lay a helpful rather than an
injurious part? Does the introduction of politics into the curriculum
open a way, as the very able reviewer in _The Westminster Gazette_
suggested, for Prussianism in its most insidious form, the conscription
of educated opinion? Are the old Public Schools the best medium for
political education, or should the new wine be poured into new bottles?
and lastly--for educational "subjects" are or should be but aspects of
a single whole--what of political education in relation to morality,
and to religion?

The present volume, therefore, essays a twofold task. The first two
chapters briefly recapitulate and continue the history of our work down
to its abrupt end. The latter chapters deal with such questions as
those mentioned above. One feature of the earlier volume survives in
its successor. The Appendix to that volume contained a selection of
articles written by boys for our political paper, _The School
Observer_. As an Appendix to this volume we print a few more articles
by boys whose work did not then appear. We are under no delusions as
to there being anything very extraordinary about these articles and
those printed in the previous volume. Abler work has been done by
abler boys in various schools at various times. They are interesting
as the combined effort of a group rather than as the work of
individuals. We reproduce them as the only concrete evidence available
of the character of one aspect of our experiment.

In the former volume we suppressed the name of the school out of
deference to the wishes of the Head Master, and though our own judgment
was against the concealment as a wholly superfluous piece of
mystification, we continue to respect his wishes.

One word of apology is needed for the use to which we have put the
utterances of our reviewers. The reviews revealed the interesting and
important fact that thoughtful people really felt strongly, one way or
the other, on the subject of political education. They constitute a
symposium of conflicting judgments upon an educational problem of which
they one and all recognize the importance, and as such their main
features are worth preserving.

Having said this much about the reviews it is necessary to add a word
more. The quotations we have chosen are, quite naturally, very largely
critical, and as such give no idea of the very warm welcome the general
policy of the book received. Not one in five among the reviewers was