i87i HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS ADVERSARIES 377 



— I may say, of oratory — not only on his own scientific subjects, 

 but on all the matters, many of which were of great practical 

 interest and touched the deepest feelings, which came before 

 the Board at that critical time. Had he chosen — and we heard 

 at that time that he was considering whether he should choose 

 — to enter political life, it would certainly have made him a 

 great power, possibly a leader, in that sphere. Next, what con- 

 stantly appears in his writings, even those of the most polemical 

 kind — a singular candour in recognising truths which might 

 seem to militate against his own position, and a power of under- 

 standing and respecting his adversaries' opinions, if only they 

 were strongly and conscientiously held. I remember his saying 

 on one occasion that in his earlier experience of sickness and 

 suffering, he had found that the most effective helpers of the 

 higher humanity were not the scientist or the philosopher, but 

 " the parson, and the sister, and the Bible woman." Lastly, the 

 strong commonsense, which enabled him to see what was 

 " within the range of practical politics," and to choose for the 

 cause which he had at heart the line of least resistance, and to 

 check, sometimes to rebuke, intolerant obstinacy even on the 

 side which he was himself inclined to favour. These qualities 

 over and above his high intellectual ability made him, for the 

 comparatively short time that he remained on the Board, one 

 of its leading members. 



No less vivid is the impression left, after many years, 

 upon another member of the first School Board, the Rev. 

 Benjamin Waugh, whose life-long work for the children is so 

 well known. From his recollections, written for the use of 

 Professor Gladstone, it is my privilege to quote the follow- 

 ing paragraphs : — 



I was drawn to him most, and was influenced by him most, 

 because of his attitude to a child. He was on the Board to 

 establish schools for children. His motive in every argument, 

 in all the fun and ridicule he indulged in, and in his occasional 

 anger, was the child. He resented the idea that schools were to 

 train either congregations for churches or hands for factories. 

 He was on the Board as a friend of children. What he sought 

 to do for the child was for the child's sake, that it might live a 

 fuller, truer, worthier life. If ever his great tolerance with men 

 with whom he differed on general principles seemed to fail him 

 for a moment, it was because they seemed to him to seek other 

 ends than the child for its own sake. . . . 



