Presidknt's Address — Sect. E. 291 



even claimed that the classical student wjien he proceeds to the study 

 of science brings to it nuich <,'reater intelligence than the student who 

 has not had his preliminary training. 



All these arguments an; fiercel}' i-esisted by the other side, and 

 indeed it does not appear that at present we have data sufficient to 

 enable us to fleciile between them. Hitherto the classical school is 

 the only one which has been really tried, and to it has been brought 

 greater enthusiasm, and on the whole a broader outlook, while it is 

 able to point to more numerous examples of great scholars as evidences 

 of its creative power. The great names of science, on the other hand, 

 are less known to the crowd, for to appreciate their greatness often 

 needs special knowledge. Every one can appreciate — or depreciate — 

 the politics of a Gladstone : but with how many is acquaintance with the 

 name of Darwin limited to some vague association with monkeys. 

 Also the scientist is often an iconoclast and as such regarded as a 

 danger to tlie country. 



On the other hand, it seems singularly unfair tiiat the battering 

 ram of the reformer should have been levelled so much against the 

 study of the classical languages and so little against other work the 

 uselessness of which is unquestionable. If in the new order there is 

 no time for Latin, is it not possible that time may be found by the 

 removal of one-third of the ordinary arithmetic book and by the 

 abolition of such exercises as paraphrasing, analysis and the correction 

 of ungrammatical sentences 1 



Much of the arithmetic that is taught to-day is practically value- 

 less ; the essentials of analysis can be easily learnt by a lower form, and 

 to be constanth' putting badly constructed sentences before classes that 

 are already apt enough at making them seems to be not much wiser 

 than to be for ever spoiling good verse by throwing it into bad prose. 



The only defence for these things seems to be that they are useful as 

 "mental gymnastics.' It is, however, certain that scientific education 

 will find more useful and stimulating intellectual exercises than any 

 of these. At present they are practised because examiners ask for 

 them, not from any established belief in their usefulness. The syllabus 

 is adapted to the examination, not the examination to the syllabus. 



Thus scientific education will look forward first to clearing the 

 ground of what is useless and then to planting what it decides is good. 

 Possibly it will find that the real problem is not Classics versus Science, 

 but Classics and the Sciences versus all that is useless. Certainly it will 

 decide that the study of the best models of one's own tongue is not 

 lightly to be left to the whim of the child, but whatever else is done it 

 will place first or foremost the study of literature as being the best 

 means of inculcating in the young the power of terse and forcible ex- 

 pression in their mother tongue. 



The determination of a scientific curriculum must, howevei', be 

 accompanied by more specialised education. South Africa is ap- 

 parently about to enter on a new career and to take its place as one 

 of the great federated dominions of the Empire. If the results are 

 those which have attended the formation of such federations else- 



t2 



