A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Xature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — ^Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, MARCH i, 1917. 



i CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 



U Defence of Classical Education. By R. ^^^ 

 Livingstone. Pp. xi + 278. (London: Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 45. 6d. net. 



THIS book is, unfortunately, based upon two 

 misconceptions, both of which are common 

 amongst classicists. In the first place, it is 

 assumed that an attempt is being made at the 

 present time to abolish classics from general 

 sducation and to replace them by scientific studies. 

 This is far from the truth. Men of science claim 

 3o privileges for their own subject which they 

 ire not prepared to grant equally to classics and 

 :o the other branches of learning. Narrow speci- 

 disation in any one department, whether classical 

 >r scientific, we hold to be thoroughly bad from 

 m educational point of view. 



The author has little knowledge of the aims of 



hose who wish to reform modern education. 



""rom the frequent references to the conference 



leld last May on the neglect of science he has 



vidently taken the report of these proceedings as 



lis basis. He then proceeds to isolate state- 



lents and phrases from their contexts, and from 



uch he builds up an entirely erroneous and hypo- 



hetlcal attack which he attempts to demolish to 



is own satisfaction. 



What is the system of classical education in 



>rce at the present time? At an early age a boy 



oes to a preparatory school where education has 



I lassies as its dominating note from the outset ; 



.'I 1 many cases twelve hours a week are devoted 



^ ) Latin alone. Since the great majority of 



I atrance scholarships to public schools are virtu- 



% Qy awarded on a knowledgfe of classics, the able 



p oys are then further hot-housed in this subject, 



Ij tactically to the exclusion of all other branches. 



I.; "n arrival at a public school, and having attained 



certain proficiency in classics, boys are unlikely 



) wish to change to other subjects or to be 



lowed to do so if they wish. Thus the most 



NO. 2470, VOL. 99] 



clever boys are diverted from science quite early 

 in their lives, and consequently we get all the 

 evils of early specialisation, which results in boys 

 of fourteen and fifteen devoting as much as 

 twenty-five hours a week to this one branch of 

 learning — classics. 



This is education as at present interpreted in 

 our public schools ; this is the system which is 

 being attacked so strenuously ; this is the ground 

 which, we venture to suggest, needs an abler 

 p>en than that of Mr. Livingstone to defend 

 successfully. As a matter of fact, the title of the 

 book is a misnomer, for the work is not a defence 

 of classical education at all. Not a single argu- 

 ment is adduced to support the conclusion that 

 "the first stage of classical education may be left 

 alone. It is as satisfactory as most things in 

 education are likely to be." 



As a plea for the retention of classics in a 

 general scheme of education, the book is excel- 

 lent. Where Mr. Livingstone is dealing with 

 facts he is on safe ground, and the majority of 

 the work is a "hymn of praise " which is wholly 

 admirable. His assumptions, however, are nearly 

 always erroneous, and his conclusions illogical ; 

 one cannot help thinking that a little knowledge 

 of scientific method would have saved him from 

 many pitfalls. , 



The truth is that, although he does not admit 

 it, and although, possibly, he does not know it, 

 he is almost as much a reformer as the present- 

 day advocate of science. Let us quote: — "The 

 world is far more intelligible to us if we have 

 studied literature." "The value of histor\^ is 

 even more obvious." "To be ignorant of 

 the world in which we live, to have no idea of 

 how plants and animals grow, to know nothing 

 of electricity and chemistry, is to deny our- 

 selves whole provinces of knowledge." "Phvsical 

 science corrects the vices of a literary training, 

 its tendencv to make men retrospective, critical, 

 inactive spectators of the world." "Obviously 

 anv good education will include the teaching 

 of science." "It ought to be a first aim to avoid 

 diverting boys with mechanical and scientific 



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