EDITOR'S TABLE. 



409 



instincts began to emerge it is not 

 necessary to determine. It is enough 

 to know that they did emerge, and 

 that, haviiig emerged, they became 

 capable of doing as miich for his 

 moral and emotional nature as the 

 recognition of law, which also 

 emerged at a given moment, was ca- 

 pable of doing for his intellectual 

 nature. To-day, in moral and intel- 

 lectual man in other words, in the 

 higher types of the human race the 

 world begins to have a worthy ten- 

 ant and master, one in whose eyes 

 a " splendid purpose " may be read 

 the purpose of governing wisely and 

 justly and mercifully the heritage 

 into possession' of which he has 

 come. 



The practical question then is just 

 this : whether because the bishop's 

 theology is not enjoying quite as 

 much prestige as it did of old, and 

 because the emancipated human 

 spirit is seeking knowledge every- 

 where, even in regard to matters 

 which the bishop thinks ought to 

 be accepted as authoritatively settled, 

 there is any reason to apprehend that 

 the bonds of society and of the fam- 

 ily are going to be loosed, that the 

 humane instincts, which for genera- 

 tions have been gaining in strength, 

 are going to fall into decay, and that 

 man, under the influence of scientific 

 teachings, is destined to become a 

 mere cunning compound of cruelty 

 and self-indulgence. Well, for our 

 part, we don't believe it ; there is 

 nothing in past history to render 

 such a result probable, everything to 

 render it improbable. What the most 

 distant future may have in store for 

 our race, we know not ; but of this 

 we feel persuaded, that the future 

 which lies immediately before us 

 will be an era of greater justice, of 

 greater humanity, and at the same 

 time of greater intellectual liberty, 

 than any the world has yet seen. All 

 the signs point that way. 



"GROWING illiteracy:' 



Where ? Why, here, in these 

 United States, and in that most fa- 

 vored portion of them which sends 

 its youths to Eastern colleges and 

 universities. But who talks of "grow- 

 ing illiteracy " ? surely some very ill- 

 informed individual who does not 

 know what splendid work our public 

 schools are doing. By no means; 

 but we may as well, without further 

 ado, explain the matter. 



For a good while past the colleges 

 and universities of the country have 

 been finding it harder and harder to 

 put up with the very inferior prepa- 

 ration, particularly as regards knowl- 

 edge of the English language, of the 

 youths who go up from the second- 

 aiy schools for matriculation. Har- 

 vard is in open rebellion against the 

 annoyance; and a committee of the 

 Overseers lately made the suggestion 

 that it would be a good thing to print 

 the papers of these ill-taught youths, 

 and give the names of the schools 

 from which they had come. At this 

 the principals of a number of the 

 leading schools took alarm ; and it 

 was in the protest which they pub- 

 lished that the ominous words we 

 have quoted appeared. '"While we 

 regret," they say, " the growing il- 

 literacy of American boys, we can 

 not feel that the schools should be 

 held solely responsible for the evils, 

 which are chiefly due to the absence 

 of literary interest and of literary 

 standards in the community." In 

 other words, there is a growing illit- 

 eracy among boys, because, broadly 

 speaking, illiteracy has taken pos- 

 session of the country. The parents 

 of the boys who themselves had 

 the benefit of public -school train- 

 ing have, for the most part, no lit- 

 erary interests and recognize no lit- 

 ei*ary standards. These high-school 

 principals ought to know whereof 

 they affirm; we do not know who 



