A LIBERAL EDUCATION 45 



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. 



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 and practice of obedience to the moral laws of Nature, 

 I gladly admit, not only that it contains a valuable educa- 

 tional element, but that, so far, it deals with the most valu- 

 able and important part of all education. Yet, contrast 

 what is done in this direction with what might be done; 

 with the time given to matters of comparatively no impor- 

 tance; 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 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 in the nature of things a 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 cer- 

 tain to be followed by evil consequences, as putting your 

 hand in the fire, or jumping out of a garret window. Again, 

 though the scholar may have been made acquainted, in 

 dogmatic fashion, with the broad laws of morality, he has 

 had no training in the application of those laws to the 

 difficult problems which result from the complex condi- 

 tions of modern civilisation. Would it not be very hard to 

 expect any one to solve a problem in conic sections who 



