TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION A. 533 



progress of the majority of our youtli. I believe the public school rnalhematics io 

 this country atauds on a level of its own, well below that of any other. In 

 England, owing to our complicated system of weights and measures, which our 

 Ministers and our Parliament dare not abolish for our own good, the scanty hours 

 allowed for mathematics are devoted to the learning of tables which should never 

 have to be learned at all, to compound reductions designed merely to puzzle but 

 not to lead to any new step; and, even if our present system were not futile 

 enough, to learning lists of antique values which serve the useful purpose of 

 giving the boys something to do. The result is that beyond having time to 

 acquire a few elementary algebraical rules the boy is never introduced to algebra 

 proper ; he has no idea of algebraical reasoning ; his trigonometry often does 

 not exist, and the very sound or suggestion of coordinate geometry or of the 

 differential calculus, which might be well within his reach, produces a shiver 

 of dismay. Geometry is presented for the first time in the form of Euclid, a 

 form as repulsive to most boys as it well could be. I must confess to having 

 been attracted and not repelled by Euclid ; but the boy does not care for time. 

 Now that I look at Euclid again I have also to confess that any lingering regard 

 for an old friend vanishes before the archaic language and the unnecessary 

 circumlocution. If Euclid must be retained let it be translated into English, the 

 English that any parent would use in explaining the ideas to his son ; let it be 

 illustrated by constant reference to real things so as to appeal to the boy who does 

 not revel in the abstract. Let the ideas and the terms first be presented in the 

 form of experiments and of measurements with instruments ; let the schoolmaster 

 dare to throw over the intolerable conservatism which prevents our doing anything 

 ten times as well lest some item should prove to be a trifle worse ; in fact, let us take 

 some heed of the possibly extreme, but none the less genuine, and valuable preaching 

 of Professor Perry. I have so far referred only to the miserable use that is made 

 of the odd hours grudgingly given to what is called mathematics. Is it any use 

 to repeat the long-standing complaint of the way in which the schoolmaster insists 

 upon overdoing his Latin and Greek under the belief that they are at least 

 essential to intellectual development if, indeed, they do not supply the only 

 stimulus ? As society is constituted they are essential to education as an extensive 

 knowledge of Confucius is essential to an educated Chinaman, so that we may mix 

 one with another, appreciate the works of our great authors, understand the same 

 allusions, and have the same kind of knowledge of the development of our 

 civilisation. Few men of science, perhaps none, wish to see all of this, some of 

 which is essential to a general education, abolished; all that we ask is that the 

 schoolmaster shall not continue to impose upon the community the unbalanced 

 learning which corresponds to mathematics and science without letters. The time 

 given to classics is exorbitant ; more must be reserved for those pursuits which 

 draw out the habit of independent thought, creation and originality. It would 

 be well if every schoolmaster could read an admirable article by James Swinburne 

 on the two types of mind fostered by the two complementary types of educa- 

 tion, but this is buried away in an inaccessible number of the ' Westminster 

 Keview.' 



The classic is unfortunately still in possession, and where, as is still often the 

 case, he is innocent of any appreciation of the educational value of post-Newtonian 

 studies it is not surprising that he thrusts into odd moments the subjects he does 

 not understand, and which he therefore despises, and that the boys committed to 

 his charge and living in such an atmosphere are half ashamed of showing any 

 interest in the scanty science which is within their reach. It is almost impossible 

 to believe that such can be the case, but I have referred to the impression to which 

 the appointment of the first science master at my own school gave rise. I now 

 refer to the contribution to a discussion on education but a year or two ago by 

 that experienced teacher, Principal Griffiths. Fortunately our public schools are 

 not the only ones in the country. Smaller and less fashionable schools pay mora 

 attention to education and sufi'er less from what, in defiance of all rule, I can only 

 call didactatorial method. 

 . I am not aware that the result of this almost total exclusion of tabooed sub- 



