602 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
proved its salvation. Even the teachers of ancient classics saw that for strength 
it was necessary to let scientific method permeate the thought of the whole 
population. And now, at the end of the first chapter of Japan’s modern history, 
we find a nation which can not only defend itself, but which retains all of its 
spiritual life which was beautiful. Every unit of the population can not only 
read and write, but it is fond of reading, and its education did not cease when 
it left school. It is getting an increased love for Natural Science, so that it can 
reason clearly; it is not carried away by charlatans; it retains its individuality. 
One result of this is that in time of war Japan has scientific armies. Not only 
are its admirals and generals scientific, but also every officer, every private is 
scientific. Everything in the whole country is being developed scientifically, 
and we Europeans, hag-ridden by pedantry in our schools and universities, refuse 
to learn an easy lesson. At present we do not even ask what is meant by educa- 
tion or what education is necessary if a particular boy is to be fitted for his life’s 
work. In 1902, when I was President of Section G, and in opening a discussion 
on the teaching of mechanics at Johannesburg in 1905, I gave my views as to the 
teaching of a young engineer, but they apply also to the teaching of nearly all 
boys. ‘These views have been commended by experienced engineers and teachers. 
To understand me it is first necessary to try to cast away prejudices, and this is 
especially difficult if one has a pecuniary interest in education. The student of 
almost any other science than education cares for nothing but the truth; even 
when he has committed himself to a theory and his good name or credit is at 
stake the rule of the game is perfectly well known and must be adhered to. The 
student must not neglect fact or pervert fact; he must be quite fair. The 
student of physical science sees at once whether or not he is playing the game, 
because the co-ordinates are few; there are no complexities, such as we find in 
our own life problems. This also is why the study of physical science is so good 
in causing boys to reason, for reasoning can only be taught by constant practice 
on simple matters which one thoroughly comprehends. Consider a boy’s views 
about ordinary affairs. He is downright. A complex thing must be greatly 
simplified to him. His painting is in black-and-white; there is no delicate 
shading in his picture. He never sits on the fence; he is never a trimmer. An 
historical character is awfully good or awfully bad, very clever or very stupid. 
A boy is, in fact, cocksure about everything. He is incapable of reasoning about 
complex things. And when we try to teach him to reason about simple things 
we must be quite sure that they really are simple to him, that he understands 
them. For example, many educationists say that the study of geometry is just 
right for a boy. Well, yes, for five per cent. of all boys, boys who can take in 
abstract ideas. They take to Euclid as a duck takes to water. But for the other 
ninety-five per cent. geometry is very hurtful, because unless they continually 
experiment with rulers and compasses they do not understand what the reason- 
ing is about. In ancient times only very old and exceptionally clever men were 
allowed to study geometry. We now assume that it ought to be an easy study 
for the average English boy. Generation after generation we stupefy the average 
English boy with demonstrative geometry, and we call him a duffer so often that 
he thinks himself a duffer, and even his mother thinks him a duffer, and, indeed, 
we have done our best with geometry and Latin to make him a duffer. Only 
for his football and cricket, which teach him to reason a little, he would ‘become 
a duffer. And yet in my opinion if this average boy were properly taught in 
school he would prove to be very superior to the boy who is usually called clever 
The schoolmaster calls a boy clever because he is exactly like what the school- 
master himself was when a boy; but I am afraid that I place little value on the 
schoolmaster’s cleverness, whether as a boy or a man. Reasoning can be taught 
through almost anything that a boy does, but more than all things through his 
experiments in Natural Science. Formal lessons on reasoning, on logic, are 
utterly useless, and I may say that set lessons on almost any subject are utterly 
useless for the average boy. 
Milton’s poems are greatly praised. Well, I am not going to say a word 
against the people who talk in public about the most wonderful epic 
in our language and who never read it; but how many people have read 
Milton’s magnificent prose works? Milton first taught me the true notion of 
education, that the greatest mistake is in teaching subjects in watertight com- 
partments. Jt is the idea underlying one of the most instructive books ever 
