than his precepts. From this it follows that the games[1] of a school, its traditions and social habits, and the power which the master possesses of awakening a spontaneous healthy activity of body and mind, are among the principal points to be considered in the choice of a school. Where these things are as they should be, the evidence will be seen in the happy countenances of the boys, and the associations with which former pupils look back to their school-life. It is well known that the opinions and tone of the boys in the upper forms of a public school are a better test of its condition than the honours gained at the universities.
We now come to the matter of instruction itself, which, as already remarked, must be looked at in two aspects. First; Preparation for the actual business of life. Secondly; Expansion of the moral and intellectual nature of the man.
Education of the Farmer as a Man of Business.
Parents desire what they call an useful education; but what is really useful? Something which we could use, if we knew how to handle it; or the power of using whatever is likely to come to hand? What do we desire for our children's bodies; the free action of their limbs, or some newly invented leading strings and crutches?
I believe that in some quarters the prevailing idea of what is useful in education will be found to be embodied, first and foremost, in writing copperplate, to which may be added land-surveying for a farmer, book-keeping for trade, with the addition of Latin if the trade should be in drugs.[2]
- ↑ I cannot resist quoting, as an illustration of the value of school games, the
Uppingham Fives Song. By Rev. E. Thring.
"Oh the spirit in the ball,
Dancing round about the wall,
In your eye and out again.
Ere there's time to feel the pain;
Hands and fingers all alive.
Doing duty each for five.
Oh the spirit in the ball.
Dancing round about the wall.
See again, now up it goes.
Whizzing by that startled nose,
Hands and feet are everywhere.
Twinkling in the middle air,
Bodies, bodies are no more.
All is hit, and spring, and score.
Oh the spirit in the ball.
Dancing round about the wall.
Poets sung it long ago,
All the fight and all the woe,
Geryon and thundering Zeus,
Hundred-fisted Briareus,
Argus with his million eyes.
Oh 't was but a game of Fives.
Oh the lordly game of Fives.
Oh the spirit in the ball.
Dancing round about the wall." - ↑ "There is one great difficulty which schoolmasters find in doing their duty to boys, and at the same time satisfying their parents. Parents wish their boys to be pushed on: the conscientious master prefers to keep them back until they are well grounded; because he knows that this will be of most benefit to them in the end. Parents like to see some visible sign of their progress. The master who
