Science in Public Affairs 



by magic, order out of chaos ; Scotland, thrifty, 

 prosperous and wise ; with an ecclesiastical history 

 'the most perverse and melancholy in man's annals/ 

 yet without a religious difficulty in her schools ; 

 having taught her children for centuries past to 

 mind their book and get on in the world, and to 

 be independent and upright a lesson well learned 

 at home and practised with great success abroad. 

 Last comes Ireland, poor and in subjection; passion- 

 ately attached to her faith ; lovable and unreliable 

 and helpless ; the child among nations : the Celtic 

 genius mysterious and unpractical, 'always bound 

 nowhere under full sail/ abandoned for long 

 to obsolete methods and inadequate instruction, 

 because reform meant the calling up of many 

 quarrels." l 



We in England began late to organise educa- 

 tion on anything like national lines. Our system 

 is still weak in national spirit. But provided that 

 we move energetically forward with our half- 

 finished work of educational reform, there is no 

 reason why in fifteen or twenty years' time we 

 should not have one of the best educational 

 systems in the world. We can take advantage 

 of other people's experience and avoid their mis- 

 takes. But it takes a long time for the influence 

 of a good educational system to permeate the life 

 and thought of a nation. And we have given 

 Germany and some other countries a long start. 

 It must always be remembered that the state of 



1 Graham Balfour, "The Educational Systems of Great 

 Britain and Ireland," 2nd ed., pp. xiii.-xiv. 



78 



