This book is not "about the War," but all the same it is one
of the best books about the War that I have read.
* * * * *
_From a Common Room Window_ (OWEN) will be a slight refreshment
to those who are weary of realistic studies of schoolmasters and
schoolboys. "ORBILIUS," during what I take to have been a long career
as a teacher, has not allowed his sense of humour to wither within
him. In a note to his slender volume of sketches he says, "School-life
is largely a comedy. When a schoolmaster ceases to recognise this it
is time for him to 'bundle and go.'" He has been in the main a keen
and sympathetic observer, and though his remarks upon headmasters are
a little severe--personally I should hate to be called "a meticulous
pedagogue"--I do not think that a little criticism of these potentates
will do them the smallest harm. In "The Castigator" "ORBILIUS" gives a
laughable sketch. The inventor of a flogging machine is soundly beaten
by his own instrument, and he would be a sombre man indeed who could
read it without a desire to witness such a chastening performance.
By no means the least merit of this book is that it contains no new
theories about education.
* * * * *
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol.
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