44 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

oust the study of other subjects, and more especially
Greek and Latin. No charge could be more unjust :
all that public school science masters are anxious to obtain
 is a postponement: of any specialization, especially
as far as their own subject is concerned, up to the age of
16 or 164 years. Until that age has been reached
they hold that all education should be general, so as to
avoid the evils of early specialization which are so generally
 admitted. After that age a system of united and
progressive specialization should be permitted, but science
masters claim no privilege which they are not prepared to
grant in equal degree to all branches of learning, classical
 as well as modern. They are anxious to postpone the
study of formal science until the age of 16 or 164 years
of age, but are equally opposed to specialized classics
until the same age,
Indeed, so far as modern literary and historical studies
are concerned, they are strongly of opinion that the time
allotted to them in the curriculum of a general education
 is far too short: to shift the balance in this direction
is at least as important in their own minds as to secure
a footing for a favourable consideration of their own
claims.

Having removed these two general and serious misunderstandings
 there is one point which is of the utmost
importance and needs to be emphasized. It is not
clearly understood that the public school science master
has to cater for two classes. In the first instance, it
is surely manifest that no boy can be considered completely
 educated unless he has some knowledge of his
own structure, of the natural laws relating to his own
life and environment, of the manner in which scientific
knowledge may best be applied for the benefit of mankind
 in general, and of the cause and effect of general
natural phenomena. Such knowledge should be in the
possession of every educated person, and consequently