828 REPORT— 1904. 
would doubtless elicit differences of opinion amongst us, as, for instance, that 
education ought not to be compulsory, or that it should be the same for women as 
for men. 
One of his statements may be soothing to our English self-complacency, for, as 
is the habit of idealists in every age, he says that even in Athens they care nothing 
for educational training, one of the most brilliant of their younger statesmen plead- 
ing that it does not matter, because others are as ignorant as he. 
Or again, our own Milton sums it up in fewer words, but very impressively, 
when he says true education fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
mously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war. 
It is a noble aim which he thus sets before us, to make our sons skilful, just, 
magnanimous, and every description of aims and methods can be little more than 
an expansion of it. 
Of the importance of right aims and ideals there can, as Plato reminded us, be 
no question, because of the danger of ill-directed aims, and the lasting nature of 
early impressions. ; 
What we learnt at school, when all the world was young to us, whether we 
learnt it with weariness or pain, or under happier influences with a quickening 
pulse and the glow of enjoyment, passed into the blood, as Stevenson said some- 
where, and became native in the memory. 
True education, then, as we all acknowledge, aims at cultivating the highest 
and most efficient type of personality, men not only appropriately and technically 
equipped for their professional business, but men endowed with the best gifts and 
inspired with high purposes, men who desire to follow the more excellent ways 
and to lead others in them, who love knowledge, truth, freedom, justice, in all the 
relations of life, whether individual or social, men marked by sense of duty and 
moral thoughtfulness, public spirit, and strength of character. 
Such an education is the true basis of individual and national welfare, and 
experience has abundantly shown how necessary this is to save men from distorted 
views of history, from wrong conceptions of patriotism and public duty, from 
mistaken aims and disastrous policy. 
Thus, for instance, a good and true education shows us that the true basis of 
life is moral and economic and not military, and the true aim of both individuals 
and nations is knowledge, justice, freedom, peace, magnanimity, and not pride, 
ageoression, force, or greed. 
Scientific consideration of our subject will of course dea] largely with such 
details as the relative claims of the humanist and the realist, subjects and methods 
of instruction, the correlation of different grades of education, the adaptation of 
this or that system to special needs, and so forth; but through all this these 
fundamental requirements of the true education, as placarded before us by Plato 
or by Milton, must always hold the chief place, and all others must be kept in due 
and conscious subordination to these. 
This very obvious remark calls for repetition, as we are so apt to lose sight of 
ideals amidst the dust of controversy about details or methods or practical needs. 
How, then, does our English education stand when thus considered? And 
what signs are there in our life of our having fallen short or fallen behind, or 
missed the best that was possible in our circumstances ? 
It may, I venture to think, be fairly said that to a reflective observer, various 
things are patent which seem to make it expedient that the subject of education 
should have its place in the proceedings of a scientific association like this, although 
there may be difference of opinion as to how it should be handled there. 
In saying this I have to admit that some educational reformers seem to have 
doubts as to the propriety of its inclusicn in your programme. 
The element of personality is so pre-eminently vital in all education that some 
men say it cannot be treated as wholly scientific in the ordinary sense, and that 
there is serious risk in subjecting it too rigidly to the methods of investigation 
which naturally hold the field in the main departments of this Association, and 
that men who are wholly accustomed to such methods are not the best equipped, 
for dealing with the problems involved in the education of the young. 
