THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION.
The History of Education. By Thomas Davidson. (A. Constable and Co. 6s. net.)—Mr. Davidson tells us that "to be strictly accurate, the title of this book should have been A Brief History of Education, as Conscious Evolution.' " The remark indicates where the strength of the work lies, and where what may be called its weakness. It certainly takes its readers deeper into principles than they are likely to have gone before. On the other hand, it is likely to disappoint the student who consults it with a strictly practical purpose. But of books that give the outside facts about education there is no lack; writers who have the will and the ability to trace back visible results to their beginnings in Nature are rare. We find ourselves often in agreement with Mr. Davidson, and sometimes differing. The section on Jadcea in "Civic Education" especially interested us. The following is a concise and clear statement of Jewish ideals :— " The civic consciousness of the Jews centred in three con- ceptions: (1) an omnipotent, creator God, who had chosen the Jews as his vicegerents on earth ; (2) a Messiah to restore them to this exceptional position, which, through unfaithfulness, they had lost ; (3) Holiness on their part, as the condition of this restoration. Thus their supreme ideal took the form of a king- dom of heaven' upon earth." A subsequent remark that "the three central conceptions of Judaism appear as the three persons of the Trinity" is strikingly ingenious. Some of Mr. Davidson's views of history are strange. Here is a specimen :—" Rome seems to have arisen from a combination (rumaarp6f) of villages inhabited by peoples of different races—Turanians, Semites, and Aryans—who at different times had settled upon the Septi- montium. The 'Aryans were, doubtless, the dominant factor but the others contributed important elements : the Turanians, the bulk of the religious notions and rites; the Semites, the prosaic practicality and thirst for power. With their language the Aryans, naturally, imposed their political forms." How did Semites and Turanians find their way into Italy? We observe that Mr. Davidson writes in the United States. This accounts for the statement, which sounds so odd to English ears, that England's "public-school system dates from 1870." " Primary " would be a better word. Surely Mr. Davidson must know that on this side of the Atlantic 'public school" means something very different.
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