y and secondary schools. Above all let me suggest that throughout
the countries of Europe an international language should be one of the
compulsory subjects of study. Such international languages (Esperanto,
Ido) have already attained something very near perfection; and with the
minimum of effort the international language could be mastered by all
the children of the civilised world. Not merely would this language be
of unrivalled practical value throughout life. It would further serve as
an introduction to the study of foreign languages and of their own
national tongue; for it would make them realise, far better than any
express instruction, the common elements in the European languages and
the unity of European thought.

I would further insist that both in primary and secondary education
there should be given a sketch of the history of universal thought,
universal literature, universal art. I consider it utterly erroneous
that the syllabus of instruction should concern itself only with these
subjects as manifested within the limits of a single nation, and that
within those limits there should be a further restriction to a period of
two or three centuries. Despite all that has been done to modernise
education, its spirit still remains essentially archaic. It perpetuates
among us the atmosphere of extinct epochs. Let not this criticism be
misunderstood. All my own education was classical. I passed through
every stage of university instruction. In my student days we were still
taught to write Latin speeches and Latin verses. I am impregnated with
the ideas of classical art and classical thought. Far from desiring to
sweep these things away, I should wish such treasures, like those of our
Louvre, to be made accessible to the great mass of mankind. But I must
point out that we should remain free in relation to that which we
admire, and that we are not free in relation to classical thought. The
Greco-Roman mental formulas, which our education has made as it were
second nature, are nowise suited for application to modern problems.
Those into whose minds such formulas have been instilled in childhood
have acquired overwhelming prejudices which they are rarely, if ever,
able to shake off, prejudices which weigh heavily upon contemporary
society. I am inclined to believe that one of the moral errors from
which Europe is chiefly suffering to-day, the Europe whose members are
tearing one another to pieces, is that we have preserve