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I find some difficulty in replying to <?, f, g, h, for want 

 of an accepted definition of the phrases " a successful 

 school," "the race," "good examining," and of the syllabus 

 that would suit every possible kind of boy. It is quite true 

 (i) that parents should see that children are not overworked 

 at home : but why have a system such that the parents have 

 to interfere with the tendency of the school influence ? I 

 quite think there should be less home-work ; in fact agree 

 with a lady friend's suggestion that the " teachers " should 

 "teach" her boys their lessons, and she would have much 

 pleasure in hearing them. To discuss (k) the broad question 

 of human motive would occupy too long, but assuming that 

 this is generally individual profit or advantage, I think it will 

 be admitted that to work for the advantage conferred by the 

 work itself, as in the American schools, is a higher motive 

 and forms a better training than working for a bribe, in the 

 sense of a reward not actually a product of the work performed. 

 I am glad that Dr. Sheldon deprecates emulation or com- 

 petition in schools. Though competition is, according to 

 Darwin, the plan by which Nature builds, and though one 

 usually thinks it right that the best man should win, I 

 believe it is, partly at least, because under the present 

 examination system often the best man does not win, that 

 competition is to be deprecated. Memory and "knack" win, but 

 mind is often beaten ; and it would seem that the success of 

 memory without mind tends to a somewhat egotistical product. 

 I may note here, as perhaps in part due to this, a certain 

 tendency toward egotism in modern literature. The older 

 scientific writers, for instance, had sympathy : they talked with 

 you : they loved their subjects, and loved you because you 

 loved them. The modern Doctor of Science lectures at you. 

 Egotism seems to be a fashion of the age, which education 

 might well discountenance in returning towards the habit of an 

 older time. Consider the difference between Shakespeare 

 and Tennyson. In the abandon of the older writer the ego is so 

 invisible as to permit his very individuality to be doubted. He 

 may be Bacon : he may be somebody else. He has been 



