i (£) & (*. !!) mat - mumm m CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library arW38207 Education / 3 1924 031 759 123 olin.anx The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031759123 EDUCATION-INSTRUCTION-SELF-CULTUKE. EDUCATION ipvxrjQ larpiov. J. MACLOCHLIN, P.G.R.C, Late one of H.M. Inspectors of Education. %fmhcm: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. IMght fon. tfy dfert of gftgjftotarg, K.G., Ac. Ac, THB FOLLOWIN8 TREATISE ON POPULAK EDUCATION IB (BY PERMISSION) DEDICATED : WITH PROFOUND RESPECT AND ADMIRATION FOR HIS LORDSHIP'S IMPARTIAL, DISINTERESTED, AND UNIVERSAL ADVOCACY OF EVERY MEASURE TOWARDS THE REAL HAPPINESS AND TRUE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE : BY HIS LORDSHIP'S FAITHFUL, HUMBLE SERVANT, J. MACLOCHLIN. PEEFACB. To sustain the thoughtful, and through their influence, awake if possible to a higher sense of duty such of the People as would for a mess of pottage either alienate their rights and privileges of citizenship — or, as the merest slaves of a rude materialism, blot out the divine image of their moral nature. And, on the other hand to strengthen the arms of him, who would aspire to a higher position for himself and his offspring than that of the " Canaanite" — and aim at securing for them a good education, one of the choicest blessings that can fall to our lot in this life, conducive alike to his own happiness and the welfare of the State, is the leading principle of the context : the groundwork of which will be found in Willm's Education of the People, enriched by the practical views in a condensed form of our English Classic and cotemporary literature. Now we are not of opinion with those School Boards and their supporters — upon which almost every interest, save that of the purely educational is represented, — that Education is the universal panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to. Nor are we by any means disposed to viii PREFACE. endorse the expectations and responsibilities usually attached to it in the minds of the humble and illiterate. To all who have studied the higher, broader, more far- reaching aspects of the subject of Popular Education, it will at once appear evident that it is but one of a series of factors in the " Social Improvement " question — factors, that for any result of public good, must all of them harmonise, and be made to work together. To separate education from, and place it above these others, is to weaken it by taking away its supports. What we would especially impress upon our readers is that Educa- tion does afford the illiterate one more chance for the attainment of material success in life ; but at the same time its power in this materialistic age is greatly limited by other considerations ; and that even should all be educated, we will still have left among us " hewers of wood and drawers of water." Whilst then we would seek to relieve Education from those expectations so prevalent in many minds, but which of itself it cannot possibly fulfil, we do not the less uphold that it pos- sesses an intrinsic value in relation to the happiness of the People beyond all other earthly enjoyments — that it will give into the hands of the lowly the keys of the golden gates, and open up to them pleasures beyond the reach "of the uneducated millionaire, which riches cannot purchase; and that though in itself Education be no specific for the cure of poverty, it can bring into the PREFACE. poorest home or hardest life a special sweetness and light. To those then who would waste the springtide of life or the heyday of usefulness, in listless idleness, useless pastime, or querulous dejection. And to those who through honest toil, or the fruits of pre-exerted labour, have secured the glorious privilege of independence, and resolved to seek repose for the remainder of their days, therewith to be thankful ; but for whom there are still duties to be performed which they owe to God and their country. That universal obligation which rises with us in the morning, and goes to rest with us at night. Is co-extensive with the action of our intelligence and no less a power than it is obligatory — the shadow which cleaves to us, go where we will, and which only leaves us when we leave the light of life. As also to those, who obeying the voice of conscience, perform their duty because it is their duty ; to whom the post of duty is as the holiest place on earth. To youthful manhood now hovering on the brink of pseudo-infidelity or Indifferentism, and the so-called advanced thinker, who, incredulous of the Past, having neither faith in the Present, nor hope in the Future, would, under the pressure of adversity, in bitterness of soul curse God and die ! And to the still more so advanced thinker who, under the pretentious denial of the existence even of a Supreme Being and a civilisation PREFACE. beneath that of paganism, would fain propagate the hideous doctrine which has for its ideal the decimation of mankind ! but who, unhappily, through the pride of intellect and the specious sophistries of a purblind imagination, succeed in more or less dazzling the un- educated, and those creatures of unrest the "clever" young men of the period ; such of them as are not dead to Christian, or other religious principle — Natural, Historical, or Spiritual — devoid, withal their showy pretensions, of the self-forming power which lies at the root of all sound knowledge, and so are incapable of appreciating either the Bible or Shakespeare. Not a few of them possessed of just head enough to spread the mischief of incredulity, but not heart enough to feel for its consequences ; flitting around us like noxious insects which folly has painted and accident plumed for the annoyance of our social atmosphere : dangerous alike in their torpidity and their animation — infecting where they fly, and poisoning where they repose. " A fly may sting a noble horse, and make it wince, although one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still." To those to whom the Education of the People is confided, whether of Voluntary System or School Board, Teacher or Pupil Teacher — now emancipated from the thraldom that beset the genius of a Brougham, and the yearnings of a Channing, through the provisions of the Education Act of 1870, which makes it imperative that PREFACE. the State must not only see that elementary schools be provided for the children of England, but must actually furnish them wherever they do not already exist : thus initiating much greater advantages and a consequent higher sphere of usefulness, than had ever before been vouchsafed to the indispensable duty of moulding the minds of youth, and of giving to the power that educa- tion confers a salutary direction, in leading them to grow up "truthful, manly, courageous, courteous, un- selfish, and religious " — inspired by that true bravery which is sedate and inoffensive, refuses to submit to insults and offers none ; begins no disputes, enters into no needless quarrels ; is above all little troublesome ambition to be distinguished every moment ; bears in silence, and replies with modesty, fearing no enemy, and making none ; and is as much ashamed of insolence as cowardice — the increasing beauty and strength of our Free Institutions — the coming glory of our country. "Liberality, courtesy, benevolence, unselfishness, under all circumstances, toward all men — these qualities are to the world what the linch-pin is to the rolling chariot. And when these qualities are wanting neither father nor mother will receive honour and support from a son. And, because wise men foster these qualities, therefore do they prosper and receive praise." And to the Clergy and Ministers of all denominations — the national bulwark and safeguard of Popular PREFACE. Education : and of all that would make our God and our country dear to us. In fine, to the People generally, the following pages are, in all humility for the feebleness of his grasp upon so great a subject, manfully withal submitted ; and this the more, that the corollary Education Act recently passed, which renders it obligatory on the parents and natural guardians to send their children to the schools, is hailed by the thoughtful as one of the choicest boons of the XlXth Century. Well may it be so. To many of our readers Britain is a lovely spot for all that life can ask — salubrious, mild — its hills are green, its woods and prospects fair — its meadows fertile ; and to crown the whole in one delightful word, it is the land of their birth. The land whose wavering drum-beat following the sun and accom- panying the hours, circles the earth with the loved anthem — " God save Victoria our Queen. Long may she reign!" And yet this fair isle, teeming as it were with wealth, and possessed of every advantage that civilisation confers — overborne withal by materialism — reveals to us a population of 32 per thousand and upwards in receipt of Poor Law Eelief, of whom 8 per cent, are Lunatic paupers; irrespective of a Convict Calendar of 75,000 in our prisons, and in our midst under police surveillance. In presence of statistics such as these, who can doubt the necessity of promoting PREFACE. at all points the blessings of education throughout the length and breadth of the land. Shoulders to the wheel — no civilised nation can so successfully advance its own interests as by the universal dissemination of the means of Education, and above all the principles of Religion, in the absence of which civilisation is but as a flower without fruit; and morality "only a kind of dead reckoning — an endeavour to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies." J. M'L. HlOHGATB, N., 1881. CONTENTS. PART I. Education : its Scope, its Aim, its Object. PAGE Education : its scope, its aim, its object, as viewed by ancient and modern authorities 3 PART II. Practical Hints and Observations on extending the Spheee and improving the character of popular instruction. Extended University Education, and its influence upon the well-being of the People 73 Middle Class, or Superior Primary, Schools, and their progressive advancement 85 Elementary Schools, and their paramount importance to Society and the State 101 Reading; with the views of eminent writers upon the pleasure and influence of knowledge 109 Writing and Orthography ; and the recent attempt to introduce the Phonetic System into Board Schools 123 Arithmetic ; and its absolute necessity for the practical uses of every- day life 129 Normal Schools 132 Mission of the Teacher . 139 On the Fine Arts, and their correlatives, as applied to Popular Instruc- tion 144 Geography; and its cognate branches — Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology ; with observations on the laws of health .... 166 History : — as it ought to be taught in Schools 170 CONTENTS. PAGE Keal Instruction, and what it should be 17* Beligious and Moral Instruction :— as applied to the conscience . . 176 ^Esthetic Instruction i82 Social and political rightB and duties j and what may be expected from the sound teaching of this important means of Instruction . . 191 Mechanics' and Literary Institutes, and their ennobling example . . 243 Technical or handicraft instruction 255 PABT III. Sem-Cui/ture. Self-culture 275 Concluding observations as to the wisest educational policy . . .297 Jarf I. EDUCATION: ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. "By education we make men easy to govern — difficult to subdue — impossible to enslave." Bkotoham. EDUCATION. EDUCATION : ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. Man is susceptible of Education, in so far as he is endowed with reason, and indefinitely perfectible. The greater part of the lower animals, limited to instinct, are already all that they can be ; by developing them physically we enable them to execute all the functions of which they are capable, and thus to fulfil their destiny. Every new generation of any of these races is found in the same position as those which preceded it, and can produce nothing higher than they. A few species, indeed, give a kind of education to their young, and instruct them by their example rather than by direct methods ; but the offspring knows nothing of progress, and does not advance a step beyond the condition and practices of its parents. Some others are capable of being ameliorated physic- ally, and of being brought to do certain acts unknown to them previously; but this change in their state adds nothing to their happiness — rather turning them, on the contrary, from the usages of their,, proper nature, which it in no sense seems to develope — it is to Man that they owe all such changes. Man, their B 2 EDUCATION : superior, who plans and realises them by contrivances, and often by violence. It is altogether otherwise with the education of Man by Man. Though nobly endowed by Nature's Author, the Human Race attains its greatness only through experience of life, and owes its development to society. It alone has a history and traditions; it alone is susceptible of a progressive Education. Its experience is added to experience ; and its traditions, in the course of transmission, become enriched with new ones. Development is the result of social life ; and progress the condition of the well- being of society. The generation which is rising profits by the experience of the one which produced it ; and in the art of imitating it, improves on all that it uses. The hundredth generation is the depositary of whatever was felt, thought, and suffered by the ninety- and-nine generations preceding it ; in this manner does the education of the Human Race proceed, under the direction of an all-wise Providence, the source of Wisdom, Justice, and Truth ; and in this sense the history of Education is the history of our Race itself. " That which would be most useful to Humanity at any moment of its duration," says a German philosopher, "would be an exposition in view of the generation then growing up, or a resume of whatever had been previously felt, attempted, and thought " ; and he considers this the principle upon which Education in the main should be made to depend. The aphorism of Pascal, that the entire succession ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 5 of men in every period of the world must be regarded as one man always living and incessantly learning, is only repeated by a writer in the "Essays and Eeviews" when he affirms that "this power whereby the present ever gathers into itself the results of the past, transforms the human race into a colossal man, whose days are measured in generations." "Majestic spirit of the Past" — thus apostrophises our heaven-born Poet — "thou hast bid the shadow go back for me on the dial-plate of time. Thou hast taught me to read in thee the present and the future — a revelation of man's destiny on earth. Thou hast taught me to see in thee the principle that unfolds itself from century to century in the progress of our race— the germ in whose bosom lie enfolded the bud, the leaf, the tree. Generations perish, like the leaves of the forest, passing away when their mission is completed ; but at each succeeding spring, broader and higher spreads the human mind unto its perfect stature, unto the fulfilment of its destiny, unto the perfection of its nature. And in these high revelations thou hast taught me more — thou hast taught me to feel that I, too, weak, humble, and unknown, feeble of purpose and irresolute of good, have something to accomplish upon earth — like the falling leaf, like the passing wind, like the drop of rain. glorious thought ! that lifts me above the power of time and chance, and tells me that I cannot pass away, and leave no mark of my existence. I may not know the pur- pose of my being — the end for which an all-wise Providence created me as I am, and placed me where EDUCATION.- I am ; but I do know — for in such things faith is . knowledge — that my being has a purpose in the omniscience of my Creator, and that all my actions tend to the completion, to the full accomplishment of that purpose. Man proposes and God disposes. This is one of the many mysteries in our being which human reason cannot find out by searching." — Longfellow. Enough has been written that there is a curious if not remarkable analogy between the predictions of Noah on the future descendants of his three sons, and the actual state of those races generally supposed to have arisen from them. The learned Cuvier is of opinion that the primary varieties of the human form are three — the Caucasian, the Mongolian, and the Ethiopian. This number corresponds with that of Noah's three sons; assigning therefore, as some eminent naturalists have done, the Mongolian race to Japhet, and the Ethiopian to Ham — the Caucasian, the noblest race, will belong to Shem, the third son of Noah, himself descended from Seth, the third son of Adam. That the three sons of Noah, who were to people the earth after the flood, and on whose progeny very opposite destinies were pronounced, should give birth to different races, is what might reasonably be expected ; still that the observations of those who do, and those who do not, believe the Mosaic history, should tend to confirm its truth by pointing out in what these three races do actually differ, both morally and physically, is, to say the least, a singular coincidence : in short it amounts to presumptive evidence that a mysterious and very beautiful analogy ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 7 pervades throughout, and teaches us to look beyond natural causes in attempting to account for effects apparently interwoven in the plans of the Omnipotent. To those who are of opinion that the Bible furnishes evidence of different races of men, cotemporaneous with the Adamic race, because Moses makes mention of " the sons of God," and " the daughters of Eve " ; it may be .stated that all Biblical scholars are agreed, that by " sons of God," or more correctly rendered, the eminent ones, the sacred writer is speaking of the descendants of Seth, Enos, and other pious men, in contradistinction to the posterity of Cain. And to those who hold that the Scriptures relate only to the Jewish, Sacred, or Caucasian race, it may be answered that Adam called his wife "the mother of all living" — of all human beings, of all the sons of men, and therefore of all the races of mankind. Among the Jews Adam was the generic name of the whole species, and used only singularly for the first man (Gen. i. 27), or collectively, as in the 26th and 28th verses, for the whole human race. On the three sons of Noah and their posterity, a separate destiny was pronounced ; to the race of Japhet was promised extension ; to the children of Shem blessing ; on the progeny of Ham the lot of bondage : and to each of these races would undoubtedly be given a moral and a physical nature in harmony with the destiny God had designed them to fulfil. The race of Japhet have occupied Asia and Europe. By the descendants of Shem, Judaism and Christianity have been established, and from the sons and daughters of EDUCATION : Ham have proceeded the nations of Africa — the servants of other nations — and the Canaanites, who were the slaves of the Israelites. Thus the black man, red man, and the white man, are links in one great chain of relationship, and alike children which have descended from one common parent. That all the Races of Man are of one species may be inferred from the harmony of the general laws of the animal economy ; for if, after a due allowance be made for the effects of climate, habits of life, &c, it should appear that in two races of animals the duration of life is the same, that their natural func- tions observe the same laws, that they are susceptible of the same diseases, there is a very strong presump- tion that they are of the same species. Now, the general laws of the animal economy are the same in their operation upon all men, and the slight deviations which occur are not greater than the common varieties of constitution which exist within the limits of the same family. Further, the existence of varieties in the same admitted species amongst the inferior tribes of animals, is analogous to those which occur in man- kind. And the circumstance of varieties being really known to have sprung up among men more or less similar to those which distinguish different races — all tend to indicate that they are of one common parentage. And thus amid the constant change and succession of individuals, may be traced to the earliest ages the form and character first impressed by the Creator, uninterruptedly transmitted from parent to offspring : — ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. " one generation passeth away," but another cometh, like in form, structure, habits, and the limits of its existence ; and man, however he may become modified by education, however exalted his condition of mental and moral refinement, is yet born the same helpless, dependent being, with the same dormant faculties of mind and body, as the first offspring of our original parents. The erect attitude, the two hands, the slow and gradual development of the body, the use of reason, and consequent perfectibility, common to the Caucasian, and Mongolian, as well as the Ethiopian, are attributes peculiar to man; and distinguish the human species of every variety of country and race, and under every circumstance, whether of civilisation or barbarism, from all other animals. There yet remains the grand distinction between all the races of man and other animals — Language : the miracle of human nature ! The lower animals can indeed communicate with each other by sounds and signs, but they cannot speak. The language of man is the product of art ; animals derive their sounds from nature. Every human language is derived from imita- tion, and is intelligible only to those who either inhabit the country where it is vernacular, or have been taught it by books, or orally. According to Aristotle — ' ' Speech is made to indi- cate what is expedient and what is inexpedient ; and in consequence of this, what is just and what is unjust. It is therefore given to men, because it is peculiar to them that of good and evil, of just and unjust, they only, with respect to other animals, possess a sense or 10 EDUCATION: feeling." The existence of language, says an American writer — Dr. Smyth, " Unity of the Human Races " — is in itself a proof of the specific character of humanity in all those among whom it is found. The distinguishing characteristic of man, and the peculiar eminence of his nature and his destiny, as these are universally felt and acknowledged by mankind, , are usually defined to consist in reason and the faculty of speech. A German authority — F. Schlegl in his " Philosophy of History " — has suggested that the peculiar pre-eminence of man consists in this — that to him alone among all others of earth's creatures, the "Word" has been imparted and communicated. " The Word," he continues, " actually delivered, and really communicated, is not a mere dead faculty, but an historical reality and occurrence. In the idea of the Word, considered as the basis of man's dignity and peculiar destination, the Word is not a mere faculty of speech, but the fertile root, whence this stately branch of all language has sprung." — -Pickering, " Races of Man." The German Philosopher, Kant, says — " There is in every man a divinity, the ideal of a perfect man, con- forming to the type according to which the Creator fashioned him ; just as in a block of Parian marble an image of a Hercules or of an Apollo would be found, if a divine artist had traced there, by means of the natural veins of the stone, the contour and form of the future statue." This statue it is the aim of education to free from the rubbish that conceals it — it is, or ought to be at least, the object of our entire life to evolve its form ; this inherent ideal of divinity (or genius if you may ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 11 so choose to designate it) it is the duty of education to reveal to our consciousness; and to enable us to realise it by aiding the development of all those germs and dispositions placed within us by the divine Creator, when He made Man according to His own image, and breathed into him His own divine Spirit ; endowing him with Eeligious and Moral perceptions ; Intellectual and Social obligations ; dispositions which constitute our rational nature — the true nature of the Human Race. Education, we say then, ought to prepare for the realisation of this ideal, and aid the development of these divine germs. The entire of Man's life should be consecrated to this work, which is the true destina- tion of man on the Earth ; and even as youth is the spring-time of life, the school should be our appren- ticeship ; and education, taken in its true significance, ought to dispose and prepare us to fulfil our destiny. Considering the few years it embraces, Education alone cannot lead man to the perfection of which he is capable ; all one's life would fail to do that ; it can only dispose us to seek for it — enable us of our own accord towards that end ; and, if it does this, it accom- plishes the supreme duty of education — that universal and necessary aim, with which no special object can entitle us to dispense. In so far then as this high object is the indefinite perfection of the species by the agency of individuals, or the idqal perfecting of mankind, education, which may be said to be coeval with the birth of the human intellect, begins with the cradle, and ends alone with 12 EDUCATION: the grave. But as what we usually call education comprehends .only the earlier years of life, it cannot be more than preparatory, though these years are in every respect incalculably precious, and the preparation is one on which our moral and intellectual destiny in the main depend. It is true that every man continues his education, and, in some respects, refashions it ; but in general we only prolong and modify what we in youth received. Live as long as we may, the first twenty years form the greater part of our life. They appear so when they are passing — they appear to be so when we look back to them — and they take up more room in our memories than all the years which succeed them. The youth, however, who has settled down to his life's work makes a great mistake, if he fancies that because he is no more under teachers and governors his education is therefore at an end. It is only changed in form. He has much, very much, to learn, more perhaps than all which he has yet learned ; and his new teacher will not give it to him all at once. The lesson of life is in this respect like the lessons whereby we learn any ordinary business. The barrister, who has filled his memory with legal forms and imbued his mind with their spirit, knows that the most valuable part of his education is yet to be obtained in attending the courts of law. The physician is not content with the theories of the lecture-room, nor with the experiments of the laboratory, nor even with the attendance at the hospitals ; he knows that independent practice, when ne will be thrown upon his own resources, will open his eye's to ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 13 much which at present he sees through a glass darkly. In every profession, after the principles are apparently mastered, there yet remains much to be learnt from the application of these principles to practice, the only means by which we ever understand principles to the bottom. So too with the lesson which includes all others, the lesson of life. In every condition, therefore, and whatever the special destination of the individuals on whom it operates — education has for its end — while fitting them for their destined place, and having due regard for their indi- viduality — to render them capable of more and more developing themselves as men and as citizens, as members at once of our own civil society, and as humble aspirants to that divine city, which extends its shelter over all people, embraces all time, and even reaches beyond it. Its ambition is to form a man first, then a citizen, then an artist, a soldier, a labourer, or an artisan. It would thus lay the foundation of a work to which our entire life — whatever accidents or special destinies may be involved in it — ought to be consecrated to carry on and perfect. It should summon to light every germ of reason, of virtue, of greatness, which concur in con- stituting our true humanity, and sufficiently develope them to secure their victory over all opposing disposi- tions; so that the thorns and necessities of life being inadequate to extinguish them, or give them a false direction, they may, on the contrary, be augmented and fortified by an unintermitting progress. This harmonious development, this simultaneous 14 EDUCATION: and gradual exercise of the dispositions constituting humanity, is the general end of all education; and a special education • is only good and legitimate in so far as it respects that higher end, which certainly ought to be the basis and condition of all particular education. If because of the diversity of classes and conditions in society, and the corresponding destination of the pupils, this general education must be diversely ap- plied; it can only be so with regard to quantity and not to quality ; for all conditions, there must be the same land of education, although offered with a vary- ing intensity and in relation with special means and exercises. The same education, directed by the same fundamental principles, ought to prepare all the children it trains, to fulfil the duties of men and citizens, to perfect themselves, and develope their minds, according to the sphere and condition in which they are placed ; but their education, without changing its aim or object, must be modified in its means and method, by the social destination of each. In no case can the duties of general education be rightly sacrificed, whether to the demands of a special destination, or to those of society or the state. Our country has a right to all sacrifices, except that of the dignity of man. It is never lawful to degrade a man, or to prevent his development as such, under the pretext, as was the case with the Egyptians, of rendering him fitter for such or such a social con- dition, or of better securing public order, and the stability of existing institutions. Still further; that man will be the best artist, citizen, soldier, or labourer, who — all things else being equal — shall have acquired ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 15 the truest knowledge of his value and duties as a Man and a Citizen ; and, happily, our constitution recognises the equality of all in the eye of the law, whilst our manners and institutions, equally with those of the greatest Eepublic in Europe, permit any one to aspire to the loftiest dignity by his labours and desert. That loftier nature of Man, which we would seek to develope, manifests itself through four principal neces- sities, which suppose as many fundamental dispositions, as many instincts or rational impulses, and give rise to as many modes of thinking and acting. Man thirsts naturally after the Good, the True, the Beautiful, and the Infinite : whence arise the Moral sentiments — the love of Truth and Knowledge, the feeling of the Beau- tiful, and the sentiment of Beligion ; which as they are developed become the Moral Conscience; Knowledge of the system of the Universe ; Taste, or Susceptibility in regarding Beauty; and Beligion. In these by Man's rational nature — that nature which is essentially human, which distinguishes its possessor from the animals, and raises him above them; and by suitably nourishing these high dispositions, and inspiring Man with the conscious- ness of what he may and ought to be — education places him in a position to govern his animal nature, and make it subserve the grand ends of his existence. To be complete, then, education ought to be at once Moral, Intellectual, ^Esthetic, and Beligious; and since Man is nothing without society, but, on the contrary, social by his nature, his education ought, at the same time, to be Social and National. Moral Education, having for its object to inspire 16 EDUCATION: the sense and habit of charity, love of the good, the just, and the honourable. Intellectual Education, unfolding the universal order, nourishing the love of the true, and raising our minds by the spectacle of the wonders of external existence. JEsthetie Education, nourishing and guiding our sentiments of propriety, of the beautiful and the sublime. Eeligious Education, unfolding the idea of the Infinite, nourishing our fear of God. And lastly, Social and National Education, endeavouring to form the future citizen, to develope sociality and our national sentiments. I. — Eeligious Education. Though the Eeligious sentiment be the most elevated of all, it is not needful to cultivate it at the expense of the others ; it is enough to cultivate it suitably, and, at the same time as the others, to obtain for it its innate superiority. Nay, each sentiment will become the more certainly what it ought to be if all the others are con- currently cultivated. The moral sentiments will be strengthened by the culture of the religious feelings, and the sentiment of the beautiful; the religious part of our nature will be fortified by our moral and aesthetic education ; the sentiments of the beautiful will be en- riched by the inspirations of the conscience, moral and religious ; and, in harmony, these will all profit by the riches of the intellect, and the justness of the judgment. Finally, the more man is thus developed, the better will he understand his duties as a citizen, in whatever social position he may be placed. ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 17 It would thus appear to us that Education ought not to be exclusively religious, but should at once be religious, moral, and intellectual. It should be re- ligious, that it may be more assuredly moral ; moral, to be correctly religious ; and intellectual, for the sake alike of religion and morality. Further, that an education exclusively religious, moral, or aesthetic, or intellectual, would be an incomplete education — false to its end. To realise Eeligious Education we must impart to the young the knowledge of the high dignity of Man, of his noble origin, of his immortal destiny, and of his misery, his weakness, and his frailty ; we must fill his soul with the love and fear of God, and elevate his mind by sublime ideas of the Infinite, the Eternal, and the Absolute ; so that when they become men, whatever revolutions their minds may undergo, their religious convictions will remain unshaken as sentiments, and their inward faith resist the doubts which may assail it ; they will believe in their heart, although unbelief may take possession of their intellect — if unbelief as to essential doctrines could possibly gain an entrance into minds thus prepared. Religion in all ages and climes has been the per- petual witness of the human intelligence to its quenchless search after the ultimate source and cause of all that we find around or within us. The religious sentiment has been the prophet, nurse, and handmaid of science. Eeligion has anticipated the last conclusion of scientific research, inasmuch as in the earliest times it knew that the visible rested upon the invisible, that the physical universe covered and in part revealed its own trans- c 18 EDUCATION: cendental and eternal cause. The conjectures made as to the Eternal were often vague and misleading, were as often vain and presumptuous ; but from the modest guesses of the terror-stricken and degraded fetish - worshipper, and from the pathetic yearning of our Aryan or Semitic ancestry, from the Vedas and the Zendavesta, from the Orphic hymns and the religious ideas involved in the earliest Pelasgie or Hellenic myths, there reaches us the same profound conviction that the eternal and unsearchable Being must underlie and sustain all the framework of the cosmos, all the strange facts and feelings of human life. Awe, fear, reverence, terror, sometimes loyalty and even love have been felt towards that aspect or side of the "Infinite Something" which presented itself to the consciences of men. These emotions have varied with the circum- stances and with the history of successive races, with the culture of great teachers or with the degree and extent of the generalisations which had been framed by the strongest or noblest of thinkers. The earliest teach- ings of the religious sentiment did intuitively but undoubtedly approach a position which science at length professes by tardy steps and cautious processes to have reached. After the Deluge, Noah doubtless would not leave his children ignorant of the 'great principles of religion, with regard to the three states of mankind; and we assume that this tradition — which reflection and thought have kept alive, and has its root in the consciousness that Man has preserved throughout all the revolutions of history, of his noble origin and of his high destiny — ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 19 might have been- spread from generation to generation over all the nations of the world ; but we should not thence infer that the Heathen had as clear notions of the divine nature and the Messiah as the Jews had themselves : however ample we may find traces of the principal doctrines of revealed religion in the Mythology of all nations. Accordingly we find the existence of a Supreme Deity, who produced the world by His power, and governs it by His wisdom, has been in almost all times and all countries one of the first and most im- portant . of truths ; the earliest opinions of the most civilised nations approximating the truth more closely than those of latter ages. Thus the theology of the Orientals is purer than that of the Egyptians — that of the Egyptians less corrupted than that of the Greeks, and that of the Greeks more exalted than that of the Romans. To strengthen the idea that the primitive system of the world was that of one Supreme Deity, the divine attributes were represented by allegories and hiero- glyphics ; mankind, however, sinking into materialism, soon forgot the meaning of the sacred symbols, and removing from one excess to another, fell into idolatry, which brought forth irreligion and its consequent cor- ruptions. The Orientals, the Chaldeans, and above all the Hebrews, painted nature without disguising it. Ac- cording to them everything proceeds from God, and ought to flow back to Him again. All the visible wonders of nature are faint images of His greatness, and the innumerable orders of spirits emanations from o 2 EDUCATION: His wisdom. Mankind are all but one family of that immense republic of intelligence of which God is the common Father. Each man is a ray of light separated from its source, strayed into a corner of disordered nature, tossed about by the tumultuous wind of passion, transported from climate to climate by restless desires — purified by all the misfortunes it meets with, till like a subtle vapour it re-ascends to the superior regions from which it fell. Here we have a fruitful source of luminous ideas, beautiful images and sublime expressions, such as we find in the Sacred "Writings, and in Milton, who has copied them. The Egyptians corporalised too much their ideas by their servile symbols : but the Greek Poets, and their imitators the Eoman Poets, entirely mangled and degraded them. The Divinity is no longer a sovereign wisdom, but a blind destiny, man is but a mass of atoms of which nothing remains after death but an empty shade, immortality is a dream, the Elysian' fields a mere subterraneous cavern, and the habitation of the Gods a mountain in Greece : by this means a dark veil is drawn over the whole universe, the source of noble ideas is dried up, and reason becomes a barren field ; the imagination, destitute of principles, seeks to supply its indigence by creating a new world : it transfigures all objects in order to embellish them, it exalts men into Gods, and debases Gods into men ; it gives bodv to spirits, and spirits to bodies; its descriptions arc florid but false, and its 7narvellons degrades the divine Nature ; the agreeable and the gay taking the place of the true sublime. ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 21 Setting aside all refined speculations, and leaving to God the care of justifying the incomprehensible steps of His Providence, we would submit to those who may be inclined to hearken to the Prophets of old, and would seek in simplicity of heart after the foundation of the whole law and of all the prophecies, these four funda- mental principles : — 1°. God being infinitely good, can- not produce wicked and miserable beings; and there- fore the moral and physical evil, which we see in the universe, must come from the abuse that men make of their liberty. 2°. Human nature, pure in its original, but corrupted # by Sin, is fallen from the state in which it was created; and this mortal life is but a scene of probation, in which souls may be cured of their corruption, and obtain a happy immortality through Faith in the teaching of Him, who spake as never yet man spake — who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. 3°. God united Himself to human na- ture in a state of humiliation to expiate moral evil by the sacrifice of Himself ; and after this advent of suffer- ing the Messiah will come at last in His glory to destroy physical evil, and restore the universe to its original splendour. 4°. These truths have been transmitted to us from age to age, from the time of the deluge till now, by an universal tradition : other nations have altered and obscured this tradition by their fables : it has been preserved in its purity nowhere but in the Holy Scrip- tures, the authority of which cannot be disputed with any shadow of reason, however its details and chronology may be debated. The doctrines of the primitive perfection of nature, 22 EDUCATION: its fall and its restoration by a divine Hero, are equally manifest in the Mythologies of the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Indians, and Chinese. II. — Mobal Education. Religion and Morality have their root in the conscious- ness which Man has preserved, through all the revolutions of history, of his noble origin, and of his high destiny; they are the developments of that divine germ, planted by God in the human soul when He created man in His own image; their aim is to re-establish this conscious- ness in all its original strength and clearness, and to inspire him with sentiments, thoughts, and actions worthy of this origin and destiny. Religion, likewise., is the necessary sanction of morality, and there are precious virtues which it alone can give us. Piety, without morality, is a barren sentiment, a flower with- out fruit ; and morality, unsupported by religion, wants its most powerful safeguard. Morality must neither be deprived of the support afforded it by religion, nor be made to depend entirely on certain doctrines as its necessary condition. Moral obligation is imposed on the conscience in an absolute manner, and the aim of Education should be to accustom men to perform their duty, solely for obeying the voice of conscience; and to nourish within them a lively sense of duty, and strength to resist temptation, to subdue the passions, and to per- form with firmness and constancy what they acknowledge as right. Education should likewise cultivate and foster the ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 23 symmetry of mind, of character, and of purpose in the individual combined, which philosophers have defined as Common-sense. That power which is felt and acknow- ledged through all the ramifications of governments, society, business, finance, science, and commerce. Com- mon-sense represents man in completeness, harmony, and equipoise. It clothes him with dignity, invests him with power, and stamps him with superiority. It is not genius, for that is often erratic; nor cunning in its sinuous course ; nor tact, with its decline into trickery. Common-sense is the embodiment of true manhood. It confers a patent of royalty, though birth be plebeian, and exalts men from lowliest spheres to the highest stations. Not by sudden freaks of fortune, or a train of adventitious circumstances are they thus dignified ; but step by step, through obstacle and hindrance, they over- come by the force of character and the proper direction of the will-power. Common-sense is in fact the history as well as the true philosophy of the ages. It is the salt that has saved humanity from barbarism, and the moving power that has propelled the race onward in its march of progress and civilisation. III. — iEsTHimc Education. Next, from its close relations to the moral and reli- gious sentiments, the sentiment of the Beautiful, like disinterested love, is one of the dispositions of Humanity which attests its noble origin — and its development, by ennobling the inclinations and activity of Man, neces- sarily tends to confirm his spiritual over his animal 24 EDUCATION, nature. To cherish and cultivate it, is to nourish and assist the inner man, the true man, and consequently to add to his true felicity. The cultivation of the sentiment of the Beautiful is also favourable to moral development. It raises the soulj softens the manners, and diminishes the violence of the passions. The sincere love of the Beautiful, of Order, and harmony, is almost an assurance of goodness, of nobility of soul, of probity, and virtue ; it can scarcely be found in alliance with cruelty, mean- ness, injustice, or vice ; and never in union -with that cowardly, shallow, conceit which seeks to exalt itself by overthrowing another, and to appear well by making others appear ill. A ready perception of the beauties of nature is most frequently an evidence of a high standard of morality. It is likewise well fitted to nourish the religious sentiments. IV. — Social and National Education. To prepare the young one day to become useful mem- bers of society, citizens, friendly to order, obedient to the laws, and devoted to their country, is the first duty of Social Education. There are many persons who, through ignorance, look upon taxes, especially on indirect taxa- tion, as a heavy, unjust burden, imposed by caprice, or power, rather than by necessity, and endeavour to evade them as much as possible. The people must be en- lightened on this subject in the schools and elsewhere, and must be made to understand that tribute, including that of blood, is required for the life of the State. To dispose our youth towards patriotism — to make ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 25 them love their country, and be ready to devote them- selves for her in the hour of danger, it is not necessary to inspire them with hatred towards foreigners, whether of different races, creeds, or religions. Social Education can be quite national, without ceasing to be human. Let a just war arise and our brave defenders will fight the enemy, inspired solely by a love of their country and by a sense of duty. "' Patriotism is the first sentiment, the first duty of Man, whom nature binds to his country before all things, by the ties of family and of nature, which is only the family enlarged. Why is it sweet to die for one's country ? Because it is to die for more than oneself, for something divine, for the continuance, for the perpetuity of that immortal family which has brought us forth, and from which we have received our all. But there are two kinds of patriotism ; there is one composed of the hatreds, prejudices, and gross antipathies which nations, rendered brutal by governments interested in disuniting them, cherish against each other. This patriotism is cheap ; all it requires, is to be ignorant, to hate and revile. There is another which, whilst it loves its own country above everything, allows its sympathies to flow beyond the barriers of race, of language, or of territories, and regards the various nationalities as part of that great whole, of which the various nations are so many rays, but of which civilisation is the centre — it is the patriot- ism of Keligion — of Philosophy — it is that of Philan- thropy." — M. La Martine. On the other hand there are not a few amongst us, whose allegiance to their country bears comparatively but 20 EbtTCATIOn .- little estimation as against a sanded bale of cotton or a successful stroke on the Stock Exchange. To such a one as this the true ring of Patriotism is, unhappily for the common weal, but. as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal ; albeit his full and free enjoyment of the Governmental protection afforded us all, even of its first fruits. Others there are who imagine that war is neither a necessity nor allowable on the part of a Christian nation. To such we would venture to say — that, as co-believers in the sure word of prophecy, still we must beware of its private or premature interpretation. And while we ought not, on the one hand, to be paralysed in doing our duty by prophetic anticipations, neither dare we, on the other, excite ourselves to any breach of duty by a desire to see them realised. God will remove all op- pressive powers which stand in His way. But there are wicked powers enough in the earth to do His work of judgment, whether on His Church or on her enemies. We may not be our own saviours. We may not, as did Rebecca of old, forestal divine providence, and arise in self-will, to carry out God's counsels. It is our part to expect His salvation in the way of strict duty. Men may speculate about the drying up of the Euphrates and the restoration of the Jews to their land, as seems fit to them. We shall best commend ourselves to God, not by skilful calculations as to the rate at which, or the manner in which the chariot of His Church, or the mystery of His coming kingdom rolls along the high- ways of His providence, but rather by ourselves abiding in the chariot, and trusting to the goodness of its Guide. ITS SCOPE, ITS AlUt, ITS OBJECT. 27 In the full and perfect assurance of Faith, Hope, and Charity ; — that whatsoever is in the Bible shall yet be in the World ; that nothing is too great to hope for, -which Divine goodness has promised : and that nothing is im- possible, which God has asked His Church to perform : albeit the unholy alliance of Atheism with Infidelity, and the hand in hand fellowship of materialistic selfish- ness with that scourge of humanity, Indifferentism. V. — Intellectual Education. Although at first man only seeks knowledge for the sake of his preservation and well-being, it is not long before he seeks and loves truth for its own sake; and this noble curiosity is another distinguishing charac- teristic of our race. However little he may have deve- loped himself, Man aspires to the true, as he aspires to goodness, to the beautiful, and the infinite ; he aspires to the knowledge of the system of the Universe, and he would know what place he himself holds in this system, what relations he bears to creation and the Creator. To excite and cherish this curiosity is the object of Intellectual Education — Of the education of the Eeason, properly so called ; and this education should be be- stowed to a certain extent on all. Indeed, the Socratic Philosophy held it to be the indefeasible birth-right of every child of Adam that he should be enabled, through education, to give a reason for the hope that is within him. Undoubtedly, to prepare the young to receive Religious Instruction, it is not enough to awaken within them 28 EDUCATION: the sentiment of the infinite, and to appeal to their con- science. Their intellects must he prepared and culti- vated. An idea of the grandeur of the Universe must be imparted them ; they must be made to comprehend the wonders of the starry sky, and the general laws and harmonies of nature ; and they must be shown the wisdom and power of God displayed in all His works, and which makes Him be seen as in a mirror, by those who cannot contemplate Him in Himself: an obvious and popular philosophy of which every man, free from passion or prejudice, is capable. Let it be impressed on them that the earth is a globe, a celestial sphere, like the sun, moon, and stars. That it moves round the sun placed in the centre of our plane- tary system, carrying the moon along with it. That the stars which shine in the firmament are, for the most part, suns, probably surrounded with planets like ours, and all these systems are so many parts of a Universal System. That system, eternal and immutable, which Pythagoras, the Grecian philosopher, foreshadowed, and, more than 2,000 years afterwards, Gallileo re-echoed, and Home denounced as heresy; but which our own immortal Newton established for all ages, and is now universally recognised throughout the civilised world. At the close of his Principia Sir Isaac Newton says : " This admirably beautiful structure of sun, planets, and comets, could not have originated except in the wisdom and sovereignty of an intelligent and powerful Being. He rules all things, not as the soul of the world, but as the Lord of all. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, His duration is from eternity ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 29 to eternity, and His presence from infinity to infinity. He governs all things, and has knowledge of all things that are done or can be done. He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration and space, but He is ever, and is present everywhere. We know Him only by means of His properties and attributes, and by means of the supremely wise and infinite construction of the world ; we admire Him for His perfection ; we venerate and worship Him as His servants; and a God without sovereignty, providence, and final causes, is nothing else than fate and nature. From a blind metaphysical necessity which, of course, is the same always and everywhere, no variety could originate. The whole diversity of created things in regard to places and times could have its origin only in the ideas and the will of a necessarily-existing Being." • ! These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty, thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair ; thyself how wondrous then ! Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens, To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine. Speak ye, who best can tell, ye sons of light, Angels; for ye behold Him, and with songs And choral symphonies, day without night, Circle His throne rejoicing ; ye in heaven, On earth, join all ye creatures, to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. Fairest of stars, lost in the train of night, If better, thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'sfc the smiling morn With thy bright circlet, praise Him in thy sphere, While day arises, that sweet hour of prime. Thou sun, of this great world both eye and soul, Acknowledge Him thy greater, sound His praise In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st, 30 EDUCATION: And when high noon hast gained, and when thou f all'st, Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun, now fliest, With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies ; And ye five other wandering fires, that move In mystic danee, not without song, resound His praise, who out of darkness called up light. Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth Of nature's womb, that in quaternion run Perpetual circle, multiform, and mix, And nourish all things ; let your ceaseless change Vary to our great Maker still new praise. ' • Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise, Whether to deck with clouds the uncoloured sky, Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers, Eising or falling, still advance His praise. His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow, Breathe soft or loud ; and wave your tops, ye pines, With every plant, in sign of worship wave. Fountains, and ye that warble as ye flow, Melodious murmurs, warbling tune His praise. Join voices, all ye living souls : ye birds, That singing up to heaven-gate ascend, Bear on your wings and in your notes His praise. Ye that in waters glide, and ye that walk The earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep, Witness, if I be silent, morn or even, To hill or valley, fountain, or fresh shade, Made vocal by my song, and taught His praise. Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still, To give us only good ; and if the night Have gather'd aught of evil, or conceal'd, Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark." "Adam's Morning Hymn." — Milton. And if it is to be feared that the idea of the immensity of the Universe, beside which the earth is a point in- finitely small, makes man feel his own insignificance too much, then it becomes the privilege of Education to recall him to a sense of his dignity, by reminding him that the worth of human beings is not measured by their physical greatness, nor the space they occupy, but by ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 31 their essence — their inward nature — then is it the highest behest of the Educator to tell him that the mind of Man is by thought superior to the material world — that God alone is truly great — and that Man alone participates in some degree with this greatness — because He has breathed into him His own divine Spirit — because He has written His law in his heart — the voice of conscience written by the finger of God on the heart of Man — that His providence watches over him, and that He has promised him Immortality ! If it be the aim of Education to draw out man into freedom, and to establish between him and the universe a solid and practical harmony, by directing its efforts from the time that the young mind rises above sub- servience to mere instinct : — 1°. Towards the culture of the Moral Sentiments, or the nourishment of a sense of Right and Duty, and of the love of the Good, the Just, and the Honourable. 2°. To Intellectual Education, properly so called, or to the awakening and deepening of a love of Truth, to the explanation of the wonders of External Nature, of the laws of the great Order which combines them into a system still more wondrous — and through which Man becomes part of that system — drawing from it enjoy- ment and strength. 8°. To iEsthetic Education, the culture of Taste, of a love of the Decorous, of the Beautiful and the Sublime ; and lastly, to Religious Education, by which the idea of the Infinite is unfolded ; the fear and love of the Eternal nourished ; and Faith in Providence upheld even under darkest misfortunes : — 32 EDUCATION: . The question presents itself whether or not it becomes the duty of good government, in case of the apathy of the parents on the one hand, to exercise an absolute authority ; and on the other, in case of their poverty, out of the funds of the State to enforce the fulfilment of a duty which commends itself, simply by the fact that the acquisition gained to Society through the right culture of its individual members, is a substantial and high acquisition, whatever the social conditions within which they may be placed. Surely there can be. no conceivable condition or arrangement of society which ought for a moment to affect our desire that as the minds of the educable young grow up — they may be made to increase in strength and freedom, and be aided and not repressed by sur- rounding circumstances, in their efforts to unfold their innate virtues and riches. Not only so, but that so far as practicable, every man be moral and religious, his intellect trained to the contemplation of truth, and familiarised with the order and beauties of the Universe, as befits a rational and aspiring Being. On this all important question we submit to our readers the views and aspirations of a statesman, philosopher, and an educator, who, known to his contemporaries chiefly as a pulpit orator, or as the champion of some great principle in Church events, will go down to posterity as the most venturesome and influential of Christian philanthropists. His rich and glowing eloquence ; warrior grandeur ; unbounded phil- anthropy ; strength of purpose ; and mental integrity ; his absorbed and absorbing earnestness were obvious to ITS SCOPE, ITS-AIM, ITS OBJECT. 33 all who came across his path, and stamped him indeed as one of Nature's nobles. Familiar as they have now become, his schemes of beneficence were once so novel that few did not deem them visionary. Territorial missions and volunteer agencies for raising the helpless and reforming the vicious were so little dreamed of in the days of our fathers that we who see them carried out in reformatories, and ragged schools, and city missions, can hardly conceive how transcendental and impracti- cable they once appeared. But happily their first pro- pounder was no mere poet; so soon as the plan was clear before him he was impatient to put forth his hand and commence the great experiment. And he was happy in finding or creating coadjutors. Like all men of overmastering energy — like all men of clear concep- tion and valiant purpose — like Nelson and Napoleon, and others born to be commanders — over and above the assurance achieved by success, there was a spell in his audacity, and a fascination in the chivalry, which struggled evermore in speeding his generation onward, and bringing it abreast of that wiser, kinder epoch of which he himself was the forerunning denizen. His last words on the Education question are of vital import : — " It were tbe best state of things that we had a Parliament sufficiently Theological to discriminate between the right and the wrong in religion, and to encourage or endow accordingly. But failing this, it seems to us the next best thing, that in any public measure for helping on the education of the people, Government were to abstain from introducing the ele- ment of religion at all into their part of the scheme, and 34 EDUCATION: this not because they held the matter to be insignificant — the contrary might be strongly expressed in the preamble of the act; but on the ground that, in the present divided state of the Christian world, they would take no cognisance of, just because they would attempt no control over, the religion of applicants for aid — leaving this matter entire to the parties who had to do with the erection and management of the schools which they had been called upon to assist. A grant by the State upon this footing might be regarded as being ap- propriately and exclusively the expression of their value for a good secular education. The confinement, for the time being, of any Govern- ment measure for schools to this object we hold to be an imputation, not so much on the present state of our Legislature, as on the present state of the Christian world, now broken up into sects and parties innumerable, and seemingly incapable of any effort for so healing these wretched divisions, as, to present the rulers of our country with aught like such a clear and unequivocal majority in favour of what is good and true, as might at once determine them to fix upon and to espouse it. It is this which has encompassed the Government with difficulties, from which we can see no other method of extrication than the one which we have ventured to suggest. . And as there seems no reason why, because of these unresolved differences, a public measure for the health of all — for the recreation of all— for the economic advancement of all — should be held in abeyance, there seems as little reason why, because of these differences, ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 35 a public measure for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance. Let the men, therefore, of all Churches and all denominations, alike hail such a measure, whether as carried into effect by a good education in letters or in any of the sciences ; and, meanwhile, in these very seminaries, let that education in religion which the Legislature abstains from providing for, be provided for as freely and amply as they will, by those who have undertaken the charge of them. We should hope, as the result of such a scheme, for a most wholesome rivalship on the part of many in the great aim of rearing on the basis of their respective systems a moral and Christian population, well taught in the principles and doctrines of the Gospel, along with being well taught in the lessons of ordinary scholar- ship. Although no attempt should be made to regulate or to enforce the lessons of religion in the inner hall of legislation, this will not prevent, but rather stimulate to a greater earnestness in the contest between truth and falsehood — between light and darkness — in the outer field of society ; nor will the result of such a contest in favour of what is right and good be at all the more unlikely, that the families of the land have been raised by the helping hand of the State to a higher platform than before, whether as respects their health, or their physical comfort, or their economic condition, or, last of all, their place in the scale of intelligence and learning. Keligion would, under such a system, be the imme- diate product, not of legislation, but of the Christian aDcl d2 36 EDUCATION: philanthropic zeal which obtained throughout society at large. But it is well when what legislation does for the fulfilment of its objects tends not to the impediment, but rather, we apprehend, to the furtherance of those greater and higher objects which are in the contem- plation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the immortal well-being of man. On the basis of these general views, I have two remarks to offer regarding the Government scheme of education. 1°. I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the religious progress of the scholars from the managers of the schools, in order to their receiving the Government aid. Such a certificate from Unitarians or Catholics implies the direct sanction or continuance by Government to their respective creeds, and the responsibility, not of allowing, but more than this, of requiring that these shall be taught to the children who attend. A bare allowance is but a general toleration ; but a requirement involves in it all the mischief, and, I would add, the guilt of an indiscriminate endowment for truth and error. 2°. I would suffer such parents or natural guardians to select what parts of the education they wanted for their children. I would not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted was reading and writing; and as little would I force the catechism, or any part of religious instruction that was given in the school, if all they wanted was a secular education. That the managers in the Church of England schools shall have the power to impose their catechism upon the children of Dissenters, ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 37 and, still more, to compel their attendance in church, I regard as amongst the worst parts of the scheme. The above observations, it will be seen, meet any questions which might be put in regard to the applica- bility of the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the Douay version in Roman Catholic schools. I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any great or general good being effected in the way of Christianising our population, but through the medium of a Government themselves Christian, and endowing the true religion, which I hold to be their imperative duty, not because it is the religion of the many, but because it is true. The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer these few observations, I should be glad to see adopted, not because it is absolutely the best, but only the best in existing circumstances. The endowment of the Catholic religion by the State I should deprecate, as being ruinous to the country in all its interests. Still, I do not look for the general Christianity of the people but through the medium of the Christianity of their rulers. This is a lesson taught historically in Scripture, by what we read there of the influence which the personal character of the Jewish monarchs held on the moral and religious state of their subjects — it is taught experimentally by the impotence, now fully established, of the voluntary principle — and, last, and most decisive of all, it is taught prophetically in the Book of Revelation, when told that then will the. kingdoms of the earth (Basileiai, or governing powers) become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or the 38 EDUCATION: Governments of the ' earth become Christian govern- ments." — Thomas Chalmers. Prefatory to this most valuable memoir— the very foundation in its" main features "of our Education Code — written by Dr. Chalmers, during that journey from London which immediately preceded his sudden demise, we have brought before our readers some leading charac- teristics of" the directness ' and vigour of this faithful minister of God ; as contrasted with not a few teachers of Christianity amongst us, whose theology— in its sub- stitution of a ; formal asceticism for an enlightened judg- ment ; in its view that religion is a scheme for saving a few individuals, instead of its being the foundation for raising and purifying the entire social system ; and in its rigid attempt to keep the mind in swaddling clothes — might well be replaced by a healthier and more spiritual teaching, as a means of Education, which shall have much less of ceremonial, and more of the Sermon on the Mount. " No remedy for evil, which suspends the primary laws of our moral nature, can be ultimately safe. It is not the outcry of a mob, or the jealous prejudices of Englishmen, or the bigoted self-will — if so you choose to call it — of an extravagant Protestantism, which raises its protest against introducing either into the School or the Church the system of the Eomish Confessional. It is common sense, true knowledge of. the human mind, high view's of the scope of education, the warning of ' God Himself, that bids us beware of any system which breaks down the barriers of reserve that God has Himself interposed between man and man — any system which ITS SCOm, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 39 enslaves the pupil to the teacher, instead of freeing him from himself, and raising him to a level with his -teacher : — any system which enfeebles and at last paralyses- ihat self-reliance and self-exertion which it is the very end of education to develope — any system which can only be maintained by its necessary bribe of a conscience-searing licence of absolution, and which will infallibly result in a general corruption and degradation of the whole morality of society." — Quarterly Review. With regard to the training of the Clergy the writer of the preceding paragraph makes the following sug- gestions and observations : — " The English clergy must be prepared to take-their stand and perform their part in a world where a vast variety of general information is required. They cannot be merely theologians* Now, if ever, that definition of a well-instructed man is needed — that he should know something of everything, and everything of something. Theology must be his one science, the Bible his one book ; but he cannot meet upon equal terms the social- ists and the sceptics even in the lower classes, with whom he will have daily to battle ; and he cannot assist and guide the general instruction of his flock, in which the voice of the pastor is so important, unless he be tolerably familiar with the general knowledge of the day — its sciences, its language, its books, and its men. The eloquence of the English clergy, that it may come home to the English mind, and touch the English heart so as to bring forth good fruit, must be, like their lives and their Church, above all things, simple, quiet, 40 EDUCATION: earnest, unaffected, honest, and true. Anything like art or effort, any studied intonations, anything like acting in the recitation of that wonderful production the English Liturgy, would destroy all its influence far more, even than a mistake of pronunciation, or a failure of delivery. To speak articulately, audibly, with proper pronunciation, proper emphasis, proper stops — to do this from long habit and practice, unconsciously — is that which may be taught and required in the case of every clergyman, as it should be included in the general sys- tem of all schools. But this is very different from teaching an artificial and dramatical delivery of our Church Services. Nothing could be more fatal. In this, as in every other function of the English clergy, there must be a combination and a balance of the official and the individual character. The congregation must recognise in the voice which leads their prayers, not merely an abstraction, a form, but the pastor, whom they individually know, and who individually knows them. Even his little mannerisms, his occasional defects, his particularities, and, at times (rarely, it must be but rarely), the individual feeling just touching, and deepening, and piercing through the official ceremonial, are ties between him and them. They present him to them as a real living being of flesh and blood, the same man at the altar, and in the pulpit, whom they have spoken to in the street and listened to in the cottage ; and therefore it is that to intone the service, admirable and effective as it is in certain con- gregations under certain circumstances, is in others so objectionable, and repugnant to the English taste. ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 41 The English clergy (it is one of the first conditions of their value and their efficiency) must not be too far separated from the laity — not by dress, not by celibacy, not by modes of life, not by ceremonial, not by chancel screens, not by vestments. They must live among their flock according to the quiet, simple, practical type ex- hibited in Scripture, not as a caste. Wherever this law has been forgotten, and a gulf and barrier has been set between the laity and the clergy, with a view first to elevate the clergy, and through them to elevate the laity, the result has been ultimately to degrade both, by making the clergy hypocrites and the laity un- believers. And what is true of the delivery of the Liturgy, is true also of the sermon. To express themselves clearly, simply, and with facility, whether in writing or in ex- temporaneous speaking, should indeed be a paramount object among the English clergy. It is to be learned, not by debating clubs, by boyish oratory, by speech-days, but by accustoming even boys, after they have been in- structed in a subject, and have read and written upon it, simply to give the results in an extemporaneous form publicly in the presence of others. It is to be improved by teaching it in schools, and by any opportunity which presents itself for communicating in conversation with others. But, here, again, clearness, simplicity, truth- fulness, reality, and strong and manifest convictions on the part of the preacher himself, are the conditions re- quired — the only conditions which will ultimately suc- ceed. Without a life to correspond with the sermon, without earnestness, without zeal, without* humility, 42 EDUCATION: without love, what is pulpit eloquence but a mockery both of man and God? And these are not to be learned by all the arts of a Demosthenes or a Quintilian. It is the man, and not the eloquence, which touches the heart and converts the Christian. St. Paul's every word is burning, and every sentence mighty, but it is because the soul shines through it. Eloquence is not to be despised. When the solid foundation of personal piety is combined, it is most potent. But eloquence alone is only a sweet poison, deluding both the teacher and his flock." Thoroughly agreeing with these salutary observations, we submit the following to our readers in support of the inestimable value of real pulpit oratory, and its influence upon the education of the People : — " The effect of oratory on the English nature depends upon its being genuine in feeling, solid in argument, and pathetic in its deeper strains ; and no artificial preparation can communicate these powers in the absence of spiritual gifts. The chief powers of sacred 'oratory' are derived from the inmost region of the soul, and not from the organs of the body. Let a man be genuine, be thoroughly in earnest, be possessed of the spirit of love and wisdom, and even an Englishman's husky voice will melt, his monotonous national tone will warm into emotion, and, if he open his mouth well, he will produce an effect on his audience as deep, as real, and as practical, if not so animating and brilliant, as that which usually accompanies the eloquence of the Celt." — Rev. E. White. One of the leading problems of the day seems to be — ■ "Why nlen don't go to church?" Clergymen com- ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 43 plain more and more of the tendency of the male portion of their flocks to ahsent themselves from church. This they attribute to want of " spiritual-mindedness," whereas, painful to say so, as a literary contemporary has put it — " it is largely owing to their own want of sincerity, or their incapacity" : or, in other words, to their affectation and unreality. Teachers like the Bishop of Manchester, or a Dean of Westminster, in the Church, and a Spurgeon or a Stoughton out of it, have never lacked hearers. But men who cannot express what they have to say so that people may understand it ; who insult their hearers by repeating empty platitudes or inane common-places; who fail to read a chapter out of the Bible distinctly ; who make mummeries of the prayers ; who treat religion as a plaything; and whose first and last thought apparently is to trick themselves out in fine clothes — what right have such persons to expect rational men to abnegate simple, unadorned religious worship, and place themselves under their tuition ? If religion suffer, is it not, in too many eases, through the direct or indirect acts of ministers of religion, who have abandoned the calm, simple, sober, and sincere religion of the English Church ? Men will not go to church to listen to sermons, which have lost all savour of that "knowledge which stands on its own pretensions, is independent of sequel, expects no complement, refuses to be informed, as it is called, by any end, or absorbe into any art" : — and this the more, when the prayers are either rendered unintelligible through dazzling accompaniments, or smeared with a tawdry gorgeousness of the once magnificent Rome. 44 EDUCATION: The spectacle of grown men of presumably sane mind and average intellectual capacity quarrelling over the cut or colour of a cloak or petticoat is one to make angels weep ; and when all this is done in the name of religion, if we but only consider the lilies of the valley, there can be little wonder that scepticism and infidelity are so rife in the land. That Sunday is not a day of Christian celebration, but rather of misery, or of something akin to it, with the working classes, may in some degree be traced as well to the Pharisaism which arrogates to itself gratui- tous legislation for others, rather than aim at the cultivation of self-improvement. It is all very well for those who can afford to have a cellar at home, or who may be members of clubs, to make little of this griev- ance; but those who have only one day's rest in the seven, and to whom the public-house is unhappily a necessity, are certainly not of the same opinion. Except the public parks, every place where he can breathe a little fresh air, or where he can see what would certainly make the artisan a better citizen, is shut against him within the gates of the world's boasted centralisation. What of the thousands of working men, who work from ten to eighteen hours a day seven days a week ? Albeit the opinion of our Prime Minister that the religious observance of Sunday is a main prop of the religious character of the country; and that from a moral, social, and physical point of view the observance of Sunday is a duty of absolute consequence — or that of his illustrious predecessor, Lord Beaconsfield, who held that of all Divine institutions, the most divine is ITS SCOPH, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 45 that which secures a day of rest for man ; and is one of the most invaluable blessings ever conceded to man — the cornerstone of civilisation, whose removal might even affect the health of the people. All of which — overshadowed by the pharisaical imposture, which under the plea of benefiting humanity must have its dividend, no matter how derived — we leave to our readers. Why is it then so few of our working classes ever enter a place of worship ? How is it that unbelief is yearly gaining ground against their acceptance of the precious truths of Christianity ? Whence the source of their misgivings of being driven to church by those who profess the popular religion ? Most assuredly it is neither the scoffer, nor those who think little and care less for holy things, who are the sole cause of God's day being desecrated by hundreds of thousands of their fellow-men, but in no small measure the mistaken zeal of those who, oblivious to self-improvement, never legis- late for themselves, and are ever trying to do so for others : hence, with the tenacity of racial instinct, the working classes — left in darkness as to the blessings of Education — will not be driven to do even that which they believe to be right. In connection with the laying of the foundation-stone of a new church at Preston, Sir John Holker observed : — that there is one characteristic of the present age of excitement which is a very marked and an alarming one : viz., the great spread and advance of scepticism upon religious subjects. Sir John justly regards this as an appalling feature — for if this evil advances, or con- tinues to advance, with anything like the rapid strides 46 EDUCATION: which up to the present time have been made, it must result in the destruction of that Church which is so dear to us, and it must further result in the undoing and breaking up of all the bonds by which society is held together. Having expressed the opinion that this infidelity was to a large extent a result of religious bigotry and intolerance in bygone times, Sir John said : — It is of minor importance to describe the origin of the scepticism which so greatly prevails. What we have to do is to combat these evils. I believe they will be firmly and most effectually met by the earnest teaching of a comprehensive and liberal theology, by placing reliance not so much upon eloquence — on abstract doctrine — as on the 'evidences of the existence of the Deity which is afforded by the economy of nature. At the recent Annual Church Congress held at Lei- cester, The Eight Eev. The Bishop of Peterborough, the President, in the course of his address, said : — These annual assemblies seemed to him to be an attempt to meet a great need and desire of the Church for some general representative assembly, the natural and- neces- sary outcome of that great revival of our Church's life for which the earlier part of this century would ever be memorable in her history. Convocation could not com- pletely satisfy that need. It represented only the clergy. Parliament had long ceased to be an assembly exclu- sively of Churchmen, and it had even ceased to be an assembly exclusively of Christians. Some place, there- fore, had to be found, under these altered circumstances, for the representation of the laity, and that, too, in their distinctive character as members of the Church, and ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 47 not, as heretofore, as members of the nation. Church congresses, in their constitution and idea, were an attempt to find such a place for the laity. It might be asked, and indeed it was being asked by many, whether congresses, having done their work in the past might not give place to those other Church assemblies the formation of which they had so largely stimulated ; but the needs which congresses first sought to meet were not yet all fulfilled. They might have their work to do if it were only to keep before men's minds the idea of some such central and general assem- bly as was still an unfulfilled desideratum. Bound about church and chapel — impartially indif- ferent or impartially hostile to both — lay the masses of our great town populations, the scattered units in our country parishes, for whom life had no higher, no better meaning than that of a daily struggle for the means of a joyless existence, uncheered by the hope of a happier hereafter, undignified by the consciousness of their Divine descent and heirship of immortality. What could the Church of England do for these ? Here lay the one supremely urgent question for which they had to find an answer, and that speedily. The Church of England had been learning of late the lesson not to "put her trust in princes," not in the favour of statesmen or politicians, but in the hearts of the people, in the affections of the multitude whom her Master was calling her to win and to serve Him. It was to learn how far she was doing this, and how she might better do it in future, that they were gathered there that day. From the toilers in the streets of our 48 EDUCATION: great cities, from the pastor of the country parish, from zealous laymen, and from our statesmen and legis- lators, they looked for words of guidance and encourage- ment. Congresses might pass away, hut after all it was the spirit and heart of the workers that told most in all work for God. Those who succeeded them would learn from their failures, and profit by their mistakes ; but this at least they should say of that generation of Churchmen that with all its faults it was one which strove honestly and manfully to understand and grapple with the evils and dangers of its day. Well-nigh two decades have passed away since the writer in the " Quarterly Eeview " we have cited drew attention to the extraordinary resuscitation and develop- ment of the English Church, by its own spontaneous activity, within the then preceding twenty years, to which there is probably no parallel in the whole course of ecclesiastical history. Perhaps, he adds, no statistics in this statistical age would convey such a lesson, and exhibit such a picture of moral influence and energy, as a full and accurate view of the exertion and expendi- ture of the English Church, within that period, in the multiplication, enlargement, improvement, re-construc- tion, and decoration of churches, in the erection of parsonage-houses, in the creation and maintenance of schools, in the increase and decorous performance of religious services, and, we wish it could be added, in the establishment of charitable and religious institu- tions. True, says the writer, that this work has been wrought by comparatively few hands ; that its extent is still wholly inadequate to the real wants of the nation ; ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 49 that the offerings, though counted by millions, bear but a small proportion to the wealth of the empire, and to the mercies which have been showered upon it. Let our readers contrast the foregoing with a state- ment as of yesterday which appears in one of our leading periodicals : — "The Church, which was endowed and established for the complete culture of the people, has long ceased to exercise any such functions. The editor of the Times is now a greater agent in the culture of Englishmen than the Archbishop of Canterbury. ' There have been three silent revolutions in England,' says Coleridge ; ' first, when the professions fell off from the Church ; secondly, when literature fell off from the professions ; and thirdly, when the press fell off from literature.' For generations the clergy have ceased to be the guides of the people, and that national clerisy which once directed the whole intellectual life of England have simply become the ministers and teachers of certain sects in the receipt of State pay. The presence in the Church of a Fraser, a Stanley, a Liddon, or a Magee, should not blind us or prevent us from recognising the great fact that the Church of England, great as its services may have been in the past, belongs to a feudal order of society, and is in reality a mediaeval institution, shorn of its glory, which has survived into an industrial and democratic age. It arose in the period when men were sacrificed to systems and orders ; it will speedily perish in this new epoch when all earthly institutions are summoned to give account at the bar of humanity." — British Quarterly Review. E 50 EDUCATION: Now this seems to us but a meagre, one-sided view of the question which so deeply interests the most im- portant Educational Establishment of the Empire, and strangely enough all but ignores that wondrous revolu- tion which affects our own times, and so signally marks the page of history — " The Reformation." We submit then to our readers the following " Arguments on Con- formity to the Established Church," which are rendered doubly emphatic from the circumstance of their vigorous and accomplished writer being amongst the foremost of its ministers that adorn The Nonconformist Church, which, as our readers are aware, has separated from The Church of England, — "because its members sup- pose themselves to have ascertained the Will of Almighty God on some matters, from the Scriptures, more clearly than was common when the Church of England was founded ; and because they believe themselves obliged herein to give effect to the authority of Heaven." — The Rev, Edward White, in that elaborate of works, "The Mystery of Growth," says : — "Besides its antiquity, the Church of England is supported by an authority perhaps as weighty as was ever brought to bear upon the men of any age or country. This Church, founded by divines of unsurpassed learning, many of whom attested the sincerity of their confession by martyrdom, has been the chosen home of a long line of theologians, philosophers, poets, historians, states- men, and philanthropists, whose posthumous glory ex- tends like a galaxy through the whole firmament of English literature and English history. Its altars have been served by a hierarchy more usefully learned than ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 51 any other that ever ministered to the spiritual necessities of Christendom ; its pulpits have been filled by preachers whose fame is spread through the civilised world ; and its annals have been illustrated by successive generations of holy laymen, unsurpassed in virtue and devotion by any of the saints of preceding centuries. Whatever faults may be chargeable on unscrupulous individuals, let it be remembered that she has translated, distributed, and caused to be daily read in churches, the sacred Scriptures, the fountain of pure Christianity ; and, under whatever lesser inconsistency in the applica- tion of the principle, has, nevertheless, written in golden letters over the portals of her sanctuaries, 'that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation. So that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as ah article of faith, or thought necessary to salvation.' She has set aside the doctrine of Mediation, and plainly taught the truth on the Deity, the Atonement, and the Intercession of Christ. She honours no relics, worships no angels, saints, or martyrs, arrogates no infallibility, and openly declares, in the preface to her Prayer-book, that her system admits of further and progressive reformation. This is not ' semi-Komariism.' It is a constitution of things nearly as far removed from the peculiarities of the Church of Kome as from Mahommedanisin ; and the English people know it. It is a religious system which/ with all its faults, has, in conjunction with the Dissenters, conferred signal benefits upon this nation, raising the intellect of England to a majestic strength e2 52 EDUCATION: unknown in any other country of the European continent. The actual henefits conferred hy the Church of England upon the nation during the last three hundred and fifty years form a practical argument in its favour, more effectual than any abstract theories, favourable or an- tagonistic. It has known in recent times how, in good measure, to reconcile its paramount claims as the National Church with a prudent dealing towards those who have separated from its communion. And to a people which loves success it offers in the present day the pleasing spectacle of an ancient institution which has resisted the assaults of Italian Popery from without, triumphed over the sometimes armed hostility from within, of all its doughty adversaries of the Protestant and Puritan complexion, and still, amidst the wreck of theological orthodoxy, lifts up its head, like Minerva, in sempiternal youth, ready to make a practical stand against all assailants, from whatsoever quarters of the realms of superstition, preciseness, or infidelity the attack may come. The Church of England finds yet another source of support in the conservative instincts of the people. United with the State it is conceived to consecrate and establish the authority of the laws, and to add the force of divine sanction to the secular government. The Kings of England are crowned and anointed at the altars. The monarchy rests on a tradition not more ancient than the Church. The royal family must be of this persuasion in religion. Other institutions belong to time, but the Church represents the overshadowing Eternity, Its foundations descend into a remote past. ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OSJECT. ■ 53 Its services breathe the air of a venerable antiquity. Its offices look forward to an infinite Hereafter. In its solemn temples, in its never-dying hierarchy, in its passionless uniformity of action, it represents the un- changeable amidst the changes of time, and the ever- lasting amidst the mutations of a revolutionary era ; and this causes to cling to it with silent and thoughtful ardour all who revolt at the spirit of modern inno- vation. Kings, statesmen, lawyers, the clergy, poets, historians, landholders, capitalists, all support it as the symbol of stability, and the palladium of the principle of authority in government. And they would sooner see all the old oaks of England torn up by the roots, all its old baronial houses swept away by a tempest, than see the revolu- tionary downfall of that which is emphatically called The Established Church." After enumerating the various points of dissent which characterise Nonconformity, the writer closes his dis- course, of which our quotation is but a faint echo, with this remarkable peroration, " that fully one-half the worshipping population of England has withdrawn itself from this marvellously attractive establishment." "England," says he, "meantime advances slowly in her reforms. She is not at this moment ready for the separation of Church and State. But she is willing to listen to expositions of the policy which must speedily end in that consummation ; and it is the difficult question of material wealth which alone blocks the way of progress : forthe internal theological condition of the Establishment is a reproduction of chaos." SI EDUCATION: , Says an Anglican of the Eeformed faith — " If" it were possible to " bring the clergy together, and enable them to understand each other's views — to join in condemning acknowledged errors, in repudiating false accusations, in listening to candid arguments, and above all, in praying for help and guidance, and the spirit of charity and love, to, their one common Lord and Master — such things would be fraught with blessings to the Church. Give it unity, give it concord; heal its unhappy divisions, and once more the standard of divine truth and of an impregnable faith may be raised among us. Once more the hearts of the old will be warmed to labour and to fight for it. Once more the young will be attracted to battle and to suffer, when those they can reverence and trust are battling and suffering before them. And the English Church will continue to be the greatest instrument of blessing, which the hand of Providence, amongst all its mercies, has provided for this State and Country, even for the whole world." — Quarterly Review. Nothing, as we have said before, is impossible that God has ordered His Church to perform. Meanwhile no institution, humanly speaking, can flourish that has departed from the principles on which its greatness was established. Nor can we expect blessings to flow from a ministration not only antagonistic to, but subversive of, the land-marks which, on being inducted to their benefices, its Incumbents have made a solemn promise to observe. Too frequently may we now seek in vain for that persuasive simplicity and purity of pulpit oratory which has done more towards the advancement of the ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 55 highest and noblest destinies of humanity than either Grecian or Koman eloquence ever achieved, or that of our Bar — the Senate — or the Platform, since the earliest days of Christianity. On the recent visitation of his Diocese, His Grace the Primate of All England, in the course of a lengthened charge, dealt with the subject of modern speculation as antagonistic to the Gospel. "He should," said the Archbishop of Canterbury, "never forget how, some fifty years ago, he casually entered the lecture-room in which Dr. Chalmers was addressing his students on difficulties supposed to arise from the geological speculations as to the days of the Creation, which had then just begun to attract more than usual attention. That great master — an ardent disciple of science as well as a divine — warned his hearers not to be moved by any unworthy fears as if science and religion could be antagonistic the one to the other. Dr. Chalmers pointed out how that geological speculations, to which his Grace had alluded, raised a contest only about outworks, while the central fortress remained impregnable within. There were few intelli- gent students of theology now-a-days who saw any in- consistency between the teaching of approved geological science and the great central truths respecting God and man's nature as communicated to us in the Mosaic records. No doubt a view of these records somewhat different from what we were accustomed to in old days was implied in this change of thought, but neither in respect of the earliest work of Scripture nor of any portion of what the Church had received and handed down as the Word of God was there any change in ihe reverence attaching to 56 EDUCATION: that teaching by which the Spirit of God intended these works to guide the soul. With science generally, and with that scientific philological and historical criticism which for the last hundred years in this country and in Germany had been sifting the sacred books with the minuteness of a microscopical examination, the Church had no fault to find where the researches of students had been conducted reverently and humbly. The Church of the future, he believed, would hold fast the faith set forth in the Bible, and would never be weary of turning to the Bible as the basis on which its whole system is built, and by which whatever it taught must be tested. It would not plunge into vain discussions as to the mode and limits of the inspiration of»the writers of the sacred books, but would, he thought, follow the wise caution of the Thirty-nine Articles, which carefully abstained from any minute distinctions as to what inspiration is, how far it may be verbal, or has only to do with the general sense, and fully explained teaching of the sacred writers. The Church, if true to its mission, would ever be on its guard against any lowering of its standard as to what was sin. There was, he feared, a dangerous tendency of the age to regard sin rather as a misfortune, or a mistake, than a fault and corruption. If the Church maintained the exceeding sinfulness of sin it would never swerve from pointing to the only true remedy. Captious dis- cussions might be raised as to the exact meaning and logical definition of the Atonement, and the Church in all ages had contained within its bosom men who had not thought alike on that matter. But with the doctrine of the death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin, the Church ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 57 would never part while the world contained sinners who had souls to save." A great English classic writer thus deals with the subject of General Education : — " The extent to which Man has the faculty of acquir- ing knowledge, forms the most obvious distinction of our species. In the inferior animals it subsists in so small a degree that we are wont to deny it to them altogether ; the range of their knowledge, if it deserves the name, is so extremely limited, and their ideas so few and simple. Whatever is most exquisite in their opera- tions is referred to an instinct, which, working within a narrow compass, though with undeviating uniformity, supplies the place, and supersedes the necessity of reason. In inferior animals the knowledge of the whole species is possessed by each individual of the species, while Man is distinguished by numberless diversities in the scale of mental improvement. 'Now, to be destitute in a remarkable degree of an acquisition which forms the appropriate possession of human nature, is degrading to that nature, and must proportionably disqualify it for reaching the end of its creation. As the power of acquiring knowledge is to be ascribed to reason, so the attainment of it vastly strengthens and improves it, and therefore enables it to enrich itself with further acquisition. Knowledge in general expands the mind, exalts the faculties, refines the taste of pleasure, and opens numerous sources of intellectual enjoyment. By means of it we become less dependent for satisfaction upon the sensitive appetites, the gross pleasures of sense are more easily despised, and we are made to feel the 68 EDVCATIOtf: superiority of the spiritual to the material part of our nature. Instead of being continually solicited by the influence and irritation of sensible objects, the mind can retire within herself, and expatiate in the cool and quiet walks of contemplation. The Author of nature has in His wisdom annexed a pleasure to the exercise of our active powers, and particularly to the pursuit of truth, which, if it be in some instances less intense, is far more durable than the gratifications of sense, and is on that account incomparably more valuable. Its duration, to say nothing of its other properties, renders it more valuable. It may be repeated without satiety, and pleases afresh on every reflection upon it. There are self-created satisfactions, always within our reach, not dependent upon events, not requiring a peculiar com- bination of circumstances to produce or maintain them ; they rise from the mind itself, and inhere, so to speak, in its very substance. Let the mind but retain its proper functions, and they spring up spontaneously, unsolicited, unborrowed, and unbou'ght. Even the difficulties and impediments which obstruct the pursuit of truth, serve, according to the economy under which we are placed, to render it more interesting. The labour of intellectual research resembles and exceeds the tumultuous pleasures of the chase ; and the conscious- ness of overcoming a formidable obstacle, or of lighting on some happy discovery, gives all the enjoyment of a conquest, without those corroding reflections by which the latter must be impaired. The acquisition of knowledge by multiplying the ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 59 mental resources has a tendency to exalt the character, and, in some measure, to correct and subdue the taste for gross sensuality. It enables the possessor to beguile his leisure moments in an innocent, at least, if not in a useful, manner. The man who can read, and who possesses a taste for reading, can find entertainment at home, without being tempted to repair to equivocal places of amusement for that purpose. His mind can find him employment when his body is at rest ; he does not lie prostrate and float on the current of incidents, liable to be carried whithersoever the impulse of appetite may direct. There is in the mind of such a man an intellectual spring urging him to the pursuit of mental good ; and if the minds of his family also aTe a little cultivated, conversation becomes the more interesting, and the sphere of domestic enjoyment enlarged. The calm satisfaction which books afford puts him into a disposition to relish more exquisitely the tranquil delight inseparable from the indulgence of conjugal and parental affection ; and as he will be more respectable in the eyes of his family than he who can teach them nothing, he will be naturally induced to cultivate whatever may preserve, and to shun whatever would impair, that respect. He who is inured to reflection will carry his views beyond the present hour; he will extend his prospect a little into futurity, and be disposed to make some provision for his approaching wants ; whence will result an increased motive to industry, together with a care to husband his earnings, and to avoid unnecessary expense. That man who has gained a taste for good' books will in all likelihood become thoughtful; and 60 EDUCATION: when you have given him a habit of thinking, you have conferred a much greater favour than by the gift of a large sum of money, since you have put him in possession of the principle of all legitimate prosperity. Some have objected to the instruction of the humbler classes, from an apprehension that it would lift them above their sphere — make them dissatisfied with their station in life, and by impairing the habits of subordina- tion, endanger the tranquillity of the State ; an objection devoid surely of all force and validity. It is not easy to conceive in what manner instructing men in their duties can prompt them to neglect those duties, or how that enlargement of reason which enables them to compre- hend the true grounds of authority and the obligation to obedience, should indispose them to obey. The admirable mechanism of society, together with that subordination of ranks which is essential to its sub- sistence, is surely not an elaborate imposture, which the exercise of reason will detect and expose. The objec- tion we have stated implies a reflection on the social order, equally impolitic, invidious, and unjust. Nothing in reality renders legitimate governments so insecure as extreme ignorance in the people. It is this which yields them an easy prey to seduction, makes them the victims of prejudices, and false alarms, and so ferocious withal, that their interference in a time of public commotion is more to be dreaded than the eruption of a volcano. The true prop of good government is the opinion, the perception, on the part of the People, of benefits result- ing from it ; a settled conviction, in other words, of its being a public good. Now nothing can produce or main- ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 61 tain that opinion but knowledge, since opinion is a form of knowledge. Of tyrannical and unlawful governments, indeed, the support is fear, to which ignorance is as congenial as it is abhorrent from the genius of a free people. "Who are the persons who, in every country, are most disposed to outrage and violence, but the most ignorant and uneducated ? to which class chiefly belong those unhappy beings who are doomed to expiate their crimes at the fatal tree ; few of whom are able to read, and the greater part utterly destitute of all moral or religious principle. At the Reformation the progress of the reformed faith went hand in hand with the advancement of letters ; it had everywhere the same friends and the same enemies, and, next to its agreement with the Holy Scriptures, its success is chiefly to be ascribed, under God, to the art of printing, the introduction of the English Classic vernacular, and the illustrious patrons of science attached to its cause. In the representation of that glorious period when religion shall universally prevail, it is men- tioned as a conspicuous feature, that ' many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.' That period will not be distinguished from the preceding by men's minds being more torpid and inactive, but rather by the consecration of every power to the service of the Most High. It will be a period of remarkable illumina- tion, during which ' the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as that of seven days.' Every useful talent will be cultivated, every art subservient to the interests of man be improved 62 EDUCATION: and perfected ; learning will amass her stores, and genius emit her splendour; but the former will be displayed without ostentation, and the latter shine with the softened effulgence of humility and love." With respect to Eeligious Education this distinguished authority observes : — " Of knowledge in general there are branches which it would be preposterous in the bulk of mankind to attempt to acquire, because they have no immediate connection with their duties, and demand talents which nature has denied, or opportunities which Providence has withheld. But with respect to the primary truths of religion, the case is different; they are of such daily use and necessity, that they form not the materials of mental luxury, so properly as the food of the mind. In [improving the character, the influence of general knowledge is often feeble and always indirect ; of religious knowledge the tendency to purify the heart is immediate, and forms its professed scope and design. To ascertain the character of the Supreme Author of all things, to know, as far as we are capable of 3 compre- hending, what is His moral disposition, what the situa- tion we stand in towards Him, and the principles by which He conducts His administration, will be allowed by every considerate person to be of the highest con- sequence. Compared to this, all other speculations and inquiries sink into insignificance ; because every event that can befall us is in His hands, and by His sentence our final condition must be fixed. To regard such an inquiry with indifference is the mark, not of a noble, but of an abject mind, which, immersed in sensuality, or ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 63 amused with trifles, deems itself unworthy of eternal life. To be so absorbed in worldly pursuits as to neglect future prospects, is a conduct that can plead no excuse, until it is ascertained beyond all doubt or contradiction that there is no hereafter, and that nothing remains but that ' we eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' Even in that case, to forego the hope of immortality without a sigh ; to be gay and sportive on the brink of destruction, in the very moment of relinquishing prospects on which the wisest and best in every age have delighted to dwell, is the indication of a base and degenerate spirit. If ex- istence be a good, the eternal loss of it must be a great evil ; if it be an evil, reason suggests the propriety of inquiring why it is so, of investigating the maladies by which it is oppressed. Amidst the darkness and uncer- tainty which hang over our future condition, revelation, by bringing life and immortality to light, affords the only relief. In the Bible alone we learn the real cha- racter of the Supreme Being ; His holiness, justice, mercy, and truth ; the moral condition of Man, con- sidered in his relation to Him is clearly pointed out ; the doom of impenitent transgressors denounced; and the economy of redemption — that gracious provision the Supreme Being has thought fit to make for reconciling the world to Himself, by the manifestation in human nature of His own Son — plainly revealed : on the right reception of which, or its rejection, turns our everlasting weal or woe. Sound Religious Instruction is a perpetual counter- poise to the force of depravity. ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; the testimony of the 64 EDUCATION: Lord is sure, making wise the simple ; the command- ment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes ; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever ; the judg- ments of the L° r d are true, and righteous altogether.' The veneration entertained for the Bible, as the deposi- tary of saving knowledge, is distinct, not only from what we attach to any other book, but from that admiration its other properties inspire ; the variety and antiquity of its history, the light it affords in various researches, its inimitable touches of nature, together with the sub- limity and beauty so copiously poured over its pages, are the subsidiary ornaments, the embellishments of the context, which contains the pearl of great price." — Robert Hall. It is the grand distinguishing characteristic of the Sacred Oracles, that they have God for their author, truth for their object, and salvation for their end. A revelation founded on the most rational principles, to remove from our minds the veil of darkness, and lay open to us the nature of the Divine Perfections, must have been the work of an Almighty Being. It was God alone who knew our numerous wants ; it was only He who could prescribe a remedy for our maladies. In the Old Testament we have God represented to us as our Creator and Preserver ; in the New Testament we see Christ Jesus pointed out to us as our Redeemer, and the object of our faith. In the Old Testament we behold God as the moral governor of the world ; in the New Testament we look upon Him as reconciled to sinners in and through the merits of Christ Jesus. In the Old Testament, obedience is enjoined to a particular ITS SCOPE, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 65 body of people, the children of Israel; in the New Testament it extends to all those who assume the name of Christians ; the one was the shadow of good things to come, the other was the substance; the first presented us with the law of carnal ordinances ; the second laid open the councils of Divine Wisdom. " The Volume of the Holy Scriptures, independent of its divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more important his- tory, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence than could be collected within the same compass from all other books that were ever composed in any age or nation. And although many hundreds of thousands of books have been written in different ages by wise and learned men, even the best of them will bear no com- parison with the Bible, in respect either of religion, morality, history, or purity and sublimity of composition. The antiquity of these compositions no man doubts, and the unstrained application of them to events long sub- sequent to their publication is a solid ground of belief that they are genuine productions, and consequently inspired." — Sir William Jones. If not absolutely the oldest book in the world, the Book of Genesis is the oldest which lays any claim to being a trustworthy history. If the religious books of other nations make any pretensions to vie with it in antiquity, in all other respects they are immeasurably inferior. It is our only record of the beginning of things however interpreted. And hence arises the serious responsibility resting on each of us, to keep a clear conscience, a rightly balanced F 66 EDUCATION: intellect, and ; a pure heart ; and to seek for inspiration from the Father of lights, in the pursuit of Tbtjth, wherever He has lodged it, whether in the soul of man, in nature, or in the Bible ; truth is our rock, indestruct- ible and eternal. And the truths of Christianity are its facts ; whether spoken or written. You may reject the book, but you cannot deny the facts, or destroy a jot of " The truth as it is in Jesus." Astronomy may describe for us the size and distances and wondrous motions of our globe, with its moon, and the planets with their satellites ; and fill us with awe by its revelation that our solar system in its vast dimen- sions is a mere point in the infinitude of space, and that the twinkling stars are the centres of systems like ours. Geology may read for us the autobiography of the earth, and take us back, in its tertiary strata only, a period of 100,000 years, and tell us of myriads of ages before that date, when animals and plants lived and grew upon our world. Ethnography and Philology may compute for us the probable age of the human race thousands of years before the Adam of Genesis. And much as these stupendous inferences may lead us to question the Mosaic cosmogony we still abide by that faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost, and that God has treasured up for us within the Sacred Volume infallible truth, the food of our souls and the glory of our being — truth lasting as the rocks — eternal as the heavens. From that really beautiful and admirable work " The Midnight, Sky" we epitomise the following: — "The ITS SCOPE l ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 67 heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth His handy work." Wondrous as is the scale upon which it is built, and glorious the exhibition presented by the physical aspect of the heavens, our ideas of the greatness and wisdom of its Author are far surpassed when we consider the laws which regulate this vast and complicated theatre of worlds. Our own solar system is but a type of the whole universe, and none can contemplate the exquisite simplicity of the means employed, and the nice balanc- ing of the forces which preserve the harmony of the whole, without feeling that beneath all that is visible, and open to scientific research, there lies a great regu- lating and governing power, which acts through this system of laws, and is at once both the Cause and Sus- tainer of them. No hypothesis of " self-inherent law," or " selective affinity in matter," can satisfactorily account for the phenomena, which every truly balanced and reflecting mind beholds in the star-spangled firmament. The recent attempts to divorce the spirit of physical research from the spirit of faith, and thus separate science from religion, call for an earnest protest from all who have made science a study, and an emphatic declara- tion that there is no necessary connection between the phenomena and laws which science reveals, and the sceptical and materialistic spirit which is thus presented. Those who study -the secrets of nature, will find amidst all its revelations nothing to shake the founda- tions of the " faith which was once delivered to the saints," and discover the only satisfactory explanation 68 EDUCATION: of the origin and continuance of nature not to lie in the supposition of " self-continuity," but in a firm and con- fident belief in an Almighty and intelligent First Cause — that spirit which led the inspired writer to exclaim, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands." The flowers which with transient beauty adorn the summer fields, and the law of change which is written on all things terrestrial, may but be types of an equal evanescence in the wider sphere of celestial nature ; but it does not detract from our wonder and admiration of the wisdom and power of their Author, that while we gaze on the starry glory of the firmament we hear also the voice of that sure word of prophecy : — " They shall perish ; but Thou remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment ; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." — Edwin Dunkin. Happy the land — yea, thrice happy the people — whose princes united with its leaders in the bonds of Peace on Earth — goodwill towards Men — depend not solely on its arms or its riches, nor yet on its liberties or its laws, but whose faith and duty towards God and Man are strong enough to secure to its members that knowledge, which emancipating the divine germs within developes our rational nature — the true nature, as we have said before, of the Human Race, — and instead of consigning him to sheer brutishness, or perpetuating him as the slave of a jaded routine, gives dignity to the nature of ITS SCOPS, ITS AIM, ITS OBJECT. 69 Man, enlarges his sympathies, enriches his being, com- forts him in this life and blesses him in the next. And, however severe his toil or unremitting its exactions, raises his soul out of the dust, and leads him betimes with his foot upon the sod of this earth — be it under the gorgeous magnificence of the meridian sun — the chaste splendour of the Starry Heavens, — or the midnight appeal of the mighty ocean, to thank the Eternal who has made him a Man! fart II. — — PEAOTIOAL HINTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON EXTENDING THE SPHERE, AND IMPROVING THE CHARACTER OE POPULAR INSTRUCTION. UPON THE INFLUENCE OF EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. Amid the many progressive advances of the XlXth Century not the least precious is that of our venerable universities of Oxford and Cambridge having inaugu- rated a scheme of Local Examinations, that must in effect awake a still deeper devotion on the part of the People towards these time-honoured institutions ; nor can they fail to develope throughout Schools and Colleges alike a keener zest if possible for those innate treasures which are the very head and heart of our English litera- ture — that noble literature which Alfred the Great cradled ; and centuries have adorned in its beauty, and its strength, even as polished corners of the temple of our British Constitution. Philology, logic, and mathematics are the means employed in promoting a liberal, or what is technically designated a University Education. — " By a liberal edu- cation is meant a non-professional education. By a non- professional education is meant an education conducted without reference to the future profession, or calling, or special pursuit for which the person under education is designed. It is an education which is regarded not merely as a means, but as something which is in itself an end. The end proposed is not the formation of the future citizen in his practical relations of life, nor of the man of science, nor even the scholar ; but simply of the thinker. POPULAR INSTRUCTION. "It is admitted that the highest eminence can only be attained by the concentration of the mind, with a piercing intensity and singleness of view, upon one field of action. In order to excel, each mind must have its specific end. A man may know many things well, but there is only one thing upon which he will be pre- eminently learned, and become an authority. The pro- fessional man may be compared to one whose eye is fixed upon a microscope. The rest of the world is abstracted from his field of vision, and the eye, though narrowed to a scarcely perceptible hole, is able to see what is indiscernible by others. When he observes accurately he becomes, in his department, a learned man, and when he reveals his observations he is a bene- factor of his kind. All that the university system does is to delay the professional education as long as pos- sible ; it would apply to the training of the mind a dis- cipline analogous to that which common sense suggests in what relates to bodily exercise. A father, ambitious for his son that he might win the prize at the Olympian games, or in the Pythian fields, devoted his first atten- tion not to. the technicalities of the game, but to the general condition and morals of the youth. The suc- cess of the athlete depended upon his first becoming a healthy man. So the university system trains the man and defers the professional education as long as circum- stances will permit. It makes provision,' before the eye is narrowed to the microscope, that the eye itself shall be in a healthy condition; it expands the mind before contracting it ; it would educate mind as such before bending it down to the professional point; it EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 75 does not regard the mind as an animal to be fattened for the market, by cramming it with food before it J has acquired the power of digestion ; but treats it rather as an instrument to be tuned, as a metal to be refined, as a weapon to be sharpened. This is the system which the old universities of Europe have inherited."— Dean Hooke. As to the importance of a knowledge of the English language being not only preserved, but as far as possible more generally diffused throughout the length and breadth of the land, we submit to the earnest attention of our readers the views and aspirations of a rising statesman of great promise : — In distributing the prizes and certificates gained in the district of Eastbourne, in connection with the Cam- bridge University local examinations, the Marquis of Hartington expressed his satisfaction at the growing interest manifested by the two national universities in the promotion of secondary education throughout the country. It was remarkable, the noble Marquis ob- served, to consider what a change had come over the spirit of Oxford and Cambridge within the last forty or 'fifty, he might even say the last twenty years. Within the recollection of many these ancient institu- tions had been partly of the nature of comfortable clubs for bachelors, and partly of the nature of modern mo- nastic institutions. Men who went to the universities, after 1 having perhaps worked hard in their youth, seemed to consider that it was unnecessary for them to do more, and that they were entitled to spend the remainder of their lives in literary ease and idleness. The universi- 76 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. ties could, undoubtedly, give a good education to young men who were about to enter into the learned profes- sions, and they afforded a fair education to such of the upper classes as were willing to take it at their hands ; but there had been very little connection, in the time of which he spoke, between the universities and the thought, the science, and the literature of the country. There had been still less connection between them and the great, energetic, business centres of the country. That was now all changed. The universities had changed a great deal within their own walls. While the ancient studies were pursued with no less success than formerly, those more modern branches of study which were sought after by youths about to enter into the active pursuits of life were also taught. But the universities had done more than this. They had gone out from their ancient colleges and halls into the cen- tres of population, in order to diffuse as far as possible the benefits of education amongst those who could not afford to come to Oxford and Cambridge for it. The universities perceived the great void that had existed, and he might say still existed, between the system of primary education which the State had made it the business of the community to provide, and the system of higher education which it was the principal business of the universities to furnish. They had perceived that the intermediate or secondary education of the people was not in so satisfactory a state as could be desired. To remedy in some measure this deficiency, the univer- sities had come forward and instituted these local examinations. But though a great deal had thus been EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 11 done with respect to intermediate education, a great deal more remained to be done ; his Lordship being of opinion that the State should in some wise undertake the inspection and supervision of intermediate schools. It would probably, continued his Lordship, be some time before Parliament found leisure to devote itself to this subject, however important it might be ; but this was, at least, certain — that the acquaintance which some of the most active and energetic members of the universities had obtained through their local examina- tions, with the state of instruction in the grammar, and middle-class schools of the country, would be of the greatest service to Parliament and the public whenever the subject came to be dealt with exhaustively and finally. Most of the pupils educated here and in other towns were intended for the active business of life, and they and their parents were desirous that those subjects should be chiefly cultivated which would most conduce to their success in life. This was very natural ; but at the same time his Lordship thought it very desirable, if it could be done by the examinations, that the attention of teachers and students should be drawn to those sub- jects which were not likely to have so important a commercial value in the market. He referred parti- cularly to the study of classics, and to the study of the English language. He was pleased to see that the examinations turned so much on the subject of English literature, this being of paramount interest at the pre- sent time. It would be invidious, his Lordship further observes, to compare the authors of the present with TS POPULAR INSTRUCTION. those of past generations, but lie was happy to say we have still many amongst us who are great masters of the English language. When we saw the Prime Minister, a man who had made his name known and established his reputation in the pursuit of literature ; when we saw a man like Lord Lytton, the Governor- General of our vast Indian possessions, the son of a man well known in literature, and himself distinguished as a poet ; when we saw also Mr. Gladstone devoting so large a part of his time to literary pursuits ; and remem- bered the great orator, Mr. Bright, who had so thorough a command of the English language, we could not doubt that the study of the English language and English literature went a great way to form the strength and manhood of the English nation. The noble Marquis might also have cited on his grand panel of celebrities our ex-Lord High Chancellor of England, who, albeit an Irishman, stands pre-eminent as a master of the English language. In speaking of the advantages to be derived from the extension of University Education, in connection with the " Cavendish College," and bringing it within reach of those to whom economy of time and expense is neces- sary, the noble Marquis observes : — " that a degree at one of the ancient national universities is an object to be arrived at by a larger circle of students than at present, both as an honourable standard of general education, and as a good preparation for most of the occupations and professions of life, active as well as literary. The functions of a University are twofold, and it is difficult to say which is the more important. They EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 79 consist in the first place of teaching the highest and most liberal education, and in the next, of conferring degrees, or in other words of granting certificates, indicative that the holders are in the possession of a certain amount of liberal education. It is perfectly possible that, good teaching may be obtained at other places than the University, and it is also possible that very valuable certificates of knowledge may be conferred by them. Nor will those engaged in teaching for one moment deny that outside the university an excellent education may be obtained. There is, for instance, the London University, which holds examina- tions, but which does not profess to teach. Every one knows the value of its degrees.; but the greatest ad- vantage is obtained when the two functions of teaching and examining are combined. There never has been any doubt as to the character of the education given and the value of the degrees conferred by our Uni- versities of Oxford and Cambridge, even in the days when they were least disposed to be active and bestir themselves. At one period of their history they ac- quiesced in the idea that a liberal education was some- thing which should only be imparted to a limited class — the class possessed of ease and wealth, and who devoted themselves to the study of literature. This, however, is no longer the opinion of the Universities. The very word conveys the idea that they were founded not for the benefit of the few, but the many, and in this country, as well as in others, the original idea of a university was that it was for the benefit of all people, or as many of the different classes as were disposed to 80 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. avail themselves of its advantages. Whatever, then, may have been the fault of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as regards their former inactivity, it cannot be imputed to them now. Within the last few years they have endeavoured to improve the character of the Universities, and to extend their educational advan- tages to all, so as to meet the wants of the different classes. They have instituted lectures and examinations under the name of the ' Universities Examination Scheme ' which have brought the advantages of the universities to vast numbers of those dwelling in com- mercial and industrial centres." In his Eectorial address to the students of St. Andrews, the late J. S. Mill argued strenuously for the maintenance of the Classics in their old place. Greek and Latin were the only languages to which he would give a place in the ordinary curriculum ; and he seemed to think that while the old reasons for the faithful studies of the classics which weighed with Erasmus or the Scaligers had passed away, other reasons of still greater weight had sprung up in modern civilisation. Again ; the Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in advo- cating the advantages of a classical education, says : — " I do not hesitate to affirm that the old studies are the best studies, and if you want to find the man who has the greatest facility for acquiring what is new, and for communicating it to others, give me the man who has had a thorough classical training, who has drunk the writings of the old masters into his bones and his marrow, who has stood in the race of competition with schoolboys and collegians, and who has proved his EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 81 powers in the course of study there placed before him." Give us the man who has the head to think, the heart to feel, and the spirit to act, whose judgment matured by the mathematics and imagination enriched by the classics would willingly share with his fellow-man all that Education offers, and thank the giver of every good and perfect gift that hath enabled him to do so, as far as in him lies. If modern languages — modern science — modern his- tory — modern commerce — and modern art constitute the staple, on which, and for which, the human intellect is to be employed ; we took it as granted that Latin is the best and shortest introduction to modern languages ; that modern science has been cast entirely into ancient Greek ; that the philosophy of modern history is best studied under ancient parallels ; that modern commerce depends on mathematics and arithmetic : at all events that modern art will present us nothing but a museum of deformities, unless we imbibe a purer taste from the beauties of antiquity. We had fondly anticipated that the conceited clamour of ignorance, brimful with a dash of cynicism from sources least to be expected, had outlived itself; and that the voices which called on us to supersede the old classical course of university education, instead of wisely supplementing it from newly-opened fields of knowledge, had merged into the silent land. Our illusion is how-, ever dispelled. Amid the blaze of day, in the centre of the world's civilisation, the President of one of our Universities, repudiates the Ancient Classics in favour G 82 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. of Modern Languages; and a no less distinguished Professor, in the distribution of prizes, &c, at a recent Local University Examination openly avows — " that he would no more think of advocating that every one should study the mathematics than that every one should be taught music or drawing." Let these modern Philosophers apply, as did the Grecian of old, the touchstone of the self-forming and the self-examining power, and ask himself, how much of that success in life wherewith he has been favoured, if not actually due, may fairly be attributed to his culture of these important branches of a liberal educa- tion — the Ancient Classics and the Mathematics : the memory of which seems to them but as a draught of the waters of Marah. And much as he may seek to dis- courage in others the advantages of music and drawing, or begrudge the crumbs of mathematics that have found their way to the Working Classes in the form of Technical Education — he may perhaps discover that his is not the doctrine promulgated by the greatest teacher of the gentile world before the light of the Gospel shone upon Earth — that of Socrates — who proclaimed till his dying day, and sealed it with his blood, that Education, on the basis of the self-examining power, is the indefeasible birthright of every child of Adam, that through its influence he may be enabled to give a reason for the Hope that is within him. Nor is it the teaching of the greatest classic scholar of his day the world ever saw : — who held that the acquisi- tion gained to society through the right culture of its individual members, by fitting them " to perform justly, EXTENDED UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 83 skilfully, and magnanimously, all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war," is a substantial and high acquisition. Immortal Milton, thou hast taught us also that " a grateful mind by owing owes not, but still pays at once indebted and discharged." Poet divine, thou didst not transform the Elysian fields into a desert, nor obliterate the sparkling companion of earlier days, through whose wit and fancy your glowing imagination was refined, and your noble intellect made nobler still. Nor yet of him, the erudite, the penetrative, the vigorous J. S. Mill, who soaring above the regions of science laid down the imperishable axiom — " there is no such thing as too much in Education." Glorious triad of the Past, thou hast not lived in vain. As benefactors of the Human Eace your footprints linger on the sands of Time — hallowed by the precious bequests thou hast left to us; heirlooms of the Past — more pre- cious still that they shall in their effect endure for Ever. We have but little sympathy, we confess, with much of the oracular innovation which now-a-days tinkels our social atmosphere. To us, it seems by no means calculated to meet the real wants of the People. On the contrary we hold Popular Education in its deepest and widest significance to be the inalienable birthright of every member of the State, to whom should be given the best and surest means of Instruction, and according to his or her capacity as much of Education as may form a salutary basis of action in the future. Further, that it is the highest behest of the Educator to develope that something in Man which invokes of him a loyalty to God and his country beyond what material 62 84 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. interests suggest. A loyalty to his God, the fountain of all genius and power ; whose dominion of this world, and all worlds, is one of justice and mercy, goodness and truth ; reaching from the highest point in the Heavens to the uttermost parts of the Earth, and utmost depths of the Sea. A patriotism which tells a man it is base to suffer when he ought to act. A patriotism in which all the feelings of suffering and rejoicing humanity may be sure to find an echo in its sympathetic chords. Still further, that all we have suggested in these pages as to the various modes of Instruction, may be fully and satisfactorily accomplished by a* judicious teacher, and we have seen it done, within the time prescribed for General Instruction ; under the necessary conditions of faithful and efficient service on the part of his assistants and Pupil Teachers, and as equally certain of due encouragement from the Manager of his school. Finally, whatever other reasons exist for insisting on some knowledge of Greek as a necessary part of educa- tion in our public schools and universities, not the least potent is, that besides the clergy* every English gentle- man should be able to read the New Testament in the language especially selected by Providence for the com- munication of His last Revelation to Man. Are we then to abandon, at the suggestion of such as hold themselves wiser than others of their generation, a practice which has been always contemplated by our English course of education as an essential duty and privilege — the careful perusal and study of at least the New Testament in the original language ? Education emphatically pronounces — Never ! OF MIDDLE CLASS, OR SUPERIOR PRIMARY, SCHOOLS, AND THEIR PROGRESSIVE AD- VANCEMENT. Upon the inauguration of a middle-class school for girls at Stamford, our late Home Secretary spoke of the secondary education of girls and of boys as of the utmost importance to England as a nation. Sir Richard Cross believes that future wives and mothers needed the best and most perfect course of instruction as likely to con- duce to the happiness and comfort of the homes of their husbands and children. Our women, no less than our men, must not forget that they had their rights as well as duties ; the consciousness of which would be more likely to be impressed upon heads of families, by their having acquired in their youth an education which was not a smattering of knowledge such as had been too commonly the rule, especially in secondary education, but a system of complete learning and instruction imparted by the best and most experienced teachers : — and further, speaking of the girls in particular, he advocated the inculcation of the art of cooking and domestic management which was to form part of the pupils' programme. Now if these salutary observations apply to middle- class education ; how much more cogently, it seems to us, do they not lay bare the necessity of promoting the education of the People at large ; whose general proficiency in these domestic matters is so lamentably deficient, and has yet, and ought to be made com- 86 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. mensurate with the privileges and duties of a great and powerful nation. A good wife is to a man wisdom, strength, and courage — a bad one is confusion, weakness, and despair. No condition is hopeless to a man where the wife possesses firmness, decision, and economy. There is no outward propriety which can counteract indolence, extravagance, and folly at home. No spirit can long endure bad influence. Man is strong, but his heart is adamant. He needs a tranquil mind, and especially if he be an intelligent man, with a whole head, he needs its moral force in the conflict of life. To recover his composure, home must be a place of peace and comfort. There his soul recovers its strength, and goes forth with renewed vigour to encounter the labour and troubles of life. But if at home he finds no rest, and there is met with bad temper, jealousy, and gloom, or assailed with com- plaints and censure, hope vanishes, and sinks into hopelessness. A managing woman is a pearl among women ; she is one of the prizes in the great lottery of life, and the man who is blessed with her may rejoice for the rest of his days. Better than .riches, she is a fortune in herself — a gold mine, never failing in its yield — a spring of pleasant water whose banks are fringed with moss and flowers, when all around is bleached with sterile sand. The managing woman can do anything, and she does everything well. Perceptive and executive, of quick sight and steady hand, she always knows what is want- ing, and supplies the deficiency with a tact and cleverness peculiar to herself. MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 87 " Let woman's smallest rights be respected, her smallest wrongs be redressed ; but let her never be per- suaded to forget that she is sent into the world to teach man — what she has been teaching him all along, even in the savage state — namely, that there is something more necessary than the claiming of rights, and that is, the performing of duties; to teach him specially, in these so-called intellectual days, that there is something more than intellect, and that is — purity and virtue. Let her never be persuaded that her calling is not the lower and more earthly one of self-assertion, but the higher and diviner calling of self-sacrifice ; and let her never desert that higher life, which lives in others and for others, like her Eedeemer and her Lord. Surely that is woman's calling — to teach man ; and to teach him what ? To teach him, after all, that his calling is the same as hers, if he will but see the things which belong to his peace. To temper his fiercer, coarser, more self-assertive nature, by the contact of her gentle- ness, purity, self-sacrifice. To make him see that not by blare of trumpets, not by noise, wrath, greed, ambi- tion, intrigue, puffery, is good and lasting work to be done on earth; but by wise self-distrust, by silent labour, by lofty self-control, by that Charity which hopeth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things ; by such an example, in short, as women now in tens of thousands set to those around them ; such as they will show more and more, the more tfieir whole womanhood is educated to employ its powers without waste and without haste in harmonious unity." — C. Kingsley. A good woman knows the power she has of shaping 88 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the lives of her children, and she endeavours to use that power wisely and well. She teaches her boys and girls that they must be brave in doing their duty, truthful in speech and action, honest, and honourable, kind, cheerful, and unselfish. By her own example she enforces and illustrates what she teaches. What voice on earth can equal in pathos that of the gentle, mother dear ? Thus it is, that round the idea of our Mother the mind of man clings with fond affection. It is the first, sweet, deep thought stamped upon our infant hearts, when yet soft and capable of receiving the most profound impressions ; and all the after-feelings of the world are more or less light in comparison. Even in our old age we look back to that feeling, as one of the sweetest we have known through life. As we advance to manhood, our passions and our wilfulness may lead us far from the object of our filial love — we learn even to pain her heart, to oppose her wishes, to violate her commands — we become wild, headstrong, and angry at her counsels, or her opposition ; but when death has stilled her monitoiy voice and nothing but calm memory remains to recapitulate her virtues and good deeds, affection, like a flower beaten to the ground by a past storm, raises up her head and smiles amongst the tears. Round that idea, the mind clings with fond affection ; and even when the early period of our loss forces memory to be silent, fancy takes the place of remembrance, and entwines the image of our departed parent with a garland of graces, and beauties, and virtues which we doubt not that she possessed. And this love dies not, because it is inspired by that which partakes not itself of death. Memory retraces in fleeting colours MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 89 — but the enduring record of departed greatness dwells in the soul, like the writing that is inscribed upon adamant. In connection with the civic ceremony of laying the foundation-stone of the " City of Oxford High School for Boys," Sir W. Harcourt observed that "the ancient University had long provided for the education of those possessed of fortune — the national elementary education had now provided for the poorer classes of the com- munity; but there was one great defect or void to be filled up, for there was no adequate provision for the educational wants of that great middle-class which he would describe as being the centre of gravity of the equilibrium of our social and political system. For that void Oxford had now provided. He much misinterpreted the object of the High School for Oxford if he regarded it simply as a middle-class school; it was, he took it, the stepping-stone between the poor and the middle-classes, for those who by industry raised themselves, and, taking advantage of the school, might be raised to the University." There is a sacredness in individuality of character. "VVe reach the perfection of which humanity is capable, not by copying, much less by aiming at originality : but by consistently and steadily working out the life which is common to us all, according to the character which God has given us ; and just in proportion as that life becomes exalted, does it enable every one to shine forth in the distinctness of his own separate individuality like the stars of heaven. Instruction is either general or special ; the former 90 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. is offered to all in their character of men and future citizens : the latter has for its object to train the pupils to the particular profession for which they are destined ; and in this view, there are schools of industry, military schools, naval, agricultural, &c. Now general instruc- tion, as divided into primary, secondary, and superior, is not destined for all in equal proportions; and there is not, indeed, any public instruction truly general, except primary instruction ; and, again, that is not the same for all conditions of society. It should be one thing for the labouring classes, and another for those better cir- cumstanced, inasmuch as the one receives no other education, while primary schools are only the first step with the others. The equality of education, which appears a duty in a society where all are equal in the eye of the law, consists chiefly in the equality of that solicitude with which the State, or private enterprise, endeavours to provide for each a suitable instruction; and to develope all the fundamental faculties of his nature, that each may become a Man, fitted to perform his duty in the position assigned to him by his capacity and those circumstances under the power of which he is favoured and placed in society. Such is our social state in England, that, despite the political and civil equality of our citizens, there must always be a great diversity of schools and studies to satisfy all wants ; and there will be many gradations from the simple village-school up to the college ; so that each receive the whole education necessary to make him a good man and a citizen worthy of liberty. Popular MIDDLE CLASH SCHOOLS. 91 elementary instruction itself is necessarily of various degrees ; — it must be wholly elementary, though suffi- cient, in hamlets and villages ; it must be a somewhat extended and advanced, and enriched with new elements, in the more popular neighbourhoods, according as these contain a greater number of children destined to manage great properties, or to exercise the arts and trades, and especially to assist at a fitting time in the administration of justice, and, in some measure, in the government of the country, as jurymen or electors. The need of a primary instruction, thus advanced and enlarged, is evident, in the case of towns of a certain population ; indeed, in Prance, a superior primary school is ordained for all the chief places of departments. Inasmuch as Infant Schools are necessary to prepare the very young children for the primary school, there ought to be everywhere, for the use of all who have left that school — institutions where they may receive addi- tional instruction, and at least be maintained in the knowledge and good habits already acquired. According to custom, young persons quit the primary school here at the age of about fourteen or fifteen, or previously should they have satisfactorily attained fifth-class standard — the very moment when the intellect begins to acquire new force, and the passions have most need of being watched, directed, and ennobled. Now, even supposing that our youth should receive from that epoch, instruction from our Churches, this mere religious instruction, however valuable in itself, would not suffice, and could not wholly occupy them during those few years which still com- monly elapse before they are entirely immersed in 92 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the duties of active life. In our towns, apprentice- ship does not usually begin before the age of fifteen or sixteen — and in the country, there always remains suffi- cient leisure, in winter especially, for some hours' attendance at a day-school ; and at least a regular attend- ance at an evening-school in town or country. Again, if irrespective of these institutions for the hum- bler classes, others of a higher order were established with a different organisation and a higher programme of study, incalculable advantages, indeed, to the well- being of society may be accomplished. With this view a worthy citizen of Sheffield, to whose patriotism and philanthropy Princes do homage, and whose loving memory an enlightened posterity, it is hoped, shall live to bless, has made a free gift and endowment for ever of " The Firth College," as a means to provide in a systematic and permanent form certain educational facilities for promoting the intellectual, moral, and social elevation of Sheffield. The original design of the insti- tution was simply to take up the work of general edu- cation at whatever point it had ceased in the ordinary schools of the School Board, and various other insti- tutions, so as to bring at a small cost the opportunities of a higher training within the reach of all who might desire to possess them. But subsequently the design has been enlarged to the comprehension of two other objects ; the former of which is to extend the range of instruction, whenever the needful resources for this should be available, so as to include a system of Tech- nical Education, for the due qualification of the artisans of the town for the several kinds of trade and manufac- MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 93 tures in which they are engaged, and on which the pros- perity of Sheffield so much depends ; and the latter to prepare such students as give promise of the requisite proficiency and who may desire still further to pursue their studies for matriculation at one of our national Universities, and so, therefore, for whatever other advan- tages and rewards may attend a complete University train- ing. For this second of the two objects specially favourable conditions are provided in the arrangement made with the Universities, by which students shall have the privilege of such matriculation on satisfactorily passing an examina- tion to be held at the College, after attendance on its lectures for a period of three years, and the further privi- lege of presenting themselves at the usual examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts after a residence at the University of somewhat less than two years, instead of the ordinary full term of three years, thereby effecting a considerable saving both of time and money in the case of those to whom such saving may be of importance. At the head of the College, subject to a council in which its general management is already vested, will be a Principal of ascertained scholarship and competency, who, with qualified assistants, will have charge of the entire educational course, embracing lectures and class work ; to which will be added special courses of lectures by eminent professors on a variety of subjects as oppor- tunities may occur, thus leading students onward into still wider fields of literature, science, and philosophy. On the inauguration of the College, which has already existed as a school of Superior Primary Instruction for about four years, His Koyal Highness Leopold, the 94 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. " Scholar Prince," — who possesses in bounteous measure the industry, the thoroughness, the conscientious fervour, and the love of all that is true and beautiful, which so signally distinguished his illustrious sire — said: — "It gives me very great pleasure to be present here to-day, on the occasion of the opening of the Firth College,, to greet the accomplishment of another benefaction from the same hand which bestowed on the people of Sheffield that park which the Prince of Wales had the pleasant task of opening four years ago. We must welcome this new proof of Mr. Firth's wise munificence with pleasure, but not with surprise. We cannot wonder that when a man has tasted the happiness of great and generous actions he is eager to enjoy that high delight again, and finds other triumphs and satisfactions insipid as compared with the triumph and satisfaction of conferring on his fellow-townsmen a real and lasting good — and probably the fact of his being a Sheffield man has had no little influence in directing Mr. Firth's mind to the idea of this institution, which will form so important a bridge to connect your primary with your higher education. For there is, perhaps, no large town in England in which more care has been bestowed on elementary edu- cation than in Sheffield ; and your central schools, whose facade falls in so well with the buildings of this new college, form one of the best illustrations which England has to show of her boast that, in however low a rank of life an Englishman may be born, his country affords him the means of rising, by education, to whatever position his talents and character, fit him. I have lately been reading a book about Sheffield, as Sheffield was more MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 95 than a generation ago, written by a great master of style and language, and giving a startling picture of things as they then were. That book was ' Sybil ; or, the Two Nations,' by Benjamin Disraeli — and the two nations of which the title spoke were the nation of the rich and the nation of the poor. The wide gulf that has existed between class and class has, I trust, been in great measure bridged over now throughout all England, thanks to the efforts of statesmen of all parties alike, and not least to the illustrious author of that very book. I am sure that many who listen to me now could testify to the great and successful efforts that have been made in Sheffield itself to diffuse that sound education which has always proved to be so powerful an agent in recon- ciling the different classes and teaching them to under- stand one another. I trust there will be many a Sheffield child who will take advantage of the benefits here alluded to — who, born in a poor and humble home, will attend your excellent primary schools, will gain one of your primary scholarships, will follow the course of your Firth College, and will proceed thence to take his or her degree with honours at one of the universities to which Firth College will be affiliated. I say designedly, 'his or her degree,' for your new college offers her teach- ing and her certificates to young men and young women alike. The University of London does the same thing, and Oxford and Cambridge have taken important steps in the same direction, and I am told that the new Victoria University will not be behindhand in recog- nising the claims of women's minds to respect and to cultivation. 96 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. It is greatly to be hoped that the young men and women of Sheffield will not neglect all these opportuni- ties, and that they will learn to estimate the examina- tions they will be invited to pass at their true value — that is, as a means of guiding and stimulating their studies, and of showing to others how far they are com- petent to fill this or that position in life. One of the greatest gains which I anticipate for Sheffield from the Firth College is that an affiliation to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge will enable many students to enter well prepared and on easier terms of residence at one or other of these universities — for such residence, I cannot but think, may be made in itself an education such as no new institution can imitate or equal. And when I say this I am not thinking only of the unrivalled aids of study of a material kind which Oxford and Cambridge offer in the way of museums, laboratories, and libraries, but rather of their time-honoured traditions of the memories which they call up of the best and ablest spirits of by-gone days. I remember, too, that in these ancient seats of learning are still to be found men who are examples of unworldliness and meditation in the midst of a hurrying age, and who teach us that it is still possible to love truth and wisdom more than fame and fortune. Of two representatives of our old universities you have yourselves known much. Of late Mr. Euskin, a world- famous man, has given your town a museum of beautiful things in Walkley Hill, and has written to your towns- men words of counsel, encouragement, and warning which they will do well to ponder. Another is with us MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 97 here to-day, and all who have the cause of university extension at heart must join with the men of Sheffield in feeling how much that cause owes to Professor Stuart's eloquence and enthusiasm, his practical judgment and zeal. The circumstances of the moment will not permit me to mention more names than these two, nor to enlarge any further on the claims of our old universities on our love and reverence. So great, however, are those claims that I cannot but feel — and those who have drunk more deeply than I of their teaching must feel it more pro- foundly still — how stupendous a work the founders of an institution such as this have undertaken, and what patience and courage will be needed to raise it to the level of those great foundations which have been the slow creation of centuries. I may be allowed, perhaps, to point out in the hearing of those now present, that Mr. Firth's generosity, great as it has been, leaves abundant scope for emulation among other wealthy men in Sheffield. Many more gifts will be needed before the spacious buildings can be filled with a permanent staff of teachers able to carry out your scheme of instruction in a worthy way, and to form in your midst a nucleus of intellectual life such as shall exercise a sensible influence in this great city. After saying that there is full room for gifts, need I add how great is the inducement to be a giver ? And this privilege of making a marked and visible difference in human well-being and of seeing some great institution rise and flourish at your bidding is one that can, perhaps, be more readily enjoyed by the great magnates of com- ii POPULAR INSTRUCTION. merce and manufacture, than by any other class. They, with their great unfettered fortunes, must seem enviable in this respect to men who, apparently, in possession of large incomes, are hampered by the extensive claims made on them by their landed estates or other hereditary duties, and who are compelled to restrict the aid they give to causes such as this to small and fitful donations. Those men who, with great wealth at their disposal, elect to spend it in mere sumptuousness and luxury, are re- paid, indeed, by admiration from certain reasons and of a certain kind ; but how far richer is the reward of those who, after spending what is needed to maintain with dignity their place in society, devote the remainder to- wards furthering the happiness of their fellow-men ? Far-off generations shall rise up and call such men blessed, and the names they leave behind them shall be ranked with such names as those of Peabody in London, of Owens and of Mason at Manchester, of Firth at Sheffield. And now, in conclusion, I should like to say a few words about the kind of benefits which I hope the insti- tution of this college and all the movement that is likely to follow will confer on Sheffield. There will be the intellectual benefits which invariably attend the progress of learning, philosophy, and general culture — the opening out of new realms of thought and of pleasures which the ignorant cannot know. But another and, as it seems to me, an equally valuable effect of the culture is to make us shrink from and hate all that is vulgar and false, and to prefer pure and simple pleasures, such as are open to all, and can never be exhausted by any, to MIDDLE CLASS SCHOOLS. 99 ostentation, vanity, and self-indulgence. Such, I venture to think, must have been Mr. Firth's feelings when he presented your town with a park before presenting it with a college. He must have desired, above all things, to give the children, who are compelled in this busy city to pass many hours each day amidst dark and gloomy surroundings, an opportunity of learning from nature those lessons which are the rightful inheritance of child- hood, and without which no man can be said to have had his fair chance in the world. Let it never be said, then, that it is necessary in any city for children to forego these, innocent pleasures — and,, least of all, let it be said in Sheffield, a city which has done so much to merit tbe admiration of England; and which receives with such abundant courtesy the guests whom her greatness attracts. And now I must thank you for the patience with which you have listened to the remarks which I have made, and express my earnest hope that this day's work may be an augury of fresh deeds yet to be done here in Sheffield — deeds that will bear out the spirit of the Poet Laureate's verses :— ' Men, my brothers, men, the workers, ever reaping something new ; That which they have done but earnests of the deeds that they shall do.' And among the things that you shall do will be, not only such as shall increase your wealth, and spread your manufactures, but such as shall imbue you with that culture which descends from generation to generation, and the wisdom which should make of us all a people ever more worthy of our great country, the mother of mighty nations." Blessed with a vigorous and an enlightened mind, an h2 100 POPULAR. INSTRUCTION. open, a generous and confiding heart — possessed of rare administrative abilities which signally distinguished him, — at the post of duty — the holiest place on earth — the memorable founder of " Firth College," in the full blossom of life and rich harvest of an unwearied useful- ness, hath ceased from his well-doing amongst us, and entered upon the life eternal. His noble career and the good deeds achieved by him attest the earnestness of his patriotism. His disinterested love consecrates to posterity the honoured name — Mark Firth — a friend to education — a benefactor of his race. Men of such genius and spirit as our worthy citizen of Sheffield are the staple of a nation's greatness, and live in the heart of humanity for ever. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND THEIR PARA- MOUNT IMPORTANCE TO SOCIETY AND THE STATE. " Impeove elementary schools, render them as efficient as possible, and place them, with this object, not in sumptuous palaces, but in suitable buildings, and you will have at once better provided for the public safety, added to the richness and greatness of the nation, and fulfilled the noblest duty of humanity, — you will render science, at the same time, more useful and more general, our manners milder and purer, commerce and industry more flourishing, and the course of government and of the administration of justice easier and more beneficial." —M. Willm. The organisation of Infant Schools — the threshold of the Elementary — in which infants begin their Educa- tion, and prepare for their earliest Instruction, ought to have especial regard to physical, as well as moral and intellectual, Education, and so minister to the work of Training ; and the little Instruction, properly so called, which is there admissable, ought to be received only as a means of Education and amusement. It should be their chief object to form in the children good habits — to accustom them to cleanliness, obedience, openness, mutual kindliness, piety, and all the virtues which wise and foreseeing parents desire for their offspring. Everything bordering on constraint must be banished from these temporary abodes of innocence and joy — in so 102 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. far, at least, as at all consistent •with the necessity of maintaining order and discipline. Instruction should never be insisted on when it passes into a labour or fatigue ; it should be confined to some exercises of the memory, to the first knowledge of the alphabet, the reading of the most simple words, and some operations- of verbal arithmetic by means of beads, or the artifices of Pestalozzi. Perhaps there might be added a little simple singing, and the very first elements of drawing, rather than those of writing, to occupy the leisure of the more advanced. The greatest attention is demanded for bodily exer- cises; and manual labour should never be employed, except in the way of an exercise of this kind, that the children may become fond of work. Simple recitals of stories within reach of the infant comprehension is one of the most effectual means, alike of Education and Instruction, that can be resorted to in these schools. A calm serenity should be the characteristic of their management, instead of severity, which should appear only very rarely, and then always as a cause of regret. The teachers must aim at being beloved as well as respected, and, above all things, avoid the vain ambition of obtaining brilliant results by means of instruction. The best Infant School is not that where the visitor may find the largest amount of positive knowledge, but that where there shall be, amidst order, neatness, submis- sion and discipline, the manifest presence of health, serenity, and happiness, and where the moral and intel- lectual faculties act as lively impulses. The vocation of such establishments is not to antedate the true effect of ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 103 elementary schools, but to dispose and prepare children to enter them. "According to Frobel, it is the business of the true teacher to give the child a firm hold of the elementary things of life before filling its mind with words and symbols. When first he began to get the children into his " Kindergarten " and joined himself with their play, directing it, and strengthening their little brains through it, the good people, among whom Frobel worked and lived, had but little sympathy with him, or, as tbey imagined, his Utopian dreams. But the children loved him, and so they let them go to the harmless old idiot, as they termed him. Look around us now at the position of the Kindergarten, and see how many of the German, American, or English thinking people you can find, who will call Frobel a mere dreamer. Even so is wisdom justified of all her children. If we judge aright of educational thought, the ten- dency now-a-days is certainly in the direction of de- veloping brain power — to teach us rather how to think than what to think ; rather to improve our minds so as to make us think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of others. It would be well then that the teacher applied himself to the surest methods of evoking strength of character and power of thought— such qualities in short as shall make the pupils of to-day best qualified to take their places in the ranks of hurrying, struggling men and women to- morrow. Elementary Schools, if properly conducted, are des- tined not only to spread among all classes of the people, 104 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. certain branches of knowledge ; but especially to form in them all the principal virtues of men and of citizens, to insure the safety and morality of the public, and thus to add to the happiness and greatness of nations. Elementary instruction ought to be universal ; there- fore it cannot be uniform ; it must adapt itself to the various wants, to the various degrees of development in the classes for whom it is intended ; it must sometimes be so easy and so modest, as to penetrate into the smallest villages, and offer itself to the humblest individuals; sometimes so developed, so varied, as to satisfy the wants of those professions which, though not scientific, yet require to be acquainted with the elements of science, as they apply it every day. The advantages of Instruction have been too much extolled, and the pernicious consequences of false know- ledge exaggerated, by turns. Instruction is always a blessing, provided it be good and sound, and upheld by education. It is difficult to say which is the more dangerous to society — a wicked and brutal man, deprived of all instruction and education, or a man who has received instruction, but who is animated by wrong principles and bad passions. This only proves that education must be joined to instruction ; and that each must receive the instruction best fitted for him. The principal aim of elementary instruction is to teach the people reading, writing, and arithmetic; but whilst acquiring this fundamental knowledge they ought, at the same time, to receive salutary lessons in morality, patriotism, and domestic economy. Lastly, it is of importance that simple and clear explanations be ELEMEKTAnr SCBOOLS. 105 given to them of the ivonders of nature; of the phenomena which give rise to and sustain the greater part of popular prejudices ; of the processes of the useful arts and of agriculture ; and of the most remarkable events in national history. Instruction may be abused, as better things are; but it will be the less abused the more it is solid, complete, and, above all, more special and more con- formable to the condition and wants of those who receive it. Of two men in the same condition— everything else being equal — the best instructed will have the greatest chance of prosperity and happiness, and will offer the best security to Society. The question is no longer whether the people shall be instructed, but how and in what they shall be instructed : the need of instruction is universally felt and acknowledged ; all that has now to be done, is to satisfy it wisely and justly. All that has been alleged of the dangers of instruction, only proves that it is necessary to organise it properly, first in schools, and then by means of popular books and journals. Much has been said of establishing libraries in the country ; but it is not sufficiently considered, that in order to render these libraries really useful, the elements of all the sciences and useful arts must be taught in schools, and the people thus placed in a condition to read and understand the books composed for them. The Government and writers, however, who desire to make themselves really useful, cannot bestow too much care on the composition of such works, destined to spread sound and solid instruction : to offer the People 106 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the opportunity of occupying their leisure hours more nobly ; and, above all, to serve as an antidote to that pernicious literature which is so greedily devoured in town and country : the bane of the middle as of the working classes. It is lamentable to reflect — says a Clerical Prison Authority — that a large proportion of the convicts in one of our leading prison establishments belonged last year to the somewhat respectable and decent members of the middle class : — " in most of these cases the pursuit of dissipating pleasure entailed habits of extravagance be- yond legitimate means, and led to dishonesty and a prison." In these words is described the social cancer which is eating out the time-honoured simplicity of English life, and dragging not a few in all ranks of society to pecuniary and moral ruin. Merchants and manufacturers run a vain race of social rivalry ; and their example is imitated at a respectful distance by those in their employment. When the demands made by this artificial state of existence can- not be met from legitimate resources, fraudulent means are resorted to under severe pressure ; and none can be more surprised than the victim of perilous folly himself, when he finds that his wild career has hurried him to a felon's doom. In all this, however, the reformation of the criminal is the only basis of social punishment consistent with morality, and for this it has been suggested : — 1°. That the criminal when convicted should be removed from those influences under which the crime had been com- mitted, and treated as a weak and selfish child. 2°. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 107 That he should be detained for no definite period, but until he had given evidence that he was not likely to commit crime again. 3°. That prison discipline should consist in teaching every one to labour for the benefit of the others, the principal task of reformation being the willingness to sacrifice ease and comfort continuously for the good of others. 4°- That courts should be estab- lished, with the best guarantees obtainable for impar- tiality and practical wisdom, to determine when each criminal was fit for freedom. The first result of this system would be to clear the country of habitual criminals, and to fill the jails ; but in a few years crime would be much diminished, and the moral tone of the people be more elevated. Unlike Instruction, which is only a means, Education, however imperfect — provided it be in harmony with human nature — is always a benefit ; and no excess of it is to be feared with respect to the social condition of the pupils of our popular schools. An incomplete and in- adequate Instruction may be an evil, or, at least, may be without real utility; whilst any degree of develop- ment given to the natural sentiments and dispositions never can Jbe such — give them then so far as possible as much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into a basis of action — the efforts made in the direction of training and bracing the faculties of the mind even though not crowned with complete success, must be always useful. In short if the Instruction of the People, may be pushed too far, too much can never be done for their Education. Useful knowledge can have no enemies except those 108 popular instruction: who despise and ridicule more what is above the reach of their own intellect than that which is below its standard. Knowledge cherishes youth, delights the aged, is an ornament in prosperity, and yields comfort in adversity. Like education, popular instruction is either purely instrumental or real, and real instruction is general and special. The instruction which we term instrumental, because it is a means of acquiring knowledge, and has for its chief object to form the mind and make it fit to receive real instruction, includes Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Grammar, Linear Drawing, and Singing. Keal instruction corresponds to real education. It is general, inasmuch as it relates to knowledge necessary for all, as men and as citizens — no distinction made because of their social condition — and, as such, it includes Religious and Moral Instruction, a general knowledge of nature and of the Universe, geography and the history of the country ; and the legal system of weights and measures applied in Arithmetic — a want which Providence has placed in the hearts of the poorest, as well as of the richest, in this world, for upholding the dignity of human life and the protection of social order. OF BEADING; WITH THE VIEWS OP EMINENT WRITERS UPON THE PLEASURE AND INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE. " Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." — Bacon. Formerly much time was lost in merely learning to read, and, in most cases, it was only imperfectly learned, since what was read was seldom understood. It is not enough to be able to read mechanically ; the pupils must be taught to read with expression ; and to attend to the pauses, which the sense and punctuation require. For this purpose, they must be made to under- stand what they read ; that is to say, they must be made to read only what is within their reach, and can be explained to them without difficulty or danger. The inattention with which children read over that which they do understand, consequently the want of expression and logical accuracy which result, proceed most fre- quently from their being made at first to read what is above their comprehension — what was mere words to them, and not ideas to be seized and retained : hence the seeds sown are choked up with the wear and tear of after life, and but little, if any desire for reading, is left. " If," says Sir John Herschel, "I were to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under every variety of circumstances, and a source of happiness and cheer- fulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, 110 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. however things might go amiss, and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it, and you can hardly fail of making a happy man, unless, indeed, you put into his hand a most perverse selection of books. You place him in contact with the best society in every period of history — with the wisest, the wittiest— with the tenderest, the bravest, and the purest characters who have adorned humanity. You make him a denizen of all nations — a contemporary of all ages. The world has been created for him. It is hardly possible but the character should take a higher and better tone from the constant habit of associating in thought with a class of thinkers, to say the least of it, above the average of humanity. It is morally impossible but that the man- ners sbouldtake a tinge of good breeding and civilisation from having constantly before one's eyes the way in which the best-bred and the best-informed men have talked and conducted themselves in their intercourse with each other. There is a gentle, but perfectly irre- sistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man's character and conduct, which is not the less effectual because it works insensibly, and because it is really the last thing he dreams of. It civilises the conduct of men, and suffers them not to remain barbarous." Another eminent writer says : — " It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds ; and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls HEADING. Ill into ours. God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am ; no matter though the pros- perous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling ; if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live." — W. Ellery Channing. " No man has a right to bring up his- children without surrounding them with books. It is a wrong to his family. He cheats them. Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading, and grows upon it. And this love of knowledge in a young mind is almost a warrant against the inferior excitement of passions and vices. A little library, growing larger every year, is an honourable part of a young man's history. It is a man's duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life."— H. W. Beecher. In the presence of books there is a calmness, a sweet serenity — wherein the troubles of the outer world are forgotten. Read them; and the utterances of men who, having probed the foibles and follies, the ambitions, hopes, and schemes of the world to the very depth will give you at least a lesson of life. And no man can leave a better legacy to the world than a well-educated family. 112 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. High standards of excellence are amongst the happiest distinctions by which the modern ages of the world have an advantage over earlier. As in the kingdom of nature no such element as too much has yet been ascertained,' so, as has been observed by one of the profoundest thinkers of modern times — " In education there is no such thing as too much." Every kind of knowledge is useful. Of course we ought to begin with the most useful. But the most useful of all is that which opens the minds of the illiterate, and accustoms them to the use of their understanding. There are some who think that for working people the only instruction needed is technical instruction — teaching them the use of their hands. But the hands never work to the best effect unless the brains work too. Looking at the benefits of mental cultivation on their humblest side, the workman whose mind is trained as well as his hands is sure to be the most capable at his work. What is more — he is the most capable of turning to other work, if his accustomed occupation fail him. When another man goes upon the poor-rate, he can maintain his independence. Intelligent Americans say that one of the reasons why there is so little pauperism in the United States is, that the American workman, being educated, can turn his hand to anything. Of what use is it to any one to have been taught to read if he never does read afterwards, or never reads anything that can be of the smallest use to him ? Our object ought to be, that children should leare school with their minds so informed and so interested that they will wish to read, and be able to understand, the best books READING. 113 in general literature and information. This is quite practicable. We need not go to America or Germany for the proofs. The Scotch Parochial Schools did as much as this for two centuries and more. During that time the Scotch peasantry not only were taught to read, but loved to read, and did read ; and if they had not many books within their reach, they read all the more assiduously, the best that they had. And the effect on their intelligence was such, that the sons of Scotch labourers were to be found all over Europe filling the skilled employments. "Next to selfishness" — this. eminent teacher observes — "the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental culture — a cultivated mind"— says he, " to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which has been taught in any tolerable degree to exercise its faculties — finds sources of inexhaustible interest in all that surrounds it ; in the objects of nature, the achievements of art, the imagination of poetry, the incidents of history, the ways of mankind (past and present), and their pros- pects in the future. In a world in which there is so much to interest, so much to enjoy, and also so much to correct and improve, every one who has this moderate amount of moral and intellectual requisites is capable of an existence which may be called enviable. No one whose opinion deserves a moment's consideration can doubt that most of the great positive evils of the world are in themselves removable, and will, if human affairs continue to improve, be in the end reduced within narrow limits. All the grand sources of human suffering are in i 114 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. a great degree — many of them almost entirely — conquer- able by human care and effort ; and though their removal is grievously slow, though a long succession of genera- tions will perish in the breach before the conquest is completed and this world becomes all that, if will and knowledge were not wanting, it might easily be made, yet every mind sufficiently intelligent and generous to bear a part, however small and unconspicuous, in the endeavour, will draw a noble enjoyment from the contest itself, which he would not for any bribe in the form of selfish indulgence consent to be without." — J. S. Mill. Assuredly there could be no better authority on what are the best kind of books to read than His Excellency, J. Russell Lowell, United States Minister at the Court of St. James ; and it was to a thoroughly appreciative audience of earnest and sober-minded young men,— who, after passing the day in divers mechanical pursuits, in which they are skilled, devote their evenings to the improvement of their minds, — that this distinguished American scholar and writer delivered the following suggestive address, at the opening of the Winter Ses- sion of the Working Men's College, London : — " To a certain extent this college was based upon the principle of helping a man to earn his daily bread, and it gave the students a chance of obtaining what was called a liberal education. He thought that very few were aware of how much was contained in the simple fact that if a person of fair intelligence were able to read he had like- wise the ability to make himself a scholar if he chose. All of them had ' odds and ends ' of time, and it was precisely in their use that true wisdom was to be found, BEADING. 115 Those who were able to read had the choice of good, or bad, and indifferent society, if it pleased them. There was, unfortunately, a great deal of reading which ener- vated the mind and dissipated the faculty of attention. Generations which preceded them were looked down upon with a good deal of self-complacency, and it was thought that they were superior to their forefathers, but the congratulation was a little too soon. He thought that one great advantage which their forefathers pos- sessed was that they had few books, but these books were good ones. Now-a-days nobody need complain that he did not know languages, while all the best books were within the reach of all. He complained that too much time was spent upon matter-of-fact things, which were of little importance that day and would be of no importance on the morrow. Instead of giving their time to inferior literature, students should study Dante, and Goethe, and Shakespeare, who gave them thoughts from the very profoundest depths of the human soul. He would recommend a student to take such a book as Dante's ' Divina Comedia,' and master it, and then they would have got a liberal education. He would defy any one who knew Dante thoroughly to do a shabby thing. His works opened up prospects of the peaceful ocean in contradistinction to the storm, and that was of great advantage in a world like theirs." No Poet had yet arisen gifted with absolute power over the empire of the soul. No Philosopher had yet pierced into the depths of feeling and of thought, when Dante, the greatest name of Italy, and the father of her poetry, appeared and demonstrated the mightiness of i2 116 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. his genius, by availing himself of the rude and imper- fect materials within his reach to construct an edifice resembling in magnitude that universe whose image it reflects. Dante was one of those great artists whose elevation of sentiment transcended the ideal of Ancient Poetry, and whose appearance dispelled the illusion of ages that nature had exhausted her fertility in the great poets of Greece and Rome. Except Milton, he is much the most learned of the great poets, and relatively to his age, far more learned than Milton. As a teacher of. moral wisdom, whose works form an epoch in the in- tellectual history of modern nations, we read him with reverence and awe. Whilst in one so highly endowed by nature, and so consummate by instruction, we cannot but sympathise with the solicitudes and sorrows, and the speculations through which the Poet sought to escape their recollection ; but which poverty and exile from his native Florence kept ever before him. The melancholy of Dante was no fantastic caprice. It was from within. Neither love nor glory, neither the con- flicts of earth nor the hope of heaven could dispel it. His mind was in the noble language of the Hebrew poet, " a land of darkness as .darkness itself, and where the light was as darkness." Next to an appreciative acquaintance with good books, conversation in its true significance ought to be culti- vated by those who may be desirous to avoid the pre- vailing errors of affectation, pedantry, and vulgarity. Without conversation reading of itself will be com- paratively of little use to what it might be ; whilst on SHADING. 117 the other hand conversation will he apt to run low without reading. Reading fills the lamp, and conver- sation lights it ; reading is food of the mind, and conversation the exercise. And as all things are strengthened by exercise, so is the mind by conver- sation. There we shake off the dust and stiffness of a retired, scholastic life ; our opinions are confirmed or corrected by the opinions of others ; points are argued, doubts resolved, difficulties cleared, directions given, and frequently hints started, which like a vein of silver or gold often leads to the mine itself. Good conversation is flowing and natural. It is neither heavy nor frivolous ; it is learned without pedantry, lively without noise, polished without equivo- cation ; it is made up neither of lectures nor epigrams. Those who really converse, reason without arguing, joke without punning, skilfully unite wit and reason, maxims and sallies, ingenious raillery and severe mo- rality. They speak of everything in order that every one may have something ; they do not investigate too closely for fear of wearying ; questions are introduced as if by- the-bye and are treated with rapidity. Precision leads to elegance, each one giving his opinion and supporting it with few words. No one attacks wantonly another's opinion, no one supports his own obstinately. All discuss in order to enlighten themselves, and leave off when dispute would begin ; every one gains information, every one recreates himself, and all go away contented — nay, the sage himself may carry away from what he has heard matter worthy of meditation ; in the pursuit of which the most useful truths are to be found. 118 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. Beyond monumental duration whether of marble or of brass, let our readers hearken to the words of Benjamin Disraeli, the patriotic, the gloriously eloquent Lord Beaconsfield, as addressed by him some years since to the members of the "Manchester Athenceum" : — " As civilisation has gradually progressed it has equalised the physical qualities of man. Instead of the strong man, it is the strong head that is now the moving principle of society ; and hence the duty and the delight equally of every citizen to cultivate his faculties. When, a century after the discovery of the printing press, the great body of mankind had become familiar with the immortal apophthegm of Lord Bacon, not only that ' Knowledge is power,' but that ' Knowledge is plea- sure,' — and learned that a new source was opened to them of influence and enjoyment; a new standard of value was introduced, and henceforth to be distinguished, man must be intellectual. Is it wonderful then that the heart of nations has palpitated with the desire of be- coming acquainted with all that has happened, and with speculating on what may occur ? The idea that human happiness is dependent on the cultivation of the mind, and on the discovery of truth, is, next to the conviction of our immortality, the idea the most full of consolation to man ; for the cultivation of the mind has no limits, and truth is the only thing that is eternal. Indeed, when you consider what a man is who knows only what is passing under his own eyes, and what the condition of the same man must be who belongs to an institution like yours, is it — ought it to be — a matter of surprise that from that moment to the present you have had a READING. 119 general feeling throughout the civilised world in favour of the diffusion of knowledge? A man who knows nothing but the history of the passing hour, but that a certain person whose brain was as vacant as his own occupied the same house as himself, who, in a moment of despondency or of gloom, has no hope in the morrow, because he has read nothing that has taught him that the morrow has any changes — that man, compared with him who has read the most ordinary abridgment of his- tory, or the most common philosophical speculation, is as distinct and different an animal as if be had fallen from some other planet, was influenced by a different . organisation, working for a different end, and hoping for a different result. It is knowledge that equalises the social condition of man — that gives to all, however dif- ferent their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal. Know- ledge is like the mystic ladder in the patriarch's dream. Its base rests on the primeval earth — its crest is lost in the shadowy splendour of the empyrean ; while the great authors who for traditionary ages have held the chain of science -and philosophy, of poesy, and erudition, are the angels ascending and descending the sacred scale, and maintaining, as it were, the communication between man and heaven. This feeling is so universal that there is no combination of society in any age in which it has not developed itself. It may, indeed, be partly restrained under despotic governments, under peculiar systems of retarded civilisation; but it is a consequence as incidental to the spirit and the genius of the Christian civilisation of Europe, as that the day 120 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. should follow night, and the stars should shine accord- ing to their laws and order. Knowledge is no longer a lonely eremite that offers an occasional and captivating hospitality to some wandering pilgrim ; knowledge is now found in the market-place, a citizen and a leader of citizens. The spirit has touched the multitude ; it has impregnated the mass. Every individual is entitled to aspire to that position which he believes his faculties qualify him to occupy. Some there are who look upon such views with a short- sighted timidity and false prudence. They are apt to tell us — ' Beware of. filling the youthful mind with an impetuous tumult of turbulent fancies; teach him, rather, to be content with his position — do not induce him to fancy that he is that which he is not, or to aspire to that which he cannot achieve.' To the mind of the great master, whose views we submit afresh to our readers, these are but superficial delusions. He who enters the world — says this High Priest of knowledge — finds his level. It is the solitary being, the isolated individual alone in his solitude, who may be apt to miscalculate his powers, and misunderstand his char- racter. But action teaches him the truth, even if it be a stern one. Association offers him the best criticism in the world, and goes on to say that if he belong to the Athenaeum, though when he enters it he may think himself a genius, if nature has not given him a creative and passionate soul, before a week has elapsed he will become a very sober-minded individual. Such an in- stitution as this is the asylum of the self-formed ; it is the counsellor of those who want counsel, but it is not MEADIN&. 121 a guide that will mislead, and it is the last place that will fill the mind of man with false ideas and false con- ceptions. He reads a newspaper, and his conceit oozes out after reading a leading article. He refers to the library, and the calm wisdom of centuries and sages moderates the rash impulse of juvenescence. He finds new truths in the lecture-room, and he goes home with a conviction that he is not so learned as he imagined. In the discussion of a great question with his equals in station, perhaps he finds he has his superiors in intel- lect. These are the means by which the mind of man is brought to a healthy state, by which that self-know- ledge that always has been lauded by sages. may be most securely attained. It is a rule of universal virtue, and from the senate to the counting-house will be found of universal application. Let then the youth of Man- chester take advantage of the hour of prosperity calmly to examine and deeply to comprehend the character of that institution in which their best interests are in- volved, and which for them may afford a relaxation which brings no pang, and yields information which may bear them to fortune. When nations fall, it is because a degenerate race intervenes between the class that created and the class that is doomed. Let them then remember what has been done for them. The leaders of their community have not been remiss in regard to their interests. Let them remember, that when the inheri- tance devolves upon them, they are not only to enjoy but to improve. They will some day succeed to the high places of this great community ; let them recollect those who lighted the way for them; and when they 122 POPULAB INSTRUCTION. have wealth, when they have authority, when they have power, let it not be said that they were deficient in public virtue and public spirit. When the torch is delivered to them let them also light the path of human progress to educated man." And may we not add — let the memory of one of the greatest statesmen of modern times — the friend of literature, science and the arts — the noble patriot, who, amid storms and perils, stood unflinchingly and success- fully by his Queen and country — Lord Beaconsfield — be ever dear to old England, and wheresoever on earth's surface civilisation has obtained a footing. OF WRITING AND ORTHOGRAPHY; AND THE RECENT ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE THE PHONETIC SYSTEM INTO BOARD SCHOOLS. In general too much time is bestowed on caligraphy, and too little on ordinary good writing and orthography. Undoubtedly, to be able to do anything well, we must always aim at perfection. It is enough, however, for the teacher to give only the time strictly necessary for his pupils to learn to write with sufficient neatness ; and see that they write well at all times, legibly, and with some elegance; a skilful teacher may thus gain time which might be usefully employed in orthography or linear drawing ; as is done in schools under the management of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland. Dictation is justly considered the only efficacious means of teaching grammar and orthography ; it is likewise an excellent means of forming and nourishing the minds of the pupils. But for this purpose it should be conducted with method, and in a connected plan. To render it really useful it is necessary to begin early, and practise it frequently and methodically ; likewise to correct the exercises carefully, and cause them to be copied in a special book ; there is scarcely any exercise which ought not to yield to this — any to which it does not add something, and which is not benefited by it. Free dictation, whilst it may serve to recapitulate the rules of Grammar, and Orthography, should also inculcate on tbe pupils useful ideas of history and 124, POPULAJR, INSTRUCTION. geography, of natural history and physics, morality, prudence, and health, and of technology and agriculture. Performed with order, these exercises might furnish the pupils with a sort of popular encyclopedia; while methodical dictation will be truly a practical grammar. Supposing that one or two pages of such dictation were written every week for three years, or from fifty to sixty pages a year, the pupils would, at the end of that time, possess a volume of a hundred and fifty to two hundred pages, written by themselves, filled with useful knowledge, and to which they would attach some im- portance, from its being their own work. But, to serve this end, the exercises should be corrected with care, and be recopied. It is but too clear that in England at least the subject of Grammar has yet to meet with the respect to which it is entitled. Most emphatically are we driven into these remarks, which are no less cogent, whatever the general opinion may be as to the inability of a leading Statistical Committee to prepare an intelligible " Eeport " of its proceedings for the information of its own School Board. Nay, so obscurely did this recondite committee express itself in writing that the strange document, which purported to set forth its wants and its wishes, was referred back to it as being simply incomprehen- sible; a distinguished member of the Board observing at the time that he could not understand or " construe " it. Where, we would venture to ask, was the Clerk — he who, according to this School Board's appointment, possessed the qualifications of an experienced Statistical Officer ? WRITING- AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 125 Let us turn to the Eeports of Education presented to both Houses of Parliament. It will not, we believe, according to " The Schoolmaster," which makes merry over it, be difficult to find that some of the Inspectors themselves seem to be inadequate at least to correct errors of the printer's sheets or copy ; for we dare not assume that these high class officials, certificated by Universities, are unable to write grammatically, or sensibly. Be this as it may, not a few of the reports which they have left behind them in the schools, and which have been held up to public criticism, exhibit such flagrant violations of the fundamental principles of grammar as would bar the appointment even of a can- didate Pupil Teacher under the system of National Education in Ireland. Now inspection is certainly one of the most efficacious means of improving elementary schools ; but it is only so on condition that it be made with intelligence, unity of purpose, and authority. Whatever may be the scope of his Classical, Mathematical, or other literary attain- ments, we hold it as necessary to his efficiency that the Inspector should thoroughly understand the idiom of the English language, through its distinctive features — Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody — so that his examination of the school may be a model lesson, whilst his examination of the Teachers may be effective for the purpose of their classification. The In- spector ought also to have studied the art of education and of teaching — and to know the wants of popular instruction as distinguished from those of secondary and higher instruction. 126 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. In support of these views we have only to cite the fact that the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland have, in many instances, selected from amongst the National Teachers those who, in addition to literary qualifications, have proved their ability to teach, and have found in teaching a high and an ennobling art ; some of whom have by their merits solely and not through political or extrinsic influence, raised themselves to prominent positions in the Inspection Department. The Resident Commissioner himself has passed through all the gradations of the system from that of an ordinary pupil in the Normal School to his present status, for which he is so pre-eminently qualified. Next we hear of some members of School Boards, &c, soliciting the Council of Education for a Royal Com- mission, with a view towards the introduction into our schools of the phonetic system of spelling. We apprehend it is scarcely within bounds of ordinary decorum to ask the assent of the Council to the further- ance of a scheme, which may be fairly interpreted as utterly opposed to the spirit and intent of our Education Acts. Assuming for a moment the bare possibility that a Royal Commission should so far sanction the move- ment as to recommend, at enormous expense in its results, a phonetic system of educational works to be placed on the " List of School Requisites " — what may we ask is to become of our English language, whose elements are so deeply interwoven with that pure and ennobling religion which have gone forth in literature and in life, the moral pioneers and teachers of the world ? Is this language after a period of fourteen centuries, WRITING AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 127 enriched as it has been from various and distant sources, to be put to silence, even though it be the speech of some 100,000,000 of people, to be found in all quarters of the globe ? Are we then to obliterate the national character like the national language, moulded and enriched as it is by the combination of races : — the Celtic imagination, and impulsive ardour of the most important of the Aryan family of nations — Saxon solidity — the old Norse maritime spirit and love of adventure — the later Norman chivalry and keen sense of enjoyment ? Are our written laws and literature to become a dead letter — is that noble literature, which amid the many glories of old England may still be regarded as one of the polished corners of the temple of Art, Literature, and Science — to be abandoned along with the grammatical construction of our language, as well as our most cherished familiar expressions in common life, to the glamour of Educa- tional illusionists who, in their visionary fantasies, would forsooth lead the People to imagine that such a thing exists as a Eoyal road to Grammar ? Happily there is better hope for the Education of the People than what this new-fangled scheme of instruction foreshadows. Yes ! there must yet be scholars, some wise men left amongst the School Boards and elsewhere, prepared not only to frustrate charlatanry, but to teach the people of England the English language according to its grammatical construction, which in a century hence will probably be the most widely spoken language throughout the world, and, as guardians of a sacred trust manfully to resist every effort at the subversion of our School Board privileges and duties. Undoubtedly 128 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. there is still a Press in the land ready to encounter abuses of the Parliamentary grant for educational pur- poses, or whatever other form public delinquency may assume ; as it is, to proclaim the guerdon of honour when and where it is merited. Need we say it behoves the people of England them- selves to weigh carefully the momentous issues towards their true advancement and the well-being of society, involved in the foregoing queries and observations we have submitted to them. Unhesitatingly we tell them that — well directed — the efficacy of our Education Acts to raise the character, and ennoble the popular sentiment of this country is incalculable ; and those to whom the supreme duty is confided of fitting the pupil not only to encounter but to subdue the thorns and necessities of life, demand the deepest sympathies of every true- hearted man. Should any of our School Boards, however, yielding to the evils which beset them, either through a senseless clamour of ignorance ; or the frowns of the begrudging ; or the stubbornness of those loud sounding vessels, which are filled with but one idea — that of over-educa- tion, whatever the term implies ; unhappily overlook the necessity of bringing themselves abreast of continental and other nations, which years ahead of them have raised the standard of Popular Education : all we can say is that such School Board, if any, has misinterpreted its true position, and fallen short of its primary obliga- tions to promote the advancement, as it ought to be, of the education of the People. INSTEUCTION IN ARITHMETIC; AND ITS ABSOLUTE NECESSITY FOR THE PRACTICAL USES OP EVERY-DAY LIFE. Arithmetic should be taught in popular schools, first as a means of forming the attention and the judgment, and then as a necessary instrument in the transactions of social life. There are two errors to be avoided with regard to this teaching in elementary schools. It should neither be limited to the mechanism of calculation, nor should it demonstrate everything minutely as is done in the higher class schools. If the teaching be purely mechani- cal, the pupils will learn to count only by memory, and they will thus speedily forget what they have learned ; or if they remember the processes, they will not be able to apply them readily. If, on the other hand, too much time be devoted to minute demonstration, there remains too little time for practice or ordinary counting. There is a medium between these two extremes ; it is to explain the operations no farther than is necessary for the proper understanding of the mechanism of the rules. One fault very generally committed, is, to proceed too rapidly at the beginning, and not to insist sufficiently on a study of the first elements. Ask some teachers to what length their pupils have come in arithmetic, they may answer, for instance, that they are doing the rule K 130 POPULAM INSTMUCTION. of three : examine the pupils, and it is but too frequently- found that the greater number of them are far from understanding the rationale of Proportion — fortunate, if they understand what is still more elementary. Everything, in teaching this subject, depends on the simplest elements. What is most necessary, when the pupils are familiarised with numbers, by exercises on the numerical frame and by mental calculation, is to in- struct them well in numeration. If numeration be well understood, everything becomes easy. The two funda- mental operations, addition and subtraction, are only results of it. The knowledge of the multiplication table, which is ■ the instrument of multiplication and division, ought always to be acquired by mental calcu- lation rather than being merely learned by heart. An excellent means of this, is to make the pupils frame the table themselves as often as is necessary. The system of decimal fractions, is itself only a con- sequence of simple numeration, and may be taught along with it. Another fault is, the making the first operations to be performed upon too large and abstract numbers; these ought, for a long time, be made to bear upon small and concrete numbers only. Examples should be taken, as much as possible, from the usages of life, industry, and natural history, astronomy, &c. : arith- metic would, in this way, be rendered, at the same time, easier, more interesting, and useful. In general, the extent of arithmetical instruction in elementary schools must be determined by the wants of practical life. It too frequently happens, that even the ARITHMETIC. 131 pupils who passed at school for good arithmeticians, are found deficient, when required to apply their knowledge to the usages of life. The pupils in these schools must, undoubtedly, be taught more than is indispensably neces- sary. But the wants which arithmetic must chiefly satisfy, should never be lost sight of. Exercises in practical calculations should relate to different objects, in country and in town schools ; but the future agricul- turist and the future artisan equally require to be versed in the fundamental rules of arithmetic, and to be able to solve with facility questions which may occur every day. Indeed, there are many cases, even in prac- tical life, where the knowledge of vulgar fractions is required. What however it is of most importance to recom- mend to teachers, is the practice of verbal or mental arithmetic. Such exercises, which ought to be very simple at first, may be extended and infinitely varied, and will serve two purposes. First, they are an excel- lent means of logical education, and also the best method of teaching ordinary arithmetic, and of teaching how to solve with ease, and without the aid of the pencil, pro- blems which arise in the transactions of every-day life. When well directed, they confer interest on a branch of teaching naturally dry, and are an amusement as well as a task. NORMAL SCHOOLS. Popular education especially merits the consideration of the most distinguished minds ; since, after indepen- dence and national dignity from without, and liberty with social order from within, it is the highest of all public interests, and on its proper direction, definitely depend the independence and liberty, the prosperity and greatness of nations. The art of bringing up children, and of instructing them, is not merely an affair of good sense — it requires study and reflection. It interests so directly and so deeply the State as well as families, that it is impossible' for it to be the object of too much attention ; and it is worthy to engage the attention of the most learned men, and those in the highest ranks of society. Pedagogy, indeed, is not a science that can be neglected, leaving to time and to public controversy the charge of counting errors. Here truth or error immediately brings forth fruit, and a false path not only bewilders those who follow it, and obliges them to retrace their steps, losing them in regaining the right way — it may even conduct them to an abyss. In Germany, the highest intellects do not disdain to write upon Pedagogy ; in almost every University there is a chair specially devoted to it ; and every year all the choice men of the school, from professors of faculty to simple teachers, unite in congress to discuss the grand questions of the didactic art and of the art of education. NORMAL SCHOOLS. 133 In France, the Academy of Moral Science has en- couraged the publication of some good works upon Popular Education — societies have been formed for the work of reformation ; special journals are occupied with it, daily papers take an interest in it. Unfortunately, their principles are generally deficient in power and depth, or are only the maxims of sects or circumstance. It was, however, from France partly, that the first impulse went, which gave rise to the reform in educa- tion, of which Germany was the principal theatre. Normal Schools, in regard of teachers, are as neces- sary as the Elementary Schools themselves. They are to be found in all countries where people pay anything like serious attention to popular education. Since the middle of the XVHIth century, a great number have been established, principally in the States of Prussia and Saxony ; but the greater part of them only received an independent existence and suitable organisation at the beginning of this century. Three systems dispute the precedency in Germany regarding the manner of forming teachers for the people — the Austrian system, the Prussian system, and the Mixed system. The first is almost the same as the Dutch system. Its object is to let teachers qualify themselves by practice alone, first, as superintendents and monitors, then as assistants ; giving them at most only a few lessons in the art of teaching at the model schools. The Prussian system, on the contrary, demands that all candidates for the situation of an elementary teacher should be educated in seminaries established especially for that purpose. Without absolutely refusing 134 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. those who qualify themselves elsewhere, the Prussian Government only favours teachers who have been educated at Normal Schools — particularly by exempting them from military service. Almost all the States of the German Empire, and the greater part of the Swiss Cantons, have imitated the example of Prussia. In Bavaria, the Grand Duchy of Baden, Saxe Weimar, and Mecklenburg, no one can be employed as a school- master unless he has attended the Normal School. In Saxony, the clergy and distinguished masters are authorised to qualify students who have been acknow- ledged as admissible to the Normal Schools, but who could not be admitted for want of vacancies. In other countries the two systems are combined, or co-operate separately. In France, the Prussian system is ordained by law, which makes it incumbent on any Department to main- tain Normal Schools, so that the minds of young teachers be cultivated, their ideas enlarged, and that they become enlightened men, capable, in their turn, of enlightening others. From this system arose the idea of Primary Normal Schools. It is especially the good education of assistant teachers which must furnish the principle on which Normal Schools ought to be directed, and it is mainly in consequence of this that their sphere should be materially extended. It is quite evident that such establishments, when well directed, must furnish masters offering much greater securities than those trained elsewhere, far from the eye of Govern- ment and University authorities, and who are known only from the day of their examination. It is for this NOUMAL SCHOOLS. 135 reason that the Prussian Government favours as much as possible the candidates who have been trained at Normal Schools. " The same advantages might be granted to other candidates," said the Minister of Public Instruction, in Prussia, "if the institution of Normal Schools had no other object than to teach their pupils certain notions, and initiate them in good methods ; but their principal utility is to exercise a salutary in- fluence over their character and sentiments, and to convince Government that they will be as capable as they are worthy of filling the situation to which they may be called." Normal Schools are destined for the rearing of in- structors for the children of the inhabitants of towns as well as of the country ; their duty is not to transform their pupils into religious and informed peasants, but into enlightened, religious, and laborious citizens, who may serve both as guides and models to the peasant, whenever their tastes or fortune lead them to the country, or to the artisan and the shopkeeper, if their circumstances or their inclinations oblige them to reside in towns. As the instructor's duty is to teach the children of the people, and to direct their education, he must himself be instructed and well trained. The instruction which he has received must exceed con- siderably what he is bound to give ; and his precepts must be enforced by his example. He must, besides, possess the arts of teaching efficiently, and of training, and be no stranger to the studies of Didactics, or the art of teaching ,- and Pedagogy, properly so called, or the art of training. The former, supposing a knowledge of the 136 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. laws of thought and psychology, is indispensable to the latter. Pedagogy, therefore, cannot be successfully taught, however simple the method adopted, unless based upon logic and psychology — the essentials of which, notwithstanding their Greek names, can be clearly expounded. Grammar itself is but the applica- tion of logic ; and the teaching of religion and morality, unless they be made an affair of memory and habit, requires incessantly the aid of psychological considera- tions. Consequently, a Norman School director must have been no little surprised to hear himself blamed by a high functionary of the University for blending psychology with lessons on pedagogy. This is only another example to prove that one may be a great naturalist, or profound mathematician, and yet under- stand but imperfectly the qualifications necessary for popular education. The great utility of Normal Schools consists less in the instruction which they afford than in the complete- ness of the training of pupils ; which enables them to contract a mode of life regular without pedantry — austere and frugal without harshness — full . of order, propriety, and good manners, without refinement and without affectation. Another great advantage of Normal Schools is, that they furnish the only sure means of verifying the vocation of the pupils to the profession for which they are destined. Woe to the teacher who does not feel himself truly called to his profession ! Without a call his profession will be only a miserable trade, not a mission — a sacred one. According to a French authority — M. Jumont — "He NORMAL SCHOOLS. 137 is a Christian of the XlXth century who sees in mankind only a family being brought up by God : in Christianity, only that education itself — an education, however, of inexhaustible depth, which, when necessary, made itself little, but which can develop itself in proportion as Society is developed by it — always constant in its aim, yet unveiling that aim only by degrees — containing the solution of the problems, and the means of satisfying the wants of the present and future ; a Christian, comprehending humanity, and all in humanity thus considered, — seeing in all its movements so much progress,' in all its progress, even in that of science, liberty, and industry, so many new developments of Christianity — so many degrees of that education of mankind, made by God himself ; a Christian who, beholding the poor village schoolmaster, discovering in him the humblest, yet the most powerful, most direct instrument of the work of God in man ; now smitten, like Gerson in his old age, with that obscure and holy mission which associates the schoolmaster with the providence of God — loving it so much the more because it is. obscure, laborious, and badly remunerated; then, with those great views, that powerful conviction on one hand, and that passionate love the teacher on the othei - , entering a Normal School, there proclaiming his faith and love, organising everything, masters, pupils, instruction, discipline, in the spirit of that love and faith, inspiring the institution with all these lofty ideas, and, by dint of knowledge, transforming all his pupils into so many servants of God and civilisation, into so many friends of humanity, and children into so many 138 POPULAR, INSTRUCTION. ministers — if I may be allowed to say so — passionately devoted to that humble, laborious life." " But," adds another important authority, " in order to make such a lofty solution of the problem practicable, it would be necessary to find so many men resembling our author in Normal Schools ; and such men, rare in every country, are particularly so in France." This is a criticism which, whatever foundation it may have, ought not to prevent Government from pursuing the realisation of the ideal conceived by M. Jumont ; even should it be impossible to realise it in its beauty, still it may be approached; everything ought, therefore, to be done towards its attainment — for every effort made in this way will be of utility, and will not be lost at the expense of the reality, like those that are made in pursuing any chimerical idea. As to the men required to direct efficiently the Normal Schools of this country, they will easily be found, if properly sought for. The body of teachers in England contains a large number of intelligent, devoted, religious men ; we must only know how to choose them, and not allow our choice to be biassed by any other consideration than that of the merit of the candidates. But, under all circumstances, we must take due care that the priest be not made to starve at the altar. MISSION OF THE TEACHER. Much has been said and written concerning the mission of teachers ; a mission truly important, inasmuch as they are commissioned not only to teach a few elemen- tary branches of knowledge to the children of the people, but to direct their education as men and citizens. The best that has, perhaps, been written on this subject, is to be found in a memorial which the Minister of Public Instruction, Guizot, addressed to them, when trans- mitting the organic law. " Humble as the career of the schoolmaster may be," says the Minister, " and though doomed to pass his whole existence most frequently within the sphere of a small community, his labours are, nevertheless, felt throughout Society at large, and his profession is as important as that of any other public functionary. It is not for any particular parish alone, or merely local interest, that the law demands that every man should acquire, if possible, the know- ledge which is indispensable in social life, and without which intelligence often languishes and degenerates ; it is for the State itself and the public interest ; it is because liberty is. certain and steadfast only among people enlightened enough to listen, in every circum- stance, to the voice of Eeason. Public elementary instruction is one of the guarantees of order and social stability. Doomed to pass his life in discharging the monotonous duties of his vocation, sometimes even in struggling with the injustice or the ingratitude of 140 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. ignorance, the parish schoolmaster would often repine, and perhaps sink under his afflictions, did he not draw strength and courage from another and higher source than that of immediate and mere personal interest. A deep sense of the moral importance of his duties must support and encourage him ; and the austere pleasure of having rendered service to mankind must become the worthy recompense which his own conscience alone can give. It is his glory to pretend to nothing beyond the sphere of his obscure and laborious condition ; to exhaust his strength in sacrifices which are scarcely noticed by those who reap the benefit; to labour, in short, for his fellow-beings, and to look to his reward only to God. " Your first duty," says the Minister, " is towards the children confided to your care. The teacher is summoned upon by the parent to share his authority ; this authority he must exercise with the same vigilance, and almost with the same affection. Not only is the health of the children committed to him, but the cultivation of their affections and intelligence depends almost entirely on him. In all that concerns education, as it is generally understood, you shall want for nothing that can be of service to you; but, as to the moral education of the children, I trust, especially to you. Nothing can supply for you the desire of faithfully doing what is right. You must be aware that, in confiding a child to your care, every family expects that you will send him back an honest man ; the country, that he will be made a good citizen. You know that virtue does not always follow in the train of knowledge ; and that MISSION OF TSE TEACHES. 141 the lessons received by children might become dangerous to them were they addressed exclusively to the under- standing. Let the teacher, therefore, bestow his first care on the cultivation of the moral qualities of his pupils. He must unceasingly endeavour to propagate and establish those imperishable principles of morality and reason — without which, universal order is in danger; and to sow in the hearts of the young those seeds of virtue and honour, which Age, riper years, and the passions, will never destroy. Faith in divine provi- dence, the sacredness of duty, submission to paternal authority, the respect due to the laws, to the king, and to the rights of every one — such are the sentiments which the teacher will strive to develop. The intercourse between the teacher and the parents cannot fail of being frequent. Over this, kindness must preside ; were a teacher not to possess the respect and sympathy of the parents, his authority over their children would be compromised, and the fruit of his lessons lost; he cannot, therefore, be too careful and prudent in regard of these concessions. An intimacy inconsiderately formed might injure his independence, and sometimes even mix him up with those local dissensions which frequently disturb small communities. While civilly yielding to the reasonable demands of parents, he must, at the same time, be particularly careful not to sacrifice to their capricious exertions his educational principles, and the discipline of the school. The duties of the teacher towards those in authority are still clearer, and not less important. He is himself an authority in his parish ; how, then, can it be fitting 142 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. that he gives an example of insubordination ? Where- fore should he not respect the magistracy, religious authority, and the legal powers, whereby public security is maintained ? The mayor is the head of the community ; the interest, therefore, as well as the duty of the school- master, is to exemplify on every occasion the respect due to him. The vicar and pastor are also entitled to respect, for their mission is in accordance with all that is most elevated in human nature. Nothing, besides, is more desirable than a perfect understanding between the minister of religion and the teacher; both are in possession of moral authority; both require the confi- dence of families ; both can agree in exercising over the children committed to their care, in several ways, a common influence." " A good schoolmaster," says another Minister of Public Instruction, " is a man who ought to know a great deal more than he teaches, in order to teach with intelligence and taste; who must live in an humble sphere, and yet have an elevated mind, to enable him to preserve that dignity of sentiments, and even of manners, without which he will never obtain the respect and confidence of families ; he must possess a rare mixture of mildness and firmness — for he is the inferior of many, and yet must be abject servant of none — aware of his rights, but thinking much more of his duty — setting an example to all — the admirer of every one — especially never trying to renounce his profession — satisfied with his vocation, from a strong conviction that he is doing good — resolved to live and MISSION OF TEE TEACEEE. 143 die within the sphere of his school, in the service of elementary education, which for him is the service both of God and man." Such, then, is the mission of the teacher, especially of the country schoolmaster ; such are the duties he has to discharge, and the moral qualities required of him in France. The teacher who, after obtaining his certificate and a place, becomes a total stranger to study, not only risks forgetting the little he has learned, above what is indispensable for his own class, but must, without delay, abandon himself to a meaningless routine, and consider his profession but as a miserable trade, a daily task, imposed by necessity, and which he per- forms for a subsistence. That he may not sink in his own estimation, he should be provided with the means of instructing himself. Hence have sprung those Conferences of teachers, long since established in Germany, and introduced subsequently into France, as well as the practice of forming small school libraries, either at the expense of the communities, or of the associated. Let us hope that the earnest efforts made by the teachers of this country in the same direction may be crowned with success, and an abundantly rich harvest of the blessings of life be awarded their successful labours to promote popular education to God's glory, and the advancement of the people both morally and intellectually, and above all— religiously. ON THE FINE ARTS, AND THEIR COR- RELATIVES, AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. " Beneath and supporting all expressiveness in music, is the element of absolute beauty which we enjoy through that margin given to our nature which enables us to feel and perceive so much more than appears always needful for our well-being. The world of musical sounds, how- ever inexperienced or otherwise man may be in it, is not a world of effect in and through which he discovers the things needful for his physical life. Its beauties are not thus associated with ideas of utility, and may lack that dignity which is always associated with the useful in its highest forms. Through the fact that the world of sound is, comparatively speaking, the world of a single sense, music is not associated with the organic feelings, as is the case generally with visual effect. The absence of associations relating to the useful, and to organic life — may in some degree account for the reason why the beauty of a particular piece of music is not ever fresh and enduring. Musical effect does not thrust itself spontaneously upon man's attention ; he has to invoke it. His prac- tical activity being led mainly by the eye, he has no other occupation in the world of sound than the dis- covery of beauty : his work in this direction may appear therefore to possess less a character of serious purpose than his work in the visual world. His work in the ON THE FINE ARTS. 145 world of music is the discovery of beauty — of harmony between man and the outward world. The highest power of this beauty is to subserve human expression. Allied with other forms of effect, such as language or scene, music has a more definite power of emotional expression, such as it exhibits in the great operas and oratorios. This power rests upon the fact that a flow of deep inner feeling is increased by the simultaneous occurrence of certain outer harmonising sensations. In the action of this principle of arbitrary association, as it has been termed, the musician brings effects of the world of sound into connection with the rest of his moral and intellectual life. Thus it lies with him to give to the sense of pleasure in musical beauty the character of an expressional emotion, by merging with it expressions produced by the varied play of definite human feelings. By thus connecting the musical beauty with phenomena representative of life and nature generally, he may imbue it with purpose and dignity ; whilst by so con- forming it as to render it worthy to be the phenomenal portion of the expression of that deeper order of emotion which arises out of man's yearning for the absolute, in a world of limited good, he elevates it to an influence of the highest rank, and breathing the loftiest spirit." — Musical Art. Joseph Goddard. In the book of Job we have a descriptive narrative of the patriarch's vision ; when out of the whirlwind, the Lord demanded of him — where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of the earth, and who laid the corner stone thereof " when the morning stars sang together, and the Sons of God shouted for joy " — and the book is 146 ON TEE FINE ABTS, closed with the patriarch's assertion of faith in divine Providence. Under the Grecian Philosophy, the term music em- braced the entire circle of the known sciences and elegant arts. Plato defines music as the "general knowledge of order," and taught that everything in the Universe was order. Pythagoras taught the Greeks that the heavenly bodies, moving in accordance with certain fixed laws, produced music, which although imperceptible to mortal ears, the philosopher and some of our English poets who shared the idea with him, termed the " harmony of the spheres." To which Pope attuned his lyre and sang that " Order is Heaven's first law confest." There can be little doubt but that music of some kind must have existed in all countries and at all times ; for music, in the form of a song, is as natural to man as is speech ; the basis of which is the human voice. Man is an instrument of music ; his every thought is expressed by tones ; his every emotion — as fear, anger, joy, desire — have each their peculiar tone. Song is one of the acquirements of his being, in accordance with the laws of his organisation. Music, in some form, is natural to all nations, savage or civilised. As men become civilised their singing improves, and that which at first was only the accent of passion, of joy, or of pain, becomes at last the result of study — art ; or the intellectual power which enables us to interpret the thoughts of the great masters. All ancient writers define music as the " art of singing," although instruments of music are known to have been in use before the deluge. The Egyptians, as AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 147 a people, were highly educated in music, and directly td them can be traced the science of music as known at the present day. To the Egyptians — and the Phoenicians who borrowed it from them — the Hebrews, Greeks, and Eomans were indebted for all their knowledge of the art, and from a very early day music was made an object of severe study in a number of institutes of learning among the people. At a feast of Bacchus — given by Phila- delphus — a choir of six hundred voices was employed to add its music to the rich repast. Under the reign of the Ptolemies, the study of music was made compulsory ; and it is said that the ordinary peasant could play upon the flute and lyre. Several instruments are known to have been in use among the Egyptians at a time when other nations were in an uncivilised state. From the Egyptians — as the fountain head — was obtained their knowledge of music by the Hebrews, and to the family of Levi were confined the musicians, who, as priests, were exclusively consecrated to the service of the Lord and the cultivation of music. "When Solomon was made king, fifteen hundred instrumental performers and a grand chorus of twenty-five hundred voices took part in the ceremonies. In his days #lso the arts, literature, and sciences flourished. The Temple he erected at Jerusalem served as a model of architecture to the Grecians. Navigation and commerce were cultivated besides to a great extent; the combined fleets of Solomon and Hiram of Tyre — who loved Solomon as a brother of the mystic tie — having sailed round the peninsula, as it was then, of Africa. In the Art of Composition, nothing can exceed for l2 148 ON THE FINE ARTS, tenderness and sublimity the Psalms of David, enriched as they are with the noblest, sublimest, and most Heavenly strains of Divine Poetry, by which the world was ever delighted, improved, or amended ; nor can anything excel for terseness and force the Proverbs of Solomon ; or for beauty and simplicity of narrative, the history of the reigns of David and Solomon. Nor was this advancement of literature confined to Judea — the land of Sacred Song. Homer's epic poems — the " Iliad" and the "Odyssey" — command the admiration of the world, for their simplicity, sublimity, and elegance. His profound knowledge of human nature — his masterly skill in the delineation of character — his extensive ac- quaintance with the manners, the arts, and the attain- ments of those early ages — his command of the passions — his genius of the sublime, and the melody of his poetical numbers, have deservedly established his reputation as greatest of the great among the heathen Poets. It has been justly remarked that from the poems of Homer, as from the fountain of knowledge, the principal authors among the ancients have derived useful information in almost every department, moral, politic, and scientific. And not only the poets, but as Longinus informs us, the historians and philosophers drew largely from his copious source. Although the personality of the justly esteemed father of poetry has been questioned by some modern writers, yet the universal belief of ancient times was that the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" flowed mainly from one and the same lyre. Statuary and Painting fade slowly away. Architectural AS APPLIED TO POPVLAM INSTRUCTION. 149 monuments crumble to dust, although the Pyramids yet stand — the awe and admiration of the princes of modern science ; and the Eound Towers of Ireland recall the archaeologist to Ierna's ancient glories. And beyond all decay we have left to us the Song of Troy, which Lycurgus brought back to Sparta as the best of trea- sures ; which Pisisfcratus collected and edited as the noblest work he could do for Athens when he established her Library, and inscribed upon its facade " Yv^s larpLov" — the medicine Shop of the Soul — which Aristotle revived, and Alexander the Great kept under his pillow in the gold and sandal-wood box taken from Darius. The immortal poem, the delight of a hundred genera- tions, and a dozen separate civilisations — composed almost — certainly in the first instance — without the use of writing, and committed from the lips of Homer to the ears and hearts of wandering minstrels, the "Iliad" and the " Odyssey " have survived countless works in brass and marble which seemed imperishable. They have outlived dynasties and mighty empires at whose birth they were cradle-songs, and, after feeding a thousand lakes and rivers of later poetry, they now, undiminished and ocean-like as ever, have passed beyond all chance of disappearance, and must outlast every other monument of the age and culture to which they belong. If those eloquent words and noble images which sprang from "the blind old man of Scios rocky isle," three thousand years ago, still can thrill modern hearts with such pleasure and wonder as Aristotle or Plato felt at their recital, how spiritual and deathless must appear 150 ON THE FINM ABTS, this queen of all arts — Poetry : which invests her imagery with thoughts that breathe ; and clothes it in words that live for ever. Unlike the Egyptians who despised commerce, or the military despotisms of Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, the Phoenicians eschewed inland possessions; their, power developed itself outwards, across the ocean. In their colonisation of the far west of Europe they are said to have settled in Ireland, and to have planted the germs of a perfect alphabetic system, which laid the foundation of the Celtic language. There is little doubt that long anterior to the Christian era the Milesians possessed a literature quite distinct from that of . Greece or Eome. And it is no less clear that it was through the Phoenicians the wonderful invention of writing was disseminated in Western Europe ; and probably also in the East, where a Phcenicio- Semitic alphabet appears to have been the first to supersede the cumbrous forms of the cuneatic systems, and became the immediate parent of the Greek and Roman alphabets. It is mainly owing to the advanced literature of Ire- land — whence were sent forth in the earlier ages so many, whose learning and sanctity diffused around the Western World that universal light of letters and religion, which shone so resplendent throughout this remote, and at that time tranquil isle, and were almost exclusively confined to it — that our Saxon forefathers were indebted not only for all they knew of architecture and painting, but for many improvements in agriculture and other practical matters. The science of Medicine was carefully studied : for AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 151 many centuries the Physician was commonly a monk, and the monastery, or priory, was not only the Work- house, but the Hospital and Dispensary of the district. The productions of Art which have survived in Ire- land, consisting of sculptured crosses, specimens of elaborately ornamental precious metals, and of illumina- tions, or paintings in manuscript, all of them exhibit- ing a high cultivation, great original conception, and a power of execution, which indicate a mastery of the principles of Art, and of the effects of the proper dis- tribution of light and shade, and the combination of form and colour, clearly show that the Irish Artists have seldom, if ever, been excelled, and this at a period when the Fine Arts may be said to have been almost extinct in Italy, and other parts of the continent. The ruins of the Round Towers, and numerous ecclesiastical edifices, bear evidence as well of their pre-eminent skill in Architecture. In Music : — " The Irish Melodies " have, from times long gone by, embellished the Operas and Sonattas of Continental composers. It is said that Handel, who reached the highest regions of the ideal, entertained a deep veneration for that beautiful air — " Savourna Deelish." The character of the country has been reflected in her songs : now defiant, now despondent — frequent outbursts of turbulence against the oppressor, heralded by tones of defiance dying away into softness : the plaintive throbs of trembling Hope soothed by that romantic mixture of mirth and sadness, which would fain forget the memory of the Past : the sorrow of one moment losing itself in the lively temperament of the 152 ON TEE FINE ARTS, next : still looking forward to a righteous Future ; and all of them expressed with the most exquisite sense, the truest appreciation of the value of sound, in the translation of sentiment* Apart from the charms of sentiment, so conducive to human happiness, raised above the mere instincts of brutality, the " Irish Melo- dies " — in touching the inner life — penetrating the inmost chambers of the soul, and awakening that realm of thought in part felt and in part lying beyond — are not to be surpassed, in their deep pathos of the emotions, the nobler, and the better feelings, by the music of any other country. Much has been said on the importance of teaching singing, for the sake of worship, as well as for that of the morality of the people. Its importance is univer- sally acknowledged, and good systems are not wanting. Nevertheless, nearly everywhere, much is left to be desired ; and the taste for singing is far from being so general as it ought to be : when we take into account the collection of truly popular songs and ballads, English, Scotch, and Irish, composed in simple and pure language, and at the same time free and poetical, but more especially so in Ireland, which give utterance to the joys and sorrows of her people : but not suffi- ciently so with any of them to the sentiments and thoughts of infancy and youth. A poet has yet to arise and bring forth lyrics destined to be sung in schools for the people, in the cabins of the poor, the rustic cottage of the labourer, in the workshop of the artisan, and under the tent of the soldier. AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTS.UCTION. 153 One may be an excellent teacher without being able to perform on any instrument, without having a musical ear or a fine voice ; but each should be required to know at least the elements of the theory, and to prove that he has done his best to overcome his natural deficiency : he would thus far lend authority to the importance of the words, rather than the notes of the music — a desideratum yet to be attained even by some of our professionals. The development and vagaries of musical taste in this country has lately been a succession of remarkable and rather ridiculous extravagances. Hence the programme of the Music Hall, as well as many other resorts of public amusement, is but too generally a, grim satire on the frivolities of the age — alike condemnatory of the artist and his admirers, should the code of true art be applied to its rendering. If to reach the hearts of their audience vocalists generally should have to sing with effect the compositions of our own English language — to the distinct, emphatic, and poetic enunciation of which our great artistes owe their success in life — why then, it may be asked, is it that the ennobling influences set forth by a few of the greatest commercial enterprise, which has its Schools, its Lectures, its Concerts, and its Library, with its Banks of Deposit,~and its Provident and Insurance Societies — be not more keenly followed by the vast bulk of our Employers of Capital? And why again should the immense treasures of our National Institutions — Museum, or Gallery of Arts — be more or less rendered a dead letter to our sons of toil — the bono and sinew of the Land ? Already the Education Acts, 154 ON TEE FINE ARTS, and that for the Improvement of Artisans' Dwellings, are beginning to bear fruit. It is not enough, however, to remove temptations out of the way of the weak-minded ; propensities inclining towards a wrong channel can only be corrected by the development of refined sentiment and the gratification of the love of innocent amusement. Public resorts where high works of art may be exhibited, and where chaste music and recreations could be enjoyed, are powerfully calculated to neutralise the influence of base seductions. To those then who have, either through hereditary rights, or the power which education confers, become rulers in the Land ; — to those also, the huge con- tributories to our National Wealth — Employers of Capital — too many of whom have yet to learn that pro- perty has its duties as well as its rights ; — and to those whose toil of the brain creates and fosters public opinion, making it racy of the soil — it should be matter of reflection how little comparatively has been effected towards elevating the social habits of the people of England ; either through self-culture, intellectual ad- vancement, or the recreative enjoyment which finds in mental labour that diversity of work which constitutes the truly recreative and re-created life. But above all, to those with whom the solution of the problem itself, beyond that of legislative enactment, or any other extrinsic influence depends, we would apply the Socratic axiom — " Man, know thyself." To gain that knowledge let each one labour : the fruits of which he is sure to prize ; his children to bless them the more. And he himself, inconsistent creature as he is — wavering of AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 155 purpose — still capable of obeying or resisting at his peril all that has been said, written, and done for his peace, to thank the Giver of all good, who hath given him the blessing of life; and with his household to declare — " The Lord has provided." Looking from nature up to nature's God, we find amid the beauties and harmonies of creative wisdom a close affinity between Science and Art. The Parent of Good has so ordained to each their several functions : the former, as the mechanism — the latter, the revelation, of the Beautiful, that the votary of Science is enabled to see in nature a visible power, infinite in complexity, and perfect in the adjustment and mutual utility of all its parts ; while to the Artist nature reveals herself as in a mirror — infinite in variety, and everywhere perfect in its beauty. Art of itself can display to Science that beauty in nature is so inseparable from utility that we can no more conceive of any of its factors being without a purpose than of nature herself being without form, colour, or minute structure. Art and Science together can show that in nature beauty and utility are com- bined in such unity as prove their source in one Supreme mind — creating, adjusting, and adorning. True Art civilises, refines, ennobles; and all whom she influences are rich in the possession of a means of supreme enjoyment : and thus it is that Art has laboured for the highest advancement of the human race. It must be borne in mind, however, that Fine Art is a branch of the mathematics: — and of this Leonardo da Vinci informed the world some centuries ago. No more can the lover of music, who plays and sings by ear, 156 ON THE FINE ARTS, claim to be considered a good musician than the most sympathetic to he a master of his art without pro- ficiency in good draughtsmanship. Draughtsmanship without study can, at the utmost, only amount to clever imitation — founded on study, it leads to delineation. That all who make Art their leading study, are carried away with the admiration of new beauties, which day by day unfold themselves, and are realised with a clearer vision, is the most complete proof that Art has within herself a power of fascination irresistible to all who come within her influence. And as the sunbeam on the flower unfolds its beauties and its fragrance, even so will the Artistic conception, the more highly it is edu- cated, approximate that of the Ancient Sculptor and Painter; whose works, imitative, yet creative — "show less the power of human genius than the special favour of Heaven." Setting aside whatever claims our country may possess as to a future " Village Hampden," an Angelo or a Corregio, it is not the less true that there is a general unity of opinion as to the utility of Linear Drawing, either as nourishing the sentiment of the Beautiful, of order and of suitableness, or especially, as a general preparation for apprenticeship to trades and the useful arts. It is far from being spread so widely as it ought to be, even in the schools of towns. Schools elementary are the only ones which nine-tenths of the population can attend; they ought then to receive there all the instruction necessary for them; and on this account, linear drawing ought to find a place there. It may be AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 157 extremely simple, or it may take a more extended development, according to the wants, means, and views of the parents or guardians. Scarcely any additional time is required from the teacher for this branch of instruction, which may, for the greater part, be taken as we have seen it done from what is spent to little purpose on caligraphy. Linear drawing supposes the knowledge of some geometrical definitions, and can only become really useful through their means. To these definitions may in harmony be added some easy propositions, and the simple art of constructing geometrical figures. From this there is but one step to surveying, to the mensuration of surfaces, and even to that of solids : if this be so, why should not a little geometry, as a pre- liminary to drawing, make a part of popular instruction as well as arithmetic ? It forms a branch of instruction in normal schools ; and should equally be prescribed as a study for the elementary : not with the intent of making all, or many artists, but because good drawing lessons offer the best means of training eyes to see, and brains to understand form and shape, and at the same time make the motions of the hand accurate : there is no position in life in which this training will not be found useful. Up to a certain point, whether a boy is to become a doctor, an engineer, a dyer, or a metal-worker, he must be taught exactly the same things in mechanics and chemistry. The purely technical instruction in the physical and applied sciences cannot properly commence until the general basis has been approximated. Prac- tical questions about fuels, furnaces, smelting, &c, 158 ON TUB FINE ARTS, cannot be made intelligible unless tbe fundamental principles of science have in a measure been previously acquired. It is the same with artistic occupations as with those involving applications of science. The beginning of art teaching should be the same for all — elementary drawing from real objects. The next step should be the same for all who, for whatever purpose, wish to acquire more knowledge and skill ; and only when hand, and eye, and taste have received a moderate amount of culture should the special application of drawing to pictures, pottery, furniture, metal work, &c, be taught. Children of the working classes, and very often of the middle and upper classes, can with difficulty be got beyond the elements of any subject, because their home life is unintelligent, from the restrictions of poverty in one case, and from luxurious idleness in the other. For some time to come, therefore, we must expect that not so much will be taught at public schools as ought to be learnt, if the average habits of families, rich and poor, were more cultivated and intelligent. In the schools, however, attached to the Mechanics' Institute and its cognate branches, besides Linear Drawing, instruction in physics, chemistry, physiology, and geology should be carried further than in the ele- mentary schools. Pupils might according to their tastes and probable destinations in life, select the subjects they would work at; but no special technical instruction can be given until a fair proficiency has been attained in the fundamental principles of the sciences and arts. AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 159 However true it is that Great Britain may be said to enjoy a more complete system of national art instruction than any other country, yet, it must be confessed, the externals of life remain less artistic here than in almost any other region of the civilised world. Whatever success, therefore, Schools of Art and their pupils may have attained, we must rather attribute to the increased refinement of professional Englishmen, and of a few manufacturers, than to any demand of the artisan class for cultivation, or the means provided for it. In the interest then of the national welfare, and for the embellishment of English life, Art must be brought into the Workshop, so that the faculty of taste in the average British Workman may be cultivated to an extent sufficient to create in every manufacturing district, and eventually in every single workshop, a body of artistic opinion which would stifle industrious monstrosities in their birth. Much could be done in Schools of Art, if wisely ex- tended, towards infusing into the Mechanic an elevation of sentiment, about his work which would be far from incompatible with attention to its more material realities — and thus refine those great industries in which vulgarity is at present much more apparent than elegance and harmony. The false pride which is ashamed of things that are cheap, and prefers costly vulgarity to economical ele- gance, is a great barrier to the growth of good taste. Manufacturers and traders must supply what their customers want, and except in rare cases, they will not go beyond them in either merit of workmanship or 160 ON TEE FINE AST8, taste. There is no reason for supposing the English people less capable of art cultivation than others ; and the notion that we are to do the world's heavy work, and leave others to provide its refinements,' should not be tolerated. Very much of our heavy work is beautiful from its accuracy and its admirable adaptation to the purpose it is intended for. An engineer 'rarely designs an ugly thing, because ugliness has no connexion with utility. The worst delinquents against a culture of good taste may perhaps be found amongst our archi- tects, some of whom seem to act upon three canons of their craft — that a building with an illusory frontage shall be ugly, that it shall be costly, and that it shall not answer the purpose for which it is designed. Surely there is some consolation in the knowledge — as has been well observed by the Bishop of Manchester ■ — that art, however it may have been comparatively neglected, is yet a growing power in the community; that in the grimiest and dingiest districts in England — in those towns and centres of industry which are most entirely given up to the quest after wealth — parks, picture galleries, libraries are from time to time being opened, and that new and stately buildings are replacing meaner edifices. The President of the Eoyal Academy in speaking of the arts — without which no civilisation can be complete, and life would be. emptied of half its light, and robbed of its highest and untainted joys — refers to the approach- ing sculptural adornments which the Corporation of London are about to place on Blackfriars Bridge, and also to the exhibition of the art treasures of the City AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 161 Companies which took place in the Egyptian Hall early this year (1880) under the auspices of the Lord Mayor of London — as a valid proof of the increasing love of works of art which was manifesting itself as well in London as in the country at large. Nowhere would the love of art, observes the President, hear more lasting fruits than in the great centres of the commerce of the country — nowhere would a cultivation of the sense of beauty, and a delight in the ideal, exercise more soothing and restoring influence than in those regions in which almost irresistible currents compel the minds of men in the direction of that which was purely practical. It had been said that the highest use of history was in kindling enthusiasm, but in no way, as it seemed to him, could enthusiasm be more strongly kindled than by the hand of the artist: and in no way could emulation of those virtues which have made this country strong and famous be more fired than by the sculptor, the carver, and the painter. To call such influences into action was a noble work, and it was one the lead of which belonged to the great municipal bodies of the country. What nobler tribute it may be asked could the Presi- dent of the Eoyal Academy offer the municipalities of England than the leadership of the spread of Technical Education and revival of the Fine Arts in this country. If we are to accept the present as an earnest of some- thing better in the future, assuredly the President hath not reckoned without his host, nor sought in vain for good work from the quarry in the liberal, enlightened, and patriotic Sir Francis Wyatt Truscott. "Art wants nowadays those who are men as well as M ON TEE FINE ABTS, artists, who will not dream themselves away in courtly isolation of beauties which never existed beyond their own reveries, but will go down into the market-place and the streets, where men sin and sorrow, or by the rivers and fields, where they toil and hope, and use their genius to brighten the facts of every-day life, and interpret the strange gleams of beauty which fall here and there upon a weary world." To do this will be to follow the great example of Giotto, the first of the old masters to show by his work that Art was useful to man, not only as a teacher, but as a friend ; and whose good fortune it was to meet in Cimabue the friend and teacher who ap- preciated his latent talent while yet a shepherd boy. Prior to this illustrious disciple of Cimabue, painting had been kept in the bonds of conventionality by the Church. "All study of the nude discouraged, if not forbidden, all the worth of material beauty despised, all originality of conception sternly interdicted, and all ex- pression of human emotion considered as irreligious; artists unhappily had then no opportunity left them for anything but slavish imitations of their predecessors. But from the time, a.d. 1286, when Giotto Bendone quitted the tending of sheep to devote himself to a career of art, he sought his inspiration from nature, and adopt- ing for his characters appropriate actions and natural positions, made the whole picture tell a story of human life, instead of making it a composition of more or less graceful lines and variegated colours." — H. Quilter, "Life of Giotto." Art and religion are more closely allied than most people imagine, the former serving as a stimulus to the AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 163 other. Art, which speaks the universal language, touches all souls, rough and smooth, gentle and simple; and, while criticism belongs to the higher culture, pleasure is the common heritage of humanity. The tender and noble passions of the mind, as love and friendship, ambition and charity, are original factors of the soul, independent of rank and education, with this difference — that while in the untaught human being they must necessarily be present in a quantity above the average before they are likely to be actively employed; in the cultivated man and woman the germ, having free room for growth, with careful tending, comes more easily to perfection. Art teaches its lesson silently, without offence and without fuss. The mind in the rough finds in it nothing to resent. It affects no superiority. Possibly the poor and comparatively untaught man or woman habituated to a squalid home and miserable surroundings, used even to coarse language and a contempt for refinement, may wander carelessly into a picture gallery and find some dormant chord of love or ambition struck by the silent teaching of the painter's soul, altogether indepen- dently of his technical skill. If people who are religious, as apart from sectarianism, and people who are what is called respectable, are persons who appreciate the blessings and benefits of civil life, whose hearts are attuned to love, whose eyes are opened to beauty ; who can reasonably gainsay that fine art exhibitions, free to the poorer classes, in their leisure hours, would materi- ally assist to widen the area of good manners, lower the police rates, and lighten the labours of the magistracy ? Ignorance is the chief source of godlessness, as also m 2 164 OX THE FINE ARTS, of crime and cruelty, and that other serious offence, vulgarity. The people who most persistently refuse to conform to any semblance of religion are the very lowest strata of the populace, and most crimes of violence are committed by the same class. What we call vulgarity is solely and entirely, with very few exceptions, the result of neglect. Remove the disability, and the offence will in course of time pass away. When fine art exhibitions become as common as gin shops in low neighbourhoods, they cannot fail to prove a counter attraction. Where, then, is the wisdom of calling the lowest sort of people vulgar, while we leave them to their vulgarity ? They are what they are because so few hands have been lifted to raise them from the wretchedness of an unkind fate. Every effort in the opposite direction has been repaid a hundredfold. Free libraries and Mechanics' Institutions have created a class of self-reliant, ambitious young men, which had no counterpart in English society sixty years ago. They have created a new class. of readers of books and newspapers, new inhabitants for new houses, new contributors to the public revenues, and new colonists to people and make famous England beyond the seas. Some no doubt there are who strenuously insist that before the gospel of art is carried to the homes of the poor those homes must be made clean and sweet by means of private industry and public sanitation. There is no valid reason, however, why Health and Beauty should not join hands, and side by side knock at the poor man's door and ask for shelter and a home. There is every reason why . they who can find little under AS APPLIED TO POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 165 their own roofs to satisfy the natural yearning for beauty should be incited to learn the value of the blessings which wealth and ease confer. As for the danger that may accrue to other classes from the familiar sight by the poor of the outcome of learning and luxury, that is a very idle phantom indeed. The poor see splendid equipages in the public streets on Sunday as well as on week-days, but they do not attempt to tear the rich out of their carriages ; and still less would they feel themselves inclined to do so when brought under the blessings of ^Esthetic Education. GEOGRAPHY; AND ITS COGNATE BRANCHES —BOTANY, MINERALOGY, AND ZOOLOGY; WITH PRACTICAL HINTS ON THE LAWS OP HEALTH. Geogeaphy ought to form a part of the programme of elementary instruction ; because every man, whatever his rank in life, ought to have some idea of the globe on which he lives, and to be acquainted with the country he inhabits. The course which, in elementary schools, can be given only to the more advanced pupils, would begin by very simple ideas of mathematical geography, and be limited to what is most elementary and indis- pensable. Then proceeding to physical, they should be made acquainted with the general divisions of the globe ; — the oceans and continents, the large chains of mountains, the principal rivers, lakes, capes, straits, isthmuses, &c, — the peculiarities of vegetation, and of animated nature, in the different zones and climates, should also be pointed out to them : and the rudiments of the physical sciences, and of natural history applic- able to the usages of life, may likewise be taught advan- tageously in the higher divisions of elementary schools — to be still further advanced by the Mechanics' Institute and its cognate branches. The esthetic education of the sentiment of the beau- tiful requires that they should be rendered attentive to the wonders of nature ; and intellectual education cannot be better begun, than by a revelation of the marvels GEOGRAPHY; AND ITS COGNATE BRANCHES. 167 presented them; on all sides, religious education may derive - great assistance from the contemplation of the harmony and beauty of nature. The empire of super- stition, which, in degrading, demoralises the people, can only be destroyed by the alliance of religion and science. After acquainting them with some of the wonders of Botany, Mineralogy, and Zoology within their reach, and explaining to them the most common atmospheric phenomena, a description of physical and moral man would complete their study of nature, and serve as a foundation for that of religion, morality, and the phi- losophy of health, upon which the superstructure may be raised of " a sound mind in a sound body." In the large majority of schools there is unhappily no systematic provision made, as there ought to be, for enabling young persons to study the elementary physio- logy of their own frames and the laws of health. There are amongst us men marvellously skilful in conducting commercial enterprises to successful issues, and women whose graceful accomplishments adorn the cultivated spheres in which they move, and yet they both alike fail to grasp the simplest elements of sanatory law, and are unable to comprehend that the preservation of health is within the reach of all, and not a monopoly of the medical profession only. The necessity of obtaining a regular and adequate supply by night and by day of oxygen to sustain vitality, and the principle on which pure air enters and carbonised air escapes, never seems to influence their domestic arrangements. Their bed- rooms are hermetically sealed at night, and in many cases their chimneys closed, under the delusion that 168 QEOG-RAPHYs AND ITS COGNATE BRANCHES. the tiniest aperture would induce an attack of bronchitis or catarrh. From a horror of draught, and a childish prejudice against ventilation, windows and doors are seldom left open, a current of air through the house is never maintained for any time : hence the atmosphere is inevitably polluted, and becomes more and more dangerous to health. Under such conditions thousands grow up and become a prey to diseases, which, instead of being scientifically traced to their real origin, are ignorantly ascribed to chance or to Providence, or to any other cause rather than to thoughtlessness. So far as the higher class of schools for boys is con- cerned there seems to be no reason to stand in dread of excessive study. The pupils are, as a rule, well looked after, and have plenty of exercise and good food; and only a very small minority among them have the slightest inclination to overwork themselves. It is in schools for girls and in elementary schools that there is danger of excessive application. A large proportion of the children who attend Board Schools are ill clad and very inadequately fed, and at home they often breathe a polluted atmosphere. Such children are utterly unfit for severe intellectual labour, yet it is the interest of the schoolmaster to push them on as fast as possible, and if they display the least aptitude for learning they are made to work hard night and day. Who can wonder that many of them succumb under so severe a discipline? The root of the evil is evidently the system of paying by results. While this is maintained in its present form, we shall hear more and more complaints of ill health from edu- WITH HINTS ON THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 169 cational work; and we shall not have the consolation of knowing that if the bodies of the young are being injured their minds are being trained. If anything about educa- tion has been absolutely established, it is that no real training can be derived from cram. The mind can be developed only in accordance with the laws of its growth ; and these laws require that its progress should be achieved without violence and hasty effort. As for girls' schools, one of their main defects seems to be that most of the pupils receive insufficient atten- tion before entering them, and make up for lost time by over-exertions. Even girls to whom this does not apply have to submit to too severe a strain, and are not sufficiently encouraged to take healthy exercise. If the results are as mischievous as might be anticipated, parents have no right to blame the teacher ; they are themselves bound to see that the methods of education are not in conflict with common sense. Upon the whole sanitation is neither a difficult, nor an abstruse, science ; it only requires an observant eye, and a little common sense — a faculty, by the way, some- what rarer than its name implies. "If" — says a dis- tinguished Hygienist — " the civilised world would con- tinue in the ascendant it must learn to live. The day has arrived when the cultivation of life by the cultivated of mankind is the primary art for the continuance of the cultivated." Our readers will therefore hail the " Sani- tary Institute " now recently opened as a hopeful factor of human progress ; intellectually, morally, and socially. ON HISTORY AS IT OUGHT TO BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS. Sacbbd History is a part of religious instruction in elementary schools. Now on the one hand, this history is only well understood by aid of Universal History; and on the other it is as useful as it is easy to teach Sacred history in its connection with Universal history ; and to acquaint all with the principal destinies of the human race, along with that of the chosen People, and of Reli- gion. A knowledge of the national history is no less necessary for all and at all times. We can no more teach Sacred history without connecting it with Universal history, than we can separate the history of England from that of the ancient and of the neighbouring and contemporary nations. What is of the greatest importance as to this branch of instruction is to give an idea of the origin and prin- cipal events in the progress of the human race, and to reveal to us the actual condition of the nation by its past history. Such a text-book will shortly be ready for publication, upon the framework of which the writer of this treatise has devoted some of the best years of his life. With the Sacred Volume for its basis, which reveals to us the economy of God's providence towards Man, the forthcoming work^true to the realities of religion, and of the national and the individual life — will present to the student of history some of the most prominent traits of the inner life of the people it pour- HISTORY. m trays ; and, in addition to the treasures of Scripture narrative brought before him, will faithfully unfold — in harmony with the views of eminent authorities from the earliest historic period till the present — those hidden springs and motives of national and of individual action, and their abiding influences that have affected as well Ancient and Mediaeval times as our own days. In speaking of History as a necessary branch of instruction an eminent authority observes : — " Two things we ought to learn from history : one that we are not in ourselves superior to our fathers ; another, that we are shamefully and monstrously inferior to them, if we do not advance beyond them." Further — " What- ever there is of greatness in the final cause of all human thought and action, God's glory and man's perfection, that is the measure of the greatness of history. What- ever there is of variety and intense interest in human nature — in its elevation, whether proud as by nature, or sanctified as by God's grace ; in its suffering, whether blessed or unblessed, a martyrdom or a judgment ; in its strange reverses, in its varied adventures, in its yet more varied powers, its courage and its patience, its genius and its wisdom, its justice and its love — that also is the measure of the interest and variety of history. The treasures indeed are ample; but we may more reasonably fear whether we may have strength and skill to win them." — Dr. Arnold. " All Books" — says another great writer — " are pro- perly the record of the History of Past Men. What thoughts Past Men had in them ; what actions Past Men did ; the summary of all Books whatsoever lies there. 172 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. It is on this ground that the class of Books specifically named History can be safely recommended as the basis of all study of Books ; the preliminary of all right and full understanding of anything we can expect to find in Books. Past History, and especially the Past History of one's own native country ; everybody may be advised to begin with that. Let him study that faithfully, innumerable inquiries, with due indication, will branch out from it ; he has a broad beaten highway from which all the country is more or less visible; thence travelling, let him choose where he will dwell. Neither let mistakes nor wrong directions, of which every man in his studies and elsewhere falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding that we were wrong. Let a man try faithfully, manfully, to be right ; he will grow daily more and more so. It is at bottom the condition on which all men have to cultivate themselves. Our very walking is an incessant falling ; a falling and a catching of ourselves before we come actually to the pavement. It is emblematic of all things a man does. In conclusion, I will remind you that it is not by books alone, or by books chiefly, that a man becomes in all points a man. Study to do faithfully whatsoever thing in your actual situation, there and now, you find either expressly or tacitly laid to your charge ; that is your part ; stand in it like a true soldier ; silently devour the many chagrins of it, as all human situations have many ; and be your aim not to quit it without doing all that it, at least, required of you. A man per- fects himself by work much more than by reading. They HISTORY. 173 are a growing kind of men that can wisely combine the two things ; wisely, valiantly, can do what is laid to their hand in their present sphere, and prepare them- selves withal for doing other wider things, if such lie before them." — Carlyle. OF REAL INSTRUCTION, AND WHAT IT SHOULD BE. One may be able to read fluently; to speak with a certain degree of correctness ; to write like a caligraphist ; lie may even know something of orthography; in short, one may be able to calculate, to trace geometrical figures, and to sing correctly, without being really instructed, without emerging from that state of intellectual destitu- tion called ignorance, and which would be the greatest of all evils, if error were not a still greater one. The art of reading and writing is so little true instruc- tion, that we can imagine a society whose leaders might be entirely ignorant of it, without being the less capable of, or the less skilled in business. In support of this proposition it is not necessary to cite the instance of those Indian Chiefs, so cunning and skilful, so brave, and sometimes so full of wisdom, and so true to their sworn faith. But if the art of reading and writing, grammar and orthography, arithmetic and linear drawing, are not true instruction, they furnish the means, and are the instru- ments of it : and it is impossible to be devoted to these studies without exercising the intellect, and experiencing an eager desire for instruction. Hence the necessity that those who acquire them receive a real instruction — well-directed, solid, and suitable. They are greedy of knowledge,, ready to read every book which falls into their hands, armed with a powerful instrument, and one POPULAR INSTRUCTION. 175 of which they should be taught to make a good use, if we do not wish them to abuse it. The question is not whether it is necessary to offer real instruction, but what this instruction should be, and to what extent it should be offered to them. To leave them in ignorance is impossible henceforth ; it is necessary, then, to bestow on them suitable instruction. If instruction without education is not a sufficient safe- guard of well-being and morality — if, in certain circum- . stances, it may even become a dangerous instrument — ignorance is as certainly a cause of misery, and often of crime, and, in no case, is it any security for innocence and happiness. It has been well observed that; — "the studies best suited to the development of youth are those which in- spire no scepticism about the reality of truth or indiffer- ence to its pursuit." — J. S. Mill. OF RELIGIOUS AND MORAL INSTRUCTION AS APPLIED TO THE CONSCIENCE. Godliness — says the Apostle — is profitable for all things — having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. " How admirable," exclaims Montesquieu, "is the Christian religion, which seems only to have in view the felicity of the future life, yet is the source of our happiness in this ! " Here is pointed out what the object of religious instruction ought to be. The priest sees chiefly in religion the means for pro- viding for the salvation of souls ; and makes it consist, in particular, in certain doctrines and practices conse- crated by tradition. The moralist looks upon it prin- cipally as a security for morality — the statesman as a wholesome check and a means of order and public safety — while the friend of humanity blesses it as an inex- haustible source of consolation and noble aspirations. Now in our view, religious instruction should be directed in such a manner that all these ends be at once accom- plished ; and that the wishes of the priest, the moralist, the statesman, and the philanthropist, be satisfied at the same time. Religion ought to secure us against the terrors of death, by bestowing on us the hope of eternal happiness, and to inspire us with the love of goodness, order, justice, and humanity — serving as a curb to the pas- sions, softening the manners, and giving us strength to POPULAR INSTRUCTION. Ill bear with resignation the calamities of the present life. And as all these ends of religion mutually support each other, and cannot be attained separately ; each will be better provided for, that all are provided for at the same time. Eeligious instruction in schools has been but too frequently directed to the exercise of memory and habit, rather than warmly interesting the heart and the intel- lect. It thus happens that when the memory has for- gotten what is learned, the instruction is in a great degree effaced from the mind, and at length only leaves feeble traces. To Eeligious Education ought to be joined a graduated instruction, beginning with the more simple principles of natural religion, and rising by degrees to the sublime doctrines of Christianity. It is not necessary to make moral instruction to depend on any particular form of belief. It is here especially that instruction supposes education, and that it is insufficient to learn by the memory alone. To know the precepts by heart, is not to have the conscious- ness of them ; it is not to be penetrated by them, nor to be struck with their necessity, or to feel bound to obey them. Moral instruction ought to be less teaching than development ; and it ought to aim less at conveying to the pupils some propositions as coming from the teacher, and as forming a science invented by the genius of man, than at making them spring from the depths of their own consciences. "The strength of all government is religion; for though policy may secure a kingdom against foreigners, N 178 POPULAR, INSTRUCTION. and wisdom may provide all necessaries for the rule and government at home, yet if religion season not the affections of the people, the danger is as much in our own Achitophels, as from Moab and all the armies of the Philistines. Eeligion it is that keeps the subject in obedience, as being taught by God to honour His vicegerents. A religando it is called, as the common obligation among men ; the tie of all friendship and society ; the bond of all office and relation ; writing every duty in the conscience, which is the strictest of all laws. Both the excellency and necessity hereof, the heathens knew that knew not true religion ; and there- fore, in their politics, they had it always for a maxim. A shame it were for us to be less intelligent than they ! And if we truly know it, we cannot but be affectionate in this case. Two things are considerable therein; the purity, and the unity thereof: the first respecting only God, the other both God and man." — Sir John Eliot. The Code of Morality as delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai is equally binding upon the consciences of all mankind, whether Jew or Gentile; because the duties which the creature owes the Creator can never have an end. Now if a man repudiate the existence of a Supreme Being, the Moral Law becomes to him a dead letter, and thus, beyond his own imaginings, he renders himself incapable of distinguishing what is right from that which is wrong. How then, may we ask, can such a one as this — opposed as he is both to God and Man — in utter, defiance of all law, human and Divine, be permitted with impunity to share the councils SULI&IOUS AND MORAL. 179 of those, who under the dictates of morality legislate for the common weal, and invoke the Divine blessing on their labours ? To us it appears there is no valid plea of justification to palliate so foul an usurpation. Happily for humanity's sake we are not alone in these views. From that elaborate review of the age we live in, we epitomise the following : — " The Atheist of the present day has several characteristics peculiarly his own. He is one of the most abnormal and monstrous growths of the time. There are, unfortunately, many forms of unbelief, and for the most part they are tainted with an obvious insincerity. It was the acute saying of Pascal, that men are unbelievers, not because they have inquired in vain, but because they have never inquired at all. In these days it requires no intrepidity, or thought- fulness, or culture to make the dread negation of the Atheist. There are silly people who take up his loveless cry from mere sheepish imitation. They use words which may originally have meant something on the lips of those who first used them, but have little force or meaning for those who servilely echo them. There is a considerable difference between the Atheist as we meet him in the history of speculative thought and the blatant specimen of to-day. The Atheist of the former type would wish to receive the hand of his bride in the Church of his fathers, and to lay his own ashes in consecrated ground. He has even gone so far as to admit that, if there be no God, it were well in the interests of society to invent one. He has even had a sense of the absurdity of trying to n 2 180 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. account for the world on the theory of a fortuitous combination of atoms. Some nobler spirits have even owned that life without a belief in the supernatural loses its chief charms and meaning, and that nothing in the world can compensate for that darkness which ensues when this belief is withdrawn from the spiritual and intellectual view. But the modern Atheist is destitute of any such compunctious visitings. He has arrived at a stage when all doubt is left behind. He has a tendency to become a moral upas tree. He throws a deadly shadow on all moral natures that come within his influence. He is liberated from all the higher motives, all the higher restraints, all the sacred influences which brace and purify other men. He becomes the god of his own idolatry. "When the Atheist asserts that he believes there is no God, he is making one of the wildest assumptions of human credulity. He sets his own self-willed con- victions against all the creeds, all the churches, all the centuries. He has to believe in the folly of the wisest, the insincerity of the most earnest. He has to believe that the system which has produced the greatest charity, self-sacrifice, and intellectual activity in the world is a tissue of superstition and falsehood. He has to con- tradict every rule of evidence, every analogy of nature, every instinct of conscience. His natural tendency is to reject all the fruits and flowers of life, and to sink into the most degraded form of selfishness and sensuality. No appeal of pity can touch the remorseless nature, which is blunted alike to RELIGIOUS AND MORAL. 181 every higher natural and supernatural influence. Let no such man be trusted. In the time of the first French Revolution the Bible was burnt, the Sunday abolished, the Goddess of Reason was set up, and over the gateways of French cemeteries the lying legend was written, ' Death is an eternal Sleep ! ' Then, in the name of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the southern rivers of France were crimsoned with blood, and the guillotine decimated the noblest of her children. If we may test Atheism by its results, then war, pestilence, and famine have none so direful to display." — Modem Society. ON AESTHETIC INSTRUCTION. " Man is by nature a contemplative being, and God has furnished him with many objects to exercise his under- standing upon, which would be so far useless and lost, if man were not. Who should observe the motions of the stars, and the courses of those heavenly bodies, and all the wonders of nature ? Who should pry into the secret virtues of plants, and other natural things, if there were not in the world a creature endowed with reason and understanding ? What variety of beautiful plants and flowers is there, which can be imagined to be of little other use but for the pleasure of man. And if man had not been, they would have lost their grace, and been trod down by the beasts of the fields, without pity or observation. How many sorts of fruits are there which grow upon high" trees out of the reach of beasts ; and, indeed, they take no pleasure in them. What would all the vast bodies of trees have served for, if man had not been to build with them, arid make dwell- ings of them? Of what use would all the mines of metal have been, and of coal, and the quarries of stone ? Would the mole have admired the fine gold ? Would the beasts of the forest have built themselves palaces, or would they have made fires in their dens ? " — Tillotson. We pity the semblance of humanity which has neither sympathy for plants nor animals, much less takes delight in the beauty and happiness of children ; and is at best but a money-making machine wherein life resolves itself MSTBETIC. 183 into a problem of profit and loss account, and nothing is appreciable that cannot be estimated by a competent valuer at so many pounds, or, as the case may be, shillings and pence. Disdainful alike of iEsthetic culture and the whisperings of conscience — bereft of faith in humanity even as a grain of mustard seed, this self-prey to arrogant vanity and apostacy from those nobler influences which Education has taught him bind man to man, dares even assail true men as liars, and presume upon his ill-gotten gains and empty phases as a set off against all comers. Such a wearisome creature as this, although neither a blessing nor a curse, is yet a dead-lock to the well-being of society- — a foul blot upon Education — and a reproach to our civilisation ; no less from his sycophancy to those above him in the social scale, than his cynicism towards those beneath him in money, but who are immeasurably above him in those real qualities which lie at the root of a nation's greatness. No nation has ever suffered because the mass of the People was too well off through the fruits of honest labour. But many nations have perished because their social and political systems allowed enormous inequalities of wealth to grow up, so that eventually there was a small class rioting in licence and luxury, and a huge mass of patient endurance, stolid ignorance, and de- moralised poverty below it. This was the state of society which rendered it necessary that Ancient Home should fall ; having departed from those institutions to which she- owed her greatness. And so was it with Nineveh, the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her 181. POPULAR INSTRUCTION. heart, I am, and there is none beside me ; how is she become a desolation, a place for wild beasts to lie down in ! Every one, as truly prophesied, that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head, as it now is, at those ruins in which nomad tribes have pitched their tents, and wild beasts and birds have made their haunts for five and twenty centuries. And how will it be with the men of our own generation, who in their vain imaginings despise the Word of the Eternal ; and stifle in their conscience the still small voice of Wisdom, Justice, and Truth ? To such we would say — it is not in materialistic selfishness that individual happiness or the greatness of a nation may be found, but in the spirit which actuates the lives of a people and their public policy. Great Britain must continue to grow in order that she may not decay; for the interval is brief and the prosperity illusory during that fatal period when power- ful empires lose the instinct of vitality and withdraw from their destiny. The revolutions which mark the page of history have left us the great lesson of the triumph of liberty and science over despotism and dark- ness. History likewise has taught us that it is not the mightiest hosts — the pomp of pontiffs — the wealth of mines — the breadth of land — the number of slaves — the mass of ignorance, depravity, corruption, and bigotry — which constitute the greatness and the permanence of empires ; but that it is the spirit of Liberty — the diffu- sion of Intelligence — the supremacy of moral and spiritual influence over material life — the number of high-principled, high-minded, and able men conscious ESTHETIC. 185 and capable of rectitude, contained in, and produced by, such empires ; in fine that Eighteousness exalteth a nation. The inevitable barrier to a high and honourable posi- tion for the vain and selfish man may be found in this — whatever he attempts, he must seize by a single grasp ; added to this, he is incapable of climbing step by step to a lofty object. The universality of his cravings is not contented, unless it devours all ; and thus he is perpetually doomed to fritter away his ener- gies by grasping at tbe trifling baubles within his reach, and in gathering the worthless fruit which a single sun can mature. Alas, that it should be so — more hearts pine away in secret anguish, for lack of kindness from those who should be their comforters, than for any other calamity in life. Let us then cultivate and foster that broader instinct in our nature by virtue of which we enjoy and love all things pleasant and beautiful. The wind is unseen, but it cools the brow of the fevered one, sweetens the summer atmosphere, and ripples the surface of the lake into silver spangles of beauty. So goodness of heart, the tender feeling, and the pleasant disposition, though invisible to the naked eye, make their presence felt : in the smiles —the love — the sun- shine that surround them. There is no sculptor like the mind — nothing that so refines, polishes, and ennobles as the constant presence of great thoughts. There are no arts, no gymnastics, no cosmetics which can contribute a tithe so much to the dignity, the strength, the ennobling of humanity as a great purpose, a high determination, a noble principle, 186 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. and unquenchable enthusiasm. But more powerful still and not less beautiful than any of these, is the overmastering purpose and pervading disposition of kindness of heart. It is not gold or goods that makes a man wealthy. The best wealth is of the heart, an enlightened heart, a loyal conscience, pure affections. He is wealthiest who has the largest stock of wisdom, virtue, and love, whose heart beats with warm sympathies for his fellow-men — who finds good in all seasons, all providence, all men. Many a poet has told us of our happy homes of England standing amid the tall ancestral trees, and none of them with more exquisite pathos than that charming of writers — Washington Irving— in his de- scription of the English landscape with its gladsome village spires spangling the distance. The sight of a beautiful homestead with its surrounding of neat fences, well-cared for fruit and other trees, its vines, and flowers, its many works of taste and culture, pleases the imagination and makes merry the heart. It is surely not enough that a man should raise his food and clothing. It is right and necessary a man should do so, but it is desirable to do more. It is but a poor, sordid ambition that ends with even the accumula- tion of much gold and property ; each and every occupier of the soil should, under the auspices of his landlord, make the scene around his dwelling one to charm the traveller, and thus do his part towards building up the fair fame of .the country. Besides, as an able writer has said, the mind keeps pace with the man, and the love of the beautiful in nature inspires the mind with ESTHETIC. 187 love of the useful and the good. It stops not there — it teaches the mind to look from nature up to nature's God. How delightful it is to see the country smiling with cottage gardens. It gladdens the eye and gladdens the heart. The garden, besides being beautiful in itself, is a sign and symbol of what is better still. It is a sign of good habits — a symbol of the peace and comfort of the family. The habit of cultivating flowers and plants, besides the convenience of vegetable productions, which add so much to the comfort of the labouring population, signifies a great deal for this life and even something for the life to come ; for it is not likely that this culture will be associated with profligacy or indifference. On the contrary, it is by no means uncertain that, to those who can perceive " the beauties of the wilderness which make so gay the solitary place," and enjoy " the fairer forms that cultivation glories in," an open pathway is spread for the knowledge and the love of the Universal Creator. Intimately connected with the comfort and advantage, the refinement of taste and happiness of the Home; and as tending to keep the mind in health, and the hands from idleness, cottage gardening deserves encouragement from all. A garden filled with flowers speaks eloquently of careful, kindly attention to the grateful plants. Flowers are nowhere so common in England that we can, as in foreign lands, afford to waste or despise them. The woodlands and brakes, hedgerows and lanes are, it is true, exquisitely beautiful in their seasons with a 1SS POPULAR INSTRUCTION. prodigal wealth of wild things, hut we have to cultivate in gardens the flowers which in other countries run riot in waste places. With us, every good head of hloom is the reward of patience and almost affectionate care. A positive tenderness towards the pretty thing is thus engendered, and there are few who, seeing a very beautiful flower, do not check the first impulse to pick it with a thought that it is a pity to do so. This feeling of tenderness prevails not only among the more refined and better educated, but in all classes alike. Indeed, it is often more striking among those who cannot afford to buy the luxury of flowers than among those who have all the treasury of botany at their command. Fruit and vegetables, and flowers, too, are in demand far in excess of local supply, while in the case of flowers the market is annually increasing — as evidenced by the augmenting number of florists' shops and of itinerant flower sellers in our towns — and the miles of flower- beds scattered about on window sills and in pots. Again in such common fruit as apples and pears, and such ordinary vegetables as onions and potatoes, we spend annually five millions sterling — actually put this amount into the pockets of alien market-gardeners for fruit and vegetables with which the country could very easily supply itself. Foreign fruits of the com- monest descriptions are hawked about at prices which would make their production in this country highly remunerative. In every household then, however humble, flowers should be cultivated, for their sunny light, their ESTHETIC. ISO cheerful teaching, and for their insensibly ennobling influence. " The free, fair Homes of England ! — Long, long, in hut and hall, May hearts of native proof be rear'd, To guard each hallowed wall 1 And green for ever be the groves, And bright the flowery sod, Where first the child's glad spirit Loves its country and its God I " No one can be wanting in those higher moral senti- ments, which are deservedly ranked above the merely aesthetic perceptions, who can admire a magnificent view, or a fine sunset, and gaze with admiration upon the sunny ray which unfolds that mighty host, whose beginning and end are lost in the infinitude of God ; when to his wondering eyes — " Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadow of heaven, Blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels." " Flowers — love them ! yes, they have sprung from the unfathomable depths of the eternal beauty and bene- volence of God. The idea of each bloomed in His Mind from eternity past. To Him the image of the ' Forget- me-not,' with its innocent blue eye beside the glittering streams of England/ seemed delightful, ages before England was upheaved from the mighty deep. Before that Unsearchable One, the marvellous cones of the white and the scarlet azalea lifted their towering splen- dours in creative vision long 'before they grew.' To Him, the carpet of wild hyacinth, covering, along with its inlaid stellaria, the shady flowers of our woods and 190 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. forests, was a thought as ancient as that of the blue and starry heaven which it resembles. He had 'considered the lilies ' for an eternity before Solomon flourished in his pride. And therefore we may say that a love of flowers is a specially god-like passion, raising us above the earth to its Author. May we not venture to say, rather, that their frail material forms of beauty are but the thin and unsubstantial coverings which veil the beautiful ideas beneath, so that, in communing with them, we draw very nigh to the all-creating Omni- potence." — Rev. E. White. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL EIGHTS AND DUTIES; AND WHAT MAY BE EXPECTED FKOM THE SOUND TEACHING OF THIS IMPOETANT MEANS OF EDUCATION. Habits of temperance, economy, truthfulness, honesty, generosity, once thoroughly engrafted upon the life of an individual, will accomplish for him what years of seeking and effort without them would fail to produce. They will open wide for him the gates of success, of honour, of respect, of affection, through which so many seek in vain to enter. Working spontaneously and almost unconsciously as they will after constant and intelligent culture, they release the power that produced them for still higher efforts ; they form a foundation on which to build, without fear of overthrow, all the finest traits of excellence ; they prepare the way for progressive virtue and for the beauty of goodness, which is so rare, but so admirable. And just in proportion as we live upright, honourable, self-respecting lives do we earn the right to the esteem of others. The desire of acquiring this right is a high and noble one, and will always lead to right action. The desire for esteem itself, when mingled with this feeling, is good and wholesome ; it is only when separated from it that it is weak and injurious. The desire for that to which we have no right leads to every species of meanness and wrong doing, and the desire for esteem without the desire of deserving it is the 192 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. foundation of all hypocrisy. It is true that the more we try to acquire the right to be esteemed, the less ardently shall we crave the esteem itself. The former becomes so much more gratifying that we sometimes feel almost strong enough and happy enough to do without the latter. Yet to him that hath shall be given, and he who enjoys the consciousness of deserving the esteem of his fellow-men will be the continued recipient of their esteem, although he of all others may have become best able to do without it. So long as we lean upon the wisdom or strength of some one else; so long as we depend upon fortunate surroundings, or advantageous openings, or good in- fluences to procure for us what our own undaunted energy and industry ought to win; so long shall we remain feeble, wavering members of society. But when we begin in earnest to help ourselves, waiting for no breath of fortune to waft us upward, and for no strong arm to bear us onward, then we come to realise how full and rich is life, and how large our capabilities for filling worthily the part in it assigned to us. If we are thus to build up our characters and lives, not only by our actions, but by the direction in which we are looking ; by the models we set before us, and the ideals we cherish ; by the company we keep, and the books we read ; or if by looking up to what seems to us higher and better, we shall rise to a higher and better state of being, and our character and conduct bear intimate relation to those things upon which our mental vision dwells with pleasure. Now if all this be so, what must our readers think of the following dictum SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 193 as strenuously advocated by a member of the London School Board : — " All should work for all, and all for one, in case of need ; no matter how guilty a man may be, in accordance with the rules of Socialism, he ought not to be allowed to starve nor work in any community ; and accumulated wealth should be distributed for the general good to those who were destitute and without it. In fact, wealth ought to be more equally distri- buted." We venture to say, and we hope most of our readers will agree with us, that a propagandism such as this, upheaving as it does the very foundations of the Educa- tion Acts, can scarcely be the teaching contemplated by the Legislature on the part of members of School Boards ; whatever construction some people may put upon our Education Code, or the interpretation given it by their emphatic representative of "what is mine is thine." Is it surprising then to find a dignitary of the Church, true to its traditions and worthy of his race, in words of deepest import thus pourtray the manifold evils that surround us : — " The ignoble love of ease and pleasure ; the degrad- ing worship of wealth ; the demoralising frauds and dishonesties that come of the fierce haste to possess it ; the senseless extravagance of luxury that too often follows on its possession ; the effrontery of vice that, flushed with pride and fulness of bread, no longer condescends to pay to virtue even the tribute of hypocrisy ; the low cynicism that sneers away all those better thoughts and higher aims that are the very breath of a nation's nobler life ; and, springing out of them, the strife of interests, o 194 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the war of classes, widening and deepening day by day as the envious selfishness of poverty rises up in natural reaction against the ostentatious selfishness of wealth ; the dull desperate hate with which those who want, and have not, come at last to regard the whole framework of society, which seems to them hut one huge contri- vance for their oppression ; the wild dreams of revolu- tionary change which shall give to all alike, without the pain of labour and self-denial, those enjoyments which are now the privileged possession of -the few, but which the many long for with a bitter and persistent longing — these are some of the seeds of evil which, sown in our own soil and by our own hands, may one day rise up, an exceeding great army, more to be dreaded than the invading hosts of any foreign foe. The glare and glitter of our modern civilisation may hide them for a time from us ; we may fail to see how some of the most precious elements of our national greatness are withering in its heated atmosphere, or what evil things are growing to maturity in the darker shadows that it casts : but they are there nevertheless ; and, if we heed them not and reform them not, the time may come when we may wish that the sharp and sobering discipline of war — nay, even the terrible trials and shadows of defeat — had visited us in time to save us from the greater horrors bred out of our own sins in time of profoundest ease and peace." — Bishop of Peterborough. Social and National Education supposes a correspond- ing Instruction, the design of which is to acquaint our future citizens with their rights and duties, the insti- tutions and fundamental laws of the country. A large SOCIAL AND POLITfCAL. 195 number of the pupils of elementary schools, who cannot attend other schools, are destined to be the future jury- men and electors — all will be citizens : shall we then leave to chance the care of instructing those in the rights which this title confers, and the duties it imposes on them ? To leave the people in complete ignorance of these questions is henceforth impossible ; they must therefore, instead of being left to be instructed in them by chance, be afforded positive public instruction as to their social rights and duties, the laws and fundamental institutions of their country. There is certainly no need of teaching the people what penalties the law attaches to crime ; but it would not be superfluous to make them aware that crimes rarely remain unpunished, and of the difficulty of concealing them. This branch of teaching might be joined with that of morality, and would supply what is but too frequently wanting in it, whether through the fault of the teacher, or through a deficiency in the intellectual culture of the pupils — hence the morbid sensationalism which our Criminal Courts of Justice so unequivocally demonstrate. Instruction in administrative law might be connected with the geography of the country ; it should relate to the general organisation of the government ; to that of the Queen, Lords, and Commons, or as the case may be to the President and the Congress ; to the most important functions of the Mayor and the municipal council ; to those of the Justices of the Peace : and in connection with history, it should relate to the great Charters of our liberties — those precious heirlooms of freedom which our forefathers won — glorious niche of o2 196 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. all in the Sanctuary of Liberty, whether of the Old or the New World. The extravagance of the Socialist is dangerous, only through ignorance of history, of the true nature of man, and correct political principles. Man is eminently a social being, and he is of importance only through society. But he is not social in the same manner as bees and ants are ; human society is an association of families and individuals. Whatever threatens the life of the family and the development of the individual is anti- social ; but the individual belongs to society, on the sole condition that his personality be respected ; and the family ought to make every necessary sacrifice, except that of its existence, to the society which pro- tects it. An association of families and individuals living under the same institutions, the same laws, and the same government is a Nation. National prosperity is the condition of the prosperity of the whole ; hence the duty of one's devoting himself to the nation to which he belongs. Morality likewise commands us to seek our own hap- piness, by contributing to that of our fellow-men and fellow-citizens, and the triumph of human virtue — the highest development of our personality — is to place our strength, our blood, and even our life, at the service of humanity, of society, and of the nation to which we belong. It is thus we find that the brightest gem in the regal diadem is the good-will of the nation ; and the supreme authority a tower of strength, when built upon that surest of all foundations, the love and respect of a ppntented people. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 197 This devotion is likewise easier, the better the society is organised. In general, it is sufficient that each per- form his part in that position in which Providence has placed him, to insure public prosperity, and for each to insure his own as much as possible. According to the principles of our constitution all of us are equal in the eye of the law, as in the eye of God. The inequality of rank has its source in nature and in history, which are equally the work of Providence. Should property be now divided among all in equal proportions, in a few years the same inequality of rank would re-appear ; unless all things were common to all, which is impossible, consistently with the life of the family, that is to say, of society itself. Besides, happiness does not essentially depend on riches and social condition ; it even inhabits the most humble abodes more willingly than the palaces of the great ; and .every rank has advantages and inconveniences peculiar to itself. There is scarcely any lot so low but there is something in it to soothe the man whom it has befallen. Providence having so ordered things that in every man's cup, how bitter soever, there are some cordial drops, which, if wisely extracted, enable him to withstand even direst calamity. Indeed we can scarcely be exposed to misery, if in possession of diligence and probity. And even further ; with diligence and pro- bity which depend on ourselves, with ability and success, which come to us from Providence, we may rise from the lowest to the highest rank. The cloud that veils full knowledge of the Future " is a cloud of love." Many things about our great future, and almost everything about our earthly future, 19S POPULAR INSTRUCTION. are concealed from us. If we look back, with a thought- ful heart, we cannot but feel how wisely and kindly He has unrolled the volume of life, and stood by and strengthened us when we had hard things to read in it. Events that would have seemed intolerable have hap- pened, and lie behind us with a softened light shed over them. We may be grateful that they were not foretold — and grateful still more if we have been carried through them, not by having our hearts made hard, but our souls made strong. We are born in hope; our childhood is passed in hope. In life's troubled sea, when clouds darkly gather, hope is our sheet-anchor; and when the storm hath passed away, the silvery cloud that shines out to us is a beacon of the spangled firmament of Eternity— where the sun shall no more go down. In fond nature's last strife hope whispers to us the heavenly promise made to faith in the Gospel : borne on the wings df Faith, Hope, and Charity, angels welcome us to that far-off land, whose beauty and whose glory " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what shall be found there." A smooth sea never yet made a skilful mariner ; neither do uninterrupted prosperity and success qualify for usefulness and happiness. The storms of adversity, like the storms of the ocean, arouse the faculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill, and fortitude of the voyager. Sweet are the uses of adversity. As the tree is fortified by its own broken branches arid fallen leaves, and grows out of its own decay, so men and nations are SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 199 bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations. While some have been shipwrecked by the first adverse wind that blew, others there are who have made their disappointments their best friends, and learned from them the needful lesson of self-reliance. He that has never tasted of adversity is but half acquainted with others or with himself. Constant success shows us but one side of the world. With men of this class — strengthened by the proud stubbornness of success, and narrowed to their bigotry by the potent limitation of one idea— nothing in life is so successful as success ; yet, with all these high- blown pretensions, there is something better still : of the two much the greater man is he who braves the burden of the heaviest calamity unflinchingly, who is the calmest in the storm, and the most fearless under menaces and frowns : greater still is he, whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on heaven, leads him to choose right with an indomitable resolution of resisting the severest temptation from within and without ; and instead of the worry and discontent which debilitate, arms himself with that cheerfulness which gives harmony to the soul and is a perpetual song without words. Instruction in private economy would successfully crown this department of moral teaching. Economy, that wise medium between the avarice which sacrifices the present to an unseen future, and the mad dissipation which has no care for the morrow, is a virtue which depends more on character than instruction. But there are rules for private economy, or the conduct relating to the acquisition of wealth, by industry, and to its 200 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. proper use and preservation, which may be imparted by teaching, and which have been partly laid down in such popular works as Poor Richcvrd by Benjamin Franklin, and others of like character. In the rural schools it is especially necessary to give more correct ideas of true riches and true happiness. Cupidity is a vice which comes within the province of moral education ; it arises chiefly from false ideas, which may be combated by instruction. In the town, in work- shops and manufactories, the opposite fault prevails ; the want of economy, the improvidence which lives from hand to mouth may on the other hand be averted by instructing the people as to the utility of Savings Banks and mutual Protection Societies against the changes and chances of the future. "Work is the mission of man on this earth. Let wastefulness, idleness, drunkenness, improvidence take the fate which God has appointed them, that their op- posites may also have a chance for their fate." — Carlyle. Though dark and dreary be the night, and stormy be the day, the might of freedom, justice, and right shall in the end prevail. It is but the history of all struggles for liberty that the world has ever seen. It is but the universal law, that no great and good object can be attained or carried out, by nations or by individuals, without costly labour and exertion. There can be no freedom unless the price for obtaining it be paid, no leaving the house of bondage save by signs and wonders, no entering into the promised land without toiling through the wilderness of privation and of suffering — in a word, no redemption without sacrifice. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 201 In the lives of most of us there are periods in which everything is at stake — home, honour, competency, and happiness are all in the balance. They may be almost ours, or even be in our possession, while events will shortly tell whether they shall be ours for life, or be lost for ever. No matter how dark it is ahead, we must go into the contest, or lose all without a struggle. It is upon himself that a man must depend in such emer- gencies. His friends have their own battles to fight or victories to enjoy. The quality that will help him most is the persisting and indomitable energy that bears down all opposition. The man filled with this combative spirit is the hero, the master-spirit of the world in which he moves. Impediments which would dishearten weaker men, cause in him the most vigorous exertions. Difficulties are swept out of his path, and though borne down time after time, he struggles on and wins. Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are not to be afraid. Woe be to the coward ! Whether passed in a bed of sickness or in the tented fields, it is ever the same fair flag, and admits of no distinction. Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. We are all of us born to succeed and not to fail. Every enterprise of life, from the simplest to the most complete, has its necessary drudgery. On the faithful performance of this is founded all true success ; and only those who are willing to bear the burden with courage, energy, and perseverance have any right to expect prosperity. In every department of human achievement superiority is based upon toil, and success 202 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. is reached only by effort. There is no short cut to ex- cellence — no real greatness, no efficient power, no true genius -without persistent and continuous efforts. The germs of power may exist, undeveloped faculties may be hidden, flashes that pass for sunlight, sparks that are imitation for warmth, and random blows that pass for powerful action may dazzle or deceive for a time ; but without persistence of character the germ dies, the faculty withers, the flash vanishes, the spark goes out, the blow descends only in the air. All truly eminent men, all those whose names live in the history of thought or of action, were characterised by this persistence. By it alone could they withstand the temptation of self-indulgence, the assaults of enemies, the flatteries of friends, tbe fear of consequences. Whether it is a Napoleon in battle, a Newton in science, a Shakespeare in literature, or a Howard in philanthropy, the same tenacity of purpose and perseverance in action are mani- fest in all. Equally so, there is but one road to happiness and prosperity, for either individuals or a nation, and that is economy and a faithful persistence in the legitimate paths of duty. The riches that come in an hour do more frequently harm than good. Hence let all good people stay the tide of wild excess. Let that man be frowned upon in society where he is living beyond his means. Let all true and noble women express their disapproval of the extravagance and fantastic display of the votaries of fashion. And so shall the nation be saved from the millstone that has dragged over republics to destruction ; . so shall our young men find larger and SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 203 nobler devotion than that of money; and the graceful attire of modesty and dignity adorn our English woman- hood, and lend a charm to her greatness of soul and goodness of heart, the purity and sweetness of her character. Without steadiness of character in social life, there can be no true fellowship. Accomplishments may please, beauty may charm, fluency and grace may attract ; but to win confidence and respect, to be trusted and relied upon, the man or the woman must be stable in character, self poized, true to promises, punctual, uniting firmness to geniality, and steadfastness to good- nature. No nation can be great and powerful whilst improvi- dence and debauchery are eating the strength out of its bone and sinew ; nor can it prosper if unfaithfulness be the leading characteristic of the people. The unfaithful man is more untrue to himself than to any one else. Every promise which he breaks, every trust which he dishonours, every responsibility which he throws off, every rightful labour which he shirks, weakens the force of the inner law, destroys his firmness, impairs his eDergy, hardens his conscience, and renders him not a free man, but a slave. In being unfaithful to others, he is still more unfaithful to his own nature ; in trying to secure some paltry gratification, he has lost the richest treasure of his being. Of late many earnest efforts have been made to im- press upon the poorer classes the ameliorating influences of judicious thrift. Some there are who write books and deliver lectures on the subject ; whilst others devise 204 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. friendly, benefit, and building societies, and various kinds of Savings Banks ; and not a few, witb a view to check extravagance amongst working men, are even trying to associate with the School Board system a children's savings bank organisation, in order to imprint on the plastic mind of youth, by a practical method of teaching, the sterling virtue of economy. Amongst these it would appear that the trustees of " The National Penny Savings Bank," inaugurated some few years since, have been most successful in inducing the poorest of the poor to take care of those stray pence which are so much more difficult to hoard than the rich man's pounds. These institutions, embracing as they do the workshop and the school, already deposit to the extent of one thousand pounds and upwards a week ; whereas the weekly withdrawals do not mount up to more than half that sum. It is equally gratifying to learn that The Liverpool School Board, at their last annual meeting, announced through their treasurer, that the deposits made by the scholars at the penny banks instituted in connection with schools under their control, amounted to nearly two thousand, as against nine hundred and fifty pounds in 1877, while the number of depositors had increased from 36,649 to 79,073. In many cases the parents make use of these banks through their children, and thus both are led into provident habits. In France there are some four thousand School Savings Banks, including no fewer than two hundred and sixty thousand scholars, who are forming economical habits ; thus being prepared as excellent recruits to the next SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 205 generation of working men. Already have the work- shops received from them a numerous and influential contingent of young workmen — sober, orderly, and well fortified, let us hope, to overcome those evil impulses which are otherwise opposing a constant resistance. As may be expected thousands of saving scholars exercise a beneficial influence on their families, initiating their parents and elder brothers and neighbours into the practice of thrift. And thus large numbers of adult workmen have been brought to practise economy, who without tbis influence would never have handled a bank- book, nor comprehended the advantage of a life of self- control. It may therefore be not unworthy the attention of Educational Institutions in this country that popular opinion attributes the great success of the general Savings Bank system in France to the energy with which the School Banks, acting as nurseries of economy, push their business. Amongst children there is a special difficulty in in- ducing them to keep their pence long enough to save a shilling : but the Post Office Savings Bank card just now adopted will prove a certain attraction, as it will not even necessitate a visit to the penny bank every time a coin is felt to be "burning a hole" in the owner's pocket. For the future it will be impossible to accuse the Govern- ment of not taking measures to promote national thrift. The State now practically offers to become the trustee for any man, woman, or child who can save a penny, and it is impossible to over-estimate the value of thrifty habits inculcated upon the youthful mind. 206 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. To teach the poor to be provident is the chief difficulty, whether in this or any other country in which grown up men, who have been earning wages the greater part of their lives, and have witnessed their parents and neigh- bours, when in straits, calmly fall upon the poor-rates as a matter of course, and who unhappily have no notion whatever that thrift is a moral obligation on every human being, and are equally unwilling to believe that thrift- lessness borders upon sinfulness. Lay then the axe to the root : and as children have no inveterate habits of any kind to get rid of, and are most likely in their early years to be susceptible to wise teaching ; and that just as they may be taught to read and write so can they be trained to a full perception of the moral precept enforced by personal example through School Boards : " Save money that you do not need to spend." Those who leave nothing, or accumulate nothing in life, are set down as failures, because they have neg- lected to treasure up knowledge and experience of the most useful kind. They may themselves consider that the world has gone against them ; but in fact, they have been their own enemies. There has long been a popular feeling in " good luck " ; but like many other fallacies, it is gradually giving way. The conviction is extending that diligence is the mother of good luck; in other words, that a man's success in life will be proportionate to his efforts, to his industry, to his attention to small things. Your negligent, shiftless; loose fellows never meet with luck, because the results of industry are denied to those who will not make the proper effort to secure them. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 207 If it be true that with ordinary sober habits and sound common sense skilled workmen may in these days become small capitalists in. less than half a lifetime : who will gainsay that the public school should lay the foundation of a harmony of purpose and coincidence of view, which would in due time crown the noble edifice of an identity of interests between the Employer of Capital and the Industrial Classes, upon whose well- being the future destinies of, our country maybe said largely to depend. It is thus we find in Ireland " The Provincial Brewers' Association " to have passed resolutions affirm- ing themselves as " sincerely desirous to promote the cause of temperance" — and expressing the belief that the proper remedies for intemperanJe are not to be secured by legislative prohibition, but by other agencies, such as "the influence of religion" and "improved and more generally diffused education." It has been well observed by that truly eminent philanthropist, the Right Rev. the Bishop of Man- chester, that — two of the most important and difficult social problems presented by populations aggregated in large masses, are how to encourage habits of thrift and providence, and at the same time to repress the ten- dency to pauperism and mendicancy ; and there are no questions in which a more careful discrimination is needed to arrive at a true estimate of the case. That there is a thriftless section in every class of society, from the highest to the lowest, there can be no doubt; and that, perhaps nearly all members of all classes have in the last few years been living at a more 208 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. extravagant rate than prudence could justify, is probably true also. But at the same time, there are many encouraging symptoms on the other side : as evidenced by the withdrawals of the Working Classes from the Savings Banks not having exceeded the deposits by a larger sum than £100,000, and this in what may be termed a calamitous year (1879). English Industry, and English Working Men, from an American Point op View. What our own Consuls have done for years as regards the trade and industry of foreign countries is now being done yearly by the United States officials abroad, and their reports for the last year, as summarised by Mr. Secretary Evarts, contain much matter worthy the careful study of our artisans. No class prejudices taint their criticism ; the writers are not employers or political economists, nor do they belong to the professional or middle classes, sometimes suspected of undue hostility to trades unions. They are " intelligent foreigners," who observe Englishmen with sufficient means of infor- mation and a lively interest, and whose sympathies are in the main Democratic. No prepossessions in favour of Royalty — Established Churches — Aristocracy — or Capital — affect them ; they hold the balance evenly between employers and employed. In fact, as described by a leading Journal, The Daily Telegraph, from which we derive our information, they are the most favourable witnesses the artisans could call into court, for all American Society is based on industry, and no SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 209 nation can show a greater number of self-made men occupying prominent positions in political and social life. The opinions of such authorities are therefore entitled to especial attention from the artisans of England. Some of the reports are local, others more general. One of the Consuls in his local report notices particu- larly the idleness, intoxication, and improvidence of workmen in the receipt of good pay, and adverting to this point, says : — " A bold recklessness as to spending and earning prevails among working men. Many a man who can easily earn his fourteen to nineteen dollars a week will be satisfied with earning half that sum, or just enough to provide him with his food, beer, and sporting, allowing his wife but a mere pittance of his wages for herself and children. Large numbers who might make themselves independent make no pro- vision for the future, except to pay into their club a shilling or two a week, which assures them, if not in means, some aid in case of sickness. This method of insurance, good in itself, seems to operate here to paralyse the desire to save." It is well, our literary cotemporary observes, that attention should thus be called to what is an indirect and unfortunate result of our trades unions. Their advantages we are free to admit. They teach the working man an honourable esprit de corps good in itself as lifting him above mere selfishness and narrowed individual aims. They pro- mote a social feeling, although this finds too often its only expression in drinking bouts. They also familiarise the workers and their leaders with methods of adminis- 210 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. tration and with the secret of organising men. Against those gains must be set the fact that very frequently the only ,homage to thrift paid by the English artisan is his contribution to his club. He seems to think that he has provided sufficiently for illness, loss of work, old age, and his family at his death by the punctual pay- ment of a few shillings weekly to his trade fund. There may cross his mind, no doubt, a remote idea that when his union fails another " Union " may have to step in. Thus the Poor Law helps the friendly society and the trade club to discourage what is essential to independence — individual thrift — and self-reliance. Further regarding them merely as associations for securing the future of working men, as a mode of mutual insurance against- loss by sickness or slackness of trade, we should be very sorry to see artisans' clubs lose anything of their present influence or incomes ; but not only do they operate, as we have seen, to sap self- reliance, they mix up, in an injurious way, provision against industrial losses with the means of carrying on industrial wars. A workman sees the fund on which he relied for support, when ill or old, devoted to a contest with the masters in order that wages may be raised or kept up. Is not this mixing up of two purposes and two funds an unwholesome confusion of policy and finance ? The allotment of money to sick or disabled members is guarded by rigid rules, which protect individuals and prohibit waste ; while the voting of money for industrial wars is made by a majority, and nearly half the members may see their subscriptions wasted in a contest they entirely disapprove. There are times, no doubt, when SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 211 strikes may be needful; why should not the funds necessary for them be raised separately and kept dis- tinct ? It is one thing to make grants to save workmen who are out of employment through no decision of their own, and another to support a voluntary strike by the disbursement of moneys intended for a " rainy day." Again, workmen are charged by the same Eeport that they lose one out of every six working days ;' but this, however true, has less point now than it had when the demand for our manufactures was greater than it is. At that time the day's idleness threw away a day's full pay. It is not so clear now that there is a necessity for six days' work. Possibly most manufacturers find that five days' employment of their hands is quite enough to enable them to fulfil the contracts they command. In a subsequent passage the American Consul refers to the excessive drinking of artisans — of women as well as men. We need no witness from abroad to bring before us this painful characteristic of English life. In America, to which some of pur workmen have recently emigrated, a much sharper line is drawn between sober workmen and Others ; a drunkard is quickly dismissed, and sinks much more rapidly than with us into ruin. Here we have workmen who are "steady'' for five days in the week and tipsy for the remainder. Such a combination is rare in the States. The drinking there seems some- how more dangerous — either on account of its being separated from solid meals, or because the climate, a stimulant in itself, makes intoxication more perilous. Mr. Evarts may be right in his statement that the p2 212 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. success of our trades unions has " jeopardised England's supremacy in manufactures " ; but we cannot — says our cotemporary — accept his appended verdict that it has been "the main cause of the great depression" which now exists. For that calamity, protracted now to an extent perhaps unprecedented in an era of peace, there are many causes : — The collapse of the " foreign loan " system is in itself a very important item ; for years we lent money to States which sent back part of the capital to purchase our goods ; we have ceased to lend, and they have ceased to buy. Protection in the United States has also operated largely to our disadvan- tage ; the high tariff in Germany has partially contri- buted to the loss ;. while the Russian attack on Turkey has affected our exports to the East. Then we have the fact that for many years our factories worked with a vigour and unsparing energy which naturally glutted the world with goods, while at the same time there was slightly developed in India the rudiments of a rival system. Continental and American competition have also added in a small degree to our national losses. We should therefore — says our cotemporary — be loth to say that strikes have " caused " the depression, still it may be fairly asserted that they have hampered capitalists in their efforts to combat the evil. Had our workmen looked facts in the face aud recognised the necessity of united English efforts to sustain our old position, we might ere this have advanced towards recovery, unfortu- nately, we still have even amongst intelligent artisans expressions of the old belief that capitalists are their " enemies," and that when an employer refuses to give SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 213 high wages he is — as the engineers on strike say in their latest report — guilty of " oppression." Mr. Evarts takes a decided view of the final result, and believes that our artisans, when they drive capital away, must leave the country themselves ; and the example has certainly been set, as when money for emigration has been supplied from trades union funds. The Secretary of State adds : — " There can scarcely be a doubt that within the next five years five hundred thousand working-men will emigrate; indeed, should the spirit of emigration once seize the English mind, there can be no reasonable limit set to the Hegira. That the greatest number of these emigrants will seek ' work and bread ' in the United States may be fairly assumed. We have, therefore, more interest in these people than even their own Government ; they are Englishmen to-day, in ten years they will be American citizens." "We cannot" — says our cotemporary — "accept this prophecy. The injury inflicted on France by the policy of Louis XIV., which resulted in the emigration of thou- sands of industrious Huguenots, would be repeated here, if trade disputes led to anything like the wholesale emigration anticipated by Mr. Evarts. The Old World has something better to do than to serve as a nursery for future citizens of the United States ; and we still believe that English workmen will prefer their island home to any alien land. With all the faults tbat foreign criticism can discover or English candour con- fess, no large industrial population on earth equals the English for sustained steadiness and practical skill, 214 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. though in France, Germany, and America there ■ are individuals or groups that surpass English competition. We cannot believe that our traditions of success will be lightly forfeited or transferred in a pique to our cousins across the seas." To us, the Keport of the American Consul, eminently suggestive no doubt as to Trades Unions and their results in this country, is, in other respects, but a dark lantern, and by no means presents a faithful reflex of the inner life of our Artisans generally. On the contrary we hold, that with the exceptional case above referred to, and others, it must be added, akin to it chiefly among the Cotton and Iron Districts, the Working Classes of England — with all their faults, most of which may be traced to a want of Educational training — now in course of removal through our Acts of Education, &c, may truly be said, as a whole, to be greedy of knowledge ; desirous of improving their condition intellectually, morally, and socially ; and not only so, but are in heart and feeling, truthful, manly and courageous under the most trying difficulties, and above all patriotic ; and although they may be surpassed in individual com- petition, it is yet to be seen that they have been equalled in well sustained steadiness, or in practical skill, still further to be enhanced, let us hope, as Technical Instruction advances with the requirements of the age. In support of our views as to the prudence and self- denial of the working classes generally, we submit to our readers the results for the " Savings Bank year " 1878, to which, the Artisan class by far exceed any others as SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 215 contributors : — In the Post Office Banks — the real banks of the people — the number of depositors increased from 1,791,240 at the end of 1877 to 1,892,756 at the end of 1878, while the amount due to them rose from £28,740,757 to £30,411,563. If we add to these figures those of trustees' " Savings Banks " which are kept alive by Act of Parliament, the result is almost incredible, seeing that it is recorded in "hard times." The number of depositors in both classes of Savings Banks rose within the year upwards of 100,000, and their deposits increased from £72,979,443 to £74,667,453. Now these are facts not generally known, and they are worthy of being dwelt upon with a certain degree of pride, as indicating the exercise of those thrifty habits for which the working classes too seldom get sufficient credit. So far then from England being on the road to ruin, the small section of her poorest class who care to practise thrift appear to have laid by savings nearly equal to the Imperial revenue of one year ; a fraction, it must be admitted, of what might be accumulated if the best paid workers were as prudent and self-denying as their poorer comrades. Towards the realisation of this desideratum, the rising generation will, it is hoped, under the blessings of Education, at once and for ever cut the " Gordian knot " of self-imposed taxation, which now weighs so heavily upon the otherwise well-to-do artisan. Since then the industries of all nations are meant to supply the wants of all others, where a market is to be found, we would submit to our readers that the sooner a happier relation than now exists, shall take its beginning 216 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. between the Capitalist and the Employed, the better will it be for the Old World — aye, and for our kinsmen too of the New "World in their example. " Example sheds a genial ray Of light, which men are apt to borrow, So first improve yourself to-day, And then improve your friend to-morrow." What nobler example of self-denial and devotion to their country does the page of history unfold than that of the British Volunteers. From out the proud throng of their leaders, we may be permitted to mention His Grace the Duke of Sutherland — not alone for his manly virtues but his pre-eminence amongst the best and greatest Employers of Capital in the United Kingdom. Well may England flourish with such benefactors to the human race as His Grace of Sutherland, and others of her nature's nobility, who so faithfully discharge their duties of property, and as true patriots enjoy its rights, in the full acceptation of the axiom laid down by the illustrious Lord Brougham — " No man has a right to hold property in man." Well would it be for Ireland that she could furnish such parallels as these. We should then hear but little of the infatuate doctrine of extermination, and still less of that wild, and hideous propagandism, which maddens, and drives to distraction so many of her people. A calamity however disastrous that can never reach the head and heart of a nation, proud of its origin, and its traditions, so rich in science, literature, and the arts ; and has never despaired of its future, as an integral portion of the British Empire. England true to herself fears no decay — well may she SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 217 be proud of her noble phalanx of citizen soldiers, filled with a sense of duty to defend her hearths and her homes — and "ready, aye ready" to protect all that their forefathers won — whose matchless energy and iron arm, nay whose blood have made their abode foremost among the nations of the Earth — the seat of Commerce — the home of Liberty — and the memory of eighteen cen- turies has consecrated the " nursing mother " of Chris- tianity. Inspired too with a patriotism which would leave to the England of the future, nay to the world itself, a race of sons and a race of daughters worthy alike the traditions of her past history, and the undying lustre of her coming heritage ; with whom the sanctity of an oath, and the sacredness of an affirmation shall never be forgotten or forsaken whilst civilisation holds her own, and England remains a nation amongst the nations of the earth. Man, in his lowest state, has no pleasures but those of sense, and no wants but those of appetite; after- wards when society is divided into different ranks, and some are appointed to labour for the support of others, those whom their superiority sets free from the necessity of toil, begin to look for intellectual enjoyment ; thus while the shepherds were tending their flocks their masters made the first astronomical observations — the dawn of intellectual improvement. As the senses in the lowest state of nature are necessary to direct us to our support, when that support is once secure there is danger in following them further. To him who has no rule of action but the gratification of the senses, plenty is always dangerous ; it is therefore necessary to the 218 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. happiness of individuals, and still more necessary to the security of society, that the mind should be elevated to the idea of general beauty, and- the contemplation of general truth. By this pursuit the mind is always car- ried forward in search of something more excellent than it finds, and obtains its proper superiority over the com- mon senses of life by learning to feel itself capable of higher aims and nobler enjoyments. In this gradual exaltation of human nature every art contributes its con- tingent towards the general supply of mental pleasure. Whatever abstracts the thoughts from sensual gratifica- tions — whatever teaches us to look for happiness within ourselves — must advance in some measure the dignity of our nature. Perhaps there is no higher proof of the excellency of man than this — that, to a mind properly cultivated, whatever is bounded is little. The mind is continually labouring to advance, step by step, through successive gradations of excellence towards perfection, which is dimly seen at a great though not hopeless distance, and which we must always follow because we never can attain ; but the pursuit rewards itself — one truth teaches another, and our store is always increasing, through nature which can never be exhausted. Man has also been endowed with physical and in- tellectual faculties adapted to labour; a mind capable of investigating the laws of the universe'; a body suited to perform all those operations by which, in obedience to these laws, the means of happiness may be attained. Intellectual power cannot be obtained with- out intellectual discipline, nor a knowledge of the laws of nature without study. Neither physical comforts, nor SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 219 even physical necessaries, can be obtained unless labour be first expended to procure them. The universal law of our existence is, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Without intellectual labour the mind becomes enfeebled ; without physical labour, the body, feeble and enervated. He who refuses to labour with his mind, suffers the penalty of ignorance; thus de- priving himself of blessings both physical and intel- lectual. He who refuses to labour with his hands suffers, besides the pains of disease, all the evils of poverty, cold, hunger, and nakedness. The Omnipotent has assigned to industry rich and abundant rewards. " The hand of the diligent maketh rich." " Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men." The pleasure, the independence, and the power arising from knowledge, are the rewards of intellectual industry. " A wise man is strong ; yea, a man of understanding is one with strength." It is only by labour that the riches of the earth are appropriated, and the laws of nature made available to the happiness of man. At the first there existed nothing in our world but the earth, with its spontaneous productions and capabilities, and helpless and defenceless man. All that now exists of capital, of convenience, of comfort, and of intelligence, is the work of industry, and is the reward which the Divine Creator has bestowed upon us for obedience to the law of our being. Hence the necessity amongst all classes of a general knowledge of the laws of Economic Science : to which it is the duty of good government to give effect through 220 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the education of the People : so that every member of the community may be led to see that their true interest consists in a steady determination to resist all illegal combinations of what nature and kind soever ; whether of the employed against the employer, or of the employer against the employed, for there is such a grievance un- happily as the tyranny of wealth — and their chief aim directed not to resist economic polity, but wisely to support its laws, and steadily withstand all those who try to encroach on any other man's rights — as the best means of securing to themselves and their fellow- countrymen true liberty : — that is, that every man should be left free to dispose of his own capital, his own time, and strength and skill, in whatever way he thinks fit, provided he does no wrong to his neighbour. Among the most wholesome influences in society is that which arises from full employment at fair wages for all who are able and willing to work ; whilst on the other hand, one of the most pernicious conditions is that which comes from underpaid labour and lack of employment : from whatever cause — whether of plague or famine — over- speculation of the Capitalist, or the inadequacy of his production to compete with foreign markets import and export. It is the ambition of Employers to have a large supply of skilled and trustworthy workers, who would enter cheerfully into all the combinations requisite for the cheapest mode of production ; and to act simply as individuals, whenever the rate of pay, or the duration of toil,, had to be settled. Such views, however, are but one-sided, and are quite opposed to the common ten- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 221 dencies of human nature. Men with the requisite in- telligence and perseverance will combine for themselves as well as their employers do ; and all that the latter are fairly entitled to seek is the best means of preventing these combinations from being put to mischievous or mistaken uses. Until some mode be agreed upon of determining how profits and losses can be fairly divided, difficulties will arise between the Employer and the Employed ; which in case of dispute ought honestly to be submitted to Arbitration; and thus avert the evils to society at large which must otherwise ensue. For although a trade dispute may appear on tbe surface as alone detrimental to the Capitalist and the Working-man, the inconvenience does not rest here ; as besides the direct loss of their own act, it is no less felt by the small tradesmen in the district where it takes place, and affects the rate-paying community as well with otherwise uncalled-for and oppressive burdens. It is not, however, in human nature to be content when the mass of a people can contrast their own lives of hard toil and scant comfort with the glittering fortunes of a lucky and luxurious few. When the law leaves enterprise free, those who make money and keep it, do so, in the main, because they possess and exercise the special talents and sagacity belonging to acquisitiveness ; but these talents are often associated with a low moral character, and such instances have a souring effect upon the many workers from whose labour their wealth comes. If a thousand men get the POPULAR INSTRUCTION. market rate of pay for their labour, and live hard lives, in doleful lodgings, in dingy streets, it can never be pleasant for them to see that they have made the fortune of an employer of no intelligence outside his business, and of a morality as full of shoddy as the goods he sells. Strict fact would tell them that they did not make his fortune — that they Were only instruments which a less skilful employer might have been ruined by; but this is a view they are not likely to accept while he lives in a palace, and they comparatively in a hovel. The present state of society, with its enormous dis- proportion in the distribution of wealth and defective character of many rich people, is sure to generate erroneous ideas. There are, no doubt, men of wealth whose conduct is admirable : but when we find thousands of poor men irritated against the rich, it would be absurd to suppose that the fault is all on the poor side. The jealousy the poor feel towards the rich, arises more frequently from the faults of the rich than the poor man's defects ; for the rich cannot plead ignorance, nor are they as those who have never been taught. To a great extent, the cure for the tyranny, or supposed tyranny of Capital is, however, in the hands of the working class, if they only choose to use it. They need not be worshippers of wealth one day, and revilers against it the next. They can prevent mere money, without fitness, getting access to Parliament, or to municipal honours. If they like to spend the money now wasted in strikes upon clubs and institutions, they can enjoy many of the advantages the rich possess SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 223 in their well-furnished homes. If they choose to help the best of their own order forward by offering them good posts in the management of co-operative businesses, they can do much towards bridging oyer the great gulf that now separates wages-earners from capitalists. If Capital is to be fought against, it must be with capital ; and each time a mass of work- men decide on losing their money in a strike, although they may gratify a feeling of revenge, they make the Capitalists relatively stronger and themselves relatively weaker. The fallacies against Capital will only pass away when a large proportion of the population enjoy some of the benefits of being capitalists; be it only on a small scale. No one should be contented to be a wages- earner only. The French workman, peasant, or domestic servant determines to be a capitalist also, and from small beginnings frequently acquires enough to materially improve his position; and while he is doing this he can feel an honest pride that fits him for the duties of a Eepublican Society. One of the grand secrets of success in life is to keep ahead in all ways possible. If you once fall behind, it may be very difficult to make up the headway lost. One who begins with putting aside some of his earnings, however small, and keeps it up for a number of years, is likely to become rich before he dies. One who inherits property, and goes on year by year spending a little more than his income, will become poor if he lives long enough. Living beyond their means has brought multitudes of persons to ruin in our generation. In England, however, the workman's notion of fair 224 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. wages means in the first place — like the capitalist's notions of fair interest; or profit — all he can get : and if that is not enough to make him comfortable, he includes something more. If Political economy tells him that, in accordance with the laws of supply and demand, he has all the market can afford, he is still not content, if it fail to supply him with what he thinks enough ; and he measures this enough by the indefinite wants which the state of society in which he moves cause him to feel. Beyond this, if he dwell in a society where his employers and all their compeers live in luxury and state, can we wonder if human nature asserts her rights and the British Workman claims some little share of the good things of life beyond the absolute necessity for mere existence. . If, as is alleged, there are many capitalists in England who simply treat their operatives as so much human machinery, out of which it is their object to get as much labour as they can for as little wages as possible — what wonder is it that, under such circumstances, the em- ployed lends a willing ear to the trade unionist, and combines to do the best he can for himself, leaving the employers to take care of themselves, which they are perfectly able to do. Just in proportion as we over-rate ourselves, by so much do we undervalue our neighbours. There are few things more to be avoided in this v> orld than self- conceit ; it is the vice of vanity, and is a miserable sneer at true greatness. The hatred and contempt borne by the Egyptians towards other nations whom they held in derision, were returned upon themselves SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 225 tenfold, for there is no debt more certainly and more liberally repaid than that pharisaical weakness — con- tempt. The doctrines of the Communist are but the dangerous outcome of discontent ; and unless a sound method can be found for removing just causes for this discontent, a working class in this or any other country may un- happily be excited to try dangerous methods, just as a middle class, when it finds foreign competition too much for it, can be incited to demand a protective tariff. In the scramble and competition of trade, the tendency of each class, and each individual, is to reap as much as possible, with little regard for any one else. When moral feelings are sufficiently aroused, they control this scramble to some extent, but its essential character remains ; and the question is mooted, how long shall any distinction of class retain special privileges without rendering special services ? It would thus appear that what is most required towards the well-being of society is a moral reconciliation between those who want to sell their labour, and the capitalists who wish to employ it ; and this we hold, in case of dispute, can best be ap- proximated through Arbitration. Pending the "South Yorkshire" trade controversy, another of our leading journals — The Standard — com- ments thus upon its merits: — "It is a ground for no little satisfaction that the majority of the colliers of the South Yorkshire District appear to have decided on the acceptance of arbitration to settle the dispute to which the proposed reduction of their wages has given Q 226 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. rise. The matter was large enough and grave enough to excite more attention than it has received from all who feel with ourselves that the fortunes of large numbers of working men are of, at least, as great national moment as those of any body of traders or manufacturers, however wealthy or influential. A pro- longed strike in the South Yorkshire coal trade would entail hunger and cold upon half a million of British subjects, chiefly women and children. There could be no doubt whatever that, no matter how the contest had resulted, the sufferings of the workpeople, and the families, especially in the present weather and at this season of general depression, must have been very serious. Moreover, the loss of wages by a six weeks' strike, even had the reduction been successfully resisted, would have been equivalent to the whole loss incurred during a year by the acceptance of the diminished rate. It is not, therefore, because we think the men necessarily in the wrong, or even because we hold that a strike could hardly be successful, that we rejoice in the prospect of a peaceful termination of the dispute. In no case could the men have gained on the whole, and in all probability they would have lost heavily, while inflicting on the masters in their turn an injury which must ultimately have recoiled upon themselves. Another consideration gives especial importance to the acceptance of arbitration. Temper has much to do, as a rule, with the resolution to carry industrial disputes to extremity. If the masters are not merely just and reasonable in their proposals, but courteous and con- siderate in form, and'careful to explain fully and clearly SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 227 the reasons which necessitate them; and if, on the other hand, the men are willing to look at the matter practically and calmly, without importing into it any vague irritation against capital and capitalists, or any bitter class feeling; a trade quarrel can generally be settled in an amicable manner. It is when the masters are peremptory or harsh, and the workmen petulant or passionate, or when both sides are more or less guilty of these characteristic errors, that needless waste and suffering are brought about, leaving behind them as a rule much mischievous ill-feeling and mutual distrust, even after the immediate question at issue has been settled. Willingness to abide by the decision of impartial arbitrators, even though it be not very easy to under- stand upon what basis the arbitrament is to proceed, argues a calmness of temper, an openness to conviction which may be trusted to avert a resort to hostile measures on either side, and to bring about an arrangement or a compromise. This is, perhaps, the most significant inference to be drawn from the readiness more and more often shown on both sides to adopt this means of reconciling antagonistic views on questions of work and Arbitration on such points is not, indeed, exactly logical, and its issue must always be to some extent matter of doubt and chance. There are hardly any fixed principles upon which a decision can proceed, and very much must depend upon the individual character and views of the arbiters selected. There is no standard rate either of wages or of profits to which the umpires Q2 228 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. can be expected to conform, by the possibility or im- possibility of attaining which their decision can be dis- tinctly and certainly guided. What are reasonable profits upon a series of years, what is upon the average a reasonable rate of remuneration for labour in any par- ticular trade, are questions which not only do not admit of definite rule, and cannot be ascertained upon any admitted principle, but upon which probably no two sets of arbiters would eiitertain the same general view. The masters may be able to prove that they are making no profit whatever in a time of distress ; yet it is hard to see how, even when this extreme and exceptional con- dition be fulfilled, the arbiters are to say what reduction of wages is reasonable. Obviously it cannot be affirmed that because the masters are making no profit, or even incurring a loss, any reduction of wages they may pro- pose is therefore reasonable ; and what proportion of the common loss the men should be called upon to endure cannot be determined upon any ascertained or accepted principle. What would be high wages in one craft are low wages in another. What would be in one business an abnormal absence of profit, requiring sharp remedial measures, may be in another only an ordinary con- dition recurring every five or six years, and compensated by the extraordinary profits of better times. How far the past gains of the masters on the one hand, and the portion of their prosperity conceded to the workmen on the other, are to be taken into account in settling the adjustment of their several shares of sacrifice in bad times, and how far back the reckoning is to go, are problems admitting of no other solution than the per- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 229 sonal judgment of the arbiters upon the particular case in hand may supply. Again, what wages it is worth the masters' while to pay rather than close their works ; what it is worth the men's while to accept rather than go elsewhere, or remain idle for a time, are questions which can only receive a permanent and decisive answer from actual experiment ; and actual experiment, generally meaning a strike or a lock-out, is the very thing which arbitration is intended to prevent. In fact, this reference to an outside tribunal of questions whose ultimate solu- tion must depend, according to economic theories, upon the higgling of the market, seems to imply a lingering belief in the minds of both masters and men, that in spite of economists, there is a reasonable rate of profit and a righteous maximum and minimum of wages ; a doctrine from which strict reasoning might easily deduce some very untenable corollaries. The truth is, however, that the tenor of arbitrations must, in the long run, be governed by the tendency of the labour market. They cannot keep up wages when two men are seeking one place, nor keep them down when three men are wanted where two are to be had. What they do effect is to settle for the moment the exact extent to which the tendency of the time shall be allowed to affect them. That they cannot always do this, and that, therefore, a refusal to resort to arbitration — especially on the part of the masters, who best understand the facts and the necessities of their position — is not always unreasonable should constantly be borne in mind. In the present instance it is beyond doubt that the men in the coal trade have profited very largely by the 230 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. temporary prosperity of their employers. When the demand was great, when prices were extravagantly high, and when coal-owners were making enormous gains at the expense of a severe pressure upon con- sumers, both in trade and in 'private life, the men de- manded and received one increase of wages after another. Whether those wages were wisely spent or no, whether the extra price paid for each ton delivered was spent in drink, or saved, or was taken out in less work and shorter hours, is not a matter that should affect the settlement of the question now to be submitted to the arbitrators. What the average rate of wages in the trade has been during a long course of years is the first of the conditions which must be ascertained in order to a reasonable and defensible decision. How far above that average rate the wages rose in time of prosperity, and how long they were continued at an abnormal height, is the second condition; for it would seem reasonable that in proportion to the excess above the average wage in time of prosperity should be the reduc- tion below the average rate in time of adversity. Again, the average rate of profits, and the extent and prolonga- - tion of their fall, is the point upon which the justifi- cation of the masters' claim for a reduction must in part at least depend. But problems of this intricate kind, dependent upon so many points not easily ascer- tained, involving so many considerations not exactly commensurable, and hardly to be determined by any logical rule, are generally settled in practice by a com- promise; and this tendency on the part of the arbi- trators, while no doubt it contributes to the acceptance SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 231 of their awards, diminishes somewhat on the whole the value of the growing practice of reference. When it is pretty obvious to both parties that the dispute between them will be settled in the end by a compromise com- monly consisting in a division of the difference, their natural disposition is to make that difference, at least in its first and formal statement, as wide as possible. The one party ask more than they intend to insist on, in order that, after yielding something, that which they think really necessary may be conceded to them. The other stand out against all concession, in order that they may concede something in the end, without yielding more than seems to them reasonable. On the whole, therefore, while we may justly rejoice in every instance of submission to arbitration, as avert- ing extremities which cause and lead to much ill-feeling, we must not look upon the practice as capable of doing more than this. It cannot fix either a permanent standard of wages, or the extent to which a departure from that standard should be a remedy for depression or a consequence of prosperity." If, as in the present crisis, where there is so much distress, and thousands are out of work, either through the unscrupulous tricks of reckless speculation ; or a derangement of the exchange of commodities, resulting from an undue proportion amongst the various kinds of production ; a broadcast prudence may in the future do something to avert the recurrence of such misappli- cation of capital : but the moment any division of trade is unusually prosperous, a rush into it must be ex- pected ; although, as may be expected, the new-comers 232 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. are sure to find far more blanks than prizes in their speculations. Taking a cosmopolite view of business, we find it for the most part a rough-and-ready scramble after gains, with an average tendency towards enormous mistakes, leading to disarrangements that rectify themselves painfully, and crop up again in the course of a few years. It would appear that well-nigh for the last twenty years there has been a rush for augmenting the means of production in England; and now all the world over, it is found that the provision for supplying cotton goods and iron is much beyond the demand ; hence arises the great difficulty, which we venture to say presses more heavily upon this country than any other — viz., the transfer of capital and labour from one employment to another. Be this as it may, if we cannot check the element of gambling in trade, and the alternate fluctuations of inflation and collapse, we may at least train the rising generation to be less helpless under them. And this alone can be accomplished through an education both physical and intellectual, which shall have for its object the cultivation of more mobility, and the removal of that vegetative inertness, which makes it so difficult for the bulk of the People to get a living in any other employ- ment than that to which they have been accustomed. Without a developed intelligence, people are incapable of improving their own condition, or directing to good results the efforts of their government. With it, men's range of view is enlarged : at home they are better qualified to exert their energies and carve out for them- SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 233 selves a pathway to fortune ; and if careers be over- crowded they have learnt that the world is wide, and there are other regions where the enterprising may succeed. In point of fact what is most wanted is that the teaching of our Educational Code be imbued with the spirit of those Transatlantic Institutions and influences which excites emulation and that generous ambition on which every species of excellence depends ; and which renders it so much easier for those trained under it to pass from spinning to ploughing or any other avoca- tion. In our great manufacturing towns there has not only been a lack of intellectual development, but a still worse neglect of physical training. Want of milk in infancy and childhood, neglect of mothers, who work in factories when their services are needed at home, early smoking of boys, early tippling of boys and girls, and later tippling of men and women — these, and their evil concomitants, make thousands puny and sickly who ought otherwise to be robust. Seeing then how few comparatively are possessed of physical or mental aptitude for other than their accus- tomed work without pain and discomfort, and how few can fit themselves for the emergencies of a new mode of life, in case a large emigration from our factory districts to our colonies should be found desirable — it seems to us deserving of School Boards' attention that Physical training should form an essential element of the pro- gramme in every school throughout the land ; as a necessary condition and a salutary provision against 234 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the contingencies which an extensive change of em- ployment would entail upon thousands who may not be wanted either in cotton spinning or iron works here or elsewhere. In fine — let us have our Educational Code carried out with its cognate corollaries, in all their integrity ; then may we hope that the last vestige of Egyptian regime that still lingers in our midst will the more readily fade and flicker out in presence of the brighter efful- gence of a liberal and enlightened practical knowledge among all classes — the harbinger of the real happiness and true welfare of the People — the keystone to the supreme permanency of this great and mighty empire. Whilst thoroughly appreciative of the many just claims which society owes to honest labour, we cannot with- hold our repudiation of the pernicious cant now so prevalent amongst us about " non-producers " and the so-called dignity of the man who can "make some- thing " :— beyond all this there is another element which we would submit to our readers — viz., that people who know how to accumulate money and to use it. properly, are of immense service to the country generally, and are alike indispensable to its welfare and development ; — hence the high and honourable position to which Capitalists and others attain, who have well done their duty by the commonweal ; the validity of whose claims none is readier to admit than the working man himself. Eightly or wrongly there has grown up among large numbers of working men a profound distrust of employers in general. A conviction seems to have laid hold of the working man that there is a determination amongst SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 23f> employers, and even an organised plan, to reduce the wages of labour, and if possible to cripple or destroy the trades unions and the power of the working classes. In other words, that there is now being carried out an extensive and systematic scheme of aggression by capital upon labour. Now if this distrust be well founded, most assuredly a crisis fraught with evil and peril to industry and human progress is inevitable ; for, as may be ex- pected, the aggrieved (deservedly or otherwise) will form themselves into much more compact organisation against the power and aggressiveness of employers, and exercise a still more active propaganda, with a closer federation of unions ; in all of which if unsuccessful, who is to stem the torrent of a deepening hatred and growth of anger, or stay the hand of an arbitrament of violence ? The following observations seem to us specially de- serving of Working Men's earnest attention : — " The relative progress of the export trade is the most reliable standard by which the cost of production in different countries may be compared. If therefore we find that the export from Great Britain of any description of her manufactures is increasing while that of foreign countries is falling off, we may be sure that our goods are better or cheaper than theirs. If, on the contrary, our exports are decreasing while theirs are increasing, we may be equally certain that our goods are worse or dearer than those of foreign nations. The competition our Cotton manufacturers have at present most to fear is that from America, and it is from America that we receive information that the export of cotton goods is increasing. If our exports were increasing as 236 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. well as those of American manufacturers this fact of the revival of the home trade of America would not be of much importance in drawing a parallel, but when wc find that the export of British Cotton goods is decreasing the matter assumes a serious aspect. The exports of cotton goods from Great Britain in July, 1877 and 1879, were as follows : — Cotton Yarn in lbs. Cotton Cloth in Yards. 1877 20,009,200 358,118,300 1879 17,508,200 301,830,800 2,501,000 56,287,500 Some are of opinion that our Cotton manufacturers have every advantage over their competitors but one, and that one disadvantage lies in the influence of our present factory law. Ours are the only factories where work is restricted to 56 hours per week, and to them it would appear this solitary fact is more than sufficient to deprive us of our commercial supremacy and therefore eventually of our cotton manufacturing industry. The Trades Unions should be mindful of these things. Extravagant demands on behalf of labour may destroy the old indus- trial supremacy of this country, and a concession may be dearly bought, if, in the, end, the employment of the British Workman be transferred to his foreign rival." — T. Brassey. At the " Trades Union Congress " recently held in Dublin, Dr. J. K. Ingram, F.T.C.D., in addressing himself to a discussion of the position, the require- ments, and the future of the working classes, said : — Every particular social problem is only a case of this general one — how to subordinate all social forces to SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 237 the highest permanent well-being of the community. Now, the more they studied that great question, the more they should find that no material expedients, however useful in the proper place, would suffice for its solution. That solution must be essentially moral ; the end in view could only be attained by means of a generally accepted code of social duties, continuously applied and brought to bear on practice by the systematic solicitude of society. The essential basis of this action was the establishment of stable intellec- tual convictions respecting the conditions of healthy social life — in other words, a scientific sociology. Duties, in fact, are social functions freely performed, and they could not be fixed with the degree of definite- ness necessary for practical discipline without a stady of the functions as they arise out of the natural con- stitution and historical development of the social body. The ideas appropriate to each function must thus be elaborated, in order to determine the corresponding duties. This was the high practical distinction which lay before sociology, and which gave it an importance and interest transcending that of every other depart- ment of human knowledge. Discussing the general conceptions which we ought to form of the industrial functions and the relations between them which had to be regulated, Dr. Ingram said the existence of the capitalist and the maintenance of his independence were necessary in the public interest. He considered that ideas of the office of the workman must also be trans- formed. The way in which his position was habitually contemplated by the economists was a very narrow, and 238 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. therefore false one. Labour was spoken of as if it were an independent entity separable from the personality of the workman. It was treated as a commodity, like corn or cotton, the human agent, his human needs, human nature and human feelings being kept almost completely out of view. There were, no doubt, if we carried our abstractions far enough, certain resemblances between the contract of employer and employed and the sale of a commodity, but by fixing exclusive or even predominant attention on these they missed the deepest and truly characteristic features of the relation of master and workmen — a relation with which moral conditions were inseparably associated. By viewing labour as a commodity they at once got rid of the moral basis on which the relation of employer and employed should stand, and made the so-called law of the market the sole regulator of that relation. The only really human conception of labour, and the only scheme which put employer and employed each in his right place was that which presented the workman, not as a semi-slave selling himself or part of himself for purely private ends, but as a free man co-operating according to his ability in the service of humanity under the guidance of an associate in the same service who differed from him only as captain from a private soldier. This twofold conception of the capitalist and workman brought out - distinctly their duties to each other. Those duties were such as spring from their relation as mutually indispensable associates in the execution of a great social function. This implied, along with the cultivation of habits of mutual respect, a spirit of mutual help and furtherance, and a loyal SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 239 interest in each other's prosperity. These obligations were binding on both sides. On the part of the work- men they called for faithful work as opposed to eye service and for abstinence from all unreasonable de- mands. In the master, as the higher and more powerful of the associates, they involved a larger responsi- bility and duties of a wider range. As the appropriate motto of the feudal ages was noblesse oblige, so that of modern industrial society must be richesse oblige. The masters ought to be, as some of them have nobly shown themselves, the friends of their workmen, interested in their welfare, giving them opportunities for intel- lectual improvement, trying to make all the conditions of their labour as favourable as possible to their health, comfort, and morality. The master who succeeded, as it was called, without caring for his men, and helping them to succeed along with him, had attained no true success. In spite of the wealth he had accumulated, tried by every real standard, his life had been a failure. Dr. Ingram expressed it as his opinion that the general tendency of co-operative societies of production would be to affect injuriously the peace of the working man, his freedom of mind, his openness to elevated ideas, and his real independence. Criticising the trades' union movement, Dr. Ingram said it would be an impertinence on his part to advise working men to maintain the unions. What he would urge was the importance of introducing more and more of moral elements into their action. They had already recognised that violence and menace were forbidden to them as means of effecting their objects, and this had 240 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. immensely strengthened them in public estimation. They should put forward their claims by conciliatory methods, regarding strikes as a last resource, sometimes, indeed, necessary, but always deplorable, as intensifying evil passions and compromising many innocent persons. They should discuss wages, hours of labour, piecework, apprenticeship, on higher grounds than those of mate- rial class interests. They should invite the attention of the thinking public to these questions, and look to public disinterested opinion as the judge and controller of lheir operations. In reply to the question, what were the real requirements of the working men, Dr. Ingram said they were adequate wages, a well-regulated home, and education. Commenting upon the work- men's domestic life, he said the modern solicitude for the sanitary improvement of dwellings would modify his habits for good by making home more attractive ; whilst it would tend to the production of a healthier and more energetic industrial population. The acquisition, too, of the dwelling as his property would have the most important reaction on the sentiments and habits of the family, and those persons deserved the gratitude of the community who were labouring to make this acquisition easier by modifications of the law. And remarked, in conclusion, that what was really important for toorking men ivas that the whole class should rise in material comfort and security, and still more in intellectual and moral attainments. That grand old man, Earl Eussell, the illustrious de- scendant of the first son of England's nobility who took a seat in our House of Commons, thus affectionately SOCIAL AND POLITICAL. 241 addresses himself to the Working Classes whom he has gathered around him for a holiday — " Every measure," says this faithful depositary of a noble house, " whether in its elevation or in its suffering, by which more power has been placed in the hands of mechanics, artisans, and labourers, has justified the hopes of those who have fought their battles, and has given the lie to the fears of those who foretold from each reform the downfall of the constitution and the ruin of the country. The spread of education among all ranks of the people to which I have devoted much thought and labour, and which I reckon as one of the chief blessings a people can enjoy, is another cause of anxiety and dread to a party — but hap- pily a fast diminishing party in the land. It is for the people also to give the lie to this anxiety and dread. Higher and more general education will teach all ranks of men to follow the path of peaceful progress which alone leads to the security of nations. There is no man, however humble, who may not do something towards this end, and who may not help to remedy whatever social or political grievances or abuses still remain. There is no such safety for the grand old edifice of this dear Constitution as the timely removal of rotten beams and the substitution of sound timber may at any moment give. Much may be done for working men, but much more may be done by themselves. Let all classes unite to do their duty by their homes, their country, and their God, and the British nation will go on prospering more and more, and be a Polar star to other nations still struggling for the freedom which our forefathers won ; and which it is our duty to hand down, E 242 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. not only unimpaired, but strengthened, enlarged, and purified, to our children, and their children's children for ever." There can be but little doubt that with the more general diffusion of Education and of sound political knowledge in their ranks, the industrial classes of Great Britain are destined to exercise a much greater influence on the future of the House of Commons and the tone of its legislation than they have done in the past. Those, however, who think that the million exist only to toil and moil and pay taxes for the benefit of the drones of society, may feel alarmed at this prospect, and affect much pious horror at the spectre which their own imagination raises. But if England were abandoned to such visionaries as these, she would, in all human proba- bility, become within another century as effete as Spain or Turkey ; instead of gaining fresh strength by accepting the inevitable, and widening out — " broad-based upon the people's will " — its usages and constitution. OF MECHANICS' AND LITERARY INSTITUTES AND THEIR ENNOBLING EXAMPLE. In a recent distribution of prizes at the Mechanics' Institute, Bradford, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge ob- served : " That men now-a-days were ashamed to say that knowledge and cultivation were bad things for any one in any stage of life. Knowledge in its widest sense and cultivation in its deepest meaning were admitted to be the privilege of human beings, and whatever was good and true would eventually assert itself, in spite of all opposition. The absolute supremacy of reason was about the earliest lesson which knowledge and cultiva- tion taught, and by it the highest institutions must stand or fall." The learned Chief Justice altogether denies that knowledge is dangerous for the operative classes; on the contrary, his Lordship holds that in proportion as the working men of England gather knowledge, they become not dangerous but safe — dan- gerous, perhaps, as they ought to be, to institutions which admit of no defence. The ultimate power of England was with the English people, and it was now too late, if any man wished it, to push back the hand on the dial. It was the duty of every one to do the best for himself, in both soul and body, during the short space God permitted us to live, but it was little in this respect that a poor hard-working man could do for himself. " The report of their proceedings," con- tinued his Lordship, " showed that they had been doing b2 244 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. real, sincere work, and as long as they continued to do so they would prosper." And, let us add, so may it be of the People — working in their respective spheres, with all the energy that Heaven bestows — to "go on and prosper"; each and all of us looking forward to that spring-tide of happiness foreshadowed by the immortal Milton : — " Tea, truth and justice, then, Will down return to men, Orb'd in a rainbow ; and like glories wearing, Mercy will sit between, Thron'd in celestial sheen, With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering ; And Heaven, as at some festival, Will open wide the gates of her high palace-hall." At their annual meeting in Liverpool The President of the Association of Manxmen thus touchingly refers to the influence of education : "We, as Manxmen, are all agreed that education is a good thing ; and whether it affects you or me, it does materially our children. See, then, that you bring them up to a certain end. When you plant a tree so as to give it every advantage of soil, sun, air, and moisture ; when you clear it from blight and canker, carefully train its promising branches, and prune away its useless ones, you are, in a sense, educating that tree. You do all this with a view to its fruitfulness — the end you keep in view at every stage. So, in the education of children, you train them up with a view to their future well-being. We look to the great rehearsal of life in the nursery, to the gentle leadings of parental love, to the prudent and tender nurture of early years for the elevation of a large and MECHANICS' AND LITERARY INSTITUTES. 245 most important class of our countrymen. We do not expect to find a Newton in every household, but we look to every family to prepare the nascent mind for the seed that will he afterwards sown. Education is but, as it were, the sowing of the seed ; what the increase will be, defeats the power of calculation. In this mental harvest none would reap sparingly, nor is any motive wanting that wisdom can suggest to induce all to sow liberally in these bright fields of hope and pro- mise. But while we thus train up the youthful mind, see that we impart a love of truth, whatever our diffi- culties and disappointments. Let the attainment of truth be the end of all our labours, and the promotion of truth be the aim of our lives, whether public or social ; and although we may not perform the achieve- ments or win the fame of a Newton or a Wellington, we shall no iess certainly add a worthy contribution to the onward progress of the world, and place, as the result of our labours, an imperishable stone in that great edifice which shall eternally endure, a glorious witness to the immortality of its founders — the wise and good of every age, clime, and race." — J. N. Cregecn. " The Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution." . " Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither the mighty man in his might ; let not the rich man glory in his riches ; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, righteousness, and judgment in the earth ; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." To this prophetic voice of 216 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. inspiration a responsive echo was heard, when assem- bled together at the Temple of Industry the nations first sang their universal song of praise — at their head : — the philanthropist, whose faithful discharge of duty was to him the nearest approach in this life to happi- ness, and success in doing good not the least precious of Heaven's beatitudes — the philosopher, whose lesson of life it was to make this troubled world of ours some- what wiser, better, and happier, if possible, for our having passed through it — the statesman, who mea- sured not the greatness of nations by wealth or appa- rent power, but by the abundance in which the people had learnt to gather from the world of books, of art, and of nature, a pure and an ennobling joy — the prince, "the father of our kings to be," whose memory in whatever relation of life shall go down to all posterity encircled with the halo of Albert the Good ! As with the individual so with the nations. That nation in which justice, honour, prudence, self-reliance, and public spirit are the characteristic qualities of the citizens; the people in whom regard for the common weal not only possesses a merely negative power over the conduct, but is the ruling passion of the life, a passion to whose service every faculty of mind and body is devoted — that nation will be " the chosen people," and will insensibly and unconsciously give laws to the rest of the world. Its influence though silent will be supreme, and its character and spirit will slowly yet not the less securely permeate the utmost regions of the earth. Upon the recent celebration of the fifty-fifth anniver- sary of " The Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institu- MECHANICS' AND LITERARY INSTITUTES. 2i7 tion " the prizes and certificates won by the students for the past year were distributed by His Koyal High- ness Prince Leopold. After the prizes had been dis- tributed, the illustrious scion of Albert the Good, addressing the assemblage, said : — " It gives me great pleasure to stand here to-day in the place which the Duke of Sussex occupied at the first distribution of prizes more than half a century ago, and to feel that during that half century the progress of your institution has been one of such unmixed success that, from its small and struggling beginning, it has ramified and increased until England is covered with institutions after the same pattern, and your own central institution has grown to the importance which is represented by the company of its friends whom I now see around me ; by the list of honours which we have heard read ; and by the reports which testify to the large number of students (3,500) who are entering under your auspices into the world of science and of culture. No one who reads the distinguished names of those who form your list of honorary examiners — no one who notes the long roll of scholarships, prizes, and certificates obtained by your students during the past year — can doubt that the work done has been done under the ablest guidance, and has been of a thoroughly solid and satisfactory kind. I am particularly glad to see the stress which your programme lays on technical education. We Englishmen may be justly proud of the character for mental and physical strength and capacity which our artisans bear all over the world, but our pride is sadly dashed by accompany- ing criticisms on the ignorance and indifference to any- 248 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. thing needing thought which too often render that native vigour and intelligence a comparatively useless thing. Properly instructed, I believe that our British artisan need fear no rival in the world, but if he goes out un- taught and ignorant into the battle of life he is in danger of being outdone by the more carefully trained skill of foreign workmen. Against this danger your institution offers a bulwark whose importance it would be hard to over-rate. I am glad to see the eagerness with which modern languages are learnt in your classes. Foreign nations are not merely our competitors but our friends, and nothing, I believe, is likely to create so true a feel- ing of friendship and sympathy between one people and another as a practical knowledge of each other's speech. Sometimes, perhaps, as the proverb says, ' We take what is unknown to be magnificent.' Oftener we take it to be something unfriendly and distasteful to us, something which, if we did know it, we should not like. But we find that with every real increase in the under- standing of our fellow-men of different races some unkindly illusion disappears — we learn to realise their likeness to ourselves, to sympathise with their national character, to co-operate in their efforts for the common good. I need not go at length into the advantages to be derived from each of the subjects which your curriculum embraces. There is not one which cannot but be of great service to a practical career, and to the mental development of the zealous student ; and there is so much similarity in the conditions of all effort and suc- cess that even the studies which seem most remote from MECHANICS' AND LITERARY INSTITUTES. 249 active life may often furnish a model which life can employ. I notice that in what is called the miscel- laneous department of your curriculum you provide instruction in the game of chess. This is not the most obviously practical of your subjects, but it has struck me that even those, if any there be, who desire to limit their education to this branch alone, may learn some not unimportant lesson of life from the manner in which you teach it. ' Particular attention,' I see your pro- gramme says, ' is paid to the study of openings.' Now, is it not true that in life, as in chess, it is often the opening, and the opening only, which is under our own control ? Later in the game, the plans and wishes of others begin to conflict unpleasantly with our own. Sometimes it is as much as we can do to avoid being checkmated altogether ; but for the first few moves we are free — we can deploy our pieces to the best advantage, we can settle on the line of action which best suits our powers, and we sometimes find that it will repay us to sacrifice a pawn or a piece so as to gain at once a position which may give us a decided advantage throughout the whole game. Does not this remind us of early life ? Must we not often be content to sacrifice some power of present pleasure or profit to gain a vantage ground which may help us to that success which self-indulgence would never win ? I am sure that amid the bright young faces I see around me there are many who have known what it is to labour against the grain, to begin a lesson when they would rather have gone to the theatre, to finish it when they would rather have gone to bed. I am sure that such efforts of self-denial and conscien- 250 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. tiousness, form at least one-half of the real benefit of education ■; that it would do us but little good to wake up and find our heads magically stocked with all manner of facts in comparison to the good which it does us to fight for knowledge, to suffer for her, and to make her at last our own. In great things as in small, this principle of self-help is a peculiarly English spirit. How much has been accomplished in this country by private initiative, by spontaneous growth ! We have trusted that men like Dr. Birkbeck would arise — men who felt the needs of others as their own, and who could not rest without spreading widely around them the privileges which they had themselves enjoyed. We have trusted that such men would arise, and they have risen. No nation, if I may venture to say it, has produced a larger proportion of such philanthropists than their own. No nation, I am sure I may assert, has been more eager to aid those philanthropists in life — to honour them when they have passed away ; and when the good work has taken root and flourished, the Universities and the State itself have stepped in and given their invaluable sanction and guidance to movements which have grown to national importance. I am glad to see how widely your council and your students avail themselves of such direction and aid. I am glad to see the long list of prizes won by your students from the Science and Art Department at South Ken- sington. I am glad to see that others have matriculated in the University of London ; and in this connection I cannot forget the assistance which my own University of MECHANICS' AND LITERARY INSTITUTES. 251 Oxford is anxious to render to the classes for whose benefit your institution is designed. I would first remind you of the lectures recently started in many parts of London by the syndicate for the ex- tension of University teaching — a scheme in which the three Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London have combined, and which offers more advanced instruc- tion in many subjects of which your students have already laid so sound a foundation. I need feel no hesitation as to speaking in your presence of educational efforts other than our own. Learning is a commodity the demand for which grows with the supply. We do not fear a glut of science or of intelligence as we might fear a glut of cotton goods or indigo ; and the knowledge which we, who now live, can gain will assuredly be made useful both to ourselves and those who come after us. It was the conviction that sound education could never be too widely spread or too eagerly enjoyed, which was the source of Dr. Birkbeck's claim to the gratitude of posterity. He saw that a knowledge of truth was not to be the privilege of a class or of a sect. In an age when the strongest prejudice existed against the education of women, he earnestly claimed for women their fair share in the educational privileges of men. He was for spreading the banquet of knowledge before all alike, and he trusted that nature would see that the Benjamin's mess fell to the lot of those who had the keenest appetite and the strongest digestion. If all this seems common- place now, we must remember that, as it has been said, the common-places of one generation are the paradoxes of the last. How would they have ever become common- 252 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. place but for the ardour of conviction which inspired a few far-seeing men ? How far greater a thing is this spirit of personal, practical, rational benevolence than any mere gifts of money can be ! Dr. Birkbeck — and in speaking of him I speak also of his friends and coad- jutors, and of the son who now so worthily fills his father's place — was, no doubt, even in the mere matter of money, a most generous man ; but it was not bis pecuniary generosity which has caused his name to become the household word it is to-day. It was because he gave to his great work something far more precious, and rarer than money — intelligence and the single- hearted devotion of a life. We honour him, not so much because he helped others from without, as because he touched the chord and evoked the impetus which enabled them to help themselves from within. It is not for his endowments that we thank him most, but for his example ; as indeed for any institution its founder's high example is the best of endowments, and the most en- during legacy that a man can leave to his country is the memory which impels those who come after him to strenuous efforts and exalted aims." The Lord Bishop of Manchester, in distributing the prizes to the pupils of the Keighley Trade School — a branch of the Mechanics' Institute there — observed :■ — " that we all started in life very much more on a level than most persons supposed. Buffon had defined genius as patience, and it was quite certain that in the long run patience, perseverance, and industry won the day'. He was not jealous of the rising generation ; he was certain that they had many advantages in pursuing MECHANICS' AND LITER AMY INSTITUTES. 253 their studies, but they had some drawbacks. In his school-days there were no cheap translations of the classics. He had to translate his Greek with the grammar and lexicon, and he was inclined to think that the grammar and lexicon method had its advan- tages. Some of the facilities which they enjoyed were positively mischievous. It did not matter so much how many things they learned as that they should learn well what they did learn. In England we were falling into the vice of the Americans, in crowding too many things into our educational programmes. Education went on all through life, but in the majority of cases the educa- tion of the school must come to an end about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The last year or two at school were undoubtedly the more important, and that parent was doing the best thing for his child who, if he could possibly afford it, kept him at school for two or three years longer. He feared that sometimes parents had a false ambition for their sons. He wished that every parent would make his sons and daughters remember that England was their country, that it had a great past, and that it might have a great future. He did not believe that England was played out. There was an overruling hand above the nations, but God left the destinies of nations very much in their own hands. Nations that tread the paths of luxury were sure to come to an early grave. Those who looked with dis- cerning eyes would say that England had been suc- cessful and great when she had obeyed and been governed by the laws which the moral Government of God had impressed on His Word." 254 POPULAR, INSTRUCTION. " M. de Tocqueville had said that the perils of De- mocracy arose from the tendency of individualism. It would only be as we realised that we were citizens of a great country that we should escape from that peril. Some- times he was concerned to see what men pledged them- selves to do or to vote for, in order to secure a majority of the votes of a constituency. There was no satisfaction in the world to be exchanged for the satisfaction of doing right, let come of it what may. He did not believe in self-seeking, and he was glad that in the North of Eng- land people followed those men who were most bent on doing good to their fellow-citizens. Society rested on a much broader and stronger basis than individual lives. Much hung, no doubt, on the life of the Queen, but kings and queens died, and society went on tran- quilly, and it was found that that society was most healthy, most strong, which rested on the largest basis of the peaceful, contented, well-employed masses of the citizens. The value of life was mainly an individual concern, and it was for our own sakes, more than for the world's, that we were bidden to play noble parts. The moral forces of the world were the strongest and the most dominating. It was not the clever men, but the patient, the brave, the self-denying, that were the strongest. If society in England was to be saved, and society in England was in some peril, it must be by the raising of its moral tone." ON TECHNICAL OK HANDICRAFT INSTRUCTION. The industrial supremacy of a nation depends largely upon the superior skill of her artisans, which invaluable quality is to a great extent dependent on the oppor- tunities afforded them for getting sound fundamental ideas. It was a dictum of the great Napoleon that France might have some claim to boast of her civilisa- tion when she had turned every artisan into an artist. Be this as it may, every handicraft must in practice be carried out subject to well-known physical laws and principles. The contrivance to facilitate mechanical operations which we call " inventions " are due to the struggle the mechanic must wage with the properties of matter and recognised physical laws. He who knows most about both can of course most readily adapt him- self to them— in other words, conquer by obeying them. The ability to do this is what is termed " skill," and the common measure of distinction between a skilful workman and one of superficial smartness may be usually determined by the difference between the amount of appropriate education they have attained. The labourer is specially called on to study the properties of matter, because his business is to work on it, and he works more wisely, effectually, cheerfully, and honourably in proportion as he knows the laws and forces of which he avails himself, understands the reason of what he does, and can explain the changes which fall under his eye. 256 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. Society can have no grander or nobler aim than to raise human beings degraded by ignorance to the dignity and status of intelligent citizens imbued by a proper sense of their privileges, obligations, and responsibilities. In fine, to educate the workman not to be above his work, but to be interested in it, and to put into it his brains, as well as his handicraft. A writer, whose practical suggestions give lustre to that leading periodical of the working classes — The Weekly Times — says : — " One of the difficulties con- nected with Science-teaching in the Government-in- spected schools arises from the appointment of persons as examiners who know nothing about it. It is cer- tainly," the writer observes, " a great mistake to sacrifice the interests of the children — and of the nation con- cerned in their training — to the ignorance of men whose own education has been so defective as not to include the elements of the cardinal sciences. As a rule, the clergy are lamentably deficient in scientific knowledge, and perhaps there is too great a tendency to appoint members of their body as examiners. If we look to what is most likely to train the young to habits of accurate observation, and consider what rudimentary information is most certain to be of use to them in whatever occupation they may be engaged in, the sciences must occupy a foremost place, and come next in order to reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic. For a boy especially, it is an enormous advantage to know something of mechanics, physics, and chemistry. The properties of levers, pulleys, inclined planes, pumps, cranes, &c, ought to be understood by everybody, and TECHNICAL. 25? there is no difficulty in making these subjects very in- teresting to children. If such knowledge comes less directly into use in the occupations of girls than in those of boys, it is still well that they should know something about such matters, because the study of them is a good mental training, and opens the way to understanding many other things. The simpler facts of physiology are also of great importance, for ignorance of them frequently leads to a serious amount of preventible disease. A little chemistry, making intelligible the pro- perties of air and water, and different kinds of food, have a similar value in reference to health ; and surely the chemical properties of substances in common use should be known to everybody. Now, it should be remembered, this authority justly observes — that sciences as well as languages have their a b c, and it is only these simple elements that anybody desires to introduce into all Board and other elementary schools. The higher branches of science should be freely open to scholars who can fairly win their way to them, but that which should be taught to all should be limited to what all can easily learn — presuming the teacher to be competent — and to that which, if not known, will be seriously missed in practical life. Ele- mentary education ought to have two objects in view as mental training : to teach children to use their eyes and other senses so that they may be sharp observers, and to teach them to think about what they see, hear, touch, or smell. Besides these purposes it is most desirable that they should know as much as they can conveniently be taught that is sure to be of direct utility when they s 258 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. leave school. One of the commonest defects of badly- trained people is that they do not use their eyes, and do not think : and there is no mode of correcting this tendency equal to science-teaching, and none which pupils of average intelligence take to so kindly. If the time be well-apportioned, and the examiners are fit for their work, two or three short lesions in science could be given in each week, and if well illustrated by objects, diagrams, and experiments, would please the pupils, and be firmly fixed in their memories. When we consider how far our huge population is dependent for its daily bread upon the application of science to its various industries in iron, coal, cotton, pottery,' glass, and so forth, it seems strange that it is still necessary to plead hard for elementary science-teaching." Our iron, steel, and textile products meet with in- creasing competition from those of America, Germany, and France in foreign markets, and the only hope of maintaining our ground as an industrial people, in the face of protective tariffs which bristle around us in all directions, lies in tbe British Workman being stimulated to aim at a loftier aesthetic standard. Still further, as has been observed by an eminent Professor — "the prosperity of industry depends not merely upon the improvement of manufacturing pro- gress, not merely upon the ennobling of the individual character, but upon a third condition — namely, a clear understanding of the condition of social life on the part of both the capitalist and the operative, and their, agree- ment upon common principles of social action. They must learn that social phenomena are as much the TECHNICAL. 259 expression of natural laws as any others ; that no social arrangements can be permanent unless they harmonise with the requirements of social statics and dynamics ; and that in the nature of things there is an arbiter whose decisions execute themselves. But this know- ledge is only to be obtained by the application of the method of investigation adopted in physical researches to the investigation of the phenomena of society." — Huxley. One of the most interesting and instructive depart- ments of the Paris Exposition was that devoted to the illustration of the working and results of the system of French popular education both in Paris and in the Provinces. The foreign visitor who observes with ad- miration throughout the country the evidences of the general artistic and technical skill of the French Workmen of every class would have seen in this Edu- cational Department of the Exposition the key to the secret of that success. And he might also, if wise, read in it a lesson for' his own countrymen. The models of the French schools, the tables of their statistics, the plans of their buildings, and especially the abundant technical and artistic products of the pupils' industry, and the numerous series of scholastic apparatus of all kinds — these must have struck intelligent foreigners with surprise, if not with humiliation also, at the compara- tive imperfections of other countries in this important department. One of the United States Commissioners to the Exhibition has remarked that in common with his countrymen generally, he had previously supposed the United States to be foremost in the world in its s2 260 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. system of popular instruction, but that he is now com- pelled to acknowledge the great superiority of France, even over America, in this direction. Englishmen might have done well to study this portion of the Exposition most carefully. Members of School Boards, heads of Colleges and Schools, and members of municipal bodies specially interested in the improvement of technical and practical education in their own country, might well have derived great advantage from the exhibits in this department, which presented such marvellous contrast to the defi- ciency of technical education, comparatively with what might otherwise be expected from the huge endowments of the Guilds, &c, in England for the advancement of the People. When, may we ask, will the Corporation of London be able to compete with the deeply interesting results there displayed by the sister municipality of Paris ? As a step in this direction it is gratifying to observe that the " City and Guilds of London Institute " for the advancement of Technical Education has recently issued a programme whereby the British artisan may become not only practically, but theoretically and scientifically, proficient in his craft. The examination may be con- ducted in any part of the country where a local committee of the Science and Art Department, or any examination board connected with the Society of Arts, will superin- tend them. Certificates are to be granted in three grades, honours, advanced, and elementary ; and these, it is generally intended, are to be competed for by foremen and overlookers, journeymen and apprentices TECHNICAL. 2G1 respectively, but candidates may practically enter them- selves for any grade which they may choose to select. Any person may present himself for examination, but before he can be awarded a certificate in technology he will require to have passed the Science and Art Depart- ment in certain science subjects. Any workman who passes the test in any one subject for which he chooses to enter himself, will obtain a certificate to that effect. The technicalities of nearly all the principal industries of the country will be included, and the examinations are specially calculated to test the knowledge possessed by workmen of the scientific and fundamental principles of their various trades. However confident a workman may be of his own powers, it will be more satisfactory to himself to know that they have borne the test of an impartial examiner ; and an artisan armed with a cer- tificate from such a source must naturally take a higher rank with his employer than he did previously. Foreign workmen have long enjoyed the facilities for technical study which have hitherto been wanting in this country, and they have reaped the benefit of the knowledge so acquired to the disadvantage of the English artisan. All other things being equal — which hitherto has not been the case — there never was any fear but what the British artisan could hold his own with the foreigner ; and the classes now being instituted will go further to supply the admitted deficiency than anything which has yet been done by the Science and Art Department. To provide larger and more varied science and art collections in the great centres of industry, and supple- ment the inadequate resources at present derived frora 262 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the Parliamentary votes for free libraries and museums — thus promoting the mental culture of the working classes and the advancement of technical education throughout the length and breadth of the land — is a question which must no longer be shelved; if, as is alleged, Europe and America will soon be brought face to face in severe competition throughout the various markets of the world, with a race whose mercantile genius and powers of combination have already secured for them the almost entire import trade in foreign goods and produce. A race in which every adult for many centuries past has been able to read and write — and whose empire abounds with cotton, coal, and iron, be- sides an abundance of skilled labour. A race in whatever subordinate department of labour the native has measured his capacity against that of his white rival, the fight has generally .resulted in the Caucasian being dislodged by the lower remuneration which con- tents-, and by the patient toil which universally distin- guishes the Mongol. Four thousand five hundred years ago it is stated the Chinese had attained a high degree of national culture. They were acquainted with the art of printing and the properties of the magnetic needle, as is alleged, centuries before these objects were included in the range of Western knowledge. Their five sacred books contain, • amidst much inevitable error and superstition, traces of profoundest wisdom. The principle on which their political government is founded — in theory at least — is "Do to another ivhat you would he should to you." , Their aqueducts are marvels of engineering enterprise ; TECHNICAL. 263 innumerable bridges span their rivers ; their great wall is. carried over a ridge of mountains 5,000 feet above the level of the sea; their land is subjected to a perfect system of irrigation ; their industry is unflagging ; while .their honesty will bear an average comparison with that of Western communities. Already hundreds of thousands of them have gone forth to fill positions of every grade— from merchants to menials. Not only have guilds been organised at the treaty ports for the deliberate embarrassment of trade in imports by European merchants, but the Celestials are actually contemplating the establishment of native houses in the great industrial and shipping centres of England, the Continent, and the United States, so as, if possible, to prevent foreign intermediaries from de- riving any profit whatever upon goods between the time of their delivery by the manufacturer and their coming into possession of the ultimate consumer. And if, as is alleged by competent authorities,- the Chinese are about to establish cotton mills in their own country, where special facilities exist for procuring the raw material, as well as coal and iron, besides the abundance of skilled labour referred to, it is certainly not beyond the limits of possibility that China may yet become the chief source for the supply of textile fabrics to the world. Long ago the Chinese — or those classes among them which had been brought more immediately under foreign influence — conquered their prejudices against the locomo- tive and the paddle-wheel ; but they obstinately adhered to the old form of power and hand-loom weaving. Their next step upon the path of modern progress is, it would 264 FOPULAM INSTRUCTION. appear, to be the establishment of steam cotton mills, in which, taught by the lesson of Japan, they -will begin by employing European engineers. It has for many years been urged by those who are keenly conversant with the whole subject, that unless we adapted our fabrics and prices more to the Chinese markets, the Chinese would ultimately take the business out of our hands. Even in the matter of patterns, our Conservatism has largely failed to please them. Therefore they, or a section of the nation styling itself Young China, have resolved to open up fresh channels of native enterprise, and to create, in due season, a Manchester of their own. The commencement of this undertaking, no doubt, promises to be clumsy, and more fruitful in boasts than in re- sults ; but its promoters, as we learn, have the common sense to perceive that for some few years at least they must work under English tutelage. But they threaten another innovation. They will cease, as soon as pos- sible, from purchasing the raw material abroad, and rely upon indigenous growths rather than upon imports from Bombay. Now all this exhibits a tendency to bring the whole product, from the seed-pod to the perfected fabric, within the command of their own hands, and, once set in motion, it can hardly be doubted the spirit of this enterprise will spread. Of course the economical and fiscal notions of the Chinese, in connection with their latest industrial ambition, are of the crudest ; but they are a people, who, if they have been sometimes slow to learn from others, have usually been beyond measure quick in profiting by their own experience. How far the general cotton market of the globe may in time be TECHNICAL. 265 affected by the threatened rivalry is a question of the future ; but China, as a region of steam cotton mills, instead of defective power and primitive hand-looms, will most assuredly, with its population of one-third the world, take a different rank in the field of manufacturing competition, which cannot well be overrated; when we take into account its other immense internal resources. A distinguished authority on Political Economy says : — There can be no doubt that, if a knowledge of the laws of nature were more generally diffused through- out the operative classes, the progress of invention would be inconceivably more rapid. In fact nothing' would tend so directly to the general improvement of the useful arts as a wide diffusion of the knowledge of principles in obedience to the laws of nature among those whose business it is to employ those principles in their daily avocations. The expansive power of steam was known long before a steam-engine was invented ; and still longer before any application of it was devised by which it might be used for propelling vessels through water. At length a knowledge of the laws of steam gave birth to all the machinery connected with the steam-engine. And, in general, many of our most important inventions have been made by operative labourers, it seems not too much to hope for, that the knowledge of the laws of nature will yet be so universally diffused, that invention shall almost cease to be the work of accident ; and that when an improvement is wanted, men will proceed to discover the law, and invent the application, just as Sir Hum- phry Davy proceeded when he was requested to invent POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the safety-lamp ; or as Sir Richard Ark^right, a mechanic, invented the spinning machinery now in use; and Fulton of America, when he applied that modifica- tion of the steam-engine, by which vessels may be propelled through the water. Who can estimate the. benefits conferred on man by the magnet, or by steam, or by the printing press ? And what reason have we to suppose that the gifts of God are exhausted, or that there, are not other and more excellent natural agents yet io be discovered, or other modes of using those with which we are already acquainted, that shall produce even more surprising re- sults than any which we have yet witnessed ? Before the discovery of the agents now in use, the most vivid imagination could never have conceived of the benefits which .they have already conferred upon society. There is no reason to suppose that we are now more capable of fathoming the goodness of God than our ancestors were three or four hundred years ago. Undiscovered knowledge is just as rich in the means of human happiness as discovered knowledge; and hence that nation which is most assiduously cherish- ing the means for availing itself of the benefit of all the laws of the Creator, will most rapidly provide itself with the comforts and conveniences and luxuries of life in the greatest abundance, and at the least pos- sible cost. Who can tell the benefit which will result to this country when geology has revealed to us all the riches which at present remain hidden from our view beneath the surface of the soil ?—Dr. Wayland. Although all men are not designed to be astronomers TECHNICAL. 267 or geometricians, a knowledge of the principles on which the sciences are built, and the reasonings by which they are conducted, not only forms the most exact discipline which the mind can undergo, giving to it comprehension and vigour; but is the only solid basis on which an investigation of the laws of nature can be conducted, or those arts improved that tend to the advantage of society, and the happiness of mankind. Every man is bound by the laws of God, and the design of his creation to do good, for this purpose was he placed here; but are men of science therefore unfitted for the performance of their civil and religious duties, are they on account of the enlargement of mind or their sublime speculations less virtuous, less self-denying, or less benevolent than others ? Is not this occupation itself almost a school of virtue ? lessons of civil wisdom, and maxims of pru- dential conduct will be learnt by all, and is not a man eminently doing good, who is subduing the wild powers of nature under the dominion of skill, like Franklin disarming the lightning of its fires, or like Watt, binding an element of tremendous power into a safe and com- modious form — equally with him whose researches tend either to diminish human suffering, or dissipate ignor- ance ? The philosopher whose discoveries in science can facilitate the communication between distant nations, and carry the arts of civilised life into the bosom of the desert, may well be called the benefactor of mankind. The most abstract and exalted departments of science are the foundation of those inventions, that are of prac- tical benefit and daily use, and of all that is to come hereafter. 268 POPULAR INSTBTTCTION. Inspired by that Order whose leading star is philan- thropy, His Koyal Highness the Prince of Wales has just now well and truly laid in Masonic form the foundation stone of Gresham College, the Central Insti- tution, designed by the City and Guilds of London Institute, for the advancement of Technical Education. Filled with the spirit of this most ancient and honour- able order, under whose banners the highest and most chivalrous sentiments of virtue and heroism, the soundest philosophy, the deepest and strongest prin- ciples of Christianity have been carried beyond the barriers of race, of language, and of territories ; and which through the majesty of its mysteries has, amid the wreck of empires, the decay of nations, and the rude shocks of time, descended to us in unbroken suc- cession as silently, yea as efficiently as the dews of Heaven — striking deep root into the soil of civilisation those imperishable principles which make men easy to govern, difficult to subdue, impossible to enslave. His Boyal Highness thus addressed the assemblage : — " I beg leave to assure you that it gives me much satisfaction to attend here to-day, to lay the foundation stone of an institution which gives such forcible ex- pression to one of the most important needs in the education of persons who are destined to take part in the productive industry of this country. Hitherto English teaching has chiefly relied on training the intellectual faculties, so as to adapt men to apply their intelligence in any occupation of life to which they may be called ; and this general discipline of the mind has on the whole been found sufficient, until recent times. TECHNICAL. 269 But during the last thirty years, the competition of other nations, even in manufactures which once were exclusively carried on in this kingdom, has become very severe. The great progress which has been made in the means of locomotion, as well as in the application of science to the purposes of life, has distributed the raw material of industry all over the world, and has economised time and labour in their conversion to objects of utility. Other nations, which did not possess, in such abundance as Great Britain, coal, the source of power, and iron, the essence of strength, compensated for the want of raw material by the technical education of their industrial classes ; and this country has there- fore seen many manufactures spring up everywhere, guided by the trained .intelligence thus created. Both in Europe and America, technical colleges for teaching, not the practice, but the principles, of science and art involved in particular industries, have been organised in all the leading industrial centres. England is now thoroughly aware of the necessity of supplementing educational institutions by colleges of a like nature. Most of our great manufacturing towns have either started or have already erected their colleges of science and art. In only a few instances, however, have they been developed into schools of systematic technical instruction. This building, which is to be erected by the City and Guilds of London, will be of considerable benefit to the whole kingdom, not alone as an example of an institution devoting itself to technical training, but as a focus likewise for uniting the different technical schools in the metropolis already in existence, and as a 270 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. central establishment also, to which promising students from the provinces may, by the aid of scholarships, be brought to benefit by the superior instruction which London can command. While studying at your insti- tution, they will have the further advantages which the treasures of the South Kensington Museum and of the many other collections of this City may bring. to bear on the artistic and scientific education of future manu- facturers. Let me remind you that the realisation of this idea was one of the most cherished objects which my lamented father had in view. After the Exhibition of 1851, he recognised the need of technical education in the future, and he foresaw how difficult it would be, in London, to find space for sach museums and colleges as those now surrounding the spot on which we stand. It is therefore to me a peculiar pleasure that the Com- missioners of that Exhibition, of which I am the President, have been able to contribute to your present important undertaking by giving to you the ground upon which the present college is to be erected, with a sufficient reserve of land to ensure its future develop- ment. Allow me in conclusion to express the great satisfaction I experience in seeing the ancient guilds of the City of London so warmly co-operating' in the advancement of technical instruction. I am aware that several of them have, for some time past, in various ways, separately encouraged the study of science and art in the provinces as well as in the metropolis ; and it is a noble effort on their part when they join together to establish an united institution with the view of making still greater and more systematic endeavours TECHNICAL. 271 for the promotion of this branch of special education. By consenting, at your request, to become the President of this Institution, I hope it may be in my power to benefit the good work, and that our joint exertions, aided, I trust, by the continued liberality of the City and Guilds of London, may prove to be an example to the rest of the country to train the intelligence of indus- trial communities, so that, in the increasing competition of the world, England may retain her proud pre-eminence as a manufacturing nation." Jart HI. SELF-CULTUKE. SELF- CULTURE. Culture, practice, habit, voluntary energy, and deter- mined effort, long persisted in, end in becoming spon- taneous, involuntary, almost unconscious achievement. Not without labour must we attain the best results. In no other way can they be reached. The following is an epitome of the inaugural address to the educational classes of " The Liverpool Young Men's Christian Association " by the Rev. H. Calder- wood, LL.D., formerly Chairman of " The Edinburgh School Board " :— The possibilities of self-development belong to all, because they are essentially connected with self-govern- ment. These possibilities are not restricted to youth, but youth has the best opportunity for a good begin- ning. These opportunities are largely connected with habit. The first requirement lies here — habits of ob- servation, of reflection, and of concentration of powers. The value of outward appliances such as books, or oral instruction, is great; but their actual practical worth is different in the case of those who use them. It is only in direct personal appreciation of truth that we can gather the fruits of study. Circumstances have no doubt a great deal to do with the possibility of advance. Those who are en- grossed in business are prone to dwell unfavourably on the fact. But business is training. What is it but a demand on self-government? Does it not involve t2 276 FOPULAK INSTRUCTION. concentration of powers, attention of what is due to others, and careful use of time ? And all these are essential features in the discipline of life. They belong to what we designate training. Circumstances! All circumstances help training, if only they are rightly used. Training is not a thing of special places and special engagements. It is to be found in work and in relaxation, in difficulty, and even in failure ; for if a man note his failures, and ponder the lessons they give, he will profit by them. If a man hate looking at his failures, and seek only present gratification, there is true help for him in nothing ; there is danger in everything. Self- development is the real work of life, and consists in progress in all that belongs to our nature. Develop- ment of the eye to see, of the intellect to embrace and retain, of the physical nature that it may be the true servant and help of the spiritual nature, of the finer and grander feelings, of the influence of conscience, and of admiration and adoration of the Supreme Being. What we have to seek is a true human life or a true human model ; not the life of a highly- developed animal, but of an intelligent being who can perceive and appre- ciate a standard of excellence far beyond present attain- ment. If perfect development of nature be the legiti- mate aim of man, the most advanced has a long way to travel on the road which leads to it. We have no examples of it around us. Our watchword must be "progress," never" attainment"; and our simple ex- ample that of our Saviour while He prosecuted the work required for human deliverance. SELF-CULTURE. 217 While, then, progress towards a perfect ideal must be our life-work, we must be content to advance by slow stages. The work is that of self-education, whatever helps or hindrances come in our way. In speaking of this, we must remember what is involved in a business day, and the opportunities of its evening. This raises the question of relaxation, one of the necessities of life, as to which a clear and fixed conception is an obvious requirement. Eelaxation in its result must be rest and refreshing. Its means may be varied, but they are suitable in so far as they give change of occupation. For an occupied mind is the mind which is interested ; and therefore fresh fields of study are a true refresh- ment for the mind that grows weai-y of the dull round of daily life. The need for selection among the subjects of study presses upon the attention, What shall we study ? It is one of the most common and pernicious educational fallacies that the best educational appliance for a man is what will be of direct service to him in his chosen walk of business. This is an alluring and misleading maxim. The rational object of self-education is not to make oneself first a better business man, and thereafter a better man ; but first a better man, and thereby a better business man. Any subject of study is a good instru- ment of training, if it be thoroughly pursued. Keep your range of choice wide — let your eye roam betimes over the vast fields of knowledge comparatively un- known to you ; and above all, shift well round from the business best the worth of a study. Don't spend leisure in seeking a better tool to work with, but a nature better 278 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. fitted to use oft the tools at command. But there is a danger in intermeddling with all knowledge, and an especial risk which comes- from the unsettling thought of the present time. Doubtless the danger is real, but it is connected with great advantages, and it involves grave responsibilities. An essential part of the discipline of human life is con- nected with the detection of the delusions which hang around it. This is one of the uniform and unavoidable features of human life. It appears in the use of our senses, as in the use of the literature of the day. Dis- tinction between the seeming and the real is one of the grand requirements of life. No man may shun this task. We must not cease to search for truth because error is apt to be offered in its stead. There is a right of private judgment in matters literary and philosophic, as well as in matters theologic ; and the one real danger is the neglect to exercise it. Ours is an unsettling age, because it is an age of progress. But a wider know- ledge must lead to a wider faith. We are seeing more of the order, the adaptation, the symmetry of the uni- verse; we are seeing how much larger than has been previously recognised is the demand upon intelligence at its source ; and the end must be a greater faith. What is wanted for our guidance is a proper standpoint, which brings into line all the grander features of nature and life. Let us keep in view the harmony, the reason which interprets, the conscience which sets open the pathw'ay of duty, and we shall see the line which points directly upwards to the supernatural. And while every study should help self-development, SULF-CULTUME. 279 there are some which lie nearer to the demands of human life, and should be considered as having claims to attention from all. Our life for its sustenance depends upon material supplies ; for its guidance, on fit maxims of conduct. The science of political economy deserves to have general attention, including the laws which deter- mine the production, distribution, and accumulation of wealth. There is need for some knowledge of the un- derlying principles of all trade and commerce. When it is proposed to restrict production, and thereby keep up prices, and thereby keep up wages, it will be reason- able to inquire whether advantage is likely to come if you raise wages and at the same time raise prices. Again, there is a demand for some knowledge of moral science. There is need that men should inquire what is the ground on which it is held that there is a moral law which binds all men equally, and that personal effort is imperatively demanded of all, and that per- sonal responsibility is a necessary consequence. The foundations of personal and social life lie here, without which our boasted civilisation is a snare. But of all educating powers for man we must reckon most highly the Christian religion, the educator which goes deepest and reaches highest. This urges the grandest motives, offers the greatest help to man, opens the grandest prospects, and offers equally to all. The voice of the Deity it is which here calls to a higher life, as we follow a divine Saviour, and to anticipate a glorious and everlasting future, in which our whole nature shall find noblest exercise. Give yourselves, then, to the task of self-development, and, as you serve 2S0 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the God who has loved our sin-burdened world, make your life afford leverage for your fellow-men. On the all-importance and practicability of self-cul- ture we submit to our readers the views and aspirations of one of nature's nobles — the good, the gracious W. Ellery Channing ; the centenary of whose birth the Old and the New World have just now celebrated : — " Every man, in every condition, is great, be he whom or what he may ; it is only our diseased sight which makes him little. The grandeur of his nature turns to insignifi- cance all outward distinctions. His powers of intel- lect, — conscience, love, knowledge of God, perceiving the beautiful, acting on his own mind, or outward nature, and his fellow-creatures, these are glorious prerogatives. Through the vulgar error of undervaluing what is common, we are apt indeed to pass these by as of little importance. But as in the outward creation, so in the soul, the common is the most precious. Science and art may invent splendid modes of illumi- nating the apartments of the opulent, but these are all poor and worthless, compared with the common light which the sun sends into all our windows, pours freely, impartially, over hill and valley, which kindles daily the eastern and western sky ; and so the common lights of reason, conscience, and love, are of more worth and dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few. Let us not disparage that nature which is common to all men ; the image of God, the image even of His infinity, for no limits can be set to its unfolding. He who possesses the divine powers of the soul is a great being, be his place what it may. You may clothe SELF-CULTURE. 281 him with rags, immure him in a dungeon, chain him to slavish tasks ; but he is still great. You may shut him out of your houses ; but God opeus to him heavenly mansions. He makes no show indeed in the streets of a splendid city ; but a clear thought, a pure affection , a resolute act of a virtuous will, have a dignity of quite another kind, and far higher than accumulations of brick and granite, and plaster and stucco, however cun- ningly put together, or though stretching far beyond our sight. Nor is this all. If we pass over this gran- deur of our common nature, and turn our thoughts to that comparative greatness, which draws chief attention, and which consists in the decided superiority of the in- dividual to the general standard of power and character, we shall find this as free and frequent a growth among the obscure and unnoticed as in more conspicuous walks of life. The truly great are to be found everywhere, nor is it easy to say in what condition they spring up most plentifully. Eeal greatness has nothing to do with a man's sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little abroad. Perhaps the greatest in our city at this moment are buried in obscurity. Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love ; and this may be found in the humblest condition of life. A* man brought up to an obscure trade, and hemmed in by the wants of a growing family, may, in his narrow sphere, perceive more clearly, discriminate more keenly, weigh evidence more wisely, seize on the right means more decisively, 2K2 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. and have more presence of mind in difficulty, than another who has accumulated vast stores of knowledge by laborious study; and he has more of intellectual greatness. It is force of thought which measures intel- lectual, as it is force of principle which measures moral greatness, that highest of human endowments, that brightest manifestation of the Divinity. The greatest man is he who chooses the Eight with invincible reso- lution, who resists the sorest temptations from within and without, who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully, who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace and frowns, whose reliance on truth, virtue, God, is most unfaltering ; and is this a greatness which is apt to make a show, or which is most likely to abound in conspicuous station ? The solemn conflicts of reason with passion; the victories of moral and religious principle over urgent and almost irresistible solicitations to self-indulgence ; the hardest sacrifices of duty, those of deep-seated affection and of the heart's fondest hopes ; the consolations, hopes, joys, and peace of disappointed, persecuted, scorned, deserted virtue ; these are of course unseen ; so that the true greatness of human life is almost wholly out of sight. Among common people will be found more of hardship borne manfully, more of unvarnished truth, more of religious trust, more of that generosity which gives what the giver needs himself, and more of a wise estimate of life and death, than among the more prosperous. And with regard to influence, which should be measured not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind : a man may spread his mind, his feelings, and opinions SELF-CULTURE. 283 through a great extent ; but if his mind be a low one, he manifests no greatness. Now the noblest influence on earth is that exerted on character ; and. he who puts forth this, does a great work, no matter how narrow or obscure his sphere. The father and mother of an un- noticed family, who, in their seclusion, awaken the mind of one child to the idea and love of perfect good- ness, who awaken in him a strength of will to repel all temptation, and who send him out prepared to profit by the conflicts of life, surpass in influence a Napoleon or an Alexander breaking the world to his sway. And not only is their work higher in kind ; who knows, but that the being whom they inspire with holy and disin- terested principles may communicate himself to others ; and that by a spreading agency, of which they were the silent origin, improvements may spread through a nation, through the world ? Lectures have their use — they stir up many, who, but for such outward appeals, might have slumbered to the end of life. Unless however we are roused to act upon ourselves, engage in the work of self-improve- ment, purpose strenuously to form and elevate our own minds, and that what we hear is made part of our- selves by conscientious reflection, but little permanent good is effected. And here we would observe self- culture is something possible. It is not a dream. It has foundations in our nature ; there are two powers of the human soul which make self-culture possible — the self-searching and the self-forming power. We have first the faculty of turning the mind on itself ; of recalling its past, and watching its present operations'; of learning 284 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. its various capacities and susceptibilities, what it can do and bear, enjoy and suffer ; and of thus learning in general what our nature is, and what it was made for. It is worthy of observation, that we are able to discern not only what we already are, but what we may become, to see in our- selves germs and promises of a growth to which no bounds can be set, to dart beyond what we have actually gained to the idea of Perfection as the end of our being. It is by this self-comprehending power that we are distinguished from animals of the lower order, which give no signs of looking into themselves. Without this there would be no self-culture, for we should not know the work to be done ; and one reason why self-culture is so little proposed is, that so few penetrate into their own nature. To most men, their own spirits are shadowy, unreal, compared with what is outward. When they happen to cast a glance inward, they see there only a dark, vague chaos. They distin- guish, perhaps, some violent passion, which has driven them to injurious excess ; but their highest powers hardly attract thought; and thus multitudes live and die as truly strangers to themselves, as to countries of which they have heard the name, but which human foot has never trodden. But self-culture is possible, not only because we can enter into and search ourselves. We have a still nobler power, — that of acting on, determining and forming ourselves. This is a fearful as well as glorious endow- ment, for it is the ground of human responsibility. We have the power not only of tracing our powers, but of guiding and impelling them ; not only of watching SELF-CULTURE. 285 our passions, but of controlling them ; not only of see- ing our faculties grow, but of applying to them means and influences to aid their growth. We can stay or change the current of thought. We can concentrate the intellect on objects which we wish to comprehend. We can fix our eyes on perfection, and make almost everything speed us towards it. Possessing this noble prerogative of our nature, it matters little what or where we are now, for we can conquer a better lot, and even be happier for starting from the lowest point. Of all the discoveries which men need to make, the most important is that of the self-forming power treasured up in them- selves. They little suspect its extent, as little as the savage apprehends the energy which the mind is created to exert on the material world. It transcends in im- portance all our power over outward nature. There is more of divinity in it than in the force which impels the outward universe : and yet how little we comprehend it ! How it slumbers in most men unsuspected, unused! This makes self-culture possible, and binds it on us as a solemn duty. Self-culture is Moral. When a man looks into himself, he discovers two distinct orders or kinds of principles : — desires, appetites, passions, which terminate in himself, which crave and seek his own in- terest, qualification, distinction ; and another principle, an antagonist to these, which is Impartial, Disinterested, Universal, enjoining on him a regard to the rights and happiness of other beings, and laying on him obligations which must be discharged, cost what they may, or how- ever they may clash with his particular pleasure or pain. No man, however narrowed to his own interest, or 286 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. hardened by selfishness, can deny, that there springs up within him a great idea in opposition to interest, the idea of Duty, that an inward voice calls him more or less distinctly to revere and exercise Impartial Justice and Universal Good-will. This disinterested principle is the supreme power within us, to be cultivated above all others, for on its culture the right development of all others depends. The passions indeed may be stronger than the conscience, — may lift up a louder voice ; but their clamour differs wholly from the tone of command in which the conscience speaks. There are no limits to the growth of this moral force in man, if he will cherish it faithfully. There have been men, whom no power in the universe could turn from the Right, by whom death in its most dreadful forms has been less dreaded, than transgression of the inward law of universal love and justice. Self-culture is religious. When we look into ourselves we discover powers, which link us with this outward, visible, finite, ever-changing world. We have sight and other senses to discern, and limbs and various faculties to secure and appropriate the material creation. And we have, too, a power which cannot stop at what we see and handle, at what exists within the bounds of space and time, which seeks for the Infinite, Uncreated Cause, which cannot rest till it ascend to the Eternal All-com- prehending Mind. This we call the religious principle, and its grandeur cannot be exaggerated by human language ; for it marks out a being destined for higher communion than with the visible universe. To develope this, is eminently to educate ourselves. The true idea SELF-CULTUMJE. 287 of God, unfolded clearly and livingly within us, and moving us to adore and obey Him, is the noblest growth in human, and it may be added, in celestial natures. The religious principle, and the moral, are intimately connected, and grow together. The former indeed is the perfection and highest manifestation of the latter. They are both disinterested. It is the essence of true religion to recognise and adore in God the attributes of Impartial Justice and Universal Love, and to hear Him commanding us in the conscience to become what we adore. Again. Self-culture is Intellectual. We cannot look into ourselves without discovering the intellectual prin- ciple — the power of seeking and acquiring truth. This indeed we are in no danger of overlooking. The intel- lect being the great instrument by which men encompass their wishes, it draws more attention than any of our other powers. When we speak to men of improving themselves, the first thought which occurs to them is, that they must cultivate their understanding, and get knowledge and skill. By education, men mean almost exclusively intellectual training. For this schools and colleges are instituted, and to this the moral and religious discipline of the young is sacrificed. Now — says this great authority — I reverence, as much as any man, the intellect; but let us never exalt it above the moral principle. With this it is most intimately connected. In this its culture is founded, and to exalt this is its highest aim. Whoever desires that his intellect may grow up to soundness, to healthy vigour, must begin with moral discipline. Beading and study are 238 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. not enough to perfect the power of thought. One thing above all is needful, and that is, the Dis- interestedness which is the very soul of virtue. To gain truth, which is the great object of the understanding, I must seek it disinterestedly. Here is the first and grand condition of intellectual progress. I must choose to receive the truth, no matter how it bears on myself. I must follow it, no matter where it leads, what interests it opposes, to what persecution or loss it lays me open, from what party it severs me, or to what party it allies. Without this fairness of mind, which is only another phrase for disinterested love of truth, great native powers of understanding are perverted and led astray; genius runs wild; "the light within us becomes darkness." The subtlest reasons, for want of this, cheat themselves as well as others, and become entangled in the web of their own sophistry. The history of science and phi- losophy reveals to us men, who, gifted by nature with singular intelligence, have broached the grossest errors, and even sought to undermine the grand primitive truths on which human virtue, dignity, and hope depend. And on the other hand, there are instances of men of naturally moderate powers of mind, who, by a disin- terested love of truth and their fellow-creatures, have gradually risen to no small force and enlargement of thought. Some of the most useful teachers in the pulpit and in schools, have owed their power of enlight- ening others, not so much to any natural superiority, as to the simplicity, impartiality, and disinterestedness of their minds, to their readiness to live and die for the truth. A man, who rises above himself, locks from an 8MLF-CULTTJRE. 289 eminence on nature and providence; on society and life. Thought expands as by a natural elasticity, when the pressure of selfishness is removed. The moral and religious principles of the soul, generously cultivated, fertilise the intellect. Duty, faithfully performed, opens the mind to Truth, both being of one family, alike im- mutable, universal, and everlasting. Besides accumulating information intellectual culture consists in building up a force of thought which may be turned at will on any subject on which we are called to pass judgment.. This force is manifested in the con- centration of the attention, in accurate, penetrating observation, in reducing complex subjects to their elements, in diving beneath the effect to the cause, in detecting the more subtle differences and resemblances of things, in reading the future in the present, and especially in rising from particular facts to general laws or universal truths. This last exertion of the intellect, its rising to broad views and great principles, constitutes the philosophical mind, and is especially worthy of culture. One man reads a history, and can tell you all its events. Another combines these events, brings them under our view, and learns the great causes which are at work in this or another nation, and what are its great tendencies, whether to freedom or despotism, to one or another form of civilisation. So one man talks continually about the particular actions of this or another neighbour ; whilst another looks beyond the acts to the inward principle from which they spring, and gathers from them larger views of human nature. In a word, one man sees all things apart and in fragments, V 290 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. whilst another strives to discover the harmony, con- nection, unity of all. One of the great evils of society is, that men, occupied perpetually with petty details, want general truths, want broad and fixed principles. Hence many, not wicked, are unstable, habitually in- consistent, as if they were overgrown children rather than men. To build up that strength of mind, which apprehends and cleaves to great universal truths, is the highest intellectual self-culture, and is in strict harmony with that of the moral and the religious principles of our nature. In each of which the improvement of the soul consists in raising it above what is narrow, particular, individual, selfish, to the universal and uncorifined. To improve a man, is to liberalise, enlarge him in thought, feeling, and purpose. Narrowness of intellect and heart — this is the degradation from which all culture aims to rescue the human being. Again. Self-culture is Social, as one of its offices is to unfold and purify the affections, which spring up instinctively in the human breast, which bind together husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister ; which bind a man to friends and neighbours, to his country, and to the suffering who fall under his eye, wherever they belong. The culture of these is an important part of our work, and it consists in converting them from instincts into principles, from natural into spiritual attachments, in giving them a rational, moral, and holy character. For example, our affection for our children is at first instinctive ; and if it continue such, it rises little above the brute's attachment to its young. SELF-CULTUUE. 291 But when a parent infuses into his natural love for his offspring moral and religious principle, when he comes to regard his child as an intelligent, spiritual, immortal being, and honours him as such, and. desires first of all to make him disinterested, noble, a worthy child of God, and the friend of his race, then the instinct rises into a generous and holy sentiment. It resembles God's paternal love for His spiritual family. A like purity and dignity we must aim to give to all our affec- tions. Self-culture is Practical, or it proposes as one of its chief ends to fit us for action, to make us efficient in whatever we undertake, to train us to firmness of purpose and to fruitfulness of resource in common life, and especially in emergencies, in times of difficulty, danger, and trial. There are two other branches of self-culture which have been almost overlooked in the education of the people, and which ought not to be so slighted. In looking at our nature, we discover among its admirable endowments, the sense of perception of the Beautiful. We see the germ of this in every human being, and there is no power which admits greater cul- tivation; and why should it not be cherished in all? It deserves remark, that the provision for this principle is infinite in the universe. There is but a very minute portion of the creation which we can turn into food and clothes, of gratification for the body ; but the whole creation may be used to minister to the sense of beauty. Beauty is an all-pervading presence. It unfolds in the numberless flowers of the spring. It waves in the u2 292 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. branches of the trees. It haunts the depths of the earth and sea, and gleams out in the hues of the shell and the precious stone. And not only these minute objects, but the ocean, the mountains, the clouds, the heavens, the stars, the rising and setting sun, all over- flow with beauty. The universe is its temple; and those who are alive to it cannot lift their eyes without feeling themselves encompassed with it on every side. Now this beauty is so precious, the enjoyments it gives are so refined and pure, so congenial with our tenderest and noblest feelings, and so akin to worship, that it is painful to think of the multitude of men as living in the midst of it, and living almost as blind to it, as if, instead of this fair earth and glorious sky, they were tenants of a dungeon. An infinite joy is lost to the world by the want of culture of this spiritual endow- ment. Every husbandman is living in sight of the works of the Divine Architect of the Universe ; how much would his existence be elevated could he see the glory which shines forth in their forms, hues, proportions, and moral expression ! How much also of this mysterious charm of beauty is found in the elegant arts, and especially in literature ? The best books have most beauty. The greatest truths are wronged if not linked with beauty, and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arrayed in their natural and fit attire. Now no man receives the true culture of a man, in whom the sensi- bility to the beautiful is not cherished ; and the great authority, to whose writings we are indebted, goes on to SELF-CULTUME. 293 say — that there is no condition in life from which it should be excluded. Of all luxuries this is the cheapest and most at hand ; and it seems to be most important to these conditions where coarse labour tends to give a grossness to the mind. From the diffusion of the sense of beauty in ancient Greece, to which let us add humanity owes her first masters in politics, eloquence, and history — and the taste for music in modern Germany, we learn that the People at large may partake of refined gratifications which have hitherto been thought to be necessarily restricted to a few. Matter becomes beautiful to us when it seems to lose its material aspect, its inertness, finiteness, and gross- ness, and by the ethereal lightness of its forms and motions, seems to approach spirit; when it images to us pure and gentle affections ; when it spreads out into a vastness which is a shadow of the Infinite ; or when, in more awful shapes and movements, it speaks of the Omnipotent. There is another power which each one should cul- tivate according to his ability, but which is very much neglected in the mass of the people, and that is, the power of Utterance. A man was not made to shut up his mind in itself; but to give it voice and exchange it for other minds. Speech is one of our grand distinc- tions above all other living creatures. Our power over others lies not so much in the amount of thought within us, as in the power of bringing it out. A man of more than ordinary intellectual vigour may, for want of ex- pression, be a cipher, without significance, in society. 294 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. And not only does a man influence others, but he greatly aids his own intellect, by giving distinct and forcible utterance to his thoughts. We understand ourselves better, our conceptions grow clearer, by the very effort to make them clear to another. Our social rank, too, depends a good deal on our power of utter- ance. The principal distinction between what are called gentlemen and the vulgar lies in this, that the latter are awkward in manners, and are especially wanting in propriety, clearness, grace, and force of utterance. A man who cannot open his lips without breaking a rule of grammar, without showing in his dialect, or uncouth tones, his want of cultivation, can- not take a place to which perhaps his native good sense entitles him. And therefore it is that grammar and a correct pronunciation should necessarily be taught in our schools ; as they give to a man access to social advantages, on which his improvement very much depends. I would — says this noble philanthropist — that I could speak with an awakening voice to the People of their wants, their privileges, their responsibilities. I would say to them, You cannot, without guilt and dis- grace, stop where you are. The past and the present call on you to advance. Let what you have gained be an impulse to something higher. Your nature is too great to be crushed. You were not created what you are, merely to toil, eat, drink, and sleep, like the in- ferior animals. If you will, you can rise. No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, SMLF-CULTUEJE. 295 but by your own consent. Do not be lulled to sleep by tbe flatteries which you hear, as if your participation in the national sovereignty made you equal to the noblest of your race. You have many and great deficiencies to be remedied ; and the remedy lies, not in the ballot-box, nor in the exercise of your political power, but in the faithful education of yourselves and your children. These truths you have often heard and slept over. Awake ! Besotve earnestly on self-culture. Make your- selves worthy of your free institutions, and strengthen and perpetuate them by your intelligence and your virtues." Hail Columbia ! amid the galaxy of Statesmen and Poets, Painters and Men of Letters, which has shed its lustre upon thy wide domains, none to us more brilliant than your large-hearted essayist, Ellery Channing : whose voice gave joy — great joy to his country — yet not such joy unutterable as thrilled the hearts of Beth- lehem's shepherds, when the angel of the Lord with a multitude of the heavenly host proclaimed to them Man's Redemption through the anointed Saviour. However much the words of wisdom that fell from Channing's lips may have lacked the one thing needful which gladdens the heart of Christendom, still the friend of humanity, ever hopeful as to the future, would fain, as with the pen of a diamond, inscribe his lesson of life upon the tablets of the People's memory. Look- ing onward and upward to the consummation of that glorious epoch, in which knowledge shall overspread the Earth, as the waters cover the channels of the great and mighty deep. And, of more value than silver or gold, 296 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. the great families thereof shall be brought to acknow- ledge their brotherhood; yea — more precious than rubies or diamonds, the Nations shall dwell together as brethren, in the beauty and strength of Wisdom — Justice — and Truth. Pilled with the glory of Him that is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, every kindred and tongue shall join voices in their universal song of praise — " Glory to God in the highest — Peace on Earth — Good-will towards men — Hosanna to the Son of David — Hosanna in the highest ! " CONCLUSION. As educators of the human race the Hebrews may be said to have disciplined the conscience, Eome the will, Greece the reason and the taste ; and that which neither Greece nor Eome could furnish — the perfection of moral and spiritual truth — has been freely given us by Chris- tianity. " That which religion was to the Jew, law was to the Eoman. To Eome we owe the forms of local govern- ment which in England have saved liberty, and have mitigated despotism elsewhere. The moral sentiments and the moral force which lie at the back of all political life, and are absolutely indispensable to its vigour, are in great measure Eoman ; and it is in its history we find our models and precepts of political duty, and especially of the duty of patriotism. To Greece was entrusted the cultivation of the reason and the taste. Her gift to mankind has been science and art. Her highest idea was not holiness, as with the Hebrews, nor law, as with the Eomans, but beauty. To the Greeks we owe the logic which has ruled the minds of all thinkers since. All our natural and phy- sical science really begins with the Greeks, and indeed would have been impossible had not Greece taught men to reason. To the Greeks we owe all modern literature ; for though there is other literature even older than the Greek — the Asiatic, for instance, and the Hebrew — yet x 298 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. we did not learn this lesson from them ; they had not the genial life which was needed to kindle other nations with the communications of their own fire. Greece and Eome have not only given to us the fruits of their discipline, but the companionship of their bloom. They have given us more even than any results of discipline in the never-dying memory of their fresh and youthful life. It is this, and not only the greatness or the genius of the classical writers, which makes their literature pre-eminent above all others. Not that there are wanting great writers of times older, as well as of times later, than the Greek, as, for example, the Hebrew prophets. But the classics possess a charm quite inde- pendent of genius, in the classic life, the life of the people of that day. It is the image there only to be seen of our highest natural powers in their freshest vigour. It is the unattainable grace of the prime of manhood. It is the pervading sense of youthful beauty. Hence, while we have elsewhere great poems and great histories, we never find again that universal radiance of fresh life which makes even the most commonplace relics of classic days models for our highest art. The common workman of these times breathed the atmo- sphere of the gods. What are now the ornaments of our museums more than the every-day furniture of sitting and sleeping rooms ? In the great monuments of their literature we can taste this pure inspiration most largely; but even the most commonplace fragments of a classic writer are steeped in the waters of the same fountain. Those who compare the moderns with the ancients, genius for genius, have no difficulty in claim- CONCLUSION. 299 ing for the former equality, if not victory. But the issue is mistaken. To combine the highest powers of intellect with the freshness of youth was possible only once, and that is the glory of the classic nations. The inspiration which is drawn by the man from the memory of those he loved and admired in the spring-time of his life, is drawn by the world now from the study of Greece and Rome." — Dr. Temple. Christianity in its natural, historical, and spiritual aspects, unfolds to us a revelation of Creation, Redemp- tion, and Regeneration — those great events by which the Parent of Good graduates us for life everlasting. "As in matter, the visible garment of the Almighty, there are infinite metamorphoses ; as in life, we behold illimitable progression ; as in the historic development of thought, we find how the mental habits of by-gone generations enter the very spirit of present modes of thinking ; so in Revelation, we are taught to adore — not a Vastness which oppresses us, not a Power which ter- rifies us, but a Father who is leading us to complete fulness of life. Every temptation we resist, every generous impulse wisely yielded to, every noble thought that is encouraged, every sacred aspiration realised, adds its own energy to the great movement which is bearing all true-hearted men towards a higher character and richer existence." Laying aside the pen for the present, one word more to our readers before parting, let us hope to meet again. For its own stability, it appears to us that the wisest Educational policy that the legislature of this country 300 POPULAR INSTRUCTION. may offer the People is — a sonnd secular education, in- cluding a religio-moral training, combined with a separate Keligious Instruction — the precious heirloom of the Clergy and Ministers of all denominations, who, however strangers they may be in their religious edifices, have yet the same code of morality, and are brethren in the market-place, in the hospital, and in every sphere of the ennobling activities of Man. And should this little book — written in all Faith, Hope, and Charity — in any wise facilitate their efforts towards elevating our fellow-man to seek for higher aims and nobler enjoyments than what Atheism or Infidelity, Scepticism or Materialism supplies, then indeed will the writer have had his reward, and have achieved his highest behest in speeding onward and upward The Education of the People. .