June 25, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



929 



of Latin and Greek. "We know the result — 

 the number of persons above school age 

 who can and do read either language is 

 negligible. Some of us learn French, 

 scarcely any learn German, Spanish is all 

 but neglected : when, therefore, we visit the 

 Continent of Europe or South America we 

 can only mumble a few words of the lan- 

 guage of the country, and usually allow the 

 foreigner we visit to speak broken English 

 for us : few of us read his literature. 



The vain attempt is made to put us in 

 touch with the past, but no real effort is 

 exerted to bring us into contact with the 

 present. We have not yet taught English 

 in our higher schools, but are beginning to 

 think of doing so — to this end, we are 

 urging that attention be paid to so-called 

 classical literature, forgetting, of course, 

 that for the most part this was written for 

 grown-ups and not as food for babes of 

 school age. 



The difficulty is still greater in the case 

 of those who have only passed through the 

 elementary schools — the literature that will 

 appeal to most of these will be very limited 

 in scope. Our newspapers show pretty 

 clearly what will go down : not much — but 

 it represents what is going on in life. In 

 London, when the theaters are under dis- 

 cussion, it is often said that people want to 

 be amused, not instructed; to cudgel our 

 dull brains is a dull business to most of 

 us. It seems to me that this doctrine should 

 be applied more than it is in the schools. 

 At all events, we shall do well to remember 

 the words of the wise pundit in Eudyard 

 Kipling's "Kim": "Education — greatest 

 blessing when of best sorts — otherwise no 

 earthly use." 



To discover the best sort for each sort of 

 student is our difficulty — who will do it? 

 Here comes my point. Not the present race 

 of schoolmaster or of educational authority. 

 By placing classical scholars in charge, we 



seem unconsciously to have selected men 

 of one particular type of mind for school 

 service — men of the literary type ; and this 

 type has been preferred for nearly all 

 school posts, mainly because no other type 

 has been available, this being the chief 

 product of our universities. Such men, for 

 the most part, have been indifferent to sub- 

 jects and methods other than literary — I 

 verily believe not because they have been 

 positively antagonistic or lacking in sym- 

 pathy, but rather because of their negative 

 antagonism : of an innate inability to appre- 

 ciate the aims and methods of. any other 

 school of thought than their own, especially 

 on account of their entire ignorance of the 

 experimental method. I believe, moreover, 

 that the difference is fundamental and tem- 

 peramental, not to be overcome by training. 

 Oxford, owing to the bait of its classical 

 scholarships, seems to have attracted an 

 entirely peculiar type of ability and to 

 stand alone in consequence; at Cambridge, 

 owing to the hold obtained by mathematics, 

 the field has been divided, but the mathe- 

 matician, in his way, is often as unprac- 

 tical by nature as the classic; fortunately, 

 of late years, owing to the rise of the medi- 

 cal school and that of natural science, other 

 elements have been introduced and the uni- 

 versity has a future of infinite promise in 

 consequence, if it will but realize that its 

 primary function is to inculcate wisdom 

 rather than to give purely professional 

 training. 



Sympathy is only begotten of under- 

 standing; the literary type of mind appar- 

 ently does not and can not sympathize with 

 the practical side of modern scientific in- 

 quiry, because it has neither knowledge of 

 the methods of experimental science nor the 

 faintest desire for such knowledge. 



We need a more practical type of mind 

 for our schools. Pessimist though I may 

 appear to be, having watched with close 



