38o 



The Review of Reviews. 



October I, 1906. 



THE FALLACY OF "MORAL INSTKUCTION. " 



There is a refreshing paper in the International 

 Journal of Ethics by Mr. James Oliphant on Moral 

 Instruction. He shows the absurdity of supposing, 

 in our educational controversy, that when tlie held 

 of religion is left and the field of ethics is entered 

 all serious differences of conviction disappear. He 

 paints out, on the contrary, that it is an escape from 

 the fr)'ing-pan intn the fire. He says: — 



With ninety-nine i)eople out of a hundred, in a coiuitr.v 

 liko England at least, the crucial differences arise, not in 

 the former but in the latter sphere. Men stand apart, not 

 because one believes in the Thirty-nine Articles, while 

 another holds to the Westminster Confession of Faith, but 

 because whatever may be their nominal sects, one believes 

 that he should devote himself to preparing for a life to 

 come, while the other finds liis duties in the present 

 world; because one thinks that war is good and the other 

 thinks it is bad; because one believes in asceticism and 

 the other in self-iudulgence; because one holds to truth 

 and honesty as embodying the best worldly policy, while 

 the other clings to them throtigli good and evil report. 

 This is not a question of difference between i)rofession 

 and practice, it is a difference of ideal in all cases. 



■NO SET LESSONS." 



Not only on this ground does he criticise the pro- 

 posal 4:0 give systematic moral instruction in the 

 schools. He urge^ very strongly that " instruction 

 which bears such close relation to the springs of 

 feeling " as moral or religious instruction, " should 

 be dissociated from any appearance of being forced. 

 Formal lessons in conduct are at a disad\antage.'' 

 So he urges ; — 



There should be no set lessons, no attempt at systems, 

 no dogmatic deliverance, no formal precept for which illus- 

 trations have to be found, or to which a bundle of supplied 

 illustrations will palpably lead up. 



Moral teaching should be suggestive rather than 

 authoritative in form. The teacher's influence 

 should be exerted through the channels of personal 

 example and sympathetic help. It is his task not 

 to determine his pupils' conduct, but to train them 

 to determine it for themselves. He may safely 

 leavp them to frame their own moral principles, if 

 he does his part worthilv in giving them the emo- 

 tional material out of which to build them up. 



THE eUBSE OF SYSTEM. 



Mr. Oliphant even declares that it is the curse of 

 our present-day education to be overbui'dened with 

 system. He concludes: — 



All that really matters in such studies— the enlargement 

 of the vision, the quickening of interest in the manifold 

 life of the world, the api>eal to the sympathetic emotions 

 — ia too often crowded out to make room for the memoris- 

 ing of epitomes ;in<l barren records of events, of fornmla^ 

 and dogmas and catechisms, which to the children is only 

 meaningless and irksome taskwork. In our ill-judged haste 

 to initiate them into what we rightly consider to be the 

 most humanising subjects of study, we offer them the liusks 

 in place of the kernel; when they ask for bread, we give 

 them .a stone. No greater disservice can be done to any 

 subject than to associate it in the minds of the learners 

 witji tedium and obscurity and compulsion. 



TO PREVENT CHILDLABOUR AND RACE- 

 SUICIDE. 



Pensions for All in Childhood ! 



-Mr. Wizard French, in the Arena, argues that 

 celibacy and race-suicide, along with compulsory 

 education, are the outcome of modern life in tene- 

 ments, cities, and flats, as opposed to the old-time 

 farm where children were welcome. These make 

 the burden of children almost unbearable. To re- 

 lieve the burden, to make normal marriage univer- 

 sally possible, and to prevent the progressive extinc- 

 tion of the race, he makes a novel proposal: — 



Why should not every child on being born and registered 

 receive a salary as a servant of the nation, gradmvlly in- 

 creasing as his necessities increase, until his education is 

 complete.^ No occupant of a desk in the executive offices 

 is more essentially giving his time and energy for the best 

 good of the nation than the child who faithfully prepares 

 himself for good citizenship. Then at the age of retirement, 

 in cases of necessity, the pension could begin again as a 

 reward for having been a good citizen— upon ground as 

 valid, surely, as the continued pay of the retired officer. 



Where would l:e race-suicide, child-labour, or call for 

 compulsory education? Where would be the bent backs 

 and anxious faces of the economising, abnegating, drudging 

 multitude, sacrificing all the joys of life, to-day, in an 

 agony to put their children on their feet and prevent being 

 a burden iu old age, or throwing away the reality of life 

 to escape the responsibility? The childless family is en- 

 vied, now, and the life-insurance iucubus a necessity. The 

 baker's dozen would be at a premium then, the horror of 

 early marriage on a small salary and anxiety for the 

 future would disappear while the nation received its own 

 with usury. 



Even at present, the writer argues, the American 

 pension roll is materially larger than the entire 

 German army appropriation. Pensions, he adds, 

 are our greatest circulation instigator. The larger 

 the pension roll, the greater the finite circulation 

 and the finite prosfierity which makes for the infinite 

 I if the nation. 



The South African Magazine for July is a delight- 

 ful specimen of the combined art of printer and 

 photographer. 



THE COLONIAL OFFICE AND CROWN 

 COLONIES. 



Sir Charles Bruce, writing in the Empire Review 

 on this subject, discusses Sir Augustus Hemmings 

 suggestion for leaving the Crown Colonies less in the 

 hands of junior clerks. Sir Charles Bruce is con- 

 vinced that, whatever reform is made, the constitu- 

 tional principle must be maintained of the respon- 

 sibility of the Governor on the spot and the control 

 (if the Secretary of. State {i.e.. Parliament). Sir 

 Charles Bruce's practical suggestion is as follows: — 



As one who has enjoyed exceptional facilities for learn- 

 ing the needs of the Colonies, I venture to associate my- 

 self with those, and I believe they are many who desire 

 to see the present work of the Imperial Institute admitted 

 into the Colonial Office system as a Department of Tech- 

 nical Intelligence in connection with existing local agencies 

 or representatives in the Colonies whose operations the De- 

 partment would supplement. I cannot imagine that the 

 Colonial Oliic* would find any difficulty in reorganising the 

 Imperial Institute as a Department on these lines, work- 

 ing iu conjunction on the one hand with the botanical 

 establishment at Kew. and on the other hand with the 

 commercial agencies of the Board of Trade, whilst forming 

 part of that office of government which controls the de- 

 velopment of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates. 



