December 28, 1893] 



NATURE 



203 



I mention these, because although their dates are uncer- 

 tain, they are undoubtedly built upon a common model, 

 they have identical functions, and they have to do with the 

 ecliptic, that is to say, we are in each case in presence of 

 a belt of stars to which the motions of any other heavenly 

 body travelling round the sun or, like the planets, round 

 the earth, like the moon can be readily referred. In 

 these lists' I give translations of the Sanscrit, Arab, 

 and Chinese names, so far as they can be made out, 

 and I must here express my deep obligations to Profs. 

 Max Miiller, Robertson Smith, and Douglas, for their 

 kindness in supplying them. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



■IHE SECONDARY EDUCATION 

 MOVEMENT. 



THE outcome of the Oxford Conference on Secondary 

 Education in England is our usual panacea for 

 social ills, a Royal Commission. As this is to be, let 

 us hope that the reference will be restricted to some 

 definite points, and the members to a small number of 

 properly qualified persons. Otherwise little else than 

 unnecessary delay will be the result. Practical experience 

 of such Commissions tends, however, to disenchant one 

 with the prevailing idea of their usefulness, that is, of 

 their power to settle the question at issue. Look at the 

 last Commission on Primary Education, containing big- 

 wigs of every kind. How long they sat, and how many 

 Blue Books they filled with evidence, may be learnt by 

 those who are interested. But what did it all come to ? 

 The large majority reported that they were totally 

 opposed to free education, and the small minority, 

 though not opposed, saw no possibility of its accomplish- 

 ment. Two years afterwards, a Tory Government carried 

 a Free Education Act ! Again, a Royal Commission on 

 Vaccination has been sitting every Wednesday for the 

 last five years, and it has not yet finished taking evidence ! 

 In face of facts like these, and they might be greatly 

 extended, can one look with much hope to the early 

 settlement of so difficult and complex a question as 

 English secondary education by a Royal Commission 

 as usually constituted ? There are two conditions under 

 which Commissions of this kind'can act usefully : first, as 

 means of inquiry into facts, and such a one was the Tech- 

 nical Commission of 1881-4, which journeyed over sea 

 and land in quest of information ; and second, as a means 

 of carrying out measures laid down by Act of Parlia- 

 ment ; and such a one, for example, is the Scottish Uni- 

 versity Commission now sitting. If we do not now know 

 what we want in the way of secondary education, let 

 there be a Commission by all means. Many may think 

 that we do know. We are all convinced that more good 

 secondary schools are needed both in town and country ; 

 and what has to be decided are such matters as how 

 these schools are to be governed, by whom new ones are 

 to be set up, and old ones remodelled to suit the wants of 

 the times, how the necessary funds are to be found, and 

 so forth. Now, are these questions of a kind which a 

 Royal Commission can once for all determine 'i I think 

 not. In my opinion they can only be settled by the 

 House of Commons. The rival claims of County Coun- 

 cils, now in possession of the funds ; of School Boards, 

 now entrusted with primary education ; of existing 

 public schools of various orders ; and, lastly, of private 

 venture schools of all sorts and sizes, cannot be met or 

 satisfied by any report of a Royal Commission. They 

 must be fought out on the floor of the House, and it is 

 by no means clear that the outcome of such a struggle 



1 Reproduced from the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. vi. 

 No. II. p. 468, as given by Profs. Whitney and A. H. Newton. 



NO. 1 26 I, VOL. 49] 



will be in accordance with the recommendations which 

 the report may contain. Therefore, desiring, as all those 

 interested in education must do, to see the present chaos 

 reduced to some degree of order without delay, and the 

 crying needs at least to some extent supplied ; and, know- 

 ing that there is no present prospect of Government action 

 on such a scale as to systematise our varied forms of 

 educational activity, I, for one, should be satisfied to get 

 a Bill through the House of Commons consisting of two 

 clauses, the first making the educational use of the whisky 

 money compulsory and permanent, and the second giving 

 County Councils power to expend such a portion as they 

 think fit, of the funds capable of devotion to technical 

 instruction, on the furtherance of secondary education. 

 That an expenditure in this direction of some of the 

 money especially voted by Parliament for technical in- 

 struction is justified by the acknowledged fact that it is 

 impossible to carry on such instruction, except on the 

 lowest level, to persons ignorant of the educational tools 

 which have to be used. 



But, in fact, technical instruction, as defined in the 

 Act, is, or may be, modern secondary education, for it 

 includes all the necessary subjects with the exception of 

 classics and, perhaps, of English and history. So that 

 under these Acts schools — either free or fee'd— can now 

 be established wherever the County Councils determine, 

 and these may be, to all intents and purposes, middle- 

 class secondary schools. Moreover, under these Acts, 

 the local authority may aid existing schools so as to 

 enable them to give scientific or technical instruction. 

 Both of these modes of action are now being widely 

 adopted by County Councils all over the country, so that 

 something substantial in the direction of what is needed 

 is being done. There is, of course, considerable differ- 

 ence of opinion as to the best steps to be taken to bring 

 about a complete and satisfactory system ; and for the 

 purpose of ventilating the subject, the Oxford University, 

 in its corporate capacity, took the unprecedented step of 

 calling a conference of the teachers of England, from the 

 university to the elementary school, to discuss the whole 

 question of secondary education. The gathering was 

 remarkable in many ways, but chiefly as an ad- 

 mission, on the part of the universities, of the need 

 of radical educational reform, and of the wisdom of their 

 participation in such reforms. The papers read and the 

 discussions held were, of course, of the multifarious 

 and somewhat discursive order. All, however, from 

 Dean Gregory on the one side, to Mr. Lyulph Stanley 

 on the other, agree "that something ^ should be done," 

 but we may seek in vain for any consensus of opinion as 

 to how that " something " is to be done, or even what 

 that "something" is, except, indeed, the consignment 

 of the matter to the tender mercies of a Royal Com- 

 mission. Nevertheless, much good may come from the 

 conference ; many wise things were said, and the coming 

 together of a large number of persons all in one way or 

 another interested in assisting the progress of the ques- 

 tion, cannot be without its useful effect. 



What one misses chiefly in the discussion is the 

 scientific aspect of the question. Scarcely a speaker 

 touched upon what, I take it, is after all the gist of the 

 whole matter, viz. the necessity, above all and under all, 

 for an education based upon science. We have to 

 deal, as was well said by Dr. Hewitt, of the Cheshire 

 County Council, not with the 10 per cent, of the popu- 

 lation to whom we teach the " humanities," but with the 

 90 per cent, of humanity struggling for existence. If we 

 want to hold our own with foreign nations, we must alter, 

 and that rapidly, and not waste our precious time too 

 much in inquiry. With the object of raising the standard 

 of existence for these teeming millions the nation now 

 pays ^750,000 a year, not enough, perhaps, to ac- 

 complish all we require, but amply sufficient for pre- 



