A dream of youth, an Etonian's reply to "The loom of youth"

A DREAM OF YOUTH

A

DREAM OF YOUTH

AN ETONIAN'S REPLY TO

"THE LOOM OF YOUTH"

BY

MARTIN BROWNE

WITH A PREFACE BY

JOHN NEVILLE FIGGIS, D.D., Litt.D.

OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION
HONORARY FELLOW OF ST. CATHARINES COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

SECOND IMPRESSION

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO,

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK
BOAIBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS

1919

TO

B.

G.

B.

H.

M.

A.

0.

K.

P.

AS AN

OFFERING

OP GRATITUDE

FOR LOVE

" Have I done worthy work ? be love's the praise.
Though hampered by restrictions, barred against
By set forms, blinded by false secrecies !
Set free my love, and see what love can do
Shewn in my life.'*

R. Browning.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/dreamofyouthetonOObrowuQft

The Author desires to tender his warm
thanks to Mr. John Oxenham and Mr.
W. A. SiBLY, for permission for quotations,
and to many other kind friends, at Eton
and elsewhere, for valuable criticisms.

PREFACE

Whole-heartedly do I commend this
book. That does not mean that I agree with
everything in it. Mr. Martin Browne would
not expect that. The worst compliment that
one can pay to a stimulating book is to
accept it in toto.

In particular, I dissent from the author's
somewhat deprecatory estimate of history.
More and more are historical studies in the
widest sense coming to be the centre of
humanistic education. Even the classics on
one side mean that ; the throwing oneself by
imagination into a different social atmosphere.
In this, as in other matters, opinions will
vary as to the value of the detailed
suggestions.

The value of the book is independent of

X PREFACE

these. It is evidence that, among the believers
in the Public Schools, belief does not mean
stagnation. Indifference to criticism is the
last fault with which Mr. Browne is charge-
able. Nor is he afraid of change. Like
him I believe that the Public Schools are
among the best things we have in England.
It is a pity they do not stimulate more boys
to intellectual interest. But for myself,
having been allowed at school to be hope-
lessly unathletic and living for ever after in
penitence for this sin of omission, I am the
less disposed to question the value of athletics
and apt to think the faults of this worship
faults on the right side. They are faults.
But the mere bookworm is not what we want.
Education at the growing age must train
body no less than mind. On some of the
points at issue it may be that the author
takes too roseate a view : or judges too much
from a single happy experience — e. g. masters
like " the Bull " are not such improbable
portraits as he suggests. The failure to

PREFACE xi

inspire boys with intellectual interest does
sometimes arise from a lack of them in their
teachers. Eton after all can afford better
men than many public schools. These points
I only indicate to shew that the value of the
book is in its suggestive and vital quality.
It is absolutely fresh, sincere. Not a book
by an old boy on topics of old days, but
written at school, having the engaging qualities
and it may be something of the crudeness of
youth : though without its bitterness or self-
conceit. The affected cynicism of juvenile
writing is not here. Hundreds of books can
be read written by educationists — what a
word ! — all of them, probably, written after
School and College days. Here is one written
by a school-bo}^ That is its charm. That
was also in fact the interest of The Loom of
Youth, Can we regard as wholly bad a
system of which Mr. Martin Browne is a natural
product? For his whole tone is the Public
School tone, even where he is revolutionary.
The next important and the lengthiest part

XII

PREFACE

of the book is that dealing with religion. I
suppose that is why I was asked — having no
previous acquaintance with the writer — to
make this introduction. To some the space
given to this topic will seem too large. Yet
it is a long way the most valuable part of the
whole book. The author here lets himself go.
Headmasters ought to "read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest" these chapters. "Faithful
are the wounds of a friend." The things here
said need much pondering. At least they
shew — since they come from a disciple — the
need of drastic changes in the customary
presentment of religion, a presentment which
has seemed to resist all assaults by sheer force
of an inert complacency. These are not the
suggestions of a cleric " good with boys," nor
of a protagonist of any ecclesiastical party.
They do not come from above nor from with-
out. It is because they shew the thoughts
of a boy's mind, singularly reverent but no
less free, that they need much consideration.
I hope they will get it.

PREFACE xiii

What Mr. Browne says about voluntary-
chapels raises hard questions. I can testify
to this. I have preached at a good many
public schools, besides my own. Never did
I feel a school service so moving as the
voluntary address to communicants in the
lower chapel at Eton. With what Mr. Browne
says about the false notion of God entertained
by boys most of us will agree. Not only
Mr. Browne, but all Christians, have been
emphasizing the need of realizing God as
the "Divine Companion." The conception of
religion as " like a friendship " is the burden
of much of our writing. Unfortunately, too
many people think of our friendship for God,
instead of God's friendship for us. " We love
Him because He first loved us." But as
the detailed suggestion of chapel services and
discussions shew, there is no danger of sub-
jectivism in this book — unless some find it
in the ** Voluntary" proposal.

The other point on which I would say a
little is this: Mr. Browne expresses a desire

xiv PREFACE

for instruction to be given (a) in other
religious systems, (6) in apologetics, for the
elder boys. Whether this be done in chapel
or in informal talks (very likely better), I am
sure that it is a necessity. For many of the
older boys (and girls) at Public Schools seem
to be allowed to fight out these things for
themselves or nurtured in the " muffled
Christianity " which assumes that "all is for
the best in the best of all possible Churches."
Then they go to College or out into the world.
Many of their more intellectual compeers, only
a year or two senior, tell them Christianity is
demode, that nobody with any brains holds any
longer with its creed, and some not even with
its ethics. Their faith has had no support but
tradition. So at the first touch it crumbles.
This is the danger of the more talented. Some,
I think, even at school give up all belief
through the notion that there is no intellectual
case for Christianity. They had read a little
on the other side and nothing on their own.
In order to meet this danger — more wide-

PREFACE XV

spread than many masters suppose — some
real instruction in apologetics ought to be
arranged. Likely enough the method sup-
ported by Mr. Browne is the best. The point
is, that it should be done. AVe cannot go on
drifting. This is a crying and imperative
need. I do not say that nowhere are attempts
made to satisfy it ; 1 know they are, but they
ought to be more universal. It is not needful
that the hearers should believe in the case
for the Christian religion. What is needful
is, that they should be shewn that in the
opinion of men whose intellects they respect
there is such a case. Such help can come
from men only of sympathy and reading with
a real hold on the great Catholic verities, but
without any obscurantism or pettiness. Such
a book as Bishop Creighton's Counsels for the
Young and certain apologetic passages in the
life would be found invaluable : or works like
those of Bishop Chandler. But it is no use
putting out a programme, I did not write
this preface to state my own ideas, but to

xvi PREFACE

commend the work of Mr. Martin Browne.
It is of interest because it is everywhere
natural. Not the least interesting part is the
chapter on Chapel Services and the writer's
own skeleton of a brief Mattins and Evensong.
Many people besides school-masters and boys
would profit by considering these.

J. Neville Figgis.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE GENERAL AIM 19

n. EDUCATION 28

in. ATHLETICS 52

rV. MORALITY 59

V. RELIGION 77

VI. CHAPEL SERVICES 101

CONCLUSION 131

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI. . . . 133

XVU

A DREAM OF YOUTH

CHAPTER I

THE GENERAL AIM
I

The aim of this book, put in a sentence, is
to attempt an answer on constructive lines to
the outcry against the Public Schools, which
is headed by Mr. Alec Waugh's book, The
Loom of Youth. I shall often be found in
disagreement with Mr. Alec Waugh, and I
shall throughout be disagreeing with the point
of view from which he regards the present
position of the Public Schools. I should,
therefore, like to say at the beginning that I
admire him for doing what he has done, and

20 A DREAM OF YOUTH

I think that his work, if taken in the right
spirit, will have done the Public Schools a
very great service, by awakening them to a
sense of their mighty responsibility and to
sorrow for their past failures. Perhaps this is
not quite what he meant to do, but I hope he
will have good reason to be content with the
result.

Now I must explain what I mean by
*' an answer on constructive lines." Alec
Waugh and his supporters feel that the
Public School principle is a wrong one, and
that the schools themselves are in such a
hopeless state that only dissolution can avail
to cleanse them. My own view is opposed
to this. I believe that the Public School
principle is not only fundamentally sound,
but the best educational principle we have
got. And I have every hope that by their
own efforts the Public Schools will make
themselves capable of doing all that is

THE GENERAL AIM 21

required of tliem. Therefore, I have tried in
the following pages to expound some views,
which have commended themselves to me and
to other boys, upon certain possible methods
of reconstruction.

Among my suggestions there may be found
many which have already been put forward,
and others which have been put in practice
with little success. I had better, therefore,
explain that I have read very little on the
subject except The Loom of Youth, and that
my ideas are entirely the fruit of personal
experience and thought. I give them for
what they are worth, new or old. As for
those which have so far failed, one can only
say that despair is an ignoble thing.

II

As this must serve as my general chapter,
I ought here to go back, and explain in
detail my reasons for my assertion that the

22 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Public School principle is funclamentally sound,
and the best for its purpose that has yet been
produced.

For the first reason, the best justification,
look at the men that Public Schools pro-
duce. This point has often been urged before,
but no one will deny that when the crisis of
this war came upon England it was the
leadership of Public School men that chiefly
saved the situation. Their unique qualities
of character are testified to by all. In
knowledge they may be deficient, but there is
every hope that the next generation will be
better equipped.

The second reason — largely the cause of
the first — ^is the Public School "tradition,"
as we call it. It is not really possible to
define this exactly, but what it comes to is
a sense of duty (the duty of English
gentlemen) and a strength of purpose given
by love for the school. This is, despite the

THE GENERAL ATM 23

mock that has been made of it by some,
a very real thing still, and an extremely
valuable one. With it goes the sense of
honour, which I hold has been less impaired
than many have thought. The critics who
cite examples, often much exaggerated, of
l}dng and cribbing misunderstand the ques-
tion. These things are really due to a wrong
system in education, to the method which
produces such expedients for learning as
" construes " and written punishments. That
can all go, and leave the Public School
tradition not only intact but bettered and
purified.

The last reason for my defence is the
freedom the system affords. This is, of
course, the agent which produces the character
of the leader. It is also, even more import-
antly, the very root of all true education.
Only if he is free, as far as is possible
for his safety, can a boy develop himself

24 A DREAM OF YOUTH

by bringing out the best traits in his
character. If the Public Schools be accused
of producing too uniform a type, how much
more must a system of the Lycee character
do so ? The principle of freedom is the
right one ; where the result proves stereo-
typed, the educational method is to blame.

This freedom, too, is the essentially English
part of the Public School system. The
combination of law with personal freedom
is recognised as the real definition of Hberty,
and is the aim of England at her best.
One can only hope that a system so truly
English will by regeneration survive the
attacks that are being made upon it.

in

I feel that I ought not to lead into the
"book proper," so to speak, without saying
something of Eton and of my position
therein. Old Etonian readers will want to

THE GENERAL AIM 25

know by what right I presume to send out
such a book as this from our jealously beloved
Alma Mater,

To them I should like to say something
of my reasons for writing. I felt strongly,
on the appearance and great success of The
Loom of Youth, that some answer was neces-
sary. None was given elsewhere ; the Public
Schools either disregarded or submitted to the
attack. I felt that they should do neither,
and that from Eton — of all places — the answer
should come, and so I took up my pen to do
my best. My last " half" has been dedicated
to the work. I am in no great position of
authority, and have no particular claim to
speak on the subject ; only that I care about
it, and want to do what I can.

I have been writing nowhere with a view
to attack anything Etonian. Eton illustra-
tions, good or bad, are used purely as illus-
trations. I have, of course, very little else

26 A DREAM OF YOUTH

to draw upon. On the other hand I have not
scrupled to use them, because I know that
at Eton, just as everywhere else, reform is
necessary, and I feel that, as Eton herself is
perfect, anything imperfect attached to her
is a disgrace. I hope I may almost have the
impudence to say that I have written this
book largely because I love Eton so much.

To those who do not know Eton, and
perhaps to some who do, a few words about
her just now may be of interest. There has
been a great deal of stir in the school of late,
in every direction, both among masters and
boys. The foundation of the Political Society
for debate, with a paper attached to it, shows
the interest evinced in contemporary problems
by quite a large number both of boys and
masters. Keligious thought is stirring, and
altogether there is an air of awakening over
the place. To speak in detail of her educa-
tional reform might injure a work carried on

THE GENERAL AIM 27

by quiet steps ; suffice it to say that it goes
forward, with excellent success so far. I feel
good ground for hope, as an Etonian, that
Eton will be fully prepared to lead the way
in the march of progress.

CHAPTER II

EDUCATION

I

The lamentable state of education at Fern-
hurst as described in The Loom of Youth is
only the concrete example of a widespread
belief concerning Public School education.
One is always being told that modern methods
have outgrown the Public School system.
"You turn out jolly good chaps, of course,
but they know nothing and won't work, and
people who won't work are no good now-
adays." Alec Waugh makes it pretty clear
that a good many boys leave school with an
absolute antipathy for work. This is a very
serious indictment, which I fear is in many

instances only too true.

28

EDUCATION 29

To condemn the Public School system as
useless for this reason, is, however, to go a
great deal too far. For one thing, the Public
School means more than mere "education"
as our so-called educational critics conceive
it. For another, there is no reason why
the Public Schools, if they make the effort,
should not do the work of education quite
as efficiently as any other type of academy.

Now the accusations as formulated in detail
against the present system of Public School
Education are five.

First, a bad state of feeling between boys
and masters. Secondly, incompetence of the
masters as a whole. Thirdly, a bad choice
of subjects, bad arrangements of work and
consequent dullness and slow progress.
Fourthly, the hopeless position of those boys
who are too stupid to keep up with the
standard set by the masters for the clever
ones. Lastly, a plaint which comes from

30 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Alec Waugh and his supporters among us
boys ourselves — mental stagnation, and
repression of youthful energy of spirit.

I am going to try and deal with all these
in detail, but I must say, first, that it is of no
use for any one to expect perfection. We at
the Public Schools are far below our proper
educational level, and there is no doubt that
this level could be considerably raised. But
we have not, and never can have, either
a staff of geniuses or a school of model
children — thank goodness ! And so we have
got to cater humanly for human beings as
best we can.

One thing more in generalities. I have,
quite frankly, nothing but the utmost scorn
and contempt for those who desire our edu-
cation to be in any sense technical. It is
a valuable commonplace which says that edu-
cation is not the acquisition of information,
but the bringing out of the best in each

EDUCATION 31

person's character. This involves every effort
to avoid anything stereotyping, repressive, or
burdensome in educational methods, although
some drudgery is always necessary in learning
anything worthy of the name of knowledge.

II

The first accusation with which I set out
to deal is that of a bad state of feeling
between boys and masters. Boys are said to
regard the staff as the school substitute for
the devil, an evil influence against whose
subterfuges it is constantly necessary to fight.

I think that in this respect things are
improving very fast. A comparison between
the ideas of an average boy several years ago
and now, on the subject of the same staff of
masters, shows an almost startling difference.
I am certain that the old antipathy between
boys and masters is dying a natural death.

The reason of course is, that both boys and

32 A DREAM OF YOUTH

masters are completely changing their ideas of
education. When a master conceived it as
his duty in life to ram into the heads of his
wretched division the parts of speech or the
multiplication table at whatever cost, naturally
there was dislike between him and his boys.
What else could be expected ? But now that
he aims at bringing out character, rather than
at driving in facts, he is far more likely to
make friends with his division. Again, a great
help towards affection between a master and
his boys lies in social intercourse out of school.
The criticism on this point must not be
allowed to belittle the really great and fine
friendships which are quite common between
masters and boys. It is here that Alec
Waugh's description is most unlike my ex-
perience. There is with him practically no
connection " out of school " between masters
and boys, and scarcely ever an approach to
friendship. This is certainly not the common

EDUCATION 33

state of things. It is only the difference
between their attitude towards one another
*'in school" and "out of school" that is the
difficulty between masters and boys. The
friendships, when the imaginary barrier is
broken down, are of the greatest value, and
it would be a great injustice to omit a
mention of them with thankfulness in a survey
of this question.

in

About the masters I feel rather diffident
in speaking. I feel it is not my province to
inquire into their concerns.

Alec Waugh's picture of masters is certainly
untrue of Eton, whatever may be the case
elsewhere.

The two complaints about the masters'
position that seem to be circulating in re-
ference to all Public Schools, are of low sala-
ries and of overwork. Of the first, I cannot

34 A DREAM OF YOUTH

well say anything, except that their work
certainly deserves good money, and I can
only hope this deficiency will be remedied.

As regards overwork, I can testify to
the justice of the complaint. It is ex-
tremely difficult to teach well when the
brain is overtired. Freshness and vivacity
are essential in a good teacher. If masters
are left worn-out at the end of one term their
work for the next must naturally suffer,
even with our long holidays ; while if
people accuse them, as some do, of being
pig-headed conservatives and years behind
the times, the reason for it obviously is that
they have no time to keep in touch with
contemporary events. The war has inevit-
ably increased overwork, but it is greatly to
be hoped that, when peace comes and the
supply of masters is restored to normal
proportions, this state of things will be
improved.

EDUCATION 35

IV

Next come the questions of the choice of
subjects for school work and the method of
using them. The first difficulty in any
attempt to rearrange school work is the
necessity of examinations. The use of these
as tests for all professions is inevitable in a
democratic country, and schools cannot neglect
preparation for them. Examinations are
neither a benefit to education nor a very
successful test of proficiency, but until a
better substitute can be devised they are
bound to retain their importance.

As the Public Schools have, therefore, very
little opportunity to reduce the burden of
examinations, the question is what sort of
examinations they should have. The big
examinations which boys have to take, after,
or just before, leaving school, now consist
almost entirely of unprepared work. The

36 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Public Schools would do well to carry this
idea into their own internal examinations.
Papers on prepared work are necessary to
some extent, but as few of them should be
set as possible. Essays, General Papers, Un-
prepared Translation, Composition, and such
papers are good for boys' faculties, give them
practice in the most important part of their
work, stimulate originality and leave masters'
hands much freer in school.

Around the question of what subjects
should be taught at Public Schools a fierce
controversy has been raging. The great cry
of the day is : " Down with the Classics ! "
This is neither just nor wise. The Classics
are more fitted than any other subjects to be
the basis of our education for several reasons,
the most important being that they make
boys think. French, German, and other
modern languages are too much like our own
in form and vocabulary to stimulate mental

EDUCATION 37

effort very mucli in their acquisition. This
is a commonplace argument, but none the
less a true one. Mathematics, it may be
argued, stimulate the mind, but against
them there is another objection. They are
not human. The influence of Mathematical
study is a narrowing one. To the study of
Science the latter argument cannot be applied,
and Science certainly deserves the increase of
attention it is receiving. But to bring out
human character a subject dealing with the
lives and works of men is best, and therefore
Mathematics and Science should not be the
basis of education. Again, History is human,
but as a class subject it does not call for
much mental effort. History can well be
worked in with Classical studies, though it
should of course have separate attention ; but
it will not do as the basis of education.

To discuss the Classical languages separately,
Latin is a much more obvious part of our

38 A DREAM OF YOUTH

education than Greek, and has not found
nearly so many opponents. Rome is the
direct parent of all civilised European nations.
Latin opens an easy way to French, Italian
and Spanish, and a knowledge of its best
literature is a great help to the writing of
good English. On the other hand, the store
of Latin literature of the first class, both from
a literary and from a moral point of view, is
comparatively small ; and it is very unsafe to
base a boy's education on literature of a low
moral standard, however good as literature it
may be,

Greek as a general subject will, I fear,
shortly disappear. It is a great pity, as the
treasures of Greek literature and philosophy
are unique. But the necessity of beginning
other subjects is so imperative for most boys
that time cannot be spared for the study of
Greek. It would, however, be both unjust
and foolish to abolish Greek as entirely as

EDUCATION 39

many of its critics desire. It can still be
of great benefit if taught to such boys as
show literary promise. A plan of this kind
has been adopted at Eton and seems to be
working well.

The method of teaching the Classics needs,
and is to some extent already getting, a
thorough revision. The old plan of basing
the work on " construes," used chiefly for
grammatical purposes, gives boys a very poor
chance of appreciating the Classics. I should
suggest the adoption of a plan somewhat as
follows.

"With no detailed examination to prepare
for, a master might take one of the great
Classical books, and read it almost entirely
" unseen " and as fast as his division can
take it in, regarding it from the literary point
of view, and bringing in all sorts of references
to history, customs, religion, art, etc. In the
case of poetry, or fine prose, he should be

40 A DREAM OF YOUTH

careful to read it, or make his divison read
it, aloud in the original, to give a chance of
appreciating beauty of sound and phrase.

In all this it will be seen that, although the
Classics still retain their place at the head of
the list of subjects for education, they should
not have the same monopoly as they formerly
had. As boys grow older, they need greater
variety, and are better able to appreciate it.
Some reformers have made the mistake of
suggesting too much variety at an early age.
This results in mental confusion. But by
the time a boy is sixteen he has usually
developed some strong tastes, and can enjoy
a varied time-table. Here, again, I am per-
mitted to quote Eton arrangements, which
serve the purpose of variety quite excellently.
Any but an exceptionally stupid boy has by
his sixteenth birthday a very large choice of
subjects before him. I give as an example
of these methods a summary of my time-table

EDUCATION 41

as a "History Specialist" for this j^'ear. In
the other branches of learning a similar variety
of work of the appropriate kind is offered.

Lent, 1918

Per week : 6 hours English History.

5 hours Civics and Economics.

4 hours Greek (to which German is
alternative). [N.B. — This was
the best literature : " Oedipus
Tyrannus " and " Persae."]

2 hours Latin.

2 hours Literature (Milton).

2 hours Divinity.

2 hours Science.

Summer, 1918

Per week : History : 5 hours Tudors.

2 hours Civil War.
5 hours Napoleon.
Classics : 7 hours (of which 6 were
Greek, and again good
literature).
Divinity : 2 hours.

There are two more points which deserve
mention. The first is the writing of English.
At Eton a good deal is already being done
towards a high standard in this respect.
During my first three years here I was not
once told to write an English essay; but

42 A DREAM OF YOUTH

things are very different now. Nevertheless
the great importance of practice in writing
English cannot be too much emphasised.
In addition, the writing of poetry is a
splendid thing to encourage in boys ; and
a great deal has been done with it by some
enthusiastic masters. But great care must
be taken not to make poetry compulsory. It
is produced by inspiration and cannot be
forced.

The other point which demands more
attention is the teaching of contemporary
problems. In the present age of social
unrest it is not at all wise to send boys
out from school into the world with no idea
of the state of labour, the economic and
financial problems of national life, and the
other pressing questions that confront us.
It is a great pity — though it is rather late
in the day to suggest it — that classes have
not been universally started to keep in

EDUCATION 43

touch with the war news. That boys are
interested in these matters is amply proved
by the intense enthusiasm for such classes
where they have been started, and by the
foundation of such societies as the " Eton
Political Society," and of such papers as
A Public School Looks at the World (from
Repton) and The Eton Review.

The next accusation concerns the most
difficult problem of all — that of boys who,
for various reasons, do not get on in the
ordinary subjects, either because they do
not want to learn anything, or because they
are stupid all round, or because their special
gifts lie outside the ordinary curriculum.

The first set appear quite impossible to
deal with. The more interesting work is
made, the more this set will be reduced.

44 A DREAM OF YOUTH

The only thing is to do one's best to get
them interested in something.

The second class have not been well
treated on the whole. They suflfer, for one
thing, from too many examinations and the
set routine of work necessary for them. It
is important not to go too fast with them,
or to drive them too hard. They usually
turn out well in the end, but this could be
arrived at more quickly with a sympathetic
education. Small divisions are a wise move
with them, and it is advisable to try and
keep the stupid ones as much as possible
apart from the clever. An arrangement which
classifies them rightly, and yet gives them
and the clever ones the same work to do,
is quite fatal. They only get to hate the
work. The great thing with the stupid people
is to treat them as teachable, not as utter
dolts, and to go slowly and clearly to work,
with sympathy and interest. Also, it is

EDUCATION 45

wise not to keep them too long at any
one subject, but to cut up their time as
much as possible.

The existence of the last class is not our
fault. The Public Schools are accused, not
very justly, of turning out too uniform a
type of boy and of stifling individuality.
But it must be remembered that they can
only encourage individuality in certain
directions. A boy with a taste for practical
mechanics, for instance, can find very little
outlet for it at a Public School. The truth
of the matter is, that a '^fuU Public School
education" is treated far too much as a
necessary thing in every Public School-boy's
life. Every one must, of course, have some
general education ; but I should suggest that,
at the age of about sixteen, when general
education is more or less complete, those boys
who have tastes outside Public School life
should leave and go to the work for which

A DREAM OF YOUTH

they crave, instead of dragging out two more
barren years at school. It is quite certain
that it will not in the future be considered
degrading to earn one's living, whether in art
or mechanics or anything else, when one feels
the aptitude for such work. The compass of
education should be enlarged in proportion.

But I must make it clear that this is in no
sense a plea for " technical " education as we
understand it. ' Any departure from an ordi-
nary Public School course must be at the will
of the boy, and confined only to those who
at sixteen seem absolutely unfitted to finish
the usual course. Here as everywhere the
aim is to bring out a boy's gifts to the best
advantage.

EDUCATION 47

VI

The last accusation, and to me by far the
most interesting, is that of the stagnation of
soul caused by the ordinary Public School
education. Its best exponent is Alec Waugh
himself, in a passage which I admire very
much.

** Youth wants colour, life, passion, the
poetry of revolt." And it is so. Youth very
often does not know, as in the case of Caru-
thers, what it wants ; but it does want beauty,
and, if it fails to get it, grows up stunted in
soul. Old people say beauty is dangerous —
it leads to ''loss of the moral sense." That
is a lie. Beauty is a pure and holy thing:
" after all, only truth seen from another side."
Youth 15 a " flaming spirit,'' and it wants the
satisfaction of beauty, whereby alone many
of us can reach to God, who is the God of
Beauty. Natural beauty is not opposed to

48 A DREAM OF YOUTH

God, but a part of His revelation of Himself
on the earth. When we read of Him as
" clothed \\iith beauty," " a diadem of beauty
unto His people," to be worshipped '*in the
beauty of holiness," how can we doubt that
beauty is an essential part of His character ?

The lack of beauty in our teaching, not
only in National Schools, but in Public Schools
as well, is therefore to me the greatest cala-
mity of education. The wonderful store of
literature and art is very largely unused or
misused. I am certain Alec Waugh is right
in saying that we do want the free run of,
and encouragement to enjoy, the work of the
poets and artists who have left us their won-
derful treasures. But we must have the best.
Horace or Ovid, for instance, is a scandalous
choice for the upbringing of youth. What
need have we, and what right, when we
possess a huge store of literature which stirs

EDUCATION 49

the heart and exalts the spirit, to turn to
the finished exponents of worldliness for our
staple educational diet ?

And remember, this appeal for beauty is
closely connected with our moral standard.
Why did Tester go wrong ? Because his pas-
sion for beauty could not find an outlet in
the stuffy atmosphere of Fernhurst. If we
can find satisfaction for the flaming spirit of
our desire in the treasures of beauty the ages
have left us, and in their application to our
life now, we shall simply not want to be
impure. And beauty, real beauty, will show
us that impurity is ugly. Words fail me,
because the thing is beyond words, but —

LET us HAVE BEAUTY !

And what is more, do not let us be afraid
of physical beauty. We ought to see that
man and woman are the most beautiful
of all God*s wonderful creations It is the

50 A DREAM OF YOUTH

greatest moral help to feel the human body
a sacred thing that must never be defamed.

The practical people will ask how beauty
can be taught. It is indeed a difficult thing.
Any one who tries to teach beauty must first
love it himself. Then, it cannot be forced
on the mind. The great thing is not to be
afraid to show appreciation ; that is the surest
way to draw it out in others. The present
glut of "revues" and ** shilling shockers" is
only a passing phase, which has come because
beauty has been neglected. I am certain
that most boys can really appreciate
beauty.

We are now in the midst of the most
terrible sorrow the world has ever seen —
living under the close shadow of Death. I
believe that out of this greatest of all sorrows
must come a new kind of joy, greater than
man has ever known, and at making us fit

EDUCATION 51

for that I am sure that education should aim ;
a joy which blends the human with the divine
nature of man, the Greek joy in natural
beauty with the Christian joy of the Spirit
of Easter.

CHAPTER III

ATHLETICS

This is a subject on which I am quite
certain to be accused of being partial in one
or the other direction, so I had better say-
that, while I am not a great athlete, I am
at least very fond of one branch of Eton
Athletics. I think, therefore, that I stand in
as impartial a position as is possible to a
boy writing at school.

'* The Tyranny of Games " is Alec Waugh's

most vehement accusation against the Public

Schools. He gives to it most of his book,

though not many of his fellow- critics place it

in equal prominence. To me, and to others

who have read his book here, his account

appears as a thing from another world. The

52

ATHLETICS 53

state of feeling he portrays is certainly not in
existence here, and, as far as I can hear from
comments in most of the big Public Schools,
not in them either. It may, indeed, possibly
be true of Alec Waugh's school, but as an
indictment of the Public Schools as a whole
it is certainly very much exaggerated.

However, since there is undoubtedly some
truth in his accusation, the position of athletics
merits examination.

First, it should be recognised that athletics
really are a necessity. They provide by far
the easiest means of seeing that boys take
enough regular exercise, and they give a very
necessary change from work. Most important
of all, athletics, as opposed to other forms of
bodily exercise, provide the greatest opportu-
nity for the training of the mind in many
ways, and the splendid mental stimulus of
competition. Alec Waugh represents athletics
as interfering with work and making boys

54 A DREAM OF YOUTH

work badly; the failure, however, is usually
due not to athletics but to educational faults
in the school.

Next, if we allow that athletics are at least
in some degree a necessity, how have they
got their undue importance ? The obvious
reason is that they appeal of themselves
much more strongly than anything else to the
youthful mind. However interesting work is
made, it can never be quite the same thing
as athletics, because athletics reveal all those
qualities which stimulate the great latent
force of hero-worship in a boy — fearlessness,
quickness, strength of body, character, and
self-control. The qualities that work calls
for are not so attractive to youth — persever-
ance, thoughtfulness, concentration : the stays
and strengths rather of older people.

No doubt athletics reveal bad characteristics
as well, but I think Alec Waugh's accusation
is here again rather unjust as regards most

ATHLETICS 55

schools. Also, I do not think that the bad
qualities are the fault of the athletics ; treated
in a really good and reasonable spirit, they
have, one knows, been as '* sporting" as could
possibly be desired. I believe the fault lies
in the lack of more important things. Ath-
letics, after all, are not a vital thing in them-
selves ; it is the spirit in which they are
treated that makes their character. The
games depend on the spirit, not the spirit
on the games. Therefore it is not owing to
athletics themselves that an athlete may be
as immoral as he likes (according to Alec
Waugh) and still be a hero, but rather to the
lack of something higher than mere athletic
prowess as an inspiration for hero-worship.
Of course most of us like being admired, and
few boys can be expected not to want their
athletic prowess acknowledged ; but there are
very few who do not crave, and make for,
a deeper source of admiration as well, in a

56 A DREAM OF YOUTH

decent life. I think that on the whole we
do remain real gentlemen at a Public School,
however much our numerous detractors
impugn our interpretation of the word !

As far as the athletic part of his book goes
(and, indeed, altogether). Alec Waugh's is
certainly a very unjust portrait of the average
master. ** The Bull " is far the saddest char-
acter in the book; but I thank Heaven I
know no '*Buir' in the flesh. Every master
I have come across does assign a proper place
to work, and does put games below it. Most
of the masters assign the highest place of all
to the most important things — character and
religion. There are certainly none among
them who justify foul play on any pretext;
and the talk about slackness at games mean-
ing uselessness in the trenches is absolutely
unknown.

About the representation of public opinion
as entirely hingeing on athletics, I am not

ATHLETICS 57

competent to speak. It is not true of Eton,
but no comparisoa is possible here. In a big
school (one of the few advantages of such)
there is room for a good many diflferent sets
of tastes and opinions. In a small school, if
an obsession does get hold of public opinion,
there is small room for difference.

However true or untrue the accusation
against athletics may be in the several Public
Schools, no idealising or deifying of athletics
is caused by the games themselves. They
will take their proper place with the improve-
ment of work and of moral standards for
which we look, and with the more serious
nature of life after and during the war. The
influence of the war has already tended, as
Alec Waugh has rightly showed, in that
direction, and we only need an efficient sub-
stitute for " the tin god of athleticism " to
confirm that tendency. Means will no doubt
be found, when a broader point of view is

A DREAM OF YOUTH

taken, to mitigate the lot of those weak ones
among us on whom games at present press too
hardly. But the remedy is all by " counter-
attack," as we say in war-time, by the sub-
stitution of new and bigger ideals to push
out the old small ones.

CHAPTER IV

MORALITY
I

The moral atmosphere of The Loom oj

Youth is the thing about it that has most

shocked its readers among the general public.

I have got a good many things to say about

the picture there painted ; and I will start with

the most unpleasant, as far as that public is

concerned. It is primarily your fault ! I am

not going to say that England is rotten to the

core, or anything of that kind ; it certainly is

not : but what I do say is, that if you treat

the state of national morals which has lately

been revealed with the prudish cowardice so

far characteristic of your dealings with it, you

59

6o A DREAM OF YOUTH

cannot expect anything very much better
from the Public Schools. That is one reason
why it is your fault. The other will appear
later.

Now to go into the heart of the question
that has been raised : "Is Public School
morality really bad, and, if so, why ? " Well,
for the first part of that question, there is
certainly a good deal of truth in the accusation
of Mr. Alec Waugh and others. I do not
know his school, but I should say his picture
is very much exaggerated, to judge by any
school which I know. That, however, is a
weak-kneed argument, and I am not going
to pursue it. The fact is plain that there
is more immorality than there need be, and
that is enough.

Why ? I will give the four chief reasons
for boys falling into impurity, and deal with
them and their remedies separately : first,
both boys and masters generally regard the

MORALITY 6i

question wrongly ; secondly, a good many
boys do not get the help and information
they ought to get from home ; thirdly, many
have no reasons, or wrong reasons, for keeping
pure ; and lastly, when at school, they miss
the kind of atmosphere which pervades most
homes, an atmosphere in which impurity
simply finds no place to exist.

II

The very first and most important thing
to realise is this : all boys are, as one put
it, "good chaps at heart," and anything of
the nature of the sordid immorality at which
certain people have lately been so much
horrified is unnatural to them individually
or to a society of them. It is only possible
owing to neglect, and to wrong ideas in
Public School life, of the things that matter.
The whole principle, then, of a right treat-

62 A DREAM OF YOUTH

ment of morality is complete and absolute
trust in boys. This is the idea which I shall
endeavour to apply all round.

First, I am going to the home. To many
boys, however good their homes may be,
their home life is an absolutely different
existence from their school life ; and this is
because their parents do not show that they
care about the deepest part of their sons' lives
at school. It is an obvious and well-known
fact that love between two people is only
helpful to them in so far as each knows
that the other cares about his life ; and he
cannot know that unless the two have talked
things over. So those parents who want
their son to know that they care about his
purity must talk to him about it.

Here, again, we come to the importance
of trusting a boy. When parents talk the
thing over they must tell their boys every-
thing. It is unfair to the boys not to do

MORALITY 63

SO — boys do fall through ignorance, and they
are almost certain at school to hear things
from a distorted point of view if they are
not forewarned. No one can impart this
knowledge from its sacred point of view
better than parents ; and it loses the parents
a great deal of influence with their boys if
the boys are told by some one else.

It must be perfectly obvious that there are
temptations inherent in the nature of a grow-
ing boy against which he has a clear right to
be warned, and it would be silly to deny that
many boys fall, rather through ignorance than
for any other reason, into bad habits from
which an early warning might have saved
them. It is not till comparatively late in
their school life that most boys come in con-
tact with the other form of temptation — that
connected with women.

This brings me to an appeal which I
have never seen openly made before, but

64 A DREAM OF YOUTH

which I am sure is of enormous importance.
I do not think the average boy's view of
Womanhood is at all right. All of us have
an innate reverence for women which is
very strong, and it does matter enormously
to preserve that until manhood. But I do
not think that, even by the time we leave
school, more than ten per cent, of us have
our birth and the physiology of our Mother
properly explained to us. The consequence
is that we pick up scraps of information, mostly
in a bad way and generally distorted, and
learn to think of " woman "as an exciting,
immoral influence. And that is a very difficult
view to get rid of. It is only by hearing the
whole truth that we can combat it ; and how
infinitely better it would be to prevent it by
hearing the truth beforehand !

Those are the two reasons why I feel it to
be a very important duty of parents to tell
their boys what they ought to know : first,

MORALITY 65

because the boys have in fairness a right to
know; and secondly, because they want the
strength of parents, who really care, behind
them.

" For lack of that due word^
You sent him forth to face the deadly strife

Which men call life,
Unarmed, unarmoured, unprepared for fight.
And yet expected him to keep his 'scutcheon white !
Yours the reproach if he should miss the way,
For you of your full duty failed him mortally."

John Oxbnham.

• Should his father or his mother — a man
or a woman — impart this knowledge to a
boy? Personally, I hold that it can come
most sacredly from a woman. But many
English boys have a great instinctive aversion
from the discussion of such subjects with a
woman ; and many women would be incapable
of explaining the matter properly. It must
depend upon the characters of boy and parents,
who undertakes the task.

66 A DREAM OF YOUTH

There are only two more suggestions I
would make on this point. The first is, that
it is much better to educate a child gradually
up to this knowledge, rather than to tell him
all at once. All who have had to do with chil-
dren know how often tiheir observations from
animal life and their innocent questions give
a chance of making the beginnings of the
subject clear to them. Let them know, when
they ask, how they are made and where they
come from. It is so much better than telling
the whole story, however well, at one fell
swoop. The latter method makes it seem
somehow unnatural knowledge, whereas it
ought to be a perfectly natural and ordinary
thing for any child to know.

The second is, always go for the beauty of
purity ; make it seem so glorious a thing — as
indeed it is — as to make impurity, when you
have to tackle that, merely dingy by contrast.
Spiritual sordidness is the one thing from

MORALITY 67

which a child infallibly shrinks, and so it is
in drab colours that all sin is most safely-
painted.

Ill

The last remark leads me on to my next
point : that boys have wrong reasons or no
reasons for be.ng pure. Their ideas on the
subject usually are : that impurity is con-
demned by authority, and is therefore probably
rather fun ; that the people who are obviously
pure are generally dreadful prigs; that one
must sow one's wild oats some day ; that the
time when the price, both bodily and mental,
will be paid, is a long way off; and that
impurity is an adventure, while purity is an
insipid form of Conservatism.

Now it is quite manifest that this whole
system of argument is based on a wrong
conception of purity. Under the conception
described above, boys, when they are tempted,

68 A DREAM OF YOUTH

think it most glorious to follow the Devil,
not realising that in so doing they are
making a base surrender. If boys are once
made to see that the adventure is on the
other side — that they are in for a tough
fight against impurity — they put just as
much spirit into their defence as they other-
wise do into their transgression. And the
same with the attitude towards woman : if
they see that they are in honour bound
to protect her good name, they do so with
a will. It is the spirit of chivalry, latent
in all English boys, that wants bringing
out.

Here I must make a protest against one
view of the question, exemplified by a certain
article in the Spectator on The Loom of
Youth. The writer advocated the explana-
tion to boys of the physical ill-consequences
of impurity, and said that boys were sensible
enough to see then that it was not worth

MORALITY 69

while. He is, in most instances at any rate,
absolutely wrong. Though an appeal to the
thought of the future wife and children is in
some cases very potent, that to the motive of
personal safety is, and should be, practically
never so. The facts are finely put in the
following letter, which I have the writer's
kind permission to quote, published by a
schoolmaster, Mr. "W. A. Sibly, of Wycliffe
College, in the Spectator of December 8,
1917 ; his quotation is from a letter of my
own.

(To THE Editor of the Spectat(yi\)

" Sir,

'' Unless the sins of the intellect may
be justly regarded as worse than the sins of
the flesh, the most serious charge brought by
Mr. Alec Waugh and others against the school-
boy of to-day is that of immorality, and those
who know the schools of England best know,
too, how well founded the indictment is. The

70 A DREAM OF YOUTH

writer of your article, * The Public Scliool in
Fiction/ has a deeper insight into the life of
schools than into the heart of a boy, and when
he bids schoolmasters base their appeal for
purity on common sense and physical con-
siderations, instead of on a sense of honour
and chivalry, he unintentionally reveals the
secret why so much of their teaching and
advice in this respect is so utterly and practi-
cally fruitless. (For proof of this ask those
who know the moral conditions at most base-
camps to-day.)

" A boy at one of our greatest Public Schools
put the matter in a nutshell when he wrote :
* The motives masters give us for chastity are
so very uninteresting. More, they are a chal-
lenge. We are told it is dangerous to sin.
"Well, that alone would drive any self-respect-
ing boy to it. If we funked anything danger-
ous, we should never look ourselves in the face
again ... If they would tell us that God has
entrusted us with a power to keep for the
future, that would make all the diflference.

MORALITY 71

If a boy is trusted he always rises to the
trust/

" The appeal to common sense and physical
safety moves boys very little, but the love of
adventure and fighting appeals always, and
if one can instil into a boy the idea of the
great fight, the great foe, the great triumph,
and impress upon him that his body itself is
as white armour which he must wear un-
stained, that boy will be a hero in the strife
and will work miracles.

" One other motive carries equal weight. It
is the appeal to chivalry. There is latent in
boys a boundless love of Woman. What fools
call ' calf-love ' is never equalled in later
life. It is the first fresh worship of the
ideal. Here, then, is an enormous weapon.
Mix the reverence, if not the worship, of
womanhood in some form with the knightly
ideal, and one has the Devil smitten hip
and thigh.

" I am speaking of that which I know. For
many years I have had cause to talk individu-

A DREAM OF YOUTH

ally to boys in my House on this question, and
I have received and kept — even in later life
and amid the temptations of the City and the
Army — the confidences of scores, if not of
hundreds. I write in the hope that some, at
least, of my fellow schoolmasters will realise
that all is not for the best in either our
methods of moral teaching or our schools, and
will be persuaded to try, instead of common-
sense warnings, the far more fruitful course
of personal sympathy and lofty inspiration.
'Deep calleth unto deep' still, and those whose
depths are roused alone can climb the heights.
Under the two banners of Trust — or Honour
— and Chivalry we may yet see in England a
new order of knighthood, * leading sweet lives
in purest chastity.'

" I am, sir, etc.,

'*W. A. S."

That the knightly spirit is still alive has
been amply proved by our soldiers at war, and
also, to go closer to the subject of this discus-

MORALITY 73

sion, by the White Knight Crusade founded
by Miss Olive Katharine Parr (Beatrice Chase).
It is that spirit, I am certain, to which we
ought to appeal to raise our moral standard.
Boys can, should, and will, keep pure for the
honour of their family, for the honour of
their school, for the honour of womanhood,
and for the honour of God.

IV

Now I come to the points which are bad in
the general view of impurity. I gave as my
first reason for the bad state of things, that
both masters and boys take a wrong view of
the question. It depends on the school what
sort of wrong view they take. In a school
where the public opinion is bad the boy who
is known to be impure is rather a hero ; where
it is good he is a moral leper ; to some masters
he is the latter in any case. Both views are

74 A DREAM OF YOUTH

obviously wrong. Masters and boys should
both be sorry a boy has gone wrong, and
should want to make him better. Impurity
should neither be heroic nor an unforgivable
sin, but merely degrading and a pity.

Again, one comes back to the same point —
trust boys always. If a master has to tell his
boys anything about any case, he had much
better be perfectly frank, and treat the whole
thing as the unexciting, sordid sin that it is.
There is no need for any one to be shocked or
horrified — merely sorry, that is all. Eeal vice
among boys is very, very rare ; the average
case of impurity at school is simply sordid and
nothing else. Public opinion should expect
the highest, and grieve — not rage — when it
fails to get it. Half the harm is done by all
the fuss that is made about impurity. The
thing is really perfectly simple. Give a boy
all the information and help he wants, and
then trust him, as the natural thing for a

MORALITY 75

gentleman, to keep his honour, and you are
absolutely safe with him.

V

There is only one point left to discuss, that
is the lack that some boys feel of "home atmo-
sphere." School life at the best of times is
rather inclined to resemble barrack life. That
is a very soulless existence, with no love and
no homely feeling in it. It does make a good
life more difficult.

So everything that masters and inmates —
particularly the ladies of the place — can do to
give their boys a taste of home life sometimes,
is of incalculable value. Cheerful evenings,
games, sing-songs and other such things, are very
much enjoyed and leave a ** sweet taste," so to
speak, in one's heart, which makes it more
difficult somehow to do anything beastly. In
such an atmosphere, in fact, anything impure
tends to seem impossible and out of place,

76 A DREAM OF YOUTH

just as it does at home. It is the ladies who
can do it best; their motherly feelings, our
reverence for their sex, and our thoughts
(usually unconscious) of our own mothers, all
give them a very large influence.

Most of all, though, should the homeliness
be in chapel. I think one's school chapel can
be home to one as no other place in the
world can. Their chapel, and what it stands
for, if it is a good one, makes immorality
impossible to most boys. Keligion is here,
as always, the most potent influence of all.
That is the thing to go for first in the fight
against impurity. If we get hold of God,
we learn to prize Him, and to value His joy
in us, above everything else in the world.

Finally, I am sure that all the right reme-
dies here, as always, are Christian — no German
dragooning methods are of any lasting avail,
but rather of much harm. And the greatest
remedy of all is Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER V

RELIGION
I

In religion, I am certain, we find the key

to the life of the Public School. I believe

that religion is the beginning and end of all

good reform, and that without it nothing can

be done. I also believe — but here I know

that my following will not be large — that the

entire state of things as portrayed by Alec

Waugh is due to irreligion at the core. In

treating of his other charges against the

Public Schools I have endeavoured to show

that their remedies are largely indirect. And

all that that means is, that I throw the whole

burden of the salvation of the system on to

its religious life.

77

78 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Now what exactly is the state of religious
life in the average Public School? Alec
Waugh draws a picture of complete irreligion
— on the surface at any rate — contempt for
religion itself and boredom with its prac-
tices. I should say this is a true picture —
with a qualification which comes later — of
about half the average school. Of the re-
maining half, the larger portion have a senti-
mental attraction for religion of a kind ; while
the remainder are the ones who really think,
and are interested, and pray.

At this point my reader may well think
that I look like formulating a much more
crushing indictment than Alec Waugh him-
self, and also that I am doing the average
boy a gross injustice. On the former point, I
am not going to blame the schools entirely for
the state of religion in them. They certainly
have not done well in this respect, but it is
the English nation which is primarily to

RELIGION 79

blame. School is not the normal centre of
any one boy's religious life, though it can
and should be the centre of a religious com-
munity and brotherhood. It is the home life
and the social life of the country that has
made the present state of things possible.

If I am accused of injustice it will be
because I describe a large proportion of the
average school as absolutely irreligious. So
I had better explain what I mean by my
statements. I say that half the average
school despise religion and are bored by its
practices. Some will retort that I am wrong,
and that underneath the surface indifference
lies a deep instinct for religion. I admit it,
and further, upon it I shall base the one
infallible hope of salvation for the Public
School system. Thank Heaven it is so ! But
religion as an active force is labelled " pi " ;
and it is religion as an active force that
is alone any use in life. Again, religious

8o A DREAM OF YOUTH

observances are in public voted *' a bore," and
although some service may stir a secret chord
of religion in a boy's soul, this is of little
use. That quality of hiding one's light under
a bushel, or — more usually and much worse —
under a mist of affected wickedness, which
is generally lauded as one of the finest char-
acteristics of the British nature, is, to my
mind, the bane of all our social life. It is
certainly the great difficulty with which all
earnest workers for progressive movement in
our schools have to contend. Such, then, is
the meaning of my summary of the Public
School-boy's attitude towards religion.

The one hopeful fact has already been
stated. Practically all of us at school have
got religion deep in our hearts. The state
of the Public School character is exactly that
which the war has revealed in the nation —
" in rotten condition," as we call it, but sound
inside. Many, even of those who seem most

RELIGION 8i

irreligious, do want to " get at " God and
serve Him, but they are weak and the tra-
dition of indifference is strong. As one such
friend said to me : " It's so hard to be
different from all the rest : all more or less
immoral and not caring a d — n for religion
or real love, only out for pleasure."

If, then, we admit the possibility of Public
School religion taking its proper place as the
centre of boy-life, what suggestions can be
made towards bringing this about?

II

First of all, we want rather a different view
of God from that which, in my experience
at any rate, prevails at school. We want
a much more personal God. At present He
is rather connected with long services and
bothering restrictions — a stupid and exceed-
ingly conservative autocrat, in fact. The
Person we want, just as much at school as

F

82 A DREAM OF YOUTH

in the world, is the very human and faithful
friend, who shares our life with us down to
the very last detail. I like to think of God
here at Eton as I think of my best school
friend — only more so ; as always ready to
sympathise, whatever is going on, to help and
advise, to listen to anything I want to say,
and be human enough to understand. I am
afraid the God of most school-boys is a
terrible prig!

Now I may be a dreamer, but I do believe
that if the good men — and we have plenty of
such — would make a determined attempt to
break down the barrier that a wrong con-
ception of God's character has formed between
Him and the schoolboy, they would find it
easier than they seem to expect. Why I say
this is, because experience here has convinced
me of it. Eton Chapel is probably the hardest
school chapel of any in England in which to
produce a corporate impression, because of its

RELIGION 83

size ; but, when one does get a touch of the
personal, living religion, it seems to pass right
through the place at once and induce quite
a different feeling.

I would plead, too, for a more broad-minded
view of God. It does seem so intensely un-
reasonable to believe that God is a personal
friend of a comparatively small portion of
mankind, and is absolutely lost to the re-
mainder of His human creation because they
happen to regard Him from a different point
of view. This is not to say that we Christians
have not the most perfect aspect of God in
Christ, or that we have not the duty of
spreading His Gospel. All I mean is, that
boys would think much better of God if they
realised that He does do all they will let Him
for those of other religions as well as for us.

It would also be a very good thing if boys
had an opportunity of hearing a really fair
explanation of other religions besides their

84 A DREAM OF YOUTH

own, and of the differences of other Christian
bodies from our Church. By " a fair explan-
ation" I mean one which admits and illus-
trates the good points in other beliefs, as well
as their disadvantages. The only minister of
God's word whom I have ever actually heard
include all religions in a definite scheme of
present love and eventual salvation was a
Congregation alist ; I know we have many
clergy who follow his example, but I wish
the clergy as a body would be more openly
tolerant. May they also remember that in
these days it is exceedingly dangerous to
disregard such cults as Theosophy, whose in-
fluence is penetrating into the Public Schools
(and here I speak with experience) to a con-
siderable extent! — penetrating at a greater
risk because secretly, and because unexplained
by mature thinkers.

RELIGION 85

III

As Public School religion depends entirely
on a personal God, so its human side depends
almost entirely on personal influence. There
is that which we call the *' spirit," without
which no service can be of any use. That
spirit is really the intercourse of some person
or persons concerned in the service, and more
particularly of the officiating clergyman, with
God, which in some indefinable and beautiful
way is able to make it easier for others to
come to Him in that service ; and so, as the
''spirit" becomes more diffused, more and
more people begin to find God in such
services.

That is one reason for the vital import-ance
of personal influence. Another, exclusive to
school this time, is that at the Public School
age boys have more fully developed than at
any other time, that intense preference, which

86 A DREAM OF YOUTH

characterises childhood, for the personal over
the abstract influence. A boy will follow a
man whom he admires through anything,
while a principle, however much he admires
it, has really not so very much hold on him.
Personally I do not blame him, perhaps be-
cause I have something of the same feeling
of "hero-worship" still in me. It always
seems to me that the root of all great move-
ments lies in personal influence, just as the
root of Christianity is in the Person Christ
Jesus, and the root of Love in a Personal
God. But I digress.

I have said before that I think we have the
men for our religious work in the Public
Schools. There is a goodly sprinkling of those
who are doing really fine work ; but we badly
want more, and we are not likely to get them
under present conditions. The position that
the clergyman at a Public School is asked to
take up is essentially a weak one.

RELIGION ^7

Without wishing to cast any aspersion
whatever on those really gallant men who
have done such a very great deal in the
position, I feel compelled to write down the
post of parson- schoolmaster as a failure. My
reasons are many : first, boys who think about
it feel it is rather a desertion of Holy Orders
for a parson to devote the greater part of his
time to teaching in ordinary forms, mostly in
subjects alien to his profession. Secondly,
those who don't think about it associate any-
thing they dislike about him as a school-
master with his work as parson, to the
enormous weakening of his religious position
in the school. Even those of us who try
hardest to distinguish in our minds between
the faux pas a man commits in school and
the efforts he makes on our behalf in chapel,
find it very difficult at times. So that not
infrequently he ruins his religious position
by his inability to teach. From the master's

88 A DREAM OF YOUTH

own point of view, it is evidently often diffi-
cult for the less spiritual type of parson to
keep his religion fresh amid the routine of
school work.

The remedy that I should suggest is a
School Chaplain in any fairly big school. He
would be responsible, preferably, by a scheme
which will be discussed later, in conjunction
with some boys, for the Chapel Services. He
would also be responsible for the preparation
of candidates for Confirmation. He would
also be always available for private talks, and
could take as much or as little part in other
departments of life — games, societies, and so
forth — as he liked. If the right man were
found, and I think it would not be difficult to
find him, he would surely have a very great
influence. And there is another advantage.
A big school is dreadfully inclined to sub-
stitute house loyalty for school loyalty. If
its religion is in the hands of several men

RELIGION 89

who are, after all, mere units among the
masters, it will lack any spirit of unity; but if
the whole school has its Chaplain, he will be
another link in the chain of kinship between
the different houses in the one school.

This brings me on to the one qualification
which I want to make to my remarks about
the parson-schoolmaster, namely, the parson-
headmaster. His position seems to me a
good one, because I do not think that he is
affected by those disadvantages which are
incident to the position of the ordinary
schoolmaster who is also a parson. He is not
essentially concerned with routine teaching
work (and in fact need have none at all in
a big school) : he is, as the head of the whole
school, a binding, not a disintegrating force ;
and he has, as headmaster, the duty of up-
holding the religious life of his school, for
which task Orders should make him the more
fitted. On the other hand, I should never

90 A DREAM OF YOUTH

say it was necessary for a headmaster to be
a parson, or that it matters much either way.
For whichever of these religious school
posts a choice has to be made, it is obvious
that it is a choice of enormous importance.
The more is put into his hands, the more
necessary is it that the man selected for the
religious care of a school should be the right
man. There are enough of such men, and the
supply will be better adjusted after the war —
a retired Army or Navy Chaplain would often
be an ideal choice. His personal influence
will be exceptional, and it will affect the ideas
of the boys about the Church a very great
deal, since the individual represents the
principle to a boy much more than to a
man.

IV

The next part of this problem is that
of religious instruction. The present method

RELIGION 91

is entirely confined to a textual study of
parts (often the less important parts) of
the Bible, for examination purposes. This
is fatal for several reasons. First, it makes
Divinity too much like an ordinary class
subject, and the Bible into a rather boring
school book. Secondly, it means that the
portion taken in school is regarded from the
point of view of textual criticism, a course
which no one who is not interested in research
can for long find palatable. Thirdly, it makes
boys read their Bible not for its teaching but
in order to note idiosyncrasies on the part of
the writer and commentator, and perhaps in
order to throw doubt upon large portions of
its contents. Textual criticism is a science of
which, in its proper place, I am the last to
deny the value, but for the unlearned and
unenthusiastic boy at a Public School it seems
to me most unfitted. Fourthly, the use of the
Book for examination purposes leads to ninety

92 A DREAM OF YOUTH

per cent, of the average school never reading
it except under compulsion. And lastly,
it puts sixty per cent, of the religious in-
struction of the school into the hands of
men who teach it only as a supplementary
subject, and who may be by nature and
training totally unfitted for the work.

I perceive, on reading through the fore-
going paragraph, that I have made the most
virulent attack for which I shall anywhere
find occasion, upon this system of religious
teaching. That is as I meant it to be. I do
not hesitate to say that I regard its methods
of religious instruction as the greatest blot
upon the curriculum of the Public School.
That being so, I propose to make some
suggestions for its amendment.

One must in such a case begin with a
little destruction before rebuilding can com-
mence. The destruction I consider necessary
here is the abolition of all Divinity examin-

RELIGION 93

ations at and from the Public Schools, and
of the present system of Divinity teaching
by Classical or "Modern" masters.

This being accomplished, a new system
should be built up on the following lines.

First, the use of chapel as far as possible
for educational purposes. I shall speak in
the next chapter of an educational morning
service, to be held at least every other
Sunday, on a definite scheme for each term.
Besides this it would be beneficial to convert
a certain proportion of the short week-day
morning services, say two a week, into ex-
planatory Bible-readings, lasting the usual
time (twenty minutes), in which a good deal
could be got through. Such variety would
also be to the advantage of those short
services.

Secondly, Divinity Schools to be as far as
possible in the form of religious debates (of an
informal character, of course), in which the

94

A DREAM OF YOUTH

presidiDg master explains and answers any
questions. These should be in the hands
either of the School Chaplain and other par-
sons, if there are any connected with the
place, or of masters especially selected for
their knowledge and their interest in religion.
I should suggest also that the major part of
such schooling should be reserved for a boy's
last two years at school, when he is better
fitted, both intellectually and morally, to
grapple with big religious problems.

Lastly, some school parsons might find it
useful to start, if they have not already done
so, little evening debates in their own studies
on religious subjects, with any boys whom
they discover to be interested in them. The
religious mind even of the Public Schools has
been affected by the wave of doubt and
change that is sweeping over religion, and at
least a few boys will probably be found who
would welcome the chance to thrash out their

RELIGION 95

thoughts with kindred spirits. I may say,
without any betrayal of confidence, that this
has been tried by at least one master at
Eton and found successful. If a suggestion
to build further on this foundation should
come from the boys themselves, so much the
better.

V

Now I come to a most important and difii-
cult question, which will lead up to the next
chapter, namely, that of voluntary chapel
services. It is quite obvious, to start with,
that voluntaryism is of no use without a
thoroughly good service, which will be dis-
cussed in the next chapter. But, putting
that aside for the moment, let us consider
the case for and against voluntaryism.

There are three main objections urged
against the scheme : First, the practical diffi-
culty of providing for those who do not go to

96 A DREAM OF YOUTH

any service, which is, I grant, with schools
placed under the glare of publicity, a rather
serious one. But I cannot discuss so indi-
vidual a case amid all these generalities, so I
will assume that this is, as are most practical
difficulties, capable of solution — and pass on.
Next, it is argued that voluntaryism would
lead to the loss of corporate religious feeling
in a school. This sounds a good argument,
especially when those who use it talk of
*' making religion less important than foot-
ball." But I think they are wrong. Those
who continued to go to the services would
find them a more important part of their
lives, since the very act of going voluntarily
to chapel makes a great difference to the
spirit of the service, while those who dislike
the services would not be there to hinder
worship. It is quite certain that none of the
latter learn to like religion by compulsion,
while many of them probably would, by

RELIGION 97

the indirect influence of voluntary services,
through friends and so on, be brought to
appreciate it.

The last serious argument that I have heard
against the idea is, that it is a good thing for
every boy to acquire the church-going habit,
and that by voluntaryism some would miss
the chance. This is a complete fallacy.
The compulsory system results in the large
majority of schoolboys not going to church at
all after they leave school. I have heard it
said that this is because parish church services
compare so unfavourably with those in a
school chapel. If this is so, voluntary services
could at least make it no worse. On the
other hand, if, as I believe, the fact is at least
partly the result of compulsion, voluntaryism
would mend matters. Those who went to
chapel would be more attracted to church-
going by voluntary services than by com-
pulsory ones; while those who did not take

98 A DREAM OF YOUTH

the trouble to go to a good school service
would certainly not in any case go afterwards
to a parish church. And the point is, that
the former class would undoubtedly be much
stronger than it is now under a system of
compulsion.

Besides what I have already said in its
favour, there are several other points to be
raised for voluntaryism. A boy at Public School
age ought to be responsible for his own religion.
Clergymen are perpetually telling him he is
responsible for his sins and for his intercourse
with God ; but how can he be expected to
believe that if he is not considered capable of
knowing when he ought to visit God's House ?
Boys also dislike feeling that the deepest thing
in their nature is in any sense under the con-
trol of another, and more particularly (I fear)
of a master. It is a well-known trait in a
boy's character that he dislikes doing what he
is told to do, so this leads to a feelin ^f

RELIGION 99

restraint in the worship of compulsory services.
Voluntary services put religion, as it should
be, upon a diflferent footing from the other
duties of school life which are compulsory.
Lastly, I know by experience and careful
watching here that voluntary services have
quite a different spirit from compulsory ones.
So I think voluntary services are at least a
most desirable experiment.

VI

In my last section of this chapter I must
make a passing reference to a thing which
troubles many people, the comparative failure
of Confirmation at school. I do not feel
that much more could be done with it than
is done, as far as my experience goes. Very
careful selection should be made of the man
who prepares a candidate, and, in the private
part of such preparation, small classes (which
are, unfortunately, rather in order to save

loo A DREAM OF YOUTH

time than for any other reason, the vogue at
present) should be avoided as much as possible
in favour of tSte-d-tSte talks. I really think,
however, that Confirmation does about as
much as can be expected of it for the average
boy. Those parents and others who deplore
its failure take it far too seriously. The
actual Confirmation is, or should be, secondary
to the gift it brings — Holy Communion ; and
the real thing that matters is whether a
boy becomes a regular communicant.

To sum up, I will only say that in these
times of difiiculty the chiefest aim of those
who have the power in Public School reform
must be to get back to God as a living,
inspiring Force, and as our Father, " casting
all our care upon Him, for He careth for us."

CHAPTER VI

CHAPEL SERVICES

[To avoid misunderstandings it seems well to state
that this chapter was written early in May^ 1918, before
the appearance of Mr. Nowell Smith's booklet^ " Where is
your Faith ? " — and before the recent suggestions of Masters
at Eton, for the services there, were put on paper. I'he
following therefore represents an independent opinion,
thoiugh the Author would like to express his sympathy
with both the foregoing attempts.^

I

A DISCUSSION in detail of school Chapel
Services may not seem very relevant to a
consideration of Tlie Loom of Youth, since
Alec Waugh does not make more than a
passing mention of the subject. But it is
one which is so closely connected with the
accusation of irreligion, and is of such great
importance, that I feel justified in devoting
a chapter to some practical discussion of it.

lOI

102 A DREAM OF YOUTH

A school Chapel Service depends, more
than any other form of public worship, on
personal influence ; and it is, therefore, not
a matter upon which to lay down the law.
Changes which are maturing throughout the
religious world will afiect the question vitally,
and no suggestion can be final. But it seems
worth while to try to put together a few
ideas, which have arisen in my own and other
minds, from experience as members of several
school congregations.

Before I begin on separate points of detail
there are two generalities which are impor-
tant. First, let it be remembered that a
School Chapel Service is for the boys. It
is not for the edification of Masters, or for
the exhibitipn of the vocal qualities of the
parson or of those of a trained choir. Above
all it is not for the commemoration of the
shade of Henry VI, William of Wykeham,
or any other respected, but long defunct,

CHAPEL SERVICES 103

benefactor. Ancient custom in its place
is an excellent thing, but as the sole govern-
ing force in the realm of religious thought it
is clogging and repressive to the last degree.
The parson, whether he be also Headmaster or
not, who is considered worthy to be entrusted
with the spiritual care of a school, has the
right to exercise absolute control over the
services of its chapel, and should be able to
sweep away any custom which has become
obsolete and unreal.

Secondly, and perhaps also conversely,
a service specially arranged for boys is fatal.
Any decent boy hates to be reminded that
he is "only a boy." All that boys want
is exactly the service that is given by a
good parson to men. When a boy has
reached the age of, say fifteen, he considers
— and surely not without some reason — that
he should no longer be treated as a child, and
has the right to be argued with as if he were

I04 A DREAM OF YOUTH

a sensible person. This is nowhere more true
than in religion. Indeed, it is not only im-
politic but even unsafe when dealing with a
Public School congregation to shelve the great
problems of life and faith. The only satis-
factory way of dealing with them is to thrash
them out and face them beforehand.

So we want neither a Cathedral Service,
nor a Children's Service, but a real Service,
founded on a Kock — the real God. For
such a Service there is no formula, any
more than there is for such a God. No
amount of organisation is of any use without
the right spirit, but it may help to capture
that spirit, and it is in that hope that I pass
on to practical details.

CHAPEL SERVICES 105

II

There are two kinds of Chapel Service
to consider: Sunday services and Week-day
services. Some of the following suggestions
apply to Sunday services only, others to both
kinds, but the first point necessitates their
separation. This is the length of service.

A very great many boys who would
otherwise enjoy chapel services intensely
are put off by their length. I do not
think that parsons realise how long such
things seem to their congregations. They
have the task of performing, and they know
far more about all the different parts of
the service than the ordinary layman. A
parson in high authority at a big Public
School told me the other day that he did
not think an hour at all too long for a
Sunday service, and that boys could well
stand that. But it seems to me that this

io6 A DREAM OF YOUTH

argument defeats its own ends. One does
not want boys to *' sit through " a service,
one wants them to attend, to learn, and to
enjoy. I know that most boys would say
they could get much more good out of a
service of half an hour than out of one
twice as long, and in fact many have told
me so. Even the average grown-up per-
son finds an hour ample, and a boy is a
much more restless person than a man or
woman. It is argued by some that it is
not fitting to devote only so short a time
to the worship of God. But it is surely
far less use to God for a boy to spend an
hour in chapel longing to get out, than
for him to spend half an hour in real worship.
Let each worship according to his power.
And there are other ways and places than
a chapel service in which to worship God.
This may be putting the case strongly,
but of its justice I am convinced.

CHAPEL SERVICES 107

Assuming, then, that we reduce very con-
siderably the length for the Sunday services,
we may fix as the limit half an hour for
the service without a sermon, and three-
quarters of an hour for that which includes
a sermon. This is allowing one sermon
per Sunday — the question of the sermon
will come up later.

The length of week-day ^ services is not
so difficult to fix, since there is no time
for a long service. The customary fifteen
or twenty minutes does quite well. These
little services are sometimes rather a
problem, as it is hard to prevent them
from becoming monotonous and meaningless.
Here, though it does not bear directly on
the point of this section, I would put in
a plea for a change of a different sort. The
usual thing is either to have morning and
evening service or morning service alone. I
would suggest that the evening is far more

lo8 A DREAM OF YOUTH

useful than the morning, and that, if one be
omitted, it should be the latter. All we weak
mortals know that it is far easier to be
sincerely religious in the evening than in
the morning (of which a striking proof is
the difference between the quality of the
evening and morning hymns in our hymn
book). Boys are no exception to this rule.
Also their minds are very fully occupied
with other things in the morning, especially
where "Early School" has preceded chapel.
I do not say that daily morning service
is useless — far from it, but only that
evening service would be likely to be
useful to a greater number of boys. The
practical difficulty would of course be that
of "lock-up" where houses are far apart.
I suggest that this might be overcome by
having evening chapel on whole school-days
(when boys are collected in fairly small
compass) immediately after last school.

CHAPEL SERVICES 109

Morning chapel could be confined to half-
holidays, when it is not so easy to get
the school together in the evening. This
would combine variation and increased
facility for devotion in chapel.

m

Now to pass on to the detailed arrange-
ment of the services on Sundays. As we
have fixed the limit at half an hour it is
clear that the ordinary service as it stands
will not do. I do not believe in ousting
Mattins, in a school chapel at any rate,
in favour of a Choral Eucharist, so I will
put on one side any suggestions in that
direction.

I think it would be best to use as a general
rule the framework of Mattins and Evensong,
as long as they retain their present position
in Church arrangements. It is best to be
brought up on what is to be one's staple diet

no A DREAM OF YOUTH

in after life, and the Prayer Book services will
already have associations in the minds of most
boys. But within these limits a very great
deal of variation is possible.

There are two items in these services that
are generally admitted to be often both over-
long and unsuitable for school use — the Psalms
and the Lessons. Both these should be cur-
tailed ; ways and means will be discussed
later. In dealing with the rest of the form
of service, it seems to me very desirable not
to have the whole on each occasion, but
to omit dijfferent portions of the form at
different services ; e. g. at Mattins, to omit Te
Deum and all from the second Lord's Prayer
to the Collect for the day ; at Evensong, to
omit from the beginning to the Gloria before
the Psalms ; on the following Sunday to
reverse this order, and so on.

A very common complaint, and one which
seems peculiarly true, is that the ordi-

CHAPEL SERVICES in

nary service is an absolute jumble, with no
prevailing idea. It would make it much easier
to attend, if the whole conformed to some sort
of definite plan and bore on a definite subject.
This, with a service of only half an hour,
would be quite easy to arrange. The subject
could be one suggested by the particular
Sunday, or by some current events (which
in all conscience are, and will be, moving
enough, and fully deserving of such con-
sideration), or, failing this, such a topic as
the work of the Church, Missions, or a Bible
story and its lessons. Full illustrations of
this proposal are given in the Appendix.

IV

I pass on now to the question of Lessons.
The Lessons are one of the features of
the Sunday services which I fixed on as re-
quiring abbreviation. There are one or two

112 A DREAM OF YOUTH

things about their length which should be'
said here.

Presumably the chief point in reading well-
known passages is, not to remind people of
the story, but to give them the opportunity
of seeing new " lights " in it ; or, in the case
of epistolary and prophetic writing, of recon-
sidering the message. Now it is perfectly
obvious that a shorter lesson will serve this
purpose much more efficiently than one of
the present average length, which is cer-
tainly too great. In the case also of certain
unfamiliar passages which deserve fuller recog-
nition, a short portion is bound to be much
more appreciated than a long one.

Thirty verses, then, might be fixed as our
rough limit, for both Lessons together, at a
Sunday service. This does not presume that
it is necessary to have two. There are a
number of passages which cannot be split up,
and are too long to allow of another lesson

CHAPEL SERVICES 113

within the limit. In this case one is quite
sufficient. For the one lesson on week-days
a limit of fifteen verses will be adequate.

In dealing with O.T. passages, especially-
historical ones, the constant repetition is
always sufficiently trying. It would in
some cases be quite possible without injury
to the story, and quite worth while, to cut
out certain verses in reading. An example
may be found in the way I have dealt with
the Eed Sea story appointed as the Easter
morning First Lesson in the "skeleton" ser-
vice (see Appendix). Any experiment of this
kind must, however, be conducted with great
care.

In reading the Gospels, both on Sundays
and week-days, one great mistake is almost
invariably made, and it is a mistake due
chiefly to our present Lectionary. A certain
chapter, or part of a chapter, is read. This
usually contains two or three stories, having

H

114^ A DREAM OF YOUTH

at best only a very indirect bearing upon
one another. The effect in the hearers' minds
is indefinite and unsatisfying. Two or three
different points are hurled at their heads
in rapid succession, and the consequence is
that all are usually lost. Now it is a recog-
nised attribute of Christ's teaching that every
action and saying of His had one single
definite point. So if only one story, even
though it be very short, were read at a time,
a definite point would be placed before the
congregation, instead of an indefinite blend
of several points.

By this time my impatient reader will be
asking why I do not discuss the real problem,
so I will. How are these new Lessons to be
arranged ? Well, I do not think that a defi-
nite Lectionary should be compiled for Sunday
use. The parson-in-charge should be left to
choose his own Lessons, within the limit of
length fixed above, guided partly if he likes

CHAPEL SERVICES 115

by the Church Lectionary, but chiefly by the
special idea of the service.

For week-days I should suggest a specially
compiled school Lectionary : either one for all
Public Schools, by a commission of school
authorities, or a special one, by the parson-in-
charge at each school. I do not think the
reading should be confined to the Gospels. A
little O.T. variation is very useful, and gives a
good opportunity for a closer acquaintance
with some little-known and extremely fine
passages among the Prophets. The Epistles
should be treated with circumspection : they
are difficult to read intelligibly, difficult to
attend to, and largely unsuitable for school
use. The Acts, too, should be used with
discretion. There is about a good deal of
them something distinctly uninspiring to a
boy's mind.

Before I close this section I should like to
put in a plea for a reform which is already

ii6 A DREAM OF YOUTH

widely advocated — the explanation of Lessons.
There are many Lessons regularly read in
chapel of which the point is at present com-
pletely lost to the ordinary congregation. A
couple of minutes is all that is needed to
explain any passage sufficiently to make it
both infinitely more useful and much more
interesting than it would otherwise be. This
practice has already been adopted with suc-
cess in one or two schools, and it is to be
hoped that it will soon be universally tried.
Other and far greater authorities than I
are in hearty support of this experiment.

The next problem with which I will deal is
that of Music. This is not on the whole a
matter of much difficulty, but a few suggestions
may be useful. The first and most important
point is, that singing should be made as con-
gregational as possible. I have said already

CHAPEL SERVICES 117

that boys do not want a Cathedral Service,
and I know it is true. Boys do not, as a rule,
like Cathedral music; it seems unreal in a
form of worship of which the aim is to draw
near to God. Let us have sacred concerts by
all means, and have them in chapel, and they
will be appreciated, because in them we are
treating music as music pure and simple;
but do not let us turn the services into
sacred concerts.

To consider the diflferent musical parts
of the service : we have seen already that
the Psalms must be shortened. Twenty
verses at a time are quite sufficient ; if
another psalm beyond the twenty verses is
wanted, it can with advantage be substituted
for one of the Canticles (cf. plan for Sixteenth-
Sunday-after-Trinity Mattins in Appendix).
In the case of long psalms which it is
undesirable to cut up, the whole can be taken
at once and a canticle omitted to save

ii8 A DREAM OF YOUTH

time. There is no need to keep to the regular
order; psalms should be chosen for the
special idea of the service, and in any case
there are a good many that are unsuitable and
should be dropped out altogether. On week-
days the Psalter can be used, with discretion,
as it stands — a limit of a dozen verses, which
is quite sufficient, affording the necessary
variation from month to month.

With the Hymns there should be little
difficulty. They should be chosen with some
care. Those with any experience will know
which are the popular ones, and it pays to
have them as much as possible, even if they
are repeated at short intervals. Critics may
call this pandering to ignorant taste, but no
hymn is any good to the congregation unless
it is heartily sung. A h3rmn with a difficult
tune, particularly the old Plainsong tunes
which have a tricky rhythm {e.g. A. & M. 57,
96, 97), should be avoided. Long hymns

CHAPEL SERVICES 119

should be shortened, otherwise they become
monotonous and lose their meaning. I should
fix the limit at six verses for a four-line
hymn, five for a six-line, four for an eight-
and three for a twelve-line hymn.

I would not for anything see our Ancient
and Modern Hymn Book deposed from its
place as principal hymn book in a school
chapel. Its associations are of untold value,
and it should be (and generally is) a life-long
stand-by to its users. But there is plenty of
room for a little supplement (which it would
probably be best to make exclusive for each
school) containing such popular modern hymns
as Rudyard Kipling's Recessional, and *' God
the All Terrible," special school hymns
and tunes, and hymns for occasions for
which the old hymn book does not provide.
A selection of forty or fifty would prove
invaluable.

I would say a last word about Voluntaries.

I20 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Most Public School Chapels are happy in the
possession of a good organ. With this the
voluntaries can be of great use. Good music,
particularly a piece from a comparatively
well-known standard work (e.g. Handel's and
Mendelssohn's -Oratorios, the Creation and
the Passion Music of Bach), is immensely
appreciated. When any special piece is to be
played it would not be a bad thing to have
it announced during the service.

VI

Next let me say one or two things about
the teaching part of the service. At present
we have no vehicle for instruction in chapel
but the sermon once a week. I have already
dealt with the question of explanation of
Lessons, which I consider to be a most desir-
able reform. But besides the Lessons, there
are many other parts of the service which
would repay explanation. Most boys know

CHAPEL SERVICES \i\

next to nothing of the history and meaning
of our forms of service, of the Psalms, or of
the Collects. I think it would not be at aU
a bad thing to have occasionally at Sunday
Mattins an entirely educational service, the
clergyman taking different portions of the
service and explaining them as he went along,
in place of a sermon. Perhaps such a service
might be held normally on alternate Sundays,
the course being carried on through the Term.
It seems a very daring attempt to make,
but I am going to risk being reproved for
" cheek," and will now put down a few ideas
about sermons to boys. I think, first, that a
good many men preach sermons that are too
long. He must be a very great preacher who
can, without conceit, suppose that a congrega-
tion of boys will attend to him seriously for
over a quarter of an hour. I know several
such preachers, so I do not mean to imply
that there are none, but they are a very

122 A DREAM OF YOUTH

small percentage. Again, there are very few
preachers who can make boys attend to a
sermon on doctrine, and such a sermon is
a very risky experiment. Lastly, to preach
to boys over the age of fourteen as hoys is
fatal. I was present once at a service (not in
Eton Chapel) when an old rector preached a
sermon about Daniel. He had an idea that
boys could understand nothing but '* school-
boy language." The congregation endured a
harangue in this style with hardly suppressed
merriment until the old gentleman, describing
the king's grief at having to throw Daniel to
the lions, painted him as ''blubbing in the
corner of the wall." This was too much, and
the entire chapel burst into a roar of laughter !
This is an exaggerated instance of the danger
attached to such an obsession, but the de-
duction remains true, that boys do not want
different treatment from men.

The ideal sermon for boys, then, should be

CHAPEL SERVICES 123

§hort, couched in ordinary language, based on
fully developed ideas, fearless in tackling
fundamental problems, and leading up to a
definite point which can remain in the minds
of the congregation.

vu

Finally, I will treat of the prayers. Here
is the place where reality matters' above
everything. Intoning should, therefore, be
avoided where the chapel is small enough for
reading the prayers. Five prayers of ordi-
nary length at any one time should be the
utmost limit, though two or three sets of
prayers may quite well be included in one
service.

What sort of prayers are best? Certain
guiding principles may be laid down. The
Collects are always good, but they want
varying with a great deal of other matter.
I should say that it would be a good rule

124 A DREAM OF YOUTH

never to use the same prayer more than twicfe
in one week. The greatest want is, prayers
on daily life and on current events. Boys
need to be made to feel God close to them,
wanting their service, interested in all their
joys and troubles, loving them and their dear
ones. They need to be made to feel that
they are all one in God, and one with all His
people. Beautiful English does not matter
much — though it is certainly a further help —
but simple, direct, beseeching language is
the real point. To illustrate my meaning, I
venture to quote a school prayer which is the
precious heritage of four "private" schools,
my own among them. I hope those con-
cerned will forgive my taking the liberty in
a good cause —

" 0 God, we pray for all our relations and
friends. We pray for this school, for those
who teach or learn or serve. We pray for
those who have been with us, especially for

CHAPEL SERVICES 125

those who have lately left us. Teach them
and us to lead brave and pure and unselfish
lives : For Jesus Christ's sake. — Amen."

There are two more points which I should
like to make. First, I wish that clergymen
would overcome what are after all only
sectarian scruples in certain matters. In the
direction of Eoman Catholicism, I should like
the practice of prayer for the dead to be
universally adopted. It would be a very
great comfort to many, and there is no
fundamental objection to it ; indeed, the war
has already overcome these scruples in the
great majority of churches. Also, I should
like to see some of the Roman Catholic offices
of pure praise, in which we are so lamentably
deficient, incorporated in our school services.
They would have to be shorn of certain
phrases too directly un- Anglican, but I fancy
this would not be difiicult. In the direction
of Nonconformity, extemporary prayers would

126 A DREAM OF YOUTH

be of great value now and again — or, if not
actually extemporary, at least prayers com-
posed by the officiating priest for any special
occasion. If some such course as this be
not adopted, many important contemporary
events will pass unrecognised in chapel.

Secondly, I should like the congregation
to have more part in this, the most important
portion of the service. I should always make
the General Thanksgiving a congregational
prayer; also any other prayers which would
be fitted to this use. There must be several.
In this connection comes the question of
Litanies. A Litany is not at all a bad thing
for chapel use, though the Prayer Book one
is much too long. A variety of Litanies
might be made most useful. And I would put
in a plea for others besides those of mere
importunity. There are Litanies of the most
magnificent praise, which would be a wonder-
ful addition to our services. Then in place

CHAPEL SERVICES 127

of a said Litany, one of those from our Hymn
Book might occasionally be sung kneeling.

No device of speech or silence which can
make prayer in chapel more real should be
neglected.

VIII

. There is one reform I would urge before I
close this chapter. The boys are the im-
portant part of a school congregation, yet
they have as a rule no part in the services.
They could have a good deal to do.

In several chapels boys are already em-
ployed to read the Lessons. This is an excel-
lent plan in every way, and the more widely
it can be adopted the better. Some chapels
are too big for a boy's voice to carry far
enough, but only very few. In most, boy-
reading would give valuable experience to the
individual and interest to the congregation.

Another scheme which would seem likely

128 A DREAM OF YOUTH

to be of the greatest benefit all rouDd is
that of a committee of elder boys to help
the priest-in-eharge with the arrangements for
the chapel. This would probably afford the
chaplain much useful information ; it would
give "the School" a feeling that they really
had a hand in the chapel services, and that
they could represent their views on the sub-
ject to the authorities. To be on the Chapel
Committee would be an honour like being in
Sixth Form or on the Athletic Committee,
while personal selection by the President
would avoid the stagnation to which such
bodies are liable. There is no reason why
such a committee should not do exceedingly
good work. It would probably be easiest if
it were to meet, say, once a week, to con-
sider the week's services, under the presidency
of the School Chaplain (or, where he is in
command of the chapel, the Headmaster).
The point of all this is manifest. It is to

CHAPEL SERVICES 129

make the school feel that the Chapel is their
Chapel, that it is the place where they can
get direct access to God, untrammelled by
any feeling of another class (the Masters)
between them and God, which is now too
common an idea. In this connection, it would
be well if it were known among the boys that
the school chapel, or a side-chapel, was always
open for private prayer. They would prob-
ably laugh at the idea when they were first
told, but might easily find it helpful later,
especially in these days of wounds and death.

IX

The gist of the matter is this : We at the
Public Schools, like every one else, are feeling
our way back to a personal, simple God, Who
is to rule our lives. We do not say so, and
most of us do not even know what we want,
but that is really our need. Our God is a

combination of Captain and Friend, the boy's

I

I30 A DREAM OF YOUTH

ideal Person. And wliat we look for in our
services is that we may find such an One
reflected in them — "the Man Christ Jesus."
I think the fundamental necessities of such
services are fitly expressed in these three
words: Brevity, Simplicity, Eeality,

CONCLUSION

And so I come to the end of my book. I
can only ask pardon for its many imperfec-
tions. I fear there may be some slips in it
stil], but I have done my best, in the short
time that remains before I join the Army, to
correct it as much as possible. I have said all
that I feel without reserve, and can only hope
that my work may accomplish something,
however little, of its purpose.

I come away from this concrete arrange-
ment of previously vague ideas with the
feeling of hope enormously strengthened. My
time is over, and from all I have seen I feel
that even already much has been accom-
plished. But I cannot help feeling certain

now, that, in the time of those that follow
1 2 131

132 A DREAM OF YOUTH

not SO very long after, a full regeneration of
the Public Schools will come about. God
grant it be so, and give them grace to further
His cause in the world !

" Lord, turn us from our self-wrought ill,
And set us bravely to fulfil

Thy Will alone 1 "

John Oxenham.

APPENDIX

TO ILLUSTRATE CHAPTER VI

The following three pairs of "skeleton'*
Sunday Services may serve to illustrate some
of my points in the chapter on Chapel Services.
The first pair is for Easter, and the aim here
is to infuse as much sheer joy as possible into
the services. To this end such doctrinal and
prophetic parallels as the Passover Lessons
and the Second Psalm have been omitted in
favour of items of a more victorious character,
and other similar changes made.

EASTER

Jlattins
Hymn (Processional if possible) 134.
Gloria and Sentences.

Easter Anthem.
Psalm cxxxvi.
133

134 A DREAM OF YOUTH

First Lesson : Exod. xiv. 5-15, and 19-end.

Te Deum.
Second Lesson : John xx. 11-19.

Apostles' Creed.

Lord's Prayer.
Three Collects for day and two or three other
Prayers.

Hymn 135.

Sermon.

Hymn 125.

Blessing.

Evensong
Hymn (Processional if possible) 134.
Evensong as usual up to Psalms.

Psalms cxlix., cl.
First Lesson : Exod. xv. to 14.

Hymn 133.
Second Lesson : Rev. v.

Psalm xcviii.
Three Collects for day.

Hymn 138 or 137.
Three or four Prayers and Blessing.
Voluntary (if possible) : " Worthy is the
Lamb" (Messiah).

The second pair is for an ordinary Sunday,
illustrating the notion of a prevailing idea.
The morning idea — the Church and its Work —

APPENDIX 135

is taken from the Collect for the day ; the
evening one — Evening and its Suggestions —
at random.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

MaUin»
Shorter Exhortation.

Confession.
Absolution.

Psalm cxxxii.
First Lesson : 2 Chron. vi. 14-22.

Psalm cxxxiii.
Second Lesson : Eph. iv. to 17.

Psalm cxxxiv.

Creed.
Lord's Prayer and Three Collects for day.

Hymn 215.

Four Prayers.

Hymn 221.

Sermon.

Ev&Kisoag

Hymn 27.
*' Let us pray," and two or three Prayers,
(Ideas : Absolution ; offering of day's work
to God.)

Psalm Ixvii.
First Lesson : Isa. xxxv.

136 A DREAM OF YOUTH

Hymn 19.
Second Lesson : Rev. xxi. 23 to xxii. 6.
Nunc Dimittis.
Lord's Prayer.
Responses.
Three Collects for day.
Hymn 24.
Prayers. (Ideas : Thanks for blessings ; protec-
tion through night for selves and dear ones ;
death.)

Hyran 31. (Possibly kneeling.)
Blessing.

The last pair of services is for a special
occasion. I have chosen a big battle in
France as the easiest and most comprehensible
example.

Mattins.

"Let us confess our sins and shortcomings to Al-
mighty God, and ask His mercy in this time of trial."

Confession and Absolution (perhaps those from Com-
munion Office).

**Let us pray God to help and guide all who are
fighting for us, to comfort and strengthen all who suffer
in body or in spirit, and to grant victory to our arms."

APPENDIX 137

Four or five Prayers and Lord's Prayer.

Psalm xlvi.
Lesson : Josh, i, 1 to 10.

Hymn 214.

Sermon.

Hymn 165.
One or two Prayers and Blessing.

Evensong.

As in Prayer Book, beginning at first Lord's Prayer

id omitt
Tsa. xxvi.

and omitting Magnificat, with Psalm cxliv. and Lesson :

After Third Collect. Hymn 290.

Four or five Prayers.

Hymn 540.

One or two remarks ought perhaps to be
made. The shortened form of the Exhorta-
tion is commonly in use abeady, and its
universal adoption seems desirable. This is
presumed on in the above services. Further,
a great aim has been to avoid "vain repeti-
tions " in their composition. To this end the
Lord*s Prayer appears only once, the Creed is
often omitted, and other parts of the formal

138 A DREAM OF YOUTH

service are treated likewise. The invariable
use of the Canticles is also done away, other
Psalms and Hymns being often substituted.
I have placed the Sermon always at Mattins,
but this can easily be altered according to
taste. Finally, the above do not claim to be
in any sense rigid Forms of Service, but
merely illustrations of the suggestions I have
made in Chapter VI.

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