ORDINARY MEETING.* 
Sir G. G. Stokes, LL.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following elections took place :— 
Hon. Corresponpinc Mermper :—Professor R. Etheridge, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Associates :—E. John Weightman, Esq., M.D., Lancashire; Miss 
I. Alice Weightman. 
The following paper was read by the Author :— 
LAE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. By Awe 
SCHOFIELD, Esq., M.D. (Chairman, Executive Parents’ 
National Educational Union.) 
HE practical importance of the subject of this paper is, 
in the face of the increasing struggle for existence, 
beyond all dispute; but the difficulty of speaking on it 1s 
great, because one is compelled to use terms from which 
many English psychologists still shrink, and yet which most 
in some way or another are obliged tacitly to agree to. We 
refer to the unconscious faculties of the mind. — Without 
actually insisting on the phrase that best expresses these, viz., 
the unconscious mind, there is no doubt that most advan ced 
educationalists, amongst whom we include Herbert Spencer, 
Herbart, Pestalozzi, Froebel, J. P. Richter, Preyer, C. Mason, 
and many others, clearly recognize that the best and most 
efficacious form of child-training is that which is addressed 
to unconsciousness rather than to consciousness; in short, 
each and all admit, though most probably some would 
* May 16th, 1898. 
