298 Report 8.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



Orange, John Locke, Charles iNIontague ; INIarlborough, Prince Eugene, 

 Godolphin, Harley and 8t. John. It is, of course, too early to intro- 

 duce the political works of Milton, Hobl^es and Locke ; but the teacher 

 should find in them better preparation for some of his lessons than 

 even in Gardiner, Clarendon, Macaulay or Lecky. Supplementing 

 biographical studies, he should try in occasional lessons (say once a 

 fortnight) to bring out the main tendencies. For the chief part, 

 which I think should be biographical, he will find excellent material 

 for most periods in Macmillan's English Men of Action Series, Put- 

 nam's Heroes of the Nations Series and Macmillan's Twelve English 

 Statesmen, besides the works of the historians just named. 



During the later years more might be done to encourage students 

 to reproduce their knowledge in readable form. Too many boys are to 

 the end quite incapable of writing an orderly and intelligent account of 

 things which they know quite well. They labour at details without 

 any appreciation of their proper place. They ought to write short 

 essays — pieces of description and appreciation — with the help of their 

 books, certainly ; even copying from a good book may be better than 

 nothing. The reason why I emphasise this is not merely that examina- 

 tion efforts may be successful, but far more because the proper expres- 

 sion of a thought or sentiment is and continues to be the best way of 

 keeping up interest. The first interests which were stimulated at the 

 earlier stage recjuire reinforcement, and this is to be done by enlisting 

 the services of the passion for creation which is at the bottom of all 

 readable writing. A little guidance at the right time will turn 

 essay-writing from a distasteful exercise into a source of pleasure 

 — perhaps not with all boys, but certainlv with more than is usually 

 believed. 



The great lesson of history, the unity of the life of mankind, the 

 continuity of common human nature, is hardly a school subject, but it 

 should be kept in view as the aim of all teaching. The experience of 

 youth is not wide enough to make it intelligible, and at school perhaps 

 the most we can do is to present some of the elements of a single 

 nation's life and show how the}' act and react upon one another. But 

 progi-ess and decline can hardly be presented except in the growth 

 and diminution of territory. Commercial prosperity may be indicated 

 slightly in the growth of, e.r/., over-seas trade ; but the figures of 

 public finance, the statistics of labour, population, birth-rate and death- 

 rate, Sec, and their significance, are beyond the school-boy. Nor, 

 though Chui'ch histoiy as a part of political histoiy is not out of 

 place, can the real religious life of a people be anything to a mind 

 which call have no idea of the soul of a people. Lessons on great 

 national enthusiasms, patriotic outbursts and the sacrifices which they 

 entail may lead the way, but they cannot go fai-, until the mind has 

 experienced for itself the entrancing vision of some ideal end or the 

 compelling force of some supreme obligation. These are lessons of 

 history which lie beyond schooldays, yet even at school we may read, 

 thiiugh we cannot fully understand, how.gi-eat ideas lay hold of a 

 eople as a people, ennobling laboui- and inspiring sacrifice. 



