314 REPORT — 1875. 



weigli evidence coloured by human feeling, which physical science does not bring 

 before it. Assuming, on the authority of Mr. M. Arnold and other competent per- 

 sons, the notoriety of, at least, very common failure on the part of our scliools and 

 universities to produce the culture their whole system is directed to attain, it may 

 be attributed, tirst, to the absence of a high national standard of culture as the 

 necessary crowning of the educational editice ; and, secondly, to the need of science 

 to discover and correct the defects in oiu* methods whence it proceeds. 



Following the natural order of human development, we come next to moral 

 education. In the moral as in the intellectual constitution we iind a hierarchy of 

 powers, and one supreme over the rest. This is conscience, the voice within us 

 pronouncing on right and wrong, and determining the obligation expressed by 

 "I ought" and "I ought not." The establishment of this rightful supremacy, 

 the subjection to it of the desires, afi'ections, passions, making " I will " wait upon 

 "I ought," is the ideal of moral education. Here we have a recognized standard, 

 that of Christian morality ; but there is too much evidence to prove that it is not 

 the practical and eihcient one. How it is to be made efficient, how our moral 

 teaching is to become as practical as it is universal, and establish the sovereignty 

 of conscience " de facto" as well as ^'dejure," are questions on which the honour 

 and prosperity of the country depend ; and where can we find their solution except 

 in the science of education, which is in fact the applied science of human nature ? 



Over the religious element of our nature, potentially the noblest, but also the 

 root of our worst evils, superstition, fanaticism, and bigotry, education has almost 

 unbounded power, and it has the highest standard, that of Christ, and an ideal of 

 divine loveliness in the life of Christ. Many of the causes of the notorious failure 

 of our religious teaching in producing corresponding results lie outside the scope 

 of this essay, and the subject is mentioned only to point out that the standards of 

 intellectual and moral education are most powerful factors in religious education, 

 and that when we have trained the intellect to form sound judgments and the moral 

 nature to obey conscience, we shall have laid the best foundation in himian power 

 for religious training up to the Christian standard. 



All that has been said hitherto applies equally to both sexes ; but this paper 

 would be incomplete without some mention of the standard of education for 

 women. Practically there is no such standard above that of the elementary 

 schools, and the whole subject is in a chaotic state, tossed on the horns of con- 

 flicting opinions between the extremes of absolute dependence on the pleasiu'e and 

 convenience of men and absolute equality with them. Yet a high standard of 

 womanly worth and dignity is the very salt of a nation's life, without which it 

 slowly rots to the core. To the English ideal of the purity and sanctity of home pre- 

 sided over by the wife and mother, incomplete and inconsistently acted upon as it is, 

 we owe whatever we have of wholesome social life. But there are signs of a change 

 for the worse even here ; and considering that the imavowed but real standard held 

 up to women from their cradle is to please men, and that experience early teaches 

 them that men as a rule are best pleased by beauty and fasliion, most easily won 

 by the wiles of coquetry, and most effectually repelled by any independent exer- 

 cise of thought and judgment, the wonder is that so much goodness, truth, and 

 sound-heartedness is left among them. Professor Max Miiller, after saying to tlie 

 writer that the future of England depended on her young mothers, asked, " How 

 are they to be educated ?" Can there be anj' question in the whole range of 

 scientific investigation more worthy to occupy our ablest minds, and the solution 

 of which is more important to the welfare of the nation and the human race ? 



Mr. Matthew Arnold has a passage showing the necessity of a nation's action 

 being inspired by an ideal commanding the respect of the manj', in order to keep 

 that nation together and give it unity and true greatness. The practical comment 

 on these words, based not on theory but the history of the decline and fall of 

 nations, is this: Of all ideals giving a nation unity and greatness, the most powerful 

 is a high ideal of national character, of what its men and women, its geutlcnien 

 and gentlewomen should be ; and of all sciences giving us the command over the 

 forces of nature, the most important is that which will give us command over the 

 forces of the human heart and mind, and enable us with approximate certainty to 

 educate the nation up to its ideal. 



