Secondary Schools and Universities.

If each of these higher spheres present insuperable obstacles to the natural growth of these schools, the lower branches of the system will be diverted from their natural course and develop along a line of their own. We have only to look at the proceedings of nature on all sides to perceive that this is a general law governing the course of all progressive forces. The chief aim of human economy is to assist all forces to attain their ultimate aim with the least waste of energy, and, therefore, to derive from them the maximum of benefit. This is generally achieved by the removal of obstacles and the lessening of friction-in other words, by organization. Before coming to any conclusion as to how this organization can best be carried out so as to meet the needs of our industrial and commercial classes, the conditions which have characterized the development of our higher educational system in the past must be taken into

account.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was in England only one kind of education at the disposal of those who were in so fortunate a position as not to be obliged to place any limit on the expense or duration of their school career. Our secondary schools and universities alike provided a classical course of studies alone. Their object was, and for long had been, to educate gentlemen and scholars. If the gentleman had the

makings of a scholar in him, so much the better; if not, his education was conducted on the lines which it had followed since the days of the Renaissance. Skill in various sports, and some acquaintance with classical languages and literatures, were considered indispensable to his culture. Such an education cost money, and, fortunately or unfortunately, proved a great attraction in the days of sharp social distinctions to any man who, having risen through trade to a position of wealth, found himself able to procure it for his sons. At the beginning of the century, however, obstacles were thrown in the way of all Nonconformists, practically precluding them from this education, and it was not until after a hard fight that their disabilities at the universities were removed. So that, in the early days of the industrial revolution, a very large number of our manufacturers and commercial men regarded the traditional education of an English gentleman as something associated with a religious faith which they abhorred. But once the disabilities were removed we find that such men were quick to avail themselves of their new privileges, and that the attendance of their sons at the universities rapidly increased.

As every gentleman who did not enter the Navy or Army considered residence at a university as an essential part of his preparation for life, our universities were obliged to provide education for

Classical Education.

men with brains and men with a very ordinary mental capacity, two classes which are, on the whole, fairly represented to-day at Oxford and Cambridge by what are popularly known as Honours men and Pass men. The man without brains was not educated in a different way to the man who was fortunate enough to possess them the difference was one of quantity rather than of quality or method. All received a classical education which, in those days, when the horizon of knowledge was infinitely more restricted than at present, was all that was considered worthy of the scholar. And our secondary schools prepared for the universities, and were supposed to offer but a more elementary course of the same classical studies.

So long had classics held undisputed sway of the field, that teachers had arrived at peculiar skill in adapting what now seems to us the limited material at their disposal to the demands of education. So carefully had they thought out the particular mental training which was provided by the different sections of these studies, that it must have been exceedingly difficult for them to find a place for new instruments of culture in their complete schemes, without destroying the whole balance of the education which they furnished. This explains their not unnatural opposition to the new branches of learning, which rushed into

the field of human knowledge following the rapid discoveries of science. Moreover, it must be remembered that the idea of utility had never entered into their calculations. Having only to consider the needs of scholars, whose first object was not merely to earn a living, and of those gentlemen who could not hope to rise to the intellectual heights of scholars, but who rarely had to look forward to the necessity of gaining their own livelihood, it had never occurred to teachers and professors that it was part of their duty to prepare students to meet the more practical demands of life. Had they been obliged to do so we might not now be behind other nations in the education which we offer to our industrial leaders.

It is exceedingly important, in view of the present difficulties which we experience in organizing our educational system, to recognize at the outset these two objections on the part of the universities to the introduction of new studies into their curricula. For we find to-day that the scholar is too often not less conservative and not less prejudiced against any departure from tradition than those who base their claims to social superiority-and it may even be to political preferment-on their inheritance from the past rather than on their own personal merit. This, coupled with the not unnatural dread of upsetting a carefully balanced scheme of studies, perfected by three

German Universities and National Life.

hundred years of experience, is at root the cause of the strife which is waged hardly less bitterly to-day between classical and modern studies.

There was only one thing which could have forced the universities to widen their course of studies so as to keep pace with the marvellous scientific progress of the first half of the century. Had there been any strong external opposition, such as we have seen would have compelled the people to build up a national system of education, the universities might have been led to consider what they could do through education to assist the nation in its struggle. But, as we have seen, this did not exist, and the country was busy with internal reforms, with which conservative universities could, as a whole, have but little sympathy. Indeed, generally speaking, it may be said that in England the university authorities have never taken that interest in the affairs of the nation which is to be found in those countries where the national instincts have been aroused by the shock of foreign opposition. In Germany, for instance, the university professor is ever watching the trend of national affairs, and is always considering how his work can best be made to serve the national cause. He is not a mere scholar, cut off by the walls of his cloisters from the great movements which are disturbing and trying the strength of the people outside. There are, certainly, disadvantages