Commission after commission, committee after committee, have reiterated
the same complaint. How then do we stand now?

I see it indeed constantly stated that, even if the improvement is not so
rapid as could be desired, still we are making considerable progress. But
is this so? I fear not. I fear that our present system does not really
train the mind, or cultivate the power of observation, or even give the
amount of information which we may reasonably expect from the time devoted
to it.

Sir M. E. Grant-Duff has expressed the opinion that a boy or girl of
fourteen might reasonably be expected to "read aloud clearly and
agreeably, to write a large distinct round hand, and to know the ordinary
rules of arithmetic, especially compound addition--a by no means universal
accomplishment; to speak and write French with ease and correctness, and
have some slight acquaintance with French literature; to translate _ad
aperturam libri_ from an ordinary French or German book; to have a
thoroughly good elementary knowledge of geography, under which are
comprehended some notions of astronomy--enough to excite his curiosity; a
knowledge of the very broadest facts of geology and history--enough to
make him understand, in a clear but perfectly general way, how the larger
features of the world he lives in, physical and political, came to be like
what they are; to have been trained from earliest infancy to use his
powers of observation on plants, or animals, or rocks, or other natural
objects; and to have gathered a general acquaintance with what is most
supremely good in that portion of the more important English classics
which is suitable to his time of life; to have some rudimentary
acquaintance with drawing and music."

To effect this, no doubt, "industry must be our oracle, and reason our