Studies in Contemporary BiographyBryce, James Bryce, Viscount
History
Studies in Contemporary Biography
Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount
Great Britain -- Biography
When his friends heard of his departure there rose to mind the words
in which the closing scene of the life of Socrates is described by the
greatest of his disciples, and we thought that among all those we had
known there was none of whom we could more truly say that in him the
spirit of philosophy had its perfect work in justice, in goodness, and
in wisdom.
-----
[51] It is hoped that a life of Sidgwick, together with a selection
from his letters, may before long be published.
[52] It was his aim to avoid as much as possible technical terms or
phrases whose meaning was not plain to the average reader. An
anecdote was current that once when, in conducting a
university examination, he was perusing the papers of a
candidate who had darkened the subject by the use of extreme
Hegelian phraseology, he turned to his co-examiner and said, "I
can see that this is nonsense, but is it the right kind of
nonsense?"
EDWARD ERNEST BOWEN[53]
Ever since the publication of Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold that
eminent headmaster has been taken as the model of a great teacher and
ruler of boys, the man who, while stimulating the intelligence of his
pupils, was even more concerned to discipline and mould their moral
natures. Arnold has become the type of what Carlyle might have called
"The Hero as Schoolmaster." Though there have been many able men at
the head of large schools since his time, including three who
afterwards rose to be Archbishops of Canterbury, as well as a good
many who have become bishops, his fame remains unrivalled, and the
type created by his career, or rather perhaps by his biographer's
account of it, still holds the field. Moreover, during the sixty years
that have passed since Arnold's death scarcely a word has been said
regarding any other masters than the head. During those years the
English universities have sent into the great schools a large
proportion of their most capable graduates as assistant teachers; and
some of the strongest men among these graduates have never, from
various causes, and often because they preferred to remain laymen,
been raised to the headships of the schools. Every one knows that a
school depends for its wellbeing and success more largely on the
assistants taken together than it does on the headmaster. Most people
also know that individual assistant masters are not unfrequently
better scholars, better teachers, and more influential with the boys
than is their official superior. Yet the assistant masters have
remained unhonoured and unsung in the general chorus of praise of the
great schools which has been resounding over England for nearly two
generations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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