[2]
The latter course has, I
know, won the approval of most eminent authorities
and of those who have formed the national character
of the most famous states. It would, however, be folly
to shut our eyes to the fact that there are some who
disagree with this preference for public education
owing to a certain prejudice in favour of private
tuition. These persons seem to be guided in the
main by two principles. In the interests of morality
they would avoid the society of a number of human
[p. 41]
beings at an age that is specially liable to acquire
serious faults: I only wish I could deny the truth of
the view that such education has often been the
cause of the most discreditable actions. Secondly
they hold that whoever is to be the boy's teacher, he
will devote his time more generously to one pupil
than if he has to divide it among several.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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