July 24, 188.3.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



rational is the Catholic theology ; which, while labelling innumerable 

 acts as mortal sins, yet admits that inadvertence, or vehement 

 passion, may render them in particular cases only venial. Thus 

 the perfection of the code is maintained, while it is left to God 

 alone to say whether in any given case there is guilt. The sin is 

 detestable, but the sinner may not be detested, because he cannot 

 tell, even himself, whether he is sinning, or merely yielding to 

 human infirmity. Hallyabds. 



OUR BOYS AT SCHOOL. 



[183-1] — If you will permit me, I will make a few remarks on 

 the subject of " Our Boys at School." 



Three-quarters of a century ago Sydney Smith wrote an article 

 very similar in its condemnation of public schools to the article in 

 Knowledge last week, so the subject is not a new one. It is of 

 course a truism to say that the moral tone of a school depends to a 

 great extent on the masters and headmaster, but unless we are to 

 take it for granted that the tendency of English schoolboys is to 

 bully and become Tasmanian devils, the influence of public opinion 

 in a large school must be greater than the influence of an usher in 

 a small school, however close and prying his supervision may be. 

 To say there is a savage idea underlying the working part of our 

 public school system is certainly an exaggeration, if not a distinctly 

 mistaken view of the system altogether. Bullying may be en- 

 couraged in certain public schools, it certainly was not at Rugby, 

 but to say that it is encouraged by the system of monitors shows a 

 complete misunderstanding of the system. 



Sydney Smith says, "at a public school every boy is alternately 

 tyrant and slave." From the article in Knowledge a reader would 

 imagine that a boy passed immediately from being a fag to being a 

 monitor. Such, at any rate, was not the case at Rugby. At least 

 one-third of the school was called the Upper School. As a rule 

 boys took a couple of years to pass through the Upper School, and, 

 while in it, were neither fags, nor could they exercise the powers 

 of monitors. On the whole, they represented the best physically, 

 intellectually, and morally. They held the balance of power 

 between the Sixth and the Middle Lower Schools. If the Sixth 

 had unduly exercised their power, a house levia or a school levee 

 would have been cal'ed, and the Upper .School would have taken 

 the side of right against might. If a combination of fags had un- 

 reasonably refused to obey certain orders of the Sixth, the Upper 

 School would again have decided the matter equitably. 



To the boy of average capabilities, physically, intellectually, and 

 morally, there is not the slightest doubt the public school system 

 is the best system of training. For the exceedingly precocious, or 

 for the extremely weak ph3'sically, intellectually, or morally, it 

 may not be the best, but if it is not they are exceptional cases, and 

 require therefore exceptional treatment. 



First, the physical advantages. In a large public school each 

 boy can find some game suited to his strength. He has a choice of 

 cricket, racquets, fives, rowing in some, gymnastics, or volunteering, 

 and in winter football and paper-chases. In a smaller establish- 

 ment a boy is confined to cricket or lawn-tennis, or walks with Mr. 

 Barlow, after the manner of Tommy and Harry in " Sandford and 

 Mertou." Should a boy be fond of bird-nesting or geologising, he 

 will find just as much opportunity in one as the other of indulging 

 in his pet virtue or vice, as people may consider it. What public 

 schools are referred to where there is daily kicking or weltering 

 with a stump on cricket afternoons, it is difficult to guess. 

 The present writer has travelled and resided in nearly 

 every part of her Majesty's dominions except Canada, and 

 has met men in them from every jiublic school worthy 

 of the name, but, so far as he knows, he has never yet 

 met the schoolfellows of that statesman who possibly owes his 

 preatness to being daily kicked at school. Ho (tke writer) was 

 about four years at Rugby, some twenty years ago, and the only 

 cases of bullying he ever heard of were in spite of the public 

 school system, and occurred in the Lower and Middle Schools, the 

 bigger boys in a form bullying the smaller ones ; but they were 

 isolated cases, and soon put a stop to by the form-master. What 

 with a matron to every fifty boys, and doctors' certificates, and 

 masters joining in the games, surely the danger of anything brutal 

 occurring is reduced to a minimum. But is King's College School, 

 where the recent case of bullying occurred, conducted on the public 

 school system ? 



Secondly, intellectual advantages. When the writer was at 

 school, Latin verses and Greek classics were considered a necessary 



But it is very doubtful whether what a boy loarnfl is really of as 



seventeen ho does very little more than learn how to learn. The 

 writer, who has had some little experience in teaching boys, but 

 not English boys, is of opinion that up to a certain age making a 



boy use a gradus or a dictionary properly is as good a training for 

 the intellect as botanising or showing him experiments in 

 chemistry, electricity, and the like. In a large class it is certainly 

 a more convenient mode of educating. To suppose that one 

 system or another would produce more Tennysons, more 

 liuxleys, or more than our one general, is to misunderstand 

 the subject of school education generally, and public school 

 education more particularly. The majority of boys attain such a 

 low standard of knowledge in any and every subject, that in 

 practical life it makes very little difference to a man what he has 

 learnt at school. At any rate, the great majority of boys learn at 

 a public school how to learn sufficient of the particular subject 

 which they are learning to prevent themselves being punished. In 

 a private school, where more attention was bestowed on them out 

 of school, they might not even learn this, though they might get 

 through more book-work. But private tuition can always be 

 obtained, if desired, in a public school. 



Thirdly. The moral advantages. It is the experience of the 

 writer and everyone he has consulted on the subject, that the 

 standard of morality in public schools is higher than it is in private 

 schools, but, of course, much depends on the masters. Considering 

 the manner in which headmasters and masters of public schools 

 are appointed, and the opportunities the public have of criticising 

 their conduct, they must, as a rule, be the best men available. A 

 boy should be therefore more likely to learn at a public school than 

 anywhere else that purity is more manly than impurity, that 

 honesty is the best policy, that lies and deceit are the weapons of 

 sneaks and cowards, and that those that speak the truth always 

 are brave men. Jos. W. Alesaxdee. 



MYSTERIES AXD MORALITIES. 



[1835] — Anent " Mysteries and Moralities," so ably explained in 

 Knowledge by Mr. Clodd, there is : . older and, to my mind, 

 better explanation why the "pagan' festivals coincide with the 

 " Christian " ones, viz., the theory that they spring from the same 

 source, or the root of most existing religions, i.e., solar worship. 

 " Many," says TertuUian, " suppose, with greater probability, that 

 the sun is our God, and they refer us to the religion of the 

 Persians." — " Apologet," c. IG. Certain it is that all the "Chris- 

 tian " festivals correspond with the equinoxes, and summer and 

 winter solstices. The "sun worshippers" of Mexico and Pern 

 held dogmas almost identical with Christianity, viz., immaculate 

 conception, crucifixion, resurrection, and redemption. F. W. H. 



BIBLIA PAUPERUM. 



[1836]— In reply to Mr. Webb's inqm'ry, the following is the full 

 title of the work referred to in my paper on Mystery Plays; — " A 

 Smaller Biblia Panperum, conteynynge Thyrtie and Eyghte Wode- 

 cuttes Illvatratynge the Lyfe, Parablis, and Miraclis off Oure 

 Blessid Lorde and Savioure Jhesus Crist, with the Propre 

 Descrypciouns theroft extracted fro the Originall Texte off Iohx 

 WiCLiF, somtyme Rector of Lutterworth. With Preface by the 

 late Verie Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of West- 

 minster." Square 8vo. Bound in Parchment, old style; brass 

 clasps ; price 10s. Cd. Published by Mr. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster- 

 square. 



I have, however, not had the opportunity of comparing this with 

 the Biblia Pauperuin preserved amongst other early specimens of 

 block-books in the British Museum, and of which a facsimile was 

 published in 1859, but I have an impression that the "wodecuttes" 

 aie replicas of blocks from an old German book of the sixteenth 

 century. Edward Clodd. 



"HOW TO GET STRONG." 



[1837]— I think Mr. Proctor's rules for strengthening the limbs 

 will be disappointingly like the French plum-pudding, which failed 

 because the receipt had omitted all mention of the pudding-cloth. 

 It is a principle that " involuntary motion does not tire;" hence 

 our hearts go on boating all our lives without crying for a rest. A 

 gun is lighter than a cane, if we have hope of sport. A walk 

 without a friend or an object is a saddening affair. In a gymnasiam 

 I used to wield clubs and dumb-bells, and got strength thereby, 

 because there were comrades and admirers. Had I been alone, I 

 should have boon tired iu a few minutes ; and I suspect my muscles 

 would have " sucked thereout but small advantage." 1 can conceive 

 few things moro lugubrious and ridiculous than, say, an elderly 

 gentleman, with K. on a music-stand beside him, solemnly moving 

 his arms up and down secundum artem. A lathe or a joiner's 

 table would give him far more strength. So it would to send off 



