354 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the insecurity of the method and a hearty contempt for it. The 

 one who has suffered by the teaching feels himself defrauded and 

 swindled. Unless we can reason ourselves into the belief that false- 

 hood or error is sometimes useful, we shall have to seek some better 

 procedure. And even if we could persuade ourselves of the utility of 

 untruth, Ave should still have the very perplexing questions to answer 

 as to when, where, and what sort of falsehoods are useful. 



But this is not the end of the trouble. If there be difference of 

 opinion, the parties whose doctrines are rejected will inevitably oppose, 

 by every lawful means at least, the principles adopted by those in 

 power. They will nullify school-teaching by home-teaching ; they 

 will seek to disturb the school system by overthrowing its govern- 

 ment ; they will encourage disrespect toward the whole scheme of in- 

 struction ; they will be in a state of chronic rebellion, which will cre- 

 ate a present and pervasive social disorganization outweighing any 

 advantage to be derived from the authoritative teaching. For, even 

 if the latter be the truth, and the other error, the chances are that the 

 force of authority will develop so great a resistance as to give a for- 

 midable strength and vitality to the erroneous doctrine ; whereas, if its 

 power were not thus artificially gathered and its life thus supported, it 

 would die out from its inherent insufficiency. 



Nor yet is this the whole of the matter. The adoption of any 

 assumed truths by authority in the face of a manifest difference of 

 opinion is an oppression which leads directly to anarchy and revolu- 

 tion, with despotism to follow. In order to maintain the teaching, the 

 pressure in support must continually be increased to overbalance the 

 opposition, which nevertheless grows in this very process, until by-and- 

 by an upheaval is inevitable, perhaps with ruinous devastation. This 

 is a familiar historical experience of which I need not stop to give 

 illustration. I desire only to recall attention to the fact that, in the so- 

 cial and political as well as in the physical world, every action has its 

 reaction. Revolution and anarchy are the natural and inevitable con- 

 sequences of the establishment of truth by command. It may not 

 come immediately, but disintegration is all the while going on, and 

 the results will sooner or later appear. Thus, taking all these consid- 

 erations, and even omitting the more special arguments which flow 

 from legal guarantees of individual rights as established in a free com- 

 munity, we may be sure that, upon broad principles of the common 

 weal, the first of the three courses suggested for public schools, in re- 

 gard to education upon disputed questions of practical moment to the 

 individual and to society, must unfailingly be most pernicious. 



The second plan, that of teaching nothing at all, is not for the high- 

 est public interest, because its effect is to prevent the young from 

 giving attention to, and acquiring accurate knowledge upon, subjects 

 which ultimately will be forced upon them, and will call for opinion 

 or action. Substantially the same reasons prevail against this course 



