an overgrown weed. Good masters learn to hang many a garland on its unsightly knots by the way, and to bend many of its branches into unnatural but more or less useful directions.' 'These results are not legitimate deductions from teaching languages.'

'Every speaker is bound to know his own language first, without relation to other languages.' 'Lessons in language should be supplemented with lessons on things. We must have something to speak and write about besides language itself.' After English, should come German and French. 'Hitherto, German and French have been regarded as the accomplishments, and Latin and Greek as the staple, of literary education. It is time to reverse the terms. Latin and Greek have drifted into being accomplishments.' 'If a boy is "up" in English at ten; knows his German, to the extent indicated at twelve, and his French at fourteen; he will be a better Latin scholar at sixteen, and Greek scholar at eighteen, than the majority of those who leave our public schools.' 'Literature is one of the very last things to be attacked. To appreciate it, requires much education, often much experience of life, and great familiarity with the language, and often with social habits and customs.'

Mr. Matthew Arnold.-At the close of his Report to 'The Schools' Inquiry Commission' on the Middle Schools of Germany, Mr. Arnold adverts to the conflict of the modern spirit with the old exclusive classical system, and indicates what he considers the true solution. "The ideal of a general, liberal training is, to carry us to a knowledge of ourselves and the world. We are called to this knowledge by special aptitudes which are born with us: the grand thing in teaching is to have faith that some aptitudes for this everyone has. This one's special aptitudes are for knowing men-the study of the humanities; that one's special aptitudes are for knowing the world-the study of nature. The circle of knowledge comprehends both, and we should all have some notion, at any rate, of the whole circle of knowledge.

MATTHEW ARNOLD'S VIEWS.

389 The rejection of the humanities by the realists, the rejection of the study of nature by the humanists, are alike ignorant. He whose aptitudes carry him to the study of nature should have some notion of the humanities; he whose aptitudes carry him to the humanities should have some notion of the phenomena and laws of nature. Evidently, therefore, the beginnings of a liberal culture should be the same for both. The mother tongue, the elements of Latin and of the chief modern languages, the elements of history, of arithmetic and geometry, of geography, and of the knowledge of nature, should be the studies of the lower classes in all secondary schools, and should be the same for all boys at this stage. So far, therefore, there is no reason for a division of schools. But then comes a bifurcation, according to the boy's aptitudes and aims. Either the study of the humanities or the study of nature is henceforth to be the predominating part of his instruction.'

CHAPTER XI.

THE RENOVATED CURRICULUM.

ON the supposition that Languages are in no sense the main part of Education, but only helps or adjuncts under definite circumstances, the inference seems to be, that they should not, as at present, occupy a central or leading position, but stand apart as side subjects available to those that require them.

I conceive that the curriculum of Secondary or Higher Education should, from first to last, have for its staple the various branches of knowledge culture, including our own language. The principal part of each day should be devoted to these subjects; while there should be a certain amount of spare time to devote to languages and other branches that are not required of all, but may be suitable to the circumstances of individuals.

The essentials of a curriculum of the Higher Education may be summed up under three heads:

I. SCIENCE, including the Primary Sciences, as already set forth; some one or more of the Natural History Sciences-Mineralogy, Botany, Zoology, Geology; to which may be added Geography. To what extent this vast course should enter into general education

SCOPE OF THE HUMANITIES.

391.

has already been sufficiently discussed. Our present purpose does not require the nice adjustment of details.

II. A course of the HUMANITIES, under which I include (1) History, and the various branches of Social Science that can be conveniently embraced in a methodical course. Mere narrative History would be merged. in the Science of Government, and of Social Institutions, to which could be added Political Economy, and, if thought fit, an outline of Jurisprudence or Law. This would put in the proper place, and in the most advantageous order of study, one large department recently incorporated with the teaching of the classical languages, by way of redeeming their infertility.

(2) Under the Humanities might next be included a view, more or less full, of Universal Literature. Presupposing those explanations of the Literary Qualities and Arts of Style that should be associated, in the first instance, with our own language, and also some familiarity with our own Literature, we could proceed to survey the course and development of the Literature of the World through its principal streams, including of necessity the Greek and Roman Classics. It is needless to add that this should be done without demanding a study of the original languages. How far a Philosophy of Literature should penetrate the survey I do not at present enquire. Materials already exist in abundance for such a course. It is the beau-ideal of Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres as conceived by the chief modern authorities in the department, as for example, Campbell and Blair in last century. Only, I should propose that the elements of Rhetoric, in connection with our own Literature, should lead the way.

Such a course would carry out, with effect and

thoroughness, what is very imperfectly attempted in conjunction with the present classical teaching. A tolerably complete survey of the chief authors of Greece and Rome, with studies upon select portions of the most important, could be achieved in the first instance; and it might be possible to include also a profitable acquaintance with the great modern literatures.

III. ENGLISH COMPOSITION AND LITERATURE. This might either pervade the entire curriculum, or be concentrated in the earlier portions, the General Literature being deferred. What it comprises, according to my view, has been sufficiently stated. The survey of Universal Literature, would operate beneficially upon the comprehension of our own.

These three departments appear to me to have the best claims to be called a Liberal Education. The deviation from the received views is more in form than in substance. I would not call Science alone a Liberal Education, although a course that implied a fair knowledge of the Primary Sciences, a certain amount of Natural Science, and a wide grasp of Sociology, would be no mean equipment for the battle of life. I think, however, that the materials of Sociology might be accumulating all through the curriculum, and might serve to alleviate the severity of the strictly scientific

course.

I think, moreover, that a Liberal Education would not be generally considered complete without Literature, although people must needs differ as to the amount. hold that the three departments stated are sufficiently comprehensive for all the purposes of a general educa

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