16 



DISCOVERY 



alertness which arc now seen to be, more than mechani- 

 cal drill and discipline, the essential things in modern 

 warfare ; that part of this training may make the 

 rccniit a better man at his own future craft, more of 

 a "handy man," and a more efTicicnt military unit ; 

 that alongside there may be, as there should be, a 

 training in the elements of citizenship so that the 

 recruit gets at least some idea, (a) what his nation is, 

 and what it stands for in its past history and literature, 

 and what is its place among the other nations of the 

 modem world ; (6) what are his duties to it, from the 

 elementary duties of sharing in its defence and sub- 

 mitting to its laws, up to the duty of helping to maintain 

 and even to elevate its standards and ideals ; (c) what 

 are the economic, political and international conditions 

 on which his nation's efficiency and well-being depend, 

 its relation to the other constituent parts of the 

 Commonwealth of British nations called the Empire, 

 and the degree to which it can now or in the future 

 enter into closer relations with other ci%'ilized nations 

 for the just treatment of less developed races, for the 

 furtherance of international co-operation in science, 

 medicine, law, commerce, arts, and for the increasing 

 establishment of world-peace. 



A future age surely will wonder that modern nations, 

 which had in their conscript armies the whole of their 

 youth during those plastic years eighteen to twenty-one, 

 made no use of this unrivalled educational opportunity, 

 even from the narrow militarist point of view. 



It is not commonly realized what a great mass of 

 efforts went on through the nineteenth century to 

 build up some sj'stem of higher education suitable to 

 the needs of adult men and women. These efforts 

 drew their inspiration from different sources — religion, 

 science, politics, economics ; many movements 

 contributed, such as Chartism, Co-operation, Trades 

 Unionism. But all the earlier efforts, till after 1870, 

 were hampered by the absence of a general elementary 

 education. Even then there was still the gap of the 

 years from fourteen to eighteen ; now that this is to 

 be filled up, there will be great expansion. Already 

 the standard of the work done, according to the report 

 of the Board of Education Special Inspectors, among 

 the best students, compares favourably with the best 

 academical work ; they are fit to read for the O.xford 

 Diploma in Economics, and would obtain it without 

 difficulty. Is it not remarkable to find such results 

 among students who have had no education since 

 fourteen, who at first can only read a book with 

 excessive slowness, and can hardly put down their 

 thoughts on paper at all ? Is it not an interesting 

 discovery to find that the school of life can do as much 

 for mental training as a definite college course ? These 

 most recent efforts have all sprung from the workers 

 themselves, and the Workers' Educational Association, 



thirteen years old, now comprises 219 branches, 2,525 

 affiliated societies, and over 17,000 members. The 

 highest point reached is in the Tutorial Classes, in which 

 each student pledges himself for three years ; the total 

 number of such students in the year before the war 

 was 3,234. These classes are already showing signs 

 of rapid development. In one industrial district with 

 an adult population of 400,000, the number of students 

 attending Tutorial Classes, Onc-j-ear Classes, and 

 Extension Classes was over 7,000. There are institu- 

 tions such as the Vv'orking Men's College, with its 3,939 

 students. The total numbers included in some form 

 of adult education consist of an appreciable fraction 

 of the population of the countrj^ ; and the movement is 

 only in its infancy. 



There are important lessons to be learnt from these 

 facts. The first is that real education can often be 

 begun again in adult life. The next is that such 

 education should start from the facts which are already 

 part of the learner's familiar experience. The third 

 lesson is that this method, by its freshness and actuality, 

 supplies a new inspiration to the teachers themselves. 

 The fourth lesson is that manual work itself may be 

 so treated as to be a vehicle both of culture and of 

 mental training. The defects in adult education as 

 it stands at present are that too often it is discon- 

 tinuous ; there is apt to be undue reliance on lectures, 

 and not enough class work and personal effort, not 

 enough personal criticism and individual tuition ; 

 the teachers are too few, and hence get overworked ; 

 and there is not an adequate supply of books. But 

 these defects are all curable, and that not at great cost ; 

 and adult education, like other forms of higher educa- 

 tion, can never be completely self-supporting. It 

 must always depend largel}' on voluntary effort and 

 spontaneous enthusiasm, particularly now in its 

 pioneer days ; but it ought not to be asked to live 

 wholly on this its precious capital. The Trade 

 Unions and the Co-operators ought to help more than 

 they do, but so too should the Universities and, above 

 all, the State. 



The Theory oj Relativity , By H. L. Brose. (Blackwell, 



IS. 6d. net.) 

 A description, in about nine thousand words, of this 

 interesting and fashionable subject. It is dealt with non- 

 mathcmatically, and written so that anyone with a 

 scientific training can get hold of the sahent points in the 

 theory, and follow out the successive stages of its develop- 

 ment. 



References are given to the standard works on the 

 subject, so that this pamphlet may well serve as a starting- 

 ofi point for interested readers. 

 Pioneers of Progress: Herscltel, by Hector Mac- 



PHERSON ; Joseph Priestley, by D. H. Pe.\cock. 



(S.P.C.K., each, is. net paper ; 2s. net cloth.) 

 Concise and straightforward descriptions of the lives 

 of these two pioneers. 



