MR. WELLS ON EDUCATION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It was to be expected that the presidential address of Mr. H. G. Wells at Nottingham should provoke much criticism and indignation ; but many of the critics of Mr. Wells might have spared their feelings had they taken note of a very sig- nificant remark which he made from the chair at one of the later meetings of the Education Section. After hearing the views of four educational experts from four different nations, Mr. Wells observed very truly that there was no agreement between them on the vital question, What is the Community ? In making this remark, Mr. Wells exposed one of the major tragedies of our time, and one of the chief causes of our spiritual, intellectual and political confusion. In the year 137 such a question would have been answered without hesitation in a single word—" Rome " ; in the year /237 with equal assurance in one word—" Christendom " ; but in the year 1937, where shall wisdom be found ? Every social and religious and educational doctrine depends finally upon some conception of the Community, which the doctrine in question seeks to establish or consolidate ; but what concord can be found between the leading exponents of su-ii doctrines today ? What agreement is there between Mein Kampf and the Epistle to the Ephesians ? The very title of the recent Conference in Oxford bears witness to the intellectual and social discord of our time, by making the Community a middle term between the Church and the State. These " three sisters " which (with apologies to Tennyson) never " can be sundered without tears " have drifted apart, and each has become the object of a separate and conflicting loyalty. Until this conflict can be resolved, it is idle to expect that there can be any general agreement on the teaching of History or of anything else.—Yours faithfully, W. E. J. LINDFIELD.
St. Barnabas' Vicarage, Rainbow Hill, Worcester.
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