844 REPORT— 1902. 



and beiug profoundly impressed by the serious character of the outlook, the oppor- 

 tunity being given me, I felt that * the time has come,' as the walrus said to the 

 carpenter, 



To talk of many things : 



Of shoes— and ships — and sealing-wax — 



Of cabbages — and kings- - 



And why the sea is boiling hot— 



And whether pigs have wings.' 



(' Alice through the Looking-glass.') 



This list of subjects is no more varied and disconnected — the problems set no 

 deeper — than those to which we must give our attention in dealing with edu- 

 cation ; and the sooner the fate of the oysters is that of our present educational 

 ' system ' the better. Having shown by this quotation that I am not an absolute 

 modern but have some knowledge of the classics, let me finally say, in the words 

 of another poet — of him who on various occasions gave utterance to much wisdom 

 at the breakfast table, that 'I don't want you to believe anything I say, 1 only 

 want you to try to see what makes me believe it.' 



Something more than an apology for an Education Act such as the powers are 

 now engaged in shaping for us must be framed at no distant date, and a determi- 

 nate policy arrived at. That policy may perhaps be found in the words put into 

 Hamlet's mouth : — • 



Hamlet. To what base uses we may return, Horatio ! Why may not imagination 

 trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole ? 



Horatio. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. 



Hamlet. No, faith, not a jot ; but to follow him thither with modesty enough 

 and likelihood to lead it, as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander 

 returneth into dust ; the dust is earth ; of earth we make loam ; and why of that 

 loam, whereto he was converted, miglit they not stop a beer barrel 1 



Imperious Ciesar, dead and turned to clay. 

 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away ; 

 O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, 

 Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! 



Shakespeare thus taught the use of the imagination before Tyndall ! The fact 

 that we can now carry our imagination far further afield and contemplate the 

 survival of atoms once embodied in imperious CiBsar in the flowers and fruit 

 which deck the fair face of Nature — a higher end than that Hamlet paints — may 

 serve to justify the adoption of a method he advocated. Modern progress is based 

 on research — .the application of imagination. Surely then there is every reason to 

 make the spirit of research the dominant force in education ! 



The following Eeport and Papers were read :■ — 



1. Report on the Teaching of Ehvientary Mathematics, 

 See Reports, p. 473. 



On Recent Reforms in Iiish Education. By Dr. W. J. M. Stakkie. 



3. The Subjects to be Taught as Science in Schools, and the Order in ichich 

 they should be Taken. By Dr. C. W. Kimmins. 



The great reforms which have taken place in recent years in the teaching of 

 science in schools have been due in large measure to the British Association Report 

 on the teaching of chemistry. Similar reports are needed on the teaching of other 

 subjects suitable for instruction in schools. The biological side should receive as 



