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her feelings were interested about the most valuable decorations of the new flue, whereas the drawing- the Rectory? This kind of breakroom carpet was a standing griev- age, if not more real, was at least ance. When it was time to dress likely to force itself more upon the for dinner, the Rector's wife was senses than the other kind of fracnot nearly so sure as before that ture which this morning's explanashe had never liked Carlingford. tion had happily averted; and altoShe began to forget the thoughts gether it was with mingled feelshe had entertained about broken ing that Mrs Morgan entered the idols, and to remember a number drawing-room, and found it occuof inconveniences attending a re- pied by Mr Leeson, who always moval. Who would guarantee the came too early, and who, on the safe transit of the china, not to speak present occasion, had some suffiof the old china, which was one of ciently strange news to tell.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS REPORT

II. HARROW AND RUGBY.

THE two public schools which stand next after Eton, in the present day, in point of reputation and numbers, are Harrow and Rugby. They offer many convenient points of comparison. Their history has been remarkably similar. Founded within a very few years of each other, early in the reign of Elizabeth, both by private individuals of the middle class, they have both risen, by a combination of circumstances which their founders could never have foreseen, from the position of mere small town or village grammar-schools to be the public training-ground of English gentlemen, second only, even as far as name and fashion are concerned, to Henry VII.'s "antique towers;" and in the more important matter of distinguished scholarship and liberal training, claiming each for themselves, and with some justice, to be second to none. The searching ordeal of a Royal Commission, if it has disclosed some shortcomings common to public-school education generally-in some degree almost inseparable from the system -has brought out a body of evidence which forms the strongest plea ever put on record in favour of the system itself, and which, in all its main bearings, must strike every impartial reader with admi

ration at the energy and ability with which these great schools are administered. No Rugby or Harrow man, at all events, will endorse Lord Malmesbury's strange protest against telling the whole truth, or suggest, as he does, that a little cooking of the accounts for the public eye would have made things more pleasant. That the tangible results of the education in both schools, so far as the mass of the boys is concerned, is to a certain extent disappointing - that they share in common with others, more or less, in that failure which the Commissioners note in their Report, and which has been so largely discussed in every quarter since,—this is a fact of which none are more painfully conscious than the most devoted teachers on their staff; it is a failure which these are the first to confess and lament, which they are making exertions year after year to meet by some new adaptation of their work, and for which they would be only too thankful if any Royal Commission were omnipotent enough to find a remedy. It is the failure common to all lofty aims which are directed at elevating a large aggregate of human minds; the ideal, or even any reasonable approach to it, is only realised here and there. It is a disappoint

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.

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No school has made more honest

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,

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"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 ignor ant of the history of England; equally absurd that he should not be well ac

quainted 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, easi ly 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

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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

writers on the science. No one is aided

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 under stood unless we begin with their ancient counterparts.

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

all other.

"Thirdly, the classic life contains, as Mr J. S. Mill has remarked, precisely the true corrective for the chief de

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 patriotism; 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.'"

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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 66 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

* The proportion of marks given for the several subjects is as follows:

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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.

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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

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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 systempresses Mr Butler hard on this 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. 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

Evidence, ii. pp. 176, 177.

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