I30 



NATURE 



[October i, 19 14 



head to read a "crib." Surely this is the natural 

 eflect of the schoolroom routine. 



Following that article in the Times newspaper, 

 referred to above, in a discussion, the secretary of the 

 Association for Improving the Teaching of Latin said, 

 " Out of the vast number of boys who learned Latin 

 only a few reached the stage when they could read 

 the classics with any pleasure. A still smaller minority 

 continued their classics after they had left school or 

 the university. The great majority left school with 

 very little, if anything, as the result of years spent in 

 the study of the classics." The next speaker said that 

 the reforms suggested "were based upon the assump- 

 tion that the present method of classical education was 

 wholly bad. He did not agree." Nor do I agree. 

 I think that if there is one subject that the ordinary 

 public schoolmaster can teach it is Latin. I take the 

 first statement as right, however. I have always said 

 so, loudly, to an unbelieving world that thought me 

 prejudiced, and here we see a lover of the classics 

 inadvertently supporting me, and surely every fair- 

 minded schoolmaster must agree with him, at all 

 •events concerning the average boy. It is not the 

 method of teaching that is wrong ; it is merely that 

 Latin as a school subject for the average boy must 

 be altogether condemned. It takes from him all in- 

 terest in every kind of literature; it makes him dislike 

 reading. We must have some compulsory subjects, 

 and I think that any boy may be taught any subject 

 ^to some extent ; but we ought to have as few of 

 these compulsory subjects as possible, because any sub- 

 ject may be found very diflficult by certain classes of 

 intelligent minds. And it is surely ludicrous when a 

 clever mathematician, well read in natural science and 

 fond of English literature, is plucked for his degree 

 because of his poor Latin or Greek. I knew a case 

 where the first classic of his year would have failed to 

 pass his " Little-go " only that special arrangements 

 were made to let him through his mathematics easily. 

 My own career was nearly ruined because I failed in a 

 French examination. 



Before a student enters a university he has to pass 

 a matriculation examination, so that we may be sure 

 that he is fit to follow any of the courses of study. 

 In medieval times the one compulsory subject was 

 Latin, because all the literature known to students and 

 teachers was in Latin, all lectures were delivered in 

 Latin, all teaching was in Latin. Consequently in 

 some Oxford colleges a man was fined if he spoke in 

 any other tongue. Then came the time when there 

 was still no English literature, and not only was the 

 best literature in Greek, but Greek was the only 

 approach to natural knowledge, so Greek also was 

 compulsory, and so it has remained tc this day— to 

 this day when English literature (including transla- 

 tions) is of greater worth than any ancient or, indeed, 

 any other modern literature; when all teaching, all 

 lectures are given in English, and when our English 

 knowledge of natural science is not only infinitelv 

 greater than anything possessed by the ancients; but 

 it enables us to say that the ancients were hopelessly 

 wrong; when nobody but the official university orator 

 or some traveller ignorant of the language of a foreign 

 country speaks Latin and then speaks rather the 

 language of Stratford-atte-Bow than the Latin of the 

 City of the Golden Shields. The men of the City of 

 the Violet Crown were not handicapped by being com- 

 pelled to learn any other language than their own, to 

 waste their time on mere words : " they were engaged 

 in pursuits of a higher nature, in acquiring a know- 

 ledge of things. They did not, like us, spend seven or 

 ten years of scholastic labour in making a genera! 

 acquaintance with two dead languages. These years 

 were employed in the study of nature and in gaining 

 the elements of philosophical knowledge from her 

 NO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



original economy and laws." The above quotation is 

 from the Langhornes' " Life of Plutarch," and it is 

 particularly valuable as expressing the views of two 

 great classical scholars. 



I would" make a knowledge of Latin or of Greek 

 compulsory only on students of certain subjects, and 

 the professor ought to impose the condition, not the 

 university. Again, students of certain other subjects 

 ought to know one or more foreign languages, and, 

 indeed, it seems to me that the professor in each sub- 

 ject has a right to insist on his students having certain 

 special knowledge before they enter upon a study with 

 him. But to enter the university, surely the compul- 

 sory subjects ought to be as few as possible. It seems 

 to me that the most important thing is to make sure 

 that every student has had an early education through 

 his own language — English ; that he should be able to 

 write an account in English of anything he has seen ; 

 should have some acquaintance with what are called 

 English subjects, such as geography and history, and 

 the principles of natural science, and the power to 

 make simple computations. All the teaching is to be 

 in English, all his companions speak English ; there 

 are good English books on all subjects, there are Eng- 

 lish translations of all the good books that have been 

 written in foreign languages. So abominable do 1 

 think compulsory Latin or Greek or French or German 

 that I believe a primary school to be a much better 

 school than any other for a boy if he is fitting himself 

 for any profession in which applied science is impor- 

 tant. At present English is not taught properly in any 

 British school. The teachers are all classical men, 

 who are very careful when they write Greek or Latin 

 and exceedingly careless and slipshod when they write 

 English. We might easily write a fairy story about 

 three sisters — Greek, Latin, and English — and call it 

 "Cinderella." The language of the greatest Empire 

 known in history, the Empire of the English-speaking 

 peoples, is not taught seriously in any part of that 

 great Empire. It is shocking to get from a great 

 classical scholar a letter with misspelt words on everv 

 page, every sentence being ungrammatical. When will 

 our good modern writers tell us how English com- 

 position may be taught to ordinary folk? 



I want you to understand that we have established 

 some fundamental principles in our science : (i) A 

 subject must interest a pupil. (2) A man who trains 

 dogs or seals or bears or other animals makes a close 

 study of their minds. In the same way we must 

 recognise that one boy differs from another, and study 

 the mind of each boy. (3) If a boy is not very recep- 

 tive of an important subject we must do our best with 

 him and try to settle what is the minimum with which 

 we ought to be satisfied. Only a few subjects ought 

 to be compulsory on all boys. (4) There are two 

 classes of boys unequal as to numbers, (a) those fond 

 of, and (h) those not capable of abstract reasoning. 

 (5) Another two classes are (a) those fond of, and (h) 

 those not fond of language study. (6) Every boy may 

 be made to write and read in his own language and 

 he may be made fond of reading. (7) The average 

 boy's reasoning faculties are most surely developed 

 by letting him do things. That is, for example, 

 through his sports, or through wood or metal, work- 

 ing, or gardening, or experiments involving weighing 

 and measuring. Through the last of these he learns 

 to compute. A boy of eight learns decimals in an 

 hour if he weighs and measures, whereas by the usual 

 method of teaching he is ignorant of decimals at the 

 age of fourteen. A boy learns whist very quicklj* if 

 you seat him with three other people at a table with 

 a pack of cards; he would not learn in a month if he 

 had no cards. Would you teach a boy to swim by 

 mere talk? (8) Every boy must get a good deal of 

 personal attention. (9) However good a system may 



