Following in the bibliographical wake of a research student, I was reminded recently how lacking in novelty are most of our attitudes to professional education. Contexts and grounds of argument have changed, but some conflicts within the Library Association of the 1880s are recognizably those of the last decade. One's own shorter term of professional memories can confirm that forty years of discussion and contention are likely to be very repetitive. One accounts for this in part, of course, by the likelihood of recurrence of the same range of personalities, with similar predispositions, temperaments, preferences, and prejudices. For the rest, perhaps the greater part, it seems not unlikely that disagreements about education reflect continuing disagreements about the profession. The idea is not ruled out by the undoubted progress that librarianship has made, for one cannot feel sure that the momentum of social change has not been more effective than librarians in conference and committee. It seems to me reasonable, therefore, that we should seek an adequate theoretical basis for the practice of librarianship, before we attempt theories or judgements about its professional studies.