iLLiTsrois dairymen's association. 91 



slighted in the work of the public school room. It is possible that in math- 

 ematics a larger proportion of illustrative examples might to advantage be 

 drawn from transactions incident to business on the farm. Instruction in 

 the physiology and anatomy of domestic animals might profitably be made 

 more prominent, also the study of chemistry and botany as illustrated in 

 home experience. But all these things I think have a more appropriate place 

 under the head of learning as culture, than in the practical arts. The chem- 

 istry of bread making may be very interesting for those who have a taste for 

 this kind of investigation, but the farmer's daughter,! suspect, will not very 

 much improve the loaf through this knowledge. In this case as in many an- 

 other which is made the subject of a fine turned phrase, the value of the 

 practical art will partake precisely of the science. Webb Clifford, in Nature's 

 Serial Story, as recently published in Harper^ s Magazine is a possible charac- 

 ter but it is not likely to be a very common one. 



Let us next consider the educational needs of the youth from a moral 

 standpoint of view. What is being done in this field, and with what result? 

 Is the standard and practice of practical morality, as illustrated, the social, 

 commercial and political intercourse of the people rising, descending, or is 

 it at a standstill? I ask this question not as a partisan of any kind, either 

 political or religious : and, furthermore, I will not undertake to consider it. 

 In all conscience the standard is low enough, and the more practical question 

 is, what can be done to improve it? I am one of those who believe the 

 schools should be utilized more effectively to this end than is now done. 

 You ask how? Are not the churches watching with jealous eye the conduct 

 of every Christian teacher lest he may use his influence more to the advan- 

 tage of his own sect than of another? I am pointed to the Sabbath schools 

 of the various religious denominations as working in this field, to say nothing 

 of other religious effort. Without criticising these, the best organized agen- 

 cies for inculcating moral truths now existing, there are left a vast number 

 who are not reached by these means at all, or if at all, but imperfectly. These 

 agencies only partly accomplish the proposed object as shown by the statis- 

 tics of crime, and by the exhibitions of crime and immorality both inside the 

 court-room and out. The degrees of immorality below the actual violation 

 of the law are scarcely taken notice of, and there is no systematic training 

 of the young in the fundamental principles of right and virtuous actions. 

 The influence of the public schools is almost neutral so far as positive teach- 

 ings are concerned. 



Let morality and thorough honesty, then, be taught for their own sakes 

 in every school-room. Let this be done in a prescribed and systematic way 

 without special reference to religion or any religious sect whatever. Every 

 theologian recognizes the obligations to right action as dictated and enforced 

 by the conscience independent of religious incursion altogether, and all 

 admit that the conscience, quickened or unquickened by religious emotion, 

 is not made influential in controlling human action chiefly through the power 

 of habit. 



Let catechisms and text-books, then, be placed in the hands of both 

 teachers and scholars; illustrating and enforcing the obligations and rewards 

 of right conduct in the various circumstances of life, and setting forth the 



