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 Radicals " 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. 



