,,the ,,school ,,and ,,the ,,world by ,,victor ,,gollancz and ,,david ,,somervell ,authors of ,political ,education in a ,public ,school ,london ,chapman ,hall1 ,ltd4 #aiai ,,to ,,the ,,school ,,which ,,both ,,we ,,and ,,those ,,who ,,differed ,,from ,,us ,,sought ,,to ,,serve ,,preface ,in ,december1 #aiag1 the present writers wrote a little book entitled ,political ,education in a ,public ,school1 in which they put forward their views as to what the aims and methods of a modern liberal education should be4 ,they also described certain experiments which they had been permitted to make in one of our old ,english ,public ,schools1 experiments which both illustrated the authors' principles and tested their value4 ,in ,july1 #aiah1 that book was published4 ,but in the intervening seven months several things had happened4 ,on the one hand1 ,political ,education had produced further striking evidence of its power over boys' intellects and characters1 evidence altogether more striking than anything that had occurred up to the time of writing the book4 ,on the other hand1 the movement in the full tide of its success ran upon rocks and has been1 for the time being at any rate1 utterly and completely destroyed4 ,the authors have left the school in which their experiments were made4 ,when the book was published1 its reviewers in the press raised one by one a series of problems which we had already encountered in a practical shape in the course of our work1 problems hardly touched on1 however1 in our book1 which was devoted to exposition rather than argument4 ,such problems were3 ,how far is political propaganda inseparable from political education1 and in what respects is such propaganda desirable or undesirable8 ,how can political differences among the masters themselves be made to play a helpful rather than an injurious part8 ,does the introduction of politics into the curriculum open a way1 as the very able reviewer in ,the ,westminster ,gazette suggested1 for ,prussianism in its most insidious form1 the conscription of educated opinion8 ,are the old ,public ,schools the best medium for political education1 or should the new wine be poured into new bottles8 and lastly--for educational subjects are or should be but aspects of a single whole--what of political education in relation to morality1 and to religion8 ,the present volume1 therefore1 essays a twofold task4 ,the first two chapters briefly recapitulate and continue the history of our work down to its abrupt end4 ,the latter chapters deal with such questions as those mentioned above4 ,one feature of the earlier volume survives in its successor4 ,the ,appendix to that volume contained a selection of articles written by boys for our political paper1 ,the ,school ,observer4 ,as an ,appendix to this volume we print a few more articles by boys whose work did not then appear4 ,we are under no delusions as to there being anything very extraordinary about these articles and those printed in the previous volume4 ,abler work has been done by abler boys in various schools at various times4 ,they are interesting as the combined effort of a group rather than as the work of individuals4 ,we reproduce them as the only concrete evidence available of the character of one aspect of our experiment4 ,in the former volume we suppressed the name of the school out of deference to the wishes of the ,head ,master1 and though our own judgment was against the concealment as a wholly superfluous piece of mystification1 we continue to respect his wishes4 ,one word of apology is needed for the use to which we have put the utterances of our reviewers4 ,the reviews revealed the interesting and important fact that thoughtful people really felt strongly1 one way or the other1 on the subject of political education4 ,they constitute a symposium of conflicting judgments upon an educational problem of which they one and all recognize the importance1 and as such their main features are worth preserving4 ,having said this much about the reviews it is necessary to add a word more4 ,the quotations we have chosen are1 quite naturally1 very largely critical1 and as such give no idea of the very warm welcome the general policy of the book received4 ,not one in five among the reviewers was hostile4 ,one of them1 however1 the ,church ,times reviewer1 was virulently hostile1 and appeared to us not merely to dislike our educational policy1 which he had every right to do1 but to blaspheme against the very idea of a liberal education4 ,as we have quoted from no other ,church paper1 we should like to remark here that a number of other such papers1 representing various schools of religious thought1 gave the book a generous welcome4 ,our experiments perished in the dark days of last spring4 ,within only a month or two came the turn of the tide4 ,it is bitter to reflect that1 could they but have survived until victory and peace brought a return of political sanity1 they might have weathered the storm and conciliated some of their bitterest enemies1 and reached safety4 ,possibly1 though gone1 they have left their mark4 ,meanwhile pneumonia has carried off1 in the prime of early manhood1 their staunchest friend among our colleagues4 ,he was not one who took any but a very small part in the actual conduct of the experiments4 ,he once lectured to ,the ,politics ,class on ,liberalism4 ,but he had a genius for sympathy1 and always1 when difficulties arose1 it was to him that we turned1 because he had the gift of making us feel that it was still worth while to persevere4 ,had we been wiser1 he could perhaps have served us still further by bringing us into touch with some of those who differed from us1 and helping to a mutual understanding4 ,for everyone was his friend4 ,the dedication of this book had already been chosen before he died1 and we are unwilling to alter it1 but perhaps we may also venture to offer it as an unworthy tribute to the memory of ,alan ,gorringe4 ,,contents ,,chap4 ,,preface ,i4 ,,the ,,rise ,,ii4 ,,the ,,collapse ,,iii4 ,,propaganda ,,iv4 ,,controversy ,v4 ,,capture ,,by ,,the ,,state ,,vi4 ,,the ,,making ,,of ,,politicians ,,vii4 ,,public ,,schools ,,and ,,freak ,,schools ,,viii4 ,,morality ,,ix4 ,,religion ,x4 ,,curriculum ,,xi4 ,,the ,,young ,,generation ,,and ,,the ,,old ,,appendix ,that such an experiment should have been permitted in one of the great public 7,english7 schools is a sign of the greatest promise for the future4--,aberdeen ,free ,press4 ,of all the objectionable and inept proposals for reforming the education of our public schools we must award the palm to the scheme of teaching boys politics4--,saturday ,review4 ,we do not believe the authors have delivered all their message4--,scottish ,educational ,journal4 ,,the ,,school ,,and ,,the ,,world ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,rise ,the school in which political education was tried for a space of something under two years is in no way a very remarkable school4 ,it has its sixteenth-century founder1 of pious memory1 and its second founder1 of memory almost more pious1 in early ,victorian days4 ,that second founder made the school famous as a centre of stalwart evangelicalism4 ,more recently its fame has been won chiefly in the production of first-class cricketers4 ,until the early years of the present century the school had also1 we are told1 a kind of inverted fame as one of the stupidest of the public schools1 as a dumping ground for young hopefuls who could not pass entrance examinations elsewhere4 ,from that reputation1 however1 it had struggled fairly successfully to free itself4 ,the present writers started with the common assumption that the ,classical scheme of a liberal education had long broken down in practice1 and survived only as feudalism survived in eighteenth-century ,france1 because sufficient energy had not yet generated to create a new scheme to replace it4 ,in part it had already disappeared and given place to the patchwork innovations of the earnest but painfully cautious and conservative reformers who have ruled the schools since the days of ,dr4 ,arnold4#a ,the classical system had become the classical compromise1 a clipped and truncated classics1 fighting a losing battle for air space amidst a crowd of inadequately provided new subjects--history1 literature1 science1 modern languages4 ,in some ways the last state was worse than the first4 ,for the first state had at least been based upon a great tradition and an ordered philosophy of life1 but in the last state there was no tradition1 no ordered philosophy2 only a jumble and a scramble1 and a passing of examinations4 ,such a system or lack of system must fall a prey sooner or later to some educational movement based on a coherent and defensible doctrine4 ,now1 as it chances1 such a movement is already in the field2 we may call it the ,cult of ,efficiency4 ,it proclaims a great many truths about the necessity of increasing productivity1 about the connection between education and the world of business1 and generally speaking points to the achievements of ,germany for our envious imitation2 it proclaims the commercial utility of ,spanish and ,russian1 and ranges in its advocacy from advanced chemistry to shorthand and book-keeping4 ,much that writers on these lines have to urge against the present system is perfectly sound and reasonable4 ,many of their claims will have to be recognised in the educational system of the future4 ,but the admission of their claim as a whole1 of the claim of efficiency to be the true and rightful heir of the old classical education1 would be1 to speak without exaggeration1 the greatest disaster that could possibly befall this country4 ,what was wanted then was a conception of education at once liberal and modern1 and such the writers found in politics1 using that word in its widest ,platonic sense4 ,the classical education set out to study the ancient world1 and in the case of most of its pupils achieved little more than the dry elements of two dead languages4 ,the study of the modern world has so far usually meant no more than the study of how to make a little money out of it2 the trail of commercialism has been drawn over our ,modern ,sides4 ,why should not the modern world be studied in the same noble and disinterested spirit as that in which the best of the old teachers studied the world of ,greece and ,rome8 ,it is surely worthy of such study4 ,only perhaps by such study in our schools can its wounds be healed4 ,the central subject of a liberal education should be ,to-day1 the great difficulties amongst which we are all groping1 the great problems awaiting solution1 the great movements1 capitalism and socialism1 imperialism and internationalism1 freedom and authority1 that are battling for mastery or negotiating for a workable compromise4 ,the value of the classics lies wholly in the contribution that classical art1 philosophy1 and history can make to the enrichment of our minds for the study of our own problems4 ,the value of modern history lies in the inspiration of its great men1 and the warning of its tragic experiences4 ,the value of ,divinity is only found when we face the fundamental question1 ,are we to apply ,christianity in our political and economic relations to-day1 or are we not8 ,but over and above this reorientation of subjects already scheduled in the orthodox time-table1 there is the new subject within which all these 7except ,divinity1 which is fundamental7 must be regarded as merely contributory1 and that subject is politics1 the treatment1 elementary yet thorough1 vigorous yet many sided1 of the great questions of the day1 with all the diverse lines of thought along which each can be approached4 ,here the fundamental text-book is the newspaper4 ,growing up in such a world as this of #aiah1 how can it be anything but sheer monasticism to divert the main part of a boy's intellectual energies away from this subject to anything else8 ,our educational ,america is here or nowhere4 ,with this principle in view1 and after various tentative experiments1 we obtained permission to found the ,politics ,class described in our previous book4 ,suffice it to say here that the class was a voluntary body of some thirty or forty senior boys1 that met once a week on a half-holiday evening to hear informal lectures from one or other of us1 and occasionally from one or other of our colleagues1 on questions of the day4 ,sometimes the topic was purely general--,competition and ,co-operation1 ,the ,spirit of the ,reformer1 or the like4 ,sometimes a historical topic was traced rapidly from its beginnings down to a crisis of last week's newspaper1 the discourse ending on the brink of the future with a note of interrogation2 such were brief courses of lectures on ,the ,irish ,question1 and ,the ,russian ,revolution4 ,a third type were those that confined themselves to an analysis of a strictly contemporary situation1 such as the lectures on the various peace terms speeches that led up to the ,versailles declaration of ,february1 #aiah4 ,no attempt was made to create any artificial popularity for the class4 ,the scene was the ordinary bleak class-room with all its sad suggestiveness4 ,ordinary notes were taken in ordinary note-books4 ,no one1 in fact1 can have come from any motive but a genuine desire to know what was deemed worth knowing4 ,parallel with the foundation of the ,politics ,class had come a remodelling of the sixth form time-table4 ,indeed1 not modern politics but ,greek philosophy had been the first subject to stir that almost religious passion for a real understanding of things1 without which knowledge is in the old man mere pedantry and in the young man mere grist for the examination mill4 ,in the present educational chaos1 school sixth forms are quite bewilderingly fissiparous4 ,every one is a specialist of some sort or other2 specialism means private work1 and if private work enables the gifted few to escape into self-education from the hampering attentions of the form master1 it gives the rest a terrible training in the habits of time-wasting and evasion4 ,yet so long as sixth form orthodoxy is classical scholarship work1 the majority will rightly be found among the heretics1 and that is the specialists4 ,the remodelled sixth form time-table made at least a move towards the recognition of the principle that1 over and above specialisms1 there were certain subjects that were the common concern of all educated men4 ,a heterogeneous body drawn from all corners of the school time-table met together for ,modern ,history1 for ,outlines of ,world ,history1 and for ,general ,principles of ,science1 and 7with some regrettable abstentions7 for ,political ,science and ,economics4 ,some day it will appear ridiculous that these last subjects should not have been deemed a necessity for all the specialists alike4 ,the real test of an educational system is not what the masters do for the boys1 but what the boys do for themselves1 and in this matter only one large undertaking fell within the scope of our previous book1 namely the paper1 ,the ,school ,observer1 therein described and largely quoted4 ,the idea of this paper1 a political journal on the lines of a high-class weekly1 published twice a term1 with ,notes on ,current ,events1 political leaders1 literary and philosophic middles1 a poem or so1 and correspondence all complete--this laughably magnificant idea came entirely from a little group of boys1 and one at any rate of the present writers was at first frankly sceptical4 ,well1--enthusiasm has a way of beating scepticism1 at any rate when youth is thrown into the scale4 ,we were quickly harnessed to our task as members of the editorial committee4 ,our literary contributions were confined to a part of the ,notes on ,current ,events1 the portion of the paper that naturally attracted least outside notice1 and was rarely singled out for praise4 ,it is true that a discerning schoolmaster from another school remarked that these notes displayed restrained strength even more remarkable in boys than the qualities of the other parts of the paper4 ,i am ashamed to say we smiled and held our peace4 ,five of the six issues of the paper appeared1 and we had already contracted with our advertisers for a second volume when the crash came4 ,in general1 of course1 the paper was much less important than the ,politics ,class4 ,the class was a necessity to political education2 the paper was a luxury4 ,but it is a man's luxuries that give the clue to his character1 and it was the very fact that the paper was always of the nature of a jeu d'esprit1 a glorious game1 a kind of ,fleet ,street doll's-house affair1 that gave a sense of gay adventure to the pursuit of politics4 ,when the paper had been suppressed1 a boy who had never contributed to it said to me1 ,what a shame6 and he added very pensively1 ,it was all so extraordinarily romantic6 ,but so far the movement had only touched the sixth form1 and in a minor degree such lower forms as the writers happened to meet in the course of their professional duties4 ,that was plainly not enough4 ,if boys are learning from their masters something that they really value1 their natures are so essentially communicative and sociable that they will be eager to pass it on to their friends4 ,this may seem a paradox1 but it is true enough4 ,if of two boys in constant contact1 ,a is learning algebra and ,b is not1 and if ,a refrains from talking algebra to ,b1 one of two causes must be the explanation of ,a's reticence4 ,either he does not care about ,b or else he does not care about algebra1 and since by hypothesis he cares about ,b1 we can only assume that he does not care about algebra4 ,a simple experiment will verify our conclusion4 ,drop an indiscretion about a colleague during the algebra lesson1 and ,b1 ,c1 ,d and all the rest of them to a long way beyond ,z will know all about it before sunset4 ,a1 ,b1 ,c1 and ,d are interested in masters' opinions of each other4 ,now we would not claim for a moment that all educational subjects should be required to pass this test of interest1 and rejected if they do not4#b ,that would be grotesque4 ,but it seems to us that the central subject of a liberal education1 that subject to which all others cohere and in relation to which all others are justified1 ought to make some such appeal to enthusiasm4 ,unless education produces enthusiasm for something1 there is no education1 and that is why it has so often been maintained that the real education of ,public ,schools is in the playing fields1 because there alone1 for most boys1 enthusiasm is generated1 if it is generated at all4 7,for most1 one may remark in passing1 it is not generated even there4 ,the notion that the average boy is an enthusiast for cricket is as wide of the mark as would be the idea that he was an enthusiast for ,greek1 ,natural ,science1 or the ,church of ,england47 ,judged by this test of infectious enthusiasm1 political education was to produce in the early months of #aiah1 evidence of its educational worth such as we never dreamt of1 and here again the pioneer was not ourselves but a boy1 and that boy not one of the group that had started the paper4 ,this boy1 who had recently become head of his ,house1 conceived the idea that politics could become the medium of the same spirit of joyous and unforced co-operation as is traditionally 7and sometimes actually7 associated with athletics4 ,his idea of a school house was of a vigorous and jolly community1 living together on terms of friendly equality such as reduced fagging and the oligarchial prefect system to a minimum1 and uniting in a real effort to keep abreast with the great world outside by means of a co-operative study of politics and the ,press4 ,the idea will seem mere foolishness and an impossibility to many of those who did not see it actually at work4 ,at the best it will seem the kind of thing we may have read of in books about freak schools1 where so much loss has obviously to be set against whatever is gained4 ,in this case1 not only the idea1 but all the practical details came from the boy himself and the little band of enthusiasts that gathered round him4 ,indeed1 one feels a sense of impropriety in describing what was essentially not our work1 but his4 ,however1 it was the fine flower of political education1 and as such may fitly close this chapter4 ,houses1 after all1 and not forms1 are the natural social units that compose a public school1 and a scheme of education that becomes in the best sense popular may1 indeed must1 take its rise in the classroom1 but will find its freest development in the life of house reading-room and house study4 ,the chief among many stunts1 as they were called1 was a political society4 ,the twenty-five members of this society1 rather over half the house1 undertook to read between them nearly all the more important newspapers1 including one or two ,french papers4 ,on ,sunday the society sat in conclave1 the three or four leading events of the week were taken each in turn1 and the individual or group responsible for each newspaper put forward the view of the event in question taken by his own particular organ4 ,these views were compared and debated1 and ultimately a brief synopsis was drawn up1 consisting of the event itself1 with the chief typical utterances of the press on the subject set out underneath1 for purposes of comparison and contrast4 ,these were typed and posted on a board as news of the week4 ,neither of us ever attended a meeting of this society1 and it is obvious1 from the fact that more than half the house joined in1 that we are not concerned here with the activities of a little set of intellectualists4 ,in the fullest sense in which the word is applicable in a public school1 these political activities were democratic1 and the effect on the ,english work of some of the boys in middle forms was most remarkable4 ,the present writer recalls1 for instance1 a ,middle ,fifth essay of some three thousand words on the complex1 and in some ways repellent1 subject of ,national ,guilds4 ,on how many successive nights the rule against sitting up was broken over the composition of this work the recipient of the essay forebore to inquire4 ,from this beginning other developments rapidly opened4 ,a modest but useful idea was a question paper1 on which any one who liked could set down questions that occurred to him in the course of his reading4 ,the ,house ,library naturally felt the impact of the movement1 and a political section was started in which books about the ,greeks and ,mill's ,liberty stood side by side with the latest essay on ,reconstruction4 ,but it would be giving an altogether unworthy notion of the movement if it were suggested that politics alone1 in the narrower sense1 marked the limit of these activities4 ,the best modern plays and poetry began to appear on shelves whence rubbishy novels of a past generation were removed to make room for them4 ,nor were older books neglected4 ,the general drift of interest was inevitably towards the moderns2 but the great poets of the past were also finding their way in before the end came4 ,then1 of course1 there was a gramophone1 with its popular and classical repertoires2 and before the end came1 the classical had so far surpassed the popular in popularity that ,house piano recitals had begun as well4 ,another development was on lines that would have gladdened the heart of ,ruskin and ,morris1 though ,i do not know that either of these was consciously recognised as an influence4 ,a movement arose for beautifying the studies1 which began with pseudo-,japanese lamp-shades1 and moved upward through pretty curtains and tablecloths to framed ,medici pictures4 ,before the end there was hardly a study that had not its big framed ,medici1 and often a selection of ,medici postcards as well4 ,all these things involved1 of course1 some considerable expenditure2 but the cost was met with an eagerness astonishing to the boys themselves when they reflected that1 a few months before1 ,so-and-so had never cared about anything but the tuck shop4 ,other houses began to catch the spirit of the thing--a trifle reluctantly and tentatively1 it must be admitted1 for there is a good deal of improper pride about a school house1 and imitations have not quite the glamour of originals4 ,also the whole movement was by this time falling under a cloud1 and it is now time to give some account of the collapse4 #a ,a brilliant depreciation of ,arnold and his school has recently appeared in ,mr4 ,lytton ,strachey's ,eminent ,victorians4 #b ,something more is said on this subject in ,chapter ,x4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,collapse ,teachers though they are1 ,mr4 ,gollancz and ,mr4 ,somervell do not seem quite to realise 444 what obstacles have to be overcome before the advice given in their little book is generally taken4--,the ,westminster ,gazette4 ,our account of the collapse of our experiment has to be written1 as the reader will easily understand1 with a good deal of reserve4 ,the rise was the work of ourselves and our pupils4 ,the collapse was the work of others4 ,it is not a question of ,dora2 it is not a question of the common law of libel2 there are certain older laws of courtesy and forbearance which we would fain observe1 for he who has not learnt to observe these has hardly made a beginning with political education4 ,so let it be said to begin with that no one was to blame4 ,things followed their predestined course1 and every actor in the drama played the part that was natural and proper to him4 ,it was natural that the movement should be destroyed by masters as that its success should be made by boys4 ,if any one is to blame it is ourselves4 ,it was we who chose to pour new wine into old bottles--the preference for old bottles is explained in ,chapter ,,vi4--and when the custodians of the bottles awoke to the fact and hastily poured the wine out again1 fearing disaster1 they certainly thought they were acting for the best4 ,needless to say1 we have often discussed the question whether1 had the movement run on other lines1 had we been content with rather less to begin with1 had we considered principle rather less and prudence rather more1 had we added the rle of diplomatist to the rle of missionary1 had we hardened our hearts against some of the best boys in order to soften the hearts of some of the more tractable masters--had we done all these things1 could we have postponed or even permanently escaped the collapse8 ,on the whole1 we come to the conclusion that1 much as we regret many plain mistakes of detail1 in the main it is best that the bold course was taken1 ,we rode boldly1 and1 in the last months1 we had to ride for a fall4 ,an experiment has been made by frontal attack1 and with the slenderest of resources4 ,now that all that is over1 the time has come to begin the slow and circuitous approach toward political education as a normal institution4 ,the material of our experiment was boys and boys alone4 ,now1 at first sight1 a school might seem to consist of boys1 but in point of fact boys are only one element in a complex organisation embracing boys1 masters1 head master1 bursar1 governors1 and parents4 ,the boys are only there to be educated1 and education is a matter about which very few people have any strongly cherished ideas4 ,for very many1 public school education is a species of doing time1 whereby a child of fourteen is taken and simply kept out of mischief 7or1 at any rate1 kept away from home1 where he would be a nuisance71 until at eighteen he is become a man4 ,but the other constituent parts of the school have serious commercial interests at stake4 ,for the masters the school is the means of livelihood1 and the livelihood afforded them is in many cases so niggardly that they very rightly consider that the smallest financial mishap to the school might plunge them below the line of bare subsistence4 ,from a slightly different angle1 the eyes of the higher officials and the governors are fixed upon the same point4 ,a head master once remarked to me of one of his governors1 ,old ,x4's only idea is that the school should pay five per cent4 ,and the parents4 ,it is an article of faith with the present writers that parents are wiser1 more tolerant and more open to ideas on educational matters1 than schoolmasters generally suppose4 ,but parents live at a distance1 and only make themselves felt at moments of crisis1 and then the crisis is one which they probably only very imperfectly understand4 ,that is all the fault of the schools1 for the schools have never made a serious attempt to take the parents into partnership in the matter of their sons' education4 ,and here we are back against the root of all evil1 for the reason why this has not been done is that the schools have not yet seriously faced the fact that a liberal education for the average boy is an unsolved problem1 for the solution of which they need all the help they can possibly get4 ,of course this taking of the parent into partnership would be no easy matter4 ,readers of that wise and humorous tale1 ,the ,lanchester ,tradition1 will remember the comical failure of the head master's attempt at a ,parents' ,committee4 ,still1 all this being so1 the fact emerges that the important factor in the problem of the moment is not the real parent but the traditional parent1 and the false image of the traditional parent has been created in the schoolmaster's mind by that fussy and ill-informed individual who is always writing to complain4 ,now1 he who pays the piper does not necessarily call the tune4 ,that would be too absurd4 ,but he has a veto on any tune he too positively dislikes1 and it is well known that the unmusical generally dislike a new tune4 ,the opposition to political education developed along two lines4 ,one of them makes this story a microcosm of the world history of the years #aiag-aiah4 ,the other is something peculiar to the ,english public schools1 and might have befallen at any period since ,dr4 ,arnold inaugurated their modern history4 ,when we began our experiments the party truce1 in the moral as distinct from the formal sense1 still held good4 ,outside the circles of strict pacifism--and with pacifism in any but a merely abusive sense we never had any concern--,english people were agreed upon the great questions of the war4 ,such differences of opinion as there were concerned only questions of method and expediency1 not questions of principle4 ,the gospel of ,august1 #aiad1 had not yet become a battle-ground disputed by fiercely earnest rival sects4 ,we were ,liberals in a general sense1 but we differed on a great many topics1 and we were genuinely anxious1 in the words of one of our pupils in the school magazine1 not so much to advocate any one particular remedy of any given problem as to lay before the class the problems themselves and the principal reforms which have been or are being suggested1 so that thought and criticism may have full scope for exercise4 ,it would be unfair to ourselves to admit that we abandoned that ideal1 but the events of #aiag brought a new spirit into the world4 ,on the one hand1 the early days of the ,russian ,revolution and the demand for a peace without annexations or indemnities1 coupled with the entry of ,america and the war speeches of ,president ,wilson1 seemed to revive the flagging idealism of the ,allies and lift it to a more universal and exalted level than ever before4 ,on the other hand1 the publication of the ,secret ,treaties and the many incomplete revelations that followed thereon1 laid bare the fact that quite another act of motives were also at work among our leaders2 that territorial greed and diplomatic hypocrisy were enemies to be fought in our own midst as well as on the battlefield4 ,the issues of the war assumed a grander and a more terrible aspect4 ,more than ever before perhaps in the history of the world--and we do not overlook the period of the so-called religious wars--religion and politics fused4 ,to us1 at any rate1 the calm aloofness suggested by the quotation above became impossible4 ,a cry seemed to have gone forth1 ,who is on the ,lord's side8 ,who8 ,a great gulf opened up between those who only a year before had believed themselves to be for the time at any rate in one political camp4 ,on one side of that gulf we found ourselves1 and on the other most of our colleagues4 ,it was not that we differed from them as to the necessity of winning the war1 and of putting forward every possible military effort for that end4 ,but everything depends on the uses to which the victory is put1 and the spirit in which it is approached1 and there the differences were profound4 ,and thus the ,politics ,class became a school of liberalism4#a ,it was no intolerant liberalism1 for intolerant liberalism is not liberalism at all4 ,from first to last we stood for the examination of all points of view4 ,we were for reading the views of those we disagreed with1 not for abusing them unheard or burning their books unread4 ,in so far as some of our pupils carried liberalism to the point of intolerance1 they lost the spirit of the movement they professed to support4 ,there were not many against whom this charge could be brought4 ,one of our most ardent democrats1 ,i remember1 sent me during the time of his military training a careful and painstaking examination of ,mr4 ,mallock's latest big book4 ,the excuse of those that fell into intolerance must be1 ,i suppose1 that they were young1 and that they found themselves confronted by an astonishing spectacle of intolerance in some of their conservative masters4 ,when this change was taking place1 we sought to redress the balance by taking into partnership in the running of the ,politics ,class a strongly ,conservative master4 ,such an arrangement would have been admirable had the genuine educational spirit been there4 ,it was not4 ,the overture was a failure and only added to our difficulties4 ,to some men it seemed better to root out the ,liberal masters as traitors than to co-operate with them as teachers4 ,on the eve of the final collapse1 a similar experiment was tried with ,the ,school ,observer4 ,the last number bears the names of two editors1 and contains both a ,liberal and a ,conservative leader written on the same topic4 ,the innovation was made at the last minute1 and the ,conservative leader is not a genuine schoolboy production1 but the model may be a useful one for future work on the same lines4 ,but there was another influence making for the collapse4 ,we quoted in our previous book a head master who remarked at a school prize-giving that the only questions worth asking are those that cannot get a definite answer4 ,political education consists almost entirely of such questions4 ,its sheet anchor is freedom of thought2 its method is controversy2 its end is not in complete mastery of a box of intellectual tricks such as will win full marks in an examination1 but in the modesty of realised ignorance and the enthusiastic search for fresh lights in the darkness4 ,socrates was put to death by the ,athenians because he would not desist from asking them questions1 and it is to be feared that some of our pupils would have incurred the same fate had the customs of the time permitted it4 ,the taste for controversy on the fundamental subjects will grip a youth like the taste for drink1 as many who have passed through undergraduate days at ,oxford or ,cambridge can remember4 ,suppose a boy enters into political controversy with his form master1 over the giving back of an essay1 or with his house master at the luncheon table4444 ,now1 there is a ,divinity that doth hedge a schoolmaster1 and the hedge must be kept in somewhat careful repair4 ,so long as we are concerned with subjects like elementary ,latin and ,greek or ,mathematics1 we are dealing with a body of knowledge in which1 to take the examinations standard1 all the masters get full marks4 ,all knowledge is contained in a set of small school books which the masters1 for their sins1 know more or less by heart backwards4 ,even history1 if it is sufficiently badly taught1 may be grouped among such subjects1 for1 strange as it may seem1 it is quite possible to teach it in such a way that no boy feels impelled to ask questions either insoluble in themselves or beyond the scope of the master's immediate memory4 ,there are schoolmasters who definitely discourage or even forbid the asking of questions by the class4 ,little boys should be seen and not heard--that worst of all educational maxims--makes a larger contribution to the buttressing up of the present system than is usually supposed4 ,a lowering diet of irregular verbs keeps the boy mind docile1 to use a word of ironically perverted meaning1 and prevents it from impinging embarrassingly upon the lightly guarded regions of the master's intellectual entrenchments4 ,in fact1 political education set up a new intellectual standard4 ,it was a subject in which no one1 boy or master1 got full marks1--scarcely even ,president ,wilson1 perhaps1 if you took his work as a whole6 ,all were learners1 all were fellow workers together1 and before the vast scope of the task1 differences of proficiency between the various workers seemed hardly to matter4 ,here1 then1 rises a difficult question4 ,ought the schoolmaster to possess1 or appear to possess1 complete knowledge of the subject he teaches8 ,the present writer has taught a good variety of subjects during nine years1 and on the whole he has found his ignorance1 not only of politics1 but of far more finite matters1 a very helpful educational instrument4 ,as an emergency teacher of ,latin on the modern side1 for instance1 he found it a positive advantage that he had forgotten more of the language than his pupils had ever learnt4 ,his occasional quaint errors did not always pass undetected1 and their detection had probably an educational stimulus for the form which outweighed the loss incurred when his mistakes passed without notice4 ,nor did he feel greatly the loss of intellectual stature4 ,it was partly made good by the ingenuity with which he explained how he had come to make the mistake4 ,and if there was loss in intellectual prestige1 there was an increased sense of intellectual comradeship4 ,but this is a trifling and not wholly serious digression4 ,some masters stand for intellectual infallibility4 ,these political discussions disturbed them4 ,they felt that their credentials as schoolmasters were being examined and found wanting4 ,they accused the boys of priggery4 ,it was a most false charge1 for the boys were enthusiasts1 and enthusiasm is a form of self-forgetfulness as priggery is a form of self-consciousness4 ,still priggery was the word4 ,the charge of priggery was added to the charge of pacifism4 ,on these two lines the opposition developed and ultimately triumphed4 ,it was suggested that the school would be empty in a couple of years1 if political education continued4 ,here1 it would seem1 our critics were trading on their false idea of the parent1 and believing what they wished to believe4 ,take the statistics of entries1 which is the only tangible evidence on the subject1 and the only conclusion you can draw is that political education either had no effect at all1 or that it slightly increased the commercial well-being of the school4 ,it was not on such ground as this that political education was doomed4 ,as we said at the beginning of the chapter1 the material of our experiments was the boys and them alone4 ,we had made a short cut4 ,we had made no effort to convert our colleague4 ,we trusted to results for their conversion4 ,but1 as the preceding narrative will have shown1 the greater our success1 the greater became their irritation1 when success was labelled pacifism and priggery4 ,without intending it1 we had played ,pied ,piper upon some of the best of the house masters' foster children4 ,we had envisaged a school as a single corporate society1 boys and masters working together with the maximum of frankness and equality for the common end1 education4 ,we had not allowed for the fact that a school cannot become such a corporate society1 unless the staff has become such at the same time4 ,like three-quarters of the reformers of history1 we had1 in our own despite1 become rebels4 ,and so all was over4 ,there is now no ,politics ,class1 no ,school ,observer in the school of their foundation1 though two other schools of fame have started papers on similar lines1 with handsome acknowledgments to our example4 ,there are no political societies in the ,houses4 ,two or three of our pupils have left before their time1 and we1 the authors1 are no longer schoolmasters1 only educationists1--it is a change for the worse4 #a ,generally speaking1 the liberalism of ,the ,manchester ,guardian or of ,president ,wilson's speeches4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,propaganda ,a point hardly touched on in the book is the difficulty of teaching politics without the disadvantages of partisanship4 ,it is worth discussion4--,manchester ,guardian4 ,if 'politics'--even politics as an art culled from the classics1 from pro-,german#a economists and historians1 from poets such as ,shelley1 and from ,german#a higher critics of the ,bible--were taught to fifth form boys with crude impressionable minds1 the result would be ,bolshevism4 ,we agree that under careful guidance much of ultimate political value can be taught from history and literature4 ,but it must be done with infinite care1 and opinions must be excluded from the teaching4 ,that is the difficulty4--,contemporary ,review4 ,clever boys will learn their politics for themselves4--,saturday ,review4 ,the public schools have for years past covered their quiet infiltration of ,conservative principles with a camouflage of strict neutrality4 ,teachers though they are1 the authors do not seem quite to realise what a formidable protective device this banning of the modern history which we call politics has been1 and what obstacles have to be overcome before the advice given in their little book is generally taken4--,westminster ,gazette4 ,two great objections have to be met if ,politics is to become the central subject in our public school education4 ,the desirability of such a change may be urged from many points of view2 and the practical results obtained during the course of our recent experiment seemed to us even more valuable than preliminary theorising had led us to expect4 ,once make a boy think about the life of his own time and the great principles whose fight for mastery he is witnessing2 once make him wonder about the actual machinery by which his world is moved2 once set him speculating about the meaning of the universe and of his own existence2 and you have created such a spirit of eager enthusiasm and inquiry1 that at last that development of the individual personality is achieved which1 as every great educationist since ,plato has told us1 must be the aim of all who desire to be more than mere teachers4 ,modern ,history1 ,politics1 ,sociology1 ,economics1 ,ethics1 even ,metaphysics--we may class all these under the broad heading of ,politics1 for one and all they deal with the life and destiny of the individual as a member of human society and a part of the ,universe4 ,there is no human being who1 at least while he is young1 does not feel a keen interest in such things2 the deepest waters are stirred and the classroom becomes the meeting-place of minds engaged in an exciting adventure instead of being1 as is so often now the case1 a prison cell in which all a boy's spontaneity and joy of life are crushed out beyond recall4 ,yet the two objections remain1 and to one of them we address ourselves in this chapter4#b ,when the possibility of political teaching is considered1 the first thought that leaps to the mind is3 ,can the subject be taught without the introduction of propaganda8 and is not ,politics just the one subject in which propaganda is above everything undesirable8 ,now it may be pointed out that the present system of public school education is itself a form of political propaganda none the less effective for being concealed4 ,a boy is sent to a public school with a set of political notions imbibed from his parents and the circle in which he moves1 and during the whole period of his boyhood1 no genuine effort is made to develop his powers of independent thought and so to enable him to revise his inherited opinions4 ,a certain stimulus no doubt is given to his mental activity by setting him mathematical problems to solve and passages in the classical authors to construe2 but his thought on political and social questions remains a thing apart1 unstirred1 atrophied4 ,what else is this but political propaganda8 ,and when it is reinforced by a thousand subtle hints in and out of the classroom1 hints suggesting that1 of course1 there can be no two opinions about so-and-so and his supporters1 it becomes one of the most potent instruments of mental darkness that has ever been allowed to function in a rational community4 ,but the objection to propaganda is not to be met by a ,tu quoque4 ,it is one which raises the most fundamental issues of educational theory4 ,to develop1 we are told1 and not to mould1 is the aim of education2 and every genuine educationist will eagerly agree4 ,yet you cannot develop in a vacuum4 ,you must impart some background for the young mind1 give it some material on which to work4 ,how1 then1 can the compromise be effected8 ,how can we inculcate and yet at the same time aim above every thing at the development of an individuality1 which may and indeed must1 be so very different from our own8 ,the answer is not really hard to find4 ,what we inculcate1 the background we give1 must be considered by us as merely a stop-gap1 a poor temporary support which the child may fling away when he can support himself4 ,and even while we are giving the support1 we must at every moment be developing the power which will as soon as possible dispense with it4 ,if this caveat is borne in mind and honestly observed1 propaganda1 whether in political1 philosophical1 or religious teaching1 becomes not only defensible but actually desirable4 ,nothing can be more fatal than to give the impression that it does not very much matter which of several conflicting principles or policies a boy adopts2 that there are after all equally strong arguments on both sides1 and that the adhesion of the world to one philosophy of life and code of conduct rather than another will make no very vital difference to anybody4 ,yet if the teacher presents his subject in a perfectly balanced and passionless manner such a result will inevitably follow4 ,the boy will notice his master's lack of enthusiasm1 and consequently remain unenthusiastic himself2 and not only will that intellectual eagerness remain undeveloped1 which is as a spark to set his whole nature ablaze1 but also he will feel none of that moral passion for principles which is the crying need of the world to-day4 ,a master in another school1 which had adopted the idea of a ,politics ,class1 heard of the excitement and controversy which ours was occasioning1 and remarked adversely on our methods4 ,we teach ,politics too1 he said1 but we are careful that the boys should never be able to discover on which side our own sympathies lie4 ,consequently there is no excitement and no controversy4 ,politics are thought of in just the same way as any other school subject4 ,we can well believe it4 ,our whole idea1 of course1 is that they should not be so thought of2 that they should be regarded rather as a matter of most vital interest and importance both for the boy himself and for the world as a whole4 ,we would have a boy feel an attachment to principles as romantic and absorbing as his affections for his dearest friend1 not coldly cancel one principle against the other as if he were doing a sum in mathematics4 ,but it is time that we explained exactly what we mean when we say that a master should not shrink from propaganda in political teaching4 ,we do not by any means intend that he should state only his own point of view1 and pass over the arguments that may be urged against it4 ,that would be the merest parody of education4 ,rather do we mean that he should adopt a threefold method4 ,he should put forward his own view with all the enthusiasm that he feels for it 7we have been called missionaries by way of abuse1 but find nothing but honour in the word72 simultaneously1 he should impress on his pupils the fact that it after all is only his view1 and urge them not merely to accept but to examine and criticise2 and finally1 he should explain with complete honesty every point that has been1 or possibly could be1 raised against it4 ,we call this method propaganda1 because a fire is imparted to the statement of one side which cannot1 from the nature of the case1 be imparted to that of the other2 but it is propaganda in which there is no touch of dishonesty or obscurantism4 ,we have said that1 while he is presenting his case1 the master should be urging his pupils to examine and criticise it4 ,but he should do more than this2 if he is a ,liberal1 he should spend much of his time in a direct propaganda of the great ,liberal principles--freedom of thought and discussion2 the sanctity of the individual conscience2 the paramount importance of moral and intellectual independence4 ,in this way he will be creating a habit of mind which will naturally criticise2 and so by his propaganda of general liberalism he will annihilate the vantage-point he would otherwise occupy in his propaganda of particular principles and policies4 ,we speak of liberal education1 and surely the epithet is meaningless unless it be taken to imply that conversion to those general principles is the very bed-rock of education4 ,but others think otherwise1 and so we would point out the broad distinction which must be drawn between propaganda of the simple liberal and propaganda of the simple reactionary principle--on the one hand freedom of thought1 on the other acceptance of ideas not one's own4 ,our liberal propaganda carries with it the instrument of its own overthrow4 ,if you can inspire a boy with a desire to put all things to the test of his own free conscience1 you are empowering him to criticise everything you teach--even that very liberty of opinion1 a belief in which you have been so anxious to create4 ,but with reactionary propaganda it is quite otherwise4 ,by it a static habit of mind is produced--a habit of mind which1 except by way of a mercifully not uncommon revolt1 is a pawn in the hands of its present teacher1 and that public opinion which in time to come will take its teacher's place4 ,a word may be added on the means best calculated to produce the free mind at which we are aiming4 ,use1 of course1 can and should be always made of the fundamental arguments 7all to be found in ,mill7 in favour of liberty of opinion4 ,but there is one case in which the employment of a subsidiary method may give even more valuable results4 ,where a boy holds tenaciously to an opinion which you think to be evil1 argue against it unceasingly2 show him the errors of it2 point out passionately the beauty of its alternative4 ,the stronger his conviction1 the better2 indeed1 deliberately choose his deepest-seated prejudice--attack him in the very heart of what you regard as his error4 ,then1 when at last he sees that the opinion which he had thought of as the only possible one is in reality wrong1 and that another which he had loathed is in reality right1 a tremendous intellectual conversion will have taken place2 his own case will constantly act as a warning to him whenever he is again tempted to prejudice or narrowness of outlook4 #a ,the italics are ours4 ,why were these two words inserted1 we wonder4 #b ,the other is dealt with in ,chapter ,v4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,controversy ,while a formidable strife between masters of different creeds might be engendered1 it is arguable that the finest political spirit might be fostered by approaching the problems under the conditions of fairness and courtesy on which the public schools pride themselves4#a--,manchester ,guardian4 ,tolerance1 to be more than a pale and negative virtue1 needs to be based on an understanding of these different points of view1 which means1 again1 bringing an educated mind to bear on them4--,westminster ,gazette4 ,boys always will be boys they say1 and the saying can be interpreted in many ways4 ,masters always will be masters is a more sobering reflection4 ,the reputation of schoolmasters for sweet reasonableness has never stood1 perhaps1 particularly high4 ,even supposing that1 with a staff of angels1 such a scheme of teaching as that sketched in the preceding chapter were desirable1 will not the actual result be something very different8 ,will not a formidable strife between masters of different creeds be engendered1 and will not the spectacle of that strife1 and a possible participation in it1 be the very worst possible training for the new generation8 ,the difficulty is one that has got to be faced1 and the present writers1 at any rate1 are not at all likely to overlook it4 ,as was shown in ,chapter ,,ii41 our experiments collapsed not because our colleagues differed from us in political opinion1 but because1 differing from us in political opinion1 they also differed from us in educational theory4 ,had the experiment collapsed simply because they differed from us in political opinion1 it would be no use pursuing the subject of political education further2 for a staff in which all the masters held the same political views would be unlikely to exist1 and in any case altogether undesirable4 ,we may take it for granted that the staff will consist of men of diverse political opinions4 ,indeed we may go further and take it for granted that in a school in which political education flourishes1 those diversities1 though certainly less bitter1 will be more clearly marked than at present4 ,in such a school the masters1 for the most part1 will be keenly interested in politics1 for the school must be a single society of men and boys in real intellectual co-operation4 ,what is good for the boys will be good for the masters4 ,perverse metaphors comparing masters and boys to hounds and hares will be seen as the symptom of a radically false educational philosophy4 ,if political education becomes not merely an experiment but an integral part of the timetable1 the staff as a whole1 not necessarily all the masters1 but all those concerned with what are at present ironically called the humanities1 will be taking a part in it4 ,but how can this be worked8 ,we are here faced with a problem such as none of the ordinary school subjects has ever raised1 at any rate in this acute form4 ,everything depends upon the educational philosophy of the staff4 ,everything depends upon the extent of their belief in freedom of opinion4 ,the case for freedom of opinion1 like the case for self-government1 has suffered from the fact that we take the theory so completely for granted that we do not notice how far we are removed from the practice of it4 ,freedom is supposed to be an ,englishman's speciality4 ,britons never shall be slaves1 we say1 and suppose that settles the matter4 ,very likely ,thomson1 when he wrote his feeble verses 7they have been redeemed by an excellent tune71 never paused to reflect that the sailors he was glorifying were mostly victims of the press-gang4 ,it is but a step from a press-gang to a ,press ,bureau4 ,most ,englishmen are not very anxious to tolerate any opinions but their own1 if the subject be one that they deem of vital importance4 ,very few have the faith of the great apostles of freedom1 the conviction that right opinion can only triumph through fair and open conflict with the wrong4 ,the cause of freedom1 then1 fares badly enough in the world outside1 when we are only concerned with its application to those who have reached years of discretion4 ,inside the school the difficulties are admittedly greater1 and freedom has hitherto had a poor chance4 ,yet without freedom1 though there may be instruction1 there can hardly be education4 ,in so far then as the staff fall short in this vital matter of toleration1 they must themselves go to school and learn2 and he is probably a poor teacher who is not himself ever learning something more4 ,here perhaps the head master might find one of his finest opportunities4 ,the conscientious modern head master often finds it hard to rise above the mass of administrative work attached to his office4 ,he resembles ,philip ,,ii4 of ,spain1 of whom it was said that he was always trying to be his own private secretary4 ,meanwhile his assistants go their own ways1 each narrowing into his own little intellectual groove4 ,the result1 at any rate in the more remote and less distinguished schools--that is to say1 the vast majority--is a society far from idyllic4 ,even if politics were to engender a formidable strife1 the discords would not be breaking in upon any very beautiful harmonies4 ,two novels have recently been written by schoolmasters about their profession1 and even if ,mr4 ,perrin and ,mr4 ,traill may be discounted as the ill-natured revenge of a clever man who had mistaken his profession1 ,the ,lanchester ,tradition has1 we believe1 been generally hailed as a truthful record4 ,masters at many schools have exclaimed1 ,how on earth does this ,rugby man come to know all about us8 ,teaching is spiritual work or it is nothing1 and the head master ought to be1 as the greatest head masters have been1 a true leader of his staff in spiritual things4 ,our profession is the most insanely individualistic in the world4 ,probably the teaching of every subject would be improved by the establishment of a really organised co-operation between the various masters teaching it1 and politics1 with its strong human appeal would1 with a leader worthy of his position1 be the best place to begin4 ,masters would meet for a genuine educational purpose--and the last thing ever discussed at the masters' meetings we have attended has been educational principles--they would learn to see into each others' minds and methods1 enlarge their intellectual sympathies and understand their differences4 ,thus a real corporate intellectual life of the staff might begin4 ,often at present this does not exist1 and its absence is fatal to the school as a seriously intellectual institution4 ,and surely the need for the tolerant staff can hardly be exaggerated4 ,and here we are thinking not so much of the war and its controversies as of the days that will follow4 ,after the war a baser motive than even the crudest jingo patriotism will claim a monopoly over the political thought of public schoolboys for the defence not of country1 but of property4 ,the unorthodox will be denounced not as pacifists1 but as socialists1 and the enemy will be not the ,kaiser1 but perhaps the ,prime ,minister of a ,labour ,government4 ,but just as the only hope for the world after the war seems to lie in a ,league of ,nations1 so the only hope for ,england lies in the co-operation of all classes in a common search for industrial justice4 ,the public schools are class preserves of the rich1 and their opportunity for good1 as for harm1 will be almost boundless4 ,to turn out the young of the capitalist class with all their capitalist prejudices intact will be sheer dereliction of duty on the part of public schoolmasters4 ,so wrote a great teacher of the older generation4 ,the obvious way of destroying those prejudices as prejudices is by an enthusiastic and capable exposition of various forms of socialism4 ,this can best be done by socialist masters4 ,but1 supposing the socialist teaching is false1 why should those who are not ,socialists fear for the result8 ,it is a necessary part of the scheme that they on their side should make a reasoned defence of a reformed capitalism4 ,if this is done the young of the capitalist class may be turned out ,socialists or anti-,socialists1 but at least they will go out into the world men of some economic understanding1 with views based on reasoning1 and by further reasoning or experience liable to be changed1 not men with inherited prejudice intact4 ,if we assume in our staff a general inclination towards freedom of opinion1 everything becomes possible4 ,a hundred questions of organisation arise1 essentially practical questions1 and more easily solved by concrete experiment than by literary methods4 ,it may1 however1 be worthy while to glance at a few of these4 ,masters will always be human2 and political education must be so organised as to suggest in every way that the masters of divergent views are co-operating in a general scheme of political education such as no one of them alone could impart1 not competing for the political allegiance of the boys4 ,a school is not a bye-election in permanent session4 ,thus1 though a controversial element is bound to come into political education1 we would mitigate this element by not allowing any one form to go to more than one master for political work4 ,the boy will pass from form to form1 and thus the conservatism of a summer term will be tempered by the radicalism of the following winter4 ,but these political compartments will not be particularly air-tight in any case4 ,the house master will be a permanent influence1 and when a keen-witted boy has just got out of the form of a sympathetic master1 it is unlikely that they will altogether lose touch with one another4 ,at the top of the school1 however1 the controversial element should be more frankly accepted4 ,we believe in the permanent institution of a voluntary ,politics ,class in which the best boys will hear again the best of the masters who have taught them on their way up the school4 ,between such a ,politics ,class and a really efficient school ,debating ,society it might be hard to draw a precise line4 ,one would play into the hands of the other4 ,the judicial teacher1 the man who from an ,olympian elevation surveys the political strivings of past and present alike1 and analyses1 catalogues1 and defines1 creating all the while an impression of luminous impartiality1 may1 of course1 do much good work4 ,the present writer would be the last man to deny it when he remembers his own debt to a teacher of that kind4 ,none the less1 we believe that it is the other kind of teaching that is really needed in the schools of the well-to-do to-day4#b ,the political problems of our time are of intense and terrible importance3 on their solution this way or that depends the happiness or the misery of uncounted millions2 and it is so largely on the way that the young of the privileged classes learn to look at them that their solution depends4 ,judicial teaching creates the impression that so long as you know the case for or against a policy1 it does not matter whether you believe it1 and as for acting upon it1 or making sacrifices for it1 there is no question of doing anything so extreme4 ,education must create enthusiasm4 ,it must also make for many-sidedness1 and so we arrive at the function of the staff1 the many-sided staff of enthusiasts4 ,let each one believe himself1 if he is young enough to do so1 the monopolist of political truth4 ,let each one differ from all his colleagues on every subject under the sun1 except two1 the infinite possibilities of the boys he teaches1 and the infinite importance of freedom of opinion4 #a ,is there a little irony here8 #b ,whether any particular single school can afford to experiment in such teaching is1 of course1 another matter altogether4 ,gallio is a less troublesome colleague than ,paul1 and ,paul will waste his breath if he complains of the obvious fact that such things are so4 ,but he has a better ground of complaint when he sees himself silenced1 while ,sosthenes is allowed to carry on as vigorously as he pleases4 ,,chapter ,v ,,capture ,,by ,,the ,,state ,it is a great and perilous discovery that the ,state can as in ,germany impress the minds of masses of men by a carefully organised system of political education1 and we hope the authors will bear it in mind4--,westminster ,gazette4 ,germany has shown the world to what evil ends the dishonest use of schools and schoolmasters must lead4--,contemporary ,review4 ,we have discussed the pros and cons of propaganda--the propaganda1 that is to say1 by each master of his particular point of view--and have concluded that1 if certain safeguards are adopted and honestly adhered to1 such propaganda is desirable4 ,but there is one particular form of propaganda which no one1 if he has any reverence at all for the individuality of his pupils and the freedom of the world1 can regard as anything but an abomination4 ,and here we meet with the most serious criticism which can be1 and has been1 levelled against the project of political education4 ,suppose1 it has been urged1 that your scheme is adopted by a number of the public schools2 suppose that by a steady process of attack1 this new and very powerful piece of machinery is captured by the ,state1 as a means of imposing orthodoxy on the nation and nipping in the bud a great part of our potential vigour and independence2 have you not then defeated most disastrously your own object1 and desiring above everything more liberty in thought and more self-reliance in action1 merely succeeded in setting up a system similar to that which created the national character of modern ,germany8 ,it is at first sight a most damaging criticism2 and a criticism which seems to gather weight as we look about us and observe the terrible results which have occurred when the ,state has been allowed to manipulate opinion for its own ends4 ,no ,englishman will need to have the lesson of ,germany brought home to him2 he knows too well how inculcation through the schools of the worst type of narrow patriotism1 rendered seemingly noble by a deliberate falsification of history1 has warped the generosity which all children1 ,german or other1 possess1 into a pitiful acquiescence in every form of intellectual and moral vileness4 ,but in ,england1 too1 the danger signals are not wanting4 ,we have observed the people falling more and more under the sway of one man's ideas1 carried by his ,press into every town and village of the countryside3 we have noticed that complete independence does not appear always to exist as between the ,press and the men who are responsible for the gravest acts of public policy2 and some of us do not much like what we have seen4 ,are we then to help forward the forces making for our own ,prussianisation8 ,we desire to see ,politics taught by masters of every shade of political opinion1 so that the boys may have all the materials from which to form an independent judgment2 but will not the ,state see to it1 as it grows more and more powerful1 that only those men are allowed to become1 or to remain1 schoolmasters1 who will teach a doctrine not abhorrent to the powers that be8 ,those who know the public schools will not be at a loss to understand how such a consummation could be achieved4 ,even now there is the pressure of parents1 members of the financial or political wing of the ruling class--a pressure few head masters are big enough to resist4 ,and in the future--to take only one instance--may not ,conscription remain1 and the ,government exercise a direct control through the medium of the ,o4,t4,c48 ,and as one writes these words2 as one sees the ghastly prospect of more and more ,state control1 more and more authoritarianism and docility1 less and less of the free co-operation which is the very life-blood of society1 one sees also that the only way in which we can prevent the remedy we have proposed from becoming another instrument in the hands of our enemies1 is simply by adopting that remedy itself4 ,we must break in on the vicious circle while and how we can4 ,for why is there a danger of our instrument of education being turned into an instrument of obscurantism8 ,only because there is a danger of our whole society becoming rotten to the core2 only because there is a danger of the present cleavage between the two ,english nations becoming wider and wider1 until we have1 on the one hand1 a class ruling in the interests of money and privilege1 and1 on the other1 a slaving and possibly pampered proletariate4 ,and unless a start is made here and now with the political education of ,europe--unless boys and girls are made to think politically while their generosity and idealism is still untainted by motives of personal profit1 and their powers of vital thought not yet decayed by disuse--these and worse things will happen2 love1 tolerance1 and the independence which is the birthright of men1 will all be engulfed in a mad welter of personal1 class1 and national selfishness4 ,in such a society it really would not matter very much if political education were captured by the ,state2 and the only way1 as it seems to us1 of preventing its advent is by getting up a system of political education4 ,for by political education we are creating the only possible safeguard against a misuse of it--we are creating a society which will not desire to misuse it4 ,and so we would make1 if we may1 an appeal to all who are considering what their future work shall be1 and to those also who may be finding their present work unprofitable--we would urge them to become schoolmasters4 ,we like sometimes to think of a little ,greek army of devoted warriors--a band of five hundred young men1 who will go into the public schools and there gradually help to set up a system of political education4 ,the word ,greek is not out of place4 ,for there is something about the sunlit freshness of a cricket field--something too1 about the boys1 belonging for the most part to a class which1 with all its faults1 has a great tradition of public service behind it--that brings before the mind a gathering of ,greek humanity in the smiling peace of a ,greek country place4 ,it is idle to pretend that a man of ability who goes into the schoolmastering profession does not have to make many sacrifices4 ,his salary is usually miserable2 his chances of a head mastership must be at present in inverse ratio to the vigour with which he acts on the principles he believes in1 for these posts are mostly reserved for the safe1 as the debates of the ,head ,masters' ,conference used to show1 until1 a few years ago1 that body very wisely decided to exclude reporters4 ,but the compensations are enormous4 ,he will live all his life close to boys whom1 when he once gets to know them1 he will find to have a freshness and high-heartedness which will be a constant source of hope and inspiration2 he will have the joy of watching their minds develop1 and of feeling that it is due in some measure to him that they are growing into makers of happiness for themselves and the world4 ,and when in his work he is met by the opposition of those who misinterpret or misunderstand1 he will have an almost fierce satisfaction in the faith that the future may be all on his side1 and that many years hence a little of him will live in men who have realised not his1 but their1 individuality1 and that potentiality for goodness which1 as well as he was able1 he fostered and brought to the light4 ,we have both been schoolmasters2 at the moment we are neither of us anything so useful2 and we feel that we can say quite dogmatically that there is no happiness equal to that of the profession that was ours4 ,and both of us fell into it accidently1 as so many others have done4 ,yet the appeal for schoolmasters should surely not be based entirely or even mainly on the idyllic picture of the happy schoolmaster4 ,john ,stuart ,mill reduced hedonism to its fundamental paradox when he declared that the way to find happiness was to turn your back on it4 ,if there is one lesson which political education rightly conducted cannot fail to impress upon its best boys1 it is the crying need of the schools for their services4 ,from ,plato and ,aristotle down to the latest treatises on ,reconstruction1 be it the ,principles of ,reconstruction1 as laid down by ,mr4 ,bertrand ,russell1 or the ,elements of ,reconstruction1 as reprinted from ,the ,times with an introduction by ,lord ,milner1 all alike come round to education as the keystone of the arch of politics4 ,the final appeal is always to the schoolmaster1 and it is perhaps less hopeful to appeal to the actual schoolmaster of to-day than to the possible schoolmaster of to-morrow4 ,as are our schools1 so will be our ,parliaments and our ,civil ,service1 and some at any rate who have mapped out for themselves a career of political usefulness and honour in ,westminster1 ,whitehall1 or abroad1 might bethink themselves first of ,banquo4 ,lesser than ,macbeth and greater3 ,not so happy yet much happier2 ,thou shalt get kings though thou be none4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,making ,,of ,,politicians ,the way the authors wish to realise their ideal would1 ,i fear1 merely increase the output of politicians and political journalists1 of whom an adequate supply already exists4--,mr4 ,e4 ,b4 ,osborn1 in ,the ,morning ,post4 ,sharp-wittedness playing on ignorance to the end of personal advancement--so dominant a feature has this become of our political life1 that any protest against the misuse of a noble word1 when men speak contemptuously of politics1 is no doubt quite untimely4 ,untimely1 because it is too early1 not because it is too late4 ,we retain the word ourselves1 and call the kind of education we advocate political education2 appropriately it seems to us1 for we believe that its wide adoption would remove the root cause which has made such a stigma possible1 and free the very name of politics from the indignities it now justly suffers4 ,nothing1 indeed1 could be wider of the mark than the notion that a system of political education would increase the number of self-seeking1 power-hunting politicians4 ,such men are the product1 not of political education1 but of the lack of it4 ,what is the present situation8 ,to the ordinary boy1 politics1 when it first obtrudes itself on his attention1 appears under one or other of two aspects4 ,if he is clever1 or is imagined to be so by ambitious parents1 or again1 if1 though stupid1 he happens to belong to a political family1 the air begins to be thick with talk of his going into politics4 ,he is to go into politics in the same way as men go into the ,stock ,exchange or the law2 by virtue either of birth or brains he is to enter one of those little strongholds of his class1 and earn his living there by playing the appropriate game4 ,this is the guise under which politics appears to one type of boy4 ,the other type1 hears in some quarter or other a babble about income-tax and little navies and big loans2 and either dismisses the whole thing as absolute rot1 which can have no possible meaning for him1 or imbibes the ideas and prejudices of the people whose talk he is listening to1 without in the least understanding their implications4 ,from these two types is developed the great bulk of the population1 considered under its political aspect4 ,on the one side1 politicians1 whether clever or stupid2 on the other1 the electorate1 ignorant and apathetic1 or prejudiced and inflammable1 as the case may be4 ,there are1 of course1 other classes too4 ,there is the man who has made money in business1 and late in the day conceives the idea of entering ,parliament--which he sometimes succeeds in doing even when he has been unable to avoid making an election speech or two4 ,there is the idealist who takes up political work with the sole object of doing useful service4 ,there is the well-informed and open-minded student of public affairs4 ,there is the intellectualist4 ,but the great majority are as we have described them4 ,the introduction of a far-reaching system of political education would have three results1 each of which would reinforce the others in putting an end to the present state of affairs4 ,make every one a politician1 and politicians will become rare4 ,politics will cease to be an essentially specialised profession2 men will no longer go into it as into a thing apart4 ,some will administer1 guide1 and direct2 others will know and criticise4 ,but every one will be politically active2 and instead of the stronghold of politics in a desert of ignorance1 there will be that interplay of political functions1 distributed among the whole body of the people1 which is the real meaning of democracy4 ,and not only will politics cease to be a preserve1 kept ready for spoliation by the clever1 the pushing1 the rich1 and the well-born1 but also the very desire in these men so to misuse their citizenship will cease altogether to come to birth4 ,for political education1 properly so called1 awakens political idealism2 it teaches principles1 arouses aspirations after public service4 ,the politician is a man who finds in political intrigue the fruitful source of his own advancement2 one who catches at every breeze to further his personal ends4 ,but if politics had formed the basis of his education2 if1 while his idealism was still untainted1 he had been led to consider fundamental principles1 and to examine public affairs in the light of them3 then the potential goodness of his political nature would have been so fully realised1 that no vain or mean thing would disfigure his maturity4 ,ah1 but 'potential goodness' and 'while his idealism was still untainted'2 there's the rub1 we hear the cynic saying4 ,such criticism moves us not at all4 ,we had to do during the course of our experiment with a great number of boys of many different types2 one can recall hardly a case in which1 when vital thought had really been awakened1 often after much sweat and agony1 virtue was not found to be the fundamental characteristic of the boy's intellectual nature4 ,but the teacher must not1 of course1 rest satisfied until he is certain that the goal in very truth has been reached2 until he is sure that his pupil has thrown off the weight of carelessness1 thoughtlessness1 and prejudice1 and that his mind is really awake and is in actual contact with ideas4 ,finally1 just as the leader and administrator will not desire to misuse his powers1 so the education of the rest of the nation will deprive him of his opportunity4 ,for it is only among a people politically uneducated that corruption and intrigue on a grand scale can exist4 ,the unscrupulous creation and manipulation of public opinion2 the concealment of low and mean designs under an appearance of nobility and disinterestedness2 the putting forward of one argument in support of a policy1 while a thousand are kept back which weaken or invalidate it2 the appeal to prejudice and blind passion2 the cunning use of suggestion2 worst of all that pitiable game which consists of turning the people's noblest instincts--instincts of fellowship1 solidarity1 romance--to the basest ends2 marks of degradation such as these would vanish gradually but surely as knowledge and power of criticism spread to every section of the community4 ,such evil motives as still existed would be seen through and exposed2 events would be regarded1 not as isolated occurrences1 but as a part of history1 to be viewed in their relation to the whole and to be judged in accordance with a definite philosophy of life4 ,so that if1 here and there1 a politician survived or made his reappearance in the clearer atmosphere1 he would find his playthings gone2 waiting instead for him would be men1 citizens1 politicians--ready to sweep him aside and gaily choose a better man4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,public ,,schools ,,and ,,freak ,,schools ,the ,radical--and by the ,radical we mean any one who sees that life for the majority at the present time is not as fine and happy as it should be1 and who is determined to leave no stone unturned to make it so--commonly looks askance at the public schools4 ,he thinks of them1 rightly1 as the stronghold of those in possession1 the class which1 as a whole1 not only opposes such fundamental reforms as would result in a fairer distribution of wealth1 but also itself has failed to do what might conceivably justify its favoured position1 to keep alive1 by virtue of special opportunities such as would disappear in a society based on equality1 the finest ideas of which the race is capable4 ,individual and national power1 privilege1 commercialism--it is on these things that it has set its eyes in its leadership of the nation4 ,and so our fellow-radicals have more than once said to us1 ,if you are really keen on education1 why don't you start a school of your own8 ,now it is1 no doubt1 difficult for any one who has fallen under the sway of a public school1 and who has been so caught up by its fascination as to feel for it a love more compelling than anything in his life1 to be certain that personal predilections do not dictate a reply unjustified by intellectual considerations4 ,yet for all that we give our answer without hesitation4 ,for the multiplication of what may be conveniently1 if somewhat unkindly1 classed together as freak schools1 breaks no fresh ground at all4 ,boys who have been brought up in an intellectualist atmosphere1 and those alone1 are sent there2 and even if there were no schools to which they could be sent1 home influence would turn them out intellectualists still4 ,the ranks of the intellectualists1 in fact1 are recruited from three main sources4 ,first1 there are the sons of intellectualists1 sent either to a freak school or to no school at all2 secondly1 sons of intellectualists of a slightly different type1 sent to a public school yet nevertheless retaining in the new environment their own peculiar stamp2 and1 thirdly1 the clever sons of ordinary parents1 sent to a public school and becoming intellectualists by revolt against the philistinism of it and of their homes4 ,the community thus composed leads a life as distinct and separate from that of the rest of the nation as was ever lived by the ,intelligentzia in ,russia's darkest hour4 ,it has hardly a point of contact with the average ,englishman2 it does not understand his revues and musical comedies1 his novels and cinemas1 his hunting and race meetings2 it speaks a different language1 thinks altogether different thoughts4 ,and being itself not in the least understood1 it has acquired a certain hardness of mind1 a certain contempt for ordinary people and ordinary things1 which has widened the gulf1 and led to mutual suspicion and sometimes even hatred4 ,inevitably its mental health has been affected by such a situation4 ,feeling itself different1 it has consciously made itself as different as possible2 intellectual extravagances indulged in from mere bravado1 these and similar stigmata of balance lost and sanity impaired have made their appearance in varying degrees at one time or another4 ,under a different set of circumstances--those of the war1 for instance1 so far as concerns a section of the group of which we are speaking--there has been a pitiful relapse into mere boredom1 cynicism1 and inactivity2 remote from the passions of the crowd1 and unable to give service to a cause in which they disbelieve1 some of our cleverest men have provided an ,english parallel with the vodka-drinking1 bridge-playing1 and unutterably tired community of highly-developed intellects which ,tchekoff describes so brilliantly4 ,now1 in saying all this we would not have it thought that we are bringing a sweeping accusation against one section of the nation4 ,for the fault lies1 not mainly with them1 but with the lack of culture1 idealism1 and genuine education which characterises ,england 7and most other countries7 to-day4 ,in a country in which regard for things of the mind and spirit was the rule and not the exception1 these men would form the backbone of the nation2 they would develop along healthy lines1 be marked by love and sympathy instead of contempt1 use their great powers to the full in the public service4 ,what they are to be blamed for is their failure to see their real duty2 their failure to understand that it is among the philistines1 and not in their own exclusive set1 that their most important work lies4 ,some of them1 of course1 do understand this1 and spend their lives in an unselfish attempt to spread light in the darkness4 ,but even so they commonly speak a language which is not understood2 and inevitably they fail to achieve any widespread result4 ,it is not1 then1 in the multiplication of schools designed to cater for intellectualists that we see the best hope for the progress of the nation4 ,we see it rather in the creation of an army of missionaries from among the ordinary men themselves2 missionaries of thought about the great problems of life and society1 fashioned out of those who are of the people and understand and sympathise with their emotions4 ,when once the average1 revue-loving1 thoughtless1 sporting public school boy has been taught to think vigorously about politics and sociology2 when once he has been so fired with enthusiasm for these things that he will teach and talk to others of his kind3 then1 at last1 slowly and painfully no doubt1 but none the less inevitably1 will war1 poverty1 and materialism vanish altogether from a world not meant for them4 ,that is why we have ventured to urge all those who both are idealists and love the public schools--but those alone--to break in on them and help to awaken the great sleeping instrument of salvation4 ,and they will find good material awaiting them4 ,the ,english public school boy shares with all the youth of all the nations an immense store of latent idealism1 which can be brought to a splendid fruition if atrophy and decay are not allowed to overtake it4 ,but he possesses other things also1 over and above this common heritage4 ,the intellectualist has often got beyond the big ideas1 if such a paradox may be allowed2 they have been for so long the platitudes of his caste1 and he has grown so hopeless of their general acceptance1 that he has turned to a search after subtle refinements and intellectual novelties1 in the course of which much generous breadth of vision has been lost4 ,again1 many working-class reformers--can it be wondered8--not only bring to their task a bitterness against the world which has so misused them and their fellows1 but also have inevitably been cut off from those gentle manners of life which have been gradually evolved by the more fortunate to express1 however imperfectly1 the feeling for grace and beauty which it should be our aim1 not to crush1 but to extend to all4 ,but with the public school boy all is different4 ,once he has begun to think in any real sense of the word1 his intellectual life develops as joyfully and naturally as does the physical life of the beasts of the field4 ,freshly and spontaneously1 and with no trace of self-consciousness or affectation1 he leaps to greet ideas and principles1 between which and his own true nature there is a glorious bond of kinship4 ,we have seen boy after boy1 as he realises1 for instance1 the meaning of ,liberty1 and gets his first glimpse of the wide country which such a realisation opens up1 experiencing an emotion of happiness which we can only compare to the catch of breath with which men see great scenes of beauty1 or hear of lovely deeds of generosity and heroism4 ,given their chance1 public school boys 7not one or two1 but great masses of average humanity7 will rediscover for themselves the simple things which ,christ and ,plato taught2 and once that is achieved a general advance all along the line toward the goal of a worthy human society may begin4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,morality ,generally speaking1 the intellectualist phase of a boy's career is remarkably brief4 ,just occasionally its morals are such as to cause the swift expulsion of its leaders4 ,more often they leave in the natural course of things1 or grow weary of their pose--which has1 indeed1 not made them popular--and return after the holidays frankly and unaffectedly ,philistine4 ,this transient fashion is not new4 ,what is new is the deliberate encouragement given to it by a certain type of assistant master4 ,we do not imply that the wise master will suppress444 ,that kind of intellectual measles will work itself out444 ,but to leave the phase alone is one thing2 deliberately to foster and give it official backing is quite another4--,the ,church ,times4 ,when the morality of the public schools is being discussed1 attention is usually concentrated almost exclusively on that particular branch of morality which is concerned with sex4 ,nor is this unnatural2 for sex plays so important a part in the life of a growing boy1 and the development of his character is so closely bound up with the development of his physical nature1 that the determining part may be very easily confused with the whole4 ,yet there are many boys who are sexually virtuous1 but filled with the worst type of hardness and intolerance2 many1 too1 who are sexually vicious1 yet full of love and sympathy4 ,to imagine that the problem of public school morality is solved as soon as we have discovered the best method of making public school boys continent1 is to look at the matter from an altogether too narrow angle2 for the sins of the spirit1 we have been told1 are more unpardonable than the sins of the flesh4 ,nevertheless1 when we have said this1 as say it we must1 the fact remains that the sex question is one of overwhelming importance4 ,for if once self-indulgence is allowed to become firmly rooted in a boy's character1 in the majority of cases it will be ineradicable2 and he will either be the victim throughout a great part of his life of temptations which he loathes1 and which will be a constant source of unhappiness to him1 or he will end by acquiescing in a manner of life which is degrading1 it may be to himself alone1 it may be both to himself and others4 ,it will be urged1 of course1 as it has been urged against every school novel which has attempted to give a true picture of the manners of a school house1 that we are grotesquely exaggerating the whole business2 that there may be a problem in the case of this boy or that1 but that in general there is no problem at all4 ,this simply will not do4 ,there is a problem1 and a very grave one2 and we had better anticipate the possibility of being misunderstood by stating very directly what it is4 ,we believe that the number of cases in which boys have undesirable relationships with one another is not very large1 but we believe also that there is a very great deal of that purely personal self-indulgence1 that purely self-regarding licentiousness1 which is the cause of so much unhappiness in boyhood4 ,but the reader will already be asking1 ,what is all this to do with political education8 ,the connection is a close one4 ,for the prevalence of this particular form of immorality may be ascribed to two main causes4 ,at some time during early adolescence the majority of boys automatically become acquainted with the sensation of sex1 and1 as part of a natural process1 try to reproduce the pleasurable experience4 ,but why do so many of these repeat and repeat the process1 until the thing becomes a habit for which they can find no escape8 ,partly because the verbal warning which is given to them by parents and masters is made in a wrong form1 and partly because there is not that constant joy and romance in their daily lives in comparison with which temptation1 when it comes1 will appear sordid and unworthy4 ,in the second place1 there is an atmosphere in the houses of tolerance towards these practices1 accompanied by constant discussion1 sometimes open1 sometimes secret1 which encourages and not rarely actually suggests them4 ,this is certainly true of many houses in many schools4 ,the house prefects1 it is true1 usually try to suppress as much of the unhealthiness as they can2 but since1 on the one hand1 they are often known to have been as bad as any one in their day1 and on the other they use the method of pretending that these are things which no decent boy could possibly be guilty of1 they meet at best with a very partial success1 derived only from the fear which they inspire4 ,the common method of dealing with the evil is a system of talks by masters and heads of houses4 ,the talks follow a fairly stereotyped plan2 they are either religious in nature1 and contain references to the temple of the body1 or medical1 and convey warnings of the physical consequences which will follow if excess is persisted in4 ,sometimes the two types of address are dovetailed into a single whole4 ,neither are wholly satisfactory4 ,the medical variety sometimes terrifies a sensitive boy1 who will imagine that his whole life is ruined and all his chance of future happiness wrecked4 ,he will become somewhat morose1 and not unfrequently will finally turn1 in his despair1 to the very thing against which he has been warned4 ,on the other hand1 and with another type of boy1 it often fails equally disastrously1 because1 judged by the medical standards to which it appeals1 it is proved by experience to be unsound4 ,in his anxiety to create a strong impression the schoolmaster will sometimes make statements that are simply untrue4 ,he will tell the boy that these practices will ruin his cricket or his football4 ,no doubt it sometimes will2 but it is more than likely that the boy knows several highly successful athletes who are1 as the boy knows1 though the master may not1 complete adepts in schoolboy vice4 ,then there is the old threat1 possibly obsolete to-day1 though one hesitates to say that anything is obsolete in the conservative world with which we deal--the old threat that half the inmates of the asylums of ,england have been brought there by this practice4 ,that1 again1 is simply untrue1 and if the boy happens to know it1 the effect of such an untruth upon him may be very bad4 ,equally unsuccessful1 in the majority of cases1 is the religious talk4 ,the unspeculative1 dogmatic type of school religion does not make an appeal to the ordinary boy sufficiently strong to override what he has found to be the most fascinating thing in his experience4 ,it is too much a conventional decency imposed upon him from without1 too little a force within him which he has been helped to develop1 such as is alone powerful enough to contend with a desire itself arising spontaneously from within4 ,and when the sermon is accompanied by exhortations to pray against temptation1 it is sometimes not only useless1 but 7again in the case of the ordinary boy7 positively harmful4 ,for to get into the habit of praying against temptation means to get into the habit of thinking about it1 to become self-conscious1 and to succumb4 ,not but that there are some quite young boys who feel ,christ's nearness to them as ,friend and ,helper so vividly that they can gain real strength from praying to ,him4 ,but we are talking of the average boy2 and the average boy is not of this type4 ,conversations between master and boy on the subject are1 of course1 quite necessary and often very helpful4 ,very often a boy is mystified1 or it may be terrified1 by what seems to him some peculiarity in his nature1 and it may do him all the good in the world to unburden his soul to some one older and more experienced than himself4 ,it is best1 too1 that the ,house master should be the man to whom such a boy naturally turns2 though if the boy should prefer to turn elsewhere1 the fact should be to the ,house master food for thought rather than for anger4 ,indeed1 while in one way there is far too much talk on this subject1 in another there is far too little4 ,too much may easily be made of conventional talks on conventional occasions4 ,what is rather wanted is a relationship between boy and master1 created by frank intercourse on other topics1 such as will naturally bring the boy to the master for help in these difficulties1 with the sure knowledge that the latter will not lecture him1 but will speak as one who has been through similar difficulties in his own boyhood1 and is anxious only to help and to explain4 ,under the present system1 when the verbal appeal fails1 recourse is often had to corporal punishment4 ,we have no room here for a discussion of the ethics of punishment2 but a method more foolish could scarcely be devised1 if the aim is to enable the boy to overcome temptation4 ,and of all forms of punishment1 corporal punishment is the worst4 ,the physical side of the boy's nature is asserting itself in all its strength2 and you attempt to combat it by making a physical appeal which must from the nature of the case be far less powerful and compelling4 ,moreover1 any one with even a slight knowledge of sexual psychology 7and it is curious how few schoolmasters take the trouble to acquire such knowledge7 is aware that given a certain temperament on the part whether of the giver or the receiver1 perils lurk in this form of punishment of the very type which it is designed to meet4 ,but the only sound way of combating the over-development of one side of a boy's nature is to develop the other4 ,make a boy's whole life one of joy and interest2 let him live with a constant sense of the beauty of grass and sky1 of the exultation of vital work1 of the happiness of love and friendship4 ,as the days go by1 let him feel his latent powers developing1 and glory in the thought that they have been given him for his own joy and that of humanity4 ,then when temptation comes to him1 and he remembers how its indulgence has left him slack and bored1 it will seem to him like a candle-flame in the sun of his happiness1 a wretched little mean and unworthy thing breaking in on and threatening to ruin the peace and harmony of his life4 ,and so he will not give it a second thought1 and soon all danger will be over4 ,this may seem preposterously difficult4 ,it is3 but it is also the only way4 ,the master cannot do it for the boy1 but he can perhaps give the boys some help towards doing it for themselves4 ,what we want is that every house should become a small community of boys carrying on together absorbingly interesting and romantic activities--a kind of club in which they may forgather and undertake in common the intellectual and spiritual adventure which thus become a part of their individual daily lives4 ,in this way there will be none of that boredom1 that feeling of having nothing on earth to do or think about1 the presence of which is the chief cause impelling a boy to turn to the one thing which at least can provide him at any moment with a temporary excitement4 ,rather will his whole nature develop harmoniously1 and sex1 about which we have become too self-conscious1 take its proper place as the 7normally7 unconscious inspirer of many of our most vital activities and happiest emotions4 ,and once morbidity has been put away1 and with it the constant preoccupation of boys and masters with this one topic1 and all that suspicion and suggestiveness which we know so well1 then the graver problem which has to do with the relationship of boy to boy will be found to have been solved at the same time4 ,no one who knows a public school is likely to deny that sexual emotion is nearly always an element in the intensest schoolboy friendships2 but that makes them neither the less lovely nor the less desirable4 ,indeed1 the value of such friendships at their finest cannot be overestimated4 ,for when a boy falls in love1 he learns for the first time something of the real splendour of living3 he comes into his birthright of beauty and ecstacy1 and understands how the greatest happiness is to be found in doing everything for the service of another4 ,there is something very loathsome about the spying1 and secretiveness1 the jokes and unclean hintings which1 in the majority of schools1 make such a friendship appear a thing to be ashamed rather than proud of1 and often in the end actually render it shameful4 ,given a clean atmosphere1 an absence of suspicion on the part of masters and of morbidity on that of boys1 and we believe that very rarely would physical acts result from schoolboy love4 ,but the reader will be asking1 for the second time1 ,what is all this to do with political education8 ,and again we answer--everything4 ,for we believe that the joy in life1 and the intellectual interest of which we have spoken can be awakened from where they lie dormant in a boy's nature by political education4 ,the subject is the boy's own destiny as a member of human society and a part of the universe 7for it will be remembered that we include ethics and philosophy with history and politics under the one broad heading72 and there is hardly a boy who does not find1 at best in all these subjects1 at worst in one of them1 the inspiration to vital work and the sense of living well1 which goes with it4 ,the boys start reading1 widely2 a thousand topics occupy their attention2 poetry1 plays1 novels--all these are reached from the one starting point4 ,then clubs and groups of various kinds are started in their houses2 and the sex problem has become as much as it ever can become1 a thing of the past4 ,nor1 we may add1 are we merely theorising1 and talking of hypothetical goods which might conceivably follow from the adoption of our plan4 ,all that we have written of is within our own experience4 ,time after time while we were making our experiments did we come across cases of boys whose moral health had been saved by their new-found interest4 ,one had turned to physical excitement as the only possible relief from the tedium of ,latin grammar2 after a year under the altered circumstances he turned to it no longer4 ,the parents of another 7a boy of about sixteen7 had attempted to base his morality solely on ,christian dogma1 which meant nothing to him2 and the result was disastrous4 ,but a course of lectures on ,plato's philosophy gave him what religion had previously failed to give him--a belief in an ideal and the distinction between right and wrong1 and a determination to do always what seemed to him the absolute best4#a ,but by far the most remarkable results were achieved in the house of which we have already spoken in ,chapter ,i4 ,during his first fortnight of office1 the new head boy followed the old method2 he examined all suspicious cases1 discovered some that he had not suspected1 and dealt out the traditional treatment4 ,then he followed the old method no longer2 nor did he ever return to it from that day till the day when he finally left the school before his time4 ,instead1 he set about interesting the boys in politics4 ,we have already described the course of his experiments2 how enthusiasm1 kindled over newspapers1 spread to plays1 to poetry1 to pictures1 and to music4 ,and the result8 ,the house was transformed3 it became such a place as every mother hopes the house where her own son is may be4 ,and yet during the whole time of which we are speaking only one boy was beaten1 and he for an act quite unrelated to the seventh or indeed to any other of the ,ten ,commandments4 ,,note4--,a fortnight after the writing of the present book was projected1 one of the writers was dispatched on military duty to ,india1 and the above chapter was sent home from ,somewhere in ,somewhere--,i believe ,taranto4 ,close co-operation in authorship became impossible1 and upon his collaborator in ,england devolved the responsibility of sole editorship4 ,i leave the above chapter almost as it was written1 for there is about it1 as it seems to me1 an indomitable optimism which was a characteristic of the writer's work and a cause of its success4 ,still1 in so far as it suggests that a complete solution has been found for a problem ,i believe to be insoluble1 ,i must in honesty add a few words on my own account4 ,our direct experience1 or the more remarkable part of it1 amounts to this3 that a certain head of a house achieved during the course of a year1 using the methods described1 an uplifting of the whole tone of his house that can only be described as marvellous4 ,other heads elsewhere have no doubt achieved similar results by other means1 though we have never come across an example equally remarkable4 ,the goal can be reached1 presumably1 by the road of saintliness4 ,it might be reached1 though it is doubtful1 by the road of ,puritanism and efficiency1 the appeal to abstinence and living hard4 ,it cannot be reached1 that is certain1 by merely disciplinary methods and the appeal to fear1 for the commonest form of schoolboy vice is such that1 even allowing for the casualness of boys1 it will not be detected once in a hundred cases4 ,something1 however1 must be discounted from this result1 by reason of the fact that the experiments were new4 ,these boys had an enthusiasm bred of the fact that they rightly felt themselves to be pioneers4 ,they felt themselves to be making history1 certainly for the first1 possibly for the last1 time in their lives1 and whether you admire them or whether you laugh at them1 making history they were1 so far as their own world was concerned4 ,it seems doubtful whether the spiritual force engendered would have lasted at full strength when the thing had become normal1 and it was no longer possible to start the hare of some new stunt 7as they called it1 ,i am sorry to say7 once every two or three weeks4 ,the experiment was cut short in its prime1 and how it would have developed when the first generation of enthusiasts had passed away1 one cannot say4 ,as for the other houses1 something had been begun in two or three1 but nothing of much value had been achieved4 ,the minorities hesitated between a desire to imitate and a desire to be quite original1 and the majorities looked a trifle askance upon the whole affair4 ,and the masters came in here and put every sort of difficulty in the way1 for by this time the collapse was visibly approaching4 ,none the less1 the lines on which this strange and temporary achievement was based are the only lines along which the moral problem can be grappled with4 ,a perfectly pure public school is as impossible as a perfectly satisfactory ,marriage ,law4 ,a few incorrigibly bad boys there will always be--incorrigible1 that is1 when they have reached public school age4 ,hopelessly inanimate and feeble boys there will be also1 doomed to become the victims of the bad4 ,but the present moral average might be immensely raised1 and the plain way to raise it is to provide other adventures for the soul4 ,a boy once said to me1 speaking of the matter in hand1 ,you see1 it's the only thing ,i've ever found to do here really 'on my own4' ,it was1 in fact1 his one adventure4 ,no amount of class-room tasks1 however well devised1 no amount of organised games1 however healthy1 no amount of school religion1 however sincere1 could fill that gap4 ,we must put the boys on the lines to organise their own adventures1 and the only adventures that can compete with this absorbing adventure of misapplied sexuality1 must be adventures that really lead up to the highest and best things of life4 ,it was only when he found an empire to save that ,clive ceased to be a young ruffian4 ,nothing lower than politics will suffice4 #a ,not that we believe that ,plato is a greater teacher than ,christ4 ,our opinion is the opposite2 but we are also of ,shelley's opinion when he said1 ,i would rather go to hell with ,plato than to heaven with ,paley4 ,much that is called ,christian is not of ,christ4 ,also there are no doubt minds so constituted that they will get more good in certain circumstances from the lesser teacher4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,religion ,it may be a slight shock to some people to hear that ',divinity' should grapple with ,capitalism and ,imperialism4--,manchester ,guardian4 ,politics1 in the large sense1 is one of the main gateways to the understanding of fellowship1 and of that which lies beyond fellowship1 and leads boys to express something further-reaching than the thought of the dear city of ,cecrops4--,mr4 ,kenneth ,richmond in ,the ,new ,age4 ,this chapter will be as short as its subject-matter is important4 ,indeed1 the problem of religion as it presents itself in a public school is so interesting and so difficult that one might well apologise for relegating it to a late chapter in a brief book upon an apparently quite alien subject4 ,but we have set out to recount our experience of political education2 and in our experience we found that politics and religion lay not so very far apart4 ,without any very direct suggestion from us1 several of our pupils to whom the ,kingdom of ,heaven had been hitherto a somewhat uninteresting abstraction found that they could not think out to their satisfaction the problems of the city of ,cecrops until they had formulated their ideas upon the city of ,god4 ,the history of ,the ,school ,observer illustrates this well enough4 ,that journal showed a distinct tendency to become a religious organ4 ,at the time of its suppression the embarrassed editor was confronted with three long articles--the longest1 it must be confessed1 his own--all of them bearing upon the nature of the ,deity1 and1 lest we should be misunderstood1 all of them broadly ,christian in character4 ,now1 a certain type of clerical head master has often tried to impress upon his boys--he would try it on his staff also did he not know that it would be waste of time and energy--that the two hours devoted to divinity are the two most important school hours of the week4 ,and he is quite right3 they are the most important1 or1 rather1 but for opportunities missed1 they would be4 ,for a liberal education without a foundation in religion is not merely defective1 it is impossible4 ,if the religious foundation offered by the teacher proves no foundation1 proves a mere meaningless excrescence upon the time-table1 then a religion will be sought and found elsewhere1 even though it be1 as is most likely1 a religion such as is generally classed as no-religion1 mere worship1 as ,ruskin called it1 of ,britannia ,agoraia1 ,britannia of the ,market ,place1 the ,goddess of ,getting-on4 ,that1 it is to be feared1 is very much what we have at present1 for the religion of the divinity lesson is usually nothing at all1 and the religion of the school chapel has hardly got beyond the tribal stage1 and does not suffice for the modern man in his maturity1 nor for most types of thoughtful schoolboy4 ,there are some old boys1 perhaps many1 who have a strong sentimental regard for the old chapel2 but it is as a venerable symbol of the corporate life of their boyhood that they regard it1 not as a place of divine worship4 ,the religion they carry away from the school chapel has very little connection with the message of the gospel they heard there3 it is a religion not of ,jesus ,christ1 but of ,alma ,mater4 ,their attitude to it is not strictly religious at all1 but romantic4 ,it is easy to write with a certain irony on this subject1 but that is the last thing we want to do1 for the problem of the public schools is here1 as elsewhere1 a profoundly difficult one1 and many good men have devoted the best of their life's energies to it1 and have achieved here and there a fine measure of success4 ,but their success has been personal and exceptional4 ,the rule is what we have just described4 ,indeed1 the problem of the schools is but a single aspect of the problem of the ,church and the world at large4 ,two years ago the ,national ,mission came1 proclaiming that the ,church had been a failure1 and so much has recently been written on these lines by the leaders of the ,churches themselves that it is unnecessary for us to enlarge upon the well-worn theme4 ,nominally the schools are ,church schools4 ,chapels are as compulsory as football1 and all boys1 with a very few marked and conscious exceptions1 are confirmed and expected to become communicants4 ,but in actual fact1 many of them come from homes where connection with the ,church is purely nominal1 even if it exists at all4 ,thus a dangerous element of formalism and make-believe is introduced from the start4 ,the masters again2--fifty years ago they were parsons almost without exception--stern1 godly1 whiskered individuals--singularly unlike1 as it would seem1 to our colleagues or ourselves4 ,the masters of to-day are nearly all laymen1 and laymen with as wide a variety of religious opinions as the members of the ,stock ,exchange2 but--and this is where they differ from the members of the ,stock ,exchange--they will all be1 during term time1 formal members of the ,church of ,england4 ,once again1 formalism and make-believe4 ,yet what would you have8 ,the schools are the schools of the nation1 not of a sect2 and to-day the ,church of ,england is1 within the nation1 but a sect4 ,and even supposing the schools were1 or could be1 genuinely ,church of ,england schools1 another problem would remain1 for within the ,church itself there is a wide variety of opinions1 and beliefs without which ,christianity is impossible to one will be mere blasphemy to another4 ,it has been said with some truth that our religious ideas have undergone as great a revolution in the last hundred years as our knowledge of machinery1 and that the sermons of #ahbj are as obsolete as its stage coaches4 ,for the author of this notion--and he is a clergyman--this may be true2 but whereas none of his congregation travel in stage coaches1 it is very likely that the theology of some of them is nearer to that of the sermons of #ahbj than to his own4 ,now1 it is obvious that our experience of political education does not provide a way out of all these difficulties2 but it seems to us to throw a certain glimmering of light upon them4 ,several of our boys who1 in spite of schoolroom divinity and the school chapel1 had more or less outgrown the religious faith of their childhood1 and found nothing satisfactory to take its place1 were led back towards religion by their interest in politics4 ,in fine1 they had discovered the intellectual need for a religion1 and liberalism pointed the way to ,christianity4 ,as in the ,middle ,ages1 philosophy had been the ancilla ,fidei4 ,the suggestion is that the fault of our religious teaching in school and chapel has been that it is not sufficiently philosophical4 ,by a philosophical religion it need hardly be said that we do not mean the obtrusion of a remote and contentious theology1 but a religion based upon a real understanding of political principles and crying social needs4 ,it may be a slight shock to some people to hear that 'divinity' should grapple with capitalism and imperialism1 says the ,manchester ,guardian reviewer4 ,it may3 none the less we believe that it is with such problems that ,christianity has to grapple if there is ever to be a ,christian society upon earth4 ,the last thing we wish to suggest is the off-hand conclusion that capitalism and imperialism are in all their manifestations anti-,christian4 ,the world is not so simple a place4 ,but we cannot go on applying one set of principles to our private lives and another set of principles to our politics and industry4 ,man is not so illogical a creature as that4 ,there is bound to be1 finally1 either a levelling up or a levelling down towards a single uniform standard4 ,no proverb is more dangerous than ,charity begins at home4 ,when it begins in the place most congenial to its exercise1 it is apt to end there4 ,lord ,melbourne is said to have complained1 after hearing a sermon1 ,things are coming to a pretty pass1 when religion claims to interfere with a man's private life4 ,we smile at ,lord ,melbourne's honest indignation4 ,our turn come to be indignant when the sermon applies the ,christian paradoxes to industry1 commerce1 and international relations4 ,and it is along these lines that religious teaching can be made absorbingly interesting4 ,it all comes round to the old question1 ,are we going to apply ,christianity to the problems of modern society or are we not8 ,the case against doing so can be found every day in the press1 so here1 at any rate1 is an issue worth facing1 with a presumably infallible authority to support each side4 ,the direction of most religious teaching hitherto has been too purely personal2 the exhortation is too obvious and the appeal falls flat4 ,politics without religion lacks foundation2 but religion without politics lacks quite half its content4 ,christianity is the leaven1 but so also is politics the lump4 ,along these lines1 we believe1 one might get in the middle and lower parts of the school results analogous to those we have described in the cases of some sixth form boys4 ,the present writer used to teach ,divinity to a middle form on the ,modern ,side1 and whenever a ,gospel happened to be scheduled1 he found ample material to his hand4 ,it is surprising how little1 for all the sermons they have heard1 most boys of sixteen have faced the ideas expressed in the most hackneyed texts4 ,it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle4444 ,love your enemies4 ,take no thought for the morrow4 ,a most mischievous half-truth has got about that these sayings are not to be taken literally4 ,boys have told me that a rich man means one who has grown rich by robbery4 ,well1 what is robbery8 ,la proprit1 c'est le vol8 ,love your enemies means1 ,i have been told1 ,have no enemies3 lead a peaceable life2 but if444 ,there was a case apparently not provided for4 ,take no thought for the morrow4 ,on this ,i once got the delightfully honest comment1 ,christ must have said this to cheer the disciples when they were depressed4 ,taken literally it would be absurd4 ,with such candour on the pupils' side1 surely the teacher's task is not hopeless4 ,here at last we have the atmosphere of honest controversy1 and without controversy there is no freedom of thought2 without freedom of thought no conviction2 without conviction1 no education and no religion4 ,,chapter ,x ,,curriculum ,it is always difficult to define the limits of a topic4 ,this book is concerned with one educational subject alone1 politics in the very broad sense we here attach to the term4 ,our contention is that that subject is of paramount importance1 and that it should provide the basis and foundation of liberal education4 ,with that idea in view1 we have given some account of our own experience2 we have also considered what seemed the most reasonable and weighty objections2 we have also shown how politics reacted1 in our experience1 upon morality and religion4 ,and then it might seem well to make an end4 ,but an education is1 or should be1 a single whole1 and the entire omission of certain aspects lends itself to misunderstanding4 ,our previous book suggested to one reader1 at least1 that we regarded subjects other than those we treated of1 as possessing no educational value other than a purely utilitarian one4 ,that was not at all the impression we wished to create1 and it is with a view to correcting it that we attempt a brief general survey of the non-political subjects and their place in a curriculum which took politics as its centre4 ,but we offer these remarks with much diffidence4 ,if this book and its predecessor have any value1 it is due to the fact that they are based on direct and vivid teaching experience2 and here for the most part the guidance of experience deserts us4 ,one very natural criticism of our thesis is that politics1 though it may stimulate interest1 cannot provide intellectual discipline4 ,the criticism is natural because1 so long as the ,english subjects are regarded as a subsidiary matter1 they are and will be treated by masters and boys in an easy going manner4 ,other and sterner subjects are reckoned on to supply the disciplinary factor which the ,english subjects lack4 ,there is1 in fact1 a very prevalent idea that interest and discipline vary inversely to one another2 that discipline is to be found in doing what is uninteresting2 and that interest is to be found in doing what is slack4 ,this is very bad psychology4 ,for we aim at training willing servants1 fit to become masters1 not slaves fit for nothing but slavery4 ,the only valuable discipline is self-discipline1 and self-discipline will only be reached when the boy has realised for himself that the work is intrinsically worth doing1 and when he has realised that he will have become interested4 ,again1 what is interesting must be absorbing1 and such work can never be slack4 ,the mistake seems to arise from a confusion of ideas in connection with the word easy4 ,it is no more easy to write an adequate essay on the subject of ,national ,guilds than it is to learn the principal parts of a large number of irregular verbs3 possibly it is much more difficult4 ,but under certain conditions which we have seen produced1 a boy will find it easy to gird himself up to the former task2 indeed1 he will get so absorbed that he will find it difficult to leave off4 ,few questions are less easy than those connected with a paper-money currency1 but one half-holiday afternoon we found a vigorous discussion on this subject in progress between a group of cricketers whom rain had driven to the pavilion4 ,ordinary history teaching1 if only time is allowed and certificate examinations do hot threaten1 affords scope for a great variety of exercises demanding careful thought and accurate knowledge4 ,so much in answer to the suggestion that only through the non-political subjects can real hard work be secured4 ,the non-political subjects fall into three groups--languages1 mathematics1 and the natural sciences4 ,probably no one regards the teaching of foreign languages in the public schools as at all satisfactory at present1 and the chief reason is that far too much is attempted1 with far too little consideration of what will be achieved4 ,most boys are either simultaneously learning1 or have at one time simultaneously tried to learn1 three foreign languages1 ,latin1 ,greek1 and ,french1 or ,latin1 ,french1 and ,german4 ,the burden is too heavy for them to bear4 ,only the minority have any real gift for foreign languages1 and for the rest the aim should be one foreign language only4 ,little will be accomplished in any subject unless there is a real ambition to learn1 and there can be no such ambition unless a definite goal is in sight4 ,the goal here is real knowledge in a foreign language1 for half or quarter-knowledge of a foreign language is a most unsatisfying accomplishment4 ,the obvious language is ,french4 ,even so1 many will not learn to write it correctly1 and as for speaking it1 that is an accomplishment so much more conveniently acquired elsewhere that we offer no opinion as to how far it is worth attempting at school4#a ,but fluent reading of ,french is a thing within the reach of practically any boy1 and even the stupid boy1 if he concentrates upon this1 to the exclusion of other and more difficult linguistic tasks1 will make such unmistakable progress that his ambitions may well be roused4 ,and the accomplishment is one that can quickly be made useful4 ,for instance1 probably the best general history of ,europe is still ,guizot's book1 and its ,french is about the easiest ever written4 ,but we would go further4 ,we remember once a boy being birched for circulating a copy of ,la ,vie ,parisienne4 ,does not this suggest that every house should take a ,french daily newspaper1 and also an illustrated weekly1 other than that above mentioned8 ,but while advocating the single language for the ordinary boy1 we are pulled up short by the claims of ,latin2 and here we feel a difficulty4 ,a good deal of what is said in favour of ,latin we regard as pure superstition4 ,it is not true that boys can only learn to write their own language correctly by means of ,latin prose4 ,nor is it true that ,latin prose supplies the ideal mental discipline4 ,that is only true for the minority of boys who reach the stage at which real ,latin prose is written4 ,most flounder about all their time in the stage of artificial ,latin prose1 wherein is nothing more than the meticulous application of a set of laboriously acquired grammatical rules--a tolerable training in conscientious application1 such as any subject can supply1 but nothing more4 ,yet it may well be true--on this point we feel uncertain--that an elementary knowledge of ,latin supplies such a foundation for the understanding both of ,english and ,french1 that it is worth making some sacrifices to retain it4 ,if that be so1 we would start every boy on ,latin as his first foreign language4 ,those who showed little ability would abandon it at about the time they began ,french4 ,in the case of boys with some real linguistic ability1 we are happy to find ourselves thoroughly conservative4 ,we believe firmly in the grand old fortifying classical curriculum1 provided it is understood that the languages themselves are but means to an end1 to the understanding of the classical civilisation4 ,in fine1 the goal of classics should be to-day1 as it was for the ,renaissance scholars1 ultimately political4 ,the classical student who1 at the time when his schooling ends1 is still doing no more than settling ,hoti's business and properly basing ,oun1 is in the position of ,browning's ,grammarian1 with this vital difference that he probably does not intend to employ his future life in building any superstructure upon the foundations thus laboriously laid4 ,in mathematics there is probably a deeper cleavage than in any other subject between the real thing1 as mathematicians understand it1 and the elementary knowledge within the reach of all4 ,the real thing is perhaps the most remote and specialised of all branches of learning4 ,for a few it is the best1 indeed1 the only natural1 line of development2 but these are few and easily recognised1 and even they should not be allowed to specialise too narrowly--that is a point which no one who is not a mathematician will dispute4 ,at the other end of the scale comes the third of the three ,r's2 and about that again there is no controversy1 except as to the best methods of teaching it4#b ,yet the schools do not recognise sufficiently clearly this line of cleavage1 and many boys who are presumed to have reached the end of the elementary stage remain for some time battering in vain at the doors of the inner temple4 ,these should go back once over the elements again to see if they know them1 and then give it up for good4 ,this will mean a cheerful exodus from the upper-middle mathematical divisions4 ,we confess to sympathy with the conservative-radical head master who said1 ,i shall not advocate the abolition of compulsory ,greek in ,university examinations until ,i can get people to agree to the abolition of compulsory ,algebra4 ,there is perhaps a middle term between elementary and real mathematics2 that is the mathematics that is the handmaid of physics1 and leads us on to the natural sciences4 ,to-day the claims of natural science are very insistent1 and they come from more than one quarter4 ,from one quarter comes the claim that science alone of the subjects in the time-table means business1 and makes money1 and that in these strenuous times other subjects that lead to mere elegant accomplishments must crowd into a narrow space to make room for the one subject that makes for sheer efficiency4 ,the point is often put with a certain crudity2 but we may as well ignore that1 and recognise that the just claims of commercial training will have to be met by the schools more fully than heretofore4 ,only let us recognise commercial training for what it is1 and not pretend that it can ever offer a substitute for the liberal education which must continue alongside of it4 ,but the teacher of science will more often take quite other ground1 and will claim that his subject1 over and above its commercial usefulness1 provides most of the ingredients of a ,liberal education in itself4 ,he will point to the training it offers in habits of conscientious accuracy1 its exemplification of the laws of cause and effect1 its undeviating respect for truth1 and the inspiration of its endless progress1 built up on the heroic researches of the great pioneers4 ,this claim demands careful and sympathetic scrutiny4 ,to begin with criticism1 we are quite unconvinced that science alone can train the mind to logical methods1 or imbue it with a respect for truth in matters outside the scientific sphere4 ,science1 as the term is commonly understood1 deals with material things1 and1 as such1 it gives but little support to the mind when confronted with the problems of humanity1 whether personal or political4 ,it is only too common for the science specialist to respect cause and effect in a test-tube and despise it in a newspaper4 ,in science no passions are evoked in favour of one solution or another4 ,the search for truth may well be disinterested1 since it is1 humanly speaking1 uninterested4 ,a liberal education must train the mind to master prejudice and self-interest1 and this training cannot be given in a material where prejudice and self-interest will not come into play4 ,as regards ordinary laboratory work1 and lectures on laboratory detail1 of which science teaching at present1 as many science masters agree1 far too exclusively consists1 our view is similar to our view on mathematics4 ,it is often instructive1 both for boy and master1 to get the boys to draw up an ideal time-table4 ,the results1 as a rule1 are disappointingly conventional1 it is true4 ,few boys have ever criticised their education1 except in a purely destructive and cynical spirit1 and when confronted with the constructive task1 produce something not very far removed from the time-table they follow out every week4 ,but as regards science1 it will often be found that the form falls into two clearly marked divisions4 ,one part cut it down to a minimum1 and would1 if they had the courage of their convictions1 cut it out altogether2 the other part give it half1 or more than half1 the time-table4 ,this probably marks the fact that for many boys a very small amount of laboratory experience1 just enough to give them a notion of method1 is all that they will benefit by4 ,for the rest the training has real value and interest2 but these are a minority4 ,but there is another aspect of science1 receiving as yet far too little attention at school1 which seems to us an essential part of a liberal education4 ,indeed1 when our own sixth form time-table was remodelled1 we put in a claim for a weekly lecture on ,general ,principles of ,science1 alongside with modern history and political science and economics4 ,the general principles of natural law1 evolution and heredity1 the nature and cure of disease1 the atomic theory of matter1 general principles of astronomy--these things seem to us second only in importance to the great principles of politics themselves4 ,here is an extraordinary record of patient achievement1 some contact with which is in itself an inspiration not merely intellectual1 but moral4 ,for it seems to us hardly fanciful to suggest that such knowledge should react--so subtle are the reactions of the boy-mind1 as we have already tried to show--most favourably on the political spirit4 ,dr4 ,gregory1 in his enthusiastic work in praise of his subject1 ,discovery3 or the ,spirit and ,service of ,science1 writes3 ,in the discussion of political questions1 prejudice and party determine the view taken1 and facts are selected and exploited not so much with the object of arriving at the truth as to confound the other side4444 ,a politician may place party above truth1 and a diplomatist will conceal it on behalf of his country1 but it is the duty of the man of science to attain truth at all costs4 ,in direct opposition to the narrowness of thought which views all subjects through the distorting mirage of party prejudice1 stands the absolute freedom of mind of the man of science who stands with open arms to welcome truth4444 ,and ,dr4 ,gregory's moral would seem to be3 ,eschew politics and devote yourself to science4 ,as if the world could exist without politics6 ,as if the happy alternative to bad politicians were no politicians6 ,the right moral surely is that which we have been drawing1 with possibly wearisome repetition1 throughout this book2 that all that is best in the scientific mind1 all that is best in the literary and artistic mind1 all that is best in the religious mind1 must be brought to bear upon the problems of our corporate life4 #a ,we offer no opinion1 also1 on the oral method of teaching both modern and classical tongues1 as we have no experience at all to guide us4 #b ,surely1 too1 the third of the three ,r's should include a knowledge of book-keeping1 balance sheets1 etc4 ,here we join hands heartily with the utilitarian school of educational reformers4 ,we also wish that every one learnt shorthand almost as soon as he had learnt longhand4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,the ,,young ,,generation ,,and ,,the ,,old ,there1 it is to be feared1 they will find the parents most in their way4 ,the normal father may endure his son being taught poetry1 but he will object to the instilling of opinion other than his own4--,outlook4 ,fancy some imp of fifteen or sixteen assailing the author of his being1 a court-worn barrister or 'rattled' stockbroker1 at his evening meal3 ',father1 ,i think ,lord ,bryce's bill for the reform of the ,house of ,lords radically unsound1' or suddenly asking his mother1 who1 good1 easy woman1 is revolving in her mind the merits of a coat and skirt she has seen that afternoon at ,debenham's3 ',mother1 what is your opinion of the ,trading with the ,enemy ,bill8'--,saturday ,review4 ,youth is asking questions as never before--asking awkward1 burning questions1 which put its seniors in a flutter4 ,the seniors1 under question1 discover that they have no body of doctrine1 and have never till now dreamt of the need of any4 ,if they are wise1 they will put away the taboo on politics and sit down with their juniors to hammer these things out1 and perchance clear their own minds in the process4--,westminster ,gazette4 ,by way of epilogue--an appeal to the parents4 ,what is it that the parents want from the schools8 ,the question is all-important2 for by the spiritual law of demand and supply1 what they want they will get4 ,it has been said that every nation has the government it deserves4 ,so it is with the press1 and so it is with the schools3 we get what we want1 and what we want is what we deserve4 ,what do we want8 ,there are some parents who take the public schools quite seriously as places of professional training1 places where their sons will be taught to earn their livings1 and they are encouraged in this notion by the fact that several professional bodies insist on successful candidature in some pass examination in school subjects as a first step towards entrance into the profession1 and thereby rivet these examinations upon the schools4 ,the result is not altogether bad4 ,the examinations make for a deplorable ossification of the curriculum2 but they also set a certain low standard1 and drive a certain type of boy and master to work1 and1 though the type of work is not very exalted1 it is better than nothing at all4 ,on the individual boy the effect will be various4 ,look here1 says the house master1 there's ,london ,matric4 at the end of next term4 ,hadn't you better give up all this foolery with politics and do a little real work8 ,the advice was taken1 and perhaps we are not sufficiently impartial to offer a valuable opinion on the result4 ,however1 the boy was no fool1 and the first part of the advice need never have been given4 ,except in the case of boys1 far too numerous1 who are taking examinations that ought never to have been imposed on them1 modern aiders and the like who are mugging up prepared books of ,virgil and ,euripides1 work for a pass examination ought not to mean the cessation of all other intellectual activity4 ,there is another much more old-fashioned type of parent who stands for everything that is traditional1 who is seriously disturbed if his boy wanders far afield from the old classical curriculum1 who regards all new subjects as foolish fads4 ,it is this parent1 helped by an old-fashioned type of house master1 who retains in a mild torture of boredom the boys who linger wasting their time in the lower reaches of the classical side4 ,but anything is better than nothing1 and the attitude of many more parents is purely cynical4 ,they just leave it to the schoolmaster4 ,cynical might seem a hard word with which to repay this compliment of trust2 but it is not1 for there is really no compliment and no trust4 ,the parent does not really believe in the school-master's judgment4 ,he believes in him so little that he thinks it simply does not matter what happens in the class-room1 provided the boy seems to enjoy himself--how many parents really know whether their boys do enjoy themselves at school8--and provided the house master is not actively complaining4 ,now1 there is only one hope1 and that is that the parents should come to look at this matter of their son's education politically4 ,school-time is a training1 and we are all familiar enough with the idea of training now4 ,before the war1 as since1 schools had their ,o4,t4,c4's4 ,but these ,o4,t4,c4's were wretched perfunctory affairs1 boring everybody1 because we hardly any of us seriously envisaged them as a training1 only as an incubus4 ,now1 we all see them as training for a part that has got to be played1 and the whole spirit is different4 ,but the country will soon be calling upon our public school boys to play another and perhaps even more difficult part1 and where is the training for that8 ,when the war is won we shall plunge into another maelstrom2 and it will all be politics1 politics1 politics4 ,the leaders of labour have roughly charted their course2 they mean to make a new world for the masses whether we like it or not1 and they mean in the main right4 ,but what part are the public school men going to play8 ,it is an extremely difficult position1 and the difficulties crop up not only in the details1 of which only mature experience can give a knowledge1 but in the elementary principles regulating our outlook1 our attitude4 ,and that is where the public schools could come in with irresistible effect if only they would brace themselves to the task4 ,your king and country need you1 said the old recruiting poster of #aiad4 ,good ,god6 have they never wanted me till now8 was the natural rejoinder4 ,in any case they will not cease to want the public school boy when the war is over4 ,in this task the parents must co-operate4 ,the normal father1 we are told1 will object if his son brings home opinions other than his own4 ,but1 in sober truth1 if the son brings home the same opinions as the fathers have always held1 we are in a poor way4 ,it was the fathers and the grandfathers who brought the world to its present pass4 ,it is the sons who1 starting with new principles from new beginnings1 have got to set it on a better road4 ,the ,saturday ,review and ,the ,westminster ,gazette offer us1 in the quotations at the head of this chapter two little vignettes of parentage4 ,which would you have8 ,the holidays occupy rather more than a quarter1 and rather less than a third of the year4 ,if you asked what the boys do in the holidays1 you would ask a question that puzzles many boys themselves to answer4 ,the waste of school holidays is even more striking than the waste of school terms4 ,for education should not be1 indeed1 cannot be1 limited to term time4 ,the proportion of boys who require rest in the holidays1 even for the first week or two1 is small4 ,a slack time1 prolonged beyond a week or so1 bores most boys consumedly and ought to bore them all4 ,we are not thinking here of the favoured few who get their fill of fishing and field sports4 ,such things have their limitations1 perhaps1 but they offer at least a time of activity1 resourcefulness1 and keen enjoyment4 ,most boys1 however1 live in quiet homes in towns1 far from the opportunity for such things1 and how these pass the time is a mystery even to themselves1 as many have confessed to us4 ,in plain words1 they kill the time1 and thereby acquire a most dangerous accomplishment4 ,some few1 it is true1 make themselves endlessly useful to their parents1 and nothing could be better4 ,but only a few homes provide scope for an odd-jobs man of this type4 ,for the bulk1 holidays are simply times of unemployment4 ,now1 when a schoolmaster ventures to offer advice about the holidays1 he might seem to be stepping presumptuously outside his own province2 but that plea for reticence is one we cannot admit4 ,term and holidays alike are an education1 and they interact upon one another so closely that the schoolmaster not only may1 but must1 form his judgment upon both4 ,it is not for us to compile a detailed ,parent's ,assistant4 ,heaven forbid6 ,every home has its own problems and its own opportunities1 but surely there is no home in which the parents have not a range of activities1 professional1 commercial1 political1 or literary4 ,so often1 as it seems1 from various motives1 good and bad1 the boy remains more or less excluded from these long after he has become capable of a certain partnership in his parents' interests4 ,the drawback of life at a public school is that it is highly artificial4 ,call it as you please a barrack or a monastery1 a boarding-school is something cut off from the main streams of ordinary life4 ,in the holidays the boy renews contact with ordinary life1 and that periodic renewal is an essential part of his education4 ,but surely his holidays should bring him into contact with some more of life than its superficial frivolities4 ,the kind of holidays we have in mind would make some call on the time and energy of the parents2 and perhaps it will be said that the time and energy simply cannot be spared4 ,well1 there was a time1 fifteen years or so before1 when these same parents gave ungrudgingly any amount of time and energy to the task of watching over the development of the little child now rapidly approaching manhood4 ,but the boy of seventeen1 though much more difficult to understand1 is every bit as fascinating as the child of two1 and the parents' time and energy devoted to the boy will be as certainly well spent4 ,and it will1 we believe1 bring a new happiness to many parents themselves4 ,as school-masters1 our widest experience of parents--not that we pretend it is very wide--is our experience of boys' talk about their homes4 ,boys speak of their parents with deep affection and respect1 as a rule2 but so very often they leave an impression that they do not really know them4 ,it is the commonest thing in the world for fathers and sons1 without any positive estrangement1 to get entirely out of touch with one another during the latter part of a boy's school-time4 ,the boy develops rapidly1 and the greater part of his development is quite concealed from the father4 ,he returns home to find his father just the same1 and apparently quite unable to divine the new developments which the son is too proud to reveal uninvited4 ,or maybe he does attempt to reveal them1 and1 bungling his task1 finds himself misunderstood1 and lays the blame on the father4 ,so often1 as it seems1 the father might have helped matters by playing a rather more active part1 and going half1 or even three-quarters1 of the way to meet his son's confidences4 ,but there is a natural shyness of fathers towards their sons at this stage1 and shyness on one side begets shyness and misunderstanding on the other4 ,more than once a boy has said to one of us1 ,what am ,i to do to get into touch with my father8 ,last holidays we found we'd nothing sensible to talk to each other about at all4 ,it is difficult to advise1 but the most obvious thing to say is1 presumably1 to remind the boy that his father is but a human being like himself2 that possibly the boy is himself rather unnecessarily enigmatic1 and that instead of expecting the father to make all the moves1 the son might himself hold out a hand and help the father to understand the changes that had taken place within him4 ,that is how the matter stands on the boy's side1 and it may help some fathers to know it4 ,one of our boys1 we remember1 wanted to discover something at first hand of the real interests of employees in his father's firm4 ,whatever he discovered1 it made an excellent holiday interest for him4 ,among other things1 he attended some ,w4,e4,a4 lectures1 because he found that the more intelligent men were interested by them4 ,this was a boy of rather unusual initiative2 but we believe there are many boys who would find a genuine interest in such matters1 if the fathers gave them the lead4 ,thus the wretched tradition that the holidays are for unemployment would be gradually broken down1 and games would take their proper place--in holidays and term alike4 ,perhaps1 too1 the father on looking back might find that there had been some education in it for himself also4 ,the principle from which we started was that the public schools were full of glorious possibilities1 to-day largely unrealised4 ,is not the same true of many homes8 ,,appendix ,it is quite evident that the boys have been encouraged to read periodicals such as ,the ,nation and ,the ,english ,review1 and their articles read like elaborate parodies4 ,there is no particular harm in allowing a clever boy to do monkey tricks of this type1 but there is a good deal of harm in printing it instead of gently deriding the self-sufficiency of these youthful oracles4--,church ,times4 ,the most obvious fact about these articles is that the boys are writing what they mean1 and what they want to say1 and that they are able to do so because they feel sure of the community that forms their audience4--,mr4 ,kenneth ,richmond in ,the ,new ,age4 ,of the three articles that follow1 the first was printed in the first issue of ,the ,school ,observer2 the second was written for the suppressed sixth issue2 the last was written on the day after the final collapse of the whole experiment1 and was1 of course1 never intended for the paper at all4 ,i ,,education ,,and ,,the ,,future ,if workmen strike1 if employers oppress1 if prostitution flourishes1 if paper demagogues are allowed to rule1 if poverty exists1 if men fight1 whatever evil it is1 the remedy lies at the root--education4 ,all reforms are mere palliatives until the fundamental reform of education is perfected4 ,there are no connecting links of argument4 ,it is a natural corollary1 justified by any particular example that may be traced4 ,it is another question whether education or lack of it is more calculated to hasten the ultimate ideal of well-ordered anarchy1 which1 consciously or unconsciously1 we all entertain2 but for the meanwhile the affirmative assumption must be adopted4 ,the sole remaining question1 then1 is1 ,by what means is education to rectify the immediate evils8 ,while it is fairly generally established that the purpose of education is efficient citizenship1 it is clear that1 owing to the diminished proportion of the individual to the community1 the purpose is being gradually lost sight of4 ,to borrow from scientific phraseology1 the tendency of the unit to remaining an idiot 7in the ,greek sense of the word67 varies directly as the magnitude of the mass4 ,and this is a truism that public schools do not help to abolish4 ,although school patriotism is invariably quoted as a denial of this1 there prevails in modern schools a definite inclination towards unsentimental cynicism in the matter4 ,this does not necessarily denote an unhealthy spirit1 but an increase of intellect that1 whether with justification or not1 vaguely asks for something wider or more substantial4 ,perhaps our grandfathers are right when they tell us that the modern youth becomes a man sooner than his predecessors4 ,perhaps our grandfathers are right when they tell us it is a pity4 ,however that may be1 the two facts remain1 that there is a rather benighted tendency in the direction of intellectual activity1 which the public school spirit makes no effort to assist1 and that the public schools are inclined to produce gentlemen rather than citizens4 ,of course the former make better advertisements4 ,yet they ought not to4 ,they would not in ,germany4 ,one day they will not here4 ,the instance shows that the ,chestertonian ,england of ,romance is really the one that exists4 ,the word gentleman is purely a romantic one1 and a gentleman a purely romantic though enviable figure4 ,a state in the future will not be able to thrive on gentlemen3 it will need citizens4 ,it has cost me dear to write down this1 for in my illogical mind 7and no one1 by the way1 save a politician1 could have a logical one67 ,i would choose without hesitation the gentleman4 ,but that is probably because1 if ,i could1 ,i would sell my quills for brushes4 ,the conclusion from all this1 then1 is that ,i was not holding ,germany up as a paragon just now1 but leading up to an obvious improvement--a gentleman-citizen4 ,whoever thinks he fulfils the conditions implicated in the rle may know that not only is he an uncommon and a great man1 but also the embodiment of a high1 practicable ideal2 in the attainment of which lies the solution of the whole educational question--how1 of the two component parts1 to maintain the moral position of the first and create one for the second4 ,except for the few1 favoured with a productive imagination1 the public school can as yet do nothing in this direction4 ,it would be useless1 for instance1 to crowd a dull1 technical science of politics on an already over-amended curriculum4 ,one day it may not be useless4 ,but until a new species of governess can be bred1 it is4 ,of the species in question1 ,i know of one example4 ,there may be more1 but not many1 though of course they are1 ,i am aware1 rapidly multiplying4 ,the only possible children's governess is the governess who attempts to teach nothing except how to learn4 ,the ideal education is undoubtedly an la carte one1 but as this is impossible both physically and because a public school master has not the time to find out how to teach any particular boy1 the difficulty is solved if the boy has found out how to learn from any particular master4 ,a man's life depends altogether on the first morsel of education he receives1 so that a governess's responsibility is colossal4 ,and1 of course1 a competent governess is a far holier thing than any parson's wife4 ,not only must she teach not so much what he will have to learn 7which would scarcely encourage him in view of its magnitude7 as how he will have to learn 7which could only make him eager to put the theory to the test of practice--all the more so when he finds it succeeds71 but also she must attempt to discover and develop1 even at this very early stage1 the seeds of mental independence and originality1 which alone can make him a competent citizen4 ,think how much easier legislation would be in a state composed of such as these6 ,it is the only condition that really justifies democracy4 ,there could be no question of denying a people of this quality a voice in their own government4 ,representation could no longer be a game for gamblers and contortionists4 ,as things are1 however1 the progress of the public schools 7and ,i have been dealing exclusively with public-school classes7 cannot make much headway until they have clay to mould instead of granite to chisel4 ,it is not their fault if there is no way to teach the majority1 and if the few are thrown back on their own inadequate resources4 ,the remedy lies in some measure to ensure the right primary education4 ,seventy-five per cent4 of the public school boys have not had brilliant1 discerning governesses--or even mothers4 ,there are not enough of either to go round4 ,so that the seventy-five per cent41 possibly more1 don't know how to learn1 and the mere twenty-five per cent4 do4 ,it is hard to tackle effectively so intangible a problem as the correct primary method of teaching1 and the statesman1 through whose instrumentality this percentage is reversed1 may give up politics for gold not had brilliant1 discerning governesses with a clear conscience4 ,the first step1 therefore1 is to reform the education of women4 ,take care of the women1 the men will take care of themselves4 ,nevertheless1 be the solution what it may1 the importance of the subject cannot be over-estimated4 ,one more illustration4 ,the better educated a man is1 the more capable he is of soaring above the spirit of national citizenship4444 ,and the next stage is the spirit of world citizenship 444 which1 in the course of many1 many years1 together1 possibly1 with the development of ,esperanto1 means the brotherhood of men4444 ,then perpetual peace4444 ,then advancement to a primitive condition4444 ,then the much-dreamed-of well-ordered anarchy4444 ,to continue till a second ,milton is called upon to write as misty history a second ,paradise ,lost4 444 ,b4,w4,l4 ,,ii ,and ,he saw that it was good4444 ,throughout the ,universe which ,he had created ,he set a ,great ,road1 and on it was ,man1 at first invisible1 but soon an infinite multitude4 ,and then unto ,man1 as to nothing else in ,his ,universe1 ,he gave the power to move1 and to walk on the ,road1 which ,he made to pass through all the ,great and ,beautiful ,worlds1 coming at last to where ,he is1 where all is happy because all is good1 and where nothing ends because there is the ,end4 ,and as ,he looked and beheld ,man scattered out upon the great ,road as it wound about through the ,universe1 ,he thought to try ,his people1 and show by a certain proof whether they were possessed of the goodness through which alone they could comprehend all things1 and become able to enter the realm of perfect goodness4 ,and so ,he sent the semblance of a great ,fire into the ,universe1 which should seem utterly to destroy all things which ,he had made1 and to cut off the hope and possibility of a future perception and life eternal4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as the fire rolls on1 devouring all that it meets1 humanity on the ,road sees its advance1 and realises that in the course of a few hours the ,universe will be reduced to a smouldering cinder1 that its hopes for a future life1 where the ,road ends1 is cut short and never to be realised1 and that apparently its former belief1 albeit a vague and ill-defined one1 in a ,god who is all-merciful and kind1 was altogether an illusion1 and merely a cause for false confidence and self-righteousness4 ,and how will it stand the test8 ,would the good or the bad element in human nature assert itself in the face of absolute annihilation8 ,it is obvious that with such a position several of the possible and no doubt ordinary motives for goodness1 such as the idea of doing good in order to reap benefits or escape punishment in a future existence1 and of doing good for the sake of having it recognised among others1 are excluded from the proposition4 ,even the idea of doing good because it is in accordance with a will of ,god is excluded1 since the idea of destruction coming from the direction of the ,end is unheard of to man1 and is in direct contradiction to his ideas of ,god4 ,we are brought1 therefore1 down to the very foundation2 and the question we have to answer becomes--,is one of the elements of human nature a feeling of necessity to pursue goodness for its own sake1 quite apart from any motives8 ,in the first place1 when a supreme danger such as that already described is rapidly approaching humanity1 if such a thing could be1 what would be the immediate result8 ,we know that with the ordinary dangers1 such as shipwreck and air-raid1 the tendency among people gathered together in large numbers is to panic1 to herd together and become temporarily deprived of normal reasoning powers4 ,would this be the result of the sight of approaching universal destruction8 ,surely not4 ,panic is the result1 ,i believe1 not of approaching danger simply1 but necessarily of a danger which threatens to affect some of a number of people more than others1 and which there is a possibility of avoiding4 ,it is entirely the element of uncertainty or suspense which causes panic among numbers of people4 ,now this is an important point in the argument4 ,it seems very easy to defeat it on the grounds that animals almost invariably herd together and panic in the face of danger1 and that such action cannot be due to the element of uncertainty and suspense1 since this necessitates the employment of calculative and reasoning faculties which animals presumably do not possess4 ,the justification is to be found in a closer examination of the part played by the uncertainty in producing the panic which is common to men and animals4 ,in the face of danger1 as in everything else1 man's first instinct is to reason and calculate1 and his calculation results in finding the danger either avoidable and uncertain1 which is almost always the case1 or unavoidable and inevitable4 ,if the danger is found avoidable1 fear is the immediate result4 ,fear as we know it has come into being with reason1 but at the same time1 as will be seen later1 it is only reason which can triumph over and destroy fear4 ,this fear then brings about the destruction of reason1 and the animal standard is reached1 from which time the man behaves in the same way as the animals1 to whom the danger is merely something out of the ordinary4 ,he then comes under the domination of the instinct to panic4 ,it will thus be seen that all the mental processes which came before the reversion to the animal standard in men1 are unknown to animals1 and are the outcome of the purely human faculty of reason4 ,however1 if reason can by any means retain its foothold and its entirety1 there will neither be fear nor the consequent breakdown of reason and the domination of panic4 ,now this is the position in the other case1 the case in which reason finds the danger unavoidable4 ,in the case of a danger which is unavoidable there will be no panic4 ,it is this fact which accounts for the bravery of numbers of people going to their death on board a sinking ship2 but such a position has never--or very seldom1 indeed--avoided a relapse1 to a certain extent1 to panic1 inasmuch as there is a possibility of avoiding the danger1 and a possibility that some may survive1 while others are doomed to perish4 ,in the face of universal destruction1 therefore1 there will be no fear and no panic4 ,the fact that he is facing annihilation together with the rest of humanity would have an extraordinary influence on each individual1 which1 of course1 would be just the same if he alone was aware of the danger4 ,i remember very well an evening at school when ,i was told and convinced by several boys older than myself that 7,i even remember the date7 on ,june #ahth the earth was going to be destroyed4 ,it had been proved1 ,i was told1 beyond the shadow of a doubt that on that particular date some natural phenomenon would take place which would inevitably entail the destruction of everything living on the earth4 ,this forms an interesting parallel to the present case2 for at the time ,i was only about eight years old1 and ,i had very scanty ideas about ,god and future life4 ,to me the earth was the ,universe4 ,and1 furthermore1 for about an hour most of us thoroughly believed that the destruction of the earth1 or the ,end of the ,world as we called it1 was at hand4 ,of course1 it might be said that there is no real parallel1 since we were only children2 but ,i believe that argument to be absolutely fallacious4 ,in the matter of fundamental tendencies and characteristics of human nature one cannot assume such divisions4 ,since the present state of good and evil in human nature has taken thousands of years to become evolved1 it seems unlikely that there can be caused in the individual at present any fundamental change4 ,i therefore contend that as soon as personality and independence of character becomes evident in the individual1 both the good and the evil in his nature will be present in the same way and in the same relation1 although not necessarily in the same proportions or degrees1 as they will be throughout the greater part of his life4 ,this personality becomes evident without any doubt at a very early age1 certainly by the age of eight2 and in so far as the development of good and evil is dependent upon the development of character1 it seems likely that these elements will be more clearly marked in the child of eight than in the second infancy of the man of eighty4 ,to return to the personal incident4 ,i recall very vividly now the half-hour which followed my conviction of ,universal destruction1 and1 of course1 ,i realise my actual feelings and their probable causes more clearly now than ,i did at the time4 ,the real force of my conviction only lasted for about an hour1 but in that time1 and aided no doubt by a rather strained imagination1 ,i was1 ,i feel convinced1 in the same position as any one of the individuals on that great ,road as they see the ,fire approaching and devouring the entire ,universe4 ,as the affair was being explained to me ,i remember ,i was terrified1 but very soon1 and as soon as ,i realised the situation1 which it must be remembered the people on the ,road would do almost instantaneously1 this feeling entirely left me4 ,and the next feeling1 a very forcible one1 was rather extraordinary1 being as it was an overpowering feeling of solitude4 ,it was evening1 and twenty or thirty of us were all in a large classroom together1 and for many minutes ,i felt more lonely than ,i ever had before2 ,i felt cut off from all those around me1 and ,i see that1 as ,peer ,gynt would have said1 ,i had become myself4 ,as has already been said1 ,i was not frightened1 and what ,i did in those minutes was to work4 ,it was prep-time1 and it is an interesting fact1 as bearing out what has already been said both about the establishment of individuality with consequent opportunities of concentration1 and also about the maintenance of reason1 that ,i was able to do in those minutes1 and do better than usual1 the work that generally demanded more than the allotted hour4 ,very soon1 however1 the feeling of solitude passed away and its place was taken by a feeling of exactly the opposite nature1 a feeling of ,unity1 of extraordinary fellowship1 followed by a wonderful sensation of happiness4 ,all this sounds rather grotesque1 and the continued use of these rather meaningless epithets is very ineffectual in expressing what they are meant to convey4 ,but it must be remembered that the position is altogether an extraordinary one2 and the feelings and sensations resulting from such a position were extraordinary at the time and still are extraordinary4 ,the position seems quite unique2 it is difficult to imagine where and how else that same mental condition could be produced3 older people would not have credited the story even for the short time that we did1 and younger children would not have had the independence of thought and imagination to picture and contemplate the situation4 ,at the time it was my good fortune to experience things which ,i have never experienced before or since1 and which ,i believe few ever have experienced4 ,however1 you ask for a return to the question of whether goodness is an immanent reality in human nature2 you ask perhaps1 in view of the incident described1 ,if it had been in your power to do something at that time which was supremely pleasurable but at the same time contrary to your moral ideas1 would you have done it8 ,the answer1 which is mainly contained in or drawn from what has gone before is--,no2 and the direct reason is1 because1 in the conditions produced by the position described1 nothing but what is good remains in the human nature4 ,the bed-rock has been reached1 and it is good2 the causes of evil and of its continuance are removed4 ,ever since man has led a corporate life it seems probable that one outstanding evil has prevailed1 in greater or less degrees according to the rate and amount of progress made by any community4 ,and this evil is the lack and suppression of individuality4 ,it seems impossible to account for it1 except by simply saying that it is1 and has always been a characteristic tendency of human nature2 however1 this is the most encouraging answer possible1 because it assumes that this evil can eventually be eradicated4 ,no one can surely deny that there is a lack of individuality at present2 its chief manifestations1 of course1 are to be found in hatred1 and in the spirit of competition and rivalry2 it produces a clash between individual opinions and actions which is so apparent that it cannot be denied1 and need not be enlarged upon4 ,but1 apart from these more obvious manifestations1 this failing has been responsible for the production and continuance of all that is evil in man4 ,human nature is the foundation of our life1 of that foundation every individual is entitled to partake2 and1 furthermore1 that foundation is good4 ,every individual possesses a portion of this foundation as his right2 and what is the result1 under these circumstances1 of lack of individuality8 ,surely the result is that some parts of those individual sections1 parts which are in some cases similar to and in other cases different from parts of other individual sections1 are used as the foundation1 while the remainder is left unused4 ,for1 for the most part1 men either employ those parts of their portion of the foundation of goodness which are common to as many other individual sections as possible1 or1 like ,alceste1 the parts which are definitely opposed to most others4 ,in any case where the foundation is undeveloped and unused there grows1 like a poisonous growth1 sin1 which is made of and feeds upon the material of the good foundation1 which has been put to the wrong use4 ,sin and evil are not separate1 in the strict sense1 from good4 ,it seems inconceivable that good and evil should have had different origins1 and should have existed as rival elements in human nature without the one having by this time triumphed over the other4 ,in matters which affect every member of a body similarly1 the combined influence of all those members should be brought to bear2 but where every individual can be himself and interpret and use his portion of the foundation of goodness in the complete way for which he was made and intended1 without affecting others1 he should be allowed to influence them or be influenced by them1 without interference on the part of any other individual4 ,since this has not been the case1 we have had the continuance of sin1 and until it is the case1 there always will be sin4 ,now1 in the position described1 complete individuality is established and evil ceases to exist and becomes a thing of the past4 ,with the near prospect of universal destruction1 there is immediately a cessation of progress2 and then1 as in the incident described1 there comes complete individuality--every individual becomes himself4 ,with a common destruction inevitable and with the establishment of individuality1 co-operation in its true sense prevails1 and with it the surpassing and disappearance of evil2 and then that wonderful happiness 444 of all this ,i am convinced4 ,i remember well the effect for an hour or so among a few of us that evening4 ,the contrast between the atmosphere in the little room in which the most impressed of us gathered during that time1 which was free1 ,i know1 from everything but good1 and that of a day or two later when we made fun of the whole affair1 is so marked that my opinion on the matter is very definite4 ,goodness alone there was at the beginning1 and goodness alone there will be at the end4 ,no man is the cause of his own downfall1 but he alone as an individual can be the maintainer of his foothold4 ,individuality in all that concerns the individual1 alone can make and keep life clean and sweet4 ,if this individuality could1 by such means as education1 be established1 there would be constituted a uniting force through humanity which could lead it1 in the course of time1 in the way it should go4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and as ,he raised the semblance of the ,fire from the ,universe1 ,he looked upon ,man and saw that he was good4 ,j4 ,a4 ,a4 ,j4 ,,iii ,,the ,,dream ,how much of our life seems and is a dream6 ,how often we feel ourselves carried off our feet and borne along on a tide of circumstances1 tossed backwards and forwards on a sea of conflicting events1 now hurried along by a current of opinion1 now blinded with the spray of false accusation1 then motionless for a moment1 trying to collect our shattered thoughts before the next onslaught3 but all the time out of touch1 consciously1 with what is going on1 utterly powerless1 trying to gather up the threads and recover consciousness4 ,any action that we take1 any word that we utter1 is done without thought1 without knowledge1 and without any result4 ,and yet neither the cause nor the effect are1 strictly speaking1 physical4 ,the position is a mental attitude1 in this case mental helplessness1 and this is dependent solely upon the relation of the mind to exterior circumstances4 ,when we are fully conscious1 we are ourselves each the centre of a little world1 which includes all that concerns us1 and the appearance of this depends entirely upon its particular meaning for us4 ,we do not1 cannot1 under these circumstances1 see anything exactly as it is3 its appearance is influenced by its importance for us or by the degree of approval1 or disapproval which we ourselves attach to it4 ,when our life becomes a dream1 our sphere is broken into and usurped by the changing of values1 shapes1 and appearance of things within it4 ,the old familiar forms are transfigured and tampered with1 our mistaken or incomplete idea of persons is revealed1 and a host of new and inexplicable forms appear2 with the result that we are literally bewildered1 and instead of regarding things with reference to their influence upon us1 we see things as they are in themselves--when we can see at all--and feel what they actually do to us4 ,there can be no one who is not aware of this experience1 in a greater or a less degree4 ,i speak of it as dreaming because that is the analogy which best represents the circumstances1 all of which have been explained except one4 ,in the same way as we are not conscious that what we have been dreaming is a dream until we awake1 so in these periods of our actual life in which we are deprived of will and are borne along by exterior circumstances and forces1 we are not aware of our helplessness1 of our utter weakness1 of the significance of what we have seen and heard1 until we have regained consciousness and woken again to our freedom4 ,in this sense ,i have recently had a dream1 and only since have ,i realised that what ,i dreamt was fact2 and then ,i was able to place it all within my sphere--its ideas1 its causes1 and its effects have become or are becoming the familiar forms and shapes1 in the midst of which ,i am1 like a spider at the centre of its web1 placed with my hands on every thread4 ,and this is that dream4 ,full of life and happiness ,i set out with another1 one who was a friend and had lived with me for a time1 sharing the same hopes1 methods1 and ideals4 ,laughing as we went1 with the smiling world around us and the glad faces of those we knew1 we made our way to the house of one who1 older than ourselves1 had inspired and befriended in us those hopes and ideals4 ,and there we learnt from him that the authorities of the community1 the institution to which we belonged1 had taken offence at our methods and by suppressing them had destroyed our aims and all that was most dear to us4 ,as we sat there in silence1 my mind cast back over the time--it was little more than a year--since our outlook had been entirely changed4 ,i saw the school a throbbing piece of mechanism with its bells1 its clocks1 and its governors1 set down in a place of great beauty4 ,blind to anything of beauty1 it worked with a rhythm and a precision which became a twentieth-century development 7although it had been set up in #aeeg1 and was still running on very nearly its original lines--which was the reason1 so they say1 of why it worked so well74 ,i saw it at work and was myself made part of its raw material4 ,into its hungry mouth there went childhood at its best1 full of energy1 with every kind of ability1 talent and promise1 enterprise and ambition2 through its teeth1 its moulds1 and its classrooms they passed1 until they issued from the end a single and singular type of humanity1 moulded1 stamped1 docketed and numbered--to take their place1 or rather1 and this is the saddest note of all1 their very numerous and different places in the world4 ,while this was passing through my mind we got up and went out for a walk4 ,and then there came the ,war1 and the men and institutions of ,europe were put to a supreme test4 ,and the immediate result was that men began to think1 began to look about them1 and realising the palpable evil of war1 began to wonder whether they had not been mistaken in their values and systems4 ,men soon came to realise that they did not fulfil their entire duty if they followed as nearly as possible in the footsteps of their great-grandfathers1 but that as the world moved it behoved them to move2 that each man is made with the possibility of every attitude and achievement as seeds within him2 that circumstances alone had caused him to live on some of these and not on others2 that intolerance was therefore a crime of the most unpardonable character2 that it was wrong and unprofitable to let one's self be borne along on the surface of the world's tide--and that it was every man's duty to use the world as he finds it for the development and fulfilment of all that is best within him1 and not to depend upon one thing and reject another1 favour one opinion1 and oppose or even disregard another4 ,and those in the school who first realised this1 determined not to submit to the guiding and moulding of this mechanical institution1 but to look at the world around and outside them--its beauty1 its methods1 its effects1 its possibility1 its wonder and its joy1 and to develop for themselves1 under the guidance and suggestion of those whom they trusted1 their own powers1 with their own principles to guide them and their own aims to reach4 ,and in the carrying out of this plan and in the suggesting of it to others and in witnessing the results in others and in the institution to which they belonged1 they1 and later ,i and all those who followed them1 found great happiness--a happiness which ,i felt could come from nowhere else1 and certainly a happiness such as ,i had never before experienced4 ,a greater facility in all intellectual activity1 and in avoiding and fighting everything which one felt to be wrong1 a greater confidence1 and determination through self-dependence in all things1 are some of the natural immediate fruits of a self-conceived basis of thought and action which refused to accept blindly everything that was handed down or dealt out4 ,the permanent results in the shape of statistics and concrete evidence are proof and witness to the rightness of the undertaking4 ,but now it is all of the past--the reasons are irrelevant2 suffice it that they are iniquitous1 and more than iniquitous1 since they have murdered what is right4 ,and now we had come1 after passing through a great field of green corn rustling in the light wind1 to a fence1 on which we sat4 ,my retrospective thoughts had now caught up to the present--but ,i was still dreaming4 ,all that ,i thought was unconscious1 out of my control and wonderful4 ,our attempt had been very beautiful1 had been a work of art1 and in many ways had come to a beautiful and artistic end4 ,like a great and wonderful bubble1 wrought in many and enchanting colours1 it rose up complete at that moment from its birthplace and deathbed--and ,i was happy again4 ,then from the place down below us--that place in which we had striven and apparently failed--,i seemed to hear the voice of those who opposed and hated us in our ways--those who were making the school into a machine again--and were rejoicing in it1 as they pumped in the oil3 ,the ,germans are verrmin--it is your work in life to krrussch them6 ,and at that very moment there came by three ,german prisoners--passed us1 jumped over the fence and were gone2 but the likeness6 it was more than striking2 never1 never shall ,i forget it--and ,i was convinced4 ,the school1 its very self1 its soul1 had struggled to its feet1 and as a little child was taking its first conscious steps--the most beautiful1 perhaps1 that it was ever destined to take--when they1 those mechanicians1 with their mailed fists smote it in the face1 crushed it heartlessly to the ground1 with ,louvain and ,belgium not only before their eyes but on their very lips4 ,oh1 this world is a rotten place1 he said1 at my side4 ,i wonder1 ,i murmured in reply1 and ,i still do4444 ,j4 ,a4 ,a4 ,j4