240 
NATURE 
j 
‘ 
[NovEMBER 23, 1916 
social intercourse students of different subjects. At the 
present time there is a great denunciation of the pre- 
valence of classical studies and a demand for education 
in natural science. But it is worth while just now to 
insist that specialisation in mathematics or natural 
science, if divorced entirely from the more human 
studies, or from intercourse with those who are pur- 
suing such studies, may be educationally disastrous in 
the last degree. Of course, it is sometimes suggested, 
as I remarked earlier, that the study of natural science 
produces a scientific type of mind. But this is one 
form of the confusion to which I alluded at the outset 
which results from our speaking of natural science 
by the general name of ‘science.’ The study of 
languages and history can be, and ought to be, just 
as scientific as the study of physics. 
We may state the question perhaps in this way. In 
order that a man may live his life and discharge his 
responsibilities as a citizen he needs knowledge. What 
is the most important sort of knowledge to have? 
None can be put on a level with the knowledge of 
human nature. Whatever a man is going to do he 
will have to deal with his fellow-men and find his 
-own place among them. This knowledge cannot be 
adequately obtained from books alone, and, as I have 
said already, training through membership in a social 
life is the best means to it. But it may be also fostered 
in a very high degree by what are called the humane 
studies: the study of the best that men have thought 
in philosophy, the study of their highest aspirations 
and deepest woes in literature, the study of their 
attempts and their achievements in history. This is 
the most serviceable of all scientific studies that a man 
-can undertake. But it is no doubt true that we have 
allowed two evil things to happen. In the first place, 
we have not sufficiently recognised the value of natural 
science in,education, and, still more disastrous, we 
have tended to identify the study of the humanities 
with the study of the classical languages. 
The chief point that I wish to urge is that the 
classics are not the only available form of humane 
study. I should like to see an experiment conducted 
on the following lines. The staple of the school curri- 
culum to be European history and English literature. 
At the bottom of the school there should be elementary 
Latin, which undoubtedly provides good mental gym- 
nastics, and, of course, elementary mathematics and 
natural science. Perhaps also French, though of this 
I am more doubtful. Those boys who showed real 
facility in Latin should, if they so desired, begin to 
study Greek at about the age of sixteen or sixteen and 
a half. They should then have one term in which 
they do very little except Greek. Experiments suggest 
that in forms consisting only of boys who have already 
shown some aptitude for a classical language one 
term’s concentrated study will bring them to the point 
reached by efforts of several years according to our 
present methods, and the devotion of a single term to 
this would not seriously interrupt the general course. 
There would not. be a classical side and a modern side, 
for the staple study of the whole school would be 
history; but there would be, above the point indicated, 
divisions for Latin and Greek as there now are in 
classical schools for mathematics. _These would have 
allotted to them all the hours on the time-table that 
were not required for the history and literature, for it 
is of no use, broadly speaking, to read classics after 
that time unless they are given almost the whole of 
the student’s attention. The study of ancient civilisa- 
tion, which is what the study of the classics ought 
to be, is itself something far too rich to come under 
any condemnation of specialism. Boys who do not 
take this classical course would take mathematics, 
science, and at least one modern language, the mathe- 
matics and the science being so far as possible com- 
NO. 2456, VoL. 98] 
bined; specialisation either in the linguistic or the 
scientific branch would be encouraged in the highest 
departments. There would also,,of course, be oppor- 
tunity for specialisation in history by means of divi. 
sions which would provide a course of study supple- 
mentary to that which formed the staple of the school 
curriculum. 
Meanwhile there is one serious evil which could be 
remedied at once. It is the business of the universities 
to be the guardians and upholders of a true educa- 
tional ideal against the natural utilitarianism of the 
man of affairs. By their scholarship system the uni- 
versities exercise a far-reaching influence on secondary 
schools. They give far more scholarships for classics 
than there are deserving candidates; they do a good 
deal for natural science and mathematics; they do 
something, though absurdly little, for history; but they 
practically do nothing at all for modern languages. 
To this branch of study they give no encouragement 
such as might help the schools to treat it in a truly 
educational way. I want to see boys and girls who 
study modern languages reading the great literatures 
which constitute the value of those languages as boys 
at the top of a classical side read A®schylus and Plato. 
But we shall not reach that without helo from the 
universities, and at present the universities refuse their 
help. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CampripGrt.—A Grace has passed the Senate sanc- 
tioning the admission of women to the first and second 
M.B. Examinations under conditions similar to those 
under which they are admitted to the Previous Exam- 
ination and the Tripos Examinations. 
The Appointments Board has just issued its third 
quinquennial report. It gives ample evidence of the valu- 
able services which the board is rendering to graduates 
of the University, as well as to firms and public bodies 
who are in need of highly trained young men. The 
report shows that a large number of firms have em- 
ployed Cambridge graduates on the administrative side 
of their business, and some forty firms are in the 
habit of applying to the board for scientific assistants. 
Among the industries represented by these latter firms 
are chemicals, iron and steel, coal-mining, dyeing, 
brewing, and the manufacture of paper, drugs, explo- 
sives, soap, and glass. Geologists, agricultural 
chemists, botanists, and mycologists have also found 
technical employment. Satisfactory as this record is, 
the board hopes that after the war the range of employ- 
ment may be greatly increased. The engineering 
students have been appointed to mechanical, electrical, | 
and civil engineering firms, iron and steel and ship- 
building firms, firms manufacturing aircraft, chemical 
engineering works, railways, and a number of public 
works departments in different parts of the Empire. 
The agricultural students also obtain employment over 
a large area, including various British Colonies. Of 
the worl: of the board during the war it is not yet time 
to speals in detail. 
Lonpon.—At a meeting of the Senate held on 
November 15 the Rogers prize of tool. for 1916, for 
an essay on “The Nature of Pyrexia and its relation 
” 
to Micro-organisms *’ was awarded to Dr. J. L. Jona. 
Ir is announced that Messrs. Baldwins, Ltd., have 
given 10,000l. to the Swansea Technical College for 
the endowment of a chair of metallurgy. 
Mr. C. FENNER, principal of the Ballarat School of 
Mines, has been appointed superintendent of tech- 
nical education in South Australia, a position created 
under the South Australian Education Act. 
