ment which must meet the pastor of every large parish, however able and conscientious, in far larger degree than even the public-schoolmaster; he may number his disciples by thousands, but he must be content to trace his successful efforts by units and tens. And one very serious answer which may be urged in reply to the charge of failure in the education of the mass of those who leave our public schools is, that we are no more justified in narrowing the basis of an English gentleman's education, for the minority who gladly profit by it, in the hope of securing some supposed advantage for the majority who abuse or neglect their opportunities, than in narrowing or diluting the grand principles of Christianity because the ideal which they are to form seems unattainable by the mass of nominal Christians. In neither case are the results to be fairly measured by numbers. The influence of one thoroughly trained mind counts for more in the social and intellectual education of the world than a hundred mediocrities. In human as in divine relations, the few are the salt of the earth.

No school has made more honest or more successful attempts to meet the demand for a more extended basis of education than Rugby. Dr Arnold was the first head of a large public school who gave a sensible weight to modern history and modern languages, and made them an essential part of the regular school work. And perhaps if any one modern teacher rather than another may be considered free from old-fashioned prejudices, and untrammelled by any blind reverence for traditional formulas, that man would be the present Head-Master, Dr Temple. We may fairly take him, therefore, as a witness unexceptionable on the ground of natural bias as of acknowledged ability, in support of the conclusion which has been arrived at by the Commissioners, and which has been already advocated in our pages,

that classics should continue to be the staple of instruction in our public schools. "I cannot sug

gest," he says, any change in our system of education." He has entered into the question at some length, and with great ability; and though his arguments are not altogether new-as few arguments on this subject can be-they are so strikingly put, that many who are not readers of blue-books will thank us for a longer quotation than usual.

For

"The studies of boys at school fall under three heads-literature, mathematics, and physical science. every branch of each of these studies very strong arguments may be adduced. A boy ought not to be ignorant of this earth on which God has placed him, and ought therefore to be well acquainted with geography. He ought not to walk in the fields in total ignorance of what is growing under his very eyes, and he ought therefore to learn botany. There is hardly an occupation in which he can be employed where he will not find chemistry of service to him. Mathematics rule all other sciences, and contain in themselves the one perfect example of strict logic. It is absurd that an English youth should be ignorant of the history of England; equally absurd that he should not be well acquainted with its noble literature. So each study in its turn can give reasons why it should be cultivated to the utmost. But all these arguments are met by an unanswerable fact that our time is limited. It is not possible to teach boys everything. If it is attempted, the result is generally a superficial knowledge of exceedingly little value, and liable to the great moral objection that it encourages conceit and discourages hard work. A boy who knows the general principles of a study without knowing its details, easily gets the credit of knowing much; while the test of putting his knowledge to use will quickly prove that he knows very little. Meanwhile he acquires a distaste for the drudgery of details, without which drudgery nothing worth doing ever yet was done.

"It is therefore necessary to make a choice among these studies, to take one as the chief, and to subordinate all others to that. I assume that the schools

commonly called public schools are to aim at the highest kind of education; and to give that education, I think the

classics decidedly the best instrument. When we have to choose between literature, mathematics, and physical science, the plea advanced on behalf of the two latter is utility. They supply a man with tools for future work. Man's chief business, it is said, is to subdue nature to his purposes, and these two studies show him how. Those who use this plea seem to forget that the world in which we live consists quite as much of the men and women on its surface, as of the earth and its constituent materials. If any man were to analyse his own life, he would find that he had far more to do with his fellow-men than with anything else. And if, therefore, we are to choose a study which shall pre-eminently fit a man for life, it will be that which shall best enable him to enter into the thoughts, the feelings, the motives of his fellows.

"The real defect of mathematics and physical science as instruments of education is, that they have not any tendency to humanise. Such studies do not make a man more human, but simply more intelligent. Physical science, besides giving knowledge, cultivates to some degree the love of order and beauty. Mathematics give a very admirable discipline in precision of thought. But neither of them can touch the strictly human part of our nature. The fact is, that all education really comes from intercourse with other minds.

"If the staple of education is to be found in the different branches of literature, the classics, in a perfect system, must be the substratum.

"In the first place, modern literature is not fully intelligible except to those who have studied the classics. A student of mathematics does not find it any help to him to study the early in learning the differential calculus by going back to fluxions. Nor will the study of physical science gain much by beginning with the writings of earlier discoverers. But literature can only be studied thoroughly by going to its source. Modern theology, modern philosophy, modern law, modern history, modern poetry, are never quite understood unless we begin with their ancient counterparts.

writers on the science. No one is aided

"In the next place, the perfect and peculiar beauty of the classical literature will always put it at the head of

all other.

fects of modern life. The classic writers exhibit precisely that order of virtues. in which we are apt to be deficient. They altogether show human nature on a grander scale, with less benevolence, but more patriotisin; less sentiment, but more self-control; if a lower average of virtue, more striking individual examples of it; fewer small goodnesses, but more greatness and appreciation of greatness; more which tends to exalt the imagination, and inspire high conceptions of the capabilities of human nature. If, as every one must see, the want of affinity of these studies to the modern mind is gradually lowering them in popular estimation, this is but a confirmation of the need of them, and renders it more incumbent on those who have the power, to do their utmost to aid in preventing their decline." "-Appendix, pp. 311, 312.

As an illustration of the position which he goes on to lay down, that the kind of education given in a public school is that which fits a youth to take up any study whatever, Dr Temple gives the following:

"I once asked a tradesman who had been himself at Rugby School, and was intending to send his son, whether he had learnt anything here that was of use to him afterwards. He answered, 'I was at school several years, and I have never regretted it. I learnt there what I don't think I could have learnt as well anywhere else,-how to learn anything I wanted.'”

But although the classics form the basis of education both at Rugby and at Harrow, and all other subjects occupy a very subordinate position, neither mathematics, modern languages, nor modern history are neglected. One very important step has been gained in considering the two first no longer as extras,' as was the case in former days (which too often made the so-called teaching a mere farce, of which the only real result was the adding a certain number of guineas to the school bills), but in making them a distinct item of regular school work, and putting the lessons, for the short proportion of time they occupy, on precisely the same footNot a ing as Latin and Greek. very great deal is taught of these

subjects, it is true; but what is taught is taught in earnest. Nothing contributes more effectually to this result than securing, as is done at both schools, that the mathematical and modern language masters shall be, both socially and intellectually, upon the same level with the classical staff, and maintaining for them an equal status in the school generally. Mathematics occupy at Rugby, taking the average of the several forms, about three hours in the week in school, with perhaps nearly as much time supposed to be spent in preparation. Very nearly the same estimate will apply to Harrow. In both schools about two hours in the week are assigned to the modern language lessons, which are each considered to require an hour's preparation. Every boy at Rugby is required to learn both French and German, unless on his reaching the "Middle School" his parents prefer that he should attend the lectures on natural philosophy. At Harrow all below the fifth form learn French; in the fifth, if "able to read and translate a French classic with facility at sight," a boy is transferred to German. A certain amount of interest and emulation is kept up in these subsidiary studies by a system of marks given for proficiency, which contribute to a boy's promotion through the regular classical forms in the school. At Harrow their influence in this important respect is far from inconsiderable.

"A boy may rise most rapidly into the upper sixth form without being at any time distinguished for scholarship, by the help of modern languages and mathematics. I have known a case in which a boy has risen from the bottom of the form almost to the top by great success in mathematics, and vice versa; so that it happens continually that a boy reaches the upper sixth who is a very bad scholar."-Mr Westcott's Evidence, 1121.

At Rugby the weight which mathematics and modern languages throw into the scale is scarcely so great as this; but even there, a marked superiority in these points may so far affect promotion, that it is very possible that "the boy Smith in the sixth form may be inferior in classics to the boy Jones who may be in the twenty" (the form next below).* Natural philosophy (where that study is chosen) reckons in the same proportion as modern languages. Proficiency in these secondary subjects enters also more or less into the competition for the Harrow scholarships and for the Rugby exhibitions. Mr Butler doubts whether this combination of marks works satisfactorily as the promotion reaches the highest form, and suggests that both "the best scholars and the best mathematicians would gain considerably by the distinct recognition and reward of their respective studies;" for instance, by the assignment of some of the scholarships to classics only, and others to mathematics only; and on a similar principle the Royal Commissioners, in the increase which they propose in the number of exhibitions at Rugby, recommend that instead of their being all awarded, as at present, for "mixed attainments," five shall be adjudged for classics alone, two for mathematics, two for modern languages, and two for physical science. If it is considered necessary to give greater encouragement to these branches of study, this certainly appears to be the simplest and least objectionable mode of providing it.

But Mr Butler agrees with Dr Temple that there must be one fixed line of education at a public school, and that if classics are adopted as the basis, the studies which are subsidiary must be permitted to interfere as little as possible with

At Harrow. At Rugby. as 1 to 4; as 12 to 78 1 to 9;, 10 to 78

the main business of the school. He says, with great truth, that "boys will not work vigorously at any subject in which the majority of their companions are not keenly interested." He believes that the proportion of boys who can be made to take a real interest in mathematics is "exceedingly small;" and he "knows as a matter of fact, proved by experience," that boys 'will not expend upon French or German the full amount of intellectual labour which they do habitually expend upon classical studies." And as to those remarkable natural predilections which are supposed to be continually breaking out in the imaginary schoolboy in every direction except Latin grammar (that, unfortunately, being the special work which he generally has in hand), it is worth while to note what a man who has mixed with English schoolboys all his life, either as a companion or a teacher, has to say upon that point :

"I believe it is an error to imagine that most boys have a strong predilection for any particular study. You do, of course, occasionally see it. But I am satisfied that any system which proceeds on the supposition that boys have naturally, as a rule, a special gift for any particular study, is based on error." -Harrow Evidence, 580.

Mr Wilson, the Physical Science master at Rugby, who may fairly be supposed to see more of these natural geniuses than others, gives a rather amusing corroboration of this opinion :—

"The weaker boys are continually coming to me, and they say they have a taste for natural science-that is, for explosions, and such things; they are the most hopeless cases I have to deal with. It is a sort of curiosity which lasts a week. It is the stronger ones who come and say they know nothing about it, who study science to any purpose."-Rugby Evidence, 1371.

The Eton private-tutor system,— by which the main portion of the school-work is done in the pupilroom, where difficulties are smoothed

66

by a reference to the tutor instead of to the grammar and lexicon, and things made pleasant to the dunces in each form by a construe' during the last half-hour before going into school,-was imported many years ago into Harrow, and flourishes there still in a somewhat modified form. It has also extended itself to Rugby, but with some more important modifications; the chief of which is, that there “it is required that the tutor shall not assist the boy in preparing the school lessons at all;" while at Harrow, though the character of the assistance given varies very much with the discretion of the tutor, the theory is that, as at Eton, the school-work is prepared in the pupil-room. We have already expressed an opinion that this private tuition involves a great addition to the masters' work with a very questionable effect upon that of the schoolboy; and even Dr Temple's defence of it fails to alter our view. It is remarkable that while the headmaster of Rugby, with no antecedent experience of the system, speaks unhesitatingly in its favour, Mr Butler, educated under it himself at Harrow, expresses himself in such guarded language as to leave the impression that he rather accepts it as existing than approves cordially of the principle. Mr Commissioner Vaughan-himself the successful scholar of a different systemon this presses Mr Butler hard point through a couple of folio pages to which we can only refer our readers, and elicits admissions which, as from the head-master of a school where private tutors are in full work, are very significant. He admits that "to make a boy work a passage himself is of the greatest advantage; that there is the temptation to the tutor to give more aid than is good for the pupil; and for the pupil "to idle away the greater part of the hour previous to going into school, with the certainty that at the end he will

receive just enough aid from his private tutor to enable him to tide over the difficulty;" and that there is "a little tendency to disguise from the master of the form what the boys are really able to do." And when questioned as to the other branch of pupil-room workthe correcting of the exercises by the tutor, and the re-correction of his corrections by the master of the form (for that it is what it practically comes to)-Mr Butler honestly says,

"That is a very great difficulty which I do not disguise at all. That is the great difficulty of the double system of composition, its passing through the hands of the tutor and of the master in form. I must confess myself unable to give any satisfactory explanation of that. I am not aware, very accurately, of how it is found to work, but I know that it is considered a very serious drag by all the tutors."

In reply to a further question whether the system does not "in various ways embarrass the master of the form," he simply declines to give an opinion, as having had no personal experience on the point. Few unprejudiced persons will read Mr Butler's evidence without a very strong impression that, having entered upon the head-mastership of Harrow as a very young man, and finding the system in full work there, and more or less approved by persons of longer experience than himself, he is content to maintain it; but that his own private opinion is very much that of Mr Commissioner Vaughan.

At Harrow again, as at Eton, we have the loco parentis theory. The Harrow tutors are certainly much more modest upon the subject than the Eton gentlemen, and do not enlarge so eloquently upon the paternal relation supposed to be established with their pupils. Still we find the same assertion, and, no doubt, quite as honestly made ;"I do not know whether I can describe the relation better than that," says one of the tutors and assistantmasters of longest standing—“ a boy always looks to his private tutor as a person in loco parentis;" and

still the sceptical Commissioners persist in their cross-examination on this pet formula:—

796. (Lord Clarendon.) Do you consider that you could stand in loco parentis to above forty boys ?- It is a very large family, certainly. 797. (Lord Lyttelton.) How many have you ?—At the present time I have rather more than sixty-sixty-two or sixty-three. 798. Sixty-three private pupils, to all of whom you are in loco parentis ?-Just so; but a great number require little extraordinary care. There are a great many boys over whom a tutor has a general sort of superintendence; and it is only in cases of boys being in difficulty, or for good or for bad requiring special attention on the part of the tutor, that he is particularly called upon to look after them. 799. (Lord Clarendon.) Considering the great number of other calls upon your time, and the duties that devolve upon you, do you think that, with so many as sixty boys, you can really look after their individual character and moral conduct, and their particular fitness for certain studies, sufficiently to make you feel satisfied that you are in loco parentis to them? I could not do so if the boys were left entirely to my charge. I could not undertake the sole charge of sixty boys if they were solely under me; but all the charge that is required from a private tutor, I hope I can undertake, or else I should not have done so."

And we hope the Commissioners were satisfied. There is no going beyond that sort of answer, of course. An archdeacon was once definedto the entire satisfaction of the House of Lords-as "a person who discharged archidiaconal functions." So, a private tutor at Harrow is a gentleman who "undertakes the charge required from a private tutor." Not the most pertinacious Commissioner, nor the most anxious parent, can desire a more accurate definition.

The chief advantage of requiring every boy to have a private tutor is, as Dr Temple says, "the permaA boy

nence of the connection.". passes from form to form, and in doing so, is handed over from one teacher to another"-"but the same tutor has charge of him throughout, and ends by knowing him well."