typical specimens from the Protozoa and from all classes of animals up to mammals, and make clear, as far as possible, the adaptation of their structure to their mode of life. For teaching purposes the museum is well equipped, since all the main classes, except the unicellular (of which live specimens are easily obtainable) are fairly well represented. For skeletons of large animals, such as the horse, there is, of course, no room, but typical parts, such as the skull and the legs, fore and hind, are there. Exotic animals are excluded, unless they have some very special interest. For instance, among foreign birds, the apteryx, the hoatzin, the motmot, and a few others are admitted.

Expeditions are made every year, the general ones almost exclusively in the summer. There is always one to the Zoo, sometimes to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, sometimes to Woolwich Arsenal or to the Great Eastern or North London Railway works. In the matter of excursions it is found wise not to narrow our field too much. The photographers have their special expeditions to places of interest in the neighbourhood. As a rule photography is pursued as an art or an amusement, not as the handmaid of science, but occasionally good photographs of birds' nests or trees are taken.

There are a great many boys, especially among the more intellectual, who are not prepared to devote much time to natural history, even though they are interested in it, especially when they get into the Sixth Form and are working for scholarships. They are either too busy, or think that they are. It is a great pity that they should give up natural history altogether, as often they are much inclined to do. For the benefit of boys of this sort, as soon as they have attained to the Sixth Form there are special meetings at which informal lectures are delivered.

Sometimes these lectures deal with questions of natural history pure and simple, but often the range is wider, and they treat of anthropological or psychological matters. A prize is given for the best essay on the subject opened up by the lecture. These special meetings extend the mental view of those who attend them and retain their allegiance to the Natural Science Society. It is no small thing that they check the tendency that shows itself more or less strongly at all public schools to look upon natural history as a lower school subject.

XIII.

ART AND ARCHEOLOGY.

BY M. J. RENDALL.

So long as Greek is still the main gate which leads to the University, and public school boys are constrained to spend many hours upon that language, it is to be hoped that we cherish not a little of the Greek spirit in our education. We may, then, not unfairly write at the head of this brief enquiry Pericles' great summary of the aims and ideals of Athens, "The School of Greece." After dwelling upon the liberty which is not licence, and the open career and the gay courage of his citizens, he sets out their literary and humanistic ideals in the well known epigram, which defies translation, φιλοκαλοῦμεν γὰρ μετ ̓ εὐτελείας καὶ φιλοσοφοῦμεν ἄνευ μαλακίας.

It is this love of beauty, free from the "gaudy and lavish magnificence of barbaric ornament " (for so the great Rugbeian scholar interprets the thought), which seems to form one half of the Greek ideal, and which has been slowly and painfully seeking its own place as a helpmeet of the sister science of "Philosophy," while both are confronted by the manifold and urgent appeals of a utilitarian age.

The author of "Tom Brown," if we remember right, had little sympathy with this Athenian aspect of education, but, it would appear, he was somuch concerned with setting out the moral aims of his master that the intellect appears to play a small part

in the development of his boys, Indeed, we doubt if the teaching of art as a school subject was ever taken seriously until the "seventies" or eighties," and it has hardly yet reached its majority any effectual sense of the word.

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But, after all, if we were asked what was the main artistic influence on the lives of schoolboys, we should answer unhesitatingly their buildings and the country in which they are set. No one who is but partially familiar with our public schools can appreciate the charm, the variety and the splendour of their surroundings.

Even a tripper may have gained a nodding acquaintance with the Gothic chambers and sundyed walls of Winchester, the royal towers and royal river of Eton, the glorious sunsets from Byron's tomb in Harrow Churchyard, or the cathedral home of Westminster. Many may have some knowledge of Sherborne Priory, of the Norman arch at Canterbury, of York or many younger grammar schools, rich in historic association; but does he know other less boasted attractions? Has he seen the rhododendrons flash across the bathing place at Wellington? Has he listened to the undersong of the birds in Bradfield Theatre ? Has he watched the shadows creep across the grassy knolls that cluster round Giggleswick ?

There is hardly an English school which is not set in lovely surroundings, which not only offers a dozen architectural excursions to the Archæological Society, but, better still, supplies countless lovely walks or rambles to those who still retain some sympathy for the wild flowers and wild creatures of their own country.

Here, at least, our founders would seem to have borne well in mind Athenian ideals; "then will our youth dwell in the land of health, amid fair sights and sounds," says Plato, "and beauty, the effulgence

of fair works, will visit the eye and ear, like a healthful breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul even in childhood into harmony with the beauty of reason."

Surely it is not blind patriotism which convinces us that no other country can offer a tithe of the attractions, both of nature and architecture, which England has lavished upon her great public schools. Take, for instance, France at her best. Take two names which Matthew Arnold has made illustrious, Carcassonne and Sorèze; the former borrows a unique lustre from the old Cité across the river, that "vignette from Ivanhoe," while the saintly presence of Lacordaire hovers round Sorèze; take the calm seclusion of the Collège de Juilly in the north, with its lake, its avenues, its memories of Bossuet, and its statue of S. Geneviêve :- -even these historic institutions offer no ensemble of old buildings and wild country which can compare with the best which we have to show. It is our own fault if we do not make a wise use of our inheritance.

We have dwelt upon this aspect of school art education partly because it has a universal and immense influence upon the romantic temperament of youth, partly because it affords the only true and real basis on which art teaching can rest. With such surroundings an artist has not to create, he only needs to elicit and direct enthusiasm.

But there is one other source of artistic inspiration which some of our great schools possess besides their libraries, which have always reserved a few niches for busts and some wall space for reproductions. In the last twenty years of the 19th Century there sprang into existence at least five school Museums, temples of art and science, built on generous lines from the pious donations of alumni, and designed in at least three instances to commemorate a great benefactor to the school.