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ibMe Class (^bnatmi.
WHAT TO AIM AT, AS WELL AS HOW TO AIM.
BY
WILLIAM ELLIS.
�MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
WHAT TO AIM AT, AS WELL AS HOW TO AIM.
N hearing that a Commission was
about to issue to inquire into the
state of “Middle-Class Education,”
one’s thoughts could not but revert
to the previous Commissions for in
quiring into the state of “Popular Education,”
and of our “ Public Schools,” and to the reports
consequent upon them.
Searching and laborious as these inquiries were,
and able as were the reports, it has always ap
peared to us, that they would have been much
more effective and useful, had there been an in
troductory exposition of the purposes for which
education is desirable. We will not say that these
purposes were not perceived and admitted by the
Commissioners; but, if they were, the avowal of
them was repressed, and the reports might have
been just what they were, had the Commissioners
never bestowed a thought upon what we conceive
to be the reason of our being at any pains about
education at all.
Whether our attempts to improve the education
of the children of the poorer classes have of late
been too ambitious—whether we have not been
doing actual mischief by “ over-education” (what
ever that term may mean)—whether we shall
have accomplished all that is desirable, when we
shall have secured for these children instruction
in reading, writing, and arithmetic—whether in
our public schools the time of the boy is not too
exclusively devoted to the classics and mathe
matics—whether more importance should not be
attached to the knowledge of some modern lan
guages—whether a little attention should not be
bestowed upon physical science—and whether
the subjects taught, whatever they may be, are
taught in the way best adapted to secure profi
ciency in the learners, are all matters which have
been handled by the Commissioners, but, as we
think, less effectively than they might have been,
if examined and discussed throughout, with the
aid of the light and guidance to be obtained by
keeping constantly in view the purposes for which
the work of education of any kind ought to be
engaged in.
As regards the relative claims of the ancient
and modern languages, it would be premature to
discuss them till it has been settled whether the
study of objects and phenomena should precede
and accompany the study of language, or follow
after it. If objects and phenomena are to have
precedence, modern languages might command a
preference, in as much as they alone supply the
names and explanations of the larger part of the
objects and phenomena, which in these days
principally engage our attention; and these lan
guages are more immediately needful in the in
tercourse among nations. But if instruction in
objects and phenomena is to be put aside, whetner
temporarily or for ever, for the study of language,
we suspect that our preference would be bestowed
upon the ancient languages, in as much as they
are more difficult to learn, and are seldom learned
so as to be conversed in, and hence scholars are
less liable to suffer from a flow of words in advance
of ideas. This is not to be despised as one of the
collateral advantages of teaching ancient rather
than modern languages. For the opportunity of
accumulating stores of words irrespective of any
ideas to be represented by them, is one of the
greatest dangers to which the juvenile intellect
can be exposed; as a facility in pouring them
forth is one of the greatest impediments in the
way of curing those who are afflicted with confu
sion or bewilderment of understanding.
In considering the question, how far the study
of language should be allowed to precede the
study of objects and phenomena, it will not be
lost sight of that the objects and phenomena
which are treated of in the books out of which
the young are expected to acquire practice in
reading, to learn construction of sentences, and
to study models of style, are men, and their con
duct, and manners. Narratives, histories, biogra
phies, and poetry are made up of words denotative
of the dispositions, attainments, and actions of
men—which words are made more or less to im
ply approbation and disapprobation, whether upon
grounds which will stand examination, is often a
mattei' of contention among men of great experi
ence. Boys may read and write, and construe
and parse the phrases in which these words occur.
Can they judge whether the words are appropri
ately used ? Take such words as virtue, honour,
prudence, liberty, despotism, perseverance, obsti
nacy, earnestness, bigotry, consistency, orthodoxy,
�MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
heresy, conversion, perversion, generosity, fidelity,
parsimony, justice, and mercy; is it desirable that
learners should be encouraged to deal freely in
their youthful compositions with terms intended
to express approbation and disapprobation, the
grounds of which they may not only be incapable
of understanding, but careless to inquire into ?
There are teachers, men excellent in many
respects, and accomplished scholars too, who seem
to act upon the notion that inquirers, such as
ourselves, who have never taken a part in school
work, are not qualified to form or express a judg
ment upon what professional educators are doing.
We cannot proclaim too loudly our dissent from
this doctrine. Even if we are not competent to
judge of the means by which the ends of educa
tion may best be attained, we are competent to
judge what those ends are. Stated broadly, few
people (teachers included) would hesitate to admit
that they ought gladly to welcome anynewarrangements, or modifications of existing arrangements,
calculated to bring about an increase of well-being.
Teachers who resist attempts to inquire into their
proceedings, insist, by implication, that education
in their hands is doing all that can be expected
from it in behalf of the advancement of well-being.
They tell us, that the distinguished promoters of
education in the olden times were no less desirous
than ourselves of improving society, and were
well qualified for directing the work which they
originated, and that it would ill become us to call
in question that which has earned the approval,
and even the veneration of all subsequent teachers,
and of the scholars educated under them.
These objections, founded as they are upon the
tacit assumption that the arrangements for educa
tion of olden times are so near perfection, as not
to be susceptible of improvement—as not to war
rant inquiry, lest inquiry should lead to change
which should not be improvement,—suggest some
rather startling comparisons and reflections. Can
it be true, that the profession of educator, acknow
ledged to be one requiring attainments of the
highest order, should have reached perfection at
a time when all other professions were so far
removed from it as later improvements have
shown them to have been? People engaged in
all professions and branches of business, educators
included, are, we will say, contributing their ser
vices to the best of their ability towards the im
provement of society. Their predecessors were
aidingin the same work. In every department of
industry, unless we except education, although
the end sought for is, as heretofore, human well
being, the means by which it is sought are now
very different.
3
We are not more anxious for artificial light
than our ancestors were; but we are better pro
vided with it, because we have substituted coalgas for oil and tallow candles. In like manner,
with no greater anxiety than before, for rapid
and safe travelling, we have abandoned posting
and fast coaches for the locomotive and the rail
way. With the same purposes as before, the
semaphore has been made to give way to the
electric telegraph, and we obtain the motive power
to propel our ships across the ocean, not from
the fickle and intractable wind, but from steam
extracted from the very water which floats them.
The scholars, divines, and other educators of
the people, do not rank themselves, as far as we
have become acquainted with their sentiments,
nor are they ranked by others, below the classes
who have succeeded in providing us so much
better than formerly with light, and locomotion,
and intercommunication. According to them,
and quite in conformity with our own views, the
highest order of intelligence, and the highest
order of moral excellence, ought to be found
among those who are entrusted with the duty
of forming the minds and characters of others.
But surely it may reasonably be doubted whether
the higher attainments of educators can have
sprung into perfection at a time when the inferior
attainments were still so incompletely developed.
Why, then, should there be any backwardness
among educators, we will not say, in admitting
that the system and methods adopted and adhered
to by them ought to be changed, but in allowing
us to inquire whether they have attained perfec
tion in their own most arduous vocation—that of
bringing to bear with the greatest skill the highest
knowledge, for the purpose of fitting the young
to work out and enjoy well-being?
An inquiry into prevailing education, with a
view to ascertain how far it is accomplishing all
that can be expected from it, can be scarcely
approached with much prospect of striking out
anything of practical utility, unless it be preceded
by a correct appreciation of the state of society, in
which the education is actually at work. It may
then be possible to form some estimate of the
influence for good which education has hitherto
exerted over the well-being thus far enjoyed, and
of how much more it might be made to exercise
in future, and to point out some of the changes
by which this greater good is to be effected.
We will set out by proposing two questions,
about the answers to which there can be no
difference of opinion : —
1. Are the present inhabitants of this country,
as compared with their predecessors, on the whole
�4
MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
better informed, and more capable of applying their
knowledge so as to promote well-being, and hence
in the enjoyment of a happier state of existence ?
2. Is the present state of existence, chequered
as we see it, with pleasure and pain, joy and
sorrow, hope and fear, susceptible of improvement,
that is, open to improvement through anyexertions
of which men themselves are capable ?
W e assume that there is a perfect unanimity
upon the answers to these questions, and that the
answers are in the affirmative ; and in so doing,
we are not forgetful that less than a century ago,
the superiority of the savage to the civilized state
was maintained with great vehemenc.e by advo
cates of considerable ability, who had many
adherents. But the remarkable increase of know
ledge, and the still more remarkable increase of
aptitude in applying knowledge to purposes of
well-being in these latter days, have swept before
them all predilections in favour of barbarism, and
the ingenious sophisms on which they rested.
Unanimity begins to disappear when means
are proposed for bringing about that improved
state of existence which is admitted to be possible ;
and it is to the consideration of these means that
we wish to invite attention. As, however, it is ac
cepted as an established fact, that our present state
of existence is an improvement upon the past, the
knowledge, if obtainable, of the means by which
that improvement was effected, may help us in our
endeavours to learn how those who are disposed
to engage in the work, may hope to bring about
the further improvement agreed to be possible.
There can be little doubt, if proposals were
widely circulated, inviting expositions of the
means by which the inhabitants of Great Britain
have acquired a so much more comfortable state
of existence than that which was enjoyed by the
inhabitants of this island previous to the invasion
of the Romans, that the expositions tendered
would vary greatly in many respects. And yet,
we fancy, accordance or similarity in some respects
would be traceable in them all. Not one would
deny that the earth is made to produce greater
crops, and to sustain greater numbers of sheep
and cattle; that, with the assistance of wind,
water, and steam, the raw products of the soil are
worked up into a greater quantity and variety of
fabrics adapted to give comfort, health, and plea
sure ; that our means of transport, locomotion,
and communication are superior; our supplies
of fuel, water, and light are more abundant; and
that we are better provided with the means of
preserving health, and of keeping off or mitigating
the painful consequences of accidents and disease.
As little would it be denied that modern supe
riority in the matters named, and in many others
is partly a consequence of the greater extent of
our knowledge, of the continued accumulation
of knowledge upon knowledge, and of the substi
tution of real knowledge for that which had been
mistaken for it.
When from the possession of knowledge, we
pass on to that of readiness or aptitude in applying
it, doubts may be felt whether there has been any
or much advance in that. It might be contended
that the greatly increased produce of industry
which we enjoy, is sufficiently accounted for by
the increase of our knowledge, and that there is
no justification for claiming more than the same
readiness and aptitude in applying our increased
knowledge, than were to be seen in the application
of our lesser knowledge. We will defer awhile
any attempt to decide between the supporters of
these opposite views. Other investigations which
we have to make, may help us to a right decision
upon this question. We shall be satisfied for the
present with the admission, which cannot be
withheld, that knowledge, combined with the capa
city of applying it in the production of the
necessaries and comforts of life, is more advanced,
and also more generally diffused, than it ever was
at any former period ; and to confirm the truth of
this statement, we need but point to the greater
abundance of wealth.
Wealth, however, is not well-being. It is only
a means of well-being. But we must bear in
mind that although it is only one among many
means of well-being, it is an indispensable one,
since well-being without wealth is impossible.
Nevertheless, how far wealth will contribute to
well-being must depend upon the manner in which
it is used or consumed.
The terms in common use to denote many kinds
of ill-conduct, such as profligacy, dissipation,
debauchery, uncharitableness, and gambling, all
point to the ill-conduct, not of individuals, de
void, but of individuals possessed of wealth.
They indicate a belief that wealth, an indispen
sable element of well-being, may be converted
into an instrument for the production of misery.
Not only may a large income, which the heir to
it could not have earned, and has not the capa
city to use, help him to no well-being; it may
hurry him into misery. Experience has shown
us that increased wages in particular channels of
industry, resulting from other causes than the
increased attainments of workmen, have not
assisted them to become better parents, or better
conducted men in other respects. While, then,
we accept wealth as an indispensable element in
well-being, we ought not to forget that wealth
�MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
must be accompanied by the capacity to use it, if
a state of well-being is to be enjoyed.
\ An inquiry into the causes of increased well
being really becomes, if we would avoid wild and
unmeaning dissertation, an inquiry into the causes
of increased'-wealth, and of increased capacity in
using it so Zs to produce increased well-being.
The number of the inhabitants of Great Britain is
more than ten-fold what it was in the earlier
periph. of its history, and its wealth is more than a
hymdrcd-fold. How has this change been brought
yabout? What causes preceded it? We maybe
r baffled in our attempts to trace the remoter
causes, but we can only hope to get back to them
through the proximate causes. Accordingly, we
had better search for the proximate causes in
the first instance. Among the antecedents and
concomitants of this change, we see many that
are acting as heretofore. The causes of change
• are not to be found in them. As far as we
can learn, the island is not larger, the soil
not more fertile, the powers of water, wind, steam,
and electricity, are not greater, minerals not more
abundant, nor are the various substances scattered
over the land more susceptible of disintegration
and recombination, so as, in the form of a gas, to
suspend sensation, or, in the form of a microscope
or telescope, to bring us acquainted with objects
invisible to the naked eye. If, then, the elements
and forces of nature which prevail around us are
the same as heretofore, except as modified and
directed by human agency, the cause of the differ
ence observable in man’s state of existence must
be sought for in man himself.
And there it will not be sought in vain. For
it cannot be doubted that the men of this genera
tion have more knowledge, with the capacity of
applying it in the production of wealth, than the
men of any previous generation. The more we
reflect upon the increased knowledge of modern
times, with the capacity of using it for the pur
poses of production, the more satisfied shall we
be that we have hit upon the principal, if not the
only, cause of the marked difference between the
present and past states of existence. Powerful
as this cause is, we recognise it in its character
of a proximate cause only, and one which invites
us to continue our search into its cause or causes
among the antecedents which our records of the
past have preserved for us.
At this point attention ought to be steadily fixed
upon what, at first sight, might be considered an in
superable impediment, if not to the progressive, at
least to the rapid uprising of the human race in
the scale of existence. It is needful not only that
man should know more and more, but that the
5
old knowledge should be imparted to the ignorant
new comers, who are destined, in an uninterrupted
stream, to take the place of those already instructed.
The children born among us, with our present
advanced knowledge, are quite as ignorant as
those born two thousand years ago. The causes
which produce such very different men and women
out of the children born among us now from those
of former days, must be sought for in the external
influences brought to bear upon the children. It
would scarcely be contended by anybody, if our
children were to be transplanted at birth to some
distant land to be reared by savages, that they
would grow up to be men and women capable of
participating in the orderly and systematic work
as now conducted under the direction of those who
are most distinguished for knowledge and aptitude.
Our present improved state of well-being implies
not only increase of knowledge and aptitude, but
also opportunities for the ignorant and incapable
continually pouring in upon us to become as
intelligent and capable as those whom they are
destined to replace. How far these opportunities
are the result of contrivances specially intended
to impart knowledge and aptitude, how far they
present themselves undesignedly as inevitable con
sequences of past knowledge and aptitude, and how
far the contrivances specially intended to impart
knowledge and aptitude are adapted for their pur
poses, remain to be inquired into. The growth of
knowledge, or the continual addition of new to
old knowledge, is a subject which there will be
more hope of our approaching successfully if we
reserve it till we have inquired somewhat carefully
into the opportunities which have been hitherto
afforded to each generation to acquire the know
ledge and aptitude of the preceding.
Go where we will, in every 'department of
industry, we see proofs of the increased know
ledge and aptitude of which we have spoken, and
also proofs of the ignorance and ill-conduct more
or less disturbing the operations, and diminishing
and damaging the products, of industry. The
young continually received into existing establish
ments, such as they are, while open to profit by
the knowledge and aptitude, are exposed to suffer
by the ignorance and ill-conduct with which they
are brought into contact. Thus we have simul
taneously before our eyes the increased knowledge
and aptitude which have helped to make us what
we are, and the ignorance and inaptitude lingering
among us to prevent our becoming what we might
be. These may be accepted as indications of the
direction in which efforts ought to be made, still
further to improve the improved state of existence
which has been prepared for us by our predecessors.
�6
MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
The action of government must not be left un
noticed. It stands conspicuous among the proxi
mate causes of well-being. The perfection with
which it accomplishes its purposes may safely be
attributed to the knowledge and aptitude pre
vailing among a people, but is a sufficiently
peculiar manifestation of those qualities to deserve
to be separately investigated.
Our government and institutions, improved as
they have been, and more particularly of late
years, are generally acknowledged to be intended
to make us happier and better—to defend the
well-being which we enjoy, and to encourage us
in our efforts to increase it. They are not sup
posed to be perfect or unimprovable ; but the
parts susceptible of improvement by any process
within the reach of our present capabilities, bear a
small proportion to those which are well adapted
for their purposes. As regards our internal rela
tions, our intercourse with one another, they are
contrived and directed with a view to restrain all
individuals who will not, or can not, regulate their
conduct in conformity with what society in general
considers indispensable for its well-being. As
regards our external relations, our intercourse
with other nations, they are intended to promote
freedom of communication and interchange of
benefits.
A very slight acquaintance with modern history
suffices to make known that a great change has
come over us in our views of what ought to be
the action of government in its bearing upon
both our internal and our external relations.
Restrictions upon freedom and compulsory service
used to be the connection between the government
and the governed. Now the prevailing feeling
is, that the governed should be left unrestricted,
except where interference is clearly called for by
regard for the general well-being, and that the
services of individuals are to be voluntary, not
compulsory. A spirit of rapacity and extortion
used to be the characteristic of our dealings with
other nations ; and ignorance directed this spirit,
so as to lead it away from the very wealth which
it sought to grasp. For we then thought to enrich
ourselves by ruling the inhabitants of other lands,
and monopolising their trade, unable to perceive
that if they were allowed to rule themselves, and
to conduct their industrial and commercial opera
tions as was best for themselves, we should escape
the expense and responsibility of governing them,
and profit more in our trade with them.
Amplification upon these topics is unnecessary
here. It does not admit of a doubt that if the
changes which have taken place of late years in
the spirit and character of our government and
institutions have not been caused, they have been
rendered possible, by the increased knowledge of
the people. And we can scarcely fail to be led to
inquire whether every improvement of which our
government and institutions are susceptible, may
not be obtained through a wider diffusion of know
ledge.
During the growth of our nation there have
been noteworthy events which may have given
the direction to our progress, such as it has been.
The invasion and conquest of this island by the
Romans, the triumph, of William the Conqueror
at Hastings, the expulsion of the Stuarts, the
union of England and Scotland, and the subse
quent union of them with Ireland, are such
events. It is difficult to surmise what the state
of society might be at this moment had events
occurred of an opposite character to these. Again,
stress is sometimes laid upon the influence of our
insular position, of our climate, and of the varied
mineral stores with which we are favoured. We
notice these antecedents and concomitants of our
present state of well-being rather than leave them
unmentioned, lest it should be thought that we
had overlooked them as agents which have acted
and are acting in our favour. It is almost super
fluous, however, to point out that these latter
agents could only have been made to work in our
favour through our own knowledge and our capa
city in applying them. The sea affords facilities
for invasion as well as for defence, and obstructs
as well as promotes comHiercial intercourse.
Extend our inquiries as widely as we will, and
resolve as we may to exclude from our thoughts
nothing that can be supposed to bear upon our
present and future states of well-being, two causes
or agents stand out prominently from among all
the rest: the state of our knowledge, and our apti
tude in applying the knowledge which we have.
And indissolubly united with these chief agents
of well-being is the uninterrupted departure from
among us of the instructed and the capable, and
the arrival in their place of the ignorant and in
capable, to be or not to be made, according as they
are dealt with, instructed and capable.
If we could feel that our present state of well
being was all that we desire and expect, it would
be unreasonable to attempt more than to conserve
and perpetuate the machinery at work among us
for the conversion of ignorant and incapable in
fants into instructed and capable adults. But our
feelings are very different. We are everywhere
in immediate contact with an amount of destitu
tion and misery, which is most distressing to all,
with the exception of that frivolous and unthink
ing crew who would be able, like Nero, to fiddle
�MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
1
while contemplating Rome in flames. Neither be made, not merely for the future, but to com
have we far to seek for causes of much of this pensate for the omissions of the past. The con
destitution. Examples of dishonesty, drunken- sideration of infant, day, evening, Sunday, and
nese, extravagance, dissipation, incapacity, sus adult schools for all classes is embraced in this
pension of work occasioned by disagreements general description, and it is implied that the
between employers and employed, and misuse of later the age at which the work is begun, the
credit, both in giving and taking it, meet our more difficult will it be found. There is no rivalry
eyes in the columns of the daily papers devoted between infant, juvenile, and adult schools, ex
to reports of our police, bankruptcy, and other tended even to universities, the latter being con
courts of law. The culprits and their victims tinuations of, not substitutes, for the education in
thus exposed to view bear but a small proportion the former. The best of university educations is
to those who are partially excused and screened possible only after the best of infant and juvenile
by their friends, but who, nevertheless, surely, teaching and training.
We cannot afford, on this occasion, to enter
though silently, slip out of the ranks of industry,
and sink into dens of filth and corruption, or into the details of school arrangements, whether
directed to the teaching or to the training of the
seek shelter from them in the poorhouse.
The more thoughtful members of society may young. We simply implore the Commissioners
not be all of one mind as to the best means of to direct the inquiry upon which they are about
removing these causes of misery, but they are to enter, with a view to ascertain and to point out
beginning to suspect that, whatever room there the means by which schools may assist in forming
may be for difference of opinion in some respects, boys and girls into capable and well-conducted
the means adopted must comprise contrivances men and women, persuaded that those means are
for removing the ignorance more or less observable to be found if searched for in earnest.
Two opportunities have been lost; there is now
in those who bring suffering upon themselves.
Here we are brought back to the consideration a third. It will be sad, indeed, if, with the signs
of the means by which ignorance and prejudice, of progress in everything else, education is to
or ignorance disguised as knowledge, may be stand apart untouched and unimproved by the
diminished in the future. To contend that many increased powers which observation and experi
of the causes of misery above indicated do not ence have helped us to. There is little to encou
originate in ignorance, but in evil passions and rage us in this tripartite division of education into
depraved dispositions, is to start an objection upper, middle, and lower. But the middle plank
more plausible than valid. Eor all must admit is alone left to us, and we cling to it with the
that, to have right conduct and the disposition to tenacity and hopefulness of a shipwrecked sailor.
act upon the right and avoid the wrong, the dis An inquiry into middle-class schools by men who
tinctions between right and wrong must be under know what to aim at, may do a service which
stood. But to understand these distinctions, and their predecessors who inquired into the upper
to be able to follow them in all their ramifications, and lower left undone. All depends upon the
and in their various directions and minutest forms, end which the inquirers propose to themselves.
and to desire to seek for them, is what we mean We are anxious to learn, not merely whether
by knowledge and fondness for learning. A com middle-class education is efficient, or in what par
munity endowed with these qualifications will be ticulars it is deficient, but how far, whether effec
preserved from destitution in its more aggravated tive or ineffective, it is directed to the improvement
form, and also from the temptations to misconduct of society. If not so directed, its very inefficiency
which are inseparable from destitution; and the might be a merit.
children growing up in it, will be trained as well
Some years ago I happened to be among a
as taught in circumstances most favourable, both numerous party dining together, previous to a
for their dispositions and for their intelligence.
visit of inspection to an evening school attached
It seems idle to ask, looking at education from to a large industrial establishment in this metro
this point of view, when it should begin, or at what polis. The conversation naturally turned upon
age it may be expected to prove most effective. subjects connected with education, and, as will
As soon as external influences begin to operate in happen, fortunately in these days, doubts were
forming the disposition and in awakening the in expressed whether the character of the education
telligence, so soon should efforts be made to direct generally provided was as good as it might be.
those influences aright. At whatever age it may One of the guests grew warm and excited at some
be found that those efforts have not been made, at of the criticisms made upon what he evidently
that age, without a moment’s delay, should efforts held to be above criticism. He was a thriving
�8
MIDDLE CLASS EDUCATION.
merchant. He had three sons—one in his own
business, one at a university, and the third in the
army. He was the sublime of soaring middleclassism. The climax of his justification of edu
cation as it is, and for leaving it undisturbed, was
that the classics were the best basis for the edu
cation of the upper classes, and the Bible for that
of the lower. Another of the company, who had
been a silent listener to the conversation, here
asked diagonally across the table whether it was
meant, in thus reserving the classics for the rich,
and surrendering the Bible to the poor, to convey
an impression of the respective merits of profane
and sacred literature. This question, as may be
supposed, caused no little confusion to a man who
evidently spoke as if in authority. Of course, he
meant nothing of the kind. In fact, he made us
believe that he meant nothing at all.
Towards the close of the inspection which fol
lowed, our silent companion was requested to say
a few words to the lads assembled; and in less
than a quarter of an hour his. simple unpretend
ing talk, interspersed with questions, drew out
from them an expression of their ways of think
ing and feeling upon the duties which they had
to perform ; how they might injure or benefit
their employers, and what effect would be pro
duced upon themselves, according ps they did the
one or the other ; what wa^es they received, and
why they received neither more nor less, and how
they hoped, to receive more in future ; what the
use to them was of the school work in which they
had been engaged, and why their employers had
assisted them to it; whether it was easy for them
to save out of their small wages, and if not, why
they should make the attempt; how the large
capital, by means of which they were employed,
had been accumulated; and when people ought to
begin to form a habit of making provision out of
present earnings for future wants; whether the
trust reposed in them ever offered temptations to
do wrong; what effect the yielding to or resisting
such temptations would have upon the comfort
and prosperity of their employers, and what upon
their own and upon the building up of the dispo
sitions and character upon which their future
happiness depended.
It was gratifying to hear the warm expression
of thanks which, on the impulse of the moment,
our admirer of classical and biblical education
proffered to his troublesome interrogator. He
seemed to feel for the time that something more
might be done towards forming the intelligence
and dispositions of the young than to cram them
with words and phrases, whether extracted from
the classics or from the Bible. It was sad to think
how transient the favourable impression made
upon him was likely to be.
It might be said that an inquiry into schools
would not be complete if, after an examination
into the public schools and schools for the poor,
those for the middle classes had been passed over.
Let us hope that the future report upon middle
class schools will not leave the inquiry as incom
plete as before. Our impression is that, if the
inquiries already made had been conducted with
a view to test the efficiency of schools as auxili
aries in qualifying the young to distinguish right
from wrong, and in inspiring them with the feel
ing that their conduct, as well as their words,
ought to be an expression of their convictions,
the middle-class inquiry would be unnecessary.
Up to a certain age, the teaching and training
best for the children of the poor, is also best for
the children of the rich. Beyond that age, the
wealth of the parents determines the length of
time for which the children can be detained from
work to carry on further schooling. If, however,
our own judgment in this matter were overruled,
and we were driven to decide upon the merits of
schools for the children of the poor and the chil
dren of the rich, by different standards, we should
be disposed to judge somewhat in this way :—
Those schools for the children of the poorer
classes are the best which are most successful in
fitting them, and in preparing them to become fit
to preserve themselves from destitution.
Those schools for the children of the richer
classes are the best which are most successful in
fitting them, and in preparing them to become fit
to preserve themselves, in the expenditure of the
wealth which they will have no occasion to earn,
from frivolity, profligacy, and indifference to the
sufferings and helplessness of others.
We will not express the opinion which we have
formed of the merits of these two classes of schools,
estimated by these two tests which, it must be
admitted, are the very opposite of severe. The
Commissioners who have inquired into them,
have not favoured us with theirs. W e trust that
the Commissioners now about to inquire into
middle-class schools, will not be equally reticent.
These schools contain some children who will not
be called upon to earn the means of subsistence
among the many who will have partly, if not
wholly, to do so. We hope the Commissioners
will, at least, tell us how these schools stand the
two very humble tests which we suggest should be
applied to them, and if they come somewhat
ignominiously out of the trial, what changes will
enable them to stand similar tests more creditably
in future.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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Middle class education: what to aim at, as well as how to aim
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Ellis, William [1832-1907.]
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Education
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Middle class education: what to aim at, as well as how to aim), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Conway Tracts
Education
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F. H. HAYWARD, D.Lit., M.A., B.Sc.
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WATTS & CO.,
'
JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
.»/ISSUED FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED
1***-------- -
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'
■■
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-........................ ..
.
of this Series is “THE OLDEST LAWS IN THE WORLD”
(The Hammurabi Code), by CHILPERIC EDWARDS
�All Liberal Thinkers who have not already Joined
The RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, Ltd.,
ARE EARNESTLY INVITED TO DO SO.
The Objects of the R. P. A. are to stimulate the habits of reflection and inquiry,
and the free exercise of individual intellect; to promote a rational system of secular
education; to assist in publishing the works of capable thinkers, and in popularising
the great discoveries of modern science and scholarship; to re-issue, in cheap form,
notable books of a critical, philosophical, or ethical character; and generally to
assert the supremacy of reason, as the natural and necessary means to all such
knowledge and wisdom as man can achieve.
Membership of the R. P. A. can be secured by payment of an annual
subscription of not less than 5s., renewable in January of each year; and the
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Full Particulars of the R. P. A., including the latest Annual Report and
any special information desired, can be had gratis by applying to the Secretary,
Charles E. Hooper, 5 & 6, Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.
Over 400 pp., Library edition, cloth, 6s. net, by post 6s. 4d.
fly post 3s. iod.
Cheap edition, 3s. 6d. net,
THE CHURCHES AND MODERN THOUGHT:
AN INQUIRY INTO THE GROUNDS OF UNBELIEF AND AN APPEAL FOR CANDOUR,
By PHILIP VIVIAN.
Extracts from some (of many) Press Notices :
"A vindication of Rationalism, written in a temperate spirit.’'—Times.
‘‘A freshly thought-out discussion of the whole subject........A temperate and well-reasoned study.
Scotsman.
“ The book gives us a well-presented and interesting survey of the Rationalist position."—Daily Telegraph.
" There is much in this work that deserves close study.”—Daily Mail.
“ It states the case against the doctrines and claims of the Churches with praiseworthy moderation, as well as
with adequate information and unanswerable logic........It is an excellent book.”—- Westnunster Review.
“ Mr. Vivian's book is an admirable reply to When it Was Dark.”—New Age.
“Comprehensive in scope, judiciously written, and embodying an admirable selection of facts, it may fairly be
termed a Handbook of Rationalism."—Literary Guide.
“Will appeal to the widest possible range of readers.”—New York Herald, Paris.
“ He has put together an indictment against the modern Church which those preachers who rely on obsolete
methods of defence would do well to study.”—Globe, Toronto, Canada.
“Ilis book is a convenient summary of Rationalistic argument, well arranged and well written, and adding
to-day's conclusions to the polemic of the past.”—Bulletin, Sydney, Australia.
“ It is a book for all, but especially for young men—one, mayhap, th;it will shatter cherished preconceptions,
but will also stimulate to thought in vital and healthy ways.”—Otago Witness, Dunedin, New Zealand.
“ The book will no doubt do much good.”—;Japan Weekly Mail.
London: WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
Obtainable at all Booksellers’, Smith & Son’s Bookstalls, Army and Navy Co-operative Stores,
Boots’ Library, and other Circulating Libraries.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
�X
�The Secret of Herbart
AN ESSAY ON
THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION
BY
F. H. HAYWARD, D.Lir., M.A., B.Sc.,
Author of “The Critics of Herbartianismf “ The Reform of Moral and Biblical Education,
“ The Educational Ideas of Pestalozzi and Fr'obel ” etc.
REVISED AND ENLARGED
[ISSUED, BY ARRANGEMENT WITH MESSRS. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO., LTD.,
FOR THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED]
London :
WATTS & CO.,
17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1907
�TO
PROFESSOR JOHN ADAMS,
FROM WHOM HE HAS LEARNT SO MUCH,
THIS LITTLE WORK IS DEDICATED BY
THE AUTHOR.
�CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface to New Edition
-
-
-
7
Preface
First Edition
-
-
-
io
Herbart -
-
-
-
15
to
The Secret
of
Appendices—
I.—The Primary Curriculum II.—“ Teachers do not Read Books on
Education ”
III. —Herbart and Frobel IV. —The Faculty Doctrine
V.—The Moral Instruction League
VI.—Science and the “ Humanities ”
VII.—The Bible in Schools
VIII.—Some Prevalent Errors about Herbartian Teaching
-
64
69
69
71
75
77
77
80
�“The half-educated, unskilled pretenders, professing impossible
creeds and propounding ridiculous curricula, to whom the unhappy
parents of to-day must needs entrust the intelligences of their children ;
these heavy-handed barber-surgeons of the mind, these schoolmasters
with their ragtag and bobtail of sweated and unqualified assistants, will
be succeeded by capable, self-respecting men and women, constituting
the most important profession of the world.”—H. G. Wells, Anticipations,
“ Education is the only thing that can do away with those internal
evils that disturb the peace and threaten the existence of the nation—
labour troubles, saloon politics, haunts of vice, slum-life, and the like.
These things exist because a large body of our people, from want of
education to open up to them the world of great movements, and noble
interests and employments, are condemned to narrow, sordid lives,
and petty or vicious interests. We disinherit them of the spiritual
treasures of humanity.......and then we wonder why they are vulgar,
mean, squalid, discontented, and rebellious. We make all the nobler
delights impossible for them, and then we wonder why they take to
vulgar delights........ If we would quench interest in the saloon, the pool
room, the dance-hall, the dive, the low theatre, we must off-set them
by something rousing a warmer and more enduring interest........
Teachers, of all people, must be endowed with the missionary spirit.”
—T. Davidson, History of Education.
1 ‘ The individuality must first be changed through widened interest
...... before teachers can venture to think they will find it amenable to
the general obligatory moral law........ While morality is rocked to sleep
in the belief in transcendental powers, the true powers and means
which rule the world are at the disposal of the unbeliever.”—J. F.
Herbart, Allgemeine Pädagogik.
�PREFACE TO NEW EDITION
This work is no treatise, and can never sentatives of two professional classes—the
be made into one. It is an essay. Never average priest or preacher and the average
theless, the writer has attempted in this teacher or school manager. Of the former
new edition to touch rather more fully he may ask as to the causes of moral
than in the first upon sundry educational evil; the latter he may question about his
matters of current importance, so that the favourite school subjects, or about correla
reader, by means of incidental hints, if not tion, or about the moral value of geography.
of detailed treatment, may see such matters To both of them he may quizzingly throw
out the hint that, after all, secular subjects
in something of their true perspective.
Still, to make teachers interested in the are only “ secular ”; and the answer from
vital issues of their work is a more valuable both will be an assent tempered with a
task than the dropping of any number of platitude. It is the writer’s firm and
useful “hints.” The original essay was almost painful conviction that few men
mainly an attempt to arouse this interest, realise the ramifications of apperception,
and it is hoped that the purpose will be or its relations to interest and character ;
equally obvious amid the . additions that and that, in consequence of this inadequate
comprehension, the curricula, methods, and
have been made.
status of our schools suffer incalculably.
Such faults as are inherent in the book—
repetitions, omissions, and what may appear, Herbartianism is certainly original in the
in the judgment of some, either as extra sense of Oliver Wendell Holmes1: “A
vagances or as affirmations of the obvious thought is often original, though you have
—will probably be almost as apparent in uttered it a hundred times. It has come
the new as in the old edition, though the to you over a new route, by a new and
writer has made some attempt to remove express train of associations.” Or, as a
them. The changes, however, are mainly further test, the reader may study some
additions, and these take the form of notes of the works on education written by men
untouched by Herbartian thought, works
and appendices.
It may not be out of place to admit, for such as the following (arranged in crescendo
the benefit of new readers, that there is order of merit) : Mr. H. Gorst's Curse of
nothing absolutely original, nothing that Education, Bishop Creighton’s Thoughts
should be a “ secret,” in Herbartianism or on Education, Mr. Benson’s Schoolmaster,
in this book. The most valuable truths and Thring’s Theory and Practice of
are generally the most obvious, though Teaching. The omission of almost any
rarely the most regarded. If anyone should reference—even the most untechnical—to
doubt that this is so in the present case,
1 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.
he has only to betake himself to repre I
�s
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION^
apperceptive interest is most striking, she claims, with supernatural aids and
though Thring (to be sure) is sometimes graces, knows them to be futile apart from
on the verge of the doctrine. What is the the purely natural means employed by the
explanation ? Are we to accuse these teacher. If called to the improbable
authors of blindness to obvious truth, choice between losing the first of her
ignorance of a far-reaching educational sacraments and losing the power of edu
principle ? If apperceptive interest is all cating the young, the Church would choose
that the Herbartians claim, why are not the former loss, knowing in her heart that
other men than the Herbartians urging it the “faith” of a “good Catholic” is not
in their educational writings ? There is implanted by a baptism of water—as her
blunder, ignorance, or delusion somewhere. formularies assert—but by an early and
The writer has the same lurking fear in persistent rain of Catholic ideas. And
the present year that there is a strain of what is true of the first is also true of the
fallacy or unsoundness somewhere in this greatest of her sacraments. Apart from
book as he had when it was first published; the faith and the thrills and the sugges
but as no one has demonstrated this, and tions implanted by a Catholic education,
as he cannot discover it for himself, he feels the body of Christ would lie disregarded
no compunction in seeing the book placed and unknown on every Catholic altar ;
before a larger circle of readers. If there while, conversely, though the sacramental
is any truth in the doctrines here set power were mysteriously to fail throughout
forward, there is value in emphasising it the world some fateful morning, switched
for the sake of those thousands of teachers off to another universe, the heads of
whose daily work seems often so dull and Catholic worshippers would still sink at
insignificant. To be the victim of a few the sound of the consecration bell, and the
educational fallacies is a small price to transubstantiation miracle would still be
pay for an exalted sense of one’s own daily thought and felt to have taken place.
calling. The writer’s conviction that at
Thus the power of the teacher, or of the
the present juncture this should be the priest as teacher, is immeasurably greater
main purpose of every book on education than that of the priest as priest; the latter
is so intense that he proposes to add at power depends on the former, and would
this point a few remarks for further em wither to nothingness without it. When
phasis.
in the Catholic confessional a school
In the Secret of Herbart a claim is put mistress pours out to some confessor the
forward that, as a moral force, apperceptive story of her omissions and peccadilloes,
interest is at least an equal of religion. a trained eye can penetrate behind the veil
Recent events in the political world prompt of appearance, and see that to the kneeling
to a further development of the theme. penitent, not to her ghostly father, have the
We have a right to ask, “ What could re real power and authority over Catholic
ligion itself do apart from education ?”
minds been given.
Moral triumphs may in a myriad of cases
And that is why Churches stir uneasily
be attributed with fairness to religion ; but at every successive Education Bill. Their
religion has to depend upon education for Genius is rebuked in the presence of this
much of her authority and fascination. other Genius of education. “ In his royalty
Even the Catholic Church, endowed, as of nature reigns that which would be
�9
EEEEACE TO NEW EDITION
feared.” If any teacher of this country
craves for the stimulus of compliments
to hearten him amid his round of daily
duties, none surely is more consoling than
this, that pope and bishop and priest admit
and parade their impotence without him ;
and, amid a miscellaneous crowd of physi
cians, merchants, and military men, kneel
beseechingly at his feet. The religion, the
health, the wealth, and the renown of the
British nation would appear to depend
upon him ; at the door of his schoolhouse
all roads meet. And, as the earnest educa
tionist watches with some curiosity the
motley throng, he will confess that, if the
loud-voiced claim for dogmatic religious
instruction can justify itself by fruitful and
blessed lives, his own aversion to dogma
must not be cast in the opposite scale. If
education means character-forming, and if
character-forming is impossible or prob
lematic without dogma, the duty of the
educationist is plain. Dogma there must
be, at all costs. And this suggests an ex
periment.
If towns where the Anglican and Roman
Churches have had their will can show a
markedly high type of youth and citizen—
the former more earnest than the youths of
other towns, the latter more generous and
high-minded than the citizens of other
towns—the claim of the two Churches will
be established on an immovable basis.
There is Preston, there is Torquay, there
is many another town where every public
school is, and has been, Anglican or
Roman. A Commission of six men could
determine in as many months whether
these towns were superior or inferior in
morals and manners to Board School
towns of similar type ; and the controversy
of 1906 would be settled for ever.
In one regard, at least, the clergy are
right. Education is no mere process of
“drawing-out.” It is formative, masterful.
The child has to be baptised into a new
life ; and, though the baptism which the
Anglo-Catholic or the Roman Catholic
holds technically to be the means of spiri
tual birth is not the Herbartian baptism of
ideas, it has this in common therewith—
that the recipient is not the agent, and that
the crisis is one of life or death. It is
because the educational issues are great,
that in the Secret of Herbart the writer has
constantly, unblushingly, and perhaps some
times offensively, paralleled them with those
of religion. The veil of grey commonplace
that hangs before the eyes of ten thousand
teachers has to be rent, and the Secret of
Herbart seeks to rend it.
This, then—the power of apperception—is the message of the present book. And
even if there are patent exaggerations and
latent fallacies in its pages, the writer
believes that the message was worth
delivering. In this present age, when the
hearts of many are failing them for fear,
and sincere men sometimes question
whether by opposing credulity they are
not doing a positive disservice to mankind,
it is good to know that there is work which
we need not doubt about; educational work
which helps to raise the race morally and
spiritually, while adding nothing to the
power or prestige of the forces of reaction.
F. H. H.
London, Christmas, 1906.
�»
PREFACE (revised) TO THE FIRST EDITION
The public—whose favourable reception
of several recent works by the present
writer has moved his grateful thanks—
deserve an apology for the appearance of
a new book on the old subject. There is
nothing here that is positively fresh, nothing
that cannot be inferred by any one who
chooses to think out the implications of
the apperception doctrine. Neither does
the work contribute to the department of
methodology. The writer feels that others?
with more varied experience and more
opportunities for observation than have
fallen to his lot, can speak with far greater
authority than he upon matters of that
kind ; and, indeed, with such Herbartians as Professor Adams at work upon
questions of methodology, there is no
need to anticipate any neglect of this
department. Instead, therefore, of present
ing a system of Herbartian doctrine, he
has preferred to expound the one or two
central thoughts which constitute its
essence, and seem so vitally needed by
the education of to-day—thoughts which
have a closer bearing upon the character
and the destiny of the nation than any
other thoughts that he can expound.
Among the immediate causes which have
led to the writing of a work following with
such unusual haste upon others, these may
be assigned :—
(i) Such a growth in the writer’s own
convictions as to make him distrust the
somewhat crude panegyrics of vielseitige
Interesse in which he has previously in
dulged. He still believes that the pro
clamation of the Interest gospel is among
the most vital needs of the age ; but he
feels that the springs of Interest have been
inadequately investigated and expounded,
not only by others, but by himself. The
real “ Secret of Herbart ” may remain a
secret, even though “Interest” be pro
claimed on every housetop.
(2) A fear—almost a certainty—that the
new Education Committees are likely to
apply the wrong remedies to our many
educational diseases. There is some pro
bability that England is about to settle
down to another thirty years of educa
tional routine ; but there is still greater
probability that such remedies as are
applied will merely accentuate the
greatest evil of all by drawing attention
from it into other directions. The
humble experiment which the writer
made has convinced him, more than ever,
that Herbart was right, and that the chief
key to the educational situation lies in the
apperception doctrine.
(3) Lastly, a desire for full, frank, and
remorseless criticism. Is this doctrine non
sense? If it be nonsense, and Herbartianism a plausible delusion, or if the
doctrine be merely commonplace in its
importance, the sooner we devote ourselves
to humbler things than thinking about
the moral regeneration of man by means
of education the better for us all. We
will then essay to struggle on as of old,
using instruments that have lost much
of their significance, and performing, in
a more humble and contrite spirit, the
�PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
commonplace duties assigned by tradition
to the schoolmaster. The mystery of life
will come back ; the veil will fall again over
the springs of conduct. Once more we
shall look upon our fellows to see each of
them torn by a conflict between the angel
and the devil within ; and we shall ask
despairingly what it all means. If, how
ever, the apperception doctrine is not non
sense, but sober truth, we shall be driven
on to the inference that not in the church
alone, but in the school, will the mission
aries of the future have to work, equipped,
not with Hebrew and Greek, but with psy
chology, ethics, and zeal.
The present work is thus a challenge as
well as a creed. Few as are the men in
England capable of answering the questions
with authority, the writer deliberately asks
them : “ Is this apperception doctrine right
or wrong, and can apperception be brought
about by means of instruction, and if
brought about can it pass over into action
and character?” He is not conscious of
any flaw in his argument, but there may be
one. As an educational system, Herbartianism seems to him to have no errors, so
far as it goes ; to the extent of its own
message it appears absolutely andfaultlessly
true; at the same time, the writer’s experi
ence is not such as to guarantee that he
is infallibly right in holding and promul
gating views so momentous of result.
Already he has come to realise—as a few
years ago he had not clearly realised—that
Frobel has a “ secret” as well as Herbart;
and the vision of a third “ secret ” is rising
before him, “a synthesis of Herbart and
Frobel.”1 He is, in short, humbled by a
consciousness of how much in education is
uncertain; and he therefore asks, with
utter sincerity, that critical minds in
ii
England capable of the task will do him
the honour of criticising this book. It may
be “ suggestive,” and “ stimulating,” and all
the rest; the writer wishes to know whether
it is true. This, surely, should not be hard
to decide, as the central thought of the
book is unmistakable.
One criticism, at least, is easy to offer.
If the writer’s views are so transitional, why
publish them at all ? Because British edu
cation needs, above everything else, views
of some sort; at present there are prac
tically none, as is shown by the fact that
no teacher dreams of calling himself an
Herbartian or a Pestalozzian ; and, though
a few enthusiastic lady teachers call them
selves Frobelians, it is very doubtful whether
many school managers know what any one
of the three terms means. All talk about
educational “ progress,” whether at political
caucuses or at teachers’ conferences, is
unmitigated nonsense until some definite
views, theories, or ideals are possessed by
the teachers of this country. Once these
exist, there is a basis for criticism and
progress; a basis, too—though few teachers
seem to realise the fact—for the establish
ment of professional dignity on firm founda
tions. But, without views, teachers will be
for ever the catspaws of managers and
officials no wiser than themselves, and
such a thing as a unified and manageable
curriculum will not exist. In fact, the
doctrine of the curriculum has scarcely
ever been seriously discussed in England
until the year 1903, such pedagogical
progress as may have taken place having
been concerned only with methodology.
Nay, we even hear of educationists who
tell us that “it doesn’t matter what we
teach, but howH The “ Theory of
1 The writer ventures to stigmatise this as the
1 Professor Welton’s suggestive phrase in a most criminally stupid fallacy at present circulatI ing in the world. Luckily no one really believes
recent number of the fournal of Education.
�12
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
the Curriculum,” to which Dorpfeld con and not a profession, they must expect
tributed so substantially, is virtually to be treated as such by a nation which
an untrodden field for English educa possesses quite as clear views as them
tionists. Yet it is perhaps a far more selves. For, after all, the nation has to
important field than methodology. There pay, and teachers are not reticent in urging
are plenty of teachers—perhaps the writer that fact. Let, then, the nation realise
is one—who, as practical methodologists, that it pays for clear views and for zeal.
would take only a low educational place;
To return. Despite the immensity of
who possess little skill in pursuing Socratic the claims put forward in these pages, the
or other methods of questioning, or in writer’s attitude is, in large measure, apolo
arranging a lesson according to the five getic. Not that he asks any indulgence
Herbartian steps; and yet are quite capable for errors, or crudities, or inequalities ; but
of being useful and, perhaps, inspiring he comes forward feeling how immense
teachers, in view of the fact that they and untrodden is the field, how provisional
believe in teaching and have clear views must be even the most sincere work, how
upon the relative importance of subjects. little he knows, how unbalanced his judg
It is to the two matters just mentioned that ment may be—nay, how unworthy in a
the present work is a contribution. Cer score of ways he must appear to those
tainly, until there exist sound views upon who know him best when compared with
the last subject, education will continue— many of the men who, though adorning
as the able primary teacher mentioned on the ranks of secondary and primary educa
p. 34 expresses it—to be regarded as “ a tion, have never ventured to put forward
dumping ground”for all kinds of subjects such gigantic claims as those of the present
and “fads.” “A science of education,” book. Yet, though he feels all this, he
the present writer has elsewhere said, feels also that there are matters of momen
“ would solve the religious difficulty,” and tous importance which, though some do not
also, be it now added, the ever-present see so clearly as himself, yet deserve to be
difficulty of the overcrowded curriculum. expounded. No one has ever claimed that
But teachers, though constantly feeling the the messenger who thinks he delivers an
pressure of the situation, are strangely blind important message must himself be imma
to the only possible source of relief. Let culate. Disregarding, then, the criticisms
them once convince the nation that they which his own mind suggests, the writer
are the expositors of a science, though gives these pages to the world, convinced
perhaps an embryonic science, and also that they carry either a message of farthe apostles of a gospel, and the nation will reaching significance, or a plausible delusion
cease to harass them with vexatious inter which had better be cleared out of the
ferences. But so long as they studiously way as soon as possible. In ten years
discount “ideals” and “theories,” and time his judgment may be more mature,
rarely spend sixpence upon the philosophy his knowledge of education far more exten
of education ; so long, in fact, as they con sive. But—a decade more will have gone
fess themselves to be followers of a trade by ; millions more of children may have
passed through our schools mentally
it, though many try to believe it, and think it starved; educational machinery may be
sounds well.
moving with such a smoothness that
�PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
automata may be directing it; or, possibly,
the educational chariot may have begun to
travel rapidly at last—in the wrong direc
tion.
Still, though the writer challenges criti
cism on the central ideas of this book, he
does not ask for any petty criticism of the
usual anti-Herbartian type. The standard
objections to the supposed doctrines of
Herbart have little practical bearing on
these central ideas. “Interest,” someone
will say, “is largely dependent on heredi
tary endowment”; the answer is that
though this is true (and was recognised by
Herbart), no interest can spring up in a
vacuum ; the Herbartian element of apper
ception is vital, at any rate in all the know
ledge departments. The real question is :
“ Given a normal mind (geniuses and
imbeciles are not the special concern of
the schoolmaster), does Herbart give a
true hint of the means by which the
mighty protective and directive force of
interest can be generated ?”
Again, the standard objection to the
term “ many-sided ” as applied to interest
is, in the opinion of the writer, partly at
least justified. He does not drop the term
entirely, but he thinks it will some day
have to be dropped in place of a better
one.
The real crux of the book is found on
p. 47. Pages 36-40 expound a subject of
vast importance, but one where agreement
is fairly easy. If the factor discussed on
p. 47 is really vital to the moral life, the
main outlines of the primary curriculum
begin at once to appear.
One personal matter. It may be said
that the gloomy picture drawn in some
parts of the book is an unfair one. Primary
education in the north of England and in
London is in a far better condition than
primary education in the rural districts of
13
the south. But the writer has never worked
in the north or in London,1 and only speaks
of what he knows at first hand. In so
speaking he trusts that he has said nothing
to give offence, least of all to those who,
amid the appalling conditions which obtain
in the less cultured districts (where towns
exist which have never, since they came
into existence, possessed any educational
institution except of the crudest kind), are
doing what they can to raise the mental
level. One fact is undeniable, and should
fill teachers with acutest anxiety and
perhaps reproach : there are whole districts
in England where the word '’''education ” is a
more hateful word than the word" drunken
ness ”; where the best passport to municipal
success is to promise to cripple education by
financial parsimony ; and where the mental
life is centuries behind that of Japan (a
country in which, as Meiklejohn’s Geo
graphy tells us, “people are eager to
learn and very willing to pay well for it ”).
It is true that the primary teacher has
been, in years past, astonishingly efficient
from the point of view of the 1861 code:
he has performed tasks which one would
have thought impossible; he has made,
under official pressure, the most un
promising human material capable of
reading, writing, and “working sums”—
after a fashion. It is a daily wonder to the
present writer how country schoolmasters,
with their staff of two or three boys and
their six score of raw children, can teach
anything whatever, and do it on a salary
that forbids the purchase of a book. But
1 From more recent experience the writer
would modify some of the statements of this
book. But, though much of the educational
work done in London schools is of a high
order, the doctrine of apperceptive interest is
almost as much needed in the metropolis as
elsewhere. The many strong points of London
schools are not those upon which stress is laid
in the Secret of Herbart.
�14
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
though, considering the means at their I The facts that education is a detested
disposal, our primary teachers have earned i thing in many districts, that the most
their salaries ten times over, the fact popular subjects in evening schools are
remains that our primary system seems to ■ those that have been untouched by the
have contributed little to the culture, morals, i day schools, and that town after town
or ideals of the age. The name “ educa | will refuse to support a free library, are
tion ” is more hated now, in many districts, sufficient to show that his boast is ill
than it was at the middle of the past founded. If “ practice ” has failed to create
century.
a taste for books and for education, it is
Teachers are no longer enslaved to a time that “theory” and “ideals” should
rigid curriculum, and they will no longer have a chance. It is time, in short, for the
be glaringly underpaid. Social repute they I teacher to make a fresh start, and for
will not acquire for many years, and pro- I education no longer to be open to the
motion to official positions will be barred ' reproach sometimes brought against the
to them so long as, in this country, these , dramatist Euripides—that, though his plays
remain the monopoly of a certain social j are full of power, full of excellences in
class, whose youths “ look forward as a i detail, he does not seem to know “ what
matter of course to positions and appoint- ! he is driving at.”
ments, for the want of which men of gifts j Two final remarks. The writer would
and capacity from other social strata break ' have liked to quote, in extenso, the recent
their hearts, and they will fill these coveted pronouncements of Sir Oliver Lodge on
places with a languid, discontented inca education and sociology. They serve to
pacity.” 1 But, despite the serious hindrances show that thoughtful men who are not
that will continue to cling about the work avowed Herbartians are moving towards
of the primary teacher, the fact remains Herbart’s position on questions of curri
that upon him, and not upon his languid culum, interest, and the like.1
Lastly, though a reply to Professor
or vigorous “ superiors,” rests the real
educational task ; it is in his schoolroom, James, this work is rather a reply to a
and not in their bureau, that the forces single expression used by that great psycho
making the future are mainly at work. The logist than to his work as a whole. The
most powerful official in England would not Talks to Teachers is, in most matters, a
deny that, nor take exception to the writer’s strongly Herbartian book.
The author wishes to thank several
remarks on page 20.
But one fetish the primary teacher must friends for assistance and advice.
finally and scornfully abandon—the fetish
F. H. H.
that he is, in some specially notable and
Easier, 1904.
impressive sense, a “practical” worker.
1 H. G. Wells, in Mankind in the Making.
1 See Appendix IV.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
The most eminent of American psycho
logists complains that “ the conscientious
young teacher is led to believe that the
word ‘ Apperception ’ contains a recon
dite and portentous secret? by losing
the true inwardness of which her whole
career may be shattered........ Now, ‘ ap
perception ’ is an extremely useful word
in pedagogics, and offers a convenient
name for a process to which every teacher
must frequently refer. But it verily
means nothing more than the act of
taking a thing into the mind.”1
2
From thirty or forty thousand pulpits
comes the cry of “ Sin—sin—sin.” And
the louder the cry rises the less does
the world seem to listen. In Bethnal
Green, as a recent census shows, one
person out of eighteen attends Sunday
morning public worship ; one person out
of nine attends on Sunday evening. If
the churches, on the present basis, are to
be the sole agency for suppressing sin,
then sin will never be suppressed, for
people would seem to be growing less
and less responsive to appeal from that
source.
The following work is intended to
show:—
(1) That the word “Apperception”
does contain a secret which, though not
“recondite,” is immensely “portentous.”
(2) That, by losing or never acquiring
“ the true inwardness ” of this “ secret,”
a teacher’s whole career, and a nation’s
career also, are in danger of being
“ shattered.”
(3) That, though “Apperception” may
involve “ nothing more than the act of
taking a thing into the mind,” the things
taken in may sometimes be nothing less
than “airs from heaven” counteractive
of “ blasts from hell.”
(4) That, in fine,the “Apperception”
doctrine has well-nigh incalculable moral,
social, and spiritual implications.
But the schools are filled to overflow
ing ; and he who looks upon them and
sees their doors thronged with those who
are not, and perhaps never need become,
“ sinners,” is driven to ask whether it is
not at these crowded doors, rather than
at the portals of the churches, that the
problem of evil awaits solution. Would
not one-tenth of the devotion now
lavished—in great measure ineffectively
—upon “ missionary ” or “ rescue ”
work, or upon the necessary but thankless
work of cherishing in a kindly way the
useless and infirm, serve, if directed along
more rational and scientific lines, to make
education into the most powerful of all
agencies for the suppression of evil ?
This is at least conceivable.
1 Italics ours.
2 James, Talks to Teachers.
But education—as those at least in the
southern rural counties know—has not
�i6
THE SECRET OF HERBART
realised the high hopes once placed upon
it. Judged by any test we choose to
apply, education has failed.
(i) Morally—using the term in the
narrow sense—thefailure is unmistakable.
We may be less brutally callous to suffer
ing than our ancestors; it is doubtful
whether we are more strenuous, pure, or
self-denying. Often it seems as if, in
place of every evil grappled with or
suppressed, some new evil, or some new
folly, generates itself out of nothing
before our eyes.1 True, the Church as
well as the school must be regarded as
responsible, in a measure, for this failure;;
gambling, intemperance, and foul lan
guage (if we may believe the first Moselyr
Commission) are far less prevalent among;
American workmen, brought up in1
“ secular ” schools and in a country where*
there is little or no official recognition of’
religion, than in our own. But for one:
department—that of “ minor morals ”—■
the school is almost alone responsible,
and here the failure is overwhelming.
So far as the duties of courtesy and
decency are concerned, the words of the
Globe newspaper2 hold good: “ The
manners of the rising generation are
non-existent.”
(2) Take another standard—that of
interests awakened or created by the
school.
Where, outside a few great towns, can
we find intellectual keenness ? What
subject taught in our schools attracts
pupils, disinterestedly, after school days
are over ?
In one borough of 14,000 inhabitants
1 Popular betting on horses is a new evil ;
slavery to tobacco (as distinct from moderate
indulgence) is a new evil.
2 February 3rd, 1902.
there were, in 1902, some three or four
students, exclusive of primary teachers,
studying elementary chemistry.
In another borough, small, but regarded
by its 3,000 inhabitants as progressive,
not one student, exclusive of teachers
who had to study the subject, was willing
to pay a shilling for a course of lessons
in chemistry. A disinterested desire for
the subject simply did not exist. “La
république n’a pas besoin de chimistes.”
Even in the continuation schools of
London the attendance for all subjects
except those that are purely utilitarian is
meagre in the extreme. History, literature, might almost as well not exist.
No ; from the point of view of interests
roused or created, our schools would
appear to be worse than failures. Pupils
enter them at six full of inquisitiveness ;
they leave them full of mental apathy.
It is no wonder, therefore, that Harwich
and Fareham and Marylebone reject by
public vote the offers of Mr. Carnegie.
What have Harwich and Fareham and
Marylebone to do with books and
libraries? “ How the London poor should
love Dickens ! But—with his books
always obtainable—they can scarce be
said to read him at all.”1
(3) Take a lower standard yet—that of
mere knowledge conferred and dexterity
attained.2
Questioning the evening school pupils
once entrusted to his charge, a teacher
known to the writer discovered that
none of them could find, by practical
measurement, the volume of a wooden
cube ; that not one knew the distinction
1 Gissing’s Dickens.
* Things in this respect are probably better, on
the whole, than what is here represented, though
the statements made are facts. People familiar
with our well-staff d London schools can scarcely
conceive of rural conditions.
�77Z# secret of herbart
17
between a planet and a fixed star, or the
relation of our solar system to the rest
of the universe; and that not one knew
the causes of the seasons. In a class
for elementary mathematics the question,
“ What is the difference between twelve
and twenty ?” or, “If twenty is divided
into two parts, one of them being twelve,
what is the other part?” gave perplexity
to the youths in their teens, who only
recently had been pupils in a rural
primary school; English literature was
positively a sealed book; Jewish pro
phetic literature, and the immense
influence exerted upon it by the Assyrian
and other invasions and influences, were
unknown.
perhaps a boy of fifteen who cannot
speak English and has never touched
genuine literature in his life—can no
more teach anything, even the boasted
three R’s, than he can build a palace
or work a miracle. But in the towns
the results are often as unsatisfactory
as in the country districts.
The
primary school in a thousand districts
has implanted no tastes at all, and the
pupils leave it at the age of fourteen with
significant willingness.
Like Marius
amid the ruins of Carthage, the evening
school teacher, surrounded by half-filled
copy-books and tattered manuals of
arithmetic, is virtually standing in the
midst of ruins—the ruins of an ideal.
(4) Take a lower standard yet. Five
Dashshire boys out of ten, if asked what
school they attend, will answer, “ I goes
to — School”; and scarcely two out of
the ten will be able to compose, and to
utter so as to be heard distinctly five
yards away, a grammatical sentence of
moderate length.
For there was once an ideal in England,
dimly discerned, perhaps, and discerned
only by a few ; but nevertheless an ideal
possessing some promise and possibility.
The literature of the middle decades of
the nineteenth century shows that there
was, on the part of many an artisan, some
eagerness to learn; and though primary
teachers were fewer than now, and pos
sessed but little training and no preten
sions, their eyes were fixed on the future ;
there was hope and there was open
ness of mind. Pestalozzi’s influence in
England may not have been great, but it
was present. Education had a spirit of
its own ; disillusionment had not come.
Learning may not have been held in
much esteem, but it was not, as now,
regarded over whole regions with aversion
and contempt. Books of “ self-instruc
tion” bear witness to this fact. Adam
Bede attended an evening school, and
his teacher was an enthusiast.
The second of these four standards—
for reasons that will be still more obvious
after the reading of this book—is the one
upon which most stress should be laid.
The evening school is as much now
the crucial test for the success of educa
tional work as, m years to come, it will
be the recruiting-ground for the forces of
good. If the day school has implanted
a love of knowledge, the evening school
will bear its witness to the fact. But it
bears none. The day school has failed,
and the reason lies partly, at least, in the
failure of teachers to realise the immen
sity of the mission to which they are
What has happened to change the
called. In country districts the failure fair though homely landscape to one
is almost inevitable; a pupil-teacher— from which colour and life seem absent?
c
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
Alas, we know.
In 1861 occurred
the saddest event, perhaps, in English
history—the establishment of the “payment-by-results ” system in the primary
schools of this country ; the official
denial to the poor of this land of a
humanising culture ; the official behest
to the teachers of the land to throw every
ideal into the dust. The very years in
which Ziller was first promulgating a
scheme of “ educative instruction ”—in
struction that should humanise and form
character — were the years in which
England first caught sight of this Gorgonhorror ; a horror so intense that to this
hour the primary education of England
remains, in a measure, frozen and para
lysed.1
teachers to the cause of education—
men like Arnold, Thring, and Bowen
in the secondary ranks \ men like
F. J. Gould and many another in the
primary ranks; a host also of noble
women ; but to the clear and scientific
comprehension of educational ideas and
methods she has, until recently, scarcely
contributed anything at all. This is
illustrated by the disastrous answer
above quoted, that the “ Three R’s ” are
the most vital subjects in the primary
curriculum.
If the Herbartians have any message
worth hearing, it is that, except as means
to an end, the “Three R’s ” have but the
smallest educational significance.1 Dorpfeld and Ziller are here at one. ‘‘ Despise
There are men even now1 who would ‘theory’ if you will, ye long-suffering
2
fain bring back, in a modified form, the and long-protesting teachers; but, until
methods of those thirty frightful years. ye have framed for yourselves an educa
Asked what are the most important tional ideal, determined the relative
subjects in the primary curriculum, they value of subjects as measured by the
will answer, “The Three R’s.” Nay, standard of that ideal, and formulated a
even teachers themselves will give this curriculum in accordance with it, ye will
answer, as if fascinated by the vampire continue to be subjected to the aggres
sions of officials exactly as fog-bound as
that has taken their blood.
yourselves; harassed by that constant
Many who hear the pæans raised in multiplication of subjects which ye daily
praise of German educational thought deplore; and humiliated by the sense
are tempted to ask whether the pæans that ye are not a profession of scientific
are not too loud. Has not England con specialists, but the mere 1 cave-dwellers ’
tributed something to education ? Is not that Professor Adams has called some of
the most distinguishing mark of German your fellowship.”
educational literature its immense and
The Code of 1861 has done its work.
bitter and trivial verbosity ? The answer
is that England has contributed noble Only exceptionally is a primary school
master, in the less favoured districts,
1 And yet that system was introduced with a reader of books, a “ local light,”
the best of motives. Primary education was not
all that it should have been; so the “practical a man of ideas. “ Teachers do not
man,” Mr. Robert Lowe, came to the rescue. read books on education,” was said to
And the practical man has been coming to the the present writer by an experienced
rescue ever since, just because a “ Science of
Education” has not yet won any measure of
popular recognition or esteem.
2 Schoolmaster, February 6th, 1904.
1 In an appendix the question of the “ Three
R’s ” is discussed at some length.
�THE SECRET OF HERBAR T
manager of a book store, who, as he said
the words, seemed not to realise their
frightful import.
Nay, further, it is
extremely doubtful whether, in the whole
of England, there are many members of
education committees who have ever
heard of Comenius, Pestalozzi, or Her
bart ; or many who would spend a florin
on a book dealing with education per se;
or many who wish to learn, or believe
in the possibility of learning, anything
fresh about education. In their hearts,
these people, the best in England, believe
with Dr. Johnson that “ education is as
well known, and has long been as well
known, as ever it can beand even
inspectors, who, if any men, should be
in the forefront of educational thought,
differ widely upon every question of
policy or principle. Quite often the
official “ prizes ” of the educational world
fall to men who do not even profess to
know educational principles, to men of
other and alien professions, to clerks in
or out of holy orders. The notion that
those principles exist—for those who
choose to seek them with the sweat of
their brow—has not yet dawned upon
us. Education is regarded as some
thing between a knack and a nuisance.
And, after all, teachers, managers,
and inspectors are not much to blame.
Why should they study educational prin
ciples when, to all appearance, such prin
ciples do not exist? Where can they
find—to give an example of our present
condition—an authoritative encyclo
paedia of education ? Whom are we to
believe, whom to follow ? Are there
five professors of education in the country
exerting any influence outside the circle
of their own pupils ? Does not London
support Herbart, and Edinburgh try to
oppose him ? Is it true that “ there are
19
scarcely three teachers of mark in
England who work on the same lines,”
and that “ our study of education is in
its infancy”?1 Are not Commoners at
this moment urging, some that “children
live on dogma,” others that dogma is the
last thing that children can grasp ? Are
not books on the philosophy of education
the dullest books that exist ?
Now, the truth is that education is one
of the most illimitable, untrodden, and
promising fields of research that can
anywhere be found. Instead of there
being nothing, there is almost every
thing for us to learn. Instead of having
well-nigh reached its perfection and
climax, it has scarcely yet entered upon
the career that is bound to be ultimately
so victorious. It is for this reason that
the indifference of teachers, inspectors,
and managers appears so strange. But
time is on the side of education. The
stars in their courses fight on its behalf.
No human prediction is so scientifically
reliable as the prediction that, sooner or
later, the immense significance of educa
tion—a significance not only intellectual
and economic, but moral and spiritual
also—will be recognised, and that with
this recognition will come a vast increase
in the esteem bestowed upon those who
choose (or chance) to adopt it as a pro
fession. Even now, despite the obvious
failure of recent years, one hears at times
wistful panegyrics of what education
might accomplish, though they who
panegyrise it most are far from having
consciously arrived at the standpoint to
be set forth in this book. However
small, indeed, may have been the educa
tional progress of this nation when esti
mated by an absolute standard, it has
1 Professor Findlay.
�20
THE SECRET OF HERBART
There are two ways in which educa-*
tion may come to a revival. The first
way is to pay for a revival; to offer high
rewards, in the form of exceptional
salaries, to all men who will contribute
substantially to educational thought.
This plan might ensure that some of the
ability now drawn off in other directions
would be devoted to the work where the
need is greatest of all. In fifty years’
time we should then, perhaps, have fifty
“ Superficially phenomenal and mo educational thinkers, and in five hundred
mentous.” Yes, the progress is almost years’ time a “ Science of Education.”
wholly on the surface, a progress in
externals ; in such things as buildings,
Unfortunately there exists no demand
salaries, organisation; in the complexity —or very little demand—for ideas;
(almost the unwieldiness) of the curricu scarcely any conception that it is just in
lum ; it is hardly a progress in ideas, in the absence of ideas where one of the
ideals, or in devotion.
Our public greatest dangers lies; certainly small
educational bodies pay their best salaries willingness to pay for ideas. Though
to men who, though once perhaps good we may, therefore, rightly contend that
teachers, have been persuaded to be the ideal schoolmaster should be regarded
teachers no longer, and are now adminis and remunerated as a professional man,
trative officials destined by the nature and even a man of research—the archi
of their new work to contribute only in tect of the mind being regarded as at
directly to teaching power; splendid least equal to the architect of bricks and
salaries to architects who, though they mortar, the physician of the mind equal
may inspect every school chimney in to the physician of the body; though we
existence, will leave education just where may rightly urge that a Science of Edu
they found it. Our public bodies spend cation—co ordinate with a Science of
much on fine buildings—forgetful that, Medicine and a Science of Architecture,
however desirable such buildings may be, and twenty times as significant as either
the greatest educational experiment of —is to come into existence, yet, unless
modern times was performed by Pesta- we can find some other and more power
lozzi in the poverty-stricken outhouses of ful lever than this, we must dismiss all
a convent; disregardful, too, of the hope of solid or early educational pro
strange fact that, if Pestalozzi were at this gress.
moment working as a schoolmaster in
As a profession, education has never
England, he would not receive a quarter
of the salary of some inspectorial supe yet had a chance; yet it is infallibly
rior. Nay, one asks, curiously, whether and demonstrably the calling of the
Pestalozzi — once a revolutionist and future, the one that will attract, in
always an unbusiness-like dreamer — coming decades and centuries, many of
would not be wholly ignored alike by the most original and devoted minds.
But it must first discover for itself some
committees and by Whitehall.
been superficially phenomenal and
momentous when the last few years are
alone taken into account; when, above
all, the fact is remembered that the best
men have never been attracted to the
cause. In Britain alone four professor
ship of education have recently been
filled—let us hope by men who know
the “nation’s need” and have a
message.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
standpoint from which it will appear as
a truly “ portentous ” and vital matter ;
more portentous and vital than weary
details of church ritual, or the faith
healing ecstasies of an American neurotic.
Religion—nay, superstition herself—can
experience revivals; we read of the rise
of Methodism, we read of the Oxford
Movement, we read of the Christian
Scientists. Why, then, should not edu
cation have her revivals too ? Was not
Comenius the equal of Wesley, Pestalozzi
as great as Newman, Herbart greater
than Mrs. Eddy ? A revival, indeed, is
not only possible, but—if only education
can discover a standpoint for herself—
quite inevitable. Is there such a stand
point, or must educationists continue
to pursue their calling with divided aims
and cold hearts ? There is such a stand
point ; occupying it, teachers, as a class,
will catch a glimpse of an ideal that has
never yet, save to a few of their keenereyed fellows, revealed its stately propor
tions. And why, indeed, should educa
tion be without millennial dreams; or
why call them dreams that are so well
based on scientific necessities ?
The Rev. R. J. Campbell, a “ popular
preacher” who is a genuine thinker as
well as a preacher, has been recently
predicting a “ great revival ” in evangeli
cal religion.1 Is this, then, to be all
that the new century has to offer—a
repetition of paroxysms, which, once
passed, will leave mankind but little
changed? Is there no new ground to
break up ? Is evangelical Protestant
ism to hark back, as Anglicanism is
harking back, to vanished centuries;
seeking to animate old forms with a new
1 The prediction has since been realised, but
England seems much the same after all. Per
haps the reason is not far to seek. See p. 61.
21
spirit, or to dress the old spirit in new
forms ? The task may be a worthy one,
but there remains yet a finer, more
promising, and more original task still—
one that, in England, has never been
attempted at all; the task of animating
new forms with a new spirit; the task of
bringing about an educational revival, of
moving along lines never before trodden
by English feet. With twenty men of
Mr. Campbell’s calibre as leaders, this
task might be attempted ; but education
has scarcely any leaders at all, and those
that she has, scarcely realise that wellnigh every moral and social current of
the age is setting slowly in their direction,
and that they, if wise and far-seeing, can
direct those currents to mighty ends.
“ Scientific,” yes ; we will never forget
that some day there will be a “ Science
of Education,” even though we may
question whether educational revival will
have its origin solely in systematised
scientific thought. Such a “ science ”—
ever before the minds of those educa
tionists who have been influenced by
German thought—will be a body of
principles based securely on psychology
and kindred studies, consequently pos
sessing authority and adding dignity to
its exponents. The notion is a fine one,
and will some day—if more men of the
stamp of Professors Adams and Findlay
are raised up—be gloriously realised;
for in the writings of men like these we
see the coherent outlines of a new science
already beginning to appear. But, in
the belief of the present writer, this
scientific standpoint, taken alone, is not
the one that will effect any immediate
transformation, though it will do much ;
solving many of the perplexities and
contradictions of present-day effort, and
lifting those who follow education as a
�22
THE SECRET OF HERBART
calling some inches out of the profes
Wonderfully coherent will the whole
sional gutter in which they now lie.
subject become when once this stand
point is occupied. Wonderful the change
Our leading educationists almost in the status and the spirit of teachers.
without exception—even those who are Wonderful, also (to mention a minor
“scientific” in spirit, nay, even those point), the change in our way of regard
who, at times, catch a noble Pisgah view ing the function of educational journals,
of the future—speak with bated breath the best of which are now devoted to
and modest diffidence. They seem to the discussion of matters which, though
have but little faith in their subject and frequently of real importance, fail some
their profession.
They feel, perhaps how to reveal this importance—fail, in
rightly, that a “ Science of Education ” in fact, to force themselves on us as vital.
its completeness is still a far-off ideal; We ask, somewhat sceptically, whether
accordingly, they hesitate to suggest an articles on “ Individuality ” or the
aggressive forward movement; they “ Culture Stages ” possess, after all,
question whether the resources for it much real significance. “Is education
exist; their policy remains slow, cautious, really a very momentous matter?” we
tentative.
seem to hear our professors asking as
they post their manuscripts. “ Some
Their motives may be good, but the more words—words—words,” we seem
policy is fatal. There is no need to to hear editor and readers say, as the
wait for a completed “ Science of Educa article stands before them. In the
tion ” before inaugurating a forward highest as in the lowest ranks of the
movement. The scientific standpoint educational hierarchy, men look at each
pure and simple is probably not the other as the ancient augurs looked—with
one, be it repeated, from which the an ever-present inclination to laugh.
movement will start. There is another Now and then there comes a man seeing
standpoint. In ten years’ time educa dimly or clearly the unrealised possibili
tion may be revolutionised—if a few ties that lie in education; but, on the
hundred teachers choose to occupy this whole, educationists, “ scientific ” or
standpoint.
“ empirical,” do not appear to be very
much in earnest.
The whole case may be summed up
in a few words; and if these words can
There exists a view of things, an
be justified, they will convict almost attitude, a standpoint, which will change
every educationist in the country—even all this. Sooner or later teachers will
the most “scientific”—of working, partly come to realise that they have a great
at any rate, on the wrong lines. Educa part—the chiefpart—to play in battering
tion must be regarded primarily less as a down the ancientfortresses of evil. Those
science than as a gospel. Instead of there ancient fortresses still stand, defying all
being a “ Logical Basis of Education ”— puny present efforts to reduce them to
to use Professor Welton’s terminology— ruins. The mightier artillery of educa
there must first be an “ Ethical Basis.” tion has yet to be brought up, and, when
If this is “ scientific ” too, so much the brought up, it will be found to be, in the
better.
truest sense, “scientific.”
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
Sin, Vice, Moral Evil. But is there,
after all, any weapon by which this
monster may be slain? Perhaps none.
Is there any weapon by which it may
be reduced to comparative impotence ?
There are two, and probably only two,
if we except weapons like criminal law,
used by the State for its own purposes.
Two weapons, one consecrated by
centuries of use, the other well-nigh in
a sense—fresh from the armoury, lie
before us. Used in conjunction, they
will effect much; either, alone, will effect
something.
23
really difficult to ascertain. Religion, in
many of its forms, is a powerful ally of
morality, but it is not the sole ally, nor,
considering the prestige and the resources
at its disposal, has it proved itself a
very constant or able ally. Theie may
exist other allies whose value has been
hitherto underrated, perhaps even ignored
altogether.
This is implied in the words of Dr.
G. A. Smith: “Sin is the longest,
heaviest drift in human history....... Men
have reared against it government, educa
tion, philosophy, system after system of
The first, and the more ancient, is religion. But sin has overwhelmed them
religion. So great are the claims put all.”1
forward on its behalf that the mere
“ Overwhelmed them all ’’—even reli
whisper of the existence of other weapons,
perhaps equally or still more potent, will gion—even Christianity itself, as we shall
be heard with disfavour in many circles. see in a moment. The confession is a
Nothing but the Catholic Church, in true one, though presently the question
Newman’s belief, was able to baffle and will be asked, legitimately enough,
withstand “the fierce energy of passion,”1 whether the second of the barriers
and non-Catholic writers tell the same mentioned by Dr. Smith—education—
story of the “impotence of men in has ever been reared in earnest; whether
dealing with sin.”2 Preachers of all the erection of this barrier has not been
creeds, in fact, will tell us that without left to the despised ones of the earth ;
whether, in fact, the resources of educa
religion there can be no true morality
and even the atheist seems at times tion, as a moral agency, have ever been
willing to admit that some forms of seriously and designedly and intelligently
religion are powerful allies to virtue. called into play. But for the present
Yet, after all, there is no necessary con let us abide by Dr. Smith’s confession;
nection between the two. Some religions, and it amounts (among other things) to
like that of the ancient Phoenicians, this, that religion, though a barrier to sin,
were provocative of vice. Moreover, is not an invincible one. It may appear in
they who tell us that there can be no the end that sin cannot be wholly suppressed
true morality without religion will tell us by religion; therefore, to neglect the other
at another time—all unconscious of self- great force or forces by which this sup
contradiction—that mere morality avails pression may be, in part, accomplished
nothing, thus implying that there can be is well nigh a criminal procedure. What
mere morality—morality apart from reli the force or forces may be will appear
gion. The facts of the case are not later on. Here we have mainly to
1 Apologia.
* Rev. R. E. Welsh, In Relief of Doubt.
1 Isaiah, vol. i.
�24
THE SECRET OF HERBART
realise the significance of the statement
just made, because, if that statement is
true, it is indeed immensely significant.
Perhaps evil cannot be wholly suppressed
by religion alone.
Proof of this comes from the most
conclusive quarter — religious people
themselves. There is no need to use
the common, and not altogether repu
table, argument that an examination of
these religious people shows their lives
to be no better than the lives of others.
The argument—all things considered—
is not wholly fair, though fair enough
when used against those who claim reli
gion as the only moral panacea. No;
the best argument of all is found in the
Prayer Book, especially in the General
Confession and the Litany. Sin, we
there discover, rages still in the bosom
of the believer. Evil, in varied forms,
still strives for mastery. Nay, the most
intensely “ religious ” people — those
devoted wholly to an ascetic or “reli
gious ” life—daily confess to sins of
thought at least, which some more
prosaic people, engrossed in wholesome
“hobbies” and “secular” interests, in
politics, in book-reading, and so forth,
commit perhaps less or not at all.
ciously religious, boys are found to be in
sad trouble from ” one particular moral
foe.1
The evil here referred to “ is not
necessarily the indication of a coarse
nature. It is observable in refined,
intellectual, and even pious persons.”2
“ The boys whose temperament spe
cially exposes them to these faults are
usually far from destitute of religious
feelings; there is, and always has been,
an undoubted co-existence of religiosity
and animalism ; emotional appeals and
revivals are very far from rooting out
carnal sin; in some places they seem
actually to stimulate, even in the present
day, to increased licentiousness.”3
In view of facts like these there is
some temptation to take up the extreme
and probably unwarrantable position that
the function of religion is to give con
solation and rest rather than character
and conduct; “that by the doctrine
of forgiveness of sins, consequent on
repentance even in the last moments of
life, Christianity often favours spirituality
and salvation at the expense of morals ”;4
that the humble function of training
character and conduct falls to educa
tion and similar agencies; that “mere
morality ”—as preachers have before
to-day insisted—is something different
from that of which they are the guardians.
The standpoint is, be it repeated, unwar
rantable, because one-sided. What is
true and safe is this: that religion is
one barrier against sin, but it is not the
only one, nor is it invincible. “ Religious
faith,” a great educator has said, “instead
Evidence from outside — evidence
adduced by observant schoolmasters
and others who have been face to face
with intense forms of juvenile evil_
bears out this conclusion. And be it
here remembered that, though religion
has been often neglectful of the civic
and intellectual virtues, she has never
failed to hold up a high standard of
Rev. the Hon. E. Lyttleton, in Training
sexual morality. Let us take her, then,
of the Young in the Laws of Sex.
on the ground where she is strongest,
2 Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, in Counsel to
“ Emotional, and sometimes preco
Parents.
3 Archdeacon Wilson, in Essays and Addresses.
4 Cotter Morison, in The Service ofMan.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
of being the only source of goodness,
seems only one of many.”1
If anything in this book should be
thought to be a slight on the power, in
the human heart, of true religion, the
author would regret that the book existed.
Evil is too great a foe for any weapon to
be rejected. Happy the man who has
heard not only the message of Herbart,
but any message which, coming from the
unseen, serves to lighten the burdens of
life and solve the problems of existence.
But exaggerated praise of religion is as
nauseous as unjust depreciation; it is
not true, it has never been true, no
professor of ethics and no observer of
human life can claim as true, that
morality is solely dependent on religion.
Probably not more than one rhoral act
out of three springs from a motive which
can be called, in any strict sense,
religious. Goethe directed those who
were without art or science to go to
religion ; and the advice (as this book
will show) might be equally well reversed,
without disrespect to art, or science, or
religion.
What keeps a spirit wholly true
To that ideal which he bears?
What record ? not the sinless years
That breathed beneath the Syrian blue.”2
25
explain or to justify its voracity; a chasm
in the forum of human life ever remain
ing open, even though many a Curtius
throw himself, with his hopes and ambi
tions, into the gulf ? Or is it not rather
an intelligible effect, with definite causes
of its own ?
It is not intelligible, if we may believe
theological books. Be he orthodox or
heterodox, Catholic or Protestant, the
theologian gives up in despair the task
of explaining or accounting for sin.
Once admitted, he can seek, and does
seek, to fit it into schemes of salvation
or justification; but the thing itself
baffles him at every point. Now, the
reason why theologians should fail igno
miniously where Herbart succeeds
gloriously—for Herbart’s explanation,
even if not a complete one, is magni
ficently true so far as it goes—is that
they begin with the absolute, while,
educationally, he began with man.1 If
a hundred observers, with a psychological
equipment, would do likewise, and make
a point of investigating every case of
moral failure that comes under their
observation—every case, at any rate, that
is capable of being investigated—this
mystery would probably be found to be
no mystery at all. Strange that this has
never been done ! Strange that, except
from the medical side, the idea of such a
task has scarcely occurred to mankind !
Strange, above all, that men who are
ordained to wage war against evil should
be the most prominent of all in con
fessing it to be unaccountable !
Here the argument may pause for a
moment. One “ cure for sin ” has been
found to be but a partial cure. Religion,
though sometimes powerful, is not omni
potent. Would it not be well, before
asking what other cures for evil exist, to
ask after the origin of evil itself? Or
is it so inexplicable that its origin (or
origins) cannot be traced ? Is it some
1 In educational circles there is an impression
thing mysterious, unaccountable ; a that Herbart “deduced” his educational ideas
from his metaphysics. In point of fact, he
devouring Minotaur which refuses to started from the educational stand point. Largely,
1 Rev. R. H. Quick, in Life and Remains.
* In Memoriam, LI I.
it was his experience with a difficult boy, Ludwig
Steiger, that forced him onward. See the writer’s
Critics of Herbartianism, Appendix.
�26
THE SECRET OF HERBART
Yet these men are zealous against their
ghostly foe; they, like Curtius, will often
throw themselves into the gulf that,
nevertheless, remains mysteriously open,
despite the sacrifice of the nation’s
bravest. Perchance the most acceptable
sacrifice of all has never yet been made.
Perchance this chasm, unlike the one
which opened in ancient Rome, asks—
not for mere heroism, but—for scientific
thought. Throw that into the gulf, and
maybe it will begin to close. “ If, for
the fall of man, science comes to sub
stitute the rise of man, it means the
utter disintegration of all the spiritual
pessimisms which have been like a spasm
in the heart and a cramp in the intellect
of men.”1
deadly foe to the consumption germ
was the free air of heaven, physicians
secluded their patients in rooms from
which that free air was scrupulously
excluded. And we, too, physicians for
a moral phthisis, would fain kill the germ
by hot-house -remedies, all unconscious
that, by placing our patient amid a more
bracing atmosphere, the task could be
performed with immeasurably greater
prospect of success. What is the atmo
sphere which saves from moral phthisis ?
“ Lust and brutality are generated as
certainly as scrofula and typhus ”x—given
definite conditions. They follow from
these conditions with well-nigh the inevit
able certainty of the lightning flash.
The glory of Herbartianism is that it
In plain words, we have to treat sin knows the conditions—one, at least, of
as a scientific problem is treated. them ; and, knowing the conditions, can
Having once so treated it, having once also point to the cure.
traced it to some at least of its causes,
we may then, with all the devotion and
To treat moral failure as really un
heroism at our command, aim at its accountable, as a baffling immensity,
cure. But mere heroism and devotion mysterious in its origin and exhaustless
are things wasted. We want a gospel; in its resources, as a bolt from the blue,
this book is written to urge the need of as a diabolus ex machind, is to treat the
one; but it must be a scientific gospel. universe as finally and almost utterly
An ounce of scientific thought is worth unintelligible. Holding such a view,
a ton of ignorant zeal. And such zeal, man can but wring his hands in hopeless
on their own confession, is the chief anguish. Of little use the incantations
tribute that the Churches are paying; offered up, Sunday by Sunday, for deliver
for well-nigh every theological book ance from the formidable catalogue of
avows that sin is a mystery in the sins contained in the Litany. If evil
universe, something to be treated in exists as an entity, and not merely as an
much the same way as primitive man effect, the human heart may plead, but
treated disease; something, in fact, quite will plead in vain, for complete deliver
unaccountable, baffling, diabolical.
ance. Throned in the universe, regal
mid clouds and mysterious darkness,
Or—to change the thought—as evil will never fail of subjects and
medical men, till recently, treated servants. The best we can then hope
phthisis. Unconscious that the most for will be that the forces of good will be
1 O. W. Holmes, in The Autocrat of the Break
fast Table.
1 Sir Leslie Stephen, in An Agnostic’s Apology.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
ever found sternly marshalled against they discover acquires the mysteriousness
those of evil, fighting a hopeless but and unaccountability that has been trans
ferred from the thing itself. That cause
endless battle.
is nothing less than Free Will, a some
The moment, however, that evil thing which, though inexplicable, seems
appears as an effect, the battle is seen to flatter our conceit, and to remove from
not to be hopeless. When the causes us the trouble and obligation of penetra
have been discovered the cure may soon ting farther into the springs of conduct.1
be discovered too.
To deny man’s prerogative of “free
No pretence will here be made that
dom ” would be a bold and probably a
all those causes, racial and other, have
mistaken step—certainly a step likely to
been discovered. Until they are sought
be misunderstood and to do harm. The
for in a scientific spirit they cannot be.
supreme moments of life, when conscious
For centuries men regarded disease as
ness is at a maximum, and when great
something unintelligible by natural laws,
moral crises occur, are moments of
and the Church, trusting to shrines and
apparent “freedom’’and of mysterious
relics, discouraged the study of medicine,
import. Often it seems impossible to
or, more compromisingly, gave efficacy
predict the result of thoughtful delibera
to a physician’s drug by saying a prayer
tion at such solemn moments as these,
over it; for a still longer period men
deliberation whether of our own or of
regarded poverty as similarly unintelli
others. We can say of our Will what
gible, to be treated only by doles at the
Antonio said of his sadness :—
monastery gates; and probably for a yet
“ How I caught it, found it, or came by it,
longer period they will prefer to regard
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
moral evil as unintelligible also. But
I am to learn.”
medicine is tracking disease to its origin;
sociology is tabulating the causes of We are in the position of the indi
poverty;1 and, sooner or later, thecauses vidual who has never seen iodine
of moral evil will be finally revealed to and phosphorus spontaneously ignite to
the patient investigator. Already some form a new and different substance.
of those causes are open to the light of Such momentsare moments of—apparent
freedom; and here “ apparent freedom ”
day.
Strange that men should refuse or
dislike to look at evil in this scientific
way 1 Strange the fascination exerted by
the unaccountable ! Yet the fascination
exists. Even when, momentarily occu
pying a pseudo-scientific standpoint,
men make one feeble attempt to assign
to sin its causes, almost the only cause1
2
1 Vide Mr. Rowntree’s Poverty, quoted from
below.
2 There is also the bad angel of “ original
sin,” and there is the good angel of “grace.”
But the theology of both of these is hopelessly
chaotic.
If “ original sin ” meant heredity,
and if “ grace ” included all kinds of educational
influences, there would be helpfulness in the
Church formulae. But such a reconciliation with
modern thought is difficult, and neither
doctrine is easily to be adjusted to the third
doctrine of Free Will. Heredity is not washed
away at baptism ; and the dyslogistic talk about
“secular subjects” forbids us to identify the
illuminative power of these subjects with the
power of “ grace,” or of the “ Holy Ghost,”
though Miss Mason half suggests such an identi
fication ( Home Education ).
1 See how one of our greatest writers plays
with the subject. Prof. G. A. Smith’s Isaiah,
vol. i.
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THE SECRET OF HERBART
performs all the functions of “ real
freedom,” inasmuch as it imparts a sense
of responsibility, acts as a motive, and
may turn the balance to this side or to
that.
One great British writer on education,
perhaps our greatest writer, lays ceaseless
stress upon this supreme prerogative.1
Education, according to him, must ever
keep in view the fact that man is not a
machine, not even an enormously com
plex psychical machine, but rather a
being in whom a free rational principle,
unaccountable by explanation from
below, has its seat.
True, the question may be asked even
here, whether, when a few more centuries
or decades of scientific research have
passed, this residuum of unaccountability
may not be accounted for. May not,
some day, even the remotest springs of
action be exposed to view ? This is pos
sible. When psychology and sociology
have advanced far beyond their present
standpoint, they may be able to assign
causes to “pride, vainglory, and hypoc
risy,” and the rest of the catalogue, with
as much precision as that with which
physical science is able to assign causes
to “lightning and tempest, plague, pesti
lence, and famine.”
Our mediaeval
Litany places all these on the same
level of unaccountability; our coming
sciences may some day place them
again on the same level—that of account
ability. In other words, every sin that
has ever been sinned by a sinner may,
without, let us hope, any weakening of
moral responsibility, be as securely traced
to its causes in heredity, variation, and
environment (including education) as the
1 Dr. Laurie.
lightning flash can be traced to definite
atmospheric conditions. Life may be
come tamer when thus deprived of its
mysteries and surprises, but it need not
be essentially unhappy; indeed, most of
the springs of present-day misery will
have been diverted or removed, though,
perchance, new springs may have welled
up.
But at present the admission must be
made that there is an unaccountable
element in human nature—an element
of Free Will; and that this, whether an
illusion generated by our ignorance of
psychical causes, or, as is more probably
the case, a reality due to the actual
presence in man of a superior spiritual
principle, is an element which should
not be neglected in any complete theo
retical account of human nature.
Yet—and this is the main point in the
present discussion—nine-tenths of human
conduct are practically independent of
this “ superior spiritual principle.” Man
may not be wholly a machine, but he is
largely, mainly, a machine. The man
of culture, reflecting calmly upon alter
native courses of action — any man,
indeed, at the moment of some great
moral crisis — may, in an intelligible
sense, be “ free ”; but even the man of
culture, and, still more emphatically, the
man devoid of culture, act, through the
greater part of their lives, in a way that
is largely if not wholly mechanical.
Now, most if not all of our great educa
tional writers—we have a few—know
education mainly in its higher grades,
and amid the atmosphere of the tradi
tional culture. Naturally, then, they lay
stress upon the “ higher ” aspects of
mental life. The voice of the primary
teacher, working amid the slums of our
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
great cities or the intellectual deserts of
our agricultural counties, is silent, or too
Doric for the ears of our university
professors. But if that teacher were
questioned as to the applicability of the
“ superior spiritual principle ” to the
work of educating his pupils, he would
—however painful the confession may
sound — smile somewhat sardonically.
His pupils, he suspects, are virtually
machines. Their conduct, though occa
sionally inexplicable, owing to his igno
rance of their nature, does, on the whole,
follow as logically from their past as the
motion of the billiard ball follows upon
the nature of the blow it receives. The
“ freedom ” principle sounds well in
university class-rooms, and may, indeed,
represent a fundamental philosophical
truth; but as an educational maxim it is
singularly useless.
29
tence or his greatest blunders to means
of grace, he may advisably change his
profession at once for one in which he
can, with some certainty, count upon
effecting results. He may, from the
standpoint of a metaphysician, admit the
existence of a “superior spiritual prin
ciple”; he may, from the standpoint of
a psychologist, admit that human
conduct is sometimes unpredictable
(owing to the complexity of man
and the imperfect condition of psy
chology) ; but he can never, as an
educationist, admit that the highest law
of education is lawlessness. He must
believe in education, or he has no right to
expound it; he must believe that effects
follow causes, and that, however complex
human nature may be, however unknown
at present many of the springs of con
duct, he, as an operator upon his pupils,
can help to mould their lives. Sin he
must regard as an effect, not wholly as a
mystery; and Free Will he must regard
as a deity to be worshipped by the lips
rather than by the heart. “ The theo
logical doctrine of grace and the meta
physical doctrine of the freedom of the
will....... both presuppose an unknown
factor whose presence or absence cannot
be foreseen, and whose action cannot be
measured. It is here, it is there, it is
gone, and no one can tell why. It at
once upsets prevision of the future, and
cancels all record of, and inference from,
the past.”1
If the medical man, in treating his
patient for phthisis or diphtheria, had to
face the possibility that Powers, divine
or diabolical, were ever on the watch,
aiding or counteracting his own efforts,
he would be reduced to comparative and
ludicrous helplessness. There would be
small need or use for lengthy medical
study; the most conscientious attentions
to his patient might at any moment be
rendered vain by diabolical interference;
his grossest blunders neutralised by
divine assistance. A Science of Medicine
would cease to exist. It is for this
reason that medicine refuses to speak of
Herbart’s attack, or supposed attack,
“ Vital Force ”—a mere name for what
upon Free Will is a puzzle to many.
ever is at present physiologically unac
But the reasons for the attack will be
countable.
now not far to seek. He seems to have
So, also, if the educationist, in seeking had a deep-rooted dislike for the
to build up the moral life of his pupils, shadowy phraseology of the idealistic
concedes that “ Free Will ” may, at any
1 Cotter Morison, in The Service of Man.
moment, reduce his best efforts to impo-
�3°
THE SECRET OF HERBART
school—the appeals to the agencies of
some mysterious background inaccessible;
to influence, unintelligible to the scien
tific reason. “Self-activity,” “transcen
dental freedom,” and all similar terms
standing for a celestial or abysmal
principle which no one can claim
genuinely to understand—Herbart would
have none of these. A “ self-activity ”
rooted in “presentations”; an “inner
freedom” identical with “insight”—
such things he would admit, but a
mere diabolus or deus ex machina ever
ready to appear upon the stage without
notice or justification, dislocating every
homely arrangement, and throwing his
weight, without rhyme or reason, into
the scale of good or evil—this Herbart
refused to recognise as a factor worthy
of being considered in a Science of Edu
cation.
“Not the gentlest breath of
transcendental freedom must be allowed
to blow through ever so small a chink
into the teacher’s domain. If so, how is
he to begin to deal with the lawless
marvels of a being superior to natural
laws, on whose assistance he cannot
reckon, whose interruptions he can
neither foresee nor prevent ?”
ments, and the like, in which the humble
teacher plays no part—seem the only hope
for the moral health of the world. But
admit that, though there is something of
mystery, there is nothing of miracle in
the will, and the work of the teacher
suddenly appears in its immeasurable
power and promise.
To deny the
primacy of the will is to assert the
primacy of the teacher.
There is much that is unaccountable
in man; but surely education should
base itself—so Herbart seems to have felt
—upon those elements that are account
able rather than upon those that are the
opposite. To glory in the mysterious
may be the best of qualifications for the
future priest; it is the worst of qualifica
tions for one who seeks to build up a
Science of Education. Conduct must
have its causes : if those causes are un
knowable, the teacher’s work is reduced
to an absurdity; if they are partly
knowable, it is the teacher’s duty to keep
close to them so far as knowable; if they
are wholly knowable, a Science of Edu
cation is not far off, and the teacher’s
work lies plain before him. “ Ministers
talk about the human will as if it stood
Not that Herbart ever denied a real on a high look-out, with plenty of light,
“Inner Freedom.” He spoke of “the and elbow room reaching to the horizon.
noble feeling that virtue is free”; of “the Doctors are constantly noticing how it
judgment to which the desires bend is tied up and darkened.”1 And what
amazed.”
It was “ transcendental doctors notice teachers must notice too.
freedom ” which he attacked, on the
ground that “ nothing could be built on
There is, no doubt, a charm about the
it.” And, educationally, nothing ever mysterious. But to build a system of
has been built upon it, except that tens (education, or a code of morals, upon a
of thousands of teachers have been kept jfoundation of mysteriousness is surely a
in professional servitude because, through strange and dubious procedure — an
<
this doctrine, their “secular” work has jimpossible procedure, one would think,
never been seen in its true significance. <did not facts show that it has been
Admit a miraculous “ Will,” and a score
of other miracles—conversions, sacra
1 Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Elsie Venner.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
'attempted, and is defended in every
theological work that deals with sin. If
education is ever to grapple seriously with
the problem of evil, we must assume that
evil can be grappled with, that it is an
effect, and that its causes are knowable.
In other words, we must be, in so far as we
are educationists, determinists. Herbart
knew from the first that he “would never
be understood by those to whom the
co-existence of determinism and morality
was still a riddle”; and his prediction
has turned out true.
It is a riddle, and yet not a wholly
baffling one. Any day of our lives we
can see taking place the manufacture of
moral good and evil; the thread is spun,
and goes to the loom. True, in the
recesses of one’s own consciousness may
sometimes move a seemingly disturbing
force; unaccountable phantoms may
cross our path; we may feel
Obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings ;
Blank misgivings of a creature
Moving about in worlds not realised,
High instincts, before which our mortal nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.
3i
the bread of life and the water of life are
freely brought. And the history of edu
cation shows that the Herbartians
actually try to bring the mental and
moral bread of life and water of life;
that they are zealous in so doing, and
that they realise, as no other educa
tionists seem to realise, how pressing is
the need. If, then, determinism makes
educationists zealous—as the Puritans
were made zealous under the influence
of their denial that “ the act of conver
sion depends upon the concurrence of
men’s Free Will”—it cannot be the wholly
bad and paralysing thing that its oppo
nents assert. The Herbartian himself,
faced by the awful precision of his own
principles, may feel in danger of becom
ing a spiritual automaton; but his pupils,
at the least, will have no reason to regret
the hour when those principles became
his rule of life. There is thus an in
finite mercifulness about Herbartianism.
Unless he assume that Divine grace can
miraculously change the vilest character,
the Herbartian sees no fate but perdition
before a soul that is mentally starved ;
and seeing no other fate—realising, as
no other educationists realise, that
“stupid men cannot be virtuous”—he
comes himself to the rescue, determining
that, should starvation take place, the
fault shall not be his.
We may experience all this; we may
even regard the experience as “ the foun
tain light of all our day ”; but we cannot
build a system of education upon
“ worlds not realised.” If we are HerOne recent writer, appearing as cham
bartians, at any rate, we shall prefer to pion of the “angel and devil” theory,
deal with the world of ideas which can condemns Herbartianism for looking
be realised.
upon a child who has committed this or
that fault as being “ a piece of apparatus,
In so preferring, the Herbartian looks an imperfect organisation of appercep
upon the pupil before him not as a tive systems, which we must endeavour
duplicate being, half angel, half devil, to patch up ”; evil, in fact, being “a form
largely or wholly outside the range of of disease or imperfection.”1 Yes, that is
any influence that he can exert, but as a
1 Prof. Darroch, in Herbart: A Criticism.
starving soul doomed to perish unless
�32
THE SECRET OF HERBART
how we regard it; and, dark though our
view may sometimes appear, it has the
glow of heaven itself upon it when com
pared with the view promulgated by the
champion of “ Self-activity,” “ Self-deter
mination,” and “ Reason ”; the view that
the “ child and the criminal can delibe
rately, and with full intent, set up their
private wills against the common or
moral will of the community.” “The
child—with full intent!” And these are
the corollaries from an idealistic philo
sophy ! Surely the grossest materialism
is tenderness itself compared either with
an “idealism’’which believes that in the
breast of children—of whom, in the view
of one religion, the kingdom of heaven
consists—there can be not only an
“intent,” but a “full intent,” to take the
downward road; or with a system of
evangelical religion that can describe a
child of seven as under “ conviction of
sin”;1 or with a system of Catholic reli
gion which packs him to the confessional
at the same age. No; dim though our
sight may be, hard though the task of
discovering in every case the sought-for
causes, we nevertheless prefer to regard
sin as ultimately due to imperfection
rather than devilry ; we nurse our philo
sophical tenderness, and leave to others
the nursing of philosophical severity;
we believe that we are nearer to the
truth than they, and that our principles
will be recognised when theirs have been
long forgotten. If we were given the
choice, we should prefer even a rigid,
mechanical, and one-sided presentationalism that made an attempt at explaining
evil, to an idealism that, giving up all
explanation in despair, calls up from the
shades some spectre of “ Self-activity ”
which, when scrutinised, is found to
1 Dr. Torrey.
possess the lineaments of Sathanas him
self. Firmly, albeit with modesty, we
would fain believe and assert that “ tout
comprendre Pest tout pardonner.”
We refuse to discuss unmeaning
remedies for evil; every hour devoted
to such discussion is an hour taken from
more solid work. In the tremendous
words of Herbart: “ While morality is
rocked to sleep in the belief in transcen
dental powers, the true powers and
means which rule the world are at the
disposal of the unbeliever.” We will not
burrow for some deep principle that,
because of its very depth, has no applic
ability to the life of man on the surface
of this earth ; we do not burrow for coal
below or amid the sterilities of the Old
Red Sandstone. To talk of the Divine
“ self-realisation” of a child in our slums
or hamlets is but to reveal our inexpe
rience of life.
What “self” is here
beyond a few animal impulses and a
vast echoing emptiness of mind ?
“Man,” says Tennyson through the
lips of the aged speaker in the second
Locksley Hall, “can half control his
doom.” But Tennyson, too, like those
philosophers and educationists who lay
stress on “Free Will ” and “ Self-activity,”
was not a teacher in city slums or country
desolations. He who labours beneath the
cloud of mental poverty incumbent over
the primary school and its inmates will
look about him for a system based, not
on a morally aristocratic principle like
this, but for a system which takes
account of that cloud of mental poverty.
And thus he alights upon Herbartianism, which, instead of panegyrising a
“ Freedom ” practically non-existent
except at mature stages of development,
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
and therefore singularly useless as a
principle for the training of children,
frankly recognises “ mental poverty ” as
a fact, and one of immense import; “the
stupid man cannot be virtuous.” And
the more he contemplates Herbartianism
the more he recognises, not in its details,
but in its supreme categories and its spirit,
something immensely portentous, some
thing that may revolutionise education
by making it a living thing—something,
indeed, that has already begun to effect
this in more countries than one. He
begins to see in it a force which, allied
with religion and with economic and
hygienic progress, can accomplish all for
the human race which the dreaming
optimist pictures for himself in prophetic
vision—a force which, even if divorced
from religion and from such progress,
can accomplish much.
To the schoolmaster Herbartianism
comes as something sacramental, con
ferring upon him a dignity and an
importance second to none possessed by
other professionals. Does the medical
man save life and cure disease ? The
schoolmaster is called upon to make the
life worth living, and to cure, or to
inoculate against, the moral diseases of
the soul. Do others urge — though
without the most modest of proofs—the
possession of baptismal powers, vital to
the spiritual welfare of the child ? The
schoolmaster can prove, on scientific
grounds, the possession of saving powers
by himself, and he believes that he can
create, within the soul of his pupil, such
a ramifying and interlacing network of
ideas that the surging of sensual passion
may well nigh cease to be possible amid
the close-knit fabric. Say, if you will,
that the claims of Herbartianism are
exaggerated; the claims of other priest
33
hoods, possessing not one-tenth of the
scientific justification possessed by this,
may be exaggerated too. Education, be
it said again and again and again, has
never yet had a chance. The best men
have never thrown themselves into it;
public sympathy has never yet been fully
on its side; it has never yet discovered
a standpoint or a standing for itself.
This standpoint and this standing Her
bartianism can supply.
Exaggeration! No.
The present
writer believes that if education, in the
Herbartian sense, had ever had one-tenth
of the chance that religion has had for
centuries, had ever attracted to its cause
men such as religion has attracted, had
ever possessed the prestige and authority
that religion has possessed, moral
wonders would long ago have been
effected. With all her prestige and all
her authority, Protestant religion has to
confess to half-empty churches, to a
widespread and grotesque ignorance of
the Bible even among believers, and to
a moral tone in the community distinctly,
and perhaps increasingly, materialistic ;
while Catholic religion has every year to
admit that the highest relative propor
tion of prisoners in English gaols are
Catholics by education and name. But
give religion the chance that education
has had; staff your churches with children
in their teens, snatched from the plough
or the washtub; destroy the prestige,
the subtle suggestion of the heroic, which
etherealises the most unimpressive cleric
into the idol of cultured ladies; bid
your congregations assemble in barns
instead of in buildings hallowed by
centuries of suggestion; treat your minis
ters as you treat your village school
master, and then, unless the writer is
wholly mistaken, religion, too, would
D
�34
THE SECRET OF HERBART
have to confess to a failure far greater
than that charged against education.
Already it is doubtful whether her failure
has not been equally great.
could be said, he has sorrowfully to avow
that, taken as a class, the primary teacher
is not fully interested in his own work,
and often fails to see its significance.
Education has failed; we have to
admit it. Not without reason is the
disrepute of the schoolmaster. Sinned
against by society he may have been ; but
he has sinned in return. He has often
refused to learn. His bigotry has some
times been more stupid and more im
penetrable than that of any priest. Too
often “ he is content to practise an art the
principles of which he does not under
stand, and he haughtily resents any attempt
to enlighten him.” Too often he is “an
arrogant and intolerant empiric.”1
“ The present race of teachers have
shown their devotion to their work by
rising to the highest ideal of the extreme
faddist.” No man who knows primary
education in the less fortunate districts
will admit for a moment that words like
these, quoted from the address of an
able primary schoolmaster known to the
writer, are much more than the platform
verbiage of an exceptional man. “Ideals ”
do not exist in the average primary
school; works on educational “ ideals ”
do not exist on the bookshelves of the
average schoolmaster; debates on educa
tional “ideals” do not take place at
professional conferences. Forty years
ago “ideals” were officially suppressed;
and though some schoolmasters—like
the one from whom the above words
are quoted—have retained their enthu
siasms, many have become “arrogant
and intolerant empirics,” who “haughtily
resent any attempt to enlighten them.”
Over many a country town an observer
would imagine an avalanche of desola
tion to have passed—so dead is the
prospect; a schoolmaster—more power
ful in his ultimate influence than clergy
man or landed proprietor—has been there
for forty years; the very attitude of the
boys in the street, the public life, manners,
and interests of the adults, tell their
tale. Yet five or twenty miles away all
perhaps is different; there we find keen
ness, manners, and culture, for there the
schoolmaster has culture, zeal, and a
sense of responsibility. Inspectors and
other officials who visit a multitude of
schools testify to facts like these, the
truth being that the difference between
There is another side to the question.
The writer could tell of primary school
teachers, working patiently without reward
or recognition, guardian angels amid the
haunts of devilry, springs of refinement
in arid deserts of degradation. He
could tell of places in which the school
master is “ the only man of culture,”
“a reader of James’s Gifford Lectures,
Herbert Spencer, Darwin, Romanes,
Lloyd Morgan, James Ward, and Mar
tineau”;1 he could tell of Edinburgh
2
slums to which, after a life spent in their
midst, a lady-teacher bequeaths her
savings for the purpose of founding a
kindergarten ; he could turn to his own
experience and narrate how, for the first
time, he learnt in untechnical language
the Herbartian distinction between
culture-studies and other studies, from
the lips of the distinguished school
master who was recently the President
of the National Union of Teachers.
But though, happily, much of this kind
1 Professor Adams, in Herbartian Psychology.
2 Journal of Education, September, 1903.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
the good and the bad schoolmaster is far
greater, both in itself and in the immen
sity of its consequences, than between
the good and bad in any other profession.
A schoolmaster can revolutionise a town
in twenty years ; Girard did this at
Friburg.
If, then, we study the signs of the
times and the doctrines of Herbart, we
shall find that it will be the schoolmaster,
at present so despised and often so
apathetic, to whom will fall the solution
of many of the moral problems now
pressing upon us. But he slumbers—a
sceptre lying disregarded by his side,
and the brightest crown that the coming
century can award waiting, not to be
competed for (there are no possible
competitors), but to be taken up. His
profession demonstrably contains within
itself the promise and the potency of
almost infinite advance. Some day it
will need no patronage and accept no
alien domination. Some day our resi
dential training colleges will be no longer
governed by retired missionaries, nor
our educational bureaus occupied by
accountants. Nay, this great profession
need not forget that in the eighteenth
century the clergy were as despised as
the teacher is now, “their social posi
tion being somewhat lower than that
of the nursery governess in the estab
lishment of a vulgar millionaire,”1
and it may therefore look forward to
rejuvenescence with conviction as well
as with hope.
35
to attract to itself both the scientific
experimenter and the reforming enthu
siast. The enfranchised eye sees an
imperial and unique spaciousness about
this profession.
Medicine demands
science; the Church demands devotion;
education will demand both.
The
science she will demand will deal with
the most baffling, fascinating, and vital
questions of the day — questions of
biology and psychology. The kind of
devotion she will demand will be seen
when the Herbartian standpoint has been
expounded in the following pages.
Go through the whole series of profes
sional callings, and seek for one which
demands these things in equal measure.
There is absolutely none. This alone
combines, or will some day combine, the
heroic with the scientific standpoint. “ Is
there any art like it—any which can so
attract the finer spirits among men, any
which can so engage in its service that
enthusiasm which fills the moral atmo
sphere to-day? Is there any, the wise
practice of which brings such personal
reward....... ? Surely an art so great, so
full of great issues for the individual and
for society, is worth thinking about in
its principles, its rules, its history, its
aims—in brief, its philosophy.”1
And yet both standpoints, the former
especially, have been almost entirely
ignored. Statements like that of Prof.
Findlay, that “ there is an immense field
of exploration awaiting teachers who have
psychological equipment,”2 or like that
Why these claims, prima facie so pre
of the late Mr. Rooper, that “ all teachers
posterous ? Because, alone among pro
are missionaries by profession,’^ simply
fessions, education calls simultaneously
awaken incredulity, even among teachers
for scientific thought and for moral
devotion, and may therefore be expected
1 Dr. Laurie, in The Training of Teachers.
1 Froude,’5//<3rZ Studies, vol. ii.
z Principles of Class Teaching.
3 School and Home Life.
�36
THE SECRET OF HERBART
themselves. But both statements are
true and unexaggerated. It is mainly
the second which the author proposes to
expound in the following paragraphs, and
he will do so even at the risk—so unusual
and dangerous a risk in the case of a
writer on education—of being dubbed an
“ enthusiast.”
infallible protection against moral evil,
not an infallible weapon for the slaughter
of what theologians call “sin.” It has
been affirmed that there is a second
weapon. Two quotations—one from the
work of our greatest eighteenth-century
novelist, the other from a recent impor
tant work on modern poverty—may serve
to introduce more formally this second
Everyone admits that the schoolmaster and momentous agency.
does necessary work in conferring know
ledge, and in trying to equip each coming
Though Captain Booth’s father “de
generation for the battle of life. But signed his son for the Army, he did not
hardly anyone realises that the moral think it necessary to breed him up a
reforms of the future will have to begin blockhead........ He considered that the
—largely, at any rate—in the school life of a soldier is in general a life of
room ; that the stolid irresponsiveness to idleness; and thought that the spare
appeal which preachers bewail is in great hours of an officer in country quarters
measure due to the failure of the school ; would be as well employed with a book as
that the generally low level at which men in sauntering about the streets, loitering
live, and the humdrum, unworthy, some in a coffee-house, sitting in a tavern, or
times vicious, tone of society, are, to an in laying schemes to debauch and ruin a
immense extent, the results of our set of harmless, ignorant country girls.”1
neglecting—the Secret of Herbart!
“ Shut out, to a great extent, from the
larger life and the higher interests which
And let it here be said that what is a more liberal and a more prolonged
expounded in the following paragraphs is education opens up to the wealthier
not a merely bookish and theoretical classes, it is not surprising that, to relieve
Herbartianism, but one borne in upon the monotony of their existence, so many
the writer’s mind amid practical work in artisans frequent the public-house, or
a neglected educational district. At the indulge in the excitement of betting.”2
centre of that district is a town of some
few thousand inhabitants, with eight or
To Fielding, at any rate, there was a
nine places of worship; a town where connection between being a “blockhead”
every prospect pleases, and every physical and becoming a debauchee ; while, con
inducement to a high and worthy stan versely, a taste for books was a protec
dard of living exists, but a town which, tion against the temptations of debau
owing to the neglect by its citizens of the chery. Vice, sin, moral evil, was an
standpoint we may call—though in no effect, not a mystery.
And to Mr.
exclusive sense —the “ Her bar tian,” Rowntree, also, “ intellectual tastes” and
would fill the reformer with serious the “ power of applied reading and
apprehension. It is now time to expound study ” appeared, he tells us in the
this vaunted “ standpoint.”
We have seen that religion is not an
1 Fielding, in Amelia.
2 Mr. Rowntree, in Poverty.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
context of the above passage, as impor
tant auxiliaries of virtue; the absence
of these involved, as consequences,
drunkenness and betting. Again, evil
was an effect, not a mystery.
Thackeray has gone even further than
this, and has assigned it as an inevitable—
not merely a possible—effect of certain
causes. In one brief sentence he has
indicated that it results not only from the
cause which the Herbartians emphasise
—the absence of wholesome interests—
but from another cause which they
recognise, but concerning which they do
not profess to teach us anything. This
second cause is bad habit.1 His words
are among the boldest and even the
most scientific in our language. “ Starve
me, keep me from books and honest
people, educate me to love dice, gin, and
pleasure, and put me on Hounslow
Heath with a purse before me, and—I
will take it.”1
2
Somehow, Fielding, Thackeray, and
Mr. Rowntree, all seem to forget Free
Will. They trace evil to its causes, and
imply, Thackeray especially, that, given
these causes, sin inevitably follows.
Free Will, in fact, is at a discount in
modern sociological works, the reason
being, as already indicated, that a prin
ciple of mere lawlessness, even if a true
principle, is one incapable of being made
use of. In Herbart’s educational works,
as we have also seen, Free Will—so far
as mysterious—is likewise at a discount,
and for the same reason; it is a principle
37
of no use for the educationist; “nothing
can be built on it.”
He says, quite
frankly, that “ the stupid man cannot be
virtuous,”1 just as Fielding tells us that a
“ blockhead ” is likely, if not certain, to
become a debauchee.
And elsewhere
Herbart uses words which are equally
momentous, though less contentious in
form. “ If intellectual interests are
wanting, if the store of thought be
meagre, the ground lies empty for the
animal desires.”
We are getting on the scent of the
“ Secret of Herbart.” Somehow, educa
tion (of the proper kind) is beginning
to appear “ portentous.”
Interest,
or (to use Herbartian terminology)
many-sided interest, is seen to be a
weapon capable of wounding, perhaps of
slaying, this Briareus-handed or Hydra
headed monster of moral evil. The
Herbartian Ziller calls many-sided
interest a means of protection against
passions, as well as a help in daily life
and amid the storms of fate. Another
Herbartian speaks of it as a “moral
support and protection against the servi
tude that springs from the rule of desire
and passion.”2 A third describes as a
true benefactor of the race him “ who
awakens in each man an enduring inte
rest in anything whatever........ Such an
interest is a universal medicine.”s Still
another Herbartian, this time hailing
from America, declares interest to be “ a
protection against desires, disorderly
impulses, and passions........ A many-sided
interest, cultivated along the chief paths
of knowledge, implies such mental vigour
1 If little or nothing is said, in this essay, on
the subject of habit, or if the relation of habit to
1 It is useless for readers or writer to worry
apperceptive interest is ignored, the reason is over the mere form of this expression. Its sub
not that the writer under-estimates such matters. stance is explained in the pages that follow.
He is only too conscious of the omissions that
2 Kern : quoted in De Garmo’s Herbart and
may be charged against the present work.
the Herbartians.
2 Esmond.
I
3 Scheibert, 1906.
�38
THE SECRET OF HERBART
and such pre-occupation with worthy
subjects as naturally to discourage un
worthy desires.”1 Language like this,
almost or quite evangelical in fervour,
will be said to be open to the charge of
exaggeration. But are we sure of this ?
Has the moral value of many-sided
interest ever been adequately realised,
and many-sided interest itself ever been
given the chance it deserves? Admitting,
however, for the sake of peace, that the
language is exaggerated, the truth it
embodies is, nevertheless, a great one.
Interest helps, at any rate, to suppress
moral evil.
Now, which profession,
amid the hierarchy of the professions, is
called upon to awaken many - sided
interest ? The educational only. Thus
the schoolmaster stands in the same rank
with archbishops, bishops, and all
ministers of religion. While they are
baptising with water he is baptising with
many-sided interest.1
2
This is crude Herbartianism, but, as we
have already seen, it is not precisely a
new discovery. Most people will admit
— will sometimes even urge — that
“ counter-attractions,” “ hobbies,” and
the like, are useful moral agencies. The
Churches seek, more or less energetically,
to supply these counter-attractions; clubs,
recreative and educational, are opened,
and hopes are expressed that even
hooligans may in this way be reclaimed.
If Herbartianism had nothing more to
tell us than this, that we must try to
suppress evil by awakening positive
interests, it would be of immense value,
1 McMurry, Elements of General Method.
2 This is neither a joke nor a sneer ; there is a
real parallelism. Herbart regards interest as
only a portal to character—but a neglected
portal. It is for character-forming what Baptism
is claimed to be for Faith—an early but not the
only sacrament. See p. 46.
not only to the schoolmaster, but to the
moralist and the philanthropist also.
Already, as we look steadily at it, evil is
beginning to appear less mysterious;
already a desolating stream is being
traced to its poisonous source.
There is many an indication that the
moral efforts of the future will take, at
any rate in large measure, the direction
indicated in these paragraphs. Men are
beginning to see that in the cultivation
of wholesome interests, rather than solely
in the denunciation of vice and the
provision of neurotic remedies, lies the
key to the moral situation. The growing
importanceof the “Institutional Church”
is significant. Nay, the centre of gravity
is moving from the church to the school.
“ A man drinks, not only because his
brute nature is strong and craves the
stimulus, but because he has no other
interests, and must do something.”1
“ The spread of education and the
extension of a cheap literature adapted
to the wants and requirements of the
people, aided by the establishment of
lectures, reading-rooms, and schemes of
rational recreation, have done much to
withdraw the operatives from the public
house.”2
“ Ignorant and untrained minds, weary
and unhealthy bodies, gloomy and de
moralising environment, monotony and
weariness of life: out of these evils
spring the seeds of vice........
“ What culture have these poor women
ever known ? What teaching have they
had ? What graces of life have come to
them ? What dowry of love, of joy, of
sweet and fair imagination? Think
1 The Times, October, 1873.
2 Royal Commission (Scotland), i860.
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what their lives are, think what their
homes are, think of the darkness and
confusion of their minds, and then say,
is it a marvel if they take to gin ? ” 1
“At bottom the temperance question
is largely an ‘ entertainment of the
people ’ question........ Pictures, books,
good music, clear laughter, heart-fellowship : are not these true aids to life ? Is
it not worth while to bring them within
reach of the docker, the coalheaver, the
artisan, and the common labourer?.......
Never will the evil spirits be permanently
cast out until the empty house is tenanted
by such as these.”2
“ I am disappointed at the moral taste
of the public after thirty years of com
pulsory education. It is a vital social
need that has to be met, and a publican
meets that need, caters for it, and, in a
sense, satisfies it in attractive and alluring,
but defective, ways. If we leave the
publican alone to satisfy that need,
temperance workers may talk till the
crack of doom, for he has the people in
the hollow of his hands........ Let us
utilise the schools in the city as evening
institutions.”3
“ People must acquire interests unless
they are to live by appetite alone.
Rational interests and hobbies are the
best antidotes to ‘ hooliganism ’ in every
rank of society.”4
“No one would sit and drink in a
public-house if he knew how delightful
it was to sit and think in a field ; no one
would seek excitement in gambling and
1 Robert Blatchford, in the Morning Leader,
September 2nd, 1898.
2 Rev. Will Reason, in University and Social
Settlements.
3 Dr. Paton, September 30th, 1903 ; Midland
Temperance Conference, Birmingham.
4 Mr. Ritchie at Aberdeen, October 29th,
1903.
39
betting if he knew how much more inte
resting science was.”1
“ If people realised the intense enjoy
ment of reading, there would be very
little pauperism, extravagance, drunken
ness, and crime........ Ignorance costs
more than education.”2
Criminality and drunkenness are not
quite such mysteries as Mr. Wells would
suggest.3 True, there may be something
too optimistic in the words last quoted ;
the man of culture who uttered them may
not have realised the immense difficulties
which face the carrying out of the con
structive policy he foreshadows amid the
degenerates of our great towns. Still,
there is enough truth in his words, and
in the others that have been quoted, to
justify the claim that a system of educa
tion, capable of implanting elevated
tastes, is a weapon with which to fight
moral evil successfully, and a means of
hastening the day when, in the words of
the hymn, mankind will be
Saved to sin no more.
Literally and demonstrably—unless all
the above quotations are wrong—a system
of education which creates a love of good
books, a love of nature, and so forth, is
a system which helps to “take away the
sin of the world.”
Philanthropic and missionary work in
this country may be arranged in three
grades.
1 Lord Avebury, July 25th, 1902 ; Nature
Study Exhibition.
2 Lord Avebury, February 27th, 1902 ; Home
Reading Union. In Mr. Rowntree’s Betting
and Gambling the same standpoint is adopted.
The word “ interest ” comes up continually and
almost automatically in the consideration of re
medial measures for this vice. “We have con
fined our people in the dark, and they are
gambling to break the tedium.”
3 Mankind in the Making.
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THE SECRET OF HERBART
The lowest grade is mere rescue work.
This work is noble, and will probably
be necessary for generations to come.
Whoever seeks to save the slum child,
reform the drunkard, and lift the fallen,
is engaged in work of this kind. But it
is crude, and contributes nothing to the
pulling up of evil by its roots.
The next grade—a higher one—may
be represented by such preventive work
as that carried on by the United Kingdom
Alliance, which aims at the removal of
temptations to debauchery. Work like
this goes closer to the roots of evil than
the last. But still it is purely negative.
The highest grade of all is that which
seeks to implant wholesome interests.
The only profession in existence which
is called as a profession to positive work
of this kind is the educational.
schoolmaster should place before himself,
is coming to be recognised—even by
many who have probably never heard of
Herbart—as a working aim for social
and moral reformers. The programme
sketched out by Royal Commissions and
private philanthropists was sketched out
—though in a more technical form—
by a German educationist exactly a
century ago. The only difference is that,
whereas Royal Commissions and private
philanthropists see the evil and see
the need for interest (or many-sided
interest) as a remedy, Herbart investi
gated also the conditions under which
this interest could spring up. Whereas
our unphilosophical moderns urge, as
Herbart himself urged, that interest is a
moral guide and a moral protection,
Herbart, the philosopher, saw that interest
depended upon apperception,1- and that,
If, therefore, the preceding and suc apart from efficiency in the apperceptive
ceeding arguments are sound, the smallest mechanism, interest could not be aroused.
educational reform may, perchance, be
of more permanent influence than the
Even, however, if we paused at the
sermons of every bishop and every present point, much, let us repeat, would
popular preacher; just as no political or have been gained. We have seen that
religious controversy has done one tenth evil springs, in some measure at least,
of the good or the harm that was done from absence of wholesome interests ;
by the fatal proposal of 1861. Indeed, seeing this, we are on the true road
the strangest feature about the educa along which moral effort may legitimately
tional apathy of the modern Englishman and successfully travel. We have learnt
is that he himself has been, in large reasons for connecting mental deficiency
measure, made what. he is by good or with moral deficiency, and have thus
bad teachers; they have influenced him realised, as all the Herbartians realise,
more than the clergyman, the doctor, or how great a unity the mind is, and how
the lawyer; and yet, though his mind false to most facts is. the “ faculty
and character were committed to their doctrine.” “The stupid man,” we have
keeping, he cares little about the work learnt from Herbart, “ cannot be virtu
which our teachers perform upon the ous ” ; starve mentally a Thackeray, and
new generation now growing up.
—as he tells us himself—he will steal the
first purse on Hounslow Heath ; suffer
It is clear, however, that the doctrine
This is
of much
of many - sided interest, regarded by be 1practical trueFrobelian interest, but there may
or
interests, of which the
Herbart as the immediate aim which the germs are implanted before birth.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
the existence of an “ ignorant and un
trained, dark and confused mind,” “ a
monotonous and weary life,” and the
result will be, in the opinion of Robert
Blatchford, a “ taking to gin.”
4i
need the Gospel truly, but the preacher
who goes into the slums merely to preach
wastes his breath. He might just as
well preach to the east wind swirling
along Commercial Road.”1 But where
is the explanation of this irresponsive
All this is true, but it tells us nothing ness to appeal ? In what infernal armoury
except implicitly about “ apperception,” is forged this impenetrable carapace ?
with its “reconditeand portentous secret.”
Is “ apperception ” the same as “ manyIn the experiences about to be narrated
sided interest,” and is Herbartianism there was nothing unusual, nothing
merely a gospel of “hobbies” and more dramatic than is constantly occur
“counter-attractions,” with Dr. Johnson’s ring in the records of humble educational
words as a motto, “ I am a great friend effort. Nothing, at least, more unusual
to publick amusements, for they keep than this, that the narrator saw his
people from vice ”? By no means.
experiences in the light of the Her
bartian doctrines of apperception and
Accept the Herbartian doctrine of many-sided interest.
“ many-sided interest,”or, to simplify your
task, drop the phrase “ many-sided,” and
The situation was a simple one. A
seek, amid the slums of your cities and country borough with a few thousand
in the emptying hamlets of your country inhabitants possessed, among those few
districts, to arouse interest in anything. thousand, quite an unusual number of
You will, in large measure, fail j and, if the youths and young men upon whom
you consult clergyman or philanthropist, admittedly rest, in great measure, the
you will hear that they, too, have noted future destinies of this Empire. Their
a strange and baffling irresponsiveness characters were in the making. They
among the people they seek to elevate. stood at the moral cross-roads. Trans
There seems no point of contact between planted into a great city, they would
the saviours and those they would seek well-nigh instantly fall into evil courses
to save. Device after device is employed, unless possessed of some powerful
and fails. What was true in David internal principle of moral preservation,
Stow’s time is largely true now. “ The Religion had had its chance ; there was
mass are as impenetrable as the nether a place of worship for every three
millstone. No motive awakens their hundred inhabitants. The theatre or
consideration.”1
music-hall did not exist in the town,
and the moral problem was correspond
Even religious journals, faced by this ingly simplified. There was but little
problem, are beginning to use bold poverty of a degrading kind. The chief
language. “ The people of the slums characteristic of the human life of the
town was emptiness. It was an ideal
1 The Training System. There is pathos in
reading a book like Stow’s. He had his spot for awakening among its younger
dreams of “ providing an antidote for the inhabitants something of the manyexposed condition of youth and the demoralis
ing influence of large towns”; and we in these
days have our dreams too.
1 Christian World, June nth, 1903.
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THE SECRET OF HERBART
sided interest that is such a protection
against the immensely severer tempta
tions of larger places—the tempta
tions which many of those younger
inhabitants would have, sooner or later,
to face.
literature, for the reading of Dickens,
and, as an experiment, for the study of
that gréât crisis when Assyria was
gradually strengthening her hold upon
Judea, and when a prophet-politician
arose to guide the tiny State.
Judged by the low standard that
prevails in this country—in the southern
counties especially—the writer was suc
cessful. With a single exception, every
thing that was started weathered the
session—a record somewhat unusual
amid the disappointing records of
evening schools in Britain, The one
exception fails almost everywhere; the
British nation, with all its seriousness
and “ patriotism,” does not, for reasons
that will soon be obvious, wish to learn
about the “ Life and Duties of a
Citizen.” Judged by numbers, judged
by duration, judged by any ordinary
test, the writer’s work was at least
tolerable in its success; judged by his
own standard, it was a failure.
The curriculum, one may admit, was
one-sided; deficient in the important
practical subjects that call for skill or
dexterity and attract many individuals ;
deficient, in fact, on the Frobelian side.
Such subjects, it may here be remarked,
are not those upon which the appercep
tion doctrine bears;1 in other words,
they are not subjects upon which the
Herbartians have much to tell us.
What was his standard, what was his
wish? He purposed to arouse in the
breasts of the several hundred young
men whose lives were tame, colourless,
and unworthy (not necessarily vicious),
an interest in one or more of those
subjects which have the power of giving
richness, colour, and worthiness to life.
He knew that, when emptiness of mind
joins forces with facility for vice, vice
follows as an almost inevitable result
Religion, he saw, did not influence more
than a fraction of the individuals before
him. He believed that a few healthy
interests would, to say the least, be a
valuable preservative. A curriculum
accordingly was drawn up. The ordi
nary classes were opened, and, in
addition to them, classes for English
Deficient though the curriculum was,
it was at least a far richer curriculum
than is usual in small country towns.
At any rate, the experiment was made.
But before its results are narrated some
thing should be said concerning the
conditions under which interest—so
saving a power—is aroused. This,
indeed, is the crux and the climax
of the whole problem. Everyone will
admit—willingly or reluctantly—that
interest is a moral stimulus, a moral
guide, or at the very least a moral pro
tection ; the practical problem is, “ How
can it be aroused?”
Interest, say the Herbartians, is based
on apperception, and apperception is
the process of interpreting some new
fact or experience by means of our
previous knowledge. We are rarely
/
1 This is open to criticism. In a wide and
untechnical sense we could say that Frdbel dis
covered “apperception centres” in the young,
and directed teachers to make use of them.
But this is to give an extension—perhaps a
useful extension—of meaning to the term “ap
perception. ”
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
interested in that which is absolutely
strange, alien, foreign, unintelligible,
devoid of personal significance. The
boor blinks wearily at a fine Gothic
arch ; the Chinaman is unmoved at the
mention of Alfred. The engineer is in
terested in a new machine—for he knows
something about machines already; he
is not interested in a machine with which
he is already over-familiar, nor is the
poet, as a rule, interested in machines
of any kind. Two things are fatal to
interest: over-familiarity and total igno
rance.
It would be no difficult task—experi
mental psychologists have done it time
upon time—to prove how, on the mention
of this or that name, there follows a rush
of blood to the brain or a heightened
rate of breathing; while on the mention
of a third name there is none of this.
The medical man would thrill at the
name of Vesalius; the Catholic at the
name of St. Antony ; the bookmaker at
the mention of Ascot. And while the
instruments were measuring the physio
logical changes, great or slight as the
case might be, an Herbartian onlooker
would tell of another side to each
process—the psychical side—and would
speak, not of a rush of blood to the
brain, but of a rush of ideas to the
mind. And he might, if so inclined,
sound the name “ Herbart ” itself in
someone’s ears; and the instruments
would record infallibly whether that
name was a meaningless one or whether
it summoned up a wealth of interpreta
tive associations.
43
upon the ethics of apperception. This
little work has the ethics of apperception
for its subject, and the writer’s own
simple experience, viewed in the light of
the doctrine, for its immediate occasion.
Picture the announcement of a set of
“ Dickens Readings.” Who would be
likely to attend them—the individual
already acquainted with the works of
the novelist, or the individual to whom
even the name of Dickens was unknown ?
It was the second individual that the
present writer wished especially to attract;
he whose life was palpably and dis
tressingly empty; who had no sources
of pleasure beyond the crudest; who,
as a consequence, would probably fall at
once before the assault of severe tempta
tion. But, as a matter of fact, this was
exactly the individual who stayed away.
He who came, and received pleasure
from hearing and discussing the works
of Dickens, was precisely the one who
was already partly acquainted with those
works.
In this fact there lies an immense and
tragic significance. “To him that hath
(mental possessions) shall be given.” By
some law of nature—almost a malign
law—it seems that the mentally starved
soul is prevented from desiring the very
food that will save it. Though you offer
to the uncultured and empty-minded
man a whole world of entrancing and
elevating pleasure—such a world is con
tained in the works of Dickens—he will
never take the initial step unless some
favourable chance or accident open his
mind to the world he is losing.
But though volumes—too many, in the
He who is “interested” in Dickens is
opinion of Professor James—have been
written on the psychology of appercep he who has learnt something about the
tion, little or nothing has been written novelist’s early struggles, or has read one
�44
THE SECRET OF HERBART
or more of his works and wishes to go
farther, or who, in some other way, has
acquired a certain number of ideas con
cerning the novelist. The announce
ment of a “ Dickens Reading ” attracts
such a one immediately. The old ideas
lay hold of the new announcement; a
simple kind of apperception takes place;
interest is aroused, and following in the
train of interest comes moral protection,
if not moral stimulus and guidance.
The man is penetrable, he is open to
influences; above all, he has something
in his mind that is worth having: he
has an interest.
He who is not “ interested ” in Dickens
is probably the man who is wholly
ignorant of him; whose life would be
invigorated, purified, and rendered
happier and more worthy by an interest
in the novelist; who may, indeed, be
sinking to moral perdition owing to the
lack of such interests as these; and who,
unless such interests are aroused, or
unless saved by some intense and
perhaps unwholesome form of religious
belief, is fated so to sink. “ The stupid
man cannot be virtuous.” He is im
penetrable ; he cannot be influenced;
he has nothing in his mind that is worth
having : he has no interest.
“ Dull fools,” in Milton’s terminology,
may regard not only “ divine philosophy,”
but the novels of Dickens and every
fascinating book that has been written,
as “harsh and crabbed.” And yet it
would seem to be a possible task, if
this apperception doctrine is no fiction,
so to build a mental structure into the
minds of the young as to render these
books
Musical as is Apollo’s lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.
And here, be it observed, the question
is not one of natural intelligence. The
rustic who stayed away from a Dickens
meeting might have been endowed with
congenital abilities equal to those of
anyone who came. The question is one
of acquired ideas, and ideas are
“acquired” in the first instance, not
from the abysses of the soul itself, but
from nature and human nature around.
Once acquired, they possess an assertive
ness of their own, often slight, but never
entirely or finally negligible; and the
power of forming alliances among them
selves, dissoluble or eternal with the
dissolution or eternity of the soul itself.
One-half, at least, of education consists
in thus providing the soul of each child
with masses of related and articulated
ideas. Education is more—far more—
than “ drawing out.”
Scarcely one working man out of ten
has made the discovery that there can
be pleasure in books. Not only ninetenths of the thought of the age, but also
of the humour of the age are unmeaning
to the ignorant. “ The person who can
learn easily (and who wishes to learn)
is he who already knows much.”1
The
writer’s
experience
with
“ Dickens Readings ” was repeated with
his other ventures. The vast majority
of Englishmen, he discovered, are not
“ interested ” in English literature or
English history; owing to a limited and
non-humanistic education, their minds
have never accumulated a sufficiency of
ideas to generate the apperceptive
process. Life is all the poorer; hell, if
there is a hell, all the richer. Still more
emphatically is the English nation devoid
1 Mill, in Essay on Nature. The words in
parentheses are added by the present writer.
�THE SECRET OR HERBART
of interest in the great historical char
acters to whom we owe the Jewish pro
phetic literature. This held of study is
wholly unknown except to a microscopi
cally minute portion of the nation. The
lack of interest here is the more ludicrous
because of the immense claims put
forward on behalf of this literature, the
immense amount of talk concerning
“Biblical teaching,” and the immense
possibilities of inspiration and consola
tion which Biblical literature possesses.
The writer has put the matter to the
test; under the most favourable condi
tions (absence of counter-attractions,
etc.) not thirty persons out of three
thousand are interested in Isaiah—less
than one per cent.1
Yet, in each of the three subjects that
have been mentioned there exists vast
power of inspiring, thrilling, and eleva
ting man; but before this power can
come into play a certain sufficiency of
ideas must be accumulated; a fairly
wide outlook must be opened out—and
it must be done for most people early in
life.
A curriculum which is defective in
this respect will win no praise from the
Herbartians. The two greatest followers
of Herbart—Dorpfeld and Ziller—
devoted their best powers to “concen
trating ” the curriculum around those
subjects which confer ideas, convinced
that only if the mind is well supplied
1 No Roman Catholics can be more igno
rant of three-quarters of the Bible than
English Protestants. Note that the question is
not one concerning the skill of any particular
teacher or lecturer. People are not “inte
rested ” in such things : they can scarcely con
ceive of them being made interesting.
And
therefore they refuse to waste time in putting the
matter to a test.
45
with mental food can mental and moral
health—manifested, for example, in
interest and ultimately in character—be
present. There may be danger here:
the Herbartian may easily become a
mere lecturer who pours forth in reckless
abundance his extensive stores of know
ledge; his pupils may become passive
recipients of these ill-digested stores.
But, however great this danger may be,
there is another danger greater still—that
the curriculum of the school may be so
defective in subjects which confer ideas
and enrich the mind that interest in the
great facts of the universe may never be
kindled at all. No interest in science
can flourish in a vacuous mind; no
interest in history, in literature, in moral
conduct.
Ziller’s basis for “ concentration ” was
narrower than Dorpfeld’s, the former
choosing humanistic subjects only (fairy
tales, biography, history), the latter
including nature-knowledge also. But
the principle from which they started
was the same ; the mind needs ideas as
much as the body needs food. Deprive
the mind of its legitimate mental food,
and the springs of interest will dry up.
The curriculum must not confine itself
to conveying mere skill in writing, read
ing, or Latin versification, or lay main
stress upon formal studies like grammar
or mathematics. Important though
these may be, the “ knowledge ” subjects
are more important still; it is they that
possess significance for the moral life; it
is therefore for them that the Herbartian
is specially solicitous; it is in connection
with them that apperception takes place.
Mentally and morally man cannot
live in a vacuum. A deficiency in ideas
means a deficiency in everything that is
�46
THE SECRET OF HERBART
worthily distinctive of man; it means
“dulness and impenetrability.” Igno
rance is “a vacuity in which the soul
sits motionless and torpid for want of
attraction.”1
tured ” man—many a Master of Ballantrae, with a “ love of serious reading ”__
is a scoundrel; many a comparatively
uncultured man is, to say the least,
decent and respectable. But the objec
There are writers, presuming them tors small blame to them for being
selves to be critics of the Herbartian objectors, seeing that even Herbartians
system, who so misunderstand the maxim, often fail to know how immensely vital
“ Stupid men cannot be virtuous,” as to their own doctrines are—do but affirm
imagine that it refers to ignorance of the what Herbart himself affirmed : “ manymeans by which a virtuous end can be sided interest is far from virtue.” Nay,
attained.1 The stupid man, they seem though interest provides for the “adjust
2
to say, may see the virtuous goal, but ment ” or “ rightness ” of character, it
knows not how to set about reaching it. does not fully provide—Herbart tells us
for its “ firmness, decision, and invul
Surely no great system could rest its
nerability.” Accordingly, after devoting
reputation on a principle so trite as this.
Herbartianism, alone among educational one book of the Allgemeine Pädagogik to
systems, has recognised the momentum “ Many-sidedness of Interest,” Herbart
of ideas. Apart from ideas there are no proceeds (much, doubtless, to the sur
ideals; an ideal, in fact, is an idea. The prise of his “ critics ”) to devote another
morally stupid man may not only fail to to “ Moral Strength of Character.” The
see the means, he fails to see the end; facts are obvious. The man with keen
or if he see it, he is too mentally interest in books, or nature, or politics,
pauperised to do so with any vividness may not be morally perfect or religiously
or force—to see in it any significance. complete; certain of his interests may,
The currents of his mind set in other indeed, open up possibilities of evil—for
directions; no vis a tergo has been example, the evil of reading pernicious
enlisted in the cause of moral progress. literature; but, nevertheless, his interests
Appeal to your rustic, seek to thrill him are, on the whole, a mighty protection
with what thrills you, and you will for him; the sensual cannot wholly or
discover, as never before, how vitally greatly engross his attention; he is left
important a certain degree of richness of with little time for vice. He may fall,
mind is if a man is ever to attain more but he has latent powers of recuperation
than the humblest heights of character. in himself. The teacher has blessedly
Without this certain degree of richness inoculated him “ before the hot desires
you may as well appeal to a block of for sensual pleasures have so infected
blood and veins as to make virtue and
Dartmoor granite.
wisdom impossible.”1 All things of
Herbartianism, again, is often con the moral life are possible to such a
founded with a colourless “ culture ” man; few things are possible to the
gospel, and great discredit is thrown boor. And, even were this not true,
upon it in consequence. Many a “ cul- culture is desirable for its own sake if vice
1 Johnson’s Rasselas.
2 Journal of Education, March, 1903.
1 Pestalozzi, in How Gertrude Teaches her
Children.
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--------- V---------------------------- ;
itself “ loses half its evil by losing all its mental constituents, will be manifest.
Contrast cruelty with tenderness; the
grossness.”
love of gambling with the love of know
The standard objection to Herbartian- ledge ; drunkenness with patriotism.
ism, that scoundrels may be men of
Virtue, in fact, rests on wholesome
culture, is of no validity whatever unless
we can prove that their scoundrelism is ideas. “The limits of the circle of
the result of their culture. This has thought,” says Herbart, “ are the limits
never been done. Here and there for the character.” Bigotry, cruelty,
history presents us with prominent cases impurity, intemperance, selfishness —
of the unholy alliance, and we wonder there is normally in each of these failings
as we read ; our very wonder being a an element of mental deficiency ; for we
mute testimony to the fact that culture may ignore extreme cases, in which the
does not, as a rule, conduce to immo whole character is in the grip of a
rality; it is the strangeness of the case devouring passion or prejudice—such
that attracts our attention. Here and cases are pathological, and concern the
there, too, the short and simple annals physician rather than the moralist. The
of the poor present us with unlettered vicious man is, in large measure at least,
men or simple girls who are morally a man whose mind does not re-echo to
heroic; and again we wonder, our moral appeal, who has no apperception
wonder testifying afresh to the same masses ready to give the appeal any
fact. Other things being equal, culture meaning. Virtue, on the other hand, is
conduces to morality, at least to any largely a matter of apperception, and is
morality that is above the crudest and thus immensely more complex than vice.
It is not everyone who can respond to
simplest.
moral appeal or rise to moral heights,
And why is this ? For a reason that but any fool can sin.
scarcely any English writer—at any rate,
No ; culture has never in itself con
any English educationist—seems to have
put in precise form, though the reason duced to vice.1 Culture combined with
itself, no doubt, has been vaguely mani a crude atheism may seem to conduce
fest to all thinkers. Virtue is a more to vice ; so may the absence of culture.
complex thing than vice, more dependent Culture combined with cerebral or
upon ideas, less dependent upon sensual spinal disease may seem to conduce to
excitement. The drunkard’s vice is not vice; so may the absence of culture.
the result of ideas, though, of course, an If it could be proved that the unspeak
idea of drink has to be present; the vice able profligacy of Rome in the early
draws its strength from a lower source. years of the sixteenth century was the
Sensualism, again, draws its strength result of the Renaissance culture, the
from the body, not the mind; and the doctrines of Herbart would receive a
gambler’s vice, once more, is largely a
1 “ Brain-workers provide the most hopeless
matter of physical excitement. Contrast cases of dipsomania.” (Canon Horsley, Prisons
with every vice a virtue; in each case a and Prisoners.') After allowing for disease of
mind or body, the present writer questions
greater complexity of structure, a greater gravely whether this statement has much general
richness of design, a greater wealth of significance.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
severe, though not a fatal, blow. It
cannot be proved. “Between the moral
enfeeblement and the aesthetic vigour (of
the Renaissance times) there existed no
causal link.”1 There is, on the con
trary, every reason to believe that,
other things being equal, the man of
culture can rise to moral possibilities
that are not possibilities for the boor;
he can apperceive moral situations
which remain purely unintelligible to
the boor; he sees twenty moral duties
where the boor sees one. Without ideas
there can be no virtue; with few ideas
there can be few virtues; with many
ideas all things in the way of virtue are
possible. “The temptations of intel
lect are not comparable to the tempta
tions of dulness.”1
2
Every idea is a potential tendril by
which a man may touch and be touched;
through which he may be influenced in
the direction of good. “And of evil,
too,” an objector suggests. “ No,”
again replies the Herbartian; “ideas
are less significant for vice than for
virtue; the latter is complex; the former
is simple. Ideas work more for virtue
than for vice, for virtue is more spiritual
than vice.”
thing than to study the lives of those
who are dead. But living heroes and
gentlemen are not found in every
dwelling-house, and the children who
come to us will perhaps never learn
nobility at all unless they learn it from
us or from the historical examples we
hold up before them.
But, it may be said, what about those
spotless souls which have grown up amid
squalor? What about “Little Nell”?
what about “Jo”? what about “Lizzie
Hexham ”?
The answer is, that amid absolute
squalor and crime no pure soul can
grow up. There must be influences for
good if the soul is not to take the down
ward path. To dogmatise would be
foolish; to set limits to the influence
of good, even amid unpromising condi
tions, would be foolish; but—unless
this book is fatally wrong in its essential
doctrines—there can be no virtue in a
soul that has never seen or heard of
morality. None of the genuine examples
of purity and heroism springing up amid
unpromising surroundings contradict this
statement; and to picture unreal examples
of such purity and heroism is “ morally
mischievous.”1
Virtue, in short, can be “taught.” It
depends largely upon teaching, upon the
possession of a wealth of ideas, more
especially of ideas concerned with
human life in the past and present.
The “present,” maybe, is even more
powerful than the “past,” and the
example of the present more powerful
than that of the past. To live amid
heroes and gentlemen would be a finer
Let us admit that all the springs of
virtue are not known; that heredity
plays strange freaks at times; that this
man is by nature unreceptive, this one
by nature receptive. The writer gives
no guarantee that, granted all he asks,
virtue will spring forth—Minerva-like—
equipped at every point. But he will
stake the truth of this book and the
1 J. A. Symonds.
2 Arnold of Rugby.
1 As George Gissing called it, with direct refer
ence to Lizzie Hexham. See his Dickens.
�THE SECRET OF HERBAR!'
49
would be truer to say that our views of
sin are changing and becoming—be it
observed—not only more scientific, but
also far more conformable with the ideas
which the ancient Jews, the men who
have taught the world what sin is, formed
ages ago. 441 have sinned,” said Saul;
44....... 1 have played the fool and have
erred exceedingly.”1 44 The notion of
sin” among the Jews “is that of blunder
or dereliction, and the word is associated
with others that indicate error, folly, or
want of skill and insight.”2 The word
“insight” brings us on to Herbart, and
It is with good reason that the Her- the word 44 folly ” reminds us that
bartians lay such stress upon the teaching “stupid people cannot be virtuous.”
of the 44humanities”—good literature,
biographies, history. It is these subjects
If all this is really a 44 secret,” it is
—and these only—which store the mind time that the curtain should be lifted.
with such apperception material as makes And it verily seems to have been a
a man morally sensitive. Without the 44 secret ” to educators and to preachers.
possession of such material he cannot “Virtue cannot be taught” is on the
be successfully appealed to. He is lips of many, and as the lips utter the
urged to be heroic; he does not know amazing falsehood, the Herbartian asks :
what heroism means; Curtius, and Alfred, 44 What refined virtue exists under the
and Livingstone are unknown names. sun that is not the result of teaching?”
He is urged to become a worthy citizen: Brutal necessity, acting through natural
he does not know what citizenship means ; selection, can teach much, has taught
the annals of his native town are a sealed much in the past centuries; but the
book to him. He is urged to be virtues that necessity can teach are the
courteous; he does not know what cruder and more selfish virtues. Every
courtesy means : the classic and historic grace of life has been taught to us; and,
examples of graceful considerateness are unless we teach them to others, they
as wholly strange to him as, perchance, will never be acquired at all. From two
living examples among the companions sources only do we learn to love nobility,
he meets. And so with the whole series self-sacrifice, self-control; from the living
of virtues. They rest largely upon examples around us, and from the
teaching, and if they are not taught—if examples that the historic past can bring.
the virtues incarnated in living persons To a child in a slum or in an agricultural
or historical examples are not presented wilderness the former come scarcely at
to the minds of the young—the young all; even to the most favoured among
will never grow up virtuous.
us they come but rarely. How immensely
truth of Herbartianism upon the con
verse ; that a mind deprived from birth
of all noble examples, whether in the
present or in the historic past, will grow
up without moral sensitiveness. 44 In
the way of virtue,” said the Guardian,
reviewing a little work of the present
writer, 444 the wayfaring man, though a
fool, shall not err.’ ” 44 But,” the writer
replies, 44 is this true if he is an absolute
and complete 4 fool,’ one deprived of all
moral examples, one whose mind, apperceptively, is a blank?”
Preachers tell us that there is, in these
days, a “lessened sense of sin.” It
1 I Samuel, xxvi., 21.
2 W. R. Smith, in Prophets of Israel.
E
�50
THE SECRET OF HERBART
important, then, is the work of presenting
to mankind—and especially to the
scholars of our schools—the inspiring
biographies which history has to offer!
Such biographies, presented in an his
torical setting, and preceded by fairy-tale
and legend, constitute the “ Gesinnungsstoff” of the Zillerians, the material
for “ Gesinnungsunterricht ”—character
forming instruction. In such material
must be included, of course, the price
less biographies which the Bible1 can
suitably provide the school; unless such
material, biblical, national, and cosmo
politan, is presented in rich abundance
to the youth of England, we must expect,
well-nigh with astronomical certainty, that
the youth of England will grow up bar
barous, uncultured, and immoral. It is
such material, and such material alone,
which enables a human being to “ apperceive ” moral truth; it is an educational
bread of life.
Nourish imagination in her growth,
And give the mind that apprehensive power
Whereby she is made quick to recognise
The moral properties and scope of things ;1
if it is possible to “ give ” the mind this
power, then it may be possible to vitalise
or renovate the moral universe by means
of education. Something can be “ stuck
on,” even if “natural gifts” can not.
Virtue, though mysteries may yet remain
to baffle and confound us, can be
“ taught.”
The message of Herbart is interest;
the “ secret of Herbart ” is apperception.
Interest in almost anything is good—
interest in nature, in art, in politics;
and many interests are apperceptive,
dependent upon previous knowledge.
But if there is one interest which is
above all others important, and above all
others dependent upon apperception, it
is interest in moral goodness ; and this
will never be aroused in a living soul—
even though the trumpet of judgment be
But yet—but yet—“ Virtue cannot be
heard and hell burst open at men’s feet
taught!” Far more true would it be to —unless the soul has known, in concrete
say “genius cannot be taught,” “ origin forms, what moral goodness means.
ality cannot be taught,” “ talent cannot
Hence the immense importance of the
be taught,” or, in the words of Goethe, work undertaken in the face of national
to confess that “ the older one grows the prejudice by the Moral Instruction
more one prizes natural gifts, because by
League.
no possibility can they be procured and
stuck on.” A thick veil still hangs over
The several years during which that
heredity and variation; and the child League has existed have been years of
comes to us with a physical and mental momentous and rapid progress. Pro
endowment for which God, or fate, or fessors of education have stood aloof;
his parents, not we, are responsible. ecclesiastics, nervous at an apparition
But only a thin veil hangs over this that threatens doom to their predomi
other region where virtue lives in eternal nance in the school, have expressed a
wedlock with apperception. There is contempt they cannot wholly feel; the
less of mystery here. If the teacher can new reformers, conscious that their work
has more significance, promise, and
1 Expurgated possibly, though not necessarily,
but certainly put forth in a more attractive form potency than any work of the past
than at present, with larger print and with
illustrations.
1 Wordsworth.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
century, axe resolved, though deserted
by the supposed representatives of the
psychology and the ethics of education,
“to save the nation alone.”
5i
or the first work of education is to give
this Aesthetic Revelation of the World.1
Tolerance, generosity, magnanimity
are impossible for a mind that is vacant
of ideas; it is too deficient in imagina
tion to “ make allowances.” The miser
is deaf to appeal; no part of his nature
goes out towards the ideals that others
seek. The gambler listens unmoved to
the story of higher things; the story
awakens no echo in him. And so with
the entire list of vices; ’apart from those
to which an individual may be con
genitally inclined, or into which he has
slipped through blind habit, his vices are
almost wholly the result of his mental
deficiencies, of an absence of moral
sensitiveness, of an impenetrability, of a
lack of such elevated ideas as are able to
move into the focus of consciousness
when an appeal is made from without;
in a word, of failure in apperception.
Even, indeed, if the proposals of the
Moral Instruction League were in the
direction of a dry and abstract formula
tion of moral truths—a “ stamping-in of
maxims” such as Herbart condemned—
those proposals would not merit the
contempt of the community; for a bald
and perfunctory enunciation of such
truths is better than a complete ignoring,
or the fragmentary and wholly insuffi
cient treatment which is the rule rather
than the exception in the British primary
school. It is doubtful whether any idea,
or maxim, or exhortation, however
abstract, is entirely ineffective in build
ing up the structure of morality; for
conduct comes home more closely than
many things to the “business and
bosoms” of children. Still, there are
“ A kind heart, coupled with a narrow
good ways and bad ways in every art.
mind, cannot conceive the higher forms
The League starts with the concrete,
well knowing that an abstract principle of duty to the State, to humanity, to
unpopular causes. Culture and mental
is the result of thought directed to this.
force combined regulate the quality of
Herbartianism—repetition is needful the duty paid. The difference between
in this domain—has a double message. abject superstition and lofty piety depends
Its exoteric message is that of many-sided on the intellect, not on the heart, of the
interest; cultivate interests, even in worshipper.”2 And as with man so
humble subjects, and you give life a with woman. Gissing may, for a moment,
certain momentum which will carry it abandon in despair the explanation of
past the dangerous points where temp the shrewishness in Dickens’s women,
tation lurks. Its esoteric message is that and ask : “Do you urge that Dickens
of apperception ; men are blind to moral should give a cause for this evil temper ?
as to other truths unless there has Cause there is none. It is the pecu
grown up or been built up within them liarity of these women that no one can
a sensitive retina composed of thousands conjecture why they behave so ill. The
of minute elements. In Herbart’s words,
1 The name of one of Herbart’s earliest and
there must be “points of contact” most important writings is The Aesthetic Reve
between the soul and the world of lation {or Presentation} of the World (or Uni
verse} as the Chief Work of Education.
nature and human nature. The chief
* Cotter Morison, in The Service of Man.
�52
THE SECRET OF HERBART
nature of the animals—nothing more
can be said.” But more is said elsewhere.
“Sheer dulness and monotony of exist
ence explains their unamiable habits.
They quarrel because they can get no
other form of excitement.” “ ‘ Dolly
Varden ’ is totally without education, and
her mother’s failings are traceable, first
and foremost, to that very source.”1
great need was “ reverence.” A strange
reply ! How, then, is “ reverence ” to
be generated in the school? What is
the magic key to unlock this portal?
Precisely—/^ teaching of history and
literature. It is only through familiarity
with characters which deserve reverence
that we learn reverence. “ ‘ Men will
not accept the gospel,’ we are told. But
why should we expect them to feel the
historical meaning of any great world
tragedy, if history and literature—the
‘ humanistic ’ studies which make us
sensitive to nobleness, to pathos, to
martyrdom, to divinity—have been kept
afar off? Why should they reverence
Christ if they are never taught to rever
ence Alfred or Sidney? The thing is
absurd. We exclude the ‘humanities’
from the school, or, what is worse, we
teach them soullessly, or, what is worse
again, we confuse them with dates, and
grammar, and construing—and then we
complain that the ‘gospel’ is neglected.”1
When J. A. Symonds attributed to the
study of science “an extension of the
province of love,” he was scarcely
guilty of exaggeration. Ignorance, that
draws a veil over the causes of human
action, sees the diabolical everywhere.
The Gospel of Love sent myriads of
witches to the stake in the Middle
Ages, not because the Infallible Church
was malicious and cruel, but because she
was ignorant. And the Church of the
Gospel of Love still mourns for “sin,” and
still hears, though remotely, the rustle of
the Devil’s wings, because she has never
adequately realised, with Herbart, that
“Cultivate reverence—cultivate reve
“the will is rooted in the circle of
rence— cultivate reverence.” Exhorta
thought.”
tions like this are unmeaning until direc
Vice is less appreciably based on tions are given how “ reverence ” can be
apperception than virtue. The soul may “cultivated.” And when the directions
be transparent to every influence of the are given—if ever they are—they will
former kind, opaque to everything that amount to this: “ Place before your
is subtler; just as fog and mist, through pupils historical characters worthy of
which the sun’s radiations force their reverence.” It shows how wholly unscien
way with difficulty, are more transparent tific are our ways of regarding moral edu
than the clearest air to the coarser vibra cation that the exhortation, “ Cultivate
reverence,” could be applauded as an
tions of sound.
exhortation of an opposite kind to the
At a recent educational conference the exhortations of the Moral Instruction
question of moral education was raised League. “Reverence” is an effect—not
by Mr. F. J. Gould. A succeeding a mystery ; every virtue we possess, every
speaker, after discounting excessive aspiration that moves us, is an effect—
“teaching” of morals, claimed that the not a mystery.
1 Dickens, by George Gissing.
1 The Critics oj Herbartianism.
writer.
By the
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
And if it be asked, “ Where, in avail
able form, is this humanistic material to
be found ? ” the answer must be, “ In
works like the Penny Poets and the
Books for the Bairns and the Children's
Plutarch." If in every school of Eng
land, day and evening, books like these
were known, read aloud, talked about
—parts of them even learnt by heart
—and if this were done not soullessly,
“reverence,” and many another grace and
virtue, would have a chance. “ Vacuity
of mind and pettiness of motive would
no longer be the sore affliction they now
are.”1
53
cedure, not because these are in them
selves unimportant, but because they are
likely to draw off the attention of teachers
and the public from the spot where the
greatest educational weakness of all is to
be found.
There is much that is encouraging in
the spirit and ideals of education; there
is probably an increase of intellectual
life in all our schools. Every year some
hundreds of teachers are found attending
laborious holiday courses on the continent
of Europe and elsewhere; perhaps no
other profession can show such signs of
interest and zeal. There is now existent
Vast, then, as is the importance of at least the germ, the presage, of a future
apperceptive power, especially vast is its Science of Education.
importance in one realm—that of history
But such teachers as these are being
and literature. An interest in natural
science—a readiness to see the signifi led rather to cultivate an interest in
cance of a material thing or event—is a formal subjects than in those subjects
priceless thing, essential indeed to the through which alone the school can be
dignity and progress of man, and a rejuvenated and the nation regenerated.
valuable protective against the assaults The study of phonetics, and of modern
of evil; but immeasurably more impor languages generally, is awakening more
tant is an interest in the past deeds and and more interest every year. There
thoughts and creations of the human was need for this, and the writer has
race. Such an interest is a chief means learnt much, and hopes to learn more,
by which character can be built up, and from the pioneers of the reformed method.
practically the only means by which it But—the greatest need of all is being
can become sensitive and morally pro forgotten in the meanwhile.
Again, there is much that is promising
gressive. “The dead generations are,
in truth, our dead selves, from which we in the new methods of teaching mathe
rise to higher things. By the past we matics. Many an artisan will willingly
attend a class in “ practical mathe
live.”2
matics,” and profit by his attendance,
One individual at least—the writer— who will never be attracted by abstract
has sadly to confess to the apprehension Euclid. But—the greatest need of all
and misgiving which he feels when look is being forgotten.
Again, there is much that is sound
ing upon some of the most promising
present-day reforms in educational pro- and suggestive in Professor Armstrong’s
plea that we should make our science
1 Professor Armstrong, in The Teaching of teaching “heuristic,” and encourage the
Scientific Method.
self-activity and inventiveness of our
2 Dr. Laurie, in The Training of Teachers.
�54
THE SECRET OF HERBART
pupils. This is one of the educational
needs of the age. But—the greatest need
of all is being forgotten.
slynesses, cowardices, frettings, resent
ments, obstinacies, crookedness in view
ing things, vulgar conceit, impertinence,
and selfishness.
Mental cultivation,
All the three reforms referred to lie in though it does not of herself touch the
the realm of formal studies and dexteri greater wounds of human nature, does a
ties. Correct phonetic pronunciation • good deal for these lesser defects.”1
practical mathematics ; the scientific
spirit—none of these things contribute
Now, if it appears, after all, that manywith absolute directness to human culture. sided interest is a foe, not only to these
They may contribute much indirectly, “ lesser forms of moral obliquity,” but to
for an interest in such things is of price such of the “ greater wounds of human
less value, apart from the dignity they nature ” as drunkenness and gambling,
add to existence by contributing to effi we have a right to claim that this is an
ciency and power—this in itself is a agency equal to religion herself in the
moral factor. But moral sensitiveness very province that religion regards as
and advance are dependent on human her own. And if even drunkenness and
istic studies that feed the soul.
gambling are not sufficiently crucial tests ;
if the vice of impurity—most abhorred
And now, perhaps, there is some of all vices by the Church—is the one
possibility of estimating aright the relative Newman has especially in view when he
moral values of Religion and Many-sided speaks of the impotence of all agencies
Interest.
except the Catholic Church; then surely
there is significance in the fact that study
That moral evil is tameable only by —the study of the Hebrew language—
religion can no longer be asserted, if this was recommended by St. Jerome as
other agency possess the vitality here efficacious in “ keeping away unholy
claimed. And Newman himself, who thoughts.”
at other moments saw no power but the
It is true that culture cannot success
Catholic Church capable of conquering
“ the fierce energy of passion,” goes far fully compete with religion in the deeper
in the Herbartian direction. Since the crises of life. The penitent thief and
time when St. Paul enumerated the fruits the God-intoxicated monk are not her
of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit, trophies. It is true also that culture
no writer has tabulated a more impres cannot lift the veil and solve the mystery
sive list of the vices than the one drawn of things. She is more impotent than
up by this man—vices attributed by him religion when facing the problems
to absence of secular culture. “ Cultiva of death, and storm, and earthquake;
tion of mind,” he tells us, “is not the for religion, with her Lamb Slain from
same thing as religious principle; but it before the foundation of the world,
contributes much to remove from our can find some meaning in these calam
path the temptation to many lesser forms ities, or seek a meaning where none is
of moral obliquity. Human nature is obvious.
susceptible of a host....... of little vices
1 Newman, in The Present Position of
and disgraceful infirmities, jealousies, Catholics.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
But the concern of this book is with
moral potencies. If moral evil is so deso
lating to mankind that a propitiatory sacri
fice has daily to be offered on modern
altars, the confessional to be set up for
the minutest scrutiny of the conscience,
and ev®ry form of hope and fear enlisted
on the side of virtue; then surely culture,
which wars not unsuccessfully against
ths same relentless foe, has a place by
the side of religion. Nay, when we
ponder on what might be if ever culture
and education came to their own and
were valued aright, all the resources of
the school being directed to the humani
sation of the race, we begin to doubt
whether the claim to equality is not too
modest; and whether, if the world once
realised the possibilities lurking in the
doctrine of apperceptive interest, the
revivals of the Protestant world and the
sacraments of the Catholic would not
appear morally feeble in comparison. If
any enhanced kindliness, charitableness,
sympathy, and public spirit distinguish
thfe century from the tenth, it must be
attributed not to religion—whose doc
trines were known as well then as now,
and were believed in more implicitly—
but to the march of culture and the
increase of apperceptive power.
What* then, from the educationist’s
standpoint, is the practical conclusion
and the summary of the matter ? What
are we to learn from the preceding reflec
tions and experiences ?
A simple thing—a thing so simple,
indeed, that when stated in these pages
many a reader will wonder that there
was ever need to state it at all. The
school must nourish the souls of its pupils,
and the only nourishment possible is
ideas. There may be other tasks—there
55
are; the soul must be exercised and
trained as well as fed; but the feeding is
the first and essential thing; and the
richest food of all—that which best of
all builds up moral fibre—is the human
istic food that comes down to us from
the past in the form of fairy-tale, bio
graphy, history, and literature.
There may be difficulties in the teach
ing of such subjects as these; and the
difficulties are increased tenfold by the
disrepute in which these studies are held,
and the increased attention now given
by teachers to matters of a wholly dif
ferent kind. Even Herbart, seeing the
immensity of the problem, came to shrink
from presenting history too freely to the
undeveloped, unappreciative minds of
his Swiss pupils. The problem remains
immense, but mainly because so few are
working at it.
The battle on behalf of humanistic
subjects will be a stubborn one. It is
these very subjects that have been
neglected in the education of most of our
school managers and teachers ; and in
accordance with the whole teaching of
the- present work such a neglect must
spell want of appreciation for the neg
lected subjects. We cannot, therefore,
expect either school managers or teachers
to be enthusiastic over them until
the supreme value of these things has
been clearly demonstrated; especially
as there are rivals whose claims are
warmly championed on economic and
other grounds.
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
If Longfellow is right, such “lives of
�56
THE SECRET OF HERBART
great men ” are of supreme value in the have closed the present essay. But the
school.
educational world is dominated by false
or misleading formulae, and two of these
We live by admiration, hope, and love.
need further notice.
If Wordsworth is right, any system of
education which fails to supply the
Amateur educationists — professional
humanistic material which kindles admi
educationists also, to an extent that is
ration, hope, and love is an education
a striking commentary upon their own
for death, and not for life.
educational ideals—are in the habit of
using a phrase which, though negatively
“Children,” said the late Mr. Rooper,
not without value, is, from the construc
“ must be assisted to admire heroism in
tive standpoint, undiluted nonsense.
all its forms.” “An intelligent study
They tell us that the teacher’s main task
of the Bible and Shakespeare, and of
is not “ instruction,” but “ training,” or
classical English writers, is incomparably
“ character-forming.”
No Herbartian
more important” than other things in
will deny that “ character-forming ”
the curriculum. “ The epitome of edu
should be the true aim of all education,
cational studies is Nature and Human
except of that kind which is narrowly
Nature; the latter is the more impor
technical and professional; though even
tant.” Pupils must be made acquainted
in the latter kind there are moral impli
“through literary studies with the best
cations. Moreover, no Herbartian will
side of human nature.”
deny that the “ instruction ” given by the
If Mr. Rooper is right, the most
primary schools of England has failed to
important task of the school is to teach
form character. But to imagine that
children to admire the “best side of
there can be character-forming apart from
human nature.”
instruction; to imagine that instruction
“ There are no fairy-tales like the old is a comparatively unimportant thing,
Greek ones for beauty, and wisdom, and is, indeed, not only undiluted nonsense,
truth, and for making children love but indicates well-nigh criminal ignor
ance. Herbart, at any rate, “had no
noble deeds.”
If Kingsley is right, these and other conception of education without instruc
“fairy-tales” should be taught to the tion,” and this instruction, let us observe,
was not exclusively the instruction which
younger children in every school.
goes in England by the name of “ reli
Every Herbartian, in Germany, gious,” and which, though professedly
America, and elsewhere, believes that formative of character, is by no means
humanistic material—fairy-tales, legends, superior in this respect to other kinds of
Herbart, brushing aside
Bible stories, historical biographies, instruction.
literature, history itself—is of supreme the idle prattle which talks of character
moral value. If they are right, the in forming as something separate from the
ference is plain. Calvary is nearer to feeding of the mind, enunciated a doc
Parnassus than world and Church have trine and invented a phrase which has
already infused life into the educational
ever thought.
work of two continents, and is, perhaps,
With these words the writer might destined to rejuvenate educational work
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
57
in this country. Instruction, he said, pupils acquiring any taste for reading,
should be “ educative instruction ”—in for history, for mathematics, or for the
Bible. But to imagine that there can be
struction that makes for character.
character-forming apart from instruction;
Instruction, that is, which creates to imagine that instruction is a compara
powerful and dominating interest in tively subsidiary matter—this, as already
nature and in human nature, especially suggested or demonstrated, is perilous
in the latter; instruction which makes nonsense, and is revealed as such the
life superior to animalism by drawing moment we realise the meaning of the
off the attention elsewhere; instruction apperception doctrine. Character is so
which, by the creation of an appercep closely rooted in ideas that a deficiency
tion organ, replaces sensualism by a in these latter is fatal to any richness of
the former. Elevated interest cannot
sensibility to higher things.
exist; apperception of moral truth can
This sensibility depends upon apper not take place.
ception, and apperception depends on
At another point also the writer has to
instruction. It is impossible in a vac
hold in doubt much that is promising
uous mind.
in the advanced educational thought of
To regard the creation of elevated the day. From every side we hear
interests as something distinct from the that our schools have not taught the
formation of character is foolish and modern youth to “think”; they have
In the
disastrous, if the message of this book has not aroused “self-activity.”
any validity ; and Herbart rightly placed struggle for existence, we are told, it is
“ many-sided interest ” before the teacher this “ heuristic ” attitude that will deter
as the proximate goal of his work. But mine survival; accordingly, unless our
it was not the final goal. Moral culture pupils acquire something more than
and training—the “ subjective ” side of “ mere knowledge,” their education will
education—was to crown and supple be a failure. In very similar language,
ment the building up of an “objective” Sir Thomas Acland emphasised, a year
system of wholesome impulses and in or two ago, the need for “ thoroughness,”
terests. Herbart protested against an and protested against an evening school
illegitimate and pernicious divorce of teaching too many subjects.
will from intellect, of sacred from secular,
Literally, this is some of the best and
of character from interest, of training
from instruction. He is the one edu most authoritative educational thought in
cator in all history who is lucid and England ; it is good thought, and springs
categorical without failing to be syn from the recognition of a real need. It
thetic.
has only one fault: it is fifty years too
early in many of our towns and counties.
To oppose “instruction” to “char
The most immediate need of the pupil
acter-forming,” as many do, is thus only
legitimate if our instruction is hopelessly who attends our primary school is not
non-formative of elevated interests—as that his mind should be exercised^ but
our primary education is, too few of our that it should be fed with a rich refast
�58
THE SECRET OF HERBART
of imaginative and culture-giving material appears. We call it “Interest.” Why
—of historical and biographical ideas.
should a little knowledge of Alfred the
Great, received years ago at school,
It is no good to attempt gymnastics endow this poor mechanic with the
on an empty stomach. It is no good, power of experiencing elevated delight
as in Dickens’s novel, to urge a dying when yonder orator tells a story about
person to “ make an effort.” It is no the Wessex King ? We cannot precisely
good to dream that the Englishman will say, though we know that it is a fact,
ever acquire the power to “ think,” or and that yonder second mechanic, wholly
any interest in “ thinking,” so long as he devoid of the initial knowledge, listens
has no ideals. Now, ideals are much to the orator unmoved. We know that
the same as ideas. In historic ideas— there is a chance, though perhaps a re
in knowledge of the Bible, the history of mote one, of attracting the former to an
the world, the history of his own land— evening school or a literary guild, where,
he is appallingly defective; and until provided the teacher or the conductor is
this defect is supplied he will have little not a hide-bound pedant, new vistas
zeal, little genuine patriotism, little devo may be opened up and new inspira
tion to any high cause whatever. Feed tions be felt; we know also, with a
his soul first, and then will be the time sense of bitter disappointment, that
to teach him to think.1
the second mechanic will never sight
those vistas or feel those inspirations.
Thus the primary school—any school, All the harmonies of music depend, not
indeed, that is not merely “ technical ”— on the power of single notes, but on the
should at times take for its motto, “Cast support which notes, perhaps poor and
thy bread upon the waters, and thou tame in themselves, give to each other.
shalt find it after many days.” New No harmony can be generated out of a
impressions cannot always be apperceived single note, and the school should not
at once. “ Very often the teacher must attempt to generate it; but the school
introduce ideas into the mind of the may, legitimately enough, sometimes
pupil, not so much for their immediate sound these single notes in the ears of
importance as for the use to be made of the pupils, in the hope that, though
them at some future lesson,”1 or (shall apperception may not spring up now,
2
we not say ?) in some future year or some day it will; and that the notes,
decade. Somehow—this is a part of feeble and isolated at present, will then
the “ Secret ” of Herbart—ideas, colour be heard, with others, reverberating in a
less to-day, help to colour the whole of mighty harmony through all the passages
life when they meet kindred ideas to and crannies of the soul.
morrow; the new and the old rush
together, and, at the moment of union,
And as these notes reverberate, as old
as at the union of two chemical elements, ideas apperceive the new, Interest is
heat is generated and a new product generated, and baser attractions begin to
lose their charm. Thus, set free in part
1 That the latter need is not ignored by the from the slavery of the lower passions,
writer will be seen in his remarks on arithmetic,
the soul can pursue, with increased
Appendix I.
energy, the better things that the world
2 Professor Adams, in Primer of Teaching.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
pf thought has to offer, discovering in
the pursuit ever fresh links of association
between the old and the new. Again
and again leaps up the apperception
flash; again and again is felt the interest
thrill. Character takes on, if not stronger,
at any rate nobler, tints. The colours
of life change. The things that once
delighted, and perhaps degraded, delight
and degrade no longer. More and more
tendrils are thrown out above; feebler
and feebler becomes the hold of those
below. No law of parsimony, no prin
ciple of conservation, applies to the
delights of apperception. Here, if any
where, is a spontaneous generation—
among the “dead” ideas. Unlike the
more material pleasures on which man
lavishes time and wealth, the pleasures
of apperception cost nothing ; their store
is illimitable; replenished, like the
emanations of radium, as if by an un
seen hand. Age cannot wither them,
nor custom stale their infinite variety.
In more prosaic language, we may say
that, by a suitable presentation of rich
and varied knowledge early in life, we
are giving our pupils the chance of being
protected from sin and passion by posses
sing interests of an elevated kind—in
terests which grow by what they feed on,
and will only cease if sanity or existence
cease.
Meanwhile, how fares the soul which,
though unfed of ideas, has been exer
cised on grammar, perchance, or de
clensions, or “sums”? The springs of
apperception have been drying up.
The doors of many-sided interest have
been slowly closing on their hinges.
But “ Sin ” has tempted and conquered ;
for she, wily siren, has attired herself in
rainbow hues, while her rival, Learning,
59
has appeared in sober grey. Passion
within and facility without combine to
confer on evil a delirious fascination;
no need of any rich complexity of ideas
to make attractive mankind’s eternal foe.
Though appeals may come from without,
they echo less and less loudly in the
chambers of the mind, and at last cease
to enter at all. The man is now impene
trable. Starved, in his early years, of
saving ideas, his mind has no inner re
sources when a voice has been heard
calling to higher things. The voice may
call, but to deaf ears; the light may
shine, but upon an atrophied retina.
Deprive him of ideas, and you deprive
him of the only means by which the
Christian Gospel, or any other Gospel,
can be interpreted or assimilated. De
prive him of ideas, and he encases him
self, sooner or later, in a carapace of
impenetrability. Evil habits may hang
like chains upon that carapace; they
gall him not. Appeals may beat against
it; they penetrate not. Martyrs and
redeemers die at the stake or at the cross
because those they would fain save do
not possess apperceptive resources. In
one or two passages of Holy Writ
which tell us of ears that hear not, of
eyes that are holden, of hearts that are
hardened, this grim doctrine seems to
be suggested; and appalling indeed is
the doctrine on its negative side, though
full of hope when once its positive
message is heard and understood. The
application of that positive message is the
work for educators, and for them alone.
In the scheme of formal stages of
instruction worked out by the Herbartians, the first stage is “ Vorbereitung,”
or Preparation. Ideas have to be sum
moned up in order to meet and interpret
the new material about to be presented,
�6o
THE SECRET OF HERBART
In a wider sense may we not now say
that the school itself represents, in a
large measure, the stage of “ Vorbereitung ”? It is here that are laid the
foundations for the future interests of
life; it is here that should be developed
that receptivity towards moral appeal,
“ that sensibility of principle, that chastity
of honour which feels a stain like a
wound ” — in short, that apperceptive
readiness without which no virtue above
the crudest is possible. It may be said
that the task is too great for education
to accomplish. In that case the outlook
is ominous, for, if the task is too great
for education, it is a hundred times too
great for any other agency.
An American theological writer of
some eminence says that one immediate
need of the present age is “ the estab
lishment of the missionary motive among
the vital thoughts ” of man.1 In speak
ing of the evangelisation of ungrateful
China and other lands, he goes on to
say—as if taught the apperception doc
trine by Herbart himself—that “ a mere
utterance of something unintelligible to
the hearer is waste of time........ Under
standing of such a message comes slowly.
....... Christianity cannot do as much for
the first hearers of its message as it can
for the next generation.”2
The main object of the present work
is to divert this solicitude, and the apper
ception doctrine which Dr. Clarke ex
pounds in untechnical language, to the
heathen population of another land than
China. It is time that England and
education should have a chance. That
chance England will have when educa
1 Dr. Clarke, in A Sttidy of Christian
Missions.
z Ibid.
tion becomes a missionary profession.
If the inspiring creations of English
literature are not too good for Asiatic
colleges and students, they are not too
good for the British artisan or labourer,
who, in many of our districts, is at a
stage of development no better than the
Chinese. If zeal and devotion sanctify
evangelisation failures in China and India,
zeal and devotion—nay, the spirit of true
educational science too—may sanctify
scholastic successes at home. Once this
standpoint is reached by a few hundred
of the teachers of Britain, we may expect
that Dorpfelds will arise here, as in
Germany, willing to become and remain
primary teachers though other callings
may allure by gold or renown ; and that
more Edward Bowens will arise, choos
ing rather to be assistant masters for a
lifetime than to become educational
nonentities by treading the primrose path
to—“ promotion.”1
Yes, a “ revival,” as Mr. Campbell
urged, may be coming. But, unless it
is a revival springing from deep views
and wide thought, it will leave as little
permanent effect behind it as the wind
that ruffles a field of corn. Mr. Sheldon’s
books may sell by thousands, but Eng
land remains, in the long run, unchanged;
paroxysms may come and go, but man
will never be thus regenerated, though
their intensity reach the heat of fever.
Such, at least, is the belief of the Herbartians, who steadily discount the value
of unreasoning emotion as a character
forming agency. It might appear at
first, Herbart tells us, that such an
agency was a powerful one, though
1 The writer believes it to be the case that His
Majesty’s Inspectors are practically debarred
from taking up educational problems in any
earnest way.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
inoperative upon the circle of thought.
“But it will appear quite otherwise if
we interrogate experience. At least,
whoever has noticed into what an abyss
of pain and misfortune a human being
may fall, yes, even remain in for long
periods, and yet, after the time of trouble
has passed, rise up again, apparently
almost unchanged, with the same aims
and opinions, even the same manner—
whoever, we say, has noticed this will
hardly expect much from swaying of the
feelings........ How temporary is the whole
reaction which follows the action.”
Rightly or wrongly, the Herbartians be
lieve that the idea is ultimately of more
potency than the feeling; or, rather,
that a unified mass of ideas is of
more potency than anything that is
narrow and intense. They have faith
that such ideas as have penetrated into
the inner sanctuaries of the soul may,
sooner or later, re-emerge as appercep
tive interest; that from the seed thus
sown will spring a greater harvest than
any hothouse can yield; that there are
richer possibilities here than yonder.
Does an intense emotion, not rooted in
a mass of ideas, make a man better?
Do the raptures of the devotee brace
him for the battle of life ? Has he been
the man to see most clearly the moral
problems of the age—the woes of the
artisan, the temptations of the drunkard,
the horrors of war ? Notoriously he has
not. “Great moral energy is the result
of broad views, and of whole, unbroken
masses of thought.” The truth is that
many a man and many a woman who
claims to be exalted at times into the
tenth or the hundredth heaven is often
appallingly obtuse to the moral problems
and duties around. The most delicate
analyses of moral duty—the keenest
sensitiveness to moral distinctions—are
61
not uncommonly found in connection
with men who have no visions or raptures
to diversify the even tenor of their way.
From the point of view of moral truth
and moral progress, the idea is a hundred
times as important as the emotion.
The time may come when all pretence
—and it is a pretence — of teaching
“ religion ” to babes and sucklings may
be abandoned by the schools of England.
The time may even come when the Bible
itself—which has rarely yet in the primary
school been taught intelligently or in
accordance with psychological laws—
may be excluded, and when primary
education will be in name, as it has
always substantially been in reality,
“secular.” The moral possibilities of
the school will not then be exhausted ;
on the contrary, the removal of hoary
delusions may be the beginning of a
portentous vitalisation. A new thing
may come forward to take the place, in
primary schools, of the excluded “ reli
gion,” for the programme sketched in the
preceding pages is one sufficiently great
and sufficiently attainable to attract all
men—and women—who face realities
dauntlessly, and determine to dream of
none but possible millenniums.
Yes, women; for to women will fall
much of the work of vitalising education.
Every year as it passes increases their
relative importance in this divine work
and this imperial profession.
They
realise better than men the possibilities
of the situation; they feel a keener
interest in it; their culture is often
greater and their intolerance less. Edu
cation, moreover, is almost the only
profession in which some honour and
distinction await them.
Three tasks—each of immense moral
�62
THE SECRET OF HERBART
significance — education can essay to
perform. It can prevent or check the
formation of bad habit; this at present it
does not adequately do. It can give moral
instruction, arraying in its service histo
rical and biblical examples, and pointing
to their moral import; this at present it
does imperfectly. Lastly, it can seek to
arouse many-sided interest—interest at
the very least; conscious that the arousal
of this means the slow atrophy and death
of what is base. This it scarcely does
at all.
For the second and third tasks the
conferring of a wealth of organised ideas
is an essential requisite. Without this
wealth there can be but feeble apper
ception ; and the absence of free and
vigorous apperception means impenetra
bility, even to religious appeal. The
ideas within are too few or too feeble to
co-operate with those presenting them
selves from without. We rightly say that
the man is “stupid.” And “the stupid
man cannot be virtuous.”
tum.
“Here and there some small
omission may be supplied; but an all
round human development, missed and
neglected in boyhood, can never be
recovered.”1
This standpoint is the only one that
will ever make education honoured
among the professions; the only one
that will ever make it a profession worth
our study and our devotion. The only
standpoint—except, perhaps, one other
—that can give any unity of motive to
educational effort. What is that other?
Some day—millions of years, let us
hope, from now—the life of this old earth
may begin to ebb away, and the chill of
the coming ages settle upon her. Man,
or man’s modified descendants, may
enter upon the final and most desperate
stage of the struggle for existence.
Unless Divinity interpose His fiat, or
human prevision and speculation be here
deceiving us, every faculty, ideal, and
system may disappear that does not help
in this last contest. Then may vanish
You may go into the streets of your the ideal of a humanistic education.
cities or the lanes of your villages, you Survival, rather than character, may
may seek to elevate the vicious and rouse become the goal of the struggling units
the lethargic. You will fail, save in one that will watch the slow extinction of the
case (much trumpeted) out of ten. You world’s life.
may wring your hands and bewail the
power of “ sin.” But you will be wiser if
But even for the geologist the world is
you take the sinner’s child and begin to still young; man still has moral possi
create in its mind—using every one of bilities before him. An education that
the educational instruments which the makes for character is the only one for
past has ignored, but the wiser future will us, though room may be found—is being
not ignore—a rich circle of thought. found by all enlightened educationists—
Without this apperception will fail; with for the legitimate claims of individuality
out this there can be little or no interest; and practical life. Yet an education
without this there can be no assured that makes for mere material survival, a
safety. The parent is impenetrable. utilitarian education, would fain insinuate
No earthly power can save him. His
“ apperception masses ” have no momen
1 Frobel, in the Education of Man.
�THE SECRET OF HERBART
63
better,” and if “ he who should find out
one rule to assist us in this work would
deserve infinitely better of mankind
than all the improvers of other know
ledge put together ”x then this high
praise is his who, in 1806, first pro
claimed the central significance of In
terest. And though just one hundred
years have lapsed since then, the law
that links Interest with Apperception still
remains so generally unrecognised or
unknown as to merit the designation,
If education is “ the science of im “ The Secret ” of Herbart.
proving the temper and making the heart
itself, even now, into the body-politic.
Teachers should beware of it. Not that
way lies any possibility of progress. So
corpselike an apparition coming before
time from the grave of the world should
have no attractions for us. Let us turn
from the chill and the darkness of the
charnel-house to the light that shines
out steadily, though here and there
flecked with solemn bars and shadows,
from the pages of Herbart.
1 Bishop Butler’s words, quoted in the Education Code of 1906.
�APPENDICES
I.—The Primary Curriculum.
The weakest point in our educational
system has perhaps been adequately
discussed—or at any rate indicated—in
the preceding essay. But there are other
weak points, far more than can here be
dealt with ; these weaknesses, however,
are of a different kind from the one
which Herbartianism can remedy. To
mention them is to deal with questions
other than the “ Secret of Herbart.”
For, be it observed, though Herbar
tianism cannot be seriously charged with
the neglect of any important school
subject (Herbart himself was much inte
rested in the teaching of mathematics,
and modern Herbartians are writing and
thinking upon every subject in the cur
riculum), yet its distinctive message is
concerned with the“knowledge subjects.”
How to feed the soul with rich and suit
able food, so that mental health may
become moral health—this is the thing
that Herbartianism can teach us well;
the other task, how to exercise the wellfed soul, though not a task ignored by
the Herbartians (witness their doctrine
of the “formal steps,” their interest in
mathematics, and so on) is a task which
others can teach us also.
Professor Welton, a year or two ago,
spoke of a “Synthesis of Herbart and
Frobel.” Synthesis is indeed required,
and the following supplementary remarks
will perhaps serve to indicate how we
should treat our finally synthesised cur
riculum. Education is more than ap
perception, just as health is more than
assimilation.
For health, indeed, we require not
only food, but shelter and exercise.
Shelter is clearly a more external thing
than food and exercise—a necessary
thing, and yet not a thing that enters
vitally and operatively into man’s nature.
We may, perhaps, parallel with it, in our
educational discussion, the art of Writing
—a necessary art, and yet not one in which
we can see much further significance.
Far more important are those arts and
pursuits which provide genuine exercise
for the soul.
In almost all English books on school
management, subjects follow each other
in no scientific order whatever. A teacher,
asked point-blank what are the most
valuable subjects of all, will either hesitate
in sheer helplessness (the question having
never occurred to him), or, as pointed
out in the preceding essay, will answer
at once, using the words of the man
in the street, “ The three R’s.” To
any Herbartian such an answer falls
like the death-knell of educational pro
gress ; the reason has been seen, and
will become clearer in a moment.
There is no need more pressing than
that we should discover the relative
importance and the relative function of
the various subjects of the curriculum.
Since the time of Pestalozzi educationists
have devoted much attention to the
department of methodology — how to
teach ; Dorpfeld, the greatest and wisest
of Herbart’s followers, was one of the few
who contributed to a more neglected
department, the theory of the curriculum
—what to teach. There are, he tells us,
two groups of subjects in addition to the
one great and priceless group that feeds
the human soul. The second includes
those practical dexterities which every
one admits must be taught4~speaking,
�65
APPENDICES
reading, writing; while the third group
includes formal studies like arithmetic
and grammar.
There is, of course, no absolute line
of demarcation between the second and
the third groups, nor, indeed, between
these and the first. Even the “passive”
assimilation of food involves digestive
activity.
Writing and drawing are
“ formal ” in one sense, giving training
in proportion, symmetry, and so forth;
in another sense they are dexterities,
•allowing the motor energy of the nervecentres to find vent. However, the
distinction between the second and third
groups is far less definite than between
them and the first. Broadly, we may
say that the first group feeds the mind,
while the second and third groups pro
vide exercise either for the mind or for
the members.
Test the “ Three R’s ” by this classifi
cation. Reading and writing, as such,
are mechanical dexterities, doing nothing
whatever to build up the “ circle of
thought.”
Arithmetic is a “ formal
study,” and this again does little or
nothing to build up the circle of thought,
though it may bring an element of pre
cision into that circle. Not one of the
“ Three R’s,” as such, aids apperception ;
not one of the Three R’s, as such, feeds the
soul; not one of the Three R’s, as such,
makes man morally sensitive or morally
progressive.
For these reasons, therefore, Dorpfeld,
and indeed all Herbartians, place the
centre of gravity elsewhere than among
the “ Three R’s.” John Morley, many
years ago, hinted at the same need when
he spoke of “those extra subjects which
are, in truth, the part of instruction that
gives most life and significance to the
rest.”1
And yet an intelligent teaching of the
“Three R’s” is immensely important.
Consider the first and greatest-—Reading.
If by this were meant a love of good
books, a taste for good books, an interest
in reading good books, then, certainly, the
1 National Education.
subject would be of incalculable value,
even, or especially, in the eyes of the
Herbartians; for out of such a love, such
a taste, such an interest, may come all
those things for which the Herbartians
contend. Reading, in this sense, would
supply the soul with the very food which
is a prerequisite for apperception, inte
rest, virtue, and moral progress. As a
rule, however, teachers, officials, and
documents mean something else _ than
this when they speak of “Reading”;
they mean correctness, fluency,. ability,
and vigour of utterance. In this sense
it is a dexterity, and is so classed by
Dorpfeld.
Let us now ask whether our primary
schools—once the strongholds of the
“Three R’s”—have succeeded in teach
ing reading in either of these senses. The
answer must be an emphatic “ No.” The
average pupil who leaves our schools has
neither a taste for reading—that taste
which, in the opinion of Lord Avebury,
would destroy most of the “pauperism,
extravagance, drunkenness, and crime ”
which exist in modern England—nor
has he the power of reading aloud with
correctness and force. This, at any rate,
is the result of the writer’s observation
in a country district; if the verdict is too
unfavourable, he can only rejoice in the
fact.
The first count of this indictment is,
however, confessedly justified; the second
is justified to at least an appalling extent.
Country schools, each controlled by a
head teacher who may or may not love
books and speak good English himself;
this teacher assisted by two or more
pupil teachers who may care nothing
for books, and may speak and teach to
their pupils—or mumble to them—the
worst provincialisms of their grandparents
—it is in such schools that we “teach
reading” to the triumphant democracy
of England.
Fortunately, the better training of
these young “ teachers ” is being taken
up in earnest. One of their greatest
needs (they have been, in many cases,
cut off from all educated people, cut off
D
�66
APPENDICES
from literary societies, even from libraries
and reading circles; for such are, as
often as not, wholly absent from our
country towns)—one of their greatest
needs is to be drilled by educated men
and women into the correct and dramatic
rendering of the English language. Few
people seem to realise what an immensity
of practice—practice in public—is neces
sary to make a good reader or speaker.
The new pupil-teacher centres will have
to devote not merely one hour a week,
but many hours a week, to this task.1
The lesson need not be called “reading”
in every case : it may be “ English ” or
“ history,” or what one chooses; but the
person in charge must insist daily and
hourly upon correct phonetic pronuncia
tion, and upon dramatic delivery—exag
gerating, if need be, this latter point.
Many of us have never been “ taught to
read ” at all, and cannot read even now.
Our young teachers “find Shakespeare
dull.” The reason is that there is scarcely
one adult out of a thousand who is
possessed of the requisite imagination
and the requisite freedom of utterance to
interpret and enunciate the poet’s work.
The Englishman, even when capable of
reading correctly, can rarely read forcibly.
He labours, in fact, under a triple defect:
self-consciousness, which prohibits him
or discourages him from giving expres
sion to the emotions of the piece he is
reading; sluggish imagination, which
prevents him from seeing what those
emotions are; and an enunciation which
is probably worse than that of any other
nation of Europe. It is no wonder that
“Shakespeare is dull.”
Great, then, must be the failure of the
primary schools if, though regarding the
“ Three R’s ” as their chief work, they
fail to teach even the most important of
the three.
The second of the “ Three R’s ” is
writing, and here little need be said.
The primary schools teach it fairly well
1 In the regulations for the King’s Scholarship
Examination this question has at last been taken
up in earnest. To fail in reading is to fail in
the whole examination.
and would teach it still better if they
could finally make up their minds as to
the best style. An official edict settling
the angle of slope and similar matters
would do, perhaps, but little harm and
a great deal of good in this region. The
subject is a humdrum one, with scarcely
any significance of its own. “ Were it
not that writing and reading are neces
sary as instruments....... we should not
think of wasting time over them.”1
Still, there is no reason why we should
not teach the subject better than we do.
Schools should be specially on guard
against allowing the writing to degenerate
as a result of copious “note-taking” in
upper classes. Notes on science, history,
and the rest, should be entered in good
though not laborious style; just as the
reading of science, history, and the rest,
should be articulate and phonetically
correct. The talk about a “ crowded
curriculum ” would have little or no
justification whatever if teachers would
correlate their subjects better ; not artifi
cially separating history from geography ;2
science, etc., from composition f the
learning of facts from their correct ex
pression by voice; and so on. With
regard to writing, though care should be
insisted on, we need not worship too
exclusively the goddess of neatness. A
good practical style is all that is required.
The third of the “ Three R’s ” is
arithmetic. No Herbartian will despise
arithmetic ; he sees in it one of the few
1 Prof. Laurie, in Institutes of Education.
2 I have known repeatedly of teachers teaching
about King Alfred without a map, Isaiah without
a map, etc.
3 A boy may be marked “very good” for a
“composition” paper; turn to his science
notes, history notes, etc., and his “ composition ”
is atrocious. Too few of us realise that speaking
and composition, as “ efferent ” subjects, should
be closely connected with “ afferent” or know
ledge subjects like history, geography, science.
The knowledge “ received” has to be given out
again. It is a question whether in the upper
classes “ composition ” need be retained at all
as a special subject. During the years from eight
to twelve mechanical and technical difficulties
should have been conquered. Then will come
two years—precious yeai s—when the school can
win conquests of another kind.
�APPENDICES
“gymnastic” subjects suitable for the
primary curriculum ; and though, in his
view, it is even more vitally important to
feed the soul than to exercise it, the
latter is really quite indispensable. [If in
this book they are distinguished too
sharply, that is only from necessity, or
policy.] Judge, then, of his disappoint
ment when he discovers that arithmetic
has been mainly taught as a mechanical
dexterity (Dorpfeld’s second group); as
a body of maxims, not a system of prin
ciples ; as a subject which, instead of
being used for the purpose it is so pre
eminently fitted to perform, that of
training thought, has only given oppor
tunity for the application of rules of
thumb. This, of course, is the direct
and predicted result of the plan of
1861.
Between them, Pestalozzi and Frobel
have reformed the teaching of arithmetic
in the infant school. Concrete numbers
are now invariably used in the early
lessons. One form of the concrete,
indeed, is daily receiving—and rightly—
an increased amount of attention ; pupils
are being practised in making measure
ments with ruler, balance, and the like,
and using these measurements for pur
poses of calculation. Such practice in
the concrete will prove the salvation of
mathematics in the evening school; and
it is time for the primary day school to
give practice of the same kind. But,
apart from this very necessary and pro
mising reform, the chief need of the
primary school, so far as mathematics is
concerned, appears to be increased stress
on the abstract principles of arithmetic.
We can then safely drop two-thirds of
the “ rules ” which loom so large in
the “upper standards”—bills of parcels,
percentages, stocks, etc. ; in view of the
“ coming of the kilogram ” we can also
safely drop some of the “weights and
measures,” which devour time and teach
nothing.
Such trivialities as these will take care
of themselves if our pupils understand
the properties of numbers. Most of us
never learnt that, “if equals be taken
&l
from equals, the remainders are equal,”
until we began the study of Euclid, or of
simple equations ; in reality, such a prin
ciple is as important in arithmetic as. in
the other branches of mathematics.
Decimals, fractions, factors, proportion—
possibly, too, in upper classes, squaring,
etc., and the reverse processes (tables of
logarithms, even if not fully understood,
could surely be made use of)—if our
pupils have sound views on these ques
tions, and know, in addition, the axioms
which lie at the basis of arithmetical
work, and have plenty of practice in
the mensuration of the kind mentioned
above, we need no longer reproach the
primary school for its failure with regard to
this subject. If there is room for any
further subject, “simple equations” should
be given the chance; they are far easier
than much of the ordinary “arithme
tic,” arouse a good deal of zest, and
increase immensely a pupil’s resources.
The rigid line of demarcation between
arithmetic and algebra will disappear as
soon as officials and teachers will permit
the disappearance.
A word or two upon another “ formal ”
subject which, after being the bane of
the primary schools of England for a
good many years, is likely to be so no
longer. Anyone desirous of exposing
what is well-nigh the maddest phase in
English educational history would do well
to study the teaching of English gram
mar in the nineteenth century. Of course
the most gigantic error of all—an error
whose moral results for the English
nation have been inexpressibly disas
trous—was the neglect of literature;
Shakespeare has been known mainly as
a corpus vile for pupils to dissect gram
matically ; while most poets and writers
have not been honoured even to this
extent. But, apart from this neglect,
the teaching of English has taken the
strangest of courses. One might almost
say that a favourite relaxation of many
men, ambitious of literary distinction,
has been to write a grammar-book in
which could be found the maximum
I possible number of errors; those that
�68
APPENDICES
had been handed down by previous
writers, together with a few invented by
each fresh author. At the present
moment there are some books in exten
sive use full of the most grotesque and
misleading doctrines. These doctrines,
imbibed by hundreds of pupil teachers,
who, knowing nothing of Latin or any
other language than their own, cannot
detect the errors involved, are handed
down to their pupils, who, in their turn,
frequently become pupil teachers, and
thus transmit, further, the legacy of ab
surdity. Beyond the splendid books of
the late Mr. Mason, there was, until
recently, scarcely any work on this sub
ject that could be relied upon. The
subject as taught in many schools is
essentially dishonest.
Pupils learn
phrases about “governing the objec
tivecase” or “ agreeing with the nomi
native ” without really understanding
them. The writer, at any rate, never
understood them until he learnt some
thing of another language than his
own. The worst of it is that both
“rules,” when applied to English nouns,
are practically false.
The following are some of the doc
trines probably taught, explicitly or im
plicitly, at this moment, in many of our
primary schools :—
That intransitive verbs are of the
active voice.
That verbs in the passive voice are
intransitive.
That indirect objects are as plentiful
as blackberries in autumn.
That “if” is the sign of the subjunc
tive mood.
That “and’’and “but” are the only
two conjunctions.
That there is a rigid distinction between
the parts of speech : thus, a noun cannot
be also a verb, a verb an adjective, or
a conjunction an adverb; that an adverb
cannot “ modify ” a preposition, or (des
pite the Athanasian Creed) a noun.
While the teaching of English compo
sition involves the giving of such rules
as—
Never begin a sentence with “and.”
Always use short words and sentences;1
and the reading of poetry (to mention
a kindred subject) has to involve the
suppression of all rhythm in the interests
of “ preventing singing.”
If other needs had been adequately
supplied, there might have been a place
in our curriculum for “grammar”; but,
as things stand, the subject had better
be banished from the primary school, or,
at the most, be represented by quite
incidental teaching in connection with
our literature lessons. It is the teaching
of literature and kindred subjects—in
other words, it is the reading lesson
interpreted broadly — upon which we
should concentrate our attention. The
chief problems in connection with this
humanistic study are (i) correlation of
its parts, (2) the use of high-class and
first-hand materials. In both respects
our schools are almost criminally con
servative. The writer has never known,
for example, of Wordsworth’s sonnets
being correlated with the history of the
Napoleonic Wars. No text-book seems
ever to have proposed it, no teacher to
have thought of it. The lack of corre
lation in Biblical teaching is ludicrous,
and has been dealt with in the writer’s
Reform of Moral and Biblical Education.
“ Composition ” is, of course, necessary
and valuable, and can be easily taught in
connection with other things. It should
be more oral than at present, and
might thus substantially contribute to
the improved enunciation already advo
cated in connection with reading.
Singing.—The only suggestion here
proffered by the writer is that in the
singing lessons some further attempt at
teaching the great national and classic
songs of England should be made than
has hitherto been the case. The average
Englishman is wholly unable to sing or
even to recite the verses of “Rule, Bri
tannia,” and his musical tastes are so
1 Mr. Wells’s protest is timely (Mankind in the
Making). Clever pupil teachers have, to the
knowledge of the writer, been criticised by their
“correspondence tutor” for using a fairly rich
vocabulary.
�69
APPENDICES
unspeakably low (this is shown by the
music-hall songs prepared for his edifica
tion) as to testify to the partial failure
of the primary school in this domain.
Connected, as the Herbartians recom
mend, with the literature and history
taught in the school, singing ought to
become one of the best auxiliaries to
the sweetening of the national life of
England.
Art and similar subjects.—In this
important department of educational
work there is much to learn, mainly,
perhaps, from the Frobelians.. Clay
modelling, brush work, as well as the
more usual kinds of artistic activity, are
winning much favour, and seem, indeed,
a necessary supplement to the intellec
tualism and the bookishness into which,
without them, we might be landed. But
the author does not profess to give advice
or offer criticism where (as here) he feels
incompetent to do so, and will but
suggest that the artistic subjects be cor
related, as far as possible, with the rest
of the curriculum, so that pupils may use
their constructive powers upon materials
they understand. Art for art’s sake is no
motto for primary schools.
II.—“ Teachers do not Read Books
on Education ” (p. 18).
Some reasons for this are given in the
text; one of them may here be empha
sised. Absolute chaos rules in the edu
cational world, the most diverse and
opposite opinions being gravely put
forward year by year; hence such
teachers as would, in normal circum
stances, be interested in books on edu
cation regard them with utter scepticism
and distrust. Thring’s works are full
of brilliance; but there is much doubt
whether anyone is able to extract more
than about three unmistakable and un
ambiguous maxims from them. Spencer’s
Education consists of two useful chapters
and two dubious ones. From Matthew
Arnold’s various books an industrious
teacher would be able to extract a fairly
comprehensive system of educational
philosophy; but—there is the “ extrac
tion ” to do first. Bain’s book is some
what dull, and, belonging as he did to
the same school of thought as Spencer,
he has Spencer’s defects.
All things considered, Dr. Laurie has
probably come nearer than any other
British author to putting forth a com
prehensive system of educational philo
sophy. On all essential matters of
practice he agrees with Herbart, as the
present writer showed in School, 1904 ;
and the agreement is the more striking
as Dr. Laurie objects emphatically to
Herbart’s psychology. But there is just
the lack in Dr. Laurie of what distin
guishes Herbart—-the power to formulate
his philosophy in a way so categorical
and lucid (with the interest doctrine
shown in its relations on the one side to
instruction, and on the other to character)
that the student finds his educational
work flooded with a new meaning.
Herbart’s dicta ring in our ears; Dr.
Laurie’s do not.
In the present note the writer would
like to add Dr. Laurie’s confirmatory
words with respect to the reading of
educational literature. Speaking of the
secondary teacher, he says : “ My answer
is, he does not read. A return of the
books on education, not looked into, but
carefully read, by the masters of public
schools, would surprise........ Ask the
publishers of books on education how
many sell among the 50,000 teachers of
England.”1
____
III.—Herbart and Frobel
(pp. 40, 42).
There is an impression abroad in certain
circles that Herbart and Frobel are at
opposite educational poles. This is far
from being the case.
Herbart is certainly clearer and more
systematic than Frobel. At the sound
of his formulae, education appears before
us clothed and in its right mind.
Teachers discover the meaning of their
1 The Training of Teachers.
�7°
APPENDICES
work. Old rivalries between “ formal ”
studies and “ real ” studies, between
“secular” subjects and “sacred” sub
jects, between an “intensive” and an
“extensive” curriculum, lose most of
their virulence, and the babel of dis
tracting war-cries suddenly dies down to
a murmur. Probably no other educa
tionist possesses anything like Herbart’s
power of revealing the meaning and
scope of education, and of placing its
various problems in a true and illuminat
ing relationship. He opens his PEsthetische Darstellung der Welt with a clear,
almost dogmatic, definition of the “aim”
of education / and, when he proceeds
to write his Allgemeine Pädagogik, he
“deduces” it from that “ aim.”1
2
Fröbel has none of this clearness and
precision, but possesses in its stead an
almost infallible “ feeling ” for what the
child is and needs at each stage of its
existence.
Apart from this, there is mainly a
difference of stress between the two
writers.
Herbart sees clearly enough that the
teacher’s work of “instruction” — of
giving or presenting new ideas in a suit
ably arranged order—is one of immense
formative importance. Facts, informa
tion, ideas, knowledge—these are not
comparatively negligible factors, as many
amateur “ reformers ” of education would
have us believe. They are not negligible
—-they are vitally important, for, as shown
in the Secret of Herbart, they become
built up into “apperception masses,”
which, in the process of taking in more
facts, information, ideas, knowledge, give
rise to “ apperceptive interest,” this latter
being itself of first importance in the
character-forming process. What Milton
said of books may, on the Herbartian
principle, be also said of ideas : they are
“ not absolutely dead things, but do con
tain a progeny of life in them.” What
was passively, or almost passively, taken
in may become a spring that gives out
freely; the afferent becomes the efferent;
“facts ” become “faculty.”
“Instruction,” then, is important in Her
bart’s view because it adds to the apper
ceptive resources of the child, and thus
enhances the possibilities of many-sided
interest. Now, interest is a moral force
of the highest value, even if it extends
only to the realm of physical nature, for
it is an enemy to that great multitude of
vices that spring from idleness of mind or
body. If interest should extend also—
as Herbart in his sixfold classification
demanded—-to the realm of human
nature (the realm of moral ideas), it is
not only an enemy to the aforesaid vices,
but to the other multitude that spring
from sheer impenetrability and callous
ness of mind.
But Frobel might ask, in the common
jargon of the hour, “ Where do I come
in?”
Herbart shows how the germs of a rich
harvest of interest may be implanted or
sown in the soul. But lo ! some germs
are present at birth—already implanted
by a nature or a providence that, here at
least, may fairly be called “ benevolent.”
The child, as the Frobelians show, comes
to us already equipped with a score of
latent or rudimentary interests that need
nothing but stimulus to launch them
forth on their career of blessed activity.
The powder is laid; the spark alone is
wanting. That spark the watchful parent
or teacher can readily supply.
Nature and nurture, the innate and
the acquired, have been the two decisive
factors in the education of every human
being. Herbart stresses the second
factor, though without ignoring the first.
He says, though in other words : “ We,
acting from without; we, providing the
child with ideas, can actually build up
the soul of the child.” Frobel says :
“Yes, but each child has innate and
1 “The one and the whole work of education predestined interests, fondnesses, and
may be summed up in the concept—morality.”
aptitudes; let us use them.” Evolution
2 Allgemeine Pädagogik aus dem Zweck der
Erziehung Abgeleitet—“General Pedagogy De reconciles thetwostandpoints completely.
Herbartian interests are acquired in
duced from the Aim of Education.”
�71
appendices
the child’s lifetime; Frobelian inte of the four boys—in the ideas that have
rests were acquired by the race, and been raining upon them for years. Simi
Conduct a party
are now handed down to the child by larly with adults.
heredity.1 Is there anything fantastic through an historical building, or a
in speculating whether the passion for waxwork show, and one will learn that
making mud pies and sand castles is not interest largely depends on apperception
a relic of early ancestral experiences? masses, and not merely —- sometimes
The fascination of the Frobelian occupa scarcely at all—on native endowments
tions (plaiting, etc.) suggests such prob of a special character.
Professor James’s remarks on interest
lems irresistibly.
and apperception are mainly Herbartian
Frobel says, in effect: “ Do not let
us waste the rich treasure of human in tone, though not to the neglect of the
faculty with which each of us is endowed Frobelian factor. “ An adult man’s in
at birth.” Herbart says, in effect: “ Do terests are almost every one of them in
not let us waste the opportunities of tensely artificial; they have slowly been
built up.” “An idea will infect another
adding to this treasure.”
It would be no hard task, however, to with its own emotional interest when
show that Herbart recognised the value they have become associated together
of occupational work such as that stressed into any sort of a mental total. As there
by the Frobelians. He recommends the is no limit to the various associations
giving of “freer scope for children’s into which an interesting idea may enter,
activity........ Pleasant and harmless occu one sees in how many ways an interest
pations....... provide an outlet for restless may be derived.” “If you wish to
insure the interest of your pupils, there
ness which cannot be pent up.”
Can “faculty” be created I Perhaps is only one way to do it, and that is to
this is the place to discuss Professor make certain that they have something
Adams’s statement, that “ Herbartianism in their minds to attend with. That
cannot create faculty, but it gives the something can consist in nothing but a
previous lot of ideas.” “Our profes
best means of utilising faculty.”
It would be folly to dispute over the use sional ideals and the zeal they inspire
of the term “ create ” in this connection, are due to nothing but the slow accretion
and no doubt “faculty” cannot be created of one mental object to another, traceable
in any absolute sense. We cannot confer backward from point to point till we reach
a “ faculty ” of imagination or of reflection the moment when, in the nursery or in
upon a stone or a tree—there must be a the schoolroom, some little story told,
latent or potential something from the some little object shown, some little
first. But, with this qualification, Her- operation witnessed, brought the first
bartians have a perfect right to say that new object and new interest within our
“ faculty can be created,”if by “faculty” ken by associating it with some one of
we mean all the various possibilities and those primitively there. The interest
powers involved in apperception and now suffusing the whole system took its
interest. One boy has a passionate in rise in that little event, so insignificant
terest in football, another in books, a to us now as to be entirely forgotten.”1
____
third in cigarettes, a fourth in nothing.
These differences need not necessarily IV.—The Faculty Doctrine (p. 40).
be the result of initial differences of
Hobbes, Leibnitz, Condillac, Hegel, and
mind or body ; they may be the result
of differences in the mental atmosphere many other thinkers, have attacked the
doctrine which divides up the mind into
a number of more or less independent
1 This assumes that acquired characters are
transmitted. If that assumption is false, the
above would have to be stated in other terms.
1 Talks with Teachers.
�TV
APPENDICES
faculties (imagination, memory, reason to see merely ignorance or enlighten
ing, etc.). Spinoza, in his bold state ment. In other words, the influence of
ment that “will and intellect are one culture on character is under-estimated,
and the same,” and Herbart, in his owing to the artificial separation of will
emphatic assertion that “the will is rooted from intelligence.
in the circle of thought,” are perhaps
I.
the most pronounced opponents of this
faculty doctrine.
With regard to the first effect of the
It is true that brain research has re faculty doctrine
vealed the existence of certain cerebral
Certain subjects and lessons and
localities devoted to special functions ; methods are supposed to help the
but the latter are motor or sensory, and “ faculty ” of observation ; others the
do not correspond to the supposed “ faculty ” of memory; others the
“ faculties ” of the phrenologists and “ faculty ” of will. At one moment too
older psychologists. The modern ten much value is attributed to “ informa
dency is to lay stress on the unity of the tion ” (when the memory faculty is being
cultivated); at the next moment infor
mind rather than on its multiplicity.
Apart from these speculations, there mation is undervalued as not helping
are three very practical reasons for hold the will in its solitary struggles. Almost
every educational fallacy-—such as the
ing the faculty doctrine in suspicion.
First, it leads educationally to such notorious “Virtue cannot be taught”—
dislocation of the curriculum, with con is traceable to this faulty psychology of
sequent inefficiency and waste of time, faculties. Teachers too often despise
that almost all educationists are agreed “ theory ”; it would be no exaggeration
in regarding it as practically “pestilent.”1 to say that a wrong theory of the mind
Second, it leads to exaggerated stress has done far more harm to education
on “hard pedagogy”—that is, on de than low salaries, professional disrepute,
manding of children mental efforts of and sectarian quarrels.
School “ time-tables ” have had a good
too toilsome a character, on the ground
that such efforts are a good “ discipline ” deal to answer for. Used slavishly, they
for the mind. [Here comes in the lead to the same consequences as those
“fallacy of formal education,” which the of the faculty doctrine, for the same
Herbartians have repeatedly exposed.] fallacy is operative in the two cases. A
In other words, it leads to a deprecia teacher is forbidden by H.M. Inspector
tion of “interest” and “involuntary2 to deal with the subject-matter of a read
(spontaneous) attention ” in favour of ing lesson during the lesson itself, even
“ effort ” and “ voluntary2 (dogged) atten a map being banned though a “ geo
graphy reader ” is being used. “ Reading
tion.”
Third, it is a fruitful source of uncharit is reading.” Thus an artificial separation
able, or at any rate erroneous, judgments is effected between the reception of ideas
upon conduct. Its exaltation of will or (or the comprehension of a subject) and
of free will as a faculty almost inde expression in words. This is perfectly
pendent of intellectual and other con ruinous; reading becomes a “dull”
ditions, and “driving itself through them ” lesson just because we, in our ignorance
(as Dr. Laurie says), tends to make us of educational psychology, will insist on
see devilry or saintship where we ought an artificial divorce of things that should
be kept in natural relationship. Con
1 Miss Mason’s word, in Home Education.
versely, during a geography lesson a
* The words “ involuntary and “volun child answers some question in a slip
tary,” though generally used by English writers shod fashion {eg., “ There ain’t no rivers
on Herbartianisnr, are very misleading. The
words in parentheses may help to prevent mis there ”); the teacher refuses to insist
take.
I on a grammatical or clearly expressed
�APPENDICES
answer because now is the time for geo
graphy, not grammar or composition.
Time-tables have their place; but
when they result in things of this kind
they are pernicious to a high degree.
II.
73
dangerous all this is ! No teacher, short
of positive genius, can help being led
astray.
It is commonly asserted that Herbartianism tends to ignore the bracing effect
of hard mental effort, and thus weakens
the character of children. If it does do
so, the fact is deplorable; but Herbart
never intended or prescribed anything
that would have this effect. One writer,
indeed, says that he “ made a much
larger use of compulsion, both in forcing
attention to study and in controlling the
conduct, than Frobel.”1 “The theory
of interest,” as Professor Adams says,
“ does not propose to banish drudgery,
but only to make drudgery tolerable by
giving it a meaning.” Herbart never
denied that hard, dogged effort was some
times called for ; but he saw more value
normally in the free, happy, “involun
tary” attention that springs from real
interest in a subject than in the “sheer
dead lift of the will ”2 resulting in
“voluntary attention.”3
To any person who brings to the
study of other educationists a certain
familiarity with Herbartian thought,
nothing is more striking than the wide
spread support rendered to Herbart by
many who do not avowedly call them
selves by his name. This is illustrated
by their treatment of the present ques
tion. No man in England has done
more to discourage the study of Herbart
than the late Rev. R. H. Quick, not by
positive depreciation, but by omitting
him from his widely-read book on Edu
cational Reformers. Yet this is how he
writes: “It is wonderful how insigni
ficant a part the will plays in the lives of
most of us. When we have no interests
to guide us, we fall into inanities.” His
whole treatment of the interest question,
of the value of “ involuntary ” (or spon
taneous) attention, and the comparatively
With regard to the second point:—
Except among Herbartian educa
tionists and a few others, there is an
excessive confidence in “ disciplinary ”
subjects. If a subject is hard, it is
supposed to arouse “effort,” make a
child “ self-reliant,” make him “ think,”
etc. If he is able to conquer one set of
difficulties, he is supposed to be able to
conquer every other set. The logical
consequence of this view is an exaggerated
devotion to mathematics, grammar (Latin,
Greek, French, English), and other sub
jects that demand great concentration
of mind; while subjects that confer new
ideas and feed the imagination and the
moral life are despised.
The Herbartians attack this view
because (i) they do not believe that
power over one subject necessarily gives
power over another, unless it is a subject
closely akin to the former. To make a boy
a good mathematician does not necessarily
make him capable of becoming a good
chess player or a good statesman. (2)
They see that there is immense moral
danger in depreciating the nutritive sub
jects, because of their close connection
with culture, apperception, interest, and
character.
A recent passage-of-arms neatly sums
up the two sides. “ A master’s business,”
said Mr. Benson in the Nineteenth Cen
tury, “is to see that there is mental
effort.” “ Not a bit of it,” replied Sir
Oliver Lodge; “ a master’s business is
to supply proper pabulum.”
The writer sees that in the recent
official report on Higher Elementary
Schools the committee record, with
1 Hughes, in FrobeVs Educational Laws.
apparent approval, that “it is the way
* De Garmo’s expression, in Interest and
you teach rather than what you teach Edtication.
that matters” — another form of the
3 Note again the misleading use of the words
“faculty doctrine.” How unspeakably “voluntary” and “involuntary.”
�74
APPENDICES
small rote played by “ voluntary ” (or
“ against-the-grain ”) attention, is Herbartian. “ Buffon has said that genius
is nothing but a power of taking pains,
and interests give this power. Certainly
the chief characteristics of a man are his
interests, and he is strong in proportion
to the strength of his interests, and wise
according to their directions. Interests
lead to all kinds of involuntary action.
But some people have an innate energy
prior to interest, and, though, of course,
taking its direction from interests, capable
of working without them.”1
Miss C. M. Mason has expressed some
very similar opinions with regard to the
will. “It is habit” (under which Miss
Mason includes intellectual habits of
apperception) “which will govern ninetynine hundredths of the child’s life. He
A the mere automaton you describe........
And then, even in emergencies, in every
sudden difficulty and temptation that
requires an act of will, why, conduct is
still apt to run on the lines of the
familiar habit.”2
III.
The third point stands in close rela
tion to the last, but deserves some
attention of its own.
It will be seen that the ultimate ques
tion of free will is left unsolved in
the text—unsolved and probably in
soluble. It would be unprofitable to
enter minutely into a hopeless discussion.
But the more obvious aspects of the
question must be emphasised.
Herbart would have had no sympathy
with the Rev. J. R. Illingworth’s refer
ences to the will. “When we have
traced an occurrence to the intervention
of the human will, we are at once con
tent. It is fully accounted for. We
know not merely how it began, but why,
and have therefore reached its absolute
beginning.” Such a standpoint would
be the ruin of all educational thought.
When we see two men separating at a
street corner, one to go to a library and
1 Quotations from the Life and Remains.
* Home Education.
the other to a public-house, it does not
satisfy the Herbartian to be told : “ The
human will explains everything. You
should be £at once content.’” Mr.
Illingworth’s treatment of motives (appar
ently, after all, the will is not “ fully
accounted for ” without motives!) is
equally unsatisfactory in Herbartian
eyes. “We can frame our own ideals
....... choose which of many suggested
motives we will make our own........ We
can initiate events of which our own will
is the veritable starting-point........ Our
will is an agent whose reason for action
is contained within itself.”1 Think of a
Hoxton child “ framing his own ideals.”
As if every, or almost every,2 “ideal”
that is his was not once borrowed from
his environment. Mr. Illingworth’s atti
tude illustrates what is meant on p. 32
by a “morally aristocratic principle.”
Contrast it with Herbart’s “All action
springs out of the circle of thought.”
“If....... intellectual interests are wanting,
if the store of thought be meagre, then
the ground lies empty for the animal
desires.” “ The whole inner activity has
its abode in the circle of thought. Here
is found the initiative life, the primal
energy........ In the culture of the circle
of thought the main part of education
lies........ The limits of the circle of
thought are the limits for the character.”
Reverting to the general question, the
writer is inclined to say that almost all
pedagogical errors have sprung from the
“faculty doctrine,” and that almost all
the protests of “educational reformers”
have been directed against one or other
of its forms. One or two examples,
chosen almost haphazard, will illustrate
this statement.
1 Divine Immanence.
2 A little hesitation here. There is a genera
tive power in ideas that makes the writer chary
of admitting fully that “no one can beget an
idea by himself” (Miss Mason). If we deprive
the will of primacy and originality, we must be
careful lest we leave the universe with a fixed
amount of psychical energy. Then there is
genius, too. But for educational purposes Miss
Mason’s dictum is important and valuable.
�APPENDICES
Mr. Morley is really protesting against
the faculty doctrine when he says :—
“ ‘ Few, I suppose, will deliberately
assert,’ Mr. Spencer says, ‘ that informa
tion is important and character unim
portant.’ But surely this antithesis is as
unreal as Dr. Magee’s opposition between
freedom and sobriety. The possession
of information is an element in char
acter.”1
Matthew Arnold was protesting against
the same doctrine when he spoke of
“Our notions about culture, about the
many sides of the human spirit, about
making these sides help one another
instead of remaining enemies and stran
gers.”1
23
“ We are called to develop ourselves
more in our totality, on our perceptive
and intelligential side as well as on our
moral side........ Hebraism strikes too ex
clusively upon one string in us. Hel
lenism does not address itself with serious
energy enough to morals and righteous
ness. For our totality, for our general
perfection, we need to unite the two.” 3
V.—The Moral Instruction League
(P- 5°)Far more quickly than the members of
this League ever expected, its aims have
received official approval. In the Edu
cation Code of 1906 moral instruction
is prescribed as an essential part of the
elementary curriculum, and a strong
preference is expressed for such instruc
tion to be direct and systematic, not
merely incidental.
The League is only a few years old.
From the first, its propaganda for the
introduction of moral and civic lessons
has been directed to the educational
bodies of this country; and the feeling
has been that as these, one after another,
fell into line, the solution of the “reli
gious controversy” would come appre
ciably nearer.
The first education authority to be
1 National Education.
* St. Pcm I and Protestantism.
3 Ibid.
75
influenced was that of Leicester. Mr. F. J.
Gould, whose books of moral lessons
are the most valuable of the kind that
have been written in English, visited
a number of Leicester schools, in order
to ascertain* how much “moral instruc
tion ” was given in connection with the
“Scripture lessons.” He found, of
course, that, while there were occasional
stray hints of a moral nature, most of
the lessons were purely historical, geo
graphical, or doctrinal. Even if it were
admitted that such lessons were inter
esting and valuable, it was clear that,
from the standpoint of instruction in the
practical duties of modern life, they were
a failure.
The same inference is to be drawn
from the fact that various educational
bodies have, at different times, added to
the curriculum lessons in temperance,
courtesy, kindness to animals, citizen
ship, and the like—a clear proof that
such moral duties are not taught ade
quately in the course of the Scripture
lessons.
One after another, and with a rapidity
that is in itself eloquent, various educa
tion authorities have adopted the pro
posals of the League, thus tacitly admit
ting that the present system of “ religious ■
instruction ” is inadequate for moral
purposes. At the present moment no
less than thirty-three bodies have taken
this course. The Surrey, Cheshire, West
Riding, and other authorities have
adopted the Graduated Syllabus of the
League almost without change. There
is reason to believe, however, that in the
present state of the curriculum, and with
teachers who have always been told that
morality and civics are the only subjects
that cannot be “ taught,” the work of the
organisation has only begun. It is one
thing to prescribe, a subject ; it is another
to see that it is taught well.
The Moral Instruction League may
become a Moral Education League ;
already it is directing its attention to
the general question of making the
whole work of the school significant
for character-forming. Meanwhile the
�76
APPENDICES
League has every reason to congratulate
itself upon having convinced the Board
of Education and so many educational
authorities that “ virtue can be taught,”
while most of our professors of educa
tion have been reiterating that it cannot.
This last phenomenon is puzzling.
Why should the men who have been
appointed to teach the most advanced
educational thought to student-teachers
have become convinced that “ virtue
cannot be taught,” and have left the work
of converting the nation to a small organi
sation whose average income is less than
the salary of an assistant master ? And
why, on almost every platform, should
an educationist who desires a reputation
for wisdom warn against “ tacking a
moral ” on to a story ? Who are the
creatures that are constantly “ moralis
ing ”? Are they elementary teachers ?
Are they secondary teachers ? The
present writer has heard or read these
warnings many times, but has never yet
known to whom they are addressed.
But he does say: “ Better a thousand
times to ‘tack on a moral’—clumsily,
even brutally—than to allow a child to
grow up with no moral instruction at all.
The moral does no harm to any child,
and may do good to many.”
No doubt our professors mean well.
They think that plenty of good fairy
tales, history, and literature will produce
a moral effect, even though no general
moral maxim, like “ You ought not to
be cruel to animals,” be employed to
sum up that effect. Very true. Apper
ception-material of a moral kind is good
in moral education, just as apperception
material in the form of class experiments
is good in teaching science. But why
on earth the general moral maxim should
be regarded as unsuitable for school,
while the general maxims of science {eg.,
that bodies weigh less in water than in
air) are admitted, passes the understand
ing of the present writer. And it must
be also remembered that by “moral
instruction ” is not meant merely a
system of maxims, but a system of illus
trations leading up to those maxims. In
fact, the method of moral instruction is
precisely the same as the method of all
synthetic instruction : “The teacher must
pass from concrete to abstract.” But it
is better to violate this principle a little
than to act on such absolute and wicked
nonsense as that “ Virtue cannot be
taught.”
There is very little doubt that the
popularity of this maxim, though due
partly to the good psychology above des
cribed, is mainly due to the bad psy
chology of “faculties.” Of course, if
will and character are independent of the
rest of the mind, they cannot be in
fluenced via the mind. The only hope
is in supernatural means.
And that brings us to the third reason
for the popularity of the maxim. Every
ecclesiastic, qua ecclesiastic, believes that
“Virtue cannot be taught.”
Meanwhile, despite the good psy
chology and the bad psychology of our
professors of education and theology, the
hero of the situation is Mr. F. J. Gould.
When the next professorship of edu
cation in England falls vacant, and the
committee of selection ask, not for safe
conventionalism, but for merit and power
and achievement, they will turn to the
man who, in the East End of London,
developed or discovered the same prin
ciple of Anschauung in moral teaching
that Pestalozzi, years before, had developed
or discovered in teaching other things.
For the two achievements are identical
in origin and in essence. The squalor
of Stanz and the squalor of Limehouse
drove each teacher to the concrete. If
only those men who moralise to us about
“ moralising ” would come from the
altitude of those social conditions where
good books and good example and good
traditions render moral teaching less
urgent, down to the regions where blank
moral ignorance prevails, they would be
less glib in giving utterance to bad edu
cational philosophy.
When one travels on a London
omnibus or a workmen’s train, and
notices numberless little acts of annoy
ance (spitting, putting dirty boots on
�APPENDICES
cushions, allowing sparks from a cigalltte
to blow into fellow-travellers’ eyes, etc.),
one is driven to ask whether these acts
spring largely from thoughtlessness or not.
The writer believes that they do, and
that simple systematic moral instruc
tion would be of much use even in
these comparatively trivial matters. Mr.
Paton, moving amid middle-class boys,
is amused at the inclusion of “ cleanli
ness ” in the Syllabus of the Moral
Instruction League ; no one who knows
what the slums are will smile at it. These
critics cannot justify their attitude ;
there is no real philosophy behind them ;
they cannot answer in the negative
the question, “Does evil, partly,at least,
spring from ignorance?” Nay, they im
plicitly give away their case, as Mr. Paton
did in his College of Preceptors lecture
of November 14th, 1906, by tracing sin
to “delusion.” The thing is inexplic
able— this strange prejudice against
direct moral instruction, this strange
sympathy for a mythical boy who has
been ruined by it.
The writer would ask this plain ques
tion : Is there no intellectual element in
good conduct? Was Sidgwick wrong
when he declared that “ the obstacles to
right conduct....... lie partly in the state
of our intellect, partly in the state of
our desires and will....... Let us suppose
that our notion of justice suddenly
became clear....... suppose this, undoubt
edly there would be much less injustice”?
If Sidgwick was right, even the baldest
and most abstract teaching of “ morals ”
must be of some value as destroying moral
ignorance.
____
VI.—Science and the “Humanities ”
(P- 54).
77
and several other subjects as well as any
teacher in the world, he cannot, as a
rule, do quite the same justice to litera
ture or history. These last subjects are
taught better in girls’ schools..
In London, too, there is still a slight
excess of emphasis on “ science,” though
the problem of how to teach this subject
is far more difficult than the parallel
problem of how to teach literature and
history. Almost any teacher with a
liking for literature and history can teach
it fairly well. Much depends on the
“liking”; but neither knowledge nor
liking will necessarily make a successful
science teacher. It is interesting to note
that our greatest scientists admit the
supreme value of humanistic study. “ A
training in science and scientific methods,
admirable as it is in so many ways, fails
to supply those humanising influences
which the older learning can so well
impart. For the moral stimulus that
comes from an association with all that
is noblest and best in the literatures of
the past, for the culture and taste that
spring from prolonged contact with the
highest models of literary expression, for
the widening of our sympathies and the
vivifying of our imagination by the study
of history and philosophy, the teaching
of science has no proper equivalents.
....... You will find in literature a source
of solace and refreshment, of strength
and encouragement, such as no depart
ment of science can give you.”1
VIL—The Bible in Schools (p. 61).
Judging from the trend of affairs, the
Bible seems likely to be excluded, sooner
or later, from primary schools. It is a
pity. Poor, perfunctory, and . unreal
though the teaching has sometimes, if
not frequently, been, many men who
have but small sympathy with militant
Bible-worship regret that Anglican and
Roman ecclesiastics seem determined
to drive education on towards the “logi
cal ” solution of secularism. To say
There is little doubt that our boys’
schools are weaker on the “ humanistic ”
side than on any other. The present
writer’s observations in London go to
confirm what has been his conviction
for many years—namely, that, while the
average class-master in England can pro
1 Sir A. Geikie, in Landscape in History, and
bably teach drawing, writing, arithmetic, other Essays.
�78
APPENDICES
that the Bible is a “ Nonconformist ”
book, and that the use of selections from
it in the school is an “endowment of
Nonconformity,” strikes a mere educa
tionist with amazement, especially in
view of the fact that Nonconformists,
during the last thirty years, have prac
tically done nothing to make Bible
teaching really educational. The writer
in 1902 carefully examined the sylla
buses of Biblical instruction issued by
leading School Boards, and found that
not more than one had any claim to the
respect of an educationist; even the
claim of the one was by no means
obvious.
The chief faults of these syllabuses
can be readily indicated.
Scrappiness. Instead of substantial
pieces from each suitable Biblical work,
a chapter or two, quite divorced from
the context, would be prescribed. The
idea that a great poetical or historical
work loses three-quarters of its effect
when dissected in this fashion had not
dawned upon our syllabus-makers; in
deed, even in the ordinary teaching of
“secular” literature the idea is only
just winning recognition. The bearings
of the apperception doctrine are obvious.
Apperception and interest are less likely
to spring up in connection with a series
of scraps than in connection with a mass
of closely related material.
Selection of unsuitable passages. An
extraordinary passion for the plagues of
Egypt, the conquest of Canaan by
Joshua, and the miracles of Elijah and
Elisha, had seized syllabus - makers.
There is no denying that portions of
these graphic narratives have consider
able interest for children, and might be
treated in a very profitable manner, the
unsuitable portions being replaced by a
brief narrative of the teacher’s. But,
speaking broadly, these three stories are
about the worst that could have been
selected in the whole Bible, and how
anyone could expect the cause of “ reli
gious education ” to be furthered by them
is unintelligible to the present writer.
In addition to the immense difficulties,
critical and theological, involved in these
stories, their ethical content is much
poorer than that of many others; nay,
one may say that the ethical element is
frequently perplexing in the highest
degree.
Omission of most valuable material.
While obviously and stupidly unsuitable
portions of the Bible were forced year
after year into the schools, the very best
portions (of the Old Testament, at any
rate) were entirely ignored. Magnificent
lessons in patriotism and righteousness
could have been based upon certain of
the prophets, especially Amos, Hosea,
Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah; and if,
in addition, the work of these men had
been put into its proper historical and
geographical settings, the humanistic and
culture value of the lessons for upper
standards would have been enormous. It is
almost maddening to think of the wasted
opportunities of the last thirty years.
While opposing religionists have been
wrangling over “religious education,”
educative materialof the very highest value
—poetry and literature and history more
ancient and precious than the vaunted
culture-giving classics of Greece and
Rome—has been under the very noses
of School Board members, Church of
England managers, and school teachers
—-and it has been ignored. None of our
public education authorities, until quite
lately, and very few even now, seem to
have ever thought of exploring this rich
mine of prophetic literature. One after
another the syllabuses have prescribed
the weary round of plagues of Egypt,
etc.
fust at the point where the Hebrew
Bible presents us with first-hand docu
ments, substantially contemporary with
the events they describe, and possessed
of the highest literary merit, the syllabus
leaps over to—Daniel! Amos, Hosea,
Micah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah—men who
dealt in a practical and wonderfully
modern manner with vice, social tyranny,
crooked politics, and shoddy patriotism,
and put their protests into immortal
forms—these were unanimously ignored.
�79
APPENDICES
It may be admitted that the problem of
teaching the prophets has not yet been
solved; but that the mere idea should
have occurred to scarcely one responsible
person in all England is an amazing fact.
Absence of correlation. While in
secular subjects some slight attempts
are being made to correlate history with
geography, literature with history, etc.,
and thus to call forth apperceptive in
terest more abundantly, little or nothing
of this kind was done in connection with
Biblical teaching. Cross references from
Psalms and Prophets to historical
books like Kings were unheard of;
equally so was the idea of showing
Jewish history in its relation to the great
empires of the East, Assyria, etc. No
“ syllabus ” encouraged these things, and
few teachers had authority or time or
inclination to depart widely from what
was prescribed. Given intelligently, the
Old Testament lessons would be some
of the finest for humanistic purposes in
the whole curriculum, opening children’s
minds to historical periods and names
otherwise unknown, and providing a
splendid array of material for the forma
tion and improvement of the moral
judgment. But by the adopted policy
of isolation, the awakening of appercep
tive interest has been almost an impos
sibility. The results are patent. How
many people, orthodox or heterodox,
“ Church ” or “ Chapel,” have any real
interest in nine-tenths of the Bible ?
Biblical teaching has also had to
struggle against difficulties unknown to
other subjects. Every teacher in Eng
land would have protested scornfully
against using a reading book with the
size, print, heterogeneity, and utter
absence of pictures that characterise the
Bible. Nozvhere in England, to the
knowledge of the writer, has any attempt
been made to put the printed Bible before
children in an attractive form. What
feeling but one of contempt for all the
rival religious parties can an educationist
possess ?
The writer would have been glad to
quote from two little books which, better
than any others, put the case for Biblical
teaching on educational grounds alone—
Matthew Arnold’s Great Prophecy of
Israel's Restoration, with its splendid
preface (Macmillan, is.), and the Rev.
Stewart D. Headlam’s The Place of the
Bible in Secular Education (Brown,
Langham, 6d.). The amusing thing is
that both of these men stand at the
opposite pole to Nonconformity.
In 1902 the present writer wrote The
Reform of Moral and Biblical Education
—a very impertinent and flippant book,
doubtless. The writer regrets some of
the things there written. But the signi
ficant fact is that all recent improve
ments in Biblical curricula (and great
improvements have been made by some
authorities—e.g., those of Hertfordshire,
Newport [Mon.], Hornsey, Bristol, Aberdare—especially the first)—are all in the
directions outlined in 1902.
It is the present writer’s conviction
that, sooner or later, there will be a dis
covery of the humanistic value of the
Bible. The Renaissance of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, when the ancient
classics of Greece and Rome appeared
before men’s astonished eyes in all their
charm, will be repeated—with a dif
ference. We shall learn, all of us—
Churchmen, Nonconformists, and Secu
larists—that most of the Bible stands
apart from sectarian and credal dif
ferences, and that, even if Christianity
perished to-morrow, the Bible should
still have a place in our schools.
But the question is whether, through
the wrangles of the sects, the Bible will
have to be excluded for half a century
first? Maybe. And then we shall be
driven, as the American teachers have
been, to teach the secular “ humanities ”
better than at present.
One final remark. Modern child
study is throwing light upon the problem
of Biblical teaching. “ Boys of this age
(up to twelve) prefer the Old Testament
to the New. There are sound reasons
why it should first be taught them.”1
1 Forbush, in The Boy Problem,
�8o
APPENDICES
The educational tension will be re
lieved as soon as educational amateurs
(bishops, parsons, and platform orators)
are plainly told that they are ignorant of
the elements of modern pedagogy. For
most of them are.
(following the second, which deals with
“ many-sided interest ”) is devoted to
“Moral Strength of Character.” What
can safely be asserted is (1) that, though
a character without intellectual and other
“interests” can be negatively “mofaJ^
and even heroic “according to. its
lights,” nine-tenths of the realm of moral
VIII.—Some Prevalent Errors
conduct will remain, to such ah indi*
ABOUT ÜERBARTIAN TEACHING.
vidual, a terra incognita; many moral
A reviewer in School, January, 1904, claims (p.g., love of abstract truth, of
says that Herbart was “ indifferent to civic duty, etc.) will simply fail to be
natural science and even Miss Dodd “ apperceived ”—they will be meaning
remarks that. “ the Herbartians place less and unintelligible; (2) that in the
history as the centre of all subjects to be vast majority of cases there will not be
studied.”
even “ negative ” morality. The soul
In point of fact, Herbart was advocat that is inadequately supplied with “ in
ing the teaching of science long before terests ” is almost certain to succumb to
the scientific revival of the middle of the the temptations of the world or the
nineteenth century. His sixfold classifi flesh.
cation of interest (as empirical, specula
But, when all this is admitted, there
tive, aesthetic, sympathetic, social, and still remains the necessity for express!
religious) is fairly comprehensive, if not moral training, which will take such
complete and logical. The first three forms as discipline in good habits, thd
sub-divisions fall under the head of possible use of rewards and punishments,
“Interest in Nature,” and will thus in the enunciation of abstract moral maxims,
clude interest in natural science ; the last and the like. It is a strange fact that)
three under that of “ Interest in Human because Herbart, in a lightning-flash of
Nature ”; and a man who is developed genius, perceived the intimate relation
along all six directions will possess that ship between interest and character—a
aesthetic presentation of the universe relationship which, say what one likes, is
which, as early as 1804, Herbart still unknown or ignored or depreciated
declared to be the chief task of by the majority of professional educa
education.
tionists—he must therefore be blamed
The blunder has arisen from the pl*e- for identifying these two things, when, in
dominant influence of Ziller. He, as point of fact, he most expressly distin
Miss Dodd says, “ placed history as the guished them.
centre of all the subjects to be studied.”
The present writer has made a some
But it is erroneous to identify such a what special study of the criticisms
policy with Herbart himself, or with the directed against the Herbartian system,
more rational of his followers, such as and he would like to add that he does
Story and Dörpfeld.
not recollect a single practical criticism
Another common misapprehension is which has any real force as directed
that Herbart identifies interest with against Herbart as an educationist.
morality or goodness. Many and many
The latest British writer on Herbaran attempt has been made to show that tianism, Dr. Davidson, in his New Inters
a man may possess interests of a varied pretation of Herbarfs Psychology and
and powerful character, and may yet be Educational Theory, has done good work
morally contemptible.
in defending Herbart on certain philo
In point of fact, Herbart admits that sophical grounds untouched by the
interest is far from virtue, and the third present writer.
book of the Allgemeine Pädagogik
�ì
MORAL INSTRUCTION
UNDER THE
NEW EDUCATION CODE.
°4 Moral Instruction’ should form an important part of
every school curriculum.”-—From the Board of Education's “ Code
of Regulations for Public Elementary Schools ” (1906).
“Cbc Cbilbren’s Koof; of ilboral Xcseoiis,"
by F. J. GOULl),
will be found to be of the greatest service to teachers. It is already in use in some
thousands of Public Elementary Schools, and is giving the greatest satisfaction on
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THE THREE SERIES.
First Series: “ Self-Control ” and 44 Truthfulness.” With Frontispiece by
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Third Series: “The Family,” “People of Other Lands,” “History
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is a literary classic; as presented by Mr. Gould to the young people the work
remains a classic.”—Midland Free Press.
“ Better than any commendation of the book that I can give was the verdict of
a thirteen-year-old boy to whom I gave it. He read it through at a sitting and
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London: WATTS & Co., 17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.Ç.-
’
�Watts £> Co.
Sixpepijy
Public;
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. ...........
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2. THE PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. ByEoWA«D.
VLODD.
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By Samuel Laing. With' illustrations.
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OF THE
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Stephen.
IB. LIFE OF JESU;
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AN.
By
Sam
PHILOSOPHY
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sical. By Herbert Spencer.
W. R. Ôjji
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NAN.
By Grant Allen.
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8. HUMAN ORIGINS.- By SamCeL LAijig.
23. WONDERS
AHNST HaEC
9.
SERVICE OF MAN. By J. Cotter . 24. JESUS OE.^
J'-EdWARD. Cl=Ö»
Morison.
25. "GODJfe&T
E.
Matthew Ajw>
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TQS^OLL
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OF Man.
By
Selection.) With Biographical Sketch.
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»MAN. Vol. II.
l'ARWlN.
U YYNiri*<y£*
An- Inquiry Concerning
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U- —An Inquiry Ç«a-.
13. ON LIBERTY. By John Stuart Mill.
"**■ I
cerning the Prim
rals.
14. THE STORY OF CREATION. By E. Clodd.
29. SPENCER’S ES
Selection.)
R.P. A. Extra Series.
1.
JESUS CHRIST: His Apostles and Disciples in
the Twentieth Century.
2. HAECKEL’S
CRITICS
Joseph McCabe.
By Count
de
Runes.se.
ANSWERED.
By
3. SCIENCE AND SPECULATION.
Being the
Prolegomena to "The History of Philosophy.”
By G. H. Lewes.
4. NEW LIGHT ON QLD PROBLEMS. By Jqhn
Wilson, ALA.
.
>
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Ce T. GokliAM.
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7. THE RELIGI*
8. THE FUNDAMh
POSITIVJE PHIL
9. ETHICAL RELIG
10. RELIGIOUS f
Haynes.
■ M. M. MAÀf^gA^^.
AN. By J. ^feC -’ ’
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By AUGUST^T
W. M. Sa’
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a
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■ Hayward,
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THE WORLD. By
1TI0N.
By. F; M-.
Various.
THE CHILDREN’S *JBOOK OF MORAL LESSONS.
THE BIBLE IN SCh
By F. J. GouLd. First Series.
HAECKEL’S CONTR
THE AGE OF REASON- By Thomas Paine. With 1
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Introduction by j. M. Robertson.
DO WE BELIEVE ?
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CHRISTIANITY AN'
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Senes«
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reat- Corre- ■
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Series.
AllansunPicton. •
0 REL1GIO
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McCabe, Chari
C. T. Gorham, G'W. B. Columbij.
' -. Pii blips.
"ON THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE; and
Kindred Inquiries By Frances Wright.
THE TRUTH ABu
CHAMBERLAIN : A Study. By j.' M. Robertson, '
Its History and
A FEW FOOTPRINTS. By J..¿Passmore Edwards;, j RIGHTS OF MAN.
with the R. P. A. •
THE FUTURE PEACE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
By Major Stewart L. Murray. With Preface ! SOCIALISM: Its .
by Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, K.G.
1
1 lection’of Papyri,
* The whole of the above list,_with the exception of those marked with aiihs
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The secret of Herbart : an essay on the science of education
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 80 p. ; 22 cm.
Series title: R.P.A. Extra Series
Series number: 12
Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Printed in two columns. First published in 1904. New edition, revised and enlarged, published in 1907. Issued by arrangement with Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd., for the Rationalist Press Association Limited. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Herbart's pedagogy emphasised the connection between individual development and the resulting societal contribution. He believed that every child is born with a unique potential, his Individuality, but that this potential remained unfulfilled until it was analysed and transformed by education in accordance with what he regarded as the accumulated values of civilisation. Only formalised, rigorous education could, he believed, provide the framework for moral and intellectual development. The five key ideas which composed his concept of individual maturation were Inner Freedom, Perfection, Benevolence, Justice and Equity or Recompense. [Edited from Wikipedia, 2/2018].
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Hayward, F. H. (Frank Herbert), 1872-1954
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1907
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Watts & Co. (London, England)
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Education
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N303
RA560
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Education
NSS
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PDF Text
Text
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
APPOINTED TO
INQUIRE
INTO
THE
CONDITION
OF
*
THE
PRINCIPAL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
fir
A PAPER READ AT THE MQNTHLY EVENING MEETING OF THE
COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS, MAY 11th, 1864.
BY
W. B. HODGSON, Esq., LL.D., F.C.P.
“ Falsa est querela paueissimis hominibus vim percipiendi quae tradantur esse concessam; plerosque
vero laborem et tempora tarditate ingenii perdere. Nam contra plures reperias et faciles in excogitando,
et ad discendum promptos. Quippe id est homini naturale: ac sicut aves ad volatum, equi ad cursum, ad
saevitiam ferae gignuntur. ita nobis propria est mentis agitatio atque solertia; unde origo animi coelestis
creditur. Hebetes vero et indociles non magis secundum naturam hominis eduntur, quam prodigiosa cor
pora et monstris insignia : sed hi pauci admodum. Fuerit argumentum, quod in pueris elucet spes plurimorum: quae cum emoritur aetate, manifestum est non naturam defecisse, sed curam."—M. F. Quinctilian.
Inst. Orat. lib. 1. c. 1.
“ Those who, in their own minds, their health, or their fortunes, feel the cursed effects of a wrong
education, wonld do well to consider they cannot better make amends for what was amiss in themselves
than by preventing the same in their posterity.”—Bishop Berkeley, The Minute Philosopher, Dial. vii.§34.
“ An enormous sacrifice of time is made to the study of dead languages, and we ought to reap from them
a great and proportionate advantage.”—Rev. W. Sewell, M.A., “ Essay on the Cultivation of the Intellect
by the Study of Dead Languages.” Lond. 1820. p. 297.
“ I think that, from some cause or other, the success of the work has not been in proportion to the
pains bestowed upon it.”—Rev. E. Balston, Head-Master of Eton School, “ Report of Commissioners,”
vol. iii, p. 117.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
W. AYLOTT & SON, 8, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1864.
Price Sixpence.
�" In this progressive country, we neglect all that knowledge in which there is progress, to devote
ourselves to those branches in which we are scarcely, if at all, superior to our ancestors. In this
practical country, the knowledge of all that gives power over nature, is left to be picked up by chance on
a man’s way through life. In this religious country, the knowledge of God’s works forms no part of
the education of the people,—no part even of the accomplishments of a gentleman.”—Lord Ashburton,
Speech at a Meeting of Schoolmasters at Winchester, 16th Dec., 1853.
"It is a most important truth, and one which requires, at this day, to be most earnestly enforced,
that it is by the study of facts, whether relating to nature or to man, and not by any pretended cultiva
tion of the mind by poetry, oratory, and moral or critical dissertations, that the understandings of
mankind in general will be most improved, and their views of things rendered most accurate.”—Dr.
Arnold, in Thompson's “Hist, of Rom. Lit.” 1852. p. 379. (Encycl. Metrop)
" It . would indeed be wonderful if a study of the poet’s lines were of more value than the study of
those things that inspired them: and if the words of men had in them more spiritual nourishment than
the works of the Creator.”—Prof. Jas. Nicol, “ On the Study of Nat. Hist.” 1853. p. 30.
..." 0 necessario confessare che piil presto sia degno il subbietto che la lingua; perchO il subbietto
0 fine, e la lingua 0 mezzo.”—Lorenzo de’ Medici.
" For one man who is fitted for the study of words, fifty are fitted for the study of things, and were
intended to have a perpetual, simple, and religious delight in watching the processes, or admiring the
creatures, of the natural universe. Deprived of this source of pleasure, nothing is left to them but
ambition or dissipation; and the vices of the upper classes of Europe are, I believe, chiefly to be attributed
to this single cause.”—John Ruskin.
“ Our present system, on account of the preposterous manner in which it attempts, to exalt the old
learning, is a direct cause of its being unjustly neglected, decried, and undervalued.”—Rev. F. B. Zincke,
“ School of the Future.” 1852. p. 78.
“ When I considered the former days of my youth, and the years of affliction, which had been many;
when I was driven on circularly in Latin bondage, as a horse in a mill, continually moving, but making
no progress; or, as a Jonas in tne whale’s belly, making long voyages, but seeing nothing about me, ana
often threatened by hard task-masters, who made me serve with rigour; I did, in compliance with
the dictates of reason, and with my own inclinations, resolve that this boy should, from those mis
fortunes, reap some advantage, and gain some knowledge, by (what I apprehended to be) the mistakes
and blunders of other men.”—J. T. Phillips, Preceptor to his R. H. Prince William, Duke of Cumber
land, “ A Compendious Way of Teaching Ancient and Modern Languages'' &c. 3rd Ed. 1728. p. 57.
“ Je croyais avoir d6ja donnd assez de temps aux langues, et m6me aussi it la lecture des livres
anciens, et i leurs histoires, et h leurs fables; car c’est quasi le m6me de converser avec ceux des aut.res
siOcles que de voyager. Il est bon de savoir quelque chose des moeurs des divers peuples, afin de juger
des ndtres plus sainiement.......... Mais lorsqu’on emploie trop de temps h voyager, on devient enfin
stranger en son pays; et lorsqu’on est trop curieux des choses qui se pratiquaient aux siCcles passes, on
demeure fort ignorant de celles qui se pratiquent en celui-ci.”—Descartes, “ Discours de la Methode.”
1637. (Alas! more than 200 years ago!)
“ Il semble que nous devons accommoder nos dtudes fi l’dtat present de nos moeurs, et dtudier les
choses qui sont a’usage dans le monde, puisqu’on ne peut changer cet usage pour l’accommoder h l’ordre
de nos etudes.”—L’Abbe Fleury, “ Traite du Choix des Etudes.” 1685.
" Is it not more probable that the proper and legitimate means of training the intellect co-existed
with the intellect itself, not since the period of the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman empires, but
since the beginning of the world ?”—Angus Macpherson, “ English Education.” Glasgow. 1854.
"Am I wrong in believing that the tendencies of the age are in favour of decreasing, rather than in
creasing, the amount of time bestowed upon classical scholarship P”—Dr. R. G. Latham, “ On the Study
of Language.” 1855. p. 112.
“ The father of Montaigne has observed that the tedious time which we moderns employ in acquiring
the language of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which cost them nothing, is the principal reason why
we cannot arrive at that grandeur of soul and perfection of knowledge that was in them.... The ac
quirements of science may be termed the armour of the mind; but that armour would be worse than
useless, that cost us all we had, and left us nothing to defend.”—Rev. C. Colton, “ Latonf &c.
�ON THE
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS ON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The sight of this Report, in four bulky
volumes, which weigh above ten pounds
avoirdupois, may well serve instead of
preface. Its contents are far too ample
and too various to allow me to do more
than call attention to one of its many
aspects; and even so, all our time will be
too short. The Commission included in
its scope the nine following schools:—
Eton, Winchester, Westminster, the
Charterhouse, St. Paul’s, Merchant Tay
lors’, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury.
The inquiry was divided into three
parts :—“ The first relating to the pro
perty and income of the several schools;
the second, to the administration and
management of them; the third, to the
system and course of study pursued in
them, to the religious and moral training
of the boys, their discipline, and general
education.” (p. 1.) Of these three heads,
it is exclusively the third, and even that
by no means thoroughly, that I wish this
evening to treat; looking less to the reli
gious and moral training of the boys,
than to “ the system and course of study,”
and its ascertained results, especially in
that department of study which claims
the lion’s share of time and effort. My
comments may be best arranged under
three heads: 1st, The Report of the Com
missioners regarding results; 2nd, The
evidence on which it rests; 3rd, The re
commendations of the Commissioners.
It ought to be further explained, that,
besides the general Report and general
recommendations of the Commissioners,
there is given a full and elaborate Report
on each of the nine schools, with further
recommendations specially applicable to
each. I propose, however, to confine
myself entirely to the general Report and
general recommendations. It is impor
tant to bear this restriction in mind, be
cause it is difficult, perhaps impossible,
to avoid injustice in speaking collectively
of nine schools which differ from each
other in not a few respects. It may be
not unnatural, as it is certainly not un
common, to take, as the typical repre
sentative of all these schools, Eton, the
most richly endowed, the most nume
rously attended, the most aristocratic
(though also the most backward and in
efficient) of them all. But much that is
true of the plethoric Eton may be very
far from true, say, of the more sparedieted Shrewsbury, the eminence of
which, in spite of difficulties, is an in
structive fact. At the same time, any
B
�4
such unintentional and inevitable injus
tice belongs rather to the Commissioners
than to me. It is on them and their
authorities that I almost exclusively rely.
I. The Times (of 28th March, 1864) thus
condenses the Commissioners’ Report on
the actual working of the present system,
so far as relates to our present purpose;
and this resume will probably be accepted
as less prejudiced, and so more trust
worthy, than any that I could make.
“ In one word, we may say that they find
it to be a failure—a failure even if tested
by those better specimens, not exceeding one
third of the whole, who go up to the Univer
sities. Though a very large number of these
have literally nothing to show for the results
of their school-hours from childhood to man
hood, but a knowledge of Latin and Greek,
with a little English and arithmetic, we have
here the strongest testimony that their know
ledge of the former is most inaccurate, and
their knowledge of the latter contemptible.
A great deal is taught under these two heads,
but very little is learned under either. A
small proportion become brilliant composers
and finished scholars, if they do not manage
to pick up a good deal of information for
themselves; but the great multitude cannot
construe an easy author at sight, or write
Latin prose without glaring mistakes, or
answer simple questions in grammar, or get
through a problem in the first two books of
Euclid, or apply the higher rules of arith
metic. A great many, amounting to about a
third at Christ Church, and a fifth at Exeter
College, fail to pass the common Matricula
tion Examination. Not less than a fourth
are plucked for their Little-go, a most ele
mentary examination in the very subjects
which we have just mentioned; and of the
rest many are only enabled to pass by the
desperate exertions of College Tutors and
‘ coaches.’ We need not follow this class of
public school men through the remainder of
their University career, since the duty of
teaching has then devolved upon others; but
for their shortcomings at entrance the schools
are mainly responsible. Most of them, says
an Oxford tutor of great experience and
*
judgment, ‘are persons who were allowed
as boys to carry their idleness with them
from form to form, to work below their
powers, and merely to move with the crowd;
they are men of whom something might have
been made, but now it is too late ; they are
grossly ignorant, and have contracted slovenly
habits of mind.’”*
A few citations from the Report itself
will serve to test the general accuracy of
the resume just given. The Commis
sioners say (vol. i. p. 26):—
“From the evidence the following con
clusions appear to follow:—That boys who
ha/ve capacity and industry enough to work for
distinction, are, on the whole, well taught in
the article o£ classical scholarship, at the
public schools; but that they occasionally
show a want of accuracy in elementary
knowledge, either from not having been well
grounded, or from having been suffered to
forget what they have learned; that the
average of classical knowledge among young
men leaving school for college is low; that in
arithmetic and mathematics, in general in
formation, and in English,f the average is
lower still, but is improving; that of the time
spent at school by the generality of boys,
much is absolutely thrown away as regards
intellectual progress, either from ineffective
teaching, from the continued teaching of
subjects in which they cannot advance, or
from idleness, or from a combination of these
causes ; that in arithmetic and mathematics
the public schools are specially defective, and
that this observation is not confined to any
particular class of boys. It is impossible to
misapprehend the effect which this state of
things produces, and must produce, on the
studies of the Universities. In the case of
those who do not read for honours, at all
events, the work of the first two years is
simply school-work—work proper for the
upper forms of a large school. The usual
age of matriculation at Oxford (no record is
kept at Cambridge) is between 18 and 19.
* “ The system (of public schools) has pro
duced men most remarkable for their great public
utility and eminence; but on the other hand it
appears that after spending a great many years in
these educational institutions, the large mass come
out with a great knowledge of cricket, and a very
good knowledge of rowing, with only that sort of
Latin and Greek which is perfectly useless in after
life, and entirely destitute of mathematical, scien
tific elementary truth, a knowledge of history and
their own country, which it must be admitted are
desirable, if possible, to attain.’’—Earl Gran
ville, Chancellor of the University of London.
{Times, 12th May, 1864.)
t It must never be forgotten that one main ob
ject for which boys learn the dead languages is to
teach them to use their own. (Report, vol. i. p. 15.)
“The composition of Greek prose and Greek
verse is a poor substitute for the faculty of trans
lating such authors as Pindar and Thucydides flu
ently into elegant English.”—Rev. C. W. Sand
ford, M.A., Senior Censor of Christ Church,
* The Rev. James Riddell, Fellow and Tutor Master of Rugby from 1841 to 1847 ; in Report,
vol. ii. p. 11. 1864.
of Balliol College.
�5
Of 430 who matriculated in 1862, only 22, or
5 per cent., were below 18 years of age; while
209, or 49 per cent., had attained the age of
19. It follows that, with a great mass of
men, school education—and that education
one which barely enables them at last to con
strue a Latin and Greek book, poet and
orator, chosen by themselves, to master three
books of Euclid, and solve a problem in
quadratic equations—is prolonged to the age
of 20 or 21.”* (p. 24.)
“ Natural science, with such slight excep
tions as have been noticed, is practically ex
cluded from the education of the higher
classes in England. Education is, in this
respect, narrower than it was three centuries
ago; whilst science has prodigiously ex
tended her empire, has explored immense
tracts, divided them into provinces, intro
duced into them order and method, and made
them accessible to all. This exclusion is, in
our view, a plain defect and a great practical
evil. It narrows unduly and injuriously the
mental training of the young, and the know
ledge, interests, and pursuits of men in maturer life. Of the large number of men who
have little aptitude or taste for literature,
there are many who have an aptitude for
science, especially for science which deals,
not with abstractions, but with external and
sensible objects; how many such there are
can never be known, as long as the only edu
cation given at schools is purely literary ; but
that such cases are not rare or exceptional,
can hardly be doubted by any one who has
observed either boys or men. Nor would it
answer, were it true, to say that such persons
are sure to find their vocation, sooner or later.
But this is not true. We believe that many
pass through life without useful employment,
and without the wholesome interest of a
favourite study, for want of an early intro
duction to. one for which they are really fit.
It is not, however, for such cases only, that
an early introduction to natural science is
desirable. It is desirable surely, though not
necessary, for all educated men. Its value as
a means of opening the mind and disciplining
the faculties, is recognised by all who have
taken the trouble to acquire it, whether men
of business or of leisure. It quickens and
cultivates directly the faculty of observation,
which in very many persons lies almost
dormant through life, the power of accurate
and rapid generalisation, and the mental
habit of method and arrangement; it accus
toms young persons to trace the sequence of
* It is “beyond doubt that not one of these
nine schools sends as many as half of its boys to
the Universities, and that in the case of most of
them the proportion is much less than one-third.
These proportions should be borne in mind in
considering the fitness of the system of instruction
at these schools for the end in view.” (p. 27.)
cause and effect; it familiarises them with a
kind of reasoning which interests them, and
which they can promptly comprehend; and
it is, perhaps, the best corrective for that in
dolence which is the vice of half-awakened
minds, and which shrinks from any exertion
that is not, like an effort of memory, merely
mechanical. With sincere respect for the
opinions of the eminent schoolmasters who
differ from us in this matter, we are con
vinced that the introduction of the elements
of natural science into the regular course of
study is desirable, and we see no sufficient
reason to doubt that it is practicable.” (p. 32.)
The length of this citation will, I trust,
be justified by its almost inestimable im
portance. It exposes one of the most
striking omissions in ordinary school
teaching, especially of the richer classes—
an omission which not only is greatly to
be deplored on its own account, but
which goes far to frustrate the attempt
to teach even what is included. Vainly
can it be affirmed that natural science is
already taught in many of these schools.
It may figure in programmes; it may be
made the subject of an occasional lecture
during, probably, the intervals of time
assigned to play; but that it is systemati
cally taught, as other subjects are, and as
it must be if any good is to be effected, is
quite unproved. Better that it should
*
not be taught at all, than that it should
be so taught as to furnish an argument
against its admission into schools on a
reasonable footing.
“ It is clear that there are many boys
whose education can hardly be said to have
* Viscount Boringdon, when examined regard
ing Eton, thus replies:—“Lord Clarendon:—
‘ Natural science is, I believe, wholly unattended
to ?’—‘ Entirely.’ ‘ Occasionally there are lec
tures given ; a lecturer comes down from London,
and lectures on natural science ?’—‘ Yes.’ ‘ Are
they much attended to ?’—‘ Yes ; they are a good
deal attended to; it is with boys who have nothing
to do in the evening; once a week, boys, who have
nothing to do in the evenings, go there, but I do
not think they attend much to them; a certain
number do, but I think that most come a great
deal for making a row.’ ‘ Are the lectures gene
rally of a popular kind? are they good lectures ?’
—‘ Yes.’ ‘ Lecturers entitled to command atten
tion, which they do not get?’—‘ Certainly.’ ” (Vol.
iii. p. 257.) After this, can anything be more evi
dent than that physical science cannot be taught in
schools 1
B2
�6
begun till they enter, at the age of twelve or
thirteen, or even later, a school containing
several hundreds, where there can be com
paratively little of that individual teaching
which a very backward boy requires.” (p. 40.)
At first sight, this evil may seem to be
chargeable, not on the public schools, but
on the preparatory schools, or on the
parents, with whom the Commissioners
“ do not hesitate to say that the fault
chiefly rests.” But a strict entrance
examination, such as the Commissioners
themselves recommend, and such as it is
the duty, as well as the right and the
interest (rightly viewed) of the public
schools to institute, would very speedily
abate this grievance, which now aggra
vates, much more than it excuses, their
inefficiency.
.
It is the office of education,” say
the Commissioners, (p. 30,) “ not only to dis
cipline some of the faculties, but to awaken,
call out, and exercise them all, so far as this
can be usefully done, in boyhood ; to awaken
tastes that may be developed in after life; to
impart early habits of reading, thought, and
observation; and to furnish the mind with
such knowledge as is wanted at the outset of
life. A young man is not well educated—
and, indeed, not educated at all—who cannot
reason, or observe, or express himself easily
and correctly, and who is unable to bear his
part in cultivated society, from ignorance of
things which all who mix in it are assumed
to be acquainted with. He is not well edu
cated if all his information is shut up within
one narrow circle, and he has not been
taught, at least, that beyond what he has been
able to acquire lie great and varied fields of
knowledge, some of which he may afterwards
explore, if he has inclination and opportunity
to do so. The kind of knowledge which is
necessary or useful, and the best way of
exercising and disciplining the faculties (?),
must vary, of course, with the habits and re
quirements of the age and society in which his
life is to be spent.............. Hence, no system of
instruction can be framed which will not re
quire modification from time to time. The
highest and most useful office of education is
certainly to train and discipline; but it is
not the only office. And we cannot but re
mark that, whilst in the busy world too great
a value perhaps is sometimes set upon the
actual acquisition of knowledge, and too little
upon that mental discipline which enables
men to acquire and turn it to the best ac
count, there is also a tendency, which is the
very reverse of this, and which is among the
besetting temptations of the ablest school
masters ; and that if very superficial men may
be prodmeed by one of these infi/uences, very
ignorant men are sometimes produced by the
other.” (p. 30.)
“ If a youth, after four or five years spent
at school, quits it at 19, unable to construe an
easy bit of Latin or Greek without the help
of a Dictionary, or to write Latin grammati
cally, almost ignorant of geography and of
the history of his own country, unacquainted
with any modern language but his own, and
hardly competent to write English correctly,
to do a simple sum, or stumble through an
easy proposition of Euclid, a total stranger to
the laws which govern the physical world,
and to its structure, with an eye and hand
unpractised in drawing, and without knowing
a note of music, with an uncultivated mind,
and no taste for reading or observation, his
intellectual education must certainly be ac
counted a failure, though there may be no
fault to find with his principles, character, or
manners. We by no means intend to repre
sent this as a type of the ordinary product of
English public-school education; but speak
ing both from the evidence we have received
and from opportunities of observation open
to all, we must say that it is a type much
more common than it ought to be, making
ample allowance for the difficulties before re
ferred to, and that the proportion of failures
is, therefore, unduly large.......... The school
has absolute possession of the boy during four
or five years, the most valuable years of pupil
age, the time when the powers of apprehension
and memory are brightest, when the faculty
of observation is quick and lively, and he is
forming his acquaintance with the various
objects of knowledge. Something, surely,
may be done during that time in the way, not
of training alone, but of positive acquisition,
and the school is responsible for turning it to
the best account.” (p. 31.)
These passages may, and indeed must,
suffice to indicate the point of view from
which the Commissioners regard these
schools, the standard by which they try
their results, and the degree in which
their expectations have been fulfilled or
disappointed.
Before we proceed to cite a small part
of the evidence in support of these very
grave strictures, let me remind you, first,
that the Commissioners are not the ene
mies, but the friends, of the public-school
system—most of them, if not all, having
been themselves brought up under one or
other of its forms,—and that their purpose
is to amend, not to destroy; 2ndly, that
�these institutions are, for the most part,
richly endowed, venerable from their
antiquity and the associations with indi
vidual greatness which cling to their
very stones, and amply represented in
both houses of the Legislature, as in all
the upper walks of social life I 3rdly, that
their intimate connexion with the Church
renders them in reality a branch of the
great ecclesiastical organization of the
country; 4thly, that they are superin
tended, in the main, by the ablest and
most accomplished men whom, within
the limits of the Church, it is possible to
find; that the masters are, in general,
handsomely paid, and not unfrequently
exchange the ferule for the crozier, and
still more frequently retire from the tur
moil of the schoolroom to some not un
dignified church-living. The concur
rence of all these circumstances ought
surely to favour the development and
diffusion of the highest and widest cul
ture, if only the wit and the will existed,—
the wit to know in what true education
consists, and the will to carry this know
ledge into practical effect. Terribly deepseated must the evil be which goes so far
to, neutralize all these seemingly great
advantages, and to make the results of all
this vast mechanism so miserably meagre,'
on the admission of even its best friends!
II. The evidence on which the Com
missioners base their conclusions is too
extensive to permit, and too uniform to
require, many extracts here. The Rev.
C. W. Sandford, M.A., Senior Censor of
Christ Church, Oxford, thus writes:—
“ The head boys come well prepared from
school. The standard in our class examina
tions in classics is consequently high. This
is not affected by the state in which the
average boys come to the University. The
other studies may suffer in some degree...........
Some fifty or sixty young men matriculate at
Christ Church in the course of each year.
Of these perhaps ten will read for honours in
classics. Such men would be able to construe
with tolerable correctness a new passage from
any Latin or Greek author, translate a piece
of easy English prose into tolerable Latin,
and answer correctly simple grammatical
and etymological questions in Latin and
Greek. The other forty or fifty would not.
In fact, very few of those who are merely
candidates for matriculation can construe
with accuracy a piece from an author whom
they profess to have read. We never try
them in an unseen passage. It would be
useless to do so. They are usually examined
in Virg. JLn. I—V, and Homer, II. I—V.
But if they have not read Homer orVirgil, we
examine them in whatever authors they have
read last.... We do not test their knowledge
of ancient or modern history, or of geography,
at matriculation. We examine them in arith
metic, but not in Euclid or Algebra. Their
answers to the questions in arithmetic do not
encourage us to examine them in Euclid or
Algebra. We do not examine the candidates
in religious knowledge. But at the end of
every term the junior members of the house
are examined in some portion of the New
Testament. The answers written by the
mass of the men are not better than what we
might expect from the upper classes of our
parochial schools. Very few have that know
ledge of the Bible that a Christian gentleman
should have. Nor do many show a desire to
increase their knowledge. Of the 150 who
attend the divinity lectures, 20 will show that
they they have been well taught before en
tering the University.” (Vol. ii. pp. 10,11.)
The Rev. G. W. Sitchin, M.A., Junior
Censor of Christ Church, thus writes:—
“ The average men bring up but small re
sults of the training to which they have been
subjected for years. There is a general want
of accuracy in their work; even the rudi
mentary knowledge of grammar and Latin
prose writing is far less than it ought to be.
I fear that the elementary schools send the
little boys up to the public schools in a very
unprepared state, and that the public schools,
to a great extent, assume that the boys are
fairly grounded; which is not the case. The
only subjects which are professed at school,
and do not form part of our system of work,
are such rudimentary matters as English
composition, spelling, arithmetic, &c. In
these there seems to be considerable defi
ciency. The University course of teaching
is much hampered by the crude state of the
men subjected to it, and by the necessity of
supplementing the shortcomings of school
education. Our system becomes, for average
men, both narrow and vague. We feel that
the most we can do for men who come up de
ficient in knowledge of grammar, history,
language, &c., is to provide something for
them to do; the time for real progress seems,
in many cases, to be absolutely past. Men
whose abilities lead them towards other than
classical studies are much hindered from
their proper pursuits, and sometimes stopped
altogether, by that want of early accurate
�8
training, which shows itself at every step we
take in educating our men. Consequently,
it appears to me that the University is obliged
to spend much of her energies on matters
which do not belong to her. If one is of
opinion that eight to ten years spent chiefly
on the elements of Latin and Greek ought to
have been enough to secure a fair knowledge
of grammar, then one cannot help regretting
the weight which presses on us. But I am
aware that many think otherwise, consider
such a repetition of rudiments a good, and
call it a general education. As a matter of
fact, a couple of plays of Euripides, a little
Virgil, two books of Euclid, or the like, form
the occupation of a large part of our men
during their first university year; and I can
not consider this a satisfactory state of things,
especially as not a few fail in passing their
examination in these subjects. It should be
remembered that the best men, who go in for
scholarships, are taken without the ordinary
matriculation examination.... Of the ordinary
men, a quarter might possibly steer their way
through an unseen passage in Greek with
fair success. Bather a larger number might
manage an ordinary piece of Latin. Tolerable
Latin prose is very rare. Perhaps one piece
in four is free from bad blunders. A good
style is scarcely ever seen. The answers we
get to simple grammatical questions are very
inaccurate. In arithmetic they have im
proved, as it is now understood that they
cannot pass responsions without it. With a
matriculation examination, whose standard is
very low, and solely intended to prove that
men have a fair chance of afterwards passing
responsions, and with every wish to admit
men, we have still been obliged this year to
reject about one-third of the whole number
who have presented themselves. As to
average men, their exact knowledge of gram
mar, &c., is now tested by us ; whereas,
a few years ago, it was almost taken for
granted. This makes me diffident in express
ing an opinion about its improvement or
decay. On the whole, I am inclined to think
it has gone backwards, for I can easily ima
gine it better; it would be hard to conceive
it much worse.... We have a vast number of
young men from the upper forms of the
public schools, especially from Eton. On the
whole, their conduct is very satisfactory, and
I can imagine no men more pleasant to deal
with, had they had fair-play in respect of
their learning. As it is, they come to us
with very unawakened minds, and habits of
mental indolence and inaccuracy.” (Vol. ii.
pp. 11—13.)
“ I think that the education given at the
schools does not sufficiently prepare boys for
the University course. The boys are not
well grounded in the subjects to which most
of their time has been given, and on other
points less strictly academical their ignorance
is sometimes surprising. In fact, I am sorry
to say that many boys come to the University
from school knowing next to nothing. These
general remarks, of course, admit of very
many exceptions, as regards both schools and
individuals. The University course is much
affected by the ill-prepared state in which
the majority of the students come; and
instead of making progress, a few years ago
the University had to make its course com
mence with more elementary teaching, and
to insist on the rudiments of arithmetic, and
a more precise acquaintance with the ele
ments of grammar. Tutors felt that it was
degrading to both themselves and the Uni
versity to descend to such preliminary in
struction; but the necessity of the case
compelled them. Had reading and spelling
been included in the reforms of that day, it
would have been not without benefit to many
members of the University. I have some
times had to remind my brother examiners
and myself in the final examination for B.A.,
that we were not at liberty to pluck for bad
spelling, bad English, or worse writing. If
more of such elementary teaching were done
at school, the University course might be
both deepened and widened. Hitherto it has
seemed useless for the University to enlarge
her course to suit the tastes of men whose
minds have never been formed at all by any
methodical teaching, and who really cannot
be said to have any tastes.... It is difficult to
say what proportion of candidates for ma
triculation can translate a new passage of a
Latin or Greek author. At my own college
we consider such a test much too severe, the
college would be left half empty if it were
insisted on. The usual plan is to select a
passage from some book which they have
recently read. Perhaps eight out of twenty
candidates could translate a passage from an
easy author. (Of course I am speaking of
the ordinary students, not of candidates for
scholarships.) Rather more than this pro
portion, perhaps twelve out of twenty, would
write a piece of tolerable Latin prose, and do
a fair grammar paper. Of arithmetic and
mathematics few of them know anything
more than the amount insisted on by the
University, and many of them barely that;
the extent of their knowledge does not reach
beyond vulgar fractions and decimals. And
here I think that the schools are greatly to
be blamed.” (Vol. ii. pp. 16, 17.)
The Rev. W. Hedley, M.A., lately
The Rev. D. P. Chase, M.A., Principal
Fellow and Tutor of University College,
Oxford, and Public Examiner, thus of St. Mary Hall, and Tutor of Oriel
Collesze. thus writes:—
�9
“In my opinion, the previous education
given to those who enter the University does
not fulfil satisfactorily the purpose of ground
ing in the classical studies which they are
required to pursue. The result is, that the
minimum of attainment necessary for the
B.A. degree is far below what it might and
ought to be; while the difficulty which the
majority of passmen have in producing even
that minimum necessarily restricts and
narrows the course. Much of the teaching
given at the University is such as ought to
have been given at school. This, while it
tends to weary and disgust those who have
been better taught, precludes any higher
teaching of those who must be kept to school
boy work. ... I think that public-school boys,
when they are good, are better than any
others. They have a readiness in producing
what they know, and a polish in their pro
ductions, which are rarely found in others.
When they are bad, they are very bad. This
seems to me to prove that the public schools
have the power of giving the very best in
struction, while their circumstances are in
themselves an education; that all boys have
there an opportunity of being well taught,
but that on no boy is imposed the necessity
of learning.” (Vol. ii. pp. 17,18.)
preparation for the University course shown
by candidates for an ordinary matriculation,
that I am convinced either that the system of
teaching at the schools is radically faulty, or
(what is more probable) that little more can
be done in the matter of Latin and Greek
than is done, and that therefore some new
direction should be given to the studies
pursued in schools.” (Vol. ii. p. 20.)
The Rev. Arthur Faber, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of New College, thinks that
“in scholarship and mathematics the
public school system has a marked supe
riority over that of other schools;” and
that while “ the standard is undoubtedly
a low one, and might be raised with
advantage to the University, public school
education tends to qualify for a University
residence the great majority of boys.”
(Vol. ii. p. 21.)
The Rev. Bartholomew Price, M.A.,
Fellow of Pembroke College, and Sadlerian Professor of Natural Philosophy,
speaking “of mathematical instruction
The Rev. Henry Furneaux, M.A., and attainments in Oxford, so far as
Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi Oxford and the public schools act on each
College, thus writes:—
other,” thus writes:—
“ It may be fairly maintained, that the
schools from which the University is fed
either have not sufficiently grounded in
classics and mathematics a large number of
those whom they send us, or, as is very
commonly the case, have allowed them to
forget in the higher forms the groundwork
which was taught in the lower.” (Vol. ii.
p. 19.)
“I do observe a very marked difference
between young men coming to this University
from the great public schools, and from other
schools or from private tutors, as to their
mathematical attainments. The young men
from public schools are far worse prepared.
Whatever time they may have given to the
subject, it does not appear to me that they
have given that study and attention to it
The Rev. J. R. T. Eaton, Fellow and which has generally been so profitably be
stowed elsewhere.
Tutor of Merton College, thus writes:— the young men to be Assuming the ability of
equal, not only do I find
“ It has long been held among college tutors the attainments of those from other schools
that the late age (18—19) up to which young to be greater, but I find them to be better
men are retained at our public schools, grounded and to have learned the elements
before quitting them for the Universities, is more thoroughly and more carefully. Seldom
counterbalanced by no corresponding increase do I meet with young men from the public
in the amount of knowledge gained. In this, schools who know more than the bare ele
as in other points, the many are sacrificed to ments of mathematics; whereas others have
the few. While a really persevering and gone through a sound course of geometry,
intelligent youth is gaining fresh stores of which I take to be a most excellent dis
information, improving his powers of taste ciplinary exercise, and have often well studied
and composition, and grounding himself in the principles of the modern analytical
his knowledge with a view to competing for methods. This is frequently the case with
scholarships at the University, the bulk of young men who come from the Universities
young men at a public school are going back, sflid schools of Scotland, and from schools in
not progressing. They have reached an age England of the class just below the large
when the stricter discipline fitted to boys is public schools. . . . The junior scholarship has
losing its hold; they have no adequate motive never been gained by a young man from the
to engage their diligence. . . . On the whole,! great public schools. ... I cannot say that
I am so little satisfied with the amount of the knowledge of the young men who come
�to this University as ordinary Btudents
appears to me such as it might and ought to
be. Frequently arithmetic, one or two books
of Euclid, and a little algebra, usually no
farther than simple equations, is all that they
profess to have learned, and this amount is
generally known very imperfectly. During
the last four years I have become acquainted,
through the Oxford local examinations, with
the standard of knowledge of those subjects
possessed by boys belonging to the middle
class schools; and I find it, for extent and
accuracy, far superior to that which is ex
hibited by the candidates for matriculation
from public schools who come under my
notice. These latter can in many cases
scarcely apply the rules of arithmetic, and
generally egregiously fail in questions which
require a little independent thought and
common sense.”
The evidence from Cambridge, while less
extensive, is on the whole less strongly
conclusive than that from Oxford against
the public school system.
The Rev. J. B. Mayor, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of St. John’s College, thus
writes:—
for a ' pass’ is lowered, in consequence of the
numbers who fail to answer a fair proportion
of the questions proposed to them. For 18
years I have found employment in Cambridge
in supplementing, as a private tutor, the de
ficiencies of school education, and in teaching
the simplest rudiments of arithmetic, algebra,
and elementary mathematics, and in pre
paring in Latin and Greek candidates for the
previous examination and ordinary degree...
The greater part of my pupils are from
public schools, and I cannot but think that I
have to teach them nothing but what they
ought to have been thoroughly taught at
school. ... There is at Cambridge no matricu
lation examination except at Trinity College,
and there the Greek and Latin subjects are
fixed, and Latin prose composition is not re
quired ; yet I may call attention to the fact
that, for the last two years, rather more than
one-third of those who entered at Trinity
failed at the first entrance examination. With
regard to arithmetic, I can testify, from my
own experience, to the almost universal
ignorance of the simplest first principles of
the subject, and may state that at the pre
vious examination in October, 1862, there
were 86 decided failures in arithmetic and
algebra out of 260 candidates; while in the
examination for the ordinary degree in June,
1862, one examiner found in the translations
from the Greek author mistakes in spelling
in the papers of 91 candidates out of 161.
I think in Greek and Latin I find public
school boys generally more fluent, and as su
perficial as boys educated elsewhere, but
worse prepared in arithmetic and elementary
mathematics.” (Vol. ii. p. 30.)
“I think that the standard of University
teaching and of the University degree is
much lower than it should be, partly in con
sequence of the ignorance and backwardness
of the men who come to us from the schools.
.... My impression, after some years’ ex
perience as a lecturer and tutor at one of the
largest colleges of the University, is that not
more than two-thirds of those who come up
The last witness whom I shall cite is
for matriculation could construe an easy
passage from a Latin author, and not more the Very Rev. H. G. Liddell, who was
than one-third an easy passage from a Greek for nine years Head Master of West
author, which they had not seen before.
Probably about -the same proportion might be minster School, and who has been for
able to translate into Latin, and answer easy seven years (since 1855) Dean of Christ
philological questions. . . . My impression is Church, Oxford. Being examined by the
that more is known of ancient than of modern
history; but the majority are very ignorant Commissioners, he says:—
“ I think those boys are generally better
of both, as well as of geography.” (Vol. ii.
prepared who come from less fashionable
p.26.)
The large majority
The Rev. W. H. Girdleston, M.A., schools.... get from the great of the average
of boys I
public schools
Christ’s College, thus writes :—
are from Eton. I think the temptations to
“ I consider that the education generally idleness that exist there are greater than in
given at schools does not give a satisfactory other schools, and I suppose that is the
grounding in those subjects which form the reason of their being less well prepared.”
especial studies of this University, and that
Being asked, “ in regard to the average
the large majority of young men who enter number of public schools, what would be
into college show a very superficial knowledge
of Latin and Greek; while of English litera the qualifications of the boys; for in
ture, English history, and English composition, stance, can they write Latin, not ele
they are deplorably ignorant. ... It is a con gantly, but correctly, without gram
stant complaint of our University examiners,
that the mass of men are very badly ground matical mistakes P” he answers, “ No,
ed ; and often the standard of marks required generally not.”
The examiner, Mr.
�11
Vaughan, having said, “I need hardly
ask you whether they can write Greek
correctly ? ” Mr. Liddell answers, “ I
never tried them in Greek at the ma
triculation examination.” Being asked,
“ Can they, if a Greek author is put into
their hands, and they are allowed to read
it once over, construe a passage which,
does not contain words of very rare occur
rence, and no sentence of a very intricate
character P” he says:—
“‘I can best answer that question by
stating that in practice we are obliged to1
restrict ourselves to books that have been
prepared. I do not think we should get even
a tolerable translation of a book which they
had not read before.’... ‘ Not of any pas
sage ?’—‘ If you pointed out an easy passage
from Xenophon, in which there was not the
slightest difficulty, perhaps you might; but
you would have to select your passage with
great care; you could not open the book at
random and ask them to read a Greek pas
sage. We do not get it well done even in the
books that are prepared in a great many
cases. I am speaking of those who come up
merely to be matriculated — the average
boys.’... ‘ Now, I have asked you generally
with regard to the public schools. With
respect to Eton, can you tell what is the state
of classical attainments there ?’ .... ‘ With
these average boys it is very much what I
have stated. Their Latin prose is certainly
not elegant or scholarlike. It is exceedingly
bad. Even those boys who can construe
pretty fluently, when you come to probe
them in grammar, often fail to give satis
factory answers. They often fail even when
the question is put upon paper, and they have
plenty of time to think. Many of them bring
up the words misspelt in the grossest man
ner.’ ” (Vol. iii., p. 400.)
*
The evidence now quoted suggests
several reflections, of which I venture to
present a few in brief.
1st. Seeing that, in the main, “ clas* The case is not better in France. “ Il n’est
presque pas de jour qui n’apporte son temoignage
de la decadence des humanites scolaires chez vous.
L’autre semaine, je fus a la Sorbonne recommander
un candidat qui se presentait pour la deuxieme
fois aux epreuves du baccalaureat. Disant qu’aux
premieres epreuves sa version avait ete ‘ bonne,’
je fus vivement interrompu par le venerable examinateur: ‘ Dites passable,’ s’ecria-t-il; ‘jamais
nous n’en voyons une bonne 1 Et cependant cette
version est la deux-millieme environ que le candi
dat a mise sur le papier depuis le commencement
de ses etudes!’—Fred. Diibner, Reforme, life.
1862. p. 3.
sics” and mathematics, and especially
classics, are taught in these schools to the
grievous neglect, partial or total, of all
other subjects which are important either
from their practical utility or from their
educational influence, it might have been
some consolation, if not some compen
sation, to find that classics at least were
well taught and commonly learned. But
no! For the sake of classics, all other
subjects are more or less neglected; yet
even these do not seem to profit by the
monopoly so largely assigned, and so vigi
lantly guarded. This discovery is most
lamentable, yet most instructive. Just
as, in economics, a “ protected” manu
facture is always sickly,—so in education,
monopoly is fatal to the subject it would
encourage. It is only just to add, that it
is not to the public schools only, though
mainly, that this stricture applies.
2nd. In the light of such disclosures as
these, we can better understand the as
sault lately made on the education of the
poor, so far as it depends on state agency,
and the too successful attempt to restrict
it virtually within limits not long ago
believed to be too narrow for even the
poorest of the poor. Very revolutionary
indeed must have been the continuance
of a scheme of primary instruction which
should make the children of the humbler
classes superior in real intelligence and
available acquirements to those of the
richer and higher classes. “ Payment
according to results” — a cry so mis
chievously potent to curtail the instruc
tion of the former—may, with far greater
reason, be commended to the attention
of those who conduct the instruction of
the latter.
*
* According to .the last Report of the National
Society, “ The effect of the Revised Code has
been to increase the demand for reading-books,
copy-books, and slates, while that for books on
history, geography, and all higher branches, has
considerably diminished.” At the last Annual
Meeting of the Society, the Archbishop of Canter
bury said:—“In order to meet the diminished
contributions, it has been found necessary to give
up the employment of many skilled teachers. The
result has been, that mental teaching has not been
�12
3rd. It is sadly striking that too com
monly the school instruction of the rich
seems to be expected to begin at the very
age at which that of the poor is expected
to end, or at even a later age. Com
plaints have long been rife of the diffi
culty of retaining poor children at school
beyond the age of 10,11, or, at furthest,
12. Yet it seems that 12, and even 13, is
the age virtually often assigned for the
commencement of the actual teaching of
the children of the rich. The very years
in which for the former all must be done,
are by the latter passed with nothing
done. Universities, condemned to mere
school work, throw the blame on the
schools, especially the public schools.
These schools pass on the charge to the
preparatory schools; and by these again
it is shifted to the parents, who, having
been themselves brought up in the old
school and college course, tread blindly
in the routine of custom. The vicious
circle is thus complete, and each party, if
even it desires a change, waits for the
so efficient as before. As to reading, writing, and
arithmetic, that has been in no way affected ; but
in regard to history, geography, and general infor
mation, the demand for that description of know
ledge has been diminished. He was, therefore,
afraid that less general information would be given
in the schools than before the new Code was esta
blished.” (limes, 8th June, 1864.) “Mr. M.
Arnold observed that the new method of examina
tion did not afford Inspectors the same means of
drawing out the children, and of ascertaining
really what they could do, that was afforded under
the old system; and when he (Mr. Walter) lately
had an opportunity of seeing a school inspection,
it struck him forcibly that that was the case. If
it were not a breach of confidence, he might add
that the Inspector was very much of the same
opinion, and observed to him, that under the new
system of examination it was impossible to get at
the intelligence of the children, to ask them ques
tions which would draw out their minds and prove
what they really understood, so well as under the
old system of inspection. The children were re
quired to read a certain number of lines, to do a
sum, and write a copy; but as to putting any
question which would test their general knowledge
and understanding, nothing of the kind was at
tempted ; and when he (Mr. Walter) suggested
that such a course of examination might as well
be attempted, the answer was that there was no
time for it, and that it would be impossible to get
through the work if that system were pursued.”—
Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berkshire. (Times, 1st
July, 1864.)
others to set it on foot. The institution,
by the great public schools, of a standard
of preliminary qualification, and a rigo
rous adherence to it, may abate this cry
ing evil; but its removal can be effected
only by a thorough remodelling of the
course of private instruction. So long as
children are left in ignorance of those
studies most congenial to their age, and
forced to acquire what is unsuitable to
their mental condition, so long must the
work of early teaching be irksome in its
operation and barren in its result.
4th. These disclosures of the real re
sults of public school teaching lead me to
view with some surprise a recent jeremiad
by a gentleman of high educational name,
on the incompetency and untrustworthi
ness of private schools, with slight, if any,
exception. Ifthere are any private schools
the results of whose teaching are as de
plorably unsatisfactory as those now pro
ved to attend public school teaching, it is
indeed time that they should be “im
proved off the face of the earth;” and
probably this consummation would long
ago have been attained, had the public
schools, the great educational exemplars
of the nation, not neglected their duty,
and wasted their mighty power. The
better and, I believe, the larger class of
private school teachers will assuredly
welcome as an auxiliary, not dread as an
opposing force, any improvements in the
great public schools. Their hands would
thus be strengthened, and their aspira
tions raised. Though their labours may
be more obscure than those of public
school masters, they are not less zealous;
to them also are the names of Arnold,
Kennedy, and Temple treasured watch
words, rich in encouragement and guid
ance. But even if names like these were
less exceptional than they are, they would
but strengthen the case against a system
which, in spite of these, has been so sig
nally found wanting.
5th. It must not be forgotten, that the
results, whether for good or for evil, of
�13
6th. The Commissioners, in their gene
which we have seen in part the evidence,
concern almost exclusively those of the ral conclusion, after saying of the course
pupils who go up to the Universities. of study,
Of even these, say the Commissioners,
“ which appears to us sound and valuable
“ those from the highest forms of these in its main elements, but wanting in breadth
and flexibility,—defects which, in our judg
schools, who are on the whole well taught ment, destroy in many cases, and impair in
classical scholars, notoriously form a all, its value as an education of the mind;
small proportion of the boys who receive and which are made more prominent at the
present time by the extension of knowledge
a public school education. The great in various directions, and by the multiplied
mass of such boys expose themselves to requirements of modern life,”—and of the
no tests which they can possibly avoid.” organization and teaching, regarded not as to
its range, but as to its force and efficacy,—
(Vol. i. p. 23.) But, as we have already I “ we have been unable to resist the conclu
seen, the Commissioners declare that sion, that these schools, in very different
only about one third of the pupils of the degrees, are too indulgent to idleness, or
struggle ineffectually with it; and that they
public schools, “taking them altogether,” consequently send out a large proportion of
go into the Universities. “Not one of men of idle habits and empty and unculti
these nine schools sends as many as half vated minds,”— go on to say,—“ Of their disci
moral training we have been
of its boys to the Universities; and in pline andterms of high praise.” (Vol. i. able to
speak in
p. 55.)
the case of most of them the proportion
This estimate, which it would be pre
is much less than one half.” (Vol. i.
sumptuous in me formally to contradict,
p. 27.) If such is the mental condition
*
I think it would be not less credulous to
of the one-third who have had before
accept. When I remember the applause
them what ought to be the stimulus of
which almost everywhere greeted, some
farther training at the University, what
years ago, the melancholy revelations of
is likely to be the mental condition of the
“ Tom Brown,” I am very distrustful of
remaining two-thirds, who, on their leav
the general notion of the morality, whe
ing school, enter at once on the business
ther possible or desirable, among school
of life, or oxi some course of professional
boys. In the absence of more direct
training, for which the teaching at the
means of judging, I note the indications,
public schools is still less likely to have
casually given in the Commissioners’
formed a fitting preparation ? The Com
Report, of the moral state of Eton, less
missioners regret that the test, which
casually of that of Westminster. I fix
they proposed to apply, of “ a direct and
my eye on the idleness and mental va
simple examination of a certain propor
cuity admitted to be too common, and I
tion of the boys,” was “ declined by the
rest in the conviction, that idleness is the
schools.” In the absence of such or any
fruitful parent of vice, and that the devil
equivalent test, we are left to an inference
dances not more surely in the empty
of probability. Few perhaps will main
pocket than in the empty head. It is not
tain that, leaving out of view the prize
wonderful that in a country where suc
winners at Oxford and Cambridge, it is
cessive generations of the leaders of opi
only the stupid and ignorant who con
nion have been subject to the public school
tinue their training at the Universities;
regime, such as it used to be, the general
or even that they are inferior to the ma
standard of morals by which youth are
jority who do not enter at the Univer
tried should be as low as is undoubtedly
sities. If the selected sample fail, what the general estimate of what is possible
shall we say of the sack ?
to be learned in school, still more of the
* At Christmas, 1861, the nine schools con
tained 2696 boys between 8 and 19 years of age,
the average being about 15. (Vol. i. p. 11.)
influence of judicious school-training on
character and conduct in after life. The
“ Tom Brown” code of school ethics often
�14
reminds me of the Irish father who said
that of all his sons he liked his youngest
best, “ because,” said he, “ he never kicks
me when I’m down.” It is scarcely more
exacting, or more difficult to please.
III. Time permits only a very brief
notice of the general recommendations of
the Commissioners. They are given un
der thirty-two heads, but many of them
are beyond our present scope.
“ (7) In the selection of the masters, the
field of choice should in no case be confined
to persons educated at the school. (8) The
classical languages and literature should con
tinue to hold the principal place in the course
of study. (9) In addition to the study of
classics and to religious teaching, every boy
should be taught arithmetic and mathe
matics ; one modern language at least, which
should be either French or German; some
one branch at least of natural science, and
either drawing or music. Care should be
taken to ensure that the boys acquire a good
general knowledge of geography and of an
cient history, some acquaintance with modern
*
history, **
and a command of pure gram
matical English. . . . (11) The teaching of
natural science should, wherever practicable,
include two main branches—1, chemistry
and physics; 2, comparative physiology and
natural history, both animal and vegetable.
. • . . (13) Arrangements should be made
for allowing boys, after arriving at a certain
place in the school, and upon the request of
their parents or guardians, to drop some
portion of their classical work (for example,
Latin verse and Greek composition), in order
to devote more time to mathematics, modern
languages, or natural science; or, on the
other hand, to discontinue wholly or in part
natural science, modern languages, or mathe
matics, in order to give more time to classics
or some other study. . . . (16) The promo
tion of the boys from one classical form to
another, and the places assigned to them in
such promotion, should depend upon their
* The difference between the phrases, “ a good
general knowledge of ancient history,” and “ some
acquaintance with modern history,” is equally
significant and strange.—W. B. H.
** Young people should learn the contemporary
history in which they live, and of which they are a
'part. Vicksburg is as important as Saguntum ;
to follow Forey from the coast to Puebla (and
learn why if'e lent) is as exciting as accompany
ing Cortez ; and to know something of the history
and the sayings and the doings of those who would
like to govern us, is at lenst as important for
our youth of either sex, as to learn the consti
tution of the Roman legislature.”—Athenceum,
20th June, 1863.
progress, not only in classics and divinity,
but also in arithmetic and mathematics; and
likewise, in the case of those boys who are
studying modern languages or natural sci
ence, on their progress in those subjects re
spectively. (17) The scale of marks should
be so framed as to give substantial weight
and encouragement to the non-classical stu
*
dies. ....
“ (23) Every boy should be required, be
fore admission to the school, to pass an en
trance examination, and to show himself well
grounded for his age in classics and arith
metic, and in the elements of French and
German. (24) No boy should be promoted
from one form to another, on ground of seni
ority, unless he has passed a satisfactory
examination in the work of the form into
which he is to be promoted. (25) No boy
should be suffered to remain in the school
who fails to make reasonable progress in it.
.... (32) The Head Master should be re
quired to make an annual report to the Go
vernors on the state of the school, and this
report should be printed.” (Vol. i. pp. 53
—55.)
Without attempting to criticise these
recommendations in detail, I may say
that, in their general spirit and tendency,
they are a worthy sequel of a Report
which, admirably written, bears traces
everywhere of anxious yet calm and
patient deliberation, clear and impartial
judgment, and earnest desire to conci
liate the claims of the present, if not the
future, with respect for the past; to re
pair, enlarge, and adapt the existing sys
tem, not to destroy it and build afresh
upon its ruins. No one interested in
education can fail to find in its almost
every page ample material for reflection.
* The following scheme for the distribution of
the school or class lessons in a week is suggested
as furnishing a comparative scale (p. 34) ;—
1. Classics, with History and Divinity . 11
2. Arithmetic and Mathematics ... 3
3. French or German
.............................. 2
4. Natural Science................................... 2
5. Music or Drawing................................... 2
School Lessons, taking about an hour each, 20
“ It is here assumed that the school lessons take
about an hour each, and that they will be such as
to demand for preparation in the case of classics
10 additional hours, and in those of modern lan
guages and natural science respectively, at least
two additional hours, in the course of the week;
and that composition will demand about five
hours.” (In all 37 hours per week, out of 144, not
reckoning Sunday; 107 remaining for sleep, meals,
and exercise—say 18, or three-fourths, per day.)
�15
Nevertheless, while I cheerfully admit
that these suggestions go as far in the
right direction as could fairly be expected,
with due regard to either the inevitable
prepossessions of the Commissioners, or
the great practical difficulties with which
inveterate custom and neglect have per
plexed the question, I am very far from
thinking that they go to the root of the
evil, or do more than facilitate future
changes far more extensive than any now
possible, or perhaps safe. Progress, to
be sure, must be gradual; and sudden
and sweeping revolution is only less to be
dreaded than total immobility or torpor.
It was not to be expected that the Com
missioners should raise the question,
which, in spite of many well meant at
tempts to extend to the middle and lower
classes what are called the benefits of
public school training, is gradually for
cing itself on the public mind—whether
the system of separating boys from their
homes, and herding them in large num
bers in barrack-monasteries, away from
the blessed influences of the family, be
indeed the true ideal of education; and
whether the evil which exists to a smaller
extent in private boarding schools be not
magnified and intensified in the great
public schools. A judicious provision for
an exceptional and unfortunate necessity
is widely different from the advocacy of a
system as in itself the best that can be
even desired. This is a grave question,
which I must here only indicate, without
stopping to discuss.
But there is another question, only
less important, which the Commissioners
have tried to settle, and which I cannot
pass over. I belong to a large and everincreasing class of persons who, by ob
servation, reflection, and experience, are
led to believe the present system of clas
sical teaching to be a superstition, a
blunder, and a failure. Historically ex
plicable as a necessity of a bygone age,
its continuance in our day seems to me a
mischievous anachronism. Animated by
a deep sense of the value of Roman and
Greek literature, and of the good which
its study might effect under a wiser and
more natural method of instruction, and
truly grateful for the benefit I have my
self derived from it—dearly purchased as
it has been—I am not to be deterred
or dissuaded from uttering convictions
which I have long and carefully matured.
It is in the interest of classical instruc
tion itself that I would speak. Hitherto
neither the languages nor the literatures
of Greece or Rome have been in any
worthy sense learned by any but a very
minute fraction of the great mass of boys
who have spent eight, ten, and more of
the most precious years of their lives in
the wearisome drudgery which ancestral
wisdom has decided to be the inseparable
accompaniment, and even the indispen
sable instrument, of this kind of learn
ing. Hitherto even the few, with rare
exceptions, know little, while the many
know nothing, of what they are seeming
to learn; the training, thus practically
null in respect of knowledge, has done,
and is doing, much to foster habits of
idleness, distate, and incapacity for men
tal exertion, obtuseness, and confusion of
mind; and lastly, while these subjects
are not learned, other subjects, more con
genial to youthful faculty and taste, as
well as more practically useful in after
life, and at the same time better fitted as
educational agents, are, for the sake of
these, not taught. “ If,” says the Times
(28th April, 1864), “ we had any reason
to believe that Latin and Greek had been
displaced by French, or geography, or
music, or the elements of natural science,
we might, at any rate, feel that we had
gained something in place of what we
had lost.” But no! Just as a great Ger
man philosopher is reported to have said
that only one man living understood his
system, and he didn’t; so boys learn only
Latin and Greek, and these they do not
learn. Yet singular, almost incredible
is the indifferent levity with which this
�16
admitted result is tolerated, even by those
who profess to regret it, and to wish it
changed. Only the other day, this same
Times said (7th May, 1864):—
“ If you despise an accomplishment, you
may live to want it. Indeed, there are few
men who do not confess, some time or other,
that they would give a good deal to be able
to learn what they could have learnt easily in
their youth. It is very common to see gentle
men long past the freshness of youth making
violent efforts to learn music, chymistry, geo
logy, botany, and a good many other things.
At a much earlier date, a young gentleman,
having by great interest got his name on the
Foreign-office, finds himself condemned to a
French master for a twelvemonth before he
can get an appointment; or he travels, and
finds an impassable gulf between himself and
every human being who cannot speak Eng
lish. He may even become painfully con
scious of a much more serious defect, in a
total ignorance of English literature, down to
the composition of a sentence, the wording of
a note, or the spelling of words in common
use. He may expose himself to those with
whom he has every reason to stand well. He
may hear conversations about the incidents
of war or history, in which he will find it wise
to avoid taking a part, lest his geography
should be found wanting. On these occasions
the strongest conviction that he can write
Latin hexameters better than any of the com
pany will hardly sustain self-respect under
the detection of profound geographical or his
torical ignorance. These, however, a/re only
inconveniences; and, to the sound English
reason, are trifles compared with the disci
pline of the mind. But even in that point of
view, all these accomplishments—and we must
add to them mathematics—have their value
in giving breadth and elasticity to the intel
lect, besides that opportunity of change which
is necessary to many learners.”
All this admitted ignorance and inca
pacity are, it seems, “only inconveniences
—trifles compared with the discipline of
the mind.” But it occurs to ask, How
far are this ignorance and incapacity com
patible with the much-lauded discipline of
the mind; and would not the removal of
this very ignorance and incapacity, as the
Times itself admits in the very next sen
tence, do much to promote the discipline
of the mind ? Everywhere, and for ever,
do we find this unhappy and groundless
contrast between what is called, almost
with a sneer, “ useful knowledge,” and
mental discipline,— as if it were only
through useless knowledge, or stuff too
useless to be called knowledge, that men
tal discipline can be attained. Similarly
pernicious and baseless is the current pre
ference of what is acquired with toil and
pain to what is acquired with ease and
pleasure. * Of the body it is true that only
what food is taken with healthy appetite
can be healthfully digested, and converted
into blood and tissue; and so is it. with
the mind. Is it reasonable to believe that
utility and pleasure are inevitably di
vorced from educational influence, and
that the true value of learning lies in its
inutility and repulsiveness P f To classical
teaching I utterly refuse, in any case, the
monopoly of mental (discipline; and in the
case of those who never get beyond the
grammatical and verbal ’husks, I contend
that the mental influence is, to the young,
for evil, not for good. But the advocate
of the prevailing system, if driven from
the defence of mental discipline, shelters
himself behind other screens, such as
physical training, geni/us loci, influence of
numbers, esprit de corps, advantage of as
sociation with youths of rank and breed
ing. Of none of these things do I need
or wish to speak disparagingly; though,
as regards the last, it does strike me as
strange that those who spurn utility in
the matter of young men’s learning should
lay stress upon utility of a much lower
kind in the associations that they form.
But all these things are quite irrelevant,
unless it can be shown that a change of
subjects and mode of teaching would be
fatal to their existence. Would boys be
less addicted to football, cricket, and boat
ing, if they ceased to be ignoramuses P
Would the influence of numbers, and of
the rivalry which “ develops the manly
*
fllaiov ovSev ep.p.eves /J.d9np.a.—P:LA.TO.
t “ How stupidly wrong are they who speak' of
the dryness of study. And how marvellously sa
gacious were the fathers of the Latin language who
gave to the word studium the double meaning,
study and desire."—W. P. Scargill, Essays,
&c., p. 373. 1857.
�17
English character,” so much admired, we
are told, and envied by continental na
tions, perish if boys were taught what
interests, not disgusts, them, and what it
is of the utmost importance for their own
and for others’ sakes that they should
know ? If not, then away with such
flimsy pretexts, which do but thinly veil
an obstinate resistance to educational im
provement ! If I complain of scarcity and
badness of food, is it any answer to tell
me that the air is very pure, and the
prospect exquisitely fine. I rejoin, “ Give
me better food, and more of .it, and I will
better appreciate the purity of the air and
the loveliness of the prospect.” I remem
ber an advertisement of a vacant curacy
in one of the Southern counties, which is
scarcely a burlesque on this mode of rea
soning. It ended thus,—“ The salary is
small, but the sea-bathing is excellent.”
The learning is small (for, as Mr. Glad
stone says—
“ Boys learn but little here below,
And learn that little ill,”)—
things which need not be its substitutes
at all, but which ought to be its firm
allies and faithful friends. Even Mr.
Gladstone (who, in spite of his brilliant
and versatile talents, his rich and various
acquirements, is still a striking instance
of the defect which Mr. Faraday, in his
evidence, points out in men classically
*
trained) speaks, in his letter to the Com
missioners, of “ the low utilitarian argu
ment in matter of education, for giving it
what is termed a practical direction;” and
declares it to be “ so plausible, that we
may on the whole be thankful that the
instincts of the country have resisted what
in argument it has been ill able to con
fute.” In some amazement I turn up the
word imstinct in Johnson’s Dictionary; it
is there defined: “ Desire or aversion act
ing in the mind without the intervention
of reason or deliberation; the power de
termining the will of brutes.” I will not
ask whether instincts may be acquired, or
are necessarily innate. But never before,
probably, was so singular a duty assigned
to instinct as that of judging of the com
parative value of rival methods of school
training. Falstaff indeed says,—“ Beware
instinct. The lion will not touch the true
prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was
a coward on instinct.” To be an educa
tionist on instinct, and by instinct to
recognize the true system of education,
is a feat so remarkable, that I can hardly
believe it to be within the capacity of any
one man, much less of a whole nation. Is
it not, besides, the very business of reason
to lessen the exclusive domain of instinct,
and to guide instinct, where it does not
take its place? Mr. Gladstone’s recent
speech in the House of Commons presents
many subjects for remark; but time per
mits me to say here only that when he
charges the ineffectiveness of school
teaching on the “ luxury and self-indul
gence ” in which we live, and “ the laxity
which is essentially connected with the
but the cricket is excellent. If physical
exercise and amusement (for which, by the
way, I have long and earnestly pleaded)
are indeed the leading purpose of our
great schools,—and it would seem that at
Eton they absorb a very large proportion
of the school-life,—then let the fact be
avowed and acted on: cedat armis toga;
let the gown give place to bat, ball, and
wickets ; let cricket be promoted, vice
classics superseded, and let the HeadMastership be transferred to that vir
ca/ndidatus, Mr. Lillywhite, or the clas
sically denominated Mr. Julius Caesar.
Possibly, however, if cricket were made
compulsory and primary, and classics op
tional and secondary, we should have less
of the former and more of the latter, and
the change might be fatal to the very
supremacy of the physical training which
it was intended to promote. But, seri
ously, it is deplorable to see how parents
suffer themselves to be hoodwinked by the * See Frazer’s Magazine for February, 1864,
substitution for sound mental culture of p. 156.
�18
signal prosperity and wealth of the coun
try,” he virtually, though unconsciously,
passes the severest censure on those great
capitals of education, in which generation
after generation of our richer upper classes
have been allowed to grow up without any
guidance whatever as to the true duties,
any more than as to the true sources, of
wealth. But here is involved a conception
of youthful training which as yet has
dawned on only a very few minds, and of
which the Commissioners, unlike those
who reported not long ago on the state of
English primary schools, seem never to
have even heard. For aught they appear
to know, the successful attempts made,
for some years past, in and near this city,
to convey to poorer children knowledge
and training in this most vital subject,
embracing as it does all our economic and
other social relations, and full of interest
and instruction for both rich and poor,
might as well have been made in Nova
Zembla. The rising sun of education, un
like the physical sun, would seem to touch
first with his beams the lowly valley, and
then, through mist and cloud, slowly to
climb to the hill-tops.
This omission in the Commissioners’
Report detracts largely, in my opinion,
from its value. But I trust I am duly
grateful for what I find. The two great
wedges—Natural Science and Modern
*
Languages —which are destined, sooner
or later, to rend asunder the present sys
tem, have, at all events, received a vigorous
impulse which will not be lost. No vis
inertias can for ever prevail against testi
mony so clear and so emphatic as that
of Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Hooker, Professor
Owen, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Her
schel, Professor Faraday, and others,f to
the value of Natural Science, not for pur* “ The interchange of ideas with the contem
poraneous world is of as much importance as the
preservation of the ideas of the past; and the
tongues which men now speak are those which
men should learn to understand.’’—Sir Robert
Kane, 1849.
f I regret that Professor Tyndal and Drs. Lankester and Lyon Playfair were not examined.
poses of “ low practical utility,” but as an
instrument of mental discipline.
Meantime, it is cheering to have a
statement like the following from so emi
nent an authority as the Rev. Dr. Morti
mer, Head Master of the City of London
School:—
“It is my opinion, founded on very con
siderable experience, that the limited time
given to classics, in comparison with other
public schools, is fully made up by the in
creased mental power obtained by an ac
quaintance with many other subjects. At all
events, it is a fact, that the university career
of pupils of the City of London School is emi
nently successful; and the reason seems to
be, that from being early trained to take up
several different subjects of study, they ac
quire the faculty of readily adapting them
selves to the work set before them, and bring
to it a large amount of collateral information.”
(Vol. ii. p. 580.) *
Other evidence to alike effect might be
quoted. (See Vol. ii. p. 17.)
Still more encouraging is the declara
tion of Charles Neate, Esq., M.A., Fellow
of Oriel College, Oxford:—
“We cannot go on for-ever learning all that
our ancestors learned 300 years ago, and all
* “ It is generally agreed that the greater at
tention now given at most schools to mathematics,
history, and modern languages, whilst it has ad
vanced those subjects, and proved beneficial by
enlarging and stimulating the mind, has not in
jured scholarship.”—Report, vol. i. p. 25.
“We collect from the evidence that, speaking
generally (there are not a few exceptions), boys
who succeed in classics succeed also in mathematics
and in modern languages. This shows that, ordi
narily, any boy of good capacity may with advan
tage study each of these subjects, and may study
them all together.”—Report, vol. i. p. 16.
“As an almost invariable rule, the men who do
best in outlying subjects also do best in scholar
ship. Men of great intelligence will naturally be
greedy of all learning; and there is something,
too, in the awakening of a boy’s mind, even if he
is not of high ability, which far more than pays for
the outlay of time and energy.”—Rev. G. W.
Kitchin, M.A., Junior Censor of Christ Church,
Oxford.Report, vol. ii. p. 12.
“ During the years that I was at Rugby, from
1841 to 1847, the knowledge of mathematics and
modern languages advanced. Special masters
were appointed to teach those subjects. Sctiolarship during the same time advanced. Mathema
tics, history and geography, and modern languages
should certainly be taught at school. Nor need
scholarship suffer. The study of modern languages
would tend to improve, not to injure, scholarship.”
—Rev. C. W. Sandford, M.A., Senior Censor
of Christ-Church. Report, vol. ii. p. 11.
�19
that has grown up as new knowledge since
Of three plans which have been devised,
then. The time must come when we must and two of which are actually in operation
make a selection and a sacrifice. I think it
in various places in this and other coun
has come now.” (Vol. ii. p. 49.)
tries, for evading the ever-increasing dif
The great practical remedy suggested ficulties of the present system, this is, I
by Mr. Neate almost exactly coincides am convinced, by far the simplest, the
with what I have advocated for many most effective, and the one destined ulti
years. He proposes “that the learning mately to prevail. Against the other two
of either Latin or Greek should be post plans, whether that of having side by side,
poned till the age of 12 years [I would say in the same institution, a collegiate and a
14]; boys being up to that time taught non-collegiate department, or that called
their own language and one foreign lan in France “ bifurcation,” by which boys
guage, together with something of the who have been taught together up to 14
literature of either; also arithmetic, some
and 15 diverge, some to the modern or
portion of natural history, and, of course,
non-collegiate, others to the ancient or
the facts of their own history; in all which
collegiate side of the school,—there are
those boys more especially that come from
very grave objections. On both the Com
public schools are almost incredibly igno
missioners report with caution rather than
rant.” (Vol. ii. p. 49.) If the age of 14
approval. The third plan, according to
were adopted, the course of instruction
which all boys up to the age of 14 should
up to that age would be, and ought to be,
be taught together all the subjects really
considerably enlarged. Mr. Neate goes
most important for them all to know,
on:—“ I believe a boy so prepared would
whatever their lot in life,—classics being
learn more Latin and Greek between the
reserved for those who should remain long
ages of 12 and 16, than he does now be
enough at school to profit by the study,
tween the ages of 10 and 18.” “ But in
order to ensure this, great improvements to learn, in his sense, to lose a little more time,
are needed in our methods of teaching.” to delay a little longer before we begin teaching
Latin and Greek.”
(Ibid.) This proposal, heretical as it may Reform," 1836, p. —Sir Thos. Wyse, “ Educa.
166.
appear, is supported by high and ample “ We are of opinion that the study of the
learned languages ought not to be commenced till
authority; but, not to stray too far from the higher functions of fancy and feeling begin to
the Report before us, I will quote only a stir, and a taste for literature and reading begins
short passage from a pamphlet, “ Oxford to bud in the soul."—Professor Blackie, 1842.
“ I must say that in fixing upon ten as the
Reform and Oxford Professors,” published earliest age [at which the study of Latin or Greek
in 1854, by H. Halford Vaughan, Esq., ought to begin], I am by no means convinced that
it is best to begin so young. Judging from several
M.A., one of the Commissioners, and then instances which have come under my own obser
Regius Professor of History in the Uni vation, I am strongly inclined to believe that
twelve, or even fourteen, would be a better period
versity of Oxford:—“I believe it might for commencing Latin.”—Dr. J. H. Jerrard,
possibly be found that we have hitherto formerly Classical Examiner in the London Uni
learned the classical languages painfully, versity. the idea ever been suggested, that the
“ Has
imperfectly, and unseasonably,—slowly public schools should take nearly all of classical
study on themselves [i. e., relieving the prepara
imbibing rules by rote and by the ear, be tory schools from it]; that they should at least
cause we learn them at an age too unripe give up an entrance examination in Greek, but
standard in
spelling,
for a rational appreciation of such abstract I require a higher French, whichreading,thus form
history, &c., and
might
propositions, and losing thereby great part one of the principal previous studies, and then
.............
of the discipline so much boasted in the would not be so much required afterwardsto public
In this case, our sons would not go on
course of acquisition.” (p. 30, note.)
*
schools with so much Latin and Greek; but I beL
| lieve they would have a far greater capacity for
* “ We begin too soon, and we begin the wrong classical studies, and pleasure in studying, than
way. Rousseau says that one of the great arts of they ever now have.”—Letter signed “ G.,’’ in
education is to know how to lose time. We ought Times, 12th May, 1864.
�20
whether they go on to a University or not, proved to be bad be thrown aside, and let
•—would render classical instruction at advantage be taken of the private school
once easier and more effective in three teacher’s greater freedom, of the greater
ways : 1st, By the reduced number of flexibility of his system, unhampered by
those who take part in it; 2nd, By their charters, and traditions, and long prestige,
greater age; 3rd, By the greater develop to adopt whatever changes may seem most'
ment of their intelligence, due to their accordant, not with the whim of the mo
previous training in subjects more level ment, but with the growing tendencies
Jo their juvenile capacities, and more con and necessities of modern life. The tu
genial to their tastes. This innovation quoque argument is very well as a retort
was, doubtless, too formidable to be con to one-sided.satirists; it is a poor excuse
sidered by the Commissioners; but their for inaction and-indifference to improveReport, valuable as it is, is not finally | ment. If, as is possible, a Commission be
conclusive, and their suggestions, in so appointed by Parliament for inquiry into
far as they may be adopted, will render the state of middle-class school-teaching,
the introduction of it easier hereafter. Any I trust that you will aid, not obstruct, its
one who has had the twofold experience investigations; that you will not close
of teaching to young pupils what they your doors against examination. You
learn willingly, and what they learn invita have, or ought to have, nothing to con
\ut aiunt) Minerva, and who is competent ceal. A good school, like a good house
to more than “gerund-grinding,” will wife, can never be caught en deshabille.
hail with gladness a change which will I for one do not fear the result. There
render his labour at once more pleasing cannot surely be many private school
masters who, under examination the most
and more efficient.
There are yet many things of which I rigorous, would rival the evasiveness, the
inconsistency, the narrowness, and the
should wish to speak,
“ Sed jam tempos equum fumantia solvere petulance displayed by the Rev. Head
colla.”
Master of Eton, or the humiliating want
In conclusion, let me hope that this of acquaintance with the moral evil per
Report will be of service to the large body vading his own school, and of power to
of private-school teachers who chiefly con put it down, revealed by the Rev. Head
stitute this College of Preceptors. Dis Master of Westminster. But a much
paraged and maligned as they too often higher level than all this would still be
are, they will not, I trust, rest satisfied in too low. To the progress now going on
the belief that, bad as private schools may in private middle-class schools, in schools
sometimes be, the large public schools for primary instruction of both sexes, and
have now been shown to be, most pro not least, in schools for girls of the middle
bably, much worse. Rather let warning and upper classes, much more than even
be taken from the signal and melancholy to the direct effect of such a revelation as
failure here set forth, all the more strik this, startling as it is, do I look for the
ingly because by friendly hands ; let the steady rise and swell of public opinion
causes of that failure be' anxiously consi which shall sweep away the accumulated
dered ; let all slavish copying of models abuses in our public schools.
London: Printed by C. F. Hodgson & Son, Gough Square, Fleet Street, E.C.
�
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On the report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of the principal public schools: a paper read at the monthly evening meeting of the College of Preceptors, May 11th, 1864
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Edition: 2nd
Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed in double columns. Minor annotation correcting typo p. 14.
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Education
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Education
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Text
EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES
OF
READING AND WRITING,
AS
MEANS OF EDUCATION.
A
Paper read
Belfast Meeting of the Social Science
Association, on 24th Sept., 1867,
at the
BY
W. B. HODGSON, LL.D., F.C.P.,
one of the Examiners in the University of London.
•‘Sans lumieres point
de morale.”—Mirabeau
(l’Aind).
Tom. 5, p. 5S8„
1792.
LONDON;
PRINTED BY W. W. HEAD, VICTORIA PRESS, WESTMINSTER
1868.
�“ To suffer the lower orders of the people to be ill educated,—and then to
punish them for crimes which have originated in bad habits, has the appearance
of a cruelty not less severe than any which is exercised under the most despotic
governments.”—P. Colquhoun, LL.D., “Treatise on the Police of the Metro
polis.” 7th edition, 1806, c. 2, p. 34.
“ What is lhe use of arguing so pertinaciously that a black’s skull will
hold as much as a white’s, when you are declaring in the same breath that a
white’s skull must not hold as much as it can, or it will le the worse for him ?
It does not appear to me at all a profound state of slavery to be whipped into
doing a piece of low work that I don’t like. But it is a very profound state of
slavery to be kept myself low in the forehead, that I may r.ot dislike low work.”
—John Ruskin, Letter, March 30, 1867.
“It is true there are people who say the Bible is enough reading for the
poor, but they are evidently of a widely different opinion as to their own case,
though in religion more than any other subject do all classes stand alike. In
these days general knowledge is a fact for both the poor and the rich, yet it most
certainly is not communicated at the parish school; nor is there laid down the
Very lowest and roughest foundation j no, not a beginning, not an earnest, not a
pattern, not a morsel to speak of.”—Times, Saturday, Nov. 19, 1864.
“I am among those who think the greatest problem of legislation and
government unsolved so long as ignorance, sensual waste, or ciime keeps a large
part of the people, though emancipated from the serfdom of their ancestors, still
the thralls of appetite or p>rejudice, and consequently poor and miserable.”—Sir
J. K. Shuttleworth, at Opening of Art Workmen’s Exhibition.—Manchester
Examiner and Times, February 21, 1865.
“ One of the great objects now is that the education of all classes should
be harmonized.................... Whatever study can be commonly agreed upon as
conducive to formation of good character, of improved taste, and instrumental
in cultivating the faculty of accurate observation, that study is one which no
particular class should acquire, but to which all classes should devote them
selves.”—Sir Stafford Northcote, at Exeter.—Times, Jan. 4, 1865.
“In the most essential points, in the chief objects of life, and the most
necessary elements of education, rich and poor are really on a level....................
In the mansion and the cottage there is just the same necessity of methodical
habits, forethought, industry, order, cleanliness, peaceful and respectful bearing,
the study of one another’s wishes and good opinions, openness and the virtues
that make a good and useful being. These are matters of conduct; but even in
school work there is far greater community between rich and poor than people
are apt to imagine.”—Times, Jan. 6, 1865.
“ Let us, then, I beseech you, in the name of God, let us earnestly and heartily
have recourse to education. We must ‘begin at the beginning’—we must
prevent what is evil, by implanting what is good—we must enlighten the under
standing, as well as control the will.”—Dr. Parr’s “ Discourse on Education,”
p. 41, part II.
�EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES lit READING
AND WRITING.
N these days much is said about progress, and I am not disposed
to deny its reality in various regions, or to disparage its extent.
But, admittedly, general and ultimate progression is compatible with
partial or temporary retrogression ; and there are occasions which
tempt one to doubt whether the alleged progress be not a delusion—
whether the too obvious retrogression be not final and enduring. Or,
to take the somewhat hackneyed simile, which tells us that the
advance of the tide is not inconsistent with the retirement of indi
vidual waves after they have reached the shore, let us but continue
the analogy, and we find that the tide itself, after it has reached its
highest, its appointed limit, retires also, leaving a wide waste of
dreary sand; and that, though it returns again, it retires again, so
that we have, on the whole, not progress, but only oscillation and
repetition. The history of popular education tends to confirm the
notion that movement is by flux and reflux, and that there is now a
season of low watei’ and ebb tide.
Not much more than half a century divides us from the state of
social opinion which denounced, or dreaded, or ridiculed any and all
teaching of the great masses, which prompted even intelligent and
kindly men to predict the entire overturning of society as the
inevitable result of the teaching of“ the lower orders,” as if society
depended, for its very existence, on the domination of one small class
more or less enlightened, and on the unquestioning subserviency of
all other classes, whom any glimmering of light could not fail to
render discontented, insubordinate, insurrectionary.
Then came the period which may be called, for a well-known
reason, the era of the three R’s, Reading, Riling, and 'Rithmetic.
’
The inconveniences of total darkness were more and more recognized,
and the advantage of, at least, a sort of twilight state of mind was
more and more perceived ; but it may well be questioned whether
the noonday blaze of knowledge was not more dreaded by the educa
tional patrons of the lower’ classes than even the midnight blackness
of total ignorance. Teaching was encompassed with many limitations
and precautions. It might be well for all to be able to read their
Bible, according to the famous wish of George III.; but no other
literature was encouraged. A good plain hand-writing, with a
certain knowledge of ciphering, as it was called, might be useful for
the taking of business-orders, and the keeping of accounts. But a
too facile or graceful penmanship might be dangerous ; it might even
lead to forgery, and through that to the gallows. With acquirements
so restricted, it was not unlikely that the lower classes would still
demean themselves with due humility towards their superiors in
I
�4
station, and believe and act and suffer according to the will of those
placed in authority over them, whether spiritual or secular.
By degrees, the scope of popular education was widened, so far, at
least, as regards the admission of other subjects of instruction. I
cannot think that there was generally a more philosophic estimate of
the true nature of education ; but the frequent modern examples of
individuals rising from humble station to wealth and rank, familiarized
men’s minds with the thought that so much culture should be
generally given as would assist the exceptionally clever boy in his
social ascent, rather than improve the condition of the great body of
the working classes. Geography, and history, and sundry other
things, were more and more generally introduced. It may well be
doubted whether these additions were always or commonly improve
ments. Time w’as consumed in committing to memory the events of
so called history, one half of which was probably false, while of the
other half, one half was probably doubtful, while a large proportion
of the whole was unimportant. History must, of course, be begun
at the beginning, and the ancient Britons, and the Danes, and the
Saxons, and the Nonnans must have due attention, though, probably,
the pupils had passed away from the schools before they had gone
down the stream of history below the time of Henry VIII., the names
of whose wives, with the order of their execution, furnished excellent
material for questions,—or of Elizabeth, whose character was
summed up and recited in the pithiest phrases of the Pinnock order
of historians. As for geography, such facts as the height of the
Himalayas, and the length of the Brahmapootra, were stored up
for reproduction at the stated examinations, where the effect was
striking, in proportion to the recondite nature of the information, and
in inverse proportion to its utility. The barrenness of this kind of
teaching, for which, in some cases, no doubt, things of more impor
tance were neglected, did much to damage popular education in the
esteem of many, and to give occasion to those previously so disposed
to disparage or deny the efficacy and the value of all popular educa
tion whatsoever. This tendency was brought to a crisis by the fact that
the Educational Department of the Government was in danger of
breaking down from an accumulation of routine work, while the
annual cost of the educational grant had risen to an amount that
shocked the frugal temper of the House of Commons ; and the
opportunity afforded by the complaint of the Royal Commissioners
of 1858-9, that reading, writing, and arithmetic were in some cases
neglected, and especially in the younger classes, was readily seized
for the introduction of the Revised Code. Of that I need say little
more here, than that it gave a new or renewed prominence to reading,
writing, and arithmetic, confining practically its rewards to a
certain measure of proficiency in these branches, under the name
of payment for results, as tested by individual examination.
As to the actual result, opinion is considerably divided, and I
cannot here weigh the conflicting testimony. My own belief, how
ever, is that, as might have been expected, it has injuriously affected
�5
the higher education, that is, all that deserves the name of education,
while it has not generally succeeded in ensuring even mechanical
proficiency in the three arts thus specially fostered. It has done
much, I venture to think, to throw us back into the second of
those stages of national opinion on educational subjects which I
have hastily sketched; that, namely, in which this merely ele
mentary sort of teaching was deemed enough for the masses of the
people.
And here let me say that it is of reading and writing, and not at
all of arithmetic, that henceforth I mean to speak. Arithmetic holds
a quite different position from the other two things. Besides its
actual uses in the working world, it is a science, capable of becoming
the instrument of important training, and though when Baillie Nicol
Jarvie said that the multiplication table (i.e. arithmetic) is the root
of all knowledge, he had rather in view its application to bills of
parcels, and tare and tret, and profit and loss, than to cosmic harmo
nies, or numerical proportions in the framework of the universe,
the doctrine of numbers may truly be regarded as at once a root
science and a great power in education. I would rescue it from the
slur cast on it by the company in which it is usually found.
Of reading and writing, then, we are often enough told in words
that they do not constitute education. By many this is considered
a mere truism, but a truism quite as often means a truth neglected
as a truth made real. It is with words as with things, (though words
too are things), “ Too much familiarity breeds contempt.” The coin
which passes from hand to hand, loses gradually the clearness, and
finally the traces, of its image and superscription. Now, in spite of
the currency of this truism, I venture to think that reading and
writing are far too much regarded not as all education, but as all of
education that can be secured for and by the children of the mass,
nay, as all that it is important for them to obtain ; and that thus a
low, unworthy, and mischievous estimate of education, so far as con
cerns the masses, prevails among us.
In last Friday’s meeting one speaker drew forth strong expressions
of dissent, by saying that often it is thought enough to apportion
knowledge to the station in which the pupil happens to be born, and
in which it is assumed that he is likely to remain. I must confess
that my own experience supports this statement. Thus, not many
years ago I visited a school for female orphans in London, and I
was told distinctly by the secretary that only a very plain education was
even aimed at, “ because,” said he, “ they are destined to be domestic
servants, and it would not do for them to be too near the level of
their employers’ attainments ! ” It may not be necessary here to speak
in condemnation of that spirit which would keep back those who have
so few and so slight opportunities of culture for the supposed sake of
those who have so many and so great advantages within their reach;
or to contend that the lot to which human beings are really and truly
called by Providence (that Providence so often appealed to as a
justification of existing evils which it is sought to maintain), is not
�6
the condition in which they are born, or in which their parents live,
but that of which by the best culture of all their faculties, they
qualify themselves adequately to do the work ; or to argue that the
education of the lower classes is in the interest even of the upper.
But that this spirit prevails largely beyond the circle of such an
association as this I cannot doubt. There are persons who, as I once
heai’d Archbishop Whately say, embark in the ship of knowledge
in order to delay the voyage, being quite willing to appear as pro*
moters of education if they can but gain the power to limit it within
what they consider to be safe bounds.
Even among those who regard education with very different
feelings, and who have no unworthy jealousy of others less favoured
by fortune than themselves, a similar estimate of the sufficiency of
the mere elements of knowledge in schools for the people may be
traced. “ Teach a child to read and to write, and he will educate
himself,’’ this is a common saying. No doubt, your Stephensons,
and your Faradays, and those with large natural capacity for any
kind of mental effort, will, with this simple help, do all besides for
themselves. Nay, even without this help, their innate energy would
still surmount every obstacle in their way. But such men are the
exceptions, not the rule ; and the frequent appeal to such cases in
evidence of the sufficiency of reading and writing in humble schools,
is one more proof of the prevalence of the error which looks at
popular education rather as a means of enabling the peculiarly
gifted to rise into a higher station, than of enabling and disposing all
efficiently to discharge the duties of their actual station, even though
they should x’ise to none higher. It is to the average capacity, the
average disposition of ordinary school pupils, that teaching must be
adapted, and it is by its success in dealing with that average capacity,
that average disposition, that its efficiency is to be judged. Now, that
for such natures reading and writing will be a master-key to all
or much beyond, is not to be thus proved, or without proof to be
accepted.
Another sign of the current estimate of reading and writing may
be cited. We are all familiar with the statistical tables about crimi
nals, and the proportions among them of those who can read and
write well, imperfectly, or not at all. Crime, we are told, flourishes
most rankly among the last, less among the second, least among the
first. What, then, is the natural inference from such statements ?
Of course, diminish the ignorance, and you diminish the crime (1.)
But the ignorance of what ? Of course, of reading and writing.
Ignorance of reading and writing is productive of, or accompanied
by, a great amount of crime. Knowledge of reading and writing
will, therefore, diminish crime I There may be fallacies more
palpable than this ; there can be few more gross or serious. The
inability to read and write argues, in our present state, it may be
freely granted, great ignorance of all beyond that it is good or useful
to know. But the ability to read and write, (not to cavil about the
degree of ability), by no means argues the knowledge of aught
�1
beyond. Negatively, the ignorance implies much, positively the
knowledge implies little. Let us take an obvious illustration. If a
man does not possess a penny, he is undeniably very poor; if he does
possess a penny, is he therefore rich ? Is he removed more than
very slightly from absolute impecuniosity ? It may be said that,
with even one penny, a man may begin to increase his store ; but his
doing so, his striving, or desiring to do so, depends on considerations
widely apart from the mere possession of the penny. The tabulation
of such statistics may be useful in various ways. It is not in the
facts or in the figures, but in the application of them that the danger
lies. By all means let those tell-tale columns make us blush for the
deplorable and disgraceful national ignorance that they reveal; let
them spur our determination to remove it; but do not let them lull
us into the delusive fancy that the presence of the minimum of
knowledge will cure the evils which the absence of that minimum,
indicates, if it does not cause.
We will now test a little more closely the real educational value of
reading and writing.
1. Reading is a mechanical means, one of_ several means, of
gaining knowledge and ideas. Writing is one mechanical means of
conveying knowledge or ideas to others, as well as a means of
recording them for either others or ourselves. What is the educa
tional value of either ? There is, I am well aware, a high sense,
in which it may be contended that he who can read easily, intelli
gently, appreciatively, pleasurably, even one valuable book, especially
if he can read it aloud with due “ emphasis and discretion,” correct
intonation, and utterance at once expressive and impressive ; and
who further can give written form to his thoughts and knowledge,
if, that is, we take writing to mean not merely penmanship, but
what is called composition also,—may be said to have received no
mean or narrow, though it may still be a defective education.
But it is obvious that we are here concerned with such measure of
the powers of reading and of penmanship, as is commonly obtained
in our cheap and general schools. Now, the first thing that strikes
us, is, that they are at most, not knowledge, but means of knowledge.
Isay not the means, but means of knowledge. They are no more
knowledge or education, as has often been said, than a knife, fork,
and plate constitute a dinner. Given the dinner,—the knife, fork, and
plate are useful in enabling us to deal with it. But, though the com
bination is best, it is bettei' to have the dinner without the imple
ments, than the implements without the dinner. That the two can
be separated is undeniable; and so it is quite possible, though not
common, to find a man shrewd, sagacious, even well informed, who
can neither write nor read, and it is not only possible but very
common to find the grossest ignorance and the greatest dulness
associated with ability to read and write (2.) But it may be said that
a knife, fork, and plate are instruments not for gaining a dinner, but
for helping us to consume it when gained ; whereas reading and
perhaps writing are instruments for actually gaining knowledge.
�8
Let us grant that they are tools for gaining knowledge ; they are
not crop, but plough and harrow. Now, given the plough and the
harrew, the mode of using them remains to be taught ; the disposi
tion to use them remains to be encouraged. Neither of these
things follows inevitably from the mere conferring of the tools ;
the workman may still be unskilful, or indolent or both. To give a
man a loom is one thing ; to teach him to weave well and indus
triously is quite another thing.
This leads me, dropping metaphors, in which fallacy may lurk, to
say in the second place—
2. That the power of reading and of writing often rusts unused,
if it is not wholly lost, through neglect and apathy after leaving
school. The attainments are not usually carried far enough to
render their use either easy or pleasant, and the power gradually
decays (3.) For, in the third place—
3. A knowledge of the sounds and forms of the letters, the sylla
bles and words made up by the letters, is too commonly confounded
with knowledge of the things read about, with the taking in of the
ideas verbally expressed. An extreme instance may be given. The
late Principal Baird, of Edinburgh University, reported that on an
official visit which he made to some schools in the remote highlands
and islands of Scotland, he was greatly surprised and pleased by the
fluency and correctness with which the children read some verses
from the New Testament in English. He ventured to put some
question, and then discovered that the children knew nothing
whatever of English, that they spoke Gaelic solely, and that they
read the English words aloud, by imitation, as mere sounds, without
any sense to which they could be echo. Let me cite another
instance less extreme. In a school in Hampshire I once heard some
girls read, as I thought, with rather unusual correctness, a descrip
tion of a crab. I happened to ask, as it was an inland place, if any
of them had ever seen a crab. After a pause, one girl acknow
ledged her having seen a crab ; but, on inquiry, it appeared that it
was a crab-apple she had seen, and it never had occurred to her
that the description did not at all fit the object supposed to be
described ! So, after reading about the straining out of gnats, and
the swallowing of camels, one of the pupils (as Miss Cobbe vouches)
being asked what was the great sin of the Pharisees, answered, not
hypocrisy, but “ eating camels.” These are detached examples of
misapprehension of the things for which the equivalent words are
given : but thousands escape detection, and, whether it is through
the eye or through the ear that the words reach the sensorium, it is
a sad truth, that in innumerable cases they excite no ideas, or false
ideas. For such condition of mind is it wonderful that reading
should be an irksome, not a pleasing task, one to be soon laid aside,
and as seldom as possible resumed ? The great mass do not, like the
few, persevere sufficiently to surmount those hampering difficulties
and earn the reward which such perseverance brings. But, in the
fourth place, as I have already said,—
�9
4. Reading is but one means, if, in the long run, the most impor
tant, for acquiring knowledge. On Saturday last I had a letter from
home which, by an apt coincidence, illustrates what I mean. My
little boy, not yet four years old, says to his mother, “Mamma, why
does cousin Bella learn lessons ?” “That she may grow up to be
wise and useful.” “But don’t I learn by asking questions ?” “ Out
of the mouth of babes.” The radical fallacy is in supposing that no
knowledge or improvement is obtainable except from books, and the
result is the confounding of means with ends. A child is a living,
restless, never ceasing interrogator, “perpetually wanting to know,
you know,” perpetually asking, What ? and how ? and when ? and
where ? and above all (as I have observed with some surprise) why ?
perpetually putting all around it “to the question.” This is to
nurses and parents and teachers a disturbing, fatiguing, and exas
perating process, and questions are commonly discouraged, 01* evaded,
if not forbidden. “ Children ought not to ask questions : ” “ Child
ren should be seen, not heard:” such are the ethics of the nursery.
I willingly allow for the difficulty of at once carrying on, at
least in school, a continuous course of teaching with many pupils
simultaneously, and of caring for individual differences of mental state.
But principles do not cease to be principles because their application
is difficult; and it cannot be doubted that one intelligent answer to
such a question as a child will ask and at the time when it asks it,
when its interest is aroused and the mental soil is prepared, does
more good, has more suggestive and stimulative power than pages of
“useful knowledge” which are not “en rapport” with the child’s
mental state, and which respond to nothing then active within its
little brain. A child of average health and capacity sucks in know
ledge at every pore; its craving for knowledge is truly insatiable.
“It is as natural” says Quintilian, “for the human mind to learn as for
the bird to fly, or the fish to swim.” But many who spend dreary
years in seeking the power to read Quintilian in the original, and
most^frequently without succeeding in the endeavour, tell us a very
different tale. The youthful mind, they say, is averse from know
ledge, that is, what they call knowledge, or, at best, indifferent to it,
and it must be artificially coaxed, or bribed, or threatened into the
semblance of interest. A child eagerly examines every object
around it, or, in lack of objects, then the pictures or images of objects.
But between the child and nature we interpose an opaque medium
called a book, and we expect the child to profit by symbols which to
us, indeed, are full of meaning, but which to it are mysteries, whose
significance it is slow to discover. Pedants snort disdainfully at the
thought of teaching science to children. Yet what is science, in great
part, but observation methodized ? A child cannot be easily kept from
observing and even from generalizing. The question is whether it.
shall do both ignorantly, of its own wild fancy, or under the guidance
of maturer judgment and ampler knowledge. As all children, not wholly
stupified by the compression and distortion of the school, form for
themselves a kind of science, draw inferences and make generalizations,
�10
probably erroneous, certainly incomplete, shall they be left without
guidance, as without encouragement ? (4.)
Even attempts to teach science are often marred by confounding
it with literary or verbal knowledge. Nature is treated on the
system of the Eton Latin grammar. Technical names and lists of
genera and species are committed to memory without due explanation
of the grounds of distinction. I have before me a catechism for the
young, entitled “ First Lessons in Physiology.” All the know
ledge runs freely from the pupil, when tapped by the teacher
with a question. The teacher says: “ How many varieties of
absorption are there, and name them ?” The pupil answers : “Inter
stitial, cutaneous, recrementitial, respiratory, venous, excrementitial,
and lacteal.” Such are the new husks upon which babes are fed !
Without a revolution in method no mere change of subject can do
much good.
5. Again, the learning of the art of reading, being treated as an
end, is made much more difficult than it needs to be. The letters
are taught by their names, not by their sounds; in the arbitrary
order of the alphabet, instead of in the natural order of the organs
by which they are pronounced. Spelling is still taught by means of
columns of long, hard, unconnected words, selected for their very
difficulty and rarity, to be learned by rote, or, as is said with
unconscious irony, “by heart.” At a large and well-endowed
school in London, I have seen dozens of boys engaged simulta
neously in laborious efforts to learn to spell badly, with the aid
of a most ingenious book, in which every word was incorrectly
spelled. Then the process of teaching to read begins too early, as
it is continued too long. I know well the difficulty in a school,
where the minds of the pupils may be, nay must be, in different
stages of development; still, the first thing being to rouse an appetite
for knowledge, and the second to gratify it when roused, all attempts
to reverse this order, or even to anticipate its evolution, must be
injurious. A child that, eager to heai’ a story over again, puts to its
ear the book in which it is told, is in a fair way of learning to read
swiftly, easily, gladly. Before it reaches that sjtage, the instruction
might have been tedious and ineffectual. These are but hints which
it is impossible here to follow out in detail.
6. Then, what is the literature by means of which reading is too
often taught ? In Scotland still, the shorter Catechism of the West
minster Assembly of Divines (in my boyhood I used to wonder what
the longer could possibly be), has prefixed to it an alphabet which is
learned as a preliminary to plunging into the depths of Calvinistic divi
nity. Even in London I have visited a “ respectable” school, in which
reading is taught from the Bible, and so soon as the pupil is tolerably
proficient, he is promoted to the dignity of secular reading 1 And
this is done in the supposed interests of religion 1 It is as if we
were to begin the teaching of our children with Milton’s Paradise
Lost, and then advance them into Robinson Crusoe, or Miss Edger
worth’s Tales. In many Scotch schools the Bible is almost the only
�11
reading book ; the junior and senior classes are called respectively
the Testament class and the Bible class. I have heard of a boy so
taught who, having been asked by his mother to read a passage in
a newspaper, was suddenly roused from his monotonous chaunt by a
box on the ear, accompanied by these words—“ How dare ye, ye
tcoundrel, read the newspaper with the Bible twang ?”
7. With such a spirit in the school, is it wonderful that the whole
teaching should have a narcotic tendency, that it should crush intel
ligence, and breed disgust, weariness, hatred of all study ? At a
former meeting of this Association, I heard one of Hei' Majesty’s
Inspectors of Schools (since dead), declare that in certain schools he
could tell pretty accurately by the pupils’ faces how long they had
been at school. The longer the period, the more stupid, vacant, and
expressionless the face. Another school inspector (Diocesan), has
told me that when, examining a class in the Acts of the Apostles, he
asked:—“Why did the eunuch go away rejoicing,”—the answer’
frankly was—“ Please, sir, because Philip had a done o’ teaching on
him.” What hours of weariness and waste are summed up in this
brief story! Such teaching defeats its own end; the power to read
is gained at the cost of the desire to read. This, if, in spite of false
quantity, I may adapt the words of the Roman poet, is “ propter
legendum legendi perdere causas,” for the sake of reading to lose
that which makes reading to be desired.
8. Lastly, it ought never to be forgotten that the power to read
does not in the least determine the use to which it is to be put. What
will be the nature of the books or journals read ? How much of
mischievous, not to speak of idle, literature is there in the world
that must all find readers, admirers, purchasers ! With the diffusion
of the mere power of reading, without intellectual and moral culture,
must we not expect that this sort of literature will be multiplied ?
The increased numbers of cheap “ sporting ” papers, of papers de
voted to police reports, with coarse and exciting woodcuts, and
of the literary master-pieces of the “ singing saloon,” have of late
attracted notice. Nay, the power to read and write arms with
greater force the disposition for evil, as well as that for good. In
every wicked enterprise such attainments are helps to its success.
It used to be argued that writing ought not to be taught to the
people, lest it should lead to the commission of forgery, or other
fraud ; but this sort of argument, if futile against teaching to write,
supplies a reason why the power of writing, or of reading, should be
associated with such training and guidance as will tend to ensure its
beneficial employment.
As I rejoice to see in this Association, and elsewhere, a growing
tendency to regard the teaching of all classes, and of both sexes,
from the same points of view, and to apply to all alike the same
fundamental principles, I will here briefly say that what I think to
be the exaggerated estimate of reading and writing in the instruction
of the poor has its exact counterpart in the hitherto far too exclu
sively literary character of the instruction of the rich. In this
�aspect, how pregnant with meaning is the title, “ Grammar school,”
so almost universal as the designation of our upper schools ! Not
to insist on the practical identification of “ Grammar ” with the
teaching of Latin and Greek, what a petrifaction is this term of the
whole cast of opinion, which viewed all instruction as an affair of
books and words 1 What a record it preserves of the habit of regarding
even Science as a knowledge less of things than of what men have
written about things, and of the style in which they have written 1
Widen as we may the sense of grammar, far beyond the scope and
practice of schools, past or present, till it become, if you will, co
extensive with philology, and even literature, (and far be it from
me to disparage such studies), how lamentably does this title fall
short of what ought to be the aim of education in such a country, in
such an age as ours 1 Over the door of the Bradford Grammar
School stands this inscription
“ Quod Deus optimus maximus bene vertat
Aedificium hocce ad literarum antiquarum
Studium promovendum juventutemque doctrinA
Elegantiore imbuendum extructum est atque
Musis in perpetuum consecratum.”
—“ For promoting the study of ancient literature, and for imbuing
youth with elegant learning, this building has been raised, and for
ever consecrated to the muses.”
A noble part of a liberal education, the polished and graceful
capital of the educational column, but assuredly neither its shaft
nor its base ! Try mentally to realize what Bradford or Belfast is,
and what it needs for the instruction and guidance of the youth who
are to do its actual work, to maintain and to extend its prosperity, to
remove its evils, to raise the charactei* of its people, to improve their
sanitary and social condition, to teach them how to lead a clean,
healthy, happy, human life — and how painfully one-sided and
defective it is ! How it ignores the essential! How it magnifies
the less important! How it subordinates strength, solidity, and
service to grace and ornament and surface-show I Assuredly the
time is coming, I think it is at hand, when such a title- as that of
“ Spelling school” will be regarded as scarcely less expressive of the
purposes, grand and manifold, at which our uppei’ schools, aye, all
our schools, ought to aim. Even in our higher, even in our highest
schools, improvement is slowly but surely creeping in ; slowly but
surely is it being recognized that any school which ignores the know
ledge of man himself, of the objects animate and inanimate with
which he is surrounded, and of the relationship between him and them,
his social duties, his economic interests, and the reciprocal bearing of
the individual and the social well being is radically, deplorably, dis
gracefully defective. Every improvement in our lower schools will
react upon the upper, and vice versa. And when the instruction of
our higher classes is what it ought to be, and in proportion as it shall
be what it ought to be, will the problem of our lower education be
practically solved. Had our upper classes ever been really educated,
�13
they would not, and could not, so long and so complacently have
endured the ignorance and consequent degradation of the masses of
their fellow citizens, of those whom, as if in mockery, they style
their fellow immortals, their brothers and their sisters.
It is, however, of the lower schools that I here speak. It is even
fortunate that narrow and selfish fears are beginning to urge on what
enlarged conceptions and generous impulse have failed hitherto to
effect. Thus (1) the recent extension of the suffrage is opening
the eyes of many to the necessity of training the masses to the ju
dicious and beneficial exercise of the power thus conferred. One
whose name will be, in history, connected as well with the political
changes that he resisted as with the educational changes that he
introduced, has said that we must now teach our future masters their
letters. That this was said in bitter irony there can be little doubt;
and it cannot be taken to mean that in the opinion of the speaker
that amount of teaching will suffice. Those who have already had
the suffrage can, for the most part, read and write. But they, too,
need enlightenment, and moral as well as intellectual training; so do
those whom they elect to represent them. On the one hand, reading
and writing have not prevented dishonest voters in thousands from
selling their votes for bribes, solid or liquid ; on the other, reading
and writing, and much besides, have not prevented unscrupulously
ambitious millionaires from debauching whole constituencies by
lavish expenditure, or from masking their immoral and demoralising
practices by liberal donations to charities, to schools, and even to
churches. Nevertheless, the fear of the large classes now admitted
within the pale of the constitution for the first time has given no
slight impulse to the general zeal for education. It is for us to see
that the movement now begun be turned to good account. Let us
help to educate, but in what ? That is the question of questions.
Then, again (2), foreign nations, we are told, are beginning to beat
us at our own weapons. They have learned more than their letters.
They are, it is said, driving us out of the markets which, with insular
arrogance, we have fancied should for ever be ours exclusively.
A cry of alarm is raised for more and better technical instruction ;
and, though this is narrow enough in the thoughts of many who raise
it, more and better general culture will certainly come out of it;
a greater development of general mental power, and the formation
of better social habits, will ere long be discovered to be the things
really needful.
Again (3), our industry is partially paralyzed, our capital is wasted,
our prosperity, our very national existence, are endangered by strikes
and trade combinations and restrictions, which check production,
often by means as unscrupulous and truculent as the end sought is
false and mischievous. The masses have been suffered to grow up
in ignorant and angry defiance of the elementary principles of
economic science, and reading and writing will not cure this long
rankling sore. Broadhead, who could read and write (as he has
amply shown), believing at the time that the introduction of a certain
�14
machine would injure his craft, instigated an act of criminal violence^
He confessed that he had discovered his error ; but the discovery came
too late. Had he made it sooner, one outrage less would have been
attempted. With wider knowledge others, perhaps all, might have
been prevented. Knowledge is not merely power; it is restraint
and guidance, if not impulse. It is the rudder, if not the sail ; the
fly-wheel, if not the steam-boiler. It is true that there have not
been wanting men of so-called education to defend such blunders,
and even to extenuate such atrocities ; but their education has lacked
the special direction which alone could save from error in this matter.
It is true that the employers are often not more intelligent in this
respect than the employed ; but the enlightenment of the latter, who
are the many, and from whose ranks the former, hitherto the few,
must largely come, will extend to, and react upon the former
also, and do much to soften their mutual relations, to make all see
their common interest, and to fuse them together, so as in time to
modify, if not, as some hope, to obliterate the distinction itself (5.)
For such reasons as these, a new educational agitation is arising,
or the old is reviving with fresh vigour. One and all point to something
far beyond reading and writing. I am, I must say, hopeful of the
ultimate, if not of the early, issue. The now swelling call for
“ compulsory” education will force on the public mind the funda
mental inquiry, what ought education to be. If, by compulsion,
what now passes under the name of education were rendered even
universal, I presume to think that the existing mass of pauperism,
crime, vice, misery and disease, would scarcely be perceptibly
abated. But it is no small gain to have recognized the claim of even
the poorest, still more even because the poorest, to something that is
called education. Bad or grossly defective education in any quarter
cannot continue long aftei’ education has ceased to be regarded as the
heritage of the few. Just as air becomes stagnant and foul when con
fined, so education when restricted to the few loses its vital freshness.
To diffuse education of any kind is indirectly to improve it. Make
education general, universal, and the (so called) higher education
will be rationalized, and, as I think, liberalized (6.) Youths will no
longei* be sent into active life from costly seminaries, accomplished
it may be in Greek metres, but ignorant of the structure of their own
bodies, the constitution of their own minds; filled with mythologic
lore, but unaware of their social duties ; primed with verbal scraps of
inconsistent moral precept, but less ashamed of debt than of honest
industry; looking on the world as a spoil for the lucky, or the
crafty, oi' the strong, not as a field for useful and ennobling labour
to the benefit of all as well as of self; of self just in proportion as it
tends to the good of all. Then, instead of the rich being fed on
intellectual sweetmeats, while the poor are starved, or gathei’ up the
crumbs that fall from the others’ table, all, rich and poor alike, shall
be nourished with plainer, more substantial and wholesome diet, not
without such lighter fare as may be obtainable by either. As know
ledge will be no longer confounded with books, or with words about
�16
knowledge, so morals, of which the laws are as eternal as they are
simple, as universal as they are strong, the morals in which all sects
and conditions of thinking men agree, will be dissociated from the
verbal and dogmatic formularies about which men differ, and, while
becoming less sectarian and theological, will become more widely
Catholic, more truly religious (7.) We, or our survivors, will then look
back with a smile, not of contempt or pride, but of joy and pity, on
the time when there was so great a pother about so small a matter
as reading and writing, and when even this beggarly amount of
teaching was found to be a tremendous national difficulty, just
because so little more was aimed at, or desired, or perhaps conceived.
The less is included in the greater, and the little becomes easy from
the effort to do much.
Notes.
(1.) p. 6. “ A Maiden Session.—At the Salisbury Quarter Sessions, just held,
there was not a single prisoner for trial. The Mayor of the city (Mr. S. Eldridge)
had therefore the pleasing duty of presenting the Recorder (Mr. J. D. Chambers),
the clerk of the peace, and the governor of the gaol with a pair of white kid
gloves each, according to custom on occasions of this sort. The Recorder, in
addressing the grand jury, said that he had read the other day in The Times that
Wiltshire was one ot the best educated counties in England, and it was highly
satisfactory to learn therefore that the decrease of crime had been in proportion to the
spread of education.” (/)—Times, 2nd Jan., 1868.
(2.) p. 7. “ Although the perusal of such works must, in strictness of speech,
be denominated reading, yet, so far as the cultivation of mind is concerned, it is
little else than the sheer act of deciphering so much letter press, without the
acquisition of a single new idea that can at all conduce towards improvement.”
—Rev. Thos. Price, “Tour in Brittany, Literary Remains,” 1854, vol. 1,
p. 81. “No doubt the power of reading is a key to the whole literature of
England. But in the hands of persons ignorant how to use it, a key is of little
use.”—Saturday Review, 4th Jan., 1868, p. 20. In the very same article the
writer says:—« What is wanted is that every child should be able to read and
write fairly before he goes to work; that he should be enabled to turn this
knowledge to -laone intellectual account while he is at work; and that, in cases
where his parents’ means, or his own industry, can defray the cost, he should be
further enabled to perfect himself in the various branches of study which have a
bearing, general or special, on his professional occupation.” It is too obvious
that the reviewer does not expect the child to turn the ability to read and write
to any “ intellectual account ” during the school period!
(3.) p. 8. “ The imperfect instruction given to the children in factories, under the
half-time system, is retained by them during a year or two at most, when it is
forgotten, and many intelligent young overlookers are unable to keep correctly
the simple accounts which should form a part of the duties of their position.”—
Mr. Samuelson, M.P. (speaking of Bradford, Yorkshire).
(4.) p. 10. “Why are the people who notice what comes before them to be marked
by a separating name, and called naturalists? Why are we ashamed of a
failure in what comes to us through books and the costly instrumentality of
masters and teachers ? Why do we blush at any flagrant slip in history, or
science, or language, and keep cool and easy under any extravagance of error in
�what'nature, through our own observation, might teach us.”—Saturday Revieu),
28th July, 1863. Article on “ Ignorance.” Yet Canon Moseley, who is deservedly
an authority in education, would keep out of schools (not merely elementary
schools) all “ the sciences of observation,” specially so called. At Clifton College,
on 30th July, 1867, he is reported to have said: —“The subjects of human know
ledge, which claimed to be considered and taught in our schools, might be
divided into four groups. First of all,” (why ‘ first ? ’) “ there were the languages
and the subjects allied to them; secondly, the pure mathematical sciences, which
were pursued in the exercise of pure thought and rested upon abstractions ;
thirdly, the sciences of experiment, including physics and chemistry; and
fourthly, the great sciences of observation, such as natural history and the like.
He thought they might put the last out of consideration, as they had had quite
enough to do with the three others.” In like manner, I once heard it contended
that any new poetry is superfluous, because there is more poetry already written
than any human being can possibly read! In like manner, it has been urged
that the discovery of new planets is absurd, because we have as many already
as we well know what to do with! But, perhaps, we ought less to regret
that the subjects in the fourth class are thus shut out, than rejoice that those in
the third are admitted. Too often both classes are still visited with the same
arbitrary sentence of exclusion, and on the same ground, that there is quite
enough to do without them! It is not very long since subjects of even the
second class ceased to be regarded as unlicensed intruders on the traditional
monopoly of the first.
(5.) p. 14. “ To the three reasons given in the text a fourth may well be added.
Society is, not without reason, more and more alarmed by the rapid increase of
outrages which threaten its very existence. “ Education ” is hailed as the sure
if slow, remedy. The adult ruffian is probably beyond its influence, but the
embryo garotter may be tamed if only he can be taught to spell “ gallows; ” and
on the juvenile pickpocket a course of alphabet, with exercise in pothooks and
hangers, may have a salutary effect, deterrent or emollient! By all means let
trial be made. Its failure will open the eyes of many to the need of something
better, though it may also lead many to say, “ Education has been tried, and
tried in vain.”
(6.) p. 14. “ Coleridge, when he predicted that the effect of popularizing know
ledge would be to plebify it, erred in his vision of the future, as many seers have
done before and since. He uttered that prediction on the assumption that know
ledge, in its higher portions, was confined to the regions of theology and
psychology; and he overlooked the faot that, in proportion as these branches of
knowledge have been cultivated by the few,-ignorance has prevailed among the
many. He failed to observe that, if thousands rushed to Abelard’s lecture room,
millions outside of it were immersed in the grossest superstition.”—Saturday
Review, 26th Oct., 1867, p. 544.
(7.) p. 15. “As Sir R. Palmer reminded his audience, the line between ‘ religious’
and ‘ secular ’ is purely conventional. ‘ All knowledge, all instruction, in what
ever is honest and of good report, is essentially religious.’ Dogmatic theology
concerns itself with creeds; but religion has to do with common life; and its
sphere, though net identical, is co-extensive with that of education. The
clergyman and the schoolmaster are inevitably working together, whether they
are working in concert or not.”—Times, 2nd Nov., 1866.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Exaggerated estimates of reading and writing as means of education: a paper read at the Belfast meeting of the Social Science Association, on 24th Sept., 1867
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Hodgson, W. B. (William Ballantyne) [1815-1880.]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: (OWN) From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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1868
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Education
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Education
Reading
Writing
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CLASSICAL INSTRUCTION:
WHY ?—WHEN ?—FOR WHOM?
PAPER
BEAD AT
THE MEETING, IN SEPT. 1865, OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION AT
SHEFFIELD 5 AND AT THE MONTHLY MEETING, IN MAY, 1866,
OF THE COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS.
BY
W. B. HODGSON, LL.D., F.C.P.,
ONE OF THE EXAMINEES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
• Scholarship has hitherto been a term reserved for the adept in ancient literature, whatever may be
the mediocrity of his intellect; but the honourable distinction must be extended to all great writers
on modern literature, if we would not confound the sense and propriety of things.”—Isaac D’Israbli.
“ Un savant est un homme qui sait de la chose dont il s’occupe tout ce qu’on peut en savoir au
moment present, qui est celui oh les connaissances humaines sont le plus avancees. Un erudit sait ce
qu’on en savait quand elles etaient au berceau.”—J. B. Say, "Petit Volume." 3me Ed. 1839. p. 149.
" Die hochste Aufgabe der Bildung ist aber die Erziehung zur Pflicht, zur^Erfiillung des Gesetzes
das wir in der Erkenntniss finden.”—B. Auerbach. Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichten.—“Ivo, der
Hairle,” g7, p. 235. Mannheim; 1845. Th. I.
11 It is easy to say that in scholarship there is nothing that is not important. It may be so, but one
thing is most important, and that is, never to lose sight of the true object of all scholarship, the diffusion
of useful knowledge.”—Saturday Review, 284A July, 1866.
“ * Stemus swper antiquas vias:' which may be rendered—1 Better stand still on turnpikes than move
on rails.’ ’’—Charles Reade, “Hard Cash]' vol. i. p. 225,1.8. 1863.
Reprinted from the Educational Times for June, 1866.
LONDON:
Printed by
0. F. HODGSON & SON, GOUGH SQUARE,
FLEET STREET.
�“ The learned languages are still considered by many, them to be marked by a separating name, and called
emphatically, Education. To teach them, and to teach Naturalists. Why are we ashamed of a failure in what
little else, was a portion of the wisdom of our ancestors; comes to us through booksand the costly instrumentality
but though wisdom in them, it does not follow it is such of masters and teachers—why do we blush at any flagrant
in us. with them it was knowledge, not for ornament, slip in history, or science, or language,—and keep cool
but use. It was the instrument of action, as well as and easy under any extravagance of error in what nature,
thought. Law, Diplomacy, Medicine, and Religion, all through our own observation, might teach us?”—“Satur
was Latin: a man who was no ‘Latiner was a mere day Review,” ISth July, 1863, p. 80.
*
‘villain’in education; he was deemed unfit in civil life
“
were the smallest attempt made to
for any situation destined for the ‘ ingenuous’ and free. oui’ If there from establishments in which we areconvert
schools
But to insist on it at present, but above all, as the only to know with exactness what other people thoughttaught
a long
thing necessary, and to the sacrifice of many other time ago, to establishments to enable us to think with
things really so, is a folly of which our ancestors could exactness about that which we are to do at present,
not have been guilty.”—“ Educational Reform,” by which persons of modern and bigoted notions think
Th. Wyse, Esq., M.P., 1836, p. 163.
desirable, there would be a chance of obtaining some
“ The Greeks had no models before them; why then thing like scientific education.”—Professor Huxley;
have they been enabled to create models for us ? Because at Meeting of British Association at Nottingham, 2Ath
they listened at the threshold of Nature, and creatively August, 1866.
showed forth her inspiration. They strove to represent
“ As
the idea within them, and in their continual endeavour gether Lord Houghton has pointed out, science is alto
unrepresented
to express the conception in the substance, the master the Public Schools]. [on the Commission for reforming
The most zealous believers
piece was at length achieved.”—Ludwig vox Muhlen- classical training will allow that this is a mistake. It in
is
FELS, LL.D., introduction to a Course of German conceded by all that classical education must go on for
Literature., 1830, p. 85.
the present, whether right or wrong, since the Report
“The present neglect of Natural Philosophy and of the year before last strongly approved of it; and
Natural History will furnish a curious story for after whatever change is ever made must come down to the
times. It will be on record, that among the first com Schools from the Universities. But while, on the other
mercial people in the world, who depended for their hand, it is not contended that science should at once
political existence on trade and manufactures, there was be made the basis of Public School teaching, on the
not, generally speaking, in the education of their youth, other hand no one urges that classics will last for ever.
one atom of information on the products of the earth, The chief object of introducing science now is, that a
whether animal, vegetable, or mineral; nor any account footing may be laid for a future extension, if ever it
of the principles, whether of mechanics or of chemistry, should be thought desirable to give more weight and
which, when applied to these products, constituted the prominence to it. The system must be made a little
distinction of their country. And this, when the studies, more elastic, or whenever the nation has outgrown the
so abandoned, were allowed by all to be worthy of pur classics—supposing it ever does outgrow them—it will
suit, simply as an exercise of the reason, and without break, instead of yielding. The addition of some scien
any reference to their application. This story will one tific name to the Board would not do much in itself to
day excite some wonder, which will be removed when it modify the instruction at the Public Schools, but it
is added, that the tone of school-education was given by would at least indicate the direction in which the
certain endowed establishments, which, resting their national opinion requires that the Schools themselves
existence upon the fame acquired when Latin and Greek should take some slight step of progress.”—“ Saturday
were reputed the only useful branches of instruction, Review,” June 2,1866, p. 651.
used their influence to exclude all others, long after the
“ I entirely agree
you that the present system of
rational part of mankind had pronounced that more was classical education, with general method of training all
a
necessary. Thus much we can assert, without laying English gentlemen, as (in your words) ‘ a superstition, a
is
claim to the title of prophets; but it may be—and we blunder, and a failure.’ If we would imitate the Ro
would put it to those who direct the public schools,
in the
whether it is not worth taking into consideration—that mans, who taught their boys Latin and Greek, all our
we ought
teach
their historian shall have to finish by saying, that while spirit and not in the letter, for French to to us, and was
youth English and French;
is
previously-acquired reputation was supporting them in still more to Prussia, what Greek was to the Romans.
their quiescent obstruction of all improvement, a gradual I The Romans learned two living languages; we pretend
change took place in the public mind, on the subject of to learn two dead ones. I would demand with you a
education, which they, occupied as they were in con general basis of true British and Modern and Human
structing elegant Greek and Latin verses, were among education till the age of
then Classics
the last to perceive; that when, at a late period, they taken up by the select few 14;whom they nowshould be
to
naturally
became willing to alter their system for the better, the belong. The omission of natural science, drawing, and
time had passed, and the recollections of former obsti music, from the school education of England, is the plain
nacy rendered their demonstrations of improvement of sign that they are out of nature. It is like feeding
no effect; that they sank in estimation from that time, children with beefsteaks, and throwing the good milk
and finally became an object of interest to the antiquary the mother to the dogs. But do not growl too fiercely of
at
only, for the remains of Gothic architecture which they
world.
left behind.”—Professor De Morgan, On the Study the stupidity of dunces, Dons, and D.D.s in this —J. S.
A certain number of stupid people must exist.”
of Natural Philosophy.
Blackie, Professor of Greek in University of Edinburgh,
“ Why are the people who notice what comes before “Letter to the Author.”
�CLASSICAL INSTRUCTION
WHY?—WHEN?—
FOR WHOM?
"Linguis quoque discendis operam dent, iis praecipue quarum apud finitimos aut domesticos usus.”—Caspaei
Baelaci, “Methodus Studiorwm” Ludg. Bat. 1792. p. 170.
“ Quis facile se contineat, si omnium artium et disciplinarum salutem linguae Latinae castitate contineri, hac
spreta illas jacere, hac ftorente illas stare, toties inculcantem magistrum intelligat ?”—Mosheim, “ Dissert, de
Ling. Lot. Culturd. et Necessitate," p. 273. 1751. {et seg.)
Our shores are visited from time to time
by intelligent foreigners, eager to study our
political institutions, our social customs, our
processes of agriculture or of manufactures.
Let us suppose that such a one, understand
ing our language, but only slightly acquainted
with our history and social condition, had
arrived in this country, anxious to extend his
knowledge, and to turn his observations to
practical account. I may well be excused
from attempting to sketch, in even the vaguest
outline, the elaborate and complex civilisa
tion, with its bright lights and dark shadows,
which would attract and bewilder and almost
overwhelm his attention. Let us suppose
that, after a time, he gained some general
insight into our mode of government, our
manners, our religion, our laws, our mecha
nical industry, our commerce, our manifold
and ever-multiplying relations with all other
nations of the globe, our rich and various lite
rature, our national character. Such a man
might reflect thus ; Children are in this coun
try, as in every other, born weak, helpless,
ignorant, yielding easily, with a few marked
individual exceptions, to the plastic hands of
those who would mould them in this or that
form, to this or that belief; capable of healthy
growth and development from within, under
the application of outward stimulus; but,
also, of being crushed, or stunted, or per
verted—of becoming, in short, either lovely
flowers and useful fruit, or useless, it may be
even noxious, weeds. Such a reflection as this
would naturally suggest the question, What
is done, in the way of teaching and training,
to qualify and dispose the embryo citizens of
this great nation to take a useful and honour
able place in the social system in which they
are destined to live, to promote their own
good and that of their fellows, and, not least,
to ensure that the next generation shall be
wiser, better, happier, than that which is
swiftly moving off the stage of life ? To such
a man as I have supposed it might perhaps
occur,—In this country there are rich people
and poor people ; all have not equal means or
opportunities; from all equal results are not
to be expected ; but surely, in the case of even
the moderately rich, all will be done that the
most enlightened intelligence can suggest to
form and store and guide the youthful mind;
and in the case of those less favoured by for
tune, this same object will also be aimed at,
and proportionately realized. Probably, then,
the children of parents of the higher class are
carefully instructed in the nature of their own
constitution, bodily and mental; the conditions
on which its soundness and happy working
inevitably depend ; its relations towards the
diversified existences, animate and inanimate,
which surround it; the terms on which future
well-being must be, if at all, attained ; in the
structure and use of their own language, so
rich and flexible and strong; in the art of
tracing the relation of cause and effect, so as
to avoid not only mental error and confusion,
but unwise and injurious conduct also; in
the elements of the arts and sciences, on the
knowledge and application of which hangs the
prosperity of the world, and especially of this
nation; in their own country’s literaturef,
abounding as it does in noble monuments of
every kind of mental activity, and with equal
power to instruct, to rouse, to purify, to direct,
to charm, to polish, to strengthen, to refine,
to make strongthe delicate, to make delicate the
strong; lastly, in the language and literature of
other nations, whose social characteristics are
more or less different, but with all of whom
the advantage, and even the necessity, of free
intercourse are daily on the increase, and from
all of whom much is to be learned, without
the sacrifice, nay to the enhancing, of national
and individual originality and independence.
Our supposed foreign visitor might not, and
probably would not, work out in any great
detail the programme of a system of instruc
tion (i.e., building up), such as ha might expect
to find ; but it is not at all improbable that,
looking at the facts of the case, and estimating
future obligations and necessities, he would
reckon most confidently on finding a fore
most place assigned to such studies as I have
roughly indicated. Well, what would be his
astonishment if he were told that in the school
training, not of the poor only, but of the rich
also, the very rich, every one of these subjects
is more or less neglected; that what seemed
to him the most important and indispensable
things of all are left to future chance, or, at
the most, to a later provision; that, in the
�case of all above the poor, during the whole
course of the school-life, extending over ten,
twelve, or more years, the mind is applied
almost exclusively, in the best cases mainly,
to the languages and literatures of two ancient
nations who ceased to exist centuries ago, who
lived before even the infancy of our modern arts
and sciences ; whose religion and morals were
widely at variance, if not wholly inconsistent,
with the religion and morals which here pre
vail, and which are held as a revelation from
heaven itself; nations whose people, whose
great men even, were stained with gross vices,
whose military glories (in the case of one of
these at least) have so dazzled the eye and cor
rupted the moral sense of subsequent genera
tions as greatly to retard the peaceful progress
of commerce and civilization I Even if he
found, as doubtless he would find, on further
inquiry, that these literatures contain much,
very much, that is beautiful and good, and
that examples of heroism and virtue worthy of
all praise are scattered over the blood-stained
records of their history, I do not think that
his astonishment would be greatly diminished ;
while it would be vastly increased, and would
approach amazement, and even incredulity,
were he to learn that, on the authority of able
men, themselves the subjects of this system
and favourable to its continuance—this system,
as pursued in its most richly-endowed, and in
all ways most favoured, institutions, is declared
a failure as regards its own ends; “a failure”
— and here I quote the Times’ summary of
the Report of the recent Commissioners —
“ a failure, even if tested by those better spe
cimens, not exceeding one-third of the whole,
who go up to the Universities. Though
a very large number of these have literally
nothing to show for the results of their schoolhours from childhood to manhood, but a know
ledge of Latin and Greek, with a little English
and arithmetic, we have here the strongest
testimony that their knowledge of the former
is most inaccurate, and their knowledge of the
latter contemptible. A great deal is taught
under these two heads, but very little is learned
under either. A small proportion become bril
liant composers and finished scholars, if they
do not manage to pick up a good deal of infor
mation for themselves; but the great multi
tude cannot construe an easy author at sight,
or write Latin prose without glaring mistakes,
or answer simple questions in grammar, or get
through a pronlem in the first two books of
Euclid, or apply the higher rules of arith
metic. A great many, amounting to about a
third at Christ Church, and a fifth at Exeter
College, fail to pass the common Matriculation
Examination. Not less than a fourth are
plucked for their Little-go, a most elementary
examination in the very subjects which we
have just mentioned ; and of the rest many
are only enabled to pass by the desperate exer
tions of College tutors and ‘coaches.’ We
need not follow this class of public school men
through the remainder of their University
career, since the duty of teaching has then
devolved upon others ; but for their short
comings at entrance the schools are mainly
responsible. Most of them, says an Oxford
tutor of great experience and judgment, ‘ are
persons who were allowed as boys to carry
their idleness with them from form to form,
to work below their powers, and merely to
move with the crowd ; they are men of whom
something might have been made, but now it
is too late ; they are grossly ignorant, and
have contracted slovenly habits of mind.’”*
On recovering from his very natural amaze
ment, our foreign friend might possibly be
curious to know how a state of things so ano
malous and perplexing had come about. Gra
dually he would learn that it had its remote
origin in a period of European history between
the decay of the old and the growth of the new
civilisation, when it may be briefly and com
prehensively asserted that, Latin and its litera
ture apart (for Greek was of later date as a
branch of general school teaching), there were,
(1) No subjects to be learned; (2) No pupils to
be taught; (3) No language in which teaching
could be carried on. A few minutes may well be
spent in considering this very curious position.
There were, (1) No subjects to be learned. The
natural sciences,as we now understand and pur
sue them, scarcely existed; they wereconfounded
with the ancient literature, in which scientific
observations and theories were recorded; there
were no modern languages or literatures to
claim and repay study. Latin, or its practical
synonym grammar, was accordingly co-extensive, identical with instruction. (2.) There were
no pupils to be taught. The mere idea of
educating a whole people, of opening their
mental eyes, forming their judgment, training
their character, by means of knowledge, had
not been even conceived. Not even the higher
or highest classes of the laity were believed to
need instruction. Ecclesiastics only needed
and received instruction, and in their case it
was naturally directed to the language in
which the church offices were performed, in
which the church history and traditions were
enshrined. (3.) There was no language but
Latin in which teaching could be conducted.
Neither English, nor French, nor Italian, nor
Germau, nor Spanish, nor any other modern
language, in anything like its present state,
existed. You know as well as 1 how and
when they came into being. Petrarch more
than half regretted his having ever written in
Italian the sonnets which are the title-deeds
of his fame, and fancied that posterity would
delight to read his Latin poem on Africa,
which is quite forgotten. Through what me
dium, then, except Latin, could any one be
taught ?—Latin, in which the learned of all
countries wrote and corresponded with each
other to much later times—Petrarch, and Eras
* See Appendix, p. 8.
�5
mus, and Milton, and even Locke. The influence
of this threefold state of things was prolonged
in spite of gradual progress. New subjects
arose, but Latin held its place ; a portion of
the laity claimed a share of the instruction of
the times, and ecclesiastics taught them the
Latin which only they knew, and that not
well. New languages were gradually formed,
and crept into general, unliterary, unscientific,
currency. But in European countries Latin
still maintained its place, more or less exclu
sively, as the medium of teaching science and
literature. Not many years ago, I travelled
with a Piedmontese physician, who spoke
Italian badly, French not at all, whose local
patois was a burden to himself, and who bitterly
complained to me of his having been taught
even medicine, as well as logic and rhetoric,
through Latin, while in Italian he had never
received a single lesson. In our own land,
the change has gone somewhat further in each
of the three respects just stated. Other sub
jects of instruction have, more or less recently,
more or less grudgingly, been allowed to break
in upon the sacred monopoly of Latin. First,
Greek (now so glibly coupled with Latin, like
Day with Martin, or Swan with Edgar)
fought its way to admission, through opposi
tion the story of which would now excite some
amusement and surprise;
*
Then mathema
tics, more lately ; and it is now commonly
declared that in this branch of study is found
the needful and sufficient counterpoise to the
old linguistic training, inasmuch as it exer
cises the reasoning faculties ; the subject, how
ever, being purely abstract, and one in which
never occur the names of man or woman, or
right or wrong, or duty or interest, of good
or bad, praise or blame, or any other of those
many things about which human reasoning
is habitually employed in late and early life ;
so that, though, like chess, it is valuable for
fixing the attention, it is a very inefficient
training for ordinary thinking on moral ques
tions. As Sir William Hamilton has said,
“ The railroad of demonstration is a poor pre
parative for the hunting-ground of proba
bility.” No other subject is taught otherwise
than too exceptionally and incompletely, to
claim notice in this brief paper.
Yet, how marvellously changed is the whole
aspect of the world since this system first took
shape. I need not do more than hint at our
progress in science, art, literature, mecha
nics, in production and exchange at home and
abroad; at the startling growth of foreign
literatures ; at the multiplication of sources of
thought and subjects of interest general and
deep ; at the discovery of new and vast con
tinents, over which is being rapidly spread a
population speaking our language, in part
living under this country’s government, in part
living under a government of its own ; in either
case bound to us by many ties of interest and
affection, and adding everywhere to the com
mon fund of the world’s thought and know
ledge :
“Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?”
What region of the wide earth is there that
is not filled with both the record and the
results of our national achievements ?
Is every thing to move on except education,
which is to prepare for every thing ? Is pro
gress to be universal except in that one thing
which ought to herald and facilitate and
guide all progress ? How long, one is driven
to ask, is the ancient system to be maintained ?
In spite of coming changes, the extent of
which we can but faintly guess, though we
may clearly foresee their direction, is it abso
lutely ordained that centuries hence, even to
the very end of time, our remotest posterity
shall learn precisely what their ancestors
learned, in default of aught else, and be taught
precisely as their ancestors, in the infancy of
the teaching art, were taught? Had we to
begin now, to construct anew the educa
tional edifice, few perhaps would say that it
ought to be precisely on the existing plan.
Can the present system, then, be not merely the
result of historic causes^ necessary and even
useful in its season, but the fulfilment of pro
vidential decree, which must be binding now,
henceforward, and for evermore? If not, then
it is wise to inquire whether the time has not
arrived for introducing changes, which may
facilitate and promote further gradual change
hereafter. I venture to think that this time
has arrived, and that, in the interest of what
ever is good in the old system itself, it is well
to modify what it is impossible long to pre
serve unchanged. The present system is clearly
untenable, and its doom is, I think, a question
of time only. It is because I attach a high
value to the educational influence of Greek
and Latin, in proper place and time and mode,
that I presume to invite the attention of this
meeting to the questions stated in the pro
gramme— “Why? When? For whom?’’
These three questions are intimately blended.
None of them can, apart from the other, be
fully answered. On the first—the reasons
why—1 need not enlarge. They have been
lately stated, for the ten thousandth time,
but with unusual freshness and force, by Mr.
Bonamy Price, who, being himself a bright
*
example of the good effects of such culture, is
modest enough to assume that most others to
whom it is applied are quite as good as he.
But on all those reasons it suffices to remark,
that not one of them applies to any but to au
advanced school age, when only can the youth
really appreciate the high work in which he is
engaged. The wretched reality which expe
* So lately as in the year 1772, Dr. Adam’s pro rience reveals is in contrast, at once ludicrous
posal to introduce Greek into the High School of
Edinburgh was violently opposed by no less a man
* See “The Shilling Magazine” for September,
than Principal Robertson, the historian.
1865.
�6
and painful, with the glowing picture painted
by Mr. Price.
As regards the second and third questions,
taken always in conjunction with the first, I
can only briefly say, as the result of my own
experience and reflection, that by deferring
these studies to a later period of life, by
thus reducing the number of those to whom
this instruction is administered, and the
amount of time devoted to it, as well as the
area over which it is spread, a greater amount
of good would, on the whole, be achieved.
Fewer persons would learn Latin and Greek, but
those few would learn them more thoroughly
and with greater profit. The fact that now,
after all the expenditure of time and labour,
so small a proportion of those taught exhibit
even fair attainments, is conclusive against
the present system, which sacrifices the many
needlessly and wrongly for the sake of a select
few. Nor can it be justly said, though it is
often said, that, even if no great knowledge of
the tongues, and no knowledge, of the litera
tures, have been acquired, still a useful train
ing has been gone through, and the mental
powers have been strengthened and suppled
by exercise. I much fear that the influence is
quite the other way, and tends to discourage
ment, apathy, distaste for learning, mental
confusion, and mental torpor. “ The labour
we delight in physics pain.” Intellectual occu
pation, in which the intellect is a willing agent,
not a drudging slave, and intellectual pro
gress, are needful for our moral health. Men
tal vacuity is at the root of much moral
mischief; and congenial mental work is one
of the best preventives of the vices which idle
ness ever fosters.
In discussing this subject, we are too apt to
fix our attention on the favourable exceptions,
the small minority, who seem to have really
derived advantage from the process through
which they have passed ; and we are tempted
to forget that it is to “ the mass” that educa
tion ought to be adapted, and by its success
with the mass that every system must be
tested. What should we say if a Sheffield
cutler were to boast that five, or even ten, per
cent, of his knives were sharp and strong and
bright? We should be disposed to inquire
about the remaining ninety, and to draw no
favourable inference as to their cutting power.
Again, we are often confronted by a dis
tinction which, though sound enough in itself,
has little real application here. Instruction,
we are told, is one thing; education is another.
Even of instruction, the imparting of know
ledge is not the chief part; while of edu
cation it is but a small and a very subor
dinate part. Very true; but it by no means
follows that those subjects which are capable
of what is called useful application in actual
life, are devoid of educational influence in the
process of their acquisition. The question is
really much less one of subject than of method.
Any subject may be taught intellectually,
suggestively, improvingly, or in a dull, me
chanical, stupifying way. Because much pre
sent teaching of Latin and Greek is of this
latter kind, I do not argue against all teaching
of Latin and Greek. But, on the other hand,
I contend that it is most unjust to speak, for
example, of physical science as a mere con
geries of detached facts, the learning of which
can give no beneficial training to the mind,
no real exercise to any of its powers, except to
memory. Were our scholars and our teachers
themselves better instructed in such subjects,
they would find, I think, that the processes
of observation, generalisation, and induction,
through which a pupil may be carefully led,
afford a mental discipline of the highest value,
and do much to train to habits of mental
accuracy, cautious inquiry, conscientious
balancing of probabilities, steady and honest
work.
Again, it is not unusual to speak and
write as if, outside of the charmed circle of
Greek and Roman letters, all were barren, arid,
prosaic, commonplace, mechanical, and cold.
The very exclusiveness with which the terra
“ classics” is popularly restricted to Latin
and Greek, is a standing monument of this
fallacy. Are such writers as Shakespeare,
and Milton, and Wordsworth, and Tennyson,
in our own tongue, or in others, as Gothe,
and Schiller, and Dante, and Ariosto, and
Rousseau, and De Stael, incapable of inspiring
literary enthusiasm, or exercising critical taste?
The case would not be altered were any amount
of indebtedness to the ancients proved against
the moderns.
Even if the superiority of Greek and Latin
over all living tongues be admitted, (and I
may say, in passing, that, without large
qualifications, I cannot admit it,) it is not a
necessary sequence that those other languages
are not important means of mental discipline,
if rightly taught, as well as of high utility in
the affairs of life. The whole question is com
parative. It- is not what subjects are, in
one or other way, useful; but what subjects
are, on the whole, the most useful in degree,
as in kind; which blend the greatest number
of utilities; Which are the indispensable, and
which the merely advantageous or orna
mental. Now I cannot but hope that in this
matter the progress of opinion is tending
towards this conclusion, that those subjects
most useful to the poor as well as to the rich,
to women as well as to men, those most akin
to the deep unity of our common human na
ture, are the subjects to which attention ought,
in every case, to be directed first and chiefly;
that the essentials of education (not confound
ing essential with necessary, as we often do)
are in all cases the same, and based on those
things in which we all agree, not on those in
which we differ. In urging, as I did some
time ago, that the education of girls ought,
in all essential respects, to be assimilated to
that of boys, I did not mean that it should be
made like to that of boys, as it now exists,—
may heaven forbid!—but rather that each
�1
should borrow from the other whatever it has
of good, and that both should grow towards a
common and still distant ideal. So with the
rich and the poor; the great substratum ought,
it seems to me, to be in both cases alike ; it
being the enviable privilege of the former to
superadd whatever other culture, deeper or
more ornamental, their greater leisure and
ampler means may enable them to obtain.
According to the length of time given by
the pupil to the school, would be the gradation
and development of his studies. No boy leav
ing any school, say at the age of even twelve
years, would be ignorant of his own language
as a means of communication by writing as
well as by speech,—of the elements of natural
science, especially of his own bodily structure,
and of the laws of conduct; without some
dawning, but ever brightening, perception of
the interdependence of all human interests
rightly understood, and without some purpose,
strengthening “ with the suns,” to guide his
own life accordingly, to seek his own blessing
in blessing others, to do good to others by
improving himself; unable to observe, and
think, and reason, but able to repeat snatches
of Latin grammar-rules, to decline certain
nouns and adjectives, to conjugate certain
verbs—a kind of knowledge which I venture to
think extremely unimportant, unless it be
carried forward to higher attainments, metho
dised and utilised by study of the literature.
A boy prolonging his stay at school beyond
the period necessary for acquiring the amount
and sort of knowledge and of training at
which I have but hinted, would, besides
deepening and widening and fixing his know
ledge of these subjects, and confirming his
mental and moral habits, extend his range of
study, and acquire more or less of one or more
modern tongues, say French and German, the
teaching being ever reflected upon that of the
vernacular, and would take up other branches
which it is impossible for me here to specify
in detail.
Lastly, those youths who should prolong
still further their school period, would, in
reduced numbers, with faculties well dis
ciplined, with a love of congenial mental
exercise—such as every human being has in
greater or in less degree, if it be not crushed
by bad teaching or by neglect—with a clear
perception of the use as well as of the pleasure
of learning, with minds maturer and more vigo
rous, enter on the study, say, first of Latin
and then of Greek. The progress now so
slow, painful, unequal, and irregular, would
be vastly more rapid, pleasant, uniform, and
sure. Cramming of the memory, now declared
to be indispensable with the very young, would,
at a later age, be superseded by intelligible
explanation and intelligent perception of prin
ciples ; the authors read would be better com
prehended, better appreciated, more enjoyed ;
the knowledge of words, constructions, idioms,
would grow swiftly, insensibly, day by day ;
the judgment and taste, first exercised on the
writings of their own country’s authors, would
be brought easily to bear on those of Rome
and Greece; the beauties of Homer and Horace,
and Virgil and Sophocles, and Livy and Thu
cydides, would not, as now, be wasted on dull
and unwilling ears, but would be really felt;
and all the good effects, intellectual, sesthetic,
and moral, which, in the hands of a skilful
teacher, with a heart in his bosom, and not
merely a mass of learned lumber in his head,
such studies can undoubtedly be made to
yield, would really be accomplished, and not
merely imagined, and in the great majority
of cases imagined falsely, to be accomplished.
Fewer persons would thus be taught Latin and
Greek ; but more persons would learn them
than now. They would learn them with greater
ease, satisfaction, and advantage in many
ways. This they would do without neglect,
nay to the gain, of other studies now too much
neglected. Those who could not carry on a
training in Latin and Greek to any really use
ful point, would not have wasted their time,
but would have gained that kind and amount
of knowledge and discipline, to which Latin
and Greek may be a most admirable comple
ment, but for which their verbal elements are
a most wretched substitute.
*
Let no one, therefore, denounce me as “ an
enemy of Latin and of Greek,” “ a foe to
liberal culture,” “alow utilitarian,” “an ad
vocate of cramming as opposed to training”—
of “bread and butter sciences” in opposition to
education worthy of the name; or pelt me
with any other verbal missiles, such as, in this
controversy, are too freely used. I am, I con
fess, a strict utilitarian; but it is a high and
broad, not a low and narrow, utility for which
I contend : imagination itself I maintain to be
truly and highly useful. I am at heart a friend
to Latin and Greek ; I would not lightly part
with my own knowledge of either, though it
might have been far less dearly purchased.
I would, it is true, save multitudes from the
mistake, the misery, and the mischief of merely
pretending to learn them ; but I would make
the teaching real and fruitful wherever it is
attempted, and I would put no limit to the
height or depth to which it should be carried
by those so disposed. I may, of course, be in
error as to the proposed means; but I am quite
certain that the end 1 aim at is the improve
ment, and the binding together, of all classes
of the community by a rational and generous
education, common to all in its main prin
ciples and essential features, but capable of
wide diversities in its later developments,
according to the means, the talents, the dis
positions, the destinations, social or profes
sional, of their individual members.
* “ Ipsum quidem illud callere linguam, si per se
solum spectes, neque majorem utilitatem intendas,
magno opere jejunum mihi videtur atque inanitatis
plenum: quid enim proficias ubi voces loquendique
formulas in cerebrum constipatas ingesseris ? ” —
“ Tib. Hemsterhusius, Orat. de Mathem. et Philosoph.
Studio cum Lit. Human, conjungendo,” p. 214.
�APPENDIX. (Seep. 4.)
“ Let us take a review of the acquirements of
a clever youth, not prematurely hurried from
school to the business of active life ; but left
there, we will suppose, to the age of sixteen or
seventeen, to acquire what knowledge he may.
He shall be found at that age tolerably well
skilled in the mysteries of longs and shorts;
to have acquired a facility of stringing together
doggerel verses ; to have construed unconnected
scraps from ancient writers, such as are to be
found in popular selections of extracts, his
attention having never been drawn to any of
those models of classic poetry so numerous in
his own ; familiar with the genealogies and
exploits of the heathen divinities ; well versed
in the history of the Trojan war, and the feuds
of the Grecian heroes, and but little in the
social convulsions of his native soil, and the
political storms which have swept over its face;
slightly acquainted with geography ; initiated
into arithmetic, not as a science built upon
principles, but as a set of rules, the arbitrary
invention (for anything he knows to the con
trary) of the book-maker; and acquiescing
upon trust in a few propositions of Euclid.
“ This, I apprehend, is rather an exaggerated
statement of a youth’s acquirements on leaving
one of our schools.
“ Now, of what is he wholly ignorant ?
“ The answer to this question is far too long
tobequoted here.” (See “Education and Edu
cational Institutions considered,” &c., by Rev.
J. Booth, LL.D., M.R.S.A. London, 1846
pp. 35, 36, et seq.)
“At Eton, the most aristocratic of schools,
though there is a drawing-master, and though,
more fortunate than the unlucky Italian mas
ter, he has a room, and even some casts and
models, the average attendance on his instruc
tion is 35 out of 783. Music is not taught at
all. In the report on Winchester, no mention
is made of either. At Harrow, music and
drawing are extras, studied by 18 and 50,
respectively, of the 464 boys. Even at Rugby,
the numbers are only 49 and 42 in 465. This,
then, is the amount of attention paid in these
great schools to the Fine Arts, and to the culti
vation of eye and ear. Geography, after a
little elementary instruction, is wholly neg
lected. Attention is paid to ancient history
at some schools, in connection with classical
work ; but at Winchester, Dr. Moberley says,
‘ we do not profess to teach modern history at
alland the case seems no better at the other
schools, though no such open confession of
failure is made.
“ What, then, do these great schools teach ?
I need not give the answer. They teach Latin
and Greek ; and, subordinate to these, mathe
matics. To these three studies, or rather to
two, Latin and Greek, almost the whole teach
ing-force of these great institutions is applied.
Of the 35 masters at Eton, 24, or about 70 per
cent., are classical; eight are mathematical;
and three teach all the modern languages, phy
sical science, natural history, English language
and literature, drawing, and music ; and this
is about the proportion in all save Rugby,
where matters are somewhat better.” (Clas
sical and Scientific Studies, and the Great
Schools of England. By W. P. Atkinson.
1865. Cambridge, U. S. pp. 22.)
“ There are no schools in the world which
approach the English public schools in the
immense cost at which tneir advantages, such
as they are, have to be obtained ; and yet Mr.
Matthew Arnold, the son of the most famous
Head-master who ever presided over an Eng
lish public school, and himself profoundly
acquainted with the state of the higher educa
tion both in England and on the Continent,
could say, the other day, with almost as much
truth as point,—‘At Eton, a boy learns a
gentlemanly deportment and cricket, at an
expense of .£250. a year.’ The able men who
reported upon Eton and the otherpublic schools
two years ago, pointed out a legion of abuses
that urgently call for amendment, proved,
indeed, to demonstration that the whole existing
system was rotten to its core; but, although
Bills were introduced by Lord Clarendon in the
Sessions of both 1865 and 1866, with a view
to remedy, to some small extent, the present
disastrous state of affairs, the obstructives
have up this time succeeded in preventing any
thing effectual being done.” (Grant Duff, Esq.,
M. P., Weekly Scotsman, 1st Sept., 1866.)
Printed by C. F. Hodgson & Son, Gough Square, Fleet Street.
�
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Classical instruction: why?-when?-for whom?: a paper read at the meeting in Sept. 1865 of the Social Science Association at Sheffield; and at the monthly meeting, in May 1866, of the College of Perceptors
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Printed in double columns. Reprinted from the Educational Times for June, 1866. Two copies bound into Conway Tracts 4, no. 15. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Classical Education
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677999c7bc4db0cee188ab56e0094098
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Text
REMARKS
UPON THE
EDUCATION OF DEAF MUTES:
DEFENCE OF THE DOCTRINES
OF THE
SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
BOARD OF STATE CHARITIES,
AND IN
REPLY TO THE CHARGES OF THE REV. COLLINS STONE,
Principal of the American Asylum
at
Hartford.
BOSTON:
WALKER, FULLER & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1866.
�Wright & Potter, Prs., 4 Spring Lane, Boston.
�On reading the last Report of the Principal of the American
Asylum for Mutes, it seemed to me that I ought to criticize it
publicly, first, in the hope of promoting the true interest of deaf
mutes, by calling attention to the subject of their education; second,
in order to defend my colleagues of the Massachusetts Board of
State Charities from some discreditable imputations; third, to set
forth the real doctrines contained in their Second Report; and lastly,
to exculpate myself from certain charges of inconsistency, and
insinuations of selfish purposes.
I thought to do this in a newspaper article ; but my interest in the
subject, or my inability to condense the matter, made it impossible.
When the manuscript was finished, it was laid aside ; and the pur
pose of publishing it half abandoned.
A recent event has confirmed my first purpose; but leaves not
the time to recast the article. This must explain the tardiness of
its appearance, and its being written in the third person.
SAMUEL G. HOWE.
Boston, October 21st, 1866.
��REMARKS
UPON THE
*
EDUCATION OE DEAF MUTES.
The American Asylum, for the Education and
Instruction of Deaf Mutes, at Hartford, is the oldest
establishment of the kind in the United States, and
the only one in New England. It has been of
incalculable benefit to the deaf mutes of all the
country.
It enjoys, and it deserves public confi
dence and esteem. It enjoys moreover the monop
oly of educating the public beneficiaries of all the
New England States; a monopoly of which it
seems to be very tenacious.
Its Annual Reports are widely circulated; and
are considered as valuable and reliable. They are
read and regarded as entirely sound by most
persons interested in the education of deaf mutes.
The Institution is strictly conservative. Its
Directors are men of high character, pure motives,
and eminent gravity. Its system of instruction,
adopted fifty years ago, is still adhered to, with
few changes; and all proposals to modify it are
stoutly resisted.
�6
If pressed, they are repelled with sensitiveness,
and sometimes with asperity; as though they were
considered impertinent interference; and yet any
citizen of Massachusetts, at least, has a right to
press thbm, because about half the pupils of the
school are beneficiaries of this State.
The late lamented Horace Mann, Secretary of
the Massachusetts Board of Education, proposed a
great modification of the system of instruction;
and brought powerful arguments and stubborn
facts to the support of his views. But he failed
to effect any material change. The Asylum yielded
a little for a time, under his vigorous attacks, but
swung back to its old moorings; and, held fast
by the anchor of conservatism, breasts the tide of
progressive ideas which sweep by it.
In France, Dr. Blanchet, connected with the
Imperial Institution for Deaf Mutes, has long been
advocating still greater changes in the system of
educating these unfortunates. His views are inge
nious and plausible, and have found considerable
favor.
The Minister of Public Instruction, in a very
able Circular to the Prefects of all the Departments
in France, recommended Dr. Blanchet’s plan to
their favorable notice several years ago.
Some Departments and Municipalities have voted
money, and made arrangements for testing the
practicability of the proposed plan. It has been
�7
in operation in some parts of France and of Russia.
It is radical in its nature., and points to a partial
abandonment of central Institutions, and the
instruction of mutes in their several towns.
This plan seems to us impractical in its full
extent; but it certainly has very valuable features,
and deserves notice and trial. We shall watch the
experiment in France with great interest, and we
wish Dr. Blanchet all the success which his zeal
and enterprise merit.
Meantime, the Massachusetts Board of State
Charities, part of whose duty it is to visit the
Hartford school and look after the interests of the
beneficiaries placed there by the State, suggested,
in its Second Annual Report, some important
changes in the system of instructing and educating
our deaf mutes, which, if carried out, would result
in their being educated at home instead of being
sent to Connecticut.
This seems to alarm the Hartford school; and
the Principal devotes almost the whole of his last
Report to what purports to be an answer to the
suggestions of the Board.
He seems fairly roused; but not so much to the
importance of the principles in question, as of
defending the practices of the Hartford school, and
of preserving the patronage of Massachusetts. He
has at least two qualifications, which, as Byron
�8
says, always make a writer interesting, to wit,
"wrath and partiality.”
His zeal leads him, not only to overlook facts
and reasonings, but, unconsciously perhaps, to be
uncourteous to the Board, and disrespectful to the
Chairman, upon whom he makes a personal attack.
He seems to think that if he can convict him of
inconsistency, and show that he is ignorant of the
best manner of educating mutes, the matter will be
put to rest. He therefore avoids discussion of
principles, and his Beport is mainly an argumentum
ad liominem. As such, it would not call for a
public reply, because the public do not care whether
the Principal or the Chairman of the Board is right
in his theories. But our people do desire to have
our deaf mutes educated in the best manner;
though do not often have the means of knowing
much about it. The present, therefore, seems to be a
good opportunity of drawing their attention to it;
and, as most of them are rather attracted than
repelled by the smack of a controversy, we shall
yield to the temptation, and without following the
example of the Principal, in regard to personalities,
we shall assail his positions, and refute his state
ments, so far as propriety and respect for an opponent
will permit. Out of such a discussion, conducted
with the desire to elicit truth, ought to come, not
any scandal to the cause of public charity, but on
the contrary, an advance of its best interests.
�9
It will be necessary, however, first to consider
some general principles which are apt to be forgot
ten in the organization of Institutions, and of
methods for educating deaf mutes, and similar
classes of defectives. We can at the same time
show the grounds upon which the Massachusetts
Board of State Charities placed its suggestions
for a change in our present system, and which called
forth the displeasure of the Principal.
The multitude of unfortunates into whose condi
tion the Board was to inquire, and over which the
law gives it general supervision, was divided into
the Dependent class, the Destructive class, and the
Criminal class.
The first comprised destitute orphans; abandoned
children; vagrant and vicious children, and youth;
the blind, the deaf and dumb; the insane, the idiots,
the confirmed drunkards, State paupers, and the
like; making nearly twenty thousand persons in
Massachusetts alone.
The general principles to be followed in the care
and direction of these unfortunates were thus set
forth:—
1st. “ That it is better to separate and diffuse the
dependent classes than to congregate them.
2d. “ That we ought to avail ourselves as much as possi
ble of those remedial agencies which exist in society,—the
family, social influences, industrial occupations, and the
like.
�10
3d. “ That we should enlist not only the greatest possible
amount of popular sympathy, but the greatest number of
individuals and of families, in the care and treatment of
the dependent.
4th. “ That we should avail ourselves of responsible socie
ties and organizations which aim to reform, support, or help
any class of dependents, thus lessening the direct agency of
the State, and enlarging that of the people themselves.
5th. “ That we should build up public institutions only in
the last resort.
6th. “ That these should be kept as small as is consistent
with wise economy, and arranged so as to turn the strength
and faculties of the inmates to the best account.
7th. “That we should not retain the inmates any longer
than is manifestly for their good, irrespective of their
usefulness in the institution.”
The three last propositions seem sound, but they
are unwelcome to those who are wedded to public
institutions, and who believe in the doctrine of
teaching, improving, or supporting children and
adults in masses.
The Board says:—
“ Our people have rather a passion for institutions ; but
they have also a vague idea that great piles of brick and
mortar are essential to their existence and potency. They
want to see them at once, and in the concrete. Hence,
we sometimes have follies of the people as well as of indi
viduals—many stories high, too—and so strongly built, and
richly endowed, that they cannot be got rid of easily.”
In support of their principle the Board said:—
�11
“ The hideous evils growing out of the old system of
keeping men in prisons, shut up without separation, and
without occupation, are too well known to need mention
here ; but it is not enough considered that the chief evils
arose, not from the men being especially vicious or criminal,
but from the fact of their _being congregated so closely
together.
“ Let us see how it affects the pauper class.
“ Most of those belonging to the first division mentioned
above, to wit, those in whom dependence is inherent, and,
of course, permanent, are infirm mentally, morally, or
physically, perhaps in-all these respects. Neither can those
in the other class be in a normal and vigorous condition,
else they would not be dependent. There exists in them,
indeed, the innate disposition or capacity for recovering the
normal state, but as yet it is in abeyance. Now, out of
unsound and abnormal conditions there must, *of course,
grow certain mental and moral tendencies, which, to say the
least, are unwholesome. And it is a natural consequence,
(though disregarded in practice,) that if an individual with
these tendencies lives in close association with others like
himself, all his peculiarities and tendencies are intensified
by the intercourse. The greater the majority of unsound
persons in his community, the greater the intensification of
his abnormal tendencies. Each acts upon all; and the
characteristics of class, or caste, are rapidly developed.
Nothing is more contagious than evil.”
This principle is further illustrated by reference
to special classes as of the deaf mutes, and of the
blind.—
�12
“ The lack of an important sense not only prevents the
entire and harmonious development of mind and character,
but it tends to give morbid growth in certain directions, as
a plant checked in its direct upward growth grows askew.
It would be a waste of words to prove this, because a denial
of it would be a denial of the importance of the great senses.
“ The morbid tendencies, however, are not strong—cer
tainly not irresistible—at least with the blind. They are
educable, like all tendencies and dispositions, and by skilful
management may be turned to advantage. Certainly, how
ever, they ought to be lessened, not strengthened, by educa
tion. Now, they are lessened, and them morbid effects
corrected in each individual by intimate intercourse with
persons of sound and normal condition—that is, by general
society; while they are strengthened by associating closely
and persistently with others having the like infirmity.
“ Guidecbby this principle, we should, in providing for the
instruction and training of these persons, have the associa
tion among them as little as is possible, and counteract its
tendencies by encouraging association and intimacy with
common society. They should be kept together no more
closely and no longer than is necessary for their special
instruction; and there should be no attempts to build up
permanent asylums for them, or to favor the establishment
of communities composed wholly, or mainly, of persons
subject to a common infirmity.
“ Special educational influences, to counteract these special
morbid tendencies, should begin with the beginning of life
and continue to its end; and they should be more uniform
and persistent with mutes than with blind.
“ The constant object should be to fashion them into the
likeness of common men by subjecting them to common
�13
social influences, and to check the tendency to isolation and
to intensification of the peculiarities which grow out of
their infirmity.
“ A consideration of the principles imperfectly set forth
above, will show that when we gather mutes and blind into
institutions for the purpose of instruction, we are in danger
of sowing, with sound wheat, some tares that may bring
forth evil fruit. The mere instruction may be excellent,
but other parts of the education tend to isolate them from
common social influences, and to intensify their peculiarities,
and this is bad.”
These rather novel doctrines have attracted atten
tion among thoughtful persons. They have been
praised by high authorities; pronounced too radical
by others; and have been assailed by a few who
fear that the importance and usefulness of long
established institutions, to which they themselves
are honestly wedded for life, may be impaired if
such doctrines should be accepted.
The Board, after carefully setting forth the prin
ciples upon which all methods of treating special
classes should be based, went on to apply them to
the case of the deaf mutes of Massachusetts.
The present method is to send these unfortunates,
at the expense of the State, to Hartford, there to
reside with many others of the same class, in a
great asylum, and be kept closely together during
the most impressible years of their lives, deprived
almost entirely of family and social relations, except
�14
with each other. They have not even the advantage
of family relations with their teachers, who naturally
show their preference for domestic life over asylum
life, by dwelling in their own houses.
This arrangement, however saving of labor, and
sparing of money, violates the principle so strenu
ously urged by the Board of Charities, that defective
children should be associated together as little as is
possible; and with ordinary persons as much as is
possible.
The Board suggested that instead of this plan,
the deaf mutes of Massachusetts (who are quite
numerous enough to form one school as large as a
school ought to be,) should be educated at home,
that is, within the State. The plan did not contem
plate an asylum, but simply one or more schools, to
which mutes could go for instruction, as other chil
dren go to common schools; and during the rest of
the time be subjected to the ordinary family and
social influences,—not of a great deaf mute family,
but of common life.
The plan certainly had many important features.
The method proposed was in accordance with the
principles set forth by the Board, the soundness of
which has not been disproved. It avoided, as much
as is possible, the acknowledged evils of congregat
ing persons of common infirmity closely together.
It involved no great expense. It was in the nature
of an experiment; and could be abandoned with
�15
little loss, if it should fail. In fine, it seemed to
present a happy mean between the old system of the
Hartford school and the system urged by Blanchet,
which begins to find so much favor in France and
other European countries. It incorporated the
admitted advantages, and avoided the acknowledged
evils of each. But it also involved the loss to the
Hartford asylum of almost one-half its pupils, who
are maintained there by the State of Massachusetts.
It is conceivable, therefore, that it should be
opposed, both directly and indirectly.
Accordingly, the Principal of the American
Asylum at Hartford, opposes it in his way, which
is the indirect way. He devotes almost the whole
of. his last Report to this matter. First, he makes
a false issue with the Report of the Board of Chari
ties; second, he makes a personal attack upon the
Chairman.
He raises a false issue, by devoting a large part
of his Report to the subject of teaching mutes
articulation, as if that had been urged by the Board.
He sets forth forcibly and fully the advantages of
the French method of instruction used with some
modifications at Hartford, and the disadvantages of
the German method used in the German, and
many other European schools.
If there was room to go into the matter here, it
could be shown, that, with the exception of a single
sentence, which should be qualified, all that is urged
�16
in the Report of the Board of Charities in favor of
articulation, is sound, and cannot be gainsaid. "We
quote from pp. 51-55 of their Report:—
“ The inherent differences between children who are blind
or mute and ordinary children, are not so great as to form
characteristics of a class, or to remove them from the effect
of common educational influences. We are not, therefore,
to modify these influences to suit their condition, but rather
modify their condition to suit them. We must, however,
modify our method of instruction somewhat to suit the
blind, and a great deal to suit the deaf mutes.
“ It is not the purpose, now, to speak of special instruction,
further than to say that, other things being equal, the me'hod
is best which approaches most closely the approved methods
used with ordinary children.
“ But in speaking of education in a more general sense,
that is of the influences which are brought to bear upon the
development of character, -a few words may be appropriate
upon the subject under consideration, to wit,—
“ Intensification of Peculiarities Growing' out of an
Infirmity.
“ It is to be borne in mind always, that the infirmities
which characterize these classes of mutes and blind do, in
spite of certain compensations, entail certain undesirable
consequences,'which have unfavorable effects upon body and
mind both.
“ The lack of an important sense not only prevents the
entire and harmonious development of mind and character,
but it tends to give morbid growth in certain directions, as a
plant checked in its direct upward growth grows askew.
It would be a waste of words to prove this, because a
�17
!
:
>
denial of it would be a denial of the importance of the great
senses.
“ The morbid tendencies, however, are not strong—
•certainly not irresistible—at least with the blind. They are
educable, like all tendencies and dispositions, and by skilful
management may be turned to advantage. Certainly, how
ever, they ought to be lessened, not strengthened, by educa
tion. Now, they are lessened, and their morbid effects
corrected in each individual, by intimate intercourse with
persons of sound and normal condition—that is, by general
society; while they are strengthened by associating closely
and persistently with others having the like infirmity. They,
themselves, seem to have an instinctive perception of this,
and the most delicate of them feel the morbid tendency
which may segregate them from ordinary people, and put
them in a special class. Some of them struggle "against it
in a touching manner, as the fabled nymph resisted meta
morphosis into a lower form of life.
“ They seem to cling to ordinary persons, as if fearing
segregation, and strive to conform themselves to their habits,
manners, and even appearance. They wish to look, to
act, to be, as much like others as is possible, and to be con
sidered as belonging to ordinary society, and not to a special
class.
“ It is generally supposed that this feeling, especially in
the blind, arises only from the fact that blindness and
poverty are associated together, and that poverty calls forth
contempt, lightened, in their case, by pity. But the feeling
has a deeper source. It is very strong in those of delicate
and sensitive natures, and it ought always to be respected
and encouraged. Our principle in treating them should be
that of separation and diffusion, not congregation. We are
3
�to educate them, for society of those who hear and who see;
and the earlier we begin the better.
“We violate this principle when we gather them into
institutions; but we do so in view of certain advantages of'
instruction in common, which are not to be had in any other
feasible method; as we bear with an inferior common school
rather than have none. A man of wealth might, indeed—
and if he were wise, would—allow his mute or blind child
to spend a certain time in a well-regulated institution for
like children; but it would be only a short one.
“ Guided by this principle we should, in providing for the
instruction and training of these persons, have the associa
tion among them as little as is possible, and counteract its
tendencies by encouraging association and intimacy with
common society. They should be kept together no more
closely and no longer than is necessary for their special
instruction; and there should be no attempts to build up
permanent asylums for them, or to favor the establishment
of communities composed wholly or mainly of persons
subject to a common infirmity.
“ This is far more important with the mutes than with the
blind, because of their speechlessness. Language, in its
largest sense, is the most important instrument of thought,
feeling, and emotion; and especially of social intercourse.
Blindness, in so far as it prevents knowledge of and partici
pation in the rudimentary part of language, to wit, panto
mime, or signs, gestures, and expression of features and
face, tends to isolation : but the higher and far more impor
tant part of language, speech, is fully open to them. Then
their sense of dependence strengthens their social desires;
increases their knowledge and command of speech, and
makes that compensate very nearly, if not quite, for igno
�19
rance of other parts of language. The blind, if left to
ordinary social influences, are in no danger of isolation. It
is when we bring them together in considerable numbers
that the tendency to segregation manifests itself; and this
is rather from necessity than from choice, for the social
cravings become more intense with them than with us.
“ With mutes it is not so. Speech is essential for human
development. Without it full social communion is impossi
ble ; since there can be no effectual substitute for it. The
rudimentary and lower parts of language, or pantomime, is
open to mutes; but the higher and finer part, that is,
speech, is forever closed ; and any substitute for it is, at best,
imperfect. This begets a tendency to isolation; which not
being so effectually checked during youth, as it is with the
blind, by a sense of dependence, becomes more formidable.
To be mute, therefore, implies tendency to isolation. The
blind need little special instruction; the mutes a great
deal.
“ An attempt to consider different modes of instructing
mutes would lead into a wide field of discussion ; but it may
be remarked that in the plenitude of arguments and disputes
about the comparative merit of the various systems of sign
language, it has not been enough considered that, by teach
ing a mute to articulate, we bring him to closer association
with us by using our vernacular in our way, than by teach
ing him the finger language, which can never become our
vernacular. The special method tends more to segregate
him and his fellows from ordinary society. In the first case
one party adheres to the natural and ordinary method of
speech, and the other party strives to imitate it; in the
second, both use a purely arbitrary and conventional
method.
�20
. “ The favorite motto of the adherents of the method of
dactylology betrays this fault,—
4 Lingua vicaria manus ; ’
for the very vicariousness is objectionable, and ought to be
lessened as much as is possible.
“ Without pretending to metaphysical precision, it may be
said that by means of the senses we come into conscious
relations with external nature—with men and things. Sen
sation and perception are the roots of knowledge. The
wider the circle of sensuous relations, the more rapid the
acquirement of knowledge. By action and reaction between
our internal nature and external nature, character is devel
oped. But in order that there may be harmonious and
entire development of human character, there must be the
ordinary organs of human sense : no more and no less.
“ The result, then, of the lack of any one organ of sense
must be twofold; first, limitation of the circle of sensuous
relations ; second, inharmonious development of character.
“ In the education of the deaf mutes and of the blind we
are to counteract the limitation by special instruction given
through the remaining senses ; and we are to counteract the
tendency to inharmonious development by special influences,
both social and moral.
“ Special educational influences, to counteract these special
morbid tendencies, should begin with the beginning of life
and continue to its end ; and they should be more uniform
and persistent with mutes than with the blind.
“ The constant object should be to fashion them into the
likeness of common men by subjecting them to common
social influences, and to check the tendency to isolation and
to intensification of the peculiarities which grow out of their
infirmity.
,
�21
“A consideration of the principles imperfectly set forth
above, will show that when we gather mutes and blind into
institutions for the purpose of instruction, we are in danger
of sowing, with sound wheat, some tares that may bring
forth evil fruit. The mere instruction may be excellent,
but other parts of the education tend to isolate them from
common social influences, and to intensify their peculiarities,
and this is bad.”
It will be seen that the Board does not commit
itself to the system of articulation. Nay! the Report
says expressly, (p. lviii.,) ” that while some of the
members believe that articulation should be taught,
others, without pretending to decide upon the com
parative merits of different systems of instruction,
believe that many benefits would arise from having
the wards of the State taught within her borders.
They would, therefore, suggest a plan for change
in our system of educating deaf mutes.”
In this plan, the Board do not recommend that
articulation should be taught.
This is the false issue which the Principal makes.
Next, he tries to divert attention from the reason
ing of the Board, by attacking the Chairman, and
disparaging the value of his opinion.
He singles him out by name; rudely insinu
ates that he is given to riding hobby horses, and to
changing them frequently; and that moreover he
might have some personal end to gratify; and say
ing for himself, with much complacency,—■" We are
�22
not specially sensitive in this matter, we have no
hobbies to ride, and’ no personal end whatever to
gratify ! ” (p. 38.)
Considering that the Report of the Board of
Charities alluded to the Directors and officers of the
Hartford Asylum very courteously; and admitted
that the deaf mutes of Massachusetts ” have
received fair and kind treatment at their hands, and
been taught by a corps of able and accomplished
teachers; ”* such language by one of those officers,
sanctioned by those Directors, and printed in their
Annual Report, appears uncourteous and strange,
to say the least!
Again, considering that no one charged the Rev- *
erend Principal with being sensitive, or hobby
horsical, his language certainly shows neither lack
of sensitiveness nor abundance of Christian charity;
but it does suggest the French proverb,—" gui
s’ excuse s’ accuse ; ” — ” who needlessly excuses
himself, accuses himself.”
And yet again, considering that the Reverend
Principal is not sensitive, and declares (p. 29,) that
the objections urged against the Hartford system
have been repeatedly met, to the satisfaction of
committees of the Massachusetts Legislature, it is
strange he should say, ” It may be proper to give
them a passing notice: ” stranger still, that this " passing notice ” should occupy almost the whole
of his Report.
Report, p. 57.
�23
He then proceeds, not to consider the arguments
and considerations urged against the Hartford
system, but to demolish them by lessening whatever
weight they might derive from the character of the
members of the Massachusetts Board of State
Charities, in whose Report they are found.
That Board consists of seven members, six, at
least, of whom are gentlemen of character, and some
of them eminent scholars and teachers. They all
sign the Report ; and all endorse the principles
which it advocates, and the application of those
principles to the education of mutes; although
they admit< they are not all of them, competent to
decide whether mutes should be taught articulation
or not.
But the Principal regards them as mere men of
straw, who signed what they did not understand or
believe!
He says (p. 35,) with regard to the question of
teaching articulation, "On the side of educating
mutes by signs, we find every teacher in this coun
try, and in the British Isles, with the exceptions
above named, and several of these have spent
nearly forty years in the work of practical instruc
tion; on the side of teaching articulation, we find
Dr. S. GK Howe! ”
And so with all the arguments and considera
tions urged in the Report of the Board. It is,
"Dr. Howe objects;” "Dr. Howe urges;” "Dr.
�24
Howe complains;” "Dr. Howe suggests.” Dr.
Howe is everywhere, the Board nowhere!
Having deprived the principles advanced in the
Report of whatever moral support the names of the
doctor’s colleagues might give, he next tries to
demolish whatever they might get from the name
of the doctor alone.
He quotes some of his opinions, expressed many
years ago, and shows that they differ from those
put forth in the recent Report of the Board of
Charities, and then remarks,—
“ It is pleasant to notice, that as Dr. Howe’s views with
regard to the best arrangements for deaf mutes have not
been entirely settled in the past, there is reason to hope he
may come out right yet.”
Amen! but he will never come out right, if he is
afraid of inconsistency with former opinions; or
clings to doctrines because he once professed belief
in them. The doctor indeed says, in one of his
Reports, that the result of many years’ experience
and observation, both of blind and of mutes, con
vince him that he made mistakes in organizing the
Institution for the Blind, more than thirty years
ago. There was then no school for the blind in the
country, and he copied existing establishments,
among others the asylum at Hartford, merely
modifying it to meet the special condition of the
blind.
�25
He found, in a few years, that he had incorpora
ted some fundamental errors in the plan of organi
zation ; and in his Twentieth Report he states, that
having been called upon by a committee from
another State to recommend a plan for an institution
for the blind, he did recommend one differing in
important points from the Perkins’ Institution. He
would have no "commons,” no central boarding
house,—only a school-house. He would thus avoid
the error of making them board, and lodge, and
live so much together; because he finds that it
encourages a spirit of caste, and intensifies the
peculiarities growing out of their infirmity. He
would have them associate with each other less,
and with ordinary persons more, than is now done.
He would now follow out this idea in the pro
posed school for mutes in Massachusetts. He did,
indeed, follow it out in establishing the workshop
for the blind many years ago; and the most
satisfactory results have been obtained.
There are some thirty blind persons who come
together in the morning to learn trades, and to work
at them on wages, and go away to their several
boarding places in the neighborhood.
This establishment is under the general direction
of the Institution; but the inmates (some of them
young,) are not brought together except for
instruction, or for work, and not even for work in
large numbers; because the plan is to furnish work
4
�26
at their several homes whenever it is possible.
They are thus subjected to ordinary family and social
influences, and are trained to live in and take part
with ordinary society, and not trained to become
members of a special class or caste. The establish
ment is successful; and blind persons who have
been familiar with both modes of living,—asylum
life and common life,—prefer the latter.
It would doubtless be so with mutes if the exper
iment were fairly tried; for all the reasons and con
siderations in favor of such a system apply with
even more force to them than to the blind.
The first direct charge which the Principal
brings against Dr. Howe is, that he makes "an
offensive classification ” of deaf mutes.
"We object to Dr. Howe’s placing, as' he does,
the four hundred deaf mutes of Massachusetts
among the dependent classes.” (Pep. p. 29.) And
again, (p. 30,) " This offensive classification pervades
the whole Report,” &c.
He would be blameworthy indeed who should,
eve n by careless use of language, give just cause
of offence to a class of unfortunates who need all
our sympathy and kindness. But we shall show
that by no fair construction of the Report can such
a charge be sustained; and moreover, that if the
language of the Directors of the Hartford school,
and of the Principal himself, were construed as he
�27
construes the language of the Board, then they
and he are open to the charge of very " offensive
classification.”
So far from anything " offensive ” to the mutes
pervading the Report of the Board, they are spoken
of not only respectfully, but with tender interest.
Indeed, special care even is taken to combat the
common opinion, (which is really offensive to the
mutes,) that they form a special class, and must
always do so; an opinion, by the way, which the
Reports of asylums for deaf mutes, and even
those of the Principal himself, often tend, inadver
tently, to strengthen. The Board of Charities
says, (p. 50,)
“ It may be permitted, however, to draw a further illustra
tion of the principle under consideration from some persons,
(neither vicious nor criminal,) the similarity of whose
defect or infirmity causes them to be classed together, such as
the deaf mutes and the blind. It may not be improper, at
the same time, to make some remarks and suggestions upon
the mode of treating such of these classes as are at the
charge of the State.
“ It is common to regard deaf mutes and the blind as
forming special classes, though speaking strictly no such
classes exist in nature.
“ They spring up sporadically among the people, from the
existence of abnormal conditions of parentage, which produce
a pretty equal average number of cases in every generation,
among any given population.
�28
“ They abound more in some localities and some neighbor
hoods than in others; owing, probably, to ill-assorted
marriages.
“ The important points, however, are that these abnormal
conditions of parentage are not inherent and essential ones ;
that some of them are cognizable ; that with wider diffusion
of popular knowledge more of them may be known; and
that, by avoiding them, the consequences may cease, and the
classes themselves gradually diminish and finally disappear.
“We have no deaf or blind domestic animals; and the
generations of men need not be forever burdened with blind
and deaf offspring.”
The idea which pervades the Report is, that the
mutes and the blind, if left without special instruc
tion and training, tend to fall into the class of
dependents. If this gives just cause of offence,
then must the Report of all the institutions for deaf
mutes in the country be offensive; for they do
constantly express the idea that deaf mutes must be
a burden to their friends and to society, unless they
receive special instruction.
Out of the abundance of such expression we
select a few. The directors of the Hartford school
say: ” The translation indeed of one of the inferior
orders of creation to the human species, would be
only in a degree more wonderful than we have in
several instances witnessed in our scholars.” The
Principal quotes this language approvingly, in his
able paper, in the American Annals, (p. 3.)
«
�29
Nay! he himself is especially open to the charge
of what he calls " offensive classification.”
Without meaning to be "offensive,” he often
speaks of them in a way which might give pain to
sensitive persons. For instance, he says: "We do
not believe that another human being can be found,
in savage or civilized society, whose mind is so
thoroughly imbruted with ignorance and so difficult
to reach as that of many a deaf mute who has
grown up to maturity in the darkness and neglect
consequent upon his misfortune ! ” *
In many other places he speaks of them as
entirely dependent upon society for salvation from
a low and brutish life. He does not regard them
as dependent in the sense in which ordinary chil
dren and youth are, but specially and necessarily
dependent, owing to their natural infirmity; and
shows that they can be lifted out of their ignorance
and dependence only by special means and costly
training.
Nay, more! He not only considers them as a
dependent class, but he sometimes fairly puts them
down in the dangerous class. He says, eloquently:
“ It is the darkness and gloom of his mental condition that
makes him an object of commiseration, and renders him, if
uneducated, the most pitiable of all God's creatures. This
darkness is as nearly total as can well exist in the midst of
, * Thirty-Fifth Annual Report Ohio Institution for Deaf and Dumb,
p. 9. Report of Rev. Collins Stone, Superintendent.
�30
civilized and Christian society. His palsied ear shuts out
from his soul, not only the Q melody of sweet sounds,’ but also
the most familiar facts of common life and experience.
“ He knows nothing of the history of mankind, or of the
globe on which he lives, or of the immensely important truths
connected with his immortality.
“ He is also excluded by his infirmity from intercourse
with his fellow-men. He can neither make known to them
his own wants, nor understand and conform to their wishes.
But while in this uneducated state he is a very ignorant
being, he is by no means an innocuous one. His animal
nature is fully developed. His passions are fierce and
strong, and he knows no reason for their restraint. Revenge,
lust, jealousy, may have dominion over him, without the
presence of any moral considerations to lead him to repress
their promptings. He may thus easily become an uncom
fortable and dangerous member of society ! ”
Now, if the classification of these unfortunates
among the deserving but dependent members of
society is "offensive,” what must be that of the
Reverend Principal, who puts them among the
dangerous members?
But, in reality, neither meant any offence, and
none ought to be taken. The criticism is not
worthy of the Principal, whose actions speak louder
than his words; whose devotion of his life to the
education of mutes would prove him to be their
friend, let his language be what it might; and
though he has made more " offensive classifications ”
of them than the Board has done.
�31
The Principal next makes four several charges
against Dr. Howe, in one paragraph, as follows:
First, that ” a few years ago he advocated the
plan of educating deaf mutes and blind children in
one institution, on the ground that as the blind are
intellectually superior, such a union would be
especially for the advantage of deaf mutes.” The
Principal probably had been looking at the Twelfth
Report of the Trustees of the Perkins’ Institution
for the Blind, without remarking that it stated that
Dr. Howe had been in Europe most of the year,
and did not write his usual Report. But, no matter;
he stands by the Trustees’ report, and still maintains
that blind children are usually much superior to
mutes in capacity for intellectual attainment, by
reason of the gift of hearing, which is the mother
of speech; and that it would, on this and on other
accounts, be better for a mute child to be asso
ciated, while learning the English language, with
a blind child, than with another mute child.
His position is not understood by the Principal.
He has urged that certain advantages would accrue
to deaf mutes by being associated with blind chil
dren, because they would be forced to spell their
words upon their fingers, and to form distinct sen
tences, and thus to have constant practice in the
English language.
Thinking persons know well that one of the
greatest obstacles in the way of deaf mutes learning
�32
our language is the strong tendency they have to
use pantomime.
The attempt to make them use the English lan
guage in their intercourse with each other, is like
trying to make our children speak French together.
The little mutelings won’t take pains to spell out
the words when they can flash forth their meaning
with a look or a gesture.
They won’t make the letters t-a-i-l-o-r if they
can touch their forehead, and imitate the swing of
his arm; nor h-o-r-s-e if they can crook their fore
fingers by the side of their forehead to show his
ears; nor h-o-r-s-e-m-a-n if they can set two fingers
astride the other hand. They won’t restrict them
selves to the use of letters, and words, and sentences
in their intercourse with their playmates who can
see; but they would be forced to do so with
playmates who are blind.
There is hardly a mute graduate of the Hartford
school who can spell as well as Laura Bridgman
does; and nothing gave her such marvellous accu
racy, and such copious vocabulary, except the
necessity of constantly practising the use of words
which had been so painfully taught her.
It is almost a matter of certainty that she would
not have been able to spell so well as she does if she
had been merely deaf and mute. Like other mutes
she would have been tempted by the facility of
addressing signs to the eye to neglect that patient
�33
and persistent practice which is necessary to make
a good speller.
She could see no natural signs, and therefore,
persons conversing with her were forced to spell
their words; and her answers were necessarily
made not by signs, but by letters and words.
The case was a new and anomalous one, and if
the Doctor had regarded the ” consistency ” of his
record, and followed the practice of the ” schools,”
he would have declined to undertake the charge of a
child who did not come within the rules.
The passages on which, probably, the Principal
founds his first charge, merely set forth certain
advantages of the kind of instruction which the
blind mutes must have; and its applicability in a
certain extent to the instruction of ordinary mutes.
The second charge is, that " he has since been
understood to favor their education by a .new system
of dactylology of his own invention.”
The Principal has been imposed upon by a pure
invention of somebody. But should he allow himself to be imposed upon? Such a statement was
worth publishing, or it was not. If it was, then
the Principal should first have inquired if it were
true; and a letter of inquiry would have brought the
answer by return mail that it was untrue. If it was
not worth publishing, then such a statement is
unworthy a place in a Report professing to be a
5
�34
reply to the Report of the Massachusetts Board of
State Charities.
The third charge is, that " Dr. Howe once advo
cated removing mute children from home influences
and associations at a much earlier period in life than
most teachers think judicious.”
This is true; but if the Principal had gone on
and stated the whole truth, he would have made it
appear that Dr. Howe’s heretical views were finally
adopted by the Directors of the American Asylum.
As he has failed to go into the history of the
matter, which is interesting in the history of deaf
mute education in Massachusetts, we will do so.
In the Twelfth Annual Report of the Institution
for the Blind, for 1843, occurs the following:—
“ A few words must be said with regard to the two deaf
and dumb children who joined our school about a year
since, at the early age of seven years. Being too young to be
admitted into the Asylum for the deaf mutes at Hartford, .
they were placed by their parents under our direction, with
the hope that* they might, at least, gain a knowledge of
language at an earlier period than has been usually the case
with children in their condition.
“ The success which has attended the plan of instructing
Laura, by the finger language alone, has induced the
instructor of these two deaf mutes to teach them only by
the finger process, intentionally avoiding the use of the
gesture language, taught at Institutions for the deaf and
dumb. And, thus far, the plan, as in Laura’s case, has been
satisfactory.
�35
“ It is found these children not only learn to talk rapidly
with the fingers, but are able to form a precise idea of a
sentence expressed by the finger language, which cannot
always be the case in the use of their natural, or gesture
language; and in this important particular does the manual
or finger language seems to be of greater value to the deaf
mutes than the language of gesture.
“ They have made considerable progress, not only in the
acquisition of language, but also in writing, numerical cal
culations, and in a knowledge of objects which attract their
notice.
“During the last session of our State Legislature, the
Committee on Education, appointed by that body, consulted
our Board on the subject of admitting the deaf and dumb
to enjoy the privileges of our Institution. A consideration
of this proposition was urged, and encouraged, by parents of
deaf mute children, and also by educated deaf mutes, who
were anxious to have the education of their unfortunate
brethren commenced at an earlier age than was permitted
by the regulations of the American Asylum at Hartford, and
at a school nearer than that at Hartford.
“ The trustees, acting under Dr. Howe’s advice, expressed
a willingness to receive deaf mute pupils of tender years, on
the same footing with the blind, believing that it would prove
mutually beneficial to the two classes.”
The Report goes on to say,—
“ The question, we understand, was discussed at some
length by the committee, in the presence of a deputation
from the Asylum at Hartford, who protested against the pro
posed change, and it finally resulted in the arrangement that
the regulations of that Asylum should be so altered as to
�36
authorize the admission of our State deaf mute beneficiaries
at an earlier age than heretofore ! ”
It would appear from this record that most
teachers, and doubtless the deputation from Hart
ford, disagreed with Dr. Howe’s views. Neverthe
less, in order to prevent the loss of any Massa
chusetts beneficiaries, they consented to make an ’
" injudicious ” arrangement.
At any rate, they so far adopted the plan advo
cated by Dr. Howe, as to change their conditions
of admission, and admit pupils at what the Prin
cipal calls ” an earlier period of life than most
teachers think judicious.”
Dr. Howe had long before urged that deaf mute
children should begin to learn the English lan
guage as early as possible; and in 1812 he received
some young mutes into the Institution for the
Blind, partly in order to see if they could not be
taught advantageously at an earlier age than that
fixed for admission to the Hartford asylum.
From the early days of that asylum down to
1841, their Beports state that candidates for admis
sion must be not under ten years of age nor over
thirty. In 1842 they say, " State beneficiaries must
be not under twelve nor over twenty-five; other
applicants, between ten and thirty
This was not only putting the minimum age too
low, • but making besides an odious distinction
between State beneficiaries and private pupils. It
�37
was about this time that Dr. Howe was chairman
on the part of the Massachusetts House of Repre
sentatives, of the Committee on Public Charitable
Institutions, and agitated this matter.
It appears also that the Directors of the
asylum soon changed their views, and announced
that they would receive pupils between the ages of
eight and .twenty-five, thus admitting State benefi
ciaries four years earlier than they had before done,
and abolishing the odious distinction between them
and private pupils.
Nor have they stopped here; for in a later
Report, a committee of their Board says,—
•
z
“ The opinion is beginning to be quite prevalent, that a
longer time than six or eight years is requisite, thoroughly
to educate deaf mutes; and that the legislatures of the
States to which they belong should extend the term of their
instruction. Indeed, there is good reason for believing that
these legislatures will do this whenever the subject is fairly
laid before them. In that case, the objection to receiving
any pupils under ten which has hitherto been felt, would
be removed, and the number of pupils actually in the asylum
at any one time would be considerably increased, even if the
annual admissions should be the same as heretofore. As we
were the first to project and carry into effect the high class,
by means of which a portion of our pupils are enabled to
prosecute their studies much beyond the ordinary limit, we
ought also TO SECURE TO THE AMERICAN ASYLUM THE CREDIT
OF TAKING the first step in the opposite direction, and
thus offer the advantages of instruction to such young
�38
children as contemplate a thorough and extended course of
training.”
This report was approved and adopted by the
whole Board.
Dr. Howe urged the early instruction of mutes,
upon the ground that it was very important to
them; the Directors seem to have adopted it, first
to prevent the loss of the beneficiaries of Massa
chusetts; next, " to secure to the American Asylum
the credit of taking the first step,” &c.
Surely, we may fairly quote here the language of
the Principal respecting Dr. Howe, as more appli
cable to the Directors of his own institution, and
say, ” It is pleasant to notice that as the ” Directors’
" views with regard to the best arrangement for
deaf mutes have not been settled in the past, there
is reason to hope they may come out right yet.”
The Principal charges, fourthly, that Dr. Howe
" now takes the ground that deaf mutes should not
be gathered into institutions at all.”
We do not believe that the Principal would pur
posely misrepresent any one, and therefore do not
understand how, with the Report before him, he
could make such a statement!
That document [which the Principal treats as
Dr. Howe’s alone,] recommends a change in our sys
tem of educating the deaf mutes of Massachusetts,
�39
•
,
and gives the outline of a plan for an institution.
As this is an interesting matter to all humane peo
ple, and a very important one to deaf mutes, we
will sketch this outline.
The Governor and Council shall appoint three
commissioners for the education of deaf mutes,
who shall act without salary, [or they may be members of the Board of Education.] The commission1 ers are to select the children who are to be the
beneficiaries of the State.
This would certainly be an improvement on the
present system, for it is well known that the Gov
ernor and Council cannot attend to this work as
carefully as they would do, and as it ought to be
done. They have neither time nor means for doing
it thoroughly. Besides, it is a work for which per
sons should have some peculiar fitness. Some
applicants are unfit for State beneficiaries, and are
rejected after going to the asylum at the State’s
charge; some are not entirely deaf; some are
idiotic; some partially blind or deranged. How can
the Governor and Council examine a deaf mute
child and ascertain these things? But more often
the applicants are children of parents who have
some means, and who ought to pay part, at least,
of the cost, and so lessen the charge to the
Commonwealth.
These commissioners, after selecting candidates,
and deciding whether they should be taught wholly
�40
or only partly at the expense of the State, may
contract with any responsible society or organiza
tion of citizens of Massachusetts, who will under
take to instruct and train indigent deaf mutes
belonging to the State, upon a plan of which the
following is a vague outline. [It is understood
that responsible parties are ready to form an organ
ization, if the State should favor it.]
“ The society to provide a suitable building for school
house, and, if necessary, a workshop, and to employ com
petent teachers.
“ The commissioners to designate the beneficiaries, and to
allow the society for each one a sum not greater than that
now paid for beneficiaries at the Hartford school. Their
warrant should be, not for five years, as is now the case,
but from one year, and renewed, if, upon examination, the
pupil proved worthy.
“ The society to instruct and train these beneficiaries gra
tuitously in its school; to board the children of parents who
do not live in the neighborhood of the school in respectable
families, and pay--------- dollars and cents a week for at least
forty weeks in a year.
“ They shall, however, if possible, place but one mute in
any one family, and never more than three.
“ The commissioners should have power to require the
parents of beneficiaries to pay a certain part—say one third
or quarter—of the cost of the board of their children ; and
when they are manifestly unable to do so, then to require
the towns where they have a settlement to pay a sum not
exceeding one dollar in a week, for forty weeks in a year.
�41
•
“ The commissioners to have general supervision of the
school, and of the welfare of such wards of the Common
wealth as live more than two miles from the school.
“ The advantages of such a system would be many.
“ 1st. The care and oversight of these wards of the Com
monwealth would fall where they really belong—upon our
own citizens, a very large number of whom would come into
constant relations with them.
“ 2d. The children would be taught within the State, and
nearer to their homes ; and a large proportion of them might
live at home.
“ 3d. The relations of family and neighborhood would not
be interrupted so much, nor so long.
“ The importance of this is very great in all cases, but
especially so with those whose natural infirmity or peculiarity
tends to isolate them.
“ There are innumerable threads uniting us with society,
. and giving us the unspeakable advantages of home ,and of
familiar neighborhood, many of which are broken in the case
of thepe unfortunates; and we should strive to strengthen,
not to weaken, those that remain to them.
“ 4th. The disadvantages and evils arising out of congre
gation of great numbers of persons of like infirmity, would
be lessened and counteracted.
“ The Hartford school is already too large; and it is con
tinually growing. Living many years in such a congregation
strengthens that tendency to isolation which grows out of the
infirmity of mutism, and intensifies other morbid tendencies.
“ By the new plan all these would be lessened, and the
counteracting tendencies of common social life would be
greatly increased.
6
�42
“ The mutes would be together but five or six hours each
day. During the rest of the time, instead of being subjected
to the artificial restraint and influences of ‘ asylum life,’
which, at best, can be only a poor imitation of family life and
influences, they would be subjected to the average influences
of social life; which is the kind of life they are to live in
future, and for which, during all the tender years of youth,
they should be trained.
“ 5th. The whole establishment would be simplified.
There would be no need of a great building, with halls,
dormitories, kitchen, dining-room and the like; but only a
simple school-house, and perhaps a workshop. There would
be no need of superintendent, matron or steward, with their
corps of assistants ; no cooks, no domestics, and none of the
cumbrous machinery of a great institution.
“ 6th. Part of the burden of supporting the child would
fall where part of it (at least,) surely belongs, to wit: upon
the parents, and upon the neighborhood, and not all upon
the State. Moreover, besides lessening the cost and the
responsibility which now fall upon the State, it would divide
them among the people. The tendency of this would be to
cause our mutes to be educated more nearly as our other
children are. Every approach to this is very important to
the mutes, because it tends to prevent their social isolation,
and makes them to be regarded as members of society in full
communion.
“ A regular course of intellectual instruction would be
given in the school; but advantage might be taken of neigh
boring workshops for teaching some, if not all, the pupils
various handicrafts, as other youth are taught. This would
give a wider range of choice than can be given in the asylum,
where only a few trades are taught.
•
'
�43
'■
•
“ Arrangements might be made by which children of
farmers, who can be useful at home in summer, might come
to the school in winter.
“ Other advantages of such a change might be set forth,
besides the consideration that in a new school we might have
all the advantages of the long experience of the Hartford
school. We might avoid some of the errors which result
from its very organization which cannot be cured in one
generation ; and which, perhaps, stand in the way of intro
ducing new and improved systems of instruction.”
Now, if an establishment upon this plan is not
an institution for deaf mutes, then what constitutes
one? Is it eating in a common hall; sleeping in a
common dormitory; being subjected to daily chapel
devotions; taught a particular creed; and kept
cooped up in one building and yard? Are these
things essential to an institution? Then are not the
German universities institutions; nor our country
academies, nor our common schools, ” institutions.”
. Does not, then, this fourth sentence of the para
graph show, like the three preceding ones, that in
his excessive desire to put Dr. Howe in the wrong,
the Reverend Principal is led to misunderstand, and
then to misstate his views?
The conclusion that he does is strengthened by
the next paragraph, in which the Principal is led to
state what is utterly at variance with known facts,
and even with statements in his own Reports. He
says, (p. 35) :—
�44
“ Dr. Howe objects that our school is too large, and that
the cost is annually increasing. * * * The annual
charge is now $175. * * * The annual charge at the
Institution for the Blind is $200 per pupil, &c.”
This strange blending of truth and error gives
the reader an entirely false impression. The
annual charge at the Institution for the Blind
is more than the Principal states it to be; but no
matter—the animus of this sentence is clear; it
gives the impression that the cost at the Hartford
school is only $175 a year! Who, that is not
familiar with the financial condition of the Hartford
asylum, could fail to conclude, from reading this
statement,, that it cost much less to support pupils
there than at the Institution for the Blind, or at any
similar institution in the whole land? Whereas, the
actual cost is more than $175; probably nearer
$275 than $175 a year.
The Asylum has a fund given by the United
States government for the benefit of the mutes gen
erally, and the income of that, (and perhaps of
other funds,) probably amounted last year to over
$15,000. The Trustees, as in duty bound, appro
priate this, or part of it, to keeping down the
charges.
They do not tell us. how much; and the Report
of the Treasurer is marvellously condensed.
That document, however, show that the expenses
in 1865 were: for salaries $18,649.40; insurance
�45
and sundries, $1,314.21; total, $19,963.61. Other
expenses by the Steward, (p. 44,) $33,276.47; mak
ing in all $53,240.08 as the cost in 1865. This sum,
divided by 212, the average number of pupils,
gives over $250 a year for each. The printed
accounts are obscure, and there is apparent discre
pancy between the Steward and Treasurer,—so
that the actual cost may be a little less ; but
certainly it is far greater than an unsuspecting
reader would infer from the Report of the Principal;
and probably nearer $275 than $175.
There is another proof, that the eagerness of the
Principal to convict Dr. Howe of inconsistency,
leads him to contradict his own Report. He says,
(p. 38,) comparing the pupils of the Blind Asylum
with his own,—
“ It is comparatively difficult for blind children to travel in
public conveyances. They are exposed to constant danger,
and must always’ have. an attendant. Deaf mutes, however,
travel safely to all parts of the country
z
Here are several mistakes,—some excusable,
some not. It is excusable that the Principal should
not know that most of the pupils of the Institution
of the Blind travel to and from home on the rail
roads, without special attendants, and safely, and
that they are trained to do it. But it is not excusable
that he should publish a statement concerning them
without a little inquiry into its truth.
�46
Still less is it excusable that he should make state
ments, contradictory to others in the Report of his
own Institution. On page 72 of the very Report in
which he states that deaf mutes travel to all parts
of' the country safely, we find the following,
reprinted from former Reports:—
“ On the day of the commencement of the Vacation, an
officer of the Asylum will accompany such pupils as
are to travel upon the railroads between Hartford and Boston,
taking' care of them and their baggage, on condition that
their friends will make timely provision for their expenses on
the way, and engage to meet and receive them immediately
on the arrival of the early train at various points on the route
previously agreed on, and at the station of the Boston and
Worcester Railroad in Boston. A similar arrangement is
made on the Connecticut River Railroads, as far as to White
River Junction. No person will be sent from the Asylum to
accompany the pupils on their return; but if their fare is
paid and their trunks checked to Hartford, it will be safe to
send them in charge of the conductor.”
A critic writing in the spirit of the Principal’s
Report might be tempted to say that, when it is
desirable to make a point against Dr. Howe,
"the deaf mutes travel safely to all parts of the
country; ” but, when it is desirable to attract
pupils, the parents are assured " that an officer of
the Asylum will travel with them and take care of
them.”
�47
But the charitable conclusion is, that in his haste
and eagerness to make points against an opponent,
the Principal overlooked what careful thought
would have made him see, to wit: that blind people
are less exposed to danger in travelling than deaf
people. The former are made careful by their
infirmity, and their hearing is made acute by
practice; the latter are made careless, and they
have no hearing at all. Again, a little reflection
would have shown him, that one of the many
advantages of hearing, over sight, as a guardian
sense, arises from the fact that in the material
world warnings of danger come mainly through
the ear. This is, first, because, during half the
time, darkness prevails over the world, and then
the sentinel at the eye is off guard; but the
one at the ear listens during all the waking
hours; and, even when the body sleeps, is still half
awake; for the ear shuts no lid, as the eye does.
And second, because the eye receives no warning
unless the rays of light strike nearly from the front,
and therefore more than half the circle round us is
unguarded. But the ear gathers in sounds not
only from all around, but from above and below.
Unless the rattlesnake be in the direct path, the eye
sees him not, while the ear catches the first note of
warning, come it from where it may. The thinnest
substance stops light; but sound traverses thick
walls. Besides, sight is more voluntary,—hearing
�48
more involuntary; almost automatic indeed. Sights
are shut out easily; sounds with difficulty. You
can be blind at will; you cannot shut out all sound,
even by stopping the ears.
But be the philosophy of the matter what it
may, daily facts show that mutes and deaf per
sons are more exposed to the dangers of the
present mode of travel, and suffer more from them,
not only than blind persons, but than any class of
people whatever. We constantly hear of persons
being run over on the tracks; and in a large
proportion of cases they are deaf persons.
If the Principal will consult the records of rail
roads he will find many cases of mutes and deaf
persons being run over; but rarely one of a blind •
man being injured in that manner.
Nay! if he will look into the Reports of his own
Institution he will find evidence not only, of con
stant dread of danger from the rail cars, but acci
dents and deaths among the pupils, even, while
under the protecting and watchful care of the
Asylum.
The Thirty-Ninth Annual Report says,—
“ An accident occurred on the railroad to one of the .pupils
from Canada, in September last, which resulted in his death.
While walking carelessly along on the ends of the ties, out
side of the track, he was struck down by a passing train, and
so severely injured that he survived less than an hour. This
x
�49
is the first accident of the kind which has ever happened to
one of our pupils ; and we trust with the warning given to
them of the danger of a similar exposure, and the vigilance
which will in future be exercised on the part of those who
have the care of them, it will be the last. Several educated
deaf mutes have, within a few years, been killed while
walking on the track of railroads.
“ The practice of thus exposing themselves to almost
certain destruction cannot be too strongly reprobated, and
their friends should enjoin upon them, the importance of
discontinuing it under all circumstances.”
But the trust and the hope were vain; and vain
were the warnings and precautions, for we read in
the Fortieth Report, (p. 13,) as follows:—
“ A severe, but not fatal accident, happened to one of our
oldest pupils in July last, in consequence of incautiously
walking on the railroad track near the city. The warning
given in our last Report was unheeded, and • the result was
an injury, which will in a measure disable him for life.”
A still more shocking accident is related in the
Forty-Second Report, (p. 8) :—
“Two of the small boys, John Parker, from Massachu
setts, and Benjamin Dawson, from New Hampshire, were
killed by a train of cars as they were walking along the
railroad track. The caution given them but a few hours
before the accident was disregarded, and their intention of
being on the track but for a few moments, till they could
reach the crossing of a road, brought upon them this terrible
7
�50
calamity. While we sympathize with the afflicted friends of
these promising lads, and regret most sincerely their untimely
end, we cannot think there has been any want of care or
attention to the safety of the pupils in this particular, on
the part of the officers of the Asylum to whom their imme
diate oversight is entrusted. No rule of the establishment
has been more distinctly set. forth, more frequently or
more strictly enjoined, or more rigidly enforced, than
that which forbids the pupils going upon the track of a
railroad. Whenever an accident of the kind has happened
to a deaf mute in any part of the country, the fact has been
announced to them publicly, and they have been warned
never to indulge in a practice so unwise and so dangerous.
We trust that the lesson taught by this sad experience may
never be forgotten by the pupils, and that it may prompt
those who watch over them to still greater vigilance.”
The records of other Institutions show that dread
ful accidents have happened in consequence of the
infirmity of the pupils. As a matter of curiosity,
we have ascertained by the annual returns of all the
Railroad Companies of Massachusetts, that the
number of persons run over, and killed or injured
by the cars, during the last fifteen years, is 701.
This does not include passengers, nor persons con
nected with the trains, but only persons outside the
train, crossing the road, or walking or lying upon
the track. Of these, one is supposed to have been
injured in consequence of blindness, six of insanity,
and seventeen of deafness. Of course the supposed
cause is not always the real one; but, assuredly, if
�51
the real cause were ascertained, it would swell the
number of accidents to the deaf, much more than to
the blind; because the blindness is obvious, deaf
ness is not. Everybody in the neighborhood knows
who is blind, but not who is deaf. In the case of a
stranger, even, the corpse of a blind man would
reveal his infirmity; but deaf dead men tell no tales.
But even if they could, it might be useless for our
purpose, because if in the face of these reasons and
facts, the Principal persists in saying, even to make
a point against Dr. Howe, that "deaf mutes can
travel safely to all parts of the country,” he would
not believe otherwise even though one rose from
the dead.
Enough has been said to show that the charge of
ignorance and error which the Principal attempts
to fasten upon the Chairman of the Board of State
Charities, is laid at the wrong door.
If this were all, it would not be worth saying in
public. To aim at mere personal triumph would be
unworthy the cause and the parties. But there are
questions concerning the best modes of educating
and instructing deaf mutes which are very impor
tant to that class of unfortunates, and which would
deeply interest all intelligent and humane people if
they could be brought forward and fairly discussed.
It is the hope of causing them to be discussed
which decides us to print what has been written
above.
�52
While earnest and enthusiastic men like Blan
chet, in France, plead for the immediate modifica
tion of the old Central Institutions,- such as those
of Paris, London, and Hartford, and for teaching
mutes in common schools; and while eminent and
experienced, but conservative men, like the Abbe
Carton, in Belgium, admit that the modification of
the old system is only a question of time,—we of
of Massachusetts hold on to a system borrowed
from the old world, nearly fifty years ago, by a
legislative body not known to have been partic
ularly enlightened upon the subject of deaf mute
education.
This ought not to be; and our neglect of the
matter is not creditable to the Commonwealth. The
slightest examination would show that we have
not only failed to improve materially our method of
treating mutes, but have also failed to introduce
into it the system and order which characterize
other departments of the public service.
It would be a great mistake to say that the present
method of selecting the beneficiaries of the State is
a good one, for there is no real method about it;
and even the existing loose and imperfect practice
is left to officials who have not the time nor the
means to conduct it properly.
See how it works. A mother has a child who
cannot hear, and when he becomes eight or ten
years old she concludes, sadly, that he never will
�53
talk. She takes him to the common school, but the
teacher sends him home, saying he cannot do any
thing with him—cannot teach him. By and by she
learns that there is a school, somewhere, for such
children; and if she will go to the State House
she can find out all about it. There she is passed
civilly from one official to another, until she reaches
the gentlemanly clerk of the Secretary of State,
who concludes the child ought to be sent to Hart
ford, and he passes her over to the gentlemanly clerk
of the Governor, who kindly assists her in making
out the necessary papers, which are signed without
further examination. Neither of these gentlemen,
however, has any means of knowing whether the
applicant is a fit subject for the school, or not.
The child must then wait perhaps one month, per
haps eleven months, until the time of the annual
reception of pupils, and then be sent to Hartford;
provided that, in the meantime, the parents do not
change their purpose.
At Hartford, if the child is found to be a proper
subject, he is well cared for, and put under the
instruction of able and zealous teachers. But if,
as sometimes happens, the mutism is the result of
insanity, or of imbecility, or if the child is partially
blind, or otherwise defective, or is too feeble in
health, then he must be sent home again.
He has lost precious time; the poor parents have
been sadly taxed for the cost of the journey; the
7*
�54
State has perhaps been taxed for his clothing; and
all because it is nobody’s business to see that only
fit persons shall be selected as beneficiaries, and
sent out of the State at public charge.
Again, it is clear that parents who can afford to
pay part of the expenses of the child’s education
ought to do so. This would not only be just, but
really beneficial to them and to their child. It
would increase self-respect; attach more esteem to
the advantages of education; promote punctuality
of attendance; favor study at home, as preparatory
for school; and be in many ways advantageous,
besides being a saving of money to the State.
But it is now nobody’s business to attend to this
matter; consequently the pupils are, almost without
exception, at the entire charge of the State for their
board and instruction, and in some cases for their
clothing also.
Again, the Commonwealth sends about a hundred
pupils to the Connecticut school, but has adopted
no method for ascertaining whether her wards
are taught by a system well adapted to their
wants, nor even whether they have the full
benefit of the system, such as it is. There
is no examination, deserving the name, by any
official; and no means of knowing officially whether
the wards of the Commonwealth have been well
and properly treated, taught, and trained, during
their five or six years’ sojourn in another State.
�55
The whole thing is taken upon faith. Now, we our
selves do not lack faith in the honesty and ability
of those to whose care they are committed; but
officials should walk by light, and not by faith.
We say there is nothing deserving the name of
examination, for it would be a mistake to call the
present practice by such a name. The Governor
and Council, in their annual " progress ” among
State institutions, sometimes go out of our bor
ders, and visit the asylum at Hartford. The prac
tice is a good one, and certain good results follow;
but surely nobody will pretend that there is, or can
be, upon that occasion, anything like an examina
tion. It is merely an exhibition to a highly intel
ligent and sympathetic audience.
Then, once in a year, the Legislature appoints a
committee to look after public charitable institu
tions generally, and especially to see that they do
not spend too much money. This committee makes
a general inspection of all the charitable and penal
institutions in the State; and once a year they visit
the Connecticut asylum. They have reason to be
pleased by what they witness; and they generally
give the institution a complimentary notice in
their report. It is well known, however, that
members are not selected with a view to their
ability or fitness for judging the merits of a system
of instruction for mutes, and that their single flying
visit is only a general inspection. It is not, and
�56
cannot well be a thorough examination of the
merits of the system of instruction and of its
results. The reports of the Committee make no
such pretensions. They are complimentary, of
course, but very vague and general in their state
ments. Nevertheless, they are sometimes gravely
quoted by the Directors of the Hartford asylum, as
proofs that the friends of deaf mutes ought to be
satisfied with the excellence of their system, and of
its administration!
We assert with confidence that our Legislature
acts without sufficient light and knowledge upon this
subject. We assert, moreover, with sorrow, almost
with shame, that whenever an attempt is made to
bring about any change in the system of educat
ing our mutes, it is put down by considerations
not of wise economy but of mere money saving.
The whole matter is in the hands of the Legisla
ture, which are always full enough with other
business.
Whenever there is any likelihood of any action
looking to a removal of our beneficiaries from
Connecticut, a delegation of pupils is sent from
Hartford to exhibit their knowledge and acquire
ments. They make a strong appeal (not too
strong,) to the sympathy of the Legislature. Then
the Superintendent waits upon the Committee
of Public Charitable Institutions, and exhibits his
facts and figures. He makes a strong appeal (too
�57
strong, alas!) to the pocket-nerve of the State. He
shows that he can maintain our children, if we will
send them abroad, cheaper than we can do it at
home; and straightway the whole matter is left to
sleep for the year.
Perhaps there is no need of any change, and no
room for any improvement. Perhaps the great
march of improvement in all other branches of
instruction, affects not the method adopted at
Hartford nearly half a century ago, and followed
ever since, almost without change. Perhaps noth
ing can be borrowed for its improvement from the
opposite system adopted in the excellent schools
for mutes through the length and breadth of Ger
many,—the land of learned men and of able teach
ers. Perhaps Horace Mann was a dolt. Perhaps
the Board of State Charities is all wrong in
suggesting any changes in our present system of
educating our mutes. But there should be no
doubt about it. Either the Board of Education,
or of State Charities, or some competent persons,
should be specially charged to see,—
First, that all the unfortunate mutes in the
Commonwealth shall not only have the oppor
tunity of being educated, but be sought out and
encouraged to avail themselves of it.
Second, that the present method shall be prop
erly systematized and regulated, so that there shall
�58
be strict accountability, real examinations, and
positive knowledge about results.
Third, that any questions about change of the 1
present method shall be decided upon broad and
liberal grounds, and not by considerations of
dollars and cents.
Such a committee, if clothed with authority,
might procure such changes in the present method
as would satisfy all the friends of the deaf mutes;
or they might advise the adoption of a new one.
The Directors of the Connecticut asylum, which
has done so much for the mutes of New England,
ought not to object to any change which will pro
mote the interests of those unfortunates, even if it
should involve the loss of a monopoly which the
asylum has so long enjoyed.
If Massachusetts should deem it best to establish
a school of her own, she has mute children enough
to fill it as full as a good school need to be; or
perhaps ought to be. But even if there should be
competition for the beneficiaries of other States, it
would be animated only by generous emulation,
not as to who would take pupils cheapest, but who
would teach and train them best. Of such emula
tion, there surely would come good, and not evil.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Remarks upon the education of deaf mutes: in defence of the doctrines of the second annual report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities and in reply to the charges of the Rev. Collins Stone, principal of the American Asylum at Hartford
Creator
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Howe, Samuel C.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Boston; Mass.
Collation: 58 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Wright & Potter, Boston. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Please note that this pamphlet contains language and ideas that may be upsetting to readers. These reflect the time in which the pamphlet was written and the ideologies of the author.
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Walker, Fuller & Co.
Date
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1866
Identifier
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G5190
G5689
Subject
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Education
Deafness
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Remarks upon the education of deaf mutes: in defence of the doctrines of the second annual report of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities and in reply to the charges of the Rev. Collins Stone, principal of the American Asylum at Hartford), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Conway Tracts
Deaf-mutes
Deafness
Education
Muteness
-
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2d2beec380895e34e1c2ace67b1ff0d1
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Text
’ I M.AG
National Secular Society Tract
No. 6.
Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD on
SECULAR
EDUCATION.
Report of a Speech delivered in support of
Secular Education at a meeting held under the
auspices of the Secular Education League, in
the St. James1 Hall, London, December io, 1908.
z | AHE case for the secular solution is a logical
I
case, it is a just case. This is a question
which concerns more particularly the
children of the working classes. I am bound to say
that nothing made me'feel so1 disgusted as when I
listened in the House of Commons, the other day, to
gentlemen whose feet had never crossed the threshold
of a Board School, who told us about the tre
mendous amount of concern they had for the quality
of the moral and religious teaching given to other
people’s children. All I can say is, I wish they would
look after their own children. If they had only
shown the same anxiety for their own children and
seen that they were well educated in morality and re
ligion, well bred, trained in the knowledge of what
was right and wrong, and had left us to do the same
with our children, modern society would have been a
much holier affair than it is to-day.
I am not
one of those who believe in peace at any price. I am
in favour of a just and lasting peace, a peace that has
been secured after the State and Church make up
their minds to look after their own business. There
is nothing more preposterous than that the State
should attempt to do the work of the Church unless
it is that the Church should actually expect the State
to do its work. Let us suppose that we are all pro
foundly religious and that we are simply burning
with anxiety to get the minds of our children, using
the word in its very best sense, converted. The
children have religious instruction for three quarters
of an hour each day, and we are going to say : ‘ What
�a blessed religious exercise they have had. How en
lightening it has been to their souls.’ Three quarters
of an hour’s instruction in Jewish history—very
ancient—and the child might say : ‘ Thank God, if I
did not know that David was the King of Judah, I
might have been a thief.’ We have a right to test
education by results.
We hear a great deal about
science nowadays. I would like to hear Mr. Hal
dane, who is a leader in science, give his genuine
opinion as a scientist, from the point of view of a
man who believes in the scientific method, as to the
effect of Bible reading in the schools from the re
ligious point of view. Let us begin on a secular
basis. Let us secularize our schools. Let us bring
in, not Bills to allow sectarian strife, but Bills to> in
crease the efficiency of education.
Let us make a
real beginning in the State care of children. Let us
try to devise some means by which the wisdom,
knowledge and power and the financial strength of
the State, can build up a physical, intellectual and
moral character in our children so that when they are
no longer children they shall be powerful men and
women, prepared to face life in all its aspects. Bring
in Bills to do that and peace will naturally follow.
If we could get our education ministers to tear out
from the official volumes, all records of those round
table conferences and barterings, and forget them,
and simply go, day after day, to our schools, see the
children, see the teachers and the buildings, and go
from those schools to' the factories and workshops and
see the conditions under which the youth of the
country has to work, and with that experience go
back to the conference room, and construct an Edu
cation Bill which would enable them to meet those
conditions, then you would have an education of the
right kind. You would have peace, you would have
a settlement which was not a surrender, and the
whole country would benefit enormously as the re
sult of those efforts.”
/
Printed and Published by The National Secular Society,
62 Farringdon Street, E.C.4.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Title
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Mr Ramsay Macdonald on secular education : report of a speech delivered in support of secular education at a meeting held under the auspices of the Secular Education League, in the St. James' Hall, London, December 10, 1908
Creator
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Macdonald, Ramsay
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: [2] p. ; 19 cm.
Series: National Secular Society tract 6
Notes: Printed by The National Secular Society.
Publisher
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National Secular Society
Date
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1908
Identifier
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G5481
Subject
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Secularism
Education
Rights
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Mr Ramsay Macdonald on secular education : report of a speech delivered in support of secular education at a meeting held under the auspices of the Secular Education League, in the St. James' Hall, London, December 10, 1908), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Education
Secularism
-
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c200c87be96edbed9b710ba73a1ba1c9
PDF Text
Text
NEGLECTED VIEW OF EDUCATION.
•
Jirtart
DELIVERED AT
Mr. M. D. CONWAY’S CHAPEL, CAMDEN TOWN,
NOVEMBER 21st, 1875,
By
M. MACFIE.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
1 II THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
1876.
Price Fourpence.
�TO THE READER.
The following Lecture is published by the desire
of many who heard it delivered.
As it aims at a practical rather than a controversial
object, it has been thought that the friends of Educa
tion might wish to promote its distribution.
In case you should decide to circulate it among
your friends, the publisher is willing to make a
deduction of twenty-five per cent, when quantities are
ordered.
�NEGLECTED VIEW OE EDUCATION.
--------- ♦---------
HE subject of education, like some other and
greater questions debated by our law-makers,
has two aspects—a political and a philosophical aspect.
The first of these has to do simply with the right
of the tax payers, in claiming certain concessions from
Parliament for the intellectual and moral good of the
population. The latter of these aspects, concerns the
far-reaching social issues of the educational measure.
And the result of our agitation of this question will
be at least unsatisfactory, unless the political boon
we seek is understood in its philosophical bearings.
But it is to be feared, that many who are fighting in
the van as well as in the rear of the movement for
national education, and who have a clear enough
comprehension of the subject politically, are still far
from realizing its application philosophically. The
struggle of the dominant Church to keep the con
trol of the people’s education in its own hands, for
sectarian purposes, has compelled the friends of the
National Education League to narrow their discussion
of the question, in and out of the legislature, to one
point. In order to carry the enemy’s barriers, they
have been forced to concentrate their efforts mainly
upon obtaining a just Education Act, and an impartial
working of that Act in school districts. It has been
found so necessary for the Liberal party, till recently,
to limit their exertions to checking the tendency of the
Government to apply the revenue of the country to
the teaching of the dogmas of conflicting sects, that
our views of what education is in its full and broad
T
�4
A Neglected View of Education.
acceptation, may have been obscured in the dust
and din of the contest. We have had to work so
hard in placing education, as supplied at the national
expense, on a purely secular basis—the only basis on
which we can equitably take our stand in requiring
the appropriation of Treasury or local funds, for
the education of the children of the masses,—that we
have been apt to lose sight of many other aspects
of the matter, if possible, much more momentous.
The rank and file of education orators, on the
platform, in the pulpit, and in the senate, would
have us believe that, if we can but put children
through the process of learning to read, write, and
cypher, and give them some smattering of history,
literature, and science, with perhaps, an appreciable
theological tincture mingled—vice, pauperism, and
crime, the inhumanities and dishonesties festering in
commerce, brutal excesses, and parental ignorance,
would die out, and give place to a millennium. Nor
is it wonderful that such sanguine though vague ex
pectations should be indulged. It would be ungrate
ful and wrong to doubt that sound school and college
instruction, universally diffused, would be a great
step towards such a consummation. We may congra
tulate ourselves, that a beginning has been made—as
it must be made somewhere—in the elevation of our
countrymen, even though for the present the move
ment is not, and does not aim at, all some of us could
wish. If we might compare the child to the bee,.
elementary education gives the wings by which it is to
fly from flower to flower in the bowers of knowledge,
and extract the honey of truth. Primary school train
ing supplies the tools, without which the youth cannot
cut his way to a noble self-development. But we
must not forget that the highest culture we can get
from books and seminaries of learning, goes no further
than putting these tools in our hands. Oar use of
them comes later; and the fact which so commonly
�A Neglected View of Education.
$
escapes notice, even in the best informed communities,
is, that it is not the man who has acquired stores of
varied knowledge and experience of the arts that is
educated; but he, and only he, who employs these
things in rounding off his whole being and character
—filling up the gaps, and paring down the over
growths. Education proper, the adjustment, dis
cipline and proportionate development of our physical,
intellectual, and moral nature only begins, if it take
place at all, after we leave school; and if the
result of classes, tutors, study, and thought, in what
ever direction—be not to mould, refine, balance,
and strengthen, every part of us, as the exigencies of
our organisation may require,—our education is almost
an empty name, though we may leave our alma mater
with “ blushing honours thick upon us.” This, though
the most vital view of the question is the one, I ven
ture to assert, least enforced in our families and Edu
cational Institutions, whether primary or advanced,
whether secular or religious. And hence the mon
strous illusion in which multitudes of all classes grow
up, that if they have only gained fair proficiency
in the recognised branches of instruction, have
passed examinations creditably, have learned to use
language with grace and perspicacity, and to feel
at home in the proprieties of fashionable society, or
have mastered the details of their profession, they are
educated. And the mischiefs bred by this shallow and
pitiable conceit are past reckoning. We are not
educated—in any adequate sense—unless our training
leave in the mind a sacred deposit of principles, clear,
and independently thought out; unless those principles
settle down into cherished and practical convictions,
and unless those convictions prove their reality in the
correct management of our health, the honest, fear
less, and unbiassed use of our reason, yielding us the
courage of our opinions, and the earnest culture of all
beautiful, tender, unselfish, and brave sentiments;—
�6
A Neglected View of Education.
unless our appetites, passions, and desires, are dulymoderated in a manner befitting our relation to our
selves, to the laws of the universe, and to humanity.
The person who comes nearest to this ideal is alone
entitled to be called a highly-educated man. The one
who falls most bel-ow this standard—be he ever so
quick-witted diligent in intellectual, or even in
certain moral or religious pursuits, is the least edu
cated. . I grant that an intelligent rake is more
interesting and tolerable than an ignorant and vulgar
one, that it is less offensive to be swindled by a clever
and agreeable knave, than by one who is gross as
well as mean and tricky ; that selfishness is not so
odious in one of graceful manners and generous speech,
and whose ambition soars to intellectual and social
honours, as in one in whom this vice is reckless and
undisguised. But what we want to feel more deeply
and to teach more frequently, is that the commonly
received opinion as to the nature and ends of human
training is pernicious to society, and offers a formid
able hindrance to the real progress of mankind. If
the chief object of rational existence were simply to
multiply adepts in scholarship, mechanics, military
tactics, agriculture, or commerce, and to perpetuate
races of lop-sided minds with one or two faculties
disciplined, and the rest left unheeded, presenting
intellectual and moral malformations—then the ruling
ideas of education might continue to be indulged, but
if the grand aim of life should be to discipline each
power that it may fulfil to the utmost its appropriate
functions, within lawful limits, and in subjection to
the laws of truth and harmony, then the time has
arrived for reform in our conceptions and methods of
culture.
There are three conditions possible for human
beings in respect to education. There are indivi
duals whose nature is like a garden, so walled-up and
over-hung with dense vapours, that the sun cannot
�A Neglected View of Education.
7
penetrate ; their minds are covered with the weeds of
folly and the rubbish of superstition, and grow only
what is rank and unwholesome. There are others
whose nature is like a garden, in which the plants
in one plot get little care and hardly any sun, while
those in another section have plenty of both. There is
another class, not the most numerous, however, whose
nature is like a garden well cultivated, the flowers and
fruits springing up in genial soil presenting a southern
aspect—not an inch of ground hid from the fostering
light, and air, and warmth. A moment’s reflection
will, doubtless, recal to you instances of these
several types of mind and character. Those utterly
shut out from the light of knowledge, and growing
up in moral wastes, are to be found chiefly, but not
exclusively, in the lower strata of society—in the
abodes of squalor, improvidence and ignorance. Na
tures in the second condition, I have pictured, half in
the light and half in the shade, form the majority,
and may be met with in all ranks, from the highest to
the lowest. But it must be confessed that it is rare
to find persons in any sphere of life, of whom it can
be said that they come up to the terms of the third
condition, and have faithfully striven to make the
most of themselves in all respects. Perhaps it is most
common to meet with those who answer to the homely
metaphor of the Prophet: “ Ephraim is like a cake
not turned”—baked—almost burned on one side and
raw on the other; with some parts of their organisa
tion excessively developed and the rest dwarfed ; no
obligation being solemnly and intelligently felt by
them to till and keep the whole ground. To regard
the elements that are popularly understood to consti
tute the most liberal training of a lady or a gentleman
as exhaustive of what the education of a mind ought
to be, is to profane this most sacred of all subjects,
and encourage a painful error. Who has not
known or read of men that have mastered the most
�8
A Neglected View of Education.
subtle problems of life, and distinguished themselves
by profound insight into the workings of the human
mind, that have allowed other regions in their nature
to remain conspicuously uncultivated. There is no
more striking illustration of this contrariety of men
tal tendencies than Lord Bacon. But for the unde
niable testimony of history, it would appear incredible
that the author of the ‘Counsels, Civil and Moral,’
and of the immortal treatise, ‘ The Novum Organon,’
could be guilty of such execrable baseness towards
his benefactor, Essex, and that the same man should
write ‘ The Advancement of Learning,’ and lend
himself, as Attorney-General, to a crafty and bigoted
King, to foment the persecution of Roman Catholic
priests, and justify the Protestant burning of heretics ;
file informations against those who gave utterance to
free opinions, and degrade himself to the uttermost
by sharing complicity with the King in hushing up a
royal crime in relation to Somerset too disgusting to
specify. To judge the natures, as a whole, of some
eminent authors within living memory by what they
wrote, and wrote so beautifully, one would fancy that
no lives could be purer, no dispositions more lovely,
no hearts more responsive to appeals of suffering
and want, no consciences more delicately strung than
theirs ; and yet in some cases—happily not in all—
when we come to know their inner life, we have
found them almost the reverse of all this. Their
memories were enriched with the choicest symbols
of everything noble and good, and their imagina
tions ran wild with ideal luxuriance, while those
faculties and powers that were not among the forces
that produced their literary reputation, were sometimes
left a prey to weakness and neglect. There is no
rule without its exceptions ; but as a rule it may be
said, so little has the ideal of education now under
our consideration been acted upon, that the very fact
that a man is singularly strong in one direction, may
�9
A Neglected View of Education.
be taken as an index that he is singularly weak in
another. If he have severely trained the logical
faculty, he is almost sure to have slighted the culti
vation of common sense, or that delicate sensibility
which a chastened and refined imagination promotes.
If he be distinguished by a susceptible emotional na
ture, and devoted to moralism or philanthropy, he
will probably not be found remarkably vigorous in
tellectually ; and how often it has happened that men
who have attained high distinction in a profession
requiring very great mental acuteness, have left
themselves specially open to attack in their appetites
or passions.
I have heard from those competent to express an
opinion, that so often have they been disappointed by
marked contradictions—not necessarily grave moral
inconsistencies—in distinguished political, and even
in religious, leaders, that their early enthusiasm in
seeking the private acquaintance of such persons had
received a considerable check. I have been told that
in proportion as men’s lives are consecrated to sup
porting a public relation, or a relation purely to the
public, their capacity for the cultivation of intense,
constant, and self-sacrificing private friendship seems
to diminish. If carried away by their public function,
those sentiments which befit the attitude they con
stantly sustain to the public are so stimulated, that
without special watchfulness, the feelings and bear
ing belonging to the quiet devotion of a private
relationship are apt to decay. I have heard of an
instance of this sort, in which consciousness of apti
tude to sway the masses on political and social
questions has led to these results. In public the
man’s enunciation of great and liberal principles was
so fervent and kindling to the sympathies of his vast
audiences, that the poorest person might be tempted
to approach him under the impression that his manner
would be warm and attractive, while, as a matter
B
�io
A Neglected View of Education.
of fact, in private he was found to be haughty,
cold, reserved, and repellent, and his ambition to be
great as a public character seemed to eat away those
delicate, genial, unaffected private virtues which alone
make a man beloved and sought after by his friends.
To so sad an extent have I known this discrepancy
between strong public sentiments and weak private
ones to extend, that a certain person who once
lavished many thousands of pounds upon public
charities, knowingly left respectable and deserving
relations on the brink of want. In like manner
are people apt to be imposed upon by the fiction
that, because a man is solely occupied with preaching
high moral and religious truths, he is necessarily
among the best exemplars of his own teaching. But
through neglect of educating the whole man, the
most eloquent in preaching may be the most indif
ferent in practice.
There is another class that may be adduced, as a
warning example of this same perverted view of
education. I refer to a considerable number of
languid youths of both sexes who are supposed largely
to inhabit the “ West-end ” in the season, whose
leisure hangs heavily on their hands, and who, for
want of useful occupation, receive as a god-send the
announcement of the last three-volumed novel to trans
port them for some hours to an elysium of fancy—a
mischievous substitute for the stern realities of the
work-a-day life. My remarks refer not to the use but
the abuse of novel-reading ; and I am only concerned
at present in showing the evil effects of its abuse in
freezing up sympathy with actual distress, while the
vacant-minded reader is being dissolved in tears over
the imaginary scenes of sorrow depicted by the
novelist. That excessive novel-reading may quicken
sympathy and strengthen sensibility of the morbid
sentimental kind is true ; but it is also true that it at
the same time tends to weaken practical benevolence
�A Neglected View of Education.
11
and may end in quenching it altogether. Sentimen
talism of any kind is always whimsical and visionary
unless it be under the direction of judgment and
reason, which always pre-supposes the harmonious
culture of all the faculties and susceptibilities of our
nature. “ There is a law of our mental mechanism
pointed out by Bishop Butler that from our very
faculty of habits, passive impressions by being repeated
grow weaker, and practical habits are formed and
strengthened by repeated acts. Benevolence is
worthless which does not proceed to action. But the
frequent repetition of that species of emotion which
fiction stimulates tends to prevent practical benevo
lence, because it is out of proportion to correspond
ing action ; it is like that frequent going over of
virtue in our own minds, which, as Butler says, so
far from being auxiliary to it may be obstructive of
it. As long as the balance is maintained between the
stimulus given to imagination with the consequent
emotions on the one hand, and our practical habits
which those emotions are chiefly designed to form
and strengthen on the other, so long the stimulus of
the imagination will not stand in the way of benevo
lence but aid it. And therefore if we will read a
novel extra, now and then, about some unfortunate
hero or heroine, we ought to impose upon ourselves
the corrective of an extra ten-pound note to some
poor unfortunate family, who only want substantial
help to enable them permanently to help themselves.
To maintain a balance between the emotions and the
will, and thus give effect to true educational principles,
we should keep a sort of debtor and creditor account
of sentimental indulgence and practical benevo
lence.”*
Another common instance of defective education, in
the broad sense, is the devotee of religious excitement
The ‘ Greyson Letters,’ p. 177.
�12
A Neglected View of Education.
whose religion, in effect,, becomes a bar to enlightened
morality. The religious or devotional faculty in some
people is forced like a hot-house plant into unnatural
growth, and comes out in the rankest forms of
fanaticism. Their brains become suffused and sodden
with the fantastic drapery and musical spells of Highchurchism or with unctuous Evangelicalism. They act
on the Sunday as if the only things worth living for
were singing hymns and offering extatic prayers or
listening to revivalist extravagancies. Yet contact
with many of that class in every-day life proves that
the sentimental sanctities of their church have no
more influence in aiding the development in them of
homely human virtues than the study of poetry
would have in improving the ability of an engineer
to construct machinery; the culture of honour and
justice in their business, of wise and amiable tempers
in their families, and of usefulness to their fellow
citizens, hardly costs them a thought. Jacob is not
the only person who took undue advantage of a
brother, and then lost himself in dreams of a ladder
reaching up to heaven, with angels going up and
down upon it. How often do we find that individuals
of the intensely devotional type have zeal without
tenderness, energy without repose, care for what
they deem truth, without charity towards those whom
they account heretical, driving by this incongruous
compound of good and evil many honest seeking souls
into scepticism and despair.
Perhaps even we advanced rationalists are not
without our special temptations to overlook, in some
respects, the manifold bearings of a whole-minded
culture. We have fought our way, point by point,
out of the Egyptian bondage of miserable dogmas
into intellectual light and freedom, and may we not
sometimes be in danger of resting in the peace and
satisfaction of an intellectual victory, and omit the
minute application of the exalted principles we have
�A Neglected View of Education.
13
attained to the shaping and governing of all the con
stituent parts of our nature ? While orthodoxy may
combine with intellectual feebleness does it neces
sarily follow that theological liberalism is always
associated with moral courage, scrupulous conscien
tiousness and self-denying kindness ? Nothing is more
remarkable in the higher Greek schools than the
practical’turn given to the philosophy taught. Plato,
Socrates, and others were not mere theorists. “ Know
thyself” expressed the condition of entrance upon
studies of the Academy. Their attainments in
philosophy were first applied in making themselves
and their disciples morally better, and still the per
fection of an educated manhood consists in the highest
and freest possible intellectual inquiry combined with
a correspondingly exact application of the know
ledge gained to all the faculties and powers in their
various grades and relations.
A great diplomatist is said to have defined language
as the art of concealing thought, and certainly one of
the anomalies of our civilization is that we sometimes
call things that are very absurd by very fine names.
Thus we honour with the name of education a very
crude and imperfectly-developed state of mind and
character; and, in saying as much, I use not hyper
bole ; I mean no play upon words. Education is
educement, development—harmonious development—
and the thoroughly-educated man is not the scholar or
even the gentleman, commonly so-called, but he who
has the most fully and harmoniously-developed powers
of mind and the most fully and harmoniously-deve
loped powers of body; and the time will come when
the existing fallacy, almost universally practised, if
not taught, on this subject will be looked back upon as
a relic of a rudimentary and transition state of human
culture; when training will formally and positively aim
at securing physical, intellectual, and moral balance;
when predominating tendencies will be harnessed
�14
A Neglected View of Education.
and guided; when the man naturally inclined to
animalism will be systematically brought under the
counter forces of reason and conscience; when the
man of hard logic will be carefully brought into
sympathy with the cause of human weal and trained
in the sentiments of pure and unselfish social affec
tions, in the tender experiences of sweet family
life, and in the refinements of natural and artistic
beauty; when the man of weak moral purpose will
snatch a fair share of the time he now excessively
gives to trade, social ambitions, or the duties of some
profession, to the building up of the waste places of
his mind, and cease the error of thinking his moral
defects inevitable, or imagining that his virtues can
in any degree pass as an atonement for his imper
fections.
Having dwelt on the meaning of true education as
distinguished from false, allow me for a moment or
two to try to show how this art of educating the whole
nature may be successfully carried out. The three
grand essentials of an efficient education are the best
teachers,. the most suitable text-books, and the strictest
application of what we learn, to the elevation of physical,
intellectual, and moral life. If one of this trinity of
requisites be wanting, the business of educating is
spoilt, and our time and money as good as wasted.
The development of the mind is just as much under
the direction of law as the growth of the plant. It
is sad to read the Report of Official School Inspectors,
and to see how very few out of the millions of children
in our schools indicate even a superficial acquaintance
with the subjects they profess. Of course, there will
always be differences of attainment owing to different
degrees of talent and application. But if only justice
were done to the three essentials I have named, no
child of average ability couid miss getting a compe
tent idea of the branches he was taught, or fail to
realise their bearing on the culture of his mind.
�A Neglected View of Education.
i$
There are teachers here and there thoroughly en
lightened, able, and consecrated, having a worthy
and comprehensive idea of their work, but they are
not numerous, and this is not to be wondered at.
For owing to the wretched feudalists cant, out of
which the nation is now but slowly passing, a school
master used to be looked down upon as belonging to
a fifth-rate social position; and, consequently, till
lately, only fifth-rate men could be induced to become
candidates for the office. It was only self-denying
devotion to the work, or dire pecuniary necessity,
that formerly induced persons to take up the profes
sion of a teacher ; and it was not likely that a crop
of efficient teachers could be raised under conditions
so chilling. Public opinion is still a long way from
offering encouragements that would tempt men of
philosophical understanding and culture into this
greatest of all human offices. Why is it that the sons
of our noblemen, squires, and even of our merchants
are mostly drafted to the bar or into the church or into
commerce, and that we hardly hear of youths belong
ing to these classes becoming working schoolmasters ?
*
Why would so many parents rather that their sons
earned a mere pittance in any of the professions than
get a fair living as a schoolmaster ? The post of a
schoolmaster has not been deemed respectable enough.
It will be very different by-and-bye, when English
men and English women have cast that fictitious god
of so-called respectability to the moles and the bats
and risen to the purer sphere, in which the truly
highest realities will be duly appreciated, and the
really highest functions adequately honoured and
remunerated. The day will come when the training
of youth in scientific and philosophical principles will
* Of course the Head-mastership of our great and ancient endowed
schools are not referred to here. The honoursand emoluments of such
positions have never been deemed, amongst us, incompatible with the
highest talent, scholarship, and even family influence.
�16
A Neglected View of Education.
be viewed in so exalted a light that the most power
ful and cultured minds of both sexes in the kingdom
will, gladly enlist in this service, and when the pro
fession of a teacher will rank, as it deserves to do,
the noblest and most honourable of all.
But the use of the best text-books is equally indis
pensable. In this respect, too, matters are improving,
but we have still a good deal to learn, and not till the
nation rises to a full realisation of the nature of the
work to be done can we be expected to have text
books that will fitly correspond with the end we have
in view.
I speak it with sorrow, but with grave delibera
tion, in the language of an eloquent writer —
*
“ the rock upon which all our hopes of rescuing the
mass of our countrymen from ignorance and bar
barism, are in danger of being dashed, consists in the
unreasoning and indiscriminate veneration in which
the Bible is popularly held among us as a central
educational book. Impelled by that veneration, we
hesitate not—I refer to Englishmen generally,—to
degrade our children’s view of Deity by familiarising
them with a literature in which He is represented as
feeble, treacherous, implacable, and unjust; and con
found at once their intelligence and moral sense, by
compelling them to regard that literature as altogether
divine and infallible. This notion is ingrained by
priestcraft in the minds of the multitude and even of
their Parliamentary representatives, that morality,
•—except when based upon the contents of the Bible,
—is not only defective but mischievous. And yet it
cannot be too distinctly asserted—if we sincerely
desire our children to have an education really con
sisting in the development of intelligence and con
science,—that it is absolutely impossible to give from
the Bible instructions in the principles of morality
• Mr. Edward Maitland.
�A Neglected View of Education.
17
and religion suitable to children. There is an absolute
and irreconcilable antagonism between what is called
Biblical theology and correct principles of religion
and morality. Bearing in mind the fundamental fact
in human nature, that man’s view of Deity inevitably
reacts upon himself, tending to form him in the image
of his own ideal—it is evident that to familiarise
children with the imperfect morality, the coarse
manners and expressions, the rude fables, and the
unworthy conceptions of Deity, appertaining to a
people low in culture—such as were the Israelites—
and to confound their minds and consciences at the
most impressible period of life, by telling them that
such narratives and representations are all divinely
inspired and infallibly true—is to utterly stultify
ourselves and the whole of the principles by which
we profess to be actuated in giving them an educa
tion at all. Did we find any others than our
selves, any South Sea savages for example, putting
into the hands of their children, books containing
coarse and impure stories, detailing the morbid
anatomy of the most execrable vices, extolling deeds
prompted by a spirit of the lowest selfishness, exult
ing in fraud, rapine, and murder, and justifying what
ever is most disgraceful to humanity, by representing
it as prompted or approved by their Deity, and so
making Him altogether such a one as themselves—
surely we should say that they must be savages of the
lowest and most degraded type, and sad proofs of the
utter depravity of human nature. Palpable to the
eyes of all are the hideous tales of Lot and his
daughters; Judah and Tamar; the massacre of
Shechemites; the Levite of Ephraim; David and
Bathsheba ; Amnon and his sister, and whole chapters
of Leviticus and the Prophets. That such things
should be in a book freely given to children to read,
and that they should be expected, notwithstanding, to
grow up pure and uncontaminated in mind and habit,
�18
A Neglected View of Education.
is one of those anomalies in the British character
which makes it a hopeless puzzle to the world. Who
can say that much of the viciousness at present pre
valent among us is not attributable to early curiosity
being aroused and stimulated by the obscenities of
the Old Testament.”
And if we turn from the Old Testament to the New,
mingled with the unquestionably precious gems of
moral teaching, we have hopeless contradictions in
the narratives and precepts of the Gospels, and false
and degrading doctrines in the epistles, which may
safely be credited with a vast amount of prevailing
intellectual confusion, sectarian fanaticism, and low
morality. Teachers should be required both by
School Boards and parents, to hold back the know
ledge of the Bible from the pupils till their latest
stage of training, and when the objectionable portions
are taught, the pupils should be made to understand
that these represent only the imperfect notions of a
semi-barbarous age and people, and as having no
special claim upon their reverence. And the passages
of the Bible that harmonise with natural morality,
should be presented as the outcome—not of any super
natural revelation—but of the ordinary moral instincts
of higher humanity.
We want the rising generation to cultivate freely
the art of thinking for themselves, to sift out the
precious from the vile in their investigation of truth,
to be always certain that the premises they reason
from are based on provable facts, and to draw their
conclusions logically from these premises; and not from
sentiment or passive submission to traditional or con
ventional authority, to be blinded or awed into the
surrender of their individual judgments ; and books
on history, science, art, and the philosophy of morals,
having a tendency to develope eorrect and indepen
dent thought, should from the first be put in their
hands. We want them to be of delicate, pure, and
�A Neglected View of Education.
19
elevated feeling, and the right method of disciplining
this part of their nature is nowhere better set forth
than in that admirable book by Charles Bray, on
the ‘Education of the Feelings.’ We want their
imaginations to be filled with images of unsullied
beauty, and the most vigilant care should be taken
that a selection should be made of works of poetry
and fiction, pre-eminently Shakspeare and Goethe,
free from all maudlin and spurious ideas of life and
duty.
We want their memories to be strong, and choice
passages of intellectual and moral value should be
stored early verbatim in their minds, the full force of
which will be interpreted in the progress of their ex
perience. We want their powers of observation to
be acute, and nothing is better adapted for this pur
pose than a thorough acquaintance with the prominent
facts in the history of ancient and modern nations,
the classifications of objects in geography, botany,
geology, chemistry, and astronomy. We want their
control of their physical functions, their appetites and
passions to be strict and intelligent, and a knowledge of
physiology and the laws of health should be judiciously
instilled. When this view of education has taken
the place of the narrow and insipid trifling to which
education has been subordinated by fashion and sec
tarianism, in this and other countries ; when we have
learned to view the claims of education, in short, not
in relation to sect, creed, and social station, but in
relation to the natural requirements of the mind and
the life of humanity, our class-books, like our teachers,
will be wonderfully in advance of anything ever pre
viously known. Unfortunately the illusion usually
held out to youth as the prime incentive to diligence
in culture is the qualification, which education is sup
posed to give for money-getting and social distinction.
But, with a heightening standard of life in its objects
�20
A Neglected View of Education.
and aims erected in our schools and our families, this
degrading fallacy, too, must eventually disappear.
*
So much, then, is clear. The best teachers will
not avail without suitable methods. But the last
requisite is by no means the least important, viz., the
rigid practice of what is learnt theoretically. A
glaring defect here sadly impairs our success, espe
cially as regards the moral training of the people.
The seed must not only be good and must not only
be sown in prepared soil; it must also be dug about
and helped forward in its growth by the varied
practical experience of what is taught. This is
not wholly overlooked in some of the branches of
intellectual education. It is only the practice of
reading and writing that can test our knowledge
of the rules of grammar. It is only the working
out of numerical and geometrical problems that can
prove our mastery of arithmetic and geometry. The
measure of our acquaintance with the laws of musical
harmony can be best ascertained by exercise on
some musical instrument. How, then, can we hope
for children to become thoroughly trained in morals
unless opportunities are sysZema&caZZy afforded them
for the practice of the principles and laws of virtue ?
This is not the view acted upon by orthodox churches.
I was lately thrown into the company of a self-made
religious man—a type of a large class—who depre
cated the higher quality of secular education now
sought to be given to the children of the masses. He
believed that its result would be to make them dis
satisfied with their position in life, and tempt them
into dishonest schemes, in order to raise themselves
in the social scale; and as for their moral improve
ment, he held that that could alone be attained by
what he termed “ the grace of God.” I told him that
♦Nothing'could be more true and seasonable than the remarks of
Lord Derby on this point in his Rectoral address before the Edinburgh
University.
�A Neglected View of Education.
21
was a phrase I could not understand, and one which
belonged to a bygone age of ignorance and supersti
tion, at which he expressed himself “ sorry for me.”
The old Evangelical notion was—and it is not yet
extinct—that at conversion the soul receives some
mystic essence from Heaven that transmutes its whole
texture supernaturally, so that a new nature is im
parted, which involuntarily manifests itself in suc
cessful aspirations after an almost perfect moral life,
just as an acid and a carbonate combined dissolve and
effervesce in water and change the taste of the liquid.
But, in point of fact, is this radical transformation by
“ grace ” ever seen in daily life ? Having had special
opportunities of studying the interior life of the
religious world for a quarter of a century, I
solemnly declare that I have never once seen the
alleged moral transformation answering to the
theory. Look narrowly into the lives of the vast
majority confirmed by bishops, or admitted to par
take of “ the Lord’s Supper ” in Nonconformist com
munions as “ children of God ” and “ heirs of grace,”
and say if those, as a rule, who profess to be “ saved ”
and “sanctified” by “grace,” are the characters that,
as a whole, approach the noblest moral ideals. While
churches multiply and increase, are justice and truth
and honour and self-denying generosity among their
adherents increasing ? Are there fewer instances of
vexation among employers or of eye-service among
the employed ? Nearly all those who serve in our
families have passed through Sunday-schools, and in
many cases are “ communicants.” Are they, as a
class, becoming more faithful in their duties, more
truthful in their speech, and more honest in their
conduct ? The doctrine of “ sanctifying grace ”
has more frequently than not proved a barrier to
the growth of simple, unaffected natural virtues. So
lulled are many religious minds into delusion by
the imagined power of grace, that ordinary and
�22
A Neglected View of Education,
sound morality is despised by church members as a
product of “ the flesh.” And the effect of this deadly
error upon multitudes of orthodox teachers who
believe it, is to make them feel it to be almost a pre
sumption to try to implant virtue in the child’s mind
by rule and system, while they believe that there is a
mass of inherited depravity in every soul which can
only be overcome by some mysterious and irresistible
inworking of “ the third Person of the Trinity ” in
the mind.
In the school system of the future there will be
scientific arrangements for the discipline of the powers
and dispositions of the children. As a basis of ope
rations, the predominating tendencies of the child’s
mind will be duly ascertained by indices, craniological
and physiognomical, his more marked inherited idiosyncracies will be carefully inquired about and kept
in vie wat all times by the teacher, for his guidance
in dealing with the child’s faculties, and the training
will be adapted accordingly. The unsympathetic
selfishly-disposed child will have special circumstances
planned for his special benefit and adapted to his
moral wants. He will be guided to study the lives
of the unselfish and morally heroic, and, in company
with his teacher, he will be brought in contact with
scenes of misfortune, want, pain, and sickness, at
intervals, for protracted periods—scenes from which
he would tend constitutionally to recoil—that his
spirit may become habitually penetrated by the
sympathy which such spectacles are calculated to
inspire. The same child will have selected for him
the companionship of the most refined, sensitive, and
disinterested of his school-fellows; and such a train
of influence, shaped and brought to bear upon his
weak points continuously, could not fail to greatly
modify the outcome of his natural tendencies. So
will each moral imperfection be dealt with, with
all the care with which a surgeon watches and
�A Neglected View of Education.
23
operates upon a wound, till it be healed. The hard
headed youth, in whom the imaginative element is
defective, will be specially exercised in the power of
discriminating the merits of aesthetic compositions,
—varied forms of beauty in pictures, statuary, music,
and healthy works of fiction, in addition to the pabu
lum supplied for the proper training of his stronger
faculties. The pupil who may have inherited defi
cient sentiments of honour, truthfulness, and justice,
will be suddenly and from time to time placed by his
masters in circumstances calculated to thrust habi
tually, yet tenderly, but prominently, his moral
defects upon his attention, till a sense of shame and
disgust at his faults will induce in time efforts to
subdue them. And so with the subjugation of all
other innate crooked propensities.
In spite of the abuse of the system of penance and
confession in the Roman Catholic Church, which we
are bound to deprecate, there is, nevertheless, at the
root of that corrupt system a principle which might,
under the direction of a sound philosophy of educa
tion, be employed with advantage in general training.
The extreme of morbid and microscopic analysis of
moral faults is doubtless bad; but the opposite ex
treme of leaving the moral culture of the rising gene
ration, as at present, to the vague inculcation of
maxims and precepts, is equally to be avoided. The
dispositions of each pupil’s mind should be mapped
out, and each weakness minutely particularised and
dealt with in detail. Under such a well-defined
method, who can tell the transcendant improvement
that, in half a century, might be worked in civilised
nations !
PRINTED BY C. W. REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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A neglected view of education.
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Macfie, Matthew
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 23 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: A lecture delivered at Mr. M. D. Conway's Chapel, Camden Town, November 21st, 1875. Includes bibliographical references. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by C.W. Reynell, Little Pulteney Street, London.
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Thomas Scott
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1876
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CT172
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Education
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (A neglected view of education.), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Conway Tracts
Education
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Text
KINDER GARTEN TRAINING.
A PAPER
BEAD AT THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGBESS,
AT
GLASGOW, 1874..
BY
E. A. MANNING.
LONDON:
EDWARD STANFORD* 6, 7, & 8, CHARING CROSS, S.W.
■
1874.
Price Sixpence.
��KINDER GARTEN TRAINING.
In the last few years the Kinder Garten system of
training infants, invented by Frobel, has been
noticed and studied by many who are interested
in practical education. Introduced into England
more than twenty-five years ago, this method at
first attracted little attention; but now Frobel’s
idea in its beauty and harmony has taken strong
hold of many minds, and the value of his plans,
which are so skilfully adapted to children’s tenden
cies, is gradually being more and more recognised.
Private Kinder Gartens are springing up in various
places; school boards begin to establish them
as a preparation for the elementary course; while
in Manchester there is already a training school
for teachers. In Frobel’s own country, the number
of Kinder Gartens has increased to five hundred.
Some of his pupils (among them the Baroness Marenholtz-Bulow) have devoted themselves zealously to
their establishment; and from Germany teachers
have been sent to Italy, where the system has great
success. In Belgium, France, and Russia, children
are being brought under this influence. In the
United States, greatly through the exertions of Miss
Peabody, Kinder Gartens are becoming numerous.
B
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)
Many good G-uides too have been published, the
result of actual experience in teaching, the best of
which are by Wiebe, Kohler, Goldammer, Octavie
de Masson and Madame Ronge ; and Miss Peabody
edits a little monthly magazine, called the 4 Kinder
Garten Messenger.’*
But, notwithstanding this progress, we still hear
it asked what Kinder Gartens are; and even those
who are familiar with the occupations and games
often do not well understand Frobel’s leading ideas.
The principle of his system seems still to be too
much in the background, whereas it is just that
which ought to be entered into, if we wish to judge
fairly of the merits of his plans. In this paper,
then, I shall first explain Frobel’s principle, in doing
which I shall have to say a little about himself;
and secondly, I shall describe the practical system
of training which he invented in accordance with
that principle.
I. Frobel’s fundamental idea of education was
that it consists in securing a gradual and harmo
nious development of the child’s nature. And how
is this to be obtained ? His answer is, “ Not by a
routine course of school lessons, but by the pleasur
able, well-directed exercise of its various faculties.”
He saw that children are growing and learning,
even if they are not sent to school. But he did
1 This magazine can be procured in England by communicating with
Miss Snell, 17, Strawberry Bank, Pendleton, Manchester.
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not wish them to be left to themselves. He saw
also that the help of experienced minds is needed,
in order to guide and train all this natural action.
The work of teachers, therefore, lies first in observing
children’s own efforts, and next in directing those
efforts to good and sure results. Self-education
thus assisted, and thus only, leads to the desired
end—the free and full development of the physical,
mental, and moral nature. Frobel was not the
first to assert these views about education, and
he shared them with Pestalozzi and others of his
time; but being deeply impressed with them, he,
like Pestalozzi, spent a great part of his life in
carrying them into practice. The son of a country
pastor in Thiiringen, he tried several kinds of em
ployment, till the decided bent of his mind towards
teaching induced him to help in a school at Frank
fort, and afterwards he collected some village boys
not far from his early home, with the desire of
training them to lead good and useful lives. He
had not then thought of Kinder Gartens, but he
conducted his school on the principle that I have
stated, viz. that true education is simply the careful
guidance of natural growth.
After some years, Frobel, having fully taken
hold of this principle of aided self-development,
began to consider whether it could not be acted on
before the usual school age. He became convinced
that the first few years of a child’s life are alb
b
2
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important, as laying the foundation of health and
disease, giving the direction to its mental habits,
and moulding its tempers, dispositions, and tastes.
In dealing with his boy-pupils, he was led to see
that he might have had far more success with them
if they had not been comparatively neglected up
to seven years old. Like Pestalozzi, he had the
highest appreciation of early home-training, and
he had no desire to set infants to tasks. But it
occurred to him that if the education which they
were joyously giving themselves could be gently
and kindly guided by a teacher, under suitable
conditions, and with the advantage of companion
ship, mind and body might be brought into a good
state of preparation for the studies and the duties of
after years. Thus he arrived at the idea of Kinder
Gartens.
It is easy to see how naturally the name Kinder
Garten was adopted by Frobel. In all his thoughts
on education the illustration constantly present to
his mind was that of the growth of plants. He used
to say, “ The tree is my teacherand he held the
work of the gardener to be very similar to that of
the educator. In an often-quoted passage he ex
presses himself thus : “ As the farmer and gardener
treat their seeds in accordance with Nature, and in
harmony with her laws, so we should educate the
child and man according to their being, according
to the inherent laws of life, in harmony and unity
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with Nature and with the Supreme Being, Source of
all life.” The gardener imparts no force, establishes
no laws, but after making himself acquainted with
the nature of the plants under his care, secures for
them, by his watchful toil, plenty of light, air, water,
and space, sure that the leaves, flowers, and fruit
will appear in due time. And so, in the case of
children, the teacher first acquires a true ideal of
what they may become, and afterwards simply
gives scope for the quickening and strengthening
of their varied capacities. When then Frobel had
planned a training place for infants, he called it a
childrens garden, expressing thus his educational
principle, and conveying a beautiful idea of the
kind of influences to be exerted there, such influ
ences as may reasonably be compared to the sun
shine, rain, and good soil by means of which plants
thrive and grow. I may add that no forcing is con
sistent with his system. Open-air gardening he
accepted as a comparison, but not the artificial
methods which promote rapid results; for he knew
that all healthy development is slow.
But Frobel would have certainly failed in his
practical schemes if he had not thoroughly under
stood children, and one cannot help being struck
with the wholeness of his view as to their nature.
He seems to leave out no characteristic—to forget
no latent power. The child that he already trains
in imagination is just the merry, happy, bright,
�<
6
)
inventive, active, loving child that everyone de
lights to see. Himself of an affectionate disposition,
he could sympathize with the desires and interests
of the youngest minds; and when he was forming
his plans of training, he used to mix much with
little children, noticing their ways with one another,
and the ways with them of their mothers and nurses.
And besides kindness and simplicity of heart, he
brought to bear on the subject of education a keen
and philosophic mind. He observed not only
children, but men and nations too; and he found
that facts in individual growth were confirmed by
facts in the more extended growth of communities.
He thought deeply on all human relations and
duties, seeking everywhere for unity in variety,
and for harmony through obedience to Divine laws.
Gentle, thoughtful, poetical, and religious-minded,
he was well qualified to show how children should
be prepared for life, and I think it is rare to meet
with anyone who, as fully as he did, realized all
their characteristics.
What did he find those characteristics to be ? I
will shortly enumerate the chief of them. 1. An
unceasing bodily activity, which leads children to
jump, run, climb, tumble, and scramble about—the
natural means of promoting physical growth. 2. An
inquisitive faculty of observation, impelling them to
investigate the world in which they are come to live,
with the untiring energy of African explorers; and
Frobel saw that they do this in a most practical
�(
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manner, mainly by feeling and handling the objects
of their attention. 3. Constructiveness-, the fond
ness for making things, whether mud-pies, boats, or
dolls’ clothes. ‘ 4. A love of the beautiful, shown
in a susceptibility to the influence of harmony in
sound, form, and colour, and of all external nature.
5. The social tendency ; the delight of having com
panions, and of being sympathized with in their
joys and troubles.
6. A constant playfulness,
evinced by the glee and enthusiasm which animate
their hourly life. Frobel dwelt much on this point;
for he felt that play (by which, however, he did not
mean aimless play) is the congenial atmosphere of a
little child. 7. A growing moral nature—passions,
affections, and conscience, which need to be con
trolled, responded to, and cultivated. Here then
are seven distinctive characteristics, common in
varying degrees to all children, and it was these
that Frotel determined to try to develop.
I have now described the foundation on which
Frobel built his Kinder Garten teaching, viz. the
principle that true education consists in the judicious
guidance of self-education; and I have shown, too,
that he desired to apply this principle to the train
ing of very young children, and that his acquintance
with a child’s nature was remarkably full and com
plete.
II. Secondly, I will briefly describe Frobel’s prac
tical plans, which have already been so widely
adopted.
�(
8
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1. .The Gifts. Impressed with the idea that a
little child must begin to learn through the handling
of objects, and also through play, he arranged a
series of toys which he called gifts. These are as
different as possible from the dazzling mechanisms
that attract children to the windows of toy-shops.
Frobel studiously avoided recommending toys which,
being finished off, leave no room for the exercise of
fancy. I think he would have sighed over the Christ
mas and birthday presents that are now showered
upon children. But modest as his gifts are in appear
ance, they have an endless capability for giving enjoy-,
ment, and enjoyment of a higher kind than the gay
little omnibus, or the talking French doll. Children’s
eyes glisten with pleasure when they are allowed
to play with them, and the teacher, by their use,
stimulates the observing and inventive powers, and
conveys the rudiments of arithmetic and geometry.
There is a regular gradation in the gifts, most care
fully thought out by Frobel, by means of which
each dawning faculty is provided for, and the child
is led from the most elementary ideas to the more
abstract and complicated. The first gift is a coloured
worsted ball. Being apparently full of life, a ball
is a real companion for an infant. It not only
amuses it, and helps to teach command of limbs and
muscles, but it supplies the groundwork of first
lessons about colour and substance. Very pretty
symmetrical games can be played with this gift, to
�(
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music or counting ; as, for instance, by placing the
children in a circle, and letting them pass the balls
from one to another, the arms being raised and
lowered alternately. The second gift consists of a
plain wooden ball or sphere, a cube, and a cylinder.
The child is now led to observe new forms, and
becomes familiar with corners, sides, edges, and
angles. The third and fourth gifts are again in
advance. Each is a cube, divided in the one case
into eight smaller cubes, in the other into eight
parallelograms. Frobel planned three modes of use
for these blocks and bricks: making forms of daily
life, such as a chair, a tower, a column, &c.; making
forms of beauty—flat shapes which in a simple and
striking way can be evolved out of one another (in
one of the Kinder Garten Guides as many as eighty
of these are given)—and using them for lessons
about number. The fifth and sixth gifts are further
subdivided, and are therefore available for more
elaborate erections and figures. They also lead to
higher arithmetical and mathematical teaching.
Sometimes all the sets of bricks are used together,
so that bridges, houses, railroads, &c., can be formed.
The children are in every way encouraged to exercise
their own invention, and the teacher talks to them
familiarly about the objects represented.
2. The Occupations. The value of these is proved
by the great delight that they afford, the ingenuity
that they call forth, and the habits of industry that
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they encourage. Everyone who has visited a Kinder
Garten when the occupations were going on, must
have remarked the- zest of the children, and their
proud surprise at the results of their own perse
verance. I can only name them, without indicating
the clever way in which they also lead up to one
another. The first is stick-laying, that is, making
outline forms with tiny sticks; then drawing, which
begins with the representation of these outlines on
a slate, and goes on to the copying of the forms of
printed letters and of natural objects. Pea-work;
uniting the sticks by means of softened peas, so as
to make little articles of furniture, as well as mathe
matical figures. Paper-folding, by which a succes
sion of objects are formed out of a sheet of paper.
Paper-cutting; a few symmetrical cuts when the
paper has been folded into a triangle, giving an
astonishing variety of results. Perforating of card
board, the designs when finished being worked by
the children with worsted. Mat-making; the inter
weaving of coloured strips of paper so as to make
little mats. Lastly, Modelling in clay. This begins
with the simplest forms, but by degrees the children
learn to imitate nature, and they often show great
skill in these early attempts at sculpture. The occu
pations not only satisfy the desire to make something,
but they develop the artistic faculty. As Frobel
looked in the child for the germ of every capacity of
the grown man, he did not fail to give scope for the
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)
expression of ideas through creations of fancy. He
stands perhaps alone in attempting the cultivation
of art-power in very young children. I may mention
here that he made a great point of accustoming
children to express themselves in clear tones, and
in language closely fitted to their thought, and also
that reading is taught in Kinder Gartens by a natural
method, which avoids the labour of spelling. The
power of accurate observation gained by so much
familiarity with form, makes a child attain the art
of reading with singular ease and rapidity.
3. Another part of the training consists in laying
the basis of Scientific Knowledge. The child’s atten
tion is drawn to objects. He is led to distinguish their
likenesses and their differences, according to the Pestalozzian method, and thus he acquires the elements
of geography, physics, and natural history. Frobel
would not allow such teaching to be given in a dry
manner. He wished a garden to be attached to
every one of these schools, that the children might
study for themselves the nature of plants, and he liked
them to live as much as possible in the open air, and
to have the care of flowers and of animals. In the
lessons, the teacher chooses subjects connected with
the children’s daily experience, and has recourse to
pictures and anecdotes. Science, while unimpaired
as to accuracy, is conveyed through the medium of
poetry and affection. For the knowledge is imparted
in order to satisfy the child’s eager wish to be at
�(
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)
home in nature, and to take his rightful place in
relation to the outer world.
4. Music was much relied on by Frobel, for he
had a profound belief in its beneficial influence. He
remarked that the youngest children have a tendency
to express themselves in singing, and he was aware
of the almost magical effect on their moral nature of
melodious sounds. He therefore introduced music,
with or without words, in every available way into
his system. As harmony was his constant end and
aim, no wonder that the harmony of sound had a
special attraction for him.
5. Again, the Games are very prominent in a
Kinder Garten. These are of a dramatic kind,
tending to remind children of phases of life and of
the ways of animals, and being performed by a
large number, and in rhythmic order, their effect is
animating and harmonizing. As an example, I will
describe the game called “ The Pigeon-house.”
Three-fourths of the children place themselves in a
circle round the others, who represent the pigeons.
Those outside begin to sing-T
“We open the pigeon-house again,
And. set the merry flutt’rers free ”—
at the same time enlarging the circle, and raising
hands and arms, so as to allow the pigeons to
escape. The pigeon-children run out, imitating the
flapping of birds’ wings, and the song continues—
“ They fly on the fields and grassy plain,
Delighted with joyous liberty.”
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)
After a while, the circle goes on to sing—
“ And when they return from their merry flight,
We shut up the house, and bid them ‘good-night.’”
At once the pigeons run back, pass under the raised
arms of the circle, and are closed in again. Other
plays are “ The Peasant,” “ The Windmill,” “ The
Bees,” &c. It is quite inspiriting to see the mer
riment caused by these games. The children’s
imagination is pleased; their limbs are healthily
and gracefully exercised; they are exhilarated by
companionship; and they learn to realize the value
of combination for the production of results.
6. There is one more point that I must refer to.
It is the moral training that a Kinder Garten
supplies. The teacher aims indirectly at placing a
moral standard before the children’s minds, by the
tone she gives to all the lessons, and through
biographies, fables, songs, and stories, illustrative of
right and wrong. But, besides this, she watches
and guides their conduct. Owing to the freedom of
action encouraged, and the social life that the
presence of numbers gives, there is plenty of scope
for the growth of character; and the teacher, whose
approbation, if she is loved by her pupils, is earnestly
desired, has it in her power continually to promote
unselfishness, and to check cross and angry disposi
tions. The occupations induce perseverance and
correct idleness; in the games the children learn to
give up to others; patience, self-control, and a love
�of order are imbibed; it becomes a habit to respect
the rights of others; the affections are drawn out;
and cheerful obedience is accepted as the rule of
life. If in a word or two one had to describe the
moral effect of a Kinder Garten, one might say that
the child learns there the great lesson that it forms
a part of a social whole. Each has its little niche
in the building—its small, but definite, share of
duty, which, if it omits to perform, all the others
suffer. Thus, for the sake of its companions, it
represses its hasty words and its violent tempers,
and tries to help towards the general advantage.
It is caught up, as it were, into some degree of
understanding of its religious and moral relations,
and the aim set before it is not only not to be
naughty, but to be positively good.
In these ways Frobel adapted his practice to
the several characteristics of children which I have
already enumerated—to their activity, observingness,
constructiveness, love of art, sociability, playfulness,
and their moral nature. Other occupations and
other methods of teaching may, as experience
-increases, be added to his, but while there is no
reason to follow his plans slavishly, I think it will
not be found easy to improve upon them. Of course,
it depends mainly on the teacher whether a Kinder
Garten accomplishes its true intention, and some of
the objections that one occasionally hears raised
against the system apply, I believe, to the many
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imperfect realizations that unfortunately exist.
The important thing is that a teacher should be
thoroughly imbued with Frobel’s principle. No
doubt she requires special training in the use of the
gifts, and in the games and occupations, &c. But
she will have studied them to little avail if she
treats them as unrelated mechanical arts, instead
of as helps to the carrying out of a whole ideal.
For Frobel’s system is, after all, not a system. It
is life acting on life. It is the calling forth of the
emotions, the intellect, the physical powers, and the
conscience by one in whom all good faculties are
already developed. The teacher must keep her
principles constantly in view, and must test every
portion of her practice by its conformity to that
principle. Through a wise and loving influence she
must prepare her impressible little pupils for further
progress, and if she has trained them as Frobel
meant them to be trained, they will begin their
school life with a happy and regulated consciousness
of possessing force—physical, intellectual, and
moral.
In order to show that these results may be and
are actually obtained, I will quote the recent testi
mony of an elementary schoolmistress, in America,
who receives children at the end of their Kinder
Garten course. She wrote:—“ A child, of no extra
ordinary gifts, who had been in Miss Kriege’s
Kinder Garten two years, came to me at seven, and
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)
easily passed through all the three grades of the
primary school in one year, because all his habits of
mind were so well formed, and he had been taught
both how to behave and how to learn.”
In conclusion, I would express a hope not only
that Kinder Gartens will become more and more
numerous, but also that Frobel’s principle will be
recognised to a greater extent than it is at present,
in the later stages of education.
E. A. Manning.
<
V*
Since this paper was prepared, I am glad to find
that the British and Foreign School Society have
engaged the help of an experienced German lady,
Miss Heerwart, a pupil of Frobel’s intimate friend
and colleague, Middendorff, > in order to organize a
course of Kinder Garten instruction for the students
of Stockwell College. Until the present want of
trained English teachers is supplied, it is impos
sible that the system can make much progress; but
as soon as it is introduced, in a thorough manner,
into training institutions, we may hope that children
of all classes will share those advantages of develop
ment which must ever be associated with the name
of Friedrich Frobel.
���
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Kinder garten training: a paper read at the Social Science Congress at Glasgow, 1874
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Manning, E.A.
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Discusses the work of educator Friedrich Frobel who created the concept of 'kindergarten'.
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Edward Stanford
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1874
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G5362
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Kinder garten training: a paper read at the Social Science Congress at Glasgow, 1874), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Subject
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Education
Child rearing
Conway Tracts
Education
Friedrich Frobel
Kindergartens
-
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SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS
S!MPLY_ DEFINED
(FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN)
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London:
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�NEVE
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS
SIMPLY DEFINED
FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN)
BY
E. L. MARSDEN
( ISSUED FOB THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED )
London:
WATTS & CO.,
17 JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1914
��FOREWORD
The result of “pious” parents beginning to teach children
at an early age theology, prayers, catechisms, etc., is that
many children learn to use words icithout having any
definite conception of their meaning.
This is intellectually
injurious, and as a rule azoakens a mere superstition founded
to a large degree on false history.
1 have here attempted to
explain in a rational manner and as simplzj as possible the
meaning of a feio of those expressions zvhich children are
constantly zcsizzg and hearing zcsed, words of whose meaning
they have but the vaguest idea.
This pamphlet is zvritten in the hope that a simple explana
tion of some of the more comznon zoords zcsed daily izi religious
instruction znay be of beziefit to the youzig, and possibly to
a few of their teachers.
E. L. M.
May, 1914.
��SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY
DEFINED
BIBLE TEACHING
RELIGION appears to be the only subject in which teachers make
no use of the most recent authorities and the latest discoveries.
The practice of most Christian ministers, and of many 1 other
teachers of religion, of ignoring modern Biblical criticism amounts
to a scandal. Children are given the impression that the Bible is
for us what it was for our ancestors. Congregations are kept in
ignorance of what has taken place in historical research, textual
criticism, and comparative mythology; they are not informed that,
however useful and edifying as parables the old tales of the Bible
may be, those tales have no claim to be treated as historically true.
Knowledge and research have shown that the traditional theories
about the Bible are no longer tenable ; but many children from their
earliest years are given utterly false impressions on the subject. It
is not honest to preach as if the Bible consists of absolutely trust
worthy documents when scholarship, both Christian and secular,
knows them to be otherwise. The old matter-of-course assumption
of the divinely guaranteed accuracy of the Old Testament has dis
appeared from the minds of the well-educated, and no well-informed
person treats the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch as anything
but unsupported tradition.
Some few years ago the Encyclopedia Biblica was issued, the
purpose of which work was to ascertain the real facts and to state
them. This book is the work of some of the greatest of the world’s
Biblical students, and it sums up, supported by a mass of learning,
the conclusions of modern criticism. A glance at the list of con
tributors will show the large number of scholarly Churchmen who
have abandoned the theory of the literal truth of the Bible. We
5
�6
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
learn from these volumes that the creation story originated in a
stock of primitive myths common to the Semitic races, and is almost
identical with the Babylonian myth ; that the very existence of the
Old Testament patriarchs is uncertain; that the whole book of
Genesis is not history, but a narrative based on older records, long
since lost; that the story of Joseph was, compiled in the seventh
century B.C.; that the book of Exodus is a legend; that it is
doubtful whether Moses is the name of an individual or of a clan•
that the alleged origin of the Ten Commandments is purely tradi
tional ; that it is very doubtful whether David wrote any of the
Psalms ; that everything in the Gospels is uncertain ; that we do
not know when Jesus was born, when he died, or who was his
father ; that the supposed virgin birth has no evidence in its favour;
that it is impossible to separate the truth from doubtful legend and
symbolical embroidery in any of the Gospels; that the accounts of
the Resurrection. exhibit contradictions of the most glaring kind;
that the view that the four gospels bearing the names of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John were written by them and appeared thirty
or forty years- after the death of Jesus can no longer be maintained,
nor can they be regarded as credible narratives ; that the genuineness
of the Pauline Epistles is far from clear. These and a hundred
other conclusions can be found in the Encyclopedia Btblica, wherein
eminent Christian scholars proclaim results quite contrary to the
usual orthodox teachings.
Nevertheless, dogmas discarded by enlightened Christian ministers
continue to be taught to our children, whereas real religion, the
development and direction of the moral and spiritual feelings, is
neglected to a great extent. Highly as we may prize the Bible,
a system of instruction which makes it a fetish tends to degrade it,
and it is much to be regretted that it should be so much misused in
religious education. To treat as solemn fact every Hebrew legend
and impossible miracle, to try to harmonize Old Testament fables
of lust, slaughter, and deceit approved by Jehovah with the spirit
of the Sermon on the Mount, can do nothing but harm ; to teach
a child the story of the Fall as historically true when he will soon
know that man has not fallen, but gradually risen, can only unsettle
his mind.
If we were to exclude the idea of absolute historical accuracy in
teaching the Bible, we should eliminate much unreality and insincerity
from the moral atmosphere. It is not the book, but the conventional
superstition with which it is treated, that is at fault. Treated with
�RELIGION AND THEOLOGY
7
intelligent discrimination, it will always have its educational value,
but it cannot supply the place of instruction in real religion, in the
morals of daily life. Scripture is one thing, morality another.
Now that many ministers of all sects admit that nearly every
book in the Old Testament is of unknown authorship, and much of
it is mythical and fabulous, it is time that we should protest against
our children being taught that the: Fall, the Deluge, the plagues of
Egypt, the massacres in Canaan, etc., are part of an infallible and
divine revelation; that view is gone except for the grossly ignorant,
and to cause children to regard these stories as authentic history is
demoralizing both to teachers and taught.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY
RELIGION is not the observance of forms and ceremonies, for men
may observe these and be wholly wanting in religious life ; nor is it
the belief in some particular creed, for men have held every kind of
orthodox creed and yet been quite impious. Religion is a state of
the heart and feelings, a state of reverence, awe, love, or dependence,
according to the character of the divine object presented to the
mind. Religion is the feeling, theology is the attempted explanation
of that feeling; hence religion must precede theology, and they may
exist independently of each other.
Questions of theology, <l historical criticism ” of Scripture, and
such subjects, are of undoubted importance, but are not matters of
religion. The end of religious education should be the development
and direction of the moral and spiritual feelings, and instruction in
the morals of daily life, leading to the victory over Self. Theology
is the supposed knowledge as to God and the unknown, and what
man believes about supernatural beings and about those things at
present inexplicable by any known laws of nature. Such beliefs
should be freely discussed, but not made the subject of ridiculous
quarrels, as no human being knows the truth about these matters ;
and it should be remembered that man’s early theological beliefs,
which we are asked to accept, were due to • thA limitations of his
knowledge and experience.'
"■"■L
�8
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
TRUTH AND LAWS OF NATURE
Truth is the most perfect knowledge attainable concerning any
given .question, and such knowledge is what we depend upon for the
highest ends of life. Truth is acquired by experience and study, and
the only permanent truths are those of observation and inference.Formerly they were few ; but with modern scientific development
they are increasing rapidly, and they stand apart from truths derived
from supposed revelations. The latter’s durability is comparatively
short; there are everywhere traces of extinct religions once devoutly
believed. Real truths are always in harmony, not so theological
truths ; time strengthens the one and weakens the other. When we
seek truth, we are seeking a knowledge of that which is capable of
verification and proof. In science, the truth is a statement giving a
correct representation of facts; in theology, the truth is a statement
supposed to be in accordance with the particular revelation which is
accepted. Science appeals to facts ; theology appeals to supposed
miracles, and asks us to believe in a number of events contrary to
all experience, on the authority of unknown writers. “ Laws of
nature” means the invariable order in which facts occur, all facts
.being links in an endless chain of cause and effect; one single
exception to this invariable order, and it cannot be a law of nature.
Truth is founded upon laws of nature.
REVELATION AND REASON
In the history of the human race there have been many so-called
revelations ” claiming to teach us things we should not otherwise
know. Such are the Zoroastrian,. Brahman, Buddhist, Jewish,
Christian, Mohammedan; they all claim divine origin, and each
condemns the others as unreliable and incomplete. In separating
.what is true from what is false in these various revelations, or in
.accepting one of them as the only true one, we must use our
■judgment. It follows, therefore, that our reason is a higher
authority than revelation, for we cannot believe anything without
�GOD
9
the approval of our reason. (What people say they believe is a
different matter.)
In all the revelations and bibles there are many mistakes in
history and science, and numerous contradictions. Such mistakes
are natural, as all these bibles are the work of man. All we can do
is to follow the best light we have—our reason ; for even if it
sometimes leads us into error, we have nothing better to follow.
In the name of Revelation or the “ Word of God ” many of the
worst crimes have been committed, and some of the world’s noblest
men have either known nothing of it or disbelieved in it.
Many people in this country believe that the ancient Jews were
Specially favoured with a revelation ; while the Greeks, the most
advanced people of antiquity, had none. If this were true, it would
show that morality and intelligence are possible without revelation,
and are in no way dependent upon it. Those who believe in
revelation think that it makes truth known to us by “ inspiration.”
If so, these questions arise: What is inspiration ? How are inspired
thoughts distinguished from uninspired ? and, How did the selectors
choose between genuine and spurious ? These questions have never
been answered.
GOD
By the word “God” is meant the power which exists behind
the facts of the universe. If such a power exists, its nature is
unknown and unknowable. The popular idea of God is that he is
a Person who created the universe, that he knows and sees every
thing and is everywhere; also that he is just and holy. Man has
made God in his own image, consequently God has grown better as
man has improved in intelligence and character. The God of the
savage was a savage; the God of the ancient Jews, as represented
in the Old Testament, was bloodthirsty, vindictive, jealous, and
petty; the God of the Christians was a being who punished the
errors of this brief life with eternal torments. This is still the
opinion of many Christians, but it is difficult to understand how
anyone can believe this horrible doctrine. God has been known by
different names in different countries—Zeus, Jove, Ormuzd, Brahm,
Jehovah, Allah, among others ; he is also called the Supreme Being,
�10
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
tli© Infinite, the First Cause, Nature, etc. Some people when they
say God mean a person, others an idea. Belief in several Gods was
the earliest belief of all nations. It is quite clear from the Old
Testament that the ancient Jews believed in other Gods, of whom
their God was jealous.
The sun, moon, mountains, rivers, animals, almost everything,
have been regarded as Gods, and men have prayed to them and
sacrificed to them. As mankind advanced in knowledge the belief
in Gods decreased, and now nearly all educated people believe either
in one God or in none. The old argument that, as every effect must
have a cause, the universe must have a cause which is God, is met
by the obvious rejoinder that, if every effect must have a cause, God
must also have a cause. It is just as easy or difficult to imagine
a universe without a cause as a God without a cause. The existence
of God cannot be demonstrated, but is a very general belief. Each
man makes his own God, which word represents the highest ideal
of the individual. Hence one man’s God may be better and nobler
than that of another, as each man is the measure of his own ideal
or God. Theologians who profess belief in an all-wise, all-powerful,
and all-good God have never been able to give a rational explanation
of all the pain, misery, and evil which exists in the world, and some
have believed that God allows an evil spirit, Satan, to tempt every
body. If God had wished sin to abound, what more could he have
done than to appoint a being to the office of tempting mankind at
all times and places ? Any parent who allowed his children tli
associate with bad characters would deserve censure.
PRAYER
Prayer is a supplication to God, or a desire for communion with
him. No one prays to laws of nature or to great ideals ; prayers
are always addressed to a personal God. But the idea of a God and
a person is incongruous. To be a God is to be infinite ; to be a
person is to be finite. Prayer originated in a desire to appease the
anger or secure the favour of invisible beings. When after a long
period of drought a minister prays for rain, it is in the belief that
God caused the drought, and can be persuaded to discontinue it.
As a drought does not last for ever, such prayers are apparently
�CHRISTIANITY
11
answered. It may happen that some people are praying God
to do what other people are just as earnestly praying him not
to do, and such prayers imply that God is an individual ready to
adapt himself to the convenience of everybody. There is no reason
to believe that God has any less control over the law of gravity than
over the weather, but people never pray to have the law of gravity
suspended for their benefit; they know such law is inviolable, and
they will stop praying about the weather when they learn that the
laws governing it are equally inviolable.
It is said that God demands that his creatures should continually
address him in terms of glorification and endearment. Such an
idea insults God ; a really great and good being would not constantly
want our prayers and laudations. The idea, of course, came from
the East, where sultans can only be approached with presents and
salaams. Prayer makes men look for help outside themselves, and
thus weakens their self-dependence. When we offer flattery, build
churches, give money, etc., to obtain a favour it is an attempt to
corrupt God by. bribery. It makes morality and justice of less
importance than rites, prayers, and dogmas. It is inconsistent with
any high ideal of God that he will be influenced by prayers and
praise. Public prayer is less desirable than private prayer, as it is
formal and not spontaneous, professional and not personal. Even
in the New Testament Jesus is reported as saying that we should
not pray in public (Matthew vi, 5-6).
CHRISTIANITY
It may be said that the Christian revelation has exerted more
influence in the world than any other, as it has helped to shape the
history of the first-class nations. This particular revelation is found
in a book called the Holy Bible, divided into two parts—the Old
Testament and the New Testament. It consists of sixty-six books,
written by different authors at different periods in different languages
and in different countries; these books were gradually collected into
one volume by religious councils. The Old Testament relates the
history of the Jews, their laws, customs, and wars. This history is
not materially different from that of other primitive people, and
there is no reason why it should be regarded as the “ Word of God.”
�12
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
The New Testament consists of a number of writings collected about
one hundred-and-fifty years after the death of Jesus Christ, and of
these writings we have no knowledge of the authorship, with the
possible exception of four letters of Paul and one of James. The
titles, The Gospel according to Matthew,” etc., represent the
opinion of the editors or translators ; and probably the name of an
apostle was used to give the work greater authority. The apostles,
expecting the world would end in their lifetime, did not write their
own messages.
There were many other gospels besides those in the New
Testament; but they have been excluded as being doubtful—that
is, they did not receive the necessary number of votes in ecclesiastical
councils to be considered inspired. The books of the Bible were
written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; and as the original
manuscripts from which our English Bible is said to have been
translated are not in existence, we do not know that the translation
is accurate. Our translation is from the supposed copies of the lost
originals, which copies were produced possibly hundreds of years
after the originals had been lost, so that we cannot know that the
copies are reliable.
The Christian revelation teaches that humanity was originally
perfect, that it fell into sin, and that a select few may escape
through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. We now know
that the human race has been ascending slowly, and that incarna
tion and atonement are world-wide myths. We also realize that the
idea of a guilty person pardoned through the atoning death of an
innocent victim has no moral value. Christianity, in the light of
modern knowledge of comparative mythology, is one member of
a large family of religions (Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Mohammedan,
etc.) which in one form or another are co-extensive with the history
of humanity. Christianity might have led on to true religion, but
has taken its place; in its petrified form it holds prisoner the forces
of real religion.
THE CANON OF THE BIBLE
The “ canon ” of the Bible consists of those books which
ecclesiastical councils have declared of divine authority; this
canon has not always been the same. The earliest Christians
�JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS
13
regarded only the Old Testament as the word of God, and the
Apostolic Fathers apparently did not look upon the New Testament
as of equal authority with the Old. Schisms between early Chris
tians gave rise to the idea of a canon; a generally accepted word of
God was necessary, and the demand created the supply.
The first reference to a canon was in the latter half of the second
century. In 352 A.D. the canon of the Emperor Constantine was
produced, and contained the present number of books except the
book of Revelation. Many books in the Bible have been questioned
at various times. Luther did not regard the book of Revelation and
the Epistle of James as part of God’s word. The Roman Catholic
Bible contains seventy-two books, as it includes as inspired some
books that Protestants reject. Roman Catholics hold that it is the
Church that gives the Bible its authority, and do not allow private
interpretation of it; while Protestants look upon it as infallible, but
each individual must read and interpret it for himself. The Holy
Spirit does not, apparently, reveal the same meaning of the Scrip
tures to all readers ; for, in spite of the assumed infallible revelation,
all Protestants are not agreed on such important questions as
Baptism, Predestination, Eternal Punishment, Atonement, and the
Divinity of Jesus.
Apart from the fact that the meaning of the Bible is not clear to
everybody, the objection to an inspired book is that it limits the
possession of truth to one people or race, and makes it a thing of the
long past; it makes research needless, and gives the Church power
to suppress new truth. Fortunately, the Bible’s power for harm is
-decreasing now that we are beginning to regard it as the literature
■of a primitive and uninformed people. It is only worshipped as
infallible by the least educated of mankind.
JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS
The prevailing belief about Jesus is that he was both God and
man, that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost, that he was without
■sin, that he worked miracles, and was equal to God. We have only
the word of man on the subject, and, as all religions have claimed
power to work miracles, there is no reason for treating the
miraculous element in the life of Jesus in any other wTay than
�14
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
we treat the same in the life of Buddha, Moses, or Mohammed.
All our knowledge of Jesus is contained in broken records of a few
months in the last year of his life.
“ Towards the middle of the second century A.D. certain
documents are found to be in circulation professing to describe
the life of a religious teacher who had lived in a remote part of
the Empire more than a hundred years before. These documents
or gospels are many in number, and all of unknown authorship;
they are in the possession of an obscure and fanatical sect, and many
of them contain obvious absurdities. Gradually the more absurd are
denounced as apocryphal, and four are retained, which, together
with some letters of one of the early Christians, form the New
Testament’ of future ages.” (Joseph McCabe.)
With regard to these documents or records next to nothing is
known. Their authors, place of origin, the motives that caused
their compilation, are all matters of guesswork. The charm of the
narratives, viewed as literature, is greatly due to our magnificent
“ Authorized ” version. As contemporary writers are entirely silent
on the subject of Jesus ; as Apostolic literature knows nothing of the
Jesus of the Gospels, of his virgin birth, of his alleged miracles; as
our only knowledge of him is contained in the New Testament, the
utmost we are justified in thinking of Jesus is that he was a man of
noble life, with a remarkable influence over his fellow-men. His
undoubted sincerity in believing that he was divinely chosen to
teach the people is no proof of the truth of his belief. He believed
that the earth belonged to the devil, but that some day he (Jesus)
would be recognized as the king of kings. “ Verily, I say unto you,
this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” That
prophecy, uttered by Jesus himself, has not been fulfilled; it was
uttered about 1,900 years ago. He recognized Caesar’s authority,
and advised others to do the same. He did not denounce war or
slavery; but he said to his disciples : “ My peace I give unto you.”
Those who called themselves Christians, however, have not lived in
peace with one another, but have repeatedly waged war with one
another and persecuted one another ; the worst persecutors in the
world have been Christians. The teaching of Jesus is partly
responsible for this, inasmuch as he said that they who did not
believe on him would be damned ; and his followers, to save people
from damnation, tried to compel them to become Christians. This
persecution, this attempt to maintain an opinion by violence, to
conquer the reason without enlightening it, has characterized the
�THE CHURCH, CREEDS, AND CLERGY
15
larger part of Christian propaganda. The teachings of Jesus about
love, charity, brotherhood, justice, and forgiveness, although not
entirely original, embody the finest ethical code ever presented to
mankind; but an attempt to make them a universal rule of conduct
would in our present state of society be impracticable; no Christian
shapes his life on the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. He
taught that this world was of no importance, and, instead of trying
to right wrong conditions here and now, he advised non-resistance to
evil. He told those who wept and suffered to rejoice, for they would
have their reward in another world. This teaching has consoled
some people, but has prevented many from trying to right their
present wrongs. It has encouraged the rich and powerful to answer
the cry for justice by suggesting to the oppressed that they ought to
be satisfied with the reward promised in the next world. Those in
power have always encouraged religion among the poor; orthodoxy
is generally on the side of the oppressors. In spite of the fact that
the words of love and goodness spoken by Jesus have been an
immense influence for good, his theological doctrines have caused
much hatred, bloodshed, and misery.
THE CHURCH, CREEDS, AND CLERGY
The word “ church” originally meant an assembly or congrega
tion, and was at first merely an organization of fellow-believers, out
■of which has gradually arisen the distinction between clergy and
laymen. There are many Churches in Christendom, of which the
most important is the Roman Catholic. It was organized about the
time that the Roman Empire became converted to Christianity, and
the Emperor Constantine, one of the worst criminals in history, was
its first imperial head and protector. It soon became covetous,
ambitious, partisan, and intolerant, and its domination over the
■conscience and its punishment of heretics has caused an immense
amount of useless suffering.
In the sixteenth century the Church was split up chiefly through
Martin Luther, the principal author of the Reformation movement.
The seceders from the Church of Rome were called Protestants.
The Church of England dates from the time of Henry VIII, who,
■quarrelling with the Pope over a matter of divorcing his wife, founded
�16
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
a new Church, of which he became master. In the past the
Protestant Churches have persecuted almost as much as the Roman
Church in their desire to exterminate what they looked upon as
heresy. In these days, when blind belief and superstition are not
regarded as a virtue, the Churches have not the power to persecute
except quite indirectly. Liberal and Broad Churches exist which
make little of theology and much of character, and the number of
people who look upon religion as something apart from formal ritual
is gradually increasing.
Disagreements among believers necessitated an authoritative
expression of Church doctrine; this was the origin of “ creeds,” the
object of which was to enforce uniformity of belief and prevent
independent thinking. The oldest Christian creed is supposed to be
the Apostles’ Creed, which we know was not written by the apostles.
The fundamental beliefs of this creed are those in the Trinity, the
Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of the Flesh. No proofs are
given; they are assumed to be true. The Nicene Creed, the
Athanasian Creed, the creed of the Greek Church, the Church of
England Creed (the Thirty-nine Articles), the Westminster Creed—
all contain statements of belief narrow and intolerant. They tend
to prevent the pursuit of truth and confine it to one sect. Our
creed should be one in accord with facts, and one which keeps
abreast of our growing knowledge. To subscribe to a creed thatforbids freedom of thought lowers the dignity of man, whose reason
is his greatest possession. A clergyman is a man who has received
Holy Orders ” from the Church. A man can become a clergyman
by passing an examination and asserting his belief in the creed of
the particular Church to which he applies for admission.
THE EARTH AND MAN
The Bible states that some six thousand years ago God created
heaven and earth and all that they contain. Science teaches us
that the earth is many millions of years old, and that there has been
for countless ages a slow growth and gradual ascent. The origin of
matter remains a mystery.
Science teaches us that man is hundreds of thousands of years
old, and is descended from the lower animals. In the structure and
�DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
17
functions of his organs he is exactly like an animal; every bone,
muscle, and organ can be paralleled in the animals ; he is composed of
the same materials, and is subject to the same laws of life and death.
The human embryo, before birth, passes through stages of develop
ment when it has gills like a fish, a tail, a body covered with hair,
and a brain like a monkey’s ; thus showing that man, in his long
existence, has climbed through all these forms to his present state.
He was not specially created, but grew slowly upwards, and his mind
or reason was evolved in the same manner as his body, the struggle
for existence having been the chief contributor to his development.
Some people still believe that he was created “ perfect.” What
they mean by “ perfect ” is probably “ as perfect as a man can be.”
Had he been perfect, he could not have fallen. It is said that God
permitted him to fall, and encouraged Satan to tempt him, the con
sequence being sin, suffering, and death for all mankind. People
believed these stories because their fathers and mothers believed
them ; but hardly any enlightened people now hold these unreasonablebeliefs.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
Many people fear death because they think that it is the
beginning of an irrevocable doom ; but the rational view is that it
either secures happiness or ends suffering. We can conquer death
by serving some noble cause in which we may live after we have
passed away. When we are dead we shall not miss life, and to
lose what we cannot miss is not an evil.
It is popularly believed that there is a soul or spirit temporarily
inhabiting the body, which soul continues to live after death; that
men, but not animals, have souls ; that the body cannot live without
the soul, but that the soul can live without the body. It is impos
sible for the finite human mind to form a conception of this soul,,
this spirit without form or extension. Theology teaches that at
death the soul leaves the body and goes to some other world, each
sect having its own view of what sort of place this other world is.
The view of the Christian creeds is that only those who have thetrue faith will be happy; others will go to eternal misery. Even
great and good men and women not holding the true faith will go to>
�18
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
hell, according to this view. The desire for immortality, a conscious
personal immortality, is almost universal ; it is an extension of the
instinct of self-preservation.
We know nothing of any future life, and, although the belief in
it is very general throughout humanity, many general beliefs have
turned out to be illusions. All we can say is that we do not know.
But we can safely affirm that all that we say and do will contribute
to build the world of the future, in which we shall live again as
influences and examples, as moral and intellectual forces. In this
sense we are certainly immortal, and the knowledge should inspire
us to cultivate only what is true and noble. A future life for each
personal individual is an enormous assumption to be made without
proof, and yet all the alleged consolations of orthodox religion hang
on this. Many people believe enough to be full of anxiety and fear,
and never have complete peace ; belief to them is a source of inward
unrest and alarm. For one death-bed smoothed by orthodox beliefs
it is probable that hundreds have been turned into beds of torture.
GOOD AND BAD
ANYTHING adjusted for some purpose and efficiently accomplish
ing that purpose is “ good when it fails in that purpose it is “ bad.”
For example, a knife is good when it cuts well; a road is good when
it makes travelling easy and comfortable ; a watch is good when it
keeps time correctly. When a knife is blunt, a road uneven, or a
watch incorrect, in each case it is “bad.” Thus efficiency is good
ness, inefficiency badness ; and to know whether conduct is good or
bad the first question to be asked is what purpose social conduct is
intended to serve. Social conduct is conduct adjusted for the benefit
of society, or co-operation. Conduct which tends to draw individuals
closer together is good ; conduct which repels them from one another
is bad. To the conduct of a single individual on a desert island,
where no act of his could affect anyone but himself, the terms “ good ”
and “ bad” in a moral sense would have no meaning. Man is dependent
■on the co-operation of society, and the aim of the moral code is to
discourage actions injurious to social co-operation and to encourage
•conduct which promotes it; therefore good and bad actions may be
�THE CHIEF OBJECT OF LIFE
19
roughly defined as those which benefit or injure somebody else or
society as a whole.
Theologically, “ good ” and “ bad ” mean obedience or disobedience
to the supposed will of some God, apart from any ethical or social
value in the action itself. Adam’s crime was disobedience ; the
command not to eat of the tree of knowledge was quite a capricious
and arbitrary one ; no reason was given why he should not eat of
it, and it was a natural thing for him to think that a knowledge of
good and evil was an excellent thing to acquire. But eating the
fruit, simply because it was an act of disobedience, was so great
a crime that the whole human race was damned for it. Abraham
agreed to commit the crime of burning his son; but because this
was an act of obedience theologians hold him up as a model of
virtue.
We now realize that a “ good ” man is one who promotes the
happiness and well-being of his fellow-creatures, and that morality
does not consist in blind obedience at the expense of our conscience
and reason, especially as, even assuming the existence of a God
whom we ought to obey, we have no means of knowing his will.
THE CHIEF OBJECT OF LIFE AND THE
RELIGION OF THE FUTURE
OUR duty is to seek those things that increase and elevate life;
to learn by experience (the accumulated experience of humanity as
well as our own) what is right and what is wrong, good and bad.
We need no revelation to tell us what is right and what is wrong;
we must discover it for ourselves. Nature is the sum of all the
forces which keep the world in movement; she is our first and
oldest teacher. We obey her because we must. She has joined
cause and consequence in such a way that every act and word bears
seed. If we sow evil, we reap pain; if we sow good, we reap
happiness. The reward of goodness is to be good. If we will not
be good without future rewards and punishments, others will; and,
by the law of the survival of the fittest, theirs will be the power of
the future. What is needed is knowledge ; we must know what is
for our highest good. Knowledge will give us sympathy instead of
�20
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
prejudice, justice and humanity instead of oppression and greed.
Knowledge will help us to make the highest use of this life, without
reference to imaginary heavens and hells of which we can know
nothing.
In accordance with the law of evolution, we progress very slowly ;
but truth will ultimately prevail, and, even if its results cause pain
to some people, they must be accepted without hesitation. Man, as
a rational being, will no longer accept his religious opinions without
a mental conviction of their truth—a conviction demanded in every
other province of knowledge. Reason and experience will replace
theology, and, free from the difficulties and mysteries generated by
dogmas, we shall no longer try to force our conscience and intel
ligence to accept ancient revelations.
But, although theology will die, religion will remain; not the
religion which consists in singing hymns and reading bibles, in
pious talk and unctuous prayers, but the religion of acting rightly
and kindly. Real religion—the sense of duty arising from our
relationship to some superior Power, even though the nature of
that Power is unknown to us—will grow stronger. Our object in
life will be to promote the well-being and happiness of our fellow
creatures, and every new truth we learn will fit us better for this
task. Sympathy will replace selfishness ; those tendencies injurious
to social life will become weaker, those which facilitate social
co-operation will become stronger. We know that all faculties and
organs are strengthened by exercise and weakened by disuse. Our
duty, then, is to cultivate the faculties that are social and sym
pathetic, and to neglect those that are not. Every good act benefits
not only others, but self ; for it strengthens the faculties by which it
is performed. Conversely, every bad act not only injures others,
but also the actor ; for it strengthens faculties which should be
unexercised and allowed to die out from disuse.
No churches for propitiating imaginary deities will be built, but
we shall propitiate our conscience by the fulfilment of duty. No
imaginary heaven will arouse hope, and no hideous phantoms of
eternal hell will terrify the mind ; but we shall face the unknowable
with calmness and without fear.
PRINTED BY WATTS AND CO., JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Some religious terms simply defined, for the use of children
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Marsden, E. L.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: Publisher's advertisements inside front cover. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Watts & Co.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1914
Identifier
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N474
Subject
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Religion
Education
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Some religious terms simply defined, for the use of children), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Children
NSS
Religious Education