S62 



NA TURE 



[October 3, 1901 



connection with seed-dispersal. Another general character 

 observed in these higher groups is the greater security for 

 economical pollination afiforded by the adaptations in relation to 

 insect-visits. At the same time the case of the Graminex shows 

 us that other adaptations in this respect are not incompatible 

 with prominence. 



I will not dwell upon the influence of water upon the vege- 

 tative organs in Dicotyledones and Monocotyledones. Of all 

 the factors of environment its effects are best known because 

 most easily seen. The examination of plants from the stand- 

 point of their relation to water — bearing in mind that this is 

 physiological, and not merely physical — has already thrown a 

 flood of light upon their forms and upon their distribution, and 

 offers a fertile field of investigation for the future. 



Water has been, then, a dominating influence at all periods 

 in the evolution of our vegetation. The picture of its claim in 

 this respect which I have presented to you is drawn in the 

 broadest outline, and with the intention more of recalling points 

 of view from which familiar facts in the life of plants may be 

 looked at. It is just occasions like this which give the oppor- 

 tunity of telling to a competent audience of the impressions 

 received by one's most recent glimpse in the kaleidoscope of 

 plant-life. It is in this spirit I ofter my imperfect sketch. 



SECTION L. 



EDIX.-\TI0N. 



OrENiNG Address by the Right Ho.\. Sir John E. Gorst, 

 F. R.S. , President of the Section. 



The invitation of the British Association to preside over 

 the Section of Education, established this year for the first 

 time, has been given to me as a representative of 

 that Government Department which controls the larger, but 

 perhaps not ithe most efficient, part of the education of the 

 United Kingdom. The most suitable subject for my opening 

 Address would therefore seem to be the proper function of 

 National Authority, whether central or local, in the education 

 of the people ; what is the limit of its obligations ; what is the 

 part of Educalion in which it can lead the way; what is the 

 region in which more powerful influences are at work, and in 

 which it must take care not to hinder their operation ; and 

 what are the dangers to real education inseparable from a general 

 national system. I shall avoid questions of the division of 

 functions between Central and Local Authorities, beset with so 

 many bitter controversies, which are political rather than 

 educational. 



In the first place, so far as the mass of the youth of a country 

 is concerned, the Public Instructor can only play a secondary 

 part in the most important part of the educalion of the young — 

 the development of character. The character of a people is by 

 far its most important attribute. It has a great deal more 

 moment in the affairs of the world, and is a much more vital 

 factor in the promotion of national power and influence, and in 

 the spread of Empire, than either physical or mental endowments. 

 The character of each generation depends in the main upon the 

 character of the generation which precedes it ; of other causes 

 in operation the effect is comparatively small. A generation 

 may be a little better or a little worse than its forefathers, but it 

 cannot materially differ from them. Improvement and de- 

 generacy are alike slow. The chief causes which produce 

 formation of character are met with in the homes of the people. 

 They are of great variety and mostly too subtle to be controlled. 

 Religious belief, ideas, ineradicable often in maturer life, im- 

 bibed from the early instruction of parents, the principles of 

 morality current amongst brothers and sisters and playmates, 

 popular superstitions, national and local prejudices, have a far 

 deeper and more permanent effect upon character than the in- 

 struction given in schools or colleges. The teacher, it is true, 

 exercises his influence among the rest. Men and women of all 

 sorts, from university professors to village dames, have stamped 

 some part of their own character upon a large proportion of their 

 disciples. But this is a power that must grow feebler as the 

 number of scholars is increased. In the enormous schools and 

 classes in which the public instruction of the greater part of the 

 children of the people is given the influence on character of the 

 individual teacher is reduced to a minimum. The old village 

 dame might teach her half-dozen children to be kind and brave 

 and to speak the truth, even if she failed to teach them to read 



NO. 1666, VOL. 64] 



and write. The head master of a school of 2000, or the teacher 

 of a class of eighty, may be an incomparably better intellectual 

 instructor, but it is impossible for him to exercise much indi- 

 vidual influence over the great mass of his scholars. 



There are, however, cerlain children for the formation of 

 whose characters the nation is directly responsible — deserted 

 children, destitute orphans, and children whose parents are 

 criminals or paupers. It is the duty and interest of the nation 

 to provide for the moral education of such children and to 

 supply artificially the influences of individual care and love. 

 The neglect of this obligation is as injurious to the public as to 

 the children. Homes and schools are cheaper than prisons and 

 workhouses. Such a practice as that of permitting dissolute 

 pauper parents to remove their children from public control to 

 spend the summer in vice and beggary at races and fairs, to be 

 returned in the autumn, corrupt in body and mind, to spread 

 disease and vice amongst other children of the State, would not 

 be tolerated in a community intelligently alive to its own 

 interest. 



A profound, though indirect and untraceable, influence upon 

 the moral education of a people is exercised by all national 

 administration and legislation. Everything which tends to make 

 the existing generation wiser, happier, or better has an indirect 

 influence on the children. Better dwellings, unadulterated food, 

 recreation grounds, temperance, sanitation, will all affect the 

 character of the rising generation. Regulations for public 

 instruction also influence character. A military spirit may be 

 evoked by the kind of physical instruction given. Brutality 

 may be developed by the sort of punishments enjoined or per- 

 mitted. But all such causes have a comparatively slight effect 

 upon national character, which is in the main the product for 

 good or evil of more powerful causes which operate, not in the 

 school, but in the home. 



For the physical and mental development of children it is 

 now admitted to be the interest and duty of a nation in its 

 collective capacity to see that proper schools are provided in 

 which a certain minimum of primary instruction should be free 

 and compulsory for all, and, further, secondary instruction 

 should be available for those fitted to profit by it. But there 

 are differences of opinion as to the age at which primary instruc- 

 tion should begin and end ; as to the subjects it should em- 

 brace ; as to the qualifications which should entitle to further 

 secondary instruction ; and as to how far this should be free or 

 how far paid for by the scholar or his parents. 



The age at which school attendance should begin and end is 

 in most countries determined by economic, rather than educa- 

 tional, considerations. Somebody must take charge of infants 

 in order that mothers may be at leisure to work ; the demand 

 for child labour empties schools for older children. In the 

 United Kingdom minding babies of three years old and upwards 

 has become a national function. But the infant " school," as 

 it is called, should be conducted as a nursery, not as a place 

 of learning. The chief employment of the children should 

 be play. No strain should be put on either muscle or brain. 

 They should be treated with patient kindness, not beaten with 

 canes. It is in the school for older children, to which admission 

 should not be until seven years of age, that the work of serious 

 instruction should begin, and that at first for not more than 

 two or three hours a day. There is no worse mistake than to 

 attempt by too early pressure to cure the evil of too early eman- 

 cipation from school. Beyond the mechanical accomplishments 

 of reading, writing, and ciphering, essential to any intellectual 

 progress in after life, and dry facts of history and grammar, by 

 which alone they are too often supplemented, it is for the 

 interest of the community that other subjects should be taught. 

 Some effort should be made to develop such faculties of mind 

 and body as are latent in the scholars. The same system is not 

 applicable to all ; the school teaching should fit in with the life 

 and surroundings of the child. Variety, not uniformity, 

 should be the rule. Unfortunately, the various methods by 

 which children's minds and bodies can be encouraged to 

 grow and expand are still imperfectly understood by 

 many of those who direct or impart public instruc- 

 tion. Examinations are still too often regarded as the best 

 instrument for promoting mental progress ; and a large pro- 

 portion of the children in schools, both elementary and secondary, 

 are not really educated at all— they are only prepared for 

 examinations. The delicately expanding intellect is crammed 

 with ill-understood and ill-digested facts, because it is the best 

 way of preparing the scholar to undergo an Examination-test. 



