NOTES 105 



a name to the malady, the inquirer has been quite satisfied, 

 and has been convinced that he then knew all there is to be 

 known about it. Similarly, engineers demand that the action 

 of a machine, or of one part of a machine upon another, shall be 

 " positive," and if they are told that it is positive they are 

 satisfied. The worship of words is universal, and is to be 

 ascribed in very large part to the prominence given to words in 

 our system of education, and especially to the cultivation 

 without sufficient reason of languages. 



There is another sound and most important reason why the 

 inculcation of a second and even a third language, as the Com- 

 mittee recommends, should not form, as a matter of course and 

 of routine, an integral part of the education of every child. 

 It is not every child that has the ability to acquire, by no matter 

 how much devotion of time and energy, a second language. 

 The language faculty is a special faculty, a sporadically dis- 

 tributed faculty, which some persons possess in high degree, 

 and others are utterly destitute of. It is vain and futile to 

 attempt to teach music to those who are tone deaf ; and it is 

 equally vain and foolish to attempt to teach languages to those 

 who are language deaf. Complete tone deafness is perhaps not 

 frequent ; but it occurs, and is consistent with the highest 

 ability in other directions, as the cases of Dr. Johnson and 

 Macaulay testify. Complete language deafness also is not 

 frequent ; but it also occurs, and it also is consistent with the 

 highest ability in other directions. If it is vain and futile to 

 teach music to those who are totally deaf to tone, is it not 

 nearly as vain and futile to teach those who are partially tone 

 deaf, and to make music a common ingredient in the education 

 of every child, as was done fifty years ago in the education of 

 girls ? And is it not equally vain and futile to make languages 

 a common ingredient in the education of every child, boy or 

 girl, whether the language faculty is possessed or not, and 

 whether it is possessed in high or in low degree? The demands 

 of Natural Science to its proper place in the scheme of education 

 are constantly refused, minimised, and whittled away because 

 of want of time. The curriculum is already full, and it is 

 impossible to squeeze in an additional subject. The difficulty 

 is artificial, adventitious, and unnecessary. Strike languages 

 out, and there will be ample time for the proper cultivation of 

 Natural Science as well as of other subjects now neglected. 



