Thring), already referred to, whose talents and exertions bid fair to earn a high reputation for the school of Uppingham, of which he is the head-master.
"For years 1 have been deeply interested in education, having begun my professional life by steady daily work in National Schools, to which I am indebted for all my training as a teacher, long before I had any thought of being an Upper Class Schoolmaster. I am very strongly of opinion that the hope of England in education lies in working up from below. And I equally think that there is no basis like Latin, if properly taught, which I would venture to assert a master at our great schools is no judge of; and that a boy remaining at school up to 15 or 16, can under such circumstances quite master the amount of knowledge of Latin you look to as a training for language and mental exercise, and an assistance to his own native literature. You do not want, it seems to me, that taste for Latin literature my old friend at Eton speaks of; but you do want a habit of close logical thought applied to something less abstract than figures and Mathematics, and a precision in wielding and understanding language which no other process can give Modern languages do not give this in the same degree, for the reason partly that our own language does not, viz., the perpetual tendency to slide into fluent conversational proficiency, and mistake it for real knowledge and mental training. A well-trained boy of 15 can compose ordinary Latin well, and compose in Verse and Prose fairly. If you consider that such a boy has had to give as much of his time to Greek, it will be clear how, omitting Greek, a boy of the middle classes would have plenty of time for his other subjects, and yet be able to give enough to Latin."
Lastly, one of the most distinguished scholars, as well as one of the most practical teachers in our country, Dr. Kennedy of Shrewsbury, permits me in the kindest manner to add his opinion:—
"I should strongly advocate the teaching of Latin to the children of the middle classes, on the ground that they desire, and it is desirable, that their instruction, as a class, should be on a higher level than that of the classes below them in the social scale, and this can hardly be better done than by giving them more linguistic, as well as deeper scientific, knowledge. Latin would, of course, be a material help to their acquirement of French, and knowing both these, they would at the same time acquire a more accurate knowledge of English."
I have devoted what may seem to some a disproportionate space to the subject of language, and particularly to the discussion of the question, whether and to what extent Latin should be taught to farmers' sons and others in the middle ranks?—because I know it is one on which many fathers are anxious for information. It is one also on which very powerful influences have been brought to bear in opposition, as I believe, to the right course. I have therefore felt it necessary to support my argument by high authorities. The subjects which remain must be more shortly disposed of.
Geography and History.
History and geography are full of interest to those whose minds are already sufficiently called out to enter into their mutual
