4 i8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the public will insist that headmasters shall have been trained 

 in a wider school than that of letters alone. 



But before science comes by its own in the schools, many- 

 bones must be broken ; let us, if possible, fracture a few by 

 way of a beginning. 



In August last, at Winnipeg, which is on the confines of 

 British-American civilisation, the absolute antipodes of this 

 Westminster of ours, as I sat at the feet of a learned Head- 

 master and heard him discourse in sonorous periods of the 

 imperfection and inadequacy of the classical system in vogue 

 in our chief English schools, I marvelled at his courage, his 

 energy, his breadth of view and the logical consistency of his 

 arguments — all qualities rarely associated with the pronounce- 

 ments of Headmasters. In moving a vote of thanks to him 

 for his inspiring and invaluable address, I could not help 

 calling attention to the fact — it was wicked of me, no doubt — 

 that the one man who had proved to the public that he was 

 able effectively to teach English boys Greek was now telling 

 us that Greek was only for the very few — for those few who 

 could appreciate it and who would find a use for it in later 

 life. Properly speaking, we should there and then have sent 

 an advisory telegram to Lord Curzon, Sir Wm. Anson & Co. 

 at Oxford ; unfortunately, we missed our opportunity and 

 Oxford remains unrepentant and unreformed : it still insists 

 upon lowering the moral tone of all entrants into University 

 life by enforcing a test which is known to be farcical and 

 futile, known to be one which spoils the young lives of pupils 

 in preparatory schools. And doctors of divinity in charge of 

 our schools smile blandly at such proceedings — so great is the 

 influence of tradition, so great the deadening power of classical 

 training in obscuring mental perspicacity, whatever its 

 " cultural " effect may be. 



I fear the name of my enthusiastic friend the Warden of 

 Bradfield is anathema among his colleagues ; yet after studying 

 the conditions, both in our own country and in various parts 

 of the great American continent, very carefully of late years, 

 I cannot help feeling that men such as he, who go out into 

 the world and consider its requirements, are the men we need 

 to put moral purpose into our school system — that moral 

 purpose which, more than anything else, is wanted in the 

 schools of the world to-day. 



