PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 617 



If one person knows nothing but French, a second nothing but chemistry, and 

 a third nothing but mathematics, it is evident that they possess no common 

 stock of knowledge; no interchange of sentiments or ideas is possible between 

 them. All sound secondary education then postulates a broad basis of common 

 knowledge, or, in other words, a certain body of knowledge which is possessed 

 by all students in common. Upon this basis must be built a superstructure 

 varying in accordance with the needs or capacities of the pupils. 



What then are to be the basal subjects of secondary education? 



They must be few, they must be suitable to the tender years of school life, 

 they must be practically useful, and yet they must possess the element of 

 culture. 



Religion, of course, will be one, for it is the paramount factor in the discip- 

 line of character. 



The study of mathematics possesses the unique merit that it shows what 

 proof is; it distinguishes certainty from probability; it evidences the narrow 

 limits within which certainty is possible. 



Natural science in its various branches is especially valuable as cultivating 

 the faculty of observation. Scientific facts can be generally tested by experi- 

 ment. It is only the pupil who has learnt at least the elements of natural 

 science who begins to feel at home in the world in which he or she lives. 



But among educational subjects the palm, I think, belongs to language, if 

 only because language is the subject which stands, by its character as well as by 

 its origin, in the most intimate relation to human nature. Men and women 

 are not generally concerned with questions which can be absolutely and ultim- 

 ately determined. Most questions in life are probable, but not certain ; it is 

 'probability,' as Bishop Butler says, which is 'the very guide of life'; and 

 such, too, are generally linguistic questions. They do not admit of certainty, 

 they can be decided only probably, and the decision of them requires tact, judg- 

 ment, and feeling. That is the reason why the school of languages is called 

 Literce Humaniores at Oxford. Language is the one pre-eminently human or 

 humane study. 



But it is evident that different languages, as instruments of education, may 

 stand on different grounds. 



English boys and girls cannot afford to be ignorant of their own language 

 or literature or history. For they use every day the English language; their 

 minds are fed by English literature ; and the past history of their country affords 

 them guidance in the present and the future. 



Foreign languages on the other hand are practically useful in the relation of 

 Englishmen to other nations. It is possible that these languages will become 

 less important as the English language spreads over the world. But for the 

 present at least a knowledge of some modern language is desirable, not only as a 

 means of mental discipline but also as a means of intercommunication. One 

 modern language at least, then, may fairly be regarded as entering into 'the basis 

 of secondary education ; and that language at the present time would naturally 

 be French, although much is to be said for German, and something for Spanish. 



The educational difference between languages and other subjects is, I think, 

 more clearly marked than the difference between one language and another. 

 Whatever intellectual benefit is derivable from an ancient language may in a 

 greater or less degree be derive'd from a modern language. But it has been 

 shown by many writers, as. for instance, by J. S. Mill in his Rectorial address 

 at the University of St. Andrews, that a classical language, like ancient history, 

 if only in virtue of its remoteness from present interests, possesses some 

 educational advantage, and this advantage is particularly clear when an ancient 

 language stands in the relation of Latin to the Romance languages or to any con- 

 siderable number of languages in actual use. Latin must therefore enter into the 

 general curriculum, and I attach great value to kpeping Latin as a subject of 

 general study in secondary schools. For the prejudice of parents in the present 

 day against dead languages is unhappily strong. I have spent much of my time 

 in trying to convince parents that their sons would be better educated by the 

 study of Latin, if not of Greek also. It is for this reason that I regret the some- 

 what pedantic insistence upon pronunciation of Latin according to a method 

 which, whether it be historically correct or not, will certainly tell against the 

 universality of Latin as a subject of study. I do not believe the modern pronun- 



