266 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
order of the world. In Dr. Lloyd Morgan’s happy phraseology, the 
behaviour of an organism involves chemical and physical factors, but 
depends on the ‘emergent’ quality which may properly be distin- 
guished as life. If that be the case, life may well exhibit throughout 
its range the creativeness which, I have suggested, is one of its essen- 
tial characters. My educational argument does not stand or fall in 
accordance with the truth or the falsity of this view; but if the view 
were well founded the significance of the creative element in human 
life would be made clear beyond dispute, and the general force of the 
argument would be greatly strengthened. 
The foregoing discussion has wandered some distance from the 
class-room. Nevertheless it has, I think, a close bearing upon the 
questions what ought to be taught and in what spirit the teaching 
should be given. The curriculum, we have seen, always will be a 
partial reflection of the actual life and traditions of a community, and 
ought to reflect all the elements therein which have the greatest and 
most permanent value and significance. Without doubt these will, in 
general, be the things that have the highest significance and value for 
the human family as a whole, but there can hardly be said to be a 
common human tradition. There exists, it is true, a common European 
tradition based mainly upon the Greco-Roman and Christianity, and 
it is vastly important for the happiness of the world to deepen and vivify 
men’s consciousness of it. But even this lacks the concreteness needed 
to form the basis of popular education—as is seen by contemplation of 
France and England, two nations that have grown up in it and have 
influenced one another strongly for centuries, and yet have perfectly 
distinctive cultures. In short, a nation is the largest social unit whose 
ethos has the necessary individuality. Hence, though we should aim 
at making our young people ‘ good Europeans,’ we can do so only by 
shaping them into that particular brand of good Europeans who are 
rightly to be called good Englishmen. Their education should be, in 
Professor Campagnac’s illuminating phrase, a ‘ conversation with the 
world,’ but the conversation must, in the main, be conducted in the 
native idiom. Hence the importance of fostering in our elementary 
schools the special traits of the English character at its best; of giving 
English letters a chief place among the studies of our youth; of cherish- 
ing the English traditions in the arts and crafts, including our once 
proud art of music; even (as Mr. Cecil Sharp rightly urges) of reviving 
the old dances which were so gracious and typical an expression of our 
native gaiety and manners. Lest this contention should be misunder- 
stood I add that I preach neither the hateful doctrine that what is 
foreign should, as such, be excluded, nor the ignorant and presumptuous 
doctrine that what is our own is necessarily the best, and that we have 
nothing to learn from other peoples. The whole burden of my argu- 
ment is that the things which have universal human value are the 
things of most importance in education. But the universal can be 
apprehended only where it lives in concrete embodiments. In the 
cases we are concerned with, these are elements or organs of a national 
culture; and the only national culture to which a child has direct and 
intimate access is hisown. He should be taught to see, as opportunity 
