598 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
were cruel. The Black Prince is typical; think of his courtesy to King John of 
France, and then think of his destruction of the persons and property of all the 
peasantry in those large regions of France which he covered with his marauding 
soldiers. This kind of chivalry, which is never exhibited to a lower class than 
one’s own, has its beauty, but it does not suit a democracy; it requires that there 
should be a lower class than its own. The Spartans needed their helots. The 
Southern planter in America had fine manners, but he could not have cultivated 
them if there had been no slaves and mean whites. It is a well-known fact that 
some years before the Civil War in America it was seriously proposed by 
prominent Southerners to make slaves of the ‘mean,’ that is, the poor whites. 
The chivalrous Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun showed but little knowledge of his 
countrymen when he formed his plan for reducing a large part of the working 
classes of Scotland to slavery. Public school form may sit not unhandsomely 
upon country gentlemen or any rich men who have many servants or tenants or 
other dependents, but it does not sit at all well upon poorer men, for it puts them 
out of sympathy with people among whom they must work. It is heartbreaking 
when associated with the poverty of a man looking for work in places where he 
has no influential friends, as it is nearly always associated with illiteracy and want 
of wisdom, with helplessness and with disinclination to learn. Nobody doubts 
that a modern country gentleman is much more polished than Squire Western or 
Squire Lumpkin, but he has much the same opinions and forms them in the same 
way. The manners of a young officer are certainly superior to those of Ensign 
Northerton, but he is in much the same state of ignorance.! 
We ask the schools for mental power as of old one asked for bread, and they 
give us a stone. No doubt public school form is a beautiful stone, a diamond; 
but we want some bread as well, even if it were only in the Falstaffian proportion 
of bread to sack. For my part I do not see why the average boy at school 
should not have reasoning power and a love for reading and knowledge as well as 
good manners, and this is why I ask for a great reform in our schools. We want 
from the school what Nature has not been accustomed to give, and what home 
life cannot give, the development of the intellect, and the school fails to give it 
in ninety-five out of every 100 cases. The great danger in school life is that 
it may hurt individuality, originality, because a boy, however harum-scarum, is 
naturally conventional and imitative. Good form comes easily therefore, and the 
master 1s more than satisfied, he is proud. He often speaks of it as character, 
but he is quite wrong. Character comes from home life, not from school life, 
which indeed is rather antagonistic to character. It comes from contact with 
fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, relations and friends. School life 
tends to induce a contempt for the lower classes and a slavish admiration of 
*The Report of the Commission on the Education and Training of 
Officers of the Army (1902) is well worth study. Dr. Maguire, the most ex- 
perienced coach, said, as a witness :—‘ Latin, as taught to the average schoolboy, 
is pure waste of time, and does not develop intelligence or tend to breadth 
of culture in the least or facilitate the acquisition of modern languages.’ . 
‘The prominence of ancient classics in English schools and the large proportion 
of youthful years devoted to failure in regard to them explain the stupidity 
and incapacity of their pupils as compared with the same class of persons in 
other advanced communities.’ . . . ‘They [classics] are kept in such vogue to 
suit the convenience of languid schoolmasters who can teach nothing else, and 
for no other reason whatever.’ He spoke of ‘ the absurd anachronism of lazy 
and costly schools, which rendered so many of us ignorant of the very subjects 
which are generally useful and interesting.” He said: ‘but our educational 
system all round is utter folly at best.’ Speaking of English Universities, 
‘the whole system is a grievous absurdity.’ ‘‘“‘ Society ’’ and snobbery are the 
curses of England.’ 
This address was delivered in Australia when we had been at war with 
Germany for three weeks. It was written eight months before. I told my 
audience that.the printed proofs which were in their hands contained state- 
ments meant only for good, which might be harmful in time of war, so I left 
much of it unsaid. In this page I have deleted a long paragraph concerning 
young English officers. 
