Whatever influence I may gain will be used towards a thorough reconstruction of our system of popular schooling.

I believe nothing serious can be done until we have a truly civic education for the masses of the people." This was the outcome of Lashmar's resolve to be practical, whilst adhering to his philosophy.

He knew that it sounded well, this demand for educational reform; however vague in reality, it gave the ordinary hearer a quasi-intelligible phrase to remember and repeat.

Sir William Amys was not proof against the plausibility of such words: he admitted that one might do worse than devote oneself to that question; popular schooling, heaven knew, being much in need of common-sense reform.

Dyce tactfully pressed his advantage.