distinguished professor of mathematics in Queen's College, Cork, who allows me to quote the following vigorous remarks:—
"I think that Latin ought to be a subject of examination, but that the number of marks allotted to it should be too small to amount to anything like a bounty upon the study. Taking into account the position and prospects of those for whose benefit the examinations are intended, it would in my opinion be an evil if any were induced by the hope of reward or distinction to engage in a pursuit which they would not upon other grounds have chosen.
"I form this opinion partly upon considerations of economy and public utility, partly upon a regard for the freedom of education, and partly—and this is not the least element—upon personal observation of the difference of intellectual character among boys. Perhaps there are in every school a few who have a decided taste for the acquisition of languages. Very often this taste is associated with the love of poetry. Where these dispositions are combined the study of Latin becomes, more than that of any living language, a source of enjoyment; and a comparatively short time suffices to produce valuable results. Not only is the taste elevated and refined, but the habit of applying rules, and of referring to standards, in the first place of accuracy, in the second place of elegance, is formed. I can well conceive that the intellectual benefit thus acquired may survive almost the last shred of positive knowledge of the language which had been associated with it. But the cases to which I have referred are not numerous, and in a majority of instances the study of Latin in schools for the education of the sons of farmers and tradesmen (designed themselves to follow the same occupation) is productive of no compensating good for the undoubted irksomeness and restraint of the study itself. Of course this observation does not apply to schools in which the whole course of education, continued for a great number of years, favours the development of tastes and habits, which in the beginning may exist only in a very rudimentary degree."
I forwarded to Dr. Boole the detailed scheme of the West of England Examination, and informed him that the plans proposed were not limited to young boys about to leave school at an early age, and I received from him a letter, from which the next extract is taken:—
… "I fully think that if a parent be disposed to continue his son's school education for three years after his attaining the age of 15, he might properly be advised to require him to learn Latin, and at least one modern language in addition. I am sure that for the average of lads, with such advantage of time and opportunity, all this would be quite within the compass of a reasonable possibility. My previous observations were made under the impression that the school education of the sons of farmers would seldom be continued after the age of 15, unless there was a great deal of early neglect to make up for I think I ought further to say, that it is my decided opinion that where there has been no previous neglect, and it is still the wish of the parent to give his son farther advantages, he would be wise to remove him at about the age of 15 to a college or advanced school, where younger boys are not admitted. One reason for this is, that there would be less danger of formal repetition of what has been done before; another is, that it is well in the time of youth to be where the general level is high. However, I only make these remarks with reference to boys not destined for the Universities, for the consciousness of such destination supplies that higher level, which in schools for the middle class is most needed."
I must add the opinion of a Somersetshire man (Rev. E.
