WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR SCHOLARS ? 21 1 
to add, of the Sinaitic Arabs, and Beduin of the Tih. And yet 
from time to time we are horribly shocked to find such ghastly 
doings at rabbit courses, as Col. Coulson exposed by the banks 
of coaly Tyne among the men of Northumberland, last year. 
We are troubled by the barbarity that sometimes attends the 
royal stag hunt, and we are perplexed by the want of humanity 
which, it is to be feared, allows hecatombs of victims to be 
tortured in the name of humanity and scientific desire to 
alleviate pain. 
Let us just ask ourselves where we are to begin if we are to 
cope with such power of cruelty as seems compatible with a 
high civilization. The pulpit seems to have failed ; organi- 
zations such as the Selborne Society, the Society for Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals, and others, seem to avail chiefly with 
those who are already on the right side. And yet if rve may 
judge by the horrors of cruelty to children that have in this past 
year come to light, steps need to be taken vigorously and 
effectually to rouse feelings of kindness and humanity to the 
innocent and helpless, and to disseminate from earliest years the 
lesson of the tender heart and gentle life broadcast in the souls 
of Englishmen and Englishwomen. Where shall we begin ? with 
English girls and boys; nay, with English infants, say I. Let 
us do what we can in our schools — National, Board, and Volun- 
tary — to teach and preach the elementary duty of kindness. 
“To all 
Who need our kindness, for this simple cause 
That we have all of us one feeling heart.” 
Let prizes be given for essays from year to year on this 
subject to the scholars. Let the old May festivals be revived 
throughout the land, and the May Queen publish her edict 
against cruelty to animals each year upon her coronation day. 
Let the reading-books used in our schools be chosen, because 
some of the chapters deal with this subject. But most of all let 
us call out the powers of “ the eye that cannot choose but see,” 
and stimulate the habits of observation of the children in the 
direction of Natural History. 
Why not encourage the scholars to know the flowers of the 
neighbourhood, their habitat, their time of coming and going, 
their nature, their mode of propagation ? Why not give some 
little prize to the scholar who first notes the arrival of this or 
that migrant, and bit by bit so rouse the dormant love of obser- 
vation of the things of nature as to add to the lives of the 
lowliest a great and life-long interest. 
Is it asking too much of County Councils to help us to have 
little patches for experimental gardening near our schools, and 
a drawing class wherein children may be encouraged to draw 
accurately the plant and animal life of their districts. The 
Technical Education Act, with its continuation class in every 
school, seems to be likely to supply a want here. 
In this way the gentle life of our scholars may be educated, 
