THE SACRIFICE OF EDUCATION. 399 



as the still surviving associate in that great achievement. At the 

 same time it expresses renewed homage for Gauss, who at that 

 period, in conjunction with you at Gottingen, achieved so great a 

 result, and at the same time clearly recognized the future of this 

 creation." 



THE SACRIFICE OF EDUCATION". 



A PROTEST. 



AS an indication of the present state of feeling in England 

 - toward the system of public education in that country, and 

 especially toward the abuse of examinations, we reprint the fol- 

 lowing vigorous protest, which is signed by over a hundred pro- 

 fessors and teachers, about seventy members of Parliament, and 

 by members of the nobility, clergymen, and others, to the total 

 number of four hundred. We omit the names for lack of space. 

 The sentiments expressed in the protest are enforced in appended 

 communications from Prof. Max Miiller, Mr. E. A. Freeman, and 

 Mr. Frederic Harrison, which it is our purpose to print next month : 



We, the undersigned, wish to record our strong protest against 

 the dangerous mental pressure and misdirection of energies and 

 aims which are to be found in nearly all parts of our educa- 

 tional system. Alike in public elementary schools, in schools 

 of all grades and for all classes, and at the universities, the 

 same dangers are too often showing themselves under different 

 forms. Children — as is so frequently insisted on — are treated 

 by a public department, by managers and schoolmasters, as suit- 

 able instruments for earning Government money ; young boys of 

 the middle and richer classes are often trained for scholarships, 

 with as little regard for the future as two-year-old horses are 

 trained for races ; and young men of real capability at the uni- 

 versities are led to believe that the main purpose of education is 

 to enable them to win some great money prize, or take some dis- 

 tinguished place in an examination. 



We protest emphatically against such a misdirection of educa- 

 tion, and against the evils that necessarily arise from it. 



We wish at the outset to call the attention of parents and 

 teachers to the resulting physical mischief. One of the first du- 

 ties of a child or young person is to grow well. In the rapid 

 formation of new bone, muscle, and tissue of all kinds, Nature 

 lays on a child a very heavy tax — a tax that should absorb the 

 larger part of its surplus energy. It is probable that in the 

 course of every year some valuable young lives are lost, in cases 

 where this energy has been drawn away by mental overstrain 



