116 ON THE EXPEDIENCY AND MEANS OF 



the pious with the profane, all crowded together in one odious com- 

 pact. But the iniquity of these systems stretches to the terminus of 

 the plan, and is not less embodied in the religion and worship of the 

 school ; trailed in pairs through the streets to the sanctuary, the pu- 

 pils are there spread over the seats most elevated ; the assembled 

 congregation count their numbers and admire their discipline, little 

 heeding the eflfect of these hebdomidal constraints upon mindsthat 

 retain Httle but their aversion. The sectarism of teachers is not an 

 unprolific advertisement ; professing to give a liberal education, " they 

 convert into a law of hate what Heaven gave us as a law of love, and 

 degrade seminaries for the universal mind of the country into rival 

 garrisons for faction."* Happily nature is stronger than even cus- 

 tom, and thus the officiousness of sectarism, coerced upon the minds 

 of the young, is rendered vain by the tyranny of its coercion. 



Another of the evils springing up into the monstrous structure of 

 education, and one of the pitiful substitutes for a nobler plan, is the 

 value set on the titles of professors ; such an error is altogether En- 

 glish, the tatters of the old tinsel of feudal times. This admira- 

 tion of a college patent stands in the way of a fair enquiry. Pre- 

 supposing that title were an accurate certificate of high attainment 

 and moral excellence, there is still a higher and primary wisdom to be 

 required, which is the emendation and fruit of genius disciplined for 

 the office. Knowledge is merely the material, the form and fabric is 

 the fashioning of love.\ 



Such is a lenient sketch of some of the evils arising from the de- 

 gradation of the office through the agent. These evils of schools are 

 wrongly referred to mere pecuniary causes, and undoubtedly mone- 

 tary embarrassment must always be an obstacle in the quiet progres- 

 sion of any profession or duty ; but the first and real cause, not only 

 of one, but of every other evil, is the degradation of the office. To 

 elevate the circumstances of the educator by a pecuniary disburse- 

 ment, without first elevating the profession, would but have the efitct 

 of raising the officer above the office into a dosing state of apathy 

 and slothful indifference. Under such a change the present evils 

 would be enlarged and multiplied ; for the only remaining active sti- 



* Wyse on Education Reform^ a book that should be the companion of every 

 jiarent and every person. 



■f " Was keine Gewalt des machtigsten Herrschers erschafft, das schaffl 

 and bildet in Demuth die liebeude Kraft." — Wocchenschrijt fur Menschenhil- 

 (lun. — What no power of the mightiest ruler can create, that love, in the 

 power of humility, creates and fashions. 



