vi PREFACE. 



a pleasure to work with them, even though my position 

 was usually that of a member of the minority. 



I mention these circumstances in order to account for 

 (I had almost said to apologize for) the existence of 

 the two papers which head the present series, and 

 which are more or less political, both in the lower and 

 in the higher senses of that word. 



The question of the expediency of any form of 

 State Education is, in fact, a question of those higher 

 politics which lie above the region in which Tories, 

 Whigs, and Eadicals " delight to bark and bite/' In 

 discussing it in my address on " Administrative 

 Nihilism/' I found myself, to my profound regret, led 

 to diverge very widely (though even more perhaps 

 in seeming than in reality) from the opinions of a 

 man of genius to whom I am bound by the twofold 

 tie of the respect due to a profound philosopher and 

 the affection given to a very old friend. But had I no 

 other means of knowing the fact, the kindly geniality of 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer's reply 1 assures me that the tie 

 to which I refer will bear a much heavier strain than 

 I have put, or ever intend to put, upon it, and I rather 

 rejoice that I have been the means of calling forth 

 so vigorous a piece of argumentative writing. Nor 

 is this disinterested joy at an attack upon myself 

 diminished by the circumstance, that, in all humility, 

 but in all sincerity, I think it may be repulsed. 



Mr. Spencer complains that I have first misinterpreted, 

 and then miscalled, the doctrine of which he is so able 



1 "Specialized Administration ;" Fortnightly Review, December 1871. 



