VIII.

EDUCATION.

Doubtful Disputations - Failure of the Education which is not Religious Mistakes in selecting Schools-Overwork - Adap- Ladies and Gentlemen

tation-Study of "the Classes"

How are they produced? - Spoiled Children - Results.

EDUCATION is the subject next in importance to Religion, and though in our estimation, who believe, as Christians, that we are to be educated in this world for a better, the two are inseparable, there is a fierce disputation now in England, not only how far this combination is essential, but whether it should be maintained or dissolved. The main object of contention is not to eliminate Christianity, not, like the Gadarenes, to beseech its Founder to depart out of our coasts, but to decide how much and by whom it shall be taught. It is not, in reality, for the suppression of principles, but for the supremacy of parties. Men are still of like passions with those disciples, of whom it is recorded that, more than 1800 years ago, there was a strife among them, which should be the greatest. There are many who disbelieve, and more who dislike Religion; the Cross is still unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but it is graven indelibly on the heart of our nation, and though the disciples of antiChrist may rejoice in our divisions, our doubts, and

disobedience, in the bitterness of debate, in the inconsistencies of conduct and diversities of creed, they will find that beneath this turbid and discoloured surface the stream of Faith flows deep and clear, springing out of the Rock of Ages, and travelling ever onwards, in the greatness of its strength, unto the Eternal Sea- "labitur et labetur, in omne volubilis ævum."

So far as a severance between a secular and a sacred education has been tried in England, it has not been a success. No sane man would ever question the advantages, so far as they go, of mental culture, the exercise of reason, the acquisition of knowledge. Again and again, we hear those men, who have not had, or have refused, the opportunities of instruction, deploring in after life the disadvantage which has ensued, and in these days of keen competition, a man who goes forth into the world untaught is like a soldier who marches unarmed to battle; but that which Faith affirms and experience confirms is this, that as no equipments will make a soldier brave in battle, so no scholarship, no proficiency in science or in art, will make homes brighter or hearts lighter, will teach men to be more generous in prosperity, more patient in pain, more resigned in sorrow, or less afraid to die.

We have, on the contrary, plain proofs, from the governors and chaplains of our prisons, from the reports of our chief constables, and other sources, that education which ignores morality and religion does not diminish vice in the aggregate, though it

diversifies the component parts. There has been some fulfilment of the Duke of Wellington's prophecy. "If you leave out religion, in teaching your children, you may have a nation of clever devils." You may put sharp weapons in a madman's hand. You may veneer worm-eaten wood, and cover bare metal with electro-plate. You may have large heads and little hearts. Cases of forgery and cooking of accounts have greatly increased, notably in Manchester. And is it not written in all history, that righteousness alone exalteth a nation? The Bishop of Manchester, formally Bishop of Melbourne, reports of the Australian Colony of Victoria: "Secular education is universal. It was reported that it would diminish crime. It has been powerless to do So. Criminals have increased in number out of all proportion with the population. And there is this sad and most important statement to be made, that the most serious crimes are committed by the best educated criminals."

Apart from religious considerations we are beginning to suspect in England that we have been making egregious mistakes in our system of education. I have known parents, who, in selecting schools for their children, have attached more importance to the social rank of the pupils than to the efficiency of the teachers, and have exulted in proclaiming to their neighbours that their sons and daughters were the dearest friends of certain noble scions who would very speedily forget their existence. I have known the sons of those who had limited incomes learn expensive habits in expensive schools, that their

parents might talk about my boy at Eton or my boy at Harrow. I have known fathers who gave much heartier encouragement to athletic than to intellectual success, forgetful that, however admirable this agility may be, it must be secondary and subordinate, because in after life you cannot achieve much distinction with an oar, or feed a wife and family with footballs. The body must not say to the mind, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you; yet both these extremes are common, the scholar despising the sportsman, and the pedestrian disparaging the pedant.

We want mens sana in corpore sano. a wise tenant in a well-built house. The schoolmaster should be a physician of the body as well as a teacher of the mind a trainer and a tutor in the full sense of the words. He should know the just proportions of study and recreation, because not only does all work and no play make Tom a dull boy, but it may enfeeble permanently his physical and intellectual power. It makes one's heart sad to see the number of boys and girls using spectacles for their weakened sight, and the "cramming" system, which is now in vogue for competitive examinations, is followed, not seldom, by deplorable results. A friend of mine, who is an officer in one of our most distinguished regiments, informed me that the mental labour undergone by the candidates for admission, together with the intense anxiety and fear of failure, had in many instances within his cognizance manifestly impaired the faculties and the energies of his brothers

in-arms. "I know young fellows," he said, "in whom this perpetual drudgery, though it has been successful, has created an insuperable disgust for book-learning; and I know others, who seem, like ships, which have lost anchor and rudder in the storm, to be ever drifting to and fro, tossed about by wind of doctrine. It is, of course, a silly exevery aggeration that we, the officers of the Royal Engineers, are either Methodists or mad,' but it is so far a fiction founded upon fact, inasmuch as the ambition of enrolment in our corps has overworked the brain, and has thereby suggested eccentric deviations from the common highway of thought and action."

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Again, there is an abuse of education, in a want of proportion, of adaptation to the circumstances and capacities of the pupil. Here, again, the fault may be in the parent, who sends his children to schools in which they may learn to disparage their home surroundings, or in teachers who will not conform their instructions to the possibilities and necessities of their scholars. We have an example of the former in the son who returned to inform his father that he did not like his occupation, and should prefer something in the post-office. "Post-office! exclaimed the indignant and disappointed sire, for his business was lucrative, though it was lowly, "what could you do in the post-office? All you're fit for is to stand outside with your tongue out so that the public may moisten their stamps." It is of primary importance to teach a boy, in accordance with that first and best of lesson-books, which our

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