30 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [in. 



governors of the poorer ; and, if the education of the 

 poorer classes were such as to enable them to appreciate 

 really wise guidance and good governance ; the politicians 

 need not fear mob-law, nor the clergy lament their want 

 of flocks, nor the capitalists prognosticate the annihilation 

 of the prosperity of the country. 



Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the 

 wherefore of education. And my hearers will be pre- 

 pared to expect that the practical recommendations 

 which are put forward are not less discordant. There is 

 a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in 

 spite of constant experience to the contrary, preserve a 

 touching faith in the efficacy of acts of parliament ; and 

 I believe we should have compulsory education in the 

 course of next session, if there were the least probability 

 that half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties 

 would agree what that education should be. 



Some hold that education without theology is worse than 

 none. Others maintain, quite as strongly, that educa- 

 tion with theology is in the same predicament. But this 

 is certain, that those who hold the first opinion can by no 

 means agree what theology should be taught ; and that 

 those who maintain the second are in a small minority. 



At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and 

 cipher/' say a great many ; and the advice is un- 

 doubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as has 

 happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of 

 getting anything better, advocate this measure, are met 

 with the objection that it is very like making a child 

 practise the use of a knife, fork, and spoon, without 

 giving it a particle of meat. I really don't know what 

 reply is to be made to such an objection. 



But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in 

 disentangling, or rather in showing up the knots in, the 

 .ravelled skeins of our neighbours. Much more to the 



