The two disciplines in education : an address delivered at the opening of the medical session, Mason University College, Birmingham / by Sir William T. Gairdner, M.D., K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The two disciplines in education : an address delivered at the opening of the medical session, Mason University College, Birmingham / by Sir William T. Gairdner, M.D., K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Medicine in the University of Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    an educated man,” to carry war into the camp of the humanists. In the admirable “ Romanes Lecture ” recently published by my former colleague, Professor Jebb,* I find generally that the sixties i.e., the years immediately following the report of the Public Schools Commission—are referred to as being the critical moment, “ a moment in this century when the attack upon the humanities was somewhat formidable.” It is very satisfactory to note that, as the result of his whole investigation of the subject, Professor Jebb considers that the humanities have successfully weathered this storm, and are now, towards the close of the century, in a stronger and more secure position than they were before. “ In the sixties,” he writes (p. 35), “ considering the strength of the attack both from without and from within, the position of humane studies was certainly more seriously im- perilled than it had ever been before. . . . The danger was lest the powerful alliance between insurgent men of science and disaffected humanists, aided by the legions of Philistia, should force on a movement for imposing restrictions in a spirit altogether favourable to the new studies, but unfriendly to the old ; with the result that classical studies might be so narrowed, so hampered, so maimed, as to lose nearly all their educational virtue : and, after languishing for a time, might gradually die out of the schools.” The other side of the question is stated not less candidly, though not, perhaps, with the same fulness of knowledge as regards scientific results and methods, by Professor Jebb, as follows (p. 37) :— “ In the last thirty years the position of the humane letters, relatively to other studies, has been altered in several important respects. The study of the natural sciences is now firmly established in schools and universities; it can no longer be said that a haughty and exclusive humanism keeps them out of the educational field; indeed, there are not a few seats of learning where they hold a clear predominance. . . • This establish- ment of the modern studies is, so far as I have seen, viewed by * Humanism in Education. By R. C. Jebb, Litt. D., Hon. D.C.L. Macmillan and Co. 1899.