PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 761 
only, that can produce true wisdom in minds not other- 
wise capable of the highest flights. I believe that this 
harmonising and tuning of the mind can only be produced 
by the study of the best poetry (I would perhaps except 
the prose of Carlyle, of Ruskin, and of Sir Thomas Browne), 
and it seems to me that it is here in this way so hard to 
define and so hard to understand that poetry produces its 
‘best, highest, and most permanent effect upon character. 
I am well aware that mental balance, mental harmony, and 
wisdom are fruits of mature growth, and are not to be 
expected in the young; but it would be superfluous and 
impertinent for me to insist upon the fact that it is during 
the plastic period of youth, and during that period only, 
that the instrument can be prepared and the field tilled 
for the future harvest. Tennyson has given beautiful 
expression to the thought I have here endeavoured to 
describe, in his little lyric called “The Spiteful Letter,” 
in some other brief lyrics of the same period, and at full 
length in that very subtle and profound lyric, number 114 
of “In Memoriam.” This harmony of the mine is also 
characteristic of Wordsworth, especially in his 1797 to 1807 
period, and I would instance especially the rather puzzling 
lyrics “I heard a thousand blended notes” and “ Up, up 
my Friend, and quit your books,” the most beautiful and 
profound stanza of which, by the way, Mr. John Morley 
has pronounced to be “a half-playful sally.” 
I feel deeply that I have not been able to do justice to 
this part of my subject. I hope, however, to have shown, 
at any rate, what my own conviction is in the matter of the 
influence of poetry upon character. I must leave much 
unsaid, and leave the subject at the risk of repeating my- 
self ad nauseam, with the remark that the highest function 
of poetry is to attune the mind to wisdom, and that the 
wisest of our poets, and the best to study if wisdom be 
desired, are the two great laureates of the nineteenth 
century. 
I must now come to the practical and much-vexed 
question of the manner in which poetry should be studied 
by the young. I hope to have shewn that it is eminently 
desirable that poetry should form an important part of the 
ordinary educational pabulum of the growing mind, nay, 
that it would be dangerous to omit it. This has of course 
long been recognised, and a certain amount of poetry is 
always read in one way or another in schools. The question 
is: “‘ How should poetry be treated in the schools if we 
desire that it should produce its fullest effect upon the 
minds of our pupils?” I cannot hope to answer this 
