43 2 



NATURE 



[September 28, 1911 



ment, and feeling. That is the reason why the school of 

 languages is called Literae Humaniores at Oxford. 

 Language is the one pre-eminently human or humane 

 study. 



But it is evident that different languages, as instruments 

 of education, may stand on different grounds. 



English boys and girls cannot afford to be ignorant of 

 their own language or literature or history. For they use 

 every day the English language; their niinds are fed by 

 English literature ; and the past history of their country 

 affords them guidance in the present and the future. 



Foreign languages, on the other hand, are practically 

 useful in the relation of Englishmen to other nations. It 

 is possible that these languages will become less important 

 as the English language spreads over the world. But for 

 the present at least a knowledge of some modern language 

 is desirable, not only as a means of mental discipline, but 

 also as a means of intercommunication. One modern 

 language at least, then, may fairly be regarded as enter- 

 ing into the basis of secondary education ; and that 

 language at the present time would naturally be French, 

 although much is to be said for German and something 

 for Spanish. 



The educational difference between languages and other 

 subjects is, I think, more clearly marked than the differ- 

 ence between one language and another. Whatever intel- 

 lectual benefit is derivable from an ancient language may 

 in a greater or less degree be derived from a modern 

 language. But it has been shown by manv writers, as, 

 for instance, by J. S. Mill in his rectorial address at the 

 University of St. Andrews, that a classical language, like 

 ancient history, if only in virtue of its remoteness from 

 present interests, possesses some educational advantage, 

 and this advantage is particularly clear when an ancient 

 language stands in the relation of Latin to the Romance 

 languages or to any considerable number of languages in 

 actual use. Latin must therefore enter into the general 

 curriculum, and I attach great value to keeping Latin as 

 a subject of general study in secondary schools. For the 

 prejudice of parents in the present day against dead 

 languages is unhappily strong. I have spent much of my 

 time in trying to convince parents that their sons would 

 be better educated by the study of Latin, if not of Greek 

 also. It is for this reason that I regret the somewhat 

 pedantic insistence upon pronunciation of Latin according 

 to a method which, whether it be historically correct or 

 not, will certainly tell against the universality of Latin as 

 a subject of study. I do not believe the modern pronuncia- 

 tion is correct; but whatever may be the philological value 

 of that pronunciation, I feel no doubt that the artificiality, 

 as it seems to parents, of the non-English way of pro- 

 nouncing Latin will, like the artificiality of the Greek type, 

 create a prejudice in many minds against the study of 

 Latin. Nor is this all; for the study of Latin loses a good 

 deal of its practical value if every or nearly every Latin 

 word is by the method of its pronunciation 'divorced from 

 the corresponding word in English. It does not really 

 matter in the present day how Latin is pronounced. Latin 

 is no longer a medium of oral communication, even 

 amongst scholars. The vital matter is that Latin should 

 be one of the subjects constituting the permanent basis of 

 education in all secondary schools. 



Apart from these subjects, viz. religion, English, 

 French, Latin, mathematics, and natural science, there is 

 none, I think, which can justlv claim a part in that know- 

 ledge which I have ventured to describe as the common 

 property of all boys and girls in secondary school-;. It is, 

 in my judgment, a happy circumstance that preparatory- 

 school masters have practically decided to relinquish the 

 teaching of Greek, and to concentrate their efforts upon 

 such subjects as form the natural basis of secondary 

 education. 



But upon the basis so constituted the teacher will try 

 ct a varying superstructure, bv offering as wide a 

 range as _ possible to individual tastes. For if the secret 

 ■ ation lies in discovering what a pupil's capacity is, 

 and so in helping him or her to cultivate it, education 

 must pass soon or late from the common basis of subjects 

 to specialisation. It is not my business now to decide how 

 the principle o1 pei i il ition should be applied. That is a 



NO. 2 I 87, VOI .'87] 



problem which the individual schoolmaster or schoolmistress 

 must work out for himself or herself. The two points upon 

 which I would venture to insist are the common educa- 

 tional property and the wide elasticity allowable so soon 

 as this common property has been gained. But I am of 

 opinion that, while specialisation is allowable and desirable 

 in the later years of a boy's or girl's life, it should never 

 be complete. The dying out of double degrees in the 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge has always seem. I, 

 and still seems, to me unfortunate. For it means that 

 nobody now gets so thorough an education as was possible 

 if the student applied himse'f through his life at school, as 

 well as at the university, both to classical and mathe- 

 matical studies. The amplification of the several studies 

 may have justly affected the course of education in the 

 universities; but it is my deliberate conviction that a boy 

 or girl whose time is wholly or mainly given to one sub- 

 ject only during school life loses a signal opportunity of 

 obtaining a generous education. 



It is tempting to me as an old schoolmaster to linger 

 on the field of secondary education. But the limit of time 

 at the disposal even of the president of a section forbids 

 me to think of adverting to more problems of secondary- 

 education than the two following ; 



Public opinion has always been divided in the education, 

 whether of boys or of girls, between boarding schools and 

 day schools. Adam Smith in his " Theory of Moral Senti- 

 ments " went so far as to say " that the education of bovs 

 at distant great schools, of young men at distant colleges, 

 as well as ladies in distant nunneries and boarding schools, 

 seems in the higher ranks of life to have hurt most essenti- 

 ally the domestic morals, and consequently the domestic 

 happiness, both of France and of England." The complete 

 severance of a boy or a girl, except during the holidays, 

 from parents and family is evidently, or may evidently 

 prove to be, an evil. It tends to undermine some of the 

 graces of character; it produces in boarding schools the 

 same defects, but perhaps, too, the same merits, as are 

 observable in celibate religious institutions, like monas- 

 teries and nunneries. There is too much tendency, especi- 

 ally among parents of the wealthy class, to feel that they 

 have done their duty to their children in paying their 

 children's school fees, and to hand them over to the school- 

 master or the schoolmistress without any thought of the 

 influence which the home ought to exercise upon young 

 lives. It is reasonable to suppose that, if the sense of 

 parental responsibility could be revived, fathers and mothers 

 would be more anxious than they are now to keep their 

 children at home in the early years of their lives. Pre- 

 paratory day schools, at least in the great cities, will, I 

 think, acquire a growing importance. But at present the 

 choice between boarding schools and day schools for boys, 

 and in a less degree for girls, is largely determined by 

 pecuniary considerations. For in truth the great public 

 boarding schools are such characteristic features of English 

 life among the upper social class, they have gathered to 

 themselves such a wealth of tradition and influence, they 

 are so deeply rooted in the confidence and affection of th» 

 English-speaking world, that it would be difficult, if not 

 impossible, to replace them. Nor can it be doubted that 

 the education given in these schools, however rough and 

 ready, however deficient in some respects it may have been, 

 has yet done much, in Canning's bold ecclesiastical phrase, 

 to produce " a supply of persons duly qualified to serve 

 God both in Church and State," and has tended to foster 

 some of the qualities by which the English race has 

 attained its sovereign position in the world. 



-. there is (lie question of co-education. For if the 

 early education of boys and girls may, as I have argued, 

 safely proceed on the same lines, it may be held that they 

 can well he .Jural,,] together. Nor is there anv valid 

 educational reason why boys and girls should not be edu- 

 cated together, as they are in the United States of Ami 

 In England itself they receive their early education, and 

 they aie beginning to receive their academic education, 

 ton-ether. It :n least conceivable that co-education 



throughout the period of school life may come to be the 

 In boarding schools, however, where 

 il" life is ordered on somewhat artificial principles, cc- 

 tion would almosl certainly create problems which 



