BRACERS Record Detail for 119719
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
The letter concerns a science and mathematics education for Maitland's son but not at a "public" school. BR refers to the first 3 parts of Newton's Principia.
The letter is missing at least the final leaf, as the last one present ends in mid-sentence and without a signature. The following is a transcription by the seller, Bonhams. Sold 2006/07/11. https://www.barnebys.co.uk/realised-prices/lot/russell-bertrand-autograph-letter-signed-cD3ZtUp98c. The realized price was 620 GBP.
”Discussing education in the modern world and foretelling the end of the British Empire ("... Everybody who is in any vital contact with modern life & the modern world knows that the English upper class is isolated & dead ... If you travel in America, Germany, Russia, or China, you will find in each of these countries something happening which is of great moment for the future of civilization; to understand what is happening, you must know mathematical physics & industrial technique. Those who have been at English public schools are incapable of getting any grip of the modern world; this fact is going to make us lose our empire within the next 30 years, unless people like yourself can bring themselves to feel that knowledge is more important than membership of a snobbish clique ..."), 5 pages, envelope, 8vo, Carn Voel,
BR TO FRANCIS E. MAITLAND, 11 JULY 1927
BRACERS 119719. ALS(DX). Rudi Thoemmes
Edited by W. Bruneau. Proofread by A.G. Bone
<letterhead>
Carn Voel
Porthcurno
Penzance.
11.7.27
Dear Sir
I have read your letter with a great deal of interest.
You must distinguish between elementary and popular books. The former are those with which serious study begins, the latter those for people who only want a bird’s eye view. A boy of 9, unless very exceptional, is too young for most of the questions you ask. “How do we know that the speed of light is the greatest possible velocity?” is a question which a boy of scholarship standard, specializing in mathematics and physics, might be able to grapple with at the age of 16. Your other two questions are answered in the first 3 Partsa of Newton’s Principia, where you might yourself read them up; your boy, if he is clever at mathematics, might understand the matter at the age of 13. For his present age, in order to whet his appetite, I should recommend J. Arthur Thomson’sb Outline of Science, a book for boysc in 2 large volumes with excellent pictures. But you would really do better to ask advice of some scientific colleague who has young children.
Will you pardon me if I say that your attitude about public schools, which I find not uncommon, seems to me rather mistaken? Everybody who is in any vital contact with modern life and the modern world knows that the English upper class is isolated and dead, without any vital importance; and that this is mainly due to the fact that the public schools will not adapt themselves. If you travel in America, Germany, Russia, or China, you will find in each of these countries something happening which is of great moment for the future of civilization; to understand what is happening, you must know mathematical physics and industrial technique. Those who have been at English public schools are incapable of getting any grip of the modern world; this fact is going to make us lose our empire within the next 30 years, unless people like yourself can bring themselves to feel that knowledge is more important than membership of a snobbish clique. I do not for a moment believe that your boy would in after life regret having had a good education. He would live in a larger world, where the pretensions of the public school class would seem laughable.
If I were you, I should send him to some good secondary school which specializes in science. Those schools are much more successful in getting university scholarships than the public schools are. I cannot recommend any one in particular, but you could easily find out which would suit you best, if you thought of sending your boy to one.
I am afraid you may think all this quite uncalled for, but it is a matter on which I feel strongly, as I think it is of enormous national importance.
Yours very truly
Bertrand Russell.
