636 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



seems not now to be, whether state education shall be inaugurated, 

 but rather what kind it shall have. The state must retain control of 

 all the elements necessary to its life. The educational element the 

 state can not intrust to any organism beyond its control. Sovereignty 

 must control the education which is the life and soul of the state. 



The discussion on Sir John Lubbock's bill in the British Parlia- 

 ment, of recent date, was in relation to the studies to be introduced 

 into the curriculum, rather than the question of state interference. An 

 extract from " Nature," an English j)rint^ will set this matter in its 

 proper light : 



" It is unnecessary," says the writer, " for us to go again into the 

 merits of the question which has been so often and so thoroughly dis- 

 cussed in these pages, especially as the ^ Times ' has put it quite as for- 

 cibly as there is occasion of doing at present. It certainly seems sad, 

 nationally, indeed, that a few more millions of those who will have the 

 destinies of this country in their hands are likely to be launched into 

 active life, with all their education to acquire, ere legislation cteps in 

 to give us the advantages which nearly every other civilized nation 

 gives to its children. Every day we hear of the ignorance of the 

 working-classes, every other month 'congresses' are held to devise 

 means to remedy the consequences of this ignorance : ignorance of the 

 laws of health ; ignorance of household economy ; ignorance of the 

 implements and objects of labor ; ignorance of the laws of labor and 

 production ; ignorance of the nature of the commonest objects with 

 which they come into contact every day ; ignorance of almost every- 

 thing which it would be useful and naturally beneficial for them to 

 know ; an ignorance, alas ! more or less shared by the ' curled dar- 

 lings 'of the nation. Yet every day's paper shows how keen is the 

 industrial competition with other nations, and how in one department 

 after another we are being outstripped by the results of better i. e., 

 more scientific knowledge ; the poor pittance of * elementary knowl- 

 edge' asked for in Sir John Lubbock's bill is refused by a minister* 

 whose own education leaves much to be desired. This state of thinors 

 can not long continue, and, with such advocates for the children as 

 the * Times ' and Mr. Forster, we may hope that next time Sir John 

 Lubbock brings forward his bill it will meet with a happier fate." 

 (" Popular Science Monthly," vol. xiii, pp, 562, 563.) 



The truth expressed in the above quotation, that England, holding 

 one of the most advanced positions of the human race, is yet being 

 outstripped in one industry and another, in one department after 

 another, "by the results of better i. e., more scientific knowledge," 

 can not fail, in the reflecting mind, to suggest another truth : that 

 civil society is a constantly developing organism, the range of whose 

 future specialties must remain unknown. Yet through all, in the line 

 of its direction, it is evident that some power must control. This 



* Lord George Hamilton. 



