010 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 



and necessarily concerned with all the three elements of man's composite nature, 

 his body, mind, and spirit. It aims immediately and instinctively at the two 

 highest objects of human aspiration, viz., the diffusion of knowledge and the 

 promotion of virtue. Nor does any schoolmaster rise to the full height of his 

 own calling unless he realises that his true object is to prepare his pupils, in 

 all their faculties and in all the relations of their after-lives, for good citizen- 

 ship. I cannot help thinking that a teacher who ignores or neglects the 

 spiritual side of his pupils falls as far short of the scholastic ideal as if he were 

 to think little or nothing of their bodies or their minds. The educational pro- 

 fession, when it is rightly understood, is capable of conferring signal benefits 

 upon the community at large. There is an Oriental apologue which tells that 

 in a time of grievous drought, when the king had vainly called upon the 

 wizards, astrologers, and magicians to bring down rain upon his country, one 

 humble unknown man at last stood forth to pray, and at his prayer the heaven 

 above grew dark with clouds and there was a great rain ; the king desired to 

 know who and what was he that had prevailed alone with God, and the answer 

 was ' 1 am a teacher of small boys.' 



My own qualification for presiding over the Educational Section of the British 

 Association is not so great as I could heartily wish it to be. Yet it has been 

 my fortune to gain some knowledge of academical education when I was a 

 Fellow and Tutor of my College at Cambridge; of secondary education during 

 the fifteen years in which I occupied the headmasterships of two great public 

 schools, and these schools differing radically in type, one being principally a 

 day school and the other almost entirely a boarding school; and finally to gain 

 some knowledge of primary or elementary education in the last four years, when 

 I have been Deputy Chairman of the Education Committee in the famous 

 Northern city which is now my home. Neither the time at my disposal nor my 

 experience would justify me in attempting to deal with the educational problem 

 as a whole. All that I think of doing in my presidential address is to lay 

 before you some remarks upon the present state of education in Great Britain, 

 and more particularly some proposals which have commended themselves to my 

 judgment for improving it in a few of its aspects. My address then will be 

 in a sense an old schoolmaster's reverie ; I scarcely dare call it anything more. 



Education, as has often been said, is to-day in the air. More and more 

 deeply the civilised nations of the world, and among them at last even Great 

 Bi'itain, are coming to realise that in the future the battle will be not to the 

 swift nor to the strong, but to the highly educated. It is the nation of the 

 highest intelligence and widest cultivation which will assert its pre-eminence in 

 the coming days. 



But before any attempt can be made to criticise the existing educational 

 system or want of system in Great Britain, and especially in England, it is 

 necessary to state the principles underlying all true progress or reform in 

 education. In the briefest possible language they are, I think, these : — 



1. That every child shall enjoy the opportunity of developing in full 

 measure the intellectual and moral faculties with which God has endowed him 

 or her. 



2. That no difference of opportunity, or as little difference as possible, shall 

 exist between the richer and the poorer classes of society. 



3. That the supreme object of education is to provide good citizens — citizens 

 who, in Milton's stately language, will be able to ' perform justly, skilfully,, 

 and magnanimously all the offices both public and private of Peace and War.' 



4. That, as the personal influence of the teacher is a potent factor in 

 education, it is the business of the State to ensure the highest possible efficiency, 

 not only of intelligence but of character, in the men and women who adopt 

 the educational profession as their life-work. 



It seems to me that all the educational questions of the day may naturally 

 be ranged under these four heads. Tho first includes Physiology and Psychology 

 as subjects directly bearing upon the teacher's art, the study of individual 

 character, the size of classes, the specialisation of studies, the opportunity 

 of self-culture, the time-table and the constituents of the curriculum, above 

 all, the practical insight by which a teacher discerns, and the sympathy by 

 which he or she encourages, the signs of genius or talent, even when they 



