A LIBERAL EDUCATION 37 



in reading, or to be able to write the commonest letter prop- 

 erly. 



2. A quantity of dogmatic theology, of which the child, 

 nine times out of ten, understands next to nothing. 



3. Mixed up with this, so as to seem to stand or fall with 5 

 it, a few of the broadest and simplest principles of morality. 

 This, to my mind, is much as if a man of science should make 

 the story of the fall of the apple in Newton's garden, an inte- 

 gral part of the doctrine of gravitation, and teach it as of equal 

 authority with the law of the inverse squares. 10 



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

 and, perhaps, a little something about English history 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 15 

 be practically taught by it what a map means. 



5. A certain amount of regularity, attentive obedience, 

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

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



So far as this school course embraces a training in the theory 20 

 and practice of obedience to the moral laws 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 education. Yet, contrast what is done 

 in this direction with what might be done ; with the time 25 

 given to matters of 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, and 30 

 what it does not know. Begin with the most important 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 



