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NATURE 
[OcToBER 9, 1902 
do in securing the services of able men to conduct our affairs 
generally ; but we cannot be too mindful of the duty incumbent 
upon us of developing the store of ability latent in the nation, 
and above all of maintaining intact our heritage of individuality. 
The call to organise the forces of our empire is imperative, 
but we do not heed it in any proper manner. For many years 
past we have rarely refused to treat with utmost consideration 
the representations of those who have dwelt on the importance 
of our Navy. One of the most highly respected men in the 
country at the present day is our gifted American cousin, 
Captain Mahan, on account of the way in which he has exer- 
cised his powers of imaginative insight and taught us to under- 
stand our achievements at sea, to appreciate the true meaning 
and value of sea power. We need a Mahan to discuss the 
larger issues of national defence through education, to teach 
the nation the true meaning and value of education. The Ship 
of State is of vastly greater consequence than the mere Navy, 
and yet those who direct attention to the insufficient character 
of its armament are scarce listened to ; not the slightest effort is 
made to secure for it a scientifically adjusted and organically 
complete machinery for the effective administration and working 
of allits departments ; the drill of its crew is woefully incom- 
plete ; what is worse, there is a terrible absence of organisation 
and discipline, a terrible absence of willingness, little, if any, 
desire among those who are charged with its care to cooperate, 
and the consequences of neglect are not immediately obvious. 
In war we appreciate the effects suddenly : a long list of killed 
and wounded brings its meaning home to us at once ; and we 
know that we must pay the penalty of defeat forthwith. The 
indemnity exacted can be expressed as a lumpsum. The battle 
of life is waged in a less obtrusive way, the killed and maimed 
are not scheduled in any regular manner, and so it escapes our 
notice that in reality the carnage is awful, that few, if any, 
escape without severe wounds, that defeat is constant and yet 
often dealt so silently and imperceptibly that it excites little 
comment. But we know that vastly more than is done might 
be done to alleviate if not to prevent suffering, and even to give 
charm to life where at present there is but pain, if only our 
efforts could be organised. If we reflect on the bareness of the 
life lived by the majority, on the debasing conditions under 
which very many are placed, on the terrible evils consequent 
on indulgence in drink, surely we must agree with Tyndall that 
the essential point is to raise life to a higher level, to elevate 
the general tone of thought, and that it is our duty to consider 
more seriously than we have done hitherto what use can be 
made of the forces at our disposal for the purpose. 
If we will but picture to ourselves how most of our difficulties, 
and especially our slow advance, are consequences of lack of 
imaginative power, or perhaps rather of failure to exert the 
power which, though latent in most of us, is not sufficiently 
called into being by practice ; if we will but consider how much | 
of our success has been due to the exercise of imaginative 
power, we may be led to propound a fruitful theory of edu- 
cation, a theoretical basis on which a sound educational struc- 
ture may be reared. It has been well said by Carlyle ‘‘ that all 
that man does and brings to pass is the vesture of a thought.” 
In fact, the illustrations which may be given of the value of 
theoretical conceptions, of imaginative power, are innumerable. 
Taking recent events, if we consider the success achieved by 
the late Mr. Rhodes, the narrow-sighted will say he was a 
practical man ; a man who did things and led others to do. 
Those with broader views recognise that at heart Mr. Rhodes 
was a theorist, an idealist, a man of imagination, and hence his 
success. And men such as Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, 
whose immense services to the nation have been so universally 
admitted of late, are not merely practical soldiers of experience, 
but men gifted with powers of insight and imagination ; men 
able to apply theory to practice. Some of those who were 
unsuccessful in the late campaign are currently reported to have 
gone out to South Africa openly deriding science, and it’will be 
well if the lesson taught by their fatlure be not disregarded by 
their colleagues. The importance of the part played by theory 
in science cannot be exaggerated. We have only to think of 
the influence exercised by the Newtonian theory of Gravitation, 
by the Daltonian theory of Atoms, by Faraday’s conception of 
Lines of Force, by the Wave theory in its varied applications, 
by the Darwinian theory of Evolution; we have only to think 
of the way in which the reflections of one weak man indited at 
his study-table in a secluded Kentish village have changed the 
tone of thought of the civilised world. Such theories are the 
NO. 1719, VOL. 66] 
very foundations of science ; whilst facts are the building stones, 
theories furnish the design, and it is the interpretation of facts 
in the light of theory and the considered application of theory to 
practice that constitute true science. The marvellous develop- 
ment of scientific activity during the past century has been con- 
sequent on the establishment of fruitful theories. If teachers 
generally would pay more attention to theory their teaching 
would doubtless be more fruitful of results ; facts they know in 
plenty, but they lack training in the considered use of facts. 
False prophets among us have long taught the narrow doctrine 
that practice is superior to theory, and we pretend to believe in 
it. That the belief is founded on misconception may safely 
be contended, however; the two go together and are in- 
separable. It is true that we have enjoyed the reputation of 
being a practical people, and have been accustomed to take no 
little pride in the circumstances, and to scoff somewhat at theory, 
but behind our practice in the past there was a large measure of 
imaginative power, of theoretical insight; in fact, we were 
successful because we were innately possessed of considerable 
power of overseeing difficulties, of grasping an issue, of brushing 
aside unessential details and going straight to the point; in 
other words, of being practical. We are ceasing to be practical 
- because modern practice is based on a larger measure of theory, 
and our schools are paying no proper attention to the develop- 
ment of imaginative power or to giving training in the use of 
theory as the interpreter of facts ; didactic and dogmatic teach- 
ing are producing the result which infallibly follows in their 
wake—sterility of intellect. 
Mr. Francis Darwin, in his Reminiscences of his father, tells 
us that ‘“‘he often said that no one could be a good observer 
unless he was an active theoriser.” And he goes on to say: 
“This brings me back to what I said about his instinct for 
arresting exceptions: it was though he were charged with 
theorising power ready to flow into any channel on the slightest 
disturbance, so that no fact, however small, could avoid 
releasing a stream of theory, and thus the fact became magnified 
into importance. In this way it naturally happened that many 
untenable theories occurred to him ; but fortunately his richness 
of imagination was equalled by his power of judging and con- 
densing the thoughts that occurred to him. He was just to his 
theories and did not condemn them unheard; and so it 
happened that he was willing to test what would seem to most 
people not at all worth testing.” 
In his Autobiography, Darwin remarks :—‘‘I have steadily 
endeavoured to keep my mind free so as to give up any hypo- 
thesis, however much beloved (axd 7 cannot resist forming one 
on every subject), as soon as facts are shown to be opposed to it.” 
The italics in these passages are mine. 
Our system of education has no proper theoretical basis. 
Educators have ceased to be practical because they have failed 
to keep pace with the march of discovery, the theoretical basis 
underlying their profession having been enlarged so rapidly and 
to such an extent that it is beyond their power to grasp its 
problems. The priesthood of the craft are, in fact, possessed by 
the spirit of narrow parochialism, and upholders of an all too 
rigid creed, being lineal descendants of a privileged class—‘‘ the 
knowledge caste,” to use Thring’s expression—whose functions 
were far more limited than are those which must now be dis- 
charged by teachers if teaching is to be given which will serve 
as an efficient preparation for life under modern conditions. 
They enlarge ad nauseant on the superiority of literary and 
especially of classical training, forgetting that their preference 
for classics is but the survival of a practice and that their argu- 
ments in defence of a literary system are but preconceived 
opinions. Being incapable of appreciating the arguments used 
on the other side, it is unlikely that they will ever be able to 
admit their force. 
So long as the forces of Nature were not tamed to the service 
of man, they could be neglected ; sanitary sins were alone found 
out and punished with unsparing severity. But now it is other- 
wise. To succeed in competition with others we must be able 
to avail ourselves of every opportunity ; and wide understanding 
is demanded of us. Moreover, the growth of knowledge has in- 
duced severe mental hunger, and the feeling that the dainty 
| dishes provided by Nature should be in no selfish manner re- 
stricted to the few is a growing one; altruism is a growing 
force. We feel that we are called upon to counteract the evils 
arising from the growth of our cities; from the concentration of 
workers in large bodies ; from the minute subdivision of labour ; 
from the depressing conditions under which the masses daily 
