56 Selections from Huxley 



gravitation, and teach it as of equal authority with the 

 law of the inverse squares. 



4. A good deal of Jewish history and Syrian geography, 

 and, perhaps, a little something about English history 



5 and the geography of the child's own country. But I 

 doubt if there is a primary school in England in which 

 hangs a map of the hundred in which the village lies, so 

 that the children may be practically taught by it what 

 a map means. 



10 5. A certain amount of regularity, attentive obedience, 

 respect for others: obtained by fear, if the master be in- 

 competent or foolish ; by love and reverence, if he be wise. 

 So far as this school course embraces a training in 

 the theory and practice of obedience to the moral laws 



15 of Nature, I gladly admit, not only that it contains a 

 valuable educational element, but that, so far, it deals 

 with the most valuable and important part of all educa- 

 tion. Yet, contrast what is done in this direction with 

 what might be done; with the time given to matters of 



20 comparatively no importance ; with the absence of any 

 attention to things of the highest moment; and one is 

 tempted to think of Falstaff's bill and " the halfpenny 

 worth of bread to all that quantity of sack." 



Let us consider what a child thus " educated " knows, 



25 and what it does not know. Begin with the most im- 

 portant topic of all morality, as the guide of conduct. 

 The child knows well enough that some acts meet with 

 approbation and some with disapprobation. But it has 

 never, heard that there lies in the nature of things a 



30 reason for every moral law, as cogent and as well defined 

 as that which underlies every physical law; that stealing 

 and lying are just as certain to be followed by evil con- 

 sequences, as putting your hand in the fire, or jumping 

 out of a garret window. Again, though the scholar may 



