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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



principles. The difficulty encountered 

 is by no means confined to the higher 

 institutions ; it is coextensive with all 

 modes of public education, and is just 

 as palpable and refractory in the mid- 

 dle and lower schools as in the colleges. 

 The trouble arises from the massing 

 together of students of unequal moral 

 and intellectual capacities. Between 

 those of superior and inferior grade, 

 there is an undoubted antagonism of 

 interests and requirements. The man- 

 agement that is best suited for the one 

 class, under existing views of educa- 

 tion, is not best for the other, and we 

 see in every school the evils that arise 

 from uniformity of system. For the de- 

 velopment of the highest character, self- 

 restraint and self-direction, with free 

 and responsible action, are indispensa- 

 ble ; and, in every school, there are those 

 who are capable of this self-education, 

 and who suffer from a meddlesome and 

 offensive coercion. On the other hand, 

 there is the great majority who seem 

 to require external direction and police 

 supervision, and of whom, perhaps, lit- 

 tle can be made under any system. 

 "Which shall be sacrificed ? 



That there is a tendency to escape 

 from the low agency of external rules 

 and regulations, and to give greater 

 scope to the principle of individual self- 

 government, is unquestionable. Presi- 

 dent Elliot's remark, that " the time 

 has come for allowing more liberty to 

 students," is but the recognition of a 

 great change in regard to the best 

 method of controlling human beings 

 in all branches of social regulation. 

 With the gradual disappearance of sla- 

 very within the sphere of civilization ; 

 with the decline of political tyranny 

 and interference with the individual; 

 with the relaxation of the severities of 

 family government, and the manage- 

 ment of apprentices; with the passing 

 away of religious coercion in matters 

 of belief, and with the substitution of 

 the principles and practice of non-re- 

 straint for the old methods of violence, 



even in lunatic asylums, there has been 

 a corresponding change in the school- 

 room ; its barbarisms of discipline have 

 ceased, and the question is now one 

 mainly of the degree of supervision. 

 Many evil consequences undoubtedly 

 flow from this profound transition, but 

 it must be accepted as an on-working of 

 humanity, and a phase of the action of 

 Nature. To assume that the forces in 

 play have now reached their final equi- 

 librium, we think is irrational, and to 

 arrest the movement at its present 

 stage we hold to be impossible. 



It is now virtually conceded that 

 the highest results of scholarship in 

 the universities are not attained by 

 the coercive drill-system. Speaking of 

 the German institutions, Dr. McCosh 

 says that " at all the universities a few 

 studious youth work with great as- 

 siduity and success ; but a very large 

 portion are not studious, and take a 

 deeper interest in beer-drinking, songs, 

 and sword-duels, than in careful read- 

 ing." Such is the outcome of that 

 thorough-going preliminary drill which 

 characterizes the lower or preparatory 

 schools of Germany. The passage of 

 students from these to the universi- 

 ties is regarded as an escape from 

 drudgery, which produces a vicious re- 

 action when the sphere of freedom 

 is reached. At all events, this thorough 

 drill-system is a failure with the great 

 mass of students. It is the same in 

 England. Dr. McCosh speaks of " the 

 ripe scholarship and high culture " 

 which marked the educational policy 

 of Oxford and Cambridge, but this de- 

 scription is applicable to but a very 

 small proportion of the students. Not- 

 withstanding the vigorous coercion of 

 discipline in the great public schools 

 which prepare for the universities, and 

 notwithstanding the supervision that 

 Dr. McCosh alleges in the universities 

 themselves, the number of whom ripe 

 scholarship and high culture can be 

 affirmed is scandalously few. "What- 

 ever truth there may be in Sydney 



