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country there seems to be strangely little knowledge of the noble 
lives of great men and women. It has certainly been a great 
compensation for many of the evils suffered by men in states of 
society in other respects less desirable than our own, that know- 
ledge of this kind was more widely diffused among the mass of 
the people. 
It is no light task to give knowledge of the two kinds I have 
spoken of to children. For great as is the affinity for them in 
most children as compared with other subjects, knowledge of 
them cannot be given without the use of the right means, and 
the right means are not yet to be found in schools. Literature, 
as it is the record of much of the finest feeling and thought of 
the best and most highly-gifted people, might at first sight seem 
to be the best means we can use. But, as many teachers know, 
this is not so. The whole body of the fine literature of the 
world has been the work of men and women possessed of know- 
ledge of nature and of fine human nature, and is written in a 
language created by that knowledge. The finest literature of 
all countries is so saturated with the influence of knowledge of 
nature that a very large part of its meaning—nearly all that 
part of its meaning, apprehension of which is perception of its 
beauty—exists only for those who share the knowledge. If 
literature is to be the means of evoking admiration and love 
in those who read it, they must know the fields and woods, 
the flowers and trees of which so many of the words of prose 
and poetry are but the symbols. Tilla considerable degree of 
education has been reached, words by themselves cannot convey 
ideas or touch powers of thought or feeling, 
No amount of the most skilful description can give an idea of 
an oak tree to a person who has never seen a plant of any kind, 
or an idea of a country view to one who has lived only in towns ; 
though verbal description may enable one who knows beech trees 
to realise some of the differences between beeches and oaks, and 
may also enable a man who knows hilly country to realise the 
appearance of a wide plain. Similarly with regard to human life, 
yerbal description cannot by itself enable a child who knows 
only the present as it is in the crowded parts of a large town or 
in a country village to form a clear idea of life in past times or in 
a foreign country, though it may enable one who has once formed 
a clear idea of one scene in the past or abroad to realise other 
past or foreign scenes with considerable clearness. 
If such lessons are to be of much worth, we must use art in 
education but we must do something else also. If art itself is 
to be of use, we must as far as possible bring children into con- 
tact with real things and real people of the kinds we wish them 
to admire. In respect of the gain of knowledge of fine human 
qualities and the gain of the power of admiring such qualities, 
