At Eton "no instruction was given in any branch of mathematical,
physical, metaphysical or moral science, nor in the evidences of
Christianity. The only subjects which it professed to impart a knowledge
of were the Greek and Latin languages; as much divinity as can be gained
from construing the Greek Testament, and reading a portion of Tomline on
the Thirty-nine Articles, and a little ancient and modern geography." So
much for the instruction imparted. As regards the hours of tuition,
there seems to have been fault there, in that they were too few and
insufficient, there being in all only eleven hours a week study. Then as
to the manner of study, no time was given the scholar to study the style
of an author; he was "hurried from Herodotus to Thucydides, from
Thucydides to Xenophon, from Xenophon to Lucian, without being
habituated to the style of any one author--without gaining an interest
in the history, or even catching the thread of the narrative; and when
the whole book is finished he has probably collected only a few vague
ideas about Darius crying over a great army, Abydos and Nicias and
Demosthenes being routed with a great army near Syracuse, mixed up with
a recollection of the death of Cyrus and Socrates, some moral precept
from Socrates, and some jokes against false philosophers and heathen
gods." Hence the Eton student who goes to Cambridge finds he has done
but a little desultory reading, and that he must begin again. It was
charged that the system of education at Eton failed in every point. The
moral discipline of the school was also called in question. The number
of scholars was so great that the proper control of them seemed
impossible under the management. Great laxity prevailed among the larger
boys, while the younger and weaker students were exposed to the tyranny
of the older and stronger ones without hope of redress. The result was
that the system of "fagging," or the acting of some boys as drudges for
the others, flourished. "The right" of fagging depended upon the place