EDITOR'S TABLE. 



8 47 



this field than in any recognized depart- 

 ment of natural science. What the 

 effect upon social order and progress ot 

 a really well-constituted science of po- 

 litical economy will be it is not difficult 

 to foresee. It will act as the great har- 

 monizer of conflicting claims, and a most 

 potent aid to the realization of justice 

 in all human relations. And once more 

 it will be proved that the only way to 

 know things is to know them practically, 

 and that the only way to build up a sci- 

 ence is to bring the facts together, and 

 all the facts. 



EXAMPLE IN MORAL TEACHING. 



Oue correspondent, who writes on 

 " Moral Instruction in our Public 

 Schools," in this number of the " Month- 

 ly," points out an influence that pro- 

 foundly affects the education of Ameri- 

 can youth. What Mr. Meredith states 

 in modern scientific language that man 

 is an imitative creature had been 

 learned generations ago from the expe- 

 rience of practical men, and applied to 

 education in the terse maxim, " Exam- 

 ple is better than precept." Who that 

 has had the care of children does not 

 know how readily they do what they 

 have seen older children and grown 

 people do, and how hard it is to make 

 them remember what they are told to 

 do ! This should be a sufficient reason 

 to make every person so order his daily 

 life that it shall be an improving object- 

 lesson to his own children and to the 

 children who are to be the associates of 

 his own. It should be a sufficient rea- 

 son, also, as our correspondent points 

 out, for elevating only men of high in- 

 tegrity to positions of trust and power. 

 In a country where it is possible for any 

 native-born boy to become the head of 

 the nation, youthful ambition has free 

 scope. In order to satisfy this desire, 

 the means by which public officials have 

 risen to power are copied, the traits of 

 successful men are imitated, even the 

 manners and habits of those whom the 

 people honor are adopted by the young. 



Hence it is extremely important that 

 these means and traits and habits should 

 be worthy of imitation. A determined 

 effort should be made to check the de- 

 moralizing influence at present exerted 

 by American public life. If this is not 

 done speedily, the evil will grow as 

 slavery grew, till it finally challenges 

 the nation to a life-and-death struggle 

 whose outcome no one can foresee. 

 The example set by the present genera- 

 tion will determine whether the children 

 now growing up shall be arrayed on the 

 side of virtue and honor, or shall swell 

 the ranks of corruption and crime. 



We emphatically dissent, however, 

 from Mr. Meredith's proposition that all 

 is being done in the public schools that 

 can be done, in the line of moral in- 

 struction. There is probably not a city 

 or town in the country where morality 

 is a recognized subject of instruction in 

 the common schools, standing on the 

 same footing as spelling or geography. 

 Our schools give only information that 

 will serve business purposes or disci- 

 pline the mind, and utterly neglect 

 training in right conduct. Their aim is 

 to turn out money-getters, rather than 

 to produce good citizens. If our schools 

 were to give as much attention to judi- 

 cious instruction in ethics as they now 

 devote to the teaching of arithmetic, for 

 instance, we believe that they would 

 come much nearer to exerting the bene- 

 ficial influence that is claimed for them 

 than they do at present. 



AN UNFOUNDED STATEMENT. 



The " Chautauquan " is a magazine 

 published for the benefit of what is 

 known as the " Chautauqua Literary and 

 Scientific Circle." It is religious in its 

 general character. It contains " Sunday 

 Readings " which are noted as " selected 

 by Bishop Vincent." In one of these 

 we lately read the following : " Some 

 counselors, like Herbert Spencer, advise 

 us to follow our own self-interest, with- 

 out concern for others, with the assur- 

 ance that. all will be thus happier, be- 



