beft fermons I know on the Education of the Poor was preached by Butler, Bishop of Durham, the well-known author of the Analogy, &c., fomething more than a hundred years ago. He had the clearest infight into the matter, and his reply to needlefs objections was, 'Vain indeed would be the hope, that any thing in this world can be fully fecured from abuse. For as it is the general scheme of Divine Providence to bring good out of evil, fo the wickednefs of men will, if it be poffible, bring evil out of good. But upon the whole, incapacity and ignorance must be favourable to error and vice; and knowledge and improvement contribute, in due time, to the destruction of impiety, as well as fuperstition, and to the general prevalence of true religion'.' Butler never overstated his arguments, and they have the greater force. "Whether or not the exertions now made will prove as effectual as many feem to think, may be a question, and I am afraid there is fomething fashionable juft at present in the Educational movement, but there can be no 1 This fermon was preached, May 9, 1745, in the Parish Church, at Chrift Church, London, being the time of the yearly meeting of the Children educated in the Charity Schools in and about the cities of London and Westminster. Profe Works, Vol. iv. 438. Ed. Pickering. question at all as to its being a righteous means to a good end. As to differences in the mode of teaching, I have only to say with Milton, 'Where there is much defire to learn, there of neceffity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions, for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.' It is a curious turn of expreffion, quite Miltonic, but has meaning in it. To him we might say, and in the very best sense, Thy mind is The Twelfth a very opal!' "Provided Education is not mistaken for Grace, and used as a Charm and an Amulet, I am quite contented with the movement,—and with the Tranfition State we must put up," was my reply, "and vaftly glad fhall I be to get rid of fuch perfons as John a Nokes, and John a Stiles. Night, Act ii. "Though not a Charm, it may act as one, and I would instance what any one may read for himself in the National Society's Report for 1843. After the difturbances broke out in 1842, which threatened to dismember society, circulars were addreffed to lay and clerical individuals in those districts, who, from their See p. 2. pofition and opportunities, were considered likely to afford correct and full information. unde fummota eft, folet." Senec. Thyeft. v. 474. The answers received amounted to about 150, all from different writers, and all tending to establish the fame conclufion. It appeared that in every cafe the effect of education, whether in Sunday or in Daily Schools, was falutary in proportion to its completeness. Wherever means of Church Inftruction was best provided, there the efforts of the dif affected were leaft fucceffful. In whatever "Redire Pietas, diftricts Church Principles predominated no outbreak took place, however grievous the privations of the people, except in cafes where the rightly difpofed inhabitants were overpowered by agitations from a distance.' This teftimony I confidered at the time most valuable, and I do fo ftill, and I have no doubt that the outbreak alluded to, dangerous as it was, proved yet again how evil is overruled by good. I could apply to it those lines of Ovid's in the Metamorphofes when speaking of the combustion caused by Phaeton's indifcretion. Lib. ii. 331. 'Incendia lumen Præbebant, aliquifque malo fuit ufus in illo.' Only let the Progrefs of Education work this way, and we may think lightly of the minor evils which attend our Tranfition ftate." With these words he took down the "Lay of the Laureate," saying, "How deeply was the nation indebted to Southey,-and how much have the prefent generation been benefited by ftanzas such as thefe!" "From nature's hand like plaftic clay they come To take from circumftance their woe or weal; "Is it then fitting that one soul should pine For lack of culture in this favour'd land? That fpirits of capacity divine Perish, like feeds upon the defert fand? "Little can private zeal effect alone; The state must this state-malady redress! So in their duty states must find at length, "This the first duty, carefully to train The children in the way that they should go; Then of the family of guilt and pain, How large a part were banish'd from below! How fhould they love with fureft caufe Their country, and revere their venerable laws? "Is there, alas, within the human foil, An inbred taint difpofing it for ill? The heart of man is rich in all good feeds; Neglected, it is choked with tears, and noxious weeds." |