298 



NATURE 



[January 5, 191 1 



direction down to the middle of the last centur}'. It 

 is well that he has given us this short epitome 

 with the history of modern evolution still fresh in his 

 mind, for the present-day student is apt to forget the 

 services of the great masters who fought and won 

 on his behalf that battle which swept away the bar- 

 riers interposed in the path of scientific progress br 

 prejudice and bigotry, and opened up illimitable fields 

 for cultivation by later generations. 



R. Mei.dola. 



EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENT. 

 Educational Aims and Efforts, 1880^1910. By Sir 

 Philip Magnus, M.P. Pp. xii + 288. (London: 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price ys. 6d. 



net. 



IT has been recently pointed out by a distinguished 

 educationist how the opening of each of the last 

 four centuries has been associated with far-reaching 

 educational reforms, and how the beginning of the 

 present century has seen for the first time a deter- 

 mined effort to grapple with the whole problem of 

 national education in England, In all its grades, as 

 one thing. The present moment, therefore, seems a 

 fitting opportunity for Sir Philip Magnus to have 

 collected together some of his more important con- 

 tributions to educational progress, which have been 

 rendered the more interesting and the more valuable 

 by a prefatory series of essays dealing with several 

 branches of educational activity. 



It is, of course, easy to be wise after the event, and 

 especially is this true in the subject under considera- 

 tion, which, if it is regulated as it presumably is, or 

 shouM be, by certain fixed principles, yet the factors 

 on which these principles depend, and the data on 

 which they must be founded, are so vague, so change- 

 able, and so difficult of definition, that possibly much 

 may be said in mitigation of the blunders which 

 people in high places have made in the past. None 

 the less, it is difficult to put forward a national de- 

 fence for the neglect of educational reform on broad 

 scientific lines, and so long as this sphere of national 

 activity is regarded as the shuttlecock of party poli- 

 ticians, it is hopeless to expect a well-defined policy 

 which will be conformable to the changing conditions 

 of changing times. 



When the history of that great movement which 

 was started by the Education Act of 1870, and vitalised 

 and broadened by the Act of 1902, comes to be written, 

 after its effects have been properly defined and the 

 results can be assessed, it will be seen more clearly 

 than can at present be done the extent to which the 

 nation is indebted to the labours of a body of men, 

 who were responsible in a far larger measure than is 

 commonly appreciated for the essentials of the re- 

 forms, and among the names of these assiduous 

 workers that of Sir Philip Magnus will occupy a dis- 

 tinguished place. In some way he has been connected 

 with nearly every branch of educational work during 

 the last thirty years, and although in the earlier days 

 of what may be termed the forward movement, he was 

 frequently in the minority, events have shown that 

 the minority is not always wrong, and it is due largely 

 to the zeal with which he and others, whose names 

 NO. 2149, VOL. 85] 



are not less prominent, pleaded for the recognition o: 

 environment as one of the essential factors in deter- 

 mining the aims and ideals of any educational policy 

 that so many of the latter-day reforms are due. Th. 

 characteristic, however, which distinguishes the author 

 of " Educational Aims and Efforts " from some few 

 of his fellow-reformers, is a sense of proportion, com- 

 bined with a breadth of outlook, which gives to his 

 utterances a value denied to others. 



To attempt in the small space at our disposal to 

 deal in any detail with the subjects comprised in the 

 present volume is out of the question. To do so 

 adequately would involve a survey of the educational 

 history of thirty years. The important part which 

 Sir Philip played in the advancement of technical 

 education is too well known to require notice, but in 

 these days when the cultivation of manual dexterity 

 and the practice of scientific method are beginning to 

 be regarded as within the scope of the ordinary 

 elementary school, it is interesting to recall some of 

 the earlier utterances of Sir Philip Magnus on those 

 points, made in the da5^s of payments by results. 

 Secondary education and university reform are also 

 indebted to him in a large measure, and the views 

 which he put forward in 1888 as to girls' education 

 "demanding full and careful consideration from the 

 point of view of suitableness to woman's wants, 

 woman's occupations, and woman's mission in life." 

 in spite of the progress which has been made in this 

 direction in the last decade, hold with equal force 

 to-day. 



To those who take a broad view of education as 

 something that is inextricably bound up with the 

 social fabric, the essay on " Social Changes and School 

 Work " will be regarded as perhaps the most impor- 

 tant in the whole volume, and one cannot but recog- 

 nise, in spite of the controversial issues which it raises 

 — the consideration of which would demand an essay 

 in itself — that the great upheaval of late years in the 

 social condition of our wage-earning classes "renders 

 it necessary that we should reconsider by the light of 

 these changes the foundations on which our present 

 system of education is raised." From the point of 

 view of teacher and administrator alike the problem 

 is rapidly entering on a new phase ; and although no 

 one can predict with certainty what the next decade 

 may bring forth, it seems clear that, in the clash of 

 opposing tendencies, the attitude of uncompromising 

 hostility to the larger and mOre complex require- 

 ments of modern conditions and civic responsibilities 

 must give place to a spirit of scientific inquiry as to 

 the most effective and economic method of coordinat- 

 ing educational aims with national ideals. Education 

 is at present far from being an exact science; but 

 there is no reason why it should remain an aimless 

 experiment of misdirected zeal with the welfare of 

 the rising generation. 



We may perhaps be allowed to express the hope 

 that the author will return to this problem at an early 

 date, and in the meantime can only trust that the 

 essay will receive that earnest consideration which it 

 demands in view of the rapidly changing phases of 

 social life and of the child's altered relation to the 

 State. F. H. N. 



