stiny is to become wider in extent,
closer in its interconnexions, and not less rich in the diversities of
its national centres. Whether it is also destined to grow into a
political unity the future must decide. At least we can say that for any
such unity it provides the only sure and solid foundation.

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

Merz, _History of European Thought in the 19th Century_. W. Blackwood.

Marvin, _The Living Past_. Clarendon Press.

VIII

THE UNITY OF WESTERN EDUCATION

I have been asked to address you on the Unity of Education in Western
Europe. The task is not an easy one, for what do we mean by unity? It
would be easy for me to spend my time in talking on the technical aspect
of the subject; I could deal with curriculum and organization, with
school buildings and class-rooms, black-boards, and all the material of
schoolmastering, and could show you how great is the similarity in these
matters in all civilized countries. I doubt, however, whether this would
interest you; I doubt whether this is the unity of which you are in
search. You would tell me that you asked for unity and I had given you
uniformity. Uniformity you can have anywhere; in modern life all is
standardized and stereotyped; you have it in the great hotel and the
Atlantic liner--there you have men of all nations, they do the same
thing at the same time, they eat the same food and wear the same
clothes; you find it in the factory and on the battle-field. Go to a
textile factory, whether in Oldham or in Chemnitz, or in Bombay, the
processes are the same and the product is the same, except as there may
be more or less adulteration.

And so in education, if you care to do so, you can find the mechanical
uniformity of modern civilization. A new form of school-desk makes the
round of the world as quickly as a new chemical process or a new
battleship. The pictures on the walls of the rooms may be the
reproduction of some modern German work, and the atlases you use may be
second-rate copies of the products of Gotha or Leipzig; you can have,
too, uniformity in time-table and curriculum; but, after all, this
uniformity may be merely superficial. Go along the streets of an old
town and you may see the regular facade of a modern street, but behind
this you will find all the variety of the mediaeval buildings which it
encloses--the facade is mere paint and stucco.

Uniformity is not necessarily unity, and unity is not inconsistent with
vari