454 



NATURE 



[October 5, 1911 



manding both topographical and cadastral surveys as 

 rapidly as they can be prepared. If these are to be 

 both efficient and economical, and if as little as possible 

 o) the work done in early slaves i- u, need com- 

 plete revision at a later date, then those engaged in 

 directing them should have a thorough knowledge of 

 the methods, principles, and requirements of survey- 

 ing of the highest grade, and not merely a certain 

 proficiency in the simpler classes of topography that 

 is now demanded; but for the acquirement of _ such 

 knowledge there are not as yet in this country facilities 

 such as exist on the Continent, where numerous chairs 

 of geodesy and precise surveying are to be found. 



H. G. L. 



FRANCE AND CLASSICAL EDUCATION. 



AT the Dijon meeting of the French Association for 

 the Advancement of Science last August the 

 president, M. Ch. Lallemand, delivered an informing 

 and luminous address on the question of modern 

 versus classical education. The address should be par- 

 ticularly instructive to English educationists, for the 

 home of the traditional curriculum of our public 

 schools is France, the direct heir of Roman literary 

 culture. 



Recently there has been something of a crusade 

 against " modernism " in education, the chief argu- 

 ment being that the French language and French cul- 

 ture are being endangered by the abandonment of 

 what the French call "Latin education," which, like 

 our classical education, is chiefly based on Latin and 

 Greek. But, as will be seen, there is no abandon- 

 ment, and the crusade is probably no more significant 

 than its predecessor of forty years ago, or the longer- 

 continued counter-crusade against " Latin education." 

 We shall refer to it more fully below. 



Science and modern languages were introduced _ as 

 parallel lines of education, but not as superseding 

 the classical system, under the Second Empire. The 

 growing needs of industry and commerce and the 

 enormous development of science forced this on the 

 nation. This " bifurcation " was continuously suc- 

 cessful, though it was at once attacked. A counter- 

 attack on the classical course followed, increasing in 

 vigour towards the end of the century. M. Jules 

 Lemaitre put the weight of his great authority into 

 the scale against classics. A similar attack was mean- 

 while being made in Germany, the Emperor William 

 pronouncing strongly against classical education. 

 From 1882 to 1900 the proportion of German students 

 not learning Latin increased from 9 per cent, to 43. 

 Then in 1902, as the result of a parliamentary com- 

 mission, came further concessions to the claims of 

 modernism. The resulting system, known as the 

 " quadrifurcation," comprises, besides the general 

 classical course, Latin and modern languages, Latin 

 and science, and the specially "modern" course of 

 modern languages and science. 



The system is attacked both by literary and, sig- 

 nificantly, by commercial authorities. M. Marcel 

 ost says : "The new crop of graduates does not 

 know more algebra, or physics, or modern languages 

 than the old, and of their own language they know 

 less." The chambers of commerce and great finan- 

 cial administrations have complained of the decay of 

 correct writing and spelling, and demand the restora- 

 tion of Greek and Latin as being indispensable for 

 proficiencv in commercial composition. Societies have 

 recently been formed for the protection of French 

 culture and the French tongue. 



M. Lallemand disproves the notion that there is 

 un crise du frangais. Recently in China the man- 

 NO. 2l88, VOL. 87] 



darins complained that young students were neglect- 

 ing the study of the " characters " under the baneful 

 influence of occidental ideas. When the classical 

 system in France was " uncontaminated " by modern- 

 ism, the complaint was made that the engineers of 

 the public departments could not write or spell, and 

 a special course was instituted to make this defect 

 good. 



Further, statistics show conclusively that ii 

 ignorance of the principles of composition and 

 orthography exists, it is not due to the abandonment 

 of Latin and Greek. As a matter of fact, the number 

 of students taking Latin has steadily increased 

 1902. In 1910, of 1875 first-year students in Paris, 

 only 362 had not learnt Latin. Of 646 students leav- 

 ing L'Ecole I'uh technique between 1906 and nun, 

 there are 203 "moderns" as against 443 "Latins." 

 Finallv, as to the writing question, the Polytechnique 

 examinations in French composition during the last 

 ten years show a considerable superiority on the part 

 of the " moderns " ! 



As to the alleged decadence of correct writing and 

 calligraphy, M. Lallemand suggests tbat the increas- 

 ing congestion of curricula, necessary in view of 

 increasing knowledge, may be a factor. Perhaps in 

 France, as in England, no serious attempt has ever 

 been made to teach the native language. The present 

 writer holds that this defect, together w-ith the reten- 

 tion of Latin and Greek, constitutes the crying evil of 

 present-day education. 



M. Lallemand has some good remarks and quota- 

 tions on the alleged educative virtue of dead languages 

 and on the inconsistent arguments of those who ad- 

 vance it. They might form the basis of a logical 

 inquiry, which is much needed, into the "educative" 

 processes. He also has some penetrating observations 

 on caste-feeling, which has a good deal to do with 

 the recent crusade. The smallest shopkeeper is in 

 favour of Latin, because his son can learn it as well 

 as the son of the noble. If science w^ere the corner- 

 stone of education, the smallest shopkeeper would, on 

 the same principle, vote for science. 



A. E. Crawley. 



SIR HERBERT RISLEY, K.C.I.E. 

 Y)Y the untimely death of Sir Herbert Hope Risley 

 *-* on September 30, at the age of sixty, scienci 

 lost an eminent anthropologist and India an of] 

 of no ordinary ability. Born in 183 1, educated at 

 Winchester and New College, Oxford, he joined the 

 Indian Civil Service in 1873, and was posted to 

 Bengal. He was soon transferred to the secretariat, 

 a class of work for which his qualifications were 

 better suited than that of an executive officer. But 

 already he had acquired a taste for ethnological re- 

 search during a short period of service in Chota Nag- 

 pur, where, on the basis of Colonel E. T. Dalton's 

 "Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal," he compiled an 

 account of the interesting hill races, which appeared 

 in vol. xvi. of Sir W. Hunter's "Statistical Survey" 

 of the province, issued in 1875-7. This, with the 

 period spent on special dutv as ethnographical super- 

 intendent in Bengal, was the only opportunity he 

 enjoyed of obtaining that intimate familiarity with 

 the rural classes which can be gained only by life- 

 long service in their midst. 



The results of his researches in Bengal were em- 

 bodied in his work on the tribes and castes of that 

 province which appeared in 1891. Aided by a band 

 of skilled co-workers, and utilising the mat 

 privately published by Dr. J. Wise in i88_? under the 

 title of " Notes on the Races, Castes, and Trades of 



