but, to be sure, it can do no harm to similar experiences. When she had have Wentworth to dinner," said got through her visit and was going Mr. Morgan, doubtfully; "only home, it struck her with considerBuller, you know, might wish-and able surprise to see the cab still in that case it might not be worth lingering about the corner of Pricour trouble to make any change." kett's Lane. Was Elsworthy's pet In spite of herself, Mrs. Morgan's boy delivering his newspapers from countenance fell; her pretty scheme that dignified elevation? or were of poetic justice, her vision of they seizing the opportunity of tasteful and appropriate furniture, conveying away the unfortunate became obscured by a momentary little girl who had caused so much mist. At least it is only right annoyance to everybody? When to ask him to dinner," she said, in she went closer, with a little nasubdued tones, and went to speak tural curiosity to see what else to the cook in a frame of mind might be inside besides the furtive more like the common level of errand-boy, the cab made a little human satisfaction than that exult- rush away from her, and the blinds ant and exalted strain to which she were drawn down. Mrs. Morgan had risen at the first moment. Then smiled a little to herself with digshe put on a black dress, and went nified calm. "As if it was anyto call on the Miss Wodehouses, thing to me!" she said to herself; who naturally came into her mind and so went home to put out the when she thought of the Perpetual dessert with her own hands. She Curate. As she went along Grange even cut a few fronds of her favLane she could not but observe a ourite maiden-hair to decorate the hackney cab, one of those which peaches, of which she could not belonged to the railway station, help being a little proud. "I must lounging if a cab could ever be speak to Mr. Wentworth, if he comes, said to lounge-in the direction of to keep on Thompson," she said to Wharfside. Its appearance spe- herself, and then gave a momentary cially attracted Mrs. Morgan's at sigh at thought of the new flue, tention in consequence of the ap- which was as good as her own inparition of Elsworthy's favourite vention, and which it had cost her errand-boy, who now and then both time and money to arrange to poked his head furtively through her satisfaction. The peaches were the window, and seemed to be sit- lovely, but who could tell what ting in state inside. When she had they might be next year if a new gone a little farther she encountered Rector came who took no interest Wodehouse and Jack Wentworth, in the garden? for Thompson, who had just come from paying though he was a very good servant, their visit to the sisters. The sight required to be looked after, as inof these two revived her sympa- dced most good servants d6. Mrs. thies for the lonely women who Morgan sighed a little when she had fallen so unexpectedly out of thought of all her past exertions wealth into poverty: but yet she and the pains of which she was felt a little difficulty in framing scare ly yet beginning to reap her countenance to be partly sor- the fruit. One man labours, and rowful and partly congratulatory, another enters into his labours. as was necessary under these cir- One thing, however, was a little cumstances; for though she knew consolatory, that she could take her nothing of the accident which had ferns with her. But on the whole, happened that morning, when Lucy after the first outburst of feeling, and the Perpetual Curate saw each the idea of change, notwithstandother alone, she was aware of Miss ing all its advantages, was in itWodehouse's special position, and self, like most human things, a was sympathetic as became a doubtful-pleasure. To be sure, it woman who had "gone through" was only through its products that her feelings were interested about the most valuable decorations of the new flue, whereas the drawing- the Rectory? This kind of breakroom carpet was a standing griev- age, if not more real, was at least ance. When it was time to dress likely to force itself more upon the for dinner, the Rector's wife was senses than the other kind of fracnot nearly so sure as before that ture which this morning's explanashe had never liked Carlingford. tion had happily averted; and altoShe began to forget the thoughts gether it was with mingled feelshe had entertained about broken ing that Mrs. Morgan entered the idols, and to remember a number drawing-room, and found it occuof inconveniences attending a re- pied by Mr. Leeson, who always moval. Who would guarantee the came too early and who, on the safe transit of the china, not to speak present occasion, had some suffiof the old china, which was one of ciently strange news to tell. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS REPORT II. HARROW AND RUGBY. more THE two public schools which with which these great schools are stand next after Eton, in the administered. No Rugby or Harpresent day, in point of reputation row man, at all events, will endorse and numbers, are Harrow and Lord Malmesbury's strange protest Rugby. They offer many conve- against telling the whole truth, or nient points of comparison. Their suggest, as he does, that a little history has been remarkably similar. cooking of the accounts for the Founded within a very few years public eye would have made things of each other, early in the reign of more pleasant. That the tangible Elizabeth, both by private indivi- results of the education in both duals of the middle class, they have schools, so far as the mass of the both risen, by a combination of boys is concerned, is to a certain circumstances which their founders extent disappointing. that they could never have foreseen, from the share in common with others, more position of mere small town or or less, in that failure which the village grammar-schools to be the Commissioners note in their Report, public training-ground of English and which has been so largely disgentlemen, second only, even as far. cussed in every quarter since,—this as name and fashion are concerned, is a fact of which none are to Henry VII.'s "antique towers;" painfully conscious than the most and in the more important matter devoted teachers on their staff; it is of distinguished scholarship and a failure which these are the first to liberal training, claiming each for confess and lament, which they are themselves, and with some justice, making exertions year after year to be second to none. The search- to meet by some new adaptation ing ordeal of a Royal Commission, of their work, and for which they if it has disclosed some shortcomings common to public-school education generally-in some degree almost inseparable from the system -has brought out a body of evidence which forms the strongest plea ever put on record in favour of the system itself, and which, in all its main bearings, must strike every impartial reader with admiration at the energy and ability would be only too thankful if any Royal Commission were omnipotent enough to find a remedy. It is the failure common to all lofty aims which are directed at elevating a large aggregate of human minds; the ideal, or even any reasonable approach to it, is only realised here and there. It is a disappointment which must meet the pastor of every large parish, however able and conscientious, in far larger degree than even the public-schoolmaster; he may number his disciples by thousands, but he must be content to trace his successful efforts by units and tens. And one very serious answer which may be urged in reply to the charge of failure in the education of the mass of those who leave our public schools is, that we are no more justified in narrowing the basis of an English gentleman's education, for the minority who gladly profit by it, in the hope of securing some supposed advantage for the majority who abuse or neglect their opportunities, than in narrowing or diluting the grand principles of Christianity because the ideal which they are to form seems unattainable by the mass of nominal Christians. In neither case are the results to be fairly measured by numbers. The influence of one thoroughly trained mind counts for more in the social and intellectual education of the world than a hundred mediocritics. In human as in divine relations, the few are the salt of the earth. No school has made more honest or more successful attempts to meet the demand for a more extended basis of education than Rugby. Dr. Arnold was the first head of a large public school who gave a sensible weight to modern history and modern languages, and made them an essential part of the regular school work. And perhaps if any one modern teacher rather than another may be considered free from old-fashioned prejudices, and untrammelled by any blind reverence for traditional formulas, that man would be the present Head-Master, Dr. Temple. We may fairly take him, therefore, as a witness unexceptionable on the ground of natural bias as of acknowledged ability, in support of the conclusion which has been arrived at by the Commissioners, and which has been already advocated in our pages, that classics should continue to be the staple of instruction in our public schools. "I cannot suggest," he says, "any change in our system of education." He has entered into the question at some length, and with great ability; and though his arguments are not altogether new-as few arguments on this subject can be they are so strikingly put, that many who are not readers of bluebooks will thank us for a longer quotation than usual. "The studies of boys at school fall under three heads-literature, matheevery branch of each of these studies matics, and physical science. For A boy ought not to be ignorant of this very strong arguments may be adduced. earth on which God has placed him, and ought therefore to be well acquainted with geography. He ought not to walk in the fields in total ignorance of what is growing under his very eyes, and he ought therefore to learn botany. There is hardly an occupation in which find chemistry of service to him. Mahe can be employed where he will not So contain in themselves the one perfect choice among these studies, to take one as When we have to choose between literature, mathematics, and physical science, the plea advanced on behalf of the two latter is utility. They supply a man with tools for future work. Man's chief business, it is said, is to subdue nature to his purposes, and these two studies show him how. Those who use this plea seem to forget that the world in which we live consists quite as much of the men and women on its surface, as of the earth and its constituent materials. If any man -were to analyse his own life he would find that he had far more to do with his fellow-men than with anything else. And if, therefore, we are to choose a study which shall pre-eminently fit a man for life. it will be that which shall best enable him to enter into the thoughts, the feelings, the motives of his fellows. The real defect of mathematics and physical science as instruments of education is, that they have not any tendency to humanise. Such studies do not make a man more human, but simply more intelligent. Physical science, besides giv. ing knowledge, cultivates to some degree the love of order and beauty. Mathematics give a very admirable discipline in precision of thought. But neither of them can touch the strictly human part of our nature. The fact is, that all education really comes from intercourse with other minds. "If the staple of education is to be found in the different branches of literature, the classics," in a perfect system, must be the substratum. "In the first place, modern literature is not fully intelligible, except to those who have studied the classics. A student of mathematics does not find it any help to him to study the early writers on the science. No one is aided in learning the differential calculus by going back to fluxions. Nor will the study of physical science gain much by beginning with the writings of earlier discoverers. But literature can only be studied thoroughly by going to its source. Modern theology, modern philosophy, modern law, modern history, modern poetry, are never quite understood unless we begin with their ancient counterparts. "In the next place, the perfect and peculiar beauty of the classical literature will always put it at the head of all other, "Thirdly, the classic life contains, as Mr. J. S. Mill has remarked, 'precisely the true corrective for the chief defects of modern life. The classic writers ex hibit precisely that order of virtues in which we are apt to be deficient. They altogether show human nature on a grander scale, with less benevolence, but more patriotism; less sentiment, but more self-control; if a lower average of virtue, more striking individual examples of it; fewer small goodnesses, but more greatness and appreciation of greatness; more which tends to exalt the imagination, and inspire high conceptions of the capabilities of human nature. If, as every one must see, the want of affinity of these studies to the modern mind is gradually lowering them in popular estimation, this is but a confirmation of the need of them, and renders it more incumbent on those who have the power, to do their utmost to aid in preventing their decline.'"-Appendix, pp. 311, 312. As an illustration of the position which he goes on to lay down, that the kind of education given in a publie school is that which fits a youth to take up any study whatever, Dr. Temple gives the following: "I once asked a tradesman who had been himself at Rugby School, and was intending to send his son, whether he had learnt anything here that was of use to him afterwards. He answered, 'I was at school several years, and I have never regretted it. I learnt there what I don't think I could have learnt as well anywhere else,-how to learn anything I wanted.'" basis of education both at Rugby and But although the classics form the at Harrow, and all other subjects occupy a very subordinate position, neither mathematics, modern languages, nor modern history are neg lected. One very important step has been gained in considering the two first no longer as "extras," as was the case in former days (which too often made the so-called teaching a mere farce, of which the only real result was the adding a certain number of guineas to the school-bills), but in making them a distinct item of regular school-work, and putting the lessons, for the short proportion of time they occupy, on precisely the same footing as Latin and Greek. Not a very great deal is taught of these subjects, it is true; but what is taught is taught in earnest. No thing contributes more effectually to this result than securing, as is done at both schools, that the mathematical and modern language masters shall be, both socially and intellectually, upon the same level with the classical staff, and maintaining for them an equal status in the school generally. Mathematics occupy at Rugby, taking the average of the several forms, about three hours in the week in school, with perhaps nearly as much time supposed to be spent in preparation. Very nearly the same estimate will apply to Harrow. In both schools about two hours in the week are assigned to the modern language lessons, which are each considered to require an hour's preparation. Every boy at Rugby is required to learn both French and German, unless on his reaching the "Middle School" his parents prefer that he should attend the lectures on natural philosophy. At Harrow all below the fifth form learn French; in the fifth, if "able to read and translate a French classic with facility at sight," a boy is transferred to German. A certain amount of interest and emulation is kept up in these subsidiary studies by a system of marks given for proficiency, which contribute to a boy's promotion through the regular classical forms in the school. At Harrow their influence in this important respect is far from inconsiderable. "A boy may rise most rapidly into the upper sixth form without being at any time distinguished for scholarship, by the help of modern languages and mathematics. I have known a case in which a boy has risen from the bottom of the form almost to the top by great success in mathematics, and vice versa; so that it happens continually that a boy reaches the upper sixth who is a very bad scholar."Mr. Westcott's Evidence, 1121. At Rugby the weight which mathematics and modern languages throw into the scale is scarcely so great as this; but even there a marked superiority in these points may so far affect promotion, that it is very possible that "the boy Smith in the sixth form may be inferior in classics to the boy Jones who may be in the twenty" (the form next below.* Natural philosophy (where that study is chosen) reckons in the same proportion as modern languages. Proficiency in these secondary subjects enters also more or less into the competition for the Harrow scholarships and for the Rugby exhibitions. Mr. Butler doubts whether this combination of marks works satisfactorily as the promotion reaches the highest form, and suggests that both "the best scholars and the best mathematicians would gain considerably by the distinct recognition and reward of their respective studies;" for instance, by the assignment of some of the scholarships to classics only, and others to mathematics only; and on a similar principle the Royal Commissioners, in the increase which they propose in the number of exhibitions at Rugby, recommend that instead of their being all awarded, as at present, for "mixed attainments," five shall be adjudged for classics alone, two for mathematics, two for modernlanguages, and two for physical science. If it is considered necessary to give greater encouragement to these branches of study, this certainly appears to be the simplest and least objectionable mode of providing it. But Mr. Butler agrees with Dr. line of education at a public school, Temple that there must be one fixed and that if classics are adopted as the basis, the studies which are subsidiary must be permitted to interfere as little as possible with *The proportion of marks given for the several subjects is as follows: |