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CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030613008 
 
Classical and Scientific Studies, and the 
 Great Schools of England : 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF ARTS 
 
 OP THE 
 
 April 6, 1865. 
 By W^-'Pf 'ATKINSON. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND AN APPENDIX. 
 
 " Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur." 
 
 Camfaritrge : 
 
 SEVER AND FRANCIS. 
 1865. 
 
(y» ^"l tl^ 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1865, by 
 
 W. P. Atkikson, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PBESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 
 Ifi, WAI£B STBBET. 
 
 r-vl 
 
 7->- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It will be obvious at a glance that I have extended this paper 
 quite beyond the limits of a lefture ; and I ought to state, that 
 for the sentiments, both of the part which was read, and of 
 that since added, so far as they are not quoted from others, 
 I am alone responsible. 
 
 For these sentiments, however, I can lay no claim to origi- 
 nality. The ground has been often traversed before ; though, 
 so far as I have dealt in controversy, I have endeavored to 
 place the merits of both sides of the question in dispute in a 
 juster light than is done by the extreme partisans of either. 
 I have made copious references to my authorities, in the hope 
 that those interested in the subjedl will follow up the reading 
 of much that want of space compelled me to omit. In 
 making up my account of the English schools, I have been 
 able to embody in my pamphlet but a tithe of the interesting 
 and valuable material that may be found buried in the folios of 
 the original Report. 
 
 In taking upon myself the ungracious part of an advocate, 
 I have had to lay grave charges of negledl and imperfedtion ; 
 
vi PBEFACE. 
 
 but I have endeavored, I hope not unsuccessfully, not to appear 
 insensible to merits as well as defedts. That the schools and 
 Universities of England, with all their shortcomings, have yet 
 done a great work in the past, no one can be so blind as to 
 deny ; no one, with any love of good learning, can be insensible 
 to the influence of all the venerable associations that cluster 
 round them. As seats of learning and centres of thought, 
 they possess a power which hardly any amount of abuse or 
 mismanagement can wholly deprive them of. Emollit mores, 
 nee sinit esse foros, may be said of any course of liberal 
 study, however antiquated or perverse. A mere residence at 
 Oxford or Cambridge, one would think, should be a liberal 
 education ; and it may often be worth a young man's while to 
 undergo any amount of useless drudgery, rather than miss the 
 refining influence of the only higher intellectual training 
 within his reach. My argument has only been that such a 
 price should not be exafted of him. 
 
 But neither will it, I hope, be laid to my charge, because I 
 have undertaken here to defend the interests of science, that 
 I am insensible to the glory and beauty of the literatures of 
 Greece and Rome, or to the splendor of their immortal story. 
 That is a cause which will never lack defenders more eloquent 
 than I am : yet, in one sense, I can claim that I too am its 
 defender ; for surely he may be reckoned among a cause's best 
 friends who strives to protedl it from perversion and abuse. 
 
 It has been my chief objedl to place before readers who 
 will not have access to a document not likely to fall into the 
 hands of many in this country, the very surprising pidlure of 
 the great English schools which it contains, — schools, some 
 
PREFACE. vu 
 
 of which, at least, would seem at the present time to answer 
 hardly any other purpose than that of serving as the demon- 
 stration, by a redudio ad ahsurdum, of the insufficiency of 
 a one-sided and obsolete system of education. If I shall 
 thereby contribute in any degree to the great work of building 
 up a more perfedl and more truly liberal one in this coun- 
 try, where, comparatively untrammelled by old traditions, we 
 have a fairer field for experiment, I shall be abundantly 
 rewarded. 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 21, 1865. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 I HAVE ventured, gentlemen, to offer, this evening, to draw 
 aw^ay your attention from the special topics which usually 
 occupy you here, to the great general topic, in which, as 
 engaged in a new educational enterprise, we are all interested, 
 — the topic of scientific education. You are about to organize a 
 new institution, differing in many of its features from any other 
 in the community : it seems fit, that, while doing it, you should 
 view it in all its relations to the instrumentalities already exist- 
 ing. Have we a national system of education already com- 
 pletely organized ? If so, in what relation does our enterprise 
 stand to it? if not so, what bearing will it have on the solution 
 of an undetermined problem? We cannot isolate ourselves if 
 we would. Our institution must stand in some relation, true or 
 false, to other agencies at work in different parts of the same 
 great field. It is important that that relation should be a true 
 one, and that the enterprise should be undertaken with wide 
 and just views of the ^yhole problem. Whatever light we can 
 get from other systems and experiments, successful or unsuc- 
 cessful, should be welcome. 
 
 Our President has recently made a thorough personal exami- 
 nation of those European schools of science which most near- 
 ly resemble, in their purpose and objects, the one you are about 
 to inaugurate ; and the benefits of his well-known skill and 
 ability will soon be apparent in the organization of your school. 
 
10 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 It has seemed to me, that we might derive some instrudion 
 from the examination, not only of those institutions which 
 resemble, but of those also which differ most widely from, the 
 one you are establishing ; and that I could spend a profitable 
 hour by bringing up the question here, which still plays so 
 important a part in educational discussions, of the relative im- 
 portance and relative position in modern education of the study 
 of Physical Science, and the study of the ancient languages of 
 Greece and Rome, which have so long formed the staple of the 
 only education that has been called " liberal," — a well-worn 
 question, I am aware, but one which from time to time will 
 still present itself, to be passed upon anew in the light of the 
 demands of new circumstances, and of the fresh conquests with 
 which Physical Science, almost from day to day, astonishes the 
 world. 
 
 In our noble system of elementary public schools, free alike 
 to the children of rich and poor, white and black, foreigner and 
 native, we have laid a foundation for the education of the peo- 
 ple such as never was laid by any nation before ; and though I 
 think that many defedts remain to be corredted, and much is 
 still to be done before that system will develop "all its power, 
 yet, in the light of the great events that have been going on 
 round us, the blindest cannot fail to see how much it has 
 already accomplished to establish firmly the foundations of 
 popular liberty, and to elevate us in the scale of nations. But 
 the same attention does not seem to me yet to have been paid 
 to the problem of adjusting our higher institutions of learn- 
 ing to the wants of a new people, and the circumstances of new 
 times. That such adjustment is needful ; that though learning 
 be one, yet the instrumentalities by which it is promoted must 
 vary with the times, and be adapted to the wants of the nation 
 to be instrudled, — will not, I presume, be questioned. But 
 our higher institutions of learning are not of home-growth, but 
 borrowed from England ; a kindred nation, it is true, but one 
 whose social system differs so widely from ours that few of her 
 institutions can be adopted by us without modification. Yet, 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 11 
 
 while we have laid the broad foundation of a universal educa- 
 tion of the people, such as England has yet hardly begun to 
 dream of, in our higher institutions of learning, we have bor- 
 rowed from her, almost unchanged, that narrovs^ theory of a 
 liberal education which is based exclusively upon the study of 
 the Greek and Roman classics. It is to the question of the 
 relation of this theory to American education that I wish to 
 draw your attention. 
 
 But I should not, perhaps, have been tempted into so old a 
 controversy, if there had not fallen in my way a document 
 which seems to me to throw a new and most extraordinary 
 light upon the whole subjedt. It may be known to you, that 
 in England, in the year 1861, partly in consequence of severe 
 stridlures on the condition of Eton School, which appeared in 
 the public prints,* a Parliamentary Commission was appointed 
 to investigate the condition, not only of that great classical 
 school, but of eight of the most important of the other so-called 
 Grammar Schools of England ; namely, the three other most 
 aristocratic of these institutions, Harrow, Winchester, and 
 Rugby, together with the old classical foundation of Shrews- 
 bury, in the west of England ; and Westminster, St. Paul's, 
 Charterhouse, and Merchant Taylors', all in the city of London. 
 Why these last were specially seledled from the numerous 
 other foundation-schools of England, does not appear. In 
 1864 that Commission made a Report, which I have studied 
 with considerable care ; and I propose to read to you an account 
 drawn from it of the present state of public-school education 
 in England, so far as it is exhibited in the condition of the 
 schools examined, with special reference to the question which 
 most nearly concerns us, — as to the place which the teaching 
 
 * Chiefly, if we may believe the " National Review," in consequence 
 of the controversy which arose from some severe articles which appeared 
 in the early numbers of the " Cornhill Magazine," by the " well-known 
 and energetic reformer," who signs himself " Paterfamilias.'' I do not 
 know who Paterfamilias is. The articles are well worth reading. 
 " Cornhill Magazine," vol. i. p. 608; vol. ii. p. 641 ; and vol. iii. p. 257. 
 
12 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 of science should hold in an enlarged and liberal scheme of 
 modern education. 
 
 Now, we are not at present in very good temper with our 
 English brethren, and with ample and just reason ; and there- 
 fore not, perhaps, disposed to do justice to their real merits : 
 but I think we may at any time allow, that Englishmen can chal- 
 lenge the world, not only in the magnitude of the abuses they 
 tolerate, but also in the thoroughness with which they investi- 
 gate these abuses when once they set about it. Whether they 
 are equally thorough in applying the remedy may perhaps admit 
 of question. But the doings of this Commission are no excep- 
 tion to the rule of English thoroughness. The Report and evi- 
 dence I have before me in four folio volumes, containing two 
 thousand pages, in double columns of fine print. The Com- 
 mission, which consisted of the Earl of Clarendon, the Earl of 
 Devon, Lord Lyttleton, the Hon. Edward Twisleton, Professor 
 William H. Thompson, and Henry Halford Vaughan, Esq., 
 held a hundred and twenty-seven meetings, examined at very 
 great length a hundred and thirty witnesses,, and personally 
 visited all the schools ; though an application from them for 
 permission to examine the boys was met by a civil but per- 
 emptory refusal from all but one or two of the head-masters. 
 I think there is hardly any question that can w^ell be con- 
 ceived, from the quality of that roast mutton to which, for 
 centuries, Eton Collegers have been doomed for five days in 
 the weekly seven, and the strength of the beer with which 
 they wash it down, up to every possible inquiry respedling 
 the history, income, revenues, and course of study of each 
 school, that will not here be found answered ; and, in addition, 
 and what is perhaps the most valuable part of the whole, there 
 i§ a great body of evidence from men of the highest eminence, 
 called to testify to the general questions relating to the state of 
 English education. It will readily be believed, that it is a very 
 valuable contribution to the literature of education. My read- 
 ing on the subjedt has been pretty extensive ; but I have rarely 
 seen any thing that goes so diredtly to the heart of all questions 
 
CLASSICAL AXL SCIEXTIFIC STUDIES. 13 
 
 that should interest a person engaged in such studies at the 
 present day. 
 
 I shall not detain you with a description of these great 
 schools.* Old charitable foundations, some of them with a 
 somewhat monastic charaiJter, they have been diverted almost 
 entirely from their original purpose, and are now, and notably 
 Eton, Harrovsr, Rugby, and Winchester, — to which four I shall 
 chiefly confine my remarks, — great boarding-schools, where 
 the sons of the English aristocracy and wealthy classes are pre- 
 pared, or supposed to be prepared, for the Universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, or dire6tly for the different "spheres 
 of English aristocratic life. The splendid buildings of Eton 
 are well known by description, and have doubtless been visited 
 by many here present. 
 
 Not to detain you, then, with a description in detail, I pass 
 at once to the question which immediately concerns us ; 
 namely, What is the charadter, and what the quality, of the 
 education given to almost three thousand of the sons of 
 the English higher classes in these great and ancient and 
 richly endowed f institutions ? As they are the most prominent 
 and wealthiest, it is to be presumed that they are, if any thing, 
 above the average of many others of a similar charadter which 
 are scattered over England. Will you permit me to answer it, 
 by first asking, in a few words. What ought to be that educa- 
 tion, and then examining in detail how far the adlual edu- 
 cation answers to the ideal? 
 
 * For some details, see Appendix I. 
 
 t Richly endowed, though the dishonest manner in which the in- 
 crease in the revenues of Eton, arising from the rise in value of its enor- 
 mous landed property, has for a long series of years been diverted from 
 its true objeft into the pockets of the Provost and Fellows, would be 
 difficult to believe on any less conclusive evidence. That the first 
 offenders were conscious of wrong-doing seems pretty evident, from the 
 careful manner in which they concealed the statutes. Their successors 
 have pleaded the excuse which in England covers such a multitude of 
 sins, — prescription. One Provost, before his death, returned a large sum 
 to the College. 
 
14 CLA88IGAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 A pradlical psychology, founded on a true indudtive observa- 
 tion of the phenomena of the human mind, such as should 
 guide us in an a friori investigation of such a question, is yet 
 to seek ; * but I shall assume as axioms one or two propositions 
 which you at least will not be disposed to question. I shall 
 assume, that, in the science and art of education, we must study 
 and follow nature, and that we shall only be successful so far 
 as we do so. I shall assume, that there is a certain natural 
 order in the development of the human faculties ; and that a 
 true system of education will follow, not run counter to, that 
 order. -I shall assume further, that, in the absence of any nicer 
 classification, we may roughly divide the faculties of the mind, 
 for purposes of education, into observing and refledlive ; and 
 that, in the order of development, the observing faculties come 
 first. And again, I shall assume, though the point has been 
 disputed,f that individual minds come into the world ■with 
 individual characteristics ; often, in the case of superior minds, 
 strongly marked, and qualifying them for the more successful 
 pursuit of some one career, than of any other. Finally, I shall 
 assume, without stopping to qualify the statement, that the 
 study of the phenomena of the material world may be said to 
 be the divinely appointed instrument for the cultivation and 
 development of the observing faculties ; while the study of the 
 immaterial mind, with all that belongs to it, including the study 
 of language as the instrument of thought, is the chief agent in 
 the development of the refledlive faculties. 
 
 This being premised, let us next inquire, from a pradtical 
 rather than a theoretical point of view, what we should natur- 
 
 * I cannot make an exception in favor of the empirical systeni of 
 Phrenology, though I believe it has served to draw attention to import- 
 ant but neglecfted principles in educational philosophy. The attempts 
 of the German philosophers, Herbart and Beneke, to apply psychology 
 to education can hardly be said to be known outside of their native 
 country. 
 
 t As, e.g., by Dr. Johnson, who maintains, in his " Life of Cowley," 
 that genius is only great general power, " accidentally determined " in a 
 particular direilion. All experience proves the contrary. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 15 
 
 ally expedl as some, at least, of the results of the education of a 
 young English gentleman entering one of these magnificently 
 endowed institutions at the age of ten, and leaving at the age 
 of eighteen or twenty for the university* or the world ? He 
 enters it at an age, w^hen, as we have assumed, the observing 
 faculties are most adtive in their efforts to develop themselves. 
 He doubtless finds there, to meet that want, the amplest provi- 
 sion which wealth can furnish for the pradtical study of out- 
 ward nature, and for gaining at least an elementary knowledge 
 of the wonderful laws by which the Creator governs the 
 universe, in the shape of apparatus, laboratories, instruments, 
 libraries, and teachers trained to use them. He is doubtless 
 taught, as a discipline of the mind, to know and classify the 
 living creatures round him, and to understand the physical phe- 
 nomena in the midst of which he lives and has his being. The 
 future citizen of one of the leading industrial nations of the 
 world, himself perhaps heir to some great landed estate of vast 
 natural resources, or to some great manufadturing establishment 
 which has laid the foundation of his family's wealth and con- 
 sequence ; at any rate, the probable future legislator for these, 
 — he will naturally be instrudted in all those departments of 
 science which have any bearing on these, which will help 
 him to govern and guide them successfully, or to legislate 
 for them intelligently. Born within that charmed circle 
 from which the rulers of the people are drawn, he will begin 
 to be instrudted betimes in all that ' relates to the history, 
 government, and politics of his own and other modern 
 nations ; a citizen of a great commercial nation, he will be 
 taught something of the laws which control the distribution 
 of wealth ; the inhabitant of an island whose sails are found on 
 every sea, and whose trade reaches to the ends of the earth, 
 he will be well instrudted, at an age when such instrudtion is 
 
 "■ In 1861, 558 out of 1,674, or exaftly one-third of the under-gradu- 
 ates of Oxford, and 305 out of 1,483, or nearly one-fifth of those of Cam- 
 bridge, were from public schools. 
 
16 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 most easily imparted, in the geography, physical and political, 
 of the globe he inhabits. Born heir to the noblest language 
 and the richest literature of modern times, he will of course 
 be carefully taught, from the very outset, to speak and write his 
 mother-tongue with accuracy and ease ; and, at the age of eigh- 
 teen or twenty-one, he will be well acquainted with the great 
 writers, in prose and poetry, who have adorned it. Connedled 
 closely with the nations of the continent, and likely, from his 
 wealth and position, to be a traveller in after-life, he will be 
 well acquainted with one or more of the leading continental 
 languages, so as to read them readily, and perhaps even speak 
 them fluently. Finally, an heir t6 wealth, with perhaps un- 
 limited means at his command of gratifying his tastes, a foun- 
 dation will surely be laid for the study and appreciation of the 
 fine arts, by a careful cultivation of eye and ear, by drawing 
 and music. 
 
 I will not exhaust the catalogue ; but is not some or all of 
 this, or the beginning at least of all this, what we have a right 
 to expedt from a young man of twenty, educated at these great, 
 wealthy, and time-honored institutions, in order to satisfy that 
 ideal of an education which Milton himself has drawn for 
 them. " I call, therefore, a complete and generous education " 
 — the words have been quoted a thousand times before — "that 
 which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
 mously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and 
 war"? 
 
 And now, gentlemen, though I am sure that the answer I 
 am about to make to the question. How much of this is actually 
 realized by these great schools? will create no little astonish- 
 ment, I shall not give you the opportunity to susped; me of 
 exaggeration ; for I shall make no statement that is not fully 
 supported by the document before me. 
 
 And as we have assumed it as an axiom in education, that 
 the observing faculties are the first to be developed, and as 
 boys enter these great schools at the very early age of eight 
 or ten, let us first inquire how the case stands in regard to 
 physical science. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 17 
 
 The account of the study of physical science at Eton is as 
 brief as that famous chapter in Horrebow on the snakes in Ice- 
 land. The Rev. C. O. Goodford, the Provost, testifies in these 
 words : " Physical science is noi taught; " and, a little further 
 on, " There is no apparatus for experiments in natural philoso- 
 phy, &c." We turn to Winchester, and the evidence of the 
 Rev. Dr. Moberly, head-master, is the same ; to Harrow, and 
 read, " Physical science does not form any part of the regu- 
 lar studies of the school ; " to Westminster and Merchant 
 Taylors', with the same result : and it is not till we come to 
 Rugby, where we should expedl more enlightenment, that we 
 find any attention paid to the subjedl, beyond a voluntary 
 attendance on a few ledlures ; and, even at Rugby, it holds a 
 very inferior place, counting little or nothing in the scale by 
 which rank is determined, and therefore not really looked upon 
 as a part of the serious work of the school. 
 
 The light in which modern science is viewed by the body of 
 schoolmasters who govern these schools, is curiously brought 
 out in the cross-examination of the Rev. George Moberly, for 
 twenty-seven years head-master of Winchester. He says : — 
 
 It is plainly out of the question, that we should teach chemistry, 
 astronomy, geology, &c. All that is, in ray opinion, possible, and there- 
 fore desirable, to attempt, is that a course of ledlures on each of the chief 
 subjefts of science in turn should be delivered in the school annually. 
 ... A few boys, who intend to pursue it in any way, either as amateurs 
 or professionally, may get assistance from these ledlures. An amateur of 
 a science is the better for knowing the elements of it ; and every man 
 of liberal education is the better for not being ignorant of any thing : 
 but, compared with other things, a scientific fa6t, either as conveyed by a 
 leAurer or as reproduced in examination, is a fadt which produces noth- 
 ing in a boy's mind. It is simply a barren fadt, which he remembers, or 
 does not remember, for a time ; and which after a few years becomes 
 confused with other fadls, and is forgotten. It leads to nothing; it does 
 not germinate. It is a perfedlly unfruitful fadt. . . . Such instrudtion is 
 worthless as education, ^u. Are the physical sciences not of value 
 as a discipline of the mind ? Ans. I hardly know -what their value is. 
 I do think it is very desirable that young people and old people should 
 know these things. I think they are matters of accomplishment and 
 knowledge which everybody should know something of. But as a mat- 
 
18 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 ter of education and training of the mind, which is our particular duty 
 as instruftors, I do not feel the value of them. ... If we were going to 
 make chemists, we would educate them in that way ; but we want a gen- 
 eral, education, which will be introdudlory to other things, — things 
 which would be of more general value : tiese things give no fovier. 
 (Vol. iii. p. 344, et seq.") 
 
 Upon being afterwards asked whether he does not "think that per- 
 sons who have had a philosophical education are sometimes persons 
 whose general powers of mind would lead him to believe that such an 
 education goes beyond a knowledge of fa(5ts, — that it also leaves power 
 and a high state of education generally," — he answers, that there cer- 
 tainly are scientific men of high capacity, and that he should wish any 
 one who had praSlical views before him to cultivate those studies ; but 
 he seriously objedls that modern science is hardly yet seventy years old.* 
 
 Here, then, a surprising fadl meets us at the outset. In the 
 great schools of England, in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century, the whole of modern physical science, one-half of 
 knowledge as we just now divided it, — the whole study of the 
 outward world, — is, I do not say, pursued imperfedlly : it is not 
 pursued at all ; it is absolutely ignored as an essential part of 
 education : and a head-master of twenty-seven years' standing 
 can be found who says he thinks that as a training of the mind 
 it is worthless ! — it gives no power ! We shall, by and by, 
 see what the most eminent of English men of science think on 
 that subjedl. 
 
 If we turn now to the study of the modern languages of 
 Europe, w^e find this to be the Commissioners' account of the 
 study of French at Eton : — 
 
 M. Tarver, the single teacher of French at Eton, . . . has no recog- 
 nized position in the school, other than that of " a person holding the 
 privilege to teach French," and describes himself — not untruly, as it 
 seems — as "a mere objet de luxe. ... He reckons his average attend- 
 ance, which is mostly from the Fifth Form, at eighty, or about one- 
 tenth of the school. . . . Whilst the number who learn is small, the 
 teacher is embarrassed by obstacles which, from no fault of his, largely 
 frustrate his efforts to teach. The study of French is comparatively 
 useless, if not steadily kept up. Being optional at Eton, it is not pur- 
 sued continuously, but by fits and starts ; and, as it involves an extra 
 
 See his evidence more at large, vol. iii. p. 343, et seq. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 19 
 
 expense to the parents, and to the boy a sacrifice of some hours of 
 play, we are not surprised to find that the attendance is often greatly 
 reduced by the most trivial reasons. Being excluded from the school- 
 work, it wants almost etitirely the indispensable stimulus of reward and 
 punishment. . . . French is not required, nor under the present head- 
 master allowed, to assist a boy's rise in the school. 
 
 The opinion of the present head-master (the Rev. Mr. Balston) on 
 this subje(5l was expressed very distinctly in his examination : — (Lord 
 Clarendon.) Would it not be considered necessary by the authorities 
 of Eton to render obligatory a thing which they think ought to be a 
 part of an English gentleman's education.? — I should not. You would 
 not consider it necessary to devote any part of the school-time to its 
 acquisition? — No, not a day. 
 
 You do not intend to do so.' — No. 
 
 Do you not think that it is a matter which a boy should be required 
 to learn.' — He ought to learn French before he came to Eton, and we 
 could take measures to keep it up as we keep up English. 
 
 What measures would you take to keep up French .' and, I may add, 
 what measures do you now take to- keep up English at Eton.' — There 
 are none at present, except through the ancient languages. 
 
 You can scarcely learn English reading and writing through Thucy- 
 dides? — No. 
 
 (Sir S. Northcote.) You do not think it is satisfacflory?- — No : the 
 English teaching is not satisfadlory ; and, as a question of precedence, I 
 would have English taught before French. 
 
 You do not consider that English is taught at present .' — No. (Vol. i. 
 p. 84-SO 
 
 The number of boys who learned German was twenty, out 
 of seven hundred and eighty. The Italian master, Signor 
 Volpe, reports himself as having i/iree pupils. He apparently 
 does not look for any such good fortune as to have pupils ; but, 
 in an amusing letter to the Commissioners, in rather imperfedt 
 English, he begs that he may have a room of his own allowed 
 him, when he comes down from London, to put his head in 
 when it rains. At Winchester, forty boys out of one hundred 
 and ninety-seven learned German ; but more attention was 
 paid to French, though it counted nothing for promotion. At 
 Harrow, the study of modern languages has been compulsory 
 since 1851, and it counts something for rank: but it is not till 
 we come to Rugby that we find a real attention paid to modern 
 languages as an integral part of a good education ; and even 
 
20 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 there they are still in an inferior position, and th^ results are 
 reported as very imperfeft. 
 
 Here, then, we find the study of modern- languages ranging 
 through different degrees of imperfedlion ; from absolute and 
 almost ludicrous failure at Eton, up to something like a proper 
 estimation at Rugby, but everywhere subordinate, and every- 
 where with imperfedl results ; and one head-master declaring 
 that, if he could have his way, they should not be studied at all. 
 
 We come now to the study of the mother-tongue and its 
 literature ; a tongue which, if it had not paramount claims as 
 the motker-tor\^\xe, would be second to none in power, or in the 
 value of the treasures it contains. What encouragement is 
 given to young English noblemen and gentlemen to master, and 
 learn to appreciate, the language of Shakspeare and Milton 
 and Bacon? We have already seen the importance attached 
 to the study of English by that wonderful man, the head-mas- 
 ter of Eton. He would have the boys' French kept up by the 
 same measures by which their English was kept up ; and, upon 
 being pressed as to the measures by which English was kept 
 up, it turned out that there were no measures, except the inci- 
 dental one of translating from the ancient languages, which he 
 had to confess was a very unsatisfadlory measure, and in which 
 it turns out afterwards that no pains is taken with their Eng- 
 lish at all. Here, then, is a pendant to the ideas respedting 
 science of one head-master, in the ideas respedling English 
 of another. French and English, according to the evidence of 
 Mr. Balston, are treated with perfedly impartial, because abso- 
 lutely complete, negleft ; and, if we pass to the other schools, 
 the case does not anywhere seem to be much better. A good 
 deal of evidence was taken as to the tastes of the boys, as 
 shown in their private reading ; and here is a sample of it. It 
 is from the evidence of Mr. Mitchell, a student at Oxford, who 
 had just left Eton, after being there six years : — 
 
 Was there a good deal of private reading in general literature, as far 
 as you know, at Eton ? — I think very little. 
 
 There was no general desire for information? — No. 
 
CLASSICAL AKD SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 21 
 
 It was not considered any part of business or pleasure at Eton to 
 keep up a reading of the general knowledge of the day? — No : I do not 
 think so. (Sir S. Northcote.) Did they read newspapers? — I think 
 those who belonged to the debating-society [twenty-eight in number] 
 read them. I do not think the other part of the school did. (Mr. 
 Thompson.) Do you think the majority of the boys had read the 
 greater part of Sir Walter Scott's novels?' — I do not know; I should 
 think they had probably. Do you think they had read the principal 
 poets, such as Shakspeare? — I do not think they read Shakspeare. 
 
 Much less Milton, I suppose? — No : I do not think they did. 
 
 They were obliged to read him a little, were they not, for verses ? 
 — Yes. 
 
 But, beyond reading over the passages set for Greek iambics and 
 hexameters, you do not think Milton and Shakspeare much read ? — No, 
 I do not. 
 
 Would you say that the modern poets are read? Did you ever hear 
 of any one reading Coleridge? — Some boys do; but I think, as a rule, 
 most boys read nothing at all except novels, and books of that sort. 
 
 What sort of novels, — serial novels? — Yes. Thackeray's? — Yes. 
 
 Or would that be too difficult? — I do not think Thackeray is read 
 very much. 
 
 Lever, perhaps? — Yes. 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) Bulwer? — Yes. 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) They do read a great many novels? — Yes. 
 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) How do they get the novels that they read ? — They 
 buy them ; and then they pass about the house, from one boy to another. 
 
 It is the cheapness that determines the book sele<Sted, to a certain 
 degree?- — Yes, I think so. 
 
 The railway editions of novels, perhaps?'* — Yes. (Vol. iii. p. 249.) 
 
 *■ That it was not always so at Eton is proved by the interesting 
 evidence of Mr. Coleridge, a nephew of the poet, and for thirty-two 
 years a master. He says : " Formerly, any average boy of ordinary 
 taste at Eton, on leaving school, had read much of the English poets, 
 and a great deal of English history, as well as other literature. I know 
 very well that the boys used greedily to devour every poem of Sir 
 Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Southey, and other modern poets, as fast as 
 they came out. I recolledt that there was a perfed: rush to get the first 
 copies of the ' Corsair.' The boys used to spend a great deal of their 
 pocket-money in buying English books : ... we had them in abundance. 
 The old English dramatists, a. great deal of Dryden, a great deal of 
 Pope, and an immense deal of other English poetry, were then read at 
 Eton, besides most of the modern poems ; but now I doubt Nvhether you 
 would find many boys out of the whole eight hundred that Eton con- 
 tains who have read ten plays of Shakspeare." 
 
22 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 Scott and Thackeray, then, being somewhat above their 
 level, it turns out that yellow-covered literature is the staple 
 reading of the boys at Eton ; as one might suppose it would be 
 in a school presided over by the Rev. Mr. Balston. Mr. 
 Kitchin, Censor of Christ Church, testifies that a tolerable 
 acquaintance with English literature is very rare among the 
 young men who come to his college. 
 
 Let us turn now to the fine arts. I suppose all will 
 acknowledge, that the discipline of the eye by drawing, and of 
 the ear by music, are rapidly passing out of the list of elegant 
 and ornamental superfluities into that of the necessary elements 
 of a complete and harmonious training. One would think that 
 in schools frequented by the children of an aristocracy, if 
 nowhere else, special attention would be paid to them, if only 
 as luxurious accomplishments beyond the reach of the vulgar. 
 Yet at Eton, the most aristocratic of schools, though there is a 
 drawing-master, and though, more fortunate than the unlucky 
 Italian master, he has a room, and even some casts and 
 models, the average attendance on his instrudlion is thirty-five 
 out of seven hundred and eighty-three. Music is not taught at 
 all. In the report on Winchester, no mention is made of 
 either. At Harrow, music and drawing are extras, studied by 
 eighteen and fifty, respeftively, of the four hundred and sixty- 
 four boys. Even at Rugby, the numbers are only forty-nine 
 and forty-two in four hundred and sixty-five. This, then, is 
 the amount of attention paid in these great schools to the fine 
 arts, and to the cultivation of eye and ear. 
 
 Geography, after a little elementary instrudlion, is wholly 
 negledted. Attention is paid to ancient history at some 
 schools, in connedlion with classical work : but at Winchester, 
 Dr. Moberly says, " we do not profess to teach modern history 
 at all ; " and the case seems no better at the other schools, 
 though no such open confession of failure is made. 
 
 I have -thus gone over nearly all the list of studies which 
 we assumed to be such as ought to enter into the education of 
 an English gentleman ; and thus far, you observe, with next to 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 23 
 
 no result. What, then, do these great schools teach ? I need 
 not give the answer. In place of all these, they teach Latin 
 and Greek ; and, subordinate to these, mathematics. To these 
 three studies, or rather to two, Latin and Greek, almost the 
 whole teaching force of these great institutions is applied. Of 
 the thirty-five masters at Eton, twenty-four, or about seventy 
 per cent, are classical ; eight are mathematical ; and three teach 
 all the modern languages, physical science, natural history, 
 English language and literature, drawing and music : and this 
 is about the proportion in all save Rugby, where matters are 
 somewhat better. 
 
 And the defenders of the classical system of education main- 
 tain that this is all as it should be. Classics, and, in a very 
 subordinate degree, mathematics, are the divinely appointed 
 sharpeners of the human intelledl. The mind won't cut till it 
 has been ground on what a facetious Scotch schoolmaster* calls 
 the " gerund-stone." It is in vain to attempt to teach boys any 
 thing, say the advocates of this system, till their minds are 
 disciplined ; and the only mental discipline for boys is Latin 
 Grammar, and then Greek Grammar, and a little mathematics. 
 When they know all about the Greek accents, and the perfedt 
 passive participle, and the dodtrine of the subjundtive mood, 
 and the choruses in Sophocles, they may, with some propriety, 
 begin to inquire why a stone falls to the ground, or what is 
 meant by the carboniferous formation, or what are the merits 
 of a republican form of government, or any other merely utili- 
 tarian piece of knowledge. To judge by the manner in which 
 they have lately been handling that last problem, one is forced 
 to conclude, that even the adult English aristocratic mind has 
 not yet got through with its preparatoiy grinding. 
 
 Let us for a moment examine this argument ; for it still 
 plays an important part in educational controversies, and is the 
 main subjedl I propose to illusti'ate in this discourse. I shall 
 
 * D'Arcy W. Thompson, in his genial and scholarly "Day-dreams 
 of a Schoolmaster." 
 
24 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 assume as granted one of those axioms with which I set out ; 
 namely, that in the art of education we must study and follow 
 nature as our guide. How, then, if this be true, will the case 
 stand as to Latin Grammar? Clearly, if it is the divinely 
 appointed food for the youthful mind, there will be developed, 
 at about the age of eight or ten, a strong love and aptitude for 
 it ; and this will be indicated by the zeal with which children 
 will enter upon its study the moment it is presented to them, 
 and the ease and pleasure with which they will master it. It 
 will be absorbed, so to speak, at every mental pore ; and 
 their intelledls will visibly enlarge under its benign and nour- 
 ishing influence. They will leave their dinners to study the 
 subjundlive mood, and cry to sit up nights, that they may 
 master the gerund in dum, and the periphrastic conjugations, 
 and the mysteries of protasis and apodosis ; and, as a natural- 
 consequence, we shall abound in admirable young Latin and 
 Greek scholars, to whom not a nicety of expression nor a 
 shade of meaning in those languages will be unknown. 
 Beginning at eight, and continuing the study uninterruptedly 
 till twenty-one or twenty-four, without the distradtion of any . 
 more vulgar studies to interrupt their entire devotion to their 
 objedt, they will, of course, both speak and write the Latin and 
 Greek languages with fluency and ease ; and will be familiar 
 with all the beauties of the great authors of Athens and Rome, 
 whatever they may noi know of the great authors of England. 
 And, when the time for science does come, these minds, so 
 long and so admirably sharpened, will cut into its profoundest 
 depths, and know its utmost secrets, as if by intuition : at 
 least, if they do not know them thus, there will be but little 
 time left for learning them in any other way. Whether this 
 proves to be the result, the evidence of men eminent in science 
 will presently show. 
 
 But how does the case really stand in regard to this 
 natural love of the boyish mind for Latin and Greek ? Alas ! 
 the dogs-eared and dirty grammars — amo, amas, whipped, 
 so to speak, into the wrong end of the person, because it finds 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 25 
 
 such difficult entrance at the right, — seem to point to a differ- 
 ent conclusion. And at this very time, when, according to 
 theory, there should be such an aptitude for Latin Grammar, 
 what do we find, if we show our youngster an air-pump, 
 explain to him the working of a steam-engine, set him upon 
 colledting birds' eggs, or unfold to him the wonderful struc- 
 ture of an inseft? — why, the liveliest curiosity and interest 
 in our teaching. Boys are not mere animals, to whom all 
 sorts of intelledtual effort are equally repulsive. That is a 
 theory of boy-nature, which is the worthy and necessary com- 
 plement of the grindstone theory of instruction. Give a boy 
 the food his mind really craves, and you will find him an 
 intelledtual being. 
 
 What, then, is the moral? Why, that air-pumps and birds' 
 eggs, steam-engines and butterflies, are factors in education 
 equally with the Latin Grammar ; and that, in a true order 
 of development, they precede the Latin Grammar : in other 
 words, that the observing faculties are not developed in the 
 same way and by the same means as the refle<5tive ; and 
 that the observing faculties are developed before the re- 
 fledlive. This is sad heresy, gentlemen, in the ears of our 
 classical pedants ; but I cannot help it. Nature will have 
 it so. 
 
 Now this being so, — and I do not see how any one can well 
 dispute it, — is it natural to suppose that a system which care- 
 fully keeps from the minds of boys that mental food they crave, 
 and insists upon supplying only that which their minds most 
 strenuously rejedt, can be followed by good results ? Do we 
 know better than nature ? And will not the depriving of their 
 observing faculties of their natural development, when these 
 faculties are strongest, and the premature development of their 
 refledlive faculties at an age when they are weakest, be likely 
 to produce dwarfed or distorted minds? and, when that process 
 has been carried on for several years, shall we be likely to 
 mend the matter by then attempting to cultivate the observing 
 faculties, just at the period when natui-e meant that the reflec- 
 
 3 
 
26 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 tive powers should come into play, and take their first and 
 strongest outgrowth? Yet, preposterous as it seems, this is, 
 as I propose to show you, a favorable view of what in Eng- 
 land is called a liberal education. What its results are, we 
 shall also see. 
 
 I am aware that I am saying what it will be very easy to 
 misunderstand ; and I desire, therefore, to add, that I say it as 
 a defender, not an opponent, of classical studies. I think the 
 time is not coming, and that it would be unfortunate if it 
 should come, when classical studies will be altogether aban- 
 doned. They must always hold an honorable place, and play 
 an indispensable part, in any far-reaching and wide-embracing 
 scheme for a liberal and generous education. But classical 
 studies will not be really appreciated, or take their true place, 
 or develop the vast educational powers they really possess, till 
 they are relieved of the degrading task to which they are now 
 universally put, of serving as the intelledlual whetstone upon 
 which to attempt to sharpen little boys' wits. 
 
 I will add further, that I think it is not too much to admit, 
 that the defenders of the classical theory have heretofore had 
 greatly the advantage of their opponents, in the line of argu- 
 ment they have taken in defence of their favorite studies. 
 Disagree with them as you may as to what studies go to make 
 up a liberal education, you must yet go to them for a true defi- 
 nition of that training of mind in which a liberal education 
 consists. The advocates of science have been too prone to 
 confound education with information, mental training with 
 " useful knowledge : " they have lost sight of that liberalizing 
 development of all mental powers which constitutes a true edu- 
 cation, and which no mere pouring in of any amount of useful 
 information can ever accomplish. " It is not a little curious," 
 says Mr. Pattison, in an admirable paper in the Oxford 
 Essays,* " in reviewing the controversy on classical education. 
 
 * For 1855. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 27 
 
 which has been going on for the last fifty years, to note, that, 
 though the inevitable progress of things is gradually but 
 silently giving a preponderance to the modern sciences, the 
 advantage has, till quite lately, been with the defenders of 
 classical studies. The untenable position of the public schools 
 and universities has been supported by the classicists on a true 
 principle, while the sound cause of scientific knowledge has 
 been mostly argued by the naturalists on a false one. The 
 classicists have not only written well, and brought out in a 
 clear light many of the secondary benefits of the dead -lan- 
 guage training, but they have held to the fundamental idea of 
 intelledtual culture as the great end of education. Their error 
 has been their not understanding that the study of antiquity, of 
 the past, even when much more profound than it usually is, 
 cannot now convey that culture. Their opponents, on the 
 other hand, in the free possession and enjoyment of that 
 wonderful field of real knowledge, have lost sight of the 
 truth, that, for the purposes of education, knowledge is 
 only a means, — a means to intelledtual development. 
 They- will stake the issue on the comparative utility of the 
 classics and of science ; whereas they ought to place it on 
 the comparative fitness of the two subjects to expand the 
 potvers, to qualify for philosophical and comprehensive 
 views." 
 
 This seems to me to be eminently true ; and I am quite 
 ready to admit, that I know of no definitions of education that 
 can compare, in justness and breadth of view, with those given 
 by some of the defenders of classical studies. In the old con- 
 troversy between Oxford and the " Edinburgh Review," in 
 spite of the power of Brougham and the wit of Sidney Smith, 
 the vidtory, it seems to me, for this reason really remained with 
 the defenders of the old system.* And if I were asked to point 
 
 * See in particular the " Remains of the Rev. J. Davison,'' or his 
 admirable article on R. Lovell Edgworth's foolish book on Professional 
 Education, in the " Quarterly Review" for iSii. 
 
28 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 out the modern books on education which are marked by the 
 truest appreciation of that wherein a real training of the mind 
 consists, I should have to mention, among the foremost, the 
 writings of such men as that arrogant but able scholar, the late 
 Dr. Donaldson ; and the leftures on University Education of 
 Father Newman, the excellence of which, I may say in pass- 
 ing, is wholly due to the early Protestant training of their 
 acute and able author, — their greatest defe<S, the attempt to 
 bring down his thought to the level of his new creed and his 
 uncultivated audience. 
 
 I. am willing, then, to draw my definition of education from 
 my opponents ; but I do it only to turn, it upon themselves. 
 Granting their ideal of a liberal education to be the true one, — 
 and I grant it cheerfully, — their means of realizing it are 
 utterly inadequate. The end of education being, as they say^ 
 a true and symmetrical mental development, the means must 
 be something of far wider application and greater power than 
 the grammar of two dead languages. Let us adopt their 
 ideal, then, 'but seek out better and more adequate methods, 
 of realizing it. But, to omit altogether .the training which 
 the study of language gives, would be to err as gravely, and 
 to show ourselves as one-sided, as our opponents. And the 
 study of the classic languages of Greece and Rome, in their 
 proper place and at their proper time, must always take a 
 prominent part in linguistic training. The place, the time, the 
 proportion in which they should enter into different schemes of 
 teaching ; the part they should play in the teaching of language, 
 itself, — are questions of detaU, on which I will not enter here. 
 I desire only to express my convidlion, that there is no neces- 
 sary antagonism between science and classical study ; that both 
 are needful fadtors in a wide-embracing system of liberal edu- 
 cation ; that it is the preposterous abuse of classical study, and 
 the absurd negledl of science, that we have to consider and try 
 to remedy ; and further, that, considered as instruments of men- 
 tal discipline, there is surely no necessary connection between 
 classics and thoroughness, science and superficiality, though in 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 29 
 
 * 
 
 all discussions this seems to be taken for granted by the advo- 
 cates of classical studies.* 
 
 It is curious to revert to the times when these same classical 
 studies, now become the chief staple of what may be called the 
 orthodox education of the day, were themselves considered 
 the worst of heresies, and decried by conservatives as an inno- 
 vation destrudlive of all sound learning ; and to observe what 
 an exadl parallel there is between their treatment and the treat- 
 ment which science, as an instrument of education, receives 
 now. " For above two hundred years," says Mr. Hallam,! 
 speaking of the University of Paris, in the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, "the scholastic logic and philosophy had crushed polite 
 letters. . . . When the concession [that the new studies should 
 be taught] was made, the teachers of Greek and rhetoric were 
 specially excluded from the privileges of regency by the faculty 
 of arts. These branches of knowledge were looked upon as 
 unessential affendages of a good education, very much as the 
 modern languages are treated in our English schools and uni- 
 versities at this day. A bigoted adherence to old systems, and 
 a lurking reludlance that the rising youth should become supe- 
 rior in knowledge to ourselves, were no peculiar evil spirits that 
 haunted the University of Paris, though none ever stood more 
 
 * In the whole mass of writing in favor of classical studies, it is more 
 difficult to find any thing approaching to the nature of an argument than 
 one would suppose. Such writing usually consists in a panegyric on the 
 beauty of the classic poets, — which no one is disposed to deny, — and a 
 disparagement of the study of science as the mere cramming of 
 utilitarian fadls, — which serves only to show the writer's ignorance 
 of the true nature of scientific studies. The distindlion attempted to be 
 drawn by Dr. Whewell, in his work on a Isiberal Education, between 
 " permanent " and " progressive " studies, and the argument he attempts 
 to build upon it, seems to me, with all deference to the opinions of a 
 writer of such eminence, more fanciful than sound. The reader may 
 compare with it the opinions of Professor Owen. (Appendix, p. io6.) 
 
 t Hallam's History of Literature, i. 123, Paris ed. See also, on this 
 subjedl, Raumer Geschichte der Padagogik, i. sec. 3; and Schmidt, 
 Gesch. d. Pad., ii. 336, et seq. But the classical education of Eton would 
 have made Erasmus stare. 
 
 3* 
 
30 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 m 
 in need of a thorough exorcism. For many years after this 
 time, the Greek and Latin languages were thus taught by per- 
 mission, and with very indifferent success." 
 
 But opposition to the new studies was vain. At the time of 
 the revival of letters in Europe, in the fifteenth century, the 
 study of classical literature opened a new career to minds that 
 had so long been pent up within the narrow bounds of the 
 mediaeval philosophy. We cannot wonder at the impulse 
 which was given to the intelledt of Western Europe by the sud- 
 den revelation of a world of thought rich in all the elements 
 that were wanting in the dry and barren schoolmen. But the 
 position of the classics is now reversed, and their relation to 
 the learning of the present day is pirecisely the relation of 
 scholasticism to the thought of the fifteenth century ; and just 
 as scholasticism, merging all of truth that it contained in a 
 wider philosophy, had to submit to the abandonment of its 
 monopoly, and to become only an insignificant element in a 
 wider curriculum, so the pedantry of classical learning must 
 disappear before that wider modern study of language which is 
 fast taking its place ; while language itself, however important 
 it may be as an element, — and no one can dispute it$ import, 
 ance, — must yet content itself with forming only an element in 
 an education which must find a place in its wide-embracing 
 scope for the w^hole extent of modern science. Nothing short 
 of this can put it in a true and living relation to the wants of 
 the times. To continue to employ the classical languages as 
 the sole instruments of teaching, is as impossible as it would 
 be to return to stage-coaches in these days of steam. " The» 
 best form of discipline," say the Commissioners, " may not bq 
 the same in the nineteenth century as it was in the sixteenth ; 
 and the information which will be serviceable in life is sure to 
 be very different. Hence no system of instruftion can be 
 framed which will not require modification from time to time. 
 The highest and most useful office of education is certainly to 
 train and discipline ; but it is not the only office'. And we • 
 cannot but remark, that, whilst in the busy world too great a 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 31 
 
 value is perhaps sometimes set upon the acquisition of knowl- 
 edge, and too little upon that mental discipline which enables 
 men to acquire and turn it to the best Account, there is also a 
 tendency which is exactly the reverse of this, and which is 
 among the besetting temptations of the ablest schoolmasters ; 
 and that, if very superficial men may be produced by one of 
 these influences, very ignorant men are sometimes produced 
 by the other.'' (Vol. i. p. 30.) 
 
 I am combating, then, neither classical nor linguistic studies, 
 which I value, and whose true power I have had some oppor- 
 tunity to observe, but only the abuse of classical studies. I do 
 not know whether I am addressing any gentleman who has ever 
 been engaged in classical teaching. If I am, it may have been 
 his experience, as it has sometimes been mine, to take a lad 
 who has at a rather late moment determined to prepare himself 
 for College, and whose mind, instead of having been previously 
 dosed ad nauseam with grammars, has had a healthy develop- 
 ment through employment on more congenial studies. I think 
 he will agree with me, that a year at the age when the powers of 
 refledlion and abstradlion begin to strengthen ; when the ration- 
 ale of the laws of speech can be appreciated, and language can 
 be viewed, not as a tedious mass of dead words, but as the liv- 
 ing instrument of human thought, — that a year spent upon the 
 classics at that age by a young man who knows his own and 
 perhaps some other modern language, is worth any three of 
 previous life for such studies. " We do amiss," said Milton 
 long ago, — and Milton was a learned classical scholar, — " we 
 do amiss to spend seven or eight years in scraping together so 
 much miserable Latin and Greek, as might be learned other- 
 wise easily in one year." 
 
 I do not believe the grindstone theory. I am not going 
 to dispute the dodtrine, that some studies have a greater dis- 
 ciplinary value than others,* though the relative disciplinary 
 
 * See on this point an excellent note in Sir William Hamilton's " Dis- 
 cussions," p. 705, Am. ed. I do not wish to dispute the justice of the 
 
32 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 value of different studies remains, I think, still in great 
 degree to be ascertained by careful experiment and observa- 
 tion ; and it would be about as reasonable to attempt to 
 cultivate a farm with a pickaxe, as to educate all the 
 faculties of the mind by one study alone. But the implied 
 dodlrine of our classical extremists is, that there is one set of 
 studies for discipline, and another set for use ; and that the 
 disciplinary value of a study is always in inverse ratio to its 
 pradlical value for the purposes of life, and vice versa. Now, 
 if you will allow me to use a homely illustration, suppose we 
 
 distindlion there drawn between such studies as consist chiefly of " results 
 to be taken on trust" from the few students who are in position to make 
 such subjedts a specialty, and such studies as a<5lively exercise other 
 powers than the memory; as, e.g., to use the author's illustration, "the 
 rational study either of the grammar of a known language, or of univer- 
 sal grammar illustrated by the languages with which a student is 
 acquainted." It were better if this last study, " an applied logic and 
 psychology," which Sir William declares to be wholly neglefted at 
 English universities, were more attended to at our" own. It is because 
 Physical Science has been so little looked upon as also an applied logic 
 of the most valuable kind, that its educating value has been overlooked. 
 
 What Professor Goldwin Smith says ("Leftures on History," I. p. 27) 
 of the subjeifts of higher education is true to a great extent of all educa- 
 tion, that, to be available for teaching, such subje(5ls " must be traversed 
 by principles, and capable of method ; either a science or a philosophy, 
 not a mere mass of faifts without principle or law : " which last is the 
 classical pedant's idea of physical science. 
 
 I think it is Dr. Acland who raises the question. Which is the more 
 valuable of the two as to educating power, — the rational study of lan- 
 guages, or the induftive study of physical science .' But not to urge, that, 
 as employing to a great extent different faculties of the mind, the two 
 studies may almost be said to be incommensurable,, and that to speak of 
 any educational instrumentality as of universal application is, as I have 
 said, almost as absurd as to speak of a universal tool, it may certainly 
 be maintained that the question will not be ripe for decision till science 
 shall have been employed as long, and with as perfeft means and appli- 
 ances, as has the study of the ancient languages. Then it will be found 
 that both language and science are equally indispensable to a perfeft 
 education. 
 
 On the educational value of the Physical Sciences, see Whewell, Phil. 
 Ind. Sc, ii. 359. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 33 
 
 were to say to a penny-postman, "My good friend, you do very 
 wrong to start out on your daily task of delivering letters, so 
 early in the morning, without a previous -walk for exercise" 
 — our postman would be very apt to say, ^' My dear sir, I get 
 more than enough exercise in the course of my daily duty." 
 "Oh, but" — we can imagine the rejoinder — "that is mere 
 vulgar, useful labor ! You should spend the whole morning, 
 and a good part of the forenoon, in purely disciplinary exer- 
 cise of your legs ; then, towards the middle of the day, you 
 might begin to deliver your letters with some prospedt of doing 
 it secunduTn artem." I fear our postman would argue, that, if 
 the Creator had intended so much time to be occupied in fruit- 
 less preliminaries, he would have made the hours of daylight 
 longer. Yet this is hardly a caricature of tlie defence of 
 classical studies we sometimes hear. As if, the moment there 
 were the least prospedl of a study becoming practically valu- 
 able, it thenceforward became worthless for mental discipline ! 
 As if there were one set of studies whose whole use was to 
 sharpen the mind, and then another whose sole value consisted 
 in their subservience to the vulgar, utilitarian purposes of life ! 
 You, gentlemen, who know something of the intimate connec- 
 tion which exists between the profoundest problems of pure 
 science and the homeliest details of every-day practice, will 
 believe in no such theory. It is a theory which betrays its 
 parentage. It can come only from a country where the 
 privileged classes, born to great wealth, and thus above the 
 necessity of labor, desire to possess some shibboleth of their 
 order, too costly and difficult of attainment to be within the 
 reach of the man born only to useful toil and the divine neces- 
 sity of working for the good of his fellow-men ; and that shib- 
 boleth they get from a study, — not even a real and profound, 
 but a useless and superficial study, — during all the years of 
 youth and early manhood, of two ancient languages, to the 
 almost complete exclusion of every other subjeift. Classical 
 studies are not to be defended, at least in a republic, upon any 
 such theory at this. If they are valueless in themselves, they 
 
34 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 had better not be used for discipline : if they have an intrinsic 
 value, — and, in their proper place and time, I maintain that 
 they have the highest intrinsic value, — it is upon their real 
 merits that they must claim a place in a true system of educa- 
 tion. Praaical usefulness, — and by that term I do not mean 
 the mere vulgar stomach and pocket filling with which it is so 
 often confounded ; but pradtical usefulness in a high and gen- 
 erous sense, the serving of all noble and worthy objedls, the 
 endeavor to make our earth a better dwelling-place, and man 
 a nobler dweller on it, — pradlical usefulness in this sense 
 should be the very aim of all our teaching ; and study can 
 never lose sight of it without most imminent peril of becom- 
 ing worthless for discipline as well as for use. 
 
 If, then, you should advise our imaginary postman to exer- 
 cise his arms, to develop symmetrically, as far as possible, all 
 the muscles of his body, I should not have a word to obje6t. 
 My point is only this, that the delivering of letters itself has a 
 disciplinary value for the legs, as well as a pecuniary value for 
 the pocket; and, quoad hoc, he can combine discipline and 
 duty together. For I believe God meant that our -whole life 
 should be an education, our daily labors should be disciplinary ; 
 and so, instead of degrading liberal education down to the level 
 of a vulgar utilitarianism, I would elevate the idea of life to the 
 height of a true liberal education. Then, no matter Jiow soon 
 we begin to combine these ideas together. But- can such a 
 liberal education be formed out of Greek and Latin Grammars 
 alone ? * 
 
 But to return to our schools. If every thing save mathe- 
 matics is sacrificed, as we have seen it is, to the indispensable 
 disciplinary Latin and Greek, we shall at least have thorough 
 and accurate classical scholars. If the mathematics, more 
 
 * A late writer (Fornereau, "Diary of a Dutiful Son") says, with 
 more wit than science, "Most men seem to consider their school-learn- 
 ing as if it were like a tadpole's tail, meant to drop off as soon as the 
 owner came to full growth." 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 35 
 
 fortunate than physical science, have a recognized, though an 
 inferior place in the curriculum, we shall at least get good 
 mathematicians. Let us, then, examine the results in classics 
 and mathematics. 
 
 The study of mathematics is a modern innovation. " Before 
 1836," the Report says, " there was no mathematical teaching 
 of any kind at Eton : " it did not become part of the regular 
 school business till 1851 ; and the following story would be 
 incredible, if it did not rest upon the authority of Professor 
 Key, of University College, London. I find it in the evidence 
 of that eminent physiologist, Professor W. B. Carpenter : — 
 
 " I remember hearing Professor Key, of University College, mention 
 that he had in early life a private pupil who had gone through the com- 
 plete Eton course, which at that time was only classical. Even ordinary 
 arithmetic was not taught, much less any mathematics ; and he hap- 
 pened to find out accidentally, that this young man, an intelligent young 
 man in other respedls, not only had never learned his multiplication- 
 table, but did not know there tvas such a thing as a multiplication-table. 
 He was buying several pairs of silk stockings in a shop ; and, to find out 
 how much he had to pay, he was adding the price of one pair to the 
 second pair, and that to the third pair, and so on. When he found how 
 much his labor would be facilitated by the multiplication-table, he 
 applied himself to master it, and learned it off in a few days with the 
 keenest pleasure." (Vol. iv. p. 36S.) 
 
 This was the state of things in the largest of these schools 
 within the recoUedtion of a man of middle age. Mathematics 
 do now, however, form an integral, though still a very subor- 
 dinate, part of the course of instrucStion. The mathematical 
 masters at Eton are to the classical in the proportion of eight 
 to twenty-seven ; they do not wear the same costume, and have 
 not the same power over the boys : one of them complains 
 rather bitterly that the older boys themselves have more power 
 than they. The subjedt does not count so much for rank, and 
 in every way the boys are taught to look down upon the study 
 as of quite inferior importance. It is no great wonder, there- 
 fore, that the results are reported as far from satisfaiStory. The 
 attention given to the subjedl at the other schools varies ; but 
 in none is it on a par with classics. At Westminster, tlie 
 
36 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 classics count as two-thirds, and all other studies as one-third ; 
 and promotion is not given at all for proficiency in mathemat- 
 ics. At Harrow, mathematics were not introduced till 1845 ; 
 and it takes four mathematical marks to equal one classical 
 mark. At Rugby, three and a half hours per week are devoted 
 to the study, and it stands to classics as twelve to seventy- 
 eight ; and all the great prizes are for classical proficiency. 
 
 We are reduced at last, then, to Latin and Greek alone. 
 Surely we shall have classical scholars. The percentage of 
 time devoted to classical study in all these schools is so great 
 that it is hardly too much to consider them the sole instrument 
 of education. If, in addition to that, you consider that rank 
 in the school is almost exclusively determined by it, and the 
 prizes to be gained by rank, both at school and at the univer- 
 si'ties, are many and very valuable, you w^ill see that the whole 
 arrangement has the effedt of an enormous system of bounties 
 for the encouragement of this one branch of study. Here, 
 then, if anywhere, we shall find results that bear some propor- 
 tion to labor expended and opportunities enjoyed. 
 
 Now, it would be absurd to deny that all these great schools 
 do send up to the Universities a certain number of pupils with 
 as thorough a training of its kind as can well be given. 
 Whether it is the best kind, even of classical training, we shall 
 presently inquire. Certainly no one will undertake to deny 
 that England contains good scholars. But the education, gen- 
 tlemen, of the able minority is never a true test of the vyorth of 
 a system or of the charafter of a school ; for the able minority 
 is made up of those minds of native strength and originality 
 that will get themselves an education without a system, or in 
 spite of the worst of systems. If to these you add a certain 
 number of drudging pedants, who will, at any rate, load their 
 minds with learned lumber, and to whom the quality of the 
 lumber is indifferent, provided it leads to the desired fellowship, 
 you can have a show of success for any large school, how- 
 ever bad it may really be. But the true merits of a school are 
 determined by what it does for the great mass of average 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 37 
 
 minds. Does it truly train and educate them ? is the question ; 
 and, viewed in this light, all the evidence goes to show that the 
 English classical system is a portentous failure. 
 
 I do not state this as a mere opinion. It is the inevitable 
 conclusion to be drawn from the evidence itself. The Com- 
 missioners, afting upon the principle that a tree is known by 
 its fruits, very properly summoned before them tutors and ex- 
 aminers from the various Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, 
 to testify as to the state of preparation in which the young men 
 came up to those Universities ; and these gentlemen tell a very 
 lamentable story. Here are some specimens of their evi- 
 dence. 
 
 The two Colleges at Oxford which receive the great ma- 
 jority of Eton boys are University and Christ Church. Of 
 University it is said by the " London Review," that for the last 
 ten years the average number of men from this College who 
 attain a first class in classics has not exceeded one in a year. 
 "Its whole vital energy is exhausted in j)roducing this unit; 
 and even that unit is not always an Etonian." And the fol- 
 lowing is a part of the evidence of the Rev. Charles Sandford, 
 Senior Censor of Christ Church. That of the Dean was quite 
 as unfavorable. 
 
 " Some fifty or sixty young men matriculate at Christ Church in the 
 course of each year. Of these, perhaps ten will read for honors in 
 classics. Such men would be able to construe with tolerable corredlness 
 a new passage from any Latin and Greek author, translate a piece of 
 easy English prose into tolerable Latin, and answer corredtly simple 
 grammatical and etymological questions in Latin and Greek. T^e other 
 forty or fifty ■would not. In fa(?t, very few of those who are merely can- 
 didates for matriculation can construe with accuracy a piece from an 
 author whom they profess to have read. We never try them in an un- 
 seen passage. It would be useless to do so. They are usually examined 
 in Virgil, JE,r\. I. — IV., and Homer, I. II. — IV. . . . We do not test their 
 knowledge of ancient or modern history, or of geography, at matricula- 
 tion. We examine them in arithmetic, but not in Euclid or in algebra. 
 Their answers to the questions in arithmetic do not encourage us to 
 examine them in Euclid or in algebra. . . . Very rarely is any one heard, 
 in the public examinations, to translate fluently into good English. 
 This is no doubt owing partly to the universal use of translations, partly 
 
 4 
 
38 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 to the little weight attached by the examiners to this faculty." (Vol. 
 ii, p. lo.) 
 
 The Rev. G. W. Kitchin, the Junior Censor, says, "Of the ordinary 
 men a quarter might possibly steer their way through an unseen pas- 
 sage in Greek with fair success. Rather a larger number might manage 
 an ordinary piece of Latin. Tolerable Latin prose is very rare. Per- 
 haps one piece in four is free from bad blunders. A good style is 
 scarcely ever seen. The answers we get to simple grammar questions are 
 very inaccurate. In arithmetic they have improved, as it is now under- 
 stood that they cannot pass responsions without it. We do not examine 
 for matriculation in any of the other subjedls mentioned. . . . While 
 youths of the age of eighteen (our average age at matriculation) have 
 in other institutions already chosen their course of life, and are begin- 
 ning to prepare for it, our men have the duty of making such a choice 
 almost concealed from them, — certainly never insisted on by the Uni- 
 versity course of studies ; nor do they enjoy the stimulus of knowing 
 that what they are doing will direftly affeft their future career. They 
 work to pass certain examinations ; they pass, and in a short time forget 
 the cram — it is often little else — on which their indifferent minds have 
 been employed." (Vol. ii. p. 12.) 
 
 The Rev. James Riddell, Tutor of Balliol College, says, " Five-sixths 
 of the pupil-teachers in schools, receiving aid from Government, are 
 better readers than five-sixths of the men who come to the University. 
 Again, in one of the examinations in Literis Humanioribus, in which I 
 was an examiner, nearly half of the passmen who came under my notice 
 were imperfe<ft spellers." (Vol. ii. p. 16.) 
 
 The Rev. W. Hedley, Tutor of University College, and Public Exam- 
 iner, says, " I am sorry to say, that many boys come to the University 
 from school, knowing next to nothing. ... I have sometimes had to 
 remind my brother examiners and myself, in the final examination for 
 B.A., that we were not at liberty to pluck for bad spelling, bad English, 
 or worse writing. . . . Hitherto it has seemed useless for the University 
 to enlarge her course to suit the tastes of men whose minds have never 
 been formed at all by any methodical teaching, and who really cannot 
 be said to have any tastes. .- . . It is difficult to say what proportion of 
 candidates for matriculation can translate a new passage of a Latin or 
 Greek author. At my own College, we consider such a test much too 
 severe : the College would be left half empty, if it were insisted on. . . . 
 Of arithmetic and mathematics few of them know any thing more than 
 the amount insisted on by the University, and many of them barely 
 that ; the extent of their knowledge not reaching beyond vulgar fraftions 
 and decimals. . . . Their acquaintance with history is very meagre, and 
 so exceptional that, where it does exist, I should be induced to attribute 
 it more to domestic training and individual taste than to the systematic 
 teaching of schools. Much the same may be said of geography. (Vol. 
 ii. p. 17.) 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 39 
 
 The Rev. W. H. Girdlestone, of Christ's College, Cambridge, says, 
 "To the latter portion of the question I consider myself to be a living 
 answer. For eighteen years, I have found employment in supplementing, 
 as a private tutor, the deficiencies of school-education, and in teaching 
 the simplest rudiments of arithmetic, algebra, and elementary mathe- 
 matics, and in preparing in Latin and Greek candidates for the previous 
 examination and ordinary degrees ; and I cannot but think that I have 
 to teach them nothing but what tl^ey ought to have been thoroughly 
 taught at school. ... I may call attention to the fadl, that, for the last 
 two years, rather more than one-third of those who entered at Trinity 
 failed at the first entrance examination. With regard to arithmetic, I 
 can testify, from my own experience, to the almost universal ignorance 
 of the simplest first principles of the subjedl ; and may state, that, at the 
 previous examination in October, 1862, there were eighty-six decided 
 failures in arithmetic and algebra out of two hundred and sixty candi- 
 dates; while, in the examination for the ordinary degree, in June, 1862, 
 one examiner found in the translations from the Greek author mistakes 
 in spelling in the papers of ninety-one candidates out of one hundred 
 and sixt3'-one." (Vol. ii. p. 30.) 
 
 Charles Neate, Esq., M.P., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, says, 
 " There are now so many things which a tolerably educated man ought 
 to know, that there is not room for Latin and Greek, at any rate for botJt 
 of them, unless they can be taught in less time than they are now. Yet 
 these languages are now so 111 taught, or at least are so little known by 
 the great majority of those who are supposed to have learnt them, that 
 half the time now bestowed upon their acquisition would be a great deal 
 too much to give for the result obtained. 
 
 With reference to this latter point, I do not hesitate to say, that the 
 great majority of those who take a degree in Oxford, after having spent 
 ten or twelve years of their life in the all but exclusive study of Latin 
 and Greek, are unable to construe off'-hand the easiest passages in 
 either language (if they have never seen them before) ; and that their 
 Latin writing is almost invariably such as would, under the old school- 
 system have subjedled them to a fiogging, as boys of twelve years old ; 
 and those who take first classes often make such mistakes a.s make it 
 diflScult to understand how they ever got simply a degree." (Vol. ii. 
 p. 49.) 
 
 In the examination of the head-master of Eton, there occurs the fol- 
 lowing passage: — (Lord Clarendon.) The Dean of Christ Church 
 says, that boys come up from Eton who are not only not proficients, 
 but who are in a melancholy state of deficiency in respect to classical 
 learning. — (Mr. Balston.) This may be ; and, if so, there is need of 
 improvement. 
 
 (Lord C.) Nothing can be worse than this state of things, where we 
 find modern languages, geography, history, chronology, and every thing 
 
40 CLASSIGAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 else which a well-educated English gentleman ought to know, given up, 
 in order that the full time should be devoted to the classics ; and, at the 
 same time, we are told that the boys go up to Oxford, not only not pro- 
 ficient, but in a lamentable state of deficiency with respedtto the classics. 
 — (Mr. B.) You asked me what my opinion was, and I was stating what 
 I thought I should be able to do. — (Lord C.) What we are now aWare 
 of is this : that at present the whole time of the boys is devoted to 
 classics ; notwithstanding which, we have the principal of one of the first 
 Colleges in Oxford telling us, that, generally speaking, almost all the 
 boys come up in a melancholy state of deficiency in respeft to these 
 classical attainments ; and that, among those so painfully deficient, Eton 
 stands prominently forward. 
 
 (Mr. B.) I am sorry for it.* (Vol. iii. p. 114.) 
 
 And here is the guarded conclusion of the Commissioners 
 themselves ; and the more weight should be attached to it, as, 
 throughout this Report, they show themselves exceedingly 
 cautious and moderate men : — 
 
 " If a youth, after four or five years spent at school, quits it at nine- 
 teen, unable to construe an easy bit of Latin or Greek without the help 
 of a diiftionary, or to write Latin grammatically; almost ignorant of 
 geography, and of the history of his own country; unacquainted with 
 any modern language but his own, and hardly competent to write 
 English correftly, to do a simple sum, or stumble through an easy prop- 
 osition of Euclid ; a total stranger to the laws which govern the phy- 
 sical world, and to its strudlure ; with an eye and hand unpracJlised in 
 drawing, and without knowing a note of music ; with an uncultivated 
 mind, and no taste for reading or observation, — his intelleftual educa- 
 tion must certainly be accounted a failure, though there may be no 
 fault to find with his principles, charadter, or manners. We by no means 
 intend to represent this as a type of the ordinary product of English 
 public-school education ; but, speaking both from the evidence we have 
 received, ^and from opportunities of observation open to all, we must 
 say, that it is a type much more common than it ought to be." (Vol. 
 i. p. 31.) 
 
 * Trevelyan, the clever author of a recent entertaining work on India, 
 the "Competition Wallah," says, "Of two hundred scholars who leave 
 Eton in the course of the year, it is much if some three or four can con- 
 strue a chorus of Euripides without the aid of a translation, or polish 
 up, with infinite pains, a piece of Latin prose, which a Roman might 
 possibly have mistaken for a parody of the De Officiis, composed by a 
 Visigoth in the time of Diocletian." p. 424. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 41 
 
 The public, if we may judge from its various organs ol 
 opinion, has gone a step farther than the Commissioners, and 
 has accepted this pidlure as a type of the ordinary produd of 
 English public-school education, at least in regard to Eton, 
 which, though the largest and richest, is certainly the worst of 
 the schools. 
 
 Here, then, is a ridiculous failure even in the classical 
 teaching itself; and though the general cause of it has been 
 already indicated, in the view we have been taking of what 
 constitutes a true and natural education, yet the immediate 
 causes of such a lamentable result seem to deserve a mo- 
 ment's further examination of the nature of the classical 
 teaching itself. For it cannot be denied, that, though classi- 
 cal study alone can never form a complete and perfect mental 
 training, yet, in skilful hands, it may be made the means 
 of a very tolerably good one. Let us imagine a school ship- 
 wrecked on a solitary island, or walled up in some old monas- 
 tery, and thus cut off from all knowledge of modern life and 
 access to modern literature ; but with a cargo of Greek and 
 Roman authors, and a sufficient supply of diftionaries, gram- 
 mars, and other illustrative and critical apparatus. Surely, 
 good teachers should make something of them. With the 
 grammars of two kindred languages, and with a knowledge of 
 their ow^n (perhaps this last is too great an assumption), they 
 could teach something of the philosophy of speech, and make 
 their pupils understand that grammar is no arbitrary matter, — 
 the work of old Lily, or of any Connefliicut schoolmasters, 
 — merely to be crammed into the memory as a collection of 
 dead, arbitrary rules ; that grammar -was not made first, and 
 then the language made to fit it, — as one might suppose from 
 the way languages are usually taught ; but that as language is 
 the divine and wonderful instrument of thought, so grammar 
 is, or should be, the philosophical analysis of that instrument, 
 and thus tlie ground-work of an exposition of the laws of 
 thought. Highly abstradt as the study is in its very nature, 
 yet it can be taught intelligently, if pains enough be taken, 
 
 4* 
 
42 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 even to children, though whether it should be is open to grave 
 doubt.* Let any one take a tolerably clever child, and first 
 making one grand bonfire of all the school grammars that can 
 possibly come within his reach, — and, if certain grammars 
 that I might name were among them, I would make the fire 
 tenfold hotter, — let him proceed to analyze to him the first 
 half-dozen sentences the boy utters, carefully abstaining from 
 pedantic technicalities, and he will have gone a great way in 
 laying the foundation of grammatical knowledge ; and, with a 
 little skill, he can carry the process a great way further before 
 the child need even hear of those terrors to the youthful mind, 
 Lindley Murray and his successors. And what shall hinder 
 our imaginary teacher from continuing the process, and teach- 
 ing the laws of Greek and Latin Grammar practically and 
 rationally, even though it were as yet too much to expedt that 
 he should be master of that new science of Comparative 
 Philology, which is destined sooner or later, to revolutionize 
 our teaching. Once taught to read the languages of Greece and 
 Rome, our shipwrecked boys would have, in the subjedl-matter 
 of the classic writers, material for the exercise of their faculties 
 in very various diredlions. They could learn history from 
 Herodotus, Livy, and Thucydides ; politics from Aristotle ; 
 eloquence from Demosthenes ; and" philosophy from Plato. 
 The politics, to be sure, would be antiquated ; the morals, un- 
 christian ; f and the progress the world has made in eighteen 
 
 * Our excellent Dr. Benjamin Rush, in the " Observations on the 
 Study of the Latin and Greek Languages," to be found in his Essays, 
 says (p. 45), " Sancho, in attempting to learn to read by chewing the four 
 and twenty letters of the alphabet, did not exhibit a greater absurdity 
 than a boy of seven or eight years old does in committing grammar- 
 rules to memory, in order to understand the English language.'' The 
 learning a language by attempting to learn all its grammatical minutiae 
 Jlrsi, has been aptly compared to the attempt to teach a child to walk 
 by sitting down and attempting to teach him the anatomy of the muscles 
 of the legs. 
 
 t It might be a curious question to investigate what eflfeA the exclu- 
 sive study of the Greek and Latin classics has had in the political 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 43 
 
 centuries would all have to be ignored. They could even 
 acquire some rude notions of physical science, and |he begin- 
 ning of classification in natural history, from Pliny and 
 Aristotle ; and in Euclid they would have a geometry not yet 
 superseded. In the careful practice of turning Greek and 
 Latin into good idiomatic English, they would have, not the 
 best certainly, but a very good training in their mother-tongue. 
 And in the study of the severe beauty of the Greek poets, they 
 would have a discipline of their taste, such as perhaps no other 
 literature can give, — provided always they ever attained to 
 such proficiency in the language as would enable them to 
 appreciate its more delicate graces ; a proficiency really at- 
 tained, I presume, by about one in ten thousand of those who 
 study the language. 
 
 I have gone into this little sketch because it is precisely the 
 way in which the classics are not taught in the great schools 
 of England. First, for the elements of Grammar,* we are 
 told by the University examiners, that they are not learned 
 at all. Next, for the subjeft-matter of the classical writers, we 
 have the evidence of no less a man than the famous Master of 
 Trinity, Dr. Whewell, — and he is the more impartial witness, 
 as, though eminent as a man of science, he is a warm upholder 
 of real classical study, — that the subjedt-matter of the classical 
 writers is called " cram," and is wholly negledted ; and, 
 finally, various witnesses testify that little if any pains is taken 
 to form a good English style, by the careful and elegant 
 translation of Latin or Greek into English. You will begin 
 
 thought of Europe. The eminent French economist, Bastiat, has, 
 written an ingenious pamphlet — " Baccalaureat et Socialisme " — to 
 show the pernicious influence thej have exerted on French political 
 speculation, particularly as exhibited at the time of the first French revo- 
 lution. {CEuvres, tome iii.) And see also his lively letter on founding a 
 classical College at Bajonne (tome vii). 
 
 * The Eton Grammars are so bad that they find no sale outside the 
 walls of Eton itself. "We aflirm without the least hesitation," says 
 an English critic, " that the two Eton Grammars are marked by almost 
 every fault under which such treatises can labor." 
 
44 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 to ask in despair, What, then, do the boys learn? The 
 answer is brief, and it is this, — that their chief mental occu- 
 pations are, first, the committing of a quantity of Greek and 
 Latin verse to memory, so great that Dr. Acland, another emi- 
 nent witness, calls it " frightful ; " and, secondly, the manufac- 
 turing themselves of vast quantities of Greek and Latin verses, 
 or what are called verses ; which is usually done with the help 
 of a " Gradus," and, in point "of educational value, is about 
 on a par with the operation of turning the handle of a barrel- 
 organ. 
 
 I feel that I ought to sustain such statements by evidence. 
 The following is from tliat of Dr. Whewell. Sending, along 
 with his communication, a copy of his able work " Of a Liberal 
 Education," he says : — 
 
 "I have also made various remarks on the defedlive charafter of 
 the classical teaching of our great schools ; the whole attention of the 
 scholar being employed in obtaining a knowledge of the language of 
 the classical author, with no attention to the matter. I have made 
 these remarks in the first part, and have noticed the manner in which 
 schoolboys in these days ridicule all knowledge of the matter of books 
 as cram. In the second part, I have quoted the testimony of an 
 eminent person, formerly a classical medallist, to the truth of the pic- 
 ture which I had drawn, of the narrowness of the scheme of classical 
 scholarship prevalent in our great schools. 
 
 " I have ventured further to say, that, though to write 'Latin ^rose is a 
 necessary part of scholarship, to write 'Latin verse is not equally neces- 
 sary. The very great amount of time and care which is bestowed upon 
 this accomplishment is disproportioned to the value of it as a condition 
 and element of an exa6l knowledge of the Latin language. Probably 
 many of the best Latin scholars who have ever lived would not write 
 Latin verses so classical in their tone and measure as some of our Eton 
 schoolboys. Still more are the writing of Greek prose and Greek verse 
 accomplishments which are not necessary to the scholar; * and it cannot 
 be doubted, that a most exaift knowledge of Greek may exist in persons 
 
 * I find the following striking corroboration of Dr. Whewell's state- 
 ment: Person, perhaps the greatest Greek scholar the English ever 
 had, was not at all distinguished at Eton. " He was inaccurate in his 
 prosody, — a fatal defedl ; and his Latin verses, almost the only road 
 to distin6lion, were never remarkable." — ".E/os/aBa," in Black-wood 
 March, 1865. 
 
CLASSICAL ABD SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 45 
 
 who could not fluently translate Addison into Greek prose, or Pope into 
 Greek verse. 
 
 ' ' The great amount of time and attention which is bestowed upon these 
 accomplishments in this University has, I think, an unfavorable eflfedt 
 upon the knowledge of classical literature which our scholars acquire ; 
 and I think that the same must be the case at our public schools where 
 this kind of exercise is cultivated. Our scholars call it, I find, comjiosi- 
 tion. The result of its occupying so much of their time is, that they 
 bestow comparatively little of their time and thoughts upon the reading 
 of Greek and Latin authors with a view to their matter. They are 
 much better acquainted with the Greek and Latin written by themselves 
 and their companions, than with any Greek and Latin written by ancient 
 authors, except the few who are seledled as models of style or sources of 
 phraseology."* (Vol. ii. p. 43.) 
 
 The charadler of much of this Greek and Latin composition 
 may be estimated by the evidence of another sensible witness, 
 Archdeacon Denison. In a paper suggesting improvements in 
 the present methods of instrudlion, he says : — 
 
 " I should discard the pradlice of Latin-theme writing. Few things 
 so intrinsically absurd have, I think, been imported into school-teach- 
 ing. For it calls upon boys to do two things at once which are not 
 compatible: 15^, To think out a subjedt; 2d, To express their thoughts 
 in a language other than that in which they think. The result is, as a 
 general rule, what might be expefted, that they do neither the one nor 
 the other moderately well, and that so many themes begin with omnes 
 homines, and struggle on through fourteen gasping and despairing lines 
 to faciunt. 
 
 " Now, if the principal use of an exercise be to make a boy think, he 
 should be allowed to express his thoughts in the language in which he 
 thinks. The result of any other requirement is only unmeaning plati- 
 tudes and poor and stunted expression. If, on the other hand, the use 
 be to teach a boy the idioms and the elegances and the power of 
 another language, or even to familiarize him with the words of it, this 
 is best done by translation ; well done by written translation ; better 
 done by oral translation. 
 
 * The reader who would see Dr. Whewell's views more at large is 
 referred to the above-named work, " Of a Liberal Education," and 
 especially to the chapter on Classical Educational Studies (p. 78), and on 
 the Great Classical Schools (part ii. p. 63, edition of 1850). See also his 
 Lefture in the volume of Leftures on Education, delivered at the Royal 
 Institution in 1854. 
 
46 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 i- 
 
 " The same, mutatis mutandis, for Latin and Greek verse-writing. To 
 call upon all the boys of a school to exercise imaginative power, which 
 most of them do not possess, in the poetical garb of another language, 
 with which they are at the best very imperfeftly acquainted, is only an 
 ingenious device for exposing dulness and incapacity, and a temptation 
 to hate poetry altogether." (Vol. ii. p. 50.) 
 
 Mr. Twisleton interrogates the Rev. Mr. Oakes, one of the 
 masters at Eton, as follows : " Was it not the case, that, 
 among the boys, taking say one hundred boys, there would 
 be a large proportion who possessed no turn for Latin compo- 
 sition?" and the answer is, "A great proportion of them." — 
 " So that," Mr. Twisleton continues, " if the time of one 
 hundred boys were taken up by Latin composition, there 
 would be a sacrifice of a great number of boys to the attain- 
 ment of excellence in some," — excellence, you observe, in 
 writing, not English prose, but Latin verse. But Mr. Oakes 
 can only say, " As a matter of discipline, I doubt whether it 
 would be well to give it up." 
 
 Mr. Walford, another Eton master, testifies, " We negledl, to 
 a very great extent, the careful analysis of the argument and 
 the digesting thoroughly the subject-matter of the books we 
 read ; " in other words, they are in the habit of reading Latin 
 and Greek books without understanding their ineaning. And, 
 as if this were not enough, he goes on to say, that no attention 
 is given to nicety of translation ; and. then that the boys would 
 learn more, if it were not for what he calls the " thoroughly 
 established pradtice of allowing them to come into school 
 with the English translation, written word for word over the 
 Latin and Greek." Anybody who has ever heard a boy 
 attempt to recite an ill-understood lesson from what we in 
 Cambridge call a " pony," can understand their state of intel- 
 lectual development, and their style of English composition, 
 after several years of such discipline. Absurdity could hardly 
 be carried further, and we no longer wonder at the evidence of 
 the Oxford tutors. 
 
 But while the subjedt-matter of classical literature is thus 
 negledted, and exadlness and elegance of translation into Eng- 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 47 
 
 lish held in no esteem, the quantity of Latin and Greek words 
 committed to memory is something enormous, and almost in- 
 credible. Dr. Moberly testifies, that he has known a boy 
 repeat a w^hole play of Sophocles w^ithout missing a word ; 
 and adds, that it secured him a fellowship. The Commission- 
 ers say : — 
 
 The quantity of Latin and Greek poetry learnt by heart is, as has 
 been already stated, very large. Speaking generally, every such lesson 
 which is construed is also [supposed to be] learnt by heart. A boy has 
 to say eighty lines of Homer, and sixty lines of some other author, 
 alternately, five days in the week. Mr. Balston sets a high value on 
 this exercise of memory, as an unfailing test of industry, and "a thing 
 which they cannot get done for them at any rate." Granting this, as 
 well as the great advantage both of "recitation" (properly so called) 
 and of storing the memory from the classics, the question would still 
 remain, whether the suggested purpo.se requires or is best answered by 
 the repetition of three or four hundred Latin and Greek verses, and those 
 only, in every week. We have reason, however, to think that even as a 
 test of industry it is sometimes deceptive; that the manner in which 
 the repetition is heard by no means insures its being learnt; and that 
 the quantity exadted has very often the eftec?t of making the exercise of 
 memory mechanical and slovenly, and therefore worse than useless. 
 When Mr. Walter was at school, " a quick boy learned the half-dozen 
 lines or so that he thought he was likely to be called up to say, and got 
 off in that way." He believes that there has been a great improvement 
 in this respedt; but his impression is hardly borne out by a witness 
 whose experience is very recent. 
 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) Do you know how many lines a week the Latin 
 and Greek repetition would amount to at the top of the school, say high 
 in the Fifth Form.' — I should think between two and three hundred 
 lines. 
 
 Could that be easily shirked by a boy.' — Boys have very seldom 
 learnt it. They have got a way of guessing the piece they are likely to 
 have. 
 
 Are they called up in order.' — Yes. 
 
 So that they could get piping hot four or five lines, and be ready 
 with it at the proper moment? — Yes. 
 
 Do you think that the repetition set to the boys to learn told really 
 and eftedtively upon the composition, by giving taste and facility.' — I 
 do not think it did. 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) That could be frustrated if the masters were in 
 the habit of setting on boys out of order, and dodging them .' — Yes, if 
 they did not go straight through the lessons. 
 
48 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) A master would be verj unpopular if he inter- 
 fered with that routine, would he not? — He would, decidedly. (Vol. i. 
 p. 88.) 
 
 We need not be surprised to find not only that this kind of 
 classical teaching does not give any command over English, 
 but to hear Dr. Acland testify that it is positively disastrous to 
 classical scholarship itself. 
 
 Our astonishment at this state of things will perhaps be 
 somewhat diminished, when we read the following description 
 of the mode of education and appointment of the Eton masters. 
 " These gentlemen," says a late article in the " Edinburgh 
 Review," * are, we believe, always seledled from King's Col- 
 lege, Oxford ; that is to say, out of twenty-one masters now at 
 Eton, about sixteen are King's men, as well as the provost 
 and six out of seven of the fellows. It is admitted, that until 
 lately the fellows of King's College were not generally of a stamp 
 calculated to furnish first-rate masters for any school.f They 
 entered Eton, when mere children, by favor ; they were grossly 
 negledted and ill-educated while they remained there ; they 
 were eledted to King's by seniority ; and, when at Cambridge, 
 they kept aloof from the general society and studies of the 
 place, and, living in a College notorious for the laxity of its dis- 
 cipline and the idleness of its members, encountered none of 
 the public examinations of the University. Returning to Eton 
 at four or five and twenty years of age as assistant-masters, 
 without any knowledge of the world or experience in tuition, 
 they were at once entrusted with the instrudlion of two or 
 three times as many boys as the most practised and accom- 
 plished schoolmaster would have attempted to educate else- 
 where. Having themselves learnt at Eton and Cambridge 
 nothing but Latin and Greek, they could teach nothing else ; 
 and they consequently despised and decried all other branches 
 of learning. In due course of time, other collegers, as care- 
 
 * Vol. cxiii., April, i86i, p. 417. 
 
 t King's College, with a revenue of $125,000 a year, admits annually 
 from five to tiuelve undergraduates. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 49 
 
 lessly educated by such teachers, became in their turn assistant- 
 masters at Eton themselves, whilst their immediate prede- 
 cessors undertook, as provost and fellows, the government of 
 the College ; and thus the vicious circle has been perpetuated 
 from age to age." 
 
 But I shall expect you to begin to say : The thing is incredi- 
 ble ; you are proving too much. It cannot be that this great 
 number of boys should be herded together without receiving 
 any education at all. Obsei-ve, gentlemen, that I have nowhere 
 said that these boys received no education at all ; and now, 
 having gone over all the parts of that education which they 
 do not receive; let me proceed very briefly to describe the 
 education which they do. 
 
 Let me premise that the moral standard, at most of these 
 great schools, seems to be very high. The evidence, in the 
 main, goes to show, though evidence of an opposite kind is 
 not wholly wanting, that the boys are healthy, frank, manly, 
 and, on the whole, singularly free from vice. The famous 
 system of " fagging," of which it was said not many years 
 ago, that it was " the only regular institution of slave-labor, 
 enforced by brute violence, which now exists in these islands," 
 and to which may perhaps be attributed something of that 
 bullying spirit and reckless disregard of right which has char- 
 acSterized the ruling classes in their intercourse with other 
 nations, — still exists ; but, save at one school, Westminster, 
 it is stripped of nearly all its old brutality, and amounts to 
 merely a wholesome supei"vision and protedlion, exercised by 
 the older boys over the younger, in return for which certain 
 menial services are performed, of which, as the aristocracy 
 seem to set great store by* their educational value, one is not 
 disposed to grudge them the benefit. 
 
 * In the " London Daily News" for June 7, 1864, may be found the 
 report of a curious debate in the House of Lords, on the subjeA of 
 the discipline of the public schools, in which Lord de Ros spoke in the 
 highest terms of the benefit he had derived, while at Eton, from the 
 operation of cleaning the shoes of a right reverend bishop, who sat 
 
50 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 Now, in any great colledlion of boys or young men, if the 
 organized and accredited system of education should prove 
 unsuitable and a failure, you may be sure that an unorganized 
 and unaccredited system will be established by the boys them- 
 selves. At such an age, their bodily adtivity must have fair 
 play, if their mental does not. If they are turbulent and 
 vicious, they will give themselves an education in vice. If 
 they are merely healthy and adlive young animals, they will 
 be sure to or'ganize a system of vigorous and manly sports ; 
 and this is the real education of these great schools. The 
 studies of iMs curriculum are, first and foremost, cricket; 
 second, and hardly less important, rowing ; and, as subordi- 
 nate elementary studies, racket, hare, and hounds, &c., of 
 which we read such glowing accounts in " Tom Brown." You 
 may smile at this as a jest ; but listen to the evidence. Mr. 
 Johnson, an Eton master, testifies that cricket has become such 
 a grave and serious science as to require special trainers, 
 professors, as it were ; and that the needful pradtice consumes 
 twenty-seven hours per week. We shall see that another mas- 
 ter puts it higher. Mr. Wolley says, that, cceteris -paribus, 
 the captain of the boats or the captain at cricket is a far 
 greater hero than the Newcastle scholar. Mr. Mitchell, a 
 young Oxford student, lately from Eton, says, — 
 
 "A boy has no chance of becoming one of the leading boys of the 
 school by work. If he can do any thing else, — if he can row or play 
 cricket, or any other athletic game, — I do not think he is thought the 
 ■worse of for reading." And Mr. Walford, one of the masters, gives the 
 following evidence : — 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) Would you say, that, in fine seasons of the 
 year, a boy spends more time in work or in play.? — More in play, I 
 should think. 
 
 Do you know if it is the case that five hours are considered barely 
 suflicient for cricket.' — I should think it was. 
 
 opposite. The insolent self-sufficiency of the British aristocracy is 
 such, in spite of disciplinary boot-blacking, that it is a curious inquiry, 
 what it would have been if untempered in early youth by that useful 
 economical experience. 
 
CLASSICAL AXD SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 51 
 
 That a boy cannot attain the proficiency in cricket, which at Eton 
 a. boy aspires to, without five hours a day study of it? — I should 
 think so. 
 
 How long will that boy study Greek and Latin who devotes five 
 hours a day to cricket? — Not very long : there are, however, some excep- 
 tions. 
 
 Would it not require a boy of strong constitution to read six hours 
 a day in the classics, after having studied five hours in cricket? — Yes. 
 
 You think the masters are overworked ; are the boys sufficiently 
 worked? — It seems to me to be the result of our system at Eton, that an 
 immense deal of work is got out of the masters, with comparatively little 
 out of the boys. (Vol. iii. p. 267.) 
 
 Did I go too far, then, in saying that this unrecognized 
 education has really taken the place of the recognized one? 
 One would think, that the authorities, having regard to the 
 etymology of the word, had convinced themselves that a school 
 was a place, not of study, but of leisure; and it is a question 
 whether that is not the theorj' which best satisfies the demands 
 of the parents themselves. " The real advantages derived 
 from Eton," says the Senior Censor of Christ Church, Mr. 
 Sandford, "is less intellectual than social education. Eton is 
 expefted to make a boy a gentleman, and this expedlation it 
 fulfils. It may be added, that many boys are sent to Eton, not 
 to learn, but to form connexions." Compared with the police- 
 spy system of French, or the Jesuit-priest system of Romish, 
 education, no one would hesitate to which to give the prefer- 
 ence ; but, intelleAually, do we not see its legitimate results ? 
 For whence come, but from these schools, those innumerable 
 English Nimrods, who betake themselves, through lack of 
 intellectual culture, to wandering up and down the earth, 
 destroying wild animals, lions and elephants in Africa, buffa- 
 loes in our prairies, and bears in Norway, yachting to the Xorth 
 Pole, and in a thousand ways endeavoring to work off" that 
 superabundant animal life which has no intellecSlual life to 
 balance it? Or whence comes that solid but silent phalanx of 
 Tory lords and country gentlemen, who, in Parliament, so 
 steadily and persistently strive to keep the world from moving, 
 — who fought for the Corn Laws, fought against the Reform 
 
52 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 Bill, and now are fighting us, — who are they but these 
 ignorant young cricketers, grown up, and not come to years of 
 discretion ? 
 
 And I might go on to ask, Who is it but thp boys who 
 swallow Greek plays whole for the sake of fellowships, that 
 compose that Convocation of country parsons who think that 
 geology tends to atheism because it contradidts Genesis, and 
 even now are striving to silence Bishop Colenso and Professor 
 Jowett? For, so far from this state of things in regard to the 
 intelledlual education of these schools being impossible,. I will 
 engage, if you will give me several hundred thousand dollars to 
 be expended every year in premiums on the best acquaintance 
 with the words of the Chickasaw language, — if, for instance, a 
 knov^ledge of Chickasaw words could be made to lead straight 
 to fiVe-thousand-dollar sinecures in the Custom-house and the 
 public offices, — I will engage to have half the community 
 studying that aboriginal tongue, and its teachers defending it 
 (and the kindred Kickapoo dialedl) as the divinely appointed 
 foundation of all human education ; and a thousand arguments 
 shall be found to prove their peculiar adaptability to that 
 special purpose. Now, this is just the position of the ancient 
 languages in English schools and Universities. They are, it is 
 true, at the other extreme of the scale of languages : they have 
 an intrinsic educational value ; but their place as the sole in- 
 struments of education is maintained entirely by the enormous 
 system of bounties which is connedled with the learning of 
 them. Fellowships, scholarships, church-livings, the master- 
 ships in these very schools (and we have seen how lucrative 
 they are), — all the means of promotion to which an English 
 literary man or clergyman must look, are absolutely dependent, 
 not so much upon his real knowledge of the substance of Latin 
 and Greek literature, as upon his skill in making Greek iam- 
 bics, or the rate at which he can grind out Latin hexameters, 
 or the number of Latin and Greek verses he can repeat by 
 heart. The result of repeating a whole play of Sophocles, we 
 have seen, was a fellowship for life ; which was, to use Dr. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIEXTIFIC STUDIES. 53 
 
 Moberly's own words, " the prize of a struggle which was over 
 at fourteen, and success in which -was won, in a great measure, 
 by a hard strain on a retentive memory." And Oxford and 
 Cambridge are little more than cock-pits on a larger scale, 
 and for older combatants to engage in contests of the same 
 kind. Can any thing be more preposterous than to call this 
 education ? But, on the other hand, when the prizes are so 
 great, can we wonder that there is a never-failing supply of 
 combatants, — not from the best minds of the nation, who, 
 intent on real knowledge, scorn to prostitute their talents to 
 such base purposes ; but of second-rate and vulgar men, who 
 are ready to travel any road that offers them a prospedl, how- 
 ever distant, of a bishopric? 
 
 The English classical system, therefore, is a protedted mo- 
 nopoly of the stridlest kind. The manufadture of Greek and 
 Latin verses is fostered by a system of bounties that are almost 
 prohibitive of any other style or quality of teaching ; and they 
 lead to the inevitable result of a system of high bounties and 
 stridl proteftion, — the produdlion of a surplus of very costly 
 and very worthless goods, and the prevention of all improve- 
 ment by the destruction of all competition. 
 
 But, it will perhaps be asked, " If this is the condition of 
 English education, whence come the real scholars and well- 
 educated men that we know England possesses ? " And cer- 
 tainly, after the recent visit we have had from one distinguished 
 English scholar,* we cannot doubt that even Oxford can pro- 
 duce men eminent alike for learning and for large-hearted love 
 of liberty. But I have to say in answer to the query, first, that 
 I fear that such scholars are really much rarer in England than 
 is commonly supposed ; and that the English aristocracy, as a 
 body, are not well educated.f The evidence I have adduced is 
 
 * Professor Goldwin Smith. 
 
 t It is to be observed, that, even in classical learning itself, it is to 
 Germany, and not to England, that -vie look for real additions to our 
 knowledge. The best critical editions of the classics in use in England 
 are mainly the work of German scholars. 
 
54 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 sufficient to prove it ; and, if by nothing else, it has been of late 
 abundantly made evident by the events of the passing hour. 
 Our English brethren, it is true, bear us no good-will. In their 
 eagerness to monopolize the commerce of the vvorld, they hate 
 a nation which threatens to be their rival ; in their efforts to 
 sustain the overgrown and novv tottering power which they 
 have built up through their conquests and their coloijies, they 
 are jealous of a nation which may at any time dispute their 
 arrogant pretensions.* But I do not think that this is sufficient 
 wholly to explain their base pondudl towards us in our late 
 struggle to emancipate ourselves from the demon of slavery. 
 CommcJn. prudence, if no higher motive, would have counselleid. 
 a well-educated nation not to make such indecent haste to 
 grant the rights. of belligerents to a band of assassins and men- 
 stealers, in comparison with whom all previous traitors are as 
 angels of light. Ordinary wisdom, if not good feeling, should 
 have prevented them from equipping and sending out, under 
 the hypocritical cloak of a pretended neutrality, armed cruisers 
 to prey upon the commerce of a friendly nation, if their educa- 
 tion had taught them any thing of its real power. A small 
 share of ordinary knowledge would have been enough to pre- 
 vent them from indulging in the taunts and insults which have 
 embittered against them for generations a kindred people who 
 ought to be their friends. I can wholly account for their con- 
 dud: only by their gross and stupid ignorance, — an ignorance 
 on the part of their ruling classes — for it is of their ruling 
 classes that I here speak — such as perhaps nothing but an 
 Eton training in longs and shorts can explain ; an ignorance 
 in branches of knowledge, with which no man who would do a 
 man's work in the. world can dispense, such as would disgrace 
 an American schoolboy. One of their Reviews said, recently, 
 
 * When I speak thus of the English people, I mean, of course, that 
 portion — I fear a very large portion — whose sentiments are repre- 
 sented by the " London Times." So long as that infamous paper shall 
 have the power and enjoy the popularity it possesses, so long we must 
 hold the English people responsible for its opinions. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 55 
 
 that there were not ten men in the House of Commons who 
 were acquainted with the rudiments of the science of political 
 economy ; and another has lately asserted, that there was not 
 a minister in the British Cabinet who had the least knowledge 
 of physical science. One more addition to these deficiencies 
 could surely be made, — a general and very great deficiency 
 in their knowledge of civil and political geography, as shown 
 in their estimate of the true charadter of one at least of the 
 leading nations of the world. 
 
 But, in the next place, I think it is evident that a large 
 number of the best scholars and most eminent men of England 
 are — as I shall presently show — not the produdl of her pub- 
 lic schools, but either self-educated or privately educated men ; 
 to whom we must certainly add many who, by strength of 
 genius, or by pursuing an independent course at school and 
 College, have got a real education ; or who, by toughness of 
 intelledlual fibre, have survived, perhaps not wholly un- 
 harmed, the utmost injury that a bad system could inflicfl. 
 And, lastly, there are, both at the public schools, and still more 
 at the Universities, conscientious and laborious tutors, men of 
 admirable genius, who, by the excellence of their private 
 teaching, protedl their pupils from the mischiefs which the 
 system would otherwise occasion. It is such a man that 
 Oxford has lately been endeavoring to starve for heresy, as 
 she can no longer burn him.* 
 
 But, in the ablest of her University men, can we not often 
 detedl the defefts of her University training ? What but Ox- 
 ford narrowness could have produced such a Tory as Earl 
 Derby? Is his translation of Homer an offset for his blind 
 and bitter hatred of freedom ? What but that makes even Mr. 
 Gladstone t — if we may believe Englishmen themselves — 
 
 * Professor Jowett. 
 
 t Mr. Gladstone's -whimsical argument in favor of classical studies 
 is well criticized in the articles on the Public Schools Report in the 
 "National Review "for November, and the "Edinburgh Review" for 
 July, 1864. 
 
56 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 fall short of being a statesman and a real leader of the people ? 
 — what but that habit of refining, of hair-splitting, which leads 
 him, after enunciating a great principle to-day, to retradt it or 
 fritter away its force to-morrow, the fault and weakness of a 
 narrow literary culture? Would a real statesman ever have 
 called the rebellion of slave-holding assassins " the creation of 
 a new nation " ? What power less potent than Oxford bigotry 
 could have plunged one of the greatest of her sons in this gen- 
 eration into the doleful abyss of worn-out Romish superstition ? 
 That is a sad page in biography that records the advice of his 
 Oxford friends to the truly great and large-hearted Arnold, 
 to swallow his doubts, and sign the thirty-nine articles ; and 
 can we not trace the marks of the fetters it threw around his 
 spirit for ever after? What takes away from our enjoyment 
 of the genius of his son, but that narrowness, that friggish- 
 ness^ which seems inseparable from the mere belles lettres 
 scholar? In such a training, there is, to use the words of 
 the Camden Professor of History, " a want of solidity, of ac- 
 quaintance with mankind, and so of practical power, which 
 makes the finished scholar often an ineflScient and useless 
 man." * 
 
 And the results would seem to be beginning to alarm the 
 English aristocracy themselves. The appointment of this Com- 
 mission, and of the equally important University Commissions 
 which preceded it, appears to have been one fruit of that 
 alarm. While the lower classes, through the stimulus that 
 has been given of late years to the efforts for their education 
 by large appropriations of money, are steadily rising in the 
 scale of intelligence, in spite of a clumsy bureaucracy and bitter 
 seftarian quarrels ; while the great, adtive trading and manu- 
 fadturing middle-class are giving themselves a real education,t 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 14. 
 
 t " During the last four years," says Rev. B. Price, Sedleian Profes- 
 sor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford, "I have become acquainted, 
 through the Oxford local examinations, with the standard of knowledge 
 of mathematical subjects possessed by boys belonging to the middle- 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 57 
 
 — the aristocracy, equipped with merely this ornamental sham, 
 are steadily declining in power and influence. If you will turn 
 to the i32d vol. of " Hansard's Debates," the volume for 
 1854, you will find a remarkably able speech, by Mr. Hors- 
 man, on this subjedt, delivered during the debate on the Report 
 of the Oxford University Commission ; and in the volyme 
 for 1855 there is a report of the debate in the House of Lords 
 on the same subjedl, in which the old Tory ex-chancellor, Lord 
 Lyndhurst, who was surely an impartial witness, said, " I 
 thmk that the Universities exert much less influence, and have 
 a far weaker hold upon the public feeling of the country at the 
 present day, than it was their good fortune to possess at a not 
 very distant period. When I first entered public life, I found 
 in the other House of Parliament that a majority of the mem- 
 bers of that assembly had been educated at one or the other of 
 the Universities. Now, however, as I understand, not more 
 than one-sixth, or at most one-fifth, of the representatives of 
 the people have been educated at either of those great institu- 
 tions." * Mr. HejTvood, in his book on Academical Reform,f 
 referring to the destrudlion of mental vigor, occasioned by a 
 false system of education, says, in regard to the legal profes- 
 sion, " The old type of the academically distinguished judge is 
 hardly to be found ; self-taught and energetic genius has 
 invaded the field of legal promotion, and the course of Univer- 
 sity study has become too laborious and exhausting for young 
 intelledts." And, in the " Social Science Transa6tions " for 
 1859,1 t^hs Rev. Foster Barham Zincke, a gentleman well 
 known for his enlightened advocacy of popular education. 
 
 class schools ; and I find it, for extent and accuracy, far superior to that 
 which is exhibited by the candidates for matriculation from public 
 schools who come under my notice. These latter can, in many cases, 
 scarcely apply the rules of arithmetic, and generally egregiously fail in 
 questions which require a little independent thought and common 
 sense." (Vol. ii. p. 24.) 
 
 * Hansard's Debates, third series, vol. cxxxvii. p. 1715. 
 
 t p. i8i. X P- 287. 
 
58 CLASSICAL AND' SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 himself an Oxford man, testifies as follows : " I live in the 
 neighborhood of a striftly agricultural town, the capital of 
 an agricultural county ; but of its population, now amount- 
 ing to forty thousand souls, I am not aware that a single 
 individual, except the clergy [to whom it is indispensable, as 
 otherwise they cannot receive ordination], has received a Uni- 
 versity education. Probably the educated classes of the enter- 
 prising manufadturing town in which we are now assembled 
 (Bradford) show the same pradlical disregard of our Univer- 
 sities. It is to the requirements for holy orders, and the hopes 
 of a fellowship, that the Universities now owe their very exist- 
 ence. Every year the proportion of the members of the two 
 Houses of Parliament, of the bar, and of the gentry, that have 
 received a University education, decreases. The fadt is patent 
 to all, that they have lost the hold they once had on the edu- 
 cated classes." 
 
 This view will be corroborated if we consider how many of 
 the most influential minds of the century, in science, literature, 
 art, and politics, have either had no connedlion w^hatever with 
 the Universities, or are under small obligation to them for any 
 connection they may have had. In politics and political econ- 
 omy, we might name, among others, Romilly, Bentham, Ri- 
 cardo. Bright, Cobden,* Stuart Mill. Though the Government 
 of England is monopolized by the aristocracy, the political 
 thought which governs her governors comes daily more and 
 more from the people. The list of " uneducated" men of sci- 
 ence — if I may be allowed the absurdity of such a phrase — is 
 far longer, as, after what has been said, might reasonably be 
 expedted, than any the Universities can show, — Davy, Wollas- 
 ton, Dalton, Faraday, Wheatstone, Delabeche, Murchison, 
 
 * In a recently published notice of the lamented statesman whom 
 England has just lost, Professor Goldwin Smith says, " Palmerston has 
 held office almost all his life. Cobden never held an office of any kind ; 
 yet the policy of Cobden is prevailing over the policy of Palmerston, as 
 the day prevails over the night." 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 59 
 
 Hind, South, Fitzroy, Playfair, Carpenter — it might be in- 
 definitely extended ; and we shall find that the most eminent 
 of her College-educated men of science are the foremost in 
 denouncing her University system. Of course, all her great 
 engineers, inventors, and builders are uneducated men, — 
 Watt, Telford, Smeaton, Rennie, Brindley, the Brunels, the 
 Stephensons, Sir Joseph Paxton : it is with these names that 
 that sad but glorious volume, " The Pursuit of Knowledge 
 under Difficulties" is filled. Her great artists are all " un- 
 educated" men, — Flaxman and Gibson, Landseer, Turner, and 
 Stanfield, Kemble and Macready, and all the rest. And, when 
 we turn to literature itself, the greatest English historical work 
 of this generation — a work on classic history too — was writ- 
 ten by an "uneducated" London banker. The greatest, I 
 might almost say the only, English attempt at a philosophy of 
 history, a work which, with all its errors and paradoxes, — and 
 I shall not deny that they are many and great, — is still one 
 which cannot be matched by any similar academic performance, 
 was the work of the " uneducated" son of a London merchant. 
 Her novelists, Dickens, Thackeray, Jerrold, Marryat, come 
 from all quarters save the banks of the Cam and the Isis ; not 
 to mention so many of that sex which is excluded altogether 
 from their sacred borders. Bulwer is, indeed, a Cambridge 
 man ; but I think Cambridge will be slow to put forward 
 that pretentious charlatan as an example of the fruits of her 
 classical training. Even of her poets', critics, and essay- 
 ists, what a long list are among the wholly " uneducated," 
 or must be classed among those who derived no benefit from 
 their stay at a University, save that (undoubtedly great) one 
 which comes from mere residence at a place of learning ! The 
 names at once occur of Crabbe, Rogers, Lamb, Moore, Mont- 
 gomery, Hunt, Giflbrd, Hazlitt, Hood. Who would hesitate 
 to say where Scott's real education lay? Who has criticised 
 the education of Oxford so wittily as Sydney Smith, or so 
 grimly as Carlyle? Wordsworth and Coleridge, in their short 
 stay at the University, owed little or nothing to the studies 
 
60 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 cff the place. Southey says he only learned to swim there — 
 badly ; Byron was ruined there ; and the beautiful genius of 
 Shelley found there, instead of the help and guidance it so 
 much needed, only cruel and ignominious abuse. Keats, some 
 of whose exquisite poems breathe the very spirit of classical 
 antiquity, was a stable-keeper's son, and never studied at public 
 school or University. England's eminent surgeons and physi- 
 cians are not University men ; and what is it that in that country 
 keeps theology so far behind all other sciences, but the fadt that 
 the clergy are the only profession who are compelled to subjedl 
 their minds to the full " dementalizing " power of Oxford train- 
 ing? What power less potent could produce the bigotry of 
 an English High-Church bishop? 
 
 I am not forgetful of the eminent names that may be pro- 
 duced on the other side ; but, even in regard to these, the ques- 
 tion must always be asked, How far was their eminence due 
 to their education? The real relation in which the English 
 schools and Universities stand to her greatest minds, even in 
 the past, and the share which University teaching really had 
 in training them, is a problem that still needs elucidation. 
 " We are not sure," says the present Lord Brougham, writing 
 in 1826, "whether the result of the investigation would be so 
 favorable as is commonly supposed to Oxford and Cambridge. 
 And of this we are sure, that many persons, who, since they 
 have risen to eminence, are perpetually cited as proofs of the 
 beneficial tendency of English education, were at College never 
 mentioned but as idle, frivolous men, fond of desultory reading, 
 and negligent of the studies of the place. It would be indeli- 
 cate to name the living ; but we may venture to speak more 
 particularly of the dead. It is truly curious to observe the use 
 that is made, in such discussions, of names which we acknowl- 
 edge to be glorious, but in which the Colleges have no reason 
 to glory, — that of Bacon, who reprobated their fundamental 
 constitution ; of Dryden, who abjured his Alma Mater, and 
 regretted that he had passed his youth under her care ; of 
 Locke, who was censured and expelled ; of Milton, whose per- 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 61 
 
 son was outraged at one University, and whose works were 
 committed to the flames at the other." * 
 
 It may perhaps be argued, that many of the " uneducated " 
 men whom I have been enumerating would have been the 
 better for a University training. For a irue University train- 
 ing, no doubt they would, — one that would have developed 
 all their powers harmoniously, while it gave full play to their 
 special genius. With the advocates of such a training, I have 
 here no controversy : I will even grant that many of these wri- 
 ters, in spite of their genius, betray the faults which are wont to 
 mark the self-educated man. But would it have been better for 
 Mr. Buckle himself, if, by a long course of nonsense-verses, the 
 attempt had been made to flatten and polish him down to the 
 regulation standard of Oxford mediocrity ? Mr. Buckle at least 
 stimulates us to think : can as much be said of Oxford bishops ? 
 There is a passage in a recently published book of travels 
 in Russia, by Professor Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer-Royal 
 for Scotland, which bears on this question, and records a some- 
 what surprising conclusion. Describing a conversation he 
 had with that eminent astronomer, Struve, as to the results of 
 their experience in University teaching, both agreed that on 
 many points further inquiry was greatly needed ; but Professor 
 Struve said, that " this conclusion had been drawn indepen- 
 dently by so many diflerently circumstanced men in the Russian 
 and German-Baltic provinces, from the general impressions 
 which their recoUeftions gave them, that there could be little 
 doubt of its containing much truth, — truth, too, of a startling 
 
 * " Edinburgh Review,'' vol. xliii. p. 339. To this might be added the 
 bitter words of Gibbon, in his Autobiographj : "To the University of 
 Oxford I acknowledge no obligation ; and she will as cheerfully renounce 
 me for a son as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent four- 
 teen months at Magdalen College : they proved the fourteen months the 
 most idle and unprofitable of my whole life," — ei seg. Eton was hardly 
 better in his day than in ours. "A finished scholar may emerge from 
 the head of Westminster or Eton in total ignorance of the business and 
 conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth 
 century." 
 
 6 
 
62 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 charadter : the first boys at schools disappear at the Colleges, 
 and those who are first in the Colleges disappear in the 
 world." * I am not sure that a similar conclusion would not 
 follow from a similar investigation into our own, as well as into 
 English and German academical history ; and that it would 
 not be found, that the men most useful and successful in after- 
 life were not those who had placed themselves most fully under 
 the influence of. College training, or been stimulated to exer- 
 tion by mere hope of College rewards, but those who had 
 been most successful in escaping its narrowing influences, 
 while, on the other hand, they had also escaped the still greater 
 dangers of idleness and dissipation in the formative period of 
 their history, — men who had cast from them the trammels of 
 pedantry, and with independent energy marked out their own 
 career. There is a sensible piece of evidence given to our 
 Commissioners by a gentleman who appeared as the father of 
 Eton boys, Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berks. He says : — 
 
 "I should not want one of my own sons to get the Newcastle scholar- 
 ship (the chief prize at Eton), judging from what I have known, from 
 my own observation, of the after-career of men of my own time who 
 obtained it. ... I think the great objeft of a public school is to train 
 the greatest amount of average talent which is likely to be useful in 
 English society. You want a strong, healthy race of men, both in mind 
 and body, and not a number of finely grown plants, — not boys, like 
 three-year-old winners of the Derby, — horses who win one race, and 
 then are done for." (Vol. iii. p. 301.) 
 
 The useless and unpradtical charadter of English academi- 
 cal education is pointedly illustrated by the evidence of Mr. 
 Chadwick, the eminent social economist, so widely and honor- 
 ably known in connedtion with the English Poor Law and 
 Sanitary Commissions. It was given before another Parlia- 
 mentary Education Committee, — that appointed to consider 
 the subj'edt of competitive examinations in connedlion with the 
 re-organization of the civil sei-vice. These competitive exami- 
 
 • Three Cities in Russia, p. 85. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 63 
 
 nations may be called the latest English " cri»ze'' on the subjeft 
 of Education. Mr. Chadwick thus comments on them, and it 
 shows very strikingly how much the life has gone out of Eng- 
 lish academical education : — 
 
 "An examination (of candidates for posts in the civil service), 
 mainiy on an academical basis, would have excluded from the public 
 service more than one Lord Chancellor and Chief Justice, who began 
 life as young clerks in attorneys' offices. . The late Duke of Wellington 
 declared that an academical examination would have excluded him from 
 the army.* It would have excluded Nelson from the navy. . . . My 
 objeftions have reference, not solely to the time spent in obtaining pro- 
 ficiency in the classics, but also and most to the present mode of treating 
 what are called the pure sciences (the purity of which is at the expense 
 of pradlicality), and to giving prizes for eminence in the habit of reason- 
 ing from abstraftions, which commonly only conclude to abstractions. 
 I would note, as examples of what I mean, eminence in pure geometry, 
 which leaves the landowner incapable of measuring his own lands, or of 
 testing their measurement by others ; pure and hypothetical hydraulics, 
 which give him no help in draining his fields, and which, being full of 
 false or inapplicable formulse, lead, as we have pradtically found, to great 
 waste and failures ; abstraft pneumatics, which give no help for the 
 ventilation of buildings he construdls, or the house he inhabits, and 
 which, with abstract acoustics, leave both houses of Parliament in a 
 state of helpless annoyance ; finally, mechanics, abstraft from the know- 
 ledge and consideration of the density of substances, strength of mate- 
 rials, and fridtion, which leave the accomplished theoretical engineers of 
 the French Colleges, and, indeed, our own military engineers, educated 
 in like manner, to be surpassed by the rude praflicality of the most emi- 
 nent English engineers, whose education began at the wheelbarrow or 
 the workbench. To refer to instances of the practical errors occasioned 
 by the past methods of training in merely abstract reasoning, which are 
 matters of notoriety, the late Superintendent of Machinery at the Wool- 
 wich Dockyard was eminent as a calculator ; and, being one of the three 
 judges appointed to determine a question between locomotive and station- 
 ary engines, for the first railway at Liverpool, he declared, — reasoning 
 upon the habit of abstraift mathematics, without reference to the real 
 
 * "The great Duke was at Eton a few years afterwards, — ashy, 
 retiring boy, who left the school before he had ever risen into the Fifth 
 Form, and in whom neither masters nor schoolfellows seem to have de- 
 tedted the germ of future greatness.'' {" Eiojiiana" in Black-wood's 
 Magazine, Maj-ch, 1865.) His older brother, Marquis Wellesley, was a 
 famous writer of Latin verses. 
 
64 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 nature of friAion, — Ihat, if a locomotive were produced which dragged 
 without cogs, he would undertake to eat the rails and the whole engine. 
 A stri(ftly academical examination would have admitted him, and would 
 most certainly have excluded those who did the work. It would have 
 admitted the gentleman who was, ^ar excellence, an instrudlor in the 
 abstract sciences, and who wrote articles in the Reviews to show the im- 
 pradlicability of steam navigation across the Atlantic; and it would 
 have excluded those who accomplished the feat. It would have admitted 
 those who condemned the screw-propeller ' as being contrary to the ab- 
 straft law, that aiftion and re-a(5tion are equal and contrary ; ' and it 
 would have excluded those who eflfe(Sted the improvement. It would 
 have included such men as the Astronomer-Royal, who brought before 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers an abstradt calculation to prove 
 that the Crystal Palace could not stand ; and it would have excluded 
 the gentleman who designed it, and who made it stand, as he had 
 made other buildings stand, and who opened the way to some of the 
 largest strudlural improvements that have been made in our time. 
 Other instances may be cited as more direftly applicable to adminis- 
 tration. As, for instance, in relation to finance, it woijld have included 
 the ' calculating-boy,' and would have excluded a great proportion of 
 the most eminent aftuaries, merchants, and Dire&ors of the Bank of 
 England, the East India Company, and other great commercial bodies. 
 
 "The present academical education, and the examination attached to 
 it, would, in respeft to some branches of administration, give the pref- 
 erence to those geometric and abstradt reasoners, who, from narrow 
 premises on the ratio of increase of population to that of produftion, 
 inferred a state of destitution and crime, as arising from unavoidable 
 necessity, and therefore as unpreventable, and irremediable by any leg- 
 islation or administration ; who inferred from abstradt data a continued 
 downward tendency in the face of all the fadts of increasing prosperity, 
 and who excited the benevolent to exertions in order to get the country 
 out of an abyss which it was not in, or near getting into. It would have 
 given precedence for the Poor-Law service to a gentleman who could 
 tell me the names of Adlpeon's hounds, but who could not tell me the 
 names of the chief statutes to be dealt with, and whose education had 
 grounded him neither in the old principles of public policy, nor in law 
 or political economy applicable to them ; and it would have excluded a 
 candidate who was pre-eminent in the pradlical administrative reform, 
 though he had never taken an academical degree. It would have given 
 the preference to those dodtors in medicine who have instituted, and 
 against experience have defended, quarantines, over those who have at 
 once proved the uselessness and evils of such measures of precaution, 
 and the efficiency of others. 
 
 "Numerous examples might, I apprehend, be adduced to prove, that, 
 for a safe basis even of general examinations, it would be necessary to 
 look to a greatly reformed University examination, or to the proposed 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 65 
 
 new school of praftical science and art, in wliich professional adminis- 
 tration, public as well as private, might hereafter be included." * 
 
 I need not apologize for the length at which I have quoted 
 Mr. Chadwick. It is the evidence of an able, pradtical man, 
 and one of England's greatest benefaftors. It does not prove 
 the uselessness of theoretic knowledge, much less any antagon- 
 ism between true theory and pradtice : but it exhibits in a 
 striking light the worthlessness of much that passes for higher 
 intelleftual training, when put to the test of actual use, and 
 the danger in education of divorcing theory from pradtice ; 
 and is thus a testimony to the soundness of the principle upon 
 which such enterprises as yours are based. 
 
 For, gentleinen, if you were to build a mill, and use in its 
 construdlion all the means and appliances of art, sparing no 
 expense to make it perfedl in construdlion and machinery ; if 
 you should then put into it workmen and managers trained 
 expressly to run your machinery ; and then, after all had been 
 done for it that wealth and skill could do, you should find, 
 upon setting it in operation, that it worked badly,' and that its 
 produdt, amidst a vast mass of almost worthless material, 
 showed only here and there a perfedt article, and that one an 
 article rather fitted for show than use, — you would surely sus- 
 pedl some error in the princifle on which the mill and 
 machinery were construdted. It is perfedt of its kind ; no 
 expense has been spared ; it has managers who perfedtly 
 understand its machinery, — and yet the produdt is worthless. 
 Clearly there must be some error, not of detail, but of principle, 
 to account for it. Now, this seems to me to be the condition 
 of the great English schools. They have been tried so long, so 
 much pains and cost have been lavished on them, that their 
 failure cannot be accounted for except upon the theory of 
 
 * " Parliamentary Report on Civil-Service Examinations." I am in- 
 debted for my knowledge of this Report to the admirably indexed and 
 almost complete colleiflion of modern British Parliamentary documents, 
 to be found in that noble Institution, the Free City Library of Boston. 
 
 6* 
 
66 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 some fundamental error in their organization. And I think 
 this supposition is abundantly corroborated by the evidence 
 which I shall now proceed to mention. 
 
 Among the witnesses summoned before them, the Com- 
 mission adopted the excellent plan of inviting some of the 
 most eminent English men of science to give their views 
 on the general subjedl of public-school education ; and this 
 evidence forms the most valuable and interesting part Si the 
 Report. When I mention the names of Lyell, Faraday, 
 the younger Hooker, Owen, Herschel, Max MUller, W. B. 
 Carpenter, and Dr. Acland, as among these witnesses, it will 
 be seen what a value this part of the evidence must possess. 
 It, almost without exception, goes to corroborate the view I 
 have been taking, that the crying evils in English higher 
 education, and the sources of its failure, are two, though very 
 closely connedted : first, that it utterly negledts the principle, 
 patent to all who will give the least attention to the study of 
 the human mind, that men are born Jnto the world with the 
 most diverse mental aptitudes, requiring, instead of one, a great 
 variety of means for their development, — of means capable of 
 combining, and requiring to be combined in varying ways and 
 proportions, to suit the varying circumstances ; and that, there- 
 fore, it is simply preposterous to attempt to run all minds in 
 one mould, to fit all to the Procrustes-bed of one narrow 
 system : and, secondly, that the system itself with which the 
 experiment is tried is antiquated and obsolete, in that it utterly 
 ignores the great, body of modern physical science, which has 
 come into existence since it was established in the days of 
 Laud and William of Wykeham. So far from considering 
 science worthless as an instrument of mental training, fit only 
 to subserve the plebeian and utilitarian purposes of life, which 
 is the charadteristic view taken by the aristocracy who sustain 
 these schools, — a view worthy of an aristocracy which sides 
 with slaveholding assassins in a war waged for republican 
 freedom, — these men of science, — and, gentlemen, they are 
 the true aristocracy of England — trace that weakness of 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 67 
 
 judgment, that want of all reasoning power, which has been 
 betrayed by the liability of these very educated classes to be 
 humbugged by every new chai"latanry, such as table-tipping 
 and spirit-rapping and crystal-globe astrologers,* — to the total 
 absence of that mental training which only the inductive 
 philosophy can give. You may be sure that they do not look 
 at science from any such gross pocket-filling point of view ; 
 but while unanimously recognizing the claims of language 
 as a fadtor in education, and doing full justice to the value 
 of the classical languages in particular, they claim its rightful 
 position for science as an equally indispensable element. 
 In fadl, the only truly wide and generous views of what 
 really constitutes a liberal education are to be found in the 
 evidence of these men of science, and, to their honor be it 
 said, in that of one or two of the masters of Rugby. A part 
 of this evidence I proceed now to lay before you. I shall 
 sele(fl the portions that bear more diredtly upon the following 
 points : isi, As to the diversity of mental chara(Seristics, and 
 the need of variety in methods of teaching and courses of 
 instrudtion ; zd, As to the importance of physical science in 
 education, and the pracSlical effedt of its omission from the 
 higher English education ; ^d, As to the age at which the 
 teaching of science should be begun, and its true place in 
 the curriculum of liberal study : and I shall call, as my 
 chief witnesses. Professor Faraday, Professor Owen, Professor 
 Carpenter, Dr. Hooker, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Herschel, 
 together with the Commissioners themselves, and the few 
 masters in these great schools who are sufficiently free from 
 prejudice to do justice to the subjedt.f 
 
 * See an article on "Zadkielism," in the "London Reader" for July 
 4, 1863 ; and compare Professor Faraday in the volume of Ledlures on 
 Education, delivered before the Royal Institution in 1854. 
 
 ■f My extradls from this evidence have extended to such a length, 
 that I have removed them to the Appendix, p. 81, where I ask for them 
 the reader's careful attention, as by far the most valuable part of this 
 pamphlet. 
 
68 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 Nothing could well seem more conclusive than this evidence ; 
 coming, as it does, from the men of the highest scientific emi- 
 nence in England. Yet we find the least possible sympathy 
 with such views among the masters of the schools. Certainly 
 they are not all like the Head-masters of Eton and Winchester, 
 whose extraordinary testimony I quoted at the beginning of this 
 discourse ; but even the most enlightened of them, the Rev. Dr. 
 Temple, of Rugby, whose communication to the Commission- 
 ers, in an able and interesting paper, and who was examined 
 by them at great length, seems to have an exceedingly inad- 
 equate idea of the value of scientific study, if we measure it 
 by such evidence as that I have just been quoting, or of the 
 place it is likely to occupy in modern education. The most 
 interesting evidence on this subjedl, from the public schools, 
 comes from one of his subordinates, the Rev. Charles Evans. 
 In a communication to the Commissioners, in reply to their 
 schedule of printed questions, he writes — and let it be remem- 
 bered that we have here the result of an extended experience 
 at one of these schools — as follows : — 
 
 " It must be remembered, that a large number of boys leave Rugby 
 every year from lower forms f and to most of them, I think, our system 
 does but scant justice. I am not speaking of the idle or the dull, but of 
 a very large class of boys of good natural abilities and industry, who 
 yet do not reach high positions in the school. At about sixteen years 
 of age, this type of mind appears to reach the length of its classical, 
 tether; and, however much worked after that time, it takes no polish. 
 Such boys are constantly passed, in the race for promotion, by younger 
 and more apt competitors ; and leave school, at seventeen or eighteen 
 years of age, very imperfedtly educated, with little Latin and less Greek ; 
 with stagnant and ill-informed minds, if not a great disrelish for study 
 and application of all kinds. They have never reached the point at which 
 the study of classics begins to acquire its greatest value as an engine 
 of mental discipline ; and, apart from the moral and social advantages 
 and the unconscious self-education of a large school, their last two or 
 three years at Rugby are, I think, almost unprofitable. It is quite true, 
 that, in many instances, such boys grow into eminent men ; and we are 
 tempted to confound ^osi hoc with propter hoc, forgetting how much 
 maybe due to natural force of character and abilities, developed in spite 
 of, rather than in consequence of, their early intelledtual training. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 69 
 
 " To boys of this class, I am strongly of opinion that some modifi- 
 cation of our present system would be most valuable. Up to the age of 
 fifteen, upon the average, the staple of instrudlion ought, I think, to be 
 grammar, taught through the study of the dead languages. Having 
 acquired a solid groundvpork in Latin and Greek, they might then be 
 permitted to drop a certain portion of their classical work (say versifi- 
 cation and Greek), and devote the time thus gained to mathematics 
 principally, — to physical science, history, and modern language; care 
 being taken, of course, to guard against superficial smattering. It does 
 so happen that some such training as this would better meet the imme- 
 diate wants of several professions and departments in practical life ; but 
 I advocate it, not on this narrow ground, but in the abstract, as a valu- 
 able liberal education." (Vol. ii. p. 314.) 
 
 Mr. Evans feels it incumbent on him to apologize for 
 the accident, that his suggestion is pradtically valuable ; and 
 his plan seems to me to bear the marks of the classical pre- 
 judices ip which he has been trained. For why should such 
 boys' minds be wearied and schoolmasters be worn out with 
 teaching the rudiments of Greek, when, by his own showing, 
 such teaching will never be put to its highest use ? Why 
 cannot modern languages, if properly taught, take the place of 
 Greek, even as a part of the " solid groundwork"?* while they 
 would have the added merit — which, perhaps, is no merit in 
 his view — of being pradlically useful. And in postponing the 
 teaching of science to so late a period, and in attaching so 
 much more weight to the abstradl study of mathematics than 
 to the study of science and history, Mr. Evans shows that 
 he has paid but little attention to the true order of develop- 
 ment of the youthful faculties. It seems to me that no reform 
 will fully ineet the case, that shall stop short of establishing a 
 course of liberal education, in which linguistic studies shall be 
 
 * On the educational value of modern languages, when properly 
 taught, see some good remarks in the " National Review " for November, 
 1864, p. 296 ; and a valuable article on the School Claims of Languages, 
 in the " Westminster Review " for OcSober, 1853, ^J I^"". Hodgson. See 
 also the second series of Professor Max Miiller's LeAures on Language. 
 The study of modern languages, considered as a training of the mind, 
 has fallen into undeserved neglecft, from the empirical and unsatisfac- 
 tory manner in which they are usually taught. 
 
70 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 represented, first, by a study of the Latin language and liter- 
 ature, more thorough and effedlive than it usually is now, inas- 
 much as it should be treated as the foundation of a future 
 study of language and general grammar, and of a thorough 
 knowledge of the modern languages of the same family ; but in 
 which the study of Greek shall be wholly superseded by a real 
 study of the mother-tongue and these modern languages ; and 
 in which the study of physical science, begun from the earliest 
 moment that the child's observing powers begin to be adtive, 
 shall be contiaued in such a thorough manner as shall develop 
 the full disciplinary power it possesses. His pidlure of the 
 class of young men who derive no benefit from the Rugby 
 system is fully applicable to very large numbers of young men 
 at our own Colleges and high schools ; and I do not think our 
 Colleges will gain that full measure of confidence they ought 
 to possess in the public mind, till some such course as this, 
 begun at school, and accented for admission to them, shall 
 be placed upon the same level, in respedt to rank and honors, 
 as the exclusively classical course of preparation through 
 whicji they now insist that all boys' minds shall be driven.* 
 
 Experiments have been begun, and are already carried far 
 enough in England, to show that such a course would be 
 successful. The aristocratic spirit of the old institutions we 
 have been examining is so intense, and their course of study so 
 utterly at variance with the wants of modern life, that, except- 
 ing by a few pupils who enter on the foundation, they are not 
 frequented by the children of the great English " middle class," 
 with whom the future destinies of the nation are likely to rest. 
 To supply the want of a higher education for them, there 
 have already been established certain large collegiate schools, 
 
 * In the case of most, if not all of our American Colleges, while a 
 greater number of Latin and Greek books must be read for admission 
 than are required at a matriculation examination at Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, the young men may, and usually do enter, entirely ignorant of 
 the elementary principles of physics or of any branch of natural 
 history. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 71 
 
 where the experimeflt of a modern education is adbially 
 undergoing trial. Such are Marlborough, Wellington, and 
 Cheltenham Colleges, brief accounts of which are given in 
 the Appendix to the Commissioners' Report ; in all which a 
 "modern school" has been established along-side of, and 
 entirely on an equality with, the classical department, though 
 of course working under great disadvantages, in consequence of 
 the controlling influence of classical tradition and that system 
 of bounties placed upon classical knowledge to which I have 
 already adverted. But, in spite of all discouragements, the 
 scheme seems likely to prove entirely successful. The fol- 
 lowing extraSs are taken from the communications of the 
 Rev. G. G. Bradley, Head-master, and the Rev. J. F. Bright, 
 Master, of the Modern School at Marlborough. Mr. Bradley 
 writes : — 
 
 " The objeift of the modern school is twofold : \st, To prepare bojs 
 for definite examinations, in which they would not succeed if they com- 
 peted diredt from the classical school ; 2d, To attempt to solve, in some 
 degree, the question often asked, How far is it possible to give a really 
 good public-school education on any other basis than that of instruction 
 in dead languages? 
 
 "With regard to the first of these two objecfts, there can be no 
 doubt as to the result ; six candidates from our Modern School have com- 
 peted at Woolwich the present year. All but one were successful at 
 their first attempt; and scarcely one of them could have succeeded, had 
 they remained in the classical department. 
 
 "I imagine, however, that it is the other question which will appear 
 of more importance in the eyes of Her Majesty's Commissioners. 
 
 "I do not not believe that we are in a position at present to answer 
 the question finally and decidedly ; for the experiment has not yet been 
 fairly tried : but I may state briefiy my own opinion. While I should 
 deliberately prefer, as the best education, that mixture of the careful 
 study of the language and substance of the great writers of antiquity 
 with modern reading and mathematics, which I attempt to combine in 
 my own teaching, yet I believe that a thoroughly sound education may 
 be given, and at the same time the advantages of public-school life 
 enjoyed by boys, with whom, for various reasons, a different plan is 
 pursued, a larger space devoted to mathematics and science, and a 
 thorough study of German and French substituted for classics. But 
 the difficulties of working out this experiment are great." (Vol. ii. 
 
72 CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 Mr. Bradley enumerates, as the chief among these difficul- 
 ties, the impossibility of finding a sufficient number of teach- 
 ers as skilful in teaching modern branches, as, through long 
 training, the best classical masters have become in teaching the 
 ancient languages, and the necessity of employing foreigners to 
 teach the modern languages. To this might be added the 
 almost total want of good elementary text-books in science. 
 His conclusion, however, .is as follows: "In spite of all 
 the difficulties with which we have had to contend, and of 
 some which we are by degrees overcoming, I am entirely con- 
 vinced that the general result is most valuable, — so valuable 
 that I should deeply deplore the abandonment, from any cause, 
 of the experiment." And Mr. Bright, the Master of the 
 Modern School, writes as follows : — 
 
 "At its first foundation, it was thronged, as might be expefted, with 
 boys who desired to avoid the stridler mental training of the classical 
 school, — with the idle, and, in a great degree, by both the rough and 
 unpolished portion of the school ; and for a time it acquired a distin(St 
 and hy no means enviable character. Already, however, in the few 
 years during which it has existed, this has been entirely obliterated. 
 The forms are as well organized, the teaching is as regular, and the 
 amount of work done probably as great, as in the classical school. Con- 
 sequently all marks of difference have disappeared, and the line of 
 demarcation between the two departments is scarcely more pronounced 
 than between any two forms in ordinary circumstances. 
 
 " Meanwhile proofs of the usefulness of the institution are constant- 
 ly given. Scarcely a half-year passes, but several boys whose intellefts 
 were stifled in the uncongenial atmosphere of the classics, and who were 
 consequently rapidly sinking into a state of hopeless or reckless dunce- 
 dom, pass from the Upper to the Modern School ; and, finding there room 
 for their peculiar talents, regain their self-esteem, again set cheerfully to 
 work, and gain, with their improved charadter, a' good and sensible edu- 
 cation, if not so perfecft a one as the classical system offers (.'). Nay, 
 more, they not unfrequently attain high positions in the school. For 
 the last two years, the chief mathematical prize has been carried off by 
 Modern-School boys, neither of whom could possibly have succeeded in 
 the classical school ; one of whom, indeed, had been tried, and found 
 utterly wanting in that department. . . . 
 
 " Whatever success has been reached has been obtained in the face 
 of diificulties above enurnerated, and is sufficient to give good ground to 
 hope, that were those difficulties wholly, or in part, removed ; were there 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 73 
 
 the same appliances for modern as for classical teaching ; the same well- 
 annotated books ; the same carefully arranged grammars ; the same 
 accepted curriculum of classical authors, — an education might be given 
 in modern, as accurate as in ancient subjedls ; while in comprehensive- 
 ness, in so far as it would be concerned with the wider field of modern 
 thought, it might even have the advantage." (Vol. ii. p. 513.) 
 
 Mr. Barry, Principal of Cheltenham College, says : — 
 
 " In the competitive examinations for Woolwich and Sandhurst, the 
 Modern Department has achieved decided and unusual success ; and its 
 pupils have afterwards continued to attain distindtions at Woolwich,* 
 Sandhurst,t and Addiscombe.J These are its only external tests : per- 
 haps a more valuable one still may be deduced from the fadt of its con- 
 tinued numbers and popularity, and from its having attained a complete 
 equality in rank with the Classical Department. ... I think that its 
 existence gives far greater perfection to the system of education, and 
 far better scope for the various ability and knowledge of our boys, than 
 could be possible if only the classical system prevailed. I feel sure that 
 it gives a true education, and not mere instrucSlion on various subjetSts.'' 
 (Vol. ii. p. 548.) 
 
 To this may be added the following extradl from the com- 
 munication of the Rev. Dr. Mortimer, Head-master of the 
 City of London School, another great " middle-class " institu- 
 tion, which, opened for the first time in 1837, now numbers 
 six hundred and twenty-six boys : — 
 
 "It is my opinion, founded on very considerable experience, that 
 the limited time given to classics, in comparison with other public 
 schools, is fully made up by the increased mental power obtained by an 
 acquaintance with many other subjects. At all events, it is a faft, that 
 the University career of pupils of the City of London School is emi- 
 nently successful; and the reason seems to be, that, from being early 
 trained to take up several diflferent subjefts of study, they acquire the 
 faculty of readily adapting themselves to the work set before them, and 
 bring to it a large amount of collateral information.'' (Vol. ii. p. 580.) 
 
 With these extradts I shall close my long quotations from 
 the Report. The question will be asked. What are the conclu- 
 sions and recommendations of the Commission, which were 
 
 * Royal Military Academy for Artillery and Engineers, 
 t Royal Military College for Infantry and Cavalry. 
 X East India Company's Military School. 
 
 7 
 
74 , CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 the result of this laborious and careful investigation? I do not 
 think it is too much to say, that the main conclusion is little 
 more than a feeble compromise. Judged of from this dis- 
 tance, it seems to leave almost untouched the chief objedlion- 
 able features of the system, and simply recommends a supple- 
 menting of it by greater efficiency in other departments. How 
 far such recommendations are likely to be carried out by the 
 present heads of .the schools, one can judge from the specimens 
 of their views which I have given. Great changes, however, 
 in the constitution of the governing bodies of the institutions 
 are recommended, of the pradtical effedt of which it is difficult 
 or impossible for a stranger to judge ; and, though the gross 
 abuse of funds is dealt w^ith with great tenderness, it is evident 
 that it is not to be allowed to continue. That the conclusions 
 of the Commission have been received with some disappoint- 
 ment, seems to me evident from the tone of the British press ; 
 though, of course, the Tories and the "Quarterly Review" find 
 every thing as it should be. It is perhaps fortunate for the ulti- 
 mate success of measures of reform, that more pressing political 
 questions have engrossed the attention of Parliament ; and the 
 discussion seems likely to be postponed till a more liberal and 
 progressive set of rulers shall hold the reins of the English 
 Government. 
 
 I have thus brought to a conclusion, gentlemen of the 
 Society, this long discussion, — a longer one than I had any 
 idea of entering upon when I began. But I have not feared 
 to trespass on your patience by the multitude of my details, or 
 the length of my extradts ; for I trusted that you would think, 
 as I do, that no more important subjedl can come up for our 
 consideration. I do not hesitate to say, that the final success of 
 our republican institutions will depend, more than upon all 
 else, upon the success of our republican education ; that the 
 triumphant evidence we have just been giving of the strength 
 and stability of these institutions is an evidence, more than of 
 all else, of our success, even to the imperfedl extent to which it 
 has yet been carried, in educating the people. And when war 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. , 75 
 
 shall have wholly ceased its alarms, and that vile spirit of caste 
 which began with thanking God that there were no schools in 
 its dominions,* and has ended its foul career in rebellion, trea- 
 son, and assassination, shall have returned to the pit of dark- 
 ness from which it rose, no more momentous question will 
 come before our now -wholly free Republic than the question of 
 the extension of the blessings of our education-system over 
 the whole country, and the making it in all respedts what it 
 should be to meet the wants of a free, self-governing people. 
 That that system has been steadily improving during the 
 twenty and more years over which my own observation 
 and experience have extended cannot admit of doubt ; but that 
 we have still many lessons to learn before it will approach per- 
 fedtion is a conviftion which I believe I share with many who 
 have given thought to the subjeft. It would be impossible to 
 enter here upon the consideration of the application of the 
 lessons that may be derived from English experience. I must 
 conclude by expressing my convidlion, that in your new insti- 
 tution the community will have a school that will be fully pre- 
 pared to do its share in a real training of the mind of the 
 coming generations. 
 
 * "I thank God, there are no free schools and no printing; and I 
 hope we shall not have these hundred years," were the words of Berkely, 
 the rojal Governor of Virginia in 1671. The present condition of that 
 State is a striking commentary on the sentiment. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. — Page 13. 
 
 The College* of Eton was founded in 1441 by Henry VI. It 
 was intended originally to consist of a Provost and seventy 
 poor-scholars, ten Fellows, ten chaplains, ten clerks, sixteen 
 choristers, one head-master, one lower-master, and thirteen 
 " poor, feeble men." The Provost is the head of the College, 
 and is usually a retired head-master : he takes no part in the 
 instrudtion. The Fellows are thus defined by one of the pres- 
 ent masters, "retired teachers, who have nothing to do with the 
 school beyond preaching a few sermons to a congregation with 
 which they are slightly acquainted ; and who only reside occa- 
 sionally, yet take up a part of the limited space, within the 
 College precinft, and, in addition to an ecclesiastical benefice, 
 draw each one from the College a sum in the shape of divi- 
 dends which might support ten or twelve exhibitioners." By 
 one of the monstrous abuses universal in connedtion with 
 English charities, the whole of the additional income derived 
 from the vastly increased value of the school property goes, not 
 to the school, but into the pockets of the entirely useless Pro- 
 vost and Fellows. Thus the annual remuneration of each of 
 the ten Fellows, for doing absolutely nothing, amounts to over 
 four thousand dollars, in addition to an ecclesiastical benefice. 
 
 * It should be remembered that the term " College," between which 
 and University, in this country, no very definite line of distindlion is 
 drawn, was not originally confined to institutions of learning ; but, like 
 its original, Collegium, was the title of corporations established for 
 very diverse purposes. In this case the " College " of Eton is seen to 
 have the charafter partly of a cathedral, partly of a school, and partly 
 of a hospital. 
 
80 APPENDIX. 
 
 The net income of the Provost is returned as hventy-two 
 thousand eight hundred and sixty dollars per annum ; and it 
 depends entirely upon his own liberality or sense of justice 
 how much or how little of this he shall devote to the legitimate 
 uses of the College. The Commissioners very mildly report 
 this as a state of things which ought not to continue. What 
 result their suggestions will have, remains to be seen. Lord 
 Brougham attempted a reform nearly fifty years ago, with 
 small success.* 
 
 The seventy foundation-scholars or " Collegers," who, among 
 all the eight hundred boys now at Eton, appear to be the only 
 ones who do any serious work, were to be, according to the 
 statutes, "poor and needy, of good character, studiously 
 inclined, and of honest conversation, able to read and sing, and 
 grounded in the elements of grammar ;" and their support and 
 education was to be wholly gratuitous. At present, though 
 no money is paid for board or lodging, fees are exacted 
 from them, and they do not come from the class whom the 
 foundation was intended to benefit. The fees exafted, how- 
 ever, are less (about one hundred dollars per annum) ; and 
 there is a broad line of social distindlion between them and the 
 " oppidans " or boarders, from whom they are distinguished 
 by a peculiar dress. They seem really to study, and furnish 
 nearly, if not quite, all the good scholars who go from the 
 school. The sixteen choristers, who serve also in the Chapel 
 of Windsor Castle, are educated at a separate school in Wind- 
 sor; and the thirteen "feeble men" are now represented by 
 ten almswomen. 
 
 The income of the head-master is returned as $22,455, 
 nearly equal to the salary of the President of the United 
 States. It is exceeded, however, by that of the Head-master 
 of Harrow, which is $31,440. The net incomes of the Subi- 
 
 * See Reports of the SeleA Committee on the Education of the Lower 
 Orders, 1818. It was on this occasion, when Dr. Goodall, the Provost, 
 was pleading " usage " for the monstrous and dishonest abuses, that 
 Brougham was heard to mutter, " Usage, indeed ! we shall next hear of 
 highwaymen pleading the usage of HounsloW Heath." See an interest- 
 ing account in the "Edinburgh Review,'' April, 1861. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 81 
 
 masters of Eton, who keep boarding-houses, vary from $3,500 
 
 to $8,DOO. 
 
 The annual income from the Eton property is enormous,* 
 and the school has landed estates (a complete list of which is 
 given) in twenty-two of the forty-five counties of England. 
 It has also wholly or partially in its gift forty-seven ecclesiasti- 
 cal benefices, of the annual value of about $73,325. These are 
 (chiefly monopolized by the Provost and Fellows. 
 
 Winchester and Westminster are, like Eton, Collegiate 
 foundations. The former was founded by the famous William 
 of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, in 1387, and is under the 
 government of a Warden and ten Fellows. Besides these, 
 there were originally seventy scholars, a head-master and 
 under-master, three chaplains, three clerks or " singing-men," 
 and sixteen choristers. The constitution has been somewhat 
 changed, and there are now one hundred foundation-boys and 
 twenty " exhibitioners." The foundation-scholars here form a 
 majority, and not, as at Eton, a small minority. The instrucr 
 tion is not wholly gratuitous ; but the Warden estimates the 
 advantage at about fifty pounds per annum. The income of 
 tlie College, in the year i860, amounted to $88,110. The 
 income of the head-master, from his fees and boarding-house, 
 was $15,000. The average necessary annual expenses of a 
 " Commoner" are set down at $580. There were in i860 one 
 hundred and ninety-seven boys. 
 
 Westminster School was founded in the year 1560 by 
 Queen Elizabeth. It is not a separate foundation, but is con- 
 trolled by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. It is situated 
 in the city of London, contained in i860 one hundred and 
 thirty-six boys, forty of them foundation-scholars; the re- 
 mainder, in part boarders, and in part day-scholars. 
 
 The Charterhouse is not a separate foundation, but is simply 
 a school connedted with, and supported from the vast funds of, 
 the celebrated Charterhouse Hospital, founded in London in 
 161 1 by Thomas Sutton. In i860 it contained one hundred 
 
 * No estimate is given in the Report; but the "Edinburgh Review " 
 reckons the total annual income at one hundred thousand dollars, very 
 little of which reaches the scholars for whom it was intended. 
 
82 APPENDIX. 
 
 and sixteen boys. The average annual income of the Hospital 
 for the past seven years is returned as $113,735. 
 
 Merchant Taylors' — another London school — was founded 
 in 1 561 by the Merchant Taylors' Company, who expend upon 
 its support between $10,000 and $15,000 annually. It is a day- 
 school, and in i860 numbered two hundred and sixty boys. 
 
 St. Paul's is a London endowed school, with an income of 
 about $50,000, founded in 15 11 by Dr. Colet, Dean of St. 
 Paul's, and is under the control of the Mercers' Company. It 
 numbers one hundred and forty boys. 
 
 The Grammar-school of Harrow-on-the-Hill was founded 
 in 1571 by John Lyon, yeoman, who left by his will estates 
 and moneys for the support of a school and the maintenance of 
 the highway between Edgeware and London, the latter being 
 a very common subjeiS of bequests, at a time when the public 
 highways of the country were not considered a part of the 
 public charge. Eton and Harrow are the two most aristocratic 
 of the~ public schools. Harrow seems to stand some degrees 
 above Eton, though below Rugby in efficiency. Though the 
 income of the head-master is so enormous, the school is not 
 richly endowed. In i860 it numbered four hundred and sixty- 
 four boys. Intended, originally, for the sons of the farmers and 
 tradesmen of Harrow, it has been wholly diverted from that 
 purpose, and turned, like the others, into a great boarding-school 
 for the sons of the aristocracy ; the boys for whom it was origi- 
 nally intended forming, under the name of the " English Form," 
 a very insignificant part of it, and having no communication 
 whatever with the boarding-school. The number of boys con- 
 tained in the latter in i860 was four hundred and sixty-four. 
 
 Rugby, which from comparative obscurity rose to such 
 fame through the labors of the excellent Dr. Arnold, and 
 which is by far the best, as Eton is by far the worst, of these 
 great schools, was founded in the year 1567 by Lawrence 
 Sheriff, citizen and grocer of London. The estates with 
 which he endowed it, chiefly in London, have risen immensely 
 in value, though the income of the school is small, compared 
 with that of Eton. It has averaged for the past seven years 
 $38,265. Though founded originally for the children of the 
 parishes of Rugby and Brownsover, tliere is not at present in 
 
CLASSICAL AXD SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 83 
 
 the school a single child from either. Like the rest, it is a great 
 boarding-school, numbering in i860 four hundred and sixty- 
 five boys. 
 
 Shrewsbury is an old school in the West of England, having 
 been founded in 155 1 by King Edw^ard VI. It is celebrated 
 for the accuracy of its classical scholarship, and the great num- 
 ber of "honor-men" it produces; but it has a less fortunate 
 reputation as being pre-eminent for producing scholars v\rho 
 know absolutely nothing but classics. It seems to be in a 
 decaying condition : it has one hundred and thirty-two boys, 
 and an income of about $15,000.* 
 
 II. — Page 67. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM EVIDENCE ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 
 
 From the Evidence of Professor TV. B. Carpenter. (Vol. iv. p. 363.) 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) I believe, Dr. Carpenter, you are Regi- 
 strar of the London University ? — I am. How long have you 
 been Registrar? — Six years. I believe you are likewise a 
 member of the Council of the Royal Society? — Yes. . . . Have 
 you been able to form any opinion as to the use of the physical 
 sciences, as a training of the mind, as compared with pure 
 mathematics? — I think that their fundtion is quite different. I 
 think that each is a supplement to the other. I should be very 
 sorry to see either left out. It appears to me, that the use of 
 the physical sciences is to train a class of mental faculties, 
 
 * Whoever wishes for further information respefting these and the 
 other endowed Grammar Schools of England, will find it in " Carlisle's 
 Endowed Grammar Schools," 2 vols., 1818, or the sumptuously illustrated 
 quarto published by Ackermann in 1816. " The Great Schools of Eng- 
 land," by Staunton, is a book advertised as now in press in London. 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 which are ignored, so to speak, by a purely classical or a 
 purely mathematical training, or by both combined. The 
 observation of external phenomena, and the exercise of the 
 reasoning faculties upon such phenomena, are matters alto- 
 gether left out of the ordinary public-school education. I am 
 speaking of schools in which classics and mathematics are the 
 sole means of mental discipline. Mathematical training is 
 limited to one very special kind of mental adlion. 
 
 In the schools? — I mean, that mathematical training exer- 
 cises the mind most sti-enuously in a very narrow groove, so to 
 speak. It starts with axioms which have nothing to do with 
 external phenomena, but which the mind finds in itself; and 
 the whole science of mathematics may be evolved out of the 
 original axioms which the mind finds in itself. I do not go 
 into the question, whether they are intuitive, or whether they 
 are generalizations of phenomena, found at a very early age ; 
 in either case, the mind finds it in itself. Now, it is the essence 
 of scientific training, that the mind finds the objefts of its study 
 in the external world. As Bacon says, Homo minister et 
 interpres natures; so it appears to me that a training which 
 leaves out of view the relation of man to external nature is a 
 very defe<ftive one, and that the faculties which bring his in- 
 telligence into relation with the phenomena of the external 
 world are subjeSls for education and discipline equally import- 
 ant with the faculties by which he exercises his reason purely 
 upon abstraftions. 
 
 Then you consider, that the mind, if it only had the training 
 that could be given by close study of classics and of pure 
 mathematics, has not had so great an advantage in training 
 as if the study of physical science had been added? — I 
 am quite of that opinion ; and I may add, that, having given 
 considerable attention to the reputed phenomena of mesmerism, 
 electro-biology, spiritualism, &c., I have had occasion to ob-^ 
 serve, that the want of scientific habits of mind is the source 
 of a vast amount of prevalent misconception as to what con- 
 stitutes adequate proof of the marvels reported by witnesses, 
 neither untruthful nor unintelligent as to ordinary matters. I 
 could name striking instances of such misconception in men of 
 high literary cultivation or high mathematical attainments; 
 
CLASSICAL AMD SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 85 
 
 whilst I have met with no one, who had undergone the disci- 
 pline of an adequate course of scientific study, who has not at 
 once recognized the fallacies in such testimony when they have 
 been pointed out to him. 
 
 (Lord Devon.) I observe, Dr. Carpenter, that 3'our matri- 
 culation examinations do not take place until the applicant is 
 past sixteen? — Yes. 
 
 Being of that age, you see great benefit in making natural 
 philosophy and chemistry part of that examination, in addition 
 to a certain examination in classics ; and you consider that not 
 merely as fitting a boy for success in the adtive business of life, 
 but also as a means of training the mind, and that much benefit 
 results from such combination. I should like to ask you, 
 whether you consider that similar recommendations exist to the 
 introdudlion of physical sciences at an early age ? You applied 
 your observations to your own candidates for matriculation ? — 
 I think that there is great advantage in commencing very 
 early. I have commenced with my own children at a very 
 early pervad in training their observing faculties, simply to 
 recognize and to understand, and to describe corredtly what 
 they see, — showing them simple experiments, and desiring 
 them to write down an account of them ; and, from my own 
 experience, I should say, that a boy of ten years old is quite 
 capable of understanding a very large proportion of what is 
 here set down under the head of natural philosophy. 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) Is there not a danger of disturbing the 
 power of sustained attention, if too many subjefts of instrudlion 
 are brought before boys at an early age? — I think that very 
 much depends on the manner in which it is done. A good 
 teacher need never forfeit the training of sustained attention by 
 dire6ting the attention to the fads of nature, because the atten- 
 tion is as healthfully exercised in what is going on before the 
 child as it is in the study of a book. 
 
 Were you at a public school yourself ? — I was not. 
 
 You were at a large classical school, were you not? — I was 
 brought up in a private school. 
 
 A large school ? — About twenty was the average number. 
 
 Should you, from your experience as a boy, confirm the 
 opinion you have now expressed ? — In the school in which I 
 
86 APPENDIX. 
 
 was brought up, all these subjefts were taught systematically ; 
 and I certainly believe, that there was no deficiency there of 
 power of attention, and that the training which was given in 
 classics and mathematics — which was a very substantial one 
 — was not at all impaired by the attention to these other sub- 
 jects. 
 
 At- what age did attention to these subjedls commence at 
 your school? — I sliould think that about twelve years might 
 be taken as the 'average. 
 
 Have you any pradlical acquaintance with the system of 
 our public schools? — Not pradically : I know the system gen- 
 erally. 
 
 You know the amount of time, perhaps, given to particular 
 subjedls, speaking generally ? — Yes. 
 
 Have you formed any opinion as to whether it would be 
 desirable to diminish the proportion of time given, say to 
 classics or mathematics, for the purpose of introducing physical 
 science? — I have formed an opinion, that at the earlier age, 
 say from ten to twelve or thirteen, the amount of st^dy given 
 to classics may be advantageously diminished. I have been led 
 to conclude, from considerable opportunities of observation, 
 that those who have commenced classics later than usual, and 
 have been of average intelligence, have, by the age of sixteen, 
 acquired as good a classical knowledge as those who have 
 begun earlier, — whose minds have been fixed upon classical 
 study for two or three years longer. I may state, that that is 
 quite the opinion of many gentlemen of very large experience 
 in education ; and, I believe, I may quote Professor Pillans, of 
 Edinburgh, as entertaining it. Dr. Hodgson, who had for a 
 long time a large public school in the neighborhood of Man- 
 ' chesteir, wrote^ a pamphlet some years ago in defence of that 
 opinion. ... I could quote several instances of young men who 
 "have shown very remarkable proficiency in classical study at 
 the age of sixteen and seventeen, who began very late, — at 
 thirteen and fourteen. 
 
 (Lord Devon.) I understand you to attach very high im- 
 portance to the philosophical study of language ? — Yes. 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) And to its being commenced early? — 
 Yes ♦ 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 87 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) I believe you are author of a work called 
 " The Principles of Physiology, General and Comparative" ? 
 
 — Yes. 
 
 You are likewise author of a work called " The Microscope 
 and its Revelations " ? — Yes. 
 
 I believe you are also author of " An Introduction to the 
 study of Foraminifera " ? — Yes. 
 
 Do you consider that your taste for those studies was awak- 
 ened at school? — My taste for physical and chemical science 
 was certainly awakened at school. The training that I had in 
 my school-course, and the advantages which I had of attending 
 lectures at the Philosophical Institution at Bristol, at the time 
 that I was going through that course, certainly tended to de- 
 velop my taste for science generally. At that time, I knew 
 next to nothing of natural history ; and I suppose it was the 
 circumstance of my having entered the medical profession, and 
 being led to seek for scientific culture in the subjects on which 
 medicine is founded, that caused me to diredt my attention to 
 natural history and physiology, — physiology as based on 
 natural history in fadl. 
 
 You were likewise instrudted in mathematics at school ? — 
 Yes. 
 
 Had you any occasion to observe at school that there was 
 one class of minds which had a great aptitude for mathematics, 
 another for the physical sciences, and another for the classics ; 
 so that there were three different types of mental intelligence ? 
 
 — Yes. 
 
 Do you not consider, that it is an injury to a boy who may 
 have a turn for the sciences of observation, or for other natural 
 sciences, that he has no instrucftion in them whatever up to 
 the time he is eighteen, — up to the time of his going to the 
 University ? — I feel that very strongly. I am quite satisfied 
 that there is such a class of minds. I see it in the candidates 
 for our degrees in sciences. Though the degrees have only 
 been instituted two or three years, yet I am quite certain, from 
 what I have seen of those who have become candidates for 
 them, that there is a very decided aptitude for physical sciences ; 
 and that those generally are persons who have a distaste for 
 classics. I may say with regard to myself, that I never had 
 
88 APPENDIX. 
 
 any taste for classics. I went through a very long course of 
 classical training ; and I feel very strongly, indeed, the value 
 of the discipline which it gave me : but I never, as a boy, had 
 any taste for classics (though now I can come back and read 
 a classical author with pleasure), because I was weary of the 
 drudgery of the ordinary routine of instrudtion (to which I 
 had been subjfedted from an unusually early age), whilst at 
 sixteen my mind was not sufficiently advanced in that direction 
 to appreciate the higher beauties of a classical author. For 
 instance, I could then read the " Prometheus ; " but I did not 
 understand its argument. 
 
 It would be an injury to the mental capital of a nation, so 
 to say, to give no instru6lion to boys in the physical sciences 
 up to eighteen ? — I should certainly consider that it leaves 
 that branch of the mental faculties, which every individual has 
 in a certain degree, uncultivated, and would leave without cul- 
 tivation those powers which certain individuals have in a very 
 remarkable degree. 
 
 Is it not the case, that there are some boys at school who 
 have only a slight aptitude for classical studies, who have an 
 aptitude for the sciences of observation and the experimental 
 sciences? — I am quite certain of that. I have five sons ; and, 
 in their education, I endeavor to train what I perceive to be 
 the special aptitude of each. Thus, my eldest son has shown a 
 decided aptitude for the physical and chemical sciences : he 
 has taken his Bachelor-of-Arts degree in the University, and 
 has now taken that of Bachelor of Science. He took the 
 Bachelor-of-Arts degree because,' at that time, there was no 
 degree in science ; he went through the classical training re- 
 quired for it, but his whole bent is for the exacft sciences. On 
 the other hand, my second son has as strong a turn for literary 
 culture as my eldest son has for scientific ; and I have encouraged 
 that just as I would the scientific culture, — taking care, how- 
 ever, in each case, that the other subjedls were not negledled. 
 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) I think you mentioned that you considered 
 that the study of physical science at an early age was conducive 
 to the cultivation of the intelledlual faculties as well as of the 
 senses? — I think so, decidedly, if it is rightly taught. I think 
 very much depends upon the teacher. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 89 
 
 Do you think that that kind of cultivation of the intelledlual 
 faculties which physical science requires and encourages is 
 such as the man may safely be called upon to go through at an 
 early period of life ? — I feel quite sure of it, because it is done 
 to a very large extent in our National schools, and in our Brit- 
 ish and Foreign schools. I happen to know this from this 
 circumstance : A few years ago. Lord Ashburton requested 
 me to examine for a prize which he at that time gave to the 
 masters of schools in, I think, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Dor- 
 setshire. I set three or four papers on physical science and its 
 applications, — very much the kind of papers that one would 
 set for the matriculation examination, with as much as possible 
 of practical application to the common affairs of life, to what I 
 think the Dean of Hereford calls " common things," — but re- 
 quiring a knowledge of principles ; and I was extremely 
 surprised at the excellence of the answers which I got. One 
 master, a young man not above twenty years of age, answered 
 every question perfectly well. 
 
 Do you think that the mind, ordinarily speaking, is as apt 
 for the exercise of its faculties upon the subjects of natural sci- 
 ence as upon grammar and mathematical subje6ts at the early 
 period of life ? — I should say, more so ; that it is more easy to 
 fix a child's attention upon something which it sees than upon 
 an abstradlion. 
 
 Do you think that in that point of view, in fadl, it is so far a 
 subjedl better calculated to call out a healthy adlion of the rea- 
 soning powers than the more, abstract subjedts of grammar and 
 mathematics ? — I think it is at the early period. I think that 
 a lad. of from ten to twelve years of age is better fitted to be led 
 to observe and reason upon .what he observes in objeftive phe- 
 nomena than he is to reason upon abstradlions. I think that, 
 from say twelve years of age, the powers may be healthfully 
 exercised upon abstradlions ; but, as far as I can judge, a child 
 in learning a language leai-ns by rote purely, or almost purely, 
 up to say twelve years of age ; Isut after that he begins, if he is 
 well taught, to understand the rationale (so to speak) of the 
 rules ; but it is a mere matter of memory with him up to that 
 time. 
 
 In fadt, you doubt whether, in the cultivation of language, 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 the reasoning powers are much exercised at all at that time ? — 
 Yes 
 
 Have you been sufficiently in company with youths emerg- 
 ing from childhood to say whether there is, in your opinion, at 
 all a natural curiosity which arises at that time for the obser- 
 vation and comprehension of the phenomena of nature ? — I 
 should say there is. I have seen a great deal of youths of dif- 
 ferent ages in the course of my life. I have been always inter- 
 ested in education, and have seen and known a great deal of 
 what takes place in education among the humbler classes ; and 
 amongst them there is most decidedly a readiness of observa- 
 tion, and a readiness of power of apprehension and of reason- 
 ing upon phenomena of nature, which shows that that must be 
 universal. 
 
 Have you observed, that, besides that power, there is a curi- 
 osity with regard to the phenomena, and an interest in that 
 sense with regard to the phenomena of the outward world? — 
 I think there is, if it is not repressed. My opinion is, that the 
 tendency of public-school education is to repress all that curi- 
 osity, — to withdraw the attention so completely from those 
 subjects that it has no development. 
 
 With regard to the study of language, I think you said, that 
 you had had some opportunity of observing that youths who 
 began later could make so much progress, owing to the differ- 
 ent state of their faculties then, as that they could recover the 
 amount that had been lost to the study of language by deferring 
 it? — Yes: providing always that their mental habits have 
 been properly trained ; that the power of sustained attention, 
 for instance, has been exercised in other ways. . . . 
 
 With regard to their bearing on.literary studies, do you think 
 that the mixture of the physical sciences with the literary 
 studies would be a mixture which would be conducive of 
 benefit to both, or otherwise? — I think decidedly conducive 
 of benefit, because I cannot think that any mental training can 
 be really adequate which is one-sided ; and, again, all experi- 
 ence shows that a change of study from one subjeft to another 
 is advantageous in this way, — that it is a positive refreshment 
 to the mind. I believe, that a lad who has been exercised a 
 certain number of hours in the study of language, or in the 
 
CLASSIC JZ AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 91 
 
 study of mathematics, would enjoy going to the stud}- of ph}'- 
 sical science. If it is properly handled, by a good teacher, he 
 would enjoy that as much as he would enjoy going into some 
 desultory course of reading for recreation. 
 
 In fact, the exchange would produce very much less physical 
 exhaustion than the continuance of the same study for the same 
 number of hours? — Yes: I feel sure of that. I may mention, 
 that there is at present going on a good deal of inquiry in 
 regard to the number of hours which can be healthfully em- 
 ployed in study by the class of children who attend the Na- 
 tional and British schools ; and it is a subject in which I have 
 taken a great deal of interest. I have happened to come in 
 contact with a good many individuals who are working out 
 experiments in different ways ; and there is a very general con- 
 vidlion amongst the better and more intelligent class of masters 
 in those schools, that four hours a day is as much as can be 
 healthfully employed in purely intelledtual acquirements by 
 children of that class. Now, I believe that the allowance 
 which is healthful for children of that class may be, perhaps, 
 double for those of an educated class. ' 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) At what age? — Say from eight to 
 twelve ; but the prevalence of tliis convidtion shows, that the 
 masters, pradtically, do not find that the children learn more 
 v^rho are at school for six or seven hours than those who are at 
 school only from three and a half to four hours. 
 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) Do you think that you would find a dif- 
 ferent, that is, a larger measure of hours suitable to health, if 
 there was this difference in studies at different times of the 
 day ? — Yes : I feel sure of it. 
 
 I suppose you say that as a physiologist ? . . . Yes ; I am 
 speaking as a physiologist decidedly. I am quite satisfied of it 
 as a fadl in our mental constitution. . . . 
 
 (Sir S. Northcote.) You said just now, that you thought 
 there were instances of boys taking up the study of classics late, 
 and, if they were properly trained in other ways, making up 
 for the lost time by the superiority of their power of applica- 
 tion and of learning. Do you think that that might be the case 
 also in the study of physical science, that a boy taking to study 
 physical science late might make up for lost time by beginning 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 at an age at which his powers were more developed ? — I have 
 no doubt that he might make up for lost time : but I think 
 that the natural period for commencing the study of physical 
 science is at an earlier age, because I think any right system 
 of education will take up the faculties in the order of their 
 development ; and it is quite certain, that the observing facul- 
 ties are developed before the reasoning powers. An infant, 
 during the first year of its life, is educating its observing facul- 
 ties in a way we really scarcely give it credit for ; and the 
 training of the observing faculties, by attention to the pheno- 
 mena of nature, both in physical and in natural science, seems 
 to me to be the natural application of time at the age of say 
 from eight to twelve. . . . 
 
 You supported your argument by the case of a boy who had 
 studied French as an introduction to the study of Latin and 
 Greek, and had not suffered in his classical studies by deferring 
 them : would you not think, that a boy would suffer in the 
 study of languages by wholly giving his early years to the study 
 of physical science, and not taking up language at all till he 
 go*t to the age, say of twelve ? — Yes, I think he would. I 
 think that negledling the study of language altogether would 
 be a very undesirable thing ; but what I mean is this : I should 
 prefer to see the faculties which are concerned in the cultiva- • 
 tion of physical science trained at the earlier period, because I 
 believe that is the natural period in which the observing facul- 
 ties and the elementary reasoning processes may be best culti. 
 vated, and the period at which the mind is not prepared for the 
 more advanced culture of language. 
 
 But is it not the period at which it is also prepared for the 
 commencement of the culture of language? — Certainly; but, 
 then, I think all that the culture of language may give at that 
 period may be given in a smaller number of hours than are 
 usually devoted to it. . . . 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) A question was asked as to the possi- 
 bility of a boy, well cultivated in classics, making up afterwards 
 for deficiency in the natural sciences. Would there not be a 
 distindtion between the sciences of observation and the sciences 
 of experiment ? Is it likely that a grown-up person, or a boy 
 beyond a certain age, would make up for the negledl of the 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIEXTIFIC STUDIES. 93 
 
 faculty of observation ? — I think not so well. If I am allowed 
 to do so, I may mention my own experience in the matter. 
 ISI}- greatest difficulty in tlie pursuit of systematic zoology and 
 botany has arisen, I am quite satisfied, from the circumstance, 
 that I was not early trained in those sciences. I can recognize 
 a flower or an animal when I see them, and I can remember 
 their names. I have no difficulty as to verbal memory ; but I 
 have a difficulty in connedling the two things, the flower or tlie 
 animal and the name ; and I believe, that, if I had had an early 
 training in the habit of systematic nomenclature, I should not 
 have experienced that difficulty in later life. 
 
 Is it not, to a certain extent, the case with regard to the 
 facult}' of observation, as with regard to aptness for rapid calcu- 
 lation in arithmetic, that the habit should be acquired early? 
 — Yes: I am very strongly of that opinion; and I know that 
 it is very easily acquired under proper training. The late Pro- 
 fessor Henslow studied the method of teaching natural science, 
 I believe, as carefully as any one ; and he was wonderfully suc- 
 cessful in training that order of faculties. . . . 
 
 Is it the result of your experience, that, by the exclusion 
 of the physical sciences and of the methods of investigation 
 employed in tlieir study, the mind does not receive as good a 
 training as it might do ? — I have been acquainted with several 
 gentlemen who have passed with distinftion through a course 
 of public school and University training, and who have con- 
 fessed to me with regret their inaptitude to understand any 
 scientific subjedl whatever, — their want, not only of the knowl- 
 edge, but of the mental aptitude. 
 
 That is to say, that you consider that the physical sciences 
 and methods of investigation call forth different faculties of the 
 mind from those which are developed by the studies of mathe- 
 matics and classics ? — Yes : I think so very decidedly. 
 
 And that, therefore, by negledling the physical sciences, 
 those faculties lie dormant if they existed? — Yes.. 
 
 J^rom the Evidence of Sir Charles Lyell. (Vol. IV. p. 37°-) 
 (Lord Clarendon.) I believe. Sir Charles, you are the 
 author of several works on Geology ? — Yes. 
 Also of Travels in America ? — Yes. 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 And you are a Fellow of the Royal Society? — Yes. 
 
 I believe you todk your degree at Oxford? — Yes. 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) I believe you took honors at Oxford? — 
 Yes. 
 
 And you received a Dodtor's degree at Oxford six or seven 
 years ago? — Yes. 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) As w^e know your attention has long 
 been turned to this subjedt, I would beg to ask you, as the result 
 of your observation and experience, what you consider to be 
 the position of physical science and natural history in this 
 country, as far as regards our educational system ? — I think it 
 is hardly too strong a term to say, that they have been ignored. 
 There has been a move of late in the Universities to restore 
 them somewhat to that place which they formerly held, when 
 the sciences were much less advanced, but when, in proportion 
 to what was then known, they held a very fair position ; and 
 within the last two hundred years I consider them to have been 
 deprived of the proper position which they once held. The 
 public schools being modelled in a great measure on the system 
 of the Universities, they have, in like manner, entirely ne- 
 gledled them, even in those schools where they are educated 
 sometimes up to the age of seventeen or eighteen. I think, 
 therefore, that in that period of the progress of the nation, 
 when these branches have been acquiring more and more im- 
 portance, both theoretically and pradtically, that has been pre- 
 cisely the time when they have been more and more excluded 
 from the teaching of the higher classes of this country. 
 
 To what would you attribute the negledl of these studies 
 that has been shown at the schools in particular ? — I think 
 that the schools being preparatory, in a great measure, to the 
 Universities, they frame their system in regard to those sub- 
 jedls which are ' to obtain the chief rewards, prizes, and honors 
 at the University. Although a large proportion of the boys 
 at our larger schools do not go to the University (I do not 
 know what proportion, but I know that it is very large), never- 
 theless, the system is planned as if they were all going there ; 
 and whatever be the plan adopted at the Universities, and, 
 particularly, whatever may be the matriculation, the entrance 
 examination to the University, that will in no small degree 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 95 
 
 govern what is taught in public schools, if any branch of 
 knowledge is entirely omitted. . . . 
 
 You consider, then, that as there is no demand for physical 
 sciences and natural history at the Universities, there is no 
 attempt to supply them at the schools ? — Exadtly : that is a 
 great reason. However, it must not be forgotten, that those 
 schoolmasters are brought up in the Universities without a 
 knowledge of the sciences and natural history ; and, having no 
 such knowledge, it is very natural that a great number of 
 them should entertain some prejudice, or think very slightingly 
 of them. . . . 
 
 You would consider, then, that although the great majority of 
 boys educated at our public schools do not go to the Universi- 
 ties, yet the requirements of those who do go to the Universities 
 do, in fa6t, regulate the S3'stem of the school? — Quite so. 
 
 Therefore, you would say, that the majority do not have the 
 education that would be best for them ; and, in fadt, are sacri- 
 ficed to the minority who are proceeding to the University? — 
 Yes 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) Having considered, as you have, this 
 omission of the physical sciences at our schools and Universi- 
 ties as a question of national importance, and a matter of 
 national regret, you must be aware that the excuse is always 
 that there is not time ; that the system now pursued at the 
 schools, and afterwards at the Universities, is very much de- 
 voted to the study of the classics, and precludes absolutely, 
 from want of time, the study of these other and important sci- 
 ences. Have you ever considered that question of time, and 
 how these other studies could be joined to the classical studies, 
 without detriment to that which is considered to be the basis of 
 our public-school education? — Yes: I think that a great deal 
 too much time is given to such things as writing Latin and 
 Greek verses, and attempting, even at school, to acquire a de- 
 gree of proficiency, which would be veiy useful if a person 
 specialized it afterwards, but which it is not desirable to re- 
 quire of young men before they are eighteen ; and that a por- 
 tion of that which they now acquire at the public schools should 
 be left to be afterwards acquired at the Universities at a later 
 age ; and that you should not, at the expense of omitting these 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 scientific subjefts, devote so very large a portion of time to the 
 other departments. 
 
 At our public schools, it is generally considered that the 
 study of the classics is the best possible training for the mind ; 
 but would you consider that the mind does not get the best 
 possible training, if the study of the physical sciences is omit- 
 ted ? and vsrould you consider that the study of physical science 
 calls into operation and develops faculties of the mind that are 
 not called into activity by classics or mathematics ? — Yes : I 
 do most decidedly. I think the reasoning powers and the 
 judgment are more cultivated by these subjedts than by the 
 exclusive study of the classics. 
 
 Of classics and mathematics? — Yes. 
 
 Pure mathematics? — Yes. I think mathematics applied 
 often does that which pure mathematics will not do. . . . 
 
 It is sometimes said, with great force, that the faculties of 
 observation ripen, so to say, at an earlier period than the rea- 
 soning powers? — Yes. 
 
 Do you think that that would or would not point to the con- 
 clusion, that such sciences as botany and chemistry, perhaps, 
 and so on, should be communicated at an earlier period? — 
 Yes. I have no children of my own, but I have nephews in 
 whom I take much interest ; and I certainly have observed that 
 the powers of observation, and the interest of observing with 
 accuracy, are very early developed, — indeed, at nine or ten ; 
 and they learn a vast deal of other things in consequence, if they 
 be taught any of these branches. . . . You would prefer their 
 beginning at an early period? — Yes, indeed, I should. . . . 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) Do you think that purely literary pursuits, 
 and the literature of the country generally, would receive bene- 
 fit by a degree of scientific education and instrudtion being 
 given in the public schools and the Universities in conjunftion 
 with a literary education? — Indeed, I think it would. I think 
 the literature would gain. I think the literary writings of a 
 man like Hallam, for instance, who had taught himself science 
 and natural history, are of a higher stamp than they would 
 have been if he had not had that knowledge. . . . 
 
 In youi- geological investigations in Germany, have you 
 become acquainted with many literary men there? Yes. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 97 
 
 Among the class of literary men, is there greater or less 
 knowledge of the physical sciences than in England? — There 
 is decidedly more general knowledge, even where there is no 
 special knowledge. They understand a great deal more what 
 we are about than the literary men and classical scholars of 
 this country do. . . . 
 
 Have you ever had conversations with men in the small 
 towns who have information which you would not be likely to 
 find in England ? — Quite so. I may mention Winchester as an 
 instance that I have had practical experience of. I have been 
 very much struck with it. If you were to go, in Germany, to a 
 second-rate school, — I mean a town of second-rate importance, 
 — and go to a gymnasium there, you would get information on 
 scientific points that it would be quite in vain to look for in such 
 a magnificently endowed establishment as Winchester. . . . 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) With regard to the clergy, have you 
 seen any thing of the clergy in Germany ? Would you say 
 that they were better acquainted with such subjedts ? — Yes, 
 indeed, I think they are. I think there is a great advantage in 
 that resped: in Germany. In fadt, it was an observation of 
 Baron Von Buch, when he came over here, " In regard to 
 Church matters, or the connedtion of science and religion, you 
 are as much behind us in freedom, as you are ahead of us in 
 your political institutions ; " and I attribute that, in some mea- 
 sure, to there being a better general notion of science among 
 the clergy. . . . 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) Is it the case, that, in some pradlical 
 departments of knowledge, say in your own, there is a difficulty 
 of obtaining the assistance of educated men for important 
 practical purposes? — Yes : until the formation of the School of 
 Mines in Jermyn Street, which is quite a new establishment, 
 it is extraordinary the diflSculty there was. If they sent over 
 from the Colonies for some one to make a geological survey, or 
 to examine into the mines, or if a man like Lord Breadalbane 
 oflTered to give £700 or JE800 a year to any one who would 
 survey his estate, there was no well-educated man to be found 
 in England : our only chance in that case was Scotland. 
 Although the mining wealth of this country is very superior to 
 that of any other, or almost all the others put together, such 
 
 9 
 
98 APPENDIX. 
 
 was the negledl: of scientific education, in that sense, that we 
 had sometimes to send over to Germany to supply a surveyor. 
 . . I think that you would have a greater number of well-edu- 
 cated men who would go into these departments, if the elements 
 of science were not wholly neglefted at the great schools. . . . 
 
 Which would you like best to see in public schools, — a 
 system of teaching both literature and physical science carried 
 throughout ■ the school, and made universal, or a system of 
 what is known abroad by the term of " bifurcation ; " by which I 
 understand it is meant, that, when boys come to a certain point, 
 they shoiild choose whether they would pursue the literary 
 or the scientific branches of education? — At what age is that? 
 — (Mr. Twisleton.) They leave at eighteen. — (Sir S. North- 
 cote.) Fifteen or sixteen, I think; say sixteen. — I have 
 not fully considered that point. At the same time, having 
 thought over the very great range of subjedts, and the very 
 different turn of boys' minds, and the different aptitudes they 
 have by nature, I have always been in favor of their being 
 allowed to seled; as soon as possible after they have once 
 secured the general groundwork. . . . 
 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) Have you any means of knowing whether, 
 in the middle classes, there is a greater knowledge on these 
 subjects at present than in the upper classes ? — It is a very 
 remarkable fadt, that, if a scientific book is published, it 
 depends more for its sale on the middle classes of the manu- 
 fadturing distridts than on the rich country gentlemen and 
 clergy of the agricultural parts of the country ; and therefore, if 
 there is distress, like the present in Lancashire, the publisher 
 would say, " Do not bring out your book now." 
 
 In a political point of view, is not that not only an un- 
 healthy, but a dangerous state of things, in some respedts, that 
 the material world should be very much better known by the 
 middle classes of society than by the upper classes ? — Certain- 
 ly ; and I think it is particularly so in reference to the teaching 
 in this country by the clergy ; and a vast proportion of the Uni- 
 versity men are going into the Church. . . . 
 
 (Sir S. Northcote.) But if the upper classes, in acquiring a 
 greater amount of this knowledge of the physical world, were 
 to lose any of their literary and intelledlual superiority, might 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 99 
 
 they not thereby endanger their pre-eminence as much in the 
 one way as they would gain in the other? — In answer to that 
 question, I think I could say, from my own experience, that, in 
 consequence of narrowing the number of subjedts taught, a 
 large portion of those who have not a particular aptitude for 
 literary pursuits, but who would have shown a strong taste for 
 the sciences, are forced into one line ; and, after they leave their 
 College, they negledl branches they have been taught, and so 
 cultivate neither the one nor the other. I have known men, 
 quite late in life, who have forgotten all the Latin and Greek 
 which they spent their early years in acquiring, hit upon 
 geology or some other branch, and all at once their energies 
 have been awakened, and you have been astonished to see how 
 they came out. They would have taken that line long before, 
 and done good work in it, had they been taught the elements of 
 it at school. 
 
 (Mr. Twisleton.) So that there was a mental waste in 
 their youth ? — Quite so. 
 
 From the Evidence of Professor Faraday. (Vol. iv. p. 375.) 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) I believe you were at one time In- 
 structor for the Government at Woolwich : were you not ? — I 
 was. 
 
 For how long? — For twenty years. I was Professor of 
 Chemistry there ; or Ledlurer on Chemistry, I should rather 
 say, because the Professorship passed away with McCulIoch, 
 and was not renewed until I left. I am also one of the Senate 
 of the London University, — one of the original nominees. 
 
 I believe you have been in the habit of lecturing at the 
 Royal Institution ? — I have. 
 
 For how many years ? — For a good many years. I cannot 
 tell how many. And you have also been in the habit of giv- 
 ing juvenile ledlures ? — I have. Will you have the goodness 
 to give us your opinion, as the result of your observation and 
 experience, upon the state of knowledge of the physical 
 sciences and natural history in this country with reference to 
 our educational system ? — I can give you my impression, as 
 far as that is permissible, independent of any comparison 
 between that part of knowledge and other branches. I am not 
 
100 APPENDIX. 
 
 an educated man, according to the usual phraseology, and 
 therefore can make no comparison between languages and 
 natural knowledge, except as regards the utility of language in 
 conveying thoughts ; but that the natural knowledge which has 
 been given to the world in such abundance during the last fifty 
 years should remain, I maj"^ say, untouched, and that no suffi- 
 cient attempt should be made to convey it to the young mind, 
 growing up and obtaining its first views of these things, is to 
 me a matter so strange that I find it difficult to understand it. 
 Though I think I see the opposition breaking away, it is yet a 
 very hard one to overcome. That it ought to be overcome, I 
 have not the least doubt in the world. . . . 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) You probably are aware that what our 
 great schools profess and aim at most, is to give a good training 
 to the mind ; and it is th^re considered, perhaps, as you were 
 saying just now, from habit and from prestige, that that is 
 effedlually done by the study of the classics and of pure 
 mathematics, and that in that way they furnish the best train- 
 ing of the mind that can be given. Now, I would ask you, 
 whether you think, supposing the training of the mind is the 
 objedl in the public schools, that that system of training the 
 mind is complete which excludes physical science ? whether 
 the study of physical science would call into activity faculties of 
 the mind that are not so developed by studies confined to clas- 
 sics and mathematics? — The phrase, "training of the mind," 
 has to me a very indefinite meaning. I would like a profound 
 scholar to indicate to me what he means by " training of the 
 mind ; " in a literary sense, including mathematics. What 
 is their effedt on the mind? What is the kind of result that .is 
 called the "training of the mind"? Or what does the mihd 
 learn by that training ? It learns things, I have no doubt. By 
 the very adl of study, it learns to be attentive, to be persevering, 
 to be logical according to the word " logic." But does it learn 
 that training of the mind which enables a man to give a reason, 
 in natural things, for an effecS which happens from certain 
 causes, or why in any emergency or event he does or should 
 do this, that, or the other ? It does, not suggest the least thing 
 in these matters. It is the highly educated man that we find 
 coming to us, again and again, and asking the most simple 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 101 
 
 questions in chemistry and mechanics ; and when we speak of 
 such things as the conservation of force, the permanency 
 of matter, and the unchangeability of the laws of nature, they 
 are far from comprehending them, though they have relation 
 to us in every adtion of our lives. Many of these instrudled 
 persons are as far from having the power of judging of these 
 things as if their minds had never been trained. 
 
 You would not consider that the minds of such men as you 
 allude to, who have been highly trained, and who have gi-eat 
 literary proficiency, are in a state readily to receive such infor- 
 mation as they are deficient in? — I find them greatly deficient ; 
 not in their own studies, or in their applications of them, but 
 when taken out of that into natural sciences. Ask what is the 
 reason of this or that, — they have a difiiculty in giving 
 the reason. If they are called iipon to judge in a case of 
 natural science, they find it difficult to give a judgment ; they 
 have not studied it. 
 
 You do not find any particular aptitude in those minds for 
 grasping a new subjecSt? — I do not. Take those minds, and 
 apply them to the special subjedts which they have never 
 touched upon or known of, and they have to go to the begin- 
 ning, just as the juvenile does. They are no more ready. The 
 young mind, as I find it, formed by habits, forced this way and 
 that way, is very observant, and asks most acute questions. I 
 do not find that mind, generally speaking, backward in under- 
 standing the statement I make to him in simple language ; and 
 if I tell him this or that, — if I tell him that the atmosphere is 
 compounded of oxygen, nitrogen, and so on, and then shape it 
 into a question, — he can generally answer me. I must confess 
 to you, that I find the grown-up minds coming back to me with 
 the same questions over and over again. They ask, What is 
 water composed of ? though I have told the same persons, a 
 dozen years in succession, that it is composed of oxygen and 
 hydrogen. Their minds are not prepared to receive or to 
 embody these notions ; and that is where you want education, 
 — to teach them the A B C of tliese things. 
 
 You think that exclusive .attention to one set of studies dur- 
 ing early life rather precludes the ready adoption of these- 
 ideas?— Yes. It does not blunt the mind, — I do not think it 
 
 9* 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 does, — but it so far gives the growing mind a certain habit, 
 a certain desire and willingness to accept general ideas of a 
 literary kind, and to say all the rest is nonsense, and belongs 
 to the artisan, that it is not prepared to accept, and does not 
 accept, the other and greater knowledge. 
 
 So that the mind runs in a particular groove, from which it 
 does not extradl itself easily? — Yes : by that degree of habit, 
 the mind, I do think, is really injured for the reception of other 
 knowledge. . . . Supposing the one main objedl of education to 
 be to train the mind to ascertain the sequence of a particular 
 conclusion from certain premises ; to detedl a fallacy ; to correct 
 undue generalization ; or generally to prevent the growth of 
 mistakes in reasoning, — should you consider physical science 
 is as valuable for that objedl as classical instrudlion is? — I do 
 not see clearly how classical studies do educate the mind for that 
 kind of judgment ; but, as regards the exercise of the judgment 
 on the laws of matter, it is to me the most fertile source of the 
 exercise of that judgment, and the true logic of fadts, which I can 
 conceive of, and which enables the man, when he has the fadls 
 in his hand, to apply them in every form and shape. ... I think 
 I see a most lamentable deficiency, even in the highly educated 
 men, of that kind of logic. ... I hope I shall offend nobody if I 
 try to illustrate my feeling in that respecft. Up to this very day, 
 there come to me persons of good education, men and women, 
 quite fit for all that you expert from education : they come to me, 
 and they talk to me about things that belong to natural science ; 
 about mesmerism, table-turning, flying through the air ; about 
 the laws of gravity : they come to me to ask me questions ; and 
 they insist against me, who think I know a little of these laws, 
 that I am wrong and they are right, in a manner which shows 
 how little the ordinary course of education has taught such 
 minds. Let them study natural things, and they will get a very 
 different idea from that which they have obtained from that 
 education. It happens up to this day. I do not wonder at 
 those who have not been educated at all ; but such as I refer to, 
 say to me, " I have felt it, and done it, and seen it ; and, though 
 I have not flown through the air, I believe it." Persons who 
 have been fully educated, according to the present system, come 
 with the same propositions as the untaught, and stronger ones 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 103 
 
 because they have a stronger convidtion that they are right. 
 They are ignorant of their ignorance at the end of all that edu- 
 cation. It happens even with men who are excellent mathema- 
 ticians. They and you will say, " But you are most likely 
 wrong, and they right." It may be so ; at all events the educa- 
 tion we speak of in natural things will be something in 
 addition to that which they gain by their study of the classics. 
 Until they know what are the laws of nature, and until they 
 are taught by education to see what are the natural fadts, 
 they cannot clear their minds of these, as I say, most absurd 
 inconsistencies ; and I say again, as I said once before, that the 
 system of education that could leave the mental condition of 
 the public body in the state in which this subjedt has found it, 
 must have been greatly deficient in some very important prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 (Lord Lyttleton.) When you say that you have not been 
 able to understand in what way classical instrudlion trains the 
 mind, you are aware that many, perhaps most, of the defenders 
 of classical education defend it on the ground, not that it 
 teaches certain things, nor that the classics as classics have any 
 peculiar value ; but that, through the classics, both the laws of 
 language and the stinidlure of language are studied ; and that it 
 is the study of the laws of language which is held best to 
 develop and strengthen the mental faculties? — That is narrow- 
 ing the question this way, that, in place of saying you are 
 taking the classics, you take the laws of language ; and no 
 doubt they give that education, as far as I can see. I am rea- 
 soning in the dark, because I have not had the opportunity, and 
 have not the right, to speak of these things. I confess all that ; 
 but although it be a very important thing to know language 
 perfedlly, and to know its laws, or to carry it out, as the 
 most profound scholar would do, by tracing all languages to 
 an original one, or what not, — Max Miiller or anybody else, 
 — that is not all knowledge. I am not attacking the classics at 
 all. I am only putting in a plea for that other knowledge 
 which belongs to our absolute nature, and in fadt which lan- 
 guage only helps to describe. 
 
 What is held, I believe, by the defenders of classical litera- 
 ture is, that the study of language strengthens the general 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 powers of the mind in its application to any other subjedls what- 
 ever which may come before it, and that in that way the mind 
 is best strengthened as an instrument for acquiring any other 
 kind of knowledge whatever? — I see the value of those studies 
 which do lead to such a result ; but I think, that, at present, 
 society at large is almost ignorant of the like and greater 
 value of the kind of studies which I recommend. ... I say, that 
 these physical sciences, in my opinion, ought to be brought for- 
 ward also ; and I say it the more boldly, because the learned 
 men who have been so educated in languages do not show any 
 aptness to judge of physical science. In matters of natural 
 knowledge, and all the uses and applications derived from it, I 
 should turn to a man, untaught in other respedts, who I knew 
 was acquainted with these subjedts, rather than to a classical 
 scholar, as expedting to find within his range that mode of 
 mind, or that management of the mind, which would enable 
 him to speak with understanding. Any word that I have said 
 that has led you to think that I am opposed to classics, I must 
 withdraw. I have no such feeling. 
 
 From the Evidence of Professor Ovien. (Vol. iv. p. 387.) 
 
 The result of your observation, coming in communication, 
 as you must have done, with various classes, — the wealthy, 
 the middle, and the poor, — I suppose is, that there exists a 
 complete deficiency in knowledge of physical science and 
 natural history? — The absence of a knowledge of the main 
 end, methods, and application of natural history has appeared 
 to me to be greater in the higher and more refined classes of 
 the community, th^n in the middle or perhaps even, as regards 
 details or species,, than in the lower classes. If I were, to seledl 
 a particular group, it would be the governing and legislative 
 class ; which, from the opportunities I have had of hearing 
 remai'ks in conversation or debate, appears to be least aware of 
 the extent of the many departments of natural-history science, 
 of the import of its generalizations, and especially of its use in 
 disciplining the mind, irrespedtive of its immediate objedt of 
 making known the different kinds of animals, plants, or min- 
 erals. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 105 
 
 I suppose, when you attribute this state of ignorance to the 
 higher classes, you allude to the absence of insti'udlion, both at 
 the public schools and the Universities, at which these classes, 
 in particular, are educated? — More especially at the public 
 schools. . . . 
 
 I suppose you w^ould consider that is not the best training 
 which omits the physical sciences ? — Not the completest. 
 Grammar and classics, arithmetic and geometry, may be the 
 most important disciplinary studies. We know the facul- 
 ties of the mind they are chiefly calculated to educe ; but 
 they fail in bringing out those which natural-history science 
 more especially tends to improve. I allude now to the faculty 
 of accurate observation, of the classification of fad:s, of the co- 
 ordination of classes or groups ; the management of topics, for 
 example, in their various orders of importance in the mind, 
 giving to a writer or public speaker improved pov^ers of classi- 
 fying all kinds of subjedls. Natural history is essentially a 
 classifying science. Order and method are the faculties which 
 the elements and principles of the science are best adapted to 
 improve and educe. ... In everj' community of two hundred or 
 more youths, there must be some few, the constitution of whose 
 minds is specially adapted to the study of natural history, to 
 the work of observation and classification, who consequently 
 are impelled by innate aptitude to that kind of study, but who 
 are not at present afforded the slightest opportunity of working 
 their minds in that way ; so that it may happen that the faculty 
 or gift for natural history, if it be not adlually destroyed by 
 exclusive exercise in uncongenial studies, is never educed. 
 What is the result? In all our great natural-history move- 
 ments, w^e have looked in vain, since the death of Sir Joseph 
 Banks, for any man having a sufficient standing in the country 
 to fraternize with us, to understand us, to help us in debate or 
 council in questions most vital to the interests of natural his- 
 tory. It has often occurred to me to ask how such should be 
 the case ; and my answer has been, that, in the education of 
 noblemen and gentlemen, the great landed proprietors of 
 England, of those destined to take part in the legislation and 
 government of the country, there has been a complete absence 
 of a systematic imparting of the elements of natural history ; no 
 
106 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 demonstrations of the nature and properties of plants and ani- 
 mals ; no indication of the aims and importance of natural 
 history; no training of the faculties, for which it affords the 
 healthiest exercise : consequently they have not been educed. 
 I cannot doubt that this must have been the effeft of the present 
 restridted system. There must have been by nature many Sir 
 Joseph Banks's since he died : but they have been born, have 
 grown up, and passed away without working out their destined 
 purpose ; their peculiar talent has never been educed ; their 
 attention has never been turned to those studies : but they have 
 been wholly devoted to classics. It must be remembered, that 
 minds of this class are usually very averse to classical studies, 
 and mere exercises of memory and composition : they never 
 take to them ; they get through them as well or as ill as they 
 can, doing little or nothing to the purpose ; and they fail to 
 achieve that for which they are naturally fitted, from the want 
 of having their special faculties educed. I consider it a loss to 
 the nation, that, in our great educational establishments for 
 youth, there should be no arrangements for giving them the 
 chance of knowing something of the laws of the living world, 
 and how they are to be studied. . . . 
 
 Do you think there would be much difficulty in getting 
 teachers, say for the seven or eight principal schools of the 
 country, to undertake that work? — I am afraid at the present 
 time that there would be, arising from the general defedts of 
 our teaching arrangements, especially the want of systematic 
 teaching of the elements of natural history in schools. We are 
 all of us, as it were, naturalists by accident. It is the percep- 
 tion of that difficulty which has led me, on every occasion when 
 I have been called upon to give evidence on the subjedt, to 
 urge the giving of elementary instru6lion in natural history as 
 one of the duties that should be attached to the keeper of 
 each secondary or subordinate department in great national 
 museums of natural history. . . . 
 
 Do you consider that there exist at present good elementary 
 works, on which a teacher might rely for assistance ? — No : 
 it would be very difficult to seledt one to answer that pur- 
 pose ; the demand has not arisen, and therefore there is not the 
 supply. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 107 
 
 It would not be difficult to write one ? — More difficult than 
 is generally thought. Good elementary books on science are 
 very rare. 
 
 In Germany do you know any good elementary books, or in 
 France ? — Yes : they have good elementary books in both 
 countries. In France there is an excellent elementary work on 
 Zoology, by Professor Milne Edwards.* . . . 
 
 Have you observed at school and in life since, that there are 
 three distindt types of mind, that some boys have a predomi- 
 nant turn for languages, others for mathematics, and others for 
 the sciences of observation, and other natural sciences? — 
 These are the three principal distindtions that one observes in 
 all schools, no doubt. 
 
 Taking a school like Eton, where there are eight hundred 
 boys altogether, can you entertain any doubt that there are many 
 boys at that school whose predominant type of mind is for the 
 study of natural science ? — I have no doubt of it ; and I have 
 had complaints uttered to me by gentlemen who have been 
 educated at Eton, and have afterwards, under consequent disad- 
 vantage and difficulty, followed their own bias in favor of the 
 natural sciences, and who have regretted deeply that they never 
 had an opportunity of learning the elementary principles of 
 natural histoiy. 
 
 Do you not think it is a great hardship to some boys, that 
 they have to remain at school perhaps till eighteen years of 
 age, without receiving any instrucftion on these subjedls, for 
 which they have a natural aptitude? — I think it not only a 
 hardship, but an injury. 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) You say that many of those sciences are 
 in a progressive state ? — Every science we are acquainted with 
 is one of progress. 
 
 But the principles of some of the sciences are determined ; 
 such as those of mathematics, for instance ? — The fundamen- 
 tal principles of classification in natural history are as certain. 
 
 Take this case : fifty years ago, supposing zoology to have 
 been taught in schools, would not the Linnsean system have 
 been adopted? — You might teach the main part of that system, 
 
 * Translated hy Knox, 2d ed., London, 1864. 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 in reference to botany, as a disciplinary science at the present 
 day. 
 
 I was thinking of the study of zoology? — In zoology, 
 although of course there has been a great increase in the 
 knowledge of the strudlure of animals since the time of' 
 Linnaeus, still the principles laid down in Linnaus's immortal 
 work, " Philosophia Botanica," are really those that cannot be 
 deviated from, whether the elements of zoology or botany 
 be imparted. 
 
 You do not think there is any objedlion to the educational 
 use of the physical sciences in consequence of the fludluating or 
 speculative cliaradler of those sciences? — I deny the " fludluat- 
 ing charadler : " it is not applicable to natural history. The 
 zoological system of Ray is the basis of the system of Lin- 
 naeus. It forms an essential part of the Linnaean system. 
 There is neither fludluation nor speculation. The principles 
 of natural history are already as settled and fixed as can be 
 needed for its use as a disciplinary science. Modification of 
 details would never affedt its value in relation to elementary, 
 teaching. 
 
 The zoological classifications of the ancients were some- 
 what puerile, were they not, even the classification of Aristotle ? 
 — No : it is surprising how much of Aristotle's system is really 
 retained ; how much is founded on truth, and is the basis of 
 the modern classification. 
 
 Plato was the first writer on classification, I think : Aristotle 
 is very severe on him, if I remember rightly? — I am not sure. 
 But the improvement that Cuvier made on the zoological 
 system of Linnseus was mainly a revival of the Aristotelian 
 principles, because Cuvier was the first modern systematist who 
 had any thing like the same amount of knowledge of the struc- 
 ture of animals which that wonderful man, Aristotle, possessed. 
 (Mr. Vaughan.) I suppose that, in reference to the point 
 on which Professor Thompson has just been speaking, it is the 
 case in all but the most abstradl sciences, in all branches of 
 human knowledge, that there is some change of a progressive 
 nature in the truths that are enunciated? — The amount of 
 change, as affedting the great body of the dodlrines, of course 
 varies with the state of our knowledge. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 10 
 
 I suppose that, if we were to wait in order to teach the sub- 
 je6t until we entirely escaped the possibility of there being 
 some change in the form and substance of the truths taught, 
 we should have to wait for ever in all sciences : should \ire not? 
 — We should certainly have to wait for the termination of our 
 existence as a species. 
 
 (Mr. Thompson.) Not with respecSt to arithmetic, for 
 insfamce ? — In Transaftions of Societies and Academies of the 
 Natural Sciences, w^e see annual progress and discoveries in 
 mathematics ; the sciences, in regard to the works of nature or 
 of the Author of nature, are more incomplete ; and the more we 
 know of them, the more we get impressed with the small 
 amount of knowledge we possess. But that amount, compared 
 with ignorance, is so great, and the principles that we are 
 enabled to educe from the little that we do knovvr are so sure, 
 that, taking them at the present very imperfedl standard, 
 whether in respedt to zoology or botany or geology, they are as 
 good foi* the purposes of elementary instrudtion and discipline 
 as tbey will perhaps be ten thousand years hence. 
 
 There is another point upon which I should like to have 
 your opinion, which is a pra<Stical matter entirely, with refer- 
 ence to natural history and philosophy. Has it occurred to 
 you to observe, whether persons in the upper classes of society, 
 and other members of society, are well or ill acquainted with 
 the physiological laws of the human strudture? — No: it is a 
 knowledge very rarely possessed, as far as my experience goes, 
 very rarely indeed ; and I believe that it is chiefly upon that 
 general ignorance that the success of spurious systems of medi- 
 cine have their dependence. It is upon the general ignorance 
 of the population that the empiric bases his pretensions, and 
 has an influence for a certain time, till one subsides, and is suc- 
 ceeded by another. ... In reference to the conclusion to which 
 I have come in regard to the importance of natural history as 
 an element of school instrudlion, and the time to be given to it 
 in beginning the experiment, I would ask leave to read a pas- 
 sage from the address of a gentleman who fills a very eminent 
 position, — that of Local Diredlor of the Geological Survey of 
 Ireland, and Ledlurer on Geology to the Museum of Irish In- 
 dustry, Mr. J. B. Jukes ; who, in opening the business of the 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 Geological SecSion of the British Association, over which he 
 presided at Cambridge, made these remarks : " The natural 
 sciences are now considered as worthy of study by those who 
 have a taste for them, both in themselves and as a means of men- 
 tal training and discipline. In my time, however, no other 
 branches of learning were recognized than classics and mathe- 
 matics ; and I have, with some shame, to confess, that I dis- 
 played but a truant disposition with respecSt to them, and too 
 often hurried from the tutor's ledlure-room to the river or field 
 to enable me to add much to the scanty store of knowledge I 
 had brought up with me. Had it not been then for the teaching 
 of Professor Sedgwick in geology, my time would have been 
 altogether wasted." So that it was just the accident, so to speak, 
 of one short course on a branch of natural history, grafted 
 through an old bequest upon the main studies of his University, 
 that led Professor Jukes to his appreciation of the method of 
 study and value of the science which owes so much to his labors. 
 I could also, with your permission, adduce a higher authority 
 on the main point, and that is Baron Cuviei-'s ; who, in the 
 preface to the first edition of his elementary book on Natural 
 History, expresses himself as follows : " The habit, necessarily 
 acquired in the study of natural history, of mentally classifying 
 a great number of ideas, is one of the advantages of this 
 science which is seldom spoken of, and which, when it shall 
 have been generally introduced into the system of common 
 education, will perhaps become the principal one : it exercises 
 the student in that part of logic which is termed ' method,' as 
 the study of geometry does in that which is called ' syllogism ; ' 
 because natural history is the science which requires the most 
 precise methods, as geometry is that which demands the 
 most rigorous reasoning. Now, this art of method, when 
 once well acquired, may be applied with infinite advantage to 
 studies the most foreign to natural history. Every discus- 
 sion which supposes a classification of fadls, every research 
 which requires a distribution of matters, is performed after the 
 same manner ; and he who has cultivated this science merely 
 for amusement, is surprised at the facilities it affords for 
 disentangling all kinds of affairs. It is not less useful in 
 solitude ; sufficiently extensive to satisfy the most powerful 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. Ill 
 
 mind ; sufficiently various and interesting to calm the most 
 agitated soul : it consoles the unhappy, and tends to allay 
 enmity and hatred. Once elevated to the contemplation of 
 the harmony of nature, irresistibly regulated by Providence, 
 how weak and trivial appear those causes which it has been 
 pleased to leave dependent upon the will of man ! How aston- 
 ishing to behold so many fine minds consuming themselves so 
 uselessly for their own happiness and that of others, in the 
 pursuit of vain combinations, the very traces of which a few 
 years suffice to obliterate ! I avow it proudly, these ideas 
 have always' been present to my mind, the companions of 
 my labors ; and if I have endeavored, by every means in my 
 power, to advance this peaceful study, it is because, in my 
 opinion, it is more capable than any other of supplying that 
 want of occupation which has so largely contributed to the 
 troubles of our age." 
 
 From the E-vidence of Dr. J. Hooker. (Vol. iv. p. 382.) 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) I believe you are a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society? — Yes. 
 
 And Assistant-DirecSor of the Botanical Gardens at Kew ? 
 — Yes. 
 
 You are the author of " Travels in the Himalaya"? — 
 Yes. 
 
 From your experience, and the means of observation you 
 have had, have you formed any opinion as to the state of 
 knowledge in natural and physical science, with respedt to the 
 education of the upper and middle classes, as it exists at 
 present ? — At Kew, we are thrown into contaft with persons 
 belonging to the middle and upper classes in very large num- 
 bers ; and I think the regret that they knew nothing of botany 
 is quite apparent in all their communications with us. Hardly 
 a day passes but what we receive communications from some 
 part of the world in which such regret is expressed. 
 
 What is the nature of the communications into which you 
 are brought with ' these classes at Kew? — Most prominently 
 now with regard to vegetable fibres. Sometimes two or three 
 letters a day come to us requiring information with regard to 
 well-known fibres, which the slightest habit of observation, or 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 the slightest knowledge, would assure the persons who send 
 them that they cannot, in any way, be used for cotton. 
 
 Then these have been comparatively f^pent communica- 
 tions ? — No : they have gone on for the last twepty years of 
 my father's experience, and the last ten ypars of rny own ; not 
 so much for«ierly with regard to cotton fibre for the use of 
 yaros as for making paper, and for many other purposes to 
 which cotton is applied. 
 
 In fa(S, you say, that the upppr and middle classes in this 
 country are in the habit of constantly consulting either your 
 father or yourself at Kew?— r-Yes, both officially and unoffir 
 cially. 
 
 And both the subjefts upon which they wish to have knowl- 
 edge, and their mode of inquiry, lead you tp think that they are 
 in a state of great ignorance ? ^^ Yeg, 
 
 That that study in particular has been greatly negleiStpd by 
 those classes ? — Very greatly. 
 
 And they have generally expressed their regret that it has 
 beien so negle^ed ? -:- Uoiyersally, J may say. 
 
 You have probably considered that the npgleiSt of this 
 important study i§ a matter of national regret ? -r— I have ^I'^^ays 
 thought so. 
 
 Have you ever turned yovsf attention St s}l to the popi^jbility 
 of teaching botany to boys in classes at school ? — I have 
 tiiought that it might be done ve«y easily ; that Jhis, deficiency 
 might be easily remedied- 
 
 What are yowr ideas on the svityedj; ? t- My own ideas are 
 chiefly drawn froni the experience qf my father-inrlaw, t:hp late 
 Professor Henslow, Prqfesspr qf Botany aj; Caiqbridge. Jle 
 introduced botany into one pf the lowest possible class of 
 schools, r- that of village laborers' children in a remote part 
 of Suffolk. 
 
 Perhaps you will have the gpodnesg tp tell u§ the systeni h^ 
 pursued ? ^- It was an entirely voluntary system. He ofTpr^d 
 to enroll the school children in a class" tq be taught botany pnce 
 a week. The number pf children in the class ^as limited, I 
 think, tP fprty-twp. As his parish cpntained pnly one thousand 
 inhabitants, there never were, I supppse, the full fprty-twp chil- 
 dren in the class ; their ages varied frpm abput eight years pld 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIEXTIFIC STUDIES. 113 
 
 to about fourteen or fifteen. The class mostly consisted of 
 girls. . . . He required, that, before they were enrolled in the 
 class, they should be able to spell a few elementary botanical 
 terms, including some of the most difficult to spell, and those 
 that were the most essential to begin with. Those who 
 brought proof that they could do this were put into the third 
 class ; then they were taught once a week, by himself generally, 
 for an hour or an hour and a half, sometimes for two hours 
 (for they were exceedingly fond of it). 
 
 Did he use to take them out in the country, or was it 
 simply lessons in the school? — He left them to colledt for 
 themselves ; but he visited his parish daily, when the children 
 used to come up to him, and bring the plants they had col- 
 ledted ; so that the lessons went on all the week round. There 
 was only one day in the week on which definite instruftion was 
 given to the class ; but on Sunday afternoon he used to allow 
 the senior class, and those who got marks at the examinations, 
 to attend at his house. . . . 
 
 Did he find any difficulty in teaching this subjedt in class? 
 
 — None vsrhatever ; less than he would have had in dealing 
 with almost any other subjeft. 
 
 Do you know in what way he taught it? did he illustrate 
 it? — Invariably : he made it praftical. He made it an objec- 
 tive study. The children were taught to know the plants, and 
 to pull them to pieces ; to give their proper names to the parts ; 
 to indicate the relations of the parts to one another ; and to 
 find out the relation of one plant to another by the knowledge 
 thus obtained. 
 
 They were children, you say, generally from eight to twelve ? 
 
 — Yes, and up to fourteen. 
 
 And they learnt it readily ? — Readily and voluntarily, en- 
 tirely. 
 
 And were interested in it? — Extremely interested in it. 
 They were exceedingly fond of it. 
 
 Do you happen to know whether Professor Henslow 
 thought that the study of botany developed the faculties of the 
 mind, — that it taught these children to think ? and do you 
 know whether he perceived any improvement in their mental 
 faculties from that? — Yes: he used to think it was the most 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 important agent that could be employed for cultivating their 
 faculties of observation, and for strengthening their reasoning 
 powers. 
 
 He really thought that be had arrived at a pradlical result? 
 — Undoubtedly ; and so did every one who visited the school 
 or the pariish. 
 
 They were children of quite the lower class? — The labor- 
 ing agricultural class. 
 
 And in other branches receiving the mpst elementary 
 instruction ? — Yes. 
 
 And Professor Henslow thought that their minds were more 
 developed ; that they were become more reasoning beings, 
 from having this study superadded to the others ? —r Most decid- 
 edly. It was also the opinion of sonie of the inspeflors of 
 schools, who came to visit him, that such children were in 
 general more intelligent than those of other parishes ; and they 
 attributed the difference to their observant and reasoning faculr 
 ties being thus developed. . . . 
 
 So that the intelle<3;ual success of this objedlive study was 
 beyond question?— Reyond question. ... In conducing th® 
 examinations of medical men for the army, which I hay« 
 now candu(Sled for several years, and those for the East-India 
 Company's service, which I have condudled for, I thiink, seven 
 years, the questions which I am in the habit of putting, and 
 which are not answered by the majority of the candidates, 
 are wh^t would have been answered by the children in 
 P<ro£essor Henslow's village school. I believe the chief rea- 
 son to be, that these students' observing faculties, as children, 
 had never been trained, — such faculties having lain dormant 
 with those who naturally possessed them in a high degree } 
 and having never been developed, by training, in those who 
 possessed them in a low degree. In most medical schools,, the 
 whole sum and substance of botani<;al science is crammed into 
 a few weeks of ledtures, and the men leave the class without 
 having acquired an accurate knowledge, of the merest elements 
 of the science, . . . 
 
 At the High School in Glasgow, did you observe among the 
 boys a difference of aptitude for the three branches of languages, 
 mathematics, and the sciences of observation?-:— Very great. 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 115 
 
 A boy who distinguishes himself in classics might have an 
 inaptitude for mathem.atics and natural science, and viie 
 versa? — Yea. One of my own classmates was a dull boy 
 in the High School, where mathematics were not then taught, 
 except in the senior class, which I did not attend. He was the 
 best mathematician of his year at the University afterwards. 
 
 Do you not think that it is very undesirable that a boy 
 at school, having faculties of a particular kind, should have 
 them wholly neglected ? Take the example of a boy who has 
 really an aptitude for the natural sciences, do you not think it 
 a very hard case that his faculties should be wholly neglefted ? 
 
 — I think it is very hard. Nothing is more desti'udtive to his 
 whole education. 
 
 Supposing that a boy happened not to have a turn for lan- 
 guages, his place in school would be very low down. Would 
 it not have an injurious moral effedt habitually for him to be 
 regarded as stupid, because he had no talent for languages ? 
 
 — Yes. 
 
 It would have a tendency to impair his self-respedt ? — Yes. 
 
 The same boy, if he had an opportunity of cultivating his 
 faculties in the natural sciences, and using his abilities there, 
 would be likely to become a much more useful member of 
 society? — Yes, much more. . . . 
 
 (Lord Clarendon.) The majority of the young men who 
 are intended for the medical profession, and who come from 
 the various public schools of the country, scarcely ever bring 
 with them any physical science : do they ? — None whatever, 
 or very rarely. 
 
 As far as your observation goes, that is generally negleAed 
 in your profession? — Yes; and it is a want more felt by 
 medical men than by any others. The amount of botany and 
 chemistry required by the medical man might be as easily 
 obtained at school, as during the time he is undergoing his 
 medical curriculum. 
 
 I suppose you have found a sentiment of regret prevailing 
 amongst them at the manner in which those valuable years of 
 their lives had been employed ? — Very generally. 
 
 And they would have liked to have spent them differently? 
 Yes, to a great extent. I never knew them regret their 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 classics and mathematics ; quite the contrary : but they do 
 Agret very much that their faculties were not early trained to 
 habits of observation. When they go round the hospitals, they 
 have felt that they have not been taught to observe, and to 
 reason upon what they observe, as might have been. 
 
 Do you think there is a general feeling amongst these men, 
 that the study of physical science might have been added to 
 the classics, without impairing that knowledge which they 
 would be glad to have acquired ? — That was the universal 
 feeling. 
 
 From a Communication to the ' Commissioners, from Sir y. F. W. 
 Herschel. (Vol. ii. p. 47.) 
 
 "Regarding as a 'Public School' any considerable per- 
 manent educational establishment, in which a large number 
 of youths go through a fixed and uniform course of school 
 instrudtion, from the earliest age at which boys are usually 
 sent to school to that in which they either enter the Univer- 
 sity, or pass in some other mode into manly life, and in 
 which it is understood that the education is what is called a 
 liberal one, with no special professional bias or other avowed 
 objedt than to form a youth for general life and civilized 
 society, I should consider any system radically faulty which 
 should confine itself to the study of the classical languages, 
 and to so much of Greek and Roman history as is necessary to 
 understand the classical authors as its main and primary fea- 
 ture ; and should admit, and that reludlantly, a mere minimum 
 of extra-classical teaching. Such a system must necessarily, 
 I conceive, suffer the reasoning faculty to languish and become 
 stunted and dwarfed for want of timely exercise in those 
 years between fourteen and twenty, when the mind has 
 becomc'capable of consecutive thought, and of following out a 
 train of consecutive argument to a logical conclusion. In 
 those j'ears it is quite as important that youths should have 
 placed in their hands, and be obliged to study, books which may 
 best initiate them in this domain of human thought, as in that 
 of classical literature. To be able to express one's self fluently 
 in Greek or Latin, prose or verse ; to have attained an exten- 
 
CLASSICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 117 
 
 sive familiarity with ancient literature, and a peifedt knowledge 
 of the niceties of its grammar, prosody, and idiom, — all, in 
 short, which is included in the idea of classical scholarship, — 
 is no doubt very desirable ; and I should be one of the last 
 to depreciate it. But it is bought too dear, if obtained at 
 the sacrifice of any reasonable prospect of improving the gen- 
 eral intelledtual charadler by acquiring habits of concentrated 
 thought, by familiarizing the mind with the contemplation of 
 abstradl truth, and by accustoming it to the attitude of investi- 
 gation, indudtion, and generalization, while it is yet plastic and 
 impressible." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Boston: Printed by John Wilson & Son. 
 
#V#v.- 
 
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