ive detail the
kind of thing that is going on.

We have been discussing the introduction here of certain important
educational reforms, in the direction of modernising and simplifying
our curriculum.

Now we are all one body here, no doubt, like the Christian Church in
the hymn; but unhappily, and unlike the hymn, we ARE very much divided.
We are in two camps. There is a conservative section who, doubtless for
very good reasons, want to keep things as they are; they see strongly
all the blessings of the old order; they like the old ways and believe
in them; they think, for instance, that the old classical lines of
education are the best, that the system fortifies the mind, and that,
when you have been through it, you have got a good instrument which
enables you to tackle anything else; a very coherent position, and, in
the case of our conservatives, very conscientiously administered.

Then there is a strong Progressive party numerically rather stronger,
to which I myself belong. We believe that things might be a good deal
better. We are dissatisfied with our results. We think, to take the
same instance, that classics are a very hard subject, and that a great
many boys are not adapted to profit by them; we believe that the
consequence of boys being kept at a hard subject, which they cannot
penetrate or master, leads to a certain cynicism about intellectual
things, and that the results of a classical education on many boys are
so negative that at all events some experiments ought to be tried.

Well, if all discussions could be conducted patiently, good-humouredly,
and philosophically, no harm would be done; but they can't! Men will
lose their temper, indulge in personalities, and import bitterness into
the question. Moreover, a number of my fiercest opponents are among my
best friends here, and that is naturally very painful. Indeed, I feel
how entirely unfitted I am for these kinds of controversy. This
disgusting business deprives me of sleep, makes me unable to
concentrate my mind upon my work, destroys both my tranquillity and my
philosophy.

It is a relief to write to you on the subject. Yet I don't see my way
out. One must have an opinion about one's life-work. My business is
education, and I have tried to use my eyes and see things as they are.
I am quite prepared to admit that I may be wrong; but if everybody who
formed opinions abstained from expressing them out of deference to the
people who were not prepar