134 



HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



ducted that the eccentricities of individuals should 

 be met. In private schools the difficulty is not 

 so great, though it does not altogether disappear. 

 The only practical scheme which suggests itself 

 is the proper training of those to whom are com- 

 mitted the responsibilities of teaching. In order 

 that this pedagogic ideal may be realized, knowl- 

 edge of human nature must always be placed 

 above acquaintance with books. In the prepa- 

 ration of the teacher, and in the examinations 

 through which he passes, this requirement should 

 be always given the first place. Since what con- 

 cerns the training of teachers for their office ap- 

 plies largely to parents also, I pass to that part 

 of my theme. 



Herbert Spencer has written wisely on this 

 subject. " If by some strange chance not a ves- 

 tige of us descended to the remote future save 

 a pile of our school-books, or some college exam- 

 ination papers, we may imagine how puzzled an 

 antiquary of the period would be on finding in 

 them no indication that the learners were ever 

 likely to be parents (or teachers). 'This must 

 have been the curriculum for their celibates,' we 

 may fancy him concluding. ' I perceive here an 

 elaborate preparation for many things ; especially 

 for reading: the books of extinct nations and of 



