FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



859 



founded local schools — grammar schools, 

 as they were generally entitled — which 

 have developed beyond their original 

 founders' intention, and have eventually 

 come to attract boys from all parts of 

 the kingdom. The best boys from all of 

 them went to the universities, and the 

 coui'se of study which was most success- 

 ful at the university was naturally the 

 course of study which was preferred 

 at the school. The literw humaniores, 

 which were the sum total of university 

 education, included only Greek and 

 Latin language and literature, mathe- 

 matics, and logic. Science— I have now 

 in my mind the education of but a sin- 

 gle generation back — was ignored. The 

 teaching of modern languages was per- 

 functory in the extreme; the same may 

 be said of history and geography, while 

 even English language and literature 

 were almost entirely neglected. Now an 

 education modeled on these lines was 

 not ill suited for professional men — men 

 who went from the university into law, 

 the Church, or medicine. But it was by 

 no means suited, especially when cut 

 short in its early stages, for boys whose 

 future destination was the counting- 

 house or the shop. We are not met to 

 consider the training of scholars, but 

 the sort of education best adapted to the 

 requirements of the ordinary man of 

 business, and given under the limita- 

 tions inevitable in the conditions of the 

 case — that is to say, in a very limited 

 period and during the early years of life 

 ■ — intended also not only to train the 

 mind but to provide a means of earning 

 a living. Commercial education must in 

 fact be a compromise between real edu- 

 cation and business training. The more 

 it inclines to the former the better. 

 ^Vith the growth of modern industry 

 and commerce the necessity for a train- 

 ing better suited for the requirements of 

 modern life became more and more evi- 

 dent, and the place was supplied, or 

 partially supplied, by private-adventure 

 schools, which undertook to provide the 

 essentials of a commercial education. Of 

 late years also some important middle- 

 class schools have been founded by in- 

 stitutions like the Boys' Public Day 

 Schools Company, and the Girls' Public 

 Day Schools Company, the teaching in 

 which is of a modern if not of a commer- 

 cial character. The growth also of sci- 

 ence had its natural and obvious ef- 



fects on educational methods. Scientific 

 teaching was introduced at the univer- 

 sities — it had been practically ignored 

 at Oxford, and recognized at Cambridge 

 only as a department of mathematics. 

 The more important of our public schools 

 introduced what was known as a " mod- 

 ern side," that is to say, an alternative 

 course which a boy might take, and in 

 which science, modern languages, and 

 mathematics took the place, to a greater 

 or less extent, of the classical languages. 

 Other schools modified their whole cur- 

 riculum in a like direction; others again 

 almost abandoned the ancient knowl- 

 edge in favor of the modern. Such, in 

 briefest and baldest summary, is the con- 

 dition at which our system of second- 

 ary education has now arrived. In the 

 meantime, elementary education in Eng- 

 land had been organized and systema- 

 tized. At the beginning of the century 

 elementary education was imparted to 

 the children of the peasants and agri- 

 cultural laborers in village schools, most 

 of which were sadly inefficient. In the 

 towns there were various charitable in- 

 stitutions for educating the children of 

 those who were unable to provide edu- 

 cation for themselves, and there were 

 also what were known as ragged and 

 parochial schools, which were more or 

 less of the same character as the ele- 

 mentary schools of to-day. Early in the 

 century several important societies were 

 established — they were mostly of a re- 

 ligious character — for the improvement 

 of elementary education. By their as- 

 sistance schools were founded through- 

 out the country. These were main- 

 tained by voluntary effort, and so gained 

 their name of voluntary schools, though 

 they received aid from the Government, 

 an annual grant being allotted for the 

 purpose. In 1839 a committee of the 

 Privy Council was created to regulate the 

 administration of Government grants for 

 education, and this committee still re- 

 mains the governing body of our educa- 

 tion department. The Elementary Edu- 

 cation Act of 1870, with later acts of 

 1876 and 1880, laid down the principle 

 that sufficient elementary education 

 should be provided for all children of 

 school age, and established a system of 

 school boards, which boards were to be 

 and were formed in all districts where 

 such sufficient provision for education 

 did not exist. By a later act of 1891 



