194 Thomas Henry Huxley 



in the interval between two eternities ; and earns the blessings 

 and the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good 

 and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for 

 their work." 



lyastly, he laid down the lines of the general educa- 

 tion to be given. He pointed otit that already in the 

 existing schools a very considerable burden of work 

 was imposed on the children in the form of catechism, 

 lists of the kings of Israel, geograph}^ of Palestine, 

 and that when these fantastic modes of education had 

 been eliminated there was plenty of time and energ)' 

 to be emploj'ed. The instruction in physical training 

 was more than half play ; that in the domestic subjects 

 had an engrossing interest of its own. He proposed, 

 first, the necessary discipline in the means for acquiring 

 knowledge, the tools for emplo}-ing it, that is to sa}-, 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic. After that, he be- 

 lieved that a certain amount of knowledge, of intellect- 

 ual discipline, and of artistic training should be conveyed 

 in the elementary schools, and for these purposes he 

 proposed to teach some rudiments of physical science, 

 drawing, and singing. 



In most respects the progress of primar^^ education 

 in England has been a continuous progress along these 

 lines suggested by Huxley, and he may be regarded as 

 in this fashion one of the great shapers of the destinies 

 of his race, for nothing can have a bearing more im- 

 portant on the character and fate of a race than the 

 manner of training provided for the mas.ses of indi- 

 viduals compo.sing it. It is onl}' in the matter of the 

 religious instrtiction that the course of events has been 

 widely different from the neutral exposition of the 

 Bible as suggested bj^ him. In 1870 a great majority 

 of the people of England who reflected upon the 



