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COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES
FROM
THE TEACHER’S POINT OF VIEW.
BY
WILLIAM ELLIS.
^Reprinted from “ The Museum and English Journal of Education.”)
LONDON:
THOMAS NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW:
»
AND EDINBURGH.
MDCCCLXV.
�COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES FROM THE TEACHER’S POINT
OF VIEW.
N a journal not devoted to education,
some apology might be required for
introducing a subject so hackneyed
as “Combinations and Strikes.’’ This
subject, like that of education itself,
has become distasteful to the general reader, on ac
count of the flood of vague and irrelevant matter
with which our periodical literature has been
deluged, both directly from the pen, and indirectly
from speeches at public meetings, where these sub
jects have been treated of.
The subject of Combinations and Strikes can
not, however, have become distasteful to teachers
as teachers, because it has seldom found its way
into schools. And our purpose now is to invite
them to consider whether this subject do not de
serve some of their attention, and whether the
judicious treatment of it in schools will not shield
it from some of that ill-treatment outside which
it has met with so undeservedly.
If we can show teachers that correct views
upon the probable influence of Combinations and
Strikes will materially affect the future well-being
of their pupils, and also that it is quite within the
scope of school instruction that correct views shall
be formed by the pupils in their schools, we feel
quite sure of obtaining their attention; and if
we cannot do thus much, none of their atten
tion ought to be bestowed upon us, due as it may
be, nevertheless, to the matter which we shall
have failed in elucidating.
As for the importance to the young of correct
views upon the probable effect of Combinations
and Strikes, we need do little more than state
what that effect is expected to be, viz., increased
wages, or, which is the same thing, less work with
undiminished wages. Few teachers can contem
plate the present state and future prospects of
adults now at work, without desiring for their
pupils better prospective wages than those which j
widely prevail, however well they may be recon- I
efled to the modicum reasonably to be expected
at starting. Neither can teachers consider this
thought to be otherwise than a wholesome one for |
their pupils to carry into industrial life ;—w By 1
what means may we hope to become entitled to
and possessed of, such wages as will enable us, at
least, to live decently and comfortably?”
How far it is possible to qualify the young
while yet in our schools, to judge of the means
likely to be accessible to them for obtaining satis
factory wages, or for obtaining an increase of the
unsatisfactory wages which they may be com
pelled to put up with for a time, is a matter to
which a little space and attention must be de
voted before we can ask teachers to agree or to
discuss with us. We must bespeak, at the same
time, a certain amount of indulgence, if our at
tempted exposition should be more elementary
and elaborate than might appear called for be
tween teachers and teachers. They will kindly
bear in mind that we are addressing the parents
of the children in their schools as well as them
selves. We can hardly hope to escape mystifica
tion, confusion, and obscurity, except by avoiding
to use many of the general terms in common use,
or by deferring their use until we have established
the existence, and obtained a firm hold of the
ideas, for which those terms are the names. To
this precaution against admissions not warranted
by experience under cover of vague and ambigu
ous language, may be added another against the
unguarded introduction into schools of subjects
that are beyond the comprehension of the children
to be instructed in them. Such subjects might
be overlooked in a crowd. To secure inspection,
therefore, we will enumerate, one by one, some of
the subjects which, in our judgment, are at once
important to be known, and teachable to the
young. Attention will thus be fixed upon each
separately, and whatever is deemed inadmissible
can easily be objected to at once.
Assuming it to be desirable that all the young
should take from school as correct and vivid an
impression as is possible at their age, of the
nature of the life which awaits them, we will pro
ceed, briefly and succinctly, to place before our
readers some of the matters important to be under
stood, on which the young may be brought to ob
serve, and. jiudge correctly, and feel strongly, if
�COMB[XATIOWS AND STRIKES
thW’ be but under the direction of teachers cap
able qL supporting and guiding them.
1. They and all their fellow-creatures are subsisting upon the produce of past labour—partly
even of the labour of some of the men who lived
many ages ^go. If the produce of past labour
were suddenly destroyed, all men would perish,
with the exception of a few here and there in the
warmer climates, who might subsist upon the
spontaneous products of the earth.
2. They and their fellow-creatures are day by
day consuming the produce of past labour—some
things rapidly, as articles of food; others more
slowly, as articles of clothing, and furniture, and
dwellings. If, then, men are to continue to live
as comfortably, and in as large numbers, as at
present, the produce of past labour must be re
placed as fast as it is consumed. If they are to
live more comfortably, and in larger numbers, the
produce consumed must be more than replaced.
No portion of the labour, and of the knowledge
and skill to assist it, which were at work in the
past, can be spared in the present and future, if
society is not to deteriorate. More of each must
be brought to bear upon production, if society is
to be improved.
3. Maintenance of the stores of produce, and
encouragement of future production, are indis
pensable for the continued subsistence of society
as it is. Other efforts must be added to these, in
order to bring about an improved state of society.
Side by side with these truths, it has become
known to us that some men will not work to pro
duce, and will spoil and waste as well as consume.
Not only do they fail to replace what they con
sume, but they would, if not prevented, destroy
the produce of other men’s labour, and thereby
discourage their efforts to produce and save for
the future.
4. A consciousness of the existence of such illdisposed persons interspersed among the other
members of society, fear of their increase, and
alarm lest the industry, knowledge, skill, and
economy upon which the subsistence and improve
ment of society depend, should decline or perish
under their assaults, have led to efforts to resist,
and, if possible, to overcome them. Combinations
Mil. contrivances for these purposes fall within
the province of what goes by the name of government, and must ever be the work of those who
desire to defend the happiness and progress of
society against those who are indifferent or averse
to that which is indispensable for the general
welfare.
L, 5. The conclusion arniled at, and acted upon,
by those who have been accgpted_as most, com
3
petent to organize and administer the powers of
government, is, that their efforts must be directed,
First, To securing to each member of society the
undisturbed enjoyment of the produce of his
industry: implying liberty to exchan gejjEroWirei
and sell, to lend and borrow, to give£and ^.lso
to appoint, subject to some few restrictions, who,
at his death, shall succeed to his possessions. The
powers thus enjoyed under the protectiorg^of
government constitute the “rights of property.”
The declarations of these rights by government
are a portion of the laws under which we enffij
property. The products of industry being cfflMal
“wealth,” property consists of wealth, and those
titles to wealth recognised by law. The penaltrM
by which rights are protected against those who
would invade them, are another portion of laws.
Second, To securing, chiefly through the pro
motion of the teaching and training of the young,
that knowledge, skill, and good habits—the human
agents in the production, preservation, and enjoy
ment of wealth—shall as nearly as possible be co
extensive with life itself.
6. A very cursory survey of society enables us
to recognise who are the principal possessors O’m
wealth, as we see them around us, and as they have
grown up under the protection of our laws, and
also who are those that possess little or no wealth.
The former are the elders, the inheritors of wealth, I
and the more capable, that is, the more intelligent,
industrious, economical, and trustworthy. The
latter are the younger, and the less capable, that
is, the uninstructed, the indolent, the dissipated,
and the untrustworthy. It cannot be qnAstiane J
that the former are much better fitted than the
latter to hold and dispose of that wealth, the
replacement of which, as fast as it is consumed, is
so essential to the welfare of society. To entw^giM
it to the latter is impossible, and would be fatal
were it possible. Nevertheless, no human being,
whatever his disqualifications, can be entirely shnj
out from access to some portion of wealth. To
shut him out, would be to sentence him to death
by starvation. It remains to be shewn how the
“rights of property” maybe maintained while
the “ duties to humanity ” are performed
7. The difficulty in the way of performing each
of these duties, without neglecting the other, al
though by no means overcome, is seen to be
greatly diminished when once attention is directed
to the practice prevailing among a large portion
of the possessors of wealth, and a still larger por
tion of the wealthless ; the first, devoting some of
that wealth which they reserve as a provision
against future want, to the purchase of lalwnj
wherpwith to acquire more; the second, selling^
�4
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES.
their labour for some of that wealth, without
which they could neither work nor live. The
readiness, on one side, to part with present wealth
in order to obtain increased wealth in the future,
and on the other, to surrender the direction and
produce of one’s own labour to obtain the produce
of* past labour, has been accompanied and fol
lowed by a succession of contrivances, in the form
of machinery and other instruments of production,
by which the labour purchased is made to accom
plish results otherwise unattainable, and to bring
about the continually increasing accumulations of
wealth everywhere observable. It must be evi
dent that the duties to property and to humanity
will be performed together more and more in har
mony, progressively as the wealthy become less
wasteful, and the wealthless less incapable.
8. This practice of applying wealth to the pur
pose of procuring more wealth in the future, has
given rise to a number of arrangements and bar
gains to suit the convenience and ciroumstances
of the various persons disposed to apply a portion
of their wealth to this purpose.
AV hat these arrangements and bargains are,
ought to be understood ; but it would be tedious
to describe them without using the terms in general
use ; and it is dangerous to use these terms with
out making sure of the things which the terms are
the names of. Let us, therefore, rapidly run over
these things, and mention the names which have
been given to them.
a. Wealth applied to the purpose of obtaining
ncrease is called capital. Originally, capital can
have been little more than wealth, destined by its
owners for the purchase of labour. Progressively,
larger and larger portions of capital have assumed
the form of instruments of production, among the
latest developments of which may be named rail
ways and their appendages, agricultural, mining
and manufacturing machinery, ships, docks, har
bours, and canals.
b. Wealth obtained by sale of labour is called
wages. The portion of oapital set apart for this
purpose is spoken of as a wages-fund, to distin
guish it from other portions of capital evidently
no longer available for purchasing labour.
c. The increase of wealth, looked forward to
from the application of wealth as capital, is called
' profit.
d. Many owners of capital are not administra
tors of capital; some administer the capital of
others as well as their own. Where they are not,
as in the case of those who prefer to work for
wages, of professional men, and of men conscious
of incapacity for directing labour, they lend their
capitals, surrendering their title to the larger but
uncertain return called profit, and bargaining with
the borrower for a smaller but certain stipulated
return. This smaller and stipulated return, is
called interest.
e. Besides these arrangements for facilitating
the co-operation of capital and labour in the work
of production, there are various forms of partner
ship and joint-stock association, admitting, accord
ing to the tastes, capabilities, and means of each,
the separation, partial or complete, of the elements
of the total future profit expected ; these elements
being, remuneration for the superintendence, for
the risk, and for the use, without risk, of the
capital. The latter of these elements, as before
stated, is called interest.
f. Wealth, capital, wages, profit, and interest,
are more frequently than otherwise measured in
money, and distributed with the aid of money.
They are also, spoken of, and written about, as
money. But each of them is a thing of itself, inde
pendently of money. And money is another thing.
With the assistance of these terms, bearing in
mind that they are familiar to thousands who
attach no definite meanings to them, and keeping
on our guard, so as not to be entrapped into using
them, sometimes in one sense, sometimes in an
other, quite unconscious that the matters denoted
by them have been shifted, let us proceed further
to indicate what the pupils in our schools can be
led to deduce for themselves from what they have
already observed and thought over.
9. The tendency of administrators of capital or
employers, is for them to distribute the wagesfund at their command among the labourers whom
they employ, according to the estimate which they
form of the producing powers of each. Making
use of the term “labourers” in its widest signifi
cation, employers will give to some, £5000 a-year;
to some, £10 a-week; to some, 3s. a-day; and to
others they will refuse wages or employment
altogether.
10. The total capital, and hence the total wagesfund, is a limited quantity. If it were distributed
among labourers in equal portions to each, the
portion of each could not be more than the quo
tient of the whole wages-fund divided by the
number of labourers. If this portion or wage
were considered insufficient, its increase could
only be procured by increasing the total wagesfund, or hy diminishing the number of labourers.
The latter mode of increasing average wages does
not require to be considered, and the former can
only be brought about at some future time, near
or distant, rapidly or slowly, according to oppor
tunities and the means resorted to.
11. Increase of wages to all is no more possible
�FROM THE TEACHER'S POINT OF VTEW1
at once, because the wages-fund is distributed
among labourers according to their respective
producing powers, than if it were distributed
among them equally and irrespectively of their
comparative producing powers. If more than the
average share be given to some, there must re
main less than the average share for others. But
there are two compensating circumstances at
tached to the apportionment of wages according
to producing powers. Greater future wealth is
produced, and as the wages fall into the posses
sion of more capable men, they are more likely to
be well used, and to be partly added to capital
forthwith.
12, Employers and employed,—they who have
bought and they who have sold labour,—it will
be observed, are two classes much more distin
guishable than capitalists and labourers. In every
country where the industrial virtues flourish, and
in proportion as they flourish, labourers, except
ing the youngest, whose power of earning and
hence of saving is as yet undeveloped, are capi
talists. They lend their capitals because they
can earn more through wages and interest than
they see their way to earn by administering their
own capitals, either separately or in co-operation
with other capitalists. The savings banks alone,
with their deposits of more than £40,000,000, are
proofs apparent to everybody, and many more
might be produced, of the extent to which, in a
community still deplorably afflicted with ignor
ance and misconduct, labourers are capitalists.
The chart of life, and the sailing directions
which the young will take out of schools where
they receive this kind of instruction, points to
wealth as the reward of intelligence and good
conduct,—wages small at first, because producing
power is small, but growing with the growth of
the estimate formed of producing power. The
capable labourer does no damage to his less capa
ble fellow-labourer. He assists in the increase,
so urgently required, of future capital. If he
save, a portion of his wages becomes capital at
once, wherewith employers distribute more wages.
The incapable, he assists to support. Lessons
easy and pleasant to learn in schools become difficult and painful if deferred till those who never
learned such lessons begin to suffer from their
ignorance. To children who leave school with
correct chart and good sailing directions, with
capacity for using them and resolution to act
upon them, the world opens not as a scene of
storm and tempest,"in which shipwreck can with
difficulty be escaped, but as an arena for the exer
cise of industry, intelligence, and the other social
5
virtues, with probable success in the future, and
certain satisfaction from the performance of duty
in the present. Little comfort can be derived by
the victims of ignorance and vice from the know
ledge, if communicable to them, that their desti
tution and suffering are the consequences of
previous mistaken conduct. In the presence of
misery, it would be brutal, if possible, to trace to
the sufferers the causes, no longer removable, of
their sufferings.
Taking our leave of school days, we will accom
pany the young as they leave the schools in which
they had received instruction such as we have
faintly sketched. Four out of every five of them
will be more or less dependent for subsistence
upon the sale of their labour. They will rejoice
rather than complain that there are employers to
be found able and willing to buy their labour, and
able and willing to afford them opportunities of
increasing their powers of usefulness. They may
regret, if service satisfactory to themselves and
their friends is not easy to be found, that capital
and employers are not more abundant. They
will surely not murmur if employers, with capital
at command, are so much in want of labour that,
not waiting to be sought, they apply at the schools
to obtain recruits likely to be made efficient la
bourers and deserving of wages.
They have entered upon their industrial career
With the assistance of their friends they have
sought the best service accessible, in the estimate
of which neither prospective nor present advan
tages will have been overlooked. Some will be
less successful than others in the selection of the
employments offered to therm Employers also
will not always find the services which they have
hired worth the wages which they have bargained
to pay. Shiftings and re-engagements will be of
frequent occurrence. But in subsequent, as well
as in original engagements, there will be one
thought prevailing among employers and la
bourers. Each will wish to do the best for them
selves; and if their efforts in this direction are
made intelligently, they will also do the best for;
one another, the employers seeking labourers
whose labour will produce most in proportion to
the wages paid, and the labourers seeking em
ployers whose service is most likely to lead to
those industrial rewards of which immediate wages
are hut a part.
There is an incessant and, we may say, a
healthy activity of thought and effort for in
dividual and general advancement. It is felt
that there is room for improvement. Th era is
no denying that a very large number of people
are inadequately fed, clothed, and lodged; that
�6
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES.
they have no capital; and that, thrown entirely
upon the wages-fund for support, they obtain
wages insufficient for decent and wholesome liv
ing. It would be a sadder spectacle to see this
state of things contentedly and inertly put up
with, than even to be compelled to acknowledge
that efforts at amelioration were taking a wrong
^direction. In this country, happily, there is no
danger of such passive submission, on the part
either of the immediate sufferers, or of society in
general. But efforts at amelioration will probably
be not wholly either in the right or in the wrong
direction ; susceptible, therefore, of better direc
tion. And it is desirable that the young should
be prepared to form a correct judgment upon the
plans submitted to them for obtaining increase of
wages, and for bettering their condition in other
respects.
We may now ask the specific question whieh
we had in our thoughts at starting : How should
the young, instructed as we say they ought to be,
deal with proposals to them to unite in combina
tions and strikes ?
We mention combinations and strikes together
because they are so commonly brought to our
notice together. But we may dismiss “strikes”
in a few words, and without much ceremony.
Strikes are acknowledged by everybody to be
evils, and they are resorted to only, as many other
evils are, to avert greater—as the destruction of
buildings to check the spread of conflagration, as
a jettison to preserve from foundering, or as am
putation to save life. Because strikes bring to
our notice the existence of combinations, it must
not be forgotten that many combinations exist
keeping clear of strikes. And it is contended
that all might be so managed as to keep clear of
strikes.
We may be quite sure that when combinations
are formed, the prevailing wish must be to keep
clear of strikes. Strikes are no more intended by
labourers who combine, than indigestions by the
hungry who eat. Proposals, accordingly, will
be made to the young to unite in a combination
by itself, and not in conjunction with a strike in
vidiously tacked to it. But before they could
accede to any such proposal, they would wish to
understand what advantages might be reasonably
expected by them and their fellows, and what
ought not to be expected, if they would escape
disappointment.
They might begin by considering the probable
effect of a combination upon wages. It ’ would
not increase the wages-fund. It could not, there
fore, increase general wages. If it were to alter
the distribution of the wages-fund, it would only
do so by interfering with the efforts of employers
to distribute the wages-fund among labourers
according to their several producing powers.
But that would be to diminish future wealtre, and
hence to check the growth of the future wagesfund.
But might it not maintain a high level of wages
in particular branches of business, or raise the
level of wages previously felt to be too low? It
could only do this by excluding additional labourers from access to those branches, or by
bringing additional capital into them. But additional capital cannot be attracted into a business
except by the prospect of profit equal to or greater
than that seen to be obtainable elsewhere. And
with this prospect, capital would flow in, not in
consequence, but in spite of a combination which
prevents labourers from following or accompany
ing the capital to share in the advantages offered by
it. The forcible exclusion of labourers from par
ticular branches of business can only mean con
demnation of the labourers excluded, to lower
wages, in order to maintain or to raise the wages
of those in possession.
Combinations among labourers, so far as they
can influence wages, can only do so by preventing
that distribution of the wages-fund which would
be made by employers left uncontrolled in their
efforts to employ their capitals to the greatest ad
vantage. Combinations among labourers can
scarcely, then, be said to be so much against emplovers as against other labourers, since they
can only control employers by withholding from
labourers permission to be employed. If decrease
of production be the consequence, future wages
will decrease also.
It will not be lost sight of that employers strive
to distribute the wages-fund among labourers
according to their respective producing powers,
i. e. according to the estimate formed of their re
spective industrial virtues. If the authority of
employers be susperseded by that of a combina
tion of labourers, will they also wish to distribute
the wages-fund so as to reward and encourage
the industrial virtues ? If so, which of the two,
the employers or the labourers, are, from their
experience and position, more likely to form a
correct estimate of industrial merits ? If not, the
development of those qualities upon which the
happiness and progress of communities depend
would scarcely be promoted by combinations
among labourers.
One can conceive of a combination among
labourers in which attempts to encroach upon the
prerogative of employers should neither be made
nor contemplated. Its object might be to dis-
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�FROM THE TEACHER'S POINT OF VIEW.
countenance ill conduct, to contribute out of their
wages towards the maintenance of those tem
porarily incapacitated, to introduce promising
recruits, to find other employment for super
numeraries, to form their capitals into a joint
stock, or to add them to a joint stock already
formed. A combination of labourers thus directed
would be a co-operation of labourers with capi
talists, and also of capitalists with one another.
Combinations have been formed, we are not
sure that some are not in existence still, to ex
clude machinery, or new contrivances for making
labour more effective, from particular branches of
business. Our intelligent young people could not
possibly enter into a combination for such a purposa. They would not be misled by the com
plaint, that it was wished to supersede labour by
machinery. Their intellectual exerdises will have
brought to their notice, that language may be used
to conceal a fallacy, as well as to express a truth.
The spade, the plough, and the thrashing-machine
make labour more effective, they do not supersede
it. And the pumping-engine which drains a
mine, which, without it, must remain submerged,
makes labour possible where it was previously im
possible. To obstruct employers in their efforts
to make the labour which they purchase as re
munerative as possible, is to obstruct the growth
of the wages-fund, from which alone general im
provement in wages is to be expected.
There are, and will continue to be, epochs in
most branches of industry, when, from the flow of
capital faster than that of labourers into them,
wages will rise; and also when, from the flow of
capital faster than that of labourers out of them,
wages will fall. If combinations, by spreading
information and organising facilities, could expe
dite the influx and efflux of labourers, to make
them correspond with the movements of capital,
they would unquestionably be useful, by assisting
to diffuse the benefits anticipated from the altered
applications of capital, and to diminish the suffer
ing of those who were about to be abandoned by
the capital upon which they depend for wages.
But if combinations attempt to make labourers
refuse to accommodate themselves to the move
ments of capital, they can only succeed by exclud
ing some from opportunities for bettering their
(condition, and by condemning others to look on
and clamour for undiminished wages, and, per
haps, pine in want, while the tide of capital is
flowing towards other parts, to confer increased
wages upon those who choose to accompany it.
When the workmen of employers who remain to
the last in a declining branch of business, or who
persist in conducting it by means since surpassed
by others, are compelled to submit to lower wages,
can it be said with propriety that capital has
w triumphed” ?
If combinations be so much less capable than
they have been imagined to be, of improving the
condition of under-paid and over-worked labourers, \
is there, it may be asked, no escape for them from
their misery in the present, and no hope of re
dress in the future? Before attempting to an
swer that appeal, it may be observed that there
are few instances of misery so sad that they might
not be made much sadder, and few lots so dark
that they might not be made darker; and com
binations would rather work in those directions
or encourage hopes doomed to disappointment.
There are expressions familiar to us all, which,
whether manufactured on purpose, or diverted
from former uses, have helped to blind us to our
follies and mistakes.* Restrictions on trade were
recommended to us under the name of “protec
tion.” Persistence in error so long as our neigh
bours chose to go wrong, was advised under the
name of “reciprocity.” The free circulation of
capital between borrowers and lenders was long
prevented through fear of the “extortions of
usurers.” And now, combinations among work
men are recommended as bulwarks against the
“tyranny of capitalists.”
The young should leave our schools qualified
not only to use language to express their own
thoughts appropriately, but to detect the misuse
of language by which they might otherwise be
confounded and misled. A tyrant, they know, is
supposed to be an oppressor. When they make
* For specimens of this use of language see letters from Mr
Fawcett in the Times of 17th and 22d March 1865. Some mat
ters are referred to by Mr Fawcett upon which, although beyond
the scope of our text, we would gladly have a little more in
formation. Mr Fawcett, speaking of the labourer of the present
times, says:—
“ He hears our statesmen eloquently describing the vast in
crease in the nation’s wealth, and he does not find that his own
lot is perceptibly improved; mechanical inventions have caused
untold wealth to be created, and yet his hours of toil have not
been materially shortened ; he hears glowing descriptions of
the growth of this mighty metropolis, and at the same time he
knows that the home of the London working man is not more
comfortable, because, as new streets are opened and other im
provements are introduced, places where the labourers can
dwell are more and more restricted.”
Is it true that labourers have not been benefited by “ the vast
increase in the nation’s wealth,” and are less comfortably
lodged in this metropolis ? If these statements cannot be made
with truth of labourers in general, to which in particular will
they apply 1 and why have some been excluded from participa
tion in the blessings enjoyed by others ? If he will tell us what
becomes of the labourers who are refused admittance to, or dis
missed from, the establishments of such employers as Sir Fran
cis Crossley, and thriving co-operative societies, and why they,
in common with the crowds at our dock gates, are thus unfor
tunately situated, he will assist us, and perhaps himself also, to
the information of which we are in search.
�8
COMBINATIONS AND STRIKES
their first attempts to sellltheir^abour, they
scarcely believe themselves. ioB™n the look out
for tyrants. When they obtain an advance of
wages, they do not become conscious of any
tyranny. When some new employer, hearing of
their efficiency, offers them better wages than
their former employers [can afford to give, they do
not suspect the tyrant. W hen employers attract
labourers from districts where they are earning
ten jfflEnings a-weekf by the promise of twenty
shillings; or when enterprising labourers, unsoli
cited by others, quit places where they were
earning ten shillings and apply for employment
at twenty shillings, the acceptance of their ser
vices will not appear tyrannical to them, unwel
come and tyrannical as it may appear to other
labourers in the receipt of thirty shillings.
We have no thought of escaping criticism or
refutation by affirming, that the expositions which
we have attempted are consistent with “ the prin
ciples of political economy,” or are correct appli
cations of those principles. Principles of political
economy, in common with all other principles,
are liable to be misinterpreted and misapplied,
and we do not seek shelter, accordingly, behind
them. Nor shall we be greatly alarmed by those
who do no more than assert that we have sinned
against political economy. Calculations can be
verified, and the analysis of a compound can be
tested by experiment, without ostentatiously ap
pealing to “ the principles of arithmetic or che
mistry.” We beg that our estimate of the probable
influence of combinations upon wages and well
being may be examined by similar methods.
We doubt whether any political economist, master
of his subject, would find much to dissent from in
what we have written. If he would not, he
certainly ought to refrain from the use of such
expressions as “antagonism between capital and
labour,” the effect of which must be to make
truth and sound doctrine unpalatable.
We were told, on one occasion, when comment
ing, perhaps a little warmly, upon this mischievous
trifling with matters of life and death, that such
11 bosh" did ~ot deserve our attention. To this
we replied, it may be very well for you to despise
“ bosh,” but those who listen to bosh as if it were
sense may rush to their ruin, and those who talk
bosh will never know nor talk sense till they can
see through their own bosh.
.
The expression, “ antagonism between capital
and labour,” must have been invented to foster a
prejudice rather than to recommend a truth. We
might as well talk of the antagonism between
food and appetite, or between the shivering body
and clothes. Passing from capital and labour to
capitalists and labourers, they seem to us to be
more attracted towards, than repelled from, each
other. Their respective wants and means of sup
plying wants draw them together. Apart they
are powerless. Buyers and sellers, borrowers
and lenders, are similarly drawn towards each
other. The antagonism, if there be any, is be
tween capitalists and capitalists, labourers and
labourers, buyers and buyers, sellers and sellers,
borrowers and borrowers, lenders and lenders,
each contending for a common object, and appear
ing to frustrate those against whom they contend.
We will not close this paper without reminding
teachers, that the subjects which we have been
urging upon their attention cannot be left un
heeded by their pupils. They, at the close of
school-life, will be compelled to act. The alter
native before them is not action or inaction, but
judicious or injudicious action, the one leading
towards well-being, the other away from it.
Surely there is misery enough caused by wilful
misconduct, and by “ the ills which flesh is heir
to.” Its increase through ignorance is a reproach
to those by whom the ignorance might have been
prevented. It is more in sorrow than in anger
that we blame the courageous, enduring, and
energetic men, who are adding misery to misery
by their mistaken efforts to obtain relief. But
we cannot suppress our anger at the apathy of
those instructors of youth, who persist in a course
of instruction, the end of which is to leave their
pupils in ignorance upon matters, a knowledge of
which is indispensable to good self-guidance
well-being.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Combinations and strikes from the teacher's point of view
Creator
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Ellis, William
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publiction: London and Edinburgh
Collation: 8 p. ; 23 p.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Reprinted from 'The Museum and English Journal of Education'. Printed in double columns. Date in Roman numerals.
Publisher
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Thomas Nelson and Sons
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1865
Identifier
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G5620
Subject
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Education
Working conditions
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Combinations and strikes from the teacher's point of view), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Education
Political Economy
Strikes
Working Classes
-
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4ce1534d4af2d690b3b4c5d885ed9b86
PDF Text
Text
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
IN
SECONDARY FOUNDATION
SCHOOLS.
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT.
HE writer of the following brief remarks has been
impelled to commit them to print by the reflection
that whilst the propriety of allowing the Masters of
Primary Schools to give instruction in religion has for
the last two years formed a prominent subject of
national discussion, the objections which lie against
allowing or requiring the Head Masters of Secondary
Endowed Schools “to make provision, in conjunction
with the Governing Body,” for similar instruction, have
not, as far as he is aware, received adequate attention.
Under the system which at present obtains in the
Secondary Endowed Schools of England, a Head Master
of honesty and intelligence is evidently liable to find
himself in a dilemma of the following kind; either he
must teach the scholars (and whether he does so by
explicit inculcation or by the implication of reticence,
makes but little difference to the resiflt), at a peculiarly
impassionable age, that every detail of the Biblical nar
rative is truth unquestioned and unquestionable on pain
of offending God, and. the maxims of conduct therein
commended, of perfect morality; or he must acquaint
them with some at least of the conclusions to the con
trary established or advanced by modern criticism.
The first alternative, it will be admitted, is not only
very unfavourable to the teacher’s growth in accuracy
of thought on religious topics, and sensitiveness to the
responsibilities of his position, but involves the risk of
drawing the children of parents of broad and en
lightened religious opinions back into the terrifying
misapprehensions, to use no stronger word, which it cost
themselves possibly years of mental agony and painful
study to outgrow. The second alternative would most
assuredly involve him in contentions with the Governors
of the School and with parents of a narrow, unculti
vated, and, by consequence, intolerant type of ortho
doxy, whereby would be caused very probably the im
mediate decadence of the School, and, finally, the ruin
of the Head Master by dismissal where possible.
T
�2
Two courses are open by which the evils indicated
may be avoided. Either the curriculum of instruction
in these schools may be restricted to secular knowledge,
as is the case in the nascent Public Schools and Col
leges in New Zealand, among our colonies ; or the treat
ment of the text of the Bible may be conformed in
practice to that of the histories of Livy and Herodotus,
and the ethical treatises of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero,
the established conclusions and critical methods of
modern science and historical proof being no more
ignored, discredited, or suppressed in the case of the
one department of study than in that of the other.
It is to be feared that some time must yet elapse
before either of these two courses is introduced by legis
lative enactment into Secondary Endowed Schools. He
desires, therefore, to advocate the immediate establish
ment of a College of Secondary Education, on the Pro
prietary system, after the model of Cheltenham College,
in which the second of the courses defined above, which
is also the one which appears to him abstractedly the
best, may form the distinguishing feature.
He entertains the conviction that the number of
persons has enormously increased of late years, and is
daily increasing still more rapidly, who, so far from
desiring to see promoted in their children, by the in
struction given them in school, a retrogression in reli
gious conceptions from the standard of enlightenment
they have themselves attained, desire to see them aided
and encouraged in achieving and maintaining a like
moral enfranchisement. He is also of opinion that in
the foundation of a school of this kind is to be found
the remedy for the fact that whereas many of the most
able and the most ardent friends of religious enlighten
ment only achieve late in life the mental development
necessary to qualify them for a position in the ranks of
its adherents (perhaps but a few years before they are
removed from active service by death or the infirmities
of advancing years), the champions of obscurantism,
obstruction, and intolerance are recruited, owing to the
present system of Public School education, by the enlist
ment of each successive generation in its childhood.
PRINTED BY C. W. REYNELL, LITTLE PULTENEY STREET, HAYMARKET.
�
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Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Religious instruction in secondary foundation schools: how to deal with it
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London?]
Collation: 2 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by C.W. Reynell, Little Pulteney Street, London.
Publisher
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[Thomas Scott?]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[187-?]
Identifier
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G5536
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education
Religion
Creator
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[Unknown]
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Religious instruction in secondary foundation schools: how to deal with it), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
Education
Religious Education
-
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e8b3ed319e01ece73942cf575769712a
PDF Text
Text
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS
APPOINTED TO
INQUIRE
INTO
THE
CONDITION
OF
*
THE
PRINCIPAL
PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
fir
A PAPER READ AT THE MQNTHLY EVENING MEETING OF THE
COLLEGE OF PRECEPTORS, MAY 11th, 1864.
BY
W. B. HODGSON, Esq., LL.D., F.C.P.
“ Falsa est querela paueissimis hominibus vim percipiendi quae tradantur esse concessam; plerosque
vero laborem et tempora tarditate ingenii perdere. Nam contra plures reperias et faciles in excogitando,
et ad discendum promptos. Quippe id est homini naturale: ac sicut aves ad volatum, equi ad cursum, ad
saevitiam ferae gignuntur. ita nobis propria est mentis agitatio atque solertia; unde origo animi coelestis
creditur. Hebetes vero et indociles non magis secundum naturam hominis eduntur, quam prodigiosa cor
pora et monstris insignia : sed hi pauci admodum. Fuerit argumentum, quod in pueris elucet spes plurimorum: quae cum emoritur aetate, manifestum est non naturam defecisse, sed curam."—M. F. Quinctilian.
Inst. Orat. lib. 1. c. 1.
“ Those who, in their own minds, their health, or their fortunes, feel the cursed effects of a wrong
education, wonld do well to consider they cannot better make amends for what was amiss in themselves
than by preventing the same in their posterity.”—Bishop Berkeley, The Minute Philosopher, Dial. vii.§34.
“ An enormous sacrifice of time is made to the study of dead languages, and we ought to reap from them
a great and proportionate advantage.”—Rev. W. Sewell, M.A., “ Essay on the Cultivation of the Intellect
by the Study of Dead Languages.” Lond. 1820. p. 297.
“ I think that, from some cause or other, the success of the work has not been in proportion to the
pains bestowed upon it.”—Rev. E. Balston, Head-Master of Eton School, “ Report of Commissioners,”
vol. iii, p. 117.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
W. AYLOTT & SON, 8, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1864.
Price Sixpence.
�" In this progressive country, we neglect all that knowledge in which there is progress, to devote
ourselves to those branches in which we are scarcely, if at all, superior to our ancestors. In this
practical country, the knowledge of all that gives power over nature, is left to be picked up by chance on
a man’s way through life. In this religious country, the knowledge of God’s works forms no part of
the education of the people,—no part even of the accomplishments of a gentleman.”—Lord Ashburton,
Speech at a Meeting of Schoolmasters at Winchester, 16th Dec., 1853.
"It is a most important truth, and one which requires, at this day, to be most earnestly enforced,
that it is by the study of facts, whether relating to nature or to man, and not by any pretended cultiva
tion of the mind by poetry, oratory, and moral or critical dissertations, that the understandings of
mankind in general will be most improved, and their views of things rendered most accurate.”—Dr.
Arnold, in Thompson's “Hist, of Rom. Lit.” 1852. p. 379. (Encycl. Metrop)
" It . would indeed be wonderful if a study of the poet’s lines were of more value than the study of
those things that inspired them: and if the words of men had in them more spiritual nourishment than
the works of the Creator.”—Prof. Jas. Nicol, “ On the Study of Nat. Hist.” 1853. p. 30.
..." 0 necessario confessare che piil presto sia degno il subbietto che la lingua; perchO il subbietto
0 fine, e la lingua 0 mezzo.”—Lorenzo de’ Medici.
" For one man who is fitted for the study of words, fifty are fitted for the study of things, and were
intended to have a perpetual, simple, and religious delight in watching the processes, or admiring the
creatures, of the natural universe. Deprived of this source of pleasure, nothing is left to them but
ambition or dissipation; and the vices of the upper classes of Europe are, I believe, chiefly to be attributed
to this single cause.”—John Ruskin.
“ Our present system, on account of the preposterous manner in which it attempts, to exalt the old
learning, is a direct cause of its being unjustly neglected, decried, and undervalued.”—Rev. F. B. Zincke,
“ School of the Future.” 1852. p. 78.
“ When I considered the former days of my youth, and the years of affliction, which had been many;
when I was driven on circularly in Latin bondage, as a horse in a mill, continually moving, but making
no progress; or, as a Jonas in tne whale’s belly, making long voyages, but seeing nothing about me, ana
often threatened by hard task-masters, who made me serve with rigour; I did, in compliance with
the dictates of reason, and with my own inclinations, resolve that this boy should, from those mis
fortunes, reap some advantage, and gain some knowledge, by (what I apprehended to be) the mistakes
and blunders of other men.”—J. T. Phillips, Preceptor to his R. H. Prince William, Duke of Cumber
land, “ A Compendious Way of Teaching Ancient and Modern Languages'' &c. 3rd Ed. 1728. p. 57.
“ Je croyais avoir d6ja donnd assez de temps aux langues, et m6me aussi it la lecture des livres
anciens, et i leurs histoires, et h leurs fables; car c’est quasi le m6me de converser avec ceux des aut.res
siOcles que de voyager. Il est bon de savoir quelque chose des moeurs des divers peuples, afin de juger
des ndtres plus sainiement.......... Mais lorsqu’on emploie trop de temps h voyager, on devient enfin
stranger en son pays; et lorsqu’on est trop curieux des choses qui se pratiquaient aux siCcles passes, on
demeure fort ignorant de celles qui se pratiquent en celui-ci.”—Descartes, “ Discours de la Methode.”
1637. (Alas! more than 200 years ago!)
“ Il semble que nous devons accommoder nos dtudes fi l’dtat present de nos moeurs, et dtudier les
choses qui sont a’usage dans le monde, puisqu’on ne peut changer cet usage pour l’accommoder h l’ordre
de nos etudes.”—L’Abbe Fleury, “ Traite du Choix des Etudes.” 1685.
" Is it not more probable that the proper and legitimate means of training the intellect co-existed
with the intellect itself, not since the period of the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman empires, but
since the beginning of the world ?”—Angus Macpherson, “ English Education.” Glasgow. 1854.
"Am I wrong in believing that the tendencies of the age are in favour of decreasing, rather than in
creasing, the amount of time bestowed upon classical scholarship P”—Dr. R. G. Latham, “ On the Study
of Language.” 1855. p. 112.
“ The father of Montaigne has observed that the tedious time which we moderns employ in acquiring
the language of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which cost them nothing, is the principal reason why
we cannot arrive at that grandeur of soul and perfection of knowledge that was in them.... The ac
quirements of science may be termed the armour of the mind; but that armour would be worse than
useless, that cost us all we had, and left us nothing to defend.”—Rev. C. Colton, “ Latonf &c.
�ON THE
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS ON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The sight of this Report, in four bulky
volumes, which weigh above ten pounds
avoirdupois, may well serve instead of
preface. Its contents are far too ample
and too various to allow me to do more
than call attention to one of its many
aspects; and even so, all our time will be
too short. The Commission included in
its scope the nine following schools:—
Eton, Winchester, Westminster, the
Charterhouse, St. Paul’s, Merchant Tay
lors’, Harrow, Rugby, and Shrewsbury.
The inquiry was divided into three
parts :—“ The first relating to the pro
perty and income of the several schools;
the second, to the administration and
management of them; the third, to the
system and course of study pursued in
them, to the religious and moral training
of the boys, their discipline, and general
education.” (p. 1.) Of these three heads,
it is exclusively the third, and even that
by no means thoroughly, that I wish this
evening to treat; looking less to the reli
gious and moral training of the boys,
than to “ the system and course of study,”
and its ascertained results, especially in
that department of study which claims
the lion’s share of time and effort. My
comments may be best arranged under
three heads: 1st, The Report of the Com
missioners regarding results; 2nd, The
evidence on which it rests; 3rd, The re
commendations of the Commissioners.
It ought to be further explained, that,
besides the general Report and general
recommendations of the Commissioners,
there is given a full and elaborate Report
on each of the nine schools, with further
recommendations specially applicable to
each. I propose, however, to confine
myself entirely to the general Report and
general recommendations. It is impor
tant to bear this restriction in mind, be
cause it is difficult, perhaps impossible,
to avoid injustice in speaking collectively
of nine schools which differ from each
other in not a few respects. It may be
not unnatural, as it is certainly not un
common, to take, as the typical repre
sentative of all these schools, Eton, the
most richly endowed, the most nume
rously attended, the most aristocratic
(though also the most backward and in
efficient) of them all. But much that is
true of the plethoric Eton may be very
far from true, say, of the more sparedieted Shrewsbury, the eminence of
which, in spite of difficulties, is an in
structive fact. At the same time, any
B
�4
such unintentional and inevitable injus
tice belongs rather to the Commissioners
than to me. It is on them and their
authorities that I almost exclusively rely.
I. The Times (of 28th March, 1864) thus
condenses the Commissioners’ Report on
the actual working of the present system,
so far as relates to our present purpose;
and this resume will probably be accepted
as less prejudiced, and so more trust
worthy, than any that I could make.
“ In one word, we may say that they find
it to be a failure—a failure even if tested
by those better specimens, not exceeding one
third of the whole, who go up to the Univer
sities. Though a very large number of these
have literally nothing to show for the results
of their school-hours from childhood to man
hood, but a knowledge of Latin and Greek,
with a little English and arithmetic, we have
here the strongest testimony that their know
ledge of the former is most inaccurate, and
their knowledge of the latter contemptible.
A great deal is taught under these two heads,
but very little is learned under either. A
small proportion become brilliant composers
and finished scholars, if they do not manage
to pick up a good deal of information for
themselves; but the great multitude cannot
construe an easy author at sight, or write
Latin prose without glaring mistakes, or
answer simple questions in grammar, or get
through a problem in the first two books of
Euclid, or apply the higher rules of arith
metic. A great many, amounting to about a
third at Christ Church, and a fifth at Exeter
College, fail to pass the common Matricula
tion Examination. Not less than a fourth
are plucked for their Little-go, a most ele
mentary examination in the very subjects
which we have just mentioned; and of the
rest many are only enabled to pass by the
desperate exertions of College Tutors and
‘ coaches.’ We need not follow this class of
public school men through the remainder of
their University career, since the duty of
teaching has then devolved upon others; but
for their shortcomings at entrance the schools
are mainly responsible. Most of them, says
an Oxford tutor of great experience and
*
judgment, ‘are persons who were allowed
as boys to carry their idleness with them
from form to form, to work below their
powers, and merely to move with the crowd;
they are men of whom something might have
been made, but now it is too late ; they are
grossly ignorant, and have contracted slovenly
habits of mind.’”*
A few citations from the Report itself
will serve to test the general accuracy of
the resume just given. The Commis
sioners say (vol. i. p. 26):—
“From the evidence the following con
clusions appear to follow:—That boys who
ha/ve capacity and industry enough to work for
distinction, are, on the whole, well taught in
the article o£ classical scholarship, at the
public schools; but that they occasionally
show a want of accuracy in elementary
knowledge, either from not having been well
grounded, or from having been suffered to
forget what they have learned; that the
average of classical knowledge among young
men leaving school for college is low; that in
arithmetic and mathematics, in general in
formation, and in English,f the average is
lower still, but is improving; that of the time
spent at school by the generality of boys,
much is absolutely thrown away as regards
intellectual progress, either from ineffective
teaching, from the continued teaching of
subjects in which they cannot advance, or
from idleness, or from a combination of these
causes ; that in arithmetic and mathematics
the public schools are specially defective, and
that this observation is not confined to any
particular class of boys. It is impossible to
misapprehend the effect which this state of
things produces, and must produce, on the
studies of the Universities. In the case of
those who do not read for honours, at all
events, the work of the first two years is
simply school-work—work proper for the
upper forms of a large school. The usual
age of matriculation at Oxford (no record is
kept at Cambridge) is between 18 and 19.
* “ The system (of public schools) has pro
duced men most remarkable for their great public
utility and eminence; but on the other hand it
appears that after spending a great many years in
these educational institutions, the large mass come
out with a great knowledge of cricket, and a very
good knowledge of rowing, with only that sort of
Latin and Greek which is perfectly useless in after
life, and entirely destitute of mathematical, scien
tific elementary truth, a knowledge of history and
their own country, which it must be admitted are
desirable, if possible, to attain.’’—Earl Gran
ville, Chancellor of the University of London.
{Times, 12th May, 1864.)
t It must never be forgotten that one main ob
ject for which boys learn the dead languages is to
teach them to use their own. (Report, vol. i. p. 15.)
“The composition of Greek prose and Greek
verse is a poor substitute for the faculty of trans
lating such authors as Pindar and Thucydides flu
ently into elegant English.”—Rev. C. W. Sand
ford, M.A., Senior Censor of Christ Church,
* The Rev. James Riddell, Fellow and Tutor Master of Rugby from 1841 to 1847 ; in Report,
vol. ii. p. 11. 1864.
of Balliol College.
�5
Of 430 who matriculated in 1862, only 22, or
5 per cent., were below 18 years of age; while
209, or 49 per cent., had attained the age of
19. It follows that, with a great mass of
men, school education—and that education
one which barely enables them at last to con
strue a Latin and Greek book, poet and
orator, chosen by themselves, to master three
books of Euclid, and solve a problem in
quadratic equations—is prolonged to the age
of 20 or 21.”* (p. 24.)
“ Natural science, with such slight excep
tions as have been noticed, is practically ex
cluded from the education of the higher
classes in England. Education is, in this
respect, narrower than it was three centuries
ago; whilst science has prodigiously ex
tended her empire, has explored immense
tracts, divided them into provinces, intro
duced into them order and method, and made
them accessible to all. This exclusion is, in
our view, a plain defect and a great practical
evil. It narrows unduly and injuriously the
mental training of the young, and the know
ledge, interests, and pursuits of men in maturer life. Of the large number of men who
have little aptitude or taste for literature,
there are many who have an aptitude for
science, especially for science which deals,
not with abstractions, but with external and
sensible objects; how many such there are
can never be known, as long as the only edu
cation given at schools is purely literary ; but
that such cases are not rare or exceptional,
can hardly be doubted by any one who has
observed either boys or men. Nor would it
answer, were it true, to say that such persons
are sure to find their vocation, sooner or later.
But this is not true. We believe that many
pass through life without useful employment,
and without the wholesome interest of a
favourite study, for want of an early intro
duction to. one for which they are really fit.
It is not, however, for such cases only, that
an early introduction to natural science is
desirable. It is desirable surely, though not
necessary, for all educated men. Its value as
a means of opening the mind and disciplining
the faculties, is recognised by all who have
taken the trouble to acquire it, whether men
of business or of leisure. It quickens and
cultivates directly the faculty of observation,
which in very many persons lies almost
dormant through life, the power of accurate
and rapid generalisation, and the mental
habit of method and arrangement; it accus
toms young persons to trace the sequence of
* It is “beyond doubt that not one of these
nine schools sends as many as half of its boys to
the Universities, and that in the case of most of
them the proportion is much less than one-third.
These proportions should be borne in mind in
considering the fitness of the system of instruction
at these schools for the end in view.” (p. 27.)
cause and effect; it familiarises them with a
kind of reasoning which interests them, and
which they can promptly comprehend; and
it is, perhaps, the best corrective for that in
dolence which is the vice of half-awakened
minds, and which shrinks from any exertion
that is not, like an effort of memory, merely
mechanical. With sincere respect for the
opinions of the eminent schoolmasters who
differ from us in this matter, we are con
vinced that the introduction of the elements
of natural science into the regular course of
study is desirable, and we see no sufficient
reason to doubt that it is practicable.” (p. 32.)
The length of this citation will, I trust,
be justified by its almost inestimable im
portance. It exposes one of the most
striking omissions in ordinary school
teaching, especially of the richer classes—
an omission which not only is greatly to
be deplored on its own account, but
which goes far to frustrate the attempt
to teach even what is included. Vainly
can it be affirmed that natural science is
already taught in many of these schools.
It may figure in programmes; it may be
made the subject of an occasional lecture
during, probably, the intervals of time
assigned to play; but that it is systemati
cally taught, as other subjects are, and as
it must be if any good is to be effected, is
quite unproved. Better that it should
*
not be taught at all, than that it should
be so taught as to furnish an argument
against its admission into schools on a
reasonable footing.
“ It is clear that there are many boys
whose education can hardly be said to have
* Viscount Boringdon, when examined regard
ing Eton, thus replies:—“Lord Clarendon:—
‘ Natural science is, I believe, wholly unattended
to ?’—‘ Entirely.’ ‘ Occasionally there are lec
tures given ; a lecturer comes down from London,
and lectures on natural science ?’—‘ Yes.’ ‘ Are
they much attended to ?’—‘ Yes ; they are a good
deal attended to; it is with boys who have nothing
to do in the evening; once a week, boys, who have
nothing to do in the evenings, go there, but I do
not think they attend much to them; a certain
number do, but I think that most come a great
deal for making a row.’ ‘ Are the lectures gene
rally of a popular kind? are they good lectures ?’
—‘ Yes.’ ‘ Lecturers entitled to command atten
tion, which they do not get?’—‘ Certainly.’ ” (Vol.
iii. p. 257.) After this, can anything be more evi
dent than that physical science cannot be taught in
schools 1
B2
�6
begun till they enter, at the age of twelve or
thirteen, or even later, a school containing
several hundreds, where there can be com
paratively little of that individual teaching
which a very backward boy requires.” (p. 40.)
At first sight, this evil may seem to be
chargeable, not on the public schools, but
on the preparatory schools, or on the
parents, with whom the Commissioners
“ do not hesitate to say that the fault
chiefly rests.” But a strict entrance
examination, such as the Commissioners
themselves recommend, and such as it is
the duty, as well as the right and the
interest (rightly viewed) of the public
schools to institute, would very speedily
abate this grievance, which now aggra
vates, much more than it excuses, their
inefficiency.
.
It is the office of education,” say
the Commissioners, (p. 30,) “ not only to dis
cipline some of the faculties, but to awaken,
call out, and exercise them all, so far as this
can be usefully done, in boyhood ; to awaken
tastes that may be developed in after life; to
impart early habits of reading, thought, and
observation; and to furnish the mind with
such knowledge as is wanted at the outset of
life. A young man is not well educated—
and, indeed, not educated at all—who cannot
reason, or observe, or express himself easily
and correctly, and who is unable to bear his
part in cultivated society, from ignorance of
things which all who mix in it are assumed
to be acquainted with. He is not well edu
cated if all his information is shut up within
one narrow circle, and he has not been
taught, at least, that beyond what he has been
able to acquire lie great and varied fields of
knowledge, some of which he may afterwards
explore, if he has inclination and opportunity
to do so. The kind of knowledge which is
necessary or useful, and the best way of
exercising and disciplining the faculties (?),
must vary, of course, with the habits and re
quirements of the age and society in which his
life is to be spent.............. Hence, no system of
instruction can be framed which will not re
quire modification from time to time. The
highest and most useful office of education is
certainly to train and discipline; but it is
not the only office. And we cannot but re
mark that, whilst in the busy world too great
a value perhaps is sometimes set upon the
actual acquisition of knowledge, and too little
upon that mental discipline which enables
men to acquire and turn it to the best ac
count, there is also a tendency, which is the
very reverse of this, and which is among the
besetting temptations of the ablest school
masters ; and that if very superficial men may
be prodmeed by one of these infi/uences, very
ignorant men are sometimes produced by the
other.” (p. 30.)
“ If a youth, after four or five years spent
at school, quits it at 19, unable to construe an
easy bit of Latin or Greek without the help
of a Dictionary, or to write Latin grammati
cally, almost ignorant of geography and of
the history of his own country, unacquainted
with any modern language but his own, and
hardly competent to write English correctly,
to do a simple sum, or stumble through an
easy proposition of Euclid, a total stranger to
the laws which govern the physical world,
and to its structure, with an eye and hand
unpractised in drawing, and without knowing
a note of music, with an uncultivated mind,
and no taste for reading or observation, his
intellectual education must certainly be ac
counted a failure, though there may be no
fault to find with his principles, character, or
manners. We by no means intend to repre
sent this as a type of the ordinary product of
English public-school education; but speak
ing both from the evidence we have received
and from opportunities of observation open
to all, we must say that it is a type much
more common than it ought to be, making
ample allowance for the difficulties before re
ferred to, and that the proportion of failures
is, therefore, unduly large.......... The school
has absolute possession of the boy during four
or five years, the most valuable years of pupil
age, the time when the powers of apprehension
and memory are brightest, when the faculty
of observation is quick and lively, and he is
forming his acquaintance with the various
objects of knowledge. Something, surely,
may be done during that time in the way, not
of training alone, but of positive acquisition,
and the school is responsible for turning it to
the best account.” (p. 31.)
These passages may, and indeed must,
suffice to indicate the point of view from
which the Commissioners regard these
schools, the standard by which they try
their results, and the degree in which
their expectations have been fulfilled or
disappointed.
Before we proceed to cite a small part
of the evidence in support of these very
grave strictures, let me remind you, first,
that the Commissioners are not the ene
mies, but the friends, of the public-school
system—most of them, if not all, having
been themselves brought up under one or
other of its forms,—and that their purpose
is to amend, not to destroy; 2ndly, that
�these institutions are, for the most part,
richly endowed, venerable from their
antiquity and the associations with indi
vidual greatness which cling to their
very stones, and amply represented in
both houses of the Legislature, as in all
the upper walks of social life I 3rdly, that
their intimate connexion with the Church
renders them in reality a branch of the
great ecclesiastical organization of the
country; 4thly, that they are superin
tended, in the main, by the ablest and
most accomplished men whom, within
the limits of the Church, it is possible to
find; that the masters are, in general,
handsomely paid, and not unfrequently
exchange the ferule for the crozier, and
still more frequently retire from the tur
moil of the schoolroom to some not un
dignified church-living. The concur
rence of all these circumstances ought
surely to favour the development and
diffusion of the highest and widest cul
ture, if only the wit and the will existed,—
the wit to know in what true education
consists, and the will to carry this know
ledge into practical effect. Terribly deepseated must the evil be which goes so far
to, neutralize all these seemingly great
advantages, and to make the results of all
this vast mechanism so miserably meagre,'
on the admission of even its best friends!
II. The evidence on which the Com
missioners base their conclusions is too
extensive to permit, and too uniform to
require, many extracts here. The Rev.
C. W. Sandford, M.A., Senior Censor of
Christ Church, Oxford, thus writes:—
“ The head boys come well prepared from
school. The standard in our class examina
tions in classics is consequently high. This
is not affected by the state in which the
average boys come to the University. The
other studies may suffer in some degree...........
Some fifty or sixty young men matriculate at
Christ Church in the course of each year.
Of these perhaps ten will read for honours in
classics. Such men would be able to construe
with tolerable correctness a new passage from
any Latin or Greek author, translate a piece
of easy English prose into tolerable Latin,
and answer correctly simple grammatical
and etymological questions in Latin and
Greek. The other forty or fifty would not.
In fact, very few of those who are merely
candidates for matriculation can construe
with accuracy a piece from an author whom
they profess to have read. We never try
them in an unseen passage. It would be
useless to do so. They are usually examined
in Virg. JLn. I—V, and Homer, II. I—V.
But if they have not read Homer orVirgil, we
examine them in whatever authors they have
read last.... We do not test their knowledge
of ancient or modern history, or of geography,
at matriculation. We examine them in arith
metic, but not in Euclid or Algebra. Their
answers to the questions in arithmetic do not
encourage us to examine them in Euclid or
Algebra. We do not examine the candidates
in religious knowledge. But at the end of
every term the junior members of the house
are examined in some portion of the New
Testament. The answers written by the
mass of the men are not better than what we
might expect from the upper classes of our
parochial schools. Very few have that know
ledge of the Bible that a Christian gentleman
should have. Nor do many show a desire to
increase their knowledge. Of the 150 who
attend the divinity lectures, 20 will show that
they they have been well taught before en
tering the University.” (Vol. ii. pp. 10,11.)
The Rev. G. W. Sitchin, M.A., Junior
Censor of Christ Church, thus writes:—
“ The average men bring up but small re
sults of the training to which they have been
subjected for years. There is a general want
of accuracy in their work; even the rudi
mentary knowledge of grammar and Latin
prose writing is far less than it ought to be.
I fear that the elementary schools send the
little boys up to the public schools in a very
unprepared state, and that the public schools,
to a great extent, assume that the boys are
fairly grounded; which is not the case. The
only subjects which are professed at school,
and do not form part of our system of work,
are such rudimentary matters as English
composition, spelling, arithmetic, &c. In
these there seems to be considerable defi
ciency. The University course of teaching
is much hampered by the crude state of the
men subjected to it, and by the necessity of
supplementing the shortcomings of school
education. Our system becomes, for average
men, both narrow and vague. We feel that
the most we can do for men who come up de
ficient in knowledge of grammar, history,
language, &c., is to provide something for
them to do; the time for real progress seems,
in many cases, to be absolutely past. Men
whose abilities lead them towards other than
classical studies are much hindered from
their proper pursuits, and sometimes stopped
altogether, by that want of early accurate
�8
training, which shows itself at every step we
take in educating our men. Consequently,
it appears to me that the University is obliged
to spend much of her energies on matters
which do not belong to her. If one is of
opinion that eight to ten years spent chiefly
on the elements of Latin and Greek ought to
have been enough to secure a fair knowledge
of grammar, then one cannot help regretting
the weight which presses on us. But I am
aware that many think otherwise, consider
such a repetition of rudiments a good, and
call it a general education. As a matter of
fact, a couple of plays of Euripides, a little
Virgil, two books of Euclid, or the like, form
the occupation of a large part of our men
during their first university year; and I can
not consider this a satisfactory state of things,
especially as not a few fail in passing their
examination in these subjects. It should be
remembered that the best men, who go in for
scholarships, are taken without the ordinary
matriculation examination.... Of the ordinary
men, a quarter might possibly steer their way
through an unseen passage in Greek with
fair success. Bather a larger number might
manage an ordinary piece of Latin. Tolerable
Latin prose is very rare. Perhaps one piece
in four is free from bad blunders. A good
style is scarcely ever seen. The answers we
get to simple grammatical questions are very
inaccurate. In arithmetic they have im
proved, as it is now understood that they
cannot pass responsions without it. With a
matriculation examination, whose standard is
very low, and solely intended to prove that
men have a fair chance of afterwards passing
responsions, and with every wish to admit
men, we have still been obliged this year to
reject about one-third of the whole number
who have presented themselves. As to
average men, their exact knowledge of gram
mar, &c., is now tested by us ; whereas,
a few years ago, it was almost taken for
granted. This makes me diffident in express
ing an opinion about its improvement or
decay. On the whole, I am inclined to think
it has gone backwards, for I can easily ima
gine it better; it would be hard to conceive
it much worse.... We have a vast number of
young men from the upper forms of the
public schools, especially from Eton. On the
whole, their conduct is very satisfactory, and
I can imagine no men more pleasant to deal
with, had they had fair-play in respect of
their learning. As it is, they come to us
with very unawakened minds, and habits of
mental indolence and inaccuracy.” (Vol. ii.
pp. 11—13.)
“ I think that the education given at the
schools does not sufficiently prepare boys for
the University course. The boys are not
well grounded in the subjects to which most
of their time has been given, and on other
points less strictly academical their ignorance
is sometimes surprising. In fact, I am sorry
to say that many boys come to the University
from school knowing next to nothing. These
general remarks, of course, admit of very
many exceptions, as regards both schools and
individuals. The University course is much
affected by the ill-prepared state in which
the majority of the students come; and
instead of making progress, a few years ago
the University had to make its course com
mence with more elementary teaching, and
to insist on the rudiments of arithmetic, and
a more precise acquaintance with the ele
ments of grammar. Tutors felt that it was
degrading to both themselves and the Uni
versity to descend to such preliminary in
struction; but the necessity of the case
compelled them. Had reading and spelling
been included in the reforms of that day, it
would have been not without benefit to many
members of the University. I have some
times had to remind my brother examiners
and myself in the final examination for B.A.,
that we were not at liberty to pluck for bad
spelling, bad English, or worse writing. If
more of such elementary teaching were done
at school, the University course might be
both deepened and widened. Hitherto it has
seemed useless for the University to enlarge
her course to suit the tastes of men whose
minds have never been formed at all by any
methodical teaching, and who really cannot
be said to have any tastes.... It is difficult to
say what proportion of candidates for ma
triculation can translate a new passage of a
Latin or Greek author. At my own college
we consider such a test much too severe, the
college would be left half empty if it were
insisted on. The usual plan is to select a
passage from some book which they have
recently read. Perhaps eight out of twenty
candidates could translate a passage from an
easy author. (Of course I am speaking of
the ordinary students, not of candidates for
scholarships.) Rather more than this pro
portion, perhaps twelve out of twenty, would
write a piece of tolerable Latin prose, and do
a fair grammar paper. Of arithmetic and
mathematics few of them know anything
more than the amount insisted on by the
University, and many of them barely that;
the extent of their knowledge does not reach
beyond vulgar fractions and decimals. And
here I think that the schools are greatly to
be blamed.” (Vol. ii. pp. 16, 17.)
The Rev. W. Hedley, M.A., lately
The Rev. D. P. Chase, M.A., Principal
Fellow and Tutor of University College,
Oxford, and Public Examiner, thus of St. Mary Hall, and Tutor of Oriel
Collesze. thus writes:—
�9
“In my opinion, the previous education
given to those who enter the University does
not fulfil satisfactorily the purpose of ground
ing in the classical studies which they are
required to pursue. The result is, that the
minimum of attainment necessary for the
B.A. degree is far below what it might and
ought to be; while the difficulty which the
majority of passmen have in producing even
that minimum necessarily restricts and
narrows the course. Much of the teaching
given at the University is such as ought to
have been given at school. This, while it
tends to weary and disgust those who have
been better taught, precludes any higher
teaching of those who must be kept to school
boy work. ... I think that public-school boys,
when they are good, are better than any
others. They have a readiness in producing
what they know, and a polish in their pro
ductions, which are rarely found in others.
When they are bad, they are very bad. This
seems to me to prove that the public schools
have the power of giving the very best in
struction, while their circumstances are in
themselves an education; that all boys have
there an opportunity of being well taught,
but that on no boy is imposed the necessity
of learning.” (Vol. ii. pp. 17,18.)
preparation for the University course shown
by candidates for an ordinary matriculation,
that I am convinced either that the system of
teaching at the schools is radically faulty, or
(what is more probable) that little more can
be done in the matter of Latin and Greek
than is done, and that therefore some new
direction should be given to the studies
pursued in schools.” (Vol. ii. p. 20.)
The Rev. Arthur Faber, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of New College, thinks that
“in scholarship and mathematics the
public school system has a marked supe
riority over that of other schools;” and
that while “ the standard is undoubtedly
a low one, and might be raised with
advantage to the University, public school
education tends to qualify for a University
residence the great majority of boys.”
(Vol. ii. p. 21.)
The Rev. Bartholomew Price, M.A.,
Fellow of Pembroke College, and Sadlerian Professor of Natural Philosophy,
speaking “of mathematical instruction
The Rev. Henry Furneaux, M.A., and attainments in Oxford, so far as
Fellow and Tutor of Corpus Christi Oxford and the public schools act on each
College, thus writes:—
other,” thus writes:—
“ It may be fairly maintained, that the
schools from which the University is fed
either have not sufficiently grounded in
classics and mathematics a large number of
those whom they send us, or, as is very
commonly the case, have allowed them to
forget in the higher forms the groundwork
which was taught in the lower.” (Vol. ii.
p. 19.)
“I do observe a very marked difference
between young men coming to this University
from the great public schools, and from other
schools or from private tutors, as to their
mathematical attainments. The young men
from public schools are far worse prepared.
Whatever time they may have given to the
subject, it does not appear to me that they
have given that study and attention to it
The Rev. J. R. T. Eaton, Fellow and which has generally been so profitably be
stowed elsewhere.
Tutor of Merton College, thus writes:— the young men to be Assuming the ability of
equal, not only do I find
“ It has long been held among college tutors the attainments of those from other schools
that the late age (18—19) up to which young to be greater, but I find them to be better
men are retained at our public schools, grounded and to have learned the elements
before quitting them for the Universities, is more thoroughly and more carefully. Seldom
counterbalanced by no corresponding increase do I meet with young men from the public
in the amount of knowledge gained. In this, schools who know more than the bare ele
as in other points, the many are sacrificed to ments of mathematics; whereas others have
the few. While a really persevering and gone through a sound course of geometry,
intelligent youth is gaining fresh stores of which I take to be a most excellent dis
information, improving his powers of taste ciplinary exercise, and have often well studied
and composition, and grounding himself in the principles of the modern analytical
his knowledge with a view to competing for methods. This is frequently the case with
scholarships at the University, the bulk of young men who come from the Universities
young men at a public school are going back, sflid schools of Scotland, and from schools in
not progressing. They have reached an age England of the class just below the large
when the stricter discipline fitted to boys is public schools. . . . The junior scholarship has
losing its hold; they have no adequate motive never been gained by a young man from the
to engage their diligence. . . . On the whole,! great public schools. ... I cannot say that
I am so little satisfied with the amount of the knowledge of the young men who come
�to this University as ordinary Btudents
appears to me such as it might and ought to
be. Frequently arithmetic, one or two books
of Euclid, and a little algebra, usually no
farther than simple equations, is all that they
profess to have learned, and this amount is
generally known very imperfectly. During
the last four years I have become acquainted,
through the Oxford local examinations, with
the standard of knowledge of those subjects
possessed by boys belonging to the middle
class schools; and I find it, for extent and
accuracy, far superior to that which is ex
hibited by the candidates for matriculation
from public schools who come under my
notice. These latter can in many cases
scarcely apply the rules of arithmetic, and
generally egregiously fail in questions which
require a little independent thought and
common sense.”
The evidence from Cambridge, while less
extensive, is on the whole less strongly
conclusive than that from Oxford against
the public school system.
The Rev. J. B. Mayor, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of St. John’s College, thus
writes:—
for a ' pass’ is lowered, in consequence of the
numbers who fail to answer a fair proportion
of the questions proposed to them. For 18
years I have found employment in Cambridge
in supplementing, as a private tutor, the de
ficiencies of school education, and in teaching
the simplest rudiments of arithmetic, algebra,
and elementary mathematics, and in pre
paring in Latin and Greek candidates for the
previous examination and ordinary degree...
The greater part of my pupils are from
public schools, and I cannot but think that I
have to teach them nothing but what they
ought to have been thoroughly taught at
school. ... There is at Cambridge no matricu
lation examination except at Trinity College,
and there the Greek and Latin subjects are
fixed, and Latin prose composition is not re
quired ; yet I may call attention to the fact
that, for the last two years, rather more than
one-third of those who entered at Trinity
failed at the first entrance examination. With
regard to arithmetic, I can testify, from my
own experience, to the almost universal
ignorance of the simplest first principles of
the subject, and may state that at the pre
vious examination in October, 1862, there
were 86 decided failures in arithmetic and
algebra out of 260 candidates; while in the
examination for the ordinary degree in June,
1862, one examiner found in the translations
from the Greek author mistakes in spelling
in the papers of 91 candidates out of 161.
I think in Greek and Latin I find public
school boys generally more fluent, and as su
perficial as boys educated elsewhere, but
worse prepared in arithmetic and elementary
mathematics.” (Vol. ii. p. 30.)
“I think that the standard of University
teaching and of the University degree is
much lower than it should be, partly in con
sequence of the ignorance and backwardness
of the men who come to us from the schools.
.... My impression, after some years’ ex
perience as a lecturer and tutor at one of the
largest colleges of the University, is that not
more than two-thirds of those who come up
The last witness whom I shall cite is
for matriculation could construe an easy
passage from a Latin author, and not more the Very Rev. H. G. Liddell, who was
than one-third an easy passage from a Greek for nine years Head Master of West
author, which they had not seen before.
Probably about -the same proportion might be minster School, and who has been for
able to translate into Latin, and answer easy seven years (since 1855) Dean of Christ
philological questions. . . . My impression is Church, Oxford. Being examined by the
that more is known of ancient than of modern
history; but the majority are very ignorant Commissioners, he says:—
“ I think those boys are generally better
of both, as well as of geography.” (Vol. ii.
prepared who come from less fashionable
p.26.)
The large majority
The Rev. W. H. Girdleston, M.A., schools.... get from the great of the average
of boys I
public schools
Christ’s College, thus writes :—
are from Eton. I think the temptations to
“ I consider that the education generally idleness that exist there are greater than in
given at schools does not give a satisfactory other schools, and I suppose that is the
grounding in those subjects which form the reason of their being less well prepared.”
especial studies of this University, and that
Being asked, “ in regard to the average
the large majority of young men who enter number of public schools, what would be
into college show a very superficial knowledge
of Latin and Greek; while of English litera the qualifications of the boys; for in
ture, English history, and English composition, stance, can they write Latin, not ele
they are deplorably ignorant. ... It is a con gantly, but correctly, without gram
stant complaint of our University examiners,
that the mass of men are very badly ground matical mistakes P” he answers, “ No,
ed ; and often the standard of marks required generally not.”
The examiner, Mr.
�11
Vaughan, having said, “I need hardly
ask you whether they can write Greek
correctly ? ” Mr. Liddell answers, “ I
never tried them in Greek at the ma
triculation examination.” Being asked,
“ Can they, if a Greek author is put into
their hands, and they are allowed to read
it once over, construe a passage which,
does not contain words of very rare occur
rence, and no sentence of a very intricate
character P” he says:—
“‘I can best answer that question by
stating that in practice we are obliged to1
restrict ourselves to books that have been
prepared. I do not think we should get even
a tolerable translation of a book which they
had not read before.’... ‘ Not of any pas
sage ?’—‘ If you pointed out an easy passage
from Xenophon, in which there was not the
slightest difficulty, perhaps you might; but
you would have to select your passage with
great care; you could not open the book at
random and ask them to read a Greek pas
sage. We do not get it well done even in the
books that are prepared in a great many
cases. I am speaking of those who come up
merely to be matriculated — the average
boys.’... ‘ Now, I have asked you generally
with regard to the public schools. With
respect to Eton, can you tell what is the state
of classical attainments there ?’ .... ‘ With
these average boys it is very much what I
have stated. Their Latin prose is certainly
not elegant or scholarlike. It is exceedingly
bad. Even those boys who can construe
pretty fluently, when you come to probe
them in grammar, often fail to give satis
factory answers. They often fail even when
the question is put upon paper, and they have
plenty of time to think. Many of them bring
up the words misspelt in the grossest man
ner.’ ” (Vol. iii., p. 400.)
*
The evidence now quoted suggests
several reflections, of which I venture to
present a few in brief.
1st. Seeing that, in the main, “ clas* The case is not better in France. “ Il n’est
presque pas de jour qui n’apporte son temoignage
de la decadence des humanites scolaires chez vous.
L’autre semaine, je fus a la Sorbonne recommander
un candidat qui se presentait pour la deuxieme
fois aux epreuves du baccalaureat. Disant qu’aux
premieres epreuves sa version avait ete ‘ bonne,’
je fus vivement interrompu par le venerable examinateur: ‘ Dites passable,’ s’ecria-t-il; ‘jamais
nous n’en voyons une bonne 1 Et cependant cette
version est la deux-millieme environ que le candi
dat a mise sur le papier depuis le commencement
de ses etudes!’—Fred. Diibner, Reforme, life.
1862. p. 3.
sics” and mathematics, and especially
classics, are taught in these schools to the
grievous neglect, partial or total, of all
other subjects which are important either
from their practical utility or from their
educational influence, it might have been
some consolation, if not some compen
sation, to find that classics at least were
well taught and commonly learned. But
no! For the sake of classics, all other
subjects are more or less neglected; yet
even these do not seem to profit by the
monopoly so largely assigned, and so vigi
lantly guarded. This discovery is most
lamentable, yet most instructive. Just
as, in economics, a “ protected” manu
facture is always sickly,—so in education,
monopoly is fatal to the subject it would
encourage. It is only just to add, that it
is not to the public schools only, though
mainly, that this stricture applies.
2nd. In the light of such disclosures as
these, we can better understand the as
sault lately made on the education of the
poor, so far as it depends on state agency,
and the too successful attempt to restrict
it virtually within limits not long ago
believed to be too narrow for even the
poorest of the poor. Very revolutionary
indeed must have been the continuance
of a scheme of primary instruction which
should make the children of the humbler
classes superior in real intelligence and
available acquirements to those of the
richer and higher classes. “ Payment
according to results” — a cry so mis
chievously potent to curtail the instruc
tion of the former—may, with far greater
reason, be commended to the attention
of those who conduct the instruction of
the latter.
*
* According to .the last Report of the National
Society, “ The effect of the Revised Code has
been to increase the demand for reading-books,
copy-books, and slates, while that for books on
history, geography, and all higher branches, has
considerably diminished.” At the last Annual
Meeting of the Society, the Archbishop of Canter
bury said:—“In order to meet the diminished
contributions, it has been found necessary to give
up the employment of many skilled teachers. The
result has been, that mental teaching has not been
�12
3rd. It is sadly striking that too com
monly the school instruction of the rich
seems to be expected to begin at the very
age at which that of the poor is expected
to end, or at even a later age. Com
plaints have long been rife of the diffi
culty of retaining poor children at school
beyond the age of 10,11, or, at furthest,
12. Yet it seems that 12, and even 13, is
the age virtually often assigned for the
commencement of the actual teaching of
the children of the rich. The very years
in which for the former all must be done,
are by the latter passed with nothing
done. Universities, condemned to mere
school work, throw the blame on the
schools, especially the public schools.
These schools pass on the charge to the
preparatory schools; and by these again
it is shifted to the parents, who, having
been themselves brought up in the old
school and college course, tread blindly
in the routine of custom. The vicious
circle is thus complete, and each party, if
even it desires a change, waits for the
so efficient as before. As to reading, writing, and
arithmetic, that has been in no way affected ; but
in regard to history, geography, and general infor
mation, the demand for that description of know
ledge has been diminished. He was, therefore,
afraid that less general information would be given
in the schools than before the new Code was esta
blished.” (limes, 8th June, 1864.) “Mr. M.
Arnold observed that the new method of examina
tion did not afford Inspectors the same means of
drawing out the children, and of ascertaining
really what they could do, that was afforded under
the old system; and when he (Mr. Walter) lately
had an opportunity of seeing a school inspection,
it struck him forcibly that that was the case. If
it were not a breach of confidence, he might add
that the Inspector was very much of the same
opinion, and observed to him, that under the new
system of examination it was impossible to get at
the intelligence of the children, to ask them ques
tions which would draw out their minds and prove
what they really understood, so well as under the
old system of inspection. The children were re
quired to read a certain number of lines, to do a
sum, and write a copy; but as to putting any
question which would test their general knowledge
and understanding, nothing of the kind was at
tempted ; and when he (Mr. Walter) suggested
that such a course of examination might as well
be attempted, the answer was that there was no
time for it, and that it would be impossible to get
through the work if that system were pursued.”—
Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berkshire. (Times, 1st
July, 1864.)
others to set it on foot. The institution,
by the great public schools, of a standard
of preliminary qualification, and a rigo
rous adherence to it, may abate this cry
ing evil; but its removal can be effected
only by a thorough remodelling of the
course of private instruction. So long as
children are left in ignorance of those
studies most congenial to their age, and
forced to acquire what is unsuitable to
their mental condition, so long must the
work of early teaching be irksome in its
operation and barren in its result.
4th. These disclosures of the real re
sults of public school teaching lead me to
view with some surprise a recent jeremiad
by a gentleman of high educational name,
on the incompetency and untrustworthi
ness of private schools, with slight, if any,
exception. Ifthere are any private schools
the results of whose teaching are as de
plorably unsatisfactory as those now pro
ved to attend public school teaching, it is
indeed time that they should be “im
proved off the face of the earth;” and
probably this consummation would long
ago have been attained, had the public
schools, the great educational exemplars
of the nation, not neglected their duty,
and wasted their mighty power. The
better and, I believe, the larger class of
private school teachers will assuredly
welcome as an auxiliary, not dread as an
opposing force, any improvements in the
great public schools. Their hands would
thus be strengthened, and their aspira
tions raised. Though their labours may
be more obscure than those of public
school masters, they are not less zealous;
to them also are the names of Arnold,
Kennedy, and Temple treasured watch
words, rich in encouragement and guid
ance. But even if names like these were
less exceptional than they are, they would
but strengthen the case against a system
which, in spite of these, has been so sig
nally found wanting.
5th. It must not be forgotten, that the
results, whether for good or for evil, of
�13
6th. The Commissioners, in their gene
which we have seen in part the evidence,
concern almost exclusively those of the ral conclusion, after saying of the course
pupils who go up to the Universities. of study,
Of even these, say the Commissioners,
“ which appears to us sound and valuable
“ those from the highest forms of these in its main elements, but wanting in breadth
and flexibility,—defects which, in our judg
schools, who are on the whole well taught ment, destroy in many cases, and impair in
classical scholars, notoriously form a all, its value as an education of the mind;
small proportion of the boys who receive and which are made more prominent at the
present time by the extension of knowledge
a public school education. The great in various directions, and by the multiplied
mass of such boys expose themselves to requirements of modern life,”—and of the
no tests which they can possibly avoid.” organization and teaching, regarded not as to
its range, but as to its force and efficacy,—
(Vol. i. p. 23.) But, as we have already I “ we have been unable to resist the conclu
seen, the Commissioners declare that sion, that these schools, in very different
only about one third of the pupils of the degrees, are too indulgent to idleness, or
struggle ineffectually with it; and that they
public schools, “taking them altogether,” consequently send out a large proportion of
go into the Universities. “Not one of men of idle habits and empty and unculti
these nine schools sends as many as half vated minds,”— go on to say,—“ Of their disci
moral training we have been
of its boys to the Universities; and in pline andterms of high praise.” (Vol. i. able to
speak in
p. 55.)
the case of most of them the proportion
This estimate, which it would be pre
is much less than one half.” (Vol. i.
sumptuous in me formally to contradict,
p. 27.) If such is the mental condition
*
I think it would be not less credulous to
of the one-third who have had before
accept. When I remember the applause
them what ought to be the stimulus of
which almost everywhere greeted, some
farther training at the University, what
years ago, the melancholy revelations of
is likely to be the mental condition of the
“ Tom Brown,” I am very distrustful of
remaining two-thirds, who, on their leav
the general notion of the morality, whe
ing school, enter at once on the business
ther possible or desirable, among school
of life, or oxi some course of professional
boys. In the absence of more direct
training, for which the teaching at the
means of judging, I note the indications,
public schools is still less likely to have
casually given in the Commissioners’
formed a fitting preparation ? The Com
Report, of the moral state of Eton, less
missioners regret that the test, which
casually of that of Westminster. I fix
they proposed to apply, of “ a direct and
my eye on the idleness and mental va
simple examination of a certain propor
cuity admitted to be too common, and I
tion of the boys,” was “ declined by the
rest in the conviction, that idleness is the
schools.” In the absence of such or any
fruitful parent of vice, and that the devil
equivalent test, we are left to an inference
dances not more surely in the empty
of probability. Few perhaps will main
pocket than in the empty head. It is not
tain that, leaving out of view the prize
wonderful that in a country where suc
winners at Oxford and Cambridge, it is
cessive generations of the leaders of opi
only the stupid and ignorant who con
nion have been subject to the public school
tinue their training at the Universities;
regime, such as it used to be, the general
or even that they are inferior to the ma
standard of morals by which youth are
jority who do not enter at the Univer
tried should be as low as is undoubtedly
sities. If the selected sample fail, what the general estimate of what is possible
shall we say of the sack ?
to be learned in school, still more of the
* At Christmas, 1861, the nine schools con
tained 2696 boys between 8 and 19 years of age,
the average being about 15. (Vol. i. p. 11.)
influence of judicious school-training on
character and conduct in after life. The
“ Tom Brown” code of school ethics often
�14
reminds me of the Irish father who said
that of all his sons he liked his youngest
best, “ because,” said he, “ he never kicks
me when I’m down.” It is scarcely more
exacting, or more difficult to please.
III. Time permits only a very brief
notice of the general recommendations of
the Commissioners. They are given un
der thirty-two heads, but many of them
are beyond our present scope.
“ (7) In the selection of the masters, the
field of choice should in no case be confined
to persons educated at the school. (8) The
classical languages and literature should con
tinue to hold the principal place in the course
of study. (9) In addition to the study of
classics and to religious teaching, every boy
should be taught arithmetic and mathe
matics ; one modern language at least, which
should be either French or German; some
one branch at least of natural science, and
either drawing or music. Care should be
taken to ensure that the boys acquire a good
general knowledge of geography and of an
cient history, some acquaintance with modern
*
history, **
and a command of pure gram
matical English. . . . (11) The teaching of
natural science should, wherever practicable,
include two main branches—1, chemistry
and physics; 2, comparative physiology and
natural history, both animal and vegetable.
. • . . (13) Arrangements should be made
for allowing boys, after arriving at a certain
place in the school, and upon the request of
their parents or guardians, to drop some
portion of their classical work (for example,
Latin verse and Greek composition), in order
to devote more time to mathematics, modern
languages, or natural science; or, on the
other hand, to discontinue wholly or in part
natural science, modern languages, or mathe
matics, in order to give more time to classics
or some other study. . . . (16) The promo
tion of the boys from one classical form to
another, and the places assigned to them in
such promotion, should depend upon their
* The difference between the phrases, “ a good
general knowledge of ancient history,” and “ some
acquaintance with modern history,” is equally
significant and strange.—W. B. H.
** Young people should learn the contemporary
history in which they live, and of which they are a
'part. Vicksburg is as important as Saguntum ;
to follow Forey from the coast to Puebla (and
learn why if'e lent) is as exciting as accompany
ing Cortez ; and to know something of the history
and the sayings and the doings of those who would
like to govern us, is at lenst as important for
our youth of either sex, as to learn the consti
tution of the Roman legislature.”—Athenceum,
20th June, 1863.
progress, not only in classics and divinity,
but also in arithmetic and mathematics; and
likewise, in the case of those boys who are
studying modern languages or natural sci
ence, on their progress in those subjects re
spectively. (17) The scale of marks should
be so framed as to give substantial weight
and encouragement to the non-classical stu
*
dies. ....
“ (23) Every boy should be required, be
fore admission to the school, to pass an en
trance examination, and to show himself well
grounded for his age in classics and arith
metic, and in the elements of French and
German. (24) No boy should be promoted
from one form to another, on ground of seni
ority, unless he has passed a satisfactory
examination in the work of the form into
which he is to be promoted. (25) No boy
should be suffered to remain in the school
who fails to make reasonable progress in it.
.... (32) The Head Master should be re
quired to make an annual report to the Go
vernors on the state of the school, and this
report should be printed.” (Vol. i. pp. 53
—55.)
Without attempting to criticise these
recommendations in detail, I may say
that, in their general spirit and tendency,
they are a worthy sequel of a Report
which, admirably written, bears traces
everywhere of anxious yet calm and
patient deliberation, clear and impartial
judgment, and earnest desire to conci
liate the claims of the present, if not the
future, with respect for the past; to re
pair, enlarge, and adapt the existing sys
tem, not to destroy it and build afresh
upon its ruins. No one interested in
education can fail to find in its almost
every page ample material for reflection.
* The following scheme for the distribution of
the school or class lessons in a week is suggested
as furnishing a comparative scale (p. 34) ;—
1. Classics, with History and Divinity . 11
2. Arithmetic and Mathematics ... 3
3. French or German
.............................. 2
4. Natural Science................................... 2
5. Music or Drawing................................... 2
School Lessons, taking about an hour each, 20
“ It is here assumed that the school lessons take
about an hour each, and that they will be such as
to demand for preparation in the case of classics
10 additional hours, and in those of modern lan
guages and natural science respectively, at least
two additional hours, in the course of the week;
and that composition will demand about five
hours.” (In all 37 hours per week, out of 144, not
reckoning Sunday; 107 remaining for sleep, meals,
and exercise—say 18, or three-fourths, per day.)
�15
Nevertheless, while I cheerfully admit
that these suggestions go as far in the
right direction as could fairly be expected,
with due regard to either the inevitable
prepossessions of the Commissioners, or
the great practical difficulties with which
inveterate custom and neglect have per
plexed the question, I am very far from
thinking that they go to the root of the
evil, or do more than facilitate future
changes far more extensive than any now
possible, or perhaps safe. Progress, to
be sure, must be gradual; and sudden
and sweeping revolution is only less to be
dreaded than total immobility or torpor.
It was not to be expected that the Com
missioners should raise the question,
which, in spite of many well meant at
tempts to extend to the middle and lower
classes what are called the benefits of
public school training, is gradually for
cing itself on the public mind—whether
the system of separating boys from their
homes, and herding them in large num
bers in barrack-monasteries, away from
the blessed influences of the family, be
indeed the true ideal of education; and
whether the evil which exists to a smaller
extent in private boarding schools be not
magnified and intensified in the great
public schools. A judicious provision for
an exceptional and unfortunate necessity
is widely different from the advocacy of a
system as in itself the best that can be
even desired. This is a grave question,
which I must here only indicate, without
stopping to discuss.
But there is another question, only
less important, which the Commissioners
have tried to settle, and which I cannot
pass over. I belong to a large and everincreasing class of persons who, by ob
servation, reflection, and experience, are
led to believe the present system of clas
sical teaching to be a superstition, a
blunder, and a failure. Historically ex
plicable as a necessity of a bygone age,
its continuance in our day seems to me a
mischievous anachronism. Animated by
a deep sense of the value of Roman and
Greek literature, and of the good which
its study might effect under a wiser and
more natural method of instruction, and
truly grateful for the benefit I have my
self derived from it—dearly purchased as
it has been—I am not to be deterred
or dissuaded from uttering convictions
which I have long and carefully matured.
It is in the interest of classical instruc
tion itself that I would speak. Hitherto
neither the languages nor the literatures
of Greece or Rome have been in any
worthy sense learned by any but a very
minute fraction of the great mass of boys
who have spent eight, ten, and more of
the most precious years of their lives in
the wearisome drudgery which ancestral
wisdom has decided to be the inseparable
accompaniment, and even the indispen
sable instrument, of this kind of learn
ing. Hitherto even the few, with rare
exceptions, know little, while the many
know nothing, of what they are seeming
to learn; the training, thus practically
null in respect of knowledge, has done,
and is doing, much to foster habits of
idleness, distate, and incapacity for men
tal exertion, obtuseness, and confusion of
mind; and lastly, while these subjects
are not learned, other subjects, more con
genial to youthful faculty and taste, as
well as more practically useful in after
life, and at the same time better fitted as
educational agents, are, for the sake of
these, not taught. “ If,” says the Times
(28th April, 1864), “ we had any reason
to believe that Latin and Greek had been
displaced by French, or geography, or
music, or the elements of natural science,
we might, at any rate, feel that we had
gained something in place of what we
had lost.” But no! Just as a great Ger
man philosopher is reported to have said
that only one man living understood his
system, and he didn’t; so boys learn only
Latin and Greek, and these they do not
learn. Yet singular, almost incredible
is the indifferent levity with which this
�16
admitted result is tolerated, even by those
who profess to regret it, and to wish it
changed. Only the other day, this same
Times said (7th May, 1864):—
“ If you despise an accomplishment, you
may live to want it. Indeed, there are few
men who do not confess, some time or other,
that they would give a good deal to be able
to learn what they could have learnt easily in
their youth. It is very common to see gentle
men long past the freshness of youth making
violent efforts to learn music, chymistry, geo
logy, botany, and a good many other things.
At a much earlier date, a young gentleman,
having by great interest got his name on the
Foreign-office, finds himself condemned to a
French master for a twelvemonth before he
can get an appointment; or he travels, and
finds an impassable gulf between himself and
every human being who cannot speak Eng
lish. He may even become painfully con
scious of a much more serious defect, in a
total ignorance of English literature, down to
the composition of a sentence, the wording of
a note, or the spelling of words in common
use. He may expose himself to those with
whom he has every reason to stand well. He
may hear conversations about the incidents
of war or history, in which he will find it wise
to avoid taking a part, lest his geography
should be found wanting. On these occasions
the strongest conviction that he can write
Latin hexameters better than any of the com
pany will hardly sustain self-respect under
the detection of profound geographical or his
torical ignorance. These, however, a/re only
inconveniences; and, to the sound English
reason, are trifles compared with the disci
pline of the mind. But even in that point of
view, all these accomplishments—and we must
add to them mathematics—have their value
in giving breadth and elasticity to the intel
lect, besides that opportunity of change which
is necessary to many learners.”
All this admitted ignorance and inca
pacity are, it seems, “only inconveniences
—trifles compared with the discipline of
the mind.” But it occurs to ask, How
far are this ignorance and incapacity com
patible with the much-lauded discipline of
the mind; and would not the removal of
this very ignorance and incapacity, as the
Times itself admits in the very next sen
tence, do much to promote the discipline
of the mind ? Everywhere, and for ever,
do we find this unhappy and groundless
contrast between what is called, almost
with a sneer, “ useful knowledge,” and
mental discipline,— as if it were only
through useless knowledge, or stuff too
useless to be called knowledge, that men
tal discipline can be attained. Similarly
pernicious and baseless is the current pre
ference of what is acquired with toil and
pain to what is acquired with ease and
pleasure. * Of the body it is true that only
what food is taken with healthy appetite
can be healthfully digested, and converted
into blood and tissue; and so is it. with
the mind. Is it reasonable to believe that
utility and pleasure are inevitably di
vorced from educational influence, and
that the true value of learning lies in its
inutility and repulsiveness P f To classical
teaching I utterly refuse, in any case, the
monopoly of mental (discipline; and in the
case of those who never get beyond the
grammatical and verbal ’husks, I contend
that the mental influence is, to the young,
for evil, not for good. But the advocate
of the prevailing system, if driven from
the defence of mental discipline, shelters
himself behind other screens, such as
physical training, geni/us loci, influence of
numbers, esprit de corps, advantage of as
sociation with youths of rank and breed
ing. Of none of these things do I need
or wish to speak disparagingly; though,
as regards the last, it does strike me as
strange that those who spurn utility in
the matter of young men’s learning should
lay stress upon utility of a much lower
kind in the associations that they form.
But all these things are quite irrelevant,
unless it can be shown that a change of
subjects and mode of teaching would be
fatal to their existence. Would boys be
less addicted to football, cricket, and boat
ing, if they ceased to be ignoramuses P
Would the influence of numbers, and of
the rivalry which “ develops the manly
*
fllaiov ovSev ep.p.eves /J.d9np.a.—P:LA.TO.
t “ How stupidly wrong are they who speak' of
the dryness of study. And how marvellously sa
gacious were the fathers of the Latin language who
gave to the word studium the double meaning,
study and desire."—W. P. Scargill, Essays,
&c., p. 373. 1857.
�17
English character,” so much admired, we
are told, and envied by continental na
tions, perish if boys were taught what
interests, not disgusts, them, and what it
is of the utmost importance for their own
and for others’ sakes that they should
know ? If not, then away with such
flimsy pretexts, which do but thinly veil
an obstinate resistance to educational im
provement ! If I complain of scarcity and
badness of food, is it any answer to tell
me that the air is very pure, and the
prospect exquisitely fine. I rejoin, “ Give
me better food, and more of .it, and I will
better appreciate the purity of the air and
the loveliness of the prospect.” I remem
ber an advertisement of a vacant curacy
in one of the Southern counties, which is
scarcely a burlesque on this mode of rea
soning. It ended thus,—“ The salary is
small, but the sea-bathing is excellent.”
The learning is small (for, as Mr. Glad
stone says—
“ Boys learn but little here below,
And learn that little ill,”)—
things which need not be its substitutes
at all, but which ought to be its firm
allies and faithful friends. Even Mr.
Gladstone (who, in spite of his brilliant
and versatile talents, his rich and various
acquirements, is still a striking instance
of the defect which Mr. Faraday, in his
evidence, points out in men classically
*
trained) speaks, in his letter to the Com
missioners, of “ the low utilitarian argu
ment in matter of education, for giving it
what is termed a practical direction;” and
declares it to be “ so plausible, that we
may on the whole be thankful that the
instincts of the country have resisted what
in argument it has been ill able to con
fute.” In some amazement I turn up the
word imstinct in Johnson’s Dictionary; it
is there defined: “ Desire or aversion act
ing in the mind without the intervention
of reason or deliberation; the power de
termining the will of brutes.” I will not
ask whether instincts may be acquired, or
are necessarily innate. But never before,
probably, was so singular a duty assigned
to instinct as that of judging of the com
parative value of rival methods of school
training. Falstaff indeed says,—“ Beware
instinct. The lion will not touch the true
prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was
a coward on instinct.” To be an educa
tionist on instinct, and by instinct to
recognize the true system of education,
is a feat so remarkable, that I can hardly
believe it to be within the capacity of any
one man, much less of a whole nation. Is
it not, besides, the very business of reason
to lessen the exclusive domain of instinct,
and to guide instinct, where it does not
take its place? Mr. Gladstone’s recent
speech in the House of Commons presents
many subjects for remark; but time per
mits me to say here only that when he
charges the ineffectiveness of school
teaching on the “ luxury and self-indul
gence ” in which we live, and “ the laxity
which is essentially connected with the
but the cricket is excellent. If physical
exercise and amusement (for which, by the
way, I have long and earnestly pleaded)
are indeed the leading purpose of our
great schools,—and it would seem that at
Eton they absorb a very large proportion
of the school-life,—then let the fact be
avowed and acted on: cedat armis toga;
let the gown give place to bat, ball, and
wickets ; let cricket be promoted, vice
classics superseded, and let the HeadMastership be transferred to that vir
ca/ndidatus, Mr. Lillywhite, or the clas
sically denominated Mr. Julius Caesar.
Possibly, however, if cricket were made
compulsory and primary, and classics op
tional and secondary, we should have less
of the former and more of the latter, and
the change might be fatal to the very
supremacy of the physical training which
it was intended to promote. But, seri
ously, it is deplorable to see how parents
suffer themselves to be hoodwinked by the * See Frazer’s Magazine for February, 1864,
substitution for sound mental culture of p. 156.
�18
signal prosperity and wealth of the coun
try,” he virtually, though unconsciously,
passes the severest censure on those great
capitals of education, in which generation
after generation of our richer upper classes
have been allowed to grow up without any
guidance whatever as to the true duties,
any more than as to the true sources, of
wealth. But here is involved a conception
of youthful training which as yet has
dawned on only a very few minds, and of
which the Commissioners, unlike those
who reported not long ago on the state of
English primary schools, seem never to
have even heard. For aught they appear
to know, the successful attempts made,
for some years past, in and near this city,
to convey to poorer children knowledge
and training in this most vital subject,
embracing as it does all our economic and
other social relations, and full of interest
and instruction for both rich and poor,
might as well have been made in Nova
Zembla. The rising sun of education, un
like the physical sun, would seem to touch
first with his beams the lowly valley, and
then, through mist and cloud, slowly to
climb to the hill-tops.
This omission in the Commissioners’
Report detracts largely, in my opinion,
from its value. But I trust I am duly
grateful for what I find. The two great
wedges—Natural Science and Modern
*
Languages —which are destined, sooner
or later, to rend asunder the present sys
tem, have, at all events, received a vigorous
impulse which will not be lost. No vis
inertias can for ever prevail against testi
mony so clear and so emphatic as that
of Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Hooker, Professor
Owen, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Her
schel, Professor Faraday, and others,f to
the value of Natural Science, not for pur* “ The interchange of ideas with the contem
poraneous world is of as much importance as the
preservation of the ideas of the past; and the
tongues which men now speak are those which
men should learn to understand.’’—Sir Robert
Kane, 1849.
f I regret that Professor Tyndal and Drs. Lankester and Lyon Playfair were not examined.
poses of “ low practical utility,” but as an
instrument of mental discipline.
Meantime, it is cheering to have a
statement like the following from so emi
nent an authority as the Rev. Dr. Morti
mer, Head Master of the City of London
School:—
“It is my opinion, founded on very con
siderable experience, that the limited time
given to classics, in comparison with other
public schools, is fully made up by the in
creased mental power obtained by an ac
quaintance with many other subjects. At all
events, it is a fact, that the university career
of pupils of the City of London School is emi
nently successful; and the reason seems to
be, that from being early trained to take up
several different subjects of study, they ac
quire the faculty of readily adapting them
selves to the work set before them, and bring
to it a large amount of collateral information.”
(Vol. ii. p. 580.) *
Other evidence to alike effect might be
quoted. (See Vol. ii. p. 17.)
Still more encouraging is the declara
tion of Charles Neate, Esq., M.A., Fellow
of Oriel College, Oxford:—
“We cannot go on for-ever learning all that
our ancestors learned 300 years ago, and all
* “ It is generally agreed that the greater at
tention now given at most schools to mathematics,
history, and modern languages, whilst it has ad
vanced those subjects, and proved beneficial by
enlarging and stimulating the mind, has not in
jured scholarship.”—Report, vol. i. p. 25.
“We collect from the evidence that, speaking
generally (there are not a few exceptions), boys
who succeed in classics succeed also in mathematics
and in modern languages. This shows that, ordi
narily, any boy of good capacity may with advan
tage study each of these subjects, and may study
them all together.”—Report, vol. i. p. 16.
“As an almost invariable rule, the men who do
best in outlying subjects also do best in scholar
ship. Men of great intelligence will naturally be
greedy of all learning; and there is something,
too, in the awakening of a boy’s mind, even if he
is not of high ability, which far more than pays for
the outlay of time and energy.”—Rev. G. W.
Kitchin, M.A., Junior Censor of Christ Church,
Oxford.Report, vol. ii. p. 12.
“ During the years that I was at Rugby, from
1841 to 1847, the knowledge of mathematics and
modern languages advanced. Special masters
were appointed to teach those subjects. Sctiolarship during the same time advanced. Mathema
tics, history and geography, and modern languages
should certainly be taught at school. Nor need
scholarship suffer. The study of modern languages
would tend to improve, not to injure, scholarship.”
—Rev. C. W. Sandford, M.A., Senior Censor
of Christ-Church. Report, vol. ii. p. 11.
�19
that has grown up as new knowledge since
Of three plans which have been devised,
then. The time must come when we must and two of which are actually in operation
make a selection and a sacrifice. I think it
in various places in this and other coun
has come now.” (Vol. ii. p. 49.)
tries, for evading the ever-increasing dif
The great practical remedy suggested ficulties of the present system, this is, I
by Mr. Neate almost exactly coincides am convinced, by far the simplest, the
with what I have advocated for many most effective, and the one destined ulti
years. He proposes “that the learning mately to prevail. Against the other two
of either Latin or Greek should be post plans, whether that of having side by side,
poned till the age of 12 years [I would say in the same institution, a collegiate and a
14]; boys being up to that time taught non-collegiate department, or that called
their own language and one foreign lan in France “ bifurcation,” by which boys
guage, together with something of the who have been taught together up to 14
literature of either; also arithmetic, some
and 15 diverge, some to the modern or
portion of natural history, and, of course,
non-collegiate, others to the ancient or
the facts of their own history; in all which
collegiate side of the school,—there are
those boys more especially that come from
very grave objections. On both the Com
public schools are almost incredibly igno
missioners report with caution rather than
rant.” (Vol. ii. p. 49.) If the age of 14
approval. The third plan, according to
were adopted, the course of instruction
which all boys up to the age of 14 should
up to that age would be, and ought to be,
be taught together all the subjects really
considerably enlarged. Mr. Neate goes
most important for them all to know,
on:—“ I believe a boy so prepared would
whatever their lot in life,—classics being
learn more Latin and Greek between the
reserved for those who should remain long
ages of 12 and 16, than he does now be
enough at school to profit by the study,
tween the ages of 10 and 18.” “ But in
order to ensure this, great improvements to learn, in his sense, to lose a little more time,
are needed in our methods of teaching.” to delay a little longer before we begin teaching
Latin and Greek.”
(Ibid.) This proposal, heretical as it may Reform," 1836, p. —Sir Thos. Wyse, “ Educa.
166.
appear, is supported by high and ample “ We are of opinion that the study of the
learned languages ought not to be commenced till
authority; but, not to stray too far from the higher functions of fancy and feeling begin to
the Report before us, I will quote only a stir, and a taste for literature and reading begins
short passage from a pamphlet, “ Oxford to bud in the soul."—Professor Blackie, 1842.
“ I must say that in fixing upon ten as the
Reform and Oxford Professors,” published earliest age [at which the study of Latin or Greek
in 1854, by H. Halford Vaughan, Esq., ought to begin], I am by no means convinced that
it is best to begin so young. Judging from several
M.A., one of the Commissioners, and then instances which have come under my own obser
Regius Professor of History in the Uni vation, I am strongly inclined to believe that
twelve, or even fourteen, would be a better period
versity of Oxford:—“I believe it might for commencing Latin.”—Dr. J. H. Jerrard,
possibly be found that we have hitherto formerly Classical Examiner in the London Uni
learned the classical languages painfully, versity. the idea ever been suggested, that the
“ Has
imperfectly, and unseasonably,—slowly public schools should take nearly all of classical
study on themselves [i. e., relieving the prepara
imbibing rules by rote and by the ear, be tory schools from it]; that they should at least
cause we learn them at an age too unripe give up an entrance examination in Greek, but
standard in
spelling,
for a rational appreciation of such abstract I require a higher French, whichreading,thus form
history, &c., and
might
propositions, and losing thereby great part one of the principal previous studies, and then
.............
of the discipline so much boasted in the would not be so much required afterwardsto public
In this case, our sons would not go on
course of acquisition.” (p. 30, note.)
*
schools with so much Latin and Greek; but I beL
| lieve they would have a far greater capacity for
* “ We begin too soon, and we begin the wrong classical studies, and pleasure in studying, than
way. Rousseau says that one of the great arts of they ever now have.”—Letter signed “ G.,’’ in
education is to know how to lose time. We ought Times, 12th May, 1864.
�20
whether they go on to a University or not, proved to be bad be thrown aside, and let
•—would render classical instruction at advantage be taken of the private school
once easier and more effective in three teacher’s greater freedom, of the greater
ways : 1st, By the reduced number of flexibility of his system, unhampered by
those who take part in it; 2nd, By their charters, and traditions, and long prestige,
greater age; 3rd, By the greater develop to adopt whatever changes may seem most'
ment of their intelligence, due to their accordant, not with the whim of the mo
previous training in subjects more level ment, but with the growing tendencies
Jo their juvenile capacities, and more con and necessities of modern life. The tu
genial to their tastes. This innovation quoque argument is very well as a retort
was, doubtless, too formidable to be con to one-sided.satirists; it is a poor excuse
sidered by the Commissioners; but their for inaction and-indifference to improveReport, valuable as it is, is not finally | ment. If, as is possible, a Commission be
conclusive, and their suggestions, in so appointed by Parliament for inquiry into
far as they may be adopted, will render the state of middle-class school-teaching,
the introduction of it easier hereafter. Any I trust that you will aid, not obstruct, its
one who has had the twofold experience investigations; that you will not close
of teaching to young pupils what they your doors against examination. You
learn willingly, and what they learn invita have, or ought to have, nothing to con
\ut aiunt) Minerva, and who is competent ceal. A good school, like a good house
to more than “gerund-grinding,” will wife, can never be caught en deshabille.
hail with gladness a change which will I for one do not fear the result. There
render his labour at once more pleasing cannot surely be many private school
masters who, under examination the most
and more efficient.
There are yet many things of which I rigorous, would rival the evasiveness, the
inconsistency, the narrowness, and the
should wish to speak,
“ Sed jam tempos equum fumantia solvere petulance displayed by the Rev. Head
colla.”
Master of Eton, or the humiliating want
In conclusion, let me hope that this of acquaintance with the moral evil per
Report will be of service to the large body vading his own school, and of power to
of private-school teachers who chiefly con put it down, revealed by the Rev. Head
stitute this College of Preceptors. Dis Master of Westminster. But a much
paraged and maligned as they too often higher level than all this would still be
are, they will not, I trust, rest satisfied in too low. To the progress now going on
the belief that, bad as private schools may in private middle-class schools, in schools
sometimes be, the large public schools for primary instruction of both sexes, and
have now been shown to be, most pro not least, in schools for girls of the middle
bably, much worse. Rather let warning and upper classes, much more than even
be taken from the signal and melancholy to the direct effect of such a revelation as
failure here set forth, all the more strik this, startling as it is, do I look for the
ingly because by friendly hands ; let the steady rise and swell of public opinion
causes of that failure be' anxiously consi which shall sweep away the accumulated
dered ; let all slavish copying of models abuses in our public schools.
London: Printed by C. F. Hodgson & Son, Gough Square, Fleet Street, E.C.
�
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On the report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the condition of the principal public schools: a paper read at the monthly evening meeting of the College of Preceptors, May 11th, 1864
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& 2-37 2-
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
PRICE TWOPENCE
THE
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
OF CHILDREN
BY THE LATE
Rev. JAMES CRANBROOK
(EDINBURGH)
[issued for the rationalist press association, ltd.]
London :
WATTS & CO.,
17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1908
��THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF
CHILDREN
Religion is only a form of feeling. This needs to be dis
tinctly understood, or else we shall blunder at every step we
take. But I feel I have no occasion to go into any very
elaborate proof of it, as most rational thinkers have become
familiar with the arguments on which it rests. They know
that religion is not the observance of forms and ceremonies,
inasmuch as men may observe all these most punctiliously
and yet be mere hypocrites and pretenders to the religious
life. Nor is religion the belief of certain creeds, inasmuch
as men have held parts of every kind of orthodoxy, and yet
been most atrociously impious. But, as it is generally
expressed, it is a state of the heart, of the feelings, a state
of faith, reverence, awe, love, dependence, or fear, according
to the character of the divine object presented to the mind.
No distinction can be more important than that of this
modern one between theology and religion. It is necessary
to the interpretation of all the religious history of the past,
and to all intelligent religious action in the present. Religion
is the feeling which arises when a divine object is presented
to the mind ; theology is the explanation the intellect gives
of that object, its nature, character, and relations, the analysis
of the feeling itself, and the exposition of the forms of expres
sion or worship to which the feeling gives rise. So that it is
quite clear that religion must precede theology in the order of
time; the thing analysed and explained, ?>., must come
before the analysis and explanation. And it is further clear
that religion and theology may exist quite independently of
3
�4
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
each other—i.e., the intellectual process which explains is
quite a different thing from the emotional state which seeks
for the explanation. A man may feel deeply, and yet, through
defect of intellect, be entirely without the theological know
ledge ; or he may through his power of intellect understand
the whole question of the theology, and yet seldom or never
in the faintest degree be the subject of the religious feeling.
Bearing in mind, then, these distinctions, what is it we are
inquiring into when we propose to ourselves the subject of
a child’s religious education ?
By religious education do we mean the education of that
feeling which arises upon the perception of a divine object?
or do we mean the analysis and ascertaining of the truths or
facts respecting the divine object of the feeling—z.e., theo
logy? or do we mean both the education of the feeling and
of the intellectual process of its interpretation ? Now, if I
mistake not, the popular idea of religious education is wholly
limited to the second meaning—z.e., the learning of theology.
Hence, e.g\, you will see in the prospectuses of various
schools a long rigmarole about the great importance they
attach to religious education, and the pains they give to it ;
and then, when you come to look into the processes by which
they carry on this important work, you will find that it often
happens that the sole effort they make in this direction with
one class for a whole year is to instruct their pupils in the
question of the Christian evidences 1 Now, I admit to the
fullest extent the great importance of this question. It is
one of the great questions of the day. In matters of theo
logy, it is the great question. But it is not a question of
religion. It is a question of historical criticism. And
historical criticism is a science of recent times, and requires
more learning, hard and dry study, power of acute and
accurate reasoning, and maturity of judgment than any other
science of the same class. To set children, therefore, to the
study of the Christian evidences, and then to call this
�THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
5
proceeding their religious education, seems to me as egregious
a piece of blundering as ever was perpetrated, and at the
same time proves what I said—that in popular estimation
religious education means, for the most part, education in
theology.
I do not mean to say, however, that there is no religious
education. On the contrary, there is a great deal of it,
Sometimes too much, and out of all proportion. But it is
carried on, and especially by pious mothers, without any
idea that it is education, and, consequently, without any
thought or system. The only thing called and attended to
as education consists of theological doctrines. But, in the
sense in which I speak of religious education, it is the first
of those I named—z’.e., the education of that feeling or those
feelings which arise upon the presentation to the mind of a
divine object, or, in other words, on the contemplation of the
mystery of the universe—the education of the feelings of
wonder, awe, reverence, love, and dependence. It is not
forming our minds to the study of theological truth. That
may be used as a means of religious education indirectly ;
and we may see thereafter that it is a means. But the
religious education itself is the development, direction, and
promotion of the growth of the religious feeling, the
purifying it from gross superstitions and sensual elements,
and rendering it elevated and elevating, pure and purifying,
noble and ennobling. Now, by what process is this to be
effected ? I have already alluded to the means generally
employed. Pious parents feel it their duty at the very
earliest period to begin with teaching their children theology—
notions respecting God, the soul, eternity—and in instructing
them in the feelings they ought to cherish with regard to
these objects. As soon as they can lisp, they teach them to
say prayers ; as soon as they can repeat sentences like a
parrot, they teach them a catechism. Now, not only is this
most destructive to the intellect, by teaching the child to use
�6
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
words without a meaning, but it is creating in the child, so
far as it awakens religious feeling at all, a merely super
stitious religion founded on a false theology, which it will
afterwards have to correct. It is sad to reflect that in most
schools children receive to-day the same ideas in regard to
the universe and the destiny of man which their ancestors
entertained, and which are in direct contradiction to con
temporary knowledge.
Let us take as an illustration of what I mean the first two
questions of the simplest and the most generally used cate
chism for little children I know—Dr. Watts’s. I have known
it taught to children three years old, and, of course, before
they could read ; and have constantly heard it referred to as
the very model of a manual for the purpose. And most
certainly it represents the spirit—and very much of the letter
—of teaching children yet in their early years. It begins
with asking: “Can you tell me, child, who made you?”
The answer is: “The Great God who made heaven and
earth.” Now, here at the very outset are two notions
involving the most recondite and difficult ideas, which lie
utterly beyond a child’s comprehension. What idea can a
child have of God which is not utterly false ? Whatnotion
can the words convey but what is grossly superstitious? To
give the word “ God ” to a young child without explanation
is to teach him to use words without meaning—the greatest
curse of most people’s lives. To attempt to give him an
explanation is simply to call his creative fancy into play, by
means of which he will form for himself a most ridiculous
idol. If you awaken religion at all—i.e., feeling towards this
misconceived object, this idol—it will be a religion as super
stitious as ever was that of pagan nations. But then, in this
answer there is another notion besides that of God, and as
utterly incomprehensible to a child—that of a cosmogony—
the generation of a world, of the universe. What are you
going to say to a young child about God’s making the
�THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
7
heavens and the earth? Will you explain, supposing you
are able to do so? He could not comprehend. Would you
leave it unexplained, and let him form his own notions?
“ Oh,” you say ; “ who would think to teach a child your fine
scientific ideas ? I would leave him to the plain common
sense meaning of the words; every child knows what to make
means.” To be sure ! You are quite right. A child knows
what to make means, for he has seen your cook make pastry,
or he has made mud houses in the streets ; so he takes the
meaning of to make as thus learned—the only thing he can
do, according to the laws of thought—and applies the notion
to God’s making the heavens and the earth ! Is that, how
ever, the meaning you would have him take the words in ?
Do you think such a notion will produce in him any deep
religion—that is, reverence, wonder, love, dependence upon
him who has done for the heavens and the earth what the
child knows he has done for the mud house made in the
streets? It is all an absurdity together. If the child think
and feel about it at all, it will be false thought and feeling.
If he do not think and feel, he has learned to use words
without attending to the ideas they represent.
Let us now go on to the second question in the cate
chism, recollecting we quote it, not merely because it is very
generally used, but because it exactly expresses the spirit of
what is called “ religious ” education where it is not used.
That question is : “ What does this Great God do for you?”
“He keeps me from harm by night and by day, and is always
doing me good.” Now, the criticism upon this is very short
and very sharp. In the only sense in which a young child
could understand it, it is absolutely untrue. In the only
sense in which anybody could understand it, it is partially
untrue. God does not keep us from harm by night and by
day, and is not always doing us good. He sometimes lets
us get into a very great deal of harm, and sometimes does us
a great deal of evil. “Oh, but that is all for wise and
�8
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
gracious purposes.” But the catechism does not say so ;
and besides, whatever the purpose, harm is harm, evil is
evil ; and, in the sense of the catechism, God does not keep
us from the one and does inflict the other. What of truth
would there have been in the answer if those children who
lost their lives in the fire last week had repeated it before they
went to bed? “ He keeps me from harm by night and by day,
and is always doing me good ’’—and yet to wake up in the
agony of suffocation and a horrible death by fire ! “ Oh,
yes,” you say ; “ but those poor children may have been saved
from worse calamities by this premature death, agonising
and dreadful as it was.”
Ay ! but to die and go we know not where,
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
This sensible, warm motion to become
A kneaded clod........... ’tis too horrible !
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death.
But, indeed, all the poets might be quoted in the same strain,
showing that our human nature shrinks from death as the
greatest of earthly evils ; nor could any sophistry persuade
one that it were better to die the agonising death of those
children than to live on in poverty. What I say, therefore,
is that that catechism does not teach truth when it teaches
“God keeps us,” etc. He may have higher and wiser pur
poses to serve than we could comprehend; but in our mortal
state harm is constantly happening to us, and we constantly
suffer evil. If, therefore, the child’s religion be founded upon
such teaching, it will be an erring, blind, superstitious reli
gion. It will trust God for what it will not get, depend upon
him for what he will not do ; and the consequence will be, if
the child ever become thoughtful, he will have to abandon,
and perhaps with agonising conflicts and doubts, all you
have ever taught.
�THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
9
Having thus prepared the way, the next step generally
taken in the child’s religious education is to introduce a
catechism of a more theologically recondite character. It
may be taught at school or at home. But, with any notion
of religion, the idea of training a child in it at school,
surrounded by a large and restless class, and all the want of
seriousness which belongs to children’s nature, is simply
preposterous. It is the work of home ; of solitude, if pos
sible ; of quiet, if not sombre ; but certainly serious
circumstances. However, that is of no consequence now.
Let the education be conducted at home or at school, it is
generally most pernicious. The catechism most commonly
used in this country (Scotland) is, as everyone knows, the
Assembly’s. Now, I do not speak yet of the truth or untruth
of what it teaches—I speak of the capacity of the child to
comprehend. And I know of no thoughtful person who
would pretend that a boy or girl between eight and sixteen
could comprehend the doctrines, philosophical, metaphysical,
and theological, it contains. Again, I will pass over the
intellectual injury done by teaching a child to handle words
which convey to him no distinct or clear idea ; and I simply
ask, What is the result? It is obvious throughout society.
Children so taught are not even grounded in theology—they
are simply furnished with theological words ; they, therefore,
MS they advance in life, easily become indoctrinated with that
weak, watery, and illogical form of evangelicalism which has
become popular in our pulpits during recent years, and which
is infinitely more detestable than the stern, consistent, daring
Calvinism of the catechism. The last is the system of men
of strong, trained, logical minds ; the first is pure fanaticism.
But, even supposing a child could understand, what would
you have gained in the way of religious education? What
could the knowledge of some 500 (as I have heard say there
are) difficult questions of metaphysics, physics, philosophy,
and theology do towards developing in his nature the feelings
�IO
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
of reverence, wonder, love, and dependence? Does feeling
spring forth from metaphysics ; emotion from philosophy ;
love from theology? Divine humanity, how thy history
shudders at the thought I No, it is other things than dry,
intellectual propositions which inspire feeling, and so long
as you are occupying the mind with the propositions of the
catechism you are necessarily keeping the attention from
those other things. And then, when you add to these
considerations the utter falsehood of the theology of the
catechism, the gross and wicked representations it contains
of the character and government of God, and the pernicious
effect this, so far as it is understood and heartily believed,
must have upon the whole character, one is forced to conclude
that the so-called “ religious ” education of the masses of
children in this country is altogether irreligious, and one
continued misnomer and mistake.
There is one other catechism used, upon which I need
here only make but a passing remark. I refer to the
catechism of the Church of England, used in this country
also, I believe, by the Episcopalians. As an epitome of
theology, it is altogether deficient. It has the advantage,
however, of being entirely practical in the body of it, and,
therefore, immeasurably superior to the Assembly’s as a
manual for a child. But then, on the other hand, it begins
and ends with the monstrous notions about the sacraments
which place the system bound up with them on a level with
the magic of the rain-makers of South Africa. I would
rather, however, that children were taught this than to think
of God under the awfully malignant aspects in which he is
represented in the Assembly’s catechism. I have already
referred to the additions which are made to the religious (!)
education of children in some schools by instruction in the
evidences of Christianity, and in the same connection may
be mentioned what is called Bible history. I have shown
you that teaching the evidences is not teaching religion, but
�THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
ii
the application of the science of historical criticism, and that,
if it be done thoroughly, it requires a knowledge and a
development of faculties no child can possess. And how
Bible history could be thought specially connected with
religion one would be at a loss to imagine, if it were not
for that doctrine of inspiration which is now becoming
rejected by all the more advanced of even the orthodox
school. It is true that Bible history refers all events to the
immediate and direct management of God ; but so do all the
histories of people in their ancient, barbarous state. In the
early histories of Greece and Rome, e.g., the gods were
always interfering as much as in the early history of the
Hebrews, and if this fact constitutes the Bible history
religious, all ancient histories are religious. And then,
while I grant that certain forms of religious feeling may be
excited by some of the facts and events of Bible history, I
must add, they are superstitious and erroneous forms, mostly
connected with that doctrine of a special providence against
which the whole experience of mankind protests. I do not say
anything now about the intellectual mischief done by teaching
Bible history as it stands ; because it is not greater than that
done by teaching the events of the siege of Troy, the
wanderings of Ulysses, and the stories of Romulus and
Remus as true history, excepting, indeed, that the sacred
element mingled with the Bible history renders it more
difficult to discern the purely mythical character of the
narrative.
Well, then, when I consider what religion is, and what is
the formal and systematic education given to a child to culti
vate the religion, I am forced to conclude there is little of a
directly systematic religious character in it; and that what
little there is is of an erroneous character, only leading to
mischief. Parents and teachers substitute theology for reli
gion, and indoctrinate with a theology which I deem utterly
false. But I do not mean that children therefore get no
�12
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
religious education. Nature has been to them too bountiful
for that, and begins their education in religion almost as soon
as it is begun in knowledge. She surrounds the child from
its earliest days with objects calling forth its reverence,
wonder, love, dependence, worship, and thus gradually
prepares it for the devout recognition of God. Spontane
ously, Nature furnishes the child with all that is necessary
for the culture of its religious life for many years. First of
all, just as in the Book of Exodus Jehovah is represented as
saying to Moses, “ Lo! I have made thee God unto Pharaoh ”
—z.e., by the miracles he enabled him to work—so Nature
makes the parent God to the child through the miracles of
power, wisdom, and goodness which the parent seems to the
child to display. The parent, if of ordinary attainments and
character, stands up before the child as a mysterious source
of knowledge, wisdom, supply, protection, and happiness—
incomprehensible to it, and calling forth all its wonder and
faith, all its devotion and love, all its reverence and depen
dence. The word of the parent is infallible ; the action of
the parent is necessarily right. He has a seeming omni
potence about him, an irresistible will. What is there a little
child thinks his father cannot do? What is there his mother
does not know? For what of love will he not trust her
wholly? Yes, a little child has nothing greater he could
imagine to make a God out of than the parent. Nothing he
could imagine (seeing it would be but an imagination) could
by any means call forth half the depth and intensity of reli
gious feeling the parent calls forth. Practically the parent is
the young child’s God ; he knows no other, can know no
other; and no other, simply by the knowing, could do him
any good. And when the mother, in her ignorance, takes
him upon her knee and strives to make him understand
about the God she imagines, and is ready, perhaps, to burst
into tears because her efforts are so much in vain, all the
while great Nature is developing the child’s deepest and
�1
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
13
truest religious life through the trust and love awakened in
his heart by the light and love which pour into his soul from
her eyes. By and by, however, as the child’s intellectual
nature is developed, the perception dawns upon him that the
parent is not quite so powerful and wise as he had thought.
There are things he cannot do, things he does not know ;
trust gets disappointed, dependence is shaken. Then a
higher object becomes necessary to call forth the perfect
reverence and trust the parent can no longer do ; and,
generally, that object is found in the teacher. I would not
speak with the same certainty with respect to the teachers of
large schools as with regard to those in smaller ones, where
the connection between master and pupil is more intimate.
But in a well-ordered school a boy looks up with profound
reverence and trust to his master, and regards him for long
years as the very embodiment of wisdom and knowledge.
Here again, then, is the provision made in nature for the
direct culture of the religious nature of the child—not by
means of a dogma, but by bringing the mind into contact
with real objects, which necessarily excite those feelings in
the exercise of which religion consists. After a while, how
ever, even the teacher’s wisdom is found sometimes to fail,
and his knowledge to have its soundings. Then the sceptical
period in the child’s mind is renewed. There are, however,
other provisions as useful as these, which, at this later
period, come into more active operation — I refer to the
grander object of Nature herself, ever appearing more grand
and glorious as our knowledge extends. From early years
such objects make some impression on the child, and they
would do more if he had judicious parents to guide his eye
sight. But it is in after years, when science has interpreted
the laws, the order, the forces of these objects to him, that
they make the deepest impression and excite the deepest
reverence, adoration, wonder, and dependence. It is then
that inquiry leads to the perception of the grand and awful
�i4
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN .
mystery which surrounds the whole universe ; and the mind
takes refuge from its exhausting, fruitless questionings in the
conception of an infinite, efficient, conscious force working in
all and by all. It is at this point religion and theology
mingle, and the latter becomes of any practical service to
the former. For when the active intellect has begun seriously
to inquire into the nature and origin of those deep feelings
which the great objects of the universe, its order, its mystery,
excite, its answers react upon these feelings according to the
attributes with which the answers clothe its conception of that
infinite, efficient Force into which it resolves the whole. If
that force be dealt with subjectively, and so have ascribed to it
human qualities and affections, there results an imagined
object which excites many other feelings besides those of
reverence, wonder, love, and dependence, and which may
degenerate into the lowest forms of superstition to which man
is liable. But if it be dealt with objectively, then it remains
the sublimely generalised conception of all the forces in the
universe, and is known, worshipped, and adored only as it
manifests itself in man and the outer world.
Now, this being the only form in which I can think of
God, the course of the child’s religious education seems to
me very simple. It merely consists in leading him face to
face with those objects which excite religious feeling. First,
as parents, by the development of his own nature to the
highest, preserving his reverence, wonder, love, and depen
dence until the last moment—which is natural ; then, as
teachers, securing his devotion by the real resources of
wisdom and knowledge we have treasured up in ourselves ;
and then, finally, when both these fail—and even concur
rently with them—ever lead him forth to gaze upon those
wondrous objects of which physical nature is full, and those
not less wondrous characters and events of which the history
of humanity is full. And as he gazes and marvels, the
deepest feelings of his being will be stirred, and he will
�THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
i5
begin to wonder and adore. But wonder and adore what?
At first blindly, and simply instinctively. But if this happen
before his knowledge is matured, he will soon construct for
himself a fetish. It is yours to stand by, and, by means of
clear, intellectual light, beat down the fetish. And so, in the
whole course of his progress, you must help him to destroy
all the false gods he will create for himself whilst attempting
to solve that mystery of Nature which makes him feel so
deeply, until, at last, he come to rest on the only thought
which remains for this and the coming age—a God who is
the all-in-all, ever immanent in all that is, the one absolute
force ; unknown in himself and unknowable, but recognised
and felt in the forces and order of universal Nature. To sum
up, then, I say : Never attempt to give a God to a child until
the child’s nature asks for one. And then your work will be
more destructive than positive—-the destruction of his idols as
he forms them. Leave theology as much as possible alone
until he learns it in history. If, in the meanwhile, you would
have his religious life be growing, reverence, adoration,
wonder, love, and dependence becoming deeper and more
habitual, you must not create for him imaginary beings by
the play of the metaphysical fancy, but you must lead him
to whatever is great, sublime, glorious, and divine in this
universe. To that direct his eye steadily, and by the act you
will place him under the influence of all that has power to
‘ inspire a pure, religious life.
WATTS AND CO., PRINTERS, 17, JOHNSON*S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
��
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The religious education of children
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Cranbrook, James
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 p. ; 22 cm.
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Watts & Co.
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1908
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Education
Religion
Child rearing
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Children
Education
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Religious Education
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Text
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
AT EDINBURGH, APRIL 2nd, 1866 ;
BY
THOMAS CARLYLE,
ON BEING INSTALLED AS RECTOR OF THE
UNIVERSITY THERE.
[AUTHORIZED REPORT]
EDINBURGH: EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS.
LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL.
.1 8 6 6.
�ADDRESS.
Gentlemen,—I have accepted the office you have elected
me to, and it is now my duty to return thanks for the
great honour done me. Your enthusiasm towards me, I
must admit, is in itself very beautiful, however undeserved
it may be in regard to the object of it. It is a feeling hon
ourable to all men, and one well known to myself when I
was of an age like yours, nor is it yet quite gone. I
can only hope that, with you too, it may endure to the
end,—this noble desire to honour those whom you think
worthy of honour; and that you will come to be more
and more select and discriminate in the choice of the
object of it:—for I can well understand that you will
modify your opinions of me and of many things else,
as you go on. {Laughter and cheers?) It is now fifty-six
years, gone last November, since I first entered your City,
a boy of not quite fourteen; to ‘attend the classes’ here,
and gain knowledge of all kinds, I could little guess
what, my poor mind full of wonder and awe-struck ex
pectation ; and now, after a long course, this is what we
have come to. (Cheers?) There is something touching
�6
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
and tragic, and yet at the same time beautiful, to see, as
it were, the third generation of my dear old native land,
rising up and saying, “ Well, you are not altogether an
unworthy labourer in the vineyard; you have' toiled through
a great variety of fortunes, and have had many judges:
this is our judgment of you I” As the old proverb says,
‘ He that builds by the wayside has many masters.’ We
must expect a variety of judges; but the voice of young
Scotland, through you, is really of some value to me; and
I return you many thanks for it,—though I cannot go
into describing my emotions to you, and perhaps they
will be much more perfectly conceivable if expressed in
silence. (Cheers.)
When this office was first proposed to me, some of you
know I was not very ambitious to accept it, but had my
doubts rather. I was taught to believe that there were
certain more or less important duties which would lie
in my power. This, I confess, was my chief motive in
going into it, and overcoming the objections I felt to
such things: if I could do anything to serve my dear
old Alma Mater and you, why should not I ? (Loud
cheers.) Well, but on practically looking into the matter
when the office actually came into my hands, I find it
grows more and more uncertain and abstruse to me whether
there is much real duty that I can do at all. I live four
hundred miles away from you, in an entirely different
scene of things; and my weak health, with the burden
of the many years now accumulating on me, and my total
unacquaintance with such subjects as concern your affairs
here,—all this fills me with apprehension that there is
�EXTEMPORE.
7
really nothing worth the least consideration that I can do
on that score. You may depend on it, however, that if
any such duty does arise in any form, I will use my most
faithful endeavour to do in it whatever is right and proper,
according to the best of my judgment. (Cheers.)
Meanwhile, the duty I at present have,—which might
be very pleasant, but which is not quite so, for reasons you
may fancy,—is to address some words to you, if possible
not quite useless, nor incongruous to the occasion, and on
subjects more or less cognate to the pursuits you are
engaged in. Accordingly, I mean to offer you some loose
observations, loose in point of order, but the truest I have,
in such form as they may present themselves; certain
of the thoughts that are in me about the business you
are here engaged in, what kind of race it is that you
young gentlemen have started on, and what sort of arena
you are likely to find in this world. I ought, I believe,
according to custom, to have written all that down on
paper, and had it read out. That would have been much
handier for me at the present moment—(A laugh);—
but, on attempting the thing, I found I was not used
to write speeches, and that I didn’t get on very well.
So I flung that aside; and could only resolve to trust, in
all superficial respects, to the suggestion of the moment, as
you now see. You will therefore have to accept what is
readiest; what comes direct from the heart; and you must
just take that in compensation for any good order or
arrangement there might have been in it. I will endea
vour to say nothing that is not true, so far as I can
manage; and that is pretty much all I can engage for.
(A laugh.)
�8
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Advices, I believe, to young men, as to all men, are
very seldom much valued. There is a great deal of ad
vising, and very little faithful performing ; and talk that
does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed
altogether. I would not, therefore, go much into advising;
but there is one advice I must give you. In fact, it is the
summary of all advices, and doubtless you have heard it a
thousand times; but I must nevertheless let you hear it
the thousand-and-first time, for it is most intensely true,
whether you will believe it at present or not:—namely,
That above all things the interest of your whole life depends
on your being diligent, now while it is called to-day, in this
place where you have come to get education ! Diligent:
that includes in it all virtues that a student can have: I
mean it to include all those qualities of conduct that lead
on to the acquirement of real instruction and improve
ment in such a place. If you will believe me, you who
are young, yours is the golden season of life. As you have
heard it called, so it verily is, the seed-time of life; in
which, if you do not sow, or if you sow tares instead of
wheat, you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you
will arrive at little. And in the course of years, when you
come to look back, if you have not done what you have
heard from your advisers,—and among many counsellors
there is wisdom,—you will bitterly repent when it is too
late. The habits of study acquired at Universities are of
the highest importance in after-life. At the season when
you are young in years, the whole mind is, as it were,
fluid, and is capable of forming itself into any shape
that the owner of the mind pleases to allow it, or con
�HONESTY OF MIND.
9
strain it, to form itself into. The mind is then in a
plastic or fluid state ; but it hardens gradually, to the
consistency of rock or of iron, and you cannot alter the
habits of an old man: he, as he has begun, so he will
proceed and go on to the last.
By diligence I mean among other things, and very
chiefly too,—honesty, in all your inquiries, and in all you
are about. Pursue your studies in the way your conscience
can name honest. More and more endeavour to do that.
Keep, I should say for one thing, an accurate separation
between what you have really come to know in your minds
and what is still unknown. Leave all that latter on the
hypothetical side of the barrier, as things afterwards to be
acquired, if acquired at all; and be careful not to admit a
thing as known when you do not yet know it. Count a thing
known only when it is imprinted clearly on your mind, and
has become transparent to you, so that you may survey it
on all sides with intelligence. There is such a thing as a
man endeavouring to persuade himself, and endeavouring
to persuade others, that he knows things, when he does
not know more than the outside skin of them; and yet
he goes flourishing about with’ them. (Hear, hear, and
a laugh?) There is also a process called cramming, in some
Universities (A laugh),—that is, getting up such points of
things as the examiner is likely to put questions about.
Avoid all that, as entirely unworthy of an honourable
mind. Be modest, and humble, and assiduous in your
attention to what your teachers tell you, who are pro
foundly interested in trying to bring you forward in the
right way, so far as they have been able to understand it.
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e
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Try all things they set before you, in order, if possible, to
understand them, and to follow and adopt them in propor
tion to their fitness for you. Gradually see what kind of
work you individually can do; it is the first of all pro
blems for a man to find out what kind of work he is to
do in this universe. In short, morality as regards study
is, as in all other things, the primary consideration, and
overrules all others. A dishonest man cannot do anything
real; he never will study with real fruit; and perhaps it
would be greatly better if he were tied up from trying
it. He does nothing but darken counsel by the words
he utters. That is a very old doctrine, but a very true
one; and you will find it confirmed by all the thinking
men that have ever lived in this long series of generations
of which we are the latest.
I daresay you know, very many of you, that it is now
some seven hundred years since Universities were first set
up in this world of ours. Abelard and other thinkers had
arisen with doctrines in them which people wished to hear
of, and students flocked towards them from all parts of the
world. There was no getting the thing recorded in books,
as you now may. You had to hear the man speaking to
you vocally, or else you could not learn at all what it
was that he wanted to say. And so they gathered to
gether, these speaking ones,—the various people who had
anything to teach;—and formed themselves gradually,
under the patronage of kings and other potentates who
were anxious about the culture of their populations, and
nobly studious of their best benefit; and became a body
�UNIVERSITIES.
11
corporate, with high privileges, high dignities, and really
high aims, under the title of a University.
Possibly too you may have heard it said that the course
of centuries has changed all this ; and that ‘ the true Uni
versity of our days is a Collection of Books.’ And beyond
doubt, all this is greatly altered by the invention of Print
ing, which took place about midway between us and the
origin of Universities. Men have not now to go in person
to where a Professor is actually speaking; because in
most cases you can* get his doctrine out of him through a
book; and can then read it, and read it again and again,
and study it. That is an immense change, that one fact
of Printed Books. And I am not sure that I know of any
University in which the whole of that fact has yet been
completely taken in, and the studies moulded in complete
conformity with it. Nevertheless, Universities have, and
will continue to have, an indispensable value in society;
—I think, a very high, and it might be, almost the highest
value. They began, as is well known, with their grand
aim directed on Theology,—their eye turned earnestly on
Heaven. And perhaps, in a sense, it may be still said, the
very highest interests of man are virtually intrusted to them.
In regard to theology, as you are aware, it has been, and
especially was then, the study of the deepest heads that
have come into the world,—what is the nature of this stupen
dous universe, and what are our relations to it, and to all
things knowable by man, or known only to the great Author
of man and it. Theology was once the name for all this;
all this is still alive for man, however dead the name
may grow! In fact, the members of the Church keeping
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
theology in a lively condition—(Laughter)—for the benefit
of the whole population, theology was the great object of
the Universities. I consider it is the same intrinsically
now, though very much forgotten, from many causes, and
not so successful—(A laugh)—as might be wished, by any
manner of means I
It remains, however, practically a most important truth,
what I alluded to above, that the main use of Universities
in the present age is that, after you have done with all
your classes, the next thing is a collection of books, a
great i library of good books, which you proceed to study
and to read. What the Universities can mainly do for
you,—what I have found the University did for me, is, That
it taught me to read, in various languages, in various
sciences ; so that I could go into the books which treated of
these things, and gradually penetrate into any department
I wanted to make myself master of, as I found it suit me.
Well, gentlemen, whatever you may think of these
historical points, the clearest and most imperative duty
lies on every one of you to be assiduous in your reading.
Learn to be good readers,—which is, perhaps, a more
difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be di scrim in ative in your reading; to read faithfully, and with your best
attention, all kinds of things which you have a real in
terest in, a real not an imaginary, and which you find to be
really fit for what you are engaged in. Of course, at the
present time, in a great deal of the reading incumbent on
you, you must be guided by the books recommended
by your Professors for assistance towards the effect of their
�READING.
13
prelections. And then, when you leave the University, and
go into studies of your own, you will find it very important
that you have chosen a field, some province specially suited
to you, in which you can study and work. The most unhappy
of all men is the man who cannot tell what he is going to
do, who has got no work cut out for him in the world,
and does not go into it. For work is the grand cure of
all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind,—
honest work, which you intend getting done.
If, in any vacant vague time, you are in a strait as to
choice of reading,-^-a very good indication for you, perhaps
the best you could get, is towards some book you have
a great curiosity about. You are then in the readiest
and best of all possible conditions to improve by that
book. It is analogous to what doctors tell us about the
physical health and appetites of the patient. You must
learn, however, to distinguish between false appetite and
true. There is such a thing as a false appetite, which will
lead a man into vagaries with regard to diet; will tempt
him to eat spicy things, which he should not eat at all,
nor would, but that the things are toothsome, and that
he is under a momentary baseness of mind. A man ought
to examine and find out what he really and truly has an
appetite for, what suits his constitution and condition;
and that, doctors tell him, is in general the very thing he
ought to have. And so with books.
As applicable to all of you, I will say that it is highly
expedient to go into history; to inquire into what has
passed before you on this Earth, and in the Family of Man.
�14
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
The history of the Romans and Greeks will first of all
concern you; and you will find that the classical know
ledge you have got will he extremely applicable to eluci
date that. There you have two of the most remarkable
races of men in the world set before you, calculated to
open innumerable reflections and considerations; a mighty
advantage, if you can achieve it;—to say nothing of what
their two languages will yield you, which your Professors
can better explain; model languages, which are universally
admitted to be the most perfect forms of speech we have
yet found to exist among men. And you will find, if you
read well, a pair of extremely remarkable nations, shining
in the records left by themselves, as a kind of beacon, or
solitary mass of illumination, to light up some noble
forms of human life for us, in the otherwise utter darkness
of the past ages; and it will be well worth your while if
you can get into the understanding of what these people
were, and what they did. You will find a great deal of
hearsay, of empty rumour and tradition, which does not
touch on the matter; but perhaps some of you will get
to see the old Roman and the old Greek face to face; you
will know in some measure how they contrived to exist,
and to perform their feats in the world.
I believe, also, you will find one important thing not
much noted, That there was a very great deal of deep reli
gion in both nations. This is pointed out by the wiser kind
of historians, and particularly by Ferguson, who is particu
larly well worth reading on Roman history,—and who, I
believe, was an alumnus of our own University. His book
is a very creditable work. He points out the profoundly
�ROMANS AND GREEKS.
15
religious nature of the Roman people, notwithstanding their
ruggedly positive, defiant, and fierce ways. They believed
that Jupiter Optimus Maximus was lord of the universe, and
that he had appointed the Romans to become the chief of
nations, provided they followed his commands,—to brave
all danger, all difficulty, and stand up with an invin
cible front, and be ready to do and die; and also to have
the same sacred regard to truth of promise, to thorough
veracity, thorough integrity, and all the virtues that ac
company that noblest quality of man, valour,—to which
latter the Romans gave the name of ‘ virtue’ proper (yirtus,
manhood), as the crown and summary of all that is en
nobling for a man. In the literary ages of Rome, this re
ligious feeling had very much decayed away; but it still
retained its place among the lower classes of the Roman
people. Of the deeply religious nature of the Greeks,
along with their beautiful and sunny effulgences of art,
you have striking proof, if you look for it. In the tragedies
of Sophocles, there is a most deep-toned recognition of
the eternal justice of Heaven, and the unfailing punish
ment of crime against the laws of God. I believe you
will find in all histories of nations, that this has been at
the origin and foundation of them all; and that no nation
which did not contemplate this wonderful universe with
an awestricken and reverential belief that there was a great
unknown, omnipotent, and all-wise and all-just Being,
superintending all men in it, and all interests in it,—no
nation ever came to very much, nor did any man either,
who forgot that. If a man did forget that, he forgot the
most important part of his mission in this world.
�16
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Our own history of England, which you will naturally
take a great deal of pains to make yourselves acquainted
with, you will find beyond all others worthy of your study.
For indeed I believe that the British nation,—including
in that the Scottish nation,—produced a finer set of men
than any you will find it possible to get anywhere else in
the world. (Applause?) I don’t know, in any history
of Greece or Rome, where you will get so fine a man as
Oliver Cromwell, for example. (Applause?) And we, too,
have had men worthy of memory, in our little corner of
the Island here, as well as others; and our history has had
its heroic features all along; and did become great at last
in being connected with world-history:—for if you examine
well, you will find that John Knox was the author, as it
were, of Oliver Cromwell; that the Puritan revolution
never would have taken place in England at all, had it
not been for that Scotchman. (Applause.) That is an
authentic fact, and is not prompted by national vanity
on my part, but will stand examining. (Laughter and
applause^)
In fact, if you look at the struggle that was then going
on in England, as I have had to do in my time, you will
see that people were overawed by the immense impedi
ments lying in the way. A small minority of God-fearing
men in that country were flying away, with any ship they
could get, to New England, rather than take the lion by
the beard. They durst not confront the powers with their
most just complaints, and demands to be delivered from
idolatry. They wanted to make the nation altogether con
formable to the Hebrew Bible, which they, and all men,
�ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH HISTORY.
17
understood to be the exact transcript of the Will of God ;
—and could there be, for man, a more legitimate aim ?
Nevertheless, it would have been impossible in their
circumstances, and not to be attempted at all, had not
Knox succeeded in it here, some fifty years before, by
the firmness and nobleness of his mind. For he also is of
the select of the earth to me,—John Knox. (Applause?)
What he has suffered from the ungrateful generations that
have followed him should really make us humble ourselves
to the dust, to think that the most excellent man our country
has produced, to whom we owe everything that distin
guishes us among the nations, should have been so sneered
at, misknown, and abused. (Applause?) Knox was heard by
Scotland; the people heard him, believed him to the marrow
of their bones : they took up his doctrine, and they defied
principalities and powers to move them from it. “We
must have it,” they said; “ we will and must!” It was in
this state of things that the Puritan struggle arose in
England; and you know well how the Scottish earls and
nobility, with their tenantry, marched away to Dunse Hill
in 1639, and sat down there: just at the crisis of that
struggle, when it was either to be suppressed or brought
into greater vitality, they encamped on Dunse Hill,—thirty
thousand armed men, drawn out for that occasion, each
regiment round its landlord, its earl, or whatever he might
be called, and zealous all of them ‘ For Christ’s Crown and
Covenant.’ That was the signal for all England’s rising up
into unappeasable determination to have the Gospel there
also ; and you know it went on, and came to be a contest
whether the Parliament or the King should rule; whether it
B
�18
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
should he old formalities and use and wont, or something
that had been of new conceived in the Souls of men, namely,
a divine determination to walk according to the laws of
God here, as the sum of all prosperity; which, of these
should have the mastery: and after a long, long agony of
struggle, it was decided—the way we know.
I should say also of that Protectorate of Oliver Crom
well’s, notwithstanding the censures it has encountered,
and the denial of everybody that it could continue in the
world, and so on, it appears to me to have been, on the
whole, the most salutary thing in the modern history of
England. If Oliver Cromwell had continued it out, I
don’t know what it would have come to. It would have
got corrupted probably in other hands, and could not have
gone on; but it was pure and true, to the last fibre, in
his mind; there was perfect truth in it while he ruled
over it. Machiavelli has remarked, in speaking of the
Romans, that Democracy cannot long exist anywhere in
the world; that as a' mode of government, of national
management or administration, it involves an impossibility,
and after a little while must end in wreck. And he goes
on proving that, in his own way. I do not ask you all to
follow him in that conviction—(hear),—but it is to him
a clear truth; he considers it a solecism and impossibility
that the universal mass of men should ever govern them
selves. He has to admit of the Romans, that they con
tinued a long time; but believes, it was purely in virtue
of this item in their constitution, namely, of their all
having the conviction in their minds that it was solemnly
�THE PROTECTOR.
19
necessary, at times, to appoint a Dictator; a man who had
the power of life and death over everything, who degraded
men out of their places, ordered them to execution, and
did whatever seemed to him good in the name of God above
him. He was commanded to take care that the republic
suffer no detriment. And Machiavelli calculates that this
was the thing which purified the social system, from time
to time, and enabled it to continue as it did. Probable
enough, if you consider it. And an extremely proper
function surely, this of a Dictator, if the republic was
composed of little other than bad and tumultuous men,
triumphing in general over the better, and all going the
bad road, in fact. Well, Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate,
or Dictatorate if you will let me name it so, lasted for
about ten years, and you will find that nothing which was
contrary to the laws of heaven was allowed to live by
Oliver. (Applaus'e.)
For example, it was found by his Parliament of Notables,
what they call the ‘Barebones Parliament,’—the most
zealous of all Parliaments probably (laughter),—that the
Court of Chancery in England was in a state which was
really capable of no apology; no man could get up and
say that that was a right court. There were, I think,
fifteen thousand, or fifteen hundred (Laughter),—I really
don’t remember which, but we will call it by the last num
ber, to be safe (Renewed laughter);—-there were fifteen
hundred cases lying in it undecided; and one of them,
I remember, for a large amount of money, was eightythree years old, and it was going on still; wigs were
wagging over it, and lawyers were taking their fees, and
�20
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
there was no end of it. Upon view of all which, the
Barebones people, after deliberation about it, thought it
was expedient, and commanded by the Author of Man and
Fountain of Justice, and in the name of what was true and
right, to abolish said court. Really, I don’t know who could
have dissented from that opinion. At the same time, it was
thought by those who were wiser in their generation, and
had more experience of the world, that this was a very dan
gerous thing, and wouldn’t suit at all. The lawyers began to
make an immense noise about it. (Laughter?) All the public,
the great mass of solid and well-disposed people who had got
no deep insight into such matters, were very adverse to it:
and the Speaker of the Parliament, old Sir Francis Rous,—
who translated the Psalms for us, those that we sing here
every Sunday in the Church yet; a very good man, and a
wise and learned, Provost of Eton College afterwards,—
he got a great number of the Parliament to go to Oliver
the Dictator, and lay down their functions altogether, and
declare officially, with their signature, on Monday morning,
that the Parliament was dissolved. The act of abolition
had been passed on Saturday night; and on Monday
morning, Rous came and said, “We cannot carry on the
affair any longer, and we remit it into the hands of your
Highness.” Oliver in that way became Protector a second
time. I give you this as an instance that Oliver was
faithfully doing a Dictator’s function, and of his prudence
in it, as well.
Oliver felt that the Parliament, now
dismissed, had been perfectly right with regard to Chan
cery, and that there was no doubt of the propriety of
abolishing Chancery, or else reforming it in some kind
�sources of history.
21
of way.. He considered the matter, and this is what he
did. He assembled sixty of the wisest lawyers to be found
in England. Happily, there were men great in the law;
men who valued the laws of England as much as anybody
ever did; and who knew withal that there was something
still more sacred than any of these. (A laugh,^ Oliver
said to them, “ Go and examine this thing, and in the name
of God inform me what is necessary to be done with it.
You will see how we may clean out the foul things in that Chancery Court, which render it poison to everybody.”
Well, they sat down accordingly, and in the course of six
weeks,(there was no public speaking then, no reporting
of speeches, and no babble of any kind, there was just
the business in hand,)—they got sixty propositions fixed
in their minds as the summary of the things that re
quired to be done. And upon these sixty propositions,
Chancery was reconstituted and remodelled; and so it got
a new lease of life, and has lasted to our time. It had
become a nuisance, and could not have continued much
longer. That is an instance of the manner of things that
were done when a Dictatorship prevailed in the country,
and that was how the Dictator did them. I reckon, all
England, Parliamentary England, got a new lease of life
from that Dictatorship of Oliver’s; and, on the whole, that
the good fruits of it will never die while England exists as
a nation.
In general, I hardly think that out of common history
books you will ever get into the real history of this
country, or ascertain anything which can specially illu
�■
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
minate it for you, and which it would most of all behove
you to know. You may read very ingenious and very
clever books, by men whom it would be the height of in
solence in me to do other than express my respect for.
But their position is essentially sceptical. God and the
Godlike, as our fathers would have said, has fallen asleep for
them; and plays no part in their histories. A most sad and
fatal condition of matters; who shall say how fatal to us all'
A man unhappily in that condition will make but a tem
porary explanation of anything:—in short, you will not be
able, I believe, by aid of these men, to understand how this
Island came to be what it is. You will not find it re
corded in books. You will find recorded in books a
jumble of tumults, disastrous ineptitudes,, and all that
kind of thing. But to get what you want, you will have
to look into side sources, and inquire in all directions.
I remember getting Collins’s Peerage to read,—a very poor
performance as a work of genius, but an excellent book
for diligence and fidelity. I was writing on Oliver Crom
well at the time. (Applause?) I could get no biographical
dictionary available; and I thought the Peerage Book,
since most of my men were peers or sons of peers, would
help me, at least would tell me whether people were old
or young, where they lived, and the like particulars, better
than absolute nescience and darkness. And accordingly
I found amply all I had expected in poor Collins, and got
a great deal of help out of him. He was a diligent dull
London bookseller, of about a hundred years ago, who
compiled out of all kinds of parchments, charter-chests,
archives, books that were authentic, and gathered far and
�COLLINS’S PEERAGE.
23
wide wherever he could get it the information wanted.
He was a very meritorious man.
I not only found the solution of everything I had ex
pected there, but I began gradually to perceive this im
mense fact, which I really advise every one of you who
read history to look out for, if you have not already found
it. It was that the Kings of England, all the way from
the Norman Conquest down to the times of Charles I.,
had actually, in a good degree, so far as they knew, been
in the habit of appointing as Peers those who deserved
to be appointed. In general, I perceived, those Peers of
theirs were all royal men of a sort, with minds full of justice,
valour, and humanity, and all kinds of qualities that men
ought to have who rule over others. And then their genea
logy, the kind of sons and descendants they had, this also
was remarkable:—for there is a great deal more in genea
logy than is generally believed at present. I never heard
tell of any clever man that came of entirely stupid people.
(Laughter^) If you look around, among the families of your
acquaintance, you will see such cases in all directions;—
I know that my own experience is steadily that way; I
can trace the father, and the son, and the grandson, and
the family stamp is quite distinctly legible upon each of
them. So that it goes for a great deal, the hereditary prin
ciple,—in Government as in other things; and it must be
recognised so soon as there is any fixity in things. You
will remark, too, in your Collins, that, if at any time the
genealogy of a peerage goes awry, if the man that actu
ally holds the peerage is a fool,—in those earnest practical
times, the man soon gets into mischief, gets into treason
�24
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
probably,—soon gets himself and his peerage extinguished
altogether, in short. (Laughter?)
From those old documents of Collins, you learn and
ascertain that a peer conducts himself in a pious, highminded, grave, dignified, and manly kind of way, in his
course through life, and when he takes leave of life:—his
last will is often a remarkable piece, which one lingers
over. And then you perceive that there was kindness in
him as well as rigour, pity for the poor; that he has fine
hospitalities, generosities,—in fine, that he is throughout
much of a noble, good and valiant man. And that in general
the King, with a beautiful approximation to accuracy, had
nominated this kind of man; saying, “ Come you to me,
sir. Come out of the common level of the people, where
you are liable to be trampled upon, jostled about, and can
do in a manner nothing with your fine gift; come here and
take a district of country, and make it into your own image
more or less; be a king under me, and understand that
that is your function.” I say this is the most divine
thing that a human being can do to other human beings,
and no kind of thing whatever has so much of the
character of God Almighty’s Divine Government as that
thing, which, we see, went on all over England for about
six hundred years. That is the grand soul of England’s
history. (Cheers?) It is historically true that, down to
the time of James, or even Charles I., it was not under
stood that any man was made a Peer without having
merit in him to constitute him a proper subject for a
peerage. In Charles i.’s time, it grew to be known or
said that, if a man was born a gentleman, and cared to
�BOOKS.
25
lay out £10,000 judiciously up and down among courtiers,
lie could be made a Peer. Under Charles H. it went on
still faster, and has been going on w7ith ever-increasing
velocity, until we see the perfectly breakneck pace at
which they are going now (A laugh?), so that now a
peerage is a paltry kind of thing to what it was in those
old times. I could go into a great many more details
about things of that sort, but I must turn to another
branch of the subject.
First, however, one remark more about your reading.
I do not know whether it has been sufficiently brought
home to you that there are two kinds of books. When a
man is reading on any kind of subject, in most depart
ments of books,—in all books, if you take it in a wide
sense,—he will find that there is a division into good
books and bad books. Everywhere a good kind of book
and a bad kind of book. I am not to assume that you
are unacquainted, or ill acquainted with this plain fact;
but I may remind you that it is becoming a very im
portant Consideration in our day. And we have to cast
aside altogether the idea people have, that, if they are.
reading any book, that if an ignorant man is reading any
book, he is doing rather better than nothing at all. I must
entirely call that in question; I even venture to deny it.
(Laughter and cheers?) It would be much safer and better
for many a reader, that he had no concern with books at
all. There is a number, a frightfully increasing number,
of books that are decidedly, to the readers of them, not
useful. (?H?ear?) But an ingenuous reader will learn, also,
that a certain number of books were written by a su
�26
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
premely noble kind of people,—not a very great number
of books, but still a number fit to occupy all your reading
industry, do adhere more or less to that side of things.
In short, as I have written it down somewhere else, I
conceive that books are like men’s souls; divided into
sheep and goats. (Laughter and cheers.) Some few are
going up, and carrying us up, heavenward; calculated,
I mean, to be of priceless advantage in teaching,—in
forwarding the teaching of all generations. Others, a
frightful multitude, are going down, down; doing ever
the more and the wider and the wilder mischief. Keep
a strict eye on that latter class of books, my young
friends!—
And for the rest, in regard to all your studies and read
ings here, and to whatever you may learn, you are to
remember that the object is not particular knowledges,—
not that of getting higher and higher in technical perfec
tions, and all that sort of thing. There is a higher aim
lying at the rear of all that, especially among those who
are intended for literary or speaking pursuits, or the sacred
profession. You are ever to bear in mind that there lies
behind that the acquisition of what may be called wisdom;
—namely, sound appreciation and just decision as to all
the objects that come round you, and the habit of behaving
with justice, candour, clear insight, and loyal adherence to
fact. Great is wisdom; infinite is the value of wisdom.
It cannot be exaggerated ; it is the highest achievement
of man: ‘ Blessed is he that getteth understanding.’ And
that, I believe, on occasion, may be missed very easily;
never more easily than now, I sometimes think. If that
�ENDOWMENTS.
27
is a failure, all is failure!—However, I will not touch
further upon that matter.
But I should have said, in regard to hook-reading, if it
he so very important, how very useful would an excellent
library be in every University! I hope, that will not be
neglected by the gentlemen who have charge of you; and,
indeed, I am happy to hea.r that your library is very much
improved since the time I knew it, and I hope it will go
on improving more and more. Nay, I have sometimes
thought, why should not there be a library in every county
town, for benefit of those that could read well, and might
if permitted? True, you require money to accomplish
that;—and withal, what perhaps is still less attainable at
present, you require judgment in the selectors of books;
real insight into what is for the advantage of human souls,
the exclusion of all kinds of clap-trap books which merely
excite the astonishment of foolish people (Laughter), and
the choice of wise books, as much as possible of good books.
Let us hope the future will be kind to us in this respect.
In this University, as I learn from many sides, there
is considerable stir about endowments; an assiduous and
praiseworthy industry for getting new funds collected to
encourage the ingenuous youth of Universities, especially of
this our chief University. (Hear, hear?) Well, I entirely
participate in everybody’s approval of the movement. It
is very desirable. It should be responded to, and one
surely expects it will. At least, if it is not, it will be
shameful to the country of Scotland, which never was so
rich in money as at the present moment, and never stood
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
so much iu need of getting noble Universities, and insti
tutions to counteract many influences that are springing
up alongside of money. It should not be slack in coming
forward in the way of endowments (A laugh) ; at any rate,
to the extent of rivalling our rude old barbarous ancestors,
as we have been pleased to call them. Such munificence as
theirs is beyond all praise; and to them, I am sorry to say,
we are not yet by any manner of means equal, or ap
proaching equality. (Laughter?) There is an abundance
and over-abundance of money. Sometimes I cannot help
thinking that probably never has there been, at any other
time, in Scotland, the hundredth part of the money that
now is, or even the thousandth part. For wherever I go
there is that same gold-nuggeting (A laugh?),—-that ‘ unex;
ampled prosperity,’ and men counting their balances by
the million sterling. Money was never so abundant, and
nothing that is good to be done with it. (Hear, hear, and
a laugh?) No man knows,—or very few men know,—what
benefit to get out of his money. In fact, it too often is
secretly a curse to him. Much better for him never to
have had any. But I do not expect that generally to
be believed. (Laughter?) Nevertheless, I should think it
would be a beneficent relief to many a rich man who has an
honest purpose struggling in him, to bequeath some house
of refuge, so to speak, for the gifted poor man who may'
hereafter be born into the world, to enable him to get on
his way a little. To do, in fact, as those old Norman
kings whom I have been describing; to raise some noble
poor man out of the dirt and mud where he is getting
trampled on unworthily, by the unworthy, into some kind
�A DEEPER WANT.
29
of position where he might acquire the power to do a little
good in his generation! I hope that as much as possible
will be achieved in this direction; and that efforts will
not be relaxed till the thing is in a satisfactory state. In
regard to the classical department, above all, it surely is
to be desired by us that it were properly supported,—that
we could allow the fit people to have their scholarships and
subventions, and devote more leisure to the cultivation of
particular departments. We might have more of this from
Scotch Universities than we have; and I hope we shall.
I am bound, however, to say that it does not appear as if,
of late times, endowment were the real soul of the matter.
The English, for example, are the richest people in the
world for endowments in their Universities; and it is
an evident fact that, since the time of Bentley, you
cannot name anybody that has gained a European name
in scholarship, or constituted a point of revolution in the
pursuits of men in that way. The man who does so is
a man worthy of being remembered; and he is poor,
and not an Englishman.
One man that actually did
constitute a revolution was the son of a poor weaver in
Saxony; who edited his Tibullus, in Dresden, in a poor
comrade’s garret, with the floor for his bed, and two folios
for pillow; and who, while editing his Tibullus, had to
gather peasecod shells on the streets and boil them for his
dinner. That was his endowment. (Laughter?) But he
was recognised soon to have done a great thing. His
name was Heyne. (Cheers?) I can remember, it was
quite a revolution in my mind when I got hold of that
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INAUGURAL address.
man’s edition of Virgil. I found that, for the first time,
I understood Virgil; that Heyne had introduced me, for
the first time, into an insight of Roman life and ways of
thought; had pointed out the circumstances in which
these works were written, and given me their interpreta
tion. And the process has gone on in all manner of
developments, and has spread out into other countries.
On the whole, there is one reason why endowments are
not given now as they were in old days, when men founded
abbeys, colleges, and all kinds of things of that description,
with such success as we know. All that has now changed;
a vast decay of zeal in that direction. And truly the reason
may in part be, that people have become doubtful whether
colleges are now the real sources of what I called wisdom;
whether they are anything more, anything much more, than
a cultivating of man in the specific arts. In fact, there has
been in the world a suspicion of that kind for a long time.
(A laugh.') There goes a proverb of old date, ‘ An ounce
of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy.’ {Laughter^)
There is a suspicion that a man is perhaps not nearly so
wise as he looks, or because he has poured out speech
so copiously. {Laughter.) When ‘the seven free arts ’
which the old Universities were based on, came to be
modified a little, in order to be convenient for the wants of
modern society,—though perhaps some of them are obsolete
enough even yet for some of us,—there arose a feeling that
mere vocality, mere culture of speech, if that is what comes
out of a man, is not the synonym of wisdom by any
means ! That a man may be a ‘ great speaker,’ as eloquent
as you like, and but little real substance in him,—espe
�FINE SPEECH.
31
cially, if that is what was required and aimed at by the
man himself, and by the community that set him upon
becoming a learned man. Maid-servants, I hear people
complaining, are getting instructed in the ‘ologies,’ and
are apparently becoming more and more ignorant of brew
ing, boiling, and baking (Laughter); and above all, are
not taught what is necessary to be known, from the highest
of us to the lowest,—faithful obedience, modesty, humility,
and correct moral conduct.
Oh, it is a dismal chapter all that if one went into it,—
what has been done by rushing after fine speech! I have
written down some very fierce things about that, perhaps
considerably more emphatic than I could now wish them to
be; but they were and are deeply my conviction. (Hear,
hear?) There is very great necessity indeed of getting a
little more silent than we are. It seems to me as if the
finest nations of the world,—the English and the Ameri
can, in chief,—were going all off into wind and tongue.
(Applause and laughter?) But it will appear sufficiently
tragical by-and-by, long after I am away out of it. There
is a time to speak, and a time to be silent. Silence withal
is the eternal duty of a man. He won’t get to any real
understanding of what is complex, and what is more than
aught else pertinent to his interests, without keeping
silence too. ‘Watch the tongue,’ is a very old precept,
and a most true one.
I don’t want to discourage any of you from your
Demosthenes, and your studies of the niceties of language,
and all that. Believe me, I value that as much as any
�32
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
one of you. I consider it a very graceful thing, and a
most proper, for every human creature to know what the
implement which he uses in communicating his thoughts
is, and how to make the very utmost of it. I want you
to study Demosthenes, and to know all his excellences.
At the same time, I must say that speech, in the case
even of Demosthenes, does not seem, on the whole, to
have turned to almost any good account. He advised
next to nothing that proved practicable; much of the re
verse. Why tell me that a man is a fine speaker, if it is
not the truth that he is speaking ? Phocion, who mostly
did not speak at all, was a great deal nearer hitting the
mark than Demosthenes. (Laughter?) He used to tell
the Athenians, “You can’t fight Philip. Better if you
don’t provoke him, as Demosthenes is always urging
to you to do. You have not the slightest chance with
Philip. He is a man who holds his tongue ; he has
great disciplined armies; a full treasury; can bribe any
body you like in your cities here; he is going on steadily
with an unvarying aim towards his object; while you, with
your idle clamourings, with your Cleon the Tanner spout
ing to you what you take for Wisdom— ! Philip will in
fallibly beat any set of men such as you, going on raging
from shore to shore with all that rampant nonsense.”
Demosthenes said to him once, “ Phocion, you will drive
the Athenians mad some day, and they will kill you.”
“ Yes,” Phocion answered, “ me, when they go mad; and
as soon as they get sane again, you I ” (Laughter and
applause?) It is also told of him how he went once to
Messene, on some deputation which the Athenians wanted
�FINE SPEECH.
33
him to head, on some kind of matter of an intricate and
contentious nature: Phocion went accordingly; and had,
as usual, a clear story to have told for himself and his
case. He was a man of few words, but all of them true
and to the point. And so he had gone on telling his
story for a while, wheii there arose some interruption.
One man, interrupting with something, he tried to answer;
then another, the like ; till finally, too many went in, and
all began arguing and bawling in endless debate. Where
upon Phocion struck down his staff; drew back altogether,
and would speak no other word to any man. It appears
to me there is a kind of eloquence in that rap of Phocion’s
staff which is equal to anything Demosthenes ever said:
“ Take your own way, then; I go out of it altogether.”
(Applause?)
Such considerations, and manifold more connected with
them,—innumerable considerations, resulting from obser
vation of the world at this epoch,—have led various
people to doubt of the salutary effect of vocal education
altogether. I do not mean to say it should be entirely
excluded; but I look to something that will take hold of
the matter much more closely, and not allow it to slip out
of our fingers, and remain worse than it was. For, if a
‘good speaker,’ never so eloquent, does not see into the
fact, and is not speaking the truth of that, but the untruth
and the mistake of that,—is there a more horrid kind of
object in creation ? (Loud cheers?) Of such speech I hear
all manner of people say, “ How excellent!” Well, really
it is not the speech, but the thing spoken, that I am
anxious about! I really care very little how the man
I
�34
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
said it, provided I understand him, and it be true. Ex
cellent speaker ? But what if he is telling me things that
are contrary to the fact; what if he has formed a wrong
judgment about the fact,—if he has in his mind (like
Phocion’s friend, Cleon the Tanner) no power to form a
right judgment in regard to the matter? An excellent
speaker of that kind is, as it were, saying, “ Ho, every
one that wants to be persuaded of the thing that is not
true; here is the man for you!” (Great laughter and
applause?) I recommend you to be very chary of that
kind of excellent speech. (?Renewed laughter?)
Well, all that sad stuff being the too well-known product
of our method of vocal education,—the teacher merely
operating on the tongue of the pupil, and teaching him to
wag it in a particular way (Laughter),—it has made various
thinking men entertain a distrust of this not very salu
tary way of procedure; and they have longed for some less
theoretic, and more practical and concrete way of working
out the problem of education;-—in effect, for an educa
tion not vocal at all, but mute except where speaking was
strictly needful. There would be room for a great deal of
description about this, if I went into it; but I must con
tent myself with saying that the most remarkable piece
of writing on it is in a book of Goethe’s,—the whole of
which you may be recommended to take up, and try if you
can study it with understanding. It is one of his last
books; written when he was an old man above seventy
years of age: I think, one of the most beautiful he ever
wrote; full of meek wisdom, of intellect and piety; which
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
35
is found to be strangely illuminative, and very touching,
by those who have eyes to discern and hearts to feel it.
This about education is one of the pieces in Wilhelm,
Meister’s Travels; or rather, in a fitful way, it forms
the whole gist of the book. I first read it many years
agoand, of course, I had to read into the very heart of
it while I was translating it (Applause); and it has ever
since dwelt in my mind as perhaps the most remark
able bit of writing which I have known to be executed in
these late centuries. I have often said that there are some
ten pageS of that, which, if ambition had been my only rule,
I would rather have written, been able to write, than have
written all the books that have appeared since I came into
the world. (Cheers?) Beep, deep is the meaning of what
is said there. Those pages turn on the Christian religion,
and the religious phenomena of the modern and the
ancient world: altogether sketched out in the most aerial,
graceful, delicately wise kind of way, so as to keep him
self out of the common controversies of the street and
of the forum, yet to indicate what was the result of things
he had been long meditating upon.
Among others, he introduces in an airy, sketchy kind
of way, with here and there a touch,—the sum-total of
which grows into a beautiful picture,—a scheme of entirely
mute education, at least with no more speech than is ab
solutely necessary for what the pupils have to do. Three
of the wisest men discoverable in the world have been
got together, to consider, to manage and supervise, the
function which transcends all others in importance; that
of building up the young generation so as to keep it
�36
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
free from that perilous stuff that has been weighing
us down, and clogging every step;—which function, in
deed, is the only thing we can hope to go on with, 'c we
would leave the world a little better, and not the worse,
of our having been in it, for those who are to follow.
The Chief, who is the Eldest of the 'three, says to Wil
helm : “ Healthy well-formed children bring into the
world with them many precious gifts; and very frequently
these are best of all developed by Nature herself, with
but slight assistance, where assistance is seen to be wise
and profitable, and with forbearance very often on the
part of the overseer of the process. But there is one
thing which no child brings into the world with him,
and without which all other things are of no use.”
Wilhelm, who is there beside him, asks, “And what is
that?” “All want it,” says the Eldest; “perhaps you
yourself.” Wilhelm says, “Well, but tell me what it is?”
“ It is,” answers the other, “ Reverence (EhrfurcM); Re
verence! Honour done to those who are greater and
better than ourselves; honour distinct from fear. Ehrfurcht; the soul of all religion that has ever been among
men, or ever will be.”
And then he goes into details about the religions of the
modern and the ancient world. He practically distinguishes
the kinds of religion that are, or have been, in the world ;
and says that for men there are three reverences. The
boys are all trained to go through certain gesticulations;
to lay their hands on their breast and look up to heaven,
in sign of the first reverence; other forms for the other
two: so they give their three reverences. The first and
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
37
simplest is that of reverence for what is above us. It is
the soul of all the Pagan religions; there is nothing better
in th# antique man than that. Then there is reverence
for what is around us,—reverence for our equals, to which
he attributes an immense power in the culture of man.
The third is reverence for what is beneath us; to learn to
recognise in pain, in sorrow and contradiction, even in thoee
things, odious to flesh and blood, what divine meanings
are in them; to learn that there lies in these also, and
more than in any of the preceding, a priceless blessing.
And he defines that as being the soul of the Christian
religion,—the highest of all religions; ‘ a height,’ as Goethe
says (and that is very true, even to the letter, as I con
sider), ‘ a height to which mankind was fated and enabled
to attain; and from which, having once attained it, they
can never retrograde.’ Man cannot quite lose that (Goethe
thinks), or permanently descend below it again; but
always, even in the most degraded, sunken, and unbe
lieving times, he calculates there will be found some few
souls who will recognise what this highest of the religions
meant; and that, the world having once received it, there
is no fear of its ever wholly disappearing.
The Eldest then goes on to explain by what methods
they seek to educate and train their boys; in the trades,
in the arts, in the sciences, in whatever pursuit the boy is
found best fitted for. Beyond all, they are anxious to dis
cover the boy’s aptitudes; and they try him and watch him
continually, in many wise ways, till by degrees they can
discover this. Wilhelm had left his own boy there, per
haps expecting they would make him a Master of Arts,
X
�38
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
or something of the kind; and on coming back for him,
he sees a thunder-cloud of dust rushing over the plain,
of which he can make nothing. It turns out to be a
tempest of wild horses, managed by young lads who had
a turn for horsemanship, for hunting, and being grooms.
His own son is among them || and 'he finds that the
breaking of colts has been the thing he was most suited
for. (Laughter?)
The highest outcome, and most precious of all the fruits
that are to spring from this ideal mode of educating, is
what Goethe calls Art:—of which I could at present give
no definition that would make it clear to you, unless it
were clearer already than is likely. (A laugh?) Goethe
calls it music, painting, poetry: but it is in quite a higher
sense than the common one ; and a sense in which, I am
afraid, most of our painters, poets, and music men, would
not pass muster. (A laugh?) He considers this as the
highest pitch to which human culture can go; infinitely
valuable and ennobling; and he watches with great in
dustry how it is to be brought about, in the men who have
a turn for it. Very wise and beautiful his notion of the
matter is. It gives one an idea that something far better
and higher, something as high as ever, and indubitably
true too, is still possible for man in this world.—And that
is all I can say to you of Goethe’s fine theorem of mute
education.
I confess it seems to me there is in it a shadow of what will
one day be; will and must, unless the world is to come to a
conclusion that is altogether frightful: some kind of scheme
of education analogous to that; presided over by the
�THE EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE.
39
wisest and most sacred men that can be got in the world,
and watching from a distance: a training in practicality
at every turn; no speech in it except speech that is to be
followed by action, for that ought to be the rule as nearly
as possible among men. Not very often or much, rarely
rather, should a man speak at all, unless it is for the sake
of something that is to be done; this spoken, let him go
and do his part in it, and say no more about it.
I will only add that it is possible,—all this fine theorem
of Goethe’s, or something similar ! Consider what we have
already ; and what ‘ difficulties ’ we have overcome. I
should say there is nothing in the world you can conceive
so difficult, prima facie, as that of getting a set of men
gathered together as soldiers. Rough, rude, ignorant, dis
obedient people; you gather them together, promise them
a shilling a day; rank them up, give them very severe
and sharp drill; and by bullying and drilling and com
pelling (the word drilling, if you go to the original,
means ‘beating,’ ‘steadily tormenting’ to the due pitch),
they do learn what it is necessary to learn; and there is
your man in red coat, a trained soldier; piece of an ani
mated machine incomparably the most potent in this
world; a wonder of wonders to look qt. He will go
where bidden; obeys one man, will walk into the can
non’s mouth for him; does punctually whatever is com
manded by his general officer. And, I believe, all
manner of things of this kind could be accomplished,
if there were the same attention bestowed. Very many
things could be regimented, organized into this mute
system;—and perhaps in some of the mechanical, com
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INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
mercial, and manufacturing departments, some faint in
cipiences may be attempted before very long. For the
saving of human labour, and the avoidance of human
misery, the effects would be incalculable, were it set about
and begun even in part.
Alas, it is painful to think how very far away it all is,
any real fulfilment of such things! For I need not hide
from you, young gentlemen,—and it is one of the last
things I am going to tell you,—that you have got into a
very troublous epoch of the world; and I don’t think you
will find your path in it to be smoother than ours has been,
though you have many advantages which we had not.
You have careers open to you, by public examinations and
so on, which is a thing much to be approved of, and which
we hope to see perfected more and more. All that was
entirely unknown in my time, and you have many things
to recognise as advantages. But you will find the ways
of the world, I think, more anarchical than ever. Look
where one will, revolution has come upon us. We have
got into the age of revolutions. All kinds of things are
coming to be subjected to fire, as it were: hotter and hotter
blows the element round everything. Curious to see how,
in Oxford and other places that used to seem as lying at
anchor in the stream of time, regardless of all changes,
they are getting into the highest humour of mutation, and
all sorts of new ideas are afloat. It is evident that what
ever is not inconsumable, made of asbestos, will have to
be burnt, in this world. Nothing other will stand the
heat it is getting exposed to.
And in saying that, I am but saying in other words that
�AN AGE OF REVOLUTIONS.
41
we are in an epoch of anarchy. Anarchy plus a constable!
(Laughter?) There is nobody that picks one’s pocket
without some policeman being ready to take him up.
(?Renewed laughter?) But in every other point, man is
becoming more and more the son, not of Cosmos, but
of Chaos. He is a disobedient, discontented, reckless,
and altogether waste kind of object (the commonplace
man is, in these epochs); and the wiser kind of man,
—the select few, of whom I hope you will be part,—has
more and more to see to this, to look vigilantly forward ;
and will require to move with double, wisdom. Will
find, in short, that the crooked things he has got to pull
straight in his own life all round him, wherever he may
go, are manifold, and will task all his strength, however
great it be.
But why should I complain of that either ? For that is
the thing a man is born to, in all epochs. He is born to
expend every particle of strength that God Almighty has
given him, in doing the work he finds he is fit for; to
stand up to it to the last breath of life, and do his best.
We are called upon to do that; and the reward we all get,
—which we are perfectly sure of if we have merited it,—is
that we have got the work done, or at least that we have
tried to do the work. For that is a great blessing in itself;
and I should say, there is not very much more reward than
that going in this world. If the man gets meat and
clothes, what matters it whether he buy those neces
saries with seven thousand a year, or with seven million,
could that be, or with seventy pounds a year? He can
get meat and clothes for that; and he will find intrinsi
�42
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
cally, if he is a wise man, wonderfully little real differ
ence. (Laughter?)
On the whole, avoid what is called ambition; that is
not a fine principle to go upon,—and it has in it all de
grees of vulgarity, if that is a consideration. ‘ Seekest
thou great things, seek them notI warmly second that
advice of the wisest of men. Don’t be ambitious; don’t
too much need success; be loyal and modest. Cut down
the proud towering thoughts that get into you, or see that
they be pure as well as high. There is a nobler ambition
than the gaining of all California would be, or the getting
of all the suffrages that are on the Planet just now. (Loud
and prolonged cheers?)
Finally, gentlemen, I have one advice to give you, which
is practically of very great importance, though a very
humble one. In the midst of your zeal and ardour,—
for such, I foresee, will rise high enough, in spite of all the
counsels to moderate it that I can give you,—remember
the care of health. I have no doubt you have among you
young souls ardently bent to consider life cheap, for the
purpose of getting forward in what they are aiming at of
high; but you are to consider throughout, much more than
is done at present, and what it would have been a very
great thing for me if I had been able to consider, that
health is a thing to be attended to continually; that you
are to regard that as the very highest of all temporal things
for you. (Applause?) There is no kind of achievement you
could make in the world that is equal to perfect health.
What to it are nuggets and millions ? The French financier
�HEALTH.
43
said, “ Why, is there no sleep to be sold !” Sleep was not
in the market at any quotation. {Laughter and applause?)
It is a curious thing, which I remarked long ago, and have
often turned in my head, that the old word for ‘holy’
in the Teutonic languages, heilig, also means ‘healthy.’
Thus Heilbronn means indifferently ‘holy-well,’ or ‘health
well.’ We have, in the Scotch too, ‘ hale,’ and its deriva
tives; and, I suppose, our English word ‘whole’ (with a
‘w’), all of one piece, without any hole in it, is the same
word. I find that you could not get any better defini
tion of what ‘holy’ really is than ‘healthy.’ Completely
healthy; mens sana in corpore sano. {Applause.) A
man all lucid, and in equilibrium. His intellect a clear
mirror geometrically plane, brilliantly sensitive to all
objects and impressions made on it, and imaging all
things in their correct proportions; not twisted up into
convex or concave, and distorting everything, so that he
cannot see the truth of the matter-without endless groping
and manipulation: healthy, clear, and free, and discerning
truly all round him. We never can attain that at all. In
fact, the operations we have got into are destructive of it.
You cannot, if you are going to do any decisive intellectual
operation that will last a long while; if, for instance, you
are going to write a book,—you cannot manage it (at
least, I never could) without getting decidedly made ill
by it: and really one nevertheless must; if it is your
business, you are obliged to follow out what you are at,
and to do it, if even at the expense of health. Only
remember, at all times, to get back as fast as possible out
of it into health; and regard that as the real equilibrium
�44
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
and centre of things. You should always look at the
heilig, which means 1 holy’ as well as ‘healtny.’l I
And that old etymology,—what a lesson it is against
certain gloomy, austere, ascetic people, who have gone
about as if this world were all a dismal prison-house. It
has indeed got all the ugly things in it which I have been
alluding to ; but there is an eternal sky over it; and the
blessed sunshine, the green of prophetic spring, and rich
harvests coming,—all this is in it, too. Piety does not
mean that a man should make a sour face about things,
and refuse to enjoy wisely what his Maker has given.
Neither do you find it to have been so with the best sort,
—with old Knox, in particular. No; if you look into
Knox you will find a beautiful Scotch humour in him, as
well as the grimmest and sternest truth when necessary,
and a great deal of laughter. We find really some of
the sunniest glimpses of things come out of Knox that I
have seen in any man; for instance, in his History of
the Reformation,—which is a book I hope every one of
you will read (Applause), a glorious old book.
On the whole, I would bid you stand up to your work,
whatever it may be, and not be afraid of it; not in sor
rows or contradictions to yield, but to push on towards the
goal. And don’t suppose that people are hostile to you or
have you at ill-will, in the world. In general, you will rarely
find anybody designedly doing you ill. You may feel often
as if the whole world were obstructing you, setting itself
against you: but you will find that to mean only, that
the world is travelling in a different way from you, and,
rushing on in its own path, heedlessly treads on you.
�A LAST WORD.
45
That is mostly all: to you no specific ill-will;—only each
has an extremely good-will to himself, which he has a right
to have, and is rushing on towards his object. Keep out
of literature, I should say also, as a general rule (Laughter),
—though that is by-the-by. If you find many people
who are hard and indifferent to you, in a world which you
consider to be inhospitable and cruel, as often indeed
happens to a tender-hearted, striving young creature, you
will also find there are noble hearts who will look kindly
on you; and their help will be precious to you beyond
price. You will get good and evil as you go on, and
have the success that has been appointed you.
I will wind up with a small bit of verse which is from
Goethe also, and has often gone through my mind. To me,
it has something of a modern psalm in it, in some mea
sure. It is deep as the foundations, deep and high, and it
is true and clear :—no clearer man, or nobler and grander
intellect has lived in the world, I believe, since Shakspeare left it. This is what the poet sings;—a kind of
road-melody or marching-music of mankind :
‘ The Future hides in it
Gladness and sorrow;
We press still thorow,
Nought that abides in it
Daunting us,—onward.
And solemn before us,
Veiled, the dark Portal;
Goal of all mortal:—
Stars silent rest o’er us,
Graves under us silent.
�46
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
While earnest thou gazest,
Comes boding of terror,
Comes phantasm and error;
Perplexes the bravest
With doubt and misgiving.
But heard are the Voices,
Heard are the Sages,
The Worlds and the Ages
“ Choose well, your choice is
Brief, and yet endless.
Here eyes do regard you,
In Eternity’s stillness;
Here is all fulness,
Ye brave, to reward you ;
Work, and despair not.” ’
Work, and despair not: Wir heissen euch hoffcn, We bid
you be of hope!’—let that be my last word. Gentlemen,
I thank you for your great patience in hearing me ;
and, with many most kind wishes, say Adieu for this
time.
EDINBURGH I THOMAS CONSTABLE,
PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
�
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Inaugural address at Edinburgh, April 2nd, 1866; by Thomas Carlyle, at being installed as Rector of the university there
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Education
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Thomas Carlyle
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I
CHRISTIANITY AND EDUCATION
IN INDIA.
LECTURE
A
DELIVERED AT ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LONDON,
NOVEMBER 12, 1871.
BY
A.
JYRAM
ROW,
OF MYSORE.
PUBLISHED
BY THOMAS
MOUNT PLEASANT, RAMSGATE.
Price Sixpence.
SCOTT,
�»ae
�HINDU
EDUCATION.
Ladies and Gentlemen,—The subject we are come
together this evening to consider is one, the import
ance of which it is scarce possible to estimate too
highly. Viewed in its integrity—in the vastness of
the interests at stake on its proper solution—interests,
not simply of a speculative character, but as connected
with the destinies of a considerable portion of man
kind, I should be more sanguine than wise if I
flattered myself that I could do the barest justice
to it.
Agitated as is the human mind in our times with
thousands of questions, more or less directly bearing
on human advancement, I know none more exciting
in their immediate interest, more momentous in their
ultimate results, in short, more imperative in their
demand on our deepest attention, than those which
have for their solution the complicated phenomena of
social science. Of these, the subject of education, it
will be conceded on all hands, must ever stand out
prominently as the question of questions.
But it is not the question of education in general
that I propose to myself, but the more circumscribed
one of Hindu education. I propose to bring before
you the present state of education in India, its short
comings, and the nature of the emendations it stands
in need of, if it is to succeed at all in the object for
which it has been undertaken. I may further pre
mise that I shall deal with the subject, not only in
its bearings on the regeneration of India, but also in
�4
Christianity and Education in India.
its wider relations to the advancement of science and
the promotion of human welfare in general.
It is well known that in India there are two
systems of education working side by side,—the one
secular and the other religious,—the one conducted
by the Government, the other by Christian Mis
sionaries sent out by this country for the conversion
of the Hindus. Now to take the last first.
rar be it from me to ignore the noble spirit that
supports this enterprise; and farther still to traduce
wantonly, or speak in a spirit of levity of, anything
connected with it. So long as these magnificent
efforts on your part at self-sacrifice are made under
the conviction that we, pagans and heathens, are lost
uidess brought to embrace your faith, and bend our
knees to your idols; so long, I repeat, we cannot be
too grateful. But sooner or later the truth must out,
and, I am sure, you will bear with me, if my very
gratitude for what you are doing for us compels me
to speak candidly the bare unvarnished truth on the
subject. I can conscientiously state, then, and every
one who has any personal knowledge of India will bear
me out in this statement, that Christianity, in spite
of all the efforts of all its zealous apostles, has not
succeeded, and is never likely to succeed, in the land of
the Hindus. It is a notorious fact that, notwith
standing the unremitted operation now nearly for a
century of a vast machinery, specially designed for
this purpose, and worked under the most favourable
auspices, Christianity cannot name its proselytes from
any part of the more intelligent and educated classes
of our community whose total number at any time
could not be counted on one’s fingers. Not less
notorious is the fact that nine hundred and ninetynine out of every thousand of the converted Hindus
are from the very dregs, the Parias, of our population.
There is scarcely, too, one in a thousand among them
who can so much as conceive the simplest points of
�Christianity and Education in India.
5
divergence between the faith he has abandoned and
the faith he has embraced.
The rationale of this inevitable state of things is
not very far to seek. The whole of the Hindu com
munity, for our present purpose, may be divided into
four classes, not in accordance with the ordinary
distinction of castes, but with the mental peculiarities
observable among them. Our first division will com
prise those who have received no education, either
English or Hindu ; the second, those who possess an
elementary knowledge of English, with a tolerable
acquaintance with their own literature; while the
third shall hold together those who, not being satis
fied with the rudiments of education vouchsafed them
by their thrifty Government, have pushed their
curiosity into the forbidden precincts of science, as
far, at least, as their unassisted efforts might avail
them, and have made themselves familiar, if not with
the more recondite truths and processes of its various
departments, at least with their general results, and
the more fundamental methods of inductive investiga
tion. There remains now the fourth class to cha
racterize, which, after the above assignments, must
evidently consist of those Hindus who, though devoid
of English education, and a knowledge of European
science, are yet the repositories of all that is highest
and soundest in Hindu philosophy and Hindu science,
such as they may be. Now to review each class, in
order, in its relations to Christianity and the possible
points of contact between them, where alone the
latter might exert any influence.
We have seen that the characteristic of our first
division is the absence of all education. And hence
the presence of ignorance in unmitigated intensity.
Now ignorance and superstition must ever go
hand in hand.
The rampant extravagances of the
latter are a necessary consequence of the former.
The same faculty of analogical reasoning, which
�6
„
Christianity and Education in India.
under due subordination to wide inductions and
subject to continued processes of verification or correc
tion, results in the highest triumphs of science, leads,
in the absence of these safeguards, to the grossest
fallacies of thought and belief. Fetishism is a natural
concomitant of this stage of our mental development.
There is no place here for either metaphysical or
positive conceptions. There is as little possibility of
metaphysical abstractions making impression upon the
dim consciousness of ignorance, as of the comprehen
sive generalisations of positive science being grasped
by its narrow faculties.
Hence the only religion
possible at this stage is the religion of sense. The
more sensuous the conceptions, the more tangible the
images presented for adoration, the firmer is their
hold upon the ignorant mind. The slightest infusion
of anything like abstraction is eschewed and thrown
out as unassimilable with its simple organisation. Now
Christianity, with its medley of dogmas and theories,
half fetishistic, half metaphysical, has far less chance of
success here than a religion that is purely fetishistic.
The one is easy of comprehension to the most un
tutored mind; while the other bristles up with
inconsistencies incapable of reconciliation by the
subtlest intellect. Further, if sensuous accessories
are at all requisite, stocks and stones, idols and
oracles, are far better helps to devotion than the
pulpit or the priest—the surplice or the sermon.
But independently of the intrinsic unfitness of
Christianity, the conduct of the missionary is scarce
better fitted to ensure success. It is very rarely that
he masters the vernaculars sufficiently to make him
self easily intelligible to his native audience. Even
where this superlative merit is achieved by the
grumbling apostle, he scarce forgets the whiteness of
his skin, his easy five hundred a year, or his com
fortable bungalow, with its pankas and tattees, when
he sees the dark masses rolling on before him,
�Christianity and Education in India.
7
doomed to work under a tropical sun. When he
addresses himself to them, perhaps once in a week,
and for half an hour in a thoroughfare, he is full as
conscious of his superiority as when lolling on
cushioned sofas in the luxurious abandonment of a
midday repose ; or when driving his beautiful phaeton
and pair of an evening through fashionable walks, to
enjoy the glories of a setting sun or the grateful
breezes of approaching night. It is beneath him to
mix with them freely—to talk to them familiarly—
and therefore to understand how to influence their
minds effectually. Is it a matter of surprise, then,
if his hebdomadal harangues, more remarkable for
periodic sententiousness and dramatic accompani
ments of voice and gesture, than earnestness of
purpose or common sense, should fall on careless ears ?
And yet this is the class from which the ranks of
Hindu Christianity are oftenest supplied. We have
seen there is nothing specially adapted in the new
religion, nor anything specially attractive in the
behaviour of the missionaries to bring about such a
result. Is it then an easy frame of mind in these
ignorant Hindus or their indifference that supplies
the explanation? No, they are bigoted enough and
tenacious too, like other Hindus, in what they consider
to be right, not to succumb to ordinary influences.
It is their poverty, or vitiated course of life, that
makes them take refuge in a change of social con
dition. The converted Hindu is always provided for
by Christian munificence, if not in every case liberally,
at least in a way to satisfy every reasonable demand
of nature. Can you wonder, then, if a few unfortu
nate or unprincipled Hindus would gladly take
shelter under a religion that does not leave the poor to
starve, nor compel the idle to work. But this same
supply which feeds expiring Christianity in India,
and gives it for a time a delusive appearance of
vitality and growth, carries with it, in reality, in'
B
�8
Christianity and Education in India.
evitable seeds of decay and death. The contempt
and disgust, which these dissipated and ignorant
wretches engender in every mind, are in themselves
a sufficient bar to its progress among the better
classes.
But enough of this. Let us proceed to our second
division—those Hindus, namely, who have received
a tolerably good English education, and are therefore
in a position to come more directly under the influence
of the Missionaries. Do these, at least, profit by the
light so considerately proffered them ? I am afraid
the position of Christianity is more hopeless here
than in the last case. I am afraid what is recom
mended to them as light, is looked upon by them
more as an ignis fatuus, decoying them to deeper
sloughs of error and superstition, than as an unmis
takable beacon leading to the calm haven of truth.
Whatever defects may have been laid at our door by
European opinionists, intelligence at any rate—at
least one kind of intelligence—has never been denied
us, even by the boldest amongst them. It is nothing
strange, therefore, if the same exercise of faculties which
leads the inquiring Hindu to question his own beliefs,
leads him also to question others recommended in their
stead. Once the spirit of Scepticism roused in him,
he knows no moderation. In his eyes authority be
comes mockery—faith impotence.
Free from the
magic of superstition, he becomes conscious of his
own strength. No dogma is too sacred—no explana
tion too plausible, to escape his rude challenge.
Hence, it is easy to conceive what treatment Christi. anity, with its manifold defects, has to expect from
his tender mercies. He pounces upon the thousand
metaphysical difficulties which surround its doctrines
and which have puzzled the ingenuity of its highest
philosophers, without being brought one step nearer to
a satisfactory solution. Nay, he rips open its very
fundamental conceptions, dragging to light every
�Christianity and Education in India.
9
•inconsistency, inconsequence, and self-contradiction
lurking or enshrined therein; while their helpless
champion, trembling with horror but unable to stop
this work of vandalism, wonders if heaven’s wrath
had spent its lightnings.
Meantime, the havoc pro
ceeds. The shattered images crowd on every side,—
the different attributes of the Godhead, so necessary
to Christian Orthodoxy, but so irreconcilable with
one another, and, therefore, incapable of predication
together; the strange doctrine of prayer, so useless if
God be just, so impious, so blasphemous, if it implies
his openness to flattery or adulation ; the enjoined
duty of a simultaneous belief in Predestination and
Free-Will, an impossibility both of thought and fact;
the necessity of inherited sin, and salvation through
the sufferings of an innocent God, a conception more
allied to wild caprice or wanton blood-thirstiness,
than any notion of justice or equity possible to hu
man intelligence, and yet a conception constituting
the essence of a Christian’s speciality as respects the
other believers in the Unknown and Unknowable: and
to crown all, this very salvation, worked through
centuries of human suffering and crowned with the
sufferings of a God, proving no salvation to the
greater part of mankind, who could scarce help
wondering if it might not be a deception of the
unholy Spirit working in the dark for our ruin: a
scheme, in short, so clumsy and unavailing, though
brought out in such wanton defiance of every law,
natural and moral, and worked with all the tentative
skill of Supreme Wisdom, improving upon itself
through experience of five thousand years, that it
leaves as much sin, suffering, and ignorance now in
the world as when it found them; a scheme, in fine,
which even human pride might blush to own.
Such is a rough sketch of the pugilistic skill of our
Hindu controversialist of the second class. 'If he
bares his breast to the fist of his antagonist, he ex-
�io
Christianity and Education in India.
acts a like courtesy from the opposite side. He knows
not the meekness that would present you the second
cheek to smite, when you have smitten the first.
But this would not do. This is contrary to all
acknowledged precedents and rules of Missionary
warfare in all heathen lands. Give but not receive,
is its motto ; and it is not our modern Missionary
that would derogate from his dignity as an infallible
mouthpiece of Pure Wisdom so low as to forget this
excellent precept. But whether from this motive or
from a lurking suspicion in his own breast that
“ Something is rotten jn the state of Denmark,” it is
a significant fact, the Missionary ever avoids an
educated Hindu. Though the conversion of one such
would be far more favourable to his cause than that of
a thousand ignorant unprincipled wretches, he never
attempts to convert him. It is almost ludicrous to
see the studious solicitude with which the anxious
apostle shuns all contact with him as with a dreaded
imp of evil. But unfortunately, as ill luck sometimes
would have it, his care is not always successful. Very
often some enterprising Hindu ferrets him out actual
ly to pay off for many a blow and poisoned shaft
aimed at him and his beliefs from behind his back.
And then, when once they are brought face to face,
the former, in whose constitution a love of contro
versy may almost be said to be hereditary, and now
smarting too from a sense of injury, hurls at his
antagonist every objection in its most damaging shape
with all the ingenuity of a Hindu brain; while the
latter, goaded to the quick and surprised out of his
usual reserve, but unable to maintain even a show of
contest, either flies into a passion, which is worse than
defeat, or gets entangled in platitudes, which produce
only mischievous merriment in his opponent.
But this is not all. The educated Hindoo, however
ignorant of science himself, does not fail to see,—and
living as he does in the nineteenth century can he
�Christianity and Education in India.
11
help seeing?—that the identical faith, which is so
strongly recommended for his adoption in India, is
exposed to a life-and-death struggle from the rapid
advances of science in the very land of its highest
triumphs, in the very cradle of its early successes.
Under these circumstances, is it not a matter of course
that the intelligent Hindoo should not rush forward
blindly to embrace what seems to him not only the
losing, but the erroneous side ?
If then Christianity has no chance, as we have seen,
with our first and second classes, how much more
unlikely is it that it should succeed with the third,
which comprises the most advanced amongst us:—those, that is, who combine, to a knowledge of the
English Language, a tolerable acquaintance with the
results of modern science and the principal processes
of its investigations ? It is not those, who have learnt
to regard the constancy and uniformity of Nature aa
the highest dicta of experience and the only foundation
of sure knowledge, that would accept your arbitrary
interpositions, sudden suspensions, and unnatural
intersections of natural laws, as any thing more than
the vagaries of a morbid imagination.
It is not
those, who have learnt to trace the operation of un
alterable causes, not only in the progressive develop
ment of life, not only in the gradual formation of our
globe, nor yet only in the slow emergence of the
system to which it belongs, but quite as well in the
general evolution of the whole universe in all its
details, and from times reaching backwards beyond
the power of calculation, that would believe them to
have failed or been set aside during one insignificant
life-time, on one insignificant spot of earth, for the
immediate benefit of one insignificant [art of one
insignificant race. It is not such, therefore, that
would swallow, at the bidding of the missionary, any
miracles that it might please him or his book to pro
pound. It is not down the throats of such that the
�12
Christianity and Education in India.
missionary may hope to cram his speaking donkeys
and suns that stand paralysed in their course. Nay,
they would not condescend even to wonder at the
existence of such beliefs in our times. To them,
credulity begot of ignorance and fostered by prejudice
supplies the necessary explanation.
But their position does not stop here. Armed
with positive knowledge, and commanding every
avenue to error, they fear not to charge into the
heart of the enemies’ camp. Their lance is at rest for
no ordinary prize. It seeks the heart-blood—the
sine qua non—of all superstition and error. In other
words, they join issue with their opponents on the
question of those very beliefs, without which not only
Christianity, but every other religion, in the usual
meaning of the term, becomes impossible. They con
tend, in short, that the popular idea, that what we
call the soul or mind is an independent entity, a some
thing quite distinct from the body and capable of
existence without it; and the supplementary notion,
that there is a conscious personal being, who is the
creator and ruler of the universe; are, to say the least
of it, notions which find support neither in nature
nor in reason.
Instead, therefore, of Christianity making any pro
gress among our third class Hindus, they are more
likely to contribute to its final and general rejection
by their countrymen.
But what of the fourth division 1
With the
Hindus belonging to this class at least, it might be
imagined, there must be better hope.
Neither
acquainted with modern science nor blind to the
gross superstitions common among their less educated
brethren, they must surely be more favourably
disposed to receive Christianity if properly presented
to them. Unfortunately for the cause of unfounded
hopes, the probabilities once more go hard against
such fond anticipations. The state of society in India,
�Christianity and Education in India.
13
in respect of beliefs and principles of action is, and
has been for a long time, very much like what that of
Greece and Rome used to be in their palmiest days.
In Rome and Greece, we know, the beliefs of the
higher and more educated classes—of their so-called
philosophers—had very little in common with the
superstitions of their less advanced countrymen. If
they tolerated them, or rather if they seemed them
selves to share in them, it was only from prudential,
self-interested considerations. They knew, too, that
all men could not be philosophers, nor was it desirable
that all should be. Something very similar to this
obtains now in Hindu Society. The Philosophers
or Pundits of India are not what they seem. If they
encourage the popular beliefs, it is purely from motives
of policy and self-interest. Their philosophy is too
subtle for the mass, nor is it their interest to
popularize it. They are the priests of the nation ;
and you know how everywhere the priests are jealous
of knowledge among any but themselves.
Their
power everywhere is in a direct ratio to the ignorance
around them.
Accordingly the Brahmin has two
schools—the esoteric and the exoteric, the one full of
ceremonies, prayers, penances, with all the remaining
paraphernalia of religious denomination, the other, of
philosophic discussions relative to the explanation of
the phenomena of the universe. The former is meant
to satisfy the wild cravings of untutored imagination
and utilize the emotional energies of aboriginal nature
for purposes of social economy; while the . latter
furnishes gratifications to choicer spirits seeking in
tellectual luxuries and contemplative repose.
Now of all the systems of philosophy I have any
knowledge of—whether the systems of ancient Greece
and Rome, the Peripatetic, the Sceptic, or the Epicu
rean ; their later developments in those of the schools ;
or still later forms—the modern systems of Kant,
Cousin, and Hamilton—I have no hesitation in pro-
�14
Christianity and Education in India.
nouncing the Vadantic philosophy of the Hindus the
most logical and profound. It makes the nearest ap
proach, I know of any, to the strict requirements of
modern scientific thought. In its fundamental aspects,
it is enough to add here, it resembles the system of
Mill and Bain.
It is a. well-known fact that Buddhism, in its origi
nal purity, was an offshoot of Hindu philosophy.
Buddha, who was familiar with its deepest mysteries,
but who. endeavoured to organize them into a religion,
was obliged, evidently to meet the grosser apprehen
sion of the masses, to make a compromise between the
requirements of logical precision and the necessities of
a practical reduction. It was accordingly an abortion
between philosophy and religion ; an unsuccessful
attempt to reconcile the rational and emotional natures
of man. It would neither satisfy the conditions of
pure reason, nor give scope to the full play of feeling.
And yet this system, abortive as it manifestly is, has
been pronounced,, even by European critics, the most
rational religion in the world. How much greater
must be the superiority then, of that philosophy over
all religions, of which Buddhism is but an offshoot,
and an inferior offshoot too !
There is.one circumstance connected with this phil
osophy which at first has a very misleading effect: I
mean the peculiarly difficult and almost mystical
phraseology in which its doctrines are couched. But
this, far from, being a demerit, ought to constitute a
recommendation in its favour, since it enabled the
enunciation of the subtlest and profoundest truths in a
language singularly consistent, accurate, and powerful.
Anything more than a hasty glance at some of its
principal features would be not only out of place, but
would demand far more space and time than can be
afforded in a lecture like this. I shall select, therefore,
a few salient points for comparison.
The Berkleyan theory of what is improperly called
�Christianity and Education in India.
15
Idealism, which reduces both the objective and subjec
tive worlds to Permanent Possibilities of Sensation,
and which is beyond doubt the most logical theory
yet conceived by the European intellect, is distinctly
stated, and enforced by powerful reasoning in this
Philosophy of the Hindus, now so many centuries old.
When it enunciates the grand truth that the internal
and external worlds are merely the varying manifesta
tions of oue and the same principle ‘ Maya,’ the
ignorant dabbler in Hindu philosophy translates the
word in its ordinary acceptation, and pronounces the
doctrine absurd. If he had only the patience to master
the language in which it is closed before jumping to a
conclusion, he would find that, as in English or any
other language, the popular and philosophic significa
tions of words are different, and sometimes almost
contradictory. The ordinary meaning of ‘Maya’ is
certainly delusion, but the philosophic value of it is as
certainly—the system of phenomena in contradistinc
tion to noumena—the totality of existence, real and
potential, regarded as possible or actual groups of sen
sations. So that the theory of ‘ Maya,’ as it is gene
rally called, is far from being what it is ignorantly
taken for. On the contrary, it is the enunciation of
the doctrines of the school of Mill and Bain in strict
philosophical language.
The modern theory of evolution, again, is plainly
shadowed forth in this philosophy, where it resolves
the first cause, not into an unmeaning change of
expression—“ a guiding and controlling intelligence”
—but into a principle, unconscious, self-existent, and
ever-changing—a principle of which concrete existence
in all its varieties is only an expression of varying
aspects. Thus the only First Cause that this philosophy
recognizes, is the first cause also of modern science—
matter with its properties.
One more point worthy of notice here is the theory
of necessity or fate. The first cause itself is subject to
�16
Christianity and Education in India.
it; rather necessity is itself one of its properties. Hence
it followed also that everything in the universe, being
but a manifestation of the first principle, is equally
necessary in respect of its co-existence or sequence.
This doctrine, it will be seen, is nothing more nor less
than the general uniformity and constancy of nature
which forms the ground-work of science. It is true
this doctrine, under the name of Asiatic Fatalism, has
been ridiculed by persons who neither understood its
unassailable foundation in fact, nor could distinguish
between its legitimate consequences, awful enough, to
confuse their narrow apprehension, and the illegiti
mate or unnecessary ones imported into the question
by their own incapable reasonings. But however
ignorantly ridiculed, or whatever preposterous effects
have been ascribed to it, the doctrine itself stands up
a sublime monument of Hindu thought at a time when
even the bulk of educated intellects of Europe are not
prepared for its intelligent reception.
Even the common version of the Hindu Trinity
is a fallacy of misconception. The popular notion of
the three deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva is
merely a flesh and-blood personification of the three
fundamental generalisations of our philosophy, of the
universe. These are respectively the constructive, the
restorative, and the degenerative or destructive prin
ciples in nature. They were no doubt suggested by
a careful observation of the operations of natural
agencies around us. Their truth is now acknowledged
by all, and requires no special amplification. Only it
deserves to be remarked how even such a simple belief
of the uneducated Hindu as that in the three gods,
turns out to be merely a stultification of the wisdom
of his philosophers, who centuries ago recognised
principles of nature but recently discovered by modern
science.
If we had time we might dig deeper into this won
derful philosophy, and bring to light richer ores of
�Christianity and Education in India,
xy
truth and reasoning ; but we must stop. Nor will
such work be necessary for our present object, if what
we have seen of it, slight as it is, has given us some
idea of the rich stores of wisdom that are the birth
right and pride of the Hindu Pundit. Is it this Pun
dit, then, that would renounce such a legacy of sublime
conceptions for the no-philosophy and bad science of
the missionary ?
Thus the chances of Christianity in India are small
indeed, after every allowance,—bad enough with the
first class, but worse with the second, and worst of all
with the third and fourth. Hence is its present un
satisfactory condition. Hence, too, its no better future.
As for the good which the missionaries are doing in
India in the way of imparting elementary English
education to the people, I gladly bear testimony to
their comparative success. But here, again, to show
our true gratitude to our benefactors, we, Hindus, can
do nothing better than try to convince them, as early
as we may, how absolutely unnecessary are these vast
sacrifices on their part for this purpose. India has
never been known to be a poor country. We can
stand perfectly well upon our own resources. Only
like the magic gate in the Arabian Nights’ Entertain
ments, the portals of our hidden energies open to no
sound but that of wisdom. Let but a little more dis
cretion and wit be infused into our administrative
element, and we shall never hear again the irrational
clang of debts and deficits. What we want is not
alms from others’ riches, but only wise direction to
develope our own. Our revenue, wisely expended,
would not only defray all governmental expenses, but
would leave a surplus more than enough for the con
struction and working of the most efficient educational
machinery ever known.
Under these circumstances can we d o betteT than re
mind our simple well-wishers, that ch arity had better
begin at home. Looking on the condition of the
�18
Christianity and Education in India.
working-classes in this country, can any body doubt
for a second that they need every farthing, that the
superfluous wealth of their more favoured country
men could ever spare ? Neither need I insist that
they alone deserve these good offices—at least deserve
them with far greater right than we may ever pretend
to do.
Having thus completed our survey of the position
of Christianity in India, let us now turn to the other
system of education, which is being conducted by the
Government in a purely secular spirit. It may be
desirable, however, to dispose of a preliminary diffi
culty in our way, relative to the supposed duties of a
Government. It may be, and it has been, asked if
the Government of India is under any obligations to
do more for its people in the way of their education
than the Governments of other countries, such as
those of Europe, for instance. To this question I
must reply, Yes. India is now in a phase of its
existence, in which it is weak enough to require a
guiding hand, but is strong withal to prove recal
citrant whenever its sense of justice is outraged—a
phase, in consequence, in which its destinies are
trembling in the balance, in which the highest delicacy
and foresight are requisite in those who have its
management to bring about results in any degree
conducive to the promotion of human welfare and
progi e 5S.
Such considerations, I admit, are of no higher
validity than those which have for their basis the
good of mankind. But unless dreamy transcendent
alism and empty inanities are to sway our notions,
I know no considerations more sacred or more bind
ing in any code of morality than these. If, therefore,
our Government be upright in its intentions, and not
mercenary—if its highest object be the advancement
of our race in mental and material prosperity, and
not the squeezing out the means of luxurious subsis-
�Christianity and Education in India.
19
tence for its officials from an enraged people, alike to
the detriment of its own stability and the welfare of
a whole nation :—if, I say, our Government be what
it ought to be, and my happy experience of seven and
twenty years justifies me in asserting that it has been
such in every essential element; then it will do for
the attainment of this noble object whatever will
conduce to it. Unflinching discussion and free ventila
tion of the opinions of every one interested in the
issue are necessary, not so much to cavil with what
has been done, as to show how best may be done
what yet remains to be done.
I shall proceed, therefore, to express my views
boldly on this much neglected subject, under the con
viction that they will meet with that amount of con
sideration which, if not their intrinsic worth, at
least their sincerity will demand from every thought
ful person.
In the Government system of education, then, the
one feature that stands out most glaringly is the
utter absence of what we understand by scientific
education from first to last in general instruction.
Nay, even what is taught is taught in an exceedingly
unscientific way. It is not only in respect of the
sort of instruction vouchsafed, but also in respect of the
manner in which it is imparted, that we have to com
plain of being left strangely behind the times. In
fact, such a state of things is inevitable so long as
the character of the staff of educational officers there
employed continues to be what it has been hitherto.
Throughout the whole educational staff in the Madras
Presidency, I cannot now recollect one name known
to science or philosophy. Beginning from the Pro
vincial School Head-Master up to the Director of
Public Instruction inclusive, the reign of ignorance
is supreme—ignorance in everything that constitutes
the real essence of knowledge. One might almost
stagger with dismay, if it did not border on unmiti-
�20
Christianity and Education in India.
gated contempt, to see the sublime innocence displayed
by these bearers of western light for the illumination
of the east:—innocence, sublime indeed, since it is
innocence in respect of those very sciences and
systems of belief, engendered thereby, which con
stitute the highest triumphs of modern western
civilisation.
Now to refer for a few seconds to the immense dis
advantages which a want of scientific education en
tails upon a nation. In the present day this reference
need not detain us long. It is enough to recollect
that every step forward in civilisation has been due
to some advance in science. In the world in which
we live we are surrounded by powers, conservative as
well as destructive, a knowledge of which, to some
extent at least, is necessary for our continued exist
ence ; while life, with any degree of comfort and
success, is possible only when we have mastered
them to considerable detail, and can utilize them
for our own purposes. Further, Nature is an inex
orable mistress. The slightest infringement of her
laws, whether through ignorance or perversity, is
alike avenged with the severest penalties. In the
reign of natural law reparation is impossible. It is
a deduction from the persistence of force that if we
make a single false step, we must be content to carry
its consequences with us to the grave. Hence the
inadequacy, the disadvantage of any system of educa
tion which does not include a knowledge of nature.
There is yet another aspect of the question, which
might bear a little further handling. I allude to the
rapid increase of population, particularly in civilised
countries, whose pent-up energies, under accumulating
pressure, must, in longer or shorter periods, find a
vent, as they have found already so often even under
less imminent circumstances, in acts of aggression or
wars of extermination against one another, or against
less favoured races. How helpless must be the con-
�Christianity and Education in India.
11
'dition of a people, then, who, from want of requisite
culture, are unable either to avert or withstand these
destructive irruptions! I know the time is yet far
off, thank our stars, when these volcanic outbursts of
human energy will become general. But is it the
less certain on that account, or should we be justified
in enjoying the delicious repose of the present in the
fancied security of a distant future ? No, we shall
not be a second too soon in urging upon our govern
ment the necessity of making us the best return for
our money in their power—of starting us with a fair
chance for the imminent struggle for existence looming
before us—for the threatening future so pregnant
with mysterious fates.
There is yet another consideration we might urge
with less selfish motives. The sooner an equilibrium
is established between the different civilised nations
in respect of power of self-maintenance or strength
of resistance, the better will it be for all parties con
cerned. The hurricanes of human violence that have
swept so often over the globe with such destructive
fury would have lost much of their vehemence if in
equalities in the distribution of power and the conse
quent tendency to a convective rearrangement had
been less pronounced.
But irrespective of negative considerations, are there
no positive benefits in the course I recommend to
accrue to mankind in general 1 I answer unhesitat
ingly, yes ! The process of natural selection, founded
as it is upon the fixation of favourable proclivities
through inheritance, and the elimination of un
favourable tendencies in the struggle for existence, is
a process not less operative in the evolution of
organic functions than in that of organic forms.
Further, there is no reason why a process, through
which such high results have already been achieved,
should not continue to bring about results higher
still. In point of fact, it is not only man that has
�22
Christianity and Education in India.
been evolved from lower forms, but higher races of
men are being developed from lower ones. It is true,
in this latter process, the operation of the principle
is far from being unobstructed as hitherto. But
though at several points along its line of action, its
force is being deflected for a time or even retarded
by antagonistic contact with the peculiar agency of
man’s psychological nature, which itself has brought
about; still its ultimate triumph is not for a moment
to be doubted. We have only to look into the past
history of mankind, imperfect as it is, and then
project ourselves in imagination into the future a
few centuries hence, when the conditions of existence
shall wax more stringent, and the struggle for sur
vival more violent, to be satisfied of the truth of
what I contend for.
Such being the case, does it not follow that the
better the materials presented for this law to work
upon—when the time should come for its unrestricted,
at any rate, more steady operation, the higher will
be the results attained 1 Is it not evident, too, that
the sooner we set about improving the general con
dition of mankind in order that, when the day
shall come, there may be always enough of the
to
best and highest type available to cover the whole
ground of survival without adulteration, the more
effectually shall we have assisted nature in its
progress to a glorious destiny 1 Now with such views
as these before us, both as to the present and the future,
can it be doubted for a moment that India, with its
already two hundred millions of people, covering in
extent no inconsiderable part of the habitable globe,
and endowed with powers of vitality and resistance
by no means contemptible, is destined to play a
significant part in the future history of mankind, or
that every step in human progress will be influenced
by the state of preparation and reach of antecedent
advancement, with which it shall enter the contest 1
�Christianity and Education in India.
23
Hence, even from a cosmopolitan point of view is
the course I recommend rendered a crying necessity.
But, independently of remote advantages, which,
however real, lose half their importance to the ordi
nary mind from their distance, are there no conside
rations of less equivocal significance and of a more
immediate bearing upon our collective interests 1 The
answer once more must be in the affirmative. We
have seen already that true progress consists in nothing
so much as in a successful cultivation of science—a
deepening insight into nature and her operations.
No amount of mere literary accomplishments—no
amount of mere analytical skill, if employed only in
the manipulation of a few abstract mathematical ideas
-—can avail us amidst the rigid and unbending pheno
mena of concrete existence.
Now, of these concrete phenomena, which cannot
be evolved deductively from a few comprehensive first
principles, no class of them is of more vital import
ance to us than that whose explanation we term
sociology or social science. Though there is scarcely
a department of natural knowledge which does not
in the long run, either directly or indirectly, contri
bute to our advancement, it must still be granted
that some are more useful to us in their immediate
results than others. A large proportion of our know
ledge is purely speculative, and has no bearing upon
our practical interests; while every additional cor
relation of its various factors tends more to the equili
brium of thought than utility in the ordinary accep
tation of the term. Hence those correlations which
result in useful applications naturally excite greater
interest in us, and are of more immediate importance,
than those which are purely of a theoretical character.
From this point of view, it is needless to remark'
the correlations of social science must evidently take
the precedence. But, unfortunately, in proportion to
their usefulness is also their difficulty.
Their satis-
�24
Christianity and Education in India.
factory establishment can be accomplished only by
those who combine to a knowledge of the other
sciences a familiar acquaintance with the different
methods of investigation applicable to different groups
of phenomena.
The truth of this statement will
become manifest when we recollect the position which
sociology assumes in the classification of the sciences
founded upon the principle of progressive complexity.
The social philosopher has to lay under contribution,
for the elucidation of his subject, not only the agencies
peculiar to itself, but also those regulating the condi
tions of other phenomenal sequences.
But further
more, not to speak of correct generalisations to be
achieved in this difficult science—even for a careful
sifting and selection of proper materials for arriving
at such—a preliminary knowledge of the kind we
have characterised is indispensable.
To know what
order of facts may be eschewed as having no bearing
upon any particular question in hand, and what order
are to be seized upon and tabulated for purposes of
further elaboration, is in itself a process possible only
under a previous scientific culture.
Now for a satisfactory settlement of many a con
tested point in social science, I know no country
better calculated to supply the necessary data than
Hindustan. The very fact that India contains such a
large population, broken up into so many races, each
speaking a different language and each presenting
different peculiarities, physical, social, intellectual and
moral; while yet a thread of broad community in
several respects runs through them all; must in itself
be a sufficient argument in its favour. Even a careful
observation and intelligent tabulation of these
interesting differences, with a running commentary
on the obvious causes thereof, placed alongside of
the results of a similar process applied to points of
resemblance, must I conceive inevitably lead to no
ordinary consequences. I feel convinced that as a
�Christianity and Education in India.
25
knowledge of the classic language of India first led to
the creation of a science already rich in results, but
richer far in the results it has yet in store for us, so
it is only a thorough knowledge of social institutions,
religious beliefs and other characteristic circumstances
connected with the Hindus that will place social
science on a sure scientific basis. We may almost
predict the various lines along which such a know
ledge is likely to extend its influence, after what we
know of the growth of philology and geology within
the last few years. In fact there are several points
of close resemblance between geology and sociology.
The customs, habits, beliefs, languages, &c. of the differ
ent nations are as it were the different strati cal systems
of social geology; while those preserved in their
literatures are the entombed fossils of anterior states,
wdiich taken with the present are capable of affording
as consistent and satisfactory an explanation of social
evolution as geology does of organic development.
The countries of Europe, as seen within the historical
period, are in one sense enough to illucidate the later
steps in this evolution ; in the same way as the
latest or tertiary rocks are sufficient to explain the
comparatively recent passage of man through the
three stages of flint, bronze, and iron.
But just
as for the comprehension of the far deeper and more
searching question of his origin, a careful study
of the earlier systems—the mesozoic and the palyozoic
—was found necessary; so a discriminating knowledge
of the more aboriginal institutions and literatures of
the eastern nations is indispensable for the explanation
of the more important problem of the genesis of society.
But of all eastern countries, no land presents, within
such a comparatively small area, a larger or a more
varied field for research than India. No country, too,
comprises within itself such varied systems of living
and dead forms of social life, reaching to the remotest
past, as India once more. Hence it is manifest the
�26
Christianity and Education in India.
study of India from a sociological point of view must
be of the last importance.
This, however, can be done with any approach to
efficiency only by those who are most intimately
familiar with the phenomena concerned; and are
capable at the same time of such intelligent work. It
must be evident therefore that it is only Hindus that
can successfully undertake this all important task. But
Hindus, though Hindus they be, would be worse than
useless if they had not the requisite preliminary
training. As for strangers attempting to accomplish
this end without native agency, they might as soon
attempt the merest impossibilities for aught one cares
about the result. So long as Europeans and Hindus
are what they are, no matter whose fault it is that
they cannot understand and do not sympathise with
one another, such must continue to be the case.
Hence an additional reason, the last but not the least
weighty I have herein adduced, why the Hindus should
receive a scientific education.
And now having thus brought these few reflections
on Hindu education to a close, it only remains for
me to thank you sincerely for the kind and indulgent
hearing you have accorded to my unequal attempt to
handle a subject full of the deepest interest and im
portance.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
�
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Christianity and education in India: a lecture delivered at St. George's Hall, London, November 12, 1871
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Row, A. Jyram
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Christianity
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Hinduism
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Christian Education-India
Conway Tracts
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India
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Text
K 237^
nJ
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
4
(S. -“3 aXA-x^vx,
essa;y i.
Jod. Thou breathest to
Thou who art life itself.’
us the breath of life,
hi. IV. II
The student who has patiently followed these essays thus
far through the labyrinth of cumbrous dissertations is now
to lift his head from the darkness which abides under the
skirt of Wisdom, and from groping after Her secret trea
sures of This Place nro mpn m, to behold for a season
the light of Her countenance without: to the end that from
that which is above he may understand that which is below,
and from that which is below may seek that which is above:
and so learning to live for Her by whom and for whom all
worlds exist may strive and fight for Her, not as one that
beateth the air.
We are now to breathe a new atmosphere, the daylight
of the outer and upper sky where it gleams abroad on the
busy world, on the vast mart of individual and social
interests. The shadowy cloister of philosophy must soon
throw open its doors, and our disputants Ish and Adam
walk forth together into the high road and join the motley
throng of human beings as they are, in order to see and
hear what now is, and to judge what shall be hereafter.
They must carry with them no prejudices, not even such as
seemingly tend to the social elevation of woman ; for flat
tery is hardly less detrimental to that cause than deprecia
tion. Preceding arguments have more than once been
directed to point out the all-important philosophic distinc
tion between woman and women; and we must not mix up
the eternal Divinity of the former with the manifold and
multiform failings and imperfections of the latter. Our
task is to teach what women are born to be, and to show
that the education and consequent habits of the world
hitherto have directly tended to bring girls up to woman
hood in complete and exact reversal of that course of
development which belongs to their innate qualities and
�2
THE EDUCATION OE GIBUS.
powers; the consequence of which perversion—that is, thcfirst consequence ; for a ghastly and almost endless train
attaches to it—is the undeniable, though perhaps not
obvious, fact, that no one has ever yet seen a real grown-up
woman, and no one knows what such a woman woidd be
capable of.
This may seem a paradox, but it is really an axiom. No'
existing woman nor man would have become what she or
he is at this moment but for her or his social surroundings,
past and present. We are each and all what our social
circumstances and the use we have put them to have made
us ; and the vast differences, especially mental differences,
which we observe among members of the same sex are,
generally speaking, quite as much, if not more, induced
from without than arising from within; no idiosyncracy
being strong enough to stand quite alone in all matters
whatever against the current of the time.
Well, then, who can point to a time and a place in the
world’s history where the current of social life, the influenceof the social atmosphere, flowed in the direction of treating
woman as the spiritual superior, or even equal, of man ?
Where and when has this been done, I ask—done soearnestly and effectually that adverse influences from with
out could never penetrate and vitiate that hallowed sphere ;
When and where did any woman, during her growth to
womanhood, ever breathe a social atmosphere the main,
weight of which was not dead against female supremacy in
either world ? But if such a state of things can nowhere
be pointed at, we come back perforce to this conclusion: a
real grown-up woman has not yet appeared in this icorld.
And even this is not all; the question follows, whether man
can be fully human while woman is not. In the subsequent
pages it will be considered whether he can. Meanwhile
here is on exposition of her views on the great social
question, written by a lady to the Examiner periodical of'
May 20th, 1871, showing how some few of our women, even
*
as they are, can rise equal to occasion.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
Sir,—At the various meetings and conferences that have
been held, and in the lectures that have been delivered, during
the last few weeks on the Woman Suffrage question, an enor
mous amount of reason and argument in favour of the removal of
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
o
political disabilities from women has been brought to bear on it.
It has, indeed, been asserted by several of the speakers, that all
the reason is on their side of the question, and the assertion has
not been disproved. “The objections of our opponents,” said
Dr. Lyon Playfair at the meeting at St. James’s Hall, “are
entirely of a sentimental character.”
Now, while perfectly concurring in the judgment that in
deciding all questions affecting great human interests, reason
should have the first place and sentiment the second; and that
in this particular question there is a weight of reason on one
side, and on the other nothing but sentiment, and sentiment
mostly of a very weak and washy character, it ought not to be
put so completely out of the question as the advocates of the
measure generally do. For even were the stout offensive weapons
of reason sheathed altogether, it could hold its ground, and ulti
mately win its way by the preponderating force of the highest
and purest sentiment it has in its favour.
There is now, say the opponents of Woman Suffrage, an
amiable forbearance to the ignorances and follies of women, and
an affection—occasionally a little contemptuous, no doubt—for
their weakness and defects, on the part of men, which is very
pleasant to see; while, on the other hand, women look up to
men with a sweet fearful humility, confide their whole social
and moral well-being to them with a beautiful unquestioning
trustfulness that is equally delightful and refreshing to behold.
All of which would be utterly destroyed by the social equality
of the sexes that the gift of political power to women would
necessary entail; and also by the intellectual equality that,
women’s minds being thus raised to take interest in a higher
range of subjects than they have yet done, must inevitably
follow. One honourable member of the House of Commons, in
the recent debate, reminded his brethren that a woman’s husband
should rule over her, and that “fear and blushing” were her
proper mental and physical conditions: while another dutifully
called to their remembrance the “ illogical and unreasonable
words which they had heard at their mothers’ knees,” and
warned them that if this bill passed their sons and grandsons to
come would have no such agreeable recollections to solace and
comfort them in manhood and old age. He also called upon
them to observe the dangerous element of priestly power that
would thus be introduced into our legislature, priests and such
like persons having always a pernicious influence over the illo
gical minds of women; a line of talk—I won’t dignify it by the
name of argument—carried still further by another honourable
member, who, with the eye of a seer, perceived in Woman
Suffrage the beginning of a Jesuitical rule that would ultimately
submerge all the Protestant liberties of England.
r!
But none of these honourable gentleman saw in this Bill the
foundation of a hope that finds a place in the breast of every
�4
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
one who takes a large and comprehensive view of society as it
has been, as it is, as it may be in the time to come ; for a new
and higher, and—for both—a happier moral and intellectual
relation of the sexes than the contemptuous forbearance and
terrified confidence—the latter too often misplaced—that, on the
showing of those who are doing their utmost to maintain it,
form the type of the existing state of things. Looking each no
further than himself and his own illogical woman—or women,
as the member for Kilmarnock naively suggested—whom he
finds it agreeable to him to have and to hold in a state of admir
ing subjection to his superior wisdom, their minds were closed
to that far nobler conception of the human life, in its twofold
aspect, that the promoters of this Bill aspire to see realised
among us; not, as now, exceptionally, but universally, as
humanity advances still further towards perfection. The conception of man and woman united, not as the master and the
slave, the possessor and the possessed, which places an almost
insurmountable barrier between their moral natures, but as co
inheritors of all freedom and knowledge and truth; working
together for the same great end, the moral, intellectual, and
physical advancement of the human race. The diversities of
the two natures, not of necessity dividing them in every aim
and object and pursuit in life, but recognised rather as intended
that, the two working for the same purpose, each shall supply
the lack of the other. The inequalities of two natures fitted
together until they become one nature ; the greater breadth of
thought filling the space left by the narrower ; the firmer grasp
of mind holding the weaker in its place ; the quicker perceptions
stimulating the slower; the readier sympathies bringing out the
more backward; and the more acute reasoning faculties, and
the more profound, giving each to each what the other wants,
all joined together harmoniously to form a perfect whole.
This is the relation between the sexes that those who are
demanding the political equality of women hope to see arise,
upon the destruction of the other which the opponents of the
measure say—and with the very correct prescience—will be its
inevitable result.
But that such a relation could be established until women
have equal political rights and equal educational advantages
with men is impossible. It is met with now, no doubt, but only
in rare individual cases where men, contemning the power the
law gives them, practically make it a dead letter, and where
women, having educated themselves, notwithstanding that they
are deprived of political rights, work by any indirect means that
they can to advance great political ends, the furtherence of social
reforms and the general welfare of the community. But the
number of men who, having power, will not use it, are few.
And the number of women who will have convictions and
interests without the right to give them effect, and who will have
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
$
tie Courage and resolution to work on themselves to undo all
that governess, and the schoolmistress, and the world in general
have done for them—and when they have destroyed the super
structure of folly and frivolity and falsehood that these have
raised up upon their minds to build another of true knowledge
and common sense there instead—are fewer still. For it is a
(much harder thing to do ; truly any one of the labours of Hercules was light in comparison ! And yet this is what every
woman must do who wants to raise herself out of the slough of
Ignorance and apathy and error about everything that is good
and great, in which the majority of her sex are sunk, unless she
kappen to have had the good fortune not to be educated at all,
When her labour is diminished one half.
®ie folly that supposes political rights and educational advan
tages would make every woman aspire to rule the State and
toeglcet her personal duties, is scarcely worth noticing. It is
sufficient for its refutation to say that as the power to vote does
not make the bank-clerk or the shopkeeper neglect his desk or
OffittBter, to indulge in dreams of being Chancellor of the Ex
chequer or Prime Minister, there can be no possible grounds for
Supposing that it would make his mother or sister do so : or, if
dreaded universal suffrage came to pass, his wife or daughter
either; even though they were all educated to be bank clerks
and shopkeepers’ wives and mothers, instead of poor imitations
of fine ladies as they are at present. Placing women on an
equality with men would never raise them .above them. The
*
terror that some of these lower orders of men now indulge in, of
the world under the new regime coming to such a pass that they
Would have none but female Gladstones and John Stuart Mills
®nd Professor Huxleys in petticoats to marry, is without a shadow
of .foundation. Education will always be controlled by capacity,
if not by circumstance ; while, given its fair chance, genius is
sure to rise to its own level.
But, as all political economists know, everyone who works
Conscientiously and intelligently in his own place—be that place
ever so small and obscure a one—is giving his quota of help to
#ie prosperity of the State. And it is hard for women, whatever
be their place, to work either conscientiously or intelligently,
with the moral and mental obliquities, consequent on their mis
directed education, and the degraded social status that they suffer
from at present.
Another of the fanciful terrors that haunt the minds of men
opposed to women having political power, and the natural con
sequence of political power, political convictions, is, that
politics would then form one of the general topics of conversa
tion between men and women in society, and would introduce
an dement of bitterness and dissension instead of the sweet
That remains to be seen.
[Present Author.}
�6
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
melliferousness that now characterises such intercourse. This
spectre, it is true, has some more reality about him than those
already disposed of; he has rattling bones at least, and is Lnot
one of the mere “airy nothings” they were. I admit that
women having a knowledge of, and an interest in, questions that
men only are now informed about and interested in, would be
likely to alter, to a very considerable degree, what is at present
the almost prevailing tone of the mixed society of both sexes.
But I cannot think that this would be an evil; on the con
trary, I believe that it would be a good; and a good so great
that to bring it about would be alone worth making the change.
As society at present exists, conversation between young men
and women, who are in person or manner excessively un
attractive to each other, is utterly insane and uninteresting to
both, and done merely as a duty to society. But, on the con
trary, if there be anything outwardly attractive in either to the
other, often when only very slightly attractive, sometimes
when merely negative, this intercourse assumes a tone called
by different names in the parlance of society, but which is, in
reality, a mutual excitation, or attempt at excitation, in a greater
or less degree, of sexual feelings, equally pernicious in its
effects on both. This will doubtless be called exaggeration,
but I need only point to the lists of broken troth-plights and
miserable marriages that the newspapers and each person’s
private circle of acquaintance furnish to verify the truth of the
assertion. What do these innumerable cases of men and
women, without the slightest real affinity in their natures, rush
ing into engagements and unions that end either in shameful
faithlessness or miserable bondage arise from but the fact that,
in the ordinary intercourse between men and women, there is
no opening for either to know anything of the other’s real mind
or disposition, while every effort is made on both sides to excite
a spurious admiration and love ? *
With no fear that educated Englishmen and Englishwomen
will ever be roused by political feeling to throw wine-glasses or
tea-cups at each other’s heads, or, in any other way, to forget
the respect due to each other, and each other’s honest convic
tions, serious thinking people might well rejoice to see elements
introduced into their association that would develop their real
sympathies and antipathies, bringing together only those whom
nature intended to be brought together, and sundering those
who ought to be sundered. “Fancy,” cry the ghoul-hunted
“a Conservative man married to a Radical woman, or vice versa!
There would be an end to all domestic peace ! ” We need
fancy no such thing. The skeleton of the rattling bones puts
* As spurious it is no doubt pernicious ; but were Divine Order fol
lowed, and sexual relations placed on a different footing, it would not be
so. [Present Author.]
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
7
this phantom completely to rout. On the showing of those
whose imaginations are frighted by these hobgoblins, such a
thing would be an impossibility. But without going so far as
to suppose that Conservative young men and Radical young
women, or the reverse, would ever be led, by the difference of
their opinions, to pull each other’s hair or punch each other’s
heads when they met in society, we must believe that the great
differences of mind that lead to these two mental conditions
would then be so apparent that there would be no possibility of
making a mistake on the subject; though the mistake may
easily occur under the present state of things, when, if a woman
happen to have any unlawful political opinions, she is frightened
into concealing them by the threat of her else incurring the
dreaded odium of all her male acquaintances.
But, with a new era of equal rights and equal knowledge for
women, we may hope to see this reign of terror for both sexes
come to an end. Then the day will come when a man will
not shrink, through a miserable vanity and self-conceit, from
owning that his wife is gifted with reason, as he is, and has the
same right to use it; above all, when he will be ashamed to
proclaim before his countrymen that he believes her to be such
a slave to the bigotry and superstition of priests, that even his
great controlling wisdom cannot direct her how to use her liberty
aright, and that he, therefore, dreads to give her the common free
dom and rights of a citizen—rather when he will rejoice in
having beside him a companion and fellow-worker to aid him in
carrying out his greatest aims, and in realising his highest
aspirations.—I am, &c.,
Alice Perrier.
Still more powerful is the following extract from a pam
phlet on the same subject by a well-known writer and
lecturer, Mrs. Annie Besant:—
Lastly, I would urge on those who believe in women’s natural
inferiority, why, in the name of common sense, are you so
terribly afraid of putting your theory to the proof? Open to
women the learned professions; unlock the gates which bar her
out from your mental strifes; give her no favour, no special
advantage; let her race you on even terms. She must fail, if
nature be against her—she must be beaten, if nature has in
capacitated her for the struggle. Why do you fear to let her
challenge you, if she is weighted not only with the transmitted
effects of long centuries of inferiority, but is also bound with
nature’s iron chain? Try. If you are so sure about nature’s
verdict, do not fear her arbitration; but if you shrink from our
rivalry, wemustbelievethatyoufeel ourequality, and, to cover your
own doubts of your superiority, you prattle about our feebleness.
“Women are indifferent about the possession of the fran
chise.” If this is altogether true, it is very odd that there
�8
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
should be so much agitation going on about the subject. But I
am quite willing to grant that the mass of women are indif
ferent about the matter. Alas! it has always been so. Those
who stand up to champion an oppressed class do not look for
gratitude from those for whom they labour. It is the bitterest
curse of oppression that it crushes out in the breast of the
oppressed the very wish to be free. A man once spent long
years in the Bastille ; shut up in his youth, old age found him
still in his dungeon. The people assailed the prison, and
amongst others, this prisoner was set free; but the sunshine
was agony to the eyes long accustomed to the darkness, and the
fresh stir of life was as thunder to the ears accustomed to the
silence of the dungeon; the prisoner pleaded to be kept a prisoner
still. Was his action a proof that freedom is not fair? The slaves,
after generations of bondage, were willing to remain slaves
where their masters were kind and good. Is this a proof that
liberty is not the birthright of a man ? And this rule holds
good in all, and not only in the extreme cases I have cited.
Habit, custom, make hard things easy. If a woman is educated
to regard man as her natural lord, she will do so. If the man
to whom her lot falls is kind to her, she will be contented; if
he is unkind, she will be unhappy; but, unless she be an excep
tional character, she will not think of resistance. But women
are now beginning to think of resistance ; a deep, low, mur
muring is going on, suppressed as yet, but daily growing in
intensity; and such a murmur has always been the herald of
revolt. Further, do men think of what they are doing when
they taunt the present agitators with the indifference shown
by women? They are, in effect, telling us, that if we are in
earnest in this matter, we must force it on their attention; we
must agitate till every home in England rings with the subject;
we must agitate till mass meetings in every town compel them
to hear us ; we must agitate till every woman has our arguments
at her fingers’ end. Ah! you are not wise to throw in our
*
teeth the indifference of women. You are stinging us into a
determination that this indifference shall not last; you are nerving
us to a struggle, which will be fiercer than you dream ; you are
forcing us into an agitation which will convulse the State. You
dare to make indifference a plea for injustice. Very well; then
the indifference shall soon be a thing of the past. You have as
yet the frivolous, the childish, the thoughtless on your side; but
the cream of womanhood is against you. We will educate women
to reason and to think, and then the mass will only want a leader.
However, it is not to be pretended that philosophic, any
* Argumentative agitation ought of course, to be tried in the first
place; but, should arguments fail, women have a reserve force in
waiting. [Present Author. ]
�THE JEOTJCATION OR GIRLS.
more than diplomatic, controversy can be carried on withont a definite basis of negotiation ; and if we are to predi
cate right and wrong of a given state or states of society at
large, we must adopt some standard of what ought to be,
whereby to judge the character of what is. It hardly needs
to be said that the standard adopted in this work is the
hypothesis of the work—namely, the essential spiritual
Supremacy of woman over every other being in the universe,
and so of course over the universe of Nature itself, in the
same manner in which an individual woman is over and
above her own speech or her own clothes. Hence it is
necessary to take the religious aspect of the question as the
fundamental groundwork of every other aspect; for indeed
religion is truly but the final summing-up of all kinds of
practical utility.
The great lesson to be learnt, the fundamental axiom to
be engrained upon the mind of every one who aspires to
break the fetters wrought by a false and evil social edu
cation, is that this question of woman’s spiritual birthright
is one about which there can be no sort of parley or com
promise. The writer of the letter to the Examiner speaks in
a tone which seems to encourage the idea of sexual equality.
Now this is right enough in a certain restricted sense, but
in that only. It is only in view of the temporal co-operatfon of the sexes toward reunion in the Divine Female
Unity that the question of equality can be entertained. It
is certainly requisite that women should compete with men
on fair and equitable terms in all mundane matters, great and
small, in the government of Europe and America, as at the
chess-board, or in any other game. But to infer, from the
fact of the two sexes getting on best by mutual help and
competition in the earth-world, that man can be the equal
of woman spiritually, is neither more nor less than to make
Good and Evil equal, or two Infinites—a manifest ab
surdity. It is the destiny of the masculine or evil principle
in the universe to be finally reabsorbed into the feminine or
good principle, and so annihilated; hence doctrine or prac
tice which may be inconsistent with this knowledge must
always end in futility and failure, as it always has done.
This being clearly understood, and the spiritual dominion
*
* Demonstration of the doctrines thus sketched cannot be given
■within the compass of this pamphlet, which has a more immediate and
practical purpose.
�10
THE EDUCATION OE GIRLS.
being put aside as inherently and essentially belonging to
woman only, we can afford to be quite impartial between
the sexes in all other concerns. And the best service
which those who have the opportunity can render to women
is not to flatter or favour them, but to provide fair oppor
tunities for both sexes to compete, and then pay or reward
by results only, and not according to the sex of the worker,
or on any other extraneous consideration. There will, pro
bably, always be some physical matters in which a man can
do better than a woman, just as there are others in which a
horse or ox can do better than a man; these will soon show
themselves under any regime. For the rest open competition
will prove woman’s best title-deed.
The one-sided system under which we live cramps
the efforts even of wealthy benevolence. We see many
a wealthy philanthropist, no doubt, men who would do
good far and wide if they could, and who would not be
narrow and selfish if they could help it. But they cannot
help it so long as the social atmosphere they breathe is one
of general suspicion and distrust, of caution against being
over-reached, even by one’s friends, for their own benefit or
aggrandisement; so long as misunderstanding and envy
take the place of co-operation and sympathy. And I say
that so long as one of the sexes—and that the higher sex—
is kept from its rights, and artificially stunted in its capaci
ties, this state of things cannot be altered. History will
repeat itself with its woes and horrors, for there is
nothing to prevent similar circumstances kindling similar
passions, however hard they may have been scrubbed
in the meanwhile by the polishing-brush of an unsound
civilisation.
The Dialogists may now appear.
Adam. You know well, Ish, how to state your views
forcibly; but a good statement does not always involve a
strong case. Granted the folly and unmanliness of sitting
down helpless under admitted evils, it does not follow that
we are safe in receiving with open arms the first worldbetterer who comes forward with an offer of ready made
universal regeneration. Many plausible panaceas have been
tried, and you will agree with me that they have all failed
in their main object. Wh^ should we expect for yours a
better fortune than for all those that have gone before ?
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
11
Ish. The upshot of all which is—that there is never to he a
sensible improvement here in the circumstances of mankind!
If so, I think Wordsworth’s supposition about fire coming
down from far to scorch earth’s pleasant habitations and
dry up old ocean, in his bed left singed and bare, was no
idle one. The sooner this planet is burnt the better. After
all, the idea is not peculiar to Wordsworth or to his times.
Paul, I think, said something about the elements melting
some day with fervent heat; and thus much, at any rate, is
well known, that certain of the heavenly bodies have
already disappeared suddenly and unaccountably. May we
not reasonably fancy that their inhabitants had been offered
the last chance and would not take it ? But putting poets
and theologians aside, it is quite safe to say that in the
absence of much greater knowledge than our men of science
yet possess concerning the possible contingent causes of
sudden generation of excessive heat in the sun or in some
still more powerful star—the tenure of this little tem
poral home of ours, with its beauties and its drawbacks,
may be much more precarious than we are accustomed
to believe.
A. Save us, Ish! that is a tremendous threat. I hope
this earth will take care to improve before so violent a
remedy as that becomes necessary.
I. Not on its present style of going on. But my hope and
belief is that things will change for the better and obviate
all occasion for the human race to be rubbed out, and have
to begin again at the beginning.
A. I hope so too. I do not go so far as to deny the
likelihood of the world being bettered, I assure you.
I. Well, then, how far do you go ? Let us have something
definite.
A. I mean no more than what I have already said, that a
heavy burden of proof lies on the side of such innovation as
yours.
I. As heavy as you please. Only the proof, mind you,
lies not in talking, but in doing. I do not ask you or society
to take my words for anything ; I ask you to do your duty
by woman, and set her free from her present thralls, and it
will then be for her, not me, to prove the truth of what I
say. The burden of proof may |ie upon me, but the burden
of unperformed duty lies upon your side ; and that is a far
more serious matter.
�12
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
A. Ah, then you do not rest your claim for woman’s
emancipation upon the fact of her essential divinity ?
I. Certainly not. I make, it is true, both claims; but
they are quite independent of each other. I arraign you in
the first instance for systematically ill-treating a portion,
the greater portion, I believe, of mankind. That is the first
step ; my assertion of her exclusive divinity is a step beyond.
A. I see. Well, then, to deal with the first step; how
does it happen that the female race exists in a generally
inferior position to the male race all over the world? You
denounce the fact as an abuse; but I should like to hear
you account for it.
I. It happens simply by the law of brute force; which
law, as humanity develops more, that is, rises in the scale of
its own being, gradually gives way to the higher law, that
of spiritual force, which is woman’s strength.
A. You mean, then, that man has no other superiority
over woman than that which great brutes have over him.
I. Just so.
A. But is it so? Putting causes aside, and looking to
their effects, do you not find yourself obliged for candour’s
sake to allow that, as men and women have hitherto been
and still are, the male sex has excelled the female in per
formances which savour not at all of the brutal, but quite
the contrary ? To take notorious instances near home,
what woman has written like Shakspere, has composed like
Beethoven—in short, not to enlarge, where have women
hitherto accomplished works in any department open to both
sexes equal to the best that men have accomplished ? It
does seem to me strange at the outset, that the superior sex
should be beaten by the inferior in nearly all—I am by no
means sure I might not say quite all—real practical doings.
I will add that, let alone higher things, it has yet to be
shown that men could not, by practice, also tend children,
and make beds, and mend clothes, and do all other domestic
duties commonly supposed to be women’s special province,
as well, aye and better, than women themselves. I am free
to avow that my notion of superiority is one of superior
performance even more than of beautiful appearance; and
if women generally cannot do what men generally can, what
is their superiority worth, even if it exist? You see, it is
one thing to aspire to the glories of heaven, and another to
condescend to recognise the utilities of earth.
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
13
I. Is that meant to imply that the glories of heaven are
not worth taking trouble about, while the utilities of earth
are? At any rate, then, let the glories of heaven be left
to woman, and let man confine himself to the utilities of earth.
A. No, but I don’t see how to reach the higher without
employing the lower.
I. Well, man has certainly not reached the glories of
heaven by his able use of earthly means. There can hardly
therefore, be that connection between the two which you suppose J
A. Come then, I waive heaven; woman shall be welcome
to it, so long as you leave earth to man.
I. I might retort that a compulsory cession is not meri
torious ; but let that pass. I cannot, however, leave man
to his misrule and usurpation of earth.
A. I suppose he must go to hell, then ?
I. Nay, nay; justice between the sexes in this world
makes the best earth for the male sex and the best heaven
for the female. But that justice has yet to be done.
When it is done, done in fulness without stint or reserve,
then the nations who sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death will have seen the beginning of a new heaven and a
new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness.
I grant, however, that your case would look strong enough
so far as regards the test by works, if only you could show
that women have had equal opportunities with men, and
therefore that their backwardness in productive arts must
proceed from some inherent defect of their nature. But
my argument—which I shall proceed to make good in detail
—is that the reason why women have not turned out Shaksperes and Beethovens, &c., is because they have not
been trained from early youth in such a manner as to give
their latent faculties a fair chance. I do not say but what
there might always remain a perceptible sexual difference
of mind as well as of body; but you have no ground for
assuming that such difference would place the female at
disadvantage; on the contrary, it is evident that analogy__
the only test we have to go by—points to a superiority on
the female side in the department of mind corresponding
to that she already undisputedly possesses in that of matter
—her physical beauty. Meanwhile, I am satisfied for the
present if you sincerely concede the first step and give up
the religious department of life to woman unreservedly.
�14
THE EDUCATION OF GIFTS.
ESSAY
‘ But now
‘
II.
been, how worse than
[blind !
Day by day we resist thy saving grace.’
blind have we
in. iv. iv.
The Dialogists may resume.
A. Come to the point, Ish; what do you formally pro
pose to substitute for a woman’s present surroundings and
bringing up ?
I. I propose, in a few words, that woman, from her
earliest infancy shall be systematically developed instead of
being systematically repressed and snubbed, as she is.
A. How is she so ? I must say that I cannot see it.
I. Let us begin, then, at the beginning proper, the
earliest influences common to childhood; and you will
discover, before we have done, that these influences are the
same as, or strictly analogous with, those which determine
our character at the close of this life—character, that one
thing which though we brought it not with us into the world,
yet it is certain we must carry out. The child is father to
the man, as Wordsworth says, in this sense, that the career
of the adult is foreshadowed by the peculiarities of the
infant; but then these peculiarities themselves assume a
healthy or an unhealthy form, accordingly as they are judi
ciously or injudiciously treated by those who have the rear
ing of the young mind.
Now, although between the treatment respectively of a
girl and of a boy just born there can hardly be much external
difference, there will, nevertheless, be a difference, too
subtle for ordinary people to observe, perhaps, but by no
means too subtle to affect the infants. I mean the differ
ence of what is termed atmosphere, in reference to the
spiritual world. Even while the new-born babe is wrapped
in a flannel covering and taken in the nurse’s arms, the
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
15
persons around the latter will begin to make their observa
tions ; and their words, which the babe cannot understand,
will be accompanied with looks expressive of affection or of
indifference, which there is good reason to believe it can.
The tones of the voice also have ei idently a strong effect
both on children and on lower animals. Now, without
assuming that we should everywhere meet with much differ
ence in the welcome given to a male or a female child;
without any ignoring of the fact that girls are often wel
comed where boys would not be—still I maintain that the
impulses generally evoked by the birth of a girl into a family,
the discussion of her promise of attractiveness, her possible
prospects in matrimony, &c., in short, her tacitly recognised
place as a tributary and appendage to the male—these things
floating and being ventilated around her, almost from the
very hour of her birth, coagulate the first stratum of that
poisoned spiritual atmosphere wherein she is destined to
grow up. The fondness for a baby girl felt in particular
instances by her parents and nurses may happen to exceed
that for a boy; but the fondness is of a different kind.
Ordinary persons have been accustomed to look upon boys
as those intended hereafter to be equals among themselves
in proportion to rank and wealth, and to be the masters of
women in their respective degrees. Consequently, it is not
to be expected that the future superior and the future
inferior in all matters of life should be regarded at the
outset of their lives with the same kind of affection, even
where the degree of it is in favour of the girl.
Thus, even before parents or guardians have begun to
dogmatise about the religious or moral training up of the
new-born girl, the atmosphere of that small society into
which she comes at her birth is dead against her. Of warm
love she may receive plenty; but it is rarely love of the
most precious kind; at the best, it is love that will provide
all attainable comforts and advantages for her lower nature,
and leave—nay, lead—her higher nature to perish. Be they
to whose care the infant is committed Jews, Christians,
Mahomedans, non-religionists, what you will, they all agree
in a common warfare against the divine order of the universe.
So the new-born girl inhales an atmosphere dead against her
spiritual life, so soon as her young eyes can discern faces
and her ears distinguish tones.
Let it not be thought that kindness of any sort, however
�16
THE EDUCATION OE GTKL.S.
mistaken its mode of working, is to be depreciated. The
young blind, led by the adult blind, will both, indeed, fall
into the ditch; but no one is further than I am from
disbelieving that the blind guides, as a rule, do their best
for their infant charge; and, moreover, I am sure that
there are some amongst them so honest and single-minded in
their simplicity, as to be capable of turning aside from the
evil way and walking in the right one, if only they could be
shown it. But, unfortunately, these are not the persons
who in this world form the mind and set the fashions of
society. It would almost seem as if mental culture were
laboured for only to be abused, so that in place of the head
being ruled by a good heart, the heart is misruled by a
perverted head until it has ceased to be honest. At any
rate, the knowledge of the sanctity hitherto attained by the
classes who make it their profession, has not exceeded that
amount which is proverbially dangerous ; the history of
priestcraft being a history of knowledge sufficient to become
an engine for misleading the masses, but not sufficient to
demonstrate beforehand what the event proves, that such
policy must bring about the falsification and corruption of
all social relations, and sooner or later bring down on its
authors and promoters the just execration of the lamely pro
gressing nations of the earth—still just, even although the
nations themselves were doubly in fault; first for having
made to themselves those crooked rules, and then for not
cutting them down like rotten trees so soon as ever their
character appeared. That character, it is true, depends
upon society, which thus moves in a vicious circle. A
superstitious laity sets up priests without natural qualifica
tion for their office; and these naturally take advantage of
their position to keep the laity conveniently superstitious.
And so the wheel goes round, without remedy, that I can
see, but in calling to our aid the dormant capacity of the
female race, and substituting the religion of nature and true
humanity for an ignoble idolatry which usurps its place.
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
17
ESSAY III.
[The same continued.']
I. I said that the fact of its social surroundings tending
to affect the character of an infant, is one which not all
minds may be able to comprehend. I think, however, that
few will be able to follow me into the next field of inquiry,
a spacious and sunny ground, where the objects to which I
shall direct attention are large, and simple, and common;
so that no hearer of my words shall be able to plead the
miserable excuse of his own intellectual weakness.
However hazy may be the notions many people have
concerning such things as spiritual atmosphere, they ought
to be able to follow me when 1 pass on to the period where
children begin to speak their little syllables and to take in
the drift of short sentences spoken to them, to distinguish
faces constantly seen, and to exercise acts of recent memory.
And here, in this manifest opening of education, comme-ces
the working of that evil spell which is to bruise and bll lit
the opening powers of the female child, and through her to
ruin the character of the male children with whom she con
verses, and through both to people the world with beings
who grow up, the one sex to be but half men, the other, it
is hardly exaggeration to say, not women at all.
Where, then, is the commencement of this evil spell’s
operation ? A little girl who has brothers ought to be inti
lectually the better for it; the sexual character of mines,
under the present terrestrial dispensation, being as much
intended for reciprocation as that of bodies. But what
benefits do we actually find ? The girl a year or two old,
just able to prattle and comprehend a few sentences, is at
once put by her mother or nurse, or both, into subjection
under her male companions on every occasion of a little
nursery quarrel about playthings, or some other storm in a
tea-cup. At best the little brothers are told that they should
give way to the little sisters on principles of chivalry, &c.,
�18
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
so far as children can be taught such things ; that is to say,
because they are supposed to be the stronger, being: boys,
and the strong should always be generous to the weak. The
boy is to be kind to the girl on the principle that the merci
ful man is to be kind to his beast. I don’t mean that people
tell boys this in express words : but if they insinuate it that is
just as bad. They are doing their best, however unwit
tingly, to train up a child in the way of sacrilege and wrong;
and when he is old—nay, when he has attained the prime
of life—he will not depart from it.
A. Spoken like yourself, Ish. And, indeed, I am alive to
the reality of how much may be done by early impressions
for good or ill; but are you not making too much of it ?
For my part, I should be inclined to leave mothers and
nurses alone until the children are old enough to come
under wider influences, and then take care that these new
influences, which can easily be made to obliterate the old
ones, are of the right sort.
I. But why, my good friend, why go putting off to a
convenient season the duty which it behoves us to do to
day ? Why adopt or sanction a system of beginning wickedly
and foolishly, in the ungrounded confidence that you will
afterwards proceed righteously and wisely? If you may
spiritually debase your daughters at, say, four years old,
why not at seven ; if at seven, why not at seventeen, and so
on? Do you imagine it is so easy to say to the powers of
darkness, Thus far shall je go, and no further? No, no;
the only safety is in teaching children the principles of
divine order so soon as they are able to learn anything.
And I do not pretend that it will be a light task to neutra
lise the evil influence of so many past generations. But it
has to be done ; therefore, the sooner all classes buckle to
the business the better for all.
A. Well, but, Ish, how, for instance, in teaching young
children, would you account to them for the greater brute
force of the male ?
I. In the first place, I have great doubts whether this
quiet assumption about the male’s greater physical force is
not an utter delusion—I mean, of course, when we com
pare males and females of the same calibre. Of course, I
do not deny that men in general grow to a larger stature
than women in general, and have proportionally so much
more of that force which is identical with material weight.
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
It
Although, mind you, there is no reason why this order of
nature should continue. A very few generations might reverse
it. For instance, I believe the largest and tallest huma^
being now alive is a woman who lately exhibited herse1^London; and I lately read somewhere that Cuvier remarked ’
that the largest and heaviest brain he ever exfLmine(j wag...
that of a woman. These little straws show that tpe wjnq
seed not always set in the direction of Loan’s superiority
*
even in mere brute weight and its force, Moreover let me
remind you that enormous importance should attach to the
notorious fact that the existing modes of life of men and
boys generally is very much more calculated to develop
and haiden muscle than that of women and girls. So much
the worse for society and its customs; nevertheless, such
is the fact. And the difference between the muscles of the
same person properly exercised and not properly exercised,
is second only to that between the muscles of different
persons. Meanwhile, if great brute weight or force is ■
to be called superiority well and good. Only in that case, while you point out to children how 11 superior ” man isto woman, you must also point out to them how “ supe
rior” the elephant is to man, how “ superior” a great steamengine is to an elephant, how “superior” a falling cliff or
an irruption of the sea is to the steam-engine. Let it once
be cleaily settled that superiority means simply a greater
mass of inert matter, and then the assertion that man is
generally woman’s “ superior ” remains harmless so lon°- as
it holds good.
°
A. But are you sure that in a state of society where men
am women had equal opportunities and no favour physically
Old mentally, there would not be some performances in which
men would always excel women, as there would be others
m which women would excel men ?
7. I know of no evidence to show that men need always
surpass women in anything except those kinds of hard
labour, e.g., carrying heavy loads, which a woman in preg.
nancy, or during her menstrual periods, ought certainly to
avoid if possible.
J
. .4’
now> Ish, how would you take measures for
initiating very young children into your doctrine of Divine
‘
Order, so as to prevent the young religious or aspiring
faculty from going wrong ?
X I do not see that there is any necessity fcr trying thei?
�20
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS
heads with deep matters at all. Not the ineffable Tetragrammaton, the universal one, but Elohim, the Godhead or
Divine Plurality—in other words, not Woman, but her re
presentative aspects, or individual women—constitute the
temporal object of worship which alone can belong to our
temporal conditions. We can worship and behold the One
olny through and in the Many.
A. Bless us, Ish ! do not you call that a deep matter? I
should like to find the child who could be posted up in it.
I. But, my dear Sir, alb you have to teach children is
that they are never to worship any other object than a
female—their own mother in the first instance, if you like.
As they get older, the idea can be gradually extended from
the single individual. Surely that is both simple and
natural.
A. Not quite such plain sailing as it might seem It is
all very well to talk of worship; but you yourself, Ish, had
you been taught on your present principles when you were
a child, would have knelt before a particular woman or girl,
and prayed to her with a homage as purely external and
objective as the attention paid to an article of food set
before you, and perhaps also as vague as, let us say, one’s
ordinary notion of “ London ” or “ the sea.”
1. Well, I cannot help that. Of course children’s worship
will be childish. All we can do is to see that rudimentary
and inchoate religion shall not develop wrongly. If a child
can only “ love ” a woman in the way that “ Charley Cram
loved raspberry jam,” that, at any rate, is better than its
living in awe of the detestable nightmare of a false god,
as all children who are taught religion at all are still com
pelled to do.
A. Return your sword, Ish; we must examine these
minutiae dispassionately.
1. Willingly. I have said nothing, however, but what I
am prepared deliberately to repeat.
A. Well then, now suppose that a child has reached that
stage of religious development where it can begin to extend
the sphere of its worship of women, or rather of woman ;
and suppose that two or more of those lovely objects of
worship happen to fall out and tear each other’s character
to rags, in their young devotee’s presence. It strikes me
that the growing Church of the Future would soon learn
that in mutual scolding, if in nothing else, the Divine
�THE EDUCATION OP GIRLS.
Plurality undoubtedly excels her humble subject, the
male.
I. Well, that would be the first lesson—rather a rude one,
it is true, and therefore to be avoided if possible—upon the
difference hetween the Unity and the Plurality, between
perfection and imperfection. Indeed they are pretty sure
to find out imperfections and inconsistencies in the objects
of their worship under even the most favourable circum
stances ; therefore it is to be kept in view that they should
learn to look higher than the individual, so soon as they are
able to understand the simple formula that there is a Woman
greater and better than all other women, who rules the
(world, and some day or other will set right everything that
goes wrong here. This, of course, is but a child’s way of
looking at the matter, and perhaps better modes of convey
ing the truth might be stated; all I strenuously insist on is
that though it may be impossible to convey the whole truth
to the young child, it is at all events possible, and a solemn
duty, moreover, to convey to it nothing but the truth.
Where there’s a will there’s a way : and if mothers, nurses,
&c., only set themselves right, it is not likely that the infants
and children under their care will wander far from the path
of Divine Order.
41. I should be glad, nevertheless, to hear something more
like explicit directions.
I. You must not rate any directions of this sort which I
can give as anything more positive than suggestion. Here
is a suggestion, however, if you please. If it be desired that
children begin religious practice very early, say by repeating
a short sentence at bed-time, why not tell them that the God
to whom this little prayer is made is simply a Woman, like,
btft more lovely than, all other women together, and that
though She cannot be seen and talked with in this life, yet
if we pray to Her and trust in Her now, we shall live in
enjoyment with Her in a happier life hereafter? To a very
intelligent child it might be added that in that happier life
there will be only women and girls, all good men having
been changed into them; but this could only be said use
fully to very thoughtful children. There then, Adam, I
have done my best to throw you out a hint or sketch; you
or others might, no doubt, easily improve upon it. Anyhow
it is right so far as it goes, though that be only a little way.
You would have shown the children—or put them in the
�22
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS
right road to find out—that the God to whom they pray is
an ever ready help and comfort in trouble, an ever ready
eompanion and sympathiser in pleasures, be they ever so
childish, a real God at hand to heal and bless, not a false
and mean and revengeful and selfish God afar off to disap
point and mock.
A. Yes ; I see no objection to that.
I. Contrast such a faith of living warm sweetness and
reality, which daily experience and spontaneous observation
would mainly tend to confirm without the aid of unnatural
distortive struggles of imagination—contrast it with the cold
blast of Infinity, or with the bloody horrors of the historic
tragedy on Calvary. Is there not between the two kinds of
religious education almost the difference between giving a
a child its mother’s milk, and dashing its head against the
stones ?
Those who have young children to bring up will do well
to consider that they live in an age of rapid transition,
when the old faiths are crumbling away and fated soon to
lie mingled with the dust. Hence, to bring up children in
reliance upon those collapsing walls is decidedly worse
than to give them no religious education at all. It is but
to expend time, labour, and means upon work which will
have to be picked to pieces, upon lessons which will have
to be unlearnt, and unlearnt by no means cheaply. If in
deed a new and higher dispensation appear too startling to
be acquiesced in at once, it is surely better to suspend
judgment than to persist in a futile and discreditable course.
Let parents consider that their children, when they are
grown up men and women, living under a stronger and
purer light, will assuredly not hold them blameless, will
assuredly not esteem blundering affection any sufficient
excuse for having forced their young charge to cling by
their side to that which was visibly and palpably rotten.
A. You speak very harshly of beliefs which, although I
do not share them, are dear to many harmless and benevo
lent people.
I. I mean no injury to any one’s creed, regarded as a
purely religious ideal. But when that creed is made the
pretext for a social and political code of injustice and
oppression, it must incur the condemnation due to the
wrongs which it is abused to sanction.
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
23
ESSAY IV.
[Ish’s Discourse continued.]
*
1 Sic fatur lacrymans classique immittit habenas the
Saturday Review of January 4th, 1868 :—
'There are, it must be owned, few things on earth of less interest
at first sight than a girl in her teens. She is a mere bundle of
pale, colourless virtues, a little shy, slightly studious, passively
obedient, tamely religious. Her tastes are “simple;” she has
to particular preference, that is, for anything; her aims incline
mildly towards a future of balls to come ; her rule of life is an
hourly reference to “ mamma.” She is without even the charm
of variety; she has been hot-pressed in the most approved
finishing establishments, and is turned out the exact double of
her sister, or her cousin, or her friend, with the same stereotyped
manner, the same smattering of accomplishments, the same con
tribution to society of her little sum of superficial information.
We wonder how it is that any one can take an interest in a creature
of this sort, just as we wonder how any one can take an interest
in the Court Circular. And yet there are few sentiments more
pardonable, as there are none more national than our interest in
that marvellous document___ It is precisely the same interest
which attaches us to the loosely-tied bundle of virtue and accom
plishments which we call a girl. We recognise in her our future
ruler. The shy, modest creature who has no thought but a
dance, and no will but mamma’s, will in a few years be our
master, changing our habits, moulding our tastes, bending
our character to her own. In the midst of our own drawing
room, in our pet easy chair, we shall see that retiring figure
quietly establish, with downcast eyes and hands busy with their
crochet needles, what Knox called, in days before a higher
knowledge had dawned, “ The Monstrous Regimen of Woman.”
,..... Feminine rule is certainly not favourable to anything like
largeness of mind or breadth of view...... Woman lives from her
childhood in a world of petty details, of minute household and
other cares...... The habit of mind which is formed by these and
similar influences becomes the spirit of the house—a spirit
admirable, no doubt, in many ways, but excessively small. The
quarrels of a woman’s life, her social warfare, her battles about
precedence, her upward progress from set to set, have all on
�24
>
THE EDUCATION OE GIKLS.
them the stamp of Lilliput. But it is to these small details,
these little pleasures, and littie anxieties, and little disappoint
ments, and little ambitions, that a wife generally manages to
bend the temper of her spouse. He gets gradually to share her
indifference to large interests, to broad public questions. He
imbibes little by little the most fatal of all kinds of selfishness—
the selfishness of the home...... Whether from innate narrowness
of mind, or from defective training, or from the excessive
development of the affections, family interests far outweigh in
the feminine estimation any larger national or human consideration...... Justice is a quality unknown to woman, and against
which she wages a fierce battle in the house and in the world.
The first question here is whether the accusations quoted,
or any of them, be true. If not, there is no occasion to
give them a thought; they may be set affde with the easy
supposition that such writers are bachelors, or others,
“ crossed iD love,” and seeking to revenge indiscriminately
upon the sex at large the wrongs, or fancied wrongs, they
have suffered at the hands of individuals. But if, on the
other hand, even growling bachelors and disappointed
voluptuaries have nevertheless a real, solid foundation in
fact for their ungallant observations, the evils they complain
of will not be cured by being shrugged at and hushed up;
on the contrary, the more you whitewash the outside, the
more the inside will fester.
It is not quite accurate to say that a girl can be “ turned
out the exact double ” of another girl; the differences
between characters are as irrepressible as between faces.
Yet, just as the soldiers in a regiment, with all their various
characters, can be drilled into something like uniformity in
working, so can the girls in a house or in a school, and
thence in a larger or smaller circle of society, be drilled
after the pattern of a fixed conventionality, until their life
becomes a tissue of hypocrisy so thorough and so subtle
that it may almost be called conscientious hypocrisy. The
great Oriental maxim of human wisdom is reversed; and
Know not Thyself becomes the rule of polite society, the
basis of good manners, and last, not least, the chevcd de
lataille of that art of arts, that sport of sports, man
catching.
Let women of culture and of independent courage say what
they will for themselves ; I revere—surely I have well
shown how deeply—the bright side of their disposition;
but I am now obliged to treat of the dark one. And I
�THE EDUCATION OE GIRLS.
25
contend that the sway of the False God throughout known
history has so darkened the world with its evil shadow
that the most powerful among female minds now on this
earth can hardly hope to shake it off completely—at least,
I have not met with such an one. Turn to any religion or
to any doctrinal system you please, and the Male is still
practically in the ascendant; can we wonder, then, that lay
society, which voluntarily entrusts its spiritual interests to
the hands of a professional class, should model both its
morals and its fashions after the accepted teaching ?
When it has come to this, that a cultivated writer in a
periodical can state, without provoking the resentment of
all readers, that “ a girl in her teens ” is one of the most
uninteresting objects in the world, we may sit down. The
world, in that case, must be quite topsy-turvy, and the
whole must be less than its part. So it is futile to go any
further with science or philosophy; those useless occupa
tions had better be cast aside ; for the further they go, the
more they will go wrong. If she who is—or was intended
to be—the crown and consummation of nature be among
the most uninteresting objects of nature, it is hard to see
reason for taking an interest in anything. According to this,
it were better to be a mummy than a living and useful
human being. Yet, for all that, is the apparent blasphemy
entirely devoid of foundation ? I fear not.
For example, some time ago I read a series of private
letters addressed to a female relative from an unfortunate
young lady, who had given birth to an illegitimate child,
and had evidently suffered much in mind, if not in body,
before she departed this life a short time after. The letter#
evinced no want of good feeling of a certain sort; they ex
pressed no anger against any one but herself; but here was
just the hitch. I confess that, with all good will to sympa
thise with the girl’s sufferings, I could not help laughing at
these letters, and feeling my sympathies cheated. It was
all such unexceptionable sin, sorrow, and repentance; the
regular old story unaltered. The sin and sorrow were all
done into such correct, angular, book-like phrases; they
were so much in the style of the Perfect Letter-writer, so
unmistakeably the sin and sorrow of a well-drilled Miss,
instead of the unobtrusive grief of a natural, fresh girl; the
Oh !’s and Ah !’s came into their right places with such” a
weary, dreary precision of unbroken common-place; the
�26
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
whole business was so exactly what one has met with over
and over again in penny romances—that the most pathetic
passages in the communications of this accurately-sinning
and accurately-repenting Miss were certainly more provoca
tive of a guffaw than of a sigh. It was the most complete
travestie and burlesque of woe that I ever came across
A. Poor Miss ! You are a very hard-hearted philosopher,
Ish.
I. I hope not; but I freely admit that I hate humbug,
especially second-hand humbug. And especially, to do our
English girls justice, does it sit ill upon them, who have
the sterling heart-of-oak nature hidden beneath all this con
founded rubbish, which would enable them to rise high
above it all, if they chose.
A.' Well, well; continue.
I. The amount of mischief, both to the individual and to
the society whereof the future woman or man is to form a
part, which is done by this systematic early perversion is
not to be estimated—unless, indeed, by forcing ourselves to
contemplate all the misery and wickedness that contact
with the world can reveal. From the horrors of a gigantic
war, with its mangled and agonised bodies, its desolated
and desecrated homes, down to the pettiest domestic trou
bles and quarrels, we may only too safely affirm that early
false impressions respecting good and evil lie at the bottom
of it a.
A. That is an awful impeachment. And I must say, it
seems to me far too much to assume.
I. Treat it as an assumption if you will, but I think you
will find examination bear it out. Let us continue the
examination. The first antagonism between children that
rests on inculcated principle is that of the sexes. This,
therefore, leaves its traces on brothers and sisters perma
nently, while all other differences and quarrels are effaced.
The young girl has been distorted and coerced into a false
appreciation of the other sex from her earliest years of in
telligence ; is she likely to forget the lesson during those
most susceptible years of her life, the years approaching
puberty ? Nay, nay; fidelity to her education, be it good
or bad, is, if any other, a characteristic of the female ; after
you have once spoilt her in early youth, it is very hard—
although I do not say impossible—to un-spoil her after
wards. Very well, then ; the character of the future mis
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
27
tress of the home, as the Saturday Reviewei’ says, is dormant
in the mis-educated, and therefore uninteresting, girl “ in
her teens ” that he sees before him. But to vitiate the
home is to vitiate the world; for the characters, male or
female, which can withstand home influence are few and
far between. And the home influence is polluted thus in
all departments. While the children are very young the
boy is encouraged to be rough and “ manly” in his exploits
under the nursery-table, or among the garden flower-beds,
or in the orchard, while the girl is to be meek and mincing
and “maidenly;” never to wrestle and kick about and
harden her muscles, nor to raise her voice and strengthen
her lungs. And now, when the children are passing out of
childhood, and leaving off extremely childish things, the
same principle is carried on, only that, in addition to pre
vious repression, the girl’s mind, as well as her body, is
attacked by her blind guides, and she is taught to repress
her natural curiosity about sexual relations, which could be
legitimately satisfied with judicious, but thoroughly scien
tific, instruction, analysing the passions, and bringing them
jfcrto subjection to the cultivated intellect; and so she is
forced to think about these things only in that cramped,
unwholesome, morbid, cowardly, and generally idiotic way
in which a polite society or a polite church dares to think
of them. Is it any wonder if a girl in her teens is made
uninteresting? Yet, for all that there is a part of her
which not even this persistent regime of devilry can sup
press : and whoso hath eyes to see it, let him see it.
A. The compliments of the season seem to be flying
about to-day. Would it not be well, perhaps, to ventilate
the matter in a rather more forensic tone ?
I. No ; I doubt if it would. Silver speech is not likely
to be listened to by those with whom I have to deal. Well,
then, again ; to take another point of a girl’s education.
A favourite feminine virtue is supposed to be humility.
But humility towards whom or what? If humility of the
individual human being towards the universal Human
Being were meant, well and good. But then this would
apply even more to man than to woman, since he is only
the indirect form of the Universal One, while she is the
direct form. Or if it were meant to convey that mankind,
children especially, should never be too proud to learn, but
always take to heart a useful hint on any subject, no matter
�28
THE EDUCATION OE GIRLS.
from how obseure a quarter; or if it were meant that we
should be just, even in our quarrels, and never ashamed to
recede from a clearly false position, and to make amends
to the extent of our error—this humility also would be most
commendable- and valuable.
I doubt whether any one
could become a philosopher without it, or indeed attain
real greatness in any walk. So here are two kinds of
humility which I admit to be very desirable in man or
woman. But it is easy to see that the “humility ” incul
cated by priestcraft and its morals is something altogether
different. By this sacerdotal humility, which enslaves the
conscience, beauty is to be humbled to material size and
weight, sweetness to coarseness, intelligence and refinement
to stupidity and brutality, the law of love to that of physical
tyranny among barbarous peoples, and of moral tyranny
among others ; the higher organism is to be humbled to the
lower; and thence by logical necessity—although this is
not admitted—Spirit to Matter, the Creator of the world to
its subordinate forms, Good to Evil.
A. You have a fine talent for making mountains out of
molehills.
I. I thought you said just now that the miseries of this
world were not a molehill, but an awful contemplation.
They are the molehill which the perversion of young girls
has created.
M. Nay, that is just the question.
I. Be it so ; you will tread any other road in vain to
settle the question. But that, of course, can only be finally
decided by your own experience. Meanwhile, pray go and
“ humble ” yourself as the Chair of St. Peter would tell you,
and see whither your “humility” will lead.
M. Well, keep your course again.
I. Not even the excuse of negligenee—a fault to which
we are all more or less prone in our various ways—can be
alleged in defence of the ideas of their mutual duties in
which those responsible cause the young of each sex to
grow up. It will not avail for parents to say, “ Ah, well;
we can’t be at the trouble to bring up our children differ
ently from other people’s children; they must take their
chance.” This kind of shelving the dispute will not hold,
because to take trouble is just what they do, as it happens.
They take enormous pains and trouble, only it is in a wrong
direction. The work, of encouraging the frolics and freaks
�THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
29
and gambols and outspokenness of boys, and of snubbing
and strait waistcoating those of girls, is an aggregate of
trouble in itself. Even if the work be shifted altogether to
schoolmasters and mistresses, a sacrifice of money is gene
rally entailed on the parents ; and a few would send their
children off without any inquiries about the place of their
paid-for instruction ; so that in any case a conscious effort
has been made, and its results deliberately calculated upon.
Hence, supposing that utter indifference what becomes of
children were an excuse for allowing them to be perverted,
that indifference is, generally speaking, not a fact, and the
excuse falls to the ground. But, indeed, it is hardly worth
considering; for there are comparatively few children so
isolated from their home as to be out of the way of home
influence on social relations.
Example is a powerful agent in the education of the
young. Any attempt to give them a sound ideal of conduct
is sure to fail, so long as girls and boys hear grown-up
women talking about the inability of ladies to do this or
that, to take long walks, to bear heat or cold, to be out in
the evening damp, to take their part thoroughly in any
game or amusement, in anything that calls for exertion of
body or mind ; and while they hear grown-up men ratifying
and encouraging all this absurd nonsense and delicateladyism, contrasting feminine fragility and good-for-nothingness with their own god-like strength and wisdom. Is it to
be expected that the buds of ideality, coming out in that
imitation of men and women at which all children delight
to play, should take any other form than that of setting up
their men as heroes or villains of unlimited power, and
their women as a set of washy fairies, bound to wait on
their hirsute lords, and do their pleasure ? These things
are not trifles ; for the future character of children is made
even more at play than at work. The same vein runs
through their amusements, whether they be children or
adults. From “ This is the man all tattered and torn, that
kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with
the crumpled horn,” &c., up—if, indeed, it be not rather
down than up—to the most fashionable of sensational love
novels, the same light and airy aspect of woman as the
“ forlorn ” dependent of man, awaiting his favour, is pre
sented by a myriad of channels to the imagination of youth.
In the nursery, in the playground at school, at table with
�30
THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS
their elders, at public worship interpreted from the pulpit,
in the entire routine of daily and weekly life, it is the same
old story, the same sophistry and hypocrisy and arrogance
on the one side; the same external cringing acquiescence,
but practical hostility, on the other. On the one side are
developed selfishness and contempt; on the other, servility,
guile, and spite. This is not said at wedding-breakfasts;
but it is, nevertheless, the ugly reality inaugurated there and
everywhere else. And children cannot fail to see it, no,
not more than they can fail to acquire the rudiments of
their mother tongue. It may be wrapped in a silver paper
of plausibilities, but it is a poison whose work is sure.
I hardly need insist longer on the importance of early
impressions ; these have always been recognised, and acted
upon, alas! with only too fatal success by the self-seeking
enemies of light and knowledge. The question before us
is this: has any people in any age ever tried the experiment
of an unprejudiced and unrestrictive education of girls, an
education which, starting with no foregone conclusions
about feminine capacity or duty, seeks rather to find out
what girls can do than to restrain them from doing ? If
not, it is surely time that we should turn and try while
liberty of choice is left. The old religions of the world
have proved themselves to be mostly delusions; the morals
of the world have been something worse; failure has been
stamped upon every undertaking, however grand, to improve
the condition of mankind at large in any degree proportioned
to the sacrifices demanded. But expediency is only one
view of the question, and some might think it the lower
view. There are the requisitions of eternal truth and justice
to be satisfied; and if we who have the task entrusted to us
to perform freely and generously, neglect our duty from
short-sighted motives of whatsoever kind—those laws of
disintegration which are inexorable in reforming the lower
kingdoms of nature, will certainly not be long delayed in
their action upon a community which has shown repeatedly
that it is not fit to work out its destiny for itself.
London: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bbadlaugh,
28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.
���
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The education of girls
Description
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Edition: 2nd ed.
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 30 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Four essays, mainly in the form of dialogues between "Adam" and "Ish". Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Date of publication from British Library. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Dalton, Henry Robert Samuel
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[Freethought Publishing Company]
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[1879]
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N184
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Women's rights
Education
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The education of girls), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Education of Girls
Suffrage
Women's Emancipation
Women's Rights
-
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Text
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS
S!MPLY_ DEFINED
(FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN)
St-
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BY
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[issued for the rationalist press association, limited]
•a-$/Uc Bjr ' .
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London:
WATTS & CO.,
17 JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E,C.
Price Threepence
�Note.—Books preceded by an X are copyright in America,
and cannot be supplied to customers in that country.
“ These splendid handbooks belong to an age of wonders.”
f
—Birmingham Gazette.
HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES.
Each about 160 pages, with Illustrations ; cloth, Is. net, by post Is. 3d.
The 13 vols. post free 14s.
XAstronomy (History of). By Prof. XPsyehology (History of). Vol. I:
From the Earliest times to John
George Forbes, M.A., F.R.S.
Locke. Vol. II: From John Locke
JfChemistry (History of). Vol. I: 2000
to the Present Time. By Prof J.<
B. c. to 1850 A.D. Vol. II : 1850 A.D.
Mark Baldwin.
to Date. By Sir Edward Thorpe,
C. B., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.
XOld Testament Criticism (History
of), By Prof. A. Duff.
^Geography (History of). By J.
Scott Keltie, LL.D., and O. J. R. XNew Testament Criticism (History
of). By F. C. Conybeare, M.A.
Howarth, M.A.
XGeolOgy (History of). By H. B. XAneient Philosophy (History of),
Woodward, F.R.S., F.G.S.
By A. W. Benn, author of The
History of English Rationalism in
XBiolOgy (History of). By Prof. L. C.
the Nineteenth Century, etc.
MiAll, F.R.S.
XAnthropolOgy (History of). By XModern Philosophy (History of).
By A. W. Benn,
A. C. Haddon, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S.
PAMPHLETS for the MILLION.
Eaeh with Coloured Cover and Portrait
1. Why I Left the Chureh. By 7. The Age of Reason. (Parts I and
II only.) By Thomas Paine. 124
Joseph McCabe. 48 pp.; id.
pp.; 2d.
2. XWhy am I an Agnostic ? By
8. Last Words on Evolution. By
R. G. Ingersoll. 24 pp.; J^d.
Professor Ernst Haeckel. 64 pp.;
3. Christianity’s Debt to Earlier
id.
Religions. By P. Vivian. 64
9. Science and the Purpose of
pp.; id.
Life. By Fridtjof Nansen, (the
4. XHow to Reform Mankind. By
well-known explorer). 16 pp.;
R. G. Ingersoll.
24 pp.; J^d.
5. Myth or History in the Old Tes 10. XThe Ghosts. By R. G. Inger32 pp.; id.
tament? By S. Laing. 48 pp.; id.
6. XLiberty of Man, Woman, and 11. The Passing of Historical
Christianity. By the Rev. R.
Child. By R. G. Ingersoll, 48
Roberts. 16pp.; J£d.
pp.; id.
The Set of eleven Pamphlets post paid for Is. 2d. Special terms
for quantities. (100 of any one pamphlet at half-price, plus
carriage and small charge for packing.)
THE INQUIRER S LIBRARY.
1, The Existence of God.
By 3. The Old Testament.
Joseph McCabe. 160 pp.; cloth,
9d. net, by post is.
V'Z
1
By ChilEdwards. 160 pp.; cloth,
9d. net, by post is.
peric
2. XThe Belief in Personal Im 4. Christianity and Civilization.
By Charles T., Gorham. 160 pp.;
mortality. By E. S. P. Haynes.
164 pp.; cloth, 9d. net, by post is.
gd. het, by post is.
WATTS AND CO., 17 JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
/
,
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,71
�NEVE
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS
SIMPLY DEFINED
FOR THE USE OF CHILDREN)
BY
E. L. MARSDEN
( ISSUED FOB THE RATIONALIST PRESS ASSOCIATION, LIMITED )
London:
WATTS & CO.,
17 JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1914
��FOREWORD
The result of “pious” parents beginning to teach children
at an early age theology, prayers, catechisms, etc., is that
many children learn to use words icithout having any
definite conception of their meaning.
This is intellectually
injurious, and as a rule azoakens a mere superstition founded
to a large degree on false history.
1 have here attempted to
explain in a rational manner and as simplzj as possible the
meaning of a feio of those expressions zvhich children are
constantly zcsizzg and hearing zcsed, words of whose meaning
they have but the vaguest idea.
This pamphlet is zvritten in the hope that a simple explana
tion of some of the more comznon zoords zcsed daily izi religious
instruction znay be of beziefit to the youzig, and possibly to
a few of their teachers.
E. L. M.
May, 1914.
��SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY
DEFINED
BIBLE TEACHING
RELIGION appears to be the only subject in which teachers make
no use of the most recent authorities and the latest discoveries.
The practice of most Christian ministers, and of many 1 other
teachers of religion, of ignoring modern Biblical criticism amounts
to a scandal. Children are given the impression that the Bible is
for us what it was for our ancestors. Congregations are kept in
ignorance of what has taken place in historical research, textual
criticism, and comparative mythology; they are not informed that,
however useful and edifying as parables the old tales of the Bible
may be, those tales have no claim to be treated as historically true.
Knowledge and research have shown that the traditional theories
about the Bible are no longer tenable ; but many children from their
earliest years are given utterly false impressions on the subject. It
is not honest to preach as if the Bible consists of absolutely trust
worthy documents when scholarship, both Christian and secular,
knows them to be otherwise. The old matter-of-course assumption
of the divinely guaranteed accuracy of the Old Testament has dis
appeared from the minds of the well-educated, and no well-informed
person treats the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch as anything
but unsupported tradition.
Some few years ago the Encyclopedia Biblica was issued, the
purpose of which work was to ascertain the real facts and to state
them. This book is the work of some of the greatest of the world’s
Biblical students, and it sums up, supported by a mass of learning,
the conclusions of modern criticism. A glance at the list of con
tributors will show the large number of scholarly Churchmen who
have abandoned the theory of the literal truth of the Bible. We
5
�6
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
learn from these volumes that the creation story originated in a
stock of primitive myths common to the Semitic races, and is almost
identical with the Babylonian myth ; that the very existence of the
Old Testament patriarchs is uncertain; that the whole book of
Genesis is not history, but a narrative based on older records, long
since lost; that the story of Joseph was, compiled in the seventh
century B.C.; that the book of Exodus is a legend; that it is
doubtful whether Moses is the name of an individual or of a clan•
that the alleged origin of the Ten Commandments is purely tradi
tional ; that it is very doubtful whether David wrote any of the
Psalms ; that everything in the Gospels is uncertain ; that we do
not know when Jesus was born, when he died, or who was his
father ; that the supposed virgin birth has no evidence in its favour;
that it is impossible to separate the truth from doubtful legend and
symbolical embroidery in any of the Gospels; that the accounts of
the Resurrection. exhibit contradictions of the most glaring kind;
that the view that the four gospels bearing the names of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John were written by them and appeared thirty
or forty years- after the death of Jesus can no longer be maintained,
nor can they be regarded as credible narratives ; that the genuineness
of the Pauline Epistles is far from clear. These and a hundred
other conclusions can be found in the Encyclopedia Btblica, wherein
eminent Christian scholars proclaim results quite contrary to the
usual orthodox teachings.
Nevertheless, dogmas discarded by enlightened Christian ministers
continue to be taught to our children, whereas real religion, the
development and direction of the moral and spiritual feelings, is
neglected to a great extent. Highly as we may prize the Bible,
a system of instruction which makes it a fetish tends to degrade it,
and it is much to be regretted that it should be so much misused in
religious education. To treat as solemn fact every Hebrew legend
and impossible miracle, to try to harmonize Old Testament fables
of lust, slaughter, and deceit approved by Jehovah with the spirit
of the Sermon on the Mount, can do nothing but harm ; to teach
a child the story of the Fall as historically true when he will soon
know that man has not fallen, but gradually risen, can only unsettle
his mind.
If we were to exclude the idea of absolute historical accuracy in
teaching the Bible, we should eliminate much unreality and insincerity
from the moral atmosphere. It is not the book, but the conventional
superstition with which it is treated, that is at fault. Treated with
�RELIGION AND THEOLOGY
7
intelligent discrimination, it will always have its educational value,
but it cannot supply the place of instruction in real religion, in the
morals of daily life. Scripture is one thing, morality another.
Now that many ministers of all sects admit that nearly every
book in the Old Testament is of unknown authorship, and much of
it is mythical and fabulous, it is time that we should protest against
our children being taught that the: Fall, the Deluge, the plagues of
Egypt, the massacres in Canaan, etc., are part of an infallible and
divine revelation; that view is gone except for the grossly ignorant,
and to cause children to regard these stories as authentic history is
demoralizing both to teachers and taught.
RELIGION AND THEOLOGY
RELIGION is not the observance of forms and ceremonies, for men
may observe these and be wholly wanting in religious life ; nor is it
the belief in some particular creed, for men have held every kind of
orthodox creed and yet been quite impious. Religion is a state of
the heart and feelings, a state of reverence, awe, love, or dependence,
according to the character of the divine object presented to the
mind. Religion is the feeling, theology is the attempted explanation
of that feeling; hence religion must precede theology, and they may
exist independently of each other.
Questions of theology, <l historical criticism ” of Scripture, and
such subjects, are of undoubted importance, but are not matters of
religion. The end of religious education should be the development
and direction of the moral and spiritual feelings, and instruction in
the morals of daily life, leading to the victory over Self. Theology
is the supposed knowledge as to God and the unknown, and what
man believes about supernatural beings and about those things at
present inexplicable by any known laws of nature. Such beliefs
should be freely discussed, but not made the subject of ridiculous
quarrels, as no human being knows the truth about these matters ;
and it should be remembered that man’s early theological beliefs,
which we are asked to accept, were due to • thA limitations of his
knowledge and experience.'
"■"■L
�8
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
TRUTH AND LAWS OF NATURE
Truth is the most perfect knowledge attainable concerning any
given .question, and such knowledge is what we depend upon for the
highest ends of life. Truth is acquired by experience and study, and
the only permanent truths are those of observation and inference.Formerly they were few ; but with modern scientific development
they are increasing rapidly, and they stand apart from truths derived
from supposed revelations. The latter’s durability is comparatively
short; there are everywhere traces of extinct religions once devoutly
believed. Real truths are always in harmony, not so theological
truths ; time strengthens the one and weakens the other. When we
seek truth, we are seeking a knowledge of that which is capable of
verification and proof. In science, the truth is a statement giving a
correct representation of facts; in theology, the truth is a statement
supposed to be in accordance with the particular revelation which is
accepted. Science appeals to facts ; theology appeals to supposed
miracles, and asks us to believe in a number of events contrary to
all experience, on the authority of unknown writers. “ Laws of
nature” means the invariable order in which facts occur, all facts
.being links in an endless chain of cause and effect; one single
exception to this invariable order, and it cannot be a law of nature.
Truth is founded upon laws of nature.
REVELATION AND REASON
In the history of the human race there have been many so-called
revelations ” claiming to teach us things we should not otherwise
know. Such are the Zoroastrian,. Brahman, Buddhist, Jewish,
Christian, Mohammedan; they all claim divine origin, and each
condemns the others as unreliable and incomplete. In separating
.what is true from what is false in these various revelations, or in
.accepting one of them as the only true one, we must use our
■judgment. It follows, therefore, that our reason is a higher
authority than revelation, for we cannot believe anything without
�GOD
9
the approval of our reason. (What people say they believe is a
different matter.)
In all the revelations and bibles there are many mistakes in
history and science, and numerous contradictions. Such mistakes
are natural, as all these bibles are the work of man. All we can do
is to follow the best light we have—our reason ; for even if it
sometimes leads us into error, we have nothing better to follow.
In the name of Revelation or the “ Word of God ” many of the
worst crimes have been committed, and some of the world’s noblest
men have either known nothing of it or disbelieved in it.
Many people in this country believe that the ancient Jews were
Specially favoured with a revelation ; while the Greeks, the most
advanced people of antiquity, had none. If this were true, it would
show that morality and intelligence are possible without revelation,
and are in no way dependent upon it. Those who believe in
revelation think that it makes truth known to us by “ inspiration.”
If so, these questions arise: What is inspiration ? How are inspired
thoughts distinguished from uninspired ? and, How did the selectors
choose between genuine and spurious ? These questions have never
been answered.
GOD
By the word “God” is meant the power which exists behind
the facts of the universe. If such a power exists, its nature is
unknown and unknowable. The popular idea of God is that he is
a Person who created the universe, that he knows and sees every
thing and is everywhere; also that he is just and holy. Man has
made God in his own image, consequently God has grown better as
man has improved in intelligence and character. The God of the
savage was a savage; the God of the ancient Jews, as represented
in the Old Testament, was bloodthirsty, vindictive, jealous, and
petty; the God of the Christians was a being who punished the
errors of this brief life with eternal torments. This is still the
opinion of many Christians, but it is difficult to understand how
anyone can believe this horrible doctrine. God has been known by
different names in different countries—Zeus, Jove, Ormuzd, Brahm,
Jehovah, Allah, among others ; he is also called the Supreme Being,
�10
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
tli© Infinite, the First Cause, Nature, etc. Some people when they
say God mean a person, others an idea. Belief in several Gods was
the earliest belief of all nations. It is quite clear from the Old
Testament that the ancient Jews believed in other Gods, of whom
their God was jealous.
The sun, moon, mountains, rivers, animals, almost everything,
have been regarded as Gods, and men have prayed to them and
sacrificed to them. As mankind advanced in knowledge the belief
in Gods decreased, and now nearly all educated people believe either
in one God or in none. The old argument that, as every effect must
have a cause, the universe must have a cause which is God, is met
by the obvious rejoinder that, if every effect must have a cause, God
must also have a cause. It is just as easy or difficult to imagine
a universe without a cause as a God without a cause. The existence
of God cannot be demonstrated, but is a very general belief. Each
man makes his own God, which word represents the highest ideal
of the individual. Hence one man’s God may be better and nobler
than that of another, as each man is the measure of his own ideal
or God. Theologians who profess belief in an all-wise, all-powerful,
and all-good God have never been able to give a rational explanation
of all the pain, misery, and evil which exists in the world, and some
have believed that God allows an evil spirit, Satan, to tempt every
body. If God had wished sin to abound, what more could he have
done than to appoint a being to the office of tempting mankind at
all times and places ? Any parent who allowed his children tli
associate with bad characters would deserve censure.
PRAYER
Prayer is a supplication to God, or a desire for communion with
him. No one prays to laws of nature or to great ideals ; prayers
are always addressed to a personal God. But the idea of a God and
a person is incongruous. To be a God is to be infinite ; to be a
person is to be finite. Prayer originated in a desire to appease the
anger or secure the favour of invisible beings. When after a long
period of drought a minister prays for rain, it is in the belief that
God caused the drought, and can be persuaded to discontinue it.
As a drought does not last for ever, such prayers are apparently
�CHRISTIANITY
11
answered. It may happen that some people are praying God
to do what other people are just as earnestly praying him not
to do, and such prayers imply that God is an individual ready to
adapt himself to the convenience of everybody. There is no reason
to believe that God has any less control over the law of gravity than
over the weather, but people never pray to have the law of gravity
suspended for their benefit; they know such law is inviolable, and
they will stop praying about the weather when they learn that the
laws governing it are equally inviolable.
It is said that God demands that his creatures should continually
address him in terms of glorification and endearment. Such an
idea insults God ; a really great and good being would not constantly
want our prayers and laudations. The idea, of course, came from
the East, where sultans can only be approached with presents and
salaams. Prayer makes men look for help outside themselves, and
thus weakens their self-dependence. When we offer flattery, build
churches, give money, etc., to obtain a favour it is an attempt to
corrupt God by. bribery. It makes morality and justice of less
importance than rites, prayers, and dogmas. It is inconsistent with
any high ideal of God that he will be influenced by prayers and
praise. Public prayer is less desirable than private prayer, as it is
formal and not spontaneous, professional and not personal. Even
in the New Testament Jesus is reported as saying that we should
not pray in public (Matthew vi, 5-6).
CHRISTIANITY
It may be said that the Christian revelation has exerted more
influence in the world than any other, as it has helped to shape the
history of the first-class nations. This particular revelation is found
in a book called the Holy Bible, divided into two parts—the Old
Testament and the New Testament. It consists of sixty-six books,
written by different authors at different periods in different languages
and in different countries; these books were gradually collected into
one volume by religious councils. The Old Testament relates the
history of the Jews, their laws, customs, and wars. This history is
not materially different from that of other primitive people, and
there is no reason why it should be regarded as the “ Word of God.”
�12
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
The New Testament consists of a number of writings collected about
one hundred-and-fifty years after the death of Jesus Christ, and of
these writings we have no knowledge of the authorship, with the
possible exception of four letters of Paul and one of James. The
titles, The Gospel according to Matthew,” etc., represent the
opinion of the editors or translators ; and probably the name of an
apostle was used to give the work greater authority. The apostles,
expecting the world would end in their lifetime, did not write their
own messages.
There were many other gospels besides those in the New
Testament; but they have been excluded as being doubtful—that
is, they did not receive the necessary number of votes in ecclesiastical
councils to be considered inspired. The books of the Bible were
written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; and as the original
manuscripts from which our English Bible is said to have been
translated are not in existence, we do not know that the translation
is accurate. Our translation is from the supposed copies of the lost
originals, which copies were produced possibly hundreds of years
after the originals had been lost, so that we cannot know that the
copies are reliable.
The Christian revelation teaches that humanity was originally
perfect, that it fell into sin, and that a select few may escape
through faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. We now know
that the human race has been ascending slowly, and that incarna
tion and atonement are world-wide myths. We also realize that the
idea of a guilty person pardoned through the atoning death of an
innocent victim has no moral value. Christianity, in the light of
modern knowledge of comparative mythology, is one member of
a large family of religions (Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Mohammedan,
etc.) which in one form or another are co-extensive with the history
of humanity. Christianity might have led on to true religion, but
has taken its place; in its petrified form it holds prisoner the forces
of real religion.
THE CANON OF THE BIBLE
The “ canon ” of the Bible consists of those books which
ecclesiastical councils have declared of divine authority; this
canon has not always been the same. The earliest Christians
�JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS
13
regarded only the Old Testament as the word of God, and the
Apostolic Fathers apparently did not look upon the New Testament
as of equal authority with the Old. Schisms between early Chris
tians gave rise to the idea of a canon; a generally accepted word of
God was necessary, and the demand created the supply.
The first reference to a canon was in the latter half of the second
century. In 352 A.D. the canon of the Emperor Constantine was
produced, and contained the present number of books except the
book of Revelation. Many books in the Bible have been questioned
at various times. Luther did not regard the book of Revelation and
the Epistle of James as part of God’s word. The Roman Catholic
Bible contains seventy-two books, as it includes as inspired some
books that Protestants reject. Roman Catholics hold that it is the
Church that gives the Bible its authority, and do not allow private
interpretation of it; while Protestants look upon it as infallible, but
each individual must read and interpret it for himself. The Holy
Spirit does not, apparently, reveal the same meaning of the Scrip
tures to all readers ; for, in spite of the assumed infallible revelation,
all Protestants are not agreed on such important questions as
Baptism, Predestination, Eternal Punishment, Atonement, and the
Divinity of Jesus.
Apart from the fact that the meaning of the Bible is not clear to
everybody, the objection to an inspired book is that it limits the
possession of truth to one people or race, and makes it a thing of the
long past; it makes research needless, and gives the Church power
to suppress new truth. Fortunately, the Bible’s power for harm is
-decreasing now that we are beginning to regard it as the literature
■of a primitive and uninformed people. It is only worshipped as
infallible by the least educated of mankind.
JESUS AND HIS TEACHINGS
The prevailing belief about Jesus is that he was both God and
man, that he was begotten by the Holy Ghost, that he was without
■sin, that he worked miracles, and was equal to God. We have only
the word of man on the subject, and, as all religions have claimed
power to work miracles, there is no reason for treating the
miraculous element in the life of Jesus in any other wTay than
�14
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
we treat the same in the life of Buddha, Moses, or Mohammed.
All our knowledge of Jesus is contained in broken records of a few
months in the last year of his life.
“ Towards the middle of the second century A.D. certain
documents are found to be in circulation professing to describe
the life of a religious teacher who had lived in a remote part of
the Empire more than a hundred years before. These documents
or gospels are many in number, and all of unknown authorship;
they are in the possession of an obscure and fanatical sect, and many
of them contain obvious absurdities. Gradually the more absurd are
denounced as apocryphal, and four are retained, which, together
with some letters of one of the early Christians, form the New
Testament’ of future ages.” (Joseph McCabe.)
With regard to these documents or records next to nothing is
known. Their authors, place of origin, the motives that caused
their compilation, are all matters of guesswork. The charm of the
narratives, viewed as literature, is greatly due to our magnificent
“ Authorized ” version. As contemporary writers are entirely silent
on the subject of Jesus ; as Apostolic literature knows nothing of the
Jesus of the Gospels, of his virgin birth, of his alleged miracles; as
our only knowledge of him is contained in the New Testament, the
utmost we are justified in thinking of Jesus is that he was a man of
noble life, with a remarkable influence over his fellow-men. His
undoubted sincerity in believing that he was divinely chosen to
teach the people is no proof of the truth of his belief. He believed
that the earth belonged to the devil, but that some day he (Jesus)
would be recognized as the king of kings. “ Verily, I say unto you,
this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.” That
prophecy, uttered by Jesus himself, has not been fulfilled; it was
uttered about 1,900 years ago. He recognized Caesar’s authority,
and advised others to do the same. He did not denounce war or
slavery; but he said to his disciples : “ My peace I give unto you.”
Those who called themselves Christians, however, have not lived in
peace with one another, but have repeatedly waged war with one
another and persecuted one another ; the worst persecutors in the
world have been Christians. The teaching of Jesus is partly
responsible for this, inasmuch as he said that they who did not
believe on him would be damned ; and his followers, to save people
from damnation, tried to compel them to become Christians. This
persecution, this attempt to maintain an opinion by violence, to
conquer the reason without enlightening it, has characterized the
�THE CHURCH, CREEDS, AND CLERGY
15
larger part of Christian propaganda. The teachings of Jesus about
love, charity, brotherhood, justice, and forgiveness, although not
entirely original, embody the finest ethical code ever presented to
mankind; but an attempt to make them a universal rule of conduct
would in our present state of society be impracticable; no Christian
shapes his life on the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. He
taught that this world was of no importance, and, instead of trying
to right wrong conditions here and now, he advised non-resistance to
evil. He told those who wept and suffered to rejoice, for they would
have their reward in another world. This teaching has consoled
some people, but has prevented many from trying to right their
present wrongs. It has encouraged the rich and powerful to answer
the cry for justice by suggesting to the oppressed that they ought to
be satisfied with the reward promised in the next world. Those in
power have always encouraged religion among the poor; orthodoxy
is generally on the side of the oppressors. In spite of the fact that
the words of love and goodness spoken by Jesus have been an
immense influence for good, his theological doctrines have caused
much hatred, bloodshed, and misery.
THE CHURCH, CREEDS, AND CLERGY
The word “ church” originally meant an assembly or congrega
tion, and was at first merely an organization of fellow-believers, out
■of which has gradually arisen the distinction between clergy and
laymen. There are many Churches in Christendom, of which the
most important is the Roman Catholic. It was organized about the
time that the Roman Empire became converted to Christianity, and
the Emperor Constantine, one of the worst criminals in history, was
its first imperial head and protector. It soon became covetous,
ambitious, partisan, and intolerant, and its domination over the
■conscience and its punishment of heretics has caused an immense
amount of useless suffering.
In the sixteenth century the Church was split up chiefly through
Martin Luther, the principal author of the Reformation movement.
The seceders from the Church of Rome were called Protestants.
The Church of England dates from the time of Henry VIII, who,
■quarrelling with the Pope over a matter of divorcing his wife, founded
�16
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
a new Church, of which he became master. In the past the
Protestant Churches have persecuted almost as much as the Roman
Church in their desire to exterminate what they looked upon as
heresy. In these days, when blind belief and superstition are not
regarded as a virtue, the Churches have not the power to persecute
except quite indirectly. Liberal and Broad Churches exist which
make little of theology and much of character, and the number of
people who look upon religion as something apart from formal ritual
is gradually increasing.
Disagreements among believers necessitated an authoritative
expression of Church doctrine; this was the origin of “ creeds,” the
object of which was to enforce uniformity of belief and prevent
independent thinking. The oldest Christian creed is supposed to be
the Apostles’ Creed, which we know was not written by the apostles.
The fundamental beliefs of this creed are those in the Trinity, the
Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of the Flesh. No proofs are
given; they are assumed to be true. The Nicene Creed, the
Athanasian Creed, the creed of the Greek Church, the Church of
England Creed (the Thirty-nine Articles), the Westminster Creed—
all contain statements of belief narrow and intolerant. They tend
to prevent the pursuit of truth and confine it to one sect. Our
creed should be one in accord with facts, and one which keeps
abreast of our growing knowledge. To subscribe to a creed thatforbids freedom of thought lowers the dignity of man, whose reason
is his greatest possession. A clergyman is a man who has received
Holy Orders ” from the Church. A man can become a clergyman
by passing an examination and asserting his belief in the creed of
the particular Church to which he applies for admission.
THE EARTH AND MAN
The Bible states that some six thousand years ago God created
heaven and earth and all that they contain. Science teaches us
that the earth is many millions of years old, and that there has been
for countless ages a slow growth and gradual ascent. The origin of
matter remains a mystery.
Science teaches us that man is hundreds of thousands of years
old, and is descended from the lower animals. In the structure and
�DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
17
functions of his organs he is exactly like an animal; every bone,
muscle, and organ can be paralleled in the animals ; he is composed of
the same materials, and is subject to the same laws of life and death.
The human embryo, before birth, passes through stages of develop
ment when it has gills like a fish, a tail, a body covered with hair,
and a brain like a monkey’s ; thus showing that man, in his long
existence, has climbed through all these forms to his present state.
He was not specially created, but grew slowly upwards, and his mind
or reason was evolved in the same manner as his body, the struggle
for existence having been the chief contributor to his development.
Some people still believe that he was created “ perfect.” What
they mean by “ perfect ” is probably “ as perfect as a man can be.”
Had he been perfect, he could not have fallen. It is said that God
permitted him to fall, and encouraged Satan to tempt him, the con
sequence being sin, suffering, and death for all mankind. People
believed these stories because their fathers and mothers believed
them ; but hardly any enlightened people now hold these unreasonablebeliefs.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
Many people fear death because they think that it is the
beginning of an irrevocable doom ; but the rational view is that it
either secures happiness or ends suffering. We can conquer death
by serving some noble cause in which we may live after we have
passed away. When we are dead we shall not miss life, and to
lose what we cannot miss is not an evil.
It is popularly believed that there is a soul or spirit temporarily
inhabiting the body, which soul continues to live after death; that
men, but not animals, have souls ; that the body cannot live without
the soul, but that the soul can live without the body. It is impos
sible for the finite human mind to form a conception of this soul,,
this spirit without form or extension. Theology teaches that at
death the soul leaves the body and goes to some other world, each
sect having its own view of what sort of place this other world is.
The view of the Christian creeds is that only those who have thetrue faith will be happy; others will go to eternal misery. Even
great and good men and women not holding the true faith will go to>
�18
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
hell, according to this view. The desire for immortality, a conscious
personal immortality, is almost universal ; it is an extension of the
instinct of self-preservation.
We know nothing of any future life, and, although the belief in
it is very general throughout humanity, many general beliefs have
turned out to be illusions. All we can say is that we do not know.
But we can safely affirm that all that we say and do will contribute
to build the world of the future, in which we shall live again as
influences and examples, as moral and intellectual forces. In this
sense we are certainly immortal, and the knowledge should inspire
us to cultivate only what is true and noble. A future life for each
personal individual is an enormous assumption to be made without
proof, and yet all the alleged consolations of orthodox religion hang
on this. Many people believe enough to be full of anxiety and fear,
and never have complete peace ; belief to them is a source of inward
unrest and alarm. For one death-bed smoothed by orthodox beliefs
it is probable that hundreds have been turned into beds of torture.
GOOD AND BAD
ANYTHING adjusted for some purpose and efficiently accomplish
ing that purpose is “ good when it fails in that purpose it is “ bad.”
For example, a knife is good when it cuts well; a road is good when
it makes travelling easy and comfortable ; a watch is good when it
keeps time correctly. When a knife is blunt, a road uneven, or a
watch incorrect, in each case it is “bad.” Thus efficiency is good
ness, inefficiency badness ; and to know whether conduct is good or
bad the first question to be asked is what purpose social conduct is
intended to serve. Social conduct is conduct adjusted for the benefit
of society, or co-operation. Conduct which tends to draw individuals
closer together is good ; conduct which repels them from one another
is bad. To the conduct of a single individual on a desert island,
where no act of his could affect anyone but himself, the terms “ good ”
and “ bad” in a moral sense would have no meaning. Man is dependent
■on the co-operation of society, and the aim of the moral code is to
discourage actions injurious to social co-operation and to encourage
•conduct which promotes it; therefore good and bad actions may be
�THE CHIEF OBJECT OF LIFE
19
roughly defined as those which benefit or injure somebody else or
society as a whole.
Theologically, “ good ” and “ bad ” mean obedience or disobedience
to the supposed will of some God, apart from any ethical or social
value in the action itself. Adam’s crime was disobedience ; the
command not to eat of the tree of knowledge was quite a capricious
and arbitrary one ; no reason was given why he should not eat of
it, and it was a natural thing for him to think that a knowledge of
good and evil was an excellent thing to acquire. But eating the
fruit, simply because it was an act of disobedience, was so great
a crime that the whole human race was damned for it. Abraham
agreed to commit the crime of burning his son; but because this
was an act of obedience theologians hold him up as a model of
virtue.
We now realize that a “ good ” man is one who promotes the
happiness and well-being of his fellow-creatures, and that morality
does not consist in blind obedience at the expense of our conscience
and reason, especially as, even assuming the existence of a God
whom we ought to obey, we have no means of knowing his will.
THE CHIEF OBJECT OF LIFE AND THE
RELIGION OF THE FUTURE
OUR duty is to seek those things that increase and elevate life;
to learn by experience (the accumulated experience of humanity as
well as our own) what is right and what is wrong, good and bad.
We need no revelation to tell us what is right and what is wrong;
we must discover it for ourselves. Nature is the sum of all the
forces which keep the world in movement; she is our first and
oldest teacher. We obey her because we must. She has joined
cause and consequence in such a way that every act and word bears
seed. If we sow evil, we reap pain; if we sow good, we reap
happiness. The reward of goodness is to be good. If we will not
be good without future rewards and punishments, others will; and,
by the law of the survival of the fittest, theirs will be the power of
the future. What is needed is knowledge ; we must know what is
for our highest good. Knowledge will give us sympathy instead of
�20
SOME RELIGIOUS TERMS SIMPLY DEFINED
prejudice, justice and humanity instead of oppression and greed.
Knowledge will help us to make the highest use of this life, without
reference to imaginary heavens and hells of which we can know
nothing.
In accordance with the law of evolution, we progress very slowly ;
but truth will ultimately prevail, and, even if its results cause pain
to some people, they must be accepted without hesitation. Man, as
a rational being, will no longer accept his religious opinions without
a mental conviction of their truth—a conviction demanded in every
other province of knowledge. Reason and experience will replace
theology, and, free from the difficulties and mysteries generated by
dogmas, we shall no longer try to force our conscience and intel
ligence to accept ancient revelations.
But, although theology will die, religion will remain; not the
religion which consists in singing hymns and reading bibles, in
pious talk and unctuous prayers, but the religion of acting rightly
and kindly. Real religion—the sense of duty arising from our
relationship to some superior Power, even though the nature of
that Power is unknown to us—will grow stronger. Our object in
life will be to promote the well-being and happiness of our fellow
creatures, and every new truth we learn will fit us better for this
task. Sympathy will replace selfishness ; those tendencies injurious
to social life will become weaker, those which facilitate social
co-operation will become stronger. We know that all faculties and
organs are strengthened by exercise and weakened by disuse. Our
duty, then, is to cultivate the faculties that are social and sym
pathetic, and to neglect those that are not. Every good act benefits
not only others, but self ; for it strengthens the faculties by which it
is performed. Conversely, every bad act not only injures others,
but also the actor ; for it strengthens faculties which should be
unexercised and allowed to die out from disuse.
No churches for propitiating imaginary deities will be built, but
we shall propitiate our conscience by the fulfilment of duty. No
imaginary heaven will arouse hope, and no hideous phantoms of
eternal hell will terrify the mind ; but we shall face the unknowable
with calmness and without fear.
PRINTED BY WATTS AND CO., JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Some religious terms simply defined, for the use of children
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Marsden, E. L.
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 22 cm.
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Watts & Co.
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1914
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N474
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Religion
Education
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Religious Education
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Text
EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES
OF
READING AND WRITING,
AS
MEANS OF EDUCATION.
A
Paper read
Belfast Meeting of the Social Science
Association, on 24th Sept., 1867,
at the
BY
W. B. HODGSON, LL.D., F.C.P.,
one of the Examiners in the University of London.
•‘Sans lumieres point
de morale.”—Mirabeau
(l’Aind).
Tom. 5, p. 5S8„
1792.
LONDON;
PRINTED BY W. W. HEAD, VICTORIA PRESS, WESTMINSTER
1868.
�“ To suffer the lower orders of the people to be ill educated,—and then to
punish them for crimes which have originated in bad habits, has the appearance
of a cruelty not less severe than any which is exercised under the most despotic
governments.”—P. Colquhoun, LL.D., “Treatise on the Police of the Metro
polis.” 7th edition, 1806, c. 2, p. 34.
“ What is lhe use of arguing so pertinaciously that a black’s skull will
hold as much as a white’s, when you are declaring in the same breath that a
white’s skull must not hold as much as it can, or it will le the worse for him ?
It does not appear to me at all a profound state of slavery to be whipped into
doing a piece of low work that I don’t like. But it is a very profound state of
slavery to be kept myself low in the forehead, that I may r.ot dislike low work.”
—John Ruskin, Letter, March 30, 1867.
“It is true there are people who say the Bible is enough reading for the
poor, but they are evidently of a widely different opinion as to their own case,
though in religion more than any other subject do all classes stand alike. In
these days general knowledge is a fact for both the poor and the rich, yet it most
certainly is not communicated at the parish school; nor is there laid down the
Very lowest and roughest foundation j no, not a beginning, not an earnest, not a
pattern, not a morsel to speak of.”—Times, Saturday, Nov. 19, 1864.
“I am among those who think the greatest problem of legislation and
government unsolved so long as ignorance, sensual waste, or ciime keeps a large
part of the people, though emancipated from the serfdom of their ancestors, still
the thralls of appetite or p>rejudice, and consequently poor and miserable.”—Sir
J. K. Shuttleworth, at Opening of Art Workmen’s Exhibition.—Manchester
Examiner and Times, February 21, 1865.
“ One of the great objects now is that the education of all classes should
be harmonized.................... Whatever study can be commonly agreed upon as
conducive to formation of good character, of improved taste, and instrumental
in cultivating the faculty of accurate observation, that study is one which no
particular class should acquire, but to which all classes should devote them
selves.”—Sir Stafford Northcote, at Exeter.—Times, Jan. 4, 1865.
“In the most essential points, in the chief objects of life, and the most
necessary elements of education, rich and poor are really on a level....................
In the mansion and the cottage there is just the same necessity of methodical
habits, forethought, industry, order, cleanliness, peaceful and respectful bearing,
the study of one another’s wishes and good opinions, openness and the virtues
that make a good and useful being. These are matters of conduct; but even in
school work there is far greater community between rich and poor than people
are apt to imagine.”—Times, Jan. 6, 1865.
“ Let us, then, I beseech you, in the name of God, let us earnestly and heartily
have recourse to education. We must ‘begin at the beginning’—we must
prevent what is evil, by implanting what is good—we must enlighten the under
standing, as well as control the will.”—Dr. Parr’s “ Discourse on Education,”
p. 41, part II.
�EXAGGERATED ESTIMATES lit READING
AND WRITING.
N these days much is said about progress, and I am not disposed
to deny its reality in various regions, or to disparage its extent.
But, admittedly, general and ultimate progression is compatible with
partial or temporary retrogression ; and there are occasions which
tempt one to doubt whether the alleged progress be not a delusion—
whether the too obvious retrogression be not final and enduring. Or,
to take the somewhat hackneyed simile, which tells us that the
advance of the tide is not inconsistent with the retirement of indi
vidual waves after they have reached the shore, let us but continue
the analogy, and we find that the tide itself, after it has reached its
highest, its appointed limit, retires also, leaving a wide waste of
dreary sand; and that, though it returns again, it retires again, so
that we have, on the whole, not progress, but only oscillation and
repetition. The history of popular education tends to confirm the
notion that movement is by flux and reflux, and that there is now a
season of low watei’ and ebb tide.
Not much more than half a century divides us from the state of
social opinion which denounced, or dreaded, or ridiculed any and all
teaching of the great masses, which prompted even intelligent and
kindly men to predict the entire overturning of society as the
inevitable result of the teaching of“ the lower orders,” as if society
depended, for its very existence, on the domination of one small class
more or less enlightened, and on the unquestioning subserviency of
all other classes, whom any glimmering of light could not fail to
render discontented, insubordinate, insurrectionary.
Then came the period which may be called, for a well-known
reason, the era of the three R’s, Reading, Riling, and 'Rithmetic.
’
The inconveniences of total darkness were more and more recognized,
and the advantage of, at least, a sort of twilight state of mind was
more and more perceived ; but it may well be questioned whether
the noonday blaze of knowledge was not more dreaded by the educa
tional patrons of the lower’ classes than even the midnight blackness
of total ignorance. Teaching was encompassed with many limitations
and precautions. It might be well for all to be able to read their
Bible, according to the famous wish of George III.; but no other
literature was encouraged. A good plain hand-writing, with a
certain knowledge of ciphering, as it was called, might be useful for
the taking of business-orders, and the keeping of accounts. But a
too facile or graceful penmanship might be dangerous ; it might even
lead to forgery, and through that to the gallows. With acquirements
so restricted, it was not unlikely that the lower classes would still
demean themselves with due humility towards their superiors in
I
�4
station, and believe and act and suffer according to the will of those
placed in authority over them, whether spiritual or secular.
By degrees, the scope of popular education was widened, so far, at
least, as regards the admission of other subjects of instruction. I
cannot think that there was generally a more philosophic estimate of
the true nature of education ; but the frequent modern examples of
individuals rising from humble station to wealth and rank, familiarized
men’s minds with the thought that so much culture should be
generally given as would assist the exceptionally clever boy in his
social ascent, rather than improve the condition of the great body of
the working classes. Geography, and history, and sundry other
things, were more and more generally introduced. It may well be
doubted whether these additions were always or commonly improve
ments. Time w’as consumed in committing to memory the events of
so called history, one half of which was probably false, while of the
other half, one half was probably doubtful, while a large proportion
of the whole was unimportant. History must, of course, be begun
at the beginning, and the ancient Britons, and the Danes, and the
Saxons, and the Nonnans must have due attention, though, probably,
the pupils had passed away from the schools before they had gone
down the stream of history below the time of Henry VIII., the names
of whose wives, with the order of their execution, furnished excellent
material for questions,—or of Elizabeth, whose character was
summed up and recited in the pithiest phrases of the Pinnock order
of historians. As for geography, such facts as the height of the
Himalayas, and the length of the Brahmapootra, were stored up
for reproduction at the stated examinations, where the effect was
striking, in proportion to the recondite nature of the information, and
in inverse proportion to its utility. The barrenness of this kind of
teaching, for which, in some cases, no doubt, things of more impor
tance were neglected, did much to damage popular education in the
esteem of many, and to give occasion to those previously so disposed
to disparage or deny the efficacy and the value of all popular educa
tion whatsoever. This tendency was brought to a crisis by the fact that
the Educational Department of the Government was in danger of
breaking down from an accumulation of routine work, while the
annual cost of the educational grant had risen to an amount that
shocked the frugal temper of the House of Commons ; and the
opportunity afforded by the complaint of the Royal Commissioners
of 1858-9, that reading, writing, and arithmetic were in some cases
neglected, and especially in the younger classes, was readily seized
for the introduction of the Revised Code. Of that I need say little
more here, than that it gave a new or renewed prominence to reading,
writing, and arithmetic, confining practically its rewards to a
certain measure of proficiency in these branches, under the name
of payment for results, as tested by individual examination.
As to the actual result, opinion is considerably divided, and I
cannot here weigh the conflicting testimony. My own belief, how
ever, is that, as might have been expected, it has injuriously affected
�5
the higher education, that is, all that deserves the name of education,
while it has not generally succeeded in ensuring even mechanical
proficiency in the three arts thus specially fostered. It has done
much, I venture to think, to throw us back into the second of
those stages of national opinion on educational subjects which I
have hastily sketched; that, namely, in which this merely ele
mentary sort of teaching was deemed enough for the masses of the
people.
And here let me say that it is of reading and writing, and not at
all of arithmetic, that henceforth I mean to speak. Arithmetic holds
a quite different position from the other two things. Besides its
actual uses in the working world, it is a science, capable of becoming
the instrument of important training, and though when Baillie Nicol
Jarvie said that the multiplication table (i.e. arithmetic) is the root
of all knowledge, he had rather in view its application to bills of
parcels, and tare and tret, and profit and loss, than to cosmic harmo
nies, or numerical proportions in the framework of the universe,
the doctrine of numbers may truly be regarded as at once a root
science and a great power in education. I would rescue it from the
slur cast on it by the company in which it is usually found.
Of reading and writing, then, we are often enough told in words
that they do not constitute education. By many this is considered
a mere truism, but a truism quite as often means a truth neglected
as a truth made real. It is with words as with things, (though words
too are things), “ Too much familiarity breeds contempt.” The coin
which passes from hand to hand, loses gradually the clearness, and
finally the traces, of its image and superscription. Now, in spite of
the currency of this truism, I venture to think that reading and
writing are far too much regarded not as all education, but as all of
education that can be secured for and by the children of the mass,
nay, as all that it is important for them to obtain ; and that thus a
low, unworthy, and mischievous estimate of education, so far as con
cerns the masses, prevails among us.
In last Friday’s meeting one speaker drew forth strong expressions
of dissent, by saying that often it is thought enough to apportion
knowledge to the station in which the pupil happens to be born, and
in which it is assumed that he is likely to remain. I must confess
that my own experience supports this statement. Thus, not many
years ago I visited a school for female orphans in London, and I
was told distinctly by the secretary that only a very plain education was
even aimed at, “ because,” said he, “ they are destined to be domestic
servants, and it would not do for them to be too near the level of
their employers’ attainments ! ” It may not be necessary here to speak
in condemnation of that spirit which would keep back those who have
so few and so slight opportunities of culture for the supposed sake of
those who have so many and so great advantages within their reach;
or to contend that the lot to which human beings are really and truly
called by Providence (that Providence so often appealed to as a
justification of existing evils which it is sought to maintain), is not
�6
the condition in which they are born, or in which their parents live,
but that of which by the best culture of all their faculties, they
qualify themselves adequately to do the work ; or to argue that the
education of the lower classes is in the interest even of the upper.
But that this spirit prevails largely beyond the circle of such an
association as this I cannot doubt. There are persons who, as I once
heai’d Archbishop Whately say, embark in the ship of knowledge
in order to delay the voyage, being quite willing to appear as pro*
moters of education if they can but gain the power to limit it within
what they consider to be safe bounds.
Even among those who regard education with very different
feelings, and who have no unworthy jealousy of others less favoured
by fortune than themselves, a similar estimate of the sufficiency of
the mere elements of knowledge in schools for the people may be
traced. “ Teach a child to read and to write, and he will educate
himself,’’ this is a common saying. No doubt, your Stephensons,
and your Faradays, and those with large natural capacity for any
kind of mental effort, will, with this simple help, do all besides for
themselves. Nay, even without this help, their innate energy would
still surmount every obstacle in their way. But such men are the
exceptions, not the rule ; and the frequent appeal to such cases in
evidence of the sufficiency of reading and writing in humble schools,
is one more proof of the prevalence of the error which looks at
popular education rather as a means of enabling the peculiarly
gifted to rise into a higher station, than of enabling and disposing all
efficiently to discharge the duties of their actual station, even though
they should x’ise to none higher. It is to the average capacity, the
average disposition of ordinary school pupils, that teaching must be
adapted, and it is by its success in dealing with that average capacity,
that average disposition, that its efficiency is to be judged. Now, that
for such natures reading and writing will be a master-key to all
or much beyond, is not to be thus proved, or without proof to be
accepted.
Another sign of the current estimate of reading and writing may
be cited. We are all familiar with the statistical tables about crimi
nals, and the proportions among them of those who can read and
write well, imperfectly, or not at all. Crime, we are told, flourishes
most rankly among the last, less among the second, least among the
first. What, then, is the natural inference from such statements ?
Of course, diminish the ignorance, and you diminish the crime (1.)
But the ignorance of what ? Of course, of reading and writing.
Ignorance of reading and writing is productive of, or accompanied
by, a great amount of crime. Knowledge of reading and writing
will, therefore, diminish crime I There may be fallacies more
palpable than this ; there can be few more gross or serious. The
inability to read and write argues, in our present state, it may be
freely granted, great ignorance of all beyond that it is good or useful
to know. But the ability to read and write, (not to cavil about the
degree of ability), by no means argues the knowledge of aught
�1
beyond. Negatively, the ignorance implies much, positively the
knowledge implies little. Let us take an obvious illustration. If a
man does not possess a penny, he is undeniably very poor; if he does
possess a penny, is he therefore rich ? Is he removed more than
very slightly from absolute impecuniosity ? It may be said that,
with even one penny, a man may begin to increase his store ; but his
doing so, his striving, or desiring to do so, depends on considerations
widely apart from the mere possession of the penny. The tabulation
of such statistics may be useful in various ways. It is not in the
facts or in the figures, but in the application of them that the danger
lies. By all means let those tell-tale columns make us blush for the
deplorable and disgraceful national ignorance that they reveal; let
them spur our determination to remove it; but do not let them lull
us into the delusive fancy that the presence of the minimum of
knowledge will cure the evils which the absence of that minimum,
indicates, if it does not cause.
We will now test a little more closely the real educational value of
reading and writing.
1. Reading is a mechanical means, one of_ several means, of
gaining knowledge and ideas. Writing is one mechanical means of
conveying knowledge or ideas to others, as well as a means of
recording them for either others or ourselves. What is the educa
tional value of either ? There is, I am well aware, a high sense,
in which it may be contended that he who can read easily, intelli
gently, appreciatively, pleasurably, even one valuable book, especially
if he can read it aloud with due “ emphasis and discretion,” correct
intonation, and utterance at once expressive and impressive ; and
who further can give written form to his thoughts and knowledge,
if, that is, we take writing to mean not merely penmanship, but
what is called composition also,—may be said to have received no
mean or narrow, though it may still be a defective education.
But it is obvious that we are here concerned with such measure of
the powers of reading and of penmanship, as is commonly obtained
in our cheap and general schools. Now, the first thing that strikes
us, is, that they are at most, not knowledge, but means of knowledge.
Isay not the means, but means of knowledge. They are no more
knowledge or education, as has often been said, than a knife, fork,
and plate constitute a dinner. Given the dinner,—the knife, fork, and
plate are useful in enabling us to deal with it. But, though the com
bination is best, it is bettei' to have the dinner without the imple
ments, than the implements without the dinner. That the two can
be separated is undeniable; and so it is quite possible, though not
common, to find a man shrewd, sagacious, even well informed, who
can neither write nor read, and it is not only possible but very
common to find the grossest ignorance and the greatest dulness
associated with ability to read and write (2.) But it may be said that
a knife, fork, and plate are instruments not for gaining a dinner, but
for helping us to consume it when gained ; whereas reading and
perhaps writing are instruments for actually gaining knowledge.
�8
Let us grant that they are tools for gaining knowledge ; they are
not crop, but plough and harrow. Now, given the plough and the
harrew, the mode of using them remains to be taught ; the disposi
tion to use them remains to be encouraged. Neither of these
things follows inevitably from the mere conferring of the tools ;
the workman may still be unskilful, or indolent or both. To give a
man a loom is one thing ; to teach him to weave well and indus
triously is quite another thing.
This leads me, dropping metaphors, in which fallacy may lurk, to
say in the second place—
2. That the power of reading and of writing often rusts unused,
if it is not wholly lost, through neglect and apathy after leaving
school. The attainments are not usually carried far enough to
render their use either easy or pleasant, and the power gradually
decays (3.) For, in the third place—
3. A knowledge of the sounds and forms of the letters, the sylla
bles and words made up by the letters, is too commonly confounded
with knowledge of the things read about, with the taking in of the
ideas verbally expressed. An extreme instance may be given. The
late Principal Baird, of Edinburgh University, reported that on an
official visit which he made to some schools in the remote highlands
and islands of Scotland, he was greatly surprised and pleased by the
fluency and correctness with which the children read some verses
from the New Testament in English. He ventured to put some
question, and then discovered that the children knew nothing
whatever of English, that they spoke Gaelic solely, and that they
read the English words aloud, by imitation, as mere sounds, without
any sense to which they could be echo. Let me cite another
instance less extreme. In a school in Hampshire I once heard some
girls read, as I thought, with rather unusual correctness, a descrip
tion of a crab. I happened to ask, as it was an inland place, if any
of them had ever seen a crab. After a pause, one girl acknow
ledged her having seen a crab ; but, on inquiry, it appeared that it
was a crab-apple she had seen, and it never had occurred to her
that the description did not at all fit the object supposed to be
described ! So, after reading about the straining out of gnats, and
the swallowing of camels, one of the pupils (as Miss Cobbe vouches)
being asked what was the great sin of the Pharisees, answered, not
hypocrisy, but “ eating camels.” These are detached examples of
misapprehension of the things for which the equivalent words are
given : but thousands escape detection, and, whether it is through
the eye or through the ear that the words reach the sensorium, it is
a sad truth, that in innumerable cases they excite no ideas, or false
ideas. For such condition of mind is it wonderful that reading
should be an irksome, not a pleasing task, one to be soon laid aside,
and as seldom as possible resumed ? The great mass do not, like the
few, persevere sufficiently to surmount those hampering difficulties
and earn the reward which such perseverance brings. But, in the
fourth place, as I have already said,—
�9
4. Reading is but one means, if, in the long run, the most impor
tant, for acquiring knowledge. On Saturday last I had a letter from
home which, by an apt coincidence, illustrates what I mean. My
little boy, not yet four years old, says to his mother, “Mamma, why
does cousin Bella learn lessons ?” “That she may grow up to be
wise and useful.” “But don’t I learn by asking questions ?” “ Out
of the mouth of babes.” The radical fallacy is in supposing that no
knowledge or improvement is obtainable except from books, and the
result is the confounding of means with ends. A child is a living,
restless, never ceasing interrogator, “perpetually wanting to know,
you know,” perpetually asking, What ? and how ? and when ? and
where ? and above all (as I have observed with some surprise) why ?
perpetually putting all around it “to the question.” This is to
nurses and parents and teachers a disturbing, fatiguing, and exas
perating process, and questions are commonly discouraged, 01* evaded,
if not forbidden. “ Children ought not to ask questions : ” “ Child
ren should be seen, not heard:” such are the ethics of the nursery.
I willingly allow for the difficulty of at once carrying on, at
least in school, a continuous course of teaching with many pupils
simultaneously, and of caring for individual differences of mental state.
But principles do not cease to be principles because their application
is difficult; and it cannot be doubted that one intelligent answer to
such a question as a child will ask and at the time when it asks it,
when its interest is aroused and the mental soil is prepared, does
more good, has more suggestive and stimulative power than pages of
“useful knowledge” which are not “en rapport” with the child’s
mental state, and which respond to nothing then active within its
little brain. A child of average health and capacity sucks in know
ledge at every pore; its craving for knowledge is truly insatiable.
“It is as natural” says Quintilian, “for the human mind to learn as for
the bird to fly, or the fish to swim.” But many who spend dreary
years in seeking the power to read Quintilian in the original, and
most^frequently without succeeding in the endeavour, tell us a very
different tale. The youthful mind, they say, is averse from know
ledge, that is, what they call knowledge, or, at best, indifferent to it,
and it must be artificially coaxed, or bribed, or threatened into the
semblance of interest. A child eagerly examines every object
around it, or, in lack of objects, then the pictures or images of objects.
But between the child and nature we interpose an opaque medium
called a book, and we expect the child to profit by symbols which to
us, indeed, are full of meaning, but which to it are mysteries, whose
significance it is slow to discover. Pedants snort disdainfully at the
thought of teaching science to children. Yet what is science, in great
part, but observation methodized ? A child cannot be easily kept from
observing and even from generalizing. The question is whether it.
shall do both ignorantly, of its own wild fancy, or under the guidance
of maturer judgment and ampler knowledge. As all children, not wholly
stupified by the compression and distortion of the school, form for
themselves a kind of science, draw inferences and make generalizations,
�10
probably erroneous, certainly incomplete, shall they be left without
guidance, as without encouragement ? (4.)
Even attempts to teach science are often marred by confounding
it with literary or verbal knowledge. Nature is treated on the
system of the Eton Latin grammar. Technical names and lists of
genera and species are committed to memory without due explanation
of the grounds of distinction. I have before me a catechism for the
young, entitled “ First Lessons in Physiology.” All the know
ledge runs freely from the pupil, when tapped by the teacher
with a question. The teacher says: “ How many varieties of
absorption are there, and name them ?” The pupil answers : “Inter
stitial, cutaneous, recrementitial, respiratory, venous, excrementitial,
and lacteal.” Such are the new husks upon which babes are fed !
Without a revolution in method no mere change of subject can do
much good.
5. Again, the learning of the art of reading, being treated as an
end, is made much more difficult than it needs to be. The letters
are taught by their names, not by their sounds; in the arbitrary
order of the alphabet, instead of in the natural order of the organs
by which they are pronounced. Spelling is still taught by means of
columns of long, hard, unconnected words, selected for their very
difficulty and rarity, to be learned by rote, or, as is said with
unconscious irony, “by heart.” At a large and well-endowed
school in London, I have seen dozens of boys engaged simulta
neously in laborious efforts to learn to spell badly, with the aid
of a most ingenious book, in which every word was incorrectly
spelled. Then the process of teaching to read begins too early, as
it is continued too long. I know well the difficulty in a school,
where the minds of the pupils may be, nay must be, in different
stages of development; still, the first thing being to rouse an appetite
for knowledge, and the second to gratify it when roused, all attempts
to reverse this order, or even to anticipate its evolution, must be
injurious. A child that, eager to heai’ a story over again, puts to its
ear the book in which it is told, is in a fair way of learning to read
swiftly, easily, gladly. Before it reaches that sjtage, the instruction
might have been tedious and ineffectual. These are but hints which
it is impossible here to follow out in detail.
6. Then, what is the literature by means of which reading is too
often taught ? In Scotland still, the shorter Catechism of the West
minster Assembly of Divines (in my boyhood I used to wonder what
the longer could possibly be), has prefixed to it an alphabet which is
learned as a preliminary to plunging into the depths of Calvinistic divi
nity. Even in London I have visited a “ respectable” school, in which
reading is taught from the Bible, and so soon as the pupil is tolerably
proficient, he is promoted to the dignity of secular reading 1 And
this is done in the supposed interests of religion 1 It is as if we
were to begin the teaching of our children with Milton’s Paradise
Lost, and then advance them into Robinson Crusoe, or Miss Edger
worth’s Tales. In many Scotch schools the Bible is almost the only
�11
reading book ; the junior and senior classes are called respectively
the Testament class and the Bible class. I have heard of a boy so
taught who, having been asked by his mother to read a passage in
a newspaper, was suddenly roused from his monotonous chaunt by a
box on the ear, accompanied by these words—“ How dare ye, ye
tcoundrel, read the newspaper with the Bible twang ?”
7. With such a spirit in the school, is it wonderful that the whole
teaching should have a narcotic tendency, that it should crush intel
ligence, and breed disgust, weariness, hatred of all study ? At a
former meeting of this Association, I heard one of Hei' Majesty’s
Inspectors of Schools (since dead), declare that in certain schools he
could tell pretty accurately by the pupils’ faces how long they had
been at school. The longer the period, the more stupid, vacant, and
expressionless the face. Another school inspector (Diocesan), has
told me that when, examining a class in the Acts of the Apostles, he
asked:—“Why did the eunuch go away rejoicing,”—the answer’
frankly was—“ Please, sir, because Philip had a done o’ teaching on
him.” What hours of weariness and waste are summed up in this
brief story! Such teaching defeats its own end; the power to read
is gained at the cost of the desire to read. This, if, in spite of false
quantity, I may adapt the words of the Roman poet, is “ propter
legendum legendi perdere causas,” for the sake of reading to lose
that which makes reading to be desired.
8. Lastly, it ought never to be forgotten that the power to read
does not in the least determine the use to which it is to be put. What
will be the nature of the books or journals read ? How much of
mischievous, not to speak of idle, literature is there in the world
that must all find readers, admirers, purchasers ! With the diffusion
of the mere power of reading, without intellectual and moral culture,
must we not expect that this sort of literature will be multiplied ?
The increased numbers of cheap “ sporting ” papers, of papers de
voted to police reports, with coarse and exciting woodcuts, and
of the literary master-pieces of the “ singing saloon,” have of late
attracted notice. Nay, the power to read and write arms with
greater force the disposition for evil, as well as that for good. In
every wicked enterprise such attainments are helps to its success.
It used to be argued that writing ought not to be taught to the
people, lest it should lead to the commission of forgery, or other
fraud ; but this sort of argument, if futile against teaching to write,
supplies a reason why the power of writing, or of reading, should be
associated with such training and guidance as will tend to ensure its
beneficial employment.
As I rejoice to see in this Association, and elsewhere, a growing
tendency to regard the teaching of all classes, and of both sexes,
from the same points of view, and to apply to all alike the same
fundamental principles, I will here briefly say that what I think to
be the exaggerated estimate of reading and writing in the instruction
of the poor has its exact counterpart in the hitherto far too exclu
sively literary character of the instruction of the rich. In this
�aspect, how pregnant with meaning is the title, “ Grammar school,”
so almost universal as the designation of our upper schools ! Not
to insist on the practical identification of “ Grammar ” with the
teaching of Latin and Greek, what a petrifaction is this term of the
whole cast of opinion, which viewed all instruction as an affair of
books and words 1 What a record it preserves of the habit of regarding
even Science as a knowledge less of things than of what men have
written about things, and of the style in which they have written 1
Widen as we may the sense of grammar, far beyond the scope and
practice of schools, past or present, till it become, if you will, co
extensive with philology, and even literature, (and far be it from
me to disparage such studies), how lamentably does this title fall
short of what ought to be the aim of education in such a country, in
such an age as ours 1 Over the door of the Bradford Grammar
School stands this inscription
“ Quod Deus optimus maximus bene vertat
Aedificium hocce ad literarum antiquarum
Studium promovendum juventutemque doctrinA
Elegantiore imbuendum extructum est atque
Musis in perpetuum consecratum.”
—“ For promoting the study of ancient literature, and for imbuing
youth with elegant learning, this building has been raised, and for
ever consecrated to the muses.”
A noble part of a liberal education, the polished and graceful
capital of the educational column, but assuredly neither its shaft
nor its base ! Try mentally to realize what Bradford or Belfast is,
and what it needs for the instruction and guidance of the youth who
are to do its actual work, to maintain and to extend its prosperity, to
remove its evils, to raise the charactei* of its people, to improve their
sanitary and social condition, to teach them how to lead a clean,
healthy, happy, human life — and how painfully one-sided and
defective it is ! How it ignores the essential! How it magnifies
the less important! How it subordinates strength, solidity, and
service to grace and ornament and surface-show I Assuredly the
time is coming, I think it is at hand, when such a title- as that of
“ Spelling school” will be regarded as scarcely less expressive of the
purposes, grand and manifold, at which our uppei’ schools, aye, all
our schools, ought to aim. Even in our higher, even in our highest
schools, improvement is slowly but surely creeping in ; slowly but
surely is it being recognized that any school which ignores the know
ledge of man himself, of the objects animate and inanimate with
which he is surrounded, and of the relationship between him and them,
his social duties, his economic interests, and the reciprocal bearing of
the individual and the social well being is radically, deplorably, dis
gracefully defective. Every improvement in our lower schools will
react upon the upper, and vice versa. And when the instruction of
our higher classes is what it ought to be, and in proportion as it shall
be what it ought to be, will the problem of our lower education be
practically solved. Had our upper classes ever been really educated,
�13
they would not, and could not, so long and so complacently have
endured the ignorance and consequent degradation of the masses of
their fellow citizens, of those whom, as if in mockery, they style
their fellow immortals, their brothers and their sisters.
It is, however, of the lower schools that I here speak. It is even
fortunate that narrow and selfish fears are beginning to urge on what
enlarged conceptions and generous impulse have failed hitherto to
effect. Thus (1) the recent extension of the suffrage is opening
the eyes of many to the necessity of training the masses to the ju
dicious and beneficial exercise of the power thus conferred. One
whose name will be, in history, connected as well with the political
changes that he resisted as with the educational changes that he
introduced, has said that we must now teach our future masters their
letters. That this was said in bitter irony there can be little doubt;
and it cannot be taken to mean that in the opinion of the speaker
that amount of teaching will suffice. Those who have already had
the suffrage can, for the most part, read and write. But they, too,
need enlightenment, and moral as well as intellectual training; so do
those whom they elect to represent them. On the one hand, reading
and writing have not prevented dishonest voters in thousands from
selling their votes for bribes, solid or liquid ; on the other, reading
and writing, and much besides, have not prevented unscrupulously
ambitious millionaires from debauching whole constituencies by
lavish expenditure, or from masking their immoral and demoralising
practices by liberal donations to charities, to schools, and even to
churches. Nevertheless, the fear of the large classes now admitted
within the pale of the constitution for the first time has given no
slight impulse to the general zeal for education. It is for us to see
that the movement now begun be turned to good account. Let us
help to educate, but in what ? That is the question of questions.
Then, again (2), foreign nations, we are told, are beginning to beat
us at our own weapons. They have learned more than their letters.
They are, it is said, driving us out of the markets which, with insular
arrogance, we have fancied should for ever be ours exclusively.
A cry of alarm is raised for more and better technical instruction ;
and, though this is narrow enough in the thoughts of many who raise
it, more and better general culture will certainly come out of it;
a greater development of general mental power, and the formation
of better social habits, will ere long be discovered to be the things
really needful.
Again (3), our industry is partially paralyzed, our capital is wasted,
our prosperity, our very national existence, are endangered by strikes
and trade combinations and restrictions, which check production,
often by means as unscrupulous and truculent as the end sought is
false and mischievous. The masses have been suffered to grow up
in ignorant and angry defiance of the elementary principles of
economic science, and reading and writing will not cure this long
rankling sore. Broadhead, who could read and write (as he has
amply shown), believing at the time that the introduction of a certain
�14
machine would injure his craft, instigated an act of criminal violence^
He confessed that he had discovered his error ; but the discovery came
too late. Had he made it sooner, one outrage less would have been
attempted. With wider knowledge others, perhaps all, might have
been prevented. Knowledge is not merely power; it is restraint
and guidance, if not impulse. It is the rudder, if not the sail ; the
fly-wheel, if not the steam-boiler. It is true that there have not
been wanting men of so-called education to defend such blunders,
and even to extenuate such atrocities ; but their education has lacked
the special direction which alone could save from error in this matter.
It is true that the employers are often not more intelligent in this
respect than the employed ; but the enlightenment of the latter, who
are the many, and from whose ranks the former, hitherto the few,
must largely come, will extend to, and react upon the former
also, and do much to soften their mutual relations, to make all see
their common interest, and to fuse them together, so as in time to
modify, if not, as some hope, to obliterate the distinction itself (5.)
For such reasons as these, a new educational agitation is arising,
or the old is reviving with fresh vigour. One and all point to something
far beyond reading and writing. I am, I must say, hopeful of the
ultimate, if not of the early, issue. The now swelling call for
“ compulsory” education will force on the public mind the funda
mental inquiry, what ought education to be. If, by compulsion,
what now passes under the name of education were rendered even
universal, I presume to think that the existing mass of pauperism,
crime, vice, misery and disease, would scarcely be perceptibly
abated. But it is no small gain to have recognized the claim of even
the poorest, still more even because the poorest, to something that is
called education. Bad or grossly defective education in any quarter
cannot continue long aftei’ education has ceased to be regarded as the
heritage of the few. Just as air becomes stagnant and foul when con
fined, so education when restricted to the few loses its vital freshness.
To diffuse education of any kind is indirectly to improve it. Make
education general, universal, and the (so called) higher education
will be rationalized, and, as I think, liberalized (6.) Youths will no
longei* be sent into active life from costly seminaries, accomplished
it may be in Greek metres, but ignorant of the structure of their own
bodies, the constitution of their own minds; filled with mythologic
lore, but unaware of their social duties ; primed with verbal scraps of
inconsistent moral precept, but less ashamed of debt than of honest
industry; looking on the world as a spoil for the lucky, or the
crafty, oi' the strong, not as a field for useful and ennobling labour
to the benefit of all as well as of self; of self just in proportion as it
tends to the good of all. Then, instead of the rich being fed on
intellectual sweetmeats, while the poor are starved, or gathei’ up the
crumbs that fall from the others’ table, all, rich and poor alike, shall
be nourished with plainer, more substantial and wholesome diet, not
without such lighter fare as may be obtainable by either. As know
ledge will be no longer confounded with books, or with words about
�16
knowledge, so morals, of which the laws are as eternal as they are
simple, as universal as they are strong, the morals in which all sects
and conditions of thinking men agree, will be dissociated from the
verbal and dogmatic formularies about which men differ, and, while
becoming less sectarian and theological, will become more widely
Catholic, more truly religious (7.) We, or our survivors, will then look
back with a smile, not of contempt or pride, but of joy and pity, on
the time when there was so great a pother about so small a matter
as reading and writing, and when even this beggarly amount of
teaching was found to be a tremendous national difficulty, just
because so little more was aimed at, or desired, or perhaps conceived.
The less is included in the greater, and the little becomes easy from
the effort to do much.
Notes.
(1.) p. 6. “ A Maiden Session.—At the Salisbury Quarter Sessions, just held,
there was not a single prisoner for trial. The Mayor of the city (Mr. S. Eldridge)
had therefore the pleasing duty of presenting the Recorder (Mr. J. D. Chambers),
the clerk of the peace, and the governor of the gaol with a pair of white kid
gloves each, according to custom on occasions of this sort. The Recorder, in
addressing the grand jury, said that he had read the other day in The Times that
Wiltshire was one ot the best educated counties in England, and it was highly
satisfactory to learn therefore that the decrease of crime had been in proportion to the
spread of education.” (/)—Times, 2nd Jan., 1868.
(2.) p. 7. “ Although the perusal of such works must, in strictness of speech,
be denominated reading, yet, so far as the cultivation of mind is concerned, it is
little else than the sheer act of deciphering so much letter press, without the
acquisition of a single new idea that can at all conduce towards improvement.”
—Rev. Thos. Price, “Tour in Brittany, Literary Remains,” 1854, vol. 1,
p. 81. “No doubt the power of reading is a key to the whole literature of
England. But in the hands of persons ignorant how to use it, a key is of little
use.”—Saturday Review, 4th Jan., 1868, p. 20. In the very same article the
writer says:—« What is wanted is that every child should be able to read and
write fairly before he goes to work; that he should be enabled to turn this
knowledge to -laone intellectual account while he is at work; and that, in cases
where his parents’ means, or his own industry, can defray the cost, he should be
further enabled to perfect himself in the various branches of study which have a
bearing, general or special, on his professional occupation.” It is too obvious
that the reviewer does not expect the child to turn the ability to read and write
to any “ intellectual account ” during the school period!
(3.) p. 8. “ The imperfect instruction given to the children in factories, under the
half-time system, is retained by them during a year or two at most, when it is
forgotten, and many intelligent young overlookers are unable to keep correctly
the simple accounts which should form a part of the duties of their position.”—
Mr. Samuelson, M.P. (speaking of Bradford, Yorkshire).
(4.) p. 10. “Why are the people who notice what comes before them to be marked
by a separating name, and called naturalists? Why are we ashamed of a
failure in what comes to us through books and the costly instrumentality of
masters and teachers ? Why do we blush at any flagrant slip in history, or
science, or language, and keep cool and easy under any extravagance of error in
�what'nature, through our own observation, might teach us.”—Saturday Revieu),
28th July, 1863. Article on “ Ignorance.” Yet Canon Moseley, who is deservedly
an authority in education, would keep out of schools (not merely elementary
schools) all “ the sciences of observation,” specially so called. At Clifton College,
on 30th July, 1867, he is reported to have said: —“The subjects of human know
ledge, which claimed to be considered and taught in our schools, might be
divided into four groups. First of all,” (why ‘ first ? ’) “ there were the languages
and the subjects allied to them; secondly, the pure mathematical sciences, which
were pursued in the exercise of pure thought and rested upon abstractions ;
thirdly, the sciences of experiment, including physics and chemistry; and
fourthly, the great sciences of observation, such as natural history and the like.
He thought they might put the last out of consideration, as they had had quite
enough to do with the three others.” In like manner, I once heard it contended
that any new poetry is superfluous, because there is more poetry already written
than any human being can possibly read! In like manner, it has been urged
that the discovery of new planets is absurd, because we have as many already
as we well know what to do with! But, perhaps, we ought less to regret
that the subjects in the fourth class are thus shut out, than rejoice that those in
the third are admitted. Too often both classes are still visited with the same
arbitrary sentence of exclusion, and on the same ground, that there is quite
enough to do without them! It is not very long since subjects of even the
second class ceased to be regarded as unlicensed intruders on the traditional
monopoly of the first.
(5.) p. 14. “ To the three reasons given in the text a fourth may well be added.
Society is, not without reason, more and more alarmed by the rapid increase of
outrages which threaten its very existence. “ Education ” is hailed as the sure
if slow, remedy. The adult ruffian is probably beyond its influence, but the
embryo garotter may be tamed if only he can be taught to spell “ gallows; ” and
on the juvenile pickpocket a course of alphabet, with exercise in pothooks and
hangers, may have a salutary effect, deterrent or emollient! By all means let
trial be made. Its failure will open the eyes of many to the need of something
better, though it may also lead many to say, “ Education has been tried, and
tried in vain.”
(6.) p. 14. “ Coleridge, when he predicted that the effect of popularizing know
ledge would be to plebify it, erred in his vision of the future, as many seers have
done before and since. He uttered that prediction on the assumption that know
ledge, in its higher portions, was confined to the regions of theology and
psychology; and he overlooked the faot that, in proportion as these branches of
knowledge have been cultivated by the few,-ignorance has prevailed among the
many. He failed to observe that, if thousands rushed to Abelard’s lecture room,
millions outside of it were immersed in the grossest superstition.”—Saturday
Review, 26th Oct., 1867, p. 544.
(7.) p. 15. “As Sir R. Palmer reminded his audience, the line between ‘ religious’
and ‘ secular ’ is purely conventional. ‘ All knowledge, all instruction, in what
ever is honest and of good report, is essentially religious.’ Dogmatic theology
concerns itself with creeds; but religion has to do with common life; and its
sphere, though net identical, is co-extensive with that of education. The
clergyman and the schoolmaster are inevitably working together, whether they
are working in concert or not.”—Times, 2nd Nov., 1866.
�
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Exaggerated estimates of reading and writing as means of education: a paper read at the Belfast meeting of the Social Science Association, on 24th Sept., 1867
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Text
THE
RELIGION OF CHILDREN
A DISCOURSE, WITH READINGS AND MEDITATION,
given at
SOUTH PLACE CHAPEL,
OCTOBER
2i, 1877,
BY
MONCURE D. CONWAY, M.A.
frige twopence.
�ORDER
1. Hymn 132—
“ Smiles on past misfortune’s brow.”—Gray.
2. Readings, pages 3 to 7.
3. Hymn 180—
“I think if thou could’st know.”—Adelaide Procter.
4. Meditation, p. 8.
5. Anthem 22—
“Gently fall the dews of eveP—Saralt P. Adams.
6. Discourse, p. 9.
7. Hymn, 191 —
“ Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill. ”—Tennyson.
8.
Dismissal.
�HYMN 132.
READINGS.
HEBREW PROVERBS.
My son, if base men entice thee,
■Consent thou not.
Walk not in the way with them :
Keep back thy foot from their paths :
Tor their feet run to evil.
.'Surely in vain the net is spread,
In the sight of any bird ;
But these lay snares for their own lives.
.Such are the ways of everyone greedy of gain;
The life of those addicted to it, it taketh away.
Because they hated knowledge,
Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way,
And from their own counsel they shall be filled.
T’or the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
And the carelessness*of fools shall destroy them.
�4
ORIENTAL FABLE.
The learned Saib, who was entrusted with the education of the
son of the Sultan Carizama, related to him each day a story.
One day he told him this from the annals of Persia
“A magi
cian presented himself before King Zohak, and breathing on his
breast, caused two serpents to come forth from the region of the
king’s heart. The king in wrath was about to slay him, but the
magician said, ‘ These two serpents are tokens of the glory
of your reign. They must be fed, and with human blood. Thisvon may obtain by sacrificing to them the lowest of your people ;
but they will bring you happiness, and whatever pleases you isjust.’ Zohak was at first shocked ; but gradually he accustomed
himself to the counsel, and his subjects were sacrificed to the
serpents. But the people only saw in Zohak a monster bent on
their destruction. They revolted, and shut him up in a cavern
of the mountain Damarend, where he became a prey to the two
serpents whose voracity he could no longer appease.
“ What a horrible history ! ” exclaimed the young prince, when
his preceptor had ended it. “ Pray tell me another that I can
hear without shuddering.” “ Willingly, my lord,” replied Saib.
“ Here is a very simple one :—-A young sultan placed his confi
dence in an artful courtier, who filled his mind with false ideas of
glory and happiness, and introduced into his heart pride and volup
tuousness. Absorbed by these two passions, the young monarch
sacrificed his people to them, insomuch that in their wretchedness
they tore him from the throne. He lost his crown and his
treasures, but his pride and voluptuousness remained, and being
now unable to satisfy them, he died of rage and despair.” The
young prince of Carizama said, “ I like this story better than theother.” “ Alas, prince,” replied his preceptor, “itis neverthelessthe same.”
�5
FROM “THE SPIRIT’S TRIALS.”
By J. A. Froude.
A TALENT, of itself unhealthily precocious, was most unwisely
pushed forward and encouraged out by everybody—by teachers
Ld schoolmasters, from the vanity of having a little monster to
display as their workmanship; by his father, because he vms
anxious for the success of his children in life, and the quicker
they <mt on the better : they would the sooner assume a position
It had struck no one there might be a mistake about it. Tw one
could have ever cared to see even if it were possible they migat,
or five minutes’ serious talk with the boy, or to have listened to
his laurh, would have shown the simplest of them that t rey we. e
but developing a trifling quickness of faculty ; that the powe
which should have gone for the growth of the entire rec
bein-directed off into a single branch, which was su ed g
disproportioned magnitude, while the stem was quietly decaying.
L to the character, of the entire boy-his temper, dispos tion, health of tone in heart and mind, all that was presumem
It made no show at school exhibitions, and at east due dy
assumed no form of positive importance as regarded after
So this was all left to itself. Of course, if a boy knew half the
Iliad by heart at ten, and had construed the Odyssey through a
eleven, all other excellences were a matter of course. . .
was naturally timid, and shrunk from all the amusements and
Xes of other boys. So much the better : he would keep to his
books
He was under-grown for ms age, infirm, an un
healthy'"and a disposition might have been observed in him
even then in all his dealings with other boys and with Ins master
X evade difficulties instead of meeting them-a feature whi
should have called for the most delicate handling, anc uou
have far better repaid the time and attention which were w
�6
in forcing him beyond his years, in a few miserable attainments,
. . In a scene so crowded as this world is, or as the little world
of a public school is, with any existing machinery it is impossible
to attend to minute shades of character. There is a sufficient
likeness among boys to justify the use of general, very general
laws indeed. They are dealt with in the mass. An average
treatment is arrived at. If an exception does rise, and it happens
to disagree, it is a pity, but it cannot be helped. “Punish,” not
“prevent,” is the old-fashioned principle. If a boy goes wrong,
whip him. Teach him to be afraid of going wrong by the pains
and penalties to ensue—just the principle on which gamekeepers
used to try to break dogs. But men learned to use gentler
methods soonest with the lower animals. As to the effects of the
treatment, results seem to show pretty much alike in both cases ;
but with the human animal an unhappy notion clung on to it,
and still clings, and will perpetuate the principle and its disas
trous consequences, that men and boys deserve their whipping,
as if they could have helped doing what they did in a way dogs
cannot. . . It would be well if people would so far take
example from what they find succeed with their dogs, as to learn
there are other ways at least as efficacious, and that the desired
conduct is better if produced in any other way than in that. . .
On the whole, general rules should have no place in family
education. It is just there, and there perhaps alone, that there
are opportunities of studying shades of difference, and it should
be the business of affection to attend to them. When affection
i s really strong, it will be an equal security against indulgence
and over-hasty severity. . . .
I take it to be a matter of the most certain experience in
dealing with boys of an amiable, infirm disposition, that exactly
the treatment they receive from you they will deserve. In a
general way it is true of all persons of unformed character who.
�7
Come in contact with you as your inferiors, although with men it
cannot be relied on with the same certainty, because their feel
ings are less powerful, and their habit of moving this way or that
wZy under particular circumstances more determinate. But with
the very large class of boys of a yielding nature who have very
little self-confidence, are very little governed by a determined
will or judgment, but sway up and down under the impulses of
the moment, if they are treated generously and trustingly, it
may be taken for an axiom that their feelings will be always
strong enough to make them ashamed not to deserve it. Treat
them as if they deserved suspicion, and as infallibly they soon
actually will deserve it. People seem to assume that to be
governed by impulse means, only “ bad impulse,” and they
endeavour to counteract it by trying to work upon the judg
ment, a faculty which these boys have not got, and so cannot
possibly be influenced by it. There never was a weak boy yet
that was deterred from doing wrong by ultimate distant con
sequences he was to learn from thinking about them. It is idle
to attempt to manage him otherwise than by creating and foster
ing generous impulses to keep in check the baser ones. And
the greatest delicacy is required in effecting this. It is not
enough to do a substantial good. Substantial good is Oiten diy
or repulsive on the surface, and must be understood to be
valued ; just, again, what boys are unable to do. . . Strong
natures may understand and value the reality. Women, and
such children as these, will not be affected by it, unless it shows
on the surface what is in the heart. Provided you will do it in
a kind, sympathising manner, you may do what you please with
them ; otherwise nothing you do will affect them at all.
HYMN iSo.
�8
MEDITATION.
As we gather to-day, apart from the conventional world of
worshippers, we are still between those vast realms of moral
good and evil which are reflected in all human consciousness.
Beneath, stretches that abyss which human imagination has
peopled with demons and devils, and the manifold tortures of
souls in eternal pain and despair ; above, the fair realms of joy
with its spirits of light, angels, cherubim and seraphim. But
these are all within each of us. All those demons mean only
hearts sunk low in selfishness ; all those angels mean hearts
raised high in burning love. Not mean or poor is any lot which
gives room to deny self, to put all self-seeking passions under
foot, to ascend by the ardour and spirit of love. There is the
grand conflict between angel and demon waged, the struggle
between light and darkness, and there the victory is being won.
Great is love 1 Whether it sends its sweet influence through a
community or a home, whether it is saving a world or a heart,
great and divine is love! For it closes over and hides
the dark region of guilt and baseness within us, it quickens the
mind and expands the heart to their fulness of life. In each
heart are the two doors—one opening downward to the pit of
selfishness in all its forms, one opening upwards to the purest
joys ; and it is when we give all to the spirit of Love that the
hell is for ever conquered, and we build around us henceforth our
eternal heaven.
ANTHEM 22.
�THE RELIGION OF CHILDREN.
In some respects the child living in the present age
finds its lines fallen in pleasant places. It is not, like
its ancestors, tortured with nauseous drugs, nor so
much with the rod. The clergyman no longer pro
nounces over the babe at baptism, as he once did,
“ I command thee, unclean spirit, that thou come out
of this infantnor delivers it up to be dealt with as
if its natural temper and will were efforts of the unclean
spirit to get back again. In Iceland the old people
account for elves by saying that once when the Al
mighty visited Eve after the fall, she kept most of her
children out of the way because they were not washed;
on which these were sentenced to be always invisible,
were turned into elves, and became the progenitors of
such. But we are beginning to be more merciful than
that even for the unwashed, and have gone a consider
able way towards humanising them and making them
presentable.
�Id
As to their literary culture and entertainment, there
were probably more good and attractive books for
children published in the last ten years than in the
whole of the last century. Many of the finest writers
of our generation—Dickens, Thackeray, Hawthorne,
Kingsley—the list would be long—have rightly thought
it a high task of genius to write books for children.
But in religious matters the children can hardly be
congratulated on the age upon which they have fallen.
The child is a piece of nature—physical, mental, moral
nature. Heaven and earth meet in it; the laws of
reason are in its instincts as well as zoologic laws;
and these harmonise in it. The child is a unit. Con
science is for a time external; it knows good and evil
in the parental conscience, not in itself. There is no
divorce between the two kinds of goodness—what
is good for eye and mouth, and what is good, for the
soul. There is no fruit inwardly forbidden. Confucius
said 11 Heaven and earth are without doubleness,’’ but
Hebrew Scriptures say God has made all things double
—one is set against the other. Our theology has been
largely evolved out of this Hebraism, but our children
live morally in that primitive age which cannot realise
profoundly any dualism. The child, therefore, lives in
a heaven and earth without doubleness; if its parent
only consents to a thing, it feels no misgiving; but it
is early introduced to a religion full, not only of double-
�II
ness, but of duplicity. It is the gangrene of our
age that it says one thing and means another; professes one thing and believes another; and nearly
.
every child, taught any religion at all, is taug t mgs
incongruous. I used, in childhood, to wonder about
the meaning of that prayer in the Zh Dam,
e
us never be confounded;” but as time went on,
whatever else was obscure, the confusion grew clear.
Not only that old sense of a word which reqmres
philology to explain ; but the sense of every chapter
•n the Bible, every sentence in the Catechism,
requires the interpretation of knowledge and. expe
rience; whilst the sentences being m Eng ,
apparently, the young mind is compelled
p
some meaning into them-a meaning pretty certain
to be wrong—or else be put to confusion It is not,
however, the double tongue of formal teaching wh 1
is worst; the mental confusion is not so bad as the
moral; and there it is impossible to conceive anything
more anomalous than most of the rehg.ous induct o
—so-called—around us. It is the necessity of the
home, the nursery, and of the school, that the c>
should be taught to be forgiving, gentle knd and
never angry or hateful. It is instructed that all
X be «». But just so fast, and so far as
dogmas can be crammed into the child, it is1 asyste
which begins with God’s wrath against the whole
�12
world, and ends with Christ’s damnation of vast
multitudes. A little boy in an American family with
which I am acquainted, being in a passion with his
playmate, declared that he hated him, and never
would see him again. His sister rebuked him, told
him that was very wrong, and not like Christ. “ Christ
never hated and abused others, not even his enemies.”
“No,” said the boy, “but he’s going to.”
It may be that only one boy in many would be
clear-headed enough to say that, but many can feel
what one or none can say. It is impossible that
children can be taught in one breath a vindictive
Christianity and a gentle Christianity—dogmas of
fear and principles of trust—and not imbibe either
muddy waters of confusion or the waters of bitterness,
where they should find only fountains of light and joy.
In one respect the Reformation had an unhappy effect
upon the work of nurturing little children. It trans
ferred the care of “ saving its soul,” as it is called,
from the outside to the inside of a head too small to
manage it. In the Catholic family the drop of holy
water and sign of the cross on the child’s forehead are
alone required; and for many years it is mainly left to a
natural growth; at any rate, not encouraged to grapple
with everlasting problems.
Under the reformed
religion there grew an increasing anxiety as to how
the souls of the children were to be saved; and the
�13
way fixed on was to stimulate strongly its fears and its
hopes.
Luther brought with him a bright children s para
dise from the Church of Rome. Here is his letter to
his son, aged 4 :—•
il Grace and peace in Christ, my dearly beloved
little son. I am glad to know that you are learning
well and that you say your prayers. So do, my little
son, and persevere; and^hen I come home I will
bring home with me a present from the annual fair.
I know of a pleasant and beautiful garden into which
many children go, where they have golden little coats,
and gather pretty apples under the trees, and pears,
and cherries, and plums (pflaumen), and yellow
plums (spillen); where they sing, leap, and are
merry; where they also have beautiful little horses,
with golden bridles and silver saddles. When I
asked the man that owned the garden ‘ Whose are
these children ? ’ he said ‘ They are the children that
love to learn, and to pray, and are pious.’
“ Then I said, ‘ Dear Sir, I also have a son I he is
called Johnny Luther (Hanischen Luther). May he
not come into the garden, that he may eat such
beautiful apples and pears, and ride such a little
horse, and play with these children ? ’ Then the man
said ‘ If he loves to pray and to learn, and is pious,
he shall also come into the garden; Philip too, and
�14
little James; and if they all come together, then they
may have likewise whistles, kettle-drums, lutes and
harps; they may dance also, and shoot with little
crossbows.’
“Then he showed me a beautiful green grass
plot in the garden prepared for dancing, where hang
nothing but golden fifes, drums, and elegant silver
cross-bows. But it was now early, and the children
had not yet eaten. Thereupon I could not wait for
the dancing, and I said to the man, ‘ Ah, dear Sir,
I will instantly go away and write about all of this to
my little son John; that he may pray earnestly, and
learn well, and be pious, so that he may also come
into this garden; but he has an aunt Magdalene,
may he bring her with him ? ’ Then said the man,
(So shall it be ; go and write to him with confidence.’
Therefore, dear little John, learn and pray with de
light ; and tell Philip and James, too, that they must
learn and pray; so you shall come with one another
into the garden. With this I commend you to
Almighty God—and give my love to aunt Magdalene ;
give her a kiss for me. Your affectionate father,
Martin Luther.” (In the year 1530.)
It is plain that the man who wrote that letter was
himself a child. Thunder for the Emperor, lightning
for the Pope, but a shower of rainbows for little
Johnny. But that child’s paradise is now as obsolete
�iS
as the Elysian Fields, or the Indian’s happy hunting
ground There was already a worm amid its blossoms
while Luther described them: for Calvinism was
lurking near, with terrors to blacken not only the earth
but the blue sky. Happily for Johnny, his father was
not logical, else it might have occurred to him that if
prayer and piety were the way to reach the heavenly
garden, they would naturally be the chief occupation
there. But Calvin was logical; and there is no worse
affliction than your logical man when his premisses
are false. Calvinism made heaven into a large Presby
terian assembly, all the children turned to rigidly
righteous elders ; no children there at all. One by one
in the child’s paradise the blossoms fell blighted.
Instead of the dance, behold a Puritan Sabbath school;
instead of plums and cherries, texts and hymns ; cross
bows yield to catechisms ; and the child learned at last
that its heaven was to be a place where congrega
tions ne’er break up, and Sabbaths have no end.
Well, we have measurably recovered from that. . At
least, many well-to-do families have; the Puritan
paradise is one we are generally quite willing to give to
the poor. It is still largely the ragged-school para
dise, and I suspect that endless Sabbath fixes m many
a ragged boy the resolve never to go there. Meanwhi e,
for the children of a happier earthly lot, the fading away
of the little Luther paradise has left them almost none at
�i6
all. Protestantism, with its education, has shot out
into various theories of the future life for grown-up
people. The Reformer hopes for a scene of endless
progress. The Theologian imagines the supreme bliss
of seeing his own doctrines proved true, and his oppo
nents’ all wrong. The Baptist’s heaven shows the
sprinkling parson confounded; and the Wesleyan will
shout glory at the convicted Calvinist. “ There,” say all
of them, “ we shall see eye to eye”—that is, everybody
shall see as we always saw.
But what has all this to do with the children ? They
do not care for the theological heaven, nor the heaven
of endless progress. The learned Protestant world is
so absorbed in the controversy whether there be any
future at all, that it forgets the little ones who would
like to know whether it be a future worth having.
What is provided for them as the reward of their
prayers, piety, and self-denial ? They go to church ;
they read the Bible; they sit through the tragedy;
but when they look for the curtain to rise on beauty
and happiness, it rises on metaphysical mist, not by
any means attractive or even penetrable to a child.
Since, for us, Luther’s plum-paradise, and the
Puritan paradise, are equally gone beyond recall, we
may look at them calmly and impartially; and we
may see that both have their suggestiveness, and
point to a truth. Luther’s letter is a celebration of
�17
the child’s nature—the purity and sweetness and
even holiness of its little aims and joys. It is like
birds singing over again the old theme—“ Of such
is the kingdom of heaven.’’ But the paradise
Luther promised his child was much too definite.
He went too far into detail; and when little
Johnny grew from the age of four to ten or
twelve, and during that time had learned his lessons,
he would see his paradise losing its summer beauty.
By that time he might have outgrown the whistles, and
become careless of kettle-drums. He might prefer
gold in his pocket to a golden coat. He might find
it, as time went on, impossible to stimulate prayer by
a prospect of silver cross-bows, or even of yellow
plums. And so leaf by leaf, blossom by blossom, his
paradise would fade away; and it could never bloom
again.
On the other hand, the Puritan paradise, with all its
sombreness, did have the advantage of raising the
mind to large conceptions. It was false—cruelly false
__in crushing the innocent mirth and despising the
little aims of the child. That which Puritanism called
petty, was not petty. The boy at his sports is training
the sinews which master the world. The doll quickens
to activity maternal tenderness. It is said Zoroaster
was born laughing, and a sage prophesied he would
be greatest of men. That sage was wiser than the
�i8
Puritan. But it is not necessary to chill the mirth or
to dispel the illusions of childhood, in order to
keep it from the delusion of holding on to its small
pleasures as if the use of existence lay between a
penny trumpet on earth and a golden trumpet in
heaven.
It appears to me that the true religion of a child
is to grow ; and when it is old, its religion will
still be to grow. The child ■will turn from its toys ;
will return to them after longer and longer intervals ;
and lastly leave them, and turning say, “ Mother, what
shall I be when I grow up ? ”
If the mother only knew it, all the catechisms on
earth have no question so sacred as that! The
child that dreams of its future in the great wrorld has
already learned far enough for the time the pettiness
of life’s transient aims : it is already overarched by
an infinite heaven. In the great roaring world, seen
from afar, nothing is defined, nothing limited—it is a
boundless splendour of possibility. All that man
or woman may dream of heaven, a child may dream
of the great world of thought and action into which it
must enter at last, and find there a heaven or a helk
Religion can teach the child no higher lesson than
that, nor stimulate its good motives by any nobler
conception. As its sports train to manly strength, its
little pleasures develop the longing for intellectual
�i9
and moral joys. And if the parent’s tongue is not
equal to the high task of telling the truth about the
tragic abyss of evil to be shunned, or the beautiful
heights of excellence to be won, there are noble
books awaiting the child, the boy, the youth j ready
to meet every phase of the growth, and follow every
fading leaf with a flower more fair, more full of
promise than the cast-off toy or pastime.
What a training for the child entering upon school
life are the stories of Miss Edgeworth—a training in
manliness, independence, sincerity, and justice,
which can make the playground the arena of heroism
and duty ! And there is Scott: the horizon grows
lustrous with noble presences, as the boy reads.
Dickens will tell him the romance of humble life
how kindness and sympathy can find pearls in London
gutters, and scatter them again wherever they go.
Plutarch’s “Lives” frescoe earth and heaven with
heroic forms that remain through life as guardians of
conscience and measures of honourable conduct.
Happily the catalogue is long—too long to be now
repeated—of the good books which tell the young,
what brave and faithful men have done, and can do,
to help the weak, redress wrong, uplift truth and
justice, and make human lives melodious and beau
tiful amid the jarring discords of the world.
And the lives of noblest men and women have for
�20
their dark background the evils they conquered, the
wrongs they assailed; evils and wrongs which are the
■only real hell to be shunned. It is only the fictitious
hell that terrifies the child. The snare set on pur
pose to injure it by a “ ghostly enemy ” ; the dangers it
incurs unknowingly, from an invisible assailant it
may not avoid; these are the terrors that unnerve
and unman. The real dangers of life, when seen,
nerve the strength, man the heart, endow with resolu
tion and courage.
The old man said to a child afraid to go into the
dark—“Go on, child; you will see nothing worse
than yourself.” And that is the fundamental doctrine
for a child. All the hells—their mouths wide open
on the street—the seductive haunts of vice in all its
shapes—they are the creations of human passion and
appetite. According to what they find in us do those
fell dragons devour us, or else feel the point of our
spear in their throat.
And even so we make or mar our own heaven.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
The little boy came to his mother, angry and weep
ing, complaining that in the hills some other boy
had called him bad names. He had searched, but
could not find him. But the mother well knew that
other concealed abuser of her son. il It was,” she said,
�21
“but the echo of your own voice. Had you called
out pleasant names, pleasant names had been returned
to you; and all through life, as you give forth to the
world, so shall it be returned unto you.
Amid these ever-present hells and heavens your
child must move—onward from the cradle to the
grave : why give it dismay or hope of heavens and
hells not present ? Do not pour that living heart into
ancient moulds and examples, even the best. While
it has to thread its way through London, why give it
the map of Jerusalem? While it must live high or
low in the nineteenth century, why bid it build for a
distant age or clime? True it is, that a noble and
brave life is worthy to be studied, whether lived mthe
year One or One thousand or in r877 J but its noble
ness is in itself, not in its accidents of time and space,
not in its vesture of name and scenery. When a youth
reads of the fidelity of Phocion, is it that he may
confront Alexander, or withstand the follies oi
Athenians ? It is that he may be true and faithful m
his relations to living men and women. If he fancies
that it is like Phocion to slay the slain, and deal with
dead issues, let him repair to Don Quixote, and see
what comes of fighting phantoms and giants that do
not exist And if the life be that of Christ, the fact is
nowise changed. That life is not yet written ; we have
the figure-head of a Jewish sect, painted to suit itself, and
�22
-called Christ; the figure-head of Gentile sect, painted
to suit itself, and called Christ; and so we have a Greek,
an Alexandrian, a Roman, a Protestant Christ, each
with its sectarian colours and glosses; each an anomaly
.and an impossibility. There is no volume you can put
into the hand of a child, and honestly call the Life of
Christ. The time has not come when that great man
can be brought forth as he really was, to quicken men
instead of supporting prejudice. But where there is
no prejudice instilled, the heart may be trusted to
pick out from the New Testament the record of a
valiant soul, the deeds of a hero, thoughts of a sage,
death of a martyr; and these too will help to idealise
life for the young, and teach them its magnificent
possibilities. Let the child know well that all it reads
of Christ is true of itself. Let him know that all he
reads there or elsewhere which marks that or any
■other life off from human life, as something miracu
lous, is mere fable• and that his own daily life
is passed amid wonders equally great, and conditions
just as sacred and sublime. Ah, how sublime!
What tears are there to be wiped away ; what faces
of agony to which smiles may be called ; what wrongs
to be righted, high causes to be helped; what heights
of excellence to be won—summits all shining with the
saintly souls that have climbed them, and radiant with
the glories of which poets and prophets have dreamed I
�23
That teaching which belittles our own time, and
lowers our powers beneath those of any other, may be
called a religion, but it is a moral blight and a curse.
When we demand of our children the very highest
aims that were ever aspired to, the very truest,
noblest lives ever lived—nor let them be overshadowed
by any names, however great—then shall we see rising
our own prophets and heroes, and see our own world
redeemed by a devotion not wasted on a buried society,
by an enthusiasm no longer lavished on a world for us
unborn.
HYMN 191.
Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins-of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood.
DISMISSAL.
Printed
by waterlow and sons limited,
London wall, London.
�WORKS TO BE OBTAINED IN THE LIBRARY.
BY M. D. CONWAY, M.A.
The Sacred Anthology: A Book
of Ethnical Scriptures.........................
The Earthward Pilgrimage
Do.
do.
Republican Superstitions.........................
Christianity
>.....................................
Human Sacrifices in England ..
David Frederick Strauss.........................
Sterling and Maurice.........................
Intellectual Suicide .
.........................
The First Love again.........................
Our Cause and its Accusers
Alcestis in England
.........................
Unbelief: its nature, cause, and cure ..
Entering Society ..
PRICES.
8.
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6
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2
NEW WORK BY M. D. CONWAY, M. A.
Idols and Ideals {including the Essay
on Christianity^ 350 pp.
7 6
Members of the Congregation can obtain this
work in the Library at 5/-.
BY A. J. ELLIS, B.A., F.R.S., &c., &c.
Salvation....................................................... 0
'
Truth
....................................................... 0
1
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Speculation
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Duty
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The Dyer's Hand........................................... 0
1
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2
2
2
2
BY REV. P. H. WICKSTEED, M.A.
0
1
2
The Modern Analogue of the Ancient
Prophet....................................................... 0
1
2
Going Through and Getting Over
••
BY REV. T. W. FRECKELTON.
BY W. C. COUPLAND, M.A.
The Conduct of Life
Hymns and Anthems
................................ 0
*
..
2
V-, 2Si-
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The religion of children : a discourse, with readings and meditation, given at South Place Chapel, October 21, 1877
Creator
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Conway, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907
Description
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Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 23, [1] p. ; 15 cm.
Notes: Includes extract from the text of 'The spirit's trials' by J.A. Froude. Printed by Waterlow and Sons Limited, London Wall. With a list of 'works to be obtained in the Library' of South Place Chapel at the end of pamphlet. Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 1.
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[South Place Chapel]
Date
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[1877]
Identifier
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G3337
Subject
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Religion
Education
Child rearing
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (The religion of children : a discourse, with readings and meditation, given at South Place Chapel, October 21, 1877), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Child Rearing-Moral and Ethical Aspects
Children
Moral Education
Morris Tracts
Religious Education