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 THE 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE FARMER, 
 
 VIEWED I» CONNECTION WITH THAT OF THE 
 
 MIDDLE CLASSES IN GENERAL : 
 
 ITS OBJECTS, PKINCIPLES, AND COST. 
 
 By T. D. ACLAND, Esq., 
 
 LA.TB FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY J. RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. 
 
 OXFORD : PARKER & SON. CAMBRIDGE : MACMILLAN. 
 
 EXETER: W. H. ROBERTS. 
 
 1857.
 
 EEPEINTED FROM 
 
 THE JOURNAL OF THE BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND SOCIETY 
 
 FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ARTS, 
 
 MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE, 
 
 LiONXJO.N : PaiM£0 BV WILLIAM CLOWES AND 80MS, STAMFORD STHEET, 
 AND CHARING CKOSS.
 
 TO 
 
 Sir THOMAS DYKE ACLAND, Bart. 
 
 I INSCRIBE your name on these few pages, not that I wish to make 
 you in any sense responsible for their contents, nor that in writing 
 of the edvication of others I can venture to speak publicly of the 
 parental training your own children have received. 
 
 But at this time, when the public response to plans in which I 
 have taken part far exceeds my expectation, I cannot but give some 
 utterance to a feeling common to all your sons (especially cherished 
 by him who, since these lines were first penned, has been called 
 from the midst of his unceasing work for others to the rest he longed 
 for), that, if we are ever permitted to help on what is useful and 
 good, we owe it to you. For we inherit friendships and sympathies 
 won by your hearty love of worth aad excellence in whatever rank 
 they are to be found, and by your instinctive sense of what is due 
 from man to man. 
 
 In acting with others earnestly engaged in promoting the good of 
 their fellow countrymen, whether physical, intellectual, or moral, 
 your sons can but follow the path marked out by their father nearly 
 half a century ago. 
 
 T. D. A., Jun.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Txan 
 
 Intboduction 1 
 
 The Education of the Farmer not to be separated from Middle-Class Edu- 
 cation generally 6 
 
 Middle-Class Education must prepare — 
 
 1, for business, not for college 7 
 
 2, for dealing with things rather than with men 8 
 
 EdiTcation of the Child : — 
 
 Mother's training 10 
 
 Servants 13 
 
 Education of the Boy : — 
 
 School and schoolfellows 14 
 
 Useful education illustrated 15 
 
 i. What is really useful for business : — 
 
 Language 20 
 
 Calculation 20 
 
 Natural philosophy 21 
 
 Chemistry and physical science 22 
 
 ii. What is useful to educate a Man : — 
 
 Literature, late Professor Hussey 24 
 
 Awakens mental power 25 
 
 Coleridge's schoolmaster 27 
 
 Cyril Jackson 28 
 
 Trains moral feeling 28 
 
 The study of language 32 
 
 Should farmers learn Latin ? 34 
 
 Opinions of Mr. Penrose 36 
 
 „ Dr. Boole 36 
 
 Mr. Thring 37 
 
 „ Dr. Kennedy 38 
 
 Geography and history 38 
 
 Drawing and music 40 
 
 The expense of education - 41 
 
 For small farmers 44 
 
 For the higher yeomanry 45 
 
 Middle-class colleges 45 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Extracts from Dr. Arnold on Middle-Class Schools 50 
 
 Letter from Dr. Voelcker on Teaching Chemistry at School 52 
 
 Eton Questions on Chemistry. By Mr. Pepper 53 
 
 Eev. Stephen Hawtrey on Music as a means of General Education . , . . 55 
 
 List of Books 57 
 
 -UIUC .
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Some apology may be needed for the homely and familiar 
 manner in which a subject of great importance is treated in this 
 Essay. I can only plead that it was written for the Journal of a 
 local Society in which I could reckon on the indulgence of a 
 larger number of readers than I could presume to hope for 
 elsewhere. Writing as I did with a practical purpose in view, I 
 chose for thoughts slowly worked out the mode of expression 
 which seemed best suited to the occasion, in the belief that 
 example and anecdote would tell more than a lengthened chain 
 of reasoning, and that the words of others, whenever I could use 
 them, would have moi'e weight than my own. 
 
 Although addressing farmers, I have treated of middle-class 
 education in general. I have endeavoured to describe a really 
 useful ' Middle-class Education,' and yet I doubt not it will 
 appear to some that I have passed too lightly over commercial 
 and technical acquirements, and have understated the value of 
 particular sciences ; but my object has been not so much to lay 
 down a system for any particular class, as to awaken attention to 
 the spirit and aim of all education that can fairly claim to be 
 called " practical." Feeling as I do great respect for the manly 
 virtues and practical habits of Englishmen in the middle ranks I 
 believe they are not far wrong in preferring their own common 
 sense as a guide in business to what they call theory. But it 
 may be confidently asserted that their habits of business need not 
 suffer, and that new sources of enjoyment and usefulness will be 
 opened to them, if they take, for their own and then- children's 
 sake, a warm interest in the mental cultivation which is o-oin"- 
 on in other classes of society. Not only do community of 
 thought and friendly intercourse between men of different pur- 
 suits increase their respect for each other, but an acquaintance 
 with the mysteries of nature disclosed by science, and with the 
 still deeper mysteries of human thought and action enshrined 
 in literature, tends to generate a love for what is intrinsically 
 
 B
 
 2 Introduction. 
 
 true and beautiful, and to raise a man above the conventionalities 
 of mere fashion. 
 
 In this paper, addressed as it was originally to a Society com- 
 prising men of different opinions, little is said of the foundation 
 on which moral duty and religious fellowship must rest. But I 
 do not forget, nor would I have others to forget, that there is a 
 book suited above all others to train the young intellectually as 
 well as morally, because it speaks to man as man, and that with 
 that book are connected institutions of primary importance to 
 domestic and national life. However much men may differ as to 
 the intei'pretation of the one, or as to the authority of the other, 
 no view of education can be considered complete without some 
 reference to them. On these subjects, however, although I have 
 not attempted to conceal, so neither do 1 think it necessary on the 
 present occasion to obtrude, my personal convictions. 
 
 I may venture nevertheless to express the opinion that success 
 in the efforts made for national education by religious bodies and 
 by the State will to a great extent depend on the interest which 
 the middle classes may be induced to take in it, and that it im- 
 ports much to the welfare of the nation that the practical activity 
 called forth in agriculture, manufactures, and the arts, should be 
 guided not only by sound teaching of science, but by moral and 
 humanising influences. 
 
 To the progress of this great work I offer a humble contribu- 
 tion, not unmindful of those who led the way many years ago, 
 and with the hope that God's blessing may guide all who are 
 now engaged in it.
 
 THE 
 
 EDUCATION OF THE FARMER, 
 
 AND 
 
 MIDDLE-CLASS EDUCATION IN GENEEAL. 
 
 " How should I educate my son to make him a good farmer?" 
 This is a question more easily asked than answered. 
 
 Perhaps it would not be far from the truth to say, " Try to 
 make him a good man, and leave him to make himself a good 
 farmer : aim at the formation of a manly character and of an in- 
 quiring mind, and habits of business will follow," 
 
 If this be true, his education depends far less on book-learning 
 than on the training of the mother, the example of the father, 
 the habits of the family, and the choice of friends. These are 
 the human agencies, external to himself, and yet, in one sense, a 
 part of himself, which prepare the man whether for good or 
 evil, for power or for weakness. But boys are not acted upon 
 from without only ; each one has received from his JMaker a 
 peculiar physical and mental constitution ; according to the use 
 he makes of what God has given him, will be his real and 
 abiding character ; the circumstances which call out the manly 
 character in one boy enfeeble another, because they are dif- 
 ferently used by the two boys. 
 
 So that the ultimate eft'ect of the best education depends at last 
 on the self-determining will of each individual, and the relation in 
 Avhich his inmost spirit stands to that invisible world, for which, 
 whether he be master or servant here, he is really training. 
 
 The circumstances under which this paper is written preclude 
 any explicit discussion of the religious influences to be used In 
 education, but less than this I could not say without being 
 liable to be misunderstood. Avoiding, therefore, all controver- 
 sial topics, I shall write throughout without scruple, as addressing 
 readers who recognize Christianity as a fact of our national life. 
 
 The one point which I do venture to press. In an educational 
 point of view, is the need of consistency. Children are trustful, 
 and must have some rule to go by ; they are full of inquiry, but 
 irritated and injured by doubt. If you wish a son to think for 
 himself, and to think charitably when he is old, let him learn 
 
 r. 2
 
 4 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer^ 
 
 irom his parent's and master's example to believe something, 
 and to act upon it ; he will be in a better position to judge of 
 the truth of his early convictions when he grows up, if he put 
 them to the test of practice in youth. 
 
 I take it for granted that a neighbour of mine represented a 
 general feeling when he said, " Farmers don't wish to be only 
 farmers ; they don't forget that they are men." In accordance 
 with this feeling, we must keep two distinct points in view in 
 treating of the education of the farmer.* 
 
 First, How is he to learn his business as a farmer in the 
 present condition of the British islands ? 
 
 Secondly, How is he to be a happy member of the societj'^ in 
 which he lives ? 
 
 Our chief business in this Journal is with the first of these 
 points, but they cannot be separated in practice. 
 
 The first question which meets us at the outset is. Does the 
 fai-mer require a special agricultural education ? 
 
 He is to live by agriculture ; must he not learn the art by 
 which he is to live ? We might safely answer on general 
 grounds, " All arts are best learnt by practice ; and unless there 
 is some special reason why farming should be taught to school- 
 boys, this art will follow the rule of others, and be learned by 
 apprenticeship after school." 
 
 The ScIE^STCES connected with iVGRICULTURE. 
 
 But a moment's attention to what agriculture involves will 
 settle the question. Agriculture is the art of producing human 
 food from a limited extent of land, in the greatest abundance 
 and in the shortest space of time consistent with a profit to the 
 jiroducer. The production of food, in some form, is as «)ld as 
 the human race ; in savage life it is obtained by hunting ; in 
 the pastoral life, one stage above the savage, food is obtained 
 from flocks and herds ; a little further on in civilization, the 
 sowing and reaping of the most fertile spots supply the 
 wants of a scanty peasantry ; but in a country with a dense 
 population, requiring a high class of food, with a limited surface 
 of land constantly cropped, the demands of the practical farmer 
 on the resources of science are constant and manifold. 
 
 If we consider on what powers of nature human food de- 
 pends, it is surprising how many departments of knowledge may 
 (■ontrii)ute something to the result. How plants grow — and how 
 animals feed — why some thrive and others are stunted — are 
 (juestions as yet imperfectly answered : but they are the subject- 
 matter of the science of Physiology ; a science, the compre- 
 
 * See extracts from Dr. Arnold, Appendix, p. 50.
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 5 
 
 hension of which implies an accurate knowledge of Cliemistry 
 and of the general principles of Natural Philosophy, The consti- 
 tution of the soil, the varieties of sti ata, are taught by Mineralogy 
 and Geology. Draining, in its present advanced state, depends 
 on the laws of Hydrostatics. The economy of farm-labour requires 
 the skilful application of the laws of Meclianics. These are all 
 matters of fact, plain, broad, and palpable, entering into the 
 simplest arrangements of a wc 11-conducted farm. But if we go 
 on to more delicate subjects, how much is the produce of the 
 farm affected by the principles of Heat and Light, perhaps of 
 Electricity, by the complicated agencies of climate included in 
 the province of Meteorology ! To the subjects already named 
 must be added the diseases of vegetables and animals, and the 
 intricate questions involved in the art of high breeding. In 
 addition to what belongs to agriculture as a food-producing art, 
 the farmer requires knowledge of the principles which affect the 
 rates of wages, profits, rents, principles taught by Political 
 Economy, but having a most important bearing on the question, 
 " Will it pay ? " 
 
 Here then is a prospect for the poor lad at the commencement 
 of his school life ; that successful agriculture depends on natural 
 philosophy, chemistry, physiology, meteorology, pathology, poli- 
 tical economy, and a few other sciences. 
 
 The bare enumeration of these subjects is contlusive. The 
 boy's studies must have some limit. It is, therefore, plain that 
 he cannot master all the sciences on which his art depends. We 
 must, then, find some other mode of education. 
 
 The Use of Science to a Farmer. 
 
 First let us dissipate this alarm about the sciences, as affecting 
 the mere question of profit in business, 'i he farmer will be able 
 to deal with science as he deals with his tradesman, or his 
 lawyer, or his doctor. Either he will be able to buy ready made 
 the articles he wants (manures for instance), when he Avants 
 them, and as he wants them, and judge by the result how they 
 agree with his land ; or he must call in his professional chemist 
 or mechanic, give him a fee and trust to his advice ; taking good 
 care in his dealings to apply to respectable and upright men, 
 and to keep clear of quacks of all kinds. 
 
 One advantage of a dense population is the manifold divi- 
 sion of labour ; scientific discoveries are quickly turned to ac- 
 count by ingenious inventors ; capital is forthcoming to supply 
 any demand ; and new inventions, by means of advertising and 
 agencies, are soon spread over the Avhole surface of the country. 
 What the farmer wants in his business, is a sound, healthy, and,
 
 6 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 at the same time, discriminating habit of mind — a habit dis- 
 posing him to take advantage of all useful inventions, and to 
 reject fanciful schemes ; and therefore he should desire for his 
 son, 1st., Readiness to acquire knowledge ; 2ndly, Power to use 
 and apply knowledge when acquired. 
 
 These are qualities confined to no particular calling, and 
 requiring no special model-schools to teach them. 
 
 Education for Farming only a Branch of Middle-Class 
 Education. 
 
 Still, granting that the sciences above enumerated are either 
 unattainable, or not required, by the ordinary farmer, it may yet 
 be asked, " Is there not something so peculiar in the business 
 of farming as to require special teaching ? " The country and 
 the town, land and trade, present ideas so opposite, that it may 
 well be supposed that the education which fits for the one is 
 not a good preparation for the other. Let us see. English 
 society throws itself broadly into three classes — the labourers ; 
 the employers of labour for profit ; and the educated classes, 
 who live by the labour of their own brains, or by incomes 
 derived from their predecessors. The middle class, living on 
 profits, includes the ti'adesman who supplies the bodily wants of 
 his customer by retail ; the manufacturer, who converts the raw 
 material into a state fit for use ; and the agriculturist, who 
 supplies raw materials for food and clothing. In addition to 
 these, there are of course many other branches of mercantile 
 business, furnishing employment to a large class of agents and 
 clerks. 
 
 The occupation of the farmer, for which he is to be fitted by 
 his education, has much in common with that of the tradesman 
 and the manufacturer. His time will be spent in supplying the 
 material wants of his fellow-creatures. He will look for the main- 
 tenance of his own family to the profits derived from the judicious 
 expenditure of capital in the payment of wages, in the purchase 
 of stock at the lowest price, to be sold again at the dearest. He 
 will be engaged in the constant struggle with the powers of 
 nature, and his success will in great measure depend on the 
 employment of processes skilfully adapted to economise time, 
 money, and labour. 
 
 In all this there is no clear distinction to be drawn between 
 the employments of the farmer and those of other men of busi- 
 ness in the middle ranks ; whereas the whole of the middle class 
 is separated on the one hand from the labourers who work for 
 wages, as other men's servants, with a view to their employer's 
 profit or enjoyment ; and on the other from what are called the
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 7 
 
 independent classes and the members of the liberal professions, 
 who are reasonably expected by all ranks to maintain as the 
 characteristic of English gentlemen a generous disregard to 
 mercantile profit in their transactions with their neighbours. 
 From these considerations we may draw the conclusion that the 
 farmer's education should take its character rather from the cir- 
 cumstances which attach to business in general than from the 
 peculiarities of agriculture. 
 
 The chief peculiarities of the farmer's business are, that he 
 can only produce his goods at certain seasons, and that the 
 powers of nature which he deals with are affected by the vicissi- 
 tudes of weather ; from which the inference is that he has the 
 greater need for vigilant observation, attention to details, and 
 patience. Special scientific knowledge will avail little against 
 the seasons if these qualities be wanting. 
 
 Another element, however, must be taken into consideration 
 which has much effect in determining the character of the educa- 
 tion which it is possible to give to any class, and that is the 
 element of Time. The period of education may be divided into 
 three portions, — those of childhood, boyhood, and manhood. 
 For convenience sake we may take the ages of ten and eighteen 
 as the extreme points at which the second is separated from tlie 
 first and the third. Speaking generally, the education of the 
 labourer terminates with the first period ; that of the middle 
 classes rarely reaches the limits of the second. 
 
 Middle-Class Education must prepare for Life not for 
 
 College. 
 
 At or before the age at which university life commences the 
 youth who is destined for ti'ade or agriculture passes from book- 
 learning to a more practical or probationary training. It is this 
 circumstance more than any other which gives its peculiar cha- 
 racter to middle-class education. The classical training of the 
 grammar school, as generally understood, is preparatory to uni- 
 versity study. Much of the time of the public schoolboy is 
 therefore spent, and wisely spent, in laying up materials for 
 future scholarship, and in acquiring facility in the use of lan- 
 guage and other instruments of thought, the value of which will 
 not appear until he has passed through the philosophical training 
 of his maturer powers and stepped out into tlie arena of public 
 or professional life. To give tlie middle-class boy this long- 
 preparatory discipline would be to misapply his time ; it would 
 prevent him from receiving the training and gaining the inform- 
 ation which will be called into play by his business as soon as 
 he leaves school, and, what is more important, would increase
 
 8 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 the difficulty of giving him, before it is too late, a taste for 
 reading, of a pure and elevating character, such as inay serve to 
 raise him above the depressing influences of the market. 
 For it must be understood that the earlier stages of classical 
 study are mere drudgery. The pleasant associations connected 
 with the classics are not formed till after the grammatical diffi- 
 culties have been mastered. How far Latin as a question of 
 drill may enter into middle-class education shall be discussed 
 presently, but for the refining influence of literature the young 
 larmer must mainly depend on his own language, and his time 
 is very limited. 
 
 We may, then, consider two points as established : — 1st. That 
 a special agricultural education is unnecessary and undesirable, 
 at least for young boys. 2nd. That the middle-class education, 
 which the farmer will usually receive, should be complete in 
 itself, and not a truncated portion of a loftier edifice — not the 
 first stage of a journey broken off in the middle. 
 
 The End of all Education. 
 
 These two general principles being disposed of, we fall back 
 on the question what are the main points to be kept in view in 
 the endeavour to foster a good manly character in a lad who is to 
 learn afterwards to make himself a farmer? 
 
 At the risk of uttering truisms, let us mark out the objects of 
 all education, bearing in mind, as we pass them in review, the 
 future occupation to which the father is looking forward for 
 his son. 
 
 The object of education generally is to call out and discipline 
 those faculties of mind and will which God has given us ; and 
 we may find a clue to our inquir}', without trenching too much 
 on serious subjects, in the threefold division of human duty : — 
 1st. As in this world of sense we are all tempted to forego our 
 real good for present gratification, we need to form a habit of 
 looking above and beyond things present ; in other words, to see 
 the invisible by the eye of Faith, and the future by that of Hope, 
 2ndly. Inasmuch as we are tempted to gratify self, and inas- 
 much as our influence over others depends on our credit, un- 
 selfishness and veracity should be especially cultivated in our 
 intercourse with others, — in other words. Charity and Truth — 
 " speaking the truth in love." 3rdly. Much of our success in 
 life depends on the free but orderly use of our powers of body 
 and mind : Nature does much, but training shovild do still more, 
 to quicken boys, or make them alive, physically, morally, and 
 intellectually. Activity, perseverance, method, in his conduct, — 
 observation, memory, judgment, in the use of his intellect, — are
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 9 
 
 needed by every man, but by none more than by the farmer ; and 
 I venture, with all submission to practical men on the one hand, 
 and scientific gentlemen on the other, to assert that these points 
 are more important to be thought about before eighteen tlian to 
 judge the weight of a bullock or to study agricultural chemistry. 
 
 The object of the education of the farmer should be to give him 
 the moral and intellectual habits required by practical men in 
 general, rather than the special knowledge of Agriculture. But, 
 although the knowledge of technical details may be postponed, 
 his mental training should be considered with reference to one 
 marked distinction : — the business of the statesman and the 
 divine is with Persons ; the business of the farmer and the 
 commercial man is with Things. 
 
 From this it follows that after the first instruments of know- 
 ledge, such as reading and writing, have been acquired, the 
 farmer's preparation for business should be scientific rather than 
 literary. He will be occupied with numerous petty details on 
 which in fact his profits will depend ; one great object of his 
 education should therefore be to counteract the narrowing influ- 
 ence of empirical knowledge, by giving him confidence in the 
 great Laws of Nature. But with still higher objects in view, 
 namely, to elevate him as man above his daily work, to call out 
 his sympathies, and to warm his affections, Literature should have 
 an important though a subordinate place. 
 
 The Three Periods of Education. 
 
 It was observed above that the education of all classes may 
 be divided into three portions — that of the child, the school- 
 boy, and the young man. Into the training of the farmer, as a 
 young man, we do not propose to enter here ;* that belongs to 
 apprenticeship. The young statesman serves his apprenticeship 
 as a private secretary ; the lawyer, as a pupil in chambers ; the 
 medical man, as a hospital dresser ; the clergyman, seldom, alas ! 
 till his first curacy. The young farmer, in like manner, serves 
 his apprenticeship to his father, or to some one with whom his 
 father places him to learn his business. A wide line must be 
 drawn between apprenticeship and education.f Many mistakes 
 arise from confusing the two. English education and English 
 common sense will be ruined if all schools become special, by 
 the vain attempt to introduce practice into school life. The 
 model " School-Farm " cannot be a model " Business-Farm." 
 
 Our chief concern here is with the school, but a few words 
 
 * The subject is shortly alluded to at p. 45. 
 
 t I owe to Mr. Temple the perception of this distinction in its full force.
 
 10 ACLAND an the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 must be said about the home life, which precedes and accom- 
 panies schooltime. 
 
 Childhood. 
 
 Too much importance cannot be attached to the precious years 
 of childhood, when the faculties are budding into life ; and 
 though nothing can be worse than some of the false excitement of 
 infant schools, the mother's early training has much effect on 
 the mental power of after years. An eminent French philosopher 
 told me once that he had been commissioned by his government to 
 look into the system of education in this country, with a view to 
 account for what seemed to a Frenchman incomprehensible, 
 viz,, the practical effect of our English education, especially in the 
 higher ranks, considering how very little scientific or methodical 
 preparation for the business of life it includes. I introduced him 
 to various persons, some of whom accounted for the fact by the 
 catechetical method of college lectures ; others by the freedom 
 of public schools, but when I mentioned the question to Professor 
 Sedgwick, he answered in his characteristic way — " You should 
 have told him they have English mothers." * 
 
 It is not for me to teach English mothers how to do their 
 duty ; but if I may call to my aid the memory and example of 
 that blessed office as actually practised, the following points 
 may be selected as bearing on the present subject : — 
 
 Mother's Tkaining. 
 
 To the mother it belongs especially to train the child's affec- 
 tions, and to mould the character by sowing the first seeds 
 of self-control. The elementary religious training is also her 
 peculiar province, and there is no saying how deep may be the 
 impression left by the reverent reading of the Bible narratives 
 on a mother's knee. Simple Hymns and Scripture prints are 
 invaluable, and of these there is no lack at a very moderate cost. 
 The mistress of a farm-house may not have leisure for much 
 intellectual teaching beyond the first steps of reading and 
 spelling, but she may prepare the way for future instruction by 
 forming good habits, which however cannot be done Avithout 
 taking great pains. She may awaken observation by interesting 
 the child in the habits of animals, the songs of birds, and the 
 varieties of flowers ; by pointing out the causes of common 
 occurrences in nature, and the reasons for some of the things she 
 does in the dairy, the kitchen, and the poultry-yard. She can 
 
 * If this should meet Mr. Sedgwick's eye, I hope he will forgive the reference 
 to a pi'ivate conversatiou.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 11 
 
 form habits of diligence and perseverance by requiring little tasks 
 in household matters, undertaken as they will be at first as a plea- 
 sure, to be punctually and regularly performed. It is needless 
 to observe that this requires patience, good-temper, and some self- 
 denial in the mother, for it is far less troublesome to do anything 
 oneself than to get it done by a child, with the prospect of having 
 it all to do over again. It is a wise maxim, " Remember that 
 children have to be told the same thing over and over again ; 
 they must be reminded every day, and all day, and that cheer- 
 fully." Self-reliance is another habit to be acquired in very early 
 years. I have heard it quoted as the saying of one of the best 
 and most disinterested educators * in England, " that the secret of 
 education consists in putting children into a difficulty and leaving 
 them to find their own way out of it." 
 
 Practical habits in the business of life depend, in a great 
 measure, on a certain quickness of perception and fertility of 
 resource. It is therefore of great importance to call out the 
 inventive powers and to encourage the activity given by nature to 
 the young. In children there is a strong temptation to dream- 
 ing, or what is called wool-gathering, and dawdling. In this 
 point of view games are invaluable. By games I mean real 
 play, not lessons in disguise, which children are sure to find out. 
 Play is a provision of nature and involves freedom as well as 
 activity. Only let play be play ; either play of the mind, that is 
 activity in guessing, finding out, and contriving ; or play of the 
 body, in the active exercise of the limbs ; and the more fun the 
 better. Nor are the little imitative amusements of children to be 
 despised, for the play of the imagination calls out the inventive 
 and active powers in happy combination. 
 
 The bane of childhood is to pamper the appetite for bodily 
 indulgence or any kind of pleasure. It is a profound principle of 
 an ancient moral writer that pleasure, which is given to man as 
 the natural result of healthy action, should not be its motive. 
 When pleasure is allowed to take the place of duty, or to be fol- 
 lowed in excess, it always disappoints, and produces a morbid 
 craving for excitement, which destroys all power of enjoyment. 
 
 " It is not pleasure (says a German) t but play which keeps children cheer- 
 ful, therefore give no i:ilaything whose end is only to he looked at, but one 
 which can be used. That which produces and maintains cheerfulness is 
 activity clothed in the lightest wings." 
 
 As to actual teaching, for the reason given above, little need 
 be said. But I earnestly commend to mothers in the middle 
 classes two little books written by my more than respected tutor, 
 
 * The Rev. W. Fry, of Leicester, 
 t Jean Paul Ivichter, Levana.
 
 12 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 the Right Rev. Thomas Vowler Short, a Devonshire man, now 
 Bishop of St. Asaph, ' Bishop Short's Hints on Teaching Little 
 Children to Read ;' ' Instructions for Teaching Arithmetic to 
 Little Children.' * Having tried them both with my own 
 children I can answer for their value, and also for that of many 
 other books written for National Schools, as suited for parental 
 use. My farming friends may rest assured that the economy 
 of labour has not made more advance within the last twenty years 
 in the art of growing turnips than it has in the art of teaching 
 children to read and to count. At the same time either a 
 natural gift or some special information and training is required 
 for teaching young children well. Without, however, depreciat- 
 ing the more intellectual methods, I venture still to think the 
 old-fashioned Multiplication Table, which must be learned sooner 
 or later, is very good discipline, and the sooner it is learnt the 
 better.f There must be some learning by rote in education, only 
 let what is learned be learned quite perfectly. The old spelling- 
 books are worse than useless. The ' Spelling-book Superseded,' 
 published, by the Irish Board, | will be a good substitute and a 
 great help to a mother. 
 
 Children have generally a love of poetry, and the memory is 
 their strongest faculty ; a few simple pieces of poetry are easily 
 learned early, and will give pleasure in after life, only let them be 
 simple and natural. I never knew a child who did not enjoy 
 Watts' Hymns, or Hymns for Little Children,§ of which this is 
 a specimen : — 
 
 " All things bright and beautiful, 
 All creatures great and small, 
 All things wise and wonderful, 
 The Lord God made them all. 
 
 Each little flower that opens, 
 
 Each little bird that sings, 
 He made their glowing colours, 
 
 He made their tiny wings. 
 
 The rich man in his castle, 
 
 The poor man at his gate, , 
 God made them, high or lowly, 
 
 And ordered their estate. 
 
 The purple-headed moimtain, 
 
 The river riuming by, 
 The sunset, and the morning, 
 
 That brightens up the sky. 
 
 * Price 45^. each. Sold by the Christian Knowledge Society, 
 t I would advise all mothers to buy a little book, called ' Bessie Gray,' if they 
 wish to see what may be done by a little common-sense teaching. 
 X Sold by Groombridge. 
 § Hymns for Little Children. Masters, Loudon,
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 13 
 
 He gave ns eyes to see them, 
 
 And lips that we might tell 
 How great is God Almighty, 
 
 Who has made all things well." 
 
 Or the following agricultural picture : — 
 
 " Little birds sleep sweetly 
 In their soft round nests, 
 Crouching in the cover 
 Of their mothers' breasts. 
 
 Little lambs lie quiet, 
 
 All the summer night. 
 With their old ewe mothers. 
 
 Warm and soft and white. 
 
 But more sweet and quiet 
 
 Lie our little heads, 
 With om' own dear mothers 
 
 Sitting by our beds. 
 
 * * * i» 
 
 Birds are not so merry 
 Singing on the trees. 
 
 Lambs are not so ha])py, 
 
 Mid the meadow flowers ; 
 They have play and pleasure, 
 
 But not love like ours." 
 
 It is needless to say that obedience and truth are the moral 
 qualities which lie at the foundation of all education of the very 
 young ; but in this as in other matters more depends on exam])le 
 than on precept. I cannot refrain from quoting the following 
 testimony to English life from a very remarkable German work, 
 recently translated, ' Christian Family Life,' by Thiersch : — 
 
 " Servants and children shoi;ld know everytliing which they have to do as 
 accurately as the crew of a ship. It is not by chance that the most maritime 
 people in the world is also in domestic life a model in the distribution and 
 ordering of all which is to be done. In England this praiseworthy peculiarity 
 is in fact grounded alike upon a well understood interest, upon national tradition, 
 and upon religious motives. Nelson's signal, ' England expects every man to 
 do his duty,' is properly a quotation from the English Catechism, ' to do my 
 duty in that state of life vmto which it shall please God to call me.' This 
 principle forms the key-note of the English public and domestic life." 
 
 We in turn may learn something from Luther's Catechism. 
 
 " Let every one his duties know. 
 And things at home all right will go."* 
 
 It is an important point for the mother not to forget how 
 entirely all her good instruction and careful training will be 
 
 * " Eiii jeder lerii sein Lection 
 So wird es wohl im Ilause ston."
 
 14 AcLAND 0)1 the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 counteractpcl if slie allows her children, when out of her sight, to 
 be with servants unfit for the charge. I am led to press this 
 point in consequence of having been told by a gentleman at the 
 head of a large collegiate school, that he could trace the bad 
 tricks and low tone of mind of some boys under his charge to the 
 influence of inferior servants. Propriety in conduct and manner, 
 truth, and good temper, are essential in those who are to be about 
 children ; how can we expect these qualities to be in our children 
 if a contrary example is set them ? Those who have been 
 blessed with good nurses know how beneficial their influence is 
 on the character. 
 
 Before I go on to speak of the school itself I may refer to the 
 remark of several schoolmasters, that the great difficulty they 
 have to contend with is the habits the boys bring from home ; 
 undisciplined wills and untrained attention, producing a state of 
 mind which is entirely the reverse of teachable. The master is 
 expected to take boys in this state for a year, to give them 
 what is called a finishing, after a year's running wild in the 
 country — a very common but most unwise way of interrupting 
 education. 
 
 A boy's school-life in general commences when he is found 
 to be troublesome at home ; this is usually about eight years 
 old. The question then arises whether he is to go to a day-school 
 or a boarding school. If every farmer's little boy had a chance of 
 being placed for a while under such teachers as are sent out 
 annually from Whitelands, Salisbury, and other female training- 
 schools, how happy would it be for them. 
 
 It is needless, however, here to speak of the training of a 
 female teacher, which is only a continuation of nursery discipline, 
 though often most valuable to young boys ; nor to discuss the 
 question in what cases it is desirable that the farmer's son should 
 be educated by the teacher of the village school ; suffice it to say 
 that happy are those boys whose parents are wise enough to 
 think more, during the early days of youthful simplicity, of the 
 qualifications of the teacher, than of their own dignity. 
 
 The practical question which we have to deal with here, is 
 the education to be given at the boarding school of the middle 
 classes for boys from the ages of 10 or 12 to 16 or 18. 
 
 School Training. 
 
 Two remarks may be made at the outset as generally applic- 
 able to all schools. First ; that the education which boys receive 
 from each other is at least as important as that imparted by the 
 master. Secondly ; that the moral and intellectual tone of the 
 master will impress itself on the boys with far more lasting effect
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 
 
 15 
 
 than his precepts. From this it follows that the games * of a 
 school, its traditions and social habits, and the power which the 
 master possesses of awakening a spontaneous healthy activity of 
 body and mind, are among the principal points to be considered 
 in the choice of a school. Where these things are as they 
 should be, the evidence will be seen in the happy countenances 
 of the boys, and the associations with which former pupils look 
 back to their school-life. It is well known that the opinions and 
 tone of the boys in the upper forms of a public school are a 
 better test of its condition than the honours gained at the uni- 
 versities. 
 
 We now come to the matter of instruction itself, which, as 
 already remarked, must be looked at in two aspects. First ; Pre- 
 paration for the actual business of life. Secondly ; Expansion of 
 the moral and intellectual nature of the man. 
 
 Education of the Farmer as a Man of Business. 
 
 Parents desire what they call an useful education ; but what is 
 really useful ? Something which we could use, if we knew how 
 to handle it; or the power of using whatever is likely to come 
 to hand ? What do we desire for our children's bodies ; the free 
 action of their limbs, or some newly invented leading strings and 
 crutches ? 
 
 I believe that in some quarters the prevailing idea of what is use- 
 ful in education will be found to be embodied, first and foremost, 
 in writing copperplate, to which may be added land-surveying 
 for a farmer, book-keeping for trade, with the addition of Latin 
 if the trade should be in drugs. "j" 
 
 * I cannot resist quoting, as an illustration of the value of school games, the 
 Uppingham Fives Song. By Rev. E. Turing. 
 
 ■ Oh the spirit in the ball, 
 Dancing round about the wall, 
 In your eye and out again. 
 Ere there 's time to feel the pain ; 
 Hands and fingers all alive. 
 Doing duty each for five. 
 Oh the spirit in the ball. 
 Dancing round about the wall. 
 
 See again, now up it goes. 
 Whizzing by that startled nose, 
 Hands and feet are everywhere. 
 Twinkling in the middle air, 
 
 Bodies, bodies are no more. 
 All is hit, and spring, and score. 
 Oh the spirit in the ball. 
 Dancing round about the wall. 
 
 Poets sung it long ago, 
 All the fight and all the woe, 
 Geryon and thundering Zeus, 
 Hundred-fisted Briareus, 
 Argus with his million eyes. 
 Oh 't was but a game of Fives. 
 Oh the lordly game of Fives. 
 Oh the spirit in the ball. 
 Dancing round about the wall." 
 
 t " There is one great difficulty whicli schoolmasters find in doing their duty to 
 boys, and at the same time satisfying their parents. Parents wish their boys 
 to be pushed on : the conscientious master prefers to keep them back until thej^ 
 are well grounded ; because he knows that this will be of most benefit to them in 
 the end. Parents like to see some visible sign of their progress. The master who
 
 16 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 This is a view of useful education which I wish not to carica- 
 ture, but seriously and soberly to controvert on the most prac- 
 tical grounds of utility and experience. And lest I should be 
 thought to be setting up a man of straw, or fighting a shadow, 
 let me refer to one or two facts by way of illustration. 
 
 I saw an intelligent boy plodding over, what seemed to me, 
 useless technicalities, and I observed to the master that I thought 
 he was wasting his time ; the answer was, " I know it, that boy 
 ought to be learning ' Euclid,' but what can I do ? his father 
 won't allow it, he says it will be of no use in after life." Now, 
 if there be one book to be named above all others on secular 
 subjects, which for boys in the middle classes, is " useful in 
 after life," that book is unquestionably ' Euclid.' It is the book 
 which, after two thousand years, remains unsurpassed as an instru- 
 ment of intellectual training, for all who are to be conversant with 
 matter, and therefore with the principles of measurement. Even 
 the word geometry means " land measuring," and is supposed to 
 have had its origin in the wants of the Egyptian farmer of old. 
 
 Another fact within my own experience may serve to throw 
 some light on what is really useful in this very subject of 
 measurement alone. A gentleman who was called upon to examine 
 a school of some note, observed that the boys were taught land- 
 surveying in the usual way, learning to measure circular moats 
 round impossible castles, and to do other unpractical problems 
 without apparently mastering principles ; and he gave notice some 
 weeks before the day of examination that he intended to test the 
 boys' power of using what they were learning, saying at the same 
 time that he believed the First Book of Euclid would do the boys 
 
 watches tlie opening of the miud knows that they are often making most progress 
 when no great resnlts are perceptible. We all know that in building a house a 
 great part of the work is done underground. When the foundations are brought 
 up to the level of the soil, a superficial observer might suppose that very little had 
 been done ; and yet iu reality great progress towards building the house would 
 have been made. Just so in education ; a great deal may be silently going on 
 which is not seen abovegrouncl ; a great foundation-work, upon which the future 
 structure is to be reared. But parents are too apt to be impatient, and expect the 
 structure to be reared before the foundation is laid ; and schoolmasters are some- 
 times too ready, nay, almost obliged, in self-defence, to yield to this feeling of 
 the parents. Tbey will send the children home with strings of hard names of 
 places, and a smattering of two or three sciences, and a number of fields measured, 
 and maps copied, and account-books with swans and stags, and German-text 
 flourishing all over them. This is all very well ; but it is no criterion of real 
 progress. When a boy is really able to do his sums, there is no reason v. hatever 
 why his account-book should not be finished oil' in a neat and ornamental manner ; 
 and when he has mastered the art of land-surveying scientifically, let him make 
 as many maps and measure as many fields as he pleases. But what I object to is 
 the loss of much valuable time in mere outside show. A conscientious master is 
 often obliged to run the risk of offending parents, and appearing to bring their 
 children less forward than his competitors, because he will not give in to their 
 plans, and sacrifice the sure and gradual development of his scholars' faculties to 
 wliat is entirely superficial." — Extracted from ' I'Jic Schoohnndcr,' by J?cv. W. Gra^Ici/.
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 17 
 
 a great deal more good ; a remark which was received with a 
 respectful smile, and which he could only confirm by referring 
 to the fact that carpenters and masons in the adjoining parish 
 found it worth while to read Euclid, and, he might have added, 
 Shakspeare too. Well, on the day of examination, the examiner 
 proposed to the boys this question — " Your school is 60 feet long, 
 20 feet wide, you may have as many planks as you want of 
 9 inches wide and 10 feet long to cover it ; how many planks 
 must you have?" a simple question in multiplication and divi- 
 sion : — the juvenile land-measurers were quite at a loss. Some 
 surprise having been expressed, an intimation was conveyed in a 
 very courteous tone, that the right method of setting questions 
 had not been adopted ; that the rule should be named first, and 
 then an example set. The rejoinder was not equally courteous 
 on the examiner's part. " I thought so ; and I suppose you are 
 going to walk about with the boys through life to tell them what 
 rule to work sums by in their business !" The hint was very 
 frankly and kindly taken, and the following year similar questions 
 were worked without difficulty. 
 
 But if the method of teaching above referred to, still very 
 common even in the enlightened nineteenth century, be not 
 education, it may be worth while to j)roduce a sample from the 
 schools, or rather from the open market-place of Athens, which 
 will convey my meaning better than any words of my own : — 
 
 The Teaching of Sooeates. 
 
 Appended to a Lecture delivered at the Eoyal Institution, by Dr. Whewell 
 on " The Influence of the History of Science upon Education," is a specimen 
 of teaching extracted from Plato.* Those who have seen the specimen will 
 not be sorry to have it referred to ; and those to whom the reference may be 
 new will not regret having been led to examine the liccture and note for them- 
 selves. As we have a very different object to serve to what Plato had, we 
 need not quote verbatim ; our business will be, not to show that those who do 
 not know have still in their minds a latent knowledge, but to note how a boy 
 may be taught as it were to discover for himself, under the guidance of a com- 
 petent teacher, the length of the side of a square whose area shall be double that 
 of a given square. 
 
 Socrates asks, Do you know that this is a square ? 
 
 Boy. Yes. 
 
 Socrates. Why ? 
 
 Boy. Because the four sides are equal, and the lines which are drawn across 
 the middle, from comer to corner, are equal. 
 
 Socrates. May there be a square twice as great as this ? 
 
 Boy. Yes. 
 
 (Thus far have we elicited knowledge already possessed, and refreshed the 
 boy's memory.) 
 
 Socrates. — How long must one side of the new square be that its area may 
 be twice so great as that of the old square ? 
 
 * From the ' Meno.'
 
 18 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 Boy. Twice as long as the side of the first square. 
 
 (Here we have brought out for us the error — a very common one, as you 
 all know : — now for the teaching-skill in making the boy detect the 
 error.) 
 
 Socrates. So you say the square on a double line will be the double of the 
 first square? Now let us fit to one end of the first square a second square 
 which is equal to it ; and let us fit two other squares of the same size to the 
 sides of those two squares ; then what figure have we ? 
 
 Boy. A square. 
 
 Socrates. And how many times as gi-eat as the first square is it ? 
 
 Boy. Four times as great. 
 
 Socrates. Not twice as great, as you said ? 
 
 Boi/. No, it is four times as great. 
 
 (Thus is the error exposed, the boy being thoroughly convinced : — now for 
 the teacher's guidance in the discovery of the new truth.) 
 
 Socrates. If in this new square, which is made up of four of the old squares, 
 we draw four diagonals, so as to cut otf the four outside corners, each of these 
 diagonals vdW cut each of these squares, how ? 
 
 Boy. Into halves. 
 
 Socrates. And you already know that these four diagonals will be equal, and 
 will form another square ? 
 
 Boy. Yes, I know. 
 
 Socrates. And of what parts of the four squares is this inside square made 
 up? 
 
 Boy. Of the four inside halves. 
 
 Socrates. And four halves are equal to what ? 
 
 Boy. To two wholes. 
 
 Socrates. Then we have got a square that is equal to how many of the 
 original squares ? 
 
 Boy. To two of them. 
 
 Socrates. And it is a square upon what line ? 
 
 Boy. Upon the line that divides the original square into two halves. 
 
 Socrates. That is, upon its diagonal ? 
 
 Boy. Yes. 
 
 Surely no one can have failed to see that in eliciting the error, in correcting 
 it, in discovering the truth, the boy's mind was being put through a course of 
 discipline most salutary, and it will be hardly possible to doubt that the boy 
 thus taught would be ready of himself to go over the steps of the proof again 
 by himself, and to turn at his leisure to any other form of proof of the pro- 
 positions that might fall within his reach. At the same time the practised 
 teacher wall have suggested to his mind many other useful hints which this 
 lesson could be made to furnish — that this is a special case of the celebrated 
 47th proposition, the right-angled triangle here being isosceles — that the 
 square of a half is a fourth — the square on the double of a line or of the double 
 of a number is four times the square on that line or of that number — that 
 (2a)^ is not 4 a nor 2 a^^ but 4 a* &c., &c., and he will perceive also that 
 connecting together these similar instances will give the boy a power of remem- 
 bering them too, such as mere rote-work can never confer.* 
 
 1 do not think that any remarks of mine could impress upon 
 parents so forcibly as the above extract from the lecture of a 
 
 * Extracted from a Lecture by W. A. Shields, of the Peckham Birkbeck 
 Schools, delivered at St. Martin's Hall in 1853. I have given the extract with 
 Mr. Shields' verbal alterations, which chiefly consist in avoiding leading questions 
 to which the answer is "yes," his object being different from that of the author in 
 the original ; but the substance is the same, as a sample of teaching.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 19 
 
 practical teacher what I mean by a really useful method of 
 teachinof. The great defect of commercial education, as com- 
 monly practised, is the want of a sufficient amount of good oral 
 teaching, and especially of teaching by question and answer. 
 Many of the old-fashioned trade school-books are expressly got 
 up with this view, to save the master time and trouble ; a definite 
 lesson to be learnt by heart and said to an usher being the great 
 desideratum. But the parents must forgive me if I make the 
 remark that this is, to a great extent, their own fault ; if they 
 will grind down the teacher of their child to the lowest farthing 
 of remuneration, and expect the master to produce a certain show 
 of learning in twelve months, what can be the result but that the 
 master must engage assistants as cheaply as he can, and that he 
 must teach by rote if he is not allowed time for mental training ? 
 Do not let me be supposed, however, to speak slightingly of rote 
 and of routine ; there is no good education without them : but 
 they are not the whole of education. The exercise of the memory 
 by learning by heart, the habit of learning rules before they 
 are understood, with a view to apply them and to learn gradually 
 to understand them, is all founded on common sense, that is, on 
 a knowledge of human nature wrought out by the experience of 
 ages. 
 
 But two points are essential to the success of the old methods. 
 First, as to what is learnt by rote, either it should be definite and 
 practical like the multiplication table, the accidence of the Latin 
 Grammar, and lists of names and dates, which if not learnt by 
 the young, will never be learnt at all ; or else the stores laid up 
 in the memory should be intrinsically excellent and beautiful in 
 themselves, a possession for ever, like the Psalms of David or 
 beautiful poetry. 
 
 The second point is the frequent application of what is learned. 
 Facts and rules committed to memory must be made living by 
 intelligent application as a means of calling out the reasoning 
 powers ; on the other hand, rules which depend on processes of 
 reasoning within the boy's apprehension should be proved first 
 and learnt by heart afterwards, and then rendered familiar by 
 practice. 
 
 What is especially required in the middle ranks is a power of 
 judging of quantities, weights, measures, percentages, profits, 
 losses, and of reasoning correctly on such subjects as come in the 
 natural course of business. It is beyond a doubt that success in 
 business and the mastery of those subjects which are useful in 
 after life depends on the strength of the powers of observation 
 and judgment generally, and not on the previous acquisition of 
 formulae or technical rules, though these in their proper place 
 have their value. The fact is, a man should make his own formulse 
 
 c 2
 
 20 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer^ 
 
 for daily use, when he knows how to make them and what work 
 he has to do. 
 
 If these fragmentary suggestions have been of any use in con- 
 veying to the minds of some of my agricultural friends my im- 
 pressions as to the principles involved in a truly practical 
 education, and my sense of the evils commonly prevalent in 
 schools, and likely to continue without a remedy as long as 
 schoolmasters are required to do what is impossible, I may 
 shorten the discussion by stating at once what I think may be 
 done at school within a reasonable time. 
 
 I assume that either at home or at a small preparatory school 
 the mechanical aids necessary to all learning, namely, the art of 
 reading, writing, and counting, have been, to a certain extent, 
 secured. They are not education, but its tools ; and, as educa- 
 tion advances, the power of using the tools will improve. 
 
 Elements of Practical Education.— Language. 
 
 I should then say, that, next to right religious and moral habits, 
 the power of reading intelligently and of expressing oneself 
 clearly and correctly in speaking or in writing stands first 
 among the elements of education. 
 
 This is not to be acquired by learning rules out of an English 
 grammar, still less by copying set phrases out of a letter-book. 
 It is, in fact, the result and the test of the progress of general 
 education, and can only be arrived at gradually. The command 
 of the English grammar is not easily attainable without learning 
 some other language. But I intend to recur to the question of 
 language further on, therefore let the bare mention of the sub- 
 ject suffice for the present. 
 
 On the subject of spelling, I will only say that some of the 
 most common faults of spelling would be corrected by a very 
 small amount of training and slight acquaintance with the sources 
 of the English language. No one who has ever made acquaint- 
 ance with the Latin words " principium," " paro," will confuse 
 " principle " and " principal," and write " separate " and " com- 
 parative," as they are often written. A boy who has conjugated 
 " capio," and its compounds, will have gained the clue to the 
 mystery of the diphthongs ei and ie.* 
 
 Calculation and Practical Geometry. 
 
 Next in point of usefulness may be placed the power of exact 
 and rapid calculation. It is said by some very old-fashioned 
 
 ♦ I would strongly recommend the use in middle-schools of Dr. Kennedy's vo- 
 cabulary, containing a selection of the most important Latin words, with their 
 derivatives traqed down to modern English.
 
 and on Middle- Class Editcatioa in General. 21 
 
 people that those who cannot read often make more money than 
 those who are great scholars. This is very true ; and if money- 
 making were all that there is to be thought about in this life, 
 perhaps schoolboys and schoolmasters might save themselves a 
 world of trouble. But those unlettered money-makers prove my 
 case ; for it is clearly to the use of their natural faculties, and 
 not to flourishing ciphering-books and tlie 'Tutor's Assistant,' 
 nor to technical rules of any kind, except those which they may 
 have made for themselves, that they owe the marvellous power 
 of mental arithmetic which some of these expert dealers possess, 
 without being able to give an account of how the ready-reckoner 
 in their brain is constructed. 
 
 It is just this free, instinctive mental power which it is the 
 aim of all sound arithmetical and mathematical training to evoke. 
 It cannot be put into a boy, — it must be called out of liim. The 
 first point is a thorough mastery of the four first rules of arith- 
 metic, and a power of applying them to facts ; next, the practice 
 and theory of fractions ; after which a boy will be more capable 
 of understanding the principles contained in the earlier rules and 
 the Rule of Three. 
 
 I should be inclined to name next, with a view to art and 
 trade, the practical construction (without the mathematical 
 proofs) of geometrical forms, such as may be gained from the 
 introductory works used at Marlborough House. This would lay 
 a foundation for mechanical and architectural drawing, and give 
 a boy neatness in the use of his fingers,— in short, the command 
 of the rule and compasses. But, as I have said above, I would 
 set before all boys in the middle classes, without exception, 
 a portion of Euclid as the great work to be mastered. Algebra, 
 so essential as the foundation of higher mathematics, appears 
 to me, for boys of the class referred to, less important. Algebra 
 is certainly not equal to geometry as a means of mental disci- 
 pline ; and though, if carried far enough, it throws much light on 
 arithmetic, and gives great command over scientific calculation, 
 the introduction of algebra into the education of the farmer is 
 something like erecting a steam-engine on a farm which has 
 hardly work for a team of horses. 
 
 Natural Philosophy. 
 
 With a sound preparation in the use of ordinary language, in 
 arithmetic, and geometry, the pupil (still keeping in view only 
 what is to be useful in business) will be ready for the study of 
 the laws of the natural world, especially of those having relation 
 to mechanism. A knowledge of the first principles of mechanical 
 philosophy is most valuable to men of business for two reasons : 
 first, because their life is spent in moving material substances,
 
 22 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 and among all the properties of matter that of weight is the most 
 universal ; secondly, because their life is spent in details, and 
 the tendency of details is to narrow the mind. The practical 
 man is always tempted to attach too much importance to local 
 experience, to peculiar circumstances with which he has had 
 to cope, and to his own contrivances for mastering his special 
 difficulties. One great means of correcting these tendencies 
 is to acquire a confidence in the laws of nature, and to know 
 the inevitable conditions of work and of power. The kind of 
 practical confidence which I mean is gained, under the law of 
 labour, by the workman, and his remarks often surprise amateurs 
 who have never put their own hands to the spade. This subject 
 may be illustrated by the remark of an intelligent Exeter trades- 
 man, with which 1 was much struck. Speaking of pottery- 
 works, he said, " It takes six tons of coal to burn one ton of 
 clay ; so it is cheaper to cany the clay to the coal than the coal 
 to the clay." How many unprofitable speculations would have 
 been averted by the habit of applying plain laws of nature to 
 business in this way. 
 
 I may mention two facts of an opposite character. I was 
 once pitching hay with my boys in the field of an excellent 
 farmer, now no more ; and each of us trying to lift as much as 
 we could, I dropped my right hand close to the load to give it 
 the first lift more easily, and advised my boys to do the same. I 
 observed the farmer did otherwise, holding both hands compara- 
 tively near the other end of the fork. As I am always in the 
 habit of attending to the experience of practical men, I asked 
 him if I was wrong? He told me I was, and gave me, as a 
 reason, that, in turning the screw of a cider-press, jou put your 
 hand as near the end of the lever as possible. Whether he was 
 right in the fact I will not now discuss ; but no one who has ever 
 been trained in the first principles of mechanics would have given 
 such a reason. 
 
 Another instance of practical error, arising from inattention to 
 a simple law of mechanics, was a recommendation I once heard 
 given to increase the purchase of a wheel and axle by lengthening 
 the axle ; and the reason given was the increase of purchase 
 gained by using a long screwdriver. The facts are trifling, but 
 they show the bearing of sound mechanical principles on prac- 
 tical business. 
 
 Chemistry and Physical Science. 
 
 Next to natural philosophy, in order of direct reference to 
 business, should naturally come chemistry. As a means of 
 opening the mind and creating an interest in the powers of 
 nature and the processes of art, chemistry is certainly most valu- 
 able. Under the direction of a competent chemist the practice
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 23 
 
 of analysis is an excellent means of mental discipline ; and one 
 not unsuited to boys. It has this advantage ; there is something 
 to be done as well as something to be thought about. But where 
 pupils cannot be placed under a professional and educated 
 chemist, I doubt whether analysis can be practised with sufficient 
 accuracy to serve as a means of mental discipline, or even so as 
 to avoid great mistakes and even serious accidents.* 
 
 I more than doubt the value of such chemistry as can be 
 learned at school being of any value to the farmer as a prac- 
 tical guide in his business. The reason is, that the properties 
 of the constituent parts of matter are so complicated that they 
 cannot be presented in their practical application with the same 
 simplicity as mechanical laws ; they are not, therefore, so suit- 
 able a means of education. Some of the processes of manufac- 
 ture, such as the making of soap, of sulphuric acid, perhaps also 
 brewing and baking, may be used as illustrations ; but chemistry, 
 in reference to farming, is complicated by organic life ; and the 
 chemistry of vegetables and animals is very intricate. To form 
 a sound opinion on questions of agricultural chemistry implies, 
 moreover, an acquaintance with physiology, and, still more, a 
 familiarity with the processes of the farm. I should therefore 
 counsel that those young farmers who wish to be agricultural 
 chemists should complete their general education first, strengthen 
 their powers of judgment, gain an acquaintance with the lan- 
 guage and common facts of popular science, and, after they have 
 left school, repair to Professor Voelcker at Cirencester, or to 
 some practical School of Chemistry, and devote at least a whole 
 year to the subject. At any rate, they must not ti'ust to a 
 smattering of chemistry picked up at school as of any real use 
 in farming, though it may be very amusing and very instructive 
 in other ways. The same may be said of the other natural 
 sciences. It is well that a taste for them sliould be cultivated, 
 provided that they are not allowed to supersede the real work of 
 the school. It is also a very good thing to give boys handy 
 habits in the use of tools, and therefore a workshop may be a 
 useful addition to a school, provided there is some one who has a 
 real love of carpentry and mechanical ingenuity. Those who 
 have lived with sailors know how they can turn their hand to 
 anything. But much depends on whether mechanical habits 
 come naturally as an amusement, otherwise a good game at cricket 
 were far better. 
 
 Education of the Farmer as a Human Being. 
 
 Thus far I have spoken of subjects which while they train the 
 mental powers have a direct bearing on the business of the 
 
 * See letter from Professor Voelcker, Appendix, p. 52.
 
 24 AcLAND o?i the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 middle classes. We pass on to those which tend to the educa- 
 tion of man as man : first, by awakening mental vigour generally ; 
 secondly, by calling out human sympathy. Had logical con- 
 sistency been regarded, the education of the man should have 
 come first. I have reserved this subject for obvious practical 
 reasons — certainly not because I undervalue its importance. In 
 the mind of the true Educator it will ever have precedence. 
 
 I once heard the advice given by a distinguished reformer of 
 educational institutions, that instead of farmers being troubled 
 with scientific questions in which they take no interest, they should 
 be advised to read good novels, on the ground that it would give 
 them an interest in the feelings of other classes, encourage a 
 taste for general reading, and afford them many a pleasant hour 
 with their families which is now devoted to the thought of the 
 markets. Some of my readers will smile (as well they may) at 
 the suggestion, and say that it is not much needed, at least on 
 one side of the fireplace ; but the principle contained in the 
 advice is sound, viz., that the imagination is a gift of our Creator 
 as well as the reason, and that it is not intended to be wasted or 
 crushed. One great use of the imagination in youth is to excite 
 an interest in persons and things which do not centre in self. 
 It may suffice to say, without dilating further on this subject, 
 that an interest in the feelings of mankind at large may be 
 awakened by poetry ; in the good and great men of other times, 
 by history and biography ; and in the productions and scenery of 
 other lands, by geography and travels. All these subjects may be 
 comprised for our present purpose under the general term Litera- 
 ture. But I shall speak principally of poetry, as that which 
 best represents literature with reference to the earlier stages of 
 education, and also because it has hitherto been too much neg- 
 lected in systematic English education.* 
 
 It is with feelings of painful interest that I quote, in support 
 of this opinion, the following passage from a pamphlet which 
 my lamented friend, the late Professor of Ecclesiastical History at 
 Oxford, did me the honour to address to me eighteen years ago, 
 during the first week of the Long Vacation, when he had been 
 just released from laborious duties in the University and in his 
 College — one among many proofs of his untiring industry, 
 
 * I am permitted to quote the following extract from a letter to Mr. Penrose 
 from Dr. Boole, on the study of an entire poem : — 
 
 " I sympathize with your feeling of the importance of the study of English 
 literature, and venture to throw out a suggestion. Instead of confining the atten- 
 tion of boys to the reading of mere extracts of a page or two in length, such as we 
 meet with in school 'Reading-books,' 'Speakers,' &c., why not add the careful 
 study, in a judiciously, not profusely, annotated edition of one or more of our 
 English classics in their completeness — Cowper'sTask, for instance ? I have tried 
 this plan myself, and, as it seemed to me, with success."
 
 a}id on Middle-Class Education in General. 25 
 
 and readiness to help forward what he thought likely to do 
 good. 
 
 "... How great are the delights, and how saUitary the effect of the boyish 
 ardour for honourable and lovelj^ objects, which good poetry inspires ! It is a 
 great mistake to think that education is designed only to make perfect reflecting 
 machines, although it is most true that nothing can be done rightly without 
 reflection ; but the feelings are part of our moral nature, intended to give an 
 impulse to action, and they must be cultivated by teaching. Children must 
 be taught to feel aright, by having right objects set before them, and having 
 their feelings called forth towards them in the proper manner and degree. 
 
 " By this means they will be trained early to love Avhat is good and hate 
 what is evil, and will have chosen their part before they are called on to act : 
 they will come into the world with their hearts already enlisted on one side, 
 the partisans of all that is good and amiable. And this is to be done in part 
 by the use of poetry : poetry is the language of feeling, and speaks to the 
 feelmgs, and he who often uses this language learns to feel thus himself. . . . 
 I would, therefore, propose the introducing of English poetry into your schools, 
 as being likely to do good in many ways. First, it would be most powerful 
 in forming the taste and feelings, as has been shown. Next, it would be of 
 service for the pur|X)se mentioned before, that which first led me to speak of 
 it, namely, it would promote the knowledge of the English tongue in the 
 l)m*est form. We might think that a boy who had ever learnt a hundred lines 
 of Spenser by heart in his life would be safe from most of the common vul- 
 garisms heard in our provinces. ... To carry the plan here recommended into 
 execution, we must find poets fit for reading and learning in the manner pro- 
 posed. I do not think this would cause any difficulty. Selections might be 
 easily made. ^Ve might begin with Spenser and Shakspeare, for we need not 
 go farther back than these ; the older poets would be unintelligible. All of 
 Spenser might be read, unless where too hard. Shakspeare is an inexhaustible 
 mine for selection. Some of Milton. These would do for the elder boys only. 
 Many of the moral poets, as Young, Akenside, Collins, Beattie, and a little of 
 Pope, &c., might be taken in. Then for the younger readers, the delight of 
 childhood, Cowper ; and the rural poets, as Thomson and others."* 
 
 Literature awakens Mental Power. 
 
 The value of literature is becoming more appreciated through- 
 out all ranks of society in England ; and surely in one sense it 
 is more needed by the man of business than by any other class. 
 Nor can there be a greater mistake than to suppose that any one 
 will be a worse man of business for cultivating the general 
 powers of his mind and heart. And if, in any case, the highest 
 works of the human mind should fail of their true end, and be 
 degraded by ministering to vulgar display and self-inflation — 
 as in this poor world of ours " noblest things find vilest using " 
 — the blame must be laid, not on the books, but on some 
 defect in the character or moral training of the reader. A healthy 
 literature, well studied, should make a man modest, because it 
 introduces him to real greatness ; and it should incite him to be 
 
 * Letter to T. D. Acland, Esq., M.P., on the System of Education to be esta- 
 blished in the Diocesan Schools for the Middle Classes, by the Kev. Robert Hussey, 
 B.D. 1839.— pp. 29, 35.
 
 26 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer^ 
 
 active by giving him higher objects of ambition than sensual 
 gratification or a mere display of money. 
 
 The great characteristic of literature, as distinguished from 
 scientific or technical writing, is its breadth and largeness, in 
 contrast to all that is narrow and exclusive. Its aim is not so 
 much to convey information as to set the mind of the reader at 
 work for itself in harmony with the great spirits of our race. It 
 awakens power in the mind, and kindles the affections. It carries 
 a man back to the past, and bids him thence gather hope for the 
 future. 
 
 Good literature is, therefore, in the highest sense practical. 
 It is common to contrast the practical to the poetical character ; 
 but the practical and the poetical powers have much in 
 common, and both are opposed to the abstract and the specu- 
 lative. A truly practical man, if he has a warm heart, has 
 generally a touch of humour and of poetry within, which peeps 
 out, in spite of itself, in the midst of his work. It is equally 
 true that in every great poet there is always a practical element 
 of judgment, at least in matters relating to his own art ; otherwise, 
 however deep his feelings, however lofty his perception of the 
 beautiful, he would fail of giving such body and form to his com- 
 positions as to convey his thoughts in a manner suited to the 
 apprehension of mankind at large. For this, among other 
 reasons the study of the works of a great poet is improving to 
 the young ; it tends to give an appreciation of good work and 
 finished execution, and of the fitness of means to the end for 
 which they are used. What is clumsy, ill-contrived, and slovenly 
 becomes disagreeable to a mind so trained. 
 
 There is, however, an impression in some persons' minds that, 
 while books of information and of science give solidity to the 
 understanding, poetry and works of fiction can at best only foster 
 a love of ornament. Such an opinion may excite the less sur- 
 prise when we read in the words of one of the most accomplished 
 masters of the art of writing in the last century a description of 
 the office of the poet. Thus writes Pope : — 
 
 " Poetry and criticism are by no means the universal concern of the world, 
 but only the afiair of idle men who write in their closets and of idle men who 
 
 read there All the advantages, I can think of, accruing from a 
 
 genius for poetry, are the agreeable power of self-amusement when a man is 
 idle or alone, the privilege of being admitted into the best company, and the 
 freedom of saying as many careless things as other people, without being so 
 severely remarked on." 
 
 " No wonder," remarks the eloquent lecturer,* from whose 
 pages I borrow the above quotation, " that, when a poet could 
 
 ♦ ' The Influence of Poetry on the Working Classes,' by the late Rev. F. W. 
 Robertson, of Brighton.
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 27 
 
 thus write of his art, working-men, and such men who have no 
 time for prettinesses, and have not the privilege of being ' ad- 
 mitted into the best company,' should have been indifferent to 
 poetry, and that it should have come to be reckoned among the 
 luxuries of the wealthy and the idle." 
 
 Now, in opposition to this view of poetrj', which is about as 
 reasonable as to admire one of the fair sex for the artificial flowers 
 in her bonnet, let me set the picture drawn by Coleridge, our 
 own Devon poet, of his old schoolmaster. Where, in modern 
 times at least, shall we find the music of verse more sweet, or 
 the delicacy of expression more tender, than in the songs of the 
 Bard of Ottery ? and yet see how strongly he feels about the 
 common sense which is needed by the poet : — 
 
 " At school I enjoyed the inestimable advantage of a very sensible, though 
 at the same time a very severe, master. He early moulded my taste to the 
 preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer and Theocritus to Virgil, and 
 again of Virgil to Ovid. At the same time that we were studying the Greek 
 tragic poets, he made us read Shakspeare and Milton as lessons, and they were 
 the lessons, too, which required most time and trouble to bring up so as to 
 escape his censure. I learnt from him that poetry — even that of the loftiest, 
 and seemingly that of the wildest, odes — had a logic of its own as severe as 
 that of science. In the truly great poets, he would say, there is a reason 
 assignable, not only for every word, but for the position of every word. 
 
 " In our own English compositions he showed no mercy to phrase, metaphor, 
 or image, unsupported by a sound sense, or where the same sense might have 
 been conveyed with equal force and dignity in plainer words. Lute, harp, 
 lyre, muse, muses, and inspirations, Pegasus, Parnassus, and Hippocrene, were 
 all an abomination to him. I fancy I can almost hear him now, exclaiming, 
 * Harp f Harp f Lyre ? Pen and ink, hoy, you mean ! — Muse, boy, Muse ? 
 Your nurse^s daughter, you mean ! — Pierian spring ? Oh, aye ! the cloister- 
 pump, I suppose ! ' Nay, certain introductions, similes, and examples were 
 placed by name on a list of interdiction. 
 
 . . . . " There was one custom of our master's which I cannot pass 
 over in silence, because I think it imitable and worthy of imitation. He 
 would often permit our theme exercises, under some pretext of want of time, 
 to accumulate till each lad had four or five to be looked over. Then placing 
 the whole number abreast on his desk, he would ask the -wiiter why this or 
 that sentence might not have found as appropriate a place under this or that 
 other thesis ? and if no satisfying answer could be returned, and two fauhs of 
 the same kind were found in one exercise, the irrevocable verdict followed, the 
 exercise was torn up, and another on the same subject to be produced, in addi- 
 tion to the tasks of the day. The reader will, I trust, excuse this tribute of 
 recollection to a man whose severities . . . neither lessen nor dim the 
 deep sense of my moral and intellectual obligations. He sent us to the Uni- 
 versity excellent . . scholars. . . Yet our classical knowledge was the 
 least of the good gifts which we derived from his zealous and conscientious 
 tutorage." — Biographia Literaria, by 8. T. Coleridge, p. 7. 
 
 In addressing myself to parents in the middle classes, and, in 
 some degree, to the instructors of their children, I feel sure that 
 this picture of a fine schoolmaster of the old school will not be 
 out of place, and will put more plainly before them than any
 
 28 Kchk^V) on tJie Education of the Farmer, 
 
 general descriptions of my own what literature, rightly used in 
 teaching, may do to nourish vitality of mind and strong common 
 sense in the boys they have to prepare for a life of business.* 
 
 Nor will it be out of place to refer here to an anecdote of the 
 eminent man who presided over Christchurch at the commence- 
 ment of this century, Dr. Cyril Jackson, one of the most remark- 
 able men of his day ; especially remarkable for the influence 
 which he acquired and retained over those once under his 
 authority. 
 
 The Dean said to one of his gentlemen commoners, who came to 
 take leave of him, after passing a creditable examination (before 
 the days of classes) — " So you have been thanked for your exami- 
 nation, and you probably think your education is completed ; 
 but you will find that the most important part for the business 
 of life is yet to come. I have made you learn Greek, because 
 I knew it would be good for you : and now I do not care how soon 
 you forget it ; I have taught you how to learn — now, go and learn 
 what you will." The saying is the more impressed on my own 
 mind, because I recall with pleasure the kindness with which the 
 good old man, whom I was taken with my parents to visit in his 
 retirement at Felpham, encouraged some piece of childish curi- 
 osity as one step towards a habit of accurate observation. 
 
 LiTERATUKE TRAINS MoRAL FeELING. 
 
 And now a word as to what good literature may do to awaken 
 a genial kindly interest in things and persons out of self, and 
 above and beyond the narrow range of business. 1 cannot do 
 better than refer my readers to a charming work by the late 
 Professor Reed of Pennsylvania, whose premature death in the 
 ' Arctic ' steamer was a loss to the Anglo-Saxon family, for he 
 was one of the types and bonds of our brotherhood : — 
 
 * Something, perhaps, ought to be said here about the selectiou of good prose 
 writers, as a means of strengthening the minds of boys. In schools, otherwise 
 well conducted, there is a great deficiency in this respect. School histories of 
 England, compendiums and catechisms of science, are ill calculated to teach boys 
 either how to read or how to think ; and therefore what they learn does them no 
 good. It is, perhaps, difficult to select entire works of great authors suited for 
 boys ; and some variety is desirable. It may be worth while to mention that the 
 First Book of Hooker's great work (which treats of law in general, and is not con- 
 troversial), and Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning,' have been separately pub- 
 lished by a Member of King's College, London, in a cheap form ; Sir Roger de 
 Coverley, reprinted from the ' Spectator,' in Longman's Travellers' Library ; and 
 Lord Mahon's ' Forty-five, in Murray's Railway Library, were mentioned to me 
 by a schoolmaster of deservedly high repute in the West of England. Other books 
 are to be found at a cheap rate in the same useful collections. I should think that 
 ' Half-hours with the Best Authors ' would be a most useful addition to school 
 libraries. It contains many choice morsels not likely to come in an ordinary boy's 
 way ; for example, ' Coleridge's Account of Sir Alexander Ball,' from the 
 ' Friend ;' portions of noted articles from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, 
 &c.
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 29 
 
 " What," lie asks, " is literature ? . . . Books that are technical, that 
 are professional, that are sectarian, are not literature in the proper sense of 
 the term. The great characteristic of literature, its essential principle, is that 
 it is addressed to man as man ; it speaks to our common human nature ; it 
 deals with every element in our being that makes fellowship between man 
 and man through all ages of man's history, and through all habitable regions 
 of this planet. According to this view, literature excludes from its appropriate 
 province whatever is addressed to men as they are parted into trades, and pro- 
 fessions, and sects — parted, it may be, in the division for mutual good ; or, it 
 may be, by vicious and unchristian alienation. 
 
 " A London linendraper writes a treatise on angling, with no other thought, 
 perhaps, than to teach an angler's subtle craft, but infusing into his art so 
 much of Christian meekness, so deep a feeling for the beauties of earth and 
 sky, such rational loyalty to womanhood, and such simple, child-like love of 
 song — the songs of bird, of milkmaid, and of minstrel — that this little book on 
 fishing has earned its life of two hundred years already, outliving many a 
 more ambitious book, and Izaac Walton has a place of honour amid British 
 authors, and has the love even of those who have learned the poet-moralist's 
 truer wisdom : — 
 
 ' Never to blend our pleasure or our pride 
 With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels.' " * 
 
 I can most earnestly commend the work from which this 
 extract is taken to mothers for its purity and wisdom ; it will be 
 a real help to them as a guide in the selection of reading for 
 their families. 
 
 Instead of adding any remarks of my own in illustration of the 
 principle laid down by Professor Reed, I shall at once appeal to 
 that fellowship between man and man which a writer must claim 
 from his reader, or he writes in vain, by setting before my friends 
 three pictures of humble life drawn from distant periods of our 
 literature, but all agreeing in this, that those who painted them 
 drew from nature, and expressed themselves in pure and un- 
 affected English. 
 
 The first is the picture of a faithful household-servant from 
 Shakspeare : — 
 
 Adam. What ! my young master ? my gentle master, 
 my sweet master, you memory 
 Of old Sir Rowland ! Why, what make you here ? 
 
 O unhappy youth, 
 
 Come not within these doors ; . . . 
 
 Orlando. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food ? 
 
 Adam. ... I have five hundred crowns, 
 
 The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, 
 Which I did store to be my foster-nurse. 
 When service should in my old limbs lie lame, 
 And unregarded age in corners thrown : 
 
 * ' Introduction to English Literature, from Chaucer to Tennyson, by H. Reed, 
 late Professor in the University of Pennsylvania,' p. 12. Price 2s. Shaw. London.
 
 so AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer ^ 
 
 Take that and He that doth the ravens feed, 
 Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
 Be comfort to my age ! Here is the gold ; 
 All this I give you. Let me be your servant ; 
 Though I look old, yet am I sti'ong and lusty. 
 For in my youth I never did aj^ply 
 Hot and rebellious liqiiors in my blood ; 
 Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, 
 Frosty, but kindly. Let me go with you ; 
 I'll do the service of a younger man 
 In all your business and necessities. 
 Orlakdo. good old man ; how well in thee appears 
 The constant service of the antique world, 
 When service sweat for duty, not for meed ! 
 Thou art not for the faction of these times, 
 Where none will sweat but for promotion ; 
 And having that, do choke their service uj) 
 Ev'n with the having. 'Tis not so with thee. 
 But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree. 
 That cannot so mi;ch as a blossom yield, 
 In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry. 
 But, come thy ways, we'll go along together ; 
 And ere we have thy youthful wages spent, 
 We'll light upon some settled low content. 
 Adam. Master, go on ; and I will follow thee. 
 
 To the last gasp with truth and loyalty. 
 From seventeen years till now almost fourscore 
 Here lived I, but now live here no more. 
 At seventeen years many their fortunes seek ; 
 But at fourscore, it is too late a week. 
 Yet fortune cannot recompense me better, 
 Than to die well, and not my master's debtor. 
 
 As You Like It, Act ii., Scene 3. 
 
 What farmer's " feeling heart" will not respond to the touch- 
 ing description of the " patience of the poor " as thus given by 
 Cowper : — 
 
 " Poor, yet industrious, modest, quiet, neat, 
 Such claim compassion in a night like this, 
 And have a friend in every feeling heart. 
 
 The frugal housewife trembles when she lights 
 Her scanty stock of brushwood, blazing clear. 
 But dying soon, like all terrestrial joys. 
 The few small embers left she nurses well ; 
 And, while her infant race, with outspread hands. 
 And crowded knees, sit cowering o'er the sparks, 
 Retires, content to quake, so they be warm'd. 
 
 The taper soon extinguish'd, which I saw 
 Dangled along at the cold fingers' end 
 Just when the day declined ; and the brown loaf 
 Lodged on the shelf, half eaten without sauce 
 Of savoury cheese, or butter, costlier still ; 
 Sleep seems their only refuge : for alas ! 
 AVhere penury is felt the thought is chain'd, 
 And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 31 
 
 With all this thrift they thrive not. All the cai'e 
 Ingenious parsimony takes, but JTist 
 Saves the small inventory, bed, and stool, 
 Skillet, and old carved chest, from public sale. 
 They live, and live without extorted alms 
 From grudging hands ; but other boast have none, 
 To soothe their honest pride, that scorns to beg, 
 Nor comfort else, but in their mutual love. 
 I praise you much, ye meek and gentle pair, 
 For ye are worthy ; . . . " 
 
 Tlie Task, Winter Evening. 
 
 The third picture is from Wordsworth. His works, I need not 
 say, abound with incidents from rustic life, interesting to the 
 young, as well as with deep thoughts suggested by nature to those 
 who have formed 
 
 " The glorious habit by which sense is made 
 Subservient still to moral purposes, 
 Auxiliar to divine." 
 
 But the instance I shall quote is one in which abject poverty, in 
 a repulsive form, is made to touch a deep chord of human 
 sympathy, and to help us to find a lesson of good in everything, 
 even in the outcast pauper : — * 
 
 The Old Cumberlakd Beggar. 
 
 " Him from my childhood have I known ; and then 
 He was so old, he seems not older now. 
 He travels on, a solitary man ; 
 So helpless in appearance, that for him 
 The sauntering horseman throws not with a slack 
 And careless hand his alms upon the ground, 
 But stops, that he may safely lodge the coin 
 Within the old man's hat ; 
 
 She who tends 
 The toll-gate, when in summer at her door 
 She turns her wheel, if on the road she sees 
 The aged beggar coming, quits her work. 
 And lifts the latch for him that he may pass. 
 
 Poor traveller ! 
 His staff trails with him ; scarcely do his feet 
 Disturb the summer dust ; he is so still 
 In look and motion, that the cottage curs, 
 Ere he has passed the door, will turn away, 
 Weary of barking at him. Boys and girls, 
 The vacant and the busy, maids and youths, 
 And urchins newly breeched — all pass him by ; 
 Him even the slow-paced waggon leaves behind. 
 
 But deem not this man useless — 
 
 , . deem him not 
 A burden of the earth ! 'Tis nature's law 
 
 * These extracts are not continuous — space would only allow of selections.
 
 32 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 That none, the meanest of created things, 
 Of forms created the most vile and brute, 
 The dullest or most noxious, should exist 
 Divorced from good — a spirit and pulse of good, 
 A life and soul, to every mode of being 
 Inseparably linked. 
 
 While from door to door 
 This old man creeps, the villagers in him 
 Behold a record which together binds 
 Past deeds and offices of charity, 
 Else unremembered ; and so keeps alive 
 The kindly mood in hearts, which lapse of years, 
 And that half- wisdom, half-experience gives. 
 Make slow to feel, and by sure steps resign 
 To selfishness and cold oblivious cares. 
 
 Among the faims and solitary huts, 
 Hamlets and thinly-scattered villages. 
 Where'er the aged beggar takes his rounds, 
 The mild necessity of use compels 
 To acts of love, and habit does the work 
 Of reason ; yet prepares that after-joy 
 Which reason cherishes. And thus the soul. 
 By that sweet taste of pleasure unpursued, 
 Doth find herself invariably disposed 
 To virtue and true goodness. 
 Yet further. — Many, I believe, there are 
 Who live a life of virtuous decency ; 
 Men who can hear the Decalogue, and feel 
 Ko self-reproach ; who of the moral law 
 Established in the land where they abide 
 Are strict observers ; and not negligent 
 In acts of love to those with whom they dwell. 
 Their kindred, and the children of their blood : 
 Praise be to such, and to their slumbers peace ! 
 But of the poor man ask, the abject poor — 
 Go and demand of him, if there be here 
 In this cold abstinence from evil deeds. 
 And these inevitable charities. 
 Wherewith to satisfy the human soul ? 
 No — man is dear to man." 
 
 Enough has, I trust, been said to justify the value which I have 
 attached to poetry, and to books which embody thoughts common 
 to mankind at large, as distinguished from books supplying the 
 special information required by particular classes as the mate- 
 rials for their respective departments of work. 
 
 The Study of Language. 
 
 But the mere perusal of literature cannot confer much benefit 
 without an attentive study of language. Is that language to be 
 English alone, or any other ? — and if another language is to be 
 learnt, is it to be ancient or modem ? 
 
 I have not the least doubt in my own mind, that if only a 
 reasonable period be allowed for education, there will be an even-
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 33 
 
 tual economy of time if some other language be learned. Latin 
 first, if possible ; and if not Latin, at least French or German. 
 First let me present the general argument for Latin in words put 
 into the mouth of a schoolmaster in a useful little work b}' ^]r. 
 Gresley.* A parent asks why boys cannot learn grammar in their 
 own language only. The master answers : — 
 
 " That is a question which of late has been much debated. My own opinion 
 is, that, where it is practicable, grammar should be taught by means of the Latin 
 accidence ; and I will give you my reason. It may be very true that gram- 
 mar may be learnt in English ; in fact, the most illiterate man rtwst know, 
 practically at least, something of grammar, or he could not put his ideas 
 
 together in sentences Still, the utmost which can he taught in this 
 
 way is very much below the knowledge of language attained by those who 
 learn the classical languages. In teaching grammar in English, there is this 
 difficulty to begin with. A boy does not perceive what you are aiming at. He 
 understands what an English sentence means, without being able to say. This 
 is a noun — this is a verb ; and the mere technical knowledge of the construc- 
 tion of a sentence, the sense of which he knows very well already, has no 
 interest for him. But when you put a Latin sentence before him he at once 
 perceives that he cannot make it out at all without the help of grammar. 
 Hence he sees the necessity of it, and sees what it really is ; and sets about it 
 with greater spirit, and consequently learns it better. In the next place, the 
 Latin language (and still more the Greek) is superior in point of structure to 
 our own. The clumsy contrivance of auxiliaries and jmrticles, instead of 
 inflection, takes away very much from the beauty of the English. In truth, 
 the real beauty and force of language can scarcely be understood by one who is 
 conversant only with modern languages." 
 
 Agreeing with the general drift of the preceding extract, I 
 cannot concur in what Mr. Gresley said (many years ago, it 
 must in justice be remembered) about auxiliaries and particles. 
 They form part of the bone and sinew of the English language ; 
 and though the absence of inflexions makes it difficult to write 
 clearly in English, there is nothing like English for strength 
 and clearness when it is well written. 
 
 Perhaps the English language has not even yet received the 
 attention it deserves as an instrument of education. As a lan- 
 guage moreover it cannot be studied apart from its history ; nor 
 can its history and peculiarities be appreciated unless it be com- 
 pared with other languages both ancient and modern. In the 
 course of a masterly review of the languages of the world, the 
 following tribute to English is paid by a German, Dr. Max 
 MUller, Professor of European Languages at Oxford, quoting one 
 of the greatest scholars of his fatherland : 
 
 " No language has sent so many colonies throughout the M^orld as Teutonic. 
 . . . But the mightiest branch of the Teutonic stem has been the Anglo- 
 Saxon. It has stretched its boughs from England across the Atlantic to over- 
 shadow the new continent of America. It is the language of civilization in 
 
 ' Church Claveiing ; or, The Schoolmaster,' by Rev. W. Gresley, p. 52. 
 
 D
 
 34 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 India, it preaches the Gospel on all the coasts of Africa, and Australia is receiv- 
 ing in it her first laws. On all the five continents it is the language that grows 
 and conquers, the language of the future, the language of the world. Grimm 
 speaks thus : — ' None of the modern languages has, through the very loss and 
 decay of all phonetic laws, and through the dropping of nearly all inflections, 
 acquired gi-eater force and vigour than English, and from the fulness of those 
 vague and indefinite sounds, which may be learned, but can never be taught, 
 it has derived a power of expression such as has never been at the command of 
 any human tongue. Begotten by a surprising union of the two noblest lan- 
 guages of Europe, the one Teutonic, the other Eomanic, it received that wonder- 
 fully happy temper and thorough breeding, where the Teutonic supplied the 
 material strength, the Romanic the suppleness and freedom of expression. 
 Nay, the English language, -which has borne, not as it wei'e by mere chance, 
 the greatest Poet of modern times, great in his very contrast with ancient 
 classical poetry — I speak of course of Shakspeare — this English language may 
 truly be called a world-language, and seems, like England herself, but in a 
 still higher degree, destined to rule over all the corners of the earth. In 
 wealth, wisdom, and strict economy, none of the living languages can vie with 
 it.'"* 
 
 By what means then should the English language be taught ? 
 The grammars commonly in use are feeble adaptations of the 
 old Latin grammar, mere dilutions of Lindley Murray, which 
 only confuse and vulgarise the subject, loading the memory with 
 a pedantic enumeration of technical rules, unsuited to the genius 
 of the English language. Something has been done towards 
 providing the middle classes with really English grammars by 
 Dr. Latham, by Mr. Thring, and by Mr. M'Leod. 
 
 Should Farmers learn Latin ? 
 
 But the right way of teaching English depends on the answer 
 to another question, namely, whether there is any use in teaching 
 Latin where it cannot be taught thoroughly — I mean so as to be 
 remembered and used with facility through life. 
 
 Great changes have taken place in the public mind on this 
 subject. In old times Latin was supposed to be the introduction 
 to all learning above that of reading, writing, and ciphering. 
 Grammar-schools taught the classic s almost exclusively. Against 
 this the English mind, especially in the middle classes, rebelled. 
 Attempts were made to compel an alteration in the old methods 
 of grammar schools and universities, and to exchange classics for 
 metaphysics at one time, and for physical science at another. These 
 attempts having failed, other institutions sprung up by the side 
 of the old ones. The London University and the Society for the 
 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge established the claims of physical 
 science to a share at least in the formation of the English mind. 
 
 But tlie older institutions had life in them yet ; and the original 
 stocks, after a little pruning, have proved strong enough to throw 
 
 * Max Miiller * On the Languages of the Seat of War in the East,' p. 64.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 35 
 
 out new shoots or to carry vigorous grafts, instead of being rooted 
 up. The amount of work in physical science that has been going 
 on in Oxford and Cambridge is, perhaps, not generally known ; 
 but the work is I'eal, and the general feeling on this subject tells 
 on the public schools, of which I will subjoin to this paper some 
 evidence, in a sample of the questions on Chemistry which 
 Eton boys have been encouraged to answer, making all the more 
 progress in Latin verse, I hope and believe, in consequence.* 
 
 Whilst this development of the older institutions in the direc- 
 tion of modern knowledge has been going on, the value of their 
 original training in all that is really essential has become more 
 widely appreciated. 
 
 I have taken great pains to inquire into the opinions of intel- 
 ligent men in the middle ranks, and into the experience of prac- 
 tical teachers on this subject, and I come to the conclusion, tjhat 
 while on the one hand, an exclusively classical education would 
 not be tolerated, on the other, the sense of the importance of 
 some knowledge of the elements of our language is on the increase, 
 the only question being, whether this is best attained by learning 
 French or Latin. 
 
 The strongest argument I have heard against Latin is that of a 
 high classical scholai', to the effect that unless enough Latin is 
 learned to make the ancient authors a source of real pleasure in 
 after life nothing will be gained ; and that for the purpose of 
 understanding English, French is equally useful. 
 
 However true it may be that French does to a certain extent 
 illustrate our own tongue, I must demur to its being a means of 
 mental drill at all to be compared with the elements of the Latin 
 grammar ; and as to the question of pleasure in after life, I believe 
 nothing is more thoroughly odious to boys than the remembrance 
 of lessons in English grammar, for the reason given above, that 
 they do not see what it comes to. Moreover, to a boy of any 
 intelligence the derivation of English words from Latin, espe- 
 cially if illustrated by French, is a fertile source of interest long 
 before the beauties of a Latin author can be perceived. At any 
 rate, I am satisfied that the consensus of practical men is strongly 
 in favour of the value of even two or three years' drill in the 
 Latin accidence and in the most elementary rules of syntax ; and 
 this mainly on the ground of habits of attention and clearness of 
 mind gained thereby, which they have never been able to give by 
 any other means ; so that I have heard it observed by a thoroughly 
 practical man that he could draw a line in liis Euclid class 
 between the Latin boys and the others. At the same time the 
 
 * Sec Note, p. 53. I am informed that the Winchester boys have had the 
 advantage of chemical instruction from Mr. Odling. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 fact must not be disguised that Latin is irksome, especially when 
 boys begin it late, which with farmers' sons must usually be the 
 case, and that it does take up time. 
 
 The answer which I venture to suggest as the true solution 
 of the question is, that the course to be taken should depend on 
 the time the boy is likely to remain at school. Among those 
 youths who are to enter on their future occupation at the age of 
 fourteen, the cases in which Latin can be learned without too 
 great consumption of the time required for other necessary 
 branches of plain every-day knowledge must be very rare. On 
 the other hand, if the education is likely to be continued beyond 
 14 — say, to 16 or 17 — presuming that the Latin is well taught 
 by a good scholar, good enough scholar to select what is most 
 important as a means of discipline, and to pass by what is only 
 required in an University course ; in short, able to give a 
 thoroughly English character to the Latin training and to make 
 it interesting — then, in such a case I have no doubt that, to 
 learn even the elements of Latin would be a real saving of 
 time during the years spent at school, a gain of strength and 
 clearness of mind for after life. I have it on the authority of a 
 teacher who has been brought up himself under the conditions 
 here indicated, that an hour and a half daily enable him to take 
 his boys through a portion of Caesar and a book of Virgil with 
 considerable advantage to their general progress. 
 
 I had arrived at these conclusions after long observation of the 
 effect of Latin on the training of young men intended for school- 
 masters ; and after frequent conversations with practical teachers 
 experienced in the education of boys intended for trade, as well 
 as with intelligent men engaged in business both in town and 
 country. 
 
 But I am very much obliged to the Rev. J. Penrose, who has 
 taken great interest in the plans proposed by Mr. Brereton and 
 Lord Ebrington for the improvement of " County Education," 
 as well as in the " West of England Examinations and Prizes," 
 for permitting me to quote the result of his experience and 
 inquiries. 
 
 " I have asked a great number of persons whose opinions I thought would 
 be vahiable, masters of commercial schools, inspectors, and men engaged in 
 business, what were their opinions about Latin. One or two have thought it 
 would be better to have none ; but there is a decided consensus among the rest 
 in favour of just the amount which is suggested in the * Notice to Competitors.' 
 I asked my relations in Lincolnshire to propose the question to their farmers, 
 who were all in favour of Latin to a man." 
 
 Mr. Penrose did me the favour to put me in communication 
 with Dr. Boole, the son, if I mistake not, of one to whom some 
 of the best men of Lincoln owe their education, and himself the
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 37 
 
 distinguished professor of mathematics in Queen's College, Cork, 
 who allows me to quote the following vigorous remarks : — 
 
 " I think that Latiu ought to be a subject of examination, but that the 
 number of marks allotted to it should be too small to amount to anj'thing like 
 a bounty upon the study. Taking into account the position and i)rospects of 
 those for whose benefit the examinations are intended, it would in my opinion 
 be an evil if any were induced by the hope of reward or distinction to engage 
 in a pursuit which they would not upon other grounds have chosen. 
 
 " I form this opinion partly upon considerations of economy and public 
 utility, partly upon a regard for the freedom of education, and partly — and 
 this is not the least element — upon personal observation of the difl'erence of 
 intellectual character among boys. Perhaps there are in every school a few 
 who have a decided taste for the acquisition of languages. Very often this 
 taste is associated with the love of poetry. Whei'e these dispositions are com- 
 bined the study of Latin becomes, more than that of any living language, a 
 source of enjoyment ; and a comparatively short time suffices to produce 
 valuable results. Not only is the taste elevated and refined, but the habit of 
 applying rules, and of referring to standards, in the first place of accuracy, in 
 the second place of elegance, is formed. I can well conceive that the intel- 
 lectual benefit thus acquired may survive almost the last shred of positive 
 knowledge of the language which had been associated with it. But the cases 
 to which I have referi-ed are not numerous, and in a majority of instances the 
 study of Latin in schools for the education of the sons of farmers and trades- 
 men (designed themselves to follow the same occupation) is productive of no 
 compensating good for the undoubted irksomeness and restraint of the study 
 itself. Of course this observation does not apply to schools in which the whole 
 course of education, continued for a great number of j'ears, favours the 
 development of tastes and habits, which in the beginning may exist only in a 
 very rudimentary degree." 
 
 I forwarded to Dr. Boole the detailed scheme of the West of 
 England Examination, and informed him that the plans proposed 
 were not limited to young boys about to leave school at an early 
 age, and I received from him a letter, from which the next 
 extract is taken : — 
 
 . " I fully think that if a parent be disposed to continue his son's 
 school education for three years after his attaining the age of 15, he might 
 properly be advised to require him to learn Latin, and at least one modern 
 language in addition. I am sure that for the average of lads, with such advan- 
 tage of time and opportunity, all this would be quite within the compass of a 
 reasonable possibility. My previous observations were made under the im]ires- 
 sion that the school education of the sons of farmers would seldom be continued 
 after the age of 15, imless there was a great deal of early neglect to make up 
 
 for I think I ought further to say, that it is my decided opinion 
 
 that where there has been no previous neglect, and it is still the wish of the 
 parent to give his son farther advantages, he would be wise to remove him at 
 about the age of 15 to a college or advanced school, where younger boys are 
 not admitted. One reason for this is, that there would be less danger of formal 
 repetition of what has been done before ; another is, that it is well in the time 
 of youth to be where the general level is high. However, I only make these 
 remarks with reference to boys not destined for the Universities, for the con- 
 sciousness of such destination supplies that higher level, which in schools for 
 the middle class is niost needed." 
 
 I must add the opinion of a Somersetshire man (Rev. E.
 
 38 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 Thring), already referred to, whose talents and exertions bid fair 
 to earn a high reputation for the school of Uppingham, of which 
 he is the head-master. 
 
 " For years 1 have been deeply interested in education, having begun 
 my professional life by steady daily work in National Schools, to which I am 
 indebted for all my training as a teacher, long before I had any thought of 
 being an Upper Class Schoolmaster. I am very strongly of opinion that the 
 hope of England in education lies in working up from below. And I equally 
 think that there is no basis like Latin, if properly taught, which I would 
 venture to assert a master at our great schools is no judge of ; and that a boy 
 remaining at school up to 15 or 1 6, can under such circumstances quite master 
 the amount of knowledge of Latin you look to as a training for language and 
 mental exercise, and an assistance to his own native literature. You do not 
 want, it seems to me, that taste for Latin literature my old friend at 
 Eton speaks of ; but you do want a habit of close logical thougb t applied to 
 something less abstract than figures and Mathematics, and a precision in 
 
 wielding and understanding language which no other process can give 
 
 Modern languages do not give this in the same degree, for the reason partly 
 that our own language does not, viz., the perpetual tendency to slide into 
 fluent conversational proficiency, and mistake it for real knowledge and mental 
 training. A well-trained boy of 15 can constnie ordinary Latin well, and 
 compose in Verse and Prose fairly. If j'ovi consider that such a boy has had 
 to give as much of his time to Greek, it will be clear how, omitting Greek, 
 a boy of the middle classes woxild have plenty of time for his other subjects, 
 and yet be able to give enough to Latin." 
 
 Lastly, one of the most distinguished scholars, as well as one 
 of the most practical teachers in our country, Dr. Kennedy of 
 Shrewsbury, permits me in the kindest manner to add his 
 opinion : — 
 
 " I should strongly advocate the teaching of Latin to the children of the 
 middle classes, on the ground that they desire, and it is desirahle, that their 
 instruction, as a class, should be on a higher level than that of the classes 
 below them in the social scale, and this can hardly be better done than by 
 giving them more linguistic, as well as deeper scientific, knowledge. Latin 
 would, of course, be a material help to their acquirement of French, and know- 
 ing both these, they would at the same time acquire a more accurate knowledge 
 of English." 
 
 I have devoted what may seem to some a disproportionate 
 space to the subject of language, and particularly to the discussion 
 of the question, whether and to what extent Latin should be 
 tauffht to farmers' sons and others in the middle ranks ? — because 
 I know it is one on which many fathers are anxious for infor- 
 mation. It is one also on which very powerful influences have 
 been brought to bear in opposition, as I believe, to the right 
 course. I have therefore felt it necessary to support my argument 
 by high authorities. The subjects which remain must be more 
 shortly disposed of. 
 
 Geography and History. 
 History and geography are full of interest to those whose 
 minds are already sufficiently called out to enter into their mutual
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 39 
 
 bearings ; but after all that has been written and spoken on the 
 subject of making them amusing to the very young, it admits of 
 a reasonable doubt whether they can or ought to be taught with- 
 out a certain amount of routine and drudgery. There are some 
 sensible remarks on this subject in a little work called ' Pro- 
 gressive Geography,' ascribed to the Rt. Hon. W. Croker, show- 
 ing the utility and reasonableness of committing to memory a 
 string of names of places early in life ; and what is true of 
 names of places, is in some degree true of dates and simple 
 facts in history. 
 
 The objection which seems to me to lie against the common 
 epitomes of geography is this, that they are generally based 
 upon the political divisions of the present day ; and as the child 
 is successively carried through the History of the Old and New 
 Testament, the History of Saxon and Norman England, the 
 History of Greece and Rome, his modern geography is never 
 called into play, and receives no life from what he reads. We 
 want the landmarks of ancient geograpliy and middle-age geo- 
 graphy to be clearly and simply set out for the young. The 
 principle is recognised, but carried out in an inconvenient and 
 unpractical way in the geography of the Irisli Board. A great 
 improvement has taken place no doubt in connecting geography 
 more than heretofore with the physical features of the earth as 
 it comes from the hand of its Maker, and showing, for instance, 
 how towns and commerce have sprung up in connexion with 
 rivers, and held their place under frequent political changes ; 
 but we must not expect philosophy from the young before their 
 minds are stoi'ed with facts. 
 
 Perhaps it is best in middle schools to confine attention at first 
 and chiefly to those portions of geography which may be made 
 hereafter to have a practical bearing on the History of the Bible, 
 on the salient events of Grecian and Roman History and on the 
 growth of the English empire and commerce. 
 
 History as a systematic or philosophical study is unsuited to 
 young boys. The best history for them, after a short outline has 
 been learned as a task, is biography. Boys enter heartily into 
 the admiration of noble characters — happy boys ! — and they have 
 little taste for critical discussion of political motives and in- 
 trigues. They can more easily take in the image of one leading 
 personage at a time, and identify themselves witli his fortunes ; 
 and when they meet with his name in history at a later period, 
 they recognise a familiar acquaintance. Southey's ' Life of 
 Nelson,' and Lockhart's ' Life of Napoleon,' both small books in 
 Murray's Family Library, and a 'Life of the Duke of Wel- 
 lington ' by the Christian Knowledge Society, would give a very 
 living interest in the most stirring period of modern history.
 
 40 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 For older bojs probably the plan marked out by the Training- 
 Scliool Examinations should be followed, A general outline 
 having been first learnt, attention is directed to particular periods, 
 only one of which is selected at a time to be thoroughly studied.* 
 
 Drawing and Music. 
 
 Drawing and music are becoming every year more important. 
 They used to be regarded as mere accomplishments ; they are 
 now elements of popular education, and no longer the luxury of 
 the few ; in Exeter alone there are 800 pupils in drawing in 
 connexion with the Department of Science and Art. Tlie ex- 
 pression of form by lines will soon be as common as that of 
 words by letters ; and the reading of the musical stave as that of 
 the printed page. Drawing is useful to every one who has to 
 employ a carpenter or a smith, and wishes to convey his ideas 
 rapidly and distinctly. A few strokes of the pencil will save 
 many words, and prevent mistakes. Drawing moreover teaches 
 the young to observe form, to notice beauties, and generally to 
 cultivate the perceptive powers of the eye ; but then it must not be 
 merely the copying of a style, but a humble, truthful endeavour 
 to represent with accuracy what is put before the eye. 
 
 Of the value of Music as a means of education, I have a very 
 strong conviction. By music I mean here vocal music, taught 
 with a thorough knowledge of the scale, the intervals, keys, clefs, 
 and chords, and with a view to singing standard music in parts. 
 A naturally fine voice is a great gift, but a rare and sometimes 
 a dangerous one ; few persons engaged in trade or agriculture 
 can have time for its cultivation with a view to solo performance ; 
 and without due cultivation it will give no pleasure to others; 
 but the majority of persons have voice and ear enough to give 
 and receive pleasure from taking a part in easy choral music, 
 both secular and sacred. And oh, how greatly is the happiness 
 of the family-gathering increased when there is such an object 
 to raise the thoughts above the supper- table and the card-table ! 
 
 As a question of mental training, I can speak from long obser- 
 vation of the effect of singing on persons born in the middle ranks 
 that the power of good old music in giving accuracy and refine- 
 ment of mind surpasses that of any other instrument at the com- 
 
 * The periods named for the training-schools reach — 1. To the battle of Has- 
 tings ; 2. Battle of Bosworth ; 3. Death of Charles I. ; 4. Death of Queen Anne ; 
 5. A.D. 1815. 
 
 Mr. Edward Monro has published a little book, price Ad., called ' Edward III. 
 and his Period,' as a sample of teaching history by assigning a single reign to the 
 work of an entire school quarter, and portioning out the subjects among the boys ; 
 one boy to master the genealogy, another the geography; others the wars M'ith 
 Scotland, the wars iu France, Chaucer, Wicklitfe, &c., respectively.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 41 
 
 mand of the teacher. The effect of fine glees and madrigals, or 
 of the anthems of Farrant, Creyghton, and Gibbons, can only be 
 compared to that of the highest classical poetry, but with this 
 difference, that it takes ten years to learn to read the poetry, 
 while an active part may be taken in the music in twelve 
 months. Among the effects on the mind of such music may be 
 mentioned, 1st, Habits of attention and precision called out by 
 learning the notes ; 2ndly, a sense of harmony and beauty of 
 expression forming a corresponding habit of good taste ; and 
 lastly, owing to the necessity of keeping time, there is a demand 
 on a giddy youth for steady attention, and on a slow one for a 
 certain alertness and quickness of movement to prevent his being 
 thrown out — the activity of the one is put under control, that 
 of the other is called forth. On these grounds I earnestly advo- 
 cate the study and practice of music — such music as Mr. Hull ah 
 is teaching the people to love. This music is so truly English 
 that it must bind English hearts together.* 
 
 The Expense of Farmers' Education. 
 
 The question of ways and means only remains to be spoken of. 
 An opinion prevails in some quarters that an effort ought to be 
 made to afford a good education to farmers' sons at a low rate of 
 charge ; I confess that I think it very undesirable that any step 
 should be taken tending to lower the independence of the middle 
 classes on the subject of providing for the best interests of their 
 own children ; and a little consideration of facts will show that 
 an attempt on the part of a public body to offer a cheap education 
 would be attended with great practical difficulties. 
 
 I believe the expense of commercial education as at present 
 conducted in private establishments averages about 30/. per 
 annum ; some benevolent persons seem to think that it might be 
 offered at a much lower rate. 
 
 Let us see what are the items of the expenditure for which we 
 have to provide, distinguishing the cost of the education from the 
 care of the body, and from all considerations of social position, 
 and making due allowance for the expense which must be in- 
 curred at home if the boy were not at school. First, as to the cost 
 of food and of personal superintendence, we may fairly allow Is. 
 per day, or say 7s. 6</. per week for 40 weeks, although with large 
 numbers and by careful management the mere food may cost 
 much less. Washing, I believe, costs about Is. per week, or 21. 
 per annum. These items must be incurred in some form if the 
 boy were living in his father's house. Then we have the inci- 
 
 * See Account of St. Mark's School, Windsor, below, p. 55,
 
 42 A GLAND on the Education of the Farmer^ 
 
 dents to a second establishment — house-rent, repairs, interest, 
 wear and tear on bedding and furniture, with a special allowance 
 for a bolstering- match now and then, without which a school 
 would be worth nothing. In a town I do not see how we can 
 allow less than 21. or 3/. a-head for these. I know that these 
 sums are much below the mark in one case. Firing and lighting, 
 attendance at the rate of a servant to every 15 boys, would 
 amount to a considerable sum per head. So that, apart from all 
 question of education, the account for board and lodging, ex- 
 clusive of teaching, stands thus : — 
 
 £. 
 
 Board and personal charge 15 
 
 Washing — House-rent — Furniture — Firing — Light- "» „ 
 ing — Attendance / 
 
 £ 22 per annum. 
 
 I fear that some persons are of opinion that they ought not to 
 pay much more than this, and therefore they must suppose that 
 the education is to be given for nothing, or for the profit which the 
 master can make out of his housekeeping. But dismissing this 
 view of the question, let us take the case of a school of 40 or 50 
 boys, including day boys, and see how education is to be paid for. 
 Is it reasonable to expect a man of education with a family of 
 his own to undertake the anxious life of a schoolmaster at his 
 own risk for less than a clear income of 200/. per annum, after 
 payment of all expenses ? He needs much more to maintain his 
 position in society, and to secure the means of retirement before 
 he is worn out. His assistants ought to cost him, including 
 their board, 150/. per annum. I allow 50/. more for occasional 
 masters and sundry expenses in teaching ; then we have ; — 
 
 £. 
 
 Principal 200 
 
 Assistants 150 
 
 Sundries 50 
 
 £400 
 
 If there are 50 boys in the school, including day boys and 
 boarders, this gives an average expense for tuition of 8/., or, if 
 only 40 boys, of 10/. per annum ; these sums, I understand, re- 
 present in fact the actual cost of what is considered good education 
 by the middle ranks in a neighbouring town, so that we arrive at 
 the lowest fair cost of a boarding-school : — 
 
 £. 
 
 Board and personal charge 15 
 
 Lodging and other expenses 7 
 
 . Tuition" 8 
 
 £30
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 43 
 
 If a parent desires any special advantages of social position for 
 his son, he must of course expect to pay for them, 
 
 I do not hesitate to express my own opinion, that a charge of 
 35/. or 40/. a-year may reasonably be expected for such an edu- 
 cation as ought to be given in the higher class of boarding- 
 schools for the middle classes, unless confined to very little 
 boys ; but such an education cannot be given without a good 
 staff of masters, whose qualifications ought to be above suspicion ; 
 they should hold the certificate of some competent authority, and 
 be remunerated in such a way as to feel at ease in their position, 
 with a hope of eventually rising and being able to marry. How 
 can a man who is miserable or hopeless, and therefore tempted 
 to be selfish or reckless, be a fit companion for boys? 
 
 It may not be useless to point out to agriculturists what is 
 spent by other classes on education. A young man who goes 
 through a regular course of education to a college degree with- 
 out assistance from foundations costs his father about 2500/ , 
 allowing 5 years at a private school, 5 years at a public school 
 or private tutor, and three years at college ; and this in the ordi- 
 nary course of things, supposing no extravagance. Some of the 
 clergy, probably, by strict and conscientious self-denial, and 
 gi'eat efforts on their own parts and that of their friends, may 
 enter holy orders at an expense not exceeding 1000/. ; but these 
 are rare instances ; and the legal and medical professions, espe- 
 cially the latter, often involve expenses which exceed the amount 
 last named. If the figures above given be referred to it will 
 be seen that, after deducting the expense of living at home, a 
 respectable education in the middle ranks may be had, from 10 
 years old till 16, for less than 150/. 
 
 The only conclusion I venture to draw from these facts is, 
 that the sum required for a good education in the middle ranks 
 is not so alarming as to place any real hindrance in the way of 
 its being attained by all men of capital. For surely it is far 
 better to sink the twentieth or the tithe of capital than to give 
 children an inferior education, by Avhich they will suffer all the 
 best days of their life ; the addition of a trifling percentage to 
 what they will receive after their parent's death will be no com- 
 pensation for such a disadvantage. 
 
 If the objects to be aimed at in the education of the middle 
 classes, and the data for the calculation of its expense have been 
 rightly indicated, it remains only to say a few words as to the 
 measures by which such an education can be brought within the 
 reach of farmers generally. 
 
 In the first place a wide line of distinction must be drawn 
 between the education of the little farmers, and that of the higher 
 class of yeomen.
 
 44 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 Schools for the Small Farmers. 
 
 When a farmer's occupation is so small that his profits do not 
 exceed one hundred pounds per annum, with capital even more 
 than proportionally small, his position is in reality little above 
 that of a superior town mechanic, or small tradesman. In such 
 a case it is manifest that the son's labour is valuable to the father, 
 who, instead of paying 301. a year for the boy at a boarding 
 school, wants him at home ; where he may earn his board, and 
 if he has been well trained up to twelve years old, may go on 
 improving his mind. I have not the least doubt that the best 
 education the little farmer can possibly obtain for his son will be 
 found in a good village school under a well-trained master ; 
 and that to send the boy for a finishing to a boarding school in a 
 town is simple waste of time and money. 
 
 The entire expense of a good school, with a certificated master 
 and pupil teachers for 50 boys, cannot be estimated at less than 
 100/. per annum, or 21. per head. Whatever may be said on 
 the grounds of political economy, I see no practical objection 
 worth serious consideration against this education being given to 
 the poor on charitable principles, at such a rate as they can 
 afford to pay, while the small farmers and tradesmen consult 
 their own independence and respectable position by paying its 
 fair price, say from 10s. to 155. per quarter. The advantage to 
 both parties would be very great, and by proper management no 
 confusion of ranks need ensue ; the labourer's child, alas ! is 
 sure to be driven out to work at an early age, and the boys in the 
 first class will generally be drawn from a higher grade in society 
 owing to their staying longer at school. Provided there be a 
 competent assistant or pupil-teacher, and the school be well 
 looked after, there is no fear that the poor will be the sufferers. 
 This is the old-fashioned English arrangement under which 
 many a great man has risen from the Village School through the 
 University to high places in Church or State. 
 
 The country schools in England will never be what they might 
 be till the middle classes take more interest in them. It is 
 stated by Dean Dawes, on the authority of Sir John Pakington, 
 that 15,000,000 out of the 18,000,000 inhabitants of England are 
 dependent on incomes under lOOZ. a-year ; five-sixths of the 
 population of England are therefore deeply interested in having 
 a good and cheap education within a walk from their own doors. 
 
 " The farmers," the Dean also says, " and those of the same 
 class in our rural districts, may rest assured, and until it is 
 brought home to them into their own parishes or neighbour- 
 hood, they never will, as a class of men, get that education 
 it is desirable they should have ; and that by standing aloof,
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 45 
 
 and feeling no interest in that of the labourer, they only augment 
 the evil which they dread — the one is advancing in intelligence 
 — the other is standing still ; and I cannot but think, that in 
 a very few years, the employers of labour will be the class 
 which, of all others, will take the greatest interest in those very 
 schools of which they now think so little." * 
 
 Schools for the Higher Yeomen. 
 
 I return then to the question. What practical arrangements 
 should be made in the West of England for the education of 
 those who can aiford to send their sons away from home for their 
 education, from the age of ten years old till they go into business? 
 
 Nothing has been yet said on the subject of the training of 
 young farmers after they have left school. Let us first dispose 
 of this question. 
 
 It is not uncommon, I believe, for boys intended for large 
 occupations or for land agencies to be sent at an expense of from 
 200 to 300/., to reside with some experienced farmer to learn 
 business. To this arrangement, if preceded by a thoroughly good 
 school education, there can be little objection except the expense. 
 And if a young farmer has a scientific turn of mind Cirencester 
 College offers all that can be reasonal)ly desired in the way of 
 special agricultural knowledge, of which some idea may be 
 formed from the Sessional Examination Questions. 
 
 This collegiate course is expensive, and although the excellent 
 Principal is unremitting in his watchful care of the morals of the 
 college, and exercises much personal influence over the inmates 
 individually, parents will of course consider the character of a 
 son before they remove him from the control of the parental roof 
 to the society of a number of young men residing near a town, 
 under very slight personal restraint. 
 
 For the period of boyhood, two courses are open to the West 
 of England agriculturists : to aim at the foundation of public in- 
 stitutions in addition to those which exist at present, or to 
 support measures tending to render existing schools thoroughly 
 efficient for their purpose : or possibly both plans may be com- 
 bined. 
 
 Middle Class Schools or Colleges. 
 
 I have already given reasons why in my judgment the attempt 
 to found special schools for farmers' sons alone is inexpedient. 
 Is it desirable to found new schools or colleges for the middle 
 classes as a body ? There are some great atlvantages in public 
 
 * Dawes's 'Suggestive Hints on Secular Instruction,' p. 167.
 
 46 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 institutions. The higher classes owe much to them, and in some 
 parts of England there are old endowed schools, which have a 
 traditionary history as dear to the burgesses and yeomanry, 
 as that of their colleges and schools are to the Wykehamist, 
 the Kings' man, and the Westminster — associations full roughly 
 handled in these days. A similar attachment in its degree 
 connects itself with the schools of Exeter, Tiverton, and some 
 others in the West of England. I can also bear witness to the 
 enthusiastic attachment of St. Mark's men to a modern institu- 
 tion, which, under the auspices of a West-countryman, has, despite 
 of much opposition resting on grounds of simple misconception 
 of the facts, to use a mild term, done more to ennoble the voca- 
 tion of the teacher than any other perhaps in England. 
 
 Among the advantages of a public institution, the first is the 
 fact of its publicity, owing to which the dietary and social 
 arrangements will be less open to suspicion. The master having, 
 probably, no interest in the board of the pupils, will only have 
 to think of success or failure in connexion with his moral and 
 intellectual charge. 
 
 The master will also in general be a person of well-known cha- 
 racter and education, whose previous history has been ascertained 
 by persons interested in the success of the school, and in sustain- 
 ing his position in the social scale. There will also be some 
 security for a proper selection of assistants, and for the dismissal 
 of those who are unfit. 
 
 On the other hand, in public institutions set on foot by sub- 
 scription or shares, evils arise from the tendency of proprie- 
 tary bodies and Committees to interfere. School after school 
 has failed owing to this cause alone. Men of vigorous and 
 manly character, capable of forming and acting upon their own 
 opinion, will not submit to be tools of others, especially of their 
 inferiors in intellect. Therefore, unless the managing body have 
 the good sense to give the master considerable discretion and 
 independence, they are sure to dishearten and ultimately drive 
 away all able men, and to find themselves clogged with respect- 
 able and pliant mediocrity. Farewell then to all manly character 
 in the boys of such a school. 
 
 This should be well considered by those who may wish to 
 found a college for the middle classes. As a body the middle 
 classes consist of thoroughly practical men, who understand what 
 business is, and mean to have it done properly ; they have a 
 great dislike to not getting the worth of their money, and high 
 notions of public responsibility. This is all very well, but must 
 be applied with caution to education. I remember an illustra- 
 tion of Archbishop Whately's, used in the House of Lords, that 
 some people look after a school as children take care of their 
 gardens. When the garden is prepared and the seed is sown
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 47 
 
 " our little gardeners " soon begin to pull up the young plants to 
 see if they are growing : or they like to put in large plants in full 
 leaf, that they may see the fruit come soon. " Learn to labour 
 and to wait," is the lesson needed by all who have to do with 
 schools, as well as with farms and gardens. 
 
 Men of business are very apt to look with some degree of 
 suspicion on the work of the brain, of which they do not see 
 the immediate results. This is painfully discouraging to men of 
 science, who are devoting their best energies to the advancement 
 of agriculture ; they feel that they are neither trusted nor paid 
 as they ought to be, and they are tempted to turn away in disgust 
 to more lucrative pursuits. Depend upon it the professional 
 labour of educated men is worth paying for, and the interest of 
 the public lies not in getting it done cheap, but In getting it done 
 well. For this end there is only one course to be pursued. Keep 
 up a high standard of honour in the profession, whatever that 
 profession may be. 
 
 Besides the difficulties inherent in the management of all 
 public institutions there are peculiar circumstances connected 
 with matters of opinion on which parents feel very deeply. Into 
 these I will not enter. But before a College for the middle 
 classes could be founded, they would have to be seriously and 
 calmly looked in the face, and the result must be a division of 
 power as well as of labour, consequent on the multiplication of 
 rival institutions, unless mutual forbearance Is exercised to an 
 extent, of which, in the existing temper of the public mind, I see 
 little prospect. I cannot say that I think the present a favourable 
 time for any such project. 
 
 It may be well to advert to the fact that there are already some 
 important public institutions established on definite principles. 
 The Wesley an body have a very flourishing College at Taunton, 
 erected at a cost of twelve thousand pounds, and containing 
 accommodation for about 150 pupils, which is fully occupied. 
 The Independents have a college at the same place with the 
 particulars of which I am not acquainted, and there are several 
 other special institutions in the West of England, The Diocesan 
 Training College at Exeter offers an example of sound English 
 education (apart from its special purpose of training teachers), 
 which deserves the attention of farmers and others in the middle 
 classes who wish to know what good teaching is ; I can only say, 
 with all sincerity, that I have heard the elements of knowledge 
 conveyed within those walls with a clearness and soundness to 
 which, with few exceptions, my own school and college experi- 
 ence gives no parallel. 
 
 But before such institutions can be founded for the middle 
 classes, and by the middle classes themselves (for no one else can 
 do it), those who originate them must fully count the cost.
 
 48 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 The training Colleges in various parts of England have been 
 raised at a very heavy outlay ; their annual expenses average about 
 50/. per head for each student, calculated on 645 students in all 
 parts of England and Wales ; of this sum 157. per head is the cost 
 of tuition ; the masters cannot be said to be highly paid, for the 
 average of their incomes is 100/. per annum, including the 
 salaries of men of high professional standing in very responsible 
 oflBces. I believe there is no institution better managed than our 
 own Exeter College. The entire cost per head is about 45/. ; the 
 board, including in the average that of masters and servants as 
 well as pupils, is 17/. \0s. Qd. ; washing about 21. ; fuel and light 
 about 21. ; books 31. The amount per head for tuition is much 
 below the general average, but the masters are in the proportion 
 of one to every 13 pupils. It will be observed that in these 
 figures there is no charge for house rent. Tlie College has been 
 built at a cost of 9000/., besides 2000/. for adjacent land. 
 
 1 have heard, in consequence of the publicity of the West of 
 England prize schemes, of the existence of a proprietary school 
 recently established by the middle classes at Hereford, with a 
 capital sum of 1200/. raised in 40 shares of 30/. each. The 
 terms to proprietors are — boarders 25/., day scholars 6/. 10s. per 
 annum ; to the public, boarders, 30/. per annum, day scholars 8/. 
 This institution is still in its infancy. 
 
 An institution of a public kind for the education of the 
 middle-classes exists at Probus in Cornwall, owing to the efforts 
 and spirit of the son of a Berkshire yeoman, in which a very good 
 education is given for 30 guineas. The school at Minehead, and 
 at Failand Lodge near Bristol, are in some degree also due to 
 public effort, and I believe are giving a very good education. 
 
 Should it be decided to attempt the building of a Middle-Class 
 College, which I have heard suggested, I do not think it would 
 be wise to commence operations without the prospect of raising 
 five thousand pounds at least. 
 
 Supposing the College intended to hold 100 boarders, sleeping- 
 room at 1000 cubic feet for each pupil would cost 20/. per head, 
 or 2000/., with a plain style of building. I doubt whether school- 
 rooms, class-rooms, masters'-rooms, offices, and other conve- 
 niences, including site, could be obtained for less than a further 
 sum of 2000/., to which must be added a residence for at least one 
 married man with his family. Schools are often established in 
 old mansions depreciated in value. Experience would lead me 
 to think that such a building would in the end be found unsuit- 
 able except for domestic purposes, and that sooner or later the 
 dining-hall, school-rooms, and dormitories, must rise from the 
 ground. 
 
 Whenever any large body of men in the middle ranks are agreed 
 on the course to be pursued, there can be no doubt that they will
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 49 
 
 raise the funds required for this or any other undertaking, of 
 the utility of which they are convinced ; but I think it of para- 
 mount importance that a public institution for education should 
 have a certain degree of independence. The colleges of our fore- 
 fatheis w^ere foundations, not speculations. 
 
 The conclusion to which, after nearly twenty years attention 
 to the subject, I have arrived, as to the direction in which my 
 own efforts may most usefully be exerted on the subject of 
 middle-class education, is ah'eady before the public. My hope 
 rests for the present in giving a definite aim and purpose to the 
 independent action of existing schools ; so that parents may know 
 better what to expect, and masters may have some encourage- 
 ment in the path of duty, subject to this one paramount condition, 
 that sooner or later their work shall be tested by a competent 
 tribunal. 
 
 I hope that we are not far from the establishment and recog-- 
 nition of such a standard and such a tribunal ; and that the Bath 
 and West of England Society will have had some share in bring- 
 ing about such a result. 
 
 I feel bound to acknowledge that to Lord Ebrington I owe the 
 first clear perception of this object ; though not altogether agreed 
 with him as to the means of attaining it, I was happy to co- 
 operate with him in his prize scheme, of which I regard that in 
 which I am engaged as an extension. 
 
 I cannot close these remarks without expressing my thanks to 
 several gentlemen engaged in various departments of education 
 in the West of England, for the frank and hearty support which 
 they have given to the West of England Examinations, 
 
 My personal acknowledgments for much valuable information 
 are especially due to the Rev. J. Penrose, of Exmouth ; and to 
 Mr. Templeton, M.A., St. David's Hill, Exeter. 
 
 It is also a great pleasure to me to I'efer to communications of 
 a friendly character from other gentlemen engaged in tuition in 
 Devonshire and the adjoining counties, many of which cannot fail 
 to impress those who read them with the conviction that in the 
 West of England may be found a considerable number of manly 
 minded men who despise imposture of all kinds, who are doinf 
 honest work, and shrink from no test, but rather desire a searching 
 examination in order that it may appear who are the real Edu- 
 cators ; men who, if there be defects in the methods adopted by 
 themselves, wish to know the fact, that they may remedy those 
 defects. Such men have nothing to fear ; the demand for good 
 education is on the increase, and parents are as anxious as they 
 are themselves, that the public should know where to find it.
 
 50 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note to p. 4. 
 
 The distinction between the general and the special education of the middle 
 classes was most forcibly stated by Dr. Arnold at the time of the passing of 
 the Reform Bill, in a letter on commercial schools, from which the following 
 passages are extracted : — 
 
 On General and Special Education. 
 
 " But I confess that this is not the point upon which I feel much anxiety, 
 I have little doubt that boys will be sufficiently taught all that they require 
 for their particular calling ; and scientific knowledge is so generally valued, 
 and confers a power so immediately felt, that I think its diffusion may safely 
 be reckoned on. . . . [But] though such knowledge be a very good 
 education, as far as a man's trade or livelihood is concerned, yet, in a political 
 sense, and as a qualification for the exercise of political power, it is no educa- 
 tion at all. The distinction requires to be stated more fully. 
 
 " Every man, from the highest to the lowest, has two biasinesses : the one 
 his own particular profession or calling, be it what it will, whether that of 
 soldier, seaman, farmer, lawyer, mechanic, labourer, &c. ; the other his general 
 calling, which he has in common with all his neighbours, namely, the calling 
 of a citizen and a man. The education which fits him for the first of these 
 two businesses is called professional, that which fits him for the second is 
 called liberal. But because every man must do this second business, whether 
 he does it well or ill, so people are accustomed to think that it is learnt more 
 easily. 
 
 " A man who has learnt it indifferently seems, notwithstanding, to get 
 through life with tolerable comfort ; he may be thought not to be very wise 
 or very agreeable, yet he manages to get married, and to bring up a family, 
 and to mix in society with his friends and his neighbours. Whereas, a man 
 who has learnt his other business indifferently, I mean his particular trade 
 or calling, is in some danger of starving outright. People will not employ an 
 indifferent workman when good ones are to be had in plenty ; and therefore, 
 if he has leamt his particular business badly, it is likely that he will not be 
 able to practise it at all. 
 
 " Thiis it is that, while ignorance of a man's special business is instantly 
 detected, ignorance of his great business as a man and a citizen is scarcely 
 noticed, because there are so many who share in it. Thus we see every one 
 ready to give an opinion about politics, or about religion, or about morals, 
 because it is said these are every man's business. And so they are, and if 
 people would learn them as they do their own particular business all w'ould 
 do well ; but never was the proverb more fulfilled which says that every 
 man's business is no man's. It is worse indeed than if it were no man's ; for 
 now it is every man's business to meddle in, but no man's to learn. And this 
 general ignorance does not make itself felt directly, — if it did, it were more 
 likely to be remedied : but the process is long and roundabout ; false notions 
 are entertained and acted upon ; prejudices and passions multiply ; abuses 
 become manifold ; difficulty and distress at last press on the whole com- 
 munity ; whilst the same ignorance which produced the mischief now helps 
 to confirm it or to aggravate it, because it hinders them from seeing where 
 the root of the whole evil lay, and sets them upon some vain attempt to 
 correct the consequences, while they never think of curing, because they do 
 not suspect, the cause."
 
 and 071 Middle- Class Education in General. 51 
 
 After speaking of the influence of newspapers, and of the circumstances 
 under which Editors are obliged to give the facts of the day or week (he is 
 writing to a newspaper), Dr. Arnold proceeds : — 
 
 " Assuredly he who does honestly want to gain knowledge will not go to a 
 newspaper to look for it. 
 
 " No, Sir, real knowledge, like everything else of the highest value, is not 
 to "be obtained so easily. It must be worked fob, studied fob, thought 
 FOB, and more than all, it must be pbayed fob. And that is education 
 which lays the foundation of such habits, and gives them, so far as a boy's 
 early age will allow, their proper exercise. For doing this, the materials 
 exist in the studies actually pursued in our commercial schools ; but it 
 cannot be done effectually, if a boy's education is to be cut short at fourteen. 
 His schooling may be ended without mischief, if his parents are able to guide 
 his education afterwards ; and the way to gain this hereafter is to make the 
 most of the schooling time of the rising generation, — that, finding how much 
 may be done even in their case, within the limited time allowed for their 
 education, they may be anxious to give their children greater advantages, that 
 the fruit may be proportiouably greater. 
 
 " It may be that this is impracticable ; to which I have only to say, that I 
 will not believe it to be so till I am actually unable to hope otherwise." ^ 
 
 On the Position of the Commercial Schoolmaster. 
 
 " The masters of our English or commercial schools labour under this 
 double disadvantage — that not only their moral but their intellectual fitness 
 must be taken upon trust. I do not mean that this is at all their fault ; 
 still less do I say that they are not fit actually for the discharge of their im- 
 portant duties : but still it is a disadvantage to them that their fitness can 
 only be known after trial ; they have no evidence of it to offer beforehand. 
 They feel this inconvenience themselves, and their pupils feel it also — op^ior- 
 tunities for making known their proficiency are wanting alike to both. It 
 has long been the reproach of our law that it has no secondary 'punishments ; 
 it is no less true that we have no regular system of secondary education. The 
 Classical schools throughout the country have Universities to look to : dis- 
 tinction at school prepares the way for distinction at college, and distinction 
 at college is again the road to distinction and emolument as a teacher ; it is a 
 passport with which a young man enters life with advantage, either as a 
 tutor or as a schoolmaster. But anything like local Universities — any so 
 much as local distinction or advancement in life held out to encourage 
 exertion at a commercial school, it is as yet vain to look for. Thus the 
 business of education is degraded ; for a schoolmaster of a commercial school, 
 having no means of acquiring a general celebrity, is rendered dependent on 
 the inliabitants of his o^vn immediate neighbourhood ; if he offends them he 
 is ruined. This greatly interferes with the maintenance of discipline : the 
 boys are well aware of their parents' power, and complain to them against the 
 exercise of their master's authority. Nor is it always that the parents them- 
 selves can resist the temptation of showing their own importance, and giving 
 the master to understand that he must be careful how he ventures to dis- 
 please them." — Miscellaneous Works of Dr. Arnold, p. 229. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 Note to p. 23. 
 
 I HAVE six>ken in the text of Analytical Chemistry as an instrument of 
 education not unsuited to boys under certain circumstances. In so speaking 
 I surrendered my own first impressions out of deference to the authority of a 
 distinguished member of the University to which I belong. But the opinion 
 of Professor Voelcker on the other side is entitled to every weight, because 
 his bias would naturally be expected to act in favour of chemistry ; and he 
 speaks after long experience of continental education, and also of the class of 
 Englishmen whose education is here treated of. I am very much obliged to 
 him for allowing me to print the following letter, called out by a difference 
 of opinion in arranging questions for the West of England Examination. I 
 ought, however, to say, that the questions to which Professor Voelcker refers 
 are not so much intended for boys as for young men of 16 or 17 ; and that 
 the particular point aimed at is to give candidates an opportunity of proving 
 that they have handled, and can distinguish some of the substances about 
 which they wi-ite, and that they have not acquired their knowledge from 
 books only ; in short, that their knowledge is real and not only verbal. 
 
 Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to the age at which the 
 study of chemistry should begin, there will be none among real educators or 
 lovers of science as to the kind of knowledge to be encouraged. 
 
 Eoyal Agricultural College, Cirencester, June 11, 1857. 
 My dear Sib, 
 
 I find that I differ from your friend as to the character of the chemistry 
 which may be taught with advantage in schools. 
 
 I would restrict the instruction to the teaching of chemical physics, and 
 have a very strong conviction that it is not desirable to teach practical 
 chemistry, or, indeed, chemistry properly so called, in schools. 
 
 As an educational means, chemistry is not to be compared with other 
 means of training the mind. The reasons are too obvious to require notice. 
 The direct benefit resulting from the teaching of analytical chemistry in 
 schools is nil. 
 
 Chemical science I believe can only be taught by lectures, illustrated by 
 experiments, and by practical instruction in the laboratory. The lecturing 
 system applied to schools for lads who ought to be made to work in class- 
 hours, I consider to be one of the delusions of the j^resent time, a delusion 
 fraught with evil consequences. And as to the practical instruction, I beg to 
 say that the question whether it is desirable or not to attach laboratories to 
 schools, is no longer a matter of individual opinion, insomuch as it is a fact 
 that laboratories in connexion with schools have proved complete failures. 
 
 I grant that two or three boys out of fifty may be benefited by practical 
 instruction in experimental and analytical chemistry, but am also bound to 
 add, that the rest only waste time which may be more usefully employed. 
 
 This is the result not only of my own personal experience, but also that of 
 many of my scientific friends in this country, at least of those who love 
 science and desire its prosperity. Moreover, I would direct your attention to 
 the fact, that the attempt has been made in Germany, on a large scale, to 
 teach chemistry practically in schools for lads under 16 years of age, and has 
 proved so complete a failure, that it has been all but universally abandoned in 
 my native country. 
 
 You will thus observe that I differ from your friend in principle, and as I
 
 and on Middle-Class Education in General. 53 
 
 have a very strong opinion on the point, I do not wish to be counted respon- 
 sible for tlie questions on Analytical Chemistry in General Examination, 
 Department D, of the West of England Examination. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 T. D. Adand, Esq. Augustus Voelcker. 
 
 Note to p. 35. 
 
 A Selection from the Questions on Mr, Pepper's Course of Lectures on 
 Chemistry, Eton School Term, 1856. 
 
 Tlie Air ive Breathe. 
 
 Detail the experiments employed to demonstrate the materiality of the Air we 
 breathe. 
 
 Describe a mode of showing that the Air has weight. 
 
 Describe the construction of the Barometer, 
 
 Upon what principle is the mode of analysing Air founded ? 
 
 What is the composition of Air ? 
 
 Give an illustration by figures of the exact nature of chemical analysis in the 
 change which Phosphorus undergoes when used in the analysis of Air. 
 
 At what temperature does Mercury take Oxygen from the Air, and name the 
 substance foimed ? 
 
 Who discovered Oxygen ? — What did he use to procure it ? 
 
 How many cubic inches of Oxygen will one ounce of Black Oxide of Manganese 
 yield — also one ounce of Chlorate of Potash ? 
 
 Give an example of the formation of an acid, an alkali, and a neutral body, by 
 burning substances in Oxygen. 
 
 What is the weight of 100 cubic inches of Oxygen, and 100 cubic inches of 
 Nitrogen ? 
 
 Water. 
 
 What are the relative proportions of Earth and Water, measured in square 
 miles, on the surface of the Earth ? 
 
 Give examples of the universal presence of Water in Animal, Vegetable, and 
 Mineral substances. 
 
 What is supposed to be the physical nature of Clouds ? 
 
 What is the principle of an Artesian Well? 
 
 What are Intermittent Springs ? How may they be accounted for ? 
 
 Explain the importance of the expansion of Water at a certain temperature 
 forming an exception to the general law : — that bodies expaiid with heat and contract 
 with cold. 
 
 What is a Freezing Mixture, and upon what principle does it produce cold ? 
 
 Why does not high-pressure Steam scald ? 
 
 Describe the meaning of the term " Suspended Matter " in Water, 
 
 What are the usual Saline Matters found in Spring Water ? 
 
 Describe the tests for detecting the presence of Lime in Water. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term Incrustation, as applied to Boilers ? How is 
 it produced ? 
 
 How do you account for the formation of Petrifaction ? 
 
 Chemistry of the Breakfast Table. 
 
 What are the chief ingredients employed in the manufacture of China and 
 Glass ? 
 
 Why is a bright Metal Teapot preferred to a black one ? 
 
 Of the Bread, Butter, Milk, Sugar, Tea, Coffee, and Cocoa, name those which 
 contain Nitrogen. 
 
 Give an example of the meanings of the terms Proximate and Ultimate 
 Elements. 
 
 What are the proximate constituents of Flour, Bread, and Meat ?
 
 54 ACLAND on the Education of the Farmer, 
 
 What is supposed to be the basis of Gluten, Fibrin, Albumen, and other proxi- 
 mate constituents, according to the theory of Liebig ? 
 
 Draw a rough section of a grain of corn, and describe the component parts. 
 
 What is the chief nutritive principle in Flour, and how obtained ? 
 
 How is Flour converted into Bread "^ 
 
 What is the quantity of Bread usually obtained from 280 pounds of Flour, and 
 what is the substance used to increase the weight of the Bread ? 
 
 State the other adulterations of Bread, and the manner of detecting Alum and 
 Sulphate of Copper. 
 
 How does Milk appear under the microscope ? and what is Cream ? 
 
 What does the mechanical operation of Churning effect ? 
 
 How is Cheese made ? 
 
 What is the simplest mode of testing the Purity of Milk ? 
 
 Describe the eight processes required to convert Raw Sugar into the best 
 White Lump Sugar. 
 
 On Iron. 
 
 What is the meaning of the term " Mineralised" 1 
 
 Describe the various substances discernible by analysis in the Cleveland iron ore. 
 
 State the experiments employed to illustrate Artificial Oxidation. 
 
 Draw a Diagram of a section of a Blast Furnace, and describe its construction. 
 
 What are the materials mixed with the Iron Ore, to reduce it to the Metallic 
 state? 
 
 How is the Ore prepared before it is placed in the Blast Furnace ? 
 
 Explain the changes which occur in the Blast Furnace. 
 
 What are the Impurities contained in common Pig Iron ? 
 
 Explain the Refining Furnace. 
 
 Give a Diagram, and describe the Puddling Furnace and the manner of 
 removing the Metal from it. 
 
 What is the use of the great Hammer ? 
 
 Describe the completion of the process, and the formation of Merchant Bar 
 Malleable Iron. 
 
 Draw a sectional Diagram of Bessemer's new Apparatus. 
 
 Why does the Metal become so hot when the current of air is driven 
 through it ? 
 
 What are the three conditions of the Metal which may be obtained by Bessemer's 
 process ? 
 
 Describe the saving of Fuel, Time, and Labour in the new process, as compared 
 with the old. 
 
 These questions, selected from those set by Mr. Pepper of the Polytechnic 
 Institution to the Eton boys who attended his class, have been inserted, not only in 
 illustration of my argument as to the progress of opinion, but because they appear 
 to me to be well adapted to the true purpose of such Lectures, viz., to awaken in 
 the minds of boys an interest in things around them without diverting their 
 minds from the main work of their education. Mr. Pepper will, I hope, excuse 
 this allusion to his labours, and also the liberty taken with his papers of questions, 
 from which selections only are given. 
 
 Those who desire to supersede Latin verses, and all that they involve, in the 
 system of the English public schools, with a view to substitute a more modern 
 and miscellaneous couis^i of instruction, may take warning from the results as 
 viewed by thinking men in Germany. 
 
 Germak Expeeience of Modern Education. 
 
 " To boys the time soon comes when learning is no longer a play, and then care 
 must be taken that whatever they learn they may learn thoroughly. Little ; but 
 that little right : is the principle of all real instruction. Much, and all only super- 
 ficially, is the prevailing principle of the system of education of our time. . . . 
 
 " The old Grecian poet described a despicable character with these words, — 
 ■roxx' hviffTtiro 'igya, kukus S' ii'riiTTa.To •jea.tra, — ' He knew many things, but knew 
 them all badly.' ' Multum non multa ' was a principle of education in a better 
 time not long past away.
 
 and on Middle- Class Education in General. 55 
 
 "... Hence the North German Gymnasia,* with their countless lectures, so 
 arranged that every hour a fresh teacher appears with a fresh subject. . . . 
 
 " Each one accustoms himself to give out much as a task, and afterwards to 
 require but little, because he does not know what the pupils may at that very time 
 have to do for other teachers. . . . 
 
 " Under the pressure of mere secondary matters, the ancient languages, history, 
 and mathematics, the principal foundations of all mental culture, sink down 
 themselves to be mere secondary subjects, and the boy loses the true pi-eparatory 
 training for all higher study. The proper end of the gymnasium, to leaen how 
 TO LEARN, is lost ; for, instead of this, the pupil only learns how to bungle, and, 
 instead of making even increasing demands upon his mental activity, he be- 
 comes content with the deceitful appearance of knowledge in a large variety of 
 subjects. . . . 
 
 "... Nothing new can be offered them (the pupils), for they have already 
 tasted everything, and think themselves perfectly acquainted with everything, 
 although they are really acquainted with nothing, or rather with less than nothing, 
 for every sensible teacher knows that he can sooner make something of a pupil 
 who knows nothing of his subject, than of one who comes to him with a superficial 
 and confused knowledge of it. . . . 
 
 " It is a hard saying of ScheUing, but it is one that should be written in letters 
 of gold, that ' A bungler in knowledge is always also a bungler in morality.' "— 
 Christian Family Life, by Thiersch. 
 
 Note to p. 41. 
 
 By the special kindness of the Eev. Stephen Hawtrey I am permitted to 
 give the results of his experience as to the effect of music, from an account of 
 his school, printed for private circulation. 
 
 " Before dismissing the question of mental culture, I must refer to another 
 branch of learning, my advocacy of which will, perhaps, be more readily 
 received than my recommendation of a more general introduction of Latin and 
 Euclid into our National Schools. 
 
 " I mean the learning music from notes. Independently of the result, viz. 
 the power of reading music, 1 know nothing that is more valuable for fixing 
 the attention of children than the study of music. It can be brought to bear 
 on the culture of their minds at a very early age ; long before they have made 
 such progress in elementary knowledge as to take in hand the studies before 
 spoken of ; and it is the best preparation for them. 
 
 " Only watch a class of little boys, of seven and eight years old, learning to 
 read music from HuUah's Sheets, under a good master. Mark their eyes ; 
 with what intelligence and keenness they are fixed on the tablet, from the 
 time they begin to read the page of music to the end of it. If they once lose 
 their place they are all abroad. I do not know any lesson that fixes the atten- 
 tion so keenly for three or four minutes consecutively as reading in time one 
 of HuUah's sheets. 
 
 " The power of attention, and consequent mental activity, which 1 have 
 observed to result from making music from notes a regular part of the school 
 business, has led me to say deliberately to the promoters of schools, that of 
 two schools, ceteris paribus, if one (A) were to make music part of the school 
 business, and the other (B) were not to do so, it would be found, at the end of 
 a given time, that the scholars of (A) school would have learned every subject 
 that had been taught in the (B) school, and would know them better, besides 
 having acquired the knowledge of music. 
 
 " The whole school may be safely taught ; at least all those who enter at 
 
 * The Gymnasium corresponds to the English Public School ; it stands between 
 the Preparatory School and the University.
 
 56 AcLAND on the Education of the Farmer, ^-c. 
 
 the bottom of the school. There is not one boy in ten who has an ear so 
 defective that it cannot be improved. And think only what you are doing 
 for them ; opening, as it were, a new sense — teaching them a new language 
 — a language in which are written works of the highest genius and inspiration. 
 
 " If parochial clergymen realized the comfort which a power of reading 
 music among the young men of the parish would, under God's blessing, prove 
 to them, they would not hesitate a day in making the study of music jiart of 
 the school business. As a bond for keeping the young men together, and 
 attached to their school and clergy, it is invaluable. But, to be effectual, it 
 must be done thoroughly — and it may be done thoroughly. By beginning at 
 the age at which boys usually come to parochial schools, and continuing 
 steadily, making the music lesson come in as regularly as the ciphering or 
 reading lesson, the boys will have learned to read music before they kiaow 
 there is any difficulty in it. 
 
 " I do not here speak at random. We have now a choir of nearly, if not 
 quite, fifty members ; a considerable proportion of whom are young men who 
 have been brought up at St. Mark's School, and are now following various 
 emploj-ments in the town ; and boys still at the school. They can all read 
 music, and one evening every week they meet for the practice of singing. The 
 music they sing is either first-class glees and madrigals, or Handel's and Men- 
 delssohn's oratorios. 
 
 " It may readily be conceived that these weekly meetings to practise music 
 of such a class must be a source of great pleasure ; they keep together those 
 that have been educated at the same school, and give to their clergy an oppor- 
 tunity of most agreeable intercourse with a very promising portion of their 
 parishioners. 
 
 " ISTor is it necessary that the yoimg lads should withdraw from such 
 meetings when they lose their treble voice. During the transition period, if 
 they cannot sing, they can help in the orchestra, with their flutes, violins, &c. 
 For it is not uncommon for our boys to find time and means for acquiring 
 the knowledge of some musical tustrument ; the facility -with which they can 
 do this, and the dependence that can be placed upon them in orchestral accom- 
 paniments, no doubt arise from the readiness in reading music, and the feeling 
 for time, which HuUah's method gives. 
 
 ' ' Once a month they gather their friends and acquaintance together, and 
 perform the music they have been practising. A few days ago they jierformed 
 the ' Elijah ' to an audience amounting to more than four hundred. It was not 
 a little imi^ressive to observe so large a social party of working-people listening 
 for three hours, with riveted attention, to the wonderful strains in that work, 
 given, with correctness and feeling, by their sons, brothers, husbands, and 
 fathers. 
 
 " The efiect of such gatherings, in a social point of view, must not be incon- 
 siderable — not to speak of the charm it must give to family intercourse, when 
 these young men and boys sing together at home their glees, rounds, and part 
 songs. 
 
 " At present, however, my business is with the intellectiial effect of the 
 study of music. "With reference to this point, I am persuaded that no one 
 could look into the animated countenances of our boys, from nine to fifteen 
 years of age, singing, ^vith precision and self-reliance, such music as Handel's 
 and Mendelssohu's choruses, without being persuaded that the acquirement 
 they have made, and are using, must be exerting a great influence upon their 
 mental development. 
 
 " The result strikes people as very extraordinary. I can only accoimt for 
 our success by supposing that a kind of action and reaction is going forward — 
 their music acting on their other studies, and their other studies reacting on 
 their music."
 
 List of Boohs. 57 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS. 
 
 [Prepared for the Exeter Examination, June, 1857.] 
 
 The following List is intended to bring under the notice of candidates for 
 prizes a few books of acknowledged merit, and in most cases of remarkably 
 low prices. 
 
 They are not put forward with any anthority as text-books, required to be 
 got up for the examination, nor are the examiners in any way bound to con- 
 fine themselves to the matter contained in them. 
 
 They are for the most part in common use in some of the best elementary 
 schools, in training scliools, or other public institutions. 
 
 It may also be useful to parents engaged in the education of their own 
 children to be made aware of the fact that many of the books published by 
 societies with a view to the education of the poor are in constant use in private 
 families of the very highest social position. 
 
 They are so used because no other books are found to be so well adapted to 
 the minds and habits of young children of whatever rank. 
 
 The present List has been prepared by the Secretary at the suggestion of 
 the Examination Committee, and with the advice of experienced teachers, but 
 he is singly responsible for the List as now printed. 
 
 T. D. AcLAND, Junr., Secretary. 
 
 Exeter, March lUh, 1857, 
 
 *^ The Books marked S. P. 0. K. are published by the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge; those marked N. S. by the National Society for Education ; 
 those marked R. T. S. by the Religious Tract Society : the whole of the Books on 
 the List may be obtained by order of any Bookseller. 
 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 NiehoUs' Help to Reading the Bible. ]2mo., 2s. Sd. S. P. C. K. 
 
 Pinnock's Analysis of Scripture History (Old Testament). 18mo., 3s. Gd. Hall 
 
 and Son. 
 Ditto ditto (New Testament). 18mo., 4s. Hall and Smi. 
 Bible Narrative, by Miss Zornlin. 12mo., 5s. Parker and Son. 
 Palestine, and other Scriptiire Geography. ISmo., l^d. N. S. 
 Hughes' Bible Atlas. 12mo., Is. 6d. Longman. 
 Manners and Customs of the Jews. 18mo., Is. 6d. B, T. 8. 
 
 Liturgy and Catechism. 
 
 Nicholls' Simday Exercises on the Morning and Evening Prayer. 12mo., 2d. 
 
 s. P. a K. 
 
 Sinclair's Questions on the IMorning and Evening Prayer. 12mo., id. S. P. C. K. 
 Scripture Proofs and Illustrations of the Catechism. 12mo., 2d. S. P. C. K. 
 Questions illustrating the Catechism, by Archdeacon Sinclair (containing an 
 excellent Glossary). 12mo., id. S. P. C. K.
 
 58 List of Books. 
 
 Church History. 
 
 Pinnock's Analysis of Ecclesiastical History to a.d. 325. ISmo., 3s. Gf7. Hall 
 
 and Son. 
 Burton's History of the Christian Church. Fcap. 8vo., 5s. Parker aiid Son. 
 Pinnock's Analysis of the Histoiy of the Eeformation, with prior and subsequent 
 
 Historj' of the Church of England. 18mo., 4s. 6d. Hall and Son. 
 Blunts History of the Eeformation. Fcap. 8vo., 3s. 6d. Murray. 
 Massingberd s History of the Eeformation. 12mo., 6s. Parker and Son. 
 
 English Grammar. 
 
 Explanatory English Grammar, by M'Leod. ISmo., Is. Longman. 
 Elements of Grammar, English, by Rev. E. Thring. ISmo., 2s. MacmiUan. 
 Manual of English Grammar, by Eev. J. Hunter. 12mo., Id. N. S. 
 Latham's Grammar for Commercial Schools. Is. 6d. Walton and Maherlij. 
 English Grammar, by Lennie (much used in private schools, but not recom- 
 mended'. ISmo., Is. Qd. Oliver and Boyd. 
 Spelling Book superseded, by Sullivan. 18mo., Is. 4fZ. Longman. 
 Analysis of Sentences, by J. D. Morcll. 12mo., 26. Longman. 
 
 English History. 
 
 History of England (last edition). 12mo., Is. 4(Z. S. P. C. K. 
 
 England and its People, by Emily Taylor. 38. 6(7. HouMon. 
 
 Kings of England. Is. Mozley. 
 
 History of England, by Eev. T. Milner. 5s. E. T. S. 
 
 Gleig's School and College History of England. 6s. Parker and Son. 
 
 Geography. 
 
 Hughes' Manual of British Geography. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. Longman. 
 
 Hughes' Manual of Geography, Physical, Industrial, and Politicxil. Fcap. 8vo. 
 
 7s. 6d. Longman. 
 Sullivan's Geography Generalized. 2s. Longman. 
 Guyot's Earth and Man. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. Parker and Son. 
 Maps illustrative of the British Empire, by Eev. S. Clai-k, Principal of Battersea 
 
 College. 6d. each. N. S. 
 
 English Literature. 
 
 Reed's English Literature : Chaucer to Tennyson. Post 8vo., 2s. Shaw. 
 
 Reed's EngUsh History ilhistrated by Shakspeare. Post 8vo., 2s. Shaw. 
 
 Spalding's History of English Literature. 3s. (kl. Simpkin. 
 
 Milton. Is. dd. Lngram. 
 
 Shakspeare (Stratford edition\ Any vol. 2s. Hodgson. 
 
 Cowper's Poetical Works. Is. Qd. Griffin and Co. 
 
 Goldsmith's Poetical 'Works. 2s. &d. Knight and Son. 
 
 Craik's Outlines of the History of the English Language. 3s. Gd. Cliapman and 
 
 Hall. 
 Hooker's First Book (concerning Laws in gcneral\ 12mo., Is. 6(7. Parker and 
 
 Son. 
 Bacons Advancement of Learning. 12rao., 2s. Parker and Son.
 
 List of Books. 59 
 
 Latin ; and Ancient History. 
 
 Kennedy's Latin Primer (the Accidence and Syntaxis Minima). 12mo., 2s. 
 
 Longman. 
 Kennedy's Elementai-y Latin Grammar. 12mo., 3s. Qd. Longman. 
 Kennedys Voeabulaiy (excellent for origin of Words in English). 12mo., 3s. 
 
 Lm^gman. 
 Walford's Shilling Latin Grammar (founded on the Charterhouse Grammar). 
 
 12mo., Is. Longman. 
 Jacobs' Latin Eeader (Prose), for Little Boys. 12mo., 3s. Fellowes. 
 Thring's Construing Book (Verse), for Little Boys. 18mo., 2s. Qd. Macmillan. 
 Virgil, with Notes (Chambers' Educational Course). 2 vols., 3s. 6d. each. 
 Virgil (Oxford Classics) : no Notes. 2s. 6d. J. H. and J. Father. 
 Cassar (Eton). 2s. Simpkin. 
 
 Landmarks of Ancient BUstory. 12mo., 2s. Qd. 3Iozley. 
 
 First Steps in Classical Geography, by Professor Pillans. 12mo., Is. Gd. Longman. 
 The Georgics of Virgil, translated by Rev. J. King, of Cutcombe (the work of a 
 
 practical farmer and scholar). 12mo., 4s. Gd. Bivington. 
 
 Arithmetic and Mathematics. 
 
 Colenso's Arithmetic. 12mo., 4s. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Colenso's Elementary Arithmetic, with Questions. 18mo., 2s. 3d. Longman. 
 
 Cornwell and Fitch's Arithmetic. 12mo., 4s. Gd. Simpkin. 
 
 Tate's Arithmetic. 12mo., Is. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Tate's Mathematics for "Working Men. 8vo., 2s. Longman. 
 
 Tate's Geometry and Mensuration. 12mo., 3s. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Mensuration (Irish Board). 12mo. Gd. 
 
 Lund's Course of Algebra. Fcap. Svo., 28. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Lund's Geometry as an Art. Fcap. 8vo., 2s. Longman. 
 
 Lund's Geometry as a Science. Fcap. 8vo., Is. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Potts' Euclid (First Book). 12mo. Gd. N. 8. 
 
 Potts' Euchd (First three Books). Is. Gd. N. S. 
 
 Cassell's Euclid. Post 8vo., Is. Gd. Kent. 
 
 Rudimentaiy Navigation ("Weale's Series). 12mo., 2s. 
 
 Inman's Navigation. 8vo., Gs. Bivington. 
 
 Heather on Mathematical Instrmnents CWeale's Series). 12mo., Is, 
 
 Natural Science. 
 
 Tomlinson's Natxu-al Philosophy. Is. Weale's Series. 
 
 Tate's Exercises on Mechanics and Natui-al Philosophy. 12mo., 2s. Longman. 
 
 Baker's Elements of Mechanism. Is. Weale's Series. 
 
 Tate's Elements of Mechanism. 12mo., 3s. 6f^ Longman. 
 
 Tate's Popular Astronomy and Use of the Globes. Is. Gleig's Series. 
 
 Tate's Little Philosopher. 18mo., 3s. Gd. Longman. 
 
 Lee's Catecliism of Natural Pliilosophy. 2 Parts, 9d. each. Oliver and Boyd. 
 
 Eudimentary Chemistiy, by Fownes, with Agricultural Chemistry, by Tomlinson. 
 
 12mo., Is. Weale's Series. 
 "Wilson's Chemistry (Chambers' Educational Course). 12mo., 3s. 
 Stockhardt's Experimental Chemistry. 5s. Bohn. 
 Stockhardt's Agricultural Chemistry. 5s. Bohn. 
 Physiology, also Natural Philosophy : see Fifth Book of Lessons (Irish Board), 
 
 one of the cheapest books in existence. 500 pages for 8d. 
 Chambers' Rudiments of Animal Physiology. Is. Gd. 
 Chambers" Rudiments of Vegetable Physiology. Is. Gd. 
 Henslow's Physiological Botany. 3s. Gd. Longman. 
 The Steam Engine, by Lardner. Is. Weale's Series. 
 
 Political Economy and Trade. 
 Book-keeping (Irish Board). 4|fZ. 
 
 Lessons on the Phenomena of Industrial Life, by Rev. R. Dawes, Dean of Here- 
 ford. 12mo., 2s. Groomhridge. 
 Easy Lessons on Money Matters, by Arc]\bishop Whately. Is. Parker and Sons.
 
 60 List of Books. 
 
 The Arts and Mnsic. 
 
 Burchett's Definitions of Geometry. 5d. Chapman and Ilall. 
 
 Burchett's Practical Geometry. 8vo., 5s. Chapman and Hall. 
 
 Practical Geometry for Schools and Workmen. 12mo., Is. 6d. Groomhridge. 
 
 Redgrave's Manual of Colour. 9cil. Chapman and Hall. 
 
 Field on Colom-. 2s. Weales Series. 
 
 Eowbotham's Guide to Sketching and Perspective. Is. Winsor and Newton. 
 
 Chambers' Drawing-Books. First and Second Series. Is. each. 
 
 Dobsons Eudiments of the Art of Building, with Illustrations. Is. Weale's 
 
 Series. 
 Burn's Illustrated Architectural and Engineering Drawing-Book. 2s. Ward and 
 
 Lock. 
 HuUahs Manual of Singing. 2s. 6d. Parher and Son. 
 Hullah's Grammar of Musical Harmony. 3s. Parker and Son. 
 Spencer's Treatise on Music. 2s. Weale's Series. 
 
 Miscellaneous (not School Books) for Teachers and older 
 Students. 
 
 Procter on the Book of Common Prayer. Crown 8vo., lOs. 6d. Macmillan. 
 Blunt's History of the Christian Chui'ch diiring the First Three Centuries. 8vo., 
 
 9s. 6d. Murray. 
 Craiks Enghsh of Shakspeare, illustrated in the Tragedy of ' Julius Csesar.' 
 
 Fcap. 8vo., 7s. 6d. Chapman and Hall. 
 Trench on the Study of Words. Fcap. 8vo., 3s. 6^. Parker and Son. 
 Trench's English Past and Present. Fcap. 8vo., 4s. Parker and Son. 
 Annals of England. 3 vols. fcap. 8vo., 5s. each. /. H. and J. Parker. 
 Goodwin's Course of Mathematics. Svo., 15s. Deighton. 
 Herschels Discourse on Natural Philosophy (Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia). 
 
 Fcap. 8vo., 3s. 6fZ. Longman. 
 Swainsons Discourse on Natiu-al History. Fcap. 8vo., 3s. 6d. Longman. 
 Dr. Golding Bird's Natural Philosophy. 12s. 6^. Churchill. 
 Fownes' Manual of Chemistry. 12mo., 12s. Gd. Clmrchill. 
 Lardner on the Steam Engine. Post Svo., 8s. 6d. Walton and Maherly. 
 Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry. Fcap. 8vo., 6s. 6d. Blackwood. 
 Agricultural Geology, by "Whitley of Trm-o. 8vo., 7s. 6d. Longman. 
 Agassiz and Gould's Comparative Physiology. Post 8vo., 5s. Bohn. 
 Milne Edwards' Manual of Zoology. 7s. Qd. Eenshaio. 
 Balfour's Outlines of Botany. 12mo., 7s. Gd. Black. 
 
 The foregoing notice was issued for the information of candidates for the 
 prizes at the Examination held at Exeter, June 16-19, 1857. It is here 
 reprinted as it appears to have been found iiseful by several persons besides 
 those for whom it was prepared. ■" 
 
 Further iufoiTuation as to tlie objects and nature of that Examination may 
 be found in a pamphlet entitled ' Middle-Class Education : — Scheme of the 
 West of England Examination and Prizes ; for June, 1857. By T. D. Acland, 
 Esq. To which are appended the Letters of the Eev. F. Temple, &c. 
 Third Edition. Published by Ridgway.' 
 
 The Examination Papers, together with the Eeport of the Examiners, will 
 ■be published separately without delay. 
 
 I4ONDON : PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, 
 AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 
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