THE NATIONAL CONTROL OF EDUCATION. 57 



of the sacrifices we must make if our people are to compete on equal 

 terms with other nations in the commerce of the world. The progress 

 made under such a system would at first be slow; the number of stu- 

 dents would be few until improvements in our systems of primary 

 and secondary instruction afforded more abundant material on which 

 to work; but our foundation would be on a rock, and every addition 

 we were able to make would be permanent, and contribute to the final 

 completion of the edifice. 



It is the special function of the British Association to inculcate 

 'n scientific view of things' in every department of life. There is 

 nothing in which scientific conception is at the present moment more 

 urgently required than in national education ; and there is this peculiar 

 difficulty in the problem, that any attempt to construct a national sys- 

 tem inevitably arouses burning controversies, economical, religious 

 and political. It is only a society like this, with an established philo- 

 sophical character, that can afford to reduce popular cries about edu- 

 cation (which ignore what education really is, and perpetuate the 

 absurdity that it consists in attending classes, passing examinations 

 and obtaining certificates) to their true proportions. If this Associa- 

 tion could succeed in establishing in the minds of the people a scien- 

 tific conception of a national education system, such as has already 

 been evolved by most of the nations of Europe, the States of America, 

 and our own colonies, it would have rendered a service of inestimable 

 value to the British nation. 



