486 EDUCATION 



of variations is impossible as long as we observe only individuals, 

 but that we are able to arrive at definite and almost certainly true 

 conclusions when we compare races that have evolved under 

 known but unlike conditions, and more particularly when we are 

 able to compare the present of a race with its known past. The 

 same method will serve in the endeavour to ascertain the effects 

 of mental training in early manhood. We shall thus, if only we 

 think carefully enough, be able to compare different systems of 

 mental training and separate the effects produced by them from 

 those produced by the other influences to which the individual is 

 exposed. All systems profess to teach, on the one hand, know- 

 ledge, and, on the other, right and efficient ways of thinking. The 

 amount and kind of knowledge imparted by any system is easily 

 observable. Our object, then, is to ascertain the intellectual effects 

 other than mere knowledge the kinds and qualities of the thinking 

 resulting from the principal methods of teaching. We shall see more 

 clearly than ever that, while knowledge, as is very obvious, results 

 from the things that are taught, the quality of the thinking depends in 

 a degree that is rarely realized on the way in which they are taught. 



799. The effects of religious teaching offer very favourable 

 materials for study. All sorts of religions have been taught, in 

 every variety of way, to races all over the world and in every stage 

 of culture and civilization. Some religions have been held by the 

 same races for many consecutive centuries. Other races have 

 rapidly and repeatedly changed their religions. Some religions 

 have been held by many diverse races, while in other cases sections 

 of the same race have followed two or more diverse religions. In 

 some countries the inhabitants are all of one religion, which is 

 taught to every one in much the same way ; in others, systems, 

 strongly contrasted in the things they teach and in the way they 

 teach, divide the inhabitants. In different times and places the 

 same religion has been taught by different methods. As in the 

 case of diseases, the range and diversity of the phenomena thus 

 presented enable us, through processes of analysis and comparison, 

 to reach conclusions otherwise unattainable. 



800. At this stage I must beg the reader to bear in mind 

 constantly the fact that we are discussing, not the truth or untruth 

 of religious doctrines, but only the mental effects resulting from 

 methods of teaching. If we strictly limit the discussion to this 

 question, and if our reasoning be right, we may, however much 

 we may disagree as to religious doctrine, be able to reach an 

 agreement as regards method. At any rate, we shall have 



