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F
THE
Quarterly
Journal
OF
_________ E D U C A T I O N.
No. i.
'Vol. i.
MAY, 1867.
A WORD TO OUR READERS.
there room and need at the present time for a new educational
HI iournal? We think there is. Within the last quarter of a
Blsl century especially, education has made rapid strides through•
.
out the land. Not only have schools greatly multiplied, but
the improvement in the quality of their teaching is even more marked
than the increase in their number. Results, and not attendance of
scholars merely, is now expected and required from them. Grants for
education—which have increased from year to year; Schools of Design,
Mechanics Institutions, and Working Men’s Colleges ; the movement in
our great universities; the local examinations of Oxford and Cambridge
of the Society of Arts, and of the College of Preceptors; the discussions
m Parliament and the press, in social congresses and public meetings__all
evidence that the public mind is at length, and rapidly, becoming fully
alive to the importance of education, and attaining to a better under
standing of its requirements. It will be our ambition to render what aid
we can m furtherance of this great work. Education is a vast continent
even yet but partially explored and imperfectly cultivated. There is
much to be done, and we hope to secure the co-operation of many who
are engaged m the work of tuition, and of earnest, able, and tried friends
01 education 111 carrying out our enterprise.
It will be the especial aim of the Quarterly Journal of Education, by
promoting intercommunication among teachers and others interested in
education to bring about a closer sympathy between them, and a better
understanding of all matters connected with their common work.
m
wit11 PartP or sect’ the Quarterly Journal of Education
will afford facilities to the advocates of different systems and methods of
teaching to make known their respective views, so that all may benefit
by their mutual comparison. We shall discuss the books and appliances
most useful for teaching, and endeavour to place our readers as far as
possible au courant with whatever is most interesting in regard to educa
tion and its progress in all. parts of the kingdom. Essays, and occasion
ally examination-papers, will also appear in our columns. Such will be
the freight of the little bark we this day launch on its first voyage.
X’
I
�2
OUR EARLY ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC WRITERS.
BY THE EDITOR.
—---- LONG and barren period intervenes between the scientific
activity of ancient Greece and that of modern Europe.
During the middle ages philosophy was mystical and dog
matic father than experimental and inductive. Men did not
matic, rather
trust to Nature and experiment, but leaned upon the staff of authority,
and looked for guidance to the wisdom of the ancients, There was a
disposition “to study the opinions of others, as the only mode of form
ing their own; to read Nature through books; to attend terwhat had
been already thought and said, rather than to what really is and happens.
Euclid was mathematics, Aristotle natural history. To question what
Aristotle had said was almost as great an heresy as to question tne
dogmas and authority of the Church.
Philosophy thus came to be little else than an exposition of. the
thoughts of other men; and in place of independent investigation into
the phenomena of Nature, were compilations and epitomes.
Experi
menters were replaced by commentators; criticism took the place of
induction : and instead of great discoverers we had learned men; and
as a consequence (as Lord Bacon, in describing the character and state
of knowledge at this period, remarks), philosophy was 1 barren m effects,
fruitful in questions, slow and languid in its improvement. The following
sentences, which form the conclusion of a lecture—one upon a course .of
Euclid, delivered at Oxford—illustrate better, perhaps, than any descrip
tion, this temper of mind :—“ Gentlemen hearers, I. have performed
mv promise, I have redeemed my pledge, I have explained according tomy ability the definitions, postulates, axioms, and first eight propositions,
of the 1 Elements of Euclid.’ Here, sinking under the weight oi years,
I lay down my art and instruments.”
.
.
But though the great strides made by modern science date back
no farther than from the beginning of the seventeenth century, yet
earlier beams of light during that drear interval penetrated the thick
darkness around : a few bold spirits, from time to time, rose sypenor
to the mental indolence and superstition and scholastic pedantry that
prevailed, and, despite opprobrium and persecution, had the courage
to interrogate nature for themselves. Their “.ineffectual fires may
have “paled” in presence of the greater luminaries that have since
risen above the horizon; but they were the heralds, of the dawn, the
precursors of that brighter and better day in which it is. our happiness
to live
They faithfully handed down the torch of science, and did
somewhat also to increase its light. As there were reformers before
Martin Luther, so in modern Europe there were philosophers who to
some extent applied the inductive method in their researches before
Francis Bacon. They were the avant couriers of that great power which
has revolutionized the thought and changed the face of modern society,
and their names therefore deserve a place among, those which the world
will not willingly let die. Holding this conviction, I propose \ery
B
�Our Early English Scientific Writers,
,
3
briefly, to recall the names of some of those old English worthies who
in their day rendered such service as they pould in promoting a spirit
of inquiry into
“Nature’s infinite book of secrecy,”
(
•
j
’ ■
and in advancing our knowledge of, and control over, the phenomena
and forces of Nature.
The earliest English writer on science whose works have come down
to us was Adelard, a monk of Bath, who lived in the mid Hie of the
twelfth century. He is said to have been learned in all the science of
his time. In pursuit of knowledge he travelled through France, Ger
many, Italy, and Spain; and also visited Arabia, then the great seat of
learning. The. “Elements of Euclid” was translated by him out of
Arabic into Latin; a copy of which, beautifully written on parchment,
with illuminated capitals, may be seen among the Arundel Manuscripts
in the library of the British Museum. Beside this, and the translation
of a work on the “ Seven Planets,” he wrote several treatises on Physics,
and on Medicine, and one on the Seven Liberal Arts. A treatise by
him. on the Astrolabe is also preserved among the manuscripts in the
British Museum; its chief, if not its only, value now is as a curious spe
cimen of our early scientific literature.
Another scientific author, of some note in his time, was Daniel of
Merley, or, as he is sometimes called, Daniel Morley, who, if not a
contemporary of Adelard, flourished in the same century with him; and
like him travelled into Spain and Arabia to increase his learning.’ He
wrote a work on the “ Principles of Mathematics,” but of which no copy
is known to be extant. Another work by him, entitled “ De Inferior!
et Superior! Parte Mundi,” has been more fortunate in escaping the
ravages of time; a copy of it is preserved in the British Museum, bound
up with Adelard’s treatise on the Astrolabe. It is based on the Alma
gest of Ptolemy, and is dedicated to John, Bishop of Norwich. •
But, next to Roger Bacon, perhaps the most celebrated of our early
scientific authors was Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, who was
born in 1175, and died in 1253. If we are to credit his biographer, he
must have been a living encyclopaedia, having been not only profoundly
versed in Scripture (a rare attainment in those days, even in a bishop),
in theology, and. in ecclesiastical law, but also excelling in music, logic,’
metaphysical philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and other branches
of natural philosophy. Besides being active in his episcopal duties, he
was a voluminous author. The catalogue of his works appended to’ his
biography shews that in addition to many theological and miscellaneous
treatises, he wrote on the “ Heat of the Sun,” on “ Motion,” on the
“ Quadrature of the Circle,” on the “ Air,” on the 11 Rainbow,” and on
the “Utility of the Sciences.” A selection of his scientific works was
published at Venice in 1514. From writing on astronomy he was called
an astrologer, and is so designated by the poet Gower; and like all who
at that time distinguished themselves by superior knowledge, he enjoyed
—or we should rather say suffered—the reputation of being a magician.
Stories were widely circulated and believed of his having invented a
speaking head made of brass, and of an infernal horse which he had
1— 2
�4
History- Teaching.
erected by his magic art, and on which he was said to have ridden
through the air to Rome. Whether these stories point to some mecha
nical inventions, which popular ignorance would be sure to attribute to
sorcery and connect with supernatural legend, cannot now be ascer
tained ; but we know that any extraordinary invention or discovery, as
the printing press, or gunpowder, would indubitably, in that age, be
fathered on the Evil One, as the illustrious friend of Grosseteste, Roger
Bacon, found to his cost.
But I must defer to another paper the sketch I propose to give of
this the most distinguished Englishman in our scientific annals prior to
the advent of his still greater namesake, the author of the “ Novum
Organon.”
HISTORY-TEACHING.
BY WILLIAM ROSSITER, F.R.G.S.
TTEMPTING to “get blood from a stone” has generally been
considered work in vain, and “ skinning flints ” is sometimes
described as unprofitable labour. The same truth is put
classically as “ ex nihilo, nihil fit" and also colloquially as
“ out of nothing, nothing comes.” I suppose most of us have felt the
truth of this, probably in more ways than one; but I think also that we
teachers, especially teachers of English, suffer frequently from this law,
without even realizing, fully, the cause of the failure of our work.
In teaching Latin or Greek, we never expect a pujpil to use a word
or a construction that has not been explained to him; nor do we look,
in teaching physical science or mathematics, for our pupils to know what
we have not taught them: yet, how frequently do we wish, rather than
hope, for our school-boys to write good English, and to compose narra
tives and essays, without first supplying them with the means of acquiring
the requisite knowledge or ability !
No subject is more frequently chosen for “composition” than
history; and what materials do we give the minds of the “ composers ?”
Generally, compilations of historical facts—frequently admirable as con
taining in a few hundred pages a resume of the facts of history, but
generally dry and barren for the purpose of instruction, giving school
boys nothing but a stereotyped list of names and-dates, summing up a
reign in a chapter, a campaign in half a page, a character in three lines,
and this generally in language the most general and comprehensive pos
sible, and therefore the most difficult for a boy to comprehend.
As a step towards remedying this evil—and a very great step it is—
we have school-books which are not compilations, but extracts from good
authors. These are exceedingly useful, so far as they can be useful, but
they do not satisfy the want I am endeavouring to describe, the want on
the part of school-boys of a sufficient familiarity with facts to know what
to say, and with good English to be able to say it.
�History- Teaching.
5
The very excellence of the extracts is one great cause of this. An
extract from Hallam or Macaulay is nourishment to a mind familiar with
the names and things spoken of; but to one who knows but little of the
facts, and comprehends, and that but imperfectly, but few of the allusions,
an extract from a philosophical author is but a delusion and a mockery,
except for the purpose of accustoming the mind, to expressions which it
may one day understand and know how to value.
There may be much difference of opinion as to the extent of this
“want” on the part of our scholars, there will probably be even more as
to the best means of supplying it, if admitted to be existing. The means
I have adopted is to use, as reading-books, historical novels and plays.
For example, in the study of the Plantagenet period, we have read
“Ivanhoe,” “King John,” and “Richard II.” I don’t mean -selec
tions, but the whole book in each case, taking care to remember that
we were reading “fiction” and not “fact,” but on the whole en
joying the graphic descriptions of the novelist or poet somewhat
more than we should the correct statement of carefully compiled facts,
and, it is to be hoped, educating our hearts as well as our minds, by
learning that “history” does not mean a list of battles, treaties, and
persecutions, but a record of the lives of men and women by whose
struggles, successes, and failures, we may learn to guide ourselves.
Probably our plan may call forth objections on many different
grounds. If so, I will try to be guided by them, and if I can to meet
them. Practically, at examinations, instead of some boys sitting chew
ing their pens, wondering what they shall say, I find every one complain
that the time was not half long enough.
Industrial and Reformatory Schools for the County of
Kent.—The Justices of Kent have resolved to avail themselves of the
provisions of the Industrial Schools Act and the Reformatory Schools
Act passed last session. At a meeting of magistrates held in January,
a committee was appointed to consider the expediency of the court
taking action under these Acts, and their report was presented- at a
court of general session, held on Thursday, 19th March. The com
mittee were of opinion that it was desirable that the system of indus
trial schools should be put into operation in the county. They recom
mended that, in the first instance, suitable buildings, with land attached,
should, if practicable, be hired for this purpose; but that, failing this,
the court should erect one house for boys and another for girls, each
house to be capable of accommodating about 50 children. With refer
ence to the’reformatory schools, the committee recommended that the
court adopt the provision of the 27th section of the Act 29th and 30th
Viet. cap. 117, by making contracts with the managers of the Reforma
tory School at Redhill, or any similar institution for the reception of
boys and girls respectively. The court unanimously adopted the above
recommendations, and notice was ordered to be given that at a subse
quent session the justices would proceed to make a contribution out of
the county rate for such purposes.
�6
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE MEMORY.
"
BY S. E. EENGOUGH.
AN possesses three primary intellectual faculties, imagination,
memory, and reason. Reason is the monarch, which every
other portion of his nature was created to obey: but the
character and extent of the sway exercised by this kingly attri
bute over the realm of mind depends upon the harmonious action of its
two subordinates, the imagination and the memory. If imagination does
not impart creative life to every province of science in which reason
claims to exercise a judicial function, if memory does not retain its stores
of knowledge in readiness for service at a moment’s notice, reason
expends its energies in vain, and, exhausted by fruitless efforts, too
often becomes the deluded and willing slave of sense and appetite. In
plain terms, the prerogatives of reason can only be maintained by the
judicious culture of the other faculties. Yet any systematic discipline of
the imagination has hitherto had little place in schemes of education,
while it has been the custom to tax unduly the powers of memory with
out the slightest regard to the laws which regulate its action. The time,
we trust, is not far distant when education will be based on rational
principles; when the nature of the human mind, and the processes by
which alone it can be normally developed, will be studied with no less
care than that at present bestowed by the agriculturist on the com
position of soils and the chemical elements of the crops which they are
required to bear.
Youth is the seed-time of our life, and the mind cannot be expected
to produce a harvest useful and rich in quality, and beautiful in form,
unless the germs of future intelligence be early implanted within the
memory. It is a manifest duty, therefore, of all engaged in education to
analyze carefully the constitution of this faculty, and to become ac
quainted with any methods by which the treasures committed to it may
be preserved from perishing. Every individual possesses two almost
distinct kinds of memory, one of which is for the most part under the
control of the will, and is more properly termed recollection; the other
is the passive recipient of impressions conveyed to it through the medium
of the senses. The efficiency of this latter faculty depends mainly on the
possessor’s physical constitution, bent of character, and habits of life, and
is only susceptible of a limited measure of improvement. It is far ptherwise with the recollection, which is subject to volition, and the capabili
ties of which may be increased to an indefinite extent. With this
portion of memory the educator is of course chiefly concerned, and the
failure of attempts to impart information to the young generally arises
from inattention to the laws on which the power of recollection depends.
These are referable to the two heads of association and attention.
The principle of association of ideas may be described as the ten
dency of two or more facts or conceptions, which have been con
templated together or in immediate succession, to become so connected
that one of them at a future time recalls the other, or introduces a train
of thoughts which follow each other in the order in which they were
�Ou the Cultivation of the Memory.
7
originally associated. The causes or conditions of this association of
■ideas are threefold—resemblance or contrast, contiguity in time or place,
■cause and effect. On these principles, then, one thought may suggest
or recall another, which has some relation to it in either of these respects.
The success of the teacher or student in educating and strengthening
the powers of recollection is mainly dependent on the judgment with
which he seizes upon the associations best adapted to insure a lasting
connection between some new fact, which it is desired to imprint upon
the memory, and some other idea, which already exists within the mind.
Now, whether the associations in any particular case should be strictly
logical, local, or merely accidental and arbitrary, must be decided, not only
by the subject matter to be remembered, but also by the mind and
circumstances of -the pupil. Associations, for example, of the strongest
and most serviceable kind for one who had always lived in a city would
be weak and almost unintelligible to a person brought up in the country,
and w? versa. As a general rule, an association should be natural and
rational, should be calculated to quicken the attention by exciting interest,
and should be of intrinsic value, and add to the stock of information at
the same time that it furnishes assistance to the memory.
li Every fresh fact or idea,” it has been truly said, “ should be put by
in its proper place in the mind—that is to say, the new fact or idea
■should be associated with its proper class of facts or ideas already
existing in the mind. A general principle gives the key to the remem
brance of a whole series of facts or events. Physical facts are best
remembered through a knowledge of their general law, effects through a
knowledge of their cause, and results through a knowledge of the general
principles upon which they depend.”
The unwillingness which every intelligent teacher must feel to en
courage his pupils to form frivolous and unnatural, and therefore neces
sarily transient associations, will always prevent artificial aids to memory
from occupying any but a very subordinate place in education. But a
good mnemonical system has its use, and, if properly applied, would save
a vast amount of time and labour. There are many things which it is
necessary to remember, and which are incapable of rational association,
.such as statistics of every sort, unconnected events and lists of names.
How much of the mental energy of children is wasted in the vain attempt
to engrave upon the memory by wearisome repetition such items of
information, which might be mastered more effectually in one tenth of
the time by the aid of mnemonical association !
A striking instance of what may be done in this way is afforded by
Mr. Stokes’s ingenious method of teaching the multiplication table, by
means of which—incredible as the statement may appear—a child of
ordinary capacity may be made perfectly familiar with that formidable
task in a single hour. This great boon to infancy has now been intro
duced into the chief national schools of Glasgow, the masters of which,
fifteen in number, have signed a testimonial to its efficiency. Mr. Stokes
is certainly at the head of all mnemonical professors. Having spent
much time over different systems of artificial memory, we feel able to
-assert with confidence, that the mnemonical key which he places in the
�8
On the Cultivation of the Memory.
hands of his pupils combines in itself the advantages shared among all
other systems, and we strongly recommend it to any one preparing for a
competitive examination.
We have next to consider the surest method of quickening the
attention, the importance of which arises from memory being often the
result of the complex action of several senses. There is, so to speak, a
muscular memory, or involuntary movement, the result of habit and
suggestion—and a memory of the tongue, the eye, and ear, as well • as
reason. If each of these memories can be brought to bear simul
taneously on the same object, an indelible impression is commonly pro
duced. And this is not so difficult as might be supposed. We are
acquainted with an accomplished German linguist who has availed him
self of this principle in teaching language with astonishing success.
Appealing to the eye by written words, to the ear by clear and forcible
enunciation, and quickening the attention by always obliging his pupils
“ to suit the action to the word, and the word to the action,” he under
takes to impart a conversational facility in French or German within a
few weeks. To the simultaneous appeal made to eye, ear, and reason,
we must attribute the success of the Pestalozzian system of instruction,
which is especially adapted to infancy, when the activity of the powers
of observation, as contrasted with those of reflection, clearly indicates
that the senses are the chief channels by which knowledge should reach
the mind. To us it seems scarcely credible, that fifty years ago geo
graphy was commonly taught without an atlas. Fifty years hence, it
may seem equally astounding, that the minds of children of seven years
old and upwards should be nourished, or rather starved, as they generally
are at present, on a diet of grammatical abstractions never fully under
stood until the reason is matured.
Lastly, it is obvious that nothing quickens the attention so much aspleasurable interest. That which is learned unwillingly never sinks deep
in the memory ; and school tasks are too often rendered unnecessarily
irksome and distasteful. We believe there are very few children who, if
taught judiciously, would not take delight in their school books, instead
of listlessly dogearing their leaves, or moistening them with their tears..
It is needless to add, that when a lesson is learned con amorext is learned
in half the time, and the mind receives on a sensitive surface a perma
nent impression.
The Number of Candidates for Examination at the Train
Colleges.—By a return just issued, it appears that the number of
candidates who presented themselves for examination at the training
colleges at Christmas, 1866, was 1614, against 1555 at the previous
Christmas, of whom 1207 passed their examination, against 1306 at the
previous Christmas. The number of those who entered the training
colleges in January, 1867, was 1121, against 1215 in January, 1866, and
the number of pupil teachers apprenticed in 1866 was 3070, against
2631 in the previous year.
ing
�9
THE USE OF CYCLOPAEDIAS
*
BY VERNON LUSHINGTON, ESQ., B.C.L.
HE English Cyclopaedia consists of eleven great volumes, twodevoted to geography, three to biography, two to natural
history, and four to arts and sciences. No critic can pretend
to have read it, but only to have read in it; all, however.,
speak highly, most highly, in its praise. Its peculiar merits seem to
consist in its convenient divisions, and a large degree of completeness,
combined with a very moderate price. I have hardly done more than
look into the Biography and Geography, but with very great satisfaction;
reading descriptions of strange places I have visited, and life-stories of
memorable men now passed away or still living.
Perhaps the first sensation of the reader on opening these massive
volumes will be one of bewilderment, and unwillingness to traverse any
such vast mountain of knowledge. But on better consideration he will
feel two things; first, that kind of reverence which the spectacle of any
great human labour cannot but call forth; and secondly, that this (or
indeed any) Cyclopaedia is a witness to the inexhaustible interest of
reality and simple truth. He will see that it is in fact a record of a
thousand thousand conquests over thick night, won in many generations
by a far-reaching industry, and patient intelligence, in many cases even
—say the discovery of America—by downright unmistakable valour:
and so gazing on these columns, there may come flashing through his
mind something of the exultation with which a people greets a victorious
army returning homeward. At least he cannot but observe how the
age in which we live is assiduously minding and doing her business;
everywhere extending and consolidating positive knowledge; with honest
sober eyes scrutinizing the past of human history, studying the starry
heavens, the solid earth, and all living things, tracking everywhere the
dominion of steadfast laws, then recording what is found, for ourselves
and for those who come after. A Cyclopaedia witnesses that all these
things are being done.
But let not the reader stop here ! Admiration is good, but not
barren admiration. Let the book be really used. A great dictionary
of this. kind, if -within easy reach, should be constantly appealed to.
There is no study, no reading, which does not involve local conditions,
the. history of particular men, the growth of successive efforts, and a
variety of other matters which it is well to know, sometimes even indis
pensable to know, if we would rightly understand the subject in hand.
It is here that a Cyclopaedia, the design of which we owe mainly to the
great Frenchmen of the last century, may be of real service to the indi
vidual student. It is “ a teaching all round,” a catalogued summary of
all knowledge. Under the names of particular men and places, it posts
up such information as ordinary inquirers seek for concerning them;
* “The English Cyclopaedia,” conducted by Charles Knight.
Evans.
London: Bradburv and'
�IO
S
The Use of Cyclopaedias.
under the titles of subjects or things, it gives short popular treatises,
popular in the right sense, which relate the history, and describe the
scope of the special matter, whatever it may be: the essence of a good
Cyclopaedia being, as already suggested, that the information shall be
easily found, and when found, shall be accurate, clear, and, so far as it
goes, sufficient. Thus a Cyclopaedia is a condensed library; which omits,
of course, a whole world of truth and beauty that lies in the works of
original authors, yet guides us to them, in some measure gives us their
results, or at least announces them: it contains also much that is not to
be found elsewhere. There might be worse desultory reading than in
this big book; but its true use is to promptly supplement or animate
our study of this or that subject, which we are otherwise steadily pur
suing ; to make our knowledge sure, precise; a thing of great importance.
Therefore, when in doubt, look !
To take the biographical volumes, for instance. What interest to
those who are studying mathematics or drawing, to look up the biography
•of Euclid or Titian ; to our students of Latin, to find a life of Ctesar or
Horace or Cicero ready at hand, with some reasonable criticism of their
work as a whole; to our lovers of music, to read what follows under the
names of Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini! Again, students of the physical
sciences will often here find a helper at hand to solve some pressing
doubt: often, also, they are discouraged from attacking scientific books
{even if accessible) by their bulk and complexity; in this Cyclopaedia
they will find numerous articles contributed by distinguished professors,
short and readable, yet thoroughly trustworthy, which may send them
instructed and refreshed on their way. Again, to every thoughtful man
the history of his own occupation and its processes presents peculiar
interest: a banker’s clerk may rightly wish to learn something of the
history of banking; a wool-spinner to learn where the wool comes from,
and how his beautiful machinery has been produced; an engineer to
read of the labours of Watt and Stephenson, and so on. .All such
matters are very conveniently studied in a Cyclopaedia. Again, for we
must not pass over the two noble geographical volumes; our home, the
city or town in which we live, the country round about, the places we
visit in our holidays—these we cannot know too much of, and here
again the Cyclopaedia will be our friend.
These slender indications must suffice. It will be observed that a
Cyclopaedia does not dispense with ordinary text-books, and ordinary
steady work, still less with poetry and art, and all that supreme class of
human utterances which speak directly to the heart of man; but it has
a use of its own for every class of students. As such it well deserves a
place in every student’s library.
This notice should not pass without a grateful tribute to Mr. Charles
Knight himself. He is not the publisher, but the “ conductor ” of this
Cyclopaedia, the publishing part being undertaken by the firm of Brad
bury and Evans : they also deserve our thanks, for they take upon them
selves a heavy money-risk which can only be rewarded in many years.
Mr. Knight’s publishing days seem now over. He began his career at
.a time when books were printed for the rich few: he was the first of
�The Use of Cyclopcedias.
II
British publishers who dedicated themselves to the people. He has
since been followed by many: new readers have produced new pub
lishers, and these again new readers; and so the good work goes on.
But Mr. Knight has the credit of leading the way; he was the first man;
he threw his bread upon the waters. The object of his life has been to
bring to the numerous humbler classes sterling English literature and
solid information on national and every-day subjects. We cannot
remember the first appearance of the “ Penny Magazine,” but it still
.gives pleasure in many a cottage, and in its day it wrought great things.
Since then, Mr. Knight (whose own name is modestly omitted from the
biographies) has brought out good volume upon volume, good series upon
series; himself an author of considerable note, the writer of a history of
England and many other books; and what is an especial claim of
honour, he has done more, as editor and publisher, than any other
Englishman for the name and fame and large use of Shakspere.
One day his own name will appear in this book, and all his labours
be duly chronicled; and he will then show well worthy of comparison
with the illustrious family of the Etiennes, more commonly known by
the Latin name of Stephens, the celebrated printers of the sixteenth
century, whose lives I have been reading (for the first time) among the
biographies. They dwelt in Paris and Geneva, patronized, in the
ancient worthy sense, by princes and wealthy merchants, by Francis I.
and Henry III. of France, by the State Council of Geneva, by the
munificent Fuggers of Augsburg; and, on the other hand, persecuted
and hindered (not very seriously, however) by Catholic prelates. There
they produced grand “ Dictionariums ” of Greek and Latin, editions of
Greek and Latin authors, editions of the Bible, and theological works;
writing and printing for the scholars of Europe. What could be done
for letters in those days they did, and excellently well. The same noble
enterprise and unwearied industry has marked the career of our English
printer in the nineteenth century, in his labours to give to the people of
England English secular literature. And here Mr. Knight stands as the
representative of the latest—may we also say, in promise the highest ?—
effort of the English printing-press. What a contrast, what a progress
between the sacred missal, written by one hand, and tenderly illuminated
for the delight of a few high-born eyes, and these stout volumes of secular
lore, printed and stereotyped for the service of the million ! Something
may be lost, but how great the gain ! Worthy of a “ Hymn of Praise,”
such as Mendelssohn actually wrote in honour of Gutemberg, the first
printer’s anniversary day.
At the same time, this is true and most true—that life is a thousand
fold more than books; and especially that no man can live upon a
Cyclopaedia. And the service which positive knowledge has to render
is but begun. It has yet to make itself felt as a disciplined orderly whole;
to deal with far higher subjects (a real political economy, for instance);
and to do what no Cyclopaedia can do—fashion a methodic education,
and reach, in a living form, the great multitude of men. What is espe
cially needed, is that the modern mind should be able to unite itself
wholly with the past; should be able to rise above details—in history
�I
12
The Use of Cyclopaedias.
above chronicles, in science above specialities, in life above professional
subtleties; not despising or neglecting these, but subordinating them;
should comprehend the relations of the great provinces of knowledge to
each other, their office to the individual mind and the social life of men.
This seems a gigantic task, almost an impossible one, and, indeed, to
the first undertaker it is a work of the first order of magnitude; but the
thing once done or truly conceived, practical success is ultimately cer
tain, and every step gained will wonderfully simplify and illuminate all
our conceptions. A right education will, then, aim at communicating
this ascertained order as the basis of all knowledge. But for.this pur
pose a Cyclopsedia is not the instrument. To the philosopher it is but a
quarry of materials, to us it is and must remain only a discoursing dic
tionary. Such thoughts are naturally suggested by the spectacle of this
vast accumulation of knowledge ; and the question which will be asked,
Whither is it all tending? And if, with such great issues before us,
involving inevitable large changes of opinion and practice, we cannot
but look with anxiety to the future, sincerity tells us we must on, and is
full of noble hope withal. In the early times of maritime discovery,
there was an African cape, called Bojador, or the “ Outstretcher,”
which the navigator dared not pass; and rumour said that those who
went beyond would become black men. The cape was passed, and the
outward figure of the world made known; but the bold Portuguese did
not become black !
To go back to Francis I. and the Stephens. Francis, whose face you
may read in Holbein’s portrait of him in Hampton Court, had faults
enough, and an intriguing, warring life with the Emperor Charles V. and
even our Henry VIII.; but he had a genuine love of having gifted men
of peace working about him. Thus Andrea del Sarto, “ the faultless
painter ” (of Browning’s admirable poem), the knave also for once, who
ran away to Florence with the King’s money, describes his former joy
“In that humane great monarch’s golden look,—
One finger in his beard or twisted curl
Over his mouth’s good mark that made the smile,
One arm about my shoulder, round my neck,
The jingle of his gold chain in my ear,
I painting proudly with his breath on me.’
And so it is told how Francis would often visit Robert Stephens in his
printing-house, and might be seen silently watching him finish his proof
before he started upon familiar talk. The English people cannot so
visit Mr. Knight; they are not kings at all; they can but buy Mr.
Knight’s books or read them, which is what Mr. Knight desires. But
many and many a man unknown to him bears him silent gratitude, and,
hereafter, a poor English student asking, “ How came these good books
to me ?” may have for answer, “ By the faithful work of many men;
among the foremost, the worthy English printer, publisher, editor, and
author, Charles Knight.” And so we heartily congratulate him on this
his great work.
�i3
ON TEACHING CHEMISTRY IN SCHOOLS.
BY W. H. WALENN, F.C.S.,
Compiler of Abridgments of Specifications relating to “Electricity and Magnetism,
their generation and applications,” “Photography,’ “Plating or coating metals with
metals,” etc., for the Commissioners of Patents.
HE reasons why chemical science has received so little atten
tion in schools maybe shortly stated under two heads
ist.
The belief that no practical good could be effected, in the
pupil’s mind, by adding to a curriculum already full to re
pletion, a science difficult in itself and only useful to those who intend
to make it the study and profession of their lives. 2nd. The very
general, but erroneous idea, that chemical science is difficult to teach,
more difficult to illustrate, and nearly impossible of experimental de
monstration by the pupils themselves.
In respect to the first point, Dr. W. A. Miller, F.R.S., Professor of
Chemistry in King’s College, London, at the meeting of the British
Association at Birmingham, in 1865, as President of the Chemical
Section, gave it as his deliberate opinion, that the methods of investi
gation employed in Chemistry entitle it to be regarded as an “ instru
ment in training the mind, and shaping the intellectual development of
the future.” After setting forth the difficulty which those whose edu
cation is based upon the linguistic system have to realize the magnitude
and true bearing of the power of the science, “and its educational
value,” he goes on to say that, “ Science is not merely to supply her
facts : she is to be employed to develop the powers of the mind, and
to discipline them for action. Hence it is of far more importance
to instil principles, and to cultivate precision in observation, in thought,
and in description, than it is to load the memory with mere facts, how
ever valuable. In short, the system of cramming is to be eschewed,
while the formation of habits of comparing, reasoning, and judging is
to be encouraged in every way.”
In respect to the second point, in answer to questions put by the
Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Public Schools Bill, in
1865, Dr. Sharpey, L.L.D., F.R.S., observes, that the elements of inor
ganic chemistry are well adapted to render instruction in physical
science exact and solid, “provided that instruction be carried on mainly
by practical lessons at which the pupils take part themselves in the ex
periments, and are permitted to handle and work with apparatus.” .
Apart from the weight which necessarily attaches itself to the opinions
of these celebrated men, we have no doubt that any well-informed
person who looks into the subject for himself will come to the same
conclusion, and that the introduction of Chemistry into schools is but a
question of time.
It is now acknowledged, on all sides, that when learning is imposed
as a duty only—as a task—that the progress of pupils therein is slow
compared with that which is made when their interest is excited. Of
�14
On Teaching Chemistry in Schools.
all sciences, Chemistry is the one most capable of exciting interest in
boys. . In order to do so, however, striking results must be presented
to their view, and, when they have sufficient facts in their minds, those
facts may be applied to analyzing the results and deducing further facts
from them; thus the development of the perceptive and of the rational
faculties goes hand in hand, and one faculty is made to assist the other
by action and re-action.
The labour of teaching is reduced, and the ability of the pupils is
further stimulated, if they are allowed to make such experiments them
selves as their progress in the subject warrants.
The method of teaching Chemistry may be by class books, followed
up by lectures, oral and written examinations, and by certain experi
ments made by the pupils themselves.
Class books’6 are very serviceable in the intervals between lectures;
their principal uses seem to be, laying the foundation of the mnemonics
of the subject, elucidating, by precept and example, the mathematical
principles of the science, and explaining, in proper sequence, the vari
ous processes that are necessary to the attainment of a given result.
They may either be employed to prepare the student for what will come
in the next experimental lecture, or to explain more fully the results
shown at the previous lecture, or (which is the most complete plan) to
clear up the points of the last, and to lay a foundation of theory for
the next lecture. In cases where only a small time can be allotted to
the subject, the class book may be made the text book of the lecture,
both in respect to the arrangement of the experiments and as to the
matter to be placed before the pupils.
Lectures afford the means of laying before the pupils, in a connected
view, the principles and practice of the subject, and many important
details of manipulation may be successfully explained, which would be
dry and trivial if written. Verifications of grand truths and the beauty
of certain results may be made manifest, also deductions may be drawn
from them which would scarcely appear warranted if merely read in a
book. Where experiments are not admissible, as in illustrating the
manufacture of iron, well marked and coloured diagrams of the furnacesand apparatus used are very suitable. Every boy should have a note
book (of ordinary copy-book size) so as to take notes of the points of each
lecture and sketches of the principal experiments and diagrams. At
the end of each lecture, it is a very salutary practice to give out certain
questions bearing upon the subject, to be answered in writing at the
next lecture, also to examine the boys orally upon the principles that
have been inculcated. A weekly examination or “ recapitulation” may
also take place with advantage.
The extent to which the pupils may be permitted to work out their
own experiments must depend very much upon the class of school and
upon the appliances at hand. That this can be done much more easily
than is generally thought possible, the author has endeavoured to de* One of the newest and best class books is ‘ ‘ Lessons in Elementary Chemistry : inor
ganic and organic,” by Henry E. Roscoe, B.A., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in Owen’s
College, Manchester. London : Macmillan and Co. 1867. Price 4s. 6d.
�On Teaching Chemistry in Schools.
15;
*
monstrate, but, in establishments that have a laboratory attached, the
pupils may readily work out most of the leading experiments to the
verge of organic chemistry.
In imparting instruction in Chemistry, as in any other subject, the
most important thing is to lay a good foundation. The great principlesof the science should be deeply impressed, both on the memory and on
the reason, at the beginning of the course, by repeated experiments, and
by constant reference to examples in common life so as to connect the
knowledge which is being imparted to that which already exists in the
pupil’s mind.
In the mnemonical part, every student should write out fairly in his.
note book and commit to memory good definitions of what the science
treats of, and of the terms used; the principal elements should also be
learnt by heart, together with their symbols and atomic weights. As the
chief laws of the subject are elucidated (by experiment or otherwise),
they should be placed in the said note book in a tabular form. By this
means, at the end of the course, each student has a complete annota
tion and memoria technicci written by himself, which he can therefore
more easily refer to than any other book.
In the rational part, the notes on the lectures themselves will furnish
abundant instances of the steps by which the discoveries of the science
were made, and of the rationale of well established processes and de
finite changes. All calculations of atomic weights, density of gases, &c.,
as well as the laws and systems of crystallography, and of nomenclature
and notation, come under this head, and afford good practice.
In the experimental part, it is also essential that lucid notes be taken,
and it will be found most successful in the end if the demonstrator or
teacher requires each boy to read over his notes to him before the
students are dismissed; this is important, because it will be found
that the experimental division of the subject clears up all points that
were previously obscure, and there often remains some debris that
require removal; also in interpreting the bearings and results of experi
ments, students necessarily require much guidance. All experiments
should form a connected series, and should elucidate brilliantly and.
pointedly some great truth, the only exception to the latter rule being
the exhibition of useful details of manipulation. Mere “ cookery book”
experiments (as the author has heard them called) such as “ How to
make green fire,” “ How to make mimic lightning,” &c., and all that
are isolated or have no immediate relation to the matter in hand, should,
generally speaking, be avoided.
The highest authorities upon the Science of Chemistry have given
their decided opinion that it should be taught according to the latest
theoretical views, and with as little as possible reference to theories that
rather form a matter of history than of present interest. For this reason
the. new nomenclature and notation should be adhered to throughout, in
their pure and simple form; the notation fully deserves this straight
forward treatment and this universal adoption, for it at once connects
* See ‘‘Little Experiments for Little Chemists,” by W. H. Walenn, F.C.S.
T. J. Allman, 463, Oxford Street. Price is.
London;
�■I 6
On Teaching Chemistry in Schools.
atomic weights with volumes and with specific heats; further assistance
to the unity of the science, as well as to its grasp of facts under a
minimum of general laws, is afforded by the adoption of the theory of
types in inorganic as well as in organic Chemistry, and the doctrines of
atomicity and saturation of combining power remove many difficulties
that have always been felt in the subject. The molecular and substitu
tion formulae that have lately come into general use, appear, in conjunc
tion with the above theoretical principles, to have brought the science
into a sufficiently stable condition to warrant the teaching of the latest
theories in a connected form/''
In conclusion, it appears scarcely possible that the conscientious and
enlightened preceptors of England will deny the entrance, into their
scholastic system, of a science which draws out so many of the latent,
but easily excited, faculties of the mind, and of outward application, as
Chemistry. Chemistry is the rallying point of other exact and experi
mental sciences, and its branches are many, reaching even to the
-celestial bodies.
LATIN FOR LADIES.
is only the other day that we were informed that the young
ladies who were examined by the roving Cambridge authorities
acquitted themselves eminently to the satisfaction of their
questioners. And now we learn that the preparations for the
•similar annual proceedings on the part of the University of Oxford are
completed, and that girls and boys alike, though not, we presume, in
company, are to be put through the examination process with due
severity and rigour. On the whole, it strikes us that this is about the
most astonishing of all the astonishing things which indicate the reality
of that social revolution which English society has for some time been
undergoing. That the old universities should send delegates all over the
country to examine the sons of the smaller gentry and the men of busi
ness was a sufficiently startling novelty. But that “the cloister” should
actually dispatch its missionaries to report upon the acquirements of the
sisters of these long-neglected boys is a proof that our fundamental ideas
as to what constitutes the perfection of the female character are radically
changed. Of course it is not to be doubted for a moment that no sen
timental gallantry has warped the judgment of the presiding examiners.
We cannot suppose that a Latin translation, or the solution of a quad
ratic equation, presented by blushing sixteen, would not be as accurately
estimated at its real value as the same performance sent up by an
ungainly boy. We accept, therefore, the figures by which the examiners
represent the amount of success attained by their fair students, and con* To preceptors the following work is a great boon, and is thoroughly exhaustive of the
subject:—“Elements of Chemistry, theoretical and practical,” by William Allen Miller,
M.D., L.L.D., &c., Professor of Chemistry in King’s College, London. Longman & Co.
3 vols. 3rd Ed. Price £2 17s.
�Latin for Ladies.
17
gratulate them on the delicacy and good sense which have led them to
abstain from publishing the individual names of the interesting postulants
for academic honours. We are quite satisfied with their report, and
it only remains for us to speculate, with no little curiosity, as to the prac
tical results which may be expected to follow from the success of this
wonderful scheme.
That the general character of women would be materially altered, and
altered for the better, by an improved education can hardly be doubted.
Setting aside the popular nonsense about the absolute identity of men’s
and women’s natural powers, it is certain that most of the defects which
men so often cast in the teeth of women are mainly due to the wretched
imitation of education which is all that is in the reach of the immense
majority of Englishwomen. If then they can be made to learn any
thing, or rather to study anything thoroughly, and to carry on their
studies beyond the period of mere girlhood, they must certainly acquire
in some considerable measure that accuracy of thought, that dislike for
rhetorical platitudes, that solidity and fairness of judgment, and that
soundness of critical taste, for which, as things now are, the gentler sex
is not, as a rule, highly distinguished. But it is the incidental conse
quences of the creation of a love for serious study among English girls
of the middle and upper classes which present the most curious subjects
for speculation. What will be its effect upon the “ matrimonial
market,” and upon the education of men? We do not ask whether it
will frighten away our ingenuous youth from offering their hands to
young ladies of whose acquirements they stand in awe and dread.
Possibly here and there some foolish man might abstain from making
pretensions to the companionship of a pretty girl, through dread of being
despised for his inability to extract the cube root and to discuss the
doctrine of the Greek subjunctive mood. But as it is, cases of clever
women marrying stupid husbands are quite numerous enough to reassure
us on this head. The question is not as to the marrying prospects of
stupid men, but as to the marrying inclinations of well-educated women
in general. And here there does seem a probability of a change. At
present, as we take it, it is the want of a definite interest in some work
or occupation of real moment which sets girls speculating about mar
riage at so early a period. It is not because she has a dread of being
an old maid, or is longing to be “ settled in life,” or is discontented
with her home, that the thoughts of a girl of eighteen or nineteen are
so often turned to matrimonial contingencies. It is rather because she
has no present object on which to expend her energies, and nothing to
work upon with a view to any permanent benefit. With boys and
young men it is the reverse. Life with them is very soon a reality,
without any necessity for an early marriage. Men, as a rule, do not
look forward to marrying until they are eight or ten years older than
girls are when they seriously contemplate it. Their business or their
profession, that profession being more or less the continuation of the
work of education itself, furnishes them with an object fortheir thoughts
and for the employment of their energies. But when the average girl
has gone through the wretched “ course of studies” prescribed by the
VOL. I.
2
�18
Latin for Ladies.
schoolmistress or the governess, all comes to an end, and the next'
thing is to be married, or, at any rate, to be engaged. Her education has
totally failed to awaken her interest in the subjects of men’s studies, and
to cultivate her natural faculties to such an extent as to make their
further cultivation and the acquisition of more knowledge a delight and
a necessity. If, then, this new movement succeeds in converting the
■education of girls from a sham into a reality, it -will follow that by hun
dreds and thousands they will be far less impatient for a “ settlement,”
-and will by common consent postpone by three or four years the re
cognised age at which girls may be expect to be mistresses of a home of
their own. Some people may regret the change, but others will wel
come the advent of the theory that a young woman of three-and-twenty
is more likely to be wise in her arrangements for her future life than a
.girl of eighteen or nineteen.
Then, as to the education of the brothers and expectant husbands of
these highly cultured girls. If we have to abandon the idea that the
life of a woman is to be inspired by feeling and the life of a man by
thought and knowledge, a man’s standard as to what is expected of him
self must be raised. Boys who habitually look down upon their sisters’
learning and capacities are pampered in their own idleness, and never
made, as they ought to be, to feel ashamed. At this time, with all our
-advances, the average amount of the real education of the faculties of
English boys, with occasional exceptions, is simply disgraceful, from the
Boys of Eton down to the boys of the humblest grammar-school. And
while Oxford and Cambridge examiners are scouring the country and
’decorating the young provincial prodigies with the title of A.A., the
university system itself is so bad that of those who take an ordinary
bachelor’s degree a very large number are allowed to spend two-thirds
of their time of residence in all but utter idleness, supplemented by six
months’ cram at the end, while the annual six months’ vacation time is
passed in pure, unmitigated amusement. But when the new order of
things reigns in all good households, new ideas will take possession of
the lads who now disport themselves so royally in their ignorance and
self-satisfaction. Shame will do what self-respect and a sense of duty
have failed to accomplish. And while the Oxford and Cambridge
examiners are indoctrinating their charming candidates for distinction in
the country, they will be preparing' for themselves a condemnation as
men incapable of controlling and teaching their own undergraduates.—
Pall Mau Gazette.
Cambridge Local Examinations.—The greatest number of suc
cessful candidates from any one school, at the late Cambridge Local
Examinations, was thirty-six from the Devon County School, West
Buckland, which for three years in succession has passed a greater num
ber than any other school. Thirteen of these were in honours, and five
were distinguished in particular subjects, among them being the first and
second in order of merit in the Senior English Section.
�19
A PLEA FOR THE ART OF READING ALOUD, AS A
BRANCH OF REGULAR SCHOOL EDUCATION.
BY CHARLES JOHN PLUMPTRE,
Lecturer on Public. Reading, King’s College, Evening Class Department. .
HERE is no complaint more general than the rarity of good
readers in all classes of society. About five or six years ago,
in consequence of a notification on the part of the late Bishop
of Rochester, that a certificate of competence as a reader would
be required in the case of candidates for ordination in his lordship’s
diocese, a general awakening to the importance of the subject seemed to
take place among clergy and laity, and for several weeks one could
hardly take up a newspaper, from “ The Times ” to the humblest pro
vincial journal, without seeing leading articles and letters on “ Clerical
Elocution.”
But no adequate practical result of any substantial and permanent
nature followed from all these discussions. It was an illustration of the
old proverb, “ Great cry but little wool.” Complaints teemed on all
sides, but there was little done to remedy the complaint. Several of
the ¿¿shops have, I. know, from that time advised young curates and
candidates for orders to take a regular course of instruction in the art of
public reading, from those whom they thought were competent, from
natural qualifications, education, position, and experience, to teach that
art. But beyond this nothing has been done, and the evil is nearly, if
not quite, as prominent and widely spread as ever.
What a very able writer says, under the signature of 11 Rhetor,” in a
letter to the editor of 11 The English Churchman,” dated October 3,
1861, may be reproduced now with as much truth as then. The laity
(he says towards the close of his letter!) complain, and most justly, of the
bad reading inflicted on them Sunday after Sunday. But how can it be
otherwise while the present system lasts ? Candidates for the ministry
have no proper instruction, either in the public schools or universities.
They enter on their professional duties with provincialisms and cockneyisms uncorrected, and read positively worse than many of their con
gregation. The varieties of professional incapacity are endless—the
mutterer, who swallows all his final syllables—the drawlev. who wearies
with his tediousness—the gabbler, who rushes through the service at
express speed—the preacher, who mistakes prayers for sermons—the
spouter, who mouths the prayers with the most painful affectation. All
these evils are the necessary consequences of the inadequate estimate of
the end in view, and the means to be employed for its attainment.
Some take half a dozen lessons, perhaps, from a strolling player, or trust
to one lecture on church reading, given by the examining chaplain at the
close of the examination for orders ! The only true mode is a regular
course of instruction under a judicious teacher, carried on during the
year which ought to be devoted to theological training, after taking the
ordinary degree. It rests with the bishops to secure this by insisting
on a certificate of attendance on such a course, and I hope the time is
2—2
�20
A Plea for the Art of Reading Aloud.
not far distant when a reform so urgently required will be effected by
the rulers of the Church.
A recent offer has been made by an anonymous benefactor, to found
an annual prize of /40, at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,
for the encouragement of proficiency in the art of good reading, but, I
regret to say, has been declined by both universities, on the ground, I
believe, of the difficulty of carrying out the wishes of the donor by
adequate and systematic instruction at the universities, as well as by the
alleged difficulty of deciding who are, or are not, the best readers in
the competition for the prize. The rejection, and the ground of the
rejection, of this liberal offer, have excited much dissatisfaction in the
public mind, and the leading journals have expressed their opinions on
the subject in no very measured language, which I have no desire to
reproduce; but I cannot help thinking that what has been found to
work so well, and to be so easily carried out in London, may also be
introduced and flourish at Oxford and Cambridge.
At King’s College, London, there has existed for nearly twenty
years, a Lectureship of Public Reading and Speaking, most ably filled
now by my friend and colleague, the Rev. Alex. J. D. D’Orsey. On the
establishment of the Evening Class Department of King’s College, a
similar Lectureship was made part of its instruction, to which I had the
honour of being appointed last summer j and though my experience
does not date so far back as Mr. D’Orsey’s, I am enabled to confirm all
that he has said on the subject of public reading and speaking, in his
lecture at the Royal Institution and other places, and can bear witness
to the need for instruction in the art, as well as to the excellent results
that ‘in most cases quickly follow from a regular course of practical
training. Prizes and certificates of merit are given for excellence in
public reading and sp&aking in both the Day and Evening Departments
of King’s College; and my colleague and I have hitherto found no very
great difficulty in deciding to whom such prizes and certificates should
be awarded. Surely, then, what has so long been found practicable
here will be found practicable elsewhere.
The prevalence of bad reading, in one or other of its almost count
less forms, is too generally admitted to need any formal quotation from
writers or other authorities in support of such an assertion. Whence
does this fault proceed ? I believe, in general, from inattention in child
hood, and the almost total absence of any system of teaching in a scien
tific yet natural manner in our public and private schools. I should
prefer on this point taking the evidence of a most competent -witness in
regard to all that relates to educational matters—the Rev. Francis
Trench—rather than offer any remarks of my own. Mr. Trench, in a
lecture delivered at St. Martin’s Hall in 1854, and subsequently pub
lished, says:—
“I must confess I can recall nothing worse than ordinary school
reading and recitation (mark, I say ordinary, because I am well aware
there are some exceptions), whether in the institutions for the rich or for
the poor in our land. Many amongst us can remember very well the
method in which we ourselves said our scholastic lessons in our former
�A Plea for the Art of Reading Alorid.
21
days. Whether any improvement in this matter has of late taken place,
I am unable to say. I trust that it may be so; but at the public school
■where I myself was, and one, too, not inferior in repute to any in the land
—I mean Harrow—the utmost attainable speed in repetition was allowed,
a false key and monotonous delivery of the worst kind was never
corrected or rebuked, no attempt whatever was made to render, or to
keep, the utterance in harmony with the sense; and bad habits of
delivery were formed and allowed, in a manner almost too strange for
belief, and on which I can only now look back with exceeding surprise.
Nor do I conceive that the system was in the least better at other schools.
I cannot let them escape. For should the Etonian, or the Winchester,
Rugby, or Westminster man, or the representative of any other public
school, ask me what grounds I have for such a statement, my answer to
the challenge would be, that at college I had full means and opportunity
to judge from the reading of the students there. They were gathered
from all schools of distinction; and to any one hearing them it was
evident enough that the general delivery at other schools was by no
means superior to that which was allowed, and which prevailed at my
■own. A system this not only most objectionable, and most injurious at
the time even to a just impression of the sense of the passage read, but
also so lasting in its evil consequences, that many never are emancipated
■or escape from them. I say this advisedly; and even those who do
•escape often only escape after many years, and with no little difficulty.
Hence, I believe, originates much of the bad reading which we hear in
public worship. Hence, I believe, originates that monotonous cadence
and drawl, which is so adverse to the due expression by the reader, and
to the due comprehension by the hearer, of any passage read. The ear
may be lulled, but the mind is not reached ; at least, if reached, it is
-reached in spite of the readers’ bad tone and enunciation. And here I
quote the words of one who felt this evil very deeply, and laboured very
constantly for its removal, or, at least, its mitigation—the Rev. C.
Simeon. ‘ How often,’ said he, ‘ are the prayers of the Church spoiled,
and good sermons rendered uninteresting, by bad delivery on the part
of ministers.’ ”
Mr. Trench then proceeds to show in detail how the same lamen
table neglect of the art of reading aloud prevails equally in private
schools, from the highest to the lowest class, and calls attention to the
fact, that even at the time when he was speaking, so glaring was the evil
in our national schools that a circular letter had been sent from Her
Majesty’s Board of the Privy Council to the various inspectors of schools,
stating that “ complaints have been made to their lordships concerning
the very small degree of attention which reading (as part of elocution)
receives in elementary schools, and making it imperative to include an
exercise on the art of reading in the oral part of the next Christmas
examination at the training schools.”
I trust I have said enough to prove how general is the neglect of the
art of reading aloud in our public and private schools. The neglect is,
however, I am strongly disposed to believe, far greater in schools for
boys than“ in schools for girls. As far as my own experience goes, I
�22
A Plea for the Art of Reading Aloud.
know that in London and the suburbs, out of a hundred schools where
elocution is taught, at least three-fourths are ladies’ schools. Hence,
probably, may be found one reason why, as a rule, women read aloud
better than men.
But what is the cause of this admitted neglect of the art of reading
in so many schools and families ? Why is it that elocution has been of
late years so much disregarded as a part of education, and yet music,
singing, drawing, and other accomplishments, have all received their due
share of attention? One reason is, I believe, to be found in the fact that
this very word, elocution, has been made a bugbear of, and has frightened
away many from its study, through a completely erroneous interpretation
of its meaning and character. Do not many persons imagine that the
study of elocution must lead to a pompous, bombastic, stilted, or pedantic
style—a style in which the artificial reigns predominant over everything
that is simple and natural ? I can only say, if elocution meant anything
of the kind I should be the last man to advocate its adoption in schools
or anywhere else. If I am asked to define what I then mean by elocu
tion, I think I should answer—“ That which is the most effective
pronunciation that can be given to words when they are arranged into
sentences and form discourse.” In this, of course, I include the appro
priate inflections and modulations of the voice, the purity of its intona
tion, the clearness of articulation, and, when suitable to the occasion, the
accompaniments of expression of countenance and action. This art of
elocution, then, I may further define as that system of instruction which
enables us to pronounce written or extemporaneous composition with
proper energy, correctness, variety, and personal ease; or, in other
words, it is that style of delivery which not only expresses fully the sense
and the words so as to be thoroughly understood by the hearer, but at
the same time gives the sentence all the power, grace, melody, and
beauty of which it is susceptible.
Is it not strange, let me ask, when we reflect on the marvellous power
which spoken language has to excite the deepest feelings of our common
nature, that the cultivation of the art of speaking which onceTeceived
so much attention, should afterwards and for so long a time have been
almost completely neglected. We know what importance the ancient
orators of Greece and Rome attached to the study of rhetoric. The
prince of them all, Demosthenes, asserted that “Delivery” (under which
term is included everything that relates to the effective management of
voice, look, and gesture) is the first, the second, and the last element of
success in a speaker; and the great Roman orator (Cic. de Orat. lib. i.)
most truly remarks that “ address in speaking is highly ornamental and
useful in private as well as in public life.” And surely this is as true in
our own day as it was in his. For even, assuming that a youth has no
apparent prospect of debating in Parliament, of addressing judges or
juries at the Bar, or appealing on the most solemn and important topics
of all from the pulpit, does it therefore follow that he need bestow no
trouble in learning to speak his native language elegantly and effec
tively ? Will he never have occasion to read aloud in his family circle,
or to a company of friends, some leader from “ The Times ” or other
�A Plea for the Art of Reading Aloud.
newspaper, some chapter from a book, or some verses from a poem ?
And what a difference will there be in the effect produced upon thereader and upon his audience accordingly as this is done well or ill ?•
We are most of us in the present day accustomed to have our sons and
daughters taught dancing, drilling, or calisthenic exercises, that give
strength, flexibility, and elegance to the limbs—and very excellent areall such accomplishments in their way. But after all, the limbs are por
tions of our frames far less noble than the tongue; and yet, while no
gentleman who can afford it hesitates about expending time and money
in sending his son to the fencing, drilling, or dancing master, how few,
comparatively, send as systematically their children to the elocution
master, to be taught the full development of that which is the crowning
glory of man—the divine gift of speech.
I believe firmly that consumption, and many other diseases of the
respiratory organs, which carry off so many thousands amongst us, while
they are in the very spring-time of life, would be greatly lessened in
number, and prevented in development, if the art of reading aloud were
more generally and properly taught and practised. This is not mere
vague assertion. Let me call in support of my statement a high medical
authority, Sir Henry Holland. In Sir Henry Holland’s “Medical
Notes,” at p. 42.2, I read as follows
“ Might not more be done in practice towards the prevention of pul
monary disease, as well as for the general improvement of health by
expressly exercising the organs of respiration—that is by practising accord
ing to method those actions of the body through which the chest is in
part filled or emptied of air ? Though suggestions to this effect occur
in some of our best works on consumption, as well as in the writings of
certain continental physicians, they have hitherto had less than their due
influence, and the principle as such is comparatively little recognised,
or brought into general application. In truth, common usage takes for
the most part a directly opposite course; and under the notion or pre
text of quiet, seeks to repress all direct exercise of this important function
in those who are presumed to have any tendency to pulmonary dis
orders. ... As regards the modes of exercising the function of respi
ration, they should be various, to suit the varying powers and exigencies
of the patient. Reading aloud (clara lectio) is one of very ancient recom
mendation, the good effects of which are not limited to this object alone.
It might indeed be well were the practice of distinct recitation, such as.
implies a certain effort of the organs beyond that of mere ordinary speech,
■more generally used in early life, and continued as a habit, or regular
exercise, but especially by those whose chests are weak, and who cannot
sustain stronger exertions. Even singing may for the same reasons, beallowed in many of such cases, but within much narrower limits, and
under much more cautious notice of the effects than would be requisite
in reading. If such caution be duly used as to posture, articulation, and
the avoidance of all excess, these regular exercises of the voice may be ren
dered as salutary to the organs of respiration as they are agreeable in their
influence on the ordinary voice. The common course of education is much
at fault in this respect. If some small part of the time given to crowd
�24
A Pica for the Art of Reading Aloud.
ing facts on the mind not yet prepared to receive or retain them, were
employed in fashioning and improving the organs of speech under good
tuition, and with suitable subjects for recitation, both mind and body
would often gain materially by the substitution.”
I might quote opinions to precisely the same effect from the works
on consumption and other diseases of the respiratory organs, of Dr.
James Bright, Dr. Godwin Timms, Combe, Mayo, and other eminent
physicians and physiologists, but there is no need to multiply quotations;
suffice it to say that all these high medical authorities concur in the same
opinion, viz., that “reading aloud” is, when conducted on sound
principles, an exercise for the delicate and for the robust, as healthy
and strengthening to the body as it is pleasant and profitable to the
mind.
I am not without strong hope that the whole subject will, in course
of time, meet with the attention it so well deserves. It is now nearly
eight years ago since, with the sanction of the Vice-Chancellor, and the
approval of the Bishop of the diocese, I began my work as a lecturer and
teacher of elocution, in reference to professional and public life, at the
University of Oxford on the same day that my colleague, Mr. D’Orsey,
entered on a similar course at the university of Cambridge; and now we
are associated in the same work, though in different departments, at King’s
College. Our pupils have steadily increased, our services have been
called into requisition at many large schools in the provinces, as well as
in London,°jand I have every reason to believe that a growing interest
in the art of public reading and speaking has been manifested. I only
trust that this interest may extend to all classes—high and low, rich and
poor—and bear substantial and enduring fruit, in the shape of men and
women with sound and healthy lungs, pleasant and agreeably modulated
voices, and clear and effective enunciation.
! The Education Grant.—In the year ending March 31, 1866,
¿£622,730 was expended from the Parliamentary grant in aid of Edu
cation in Great Britain. The amount was thus distributed : In annual
grants to elementary schools in England and Wales, ¿£378,003 for day
scholars, and ¿£10,003 for evening scholars ; ¿£68,034 in annual grants
in Scotland ; ¿£21,040 in building grants ; ¿£69,935 in grants to train
ing colleges; ¿£685 in unexpired pensions ; ¿£75,03° in administration
and inspection. Classified according to the denominations of the re
cipients, the expenditure was as follows :—On schools connected with
the church of England, .£351,498; on schools connected with the
British and Foreign School Society, ¿£58,623 ; Wesleyan Schools,
¿£28,592 ; Roman Catholic Schools in England, ¿£26,084 ; parochial
union schools, ¿£120; schools in Scotland connected with the Es
tablished Church, ¿£46,465 ; the Free Church, ¿£29,297 ; the Episcopal
Church, ¿£4,019; Roman Catholic schools in Scotland, ¿£3,002. *
�25
JOHN STUART MILL ON THE VALUE OF THE ANCIENT
CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE IN
EDUCATION.
From the Inaugural Address delivered to the University of St. Andrew’s, Feb. ist. 1867. >
NIVERSITIES do enough to facilitate the study of modern
languages, if they give a mastery over that ancient language
which is the foundation of most of them, and the possession
of which makes it easier to learn four or five of the conti
nental languages than it is to learn one of them without it. . . . .
The only languages, then, and the only literature, to which I would
allow a place in the ordinary curriculum, are those of the Greeks and
Romans ; and to these I would preserve the position in it which they
at present occupy. That position is justified, by the great value, in
education, of knowing well some other cultivated language and litera
ture than one’s own, and by the peculiar value of those particular lan
guages and literatures.
There is one purely intellectual benefit from a knowledge of lan
guages, which I am specially desirous to dwell on. Those who have
seriously reflected on the causes of human error, have been deeply im
pressed with the tendency of mankind to mistake words for things.
Without entering into the metaphysics of the subject, we know how
common it is to use words glibly and with apparent propriety, and to
accept them confidently when used by others, without ever having had
any distinct conception of the things denoted by them. To quote again
from Archbishop Whately, it is the habit of mankind to mistake fami
liarity for accurate knowledge. As we seldom think of asking the
meaning of what we see every day, so when our ears are used to the
sound of a word or a phrase, we do not suspect that it conveys no clear
idea to our minds, and that we should have the utmost difficulty in de
fining it, or expressing, in any other words, what we think we understand
by it. Now it is obvious in what manner this bad habit tends to be
corrected by the practice of translating with accuracy from one language
to another, and hunting out the meanings expressed in a vocabulary
with which we have not grown familiar by early and constant use. I
hardly know any greater proof of the extraordinary genius of the
Greeks, than that they were able to make such brilliant achievements in
abstract thought, knowing, as they generally did, no language but their
own. But the Greeks did not escape the effects of this deficiency.
Their greatest intellects, those who laid the foundation of philosophy
and of all our intellectual culture, Plato and Aristotle, are continually
led away by words ; mistaking the accidents of language for real rela
tions in nature, and supposing that things which have the same name in
the Greek tongue must be the same in their own essence. There is a
well-known saying of Hobbes, the far-reaching significance of which you
will more and more appreciate in proportion to the growth of your
own intellect: “ Words are the counters of wise men, but the money of
fools.” With the wise man a word stands for the fact which it repre-
�26
On the Value of the Ancient Classical Languages
sents; to the fool it is itself the fact. To carry on Hobbes’ metaphor,
the counter is far more likely to be taken for merely what it is, by those
who are in the habit of using many different kinds of counters. But
besides the advantage of possessing another cultivated language, there
is a further consideration equally important. Without knowing the lan
guage of a people, we never really know their thoughts, their feelings,
and their type of character: and unless we do possess this knowledge,
of some other people than ourselves, we remain, to the hour of our
death, with our intellects only half expanded. Look at a youth who has
never been out of his family circle: he never dreams of any other
opinions or ways of thinking than those he has been bred up in; or, if
he has heard of any such, attributes them to some moral defect, or in
feriority of nature or education. If his family are Tory, he cannot con
ceive the possibility of being a Liberal; if Liberal, of being a Tory.
What the notions and habits of a single family are to a boy who has had
no intercourse beyond it, the notions and habits of his own country are
to him who is ignorant of every other. Those notions and habits are to
him human nature itself; whatever varies from them is an unaccountable
aberration which he cannot mentally realize: the idea that any other
ways can be right, or as near an approach to right as some of his own,
is inconceivable to him. This does not merely close his eyes to the
many things which every country still has to learn from others : it hin
ders every country from reaching the improvement which it could other
wise attain by itself. We are not likely to correct any of our opinions
or mend any of our ways, unless we begin by conceiving that they are
capable of amendment: but merely to know that foreigners think differ
ently from ourselves, without understanding why they do so, or what
they really do think, does but confirm us in our self-conceit, and connect
our national vanity with the preservation of our own peculiarities. Im
provement consists in bringing our opinions into nearer agreement with
facts; and we shall not be likely to do this while we look at facts only
through glasses coloured by those very opinions. But since we cannot
divest ourselves of preconceived notions, there is no known means of
eliminating their influence but by frequently using the differently coloured
glasses of other people : and those of other nations, as the most different,
are the best.
But if it is so useful, on this account, to know the language and lite
rature Of any other cultivated and civilized people, the most valuable of
all to us in this respect are the languages and literature of the ancients.
No nations of modern and civilized Europe are so unlike one another,
as the Greeks and Romans are unlike all of us; yet without being, as
some remote Orientals are, so totally dissimilar, that the labour of a life
is required to enable us to understand them. Were this the only gain
to be derived from a knowledge of the ancients, it would already place
the study of them in a high rank among enlightening and liberalizing
pursuits. It is of no use saying that we may know them through mo
dern writing. We may know something of them in that way; which is
much better than knowing nothing. But modern books do notteach us
ancient thought; they teach us some modern writer’s notion of ancient
�and Literature in Education.
27
thought. Modern books do not show us the Greeks and Romans ; they
tell us some modern writer’s opinions about the Greeks and Romans.
Translations aré scarcely better. When we want really to know what a
person thinks or says, we seek it at first hand from himself. We do not
trust to another person’s impression of his meaning, given in another
person’s words; we refer to his own. Much more is it necessary to do
so when his words are in one language, and those of his reporter in
another. Modern phraseology never conveys the exact meaning of a
Greek writer; it cannot do so, except by a diffuse explanatory circum
locution which no translator dares use. We must be able, in a certain
degree, to think in Greek, if we would represent to ourselves how a
Greek thought: and this not only in the abstruse region of metaphysics,
but about the political, religious, and even domestic concerns of life. I
will mention a further aspect of this question, which, though I have not
the merit of originating it, I do not remember to have seen noticed in
any book. There is no part of our knowledge which it is more useful to
obtain at first hand—-to go to the fountain head for—than our knowledge
of history. Yet this, in most cases, we hardly ever do. Our concep
tion of the past is not drawn from its own records, but from books
written about it, containing not the facts, but a view of the facts which
has shaped itself in the mind of somebody of our own or a very recent
time. Such books are very instructive and valuable; they help us to
understand history, to interpret history, to draw just conclusions from
it; at the worst, they set us the example of trying to do all this ; but
they are not themselves history. The knowledge they give is upon
trust, and even when they have done their best, it is not only incom
plete, but partial, because confined to what a few modern writers have
seen in the materials, and have thought worth picking out from among
them. How little we learn of our own ancestors from Hume, or Hallam,
or Macaulay, compared with what we know if we add to what these tell
us, even a little reading of cotemporary authors and documents 1 The
most recent historians are so well aware of this, that they fill their pages
with extracts from the original materials, feeling that these extracts are
the real history, and their comments and thread of narrative are only
helps towards understanding it. Now it is part of the great worth to us
of our Greek and Latin studies, that in them we do read history in the
original sources. We are in actual contact with cotemporary minds; we
are not dependent on hearsay; we have something by which we can test
and check the representations and theories of modern historians. It
may be asked, why then not study the original materials of modem his
tory ? I answer, it is highly desirable to do so : and let me remark by
the way, that even this requires a dead language j nearly all the docu
ments prior to the Reformation, and many subsequent to it, being written
in Latin. But the exploration of these documents, though a most use
ful pursuit, cannot be a branch of education. Not to speak of their
vast.extent, and the fragmentary nature of each, the strongest reason is,
that in learning the spirit of our own past ages, until a comparatively
recent period, from cotemporary writers, we learn hardly anything else.
Those.authors, with a few exceptions, are little worth” reading on their
�28
On the Vctlne of the Ancient Classical Languages
own account. . While, in studying the great writers of antiquity, we are
not only learning to understand the ancient mind, but laying in a stock
of wise thought and observation, still valuable to ourselves; and at the
same time making ourselves familiar with a number of the most perfect
and finished literary compositions which the human mind has produced
—compositions which, from the altered conditions of human life, are
likely to be seldom paralleled, in their sustained excellence, by the times
to come.
Even as mere languages, no modern European language is so valuable
a discipline to the intellect as those of Greece and Rome, on account
of their regular and complicated structure. Consider, for a moment,
what grammar is. It is the most elementary part of logic. It is the
beginning of the analysis of the thinking process. The principles and
rules of grammar are the means by which the forms of language are
made to correspond with the universal forms of thought. The distinc
tions between the various parts of speech, between the cases of nouns,
the moods and tenses of verbs, the functions of particles, are distinc
tions in thought, not merely in words. Single nouns and verbs express
objects and events, many of which can be cognized by the senses : but
the modes of putting nouns and verbs together, express the relations of
objects and events, which can be cognized only by the intellect; and
each different mode corresponds to a different relation. The structure
of every sentence is a lesson in logic. The various rules of syntax
oblige us to distinguish between the subject and predicate of a propo
sition, between the agent, the action, and the thing acted upon; to mark
when an idea is intended to modify or qualify, or merely to unite with,
some other idea; what assertions are categorical, what only conditional;
whether the intention is to express similarity or contrast, to make a plu
rality of assertions conjunctively or disjunctively; what portions of a
sentence, though grammatically complete within themselves, are mere
members or subordinate parts of the assertion made by the entire sen
tence. Such things form the subject-matter of universal grammar; and
the languages which teach it best are those which have the most definite
rules, and which provide distinct forms for the greatest number of dis
tinctions in thought, so that if we fail to attend precisely and accurately
to any of these, we cannot avoid committing a solecism in language.
In these qualities the classical languages have an incomparable supe
riority over every modern language, and over all languages, dead or
living, which have a literature worth being generally studied.
But the superiority of the literature itself, for purposes of education,
is still more marked and decisive. Even in the substantial value of the
matter of which it is the vehicle, it is very far from having been super
seded. The discoveries of the ancients in science have been greatly
surpassed, and as much of them as is still valuable loses nothing by
being incorporated in modern treatises : but what does not so well admit
of being transferred bodily, and has been very imperfectly carried off
even piecemeal, is the treasure which they accumulated of what may be
called the wisdom of life: the rich store of experience of human nature
and conduct, which the acute and observing minds of those ages, aided
�and Literature in Education.
29
in their observations by the greater simplicity of manners and life, con
signed to their writings, and most of which retains all its value. The
speeches in Thucydides; the Rhetoric, Ethics, and Politics of Aristotle ;
the Dialogues of Plato; the Orations of Demosthenes; the Satires, and
especially the Epistles of Horace; all the writings of Tacitus; the great
work of Quintilian, a repertory of the best thoughts of the ancient world
on all subjects connected with education ; and, in a less formal manner,
all that is left to us of the ancient historians, orators, philosophers, and
even dramatists, are replete with remarks and maxims of singular good
sense and penetration, applicable both to political and to private life :
and the actual truths we find in them are even surpassed in value by the
encouragement and help they give us in the pursuit of truth. Human
invention has never produced anything so valuable in the way both of
Stimulation and of discipline to the inquiring intellect, as the dialectics
of the ancients, of which many of the works of Aristotle illustrate the
theory, and those of Plato exhibit the practice. No modern writings
come near to these, in teaching, both by precept and example, the way
to investigate truth, on those subjects, so vastly important to us, which
remain matters of controversy from the difficulty or impossibility of
bringing them to a direct experimental test. To question all things;
never to turn away from any difficulty: to accept no doctrine either from
ourselves or from other people without a rigid scrutiny by negative, criti
cism, letting no fallacy, or incoherence, or confusion of thought, slip by
unperceived; above all, to insist upon having the meaning of a word
clearly understood before using it, and the meaning of a proposition.be
fore assenting to it; these are the lessons we learn from the ancient
dialecticians. With all this vigorous management of the negative . ele
ment, they inspire no scepticism about the reality of truth, or indiffer
ence to its pursuit. The noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after
truth and for applying it to its highest uses, pervades these writers, Aris
totle no less than Plato, though Plato has incomparably the greater
power of imparting those feelings to others. In cultivating, therefore,
the ancient languages as our best literary education, we are all the while
laying an admirable foundation for ethical and philosophical culture. In
purely literary excellence—in perfection of form—the pre-eminence of
the ancients is not disputed. In every department which they at
tempted, and they attempted almost all, their composition, like their
sculpture, has been to the greatest modern artists an example to be
' looked up to with hopeless admiration, but of inappreciable value as a
light on high, guiding their own endeavours. In prose and in poetry,
in epic, lyric, or dramatic, as in historical, philosophical, and oratorical
art, the pinnacle on which they, stand is equally eminent. I am now
speaking of the form, the artistic perfection of treatment: for, as regards
substance, I consider modem poetry to be superior to ancient, in the
same manner, though in a less degree, as modern science : it enters
deeper into nature. The feelings of the modern mind are more various,
more complex and manifold, than those of the ancients ever were. The
modem mind is, what the ancient mind was not, brooding and self-con
scious ; and its meditative self-consciousness has discovered depths in
�30
Ou the Value of the Ancient Classical Languages
the human soul which the Greeks and Romans did not dream of, and
would not have understood. But what they had got to express’ they
expressed in a manner which few even of the greatest moderns’ have
seriously attempted to rival. It must be remembered that they had more
time, and that they wrote chiefly for a select class, possessed of leisure.
To us who write in a hurry for people who read in a hurry, the attempt
to give an equal degree of finish would be loss of time. But to be
familiar with perfect models is not the less important to us because the
element in which we work precludes even the effort to equal them.
They shew us at least what excellence is, and make us desire it, and
strive to get as near to it as is within our reach. And this is the value
to us of the ancient writers, all the more emphatically, because their
excellence does not admit of being copied, or directly imitated. It does
not consist in a trick which can be learnt, but in the perfect adaptation
of means to ends. The secret of the style of the great Greek and
Roman authors, is that it is the perfection of good sense. In the first
place, they never use a word -without a meaning, or a. word which adds
nothing to the meaning. They always (to begin with) had a meaning;
they knew what they wanted to say; and their whole purpose was to say
it with the highest degree of exactness and completeness, and bring it
home to the mind with the greatest possible clearness and vividness. It
never entered into their thoughts to conceive of a piece of writing as
beautiful in itself, abstractedly from what it had to express ; its beauty
must all be subservient to the most perfect expression of the sense. The
curiosa felicitas which their critics ascribed in a pre-eminent degree to
Horace, expresses the standard at which they all aimed. Their style is
exactly described by Swift’s definition, li the right words in the right
places.” Look at an oration of Demosthenes; there is nothing in it
which calls attention to itself as style at all: it is only after a close exa
mination we perceive that every word is what it should be, and where it
should be, to lead the hearer smoothly and imperceptibly into the state
of mind which the orator wishes to produce. The perfection of the
workmanship is only visible in the total absence of any blemish or fault,
and of anything which checks the flow of thought and feeling, anything
which even momentarily distracts the mind from the main purpose.
But then (as has been well said) it was not the object of Demosthenes
to make the Athenians cry out “ What a splendid speaker !” but to make
them say “ Let us march against Philip !” It was only in the decline of
ancient literature that ornament began to be cultivated merely as orna
ment. In the time of its maturity, not the merest epithet was put in
because it was thought beautiful in itself; not even for a merely descrip
tive purpose, for epithets purely descriptive were one of the corruptions
of style which abound in Lucan, for example : the word had no busi
ness there unless it brought out some feature which was wanted, and
helped to place the object in the light which the purpose of the com
position required. These conditions being complied with, then indeed
the intrinsic beauty of the means used was a source of additional effect,
of which it behoved them to avail themselves, like rhythm and melody
of versification. But these great writers knew that ornament for the
�and Literature in Education,
i
3*
sake, of ornament, ornament which attracts attention to itself, and shines
by its own beauties, only does so by calling off the mind from the main,
object, and thus not only interferes with the higher purpose of human
discourse, which ought, and generally professes, to have some matter to
communicate, apart from the mere excitement of the moment, but also
spoils the perfection of the composition as a piece of fine art, by de
stroying the unity of effect. This, then, is the first great lesson in com
position to be learnt from the classical authors. The second is., not to
be prolix. In a single paragraph, Thucydides can give a clear and vivid
representation of a battle, such as a reader who has once taken it into
his mind can seldom forget. The most powerful and affecting piece of
narrative, perhaps, in all historical literature, is the account of the
Sicilian catastrophe in his seventh book, yet how few pages does it fill 1
The ancients were concise, because of the extreme pains they took with
their compositions ; almost all modems are prolix, because they do not.
The great ancients could express a thought so perfectly in a few words
or sentences, that they did not need to add any more : the moderns, be
cause they cannot bring it out clearly and completely at once, return
again and again, heaping sentence upon sentence, each adding a little
more elucidation, in hopes that though no single sentence expresses the
full meaning, the whole together may give a sufficient notion of it. In
this respect, I am afraid we are growing worse instead of better, for want
of time and patience, and from the necessity we are in of addressing
almost all writings to a busy and imperfectly prepared public. The de
mands of modern life are such—the work to be done, the mass to be
worked upon, are so vast, that those who have anything particular to say
—who have, as the phrase goes, any message to deliver—cannot afford
to devote their time to the production of masterpieces. But they would
do far worse than they do, if there had never been masterpieces, or if
they had never known them. Early familiarity with the perfect makes
our most imperfect production far less bad than it otherwise would
be. To have a high standard of excellence often makes the whole
difference of rendering our work good when it would otherwise be
mediocre.
For all these reasons, I think it important to retain these two. lan
guages and literatures in the place they occupy, as a part of liberal edu
cation, that is, of the education of all who are not obliged by their
circumstances to discontinue their scholastic studies at a very early age.
But the same reasons which vindicate the place or classical studies in
general education, shew also the proper limitation, of them. They
should be carried as far as is sufficient to enable the pupil, in after life,
to read the great works of ancient literature with ease. Those who have,
leisure and inclination to make scholarship, or ancient history, or gene
ral philology, their pursuit, of course require much more; but there is
no room for more in general education. The laborious idleness in which
the school-time is wasted away in the English classical schools deserves
the severest reprehension. To what purpose should the most precious
years of early life be irreparably squandered in learning to write bad
Latin and Greek verses ? I do not see that we are much the better even
�32
Value of the Ancient Classical Langrtages and Literature.
for those who end by writing good ones. I am often tempted to ask the
favourites of nature and fortune, whether all the serious and important
work of the world is done, that their time and energy can be spared for
these nugce difficiles 1 I am not blind to the utility of composing in a
language, as a means of learning it accurately. I hardly know any
other means equally effectual. But why should not prose composition
suffice? What need is there of original composition at all? if that can
be called original which unfortunate schoolboys, without any thoughts to
express, hammer out on compulsion from mere memory, acquiring the
pernicious habit which a teacher should consider it one of his first duties
to repress, that of merely stringing together borrowed phrases ? The
exercise in composition, most suitable to the requirements of learners, is
that most valuable one, of retranslating from translated passages of a
good author: and to this might be. added, what still exists in many Con
tinental places of education, occasional practice in talking Latin. There
would be something to be said for the time spent in the manufacture of
verses, if such practice were necessary for the enjoyment of ancient
poetry; though it would be better to lose that enjoyment than to pur
chase it at so extravagant a price. But the beauties of a great poet
would be a far poorer thing than they are, if they only impressed us
through a knowledge of the technicalities of his art. The poet needed
those technicalities : they are not necessary to us. They are essential
for criticising a poem, but not for enjoying it. All that is wanted is suf
ficient familiarity with the language, for its meaning to reach us without
any sense of effort, and clothed with the associations on which the poet
counted for producing his effect. Whoever has this familiarity, and a
practised ear, can have as keen a relish of the music of Virgil and
Horace, as of Gray or Bums, or Shelley, though he know not the me
trical rules of a common Sapphic or Alcaic. I do not say that these
rules ought not to be taught, but I would have a class apart for them,
and would make the appropriate exercises an optional, not a compulsory
part of the school teaching.
Science and Art Department,—Nero Minute. — My Lords have
promulgated a new Minute to the effect, that every student in the future
who obtains a first or second class position in the May examination, in
any science subject, may teach, and earn the payments or results, a pri
vilege hitherto confined to certificated teachers. The teachers’ exami
nations for certificates in November are to be abolished. This action
of the Committee of Council assimilates, in this particular, the relation
of science teachers with the lately modified relation of the art teachers
to the Department
"
�33
THE SUPPLEMENTARY MINUTE OF THE REVISED CODE.
BY J. STUART LAURIE, FORMERLY H. M. INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS.
HE reception accorded to the Revised Code four years ago is
still fresh in the memory of every one interested in the ques
tion of popular education. Educational bodies viewed, with
an alarm that amounted almost to a panic, the threatened
demolition of what they had been accustomed for a quarter of a century
to regard as the bulwarks of the system. But all protest was in vain;
and the representatives of the people sanctioned and ratified the official
proposals. Indiscriminate building grants to Primary,’and various grants
to Training, schools were cancelled; pupil-teachers could no longer
claim the enviable title of “pampered recipients of State bounty;”
teachers were constrained to relinquish, suddenly and unexpectedly,
their “ vested interests,” in the shape of the money-value which thencertificates variously represented; and annual grants henceforth took
the simple form of 4s. per head on the average attendance, and 2s. 8d.
per pass in the three fundamental branches of knowledge, Reading,
Writing, wiA Arithmetic. This was aptly termed, “payment for results”
and the practical ring of the phrase doubtless contributed largely to the
success of the measure. The gross result shows an annual “ saving ”
of no less than ^400,000, together with, in Mr. Lowe’s opinion, “in
creased efficiency,” into the bargain 1
But the permanency of that orator’s notable triumph was ever liable
to be endangered by a grave omission in his subversive system of tactics.
He omitted to include Her Majesty’s Inspectors in his taboo. He had at
hand a sufficiently feasible and ready-made plea for their abolition, too ;
seeing that the occupation of those gentlemen was, in a dignified pro
fessional -sense, clearly gone ; while the proposal would have been ably
■seconded by personal predilections, if one may draw an inference
from various acts of scant courtesy, and a uniformly supercilious bearing.
From whatever cause, H. M. Inspectors remained in the field, empowered
to report progress to two successive chiefs, neither of whom was above
lending an ear to deliberate representations, based on the results of
arduous experience acquired at the Queen’s expense.
Excellent a beginning to a scheme of national education as the
Revised Code would unquestionably have been, and admirably fitted as
it even, still is, as a groundwork for a noble superstructure, it has been
ascertained that, as a practical measure, it is capable of improvement:
that, for example (r), small schools—generally the most needy section—
derive but a meagre proportion of pecuniary benefit from the new form
of |rant; that (2), the rate at which pupil teachers are everywhere
diminishing forbodes the steady decay of that key-stone of the system ;
and that (3),the higher, non-paying subjects, such as Geography, Grammar,
and History, are vanishing, or have already vanished, from the common
routine of instruction. With a praiseworthy unanimity, the late VicePresident of the present, and the previous Vice-President of the late,
Government have combined their efforts to supply, at the trifling cost
vol. 1.
3
�34
The Supplementary Minute of the Revised Code.
of
ooo, remedies for the defects alluded to; and, what may be
styled, their joint plan has taken the form of a Supplementary Minute.
*
The title of the new Minute, and Mr. Corry’s early assurance that it
“ did not cancel a single article of the Revised Code]' ought, in all
reason, to have satisfied Mr. Lowe that the latter measure was not
about to be “tinkered” and “tampered with;” and it is therefore
hoped that his menace of “ a speedy and well-merited extinction of the
whole system,” will graciously be allowed to remain in abeyance, until
the country is ripe for a comprehensive, and emphatically national
scheme.
The heads of the Supplementary Minute are briefly as follow:—
I. The payment per pass in reading, writing and arithmetic, respec
tively, is raised from 2s. 8d. to 4s.—up to the maximum of 120 passes;
all in excess of that number being rated as formerly, at 2s. 8d.
The conditions annexed to this additional grant of
are («), that for
all scholars above 25 there be an apprentice for every 40, or an assistant
for every 80 in average attendance; (¿), that the number of passes exceed
200 per cent, of the annual average over six years of age, and, further,
that one fifth part of the whole number of passes fall under Standardsiv. to vi.; and (c), that at least one-fifth of the average over six years of
age pass a satisfactory examination in any specific subject or subjects;
scholars who have already passed in Standard vi. being, on the same
condition, entitled to claim a repetition of the grant.
II. In reference to condition («), the new Minute offers a distinct
aid towards its fulfilment, by means of a prospective bonus to schools of
¿10 and fs respectively, for every male apprentice admitted into a
training school in the first and second class; and the same schools are
further entitled to participate in the success of their former apprentices,
at the rate of
and ¿5 respectively, according to their rank in the
annual students’ examinations.
While no doubt can be entertained of the practical judiciousness of
these provisions, and of their fitness to dovetail into the structure of the
Revised Code, it remains to be seen whether much material advantage will
accrue to the smaller schools, shackled as they are by a too heavy
expenditure, and deplorable irregularity in the attendance ; and whether
the indirect inducements held out to apprentice-recruits will prove equal
to an emergency which want of confidence in the bona fides of the
Government and the large demands of rival labour markets have created.
This at least is certain—that the stimulus now given to the conservation
or restoration of the old scale of indispensable branches—Geography,
Grammar and History (which may be taught singly, or all three succes
sively adjusted to the progress of the several standards), will impart fresh
heart to the teacher; and that the moral intention of the measure will
be accepted by educationalists at large as an earnest that the legislature
did not mean, after all, to throw them eventually on their own, often
sorely overstrained, resources
*
In regard to the historical phases of the question, we seize this op
portunity to disabuse the public mind of the various illusory fictions with
�The Supplementary Minute of the Revised Code.
35
which the results of the “ Government ” scheme anterior to the present
one have been wantonly beset:—
1. “That system, where adequately developed, was not a failure, but
a triumphant success. The teaching was thoroughly good, not superfi
cial and ambitious, but sound and practical.” — (Mr. Fraser, Times,
April 18, and Commissioners’ Report, 1. 308—313.)
2. Where the efficiency was at fault, “ the great source lay in the
want of adequate funds preventing the employment of competent
teachers.”—(Com. Rep. n. 115.)
3. It was, therefore, a physical impossibility for teachers to pay the
requisite attention to the lower classes, especially in cases where pupil
teachers or stipendiary monitors were not procurable. And on the other
hand.
4. The unwise extension of the old capitation grant (for attendance
alone) to towns above 5000 inhabitants, in addition to the somewhat
lavish expenditure on building Primary, and subsidizing Training,
Schools, incited warrantable apprehensions as to the pitch which the
Parliamentary vote would ultimately be required to reach.
5. The unsatisfactory condition of the lower sections, which, how
ever, was greatly exaggerated, and so amplified in argument as to be
made to apply to schools as a -whole, combined with the desirability of
retrenchment to pave the way for a change.
6. Accordingly, when Mr. Lowe propounded the plan of the Revised
Code, professedly based on the conclusions of the Commissioners, and
guaranteed for the measure efficiency coupled with economy, the assent of
the House to the measure was readily given.
7. The new code substituted a simple and palpable, for a cumbrous
and indefinite, machinery, and it therefore displayed, among other
virtues, a captivating fitness for administrative purposes.
8. But, although many educationalists are prepared to acknowledge
its expediency as a basis for a national scheme, those immediately
acquainted with its mode of working, or practically engaged in working
it, object not so much to the limitation of the scale of subjects, as to the
virtual exclusion of education, in the true sense of the term, in connexion
with the instruction. The form of the teaching is now purely mechani
cal ; the memory and manual dexterity are exercised—the understanding
and imagination, not at all. Hence the grave complaint that the
“ tone ” of schools is lowered, a result which could not well be antici
pated by Mr. Lowe, seeing that “tone” is neither a quantititive
element; nor, as he confessed, cognizable by his intelligence. Obviously
it is only by increasing the teaching-power that larger and higher results,
can be secured, and we therefore hail the supplementary Minute as a.
step in the right direction.
3—2
�36
NEW EDUCATIONAL MINUTE.
The following minute by the Lords of the Committee of Council for
Education was adopted on the 20th of February last:—
Their lordships, having considered—1. The present ratio of teachers
to scholars in the elementary day schools under inspection, and the state
of instruction in such schools, as shown by the result of the examinations
under article 48 of the code, and by the reports of Her Majesty s in
spectors ; also, 2. The present supply of candidates qualified for ad
mission into the normal schools for training masters Resolved :
1. To provide in the estimate for public education in England and
Wales, during the financial year 31st March, 1867-8, for an additional
grant of is. 4d. per pass in reading, writing, or arithmetic, up to a sum
not exceeding ^8 for any one school (department), upon the following
conditions beyond those now specified in the articles 38'63
the code,
viz.:—
(«) The number of teachers must have allowed, throughout the
past year (article 17), at least one certificated or one assistant
teacher, fulfilling respectively the condition of articles 67 and
91-3, for every 80 scholars, or one pupil teacher fulfilling the
conditions of articles 81-9 for every 40 scholars after the first
25 of the average number of scholars in attendance.
(3) The number of passes in reading, writing, and arithmetic must 1.
exceed 200 per cent, of the annual average number of scholars
in attendance who are over six years of age. In schools where
the calculation of average attendance is made indiscriminately
upon scholars above and scholars under six years of age, the
school registers of age are to determine in what ratio the aveiage number in attendance is to be divided. 2. Fall under
Standards IV.—VI. to the extent of at least one-fifth part of
the whole number of passes.
(A The time tables of the school, in use throughout the past yeai
(article 17) must have provided for one or more specific sub
jects of secular instruction beyond article 48- The- inspector
must name the specific subject or subjects in his report, and
must state that at least one-fifth part of the average number of
scholars over six years of age have passed a satisfactory exami
nation therein.
.
.
2. To exempt for one year, from the operation of article 46, chil
dren who have already passed in Standard VI., provided they pass a
satisfactory examination in the subjects professed in their school beyon
articles 48 conformably to section (<?) in paragraph. 1 of this minute.
3. To provide in the same estimate for certain new grants to ele
mentary schools wherein it should appear from the inspector s ast
report that the number of teachers throughout the year (article 17) ia
been sufficient to satisfy section (zz) in paragraph 1 of this minute , sue
grants to be at the rate of ^10 for every male pupil teacher admitted
(articles 105-110) from the said elementary schools into any norma
school under inspection from candidates placed by examination m ie
�New Educational Minute.
yj
first class, and ^5 for every male pupil teacher so admitted from candi
dates in the second class.
3. To offer certain further new grants to the same elementary
schools for every male pupil teacher who having been admitted from
them into a normal school under inspection at the examination (articles
103) held in December, 1867, or at any later examination, should at
the end of his first year’s residence, be placed in the first or second
division (articles 119, 121, 1^2); such grants to be at the rate of ^8
for every student placed in the first division, and ^5 for every student
placed in the second division. No grants of this kind can become pay
able before December, 1868, and, therefore, although offered now, they
have no place in the estimate for the financial year March 1867-8.
5. To pay, in the financial year 31st March 1867-8, only so many
twelfth parts of the additional grants offered by this minute as, in the
case of grants under paragraph 1, equal the number of months from
1st April to the end of the school year (article 17), and, in the case of
grants under paragraph 3, equal the number (nine) of months from 1st
April to 31st December (article 81, f. 2.)
THE NEW EDUCATIONAL MINUTE IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.
In the House of Commons on Friday, April 5th, Mr. Lowe, on the
motion for going into Committee of Supply, moved “ That this House
dissents from so much of the minute of the Committee of Council on
Education as provides for an increase of the grants now made to pri
mary schools.” He entered into an elaborate argument to show that in
most cases the money granted under this minute would be wasted, and
that it would do mischief instead of good. He stated that the minute
involved an increased expenditure of ^70,000 a year, and he contended
that this was not justified, considering the steady and satisfactory pro
gress which had been made under the system introduced in 1862.
There had already been an increase in the number of pupils amounting
to
10,000, and a saving of ^400,000, as compared with the expen
diture under the old system.
Mr. Corry defended the minute, and explained that its object was to
give assistance to small schools. He had felt from the representation
made to him that these schools were entitled to aid, and it was upon his
recommendation that the minute had been issued.
After some observations from Mr. P. F. Powell,
Mr. H. A. Bruce said the result of the new system introduced in
1862 was that the schools were receiving two-fifths less than they re
ceived formerly, the sum paid being ^620,000 instead of a million.
As to the minute, his only objection to it was that it was too econo
mical.
Mr. Henley and Mr. Pugh supported the minute.
i Mr. Hadfield denounced all State education whatever.
i. Upon a division Mr. Lowe’s motion was rejected by 203 to 40.
�38
; FORTHCOMING UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONSOXFORD.
Three scholarships of ^70 a year each for three years, having been
founded in Balliol College by Miss Hannah Brackenbury “ for the
encouragement of the study of law and history, and of the study of
natural science, or one of the aforesaid studies, in order to qualify
students for the professions of law and medicine respectively;” there
will be an examination for one Scholarship, in the subject of natural
science, in November next; the precise time and further particulars to
be announced hereafter. Candidates must not have exceeded eight
terms from their matriculation. Papers will be set in the following sub
jects:—1, Mechanical Philosophy and Physics; 2, Chymistry,; 3, Phy
siology; but candidates will not be expected to offer themselves for
examination in one or more of the above subjects, if the Examiners
should consider it expedient.
_
On Saturday, May 4, there will be held an election at Merton College
to—1, One Classical Postmastership, value ^jioo per annum, tenable
for five years; 2, one Mathematical Postmastership, value ^j8o per
annum, tenable for five years; 3, one Classical Postmastership, value
¿£80 per annum, tenable for five years; 4, one National Science Scholar
ship, value £6q per annum, tenable for five years. Candidates for the
above must be under twenty years of age. Also, 5, one Classical Post
mastership, value ^j8o per annum, for five years, open to candidates of
any age; 6, one Exhibition, value ^25, for three years, also with no
limit of age. Candidates for the Natural Science Scholarship will be
examined in the ordinary classical matriculation subjects; viz., a portion
of a Greek and Latin author, Latin writing, grammar, arithmetic, and
algebra; and to those who pass this examination, papers will be offered
in physics, chymistry, and physiology. The examination begun April 30th.
A Fellowship will be filled up at Lincoln College on Tuesday, July
2. Candidates must call on the Rector some time before the 25th of
June. The examination will begin on Tuesday, the 25th of June, at
10 a.m. The Fellowship is open to all members of the University who
have passed all the examinations required for the degree of B.A. The
Fellow elected will be required to reside, and, except under certain con
tingencies, to take Holy Orders, within ten years.
There will be an election at Brasenose College on Friday, May 10, to
(at least) four open Scholarships—viz., three of the value of ¿£80 a
year during residence, and one of the value of ^73 during residence.
One of the former will be awarded for proficiency in mathematics, sub
ject to a pass examination in classics. Candidates, who must produce
evidence of being under 20 years of age, and must bring testimonials of
good conduct from their college or school, are required to present them
selves to the Principal between 8 and 9 p.m. on Monday, May 6, or
between 9 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 7. The examination will
begin at the last-named hour.
_ _
There will be an election to an Open Scholarship in Pembroke Col
lege on Friday, May 17. The Scholarship is worth £72, and is tenable
for five years. An Exhibition, worth ^50, may be filled up at the same
�Forthcoming University Examinations.
39
time. In awarding this, the pecuniary circumstances of candidates will
be taken into account. The examination will commence on Tuesday,
the 14th, at 10 a.m., and candidates must be under 20 years of age.
CAMBRIDGE.
There will be an examination for two Exhibitions at King’s College on
the 12th, 13th, and 14th of June. The Exhibitions will be of the value
of ¿50 per annum, and will be tenable for three years, or until such
time as the student shall succeed in obtaining one of the Open Scholar
ships hereafter to be offered by the College. Candidates must be under
20 years of age, and have not previously entered any other College in
the University. Further information may be obtained from the Rev.
W. R. Chur ton, Tutor of the College..
There will be two minor Scholarships at Clare College open for com
petition to those intending to commence residence in October, of ^60
each, tenable for two and a half years, or till exchanged for a Founda
tion Scholarship. The examination will commence on Wednesday,
June 5, at 9 a.m. These Scholarships will be awarded to deserving
•candidates only. Preference will be given to those who show special
proficiency in either classics or mathematics. Candidates to send in
their names, with testimonials as to character, to the Rev. W. Raynes,
tutor. Subjects for examination:—Latin and Greek translation and
composition; Euclid, plane trigonometry, arithmetic, algebra, geome
trical and analytical conic sections.
An examination for four Minor Scholarships will be held in-Downing
College on Wednesday, the 5 th of June next, and the two following
days, and will begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. The examination will be
in Classics and Elementary Mathematics, but some weight will be given
to proficiency in French and German. Two additional papers of an
elementary character will be set, one on Moral Philosophy, .in connexion
with the principles of Jurisprudence, and on International Law; the
other on the Natural Sciences in connexion with Medicine—namely,
Chymistry, including Analysis, Mineralogy, Botany, Comparative
Anatomy, and Physiology: and in awarding two of these Scholarships
•considerable importance will be attached to any special proficiency in
the legal or in the medical subject. Persons who have not been entered
at any College in the University, or who have not resided one entire
term in any such College, are eligible to these Minor Scholarships,
which will be of the value of ^40 per annum, and tenable for two years,
or until their holders are elected to Foundation Scholarships. No one
elected Minor Scholar will receive any emoluments until he has com
menced residence as a student of the College.
The syndicate for conducting the non-gremial examinations at Cam
bridge have just presented a report as to the girls’ examination, which
was originally put forward merely as a' three years’ experiment. They
-state that the scheme has been a complete success, and recommend
that the examination be made a permanency. No lists are to be pub
lished, but each girl who passes is to receive a certificate, and those who
have passed with credit, certificates of honour. The examinations are
�40
Forthcoming University Examinations.
to be at the same times and in the same subjects as those of the boys.
For the junior examination the girls are not to be more than sixteen
years of age, and for the senior examination not more than eighteen
years; all,, except in cases where the parents disapprove, are to be
examined in religious knowledge.
.The Oxford Local Examinations.—The Oxford Local Exami
nations will be held this year at Oxford, London, Bath, Birmingham,
righton, Exeter, Faversham, Finchley, Gloucester, Leeds, Lincoln,
Liverpool, Manchester, Northampton, Nottingham, Southampton,
launton, Truro, West Buckland, Windermere. The examination will
commence in each place on Tuesday, the nth of June, at 9 o’clock, a.m.
The Master and Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford, anxious to encouiage middle-class education, have offered five exhibitions to be com
peted, foi at the Oxford Local Examinations in the present year. These
exhibitions will be of the annual value of ^52 i°s., and will betenable
during residence for four years. They will be offered to those among
the senior candidates who shall obtain the highest places in the first
division of the. general list. The Exhibitioners will be expected to pro
duce testimonials of good conduct, and to commence residence in
January, 1868 ; and will be required to pass the first of their University
Examinations (Responsions) within six months. The Exhibitioners will
have to pay to the University an admission fee of ^2 10s. and an
annual fee of ^1. They will also have to pay to Balliol College the
annual sums of ^22 8s. for tuition, and of ¿"io for furnished lodgings ;
but they will not be subject to any other College charges, and they will
be able to regulate the expense of their own living.
Middle Class Education in the Metropolis. — The second
annual meeting of the Governors of the Corporation lately established
by Charter for the promotion of Middle Class Education in the Metro
polis, was held on Monday, March 18th, in the Mansion House, the
Lord Mayor in the chair. The school in Bath Street, City Road, was
opened at Michaelmas, and the Council congratulated the Governors on
the success which had attended it. During the first quarter there were
518 scholars, there are now 650, with upwards of 200 applicants for
admission, for whom the Council cannot find accommodation in the
present building. They hoped to be able to obtain from the Ecclesias
tical Commissioners, with whom they were in treaty on the subject,
upwards of an acre of freehold ground of the Finsbury estate, on which
a school capable of accommodating 1000 scholars could be built. The
erection of a similar school would shortly be commenced in Southwark.
There was a sum of ^48,412 in hand. The report and statement of
accounts were adopted. Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Aiderman J. Lawrence,
Mr. J. P. Gassiot, Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr. Sheriff Waterlow, and
others, addressed the meeting. Letters were read from Mr. Goschen
and other members of Parliament, regretting their inability to attend.
After the transaction of some formal business, a vote of thanks to the
Lord Mayor closed the proceedings.
�4i
'KING EDWARD’S SCHOOLS, WITLEY, GODALMING.
HE pleasant and healthy neighbourhood of Witley, a village
and railway station on the line from London to Portsmouth,
a few miles beyond Godaiming, has been chosen as the new
site of the above schools, consisting of an Industrial School
for Boys, and a Girl’s School. The schools were formally opened out
Friday, April the 5th.
It is worth while to glance at the history of this foundation. In the
year 1552 the citizens of London presented a supplication to King
Edward VI., “in the name of the poor, and for Jesus Christ’s sake,”
that his Majesty would be pleased to grant them one of his houses,
called the Palace of Bridewell (situated between St. Bride’s Church and
the Fleet, which is now New Bridge Street), for the harbour and lodging,
of the said poor. This request was granted; and while stringent lawswere enacted to put down the social evils of beggary, misery and thievery,
which were then rife in the city of London, it was provided that the
poor-house at Bridewell should be a workhouse, where those who needed
relief at the public cost should be compelled to earn' it by their labour.
But the legislators and social reformers of that day, being wiser, ap-#
parently, than we are now, did not think it was doing enough to deal
with the case of adult pauperism. They sought also to prevent its
growth, by teaching the young to work for an honest living. “And first,”
say.the citizens of London, in their supplication to the King, “we
thought to begin -with the poor child; that he should be harboured, fed
and clothed, and virtuously trained up;” whereupon they proceed to
state their plans for the establishment of the Industrial Schools, or
“ House of Sundry Occupations,” in which a variety of useful trades may
be taught to the boys and girls who would else be running wild and
wicked in the streets. So truly did the benevolence or prudence of the
Londoners, three hundred years ago, anticipate the efforts of the foundersof our modem “Homes” and “Refuges,” which are “supported by
voluntary contributions,” and are confessedly unequal to the wants of
the present time. Bridewell Hospital was intrusted, in 1557, to the
management of the governors of the House of Bethlem, which was then
situated on the north side of the City walls, outside Bishopsgate, and
was afterwards erected in Moorfields. It very naturally came to pass
that, in connection with the relief of the destitute, and with the educa
tion of children at Bridewell, there were cells or prisons for the punish
ment of beggars, prostitutes, and other disorderly persons, as well as of
idle or disobedient apprentices, such as we see in some of Hogarth’s
pictures; this part of the establishment, with the whipping-post and
stocks, being under the magisterial jurisdiction of the Aldermen of the
city of London. In 1831 the Schools and House of Occupations be
longing to Bridewell were removed from New Bridge Street to a site
adjoining the premises now occupied by Bethlem.
The prison and the workhouse have been superseded by the modem
establishment of Houses of Correction in the one case, and by the
�42
King Edward's Schools, Witley, Godalming.
operation of the New Poor Law in the other; but King Edward’s
Schools have continued their useful work. This institution was, for
many years, .to all intents and purposes, a reformatory school for juvenile
criminals; in fact, it might claim the honour of having set the first
example of that great movement which has latterly been carried on by
the reformatory schools established in London and in other parts of the
kingdom. We find it stated in a report by the chaplain, the Rev. E.
Rudge, that, so lately as 1856, nearly one fourth of the inmates of King
Edward’s Schools were convicted criminals, and some of the boys had
been several times in prison. The institution is now placed on quite a
different footing. It has been converted into a school rather for desti
tute than for criminal children. By the existing rules, criminal children
are not to be received, except in special cases, and the proportion of
them is limited to one sixth part of the whole number of inmates; but,
practically, even this proportion has never been reached since the new
scheme came into operation, and there are now only two or three of the
boys who have been convicted of crime. A few destitute cases are
admitted from the city of London on the recommendation of the Aider
men. The number of boys at the end of last year in the schools was
74, and of girls 100; the total number of both sexes from 1830 to 1866
e inclusive having been 3653. Their average age on admission is twelve
or thirteen. Some of the boys are instructed by “ arts-masters ” in such
trades as tailoring and shoemaking, to which gardening will now perhaps
be added; the girls learn needlework, and that of the kitchen and
laundry; the school teaching consists of reading, writing, arithmetic,
English history, geography, singing, and the Church Catechism. Of
those who left the school during the last year, twenty boys entered the
royal navy, eleven entered the army, and others were apprenticed to
trades, or sent home to their friends; the girls were placed in domestic
service. By a wholesome and praiseworthy regulation, 178 boys’and 42
girls, former inmates of the schools, attended before the committee of
governors with certificates of good conduct from their employers, and
received the customary reward of ^1 each, some for the first time,
others for the second or third time; as the governors keep an eye upon
them during three years from their leaving the schools.
University Education-.—The Bill brought in by Mr. Ewart, Mr. Neate, and Mr.
Pollard-Urquhart to extend the benefits of Education in the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge to students not belonging to any college or hall, provides that, not
withstanding anything contained in any Act of Parliament now in force relating to
either of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or in statutes, charters, deeds of
composition, or other instruments of foundation, of either of the said Universities,
or of any college or hall within the same, any person may be matriculated without
being entered as a member of any college or hall, and may, if he shall think fit. join
himself to any college or hall, with the consent of the head thereof, but without being
obliged to reside within the same ; and every person so matriculated shall in all re
spects and for all intents or purposes be and be considered as a member of the Uni
versity, and upon joining any college or hall shall in all respects and for all intents or
purposes be and be considered as a member thereof. For the purposes of this Act
the cathedral or house of Christ Church, in Oxford, shall be considered to be to all
intents and purposes a college of the University of Oxford.
�43
’ Mr. Gladstone on Compulsory Education.—Mr. Gladstone has
addressed the following letter to the Rev. J. Oakley .
« ii, Carlton House Terrace, S.W. Feb. 20.
“Rev. and dear Sir—I have read the report of the subcommittee
of the London Diocesan Board of Education with much interest, and it
is from no feeling of indifference or aversion if I decline to take part in
its proceedings on the subject. It is because I make it a rule on all
questions of a nature to come before Parliament for its decision, to
avoid, if possible, taking any part beyond its walls, 111 order that I may
be at liberty to act freely for the best at the proper time.
“ As regards opinion, however, I may say that while I well understand,
or at least appreciate, the grounds of the present movement, and.a“very glad that the clergy, under the bishop, have entered actively into
the matter, I yet see much difficulty in the way of direct compulsory
measures. I have always leaned very much to a scheme, the mam point
of which was, that it should be made penal to employ for wages persons
below a certain age not furnished with certain certificates of education
and attainment.
,
, , • „
“ A plan of this kind was prematurely proposed some years back in a
bill by Mr. Adderley, and was rejected on account of the immature
state of circumstances, which, however, must probably ripen from year
to year. A measure of that nature might be brought into action gra
dually, like the new law of 1834.
.
“ I remain, dear Sir, your very faithful servant,
“Rev. J. Oakley.”
“w- K Gladstone.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
Calisthenics; or the Elements of Bodily Culture-—On Pestalozzian Prin
ciples, designed for Practical Education in Schools, Colleges, Families,
&c. By Henry de Laspee, 2nd Ed. Griffin & Co.
This work is well known to teachers of Calisthenics, and has been so
often favourably noticed, that we need here merely record the appearance
of a second edition of it. In the preface the author makes the following
TCixi^^ks * —-
,
“In reply to the chief objections raised against my system: First, 'That
it is too scientific and laborious for general use,’ . I can only say, that
having myself been from early youth regularly trained, and being per
fectly well acquainted with all which passed for, and was admitted into
schools as, Physical Education ; it was the inadequacy and inefficiency
as branches of Education, which caused me to deviate from, and re
linquish them, and led me to this system, as more simple and compre
hensive than the others; and which will be found to be so, after a little
study, when it will enable any judicious teacher, governess or mother,
to teach and apply it with good effect. Secondly: 'that I had copied my
work from another abroad,’ is easily answered, when I state, that, even to
�44
Notices of New Books.
this day, there exists not another book on the subject of Physical Edu
cation, like mine: methodically treated as to tendency, from elements
to object. When I resolved and proceeded to commit my system to
writing, it had no precedents, nor were there authorities, which I could
ave consulted, except Pestalozzi’s method, for the treatment of the
subject of Bodily Culture/: Pursuing the same, the course lay already
before me; I was no more my own master, so as to write down, or leave
out,.what I wished; and even what remained of my own prejudices had
to give way, to what method dictated.”
An Elementary Physical Atlas, intended chiefly for Map drawing. By the
Rev. J. P. Faunthorpe, B.A., F.R.G.S., Vice-Principal and Geogra
phical Lecturer of Battersea Training-College.
Map drawing though comparatively a new branch of instruction is
m Middle-Class, as well as Primary Schools, steadily attaining the
prominence it deserves as a mechanical aid towards, and confirmatory
test of, Geographical knowledge. The work before us is the latest, and
one of the most meritorious efforts in this direction; and, as the Batter
sea students have always stood in the first rank in this subject, in con
nexion with the Certificate examinations, the authorship is a satisfactory
guarantee of the practical ability displayed in this compilation. The
maps are severally executed in Mr. Stanford’s well known style ; and the
whole is preceded by concise instructions in letter-press, first, in regard
to the general difficulties, and, secondly, in the form of specific directions
for each map
Questions and Answers on Geography, the Globes and Astronomy with a
short Account of the Winds, Tides, Air, &c. By J. J. Hooke. London :
T. J. Allman.
This new Historical Geography of Mr. J. J. Hooke, supplies a desi
deratum long felt in schools; seeing it contains a large amount of in
formation, interestingly put together, and which is found in no other
book of the same kind. The answers to the questions are not verbose,
nor is there one word de trop; and, therefore, the pupil is not neces
sitated to cull his information from matter which is often made obscure
by a too profuse use of words.
We do not say that Mr. Hooke’s book is superior to other geographies
or even that it is equal to some; but we consider it is free from the
fault which many of them have, viz., of saying too much, and thus
yearying the pupil; or of others, which are too meagre. The subjects
introduced are,. of necessity, numerous, so that the amount of instruc
tion contained in so small a compass is somewhat surprising. A brief
discourse on Astronomy is added ; but no more is said about it than the
youthful mind can readily comprehend. There are also short chapters'
on the Winds, Tides, Air, Eclipses, the Thermometer, and various other
subjects, all explained in as concise a form as possible, and in a manner
capable of being easily understood by the learner.
�45
WORDS.
^Passages from various Writers in illustration of certain words.
words arranged alphabetically.
Abrade (to wear away). “For fifteen
years the treaty of Vienna was observed as
sacredly as if it had been written on the
skies ; and it has taken nearly fifty years
altogether to abrade this mighty land
mark down to the level of history.”
Times.
Absinthe (a narcotic). “The American
Tax Bill adopts all these in an exaggerated
form, and swallows them as a whet, just
as an epicure swallows a taste of absinthe
or an anchovy, or half-a-dozen oysters, to
prepare the appetite.”—Times.
Abstention (?vs/?'«iU). “The dignity
Of France will end by being compromised
and abstention will become a duty.”—
Times.
■ Ab sums (to destroy gradually'). . “ Since
we last mentioned the Pontiff, his patri
mony had absumed away from him like
grease before the fire.”—Temple Bar.
Acclaim (shout ofpraise). ‘“The Liberty
of the Press ; it is the air we breathe, if
we have it not we die
And then what
Stentorian cheering till the walls of the old
Crown and Anchor shook again ; and the
crowds in the Strand took up the acclaim
■—and even sleepy Temple Bar seemed in
clined to make an effort towards an echo.”
—Times.
Acclimatized (inured to a climate).
“ The general good health of sailors in the
Arctic regions proves nothing against the
depressing influence of cold, for these
sailors are picked men, and in the prime
of life. Under such circumstances it may,
perhaps, be possible to become ‘ acclima
tized,’ and to feel the cold less the longer
the exposure to it.”—Times.
Acolyte (boys attendant upon the priest
hood. “ Then comes the bishop in his
mitre, his yellow stole upheld by two prin
cipal priests (the curate and sub-curate),
and to him his acolytes waft incense, as
well as to the huge figure of the Madonna
Which follows.”—Roba de Roma, by W.
Story.
Acumen (quickness of intellect). “In
the north of America the people are all
protectionists, in the south they are all
free-traders,notbecausethe south possesses
any greater amount of logical ACUMEN
The
than the north, but because each acts only
for its own interests.”—Times.
Adhibit (to apply). “ In May, 1830,
George IV. became so greatly debilitated
that it was found inconvenient and painful
for him to sign with his own hand public
documents; a bill was, therefore, passed
allowing the sign manual to be adhibited
by a stamp in his Majesty’s presence.”—
Dr. Farr.
JEgis (a shield).
“But as General
Hunter has friends in the cabinet, and is
supposed to be sheltered under the broad
jEG-is of Mr. Secretary Stanton, to whom
the president defers in military matters, it
is possible that he will be allowed to re
tain his post.”—-Times.
“ Providence has covered you with its
2EGIS, and the country with its acclama
tions.”—Address oe the Legislative
Body to the Emperor Napoleon,
March, 1861.
^Esthetic (the science of our feelings and
emotions.) “ No rich drawing-room could
show more taste in its arrangements, or
have a more soothing effect on a mind to
which the sense of ¿esthetic fitness is its
native element.”—Miss Mulock.
“ A purely painful domestic tragedy in
deed, or a subject calculated merely to
harrow up the feelings of the spectator, or
to excite feelings of horror and disgust
like many of the Spanish pictures of mar
tyrdom, should, in our judgment, be pro
scribed as violating ¿ESTHETIC propriety.”
—Times.
Affluent (flowing). “There is another
word which I have just employed.—
affluent—in the sense of a stream which
does not flow into the sea, but joins a
larger stream; as, for instance—the Isis
is an affluent of the Thames, the Moselle
of the Rhine.”—Dr. Trench.
Agglomerate (to gather up as a ball).
“ The rest of the place and of the inhabi
tants, as I saw it, and them, might be con
sidered as an agglomerate of three or
four sheds, a few long huts, a saw mill,
and some twenty negroes sitting on a log
looking at the trains.”—Times Corre
spondent (Mr. Russell).
Agnatic (a descentfrom the samefather).
�46
Words.
“ The Duchies can, therefore, in no way
pretend that violence has been done to
their rights. Their agnatic succession
has been completely respected, and is now
the law of the whole monarchy. The only
question then, regards the Augustenburg
family.”—Times.
Alembic (a vessel used in distilling).
“ The moment a doctrine is propounded,
hundreds of busy brains are at work to
look at it, from every possible point of
view, to ventilate, to sift, to examine, and
regard it under every conceivable light or
shade. In this fiery alembic truth is
effectually separated from falsehood, and
things are brought down from vague ge
neralities [to practical principles.” —
Times.
“ Cobden’s ideal of universal peace was
not perchance the highest ; but every
thing that was good and noble in his idea
remains with us, and is still a part of our
vital force. Purged of its crudities, in
the sacred alembic of death, it is now of
tenfold worth and purity.” — Tele
graph.
Ambidexter (« double dealer). “ In
comparably more brilliant, more splendid,
eloquent, accomplished, than his rival, the
great St. John could be as selfish as Ox
ford was, and could act the double art as
skilfully as ambidextrous Churchill
(Marlboro).’ ’—Thackeray.
Amenities {agreeableness of situation).
“ I see nothing in the acquirement of a
livelihood by manual labour that degrades
a man of good character. I want to know
why it j is that these amenities of life
should be confined to one class—that the
man that gets his livelihood by mere ma
nual labour should not be as refined as the
greatest man in the land.”—Mr. Roebuck.
Amplify (to enlarge). “ I cannot, how
ever, go along with the honourable mem
ber in thinking that the mere abolition of
passports is a great security for peace be
tween two nations, and I think that in
making such an assertion, the hon. mem
ber rather amplifies a small matter.”—
Lord Palmerston.
Amplitude (largeness, abundance). “Had
Mr. Page only put the public to great in
convenience by pulling down the old
Westminster Bridge, and stopping the
traffic till the new one was thrown open in
all its amplitude of way, what a jubilee
there would have been at its opening.”—
Times.
Anachronism (an error in computing
time). “ And now that Italy has organ
ized herself, and the period of revolution
has passed into that of regular and estab
lished government, the intervention of
France is an anachronism which she her
self ought to be the first to recognize.”—
Times.
“For the ancient history of Egypt, four
authorities; are relied upon; they differ
one from another by hundreds, indeed by
thousands of years. To make Napoleon
the Great the immediate successor of
Charlemagne would not be a greater ana
chronism than is to be found in com
paring the assertions of the four authori
ties in question.”—Examiner.
Ancillary (subservient). “ The mover
and supporters of this bill very fairly avow
that it is the first step towards proposing
the ballot for parliamentary elections.
One honourable member has told us that
it is ancillary and supplementary to a
proposal of vote by ballot.”—Lord Pal
merston.
Angularities (angles or corners). “We
have debated upon public affairs till we
have hardly left to ourselves a substantial
difference of opinion to debate about.-—
We have rounded the corners, and planed
off the angularities, till there is hardly
anything left to lay hold of.”—Times.
Anneal (to temper). “In that case war
would gratify the warlike passions of the
American people, both north and south,
and would tend in popular opinion to
strengthen and anneal the broken links
of their ancient partnership.”—Times. .!
Anomalies (irregularities). “ It is in
evitable that the question should arise—
shall these anomalies be meddled with ?
shall it be attempted to remove them, and
bring writing and speech into harmony
and consent.”—Dr. Trench.
“ The new anomalies which it intro
duces, and the old anomalies which it
spares and re-enacts, are equally mischiev
ous and unmeaning.”—Times.
Anomaly (a deviation). “The Horse
Guards receive three-pence a day—or
twenty-five per cent, more pay than the
Blues. This has gone on for many years
—at last the anomaly struck some medi
tative individual, and he devoted his lei
sure to an. historical inquiry into the
matter.’ ’—Times.
Anonyme (feigned name). “Historicus
in his reply to me yesterday, does himself
great credit as an adroit special pleader,
whatever judgment must be passed upon
that candour which his chosen ANONYME
seems to claim.”—G. N. SAUNDERS.
�THE
AGENCY
DEPARTMENT
In connection with the “ Quarterly Journal" is conducted by Mr. F. S. de
Carteret-Bisson, at 70, Berners Street, Oxford Street, W., to whom all
Communications relating to this Department should be made.
Ko in SCHOOLS FOR SALE.
No. in
Register.
suburb. Held on lease, 14 years unex
281. LONDON.—Superior School for La- pired, at a very low rental. The rent of
dies. Established. 25 years, and situate
the mansion is only £150 (worth £250).
in a favourite suburb of London. Aver
Price for this valuable lease, £550 ; fix
age attendance 30 Boarders : terms 50
tures and fittings at valuation. Full
guineas each, besides extras (day pupils
particulars, with view of house, on ap
easily obtained if desired). A splendid
plication at 70, Berners Street.
detached Mansion, standing in its own 299. MIDDLESEX.—A high class School
grounds, with lawns, croquet ground,
for Gentlemen’s sons ; numbering 75
conservatory, and every convenience.
Boarders. The premises are delightfully
Bent £130. Gross receipts past year
situate not far from Town, and are his
£2,007 7s. Goodwill £650. School
own freehold property, comprising a com
fixtures and furniture at valuation. The
modious house, with dormitories, school
average gross receipts for past 3 years
rooms, out-houses, master’s residence,
are £1.990 6s. 4d. The house and
covered play-ground, fives-court, a
grounds are in every way suited for a
cricket-field of 5 acres, gardens, &c. The
high class school. A bath room and hot
terms for pupils were originally from 60
and cold water for the upper rooms, also
to 80 guineas,but they have been raised
gas has been introduced at the vendor’s
to 80 and 100 guineas. Rent only £200
expense. Books and accounts (clearly
per annum, goodwill £3,000 to be spread
kept) may be seen at Mr. Bisson’s Office,
over a number of years. Furniture at
extending over a period of 10 years.
valuation.
229a. MIDDLESEX.—A Boarding and
Day School for Gentlemen’s sons, situ SCHOOLS AND PARTNERSHIPS
ate in a healthy locality in the N.W.
WANTED.
district of London. A capital house, 3fr. Bisson calls the attention of intending pur
well adapted for school purposes, large chasers to his Bi-monthly List No. 4, issued gratis,
on the 2nd inst. The successful result of a large
playground and garden adjoining, all number of negotiations (see page 8) has reduced the
held upon lease (9 years unexpired) at school properties at present in the market to a very
the low rental of £60. There are 25 small number.
Boarders, averaging from 25 to 40 271. A B.A. of Dublin seeks a partner
ship, £1000 at command.
guineas each, 3 day boarders, and 3 day
pupils, paying good terms. The gross 274. A B.A. of Dublin wants a school
income for past year was £800. Terms
near Town.
for goodwill £200; household furniture 275. A B.A. of Cambridge wishes to join
or part can be taken, if desired, at a
as partner, £500 to invest.
276. An M.A. of Cambridge desires a
valuation.
.
*
295 STAFFORDSHIRE.—ABoarding
partnership.
and Day School for Boys, established 10 281. A B.A. of Cambridge in orders will
years. There are at present 20 board
buy a good-school.
ers. Terms 28 to 30 guineas, with ex 283. A B.A. of Oxford, £300 to invest.
tras, and 50 day pupils, paying £5 and 284. An M.A. of Cambridge (in orders),
£6 a year, besides extras. There is a
£1000 at command.
good play-ground with outbuildings. 285. A Wrangler. Experienced. £300
Rent £60, taxes about £10. The gross
to invest.
receipts the past year were £900. 286. A B.A. of Oxford. £500 to invest.
Terms of sale, goodwill £300, (a year’s 272. A Middle class Boarding and Day
purchase). School and household fur
School wanted.
niture at a valuation.
273. An experienced Tutor (age 24) de
240. MIDDLESEX.—The nucleus of an
sires a partnership.
old established School, with a splendid 276. A B.A. of Oxford wishes to purchase
and commodious Mansion, in thorough
a School. £1000 to invest.
repair, to be obtained on most advanta 277. A Clergyman wishes to purchase a
geous terms. The house is an elegant
good School near London.
building, and can accommodate 50 to 278. A Clergyman (in high honours)
60 Boarders ; it is situate in a favourite
wants a first class School.
Register.
,
�The Agency Department.
Schools, &c., Wanted—continued.
No. in
*
'¡Register
289. An experienced teacher seeks a good
Partnership. Capital to invest, £700.
282. A Clergyman wishes to purchase a
^School in Hants, Bucks, or London.
2/9. An M.A. of Cambridge seeks a good
, opening, Partnership or otherwise.
The following are a few Lady Clients, who
wish to purchase Schools.
-300. A Lady wants a small school, near
London. Capital £150.
No. in
Register.
301. A small preparatory School for Boys.
£250 to invest.
302. A boarding School for Girls. £300
to invest.
303. A School for Ladies, near’ Town.
£500 at command.
300. A boarding and day School. £800
at command.
305. Asmall School. Capital£300 to invest.
306. A good School, near Town. Capital
I to invest, £700.
TUTORS SEEKING APPOINTMENTS AT THE MIDSUMMER
QUARTER, 1867.
arista.
Graduates.
5361. B.A. Oxford, (2nd class Classical
4667. B.A. Oxford (in orders). Classics,
honours). Classics, mathematics, and
mathematics junior, chemistry, French,
English subjects. Age 27, salary £150.
German and English subjects. Age
English Masters.
27, experience 6 years, salary £120.
4738. B.A. Cambridge. Classics, mathe 4710. Classics, moderate mathematics to
quadratics, French gram. English sub
matics, French and English subjects.
jects. Age 22, salary £25.
Age 24, salary £100.
4771. M.A. and B.A. Cambridge. Clas 4883. Classics, mathematics, French and
English subjects. Age 28, salary £60.
sics, mathematics, French, German and
English subjects. Age 30, (in orders), 4897. Drawing, all styles, and English
subjects. _ Age 24, salary £60.
Salary £180.
4778. B.A. Cambridge, (Senior Optime) 4912. Classics, mathematics, drawing
music, and English subjects. Age 21,
Classics, mathematics, French, German,
salary £30.
Drawing and English subjects. Age
5041. Classics, mathematics, French,
24, salary £100.
Drawing and English subjects. Am
■4887. M.A. Dublin. Classics, mathema
36, salary £50.
°
tics, music, organ singing and English
5056. Classics, mathematics, and English
subjects. Age 30, salary, £120.
subjects. Age 21, salary £30.
.5015. B.A. Cambridge (19 Wrangler).
Classics, mathematics, English. A<m 5107. Classics and mathematics, high,
French, German, and English subjects.
22. Salary £150.
°
5059. B.A. Durham (in honours). Clas- ; Age 30, salary £60.
sics, mathematics junior, English sub- I 5114. Classics and mathematics, high, and
jects. Age 25, salary £100.
; English subjects. Age 24, salary £45.
5063. B.A. of Cambridge (Wrangler and 5173. Mathematics, English subjects,
piano, organ, &c. Age 21, salary'£30.
2nd Class Classical Tripos). Age 27,
5309. Classics, mathematics, French,
salary £200.
piano, and English subjects. Age 20,
5074. B.A. Oxford. Classics, mathema
salary £30.
tics, and English. Age 27, salary £120.
5086. B.A. Cambridge (Wrangler). Clas
Foreign Masters.
sics, mathematics, and English sub
136. French and drawing in all styles.
jects. Salary, £150.
Age 30, salary £50.
5135. B.A. Oxford (in orders). Classics,
Mathematics, German and English 315. French, German, drawing. Age 27,
salary £50.
subjects. Age 28, salary £120.
5156. B.A. Cambridge (15 Wrangler). 277. French, German, classics, piano,
organ. Age 29, salary £50.
Classics, mathematics, French and
404. French, German, mathematics,
English. Age 24, salary £150.
drawing. Age 24, salary £40.
5334. M.A. Cambridge. High Second
Classical Tripos. Classics, French, En 416. French, German, drawing, music.
Age 24, salary £50.
glish. Age 27, salary £150.
5316. B.A. Oxford. Classics, mathema 418. French, classics, mathematics, music,
piano, drawing. Salary £60.
tics, French and English. Age 22,
salary £100.
150 numbers omitted for want of space.
�
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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
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
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
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The quarterly journal of education, Vol.1 No.1, May 1867
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1867
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5681
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London?]
Collation: 48 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Creator
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[Unknown]
Publisher
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[s.n.]
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education
Women
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The quarterly journal of education, Vol.1 No.1, May 1867), 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>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Education of women
Education-Great Britain
Teaching