34 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



Boards what they can do and what they may do, ;) in 

 which I argued that the terms of the Education Act 

 excluded such teaching as it is now proposed to include. 

 And I support my contention by the following citation 

 from a speech delivered by Mr. Forster at the Birkbeck 

 Institution in 1870 : 



I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and 

 explaining of the Bible what the children will be taught 

 will be the great truths of Christian life and conduct, 

 which all of us desire they should know, and that no 

 efforts will be made to cram into their poor little minds 

 theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them 

 from understanding. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



HODESLEA, EASTBOURNE, April 28. 



The second is to a correspondent who wrote to ask 

 him whether adhesion to the compromise had not 

 rendered nonsensical the teaching given in a certain 

 lesson upon the finding of the youthful Jesus in the 

 temple, when, after they had read the verse, " How 

 is it that ye sought me 1 Wist ye not that I must be 

 about my Father's business ? " the teacher asked the 

 children the name of Jesus' father and mother, and 

 accepted the simple answer, Joseph and Mary. Thus 

 the point of the story, whether regarded as reality or 

 myth, is slurred over, the result is perplexity, the 

 teaching, in short, is bad, apart from all theory as to 

 the value of the Bible. 



In a letter to the Chronicle, which he forwarded, 

 this correspondent suggested a continuation of the 

 " incriminated lesson " : 



