file which includes the original        
illustrations4       ,see #fddaj-;h4htm 
or #fddaj-;h4zip3                       
7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/cache_/epu
b_/#fddaj_/pg#fddaj-;images4html7       
or                                      
7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/files_/#fd
daj_/fddaj-;h4zip7         ,images of   
the original pages are available through
       ,hathi,trust ,digital ,library4  
,see                                    
https3_/_/hdl4handle4net_/#bjbg_/;dul#a4
;ark3_/#acifj_/t#hz#id;cz#et      ,,the 
,,story ,,of ,a ,,great ,,schoolmaster  
99      99      99      99      99      
99   ,mr4 ,wells has also written the   
following novels3       ,,the ,,wheels  
,,of ,,chance      ,,love ,,and ,,mr4   
,,lewisham      ,,kipps      ,,tono     
,,bungay      ,,ann ,,veronica          
,,mr4 ,,polly      ,,the ,,new          
,,machiavelli      ,,marriage      ,,the
 ,,passionate ,,friends      ,,the      
,,wife ,,of ,,sir ,,isaac ,,harman      
,,bealby      ,,the ,,research          

,,magnificent      ,,mr4 ,,britling     
,,sees ,,it ,,through      ,,the ,,soul 
,,of ,a ,,bishop      ,,joan ,,and      
,,peter      ,,the ,,undying ,,fire     
,,the ,,secret ,,places ,,of ,,the      
,,heart    ,the following fantastic and 
imaginative romances3       ,,the ,,time
 ,,machine      ,,the ,,wonderful       
,,visit      ,,the ,,island ,,of ,,dr4  
,,moreau      ,,the ,,invisible ,,man   
,,the ,,war ,,of ,,the ,,worlds         
,,the ,,sleeper ,,awakes      ,,the     
,,first ,,men ,,in ,,the ,,moon         
,,the ,,sea ,,lady      ,,the ,,food    
,,of ,,the ,,gods      ,,in ,,the ,,days
 ,,of ,,the ,,comet      ,,the ,,war    
,,in ,,the ,,air      ,,the ,,world     
,,set ,,free      ,,men ,,like ,,gods   
,and numerous ,short ,stories published 
in several different collections    ,a  
,series of books upon ,social1          
,religious and ,political questions3    
,,anticipations 7#aijj7      ,,mankind  
,,in ,,the ,,making      ,,first ,,and  
,,last ,,things      ,,new ,,worlds     

,,for ,,old      ,a ,,modern ,,utopia   
,,the ,,future ,,in ,,america      ,,an 
,,englishman ,,looks ,,at ,,the ,,world 
,,what ,,is ,,coming8      ,,war ,,and  
,,the ,,future      ,,in ,,the ,,fourth 
,,year      ,,god ,,the ,,invisible     
,,king      ,,russia ,,in ,,the         
,,shadows      ,,the ,,salvaging ,,of   
,,civilization      ,,washington ,,and  
,,the ,,riddle ,,of ,,peace      ,,the  
,,outline ,,of ,,history      ,a ,,short
 ,,history ,,of ,,the ,,world    ,and   
two little books about children's play1 
called3       ,,floor ,,games and       
,,little ,,wars        99      99       
99      99      99      99              
,illustration3 ,f4 ,w4 ,sanderson       
,,the ,,story ,,of ,a ,,great           
,,schoolmaster  by  ,h4 ,g4 ,,wells     
,new ,york ,the ,macmillan ,company     
#aibd  ,all rights reserved  ,copyright1
 #aibd1 by ,h4 ,g4 ,wells4  ,set up and 
electrotyped4 ,published ,january1      
#aibd4  ,printed in the ,united ,states 
of ,america by ,the ,ferris ,printing   

,company1 ,new ,york     ,,contents     
,,chapter ,i                            
,,page ,,sanderson ,,the ,,man          
#a   ,,chapter ,,ii  ,,the              
,,modernisation ,,of ,,oundle ,,school  
#be   ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,the            
,,replacement ,,of ,,competition ,,by   
,,group   ,,work                        
#de   ,,chapter ,,iv  ,,the             
,,re-,,establishment ,,of ,,relations   
,,between   ,,school ,,and ,,reality    
#fa   ,,chapter ,v  ,,the ,,growth ,,of 
,,sanderson ,,shown ,,in ,,his          
,,sermons ,,and ,,scripture ,,lessons   
#gb   ,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the ,,war ,,and 
,,sanderson',s ,,propaganda ,,of        
,,reconstruction                        
#ig   ,,chapter ,,vii  ,,the ,,house    
,,of ,,vision ,,and ,,the ,,school      
,,chapel    #aca   ,,chapter ,,viii     
,,the ,,last ,,lecture                  
#adg     ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations    
,f4 ,w4 ,,sanderson                     
,frontispiece                           
,,facing ,,page  ,,interior ,,in        

,,science ,,block            #cd  ,,the 
,,head ,,among ,,the ,,parents          
#hd     ,,the ,,story ,,of ,a ,,great   
,,schoolmaster     ,,chapter ,i         
,,sanderson ,,the ,,man    #a  ,of all  
the men ,i have met--and ,i have now had
 a fairly long and active life and have 
met a very great variety of interesting 
people--one only has stirred me to a    
biographical effort4 ,this one exception
 is ,f4 ,w4 ,sanderson1 for many years  
the headmaster of ,oundle ,school4 ,i   
think him beyond question the greatest  
man ,i have ever known with any degree  
of intimacy1 and it is in the hope of   
conveying to others something of my     
sense not merely of his importance1 but 
of his peculiar genius and the rich     
humanity of his character1 that ,i am   
setting out to write this book4 ,he was 
in himself a very delightful mixture of 
subtlety and simplicity1 generosity1    
adventurousness1 imagination and        
steadfast purpose1 and he approached the
 general life of our time at such an    

angle as to reflect the most curious and
 profitable lights upon it4 ,to tell his
 story is to reflect upon all the main  
educational ideas of the last           
half-century1 and to revise our         
conception of the process and purpose of
 the modern community in relation to    
education4 ,for ,sanderson had a mind   
like an octopus1 it seemed always to    
have a tentacle free to reach out beyond
 what was already held1 and his         
tentacles grew and radiated farther and 
farther4 ,before his end he had come to 
a vision of the school as a centre for  
the complete reorganisation of civilised
 life4  ,i knew him personally only     
during the last eight years of his life2
 ,i met him for the first time in #aiad1
 when ,i was proposing to send my sons  
to his school4 ,but our thoughts and    
interests drew us very close to one     
another1 ,i never missed an opportunity 
of meeting and talking to him1 and ,i   
was the last person he spoke to before  
his sudden death4 ,he was sixty-six     

years of age when he died4 ,those last  
eight years were certainly the richest  
and most productive of his whole career2
 he grew most in those years2 he        
travelled farthest4 ,i think ,i saw all 
the best of him4 ,it is1 ,i think1 no   
disadvantage to have known him only in  
his boldest and most characteristic     
phase4 ,it saves me from confusion      
between his maturer and his earlier     
phases4 ,he was a much stratified man4  
,he had grown steadfastly all his life1 
he had shaken off many habitual         
inhibitions and freed himself from once 
necessary restraints and limitations4   
,he would go discreetly while his       
convictions accumulated and then break  
forward very rapidly4 ,he had a way of  
leaving people behind1 and if ,i had    
fallen under his spell earlier1 ,i1 too1
 might have been left far behind4 ,he   
was1 ,i recall1 a rock-climber2 he was a
 mental rock-climber also1 and though he
 was very wary of recalcitrance1 there  
were times when his pace became so      

urgent that even his staff and his own  
family were left tugging1 breathless and
 perplexed1 at the rope4  ,out of a     
small country grammar-school he created 
something more suggestive of those great
 modern teaching centres of which our   
world stands in need than anything else 
that has yet been attempted4 ,by all    
ordinary standards the ,oundle ,school  
of his later years was a brilliant      
success2 it prospered amazingly1 there  
was an almost hopeless waiting-list of  
applicants2 boys had to be entered five 
years ahead2 but successful as it was1  
it was no more than a sketch and        
demonstration of the great schools that 
are yet to be4 ,i saw my own sons get an
 education there better than ,i had ever
 dared hope for them in ,england1 but   
from the first my interest in the       
intention and promise of ,oundle went   
far beyond its working actualities4 ,and
 all the educational possibilities that 
,i had hitherto felt to be unattainable 
dreams1 matters of speculation1 things a

 little too extravagant even to talk    
about in our dull age1 ,i found being   
pushed far towards realisation by this  
bold1 persistent1 humorous and most     
capable man4  ,let me first try to give 
you a picture of his personality as he  
lives in my memory4 ,then ,i will try to
 give an account of his beginnings1 as  
far as ,i have been able to learn about 
them1 and so we will come to our main   
theme1 ,sanderson contra ,mundum1 the   
schoolmaster who set out to conquer the 
world4 ,for1 as ,i shall show1 that and 
no less was what he was trying to do in 
the last years of his life4  ',ruddy'   
and 'jolly' are the adjectives that come
 first to mind when ,i think of         
describing him4 ,he had been a slender1 
energetic young man his early           
photographs witness2 but long before ,i 
met him he had become plump and         
energetic1 with a twinkling appreciation
 for most of the good things of life4   
,his complexion had a reddish fairness2 
he had well-modelled features1 thick    

eyebrows and thick moustache touched    
with grey1 and he wore spectacles       
through and over and beside which his   
active eyes took stock of you4 ,about   
his eyes were kindly wrinkles1 and      
generally ,i remember him as            
smiling--often with a touch of roguery  
in the smile4 ,quick movements of his   
head caused animating flashes of his    
glasses4 ,he was carrying a little too  
much body for his heart1 and that made  
him short of breath4 ,his voice was in  
his chest1 there was a touch of his     
native ,northumbria in his accent1 and  
he had a habit of speaking in incomplete
 sentences with a frequent use of the   
interrogative form4 ,his manner was     
confidential2 he would bend towards his 
hearer and drop his voice a little4     
',now what do you think of ----8' he    
would say1 or ',i've been thinking of   
----' so and so4 ,at times his          
confidential manner became endearingly  
suggestive of a friendly conspirator4   
,this1 as yet1 he seemed to say1 was not

 for too careless a publication4 ,you   
and he understood1 but those other      
fellows--they were difficult fellows4   
,it might not be practicable to attempt 
everything at once4  ,that reservation1 
that humorous discretion1 is very       
essential in my memory of him4 ,it is   
essential to the whole educational      
situation of the world4 ,he was an      
exceptionally bold and creative man1 and
 he was a schoolmaster1 and that is     
perhaps as near as one can come to a    
complete incompatibility of quality and 
conditions4 ,in no part of our social   
life is dull traditionalism so          
powerfully entrenched as it is in our   
educational organisation4 ,we have still
 to realise the evil of mental heaviness
 in scholastic concerns4 ,we take1 very 
properly1 the utmost precautions to     
exclude men and women of immoral        
character not only from actual teaching 
but also from any exercise of           
educational authority4 ,but no one ever 
makes the least objection to the far    

more deadly influences of stupidity and 
unteachable ignorance4 ,our conceptions 
of morality are still grossly physical4 
,the heavier and slower a man's mind    
seems to be1 the more addicted he is to 
intellectual narcotics1 the more people 
trust him as a schoolmaster4 ,he will   
'stay put4'  ,a timid obstructiveness is
 the atmosphere in which almost all     
educational effort has to work1 and     
schoolmasters are denied a liberty of   
thought and speech conceded to every    
other class of respectable men4 ,they   
must still be mealy-mouthed about       
,darwin1 fatuously conventional in      
politics1 and emptily orthodox in       
religion4 ,if they stimulate their boys 
they must stimulate as a brass trumpet  
does1 without words or ideas4 ,they may 
be great leaders of men--provided they  
lead backwards or nowhither4 ,sanderson 
in his latter days broke into unexampled
 freedom1 but for the greater part of   
his life he was--like most of his       
profession--'wading hips-deep in fools1'

 and equally resolved to work out his   
personal impulse and retain the great   
opportunities that the governing body of
 ,oundle ,school had1 almost            
unwittingly1 put into his hands4 ,he was
 therefore not only a great             
revolutionary but something of a ,vicar 
of ,bray4 ,a large part of the amusing  
subtlety of his personality was the     
result of the balanced course he had to 
pursue4 ,in all he did1 in all he said1 
he was feeling his way4 ,no other       
schoolmaster--and there must be many a  
rebellious heart lying still in the     
graves of dead schoolmasters and many a 
stifled rebel in the schoolrooms of     
to-day--no other schoolmaster has ever  
felt his way so discreetly1 so far and1 
at last1 so triumphantly4  ,i remember  
as a very characteristic thing that he  
said one day when ,i asked for his      
opinion of a particularly progressive   
and hopeful addition to his board of    
governors3 ',he does not know much about
 schools yet1 but he will learn4 ,oundle

 will teach him4' ,and in his last great
 lecture1 he flung out a general        
'aside'--that lecture was full of       
astonishing 'asides'--',i turned round  
on the boys and the parents1' he said1  
'both are my business4'  ,never was     
schoolmaster so emancipated as he in his
 latter years from the ancient servility
 of the pedagogue4 ,not for him the     
handing on of mellow traditions and     
genteel gestures of the mind1 not for   
him the obedient administration of      
useful information to employers' sons by
 the docile employee4 ,he saw the modern
 teacher in university and school       
plainly for what he has to be1 the      
anticipator1 the planner1 and the       
foundation-maker of the new and greater 
order of human life that arises now     
visibly amidst the decaying structures  
of the old4    #b  ,sanderson was born  
and brought up outside the ,british     
public-school system that he was to     
affect so profoundly4 ,his early        
education was obtained in a parish      

school4 ,his father was employed in the 
estate office of ,lord ,boyne at        
,brancepeth in ,durham4 ,there were     
several brothers but they all died      
before manhood1 and the scanty          
indications one can glean of those early
 years suggest a slender1 studious1 and 
probably rather delicate youngster4 ,he 
was never very proficient in any        
out-of-door games4 ,in the early days at
 ,oundle he careered about on a bicycle2
 in later years he played tennis2 his   
vacation exercise was rock-scrambling4  
,he became a 'student-teacher1' so the  
official ,life phrases it1 at a school  
at ,tudhoe1 but whether there was any   
difference between being a              
student-teacher at a school at ,tudhoe  
and being an ordinary pupil-teacher in  
an ordinary elementary school under the 
,english ,education ,department ,i have 
been unable to ascertain4 ,he was       
already notable in his village world as 
exceptionally intelligent1 industrious1 
and ambitious1 and with a little        

encouragement from the local vicar and  
one or two friends he effected an escape
 from the strangling limitations of     
elementary teaching4  ,he may have aimed
 at the church at that time4 ,at any    
rate he gained a scholarship and entered
 ,durham ,university as a theological   
student4 ,he did well in ,durham        
,university both in theology and        
mathematics2 he was made a ,fellow and  
he was able to go on as a scholar from  
,durham to the wider and more strenuous 
academic life of ,cambridge4 ,at        
,cambridge theology drops out of the    
foreground of the picture4 ,he took a   
fairly good degree in mathematics1 and  
he worked for the ,natural ,science     
,tripos4 ,he did not fight his way up   
into that select class which secures    
,cambridge fellowships1 but he had made 
a reputation as an able1 hard1 and      
honest worker2 he was much sought after 
as a coach1 and he was given a          
lectureship in the woman's college of   
,girton4 ,from this he went as senior   

physics master to the big school for    
boys at ,dulwich4  ,a photograph of him 
in the early ,dulwich period shows him  
slender and keen-looking1 already       
bespectacled and with a thick moustache2
 except for the glasses not unlike      
another ruddy north-countryman ,i once  
knew1 the novelist ,george ,gissing4    
,both were what one might call          
,scandinavian in type4 ,but ,gissing was
 as despondent as ,sanderson was        
buoyant4 ,in those days1 an old ,dulwich
 associate tells me1 ,sanderson was in a
 state of great mental fermentation4 ,he
 loved long walks in his spare time1 and
 along the pebbly paths and roads and up
 and down the little hills of that      
corner of ,kent1 the two of them talked 
out a hundred aspects and issues of the 
perplexing changing world in which they 
found themselves4  ,it was the world of 
the eighteen-eighties they were looking 
at1 before the first ,jubilee of ,queen 
,victoria1 and it may be worth while to 
devote a paragraph or so to a           

reconstruction of the moral and         
intellectual landscape this lean and    
eager young man was confronting4  ,upon 
the surface and in its general structure
 that ,british world of the eighties had
 a delusive air of final establishment4 
,queen ,victoria had been reigning for  
close upon half a century and seemed    
likely to reign for ever4 ,the economic 
system of unrestricted private          
enterprise with privately owned capital 
had yielded a great harvest of material 
prosperity1 and few people suspected how
 rapidly it was exhausting the soil of  
willing service in which it grew4       
,production increased every year2       
population increased every year2 there  
was a steady progress of invention and  
discovery1 comfort1 and convenience4    
,wars went on1 a marginal stimulation of
 the empire1 but since the collapse of  
,napoleon ,i4 no war had happened to    
frighten ,england for its existence as a
 country2 no threat of warfare that     
could touch ,english life or ,english   

soil troubled men's imagination4 ,ruskin
 and ,carlyle had criticised ,english   
ideals and the righteousness of ,english
 commerce and industrialism1 but they   
were regarded generally as eccentric and
 unaccountable men2 there was already a 
conflict of science and theology1 but it
 affected the national life very little 
outside the world of the intellectuals2 
a certain amount of trade competition   
from the ,united ,states and from other 
,european countries was developing1 but 
at most it ruffled the surface of the   
national self-confidence4 ,there was a  
socialist movement1 but it was still    
only a passionless criticism of trade   
and manufacturers1 a criticism poised   
between aesthetic fastidiousness and    
benevolence4 ,people played with that   
,victorian socialism as they would have 
played with a very young tiger-cub4 ,the
 labour movement was a gentle insistence
 upon rather higher wages and rather    
shorter hours2 it had still to discover 
,socialism4 ,in a world of certainties  

the rate of interest fell by minute but 
perceptible degrees1 and as a           
consequence money for investment went   
abroad until all the world was under    
tribute to ,britain4 ,history seemed to 
be over1 entirely superseded by the     
daily paper2 tragedy and catastrophe    
were largely eliminated from human life4
 ,one read of famines in ,india and     
civil chaos in ,china1 but one felt that
 these were diminishing distresses2 the 
missionaries were at work there and     
railways spreading4  ,it was indeed a   
mild and massive ,sphynx of ,british    
life that confronted our young man at   
,dulwich and his friend1 an amoeboid    
,sphynx which enveloped and assimilated 
rather than tore and devoured4 ,it had  
not been stricken for a generation1 and 
so it felt assured of the ages4 ,but    
beneath its tranquil-looking surfaces   
many ferments were actively at work1 and
 its serene and empty visage masked     
extensive processes of decay4 ,the      
fifty-year-old faith on which the social

 and political fabric rested--for all   
social and political fabrics must in the
 last resort rest upon faith--was being 
corroded and dissolved and removed4     
,britain in the mid-,victorian time     
stood strong and sturdy in the world    
because a great number of its people1   
its officials1 employers1 professional  
men and workers honestly believed in the
 rightness of its claims and            
professions1 believed in its state      
theology1 in the justice of its economic
 relationships1 in the romantic dignity 
of its monarchy1 and in the real        
beneficence and righteousness of its    
relations to foreigners and the         
subject-races of the ,empire4 ,they did 
what they understood to be their duty in
 the light of that belief1 simply1      
directly1 and with self-respect and     
mutual confidence4 ,if some of its      
institutions fell short of perfection1  
few people doubted that they led towards
 it4 ,but from the middle of the century
 onward this assurance of the prosperous

 ,british in their world was being      
subjected to a more and more destructive
 criticism1 spreading slowly from       
intellectual circles into the general   
consciousness4  ,it is interesting to   
note one or two dates in relation to    
,sanderson's life4 ,he was born in the  
year #aheg4 ,this was two years before  
the publication of ,darwin's ,origin of 
,species4 ,he was growing up through    
boyhood as the application of the       
,darwinian criticism of life to current 
theology was made1 and as the great     
controversy between ,science and        
orthodox beliefs came to a head4        
,huxley's challenging book1 ,man's      
,place in ,nature1 was published in     
#ahfc2 ,darwin became completely        
explicit about human origins only in    
#ahga with ,the ,descent of ,man4       
,sanderson1 then a bright and forward   
boy of fourteen1 was probably already   
beginning to take notice of these       
disputes about the fundamentals1 as they
 were then considered1 of sound         

,christianity4  ,he was already at      
college when ,huxley was pounding       
,gladstone and the ,duke of ,argyll upon
 such issues as whether the first       
chapter of ,genesis was strictly        
parallel with the known course of       
evolution1 and whether the miracle of   
the ,gadarene swine was a just treatment
 of the ,gadarene swineherds4           
,sanderson's ,durham and ,cambridge     
studies and talks went on amidst the    
thunder of these debates1 and there can 
be little doubt that his early theology 
underwent much bending and adaptation to
 the new realisations of the past of    
man1 and of human destiny that these    
discussions opened out4 ,he did not take
 holy orders but he remained in the     
,anglican ,church2 manifestly he could  
still find a meaning in the ,fall and in
 the scheme of ,salvation4 ,many other  
promising teachers of his generation    
found this impossible2 such men as      
,graham ,wallas1 for example1 felt      
compelled for conscience'-sake to       

abandon the public-school teaching to   
which they had hoped to give their      
lives4 ,wallas found scope for his very 
great gifts of suggestion and           
inspiration in the ,london ,school of   
,economics1 but many others of these    
,victorian non-jurors were lost to      
education altogether4  ,the criticism of
 the economic life and social           
organisation of that age was going on   
almost parallel with the destruction of 
its cosmogony4 ,ruskin's ,unto this     
,last was issued when ,sanderson was    
four years old2 ,fors ,clavigera was    
appearing in the seventies and the early
 eighties4 ,william ,morris was a little
 later with ,news from ,nowhere and ,the
 ,dream of ,john ,ball2 they must have  
still been vividly new books in         
,sanderson's ,cambridge days4 ,marx was 
little heard of then in ,england4 ,he   
was already a power in ,german socialism
 in the seventies1 but he did not reach 
the reader of ,english until the        
eighties were nearly at an end4 ,when   

,sanderson discussed socialism during   
those ,dulwich walks1 it must have been 
,ruskin and ,morris rather than ,marx   
who figured in his talk4 ,although there
 remains no account of those early      
conversations1 it is easy to guess that 
this stir of social reconstruction and  
religious readjustment must have played 
a large part in them4 ,sanderson meant  
to teach and wanted to teach2 he was    
quite unlike that too common sort of    
schoolmaster who has fallen back into   
teaching after the collapse of other    
ambitions2 like all really sincere      
teachers he was eager to learn1 open to 
every new and stimulating idea1 and free
 altogether from the malignant          
conservatism of the disappointed type4  
,he kept that adolescent power of mental
 growth throughout life4 ,i remember my 
pleased astonishment on my first visit  
to ,oundle to find in his library--,i   
had drifted to his bookshelves while ,i 
awaited him--a row of the works of      
,nietzsche 7who came into the           

,english-speaking world in the late     
nineties7 and recent books by ,bertrand 
,russell and ,shaw4 ,here was a         
schoolmaster1 a ,british public         
schoolmaster1 aware that the world was  
still going on6 ,it seemed too good to  
be true4 ,but it was true1 and in the   
end ,sanderson was to die1 ten years1   
shall we say8--or twenty1 ahead of his  
time4  ,and while we are placing        
,sanderson in relation to the           
intellectual stir of the age let us     
note1 too1 the general shape of human   
affairs as it was presented to his mind4
 ,it was an age of steadily accelerated 
political change1 and of a vast increase
 in the population of the world4 ,the   
fifties and sixties of the nineteenth   
century had seen the world-wide spread  
of the railway and telegraph network1   
and a consequent opening up of vast     
regions of production that had hitherto 
lain fallow4 ,the screw was replacing   
the ineffective paddle-wheel of the     
earlier steamships and revolutionising  

ocean transport4 ,there was a great     
increase in mechanical and agricultural 
efficiency4 ,we still call that time the
 mid-,victorian period1 but the history 
teacher of the future1 more sensible    
than we are of the innocence of good    
,queen ,victoria in any concern of      
importance to mankind1 is more likely to
 distinguish it as the ,advent of the   
,new ,communications4 ,these new        
inventions were 'abolishing distance4'  
,they were demanding a political        
synthesis of mankind4 ,but there was    
little understanding as yet of this now 
manifest truth4 ,one hardly notes a sign
 of any such awareness in literature and
 public discussions until the end of the
 century2 and failing a clear           
understanding of their nature the new   
expansive forces operated through the   
cheap and unsound interpretations first 
of sentimental nationalism and then of  
romantic imperialism4  ,sanderson's     
boyhood saw the differences of the      
cultures of north and south in the      

,united ,states of ,america at first    
exacerbated by the new means of         
communication and then1 after four years
 of civil war1 resolved into a stabler  
unity4 ,the straggling peninsula of     
,italy under the sway of the new        
synthetic forces recovered a unity it   
had lost with the decay of the ,roman   
roads2 the internal tension of the      
continental powers culminated in the    
,franco-,german war4 ,but these were    
insufficient adjustments1 and a renewed 
growth of armaments upon land and sea   
alike1 betrayed the growing mutual      
pressure of the great powers4 ,all      
dreamt of expansion and none of         
coalescence4 ,the dominant political    
fact in ,europe while ,sanderson was a  
young man1 was the rise of ,germany to  
political and economic predominance4    
,german energy1 restrained from         
geographical release1 drove upward along
 the lines of scientific and technical  
progress1 and the outward thrust of its 
pent-up imperialism took the form of a  

gathering military threat4 ,germany     
first and then the ,united ,states1     
released and renewed after their escape 
from the fragmentation that had         
threatened them1 made the economic pace 
for the rest of the world throughout the
 eighties and the nineties4 ,they       
stirred the ,british manufacturer and   
parent to indignant inquiries2 they     
forced the drowsy schools of ,great     
,britain into a reluctant admission of  
scientific and technical teaching4 ,but 
they awakened as yet no profounder      
heart-searchings4  ,the young           
science-master at ,dulwich talked1 no   
doubt1 as we all did in those days1 of  
,evolution and ,socialism1 of the rights
 of labour and the ,christianisation of 
industry1 of the progress of science and
 the scandal of the increasing          
expenditure upon armaments1 with the    
illusion of an immense general stability
 in the background of his mind4 ,it was 
an illusion that needed not only the    
,great ,war of #aiad-ah but its         

illuminating sequelae to shatter and    
destroy4    #c  ,accounts of            
,sanderson's work in ,dulwich school    
differ very widely4 ,at one time it     
would seem that he had troubles about   
discipline1 and it is quite conceivable 
that his methods there were experimental
 and fluctuating4 ,no doubt he was      
trying over at ,dulwich many of the     
things that were to establish his       
success at ,oundle4 ,on the whole the   
,dulwich work was good work1 and it gave
 him sufficient reputation to secure the
 headmastership of ,oundle ,school when 
presently the governing body of that    
school sought a man of energy and       
character to modernise it4  ,the most   
valuable result of his ,dulwich period  
was the demonstration of the            
interestingness of practical work in    
physical science for boys who remained  
apathetic under the infliction of the   
stereotyped classical curriculum4 ,he   
was not getting the pick of the boys    
there but the residue1 but he was       

getting an alertness and interest out of
 this second-grade material that        
surprised even himself4 ,the interest of
 the classical teaching was largely the 
interest of a spirited competition which
 demanded not only a special sort of    
literary ability but a special sort of  
competitive disposition4 ,but there are 
quite clever boys of an amiable type to 
whom competition does not appeal1 and   
some of these were among the most       
interesting of the youngsters who were  
awakened to industrious work by his     
laboratory instruction4  ,it is clear   
that before ,sanderson went to ,oundle  
he had already developed a firm faith in
 the possibility of a school with a new 
and more varied curriculum1 in which a  
far greater proportion of the boys could
 be interested in their work than was   
the case in the contemporary classical  
and 7formal7 mathematical school1 and   
also that he had conceived the idea of  
replacing the competitive motive1 which 
had ruled the schools of ,europe since  

the establishment of the great ,jesuit  
schools three hundred years before1 by  
the more vital stimulus of interest in  
the work itself4 ,he also took to       
,oundle a proved and tested conception  
of the need for the utmost possible     
personal participation by every boy in  
every collective function of the school4
 ,quite early in his ,oundle career he  
came into conflict with his boys and    
carried his point upon the issue whether
 every boy was to sing in the school    
singing or whether that was to be left  
to the specialised choir of boys who had
 voices and a taste for that sort of    
thing4 ,that was an essential issue for 
him4 ,from the very first he was working
 for the rank and file and against the  
star system of school work by which a   
few boys sing or work or play with      
distinction and encouragement1 against a
 background of neglected shirkers and   
defeated and discouraged competitors4   
,sanderson married soon after he went to
 ,dulwich4 ,his wife came from          

,cumberland and she excelled in all     
those domestic matters that made a      
successful headmaster's wife4           
,throughout all the rest of his life she
 was his loyal and passionate partisan4 
,his friends were her friends1 and his  
critics and opponents were her enemies1 
and if she had a fault it was that she  
found it difficult to forgive any one   
who had seemed ever to differ from him4 
,two sons were born during the seven    
years that passed in the little home in 
,dulwich4 ,it must have been a very     
brisk and happy little home4 ,one can   
imagine the tall young man with his gown
 a little powdered with blackboard      
chalk1 flying out behind him1 striding  
along the school corridors to some fresh
 and successful experiment in laboratory
 work1 or in homely tweeds walking along
 the ,kentish lanes with his friend1 or 
snatching a delightful half-hour in the 
nursery to see ,master ,roy's first     
attempts to walk1 or reading some new   
and stirring book with the lamp of those

 days before electric lighting at his   
elbow4 ,he was thirty-five when he      
achieved his last step in the upward    
career of a secondary schoolmaster and  
was appointed headmaster of ,oundle4    
,that success probably came as a        
surprise1 for ,sanderson's modest       
origins and the fact that he was not in 
holy orders must have been a serious    
handicap upon his application4 ,it must 
have been a very elated young couple who
 packed their household belongings for  
the unknown town of ,oundle4            
,,chapter ,,ii  ,,the ,,modernisation   
,,of ,,oundle ,,school    #a  ,oundle   
,school1 which was to be the material of
 ,sanderson's life work1 which was to   
teach him so much and profit so richly  
by the reaction1 was one of             
comparatively old standing4 ,it was a   
pre-reformation foundation2 a certain   
,joan ,wyatt having endowed a           
schoolmaster in the place in #adhe4 ,its
 main revenues1 however1 derived from   
,sir ,william ,laxton1 ,lord ,mayor of  

,london and ,master of the ,grocers'    
,company1 who in #aeef left considerable
 property to that body on condition that
 it supported a school in his native    
town of ,oundle4 ,the ,grocers' ,company
 took over the ,joan ,wyatt school and  
schoolmaster1 and has discharged its    
obligations to ,oundle with intermittent
 energy and honesty to this day4        
,oundle has always been a school of     
fluctuating fortunes4 ,the district     
round and about does not sustain a      
sufficient population to maintain full  
classes and an efficient staff1 and only
 when the prestige of the school was    
great enough to attract boys from a     
distance had it any chance of           
flourishing4 ,time after time an        
energetic head with more or less support
 from the distant governing body would  
push it into prominence and prosperity  
only to pass away and leave it to an    
equally rapid decline4 ,the ,london     
,grocers' ,company is a very unsuitable 
body for educational work4 ,it is not   

organised for any such work4 ,it was    
originally a chartered association of   
city wholesalers1 spice-dealers1 and so 
forth1 who maintained a certain standard
 of honest trading and protected their  
common interests in the middle ages2 it 
commended itself to the spiritual care  
of ,st4 ,anthony1 and built a great hall
 and acted as almoner for its           
impoverished members and their widows   
and orphans2 its normal function to-day 
is the entertainment of princes and     
politicians4 ,it is now a fortuitous    
collection of merchants1 business-men1  
and prosperous persons1 and it is only  
by chance that now and then a group of  
its members have had the conscience and 
intelligence to rise above the normal   
indifference of such people to the full 
possibilities of the ,laxton bequest4   
,generally the ,company's conduct of the
 school has varied between half-hearted 
help and negligence and the diversion of
 the funds to other ends2 it has no     
tradition of competent governorship1 and

 the ups and downs of ,oundle have been 
dependent mainly upon the personal      
qualities of the masters who have       
chanced to be appointed4  ,there was a  
period of prosperity during the second  
quarter of the seventeenth century which
 was brought to an end by the plague1   
and by the impoverishment of the school 
through the fire of ,london in which    
various ,laxton properties were         
destroyed4 ,throughout a large part of  
the eighteenth century the school was   
completely effaced1 and the entire      
revenues of the ,laxton bequest were no 
doubt expended in hospitality4 ,there   
was a revival in #agif4 ,in the         
seventies of the nineteenth century the 
school was doing well in mathematics    
under a certain ,dr4 ,stansbury1 and in 
the eighties it had as many as two      
hundred boys under the ,rev4 ,h4 ,st4   
,j4 ,reade4 ,then it declined again     
until the numbers sank below a hundred4 
,it was a time of quickened consciences 
in educational matters1 and some of the 

more energetic and able members of the  
,grocers' ,company determined to make a 
drastic change of conditions at ,oundle4
 ,they found ,sanderson ready to their  
hands4    #b  ,the world is changing so 
rapidly that it may be well to say a few
 words about the type of school         
,sanderson was destined to renovate4    
,even in the seventies and eighties     
these smaller 'classical' schools had a 
quaint old-fashioned air amidst the     
surrounding landscape4 ,they were       
staffed by the less vigorous men of the 
university-scholar type2 men of the     
poorer educated classes in origin1 not  
able enough to secure any of the prizes 
reserved for university successes1 and  
not courageous enough to strike out into
 the great world on their own account4  
,they protected themselves from the     
sense of inferiority by an exaggeration 
of the value of the schooling and       
disciplines through which they had gone1
 and they ignored their lack of grasp in
 a worship of the petty accuracies      

within their capacity4 ,their ambition  
soared at its highest to holy orders and
 a headmastership1 a comfortable house1 
a competent wife1 dignity1 security1    
ease1 and a certain celebrity in        
equation-dodging or the imitation of    
,latin and ,greek compositions4         
,contemporary life and thought these    
worthy dominies regarded with a lofty   
scorn4 ,the formal mathematical work1 it
 is true1 was not older than a century  
or a century and a half1 but the        
classical training had come down in an  
unbroken tradition from the seventeenth 
century4 ,one of the staff of ,oundle   
when ,sanderson took it over is         
described as a 'wonderful' classical    
master4 ',his master passion1' we are   
told1 'for ,latin elegiacs and ,greek   
iambics fired many of his pupils1 whose 
best efforts were copied into a book    
that bore the title ,inscribatur4'      
,these exercises in stereotyped         
expression were going on at ,oundle     
right into the eighteen-nineties4 ,they 

had their justification4 ,from the      
school the boys passed on to the        
,universities of ,oxford and ,cambridge1
 where sympathetic examining authorities
 awarded the greater prizes at their    
disposal to the more proficient of these
 victims4 ,the ,civil ,service          
,commissioners by a mark-rigging system 
that would have won the respect of an   
,american election boss1 kept the       
,higher ,division of the ,civil ,service
 as a preserve for ignorance            
'classically' adorned4 ,so that the     
school could boast of 'an almost        
uninterrupted stream of scholarship     
successes at ,cambridge' even in its    
decline in the late eighties1 when its  
real educational value to the country it
 served was a negative quantity4  ,this 
seventeenth century 'classical' grind   
constituted the main work of the school1
 and no other subject seems to have been
 pursued with any industry4 ,most of the
 staff could not draw or use their hands
 properly2 like most secondary teachers 

of that time they were innocent of      
educational science1 and no attempt was 
made to teach every boy to draw4        
,drawing was still regarded as a 'gift' 
in those days4 ,the normally intelligent
 boy without the peculiar aptitudes and 
plasticity needed to take ,latin        
elegiacs seriously1 had no educational  
alternative whatever4 ,there was no     
mathematical teaching beyond low-grade  
formal stuff of a very boring sort1 and 
the only science available was a sort of
 science teaching put in to silence the 
complaints of progressive-minded parents
 rather than with any educational       
intention1 science teaching that was    
very properly called 'stinks4' ,it was a
 stinking imposture4 ,the boy of good   
ordinary quality was driven therefore to
 games or 'hobbies' or mischief as an   
outlet for his energies1 as chance might
 determine4 ,the school buildings before
 ,sanderson was appointed were as       
cramped as the curriculum2 old boys     
recall the 'redolent' afternoon         

class-rooms2 the ,grocers' ,company in  
its wisdom had built a new              
,school-,house during the brief boom    
under ,st4 ,john ,reade1 between a      
public house on either side and a slum  
at the back4 ,it must have been pleasant
 for master and boys alike to escape    
from the stuffiness of general teaching 
upon these premises1 and from the       
priggish exploits in versification of   
the 'inspired' minority1 to the cricket 
field4 ,there one had scope2 there was  
life4 ,the ,rev4 ,h4 ,st4 ,j4 ,reade1   
the headmaster in the eighties1 had been
 ,captain of the ,oxford ,eleven1 and   
drove the ball hard and far1 to the     
admiration of all beholders4  ,the ,rev4
 ,mungo ,j4 ,park1 who immediately      
preceded ,sanderson1 is described as a  
man of considerable personal dignity1   
aloof and leisurely1 and greatly        
respected by the boys4 ,under him the   
number of the boys in the school        
declined to fewer than a hundred4 ,that 
dwindling band led the normal life of   

boys at any small public school in      
,england4 ,most of them were frightfully
 bored by the teaching of the bored     
masters2 the wonderful classical master 
lashed himself periodically up to the   
infectious level of enthusiasm for his  
amazing exercises2 there was cribbing   
and ragging and loafing1 festering      
curiosities and emotional experimenting1
 and1 thank ,heaven6 games a fellow     
could understand4 ,if these boys learnt 
anything of the marvellous new vision of
 the world that modern science was      
unfolding1 they learnt it by their own  
private reading and against the wishes  
of their antiquated teachers4 ,they     
learnt nothing in school of the outlook 
of contemporary affairs1 nothing of     
contemporary human work1 nothing of the 
social and economic system in which many
 of them were presently to play the part
 of captains4 ,if they learnt anything  
about their bodies it was secretly1     
furtively1 and dirtily4 ,the gentlemen  
in holy orders upon the staff1 and the  

sermons in the ,oundle parish church1   
had made souls incredible4 ,there has   
been much criticism of the devotion to  
games in these dens of mental dinginess1
 but games were the only honest and     
conclusive exercises to be found in     
them4 ,from the sunshine and reality of 
the swimming-pool1 the boats1 the       
cricket or football field1 the boys came
 back into the ill-ventilated           
class-rooms to pretend1 or not even to  
pretend1 an interest in languages not   
merely dead1 but now1 through a process 
of derivation and imitation from one    
generation to another1 excessively      
decayed4 ,the memory of school taken    
into after life from these              
establishments was a memory of going    
from games and sunshine and living      
interest into class-rooms of twilight1  
bad air1 and sham enthusiasm for        
exhausted things4    #c  ,sanderson made
 his application for the headmastership 
of ,oundle at an unusually favourable   
time4 ,there were several men of        

exceptional enlightenment and           
intelligence upon the governing body of 
the school1 and they were resolved to   
modernise ,oundle thoroughly and well4  
,to the innovators the very unorthodoxy 
of ,sanderson's upbringing and          
qualifications was a recommendation1 to 
their opponents they made him a shocking
 candidate1 and the ,grocers' ,company  
was rent in twain over his application4 
,it requires a little effort nowadays   
for us to understand just how           
undesirable a candidate this spectacled 
young man from ,dulwich must have       
appeared to many of the older and riper 
'grocers4'  ,in the first place he was  
not in holy orders1 and it was a fixed  
belief of many people--in spite of the  
fact that few of the clerically-ruled   
,english public schools of that time    
could be described as hotbeds of        
chastity--that only clergymen in holy   
orders could maintain a satisfactory    
moral and religious tone4 ,on the other 
hand1 he had been a distinguished       

theological student4 ,that1 however1    
might involve heresy2 ,english people   
have an instinctive perception of the   
corrosive effect of knowledge and       
intelligence upon sound dogma4 ,then he 
was not a public-school boy1 and this   
might involve a loss of social          
atmosphere more important even than     
religion or morals4 ,the almost natural 
grace of deportment that has endeared   
the ,english traveller and the ,english 
official to the foreigner1 and          
particularly to the subject-races       
throughout the world1 might fail under  
his direction4 ,moreover1 he was no     
cricketer4 ,he had no athletic          
distinction2 a terrible come-down after 
the ,rev4 ,h4 ,st4 ,j4 ,reade4 ,these   
were all grave considerations in those  
days4 ,against them weighed the growing 
dread of ,german efficiency that was    
already spreading a wholesome modesty   
throughout the commercial world of      
,britain4 ,this young man from ,dulwich 
might bring to ,oundle1 it was thought1 

the base but valuable gifts of technical
 science4 ,and there was apparent in him
 a liveliness and energy uncommon among 
scholastic applicants4 ,his seemed to be
 a bracing personality1 and ,oundle was 
in serious need of a bracing rgime4 ,the
 members who liked him liked him warmly1
 and he roused prejudices as warm2      
feeling seems to have run high at the   
decision1 and he was appointed by a     
majority of one4  ,illustration3        
,interior in ,science ,block  ,the      
little world of ,oundle heard of the new
 appointment with mixed and various     
feelings1 in which there was no doubt a 
considerable amount of resentment4 ,no  
man becomes headmaster of an established
 school without facing many             
difficulties4 ,if he is promoted from   
among the staff of his predecessor old  
disputes and rivalries are apt to take  
on an exaggerated importance1 and if he 
comes in from outside he finds a staff  
disposed to a meticulous defence of     
established usage4 ,and the young couple

 from ,dulwich came to the place in     
direct condemnation of its current      
condition and its best traditions4      
,there can be no doubt that at the      
outset the school and town bristled     
defensively and unpleasantly to the     
new-comers4  ,in one respect the old    
educational order had a great advantage 
over the new that ,sanderson was to     
inaugurate4 ,it had a completed         
tradition1 and it provided the standards
 by which the new was tried4 ,whatever  
it taught was held to be necessary to   
education1 and all that it did not know 
was not knowledge4 ,by such tests the   
equipment of ,sanderson was exhibited as
 both defective and superfluous4        
,moreover1 the new system was           
confessedly undeveloped and             
experimental4 ,it could not be denied   
that ,sanderson might be making         
blunders1 and that he might have to     
retrace his steps4 ,people had been     
teaching the classics for three         
centuries2 the routine had become so    

mechanical that it was done best by men 
who were intellectually and morally half
 asleep4 ,it led to nothing2 except in  
very exceptional cases it did not even  
lead to a competent use of either the   
,latin or ,greek languages2 it involved 
no intelligent realisation of history1  
it detached the idea of philosophy from 
current life1 and it produced the       
dreariest artistic ,philistinism1 but   
there was a universal persuasion that in
 some mystical way it educated4 ,the    
methods of teaching science1 on the     
other hand1 were still in the           
experimental stage1 and had still to    
convince the world that even at the     
lowest levels of failure they           
constituted a highly beneficent         
discipline4  ,i do not propose to       
disentangle here the story of           
,sanderson's first seven years of       
difficulty4 ,he found the school and the
 town sullen and hostile1 and he was    
young1 eager1 and irascible4 ,the older 
boys had all been promoted upon         

classical qualifications1 they were     
saturated with the old public-school    
tradition that ,sanderson had come to   
destroy1 and behind them were various   
members of a hostile and resentful staff
 inciting them to obstruction and       
mischief4 ,neither ,mr4 nor ,mrs4       
,sanderson was old enough or wise enough
 to disregard slights or to ignore mere 
gestures of hostility4  ,reminiscences  
of old boys in the official life give us
 glimpses of the way in which the old   
order fought against the new4           
,everything was done to emphasise the   
fact that ,sanderson was 'no gentleman1'
 'no sportsman1' 'no cricketer1' 'no    
scholar4' ,it is the dearest delusion of
 snobs everywhere that able men who have
 made their way in the world are        
incapable of acquiring a valet's        
knowledge of what is correct in dress   
and deportment1 and the dark legend was 
spread that he wore a flannel shirt with
 a sort of false front called a 'dicky' 
and detachable cuffs1 in place of the   

evening shirt of the genteel4 ,moreover1
 his dress tie was reported to be a     
made-up tie4 ,unless he is to undress in
 public ,i do not see how a man under   
suspicion is to rebut such sinister     
scandals4 ,the boys1 with the help and  
encouragement of several members of the 
staff1 made up a satirical play full of 
the puns and classical tags and ancient 
venerable turns of humour usual in such 
compositions1 against this ,barbarian   
invader and his new laboratories4 ,it   
was the mock trial of an incendiary     
found trying to burn down the new       
laboratories4 ,it was 'full of envenomed
 and insulting references' to all the   
new headmaster was supposed to hold     
dear4 ,finally it was rehearsed before  
him4 ,he sat brooding over it           
thoughtfully1 as shaft after shaft was  
launched against him4 ',it didn't seem  
so funny then1' said my informant1 'as  
it had done when we prepared it4' ,it   
went to a 'ragged and unconvinced       
applause4' ,at the end 'came a pause--a 

stillness that could be felt4' ,the     
headmaster sat with downcast face1      
thinking4  ,i suppose he was chiefly    
busy reckoning how soon he would be rid 
of this hostile generation of elder     
boys4 ,they had to go4 ,it was a pity1  
but nothing was to be done with them4   
,the school had to grow out of them1 as 
it had to grow out of its disloyal      
staff4  ,he rose slowly in his seat4    
',boys1 we will regard this as the final
 performance1' he said1 and departed    
thoughtfully1 making no further comment4
 ,he took no action in the matter1      
attempted neither reproof nor           
punishment4 ,he dropped the matter with 
a magnificent contempt4 ,and1 says the  
old boy who tells the story1 from that  
time the spirit of the school seemed to 
change in his favour4 ,the old order had
 discharged its venom4 ,the boys began  
to realise the true value of the forces 
of spite and indolent obstructiveness   
with which their youth was in alliance4 
#d  ,not always did ,sanderson carry    

things off with an equal dignity4 ,his  
temperament was choleric1 and ever and  
again his smouldering indignation at the
 obstinate folly and jealousy that      
hampered his work blazed out violently4 
,dignified silence is impossible as a   
permanent pose for a teacher whose duty 
is to express and direct4 ,sanderson's  
business was to get ideas into resisting
 heads2 he was not a born orator but a  
confused1 abundant speaker1 and he had  
to scold1 to thrust strange sayings at  
them1 to force their inattention1 to    
beat down an answering ridicule4 ,he was
 often simply and sincerely wrathful    
with them1 and in his early years he    
thrashed a great deal4 ,he thrashed hard
 and clumsily in a white-heat of        
passion--'a hail of swishing strokes    
that seemed almost to envelop one4' ,a  
newspaper or copybook at the normal     
centre of infliction availed but little4
 ,cuts fell everywhere on back or legs  
or fingers4 ,he had been sorely tried1  
he had been overtried4 ,it was a sort of

 heartbreak of blows4  ,the boys argued 
mightily about these unorthodox         
swishings4 ,it was all a part of        
,sanderson being a strange creature and 
not in the tradition4 ,it was lucky no  
one was ever injured4 ,but they found   
something in their own unregenerate     
natures that made them understand and   
sympathise with this eager1 thwarted    
stranger and his thunderstorms of anger4
 ,generally he was a genial person1 and 
that1 too1 they recognised4 ,it is      
manifest quite early in the story that  
,sanderson interested his boys as his   
predecessor had never done4 ,they       
discussed his motives1 his strange      
sayings1 his peculiar locutions with    
accumulating curiosity4 ,two sorts of   
schoolmasters boys respect3 those who   
are completely dignified and opaque to  
them1 and those who are transparent     
enough to show honesty at the core4     
,sanderson was transparently honest4 ,if
 he was not pompously dignified he was  
also extraordinarily free from vanity2  

and if he thrust work and toil upon his 
boys it was at any rate not to spare    
himself that he did so4 ,and he won them
 also by his wonderful teaching4 ,in the
 early days he did a lot of the science 
teaching himself2 later on the school   
grew too big for him to do any of this4 
,all the old boys ,i have been able to  
consult agree that his class instruction
 was magnificent4  ,every year in the   
history of ,sanderson's headmastership  
shows a growing understanding between   
the boys and himself4 ',beans1' they    
called him1 but every year it was less  
and less necessary to ',give 'm ,beans1'
 as the vulgar say4 ,the tale of storms 
and thrashings dwindles until it        
vanishes from the story4 ,in the last   
decade of his rule there was hardly any 
corporal punishment at all4 ,the whole  
school as time went on grew into a      
humorous affectionate appreciation of   
his genius4 ,it was a sunny1 humorous   
school when ,i knew it2 there was little
 harshness and no dark corners4 ,no boy 

had been expelled for a long time4    #e
  ,the official life gives a diagram and
 particulars of the growth of the school
 during ,sanderson's time1 and there is 
no need to repeat those particulars     
here4 ,from #ahib to #aijj there was no 
very remarkable increase in the number  
of boys2 it rose from ninety-odd to a   
hundred and twenty or so4 ,then as      
,sanderson's grip became sure there     
followed a rapid expansion4  ,from #aijj
 onwards ,oundle grew about as fast as  
it was possible to grow4 ,new           
laboratories were built1 new subjects   
introduced so as to furnish a wider and 
wider variety of courses to meet such   
intellectual types as the school had    
hitherto failed to interest4 ,there was 
a great development of biological and   
agricultural work from about #aiji      
onward4 ,the attention given to art     
increased1 and there was a great change 
and revolution in the history teaching4 
,by #aibj the numbers of the school were
 soaring up towards six hundred4 ,he    

wanted them to go to eight hundred1     
because he still wanted to increase the 
variety of courses1 and the larger      
numbers gave a better prospect of       
classifying out the boys effectively and
 making sure that each course of studies
 was sufficiently attended to keep it   
active and efficient4  ,the prestige of 
the school grew even more rapidly than  
its size4 ,from #aije onward the        
inquiring parent who wanted something   
more than school games and esprit de    
corps was sure to hear of ,oundle4  ,and
 ,sanderson was growing with his school4
 ,every installment of success          
stimulated him to new experiments and   
fresh innovations4 ,no one learnt so    
much at ,oundle as he did1 and it is    
with that growth of his conception of   
school method and his widening vision of
 the schoolmaster's rle in the world    
that we must now proceed to deal4       
,,chapter ,,iii  ,,the ,,replacement    
,,of ,,competition ,,by ,,group ,,work  
#a  ,when ,sanderson first came to      

,oundle his ideas seem to have differed 
from the normal scholastic opinion of   
his time mainly in his conviction of the
 interestingness and attractiveness of  
real scientific work for many types of  
boys that the established classical and 
stylistic mathematical teaching failed  
to grip4 ,he developed these new aspects
 of school work1 and his earliest       
success lay in the fact that he got a   
higher percentage of boys interested and
 active in school work than was usual   
elsewhere1 and that the report of this  
and the report of his wholesome and     
stimulating personality spread into the 
world of anxious parents4 ,but it early 
became evident to him that the new      
subjects necessitated methods of        
handling in vivid contrast to the       
methods stereotyped for the classical   
and mathematical courses4  ,there have  
been three chief phases in the history  
of educational method in the last five  
centuries1 the phase of compulsion1 the 
phase of competition1 and the phase of  

natural interest4 ,they overlap and     
mingle4 ,medieval teaching being largely
 in the hands of celibates1 who had     
acquired no natural understanding of    
children and young people1 and who found
 them extremely irritating1 irksome1 or 
exciting1 was stupid and brutal in the  
extreme4 ,young people were driven along
 a straight and narrow road to a sort of
 prison of dusty knowledge by teachers  
almost as distressed as themselves4 ,the
 medieval school went on to the chant of
 rote-learning with an accompaniment of 
blows1 insults1 and degradations of the 
dunce-cap type4 ,the ,jesuit schools1 to
 which the ,british public schools owe  
so much1 sought a human motive in vanity
 and competition2 they turned to        
rewards1 distinctions1 and competitions4
 ,sir ,francis ,bacon recommended them  
justly as the model schools of his time4
 ,the class-list with its pitiless      
relegation of two-thirds of the class to
 self-conscious mediocrity and dufferdom
 was the symbol of this second1 slightly

 more enlightened phase4 ,the school of 
the rod gave place to the school of the 
class-list4 ,an aristocracy of leading  
boys made the pace and the rest of the  
school found its compensation in games  
or misbehaviour4 ,so long as the sole   
subjects of instruction remained two    
dead languages and formal mathematics1  
subjects essentially unappetising to    
sanely constituted boys1 there was      
little prospect of getting school method
 beyond this point4  ,by the end of the 
eighteenth century schoolmasters were   
beginning to realise what most mothers  
know by instinct1 that there is in all  
young people a curiosity1 a drive to    
know1 an impulse to learn1 that is      
available for educational ends1 and has 
still to be properly exploited for      
educational ends4 ,it is not within our 
present scope to discuss ,pestalozzi1   
,froebel1 and the other great pioneers  
in this third phase of education4       
,nearly all children can be keenly      
interested in some subject1 and there   

are some subjects that appeal to nearly 
all children4 ,directly you cease to    
insist upon a particular type of        
achievement in a particular line of     
attainment1 directly your school gets   
out of the narrow lane and moves across 
open pasture1 it goes forward of its own
 accord4 ,the class-list and the rod1 so
 necessary in the dusty fury of the     
lane1 cease to be necessary4 ,in the    
effective realisation of this ,sanderson
 was a leader4  ,for a time he let the  
classical and literary work of the      
school run on upon the old              
competition-compulsion1 class-list      
lines4 ,for some years he does not seem 
to have realised the possibility of     
changes in these fields4 ,but from the  
first in his mechanical teaching and    
very soon in mathematics the work ceased
 to have the form of a line of boys all 
racing to acquire an identical parcel of
 knowledge1 and took on the form more   
and more of clusters of boys surrounding
 an attractive problem4 ,there grew up  

out of the school ,science a periodic   
display1 the ,science ,conversazione1 in
 which groups of youngsters displayed   
experiments and collections they had    
co-operated to produce4 ,later on a     
,junior ,conversazione developed4 ,these
 conversaziones show the ,oundle spirit 
in its most typical expression4         
,sanderson derived much from the zeal   
and interest these groups of boys       
displayed4 ,he realised how much finer  
and how much more fruitful was the      
mutual stimulation of a common end than 
the vulgar effort for a class place4    
,the clever boy under a class-list      
system loves the shirker and the dullard
 who make the running easy1 but a group 
of boys working for a common end display
 little patience with shirking4 ,the    
stimulus is much more intimate1 and it  
grows4 ,jones minor is told to play up1 
exactly as he is told to play up in the 
playing field4  ,in the summer term the 
conversazione in its fully developed    
form took up a large part of the energy 

of the school4 ,says the official life3 
',all the senior boys in the school were
 eligible for this work1 the only       
qualification necessary being a         
willingness to work and to sacrifice    
some1 at least1 of one's free time4     
,there was never any dearth of willing  
workers1 the total number often         
exceeding two hundred4 ,the chief       
divisions of the conversazione were3    
,physics and ,mechanics2 ,chemistry2    
,biology2 and ,workshops4 ,a boy who    
volunteered to help was left free to    
choose which branch he would adopt4     
,having chosen1 he gave his name to the 
master in charge2 if he had any         
particular experiment in view1 he       
mentioned it1 and if suitable1 it was   
allotted to him4 ,if he had no          
suggestion1 an experiment was suggested1
 and he was told where information could
 be obtained4 ,as a general rule two or 
three boys worked together at any one   
experiment4  ',some of the experiments  
chosen required weeks of preparation2   

there was apparatus to be made and      
fitted up1 information to be sought and 
absorbed1 so that on the final day an   
intelligent account could be given to   
any visitor watching the experiment4    
,this work was all done out of school   
hours4 ,four or five days before ,speech
 ,day1 ordinary school lessons ceased   
for those taking part in the            
conversazione2 the laboratories1        
class-rooms1 and workshops were         
portioned out so that each boy knew     
exactly where he was to work1 and how   
much space he had4 ,the setting up of   
the experiments began4 ,to any one      
visiting the school on these particular 
days it must have seemed in a state of  
utter confusion1 boys wandering about in
 all directions apparently under no     
supervision1 and often to all           
appearances with no purpose4 ,a party   
might be met with a jam-jar and         
fishing-net near the river2 others might
 be found miles away on bicycles1 going 
to a place where some particular flower 

might be found4 ,three or four boys     
would appear to be smashing up an engine
 and scattering its parts in all        
directions1 while others could be seen  
wheeling a barrow-load of bricks or     
trying to mix a hod of mortar4          
,gradually a certain amount of order    
appeared1 some experiments were tried   
and found to work satisfactorily1 others
 failed1 and investigation into the     
cause of failure had to be carried out4 
,as the final day approached excitement 
increased1 frantic telegrams were sent  
to know1 for example1 if the liquid air 
had been despatched1 frequent visits to 
the railway-station were made in the    
hopes of finding some parcel had        
arrived2 sometimes it was even necessary
 to motor to ,peterborough to pick up   
material which otherwise would arrive   
too late4 ,a programme giving a short   
description of the experiment or exhibit
 had to pass through the printer's      
hands4 ,at last everything would be     
ready2 occasionally1 but very seldom1 an

 experiment had to be abandoned or      
another substituted at the last moment4'
  ,the year #aije marked a phase in the 
co-operative system of work on the      
mechanical side with the machining and  
erection of a six-horse-power reversing 
engine1 designed for a marine engine of 
#cejj horse-power4 ,castings and        
drawings were supplied by the ,north    
,eastern ,marine ,engineering ,works4   
,the engine was a triumphant success1   
and thereafter a number of engines has  
been built by groups of boys4           
,concurrently with this steady          
replacement of the                      
instructional-exercise system by the    
group-activity system1 the mathematical 
work became less and less a series of   
exercises in style and more and more an 
attack upon problems needing solution in
 the workshops and laboratories1 with   
the solution as the real incentive to   
the work4 ,these dips into practical    
application gave a great stimulus to the
 formal mathematical teaching1 for the  

boys realised as they could never have  
done otherwise the value of such work as
 a 'tool-sharpening' exercise of        
ultimately real value4    #b  ,quite    
early in his ,oundle days ,sanderson    
displayed his disposition towards       
collective as against solitary activity 
in his dealings with the school music4  
,when he came to the school the         
'musical' boys were segregated from the 
non-musical in a choir2 the rest        
listened in conscious exclusion and     
inferiority4 ,but from the outset he set
 himself to make the whole school sing  
and attend to music4 ,the few boys with 
bad ears were carried along with the    
general flood2 the discord they made was
 lost in the mass effect4 ,towards the  
end a very great proportion of the boys 
were keen listeners to and acute critics
 of music4 ,they would crowd into the   
,great ,hall on ,sunday evenings to     
listen to the organ recital with which  
that day usually concluded4    #c       
,presently ,sanderson began to apply the

 lessons he had learnt from grouping    
boys for scientific work to literature  
and history4 ,most of us can still      
recall the extraordinary dreariness of  
school literature teaching2 the lesson  
that was a third-rate lecture1 the      
note-taking1 the rehearsal of silly     
opinions about books unread and authors 
unknown1 the horrible annotated         
editions1 the still more horrible       
text-books of literature4 ,sanderson set
 himself to sweep all this away4 ,a     
play1 he held1 was primarily to be      
played1 and the way to know and         
understand it was to play it4 ,the boys 
must be cast for parts and learn about  
the other characters in relation to the 
one they had taken4 ,questions of       
language and syntax1 questions of       
interpretation1 could be dealt with best
 in relation to the production4 ,but    
most classes had far too many boys to be
 treated as a single theatrical company1
 so small groups of boys were cast for  
each part4 ,there would be three or four

 ,othellos1 three or four ,desdemonas or
 ,iagos4 ,they would act their parts    
simultaneously or successively4 ,the    
thing might or might not ripen into a   
chosen cast giving a costume performance
 in public4 ,the important thing is that
 the boys were brought into the most    
active contact possible with the reality
 of the work they studied4 ,the groups  
discussed stage 'business' and gesture  
and the precise stress to lay on this or
 that phrase4 ,the master stood like a  
producer in the auditorium of the ,great
 ,hall4 ,let any one compare the        
vitality of that sort of thing with the 
ordinary lesson from an annotated       
text-book4  ,the group system was       
extended with increasing effectiveness  
into more and more of the literary and  
historical work4 ,here the ,school      
,library took the place of the          
laboratory and was indeed as necessary  
to the effective development of the     
group method4 ,the official life of     
,sanderson gives a typical scheme of    

operations pursued in the case of a form
 studying the period #aghc-aije4 ,the   
subject was first divided up into parts1
 such as the state of affairs preceding 
the ,french ,revolution2 the ,french    
,revolution in relation to ,england2 the
 industrial system and economic problems
 generally2 and so on4 ,the form divided
 up into groups and each group selected 
a part or a section of a part for its   
study4 ,the objective of each group was 
the preparation of a report1 illustrated
 by maps1 schedules1 and so forth1 upon 
the section it had studied4 ,after a    
preliminary survey of the whole field   
under the direction of a master1 each   
boy followed up the particular matter   
assigned to him by individual reading   
for a term1 supplemented when necessary 
by consultation with the master4 ,then  
came the preparation of maps and other  
material1 the assembling of illuminating
 quotations from the books studied1 the 
drafting of the group's report1 the     
discussion of the report4 ,in some cases

 where the group was in disagreement    
there would be a minority report4  ,in  
this way there was scarcely a boy in the
 form who did not feel himself          
contributing and necessary to the       
general result1 and who was not called  
upon not merely by his master but by his
 colleagues1 for some special exertion4 
,it might be thought that the           
departmentalising of the subject among  
groups would mean that the knowledge    
would accumulate in pockets1 but this   
was not the case4 ,boys of separate     
groups talked with one another of their 
work and found a lively interest in     
their different points of view4 ,it is  
rare that boys who have received the    
same lesson can find much in it to talk 
about1 unless it is a comparison of who 
has retained most1 but a boy who has    
been preparing maps of the ,napoleonic  
military campaigns may find the         
liveliest interest in another who has   
been following the history of the same  
period from the point of view of sea    

power4 ,there was indeed a very         
considerable amount of interchange1 and 
when it came to facing external         
examiners and testing the general       
knowledge attained1 the ,oundle boys    
were found to compare favourably with   
boys who had been drummed in troops     
through complete histories of the chosen
 period4  ,this group system of work had
 arisen naturally out of the conditions 
of the new laboratory teaching1 and it  
had been developed for the sake of its  
educational effectiveness2 but as it    
grew it became more and more evident to 
,sanderson that its effects went far    
beyond mere intellectual attainment4 ,it
 marked a profound change in the spirit 
of the school4 ,it was not only that the
 spirit of co-operation had come in4    
,that had already been present on the   
cricket and football fields4 ,but the   
boys were working to make something or  
to state something and not to gain      
something4 ,it was the spirit of        
creation that now pervaded the school4  

,and he perceived1 too1 that the boys he
 would now be sending out into the world
 must needs carry that creative spirit  
with them and play a very different part
 from the ambitious star boys who went  
on from a training under the older      
methods4 ,they would play an as yet     
incalculable part in redeeming the world
 from the wild orgy of competition that 
was now afflicting it4 ,in one of his   
very characteristic sermons he gave his 
ripened conception of this side of his  
work4 ,he had been speaking1 perhaps    
with a certain idealisation1 of the old 
craftsmen's guilds--with a glance or so 
at the ,grocers' ,company4 ,the school1 
he declared1 was to be no longer an     
arena but a guild4 ,for what was a      
guild8  ',a community of co-workers and 
no competition1 that was its idea4 ,it  
is all based on the system of           
apprenticeships and co-workers4 ,the    
apprentices helped the masters in every 
way they could2 even the masters were   
grouped together for mutual assistance  

and were called assistants4 ,the        
,company was a mystery or guild of      
craftsmen and dealers1 and their aim was
 to produce good craftsmen and good     
dealers4  ',to-day1 in these days of    
renascence1 we return to the aim and    
methods of the guilds4 ,boys are to be  
apprentices and master-workers and      
co-workers4 ,in a community this needs  
must be4 ,we are called to a definite   
work1 all who are privileged to attend  
here1 staff and boys alike--the work of 
infusing life into the boys committed to
 our care4 ,nor can any one stand out of
 this and seek work elsewhere4 ,nemesis 
sets in for all who try to live for     
themselves alone4 ,they may try to      
work--but their work is sterile4 ,the   
community calls for the energies and    
activities of all4 ,we are beginning to 
learn something of what this means4 ,it 
does not mean an abandonment of the best
 methods of the past4 ,but it does mean 
that we have to concern ourselves with  
the pressing needs and problems of      

to-day1 and join in the work4 ,i do not 
dwell on this now4 ,my mind goes off to 
the possible effect of these ideas on   
the general life of the school4  ',the  
working of these ideas is well seen     
already in the outdoor life of the      
school4 ,we see it when houses are      
getting their teams together to join a  
competition for a shield1 say4 ,we see  
the mutual help1 the voluntary practice1
 the consultations of the captain with  
others4 ,we see it in the work in the   
,cadet ,corps4 ,we see it in the        
preparation for a play--this time1 the  
,midsummer ,night's ,dream4 ,we see it  
in the new work in the library1 and we  
see it as clearly as in anything in the 
preparation for a conversazione4 ,no    
more valuable training can be given than
 this last--well worth all the many     
kinds of sacrifice it entails4 ,from it1
 at any rate1 the spirit of competition 
is1 ,i think1 altogether removed4 ,boys1
 we believe1 set forth to do their work 
as well as they possibly can--but not to

 beat one another4444 ,i dwell upon     
these things because we hope that all   
boys will become workers at last1 with  
interest and zeal1 in some part of the  
field of creation and inquiry1 which is 
the true life of the world4 ,it is from 
such workers1 investigators1 searchers1 
the soul of the nation is drawn4 ,we    
will first of all transform the life of 
the school1 then the boys1 grown into   
men--and girls from their schools grown 
into women--whom their schools have     
enlisted into this service1 will        
transform the life of the nation and of 
the whole world4'     ,,chapter ,,iv    
,,the ,,re-,,establishment ,,of         
,,relations ,,between ,,school ,,and    
,,reality    #a  ,in the previous       
chapter ,i have told how ,sanderson was 
taught by his laboratories and library  
the possibility of a new type of school 
with a new spirit1 and how he grew to   
realise that an organisation of such new
 schools1 a multiplication of ,oundles1 
must necessarily produce a new spirit in

 social and industrial life4            
,concurrently with that1 the obvious    
implications of applied science were    
also directing his mind to the close    
reaction between schools and the        
organisation of the economic life of the
 community4  ,it is amusing to reflect  
that ,sanderson probably owed his       
appointment at ,oundle to the simple    
desire of various members of the        
,grocers' ,company for a good school of 
technical science4 ,they did not want   
any change in themselves1 they did not  
want any change in the world nor in the 
methods of trading and employment1 but  
they did want to see their sons and     
directors and managers equipped with the
 sharper1 more modern edge of a         
technical scientific training4 ,germany 
had frightened them4 ,if this new       
training could be technical without     
science and modern without liberality1  
so much the better4 ,so the business man
 brought his ideas to bear upon ,oundle1
 to produce quite beyond his expectation

 a counteroffensive of the school upon  
business organisation and methods4      
,oundle built its engines1 organised    
itself as an efficient munitions factory
 during the war1 made useful chemical   
inquiries1 extended its work into       
agriculture1 analysed soils and manures 
for the farmers of its district1 ran a  
farm and did much able competent        
technical work1 but it also set itself  
to find out what were the aims and      
processes of business and what were the 
reactions of these processes upon the   
life of the community4 ,from the        
laboratory a boy would go to a careful  
examination of labour conditions under  
the light of ,ruskin's ,unto ,this      
,last2 he was brought to a balanced and 
discriminating attitude towards strikes 
and lock-outs2 he was constantly        
reminded that the end of industry is not
 profits but life--a more abundant life 
for men4  ,as one reads through the     
sermons and addresses that are given in 
,sanderson of ,oundle one finds a       

steadily growing consciousness of the   
fact that there was a considerable and  
increasing proportion of ,oundle boys   
destined to become masters1 managers1   
and leaders in industrial and business  
life1 and with that growing             
consciousness there is a growing        
determination that the school work they 
do shall be something very far beyond   
the acquisition of money-getting dodges 
and devices and commercialised views of 
science4 ,more and more does he see the 
school not as a training ground of smart
 men for the world that is1 but as a    
preliminary working model of the world  
that is to be4  ,two quotations from two
 of ,sanderson's sermons will serve to  
mark how vigorously he is tugging back  
the ,english schools from the           
gentlemanly aloofness of scholarship and
 school-games to a real relationship to 
the current disorder of life1 and how   
high he meant to carry them to dominance
 over that disorder4  ,the first extract
 is from a sermon on ,faraday4 ,under   

,sanderson1 it has been remarked1       
,faraday ousted ,st4 ,anthony from being
 the patron saint of ,oundle ,school4   
',with what abundant prodigality1'      
,sanderson exclaims1 'has ,nature given 
up of her secrets since his day6'  ',a  
hundred years ago ,man and ,nature as we
 think of them to-day were unexplored by
 science2 to-day a new world1 a new     
creation4 ,industrial life has          
developed1 machinery1 discoveries1      
inventions--steam engine1 gas engine1   
dynamo--electrical machinery1           
telegraphy1 radioactive bodies1         
tremendous openings out of chemistry1   
biology1 economics1 ethics4 ,all new4   
,these are ,thy works1 ,o ,god1 and tell
 of ,thee4 ,not now only may we search  
for ,thy ,presence in the places where  
,thou wert wont in days of old to come  
to man4 ,not there only4 ,not only now  
in the stars of heaven2 or by the       
seashore1 or in the waters of the river1
 or of the springs2 among the trees1 the
 flowers1 the corn and wine1 on the     

mountain or in the plain2 not now only  
dost ,thou come to man in ,thy works of 
art1 in music1 in literature2 but ,thou1
 ,o ,god1 dost reveal ,thyself in all   
the multitude of ,thy works2 in the     
workshop1 the factory1 the mine1 the    
laboratory1 in industrial life4 ,no     
symbolism here1 but the ,divine ,god4 ,a
 new ,muse is here--        ',mightier  
than ,egypt's tombs1      ,fairer than  
,grecia's1 ,roma's temples4             
,prouder than ,milan's statued1 spired  
cathedral1      ,more picturesque than  
,rhenish castle-keeps1      ,we plan    
even now to raise1 beyond them all1     
,thy great cathedral1 sacred industry1  
no tomb--              ,a keep for      
,life4'   ,and the builders1 a mighty   
host of men3 ,homeric heroes1 fighting  
against a foe1 and yet not a foe1 but an
 invisible1 impalpable thing wherein the
 combatant is the shadow of the         
assailant4  ',mighty men of science and 
mighty deeds4 ,a ,newton who binds the  
universe together in uniform law2       

,lagrange1 ,laplace1 ,leibnitz with     
their wondrous mathematical harmonies2  
,coulomb measuring out electricity2     
,oversted with the brilliant flash of   
insight that the electric conflict acts 
in a revolving manner2 ,faraday1 ,ohm1  
,ampre1 ,joule1 ,maxwell1 ,hertz1       
,rntgen2 and in another branch of       
science1 ,cavendish1 ,davy1 ,dalton1    
,dewar2 and in another1 ,darwin1        
,mendel1 ,pasteur1 ,lister1 ,sir ,ronald
 ,ross4 ,all these and many others1 and 
some whose names have no memorial1 form 
a great host of heroes1 an army of      
soldiers--fit companions of those of    
whom the poets have sung2 all1 we may be
 sure1 living daily in the presence of  
,god1 bending like the reed before ,his 
will2 fit companions of the knights of  
old of whom the poets sing1 fit         
companions of the men whose names are   
renowned in history1 fit companions of  
the great statesmen and warriors whose  
names resound through the world4        
',there is the great ,newton at the head

 of this list comparing himself to a    
child playing on the seashore gathering 
pebbles1 whilst he could see with       
prophetic vision the immense ocean of   
truth yet unexplored before him4 ,at the
 end is the discoverer ,sir ,ronald     
,ross1 who had gone out to ,india in the
 medical service of the ,army1 and      
employed his leisure in investigating   
the ravishing diseases which had laid   
,india low and stemmed its development4 
,in twenty years of labour he discovers 
how malaria is transmitted and brings   
the disease within the hold of man4'    
,the second is from a sermon called     
',the ,garden of ,life4'  ',as ,canon   
,driver says1 ,man is not made simply to
 enjoy life2 his end is not pleasure2   
nor are the things he has to do         
necessarily to give pleasure or lead to 
what men call happiness4 ,this is not   
the biological purpose of man4 ,his     
purpose or instinctive end is to develop
 the capacities of the garden in the    
wilderness of nature2 to adapt it to his

 own ends1 i4e4 to the ends of the races
 of men4 ,or1 as we would now say1 his  
aim is to take his part in the making of
 his kind2 and he is to keep it1 or     
guard it--i4e4 he is to conquer the     
jungle in it1 to prevent it from roving 
wild again1 from reverting to the       
jungle1 from losing law and order1 from 
becoming unruly and disorderly1 from    
breaking loose and running amok4 ,he is 
to bring and maintain order out of the  
tangle of things1 he is to diagnose     
diseases2 he is to co-ordinate the      
forces of nature2 he is above all things
 to reveal the spirit of ,god in all the
 works of ,god4  ',and in all this we   
read the duty and service of schools4   
,the business of schools is through and 
by the use of a common service to get at
 the true spiritual nature of the       
ordinary things we have to deal with4   
,the spirit of the true active life does
 not come to us only in those           
experiences we have been so accustomed  
to think of as beautiful and revealing4 

,the active spirit of life is not       
revealed simply by the arts--the        
beautiful arts as they may be           
thought--of music or painting1 or       
literature4 ,these indeed may be only   
and abundantly material1 and the eye and
 ear may be blind and deaf to the       
active1 creative1 discovering1 revealing
 spirit4 ,painting1 or art generally1 as
 such1 says ,ruskin in his ,modern      
,painters1 with all its technicalities1 
difficulties1 executive skills1 pleasant
 and agreeable sensations1 and its      
particular ends1 is nothing but an      
expressive language1 invaluable if we   
know it as we might know it as the      
vehicle of thought1 but by itself       
nothing4 ,he who has learnt what is     
commonly considered as the whole art of 
painting1 that is the art of            
representing any natural object         
faithfully1 has as yet only learnt the  
language by which his thoughts are to be
 expressed4 ,one language or mode of    
expression may be more difficult than   

another2 but it is not by the mode of   
representing and saying1 but by the     
greatness1 the awakening1 the           
transmuting and transfiguring conception
 and knowledge of the thought presented1
 that the gift cometh1 that man is      
created4 ,awkward1 discordant1          
stammering attempts may be the burning  
message of a new hope4 ,but this voice  
of art is too often drowned4 ,it is     
drowned by executive skill--as is the   
history of all art--when this skill     
stretches itself to present things that 
are static1 motionless1 dead4444  ',it  
is especially our duty to reveal the    
spirit of ,god in the things of science 
and of the practical life4 ,herein lies 
a new revelation1 a new language1 a     
direct symbolism4 ,science1 just like   
art and music1 can be                   
materialistic--science can aim only at  
mechanical advancement and worldly      
wealth1 which is not wealth at all--just
 as art can aim only at pleasure1       
desire1 and drawing-room appreciation4  

,but this need not be so4 ,certainly no 
one in a responsible position can teach 
science for long without the coming of  
the revelation of a new voice1 a new    
method of expression1 a new             
art--revealing quite changed standards  
of value1 quite new significances of    
what we speak of as culture1 beauty1    
love1 justice4 ,a new voice speaks to   
the souls of men and women calling for a
 new age with all its altered           
relationships and adventures of life4   
',with eyes opened to this new art you  
can wander through the science block and
 find in it all a new ,bible1 a new book
 of ,genesis4 ,so we believe4 ,this is  
our duty and our faith4 ,into this      
,paradise have you been placed to dress 
it and to keep it4'  ,let me turn from  
these two passages of talk to his       
boys--they are rescued from a mass of   
pencil notes in his study--to a passage 
from an address delivered in the ,great 
,hall in ,leeds in #aibj4 ,it shows very
 plainly the quality of his conception  

of what ,i have called the return of    
schools to reality4  ',schools should be
 miniature copies of the world4 ,we     
often find that methods adopted in      
school are just the methods we should   
like applied in the state4 ,we should1  
in fact1 direct school life so that the 
spirit of it may be the spirit which    
will tend to alleviate social and       
industrial conditions4 ,i will give an  
example of the kind of influence the    
ideals and methods of a school can exert
 upon the working life4 ,i will take a  
condition of labour which is now        
recognised as probably the greatest of  
tragedies4 ,it is the slow decay of the 
faculties of crowds of men and women1   
caused by the nature of their           
employment--the tragedy of the          
unstretched faculties4 ,so common is it1
 and ordinary1 that we pass it by on one
 side2 but no one can go into a factory 
without seeing workers engaged in work  
which is far below their capacities4    
,decay sets in1 and the death of talent 

and enthusiasm1 the inspirer of creative
 work4 ,a little thought will convince  
us that the process of decay of such a  
delicate and vital organism as the brain
 is bound to set up violent1            
destructive1 anarchic forces which go on
 for several years4 ,a recent writer in 
the ,times ,educational ,supplement 7and
 this paper cannot be called            
revolutionary7 says that the tragedy of 
undeveloped talent is being seen more   
and more to be a gigantic waste of      
potentiality and an unpardonable        
cruelty4 ,it is a tragic disease and    
produces in early life startling        
intellectual and moral disturbances1    
which are the natural sources of unrest4
 ,as years go on a mental stupor sets   
in1 and there is peace1 but peace on a  
low plane of life4 ,the loss to the     
community by this waste is colossal1 and
 it is not too much to say that the     
output of man could be multiplied beyond
 conception4  ',schools should send boys
 out into the industrial world whose aim

 should be to study these tragedies1 and
 by experiments1 by new inventions1 by  
organisation1 try1 we may hope1 by some 
of their own school experience1 to      
alleviate the disease4 ,to my mind this 
is the supreme aim of schools in the new
 era4'     ,,chapter ,v  ,,the ,,growth 
,,of ,,sanderson ,,shown ,,in ,,his     
,,sermons ,,and ,,scripture ,,lessons   
#a  ,before ,i go on to a discussion of 
the latest1 broadest1 and most          
interesting phase of ,sanderson's mental
 life1 ,i would like to give my readers 
as vivid a picture as ,i can of his     
personality and his methods of delivery4
 ,i have tried to convey an impression  
of his stout and ruddy presence1 his    
glancing spectacles1 his short1 compact 
but allusive delivery1 his general      
personal jolliness4 ,i will give now a  
sketch of one of his ,scripture lessons 
made by two of the boys in the school4  
,nothing ,i think could convey so well  
his rich discursiveness nor the         
affectionate humour he inspired         

throughout the school4 ,here it is4     
',,scripture ,,lesson       ',delivered 
by ,f4 ,w4 ,sanderson on ,sunday1 #beth 
,may #aiai1 and taken      down word for
 word by ,x and ,y1 and subsequently    
written up by      them4                
',limitations of space and time have    
prevented them from including      all  
the lesson4 ,omissions have been        
indicated4 ,they apologise for      the 
lapses of the speaker into inaudibility1
 which were not their      fault4 ,they 
do not hold themselves in any way       
responsible for the      opinions       
expressed herein4        ',,analysis    
'of the portions copied4                
',characteristic portions in the ,gospel
 of ,st4 ,matthew4       ',obstinacy of 
the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,schools     
,examination ,board4       ',character  
of the devil1 according to some modern  
writers4       ',first act of our ,lord 
on beginning the ,galilean ,ministry4   
',empire ,day4        ',subject of the  
,scripture lesson3--,st4 ,matthew1      

chaps4 iv and v4       7',the           
,temptations1 the commencement of the   
,galilean ,ministry1 the      first     
portion of the ,sermon on the ,mount4'7 
'7,the headmaster enters1 worries his   
gown1 sits down1 adjusts his waistcoat1 
and coughs once47  ',the--um--er--,i am 
taking you through the ,gospel of ,st4  
,matthew4 ,i think1 as a matter of fact1
 we got to the end of the third chapter4
 ,we won't spend much time over the     
fourth4 ,the fourth1 ,i think1 is       
the--er--er--,temptations1 which ,i have
 already taken with you--a              
rather--er--very interesting--ah--very  
interesting--er--survival4 ,that the    
,temptation ,narrative should have      
survived shows that there is probably   
something of value in it or ,i do not   
think it would have survived4 ,there are
 two incidents of very similar character
 of--er--very--er--similar character    
and--ah--different to a certain extent  
from everything else--er--ah-- ,there is
 a boy in that corner not listening to  

me4 ,who is that boy in the corner      
there8 ,no1 not you--two rows in front4 
,i will come down to you later1 my boy4 
,there are two incidents in the ,gospel 
,narrative which are similar            
in--er--character and which ,i have for 
the moment called ,survivals--very      
characteristic1 namely1 the somewhat    
surprising narrative of the ,temptation 
of our ,lord1 and the other the account 
of the ,transfiguration4 ,these are     
different in form and character from    
other narratives1 just in the same way  
as the account of our ,lord sending     
messages to the ,baptist differs from   
others4 ,er--yes--that last one4 ,i     
should put them together as coming from 
a similar source 7lapse into            
inaudibility--bow wow wow4 ,unique in   
characteristic--bow wow wow--,somewhat  
subtle--bow wow74 ,one remarks that the 
,temptations are always looked at from  
the personal point of view1 which ,i    
have put down in my synopsis4 ,has      
anybody here got my synopsis8 lend it to

 me a moment4 ,i don't think the        
personal significance of the ,gospel    
stories has importance nowadays4 ,we    
needn't consider it4 ,that's what ,i    
think about things in general4 ,personal
 importance giving place to universal   
needs4 ,we are not so much concerned    
with whether boys do evil or not4 ,of   
course it annoys me if ,i find a boy    
doing evil4 ,leading others astray4     
,shockingly annoying4 ,oughtn't to be4  
,like continuous mathematics not        
enabling a boy to pass in               
arithmetic--bow wow wow--screw loose4   
,see what ,i mean1 ,k----8 ,not         
referring to you1 my boy 7laughter74    
,hunt me up something in ,plato about   
all these things4 ,during the last      
generation--  '7,half a page omitted47  
',just in the same way from another     
point of view shall we live for own     
advancement1 which we are continually   
tempted to do8 ,it's awfully annoying if
 you do certain things and people won't 
recognise them4 ,i was pretty heftily   

annoyed myself at a meeting of the      
,oxford and ,cambridge ,board4          
,professor ,barker--great man--,i nearly
 always agree with him4 ,professor      
,barker4 ,they had made science         
compulsory for the school certificate4  
,bow wow wow4 ,i don't want boys turned 
aside from their main purpose to have to
 get up scraps and snippets of science4 
,literary pursuits and so on4 ,i        
wouldn't have it at any price4 ,bow wow 
wow4 ,modern languages are compulsory   
too4 ,by looking at a boy's ,french set 
,i can tell whether he can pass or not4 
,bow wow4 ,professor ,barker proposed   
that science should be voluntary4 ,i    
seconded him1 but ,i said that languages
 should be voluntary as well4 ,he didn't
 see that at all4 ,isn't it enough to   
make a man angry8  '7,half a dozen lines
 omitted from our note as               
incomprehensible47  ',now ,i am inclined
 to think that ,satan in this ,gospel is
 not intended to be the ,satan of our   
minds--the prince of evil4 ,he is       

intended to be more like the ,satan in  
the book of ,job4 ,he is the devil's    
advocate4 ,he argues for the other side4
 ,for the opposition4 ,he is put up to  
create opposition4 ,this may in itself  
be a valuable thing4 ,i don't know that 
,i need go further into it4 ,i would    
just like to tell you this1 boys4 ,some 
modern writers1 especially ,bernard     
,shaw1 have a very high esteem for the  
devil4 ,he#a prefers hell to heaven4 ,so
 he says4 ,of course he hasn't been     
there1 so he can't tell4 ,so he is voted
 a dangerous personage because1 dear    
souls1 they don't know what he means4   
,what he means is that heaven as it has 
been run down to and ,god as ,he has    
been run down to--everything placid and 
simple and inactive and non-creative and
 sleepy4 ,people don't worship ,god4    
,they worship 7burble burble74 ,they    
don't disturb their minds and think     
about things4 ,that's what he means4    
,yes4 ,man and ,superman4 ,activity of  
intellect4 ,that's more or less what he 

has in mind4 ,he prefers people doing   
something outrageously wrong than doing 
nothing at all4 ,i don't know if it's   
true2 it's all expressed in ,greek      
thought4  '7,four pages omitted on      
running with the tide1 ,lloyd ,george1  
the importance of ,french in            
examinations1 and the correct way of    
getting a true national spirit47        
',well1 our ,lord now proceeded to found
 ,his ,galilean ,ministry4 ,and what was
 the first thing ,he did1 ,l----8 ,it's 
quite obvious4 ,what did ,he do8        
,obvious4 ,were you thinking of what ,i 
said just now8 ,no1 sir4 ,my stream of  
words goes over you1 not through you4   
,obvious4 ,now what was the first thing 
,he did8 ,what is obviously the first   
thing ,he did8 ,why1 it's painfully     
obvious1 even to ,l----4 ,what was it8  
,what8 ,where are we1 ,l----8 ,l---- has
 lost the place4 ,which paragraph do ,i 
mean1 ,l----8 ,read the paragraph ,i    
mean4 ,no4 ,i have finished that4 ,next 
one4 ,obvious4 ,what is it about8 ,yes1 

what is it about8 ,what is it about8    
,two or four8 ,yes1 four6 ,now what is  
obvious8 ,obvious6 ,now you've just got 
it1 and you're ten minutes behind4 ,of  
course4 ,the first obvious thing ,he had
 to do was to get a band of faithful    
disciples4 ,very first thing ,he did4   
,what did ,he call them to be8 ,to be   
what8 ,fishers of ,men4 ,obvious4       
'7,five pages omitted on ,empire ,day1  
,medical ,study1 and ,cancer47  ',now   
the--er--the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,you
 have heard this ever since you were on 
your mother's knee4 ,at least ,i hope   
so4 ,beyond the historical times of your
 memory4 ,for you1 the ,sermon on the   
,mount is as old as the ages4 ,and yet  
,i dare trespass on the ,sermon on the  
,mount4 ,i've heard of it before1 you   
say4 ,i'm tired of it4 ,do something    
fresh4 ,boys1 you must go and read old  
things and breathe into them the new    
,spirit of ,life4 ,now what is that     
chapter in ,ezekiel1 boys8 ,do you know 
the number of the page1 and the         

paragraph1 and the chapter8 ,no4 ,what  
am ,i talking about8 ,why1 the valley of
 dry bones4 ,never heard of it6 ,no4 ,is
 it in ,jeremiah1 ,ezekiel1 or where1 or
 ,habakkuk8 ,is it in ,ezekiel #a8 ,no4 
#cf8 ,no4 #cg8 ,yes4 ,dry ,bones4       
,bones4 ,yes4 ,that's what4 ,i am going 
to take you to a valley of dry bones4   
,dry ,bones4 ,bones4 ,it is your        
business to go into the dry bones of the
 past and cover them with flesh1 and    
breathe into them the new ,spirit4 ,i   
often read the ,sermon on the ,mount4   
,it never bores me4 ,i have more excuse 
to be bored than you4 ,i learned it1    
gracious goodness1 how long ago6 ,beyond
 ,historic times4 ,i loved it as a boy4 
,dry ,bones4  '7,three pages on the     
,sermon on the ,mount47  ',now yesterday
 was ,empire ,day4 ,why did you want me 
to put the flag up8 ,rule ,britannia6   
,britannia rules the waves6 ,is not that
 it8 7,yes1 sir47 ,dear boys6 ,i        
wouldn't throw cold water on it for     
worlds4 ,well1 you had your flag4 ,it   

didn't fly4 ,there was no wind behind   
it4 ,there was no devil to blow it4     
,dear boys1 you wanted that flag for a  
reason ,i think a shade wrong4 ,it      
wouldn't be within the--what's the word 
,i want8--suited for our modern gauges4 
,the new world won't come until we give 
up the idea of ,conquest and ,extension 
of ,empire--no new kingdom until its    
members are imbued with the principles  
that competition is wrong1 that conquest
 is wrong1 that co-operativeness is     
right1 and sacrifice a law of nature4   
,now1 how do the seven ,beatitudes read 
with ,rule ,britannia8 ,now you say you 
believe in your ,bibles4 ,you say you   
are ,christians4 ,pious ,christians4    
,you would be most annoyed if ,i called 
you heathens4 ,well1 if so1 you believe 
that these are right3--  ',blessed are  
the poor in spirit1 for theirs is the   
kingdom of heaven4 ,rule ,britannia6    
',blessed are they that mourn1 for they 
shall be comforted4 ,rule ,britannia6   
',blessed are the meek1 for they shall  

inherit the earth4 ,rule ,britannia6    
',blessed are they that hunger and      
thirst after righteousness1 for they    
shall be filled4 ,britannia rules the   
waves6  ',blessed are the merciful1 for 
they shall obtain mercy4 ,rule          
,britannia6  ',blessed are the pure in  
heart1 for they shall see all that is   
worth seeing and living for4 ,wave your 
flag6 ,rule ,britannia6  ',blessed are  
the peacemakers1 for they shall be      
called sons of ,god4 ,rule ,britannia6  
',blessed are they that have been       
persecuted for righteousness sake4 ,rule
 ,britannia6 ,it is incongruous4444     
',dear souls6 ,my dear souls6 ,i        
wouldn't lead you astray for anything4  
,i can't explain it 444 this national   
spirit of yours4 ,beneath it all there  
is a spirit of great righteousness4 ,i  
wouldn't tamper with it for thousands of
 pounds4 ,but you must just see the     
other side4444  '7,starts on the ,salt  
of the ,earth1 but is interrupted by    
time4 ,sets a heavy prep41 and goes47'  

#b  ,now that was the key in which      
,sanderson dealt with his boys and in   
which he gave his message to the world4 
,and that is also the key in which they 
dealt with him4 ,i want to clear out of 
the reader's mind any idea that this    
great teacher of men was a solemn and   
superior person1 clear1 exact1 and      
exalted1 and that his boys had any vague
 sentimental worship for him4 ,they     
laughed at him1 loved him1 understood   
him1 assimilated his ideas1 and worked  
with him4 ,he was much more like a      
sweating1 panting1 burly leader pushing 
a way for himself and others through a  
thorny thicket4 ,and when ,i sat in his 
study and read over the notes of his    
sermons and scripture lessons ,i got the
 same impression of a sturdy fighter    
thrusting through a tangle4  ,altogether
 there were several hundred of these    
sermon-memoranda4 ,he would take a quire
 of manuscript paper and write down his 
notes1 not headings merely but          
sentences1 writing very fast1 missing   

out halves of words1 leaving phrases    
incomplete4 ,the result would be a      
little book with perhaps a title and a  
date scribbled on the back page4 ,the   
dozen specimen sermons in the official  
,life were mostly taken from these rough
 drafts4 ,there was also a quantity of  
printed sermons dating from his earliest
 days at ,oundle4 ,so that it was       
possible to trace his development from  
the days when every heretical utterance 
was jealously noted1 to the days of     
complete freedom of thought and         
expression4  ,he came into the          
interlaced briars and brakes of modern  
religious thought1 a trained theological
 student1 but already a very broad one1 
far from the trite materialistic        
superstitions of the narrowly orthodox4 
',of what is termed definite religious  
teaching his boys received little1' says
 one of his clerical assistants4 ',the  
,head fought shy of anything which he   
felt might cramp a boy's tendency to    
think for himself and develop his own   

views4'  ,this is far from the old days 
of salvation by belief4  ,he took       
,christ as the central figure in his    
teaching4 ,in his early days he had     
prepared a parallel arrangement of the  
gospels1 and this developed into his    
,synopsis of the ,life of ,christ4 ,he  
seems to have clung stoutly to the      
authenticity of the recorded sayings of 
,christ1 but he held himself free to    
doubt whether we have as yet 'got to the
 bottom of many sayings of the ,master4'
 ,and1 says the same witness1 at once   
rather vaguely and rather               
illuminatingly3 ',he brushed aside      
impatiently doubts as to the feasibility
 of this miracle or that4 ,to any who   
seemed to be worrying about the actual  
turning of water into wine at ,cana he  
would urge that they were missing the   
whole point2 cold1 lifeless water was   
turned into warm1 life-giving wine--and 
this was the work of the ,master and    
,his new teaching4 ,could they doubt    
that8 ,he seemed to feel acutely that   

the passing of the centuries is liable  
to bring a distortion as well as an     
enrichment of the ,christian revelation1
 and for that reason he was always      
trying to meditate himself1 and to get  
others to meditate1 on the true         
characteristics of the ,master in the   
earliest portraits of ,him handed down  
to us in the ,gospels4'  ,illustration3 
,the head among the parents  ,like all  
religious teachers he emphasised some   
aspects of the general doctrine in      
preference to others1 but his accent was
 never on the sacramental or ceremonial 
side4 ,the root ideas of orthodox       
,christianity1 the ideas of sin and an  
atonement1 never very prominent in his  
teaching1 faded more and more from his  
discourses as the years went on4 ,he    
never seems to have had much sense of   
sin1 and he laid an increasing stress on
 action1 on courage and experiment4 ,one
 saying he repeated endlessly1 ',give1  
and it shall be given unto you2 good    
measure1 pressed down1 shaken together1 

running over1 shall men give into your  
bosom4' ,still more frequently he       
quoted1 ',i came that ye might have     
life1 and that ye might have it more    
abundantly4' ,in his later days that had
 become a new motto for ,oundle ,school2
 it ousted ',god grant ,grace' from the 
boys' thoughts in much the same way that
 ,faraday for all spiritual purposes    
ousted ,st4 ,anthony as the patron saint
 of the school4 ,and in the later       
sermons one would find side by side with
 ,gospel sayings1 exhortations from     
quite another quarter4 ,the boys were   
told to 'live dangerously4' ,the ,christ
 of later ,oundle became indeed a very  
,nietzschean ,christ4    #c  ,orthodox  
,christianity is built upon the doctrine
 of the ,fall of ,man and the damnation 
of mankind1 but ,i could find only the  
rarest and remotest allusions to this   
ground beneath the ,christian           
corner-stone of salvation in the bale of
 sermons ,i examined4 ,there is no      
evidence that ,sanderson ever denied the

 fallen state of man1 but he never      
alluded to it1 and the general effect of
 his teaching went far beyond a mere    
avoidance4 ,as his teaching developed1  
another word1 a word infrequent in the  
gospels1 became dominant1 the word      
'creative4' ,for any mention of         
'salvation' you will find twenty        
repetitions of 'creative4' ,so far as ,i
 can gather he took the word from a     
hitherto unrecognised ,christian father1
 ,st4 ,bertrand ,russell4 ,and ,i should
 submit the following passage from a    
sermon on ,the ,garden of ,life1 to any 
competent theological body with very    
grave doubts whether they would accept  
it as consistent with the teaching of   
any recognised ,christian ,church4      
',god had created man1 and had moulded  
and fashioned him1 and had breathed into
 his nostrils the breath of life1 and   
man became a living soul1 possessed of  
the divine and eternal indestructible   
spirit1 the ,god-like spirit which would
 fill him with the glorious and         

life-giving spirit of unrest1 of        
unsatisfied longings and desire1 of the 
instinctive natural urge to have more of
 life4 ,a mighty power1 a dynamic       
creative force1 a daemonic increasing   
urge--against which the forces of hell1 
of destructiveness1 of caprice1 of      
lawlessness1 of the jungle1 cannot      
prevail4 ,under this power man and the  
races of man progress3 but without this 
mental fight1 this constant struggle1 no
 life can come4 ,i dwelt on this fact   
last time ,i spoke to you1 having in    
mind the mental or intellectual aspect  
of it1 especially for those of you who  
are working for some searching          
examinations3 for without a persistent1 
painful1 and often enough disappointing 
effort the understanding of things will 
not come to you1 or to any of us4  ',be 
true to yourselves1 suffer no artifice1 
or artificial understanding1 to throw   
dust in your eyes4 ,do not struggle for 
a static victory4 ,be true to           
yourselves4 ,do not struggle for your   

own recognition1 as it were1 or for the 
mere appearance of knowledge--rather    
struggle to enter into the kingdom1 the 
kingdom of service4  ',and where can you
 find the inspiration and urge of life8 
,the source is wonderfully drawn out for
 us in the illuminating and suggestive  
commentary on ,genesis you have the     
advantage to study4 ,a great human book 
is ,canon ,driver's ,commentary1 digging
 out for us the deep truths of life     
embedded in the ancient myths of        
,genesis4 ,a study in the use of words2 
of what we can learn from words2 a new  
form of text-book4 ,such a text-book as 
we should have for the new era4 ,this   
picture of the coming and making of man 
tells us a story of the widest          
applicability4 ,it is found in all the  
works of ,god2 it is found in all our   
surroundings2 it is found in all our    
work and toil2 it is found most fully   
and actively in all our daily working   
life4 ,god1 we are told1 made a garden  
for man1 and there ,he placed him and   

gave him charge of it2 and there the    
,lord ,god came and walked with man1 and
 communed with man1 and breathed into   
his nostrils the breath of life4 ,and   
there ,he gave him his chief aim of     
life1 his one purpose4 ,and the ,lord   
,god took man1 and put him in the       
,garden of ,eden1 to dress it and to    
keep it4 ,and then with the memory and  
order of that garden in his mind ,he    
permitted him to receive knowledge1 and 
then sent him out into the great        
wilderness to find his garden there4'   
,and here is another passage from a     
sermon entitled ',creative4'  ,in the   
beginning ,god created the heaven and   
the earth1 and the earth was waste and  
void4 ,the world was in chaos1 darkness1
 and gloom4 ,but it was not to be left  
in this state4 ,all this condition of   
anarchy1 this waste and void1 was the   
material out of which a new world was to
 be created4 ,confused and impossible   
though everything appeared1 yet there   
was something present that made         

steadfastly and incessantly for order4  
,so we believe it is now1 in the present
 state of things4 ,all the conflicts and
 strifes of to-day are the breaking up  
of the fallow ground4 ,they are the     
effort to create life4 ,they are the    
messengers of the coming of the ,son of 
,man4 ,in storm and tempest cometh the  
,son of ,man4 ,over all this lawless1   
shapeless1 impossible material of chaos 
there brooded1 we are told1 the ,spirit 
of ,god4 ,the ,spirit of ,god was       
brooding over the waters like a bird    
over its nest1 and in due time1 in the  
order of creation1 a new life was to    
take shape1 and a new world was to rise 
up4 ,in stately1 ordered1 majestic      
manner with all the certainty and       
irresistible power of gravitation1 step 
by step1 stage by stage1 out of the     
welter of anarchy1 a life--a new        
life--was to come into the world4 ,a new
 life came4  ,and at each stage we hear 
the words of the ,lord ,god1 ,let there 
be1 and there was4 ,and then3 ,god saw  

that it was good4 ,there was evening1   
and there was morning--darkness changed 
into light--and the day's work was done4
 ,and ,god saw that it was good4  ,so1  
too1 it is and will be in the history of
 the human race4 ,the uplifting of      
mankind1 the coming of fuller life to   
nations1 to man1 to classes and sections
 of men1 has come in epochs of change4  
,such stages in history are like the    
stages in the life history of a plant4  
,there seem to be resting phases1 epochs
 of apparent quiescence1 the cessation  
of struggle4  ,the fact is that some new
 freedom1 some new principle of life1   
some desire to grow1 has for a long time
 been taking root in the minds and souls
 of men4 ,the urge to become more       
creative--to gain more of life and give 
more of life--becomes at last intense4  
,and there is an immense desire to      
satisfy the great urge of nature4 ,the  
old order passes4 ,the gathered forces  
seek release4 ,the pangs of birth are   
upon us4'  ,the further one goes with   

,sanderson1 the stronger is one's sense 
of new wine fermenting in the old bottle
 of orthodox ,christian formul4 ,in one 
of the late sermons he deliberately sets
 aside the ,epistles of the ,new        
,testament as of less account than the  
gospels4 ,he was still diverging when he
 died4 ,in the last year or so of his   
life a new word crept into his talk and 
played an increasingly important part in
 it4 ,that word was 'syncretism4' ,he   
spoke of it more and more plainly as an 
evil thing4 ,and ,i cannot but believe1 
knowing his sources of knowledge and the
 angle at which he approached history1  
that he must have been aware that       
doctrinal ,christianity--as detached    
from the personal teaching of           
,jesus--is1 with its ,mithraic blood    
sacrifice and ,sabbath keeping1 its     
,alexandrine trinity1 its ,egyptian     
priests1 shaven and celibate1 its       
,stella ,maris and infant ,horus1 the   
completest example of a syncretic       
religion in the world4 ,my impression is

 that if he had lived another two years 
he would have shed his last vestiges of 
theological paraphernalia and gone      
straight back to the teaching of the    
,nazarene1 openly and plainly4 ,and that
 would have created a very embarrassing 
situation for the members of the        
,grocers' ,company1 in the school at    
,oundle4    #d  ,and what creed was     
taking the place of the old theological 
tangle8 ,what interpretation was        
,sanderson putting upon this ever-new   
teaching of ,christ in the world1 that  
he was stripping so steadily out of its 
irrelevant casings of dogma and         
superstition8 ,i cannot do better in    
answer to that than quote from one of   
his latest sermons1 a sermon delivered  
on the reassembly of the school at the  
opening of a new school year4  ',the    
fundamental instinct of life is to      
create1 to make1 to discover1 to grow1  
to progress4 ,every one in some form or 
other has experience of this joy of     
creating2 the joy of seeing the growth1 

the building1 the change1 the coming4   
,the instinct of those in authority has 
recognised--without perhaps knowing     
it--the love to create1 when they       
devised punishment--the treadmill1      
prisons1 routine1 all thwarting that    
free creative impulse to the point of   
torture4 ,or on a minor scale the       
trivial school stupidities and          
idlenesses of 'lines'2 detentions       
without labour or sacrifice or both2 or 
even the cheap and easy physical        
punishment4 ,such punishment1 if not all
 inflicted punishment1 springs out of   
the distinctive protective aim of       
slavery4 ,creative life comes slowly4   
,life1 this beautiful1 creative life1   
comes slowly through the ages1 but it   
comes4 ,slowly mankind is emerging out  
of slavery into the beautiful freedom of
 creative life4 ,slowly mankind is      
realising the natural desire1 the       
instinctive natural urge1 the essential 
need for life--of each individual to be 
free4 ,free--i4e4 free to strive1 to    

endeavour1 to reach onwards1 to create1 
to make1 to beget4 ,the economic freedom
 of the individual has been slowly      
escaping throughout history4 ,it burst  
into a new vigorous life through the    
hammering blows of the ,french          
,revolution4 ,during the last century or
 more this principle of freedom has been
 changing our political relationships   
and values4 ,this economic escape may be
 said to have reacted on science1 and   
the modern developments of evolution    
have benefited by the spreading change  
in the temper of mind1 and by the influx
 of workers and creative thinkers from  
the enslaved order4  ,and this raises a 
large question which ,i have in mind    
this morning4 ,every one can see to-day 
the immensity of the problems before the
 world4 ,it does not need much          
reflection1 or foresight1 or knowledge1 
to see that the organisation of the     
intercourse of races is hurrying on to  
becoming a dangerous problem4 ,as has   
been said1 and as any one ,i think with 

powers of sight can see1 it is in a     
large sense a race between education and
 catastrophe4 ,and the question we in   
schools have to ask is1 ,can we in      
schools be outside all this8 ,can we    
confine our work1 our play1 our         
necessary work1 our necessary play1 to  
the recognised1 traditional work or play
 of schools8 ,we here think not4 ,we    
believe that schools should move on     
towards becoming always a microcosm of  
the new world4 ,a microcosm1 and        
experiment1 of the standards of value1  
of the commandments1 the statutes and   
judgments1 of the organisation1 of the  
visions and aims of a coming world4 ,we 
must not get into our heads that these  
are theoretical things1 it may be pure  
idealistic sort of things1 or1 it may be
 new and dangerous things4 ,they are    
none of these things--they can be       
expressed in very everyday1 homely1     
matter-of-fact things and in the doing  
of our ordinary work4 ,of course they do
 mean thought1 a tendency to believe1 a 

faith in boys--and they do mean labour1 
and sacrifice--as they are called or    
thought of at first--until both pass on 
into the beautiful life4  ,such aims and
 urges become terrific powers for       
prolonging the life of man2 and as the  
stream of life goes on it becomes more  
and more like a vast river moving slowly
 forward with great power1 receiving    
more and more of tributaries1 slowly1   
strongly1 surely flowing on unto the    
estuary that enlarges1 and spreads      
itself grandly as it pours its waters   
into the great ocean of sea4  ,but the  
beginnings are here3 and here boys must 
find themselves in the great stream of  
true life4 ,they must find themselves in
 the land of the great vision1 of faith1
 of service4 ,no beating or marking of  
time here4 ,no easy static state4 ,no   
satisfaction with conventional static   
comfort4 ,here they will join in this   
great world-life4 ,they came from their 
homes to join the great world-life here4
 ,even these tiny boys here will feel   

that something is before them that      
matters1 something of true life and true
 intent4 ,they will get the germs of    
life from some of those things we are   
perpetually trying to do1 and never     
succeeding in doing4 ,they will catch   
the contagion of effort4 ,for learning  
is not our object here1 but doing4 ,they
 may learn things in a deadly static    
way1 they may learn much in a static way
 and gain nothing of life4 ,not here1 ,i
 hope4 ,no1 the germs of life come from 
the spirit2 from the incessant travail  
of the soul2 from high intent2 they come
 from the burning desire to know of the 
things that are coming into the         
world4444'  ,,footnote3  #a ,mr4 ,shaw4 
,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the ,,war ,,and       
,,sanderson',s ,,propaganda ,,of        
,,reconstruction    #a  ,the disaster of
 the great war came to ,sanderson as a  
tremendous distressful stimulant1 a     
monstrous and tragic turn in human      
affairs that he had to square with his  
aims and teaching4 ,he had had our      

common awareness of its possibility1 and
 yet when the crash came it took him1 as
 it took most of us1 by surprise4 ,at   
first he accepted the war as a dire     
heroic necessity4 ,this aggression of a 
military imperialism had to be faced    
valiantly4 ,that was how he saw it4     
,both his sons joined up at the earliest
 possible moment1 and the school braced 
itself up to train its senior boys as   
officers1 to help in the production of  
munitions1 to produce aviators1 gunners 
and engineers for the great service of  
the war4  ,the practical quality of the 
old boys from ,oundle became apparent at
 once4 ,they stepped from laboratory and
 factory and office into commissions2   
they returned from all over the world to
 prepare for the battlefields4 ,by #aiah
 over a thousand ,oundle boys had gone  
into the fighting services1 three had   
,v4,c4's1 many had been mentioned in    
despatches1 awarded the ,military ,cross
 and the like4  ,he did his best to find
 ,god and creative force in the world   

convulsion4 ,here is a part of an       
address to the ,church ,parade of the   
,cadet ,corps which shows his very fine 
and very human struggle to impose a     
nobility of interpretation upon the grim
 distressful last stages of the war4    
',it is a pleasant thing to wander about
 these fields and watch the cadets who  
are told off to instruct their squads4  
,it is a splendid illustration of the   
power of co-operation in                
education--where boys and men1 or where 
a community work together1 teaching one 
another1 learning one from the other1   
where all are teachers and scholars1 a  
body of co-workers1 helping1            
encouraging1 stimulating each other4    
,this community method is dominant      
wherever there is a great stirring1 e4g4
 a great call1 a great pressing into a  
new kingdom2 wherever there is a great  
discovery and a new need4 ,the war will 
establish it in schools4  ,and just one 
word when you go forth from here4 ,you  
will carry this mutual co-operative     

spirit with you4 ,you will love your    
men1 take care of their interests1      
making full use of their individual     
faculties1 and learn to be co-workers   
with them4  ,it is often said that wars 
will never cease--that they are a       
necessity--and in a sense this is true4 
,one thing we know quite well1 that in  
all affairs of life peace may be simply 
the peace of death4 ,there is the peace 
of lifelessness1 of inactivity1         
notwithstanding all its autumnal beauty4
 ,there is the quiet peace which changes
 not1 the conventional belief1 the      
conventional kind of round of work1 with
 lack of initiative1 of experiment1 of  
testing and trials4 ,there is the peace 
which follows on contentment with things
 as they are1 the peace of death4 ,the  
land of peace and of convention1 and of 
cruel contentment4 ,the land of dark    
,satanic mills--as in ,blake's imagery4 
,war may come to break up this deathful 
peace4 ,so said ,john ,ruskin4 ,i have a
 letter written to me just when the war 

broke out4 ,in ,july #aiad the ,o4,t4,c4
 was inspected by ,general ,birkbeck1   
and in his speech he expressed his      
belief that war was coming4 ,on #bnd    
,august1 #aiad1 he wrote to me3--       
,,dear ,,mr4 ,,sanderson1--,we little   
thought when ,i spoke to those boys     
of yours how near we were to our trial6 
and he adds3 ,these are      the words  
of a peaceful philosopher1 ,mr4 ,ruskin1
 when concluding a      series of       
lectures on ,war at ,woolwich ,royal    
,academy ,institution1      which may   
give you comfort4 ,men talk of peace and
 plenty1 of peace      and learning1 of 
peace and civilisation2 but ,i found    
that those      are not the words which 
the muse of history has coupled         
together6      ,on her lips the words   
are ,peace and ,selfishness1 ,peace and 
,sensuality1 ,peace and ,death666 ,i    
learned1 in short1 that all great       
nations learned their truth of word and 
strength of thought in      war2 that   
they were taught by war and betrayed by 

peace--trained      by war and deceived 
by peace--nourished in war and decayed  
in      peace2 in a word1 that they were
 born in war and expired in peace4      
,this is the prophet's call to arise and
 awaken out of sleep2 to abandon the    
easy life of routine and routine's      
belief4 ,it is a call to rise up and    
breathe life into the dry bones of the  
past2 it is the trumpet blast for active
 warfare against all things that have   
become lifeless and dead4 ,it is the    
herald call for a new army1 to build up 
a new world of active1 creative1 dynamic
 ,peace4'    #b  ,in ,april #aiah his   
eldest son1 ,roy1 died of wounds at     
,estaires after the battle of the ,lys4 
,loss after loss of boys and trusted    
colleagues had grieved and distressed   
him2 now came this culminating blow4    
,there had been the closest             
understanding between father and son2   
,roy had left engineering to become a   
master at the ,royal ,naval ,college1   
,osborne1 which ,sanderson had helped to

 reconstruct1 and more and more had the 
father looked to his boy as his chosen  
disciple and possible successor4  ,on   
the ,whitsunday following ,sanderson    
preached a sermon on the text3 ',i will 
not leave you desolate1 ,i will come    
unto you4' ,the notes of the sermon were
 untidy1 and have had to be carefully   
pieced together1 but ,i think they rise 
to a very high level of poetry4 ,and    
when ,i copy them out ,i think how the  
dear sturdy man in his academic gown    
must have stood up and clung to his     
desk1 after his manner1 full of grief   
and sorrowful memories of the one       
'gentle soul1' in particular1 and of    
many other gentle souls1 he had         
lost--clinging to his desk with both    
hands as he clung to his faith and      
speaking stoutly4  ,whitsunday--,white  
,sunday--white1 pure1 untainted--day of 
consolation--day of inspiration--perhaps
 the most joyous time of all the year4  
,spring in its power1 life1 ,spirit of  
,peace1 joy4 ,everywhere                

joy--sanctified1 subdued4 ,joy1 and     
peace1 and new life in the music1 the   
harmonies and discords1 of              
,nature--here1 in the country4 ,the     
singing of the birds1 their twittering1 
chattering1 calling2 their excitement2  
their restful chirping1 abandon of joy1 
peace without alloy--they are friends of
 the soul4 ,the atmosphere too--the     
gentleness of it1 the life within it and
 soft warmth of it3 freedom1            
imagination1 inspiration are in the air2
 the wind bloweth where it listeth4     
,joy1 innocent1 white1 pure1 and happy4 
,happiness too4 ,life steeped in the    
sunshine of happiness4 ,the spring1 the 
elasticity1 the eutrophy of life3       
life-creating life2 life-giving life4   
,happiness on every hand mystic1 elusive
 as the forces of ,nature4 ,the wind    
bloweth where it listeth1 and thou      
hearest the voice thereof1 but cannot   
tell whence it cometh1 nor whither it   
goeth4 ,happiness6 ,not freedom from    
care1 or from sorrow1 or from sleepless 

anguish2 not freedom from abasement1 not
 even from dark gloom--the accidie of   
depression--yet nevertheless the        
increasing sense of the life of love and
 service1 the power of service1 the     
completeness of it4 ,the happiness which
 breaks ever and again through the      
clouds of uncertainties1 doubts1        
darknesses of life--revealing it may be1
 for a moment1 the signs of long years  
of effort--for as life goes on it is    
given to catch glimpses of the growth of
 the soul1 something of the part the    
soul has taken in the building of the   
kingdom4 ,it is in this life of love and
 service the words of the ,master come  
to us3 ,i will not leave you desolate1  
,i will come unto you4'  ,followed      
praise of the beauty of work with which 
his congregation must have been         
familiar4 ,and then came this concluding
 passage3--  ',and when these days of   
wrath are passed away1 there will be a  
great battlefield for a new birth4 ,days
 of wrath and then a new revelation4    

,when ,god came down on the first       
,pentecost on ,mount ,sinai1 ,he came   
amid thunders and lightnings1 and in a  
thick dark cloud--and when the ,holy    
,spirit of ,god came to the waiting     
disciples there was a sound of a rushing
 mighty wind4 ,and it must be so4 ,new  
birth comes through much sorrow4 ,so we 
may hope that new theories of life which
 for a century have been growing towards
 birth will spring forth out of this    
great contest in all the lands of the   
earth4 ,vast work there will be1 and the
 labourers sadly fewer4 ,the nation is  
now sending of her very best into the   
battlefield4 ,there will be great call  
for new recruits to restore the         
countries which are devastated--great   
calls1 too1 for investigators in all    
branches of knowledge4 ,pioneers are now
 leading the way in research1 in        
mathematics1 in science1 in industry1 in
 the laws of logic and thought1 with new
 ways of expression in language and art4
  ',there is the great pressing need of 

revolution in the laws and relationships
 in the social life4 ,we may have       
visions of a regenerated social state1  
in which courtesy1 justice1 mercy1 the  
spirit of the gentle knight1 will show  
themselves in change of thought1 of     
belief2 we may have visions of          
communities guided by principles which  
we hope and believe rule in our great   
school4 ,care for the weak2 clothing1   
feeding1 housing1 medical care for all2 
a crime to be poor2 to be diseased1 to  
be underfed2 these regenerations        
controlled by the true and public spirit
 at the cost of the community4 ,laws for
 reform and redemption1 and not for     
punishment4 ,each member of the state   
cared for1 as it is our hope each boy of
 this school is4 ,great                 
changes--essential to the well-being of 
a state1 and to each member of it4 ,we  
may have visions that the spirit of     
chivalry1 of kindness1 of courtesy1 of  
gentleness1 of all that goes to make the
 gentle soul will bring this redemption 

to the people4'    #c  ,the war turned  
,sanderson from a successful            
schoolmaster into an amateur statesman4 
,life had become intolerable for him    
unless he could interpret all its       
present disorders as the wreckage and   
confusion of the house-breakers         
preparing the site for a far nobler and 
better building4 ,he shows himself at   
times by no means certain that this     
would ever prove to be the case1 but he 
had the brave man's assurance that with 
luck and courage there was nothing      
impossible in the hope that a more      
splendid human order might be built at  
last upon this troubled and distressful 
planet4 ,but for that to happen every   
possible soul must be stirred1 no latent
 will for order but must be roused and  
brought into active service4 ,he had no 
belief in hopeless and irremediable     
vulgarity4 ,people are mean1 base1      
narrow1 implacable1 unforgiving1        
contentious1 selfish1 competitive1      
because they have still to see the      

creative light4 ,let that but shine upon
 them and seize them and they would come
 into their places in that creative     
treatment of life which ennobles the    
servant and enriches the giver1 which is
 the true salvation of souls4  ,he      
became a propagandist4 ,he felt he had  
now made good sufficiently in his       
school4 ,he had established a claim as  
an able and successful man to go out to 
able men1 to business men1 to           
influential men of all sorts1 and tell  
them the significance of this school of 
his1 this hand-specimen1 this assay     
sample1 of what could be done with the  
world4 ,he went to ,chambers of         
,commerce1 to ,rotary ,clubs1 to ,civic 
,assemblies1 to ,luncheon gatherings of 
business men1 to tell them of this idea 
of organisation for service1 instead of 
for profit and possession4 ,he tried to 
find industrial magnates who would take 
up the methods of ,oundle in productive 
organisation4 ,he corresponded          
extensively with such men as1 for       

example1 ,lord ,weir and ,sir ,alfred   
,yarrow and ,lord ,bledisloe4 ,he wanted
 to see them doing for industrial and   
agricultural production what he had done
 for education1 reconstructing it upon a
 basis of corporate service1 aiming     
primarily at creative achievement1      
setting aside altogether competitive    
success or the amassing of private      
wealth as the ends of human activity4   
,surely they would see how much finer   
this new objective was1 how much fuller 
and richer it must make their own lives6
  ,when ,i tell of this search for a    
kindred spirit among ironmasters and    
great landlords and the like ,i am      
reminded of ,confucius and his search   
for a duke in ,china1 or of ,plato or   
,machiavelli looking for a prince4      
,there is the same belief in the power  
of a leader and the need of a personal  
will2 the same utter scepticism in any  
automatic or crowd achievement of good  
order2 once again the schoolmaster sets 
out to conquer the world4 ,perhaps some 

day that perennial attempt will come to 
fruition1 and the schoolmaster will then
 indeed conquer the world4 ,perhaps the 
seeds that ,sanderson has sown will     
presently be germinating in a crop of   
masterful business men of a new creative
 type4 ,perhaps there are ,sandersons   
yet to come1 men of energy2 each with   
his individual difference1 but all      
alight with the new conception of man's 
creative life4 ,perhaps ,oundle may1    
after all1 prove to be the egg of a new 
world4 ,oundle may relapse1 probably    
will relapse1 but other1 more enduring  
,oundles may follow in other parts of   
the world4 ,at present all that ,i can  
tell is of the message ,sanderson was   
preaching during the last six years of  
his life4  ,here he is1 talking to the  
textile manufacturers of ,bradford4     
,this that follows is from his printed  
address1 restrained and pruned1 but for 
the manner of his delivery1 the reader  
should think rather of that sample      
sermon and the other descriptions ,i    

have given of his personal quality4  ',i
 am very much honoured by your          
invitation to address this important    
congress1 and ,i am honoured1 too1 in   
being permitted to speak on education in
 this great city of ,bradford4 ,for your
 city stands out very prominently in the
 annals of education1 and its work is   
well known by all who have watched      
educational progress4  ,you1 gentlemen1 
are concerned with education3 you are   
much concerned with the education which 
will promote the welfare of the leaders 
and workers in your industry2 and the   
welfare of the people in your districts4
 ,industrialism has tumbled upon us1 and
 it is an untamed1 unruly being1 the    
laws of which are not yet known1 and    
need study4 ,for some thirty-five       
years--a long spell--,i have1 in places 
removed far away from the voices of     
industry1 devoted my time towards the   
introduction into ,public ,schools of   
those ,scientific and ,technical studies
 which1 as ,i understand it1 lie at the 

basis of industrial life4 ,i have always
 had before me the work of organising   
,technical ,subjects so that they might 
give all that is best to give of        
spiritual and intellectual training4    
,and our object is to send forth from   
school boys that will be in sympathy    
with the work that they have to do1 that
 they will be privileged to do1 and to  
send them forth equipped for it4 ,you   
have the same purpose4 ,your wish is    
that the boys and girls of your country 
should have every chance of developing  
into effective workers in the community1
 and that they should take a zealous    
intellectual interest in their          
work--that they should love their work1 
love to do it well1 ever anxious to     
mount to higher things4  ,and one of the
 difficulties of the immediate future   
will be to reorganise industrial        
conditions so that each worker may have 
the chance of stretching his faculties  
and of getting the work that will give  
him reasonably full play for his        

abilities4 ,the fact that able and      
clever men are1 in the present system1  
kept too long at work which does not    
stretch their brains1 is a cause of     
unrest4 ,fortunately there is a growing 
consensus of opinion that more freedom  
for opportunity and for advancement is  
seriously necessary1 and this           
sympathetic opinion will lead towards a 
solution4 ,it is also well within the   
work of a school to promote this        
sympathy by sending out boys with those 
intellectual and scientific tastes and  
knowledge which will react upon         
themselves and attract them to the      
workers4  ,there are two other questions
 which ,i will mention before ,i come to
 the actual work which may be done in   
schools4 ,one of the main aims of a good
 school is to see that each boy and girl
 is cared for1 that each one has every  
opportunity for development4 ,we must   
not cast out1 or send our weak ones     
away1 we must keep them in school--we   
must find out what kind of work will    

appeal to them1 so that they1 too1 may  
move upwards1 gain in self-respect1 and 
love their life4 ,and we claim that this
 is what we would have done in all      
factories1 or in any occupation4 ,it is 
the essential duty of every nation4 ,we 
are anxious that no worker should be    
stunted mentally or physically by the   
kind of work he has to do4 ,this again  
is a difficult as it is an urgent       
problem4 ,it is one which can be studied
 in schools1 and there is no doubt that 
the attempts of a school to provide     
avenues of advance for all kinds of boys
 will tend to bring the right spirit    
into industrial and agricultural        
life4444'    #d  ,so much for the       
,bradford discourse4 ,here is the gist  
of a discourse given to the             
,reconstruction ,council in ,london a   
year later4  ',the object of this paper 
is to describe in practical working     
terms an organisation of schools which  
shall be based on a close association   
with the manifold needs and labours of  

the community life4 ,at the outset ,i   
may say that the proposals will         
refer--even if not specifically so      
stated--to all types of schools1 from   
the elementary to the ,public ,schools4 
,it will be seen that the change needs a
 change in the ideals which have usually
 prevailed in schools of the past4 ,in  
the community life the one urgent thing 
to be done to-day is to reorganise      
industry and the conditions of labour4  
,this reorganisation may require quite  
organic or even anarchic changes--and   
for these changes the ideals of boys and
 girls must be changed1 and to prepare  
for this change is the urgent work of   
the schools4  ',before ,i come to the   
proposals for reconstruction of schools1
 ,i will state very briefly some facts  
in industry which are now meeting with  
acceptance3  '#a4 ,modern industrial    
life has come in with a tumultuous rush1
 in a haphazard1 ungoverned way1 through
 the activities of forceful1 capable1   
and industrious leaders who have made   

use of the scientific discoveries of    
another type of men4  '#b4 ,the         
shrinkage of the world1 and the growth  
of population which followed1 has led to
 fierce competition2 and this spirit of 
competition has ruled everywhere4  '#c4 
,in the ungoverned rush for production  
all sorts of methods are adopted which  
seem to be justified by their           
effectiveness4 ,an example is the modern
 system of efficiency1 at first sight   
captivating to the intellect and the    
desires1 but yet a method which needs   
very careful study4  '#d4 ,now men are  
beginning to believe that the first     
product of industry must be for the     
worker2 that the worker should grow     
physically1 intellectually1 spiritually 
by his work4  ',i shall claim that the  
work in schools should be permeated by  
,science and by the scientific method   
and outlook1 and it will be found that  
,science itself does not set all this   
store on efficiency4 ,efficiency1 ,i    
believe1 is entirely contained within   

the first1 or quantitative law of       
,thermo-dynamics4 ,but eutrophy based on
 the more elusive qualitative law is    
concerned with the quality which leads  
to the giving up of life to others4 ,we 
must see to it that whatever the        
efficiency may be1 the eutrophy of      
industry be high4  ',the principle that 
the first product of industry must be   
the worker leads to great organic       
changes4 ,it will lead to no less a     
thing than closing down certain         
productions1 certain classes of         
occupations1 certain industries or      
processes4 ,it will lead to a           
modification in repetition work2 and to 
adjustments in organisation4 ,i hope to 
show the bearing of this on our         
educational methods1 and how the ideals 
implied may bring some help in          
diagnosing ,labour unrest4  ',it will be
 seen that most of the changes needed   
to-day depend upon international        
agreements2 and a league of nations is  
essential1 not1 ,i think1 to end wars1  

but to make the change from competition 
to co-operation possible4  ',we are     
concerned to-day with the part education
 must take in this change of ideals of  
life4 ,it is not too much to say that   
without the influence of a reconstructed
 education the way to change in the     
ideals of men will be hard to find4 ,the
 change has to be made from competitive 
methods and ideals to co-operative      
methods2 from the spirit of dominance to
 creativeness2 and the present system of
 aristocraticism in schools must give   
way to democratisation4  ',competition  
holds sway to-day in industrial life    
with disastrous results4 ,every employer
 of labour feels this1 and wrestles1 and
 would be glad of a change1 but he is   
held in the grip of a system4 ,every one
 feels that competition destroys the    
creative1 inventive life--and is the    
seat of unrest4 ,and yet the spirit of  
competition holds sway1 not in commerce 
only nor in diplomacy1 but in the       
schools4 ,our public schools are        

professedly schools for training a      
dominant class2 the aims1 the           
educational methods1 the school subjects
 and their relative values1 the books   
read1 the life led--are all based on    
this spirit4 ,the methods are largely   
competitive1 possessive4 ,with1 as ,i   
believe1 tragic results in industrial   
life this same system1 with the ideals  
behind it1 has been unwittingly         
impressed on the working class in the   
elementary schools4444  ',the change    
which ,i am advocating will demand a new
 organisation1 and will call for a new  
type of school buildings1 and new values
 of subjects4 ,the new-comer ,science1  
and with it organised industry1 which   
springs out of it1 must take a prominent
 and inspiriting place in school1 and in
 every part of school work4 ,it is not  
sufficient to say that ,science should  
be taught in schools4 ,the time has gone
 by for this4 ,we claim that scientific 
thought should be the inspiring spirit  
in school life4 ,science is essentially 

creative and co-operative1 its outlook  
is onwards towards change1 it means     
searching for the truth1 it demands     
research and experiment1 and does not   
rest on authority4 ,under this new      
spirit all history1 literature1 art1 and
 even languages should be rewritten4    
',a new type of school buildings and    
requirements will arise4 ,no longer     
buildings comprised only of class-rooms1
 but large and spacious workrooms4      
,class-rooms are places where boys go to
 be taught4 ,they are tool-sharpening   
rooms--necessary1 but subsidiary4 ,for  
research and co-operative creative work 
the larger halls are needed4 ,spacious  
engineering and wood-working shops1 well
 supplied with all kinds of machine     
tools1 a smithy1 a foundry1 a           
carpenter's shop1 a drawing office--all 
carried on for manufacturing purposes4  
,plenty of work which will employ boys  
of all ages will be found to do4        
',there will be a corresponding spacious
 literary and historical workshop with a

 really spacious library full of books3 
books on modern subjects1 as well as    
reference books4 ,the building should   
have wings in it for foreign            
books--modern as well as classic1       
history1 economics1 literary1           
scientific4 ,as many as possible of the 
foreign languages should be represented 
here1 that boys may grow up with        
knowledge and sympathy and respect for  
other nations1 and thus aid in promoting
 wider and deeper ideals of life4       
,another gallery for geography1 and     
natural history1 travels1 ethnology4    
',here is full scope for a large number 
of boys of all ages to be engaged in    
research4 ,it is all of a co-operative  
character4 ,they can study the various  
social and economic systems--from       
co-partnership to syndicalism2 or the   
,liberation of ,slaves2 or the ,league  
of ,nations2 or the ,liberation of      
,italy4  ',another block will be a      
science block with an engineering       
laboratory1 machinery hall1 physical1   

chemical1 and biological                
laboratories--well supplied with        
apparatus and plant for applied science2
 plant1 too1 to lead to the             
investigations of the day2 testing      
machine1 ship tank1 air tunnel2 a       
miniature standardising laboratory2 and 
with this a botanical garden and an     
experimental farm4  ',another would be  
an art-room1 music-room1 theatre1 a home
 of industry for studying industrial    
development and industrial life4  ',this
 is not a ,utopian scheme1 but one      
within possibility in town and country4 
,to each large central high school      
should be associated groups of          
elementary schools1 and there should be 
free highways between them1 neither     
barred by examinations nor barred by    
expense4444  ',another change must also 
come4 ,books on modern problems1        
strangely enough1 are not yet read in   
schools4 ,for example1 the time is      
overdue for a change in the ,english    
books3 ,burke's ,reflections and ,pitt's

 ,war ,speeches1 or ,addison1 to        
,ruskin's ,unto ,this ,last and ,time   
and ,tide1 or to ,bernard ,shaw1 ,wells1
 ,galsworthy1 and the modern poets4     
,some would go so far as to give        
,shakespeare a rest4 ,it is astonishing 
how the newer books bearing on the large
 questions of the day1 and bearing on   
the actual life of the boy1 strike the  
imagination of boys--even quite young   
boys of the upper elementary school age4
 ,they stir up the faculties and appeal 
to a less used kind of imagination4 ,it 
is surprising1 too1 what open and live  
views young boys will reach4 ,and one   
thing the study of these books          
possesses1 which ,i hope to dwell upon  
later1 is that they bring the schools   
into close touch with the everyday life 
of their homes and of the community4    
',creative education demands that       
schools should be brought into harmony  
with the community life1 and should take
 part in the industrial and economic    
life4 ,when boys and girls go home from 

school 7even to the humblest home7 the  
parents should find there is something  
their children have done at school which
 will help them in their work4 ,this    
means that technical and vocational     
training should hold a prominent1 and   
not a subsidiary1 place in the schools4 
,it is not difficult to see that this   
kind of work contains within it the     
spirit and genius of ,science4 ,we claim
 that education should be turned in this
 direction1 with confidence and         
inspiration4 ,the divorce of industrial 
life from the life of the spirit is one 
of the tragedies of the age4 ,it        
produces calamitous results4 ,a man's   
work may be of an impossible kind1 it   
may be sordid and destructive of        
life--and the cure proposed is that he  
should have shorter hours and more pay4 
,this leads to bad diagnosis of the     
cause of the ,labour difficulty1 and    
prevents necessary reforms in the       
industries4444  ',creativeness1 the     
co-operative spirit and method1 the     

vision1 the experimental method of      
searching for the truth1 form the unique
 gift ,science and ,industry have to    
give to the ,new ,education4 ,under the 
influence of this new outlook all other 
departments of knowledge must be        
restudied4 ,under its influence the life
 of school will become active1 the      
workers self-reliant1 love abounding4   
,it will make good craftsmen and make   
the school of use in the                
community--whether in the manufacturing 
life or in the investigation of economic
 conditions4 ,incidentally it will give 
rise to a new body of men capable of    
going wholly or in part to teaching1 and
 the school will be thus linked up with 
the life of the place4  ',it may be well
 to state that with an education of this
 kind based fundamentally on ,science a 
capable boy will leave a secondary      
school with a good knowledge of ,science
 and of its application1 with a research
 attitude towards history and modern    
problems1 and with a good working       

knowledge of two1 or three1 or even four
 languages4444  ',the study of social   
questions is seriously needed4          
,industries would then have a close     
connection with the boys and girls1 and 
yet boys and girls would be free to     
follow the best of their own talents and
 inclinations--the industrial life would
 not be separated from the spiritual    
life2 and we may hope that some part of 
this ideal would pass over into the     
workshops and factories2 so that the    
labourer would learn to love his work   
better than his wage--for so indeed he  
would wish to do4 ,and the faculties of 
the worker would grow4 ,the method of   
the work would follow the method of the 
school1 as it is doing more and more in 
our own land and in many a workshop4    
,for the spirit is with these ideals2   
the practice difficult for any single   
firm to carry out4 ,hence is the need   
for radical change in schools4 ,firms   
are being driven to start trade schools 
of their own1 when they would prefer the

 work to be done with all the wider     
scope of a school4 ,and the same        
enlightened firms endeavour to promote  
their men4  ',and here we come to what  
is probably the natural source of all   
labour unrest--the unstretched faculties
 of the worker4 ,men there are in any   
great shops who have intellectual       
faculties of the highest order1 and     
these faculties are not used1 so the    
greatest possession a man has1 and the  
greatest his country has--the faculties 
of its owners--is allowed to dissipate4 
,and in the feeling of the mental want  
of equilibrium1 in the slow frittering  
away of life1 there arrives the         
turbulent spirit4 ,the study of these   
questions is the problem for our coming 
international university4 ,the          
industrial and economic problems        
involved can only be approached under   
international agreement4 ,all that has  
been possible at present in the way of  
making industrial life pure and holy is 
by legislative restrictions1 often      

enough rankling to the worker even when 
needed for his amelioration4 ,such      
legislation 7,factory ,acts1 ,insurance 
,acts1 wages1 hours7 does not remove the
 source of the disease2 at best it only 
mitigates the worst results4 ,more      
drastic changes may be needed in the    
nature of the work--to the ruling out   
certain manufacturing processes until   
new discoveries can be made4  ',so with 
the work in the shops4 ,men do not want 
wages1 or shorter hours2 these demands  
are only symptoms of a disease2 short   
cuts to amelioration4 ,they are         
doctoring4 ,what men want is that their 
work may be such that they can love it1 
and want more of it4 ,they do not want  
slaves' work in the shops and a dose of 
the spiritual life out of it4 ,so we    
believe4  ',parents1 too1 would let     
their children remain at school4 ,as a  
class there is no one more unselfish and
 self-sacrificing and co-operative than 
the working-class parent4 ,boys want to 
leave school because of the natural urge

 for making something and getting to    
business--as they see it at home4 ,to   
remain at school without joining in some
 work is unthinkable when they see the  
life their parents lead4  ',i may be    
permitted to insert one paragraph on the
 unfortunate opposition to this new     
position which is claimed for ,science  
in the schools4 ,the opposition springs 
from the belief that vocational work is 
simply material1 having no spiritual    
outlook4 ,but the truth is all the other
 way4 ,unfortunately the present studies
 of history1 art1 economy1 literature1  
are biassed by possessive instincts and 
education1 and we claim that ,science   
and its methods are seriously demanded  
for a new reading of these things4      
,however1 the opposition finds          
expression in high quarters4 ,the       
,workers' ,educational ,union1 acting in
 sympathy with the ,labour view--that   
vocational studies are to be            
avoided--practically taboos technical   
studies4 ,this is reasonable as things  

are to-day1 when a man's work is too    
often for the profit of others1 and for 
this reason the workers are not in love 
with their work1 and when the day is    
over they have seen plenty of it2 so the
 best of them go elsewhere for the      
springs of the spiritual life4 ,but this
 is all disastrous to individuals and   
disastrous to progress4 ,what the       
workers should do is to watch for the   
spirit in their daily work1 for it is   
the work itself which will hold a man to
 ,god--nothing else will4'    #e  ,i    
have quoted from this ,london           
,reconstruction discourse very fully4   
,in the official ,life there are a      
number of such addresses in which the   
student will find the main doctrines of 
that particular address repeated1       
varied1 amplified1 but as my object in  
this book is to strip ,sanderson's views
 down to his essential ideas1 ,i will   
make only one further quotation from    
this propaganda material here4 ,this is 
from the notes he arranged for an       

address to the ,newcastle ,rotary ,club4
 ,his favourite contrast between the    
possessive instincts and the creative   
instincts comes out very clearly here4  
,like all the great religious teachers1 
,sanderson aims quite clearly at an     
ultimate communism1 to be achieved not  
by revolution but by the steady         
development of a creative spirit in the 
world4  ',schools should be miniature   
copies of the world we should love to   
have4 ,hence our outlooks and methods   
must have these aims in mind4           
,schoolmasters have great               
responsibilities4 ,we should be able to 
say to a boy1 we have endeavoured to do 
such things for you1 and we ask you to  
go forth1 it may be1 into your father's 
business or factory and do the same to  
the workers4 ,let me illustrate from the
 workshops4 ,workshops in a school are  
by far the most difficult things to     
carry on along the lines ,i have in     
mind4 ,here are three conditions which  
must be kept in the shops3--        '7a7

 ,the work boys are doing should not be 
for themselves1 or      exercises to    
learn by2 it must always be work        
required by the      community4         
'7b7 ,each boy must have the opportunity
 of doing all the main      operations1 
and all the operations should be going  
on in the      workshops4       '7c7    
,whenever a boy goes into the shop he   
should find himself      set to work    
which is up to the hilt of his capacity4
 ,there is      no slithering down to   
work which is easy1 no unnecessary and  
automatic repetition1 no working for    
himself but for the community4   ',and  
we can say1 and are entitled to say1 to 
the boy1 when you go forth into life1   
perhaps into your father's work or      
business or profession1 you must try to 
do for your apprentices and workers what
 we have tried to do for you4 ,you1 too1
 will try to see that every one has work
 which exacts their faculties--by which 
they will grow and develop2 you will see
 to it that they are working directly on

 behalf of and for the welfare of the   
community1 and not for yourself4  ',this
 is your real duty towards your         
neighbour4 ,it is a vastly hard thing to
 do4 ,this duty of believing that others
 are of the same blood with yourself1   
and have the same feelings1 and loves1  
and desires and needs1 and natural      
elementary rights2 this duty of setting 
them free to exercise their faculties   
spaciously that they1 too1 may get more 
of life--is the real duty towards your  
neighbour4 ,it is a hard thing4 ,if you 
think of the works1 the factory1 the    
office1 it is a hard thing4 ,it involves
 vast sacrifice--the hardest            
sacrifice--the sacrifice of belief and  
economic tradition4 ,we need not be     
surprised that ,christianity has        
slithered down to an easier and softer  
level of culture and duty towards our   
neighbours4 ,but whether the workers    
know it or not1 this hard duty is       
essential in considering the            
relationships of our community system   

and our international system to-day4    
',it is a hard duty1 and boys must be   
immersed in it in school4 ,the outlook1 
values1 and organisation of a school    
should be based on the fundamental fact 
of the community service4 ,by habit of  
mind1 and by the activity of the        
schools1 boys should be imbued with this
 high duty4 ,it means a reorganisation  
of methods and aims4  ',it is a hard    
duty1 this duty towards your            
neighbour--the hardest part being to    
believe that he has like feelings with  
yourself and equal rights4 ,the young   
man went away sorrowful1 for he had     
great riches--riches intellectual or    
other4 ,yet the young man went away     
sorrowful1 and there is no doubt that he
 eventually sold all that he had4 ,this 
is ,watts' version of it4 ,the young man
 was at heart a follower of ,jesus2 he  
did not say that the commandment was an 
old one and well known1 that it had been
 said before in the ,hagadah and by     
,moses2 he did not say that the language

 was the language of ,plato or ,philo2  
he did not say that it was too difficult
 and could not be true for every one--he
 went away sorrowful4 ,we have no doubt 
that he sold all that he had4  ',the    
system of education in the past has been
 based on training for leadership1 i4e4 
for a master class1 and its method has  
been a training of the faculties4 ,but  
the sharply defined line between the    
leaders and the led has been broken     
down4 ,the whole mass of people has been
 aroused towards intellectual creative  
efforts4 ,the struggle going on in all  
communities and amongst all races is a  
struggle to grow and have more of life4 
,whether at home amongst our workers1 or
 in ,india1 or ,egypt1 or ,ireland2 or  
between ,china and ,europe--the struggle
 is the same4 ,it is a struggle to make 
progress1 and have more of life4 ,this  
urge to grow is a biological fact4 ,we  
cannot tell why it is or what creates   
it--but everything around us has this   
urge to grow1 and to grow in its own    

particular way4 ,one seed grows into a  
tulip1 another into wheat4 ,we know not 
how1 but we recognise it4 ,and it is    
precisely the same urge to grow that is 
causing all this apparent conflict4 ,it 
is the fundamental creative             
instinct--the most powerful instinct of 
the human race1 by which the race is    
preserved4 ,deep down in human nature   
lies this instinct2 it is never         
forgotten1 it is always present in the  
mind4 ,it is voluptuous1 anarchic1      
joyful1 violent1 powerful4  ',the other 
instinct is called the fighting1        
aggressive1 acquisitive1 possessive     
instinct4 ,it is the instinct to        
acquire1 to overcome4 ,it is distinct   
from the creative instinct even in the  
biological growth1 but the distinction  
manifests itself more clearly in the    
community or herd relationships4 ,it has
 none of the beautiful and life-giving  
qualities of the creative urge4 ,it is  
essentially1 even in its romance 7of    
which we have plenty71 dull1 selfish1   

destructive4 ,it varies its forms from  
sheer animal force to the dialectical   
methods which have assumed the names of 
talent and culture4 ,the same           
characteristics are seen in the force of
 the slave-driver1 in the forces of the 
wage-nexus1 and in the dialectical force
 of the council4 ,these are hard        
sayings1 but for the solution of the    
problems of the present times it is     
wise1 and necessary1 to look facts in   
the face4 ,at any rate it is well to    
know of the possibilities1 feelings1 and
 loves of the uprising mass4444  ',but  
what has this to do with schools8 ,my   
answer is that if we are to deal with   
the problems thrown up by science in our
 industrial system1 and our close       
national and international contacts1 the
 schools must be the seed grounds of the
 new thought and visions4444'           
,,chapter ,,vii  ,,the ,,house ,,of     
,,vision ,,and ,,the ,,school ,,chapel  
#a  ,i come now to one of the most      
curious and characteristic things in    

,sanderson's later life1 a conflict and 
interaction that went on between two    
closely related and yet in many ways    
intensely competitive ideas1 the idea on
 the one hand of a new sort of building 
unprecedented among schools1 a building 
which should symbolise and embody the   
whole aim of the school and the renewed 
community of which it is the germ1 and  
on the other hand the idea of a great   
memorial chapel to commemorate the      
sacrifice of those who had fallen in the
 war4 ,these ideas assumed protean forms
 in his mind1 they grew1 they blended   
and separated again4 ,i will call the   
first1 for reasons that will appear     
later1 the ,house of ,vision2 the       
second1 the school chapel4 ,for though  
,oundle had thrown up a great cluster of
 houses1 halls1 laboratories1 and other 
buildings during its quarter of a       
century of growth1 it had never yet     
produced anything more than a           
corrugated-iron meeting-house for its   
religious services4 ,the want of some   

more dignified chapel had long been     
evident1 and even before the war was    
very much in ,sanderson's mind4  ,the   
idea of a ,house of ,vision was         
therefore the later of the two4 ,very   
early in the war a boy of great promise1
 ,eric ,yarrow1 the son of ,sir ,alfred 
,yarrow1 the great shipbuilder1 was     
killed at ,ypres1 and parent and        
schoolmaster met at the house of the    
former to mourn their common loss4      
,sanderson and ,eric ,yarrow had been   
close friends2 they had discussed and   
developed the idea of a creative        
reconstruction of industry together2    
,eric ,yarrow was to have played a part 
in the industrial world similar to the  
part that ,roy ,sanderson was to have   
played in the educational world4  ,the  
two men sat late at night and talked of 
these vanished hopes4 ,could not        
something be done1 they asked1 to record
 at least the spirit of these fine      
intentions1 and they sketched out a     
project for a memorial building that    

should be a symbol and incitement to    
effort for the reorganised industrial   
state4 ,it should be in a sense a museum
 containing a record of human effort and
 invention in the past2 a museum of the 
development of work and production and a
 statement of the economic problems     
before mankind4 ,sir ,alfred produced a 
cheque more than sufficient to cover the
 building of such a memorial as they had
 planned1 and ,sanderson returned to    
,oundle to put the realisation of the   
project in hand4 ,probably the two of   
them also discussed the need for a      
memorial chapel and probably neither of 
them realised a possible clash between  
that older project and the new one they 
were now starting4  ,it was in the early
 stage when the ,eric ,yarrow memorial  
was to be nothing more than a museum of 
industrial history and organisation that
 ,sanderson set afoot the building at   
,oundle which is now known by that name4
 ,apparently he did not get much        
inspiration over to the architect1 and  

at any rate the edifice that presently  
rose was a very weak and dull-looking   
one1 more suitable for a herbarium or a 
minor lecture-hall than for a temple of 
creative dreams4 ,it was a premature    
materialisation1 done in the stress and 
under the cramping limitations of war   
time4 ,long before it was finished      
,sanderson's imaginations had outgrown  
it4 ,i think this unconfessed           
architectural disappointment probably   
played a large part in the subsequent   
development of the idea of the school   
chapel1 still to be planned1 still      
capable of being made a spacious and    
beautiful building4 ,to the latter dream
 he transferred more and more of the    
ideas that arose properly out of the    
germ of the ,eric ,yarrow memorial4  ,at
 first the ,house of ,vision was to have
 been no more than an industrial museum4
 ,it was not to be used as a class-room 
or lecture-room4 ,it was to be empty of 
chairs1 desks1 and the like1 and clear  
for any one to go in to think and dream4

 ,about its walls1 diagrams and charts  
were to display the progress of man from
 the sub-human to his present phase of  
futile power and hope4 ,there were to be
 time-charts of the whole process of    
history1 and a few of these have been   
made4 ,as his idea ripened it broadened4
 ,the memorial ceased to be a symbol    
merely of industrial reorganisation and 
progress1 and became a temple to the    
whole human adventure4 ,he began to     
stress first social and then imaginative
 growth4 ,the charts were to be full and
 accurate1 everything shown was to be   
precisely true1 but there was to be no  
teaching in the building1 no direction  
beyond the form and spirit of the place4
  ,and so while the scaffolds of the    
workmen rose about the commonplace      
little erection in the school fields1   
the schoolmaster in his day-dreams      
realised more and more the full measure 
of the opportunity he was missing4  ,the
 realisation of the past is the         
realisation of the future1 and it was an

 easy transition to pass to the idea of 
this building as an expression of the   
creative will in man4 ,in it the        
individual boy was to realise the aim of
 the school and of schooling and living4
 ,it was to be the eye of the school1   
its soul1 its headlight4  ,the idea of  
this ',house of ,vision' was still      
growing in his mind when he died4 ,he   
had not yet settled upon a name for it1 
though he had tried over a number of    
names--a ,house of ,vision1 which is the
 name we have taken for it here1 the    
,home of ,silence1 the ,hall of         
,industry1 the ,anthropaeum1 the ,making
 of ,man1 the ,life ,creative1 the ,soul
 of the ,school4 ,all these names       
converge upon the end he was seeking4   
,this approach by trial1 by leaving the 
idea to shape itself for a time and then
 taking it up again1 by talking it over 
with this man and that1 was very        
characteristic of his mental processes4 
,a member of the staff recalls a stage  
in the development of the idea4 ',i     

talked with the headmaster about the    
,yarrow ,memorial in ,october #aibj1' he
 says4 ',he then seemed to dally with a 
suggestion to name it the ,temple of the
 ,world--he expressed his hatred of the 
tendency to call it the ,museum4 ,i     
gathered that his idea was to fill it   
with charts of all things and all ages1 
including pictures of at least all the  
world's great men--then to turn a boy   
loose in it1 thereby to realise his     
position in the world as a unit of its  
time1 as opposed to the inculcation of  
any idea of his having a part in his    
nationality only4 ,his root idea seemed 
to be that it should be a place for     
meditation--restful as well as          
invigorating4'  ,here is a passage      
written by ,sanderson himself a little  
later4 ,the idea ripens and broadens out
 very manifestly4  ',every school1 every
 locality and industry1' he writes1     
'might build within their boundaries a  
new kind of chapel1 a heritage1 a       
temple--a beautiful building in which   

are gathered together and exhibited the 
records of man's great deeds and of     
man's progress1 and the records of his  
needs4 ,it is such a ,hall of ,needs    
that we regard the ,yarrow ,memorial1   
and to this end it is being equipped4'  
,and here ,sanderson speaks again in a  
sermon preached upon the text of ,moses'
 withdrawal to the mount4  ',a school   
will grow into a book4 ,it will take    
upon itself the form of a ,bible4       
,within it will appear the stages in the
 life of the soul--the coming of a      
kingdom2 the foundations1 the building1 
the furniture1 the complex apparatus1   
the organised beauty4 ,a school--its    
buildings1 workshops1 class-rooms1 and  
all that goes towards a great           
school--can take on the form of a       
parable4 ,as we wander from one place to
 another all that speaks of life will   
manifest itself before us4 ,how life    
begins1 what is needed for its growth2  
what shall be its standards1 its ideals2
 what the nature of its proof-plate2 the

 craftsman and what he is2 the craftsman
 in languages1 in mathematics1 in       
science1 in art2 the secrets of nature  
revealing themselves2 progress1 change1 
vision4  ',and boys will go out into the
 factory1 or mine1 or business1 or      
profession1 imbued with the spirit of   
the active love of humanity4 ,some will 
be called to lead1 as ,moses was called4
 ,they1 too1 will plant the ,tent of    
,meeting1 the ,temple of ,vision4 ,a    
return with a new view-point will be    
made to the temple of ages gone by4 ,the
 ,assyrian frescoed his walls with      
sculptures of the deeds of his          
hero-kings2 the ,franciscans frescoed   
the walls of their chapels with the life
 of ,jesus as told in the ,gospels--the 
life of the ,divine builder1 of ,him who
 came to restore a kingdom1 by whose    
life and death a new world was created4 
',but the ,temple of ,vision of to-day2 
the new ,tent of ,meeting4 ,what of it8 
,the new home of vision will be frescoed
 with the thoughts of to-day1 changing  

into the thoughts of to-morrow4         
,generations of workers will go up into 
the mount1 and to them1 too1 will be    
shown the pattern4 ,see that thou make  
them after their pattern which hath been
 shown thee in the mount4'    #b  ,now  
this is a very great and novel idea1 the
 idea of a modern temple set like a     
miner's lantern in the forefront of     
school or college to light its task in  
the world4 ,it rounds off and completes 
,sanderson's vision of a modern school2 
it is logically essential to that       
vision4 ,but meanwhile what was         
happening to the school-chapel project8 
,for1 after all1 in the older type of   
school1 the chapel with its matins and  
evensong1 its ,onward ,christian        
,soldiers and suchlike stirring hymns1  
its confirmations and first communions1 
was in a rather dreamy1 formless        
mechanical way undertaking to do        
precisely what the new ,house of ,vision
 was also to do1 that is1 to give a     
direction to the whole subsequent life4 

,but was it the same direction8 ,the    
normal school-chapel points up--not very
 effectively one feels2 the ,house of   
,vision was to point onward4 ,sanderson 
had a crowded1 capacious mind1 but      
sooner or later the question behind     
these two discrepant objectives1 whether
 men are to live for heaven or for      
creation1 was bound to have come to an  
issue4  ,his mental process was at first
 syncretic4 ,he began to think of a     
school-chapel1 not as a place for formal
 services but as a place of meditation  
and resolve4 ,he began to speak of the  
chapel also as though it was to be 'the 
tent on the mount1' the place of vision4
 ,he betrayed a growing hostility to the
 intoned prayers1 the trite responses1  
the tuneful empty hymns1 the ,anglican  
vacuity of the normal chapel procedure4 
,had he lived to guide the building of  
,oundle chapel ,i believe it would have 
diverged more and more from any         
precedent1 more and more in the         
direction of that ,house of ,vision1    

that the premature and insufficient     
,eric ,yarrow building had so pitifully 
failed to realise4  ,here is evidence of
 that divergence in a passage from a    
sermon preached after a gathering of    
parents and old boys in the ,court ,room
 at the ,london ,grocers' ,hall to      
discuss the chapel project4 ,i ask any  
one trained in the services of the      
,church of ,england and accustomed to   
enter1 pray into a silk hat1 deposit it 
under the seat1 sit down1 stand up1 bow1
 genuflect1 kneel decorously on a       
hassock1 sing1 repeat responses1 and go 
through the simple and wholesome        
,swedish exercises of the ,anglican     
prayer book1 what is to be thought of   
this project of a chapel with hardly a  
sitting in it8 ,and what is to be       
thought of this suggestion of wandering 
round the aisles8 ,and what is this talk
 of young gentlemen who have died 'for  
king and country1' casting down their   
lives for the rescue of man8  ',for the 
years to come1 when the war is over1 it 

will be well to have some visible       
memorial2 some symbol of the redemption 
of the ,great ,war1 and of the heroic   
part old boys have taken in it2 some    
record of the great struggle from out of
 which the new spirit will rise2 some   
record of the part the whole school took
 in this2 some record of the boys who   
have fallen2 some thanksgiving symbol   
for all who have given their service4   
,and for this it is proposed to build a 
chapel4 ,but when the time comes we     
shall be sad to leave our present       
building4 ,it is a poor building1 but it
 is very rich in its associations4 ,the 
services in this temporary chapel have  
taken a large part in the building of   
the school4 ,simple as is the ,tent in  
the ,wilderness1 yet we have hoped that 
the ,spirit of ,god would come and dwell
 in it4 ,we have hoped that the ,divine 
,spirit would come into all the         
activities and outlook of the school in 
its diverse occupations1 whether they be
 literary or whether they be scientific 

or technical4 ,and we have always looked
 onward to the day when a permanent     
chapel should be built1 symbolic of the 
,divine ,omnipresence for worship and   
for sacrifice4  ',and this is what is in
 mind to do--and yet ,i confess to a    
certain amount of fear4 ,a lofty1       
spacious chapel ,i have had no doubt    
would at the right moment be built by   
the ,grocers' ,company4 ,just before the
 war the building of this chapel was    
emerging as the next great building to  
undertake--a chapel1 such as a college  
chapel with stalls1 as for private      
service4 ,but now we look beyond this4  
,we want something different1 more open4
 ,a lofty1 spacious chapel to form the  
nave--no fixed seats1 the clear open    
space2 quiet1 still1 urgent with beauty4
 ,joined to this the choir and          
sanctuary1 with aisles round the three  
sides of it1 forming an ambulatory4     
,round these aisles1 on the walls and in
 the windows1 the recorded memory of the
 boys who have fallen4 ,an east window1 

a reredos1 stalls1 altar4 ,a chapel1    
abundant in space1 not for the mind to  
sit down in1 but for the mind to move   
about in1 for contemplation1 for        
dwelling in the infinite1 for piercing  
through the night1 for vision1 for the  
clear spirit of thankfulness1 for       
communion with the saints1 our own young
 saints among them4 ,so we hope4 ,as you
 wander round the aisles there will pass
 before you the memorial of those boys  
who have cast down their lives for the  
rescue of man4'    #c  ,i cannot guess  
how ,sanderson1 had he lived1 would have
 resolved this conflict between his     
,house of ,vision and his ,great        
,chapel1 just as ,i can hazard no       
opinion of the ultimate form his        
interpretation of ,christianity would   
have taken4 ,but the recognition of     
these conflicts is fundamental to my    
conception of the man and his           
significance4  ,he stands for a great   
multitude reluctant to abandon many of  
the familiar phrases of the ,christian  

use and eager to read new and deeper    
meanings into them4 ,but he never took  
'holy orders'2 he knew the days of the  
priest1 except for evil1 were past1 and 
it is only by its being born again as a 
,house of ,vision that he could         
anticipate his chapel with contentment4 
,the time has come for mankind to choose
 plainly between the priest and the     
teacher4  ,some six months after        
,sanderson's death ,i went to ,oundle   
and visited the ,yarrow ,memorial1 that 
abortive first ,house of ,vision4       
,except for a bronze statue of a boy by 
,lady ,scott that ,sanderson had liked  
and bought1 it was as ,i had seen it    
with ,sanderson a year before4 ,it was  
still1 deserted1 and ,i suppose ,i must 
count it dead4 ,the time-charts had not 
been carried on4 ,the collection of     
inventions1 the display of humanity's   
growth1 were still represented by empty 
cases4 ,the statue was intended for the 
school chapel1 but meanwhile it had been
 dumped in the ,house of ,vision as a   

convenient vacant place for such        
dumping4 ,the bronze boy is in an eager 
pose2 there is duty to be done and      
danger to be faced and a great creative 
effort to be made4 ',send me6' he said1 
in that empty1 neglected ,house of      
,vision4 ,but the hand that would have  
put that dart to the bowstring and aimed
 it at work and service was there no    
more4  ,building operations upon the    
chapel were proceeding slowly4 ,the     
rising walls were very like the rising  
walls of the sort of church for         
respectable people that gets built in   
,surbiton or ,beckenham4 ,i gather that 
in all probability it will even carry   
the debt customary in such cases4 ,the  
new headmaster was1 ,i found1 a         
thoroughly pleasant man who came not    
from an elementary school but from      
,eton1 and had never met ,sanderson in  
his life and knew nothing of his work4  
,he seemed disposed to regard ,sanderson
 as a bit of a crank and to be          
intelligently puzzled by his            

originalities4 ,i felt assured that when
 at last that old corrugated-iron       
building is abandoned for the new chapel
 there would be pews in the new nave in 
spite of ,sanderson1 and services of an 
altogether normal type and no nonsense  
of walking about and thinking or        
anything of that sort4  ,but though ,i  
have seen the ,house of ,vision at      
,oundle dead and vacant as a museum     
skull1 yet ,i know surely that neither  
,sanderson nor his ,house of ,vision are
 in any real sense dead at all4 ,a day  
will certainly come when his name will  
be honoured above all other contemporary
 schoolmasters as the precursor of a new
 age in education and human affairs4 ,in
 that age of realisation every village  
will be dominated by its school1 with   
its library and theatre1 its            
laboratories and gymnasium1 every town  
will converge upon its cluster of       
schools and colleges1 its research      
buildings and the like1 and it will have
 its ,great ,chapel1 its ,house of      

,vision as its crown and symbol even as 
the cathedral was the crown and symbol  
of the being and devotion of the        
medieval city4 ,and therein ,sanderson's
 stout hopefulness and pioneer          
thrustings will be kept in remembrance  
by generations that have come up to the 
pitch of understanding him4             
,,chapter ,,viii  ,,the ,,last ,,lecture
    #a  ,sanderson's propaganda of this 
idea of the possible reorganisation of  
the world through schools came to an    
abrupt end in the summer of #aibb4 ,he  
died suddenly of heart failure in the   
,botanical ,theatre of ,university      
,college1 ,london1 at the end of an     
address to the ,national ,union of      
,scientific ,workers4 ,he had chosen as 
the title of the address1 ',the ,duty   
and ,service of ,science in the ,new    
,era1' and it was in effect a           
recapitulation of his most              
characteristic views4 ,he attached      
considerable importance to the delivery 
and he made unusual preparations for it4

  ,upon his desk after his death seven  
separate drafts1 and they were all very 
full drafts1 of this address were found4
 ,in the margins of the pages little    
sums have been worked out--so many pages
 at three hundred words a page1 four    
thousand1 five thousand words2 a full   
hour's talking1 and still so much to    
say6 ,there are little notes framed in a
 sort of ,oxford frame of lines         
reminding him1 for example1 to 'say more
 of bringing scientific method into all 
parts of school4' ,on the reverse of the
 pages of manuscript are trial          
restatements4 ,he tried back several    
times to a fresh beginning4 ,there is a 
page headed ',the ,new ,school1' and    
giving three headings3 the first1 which 
he afterwards marked as second1 is1     
',the faculty of each member shall be   
developed'2 the second1 which became the
 first1 is ',community service--no      
competition'2 the third is1             
',outlook--aim1 more value than ability4
 ,service4 ,all are equal4 ,the ,spirit 

and the ,bride say1 ,come4 ,let all that
 will1 come4'  ,then we find him trying 
over his ideas about science under a    
heading1 ',what we claim for science4'  
,under that are a number of interesting 
subheads3--        ',its own value in   
the great discoveries4       ',that its 
spirit is that of life1 giving1         
changing1 searching4      7,marginal    
note3--without being deterred by any of 
the results      which may follow47     
',it is natural to the vast number of   
boys4       ',very directly applicable  
to needs4       ',that it has a language
 and a message4 7,marginal note3--it    
seeks      to test1 to create new       
standards1 to fearlessly rewrite        
knowledge47       ',the same spirit4 78 
as ,christianity3 ,editor47   ,finally  
he produced a draft which was at least  
his eighth4 ,this he had printed and    
this he may have intended to read to the
 meeting4 ,but he did not do so4 ,in the
 end he spoke from a fresh set of notes1
 which must have been at least the ninth

 draft4 ,that eighth draft is given in  
full in the official ,life4  ,his health
 had not been good for some time1 and he
 kept this lecture and his exceptional  
interest in it more or less secret from 
his wife4 ,he spent a long and          
interested morning at the experimental  
farm at ,rothamsted1 and in the         
afternoon he went to the opticians to   
get a new pair of spectacles and        
attended to other small businesses4 ,he 
met a small party of us at the ,london  
,university ,club in ,gower ,street to  
take tea before lecturing4 ,sir ,richard
 ,gregory1 the editor of ,nature1 was   
present1 ,major ,church1 the secretary  
of the ,national ,union of ,scientific  
,workers1 and ,dr4 ,charles ,singer1 the
 historian of classical science4        
,sanderson was evidently hot and rather 
tired1 but he did not seem to be ill2 he
 gossiped pleasantly with us and showed 
us his new spectacles4 ,they were made  
of a recently discovered glass1 opaque  
to ultra-violet rays and he betrayed the

 pride and interest of a boy in         
possessing them4  ,university ,college  
was not very far away1 but he asked for 
a cab thither because he felt fagged4   
,the audience was already assembled and 
he went straight on to the platform4    
,the present writer made a few          
introductory remarks1 and the lecture   
began4 ,it is a matter of keen regret to
 all of us that we allowed him to stand 
throughout his discourse4 ,it would have
 been so easy to have arranged for him  
to talk from a chair2 the ,botanical    
,theatre is not a large one and it is   
quite conceivable that he might be alive
 now1 if one of us could have had that  
much thoughtfulness for him4 ,we had    
thought of it--ten minutes after his    
death4  ,but we were all so used to the 
quality of effort in his voice1 so      
accustomed to its sudden fall into      
almost inaudible asides1 that we did not
 mark what hung over us until the very  
moment of catastrophe4 ,his sentences   
seemed to me a little more broken than  

usual2 he was rather more disconnected1 
he was leaving rather more than usual to
 the intelligence of his audience1 and  
as he talked ,i watched the faces before
 me rather anxiously to see just how    
much they missed of what he was trying  
to get over to them4 ,he got over much  
more than ,i supposed1 for ,i have since
 talked with many who were present4 ,a  
fairly full shorthand note was made at  
the time1 and on this the following     
rendering of the last address is based4 
,like everything that has been printed  
of his here1 it has been clipped and    
shorn1 little distracting side glances  
have been eliminated and broken         
sentences filled in and rounded off4    
#b  ',it is a great honour1' he began1  
'to come and address scientific workers 
7,i have only recently discovered my    
claim to be a scientific worker71 and to
 describe to you what has turned out to 
be a scientific experiment4 ,i hope to  
show the results of an experiment       
carried on1 not in a scientific         

laboratory so-called--physical1         
chemical1 biological1 or                
anthropological--but in a school for    
boys4  ',before doing that1 ,i should   
like to say that we scientific workers  
do very much depend on having a number  
of us together4 ,one scientific worker  
placed in charge of any great work finds
 it difficult2 scientific workers do not
 get the chance of appointing men in    
sympathy with themselves often enough2  
so it is frequently said that scientific
 men placed in command of a factory in  
industry or a department of state at    
home or in the colonies fail4 ,well1 if 
so1 they fail because scientific men    
have not often got the opportunity of   
getting men of like sympathy to work    
with them4 ,i take it that the object of
 the ,national ,union of ,scientific    
,workers is to get scientific men with  
scientific views of life and            
experimental experience to join together
 in some great work4 ,when ,i speak of  
the duty and service of science in the  

new era1 ,i mean that ,i want scientific
 men to claim justly a larger share in  
the work of the world1 and not to       
confine themselves to what is called    
purely scientific work4 ,we want them to
 expand themselves over a wider area4   
,as a matter of fact1 that is what two  
distinguished writers have suggested3   
that the time has come when the ordinary
 discoveries and inventions of science  
should be closed down in order to enable
 scientific minds to do this simple     
thing4 ,practically everything that     
exists now is the work of scientific    
men1 their discoveries and their        
inventions4 ,the whole world teems with 
the results of the work of science4 ,the
 great machines we see used in          
industry--the industrial machine        
itself--have been created by men of     
science4 ,now1 ,i put it to you that    
when motor cars came in1 the nobility of
 the land found their coachmen of little
 use4 ,the scientific machine requires  
scientific men to manage it4 ,our       

industrial life is imperfectly          
organised2 all our troubles are due to  
the fact that we have a process created 
by science1 but organised in the old way
 by men of a different outlook4 ,the    
discoveries of science have rushed into 
the world a considerable amount of      
unexpected ability4 ,working men engaged
 in industrial pursuits have had their  
intelligence discovered and brought out1
 and it is one thing to control a mass  
of human beings who are not thus        
inspired with the knowledge of their own
 possibilities1 and another to control  
those who are4 ,it is like trying to    
control a set of live molecules4 ,it is 
one thing to control a hard atom and    
another to control a live electron4     
',so that the duty and service of       
science would seem to lie in scientific 
men bringing their ideal of life1 their 
standards1 their vision1 their outlook1 
and their methods to organise the great 
machine that their inventions have      
created4 ,you cannot have a world half  

scientific and the other half nothing of
 the sort4  ',that is to say1 scientific
 workers will have to consider the whole
 question1 for instance1 of economics4  
,i heard yesterday a distinguished      
member of the ,government saying that we
 cannot change economics4 ,of course1   
that is one thing scientific men have   
got to do1 to change economics so that  
the system of our industry shall be     
recreated4 ,the system of management by 
dual control of the master and the slave
 will not work when the slave becomes an
 alive1 active1 intelligent1 anarchic   
being4 ,he will not be governed by the  
rein but by a system which the magnet   
can influence4 ,however1 the last       
hundred years has resulted in a race    
between the changed conditions that     
science has brought about and the       
organisation required to control them1  
in what has been called by ,mr4 ,wells a
 race between education and catastrophe4
 ,in scientific language1 it has        
produced a serious stress because of the

 hurrying on of change of conditions and
 the lagging behind of the methods of   
controlling them4 ,it is this stress1 ,i
 think1 which has broken up the system4 
,you may even say that the war itself is
 no cause of anything1 but a result of  
the purely automatic action of shearing 
forces1 as when a testing machine breaks
 a metal bar4  ',the end of the war has 
left us with a whole host of individuals
 set free1 and the business before      
science men is to organise this new     
body4 ,it is a big problem1 and requires
 scientific thought1 temperament1 and   
outlook to rewrite practically the whole
 of our knowledge4 ,it reminds me of the
 tremendous rush there was amongst      
scientific men to provide workers to    
overhaul practically everything in      
biology 7and theology7 and other parts  
of human knowledge after the doctrines  
of ,darwin were well established4 ,i    
take it that all the departments of     
human life have to be rewritten by men  
under the influence of the spirit of    

science4 ,our books have to be          
rewritten1 our very dictionaries4 ,i    
have often amused myself with the       
,oxford ,dictionary1 or found it        
necessary to send a boy to that         
authority for a definition1 and it has  
pretty nearly always been false4 ,take  
such a simple case as the word          
democracy4 ,the ,oxford ,dictionary     
hasn't a thing to tell you about the    
meaning of democracy as we use it       
to-day4 ,it tells you nothing of the    
living use of words4 ,that is one of the
 terrible dangers of leaving our books  
in the hands of men who have not got    
that outlook which experiment in science
 brings to the individual4 ,consequently
 ,i say that the duty of scientific men 
is to scour the whole area of knowledge 
and rewrite it to bring out new         
standards1 new values1 by means of which
 labour and industry itself1 in the     
first instance1 can be reorganised 7the 
schools first should be reorganised71   
and then you can extend it into the     

wider area of international affairs4    
',they tell us that economics cannot    
change our human nature4 ,that is the   
great duty and service of science--to   
change human nature4 ,scientific men    
have to collect a band of disciples and 
make a new world4 ,as far as ,i can     
gather1 from a long connection with     
boys1 the only scientific quality which 
is constant is inertia in response to   
change4 ,the actual change itself1 when 
it has arrived1 no one objects to1 and  
every one says1 ,why didn't we do that  
before8 ,scientific workers rarely have 
their opportunity in industry4 ,to have 
their full opportunity they are to set  
forth in the spirit of the ,great       
,master to found a new kingdom3 not to  
manage industry by the standards and    
values of the present1 but to transform 
them4 ,and they must do what our ,master
 ,himself did--collect a faithful band  
of disciples imbued with the same       
belief4 ,i know it is freely said 7,i   
have been corresponding with some of the

 leaders in industry7 that scientific   
men cannot do this thing4 ,they can1 if 
only they are true to themselves and    
their vision2 they can absolutely change
 the whole system under which industry  
is worked1 and change the world to their
 ideals4  ',come1 and ,i will make you  
fishers of men4444 ,the great work that 
lies before scientific workers to-day is
 to extend the area of their labours1 to
 become not fishers of facts but fishers
 of men4 ,there will always be a        
distinguished band of purely scientific 
men devoted to pure science1 who will   
abide devoted to pure science2 but with 
the present number trained in science1  
we claim them also to organise the      
machinery that science has created4     
,they must leave their ships and nets   
and become fishers of men4444 ,i        
dare-say even scientific workers know   
that is from the ,bible4 ,one of the    
greatest tragedies scientific men have  
allowed is for others to steal the      
,bible from them4 ,the ,old and ,new    

,testaments1 with their record of       
progressive revelation1 form the most   
scientific book ever seen4 ,yet         
scientific men have allowed a certain   
type of men to steal it from them4      
,bible stealing is an old thing1 and one
 favourite method is to bind it in      
morocco and to put it on a top shelf4444
  ',but ,i must return to my scientific 
business4 ,when ,i was at ,cambridge ,i 
was not regarded as scientific4 ,i was  
amongst those who took mathematics1 and 
those who took mathematics and classics 
were respectable and had to attend      
chapel4 ,but if you inclined at all     
towards science1 or even ethics1 you    
were not supposed to attend chapel4444  
',i said that ,i have recently          
discovered ,i am a scientific worker1   
that ,i have been working a scientific  
experiment1 though not of the kind      
accepted for report to the ,royal       
,society4 ,it has been worked by being  
headmaster of a school for thirty years 
and by having taught for forty years4   

,when ,i became a headmaster ,i began by
 introducing engineering into the       
school--applied science4 ,the first     
effect was that a large number of boys  
who could not do other things could do  
that4 ,they began to like their work in 
school4 ,they began to like school4     
,that led on to introducing a large     
number of other sciences1 such as       
agricultural chemistry1 horse-shoeing   
7if that is a science71 metallurgical   
chemistry1 bio-chemistry1 agriculture2  
and1 of course1 these new sorts of work 
interested a large number of other boys 
of a type different from the type       
interested in the old work1 so we got an
 exceptional number of boys1 curiously  
enough1 unexpectedly liking what they   
had to do in school4 ,then ,i ventured  
to do something daring2 it is most      
daring to introduce the scientific      
method of finding out the truth--a      
dangerous thing--by the process of      
experiment and research4 ,we began to   
replace explicit teaching by finding    

out4 ,we did this first with these newly
 introduced sciences4 ,then we began to 
impress the aims and outlook of science 
on to other departments of school life4 
,history1 for instance3 we began to     
replace the old class-room teaching and 
learning by a laboratory for history1   
full of books and other things required 
in abundance1 so that boys in all parts 
of the school could1 for some specific  
purpose 7not to learn2 to go into school
 to learn was egotistical71 find out the
 things we required for to-day4 ,we set 
them to find out things for the service 
of science1 the service of literature1  
modern languages1 music4  ',this began  
to change the whole organisation of the 
school1 its aims and methods4 ,it was no
 use organising boys in forms by the    
ordinary methods of promotion for this  
sort of work4 ,you have to make up your 
mind what you have to do1 and then go   
about and collect anybody who would be  
of service to that particular work4 ,you
 would require boys of one              

characteristic and boys of another4 ,you
 make them up into teams for the        
particular work they have to do4 ,the   
boys who do not fit into this or that   
particular work must have some other    
particular work found for them4 ,you    
begin to design the work of the school  
for them4 ,you must have all the        
apparatus you want for it1 and you must 
organise for it1 but you begin by       
organising the work for the boys and    
what they need to find out1 and not by  
putting the boys into the organisation4 
,now1 presently you discover1 when you  
do this1 that not a single boy exists   
who is not wanted for some particular   
work2 to carry out your object every boy
 is fundamentally equal4 ,one does this1
 one does that4 ,each boy has his place 
in the team1 and in his place he is as  
important as any other boy4 ,placing    
them in order of merit does not work any
 more4 ,the scientific method absolutely
 changed the position towards class     
lists and order of merit4 ,that was an  

astonishing result4  ',another          
astonishing result was that we could not
 have anybody who was not working4 ,if a
 boy was not working1 you could see that
 he was not working4 ,you could see that
 he was doing nothing4 ,he could not sit
 at the back of a class-room and seem to
 be working4 ,everybody was working4    
,you can manage that in school1 but what
 about the world8 ,all sorts of people  
may seem to be working and not be       
working at all4 ,the curate may be doing
 nothing6 7,chuckle and something       
inaudible47 ,this seems to land us into 
the extraordinary fact that no community
 if it is scientifically organised can  
carry any one who does not do service4  
,i hope you will agree with me that that
 is scientific4  ',a little farther on  
,i turned round on the boys and the     
parents4 7,both are my business47 ,i    
said1 ,i have and the school has tried  
all it could to see to it that your boy 
got the right kind of work to do4 ,we   
spared no trouble or expense to see to  

it that he might be able to perform his 
service in the school and to the        
community4444 ,when you go forth to your
 father's works1 keep in mind that it is
 your business to see to it that every  
person that comes within your influence 
has a like opportunity4 ,that is totally
 different from your duty to your       
neighbour as taught in the ,church      
,catechism4 ,we have landed ourselves   
hopelessly in the position of having a  
practical community definition of our   
duty towards our neighbour4 ,you        
remember the rich young ruler who came  
to ask what his duty was1 and went away 
sorrowful because he had great          
possessions4 ,some of these possessions 
were perhaps intellectual4 ,i like to   
think of ,watts' picture of that man and
 ,i like ,watts' idea that he came back4
 ,i hope if any of our boys go away they
 will come back4  ',another step4 ,this 
actual love of work spreads1 and        
ultimately every one comes within its   
influence1 and they begin to like the   

service they are rendering4 ,finally1   
competition dwindles and passes away1 so
 that we have reached what appears to be
 a change in human nature4 ,it is not   
really a change1 but by care and        
attention calling out what has always   
been ready there in human nature1       
namely1 a first instinctive love to     
create4 ,i have always held that        
competition is a secondary interest and 
creation a primary instinct4            
,competition dwindles and passes away4  
,competition is a very feeble incentive 
to live4 ,it is cheap and easy to arouse
 the motive1 it is a swift motive and on
 the surface of things ready for you1   
but it is not even a powerful motive4   
,half the boys it dispirits and leaves  
idle and useless4  ',the passing of     
competition leads on to another thing   
passing away1 which is this3 you soon   
find that a body of workers that as a   
community has attempted to provide for  
itself1 as a community adapts itself to 
the community spirit1 and punishment is 

totally unnecessary4 ,it was a long time
 before that dawned on me4 ,i have not1 
as a headmaster1 taken any part in any  
shape in punishing boys directly1 either
 by the easy methods supposed to train  
them for after life or by the other     
methods that have sprung from the       
fertile brains of a dominant order4     
,punishment1 ,i declare from years of   
experience in this experiment1 is a     
crime3 not only a crime but a blunder4  
,why8 ,because it is a cheap and easy   
thing4 ,if you punish it is easy1 but if
 a community has so to arrange itself   
and adapt itself as to produce the      
reaction on the individual not to do    
objectionable things1 that is hard4 ,it 
is complicated4 ,it requires an         
abundance of real sacrifice4 ,it demands
 readjustment of everything upon a basis
 of service4 ,i have been much impressed
 recently by the effect of having       
punishment organised in removing any    
activity on the part of the community   
itself towards adjusting itself so that 

punishment should not be necessary4 ,i  
used to flatter myself1 ,i don't punish 
that boy1 my prefects do2 they keep me  
right4 ,but ,i have been convinced by my
 thirty years of experiment that that   
was all wrong4 ,these things come       
slowly4 ,now1 without any action on my  
part1 the prefects have stopped         
punishing1 and a good thing for them4   
,if they leave their boots about1 the   
small boys will too1 and they will have 
to punish them for doing so4 ,to leave  
your own boots about like a lord is a   
fine thing1 and to punish the small boy 
who does so is also a fine thing6 ,but  
it is easy4 ,the hard thing is never to 
leave your own boots about4444  ',the   
reactions that we have been taught to   
make in the world are weakly static4    
,what is the good of static methods8    
,there is friction2 we are told how to  
overcome frictional resistance4 ,we can 
put an end to friction by stopping the  
machine4 ,that is the static method of  
dealing with friction4 ,or we can go on 

working the machine1 with oil and care  
444 which is not so cheap and easy1 but 
which gets somewhere4444 ,if we try to  
remove friction by the static methods of
 punishment we are removing the         
incentive to live a dangerous life4 ,the
 secret of a joyful life is to live     
dangerously4 ,you only live dangerously 
if you are perpetually trying to        
overcome your own inertia and trying to 
get the capacity to do great things4 ,if
 you are only defensive1 static1 it is a
 waste of time4 ,yet those defences and 
resistances are securely placed in the  
governance of the state4 ,what a curious
 thing is the form of government6 ,its  
characteristics include no repentance1  
no regret1 otherwise it would           
acknowledge itself less than the        
governed4 ,its ideal is a perpetual     
static calm4 ,suaviter in modo1 fortiter
 in re4 ,it is the method of people who 
perform the confidence trick4 ,it is the
 method of ,if you want peace1 prepare  
for war4 444'  ,for some minutes ,mr4   

,sanderson paused4 ,he looked at his    
notes4 ,he was obviously very fatigued1 
but very resolute to continue4 ,he      
read3--  ',acquisitiveness leads to     
these glorified things3 general science1
 general knowledge1 national history1   
scholarships1 examinations1 advanced    
courses1 interesting things 7whoever    
wanted to be interested871 the          
theological thing called syncretism1    
tact1 swindling4444'  ,mr4 ,sanderson   
stopped and smiled in a breathless      
manner1 half panting1 half laughing1    
very characteristic of him4 ,his glasses
 gleamed at the audience4 ,his smile    
meant3 ',we are going a little too fast1
 boys4 ,where are we getting to8 ,where 
are we getting to8' ,he affected to     
refer to his notes and then broke away  
upon a new line4  ',out of all these    
things ,i have been telling you1 out of 
all these considerations1 evolves the   
modern school4 ,the modern school is not
 made by the very simple and easy method
 of abandoning ,greek4 7,laughter47 ,nor

 is it made by introducing science or   
engineering4 ,the modern school's       
business is to impress into the service 
of man every branch of human knowledge  
we can get hold of4 ,the modern method  
in the modern school does not depend on 
any method of teaching4 ,we hear a great
 deal about methods of teaching         
languages1 mathematics1 science2 they   
are all trivial4 ,the great purpose is  
to enlist the boys or girls in the      
service of man to-day and man to-morrow4
 ,the method which makes learning easy  
is waste of time4 ,what boy will succumb
 to the entreaty3 ,come1 ,i will make   
you clever2 it will be so easy for you2 
you will be able to learn it without an 
effort8 ,what they succumb to is service
 for the community4 ,i have tested that 
in the workshops4 ,they don't want to   
make things for themselves2 they soon   
cease to have any longing desire to make
 anything even for their mothers4 ,what 
they love to do is to take part in some 
great work that must be done for the    

community2 some work that goes on beyond
 them1 some great spacious work4 ,you   
can spread them out into all sorts of   
spacious things1 in all departments1    
such things as taking part in           
investigating the truth4 ,the truth1 for
 instance1 of the actual condition of   
the coal-miners or of any miners4 ,an   
important question which we have been   
concerned with for at least three years 
is ,what is ,china8 ,what is it like8   
,you may say1 ,methods of teaching      
geography4 ,but who ever learned        
anything from geography--as geography8  
,who wants to know geography--as        
geography8 ,books exist for it1 maps1   
plasticine exists for it4 ,we want to   
know about ,china4 ,if we are going to  
see to it that every one of our working 
men has the same opportunities that in  
our school we give to our boys we shall 
have some difficulty with ,china4 ,we   
shall never be able to give our working 
people these opportunities unless the   
,chinese give them too4 ,scientific men 

must find themselves dominant in the    
,foreign ,office and ,colonial ,service 
so as to know what is the nature of the 
people in these distant places1 how we  
can bring to them what we are able to   
give to our sons--the opportunity of    
making the highest and best use of their
 faculties4 ,we shall not get that sort 
of thing from geography books4 ,you will
 have to take the boys and let them find
 out what men have done who have been in
 ,china3 to get products from ,china2 to
 know its geology1 and whether1 after   
all1 the ,chinese do so deeply love rice
 that they want to live on a very little
 a day4 ,do the ,chinese love rice8 ,do 
they love underselling white labour8 ,do
 they want to8 ,that is real geography1 
but not class-room geography4 ,that     
extension of interest1 until ,china is  
brought into the class-room and the boys
 are finding out about it1 is1 ,i claim1
 one of the deepest and greatest tasks  
to be undertaken4 ,china--,india--the   
,durham miners--spacious                

undertakings4444  ',schools must be     
equipped spaciously1 spaciously1 and    
they must have a spacious staff4 ,i have
 the list of our staff here4 ,we have   
masters for mathematics1 physics1       
chemistry1 mechanics1 biology1 zoology1 
anthropology1 botany1 geology1          
architecture1 classics1 history1        
literature1 geography1 archaeology1     
economics1 ,french1 ,german1 ,spanish1  
,italian1 ,russian1 ,eastern languages1 
art1 applied art1 handicrafts1 and      
music4  ',impossible1 some people say4  
,there is no great school in the land   
but could quite well afford it4444  ',we
 must send out workers imbued with the  
determination to seek and investigate   
truth--truth that will make them        
free--and to take great care that in the
 search for truth they will never take  
part in or sympathise with those methods
 by which the edge of truth is blunted4'
    #c  ,the voice beside me stopped4   
,some one pushed up a chair for         
,sanderson and he sat down4 ,there was  

applause4 ,i stood up and then struck by
 a thought1 whispered3 ',would you like 
to answer a few questions8'  ',yes1 yes4
 ,certainly1' he said4  ',not too tired 
to answer them8'  ',no--no4'  ,i had a  
little strip of notes in my hand and ,i 
thought of underlining one or two points
 in this tremendous project of a school 
he had spread before his audience before
 ,i let in the questioners4 ,i began by 
saying that the lecture had been a      
little hard to follow but that it would 
repay following into the remotest       
corners of its meaning4 ,then ,i heard a
 little commotion behind me and turned  
round to see what was the matter4       
,sanderson had slipped from his chair on
 to the platform and was lying on his   
back breathing hoarsely4 ,his collar and
 tie were removed forthwith4 ,there were
 several doctors on the platform with us
 and they set to work upon him4 ,i      
hesitated for a moment and then declared
 the meeting at an end1 and asked the   
audience to disperse as speedily as     

possible4 ,i thought it was an epileptic
 fit and ,i had no sense of ,sanderson's
 impending death4 ,i had never seen     
anything of the sort before4 ,i could   
not believe it when they told me he was 
dead4  ,the windows of the hot and      
sultry room were opened and most of the 
people made their way out1 but the      
reporters remained and one or two       
persons of the curious type who hung    
about vaguely with an affectation of    
decorous sympathy4 ,the lecture had been
 a very difficult one for the newspaper 
men1 and they came now with a certain   
eagerness to ask questions about ,oundle
 and ,sanderson's career4 ,i answered   
them as well as ,i could4 ,sanderson lay
 across the back of the platform1       
bare-chested and still4 ,it became      
evident that ,i had to seek out ,mrs4   
,sanderson and tell her of this         
disaster4  ,there was a little          
difficulty in ascertaining at which     
hotel ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,sanderson had been
 staying1 and when ,i got there ,i found

 she was out shopping1 and ,i waited    
some time for her return4 ,meanwhile her
 daughter and her daughter-in-law at    
,oundle were called up by telephone to  
come to her at once in ,london4 ,i told 
her at first that her husband was ill1  
and then1 as we went together in a cab  
to ,university ,college1 dangerously    
ill4 ,she was fully prepared to hear    
from the doctors at the hospital that   
the end had come4 ,the poor lady took   
the news very simply and bravely4  ,in  
the ,mortuary ,chapel of ,university    
,college ,hospital ,i saw my friend's   
face for the last time1 in all the      
irresponsive dignity of death4 ,we took 
,mrs4 ,sanderson to him and left her for
 a time alone with him4 ,four years     
before in the same ,london hotel at     
which she was now solitary1 he and she  
had shared the bitter grief of their    
eldest son's death together4    #d  ,an 
event of this sort produces the most    
various reactions in people1 and ,i     
recall with a distressful amusement two 

unknown persons who accosted me as ,i   
went out from ,university ,college to   
find a taxi to take me to ,mrs4         
,sanderson4 ,one was a young woman who  
came up to me and said3 ',don't be      
grieved for your friend1 ,mr4 ,wells4   
,it was a splendid thing to die like    
that in the midst of life1 after giving 
his message4'  ,i did not accept these  
congratulations and ,i made no reply to 
her4 ,i was thinking that a little acute
 observation1 a little more             
consideration on my part1 a finer sense 
of the labour ,i was putting upon my    
friend1 might have averted his death    
altogether4 ,and ,i was by no means     
convinced that his message was          
delivered1 that it had reached the      
people ,i had hoped it would reach and  
awaken4 ,i had counted on much more from
 ,sanderson4 ,this death seemed to me   
and still seems far more like           
frustration than release4  ,then        
presently as ,i gesticulated for a cab  
near ,gower ,street ,station1 ,i found a

 pale-faced1 earnest-looking man beside 
me asking for a moment's speech4 ',mr4  
,wells1' he said1 'does not this sudden 
event give you new views of immortality1
 new lights upon spiritual realities8'  
,i stared at a sort of greedy excitement
 in his face4 ',none whatever6' ,i said 
at last and got into my taxi4  ,i must  
confess that to this day ,i can find in 
,sanderson's death nothing but          
irreparable loss4 ,he left much of his  
work in a state so incomplete that ,i   
cannot see how his successors can carry 
it on4 ,in matters educational he was   
before all things a practical artist1   
and education is altogether too much the
 prey of theories4 ,he filled me--a mere
 writer1 with envious admiration when ,i
 saw how he could control and shape     
things to his will1 how he could        
experiment and learn and how he could   
use his boys1 his governors1 his staff1 
to try out and shape his creative       
dreams4  ,he was a strong man and in a  
very profound and simple way a good man1

 and it was a very helpful thing to feel
 oneself his ally4 ,but now that he is  
gone1 now that all his later projects   
and intentions shrivel and fade and his 
great school recedes visibly towards the
 commonplace1 ,i do not know where to   
turn to do an effective stroke for      
education4 ,it is only schoolmasters and
 schoolmistresses and educational       
authorities and school governors and    
school promoters and university teachers
 who can really carry on the work that  
he began4 ,in this book ,i have tried to
 set out as clearly as possible1 and    
largely in his own words1 his           
fundamental ideas of the supersession of
 competition by co-operation1 of the    
return of schools to real service and of
 a ,house of ,vision1 a ,temple of      
,history and the ,future1 as the brain  
and centre of community life4 ,this     
present book is1 as it were1 a          
simplified diagram of the teachings less
 luminously and more fully set out in   
the official ,life4  ,one thing ,i      

shared with ,sanderson altogether1 and  
that was our conviction that the present
 common life of men1 at once dull and   
disorderly1 competitive1 uncreative1    
cruelly stupid and stupidly cruel1      
unless it is to be regarded merely as a 
necessary phase in the development of a 
nobler existence1 is a thing not worth  
having1 that it does not matter who     
drops dead or how soon we drop dead out 
of such a world4 ,unless there is a more
 abundant life before mankind1 this     
scheme of space and time is a bad joke  
beyond our understanding1 a flare of    
vulgarity1 an empty laugh1 braying      
across the mysteries4 ,but we two shared
 the belief that latent in men and      
perceptible in men is a greater mankind1
 great enough to make every effort to   
realise it fully worth while1 and to    
make the whole business of living worth 
while4  ,and the way to that realisation
 lies1 we both believed1 through thought
 and through creative effort1 through   
science and art and the school4