24 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



he handles, while a bad teacher may fail to do 

 this with any subject, he sought for a basis of early 

 education in the subjects likely of themselves, 

 without taxing the teacher, to interest the scholars 

 and stimulate them to mental effort. These he 

 found in common things, in things with which the 

 children came into touch, things of which they 

 heard, things which they might use in daily life. 

 He gave what is sometimes called useful know- 

 ledge a large share in school life, not simply be- 

 cause it was useful, though this he did not despise, 

 but because it offered the best opportunities for 

 awakening the young mind and at the same time 

 could be so taught as to provide the desired disci- 

 pline and training of the mind thus awakened. 



It was this earnest wish of his to make the 

 school the means of moulding the whole charac- 

 ter, and not of developing this or that part of it at 

 the expense of the rest, that led him to take a step 

 which has been much criticised, and, if I may 

 venture to say so, much misunderstood to advo- 

 cate the use of the Bible as part of the common 

 school-lessons in the School Board schools. Of 

 nothing was he more sure than this, that that 

 schoolmaster fell short of his high calling who 

 failed to guide his pupils to know the right from 

 the wrong, and to follow the former in every- 

 thing, not only in reading, writing, and arithmetic, 

 in history, geography, and the other kinds of 

 knowledge which he and they handled, but also 

 and no less so in the treatment of the body and 



