CLAIMS ON EDUCATED MEN.

BY THE REV. DR. HUNTINGTON, OF HAVARD COLLEGE, U. S.

men.

ET us ponder, then, the great claims that are laid on our educated The country has claims,- -never more than now. We need more of that sort of education which stirs and fosters, from beginning to end, a loyal zeal for the central and dominant ideas that lie at the foundation of the republic. The scholar is not well trained who has not been formed day by day into a christian patriot. Our universities ought all to be nurseries, not of national exclusiveness, or national vanity, but of a just national honor, virtue, and devotion. They should rear and send forth prophets for the American Israel,-prophets brave and blameless, and speaking ever with a "Thus saith the Lord,"-prophets that no sophistry can bewilder, no tyrant silence, no bludgeon terrify, no flattery blind. Out of libraries, and out of laboratories, and out of the fore-arming contests of debate, let them send forth, for each impending struggle of right with wrong, thinkers and speakers fraught with an universal insight" ingenuous and matchless men. For, as said that staunch old English republican of two centuries ago, in language suiting us to-day, "There is a study of politics worthy of christian scholars, that they may not, in a dangerous fit of the commonwealth, be such poor, shaken, uncertain reeds, of such a tottering conscience, as many of our great counsellors have lately shown themselves, but steadfast pillars of the state.

Universal humanity has claims. That "good conversation" of the Christian scholar condescends to converse with the lowest offshoot of the human stock. That "meekness of wisdom" stoops gladly to help the weakest wayfarer; to hear the story of wrong or weakness from the faintest or most unlettered lips; to sympathise with the wants of the vagrant, or the sorrows of the slave; to bring all the sublime resources of culture, the magic of invention, and the facilities of genius, to ease the burdens of penury, to open the path to the helpless, to pay respect and wages to unpaid toil, to inspire brute force with intelligence, to marshall idle men and women and children into ranks of self-sustaining labor. This is a worthy end for the best scholarship of the age.

"How blest to help the slender store.

How mend the dwellings of the poor.---
How gain in life, as life advances.
Valor and charity more and more."

Above all, Christ has claims. And his claims are supreme. They transcend, they underlie, they encompass, all beside. The Lord of souls is Lord of sciences as well. Common gratitude challenges obedience and love for him, in whose name every hope of civilization moves to its fulfilment, and every affection of mankind realizes itself in peace. It must be a personal obedience-a personal love. No general and cold confession, no vague and rhetorical loyalty, no heartless and high-sounding praises, can satisfy that gospel of regeneration on which salvation depends. Penitence, trust, consecration, prayer, righteousness, these will; for God is Love, and his forgiveness waits. Every thought and imagination must be brought into captivity to the holy obedience of the Son of God. All knowledge that is

not rooted and centred there vanishes away. "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?" He is the believing student, the studious disciple.

Gentlemen of the Graduating Class, our doctrine culminates here.

Every considerable change in the form of our life is meant to suggest to us something original as to its spirit. The dissolving of one set of relations moves the question by what law new sets shall be organized. When farewells and distance threaten manly friendships, what is more unavoidable than to think what arm shall keep the friend that is parted from, and whether there is not One Friendship in whose Eternal and Almighty clasp every human affection finds its safety? The separation of classmates opens spaces about each one's personality which let in light from above on all your plans and habits. A change of residence puts us to asking why we live at all; how long we shall need any earthly dwelling; whether we deserve any. How shall your tuition justify these years, and your future be adequate to the past?

That question like every other that an earnest experience asks, God's Book of Life answers.

Life is the test of learning. Character is the criterion of knowledge. Not what a man has, but what he is, is the question, after all. The quality of soul is more than the quantity of information. Personal, spiritual substance is the final resultant. Have that, and your intellectual furnishings and attainments will turn, with no violent contortion, but with a natural tendency and harmony,—a working together, conversation, anastrophe-to the loftiest uses. Add faith to knowledge, and your education will be worth what it has cost. Your lives will honor and justify your preparaSay, every morning, with the simple confidence of the holy child in the temple, "Lord here am I!" and he will send you to noble and effectual victories. Your wisdom will tell to issues that are divine, and that wisdom the Eternal Providence will watch, because it is matured in the spiritual school of Him who knows all that is in man.

tion.

"Lift up your eyes to the fields; they are white already to harvest." With the blessings of that providence, go to the field of your slow, patient work. That slowness of the result may be the bitterest element in the discipline.

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time."

Be content to wait for Him with whom ages are days.

not.

"If but this tedious battle could be fought.
With Sparta's heroes, at one rocky pass,
One day be spent in dying, men had sought
The spot, and been cut down like mower's grass.
If in the heart of nature we might strive,
Challenge to single combat the great power,
Welcome the conflict! But no; half alive,

We skirmish with our foe long hour by hour."

Nevertheless, nevertheless,-in due season ye shall reap, if ye faint Go out with faith, with supplication. Ye shall come again in the Jubilee and Sabbath of the Resurrection rejoicing, and then, be content if it should be with you as with the solemn pictured figures of the returning warriors, in the historical galleries of the Italian city, where the reverend and pious victors are seen, not in chariots, nor with sceptres, nor on thrones nor with crowns on their heads, but kneeling, the crowns lifted in their hands, looking upward, and giving thanks to God.

AN EDUCATIONAL TEST, AS A QUALIFICATION FOR
REMUNERATIVE EMPLOYMENT.

HE great social question, popular ignorance, with its unfailing concomitants, vice and ungodliness, still continues to occupy and perplex statesmen and philanthropists. It is not obvious that any real progress has been made towards providing a remedy for this evil.

Two facts may be noticed in connection with the subject:1. There are in this country myriads of children growing up without any adequate instruction.

2. Existing school buildings are not sufficient to receive all the children who ought to be in school.

From these two facts a conclusion is drawn, which is the foundation of most of the efforts and plans of the theorists in education, who have the ear of the country both in and out of Parliament-namely that if a sufficient number of schools were provided and could be maintained, the problem of National Education would be solved.

This conclusion is, unfortunately, a mere groundless assumption, the fallacy of which may be proved from numberless instances of good schools which are not filled.

The practical difficulty of providing for the maintenance of schools, when built, has caused the failure of all schemes for the extension of National Education.

While, then, the theoretical educationists are occupied with devising plans, which, if successful, would probably issue in disappointment, it may be well to view the question in another aspect.

Managers and inspectors of schools throughout England concur with scarcely a dissentient voice, that the great educational want at the present moment is not so much the want of additional schoolrooms, as the means for bringing children into existing schools, and retaining them there for an adequate time.

Prodigious efforts have been made within the last fifteen years to raise up a staff of able earnest teachers for juvenile schools; success has crowned those efforts. Teachers are dispersed by hundreds and thousands over the country, but they are to a great extent surrounded by mere infants.

Is the case hopeless? With the deep-rooted feeling of Englishmen, on the subject of individual freedom of action, any attempt by direct legislative enactment, to compel all parents to send their children to school may be regarded as impossible.

Can the object be accomplished indirectly?

To expect that any scheme to enforce the attendance of all children of any prescribed age will at once be effectual, is visionary.

Any plan for this purpose can only be an experiment.

Lord John Russell, in his Educational Resolutions of 1856, proposed to meet the case by requiring employers of children, between nine and fifteen years old, to furnish half-yearly certificates of attendance at school, and to may for their instruction.

AN EDUCATIONAL TEST, AS A QUALIFICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT.

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Let it be borne in mind, that the leading object of his Lordship, and of all parties who are seeking to extend popular education, is to lay hold of, and educate that vast mass of children (according to the census, 2,250,000) who are neither at work nor at school. Lord John Russell's proposal would not reach one of these children.

Again-it is probable that a majority of young children who are at work, but who ought to be at school, do not remain half-a-year at a time with one master. The proposal would not reach them. Though it is comparatively easy to legislate for a few factories, over which inspectors are appointed, the difficulty of carrying the law into effect, even in reference to those children, may be judged of from the number of precautions necessary to prevent evasion. To enforce such a law on the employers of single children, over the whole country, is impossible.

It may be worthy of consideration, whether much might not be done by an Educational Test, to be applied as follows:-To impose a penalty on every person employing any one who was, say under 10 years of age, at the time of passing of the Act, and who has not a certificate of ability to write from dictation a simple sentence, and read with ease a simple narrative. This certificate to be given by persons, appointed for the purpose, for a small fee, and if lost, to be renewed at a like charge. The employer, also, to be obliged to take some specimen of the person's writing-say name, age, date of certificate, &c. The existence of such a law would give school managers great influence with parents of all idle and irregular children now under 10 years of age; they could say to them, your child will never get employment till it can read and write.-In a few years the Educational Test might be raised.

It will be observed that this plan, indirectly, but effectually, meets the case of parents employing children to assist a little at home; for though they incur no penalty at the time, they will see that ignorance must preclude their getting employment afterwards. The number of this class in London is very great.

This plan will constrain the children to keep up their power of reading and writing, a matter of no small importance with a large number whose attainments on leaving school are so imperfect, that they are often lost in a few years, or even months.

It has been suggested, that the restriction above referred to, must not be applicable all through life; and perhaps it will be sufficient, if limited to persons under 21 years of age. A certificate from the examiner, of natural inability to learn, would exempt from the penalty.

20, Bedford Row,

Jos. J. ALLEN.

MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENTS.-Messrs. Groombridge and Sons have worked out Mr. Hyett's furtherance of Patent Mathematical Drawing Instruments, which have been approved and recommended by the Society of Arts and Government Schools of Design. We find that six inch brass compasses can be had for 4d.; a box, containing five inch brass compass, pen point, pencil point, and patent scale, for 1s. 6d.; a pull-off case, containing brass five inch steel joint compass, pen point, pencil point, hand pen, and six inch box scale, for 2s. 6d.; a six inch cedar case (polished), containing six inch steel point compass, pen point, pencil point, hand pen, pencil, and six inch box scale, for 3s. 6d.; and superior sets at proportionately low prices. We strongly recommend them as excellent for the money, and admirably adapted for school use.

T

SIR,

DECIMAL COINAGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ENGLISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

So thoroughly are the minds of most persons who have thought of the matter made up in favour of the natural basis, the pound sterling of a decimal coinage, and so frivolous are the objections advanced against it, that it becomes mere waste of time to discuss the basis. The point to be brought under the notice of teachers and all who have an influence upon the masses, is the desirability of the introduction of the system, and not the quibble as to what the basis of that system shall be.

With the well-known acutness, and the grasp of perception possessed by the writer of the first article in the last number of the Journal, it is very remarkable that he did not perceive that the system of coinage, which he advocates, is not a decimal system at all, unless we admit into our accounts no coin of higher value than his new twenty-penny piece. He implies the retention of all our present pieces as coins of exchange, and advocates the adoption of three others, entirely new, as coins of accounts. Let me ask him whether with such a mixed plan any good would accrue to the community, or whether the object for which it is desirable to obtain a decimal system would be effected. The fact of introducing three new coins as coins of accounts is of itself an objection sufficient to overturn the plan. Besides we should be obliged either to divide the number of twentypenny pieces by twelve to obtain their value in pounds sterling, or to introduce another coin of the objectionable value of 16s. 8d., which to all intents and purposes would become the basis of the system. If we were a poor nation, and did not at present possess a coin of higher value than 18. 8d. with which to transact all our mercantile business, the system of your correspondent would not be altogether impracticable. But in a moneyed country like this, the application of his plan would entirely fail. In fact it is not desirable that it should succeed, as it would be open to all the objections of a change without effecting any of the advantages sought by the introduction of that, change.

It was my intention not to touch upon the objections urged by your correspondent, but to place the enclosed address upon the subject at your disposal, and to dismiss the matter. But, such a course would carry with it the imputation of a want of courtesy, as the article contains an argument which is not touched upon in that address.

Mr. Kirkham's evidence which was brought forward in argument and which appears of a very anomalous character and to possess all the marks of careful preparation for the parliamentary committee deserves some amount of attention. He sold on the day in question 400 articles at an average of 2d. each. Now it is affirmed that had he charged eleven mils under the new system he would have been a gainer of 4s. 8d. over his legitimate profits. In short he would have laid the heavy tax upon his unfortunate customers of something like half-a-farthing each! Then from this solitary case of Mr. Kirkham, the poor man's merchant in the purlieux of Liverpool, a generalization is made embracing the whole country from Johnny Groat's to Land's End (probably Ireland also) by which it is clearly shown that five millions and a quarter would be annually lost to the poor