[TO TSB EDITOR OF THE " SPECTITOR:)
y011, in reference to Dr. Abbott's statements, allow me to make the following remarks?
A newly-elected classical scholar, at the great schools which he mentions, generally maintains a high position in mathematics and Modern languages, and his general intelligence is of no mean order. His attention, therefore, has not been "unduly concen- trated on classics" in his preparatory schooL The hours of work in the best-known preparatory schools are quite as few as Dr. Abbott would propose for his very youngest pupils, and boys are never picked out for extra work with a view to a scholarship ex- amination. Many of those who gain the highest entrance-honours are sturdy performers in games, and are the last to fear criticism in bodily growth and health. Similarly of their mental power, they prove by their leading places at the public schools, and by the brilliant University honours gained by them afterwards, that their earliest successes were not due to a premature "strain " upon their cleverness. Dr. Abbott complains also of the ordinary entrance-trials, and recommends a lower standard of classics. This, however, would be to return to the system of ten years ago, when the "stupidity of boys in the lowest forms" was not less " appalling " than now ; and it is worth while noting that the head masters in Scotland deplore their inability to deal success- fully with boys who come to them on such an entrance-plan as that proposed by Dr. Abbott, and would gladly welcome such preparation as that now encouraged by English public schools.
As to the "horror" with which Dr. Abbott regards "the por- tent" of a "polished elegiac poet of thirteen," I could show him a score of boys who have taken the greatest pleasure in their " por- tentous " work, and have declared by their after-successes in this subject, as in many others, that their early " promise " was -" healthy" in every sense, and I would back a,majority of such boys On the long or short-run) against an equal number selected on Dr. Abbott's system of "impression." If such an examination as that of the Harrow entrance-scholarships were to give place to such vague trials as those suggested by Dr. Abbott, I, for one, should feel that I had lost the best standard of truth and honesty in preparing a young boy for a public schooL—I am, Sir, &c., LANCELOT SANDERSON..
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