56 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



held that what is called ' training the mind ' is the 

 chief, if not the only proper, aim of education ; and 

 it is declared that the continuation of the study of 

 those once useful, but now useless, keys Latin and 

 Greek is an all-sufficient training. If this theory were in 

 accordance with the facts, the conclusion in favour of 

 giving a very high place to the study so recommended 

 would be inevitable. But the facts do not support 

 this theory. Clever youths are taken and pressed 

 into the study of Greek and Latin, and we are asked 

 to conclude that their cleverness is due to these studies. 

 On the other hand, we maintain that though the study 

 of grammar may be, when properly carried out, a 

 valuable exercise, yet that it is easily converted into 

 a worthless one, and can never in any case take the 

 place of various other forms of mental training, such 

 as the observation of natural objects, the following out 

 of experimental demonstration of the qualities and 

 relations of natural bodies, and the devising and execu- 

 tion of experiment as the test of hypothesis. Apart 

 from ' training ' there is the need for providing the 

 mind with information as well as method. The know- 

 ledge of Nature is eagerly assimilated by young people, 

 and no training in mental gymnastics can be a sub- 

 stitute for it or an excuse for depriving the young 

 of what is of inestimable value and instinctively 

 desired. 



The prominence which is assigned to a familiarity 

 with the details of history, more especially of what 

 may be called biographical history, in the educational 

 system favoured by Oxford, seems to depend on the 

 same causes as those which have led to the maintenance 

 of the study of Greek and Latin. To read history is 

 a pleasant occupation which has become a habit 



