XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS 399 



the Bible, with such grammatical, geographical, 

 and historical explanations by a lay-teacher as may 

 be needful, witii rigid exclusion of any further 

 theological teaching than that contained in the 

 Bible itself. And in stating what this is, the 

 teacher would do well not to go beyond the pre- 

 cise words of the Bible; for if he does, he will, 

 in the first place, undertake a task beyond his 

 strength, seeing that all the Jewish and Christian 

 sects have been at work upon that subject for 

 more than two thousand years, and have not yet 

 arrived, and are not in the least likely to arrive, 

 at an agreement; and, in the second place, he will 

 certainly begin to teach something distinctively 

 denominational, and thereby come into violent 

 collision with the Act of Parliament. 



4. The intellectual training to be given in the 

 elementary schools must of course, in the first 

 place, consist in learning to use the means of 

 acquiring knowledge, or reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic; and it will be a great matter to teach 

 reading so completely that the act shall have be- 

 come easy and pleasant. If reading remains 

 " hard," that accomplishment will not be much re- 

 sorted to for instruction, and still less for amuse- 

 ment — which last is one of its most valuable uses 

 to hard-worked people. But along with a due 

 proficiency in the use of the means of learning, 

 a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual 

 discipline, and of artistic training should be 



