236 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OE CANADA 



Germans, few have the quick intellect of the Frenchmen, but in 

 individual genius and in the fine balance of sane intelligence and 

 ethical strength the best Englishman is without a peer. 



But he is a rare flower, and unfortunately the garden of England 

 has not been kept as well as it should have been. The average man 

 may not have been more neglected in England than in other countries 

 and in particular upon this continent, but there is a mass of abject 

 po\'ert>' which has been allowed to develop like weeds. 1 here are 

 two grave defects in British education, insufficiency of organised efïort 

 to bring the results of Dure science and economics to bear upon the 

 welfare of the lower strata of the population; and too little regard 

 for knowledge in itself and indifference to the spirit of science on the 

 part of the educated classes. The average Englishman, contented 

 with things as they were and unpurged of ignorant conceit, found it 

 hard when he came to a new country to adjust himself to changed 

 surroundings. 



In the light of the preceding review of national ideals and educa- 

 tional aims what can we learn for ourseh'es .-' How are we to shape 

 our own future ? I'nquestionably we shall say that our civilisation 

 has more of good than evil in it. It has stood a heavy strain and no 

 large rents have been made in the garment. We shall not cast it 

 from us and take a substitute. Its ideas of law, righteousness, 

 liberty are rich and strong strands which will still wear well. The 

 endurance, restraint and humanity are no less in evidence than the 

 resourcefulness of the British people. There is therefore no necessity 

 for a radical revision of the educational principles which we have 

 inherited from our fathers' home across the sea. We shall continue 

 to believe in education in public righteousness, all danger of being 

 charged with hypocrisy notwithstanding, and we shall still hold to 

 the ideals of the English and the French that the function of state 

 education is to produce citizens of intelligence and moral worth who 

 are first men and never the automatic subjects of a supreme govern- 

 ment. 



But this reasoned conviction as to the general wholesomeness of 

 our ideals, comforting though it is to our amour propre, does not take 

 us far enough. We shall run into the danger of being carried away 

 by an undue appeal to tradition, for it is so easy to say "the old wine 

 is good." Already, indeed, some who never understood the spirit 

 of science are bottling it up and labelling it "German Poison — To 

 be kept out of the way of the young." But we have had enough 

 of the so-called "practical" man, as for example the medical practi- 

 tioner who despises scientific method as being German made and claims 

 that the old is good enough for him. We must have thinkers. They 



