EDITOR'S TABLE. 



559 



supernatural idea? It may be said 

 that so long as the Bible is read and 

 expounded and treated as authorita- 

 tive in the churches, the same con- 

 flict between naturalism outside the 

 Church and supernaturalism within 

 it will exist; but to this may be an- 

 swered that on the clergy rests the 

 responsibility for finding a modus 

 vivendi between the two, and that, 

 with their special learning and the 

 special interest they have in the 

 matter, much may be possible to 

 them that is wholly beyond the 

 scope of the lay teacher in a public 

 school. There are clergymen who 

 tell us to-day that it is in no wise 

 necessary to believe in the biblical 

 story of creation as a record of facts, 

 and some are almost prepared to dis- 

 pense with all belief in the miracu- 

 lous ; but could the school teacher in 

 whose hands the Bible was placed 

 as an authoritative text-book be al- 

 lowed or expected to indulge in such 

 critical exercitations ? The idea is 

 ridiculous : a text-book is a text- 

 book, and its meaning must lie on 

 the surface; its words must be sus- 

 ceptible of being taken at their face 

 value ; and no special gifts or graces 

 must be required for its satisfactory 

 use as a text-book. 



That the Bible as a whole is a 

 most impressive book ; that it bears 

 a noble stamp of earnestness and 

 moral elevation ; that it contains 

 moral teaching of inestimable value 

 these are propositions which we 

 should be the last to deny ; but, ad- 

 mitting them to the full, we still 

 consider that it is a wise and true in- 

 stinct which reconciles the majority 

 even of those who place the high- 

 est estimate on the Bible to dispens- 

 ing with its use in the public schools. 



But how about those masses who, 

 according to Dean Carmichael, are 

 becoming educated, and owing to that 

 very fact more dangerous than the 

 mob that stormed the Bastile ? That 



all the signs of the times are favor- 

 able we by no means think ; but as 

 regards the influence of popular edu- 

 cation, what we dread is not the 

 awakening of the intellect of the mul- 

 titude so much as the stifling of it 

 and the enslaving of it to false ideas. 

 So far as popular education has an 

 awakening effect, its influence, we 

 doubt not, will be good. A man does 

 not become dangerous because he 

 has learned to sign his name ; but he 

 becomes dangerous both to himself 

 and to others if he has been taught 

 to dissociate cause and effect ; if he 

 has got it into his head that benefits 

 may be obtained without labor ; if 

 his brain has been muddled with the 

 notion that others are responsible for 

 making him happy and prosperous. 

 We dread an education which in any 

 way withdraws a youth from the 

 salutary influence of natural reac- 

 tions and tends to give him an arti- 

 ficial conception of the world he lives 

 in. We dread an education which 

 favors the formation of indolent hab- 

 its, or which confuses and enfeebles 

 the mind by calling upon it to pur- 

 sue abstract trains of thought when 

 it should be occupied with the con- 

 crete. We dread an education which 

 at once excites ambition and disin- 

 clines for toil ; which gives a smat- 

 tering of many things, but no true 

 sense of power or competence in re- 

 gard to anything ; which represses 

 individuality and so robs character 

 of a main element of strength. And 

 all these unfavorable results, we fear, 

 are wrought by much of the educa- 

 tion that is imparted to-day. But to 

 try to conquer our evils or avert our 

 perils by driving back the masses into 

 ecclesiastical penfolds is as chimeri- 

 cal an idea as could well be conceived. 

 The world is willing, and more than 

 willing, to listen to those who can 

 shed a glory upon human life bor- 

 rowed from regions of faith and hope 

 that lie above our ordinary range of 



