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 THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OE 
 PRIMARY EDUCATION 
 
 A LECTUEE 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER 
 Deo. 7, 1876 
 
 Under the Auspices of the Manchester Church Committee 
 BY 
 
 EOBEKT GEEGOEY, M.A. 
 
 CANON OF ST. PAUL'S 
 
 [Ids^ted hy the Mancliester Church Gommlttee.'] 
 
 MESSES. PARKINS AND SON 
 
 2 CHUKCH STKEET, WESTMINSTER 
 
 1877 
 
 Price One Shilling
 
 LONDON : PRISTKU BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOOUK AND CO., N KW-STRKKT SQUAIIE 
 
 AND PAUI.IAMICKT STKliET
 
 THE EELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 PRIMARY EDUCATION, 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Grentlemen, — I feel that the 
 question of primary education may be regarded by a great 
 number of people as a well-worn topic — as a question about 
 which we have heard pretty much all that there is to be said. 
 If I were to attempt to deal with the subject I have chosen for 
 my lecture from the standpoint of modem controversies, I 
 should despair of being able to say anything which is not 
 already perfectly familiar to you. But it seems to me that 
 there has been one great omission with regard to the con- 
 troversy about education. Whilst people have argued, each 
 in favour of the system to which he is wedded, there has been 
 very little attempt made to lay down the broad, general 
 principles that underlie the several systems. We have been 
 imited to look at the immediate points in dispute and not at 
 the divergences from which such disputes have originated. It 
 has been seldom that the question has been treated as a 
 whole, as a matter of principle, and not as a matter of detail. 
 My object this evening then will be, not to deal any more than 
 is absolutely necessary with the controversies of the present 
 moment — with the questions which divide party from party 
 as these points are popularly presented — but rather to try and 
 
 A 2
 
 bring before you the principles upon which the three systems 
 of education now contending for the mastery in this country 
 severally rest, in order that we may see what may be said for 
 and against each of them. 
 
 Without further introduction, therefore, I will pass at once 
 to the subject upon which I propose to speak to you to-night. 
 At the very outset it is necessary that we should have a 
 definition as to what we mean by education. For it seems to 
 me that many people might be found in substantial agreement 
 who are now found in opposition camps, if only they would 
 define what they mean when they speak of education. All 
 who are familiar with the subject know well that in judging 
 of the efficiency of a school there are two distinct heads 
 under which the teacher's skill has to be judged, and con- 
 cerning which there are separate reports. Her Majesty's 
 Inspector deals with the instruction given in the school, and 
 with the discipline of the school ; and it not infrequently 
 happens that while the teaching in the school is good, the 
 discipline is bad ; while, on the other hand, there are some 
 schools in which the discipline is good, but the instruction 
 given is far from being what it ought to be. We may see, 
 therefore, from this that there are these two points with respect 
 to education given in all schools which must be kept separate 
 in our minds ; there are these two elements which have to be 
 distinguished when we are discussing what education should 
 be. It seems to me that the whole question of what is meant 
 by instruction, and what is included under discipline, must be 
 accepted as parts of the great subject of education. If we 
 limit our view to what instruction can accomplish, without 
 1 aking into account discipline and the motives by which it 
 is to be secured, we shall have a very inadequate notion of 
 education. I will try to make clear wliat I mean by an illus- 
 tration. I will tell you what happened when I was a boy, 
 with respect to a matter Avhich was at the time notorious. 
 There was a cricket clul) in the town in which I lived. 
 
 UIUC.
 
 I 
 
 and in that cricket club tliere was a very distinguished 
 member. He was the most wonderful bowler that perhaps any 
 cricket club in England ever possessed. He had the great 
 skill of being able to take one stump out of the -gTound 
 three times out of four consecutively for as long as he chose 
 to continue the attempt. This man was the honour, and 
 glory, and pride of the cricket club, and he used for a long 
 time to bring victories to the club of which he was a member. 
 But it so happened that he was not a man of high character, 
 of good moral character, and after a time he took to drinking. 
 His fellow-players were unwilling to turn him out of the club, 
 and so lose the benefit of his great skill; but during every cricket 
 match they had to set a policeman to watch him, to prevent 
 him from drinking more than he should do. This precaution 
 was found to succeed only for a time ; for, becoming very dis- 
 solute, he went a step further, and ^sold' the matches — that 
 is to say, he accepted money, took a bribe from the other 
 side to bowl badly, and so lost the victory to his own club. 
 It seems to me this case exactly illustrates what we mean by 
 education. What we want is not simply that a man shall be a 
 learned man, in the sense that the man I have mentioned was a 
 good bowler, but that he should also have such discipline over 
 himself, be so able to control himself, that he should not need 
 a policeman to look after him to see that he behaved himself 
 properly. Education, to be complete, should make a man 
 not only a good cricket player, but also a good moral man ; 
 or, in other words, the intellectual education given at school 
 should not be looked upon as something separate and distinct 
 by itself; but that, to be really valuable, it must include 
 that moral power which enables a man who possesses literary 
 talents to put those talents to the highest and best possible 
 use. We must therefore accept the idea of education in this 
 broad and comprehensive sense. 
 
 Starting, then, from this point, that education means 
 something more than mere literary culture, let us considei-
 
 6 
 
 what the factors are with which education has to deal. First 
 of all, What have we to educate ? Here it is very necessary 
 for us to observe that we have not a certain number of feet or 
 inches of humanity to educate, all of which lengths are exactly 
 alike the one to the other ; but we have in every individual 
 child that comes under instruction a somewhat different mate- 
 rial on which to work ; each child has some qualities or charac- 
 teristics different to those which are found in its neighbours. 
 Some children possess more talents, others possess fewer 
 talents ; some possess special gifts that require cultivation, 
 and others are without those special gifts, and therefore they 
 cannot be cultivated. For, you must understand, all that 
 education can do is to make the most of the talents which 
 have been given to the child. Education cannot make 
 a stupid child a clever child ; education cannot give to a 
 child faculties with which nature has failed to endow it. 
 But what it can do is, that if nature has endowed a child 
 with talents or faculties, it can cultivate — it can make the 
 most of them. If we look through the kind of gifts with 
 which different children are endowed, we can range them 
 under more classes than one. There is first of all what we 
 may call literary ability — the power to learn. Some children 
 learn very easily : some are possessed of an extraordinary 
 memory, like the late Lord Macaulay who was able with 
 little or no trouble to repeat a long list of names or dates. 
 That which it would take most of us hours or days to 
 learn by heart, he could remember by reading once over. 
 Again, some children have a natural faculty fo'r learning 
 languages, and so on in other branches of study. All 
 possess more or less of this faculty of being able to learn ; 
 but some possess it more largely, and others possess it in a 
 less degree. If we look a step further we see another class 
 of natural gifts — I mean gifts that may be cultivated so 
 as to make one child a good artist, another a good musician, 
 another a good singer ; and so on through the various
 
 arts. It is quite impossible to make a good singer of a 
 child who has not a good voice ; neither can a child who does 
 not possess naturally a good ear for music become a good 
 musician. That is a second class of gifts. Then there is a 
 third class — that which enables people to be skilful at 
 athletics or gymnastics, or to become rapid runners or better 
 jumpers than others. If people have a natural gift for any 
 of the arts or acquirements I have named, they cultivate 
 them easily with considerable success ; and with some of them 
 — not all, but with some of them — a certain amount of pro- 
 ficiency can be obtained by every one who will take trouble. 
 We may look, therefore, upon these as gifts which there is 
 nothing to hinder us from cultivating ; but the possession or 
 non-possession of natural or latent power largely determines 
 the extent to which they are brought to perfection. 
 
 But when we turn to another part of our being — to what 
 answers to the requirement of discipline in a school — we 
 find three distinct phases of our existence that have to be 
 dealt with, and that require a more difficult training. Man 
 contains within himself, besides the capacities of which I 
 have just spoken, certain appetites, inclinations, and passions. 
 Now, if a person has any faculty whatever for learning, he 
 has to study the subject with which he is occupied, and to 
 understand it, and the task is complete. But you all must 
 be aware that something very much more than knowing how 
 a person should regulate his appetites is needed to enable 
 him to regulate them. You must be well aware, e.g., that 
 there are many persons who are drunkards to whom you may 
 preach very often indeed about the advantages of sobriety, 
 and who are always ready to say, ' We know that it is much 
 better to be sober than to indulge as we do,' but who, in spite 
 of this knowledge, when the temptation comes in their way, 
 do what they know to be wrong, and fail to do that which 
 they know to be right. So, again, there are persons who are 
 naturally covetous, who are over eager to possess money.
 
 They may recognise the superiority of self-sacrifice, of in- 
 difference to gain ; they may acknowledge the evil of the 
 over-eager pm'suit of wealth, but yet, when the temptation 
 or opportunity of obtaining what they desire comes within 
 their reach, they are never able to resist it. And so with 
 regard to the passions by which a man's soul is swayed. 
 How many there are who, wliilst they know and approve of 
 what is best, find it extremely difficult to practise it. You 
 must see at once that there is something quite different 
 in moulding a man's passions, and appetites, and inclina- 
 tions, from what is required to make him a scholar, to make 
 him a proficient in music or in any of the arts, or to 
 enable him to excel in any gymnastic exercise. 
 
 We may therefore begin by dismissing from our con- 
 sideration the matters that relate to the first three points 
 about which I have spoken to-night. We may assume that 
 it is desirable for every one to cultivate every gift with 
 which God has endowed him, for him to become as learned 
 as he is able, whether it be in music, in art, or in science. 
 We may dismiss all further consideration of education in 
 such subjects, for in regard to it we should all be agreed. 
 
 I will now turn to the moral side of the question. 
 Is it sufficient for us to try and cultivate the moral part 
 of our being, as we call it — I mean that which relates to 
 the government of the passions, the appetites, and the incli- 
 nations — is it, I ask, sufficient for us to deal with them as we 
 do with the literary capacities of our nature ? In the early 
 ages of the world it seems to have been recognised that 
 there was no great difference. It was held that whilst 
 instruction as to what was good and right was necessary, 
 and whilst it was essential to instil the habit of doing 
 what was good and right by discipline and practice, 
 nothing more was required. It was held that as a 
 person obtains the habit of playing upon a musical instru- 
 ment, or of drawing, or of running, or of jumping, so, by
 
 teaching a child what is good and right, and then endea- 
 vouring by discipline to mould him into good and right 
 habits, the result required would be produced. 
 
 The earliest people to whom we can refer in proof of 
 this are the Grreeks. The Greeks were a remarkable nation 
 in many ways. They were not one great people moulded by 
 one central government ; but instead of that, Grreece was 
 composed of a large number of small independent States, 
 each of which was jealous of its neighbours, and each of 
 which also had its own special and peculiar characteristics. 
 The idea prominently brought before the Grreeks, to what- 
 ever part of Grreece they belonged — the idea prominently 
 brought before them from their cradle to their grave — was 
 that they formed an integral part of the State ; that it was 
 their business to subordinate everything to the advancement 
 of the State ; that they were to look upon themselves, their 
 lives, their personal desires and preferences, as subordinate 
 to what the State needed, and that they were to do for the 
 State whatever it required. If, therefore, we would fairly 
 look for the effect of this kind of education upon the in- 
 habitants of Greece, we must examine what were the moral 
 principles by which the several States of Greece were ruled 
 in their relations to each other. I will read a short extract 
 from a book that may be familiar to some of you, in 
 which this is clearly shown. It is written by the cele- 
 brated German professor, Dr. Dollinger, who sums up in 
 one of the chapters of his book the result of this kind 
 of education. Now, remember that Greece produced Plato, 
 it produced Socrates, it produced Aristotle. It produced 
 these three great teachers of moral science ; and their 
 names still stand amongst the highest authorities on moral 
 science that the world possesses. For at our Universities 
 their books are still read, and are still regarded as the 
 best text books on the subject that can be put into 
 the hands of young men. Well, now, what does Dr.
 
 10 
 
 DoUinger say with respect to the moral results of this 
 system ? He writes as follows : — * ' There were no recog- 
 nised equitable relations between the several Greek states, 
 and, in their intercourse with one another, " might makes 
 right " was the real order of the day, and no circumlocution 
 was needed to envelop the plain maxim, that man's real 
 mission was the subjugation of his fellow-man to prevent his 
 own ; or, as Pericles put it to the Athenians, that one may 
 confidently despise the hatred of others only when one is 
 dreaded by them. The gods themselves, as the Athenians 
 said to the Melians, had given men the example of the 
 stronger turning his power to account in keeping down the 
 weaker. Yet in the second century the rhetorician, Aris- 
 tides, gave the name of sophists and pedants to those who 
 pretended to doubt this law of nature, that the strong man 
 should use his power to trample on his inferior. Now the 
 Greeks, in their international dealings, carried out this law, 
 the only one that they knew and acknowledged, with a hard- 
 ness of heart and mercilessness sufficient to make one who is 
 acquainted with their history ask the question, if deceit and 
 cruelty were not deeply graven traits of tlie Greek national 
 character ? Wholesale executions, the exterminating of en- 
 tire populations, the sale of women and children as slaves, 
 were all practised by Greek on Greek, not in the transient 
 madness kindled in combat, but in cold-blooded deliberation 
 after victory, and on a calculation carefully made beforehand ; 
 and democracies and aristocracies, Athens and Sparta, 
 rivalled one another therein.' Here, then, we have the effects 
 of this kind of education on the Greeks, and we do not 
 find the result encouraging. 
 
 Let us next turn to the Romans, who were, as you know, a 
 very different people from the Greeks. Greece was broken 
 up into a number of small states; Eome was one great 
 empire that extended its iron sway over the larger part of 
 
 * 'The Gontile and the Jew ' (translated by N. Darnell), ii. 219, 220.
 
 i 
 
 11 
 
 the then known world. It, too, had its systems of morality, 
 high in theory, but their fruits and effects were not such 
 as to tempt us to follow their example. I quote my de- 
 scription of the result of their system from a writer (Mr. 
 Lecky) who, for my present purpose, must be looked upon as 
 impartial, for he has little or no faith in revelation. 
 What does Mr. Lecky say with respect to the result of 
 Eoman education and Eoman civilisation ? In his ' History 
 of European Morals,' he writes as follows : — * ' The sketch I 
 have now drawn will, I think, be sufficient to display the 
 broad chasm that existed between the Eoman moralists and 
 the Eoman people. On the one hand we find a system of 
 ethics of which, when we consider the range and beauty of 
 its precepts, the sublimity of the motives to which it 
 appealed, and its perfect freedom from superstitious elemoDts, 
 it is not too much to say that, though it may have been 
 equalled, it has never been surpassed. On the other hand we 
 find a society almost absolutely destitute of moralising in- 
 stitutions, occupations, or beliefs, existing under an econo- 
 mical and political system which inevitably led to general 
 depravity, and passionately addicted to the most brutalising 
 amusements. The moral code, while it expanded in theore- 
 tical Catholicity, had contracted in practical application. The 
 early Eomans had a very narrow and imperfect standard of duty, 
 but their patriotism, their military system, and their enforced 
 simplicity of life had made that standard essentially popular. 
 The later Eomans had attained a very high and spiritual 
 conception of duty, but the philosopher with his group of 
 disciples, or the writer with his few readers, had scarcely 
 any point of contact w^ith the people. The great practical 
 problem of the ancient philosophers was, how they could act 
 upon the masses. Simply to tell men what is virtue, and to 
 extol its beauty, is insufficient. Something more must be 
 done if the characters of nations are to be moulded, and 
 
 * Vol. i. 308-9.
 
 12 
 
 inveterate vices eradicated.' Here, then, we have the two 
 greatest peoples of antiquity, both of whom tried this system, 
 this double system of teaching on the one hand and discipline 
 on the other, and we have these records of the result of their 
 experiment ; and certainly, if we take the character of the 
 Grreeks as given to us by Dollinger, or if we take the 
 character of the Komans as set before us by Lecky, we 
 are equally struck with the complete failure of their system 
 of education in moulding a high moral being. It must 
 seem to every one of us, that if this is all that education 
 can compass, if this is all that instructing men's moral 
 faculties in this way can accomplish, it is worth very little 
 indeed. 
 
 But let us look a little further before we leave this part of 
 the question ; let us examine what has been accomplished by 
 a somewhat similar system — in fact, by a precisely similar 
 system — in our own day in other parts of the world. 
 Most of you are aware that one of the most educated coun- 
 tries of the present day is China : that in China everybody 
 is encouraged to learn to the uttermost of his power. In 
 China, every person filling a high office is required to have 
 passed successfully certain competitive examinations. In 
 fact, it may be said that there is a competitive examination 
 for every place in the Empire, up to that of being prime 
 minister. Now in China, every third year, there are 
 some 2,000 young men chosen from every part of the 
 country, who undergo a public examination, and the place 
 they occupy in that public examination goes very far to 
 determine the position which they will fill in after-life. 
 Those who achieve the highest distinction are soon transferred 
 to high offices in the State, with every chance of rising to the 
 highest places. On the other hand, those who obtain lower 
 positions amongst the favoured 2,000 still gain situations of 
 honour and trust, where they can earn incomes as teachers in 
 public colleges. There is therefore set before the Chinese every
 
 13 
 
 possible inducement to learn as miicli as possible ; and a 
 recent writer has told us the effect of this general principle of 
 competition upon the whole population of China. He says : — 
 * ^ It is easy to conceive how great must be the stimulus which 
 this Chinese system gives to learning. There is no difficulty in 
 inducing parents to send their children to school. Even the 
 poorest find money to do this, hoping that their son may show 
 such an amount of talent as will put him in the position 
 either of a schoolmaster or private tutor ; or that he may 
 even rise above the first grade of academical distinction, and 
 become by successive steps a magistrate, a judge, a secretary 
 of state, or even a prime minister. The children, too early 
 susceptible of praise, are urged on by many graphic stories of 
 men, great in their country's history, who have raised them- 
 selves to positions of eminence by application and perse- 
 verance.' Here, then, we have the value of education acknow- 
 ledged, and the practice of it earnestly pursued by a whole 
 race, by a whole people numbering probably 400,000,000. 
 Here we have a country where the people are perhaps as 
 universally educated as they are in any of the countries of 
 Europe, and where, owing to the great pressure of an 
 enormous population, there are great difficulties in the 
 way of ordinary people obtaining a sufficiency of the good 
 things of this life. Now, what is the effect of this sort 
 of education in China ? Some of its results are good ; 
 some of its results are bad. The intellectual results 
 appear to be not unpromising ; its moral results, from the 
 account we have from. one who certainly admired the system, 
 do not appear to be encouraging. Mr. Davis, in his account 
 of the Chinese, gives us the following account of the results 
 of their education. He says : — f '" The advantageous features 
 of their character^ as mildness, docility, industry, peace- 
 ableness, subordination, respect for the aged, are accom- 
 
 * Cobbold's 'Pictures of the Chinese,' 186-188. 
 t ' The Chinese,' i. 241.
 
 u 
 
 panied by the vices of specious insincerity, falsehood, with 
 mutual distrust and jealousy. Lying and deceit, being gene- 
 rally the refuge of the weak and timid, have been held in 
 Europe to be the most disgraceful vices ever since the exis- 
 tence of those feudal institutions under which strength and 
 courage were the things most valued. The Chinese do 
 not at any time attach the same degree of disgrace to 
 deceit, and least of all do they discountenance it towards 
 Europeans at Canton. A true calculation of their own 
 interest makes most of the merchants of the place suffi- 
 ciently scrupulous in their commercial engagements, but on 
 all other points "the foreign devil," as they call him, is 
 fair game.' The result, therefore, of the moral part of the 
 teaching in China, judging from this account, certainly is 
 not satisfactory ; and if we look at the stories which come 
 home to us with respect to the Chinese, I think we shall 
 find a very great number of other vices which we abomi- 
 nate commonly practised among them. There is that grie- 
 vous fault of which English people are not guiltless — I 
 mean the enormous use of opium — by which a great number 
 of persons throughout the whole of China are being con- 
 tinually degraded to the very lowest point. We have there 
 intoxication of a description far more fatal in character 
 than intoxication as it is practised in England ; because 
 when once a person becomes an opium eater, or rather 
 an opium smoker, the very necessities of life seem to de- 
 mand that he shall continue to carry on that which he has 
 begun, and whilst the vice is contracted in a week, or in 
 a fortnight, it needs years of patient perseverance before 
 it can be really given up without serious injury to health. 
 In China, therefore, we have this system of regarding 
 morals simply as a matter of instruction and discipline 
 carried out, and that with a result which must appear to 
 all of us very far from satisfactory. 
 
 I have yet one other nation to refer to with respect to
 
 15 
 
 instruction of this kind, and I am sorry to find that the 
 results of it there also are painfully unsatisfactory. You are 
 all probably aware that in India the Grovernment has estab- 
 lished a system of secular schools. From a variety of reasons, 
 it does seem well nigh impossible that the English Grovernment 
 could have established schools of any other kind. The Hindoos 
 are beginning to feel, throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land, the very great importance of their children being 
 educated ; for education is a necessary introduction to 
 Grovernment employment, and to all offices of honour o] 
 trust. The consequence is that the G-overnment schools are 
 well attended, and it might have been hoped that the result 
 of the instruction given in these schools, superintended and 
 partially taught, as they frequently are, by teachers sent from 
 England, would have been such as to improve the morality 
 and raise the general character of the people of India. Now, 
 with respect to this matter I am extremely anxious to quote 
 only from authorities about which there can be no dispute. 
 Some of you may know that annually there is a return issued, 
 in the shape of a Parliamentary ' Blue Book,' in which we 
 are told about the moral and material progress of India. 
 What I am about to quote is from this return, as it appeared 
 in the Times of October 12, 1876. It says as follows: — 
 * One effect of education upon the young men and even 
 boys in Calcutta and other large centres is ascertained 
 to be an increase in the vice of drinking. The mass of 
 the people are still distinguished for sobriety, but among 
 some sections of the educated classes this is no longer a 
 characteristic trait. Some zealous gentlemen, both Euro- 
 pean and native, alarmed at these practices, have memo- 
 rialised the G-overnment to close the public distilleries and 
 liquor shops, and to withhold licences for the sale and pro- 
 duction of intoxicating drinks. Sir Richard Temple, how- 
 ever, points out that this would tend to greater evils than 
 it is intended to check. The manufacture, which is now
 
 16 
 
 licensed and controlled, would still be carried on, but in an 
 illicit manner. There would be no check upon it, while new 
 evils, inquisitorial proceedings on the part of Grovernment 
 officials, and persistent evasions on the part of the people, 
 would arise, and would directly conduce to their utter de- 
 moralisation.' Without further comment upon the result, 
 we cannot but feel disappointed that, considering the large 
 amount of money the Grovernment has spent and is 
 spending upon education in India, and notwithstanding the 
 great results which are undoubtedly following from the in- 
 troduction of that education in breaking down old supersti- 
 tions, improved morality is not also secured. Secular educa- 
 tion suffices to overthrow the superstitious reverence of idols, 
 but it is powerless to elevate the morals of those whom it 
 instructs, and we are assured of the melancholy fact that 
 along with education there is a growing increase of the vice of 
 drunkenness. 
 
 We have looked, then, through a number of places in 
 the ancient world and in the modern world, and we certainly 
 have not been able to trace any successful moral results from 
 education of the kind of which I have spoken. Let us, 
 therefore, look next at education that owns some connection 
 with Christianity. We know that the morality of the New 
 Testament is far higher and purer than any morality of which 
 the world has ever heard as springing from any other source. 
 We know that what our Divine Lord and Master taught con- 
 cerning man's duty to his neighbour — concerning the way 
 in which he is to rule his passions, and appetites, and 
 inclinations — is a law of self-denial that will lead on to 
 the perfect man, if only carried out as He has bidden. 
 There are two ways in which this may be attempted. 
 There are two ways in which man may seek to fulfil the 
 moral law which Christ has laid down for our guidance 
 in the New Testament. One way is giving a general idea 
 of the morality of the New Testament; letting the pro-
 
 17 
 
 minent idea in religious teaching be simply an account of 
 what Christ would have us be ; teaching people, that is 
 teaching their intellects, the higher law set down by Jesus 
 Chi'ist : and then bidding them try to fulfil the law by the 
 discipline of school. Such a system of teaching shrinks 
 from all mention of supernatural agency as essential to enable 
 us to fulfil the moral law. It denounces instruction of the 
 kind as sectarian. I imagine that we have in the United 
 States of America a fair specimen of teaching such as 
 this. It is extremely well set forth in a very able 
 report by the present Bishop of Manchester, drawn up 
 ten years ago for the Schools Inquiry Commission. He 
 says : — * ' For " religious instruction " in the sense which 
 we in England attach to the words, it cannot be said 
 that any provision at all is made under the American 
 school system. Anything like " sectarian," which, as it is 
 interpreted, means anything like doctrinal or dogmatic 
 teaching — anything of the nature of a creed, or which re- 
 quires children to utter the phrase " I believe," is implicitly 
 forbidden in all the schools ; in some States it is forbidden 
 in terms. It is true that everywhere — at least, / believe 
 everywhere — under the system, provision is made for reading 
 the Bible, and almost everywhere provision is made for open- 
 ing the work of the day with prayer. But the disjointed, 
 inconsecutive way in which the Bible is read — to-day a 
 Psalm, to-morrow a section from a Grospel, the day after a 
 paragraph from one of the letters of St. Paul — in all cases 
 unaccompanied by a single word in the shape of note, ex- 
 planation, or comment, cannot and does not amount to any- 
 thing that can be called systematic religious instruction.' 
 Now let us look at the moral effect of this kind of reli- 
 gious instruction upon the people of the United States. 
 It is not at all an easy matter to obtain, in a form that admits 
 of being quoted, an account of the moral condition of any 
 
 * Schools Inquiry Commission,, Kev. J. Frasers 'Report,' 160-162.
 
 people ; because, as we must all be well aware, there is in 
 every class of society a considerable number of individuals 
 who break loose from the restraints by which they are sur- 
 rounded, and who are a disgrace to it. If, therefore, we were 
 to judge from any number of immoral people who might be 
 found in any country, and say, ' These are a specimen of the 
 nation,' we might be guilty of great unfairness. Take an 
 illustration : Suppose that in the course of the year you found 
 one, two, or three clergymen guilty of drunkenness or some 
 great vice, would it not be a most unfair thing to say, ' Here 
 we have a specimen of the whole clergy of England ; 
 they are all drunkards — they are all immoral,' when 
 perhaps not a hundredth part of one per cent, were guilty of 
 anything of the kind ? But what is a much fairer test 
 of the moral condition of a people, is to examine what 
 they condone, what kind of morality they look upon as 
 absolutely necessary for public life ; what kind of persons they 
 are willing to vote for at an election ; what kind of immo- 
 rality seems to put a person outside the popular vote or 
 favour ; renders him incapable of being respected, or in any 
 way placed in a position of honour by his fellow-country- 
 men. In aiming to give you some idea of the moral tone of 
 the people of the United States, I wish you to keep separate 
 in your minds these two points — that individual rascality 
 may exist in the best country, without compromising the 
 nation ; but that it cannot be looked over and condoned, and 
 treated as a matter of no importance by the great body of 
 society, without the general moral condition of the great body 
 of society being low. I wish to be perfectly fair in what 
 I say to-night, because my object is much more to try to 
 place before you principles, than to argue in favour of a par- 
 ticular theory. Well, now, with regard to America. Those of 
 you who read the newspapers — and most of you, I have no 
 doubt, do so — will be well aware of the enormous interest taken 
 in all kinds of elections in the United States. Americans
 
 19 
 
 are a far more active people at the polls than we are in 
 England. No doubt we have a vast number of people in 
 England, on both sides in politics, whom we should describe 
 as apathetic. It seems to me, from what we read of 
 America, there can be very few politically apathetic people 
 there. Their number, at all events, is comparatively 
 small, I will read you an extract which I made from the 
 Times the other day, which proves what I have said. 
 The correspondent of the Times is writing just before the 
 recent election of the President of the United States. He 
 says: — *'A11 these and similar causes produce that uni- 
 versality of political excitement and sympathy which is, to 
 my thinking, the most striking and impressive feature of 
 American society during a presidential election. The whole 
 social atmosphere becomes so charged with political feeling, 
 that everybody and almost ever3rthing get at last steeped in 
 and saturated with it. Every human being, down to young 
 children, seems to have the same thought uppermost, nor can 
 you walk fifty yards without seeing it stamped through some 
 badge or emblem upon the world of things inanimate. The 
 story of the little girl who boasted that there were only two 
 Democrats in her class was told me by her father himself 
 . . . There can be at this moment in the whole world but one 
 subject to which all pronouns and predicates can refer ; all 
 one's surroundings are, in fact, so universally and intensely 
 political, that it seemed something quite startling, not to say 
 improper, to get an invitation to " come and hear some good 
 music " — a sort of American version of Nero fiddling when 
 Rome was burning.' If that is the general feature of the 
 country with respect to elections, you must see that the 
 persons who are elected may not unfairly be taken to re- 
 present the average tone of American morality. Under these 
 circumstances, it must be a trial to admirers of the United 
 States to notice that the election in three States has been a 
 
 * American Correspondent of the Times, November 29, 1876.
 
 20 
 
 constant subject of controversy. It has been asserted, broadly- 
 asserted — I cannot say how truly — but it has been asserted over 
 and over again, that in the three States concerning which the 
 election has been doubtful, the complication has arisen simply 
 through one side or the other trying to cheat. On the one side 
 it has been asserted that, by systematic terrorism and blood- 
 shed, electors have been kept away from the poll ; on the 
 other, that certain persons who had command of the ballot 
 boxes have, as we should call it in England, ' doctored ' the re- 
 turns to secure the result they desired. This may or may not 
 be true. But still the very fact that charges of such a kind 
 are made and believed throughout the length and breadth 
 of America shows a somewhat low level with regard to 
 political morality, which we in this country can scarcely 
 understand or credit. But if we look a little further we 
 can find, I am sorry to say, some strong proofs of what is 
 even worse, with respect to the existence of immorality 
 amongst highly placed persons in America. I am again 
 going to read to you something which appeared in the 
 Timnes — for I have tried to take my statements from what 
 would be popularly regarded as unobjectionable sources. 
 What I am going to read appeared some ten years ago. I 
 happened to be struck with the paragraph at the time, and I 
 copied it into my memorandum book. The words are as fol- 
 lows ; — * ' The country will give a sigh of relief when Congress 
 adjourns, for it is universally agreed that a more corrupt and 
 fanatical body never sat at Washington. They have had 
 before them jobs for enriching private individuals which, in 
 the aggregate, amount to at least ;^200500050005 one half of 
 which has gone through both Houses ; and their last exploit 
 was their voting, with great unanimity, to add ^^4,000 to 
 each member's pay for " arduous services during the present 
 Congress." Scarcely has the commotion caused by one great 
 defalcation or swindle in the United States subsided, than a 
 
 * An American Correspondent of the Tinhcs, August 9, 1S66.
 
 21 
 
 new one equally astounding is developed. Our people are so 
 reckless, and many of th^m are such rogues, that the stealino- 
 of half a million of dollars or the betrayal of a public trust is 
 no longer thought a very grave offence. A short time since 
 it was discovered that the G-overnment had been defrauded 
 out of ^^QOOjOOO at Memphis by one of its officers, who after- 
 wards very conveniently failed. This and similar other 
 frauds, however, are dwarfed by painful rumours of 
 troubles in the Treasury Department at Washington, which 
 call loudly for investigation. It is announced that a de- 
 ficiency of ;^30,000,000 has been discovered in the accounts 
 of the Treasury when under General Chase's administration. 
 It is also stated that Secretary Fessenden, Chase's successor, 
 resigned on account of the muddle in which he found Chase's 
 accounts, and that Secretary M'Culloch, labour as he will, 
 cannot satisfactorily arrange them. These painful rumours 
 have caused the American press generally to demand an 
 investigation. Other matters equally bad are developed 
 in connection with the Department. It has long been 
 noticed that the most extensive counterfeiting of United 
 States notes of all descriptions has been carried on in this 
 country, and the amount of bogus paper is enormous.'* 
 Now, all this with regard to America may or may not be 
 true with respect to the particular individuals who are 
 accused. All that 1 want to use it for is this : to show that 
 the existence of such reports, circulated throughout the Union, 
 and the election of persons so accused, apparently without 
 any proof of their innocence, to the House of Eepresenta- 
 tives, indicates that acts of dishonesty cannot be very severely 
 condemned by the people of the United States at large. 
 
 So much, then, for the results of two systems of edu- 
 cation. Let us now come to our own system such as 
 it still professes to be in Church schools. Here it is 
 professedly based on a different ground. The idea is 
 
 * 8ee Appendix.
 
 22 
 
 that without supematiu'al help no person can fulfil the 
 moral law ; that the moral law is to be inculcated, and 
 that the person who has received such supernatural help 
 is enabled, if he has the will to co-operate with such 
 help, to fulfil the moral law. You may ask me what have 
 been the results of this kind of education in England? I 
 think first of all I may claim this as a result of our popular 
 system of education in the past, the high moral tone, speaking 
 generally, that pervades the country. I am far from saying, 
 bear in mind, that there are not multitudes of individuals 
 all over the country capable of any kind of roguery or evil ; 
 but I do say this, that in no part of England, so far as my 
 knowledge extends, could any man have the slightest hope 
 of being favoured by the votes of his fellow-citizens for any 
 public office if there could be truly alleged against him 
 any serious moral crime. I believe that the general 
 tone of morality in this country would absolutely forbid 
 our sending to Parliament, for example, any person who 
 was seriously suspected of a great fraud. And I am certain 
 that no party would have the chance of retaining office for 
 a single week, who placed in a prominent position a de- 
 faulter in his accounts or a notorious swindler. We 
 have therefore, at all events, this great result, that in this 
 country the general tone of morality is higher than it is in 
 the United States of America. I am of course far from saying 
 that education taken over all this country, or in any part 
 of this country, has produced the results that it ought to 
 have done ; and I will presently try to show why it has not 
 done so. 
 
 Here, then, we have three systems of education, based 
 upon three different theories, before us. The one accepts 
 the moral part of a person's education as being precisely 
 similar to the intellectual part. That is the way in which 
 the G-reeks and the Romans in ancient times, and the 
 Chinese and Hindoos in present times, sought or are seeking
 
 I 
 
 23 
 
 to educate their people. Now, what must be the underlying 
 
 principle in this case which leads them to educate their 
 
 children in morals in the same way as they do in literature ? 
 
 It surely must be this : that they make no account of 
 
 the Fall of Man ; that they are entirely ignorant of man's 
 
 moral nature having been wounded through the sin of our 
 
 first parents. And therefore, being ignorant of this, they 
 
 can see no reason why morality should not be successfully 
 
 taught in the same way that literature is. I do not propose to 
 
 enter into any theological discussion, but simply to assume, 
 
 as one must assume, that there is an imderlying principle 
 
 in these distinctions. The people to whom I have just 
 
 referred regarded man as equally able to be honest, and 
 
 just, and pure, and sober, as he finds it to be a musician, 
 
 or an artist, or a sculptor, or to write and read and do 
 
 sums. They assumed that the same education needed for 
 
 one would be sufficient for the other. They simply said — 
 
 Man has certain faculties, and if you cultivate these faculties 
 
 properly, either for one purpose or the other purpose, you 
 
 will secure the same results, I suppose there is not one 
 
 amongst us to-night who would not admit that whilst there are 
 
 many men who never could make good musicians, there is not 
 
 one who could not become sober, and honest, and learn to 
 
 speak the truth. There is, then, this underlying difference, 
 
 that whilst there is not one of us who has not received the 
 
 same gifts and advantages which sufficed to make others 
 
 sober, honest, and truthful, and so, by using those gifts and 
 
 advantages as they did, there is not one of us who might 
 
 not be sober, honest, and truthful as they were ; yet there 
 
 are many of us who have not received the faculty or talent to 
 
 make good musicians, and therefore, try as we may, we 
 
 could never succeed. Thus we are compelled to feel that 
 
 there are multitudes who never try, and never did 
 
 try, under any form of gift or religion, to be the one, 
 
 while if tliey had a talent for music they were generally
 
 24 
 
 eager to cultivate it. We may dismiss the first theory, 
 which I looked upon as representing the secular system. 
 Those who think that secular education is all that is needed 
 for man ought to be able to show, from some records of the 
 past or of the present, that in nations where the system 
 of secular education has been pursued it has produced the 
 results that they required. My impression is that secular 
 education will be found in all instances to resemble my 
 friend the bowler, of whom I began by speaking, and that 
 whilst it may make many people excellent in literature, 
 excellent in art, excellent as musicians, it will never enable 
 the man to keep under control his own passions, but that he 
 will want a policeman to go with him to prevent his getting 
 drunk or selling to wrong parties the talents with which he 
 has been endowed by Providence. 
 
 We then come to the second system, of which I took 
 the United States of America as an example, and which 
 seemed to me to illustrate another theory of education that 
 unhappily prevails to no inconsiderable extent in many 
 parts of this country. The idea underlying this system 
 evidently is that education cannot do much towards the 
 renewal of man's nature. It can make him familiar with 
 the moral teaching of the New Testament ; it can imprint 
 upon his mind a sense of duty ; it can, so to speak, plough 
 and harrow his soul, and make it ready for the reception of 
 the good seed, but it can do no more. It can neither sow 
 the seed, nor help in its cultivation when sown. That 
 must be accomplished by other means. That must be 
 effected not through any specified channel, but must be 
 supernaturally given by God through means and instruments 
 which He will make known in His own good time. Thus 
 they read the moral law; they study the New Testament; 
 but they do not anticipate the power of fulfilling what 
 it requires, until a sudden change takes place in their 
 hearts by means of their being converted to God through
 
 25 
 
 hearing a sermon, through reading the Bible, or through 
 some forcible event of His Providence which will at once 
 excite their attention, change their mind, engage their 
 spiritual faculties, and enable them to be something quite 
 different to what they were before. They depend upon a 
 sudden, and, in a sense, capricious action of the Holy 
 Spirit to change and convert them by an act of sovereign 
 power, in which man has only to remain quiescent and to 
 accept the proffered gift. In securing or perfecting such a 
 spiritual conversion education can accomplish little. The 
 must that it can do is to prepare for the change when- 
 ever Grod in His mercy may see fit to work out their con- 
 version ; but there is nothing which they can do of them- 
 selves that can quicken or hasten its coming. I look 
 upon this as representing what we in this country call an 
 unsectarian system of education : a system by which men are 
 taught their moral duty ; but it does not profess to point 
 to a way by which they may obtain spiritual helps to enable 
 them to fulfil that duty. 
 
 There is yet a third system, which the Church of England 
 has always upheld as its ideal of education. It recognises, 
 first of all, that man is a fallen creature ; that his moral 
 nature is wounded; that he is unable if left to himself to 
 do what is good and right, and that unless supernaturally 
 helped by God to perform the moral law, it is hopeless for him 
 -to try in his own strength to do so. I am not going to 
 [prove this, or to enter upon any theological argument; but 
 'the Church of England seems distinctly to teach that this 
 wound of oiu nature is healed by Baptism. This appears 
 to be the obvious and undoubted teaching of the Church 
 Catechism and the Book of Common Prayer. In Baptism 
 Grod restores to us much of what we lost by the Fall ; so 
 that whilst it does not make us holy, does not make us 
 secure of winning Heaven, does not make it certain that 
 we shall do that which is good and right, it restores to
 
 26 
 
 us the capacity lost at the Fall to do that which is 
 well pleasing in the sight of Grod. Having received this 
 capacity, we then have two counteracting forces within us : 
 on the one hand there is the tendency to evil occasioned by 
 the Fall, on the other the tendency to good given us through 
 the supernatural working of Grod's grace which has been 
 imparted to us. We are thus placed in this position : we are 
 capable of doing what is good and right, but our doing 
 so depends upon the use we make of the gifts and the 
 opportunities that Grod places within our reach. If we 
 use them aright, co-operating with the talent of grace 
 imparted to us, then we grow in virtue and in morality 
 just as we grow in the knowledge of music, or art, if we 
 cultivate the capacity for music or art which Grod has given 
 to us. In this last case, therefore, you see the religious 
 teaching required demands from us a perpetual reference 
 to the sources from which the power to do God's will 
 comes. There has been a seed implanted, and it depends 
 upon the virtue of the land and the character of the 
 husbandry whether it grows and produces fruit. Experience 
 convinces us that the good land will not bring forth fruit of 
 itself, and that the husbandry cannot be performed without 
 effort, self-denial, and perseverance. It is needful for all to 
 know their weakness and their strength, the perils they have 
 to fear, and the helps on which they may rely, or there is 
 danger of their failing to do what is required from them. 
 To tell a child to fulfil the whole moral law, when we believe 
 that it has not received supernatural help from Grod, would 
 be to tell it to do what we hold to be impossible ; because 
 we believe that by natural strength, by its own innate power, 
 not a single child of Adam could do what is needed to fulfil 
 the law. But when we are able to say to a child, ' You 
 have received God's help and grace, and therefore, if you 
 will co-operate with His help and grace, you can resist 
 tendencies to sin, you can become virtuous, you can over-
 
 27 
 
 come temptation, if you have only the will ; therefore you, 
 and you alone, are to blame if you fall into any kind of im- 
 morality ' — you see we at once place education on a clearly 
 different footing. We are able to point in every lesson to the 
 supernatural power which Grod alone can give, and to try 
 and stir up the grace that has been given through the 
 visible channel.. The education which such a view of 
 Divine truth requires would resemble what heathen phi- 
 losophers taught except in one point : it would never forget 
 man's natural weakness, and his need of supernatural help ; 
 and therefore all discipline, all moral instruction, would be 
 based upon the foundation of definite religious principle. 
 
 It seems to me, then, that these are the sources of the 
 great differences with respect to education that are current 
 amongst us at the present time. On the one hand there are 
 many who practically, though perhaps not consciously, deny 
 the Fall of Man. They say, ' Grive the child secular educa- 
 tion ; teach it what is good, and right, and virtuous, and it 
 will follow it.' They ignore religion, and trust, as did the 
 ancient Greeks and Eomans, to mere instruction. Then again, 
 there is another and a very numerous party which says, 
 ' It is quite true the child has fallen. It cannot do what 
 is good and right without supernatural help ; but there 
 is no certain way by which we can secure for the child 
 such help from on high, and therefore we must give it such 
 general instruction concerning the Eevelation of Jesus Christ 
 as may provide for it the requisite knowledge when the 
 moment of conversion comes ; but that moment Grod keeps in 
 the secrets of His own inscrutable will, and it is not for us to 
 think that we can force it on, or to imagine that we can by 
 any act of ours secure its advent. In that case imsectarian, 
 general religious teaching, a sort of notion of what the 
 Bible is — of the contents of the Bible — suffices to meet the 
 wants of the case. In the third case we have the wounded 
 nature healed by the reception of Christ's grace through
 
 28 
 
 a channel which He has appointed ; and then we say, ' Here, 
 as on the one hand we believe in the reality of the Fall, so 
 on the other hand we believe in the reality of Divine grace 
 conferred. You now have the capacity to do what is good 
 and right. Go and use it ; you are responsible.' 
 
 I believe, then, my friends, that this is the real secret of 
 the great differences that divide the nation of England at 
 the present time upon the all-important question of educa- 
 tion. I believe that underlying all our surface differences there 
 is this fundamental difference of religious principle between 
 the advocates of the one system and the other. We who believe 
 in the latter system cannot for one moment think of accepting 
 the imperfect systems which we fear will at best make men a 
 little less criminal from a more enlightened regard for their 
 own selfish interests, while it may make them more vicious, as 
 it seems to have done in the case of India. We therefore con- 
 tend, and I hope shall continue to contend, under manifold 
 difficulties, and discouragements, and disappointments, for 
 what we hold and believe to be essential for the true eleva- 
 tion of every part of our fellow-countrymen. We may feel 
 that our system has been very imperfectly tried, that many 
 who should have heartily co-operated with us have not fully 
 believed the principle on which our educational system is 
 based. This may account for our very partial success ; whilst 
 the fact of our theory being largely held may supply the 
 reason why the moral consciousness of England is higher 
 than that found in the United States. 
 
 The contest in England is really between the three dif- 
 ferent systems, based upon the principles I have named. And 
 I need scarcely add that if I am correct with regard to the 
 principles which underlie this great controversy about educa- 
 tion, it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the 
 question at stake ; because, if the Church's way is Grod's ap- 
 pointed way for making men moral and religious, none other 
 can prosper. We cannot hope to succeed if we manufacture
 
 29 
 
 some new scheme by which we try to show that we are 
 wiser than Grod. His laws are true for everlasting, and He 
 knows what is in man. If we believe that the Grospel is 
 Grod's remedy for man's transgression, then we shall un- 
 dauntedly cling to what we believe to be based on everlast- 
 ing truth, and we shall never doubt that all other plans must 
 fail and disappoint, must perish and come to nought.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 As the quotation on pages 20 and 21 refers to a state of things 
 which existed ten years since, it may be well to supplement it 
 with an account somewhat more recent, to show that no im- 
 provement has been since manifested. The quotation is again 
 from the columns of the Times : — 
 
 * The Legislature of Pennsylvania has long been denounced 
 by the press of that State as an example of everything that can 
 disgrace a deliberative body ; but according to the Philadelphia 
 Ledger the adjournment of the New York Legislature on the 30th 
 was characterised by features which almost put previous exhibi- 
 tions in other States into the shade. It is described as having 
 been signalised by a scene of disgraceful and riotous confusion ; 
 and it is added that "in the midst of these orgies — insane or 
 di'unken — the amendments of the State Constitution, carefully 
 prepared by an able Commission, were brought to a vote, and 
 shorn of their most vital sections." Tin horns and whistles 
 were blasting and squeaking, as accompaniments to the roar of 
 clamorous threats, shouting all manner of discordant noises. 
 Missiles of various kinds — law books, document files, heavy wads 
 of old papers soaked in water — were sent hurtling through the 
 chambers. At one point of time the scene is described as a 
 "bedlam," and at another as " simply brutal." During all this 
 the clerk was reading out bills, and passing them all by himself, 
 not a single member voting on them, the clerk simply marking 
 every member as voting in the affirmative. The constitutional 
 amendments were acted upon about 2 a.m., and in a way to pre- 
 serve for future operations the rich " placers " afforded by special 
 legislation to plunder both towns and cities. After comparing 
 these proceedings with those which a few weeks previously had 
 distinguished the adjournment of the sister Legislature in Penn-
 
 31 
 
 sylvania, the Ledger remarks, with feelings of " deep humihation," 
 that the two Legislatures in which these things have occnrred 
 control the destinies of the two greatest, wealthiest, and most 
 populous States of the American Union. They are the law- 
 makers for between eight and nine millions of people — nearly 
 three times the population of the whole United States when they 
 became a nation. Their action affects not only the personal 
 rights and privileges of those millions of people, but what they 
 do operates upon no less than ^^10,000,000,000 of property. 
 What a spectacle is presented to the world by placing such a 
 trust in such hands ! ' — Times, June 20, 1873 — in the article 
 on the Money Market and City Intelligence. 
 
 \ 
 
 LONDON : I'KINTKD DY 
 
 PPom.SWOODE ANI> CO., NIvW-STKICKT SyLAllE 
 
 AJJD PAKtlAMKMT STREET
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 ARE WE BETTER THAN OUR FATHERS? Lectures 
 in St. Paul's Cathedral, 1871. (Jas. Parker & Co.) 
 
 SOME OF THE BONDS OF SOCIETY. Lectures in St. 
 
 Paul's Cathedral, 1872. (National Society's Depository.) 
 
 THE COST OF VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS AND OF 
 
 BOARD SCHOOLS. (National Society's Depository.) 1875. 
 
 IS THE CANADIAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION RATES 
 
 POSSIBLE IN ENGLAND ? (National Society's Depository.) 1875. 
 
 POSITION OF THE CELEBRANT. A Speech in Convoca- 
 tion. 1875. 
 
 THE POSITION OF THE PRIEST ORDERED BY THE 
 
 EUBRICS IN THE COMMUNION SERVICE INTERPRETED 
 BY THEMSELVES. (Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.) 1876. 
 
 THE CHURCH'S NEED OF MORE WORKERS. A 
 
 Sermon. (Rivingtons.) 1876.
 
 i
 
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