42 
Magazine  of  the  School  of  Agriculture. 
educationalists  of  the  day — Huxley  and  Spencer 
and  Playfair  and  a host  of  other  authorities — 
as  “bookish,”  “unpractical,”  “ one-sided,”  “ aim- 
less,” and  altogether  unsuited  to  the  industrial 
needs  of  the  present  day.  Could  there  be  a more 
sweeping  condemnation  of  the  classical  system 
of  teaching  that  obtains  in  the  public  schools  in 
England — of  which  our  best  schools  are  but  a poor 
copy — than  that  pronounced  by  Canon  Farrar? 
In  a lecture  delivered  before  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution, Canon  Farrar,  once  Headmaster  of  Har- 
row, and  for  1,3  years  a classical  teacher, 
thus  expresses  his  deliberate  opinion,  arrived  at 
in  the  teeth  of  the  strongest  possible  bins  and 
prejudice  in  the  opposite  direction — arrived  at 
with  the  fullest  possible  knowledge  of  every 
single  argument  which  may  be  urged  on  the  other 
side.  “ I must  avow,”  he  says,  “my  distinct  convic- 
tion that  our  present  system  of  exclusively  classi- 
cal education  as  a whole,  and  carried  on  as  we  do 
carry  it  on,  is  a deplorable  failure.  I say  it, 
knowing  that  the  words  are  strong  words,  but 
not  without  having  considered  them  well.  1 say 
it  because  that  system  has  been  weighed  in 
the  balance  and  found  wanting.  It  is  no 
epigrum  but  a simple  fact  to  say  that  classical 
education  neglects  all  the  powers  of  some  minds 
and  some  of  the  powers  of  all  minds.” 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  disparage  the  education 
to  which,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  circum- 
stance, I owe  my  present  position  and  even  the 
honor  of  appearing  before  you  today  as  a Marsh 
Lecturer.  I am  not  so  ungrateful  to  my  Alma 
Mater  as  to  desire  to  lower  by  a single  atom  the 
standard  of  classical  teaching  in  the  only  Govern- 
ment High  School  we  possess — the  Roynl  College. 
But  while  retaining  the  present  curriculum  for  the 
highest  forms  which  comprise  perhaps  most  of 
the  boys  who  are  preparing  for  the  Universities 
or  for  a liberal  profession,  I see  no  reason  why 
every  boy  should  be  passed  through  the  same 
mill  whatever  his  future  destination.  The  old 
plea  which  was  accepted  hitherto  ns  sufficient 
to  justify  the  retention  of  an  exclusively  classical, 
or  a combined  classical  and  literary  training — 
namely,  its  value  as  the  only  known  means  of 
intellectual  discipline- — does  not  hold  any  longer. 
Science*.  Art  and  even  Manual  Training  has 
been  found  to  answer  equally  well  in  a vast 
number  of  schools  both  in  Europe  and  America, 
as  a means  of  intellectual  training,  aye,  and  even 
superior  to  the  classical  system  in  many  respects, 
since  they  embrace  a harmonious  all  round  educa- 
tion fitted  to  cultivate  all  the  powers  of  body 
and  mind  equally,  while  the  latter  stimulates 
and  exercises  but  a few  of  the  mental  faculties 
only. — memory  and  imagination  and  reason. 
But  a very  small  proportion  of  the  boys  of 
our  schools  can  hope  to  enter  the  learned  pro- 
fessions or  proceed  to  complete  their  Collegiate 
education  at  a University,  and  already  the  cry 
is  heard  on  every  side  that  the  professions  are 
over-crowded.  The  same  complaint  is  made  with 
regard  to  the  Clerical  Service,  in  Mercantile 
Offices,  in  Banking  Establishments.  The  supply 
is  even  greater  than  the  demand,  salaries  are 
cut  down  almost  to  starvation  point,  and  in 
the  keen  competition  for  the  smallest  vacant 
office  the  worst  passions  are  aroused,  while  the 
man  who  is  most  to  bo  pitied  is  the  one  whose 
Jot  is  envied  most  by  Ids  unlucky  competitors, 
the  respectable  clerk  or  book-keeper  who  has  to 
keep  up  a decent  appearance  and  provide  for  his 
family  on  the  salary  of — a butler  ! 1 who  have  had 
more  opportunities  perhaps  than  any  one  else  in 
this  room  to  know  what  hardships  and  misery 
are  being  silently  undergone  by  hundreds  of 
families  in  our  midst,  with  the  bread-winner  thrown 
out  of  employment  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
or  striving  desperately  to  keep  body  and  soul 
together  on  a miserable  pittance,  thanks  to  the 
cast-iron  system  of  education  which  sends  him 
out  into  the  world  with  no  better  preparation 
for  the  work  of  life  than  a knowledge  of  the 
three  R’s — the  only  working  tools  he  possesses, 
or  at  most  a smattering  of  “ little  Latin  and  less 
Greek,”  I cannot  find  words  strong  enough  to 
express  my  burning  sense  of  indignation  at  the 
cruel  wrong  and  injustice  done  to  our  children 
by  the  perpetuation  of  our  unpractical,  aimless, 
antiquated  and  altogether  defective  system  of 
teaching. 
When  will  our  teachers  and  educational  re- 
formers recognize  that  the  object  of  true  education 
is  not  mental  discipline  only,  but  a prepara- 
tion for  the  whole  work  of  life,  needing  the 
cultivation  of  all  the  faculties  and  powers  of 
body  and  mind — that  the  end  to  be  attained  is 
not  culture  merely  but  practical  porcet — not  dead 
knowledge  crammed  from  books  but  living  know- 
ledge derived  from  life  and  experience  ? 
All  education  is  development  it  is  true ; but 
the  mistake  generally  made  is  to  limit  it  to 
mental  development,  and  to  ignore  what  should 
properly  precede  and  follow',  mental  training — 
physical  development.  The  unfolding  of  the 
orgausof  the  senses  and  the  powers'  of  the  body,  and 
manual  culture  or  skill  in  handling  and  dexterity 
in  the  use  of  tools  when  these  powers  and  organs 
are  sufficiently  developed  to  act  as  fit  instruments 
for  the  mind,  leading  to  creative  power  and  con- 
structive activity  ; thirdly,  aesthetic  training  or  the 
development  of  the  sense  of  the  beautiful  and  a 
perception  of  the  laws  of  Rhythm  and  Harmony 
comprised  in  Drawing  and  Painting  and  Music ; 
fourthly,  scientific  training,  to  satisfy  the  craving 
to  know'  to  search  into  the  causes  of  things,  to  in- 
quire into  the  meaning  of  things,  into  the  Nature 
and  uses  of  the  phenomena  of  the  Universe,  and 
from  the  world  of  Nature  around  us  to  the  world 
of  Nature  within, — to  the  study  of  humanity  and 
through  various  stages  to  the  study  of  self-con- 
sciousness and  the  consciousness  of  the  Divine. 
It  may  be  long  before  our  present  school  sys- 
tem w'ill  be  reorganized  in  accordance  with  the 
teachings  of  Science  : but  would  it  be  too  much 
to  expect  such  a modification  in  our  existing 
school  curricula  ns  to  establish  at  least  a relation- 
ship between  school  work  and  the  occupations  of 
after  school  life.  Would  it  not  be  possible  to 
introduce  elementary  technical  instruction  into 
every  elementary  school  including  Drawiug,  Phy- 
sical Drill,  Gardening  and  Singing  Object  lessons 
in  elementary  science  and  elementary  wroodwrork, 
such  as  the  Sloyd  or  Swedish  system,  so  success- 
fully introduced  into  English  schools,  and  as  I 
know  even  into  very  many  girls’  schools  ? The 
same  or  similar  studies  but  in  more  advanced 
stages  could  be  carried  successively  and  continu- 
ously through  each  class  and  division  of  each 
school  to  the  highest  forms  of  the  highest  schools. 
While  a Manual  Training  school  in  wffiich  chil- 
