NOTE ON DON FRANCISCO
GINER DE LOS RIOS

IT is a typical feature of our age that in it the remedies for the ills of the body politic are sought in scientific re-arrangements—whether of an economic, a juridical, or a mechanical order. No one seems to realize that the ' body ' politic has in fact no other ills than those of its soul, and that it is in the spirit that the cure for all social evils must be found. It follows that the great men of the age are politicians, scientists, and engineers, while the sage, the master, and the saint live and die ignored by the mass. I believe that Spain can claim the distinction of possessing a truer instinct in this respect than most other nations. She was ever an admirer of her saints, even in times when belief was tainted with superstition, and in our day she has worshipped with a purer and cleafer and more human love the saint who inspired the contemporary revival of Spanish education—Don Francisco Giner.

Don Francisco, as he was universally known, was born in 1839, in the little town of Ronda, famous for its picturesque situation between Granada and Mâlaga. He was, on his mother's side, related to the family of Rios Rosas, which had been made famous in Spanish politics by his uncle, Don Antonio. Having studied law in the universities of Barcelona and Granada, he came to Madrid in 1863, and in three years' time he acquired so much prestige among the best and most advanced intellects of the period, that when, in 1866, he won the Chair of Jurisprudence in the University of Madrid, serious objections were raised in official

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quarters where thought was then considered suspect. He was, however, appointed, and became one of the most convinced disciples of Sanz del Rio, his predecessor in the leadership of Spanish educational thought and himself a disciple of Krause. In 1867 Sanz del Rio resigned his chair, rather than submit to a declaration of religious, political, and even dynastical faith, which the notorious minister Orovio sought to impose upon him. Giner followed his master with a little band of die-hards, all of whom had to wait until 1868 to recover their posts, in which they were reinstated by the Revolutionary Government.

But in 1875 Orovio came back to power with the Restoration. The attack on the freedom of the chair was renewed. It was answered in a similar fashion by the disciples of Sanz del Rio (who had died in 1869). Giner, deprived of his chair, was imprisoned in Cadiz, where he received the visit of the English Consul, come to offer him the help of British public opinion. Giner politely but firmly declined all foreign help. He soon recovered his liberty, though not his chair, but the incident proved a blessing in disguise. He naturally became the leader of the little group of dismissed professors, and of that group was born what was to become one of the most important instruments for the regeneration of Spanish education, i. e. the Institution Libre de Ensefianza. The InstituciOn, by which short title it is known everywhere in Spain, is an educational establishment free from all interference of Church or State, and, in it, Giner was able to apply his doctrines on education, to act upon the people of Spain in a far more effective manner than through mere political speeches, and to provide a model school, not merely for Spain, but even, in many ways, for the whole of Europe. Moreover, the InstituciOn helped Giner to find out his own true