EDITOR'S TABLE. 



555 



to see that the account given by our 

 contemporary presuming it to be cor- 

 rect of the views of the several classes 

 mentioned bears out the statement that 

 these classes are persistently assaulting 

 the graded school system. So long as 

 the school system belongs to the do- 

 main of politics, as it does, so long will 

 it be open to criticism from any and 

 every quarter. The humblest individual 

 in the community has a right to ex- 

 press his opinion as to how public 

 money should or should not be spent ; 

 but we are not cognizant of any efforts 

 that are being made to undermine the 

 " graded " system as such. That it is 

 desirable to have educational institu- 

 tions of every grade, from the lowest 

 to the highest, no sensible person is 

 likely to deny; though some might 

 raise the question as to whether en- 

 forced taxation is the proper means of 

 obtaining funds for certain kinds of 

 education. If our contemporary thinks 

 that even to raise such a question is to 

 show hostility to the cause of educa- 

 tion, we must beg leave to differ from 

 him. Time was when no one could 

 imagine that anybody not a foe to 

 religion could propose to sever church 

 from state ; but at present the great 

 majority, in this country at least, hold 

 that the severance is decidedly in the 

 interest of religion. It may be said 

 to be all but universally agreed that 

 people are quite able to provide them- 

 selves with religion without any help 

 from the state ; and, moreover, that the 

 article they provide for themselves is 

 likely to be a considerable improvement 

 on what the state has ever doled out. 

 Well, it may require a far greater stretch 

 of radicalism to hold that people could 

 also provide themselves with intellect- 

 ual enlightenment without state assist- 

 ance ; but we are not prepared to say 

 that he who takes up this position is 

 necessarily either a "crank " or an ene- 

 my of society. The fact is, that the 

 article from which we have quoted 

 betrays just a soupgon of the bureau- 



cratic spirit which naturally develops 

 itself in connection with all state man- 

 agement. Those who control the schools 

 in the name of "the whole people " do 

 not like the clergy to have any special 

 views of their own in regard to the 

 moral aspects of public-school educa- 

 tion. They do not relish the criticisms 

 of " scientists, scholars, and literary 

 people " who venture to find the edu- 

 cational machine rather too much of a 

 machine, and its work slightly wanting 

 in organic variety. They want to be 

 allowed to run the machine in the 

 way most convenient to themselves 

 and most favorable to large visible re- 

 sults. We do not question for a moment 

 that much of sincere endeavor after the 

 best results accompanies the adminis- 

 tration of the official system ; but we 

 do mean that, in every official system, 

 the official or bureaucratic spirit is a 

 constantly growing force, and must tend 

 to a stereotyping of methods and to a 

 more or less barren uniformity in the 

 minds molded under its influence. The 

 time may come when it will be seen to 

 be as much in the interest of true intel- 

 lectual liberty that education should be 

 freed from state trammels as it is now 

 seen to be in the interest of religious 

 liberty that the state should abstain 

 from interference in the spiritual con- 

 cerns of the people. Meantime it is a 

 clear sign of the development of the 

 bureaucratic spirit in connection with 

 education when criticism from any quar- 

 ter is looked on with an evil eye, and 

 when " scientists, scholars, and literary 

 people," and all others who have any 

 special views of their own on the sub- 

 ject, are more or less politely warned off 

 the premises. 



CURIOUS EXCUSES FOR WAR. 

 There is little need of evidence to 

 show the popularity of war, yet the 

 reprobation it meets with from the 

 growing moral sense of the world some- 

 times puts its advocates upon strange 

 defenses of it. Though always a dire 



