Page:The Story of the House of Cassell (book).djvu/53

 member for one of our large boroughs came up to thank us for the publication of the "Popular Educator," and exclaimed, 'I find it invaluable; indeed, I have begun my education over again.'"

Cassell anticipated the "class" of the modern University Extension course. Large numbers of the people who were eager to seize the chance of getting through the gates of knowledge discovered that even the "Popular Educator" was not a sufficiently elementary guide; they could not get on without personal help. They were induced to form classes in agreed centres so that they could help each other, or, with the assistance of a schoolmaster or of any educated person willing to give it, follow up the courses set in the book. La Belle Sauvage sent the necessary bills and circulars free to any place where a class was to be formed. Even so, there were some expenses, and many of the would-be students were too poor to subscribe them. To meet this difficulty a "Popular Educator Fund" was established, and, liberally supported, it paid for this work for many years.

The "Popular Educator," in short, speedily became a national institution. Its fame reverberated in the speeches of statesmen dealing with education. Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) used it to illustrate his thesis that elementary instruction gave to a child the potentiality of possessing any amount of knowledge he pleased. For the benefit of young men who were wishful to get knowledge, there were, he said, one or two excellent books. "But the first one I would recommend is Cassell's 'Popular Educator.' A man who has read and thoroughly mastered the contents of this is the man who will understand the greatest part of what is going on around him, which is a great deal more than can be said of the best Greek scholar, or even the accomplished lawyer." In later days a striking tribute to the value of the "Popular Educator" was paid by Mr. Lloyd George. Describing his early life, he said it was this work which enabled him to supplement the scanty education he received at the village school