114 KEV. H, COSTLEY WHITE, M.A., ON 



An alert exercise of the faculties is required, and the powers of 

 accuracy, judgment and imagination are sharpened by unavoid- 

 able practice." 



But, after all, what subjects a boy takes or what he rejects is 

 a question of relatively small moment. What really matters 

 is the kind of boy he is. Is he made by his public school life, 

 or is he marred ? It is as a school of character that the pubhc 

 school must stand or fall. To help each boy to become some- 

 thing like what God would have him be — all else is subordinated 

 to this great aim. To this end I think it may fairly be said 

 that many public schoolmasters do their best to acquaint 

 themselves with the most helpful suggestions of modern thought 

 and to utilise them on their boys' behalf. They endeavour 

 to make his lessons interesting to him because lack of interest 

 breeds inattention, inattention idleness, and the various ills of 

 which it is chief mistress. They realise the wisdom of enlisting 

 his interest in music and in art, and create opportunities for the 

 cultivation of these pursuits in order that the emotional and 

 artistic sides of his nature may have free and healthy play, 

 and his impulses may be diverted from harmful modes of 

 expression. 



They encourage games and bodily exercise of all sorts because 

 it is recognised that the glow of a well-breathed body promotes 

 an active mind and begets clean thoughts. Psychology is leading 

 them to a more sympathetic understanding of the soul of the 

 boy ; explaining when and why to make allowances for moral 

 or mental weaknesses and what remedial measures to employ. 

 A newer understanding of the principles of punishment has 

 introduced other methods to dispute the prerogative with that 

 which once alone was understood. We are learning the grounds 

 for being more patient with stupidity, and we are learning more and 

 more to respect each boy as a person rather than as one impersonal 

 and undifferentiated unit in a mass. Nor, I am sure, is any 

 question more deeply pondered by the schoolmaster than that 

 of the religious training of the school. There is essentially a 

 spiritual basis to all our work. The lesson in divinity is a 

 religious lesson ; the sermon and the confirmation class are 

 an integral part of the life of the place. Few subjects are 

 debated by masters and their friends and by old boys in con- 

 ferences and in discussions so keenly and so constantly as how 

 to bring home the power of religion to a boy's heart. The help 

 and advice of men of deepest spiritual experience is sought from 



