406 LESSONS FKOJ1 NATURE. [CHAP. XIII. 



whole family; it has leavened the whole mass. There may be an 

 intellectual element which in moderation is good, and in excess is none 

 other than madness, in the same way that common sense may find its 

 acme in an inactive dolt. It is this very case of the supposed value of 

 getting rid of the insane element in society that would make me hesi 

 tate before I offered any restrictions to marriage, or dared to dictate to 

 my fellow-creatures as to the impropriety or otherwise of mixing 

 certain temperaments.&quot; 



Amongst important practical consequences of the spread of 

 conse- such non-theistic, i.e., irreligious views as those 

 ?e u g e a n rds s as noticed in this chapter, is the eager demand for 

 cauon are &quot; &quot;secular education,&quot; in what is the present real 

 signification of that term. 



The current of popular feeling which now runs in favour 

 of State education is as yet too strong to allow anything like 

 a fair hearing to the weighty arguments by which Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer disputes the justice and denies the expe 

 diency of any such State action at all. Nevertheless, only a 

 very small minority will probably persist in advocating the 

 education of all poor children at the expense of parents 

 generally in the tenets and dogmas of one, as yet, very in 

 considerable sect that of the Secularists when once they 

 fully understand that this is the result of &quot;secular&quot; or 

 &quot; unsectarian education.&quot; At some future day it may, 

 indeed, hardly be deemed credible that attempts should have 

 been made in England, in the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, to force a majority of Englishmen to pay for the 

 education of their children in a creed utterly hostile to that 

 which their parents profess, and this too in the name of 

 freedom.&quot; 



It is not here contended, however, that truly &quot; secular &quot; 

 instruction cannot fairly and innocently enough be one day 

 &amp;lt;nven. But whether it can be so given or not will depend 

 upon the question whether the influence of the non-theistic 

 philosophy is at the time dominant. What is contended is 

 that existing conditions do not admit of such a process, and 

 that to attempt it is to attempt a most gross and flagrant 

 injustice. 



