500 EDUCATION 



stagnation and intellectual inefficiency. The results of such 

 teaching, observable as they are in every age and country, and 

 in connexion with almost every religion, are so universal and 

 manifest that the relation of cause and effect is certain. Precisely 

 in proportion as the prevailing religion is used to render the 

 mind incapable of estimating the value of conflicting evidence and 

 of assimilating new truth, the individual is rendered unintelligent 

 and the race stagnant and lawless. Such teaching, which every 

 trained teacher would condemn as abominable if used for a 

 secular subject, tends to produce a condition of feeble-mindedness 

 which differs from the congenital kind only in that it has a 

 different origin and is less profound inasmuch as it affects only 

 the reflective faculties the unconscious, not the conscious, memory ; 

 skill in thinking, not ability in storing facts. Now, since children 

 are at that stage of mental development in which the individual 

 acquires the main part of his knowledge and mental habits, it is 

 impossible to close their minds permanently. Thus, while it is 

 easy to convince them of the truth of any set of religious doctrines 

 ' and prejudice them against any other set, it is almost as easy to 

 obliterate the impression. Habits of thought become permanent 

 only later when the youth develops into the man, when the 

 instinctive open-mindedness and receptivity of the child wanes, 

 and is replaced by a habit of being open-minded or the reverse. 

 Consider how small, speaking relatively, would be the intel- 

 lectual ill-effects of Mohammedanism, Hindooism, or any other 

 religion which we believe to be false, if the method of instruction, 

 even if faulty for children, were good when adults were taught. 



816. I have discussed religious teaching only in order to 

 demonstrate the truth that it is as necessary to bestow attention 

 on the thinking faculties of young adults as on the increase of 

 their knowledge. The years during which the youth changes 

 into the man are, from the standpoint of mental development, 

 the most important of all ; for at that period the mental habits, 

 like the physical parts, tend to settle into relative stability. 

 To achieve the best results we must not only train little 

 children to think well, but we must continue the process to the 

 latest stage possible. As we use the child's knowledge for a 

 foundation on which to build the larger knowledge of the adult, 

 so we should use his mental skill as a stepping-stone towards the 

 acquirement of greater powers of thinking. It is agreed on all 

 hands that a good educational system must teach knowledge and 

 mental skill which will be useful in the widest sense to the pupil 



