breakage." One of the medicos retorted, "If you were on 

 your back with appendicitis, which would you choose, 

 the old or the new doctor?" My friend deemed Bilence the 

 safest answer. But his silence did not blunt the point of 

 his criticism. It is beyond question that there is moral 

 danger in the exclusive pursuit of abstract ideas of life. 

 When we read of a German classical professor spending a 

 lifetime in writing a treatise of many volumes on the Greek 

 particle de it is time to call halt. Nevertheless, when all 

 this has been said the evil is not in abstract science, but in 

 the misuse of that form of science. It is not science, but a 

 one-sided science that maims life. 



Ajs wdth science in the strict sense, so with secular 

 education in our public schools. It may, in a school where- 

 the atmosphere of true education is wanting, become un- 

 healthy. More attention may be paid to brav/n and brain 

 than to gentle manners and a generous heart. But I 

 believe that even in the higher issues of life our national 

 secular schools are superior to the schools of former daj'S. 

 Nelly McClung says of the Manitoba s<3hool readers that 

 they are "noticeably silent in affairs of the he-art." How- 

 ever this may be, our Ontario readers, in short extracts from 

 pootry and history, are rich in records of heroic dee<ls and 

 lofty ideals. These lessons in literature, given by teachers 

 who enter through the letter into the spirit, introduce our 

 boys and girls to the men and ^\'omen of the past, who 

 have embodied for us the moral qualities which have made 

 Britain the inspirer of the world's highest life. More than 

 this, no education is antircly secular. Even the knowledge 

 of the world in which we live, and which lives in us, makes 

 it impossible for us to forget that while we are in a well 

 provided home, we are not at liberty to enjoy its privileges 

 except in falling cheerfully in with it© ways. Further, all 

 true history and literature are alive with human experience, 

 the knowledge of which cannot but bring wisdom to inter- 

 ested students. Still further, the teachers in our public 

 schools in Canada come as a rule. from our soundest and 



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