242 Education as a Factor in Civilization. 



ture, and the only diversity of opinion concerns the means 

 whereby this aim may be secured. If the only way to di- 

 minish the amount of wrong-doing is to diminish the num- 

 ber of wrong-doers, it becomes of the highest consequence 

 that our youth shall be instructed in the ethical principles 

 agreed upon by all philosophers from Socrates to Spencer. 

 But whether this training is sufficient is a question upon 

 which wise men radically disagree. The spirit of the 

 Puritans, who, if a youthful historian is to be believed, 

 ^' came to this country to worship God in their own way and 

 to compel other people to do the same," is not wholly ex- 

 tinct among us. 



The first religious difficulty concerning our schools 

 arose as long ago as 1823. It has become formidable 

 since Pope Pius IX., in 1875, pronounced our school 

 system " a most pernicious system," and ordered that the 

 prelates use every possible means to protect the flock com- 

 mitted to their care from all contact with the public 

 schools. One of the leading church papers declares that 

 " out of one hundred children educated in the public schools, 

 ninety-six are a clear and certain gain to the devil." This 

 is a fair sample of the editorial utterances of the Roman 

 Catholic press, which calls doAvn anathemas upon the heads 

 of those who allow their children to attend other than 

 paroclxial schools. But the ecclesiastical curse appears to 

 carry small weight when it threatens the educational wel- 

 fare of their families, and many of the Catholic clergy, 

 though guarded in expression, are upon the side of the 

 defiant parents. 



The separation of Church and State left the school a 

 disputed territory for both to quarrel over, and two phases 

 of Christianity are just now on trial ; but the fittest will 

 survive, for the jury to decide the case is composed not 

 of a dozen men, but of millions, upon whose intelligence, 

 not ignorance, the verdict is to rest. " The old-world order 

 of things," says Holmes, " is an arrangement of locks and 

 canals, where safety depends upon keeping the gates shut 

 and so holding tlie upper waters at their level ; but Amer- 

 ica trusts the whole tide of life to the great elemental 

 influences, as the vast rivers of the continent settle their 

 own level in obedience to the laws which govern the 

 jilanet and the spheres whicli surround it." Upon those 

 who declare that ''godless schools" are the cause of crime. 



