under a master of method in a school or schools 
 in Oxford or Cambridge ; or, if he chooses to go 
 elsewhere to get his training, he may do so ; but 
 the training he must get somewhere or other. 
 
 1811. In the first place, may I point out that at 
 Oxford or Cambridge there is no Professor of 
 Education ? Those things grow up very fast when 
 they are wanted. For example, see what is happen- 
 ing at the University of Cambridge now. Nobody 
 could have foretold even two years ago that we 
 should have five or six different university colleges 
 all training teachers for elementary schools in 
 England ; but here, with a simple stroke of the 
 pen, the Department has done it. So at Cambridge 
 you have already a syndicate of the university 
 which examines for diplomas in education, and 
 requires that all those examined shall have got 
 training for a year in some recognized school for 
 training. This university syndicate is now, I am 
 told, trying to constitute itself into a kind of day 
 training college for Cambridge under the Code. 
 If they do that, they would certainly have to 
 appoint a permanent lecturer in education ; call 
 
276 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 him a professor, or tutor, or lecturer, as you 
 please. 
 
 1812. But at present, looking at these university 
 colleges which last year's Bill called into existence, 
 and which are in a very flourishing condition, 
 taking, for example, Owens College, the students 
 going there are only fitting themselves for the 
 instruction of primary or elementary schools? 
 Yes. 
 
 1813. But you see no objection to young men 
 who have taken their degrees, for example, and 
 desire to enter into the secondary system of educa- 
 tion in the country, attending such classes with 
 those who are engaged in primary education ; you 
 think that what is good for the one is good for the 
 other ? Certainly. 
 
 1814. A young man who goes through the system 
 which is now prevalent for obtaining elementary 
 teachers will be fitted to go on to train for secon- 
 dary instruction ? Certainly. 
 
 1815. Is there nothing more necessary, then ? 
 Nothing but knowledge, although it is desirable 
 that he should have some practice in a secondary 
 school also. 
 
 1816. You think that the system may be acquired 
 by the practice which is already given in the prac- 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 277 
 
 tising schools ? Practising schools already give the 
 whole method necessary for any teacher at Eton. 
 You give method to the teacher of geography, the 
 teacher of arithmetic, the teacher of elementary 
 Latin, reading and writing, English composition, 
 grammar and so on, and at first sight you may say 
 the methods for these various subjects must be 
 different ; but, as our training colleges show, and 
 have proved beyond question, the methods are not 
 different, but they are the same methods applied 
 simply to different subjects. Therefore a first-class 
 man from Oxford or Cambridge meaning to be 
 a master at Eton, by going into one of the prac- 
 tising schools for six months, can get his training 
 and get a proper education for his work, so far as 
 the practical side of it is concerned. 
 
 1817. How long would that take ; would one 
 of your Scotch sessions be enough ? Yes, quite 
 enough. The departmental committee which 
 reported to the Scotch Education Department 
 some two or three years ago, seemed to think 
 about six months would suffice ; and I agree with 
 that view. 
 
 1818. That would not be a very heavy require- 
 ment to put upon candidates for such offices ? 
 No ; because they could begin their training before 
 
278 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 they had taken their degrees. It is merely the 
 being in residence after taking their degrees which 
 would fall heavily upon them ; but they could begin 
 the work before they took their degree, as a good 
 deal of it is not heavy work like working for a 
 tripos. 
 
 1819. Would you apply that to female students 
 as well ? Yes. 
 
 1820. I suppose a master of method must be 
 trained in some way ; what would you do as to 
 them ? As you are doing now ; for example, at 
 Owens College, Cardiff College, and Liverpool 
 College, they have been advertising for, and indeed 
 two of them have got, masters of method, and, 
 thanks to the training college system, which has 
 been in operation for the last forty years, they are 
 able to get men who have been trained in the 
 method of teaching, and who utilize their training 
 at these university colleges. Such a man must be 
 himself a trained man. 
 
 1821. You do not think that the great advan- 
 tages which would evidently accrue to any trained 
 candidate for such a career as a teacher in secon- 
 dary schools from attending these class proprio 
 motu would be sufficient ; you think compulsion 
 would be advisable ? I think, if you are to secure 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 279 
 
 professional qualification for all schools, or for a 
 specified class of schools, you must have com- 
 pulsory training. 
 
 CHAIRMAN. 
 
 1960. You have written, have you not, some 
 works on education ? Yes, a good many ; too 
 many, perhaps. 
 
 1961. Is there anything in those works to which 
 you could kindly give the Committee a reference 
 which might be useful to elucidate any of the 
 points we are considering ? In so far as I have 
 dealt with this question, I have dealt with it alto- 
 gether irrespective of the Bills, and simply as 
 bearing on the general question of the professional 
 training of schoolmasters. There are a good many 
 papers that bear directly upon that to which I 
 could give the reference if the Committee desire it. 
 
 1962. You have not put in any concrete form 
 in those works any suggestion for the registration 
 of teachers ? I have not taken up the question 
 from that point of view. 
 
 1963. On the whole, I gather from your evidence 
 that you are in favour of a Registration Bill pure 
 and simple ? Yes. 
 
2Po EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 1964. You think such a Bill could apply equalb 
 to Scotland and England ? Yes. 
 
 1965. Failing a Bill with a penal clause or one 
 of a compulsory nature in it, I understand you 
 think that even a Bill permissive in its character 
 would be better than nothing ? Provided that it 
 limited appointments to certain classes of schools 
 to those who were registered. 
 
 1966. You know quite enough of the state of 
 educational affairs in England, do you not, to be 
 able to state to the Committee that there is a 
 considerable difference between the position of 
 higher education in England and in Scotland ? 
 Yes. 
 
 1967. On the whole you would say, I presume, 
 that you are more advanced in intermediate 
 education in Scotland? We are more advanced 
 and less advanced ; that is to say, our intermediate 
 education is spread over a larger area of pupils, 
 but our higher intermediate education is not so high. 
 
 1968. Do you think that the possible grounds 
 of objection to a Bill, such as Mr. Acland's, for 
 instance, are much more narrowed down in Scot- 
 land than they would be in England ? I do not 
 think there would be any objection in Scotland 
 at all. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 281 
 
 1969. You think that Scotland, educational and 
 otherwise, would be practically unanimous in favour 
 of a Bill like this ? Yes ; there have been meetings 
 and resolutions of various kinds on this subject ; 
 in fact, I got one yesterday from Glasgow, in 
 favour of some such Bill ; and the general senti- 
 ment and tendency of opinion, and the articles in 
 the newspapers and education journals, all show 
 that there would be no opposition to it in Scotland. 
 A few individuals might be opposed to it ; but 
 generally speaking it would be accepted. I think 
 I may say that ninety-five per cent, of those 
 interested in the subject would desire to have such 
 a Bill. 
 
 1970. You not unnaturally place enormous stress 
 upon the importance, not only of training the 
 teachers, but upon the essential part of the teachers' 
 training ; the method of securing aptitude for teach- 
 ing on the part of every teacher? Yes, I attach 
 the utmost importance to it. 
 
 1971. In Scotland you do not place equal im- 
 portance on the qualification as regards the actual 
 possession of knowledge, on account of this fact, 
 as I understand, that no teacher in Scotland, in 
 a private adventure school or otherwise, would 
 attempt to undertake the work unless he were a 
 
282 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 graduate ? Yes ; it is not so necessary to impose 
 that restriction in Scotland. 
 
 1972. There, again, is there not a very special 
 difference between Scotland and England ? 
 Yes. 
 
 1973. That is to say, having regard to the 
 floating mass of the teachers in England concern- 
 ing whom we know nothing as to qualification 
 whatever ? There is no doubt whatever about 
 that. 
 
 1974. I should like to ask one or two questions 
 with regard to this matter of the council ; I think 
 you said that you in Scotland were specially in 
 need of some Act for the general organization of 
 secondary education ? Yes. 
 
 1975. With the object, I presume, of bringing 
 together into line the different scattered efforts 
 and consolidating them ? Just so. 
 
 1976. You are no doubt aware that an Act has 
 been passed, which has been in operation nearly 
 two years, for intermediate education in Wales ? 
 Yes, I have seen that Act. 
 
 1977. Are you aware that in that case there is 
 a central guiding authority, that is to say, the 
 Charity Commissioners, who decide on education 
 schemes under that Act, and who are the last 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 283 
 
 arbiters, to decide whether a scheme should be 
 recognized or not ? Yes. 
 
 1978. I think you also said, did you not, that 
 you thought the council to be established under 
 this Bill was an essential part and a good part of 
 the machinery of the Bill ? Yes. 
 
 1979. Does it not strike you that there may 
 possibly be in the future some kind of collision 
 between the central authority set up under the 
 Intermediate Education Bill, and the council which 
 it is proposed to establish under this Bill ? I can- 
 not say ; so much depends upon the form which 
 any central administration for secondary education 
 might take. It might be found, if this council 
 were in operation and the qualification of teachers 
 settled to begin with, that there was very little to 
 be done in the way of central administration. It is 
 difficult to answer a hypothetical question of that 
 sort, because so much depends upon the form given 
 to the administration of intermediate education. 
 
 1980. So far as this Bill deals with the regis- 
 tration of teachers pure and simple, you think 
 there would be no serious probability of collision 
 with the central authority in London or in Edin- 
 burgh dealing with intermediate education gene- 
 rally ; for instance, as regards securing the proper 
 
z1\ EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 examination of schools ? There would be no 
 possible collision, I think, so far as concerns the 
 mere registration of teachers, because that would 
 be a prior qualification in the case of all teachers, 
 and there could be no collision. 
 
 1981. Assuming that in England or Scotland, 
 or in both, an Intermediate Education Act were 
 passed, do not you think it might be possible to 
 have some elastic scheme which might, without 
 obliterating the council or authority which it is 
 proposed to set up under this Bill, bring the 
 council well into line with any such scheme of 
 intermediate education ? Certainly ; I think it 
 might be easily done. 
 
 1982. I understood you to say that you thought 
 that either of these Bills would work better with 
 a council, independent of the central Government 
 authority, than if a central Government authority 
 were set up as the guiding authority ? Yes. 
 
 1983. Do you think there is much jealousy 
 generally throughout the profession with regard 
 to placing the teachers in the higher grade or 
 highest-grade schools under any Government 
 authority? I think there is a very strong feeling 
 about placing them under a Government Depart- 
 ment. I do not think anything would reconcile 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 285 
 
 the secondary teachers in the country to that 
 except actually getting a grant of money. 
 
 1984. You think that there is a great distinction 
 between the position of teachers at those schools 
 and schools under the elementary school system, 
 which receive grants from the State ? Yes ; some 
 say if elementary teachers are to be under Govern- 
 ment control, so ought secondary schoolmasters ; 
 but I think there is a marked distinction between 
 the two. The secondary schoolmaster is, as a rule, 
 a man of much higher education ; the tradition 
 of his office is of a different kind ; public opinion 
 around him is more alert, owing to the fact that 
 the boys and girls whom he teaches .are neces- 
 sarily, since it is secondary instruction he gives, 
 children of middle-class people of fairly good 
 position who have themselves some education, and 
 are therefore more competent to criticize the 
 master. I always, of course, assume a good 
 governing body for the school, but, with a good 
 governing body for the school, I think anything 
 in the nature of State supervision which takes the 
 form of detailed inspection is a waste of money. 
 If the State gives grants, of course it has the right 
 to see that certain things are done. For instance, 
 the State should see that the sanitation of the 
 
286 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 school is right ; that the apparatus, equipment, 
 and everything that qualifies it to be a secondary 
 school, is right ; and should by means of some 
 such Bill as this secure that every man should be 
 trained to his work ; and then I think it might 
 leave the rest, for a great many years to come, to 
 work of itself. 
 
 MR. ARTHUR ACLAND. 
 
 1985. In the case of the Welsh Intermediate 
 Education Act, where a large number of schools 
 would be founded, which would be only a little 
 above the elementary, that is to say, cheap secon- 
 dary schools, do not you think some kind of 
 inspection I do not say Government inspection, 
 but such inspection as might be arranged, perhaps, 
 by the various Welsh counties together, would be 
 of some value ? I distinguish very much between 
 what I should call local inspection and centralized 
 Government inspection ; I think local inspection 
 is always perfectly safe. 
 
 CHAIRMAN. 
 
 1986. If it were suggested with regard to the 
 council proposed under this Bill to place the duties 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 287 
 
 allotted to the council under some Government 
 Department, and to place the council in the position 
 of a consultative committee to work with the 
 Government Department, do you think such a 
 scheme as that would be as good or better than 
 the proposal in the Bill, or would you rather have 
 the council absolutely distinct ? I think, on the 
 whole, it will be better for the teaching class and 
 also for the State Department itself to have the 
 council distinct. The State Department would 
 then be in a position to criticize and check it ; 
 whereas if the other body were simply consultative 
 with it, there would be many occasions for a 
 difference of opinion and collision. 
 
 1987. The importance of this point is obvious, 
 having regard to the legislation which we all 
 hope for in the near future, in reference to inter- 
 mediate education, with the view of preventing 
 any possible collision where public money is 
 involved with any authority we may set up under 
 this Act. I will ask you this one last question : 
 Broadly speaking, do you consider that the council 
 proposed in this Bill is the best body to carry out 
 the object of the registration of teachers, and that, 
 in setting up such a body as that, we shall not be 
 running a risk in the near future of colliding with 
 
288 EVIDENCE BEFORE 
 
 the interests of intermediate education as dealt 
 with by any possible Act ? I do not think it is 
 possible that there should be any collision, as the 
 Bill has to do not with schools, but only with 
 the qualification of teachers before they enter on 
 schools. 
 
 1988. I will ask you one question with regard 
 to the compulsion clause in this Bill and to the 
 registration under it ; I think the Committee may 
 gather from your evidence that you think any 
 registration Bill must be liable ab initio to this 
 difficulty, that you would be registering, in England 
 at any rate, a large number who were not fit to be 
 registered ? Certainly. 
 
 1989. You know of no way out of that difficulty ? 
 The only way is to say that after a certain date 
 no man or woman shall be entitled to take up 
 the profession of teacher unless registered. 
 
 1990. You would give a margin of time? Yes, 
 a certain number of years ; it might be five years, 
 or whatever number of years was thought to be 
 reasonable. It might perhaps be a better way 
 than registering all and sundry who had been 
 teaching for two years, to say that after a certain 
 date no one shall be allowed to teach in a school 
 who is not registered. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 289 
 
 1991. Let me throw out this suggestion and ask 
 your opinion upon it : Supposing, instead of 
 applying universally the penal clause with regard 
 to recovery of fees directly the Act came into 
 operation, you were to adopt a middle course, and 
 say with regard to existing teachers that they 
 should not be able to claim to be registered, but 
 that they would not be subject to a penalty as 
 regards the collection of their fees ; how would 
 that work ? I do not see exactly how thai would 
 work. 
 
 1992. It would work in this way, would it not: 
 that all the new candidates for the profession of 
 teacher would be subject to compulsion and come 
 under it, and with regard to existing teachers they 
 would not be registered, but still they would not 
 be penalized by being prevented from collecting 
 their fees ? I think that would work ; you must 
 be merciful and liberal in the interpretation of any 
 Act like this for a time. 
 
 1993. You think that any application of the Act 
 must be worked by a gradual system ? I think it 
 must necessarily be so in England. In a country 
 like Scotland, which is so much smaller, and where 
 the question is so much more definite, it might be 
 very quickly brought into operation. 
 
 JNIVERSITYT 
 
290 BEFORE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. 
 
 MR. JOHN KELLY. 
 
 20 10. Would you say that the general body of 
 private schoolmasters in England would be repre- 
 sented by two gentlemen named by the College 
 of Preceptors, two by the National Union of 
 Teachers, two by the Teachers' Guild, two by the 
 Irish National Teachers' Association, two by the 
 Educational Institute of Scotland, one by the Con- 
 ference of Head Masters, and one by the Conference 
 of Head Mistresses ; in your judgment would that 
 be an adequate representation of the great body 
 of private schoolmasters in England ? Yes, I 
 think it would. They can join the Teachers' Guild 
 if they choose. 
 
 2011. I take it that your opinion is, that amongst 
 other reasons, one great reason for the representa- 
 tion of private schoolmasters is that the council 
 should inspire the confidence of the whole body of 
 the profession ? It is quite necessary it should 
 do so. 
 
IX. 
 
 REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE OF 
 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 1 
 
 A SELECT Committee was appointed to consider 
 this subject in March, 1891, consisting of the 
 following members : Mr. Arthur Acland, Mr. 
 Charles Acland, Mr. Bruce, Mr. James Ellis, Mr. 
 Conway, Sir William Hart-Dyke, Mr. Hobhouse, 
 Mr. John Kelly, Mr. Lawrence, Viscount Lyming- 
 ton, Mr. Powell, Mr. Roby, Sir Henry Roscoe, Mr. 
 Rowntree, Mr. Sidebotham, Sir Richard Temple. 
 Sir William Hart-Dyke, Vice-President of the 
 Council, was appointed Chairman of the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Two Bills which had been introduced into the 
 House of Commons, one by Sir Richard Temple, 
 the other by Mr. Arthur Acland, were referred to 
 the Committee. 
 
 1 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 14, 1891. 
 Reprinted here as issued by the Technical and Secondary Education 
 Association. 
 
 
292 REPORT OF 
 
 NAMES OF WITNESSES. The following persons 
 gave evidence before the Committee : 
 
 Mr. F. ANDREWS, Principal of the Society of Friends' School at 
 
 Ack worth. 
 
 Miss BEALE, Principal of the Ladies' College, Cheltenham. 
 Rev. G. C. BELL, Head Master of Marlborough College. 
 Mr. C. BOWDEN, Head Master of the Wesleyan School at Gates- 
 
 head-on-Tyne. 
 Mr. COURTHORPE-BOWEN, formerly Head Master of the Grocers' 
 
 Company's Schools, Hackney Downs, and Principal of the 
 
 Finsbury Training College for Men. 
 Mr. W. BROWN, Principal of Tollington Park College. 
 Miss Buss, Head Mistress of the North London Collegiate School 
 
 for Girls. 
 Miss CLARA E. COLLET, President of the Association of Assistant 
 
 Mistresses. 
 Mr. W. H. CUMMINGS, Professor of Vocal Music in the Royal 
 
 Academy of Music. 
 
 Rev. Canon DANIEL, Principal of the Battersea Training College. 
 Mr. H. W. EVE, Head Master of University College School, 
 
 London, and Dean of the College of Preceptors. 
 Mr. J. G. FITCH, Her Majesty's Inspector of Training Colleges. 
 Mr. H. B. GARROD, Secretary of the Teachers' Guild. 
 Mr. GEORGE GIRLING, Inspector of Schools under the London 
 
 School Board, formerly President of the National Union of 
 
 Teachers. 
 
 Mr. C. R. HODGSON, Secretary to the College of Preceptors. 
 Miss M. S. KILGOUR, Assistant-Lecturer in Mathematics at 
 
 Queen's College, Harley Street, London. 
 
 Prof. LAURIE, Professor of Theory, History, and Art of Educa- 
 tion in the University of Edinburgh. 
 Rev. E. F. M. MACCARTHY, Head Master of the Five Ways 
 
 School under the King Edward's Grammar School Founda- 
 tion, Birmingham. 
 
SELECT COMMITTEE. 293 
 
 Dr. A. C. MACKENZIE, Principal of the Royal Academy of 
 
 Music. 
 Rev. H. K. MOORE, Principal of the Church of Ireland Training 
 
 College at Dublin. 
 
 Rev. JOHN PERCIVAL, Head Master of Rugby School. 
 Rev. R. B. POOLE, Head Master of the Modem School at 
 
 Bedford. 
 
 Mr. BARROW RULE, Clerk to the School Board for Croydon. 
 Mr. F. STORR, Chief Master of Modern Subjects in the Merchant 
 
 Taylors' School. 
 Sir ARTHUR SULLIVAN, Member of the Council of the Royal 
 
 College of Music. 
 Miss AGNES J. WARD, Principal of the Maria Grey Training 
 
 College. 
 Dr. RICHARD WORMELL, Head Master of the City Middle Class 
 
 Schools in Cowper Street. 
 
 The Report of the Select Committee was as 
 follows l : 
 
 WITNESSES EXAMINED. Your Committee have 
 examined a large number of witnesses representing 
 the College of Preceptors, and voluntary organiza- 
 tions such as the Teachers' Guild, Head Masters' 
 Conference, Association of Head Masters, and 
 National Union of Teachers. Evidence was also 
 obtained from independent witnesses, of a repre- 
 sentative character, and of repute in the educational 
 world. 
 
 1 The headings of the paragraphs given here are not part 
 of the Report ; in other respects the Report is given exactly as 
 it was issued. 
 
294 
 
 REPORT OF 
 
 GENERAL OPINION FAVOURABLE TO REGIS- 
 TRATION. As a result there appears to be a 
 general consensus of opinion amongst the wit- 
 nesses in favour of the principle of registration of 
 teachers. 
 
 SHOULD REGISTRATION BE VOLUNTARY OR 
 COMPULSORY? On the question, however, as to 
 whether registration should be voluntary or com- 
 pulsory, and, if compulsory, in what manner and 
 to what extent, the evidence was very conflicting. 
 The witnesses who advocated compulsion for 
 teachers of schools by means of a clause providing 
 that no teacher in a school should, if unregistered, 
 be entitled to recover fees, had to meet two diffi- 
 culties : first, that to place of necessity all existing 
 teachers on the register would seriously lower its 
 standard ; and, secondly, that the penalty proposed 
 in the Bills in regard to the recovery of fees or 
 salary might in many instances be evaded. 
 
 REGISTRATION OF TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS 
 ASSISTED BY ENDOWMENTS, RATES, OR TAXES. 
 A suggestion was made to your Committee 
 which may hereafter produce valuable results, that 
 after a certain time, no unregistered person shall 
 be a teacher in an endowed school or a secondary 
 school assisted by money from rates or taxes, such, 
 
SELECT COMMITTEE. 295 
 
 for instance, as the schools to be established under 
 the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, or the 
 Technical Instruction Acts. Such a proposal 
 could be enforced by Act of Parliament, or could 
 be inserted in schemes now made, or to be made, 
 by the Charity Commissioners or other authorities. 
 When the conditions of registration have been well 
 settled, and the Register is duly established as an 
 institution which meets the educational wants, and 
 has the approval of the country, a provision of the 
 kind above mentioned will, in the opinion of your 
 Committee, be simple and beneficial. 
 
 SINGLE OR DUAL REGISTER. In this con- 
 nection an important suggestion was made by 
 Dr. Percival, one of the witnesses, to the efifect 
 that the register might be divided into a pre- 
 liminary and permanent section ; upon the first 
 of these, which would be of a temporary cha- 
 racter, all existing teachers might be placed, or 
 any person who could produce the requisite cer- 
 tificate, or other evidence of attainments in respect 
 of the subjects he desired to teach. But the 
 Council, hereinafter mentioned, should only place 
 upon the permanent register persons who, in 
 addition to the qualification of acting teachers or 
 the possession of a certain degree of knowledge, 
 
296 REPORT OF 
 
 should have proved their capacity as teachers, 
 after any such test as the Council might think 
 sufficient. This would obviate the necessity of 
 admitting to the register a large number of un- 
 qualified persons, and tend greatly to stimulate 
 the training of teachers in secondary schools, 
 which your Committee regard as one of the most 
 important objects of a Registration Bill. But 
 many witnesses declared themselves to be in 
 favour of a simple alphabetical register, with a 
 statement against each person's name of the 
 several degrees, certificates, and other qualifica- 
 tions to which he was entitled. 
 
 TEACHERS OF SPECIAL SUBJECTS. Your Com- 
 mittee think that it is not essential that teachers 
 of music, and, possibly, of one or two other 
 special subjects, shall be placed on the register, 
 but that the wishes of those entitled to speak 
 on their behalf should be consulted on this 
 matter. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO REGIS- 
 TER. With respect to the qualifications which 
 should be shown on any register of teachers, 
 strong evidence was adduced that they should be 
 twofold, viz. intellectual attainments, and know- 
 ledge of the theory and practice of teaching. 
 
SELECT COMMITTEE. 297 
 
 VALUE OF TRAINING. As regards teachers' 
 experience, some of the witnesses most highly 
 qualified to give evidence in respect to its require- 
 ment, laid great stress on the value of training. 
 And the evidence given certainly testified that a 
 large part of the efficiency of our elementary 
 teachers is due to the training which they receive, 
 first as pupil teachers, and afterwards as students 
 in training colleges. 
 
 ABSENCE OF TRAINING COLLEGES FOR SE- 
 CONDARY TEACHERS. But the absence of train- 
 ing for registered teachers in secondary schools is 
 met by the difficulty that, with the exception of 
 one or two institutions for female students, very 
 few facilities exist at present in the United King- 
 dom for that training. It appears probable, how- 
 ever, that this deficiency will not long exist, and 
 that the demand created by a thorough ventilation 
 of this question will be gradually supplied by local 
 effort. There is good reason to believe that one 
 of the earliest effects of " The Welsh Intermediate 
 Education Act, 1889," and of the establishment 
 of Day Training Colleges in connection with 
 the University Colleges now found in many 
 large centres of population, will be to produce 
 local training institutions, to which well-equipped 
 
298 REPORT OF 
 
 practising schools may be attached, and in which 
 the teachers who are to be employed in secondary 
 schools may be efficiently trained. 
 
 COMPOSITION OF EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL. 
 Your Committee have considered the proposals 
 embodied in both Bills submitted to them in 
 regard to the formation of a Council for giving 
 effect to their provisions, so far as they relate to 
 the registration of teachers. There was a general 
 opinion that the Council should consist of repre- 
 sentatives of the State, the Universities, and 
 persons actually engaged in the teaching pro- 
 fession. It appears to your Committee that a 
 Council formed upon such a basis would fully 
 meet any requirements necessary for the carrying 
 out of a scheme of registration. 
 
 Recom men dations. 
 
 ADMISSION OF TEACHERS TO REGISTER. 
 Your Committee are of opinion that the most 
 satisfactory arrangements in any scheme of regis- 
 tration that may be adopted would be (a) that 
 existing teachers should not be put on the register 
 merely as such, but should not suffer from any 
 legal disability ; (b) that both existing teachers and 
 
SELECT COMMITTEE. 299 
 
 future teachers should be admitted to the register 
 on producing such evidence of intellectual acquire- 
 ments and teaching capacity as might be required 
 by the Council ; (c) that the register should, as soon 
 as might appear reasonable in such case, be made 
 compulsory upon existing teachers in the event of 
 their appointment to teach in a secondary school, 
 assisted by endowments or public money, and 
 upon future teachers in these, and ultimately in 
 all other secondary schools ; (d) that teachers cer- 
 tified by the Education Department should be 
 placed on the register with an indication, as in 
 the case of other teachers, of the nature of their 
 certificate. 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 Your Committee, therefore, beg to make the 
 following recommendations : 
 
 (1) That registration of teachers in secondary 
 schools is in principle desirable. 
 
 (2) That such registration should be based upon 
 the suggestions contained in the last paragraph of 
 the foregoing report. 
 
 (3) That the qualifications for registration should 
 include evidence both of attainments and of teach- 
 ing capacity. 
 
 (4) That with this object, additional facilities 
 
300 REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE. 
 
 are required for the training of teachers in secon- 
 dary schools. 
 
 (5) That any educational Council to be estab- 
 lished for the furtherance of such registration, 
 should be composed of nominees of the State, 
 representatives of the Universities, and members 
 elected by the teaching profession. 
 
 Your Committee desire to report the Bills that 
 were referred to them, without amendment, to the 
 House. 
 
 OF THE 
 
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