2 NATURE AND NURTURE 



political problems. He might not accept Arnold Toynbee's 

 solution, but on the whole he gave him a respectful 

 hearing, and he was exceedingly courteous to most of us, 

 even when we approached him, as I very frankly confess 

 I did, without any experience of his life or its possibilities. 



Looking back on that period, I still think it was a very 

 great achievement of Seeley to have seen all the many 

 excellent results which must flow from bringing young men, 

 full of the new ideas and theories, into touch with another 

 class just awakening to the conception that this renas- 

 cence had possibly some bearing on their hves also. Yet, 

 regarding the matter a little more closely — and speaking 

 only for myself, for whom alone I am in a position to 

 judge — I feel sure that the balance of good was in the 

 knowledge I gained, and not in the ideas and theories 

 I did my best to impart to those working-class audiences. 



Speaking still for myself only, let me tell you what 

 I gradually learnt from those early meetings with working 

 men at lectures and in discussions. First, I became im- 

 pressed with the fact of the real existence of great 

 social problems, that the position of labour, the changing 

 status of women, and the relation of the child to the 

 State were bound to be the great national questions of 

 the near future. You will say that these things are the 

 commonplaces of to-day. Indeed they are, but I was 

 then as now a very slow thinker, and at the time of which 

 I am speaking compulsory education was not universal, 

 there was no labour party, and women were still content 

 with drawing-room meetings, and entering the academic 

 lecture-room by the backstairs. So much was positive 

 knowledge. Secondly, I reached negative knowledge, 

 perhaps the most valuable element of my education at 

 the time. I slowly came to perceive that the solution 



