Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/404

 yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day and will be its starting-point to-morrow."

Amid the tumult and rush of modern social life two factors seem predominant—the rise of the Democracy to power, the large part played by the people for the first time in the history of our land, and the acceleration of speed—the ever-growing rapidity of transit.

With regard to the first movement, which has already been traced step by step through the ages that are past, compulsory attendance at school, insisted on in 1870, and free education bestowed upon the nation in 1891, have contributed to important developments. The nation had at last realised that the children of to-day represented the England of to-morrow, and that their claims were predominant. The establishment of polytechnics, where lads fresh from school and already at work in the world could improve themselves, the improvements taking place in secondary education and evening schools, the facilities for scholarships to enable a promising child to pass from the free school to the highest honours and privileges of the Universities—these have been powerful forces in the Democratic movement. "It is your duty to educate yourselves as far as lies in your