universities afford ample and often amusing illustrations of this
condition of things. I remember an Oxford tutor, who set papers for a
certain Theological College, telling me that one year he put this
question: 'Give some account of the life of Mary, the mother of our
Lord.' This was a question which obviously required some power of
synthesis, some exercise of thought and skill in narrative. One bright
youth, after a feeble sentence or two in which the name of Mary was at
least included, went on to say, 'At this point it may not be out of
place to give a list of the kings of Israel.' Here was something he
did know, and it was something not worth knowing. I found that my boys
had been educated on much the same principle. They could do a simple
problem of mathematics after a fashion; that is, they could recite it;
but it had never once been suggested to them as an exercise of reason.
It was the same with history; they could recite dates and facts, but
they had no perception of principles. It may be imagined that I had to
go to school again myself before I could attempt to instruct them. I
had to take down again my long disused Virgil and Cicero, and work
through many a forgotten passage. At first the task was distasteful
enough, but it soon became fascinating. My love of the classics
revived. I began to read Homer and Thucydides, Tacitus and Lucretius,
for my own pleasure. It was delightful to observe what interest my
boys took in Virgil, as soon as they discovered that Virgil was not a
mere task-book, but poetry of the noblest order. By avoiding all idea
of mere unintelligent task-work, I soon got them to take a real
interest in their work, until at last they came to anticipate the hour
of these common studies. I took care also to never make the burden of
study oppressive. Two hours of real study is as much as a young boy
can bear at a time. He should rise from his task, not with an
exhausted, but with a fresh and quickened, mind. On very fine days it
was understood that no books should be opened. Such days were spent in