Science in Public Affairs 



have already well begun, to reach in due time 

 and in our own way the state of public opinion 

 favourable to the scientific organisation of national 

 resources, alike for civic well-being, economic 

 development and national defence. The building- 

 up of a national system of education is like the 

 planting of woods. As Bacon said, " You must 

 make your account to lose almost twenty years' 

 profit and expect your recompense in the end." 

 We are apt, I submit, to be far too easily dis- 

 couraged about our educational resources in Eng- 

 land. Disliking boastfulness as bad manners, we 

 slip into undue depreciation of what is in reality 

 full of promise for the future. It is no easy task 

 to get a comprehensive outlook on English educa- 

 tion and to judge the progress which is really 

 being made. Far behind as we are in many ways, 

 urgent as is the need for improvement in many 

 respects, there are abundant signs of life every- 

 where. In German education, in American, in 

 French and in Scandinavian, there are many admir- 

 able features which we may profitably study and 

 from which we may gain suggestions. But, when 

 all is said, no single foreign system is so good, 

 through and through and in all its social implica- 

 tions, that we should seriously wish, even if we 

 could, to set it up in England in place of what 

 we may develop out of our own educational re- 

 sources. What we should do, I submit, is to watch 

 and study educational improvements in other lands, 

 and not less in our own country, and to move 

 steadily forward on English lines, looking always 



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