EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



moral principles from the experience of 

 daily life. Children do not call for meta- 

 physics; and to refrain from teaching 

 them the principles of morals because 

 you are not prepared to discuss with 

 them those ultimate questions as to the 

 final sanction of morality which are de- 

 bated by philosophers and theologians, 

 is like withholding from a builder all 

 knowledge of the practical applications 

 of geometry, because you can not carry 

 him into the calculus, or make him feel 

 at home in the fourth dimension. Mr. 

 Gilman states his position very well in 

 the following passage: "When, then, 

 we have in mind, as a subject for public 

 school instruction, not the science of 

 ethics, not the speculations of moral 

 philosophers, but the orderly presenta- 

 tion of the common facts and laws of the 

 moral life which no one disputes, we 

 perceive how the religious or theological 

 difficulty disappears to a large degree. 

 . . . Let the relation of religion and 

 morality be as it may be, the teacher is 

 not called upon to decide an issue of this 

 magnitude. He can teach the duties of 

 ordinary life, sliowing their reasona- 

 bleness and their interdependence in a 

 consecutive, orderly manner, without 

 appealing to religion ; he can use the 

 plain and usual consequences of actions 

 good or bad without being open to a 

 just accusation of irreligion. These con- 

 sequences are admitted by all. He has 

 then a right in reason to stop with them, 

 because of the practical limitations im- 

 posed upon him by the time at his dis- 

 posal, the immaturity of the faculties 

 which he is training, and, most of all, 

 because of the wide difference of men's 

 minds as to the final explanation." 



Mr. Gilman makes due allowance for 

 the fact that a well-ordered school has 

 " a necessary moral discipline of its 

 own, which is enforced by every ca- 

 pable teacher " ; but he does not think 

 that this should be regarded as a suf- 

 ficient substitute for all direct moral 

 teaching. He considers that the school 

 has some special advantages for effective 



ethical teaching which the home does 

 not possess, and that a teacher throws 

 away very valuable opportunities who 

 does not find frequent occasion for 

 bringing home moral lessons to the 

 minds of his pupils. In this we wholly 

 agree with him. The teacher has what 

 the parent has not, an ever-present and 

 more or less numerous body of hearers, 

 to whose common judgment he can ap- 

 peal; and he has the established order 

 and discipline of the school as a means 

 of commanding attention. Moreover, 

 the teacher's judgment is already as- 

 sumed by the child to be more or less 

 the judgment of the outside world, 

 whereas the parent's opinion, like his 

 jurisdiction, is apt to be looked upon as 

 valid only within the limits of the house- 

 hold. It is evident, therefore, that a 

 vast influence for good might be exerted 

 by the teacher, provided only he himself 

 possessed the requisite intelligence and 

 earnestness. The real weakness of our 

 public schools for the purpose in view 

 comes to light just here. Before any 

 teacher could make a wise and effective 

 use of such a manual as the one before 

 us his heart would have to be in his 

 work ; he would have to possess a really 

 apostolic zeal for the moral benefit of 

 the children committed to his care. Are 

 such teachers numerous? Is tliere any- 

 thing in the conditions under which 

 teachers are trained and selected to en- 

 courage the hope that very many of 

 them would, under any circumstances, 

 be earnest exponents of moral truth? 

 We are really not aware that there is. 

 In the vast army of public-school teach- 

 ers there must be many superior minds 

 and many noble souls; but those who 

 have studied our school system seem to 

 be impressed rather with the lack, than 

 with the presence, of what we may 

 perhaps call ethical vitality in both 

 teachers and scholars. A teacher must 

 outwardly bear a good character ; but 

 what examination has ever been de- 

 vised to test his or her interest in 

 ethical questions or principles, in the 



